Laznist's page

Yah, that is one slight worry. But if I manage to both apply and get picked, one can think of it as a 'sided-show' or something. And if it dies one could steal back all the good ideas to this game : )

(Besides, I'm thinking maybe Mr GM/Laznist would like to play in one too : ) )

I would, but real life has exploded and I am crazy oversubscribed as it is. :(

Okay.
Level 4 it is.
6000gp each.
No more than 1500gp on any given item.

Group will be issued;
A wand of CLW (arcane) - 20 charges
A wand of CLW (divine) - 20 charges
A wand of Gentle Repose - 50 charges
A scroll of Quench (druid CL 5)
A scroll of Phantom Chariot (CL 7)
A scroll of Whispering Wind (CL 3)
Parchment Messenger

Okay; I'm closing it.

As things stand I'm happy to take Castor (with the changes we've discussed) and Laurestine.

Grimdog; would like to know a bit more about your PC, but what you've said so far sounds fine. If you can get it to me soon (and it matches what you've said!) then you're in as well.

Existing PCs are Tieszla, Shang and Ophelia.

I'll knock up a gameplay thread for people to dot, because I know how much easier it is once a campaign appears on your My Campaign page.

Can everyone post in the discussion thread for now though.

Thanks everyone

edit:completely Ninja'd by dmw!

@GMV: my decision, but I intend to ask for feedback from the players.
I want to see what grimdog73 has gotten, otherwise I'm happy to start choosing. Not as much interest as I thought there would be, but I'm happy with those who showed up :)

No.
I had thought she was more a soulbound construct.

The template actually is not bad.

It has a lot of pros and cons, quite big ones. EG: Vulnerability to acid and electricity is a bit harsh, but then resistance to cold, fire, slashing and piercing is pretty good.

Big thing is that I'm not a big fan of infernal healing - I think it breaks some of the conventions (wizards & sorcerers do not heal), is badly worded and even if it did work should not work on constructs.

The template says

A clockwork automaton can only be repaired by spells that affect the construct type such as rapid repair

which I read as denying infernal healing.

That makes Make Whole or a Clockwork Servant the easiest ways to get healing. Happy to say Central has a Clockwork Servant. Make Whole is only a second level spell and heals a LOT of damage (CLxd6 capped at 5d6, rather than 2d8+CL)... but has a long casting time - enough it is not likely to be used in combat.

If you like the template my thought is to just be a bit harsher on the healing spells and run it as written; you can have the bonus HP, and at 0HP are 'broken' as per template. So long as your companions can get you back to Central there are rules in the template for repairing you. Yes 4000gp is expensive, but easier than Raise Dead. Think of the bonus HP as Diehard; once into that level you should really be looking to hang back or abort, but at least you can drag yourself to safety.

I really like Ophelia, but the fact she is a construct is part of that. The major disadvantage of Constructs in PF is repair time.

yep - that looks good. We're looking at starting at 4th - check out the discussion thread if you have an opinion.

grimdog: are you looking at making a native?

@Jetty: Castor looks better. I can see why a wizard with "trained by a gladiator" would be steered towards the guard!

@Ophelia: 3rd party template? Nice template, but I'm trying to avoid 3rd party. Why was it chosen? Your idea or Spooky's?

Shang and Ophelia: good point.
Shang's an internal vivisectionist; sneak attack and melee. There does seem to be more overlap than I expected.
Shang - you want to weigh in?

@Ophelia; How is Ophelia's race built?

Sorry Jetty, I appreciate that you looked it up, and you're welcome to submit, but we have a Pharasmin Inquisitor in the group already from Spooky's day.

Sure - and most missions will have an investigative component. If that's the payoff for her, that's fine. Just want to make no-one is going to storm off in a huff if they end up on bodyguard detail, crowd control or a simple snatch and grab.
Obviously I plan on every mission having investigation OOC, but IC it might not be obvious at the start!

Okay: is Level 3 the right level to be doing this at?
Given there's been an adventure at 3rd, I'm tempted to say 4th.

In terms of equipment I'm thinking standard as WBL.
That said, underlying this would be:
(A) the cost of magic & items is cheaper in Nex than just about anywhere. Given the game is set within Nex we ignore this and just accept the magic mart presented by the default pathfinder rules.
(B) YOU CANNOT LOOT THE BAD GUYS. You can confiscate stolen items etc, but these go to central stores.
(C) some bribery, extortion and patronage is expected - don't get caught, don't get greedy.
(D) guards maintain their own equipment
(E) particular items can be issued to the group for particular missions. These items can be requested if sufficient reasoning is shown (eg if you are going up against a were, and can prove it is a were, you could request silver weapons or silver weapon blanch.
(F) expendable items used in the course of duty can be replaced, but this requires going through red tape and proving the use was necessary.
(G) particularly impressive performance (*cough* levelling *cough*) is likely to result in being 'permanently lent' items from central stores.
(H) you can absolutely run a business on the side. Bear in mind you might need someone to run it for you if you get sent on a week long mission to s a slow demi-plane.

@grimdog; basic concept seems fine. Check out the discussion thread though - we're looking at setting this in Nex. You'll need to be able to accept the occasional 'legal' undead, but should have plenty of work with Geb next door.

@Grand Moff Vixen; Interesting concept. I think it could work, so long as she realizes that she needs to stick with it for a while. You'd see in the discussion thread that one reason to participate is to become a full citizen. Does that sound like a good reason to join the Guard (and accept orders) beyond simple curiosity?

Level 3.
Standard wealth.
Non standard traits; leave them for now unless there's one you desperately need.
At this point stats aren't needed. Talk about what your character is like, why they might be interested in being in the guard, what you'd like to do with the character, how they might contribute to the game and if there's any special requests.

I'm steering clear of 3rd party at this point. POSSIBLY a feat or spell, but definitely not a whole class.

okay, I think we need a fourth, so I have posted in the recruitment thread.

I've deliberately kept it vague.

What from the last game do we want kept?

I'm happy to have Ophelia's awesome imp-contact in Nex as well :)

I'm interested in running a magical investigators game.
This is a spiritual follow up to Spooky's excellent Darkest Corners campaign, so I have appropriated the name. Other influences are Simon R Green and Jim Butcher.
I have three players already, but would like at least one more.
The discussion thread here has more details.
If this looks like something you are interested in then please speak up.

Shang?
Tieszla? Is this religion setup okay? I can imagine she might have turned up to help in the 'war' with Geb, only to discover it is over in all but name.

RE Starstone: Is there? Most of this is from the many, many discussions about high magical warfare I've had over the years.

I was thinking same level. I'm fine with rebuilds.

I plan on knocking up some traits to represent the various citizenry types, but maybe I should just know what people are thinking.

I'm away most of next week (mon-thurs), so I wouldn't want to start before then. Good news is I am then on holiday so should be pretty good to go.

I wouldn't mind starting with 4 or 5 players.

ACG classes fine. Paizo OK. No 3rd party. Sound reasonable?

What are people thinking of playing. I'll try to get a recruitment set up.

Sorry to hear that Navia, thanks for being responsible and I hope your personal issues resolve favourably.

If you want to check in on us sometimes and make suggestions, I'm very happy to hear them :)

I'm keen to make Nex a tight city. Outer walls forming a 4800ft circle.
Was designed to hold off magical attack, so walls are a mix of materials, hardened and thick.
Buildings tend to build up rather than out. Most buildings loom over the populace in the street.
Statues of heroes everywhere - many of which are also defences.
Given this is the home of the inventor of the create demiplane spell, I see that a lot of places don't exist solely in this plane.
Stealing from Haven I'd like to have a long, straight Street of the Gods. Temples to the big gods at the near end, with lesser gods - or others - forced to the far end. Street stretches impossibly for miles in a straight line. and Nexian citizens come here for amusement as well as to worship; and they have a tendency to shop around when they need a miracle.
The Street of the gods have their own special guard unit of avowed atheists.

I'd like people to have ties to Nex. Korvosa is a long way from Nex.

I'm happy to transplant pretty much the whole first two stories.

I was going to change only that the initial recruitment was by Lt "Spooky" Jack of the Guard. After stopping a Hanspur cult Spooky Jack manages to swing an appointment as guardsman for each of you, but gets promoted out of the field.

If you really want to keep the Korvosan aspect I suppose we can work it through, but if other people want to keep their PCs we'd need a reason why all of them moved to Nex.

Religion
Nex does not discriminate against religions.
It does prosecute anyone who breaks the law, even for religious reasons.
You can openly worship Hanspur, Hastur or Urgathoa here. Sacrifice even one unwilling citizen and you're in trouble.

That said, Nethys and Pharasma are the two biggest religions. Nethys because he is the god of magic and Pharasma due to the millenia long war with Geb.

Pharasman Inquisitors have no special legal powers in Nex. It would make sense for them to join the guard though, as they can then arrest or destroy any undead they catch breaking the law, or that are strays.

One of the major threats is going to be rogue Geb agents, escaped lab experiments (some of whom are undead abominations) and accidentally reactivated Geb terrorist monsters from the height of the war.

It does mean, however, that you might know there is a lich abomination raising zombies as slaves, and not be able to do anything about it because it's all legal. I guess the drug war might be a good parallel. "Sure we haven't caught him doing anything illegal, but he's totally going to. All we can do is wait and catch him when he does... and let him know we're watching him."

That any good?

Yes. Might have to rework or make a new character, to fit better : )

I'm considering the Investigator - which I might simply swap Ophelia to and then adjust her backstory. However, I'm not sure if a sentient construct would be put in the guard, rather then somewhere to be studied.

This is why I had the "sponsored for citizenship by working in the guard" bit.

Way I figured it based on the backstory you had was that she was property with permission to do what she wants and a missing owner.

Eventually owner will be declared dead. Potentially disputes over his property would be a lot of red tape.

Missing owner would have been investigated and provides a way for her to meet the guard.

Working in the guard gets you sponsored for citizenship, so if she survives long enough she can become a citizen, so long as it happens before the owner is declared dead, and the owner does not dispute it.

Nex has other intelligent constructs - homunculi, soulbound, etc. Your backstory had her as having been studied already.

The Guard is responsible for maintaining order, and enforcing the will of the council.

Different units within the guard tend to be given different jobs to specialize in.

Higher levels within the Guard are increasingly - and eventually completely - political.

The PCs are a squad put together to investigate special crimes and rumors of rogue monsters. Looking for a good name here! Such squads tend to have a high turnover due to death, but are an excellent place to distinguish oneself. Often membership in such squads is as a way of earning Citizenship.

PCs would have private wealth and draw a salary. They could also take kickbacks etc. Standard Guard equipment is issued to the squad. PCs are elites, and it is expected they may be up against very dangerous monsters so equipment is not skimped on. IE game is not about collecting loot.

---
People still interested?

Given Nex was established a looooong time ago, and Nex vanished 4000 years ago - basically during middle kingdom egypt in our world - I'm proposing this.

These are not in a book. I don't think they're countered by anything in a book though.

Citizenship, residency and property.
Nex is proud of not discriminating. Pretty much anything can be made a citizen, which has allowed their kingdom to incorporate significantly powerful 'monsters'.

citizens have rights. Use of magic on a citizen against their will is a crime, and is investigated by the Guard (those poor bastards). Citizens have access to some elementary assistance regarding food and shelter. Citizens have legal rights and very few obligations. Each citizen has one vote.

the descendants of the heroes who helped Nex found his city have all been granted eternal citizenship.Many of these families have fallen into Poverty over FOUR THOUSAND years, but still reside in the city because terrible as their life may be they have access to the necessities to survive. These poor live in slum-like quarters, but the murder of any of them is the murder of a Citizen, and is investigated by the Guard.

Those who come to Nex may apply for Citizenship. Usually this requires paying an exorbitant fee or working for the government for some time. This is significantly easier for magically gifted people and creatures.

There is a residency status for visitors who do not seek to become citizens; usually traders and sometimes students. Such residents are treated much as citizens legally but fewer rights (no vote, for example).

There are also 'informal residents' - also known colloquially as strays. These creatures have few rights at all. They are not counted in the 60,000.

There are 'property'. These are slaves, or sometimes bound creatures, or those working off prison sentences etc. It is a very bad thing to be property in Nex. Also not counted in the 60,000.

Magic, especially constructs, do a lot of the work in Nex. There is probably 2-3 constructs for every citizen/resident. Much manufacturing, repair and other simple work is done by constructs. Recent advances (especially the Soulbound concepts) have managed to create constructs with near-sentient or sentient minds. At the moment a construct is considered property, though it could be granted Citizenship. There is a significant prejudice against constructs in the city, especially in the poorer sections where citizens cannot get jobs.

Problems:

Nex is incredibly open minded, which makes a subclass difficult to have.

60,000 is not a lot of people, all things considered, though it is three times larger than Korvosa.

Seems to match the population of about 1400 London.

Closest match in Golarion that I can see is Nex.
Fortunately there is not much information on Nex, so it might fit.

magic in Nex is seen as an amoral force, to be

studied and wielded with scientific detachment

This focus on the arcane does make clerics and oracles scarce within the walls of Quantium and her sister cities

...and vastly enriched his private nation through his adventures and the judicious application of wish level magics...

The city attracts a wide assortment of inhabitants, from ambitious wizards seeking to perfect their craft in one of Quantium’s vaunted arcane universities, to outsiders summoned to Golarion by long dead mystics, to merchants...

[Valkus Island]an inescapable prison colony for the worst killers, monsters, political prisoners, villains, and would-be

conquerors to threaten the nation.

Qantium has 60,000 people.

They are ruled by beauracracy and the council of 3 and 9

have a look at this then.
I'm going to talk about what I'm thinking and the game etc.
There would need to be some rebuilding background wise I think, but I'm hopeful this is relatively minor.

Would like to discuss some issues first.
Feel free to add feedback.

This is a thread to discuss the formation of a game.
It is inspired by many sources; Simon R Green's Nightside and Haven, Noir detective stories, and of course Spooky's Darkest Corners thread.

I would like a city with enough people to start to run into metropolis problems.

I would like a large class of poor, and a small class of very rich, and Tammany Hall politics.

I would like the death of pretty much any individual to be something that gets investigated. For pretty much everyone to have rights. But I would like there to be an oppressed subclass.

I would like it to be primarily human and human-like races.

I would like it to be in the early stages of an "industrial revolution" using alchemy and magic.

I would like the PCs to be elite members of the "Guards", which are a police type force. The guards also do military and crowd control, PCs unit would be responsible for investigating unusual crimes.

Two... hahaha!

Eeeexcellent. That's one.

Apologies to anyone who saw this and hoped that Spooky had come back.

All right.... I loved this game so much I'm thinking of doing something similar. Likely to be a bit more Simon R Green-ish, hopefully a bit more Noir, and emphasising the Automata storyline a little. Possibly alternate-golarion.

If I did do it, then the people in this game (including Spooky, if he resurfaces) would have an invite. Probably characters (with a bit of tweaking) would still work.

Anyone interested? Should I start a thread to discuss it?

Thanks Spooky, sounds like it would have been good.

This has been a great game Spooky, and I'm sorry that you won't be able to run it and especially sorry that it is because your real life is going badly.

I hope things get better soon, whether I see you back here or not.

If the game is something you think you might pick up again one day I should still be around and would be happy to be part of it.

If this game is definitively ending, is there any chance of finding out what was going here with the cultists and the disappearances and everything? Seemed intriguing.

@Shang, Ophelia, Walther - it's been a privilege playing the thug in our smarts heavy game :)

@Tieszla, Navia - we've not played together long, but I'll miss you guys too.

Laznist starts chanting, gathering loops of arcane energy to stitch together over the hole.
10 minutes casting mending - we may be interrupted

"Damn... You want me to fix that? The breastplate I mean. I've got something that works pretty good on patching things together, except Oph..." Lznist's brain desperately tries to stop his mouth finishing the word, but is too late, simply strangling it a little. "elia"

"Well... I'm not seeing any magic. Once Ophelia's done, we continue on? Anyone got any idea what those guys were doing?"

Laznist mutters briefly, scans his head slowly as if looking around, then shrugs
Casting Detect Magic. Trying to remain with two allies.

Laznist nods shakily. Following Ophelia's lead he dons a robe.

I'm playing an Arcanist and loving it.

you have a spellbook like a wizard.
You pick spells to memorise every day.
Then you can cast any of those spells, just like a sorceror would.
Downside is you get less spells per day, and a worse spell progression. For someone getting used to a full caster, that is not such a downside.
Human favoured bonus is the ability to have more memorised spells to choose from, but you won't need that till level 4.

I'm playing a blaster and the Arcanist is, hands-down, the best blaster class I've played. When enemies start getting to the point that he gets frustrated by energy resistant, he can pick up admixture wizard. That means all those options aren't being confusing till there is a need to use it.

Arcane Reservoir Points are a little tricky as it is a resource independent of spells. Easy way is to treat each one as 'X times per day you can make a spell +1 level'
If you do that, get an ability that doesn't really require spending them or the one that makes spells +2 level when you get an arcane point.
The ability that gives you a sorcerer arcana and 1st level bloodline power at CL1 is quite good. The Orc Bloodline is good for extra damage, or there are bloodlines that let you cast spells (usually mind controlling) against normally banned types.

Laznist picks up his longspear and uses it as a crutch until Walther heals him.
"Woah! That's much better, thanks Walther."

Laznist collapses, his injured leg simply giving way beneath him as the adrenaline wears off.
Desperately wadding a handkerchief against the wound he looks around at his injured companions

"Hnuh. I can keep going... but I'm almost all out. That was much, much harder than I expected. How's Walther? Heck, how is everyone? Navia? Tieszla? Shang? Ophelia? Still ticking along?"

every... freaking... time

initiative wise, note Laznist is readied, not acting. Don't wait for him unless his condition is triggered :)

Laznist starts to stumble after the fleeing cultist, but at the first step his injured leg fells like it has caught on fire and he stops, quickly.
!!!! Going to have to leave that one to Shang... unless...
standard action: readying an action. IF one of these cultists gets out of our LOS (and potentially off to alert people) Laznist will cast Magic Missile at him/them. this will be 3 missiles for a total of damage: 3d4 + 3 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (1, 4, 4) + 3 + 3 + 1 = 16
move: limp slowly towards Walther, keeping out of the way of these miners.

Laznist is full defensive and trying to get the enemies to keep focussing on him rather than the doomed - er I mean downed - Walther.
Standard: Full defensive
Move: Taunt?

Laznist flails his pick wildly, more interested in not being hit than hitting.
Huh! Have to keep them... from going back... to Walther...

"Yes! I have defeated your overseer! Your miracles fail against me!" Nethys! I'm going to die!

full defensive and taunting

Laznist looks on in shock as his attackers seem to shrug off his fire spell, then screams as one of the survivors takes advantage of his distraction to slam the pick through the meat of his thigh.

Through a haze of pain he sees Walther stumbling blindly from the overseer's spell, stalked by a cultist with murder in his eye.

Hell! They're winning. We're going to lose - or at least lose people. What are these... things? and as his analytic mind reasserts itself past the pain If they're so loyal why do they have an Overseer? Perhaps if we could stop him...

Insidiously a passage from the In Libro De Iniuriis worms its way into his mind.

Staggering into Ophelia's protective range he draws upon the book's "wisdom".

Step out of AoO range. casting Magic Missile. Specialised +2 CL. Tattoos +1 Cl. Arcane Point for +1 CL. 7CL = 4 missiles. Maximize from Book of Harm self damage: 1d4 ⇒ 3. +1 damage per die from bloodline. +1 damage from wizard school. Total damage to Overseer = damage: 6 + 6 + 6 + 7 = 25 Force Damage. No save.

Laznist's scars glow red hot for a moment, and a small new scar sears into existence on the back of his left hand.