Nautical Heroes: Pregenerated Characters (PFRPG)

This collection of pregens clocks in at 42 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages editorial,1 page ToC, 2 pages of introduction, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 33 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?

As always, we get the pregens presented herein as 20-point-buys, though advice for modification down to 15-point buy is provided for each character. The character itself is always presented not only with basic stats, but also a gorgeous artwork that represents the character alongside a nice in-character quote that helps get in the spirit of the character- layout-wise, the presentation here is great: Page 1 presents aforementioned artworks and quotes, whereas the second page covers the statblock of the respective character alongside the basics of physical descriptions etc., which continues on the third page. there, on can also find excessive advancement-advice for future levels of the respective builds. Finally, the 4th page also provides advice for the players to properly portray the respective characters. This decision may result in some blank spaces on some pages, yes, but it does make it very easy for the DM to print and hand out characters to the respective players.

So what are the characters herein? Well, for once, the first, right out of the box, would be a swashbuckler - yes, this pdf does have full-blown ACG-support and Aethan, the noble and romantic swashbuckler, makes for an interesting and fun leader for a respective group. Cathran, a beautiful cleric of Desna would be next up and yes, there would also be a halfling sea-singer and an elven sea witch, which, of course, also comes with a fully depicted familiar.

Now so far, the choices have been pretty much what you'd expect, but introducing an undine flowing monk into the fray imho is an interesting choice for those who prefer more uncommon races. Skull & Shackles is one of the APs wherein playing an evil character is pretty much supported and Evon Bloodbeak, the aptly-named tengu-rogue (swashbuckler) does cover this niche admirably - without overlapping with the ACG-swashbuckler regarding the build's focus, mind you.

Using age as a nice way to modify a character, a peg-legged oracle (with a smart focus on terrain-control and social skills) can be considered yet another interesting build. Of course, no Skull & Shackle-prgen collection would be complete without a gunslinger (buccaneer)...

The pdf's final page is devoted to foldable paper miniatures of the respective characters for use with battle maps.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, though not perfect, with the most hilarious glitch being the language "polyglut." Layout adheres to Legendary Games' beautiful standard established for Skull & Shackles plug-ins and the copious artworks are beautiful indeed - with the exception of the undine, the artworks have, to my knowledge, not been used in other LG-supplements - and overall, are top-notch. The bookmarks suffer from a weird glitch where the first couple of them are missing and then, some do not read like character names, while others do. Rare rules and uncommon pieces of crunches have unobtrusively been hyperlinked to d20pfsrd.com.

Neil Spicer's nautical heroes are AWESOME as pregens. Why? because they not only get the theme right from the get-go, they also generally adhere to the same level of optimization - none of the pregens felt overpowered, with all sporting some definite roleplayer's choices, while at the same time remaining competent at what they set out to do.

The AP's focus on naval combat offered a further potential for problems - namely naval combat and siege weapons - instead of shoehorning a 1st level character into such a role, the pdf wisely opts out of this in favor of putting such decisions into player-hands - you won't find the one siege-guy herein, or the one navigator/look-out - instead, you have aptitudes, yes, but not ones that lock you into an option.

While the minor glitches here and there and the minor bookmark hiccup are unpleasant blemishes, overall, I still absolutely adore these pregens and their general balance. My final verdict will hence clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 for the purpose of this platform.

Endzeitgeist out.

For an explanation of how I use the five star review method, see my entry on So What's the Riddle Like Anyway? HERE.

OK, first up a disclaimer: I wrote Tarin’s Crown with Matt Goodall for the Islands of Plunder series of adventures for Legendary Games. This was not a paid job, just an opportunity to get published and I have not worked on any other project for the company. I was part of a discussion group in which the Islands of Plunder were hashed out, so I have avoided reviewing all of those including Tarin’s Crown. I have had no connection with the creation of Nautical Heroes and have never worked with Neil Spicer. However, I felt it important that anyone reading this should know of the connections to Legendary Games that I have in order to judge for themselves the unbiased nature of this review.

This document is forty-two pages long, of which thirty-three pages are content and two are introductions to how the pre-generated characters were made and their reasons for use. Each of the eight characters get four pages each and there is a page of paper minis that can be printed out at the end of the content.

The introductions briefly explain why a group of pre-generated characters for use in the Skull & Shackles AP is worth having and the methods that have chosen to use in making them. The prime explanation is simple and straight forward enough: if the player’s want characters that have been built to have a good shot at survival while still being useful and rules compliant, why not use characters provided by the writers who Paizo enlists to write the APs in the first place? It’s a logical argument, but most of my players prefer taking their own character concepts and building characters on their own. So this isn’t a good reason for my group. Still I can see it having value with people who are either new to the game or really want a well-balanced character and are unsure of how to proceed.

My reason for wanting this supplement comes at the end of the explanation: GM NPCs. Having a group of complete characters designed for the flavour of a campaign and ready to use is a godsend, especially in a sandbox style game like Skull & Shackles has been designed to be. Any GM worth his salt will tell you that NPC design is the hardest and most time consuming feature of the hobby. Having eight characters that allow you to add colour and excitement to simple ship encounters makes it flow much more easily.

The characters are created using the 20-point Character buy creation method for determining attributes, so they are legal for use in the Pathfinder Society campaign. If you prefer the characters to be built to the standard 15-point buy system, suggestions for altering are given with each character’s entry so they can be modified correctly swiftly. They also each include a Campaign Trait from the Skull & Shackles Player’s Guide built into their character’s background to better connect them to the campaign and the initial adventure, The Wormwood Mutiny. Only Ship’s Surgeon and Dockside Brawler are not covered by the characters presented.

The character pages are all presented in the same way. The first page has the character’s name, a nice piece of art showing the character, and a quote of theirs to help establish the character in the reader’s mind. The following two pages cover their first level stats, background, personality, and recommendations for advancement (detailed up to fourth level with recommendations for continual advancement). The fourth and final page of each entry contains role-playing notes, rules for shifting from a 20-point buy to a 15-point buy, and any notes on familiars or animal companions if any exist for that character.

I love the characters backgrounds and how Neil has woven the alignments, traits, classes, races, and histories into whole characters with solid reasons to be involved with the campaign. Each is intriguing and will be invaluable for fleshing out crews of rival ships or barroom brawls. For players these notes and information simply hand them completed characters. Any tweaking and adjustments should be fairly simple and straight forward. They have a wide array of race/class ideas here, from the somewhat expected (human swashbuckler, half-elf cleric, halfling bard) to the a little different (elf sea-witch, one-legged human oracle, human gunslinger (buccaneer)) to the very unique (evil tengu rogue (swashbuckler) and undine monk (!)).

My only criticism of this section is the female art. While some cheesecake art is fine, all cheesecake art is outdated and bothersome. I have no issue looking at scantily clad attractive females with noticeable cleavage, but it can be off-putting for many female players. I don’t suggest getting rid of the eye-candy, but mixing in a few practically dressed women would go a long way to broadening the audience.

The final page of content is the Paper Minis. These are simply the full body portraits of the characters shrunk down and placed on mini templates for printing and construction. A very useful and thoughtful addition for personalizing the characters for those of us who use minis.

Final Thoughts: Overall this is an excellent product. If your players are having trouble developing a character for a pirate campaign or if you are a player looking for a shortcut, this supplement is for you. As NPC rivals, allies, or even opponents, having richly detailed and rule legal characters these eight entries will find great use in my campaign. So even if your players create their own characters, as a GM you should consider the value of extra NPCs and seriously think about this product. My only criticism is of the female art, and that really only docks a half-point off the total in my opinion. That would give this supplement a final score of 4.5 stars, but I’ll round up as the art does not detract from the overall usefulness. 5 out of 5 stars.

Nautical Heroes continues Legendary Game's awesome series of pre-generated characters for the Paizo Adventure Path series. Ably filling the role of PC, NPC, or Quickie Replacement Character, each comes nicely illustrated with backstory and levelling suggestions in addition to the regular character stats. Characters range from a bloodthirsty Tengu rogue to an Undine Monk. You'll want to play them all. Check it out.