We've been off to a slow start, but the game is just about to hit it's stride and I'm interested in getting one or two more people in to bolster the current party. We're using PFRPG rules for character generation, 20 point buy. Ideal players are willing to get a little bit of familiarity with the setting and are able to post at least every few days.
Currently we have:
Incantator Maro: N male human cleric (Belsameth)
Galwynn: NG male human sorcerer
Dusis: N male human barbarian
Lugdro: N male human druid
I would be more than happy to oblige your need :)
What role in the party do you need filled?
A comprehensive run-down of the setting thanks to Set (who plays Incantator Maro).
The surviving first generation gods became the Eight Victors, one for each alignment (other than true neutral);
Corean, the Avenger - LG, Fire, Good, Law, Protection, War, favored weapon Longsword, typically worshipped by Paladins, farmers, dwarves, monks, smiths and the city of Mithril
Madriel, the Redeemer - NG, Air, Good, Healing, Plant, Sun, favored weapon Spear, typically worshipped by healers, the sick, farmers, couples being wed, much of Durrover
Tanil, the Huntress - CG, Animal, Chaos, Good, Luck, Travel, Trickery, favored weapon Longbow, typically worshipped by Rangers, hunters, many Veshians, elves
Hedrada, the Lawgiver - LN, Judgement, Knowledge, Law, Protection, favored weapon Warhammer, typically worshipped by merchants, judges, lawyer/advocates, monks, scholars and the city of Hedrada
Denev, the Earthmother - N, no Domains, only Druids serve Denev, typically worshipped by Druids, farmers, barbarian tribes, sylvan races, elementals
Enkili, the Trickster - CN, Air, Chaos, Luck, Travel, Trickery, favored weapon Flail, worshipped by gamblers, rogues, sailors, criminals, anarchists, much of the city of Shelzar (the 'city of sin') and Fangsfall
Chardun, the Slaver - LE, Domination, Evil, Law, Strength, War, favored weapon Mace or Warsceptre, worshipped by slavers, mercenaries, soldiers, generals, tyrants, monks, the Charduni Dwarves, the nobility of Calastia and Dunahnae
Belsameth, the Slayer - NE, Death, Evil, Magic, Trickery, favored weapon Dagger, worshipped by evil arcanists, lycanthropes, assassins, many Albadian women and the people of New Venir
Vangal, the Reaver - CE, Chaos, Destruction, Evil, Strength, War, favored weapon Battleaxe, worshipped by half-orcs, brigands, madmen, warlords, the Horsemen of Vangal
At least a dozen demigods exist, with Drendari, the demigoddess of shadows and patron of thieves, Manawe, the mother of oceans and Nemorga, the gatekeeper and god of death having above-average prominence. There is a dwarven demigod (Goran, very similar to Corean) and a Halfling demigod (Hwyrdd, an Enkili-like figure), but the elven demigod is not only dead, but his name destroyed by the Titan that slew him, leaving the elven race Forsaken and in decline, as the curse of Chern (the Titan of plague and disease) makes them unfertile, with their rare births commonly plagued with birth defects. The elves of the continent this game is on, Ghelspad, have mostly avoided Chern's Curse, and follow Denev and Tanil, primarily. The elves of Termana were very civilized, with five different advanced nations, and are the most strongly afflicted (as it was there that they slew Chern), attempting to 'save' their society by capturing human women and creating a caste of half-elven children to populate their cities...
During the war, Dwarves and a race of dark-skinned elves worked together, their respective demigods, Goran and Nalthalos, standing together to drive off Chern's attack on the elves and dwarves of Ghelspad (he then fled across the ocean to meet his fate at the hands of the other elven demigod and his followers, on the continent of Termana). During this fight, Chern's contagion maddened one of the demigods, causing him to betray the other, and even centuries later, the truth of this matter is obscured. All that is known is that the Dwarves of Burok Torn loathe the dark elves for this betrayal, and the dwarves are less common on the surface, devoting so much time to their war on the dark elves, who have retreated underground with the aid of their own demigod, Nalthalos (god of artifice and constructs) who barely survived the battle.
The faith of Chardun, the god of tyranny, is easily the most dominant faith on the 'map' of Ghelspad, with the nations of Dunahnae and Calastia (which itself dominates New Venir (formerely Belsameth-run), Ankila (formerely Hedradan-run), Lageni, Zathiske (a nation with a 1/2 Orc majority population, almost every one of them a child of two 1/2 Orc parents) and 'the Heteronomy of Virduk' (formerly an independent Halfling nation, now all-but enslaved)) being powerful nations.
Directly north of expansionist Calastia and it's holdings are Burok Torn, the dwarven nation, the Hornsaw Forest, home to the Broadreach elves (tattooed and fierce spearmen and bowmen who avoided the curse of Chern) and many horrors caused by the destruction of the Titan Mormo, the serpent-queen, who was dismembered in this area, her blood falling over the forest and turning even the local unicorns into savage carnivorous things, the Blood Steppes, inhabited mostly by humanoids and barbarians and the nation of Vesh, a primarily Madriel and Tanil-worshipping country divided into twelve small vaguely democratic holdings, and guarded by elite teams of Rangers.
There's various stuff to the other directions, but if we are starting in New Venir, our borders (and most likely areas of interest) would include Calastia to the south (although the northernmost part of Calastia is a forbidden forest that is the private hunting preserve of the Queen of Calastia, so probably not!), Lageni to the east (about which I know little), Durrover, farther to the east and over some mountains, which is a country on the cusp of being added to Calastia's holdings, if King Virduk has any say in the matter (good place for some rebellious 'against the empire' action), the Haggard Hills and Burok Torn to the north and northeast, the dangerous Hornsaw Forest to the northwest, the downtrodden Halflings of the Heteronomy of Virduk to the west, and further west the independent city-states of Hollowfaust (city of necromancers, where undead patrol the streets) and Lokil (where the scholars of the phylacteric vault study esoteric magics related to dreams, chronomancy, alchemy, etc.) and then a blasted desert swept by unnatural firestorms, yet another leftover from the Divine War.
Past Vesh to the north are the Kelder steppes, which lead further into the Plains of Lede, with more barbarians, including the bloodthirsty worshippers of the god of slaughter, the Horsemen of Vangal, who basically are the horse-riding equivalent of Serenity's Reavers with a dash of 'Mongol Horde' thrown in, as well as tribes of Orcs and 'the Proud' (essentially Wemics) who do their level best to compete with the Horsemen to see who can be the most spectacularly violent and scary. Lots of little towns somehow survive in this area, thanks to hypervigilance and patrols from further to the northeast, where the city of Mithril, dedicated to the god of Paladins, Corean, stands in the shadow of a hundred foot tall golem made out of pure mithril that Corean built to fight the Titans alongside him. It hasn't moved since the Divine War, but makes a nice conversation piece. To the southeast, the city of Hedrad, devoted to the Lawgiver, has no such conversation piece, but likes to think that it is equally impressive.
Other 'nice' places a PC could come from include;
Darakeene, the largest nation not named Calastia on the continent (and the only nation of political or military significance other than Vesh not under the bootheel of Chardun, the god of tyranny). Darakeene is famous for it's 'war-colleges,' including Glamerhill (specializes in combining magic with martial skill, and tricky weapons like the spiked chain), Plague (spying, assassination and the subtler arts of war), Wake (nautical warfare), Clayborn (fancy armor, fur coats, scalplocks, considered the toughest war college), Hammerdale (Hedradan-focused, warhammer specialists famous for using blue steel weapons and armor of 'azurite'), etc.
Albadia, snow-covered land of frost-bearded barbarians and the scantily-clad sorceresses who thaw them out, Albadia is 'frontier' enough that wandering monsters in town are still an annual event. The local sorceresses use tattoo magic, and worship a trinity of Madriel, Denev and Belsameth exclusively. The local menfolk mostly flip out and kill stuff, which is the sort of attitude that serves them well in a land filled with danger, including the famous local critter, the Huror, a overly large polar bear that brings it's own magical blizzard with it.
The Ganjus, a large forest north of the Haggard Hills that escaped the rain of Mormo's blood and bits that tainted the Hornsaw forest below it. This forest remains much less tainted and serves as the primary 'elven nation' of Ghelspad. It's still much less city-centric than the Termanan elven nations, and does not suffer from the Forsaken Curse (so they don't kidnap human women to make 1/2 babies, for instance). They are a mix of wild elves and wood elves, by Greyhawk / Realms standards, being tattooed Rangers and Barbarians, more than Wizards. Reincarnationists, their Druids sometimes become 'Incarnates,' focusing their Wild Shape abilities to not become any sort of animal, but to specifically form themselves into the shape of an animal (or humanoid, or fey!) that they were in the past, gaining the use of that past life's full abilities, allowing an Incarnate to designate a past life as an Expert, for instance, to use Wild Shape to access skills from this 'past life.' PrCs and Feats related to Totem powers or channeling Totems are rife with these elves, but not something that's been converted for Pathfinder as of yet.
Some notes on classes in the Scarred Lands, from an old campaign I ran
Note that Sorcery derives from a Titan, Mesos, the Sire of Sorcery (the first to fall in the Divine War, as he was considered the greatest threat), but any Sorcerer can derive abilities from any Titan (or no Titan at all). Titans include;
Chern - disease, plague, insects, killed the now-nameless elven god, then became the only Titan to fall at the hands of non-divine forces, as the combined might of five outraged elven *nations* fell upon him in a mindless rage and tore him down.
Gaurak - gluttony and consumption, created mindless eating machine creatures that existed solely to eat stuff and then come to him so that he could eat *them*, teeth ripped out so that he couldn't eat. They became a mountain range near Fangsfall (named for the fact that the nearby hills are indeed 'fallen fangs')
Golthagga, the Shaper - 'improved' beasts, often by adding metal to them, don't remember what happened to him...
Golthain, the Faceless - actually not a bad guy, the other Titans beat him up for not being mean to people
Gormoth, the Writhing Lord - loved to transform things, ripped in half and unable to reform.
Gulaben, Lady of the Winds - seductress, her name is mostly forgotten, as the gods worked to stamp out her addictive faith
Hrinrukk, the Hunter - believed that everything in the world was his prey, for his amusement to hunt and kill, don't remember, but his daughter Tanil probably shot arrows into him as they had a falling out over his concept of appropriate father / daughter boundaries.
Kadum, the Mountainshaker - pretty much Godzilla, grappled by the mithril Golem, chained by Chardun, axed into submission by Vangal and heart cut out by Belsameth. His chained body sits at the bottom of the Blood Sea, where his taint corrupts thousands and thousands of miles of ocean.
Lethene, the Dame of Storms - one of the few Titans not dismembered, her son Vangal, god of Slaughter, said 'no, we're not ripping apart my mom' and made a portal into Limbo, where she remains trapped
Mesos, Sire of Sorcery - magic, scattered on the winds
Mormo, Mother of Serpents - very prolific, has multiple competing races fanatically attempting to gather her dismembered remains to put her back together. Voted most likely to return...
Thulkas, Father of Fire - artificer of the Titans, a heretical cult claims that neither he nor his inheritor Corean are truly the divine spark of creation, but that both draw their power from the same artifact Forge, which is the 'true god of creation.' Currently imprisoned within the sun.
The splatbooks have Sorcerer 'bloodline feats' for each of these Titans, but we'd have to completely rework them for Pathfinder into Bloodlines.
A Hrinrukk or Lethene or Mormo Sorcerer could be awesome... A Mesos Sorcerer would probably just be your standard Arcane Sorcerer Bloodline.
The important things to know about the story so far:
- All the characters are in the small town of Trela to celebrate the local Carnival of Flowers.
- With the Carnival just wrapping up, a dying Vigilant of Vesh has just entrusted our heros with an artifact said to contain a piece of the titaness Mormo, tasking them to take it north to his superiors.
I would be more than happy to oblige your need :)
What role in the party do you need filled?
Great! We have an arcanist, two divine spellcasters and a melee monster, so someone with a lot of skills and maybe some melee skill would be cool. But you should play whatever you like.
Are you thinking social skills or dungeon skills? Or both? Which would get more traction in the kind of game you are running?
Are you thinking social skills or dungeon skills? Or both? Which would get more traction in the kind of game you are running?
It seems like dungeon/stealth skills would be the most helpful. Between Maro and Dusis we have diplomacy and intimidate covered and with Dusis and Lugdro the wilderness skills are mostly covered, though it doesn't hurt to double up on anything.
Just looking at the character creation page...
What is a dwarf hound? Is it like a normal war dog or is it something a dwarf could use as a mount?
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So, I'm unfamiliar with the setting but that generally just makes it more fun for me, as I get to learn about the world at about the same rate that my character does. Here's my first attempt at a concept:
Idasti, a neutral human rogue from the Albadia region. Idasti lives in the frontier land not because of the land itself, but because of the unique opportunities it presents a person with his...skills. He is more than willing to take advantage of the lawlessness of the region, and was drawn to the Carnival of Flowers because of the large crowds that these events bring.
In spite of his thieving tendencies, Idasti is not a bad person, as such. He makes a point to only take what he needs at the time (only stealing from total strangers and personal enemies) and, where possible, will pay back people he has stolen from when he has the extra coin. These people are rarely aware of it; a merchant lamenting in the local tavern over the theft of his coin pouch the previous day might be cheered when Idasti buys him a round, attempts to befriend him, and then pays the barkeep for the merchants stay for several days. In his own mind, it's all in good fun and he breaks even with many of the people he steals from anyway; other parties might object if they only knew.
Idasti enjoys companionship above all else; so much that it is a borderline dependency. Given the right circumstances he could become a hero; he fancies himself to be a good person and his need to have friends would drive him to work hard towards the goal of the group to earn much-desired praise.
Just looking at the character creation page...
What is a dwarf hound? Is it like a normal war dog or is it something a dwarf could use as a mount?
It's a small dog bred by dwarves. They're renowned for their terrifying barks, but they're not typically used as mounts.
Alright, since w0nkothesane is rolling up a skill monkey, I will contribute another melee character. Paladin of Corean coming right up!
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Alright, since w0nkothesane is rolling up a skill monkey, I will contribute another melee character. Paladin of Corean coming right up!
In case you aren't familiar with the setting, Paladins of Corean (who has other associations with the number four, such as carrying a 'fourfold blade' that was forged four times) are divided into four orders (although a Paladin can be just a 'generic Paladin!').
The Order of Iron focuses on seige warfare, tactics and strategy and weapon and armor creation (often learning appropriate crafting feats).
The Order of Gold focuses on healing, and are kind of 'knights hospitaler.'
The Order of Silver focuses on extraplanar / otherworldly threats and works alongside Clerical and Wizardly summoners, eventually learning summoning spells themselves, if possible, and picking up something like Favored Enemy (evil outsiders).
The Order of Mithral is the generic uber-paladin order. They pretty much do it all.
Depending on how you want to design your Paladin, you could throw a skill point into Heal, or Craft (armor/weapons), or Knowledge (the planes), and use that as background fluff as to what Order the Paladin wants to join (or simply what Order he happened to receive his training under).
I did some poking around and found the "Mithril Knight" prestige class in the Mithril: City of the Golem sourcebook. I was thinking of building into that class. Since we already have public relations handled by other party members, could I substitute Ride for Diplomacy in the class prereqs?
Nevermind, I have the skill points to cover both :)
So, I'm unfamiliar with the setting but that generally just makes it more fun for me, as I get to learn about the world at about the same rate that my character does. Here's my first attempt at a concept:
Idasti, a neutral human rogue from the Albadia region. Idasti lives in the frontier land not because of the land itself, but because of the unique opportunities it presents a person with his...skills. He is more than willing to take advantage of the lawlessness of the region, and was drawn to the Carnival of Flowers because of the large crowds that these events bring.
In spite of his thieving tendencies, Idasti is not a bad person, as such. He makes a point to only take what he needs at the time (only stealing from total strangers and personal enemies) and, where possible, will pay back people he has stolen from when he has the extra coin. These people are rarely aware of it; a merchant lamenting in the local tavern over the theft of his coin pouch the previous day might be cheered when Idasti buys him a round, attempts to befriend him, and then pays the barkeep for the merchants stay for several days. In his own mind, it's all in good fun and he breaks even with many of the people he steals from anyway; other parties might object if they only knew.
Idasti enjoys companionship above all else; so much that it is a borderline dependency. Given the right circumstances he could become a hero; he fancies himself to be a good person and his need to have friends would drive him to work hard towards the goal of the group to earn much-desired praise.
Sounds fine, it's just that we're not playing in Albadia. We're actually quite a long ways south in New Venir, which is one of the few really secure nations. After the Divine War 150 years prior to the beginning of the adventure, Titanspawn are just about everywhere and it's been an ongoing struggle against them. Though ruled over by the tyrant King Virduk in Calastia to the east, New Venir and the other nations conquered by the tyrant enjoy relative security against titanspawn. So it's not a frontier over here, though you can certainly be from Albadia.
I didn't know if we were clear on that. Also, since you're all set with concepts and we have as many players as I want, we can move this into the discussion thread for character generation.