Been dreaming of doing this Adventure path for a good long while now! I have Hana Tenko right here for selection. She's a Chaotic Good Ninja Kitsune with a focus on being a Face as well as an effective melee Striker than can able serve as a stealthy Scout if required. She's also rocking the romance trait with Ameiko though I can underplay that if required.
Oh, gosh, this character slipped past me because she appeared right before page 2! I do want to stress, for the sake of the three of us (I think, including Hana, Cutter and Omoikane) who are taking Childhood Crush (Ameiko), that Cutter's crush is intentionally written so that it can be safely set aside if need be. I mean, I'm a huge sucker for drama, but I can get that from a doomed infatuation just as much as a love triangle. Considering Omoikane's age compared to Ameiko, maybe Cutter will get to bond with the kid over that, if we both make it in. :P
For the record, I have a strong lean towards Shelyn. I want Cutter to feel unsure in-character, but out-of-character, I can't think of a god who would fit Cutter more perfectly. I'm also pretty happy with the songbird—Bittersweet Melody, as the songbird is known, just chooses not to talk much to Cutter.
Ameiko does, in fact, have a canonical reason for abandoning adventuring. It isn't critical to her character, but it is important in some respects.
Gotcha! Okay, I won't put that into Cutter's backstory. My thinking right now is that Cutter encountered Ameiko's party near the end of Ameiko's adventuring days, then, when Cutter's bandit crew went after them and Cutter finally stood in the way (and received her paladin calling). Cutter went down in the fight, but Ameiko and the party patched her up after the other bandits were driven off. Cutter didn't recognize Ameiko until after the fight, and Ameiko didn't recognize her at all, but Cutter actually knows her from her early days in Sandpoint.
I'm currently thinking Cutter will take the Childhood Crush trait, though whether that leads to anything romantic is up in the air. She has feelings, and those feelings helped bring her back to Sandpoint, but she herself isn't sure if it's really serious or more of an unrealistic infatuation. I like to have plenty of options open, especially if someone else comes in with the same Crush.
Question for the GM: Is there an intended story reason Ameiko quit adventuring originally? I have an idea to tie it into Rosemary's backstory, assuming there's nothing specific in the adventure path about it.
That said, it's getting to the point where... I swear I'm trying to avoid writing a novella, and I'm happy to offer a bulleted list or something if necessary, but holy cow, this is getting long. In my line of work, I get paid by the word, and maybe old habits die hard.
I just realized there are two Shelyn-affiliated paladins applying right now! On the probably small chance Cutter and Ilir both make it in, that's going to lead to some interesting roleplay. I'm sure you couldn't find two more different paladins of the same god. ;P
Alright, here's the backstory! Posting it in the thread for convenience, and for a few notes on potential hooks.
Rosemary Cutter, Human Paladin (if allowed, Holy Guide and Divine Guardian archetypes, which basically give some extra healing/protection/skill utility at the cost of mercies and detect evil)
Backstory:
Cutter's made a lot of mistakes over the years. She's been a thief, a highway robber, a mercenary, a bounty hunter, even an adventurer from time to time. She's not proud of it. She's trying very hard to be a better person, in fact. She's made far too many enemies for one woman to handle, but truthfully, it's the personal ghosts that haunt her the most.
Cutter doesn't like to talk about it—indeed, probing into her "personals" without her permission is a good way to make a bitter enemy—but she left Sandpoint at a young age, and spent most of her early life begging, scrounging and stealing. That changed when she found an old sleeping warrior, his finely-made sword of a craft Cutter did not know and lying unattended beside him. The warrior was a samurai, Cutter would later learn, one who was far from home either by choice, by errand or by exile.
Cutter especially doesn't like to talk about how she acquired her favored weapon. Her red-stained sword weighs heavy in her palm, and though she still wields it expertly, the thrill of berserking is now tinged with a deep regret for her. She doesn't like herself very much, and has a secretly very pessimistic view of her chances—both at redemption, and at living a long and happy life. Still, of all the skills she's acquired over the years, the one thing Rosemary Cutter never developed a knack for is despair.
The call to become a paladin came as something as a surprise to Cutter, and she's still not sure which of the gods she follows chose her, if any. She'd like to think it's Shelyn, or maybe Desna. It came at a moment of deep, painful clarity, and so she really doesn't like talking about it except to say that she'd been about to do something stupid and she decided to do something right instead.
Potential Hook Ideas:
- I haven't decided the exact circumstances of Cutter's "calling" manifesting. She'd been feeling guilt for some time and praying to various gods for guidance and forgiveness, and when her fellow bandits were about to kill some innocent people, she initially just refused to take part. Then she realized she actually had to do something about it. She stood in the way and received a thrashing for it. Her divine calling narrowly saved her life, along with the intervention of the people she was defending. Who it was that she tried to defend I haven't decided yet—it could be someone tied to the caravan, or else another PC.
- For the god, I'm pretty sure it's Shelyn, but Cutter doesn't know that yet and is worried it's some righteous war god who wants her to "slaughter the wicked" or whatever.
- She's from town, even though she hasn't been here in a while, and never before under her current name. How she was tied to the NPCs of Jade Reagent, if at all, is left deliberately vague for now. So's her old family name. I'm tempted to make her a childhood friend of one of the NPCs or the like, once I've read up on those NPCs.
- Cutter's not very good at the arts and crafts she's dabbling in, but she does try to create pretty things—one idea I had was that she paints Harrow decks, but if there's a craft or art form that could be especially relevant or offer bonding opportunities with PCs/NPCs, that'd be the ideal!
- The history of the sword, and the person she killed to get it, are up to you, if you have any ideas.
Cool, no worries! Oh, and yeah, I'm aware of the proficiency limit. It's part of how I'm envisioning Cutter's character—she doesn't know the fancy tricks to the weapon, she's just good at swinging it really hard. It was originally going to be a bastard sword with the same general theme. She's a cheap fighter who doesn't deserve her weapon, but she's trying to wield it to help others nowadays instead for her own benefit.
The postmonster ate what I wrote for backstory and personality, because I accidentally put something else into the clipboard like a ditz. Welp! I'll get round to it later. Rewrote! It's never the same the second time, but it's up.
