Janzir's page

1. Characters are level 1 to begin: Malt is a level 1 rogue who will multiclass into fighter.
2. Good alignment is preferred (you are heroes, right?) Malt is Chaotic Good
3. 150gp starting wealth: Ok
4. Max HP 1st level. Will use PFS-standard of average+1 for subsequent levels.Ok
5. Standard races are preferred. Malt is a half orc of Katapeshi origin but was raised in Cheliax
6. NO 3PP allowed. Ok
7. 1 normal trait, and 1 trait from the RotRL player guide: Traits: Monster Hunter & Legacy of Sand
8. 20 point buy with no stat above 18 or below 7 before racial adjustment. Ok
9. Plot-appropriate character background including the reason you are headed to or in Sandpoint.
Malt cannot remember if he was even given a name in the slave pits of Katapesh, all he can remember is being hungry and the occasional frightening cackle of gnolls. He caught the eye of the spoiled child of a Chelaxian traveling merchant and was purchased as a “pet” for the child. By the time the merchant had returned to his estates the child had grown bored with her new toy and “Gregor Emberfaust” (the name the child have given him, naming him after a servant in a story book she had) was sold to a local brewer who figured a young half orc would mature quickly and grow big enough to be a useful laborer in his brewery.
He was correct and Malt grew tall and strong, hauling sacks of malt for processing in the brewery. Soon “Malt boy” (as he was called by the callous brewer) was well over six feet and stronger than was really necessary for a malt hauler. Growing tired of feeding the hulking slave he sold Malt to a traveling merchant who used Malt as a general laborer. Malt grew to hate the merchant, who was quick with his whip and skimpy when it came to feeding his newly acquired property.
When the caravan was attacked outside of Korvosa by a manticore, he dragged the body of a guard who had taken an iron spike to the eye into the woods, stripped him of his gear (including a hefty purse the man had won the previous evening in a game of chance) and disappeared in the chaos. Since that time Malt has worked as a caravan guard in Varisia.
Although not yet a terribly skilled combatant his size and ability to talk a very good “tough guy” game has insured him a place with several caravans. Luckily for Malt most of these jobs required little in the way of combat. While passing through Magnimar Malt picked up a book about the exploits of famed Pathfinder Durvin Gest. Although the cataloging of ancient ruins did not exactly speak to Malt, the heroic exploits of the Legendary Pathfinder and his skill at arms did.
Malt then decided that the life of an adventurer sounded much better than a fraud of a caravan guard and began seeking out training from his fellow caravan guards. Although he tends to still rely on guile and brute strength over skill at arms he is steadily improving and when his caravan arrived in Sandpoint he decided now was as good a time as any to start his new career as an “adventurer”.
10. Full stat-block on your character, though an alias is not required until you are chosen for the game. A description or linked picture helps me see what you are going for, and increases your chances of being chosen.
Malt: Character Sheet.
11. Be prepared to tie the traits and background you select to your characters backstory. Malt’s monster hunter trait stems from his desire to emulate the heroics of Durvin Gest. His Legacy of Sand trait is a result of his Katapeshi half-orc heritage.
12. Give me an OOC run-down on your PBP experience, and your exposure to RotRL as a player or GM. I have played in many PbP campaigns on the Giant in the Playground forums and once played the Rise of the Runelords ACG about 5ish years ago. I only remember the plot in very broad strokes.

Ambition:
Power 1: Blind Ambition: This power has an advantage over many charm effects because it does not only target humanoids but the effects are narrower than charm spells as they depend on the natural inclinations of the target. This power also takes two actions to activate.
Power 2: Competitive edge (2): This power only provides a +1 bonus to checks and this only when the DC is greater than 11. If this was a reaction to making a check it might be ok but it takes two actions to cast.
Summary: Blind ambition is pretty good but competitive edge provides too small a bonus for what will probably be much less than half of the checks you make and you have to dedicate 2/3 of a round to cast. Overall I would rate Ambition as slightly below average.
Air:
Power 1: Pushing Gust: Single action to activate, can push people (potentially useful) and can knock target prone on a critical at a range of 500ft. This is a pretty good power, the effect is not too amazing but only requiring 1 action makes up for a lot of that.
Power2: Walk on air (1): One action power to take a stride action (which costs 1 action) and gain airwalk until the end of the turn. Pretty nice, falling at the end of the turn keeps this from being amazing but that fact that it has a net cost of zero actions help make up for that.
Summary: Two action-light and handy powers make Air a nice choice.
Cities:
Power 1: Face in the crowd: A nasty combination a power you are going to very occasionally use (I can count on one hand the number of crowds I have run through/hidden in 10 years of playing Pathfinder) and a fairly weak bonus. +2 to stealth and deception are underwhelming and the ability to run through a crowd is rarely going to be that handy for a cleric, especially if his allies cannot.
Power 2: Watching the watchers (2): Another very situational ability. It sounds pretty cool but how often will your cleric need to know “the location of the nearest openly visible city guard activity within the city, outside the regular patrols and activities”. One, not only would knowing where the openly visible guard activity not be useful all that often (Especially for a cleric of Abadar. What is he going to use this power for? Tracking down the guards and giving them a fist bump for upholding the law?), it cannot even detect normal guard patrols!

Summary: Might be the worst of the domains. Because clerics only get one domain the poor city cleric will almost never get a chance to use his spell points.

Confidence:

Power 1: Veil of Confidence: Takes two actions to cast, and reduces fear by 2 as well as reducing any fear effect in the next minute by 1. Not too bad but the penalty that grants you EXTRA fear if you critically fail a save seems like an unnecessary penalty to an already mediocre power.

Power 2: Delusional pride (2): A weak penalty that only kicks in if the person already failed a check. The 24 hour duration on a critical failure is interesting but how often are you going to encounter an enemy more than a few rounds in a 24 hour period?

Summary: Veil of confidence is just below average but delusional pride is kind of terrible. Confidence is a pretty weak domain.

Creation:

Power 1: Fabricate: Not sure what this is even good for. It can only be up to 1 bulk, must be made of vegetable matter and can’t have complex moving parts. This power does not even heighten to something more useful. Maybe I am missing something but this seems relatively junky compared to other domain powers.

Power 2: Artistic flourish (2): This could be reasonably useful and the fact that it heightens is also handy. As the ration of quality bonus to hit shrinks when compared to level bonus, this spell will become less and less useful, however.

Summary: Fabricate seems pretty useless but artistic flourish could be nice as bonuses to hit are hard to come by.

Darkness:

Power 1: Touch of shadows: Dazzling a target for 1 round (1 minute for a critical) with a 1 action power is very nice.

Power2: Darkened eyes: Pretty good. Many enemies if PF1 had darkvision and stripping this from them could be as good as blinding them for some parties. Nice power but a somewhat narrow application window, which is fine.

Summary: Darkness is a pretty solid domain.

Death:

Power 1: Undead’s bane: Adding the same amount of damage when casting heal on undead as healer’s blessing (see below) adds to healing. This is not a terrible ability but they could easily double the amount of damage it does to undead without making it too powerful as a result of its narrow application window.
Power 2: Death’s call (1): Picking up temporary hit points for something you were already doing is very nice. Double hit points from undead is just nicely themed icing on the cake.

Summary: Undead’s bane is the weak sister of healer’s blessing but death’s call is pretty nice.

Destruction:

Power 1: Destructive Cry: 1 action to do your level in damage to someone you just hit is much weaker than many of the direct attack powers of other domains (i.e. hurtling stone and fire ray). You have to close on an enemy, make a successful attack THEN use another action for destructive cry to do damage equal to your level. This would be more worthwhile if it was a free action you could take after hitting an enemy.

Power 2: Destructive aura (2): Unless PCs are going to be picking up a lot more resistances than I assume, this power basically translates into a straight bonus to damage creatures with resistances. Not too shabby although a +5 to damage at 9th level only against creatures whose resistance you cannot overcome is not all that earth shaking.

Summary: Destructive needs to be a bit more destructive…

Dreams:

Power 1: Sweet Dreams: Dream warding does not seem like something that will be regularly be coming up but a bonus to healing while resting brings this ability up from be niche to nearly the point of uselessness to being just a bit below mediocre. Maybe double level in hit points for resting and heightening to affect more targets?

Power 2: Dreaming potential (3): Pretty interesting ability. I like what it can do but how often is retraining going to come up?

Summary: Without a significant bonus to Sweet Dreams this domain seems to be not terribly worthwhile.

Earth:

Power 1: Hurtling stone: Very nice ability. It does enough damage to make using you spell points on it worthwhile, can be used often and scales nicely. This would be a good power to use as a benchmark for other damaging powers.

Power 2: Localized quake (2): Another nice earth power, especially since it is an area effect spell that only effect enemies.

Summary: Easily one of the strongest domains.

Family:

Power 1: Soothing words: Seems pretty superior to veil of confidence. It completely removes an emotion effect (not just reducing fear) and it has no chance of backfiring. I guess you cannot use it on yourself but it still seems much better.

Power 2: Unity (2): Allow ally within 30’ to use your saves. Very nice, especially when it comes to your barbarian making will saves.

Summary: This is one of the better domains but is it just me or do other people find it weird that this is a domain for Lamashtu?

Fate:

Power 1: Read Fate: “Fate is notoriously fickle and inscrutable, and the word isn’t necessarily meant to be taken at face value, so the meaning is often clear only in hindsight.” This is what happens when you achieve a success… Yay! I just burned a spell point for something that allows me to say “Oh! So that is what that word meant” after it is too late to make a difference. If I succeeded on my check, that is.

Power 2: Tempt fate (1): The problem with this power is that while critical successes are good, critical failures are often VERY VERY bad. Also, in my admittedly short experience with PF2, it seems like most saves require more than an 11 to succeed. This means that this power will generally hurt more than help. Seems like a bad way to spend your spell points.

Summary: Read fates seems to be written to be worthless whereas tempt fate seems like it is going to do more harm than good. Not a very good domain.

Fire:

Power 1: Fire ray. Very nice, see Hurtling Stone.

Power 2: Fire barrier (1): A pretty good reaction ability.

Summary: This is a solid domain. Not much else to say here.

Freedom:

Power 1: Unimpeded stride: Very nice freedom of movement-lite spell and is a free action to cast.

Power 2: Word of freedom (3): Really nice. Being able to pop the wizard out of the tentacles of your foes is a very nice ability.

Summary: A very nice utility domain. Other utility-esque domains should use this as their benchmark.

Healing:

Power 1: Healer’s blessing: This is a nice bonus to healing granting a cleric with an 18 wisdom a 20% bonus to healing.

Power 2: Healing font (2): Being able to convert 2 spell points to a maximized heal is very nice.

Summary: This is a great domain. It allows a cleric to completely focus his spell list on non-healing spells or simply be loaded for tarrasque when it comes to healing if they chose.

Indulgence:

Power 1: Enhance victuals: Well, you can change water into ale which will save you a couple of copper pieces (or one silver if wine is your thing). Besides its alcoholism-enabling powers it can also make food taste better. Its main mechanical ability is that it can attempt to counteract poisoned food. Although this spell might be awesome in real life the poison counteracting ability does not seem like it would come up more than once a campaign or so.

Power 2: Take its course (2): If you are poisoning folks on the regular this could be an ok spell, utility of being able to use it against poison is also pretty decent.

Summary: This domain suffers from the same thing a few of the other do, in that the abilities are just too narrowly focused. Especially since clerics only get one domain. The utility if take its course helps offset this issue a bit for the indulgence domain.

Knowledge

Power 1: Lorekeeper’s fortune: This is a nice ability. It is not overwhelmingly powerful but a cleric can get a lot of use out of it.
Power 2: Know the enemy (1): Do a recall knowledge check as a free action. Very nice, the fact that it stacks with Lorekeeper’s fortune is also handy.
Summary: Two nice powers that you can use nearly every time you get in a fight and occasionally outside of fights as well.
Light:
Power 1: Undead’s bane: Adding the same amount of damage when casting heal on undead as healer’s blessing (see above) adds to healing. This is not a terrible ability but they could easily double the amount of damage it does to undead without making it too powerful as a result of its narrow application window.

Power 2: Dazzling Flash (2): A great combat area of effect spell. Granting the entire party concealment against enemies in a 20ft cone is pretty great.

Summary: Mixed bag. Undead’s bane is underpowered but dazzling flash is one of the most potent domain powers available.

Luck:

Power 1: Bit of luck: This just isn’t going to come up very often, I don’t think it would be overpowering for it to provide a +1 bonus no matter what...

Power 2: Lucky break (3): Reroll a (non-critical) failed check is a very nice thing to have in your quiver.

Summary: Lucky break is a nice insurance policy. Bit of luck is just not going to come up enough to make much of a difference, the requirement should be removed.

Magic:

Power 1: Divine vessel: The concentration requirement seems a bit expensive for a +1 bonus to saves on a single ally under prescribed circumstances.

Power2: Mystic beacon (1): This boils down to burning an action and spell points to make a damaging or healing spell do a relatively small amount of extra damage/healing.

Summary: Neither of these powers do a whole lot for the spell point spent.

Might:

Power 1: Athletic exploit: Burning an action and a spell point to remove the armor penalty to movement is not worth it but removing the armor check penalty in certain situations (swimming) could be useful. I don’t see this coming up more than a few times per campaign.

Power 2: Enduring strength (might) (2): This is ok but the fact that it is only going to increase as fast as your strength bonus does means that its usefulness is going to dwindle quickly as the cleric increases in level.

Summary: Athletic exploit would be better if it were a reaction you could take as part of a movement action. Enduring strength (might) needs a better way to scale because damage is going to quickly outpace it over time.

Moon:

Power 1: Moonlight glow: Not quite as good as the cantrip light (unless the whole party has low-light vision) plus a weirdly specific bonus that is not likely to come up very often.

Power 2: One of the most powerful beam attacks among the domain powers.

Summary: Decent combo of utility and combat.

Nature:

Power 1: Skin of thorns: This is a great example of a domain power that will remain relevant because it can be heightened.

Power 2: Nature’s bounty (1): Create food and water 2.0. This is a pretty decent power. You always need to eat and drink.

Summary: Another good example of a domain that combines a “use every combat” power and a more niche ability.

Nightmares:

Power 1: Waking nightmare: Kind of a weird ability. The sheer randomness of it seems makes it kind of terrible, however. I feel like I am playing something from Games Workshop with this ability.

Power 2: Another weirdly random ability. It is not completely random but if used on anything other than a target with a very low will save you stand a good chance of taking yourself out of the battle.

Summary: Don’t like the coin flip nature of this domain. You shouldn’t have to spend spell points to take yourself out of the battle and the plus side of these powers does not offset the possible downsides.

Pain:

Power 1: Savor the sting: Very nice ability. It fits nicely in line with the other attack domain powers.

Power 2: Retributive pain (3): Nice ability. It heightens well so it remains relevant as the cleric goes up in levels.

Summary: Both abilities are nice and can be used often. Thumbs up.

Passion:

Power 1: Charming touch: Despite the name it has a range of 30ft and is charm person. Nice.

Power 2: Captivating adoration (2): Unfortunately, as written this effects allies as well…

Summary: Charming touch is decent but captivating adoration, as written, is going to mess your party up as much as the enemy if you do not isolate yourself.

Perfection:

Power 1: Perfected mind: Nice, although it seems like many ongoing effects that required a will save to overcome might prevent you from using this domain power.

Power 2: Perfected form (2): Look out medusas! Maybe these come up more often in second edition?

Summary: What seem like good abilities at first fade a little when you realize how specific they are and that they only work on the cleric.

Protection:

Power 1: Divine Ward: This is nice AND it levels up with the cleric so they never have to worry about this power becoming obsolete.

Power 2: Protective aura (2): Resistance equal to half your level against all damage AND it extends to your allies? Very nice.

Summary: Two nice abilities that can be used in every fight and that level up with the cleric.

Secrecy:

Power 1: Forced quiet: Handy spell for taking out lone sentries. I could see this being very handy when adventuring.

Power 2: Safeguard secret (3): Weirdly specific made even more specific by only being able to choose one piece of information.

Summary: Forced quiet is nice but safeguard secret is way too specific in two different ways.

Travel:

Power 1: Agile feet: Nice, a move bonus and you ignore difficult terrain and unlike athletic exploit (which it is probably superior to), this does not burn an action.

Power 2: Wanderer’s guide (3): A nice ability now that downtime is more of a concrete thing but it seems like this ability is going to become obsolete the moment the party can fly long distances or teleport.

Summary: Agile feet is nice and wanderer’s guide is going to be pretty good for time management, at least early on.

Trickery:

Power 1: Sudden shift: This is a nice ability. I am not sure why the cleric cannot step away from the foe. He is burning one of his spell points. Why shouldn’t they be able to step away from an attack that will already have a -5 to hit?

Power 2: Master’s illusion (3): Being able to disguise the whole party is a nice ability to have on hand.

Summary: Not a bad domain but I still think there shouldn’t be a problem with stepping away from a follow up attack after a foes misses you. If it didn’t cost a spell point it might be too powerful but the limited amount of the cleric’s spell points would keep this in check.

Truth:

Power 1: Word of truth: This is an interesting power. Everyone who sees the symbol KNOWING you believe you are telling the truth has interesting RP implications.

Power 2: Glimpse of the truth (3): Dispel illusion is an ok utility power. Being able to see through enemy defensive spells could come in handy in combat. The problem with piecing illusions outside of combat is you often do not know when you are being confronted with an illusion so the 1 round duration is a tough limit.

Summary: Glimpse of truth may come up now and then in combat (and much more rarely outside of combat) but word of truth seems like it might happen once or twice in a campaign, if you are lucky.

Tyranny:

Power 1: Touch of obedience: A decent combat debuff. Not overwhelming but hey, at least you can use it in most combats.

Power 2: Commanding lash (2): Another power you can use often. Very nice way to follow up a round of attacks.

Summary: Tyranny provides powers you can use all the time. You will actually have to think about possibly running out of spell points too early if you are a little overly liberal with your power use. This is a problem all domains should have.

Undeath:

Power 1: Unlife’s blessing: An inferior ability to healer’s blessing for most but still ok. Could make for a nasty “evil cleric and his undead minions” encounter I suppose.

Power 2: Touch of undeath (2): Nasty and quick offensive power. Nothing to complain about here.

Summary: Although unlife’s blessing should be bit more powerful (maybe +3 hp per dice) because of its limited nature, touch of undeath more than makes up for this shortcoming.

Water:

Power 1: Tidal surge: A weaker version of the Air domain’s pushing gust (you can’t knock people prone), this could still be a very nice combat power. Your GM will develop an intense aversion to cliffs & pits.

Power 2: Downpour (2): This is a decent power. Being dazzled while concealed makes it a bit circumstantial but crafty clerics can find ways to make this work well.

Summary: Not as good as Air but that is ok, you have powers that you can and will actually use.

Wealth:

Power 1: Acquisitive’s fortune: This power is not exactly overwhelming to begin with and the fact that it only kicks in when you make a critical failure on a lore check to practice a trade (super-duper specific) makes it pretty terrible.

Power 2: Money talks (1): Pretty cool power. I am not sure how many cleric spells have material components with gold costs. Also, why not 1 SP for spells that have a material component that does not have a listed gold cost?

Summary: While money talks provides a nice bit of flexibility it does not make up for the dismal Acquisitive’s fortune. This is another domain that is going to have a tough time managing to spend all of their spell points.

Zeal:

Power 1: Weapon surge: +1 to hit and +1 dmg dice… for one attack and the damage does not scale. Scalability is this power’s greatest weakness. Compare this to any of the other attack powers and this issue becomes quite clear. A +1 to hit is nice but your attack is not a touch attack (which almost universally makes up for that bonus), also your damage does not scale. Compare this ability to touch of undeath and I think you will see what I am talking about.

Power 2: Prepare for battle (3): Very nice ability, especially now that Clerics are kings of initiative.

Summary: Prepare for battle is very nice but weapon surge is definitely a weak attack ability. Paizo could safely power it up (i.e. heightening damage dice) without making it overwhelming.