Count Haserton Lowis IV

Uncle Taco's page

Organized Play Member. 308 posts (1,422 including aliases). No reviews. 1 list. 1 wishlist. 4 Organized Play characters. 12 aliases.


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The Exchange

I've been thinking about how to pull off a necromantic sneak attacker, specializing in chill and vampiric touch.

I suppose the big question I've had since this feat was added: given we can theoretically have an arcane trickster who's caster level is on par with a single classed sorcerer, are there any 9th level bad touch builds that will benefit from sneak attack? Does the early access allow us to do anything new?

Conventional wisdom says let your familiar do that for you (if you're a witch or wizard) but some builds may be able to have some fun.

An Unchained Rogue 1/ White-haired Witch 4/ Arcane Trickster X can probably have fun delivering her touch spells at reach (along with a free grapple check). The same can be said for a PC who takes four levels of aberrant sorcerer or five levels of blade adept arcanist (so that they can start burning feats on extra exploits).

I think a teleporting conjuration AT that delivers a touch attack and GTFOs with either the conjuration school ability or the arcanist exploit (or both) would be a pretty fun concept to bring on line.

The Exchange

Zaister wrote:
That is the symbol of your PFS faction, The Exchange.

I see. I took a break from pathfinder about a year and a half ago, didn't realize the factions changed so much (I remember hearing about the dark archive).

Thanks Kalindlara!

The Exchange

Anything new for Vishkanya?

EDIT: and while we're at it... Why is there poo next to the left of my name in this post?

The Exchange

1 person marked this as a favorite.

A half-elf with drow magic (or a charisma focused tiefling variant) could make a sexy Ninja 3/ Eldritch Scrapper Sorcerer 1/ AT 1/ Evangelist of Calistria (advancing the AT) 10/ Sorcerer 5

Martial versatility could mitigate some of the pain from the feat slot spent on deific obedience. The Evangelist PrC could help keep both skill points and BAB from falling too far behind. Plus this character gets the benefits of Calistria's boons which all synergize with Charisma ( even capping on an ability to redirect magic spells cast on this character with a perform check). You get all that and still progress AT as if at ECL 6.

The Exchange

Will post in the thread soon. Finalizing my character sheet.

The Exchange

This thread has played out like a Beckett play.

The Exchange

So. Everyone who's planned on submitting has submitted, right?

The Exchange

That's what I was thinking as well. Thanks!

The Exchange

Backstory v1.2:

He was supposed to be a warrior. He was a noble’s son who learned to commune with the spirits like the shamans, run as fast and silently as the panther, wield a staff with the grace and power of Ekujae who had practiced for centuries before he walked this world. He was beloved, feared, and respected among his peers and they knew — they all knew — that he would be the one to lead them. He was Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga — the all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest leaving fire in his wake. His accolades and trials all prepared him for greatness. When his tribe named him, those words meant everything to both he and them. But those words meant s%@@ to his would be captors.

He was captured during a raid and taken as a slave to Eledar. Barely twenty years old, Seko — as his captors took to calling him, found himself being auctioned off to potential buyers. Though he protested, and would often try to escape his confinement, his rebellious streak was eventually beaten out of him. He only spent a few short years in Eledar, just long enough to become proficient in the common tongue and learn who his new masters were. Due to his elven heritage and the fact that he would stay relatively “cute” for many decades to come, he was bought by a wealthy Kintargoan trader and shipped off to Cheliax.

For the next century Seko lived as a house elf; an occupation that took him all over infernal Cheliax. He cleaned cisterns in Kintargo, tucked noble brats in to sleep in Westcrown, polished organ pipes in Egorian, and even wiped the sweat from the queen of Korvosa’s head while she sat on the crimson throne. In his life he read the Asmodean Disciplines twice over, and memorized enough Chelish by-laws that he could engage barristers and attorneys in idle chat on legal minutiae and even challenge their interpretations. By all means, he was well liked, and maintained his relative popularity with the wealthy even after the old nobility was pushed out and the devil worshippers moved in to fill their void. His captors sometimes romanticized his primitivism, saying he was such a loyal slave because he was not corrupted by their Chelish ideals. They however, were too proud a people to ever be in such a sorry state. Many thanked their infernal masters for such a meek “friend” to wait on them hand and foot. The young elf entertained their prejudices for the most part. When he didn’t, he often found himself regretting it. Whether he was tied down and poked under the fingernails by malicious imps or locked in a box for a few weeks, his captors would always find creative ways to punish his insolence. So rather than test the limits of their creativity, he learned to play his role. Though he had his outlets.

There is no culture without counter culture, and within each city there is always a second city, sometimes a third or fourth. When Seko first arrived in Kintargo, slaves who lived there already showed him their city within the city: a place where he could laugh, gamble, drink, and make love away from the oppressive eyes of his captors. Whenever he found himself sold to a family in a new city, he would seek out that city’s second city, and there he would release himself and forget, if only for a few hours a night, that he was not once destined to be a great warrior. But it was also there that he practiced, holding onto the few tricks he was taught as a young elf. He supplemented these tricks with new ones learned from his Varisian counterparts. They had learned to use their ceremonial scarf, the Kapenia, in beautiful and deadly ways and he often found himself wanting to mimic them. He had one made for him, embroidered with silken wasps in honor of his people’s Goddess and lined it with blades so that one day, should he need to, he could lash out at his captors. At night he often wrapped himself in it to imagine his revenge. It would not be violent revenge, no, it would be a triumphant one. When he returned to the Mwangi Expanse he would retake his name and his people, and he’d die richer and more powerful than any of his Chelish captors. Then one day, suddenly, he was free.

The elf had found himself back in Kintargo after an extended stay in Korvosa. His owner, a moderately wealthy man who bought Seko for company, had stipulated the elf’s freedom in his will. Though at first glance, this looked like an act of benevolence, it turned out the old man only freed his slaves to spite his son, who Seko recalled was a failure and disgrace in the old man’s eyes. Now free, the reality of Seko’s situation began to set in. He was a stranger in a strange land. Every elf he met in Cheliax looked down on him twice over; once for being a wild elf and once again for being a slave. He had no relatives nearby and the second cities expelled him in good will as the one who made it, the one who could go back to living his life before enslavement. Lost and feeling unwelcome in infernal Cheliax, the elf scraped together the gold that he had kept with him over the years and bought passage back to the Mwangi expanse.

Crunch:

Sese Seko
Male elf magus (kapenia dancer, eldritch scion) 1 (Pathfinder Player Companion: Varisia, Birthplace of Legends, Pathfinder RPG Advanced Class Guide 104, Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic 9)
CN Medium humanoid (elf)
Init +3; Senses low-light vision; Perception +1
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 13, touch 13, flat-footed 10 (+3 Dex)
hp 9 (1d8+1)
Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +0
Defensive Abilities canny defense
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee bladed scarf +4 (1d6)
Special Attacks eldritch pool (+1, 4 points), spell combat
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st; concentration +4)
. . 1/day—dream
Magus (Kapenia Dancer, Eldritch Scion) Spells Known (CL 1st; concentration +4)
. . 1st (1/day)—frostbite{super}UM{/super}, shocking grasp
. . 0 (at will)—acid splash, detect magic, ray of frost, read magic
. . Bloodline Arcane
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 10, Dex 17, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 7, Cha 16
Base Atk +0; CMB +0; CMD 13
Feats Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (scarf, bladed)
Traits jenivere crew, magical lineage, talented
Skills Intimidate +7, Perception +1, Perform (dance) +4, Spellcraft +6 (+8 to identify magic item properties), Survival -1; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception, +2 Spellcraft to identify magic item properties
Languages Common, Elven, Orc, Sylvan
SQ arcane focus, bloodrager bloodline (arcane), disruptive bloodrage, dreamspeaker, elven magic, mark of slavery
Other Gear bladed scarf, 288 gp
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Arcane Focus +2 to concentration checks to cast arcane spells defensively.
Canny Defense +1 (Ex) +INT bonus to AC (max Magus level).
Disruptive Bloodrage (Su) +2 to DC for enemy spellcasters in threatened area when raging.
Dreamspeaker +1 [Divination] & sleep spell DCs.
Eldritch Pool +1 (4/day) (Su) As a swift action, gain access to bloodline powers for 2 rds.
Elven Magic +2 to spellcraft checks to determine the properties of a magic item.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Magical Lineage (Frostbite) A chosen spell counts as 1 level lower when metamagic feats are applied to it.
Mark of Slavery -2 to skills and attacks after failing a skill check, unless you're retrying the skill check,
Spell Combat (Ex) Use a weapon with one hand at -2 and cast a spell with the other.

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The Exchange

So the Eldritch Scion archetype can be combined with Kapenia dancer. I was wondering if the Eldritch Scion's eldritch pool makes it so that the canny defense ability of the Kapenia dancer is based off of Charisma instead of int. Here's the relevant texts.

Eldritch Pool(Su) wrote:


... Additionally, any magus's class feature or spell from the magus spell list that normally uses a calculation based on Intelligence is instead based on Charisma for an eldritch scion. For example, an eldritch scion with the arcane accuracy magus arcana grants himself an insight bonus on attacks equal to his Charisma bonus, not his Intelligence bonus. This has no effect on the eldritch scion's skills or skill points.

This ability replaces arcane pool, and abilities that modify arcane pool also modify eldritch pool.

Canny Defense wrote:


At 1st level, when a kapenia dancer is wielding a bladed scarf, he gains the canny defense ability.

This is identical to the duelist prestige class ability of the same name, save that his magus level (rather than his duelist level) affects his Armor Class.

The Exchange

I'm actually doing a small amount of refactoring myself to take advantage of the ACG and ISG because slashing grace and deific obediences are bewitchin' flesh Seko out some more. I'm also hoping Merelinda gets in so that Seko's not the only Calistrian in the party if he's selected.

The Exchange

Shasfowd wrote:
Uncle Taco wrote:
Too bad Gambit can't spell combat with his staff.
Actually good sir, he can. Staff Magus gives staff master at 1st level, allowing him to use a staff 1 handed.

I'm sorry, he can't spell strike with the staff. He can still spell combat.

The Exchange

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Too bad Gambit can't spell combat with his staff.

The Exchange

I would like to join a 7-11 with my bard. She's currently 10.

The Exchange

ginganinja wrote:

Might submit a Human Arcane Bloodline Sorcerer.

As far as who I am, I've played pathfinder for about a year, live in New Zealand (which actually works out nicely with the Friday / Saturday night times), and like playing APs. I'm playing with Duke in a RotRL game atm ^_^

As it turns out I'm in a game with ginganinja too. She's pretty cinematic, if a bit fiesty. I'm looking forward to seeing what she brings here.

Also 7 with two potential drops sounds good. Though I'm always wary of large parties. Those who can post many times throughout most of a day sometimes drown out those who cant post as often. Either way looking forward to your final selection.

@Rukea: I'm going to be maneuver focused as well. Should we both get in, we're going to have to coordinate our maneuvers to minimize overlap.

The Exchange

Thanks! I also really want to emphasize that my character will not be good as a primary damage dealer until a little later into his career. He's built to be a 5th party member. Speaking of which, how many are we going to have in the final party?

The Exchange

I'm in CST. And please, call me Unc. Your flurry of posts should happen around 11 for me. I should be ok to flurry.

The Exchange

Probably got buried but I asked earlier if I should resubmit sans grammatical errors. I rushed to post and left some in my bio that were pretty blaring to me.

The Exchange

I tend to be diverse in my race selections. The only reason I'm playing an elf this time is because I had a chance to play something a little different from the usual. If I were to break down the numbers I've probably played humans more than any other race.

The Exchange

Julian "Knives" Veartoll wrote:
Two drow, two elves (one a pirate) and two others walk into an island...

Sounds hot. Also I noticed a number of grammatical errors in my wall of text. Will that count against me or should I repost with the text formatted better? Will it count against me to resubmit?

The Exchange

I agree.

The Exchange

He will be secondary melee as I've envisioned him.

The Exchange

Thought I'd write a paragraph for a backstory and now I regret not stopping there. I've been Pathfinding for about four years now and I have pretty good system knowledge. Anyways here's Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga.

Background:

He was supposed to be a warrior. He was a noble’s son who learned to commune with the spirits like the shamans, run as fast and silently as the panther, wield a staff with the grace and power of Ekujae who had practiced for centuries before he walked this world. He was beloved, feared, and respected among his peers and they knew — they all knew — that he would be the one to lead them. He was Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga — the all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest leaving fire in his wake. These names, these accolades, all prepared him for greatness. When his tribe named him, those words meant everything to them. But those same words meant s!+@ to his would be captors.

He was captured during a raid and taken as a slave to Eledar. Barely twenty years old, Seko — as his captors took to calling him, found himself being auctioned off to potential buyers. Though he protested, and would often try to escape his confinement, his rebellious streak was eventually beaten out of him. He only spent a few short years in Eledar, just long enough to become proficient in the common tongue and learn who his new masters were. Due to his elven heritage and the fact that he would stay relatively “cute” for many decades to come, he was bought by a wealthy Kintargoan trader and shipped off to Cheliax.

For the next century Seko lived as a house elf, an occupation that took him all over infernal Cheliax. He cleaned cisterns in Kintargo, tucked noble brats in to sleep in Westcrown, polished organ pipes in Egorian, and even wiped the sweat from the queen’s head while she sat on the crimson throne. In his life he read the Asmodean Disciplines twice over, and memorized enough Chelish by-laws that he could engage barristers and attorneys in idle chat on legal minutiae and their interpretations. By all means, he was well liked, and maintained his relative popularity with the nobles even after the old nobility was pushed out and the devil worshippers moved in to fill the void they left. They sometimes romanticized his primitivism, saying he was such a loyal slave because he was not corrupted by their Cherish ideals. They however, were too proud a people to ever be in such a sorry state as he. Many thanked their infernal masters for such a meek “friend” to wait on them hand and foot. The young elf entertained their prejudices for the most part. For when he didn’t, he would find himself regretting it. Whether it was by being tied down and poked under the fingernails by malicious imps or locked in a box for a few weeks, his captors would always find creative ways to punish his insolence. So rather than test the limits of their creativity, he learned to play his role. Though he had his outlets.

There is no culture without counter culture, and within each city there is always a second city, sometimes a third or fourth. When Seko first arrived in Kintargo, slaves who lived there already showed him their city within the city: a place where he could laugh, gamble, drink, and make love away from the oppressive eyes of his captors. Whenever he found himself sold to a family in a new city, he would seek out that city’s second city, and there he would release himself and forget, if only for a few hours a night, that he was not once destined to be a great warrior. But it was also there that he practiced, holding onto the few tricks he was taught as a young elf. Whenever he found an old mop or broom and a moment alone, he would practice his old katas. He would cast spells from his book, which now was little more than a few sheets of tattered paper that he kept tucked away in his shirt. He’d imagine the day they would free him, and the day he would return to his tribe and be welcomed back with open arms by his people. For nearly one century, entertained these fantasies. Then one day he was free.

The elf had found himself back in Kintargo after an extended stay in Korvosa. His owner, a moderately wealthy man who bought Seko for company, had stipulated Seko’s freedom in his will. Though at first glance, this looked like an act of benevolence, it turns out the old man only freed his slaves to spite his son, who Seko recalled was a failure and disgrace in the old man’s eyes. Now free, the reality of Seko’s situation began to set in. He was a stranger in a strange land. Every elf he met in Cheliax looked down on him twice over; once for being a wild elf and once again for being a slave. He had no relatives nearby and the second cities expelled him in good will as the one who made it, the one who could go back to living his life before enslavement. Lost and feeling unwelcome in infernal Cheliax, the elf scraped together the gold that he had kept with him over the years and bought passage back to the Mwangi expanse.

With his dreams of being welcomed back now nightmares of being rejected as forlorn, Seko boards the Jenivere. He heads toward a homeland that is alien to him, and who’s people are little more than near forgotten memories.

Description:

Standing at 5'9, Seko is pretty short for an elf. He looks just as he did the day he was captured, as if a life in servitude seems to have stunted his slow trek into adulthood. His hair is in long brown dreadlocks that fall down his back and shoulders, many of which end in charms or nicknacks. He tends to be aloof, having been burdened with the deep melancholy that overtakes many Forlorn. This often takes the form of mercurialness and detachment. He can be a real screamer to be around.

Tentative Crunch:

Sese Seko
Male elf magus (hexcrafter, staff magus) 1 (Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic 9, 48, 49)
CN Medium humanoid (elf)
Init +2; Senses low-light vision; Perception +1
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 12, touch 12, flat-footed 10 (+2 Dex)
hp 9 (1d8+1)
Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +0; +2 vs. enchantments
Immune sleep
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Special Attacks arcane pool (+1, 4 points), spell combat
Magus (Hexcrafter, Staff Magus) Spells Prepared (CL 1st; concentration +4)
. . 0 (at will)—acid splash, detect magic, read magic
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 16, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 16, Wis 7, Cha 10
Base Atk +0; CMB +3; CMD 15
Feats Quarterstaff Master[UM], Rime Spell[UM]
Traits bruising intellect, jenivere crew, magical lineage
Skills Acrobatics +3, Intimidate +7, Perception +1, Spellcraft +7, Survival -1; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception, silent hunter
Languages Common, Draconic, Elven, Orc, Sylvan
SQ arcane focus, hex arcana, mark of slavery
Other Gear 300 gp
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Arcane Focus +2 to concentration checks to cast arcane spells defensively.
Arcane Pool +1 (4/day) (Su) Infuse own power into a held weapon, granting enhancement bonus or selected item powers.
Elven Immunities - Sleep You are immune to magic sleep effects.
Hex Arcana You can substitute Hexes for Magus Arcana.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Magical Lineage (Frostbite) A chosen spell counts as 1 level lower when metamagic feats are applied to it.
Mark of Slavery -2 to skills and attacks after failing a skill check, unless you're retrying the skill check,
Quarterstaff Master Use a quarterstaff one-handed
Rime Spell Spell with the cold descriptor also entangles creatures if the spell damages them
Silent Hunter Reduce Steath penalty for moving by -5, can make Stealth checks while running (at -20 - includes reduced penalty).
Spell Combat (Ex) Use a weapon with one hand at -2 and cast a spell with the other.

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The Exchange

Have fun y'all!

The Exchange

It's cool dude.

The Exchange

Going to throw this guy in the ring. I made him for a roll20 CotCT game that died after three sessions. He was originally a swashbuckler, but since we're shying away from ACG material I rejiggered the crunch and backstory. I'm stacking archetypes (in particular the Kapenia dancer and Hexcrafter archetypes) and taking a drawback so I need for you to look over the sheet and see if you disapprove of anything. The current plan is to focus on secondary melee and light debuffing.

Appearance:

Like any fullblooded Varisian, Andrea has a tanned complexion and deep brown hair. He stands at a respectable 5'11 and weighs about 150 pounds.

Around his neck one can usually find a number of trinkets, which is a surprising cultural carryover from his Varisian childhood. Most prominent among these is the pentagram, a symbol of his church, and a slightly smaller two-toned devil mask, a symbol of his patron devil Belial.

He carries a long red scarf that he can use as a weapon, but he usually wears it loosely over his shoulders or tied around his waist. It is usually only recognized as a weapon by those closest to him or the stray Varisian he may cross paths with.

Artist's Rendition

Also, there's an NPC described in his backstory. Here's how I imagine her looking.

Personality:

When he is not working or practicing with his scarf, Andrea is laid back and at times lackadaisical. He is shameless when it comes to his light drinking or occasional womanizing, which are habits that he developed after he left Old Korvosa and set himself on living a better life. He tends to live in the moment, but is quickly annoyed by other, more capricious, people.

Backstory(pretty long):

Andrea was born in Bridgefront and named Camlo Deivon Wildshanks; and he almost deserved it. Camlo was a precocious, solitary boy that dreamed of rising above the ghetto he grew up in. He did not like that he was born poor, nor did he like that on top of that he was a second class citizen. so at young age he reckoned he’d change that.

The transformation didn’t happen all at once. The boy learned to swindle and lie with the best of his peers. He also learned to recite Varisian lore as effortlessly as any fortune teller; and even wield a bladed scarf as easily as any Kapenia dancer. In fact, until he turned thirteen, the boy had resigned himself to wasting away in Bridgefront. His dream of rising above his station would have remained just that, a dream. At least until the lunatic Pandora returned.

She was a local legend whose name was always spoken in hushed tones and quick curses. Born in Bridgefront, she — much like Camlo — had severe reservations about dying destitute in that tiny strip of Old Korvosa. In her rebellion she found religion and joined a convent. It just so happened that convent was the Sisterhood of the Golden Erinyes. Word of her had trickled back to Korvosa over the years. Her ferocity (well, lunacy) in battle was well known to all who kept track of the Goblinblood Wars. But she was haughty and arrogant, and many in Old Korvosa didn’t want anything to do with her. At first sight of her, the neighborhood pretended like it had not noticed her swaggering in, but when her brother went crashing through her parent’s door less than an hour after she had arrived, they could not ignore her any longer. A small crowd gathered at the display that afternoon, and Pandora met them with a wide grin. She insulted them. She called them too weak to demand the respect of the Chelaxians. She claimed it did not take a harrowed mystic to tell that most of them would rot away in the slums of Old Korvosa. Though many averted their eyes and hurried away, one among them held on to every word. When she left the neighborhood that day, Camlo left with her.

The boy quickly took to his new lifestyle; as well as the religion that came with it. The church of Asmodeus encouraged his latent arcane talents and through judicious discipline and proper training they taught him to wield both weapon and spell. Though he planned on taking up the scimitar, Pandora encouraged him to continue mastering his style with the bladed scarf and take up Belial as his patron devil. “Wear his colors,” she told him once, “for in our culture his red and white are the colors of lust, long life, and inner strength. Your weapon, your faith, and your people are all encompassed in your beautiful weapon and your deadly art.”

Despite her bravado and violent display on the day he met her, Pandora turned out to be a proud Varisian. She hoped her example, and by extension Camlo’s, would be the example her people needed to stand up and join the rest of Korvosa away from the slums. She taught Camlo that the Chelaxians valued strength over all else, and convinced him that if their people could prove their strength, the Chelaxians would welcome them. She encouraged his full assimilation into Korvosa’s mainstream culture, even convincing him to change his name to something more prideful — more Chelaxian: Andrea Doria.

Seven years after Andrea turned his back on Old Korvosa Pandora found another youth, Manar. She was a hot tempered little girl with fiery red hair to match and she stole their hearts. They quickly took her in and began to put her through the same process Pandora once did for Andrea, but then she disappeared. One day she was at the market with Andrea, the next she was gone. He and Pandora searched all over, even threatening locals who were too stingy with what little they did know of the incident, but came up short. Manar’s disappearance put a strain on Pandora and Andrea’s relationship and the two separated, each quietly blaming the other for the young girl’s disappearance. A month after the incident, word reached Andrea’s ears of a group of pick pockets scouring the streets of Korvosa. There was even a rumor that one of them was a young girl with auburn hair. Andrea took it upon himself to investigate and soon came upon a name: Gaedren Lamm. Nowadays, Andrea divides his time doing odd jobs for his church and investigating Manar’s disappearance. Beyond a name, so far he has not gotten any further leads on the whereabouts of Lamm and his Lambs.

Crunch:

Andrea Doria
Male human (varisian) magus (hexcrafter, kapenia dancer) 1 (Pathfinder Player Companion: Varisia, Birthplace of Legends; Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic 9, 48)
LN Medium humanoid (human)
Init +3; Senses Perception -1
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 17, touch 14, flat-footed 13 (+3 armor, +3 dexterity, +1 dodge)
hp 10 (1d8+2)
Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +1
Defensive Abilities canny defense
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee bladed scarf +3 (1d6)
Ranged shortbow -2 (1d6/×3)
Magus (Hexcrafter, Kapenia Dancer) Spells Prepared (CL 1st; concentration +4)
. . 1st—
. . 0 (at will)—
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 10, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 7, Cha 12
Base Atk +0; CMB +0; CMD 14
Feats Rime Spell[UM], Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (scarf, bladed)
Traits bruising intellect, magical lineage, missing child (son or daughter)
Skills Acrobatics +3, Diplomacy +2, Intimidate +7, Knowledge (arcana) +7, Knowledge (local) +4, Perception -1, Spellcraft +7
Languages Common, Infernal, Shoanti, Varisian
SQ arcane pool, hedonistic, hex arcana, spell combat
Other Gear studded leather, arrows (20), bladed scarf, shortbow, backpack, canteen, perfume/cologne, reinforced scarf, 88 gp
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Arcane Pool +1 (4/day) (Su) Infuse own power into a held weapon, granting enhancement bonus or selected item powers.
Canny Defense +1 (Ex) +INT bonus to AC (max Magus level).
Hedonistic If you do not gain a reward in a day, you are fatigued for 4h the next day (Fort DC 20 negates)
Hex Arcana You can substitute Hexes for Magus Arcana.
Magical Lineage (Frostbite) A chosen spell counts as 1 level lower when metamagic feats are applied to it.
Rime Spell Spell with the cold descriptor also entangles creatures if the spell damages them
Spell Combat (Ex) Use a weapon with one hand at -2 and cast a spell with the other.

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Pathfinder® and associated marks and logos are trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC®, and are used under license.

The Exchange

Just finished the Magican's Trilogy. Quentin Coldwater was a great protagonist but it took me 2 1/3 books to warm up to him.

Would any of you recommened the Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone?

The Exchange

revaar wrote:


I'd wait until level 7 to start focusing on summons. The summon lists aren't too amazing on the good side until you get to Summon Monster IV, when you can start throwing out multiple lantern archons. Coincidentally, that is also around where clerics start to loose steam in comparison to Full BAB martials, due to delayed iterative attacks. I'd take Power attack at lvl 5 (make sure to use the lvl 4 stat up on Str), and Summon Good Monster at lvl 7.

Don't forget to take Mythic power attack and mythic combat reflexes!

Even with Summon Good Monster? I saw a LOT of NG monsters on that list starting at level 1.

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So here's how mythic works. Once I get my first tier, it's basically added sugar on top of my build. So let me build out to level five:

STR:12, DEX:14, CON:12, INT:7, WIS:16, CHA:10 before +2 modifier

Deity: Shelyn
Domains: Love, Fate

1. Channel Smite, Guided Hand
3. Combat Reflexes
5. Toss up feat but the 2 candidates are summon good monster and power attack)

At 5th level, we start doing Mythic tiers and all of the mythic stuff gets added ON TOP OF my regular feats and abilities. Going the hierophant route my new mythic abilities will be

Divine Surge: Inspired Spell
Path Ability: Mighty Summons*
Mythic Feat: Guided Hand (Mythic)

* Mighty Summons: This is a pretty amazing thing to have. The player basically gets superior summons without having to take spell focus and augment summons. Sure they lose out on the +4 STR and CON to their summoned monsters, but I'd argue that's a small price to pay. At level 7 I'll probably take sacred summons to start casting as a standard action.

TBH, if I go the evangelist route, I may take combat reflexes and summon good monster at level 1, then channel smite and guided hand at 3 and 5 respectively so that I'll have something to do with my move actions at level 7 besides move.

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So I'm starting a WotR campaign with a cleric of Shelyn (verdict is still out on whether he'll be an evangelist archetype or not) and was wondering if it would be good to take the channel smite, guided hand combo at first level. I know that pushes combat reflexes back a bit to my 3rd level feat, but when we get our first mythic tiers around level 5/6 I'll be able to take mythic guided hand and do WIS to damage when using a glaive and make my cleric SAD.

I was thinking of scores STR:12, DEX:14, CON:12, INT:7, WIS:15 + 2, CHA:10

If I don't do the guided hand route, I'll be able to use those first few feats for combat reflexes and to get started down the superior summoning feat chain. What do you guys think?

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NobodysHome wrote:

Spoiler:
And it seems like a completely random time for my latest update:

- As I posted previously, the redoubt was a nice fight that I could scale up or down based on my whim-of-the-moment: Should all the scavengers attack the PCs and turn it into a deadly encounter, or should they stick to eating the plethora of food being dropped on their heads? I chose the latter, and the players greatly appreciated my playing the scavengers "realistically". It made their fight easier, but it reminded them, "There, but for the grace of the dice, go I."

- We had a lot of nice RP with Arushelae. As I guessed, the moment the party learned her redemption took Will saves she was sporting a Cloak of Resistance + 5 and a Headband of Inspired Wisdom + 2. But it's what my party does, and I was VERY happy to see them behaving like themselves again. Not to mention an absolutely wonderful time with a cleric of Desna who happened to be in Nerosyan when they teleported there... Excellent AP moments!

- The basilisks outside Vang's compound were similarly fun. The party used Fog Cloud to wonderful effect and the fight was easy, but it was again a fight they had to think about, instead of just, "We go in and kill it."

- Unfortunately, the half-fiend minotaurs definitely fell into the, "We are under-CR'ed mooks. Why are we here again?" genre. More than any other fight we've run so far, the half-fiends were a massive, "Ho hum."

- In spite of all the complaints about the AP, Jerribeth was an out-and-out awesome fight. She blew her first defensive cast (a 1 on her Concentration check) and took some damage, but managed to Reverse Gravity to stick the fighter to the ceiling, fall to the floor to get out of the fighter's reach thanks to the bard's Grease, and Power Word: Stun the sorceress. With the sorceress out of the combat and the fighter a hopeless archer, things looked pretty good for her... 'til the d**ned cleric used Dispel Evil on the stun. From my reading of all...

Hey, NobodysHome, could you spoiler that info?

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DrDeth wrote:

What would have happened if both the dog and thug had saved, but your fighter failed? TPK, no?

And, D&D is a Game. Games are supposed to be Fun. It's hard to have Fun without Playing.

I agree 100% and I think he realizes that he was out of line because he contacted me afterwards. I'm going to talk to him more about this before our next game to make sure most OOC issues are ironed out.

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BretI wrote:
I can't be sure, but it looks to me that the arcanist could have moved differently, gotten the dog, and left both you and the thug out of the spell. If that is true, it would have been better for him to ask if it was OK before attacking you.

It was a pretty narrow space, about 25ft across. He had the option to use a crossbow but instead chose to use the Color Spray. He choice just so happened to be the one that shut my character down for the rest of the game.

He and I talked and I pretty angrily told him exactly why I wasn't cool with what he did though he tried to justify it as him choosing a tactically superior option. He apologized, vaguely, so we'll see how the rest of our sessions go. That was our first game together, both as characters and as a group so he was pretty much a stranger to me until last night. I'm going to talk to him some more now that I've cooled down about it. I just wanted to get some outside opinions to know how I should approach him about it because I really don't want to bump heads as players again in the future.

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Joana wrote:
I once had a Superstitious Barbarian color sprayed by a party member. The player in question left the group shortly afterward, or it would definitely have been an on-going issue within the party. My barbarian hated that PC, and my feelings toward the player weren't too terribly dissimilar, especially when the IC response was "What are you complaining about? It didn't hurt you."

Was it during battle or as part of a squabble? I'd like to keep it unambiguous that the guy who color sprayed the fighter in my scenario did have a reason, though I don't think it was a very good one.

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He was an Arcanist, so he was a little bit of column A, a little bit of column B in regards to his spell options.

Now, as far as positioning, the thug and dog were in kind of an L shape with the fighter character. I'll try to recreate the situation here The arcanist was west of the Dog. The Fighter was 5ft south of the dog, the thug was 5ft west of the fighter and 10ft to the west of the thug was a cleric. The thug was standing in a doorway.

Arcanist-5 Feet-Dog
_________________________Fighter-5 Feet-Thug-|Door|10 Feet-Cleric

Now last turn, the dog attacked the Arcanist but missed, then on the fighter's turn he uses acrobatics to get into the position where he is now, in an L shape with the dog and thug and I suppose an inverted L shape with the arcanist and dog and attacks the thug, visibly hurting him. The arcanist takes a 5ft step back on his turn and casts color spray, flooring the dog, thug, and fighter. Hope that helps give a better idea of what happened.

Also bites typically do 1d4 + Str modifier, particularly at low levels. So I doubt there was much of a chance the Arcanist would've gone down on anything other than a critical hit.

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Pan wrote:
Of course I imagine this wasnt a two person party so some context is missing. Why didnt anyone wake the fighter up?

Was told by the GM it was a magical unconsciousness effect so no one could wake the fighter. I don't have rules mastery and didn't want to hold up combat to look up if that was actually a thing or not.

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tl;dr: Is it ok to cast an AoE spell that could possibly leave another PC unable to do anything for the rest of the game without his consent or knowledge if it is to neutralize a threat to your own PC. My answer is no, but I would still like input from the community.

You're a level 1 arcane caster at full health. Adjacent to you is a dog that missed you on its last turn and likely to attack you next turn. 15ft away a thug is engaged in melee with your party members. You plan on using color spray to take out the dog and the thug on your next turn, but keep it to yourself. One of your party members moves into your cone and severely hurts the thug to where its visible that he will fall in one more hit. You use color spray anyways because you want to stop the dog from hurting you (because like any good arcane caster, you're not wearing armor). Both enemies and your party member fail their will saves. The player spends the last hour of gameplay unconscious because you're not out of initiative yet, as enemies not immediately visible hear the fracas going on and are alerted.

Was casting that color spray the right thing to do if it results in you shutting out another player? On one hand, yes, you neutralized two threats, but on the other hand you've also taken agency away from the player who has to sit twiddling his thumbs until he can get back up. Unfortunately in the case of the aforementioned scenario, which is based on real events, that doesn't happen because it happened about an hour from when the game was supposed to end.

Now there's arguments to be made about how tactful it was to use that color spray. The color sprayed player did not know the spell was in the pipeline and had already taken his action by the time he was alerted to what the arcane caster had planned on doing. On the other hand the caster was looking to neutralize probable threats. I just want some opinions on the matter because this question has been burning me since my game last night.

Full disclosure: I'm that melee character, and I tried to represent both sides of the argument to the best of my abilities, given I'm still sore about the whole situation.

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OK people, hate to be that guy, but lets not derail this thread into a dump stat debate. I really don't want to see us go down that rabbit hole.

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My cleric's RP with dumped INT is basically he spent so much time praising the good lord Asmodeus that he didn't have time to pick up a lot of skills. He was also functionally illiterate until he was a teenager.

On topic though... Monkey Lunge for a 9th level feat, yay or nay?

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Lord Snow wrote:


Do not, under any circumstances, read THE NAME OF THE WIND.

My girlfriend keeps suggesting it. I keep saying no. I'll check the other two out!

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Just started Anathem. I found a hardback copy in a used book store today (as well as a copy of Saturn's Children with the British cover ^_^) and decided to reread it because for the life of me I cannot remember anything but slivers of its story.

Can anyone recommend any fantasy where the protagonist isn't a very special snowflake? I've been having trouble finding stuff that doesn't engage in Great Man fiction.

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Cr500cricket wrote:
I know this is SCV but anyone have something for Zasalamel?

Reluctant war priest of Urgathoa. His sacred Weapon is of course the Scythe.

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Hey Askren. I sent you a skype contact request. I'm interested in playing both!

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Well I tried. If people feel like they would be giving up too much then I'm not going to push them into playing with me.

Here's my sheets.

6 person party:

Paimon the Fool
Male Half-Orc (Arena-Bred, Mystic) Ninja (Scout) 1 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide 0; Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Combat 13)
LE Medium humanoid (human, orc)
Init +4; Senses Perception +3
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 10 (+4 Dex)
hp 10 (1d8+2)
Fort +4, Ref +8, Will +1
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Special Attacks sneak attack +1d6
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 18, Dex 18, Con 15, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 17
Base Atk +0; CMB +4; CMD 18
Feats Combat Reflexes, Endurance
Traits almost human, blasphemy, fate's favored
Skills Acrobatics +8, Diplomacy +7, Disable Device +6, Disguise +3 (+7 on checks to pass as human), Escape Artist +8, Intimidate +4, Perception +3, Perform (act) +7, Stealth +8, Use Magic Device +7
Languages Common, Orc
SQ hedonistic, orc blood, poison use
Other Gear 150 gp
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Blasphemy +2 trait bonus to Knowledge (religion) and Knowledge (religion) is always a class skill for you.
Combat Reflexes (5 AoO/round) Can make extra attacks of opportunity/rd, and even when flat-footed.
Endurance +4 to a variety of fort saves, skill and ability checks. Sleep in L/M armor with no fatigue.
Fate's Favored Increase luck bonuses by 1.
Hedonistic If you do not gain a reward in a day, you are fatigued for 4h the next day (Fort DC 20 negates)
Orc Blood Half-orcs count as both humans and orcs for any effect related to race.
Poison Use You do not risk poisoning yourself accidentally while poisoning a weapon.
Sneak Attack +1d6 Attacks deal extra dam if flank foe or if foe is flat-footed.

Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com
Pathfinder® and associated marks and logos are trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC®, and are used under license.

8 person party:

Paimon #2
Male Half-Orc (Mystic) Ninja 1 (Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Combat 13)
LE Medium humanoid (human, orc)
Init +4; Senses Perception +3
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 10 (+4 Dex)
hp 10 (1d8+2)
Fort +4, Ref +8, Will +1
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Special Attacks sneak attack +1d6
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 12, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 8, Cha 12
Base Atk +0; CMB +1; CMD 15
Feats Combat Expertise, Endurance
Traits almost human, blasphemy, fate's favored
Skills Acrobatics +8, Diplomacy +5, Disguise +5 (+9 on checks to pass as human), Heal +0, Intimidate +5, Perception +3, Perform (act) +5, Profession (torturer) +3, Stealth +8, Use Magic Device +5
Languages Common, Goblin, Orc
SQ hedonistic, orc blood, weapon familiarity, poison use
Other Gear 150 gp
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Blasphemy +2 trait bonus to Knowledge (religion) and Knowledge (religion) is always a class skill for you.
Combat Expertise +/-1 Bonus to AC in exchange for an equal penalty to attack.
Endurance +4 to a variety of fort saves, skill and ability checks. Sleep in L/M armor with no fatigue.
Fate's Favored Increase luck bonuses by 1.
Hedonistic If you do not gain a reward in a day, you are fatigued for 4h the next day (Fort DC 20 negates)
Orc Blood Half-orcs count as both humans and orcs for any effect related to race.
Poison Use You do not risk poisoning yourself accidentally while poisoning a weapon.
Sneak Attack +1d6 Attacks deal extra dam if flank foe or if foe is flat-footed.

Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com
Pathfinder® and associated marks and logos are trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC®, and are used under license.

The Exchange

After sitting here working on a character sheet that may or may not be used, I decided to throw this out there for the dogs: I want to play in this game, I know Victor wants to play in this game, and I'm positive we're both on more than a few of the characters that got in's lists. I know there's a worry about the game being bogged down by 8 people but with 13 people (some posting frequently, others not) we were able to do a really good RP and feel like things were going somewhere, so I want to ask if Victor and I can play from the beginning. I know the campaign is designed for 4-6 people but I've seen DM Asmodeus accommodate 8 people at a table and keep the game challenging, so I feel justified in going ahead and asking for it.

The Exchange

Just take the drow magic racial trait to get some cantrips as SLAs. Then you can qualify for arcane strike which will give you scaling bonus damage plus treat your natural attack as a magic weapon.

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My straight man and I are alternates. Can't say I'm not disappointed, but have fun guys. I'll tuck this guy away for another day.

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RainyDayNinja wrote:
So I feel like I've been reading almost exclusively fantasy lately. Does anyone have any recommendations for good hard science fiction (preferably recent)?

Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross. Its a late-era Heinleinian space opera.

The Exchange

Lets say I took an archetype that replaced the Warpriest's bonus feats with a sneak attack progression and took a race whose favored class bonus was 1/6 of a bonus feat. Does the bonus feat not being a class feature anymore negate the FCB bonus or would I still get a bonus feat after taking the FCB for 6 levels?

The Exchange

Well... I made a lot of changes in panic to try and make my character fit better.

10 Minute Background v1.2:

Background Concepts

1. Member of the Midnight Circus, a Kuthite cell masquerading as an entertainment troupe. They were founded by a man known as the Shepherd. Cunning and seductive, he was easily able to recruit a loyal following to his Midnight Circus. No one really knows why he started the Circus, though many of his troupe do not care. In all there are a dozen troupe members, with Paimon being the only clown as well as the youngest among them.

2. Is a contortionist and acrobat by profession. He was recruited at a fairly young age to join the midnight circus. His act, Paimon the Fool, represents man’s desire to express creatively given the constraints of his station, and live with meaning not tainted by willing slavery to unworthy masters. If Samuel Beckett or Albert Camus were to see it, they might find it cute.

3. Wears a mask to protect his face. Paimon’s mother was a scarred witch doctor who was driven out of town and into witchcraft by the young lord who impregnated her. A proud half-orcess she tried to indoctrinate her son into her painful faith. That was all cut short however when inquisitors of Mitra arrived and killed her. When he first joined the Circus at the age of ten, he took an old Stalker’s Mask to wear in his first performance. When he saw its magic, he likened its power to that his mother’s fetish mask had and decided to wear during performances. At the beginning of each performance, Paimon walks out in front of the crowd and, after scanning them, takes one of their faces to be his own for the duration of his show. This adds a level of realism and cements Paimon the Fool as an everyman.

4. Well spoken and very charming, though natively he speaks with a colloquial Talingardian accent. He usually greets people with a received pronunciation and holds onto it until he gets to know them. His voice is a very distinct baritone. Like late 70s David Bowie. Paimon was illiterate until the age of ten, but picked up reading fast. His education was off the cuff. He learned history through the songs Otho, Botho, Clotho, and D’Artagnan. He learned his vocabulary from many-tongued Manar. He learned to move with grace from Argalia who was once called Arcalia. Every troupe member helped raise the boy and their slaughter places the heavy burden of revenge on his heart.

5. Son of a human and a half-orc, he was blessed with a skin tone normal for a human, if not a bit tanned. Paimon is freakishly tall (standing a whopping 6’7), freakishly limber, and freakishly charming. His hair is a lush auburn and eyes a seductive hazel. He can nearly pass for a human.

Two Goals
1. He wants to avenge the deaths of his troupe not by destroying Talingarde but by razing the foundation of the so called Shining God’s church and replacing it with something even more sinister and yet closer to his vision of how the world should be governed.

2. My goal for the character is to see him rise above his station and do something not even he expected he was capable of. I want him to realize that he is a key piece in the tapestry that the characters and players will be weaving and become eager to take part in it.

Two Secrets about your character
1. He does indeed remember his true name, and the only one to ever coax it out of him was the Shepherd, the leader of his cell. Of his many secrets, Shepherd told him shorty before their arrests, he only had one fit for a king.

2. The Shepherd turned the troupe in and ultimately betrayed them all. Paimon, who will be the last to burn for his heresy, is not aware of this. He believes Shepherd was killed in the initial raid.

Three People tied to the character
1. Argalia or Arcalia: One of the last surviving members of Paimon’s troupe. He received his name due to his former name, Arcalia, being localized into the common tongue to become Argalia. An expert swordsman, he taught a younger Paimon the particulars of stage combat. In a former life, he was a paladin of Sarenrae, but he was seduced by the Shepherd into falling, and became a loyal member of the Midnight Circus Troupe. Dance and swordplay are one in the same to him and he often played the foil to Paimon’s brutish buffoon on stage. It is said he lopped the scalp off of two soldiers for every troupe member murdered the night they were found, but being the modest man he is, Argalia or Arcalia will never tell.

2. The Memory Palace: Once Lady Black Eyes’ Mirror. When her mistress died, she became empty, a mirror with no one to reflect. Losing her own power to enchant, she was captured by Talingardian soldiers and taken away with nary a whimper. She was soon saved by Argalia who was once Arcalia, and given new purpose. She was told to lock her mistress’s memories away inside of herself, in every room and corner of her mind, and hide the key until the time is right. Argalia who was once Arcalia tasked her with keeping the history of the Midnight Circus and all of its wonders until a time it would be safe to once again release it to the world. She then became the Memory Palace, and currently travels with Argalia, who protects and loves her.

3. The Shepherd. A man who found Paimon when he was just a street urchin. He took the boy in and raised him to be the monster he is today. A master of lies, it was through his efforts that the Circus was able to remain clandestine even as the whispers of their dark art spread throughout the country. Ultimately, though, his greatest asset proved to be the Circus’s downfall. He turned them into the authorities and their wholesale slaughter rests entirely at his doorstep. He is still at large somewhere. He looks a lot like Pinhead from Hellraiser.

Three Memories.
1. Paimon remembers his mother being beheaded by agents of Mitra for witchcraft. He was only seven years old when it happened but remembers the day vividly.

2. He remembers the Shepherd finding him at the orphanage they sent him to after his mother’s death.

3. He remembers the raid that killed a large number of his many-true-loves and arrested the rest. In particular he remembers Shepherd’s throat being slit right in front of his eyes.

Background v2.0:

Before he was Paimon the Fool, he was Paimon the Boy. His mother was an outcast, a half-orc servant girl ran out of town by the young lord who impregnated her. Vowing to never be a victim again, she turned to the faith of her father. He was a half-orc himself who had died smuggling she and her mother into the heartland from the savage north. His faith involved long forgotten Orc spirits, and they were more than eager to whisper into the ear of a desperate young woman. Soon, she found herself crafting a crude mask out of dark wood at their behest. When the boy was born, she begged her patrons to not let him be weak, and to make him strong — if not stronger — than her and her ancestors. She scarred herself as he was being born, and scarred him with a sacred tattoo before she ever held him hoping to ensure pain was this first thing he'd know. Over the years she turned him into her able apprentice. Knowing only legends of the Scarred Witch Doctors, as few ever made it down from the savage north, his mother’s tutelage often manifested itself in brutal and unpolished affairs. Tortures meant to strengthen the boy and awaken his mystic powers did little more than inure him to pain and make suffering natural. The strange boy, perhaps tainted by the patrons his mother called out to for power, was not one to cry out or show pain. In fact he seemed to enjoy it. Though he never manifested magical powers he learned that power was always going to be painful to aquire. Even at a young age, he was aware that if he were ever to be as strong as his crazed mother demanded him to be, he would have to know pain.

When he turned seven, the purges came for them, and Mitra’s inquisitors, scouring the nation looking for witches and heretics like his mother, found her. He remembers seeing the shining knights approaching from the distance. He remembers his mother dawning her mask and scarring herself in anticipation of their arrival. He remembers the spectacular battle that ensued as his mother met the agents of Mitra with hostility. But he remembers most the loss he felt as the agents subdued and beheaded her. He learned his mother’s final lesson that day: that pride is no substitute for power. She was a proud, humiliated, woman who — so he understood years later when he looked back upon her death – made a grave mistake of believing that she would have done better fighting than running. Because of her humiliation at the hands of his father, she had let her pride get the better of her, and forgot her common sense. Even though years later he would forget his name, he would never forget his mother’s fatal act of foolishness.

The knights took him to an orphanage in Matharyn where he soon built up a reputation as a little troublemaker. He would bully the other children in cruel ways: beating them up when left alone with them, pushing them down stairs and into streets in front of carts, and even making them lick the bottom of cisterns. He would often hear the Mithran nuns dismiss his savagery as the unfortunate result of he growing up with a savage mother. Of course the boy knew the truth, but was usually met with patronizing stares as he would try to explain his scumbag father or his mother’s Orcish faith. It was during this time he grew to hate Mitra. The so called Shining God gave purpose to the knights who killed his mother and the nuns who imprisoned him in the orphanage and as far as it concerned the boy, there had to be another way, a better way. Then, as if to answer his wishes, when he was eleven years old a mysterious man appeared near his bed one day. The man had somehow managed to find a way into the orphanage without waking the other children. He told the boy that he was a Shepherd and had come to add to his flock. The boy had stuck his head under his covers at first, hoping the strange man would go away, but he only continued speaking. His words went down like honey. He spoke of decadent vagabonds and experience beyond limits, of a life where a man could express himself away from Mitra’s prying eyes. He promised he could remake the boy into something more, something beautiful, something monstrous. The boy's imagination set on fire with visions of lights, audiences, and theater. He also loved the chance to craft his pain into something more constructive. The boy agreed and took the Shepherd’s offer, soon finding himself to be the latest member of the Midnight Circus.

The Midnight Circus was a troupe of entertainers whose mission was to explore the frontiers of experience. They were contortionists who broke bones, sword eaters who pierced flesh, fire drinkers who immolated themselves from the inside out, and actors who could take as many freakish roles as there were stars in the sky. They existed in defiance of the so-called Shining God, and lived to showcase pleasures Mitra denied them. The troupe operated in secret, performing for audiences only a few times a year and only after the stroke of midnight. When they weren’t performing they were training. They spent days learning new pleasures to inflict on themselves for the awed crowds, and nights longing to perform. The boy learned to channel his darker desires to hurt others and himself into something constructive and — at least to he and the Circus — beautiful. He took to extreme contortion, learning how to break his bones and twist himself into painful twists and shapes. With a flair for drama he learned how to tell stories through interpretive movements. He took as his own a Stalker’s Mask, and used it as a prop for his show, which was only one of many. They performed only a few shows a season, as too many would jeopardize their troupe in the face of the law. Their elaborate shows resembled services typical of faithful Kuthites. They usually blurred the lines between pleasure and pain or encouraged dangerous or humiliating sex, and the audience was always welcome to join them. Towns would whisper for days in anticipation of their arrival, and a few brave souls would even join the actors on stage. More than once someone left the circus with a fresh bruise or a brand new set of stitches to show off to their friends. Few could fathom seeing something so sinister, and fewer could fathom participating in it.

The boy’s show in particular involved surreal examinations of a buffoon. He was not a buffoon because he was dumb — that was rarely the case, tragically, but because in the face of the absurd he strived. Each night he would look out to the audience and select one, it did not matter who, and take their face as his own. He would then activate his stalker’s mask and become a buffon in their image. He was at times a seducer who believed in no noble love but that which recognized itself as both short lived and exceptional. He was at other times a conquerer who forwent all promises of eternity to affect and engage fully in human history. Even still he could be a man doomed to carry a rock up a hill just to see it roll down on the other side again. Over the course of three hours he could travel the whole course of a life, or stretch a small moment out to examine its little parts. There was little focus on logical acts, realistic occurrences, or traditional character development; instead, focus stayed on human beings trapped in an incomprehensible world subject to any occurrence, no matter how illogical. Shining gods could not save them in the buffoon's world and it sent a powerful message. He laughed when in pain, cried when in pleasure, and treated both acts as two sides of the same glorious coin. He could assault his audiences senses by blending the mundane and the absurd with vaudevillian precision. After perfecting this absurd theater, the boy gave his show a name, Paimon the Fool, and took it as his own as well.

His was not the only act in the Midnight Circus. There was Otho, Botho, Clotho, and D’Artagnan; giants blessed with angel’s voices who would sing ancient hymns etched into each other’s backs. There was Alaïs and Anaïs, the mattress and skeleton; called that because the former was so fat that one could sleep in the folds of her skin and the latter because she was so skinny one could cut glass on her elbows. There was Argalia who was once Arcalia; the beautiful Keleshite whose scimitar could remove a scalp in one swing without damaging the brain. There was Manar al-Fajr, who could say I love you in twelve languages but instead chose instead to use her teeth. There was the Enchantress of Isam, Lady Black Eyes, and her mirror who had no name; she was a woman so beautiful that men would gouge their eyes out for fear of tainting her image with the ugly world, and her mirror who was just as beautiful reflected her in all but name. And last there was the Shepherd; their ringmaster and leader, who united these misfits into a troupe like no other, a grand showcase of sadomasochism and the absurd. For many years Paimon and the Midnight Circus operated in secret, their name whispered among seekers of the perverse. Their audience was always filled with explorers and pleasure seekers, people who relished in observing the bizarre. They loved having a place to laugh not just at the absurdity of their own religion, but also a place to cast it off for one depraved night of queer ecstasy.

Then, they found the circus. While performing their most spectacular show yet to an audience of almost one hundred, the Knights of the Alerion descended on them. It was sudden, and largely unexpected. Within the hour most of the troupe died along with many of the audience members. Blood had stained Mitra’s hands that night. They took Paimon out rather early in the skirmish. He awoke to find himself in a stinking cell with about half a dozen of the audience members. For three days and nights they left him in a cell to starve while Talingarde's finest judges prepared to try them. But on the third night, he heard a whisper from outside of the cell. It was Argalia using the message cantrip. He had survived the raid. Relieved, Paimon believed Argalia was there to rescue him. Unfortunately that was not the case. With Mitra’s supremacy in Talingarde, there was no place for the Circus in Talingarde. A rescue would be nigh impossible, as they were planning to burn Paimon for his blasphemy. Zon-Kuthon was a forbidden deity even before Talingarde outlawed the panthon, and they planned to make Paimon an example. Paimon thanked Argalia and the two said their goodbyes. Then Paimon made a promise that day. If he could somehow escape his execution, he would bring about the fall of Mitra. Until this point, every tragedy in his life was done in the name of the so-called Shining God. If he escaped, vengeance would be his and the Shining God's faithful, no matter their numbers, would have Talingarde no more.

Questionnaire v1.5:

1. How does your character interact with the others within a group?
For all of his love of torture and depravity, his time in the Midnight Circus has made him a team player. People rarely talk about the positives of being in a cult, but one of them is learning how to work with a small group of people to achieve a common goal.

2. What is your character's role in a group?
Party face and secondary melee. A smooth talker and actor by profession, he can be very effective at persuading people without relying on magic or tricks. He’ll also act as a melee debuffer.

3. How is your character not as they seems? I want one or two skills that would surprise others if they found out he knows them. Also include personality traits, positive or negative, that would similarly surprise others.
Paimon stands 6’7 and weighs 227 pounds. Needless to say, he looks like a brute. However he is quite limber and is also quite the contortionist and actor (which is talked about heavily in his background). When one expects him to act with force, he chooses precision. When one expects him to be clumsy, he instead surprises them with grace. He also once had quite the tea cup collection before his troupe was raided.

4. What are your character's goals, conscious and, perhaps, subconscious?
His goal is to free Talingarde to explore without limitations. He finds Mitra’s faith stifling, and would love nothing more than to see it replaced with something equally as ordered but with room for him to carry out his dark desires. Perhaps subconsciously he wants to replace his troupe, and be a part of something that is not quite what it seems again.

5. How easily does your character love? Have they been in love?
The Midnight Circus was a polyamorous troupe that expressed its love through shared pain, ritualistic scarification, religious mortification, and theater. He was in love with all of them even though their numbers were a dozen at their peak. To be in the troupe was to be in love. Most of them are dead now and he longs for the lash of some and to see the humiliation of others once more. Since the raid, he chants their names before going to sleep: Otho, Botho, Clotho, and D’Artagnan; Anaïs and Alaïs; Argalia or Arcalia; Manar al-Fajr; Lady Blackeyes and her mirror; and the Shepherd, their leader, who brought them together with promises of experience without limits. All of them have a place in Paimon’s heart, and the pain of losing them is sometimes overwhelming, but always lovely.

6. Is your character racist at all, either now or in their past?
He thinks halflings should probably be enslaved. Nothing personal, they’d just make cute butlers.

7. All people believe something that is not true, both about the world around them and about themselves. What lies/untruths does your character believe about themselves and the world around them?
Despite being a devout follower of an evil deity and believing wholeheartedly in his doctrine of pain, Paimon does not see himself as evil. He is an explorer, a pioneer who is free to bring pain to others and rule over the weak. He truly believes that Mitra’s faith, and the nation that has built up around it are the truly evil ones. This isn’t to say that he sees himself as set apart from Asmodeans. In fact he believes that he shares a lot in common with the Archfiend’s faithful and sees them as allies in most if not all situations.

8. How is your character about material possessions?
Paimon prefers to wear masks on stage and if he could wear one all the time, he would. Not only is it a symbol that harkens back to his mother, it also protects his face from getting blemished. Only he and his many-true-loves may scar his face, otherwise he gets highly HIGHLY irritated.

9. What does your character perceive their major problems to be?
He, like most actors, is actually fairly self conscious. Because he towers over most people and has a very distinct baritone of a voice, he is always hyper aware of people looking at him and maybe even judging him. Years of theater training have helped to mitigate that some, but he still feels it.

10. What does he perceive the solutions to those problems to be?
Luckily, he is an actor, and he can “fake it” until he makes it. Despite his insecurities, he is actually fairly confident in his acting abilities and feels like he can conceal them through careful behavior and precise misdirection.

11. What are your character's religious beliefs?
He is a devout follower of Zon-Kuthon. Though devout is a strange thing in the religion. I’ve always seen Kuthites and Asmodeans as modern day Jews and Christians respectively. Jews and Christians share Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whereas Kuthites and Asmodeans share a common belief that the strong should rule over the weak. While Asmodeans are more interested in the enslavement, Kuthites are more interested in the lash. Its this dichotomy that makes Nidal and Cheliax work so well together. Nidal, Cheliax’s vassal, agrees more than it disagrees with the Infernal kingdom and Cheliax is tolerant of Nidal’s penchant for pain, as it is useful for their longterm goals. So in the case of a campaign like this one, despite Paimon being a Kuthite, he’ll ultimately be useful to Asmodeus’s faithful. He does not want to rule, he only wants to experience.

12. What does your character fear?
Tetraplegia, not being able to feel anymore and dying before he has a chance to avenge his fallen troupe.

13. How much of a temper does your character have? What sorts of things set them off?
Boredom. He cannot sit in a room with his own thoughts for too long and he actually has trouble getting to sleep without tiring himself on some stimulation or the other. He also hates when a “session”, the torturing of either himself or others, is interrupted. He also does not like Mitra or any open worship of the deity. He is aware he is in a minority and hides it well, but sometimes his impatience bleeds through.

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