Sorry folks, nets been out at home for a few days. I'll get to everyone's questions and concerns in the morning.
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Quick question. Age adjustments to stats or age as just a visual/background flavor? Considering making a middle-aged or possibly even old Dwarven Merchant. Honestly, I'm fine with either - I've made a mage that relied on the age stats before, but most of the time no one wants the penalties. I'm not going to enforce aging (I've never seen a campaign go on long enough to actually change a character's age stats anyway), but if you want the +1/-2, go for it. Variant abilitiesRoll or pick - if you want a specific one just go ahead and take it, but if you just want variance you can roll.
Are the Balanced Scales of Abadar still operating in and around Katapesh? What would their relation to our venture be? Looking to place a grave-robbing nemesis in a position previously owed to Noka for the lost legacy feat. There are still plenty of ruins to delve, especially in the jungles here - the Scales would still exist as the "Pathfinders of Abadar," just expand their reach from only Katapesh to anywhere with ancient ruins. At this stage of the game I'd say most of that effort should be concentrated in Arcadia (IRL, too - I want more archaeologists in the Central/South American ruins), but with the massive conquests over the last few centuries, I'd imagine that enough ruins of mystery are still around in the Inner Sea, too. Tiefling ages Starting age as a human, other aging stages as an elemental-kin. It's probably already weird enough for a half-elf in human lands to mature 4 years slower, and the whole schtick with the aasimar/tiefling is that they're mostly human with a smattering of outsider - as opposed to the geniekin, which are mostly elemental with a touch of human - so they shouldn't take longer to reach maturity, but should live longer. VMC I'm fine with it - trading half of your character feats isn't really any different than trading away half of your class features for an archetype, and in some cases can even be more debilitating. Tanners and skinners So my idea with the Occupations is that, while they represent normal skills, they're expanded with Commerce/Production to include the big picture urban development attributes. At this point, we're moving away from the huts and simple developments (most of the jungle societies already have stone buildings with at least thatched roofs), and so leather products are relegated to small economic items. Anything they'd bring mechanically to the Occupation system is covered by Armor or Merchant, and other than garments there's no need to mass-produce anything of leather.
Okay so I took at look at this, and here's what I've decided. If there is one size category (or less) between the critter and you, it can assist in reloading your firearm/crossbow. You spend your Swift Action for the round transferring the weapon to/from the companion, who reloads it as a Standard Action (theirs, not yours). When you hit bab+6, you may sacrifice an AoO for the round to allow this transfer an additional time - this costs the companion's Swift Action, irrespective of the number. If your companion is more than one size category smaller than you, it costs them a Standard+Swift for a single reload, and a full-round for any iteratives. With full bab and the full twf line, you'll still have more attacks than your companion can reload - for your specific example you'll always have enough reloads for your attacks (unless I'm missing something). For your specific example as well - or any other that gets many companions that also have hands - two Tiny can replace one Small re: action economy. I was thinking about playing an Orang-Pendak native of Mwangi, but I would really like to play a medium-sized one. Would it be possible for me to give up one or more of my class levels to take the Giant simple template? You can make a Medium Orang-Pendak by taking away the Size modifiers and the Tear Apart racial trait - this "new race" can be called whatever you like, and can work as a mutant Orang or an offshoot of the intelligent apes. Sounds neat!
@Leinathan Unchained all the way. I take this to mean "must used Unchained version if it exists." Is that correct? I was just about to submit a character with a level in Urban Barbarian - should I redo?
I keep screwing up the edits to the campaign info tab - I'm aware of the standard edit timer on profiles, and I assume something similar is happening here; twice now, once with that tab, and once here in response to another post, I have successfully saved edits, only to have them not be there when I get back to it. I'll be taking screenshots next time I do anything major. So, I'm going to type it all up in office and just paste it over at once, rather than trying to incrementally expand as I have time. Given that, feel free to ask me lore-related questions now.
No, Gunsmithing or equivalent is required still - they're cheaper and Martial because of your proximity to the Alkenstar States, but similarly Alkenstar crafters hold the market on them fairly tight.
Thinking of submitting a mesmerist as a diplomat/ambassador of the kingdom and psychiatrist. Diplomacy will be her occupation skill with profession: doctor as her secondary. Diplomacy is not an option for Occupation Skills - only those skills listed (Appraise, Know:Engineering, and various Craft/Professions).
So on the skills - I'm assuming Knowledge (Engineering) is your Occupation Skill? If so, can you stick it somewhere else, or otherwise call attention to it over the others? Second, I noticed you didn't take any Commerce/Production- while this isn't mandatory, it will negatively impact the accuracy of your (for lack of a better term) kingdom role; you'd be better served with a rank or two in one or both of those over the secondary craft/professions.
It looks like it's just a mistake, since Improved Feint doesn't do what's on that list anyway - feinting doesn't provoke, and Imp. doesn't give a +2; feinting isn't a combat maneuver anyway, it's a skill check. So, for our purposes, Deft Maneuvers lets you Feint as a move-action, with no +2 bonus; everything else works as worded.
I just added rulebooks relevant to the region, but let me know if any of these aren't going to work: Those are all fine. Metal arm and gun critters. The arm is cool - I didn't care for Iron Gods, so I don't usually consider the Technologist stuff. If you had (or anyone else wanted) to do something like that, I'd be against it, but reflavoring the Possessed Hand feat is perfectly okay. Applicants, you are all free to reflavor things as you like - I have most of the politics for the region down, as that will have influence on your developing nation no matter the direction, but I don't have specific internal details for most of the rest of the world outlined. Until you interact with Absalom, I don't really need to know how their economy or social structure has changed - as long as it fits what I had down for "how they feel about you," you're welcome to make broad assumptions about your place of origin, especially if you're not local to Mwangi or southern Garund. Give me a bit to consider gun critters. I was wondering about this myself recently, but I was looking for RAW, not community opinions - I'll get back to you.
I'm okay with it counting, but only for that weapon - you wouldn't get any benefit to a regular musket or a battleaxe. I don't much like taxes, particularly for non-mages.
I'm on mobile so pardon the poor formatting. You only have one Occupation - the skill chosen with the free point from the list. That skill has all the normal uses, and can benefit from bonuses to those rolls. You can have other skills from the list taken normally with any other points, but they do not count as an Occupation - they're just normal skills. The Commerce/Production rolls only base off the single Occupation skill, not any other skills. You can apply Inspiration to the base skill, say Merchant, for income checks or the random ones that show up in campaigns, but not to the specific Commerce/Production checks for it; they can't have any bonuses of any type, save for ranks, ability mod, and the synergy bonus. That trickster fix seems like a duck to me, so I'll allow it. Profession: Doctor would be okay; Heal no, I didn't want any skill that has a regular use (and or tricks to make it advantageous in combat). For Doc, consider it the same as Instruments and Librarian - the extra skills determine centralized medical facilities and field offices, as well as hiring doctors and managing a hospital budget in a world with magical healing. Languages - Polyglot is the offical language of all the Mwangi peoples. Some might have their racial ideas still in tact, but most no longer care to differentiate between the racial subtypes, and they've developed the language into full use - though they still use Taldane Common since that's what everyone else speaks.
This was an edit to my last post that vanished somehow - forum is being screwy, so I'm going to stop for the night so I don't lose any work. Basically, so long as you aren't killing people to make new zombies, no one is going to pay you much mind for having mindless undead. Controllers of mindless undead make the checks for Occupations.
Abadar is the God of Civilization. The entire region of the Mwangi Expanse and southern Garund has gone from being uncivilized wilderness with no desire to change, to a fledgling civilization and center for future innovations and ideologies, because they have little of their own to go on. Thus, the entire region is an incredible opportunity for the church to do the single greatest work of their deity, in a way that is actually practical and likely to succeed - as opposed to "defeating evil" or "healing the sick." The 'strategic gains' are building the perfect Kingdom of Abadar on Golarion from scratch, with the 'special resources' of a relatively uninfluenced but open to change population of potential worshipers. For the church, the "perfect kingdom" is one that is well-organized and functional - things that most large population centers are not. This is a Lawful Neutral church, Order is their sole philosophy. No one lives there; there are scattered tribes, but most of the humanoids congregated in the area directly around Mzali centuries ago, and did not succeed until recently in expanding outward. The rest of the native Mwangi similarly lacked a social structure to progress beyond small tribal holdings, until recently. Since you also seem not to have specific goals of either storyline or tone for this game, that leaves us largely responsible for our own inspiration. I do not see this as a problem, but rather a benefit. If you do not share this view, this is likely not the game for you. I will not herd the players into doing things a certain way. This is a moderate sandbox - you choose how to progress your civilization, beyond the first few scenes as we all fall into our characters/roles. I will not let you Plane Shift all over creation for the hell of it, but neither will I force you to go to this forest and eliminate this monster because someone else told you to do so - if the PCs have a better way of doing something, I see no reason to limit that creativity. I do have challenges that the party will face - some of which may be halted long before they're even obvious if certain decisions are made. But the fun in this for me isn't telling you my story, but allowing you to tell yours. There is not a singular, world-ending BBEG that you absolutely must defeat - instead, this is where the choices of the party lead to unique challenges based on those choices, and sometimes luck. You could send a group of emissaries to Jalmeray, and fail spectacularly - I can not hinge any future events on the result of this, because you are not expected to completely succeed like with a simple boss fight. A lack of linear progression does not equate to a lack of goals, but rather a flexibility of order and variable definitions of success. How do they control land on opposite sides of the continent then? Magical portals or something? Initially, yeah; they Teleported equipment and supplies to set up the major infrastructure, but remember they're almost all mages - 50 teen-level casters could construct an entire infrastructure in a relatively tiny amount of time. Now, though, it is a unique country, technically a territory of Alkenstar, but really runs its own show, with periodic influxes of resources from the three parent countries mandated by the original treaties and such that ended the Nex-Geb war.
I'll briefly cover these here. 1 - Neither; when Nex returned, after the feud, he had thousands of years of history to catch up on. Aroden's death fascinated him - in my mind they probably had contact with each other to some degree - and he went snooping around the Eye. Nex and Geb are basically demigods, and they agreed to let the leaders of Alkenstar play around with mixing magic and technology there out of, largely, boredom. The waved their Bigby's Insulting Fingers at the pirates and set up shop. 2 - There was some fighting, but the Mwangi, for the most part, were far nicer to them than they had been treated, letting them participate regularly in society. 3 - Globally; if you can pull it off, you can even be from Iblydos. Abadar is an original deity, and arguably has one of the most influential portfolios in the Material Plane. They found who they needed for the jobs. Regional/group qualities can simply be reflavored to give the same mechanical benefits with a different name. Vudra and Kelesh conqured what they did specifically to rid Cheliax of Asmodeus; while they're not going to give up their control, they did little to change the culture of the regions - many of the people of Rahadoum still reject religious beliefs, but their violent refusal to allow it has been squashed by the powerful governments and genie magic, for example. Since most of the world didn't care for Asmodeus having a grip on them anyway, rebellion and the like has been minimal; Taldor suffered the most damage to their national pride, but for the most part, the people had seen it coming for generations, and generally grudgingly accept the new status quo.
1.) Don't care; if the players want to brutally conquer the world and enslave all inferior specimen of mortals, that's fine. If they want Heaven on Oerth, that's fine too. I expect it's likely somewhere in-between for most people. And I say this from a person-perspective as well as an NPC one; Church of Abadar wouldn't really care if it's Evil or Good, so long as it's Lawful and civilized. 2.) You have been hired by the Abadarians. Other groups are probably trying to make money, too. 3.) As stated in the first post of the interest check, after Sargava ran out of money, the native Mwangi peoples adopted the feudalistic ways and "civilized." Now, instead of fighting tribal xenophobes, the rest of the world is greeted by merchants and traders looking to improve their quality of life - with the exception of the demihumans, but that's true of anywhere. This area is currently unclaimed by any particular power, and near enough to a large metropolis that building a settlement isn't entirely from scratch. 4.) You tell me how you were selected and why - as far as your backstory is concerned this has already happened. It should be fairly obvious that my focus on the Occupation means you qualified for a specific task; why you are special is your job to create. It seems fairly unlikely, however, that random fliers in taverns would be used as a method of recruitment for this.
Can you give me an Earth-equivalent tech period for the world? For the rest of Golarion, nothing is really different than standard - magic seems to stall development to a large degree, and for good reasons. For the still-unnamed Steampunk country, it's generally 1770s, but with the next Earth-century crammed into about the last 20 years on Golarion - much like the speed of our last two decades of technology; they have rudimentary steam engines doing regular work, but also electric lighting, steam radiators for heat, and early stage telegraphs. Few other places aside from Alkenstar have any real interest in it, with Nex and Geb still doing magical work and having largely abandoned their claims and relegating it to an experiment they're obligated to partially fund. Guns are Commonplace-ish for this campaign because of the proximity to these two locations. Locomotive steam engines are in development, but magic is still cheaper and more reliable. would you allow Path Of War classes? Forgot this bit as well - sorry. Limited Third Party. I do not want new classes, races, or systems (such as spheres). However, small things, like animal companions, spells, and the like might be okay. I'm going to tentatively okay all 3pp Favored Class bonuses and alternate racial traits, however - if you want one, make note of it, but many races lack these in Paizo publications.
What I built at first was a tengu cleric of Abadar with lots of appraise, languages and a book of letters. I hope that's not too on the nose. I'll rebuild with these parameters in mind and stew on back story while some other peeps submit... Not at all - the more your character is organized around the Occupation, the more sense it made that you were the one hired over someone else. E: This is also not at all to say that combat is unimportant - this is as normal a campaign as any other, except that the focus is broad and undefined rather than a series of quests. I have at least one dungeon crawl for several mid-levels for the entire group, as well, so there's plenty of action.
Follow-up recruitment from the interest check for an episodic-style campaign set in the most Southern reaches of the Inner Sea, roughly 350 years ahead of the current Golarion timeline. There are notable setting changes which I will be adding to the Campaign Info tab over the course of the next few days, starting locally and working out. I am looking for 10 to 12 players for this campaign - the party will be split for most events, but the group composition may not always remain the same. More on this down the page - first, the numbers.
Rich Parents:
Subtract the average starting wealth of your class from 900 - add this amount to your wealth. For example, a Warpriest begins play with 5d6x10 GP, average of 175. 900-175=725, so your starting wealth would be 3,725 GP. Make sure to justify this trait in your background - it's not enough to say "my parents were rich and died." ----- Skills:
I have a few custom skills in effect - if you have questions, I encourage you to ask; I'll make this as clear as I can.
----- +1 Skill Point per level in your Favored Class, in addition to any other bonus skill points from race/feats/FCB. ----- +2 Background Skills per level, can not include Craft (Alchemy) or Craft(Guns); these should complement your Occupation Skill. ----- +1 Occupation Skill per level that must be in the same one of the following every level: Knowledge (Engineering), Appraise, Craft (Armor, Blacksmithing, Carpentry, Musical Instruments*, Ships, Stonemasonry, or Weapons**), or Profession (Architect, Barrister, Engineer, Farmer, Fisherman, Herbalist, Librarian, Merchant, Miner, Sailor, Soldier or Woodcutter). Skill Unlocks apply for this skill only for free to every character. - * Can only be taken if you have an effective Bard level. - ** Includes Bows. This selection should be considered a major character feature - this is the reason you were hired, not your muscle or charm or magical talent, and will define your role in the development of your society.
In a broad sense, Commerce is used to determine the economic merit of something, while Production is used for industry efficiency. Knowledge (Engineering), Profession (Architect, Engineer):
To make a check with these skills, roll 1d20+1d100, plus the modifier. I will compare this result to a d100 of my own to determine your accuracy. These will be used to determine a number of factors throughout the game. I will do my best to utilize every present character's occupation skill in each situation; that's likely why that character went instead of another. Here is an example. The party has been tasked to stake out a lumber claim in the Screaming Jungle with an economic value of at least 75, and are evaluating an area. A character with Craft (Carpentry) rolls a Commerce check to determine the raw value of the local lumber - he gets 73; a character with Knowledge (Engineering) determines the rough cost of transport to the base settlement with a Production check - she gets 110; a character with Profession (Soldier) determines the maximum size of the development that is able to be protected with a Commerce check - he gets a 32. Averaging the results nets a 72 - almost, but not quite good enough, and the party must decide whether to move on or take the chance. I will never roll my d100s in the thread; thus, you will never know exactly how accurate your results are, though if you as a group are collectively way off I will let you know - someone'll have an idea that it just doesn't add up.
----- Classes: Any Paizo, Chained or not at your discretion. Ask about archetypes that should work together, but by RAW do not (one gives more character options for something without taking it away, and the other takes it away for something else, for example). ----- Races: Any Paizo. If you have an extremely unusual choice, you will have to justify it that much more in your background. Local Races: Dhampir, Fetchling, Ifrit, Oread, Sylph, Undine, Orc, Tengu, Samsaran, Vanara, Vishkanya, Android, Monkey Goblin, Lashunta, Orang-Pendak, Nagaji; Core minus Halfling and Gnome - Halflings started their own civilization and most of them live there now, and Gnomes are to the Vudrani what Halflings were before, only less slave and more "object of interest". This list serves only to represent those choices that have a distinct settlement in the region. Additionally, you have the option of playing an Elf from Castrovel - the ability score modifiers remain the same, but I have some alternate racials specifically for them if you are interested in playing one. I will not be using an intelligent ape as a player race, aside from those already published.
Guns are Martial Weapons for everyone. Advanced Firearms are not yet available; Early Firearms are sold at 75% of the listed price.
If you have any immediate questions regarding the setting that you need to know in order to mechanically construct a character, please ask. Otherwise, please hold all background-related setting questions for a few days - I have a lot to get up, and I don't want to repeat myself. Recruitment will close at 11:59 PM Eastern on June 25th. If something happens and I can not get all of the setting details up in a reasonable time, I will extend this deadline. If I've forgotten anything, please let me know. Important - Please separate your Occupation Skill and Commerce/Production from the remainder of your skills on your sheet. I'll need to see this one more than the other ones, and I don't want to have to hunt, nor confuse the Occupation skill with any other background skill. Edit: Alignment! Can't believe I forgot this part. You may play as any alignment you choose. Additionally, Paladins may be Lawful-Neutral - in that event, swap anything that targets Evil for targeting Chaos, and anything that represents Good for Law. Energy effects are as normal for a LG Paladin.
What tone are you aiming for? Ruthless capitalist exploitation or benevolent Utopia? Somewhere in between? I don't have a preference - there are challenges to this style of game irrespective of how "good" you are. Beyond the first 4-6 events, the reactions to this development will entirely depend on how the PCs chose to resolve the initial quests. Take the lumber settlement example; obviously, someone lives there, or considers a claim on it. The party could kill the demihumans, or the party could contract with them - either way has repercussions in the area that'll come into play later. The most important factor to consider is that the PCs are the "face" of the new settlement - the higher level NPCs hired them so they won't have to do the stuff themselves. Ultimately, whatever course the PCs choose, they are the ones the rest of the region are going to recognize, and they'll be the ones considered personally responsible for what happens. So if you Diplomacy everyone down, but your bosses break the contracts, it's you the mooks hate, and not the organization. Edit: I count 9 or 10 interested in the roughly-36-hours since I made this; I'll get the actual recruitment post up in a day or so.
Yes. You'll ultimately have control over that entire barren chunk, though what you do with it is variable.
My partner and I have been wanting to play a specific campaign geared for the two of us, but neither wish to actually spoil the fun and run the thing. In browsing the forums here I found that people actually run solo/duo games - perfect! It seems only fair that, in exchange for asking someone to run us through what we'd like, I do similar. So I'm looking for a team of two players - please apply together, and have shared goals/backgrounds, complementary mechanics, and the like; bring a friend, or find one here in the thread. I have six choices available for your campaign, please select one of the following as you apply.
Campaign Choices:
1) The Emerald Spire superdungeon
2) Any pre-made Adventure Path, except Kingmaker - if you're interested in a Kingmaker-style game, see this interest check and the eventual recruitment following. 3) An urban intrigue campaign. Set in any major city (preferably one with published details, but I'm willing to make it up given enough time to prepare a detailed map), you'd deal with various political plots while largely sandboxing around. 4) BBEG Dragon/Lich that's been 19th level since the beginning of the campaign and troubles you and the region while you work tirelessly to stop the domination plot. A rather classic theme, but I have a few fun twists. 5) Planet-hopping mystery where various clues to some grand design lead you across the stars and eventually through time - the big hook here is you'll get to witness (my interpretation of) the death of Aroden. 6) Dealer's choice - Pick your own thing to do, and I'll design it for you. This option will take the longest to get started, as I probably don't already have what you want lined out, and will also probably require two people who already know each other to avoid conflicts of interest - as in, one's interested in X while the other's interested in Y. For this option, I'd need a very compelling team presentation from applicants, much more than the others. Next, one of you would have to be willing to run a game for us. We are willing to do trio with the other player, provided they're okay with being "along for the ride," so to speak, as we've had plenty of time to discuss things we'd like to do outside of the screen.
Our Campaign:
We want to be native outsiders (humans probably, or another race that wouldn't be an outsider on the Material Plane) on the plane of Bytopia from D&D, with some gimmick to regularly travel to the demiplane of Union (from the Epic Level Handbook - any planar metropolis emphasizing trade that's open to all races works just as well); we'll hunt the big game animals of Shurrock and sell them in Union, eventually building a Citadel of the Planes ala Stronghold Builder's Guidebook and killing things on other planes, too. We'd prefer the Great Wheel cosmology to Pathfinder's, but otherwise we'd rather have the Pathfinder deities and other lore - don't really plan on poaching from the gods, but you can make us do something like that, just move the PF ones into the appropriate spot. Random quests for items (the Ruby of Splendor from the lair of a genie, because that's what we need to get the armor we want crafted) and the like are especially welcome, but our goal as an in-universe team is to hunt progressively larger creatures just for the challenge - and the loot. Time to generate your characters. As we want very specific things, you should have the same opportunities.
Mechanics:
Starting Level: 5 - Mythic Tier 1
Wealth: 21,000 GP - no more than a +2 bonus on weapons/armor, no single item other than a weapon/armor worth more than 8,000 GP. Basically, if you couldn't normally buy it at 5th level, you can't buy it now - just want you to spread it around more. Alignment: Any - you can even kill each other if that's what you want. Races: Any Paizo, just make it fit. Classes: Any Paizo. Tri-stalt, like Gestalt but with three classes. One Mythic path. VMC is okay. Chained or Unchained, talk to me about archetypes that should work. Likewise stacking archetypes that should be allowed (i.e. one gives you additional options for a class feature and one replaces it, but RAW you can't have both) are probably okay, too - just ask. 30 Point Buy, minimum 7 after racial modifiers. Feats: Any Paizo - including Sacred Geometry and the other hated ones. Feat tax fixes are in place. Three traits from different categories, no Drawbacks. Background skills and background occupations, without the extra gold, are also being used. Limited 3PP: No classes, races, or major system changes. Small things, like animal companions, single spells, or equipment are likely fine - again, just ask. I'm not putting any limitations on your backgrounds, but that is the primary quality of selection - beyond your willingness to run the campaign for us, that is. The character options available are, frankly, ridiculous, making your builds utterly irrelevant to my decision. I am primarily interested in the team dynamic your shared background brings - I want to feel the connection between the two characters, more than I am interested in seeing what they've done. I lied; I have one requirement - each of you must have your own background. Even if you apply as siblings, you are two people with two characters, and I want two approaches to, and views of, your shared history and experiences. Especially if you have not been together for your entire lives - the precursor to your team is also important. Recruitment will stay up for at least two weeks - I don't know how interested people will be in this, but if it's great I'll extend the time to allow people to work on ideas. If I've missed something, please point it out. Thanks for your interest!
Hmm, would you also allow Lizardfolk given the Mwangi Expanse? Not as a local - no particular reason I hadn't considered them, but there's no place in the region for them, either; Nagaji and Vishkanya were included specifically as a result of Nagas, which also have a hold in the area (and my Vishkanya are a Naga breed rather than a distinct "race"), and the apes and monkeys dominate the jungles otherwise. The list I gave earlier isn't exhaustive; you could be a Lizardfolk from a clan that's holding on down there and so forth, but you'd need a compelling reason to have left them. The aforementioned list is simply those races with a distinct society down there, not the only ones available.
How prevalent are firearms? A mix - commonplace as far as proficiency (all firearms are Martial weapons), but 75% of the price rather than 25%; the new country can use magic so has less need for them directly, but the influence of Alkenstar on the market of the south means most martial characters have probably shot one enough to know how to use it while keeping as tight a hold as they can on the actual production.
If you have anything specific you'd like to know, go ahead and ask - otherwise, I'm keen on leaving the various setting changes to the main recruitment thread/campaign info tab, so it's all in one place and I don't end up considering things I hadn't before and lose track of them.
What would be available racially in the area? Locally: Dhampir, Fetchling, Ifrit, Oread, Sylph, Undine, Orc, Tengu, Samsaran, Vanara, Vishkanya, Android, Monkey Goblin, Lashunta, Orang-Pendak, Nagaji; Core minus Halfling and Gnome - Halflings started their own civilization and most of them live there now, and Gnomes are to the Vudrani what Halflings were before, only less slave and more "object of interest." I'm testing an ape this week - it's basically the Bloodrager race, but can be creatively used elsewhere, too. Just about every race is available to play, these are just the "natives." E: There are also two types of Elf - Golarion and Castrovel. The gate in Mwangi started working, and the Elves and Lashunta of Castrovel began regular trade. The Elven types still disagree with each other, given their lifespans, and the Castrovel elves are going to look different and have a few alternate racials to make them distinct.
Prodding for interest in an episodic-style campaign set some 350 years into the future of Golarion. PCs will be working for a Merchant-General seeking to establish a Capitalist-style city-state in that large open area around Mzali in Garund. There would not be a linear questline; events would center around commercial objectives, such as "establish a lumber camp/mill settlement in the Screaming Jungle." We would not be using the Kingmaker rules, but consider it something like that. Eventually the PCs will call the shots, once the idea is established and you have a collective focus - I'm not prepared to host a true sandbox, but after a few years of play the party should have enough of a rapport that I won't have to worry about things like random jaunts to the planes for kicks. Some brief notes on the setting changes.
Characters will start at 3, 3PP will be available on a case-by-case basis and limited to small things (no Spheres system, for example). I'd like to run 10-12 people - rarely would the party be whole, but this allows for interchangeable groups that can adjust according to need, and will probably drop to 8 or less after general attrition anyway. I'll explain this further in an actual recruitment post if there is sufficient interest.
If you successfully grapple a creature that is not adjacent to you, move that creature to an adjacent open space This was probably obvious to all of you, but I'd somehow managed to overlook that line for 15 years (assuming 3.X had it, too, anyway). I went to check on my options for snagging flying creatures and found that nifty little bit; in addition to being able to reach things 30+ feet away, I can apparently magically move them a standard movement speed instantly. I find this really friggin' cool.
Urgdarth Dalsym: Urgdarth Dalsym was a member of the Blackravens, patrolling the border between Hagsreach in the Linnorn Kingdoms and Irrisen for many years. A talented and flexible warrior who preferred his fists, Urgdarth rode freely with the rangers and scouts, jumping into the midst of combat to slam and kick the forces of the Witch Queen back into their territory. In his late twenties ((I'm not using age penalties; if you are, I'll adjust his age so he's just on the cusp of Middle Aged, but otherwise I'm making him older for flavor)), a latent sorcerous talent began to emerge within the brawler; he had known his ancestry contained giants, at least, thanks to his familial bulk and misshapen features, but none yet had shown natural magical abilities. His attempts to learn from the keep's mages frustrated and exhausted all involved parties, so Urgdarth sought to hone his newfound powers the way he knew best: in combat.
Frost trolls had been spotted behaving with organization and intelligence a few days' journey south, and Urgdarth eagerly accompanied the group; foresight was never his strong point, and this day would spell his end, as the trolls were designed as an ambush. The Blackraven squad fought valiantly, and Urgdarth even managed a small show of magic during the battle, but ultimately, the warriors all fell. Vague memories of a terrible inner cold, fluids and chemicals and potions pumped into his body, and strange occult rituals are all that remains of the next decade of Urgdarth's life; he had been captured and taken by the Jadwiga, where he was experimented on and corrupted, his natural magic bastardized and mutated into something truly alien and horrifying, and his simple, pliable mind dominated by powerful enchantments. He awoke a few times - he remembers only confusion and rage, before he was charmed again by a new master. Until recently, when the spells on him were broken without a replacement present; he finds himself trapped in a dark room with no apparent escape, and few recollections of his time since being captured. OOC: Urgdarth is a victim of long-term mind control, using not only magical charms and such but also real-world methods of programming and brainwashing. His training has become instinctual, but without the blockades of magic to split his mind, he will eventually understand what has happened to him and how to properly utilize it. The first few battles though, and especially the first time he rages and his arms extend by 10', he'll leave the rage mortified and confused. His sheet's still a work in progress, but I believe I have the mechanics completed; just have to make it pretty and then check all the math. He's...a super weird character. With varying uses of martial flexibility, his main combat role is to trip/grapple at incredible range - depending on how Enlarge works with a whip, he'll threaten 40+ feet (with Combat Patrol) or reach out to 40+ feet (with Lunge), and with 50' of speed and Combat Reflexes, that'll cover most battlefields and up to four opponents a round, not to mention the varied flanking positions possible. Steal Size helps to mitigate one of the main maneuver fails; Shocking Grasp (at somewhere between 20' and 30' distant) and Scorching Ray can cover some raw damage, and in a few levels (or with another caster's help) he'll have Fly and can grapple those pesky hoverers out of the air from considerable distance.
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