Here's a writeup. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm missing something, so feel free to ask for details.
Player Questionnaire:
A. Player Questions
1. He/Him
2. 3
3. 8am-10pm, EST
4. Nothing objectionable
5. 3
6. 3
B. Content Ranking
1. 3
2. 4
3. 3
4. 2
5. 3
6. 4
7. 3
8. 2
9. 3
10. 3
11. 1
C. Character Questions
1. Syper lost the home he knew, took up with a sailing ship, and simply does what he needs to to keep surviving.
2. (Intentionally left blank)
3. He was adopted as an infant by Mad Old Hettie, a larger-than-life woman who lived deep in the swamp outside Genji. That’s the only person he’s called family.
4. Hettie provided cures or fortunes to whoever ventured out to her and was willing to deliver whatever she asked for; precisely why she wanted what she did was always beyond him. Hettie didn’t share her magic with him, much; she preferred that he dive into the muck for things people left behind, or go into town to procure whatever staples she needed for the two of them.
5. Being an orphan with a shady past and future did change the way he was treated.
6. Definitely Mad Old Hettie
7. Definitely Mad Old Hettie
8. The people of Genji never trusted Syper, and knew about his thieving, but as long as they all knew he was Hettie’s ward, they never messed with him.
9. He tends to steal and lie more than he should. He’s learned to tell an excellent tall tale, though.
10. His whole youth was in the Zuul Marsh, but now he’s in the Free Isles. Past that, not so much.
11. Judgmentalism is the biggest thing he hates. There’s been too much of that in his life. Also he doesn’t like how he looks in red. Too garish.
12. He knows there’s something terribly off about him. He’s not sure what. Most days, he just chooses to ignore it and hope for the best.
13. Nothing past petty thievery, but his greatest worry involves people who insist on not giving him a fair shake.
14. He wants to learn more about the occult. He knows that Hettie understood far more about him, but only revealed a few things. Now he needs to know more.
15. Make a new character, different background, something that fits what the party needs at the time
16. None in the past, open to them in the future
17. One day, Hettie, clearly agitated, told Syper to rush out into the deep water of the swamp and gather extra eelgrass. He left, dove down, and gathered up a handful when a huge wall of water appeared in a sudden flash flood. The smell of ash was in the air, a sure sign of an eruption of Mt. Ebar. The gushing flood barreled into him and washed him far downstream. Syper wasn’t sure how long he was knocked out, but he found himself on land, and alive. He figured out where he was and rushed back to Hettie’s shack, only to find it completely flattened, with no sign of her anywhere. He went into town, and no one there knew what happened, only that there was flooding damage to deal with. However, once Hettie was gone, it became clear that Syper wasn’t welcome anymore in Genji, so he found a boat, joined their crew, and left. He wears an eyepatch now, mainly to hide his aquamarine hag’s eye.
D. Campaign Questions
1. His most recent job took him sailing to Eredorn.
2. He is presently renting a small room until his next job.
3. He has a small stipend that’s running out from his last job.
E. Game Questions
1. Mostly support, with melee and manipulation of the battlefield
2. Not sure; Witch or Captivator are possibilities to grow the occult connection. In all honesty I’d rather see where the adventure takes my interests.
3. Witch is probably my top choice.
4. No clue
5. I’ll use a whip quite a bit for both disarm/trip and mobility tricks
6. I don’t know
F. Player Redux
1. I have no particular preference for enemies
2. I haven’t seen any enemies overused
3. I like opportunities to grow, develop, and personal events that can change a character’s direction
4. I’ll keep my mind open regarding plot points
Crunch:
Character Sheet
Syper
Ancestry: Changeling Human
Background: Sailor (swapping Swamp Lore for Sailing Lore)
Class: Bard
Strength 12
Dexterity 16
Constitution 10
Intelligence 14
Wisdom 10
Charisma 16
HP 16
Size Medium
Speed 25
Low-Light Vision
Languages: Common +3
Focus Pool: 1
Perception: Expert
Fortitude: Trained
Reflex: Trained
Will: Expert
Feats:
• Brine May – Successes in Athletics for swimming are critical successes. I don’t sink.
• Underwater Marauder – not flat-footed in water, no penalty to slashing, bludgeoning melee
• Bardic Lore – Recall Knowledge on any topic
Occult Spellcasting
Spell Repertoire
• Cantrips
o Summon Instrument
o Mage Hand
o Message
o Shield
o Daze
• First Level
o Command
o Animate Rope
o True Strike
Composition Spells
• Cantrips
o Inspire Courage
• Focus Spells
o Counter Performance
Okay, so I've been looking through backgrounds, and deep backgrounds, and I think I can do something better for myself, but I would like some guidance.
My character concept is a Brine May Changeling from the Zuul Marshes. Upbringing involves adoption by Mad Old Hettie, a hermit occultic eccentric, who knows his heritage but also doesn't mind. He grew up learning both how to forage from the swamp, and how to go into Genki to, eh, acquire supplies as needed. You don't go digging in the swamp for treasure, but the marsh doesn't care if you just pick something off the ground that no one's using, after all.
Any thoughts about appropriate backgrounds? I was looking at the Deep-Sea Diver, but something more like Swamp Lore would make more sense than Plane of Water Lore.
Camber's player here. For this campaign, I'm imagining a human cleric of some kind. Not sure yet who the deity will be; whether it's tied to the major powers with Abadar or Shelyn, or focusing on getting people through tough transitions, and being a cleric of Alseta.
Hello! I'm still quite new to PFS2e (and PF2 in general), and I'm thinking of making a second character. I haven't yet used any of my starting 80 points, and I'm thinking of creating a Sarkorian Tiefling for the game, but I'm not yet sure how helpful that would be within PFS or not. Has anyone had any experience with a tiefling in PFS, and what's it like?
One of my PF1 characters is not a priest, but grew up in a Razmiri orphanage, and so takes on a number of Razmirian characteristics. She has a mask and robe but never wears them.
Admittedly, her full story was that she was born as promised to Sivanah, and she was quickly pulled out of the standard grind when she was discovered by a Sivanah faithful who was masquerading as a Razmiran priest, so she ended up being trained as a sleeper agent for Razmir or maybe Sivanah or maybe both, but that pretty much never pops up.
So there's definitely ways to use Razmir without pushing deep into the conversion and more difficult aspects of Razmiran, but it's important to think about how you'd want to approach it.
So way back in D&D2e days, I came up with my own campaign world. New deities, new races.
The war god was also the god of the night sky, and his chosen people were nocturnal hunters whose eyes glowed like stars. So, it had both combat and astrology in his portfolio, but I kind of left it at that.
Suddenly I saw this war god as also the god of time. The cycle of change, destruction, the volcano that buries the city and replenishes the farmland. It's dancing the world away. Now I'm reenergized. A god that is both prophet and destroyer. His home palace is a place of endless battle, dates and places plucked from history, where travel between battles becomes possible, because it's all part of the same great eternal battle.
I'm going to start writing up this world once the ORC gets finalized. Get everything functioning in PF2e. I'm feeling my muse return after years. It's beautiful.
Wait, there's a cannibal tribe called the Kuru? Kuru is, IRL, a prion disease that causes "laughing sickness" that spread through cannibalism in PNG (although even then it's not "people hunting people to eat" but via a ritual meal to honor their deceased). So even the name is a bit too on the nose.
Anyway, if there's a Tian-Sing colony there, then I totally want something done like Legend of the Tsunami Warrior which has some of the best over-the-top fantasy involving aquatic action anywhere.
The High Seas would be a great place for something like Armada from China Miéville's book The Scar and uncharted islands only reachable by luck.
Hints about the Eye of Abendego would be needed, as would a discussion of storms in general, both above and below the surface.
A whirlpool leading to a dry section of seabed. Intelligent reefs. Go wild.
General campaign idea: The PCs cross paths with the Bottle of the Bound at the beginning of the campaign, and watch as it ends up in the hands of an evil wizard who frees all the creatures within it, which spread to the far reaches of Golarion.
The campaign is the party rushing around the world tracking down and resealing all the creatures in the bottle (and possibly adding a few more besides).
I'm not familiar with kaiju as a specific monster of Golarion, but in the field of giant monsters that level cities, there's the Spawn of Rovagug. The Tarrasque and Ulunat and more certainly fit the bill.
Yeah, elixir as oil is what I'm thinking, too, although I also think of Mansa Musa and Mali's gold mines as another analog to be explored in Thuvia. Definitely could be the way one city state operates.
It is very heavily implied, if not outright confirmed, that Pharasma is a/the only survivor from the previous incarnation of the Universe. Which means she was here from the VERY BEGINNING! While calling her the mother of the Universe would (probably) be wrong, Pharasma could be considered the midwife of the universe. She watched the Universe be born, and will watch it die. Then either one of her minions will become the midwife for the next Universe, or Pharasma will watch/help/etc the next universe be born.
Interestingly, there's a rumor that Zon-Kuthon might have always been Dou-Bral, that ZK was also from the previous universe, and arranged for something in the new universe to be his vessel for his reincarnation. A larva, if you will. Given some of the oddities of the timeline regarding Dou-Bral and Shelyn, I have come to like this theory.
And yet, given what is found in the Dark Tapestry, the DT does seem infinitely older. But it can't be older than the Prime Material plane, which is much younger than the universe, can it?
I can't say I have a true favorite deity, as I have a lot more fun twisting around the meanings of each one.
One of my favorite present PFS characters is an Inquisitor of Razmir (actually Sivanah).
I've been looking throughout the SRD and I haven't been able to find answers for these questions. I'm sure I'm just missing them, but I'm not assuming I just know the answers from 1e.
How is Initiative calculated?
If you're Trained in a skill, is it a +2 or +3 bonus?
Does anyone want a quick connection? I could imagine that Fortunino was supposed to meet up with someone who just happens to be another PC after his escape to Magnimar.
The other thing I keep thinking about is how Garund, despite being like Africa, doesn't have a Sahel, thanks to the Barrier Wall. And I can't help but think that Thuvia could easily borrow from Sudan-Sahelian architecture and have buildings like the Grand Mosque of Djenne or the Library of Timbuktu as places to travel to.
You'd also be able to place a Mansa Musa style analog in the country, what with its single-resource riches.
I feel like the basic theology behind PF and similar systems makes actual heresy very difficult to be possible. It's nearly all turned into apostasy and the embracing of a new patron deity.
(I always considered this an interesting break with the game's roots from people with Christian mindsets; you pretty much need a theological setup like Christianity or Islam for heresy to even be possible, and the genre assumptions of polytheism and possible direct communing with the deity preclude the existence of it.
"Hey, Sarenrae, is assassination in your name okay?"
"Nope. Please stop."
"Welp, that settles that.")
ETA: But here's what I can envision:
"Hey, Sarenrae, is assassination in your name okay?"
"Nope. Please stop."
"But we're doing it for you! Here, have another infidel!"
"I said no!"
"We mean it all to help!"
"You know what? No. Just stop. No more of my light. I can't let you do this."
"Aw! But we really love you! We promise, only the finest sacrifices in your name!"
"I don't want your sacrifices! Please, just stop this nonsense and I'll forgive you."
"Hey, Ahriman/Nurgal here. I see you want Sarenrae's forgiveness. I bet she just doesn't understand just how much you love her, just how many you're willing to kill for her. Keep going. She's sure to see your devotion one day. I'll support your efforts."
I'm just now getting back into the game after five years, so I'm not familiar with all the 1e -> 2e changes that have been made. However, I keep thinking about the North Africa analog and have a few thoughts about it.
Liek ending the Cult of the Dawnflower. It makes sense why it would be done, but when I saw that it sits too close to Islamic fundamentalism, I just thought, why not make it closer to Christian fundamentalism, like the Donatists in North Africa in the 5th century?
Quick history lesson: North Africa became part of the Roman Empire, was converted to Christianity, but then had to deal with Christianity being official then forbidden back and forth a couple times. So, if you were a Christian in Africa, you'd regularly be told to stop it and give up your holy books, before being able to pick it all back up again with the next Emperor.
This caused a problem. The Nicene Christians wanted those who surrendered their books to be allowed back in as priests. But the Donatists said that the priesthood had to remain pure, and so anyone who did turn over their books could no longer be priests. No forgiveness offered.
The Donatists were eventually declared a heresy, but they remained a major problem in the area, St. Augustine tried to mediate. There were a number of hardline sects in North Africa, like the Circumcellions. They were huge in the martyrdom theme, and it led a number of them to hang out at crossroads and ambush Roman legions with clubs in the hope that they would be killed by them.
The thing is, this hardline view became a common thread throughout North Africa. It became the way to maintain one's identity when dealing with wave after wave of invaders.
Then the Western Empire collapsed. A number of Christian Roman-Berber states arose, then the Germanic Vandals invaded from Iberia and established their own kingdom. One of the big issues this caused was that the Roman Empire had Nicene Christianity, but the Vandals were Arian Christians, so they went around getting rid of the "old" Christian ways, replacing them with "new" Christian ways, then the Byzantines came in and ended the Vandals and brought Nicene Christianity back. Then the Arabs came in and established Islam. There was a LOT of conversion.
It didn't end there. The Adoptionist sect in Iberia was heavily influenced by Donatist thinking. Although Islam in the Maghreb and Iberia was tolerant of other faiths (with payment of a special tax), the Almohads rose up out of Morocco and forced everyone to convert again in the 11-12th centuries.
We see some of this fundamentalist attitude in response to competing faiths in Garund with Rahadoum. But if we see this as a legacy of the Osirian conquering of Thuvia, then breaking free, then Aroden becoming big, then dying, there could also be a group hiding out in the wilderness trying to hold to an unforgiving version of Sarenrae, which of course is resoundly rejected by her and her church.
Which is where Ahriman can come in to reestablish the connection for the Cult. Someone needs to become the patron god for them right?
Now, 2e has no god with the Sun and Trickery domains, and Ahriman has Darkness and Trickery. But hey, rechristen them as a group waiting for the dawn that has not yet come, a Cult of Twilight as it were, and you've got a group who can honestly be evil, think they're good, focus on a deeply strict expectation of their followers, and can operate as ambushers, trying to spill blood (others and their own) in the name of their cause.
[...] a group called the Invisible Blades as part of a character background, with them mentioned as potentially being behind a “devastating magical accident” in Quantium. This group isn’t mentioned again, in that book or any other that I’ve seen from either edition, from the searching I’ve been able to do. Who are they? What do they do?
Those are the kind of questions the last person to talk about the Invisible Blades was asking right before they disappeared.
Ah, so now they're what I like to call very invisible!
I'm considering a background of a fugitive of experimentation from Nidal, built as a Dual Cursed Dark Tapestry Oracle. So although his powers are associated with Zon-Kuthon, he does not worship him and is trying to distance himself from that legacy.
If people are interested, one character I've had fun with in the past that I could easily dust off for use at first level is the cauldron witch Nevinia (and her familiar Tzerny).
But, that's just one possibility. I'll research the area and time and see if some other idea becomes stronger for me.
For weapons you are looking at simple weapons and deity weapons. And a Starknife isn't terrible. You will want to get a Returning rune on it at some point, but you can't do that at level 1. You might also carry a crossbow of some variety if you feel like using ranged attacks at low levels. By mid levels you are probably going to want to be using spells primarily instead of weapons.
Thank you! I've updated the sheet with those details, so I should have something (relatively) complete. Thank you for your help!
Hello! I'm an old player, but I haven't played for the past five years. So, I'm starting again with Pathfinder, and I figure a PFS2e character would be the right way to do it.
So I've been reading PFSRD, Archives of Nethys, etc., and I'm trying to build a support-role gnome cleric.
Would someone be able to look at what I've got and let me know what's right and what's wrong? The character is here.
I know I still need equipment at the very least, but I'm not sure what I'm able to use properly.
I'm interested! However, I'm completely new to 2e (and haven't played in 5 years) and although I've been reading the ruleset and creating a first character, I'm sure I'm missing plenty.
I've just returned from a 5 year hiatus, but PBP is still the best solution for me.
Between work and family, I can't reasonably expect to block out hours at a time to talk with others online. But posts? No problem, I can be called away in the middle of the action and resume when I get back in a few minutes. Easy.
Everyone, if you've got me as a player for a Gameday slot, please remove me. Work has gotten too far in the way for me to contribute meaningfully. Everyone, enjoy your games, and I apologize.
Going up in level, for the most part, makes you better at combat, but helps much less in other ways. For example, it makes for a really bad way to represent the power of a scheming palace eunuch or a beloved village priestess or the king's aged tutor. Heck, I know people who find combat distasteful and never play D&D/PF because they aren't interested in the combat. Leveling doesn't look fun, either, in that case. I heard it once described as, "If you take out the trash enough, you'll become better at taking out the trash."
Furthermore, people grow old and pass on. What use is a general's battle prowess at the age of 90 on his deathbed? Eventually, people's faculties decline, and it becomes far more important to ensure the next generation has the tools to continue your work than to keep amassing them for yourself. Better to have been Fezziwig than Scrooge in the end, eh?
