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I’m looking to run a home brew sample game and looking for what level I should run it at. In pathfinder I find level 8 to be the ideal. At that point there is some disparity between skill levels, most class abilities that are key to characters are online, etc. So, what level is that for starfinder? What should the ship look like at that point?
Starting a game soon that will involve dragon riders. I need some memorable villains. I need classes (its a gestalt game), but more importantly I need motivations and goals. Many of them control large sections (kingdoms) of the land in question and it's the PC's job to take them down. I have one, I like (feel free to add suggestions on him as well). LE (race not yet implemented) Monk(unchained)/Kineticist(Earth/Air)
He honors all contracts he makes, but if you steal anything, especially water, from him he destroys your world with a savage ruthlessness.
Anyone have a list for this? I thought there was one, but cannot find it. I'll start making a list unless someone can point to one. (I'm counting mounts that level up as animal companions) Hunter
Druid
Ranger
Paladin
Cavalier
Oracle
Cleric
Inquisitor
Shaman
Samurai
BloodRager
Brawler
Warpriest
Barbarian
Sorcerer
Anyone
What's Missing? If there are quicker ways to get them on a class already listed please let me know about that as well.
25 point buy. Levels 1-5 each player will have one class. Any class that gives you an extra character (mount, animal companion, etc) is not allowed (or you can just skip that feature for now). Before level 6 you will gain a dragon companion. At this point you gain a feat and a second (gestalt class). At this point you are required to have an animal companion (or something that counts as) either by class feature or feat. This animal companion will be your dragon. While you may not be able to ride your dragon right away, much of the later parts of the campaign will take place in the air.
The beginning of the campaign will start with them running around and making friends during this time they discover some dragon eggs and some lore behind hatching them. Then there will be some questing to hatch them and then a series of air battles where they will ride their dragons. To facilitate their dragons gaining in power once they hatch their dragons I want to give them a prestige/gestalt class. I want them to have options, but so far I’ve really only come up with them using their dragons as animal companions or edilions. I’d like to have 5-6 options and give them standard roles (frontline melee, caster, etc). I could just make some feats for the dragons to pick up giving them more class like features... They should have their dragons hatched by around level 5 and probably go to 12 or so. Any ideas on classes to look at for inspiration? Should I ban other “pet” classes in order to better highlight the dragons?
Red mage has long been one of my favorite classes in Final Fantasy and playing one currently in FFXIV has reinforced my love for this class. I was looking around for new character ideas and came across the Magus options in the advanced class guide. Here I found the flamboyant arcana that lets me pick up derring-do and parry reposite for one arcana. This inspired me to make a Magus “Red Mage”. This character will use damage and battlefield control spells (toppling magic missile to start) at range. When the bad guys close in I will blast them with a spell strike and back away. Another key part of the Red Mage is they are flamboyant. I was thinking about somehow using Charisma as my main caster stat, but skill points are useful too. I was thinking with a 20 point build doing 16 dex, 14 cha and int. Probably putting my dex and/or int higher with racials. For my traits, I want the one that lets me prepare toppling magic missile as a level 1 spell. I’m not sure about the other. This spell alone could carry me through the first few levels. For feats, I need toppling meta, weapon finesse, and combat reflexes as quickly as possible. For skills, I know I want maxed out diplomacy and acrobatics. Obviously high perception is useful. I think I would like high perform as well. What do you think? And how can I improve it?
I was working on my hunter guide this morning and writing about mounted combat as a viable option and thought to myself, "What if my animal companion rode me into combat?" The first animal that came to mind is the viper. I could keep him small and give him a +2 con and Dex at level 4. (I would need to change his poison ability as we do not typically use attribute damage in our games.) What else can I do to improve this idea? Quick build:
Viper-
Things I think would be good:
Guide to the Outflanking Hunter Been working on this guide for the past few days. It's still a work in progress and open to suggestions.
My wife is going to DM a campaign, and we have picked Skull and Shackles. I’ve decided to play a Hunter with a Croc companion as I feel it fits the theme. So, I’m looking for ideas on how to build him. So far:
I’d like to see my croc grab enemy combatants and jump overboard. As you can see, I haven’t fleshed out much of the character yet. Even what I have isn’t set in stone.
Her character is another revamp of an old character. She is a priestess of Bahamut, although a defiant stubborn one not afraid to defy him. She is responsible for converting my character from an "all dragons are evil and must die" outlook to being a holy warrior of Bahamut. She is a high magic character, mostly using elemental magic to damage her foes. As a player my wife doesn't really having a lot of options when in combat. She would rather play a sorcerer over a wizard (spontaneous vs prepared). She played a kineticist in our last game so I was trying not to go there this time, but it seems like the most likely option.
Backstory: Rylar was heir to the throne and beloved hero to his people. He went on a quest to awaken the guardian dragon who had been absent from the lands for a thousand years. As this quest was about to conclude the guardian awoke on her own. She attacked the main city killing the king and queen. Enraged over this betrayal he attacked the guardian and “killed” her. He then abandoned his claim to the throne and traveled the land slaying dragons in mass. During the most recent quest he learned that it was an imposter who killed his parents and set up the guardian. He’s also learned that those who set up the guardian have taken over his kingdom and now rule as tyrants. Lastly, he learned that the killing blow he delivered to the dragon trapped her rather than killed her. His new quest is to save her and take back the kingdom. In his first quest he was a paladin. Slaying the guardian caused him to fall, and he spent the next few quests full of rage (barbarian then bloodrager). Now we are starting this new campaign and we will be gestalt characters. He has fought using sword & board and with a two-handed sword.
We have been playing a gestalt game for a while now that has grown to be too many players. We are breaking up the group into smaller groups and I'm looking for ideas on where to take this group. So far they have gone from the starting point of a player built city (from an earlier campaign) and traveled to a tribal nation that was being controlled by a red dragon. They liberated the tribe by slaying the red dragon. They have also been attacked repeatedly by bounty hunters from a nearby slave nation, but these bounty hunters are after people going off in another group. Rogue/Fighter (archer) This character is a bird race (name is escaping me at the moment) and didn't really fit in with the large group (may be too ambitious a character design). He mostly hid using an invisibility cloak. Ranger/Fighter (archer) Your typical arrow shooting ranger. She is from a slaver city/nation and her father was wrongly imprisoned and died before he could be freed. She fled this nation before the start of the first campaign. Someone related to her father's trial came after her early in the campaign and she managed to kill him. Magus/Slayer (archer) A younger player wanting to mix archery and magic. Character was just rebuilt from a wizard/rogue who used a bow. Back story he hates his father who is a demon (possibly lives in the slaver nation, but I don't think that has been clarified) 1 Unknown (this player wants to play with 2 groups.) Maybe a Summoner/Pyrokineticist (not sure if he will join this group or another) he's currently using his mount to run around and use kinetic blade/whip. Kinda reminds me of the horse/cowboy version of ghost rider. He was from the nation that the group liberated from the red dragon. He may want to retire this character and start an entirely new group.
As a long time magic fan, I want to try and bring slivers to pathfinder. Slivers are a race of hive mind like creatures that share abilities. The group that is going to attack them will be level 8. They are pirates and I'm thinking they encounter a few ships that have been destroyed by the creatures where they encounter 2-3 stragglers at a time. Then they will find the hive where there is a larger boss type fight, but a swarm of slivers protecting it. When a sliver dies it stops sharing its special abilities, thus the best way to fight the boss is to take out the lackeys first. Now, the question is, how do I build them? Mostly what cool abilities can I give them that will be noticed as going away during a fight?
Story thus far. The party's initial goal was to find out what happened to a silver dragon that has been battling against the local red dragon. They found this dragon and it has been cursed. One member of the group has volunteered to go get a scroll from a high level NPC that will be able to cure the dragon. So happens this player will not be at the next session... I've hinted that this curse was caused by a high level bbeg working with the red dragon (part of a tribe that worships him). I want the rest of the group to go after this bbeg (of the day) and take him/her out (I'm thinking a witch or shaman). I want to set up a series of encounters to get to the bbeg, utilizing skills other than combat where available.
How would you build the crew of firefly as gestalt characters in a pathfinder setting? Zoe, Fighter / Slayer. she is the most in your face fighter of the group. Mal. Maybe swashbuckler, investigator. He's a very showboating throw caution to the wind type fighter, but he has some skills. Cavalier seems like a possibility too. Jane, barbarian/ rogue? Barbain spring to mind immediately when thinking of Jane. He's also a bit of a scoundrel so maybe a rogue archetype fits here. Book, warpriest/monk. There are a few that could work as he is a shepherd, which seems kinda priestly. I think warpriest fits best with his teaching who will listen and trying to set an example opposed to outright teaching. Inara, cleric/bard. Obviously her charisma is through the roof. She is also more adapt inspiring the crew than fighting directly herself. Simon, life oracle/paladin (hospitaler). He's a healbot. Outside of a combat role he is very by the books and snobbish which is stereotypical of a paladin. River, so open. I think an oracle would work as one class, maybe ancestor, but have her curse be speaking in tounges all the time. Some kind of mentalist class as her second. Kaylee, bard/rogue, bard because she is going to lean heavily on her allies in combat, also she looks up to Inara and wants to emulate her to some degree. Her social skills are also better than most of the crew. Wash, sorcerer/bloodrager. I feel like I'm a bit out on a limb here, but... he isn't a skilled character. He can fly well, but that's it, and everyone gets at least one skill point. He is charismatic, but no actual social skills. I feel he would rather use arcane magic than direct combat given the choice, but when pushed to it I can see him raging out and killing some folks. That's my initial take. What did I get wrong?
Slavery is a highly institutionalized part of one of the cities in my campaign. One of the players in this campaign is an escaped slave. She has escaped to a nearby town that is at odds with this city and then went on a quest further south. Escaped slaves is not uncommon and typically will be hunted within the territory of this city, but most slavers would cut their losses once the slave reaches the nearby town or is out to sea long enough. But for this particular slave, her former master is constantly sending bounty hunters to capture her, a more costly endeavor than replacement. So, why?
Motivations for the individual pirates may differ, but this pirate ship's goal was to free and smuggle slaves away from the "bbe city" in the region. There is a large loosely affiliated group of these ships in the area they work out of (again true motivations of other ship crews may be completely different). The crew in question were ambushed during a slave freeing raid. only one member was able to escape the ambush (along with one freed slave). Another member escaped later. Now they have found some allies and gained some power and they want to free their comrades. So far in the crew:
(Dmpc) A bomb specializing gnome alchemist. He has severe tunnel vision when he is crafting, which is most of the time. He was mind controlled and sent after the "Rambler", but the party was able to break the mind control without hurting him. "Rambler" is the only person who really gets him and the only one he truly trusts. The other relevant pc for this part of the story is a water kineticist/ paladin. She was the escaped slave that was freed during the ambush prior to the campaign. The wealthy noble she was being transported to is desperately sending bounty hunters to retrieve her for some unestablished reason. Now I need to fill out the rest of the crew that needs to be saved (or not saved). While it's a gestalt game, personality ideas are more important at this point than class. I think a traitor of some kind needs to be introduced- maybe the first mate? Who else should join this crew? Any other cool story ideas?
Keep in mind we play gestalt rules and use the rule of cool as much as possible. A player at my table (Im Gming) wants to play an elemental monster summoner. He wants to be able to summon 4 distinct monsters, one at a time as needed. One monster representing each element (Fire, Earth, Air, Water). The idea as it stands right now is that he will be a summoner with 4 eidolons he can summon and to have each one take levels in kineticist. So, basically the gestalt side will be the Eidolons picking up the second class rather than the player's character. Thoughts?
My wife's character is coming up on level 7 and asking me what element she should take as her second. Any element in paizo or prophyra books are open. Her character is the daughter of characters from an old campaign. Her father is a hunter and her mother is a gun wielding inquisitor. They taught her to use a gun and bow, but she has found she is better at "throwing" her ammunition at her opponents. She also has a pet wolf, as to connect back to her father. Also she is 6. She is traveling with a water, a fire, and an earth kineticist (3 people). So, any of them could have some storyline backing, but I don't feel they fit her uniqueness. What do you think?
Looking to give some special loot for the characters in my game and there are two characters that are giving me some trouble. I'm looking for gifts in the 15-20k range with a little special twist. 1st Character is a (pyro)Kineticist/Summoner. He wants to use flaming swords and is currently feeling like his character isn't doing enough and that the eidolon is carrying him. 2nd Character is a (hydro)Kineticist/Mesmerist. She has just started to play with the mesmerist side of her character, but is still primarily a kineticist.
There will soon be a new player in my gestalt game. He told me he wants to use a hammer and shield. He also wants low to no magic. I'm trying to put together some possible build for him to look at when he comes over tomorrow to build his character. I made a ranger/fighter two weapon/bull rush focused character. For the other example I'd like to build a highly resilient character. Obviously he still needs some damage output as to not be completely ignored. The character should be race neutral and use a Hammer and Shield. Stat array is 18-13. Starting off at level 2. My first thought is paladin. Self heals are a plus and high saves help in the resilience.
One of the newer players in my game wants to play a hammer and board character and wants to knock people back with his shield. Bull rush, or any combat maneuvers, are something my playgroup has only dabbled in a little bit. Shield Slam and Shield Master feats are definitely something I want to incorporate into this build and both are available from ranger feats so this is the first class I'm suggesting. Even with these free feats it seems like a feat intensive build. So I was thinking Fighter as the second class. Any suggestions from here? Archetypes or other recommended classes?
I want to give the players of my next game an opportunity to make friends with one of the combatants I have set up. I already have plans for what will happen if he joins the party. If they manage to defeat the main bad guy that is forcing this guy to attack them then (before they defeat this guy) he will stop attacking them. If they knock him out first then there is a small but possible chance they will heal him awake (as the main baddie won't be there to question). If either of these happen then negotiations should occur. He will start of indifferent or unfriendly if they knock him out. Either way his inclination right then is to leave. What would it take mechanically to get this character to join their party?
Trying to figure out how to build this. I know I want high AC especially touch. Earth element is top of my options followed by air (not set though). Stat array 18-13 I'm thinking high con/wis/dex/str or Dex/Con/Wis/Str.... Also unsure if I should put my +2 into the 18, 17, or 16. At level 4 if I put it in the 16 that will give me 3 18's. If I put it in the 17 or 18 that gives me 20,18,16. Not sure what forms or other talents he wants at this point. Not sure what feats to pick. I know I want a large part of what he does to be fighting with his fist, but I also want a range attack when I need it. I also want to incorporate as many elements as possible over time. Fire will probably be incorporated via monk abilities.
Looking for something similar to an animal companion except more zombie like. Even a construct could be easy to convert. What I'm looking to build is something like a chosen (or today's chosen) zombie minion. Second question:
Looking to get some ideas for rivals for my large party. I generally give each player a rival that shows up repeatedly during a campaign. Other details about the campaign: there are 2 main plot hooks. A red dragon has seized control over one of the 3 tribes in the area. Some of the tribesmen have formed a resistance and the players are to help out this resistance. One of the nearby cities encourages slavery. They can go to this city and attempt to free some slaves and/or overthrow the government. The home base is a city set up by the players of the previous campaign. There are elements of steampunk and pirates. Firearms are permitted. Here are the characters: (not everyone plays every week)
Gnomish bard- pistol user, pirate who's crew has just been captured/killed by slavers Gnome hydro-kineticist - escaped slave (saved by the bard) Human Pyro-kineticist- part of the tribe controlled by the dragon Human tower-shield specialist- unofficial heir to the throne of the home city (offspring of old PC's). 6 year old tele-kineticist/hunter- (another offspring of old PC's) trying to figure out her "unusual" powers. (half?)-elf ranger- from the slaver city. Her dad was convicted of a crime and sentenced to slavery then died as a slave and she wants to find a way to regain her family honor.
I'm thinking about building this character for an upcoming game. One player is playing a Summoner/Pyrokineticist another is playing a barbarian/monk (archer switch hitter). I'm somewhat worried that I will be stepping on the other kineticist's toes, but hoping that aether is a different enough roll to not do so. I think the idea is pretty cool. Kind of like an arcane trickster. I want to be able to sneak around, pick locks, disable traps, and steal things. How would sneak attack work with kinetic blast and/or blade? How would you build this character?
Looking for ideas to give my players bonuses for gathering allies that don't include putting more bodies into play. I don't want to fill up with cohorts or DM PC's but I want them to have solid reasons to make friends. One possible ally is a guy who is a barbarian/gladiator type who will attack them when they attack his slavers. I want them to feel rewarded if they manage to subdue him without killing him. Looking for as many ideas as I can get to use throughout the campaign.
I generally use the rule of cool when determining if something is allowed in our games. One of my players wants to play an Aero-kineticist/Hydro-Kineticist. I'm thinking it would make for a cool/fun character, but I'm not all that familiar with the Kineticist so I'm not 100% sure of what I'm getting into. 1) Would you allow it? 2a) If so, Any suggestions on how to make it work? I'm thinking 2 separate burn pools, maybe not? 2b) If not, What would you point them towards as their second class?
I'm trying to figure out how to work my clockwork/steampunk themed wizard (wizard side of alchemist/wizard gestalt) and am having trouble coming up with some mechanics to fit the flavor. So, I was thinking I could go Conjuration School, but none of the summoned creatures fit the theme. None of the other schools fit the character I'm thinking. Opposing schools, I'm thinking necro and either divination or abjuration as the opposing schools. So, if I go conjuration, I was thinking of asking for the clockwork template to be applied to the creatures I summon instead of celestial/fiendish.
I just came across the clockwork familiar and I want one. Honestly I want one, but I guess the best 2nd option is to make a character that uses one. What kind of character befriends a clockwork familiar? I was thinking a tiny clockwork dragon, but a parrot may be better as it's a pirate themed campaign. This character will be for a gestalt game.
Background: The PCs are part of an Anti-slavery group in a nation where slavery is the standard. In this nation smaller races are born into slavery and thought of as nothing more than property. Other races can become slaves to pay off debts or as punishment for their crimes (which they are often innocent of)- These forms of slavery often have terms such as an end date or payoff. Encounter: The group has been given information that a shipment of slaves are bound for a nearby city and they plan to jack this caravan and free the slaves. Thoughts so far: One of the slaves is a girl being taken to a royal/aristocrat type in the city they are traveling to in payment for a crime of her brother. Once "freed" by the party she has an emotional breakdown because her freedom means that her family will have to pay for his crime. One of the slaves will fight against the party, as that's what his masters would expect from him. I will make it obvious that this guy is a slave opposed to a guard. I'd like to give them a reward if they subdue this guy without killing him. -I was thinking of having him attack bare handed and provoking attacks of opportunity before stepping back and grabbing a chain as an improvised weapon to fight them... Looking forward to your ideas, thanks.
Background: my character comes from a tribe of natives who all have wolf animal companions. The size of the wolf is a status symbol in among the tribe. One of my characters is a Ranger/Druid gestalt character built around having multiple animal companions. Each class uses the extra animal companion archetype (packlord/beastmaster) and he has three wolves all with different skillsets (flanker, guardian, damage). Outside of the animal companions he is a switch hitter type character. The druid side of the character isn't really being utilized. I was thinking of switching out druid entirely for hunter (likely packmaster). I'm not sure what I really gain for doing this though. What are the mechanical benefits of hunter in this situation? How would you build this character? I don't remember stats of the top of my head, but they are pretty high (rolled array for the whole campaign, lowest stat is likely 14). I know I've taken power attack, 3x boon companion (he is human). I wish I had the character sheet in front of me to give more details.
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