Actually DC32 is pretty high. Once you fail the first ST your Con and Fortitude Bonuses go down and passing the following ST is even harder.
He had +15 at Fort ST but rolled a 6, losing 5 Con points....
The ranger's failed 3 TS in 3 consecutive rounds, lowering his Con from 19 to 7 (also good rolls by DM - me).
Are you sure you applied the rules correctly?
Unlike the more powerful "Ability Drain" power, the lesser "Ability Damage" does not actually "lower" your ability score.
Ability Damage merely adds a penalty to all statistics linked to the ability, i.e. as if your ability modifier was lowered by 1; the ability penalty is -1 for every full 2 points of Ability Damage, so the first roll of 5 points CON Damage only applied a -2 penalty [from the 4 points Ability Damage, the 5th point did nothing yet]. Ability Drain would have given a -3 penalty in this case, because it would have lowered the 19 CON to 14 CON, but Ability Damage ignores your actual ability score.
This means he probably had a +1 more CON during the fight.
And unless the Ability Damage to Constitution is greater than the Constitution score itself, you do not die from Constitution damage.
The Constitution damage also has no effect on the maximum negative hit points a character can have before he is dead. So the Ranger wouldn't die from hit point damage unless he is at or below -19 HP.
p.s.: Delay Poison is a 2nd-level spell, that is super powerful!
All true, but I can't imagine a +1 to his saves would have made a difference in this example; -3 or -4, either way he needs a Nat20. And the poison is definitely going to damage his Con below the Con score at 10 saves, since he has 7 saves to go and only 7 Con remaining. People do frequently miss that the penalties only apply for every 2 damage though, regardless of whether the score is odd or even.
I GM a game for my younger brothers (26, 23, 20, and 15). First time playing for half of them, so I offered to help anyone with character building if they'd like; no one took the offer. One of them decided to play a middle-aged elf wizard with dumped Con (4), so he gains an average of 1hp per level. Still technically alive at level 3, but has gone unconscious several times, and enemies are scaling in damage much faster than he scales in hp, so he'll be killed by a single hit one of these days. I'm considering it a learning experience.
Things that are red for an adventurer, can be bright blue for an npc.
Stopping a monster from healing while the other 3-4 members of your party blitz it dead in a round and a half is less useful/scary than the hag turning off healing on your most wounded party member halfway through an ugly fight.
But then some player will think that is "*extra* mean", as someone already said in this thread.
Personally, I can think of several fights where that hex, if used successfully, would have killed or forced to flee one of the PCs.
I recognize that some might look at it that way, but it's pretty short sighted to do so, because:
1. The implication is that it's unfair for opponents to use things that the PCs themselves wouldn't find useful. In this case specifically, they wouldn't take the hex because they know it's more efficient to just blow the enemy up quickly rather than tactically debuff it. They want the enemy to use the same tactics they do, but worse, so they can still win.
2. The opponent could just use an ACTUAL save-or-die effect, and that's always going to be more dangerous than denying someone in-combat healing (which is the only relevant use for a round-per-level debuff). It could be the nail in the coffin that causes a PC to die, but there are many more common effects that would cause that death more quickly/directly with a failed save.
Whenever someone complains about something being OP/mean/unreasonable using RAI, I have to question their motivations or understanding.
There are some alternate abilities printed in later books that make this idea less desirable.
Take the Shadowhunter racial ability printed in Blood of Shadows.
Shadowhunter wrote:
Dwarves, elves, gnomes, half-orcs, and halflings can take this trait in place of weapon familiarity. Half-elves can take this trait in place of elven immunities. Humans can take this trait in place of their bonus feat, also gaining Iron Will as a bonus feat.
Now every core race can trade their racial weapon familiarity for a free trait. 90% of characters don't use their racial familiarity anyways and the extra feat would just be better.
The same applies to Skilled. If you have min/maxers in your campaign, you'll have a party full of non-humans with all the good human traits, because those races with +2/+2/-2 stats can also give up marginal racial traits to get the good ones from human.
Well, going by OP's initial idea, I'd say that it doesn't work that way, because the human version is trading an open feat for this trait plus a specific feat. Going in reverse, it's the classic "you don't have this, so you can't trade it away". However, if they had Iron Will as a free feat from a racial, they could trade that and this trait (or weapon familiarity) for an open feat. Just my two cents. It would be a houserule, so choosing to apply it in that way wouldn't be any less true-to-rules.
Balance-wise, I think it’s going to be fine most of the time, although there’s probably some weird combination that can make things slightly more powerful than other combinations. But it would be minor. The bigger issue, I agree, is that it does perhaps blur the lines that make existing races unique. From a very balanced perspective, you could also just allow players to use the benefits of whatever race they like, and then just call it a Dwarf or Tiefling or whatever. But other than that little thing, seems fine. There aren’t that many alternate racial traits with overlap like that in the first place, so probably only looking at a dozen different traits that could be gained this way; no one is suddenly getting Drow Noble abilities or anything.
The concept of "viable" builds is pretty tenuous, because it will depend dramatically on who you play with. I can certainly make a dex-based or switch-hitter build that will perform just fine in Paizo APs, and don't need EitR accommodations to do so (assuming most first-party material is available). For the matter, I can build a natural attack Kobold or a Mystic Theurge that will keep relevant. In my circle of players, three others could build the dex/switch hitter just fine, but only one of them could pull off the Kobold/Theurge. The other three players need to stick with fairly traditional builds. Some of those builds are "viable" for a few of us, but not "viable" for the others.
The point is that, with good system mastery, there are very few concepts that can't be made viable, especially if playing in games that aren't particularly optimized. If you're playing in a campaign where everyone min-maxes, and the GM ruthlessly plays every enemy as if they have 20 Int and exploits meta-knowledge about the PCs, then the more exotic builds may be unable to keep pace. What you've described above sounds more like:
1. Players with bad attitudes; most builds will have strengths and weaknesses, and pouting because they did poorly in an encounter is a player problem, not a character problem.
2. Players with very low system mastery, and who may need help building their first PCs if they're newer to the game.
3. People having other, personal issues with the group, and using a bad build as an excuse to avoid addressing the actual frustrations.
I would personally consider Switch-hitters and Dex builds to be fairly vanilla and the opposite of gimmicky, so banning them seems pretty restrictive, especially when that isn't really the root of the problem.
I have to agree with the general consensus that this is a fabricated problem, created solely so that there would be a need for the argument, and maybe a chance to slip in facts about timelines. In reality, reality has very little impact on what I would or would not allow in a game. If guns don't feel right for the setting, they're out, same with alien-esque options, and maybe even Lovecraftian lore. Same reason a peasant railgun doesn't work, because facts and real-world rules have little influence on my fantasy games.
I’ve played several campaigns into mid-levels, and one AP to completion, and it seems to depend substantially on the GM. The completed AP, I never died, but my party had about 7 deaths total. Current AP (Kingmaker) we’ve had about 6 deaths so far, and we’re level 3 (different GM, we voted early on to have a “no punches pulled” game). So it varies wildly. Personally, I don’t enjoy my games as much when there isn’t a real threat of death, so this current campaign is excellent in my mind. Yeah, we lost several characters, but that was largely due to poorly optimized builds (like, below average, not “failing to power game”) and getting a feel for what kinds of things you can pull. I now know that the GM will absolutely allow us to attempt fights that we have no chance of winning and it’s up to us to recognize when we’ve skipped too far ahead and just retreat, something we’ve never done in the past. By level 10, save-or-dies are definitely a thing, so players have to ensure they’re keeping saves high and positioning tactically (a lot of those spells are devastating, but only if the player fails AND is left in an exposed position).
A regular backpack weighs 2 pounds. It's always somewhat of an increase to wear a masterwork backpack, as between STR 1 and 10, every point of strength is 3.3lb/weight category/STR, meaning if you have to be in light weight, you gain 1.3lb of space but that doesn't mean it's worth the extra 48gp over a regular backpack either.
Ah, from that perspective I suppose. I was assuming going from no backpack to MW backpack. If you will have one regardless, then it is an improvement, but if all you own is two daggers and some armor, you won't need a pack since there's nothing else to carry.
As has already been covered, yeah, super low strength characters will struggle to remain under a medium load. I've been there, done that, and you definitely have to finagle every last pound to make things work. Darkleaf armor is pretty much a necessity. Wakizashis are pretty light-weight already, but if you make them out of Obsidian you can shave off another pound of weight in exchange for the fragile quality at low levels (make sure a party member has the mending cantrip), and mithril for an even lighter and more durable option at higher levels.
Don't fall for the Masterwork Backpack trap. It's a good option for staying under a HEAVY load or for mid-strength characters, but for low strength PCs...the backpack weighs 4 pounds, and your light load will only increase by 3-4 pounds, so it's a spendy mistake.
That is what I thought too. But when I am on herolab, Ironbeard does not show on the oracle spell list.
Something I would check is to make sure you have the advanced race guide active in herolab. Newly purchased books have to be individually activated in setup (or at least that's the case for their offline version, I haven't used their online one so it may be different). If you do and it's not showing up for oracle and it is showing up for other classes I would reach out to the folks at herolab and report it as a bug. Either they'll get it fixed or they will explain why they don't have it flagged as an oracle spell. They've been generally responsive and helpful when I've reached out before.
If it is a bug that needs to be fixed, you can force herolab to recognize the spell as being on your class list. I had to to that for the Pathfinder Savant class before it was fully implemented.
Yeah, I got all of the existing books for Herolab during some big sale, because I didn't want to run into issues with using a specific spell or feat that wasn't available because it's only in a splatbook. Pretty incredible software, but there are a lot of little things you have to double-check for everything to work properly, like activating rules/special books, or taking animal companion archetypes on the PC first and then going to the AC and adding it after. One issue I found is with deity specific spells. Milani grants "Imbue with Spell Ability" to rangers, and Herolab will have it show up on their spell list when worshipping her...but it's also grayed out and not a valid option, because only worshipers of Nethys get that spell ;). Pathfinder is a complex game, with a ton of little exceptions, and having a program try to account for all of them means that there will be a lot of little oversights as well.
Seems to me that there is a needlessly high amount of antagonism toward the OP, rather than answering the question. It’s incredibly obvious what type of thing he’s looking for, based on his given example. A comment or two about how it might be a double-edged sword is fine, but that’s been the vast majority of posts so far. We get it, y’all disapprove, move on.
Somehow I always just imagined that you were one of those mythical creatures who wrote guides back in the day, but no one has seen in years. I wish I had prepared for this day better, written down thoughts and questions. Curse my lack of foresight!
Yeah, while polymorphing causes you to lose access to supernatural abilities that rely on your form, I'd argue that Lay on Hands doesn't fall into that category (despite the flavor use of the word "hands" in the ability). In support of this, Unchained Eidolons can pick the Agathion subtype which grants them Lay on Hands as a Paladin, but several (most) of the forms they can take do not have hands, but tentacles/legs/etc.
Feral Champion Warpriest with the Fate's Favored trait.
I love this, thanks for your little errata about the impact of the kobolds small size, still super awesome.
awbattles wrote:
-Two hoof attacks from casting Monstrous Extremities on yourself in the morning (has hours/level duration). This starts at level 7.
Worship Apsu (thematic for a Kobold anyway). Deity's favored weapon is bite, and the archetype grants claws that automatically scale with Sacred Weapon, so use your free Weapon Focus on whichever natural attack you prefer (Tail for earliest use, hoof for earliest use on two weapons probably the best choice, wings for earliest use on two permanent weapons).
Oh hell yes, excellent additions.
awbattles wrote:
Regular martials will probably be closer to +25/+20/+15 at 1d8+15, but you are making literally triple their number of attack rolls, and you started with a small Kobold.
awbattles wrote:
and you started with a small Kobold.
Quoted for emphasis
awbattles wrote:
Honestly, I found the most irritating thing was keeping track of all the little differences between natural attacks when making my rolls (some have +1 to hit from Weapon Focus, some don't, few different die sizes), so make a cheat sheet.
Appreciate the tip. Did you play this little monster? Between what levels? Was it as good a time as it looks?
Glad you found some interesting stuff in there. Monstrous Extremities is a huge boon to any natural attack build that isn't just polymorphing
I played a less-effective variant of this using an Oracle that transitioned into Dragon Disciple; Lunar mystery has a revelation that grants some temporary natural attacks, either claws or gore. It was actually a lot of fun, especially around level 7 when I had my highest number of attacks compared to others (The bite/tail/hoof/hoof/claw combo). The biggest issue was deciding how much to buff (spending two rounds at the beginning of battle is a real detriment), which the Warpriest should get around more easily, and tracking the dice as mentioned above (I had limited use claws from a couple of different sources, and an improved 1.5str-to-damage bite that only worked with the DD claws, etc), but ultimately he was very capable, and played well from level 2 on (because I only had bite at level 1, should be much more devastating earlier this route). Ended up going to level 13, and never felt a real drop in effectiveness, and the roleplay of being a miniature champion for the weak didn't get old XD.
That’s a much more playable build. Touch attacks would still be vastly preferable, since 16 isn’t that crazy high and you’re 3/4 BAB, but if you keep your burn up you should at least have a fair chance of hitting if you always put your size bonus into strength.
As for earth...yeah, it’s better. I don’t absolutely hate the wood option though, unlike most here. You need to transition to heavy armor as soon as possible, and keep it and your heavy shield enhanced as high as you can for wealth at any given level, but it should be pretty effective against most physical attacks. The new ability score layout makes a huge difference, and while it won’t be STRONG, I’d argue it could keep up with a low-ish balanced party.
Unfortunately, the general consensus here seems right. In mathematical terms, you have too many knowns and not enough (any) unknowns. If you know your age/race/class/ability scores/class/class choices/class archetype, that just doesn't leave anything left. And as others pointed out, Kineticist is a high-floor/low-ceiling class, and the entire reason they're low-ceiling is because they basically can't be improved through equipment or feats. Certainly nothing can be done with 30gp and a single utility talent. I guess Kinetic Cover and just throw up barriers at a range to force enemies to use move actions to get past? You can't be a tank, because you won't have the AC or health for it. I'd say take the Wood Healer talent, but that requires positive energy blasts, and you've already chosen wood blast. Think this is just one of those classic economics choices where something has to give: you can't have something cheaper than usual, and better-made than usual, and get it delivered more quickly than usual; there's always a trade-off.
You are starting the game with 3 attacks that each have 1d6 and are all primary, and fervor at level 2 means you can swift-buff with Divine Favor (boosted by Fate's Favored) for a total of +5 to hit at 1d6+4 damage on all your attacks. By the time martials are getting a single iterative, you're just one level away from making 4 attacks each round (5 if you can cast monstrous extremities twice with bonus spells from Wis), and Divine Favor has increased by an additional 1 to-hit and damage. Usually I like to use Fervor for frequent swift casting, but you only need one buff to stay relevant, so extra uses of fervor will be used to swift heal yourself when needed, without breaking up your full attack rhythm (you are a d8 with only 13-14 Con after all). Using the above, you have a free feat at levels 1, 5, 7,...
Realized an error after. Small warpriest only gets 1d4 at level 1 for Sacred weapons, and by level 11 it would be 1d8. Still not bad, and only losing 1 average damage per hit, but it does mean that a single size increase won't be all that impressive, so don't beg for Enlarge Person.
Feral Champion Warpriest with the Fate's Favored trait.
With 20 point buy:
14 Str
13 Dex
13 Con
7 Int
13 Wis
7 Cha
Yeah, you're dumping stats hard and have to wear heavy armor, but there are trade-offs to make when using the worst statted race in the game. One ability increase goes to Con, remainder to Str, use a headband to increase Wis high enough to cast your highest level spells. Can even take Eldritch Claws at level 6 if you like, since WP bonus feats count as full BAB.
-Bite from Dragonmaw level 1
-Two claws from Feral archetype at level 1
-Tail Slap from Tail Terror at level 3 (and you already qualify for Multiattack if you want)
-Two hoof attacks from casting Monstrous Extremities on yourself in the morning (has hours/level duration). This starts at level 7.
-Two wing attacks from Powerful Wings and Gliding trait. level 11
Worship Apsu (thematic for a Kobold anyway). Deity's favored weapon is bite, and the archetype grants claws that automatically scale with Sacred Weapon, so use your free Weapon Focus on whichever natural attack you prefer (Tail for earliest use, hoof for earliest use on two weapons probably the best choice, wings for earliest use on two permanent weapons).
You are starting the game with 3 attacks that each have 1d6 and are all primary, and fervor at level 2 means you can swift-buff with Divine Favor (boosted by Fate's Favored) for a total of +5 to hit at 1d6+4 damage on all your attacks. By the time martials are getting a single iterative, you're just one level away from making 4 attacks each round (5 if you can cast monstrous extremities twice with bonus spells from Wis), and Divine Favor has increased by an additional 1 to-hit and damage. Usually I like to use Fervor for frequent swift casting, but you only need one buff to stay relevant, so extra uses of fervor will be used to swift heal yourself when needed, without breaking up your full attack rhythm (you are a d8 with only 13-14 Con after all). Using the above, you have a free feat at levels 1, 5, 7, and a bonus combat feat at 9, so you can pick whatever your favorite feats are for a front liner (toughness, power attack, more weapon focuses, etc). At level 11....
Amulet of Mighty Fists +3 (36k)
Belt of Giant Str +4 (16k)
Headband of Wis +2 (4k)
Full Plate + 2 (5.5k)
Still have 25% your wealth to spend.
3 primary attacks +19 for 1d10+10 damage.
2 secondary attacks +18 for 1d10+8 damage.
3 secondary attacks +17 for 1d4+8 (or take Weapon Focus additional times to move them into the 1d10 category and get that extra +1 to hit).
1 more primary attack with a swift-buff Divine Power (+19, 1d10+10).
You can also summon a Woolly Rhino with a blessing to get a flanking partner.
Regular martials will probably be closer to +25/+20/+15 at 1d8+15, but you are making literally triple their number of attack rolls, and you started with a small Kobold. Your AC will be abysmal though (around 23), so you'll probably need to throw Shield of Faith on yourself whenever possible just to have a chance of not taking hits.
If someone in your party can cast Enlarge Person, you're a natural choice since the damage dice will increase to 2d8 for sacred weapons. Otherwise at level 13 you can buff with Righteous Might and get the size increase all by yourself.
Honestly, I found the most irritating thing was keeping track of all the little differences between natural attacks when making my rolls (some have +1 to hit from Weapon Focus, some don't, few different die sizes), so make a cheat sheet.
Well, considering this feat: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/counterpoint-to-inspiration-te amwork/ it's safe to say that the Inspire features aren't allowed to stack normally.
However, I think the pre-reqs for this feat are nothing shy of egregious; two people each having to take THREE teamwork feats, plus wait until level 10, and each expend rounds, all to add a +1? It may be the single worst feat-chain/tax I've ever seen. So...ask the GM if he'd handwave the pre-reqs of the feat I linked. Or pick difference performances when both playing at once.
Also don't they know only the worthy can wield Mjolnir? So you should have to be Good aligned to even lift it!
And the only way to destroy it is to throw it at Cate Blanchett, it's obvious really!
Nice try troll, but I’m talking about the Norse Mythology, not the comic book franchise. Which was blatantly obvious if you had actually read my post.
And the hammer of thunderbolts is pathfinder/dungeons and dragons and not norse mythology.
And as has already been stated, it is clearly based off of Mjölnir. So your point is pointless.
Except its not...based off of is not the same as an exact clone of. They wanted a higher damage warhammer, impact wasn't created yet, and they wanted it to be a warhammer for synergy with feats and the like. Hence large warhammer. In 2nd ed i know, and 1st ed im pretty sure you had to have a girdle of giant strength and gauntlets of ogre power just to use a hammer of thunderbolts, so heavy and awkward is pretty par for the course. Large is a way to do heavy and awkward without making an artifact require two other magic items one of which i dont even think exists in pathfinder.
Look, I’m not saying exact copy of, but imagine this: Imagine Pathfinder devils did not try to trick people into signing their souls away for a favor. Imagine they didn’t even have the power to take souls. Would you not say then that Pathfinder devils are badly designed, since they are based off of the christian devil?
That’s the point I’m making here. Maybe the large size is excusable, but the fact that it can be two-handed is not. That is literally the defining feature of Mjölnir, so for being based off of Mjölnir and going against this, the Hammer of Thunderbolts is thus badly designed.
In all fairness, the Christian devil is not lawful, bound by contracts, or in any way a ruler of hell/the abyss, and technically he is a demon as well. Unless "Devil Went Down to Georgia" is the defining source for the mythology, pathfinder devils don't match well at all, but games had a certain niche to fill, and popular novels and art used the above portrayals, so it fit well enough for their purposes.
There's a lot to unpack here, and I'm not entirely clear on what you're asking, so I'll just give my take in a couple statements.
I doubt they will errata the 1E Druidic Herbalism.
The Druid is hands-down THE best potion maker in the game, using herbalism, so it's certainly not pointless.
The "broken" part of herbalism comes from trying to sell the free potions for a profit. No GM in their right mind will let you sell them for full price, but if they do, it's broken. The broken aspect can also come in to play if there is too much downtime in a game. A potion-focused druid can make multiple free potions a day, with max caster level and no cap. Give that druid a few months of downtime, and he'll have hundreds of potions that are better than anything sold in shops. Again, it's up to the GM to limit downtime in most campaigns. In something with a lot of downtime built in...it's somewhat overpowered, but ultimately is still kept somewhat in check by the fact that potion drinking is a standard action, so while you would effectively have unlimited 1-3 level spells, you also have to have a chance to pre-buff before fights or it's substantially less useful.
No part of the druidic herbalism will have any direct bearing on bolstering crops or improving an area. As GeneticDrift said, the obvious spell for that would be Plant Growth, and that isn't going to reasonably function as a potion or oil. Filling the gap between your envisioned character and the mechanical benefit of casting that spell is something you'll have to resort to roleplaying and flavorful descriptions for.
I'd say the problem is that prepared spells have metamagic applied to them WHEN they are prepared. So you would actually be preparing a 2nd level divine spell, which would require a 3rd level slot and therefore gains you nothing. If this were a spontaneous caster, then I'd be inclined to agree it technically works, since you'd have a 1st level spell known, which casts from a second level slot, and could be increased to a 2nd level spell cast from a third level slot.
I thought this was pretty much "Yes, you are considered your own ally" and then I was directed to this trait by a friend...
Community Minded (Regional)
Benefit(s): Any morale bonuses you confer upon your allies through your own abilities or spells last 2 additional rounds.
If you are your own ally, then this would apply to any Morale bonuses you confer to yourself.
What about Rage? If you have this, you could Rage for 1 round, turn it off...but still get all the bonuses of Rage for 2 more rounds...without the penalties to AC or actions. I know you'd be Fatigued but that seems like a small price to pay for adding extra rounds to every Rage.
Most combat don't take but 3-5 rounds, so this is quite the game changer...for a Trait at that!
Thoughts? Am I unaware of something else going on here?
I would say "yes", by RAW. It would be important to note exactly what the morale bonuses are though. The strength, constitution, and will save would all carry over those extra rounds, but rage powers would not, and you are not actually raging any longer. Definitely too powerful for a trait, but probably not enough so that I'd ban it as a GM. Honestly, I've never seen barbarians in my games run into problems with a lack of rage rounds. If anything, the biggest advantage here would arguably be that you maintain those bonuses but are also able to concentrate and do all skill checks again, but that's also not exactly a wild advantage.
Scott Wilhelm wrote:
Xavram5 wrote:
If you are your own ally, then this would apply to any Morale bonuses you confer to yourself.
No. If I take a potion of Cure Light Wounds, I don't heal everyone because I count as one of my own allies.
"'Your allies' means 'you and your allies'" means that things you do for your allies you also do for yourself. It does not at all mean that things you do for yourself automatically affect all your allies.
So, no:
If you go into a Rage, you don't automatically put all your allies into a Rage
If you cast Bull Strength on yourself, you don't qutomatically cast it on everyone else.
if you use Combat Expertise, you don't automatically give everyone in your party an AC Bonus nor Attack Penalty.
If you fall into a pit, you and only you take 1d6 points of damage.
Does this really need clarification?
I...re-read both the OP and your response multiple times, and I think you misunderstood the question. No one is implying that any effect one applies to themselves is also applied to other allies.
Actually, the highest DC would be for using a scroll not on your spell list, which is 20+Spell CL, or 37 for a 9th level spell. Not much higher than the 34 you mentioned, but a little bit anyway.
It's a matter of how much you feel like hand-waving the process.
I'd say the most straightforward approach is to partake in an activity that Pharasma approves of, namely protecting the sanctity of the "souls should be brought for swift judgement" concept. The Ahmuuth Psychopomp is one that specifically teams up with mortals to destroy undead. Even better, the PC may help by preventing the creation of more undead. "Alas, I am restricted in my actions to merely dispatching of the undead, but the necromancer who raises them is outside my jurisdiction". PC kills the necromancer or breaks his staff, and the Psychopomp is grateful for that intervention that he himself was not allowed to take. That's the more intricate option. The hand-wave one is just to have the players encounter some undead in the campaign, and when they go to battle them, an Ahmuuth is also there in his quest to slay them. They find themselves allies for the fight, and the psychopomp expresses his appreciation with "you have proven yourself an ally and friend to Pharasma. Thanks, bye." and the requirement is met. But that general concept is what I'd go with. If you want to avoid throwing in more combat, maybe there was a fight with a demon years back, and he unhallowed a graveyard in the process. Demon is long gone, as are the heros who vanquished him, but now over the years of subtle unholy energy permeating the graves, some of the bodies have begun to rise as completely mindless zombies, and the PCs need to hunt down a priest who can provide a scroll of Permanent Consecrate that needs to be placed on the central tombstone. Just some various ideas.
There's been some disagreement in the past about whether or not this type of thing would work. Some point to the word "tail" rather than "tails", and claim it would only wok for one. I'd side with you and say, "it means my tail, and this is also my tail, and this is also my tail". Plus, you're dropping literally every feat you have into the idea. I'd say that the answer to all your above points is "yes".
The shifter has no bonus feats so you're going to spend all of yours on grappling probably. At a minimum you need improved unarmed strike or dirty fighting, improved grapple and greater grapple. You can also get into one of the styles which aids grappling; Snapping Turtle or Kraken are styles you could have started by this point. If human/if you take a dip in another class (like master of many styles monk or unarmed fighter) you could have two or even all three feats in your chosen style.
You can become immune to grapple combat maneuvers by taking your swarm form which I think means enemies can't try to reverse control of the grapple. Probably not an intended effect, it occurs because the writers were too conservative in handing out the swarm abilities and restrictions.
There are some magic items which help, notably anaconda's coils is a belt which gives the constrict ability.
Honestly, the ability to not have your grapples broken? Insane. There are lots of ways to boost grapple CMB, but CMD is a much harder one to raise up. Without looking closely into a build, the idea is intriguing, although as you pointed out, pretty feat intensive for a Shifter.
I get grumpy when players try to use OOC chatter as free telepathy among their characters. If they haven't worked out their plan before they walk up to the guards and start bluffing, it's too late. The guards are right there. They can hear you. "But we're talking OOC" doesn't cut it. Ditto if you have limited rounds before the next bad thing happens. Your planning is in real time. Of course, I'll stop the clock for actual OOC stuff. We can pause while you talk sportsball scores. But you can't use OOC as a way to magically share information between characters.
I understand this, but you have to remember, sometimes dumb people play the game, or even just average intelligence people. The fact is, the 18 INT Wizard being played by an average intelligence person SHOULD get free advice, because their character is a lot more intelligent than the player.
I would agree with this. While I like the idea of "act quickly, this is happening in 6 second rounds", a high-int character would conceivably come up with much more tactical plans than I might in the same period of time. Kind of like how it's OK to allow a little bit of "my high-cha character begins wooing the barmaid" without actually forcing the player to come up with excellent pick-up lines or fail.
Adamantine armor DR does not stack with Stonelord DR, so adamantine armor is basically worthless for them. I would look to eventually upgrade to magical full plate and not worry about special materials for it.
As Syries mentioned, if you are going for a weapon/shield build on a Paladin, go with a light shield so you can still use that hand for lay on hands without having to drop either your weapon or shield.
With a 7 Int, you get 0 skill points per level unless you use your favored class bonus for skill points. 2 for the class, -2 for your Int = 0.
Defender of the Society is indeed a Fighter only trait, you cannot use that on a Paladin in PFS play. Glory of Old is a solid option, +1 on saves -vs- spells is always nice.
You may want to consider switching from the Dwarven Maulaxe to the Dwarven Waraxe...better damage, x3 crit multiplier, still 1 handed, and you don't need a light weapon since you aren't going for 2-weapon fighting style.
The one magic item that always comes to mind when I think of Stonelords is Boots of the Earth, thematically perfect, and essentially free healing between combats is amazing for a front line character.
Actually, you always get a minimum of 1 skill point per level, so going from 8 Int to 7 effectively doesn't do anything to his character, other than lower his Int skill checks.
Here are my thoughts, as I was just looking in to wind spells yesterday (what are the odds?!).
First: Without intentionally building around wind effects for synergy/defense/etc, others are probably right in that the uses will be primarily utilitarian, especially for something with such a limited affected area as Alter Winds. However...
Second: My reading of the spell is that, at CL 4 you can affect winds that are already Moderate or weaker, up to one step either direction. Worthless for reducing wind effects at this level (because there are no penalty differences between light and moderate), BUT if there is already a moderate wind, you can affect it by one level to make it Strong. Still of situational usefulness, but if there are any fights against tiny creatures, you can force them to make somewhat constant checks just to be able to move. Also, and this may have more table variation, but any ranged attacks that pass through that windy area may take a -2 to-hit, giving you a crude bonus against archers and the like. Other than that, it's kind of a poor spell, mechanically.
One of my older groups used to put their hand on top of their head when they were speaking OOC, I still find myself doing that sometimes - but now as a Player I actually try to just have my Character Voice be different enough from my ACTUAL voice that I can just use that to denote in/out of character stuff.
Yeah, I prefer to use a character voice for in-game speech, and my normal voice for the OOC, and it hasn't presented any problems so far. It's also not a hassle, since the ratio of IC talking at our tables to OOC is probably 1:8. Not sure how that would match up at other tables, but we do a lot of conversation/rule discussion/joking "to avoid the argument I activate Treeform and let them rant away at my stoic barkiness". We find that letting people "be themselves" most of the time means that they stay truer to their character persona the rest of the time, but I'm suddenly suspicious that everyone else here is thinking "they just TALK and break IMMERSION frequently? Glad I don't play with THAT guy!".
No. Wildshape is a supernatural ability, not a spell. It's magical, so it won't work in an antimagic field, but it isn't a spell, so it can't be dispelled.
This doesn't solve your problem really, but I'd allow it with the Versatile Summon Monster feat. At first I assumed it must be included in those options, but apparently not. Similar concept though.
I usually try pretty hard to find a picture (never have much luck with miniatures) that matches my character, but I haven't yet for this one (game hasn't actually started yet), so I feel like I'm to most receptive to ideas for him right now.
Ok, so, He's an Elven Investigator who eventually prestiges into Student of War.
Str: 6
Dex: 16
Con: 12
Int: 20
Wis: 8
Cha: 8
Definitely past his prime, he spent his whole life reading fictional adventures and murder-mysteries, and some historical fiction. Was planning to write a book of his own, but saw a human motivational speaker who challenged attendees to "go out and seize life by the lapels, because it's too short". He took it to heart, and decided to stop living adventures vicariously through stories and experience them himself. Whenever he uses inspiration to succeed at something, he says something along the lines of, "I read a book, once, on some of the advanced lock-making techniques" or "The trick is to pretend to stab at the eyes; people have a deep-seated psychological paranoia about protecting their eyes". May occasionally correct people with, "Well, acktchually" after knowledge checks. Uses a rapier, because he thinks it makes him look dashing, and also because he already had one hanging above the fireplace from his late-father's estate. Didn't have the patience or discipline to practice nuanced magical theory, but why bother when you can just follow a written recipe and accomplish the same thing?!
Welcome to the Pathfinder Advice forum. Some here are more interested in chest-beating tribally for their style of play than offering advice for yours. You already seem aware of this.
That said, your question is subjective: "Is this sort of thing normal?".
"Normal" requires qualification to meaningfully discuss. As a baseline I offer Paizo's Monster Creation rules. Scrolling down to locate the table, these give the following relevant averages for a CR12 monster:
HP: 160
AC: 27
High Attack: 22
High Damage (average value if everything hits): 60
These statistics, however, are a little simplified and dated, though easy to get into. If you want a deeper dive, the later-published, ironically-named Simple Monster Creation rules offer a more detailed statistical breakdown. Extracting from the Combat creature arrays on a sub-page gets the below relevant averages for a CR12 monster:
HP: 176
AC: 29
Touch AC: 17
Flat-Footed AC: 21
High Weapon Attacks: +21/+16/+11
Damage (average value, per successful hit): 35
Two Natural Attacks: +21/+21
Damage (average value, per successful hit): 31
Three Natural Attacks: +21/+16/+16
Damage (average value, per successful hit): 41/21/21
You may notice these values tend to be higher than those found in the earlier Monster Creation rules/guidelines.
Nominally, a PC with "normal" wealth by level is of a CR equal to their class levels, notwithstanding a powerful race or mythic tiers. While you haven't provided the typical damage values or other statistics of this character, if you presented a clone of them as a CR12 enemy, by either of the above references they would not be normal. Discounting the bonus owed to flanking, which is conditional, the character's leading strike is a +32 to...
I think this is a good way to compare the relative attack bonus, but I also think you're not evaluating them in a comparable way. The actual attack of the Inquisitor is right on par with these CR12 options. The flanking is positioning, as you said, so remove that +4. +7 is coming from buff spells, which aren't going to be part of a bestiary entry, so subtract that. +27 AB. Remove the bonus that literally only works for 12 rounds a day, and you have +25 AB. Arguably, that is a value which could be used for comparison purposes; it requires activating a class feature, but one that lasts all of combat, so could be considered nearly always up. A little high, but averages assume some "normal" values will be a bit higher. I maintain that the player is pretty normal, just maybe oddly concerned with boosting attack bonus over AC or saves.
Literally just Divine Power in terms of spells that "need" to be cast in combat. Heroism is long term.
Technically Judgement and Greater Bane as well but those are swift actions, one on turn one and one on turn two.
Wonderstell wrote:
It's not normal that a PC should ever need +38 AB at level 12, since the average AC of a CR-equivalent opponent is supposed to be 27. But you aren't holding a normal game for your players, so I'm gonna guess our opinions on what is normal aren't that important for your table.
Check the attitude, please. Here's the roster for the main combat last night (first fight of level 12, mainly meant to let them play around with new abilities and feel awesome...especially the sorcerer who just got Chain Lightning):
If you're wondering how they reached +38, you should probably just ask your player instead of us. But considering that the Inquisitor is pretty good at stacking buffs, I don't doubt it's possible.
I know how they reached it, I went over the math once I saw the number. That's why this is in Advice rather than Rules.
Wonderstell wrote:
Inflated gold per level and just picking up Outflank should definitely make 38 AB possible.
Quick character sheet audit shows 111kish, with 8k of it in a back-up Ghost Touch weapon. That's also with no crafting, so full price for everything.
Name Violation wrote:
Anything is possible.
But until you say more than "OMG +38AB WTF" we don't have enough information to give any advice.
That was pretty much my initial reaction, yes. But it all seems possible within the rules, that doesn't stop my reaction as you so aptly put it.
Name Violation wrote:
Do you have a breakdown of how this is happening? Can you post the characters stats
...
Looking at the breakdown, I'd say "Yes, pretty normal". My current character has 11BAB at level 13 (so slightly more than a straight 3/4 class, from multiclassing), and a static AB of 20, which is basically exactly on par with your player. Throw in flanking, a couple buff spells, and two rounds worth of swift actions, and it seems entirely reasonable. Plus he can only maintain that level of BAB for limited number of rounds per day, and he's essentially using resources to massively over-inflate his bonus higher than he needs it to be. Odds are some other aspect of his character is suffering adequately to make it up.
I have a different question: how are you supposed to know when you should use this ability without metagaming it? Particularly if your DM rolls behind a screen?
You can't. Ideally, you get to see the roll itself, but without any knowledge of the bonuses attached to it. E.g. "The enemy attempts to trip you..." rolls a 19, and you decide THAT is something you want re-rolled, because it's a good roll. If he rolled a 12, that would be a much more difficult call, because it's entirely possible that a 12 is already a miss, and the reroll would give him a chance to succeed instead.
As an alternative, if the GM really doesn't want to share the results of the dice, I feel like it could be reasonable to just say that the enemy gets "disadvantage" (aka, rolls twice and takes the worse option). On the one hand, that's technically a better effect for the player than "takes the second, regardless of what it is", but on the other, it's used blindly; normally you would never use the ability if the enemy rolled a 5 or lower, but with this method it's entirely possible that the first roll is very low and you forced a re-roll unnecessarily.
Some interpret "the results of the roll" to mean the end result (succeeding or not) and some as the actual die number. If your GM is one of the latter...well, that's unfortunate, and almost certainly not RAI since it would make both Fortune and Misfortune virtually worthless, but I've had a GM who ruled things that way.
Perhaps, but unless done very carefully the character will suck in most other respects.
Nevertheless, I am very flattered by your comment that you find my idea so powerful that you think it should be illegal.
I definitely missed part of the comment somewhere.
No one believes that extensive multi-classing is so powerful that it should be illegal :P. It could be vaguely useful for saves. If you want a lot of channel energy uses, you can also multiclass several times and it will have a niche use, but 40 1d6 channels won't be illegally good.
You're definitely correct that a druid's extracts, by RAW, have to be 4th level or higher. The bigger question is probably "why do you want to make lower extracts"? Potions are pretty much superior in every way, except price, which herbalism bypasses nicely. Worst case scenario, you make the potions, minimum caster level probably, at 1/4th the normal cost, so 12.5gp for a first level spell, 75gp for a second, and 187.5gp for a third level. If you use your free concoctions on 3rd and 2nd level spells, and pay for all your first level spells, you're still getting everything you want (and have sufficient slots for) at incredibly affordable prices.
I guess I don't think Herbalism is lacking enough to warrant over-riding the RAW in this case. It's like asking for the ability to put an SLA into a potion: it isn't so much that I'm AGAINST the idea as I am just finding it too niche and lacking the value to justify intentionally ruling against RAW.
As has been pointed out, you can't take two social traits.
Instead, you could potentially consider Well-Provisioned Adventurer, which is an equipment trait. Holy Warrior would get you a MW sword, and Questing Knight gets a heavy horse and half-plate. Then use Signature Moves to fill in whatever item from the package isn't as good.
Although, as others have pointed out, this is generally considered a strong starting option...but one which scales incredibly poorly. And no one should ever be allowed to retrain their traits, especially for this very reason (or the extra traits feat. Period). It's supposed to be a trade-off.
I mean, I understand that it was too powerful/versatile in the spell's original form. I think a big part of the spell's value though was that it's on several lists besides the wizard/sorcerer, and it's pretty much the only energy damage available to those lists at low level (and was pretty much the only way of bypassing SR for some of them).
It has also been a matter of some contention as to whether or not the spell effectively requires two rounds or one to use (e.g. first round just CREATES the snowball and second attacks with it, or all in one round). Doesn't seem that overpowered if it was the first, kind of was if it was the second. Now that it's evocation, the latter makes sense, but as a conjuration the former made sense. At least, that's my two sense (heehee).
I think this is very simple. Female Minotaurs of course exist. The product of a human male and female cow. It has the body of a cow with the head of a woman. They just get less publicity, because they’re so much more horrific to look at. When male and female Minotaurs have children together, it’s a toss up as to whether you get a human with cow-like intelligence or a cow with human intelligence.
To clarify, it is an evil compatible campaign following something similiar to Golarion standard lore - as such, Drow is an option... lawful good Drow however are cheese and snowflake, and thus not allowed (even as a background stepping stone to allow one to become a fallen paladin).
As a mostly evil party, we will be fighting almost exclusively evil forces, which makes standard antipaladin less than desirable. Insulator MIGHT work, but I preferred the mechanics of the Vindictive Bastard for the purpose of a Drow that didn't so much care what their opponents morality was, just that they had (at least by the Drow's definition) been wronged by them.
To clarify, I am looking for a way to go straight to Vindictive Bastard, not stop at standard Paladin at any point in mechanics or lore. Feats, traits, optional rules to do it would be ideal, I care not which one I use.
Alternatively, if one MUST be a paladin first I am seeking some rule that allows one to level as the class without gaining any of the features that class normally provides (except weapon proficiency as per the Ex-Paladin entry).
You must be a paladin first. It does seem like the Gray Paladin is what you’re looking for. A LN Drow seems plausible. Pact Servant trait would let you serve Asmodeous.
From the rules specific to each school of magic (and some subschools) "While under the effects of a polymorph spell, you lose all extraordinary and supernatural abilities that depend on your original form (such as keen senses, scent, and darkvision), as well as any natural attacks and movement types possessed by your original form. You also lose any class features that depend upon form, but those that allow you to add features (such as sorcerers that can grow claws) still function."
So, since fly is a movement type, you lose it when using Alter Self.
The sorcerer bloodline abilities that let you grow wings as an action would still work, similar to the claws mentioned in the text above.
Nice. I think this is edging up to the boundary of lawful evil, but an urge to dominate "for your own good" can still fit under LN.
Brine dragon plot seeds anyone? Here's one offhand: a brine dragon guards a portal to the Elemental Plane of Water. It allows passage -- for a toll. For a larger toll, it may warn you about hazards on the other side.
Doug M.
Yeah, "little patience for kindness and philanthropy" sounds perfect for running an authoritarian government. "No, you cannot be a baker. You're a woodcutter. It better suits your strengths, and provides the most good to the community."
That's dumb but the ape shaman gets other changes and they're mostly positive if sometimes minor. Totem transformation is more useful than woodland stride. I can't imagine why you'd want to summon primates from a mechanics perspective rather than a thematic one, but a standard action summoned ape is often going to be more useful than a better summon which takes 1 round to cast and act. The different domains open up options, notably rage.
It's not great, but there are worse archetypes out there. Brace yourself AWBattles.
Yeah. Having taken a second to calm down, it’s less offensive than I initially felt. I first looked at these archetypes when I wanted to play a octopus/squid type Druid. Saw Kraken Caller, likes it, but it wasn’t what I had in mind. Still wanted aquatic though, so I looked at Shark Shaman. Saw that wild shape came on board late, but figured “well, for a +2 to my favored creatures...oh. That’s an entirely irrelevant ‘bonus’ after level 7.” Then I looked at the other shamans and saw that was a common theme. It just felt like lazy design, where someone was told that had to make 10 archetypes in 2 hours :-P. It would be a pretty cool bonus if wild shaping into animals could benefit past level 8, but it doesn’t. And the totem transformations are really just weak wild shapes that become obsolete as soon as wildshape is available, so I agree they replace a meh ability, but by level 8 I’d rather just have woodland stride again. Standard summons are nothing to sneeze at, although the options are pretty poor, since there are only two summonable ape options, and they’re at SNA 3 and 4, so the ability to add templates doesn’t really fill in many gaps. I mostly get upset because it feels like, even as an Ape Shaman, I’d spend a lot of my time not in Ape form. The biggest actual gain from the archetype would be the bonus feats at 9, 13, and 17, which become options very late, still require prereqs, etc.
Personally, I think the archetype would be better done as:
Domains (roughly stay the same)
Wildshape At level 4, standard progression of beast shapes, with no elemental/plant/magical beast options. At level 8 you can add the giant template to any wildshaped primate. At level 10 you gain the benefits of improved grapple when wildshaped as an ape. At 12, improved bull rush when wildshaped as an ape. At 14 you get greater grapple, 16 greater bull rush. At 18 you get awesome blow. It encourages you to use apeshape, but still gives the option to use a weaker form when needed for versatility (which is what I assume the original intention was for the archetype).
Lose timeless body, poison immunity, and thousand faces, wildshape uses are reduced to one use every four levels, further highlighting that balance of “I want to choose something that has a fly speed to get past this obstacle, but I also want to be able to hulk out in a fight and I can’t easily do both all the time”. Standard action summons for primates and adding templates for increased spell level is probably fine, but no temporary hp bonus.
I’m pretty tired, so maybe this all isn’t as balanced as I’m imagining, but an archetype like this should be trading away versatility (which is a mechanical advantage of the vanilla Druid) for specializing in one flavorful choice. In my mind, this would maybe compete in a similar slot as Goliath Druid for effectiveness and function, but with the gorilla loving flavor. As it is, you trade function for flavor, and then gain a couple feats that are somewhat primate related, but mostly are just from the blander side of the feat list.
So I've recently (finally) gotten my hands on the core books for the latest edition of Warhammer Fantasy RP and I've been itching to give it a go. I've always been a big Warhammer fan and the relatively new edition seems like it should make for an excellent game. I'm curious to see how much interest there would be for a PbP game.
I'm currently looking to start with the first few short adventures in Rough Nights and Hard Days, which are revamped classic adventures that have popped up in just about every edition of WFRP, then run into a mix of some adapted 2e adventures and homebrew stories.
The shift between the Drift and the Material is a subtle one, but anyone who travels the driftways for long starts to get a feel for when they're within the transitive plane and when they're safely back in the stability of the Material. The ship barely reacts beyond a small tremor and a slight change in lighting. It has been a long trip, nearly three weeks in the Drift, and certainly long enough for the nearly two dozen passengers to start to grow a bit restless. But an air of excitement has started to grow among the passengers and crew alike over the past few days. The ship's intercom crackles to life and the now familiar voice of the captain barks through the speakers. "Attention all hands. We've just entered the Ikirit system. Ten minutes out from Returner Station. All passengers, ensure that your belongings are packed and prepared to disembark."
Our future band of unlikely heroes are among the passengers on the next colony ship to arrive on Ikirit. Feel free to introduce yourselves as you see fit and describe what you're up to and have been doing on the journey out into the Vast. Who has met who and what not I leave to your clearly capable discretion.
Discussion goes here! I'm going to be on the road a lot the next couple days, so feel free to chat and discuss character details or connections (I know some of that was already talked about) and I'll chime in as much as I can. Looking forward to getting started.
The massive metropolis world of Ikirit is a mystery to science and magic alike. A world of endless, sprawling cities, yet devoid of civilization and any form of intelligent life. Built of metal and polymer, yet overrun with green as nature reclaims its lost place from the now abandoned urban sprawl. Only recently discovered by the rest of the galaxy, colonies have begun to spring up on the surface as residents from across the Pact Worlds come to seek knowledge and wealth from the ruins and possibly to make new lives for themselves on the strange new planet.
Welcome to the official recruitment for my first PbP Starfinder campaign! Where the players will take the role of colonists, researchers, guards, or anyone else with the drive to travel to a new world and strike out for fame, fortune, and to build a future among the crumbling city ruins of the lost planet. Recruitment will be open until January 4th, 2020 so that everyone has time to get things done through the holidays and we can start at the beginning of the new year.
Character Creation Starting Level: 3rd
Classes: Any Paizo, including the Character Operation Manual
Races: Any Paizo
Starting Wealth: 4000 credits
Backstory: I'm not expecting a novel, but a history that at least gives a good idea of who the character is and why they're looking to move to Ikirit is the minimum. More unusual concepts will require more work here to make them fitting.
A good rule of thumb for character options and equipment is that if it's on the SRD or Archive of Nethys, I'll almost certainly allow it as long as it's from Paizo.
Though the power of Drift travel was unveiled to the galaxy several centuries ago, the many races of the galaxy have only begun to scratch the surface of its potential. And it's mysteries still stump some of the galaxy's brightest minds. The Drift Beacons that guide starships through the void seem to appear through natural phenomena as often as they must be made by the hands of mystical or technological masters. And the planets revealed by these strange beacons often have even greater mysteries to explore...
Hey Paizo people
As you can probably tell, now that the Character Operations Manual is out, I'm looking to run a Starfinder game. The story would mostly take place on a mysterious planet in the Vast, only recently discovered due to the appearance of a new Drift Beacon nearby. Covered in the ruins of a lost civilization and long since reclaimed by nature, the game would focus on exploration, colonization, and the competing interests of different groups who want the wealth of technology and resources within the ruined planet-wide metropolis.
I've been trying to get back into GMing for a while and it's been really hit and miss. Part of that is that I have far too many ideas and focusing on one to try to get a campaign or module going has been rough. So I thought I'd spell out a number of ideas that I have for Pathfinder and other systems and check to see what people thought of different ones and which might get a strong response from potential players if I did a recruitment.
Pathfinder It's the End of the World as We Know It: Evil has attempted to conquer the world again and again and heroes have risen with each occurrence to try to defend the world. But heroes don't always win. Dark empires rise up to find enemies with very similar goals at every border while the forces of good try to rally to new heroes to make a last stand against the darkness. A pseudo post-apocalyptic Golarion story where the villains of the various APs won their final battles, creating a world mostly ruled by feuding empires and powerful warlords. New heroes are needed to free the world from their clutches and restore peace and freedom. Going for a higher power game focusing on epic heroes and world changing adventures.
The Shards of the Empire: Imperial Lung Wa collapsed many years ago, but it's Successor States still squabble and occasionally war with each other, each vying to make a place for themselves in the world now that they've thrown off imperial control. But dangerous forces seek to claim the shards of the empire for themselves and forge a new empire, under their crushing dominion. A story based on samurai and kung fu movies set in the heart of Tian Xia and focusing on individual heroism and honor in defense of your homes again evil forces.
Across the Outer Planes: The Material Plane is just one world among many, but some travel between the realms, seeking their fame and fortune. But a secret threat lurks somewhere beyond the realm of mortals and if not stopped, it may succeed in erasing Golarion entirely. An extraplanar focused game of intrigue and adventure as the players try to unravel the machinations of a sinister cult that could spell the end of the world as they know it.
Other Systems The Third Age of Creation (Exalted 2e): The Glorious Reclamation has failed and the lords of hell remain imprisoned, but the Realm is in tatters. A new empress takes the throne in a time when the throne's reach is crippled and the world becomes a more dangerous place for everyone. But that matter not. You are Exalted. Go forth and claim your place in a changed world. A relatively standard Exalted game, including all the high power ridiculousness and world shattering events that can include.
Chronicle of Nightwood (Chronicles of Darkness 2e): Nightwood is an ordinary little college town in the middle of nowhere really important. Sure some hikers go missing every once in a while and there are always some ghost stories and urban legends around, but that's just how small towns are. The perfect place to grow up. And it's not like those stories are real. Right? A modern fantasy WoD game focusing on the slightly more than mortal characters like psychics, ghouls, and the like. Possibly taking inspirations from the Innocents splat to play teenagers discovering their powers. Think something like X-Men or Stranger Things.
Deathworld (Savage Worlds): They won. World War 2 was a shit show and those Nazi bastards won. They had to use actual demons to do it, but they did. But it's not the end of the world quite yet. Everyone's getting this magic thing worked out, or at least managed some kinda new-fangled super tech to match up. The world isn't theirs just yet. A supernatural alternate history setting I've been working on for a long time of a world left very, very different by the discovery of magic during the early days of WW2. A sort of war story/action movie tone focusing on heroes fighting to stop the over the top machinations of those damned Nazi bastards. If you've seen the new Wolfenstein games, you have the right sort of idea.
There's been some interest in Savage Worlds around the forums in the past and I've been both a player and GM on a few occasions. I'm poking around to see if there's any interest in a game set in Pinnacle's Deadlands: Hell on Earth and Lost Colony settings. For those who are unfamiliar with the setting, Deadlands is a pulp western setting with a horror and supernatural flavor added to it with magic and steampunk tech going up against zombies, demons, and other horrors right out of folklore. Set in an alternate timeline where the US Civil War dragged on and a new super fuel called ghost rock revolutionized technology, the time of the old west was a dangerous place with many strange things lurking in the shadows.
Hell on Earth and Lost Colony are both a sci-fi take, each being one part of a larger, interconnected setting. Hell on Earth takes place after the evil spirits manage to set off a supernatural nuclear war and turn Earth into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Lost Colony takes place on Earth's only extra-solar colony at the time, Banshee, a distant planet with it's own native alien species and it's own troubles.
So think of this pitch as a mixture of post-apocalyptic western and space western with a healthy dose of fantasy mixed in.
Anyone think they have the grit to face down the hellish varmints that ended the world and end them instead?
Meriwether Lewis Memorial High School isn't exactly big by any standard. But several hundred teenagers still show up day to day to attend classes, meet with their friends, go to clubs, and cause general trouble. And like any small town, Lewis Memorial has a few strange rumors and old urban legends that seem to pop up in the halls every decade or so. But that's just how high school works, right? Surely nothing supernatural actually goes on in the halls. That sort of thing doesn't exist...
Hello everyone, and thank you for your patience getting this game off the ground. I hope that everyone is still excited by their characters and ready to get things moving again so our motley band of supernatural misfits can start their various misadventures in Washington. There are just a few things that need to be finished so we can start properly.
1) Finish mechanics: I know that most people are at least partially done with the mechanical side of their character, but let's get those finished. I'd like everyone to have their mechanics ready and in an alias by next Saturday (May 4th). We'll still have room to change stuff during the early stages of the game, so don't worry if your character isn't 100% perfect. We can tweak to make sure everything plays well.
2) Backstories: I need a mostly finished backstory for everyone to finish setting up character points and the like, as well as to get everything situated. Make sure to give a write-up (not asking for a novel, but give me something to work with) and answer the questions your splat book asks for your character type. If you can get it done at the same time as mechanics, great, but if not, I'm setting a deadline of May 11th to finish up so we don't delay any longer than necessary to get moving.
3) Character Connection: Since we're playing with a wide variety of character types, there's less of an innate assumption that you'll be able to work together by default. So I want everyone to come up with a general character connection that connects the whole party (you're all in the same club, you all have detention together, etc) and one personal connection to another party member (you have a crush, you know what they are, they helped you at some point, etc). The personal connection doesn't have to be reciprocal.
The mighty Mississippi rolls sluggishly past the docks of Natchez Under the Hill. Taverns, shipyards, dormitories, and more dot the riverbank as paddle boats lazily chug up and down the waterway, their smokestacks billowing from coal or occasionally the soft howl of ghost rock. Above the river bluff stand the proud manor houses of Natchez On the Hill, where the home of your friend, Jackson Greenfield, no doubt stands.
When I last contacted you, I told you that my father had taken a turn for the worse and that I was forced to cut my tour of the West short to return to Mississippi to visit. It is my great sorrow to tell you that I left in the nick of time. He has grown only worse since my arrival and I fear that he will be fortunate to live only a few more weeks.There is a small scribble obscuring a removed sentenceI apologize if this seems curt, but I would like to request a favor from you, my friend. I will be taking some time to ensure my mother's comfort in our family home in Natchez, as well as seeing to my father's affairs. I would greatly appreciate if you were to join us with all haste. Once he passes, I intend to travel into the heart of the Confederacy to my family's long abandoned plantation. The house has been abandoned for many years, but I hope to restore it and convert it into a summer home so my mother might find some privacy now that I am engaged. It would do my heart good to have trusted friends and worthy associated by my side as I travel, as well as to help solving any particular issues that may arise that are beyond the scope of what ordinary workmen could handle. You know as well as I that the world can be a strange place and I wish my home to be safe for my family. I hope to see you in Natchez in a few weeks.
Sincerely, your friend, Jackson Greenfield Written on the 23rd of April, in the year of Our Lord 1880
Hello and welcome to my open recruitment for Deadlands: Plantation of Dread, a homebrew campaign in the Deadlands setting by Pinnacle Games and run using the Savage Worlds system in Deadlands Reloaded. This adventure will be my take on Southern Gothic Fantasy, taking place in the Deep South in the years after the end of the Deadlands' Civil War and the independence of the Confederacy. The PCs should all be friends and acquaintances of the above mentioned Jackson Greenfield, a wealthy heir to an old money family with holdings in Mississippi, Tennessee and other places all across the South. Young Jackson has spent the last five years traveling the West, exploring, speculating on land, and investing in mines and businesses on the frontier. Along the way, he's made plenty of friends, business partners, and acquaintances that he's now reaching out to for help in his time of need.
Familiarity with the Deadlands setting isn't required as long as you're willing to do some reading and learn about it, but it would of course make things easier. Similarly, Savage Worlds is a fairly easy system to learn and I'm happy to help people who are interested in the game but haven't played before. Don't be afraid to ask questions and get in touch if you're curious.
Character Creation
Character creation will use the standard Deadlands rules. 5 Attribute Points, 15 Skill Points, humans only (including a starting edge), maximum 2 Minor Hindrances and 1 Major Hindrance for points
Skills: Survival and Tracking have been rolled into one skill. Anything that requires both only requires Survival. Additionally, remember that Deadlands uses the Guts skill to resist fear.
Edges: All edges of Deadlands and core Savage Worlds are allowed. We will be using the latest errata, including the latest versions of Blessed, Voodoo, etc. I have slightly modified a few of the Arcane Backgrounds as well. Additionally, Veteran o' the Weird West is not allowed.
Additionally, every character also gets to start with one more edge under a new rule I'm calling Stranger Folks. Jackson knows some strange people and has seen some weird things. Each player gets to pick one of the following edges in addition to any they get from their race or hindrances:
Anyone familiar with the system will probably notice that Alchemy and Blood Magic aren't usually independent Arcane Backgrounds. I'm separating them out into their own things. Alchemy uses the rules for Mad Science, but instead of getting a device, you use the rules for making potions from the Alchemy edge as your basic rules. Blood mages use all the rules for Hucksters, except they cannot Deal with the Devil. Instead, they gain the effects of the Whateley Blood edge. Obviously, Hucksters and Mad Scientists can no longer take these edges.
Recruitment will be open until October 12th, 2018. If I get a lot of interest, I might extend things. If I get very little, I'll just cut it off and drop the idea. I hope to see some interested players soon.
The Thornwood has long been a source of danger in Western Immoren. The massive forest covers much of the northern border of the kingdom Cgynar, from the Black River and the Blindwater Marsh in the east to the Murata Hills in the west. In recent years, battles between Cygnar and their rivals to the north, the empire of Khador, have forced the southern kingdom to withdraw from the forested domain. However, Khador has little more control of the region than Cygnar once did. Tribes of gatormen, farrow, trollkin, and far darker things lurk in the trees and rumors tell of horrific acts of dark magic and foul creatures that lurk in the depths of the wood. Only true heroes could stand to challenge the dangers that lair in the shadows of the trees, and perhaps prevent a great danger from threatening all of Immoren.
Hello and welcome to my recruitment for a game set in the Iron Kingdoms. For those who are unaware, Iron Kingdom is a setting developed by Privateer Press called the World of Heavy Metal Fantasy. It was originally for D&D, but it's now supported by their own custom system. The system is a 2d6 system, fairly close to a standard d20 system, so don't feel discouraged if you're not familiar with the system.
Similarly, don't feel like you need to have comprehensive knowledge of the setting to submit a character. Iron Kingdoms is tied fairly closely to its setting, but I would love to share what I know and help people work on ideas. The Iron Kingdoms are a somewhat steampunk inspired setting, where powerful arcanists and warcasters command mighty magitech robots known as Warjacks as freshly industrialized nations battle for supremacy. Meanwhile, tribes led by mighty chieftans and warlocks command massive warbeasts to fight for their place in the world. I find it to be a setting that's familiar enough to classic fantasy to be welcoming, but different enough to make a strong impression. I have a short Player's Guide below to summarize the races and nations in play, as well as major faiths. I'll try to update it whenever people have questions for me to answer to it's easy to reference.
Recruitment will run approximately 2 weeks, which means September 21st, 2018. I may close early if it seems like there's not much new interest or everyone's characters are done, but I try to avoid that if I can help it. Character creation rules will be the usual for Iron Kingdoms, but you do not need to have a finalized mechanical build to be selected. I am far more interested in character backstory and RP, especially since Iron Kingdoms is an unusual setting with lots of opportunities to do interesting things that wouldn't work in other settings.
Material from all of Privateer Press's books is permitted. For anyone who is familiar with the system, this means that both Core and Unleashed is allowed. Additionally, I have extra material from some of their web publications. If you have access to the books, but don't see rules for your concept, I will try to help as much as possible.
Hello again Paizo. Hopefully the site stays up long enough for people to actually see and respond to this. I have a couple of other campaign concepts that I've been looking at running and I'd like to get them out there and see what people are interested in.
Iron Kingdoms
Iron Kingdoms is a steampunk fantasy setting and system developed by Privateer Press. They call it the game of Heavy Metal Fantasy and, in my opinion, it lives up to its reputation. It's set in a world where magic and science have both exploded with new discoveries, ushering in a massive industrial age where magi-technology allows the titular Iron Kingdoms to thrive and war with each other. Meanwhile, powerful ancient magics and immortal gods linger at the edge of civilization, bringing both blessings and destruction.
IK uses a 2d6 based system, but it's very similar to d20 and should be fairly quick to learn for those familiar with d20, but not with the system. It also does a lot of interesting things with gods, magic, and technology that I find very fascinating and has a lot of really deep lore to help inspire characters and stories.
Mage Wars
A homebrew setting that I've been refining for a while now (name subject to change). Set in an alternate timeline where Nazi Germany discovered dark magic, Soviet Russia developed super tech to counter them, and the world fell apart, it's a world of modern heroes living in a time of danger and adventure. Powerful magic has come back to the world for the first time in thousands of years and the world has changed into something just familiar enough to be recognizable, while being very different, and very deadly for those who try to make deals and harness magic without proper precautions.
I would be running this setting with the Savage Worlds system, using a number of homebrew rules to customize and flavor the magic and supernatural elements of a world where World War II never entirely ended. I took inspiration from things like Wolfenstein and the like to help develop the concept, so it's meant to be pulpy and action packed.
Hey Paizo people. I've been itching to do a super hero RPG for a while now, and I've been familiarizing myself with Mutants and Masterminds 3rd Edition over the last week or so. I'm not quite ready to start a campaign yet, but I thought that it would be a good idea to ask around and see if people would be interested in possibly playing in a super hero game. I'm sort of interested in running a game in the inFAMOUS setting, since it's an old favorite of mine that M&M reminded me of, but I'm still playing around with exact concepts.
Give me your thoughts and show interest if that sounds like something you'd enjoy.
Golarion's Darklands are feared by many. The depth of the earth are filled with mystery and danger in equal measure and most sane people avoid them like the plague. Only a few on the surface realize that entire empires spanning the lengths of continents exist beneath their feet, ruled over by drow, duergar, and other races less known and more dangerous. But those who actually dwell in the Darklands are inevitably a proud people. For they have survived and thrived in the hostile world beneath the earth. And even if they are hard and cruel, they will fight to the death to protect their place in the world.
In the second layer of the Darklands, known by its inhabitants as Sekamina, the drow hold sway, their empire spreading from the crown of the world south to the massive underground body of water known as Lake Nirthran, or more colloquially the Dying Sea. The waterways of their empire are ruled by river boats and reckless swashbuckling pirates who challenge blind leviathans, massive albino sea monsters, and worse things for dominance of the underground seas. Many of these wild souls make their homes in Telderist, the pirate's haven on the northern shores of the Dying Sea where no one but the pirate lords hold sway. But things lurk in the deep that seek to dominate all that they see before them and the denizens of the Darklands will not let themselves be taken without a fight. In Telderist, the drow controlled Nightrunners Guild seeks adventurers, mercenaries, and other interested parties for a venture into the tunnels that could be the first step in uncovering secrets hidden from even the great drow houses.
The discussion thread for you to... discuss. I'll go over stuff again and make sure that I haven't missed anything particularly egregious in the near future so we can play without any issues.
Golarion's Darklands are feared by many. The depth of the earth are filled with mystery and danger in equal measure and most sane people avoid them like the plague. Only a few on the surface realize that entire empires spanning the lengths of continents exist beneath their feet, ruled over by drow, duergar, and other races less known and more dangerous. But those who actually dwell in the Darklands are inevitably a proud people. For they have survived and thrived in the hostile world beneath the earth. And even if they are hard and cruel, they will fight to the death to protect their place in the world.
In the second layer of the Darklands, known by its inhabitants as Sekamina, the drow hold sway, their empire spreading from the crown of the world south to the massive underground body of water known as Lake Nirthran, or more colloquially the Dying Sea. The waterways of their empire are ruled by river boats and reckless swashbuckling pirates who challenge blind leviathans, massive albino sea monsters, and worse things for dominance of the underground seas. Many of these wild souls make their homes in Telderist, the pirate's haven on the northern shores of the Dying Sea where no one but the pirate lords hold sway. But things lurk in the deep that seek to dominate all that they see before them and the denizens of the Darklands will not let themselves be taken without a fight. In Telderist, the drow controlled Nightrunners Guild seeks adventurers, mercenaries, and other interested parties for a venture into the tunnels that could be the first step in uncovering secrets hidden from even the great drow houses.
Welcome to my recruitment for a game that I'm calling On the Dying Sea. I've been trying to get a game focused on Golarion's Darklands running for ages, but I've run into issues before trying to make things work, both on my end and trying to organize players. I'm hoping that third time's the charm and I can actually get a group who will enjoy playing this entire story out from beginning to end. I'm looking for a group of 6 players to take on an adventure that will focus around the Dying Sea, starting with the pirate port of Telderist and heading out to explore other regions of the Darklands from the drow capital down to the vaults of Orv. Recruitment will be likely be open until May 18th, 2018, though I reserve the right to close recruitment early or extend it.
Character creation Level: Starting at 8th level
Stats: 20 Point Buy
Race: Caligni*, Derro*, Dhampir, Drow, Duergar, Ghoul*, Goblin, Half-Drow, Half-Orc, Hobgoblin, Kobold*, Orc, Serpentfolk*, Svirfneblin*, Tiefling
You MUST select from one of these races. No templates, age is cosmetic only. I expect all characters to actually be natives of the Darklands, though you are under no obligation to be specifically from Telderist. All races marked with an asterisk are included in the Races document below. Read it if you want to play one of them.
Class: All Paizo classes other than Gunslinger, Ninja, or Samurai. Any archetypes that give firearms are not permitted, but you may play a Bolt Ace. No 3rd party, no exceptions.
Alignment: Any. The Darklands are often cruel and dangerous and evil is often more common than good. This is NOT a pure evil game, but I expect evil, good, and neutral party members to play nice.
Hit Points: Max for 1st level, Half+1 for all levels after
Traits: Two traits, you may take a drawback for a third. The Player's Guide below has custom campaign traits that you may take, but are not obligated to in any way. Please try to link your traits and choices to your backstory.
Wealth: 16,500 gp
Other Rules
We will be using the following variant rules:
- Automatic Bonus Progression
- Background Skills
- Variant Multiclassing (Allowed, but not required by any means)
Character Backgrounds
I don't have any specific requirements for backgrounds, but I would like enough that I have a good idea of who your character is and what they've done with their life. A few questions that are good starting points are:
- Where is your character from? Are they from the drow empire, the undead ruled lands to the south, one of the many enclaves of other races, or one of the empires from above or below?
- Why are they in Telderist? The pirate port hosts many opportunities, but what specifically drew your character here?
- What have they done that might have attracted the Nightrunners' attention? The Nightrunners don't hire amateurs for dangerous missions after all.
Player Documents
I would strongly advise reading the three following documents that I have compiled specifically the make it easier to get into this game.
Lake Nirthran Gazetteer - A gazetteer of information on Lake Nirthran and the port city of Telderist, including inhabitants, factions, and government.
Player's Guide - A player's guide with ideas for classes, skills, options, and campaign traits.
Darklands Races - Modified rules for custom races and races that I've modified from their standard rules.
Once everyone has checked in and has an alias, we can help people who aren't done with mechanics wrap things up and make sure that all of the party roles are taken care of so no one starves a week into Mirkwood.
Autumn comes to an end in the North, and with it comes many celebrations, for Dragontide comes once again to Lake-Town. But this year the celebrations stretch far beyond the men of the lake. For it has been 20 years since the great dragon Smaug was slain by the noble King Bard of Dale and the great goblin horde was defeated during the Battle of Five Armies. Now the Gathering of Five Armies raises Dale in festival, just as Lake-Town is engulfed in the revelries of Dragontide, and even the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain have put aside their stern demeanor to bask in the festivities. Men, dwarves, elves, and more come from all corners of the world for the biggest celebration to grace the North in centuries. Merchants from distant Bree and Dorwinion come to trade and make merry while emissaries from as far as Gondor and the Blue Mountains come to offer gifts to the great Kings of Dale and Erebor. Surely such a festival will be a time of joy, even with the slowly growing darkness that lurks in the long shadows of Mirkwood and the lands of the east. But nothing could intrude upon such a joyous week.
Right?
If you can't tell from that opening monologue, this is the open recruitment for a campaign set in the classic lands of Middle Earth, using the The One Ring system from Cubicle 7 Games. I'm looking to recruit a Fellowship of six heroes who seek to do good and face off against the growing darkness of the world, whether for the common good or for their own reasons. Tolkien's work always had a strong focus on good over evil and classic heroism, and while I'm not the writer Tolkien was, I would like to try to embrace the ideas of heroes, great journeys, and legendary adventures.
I'm new to this system and I'm trying something new, so the idea is to arrange a good first adventure that has the room to expand into a larger campaign if the people involved enjoy the game and have fun with the system. Hopefully things will continue, and I have plans to take the party well beyond Dale to lands like the Grey Mountains, south to Rohan, and west to Eriador and Lindon, so characters from just about anywhere can find a place in the party and time to shine.
Don't worry if you don't have the books. I'm not looking for full mechanics right away. If you would like to pick up the system yourself, I certainly won't hold that against you. For the purposes of this recruitment, I'm mainly looking for interesting backgrounds and potential for characters to grow and have interesting stories told about them. Character mechanics can be worked out once a good group of characters has been picked, and building a Fellowship takes some teamwork with this system anyway. However, there are some things that you should consider when making a submission.
Instead of just having classes or something like that, characters are defined primarily by their Culture and their Calling. Cultures are of course where a character comes from (including their race) while Callings are a hero's reason for adventuring, though they're very general so they don't define a character too heavily. I'll provide a list of both so people have a general idea of what kinds of characters the game supports. This should help make character creation easier.
Cultures:
Dwarves: Blue Mountains, Grey Mountains, Iron Hills, Lonely Mountain
Elves: Lorien, Mirkwood, Rivendell*, Wayward
Hobbits: Anduin Vales, Bree, The Shire
Men: Bardings (Men of Dale), Beornings (Men of the Anduin Vale), Dunlendings, Men of Bree, Men of the Lake, Men of Minas Tirith, Rangers of the North*, Rider of Rohan, Woodsmen of Wilderland
*Note that Rangers of the North and High Elves of Rivendell start with higher stats than normal, as they're considered Advanced Cultures in this system. I will likely be very picky with characters from either of them, as I'm a little leery of how they balances with the rest of the game and I don't want them to overwhelm other aspects of the game.
Callings:
Leader: Those who journey to lead others and provide aid wherever they can.
Scholar: Those who journey to uncover ancient lore and learn the secrets of the world.
Slayer: Those who journey to fight evil and claim vengeance on what evil forces have wronged them.
Treasure-Hunter: Those who journey to find treasures and riches that have been lost to the ages.
Wanderer: Those who journey for the sake of the journey, wishing to explore what the world has to offer.
Warden: Those who journey to defeat the coming shadows and protect those who cannot protect themselves.
It's important to note the Callings only determine a character's basic motivation and weakness, not their methods or personality. A Scholar can be a powerful warrior for example.
I'm not going to put an exact time limit on this recruitment. I'll leave it open until I think that everyone who's going to submit has done so, or until I have six players that I'm satisfied with. I will give notice a day or two before I close things so people aren't caught off-guard though. Also, feel free to ask questions. I am always happy to provide answers.
Hello everyone. I've been drafting up a campaign set in the classic fantasy land of Middle Earth for a while now, but never got around to getting a game started. I've also recently gotten my hands on The One Ring system by Cubicle 7 games, which is the new-ish RPG system specifically for running games in Middle Earth. I'm mainly looking for interest in trying out the new system (at least new for me, it's been out for a while) by playing an adventure or two, with the potential to expand things if people are enjoying the system. If the group wants to keep going, I have a longer story and campaign ideas in mind to keep things rolling and play a larger game. This is mainly just an interest check for now, but if people want to ask questions about the system, chat about idea, or whatever, feel free to do so.
I'm planning on setting the story in the year 2966 of the Middle Earth Calendar, which is exactly twenty years after The Hobbit, and forty years before The Lord of the Rings, so if that influences your interest at all, there you have it.
Telderist is a den of corruption and vice, but even they respect the Nightrunners. Their headquarters stands just below the Crown Wall, a towering five story spire that is guarded night and day by the House Guard of House Misraria. Those with business are allowed into the first floor to deliver and receive dozens of packages and missives from all across the drow empire. Those who seek to cause trouble swiftly find their end at the blades of the guards or one of the Nightrunners agents within. Now a group of mercenaries find themselves summoned before the messengers by a simple letter.
To the recipient of this letter,
It is a strange rumor that calls the Nightrunners to seek outside aid where our own agents would normally suffice. Should you believe yourself a capable warrior of at least some cleverness, present yourself at the guild hall before the sixth waking hour on the coming Oathday so that we might come to an accord. Rich rewards will be dealt out to any who can resolve the task at hand.
Here's the discussion thread for all of your out-of-character needs. Feel free to continue discussion of characters or anything else here or in recruitment.
When I last sent you a missive, I told that my father had finally taken a turn for the worst and I was traveling back East with all haste to visit him before he passed. It is my great sorrow to tell you that I was barely in time. He passed into a coma only hours after my arrival and remained as such for nearly two days before he breathed his last. It will take me some days, perhaps weeks, to see to all of his affairs and to make sure my mother is comfortable in our Natchez estate. But I hope this delay gives you time to make your way to Memphis, where I will be stopping on my way up river. It would do my heart good to have friends and trustworthy partners by my side when I travel into the heart of the Confederacy so I might begin to restore our family's plantation, which has long fallen into disrepair in the face of my father's slow decline. I hope that you will join me, either in the name of friendship or coin.
Sincerely,
Jackson Greendfield
Written on the 23rd of April, in the year of our Lord 1880
Hello and welcome to my Southern Gothic themed Deadlands adventure, set deep within the heart of the Confederacy. As the lovely letter above shows, the only request I have is that all characters be friends, employees, business associates, or otherwise connected to Jackson Greenfield, a wealthy young man from Tennessee who has just inherited a very large, old money estate in the Confederacy.
Jackson is from a line of plantation owners reaching all the way back to the early colonization of the Americas and his family is absolutely rolling in money. When the Ghost Rock Rush went down and the Civil War broke out, his family simply saw it as more opportunities to expand their businesses. However, his grandfather and father both suffered health issues and neither was able to head out west to take advantage of the situation themselves. When Jackson came of age six years ago, he headed out west to expand his family fortunes in land speculation, prospecting, mining, and all manner of business transactions. He even earned the nickname "Gold Touch" due to his ridiculous luck in most of his ventures. However, with his father's passing, he's finally come home to take over the rest family businesses, along with various friends and associates who either have skills that can help him or he trusts to help him through these difficult times.
Jackson got around quite a bit out West, so virtually any kind of character can fit, from Asian immigrants he may have met or hired in California to Voodoo priests from down the river that he may have befriended years ago to Native warriors of all stripes to ordinary (or perhaps extraordinary) gunslingers. Rules for character creation are simply make a Savage Worlds character as listed in the book. We will be using the latest versions of all Arcane Backgrounds (so Blessed use Power Points, Voodoo is a separate background, etc). If anyone has questions, please ask me. And please discuss background and any other ideas or expectations you have. I have a plot outlined, but I'm more than happy to work in character stuff relevant to what you come up with.
I'm setting up this thread so we can talk about the potential of a Darklands focused game without continuing to clutter up Jon's campaign discussion with talk about something completely different. I am not actually putting build rules up or anything like that yet because I am no nearly ready to jump straight in to playing. I have a solid plot outline, but I want to have a chance for people to put together character concepts, discuss the setting, and generally work out details so I can incorporate character roles and backstories into the world and find good hooks to keep everyone invested in the plot if this takes off.
The Player's Document is here and contains the setting information. Use this link instead of the old one because this one I can edit properly if I need to make changes so it will be the one that I keep updated. It only contains the fluff and setting stuff, so we'll work out mechanical stuff here before everyone starts to build characters.
The current races I'm allowing are listed below. I'll also include the stats for things that don't have official stats, I'm using 3rd party material for (though it's all been modified to a degree), or I'm making other changes to.
Caligni are as written, but also gain the following Racial Ability.
Kin-folk: Caligni are descended from ordinary Dark Folk of one caste or another, and receive training in skills of their ancestors. A caligni character picks one of the following abilities:
- Stalker-kin: +2 Stealth and Survival
- Slayer-kin: +2 Spellcraft and Use Magic Device
- Dancer-kin: +2 Acrobatics and Perform
- Caller-kin: +2 Knowledge (Arcana) and Knowledge (Planes)
- Empath-Kin: +2 Bluff and Sense Motive
Derro:
Base Racial Traits Ability Scores: Derro are dexterous and compelling, but utterly insane. They gain a +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, and -4 Wisdom.
Type: Derro are humanoids with the derro subtype.
Size: Derro are Small creatures and thus gain a +1 size bonus on their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a -1 penalty on their combat maneuver checks and Combat Maneuver Defense, and +4 size bonus on Stealth checks.
Base Speed: Derro have a base speed of 20 feet.
Languages: Derro begin play speaking Aklo and Undercommon. Derro with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Common, Elven, Draconic, Dwarven, and Goblin.
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Defense Racial Traits Madness: Derro apply their Charisma modifier to their Will Saves instead of their Wisdom and gain a +2 on all saving throws versus confusion or insanity effects. Only a miracle or wish can remove this deeply ingrained insanity, but doing so grants them a +6 Wisdom and a -6 Charisma.
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Magical Racial Traits Spell-like Abilities: Derro can cast ghost sounds as a spell-like ability 3 times per day.
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Offense Racial Traits Poison Use: Derro are skilled poisoners and never risk accidentally poisoning themselves.
Weapon Familiarity: Derro are proficient with aklyses, light repeating crossbows, and fauchards.
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Sense Racial Traits Darkvision: Derro can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.
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Weakness Racial Traits Light Blindness: Ghouls are blinded for 1 round when exposed to bright light, such as sunlight of the daylight spell. They are dazzled as long as they remain in areas of bright light.
Ghoul:
Base Racial Traits Ability Scores: Ghouls are remarkably flexible and possess an unholy will. They gain a +2 Dexterity and +2 Charisma.
Type: Ghouls are undead and gain all the benefits and penalties of being an unliving horror.
Size: Ghouls are Medium creatures and receive no notable bonuses or penalties for their size.
Base Speed: Ghouls have a base speed of 30 feet.
Languages: Ghouls begin play speaking Necril and Undercommon. Ghouls with high Intelligence can choose any language (except for secret languages).
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Defense Racial Traits Channel Resistance: Ghouls gain a +2 on all saving throws against channeled energy.
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Offense Racial Traits Natural Attack: Ghouls possess a natural bite attack that deals 1d4 points of damage.
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Sense Racial Traits Darkvision: Ghouls can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.
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Weakness Racial Traits Hunger: Ghouls suffer from starvation, unlike most undead. Their meals must consist of uncooked flesh (fresh or slightly rotted). Starvation damage on a ghoul is considered lethal damage, and instead of a Constitution check, they must make a Will Save. If they fail, they turn feral and are under the GM's control until they successfully consume at least 1 pound of flesh and satisfy their hunger.
Light Blindness: Ghouls are blinded for 1 round when exposed to bright light, such as sunlight of the daylight spell. They are dazzled as long as they remain in areas of bright light.
Kobolds:
Kobolds gain the Dragon-Scaled racial trait in addition to all of their original abilities. Additionally, their racial traits are replaces with +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, -2 Strength
Serpentfolk:
Base Racial Traits Ability Scores: Serpentfolk are far more dexterous than most races and their minds are inhumanly sharp, but they lack true physical prowess. They gain a +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence and -2 Strength.
Type: Serpentfolk are monstrous humanoids.
Size: Serpentfolk are medium creatures and stand around 6' tall.
Base Speed: Serpentfolk have a base speed of 30 feet.
Languages: Serpentfolk begin play speaking Draconic and Undercommon. Serpentfolk with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Aboleth, Abyssal, Aklo, Common, Dwarven, Elven, and Infernal.
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Defense Racial Traits Resilient: Serpentfolk gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws vs. mind-effecting effects and poison.
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Feat and Skill Racial Traits Skilled: Serpentfolk have very limber bodies, and their minds are adept at understanding arcane knowledge. They gain a +2 racial bonus on Escape Artist and Use Magic Device checks.
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Magical Racial Traits Spell-like Abilities: Serpentfolk can cast disguise self, suggestion, and ventriloquism each once per day, using their total character level as their caster level.
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Offense Racial Traits Natural Weapons: Serpentfolk have a bite attack that deals 1d4 damage. This is a primary natural weapon.
Poison: Serpentfolk possess a natural venom in their fangs. Whenever a creature is struck with their bite attack, they suffer the effects of this venom; Venom: Injury (Bite), Save: Fort (DC = 10 + 1/2 Serpentfolk HD + Con modifier), Frequency: 1/round for 6 rounds, Effect: 1d2 Str damage, Cure: 1 save.
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Sense Racial Traits Darkvision: Serpentfolk can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.
Phaendar's Market Festival draws a crowd from all over Nirmathas, and beyond. Traders from everywhere from Druma to Varisia pass through to hawk their wares in the town square while the locals all gather to share stories of another year passed without any real trouble. Sure, Molthune invades every once in a while, but they're used to that by now.
Hey everyone. I'm putting together this thread so that we can start discussing characters and see if this gets of the ground. Hopefully things work out well.
Soldiers, Scientists, Adventurers, Oddities... Guardians who watch over the globe, bringing freedom and hope to all nations. What adventures will our world's intrepid defenders get up to next?
Alright, so we're here to discuss how to make Overwatch work as a tabletop RPG. My current idea is to use something more free form or looser since Overwatch is a rather pulpy, soft science setting. I generally don't like to use D20 for modern or sci-fi as much because it doesn't really work as well in my opinion. I was thinking the Savage Worlds is a possibility, though I was also recently introduced to Fate and I think that would certainly work, since it's all about telling a story and very light on rules.
There's also the issue of deciding what kind of story we're interested in telling and what kind of characters you're going to be interested in running with.
I'm having a very strange issue trying to post in one campaign that I'm in. Whenever I try to post in the gameplay thread, it sends me to the preview page instead and doesn't post the reply to the thread. Hitting the submit button just causes it to redo the preview again and again, making it impossible to actually post. But it's only for one specific campaign and only on the gameplay thread.
It is the glorious year of 1716 AD. The long War of Spanish Succession has just ended, and the political climate of Europe has changed forever. Not that you care about that. No, you care that your job aboard one of the naval ships in the Atlantic is no longer needed and you've been given your last pay and your walking papers. But the trade routes overflow with gold, spices, sugar, and slaves and you have plenty of skill aboard a ship. What better time to turn to the fine profession of robbing, pillaging, and piracy? Now you find yourself in the haven of Nassau, looking for a chance to begin a journey out to sea and make your fortune.
Alright everyone, I'm going to compile my different ideas here and you're free to discuss, consider, or suggest anything to me. Hell, suggest entirely different campaign ideas for all I care. It might inspire me with something interesting.
1) Anime of the Dead
As you can probably guess, this is the first idea I mentioned about a zombie apocalypse. I fully intend for it to be a campy, splatterfest fun time as opposed to anything serious or dramatic. And as it's loosely based on High School of the Dead, I have special background edges. Everyone gets one for free at character creation to give them a benefit for the archetype they fit into in the party as well as custom arcane backgrounds that should fit the setting relatively well.
Backgrounds:
Athletic Club Member
Requirements: Agility D6+, Strength D6+
The hero is a member of one of the schools many sports teams and has a talent for athletics. Their pace increases by +2 and they gain a +1 to one skill appropriate to their club (discuss with the GM).
Class Representative
Requirements: Smarts D6+
The hero is a leader of their class and known for being reliable. They grants all allies within 5” a +1 on their Spirit rolls to recover from being Shaken and gain a +1 to aid anyone else with a task.
Delinquent
Requirements: Strength D6+, Intimidate D6+
The hero is a known delinquent and has a reputation for causing trouble. They gain a +2 on Intimidate and Taunt rolls and a +1 on attack rolls with melee weapons.
Dojo Heir
Requirements: Agility D6+, Fighting D6+
The hero is the heir to a famous marital arts tradition and has trained in it their whole life. They are eligible for the Arcane Background (Martial Arts) edge at character creation.
Family Shrine
Requirements: Spirit D6+
The hero’s family runs a local shrine, and they are well-versed in rituals and traditions. They are eligible to take the Arcane Background (Miracles) edge at character creation.
Foreign Exchange Student
Requirements: Non-Japanese
The hero is an exchange student from another country. They are fluent in their home country’s language and gain a +2 on one skill appropriate for someone of their nationality (discuss with the GM).
Honors Student
Requirements: Smart D8+
The hero is an honors student and one of the brightest in the whole school. They gain a +2 on Investigation and Notice checks due to their studious nature.
Idol
Requirements: Spirit D6+, Perform D6+
The hero is a teen idol of some sort, by they a model, singer, or actor. They gain a +2 to Charisma due to their popularity and natural charm.
Occult Club Member
Requirements: Smarts D6+
The hero is a member of the school’s occult club and has studied magical arts and occult books. They are eligible to take the Arcane Background (Magic) edge at character creation.
Ordinary Student
Requirements: None
The hero is a remarkably ordinary, unimpressive person on the surface, but possesses some useful talents. They gain a +2 to any skill of their choice.
Otaku
Requirements: Smarts D6+
The hero is a geek, plain and simple, but that means they have time to learn unusual things. They gain a +2 on any two Knowledge checks, or Repair, as chosen by the player.
Sensei
Requirements: Smarts D6+
The hero is a teacher or faculty member of the school instead of a student. They 15 skill points instead of 12 to represent their greater life experience.
Arcane Powers:
Arcane Background (Magic)
Arcane Skill: Spellcasting (Smarts)
Starting Power Points: 10
Start Powers: 3
Backlash: When a magician rolls a 1 on their Spellcasting die (regardless of the Wild die), they are automatically Shaken.
Available Powers: Barrier, Beast Friend, Blast, Blind, Bolt, Burst, Confusion, Darksight, Deflection, Detect/Conceal Arcana, Disguise, Drain Power Points, Elemental Manipulation, Entangle, Fear, Havoc, Invisibility, Light/Obscure, Mind Reading, Slumber, Summon Ally, Telekinesis
Arcane Background (Miracles)
Arcane Skill: Faith (Spirit)
Starting Power Points: 10
Starting Powers: 3
Backlash: When a spiritualist rolls a 1 on their Faith die (regardless of the Wild die), they suffer a -2 on all Faith rolls for the next 24 hours.
Available Powers: Armor, Banish, Barrier, Blast, Bolt, Boost/Lower Trait, Darksight, Deflection, Detect/Conceal Arcana, Dispel, Divination, Entangle, Farseeing, Greater Healing, Healing, Light/Obscure, Slow, Smite, Succor
2) We Be Pirates Now!
Here's the second idea, a classic adventure story on the high seas. You would be a small crew of pirates trying to reach some legendary treasure or city of gold or magic power or something. I don't really know yet. This one's taking inspiration from Pirates of the Caribbean and One Piece, so it's going to be a fun, island hopping adventure. Each island would probably be a self-contained pulpy adventure before moving on to the next one in your path. I'm not sure if I want to do a fantasy world or an alternative version of our world, but I definitely want to include magic and possible some other races to play as. And I'm talking fish people, not elves and dwarves. Sundaken also mentioned the possibility of outright doing a One Piece RP, which I wouldn't be opposed to if people were interested in that.
New slaves constantly arrive in the dungeons of Hagegraf. No one who passes through the lands of the ruthless grey dwarves is safe from their might and they quickly find themselves just another prisoner, chained and locked away until the duergar find a place for them in the mines or the scriptoriums, laboring away for their new masters. The latest rabble of slaves has finally arrived, stripped of everything and thrown into the stone cellars to await the 'mercy' of the duergar.
The duergar are the undisputed masters of the realm of Nar-Voth. From their fortress citadels, they control the dark caves and long passages with fists of iron. Their empire runs on the backs of thousands upon thousands of slaves, every one of them taken from the caves of their domain, or even from the surface above, or traded for from one of the other races that holds dominion in their own region of the Darklands. Hundreds pass through the flesh pits every day, their fates now in the hands of their duergar masters...
Welcome to the recruitment for my Darklands focused campaign. As you've (hopefully) guessed, you begin in the slave pits of Hagegraf, the capitol of the duergar empire that controls much of the northern half of the Darklands. All races are equal in the slave pits, and anyone from a scheming drow to an ordinary halfling might find himself locked up together, now at the mercy of the duergar.
Character Creation
Starting Level: 6th
Stats: 20 point buy, 1-to-1. Nothing below an 8 once all is said and done please.
Races: All Paizo races are allowed except for dwarves (since the duergar torture them to death on sight). The more strange or out there a race is, the better backstory you'll need to justify the character's inclusion. Since this game is in the Darklands, caligni (see below), drow, duergar, fetchlings, and tieflings are all considered common races along with the core book races.
Classes: All Paizo classes are allowed (though the same rules for strange races apply to Gunslinger, Samurai, and Ninja). Unchained Barbarian, Rogue, and Summoner are required. Unchained Monk is highly recommended, but not required. I am willing to consider 3rd party material, so ask and I'll look things over. If I approve it, then you're good. Do not ask about psionics (such as Dreamscarred Press) or Path of War. I do not like psionics and will not allow them and I'm not familiar with the subsystems in Path of War and am not confident in GMing a game with them included.
Alignment: Anything is permitted. This is the Darklands. There's a lot of evil down here.
Skills: Standard, plus the Background Skills from Unchained.
Traits: Two, campaign traits from other campaigns are allowed as long as they make sense for your character.
Wealth: 10,000 gp. Note that as freshly caught slaves you don't have most of your equipment to start, but you will recover it.
Hit Points: Max at 1st level, 1/2+1 for all levels after.
Fighters gain Combat Stamina for free at 1st level.
Variant Multiclassing is allowed.
Wound Thresholds will be used.
Since several interesting races are a bit... less playable than others, I've re-designed them a bit to make them more interesting player options. Both of these races are open to players.
Caligni:
Base Racial Traits Ability Scores: Caligni are quick and resilient, but generations of isolation and oppression have made them slow to pick up new ideas. They gain +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution and -2 Intelligence.
Type: Caligni are humanoids with the Dark Folk subtype.
Size: Caligni are medium creatures and stand between 5’6” and 6’0” tall, roughly the same as the average human.
Base Speed: Caligni have a base speed of 30 feet.
Languages: Caligni begin play speaking Dark Folk. Caligni with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Aklo, Dwarven, Elven, Terran, and Undercommon.
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Feat and Skill Racial Traits Skilled: Caligni have a +2 racial bonus to Stealth and Survival checks.
Bonus Feat: Caligni select one extra feat at 1st level.
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Magical Racial Traits Death Throes: When a caligni is slain, its body combusts in a flash of searing light. All creatures within a 5-foot burst must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the caligni’s Hit Dice + the caligni’s Constitution bonus) or be dazzled for 1d4 rounds. The corpse left behind is one-third the caligni’s size, withered and unrecognizable. However, raise dead and other such magic still function as normal.
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Sense Racial Traits Darkvision: Caligni can see perfectly in the dark up to 120 feet.
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Weakness Racial Traits Light Sensitivity: Caligni are dazzled in areas of bright light.
Alternate Racial Traits Caller-kin: Caligni descended from the powerful dark callers have some innate knowledge of the arcane. They gain a +2 racial bonus to Knowledge (Arcana) and Spellcraft checks. This replaces skilled.
Dancer-kin: Caligni descended from the enigmatic dark dancers are unnaturally limber and talented. They gain a +2 racial bonus to Acrobatics and one Perform check of their choice. This replaces skilled.
Empath-kin: Caligni descended from the mysterious dark empaths are abnormally adept at reading people and manipulating them. They gain a +2 racial bonus to Bluff and Sense Motive checks. The replaces skilled.
Munavri:
Base Racial Traits Ability Scores: Munavri are quick in both body and thought, but they lack physical prowess. They gain +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, and -2 Strength
Type: Munavri are humanoids with the Munavri subtype.
Size: Munavri are medium creatures and stand around or just above 6’0” tall, a bit taller than average humans.
Base Speed: Munavir have a base speed of 30 feet.
Languages: Munavri begin play speaking Munavri. Munavri with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Aboleth, Aklo, Aquan, Dark Folk, Draconic, Terran, and Undercommon
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Defense Racial Traits Spell Resistance: Munavri possess spell resistance equal to 8 + their total class level.
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Magical Racial Traits Spell-like Abilities: Munavri can cast message as a spell-like ability at-will. When a munavri reaches 3rd level in any combination of classes, he gains object reading as a spell-like ability usable once per day. When a munavri reaches 9th level in any combination of classes, he gains telepathic bond as a spell-like ability usable once per day. When a munavri reaches 15th level in any combination of classes, he may make his telepathic bond permanent, but he may not use his telepathic bond spell-like ability again unless he breaks his previous bond. A munavri’s caster level is equal to his total hit dice for all of these abilities.
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Sense Racial Traits Darkvision: Munavri can see perfectly in the dark up to 120 feet.
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Weakness Racial Traits Light Blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light blinds munavri for 1 round. On subsequent rounds, they are dazzled as long as they remain in the affected area.
Fluff
I'm looking at backstory more than I will be mechanics. It doesn't need to be a novel, but a few decently sized paragraphs explaining where your character came from and how he/she ended up in the hands of duergar slavers is the absolute minimum that I'll be accepting. A nice description of their general personality and appearance is also expected. Also, I would like to know what your character's goals are, what they want to achieve in life. It provides some interesting options for plot developments.
Other Details
Recruitment will be open until midnight on July 25th.
I will be recruiting 6 players.
Please integrate your crunch and fluff to the best of your ability. I enjoy a character who's skills and traits are reflective of their backstory far more than one who picked his abilities because they're the most mechanically optimal.
I've been working on re-working several of Paizo's races from the Darklands and adding a few of my own to the playable races. I'm also trying to work up some alternate racial traits and/or some racial feats and options for characters. Hopefully they're reasonably balanced for players to use.
Caligni:
Base Racial Traits Ability Scores: Caligni are quick and resilient, but generations of isolation and oppression have made them slow to pick up new ideas. They gain +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution and -2 Intelligence.
Type: Caligni are humanoids with the Dark Folk subtype.
Size: Caligni are medium creatures and stand between 5’6” and 6’0” tall, roughly the same as the average human.
Base Speed: Caligni have a base speed of 30 feet.
Languages: Caligni begin play speaking Dark Folk. Caligni with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Aklo, Dwarven, Elven, Terran, and Undercommon.
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Feat and Skill Racial Traits Skilled: Caligni have a +2 racial bonus to Stealth and Survival checks.
Bonus Feat: Caligni select one extra feat at 1st level.
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Magical Racial Traits Death Throes: When a caligni is slain, its body combusts in a flash of searing light. All creatures within a 5-foot burst must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the caligni’s Hit Dice + the caligni’s Constitution bonus) or be dazzled for 1d4 rounds. The corpse left behind is one-third the caligni’s size, withered and unrecognizable. However, raise dead and other such magic still function as normal.
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Sense Racial Traits Darkvision: Caligni can see perfectly in the dark up to 120 feet.
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Weakness Racial Traits Light Sensitivity: Caligni are dazzled in areas of bright light.
Munavri:
Base Racial Traits Ability Scores: Munavri are quick in both body and thought, but they lack physical prowess. They gain +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, and -2 Strength
Type: Munavri are humanoids with the Munavri subtype.
Size: Munavri are medium creatures and stand around or just above 6’0” tall, a bit taller than average humans.
Base Speed: Munavir have a base speed of 30 feet.
Languages: Munavri begin play speaking Munavri. Munavri with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Aboleth, Aklo, Aquan, Dark Folk, Draconic, Terran, and Undercommon
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Defense Racial Traits Spell Resistance: Munavri possess spell resistance equal to 8 + their total class level.
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Magical Racial Traits Spell-like Abilities: Munavri can cast message as a spell-like ability at-will. When a munavri reaches 3rd level in any combination of classes, he gains object reading as a spell-like ability usable once per day. When a munavri reaches 9th level in any combination of classes, he gains telepathic bond as a spell-like ability usable once per day. When a munavri reaches 15th level in any combination of classes, he may make his telepathic bond permanent, but he may not use his telepathic bond spell-like ability again unless he breaks his previous bond. A munavri’s caster level is equal to his total hit dice for all of these abilities.
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Sense Racial Traits Darkvision: Munavri can see perfectly in the dark up to 120 feet.
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Weakness Racial Traits Light Blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light blinds munavri for 1 round. On subsequent rounds, they are dazzled as long as they remain in the affected area.
Troglodyte:
Base Racial Traits Ability Scores: Troglodytes are both strong and durable, but not the brightest of species. They gain +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, and -2 Intelligence.
Type: Troglodytes are humanoids with the Reptilian subtype.
Size: Troglodytes are medium creatures and stand at around a stout 4’6”.
Base Speed: Troglodytes have a base speed of 30 feet.
Languages: Troglodytes begin play speaking Draconic. Munavri with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Abyssal, Aklo, Dwarven, Elven, and Undercommon.
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Defense Racial Traits Natural Armor: Troglodytes gain a +2 natural armor bonus to their AC.
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Feat and Skill Racial Traits Cave Creeper: Troglodytes are particularly adept at sneaking through the darkness of the Darklands. They gain a +2 racial bonus to Stealth checks. This bonus increases to a +4 in rocky or underground areas.
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Offense Racial Traits Stench: Troglodytes are capable of releasing a foul smelling odor around them. As a move action, a troglodyte may release his stench aura. All living creatures (except those with the stench ability) within 30 feet must succeed a Fortitude save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the troglodyte’s Hit Dice + the troglodyte’s Constitution modifier) or be sickened for a number of rounds equal to the troglodytes Constitution modifier. Creatures that successfully make this save cannot be affected by the same creature’s stench for 24 hours. A delay poison or neutralize poison spell removes the effects from the sickened creature. Creatures with poison immunity are unaffected, and creatures with poison resistance gain their usual bonus on the saving throw.
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Sense Racial Traits Darkvision: Troglodytes can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.
Hey there various Paizo people. I've been going through some of my Campaign setting books and I've gotten to thinking. I like Golarion, a lot, but I'm not really all that interested in running APs at the moment or trying to do anything too heavily related to Golarion's more heavily developed regions. I'm interested in putting together a game that takes place in some of the less explored regions of the world. I have a few vague concepts, but I'm curious what kinds of places people would be interested in playing through adventures.
My current thoughts:
Into Darkness
A campaign focused around really delving in to the Darklands and exploring the massive vaults and deepest dangers of Golarion's underground.
The Dragon Kings
A campaign set in Tian-Xia, not related to Jade Regent or any published modules. I have some vague ideas for a story related to the Successor States in western Tian-Xia.
Wild Wasteland
A campaign in the deserts of the Mana Wastes and the Duchy of Alkenstar. I have a few ideas for this one two, involving a plot surrounding the wild primal magic of the region.
Earthfinder
A campaign involving the world of Golarion and our Earth coming in to a more permanent contact. A return of magic and mysticism to Earth and the advent of the Industrial Revolution for Golarion, along with the perils of two planes intersecting.
I'm curious what beyond the Inner Sea kinds of games people might be willing to play, so don't think that these four are the only options. They're just what I've been thinking about recently. Feel free to post in with thoughts on both my ideas and your own. I'll see about putting a story together and doing a full recruitment thread at a later date.
Hello everyone. Who says that evil has to be grim and cruel? Who says that evil doers have to be dark and angry? Why can't evil be joyful and excited to destroy all who oppose them?
I'm setting up this thread along with my friends who you might recognize from the forums as Loup Blanc and JDPhipps (who will hopefully be posting in with their two cents shortly). We've all been very interested in playing through Hell's Vengeance, but we've all been far more interested in being players than running the game. So we're here to look for a GM who's willing to play with a very... strange group of villains and some players that are interested in building a quirky, fun villain to help oppress and decimate the hope of the people of Cheliax.
For the record we currently have:
Antipaladin of Urgathoa (Me)
Inquisitor of Zon-Kuthon (Loup)
Alchemist (JD)
My only request is that the GM be willing to allow an Antipaladin to be any kind of Evil without an archetype. Though the others might have requests about character creation.
Here's a discussion thread for you folks. Feel free to chat and to get your characters and aliases worked out entirely. I'll get things started in the near future.
You walk into a poorly lit saloon. The only light filters in through a cloudy window, so caked with dust that the sun barely bothers. The room is next to deserted, save a single man sitting alone at a table. ”Pull up a chair,” he says, grinning. ”Give old Jasper some company.” He takes a long swing from his tin tankard, eying each and every one of you. ”Not from around here, are ya’? Not from too far though. Well, I suppose that Belknap attracts all sorts of people. And y ou’ve got that tenderfoot look about you. Ah, don’t worry ‘bout it. Everyone was green once. Even me.” He laughs, but the sound comes out more of a rattling cackle. ”Still, I suppose it can’t hurt to impart some wisdom in you young pups. Might help you survive out in the wastelands.”
He sets his mug down and stares at you. ”So tell me. You know how this whole mess got started? I bet you’ve heard some stories. Well, let me tell you how it really went down. Ya’ see, there was this injun shaman by the name of Raven and he was mighty pissed at the white folks, seeing as they killed his entire tribe. It’s a long story, but the short version is that he riled up a whole posse o’ others like him who wanted their revenge on the white man and he set a plan in motion. He and his cronies, he called ‘em something fancy like, but I always thought he was bein’ grandiose. Anyway, he and his cronies managed to open up a way into the Hunting Ground, the world of the spirits. Don’t look at me like that. It’s as real as me or you, ya’ whelp. Where do you think all the abominations and mystical horse sh*t out there come from?”
He takes another drink and as he shifts you realize that his left arm was blown off by something not far above the wrist. ”Right, so Raven and his cronies cast down the good spirits that were keepin’ all the magic mumbo jumbo trapped in the Hunting Ground and released the magic back into the world. And with magic came evil. Four beings known as the Reckoners rose to his call and returned to our world with a vengeance. Their servants, demon spirits called manitous, swarmed into our world, just lookin’ for human evil to feed on and grow stronger. And more o’ course. Ya’ see, they could possess a man as he died and bring him back to life, hitchin’ a ride in the process. And a whole hell of a lot of ‘em did. It was July 3rd, 1863 when things went sour. I bet you recognize that date. Or maybe not. I don’t know how much learnin’ kids get these days. That was the day of the Battle of Gettysburg and the day that everything changed. With the dead risin’ and slaughtering both sides, the war shifted from a Union victory to a bloody stalemate. Course, it was just the first war. The first of many.”
He spits to the side. ”Ba, I’m sure you’re thinkin’ of walkin’ out by now. Well, let me tell ya’, if humans had paid a little more attention to their history, you wouldn’t be in this mess. But instead ya’ kept making more ways to kill each other instead. The Reckoners knew that humans just couldn’t help themselves, so they planted the seeds of our end: ghost rock. Funny thing, ghost rock. It screams like the damned if you burn it. You’d think that would be a sign there’s something wrong. But humans were far too interested in how this funny new super fuel could be used to kill people better. First it power tanks. Then it powered planes. Finally, it powered bombs. And that was all you needed to end the world as you knew it.”
He tilts back his tankard, draining the tin cup dry before slamming it down on the table. ”The G-bombs fell on September 23rd, 2081. That’s a day no one who lived through it will ever forget. Every major city, every government, every military, was gone in a white flash and replaced with the howling storms of forsaken souls. Terrible. And beautiful in a way. But that was thirteen years ago. Imagine, the world’s been the blasted wasteland you’ve been trekkin’ through for nearly a decade and a half and folks are already startin’ to rebuild. Amazing thing really. Still, with the road gangers, monsters, horrors, and who knows what else out there, I doubt the world will ever really put itself together again. Unless of course, there are some heroes out there to help put things right again.” He grins wickedly, his mouth looking just a little bit too wide, making him look more like a grinning skeleton than a man. ”Who knows tenderfoot? Maybe you’re those heroes. You’ve got the right feel for it.” With that, he stands up and walks toward the door. He pauses just a moment to look back. ”I ain’t seen a real hero in a long time. But you might just do it. We’ll see. And I’ll be watchin’. Old Jasper’s always interested in a new hero in town.” He cackles again and as the sunlight catches his face, his skin goes almost see through, making him look like a desiccated corpse for a moment before he vanishes like a spectre.
Intro
Whew. So, anyone who stuck with me through that rather long expository opening, welcome to my recruitment for Deadlands: Hell on Earth. It’s a mix of classic westerns, science fiction, horror, and post-apocalyptic goodness that creates a rather strange, but thoroughly enjoyable setting. I’ll be running this game using the Reloaded ruleset, which is part of the Savage Worlds system. A passing familiarity with the system will be pretty much all you need to get used to the setting. I’ve got two friends who are already getting ready to play, so I’m looking for 3-4 more players who are interested in becoming heroes of the Wasted West. We’ve got a templar (think a paladin but not necessarily as nice) and a psychic soldier (exactly what it sounds like) already, but we’ve got plenty of room to be just about anything you want. As for story… well I don’t want to give too much away, but I’m going to be diving into the Classic metaplot and doing a mix of homebrew and conversions of Classic Hell on Earth modules to make a fairly long campaign.
Character Creation
Creating characters will use the standard character creation rules for Hell on Earth Reloaded, which is basically Savage Worlds character creation with one or two little tweaks.
Point Buy: Standard (5 attribute and 15 skills)
Edges: Anything from Savage Worlds or Hell on Earth is fair game unless it’s specifically noted to not exist. A few edged require Marshal approval, but I’ll usually approve most concepts.
Hindrances: Standard (1 major, 2 minor) Note that you aren’t required to pick up any, but it’s usually a good idea Wealth: $500 dollars to start (as opposed to the $250 noted in the books)
Character Backgrounds
I care much more about your character’s well, character than I do about the mechanics. An interesting backstory is vastly preferable to something short and thrown together. So there are a few questions that you should consider. Note that just answering these questions is not necessarily enough to get in. Be creative and expand your backstory as you see fit. The lore for Deadlands can be kind of heavy sometimes, and not everyone has access to all the books. If anyone has any questions, please please ask them. I'm more than happy to make lore posts to explain setting details to help people come up with a good character concept and to help expand on anything that isn't clear.
Where is your character from? Putting aside Jasper’s comment, you could in fact be from quite far away. The Wasted West has all sorts of interesting locales and strange folks running around. Where you can from can say a lot about your character.
What does your character look like? Yeah, yeah. Obviousness aside, you might look downright strange. Mutations have started to crop up and plenty of people have scars, tattoos and who knows what that all have a story behind them. See what you’ve got that marks you out.
How old is your character? This may seem oddly specific, but it’s more important than you’d think. The bombs only fell thirteen years ago after all. Were you too young then to even remember them, or are you old enough to have had a life before everything went to hell?
How does your character act? Give me a nice idea of how your character acts. What is their personality like? What are their likes and dislikes? What are they afraid of?
What does your character want in life? While the world is pretty well destroyed, it’s hardly the end of humanity and folks have dreams and goals just like they did before the end. What are your character’s?
Recruitment will be open until at least April 2nd, depending on how much interest I get.
The docks of Absalom are, if anything, busier than ever. But the normally constant flow of merchant vessels has been joined with official ships from every land. The blood red flag of Cheliax is joined by the golden banners of Osirion, the blue flags of Thassilon, the white flag of Irrisen, and many others. The streets are packed with citizens trying to get a look at the newly arriving diplomats. The Harbor Guard is out in numbers not seen outside of war being declared and the Wave Riders are patrolling the harbor in packs. A contingent of the First Guard themselves stand vigil near the docks, waiting to escort the emissaries to their residences for the duration of the conference. The last of the ships pull into harbor, sails furling as dock workers rush to tie the ships' mooring lines.
Here's the discussion thread for all of your ooc needs. Check in here when you're ready and I'll give character sheets a good once over before getting the gameplay thread up.
We lived in a time of change. One greater than anything we had ever dared dream. And by the time we realized how many evils had stood against our world, it was too late. Our greatest heroes had risen up to fight against those that would conquer everything. Through countless battles and inhuman horrors that mortals haven't faced in centuries, they fought for the safety of us all. All for nothing.
One by one, our greatest heroes fell. And evil... evil has triumphed. Now the armies far beyond anything mankind has faced before are carving out their own empires, shaping this new world into whatever they desire of it.
Is there no more hope for humanity? Perhaps the failure of our champions has truly doomed this world to the rule of darkness...
- journal of an unnamed Pathfinder, recovered from a battlefield along the southern Worldwound front, writer presumed deceased
Welcome to the end of the world as you know it. The villains of the APs have won (well, all the ones up to and including Wrath of the Righteous), the heroes are dead, and the worst case scenario has come to pass. This may finally be the end of Golarion. Or is it? If one thing is true of any fantasy story, the greatest heroes can rise from the darkest of times and save the world. So now is your chance to rise up against the greatest darknesses that the world has ever known and try to save it. This is a very different Golarion from what you might know, but that just means that you have a whole new world to explore and hopefully liberate from evil.
It has been three years since the worst came to pass. Fiends, outsiders, and evils of both the mortal and immortal variety have risen to conquer the lands. However, not all hope is lost. Evil may be brutal, cruel, and dangerous, but it is not stupid. And when a threat that could consume all the lands is pushing on its borders, even evil is willing to come to an understanding. Two weeks ago, the biggest demonic assault ever seen emerged from the Worldwound. Territories all along the border were shattered and consumed by bloody demonic fury. The emergence of renewed aggression from the armies of Deskari is something that nobody needs. As such, all those concerned with the growing power of the demonic forces have been called to Absolam for the first ever conference between representatives of the many burgeoning empires of Golarion. People from all across the world have gathered in the city at the center of the world. Some are mercenaries and loyal warriors of one of the many representatives guarding the conference. Some are spies seeking information that their masters might leverage to their advantage. Some are desperate refugees hoping that this might be the first signs that the world isn't doomed to utter destruction. Whatever the case, you have come here to witness this historic event. And to see what lies beyond it...
Lore
This is an annotated version of the current state of the world. Obviously, there are some details that have been left out. If you have any questions about specific people, places, races, or simply setting details, I encourage everyone to ask. I'll try to answer everything to the best of my ability.
The Free Nations Alliance:
When evil came to conquer, the people proved that they are not willing to give in without a fight. Nations rallied together to fight back and hold firm against the hordes that encroach from all directions. Perhaps they are the last bastion of hope for freedom, or perhaps they are simply a doomed last stand that will one day inevitably fall...
The Free Kingdoms were formed in response to the expanse of the Worldwound three years ago. Realizing that they could not stand against the endless hordes alone, Taldor, Andoran, Absalom, and even Galt met in swift secret meetings and forged an alliance to stand as one against the hordes of the Abyss. Yet as other nations have fallen to evil one by one, they are perhaps the only remaining nation on Golarion that is still truly governed by human hands.
The Infernal Empire of Cheliax:
The hand of House Thrune is long and the eyes of the archdevils are on every living soul in the infernal empire. Asmodeus could no longer stand-by as his enemies rose to conquer their own lands and his archdukes claimed territories in the material plane. When the Demon Lord Deskari ascended to godhood, he knew things had gone too far. Now Cheliax is directly under the heel of the Prince of Darkness. And they have never been stronger.
Cheliax now represents the largest single empire in the world. Aside from reabsorbing Molthune and completely taking Nidal and Isgar into their control, their Shackles campaign was an immediate success and governor Druvalia Thrune now rules the Shackles, Sargava, and parts of the Sodden Lands (thanks to their Geryon blessed ships being able to navigate the Eye of Abendego). Additionally, Mediogalti Island technically swears allegiance to them, but there are rumors that the Red Mantis secretly still hold allegiance to another lord (or lady).
The Whispering Realm:
Death walks the earth, and it may consume all life. The greatest necromancer to ever live, and unlive, the one who sought to face Aroden himself, has returned. And the Whispering Tyrant will not be defeated again. His hordes of undeath march across central Avistan and claim everything in their path as his domain. And death smiles on him.
When the Whispering Tyrant was reborn upon the Gallowspire, his actions were swift and bloody. Recognizing a threat, Tar-Baphon did not claim Ustlav immediately. Instead, he marched his hordes south and decimated the Knight of Ozem, shattering them and conquering Lastwall. From there, he laid claim to Ustlav, Nirmathas and the southern fringes of the Hold of Belkzen. Now he plots and carefully plans for... something.
The Shadowlands:
Kyonin was once a kingdom of nature and beauty. Now it is less than nothing. In an event now called Shadowfall, the drow called down a meteor not unlike the one used in the disaster known as Earthfall and struck the elven kingdom with brutal force. The ass and dust from the impact still blacken the skies above the once proud nation.
The Shadowlands were once Kyonin, but with it's utter destruction at the hands of a massive meteor strike, it is little more than a shattered wasteland covered in eternal shadow by a cloud of ass and dust. The impact was strong enough to severely damage neighboring nations and Druma, Five Kings Mountains, Razmiran, and parts of the River Kingdoms all fall under the darkening cloud.
New Thassilon:
The ancient ruins of Thassilon are no longer ruins. Armies of giants and strange clockwork soldier now march across the lands, constantly at odds while tentatively allied in the birth of their new alliance. And this may be only the beginnings of their second rise to power.
Varisia is under the heel of Emperor Karzoug and Chancellor Xin, along with the territories in the Hold of Belkzen that do not bow to the Whispering Tyrant. However, the two are constantly at odds, seeking to gain political dominance over the other so that they might be the sole ruler of their new empire. However, a new player has recently entered the game. Queen Ileosa of Korvosa has claimed incredible power and has managed to forge an alliance with Karzoug, allowing him to claim Korvosa without a fight in exchange for his hand in marriage and co-rulership of the empire. But perhaps she seeks to take the throne for her own. It wouldn't be the first time she's killed a king to take a throne for her own...
Irrisen:
The Winter Witches have always been powerful, but with the power of the Queen of Witches herself usurped and her daughter more powerful then ever, their eternal winter begins to spread beyond the borders of their lands and to all corners of the world.
Queen Elvanna has successfully destroyed Baba Yaga. No one knows how, but the pure mythic power that Elvanna now wields could only have been drained from her mother's corpse. Now she stands as Irrisen's eternal queen, expanding her grip. The Land of the Linnorm Kings and the Realm of the Mammoth Lords have both fallen to her hand already and across Avistan portals carrying her eternal winter open and close at her will, allowing her to attack almost anywhere at almost anytime she desires.
Thousandbreaths:
The people of Brevoy should be thankful. They were spared the spread of the Worldwound and the destruction of their homes. Instead, they were taken, along with the Stolen Lands and parts of the north eastern River Kingdoms, into a space between Golarion and the First World, twisting their realm into a mix of fey madness and the material plane.
Brevoy and part of the River Kingdoms (centered around the Stolen Lands) have become a land that is partially within the First World and partially within the Material Plane. This makes everything about the lands mutable, twisted, and mad. Yet is ruled by the most fickle of lords. The mad nymph Nyrissa still rules these lands, perhaps pining for the First World still as she attempts to shape a poor facsimile in our world.
The Worldwound:
When the fifth crusade fell, it marked the end of everything. The armies of the Worldwound marched across Avistan, torturing and destroying everything in their path. Mendev burning, Numeria crumbled, and the River Kingdoms flowed with the blood of innocents. I'm ashamed to say, the presence of other evils like the Whispering Tyrant may be what holds these monsters in check as they lash out all along their borders trying to claim more territory and lay claim to all of the material plane in the name of their new god, Deskari.
The Worldwound now includes not only Sarkoris, but also Mendev, Numeria, the River Kingdoms (what territory is not already claimed) and small territories that have been won from Irrisen, the Whispering Tyrant, and the Free Nations along all of their borders with the Worldwound horde.
The Domain of Fire:
At first it seemed that Katapesh would be the only nation to suffer under the hand of the Firebleeder. The other nations were fooling themselves. Rampaging efreeti spirits and bloody fire beasts continue to appear and spawn all along the north of Garund. This land has gone from rough desert to blasted barren wastelands of fire and ash as the Firebleeder returns again and again clothed in his new form.
Katapesh, Osirion, Thuvia, Rahadoum, and even Qadira are still roughly intact, but the constant war with the ever encroaching spirits of fire under the lead of Jhavhul has rocked them and left them broken and crippled. They have formed a rough alliance, but it may be too little too late with how devastated many of their territories have become.
The Serpent's Lair:
The Age of the Serpent was a time of slavery and chaos. The mind warping serpentfolk commanded entire empires and ruled over mankind like cattle. Now things begin to stir and their ancient ruins and temples become inhabited again. And legends tell that their god has risen from his own death to restore his people to glory.
The Mwangi Expanse is now home to an ever growing empire of the serpentfolk. Their power grows almost daily and a sense of paranoia has begun to form in other nations. Anyone could be a spy and not even know it...
The Mana Wastes:
No one believed that the final war between Nex and Geb would ever happen. Not with one half of the equation missing. Oh how wrong we were. The battle was swift, the results were brutal. And now we remember why it is truly terrifying to see two masters of magic at war with one another.
The Mana Wastes now include all the was Nex and Geb. The war between these two utterly shattered both territories, reducing both nations to a mess of wastelands and spellscars that are nearly impossible to survive. Some fanatics on each side still holdout in enclaves, seeking to destroy their remaining foes, while many either flee to Alkenstar in hopes of refuge or outright try to make their way to anywhere else.
The Empire of the Oni:
Little word comes from distant Tian Xia anymore. What little we hear is of the armies of spirits and monsters that conquer their lands one by one, capturing all in the name of the Jade Emperor and his allies, the Five Storms.
Much of Tian Xia has fallen under the heel of the oni. Exactly which territories they control is unknown in the Inner Sea region, but it is known that Minkai is their center of power and many nearby nations have been completely consumed by their greed and lust for power.
Character Creation Rules
Crunch
Level: Golarion is not a nice place and strength is needed to survive. As such, PCs will be starting at 3rd level.
Stats: Roll 4d6 and drop the lowest. Do this 6 times and put them in any order you like. If your stats total below 20 point buy or you have two or more stats that are 8 or lower, you may reroll. If you don't like rolling, you may use 20 point buy instead.
Races: All Paizo races are allowed within reason. A lot of more monstrous and odd races have become more prominent with the recent total upheaval of the world order, though some truly strange ones will need a good explanation for approval.
Classes: Any Paizo class is allowed (including Gunslinger, Samurai, Ninja, and anything from Occult Adventures), including prestige classes at higher levels. Unchained Rogue, Barbarian, and Summoner are required and Unchained Monk is recommended but not required. Additionally, I will allow Paladins and Antipaladins to be any good and any evil alignment respectively. CG Paladins and LE Antipaladins replace their Law and Chaos relates spells with the equivalent of the opposite alignment. Archetypes will all be permitted unless something really crazy comes up. I would prefer no 3rd party material, but I might be willing to allow something if it's convincing. And no Ultimate Intrigue Playtest, so no vigilante.
Alignment: Anything is allowed. A good half of the factions present at the conference are very very evil. Just be willing to be reasonable and be willing to work with a party that may include characters with a vastly different alignment. This goes for good characters as well. I'll be fair with alignment, so for example a party with a paladin and an evil character won't result in the paladin being penalized unless he does something particularly nasty on his own.
Skills: In addition to your normal skills, I am using the Background Skills from Unchained. They can be found on the PFSRD for anyone without the book. These should be relevant to your back story.
Traits: You may select two traits. Campaign traits from APs may be allowed, but I reserve the right to approve or deny them on a case-by-case basis. You may take a single drawback and obtain a third trait if you wish, but no more than that.
Wealth: PCs start with 2000gp to spend on their gear and weapons. Wealth by level is altered a bit by the Automatic Bonus Progression system.
Hit Points: Max hit points at each level, with average + 1 for all levels beyond 1st. Bosses will likely get a HP boost, but I’ll make a final decision once I see how the party plays in combat.
The Stamina system in Unchained is free for Fighters at 1st level, and the feat is available for anyone else to take.
The Varient Multiclassing system in Unchained is permitted.
The Wound Threshold system from Unchained will be used. This can be harsh at low levels, but it will improve with time.
The Automatic Advancement system from Unchained will be used. This means generic +X weapons and armor, Bracers of Armor, Rings of Protection, Cloaks of Resistance, Amulets of Natural Armor, and Headbands and Belts of [X Stat] do not exist. Instead you will gain intrinsic bonuses at each character level, starting at 3rd in fact.
This game will (hopefully) run fairly long and will go all the way to 20th level. Additionally, this game will use the mythic rules to bring heroes to a truly epic level and reaching tier 10. Mythic being what it is, I have a somewhat sizable list of mythic nerfs to help balance the system. The party and enemies will be under these restrictions. If anything in unclear, feel free to ask. I would also ask that you include what mythic path you believe would suit your character best in your submission.
Mythic Nerfs:
Rule 0: The GM reserves the right to add to these nerfs as necessary if a mythic ability grows out of hand.
• You only get +1 to stat bonuses as part of advancing in mythic tiers, not +2.
• You cannot get permanent bonuses to your stats through wishes in this campaign.
• The amazing initiative basic mythic ability is replaced with a bonus to initiative checks equal to one-half of your mythic tier. In addition, as a free action when rolling initiative you may expend one use of mythic power to add your surge die to your initiative roll.
• The agile monster template, when applied to PC companions and summons, no longer gives the dual initiative ability. Instead, it gives haste.
• The following abilities: archmage arcana, champion’s strike, guardian’s call, divine surge, marshal’s order, and trickster attack abilities are no longer usable as swift actions. Instead, they are standard actions when sued at the cost of 1 mythic power, move actions at the cost of 2 mythic power, and swift actions at the cost of 3 mythic power.
• You cannot, for any reason, gain more than one additional attack at their highest attack bonus no matter how many such abilities are in effect. (Example: haste, champion’s strike abilities, etc.)
• If you enter the space of a mythic creature with the Titan’s Bane ability, it is considered flat-footed only against the first attack you make against it.
• Player characters (and their allies) can use only one ability that requires the expenditure of mythic power per round. This may be a mythic feat, mythic spell, mythic path ability, a power used by a legendary item, or anything else; if it involves expending mythic power, a character can use only one per round. Characters can use abilities that require spending more than one use of mythic power. Legendary power is considered separate from mythic power.
• You are likewise limited to the use of only one ability that requires the expenditure of legendary power per round.
• Mythic surges may be spent after a d20 has been rolled, but not after the result of the roll has been revealed.
• Mythic power is regained at a rate of 1 use per day. It is refilled to full after completing a mythic trial. This rate of mythic power regeneration cannot be changed in any way through abilities or spells. The GM may allow the heroes to regenerate additional uses of mythic power as a reward for epic feats or good roleplay.
• The foe-biting legendary item ability has been banned. It is replaced with the ability to expend one use of the item’s legendary power after striking an opponent with the weapon to add the bane property against that specific creature (regardless of its type and subtype) for 1 minute. If the item is already a bane weapon against that creature’s type (and subtype, if applicable), using the foe-biting property increases the effect of bane to a +3 enhancement bonus and +3d6 damage, or to +4 and +4d6 if the wielder is a mythic character and expends one use of mythic power as a swift action when expending the item’s legendary power to increase its bane effect.
• The Mythic Power Attack feat is now identical to the Mythic Deadly Aim feat, except it applies to melee damage rolls, not ranged.
• Mythic Vital Strike is banned.
• Instead of granting a flat +20 bonus on the relevant ability check or related skill check, the universal path abilities Display of Strength/Dexterity/Constitution/Intelligence/Wisdom/Charisma grant a bonus equal to three times your mythic tier.
• Using the Recuperation mythic ability costs one-half of each character’s remaining daily uses of mythic power (minimum 1).
• You need to spend 2 uses of mythic power to use the unstoppable mythic ability to remove a debuff caused by a mythic effect, not 1.
• Any ability that allows you to ignore immunity or resistance allows you to ignore up to 5 points of resistance or immunity, plus 5 points per 2 mythic ranks or tiers you possess.
• Any ability that allows you to ignore or bypass damage reduction instead allows you to ignore 5 points of damage reduction, plus 1 point of damage reduction per mythic rank or tier you possess. This applies to mythic abilities like the fleet charge champion path feature as well as non-mythic effects like a paladin’s smite evil.
• When a critical hit is confirmed against a mythic creature with damage reduction and the attack does not ignore damage reduction, the creature has a percentage chance equal to twice its damage reduction to negate the critical hit and treat the hit as a normal hit. If the creature also has the fortification universal monster ability or a similar ability to negate critical hits, add these two percentage chances together and make a single roll.
• An effect that allows you to ignore spell resistance (when it would normally apply) allows you add your mythic tier on caster level checks to ignore spell resistance. You apply an additional +2 circumstance bonus if the target is a non-mythic creature or if you are casting a mythic spell; these circumstance bonuses stack.
• Harmful conditions that occur even on a successful save are halved in duration (minimum 0 rounds) if the mythic rank or tier of an affected creature equals or exceeds that of the creature that created the effect. They are also halved (minimum 0 rounds) for a non-mythic creature whose CR equals or exceeds the caster level (or Hit Dice, for supernatural effects) of the creature that created the effect. This does not apply to effects with an instantaneous or permanent duration.
• Wild Arcana, Inspired Spell, Arcane Surge, and Recalled Blessing can only be used on spells with a casting time of 1 standard action or less. Using these abilities requires expending one use of mythic power, plus one additional use for every 2 levels of the spell.
• For Arcane Surge and Recalled Blessing, you may expend an additional 2 uses of mythic power to cast a spell as a swift action.
• Mythic enemies may expend mythic surges as a swift action to add a bonus to its AC equal to the result of its surge die. If the enemy has DR or hardness, the surge die is also added to DR or hardness. If the enemy has energy resistance, it adds twice the result of its surge die to each type of energy resistance it possesses. This bonus lasts until the beginning of the enemy’s next turn; if it expends two uses of mythic power, it lasts for a number of rounds equal to one- half its mythic rank or tier (minimum 1 round).
• When the actions taken by an enemy during its turn would reduce it below 0 hit points, it can expend one or more uses of mythic power to survive with 10% of its current hit points (before that enemy began its turn) for each use of mythic power you spend. All damage dealt as part of a full attack action is considered a single effect for this purpose.
Fluff
I just have a few simple questions that are a must to think through with your character. However, more detail and depth in a backstory is always a good way to boost your chances of getting in and giving a good base to roleplay off of.
1. What does your character look like? (Height, weight, age, appearance, etc.)
2. What is your character’s personality?
3. Where is your character from? Golarion has changed a lot in the last few years. Where you are from can mean a lot about who your character is.
4. Why does your character have the class, feats, weapon, etc. that they do? Where and how did they learn to fight? What made them take up this path?
5. Is your character religious? If so, who do they worship and why?
6. How has your character's life changed in the last few years? What has the changing world done to your character and what do you intend to do about it?
What I’m Looking For
I’m looking for 6 players and recruitment will be open until November 15th.
I enjoy combat as much as the next gamer, but I’m not just looking for a character that can kill the best. I’m going to be selecting the characters that are well-rounded, with interesting backgrounds and character traits to inspire roleplay. I’m much more interested in RP than in running combat all of the time.
On that note, please integrate your crunch and fluff to the best of your ability. If your character has an archetype, consider where they learned that style of combat and why. If you have a trait, explain why you have it and work the fluff into your character. Don’t pick Reactionary just because you want better initiative or Rich Parents for extra starting wealth. Pick traits that fit your character concept best.
Also, in the interest of keeping the game moving, I have one more requirement. Please be able to post at least once per day. More is great (preferable even), but at least that please. If you miss a day, it kills the pacing and I will likely bot you to keep things moving. If you have a reason to be unable to post, just message me and we'll work out how to handle things. However, repeated uninformed missed days and unexplained absences will make me assume that you're not interested and I will start looking for a replacement.
I'm a huge fan of the Golarion setting. And there's one particular idea that pops up on the boards every once in a while that I've always loved. So I'm interested in running a campaign in using this concept. As you can probably guess from the title, this would be the Golarion Apocalypse concept. For anyone who's not familiar with the idea, it's basically a 'what if' scenario where a former group of adventurers (deceased now), messed up bad at the end of an AP, leading to the villain winning. Of course, the idea had to be taken as far as possible. So every AP happened simultaneously and every villain has won. At the same time.
Needless to say, the world is rather screwed right now. What better time for top notch heroes to rise up and try to put things right? Right now this is just an interest check, and it will be a while before it becomes an actual recruitment, but I'm curious to see who would be interested in giving this game a shot. If I get some interest, I have some setting details worked out that I can post in a bit to fill out how every villain winning at once has messed up the world.
The small village of Heldren sits just north of the Border Woods near Qadira. The sleepy village has never seen much excitement, even with an enemy nation in walking distance to the south. The people have gone about their days in relative peace, with a handful of travelers of all sorts occasionally passing through their village on their way to bigger and better things south in Qadira or north and west to Oppara, Cassomir, and beyond.
The recently, an unseasonable chill has settled over the area. Complaints of lost crops and sick animals in the nearby farms have begun to circulate through the town's gossip circles and the villagers have begun to wonder if there isn't something more to these strange stories. But life continues just as it always has regardless. Whether in the small village market or the warm comfort of the Silver Stoat tavern, travelers, locals and strange outsiders have continued their journeys through the region.
In the far north of Avistan, Irrisen, the frigid kingdom of the Winter Witches, has long been locked in an eternal winter, brought on by the power of its rulers. Each queen has fought against foes beyond her borders and within her own lands to try and prove herself before her mother, the immortal witch Baba Yaga, returns to spirit her away and replace her with another of her sisters. Yet something is beginning to go wrong. The legendary witch has yet to appear, missing her centennial visit for the first time in recorded history. And Irrisen’s eternal winter has begun to spread beyond its borders. Heroes of great skill and legendary potential are needed to prevent winter from consuming all of Golarion.
Introduction
Hey there. As you’ve probably guessed, I’m a fan of the Reign of Winter AP. I enjoy the themes, the adventures and the truly strange locations you visit. The thing is, for a campaign focused so heavily on the Winter Witches and the kingdom of Irrisen, you spend very little time actually in Irrisen. So I’ve decided to try something a little different: a Reign of Winter story that takes place entirely within the borders of the kingdom of eternal winter.
Anyone who’s interested in exploring the realm of Irrisen in-depth, dealing with the Winter Witches as both enemies and allies, and taking the fight against tyranny straight to the most corrupt of the Jadwiga, this may be the adventure for you. Obviously, this will change a number of the campaign elements, but I’ll do my best to keep the spirit of the campaign intact. Furthermore, I will be including some extra adventures, both homemade and from modules, primarily from the Witchwar Legacy module.
And one more element will play a central role in the game. Mythic tiers. The party won’t be ascending all the way to tier 10, but their role as heroes will grant them legendary powers. Considering that the Mythic system is unbalanced at best, I’ll be instituting a number of nerfs to try and keep things a little more under control.
Mythic Nerfs:
• Rule 0: The GM reserves the right to add to these nerfs as necessary if a mythic ability grows out of hand.
• You only get +1 to stat bonuses as part of advancing in mythic tiers, not +2.
• You cannot get permanent bonuses to your stats through wishes in this campaign.
• The amazing initiative basic mythic ability is replaced with a bonus to initiative checks equal to one-half of your mythic tier. In addition, as a free action when rolling initiative you may expend one use of mythic power to add your surge die to your initiative roll.
• The agile monster template, when applied to PC companions and summons, no longer gives the dual initiative ability. Instead, it gives haste.
• The following abilities: archmage arcana, champion’s strike, guardian’s call, divine surge, marshal’s order, and trickster attack abilities are no longer usable as swift actions. Instead, they are standard actions when sued at the cost of 1 mythic power, move actions at the cost of 2 mythic power, and swift actions at the cost of 3 mythic power.
• You cannot, for any reason, gain more than one additional attack at their highest attack bonus no matter how many such abilities are in effect. (Example: haste, champion’s strike abilities, etc.)
• If you enter the space of a mythic creature with the Titan’s Bane ability, it is considered flat-footed only against the first attack you make against it.
• Player characters (and their allies) can use only one ability that requires the expenditure of mythic power per round. This may be a mythic feat, mythic spell, mythic path ability, a power used by a legendary item, or anything else; if it involves expending mythic power, a character can use only one per round. Characters can use abilities that require spending more than one use of mythic power. Legendary power is considered separate from mythic power.
• You are likewise limited to the use of only one ability that requires the expenditure of legendary power per round.
• Mythic surges may be spent after a d20 has been rolled, but not after the result of the roll has been revealed.
• Mythic power is regained at a rate of 1 use per day. It is refilled to full after completing a mythic trial. This rate of mythic power regeneration cannot be changed in any way through abilities or spells. The GM may allow the heroes to regenerate additional uses of mythic power as a reward for epic feats or good roleplay.
• The foe-biting legendary item ability has been banned. It is replaced with the ability to expend one use of the item’s legendary power after striking an opponent with the weapon to add the bane property against that specific creature (regardless of its type and subtype) for 1 minute. If the item is already a bane weapon against that creature’s type (and subtype, if applicable), using the foe-biting property increases the effect of bane to a +3 enhancement bonus and +3d6 damage, or to +4 and +4d6 if the wielder is a mythic character and expends one use of mythic power as a swift action when expending the item’s legendary power to increase its bane effect.
• The Mythic Power Attack feat is now identical to the Mythic Deadly Aim feat, except it applies to melee damage rolls, not ranged.
• Mythic Vital Strike is banned.
• Instead of granting a flat +20 bonus on the relevant ability check or related skill check, the universal path abilities Display of Strength/Dexterity/Constitution/Intelligence/Wisdom/Charisma grant a bonus equal to three times your mythic tier.
• Using the Recuperation mythic ability costs one-half of each character’s remaining daily uses of mythic power (minimum 1).
• You need to spend 2 uses of mythic power to use the unstoppable mythic ability to remove a debuff caused by a mythic effect, not 1.
• Any ability that allows you to ignore immunity or resistance allows you to ignore up to 5 points of resistance or immunity, plus 5 points per 2 mythic ranks or tiers you possess.
• Any ability that allows you to ignore or bypass damage reduction instead allows you to ignore 5 points of damage reduction, plus 1 point of damage reduction per mythic rank or tier you possess. This applies to mythic abilities like the fleet charge champion path feature as well as non-mythic effects like a paladin’s smite evil.
• When a critical hit is confirmed against a mythic creature with damage reduction and the attack does not ignore damage reduction, the creature has a percentage chance equal to twice its damage reduction to negate the critical hit and treat the hit as a normal hit. If the creature also has the fortification universal monster ability or a similar ability to negate critical hits, add these two percentage chances together and make a single roll.
• An effect that allows you to ignore spell resistance (when it would normally apply) allows you add your mythic tier on caster level checks to ignore spell resistance. You apply an additional +2 circumstance bonus if the target is a non-mythic creature or if you are casting a mythic spell; these circumstance bonuses stack.
• Harmful conditions that occur even on a successful save are halved in duration (minimum 0 rounds) if the mythic rank or tier of an affected creature equals or exceeds that of the creature that created the effect. They are also halved (minimum 0 rounds) for a non-mythic creature whose CR equals or exceeds the caster level (or Hit Dice, for supernatural effects) of the creature that created the effect. This does not apply to effects with an instantaneous or permanent duration.
• Wild Arcana, Inspired Spell, Arcane Surge, and Recalled Blessing can only be used on spells with a casting time of 1 standard action or less. Using these abilities requires expending one use of mythic power, plus one additional use for every 2 levels of the spell.
• For Arcane Surge and Recalled Blessing, you may expend an additional 2 uses of mythic power to cast a spell as a swift action.
• Mythic enemies may expend mythic surges as a swift action to add a bonus to its AC equal to the result of its surge die. If the enemy has DR or hardness, the surge die is also added to DR or hardness. If the enemy has energy resistance, it adds twice the result of its surge die to each type of energy resistance it possesses. This bonus lasts until the beginning of the enemy’s next turn; if it expends two uses of mythic power, it lasts for a number of rounds equal to one- half its mythic rank or tier (minimum 1 round).
• When the actions taken by an enemy during its turn would reduce it below 0 hit points, it can expend one or more uses of mythic power to survive with 10% of its current hit points (before that enemy began its turn) for each use of mythic power you spend. All damage dealt as part of a full attack action is considered a single effect for this purpose.
What I’m Looking For
I’m looking for 6 players. Recruitment will be open until September 12th, and hopefully the game will begin on September 14th.
I enjoy combat as much as the next gamer, but I’m not just looking for a character that can kill the best. I’m going to be selecting the characters that are well-rounded, with interesting backgrounds and character traits to inspire roleplay. I’m much more interested in RP than in running combat all of the time.
On that note, please integrate your crunch and fluff to the best of your ability. If your character has an archetype, consider where they learned that style of combat and why. If you have a trait, explain why you have it and work the fluff into your character. Don’t pick Reactionary just because you want better initiative or Rich Parents for extra starting wealth. Pick traits that fit your character concept best.
I will be selecting one character for each mythic path (Archmage, Champion, Guardian, Hierophant, Marshal, and Trickster). The Dual Path ability is fine to mix and match with some unusual combinations, but please include which your primary path will be in your submission. Anyone that doesn’t will not be considered.
Also, in the interest of keeping the game moving, I have one more requirement. Please be able to post at least once per day. More is great (preferable even), but at least that please. If you miss a day, it kills the pacing and I will likely bot you to keep things moving. If you have a reason to be unable to post, just message me and we'll work out how to handle things. However, repeated uninformed missed days and unexplained absences will make me assume that you're not interested and I will start looking for a replacement.
Character Creation Rules
Crunch
Stats: Roll 4d6 and drop the lowest. Do this 6 times and put them in any order you like. If your stats total below 15 point buy or you have two or more stats that are 7 or lower, you may reroll.
Races: All Paizo races are allowed. However, the stranger the race, the better back story you’re going to need to convince me to accept it.
Classes: Any Paizo class is allowed (including Gunslinger, Samurai, Ninja, and anything from Occult Adventures), including prestige classes at higher levels. Unchained Rogue, Barbarian, and Summoner are required and Unchained Monk is recommended but not required. Archetypes will all be permitted unless something really crazy comes up. No 3rd party classes or archetypes. Period. And no Ultimate Intrigue Playtest, so no vigilante.
Alignment: No evil characters. I might be able to be talked into it with a particularly good backstory, but short of something absolutely mind blowing, it’s not going to happen.
Skills: In addition to your normal skills, I am using the Background Skills from Unchained. They can be found on the PFSRD for anyone without the book. These should be relevant to your back story.
Traits: You may select two traits. These do not have to be campaign traits from Reign of Winter (though you can select one if you want), but no campaign traits from other APs. You may take a single drawback and obtain a third trait if you wish, but no more than that.
Average starting wealth for your class.
Max hit points at each level, this also applies to all enemies. Bosses will likely get a HP boost beyond that, but I’ll make a final decision once I see how the party plays in combat.
The Stamina system in Unchained is free for Fighters at 1st level, and the feat is available for anyone else to take.
The Varient Multiclassing system in Unchained is permitted.
The Wound Threshold system from Unchained will be used. This can be harsh at low levels, but it will improve with time.
The Automatic Advancement system from Unchained will be used. This means generic +X weapons and armor, Bracers of Armor, Rings of Protection, Cloaks of Resistance, Amulets of Natural Armor, and Headbands and Belts of [X Stat] do not exist.
Fluff
This is the part that’s really going to get you into the game. First and foremost, read the Player’s Guide. It’s free on Paizo.com so no one should have too much trouble getting their hands on it. Your character should have some reason to be willing to get involved in the situation in Irrisen, so the campaign traits can give ideas, but please be creative. Second, make sure all of the following questions are answered for me. I don’t care how long or short it is, but make it convincing and interesting.
1. What does your character look like? (Height, weight, age, appearance, etc.)
2. What is your character’s personality?
3. Where is your character from? Golarion’s history and geography is very detailed. Make good use of that.
4. Why does your character have the class, feats, weapon, etc. that they do? Where and how did they learn to fight? What made them take up this path?
5. Is your character religious? If so, who do they worship and why?
6. What is your character’s reason to get involved with Irrisen? It can be something as simple as hating tyranny, but something more detailed will certainly help your chances.
