Zeldana Arcovici's page

After many hours of traveling down the South Rostland road, you have finally reached it: Oleg’s Trading Post. Before you is what looks like a small fort, the walls of which are about ten feet high. At the corners of the fort are four twenty-foot tall guard towers, each topped with some sort of contraption.

”What in the nine unholy layers of Hell is this? I was expecting an armed guard, not a variety show.”

The man climbs down the ladder, hammer in hand. He looks like he’s approaching his forties and is going slightly bald, but has the physique of a much younger man and his tan skin betrays a life of labor.

”Now hold up, lemme get a better look at ya.”

By now, with his stern demeanor and commanding tone, it is quite obvious that this man is Oleg. He walks out in front of the group and gives each member a good once-over. He pauses for a significant amount of time on Scraps, as though he doesn’t quite believe he’s staring at a Goblin with a gun. He eventually says in a particularly gruff tone,

”Well, I suppose out here you have to take what you can get. So what’s your plan on these bastard bandits who’re bothering me an’ my wife? Are you gonna kill ‘em outright, or bring ‘em back to Restov to be hanged?”

In case you’re wondering: no, you didn’t miss something. You haven’t been told about any bandits or any obligation to Oleg.

Upon the charters that you have been given, a meeting place has been specified: Oleg's Trading Post, a small market on the southern edge of Rostland that skirts the borders of the Stolen Lands. Upon these sparsely populated roads, you've run into several other beings that seem to be heading to your destination as well...

Until we figure out the logistics of the campaign (when in real-world time we want to start, how often we can post, if someone's going to be on vacation, how I'm going to set up the world map, etc.) we'll roleplay here. Any conflicts or other obligations that could get in the way of the game, post with your roleplaying in out-of-character.

Treat these posts as a test of your imagination: how would your character approach others? How are they getting to Oleg's? Are they striding along the path? Did they hitch a ride? Are they on horseback (you'd have to have a horse for that one)? Or are they, perhaps, creeping in the woods? It's all up to you. I will post when it's time to move over to the Gameplay thread. Until then, feel free to PM me any questions or to post them here as out of character comments.

Here are the rules:

#1: There will be six players at 20 point-buy. Why 20 points? Because six people at 25 would probably be a cakewalk. Why six people? So more people can play, so I'll have an easier time choosing players, and so the party can be well-rounded in many fashions.

#2: No ability scores can be above 19 AFTER racial modifiers are in place. This is not a campaign for min-maxing. If you min-max I will not pick you. It's as simple as that. You can still dump stats if you so wish, but I don't encourage it. This is not a campaign for your crazy-awesome "I get 14 attacks per round" build. This is a challenge to you: create a person, not just a caricature who dumped CHA or INT.

#3: Alignment can be any good or neutral. Evil players are possible, but will need my okay first before being eligible. Kingmaker is one campaign where evil characters, especially lawful evil ones, can flourish. Keep in mind that NE and CE characters will be judged more harshly.

#4:Come up with a compelling backstory. Something that helps move you along, gives your character reasons to be in the Sodden Lands that go beyond your class, race, and traits. It needs to make sense, too. I don't want to see you try to be from Chu Ye just so you can get a trait bonus on your unarmed strikes.

#5: Speaking of races and classes: races and classes! This is where I am most lenient: Go crazy! Have you ever wanted to build a Gnoll Magus? A Monkey-Goblin Alchemist? If you can justify it, go for it! Here are the restrictions: No uncommon races of 11 RP or more. I don't care how cool it is, I'm not letting you be an Android, Drider, or gods forbid: a Drow Noble. If you want an Aasimar or a Tiefling, the variant heritages are open to use, but don't take traits or abilities from the d100 tables. And remember, most importantly you have to justify these choices. Your story is just as important, if not more than, your mechanics.

#6: Traits: Two Traits, one must be a campaign trait found here. You'll note that there are seven campaign traits. Know that I will not be excluding your characters based upon what trait you take. Yes, I will take it into account when reading your story, but I won't say "Well that one's already taken, so this guy automatically gets the boot." I will consider you all equally no matter what traits you have chosen. Also: no rich parents. It's tempting, I know, but the classes all have different starting gold for a reason, and I'm giving you a gift that will make the trait less necessary...

#7: Maximum Class Gold and max HP! You get the max for your class in gold at first level. This means that the Monk, who usually gets 35 gp or 1d6x10 gets 60 gp to start. I always found characters starting off with their only possession being a weapon ridiculous. Get some g++$+%n rope and rations! (You'll be eating, drinking, and sleeping too, so you'll be wanting the corresponding items.)

#8: Posting rate should be daily. If you have real life-conflicts, believe me I understand. Tell me beforehand and I'll either send your character to do other work. If a character is dormant for 24 hours or more, I'll reserve the right to bot them or make them fight defensively.

#9: No hero points. Don't build your character around them. Don't take hero point based feats. Just don't do it. If you do, I'll know you haven't read this and will immediately gloss over your character.

#10: Initiative will be determined in block format. If you don't know what that is, look at Kenderkin's profile.

#11. Emerging Guns. I have nothing against gunslingers, but beware the many pitfalls of the class. If you fall in water, I'm going to count all of your powder as being wet and unusable unless you have the appropriate items. Also note that you cannot get a double barreled pistol or pepperbox at level 1, only the standard single barreled. Many seem to think that Gunslingers are broken, but they have many chinks in their attack strategies.

#12. No leadership. This feat is broken. If there's one thing that I learned from the GM guide, it is to not allow characters control of more than one character. There are obvious exceptions in cases of Eidolons or intelligent animal companions, but those are class features that exist for balance purposes. By this token, no undead armies either, be they from evil characters or Juju Oracles.

#13. Psions and 3rd party content is a no-no. Paizo content only, and links are appreciated. D20pfsrd is considered legit and Archives of Nethys entries will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

I am also looking for recommendations of mapping websites, as this campaign has a lot to do with geography.

Tentative deadline is Monday, January 9th at 8:00 PM Eastern Standard Time May the Gods be ever in your favor!

Hi all! I'm playing in a Jade Regent Campaign and am looking for some advice for feat progression for my Maneuver Master. The GM made me nerf it a little with Infernal Bastard in exchange for letting me choose the ancestry of the character for the Fiendish Heritage feat (Oni). What I have planned so far is as follows:

Tiefling Monk (Maneuver Master Archetype)

Favored Class Bonus: +1 HP

-25 Point Buy Starting Stats-
Str: 20 (18, +2 Racial)
Dex: 14
Con:10
Int: 7
Wis: 18 (16, +2 Racial)
Cha: 7 (9, -2 Racial)

-Starting Saves-
Fort: +2
Reflex: +4
Will: +7

-Feats and Features-

1: Traits- Younger Sibling Ameiko: +1 to Will; Infernal Bastard: Loses resistances for +2 to saves vs. Cold, Electricity and Fire. Loses Darkness SLA for casting 0-level spell at will.

Feats- Infernal Bastard (Oni Heritage and doesn't require sleep); Bonus Feat: Improved Trip

2: Bonus Feat- Improved Grapple

3: Feat-Combat Reflexes

5: Feat- Vicious Stomp

6: BF- Greater Trip

7: F- Ki Throw

9: F-Binding Throw

10: F- Greater Grapple

-The Plan-

Going along with the Eastern thematic elements of Jade Regent, I basically wanted to create an Oni Judo/Jujutsu practitioner and thought that there were sufficient mechanics to back up the build.

At level 10, the plan would be:
Maneuver 1: Initiate Flurry of Maneuvers -> Trip the opponent, provoking an attack of opportunity from all who threaten due to Greater Trip-> Take attack of opportunity from Vicious Stomp and apply Stunning fist to the attack -> Use Ki throw to reposition enemy in most advantageous place -> Use a Swift Action from binding throw to make a grapple attempt, provoking attacks of opportunity from those who threaten.

Maneuver 2: Use second maneuver to pin the opponent at a -4 to their CMD (due to their being prone), more if stunning fist worked and provoking an attack of opportunity from all nearby due to Greater Grapple

Maneuver 3 and 4: Either tie up the opponent, start pounding him with unarmed strike attacks that he no longer has the AC to avoid, or re-attempt any failed maneuvers. I can even make a fifth maneuver by spending a Ki point.

-The Question: Where do I go from here?-

So at 10th, I have great bonuses to two combat maneuvers that are very useful against a multitude of enemies, and if that doesn't work then I have a high strength, unarmed strike damage, and stunning fist to rely on. Once Magic Items and Ability score increases occur (Most likely to Strength), these strategies become even more viable in my opinion.

My question is: where do I go from here? Take Fury's Fall to increase my chance of tripping? Start taking Grapple feats like Pinning Knockout and Jawbreaker? I could even ,once level 12 comes around, start taking stuff from the Dimensional Dervish feat progression which would culminate with Dimensional Maneuvers giving me a +4 to trip against an opponent up to 1200 feet away (which now that I think about it is kind of cool, but somewhat silly).

I like grappling a LOT and there's a party wizard who can enlarge persons, making this something usable on Huge creatures. How do you think I can improve what I have here, and what can I do to make this character great from levels 11-20?