Hello one and all and welcome to Talented Beasts and Where to Find Them, a game where you create a monster however you want using the amazing Talented Bestiary, band together with other freaky monsters, and try escape the mad wizard's tower of your birth, which has recently been thrown into chaos after his untimely demise!
The 'campaign' is only one in the loosest sense and takes place entirely in a 21 room wizard's tower. The game is primarily a thought exercise and a fun romp through twenty increasingly difficult levels. I utilized an old-school AD&D grognard approach to building the place where every room is only loosely connected, happens to be completely soundproof to those outside of each individual room, and oftentimes are much bigger or more varied than a room should be. My explanation? Magic of course!
Obligatory Flavor Text: Up until now, you were just a plaything of someone you only knew as The Master, an eccentric madman of a wizard. You were created by him simply to satisfy his curiosity, then locked away in a force cage and promptly forgotten.
In the scant few years of your life here, your only compatriots have been the other creations in your block and your creator's surprisingly kind homonculus, Quizzle, who has served as a sort of nanny and butler to all the master's discarded experiments.
Just the other day, your homonculus caretaker was remarking on how the master is growing increasingly careless in his experiments and that he is growing tired of arguing with him over taking proper precautions. The Master was apparently forming a massive summoning circle in Room 1 for a demon lord, something which Quizzle argued was really dangerous. The Master, as lost in his own world as he always has been, simply replied that, "The circle looks good enough to me. Not like art was really my forte anyway. What's the worst that could happen, honestly?"
It seems Quizzle's fears were well-founded, as today the force cages went down in your room, releasing each of the twenty-five creatures within. You and four others remained behind, waiting until all the insanity died down before trying to escape so that you did not get trampled. Quite reasonable considering that you were raised in a cage all your life and may, in fact, have the intelligence of a rock, but that's besides the point.
Now that the initial chaos of the mass-releasing of experiments has subsided, it should be safer to try and escape. Conveniently enough, four others seem to be thinking the exact same thing you are. Last you remember, some of the other experiments that escaped were a little... murder-y. Well, more murder-y than you are willing to risk alone, in any case. Maybe you and your four compatriots will band together like the adventurers in the books Quizzle would read to you all as bedtime stories and escape the Stalactite Tower of Wex the Wizard?
Now, on to character creation, the most important part of this trip into structured madness. I have only had four hours of sleep on two days, so if I have left something out, please feel free to kindly remind me. I will repost the rules on the Campaign Information tab along with any revisions that I need to make, so if you don't see your answer here, I likely have it posted there after someone reminded me that I excluded it.
One caveat before I list the character creation: I will only take interesting creatures. That means no creatures that are just pure stats. Use interesting combinations of abilities. Write some cool fluff on the creature. Do something other than make a dire wolf on steroids or a 36-armed mound of muscle. This game is all about exploring options and being creative, so use this opportunity to create something awesome!
(Starting CR) 10. Every other room, your CR will raise by 1. You may store any points you get from this CR increase to apply after your next level-up.
(HP) Maximum HP for maximum fun-time murder-time.
(Ability Scores) You may adjust your ability scores by up to 40% of the 'suggested values' given on the tables in the Talented Bestiary by subtracting the same amount from other ability scores. Example: if the bestiary says you have a suggested STR of 20, then you can adjust your score upwards or downwards anywhere up to 8 points. You can take these points from any of your ability scores, but remember that each ability score can be no lower than 60% and no higher than 140% of the suggested ability score. If your specific build requires a little more leeway, then message me. This rule exists to limit the 60 STR 60 CON oozes of pure, regenerating metallic muscle that I'm sure some would like to play.
(Feats) You may take any feat from d20pfsrd apart from feats like Leadership that essentially give you another character. You must qualify for the feats. Undead use CHA as CON for the purposes of qualifying for certain feats. I may allow other feats, but only after careful consideration. This is a test of the Talented Bestiary after all, not a normal campaign.
(Class, Wealth, Traits) None. You are a monster that has been created and subsequently abandoned by a mad wizard. You do not have any of these things.
(Templates) No templates are allowed. Again, testing the Talented Bestiary, not a dozen and one other things.
Again, I think I hit on everything that needed to be explained. If I did not, please let me know. Looking forward to seeing what sort of monsters you all make!
(Edit) Recruitment will be open 7-14 days, so you have plenty of time to consider your options and create your monster.
