Makamu's page

Excellent post and I agree wholeheartedly! At present, the playtest documents feel very constraining and streamlined - in the sense of railroading character choices, not efficiently presenting information - and my group has currently decided to stick with 1E except for sourcebooks on Golarion.

But having information on the design goals might help me understand what Paizo is trying to do and maybe we can then help test that even if we ultimately don't buy the final product.

A book about Belkzen written by Our Lord of the Complex Orc? I am more than sold.

Congrats, Mikaze and may it be the first of many :)

the combined awesomeness of Mikaze and Rysky

I'll need some time to digest this, but the general idea sounds awesome.

Makamu

The bit about prizing half-orc 'strength' seems like a mechanical / thematic mixup, since half-orcs aren't any stronger than humans, in Pathfinder, unless one is considering their ferocity trait as a kind of 'strength.'

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I really found your further comments regarding potential modifications for full orcs very interesting, but I fear I have to slightly disagree with the above statement.

Going back to the quote Mikaze posted, if we take into account that the statement is prefixed with the phrase 'certain cultures', I personally interpreted it to mean that, although most cultures have a negative bias against orcs, some (such as Averaka and the people of Flintyreach) have a positive bias. For me, this bias need not be based on "biological fact" (i.e. mechanical ability arrays) and can just be a perception based on their ancient mythology. Maybe the cultural structures on Flintyreach are descended from a subset of Ulfen culture that values strength very highly and does not value mental abilities? Maybe they consider orcs as blessed in the same way the Varisians consider aasimar good luck (a practice that alienated

Regarding your other points: I agree with you that a less strength-centred range of modifiers might be interesting and I think I'll houserule orcs as having +2 to strength and wisdom and -2 to charisma.

Makamu

Mikaze wrote:

Dammit, misread. That should be "I'd roll with her not granting spells in that case.

Funny thing is, I read, "I'd roll with that." as "The cleric of a community based deity would be turning the community against itself, that should answer your question."

So did I.

That said, how far a cleric can go is a recurrent question in Pathfinder. The burner sect, for example, do they still get spells? The cleric in Death's Heretic was working directly against his deity's will, but still got spells.

Funnily enough, I have always thought of Salim as an inquisitor rather than a cleric. Plus, I think that somehow he is a special case, but we cannot assess that yet, since we don't know how the Rahadoumi became a servant of Pharasma and why she wants him where he is... *looks at James Sutter encouragingly* Go on, James, you know you want to tell us.

As for the Burners, personally, in my head!canon they still receive spells, just not from Iomedae or any other good or lawful entities... :)

Makamu

Hello Scaleclaw,

He going to serve either Torag or Gorum so i'm thinking like everything dwarf rough and tumble and doesn't take sass from anyone.

The other party members are
A Assimar Pally
A human urban Ranger
An Alchmist with a plauge mask and a tentacle (right now he having coughing fits)
A Orcle with 2 curses and is basically healed by negative energy

Okay, a rough and tumble inquisitor of either Toraq or Gorum. Looking at the party line-up you posted, I'd say a switch hitter inquisitor with focus on melee and strength might be closest to the rough and tumble you want.

Based on that you need to think about the following issues

15 point-buy means you don't have a lot of points to spend, so you have to look carefully at what you need to raise how high. Are you familiar with this table here?

Based on the concept you posted (a dwarf that does not take sass from anyone and is rough and tumble), I think it safe to say that Charisma is the lowest on your list of ability priorities.

Now I have another question: are you wiling/permitted to have negative ability modifiers? If so, then you can safely put none of your fifteen building points into charisma, which would give you a score of 8 and a modifier of -1.

Next up, you need to think about dexterity and inteliigence. Since intelligence guides your skill points and skills are never bad, even if you focus on combat, I'd recommend you put 2 points in here to give you a 12 and a +1

Dexterity, for its part, influences your armour class (AC) and your reflex safe. So it is not bad to have a positive modifier for that as well (besides, a good brawler can be strong of fist and quick of limb ;)). Another 2 points gives you another 12 and another +1 to start with. A word of caution: if you want to do ranged attacks, you need to raise that a bit (via the level-bound ability score increase perhaps?).

So, this leaves us with 11 points to spend on three scores, two of which are already at 12 and +1 (constitution and wisdom) because of your positive racial modifiers. Personally, I would put three points into constitution, which ends you with a 15 and a +2.

Then you have got 8 points left, three of which I'd put into wisdom (because you need it for casting), for a fifteen and +2

And the last five points should go into strength for another 14 and +2

So, if you dumb charisma, you initially have the following stats after racial modifiers:

14/12/15/12/15/8

Since you are level 9, you get two ability score increases at levels four and eight: Personally, I would bump both wisdom and strength for a +1 each, but that may not be the best option for the concept you want (more experienced players/GMs/theorycrafters, this is your cue!):

At the end of the day, you would have the following array (to be enhanced further by magic items of course):

15/12/15/12/16/8

Sorry for the long post :) If you need a quick and dirty build, somebody else will have to help out, I'm afraid.

Makamu (next up: your arrsy when not dumping charisma)

Hello Scaleclaw,

although I am also relatively new to GMing/playing Pathfinder, I think I might be able to at least give you some pointers.

First of all, I have marked this thread, so that a mod can move it to the advice forum, where you'll likely receive more expert help.

Secondly, I think it is useful to think about your character concept - that is, what sort of Inquisitor do you want to play? A defender of your faith against the heretics? A powerful magician in the service of your god? A sneaky infiltrator (though given that concept's reliance on social skills that may be hard to pull off with a dwarf, who gets a charisma penalty)? This optimisation guide by Bodhi gives some interesting ideas regarding concepts and might give you some help in building it as well.

Thirdly, you need to think about the combat and party role you see yourself in. Melee, switch hitter or ranged combattant? Or are you more of a spell-slinger? What classes do your fellow players play? Where is there a niche that you might fill that nobody else fills?

Fourthly, what books do you use/which are allowed by the GM. Just the core rulebook and the advanced player's guide? Are you only allowed to use books from the rules line, or can you draw on Golarion-specific material to bolster your concept?

Sorry for the many questions, but they might help get you better answers.

Happy gaming,

Makamu

[stuff I am not responding to]

Kajehase wrote:

And Shelyn might have museums and/or concert halls in her temples.

...And Pharasmara, morgues? Temples for Gorum don't exist, however, everyone went out to fight.

Per Death's Heretic, Pharasmin temples often function as morgues in their local area. Perhaps some fighting schools also have a small shrine to Gorum/Irori/Iomedae (depending on technique and outlook, obviously) somewhere?

Makamu

My best wishes to Josh and his family and I hope there will be a speedy and full recovery!

Hello everybody!

The title of the thread actually says it all. I am going to run CoCT with a group of very experienced players (my regular gaming group), using the beta rules and some house rules and wanted to ask for advice on some issues.

1) Since I did not place any restrictions on alignement, two of my players have come up with a LE necromancer and a NE bard. Looking at the AP, I wonder how much tweaking the AP will need to accommodate them? I have a few ideas in the back of my head to keep them interested, but I am wanting to know what you think.

2) The NE bard wanted to become an assassin later on in the campaign. I am developing a schism PrC within the Red Mantis (calling themselves the Grey Vipers) for this purpose and have also deleted the assassins need to be evil prerequisite in the process, because it never made sense to me.

3) Lastly, I am thinking about splitting the power of Merithinsiel (is that the name?)'s sword in order to give each PC an active role to play in the final battle. Comments? Criticisms?

Thank you very much, guys,

Makamu