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How about the Card Caster Magus? It's as LeBeau as it gets. If you want your spellcasting to be charisma-based, ask your GM if you can stack it with Eldritch Scion. ES replaces arcane pool (modified by CC), but the Eldritch pool can be used in the same way and even specifies that effects which modify the arcane pool would modify the Eldritch pool instead. Deadly Dealer for free, and 5d6 of Shocking Grasp or Snowball damage instead of sneak attack still makes for a nice assassin-type.
Given the bonuses it gives, and the way it helps negate penalties, you might look at the Knifemaster (Unchained) Rogue, combined with something that gives bonus feats. Rogue/Warpriest can synchronize well. Sacred Weapon to raise your damage dice with Kukri, Warpriest gives bonus feats and swift self-buffs (that don't need a concentration check), and the buffs it gives would help you still do decent damage, even if against something immune to precision damage.
There is a legend among your people about the crater in the jungle. A seeming perfect circle, even if now overgrown. They say there was a holy site there, long ago, but the gods grew angry and took it away. Recently, while trading meats and furs in the local village, you overheard a team of Pathfinders discussing some kind of tapestry, which they say contain temples and ruins from across Tien, many of which are still unexplored. You begin to wonder and decide to see for yourself. You leave your village and follow the Pathfinders, hoping to learn more, about your people's lost history, and the world beyond your jungle. When you decide to join, Amara Li offers membership in her Lantern Lodge, but upon discussing the tapestry, believes you would do best at (and in) the Grand Lodge itself, writing a personal letter on your behalf to Ambrus Valsin, and you begin your journey to Absalom.
So, I might recommend use the information from the Tian Xia grippli, but have the character be from the Mwangi tribes. Generally, an adventurer should be someone who doesn't fit in well, especially from the more secluded races. So having the character be more warlike could provide a reason to leave his home--and the Pathfinder Society gets in its fair share of scraps, so could hit that interest. Can you make requests for your local PFS lodge? If so, consider requesting scenarios that involve grippli. Then it's almost like your character meets the Pathfinders and decides to help them, then ultimately join them.
A bow-wielding Inquisitor might be just up your alley. Pick something like the Conversion domain for Wisdom to the social skills, and later a free daily Dominate. Bane/Greater Bane can get you 4d6 extra damage per arrow when you need it so it's more reliable than Sneak Attack. And if you go with the Sanctified Slayer archetype, you lose your judgments but get the Slayer's Studied Target and Sneak Attack die. Teamwork feats like Covering Fire / Enfilading Fire are pretty great, since you get to use them even if your allies don't take them.
It's a light weapon, so Rogue or Swashbuckler synchronize pretty nicely. If blaster-casting isn't too complicated, then a Sorcerer or Magus using a Wizard Hook and touch spells can work pretty well!
The Discerning Wayfinder is a common one. I've seen some alchemists pay for a Permanency'd Arcane Sight. My favorite, though, is the Runeward Tattoos, from Magical Marketplace.
8k is a little steep, but for a largely-stacking (very few other insight bonuses to saves) save bonus that can apply to the Alchemist's weakest save, it's not bad. Plus, my alchemist mummified herself, so why wouldn't she also partake in some ritualistic scarring for power?
It wouldn't touch the mutagen, but why would you not be able to use just regular Magical Knack for the extracts? ]Although the alchemist doesn't actually cast spells, he does have a formulae list that determines what extracts he can create. An alchemist can utilize spell-trigger items if the spell appears on his formulae list, but not spell-completion items (unless he uses Use Magic Device to do so). An extract is “cast” by drinking it, as if imbibing a potion—the effects of an extract exactly duplicate the spell upon which its formula is based, save that the spell always affects only the drinking alchemist. An alchemist can draw and drink an extract as a standard action. The alchemist uses his level as the caster level to determine any effect based on caster level. You were raised, either wholly or in part, by a magical creature, either after it found you abandoned in the woods or because your parents often left you in the care of a magical minion. This constant exposure to magic has made its mysteries easy for you to understand, even when you turn your mind to other devotions and tasks. Pick a class when you gain this trait—your caster level in that class gains a +2 trait bonus as long as this bonus doesn’t raise your caster level above your current Hit Dice. So an alchemist uses their level to determine caster level for effects based on it. Magical Knack increases that caster level by two. So your caster level would be equal to Alchemist Level+2 (if less than or equal to your character level). Mutagen refers specifically to alchemist level, but Magical Knack should still count for your extracts, I would think.
It's not purely fantasy, but Ursula LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness is a classic and deals a lot with gender. Otherwise, definitely second the Goodreads option. Here's a list they have of fantasy books with gay protagonists, at least--not sure if they break it down further from there. There's also a reading group for LGBT fantasy as well, available here.
Think about ways to do it in the storyline. Do you want to try a new challenge for the PCs, for which they may not be quite as prepared? Then ask yourself where you think the contents should go when they disappear--and then do it. Now the PCs quest is to recover their lost items, and in the meantime, you lower the CR a bit to make up for the missing power in gear. Think of it like the part in the video game where you get arrested and lose all your stuff--recovery is part of it. If you decide to tell that story, then BBG sends a specialist to eliminate the PCs magical equipment, thinking it will all be gone, and that they'll now have an easy victory over the PCs. The party caster investigates ways to recover the equipment, and finds a ritual that brings them into a specific level of space, with the destroyed bag to target which extra-dimensional area. Now they can try to recover their equipment, but the aberrations who inhabit [Space of Choice] may threaten that plan.
]Are you actually saying it's impossible to write an asexual character, even if the character is open and explicit about it? Part of this comes, too, in the point-of-view of the piece. There is a real dearth of representation for asexual individuals, especially for those who aren't also neurodiverse. The asexual, autistic detective is pretty much a trope at this point, and it ends up not being great representation for either population (or for those who are part of both). And honestly, having side characters who are asexual doesn't really fix that. Before an author (especially an author who is not ace/aro) can write belieavable ace/aro characters, they need to be able to see ace/aro people and characters. What's needed more is ace/aro protagonists, especially in YA fiction. Ones who can explore all these issues, decipher their identities, etc. To further discuss the concept of ace rights, it's important to consider, too, the intersections with ace/aro people. East Asian men especially are desexed in media, which contributes to society's perceptions and expectations towards East Asian men. So what does that mean for East Asian male asexuals--how do you navigate that intersection? Black and Latinx men and women are hypersexed in cultural depictions--so what is specific to the Black and Latinx ace experiences? There's all sorts of things to tackle that go beyond the specifics of being ace, but are still deeply impacted by it.
Perhaps she has been exploring the area on her own (different path, an entrance they had not found, etc.), and the party comes across her? It's not unusual to find you're not the only adventurer in the dungeon. You mention she's a werewolf--perhaps she defected from the dungeon's big boss, and now hopes to help the PCs (who's heard have been slaughtering BBG's minions) take the BBG out?
It also depends on what you mean by 'rights.' For many asexuals, it may not be as severe--a lot of what we've seen in this thread is more about erasure than other overt forms of oppression. But erasure can lead to other, more potentially serious areas, such as corrective rape (which yes, is a thing, and is exactly as horrific as you would expect). When we don't see a thing or have a context in which to appreciate that thing, it can lead to some really awful reactions should we encounter it. Other issues are the still-recent declassification of asexuality as a mental disorder, but even still it is often conflated with Hyposexual Desire Disorder (HDD), which is still a diagnosis assigned. This may not sound severe, but for many, having any kind of mental diagnosis can lead to difficulty obtaining/keeping a job, a home, and things like that. Erasure is both a sympton and cause of greater oppression--and it's the one we as individuals can also most easily tackle, instead of the institutionalized desire for sex we see in advertising, media, the works.
How about: GM: "You see who you have been told is Lieutenant Ayar waiting to show you to your place at the battlements. They are human, about 5 and a half-feet tall, wearing well-polished half-plate armor, and they have a well-kept scimitar in a scabbard at their hip. They have medium length brown hair and green eyes."Player 1: "I want to ask him--her--wait, I'm not actually sure. Are they a guy or a girl?" GM: "Let me double-check the stat block. Here it is--neither, actually. Agender--just refer to them as 'they' or 'them.' Player 1: "Okay. So, I want to ask them..." We have these kinds of conversations all the time. Introduce someone with the information available (even if we're the ones who wrote it), and check when we get questions. In this case, you don't need a concrete reason for your player to know it. Your GM has told you. It's not as if you need concrete evidence that the person you're talking to is male or female, either--the GM mentions it, probably with a 'he' or 'she' pronoun, and so you take it as face value. This is the same thing.
Big coats. It's cold, after all, and who doesn't secretly long to do the whole "take off the coat and BAM" thing. Also, I'm new to the thread and suppose I should say hi? Robin here--Venture Agent for PFS in Olympia, Washington. Nonbinary (neutrois) trans intersex queer (gray-ace, poliro) pinko commie educator.
Reading the ability, I'm not sure it can upgrade a weapon to a specific magical item, can it? It looks like it's more about improving the bonus on the item itself. If that's not right, maybe try the Necromancer's Athame? It's only in the shape of a dagger, but your GM may be willing to allow it based off the item used.
In the interest of not cluttering this particular thread any further, I won't respond here, but if it's something you are interested in learning more about (and how it can manifest biologically and socially across people and cultures in the real world), PM me. I can certainly answer some questions, at least, and provide some real-world specifics.
Thanks! The best part of constants is finding out what breaks them--and adventurers should be ones breaking the mold, so why not transmasculine Changelings? And Arshea is the absolute best.
I don't see why it wouldn't be any more-or-less canon than say, genderqueer, agender, bigender, etc. It's not specific to Golarion, no, but it's not from a copyrighted fantasy text or anything either.
Here are some suggestions for you and your player for ways they can make the character's gender identity an important characteristic while also being largely a roleplaying aspect which can come up or not as needed. I'll note that all my characters are nonbinary, like myself, so this may be more general than specifically agender, but much of it can be adapted to meet the specific gender in question. 1. Worshipper of Arshea. Arshea is a NG Empyreal Lord of freedom, physical beauty and sexuality. Arshea is depicted as male and female alike, embodying the most attractive physical aspects of the aforementioned genders, but always shown as androgynous. Almost like Desire of the Endless but with less wanton cruelty. 2. Dwarven Rivethun. The Rivethun are specifically Dwarven transfeminine individuals who keep the ancient lore. Shardra, the iconic Shaman, is an example. They fill a similar role as Two-Spirit individuals in many Indigenous American cultures--their role is to lead the cultural and spiritual development of their people, but they typically hold no allegiance to the Dwarven pantheon, instead revering the stone itself. Do they not want to play a Dwarf? What about someone with the "Adopted" trait, who was abandoned on the mountain and found by a Rivethun matron? Perhaps they're not Rivethun themself, but what happens to a child raised without heavy emphasis placed on being male or female? 3. Changelings are always assigned female, but that doesn't mean they have to actually be women. Hags are matriarchal, after all, and value femaleness. What happens to a Changeling who transitions, or an agender Changeling who feels no connection to gender at all? 4. Faegender comes up in fantasy settings sometimes, especially among fey-oriented races like gnomes or elves. It's a gender which literally changes with the seasons, often incorporating aspects we associate with them, such as more masculine in autumn/winter and more feminine in spring/summer. I have a faegender gnome actually, and fae is my favorite character to play--it fits in with the gnomish love of change so well, and just really works with the character.
Thank you to Crystal and the rest of the Paizo staff for this. Representation matters, and I've been asked to leave more than a few gaming groups for being non-binary and expressing it. My current group in Asheville, NC has been nothing but welcoming, and seeing this just reminds me how much things have changed in the past few years. Kudos to you from this MOGII member, and a hearty thanks from this genderqueer.
I have a question about Magical Knack and how the trait bonus works. This is not for Society play--I know the trait isn't legal in PFS. If I have a planned wizard1/sorcererX, obviously I can use magical knack to boost my wizard level without problems. But could I use it instead to boost my sorcerer level? For instance, if my wizard level is 1 and my sorcerer level is 5, then I have 6HD. Would magical knack boost my caster level for sorcerer to 6?
I'm trying to register my Pathfinder Society characters, but each time I try, I get the message that the Avatar Name is already in use. I'm logged in to the same account I'm in now--I only have the one account. I have one character whose name has been accepted, however it's thrown off my character numbers. My characters I've played are registered in my sessions by my GMs, but I can't seem to register them in my player menu. Any help? |
