Iconics: Seltyiel


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Sickly, bitter, power-hungry wizard with white hair and an emo backstory. Never saw that before... Raistlin Majere? Elric of Melnibone? Who are they?


I think he looks great, backstory sounds like you said a little evilly (Elric / Raistlin). I personally loved those characters so I have high hopes for Seltyiel, Still I hope he will show some heroic/good sides of himself with his fellow iconic partymembers.

I thought they said he was gonna be Fighter / Sorcerer, but the backstory about the book and brigand camp made him seem more like Rogue / Wizard maybe.. And what about those whispers, there's more to this guy than we are told I think..
=)


I've gotta' say I've never been a huge fan of the character backgrounds that feel like level 10 and halfway through their story before they even get past level one. That said, I like the character. He's really really wretched--but like in a good way. He is pretty archtypal. I got a big Raistlin read off him too. Then again, one of the coolest things about Pathfinder are all the little nods to the classical elements of the game, and the literature it's based on. I really enjoy that part of the game and can really feel it in this new guy.

In my heart I will always love Seoni, Valeros and the gang best--but I have to say the Pathfinder iconics are all a load of fun.


If they dont publish more iconics I hope they will start again with Seoni and others, because Seoni just RULEZ!. =)

Or take the existing iconics and mix them a little.
My personal favorite team would propably be now with Seltyiel shown something like this.
- Seoni, Amiri, Lini/Kyra and Merisiel/Seltyiel.
x)

Liberty's Edge

I really would love to see a set of iconics that are all multiclass characters. I'd like to see Paizo's inventiveness with character builds.

That said, I also want to see Psions.


As a follow-up, I'll say I'm just poking a bit of fun at Seltyiel. He is my least favorite of the Paizo iconics but its a personal preference thing -- I've never been a huge fan of the angsty-emo victim-turned-badass-antihero. But plenty are, more power to them.

From a roleplaying perspective, I think the character I would most like to play is Lem. Partly because he is a bard, and I love bards even if most other players don't; but also I like the upbeat escaped slave angle and the unusual but sound casting of a halfling as a bard. Even if its only for CotCT, he is initially teamed with Seelah, and paladin-bard teamups work well; the bard shores up the paladin's martial offense and the two, armed with cure wands, work in tandem for healing--too many parties put their healing eggs in one basket, and get boned when their cleric gets knocked unconscious.

My next favorite would be Merisiel. Why? Because she's unabashedly stupid, and that fact is written right into her backstory. I like that. Many players try to ignore their dump stat or dress it up as an advantage. Few would openly acknowledge that their character is a dumbass (unless its a barbarian, which feeds a stereotype). The Merisiel story embraces that she's not particularly bright, which I thin is fun.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Enough cool iconic. I was almost expecting him to be Tomb-tainted like one of James's other characters when I started reading about dead mothers. :)

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32

As ever Paizo, you continue to impress.

What a way to cap off the iconics. Very very cool.

Sovereign Court

We don't get a psionic iconic for this loser?


A few more observations:

In addition to a lot of gothy skull ornaments and apparently completely pointless lanyard rings, if you look closely at Seltyiel you'll see his belt is decorated with tiny ruby hearts. Aww, he's looking for the wuv that daddy never gave him!

He wears fishnet underwear. You can see it poking out from underneath his vest and gloves. Combined with the hearts its apparent that when not adventuring he makes ends meet as an exotic dancer.

Explain the wind effect that makes his cape and part of his skirt (yeah, its a skirt) blow to his left, another part of the skirt to flare out to his right, and his hair and ornamental lanyard rings on cords to hang limply straight down. (Okay, maybe the rings are just too heavy for the breeze. But the hair?) I know -- its magic!

Again, just poking fun.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Seltyiel is indeed the "antihero" iconic in addition to being the multiclass iconic. As I mentioned in another thread, he's going to be our only evil iconic as well. As for how we'll be statting him up... don't expect MUCH in the way of crazy. At 20th level, he'll be a fighter 10/sorcerer 10 or a fighter 10/wizard 10 (I'm still leaning toward fighter/sorcerer... but either one works for his backstory). He won't have any eldritch knight levels, because he's not the iconic eldritch knight. Nor will he be doing something like taking only 4 levels of fighter to get specialization and then focus on his spellcasting.

I suspect he'll be mostly a Dex-based fighter who picks his sorcerer spells not to blow stuff up but to augment his fighting. Enlarge person over magic missile, bull's strength over scorching ray, haste over fireball, stoneskin over phantasmal killer, etc.


James Jacobs wrote:

Seltyiel is indeed the "antihero" iconic in addition to being the multiclass iconic. As I mentioned in another thread, he's going to be our only evil iconic as well. As for how we'll be statting him up... don't expect MUCH in the way of crazy. At 20th level, he'll be a fighter 10/sorcerer 10 or a fighter 10/wizard 10 (I'm still leaning toward fighter/sorcerer... but either one works for his backstory). He won't have any eldritch knight levels, because he's not the iconic eldritch knight. Nor will he be doing something like taking only 4 levels of fighter to get specialization and then focus on his spellcasting.

I suspect he'll be mostly a Dex-based fighter who picks his sorcerer spells not to blow stuff up but to augment his fighting. Enlarge person over magic missile, bull's strength over scorching ray, haste over fireball, stoneskin over phantasmal killer, etc.

If I may offer a humble suggestion: Don't all-out negate blasty magic. Considering if he focuses all his fighter levels on melee(and with d10 and d4 HD, as this comes before Pathfinder makes the edition change, he will probably have to), he'll probably be hurting for ranged ability. That said, a couple long-range spells or area spells would add more to his fighting ability than anything else, as he wouldn't be useless at a range.

...I only mention this because I've had an annoying tendency to see people focus all on one or all on the other. It rarely worked well in the end.

Liberty's Edge

James Jacobs wrote:
I suspect he'll be mostly a Dex-based fighter who picks his sorcerer spells not to blow stuff up but to augment his fighting. Enlarge person over magic missile, bull's strength over scorching ray, haste over fireball, stoneskin over phantasmal killer, etc.

Nice. I enjoy building characters like this, too. Although, often times their survival at early levels isn't so easy.


James Jacobs wrote:
As for how we'll be statting him up... don't expect MUCH in the way of crazy. At 20th level, he'll be a fighter 10/sorcerer 10 or a fighter 10/wizard 10 (I'm still leaning toward fighter/sorcerer... but either one works for his backstory).

Thats a real tough build, even using your Pathfinder ruleset.

I do feel vindicated in my earlier prediction that the final iconic would be an arcanist of some sort. Taking the Second Darkness pregens as a team, at least some arcane magic was called for-- although it looks like Selty will be a poor crowd-controller, some arcane scroll-reading and wand-using can go a long way, at least until upper levels.

It does sseem that the 2nd Darkness team needs a ranged fighter, so making Selty a Dex fighter is a good idea -- with a barbarian and a monk in the team, he will probably contribute more meaningfully with arrows than with a rapier, though.

As for him being the only evil iconic, may I point out that Amiri committed genocide because she was laughed at?

Sovereign Court

Vexer wrote:

A few more observations:

Again, just poking fun.

His one redeeming feature is the large bottle of Absinthe he appears to carry with him at all times.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

One other thing to note, of course... Seltyiel will be statted up during Second Darkness, which is a 3.5 product. We won't be doing PF RPG stats for him at LEAST until August of 2009... and I suspect he'll have to wait even longer than that.

Also: although they're showing up as the pregenerated characters for Second Darkness, Lini, Seltyiel, Amiri, and Sajan were not chosen or designed to make a "perfect group" for that campaign. They just happened to be the final four who need stat blocks. Once we start up AP4 in February 2009, we'll have all 12 iconics to pick from for the first time, and that'll be the first chance we get to customize the type of characters chosen for the type of campaign AP4 will be.

As for him filling the "crowd control" role... he won't. That's not his style. Ranged weapons will likely be his thing, along with Spring Attacks and the like. There's more to arcane casters than the tired old fireball chucker.

(And Amiri didn't commit genocide, by the way. There's a LOT more folk in her tribe than the few she cut down for being jerks. If she wants to commit genocide, she's got several hundred thousand people to go. That said... she's not gonna be good aligned either. Chaotic neutral for her.)


JasonKain wrote:
Considering if he focuses all his fighter levels on melee(and with d10 and d4 HD, as this comes before Pathfinder makes the edition change, he will probably have to), he'll probably be hurting for ranged ability.

I don't follow. I've always seen low hit points as an argument to focus on ranged fighting, or perhaps Spring Attacks. When you can't take much in the way of two-handed full attacks, your best bet is to attack from a distance and behind cover. Thats part of the mechanical reason why elves are so inclined to archer builds; with crappy Constitution they tend to get pasted in melee. Selty's writeup as frail and sickly suggests Constitution is his dump stat, and he can't wear much armor and still cast somatic spells.

If I were building Selty in 3.5 based on nothing more than James' post and the blog backstory writeup, I would max his Dexterity, take Weapon Focus (Rays), invest in a selection of ranged touch spell wands, and use my daily spell selection for defensive spells like Grease and Obscuring Mist.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Again... the best way to counter the low hit point problem is to punch up the AC. As a fighter/arcanist, he'll be able to do that pretty well with a combination of armor and shield spells, cat's grace, Combat Expertise, mobility/spring attack, and so on. And there's also always the lure of false life.

And he's a half-elf, not an elf, so he doesn't have to worry about the constitution hit anyway. I suspect his base stats will end up being:

Str 12
Dex 14
Con 13
Int 10
Wis 8
Cha 15

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16

cappadocius wrote:
Vexer wrote:

A few more observations:

Again, just poking fun.

His one redeeming feature is the large bottle of Absinthe he appears to carry with him at all times.

The druid can make a pretty good controller, between entangle, fog cloud, ice storm, sleet storm, flame strike, and spontaneous summon spells.


James Jacobs wrote:

Also: although they're showing up as the pregenerated characters for Second Darkness, Lini, Seltyiel, Amiri, and Sajan were not chosen or designed to make a "perfect group" for that campaign. ...

As for him filling the "crowd control" role... he won't. That's not his style. Ranged weapons will likely be his thing, along with Spring Attacks and the like. There's more to arcane casters than the tired old fireball chucker.

(And Amiri didn't commit genocide, by the way. There's a LOT more folk in her tribe than the few she cut down for being jerks. If she wants to commit genocide, she's got several hundred thousand people to go. That said... she's not gonna be good aligned either. Chaotic neutral for her.)

Yeah, you posted about the 2d Darkness lineup as being the "miscellaneous" group before. Its still nice when party members' abilities complement each other, though, and the lack of crowd control can be deadly when facing a horde of individually-weak enemies.

I do like varaint caster builds, though, amd the more you multiclass the better it is to stay away from spells with saving throws.

Okay, Amiri might not have annihilated her tribe, but in the modern American legal system she'd be facing multiple counts of homicide and the threat of life imprisonment. At least Selty can claim that the thieves he killed were acts of self-defense, but Amiri wasn't facing any imminent threat from her jerkwad kinfolk. And, frankly, although she's hot as hell in her barbarian digs, I wouldn't want a dangerous loose cannon like her on my team.

Contributor

Vexer wrote:
Sickly, bitter, power-hungry wizard with white hair and an emo backstory. Never saw that before... Raistlin Majere? Elric of Melnibone? Who are they?

Lets track this list out a bit more actually. Awesome white-haired heroes/antiheroes: Spike, Magneto, Dante, Alucard, Drizzt, Jaraxle, Warlock, Cecil, Raiden, Silvara, Nuada Airgetlám, Sephiroth, Kadaj, Ivy, Angelo, Dusun, Prince Diamond, Soma Cruz, Storm, Quicksilver, Geralt the Witcher, Riku, Xehanort/Ansem, Dr. Muraki, Silas, Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha, White Mike, Meir Link, Vicious, Pete White.

I know that--just off the top of my head--at least three of my favorite characters in gaming are on that list. I'd love to see this roll call expanded out with characters I missed, though. Turns out the pissed-off white haired pretty boy is kind of popular.. and just looks @#$%in' awesome.

Also, while Seltyiel might have had a sickly youth, that's not a problem he has anymore. He's got bigger things on his mind than a croup cough.

cappadocius wrote:


...the large bottle of Absinthe he appears to carry with him at all times.

Ha ha! I am TOTALLY sold on that being what it is.

Contributor

Vexer wrote:
Okay, Amiri might not have annihilated her tribe, but in the modern American legal system she'd be facing multiple counts of homicide and the threat of life imprisonment.

Not to derail, but--having spent a little time playing Age of Conan and reading Howard this weekend--I'd love to see what the charges and sentences brought against public enemy #1, Conan, would be.


Vexer wrote:


Okay, Amiri might not have annihilated her tribe, but in the modern American legal system she'd be facing multiple counts of homicide and the threat of life imprisonment. At least Selty can claim that the thieves he killed were acts of self-defense, but Amiri wasn't facing any imminent threat from her jerkwad kinfolk. And, frankly, although she's hot as hell in her barbarian digs, I wouldn't want a dangerous loose cannon like her on my team.

I can see that.

Judge: "You're accused of murdering several people in cold blood. How do you plead"
Amiri: Cold? It was boiling hot. It still is. Cut my throat now and you'll be hit by a stream of boiling blood that would blast off half your face and burn off the rest. And that's because those guys sent me to my death, they wanted me to die in a battle against frost giants."
Judge: "Frost giants."
Amiri: "Yes, y'honor. They're a real pest around our tribal grounds."
Judge: "Tribal."
Amiri: "That's what I said. I got one of their swords. It's huge. I can only lift it if I use my rage ability, which grants me superhuman strength."
Judge: "Superhuman strength."
Amiri: "Oh yes. And more. I can even make my sword burst out in flames when I rage."
Judge: "Flaming sword, eh? CASE DISMISSED. Find a nice nuthouse for her. Probably one of those D&D victims, they can't tell real life from fantasy. Next thing she claims that she did it all in Middle Earth"
Amiri: "Middle what? No, I'm the Realm of the Mammoth Lords."
Judge: "I'm outta here. Wrong court, apparently. This is the US. Why do I get all hte nutty cases? Cleptomaniac actresses, people suing over their campers because they don't drive themselves when you make coffee in the kitchen, and now this.


F. Wesley Schneider wrote:


Not to derail, but--having spent a little time playing Age of Conan and reading Howard this weekend--I'd love to see what the charges and sentences brought against public enemy #1, Conan, would be.

DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Mr. Cimmerian, if you would, could you please explain to the court what is best in life?

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Vexer wrote:
F. Wesley Schneider wrote:


Not to derail, but--having spent a little time playing Age of Conan and reading Howard this weekend--I'd love to see what the charges and sentences brought against public enemy #1, Conan, would be.
DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Mr. Cimmerian, if you would, could you please explain to the court what is best in life?

To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!


SirUrza wrote:
Vexer wrote:
F. Wesley Schneider wrote:


Not to derail, but--having spent a little time playing Age of Conan and reading Howard this weekend--I'd love to see what the charges and sentences brought against public enemy #1, Conan, would be.
DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Mr. Cimmerian, if you would, could you please explain to the court what is best in life?
To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!

Oh, and brownies- the ones with the chips.

Liberty's Edge

SirUrza wrote:
Vexer wrote:
F. Wesley Schneider wrote:


Not to derail, but--having spent a little time playing Age of Conan and reading Howard this weekend--I'd love to see what the charges and sentences brought against public enemy #1, Conan, would be.
DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Mr. Cimmerian, if you would, could you please explain to the court what is best in life?
To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!

....after I take their freshly baked brownies....


James Jacobs wrote:


(And Amiri didn't commit genocide, by the way. There's a LOT more folk in her tribe than the few she cut down for being jerks. If she wants to commit genocide, she's got several hundred thousand people to go. That said... she's not gonna be good aligned either. Chaotic neutral for her.)

SELTYIEL: You know, Amiri, you're funny. You're really funny.

AMIRI: What do you mean I'm funny?
SELTYIEL: It's funny, you know. It's a good story, with the giant sword and all, it's funny, you're a funny girl.
[laughs]
AMIRI: what do you mean, you mean the way I carry the sword, or how I fell over? What?
SELTYIEL: It's just, you know. You're just funny, it's... funny, the way you tell a story and everything.
AMIRI: [it becomes quiet] Funny how? What's funny about it?
LINI: Amiri, no, you got it all wrong.
AMIRI: Oh, oh, Lini. He's a big boy, he knows what he said. What did ya say? Funny how?
SELTYIEL: Jus...
AMIRI: What?
SELTYIEL: Just... ya know... you're funny.
AMIRI: You mean, let me understand this, cause, ya know maybe it's me, I'm a little messed up maybe, but I'm funny how, I mean funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh, I'm here to freakin' amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny?
SELTYIEL: Just... you know, how you tell a story, what?
AMIRI: No, no, I don't know, you said it. How do I know? You said I'm funny. How the Abyss am I funny, what in the name of the gods is so funny about me? Tell me, tell me what's funny!
SELTYIEL: [long pause] Get out of here, Amiri!
AMIRI: RAAAAAAHHHHHRRRRR!!!!!
[AMIRI rages, disembowels LINI and SAJAN, and decapitates SELTYIEL and wears his head like it's a hat.]

Liberty's Edge

An evil iconic. Joy. Nothing like murdering your own party members while they sleep, then sacrificing the local villagers to the blood god to keep an AP on track. He's cool-looking, don't get me wrong, but I'd rather have had someone a bit more heroic. I'm hoping at least that Paizo will provide compelling reasons why he DOESN'T sacrifice his party-mates for dark power.

Truthfully, I'd have liked to have seen a paladin/sorcerer with an abyssal bloodline. Someone who may be constantly fighting to keep his or her darker impulses in check but who wins the fight. I'd also liked to have seen exactly two iconics of each non-evil alignment. It appears that unless Sajan is good, Seelah will be the only LG iconic. Blah. Then again, we've already got 3 NG iconics (Valeros, Kyra, and Ezren) so that's already off the table.

Dark Archive

Seltyiel may very well be my favorite iconic !

My galpal who is herself a model walked by and said 'cute but needs a tan'.

Seems james is leaning towards a fighter/sorcerer and that is an excellent combo but i would love it if Paizo made him a half elf fighter magic user, just like my very first character.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Timespike wrote:

An evil iconic. Joy. Nothing like murdering your own party members while they sleep, then sacrificing the local villagers to the blood god to keep an AP on track. He's cool-looking, don't get me wrong, but I'd rather have had someone a bit more heroic.

Truthfully, I'd have liked to have seen a paladin/sorcerer with an abyssal bloodline. Someone who may be constantly fighting to keep his or her darker impulses in check but who wins the fight.

That's the point, though! We bring in an evil, he kills the other iconics, and then with Pathfinder 13 we get to build up a new party from scratch!

Either that, or despite him being evil, he somehow gets along with his fellow party members and despite their differences they all band together to take care of things.

I guess we'll have to wait and see how he works out in Pathfinder 13 when we put him in with a monk, a druid, and a barbarian...

Liberty's Edge

James Jacobs wrote:
I guess we'll have to wait and see how he works out in Pathfinder 13 when we put him in with a monk, a druid, and a barbarian...

Seltyiel = NE

Monk = LN
Druid = N
Barbarian = CN

A wonderfully morally ambiguous group. If so, I certainly hope the adventure also walks the line of moral ambiguity.


Timespike wrote:

An evil iconic. Joy. Nothing like murdering your own party members while they sleep, then sacrificing the local villagers to the blood god to keep an AP on track. He's cool-looking, don't get me wrong, but I'd rather have had someone a bit more heroic. I'm hoping at least that Paizo will provide compelling reasons why he DOESN'T sacrifice his party-mates for dark power.

Truthfully, I'd have liked to have seen a paladin/sorcerer with an abyssal bloodline. Someone who may be constantly fighting to keep his or her darker impulses in check but who wins the fight. I'd also liked to have seen exactly two iconics of each non-evil alignment. It appears that unless Sajan is good, Seelah will be the only LG iconic. Blah. Then again, we've already got 3 NG iconics (Valeros, Kyra, and Ezren) so that's already off the table.

...oh good God, what have I done to anger you this way. Don't answer that.

I'm going to summarize this with as few snide remarks as possible. The whole murdering party members and whatnot? Not evil. Stupid. Evil is as evil does. Stupid is as stupid does. Evil can be summarized by the following: Having a goal and doing anything needed to accomplish it. Let's analyze the typical evil goals, shall we?

Power/Revenge: Why would anyone after power murder their adventuring party? You've managed to surround yourself with a group of people(or people like materials) who defend you. Look out for you. If they're stupid enough, they trust you. Why ruin your best asset in your quest for ___ with nothing to gain? Play it cool, maintain your usefulness, and they maintain theirs. It's a simple alliance. And in a quest for power or revenge, what greater ally do you have than the people? Save that village from bugbear slavers. Gain a reputation as a hero. Then, when all is within reach, you have that many fewer enemies. Then you want to kill X for what they've done to you. Why would the people doubt your words? You've saved them. Gave them their lives. Why would you deceive them?

Blood: Harder, but doable. When your goal is murdering as much as possible, what stops you from burning down a village after killing your party? Math. Kill a village of 30 and 3 adventurers, total kill count: 33. Now you're alone, and chances are, wanted. Kill one person a month for fifteen years while adventuring, plus any random monsters you meet, all protected by your cover "No, I was trying to save them, I swear!". All the sweeter. Hell, I'm betting you could get creative. Kill a man and a woman in one town, very close to one another. Wound yourself. When caught, claim the man killed the woman and tried to kill you when you tried to stop him, and unfortunately, you were forced to kill him in defense of yourself.

That's without even thinking. Evil plays the resource management game of every adventurer, only they have more resources. Killing a party member or burning down a town with nothing to gain isn't evil. It's stupid. Killing a party member or burning down a town to secure the last piece of your epic quest for power? That's evil.

And best worse case scenario: The final fight of the adventure path is over. The evil character decides to turn for whatever reason. You know what you have? The new final fight of the adventure path.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

The alignment system in D&D is tricky.. people tend to think that an evil character in the party means party member killer, I don't see it that way.

For this reason, I'm going to say he's Lawful Evil. Before I explain why, I'll explain why he's not Neutral Evil or Choatic Evil.

I'll start with Choatic Evil. He's not Choatic Evil because these really are the bad guys. The degenerates that openly murder, rape, and pillage not because they want to, not because they're taught to, but because it's who they are. A good party would never accept a Choatic Evil person into their ranks because it would be obvious this kind of character is a villian.

Neutral Evil. A neutral evil character could exist in a good party, mostly because he's close to a Choatic Neutral character, he's only out for himself BUT he doesn't care how he gets it. If he can get away with it, all the better. However, eventually he's going to get caught and eventually it'll come to blows. A Neutral Evil villian is also more likely to work with the heroes to stop a greater evil but betray them in the end. (Think Doctor Doom in Rise of the Silver Surfer as a modern example.)

Ahhh Lawful Evil. The only true evil that can last in a party. Why? Because unlike the other two "evils" this one has a code, has honor, has some principle of belief. This code or principle of belief could simple be the friends he keeps. The morals and examples of his friends could be what keeps him from slipping over to the Dark Side. He will not only do what the good characters want, but he will work to obtain their objectives. HOWEVER, the does not mean he'll be nice about it, gentle about it, or that his friends would even agree with his methods. While the LE character may stand back while a party gets ripped off by some information broker type, he may likely corner that broker in a dark alley later when his friends aren't around and force more information out of him.. leaving the broker dead and robed in that same alley. His friends never knowing.

(NE vs CN: I believe Chaotic Neutral characters does what's best for himself and usually determines what's best for himself is his "friends." A Neutral Evil character will always do what he wants, even if it's not in the short term. That includes letting skilled and helpful party members die. A Chaotic Neutral character would realize the party member is more valuable to him alive.)


SirUrza wrote:
(NE vs CN: I believe Chaotic Neutral characters does what's best for himself and usually determines what's best for himself is his "friends." A Neutral Evil character will always do what he wants, even if it's not in the short term. That includes letting skilled and helpful party members die. A Chaotic Neutral character would realize the party member is more valuable to him alive.)

I respectfully disagree, slightly. I believe Chaotic Neutral would generally try to stop it, but not go out of the way if it represents a significant expense. Neutral evil, on the other hand, would do the job himself.

To me, alignment is best represented by relationships.
Good: Others before self
Neutral: Others unless it hinders self
Evil: Self before others

Lawful: Reason before impulse
Neutral: Reason the impulse
Chaotic: Impulse before reason

Those aren't 100% accurate, just my take. There are always general exceptions, and it also doesn't rule against the option given as being secondary. A chaotic character can reason, possibly quite well. The main thing is they'll figure out a reason to the impulse, even if it's "Because I wanted to." Neutral would generally try to reason out the impulse, and if they can't, it's 50/50.

So, in my view, Chaotic Evil party members in a Lawful Good party can work. The main hangup is the impulses assigned to the character. If the main impulse and motivation is kill without regard, that can be difficult. The character may just not get the impulse to kill party members. Living with a set of rules doesn't make you lawful, to me. It just makes it your code. So Seltyiel could very well be Chaotic or Neutral Evil, with open disdain for his party members, but the one hangup of not killing people who actively help him.


I think this "wonderfully morally ambiguous group" like Saurstalk said is gonna fit totally right into the Second Darkness, What would motivate even evil character to fight in the side of good is that when someone more Evil wants to do something that will stand in their way. Drows are so much more Evil and If I got the Second Darkness plotline right, their goal is to destroy the whole Golarion, right? I dont think even Seltyiel wants that.

Also while we are on the subject of Alignments, I think that even if we have a Neutral Evil character who only thinks of himself we have to think what his goals are. Seltyiel wants power and riches, why does he want power and riches so he can have revenge on his Fathers.
He doesnt want to rule the world or destroy it, he wants revenge on a few ppl who might even deserve it.
And if people at Paizo write the story right, I think his best chance to get riches and power is to help his fellow iconics, and also if the world gets destroyed, how is he gonna get revenge, noway are some drows gonna take that away from him. =)

Anyway, just my opinion.


What, no lovin' for Half-Orcs?

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
JasonKain wrote:
I respectfully disagree, slightly. I believe Chaotic Neutral would generally try to stop it, but not go out of the way if it represents a significant expense. Neutral evil, on the other hand, would do the job himself.

Well I didn't say how far a CN character would go. The Neutral Evil character would be more likely to just walk away while his comrade calls his name. A CN character would stop and look around atleast. ;)


Vexer wrote:
Sickly, bitter, power-hungry wizard with white hair and an emo backstory. Never saw that before... Raistlin Majere? Elric of Melnibone? Who are they?

I was thinking Elric myself.

Grognard question: what the hell is emo?

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Gurubabaramalamaswami wrote:
what the hell is emo?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emo_(slang)

It's G-rated goth if you ask me. :)


My search-fu is strong grasshopper and I give thee the wisdom of
wikipedia


beat by 6 secs how sad


I'm getting sooo frigging old. I'm talking Red Box old.


I have the red books no red box though. Emo arn't man enuff to be goth...kinda sad that


Is it just me or are seeker and Urza on this board almost as much as Heathy?


I do tend to roam around here alot. Kinda adopted the place.


seekerofshadowlight wrote:
I do tend to roam around here alot. Kinda adopted the place.

It does feel rather homey. The difference between Paizo and others I might mention [cough!WotC!cough!] is that it feels like they opened the door and said "Come on in. Look around. Tell us what you like and don't like." And then they listen. That just freaking boggles my mind sometimes.

By which I mean "Thank you Paizo".

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Gurubabaramalamaswami wrote:
Is it just me or are seeker and Urza on this board almost as much as Heathy?

So? :)


oh yes even with the influx of people it is a nice feeling board over all. I have adopted the chat room as well


SirUrza wrote:
Gurubabaramalamaswami wrote:
Is it just me or are seeker and Urza on this board almost as much as Heathy?
So? :)

Just talking...nothing to see here...moving along now.

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