I got a character idea in my head for an elderly martial artist sort. Not so much the anime-style version where they're absolute powerhouses, more the style where they are capable of anticipating opponents perfectly and performing perfectly leveraged strikes, despite their advanced age. I do intend to make the character literally older, but for these purposes I'm mostly wondering about characters that can function well as a martial combatant with no high physical stats. If I ever put this in a game at a low level I'll probably some justification along the lines of a retired warrior returning to the front lines, but he needs to shake off the rust (as it were).
My first thoughts:
-Sensei archetype monk is sort of the classic route, using their Wisdom both to dodge and strike. Possibly going into Brother of the Seal to move opponents around the battlefield with Awesome Blow, or the Zen Archer archetype instead if I felt like going ranged.
-Investigator. Most any investigator plays into the idea easily, putting Int to work in melee, though you can lean into it harder with some talents and archetypes. Also high skill points per level and knowledge skills for days, which works fantastically for the trope. I also like the idea of eventually getting to use Age Resistance regularly.
-Ranger (Unarmed Style) into Horizon Walker. True understanding of their surroundings give them insight into the opponents who live there. This one fits the trope well enough for me, but they'd still mostly be using their physical stats, which takes it a little away from the point.
-Elemental Ascetic Kineticist? I'm not usually a super big fan of kineticists, and it feels a little off-trope, but it mostly works, I think?
What are your thoughts? Have you built a character like this? I feel like the trope works best as an unarmed build, but that's not strictly necessary; feel free to toss weapon builds around as well if you've got something you think is fun.
Hate to resurrect a dead thread, but are there any further developments here? I'm looking to start running Kingmaker in 2e myself, and while I have kickstarted the anniversary edition, that won't be coming around til sometime next year and I was hoping to get started a bit earlier - if anyone's done a lot of the work already (now that the final book is out), especially to the kingdom building bits, I'd sure love to gratefully steal it!
No, sorry it's been super busy here lately. The weather has made work busy, so I haven't had time to do anything extra.
Same, sorry. Between the weather, starting rehearsals for a play, and Valentine's Day, my time this week has been just utterly eaten up - terrible timing for trying to jump into a new game, but also totally my bad. I swear to Crom I'll get my submission ready by the end of the weekend, though.
Not to mention all the character specific notes I have for future plot events which are now useful. *tosses pages into the air*
I will leave Topaz and Sevas's stats on the table to make everybody feel on an equal level.
[Dice=Topaz or Sevas]1d2
You get Topaz's stat block!
Don't worry about rushing. You should have plenty of time, and I want to make sure you have time to bounce ideas off me so we can both get a feel for your character.
Okay, cool, I'll take my time getting things to feel right. Thanks. In the meantime, just to make sure I followed that right, I have
Sorry I didn't get the thing done yesterday, it's just been a busy couple of days. Unless something goes terribly wrong, though, I should be able to finish it up tomorrow.
At the moment, I do have a question: trying to work out the stats on Vyshaan, it occurs to me I'm not sure how you want to handle stat generation for an incoming character.
Awesome. Alright, if the Spellslinger works for you, then I'mma get to work getting Vyshaan the Tattooed ready to roll. Glad to hear you agree the archetype is underpowered; I was ready to run with it anyway, since I love it thematically, but making up a bit of the power hit there would be greatly appreciated. Oh, and yes, Mad Shootist is almost perfect for the character. I'll have to consider if he can afford the hit to his spellcasting, but that's a concern for later on.
I've already talked with Draegar about potentially stepping on his toes there, and we're headed in different enough directions with our mad science that we think it won't be a problem.
Today's looking pretty dang busy at work (yes, I definitely do a lot of roleplaying at work, ssshhh), but I imagine I'll be able to get in a decent preliminary proposal sometime tonight.
Not really done reading through all the material (whoof, by the way), but I'm starting to have some preliminary thoughts, so I figured I'd throw some of them out just to get started.
The absolute first thing that occurred to me, as it does in any steampunky setting, is that I loves me some firearms. I'd very much like to be some kind of rifleman or pistolier, specifically somebody who's focused on further pioneering the burgeoning science of gunnery - even more specifically, a bit of a mad scientist in the field, eager to test out his newest splodey creations.
After a very quick glance at the characters already in this thing, it looks like you folks could use some ranged/arcane support, so that seems like a reasonable way to go, and as it turns out, I've got an old character concept who hasn't ever really seen play that could fit this thing real well. I'mma take some time this evening to revamp the background/concept to fit in here, and then (barring any particular objections) I do believe we're gonna see if my old friend the Spellslinger can ride again.
Hey, folks, one of Draegar's potential recruits here. Just dotting for now. Reading through the materials in the Google drive now - there's a lot of info there, but so far it all looks pretty cool to me, so gimme a few to finish reading and come up with a concept. Presuming I come up with something decent, I'll toss it your way and y'all can see see if it feels like a good fit.
My group has started playing the Doomsday Dawn adventure, and we're most of the way through the first scenario. At least so far, our monk is cleaning the heck up with flurry of blows, doing far and away the most damage - and frankly, I see relatively few ways for anyone else to catch up as time goes on. I think the monk is doing just fine for himself.
I do understand the desire for a ranged weapon, but as has already been pointed out, nonproficiency just isn't that much of a problem. Just grab a bow anyway, that -2 isn't going to hurt you much.
This is willfully misunderstanding the argument. We all know the same statsheet can have a bunch of different personalities attached to it. That doesn't make it not the same statsheet doing the same actions. WE want mechanical diversity.
Well said. Roleplaying well has almost nothing to do with the mechanics, so it's unrelated to a discussion about the mechanics. If you feel there's a rule that's getting in the way of your ability to storytell, that's something else, but mechanics like that are few and far between, and entirely separate from the possibilities for character diversity in any case.
I've been diligently doing my reading, and while I'm not quite done yet, I think I'm starting to find my place. I'll almost certainly have something for you tomorrow night, but if not, I'll get it done Saturday.
Mysterious loners have zero place in most roleplays as far as Im concerned. If that is what you want to do then you're best finding someone who can run a solo game for that character. You are making a member of a pantheon of gods. You have to make someone who for whatever reason is willing to work with that group.
No worries there, the dude cooking in my brain is more than happy to be part of a group; just making sure that group wasn't full of paladins. =)
Keante wrote:
@Viscount K
I think you'll be totally fine. You did say he was benevolent--so a knightly character like mine might not be excited about pulling off a theft like yours would, but if you have good reasons he's not going to hate you for it or try to stop you. He could even be convinced to work with you--if the right reasons are there. I'm picturing (Marvel's) Thor and Loki in their more brotherly moments.
Yep, that all makes sense to me. That version of Loki's a bit more of a bastard than the guy I have in mind, but if you picture his nicer side/persona as more of the baseline guy then that's more or less good to go. Loves a good trick, will happily play wild games with the truth, and probably already has your wallet, but he's a damn good man to have on your side for exactly all those reasons.
Okay...okay. I've done a (slightly slapdash) skim of the book, and I've got something percolating, so I've got a question. I'm thinking a former smalltime thief with noble aspirations, a sort of Aladdin type, who, upon being Bound to his Words, finds himself becoming a kind of benevolent trickster (a Coyote/Hermes-ish kind of god). I'm thinking Deception, Luck, and Passion or maybe Journeying for his Words. Anyway, my question is; how tightly are we bound to a common morality here? I'm assuming we all need to work together for the common good, but if I want to go about it in a sneaky way, is that going to step on anyone's toes too hard?
That sort of thing usually depends on what the pantheon wants. The game doesn't really have any baked in expectations of morality.
Partially, that's what I was asking - do we seem to be gravitating towards a noble group of traditionally heroic types, or are we skewing a little wider with our morality?
Quote:
That said, there's also a word of Theft in the Lexicon book that you might want to consider as well.
Okay...okay. I've done a (slightly slapdash) skim of the book, and I've got something percolating, so I've got a question. I'm thinking a former smalltime thief with noble aspirations, a sort of Aladdin type, who, upon being Bound to his Words, finds himself becoming a kind of benevolent trickster (a Coyote/Hermes-ish kind of god). I'm thinking Deception, Luck, and Passion or maybe Journeying for his Words. Anyway, my question is; how tightly are we bound to a common morality here? I'm assuming we all need to work together for the common good, but if I want to go about it in a sneaky way, is that going to step on anyone's toes too hard?
Wow, neat. The concept here intrigues the heck out of me, but I'm entirely unfamiliar with anything about the system or setting. I'm sure dotting, and I'll get to work on a concept, but I've got a good bit to read before I can put something particularly coherent together - hopefully I can get something in before the deadline, but I may have to rush a bit, so sorry in advance if details still need some work!
Hm. HMMMM. I've wanted to pick up a Kingmaker game again for a long time; I had a game a while back that died right in the middle of book three, and I had a blast while it was running. Never quite felt like starting completely over, though. This seems to satisfy that itch basically perfectly. Yep, think I'm gonna have to dot this and start looking for a concept that fits.
I'm a giant fan of all things Middle-Earth; seen the movies (all of them), played the games (not quite all of them, but the vast majority of the video games, board games, card games, etc., so looking forward to Shadow of War's release next week), read the books (LOTR, Silmarillion, bits and pieces of Unfinished Tales and assorted other bits by the man himself). I also adore re-envisioning pieces existing lore in various settings (as long as it's done with love!), so this feels right up my alley. Unfortunately, I don't have the One Ring rules just yet. Give me a little bit to see if I can find a copy around somewhere and I'll check back in, but for now, consider this a dot.
In case anyone was wondering; moving out of a place you've been in for years is the worst. Gotten mostly moved in, though, so free time seems to be on the horizon!
That said, I find myself leaning towards some kind of Gunsmith. Perhaps a magus of some flavor or other, maybe a Spellslinger, maybe just a straight up rifleman.
RE: Lyj: First, thanks for the interest and welcome aboard. Second, let's do a bit of a deep dive here. So if you haven't read the Player's Guide for the AP yet, please do. There are free theme traits for the players (I believe we have a Vekeshi Mystic, a Technologist and a Spirit Medium already in the party, so no overlap would be appreciated). LE tiefling is fine, but please note that in this setting, tieflings are the result of a magical backlash from the death of a god and not tied to evil outsiders. Also the tiefling homeland is a countrywide magical dead zone, but a tiefling magic user is a bit out of place (though not impossible).
Re: Class: I don't really care what you play. The witch is our healer, the investigator is the skill monkey and our summoner is a synthesis melee fighter, so to say we have 3 arcane casters isn't quite right. What we need is dps, so if you go arcane go blaster. That being said, if the party ends up in the aforementioned magical dead zone, you might run into problems.
Re: Background: If you are going to be a tiefling, then you'll need to be associated with Danoran intelligence in some regard, because all the PCs need to be in the RNC, which is a royal civilian investigative body (think along the lines of FBI/CIA/interpol). If you aren't a Tiefling, then you will start already as a member of the RNC.
All makes sense to me. I've skimmed the Player's Guide real quick, but I should be able to at least give that a more thorough perusal today, and hopefully that'll inform some of my choices.
On class: I can make a blaster happen, methinks. I tend to prefer tossing together a controller/enchanter, but arcanists are great for mixing and matching a bit. We'll see what happens as I go, of course.
On BG: Awesome. Intelligence agent from a foreign power sounds like fun in the first place, but a magic user from a dead zone has all kinds of interesting opportunities from a story standpoint.
As I mentioned before, this week has been crazy busy, and I suspect that to continue for the next day or three (trying somewhat desperately to finish my move by the end of Saturday), but I'll see about getting some work done on this as soon as I have something that more closely resembles free time (probably Sunday or Monday).
Valid concern, there. I didn't really check the party or anything, just hopped in with DH's initial suggestion. I could probably swing a different character entirely, if it comes to that (first level isn't terribly difficult to cook up, after all); I just don't really have anything else sitting ready at this precise moment.
Hello all, Doomed Hero's recruit here. Basically just checking in for the moment to get the ball rolling a bit; the game looks cool at first glance, but I'm definitely still reading through the whole thing. Taking a while to jump into the narrative is more than fine with me - I'm stupidly busy for the next week or two anyway with moving to a new place, and would probably be just terrible about posting regularly until I'm through with that.
The linked alias here is Lyj, my proposed character. He's a bit of an odd one for most games, but I gather he might fit in well here. His crunch is way off for this game at the moment, obviously - I'll get to work on changing it shortly if we all think he'd be an interesting fit for the game.
Here's the usual pitch for him:
Evil comes in many forms. For some, it means spending your days plotting doom in a tower, or perhaps bathing in the blood of the innocent, or even simply bilking poor rubes out of their money at your over-priced shop. Ultimately, though, evil comes down to one thing - the willingness to step over others to achieve your goals.
Lyj is one such. Tiefling by birth, he never truly understood the 'compassion' others tried to teach him. In fact, most human emotions would always baffle him somewhat - which, given his intellectual brilliance, was not a common occurrence in the rest of life. Some with his particular combination of intelligence and dispassion might have quickly become a menace to society. Lyj, though, walked a different path. Driven by the pursuit of knowledge and a desire to unlock the deepest secrets of magic itself, he quickly determined that an ordered society had more to offer than he had to gain by shunning it or tearing it down. When the community thrives, there is more available for everyone, and everyone includes him.
There are plenty of such people who would gladly lie, cheat, or steal as soon as they're sure they're not being watched, but Lyj isn't one of them. To him, it's much less complicated and less likely to come back and bite him (thus disrupting his studies) if he simply plays along with all of society's rules. To that end, he has set himself up as an investigator for hire, putting his analytical skills and vast array of knowledge to good use for the community while occasionally freelancing adventuring work as necessary - putting one's skills to practical use is the only way to perform proper testing, after all. Behaving as a valuable member of society is important to his goals, as he has never been particularly capable (or interested) when it comes to making 'friends'.
He's not Good - he's just done the math.
Mechanically speaking, he's a Lawful Evil Tiefling Arcanist. He'd bring in some solid arcane caster power to things, as well as a decent array of utility skills (especially knowledges). The Evil part is somewhat negotiable, if it's a dealbreaker he could pretty easily become Lawful Neutral instead. Honestly, his actions wouldn't change all that much, but I like to write the inner monologue of the evil version a little more. Becoming LN makes him a little bit more of a Lieutenant Data than a Thanos - which is still fun, of course, but it doesn't quite push the same buttons.
Like I said, I haven't had the time to go over your game too thoroughly yet, so I haven't come up with any personalized hooks to your current players or NPCs. That said, I'm given to understand there's a possible hook as a liaison from a quasi-hostile nation, which works pretty fantastically in my head.
If you're curious about either my writing style or how Lyj reads as a person, there's a couple of short stories in his profile (inspired by completely different games) that I think are entertaining.
Wow. Familiar game. ...wow. I was gonna let it rest with the Ruins of Azlant game, I'm super busy lately, but...that's just kickass. I might submit something.
Wow. I just stumbled across this thread, and it sounds awesome. Only have a few days to refine one of the characters who live in my head to fit this one, but damn if I'm not gonna try.
I'm submitting a Golarion version of Spectrum.
There's a few Arch folks you could dust off that would suit this game well.
Sounds like a plan to me. Gimme a few minutes and I'll have somebody ready to roll out.
Wow. I just stumbled across this thread, and it sounds awesome. Only have a few days to refine one of the characters who live in my head to fit this one, but damn if I'm not gonna try.
Alrighty, let's go with stat array 3:
17
15
14
15
9
15
Nice, verra nice. As I understand it, we're free to rearrange those if we didn't get an exceptional stat, yes? That being the case, let's put it like so:
Str 9
Con 14
Dex 15
Int 15
Wis 15
Cha 17
And if the hat draw works out in my favor, then I'll get to work on Ricard, Superb Shark Summoner.
The setting sounds interesting. Can you tell us anything about how the adventure begins? Are we mostly sandbox, or is there some specific hook or other we should think about when coming up with characters?
I've got a shark-based summoner in my head who'd probably fit in, though in addition to wondering about the story, I'm wary of jumping in to a class without knowing my stat array for sure. I suppose as long as you're fine with us altering our concept based on the stats that come in, I'm down to throw my hat in the ring beforehand.
This...this is awesome. Dotting for now, but I'm almost certainly submitting a master archer or gunslinger whose sight has gone all to hell. Still deadly...up close.
Welp, he's definitely not who I expected to answer the call, but hey; when someone steps up, you've gotta run with it. Presenting:
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Bognus 'Bluebeard' Dolgrin
"Alright, lads, they tell me ye're looking fer someone who kin find proper nasty surprises an' hit whoever needs hittin'! Well, if'n tha's tha case, then ol' Bognus is yer dwarf! Fer a hundred-odd years now I been wanderin' out here away from tha mountain, fightin' hard an' drinkin' harder, an' there ain't much I ain't already seen; so I'm lookin' fer somethin' a little new."
The burly dwarf takes a quick look around at the undead-ridden city and nods, a toothy grin spreading across his face. "This'll do, I'd wager! Somebody in this mess is gonna need a right good thrashin', an' ye seem like jest the pile o' misfits tae be right in tha thick o' it. Well, now ye're gonna have some extra muscle comin' in wit' ye!"
He shakes himself slightly and casually flexes fists the size of cinderblocks, knuckles cracking with a sound like grinding glaciers. "I'll bet ye're askin' yerselves why exactly ye'd want an old cuss like me around, eh? Well, I never been too much fer words, so..."
Spinning on his heel, he tears the waraxe from his back with a bestial roar and slams it into the face of a charging zombie. Leaving the blade imbedded in the twitching corpse as it fell, he lifts a meaty paw and snatches up its companion by the throat, slamming the grotesque thing to the ground. The undead monster thrashes, attempting to free itself, but its blows seem to simply bounce off its captor, who returned its strikes with casual throttles and brutally powerful slams from his free fist. After a few moments, its skull mostly gone, the thing ceased its struggles, and Bognus stood up.
Panting lightly, he shook the gore from his fist and grinned again. "Mostly, it's tha' sort o' thing."
He shrugs. "O'course, ye spend enough time kickin' in doors, ye learn a thing or three about what sets off folk's tripwires and whatnot, so there's tha' too; lotsa folks get finnicky about traps goin' off in their faces." Grinning once again, he adds, "Me, I think tha's the excitin' part."
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And there you have it. Total nutshell background for him is that he used to be the champion of his dwarven clan, but got decidedly bored with the position and faked a loss to his old rival in order to get loose and go adventuring. He's looking for thrills and a chance to build a story or ten like the big ol' hero he's already pretty convinced he is. Secretly, he deeply fears disappointing some folks back at his home who he feels like he let down back in the day, and that's why he's been out in the world for so long; he doesn't have a story worthy of his long absence yet, and it's important to him that he be a real legend before settling down for real.
I'll get started on his mechanics as the day goes on, but the basics are that he's a Chaotic Good Dwarven Unchained Barbarian with the Invulnerable Rager and Drunken Brute archetypes, the Trap Finder trait, and a penchant for grappling. The grappling is mostly there (or will be at 5th level, anyway) as a secondary tactic, but I definitely enjoy having it - hitting things with axes is great and all, but having something else in your grab bag is always a good idea, I've found. Generally speaking, when something can't be easily hit with an axe until it dies, he grabs ahold of it, and when it can't be grabbed, he tends to get creative by destroying/using the environment. Out of combat, he's not so great with the social stuff, but he compensates some with a decent array of Knowledge and Profession skills (via the feat Breadth of Experience), plus a general affability and can-do attitude =).
He also tends to leap before he looks, and this ties in to one of your primary desires in a new member; he has full ranks in Perception and Disable Device, but he's no Dex or Wisdom goon, so they're not as strong as they could be. Fortunately, he does have the traditional Barbarian method of handling traps: setting them off, taking the hit and moving on!
I'm definitely not in the majority because of this, but I feel PF has overstuffed their classes. You don't need a special ability every level. I like 3.5 for their take on classes a little better.
Eh, I much prefer having at least something every level. It was always a bummer when you knew the next level you were gaining was a dead level.
Yup; that's just good design there. If you level up, it should be interesting and fun every time. Not necessarily a huge power increase, but making a choice or adding a bonus feature that makes it feel like your character is actually different from level to level, regardless of how much your average numbers do or do not go up.
O-ho-kay, this has my attention. I've been through Branderscar in three different games now, each game falling apart one way or another shortly after our escape. I should point out I've gotten a little ways into the next section as well, though I don't believe I've ever completed it.
Anyway, in two of those games, I've played versions of this here character. Hereby submitting (once again) one part con man, one part ladies' man, and one part black-hearted backstabbing...uh, man:
Trickster, con man, and all-around identity shapeshifter. No one knows whose side he's on, really, but almost everyone is pretty sure it's theirs. You might not trust him, but damn if you don't want to keep listening. As for his role in the party - he's a face man. If you need to be talking with someone, for pretty much any reason, he'd be ready, willing, and probably already doing it. He loves to ingratiate himself with basically everyone, regardless of whether he intends to murder them later or not.
At the moment, I haven't tailored him to your game mechanically yet (custom gestalt, wow), but I can't imagine that'll take me long to get done - although, as a note, some of the mechanics in his profile right now are from Legendary Rogues, which I would encourage you to take a look at if possible (it's from the good folks at Legendary Games, and has a lot of really reasonable options for rogues), but no worries if that's not a thing, I'll just switch back to Unchained. In the meantime, the basic idea is still there in the numbers: in combat, nothing too special (Feint-based rogue), but in utility, especially social skills (especially Bluff), he's your man.
[EDIT: After some tooling around, his gestalt class is absolutely going to be Swashbuckler, with the Daring Infiltrator archetype. It's perfect.]
I also have several of your story questions answered there in the profile, but let me get a bit more specific here and fill out a few things.
Concept Elements:
There's a full background and description in the profile, but let me cherrypick a few things out to get you a nutshell.
1) Once-Noble: In his early days, Sholano was a bastard son of a noble house, and got used to the finer things. He gravitates towards a lavish lifestyle like a duck to a pond.
2) Ruling Schoool: While still in his family's good graces, Sholano absolutely dominated his schoolmates through a vicious combination of slanderous truths and clever rumor. One day, however, he went too far, and got himself into much more serious trouble.
3) Knowing Too Much: Once on the streets, he learned quick that his old tactics wouldn't work out here in the real world, and instead set himself up as an information broker. After a while, though, he started to think that this tactic wasn't going to get him back into the lap of luxury the way he wanted, so he went out to sow some even wilder oats in the wide world.
4) The Pretender: Out in the world, Sholano built a new identity for himself, a reputation built around a shadowy figure, until it all came tumbling down again and landed him in Branderscar. He still believes in the tactic, though, even if he's starting from scratch. He goes by different names whenever possible (the nature of the contract with Thorn means that the party and the Cardinal know his true identity, but even there he's not happy about it) and almost reflexively disguises himself.
5) ...Thy Name is Sholano: Pretty as hell and incredibly aware of it, Sholano is the soul of vanity. While he disguises himself every which way, he almost never downplays his looks; everyone responds better to a handsome man.
Goals:
1) Several Eyes for an Eye: Sholano really wants to see both the Mitran church and his family pay for what he sees as their unjust treatment of him. The church and the rest of the Talingarde ruling body is absolutely his primary target, as they've brought his grand plans tumbling down not just once, but three times, but along the way he would absolutely love to see his human family get some comeuppance along the way for kicking him out into the cold.
2) The Spider's Web: I'd very much like to see Sholano become an honest-to-badness spymaster. It's something nearly every iteration of this character (there have been several, good and bad) would excel at, and he's never really gotten the chance to do it. It would entertain the heck out of me to see him pulling strings on a larger scale than the personal.
Secrets:
Secrets is a bit of trickier category for Sholano. Interestingly, while he is an incredibly secretive person by nature, most of his plans have been laid bare by getting fully caught in his latest scheme and thrown into Branderscar. After that, the Cardinal's contract more or less forces him to be honest about his true identity with his fellow Bound, laying bare more of himself than he's revealed to anyone since his childhood some thirty years ago. Here's a couple of ideas, though:
1) He probably hasn't been fully honest with his new mates about the vast swath of smaller crime he's pulled across most of the continent. In every other village or town he's ever visited over the last two decades of travel, you can almost certainly find someone he's swindled or set up to take a fall, and even with his usual precautions, it's the sort of thing that is almost bound to cause at least minor trouble if any real travel happens. While he certainly wouldn't lie about that to his compatriots, he also definitely isn't going to bring it up of his own volition.
2) During Sholano's long exile, his younger half-sister, Errinel Gale, has joined the ranks of the Mitran Church. One of the only members of the family who didn't treat Sholano like a burden that had to be borne until they found an excuse to throw him aside, the knowledge that she's become a part of that self-righteous organization will probably throw Sholano into some pretty serious confusion about how to proceed. He would probably work to find some way to turn her from the "Light", or at least spare her from the worst of the coming conflagration.
Friends/Enemies:
1) The Wily Old Man: Sholano's last big scheme was dashed to bits by the wealthy Talingardian merchant (and secret mage) Arthur Treblefast (for more details on their last encounter and the story of his capture to Branderscar, check the spoiler at the bottom of this post labeled Caught!). If Treblefast learns of Sholano's return to Talingarde, he'd gleefully assist in foiling the charming thief's plans once again, offering his considerable resources to the Mitran efforts.
2) The Holy Sister: As mentioned above, Sholano's fully human half-sister Errinel has enrolled in the ranks of the Mitran Church. Her presence there could be a great help or a great hindrance, depending on how susceptible she is to her brother's considerable powers of persuasion.
3) The Blustering Gales: While Sholano may have had a decent relationship with his half-sister, his half-brothers were another question entirely. He may have been the eldest, but their human blood not only gave them legitimacy, it caused them to grow faster and larger than their half-elven brother. Each of the three brothers looked down on Sholano with the contempt only slighted nobility can bring to bear, and the sentiment was returned with all the pure fury of a mistreated child. Their parents have passed on in the last thirty years, but all three are now influential men in their own right.
Threll, the soldier, learned well the lessons of their hard-nosed father and has risen to become an officer in the guard, through discipline and the strength of his arm.
Berik, the merchant, was instead taught at his mother's knee the intricacies of trade, and now wields their family's purse-strings with a fencer's grace.
Keris, the eldest son, is now titular head of the family, with social connections and influence enough to be a true power in the island nation's politics.
All three would be mortified to learn of the return of their family's disgraced bastard, and would do whatever was necessary to remove the stain on their 'good' name from the world.
4) The Gatekeeper: An associate of Sholano's from his days on the streets almost twenty years ago, Sylvia Quick is a stone-cold vicious b!%+#. When last they met, Sylvia was a cutpurse of no small talent, despite being a girl of only twelve, and with Sholano's help as a shill and pickpocket, they parted many a fool from his money. Not quite Sholano's match at planning or chicanery, she was a damn sight faster with her hands, and one of the only people he's ever met who could match him wit for wit in a conversation, they had a long-standing friendly rivalry. Today, she's a cat burglar for hire in her mid thirties, and would almost certainly be deeply amused to hear that her old 'playmate' was back in town.
Quirks:
There are a bunch of these in the profile; here they are again for ease's sake.
Almost Religious: While not exactly a worshiper, Sholano has a healthy admiration for Besmara, the Pirate Queen. A whole religion dedicated to taking what you want when you want it? Now that's a good con. He also has some respect for Asmodeus, whose deals are the stuff of legend, although he is a bit too willing to ignore the law to be entirely in the Archfiend's good graces.
Sucker for a Pretty Face: Sholano has a bit of a sweet tooth when it comes to women. He rarely has trouble walking away with his pick, although he has a particular weakness for a difficult catch, which has gotten him in more trouble than he'd care to admit.
A Dish Best Served Cold: Convinced that violence is only necessary when you've already screwed up the bigger game, Sholano rarely pulls a blade on his enemies. After all, there's almost always something that can cause more pain than a simple stabbing, and Sholano excels at getting close to his enemy and proving that the most dangerous foe is the one you trust to watch your back.
What a Tangled Web We Weave: There is a long line of people behind Sholano that know him by a different name. Blessed with a quick mind and a good eye for faces, he can usually catch it in time, but every so often, someone pops up that he doesn't recognize - which usually leads to a hasty exit!
Life of the Party: Sholano has long believed in the old axiom about flies caught with honey. To that end, he goes to great lengths to become friends with nearly everyone he meets, entertaining them with a ready story and swift banter. He naturally gravitates towards taverns and the like, as they are fantastic places to build up both a base of contacts and an easy alibi.
And finally, a little story, just as a little sample of how I write and how Sholano is. This here is the tale of how he managed to finally get caught and shipped off to Branderscar where he belongs.
Caught!:
Sholano couldn't believe it. His plans were swiftly falling apart, no matter how which way he turned, and the son of a b!%&& was going to ruin him. A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead as he contemplated what he could do next, searching desperately for a way out. In a last minute flash of insight, he saw his route of escape and like lightning he made his move.
"It won't be that easy to catch me!" he exulted, reaching across the ornate chess set to slip a dark pawn in the way of his king. He grinned easily and crossed his arms, settling back into the high-backed plush chair. The gray-bearded man across the table frowned slightly, studying the board.
"Perhaps not," Arthur Treblefast said quietly, looking sharply up at the younger man. "But then, you have proven yourself remarkably slippery."
You have no idea, old man.
Sholano kept the casual grin on his face, gesturing towards the board. "That is why you're funding my expedition, isn't it? You've seen my references - I've found my way out of most sticky situations, and this next one won't be any different." He leaned forward slightly. "Speaking of which, we are still set to begin tomorrow, aren't we? No rush, of course, but if I could gain access to the traveling funds before tonight, I could begin my preparations."
Easy, easy...it's taken this long to get here, you can wait a little longer. Wait - what the hell was that?!
There was a faint clang of metal on metal from the hallway, and Sholano's pointed ears twitched under their wax masking. He glanced surreptitiously towards the study's double doors as Treblefast pushed back his chair.
"Oh, your journey will begin shortly, have no fear of that," Treblefast said, getting to his feet. The doors burst open, and Sholano sprang to his feet as the rich merchant continued. "But perhaps not to where you'd envisioned."
Sholano swore and dashed towards the window. It was a two story drop from this far up, but if he remembered correctly, there was an awning he could bounce off and maybe get away without some broken bones. Either way, better that than suffer Talingarde's loving Mitran justice. To his horror, though, the window slammed shut and barred seemingly of its own volition. He spun to look back and saw Treblefast standing with his hand upraised, a faint glow around his fingers.
Sholano came to a dead halt, his features going blank as several guardsmen filed into the room. "Wizard, hm?" he asked in a calm, almost conversational tone.
"I dabble." Treblefast replied in kind, the gloating arrogance in his voice matched by the smirk on his face. "A simple divination told me of your dishonesty two days ago, and then it was only the work of a quick inquiry to the Guard to figure out your intentions. You were going to take the money and disappear, yes?"
"Something like that," Sholano said, holding out his wrists for the guards to clap manacles on. "I'll have to watch closer for magic next time."
The guards began to lead him from the room, shoving him forward needlessly. As they passed Treblefast, the merchant held up a hand, halting them for just a moment. "I rather doubt there will be a next time...Master Gale."
Sholano's eyes flew open wide and his head whipped towards the wizard, his bored expression giving way to something very close to panic.
Holy hell - they know my real name?!
The old man smiled viciously at seeing the expression on Sholano's face. "Yes, that's right - you're not going to some simple little holding cell this time, my slippery little friend; not after all you've done." He reached out a hand and placed a finger on the chessboard's black king, tipping it over. Checkmate. "You'll be going to Branderscar."
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Whoo, that was a bit wordier than I intended to be today. There's my pitch! I'll get started on converting the crunch over to your game's standards today, but I figured I'd get the fluff out of the way first. Any questions?
Just a bit of thread resurrection here: I, for one, would love to see Alkenstar get some love. I built a clockwork-armed cowboy for an arc of Carrion Crown a while back who we styled as an Alkenstar marshall, and it would be awesome to get some play in a setting where he'd fit in again. Plus, the dead-magic zone makes for some supremely interesting character generation and entertaining storybuilding.
Welp, only a few hours to scrape something together, but I think I've got a character who hasn't gotten out to play yet I could polish up and bring on down. For now, let's just dot and throw out some dice rolls.
Hm. If there are official rules on this, I don't think I've ever seen them. As written, I don't think that Still or Silent Spell actually make it harder to identify a spell at all.
That said, at my table, I would definitely bump up the DC of the Spellcraft check (probably by 4-ish for each feat involved), maybe even add in a Perception or Sense Motive check to figure out who's casting the spell at all. Did you see the sparkly lights by their eyes, or notice their intense concentration? Good for you, here's your Spellcraft. As for psychic casting, I wanna say that unless they've invested in the feats, probably thought and emotion make for fairly obvious indicators of a person at least doing something weird, if not necessarily indicating spellcasting to the uninformed.
Well, guys, I think it's time to call it, at least for the moment. I've sat down to post here a dozen times in the last couple weeks, and I keep failing to actually do anything. I'd give it one last hurrah, but I'm starting the process of moving at the same time as starting up rehearsing a play, and I can't imagine I'll find myself with more time for posting. In a month or so, if things die down some, I'll see about reactivating this game, but it doesn't seem fair to keep leading you on right now.
Sorry again about all the time you guys put in, and I hope we can put all that hard work to use sometime in the near future. I'll set the game to inactive in a day or two, I just want to make sure that y'all get a chance to see this post.
