I'm still holding out for a Taldan War of Succession AP.
A guy can dream....
Last I heard, a Taldor AP is dead in the water because JJ wants to turn it into yet another "plucky CG rebels fight the system" while another writer wants it to be about removing Dawnflower scum and restoring the glory of the Empire.
Neither side seems willing to budge, and so it shall remain.
First I've heard of this theory, and I imagine it'll come as even more of a surprise to James.
I've heard a version of it... from what I heard, Mr. McCreary wants the "Restoration of the Taldan Empire" version, while Mr. Jacobs wants the Taldans to throw off the weight of the past and create a new future for themselves.
"1) The whole bearded/unbearded thing has been retconned for some time now. It's not a thing in modern Taldor—like the church of Sarenrae being outlawed, it's now a part of Taldor's history that's been abandoned by the people of Taldor for the most part. The nation still has a class structure, though. It's just not mired in a silly beard/no beard thing."
Taldor doesn't discriminate against Sarenrae anymore? What the hell, that's just begging for the Cult of the Dawnflower to slip in and set up shop.
From what I've seen, the Linnorm Kings operate similar to "Viking" culture in that the king controls the most prosperous slice of land and the rest of it is ruled over by his or her thanes (Jarl seems to be an exclusive term for ice giants in Golarion), who provide tribute and military service in exchange for the land.
The land of a thane, in turn, is sectioned out to sharecroppers, who provide tribute and service to the thane in exchange for land.
Curse of the Crimson Throne
Council of Thieves
Hell's Rebels
[Placeholder Proposed Taldor Rebellion Path]
You could argue Jade Regent would make it a fifth, since the latter half of that AP was inciting rebellion in Minkai and installing CG Ameiko to the throne.
I'm still holding out for a Taldan War of Succession AP.
A guy can dream....
Last I heard, a Taldor AP is dead in the water because JJ wants to turn it into yet another "plucky CG rebels fight the system" while another writer wants it to be about removing Dawnflower scum and restoring the glory of the Empire.
Neither side seems willing to budge, and so it shall remain.
Lately I've been having disturbing thoughts of Donald Trump as a Hell's Vengeance character . . . .
Make Cheliax Great Again!
On Topic, it depends on the level of 3pp content or Point Buy the DM is using. Fast and loose? I'd probably aim for a Warder (Zweihander Sentinel) swordsman that's all about gaining favor with House Thrune. First party content? I'm thinking of going with the village a~&@~~%, thrown into the Longacre prison for something-or-other, probably as a Brawler.
The chance to play an evil character is great, the chance to play an evil character supporting Cheliax is even better, but the chance to play an evil character supporting Cheliax against an Iomedae crusade? I'm 100% on board, let's get to kicking puppies and smashing bardic instruments.
Evil is fun, and we're getting an entire AP to be evil.
Jealousy breeds contempt, since Mengkare is running one hell of an idyllic society it would make sense for there to be a lot of people really butthurt about not getting in.
It's also really odd how so many people have trouble with Mengkare, a Lawful Good dragon, taking measures to ensure the Glorious Endeavor continues to run smoothly. It makes sense to remove the disappointments and toss 'em on a boat to the mainland, and it makes sense for the occasional psychic to mind-read a population for potential dissidents. How else would a society of 10/10 geniuses banging out Apex Humans function? Through pixie farts and Chaotic Good spunky rebel tendencies?
Please, Mengkare knows what he's doing.
Etonwan wrote:
Don't focus so much on Mengkare's morals. Start looking at the members of the community. We are only just human. That in itself can and has caused much chaos.
Exactly this, it is extremely difficult to tarnish (or burnish) a dragon, and probably even more so when it's a Great Wyrm. Mengkare is not the evil in this equation, human nature is, and Mengkare's role is to make sure the bad apples don't crop up before they can poison society.
Just tossing my "yeah" onto the accumulating pile-
Shelyn will absolutely and totally "support one of the most emotionally harmful things you can do to a person" if that is not, in fact, what you're actually doing.
Jane and Joe's parents decided they should be married (the local cleric of Erastil said go for it, they were both getting a little long in the tooth to find someone to start a family with)
Jane and/or Joe starts seeing other people.
If Joe finds out Jane is sleeping with the stableboy and gets hacked because his "property" isn't doing as she is legally told, Shelyn isn't going to be terribly sympathetic. Joe had better take it up with Abadar or more likely Asmodeus- even Erastil is going to be a bit askance at Joe's priorities.
If Jane finds out that Joe is sleeping with the blacksmith because he prefers men, and is upset because of what the neighbors will think, Shelyn is not going to bat an eye. She might high-five Calistria.
If Joe finds out that Jane is schtupping the bard who comes through town periodically because of his dreamy come-hither eyes, and Joe consequently spends his solo time working the barn crying because he's come to love her despite the arranged nature of their marriage, Shelyn is not going to be okay with Jane's actions because they're hurting her loving spouse.
If Joe is having an affair with Widow Jill down the way under the guise of helping her chop firewood and haul water and Jane never finds out and believes the husband she has come to love is being faithful, guess what? Shelyn is not okay with that, because Joe is not being honest with his wife who loves him, which is most decidedly not the sort of relationship Shelyn promotes.
If Jane and Joe sit down and express to one another that the love isn't there, and they each agree that she can totally go after that smokin' stableboy and he can merrily find happiness with the widow while staying married for the sake of the community's sense of propriety, Shelyn will probably be...
I'm really digging this post! It definitely answers any questions I had about Shelyn's dogma, thanks.
What you are describing is a lawful good diety, not a neutral good one.
I don't think a Neutral Good goddess should be supporting behavior that actively harms people.
Imbicatus wrote:
You are looking at this with an ethnocentric point of view. Polyamory is a thing, and isn't inherently wrong as long as everyone involved is open and aware about what is going on and is supportive of it.
Polyamory isn't "cheating", and Sheyln would approve.
If someone is in a loving monogamous relationship, then any other relationship outside of that relationship does hurt the spouse whether they know about it or not, because it is a betrayal of trust. Sheyln would not approve of an affair in this situation.
If someone is in a loveless marriage that is due to political or other concerns that is not based on love, Sheyln would apporve of an affair because love is more important than a social obligation, and the marriage was never about love.
Polyamory is also something most of the world's population does not practice, and for the purposes of a society such as Avistan does not really exist beyond the niche subcultures you might find in a city here and there.
However you do bring up a good point that largely answers my concerns; Shelyn does not support cheating on a spouse even if said spouse would never find out.
The wording of that in the Inner Sea Gods is, however, very vague and can easily be interpreted as Shelyn supporting adultery or cuckoldry if the opportunity presents itself. I mean hell, it outright states Shelyn is the one to pray to if you want an affair kept secret, that isn't helping her case here.
In my experience, finding love outside of marriage is only emotionally harmful if the couple isn't alright with it from the start. So yeah, you can totally spread the love around, as long as the wedded couple is okay with it.
Basically, you can have a binary relationship if you want to, but it's in no way required.
In my experience, the vast majority of couples are in monogamous relationships and get hurt when someone's trying to "spread the love around."
Bill Dunn wrote:
HFTyrone wrote:
All that quote really tells me is that it's okay if you don't get caught.
If there are likely to be significant repercussions for getting caught, that kind of goes against the bit on being reckless. Again, beware the cherry picking.
That said, if someone cheated, got caught, and tried to say "But Shelyn thinks it's OK", they aren't going to be punished by the goddess in any significant way. Your typical Golarion gods just don't work that way. But it doesn't mean that person is right.
The fact Shelyn is still seen as Neutral GOOD for allowing that kind of behavior suggests, at least by Paizo, that the person is right, that an affair is okay as long as the partner doesn't find out.
Getting caught always has significant repercussions, finding out a spouse or lover is emotionally and/or physically cheating on you is devastating to all but the most callous individuals. This kind of behavior ruins lives, and it's actively endorsed by a Neutral Good goddess.
So just the other day I was reading my copy of the Inner Sea Gods when I came across a curious little ditty about Shelyn in her entry. Apparently, the Goddess of Love supports couples who have affairs, and the example was described as the couple being in a loveless, politically motivated marriage.
I would be fine with that example if it was the only one in the entry. Reading on, I read that Shelyn "does not require fidelity" in a relationship and Shelyn actually supports those who "find love outside of marriage" (which in the real world we call an affair.)
As a Neutral Good goddess that's widely portrayed as the purest, most kindest and lovable deity in the pantheon, how can she openly support one of the most emotionally harmful things you can do to a person, something I imagine many people who play Pathfinder have experienced first hand?
The entry says much of Shelyn's doctrine is about healing broken hearts and finding the courage to love again, and yet here she is encouraging the very behavior that will break those hearts. This is not Good behavior for a Good deity.
The way my groups treat it is "Appearance" is the mean of Charisma, Constitution, Strength and Dexterity, where you determine the main "appeal" of the character based on which number contributes the most.
For example, a character with 18 Strength, 12 Dex, 16 Con and 10 Cha will have an appearance score determined by (18+12+16+10)/4 = 14 Appearance, which means they're fairly attractive, and since their appearance is dominated by Strength and Constitution the DM can determine the thing that people would be attracted/impressed by most is the character's firm musculature and healthy appearance.
This seems like a good system, though I would probably do all stats with Charisma counted twice, since some people might be attracted to smarts or religious fervor, but any of those things could become unattractive if you're a jerk about it.
Way I see it, the Appearance score just plays into your raw physical impressiveness or beauty, Charisma plays a part in that (hence it being added) but you don't need to add it twice since it's not more important than anything else.
You can be beautiful and still be a jerk, Appearance attracts people to the character but Charisma (rather, skills that use Charisma) is what makes them stay.
The way my groups treat it is "Appearance" is the mean of Charisma, Constitution, Strength and Dexterity, where you determine the main "appeal" of the character based on which number contributes the most.
For example, a character with 18 Strength, 12 Dex, 16 Con and 10 Cha will have an appearance score determined by (18+12+16+10)/4 = 14 Appearance, which means they're fairly attractive, and since their appearance is dominated by Strength and Constitution the DM can determine the thing that people would be attracted/impressed by most is the character's firm musculature and healthy appearance.
If he was "merely" an anunnaki, Tar-Baphon or Deskari or any other of his very high caliber opponents would've destroyed him.
My honest answer is that the theory is cute, but the annunaki isn't strong enough to be Aroden.
Though you could perhaps roll with him being an annunaki of unusual power - extra hit dice, wizard template from Monster Codex, an extra three mythic ranks that it used to pick up full Divine Source prior to ascending to true godhood, etc.
(Though I expect we'll be getting a lot of info about Aroden the man in Pathfinder #100.)
If Aroden was an Anunnaki then he would have certainly been an Anunnaki of unusual power, which seems like a thing that *can* happen with the Anunnaki as they aren't bound to the level (either base or mythic) given to them in the bestiary.
Aroden was operating in Avistan for 890 years before fighting Tar-Baphon, and 4,433 years before fighting Deskari, it makes perfect sense for a being of his magnitude to pick up a few tricks and tiers along the way.
This could even factor into the Aroden = Anunnaki theory; the Anunnaki, regardless of their power, are still bound by the rules and regulations of their civilization, and "rogue" Anunnaki are often removed from power when discovered. Maybe Aroden grew too powerful (he was certainly a proper god by the end) and too personally invested (the extent of Aroden's worship and adoration by the Age of Glory was pretty up there) in the affairs of Humanity to be within the acceptable scope of his original mission, and either voluntarily left or was forcibly removed by his brethren.
There isn't enough evidence to confirm he was not an Anunnaki, the manner of his appearance and Aroden's behavior as a god simply has too many similarities to an Anunnaki to ignore.
We know him as the God of Humanity, a shining beacon of civilization and law that pierced the Age of Darkness and brought order back to the Inner Sea. We know he founded Absalom, dragging the Starstone out of the ocean and planted it in the center of his capital. We know he made great efforts in uplifting Humanity, helping them realize their true potential while taking an active role against threats simply too large for a mortal to handle. We know he disappeared at the dawn of the Age of Glory, bringing an end to Prophecy and separating his followers from his divinity.
But was the Last of the First Humans truly a Human to begin with? Was the Last Azlanti an Azlanti at all?
After getting a chance to read through Bestiary 5, I chanced upon a curious humanoid called the "Anunnaki." The text describes them as powerful shapeshifters that visit worlds in crisis, using their powerful mythic abilities and pseudo-divinity to pose as gods and guide their wayward subjects to civilization, and at the apex of their follower's glory... They leave, if just because they can no longer keep up the charade.
Sound familiar?
Aroden was never human to begin with. Aroden was a being from beyond the stars that came to Golarion during a period of strife and hardship, and using his formidable abilities shaped Humanity into something great under the guise of being the "last" of Humanity's "greatest." Isn't it awfully convenient a pure Azlanti somehow survived Earthfall after all those years of darkness, or the Starstone Test he put in the center of his capital only turned Humans into gods?
And at the end of it all, at the dawn of a new Age, he left. Can you really say he died? How? How does a god die and ensure their divinity can no longer grant spells? It didn't stop Acavna, it didn't stop Lissala, but why did it stop Aroden? The answer is simple; Aroden never died, he simply knew his time was up, his work was done, and left. Not as an Azlanti, but as an Anunnaki.
So what you're saying is the goddess of mercy and forgiveness is "too" merciful and forgiving, the goddess of love's flaw is loving too much, the god synonymous with drinking has a problem with drinking, and the goddess of total freedom has way too much freedom?
... These are interesting flaws?
They are interesting yes.
Sarenrae's flaw is what has allowed her church to form a schism that has resulted in the current state of unrest in Qadira and the hostility between that nation and Taldor, in large part, as well as problems elsewhere (such as in Osirion).
Shelyn's flaw not only has her using a really non-standard and unusual weapon as her favored weapon (her brother's glaive), but also has other compelling storyline elements in which she might be allowing Zon-Kuthon to get away with too much (granted, we haven't yet followed up much on this line, but we could some day!).
And I would call alcoholism a flaw regardless of whether you're a mortal or a god. Think of the mistakes a mortal makes while blasted drunk... a god who does the same? That's absolutely a flaw.
And Desna not only nearly started an interplanar war when she ignored divine law and invaded the Abyss to assassinate the demon lord Aolar, but also is the reason Ghlaunder, the god of parasites, is free—she let him out because she was curious about him.
Those are absolutely interesting flaws in my book. And they are flaws that don't fundamentally undo the deity's role or purpose, in a way that the mistake about Erastil did.
I must admit I am really looking forward to whatever happens with any potential Taldor AP and the Dawnflower Cult precisely because of how much slack Sarenrae has given them in causing problems for other countries, and Shelyn having cracks in her otherwise flawless image could make her more endearing...
But what I mean by flaws aren't so much perversions of their godly nature so much as character flaws you could apply to any other person. Athena was terribly vain, Zeus was a craven womanizer, Susanoo was so violent and abusive towards his sister Amaterasu that she hid in a cave.
Pantheons have always had deities with personalities that went far off the expected path, sometimes even contradicting what you would expect from them, such as the War God Ares being a whiny coward who couldn't take a hit. The problem I'm finding with Golarion is it doesn't really feel like this is the case. Desna is freedom-loving and her flaws are associated with freedom, Torag is a traditions god and his virtues (and vices) are associated with tradition. There's not a lot going on there.
And how was Erastil supporting "traditional" gender roles a mistake? I know this runs the danger of becoming off-topic, but surely a god that existed when gender roles were "necessary" would still probably think those gender roles are necessary thousands of years later.
I don't recall general misogyny on the the behalf of Asmodeus. He does have some hatred for some of the female deities, but I don't think it's specifically because of their gender. It has a lot to do with the fact that they're goody-two-shoes.
But I could be wrong about this.
Now Erastil on the other hand does definitely prefer typical gender roles from what I understand.
Erastil has been retconed he is all fluffy and nice now... No imperfections anymore.
Well... since I created Erastil for my homebrew game decades ago, I like to think that I'm the subject matter expert on him. As with all the deities, I gave Sean a large list of notes to build off of, but his addition of those elements to Erastil were NOT intended and were, in fact, an error as surely as if we'd said he had a pig's head instead of a stags head, or if we said his name was spelled Arastil instead of Erastil, or if we had given him a pick-axe as his favored weapon instead of a longbow.
It was flat-out an error. I would have caught it had I been the one to develop the article, but I was not that devloper—I was working on the adventure and trusted others to develop the article, but it was an error of mine to not say in print to Sean "Erastil, as a good deity, should be progressive and welcoming and supportive of ALL members of a family." That element of his personality was so engrained in my mind that I simply never thought that someone would take him in a different direction.
Good deities absoulutely CAN have flaws. Iomedae is really impatient and humorless. Desna is impulsive and doesn't think of the long-term ramifications of her actions. Cayden Cailean is a drunkard. Torag is too bound by traditions. Shelyn is blinded by her love for her brother. Sarenrae is a bit too forgiving. They CAN have flaws, and that makes them more interesting, but which flaws are the RIGHT flaws for any one deity to have is more or less up to me, as Paizo's Creative Director, to approve....
So what you're saying is the goddess of mercy and forgiveness is "too" merciful and forgiving, the goddess of love's flaw is loving too much, the god synonymous with drinking has a problem with drinking, and the goddess of total freedom has way too much freedom?
DM did manage to avoid the obvious trap of telling them to change alignment since this mirrored iomedae's part
Don't forget to force her, willing or not, to do a job for you purely to save face with the other adventurers out there while another librarian is off finding "That Book You Need To Fix The Problem."
Oh, and give her a Mythic Tier, because she got to speak with mighty heroes.
Good thing she didn't fight back though, otherwise you'd have to blind her, deafen her, forcibly change her alignment to Chaotic Evil and throw her into a pit full of vipers.
Galt also seems nontraditional, as would something political involving Taldor & Qadira. Maybe something involving Five Kings Mountains and a great huge dungeon crawl to defend against an incursion from beneath? The deaths of five of the Seven Patriarchs of the duergar seems like an AP setup waiting to happen.
Something involving Qadira and Taldor would make me do a little happy dance, but last I heard that was in development hell because JJ and another AP writer had a little problem deciding where they'd want to take the story.
Specifically, James Jacobs wanted it to be about toppling the established order and forcing Taldor to break out of it's glory-obsessed past and become something modern, while the other writer wanted the PCs to be Imperial agents working with the Emperor to consolidate power, reignite the glories thought long past, and usher in a new era of Taldane ascendancy.
Hey, so when are we getting a proper Nordic romp through Ulfenland?
Land of the Linnorm Kings could really use a martial-heavy AP in the same vein as Giantslayer.
Buxom blonde women, big burly men, Valkyries, all the Fae and ultra-violent wildlife you could slay, all with an established backstory of Sveinn Blood-Eagle seeking out a King that could slay Fafnheir and unite the lands (unless the party seeks to just kill a Linnorm themselves and become Kings.)
Wouldn't that be a waste of a potential AP? Taking a place with as much story potential as the Land of the Linnorm Kings and turning it into yet another campaign about the Runelords just feels wrong.
I didn't say it was the best idea. ^_^
I would love to see a proper Linnorm Kings campaign; there could be cultists of Ragadahn, an audience or epic battle with Fafnheir, etc. I just think this fits in with their track record/evidence. Fafnheir was an advisor to Xanderghul, after all.
It's really one of those regions that has all the things you'd want in a campaign, wrapped up in a historical region that sparked the imaginations of so many culturally-significant writers throughout Western history. It's Fantasy Scandinavia, why not ham it up with inspiration from the likes of Beowulf, Sigurd the Dragonslayer or Ragnar Lodbrok?
But I agree it would be great to at least mention there's even more going on than the players realize, although I do not agree that Runelords or First World shenanigans should necessarily be the focus. Hint at a world beyond the world given, it's what made Jade Regent so magical and it could surely make a red-blooded Linnorm Kings AP magical too.
I've discovered that if one surfs these forums enough, one can find complaints about every single aspect to the game ever created. We live in the midst of the Whine Generation and it doesn't seem to be ending any time soon.
I'd recommended just running the AP that interests you the most and IF there is a subsystem present that you don't feel like you have a grasp on, then come to the forums and ask for help making it work.
The idea of choosing to run an entire AP based on what's NOT in it can result in unintended consequences, such as being bored with the whole thing. Find one that excites you and ignore the naysayers. They are always out there. Waiting. Watching. Getting ready to post. . .
#Better gaming through better GM'ing for Prez 2016.
That sounds like pretty solid advice actually. I'll figure out what the group wants to play and we'll make it work.
How about we save the good people at Paizo some server space by answering these problems for the APs you listed in the OP.
Kingmaker? It has advice in Book 2 for people who don't want to tackle Kingdom Building. It also has advice for people who don't want to do Massed Combat. That advice more or less comes down to "slice it out and play it by DM fiat."
Iron Gods? Why are you going into a campaign about technology if you don't want technology? The rules are fairly solid, and the whole campaign feels quite soulless without them. Don't bother with Iron Gods if you don't want to bother with Technology rules.
Jade Regent? Slice out Caravan Rules entirely. Same with the Relationship mechanic, which felt truly dreadful and struck me as something that should be done entirely through RP between the DM and players. After all, isn't that what we're here for? You will be happy, your players will be happy, and the players who didn't dump points into Charisma or Diplomacy will be VERY happy.
Hey, so when are we getting a proper Nordic romp through Ulfenland?
Land of the Linnorm Kings could really use a martial-heavy AP in the same vein as Giantslayer.
Buxom blonde women, big burly men, Valkyries, all the Fae and ultra-violent wildlife you could slay, all with an established backstory of Sveinn Blood-Eagle seeking out a King that could slay Fafnheir and unite the lands (unless the party seeks to just kill a Linnorm themselves and become Kings.)
Wouldn't that be a waste of a potential AP? Taking a place with as much story potential as the Land of the Linnorm Kings and turning it into yet another campaign about the Runelords just feels wrong.
Hey, so when are we getting a proper Nordic romp through Ulfenland?
Land of the Linnorm Kings could really use a martial-heavy AP in the same vein as Giantslayer.
Buxom blonde women, big burly men, Valkyries, all the Fae and ultra-violent wildlife you could slay, all with an established backstory of Sveinn Blood-Eagle seeking out a King that could slay Fafnheir and unite the lands (unless the party seeks to just kill a Linnorm themselves and become Kings.)
Well damn, gotta say I'm disappointed my posts were deleted from the last thread since I'd certainly post them here.
Transsexual members of a single-sex race strike me as something that would happen during a time of plenty, much like homosexuality is often expressed in species when they aren't hard-pressed for resources or mates. They're producing resources for the community while drawing little out of it themselves, which as far as nature is concerned is a net positive and something worth keeping.
Your opening post does bring up the topic of magic, would a potion of sex change even work on a harpy? They're a mono-gendered race with no examples (as far as I'm aware) of men existing. Round hole, square peg, the magic just wouldn't work.
They might however be interested in magic that turns them into a binary race, however. A trans* harpy might not be able to become a man, but she could become a male strix.
Golarion's a world where some 5'0" twerp that weighs 100 pounds soaking wet could kill Godzilla King Mogaru with her bare hands.
"Traditional gender roles" (a.k.a., I'm naturally bigger and stronger than you, so do what I say or get hurt) goes out the window when either gender's fully capable of suplexing ogres.
And that's just the pure martials. "Traditional gender roles" gets thrown out the window even harder the moment stuff like smite and ki and domain powers and spells get involved.
I'd expect Amiri's tribe to NOT go "you're a woman, you must do ____," I'd expect them to go "you're built like a brick s@~~ house, how about you do ____."
The general vibe on Golarion is that a society that actively discriminates against its members, for whatever reason, often has something deeply wrong with it.
Magic is indeed a great equalizer, but the problem with magic is both genders are equally represented as having magical inclinations, and magic in Golarion isn't as common as magic in, say, Eberron.
Woah wait hold up, so not only are you guys saying gender roles or gender identity do not exist in Golarion, but it's impossible for a "transphobic character" to be a "hero" or anything more than some mud-farming a~%~+~@?
Doesn't that seem... You know... Kind of boring? History is rich with examples of a*+&$%#s-turned-heroes, or people becoming paragons of a gender-specific ideal or hell, people breaking out of their gender roles to become something great.
When you say bigots = bad, gender roles do not exist and men = women in everything forever and ever, you're eliminating a hell of a lot of depth you can explore with not just a character concept, but with your own setting.
At least the good thing is you guys can't force DMs to portray the setting - even if it's "your" setting - to exclude these things from their game, which seems like the ideal stance to take on this issue; worked for Jade Regent when you guys said "All NPCs are assumed bisexual until stated otherwise", should work here.
Still, it would help to know *where* gender roles exist in Golarion, how they exist, and what kind of races or nations feel about people who don't fit into the gender binary.
One of the only places that I can see immortality/longevity actually being useful mechanically and not just a "bragging rights" reward is a Kingmaker-style game where kingdom turns are 1 month each and the years really add up.
Don't like the neighboring king, but also don't want to risk a long and drawn-out war? Simply wait to outlive him and make peace with his children!
But then you run into the problem of having too many title claimants running around.
Because let's face it, a king's got needs, and when you're an eternally-youthful hunk with power there's gonna be plenty of girls willing to satisfy those needs, and sometimes those needs results in precious little crying mistakes.
For the good of the Realm you might as well raise one hell of an heir, marry off your sons and daughters to neighboring kings to strengthen the alliances, and then just hand the crown over to your heir and strike off for parts unknown.
My heart aches for the day we will get an AP set in the glorious Empire of Taldor as Imperial agents selflessly serving the Grand Prince, rooting out vile Dawnflower cultists where we can while consolidating power into the hands of those ambitious few capable of restoring the Oppara's Legacy.
How does one show identification as a man for a stereotypically male dominated profession like an adventurer where acting like "just one of the boys" is almost the norm?
Why are you making the assumption that adventuring is a male-dominated profession?
Re: Ptemenib, I was going to pull the trigger on that anyway... it's a great idea.
Yeah, originally his ability to see invisible psychopomps was because he was transgender; just a strange quirk of the multiverse. I still regret not leaving him explicitly trans.
Probably for the best. "Minority with special magic powers because he's a minority" is a trope with unfortunate connotations at best.
Seems like that would have been a Magical Negro but with a trans person instead of a black man.
Paizo literally has a Magical Negro in their setting though, his name is Old Man Jatembe.
I doubt it will change Cheliax as whole, from what I've gathered from the information given. I read it as the city has been in a state of rebellion for years and this AP will just settle the matter.
Kintargo hasn't. Pezzak, however, has.
What Paizo giveth, Paizo taketh away, the AP after Hell's Rebels is Hell's Vengeance, which is a fully-evil campaign and *probably* going to involve a good ole death squad of Hellknights going into Kintargo and fixing the ruckus the PCs an AP prior had caused.
Depends on what you mean by a myth. In my experience, and not just personal experience, love tends to make one miss the flaws in the person one's in love with, including physical flaws like being relatively unattractive. So...it's certainly close to true in some cases.
That's probably why the divorce rate is the way it is, along with spousal abuse and broken homes in general.
Love is a terrible thing to marry for, compatibility is far more important.
tieflingwizard wrote:
I suppose I assumed that they would be natural enemies due to their opposite heritages. And I was wrong on that.
Thank you all for your thoughts so far!
Bruh, Tiefling just means someone in your family line banged/consorted with a devil or demon, just like Aasimar is the same only with Celestials.
It's very possible to get an evil, cranky Aasimar or a goody-goody Tiefling, it's all in the upbringing and life experiences. Hell, there's a cutie redeemed Succubus in Wrath of the Righteous with a romance arc and I'm like 85% sure any children you get from her would be Tieflings.
... How are you supposed to make the baby? More specifically, how are you supposed to come up with the ability scores of the kid?
I'm currently in a long-running Kingmaker campaign where this issue is flaring up; since my character is in a "serious" relationship with an NPC he's known since the third session, the DM's been doing rolls in the background when, lo and behold, he announced some months after a certain roll that the NPC is noticeably pregnant.
Fluff aside, the DM asked me for advice on how to handle the crunch of the child (which might actually get old enough before campaign's end to get a map token) since he's just as clueless as I am on how to figure this out.
I mean sure we could always go with raw point buy or a number array but that feels... Weird; if a character's naturally gifted with strength and constitution and their mate's naturally gifted in the same thing, wouldn't the kid have a high chance of being gifted with strength and constitution? That however opens up a whole other can of worms; how would you determine the modifiers? What about racial abilities (since one character's a half-giant, making a simple "Oh the kid's a half-Elf and gets half-Elf stuff" a bit tricky?)
Or should we just throw dice to the wind and wing it?
Hate to say it, but I'm going to have to bow out of this campaign. It's not an issue with you guys or the DM or how the AP is shaping up, but rather I'm just realizing I'm *really* getting turned off by Play-by-Post.
So instead of sticking around with something that's just frustrating me, I think it would be prudent (and fair to people waiting in the wings as replacements) to call it while the campaign is early and let someone else slip into where Alexander is.
I'm in the same boat as Oleg; I'm more comfortable being picked than doing the picking, personally however I'd make a balanced party where each part member finds something about the AP they can utilize (ranged weapons, cyber tech, that sort of thing.)
Thanks, all, feel free to post your preference for who you'd like to work with. I have some submissions that I like more than others, but I'd rather that you pick ideas and styles that you feel match up with your character.
To be honest, one thing I wasn't crazy about was Sokolov's equivocation of Androffan with Russian. It's a fun idea, but for me Russian is Russian, and Androffan is Androffan.
Unless Sokolov is part of a Stargate team, in which case yeah, we can say he knows Androffan. Unfortunately, the Stargate teams are 80 years in his future. :)
Besides the humorous implications of an alien language being Russian, I saw the equivocation as a way for Alexander to not just express an Earth-like understanding of technology (hence the points in Engineering) but also hold extended conversations with people who know Androffan (because let's face it, Sasha may be bright but his common won't be so good this soon from getting shunted.)
Ultimately it's not a vital part of the character; Sokolov could have Against the Technic League or Robot Slayer just as readily as Archaeologist (in the case of the League, it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to say they experimented on him.)
But yeah, in the end he's a long-range damage dealer (someone's gotta use those tech firearms) with a wild story and small collection of skills directly tied to technology.
May or may not be too late to toss my hat into this particular ring, but allow me to apply with Alexander 'Sasha' Sokolov, a gunslinger with a penchant for precision and a preternatural knack for speaking Androffan (which, if you read his backstory first, will make sense.)
Android Wild-blooded Sorcerer who fancies melding her magic with technology.
Hot-headed Human Gunslinger girl with prosthetics and a (now dead) Android caretaker.
Half-Elven Shaman with a star fox familiar that maintains an air of mystery and grace even though she's actually pretty normal.
Human Gunslinger (Musket Master) who is actually a Russian conscript that got shunted into Golarion following the events in Reign of Winter. In a twist of fate it is discovered Androffan is strikingly similar to Russian, which allows the guy to communicate with the Sorcerer (who also knows Androffan.)
1st (DC 13)- bless, cure light wounds, produce flame
0 (at will DC 12)- detect magic, guidance, light, stabilize
Hexes (Save DC 10 + ½ shaman level + Wis mod: 13) heaven’s leap, lure of the heavens
STATISTICS Str 10, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 15, Wis 15, Cha 14
Base Atk +2; CMB +2; CMD 14
Feats Weapon Proficiency (flail group), Extra Hex (lure of the heavens), [Bonus Story Feat: Magical Enigma (spirit animal)]
Skills Artistry (literature) +8, Bluff +7, Craft (calligraphy) +6, Craft (paintings) +6, Diplomacy +7, Heal +6, Intimidate +6, Knowledge (arcana) +7, Knowledge (history) +7, Knowledge (nature) +6, Knowledge (planes) +7, Knowledge (religion) +7, Linguistics +4+1, Perform (dance) +7, Perform (oratory) + 6, Perform (string) +6, Sense Motive +6, Spellcraft +6, Survival +6
Languages Celestial, Elven, Hallit, Sylvan, Taldane, Tien
Traits Discerning Eye: +1 to Kn. (arcana), now a class skill
Scholar of the Great Beyond: +1 to Kn. (history, planes), (history) a class skill
Sovyrian Pantheist: +1 trait bonus on Kn. (history) checks to recognize or evaluate art, Kn. (engineering) checks, Survival checks to hunt game, Con checks to run, and Spellcraft checks involving crystals or gems.
Favoured class Shaman (Bonuses: 2 skill points, 2 hp, +10’ range to heaven’s leap)
Equipment:
Combat gear Darkleaf lamellar armour, MW katana, cold iron wakizashi, composite longbow, arrows (20), scorpion whip, naginata, nunchaku, spell component pouch, Alchemical tricks alchemist’s fire (3), cardice oil, chroma grenade, holy water, liquid ice, silver weapon blanch (3)
Other gear Wand of cure light wounds (10 charges), cracked gold nodule ioun stone (carried by Vinyo), wooden holy symbols of elven pantheon, ink, pen, journal, scroll case, signet ring, sealing wax, holy text (Findeladlara), book of war prayers (Elven), tome of epics, healer’s kit, 201 gp
Mount and comfortable travel gear Oksalummi (M combat-trained reindeer), studded leather barding (+3 AC, -1 ACP, 40 lbs.), military saddle, pack saddle, saddle bags, portable altar, tea ceremony set, zither, cold weather outfit, scholar’s outfit, courtier’s outfit (in navy blue satin), silver and lapis lazuli necklace (30 gp) and matching silver and crystal earrings (20 gp), shaman’s kit
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Chivalry:
Skirmisher’s Challenge (Ex): Once per day, a warrior poet can challenge a foe to combat. As a swift action, she chooses one target within sight to challenge. She adds her samurai level to her damage rolls on her first successful attack against a challenged target each round. She can use this ability once per day at 1st level, plus one additional time per day for every three levels beyond 1st, to a maximum of seven times per day at 19th level.
Challenging a foe requires much of her concentration. She takes a –2 penalty to her Armor Class, except against attacks made by the target of her challenge. The challenge remains in effect until the target is dead or unconscious or until the combat ends. Her challenge also includes other effects which are listed in the section describing the warrior poet’s order.
Order of the Songbird (Ex):Edicts: The samurai must never destroy art unless doing so is part of an artful act or performance of her own. She must respect the skill of her opponents and never desecrate or purposefully humiliate a foe. If she takes a sapient life, she must create a piece of art, performance, or poem in honor of the fallen creature or creatures in order to memorialize what she has taken from the world.
Challenge: An order of the songbird samurai gains a +1 dodge bonus to AC and a +1 sacred bonus on saves against the attacks and abilities of the target of her challenge. This bonus increases by 1 for every 4 class levels the samurai has. The samurai must be wearing light or no armor, not using a shield, and carrying no more than a light load to gain this benefit.
Skills: An order of the songbird samurai adds Knowledge (religion) and Perform to her list of class skills. The samurai adds half her level to Craft checks and Profession (gardener) checks.
Versatile Performance (Ex): At 2nd level, the order of the songbird samurai gains the benefits of the bard’s versatile performance ability with one Perform skill.
Dancer’s Grace (Ex): When wearing no armor and not using a shield, the warrior poet gains a bonus to AC equal to her Cha bonus (to a max of her samurai level). A warrior poet loses this bonus while flatfooted or otherwise denied her Dex bonus. This replaces the samurai’s proficiency with medium armor, heavy armor, and shields.
Graceful Warrior (Ex): The warrior poet counts glaives, katanas, and naginatas as if they were light weapons with the agile/finesse property. This does not alter the weapons’ properties for the purposes of any other effects.
Flourish (Ex): The warrior poet is skilled at performing elegant moves in battle. At 1st level, the warrior poet gains a flourish of her choice. She gains another flourish at 3rd, 5th, 9th, 13th, 17th, and 20th levels. This replaces mount, weapon expertise, banner, and greater banner.
Harmony of the Tranquil Garden: The warrior poet can focus her senses as a move action to gain blindsense out to 5 feet for 1 round.
Propitiation (Ex, Su, Sp): A ward speaker can perform a special ritual to propitiate kami and gain a sliver of their power. This ritual must be performed at a shrine or a location warded by a specific type of kami. The propitiation takes 1 minute and involves clapping, ringing bells, bowing, and token offerings of coins, food, incense, or other gifts. The ward speaker’s propitiation must be performed uninterrupted to receive any benefits from it. At the end of this ritual, the ward speaker immediately gains a fortune depending on the type of kami she sought to propitiate. The fortunes each of those kami grant are listed below.
As an immediate action, the ward speaker can dismiss the fortune to reroll one d20 roll before the results of the roll are revealed; she must use the result of the second roll, even if it’s worse. If not dismissed, a fortune remains in effect until the ward speaker regains the use of her daily abilities, at which point the fortune and its benefits end. If a ward speaker dismisses a fortune to receive a benefit based on the specific kami she propitiated (see below), she does not also gain the reroll described here.
The ward speaker can perform this ritual once per day at 1st level. This replaces resolve, greater resolve, and true resolve.
Jinushigami (Ex, Sp): The ward speaker (and her mount, if she has one) gains a 10-foot enhancement bonus to base speed.
Kodama (Su): As a standard action, the ward speaker can afflict one target that can see her with a distracting gaze. If the target fails a Will save (DC = 10 + half the ward speaker’s samurai level), it is staggered for 1d4 rounds. Once a creature has been targeted by this ability, it cannot be targeted by it again for 24 hours.
Shikigami (Ex): The ward speaker gains Catch Off-Guard and Throw Anything as bonus feats.
Toshigami (Sp): The ward speaker can speak with plants, as the spell. The ward speaker’s caster level for this is equal to her samurai level.
Zuishin (Sp): As an immediate action, the ward speaker can dismiss this fortune to cast cure light wounds as a spell-like ability. The ward speaker’s caster level for this is equal to her samurai level.
Shamanism:
Spirit magic spells: color spray (1st), hypnotic pattern (2nd), daylight (3rd), rainbow pattern (4th), overland flight (5th), chain lightning (6th), prismatic spray (7th), sunburst (8th), meteor swarm (9th)
Spirit ability:Stardust (Sp):A As a standard action, the shaman causes stardust to materialize around one creature within 30 feet. This stardust causes the target to shed light as a candle, and it cannot benefit from concealment or any invisibility effects. The creature takes a –1 penalty on attack rolls and sight-based Perception checks. This penalty to attack rolls and Perception checks increases by 1 at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter, to a maximum of –6 at 20th level. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to half the shaman’s level (minimum 1). Sightless creatures cannot be affected by this ability. The shaman can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + her Charisma modifier. (5/day)
Hexes: A primal warden shaman cannot select the chant hex, the evil eye hex, the misfortune hex, or any witch hexes, and at 4th and 12th levels gains the Primal Blessing and Greater Primal Blessing hexes. This alters hexes and replaces the hexes gained at 4th and 12th levels.
Unstable Spellcasting: When the primal warden would spontaneously cast a 1st-through- 8th-level spell using the spirit magic class feature, she produces a random spell from the list of shaman spells in the ACG of 1 spell level higher than the spell slot expended. When she would spontaneously cast a 9th-level spell using spirit magic, she instead casts a random 9th-level spell from the shaman spell list in the ACG, treating her CL as 2 higher. There is no way to predict the spell before the shaman begins casting it using spirit magic, and she cannot enhance the spell using metamagic feats. The spell uses the shaman’s CL, even if it would normally be too low to cast the spell. There are 47 potential 2nd-level spells, 46 potential 3rd-level spells, 41 potential 4th-level spells, 30 potential 5th-level spells, 22 potential 6th-level spells, 22 potential 7th-level spells, 18 potential 8th-level spells, and 14 potential 9th-level spells.
At 8th level, after determining the spell that she would cast using spirit magic, once per day as a free action, the primal warden shaman can choose to randomly select another spell instead, using the same method of randomization as she used before (if she obtains the same result a second time, she must keep that result). At 12th level and every 4 shaman levels thereafter, she can choose to randomly select a different spirit magic spell one additional time per day, up to a maximum of four times per day at 20th level. She cannot use this ability more than once in the same round.
This alters spirit magic and replaces the hex gained at 8th level.
DEFENSE AC 17, touch 15, flat-footed 14 (+2 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 natural, +2 size)
hp 17 (half mistress', count as her HD)
Fort +2, Ref +2, Will +5 (use her base saves or mistress', whichever better)
Defensive Abilities: Immune construct traits Resist 10, per diem
OFFENSE Speed 0 ft., fly 30 ft. (average)
Melee slam +0 (1d4-3)
Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
STATISTICS Str 4, Dex 15, Con --, Int 7, Wis 14, Cha 5
Base Atk +1; CMB +1; CMD 9
Feats Cooperative Crafting, Dodge
Skills Fly +10, (or use mistress' ranks, with Vinyo’s ability modifiers)
Languages Common (can’t speak)
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Able assistant, magical manipulation (open/close, prestidigitation), teammate, empathic link, deliver touch spells, ioun affinity (1+ ½ HD), share iouns
(Today: resist X 10)
10-minute background:
5 key concept elements: Ecumenical anthropologist of religion: While she has individual leanings to or from particular spirits (most notably, for her people’s traditional gods and nature spirits), Jia has emerged from her isolated upbringing with boundless curiosity for the spirits of other lands and peoples, and tries to bring a suitable amount of respect to all cases. She is forever collecting and then offering up things that she thinks might please the spirits, whether on her travelling altar or at a local temple, to the point that she wryly calls herself a ‘spirit magpie.’
Scarred: Jia’s devotion to the spirits can be at least partially explained by a narrowly avoided disaster in her early childhood about which she is reticent, offering little beyond the statement that if the spirits hadn’t saved her, she would no longer be among the living. She does occasionally make a cryptic remark about ‘being put back together’ or ‘rekindling a frozen heart,’ although mostly only in the company of folks with spiritual bonds that she thinks have offered them related experiences: mainly oracles, witches, and some druids.
Easily distracted: While it may be “bad for monks and priests, and worse for wizards,” Jia, though able to concentrate when she sets her mind to it, too often just doesn’t. Her past is chequered with a series of enthusiasms briefly taken up and then largely abandoned just as quickly. Of them all, her most enduring interests to date lend themselves to contemplation: writing, sketching, formal dance and – somewhat more frivolously – tea.
Deadpan: As one might expect of an Ilverani, let alone a shaman, Jia enjoys keeping folks guessing as to whether she can actually be serious. She mostly tries to keep a straight face, and when she does smile, it’s most often because she’s pulled off some wild feat of chaotic magic that leaves onlookers unsure if she’s actually crazy.
Tree-hugger: Having grown up in the far north where the only large plants were those carefully nurtured by druids and their magic, Jia is fascinated by trees and forests of all kinds, and some of her favourite southern spirits are those that take care of them and the other green things that are more glamorous than those she’s used to.
Goals:
(IC): Circumnavigate Lake Encarthan, at least, before deciding whether to make Kyonin her home for the next little while, and prior to planning further explorations in other elven domains and all the weird and wonderful lands between the Crown of the World and the Inner Sea.
(IC): A little thing, but if she can get a wayfinder to start poking about a bit more in how ioun stones work, that would help keep her out of trouble, at least sometimes.
(OOC): Probably too much to hope to get anywhere near fulfilling her story feat, but maybe a few fun moments might be possible, especially if we get to a point a point that Jia can form temporary bonds with wandering spirits. A wandering hex is probably out, but maybe we can get to where she can get her samurai order ability online?
Secrets:
1) Jia tries to be diplomatic about even the shadiest and most unpleasant of other people’s spirits – partly out of reasonable caution given mortal frailty, and partly out of sometimes horrified fascination with how people justify themselves – but she very definitely has her own opinions, and if faced with an egregious offense to her sensibilities that she thinks she has a chance of redressing, she can be surprisingly forthright.
2) Of all the dimensions of her spiritual life, Jia keeps one most private: that she is, among everything else, also a seeker of the Brightness. On the one hand, since it’s a specifically elven phenomenon, as far as she knows, she’s wary of provoking more envy than the simple fact of elven longevity does. On the other, while heresy is a complicated matter in most aspects of elven religious thought, let alone with respect to the Brightness, based on her own interactions with the spirit world, she entertains ideas about the possibility of streamlining the cycles of incarnation that might raise eyebrows.
3) Just what happened the night that brought Jia’s connections to the spirits sharply to the fore is long lost to a storm of darkness, adrenaline, and horror, and so she often worries if she’s remembering her obligations correctly. She vaguely recalls flashes of light around a figure dark even against the arctic night, but in actual fact how many parties were involved never properly registered. [I imagine that the inciting incident was her being lost on the ice away from her hometown, and that she was saved probably by some fey. The problem would be that there would be more than one involved, and which took an interest in her surviving and why might be surprising. Was it a huldra? An ankou? Ijiraq? Even a norn? Up to a GM to have fun with that. :) ] Important people:
1) Jia’s relationship with her parents is affectionate but somewhat strained. For whatever reason, until her, her family has not had much to do with magic in the past couple of generations, and has mostly been involved in merchant business along the Path of Aganhei the more awkward way. Since she is an only child who gave her parents quite a scare in her late girlhood, that she’s off gallivanting who knows where and consorting with who knows what spirits is not, understandably, very reassuring. She thinks of them often, but mostly to think she owes them another letter, given how long it takes for one to get there, even with elven logistic shortcuts.
2) Suulimir: Jia’s quite close to her mentor, even though he’s a priest bound much more tightly to one god – Findeladlara – and temple traditions than her own freewheeling, chatty relations with spirits generally. Although bemused by some of the more unusual manifestations of her magic, what calm and good sense Jia possesses stems largely from his good offices in encouraging the patience required for arts arcane, aesthetic, and altruistic.
3) Cedunnakha: Jia’s first girlfriend and ex did not leave her, on balance, with very happy memories. As a trader from the south, it eventually became clear that Cedunnakha wasn’t going to stick around, and while she’s not exactly proud of it, Jia decided it was better to break a heart than have hers broken, and the rest is history. Since Ilverani communities are small and tight-knit, however, the two can hardly avoid rubbing shoulders when in the same town. They can mostly be kept from sniping about one another in company, but the tense knife-edge of politeness often tends only to be marginally more pleasant for onlookers. Fortunately, now that Jia's traveling, such scenes are ever more rare, though the route through Icegate offers unfortunate opportunities for an encounter.
4) Iramine: One would think, after all that, that Jia would have learned her lesson, and she did, mostly, restricting herself to some inconsequential dalliances until such time as she’s ready to start looking for something more serious. That was still the plan when she met Iramine, but things got frustratingly … complicated. Unlike her first heartbreak – her fault – Jia’s not entirely sure how she feels about what went wrong with Iramine, though things definitely got deeper than they ought to have, somehow. Under ordinary circumstances, Jia would let bygones be bygones, but apparently Iramine’s people have lost track of her recently. Despite their falling out, Jia’s not nearly so heartless as to be unwilling to keep an eye out for her, and, of all things, she’s picked up the trail of someone that sounds like it could be her in keeping up with the gossip about this new spirit and supposed god on the shores of Lake Encarthan…
Quirks: Vain: Although she carries herself how she imagines a devout and knightly lady should, Jia doesn’t have roots even among the gentry (unless the Good Neighbours count). This feeds into her straight-faced demeanour, as does her fastidious, solemn dress: both serve as a way of disguising eliding her humble origins. Her touchiness on the point if called on it, and an almost embarrassing weakness for gems, arguably don’t do her any favours, though.
Dark night of the soul: To those familiar with shamanic traditions, and even Jia’s personal penchant for stargazing, she can seem unusually focused on the shadows rather than the lights, and uninterested in the finer points of astronomy. While she has trained her familiar to be able to arrange their gems into a star map when helpful, she isn’t too fussed about keeping it up to the minute or the confusion introduced by them adding a stone here or there or letting them wander a bit.
Between the worlds:Even though she’s quite young, her curiosity and her ancestry have given Jia a remarkably good grounding in elven cultures across the northern hemisphere. While she still instinctively throws in her lot with the Ilverani, she can see herself spending more and more time among the Aiudeen in the near future, and – significantly – on the most practical level, some of the rites she performs daily for the spirits, and the stories and tools she carries with her, ultimately go back to family in Jinin.
Soubriquet: As an Ilverani, Jia takes it for granted that politeness and reason dictate that if one wants to know someone’s real name, one offers one’s own first. In the far more populous (and easy-going) south, that means that she’s got used to answering to her nickname “Silk Violet” much more often than she’d have thought. (“Silk” to friends, and “Vi” to a very few close friends in whose mouth the latter doesn’t grate.)
Physical appearance:
Jia is short for an elf (at 5’ 8”), which she tries not to let get to her, taking comfort in the other blessings the spirits have given her: milky, smooth skin and a flowing mane of hair that shines with just a hint of the blue-white sheen of a glacier in the early morning light, and the twinkle in her eye that sometimes flashes through the luminous auroral green that predominates, despite her generally serious mien. She’s not really built for armour, preferring to float about in dark blue robes (ideally, embellished with gold and silver embroidery) whenever she can, as becomes especially clear in natural settings, where plants barely bow and snow scarcely sinks beneath her weight.
