So, I've been given a sort of "challenge" by my GM for another game. In it, I have to play essentially a low-level character with so-so abilities, though the rest of the party is much higher level with an elite array. Heck, it's probably above elite for them.
So, here's the concept: Young orphan, born into poverty to begin with, and raised by a cruel adoptive parent. Discovers early on he has some sorcerer powers that manifest in him being able to disguise himself and heal his own wounds inflicted on him by thugs. Earns coin from performing buffoonery and acrobatics in the more affluent neighborhoods. Perhaps a bit of pickpocketing, if the Artistic Evader is around. Often has to take the back ways home lest he be robbed by the earlier-mentioned thugs, and has learned to hide himself well. In true Disney-esque fashion, he gets discovered by a more benevolent wizard who, along with his cavalier companion, take him off the streets and into the life of a squire, where the pair is intentionally raising this person to be a hero. So maybe the pair's motives aren't all that pure. It could be they're grooming him because he's a local, and would be a long-term investment for some power.
With that:
Class: Street Performer (Bard variant, APG)
Stats (post racial-adjustment): STR 10, DEX 17, CON 10, INT 10, WIS 9, CHA 15)
Skills (expected of a Street Performer): Acrobatics, Climb, Escape Artist, Perform (Comedy), Sleight of Hand, Stealth
I'm being given starting gold for a 3rd level PC, given by the character's benefactors, to hopefully give a little better chance of survival.
Now... Can I make this guy have some survivability in a party with a 5th level Wizard, Cavalier, and Cleric? What should I buy to help him not die at the first encounter? Should I assume that, for the most part, the character is going to stay back and shoot from hiding, rather than join his companions in melee (at first)? Oh yeah, and any suggestions on level progression? I'd like to stick with the Bard variant as much as possible, but again, he's being groomed to be a hero, after all.
So, I recently took the Leadership feat in our Kingmaker game to mitigate some of the horrible shortcomings of our party, not to mention the terrible build that I put in for my character. Oh, I love playing this character, but he sure doesn't do well out in the field. He's far more a brilliant politician and city planner than an awesome Eldritch Knight. Regardless, he's the boss of the kingdom, and wants to make sure things are going his way.
So, I have a cohort and some followers. My GM helped me roll up an Inquisitor bodyguard-in-training (who is more awesome than my main character), and a couple of warrior "squires" who will not be advancing anytime soon. With that, though, it's like they're utterly invisible to the two other players at the table.
How do you guys play cohorts/followers and the like? I don't mind the invisible part, really, but it is kind of awkward when I say, "Oh, and what about Baya? It's her turn in initiative order..." "Huh? Oh, riiiight."
Should a GM take a more active role in playing the character(s) out? Do you let your PCs play their cohorts? So maybe I'm feeling a little awkward... Well, at least I know my ruling council is faithful. :)
Are there any rules for building PC monsters beyond what's in the back of the Bestiary? I know there's rules for that in the old 3.5 DMs guide. Buuuuuuuut...
RAW, am I doing this right?
Let's take a standard Lizardfolk with the core stats:
Quote:
CR 1
Medium
2d8hd (humanoid)
Str 13, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 9, Wis 10, Cha 10
Natural Armor +5
Now, we figure he's barely past hatchling-hood, thus we place the Young template (CR -1) on him:
Quote:
CR 0 (well, 1/2, probably)
Small
2d8hd (humanoid)
Str 9, Dex 14, Con 9, Int 9, Wis 10, Cha 10
Natural Armor +3
Now, we can slap on an NPC template, OR, for grins, let's make him a PC. Thus, we now add +4, +4, +2, +2, 0, -2 to any stats. Say we're making a squeaky-voiced squire. Does a reptile go through that awkward phase humanoids do? Nevermind. So, a would be knight one day, if I'm interpreting the rules correct, would be something like:
Quote:
CR 1 (2?)
Small (Speed still 30?)
2d8hd (humanoid) +1d10 Fighter
Str 13, Dex 18, Con 15, Int 9, Wis 12, Cha 8
Natural Armor +3
Now, this is likely a character that would never see the light of day. This is more an experiment to see if I'm doing the rules correctly.
this is more of a semantics question for a character I'm thinking of playing.
If a variant class replaces an ability required for a prestige class, is that class still able to qualify for said prestige class?
Example: Inspire courage is listed as a requirement for the Battle Herald prestige class. However, if one plays a variant Bard where inspire courage is replaced... You get the picture.
I'm supposing said character wouldn't qualify, but it doesn't hurt to ask.
First off, let me begin by saying we’ve got a permanent Loyalty penalty, and we totally deserve it. I will not be arguing for any kind of way to reduce this Loyalty. I will be doing the normal thing of building structures that benefit the three kingdom statistics.
I plan to run a Kingmaker game for a different group of players after I finish this game, as I do not want any spoilers for the current game. I wanted to introduce a mechanic that, if the players initiate it, would help lessen the permanent penalties they acquire through poor choices. Now, I would imagine such things would be a double-edged sword that could completely hurt the players if they so utterly fail at their attempt.
Let’s take the even that inspired me to figure a way to incorporate the mechanic I’m pondering into a future game:
Why you should never let the Chaotic Neutral (stupid) guys off their leashes.
Spoiler:
Our government is a trade federation of independent city-states that all sign the Kinship Accord. Well, they’re not totally independent, as all building proposals and agreements must go through the Guildslord (aka ‘Ruler’). It helps, too, when you install the other PCs as Lord Mayors with additional duties (aka other leadership positions). No game mechanics were harmed in the changing of names. Anyway, the appointing of other PCs as Lord-Mayors was a way to let the different characters have individual RP based on events and the like.
Ardish, Lord-Mayor of Pescapneuma and High Admiral of the Merchant Fleets (General; now Marshal of the Highway Patrol) finds he has a rabble-rouser in his city. As it is his city he is the one to deal with the problems. My character offers to advise him on how to deal, politically, with the situation, but he refused, which is all cool. As Ardish marched into the center part of the town, the first thing he does is throw a spear through Grigori, said rabble-rouser. Unfortunately, Ardish is brutally strong, and ended up felling the poor soul in that one throw.
Needless to say, the nobles of the city and heads of the merchant families didn’t care for this utter travesty of justice, not to mention a likely violation of a River Freedom. Thus, we were given the permanent -2 Loyalty penalty.
To add to the fun, the event rolled for the governing session for the month was “Feud”. It was explained as the heads of such families demanding justice for the Admiral’s huge mistake.
Now, with this example of horribly-applied justice, I would think something this would work:
Spoiler:
As we had Ardish take some “alone time”, the rest of us went to deal with the cultists of Gyronna, who also showed up in Ardish’s city. We managed to sequester the individual worshippers, and we captured the cleric. Now, to soothe some ruffled feathers, and to show that we are in fact a just society, a huge public trial would commence in the Guildhall. The PCs could be the prosecutors, and the GM (or even another PC) could be the defense attorney. If the players make this a nice, long gaming session with no combat and few dice rolls, would something like that help to reduce any permanent penalties provided that the RP session is somehow related to what caused the penalty to begin with?
Question: Would you, as a GM, do something like this for your players? Something like that could encourage RP, and rather than give an RP experience bonus, have it apply to the penalties instead.
This is just an idea I’m toying around with, as I said. I would love to hear arguments for and against this. Thank you in advance for your responses!
We're starting a "side" campaign from our current Kingmaker campaign. I'm looking at the Inquisitor class, and thought it would be interesting. With its [seeming] focus on ranged weapons, I was thinking of, as the title says, a kind of crossbow fighter, something I've never done before.
Any suggestions on feat progression and spell selection? As we're first level, I figure Point-blank Shot, and True Strike as a spell. Beyond that? I'm thinking some healing abilities on the side.
Has anyone had players do this? I'm wanting to, now...
So, our party has finally made it to "Rivers Run Red", and we have been building up our cities.
We started out at the "suggested" starting area. Since our GM never read the entire rule set and encouraged us to expand mightily in all directions that, we bit off more than we could chew. When I got a hold of the kingdom building rules, I crunched the numbers, and found that we would be in complete anarchy after a couple turns. (Stability 8, DC 27...)
So, rather than rely on our GM who loves to use Deus Ex Machina to save us, which seems to happen a heck of a lot in our GM's games, I decided to be a little "preemptive". Since my arrogant Aasimar enchanter (who was appointed the ruler) refuses to be blamed for anything because his DIVINE blood means he can't be wrong, he claimed all the NPC rulers as Brevoyan spies trying to undermine the new colony and force it to be a puppet state of Brevoy. Yes, it was a clever way to annex the Stolen Lands! But not on Baron Hayriihsan Deadhater's watch! So, all the NPCs that graciously volunteered to be leaders after three seconds of meeting us PCs were executed (except Oleg and Svetlana). Hayrii then looted the treasury, razed the city, and fled with the other PCs to the Sootscale mines. There, he started a new city (as a form of a soft reboot so that we don't have to redo the whole adventure)...
With more careful planning and bookkeeping, and adopting our kobold allies into the power structure, the city grew quickly and weirdly sustainable. It helps when you keep having huge celebrities visit your crappy mining town (seriously, we had some amazing rolls this time around). I guess our kobold friends were so glad to have a city that they even built a castle in Hayrii's honor. The economy is huge, and the little guys are ready to tackle any horrible event that may happen. Their loyalty, too, is almost unquestionable...
So, with this bit of luck and clever building, we're about to take Oleg's old place, and make our way westward. So, I'm thinking, what about bringing in rogue Boggards? Build a big lizard-frog empire! Could I achieve this all IC and not totally mess up the Kingmaker adventure path too much? Should I up the promotional edicts that kind of "recruit" these guys?
