ThatCanadianDude's page

I was intentionally avoiding the Vigilante, as it was sort of designed with specific characters in mind... but hell, there are so many references, might as well get them out the way.

Before going in depth on the Archetypes, it's worth mentioning that the core Vigilantes can easily be used to make the following...

The Scarlet Pimpernel (Loyal Aid, Notorious Fool, basically any of the Renown talents)
Batman (The main ideas behind the Startling, Frightening, and Stunning appearance all play into the idea of "striking fear" through the symbology of the costume.)
Hawkeye or The Green Arrow (The Signature Arrows Vigilante Talent was basically added for these guys.)

Now for specific Archetypes...

Brute = The Incredible Hulk from Marvel Comics. (A vigilante who's alternate identity is a large, violent, hard to control creature who attacks with his fists and who destroys any regular clothing he's wearing when he changes.)

Hangman = Wonder Woman from DC Comics.(The use of a lasso as the main weapon, along with the ability to use that rope to force people to tell the truth.)

Magical Child = Sakura Kinomoto from Cardcaptor Sakura (Originally, I was leaning towards Sailor Moon, but Sakura is the more magical of the two, and the Magical Child is something of a magic user. Past that, however, the magical transformation sequence and reliance on a familiar are, from my knowledge, common across the entire anime "Magical Girl" genre.)

Warlock = Doctor Strange from Marvel Comics. (A secret magical user, the main difference in this case would simply be power level, as Doctor Strange is a much more powerful caster. A slightly more subtle reference is in the title, which as a reference to 3.5 DnD, reveals the "warlock" as the equivilant of Pathfinder's Witch, in that it's an arcane caster who's powers come from strange and unknowable entities, like those which grant Doctor Strange his power.)

Wildsoul = Spider-Man(Arachnid), Hawkman(Falcon), and Catwoman(Feline) from Marvel, DC, and DC respectively.(This one's a doozy. Basically a collection of animal based superheros, from Spiderman's web-slinging and wall crawling, to Hawkman's wings and enhanced senses, to Cat Woman's prenatural grace and unnatural luck.)

I figured I should include one more thing; the stats for Harold the Herald. Yes, I stated him up. Here he is.

Phantom thief could be anything from Arsène Lupin or his grandson Lupin the 3rd to Carmen Sandiego and Catwoman.

Phantom Thief wikipedia page

I assumed at first it was Arsene Lupin, but I wasn't able to find anything I would consider a hard lock for who it was supposed to be. In the end, I decided it was a general purpose rather than a specific person. Same for Bloody Jake, which I assume to be a general collection of backwood hillbilly villains from slasher movies I've never seen.

Looking about, I found a few more archetypes I think are supposed to be specific people. Admittedly, a few of these are loose, and I could be completely wrong, but here's what I saw.

Archeologist(Bard Archetype) - Indiana Jones from the titular film series.(An educated man who, nevertheless, is designed to be out in the field, dodging obscene traps and survivng through what can only be described as dumb luck.)

Luring Piper(Bard Archetype - The Pied Piper of Hamelin from the German faery tale of the same name.(A bard who uses pipe music to make animals follow him wherever he goes. The only major difference is an additional penalty is given to Fey, rather than children of humanoids.)

Feral Child(Druid Archetype) - Tarzan from Disney's Tarzan.(While lacking the magical abilities, the improved close range combat, close connect with specific animals, and the addition of Athletics points towards this. However, unlike the Edgar Rice Burroughs books, the Feral Child is illiterate, pointing him more towards the Disney version.)

Mysterious Stranger(Gunslinger Archetype) - The Man With No Name from Sergio Leon's Dollars Trilogy. (A gunslinger who seems to win through pure force of will, who leaves am impression even when saying little, and show uncanny skill with a gun.)

Gun Tank(Gunslinger Archetype) - Ned Kelly, actual historical Australian Bushranger.(Dead shots who covered themselves in thick armor strong enough to stop a bullet. Ned Kelly's final stand involved him holding up in a tavern against the Australian Police Force while garbed in a suit of iron made from plow blades that stopped almost all gun fire. So... yeah, not a fictional person, but I thought it would be cool to know.)

Empiricist(Investigator Archetype) - Sherlock Holmes from the books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.(Described as capable of superhuman feats of deduction and logic, the only thing that would make this more concrete would be if they added the Hallucinest's use of drugs, albeit cocain rather than hallucinogens.)

Hooded Champion(Ranger Archetype) -Robin Hood from English legends.(The first major clue is in the name, especially considering that nothing in the Hooded Champion's abilities indicates he has to wear a hood. Past that, the focus on Charisma and the heavy specialization in the bow heavily points towards ye olde Robin of Locksley.)

There are a few I'm almost positve have parallels, but I can't seem to figure them out. Ones like the Phantom Thief(Rogue), Bloody Jake(Slayer), and Dashing Thief(Swashbuckler) come to mind.

Besides the classes that are obviously supposed to be specific groups(Kineticists are Benders from Avatar, Vigilante is pretty much every superhero), one thing worth noting are the archetypes clearly built to be a specific person. These are the ones I noticed.

Mute Musician(Bard Archetype) - Erich Zann from the Lovecraft short story The Music of Erich Zann (A mute musician who is able to continue playing music after his apparent death. This one is further confirmed by the appearance OF Zann in the final part of the Strange Aeons Adventure Path as a Mute Musician)

Jistkan Artificer(Magus Archetype) - Edward Elric from the anime Fullmetal Alchemist (A magic user with a single artificial arm, typically used for combat, including the ability to sharpen it into a blade.)

Reanimator(Alchemist Archetype) - Dr. Herbert West from the Lovecraft short story Herbert West - Reanimator (A doctor who creates a fluid he can inject into a corpse to grant it a semblance of life. The name says it all.)

Dreadnaut(Barbarian Archetype) - Michael Myers from the movie series Halloween (A faceless, emotionless hulking brute who dispationately dismembers people with no rhyme or reason.)

Shield Champion(Brawler Archetype) - Captain America from Marvel Comics. (A character who throws a shield as their main weapon, specializing in having it bounce off multiple targets and come back. One of the few superheros ones not to be part of a Vigilante Archetype.)

Life Channeler(Druid Archetype) - Lord Summerisle from The Wicker Man (This one's a bit wishy-washy, as it's never made clear if Lord Summerisle actually has any supernatural powers, but sacrificing people to aid in crop growth, large group of followers, and use of wicker talismans point towards, if not him, then the movie itself being the source for this archetype.)

Warlord(Fighter Archetype) - John Carter of Mars from the Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom stories. (Literally built to BE John Carter from Mars, the Warlord has no armor, and wields only the weapons known to be used by John Carter of Mars, and are grouped into their own weapons group called "Barsoomian".)

Card Caster(Magus Archetype) - Gambit from the X-Men comics.(Throws exploding playing cards. Simple enough.)

Gingerbread Witch(Witch Archetype) - The Witch from the Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel (An evil, child-devouring, candy based witch. The parallels are obvious.)

Mirror Witch(Witch Archetype) - The Queen from the German fairy tail Snow White (A witch who asks questions of a talking mirror. Pretty cut and dry.)

There are probably dozens of others, but those are the ones I noticed.

A friend of mine is running Skulls & Shackles, and asked me to create a bunch of famous fictional pirates as the various random high ranking Free Captains. Here's what I ended up making.

Edward Kenway from Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. A CN Human Slayer(Cutthroat) 14/Inner Sea Pirate 3. Keys to his design are the Assassinate and Hide in Plain Sight Advanced Slayer Talents, along with two weapon fighting and a firearm.

Guybrush Threepwood from the Monkey Island games. A CN Human Swashbuckler 14/Inner Sea Pirate 3. Specializes in fighting with a cutlass and holding his breath. Also carries around artifact "Head of the Navigator", which grants +15 to Knowledge(Geography) and Survival checks to find a way through somewhere and stops the holder from ever getting lost while also making them immune to Maze spells.

Dracule Mihawk from One Piece. A LN Human Fighter(Weapon Master) 17. Specializes entirely in the use of a Greatsword. Wields either that or a dagger depending on the enemy's skill. The Yoru is a +5 Keen Adamantine Greatsword that ignores all hardness when attacking a ship directly.

The Golden Magus from the warhammer boardish game Dreadfleet. A TN Old Human Conjurer 13/Genie Binder 4. Specializes, of course, in the summoning, binding, and use of genies. Forged a powerful minor artifact blade called the Sword of Fiery Curses, a specially designed +4 Genie-Bane Flaming Burst Scimitar who's elemental burst changes whenever it strikes a true genie to whatever the genie would find most damaging, with the weapon's reputation granting a +2 circumstance bonus of Charisma-based skill checks against genies.

Finally, and this is gonna seem really dumb, but we convinced one of my friends to play a Kitsune Cavalier. He took the trait that indicated an ancestor was a Free Captain. We decided said ancestor was his still living grandfather, the head of a small town called Cape Kitsune. Who was he? Well...

Fokushi "One-Eyed Foxy" Katsuo, CN Old Kitsune Cavalier(Wave Rider) 8/Inner Sea Pirate 6. Yes, he is the reference you are thinking, but he's not the only one.

Also at Cape Kitsune are his former second-in-command, Chica "Cupcakes" Shinjiki, a CN Old Tengu Illusionist 12, and his daughter "Mangled" Mary Katsuo, a N Kistune Oracle of Daikitsu 11. The confuse things further, the head of the Cape's security is Dave Miller, a LE Human Slayer 12, while the cape also plays home to a serial killer. Said killed is actually William Afton/The Man in Purple, N/NE Old Human Vigilante(Serial Killer) 13.

Howdy, folks.

Recently, while running Hell's Rebels for some friends, I snuck a premade character of mine in as an NPC who aided the rebellion, after which he claimed he was going to Absolom to take the test of the Starstone. We decided to cannonify it in our personal games as having occured and been succesful. One night, I got more bored than usual and actually wrote upon information for the character's godhood, and I was wondering what people thought of it and whether or not it was fun and entertaining.

Prior to ascension, the character was a Chaotic Good Human Alchemist(Chiurgeon) who worshipped Cayden Cailean and loved explosions and healing friends. I wanted to create something that exemplified that. So here's what I cooked up.

Dr. Spork
The Mad Bomber
God of Alchemy, Friendship, Medicine, and EXPLOSIONS!

Alignment: Chaotic Good
Domains: Good, Chaos, Destruction, Healing, Artifice
Subdomains: Azata, Friendship, Medicine, Whimsy, Alchemy
Favored Weapon: Bomb
Centers of Worship: Absalom, Andoran, Cheliax, Alkenstar
Nationality: Chelaxian
Obedience: Build a small effigy of something you believe it causing suffering in the world. Then, in an open area, blow it the hell up; the bigger the explosion, the better. If you’re in a place where this is untenable (such as a densely packed city or place with a lot of flammable stuff), instead write out an alchemical formula for any basic alchemical item, with notes explaining anything that a non-alchemically trained person may find confusing, and then either grant this to a friend, or leave it somewhere someone may stumble upon it along with your name and a method of contact. You gain a +4 sacred bonus on saving throws made to avoid the effects of alchemical objects, including bombs.

Evangelist Boons
1: Chemist (Sp) Adhesive Spittle 3/day, Alchemical Allocation 2/day, or Amplify Elixir 1/day
2: Build it Better (Ex) Things constantly exploding in the lab has taught you to build things that last. You can take any piece of magical gear and, with 24 hours of work, permanently grant it the Impervious special quality. This doesn’t count towards the gears limit on special abilities, nor does it increase the cost to upgrade it later.
3: Instant Potion (Su) By calling on the divine powers of the Mad Bomber, you can convert fat stacks to a potion you need. Thrice per day, if you need a specific potion prepared, you can hold up a pile of gold equal to the cost to create the potion (half the cost to simply purchase it) and, as a move action, make a prayer to the Mad Bomber. The gold will then let out a small explosion (this causes no damage) and be replaced with the required potion.

Exalted Boons
1: War Healer (Sp) Polypurpose Panacea 3/day, Blood of the Martyr 2/day, or Sacred Bond 1/day
2: Fire Proof (Su) You’re used to the feeling of things blowing up in your face. You gain Fire Resistance 30. If you already have Fire Immunity, or are granted it at a later date, this becomes Sonic Resistance 30.
3: Build-A-Friend (Ex) You always have a friend ready and waiting for you. Once per day, as a full round action, you can create a temporary Alchemical Golem. This golem follows your orders without fail for 10 minutes before collapsing into a pile of useless parts.

Sentinel Boons
1: Breaker (Sp) True Strike 3/day, Shatter 2/day, or Fireball 1/day
2: Smarty Pants (Ex) You make use of your intellect in the middle of a fight. You gain Throw Anything as a bonus feat. If you already have it or later take it as a regular feat, you add you Int modifier to all attack and damage rolls with thrown splash weapons when within 30 feet of your target, though the damage only applies to directly hit targets.
3: Bigger Boom (Su) You channel your god’s justice through your own body. Three times per day, as a swift action, you can allow yourself to explode. This is treated as the spell detonate, but with the following differences; the damage is nonmagical (and as such, Spell Resistance doesn’t apply), you treat your HD as your Caster Level, the maximum damage is raised to 20d8, you can designate any allies as exempt from damage, and you only take ¼ damage instead of ½. Fire resistance still affects damage, and the Reflex DC to halve the damage is 10 + ½ your HD + your Int modifier.

Some gods like to consider and plan their actions, considering every miunte detail before commiting. Dr. Spork is not one of those deities; the God of Explosions is a god of taking action, and noting the results after. You can never truly know what will happen until an action has been taken, so take it, learn what you can, and prepare your next action to be even bigger and more spectacular. Try the action again, but with more fluoruish; repeated results are the sign of good alchemy. Once you have repeated results, unleash them into the world to do good; whether it be by giving a new recipe for healing medicine to a local clinic, or venturing out with the latest in high tech explosives to destory a monster menacy a local tavern, the Doc expects you to take what you learn and use it to make a better world, one explosion at a time.
The Doc's primary worshippers are alchemists, gunsmiths, demolitionists, non-magical doctors, evokers who fancy big specatcles, and anyone who seeks to make a big difference in a big way. Those of quiet, subtle disposition rarely seek out worship of the Mad Bomber, but a few who find that actions can speak louder than words can find comfort in the eyes of a God who agrees entirely.
The Doc appears as a slender Chelaxian man, brown hair messy from multiple experiments gone both right and wrong. His most prominent feature, however, is a pair of mirrored goggles, blocking his eyes from the world, ringed with the chared remnants of failed experiments. Below that, his body is away in vials, bottles, and flasks containing a variety of different coloured mixtures. He is almost always portrayed with a slightly off-kilter smile.
The Doc's holy symbol is a small, black orb, from which a small white fuze exsudes, a sparkling fire at the tip, and a pair of blue circles and a smile on it. Anyone who knows alchemy also recognizes this as a alchemical bomb, albeit with a face on it.
Much like his beliefs, signs of the Doc's favour are rarely subtle. An explosion shining bright colours, or letting of a few smaller explosions of its own are typically signs of his favor, as is finding the ringing in your ears or stinging of yours eyes dying down much faster or never occuring at all. Poor favor with the Mad Bomber manifests as dud explosives, damp blasting powder, or explosives going off too early or too late.

Temples and Shrines: Almost all temples to Dr. Spork have an open courtyard area, where fireworks, firearms, and explosives can be set off without risking damage to the buildings. Past that, the temple proper can easily be mistaken for a labratory at a university of repute, as most rooms of worship contain multiple tables, upon which alchemical sets are set up. A typical sermon involves a read from "The Science of Friendship", along with the creation in groups of a few small alchemical items, such as tindertwigs or the occasional tanglefoot bag. Afterwards, everyone is encouraged to test whatever they created in the court yard. Due in part to this and the Doc's encouragement of medicine, most temples also have clinics built in.

Amorphisms
Try a Bigger Boom: Followers of the Mad Bomber believe that a good plan that fails shouldn’t be scrapped. Rather than start anew, they believe that reattempting the plan, while making it bigger and more elaborate, is the key to true success. Sure, if you fail to blow up the front door to an Evil King’s castle, you could try to find another entrance, but that would take additional time and there isn’t even a guarantee that such an entrance exists. It’s better to pile even more explosives in front of the door, as you know it’s there, and the first explosion probably at least weakened the hinges a little.

Relations with Other Religions:
In life, the Doc was an adamant follower of Cayden Cailean, and in the realm of godhood, the two remain fast friends and drinking buddies. At times, the Doc even comes across as a bit of a fawning fan boy, and he remains somewhat unused to the fact that he’s now on the Drunken Hero’s level of power. Despite this, their mutual love of good drink and fighting for what they believe means the two remain close.
One god you wouldn’t expect the Mad Bomber to get along with is Torag, and yet the two of them have found common ground in a sort of friendly rivalry. As Torag works to create more and better walls to defend his people, the Doc works to find bigger and better explosions to aid to toppling oppressive regimes. The two of them constantly push and test each other, with Torag building a new wall to protect his people, only for the Doc to finally build an explosive strong enough to topple it, only for Torag to build a new wall that the old explosive can’t even scratch, and so on and so forth. While a part of him finds annoyance in any of his walls being destroyed, Torag knows that walls must be tested and improved to make sure they’ll stand up when the time comes. The Doc, on the other hands, just likes blowing things up.
Past that, the Doc is on relatively friendly terms with most non-evil gods, save for Gozreh, who does not take kindly to the destruction wrought by the young god.
While the Doc takes the issues with Gozreh in stride, there are 3 Gods whom the Doc can't stand; Zyphus, Haagenti, and Norgorber. The Doc views Haagenti as giving alchemy a bad repuation through association, and his opinion towards Norgorber is much the same. But the majority of his ire is directed at Zyphus. The God of Accidental Death takes a lot of pride in claiming the souls of the Doc's followers who accidently forget to double check their more recent explosive calculations, and the Doc is beginning to find that someone may be messing with their numbers.
Clerics of the Mad Bomber may prepare Bomber’s Eye as a 1st Level Spell, Alchemical Allocation as a 2nd Level Spell, and Amplify Elixir as a 3rd Level Spell.

Divine Realm:
The Doc's home base in the Outer Planes is located in the golden fields of Elysium; specifically, the specially created location of Elysium Labs. The Labs are themselves into two parts; the Labs and the Testing Grounds. The Labs are said to contained one million of everything needed for alchemy, and when used, they are said to replenish immediatly, so the testing continues. Countless tables lined with alchemy sets, experiments, and doodads line the wide open floors of the labs. But it's the Testing Groups where things get done. Here, potent illusions that react realistically to anything done to them constantly and repeatedly rebuild themselves, ready to have all the various googaws and doohickeys tested on them. The best part about the labs is their ability to reform after catastrophic damage, even bringing people lost back to life. With the unpreditability of the work, this has proven very useful.

Planar Allies:
Harold D. Scorpion Harold, the Herald of the Doc, appears in one of two forms; one is as a large scorpion with a top hat and cannon for a stinger. The other is as a slender Chelaxian male in a suit with a rapier and, of course, a top hat. A consummate gentleman, but with a dry sense of humor, Harold shows up when the key to solving any problem is more explosives, which he carries an unlimited amount of. When not specifically on a mission, he enjoys traveling the Material Plane, engaging random folks in games of intellect, quizzing them randomly, always able to get a handle on the kind of person they are from their answers, and either providing them with a reward or secretly hindering them depending on whether or not they seem to be on the up and up.
Boomer(Unique Celestial Clockwork Spy) A result of a collaborative effort between Dr. Spork and Brigh, Boomer is a small, yet incredibly fast Clockwork Spy capable of blowing himself up, only to reform an instant later. Boomer is hyperactive and eager to please, and not only doesn’t mind blowing up, but seems to actively enjoy it. Getting him to aid is relatively simple, as he’ll aid almost anyone who offers him small, shiny gears he can add to his chassis to increase the destructive and fragmentary nature of his explosions, as well as a chance to test them out on something breakable.

Clerics: Rather than gain proficiency with their God’s chosen weapon, Clerics of the Mad Bomber receive Throw Anything as a bonus feat.
Inquisitors: Typically hunt down those who would use alchemy and explosives for evil purposes. Inquisitors who don’t take one of his domains typically take the Black Powder, Fervor, or Valour Inquisition.
Warpriests: Are granted the title of “Battle Pope”

So, thoughts? Opinions? Critiques?

It's a spoof cover of old 1960s romance comic covers.

Because Valeros and Imrijka smooch

Is it a spoof of a specific cover, or just a general overall spoof?

One other thing that's worth considering; some people worship not out of love or devotion, but out of fear. A Neutral Cleric of an Evil Deity may worship not because they actually like the deity, but out of the hope that placating them with words and deeds will forestall worse calamity. Perhaps one worships Urgathoa in the hopes that spreading disease and undeath in other lands will stop such things from befalling their home and loved ones. A follower of Lamashtu may sick beasts and madness upon a neighboring village, hoping that will keep Lamashtu's beasts from her own throat. One who destroys and kills in Rovagug's name may hope the resulting calamity is enough to calm the Rogue Beast's unquiet rumblings. Fear is a powerful motivator.

With a bit of finagling, you can come up with reasoning for almost any evil god. If push really comes to shove, there's always the Separatist Cleric Archetype. You could be a worshiper who, through perhaps his own studies or what he may call divine intervention believes their god offers something different than what standard dogma claims.

For example, say you were a Separatist Cleric of Rovagug. Perhaps you have come to believe that, rather than an unholy abomination that exists in opposition to a continued peaceful existence, you could have come to the conclusion that Rovagug is a natural part of a universal cycle, who, when the time is right, will break down the universe so that a new one may take its place. He could have both the Destruction domain to emphasize the universes demise, and Artifice to symbolize its rebirth. This could make you be viewed as a heretic by more orthodox worshippers, but I think that in and of itself offers interesting roleplaying opportunities.

One other god I think its worth mentioning is Nocticula, the CE Demon Lord of Assassins, Darkness, and Lust. Evidence has arisen that said Demon Lord is looking to ascend to true deity status, but not as a CE Goddess, but rather as a CN Goddess of Artists, the Forelorn, and the Beauties of Midnight. Its possible your worshiper could believe their god or goddess seeks a new path, and you could simply be ahead of the curve.

I missed out stating that you can use Backgrounds skills in creating your character.

Just to confirm, that's the one where we get 2 extra skill ranks to use in a small amount of usually non-adventurous skills, correct?

I do have a question as well; is it alright if I start with the Technologist feat, or would you prefer none of us start with that?

I'm interested. I have a Neutral Good Human Impossible Sorcerer waiting in the wings.