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Dropping in to give an update, I'm still interested to join. Have a few character concepts I'd like to try. I'll try and stat them up somewhere tonight. First, for the full martial slot, I was thinking of a teamwork-based Halfling .Bloodrager/Brawler that buffs his allies and grants them extra attacks. Can be the main tank, or a backup mostly melee damage dealer/party buffer. The second is a bit of a comfort pick for me, a Herald Caller cleric with the Luck Domain and Combat Advice as a feat. Can use all her actions to heal or buff allies but can fight decently well, and could use summoning abilities in dangerous situations especially after the early levels.
@Zinnath Okay, thanks for the explanation. To be honest and open, personally I am wary of monster PC's in a group of otherwise normal humanoids as the combination of monster-level ability scores and saving throws, innate spellcasting abilities, 'bonus spellcaster levels' and other extra bonusses like permanent flight + dimunative size seem to make that impossible to balance against the other 'normal' characters. In example, even looking at the second 'toned down' version, it seems to have the equivalent of a 40 pt stat buy compared to the other characters' 20, in addition to all other advantages it has from being a monster compared to normal humanoids, essentially by losing just 1 class level (as the 2 bonus sorcerer levels just buy that right back). Do you have a suggestion that would somehow counteract these imbalances to the point where the other characters would not get completely outclassed?
All right, cool. I'd have to think a bit on what/who to submit. Leaning towards some sort of divine full caster/healer/support as that is what I usually play. Except I've already played most of them. I had an adoptive daughter of Father Zanthus from a previous game that ended fairly early but that wouldn't be suitable due to the new relation rules excluding him as such an NPC. Hmm... Some questions to help decide: -Are items that increase the bonus of inspire courage allowed? Such as the Dervish Sikhe and the Three Reasons to live? What about feats like Master Performer and Grandmaster performer? Some divine caster archetypes have access to this Bard feature at the cost of some other things. -Is magic item crafting allowed? -Would a warpriest (or inquisitor) be considered for the divine slot or does it *have* to be a full divine caster?
Welcome, Trevor86! I meant to say this earlier, but +1 for a build that includes trapfinding & disable device. Our current trapfinder is Sanduro's phantom who finds traps by going incorporeal and sticking her head through solid objects and disables them by turning corporeal and kicking them really hard. This strategy has had limited success (but we can absolutely continue it if you want to go in a different direction). Hey again, Sanduro and thanks for the response. I think at this stage of the development that's a bit hard to include. Due to a combination of factors, like lowish point buy, fighting by mainly by yourself rather than an animal companion and the underlying character serving as inspiration i ended up as a str-based build in heavy armor. Which given the massive acp to DD + mediocre dex will never be good with traps unfortunately. As such it seems to be a waste of resources. I can however take dispel magic at some point to help with magical traps. Edit: there might be an edge case here by taking the scaling trapfinder class feature as the level 8 slayer talent. The cost is fairly high though as it removes 2 hit from every attack. (Requires giving up furious focus).
If a handsome mysterious stranger is allowed to weigh in on this situation: couldn't someone just walk into the room with their eyes closed, feel around for the ropes trying this guy to the floor (?), cut them and drag the body back out? The symbol, from the description, seems to be below their body. Since he was right on top of it without it triggering, that seems to rule out that the rune can be activated by touch. Even if it can be and he was attuned to it or such, it feels as if doing this should be possible without touching the floor below him.
All right. I've pretty much finished the build from my end, decided to go without the animal companion and went Sanctified Slayer as that seemed more true to the character, was simpler to make and seemed better suited to the AP. I just wanted to ask something to Sanduro, mostly: Do you mind particularly about the new character having powerful healing abilities? Looking at your sheet and feats, you seem to be fairly invested in that front as well. I could remove all the healing abilities to not intrude on that niche and instead spend those abilities on more accurary and damage and/or some more added tankiness. Personally I strongly prefer the build that has the healing (and I don't see an issue in us both having it, more flexibility I'd say), but I wouldn't want to intrude on the niche of an established player if you preferred I didn't.
Edit: Whoops, apparently mixed up the gameplay thread and the discussion one. Sorry about that! Regardless: Hey everyone, nice to meet you all! I was graciously invited by Crusaderwolf to join the campaign, knowing him from a long running war for the crown PBP here on the forums. We're in the process of statting out a former NPC to become a PC due to storyline reasons. I'll try and get them statted out fully tomorrow as I understand said character joining is pretty much imminent (depending on party choices). Tentatively, the build is a main healer Inquisitor using the Ravener Hunter archetype to gain healing abilities from the life domain. To boost the combat potential a bit outside of healing, it will have either the sacred huntmaster or sanctified slayer archetype and fight with either a pet or to try getting flanks for sneak attacks. Out of combat it can be built to have thievery skills and trapfinding. The build should be fairly decent at what it tries to do. My only real concern is it is a bit MAD and might be spread a bit thin, espcecially the one with an animal companion. Are there any specific wants/requests from the team for a new character to shore up any obvious holes in the group?
Thanks for the response, Thorek! Reading back your post on party wants I can probably build the bard to have decent backup healing as well as doing the throwing weapon thing. I have to make some decisions between being more survivable and more flashy since (after some research) the startoss style feats are extremely feat intensive for what they do and honestly might not really be worth it. On the other hand of the spectrum, the other half of the throwing weapon build, Desna's shooting star, is extremely efficient for what it does and only really required two feats to be a good switch hitter and potentially a serious threat at low to medium range by throwing the star. I am leaning towards just picking those two and filling the rest of the build with support feats. Between him and Litejedi's hunter and pet the group should have a good frontline. Before fully statting the build I'd like to ask about the character creation rules. It seems like we're using 20 point stat buy along with no Elephant in the room feat tax removal. Is that correct? Also, I assume we join at level 11 with normal wealth by level gear? For bard specifically, are the Master Performer and Grandmaster performer feats allowed, at a cost or not?
Hey everyone! I was asked to join the game thread and introduce myself, so here goes :) Nice to meet you all! I've been in a war for the crown AP with Thorek for a number of years now (how time flies) and I'm here mostly on his recommendation/invitation. For the character I was thinking of, I received a bit of information from the GM read up a bit on the area of Aloi and Kraggodan, where we're supposed to go next. I think the most natural inclusion for a new character might be a Pathfinder agent sent to explore the caves of Aloi for rumored connections to the Sky Citadel and unusual Legion activity there. As the current ruler of the Sky Citadel, according to the Wiki, is a Pathfinder and should easily be able to arrange for high-level agents for help. I've thought about making another high level local resistance leader instead but that seems to run into narrative problems as to why your PC's have never heard of him/her and/or why they left their own front to join the group. I guess being overrun there by the legion there is one option but I'd like to shy away from how scarred such a survivor would likely be. I'm very strongly leaning towards Bard as a class. As any bard, at baseline they offer lots of buffs, decent arcane spellcasting and out of combat utility with knowledge and potential thief skills. I haven't fully fleshed out the rest of the fighting style yet outside of buffing and performances; this can be flexible on party needs and whether or not Litejedi with his/her hunter also joins to share in any requests. I was initially considering trying a combat style based around throwing knives with the Startoss style feats, using a returning starknife and scaling both his physical attacks and spellcasting off of charisma. I'll admit right away though that this probably isn't the most powerful a bard could be, but at a target power level of 7 or 8 out of 10 (according to Thorek) that seems in line with those wishes. They could probably fight in melee if needed; a tanky build is also possible if dipping into oracle for an AC revelation. There are a lot of good masterpieces and performances he could use in between buffs and spellcasts like a performance that mimics the effects of Slow on all enemies. Alternatively he could just stick to backlining and being a pure bard throwing knives and spells from there. The healer's hands/skill unlock: heal feat combo could be taken if we want some extra healing abilities. Anyway, let me know what you would prefer and think of the concept and proposed class and build. I don't want to step on anyone's toes or niche :) Edit: One other build for the Pathfinder character could be this alias I'm using for another campaign. Her build plan is to multiclass into bard using a Shelynite feat that adds bard and cleric levels together for the effects of inspire courage. What you end up with is a full divine caster with the bard buffs and the luck domain to grant people extra rolls too. who in dangerous situations can resort to summoning as combat style. What it trades away is arcane casting, some knowledge and thief skills.
Interesting, I'd like to give this a shot. I enjoy playing healers and my other campaigns have slowed enough for me to try another. I have a concept I'll try and stat tonight. The concept is 'fake paladin'; someone who tried applying to the trails, failed but couldn't accept failure and has still passed himself off as one since. By a stroke of luck during his ensuing misadventures, he ended up bound to a life spirit and thus actually has some healing powers to back up his claim. In reality though he has no idea how his healing powers work and constantly 'wings it'. He is thus overly reliant on the familiar he tries to hide for pretty much anything other than fighting. It's meant to be on the funny side though with a serious undertone, like why he failed when he was actually devoted and trying to become one, and how he tries to be a good person despite 'being in too deep' and knowing he is bound to be exposed at some point. His main reason to travel to Sandpoint is probably to try and learn more about these abilities on the off-chance they're related to Thassilon. Game-mechanically it will be a Life (restoration) shaman wearing fullplate but otherwise fully specced into healing and utility/support hexes.
One thing to note, we are currently locked to core classes and archetypes are subject to GM approval. However, there is a 'talent tree' system of sorts that allows you to specialize and gain certain special abilities in areas you specialize in, and apparently your base class itself can be upgraded as well through certain trials.
Also dotting for great interest! In regards to what interest me about the campaign; well, I was invited from the other one but to answer it anyway: I've never had a chance to play the actual adventure path. I have, however, played the video game version which supposedly had improvements for the main storyline (and which supposedly have carried over to the 2E rewrite). However, it can only simulate the building a kingdom together aspect so far. So a campaign where the setting and storyline are changed in such a manner sounds like the perfect fix to both keep it fresh for me and still get the PNP experience. A few questions come to mind for character background creation: -You say there are multiple fey factions, and that each character we make should have some connection to the fey or first world. Do we/the characters know anything about these fey factions starting out, so we can tie that backstory to one of them? Or do we know nothing about fey politics starting out? I am assuming the latter would mean that we've only had contact with an intermediary who has not revealed their allegiance/shielded us from that or such? "The focus will be not on conquering or subduing the Stolen Lands, but in trying to establish a gentler realm that centers around respect for nature and a collaborative approach to existing residents, especially fey and natural inhabitants. Some secondary themes will involve dragons and the Old Ones." -Intriguing! What does this mean for the altered stolen lands and what is common knowledge about them? Are they still plagued by bandits, for instance/Does the Stag Lord still exist? Is there anything tieing the group together at first? As in, are we still summoned by and working for Jumaari (? Sorry, been a while) Aldori as a starting point?
Hey everyone, I've been playing a magus for a while and happened upon the below advice on combat tactics in a guide, which confuses me. It reads: "Enchant your weapon as a swift action, cast Frostbite trusting your buff spells to block the opportunity attack; then make your iterative attacks plus the one from Frostbite on any targets within reach. The next turn, use spell combat to first make your remaining attacks with Frostbite, then cast another spell." How does this work exactly? My understanding of Spell Combat, is that it allows you to take a -2 penalty to attacks to both full attack and cast one spell. And through spellstrike, if you cast a touch spell, you get one 'bonus' weapon attack to deliver the charge. From an FAQ on the reference document site, I also know that making a melee attack while holding a spellcharge allows you to freely expend it while making a weapon attack. This together seems to make it so that if you choose to cast a spell before attacking in Spell Combat, and you cast a spell with multiple charges, you can immediately make at least two weapon attacks both expending a charge. But back to the quoted advice, how then do I "use spell combat to first make your remaining attacks with Frostbite, then cast another spell". As if I use one of the touch spell charges and change it to a weapon attack via spellstrike, that already counts as already casting a spell, does it not? While this sequence seems to imply that I can both do this first, then cast another spell, and thus cast multiple spells each turn through spell combat, rather than one. Could someone please help me out and clarify? Kind regards!
Apologies for the delay, everyone, in case you're waiting on me. In the last week I've gone through a lot of different builds and ideas, or at least reading about them online, and I got stuck. In the end I think I'll just revert to my main initial idea of playing a bard. Whether that is good or not I don't know - I'll probably rely on cantrips to add a bit of ranged damage. In the end the idea of a good support with a lot of skills speaks to me more than most archer variants I could find. I'll run the background story past Kittenmancer tonight and do the introduction either tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for your patience with this PF2 noob :)
Hm... I wanted to go bard mostly for the buffs and helping out others. But if there are classes better or equally well suited to this, I could switch to that, sure. Somewhat surprised to learn sorcerors are not arcane in 2e, on the side! Anyway, as long as the character can be somewhat framed in a tribal mindset it should work for the story. Oh... and to be honest I had some delay on my end as the weekend was busier than expected, and I also picked up Zelda: breath of the Wild to see what all the fuzz was about a year or five late. ...Wait, where did my time go?
Hello and thanks! I understood today that there do not seem to be other applicants and that I was officially accepted as the new fifth, so i'll be working to finish the character tomorrow or on sunday. Having no experience with pathfinder 2 i was kind if surprised to read from guides that they all seem to push for being a full caster, which I wasn't expecting. But they still seem to have good offensive and defensive buffs, and seemingly can also have good synergy with other casters. So i think I will give making a meastro/combat muse bard a try. If the cantrips fill the role of ranged damage well then I guess I don't need the bow for anything other than flavor :) If it doesn't work out somehow I might look into magus instead as it seems fitting lorewise for where you're going, and I believe they have a bow build as well. Though in that case ranger also seems fitting for the setting... I wish I had more of an idea of how the pf2 classes weigh up against eachother but i'll go with my original concept, I think.
Hey everyone! Kittenmancer recently asked around for a fifth player for the campaign in the discord server and I have to say I'm curious to try this adventure path (and more of second edition, as the highest i got to was level 2 thusfar). That, and I'm an unashamed fan of Kitten as a GM so I was going to try regardless of what it was. :) Without wanting to assume I'll make as I'm sure there will be more interest and applications, I am wondering if the group has a preference for what sort of character/class would go well with the other current ones? Given my relative lack of experience in 2E it would probably help me if there was a clear goal in mind for any missing role/recommended class for it or such. Does anyone have any advice on such matters? Kind regards!
Was there ever a stated deadline? I have the crunch mostly done but probably wont be able to post it until tomorrow. I'll go with a life shaman, though he's built and roleplayed like a hosptaler paladin who can fly. He *is* an eagle knight after all :) Full divine caster and healer, at your service.
I'd say no crafting items prior to the start of the game. Make use of the starting wealth to get items that you want. All right, thanks for answering! I'll assume that means shamans are allowed as a submission? And that we are required to spend almost all of our starting gold? As otherwise he or she could leave some of it unspent and then craft something immediately in the first day of the campaign. Or is that all right depending on how much was left in reserve? A rules variant I once read recommended that at most 25% of starting gold could be used for crafting or left in reserve if someone had those feats. Second, are we using the Elephant in the Room rules to remove the most common feat taxes from the game? As in, everyone would have inmate access to power attack and weapon finesse, precise shot could be taken without point blank shot, combat maneuvers are consolidated into two groups etc.
Interesting premise. Would you allow shaman as a class for applications? They're a hybrid class, but have some spiritual lore what with their powers coming from their familiar which I guess can be seen as occult. In a high point buy game like this, I'd use it to try making a single classed oradin and roleplay him as such. In combat it would be as a decently tanky frontliner who is a great healer and contributes a lot to his allies with a plethora of buffing spells and support hexes. The background of which I would have to think about a bit more. A relatively straightforward concept would be something like a local farmer who used his innate life-magic abilities to aid the harvesting proces growing up. A slaving raid on his community, which he survived only because of said healing ability, forced him abandon his former life and enlist with the eagle knights, where he made a career for himself until he was considered for this special position. Alternatively, it's been a very long time since I played a bard and I'm kind of curious to see what they could do with a 30 pt buy, too! Also, are there any rules for item crafting and crafting items prior to the start of the game?
Haha, that would be pretty funny I'd imagine :) To be on the familiar's s+!~ list all throughout the adventure!
Yeah, I did consider wasting and promethean. I just like the gameplay and roleplay implications of pranked more. Pranked would mean invisible fey are often pranking people around him, and it adds some nice, proactive spells to use for when no one is injured. With his fighting style now purely based around magic and a lot of investment in being a healer on the side, he'd like all the help he can get there. It was also partly chosen along the lines of 'what would cause a buff military man to be embarassed of his son' and that's where him having 'imaginary friends' he talks to comes from. I could think a bit more on a more fitting lore explanation of the pranked curse or him being a spirit talker. Perhaps he once outsung a fey while playing outside and he was cursed by it in revenge. Perhaps the assassination attempt on his mother also almost killed him and in that moment his soul touched the spirit realm, where the life spirit helped him survive. I'm open to other suggestions if anyone has anything on this front, of course :) On the ability scores, 7 str is can be considered cheesy I'd admit though Mia also has one score at 7, so I went with it, especially since all it affects for him is what he can carry, and aunt haul solves that very well at 12 hours per cast for a level 1 spell. I can however easily drop his cha from 21 to 20 and increase his strength back to 9, if people would prefer that. Makes him slightly more versatile and less skinny underneath that armor :)
Okay, final update before finishing the character probably: I went back and forth a lot on what to do and now definitively settled on a Life oracle (spirit channeler) worshipping Shelyn. Partly because I never seriously did oracle before, partly because having charisma for kingdom things is nice. I dropped the pure pacifist approach and instead went for control spells mostly as I think it's more fun to play somewhat proactively in the end. His spells still deal no damage, so it kind of upholds the idea. Also, while he starts off a bit weak in the support area, he gains a lot of it with each level. Buffs like heroism at level 7, inspire courage through summon monster at level 8 and evil eye and further hexes every two levels from level 9. He should be great to have in the party and fun to interact with. I'll think slightly more on the backstory. Going with the high cha it will probably be a more vibrant, in your face personality. A wandering minstrel or such that came with Borjen, tentatively... if anyone knows the reference, a bit like Oliver Lenheim from the Legend of Heroes series.
Interesting! Could you tell me slightly more about Borjan's background? What is known about him or why he chose to do this/come here? Is he still alive at the moment? Do I have some sort of leeway in his past for making up a backstory tiein into his? I might go for something like a second in command or close friend or such. Though in that case I might make the character male instead of female as it seems to fit it better.
Yeah, if you think too deeply on this then the concept does start to fall on its face :') However, I think it can serve as a motivation to join the colony. If she can't or won't put herself to fight enemies, the moment her protector is lost she needs to find a new one to have a chance at survival in a world like Golarion. So if we go with the Restoration Witch or shaman idea as her teacher, that person could go missing or such, which in turn might prompt her to seek out the colony. The cncept would be not to fight using spells breaking sanctuary: anything that can be considered 'an attack'. Though one or two non-damaging CC spells could be done to get people to run I suppose. Incidentally, this fighting style works towards: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/achievement-feats/healer-s-touch-achievement / Which is pretty cool.
All right, I have a bit of 'good' news: two campaigns just died again and I believe I have one spot open. So, if you'll have me still I'll go and finish the character. I had an idea for something I haven't seen before; a strictly pacifist cleric that can heal and buff very well, but never attacks directly nor inflict any damage to living targets. She'd fight with a combination of combat advice, healing, the luck domain and inspire courage while usually under a sanctuary effect. Out of combat it will be a cha/wis build so she can be a good diplomat, a priestess, or if you want to, a ruler. Slightly undecided on where she'd join/come from in this altered version. The idea is a Galtan survivor, a priestess of Shelyn, who fled the country some time ago, as the only survivor of her family falling to the revolution due to a combination of sacrifice by them and sheer luck on her part. She has since lived in the region doing missionary work between the outland factions there. Possibly an apprentice to a white witch living in the area, and that fear of said witch's wrath is what keeps her safe despite being a pacifist. Or she could have been with the group the entire time, but less noticed? Any thoughts?
Dropping by again. I've been unable to fully finish the concept for around two weeks now which I should probably take as a sign that I might not have the time at the moment to commit to this campaign after all :( It's partly due to some RL issues, partly due to two inactive campaigns suddenly becoming active again, and I feel like I should prioritise those over new ones. If you'll have me, I could linger around here and see how things develop, perhaps let you know if time frees up and jump in at a later date. The campaign does sound very interesting, still.
All right, cool. I read over the player's guide again and I think I'll combine the Shoanti idea with the setting background for half-elves. That'd make him a bastard son to a promiscuous/bored human noble daughter and one of the elves. He was cast out of the family with his mother, fell into poverty and eventually became a pesh addict. Zellara nursed him back to health after his almost fatal overdose and brought him into contact with the Shoanti, where he learned to abstain and channel his abilities. As such he has a life debt of sorts to Zellara and a reason to keep in contact/perform some favors for her from time to time. I did some more thinking on the build and I think I'll go for shaman with probably a splash of life oracle later. The thing is that past the first few revelations, the life oracle ones do not excite me much whereas the life shaman can pick hexes instead, which are fun. I have some remaining questions questions to DBH: -I'm tempted to take channeler of the society as a trait for 1 more channel energy per day, though it's normally restricted to the pathfinder society. Would you allow me to reflavor this trait to suit the shoanti instead? If not, that's fine as there's lots of good traits. Also: where can we find the shoanti in the city? Are they camped outside somewhere per the intro fluff? -Drawbacks are not a thing, correct? (it was discussed at one point but I do not believe the others have them, unless I overlooked it somewhere) -Will magic item crafting ever be a thing/allowed? This would influence his archetype and ability scores/skills. -What would be my starting wealth at level 2? And is the starting equipment included in this number?
Take care, DBH. So I've rounded the builds down to two concepts and wondered if anyone has a preference for either. The first would be a back-alley doctor of sorts, coerced/extored by Gaedren to keep his child slaves and men in good health if they need it. (I'm leaning into having been a drug addict or forced to make the drugs and then blackmailed over it). Perhaps also to try and keep the apparent head of Zellara from degrading as long as possible. He'd join in thanks for rolling up his operation, if Gaedren isn't killed outright then for allowing him to destroy whatever blackmailing material he has on him. He doesn't know why he has his oracle powers but tries to use them to make a living. Game-mechanically that would be a dual-cursed life oracle going fully divine save or suck on the side, with a touch of melee and later ranged capacity (he fights with a starknife with the feat that allows charisma on attack and damage with it. Later on he could pick additional feats to throw it and have decent ranged damage). Very straightforward, lots of healing and some support with granted rerolls. Not much utility apart from the divine spells. The second concept is a shoanti tribesman of sorts. A former drug addict whose trips down the coke trail allowed his conscience to make contact with the spirit world, which if what saved him from a potential fatal overdose. Afterwards, this unexpected gift pushed him towards those able to educate him in those matters which led to the Shoanti. He'd be an acquiantance of Zellara who maintains contact with her, and his main motivation to join would be to avenge her death. Though it would appear he is too late at that, and would settle for carrying our any last will of hers. This assumes she's actually dead (?). Game-mechanically that is a spirit guide life oracle. This guy doesn't have a really set game plan next to the healing as he can expand his spell list with different spells each day to suit the situation. He does have limited access to hexes later on. Notably, some spirit choices grant buffing or damage spells otherwise not available, like Barkskin or Heroism (and fireball?). Though Heroism is already available to the arcane trickster and the Magus through an arcana too. Does anyone have an opinion they'd like to weigh in on either? For instance, is everyone okay with using the Misfortune hex from the dual cursed oracle as that is fairly powerful?
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