
Chris Banks |

Well, here we go, the OOC thread. Repository for all things OOC, be they commentary, rules discussion, or what have you.
Just to recap the basic rules:
- Character creation is by 32 points buy.
- Max starting gold as defined in the class entry.
- Hit points and experience follow the 'normal' method.
- Core and alpha books as the baseline. Specific bits from other books may be used by request, with preference given to Pathfinder books.
- One goblin character only, please. ;)
I'll let people sort out who's playing what between them. All I ask is for a good variety, which seems to be a given. For convenience, I summarise the concepts I've seen thus far.
Arctaris - Korpiklanni Horsekiller, goblin rogue/barbarian/not quite decided, with the Champion of Fate (paladin) as backup. And no, I have no problems with Korpi.
Timespike - Kyran Semnir, human paladin of erastil/farmer.
Xdahnx - Fernriddle Grumblefork, gnome sorcerer with a necromantic bent
MythrilDragon - Dwarven druid
Erekose13 - Devrin Vallis, Varisian cleric of Desna
Larcifer - Dwarf ranger (?)
Wolvenone (alternate) - Osprey Stormriven, half-elf rogue
We'll get cracking on the campaign itself as soon as everybody's finalized their characters.

Chris Banks |

Also, Arctaris: I've had a bit of a change of heart as regards Korpiklanni. I'm inclined to use the halfling rules with an additional -2 to CHA and without the bonus to fear saves (because really, whoever heard of a fearless goblin?) and of course, proficiency with the appropriate weapons. Oh, and darkvision. This puts him not quite level with the upgraded PC races, but I think the gap is now more comparable with the one that existed under the old rules.
Finding 1 of the campaign: Pathfinder goblins are compelling enough that there are people willing to play them even under the rules in the monster manual.

Threeblood |

I'm sorry to intrude but I was looking for a game to join and saw that you had an alternate list. I would like to be considered for an alternate if you have the room. Below is the background for the character. Thanks for your time and consideration.
I grew up pretty normal in our small town. My Da owned the butcher shop and Ma helped him run it. So I and my two younger sisters, Ororli and Ketra, always had the best meat to gnaw on. I grew up helping around the shop, but the best times were when I and my Da would head out to hunt. My Da was a great hunter. Ask anyone in the village, when it came to hunting the big game of the plains off of the Turandarok River, they’ll mention Gunthor Bladstal. Heck my Da was so good that once a year he headed into the Mushfen to hunt giant crocs.
When I wasn’t out learning to hunt with my Da, or in the shop doing chores with my Ma, I was hanging out with Old’ Unka Jik. He was a Varasian that some people in the village considered to be trouble, but my Ma and Da told me not to listen to any of that. That Old’ Unka Jik was a decent and good man and that some people in the village just liked to talk to hear themselves. I loved listening to that old story teller. I mean to hear Old’ Unka Jik tell it, he had been all over the place. He even claimed to have visited the original Chelaxian lands. I don’t know if half his stories were true or not, but they were darn cool to listen to.
When I was about thirteen years old, Da said I needed to think about what I wanted to do in the community. He said I was becoming a man and it was time to decide what profession I wanted to do as a grown man. I had no idea what to do. I figured I’d just be a butcher, but Da said for me to think about it and not just take what was handed to me but earn what I wanted.
The Chopper was a local woodcarver named Jervis Stoot. I knew him well before he went went on his killing spree when I was about 13 years old. He made the most beautiful carvings of birds. There was one on the door-sill above the 'storefront' door in our house - but Da hacked it away after the Late Unpleasantness. Chopper killed 25 people over the course of a month's time - including the sheriff at the time: Casp Avertin. The sheriff was Chopper's final victim, killed in a fight when he caught the murder red-handed. Belor got to be sheriff then, and he's been a good 'un.
Not quite a month after The Chopper's blood spree, the chapel burned down. The head priest, Ezakien Tobyn, and his ward Nualia were burnt alive - unable to escape the roaring fire. I offered to help with the cleaning and rebuilding of the new church. I had grown to be the biggest boy of my age so I figured I should help out. I mean I could lift almost as much as most grown ups. That was where Bowyer Mellic found me.
Mellic was a priest of Eristal and after we started talking he told me that I should come by and hear the head priest speak. Eristal wasn’t new to me. Heck the whole village paid lip service to Old’ Deadeye on a daily basis. My Da was especially fond of Eristal, thanking him after every hunt. But as the years continued I came to the church of Eristal more and more, the principals of community and goodness just made sense to me. Not to mention that I had grown up a hunter and learned from my Da the ways of surviving off the land.
When I was sixteen I officially joined the church and became a Fletcher, the lowest ranking in the church. I was already a good shot and a good hunter and the head Priest Abstalar Zantus seemed pleased with the progress I made in my studying of the tenants of Eristal even if he was dedicated to Desna himself. The Chapel has shrines and held services for all the good gods, and of the 3 acolytes dedicated to Erastil - I stood out even if the others were older than me. I spent two years as a Fletcher before I finally earned the title of Bowyer and was able to call the divine favor of Eristal into me.
Bowyer Mellic was proud that I made Bowyer with him, and head priest Zantus was pretty pleased too. My mother cried and my father smiled like I had ever seen before when I told them that I was to be a true cleric in the community. Even the other three Fletchers didn't seem all that upset that I got promoted above them.
So now I tend to my village, I offer the farmers’ blessings when they need it, and help the hunters track the big game when I have the time. I even sit with Old’ Unka Jik and listen to his stories from time to time. My life is what I want it to be, something that wasn’t just handed to me, but is instead something I earned.

Larcifer |

Hey for non core books I would like to take Arcane Hunter from the complete mage for my favored enemy [arcanists] (pg 32). And have access to these 3 feats from the complete arcane: Mage Slayer (pg 81); Pierce Magical Concealment (pg 81); and Pierce Magical Protection (pg. 82).
Thanks, everything else I will take from the alpha and core books. Much appreciated.
I will have my guy done by tonight.

Arctaris |

Arctaris - Korpiklanni Horsekiller, goblin rogue/barbarian/not quite decided, with the Champion of Fate (paladin) as backup. And no, I have no problems with Korpi.
Cool, I'll get hims statted up and posted tonight. He's a barbarian, though I might take some rogue levels later on, we'll see.
Also, Arctaris: I've had a bit of a change of heart as regards Korpiklanni. I'm inclined to use the halfling rules with an additional -2 to CHA and without the bonus to fear saves (because really, whoever heard of a fearless goblin?) and of course, proficiency with the appropriate weapons. Oh, and darkvision. This puts him not quite level with the upgraded PC races, but I think the gap is now more comparable with the one that existed under the old rules.
Thanks, sounds good to me.
Finding 1 of the campaign: Pathfinder goblins are compelling enough that there are people willing to play them even under the rules in the monster manual.
The little buggers are just so damn cool. Funny too.

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The pathfinder goblins are like malevolent versions of how I've been depicting goblins in my homebrew setting for years; crazed, wacky, squabbling, and utterly devoid of common sense. I had three goblin merchants (brothers, no less) in the central city of the campaign. Gor, Bor, and Sor. They bickered constantly and shrieked at anyone who they dealt with, but they had good stuff at reasonable prices, so the PCs tolerated them.

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Hey, guys, before we get started, I know paladins can be a bit controversial, so I wanted to just throw this out there:
0. If I do anything that kills the fun of this for ANY of you, tell me! I'll mend my ways post-haste.
1. Paladins are good first and lawful a moderately-distant second. Commiting evil acts strips them of paladinhood. Commiting the occasional chaotic act is something they're not terribly comfortable with, but as long as it's for a good cause, they'll go along or allow it. (grumbling and muttering the whole time, most likely)
2. They're protectors. That includes innocent people and party members alike. If it comes down to staying behind so you can escape, run like hell and drink to my PC's memory or something.
3. They're intractable. If we go up against someone particularly loathesome and they get away, Kyran's going to want to track them down.
4. "Resourceful" and "chaotic" are not the same thing. Same goes for tactical. I tend to be a very creative problem-solver.
5. Goodness to me means a certain measure of generosity. I might occasionally relinquish some of my share of the treasure to help an unfortunate NPC or some such thing. This does NOT mean I expect your to do the same thing with your PCs. I will never charge ANYone for healing, even an enemy that we need alive to question.
6. Goodness to me also implies empathy. Those of you playing more tragic characters should expect genuine concern for your emotional wellbeing out of Kyran if he learns enough details about you.
7. Paladins do have a pretty high comfort level with violence. When it comes down to a kill or be killed situation, or a foe that really deserves to die, I'll make sure the foe is slain. I have augmented coup de graces with smites before in the past. Given the evilness of some of the villains in this AP, don't be surprised if I do so in this game.
8. Not every paladin I've played has been particularly nice, but I fully intend this one to be. I also am not a big fan of self-righteous judgmental paladins, so relax if you were worried.
9. If you're wondering where the quote in Kyran's description is from, I direct you here. That's also a pretty good place to go for the general philosophy that guides my paladin play style.
10. I have an A.A.S. in Criminal Justice and am hoping to get into a career in law enforcement in the near future (in the real world), so if my PC acts a bit "cop-like" you'll know why. ;)
11. I can separate character knowledge from payer knowledge, and I haven't read this AP in much depth anyway; I'd mostly been getting pathfinder to support Paizo and for the support articles and monster/NPC stat blocks until the current AP (CoCT) started, but whatever I do know will not be at all apparent. I DO remember enough to know that I will absolutely HATE a lot of the baddies in this, however.
12. I thought about Kyran's background (particularly the barfighting) and swapped power attack for improved unarmed strike.
Is all of that okay with everybody else?

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Umlo dusts off his hat as he enters Sandpoint's nearest watering hole. Thirsty for drink and adventure he looks for both.
This is the OOC (Out Of Character) thread. The in-character one is, as far as I know, not up yet.
OOC: Whee! I get to play "party glue" (again) and keep the dwarven witch hunter and sinister gnome sorceress from killing each other. This should be interesting. (If you're not sure whether that was sarcasm or not... ...neither am I.)

MythrilDragon RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16 |

Umlo wrote:Umlo dusts off his hat as he enters Sandpoint's nearest watering hole. Thirsty for drink and adventure he looks for both.This is the OOC (Out Of Character) thread. The in-character one is, as far as I know, not up yet.
OOC: Whee! I get to play "party glue" (again) and keep the dwarven witch hunter and sinister gnome sorceress from killing each other. This should be interesting. (If you're not sure whether that was sarcasm or not... ...neither am I.)
I hope your Pally can keep the wild dwarven druid from using the goblin barbarian for a new set of hide armor.
I do intend to play Grond with a bit of the natural dwarven hatred of the goblins but I am a DM in my real life table top game and understand the difficulites of making things like this work so I wont actually try to kill the goblin but there will be some interesting RP opps coming in this thread i think.

Arctaris |

Timespike wrote:Umlo wrote:Umlo dusts off his hat as he enters Sandpoint's nearest watering hole. Thirsty for drink and adventure he looks for both.This is the OOC (Out Of Character) thread. The in-character one is, as far as I know, not up yet.
OOC: Whee! I get to play "party glue" (again) and keep the dwarven witch hunter and sinister gnome sorceress from killing each other. This should be interesting. (If you're not sure whether that was sarcasm or not... ...neither am I.)
I hope your Pally can keep the wild dwarven druid from using the goblin barbarian for a new set of hide armor.
I do intend to play Grond with a bit of the natural dwarven hatred of the goblins but I am a DM in my real life table top game and understand the difficulites of making things like this work so I wont actually try to kill the goblin but there will be some interesting RP opps coming in this thread i think.
Indeed. Korpi doesn't like dwarves much either and, while not resorting to actual violence, will return racist comments, threats, and rudeness an eye for an eye. Of course he doesn't like elves much either. Or humans. Or half-elfs. Or gnomes. Or halfings. Or even most other goblins, so don't feel too persecuted.;)
My intention with him though, is to have his attitude towards the rest of the world soften a little and perhaps even have him come to view osme of his fellow adventurers as friends. That is of course, assuming he lives that long since I'm planning of RPing both his low wisdom and the goblin's innate 'tactical senses' (i.e. hiding in ovens).
Chris Banks |

Well then, looks like everyone's got things well in hand. A few backgrounds to come, but otherwise I daresay we're on target to begin tomorrow or Thursday. I'll be doing a bit of checking over of sheets, mostly to wrap my head around the various options taken, but I anticipate no complaints.
Threeblood: No problem putting you down as an alternate, but to be brutally honest, given the rapid fire posts to date, I don't see a vacancy opening up any time soon.
Larcifer: I'll have to fish out the tomes in question, and give them a look. The whole witch hunter concept certainly seems to justify them, but we'll see. Expect an answer tomorrow morning.
Edit: Or now. The answer is yes, I'm prepared to allow all the options you've listed, under the theory that if you really want to burn feats on everything, you'll be giving up a bit of flexibility. On the other hand, characters now have more feats to burn overall, so it's certainly an option.

Threeblood |

No worries and thanks for the quick response. I didn't have anything to lose by asking so I figured I would. In any event if anybody on the thread knows of a game please let me know. I have been itching to try out the Alpha rules and have no group where I am stationed. Thanks again and I'll be lurking to see how things are going.

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Timespike wrote:Umlo wrote:Umlo dusts off his hat as he enters Sandpoint's nearest watering hole. Thirsty for drink and adventure he looks for both.This is the OOC (Out Of Character) thread. The in-character one is, as far as I know, not up yet.
OOC: Whee! I get to play "party glue" (again) and keep the dwarven witch hunter and sinister gnome sorceress from killing each other. This should be interesting. (If you're not sure whether that was sarcasm or not... ...neither am I.)
I hope your Pally can keep the wild dwarven druid from using the goblin barbarian for a new set of hide armor.
I do intend to play Grond with a bit of the natural dwarven hatred of the goblins but I am a DM in my real life table top game and understand the difficulites of making things like this work so I wont actually try to kill the goblin but there will be some interesting RP opps coming in this thread i think.
I'll do my best to hold everyone together. I have a feeling I'll be channeling Roy Greenhilt pretty heavily by the end of the first adventure...
Be that as it may, I do have some experience keeping squabbling parties together (common enemies in particular seem to do wonders). There's a quote I like from AEG's Good that works well here. "An evil character welcome the death of a party member he hates; a good character swears as he leaps to his rival's defense."

Chris Banks |

No problem with bonus feats from the players' guide.
I am, however, having a little difficulty following the math for skill bonuses in a couple of cases. If people could adopt the layout for skills shown here (with the addition of +3 class where applicable), it would really help, and would save confusion when leveling up.
Not that I expect other areas of the sheet to be taken as gospel. It's for the old rules for starters, and I can already see areas for improvement in layout.
Edit: One more note. Grapple bonuses are dead and gone, rolling into CMB (combat maneuver bonus).

Chris Banks |

Xdahnx: Not sure where you've gotten the ten skill ranks you've allocated there. Sorcerers get 2+ Int per level, with a maximum of 1 rank per skill for each hit die.
Arctaris: I feel I'm missing a rule somewhere, but why is Korpi's attack bonus for the heavy flail +1? I figure it as +3, counting the -2 for being one size too large for him.
Edit: Actually, re-reading the rules, I don't think he gets to use a larger two-handed weapon at all, since it would be shifted into a non-existent weapon category. Again, I'm sure I'm missing something.

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Timespike: It looks like an extra skill point's snuck in there. I make the total 4, rather than 5 (2 class, 1 Int, 1 for being human). On the other hand, I can't figure out for the life of me what you should cut.
I rearranged his stats a bit to make it fit. Kyran's now got a CON of 11, an INT of 14, and a WIS of 13. Double check my math, but I think I hit all the points where the changes should apply.

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Other than that, and pending a final check-over, I think we're good to go. There's certainly an interesting variety of characters, who may or may not get along (my money leans towards not), and a great deal of potential for mayhem.
As long as we get along worse with the monsters than each other, I think we should be okay.

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Devrin is all ready to go too. I've left his background a little open for him to meet as many of the other PCs as possible. Being a wanderer and someone who likes to make friends it is quite easy to see him as some of the glue that holds such a deranged party together. I have not added anything negative to his background or anything that ties him too closely to family/friends yet. Ie not many DM hooks. But Chris, if this is going to stick to the adventure path, those connections are not really necessary. If you want more, I can come up with some stuff that can be used to build sub-plots on.

Umlo |

Hey Chris can Umlo sack his spells he gets for the character option: "Champion of the wild" in the Complete Champion on pg. 50.
It sacks all my spell casting to gain bonus feats at 4th, 8th, 11th, and 14th [from a select list]. Also, I cannot use scrolls wands or any other magic item that requires a spell list to use. It fits with my theme...

Chris Banks |

Hey Chris can Umlo sack his spells he gets for the character option: "Champion of the wild" in the Complete Champion on pg. 50.
It sacks all my spell casting to gain bonus feats at 4th, 8th, 11th, and 14th [from a select list]. Also, I cannot use scrolls wands or any other magic item that requires a spell list to use. It fits with my theme...
Given that Umlo's already eligible for a few options outside core, and given also that the downsides of some of those feats are decreased spellcasting ability, I'm not inclined to allow it. Essentially, you'd be bargaining away spellcasting effectiveness twice, and reaping benefits each time. I've decided that two splatbooks per character (at most) is very definitely my limit, and you're already drawing on complete mage and complete arcane.
In other news, I do believe we're good to go. I'll be starting up the thread later this afternoon.