Genji Waiywalker's page

Genji bites back a curse from the impact of the magic bolts. He whirls pulling free his bow and firing two quick shots at the wand wielding assailant. Then slipping underneath the wagon.

Rapid shot +16 and a natural 1 damage 4 if successful, five foot step under the wagon.

"Miss I'd hate to drag you into this but we could use your help," Genji turns to the halfling druid. "If you have any spells that could disable their wagons or liberate their horses we might have a chance at stoping them in time. Either way I suggest half of us run and try to get a ahead of them. We'll either be aiming arrows or trying to break a few wagon wheels whatever seems best at the time. That should leave them plenty distracted for Harumn and the second group to hit them from behind."

Genji doesn't even wait from a response from his companions as their window of opportunity is fading by the second.

"I'll go and get us started then" Genji runs off into the woods as fast as he can hoping to catch the wagons before they get too close to the orc camp."

Genji runs full speed until he reaches the head of the wagon train not concerned with stealth. If the wagons become disabled before he gets there he opens fire on the cloaked figures with his bow. Otherwise He runs at the lead wagon ant tries to break a wheel with his axe.

"The longer we wait here the closer those wagons get to the orcs. The caravan doesn't seem on high alert right now but eventually they'll notice to guards missing and a surprize attack won't be an option. I say we attack now before the shipment gets there but we don't have much time. We need to decide do we strike now or wait and try to devise a different plan?"

Genji rushes back to his companions. "The caravan is still moving but I doubt we have long before they reach the orc war camp. It'd be best if we could take it out before then".at this

"In fact, I've got a plan to stop them, does anyone have a smokestick I coul..." With that Genji finally notices the weeping guard clutching the corpse of his protege. Genji realizes this is the fate that all guards willingly risk, and they had many chances to surrender. But the feeling of loss spreads to him as he cannot help but morn the life of one so young. Even an enemy.

Genji sees that his companions have the situation well in hand. That and with Kutok swelling in size his chances of getting another shot off are dwindling.

Genji worries about when the rest of the caravan will appear though, they wouldn't have left the guards behind and no doubt have heard the sounds of combat by now.

"I'm going to go check on our target and make sure we're not about to be flanked. Harumn and Kutok have these two."

with that genji lopes into the woods towards the road trying to drown out thesound of combat to see if his ears can detect any trouble.

active listen check 23

"Last chance you two." Genji says calmly but loudly as he levels his poisoned arrow at the exposed guard. "Drop your weapons or die on ours"

Genji readies an action to shoot the guard if he does anything but drop his weapon

Genji casually pulls free an arrow and smears the tip with the vial of viper venom.

As he does so he attempts to answer the halfling girls question.

"These gentlemen are the escorts of the wagon up ahead. The wagon is filled with barrels, most likely a fresh narcotic delivery from Kali to a group of orcs we've recently witnessed attacking villages along side an ettin. So unless these two chaps have an explaination to the contrary I was wondering if you wouldn't mind me shooting a few of them."

Genji laughs a little once he fully understands his situation. He's been in the woods long enough to know druid and shaman magic when he sees it.

"City hooligans? Dear Lady I understand enchanting the vines if you suspected we were going to harm your little friend but I don't feel the insult was at all warranted. Now miss I do hate to complain but I can't seem to find a little fox named Zuzu. She's a dear companion of mine and I suspect you may have accidently caught her up in your spell. If you wouldn't mind releasing her I'd be very appreciative as she gets frightened when she's held too tightly."

Genji looks over to Ajira and Kutok and points back to the place where they left the others. He slinks back through the thick brush trying to get back to share what they've seen.

Move silently (25) Hide (28)

Genji Holds up his hand for silence as soon as he hears the commotion.

"Quiet" he wispers intently, "there's someone up ahead, they have a wagon".

"I'm going in for a closer look, Ajira, Kutok follow me. Everyone else stay low and quiet we'll be back shortly"

Genji creeps off into the jungle toward the noise keeping an open ear to pinpoint its location.

(double move 20ft movement total) move silently 13 and 13
hide 23 and 29

If you are a member of the Military Gaming League, bugger off. This post isn't for you.

---

So... I'm the Navy Community Branch Manager for an eSports League. While eSports and streaming are our primary gaming focuses, I recently suggested adding a Roll20 5e game to our channel and the response was far more than I anticipated. Also far more than can be reasonably played at a non-physical tabletop.

Then my wife had a brilliant idea. Instead of trying to run a 10+ man party, why not run two 5-6 man parties, alternating games between the two of them. The catch? These are not seperate campaigns but rather are intricately linked in ways that are not immediately apparent, but slowly over time both parties make the connection.

The first session for each might involve a shipwreck on a floating island, but where one party runs their ruined sea going vessel into the side of a colossal turtle; the others' skyship crashes into a more literal floating island in the sky. Parallels that are identical on a macro scale, but different in one key element.

There will possibly be one NPC who appears in both sessions oddly regardless of time, distance, or whatever divides them. Over time the parties draw closer and closer together, with a final confrontation and conclusion to the arch where everyone is finally at the table together.

Thoughts?
Ideas?
Campaign seeds?
Who's the BBEG?
What DOES seperate the parties?

Running a party of mostly new players through Rise of the Runelords, and the Fighter has decided that he wants to dual wield shields and work himself up the Shield Master tree. Problem is, he already took Cleave and you can't cleave with a shield. He wants to retrain that and I am all for it, even giving him a +1 Shield of Bashing so he is doing the same damage as he was with his greatsword. Problem? Time.

Without spoilers, the party just finished a small dungeon that boosted them to level 3 but they will be quickly moving on to the next major encounter. An NPC has gone off to scout on the Thistletop Goblins and is about to get in WAY over her head. Time is of the essence and they can't take the 5 days needed to train.

Enter Amontage. A high level Fighter who speaks in a French accent and refers to himself exclusively in the third person. The training won't be cheap, but Amontage can teach a man many many things if a man has coin and strength. Amontage could make a man forget Cleave to learn Improved Shield Bash... but How?

This will end up being a series of skill checks, but I am looking for suggestions to spice it up. Shield Bashing slabs of meat. Jogging around town while tied to a horse, and so on.

Suggestions?

Greetings Pathfinders,

My fiancee and I recently made the decision to jump into society play. We ran level 7 pregens today and had an amazing time of it, but now we want to carve out our own legacies. I've played home games for years, but we were fast and loose with the rules so it was a pleasant surprise to have a bit more structure.

I am building a Half-Orc Skald who will wield a 2-Handed Greataxe, with a hammer of some fashion as backup (in homegames we never worried about P, S, and B. Fought some skellies today and I now know why Pathfinder art shows characters with multiple weapons). Might keep a sling in my back pocket, or a few throwing axes to reach out and touch things. I'm taking Skald's Vigor as my first feat because I love the flavor of it.

My ability scores are set. My skills are set. I have a clear vision of what I want Dutar Bloodear to become. The last thing I need to do before I can start forging ahead as a heavy metal bard that bashes in faces... is to spend all this gold on some stuff.

The GM told us that 500gp that we earned today can transfer over to our level 1 characters, which gives me 650gp to build with. I figure 320 of that will go to getting a Masterwork Greataxe... but what do I do with the other 330? Light armor? Medium armor? How much rope, cutlery, and misc things do I need? I'm going Oratory for my performance so... no instrument? How many throwing weapons do I really need?

Before you read this, know that the PCs are all races that could loosely be described as Anthropomorphic and live in a Federation made up of their respective tribe's species. They are largely nomadic, heavily rely on oral passing of stories, and so forth. The campaign in the sequel to another I had run where the world of Thear is actually our own Earth so far in the future that no one even remembers the apocalypse that changed it from what we, as players, know to what the PC's experience. The PCs in THIS campaign have never seen humans. They know very little of technology and are quick to assume that everything that is sill working is a hold over from the ancient magics of their ancestors.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Long ago, the world was not as we know it today. Our greatest grandmothers and greatest grandfathers prowled the soil on their hands and knees, growling and snarling because they had not received the gift of speech, killing because they had not received the gift of peace, and devouring one another because the first Wendigo hand not been born.

The Stars looked over the edge of their dark world and pittied the beasts that we were, but from so far away they could do nothing but watch... until one of them fell.

Ut'Nrae was this star. A beautiful young woman with the light of the universe in her eyes and white hair that shimmered like the river under Luna. The girl was pure and awaiting her marriage when the Cold Star Mn'A'E'Chi began to visit her. He whispered the sweetest lies into her ear and showed her the other side of darkness that no star may see. As he whispered his lies and filled her with blinding knowledge, unnoticed, Ut'Nrae's belly began to swell.

Ut'Nrae woke with a sharp pain in her belly and realized what had happened to her. Mn'A'E'Chi had impregnated her with his lies. Fearing that her husband-to-be may find out, she fled the village. In her hate, blinded by her tears, she stumbled and fell from the Starland. Her hair flowed behind her, rippling as she plummeted to Thear.

As she fell, her tears fell before her and created the sea in which she landed. Frightened, alone and with ever growing pain in her belly, she swam through the sea towards a great spire of land in the distance. With each drop of her blood spilt into the waters, schools of the first fish were born. The first canyons were dug with her fingers as she clawed up onto the land. Her thrashing created the waves that we still see today. Such was her struggle.

Our Greatest Grandmothers and Greatest Grandfathers watched Ut'Nrae from the bushes, grass and trees with teeth bared. They waited, ignorant and angry, ready to tear her throat once she lie still... but a new cry gave them pause. Ut'Nrae was giving birth.

A great star rose in the sky, silver and round, bathing Thear in soft light as she delivered her child. Too far to reach Thear, too close to join its brothers and sisters, we call it Luna because it was first and it was alone and it was beautiful as the son she bore. His fangs and claws shone like the lights in the homeland he would never know. His fur and feathers and scales looked as fields of grass and neverbrown trees and river rocks. Silver slit eyes, full of wisdom and kindness rest upon his face. She named him M'Rae Chi, for she had never dreamed that something so beautiful could come from Mn'A E Chi's lies.

M'Rae Chi stood from the moment he was born and called out to our Greatest Grandmothers and Greatest Grandfathers. The wisest of them came forward and felt their anger die and their tongues grow clever and peace came to their hearts. The cowards fled and many of them still hide in the bushes and the grass and the trees to this day. All of this came to pass within moments of M'Rae Chi, the All Father's, birth... but Ut'Nrae was still in pain.

M'Rae Chi was not an only child and Ut'Nrae was in agony trying to bring his twin into the world. "Mn'A Kndi! Mn'A Kndi!" She screamed his name over and over, gargling blood as her body was twisted and torn. Hideous and deformed, Mn'A Kndi burst from his mother's flesh, clawing her open with stubbed talons and gnashing her with blunted teeth. Pale, sparsely furred skin, save for the top of his head, covered his form. Hair, as golden as the burning star that rose with him, stuck to his misshapen, muzzeless and beakless face, matted with the gore that gave him life. The star that we call Sol rose and hid the stars and faded the moon with it's blinding light. Every plant that drips poison or holds barbs sprouted from the soil as he rose from her corpse. Every beast that still felt anger or cowardice or was too stupid to rise up on two feet followed him off into the blistering heat.

And so it was that Mn'A Kndi and M'Rae Chi came unto Thear. And so it was that Sol and Luna came into our skies. And so it was that our Greatest Grandmothers and Greatest Grandfathers learned to walk and talk and live and love. And so it was that sickness and plague and corruption and hate came into our world.

~~~~~~~~

So, questions? Suggestions? Moans? Groans? Complaints?

Thear = Earth
Ut'N'Rae = Nature
Mn'A E Chi = Machine
M'Rae Chi = Chimera
Mn'A Kn'Di = Mankind

For those of you that have been following a few of my posts prepping the World for my upcoming campaign, I have an idea that I want to implement with "sacred" weapons that plays off of the idea that any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. Nanites grant immortality to creatures and said weapons put off an EMP field that can disable said nanites enabling the party to "kill" with them when used. The issue with these weapons though, is they will keep them the entire arch, and I don't want them to A.) Be massively over powered at the beginning or B.) Severely underpowered at the end... So I came up with a possible solution.

Instead of just disabling the nanites, what if the weapons absorb them. Once certain amounts have been collected, they can be spent at a special forge to upgrade the weapon in various ways. Think, experience points in Minecraft. X amount can make the weapon +1, Y amount makes gives it a +1 enchantment, and so on. We don't use the suggested experience point values in the Beastiary, but I think I might use it as a basis for how many nanites said creature gives, some earned with each it, the bulk for the killing blow, some spread evenly so spell casters can get some too.

Ideas? Concerns?

In every game I have played, save one, we have used a grid of 1" x 1" squares that represented 5' x' 5'. I love the tactical aspect of it all. My players and I have a tackle box of lego man bits that they create their PC out of to represent them on the field and we go with it. We have one more session before the GM hat switches over to me... and I want to do something new.

My idea is to get my hands on a cheap projector (>$100) and mount it to the ceiling. By angling the projector down, or perhaps by mounting a small mirror, my aim is to project topography and floor plans onto the grid. I'll play around with the image sizes and resolutions and scale them accordingly, but I believe it would add a whole new dimension beyond "This circle here? That's a tree."

Has anyone toyed with this idea before? Can you suggest a projector to use? There is no need for 1080p or anything and wireless IS preferred as I do not want to run 30 feet of USB/HDMI cable.

I'm drawing up a campaign that will parallel a techno heavy human only one I ran before. The party saved the human race... But I want to show what was given up for that victory, and give THIS party a chance to stop it.

Where the first was big on technology, I want to center this one on Native American Creation stories, Revelations where the other was Genisis... And races that could loosely be mutated animals instead of Human Only.

Aside form those specifically listed as Common and Uncommon races, are there any other sources for "Furry" type characters? I told the players they could ONLY be human last time. I want to open Pandora's box for races here. Brownie points for animals that would be native to North America.

So, I play with a group of guys and we each take turns being the GM. It is interesting because we each have our own styles. One of us is all about dungeon crawling, another enjoys gimmicky fights, I enjoy story telling. Thing is, my turn is coming up soon... and I want to do a sequel.

The first campaign takes place in the world of Thear, starting out in the Kingdom of Ned'e which for all extensive purposes is the last bastion of humanity in existence. In this world, the soul was trapped within the body so one could be mortally wounded... but live on. Small catch, you continue to feel the pain of the would forever and it drives you mad. People age slower once they hit the age of 20 or so, and to keep from overpopulating every century they have a lottery where families may win the chance to have a child to replace someone lost since the last one. Outside of the walls it is your typical zombie apocalypse type setting with throngs of the undead, the "Old Men", wandering around.

The party had five characters, but I asked my two regulars to allow me to name theirs. The names were Daam and Vee, a male Cleric and a female Monk respectively. The Prince of the kingdom addresses the people one day, stating that in the night the King and Queen had been mauled and had to be released (a full day ritual that CAN actually release the soul, but as the individual has to be restrained and it is so complex it can only be done one at a time, not viable for cleansing the world). He summons the party and has them seek out an artifact called the "Ah-tome" because he believes it can right the wrongs of the world and blazzay blazzay blah.

Here's the catch. "Ah-tome" is just a weird way of pronouncing Atom. The "artifact" they seek is an arming device for a network of nuclear warheads that had been placed under each populated hub thousands of years ago. They activate it... boom... except for the Emperor who watched the mushroom clouds from the sidelines, they believe they just wiped out the human race.

Long story short, this High Fantasy world is our own in the far future. A nanorobotisist from the near future had a daughter who suffered from a terminal disease. Knowing she would die before a cure was created he somehow managed to create nanomachines that would effectively bind her soul to her body and put her into a stasis until a cure could be found. Government finds out there are immortality robots. Weaponizes them. War happens. Nanomachines are dispersed in the air and effect the entire human race. Zombie apocalypse where head shots don't work.

In the end, the party has a Final Fantasy style boss fight where they fight the Emperor (who was mortally wounded as a child and went insane) in two separate forms, then face the REAL boss baddie that they had only been hinted at the entire time. An immortal 12 year old little girl, floating in a tank, kept alive by machines... but the hub, and in control of, all the nanomachines that had been created since.

They kill her. Nanomachines deactivate. Everything dies. Vee and Daam have their genetic codes scrambled so that they can reproduce without fear of incestuous side effects.

Thear = Earth
Ned'E = Eden
Daam = Adam
Vee = Eve

There were many other little mind tucks like that, glaring the players in the eye the entire time until that final "Ahah" moment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NOW! Part two. I want to revisit the same world, perhaps even at the same time. In the first campaign, all the players were humans... but this time I want to bar the human race. I want to bar anything that looks remotely human. Elves. Dwarves. Halflings. No no no.

Races will be things like Ratfolk, Kitsune, Tengus, etc. Anthropomorphic animals. The idea is, even though the human race royally messed up... nature continued. Perhaps even because the same nanomachines that gave the human race immortality sparked evolution in the beasts of the earth. Maybe it is what gave them the intelligence needed to speak and pick up tools and make tribes.

So... the quest for the party in the first campaign was to destroy the machines. In this, it asks the question what happens to everything else if the human race is saved?

I'm bouncing around a lot of ideas, such as the party from the first campaign being the final boss of this one, basing the story on Native American Creation mythology as the first was based on Genesis, and a few others... but I would love to hear more ideas!

Hello pathfinders,

Getting ready to start a new campaign and what the GM has told us is this:

We are Dwarves, but our size is Large
Goodly classes
Begin with weapon proficiency in pistols (may be able to request different firearm)
We are the "enforcement" arm of a religious kingdom
"Sci-Fi-esque" theme

One of our players has already decided that he wants to play an inquisitor.

Three player party.

~~~~~

I love the IDEA of the Gun Tank, though I am not sure how playable it will actually be. Pathfinder has never impressed me as a medium where a tank, in the MMORPG train of thought works. When I think of Gun Tank I invision something along the lines of the General class from Fire Emblem or a Gun Lance wielder from the Monster Hunter series. A slow moving wall of steel and gunpowder. Point-Blank Shot, Snap Shot, Stand Still. Perhaps a homebrew Tower Shield that works like the pistol buckler, or hell, if I could convince him to let me homebrew an actual gunlance...

The Holy Gun sounds equally as cool... until you start reading that it only has Light Armor proficiency. When I read it, it sounds more like Constantine or a Catholic Neo.

I found a thread that spoke on a viable build for a Gun Cleric, 1 level in Gun Tank, the rest in Cleric.

I have never dipped levels into other classes before so I DO find the option attractive.

~~~~~

Any ideas that would fit the flavor of a turtle with a cannon under his arm and STILL be playable?

So just over a year since I last graced these forums and a lot in my life has changed. Transferred to Virginia... and then the two guys that I GMed for in Georgia got orders to the same base (teeny tiny world). We decide its time to get back to rolling dice... and one of the guys suggested they all roll evil characters.

Now the idea I'm going for is more humorous than dark and gritty as we do have a newbie at the table (i.e. my girlfriend and I don't want to completely scare her off with how demented I could be.) But honestly, it sounds genuinely fun. She is playing a Halfling Rogue, one of the guys is playing a Goblin Berzerker (with 7 Cha and just enough Int to learn Common... kinda), and still waiting on the other guy to roll, but he's being pressured to play a small race.

Basically, they will all start out as hired muscle for a crime ring in the capital city of Makeupanamelater. All level 4 to keep it from taking too long to get rolling. Something is going to happen to someone which is in turn going to cause something... and BAM... the three of them are now 1.) The Greatest Villains The World Has Ever Seen or 2.) The completely clueless and over their heads leading triad of the criminal syndicate.

I want to roll an antithesis Hero party that will try to thwart them every step of the way but I also want to throw in a "Boss" battle in each session... and when I describe a few of them I hope some of you will pick up what I am putting down.

1.) Lawful Neutral Werebat Rogue with a red falcon as an animal companion that looks suspiciously like a large robin.

2.) Four Ratfolk Ninjas with different colored Gi's. Blue, Purple, Red, and Orange. Lead by a Turtlefolk Samurai named Woodshard.

3.) An uber overpowered Paladin with a ring of levitation named Nam Repus. If they DO manage to get a one up on him, he'll just pull some random artifact out of his pocket that gives him a new power. Maybe later have them find some chunk of green glass that keeps him at bay.

So... here is what I am looking for. Anyone got any ideas how I should get these guys spooled up to run their own crime ring? And any more big not so baddies? (Totally down with stuff like them teaming up with a human bard named The Jester that has a really obsessive hate of the Werebat and so forth)

I'm running a homebrew campaign (my first as a GM) and one of my players wants to be a Magus. I figured it sounds like an awesome class, and it compliments the rest of the party pretty well. Fleshes them out.

However, he has been prattling non-stop about Arcane Mark... I don't know exactly what he THINKS it does... but to my reading it looks like it basically turns you into Zorro, adding a personal mark to your attack.

Now I know a few cool ways they could use it... marking paths, marking allies in the event of fighting dopplegangers, etc., what I am looking for is how he can use it in combat.

As a Cantrip, he can cast it as many times as he wants in a day... so I gather he can use Spell Strike, Arcane Mark (as a freebie that dosn't use up any of his more powerful spells in a day), and get a free attack at -2... move... and attack again normally.

Is that right? Am I missing something?

By the by, he is coming into the campaign around mid-way, so he starts at level 6.

Lemme catch you up on my Homebrew campaign.

The PC's exist in the world of Thear. Humans are the only playable race. The soul is bound to the body, so that even horrific mauling does not 'kill' the person, but rather drives them insane as they continue to feel the pain of the trauma.

Ned'E is the last human kingdom as far as the PCs know. Mindless, murderous mobs roam the wilds outside and few venture out by choice. The population is kept to a strict 750. Cleanly divided half male, half female. A lottery is held every 15 years to determine which couples may have a child, which they then have 5 years to prep. Three of my PCs were born 25 years ago as part of the 'cycle'.

Those born outside the 'cycle' are 'cleansed' by a ritual that severs the soul from the body and truly kills the host. In rare instances, if a boy is born, the father may surrender his right to live in the kingdom by leaving the walls in exile so the son may live, same with the mother if a daughter is born. One of my PCs is one of these children, both his parents decided rather than choose who must die, they would face the darkness together. Only the child survived into adulthood.

My antagonist was born to the King and Queen during the same cycle as my PCs. During a siege on the castle his right side was horrifically gouged. The King and Queen hid this knowledge from the masses as the child slowly devolved into madness, but somehow through sheer will maintained his composure. During the following lottery he appeared by himself, stating his parents had been killed and he would be assuming the title as King. He mentions a great artifact that could end the suffering of all of retrieved from ancient ruins outside the walls and volunteers the three PCs. On their way to retrieve it the fourth PC joins.

The 'ruins' are actually the still standing rubble of an American city, the temple, a nuclear research facility, and the artifact, the core for a nuclear warhead. Cifer (antagonist) has already changed his title to Emperor by the time they return and hosts a great festival. During the festivities, he activates a nuke in the castle (aided by clockwork constructs). PCs are teleported back to the ruins by a VERY old woman who lives in the ruins and showed them the temple.

Mushroom cloud.

They know Cifer has survived, and they know they must level a bit before they return. What I am looking for is a personal side quest for each PC.

My the consists of a Barbarian, a Monk, a Cleric, and a Ninja. (Also a very wise old Cleric the Ninja convinced to leave with them, the old Lady, and Tiny... a nine foot tall idiot brute that I used the cyclops beastiary for).

For the Barbarian, I'm thinking some great Barbarian long ago is the reason why the one for one parent for child law exists. He fathered a child, and after doing great damage to the guards who showed to take his child, he was offered to leave in exile for his child's life. He went off into the wilderness never to be heard from again, but even a thousand years later, the Barbarian clan spoke of his great hammer.

For the Monk, perhaps a venture to find four Sulis that will teach her elemental assault, or should she decide to focus on one element, the trade off trait. They wouldn't REALLY be Sulis... maybe the last humanoid constructs of a weather altering system or something.

The cleric? Uh... maybe something the old Cleric knows a legend about?

The Ninja? Um... Ninja stuff?

In my session next Friday, our party will finally arrive at the ruined kingdom of Lattana, where they must collect the relic (pronounced "Ah-Tome") for the newly proclaimed Emperor Cifer.

I want this tomb to have three sections, the first two have doors that must have a riddle or puzzle solved to progress, the third has a chest which must be opened through a more combat oriented puzzle.

The first chamber, The Temple of the Child, Destroyer of Cities.
The second chamber, The Temple of the Glutton, Destroyer of Nations.
The third chamber, The Temple of the Patriot, The World Breaker.

For the first, I'm thinking there is an illusion where the party could only see the door when crouched or kneeling... ya know... from the vantage point of a child.

The second... not so sure about.

The third would be a gimmick fight... maybe one they have to submit to, or where they can't actually die, but they have to be brought to a single HP in order to open the chest.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Also, if you are interested in the story, feel free to message me. I'd love to share my ideas... but I have a sneaky player who likes to peek at my posts...

If your name is Larry stop reading this now! I know you watch my posts, and I don't want you spoiling this for yourself.

That being said...

Greetings and Salutations, fellow adventurers.

At the beginning of my homebrew campaign I had the PCs square off against one another in a PvP tournament. The session was a prequel to the actual storyline so all PCs were level 1, age 15 (there is a reason for that, but I don't want to lay down all the lore here). The victor between them went on to fight Cifer, the 15 year old prince of the nation... and the soon to be antagonist. I wasn't expecting the Barb to slay him so horribly (even WITH a layer of terracotta armor under his robes that pretty much negated all damage the first few rounds) so juuuuuust before the final non-lethal blow is delt... the wall to the courtyard blows, the castle is under seige, Cifer disapears in the chaos.

Fast forward 10 years. The King and Queen die in a tragic "accident" that only Cifer witnesses and he assumes the throne. They already hate the guy for cheating in the tournament, moreso when he picks the Barbarian "the second greatest warrior of my generation" to lead the PCs in a quest to collect a mysterious artifact outside of the kingdom walls.

SO!

In the prequel he was a lvl 1 Samurai, we can call him a Ronin in that, but even though he is going to be the villain, he believes his cause is for the greater good, so I don't want to rule out any Orders. I really don't care for mounted combat, so I will be treating his "mount" more like a Druid's companion... thinking Foo Dog (nevermind the lore behind them being Good only). He is not opposed to fighting dirty. He is HIGHLY charismatic. He holds vast amounts of knowledge in history.

I'll custom tool his weapon a bit, because I am not impressed with Pathfinder's Katana, but it IS Unholy and only his bloodline can properly wield it. The sword has the ability to drink the souls of those it slays and becomes more powerful, transforming once it has 1000. During the final fight (part one), it will have 999.

So that's pretty much the background, without giving too much for the sneaky peering eye of my players. I wanted to try and go for a Sephirothy type character. Level dips into other classes are perfectly okay. He is Human, but I allow the Racial Heritage feat. And, Larry I swear to all the powers that be that if you read this I will have your PC permanently turned into a newt, he can be loosely typed as "Undead" with a VERY high Will Save.

Looking for a level 10, 15, and possibly 20 build. Also, as levels ascend his Massiah Complex will increase exponentially, so the higher, the less he needs to conform to "codes" as his own becomes more corrupt... though he sees it as right.

Hiyo fellow adventurers. With my first PC Campaign drawing to a close and my off week GM getting frustrated with his current setting, it has come to mind to go ahead and prep a storyline. Fumbled storylines are kinda like ex girlfriends, and in the event that he might feel like he failed if I take it up where he dropped it, and run the risk of losing a really great member of the game... I want to do something fresh.

Rule of the game:

A. While I have access to a pretty wide selection of books, I want to keep these ideas fairly Core/Advanced. No books included that add just one class or a small selection of racial subtypes.

B. Nothing MAJORLY game changing. I looove homebrew. Prefer it actually. But having to create a whole new complex system for how the elements sync when the stars are aligned to the third delta decka mandrin quadrant of Soliloquee... lets just skip over that.

C. No blatant rip-offs. A story about tracking down lost pages of "There and Back Again" to find some knowledge to fend off the returning Witch King? Cool. Taking a ring that can make you invisible to the mountain of Rodrom... just no.

D. While it doesn't have to be an epic tale, remember... campaign, not mini-adventure. Collecting the four pieces of the golden quad-force to save Princess Adlez... ok. Picking turnips for Farmer Noom Tsevrah... no.

So I'm throwing this out there... let's see who bites.

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1. An ancient Orc War-God is arrisen, rallying the roving tribes of Orcs into an actual military state. The other races must rally together to hold off the ever growing army while the party attempts to assisinate the War-God holding their enemies together.

2. The Dwarves, in their ever expanding underground kingdom, awoke a forgotten evil deep within the earth. The party, a group of dwarves returning from a diplomatic journy, find their kin darkly twisted and canabalistic. They must fight their way deeper and deeper into the depths to stop the ever growing darkness.

3. A cult has discovered how to awaken The Void, the infinite expanse between the planes and beyond them where light, sound, and even life do not exist. The party is a group of refugees who's homes have been sucked into pockets of void, must discover how the cult is doing this and attempt to reverse the damage done.

Greetings fellow Pathfinders. We're getting ready to have the second session of my very first campaign and with it, the lore of what has happened in the past, and the forshadowing of what is to come in the adventure is about to come to bare. The first session involved our party (who has traveled together in the past) met up with a very nervous Dwarf in a harbortown tavern. The Dwarf is very anxious to return home to the Dwarven capital with a small chest, but he will not say why, nor what is in the chest. Thankfully no one was able to roll high enough CHA to get him to spill the beans, so with promise of great reward, the troupe prepares to head to sea. Just before the ship leaves the harbor (an after an unplanned bar fight that WILL come back to haunt them), a half-dragon dressed in dark robes marked with a bleeding eye, launches onto aboard hell bent on killing the Dwarf.

The party succeeds not in killing him, but knocking him overboard just as the wind catches the sails and takes them out to sea. End session, tomorrow night I forsee the Dwarf having ALOT of explaining to do. What I intend on him saying goes something along the lines of this...

~~~~~

There is not one world, but many. We call these ‘worlds’ planes, because they encompass not just the land we walk on, the seas we sail, and the skies above, but also the stars in the night and what lies beyond them. Each plane encompasses an element; fire, water, wind, earth, good, evil, law, and chaos. Our own plane is the Material Plane, such that all we know and can comprehend exists here.
The clerics would have you believe that this has always been so, and in the planes of Good, Evil, Law, and Chaos this is true. If they have a beginning, there are none alive nor stories survived that would tell of their births. However; the planes of Fire, Earth, Water, Wind, and our own Material Plane share a common ground. They were born of the same day millennia ago, and should The Shattering come to bear, they will perish the same way they were given birth.
Imagine an eight pointed star. At each of the points, a Plane exists, and in the center sits the Material Plane. The planes are so close that they can influence on another, thus why we have elements of all others within our own reality. The opposing Planes occupy opposite sides of the star, Fire and Water, Earth and Wind, Good and Evil, Law and Chaos. Because these planes do no touch, they do not affect one another, save for the conflicts created when their influences collide in the Material Plane. It is because of these oppositional forces that we have war and famine, as well as love and prosperity. All that we know in life is a struggle between these forces, seeking equilibrium.
Now imagine a four pointed star. At each of the points resides Good, Evil, Law, and Chaos, and in the very center lies the miasma of the four elements. Each waging a never ending war with the other. Fires that burn so hot they melt the earth. Winds so fierce that they cut like a thousand invisible knives. Waves of tidal water that blot out the sun and swallow whole continents. Great earthquake that turn the mightiest of oceans into barren deserts. And mighty Djinns that tear existence apart with their rage.
It was in this eternal conflict that the Darfellan, Dwarves, Elves, and Orcs first rose. Mishapen children of the Djinns that sundered reality, they clung to life in small wandering tribes, reality itself keeping them from prospering. Children born starved as feeble crops withered or went up in flames. Aspiring heroes crushed by the very earth or rended to bone by the wind. It was out of this immortal war that the bastard children of the Djinns took a stand against their fathers and crafted the Material Plane.
Gorm Gulthyn, he of the Fire Eyes, the Golden Guardian, the Sentinel, the first Dwarf crafted the first Anchor, a mountain whose peak scraped the heavens, leaving the capstone unplaced so that only a single step remained in it’s completion. Hanali Celanil, she of the Heart of Gold, the first Elf crafted the second Anchor, a song of such beauty that all who hear it forget all desires but to join her in chorus. She sings it to this day. Dakuwaqa, the Maelstrom, the Rip Tide, the first Darfellan crafted the third Anchor, a fountain of water, encapsulated in a pocket of air at the bottom of the sea, who’s current was so pure that it could wash away even death . Gruumsh, the One-Eye, Gnasher of Souls, the first Orc, created the fourth Anchor when he spat the lifeblood of his father into the heart of the fire mountain Golaad, forging a tower of obsidian deep within it’s core just as Gorm placed the capstone.

The birth of our world was like any birth. It was painful and slow. The elements drew towards the Anchors and were cast out… but they were not destroyed. Each of the cast out elements gave birth to their own planes, and in their depart, this world, the Material Plane rose from the ashes. The kingdoms of the four races rose from those ashes. The race of Man was born from them, never knowing the hell that had existed before them. Tens of thousands of years passed, and with the exception of the guardians, The Chains of the Anchor, all history of it has been forgotten.

The Sons of Gorm Gulthyn have built their kingdom within the Earth Anchor, their impenetrable defenses keeping it safe. Hanali Celanil still sings the ballad of The Wind Anchor today atop the World Tree Yggdrasil. The Darfellan are extinct, product of the genocide the Sahuagin wroght upon them… but they took with them the secret of the Water Anchor’s location. The Orcs have all but forgotten their part in creating this world, preferring to believe it a lie made up by the other races than to believe they had an one point worked togeather, but the heart of Golaad still burns, and within it the Fire Anchor.

~~~~~~~~

If you are still reading this... kudos. I'm VERY new to Pathfinder, and I didn't want not knowing the lore to hold me back in having a campaign so I created my own.

What isn't there, but plays a part, the creators on the Anchors never imagined civilization would flourish as it did, and no one could have imagined the expansionist Human race. Elemental magic is performed by 'reaching' into the elemental planes and drawing essence, with so many magic users in the world the threshold for influence from the planes has been far exceeded (think a garden hose trying to handle the pressure of a fire hose). Burning down swaths of forest to expand empires, irrigating the barren deserts, harnessing the wind to grind grain, all of these things would be fine if not done at the grand, and exponential rate that the humans have.

The half-dragon is a member of a cult called The Prime Renewal, who seek to shatter the Anchors and bring the world back to how it was. They don't see what they are doing as wrong, in fact, they believe it is going to happen anyway. They are just speeding up the process. What the Dwarf has in his possession is the hammer used to craft the capstone for the Earth Anchor. His purpose is to return it to the capital so that the Anchor can be strengthened... which of course the cult does NOT want to happen.

Realizing that I have now written an entire book, I'll leave it at that. Any suggestions? Any glaringly obvious holes that I have over looked?

"Two days into the journey and we had finally come upon the moutains, peaks so jagged they looked to be the obsidian teeth of some colossal Old God of distruction..." He needed no instrument, no lyre, nor flute to work his magic... if it could be called that. Words dripped from his tongue like honey and the most sinister lie sounded like the affirmed word of the Gods. The Bard had once told his companions a tale of how he had been ambushed by an entire tribe of Orcs, and in a fit of rage and flurry of blows he told them to 'Go to Hell.' The Orcs had immediatly dropped their weapons and began packing their belongings, actually singing as they prepared for the trip.

Did his companions believe him? No... of course not. Singing Orcs? An entire tribe giving up on the fair skinned prey? Just... leaving? No one was THAT convincing, they told themselves as they allowed their attentions to be drawn to the same story they had heard a hundred times in the past week.

The Dwarves, Gorim the Foul and Bornir the Holy sighed as they looked back and forth from each other, to the growing crowd around their Bard in the dimly lit tavern. "I never recall our adventures in quite the same version as that one does...," Gorim grumbled, as he lifted the mug to his liver colored lips. Bornir's laugh drowned out his friend's squabbles, wiping his eyes with the back of one hand as he attempted to flag down the awestruck tavern maiden with his other. "No, no my friend. In your version, your flurry of blows is more offensive to the fiends than your stench!"

"Ettins!" The Bard proclaimed, throwing his hands into the air as the candles and torches around him flared for effect. No doubt he had greased the wicks or used his pyrotechnics... or some other waste of a perfectly good spell as was his style once he had gotten into the groove. The crowd of commoners gasped, women swayed on their feet, more than one old veteran reached for the handle of the swords they no longer carried. A single scream rose from the back of the tavern from the maiden who tipped her tray of mead filled mugs onto Gorim.

"They charged behind a rolling wall of rocks down the mountain side toward our very location. No doubt, they thought that an easy meal had crossed into their wide swath of territory. Two legged lambs ripe for the skinning and boiling... or so they thought..." He tipped a wink that was aimed at no one in particular, though every woman in the room would later claim that it had been for herself alone.

"That blasted Elf spotted them the moment we set foot on that path," Gorim grumbled, wiping the sticky sweet beer from his brow. The maiden had not even noticed that her tray was empty, far to engrossed in the spinning web of the Bard's tale. "Oh shush," Bornir replied, laughing was easy when you were still dry, "He hasn't even gotten to the good part yet."

To be continued...
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So I finally let my buddies talk me into playing with their Pathfinder group, and boy am I glad I took them up on it. The story our GM has put together is... in a group of words... effin coo! Unfortunately, while the wife tolerate's my biweekly, 6-8 hour man date, she only nods with polite disinterest as I recount our harrowing adventures... and so I shall use this as my medium.

Hopefully the readers will get a chuckle or two. Maybe I can even give some ideas to a GM that scans my post. But really, the stories are just too good not to pen in one format or the other. Perhaps that is why I chose to play the Bard of the group.

I had begun to post part of my first session in the Advice column but it didn't really belong there. I'm still new to the site, so if this would be better suited in another tab of the messageboards please let me know.

Long days and pleasant nights, my friends.

So I had originally planned on making my Bard a Whip Master (my first ever character... didn't know how ungodly awfully the whip could be) and once I discovered I could really only cause welts with it damage wise, I spent my combat rounds tripping up the enemy.

The Monk and I both got granted level six after the session... and he chooses Improved Trip. -_-

So now here I stand, a second rate trip artist, but with delusions of grandeur and dreams of awesome.

There are tales... legends, if you will... of a few weapons that sound so deliciously Bard that I am beginning to contemplate them without knowing anything about them (much as I did with the whip).

1. Elvish Songsword
A long sword where the base of the blade is like a flute and there are holes in the handle. Simply by twirling it around... or cleaving through foes, one can play an ode to times long past.

2. Songbow

A bow with multiple strings that can be played like a harp even as one sends arrows forth to smite his enemies. Play a dirge for the dead before they even know they are.

3. Crystalized Echoblade

A dagger... or colossal sword made of crystalized sound... not sure what it does... but it sounds coo.

We're playing core Pathfinder... so I'm not even sure if these weapons exist within the confines of our rule set, but if they do, does anyone have any experience with them?

Greetings and good evening valiant warriors and versed magickeers.

I... am Dirt Sailor, teller of tales long forgot and weaver of stories that ne'er were. Or... that's what I'm trying to be at the very least.

I finally allowed myself to be talked into sitting down for a bi-monthly session game that a few of my coworkers have been egging me on to get into, and I have to say I'm hooked. Started with a level 5 Bard, core rules and abilities, so no archtypes or the like to get me all discombobulated, and I think I'm doing well.

Our group consists of a Wizard (who's silence area spell backfired and left him mute), a one-eyed Cleric (with an obsidian dagger that appeared in his hand two sessions ago and proves to be a major plot device), and a Dwarven Monk (who rolled a 4, for his Cha. His powerful blows are almost a match for his powerful stench).

And then there is I. The whip wielding, story telling, mob tripping, courage inspiring, know-it-all. Our DM rewards creative play, so right off the bat it was pretty cool when we walked in on a cursed monastary and I did a knowledge check to see if I had ever read any legends about what was going on there.

I dinged level six at the end of our first session and hope to continue to rise in the ranks as we play. This site has been a great help already even before I made my account. I'm sure I will have a plethora of questions (Such as Exquisite Accompaniment VS Shadowbard), but from what I've seen, this is the place for such inquiries.

I look forward to playing with you all!