Welcome players!
Let's get down to business shall we? We'll begin by discussing character concepts and backgrounds. I hope to make this a cohesive, cooperative process in which everyone participates, offering feedback and ideas, etc. If you want to begin work on statting up your PC, that's fine, but I won't even look at the numbers until description and background are complete.
Some thoughts to keep in mind:
The module's setup will work best if the party is newly arrived at Carrion Hill (in Ustalav) as an established group. They could be an adventuring company with a history, if you like, or simply a group of freelancers hired for a job (maybe the Pathfinder Society is investigating the suitability of the town for a new PF Lodge?). Your ideas are needed and welcome in this matter.
For those who wish to work on statting up a sheet now, consider the following guidelines:
-5th Level PCs
-Initial ability scores by 20 point buy
-Starting gold, per 5th level characters in the Rulebook = 10,500 gp (limit 3500 gp for any single item)
-I will determine hit points for you
-Two non-overlapping traits
-I will need to review and approve anything that isn't from the core rules
-Due to the nature of this game, I will somewhat relax my usual 'no evil alignments' rule, but your choices must be conducive to the party being able to function well as a team. Will discuss further, as needed.
Time to head out for now. Looking forward to our discussion and the character creation process.
Let's make it a great game!
Checking in. My first character thoughts are tough Varisian rogue or eccentric gnome sorceror (although, really, are there any uneccentric gnomes?).
Hey everyone, and thanks Simon for having us aboard.
I like my characters to be skill focused so rogue or an urban ranger would be my top picks. Simon, will you be accepting stuff from the pathfinder setting guide? And what do people think of firearms in games? Me I love 'em but understand if other folks aren't so keen on them.
Groupwise a theme is always good.... I was always partial to a gang called the Bastard Blades, but who they are and what they want is anyones guess.
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Checking in, as requested; I am looking forward to this :-)
Well, one way or another, it looks like Rogue is already taken, then ;-)
Simple Simon, since you requested that all non-core things be run by you:
How do you feel about the magical items from 'Gods and Magic'?
How do you feel about the ioun stones from 'Seekers of Secrets'?
As to character, For a change, I was leaning towards either a Fighter sworn to the service of the dead god Aroden, an Oracle of Battle, or a full-bab (using the rules from the Pathfinder Campaign Setting) Cleric of Groetus - Please note that he would be a self-buffing, 'smack-the-heck' out of things character, and not a heal-bot, so in-combat healing would be limited.
Personally, given the overtones for this module, I would prefer to run the last option, of course :-)
Alternately, I could just play a Summoner :-)
Thoughts?
A summoner who believes that he is already damned, and the entity that comes when called(his Eidolon) is just a representative of the horror that has claimed him that delights in the knowledge that it is saving him from his enemies, just so when the time comes, it can take him for itself. The summoner is always a wreck, can't sleep without persistent nightmares, thinking he feels eyes watching him in the dark, and as the summoner levels up the "Representative" grows to match, indicative of the summoner's time running out.
Hmm.. The Eidolon needs Intimidate, and a way to render foes shaken, or feared.. Maybe something subtly off about it: A joint bending just a little bit too far, or a smile just a tooth too wide, something off about its eyes..
Not sure that kind of guy would have a party that kept him around long, though. If he dies (since he's convinced he will), it will be interesting to see whether or not the eidolon comes for the body.
The summoner should have knowledges, likely religion and planes, since he's trying to find out where it comes from, so he can somehow escape it. Linguistics as well, though I'm not sure about what his profession, probably Librarian or Merchant. The Pseudonatural template is not in PF, so unless you don't mind me applying it to the creatures he summons with his Summon spells, (I would post the stats here) else it would be a nice touch for them to be subtly different (outsider template?) much like the Eidolon.
Thanks for the invite. Looks like the party has a rogue, an arcane caster, and a divine caster so I guess I'll go for the fighter.
Jaxom Cambourne Human fighter
A sword and board fighter with a wicked backhand, his spiked shield.
I'll need to tweak him a little bit but should have a finished product up by tonight.
Looks like the gang's all here, great!
@Joana: If there are any non-eccentric gnomes in Golarion, I haven't seen them. :)
@Mangalore: In general, I'm amenable to material from the Campaign Guide, but not so much on the firearms. I think they might seem a bit out of place in this adventure, is all.
@Luke: You can go ahead with your cleric of Groetus if you like. How do you think he would interact with the other party members? Magic items from Gods and Magic are likely fine. I don't own 'Seekers' so my familiarity with the ioun stone rules is limited (based mostly on memories of prior editions of the game). Can you provide more info on what you're looking at?
@Me'mori: I like the concept for your Summoner a lot. We may be able to find a template to apply to his summoned creatures, but even if nothing seems suitable there, I'd have no problem with merely describing them as a bit more disturbing than the norm.
@Vanulf: Keep in mind that Luke's cleric idea appears to be more of a melee character than a traditional healer type, so I'm not sure how well the divine caster is covered by that concept. That said, more fighting prowess is never a bad thing.
Keep the thoughts coming, all!
I've got access to the template (Lords of Madness/Complete Arcane) thanks to a friend, and can post of the stat blocks if necessary. The template advances due to HD, and 4-11 HD counts it as +1 to CR (Due to the DR 5/magic, I think). I believe that is on par with PF, IIRC, since many of the old LA+1 creatures (Aasimar/Tiefling) can be used with negligible effect. I'm not averse to having you alter parts of it though.
Gnome sorceror Elemental bloodline (electricity). Her family raised shocker lizards (mostly for the thrill, to avoid the Bleaching), and her mother took a bad shock during preganancy. As soon as she was crawling, her family was always finding her in the lizard pen, petting and grooming the beasts; she often fell unconscious from the nonlethal shocks but would awake laughing and go back to the pen as soon as she could evade her watchers. As she grew, her electrical arcane powers manifested. Her hair never lies straight, and when she moves, her clothes crackle with energy.
Sorry -- her element is Air, obviously, and her energy type is Electricity. (Kind of a specious connection, but no more so than Earth/Acid, I guess.)
@Me'mori: It looks like that template should work out okay. Let's go with it.
@Joana: Love the concept, can't wait to hear more!
@ Joana : "Her hair never lies straight, and when she moves, her clothes crackle with energy."
Sounds like my new nephew!
@ Me'mori: "it will be interesting to see whether or not the eidolon comes for the body."
He can have yer body as long as we can have yer loot.
@ Simon: No problemo re guns, my duel-pistol wielding ranger can come out to play another day.
Was thinking, maybe we're mates of Me'mori's character, here in Carrion Hill looking for a way for him to avert his doom?
Was thinking, maybe we're mates of Me'mori's character, here in Carrion Hill looking for a way for him to avert his doom?
Alright, then that raises a few questions for anyone that is going to be basing part of their story off of my character.
How long have they known him? How did they meet?
Fifth level can account for a lot of adventuring, and the "touched by evil" is a bit done, but then again so is the "cursed by item".. I think I'll make his Profession that of a Librarian, try to max his Linguistics, and go for the "Marked for learning too much".
Yet, when he got the nerve up to examine the shadows, he never found anything.
Also corresponding with the mark, everything he summoned to help was.. wrong, sometimes in subtle ways that could not be figured out (but they were noticed), other times the differences were so blatant that it began to be a cause for concern. One creature he summoned remained, the symbol reappearing on his forehead, and echoed on its forehead, as if in sadistic mockery. It never threatened, never spoke, and even helped fight, but watched him as if it were waiting. It too was subtly wrong like the creatures that he summoned were.
So he began to try to find out where he went wrong, and what could be done about it. Maybe it led to Carrion Hill, maybe this was just somewhere that they were passing through on the way to another sage, or library, or search.
Was thinking, maybe we're mates of Me'mori's character, here in Carrion Hill looking for a way for him to avert his doom?
I like that idea.
It may also be beneficial to have everyone native to Ustalav, just from some part other than the county of Versex. For some more info/background on Ustalav, consider this article on the Pathfinder Wiki. It may be inspirational.
Another possible background hook suggested by the module's author is that one or more of the PCs may have been sent to Carrion Hill seeking a sample of an unusual building material called Middenstone.
Keep the ideas flowing, all! :)
This is the alias I'll be using to run this game.
K so running with the idea then....
what if we started out as a gang of "retrievers" — adventurers who specialize in stealin' things back? and we had a few good times and some derring-do, lost some friends, fell in with others, till we were hired to get back some books from some blasted wizard who shoulda known better than ta steal from our boss...
only it turns out that the wizard was the original and rightful owner, and is none too impressed when he catches us. but instead of killing us, he sends us back to slay our employer. Job done, only now the wizard wants us to keep up our trade, except working solely for him. but what he asks us to fetch is far more dangerous than before; reagents and components for obscure and arcane spells and rituals, legendary beasts for vivisection, and dark and deadly tomes, which Me'mori should know better than to go peeking through...
just who this wizard is I have know idea, and within the context of the adventure could just be the nameless external force that drives us towards the town, seeking Middenstone for some mysterious scheme of his, and while we're there suggests we take our eidelon-plagued summoner to see some specialist witch to get his problem looked at....
we'll that's my two coppers.
characterwise, rogue but seriously drawn to picking up a level or two of priest worshipping Calistria.
do people groan when I mention the word Teifling?
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I will groan just on principle :-P
From what I can tell, we have the following declared:
Me'Mori : Summoner
Joana: Sorceror
Mangalore: Rogue
Vanulf: Fighter
Luke_Parry: 'Cleric' (strong fighter focus)
My intention would be to run a Cleric of Groetus; he will acknowledge that his patron *is* the Lord of End Times, but he wants to make sure that the end of the world happens according to his Master's timetable.
He knows, *knows* that there are great, terrible entities out there that seek to corrupt mortals, and bring about the dissolution of the world. However, he sees his master as the lesser of two evils, as he is not evil, just alien and uncaring; he is also waiting patiently for the last mortal soul to pass through the Boneyard for judgment, before he re-makes Golarion, whilst other, nameless entities actively seek to destroy the world, *now*...
...Serving Groetus is preferable to serving one of the more Goodly deities, as, due to his nature, Groetus understands more of the nature of the Great Old Ones, and knows how to combat them more effectively...
...Thoughts?
make that a rogue with a touch of cleric.
Thoughts?.... I really like Groetus, more in concept than in name, and I like the angle of him keeping the world around so he can end it. but he does seem a touch anti-social, and his followers a bit as well... how would he tie in with the rest of the gang?
mangalore, rogue with a splash of divine capability sounds great, and would make the party pretty well balanced it seems. I have no problem with a tiefling PC, if you'd like to go that route.
Larry, I'm presuming your cleric would be able to play nice with others (probably moreso than the typical Groetus-worshipper) so long as he saw their presence as helping to further his agenda. Am I close?
All, do keep in mind that there is a teensy chance that things may veer in a somewhat unexpected direction once you arrive in Carrion Hill, so don't overthink the motives for going there too much! :D That said, mangalore's ideas are pretty cool, in my opinion.
So...a nutty electrified gnome...a nihilistic Groetus-worshipper...a twisted summoner...and a shifty tiefling. I like this cast of misfits quite a lot.
Vanulf, how's your fighter's personality going to gel with this lot? I'm interested in seeing what you've got in mind. ;)
I've got him pegged as a free spirited warrior with a zest for life. Think of him as a dervish, spinning around the battlefield with a reckless abandon, only with a shield in his off-hand.
I've got a work up of him on my computer at home and will update his profile when I get home from work in about an hour or so.
Gotta say the Pathfinder campaign setting is rather strange... incongruous... I've been reading up on Ustalav, and took a shine to Karcau as my guy's hometown, growing up in the back alleys of the theatre district 'tween opera houses and the canals. Then I looked at where it was on the map, and it's the last stop northwards before the horrors of the Worldwound. I would have put a fortified city-state there, but no, let's put grim-Venice there instead.
Anyway my guys' from Karcau. Cool place.
Gah... no teifling stats on the PFSRD. Damn.
I admit, I had to snicker on that one... Maybe even Demons appreciate a good drama?
Mangalore:
Me'mori just ninja'd me on those tiefling stats...thanks for saving me the trouble man!
And yeah, the fine folks of Paizo have tried to make a corner of Golarion for any and every campaign style. The results are sometimes a little odd, but I find it to be a small price to pay for products of such quality.
Better to have something for everyone, rather than everything from someone.
Once I finish my current game, or drop my active games to something manageable, I'll start up an "Alkenstar Legends" game.
So how are we on character development? Any more fluff needed before we start the crunch?
So how are we on character development? Any more fluff needed before we start the crunch?
Start crunching away at will! I do want to see a background and description on the sheet too, though.
@ Me'mori: Ta muchly... and yeah I've got a lotta love for Alkenstar.
Is there a random table or anything detailing teifling features?
Is there a random table or anything detailing teifling features?
There's one in the Cheliax companion.
EDIT: Sorry, not the companion; it's actually in the first book of the Council of Thieves AP. You roll a d10 for heritage, d100 for abilities & d100 for features.
Also one HERE.
Bio's up and gear chosen.
Comments?
I like the background. Enough to work with, but not so much that you want to skim.
*facepalm* Postmonster ate the template post. *retypes*
Now that it's safely up, I was saying that the conversion process is surprisingly simple.
Pseudonatural Template:
Size and Type: The creature’s type changes to outsider. Size is unchanged.
Special Attacks: A pseudonatural creature retains all the special attacks of the base creature and also gains the following attack.
True Strike (Su): Once per day, a pseudonatural creature can gain a +20 insight bonus on a single attack roll. In addition, the creature suffers no miss chance against a target that has concealment or total concealment when making this attack.
Special Qualities: A pseudonatural creature retains all the special qualities of the base creature and also gains the following special qualities.
Darkvision: As an outsider, the creature gains Darkvision 60ft.
Resistance (Ex): A pseudonatural creature has resistance to acid and electricity based on the base creature’s Hit Dice.
Damage Reduction (Ex): A pseudonatural creature gains damage reduction based on the base creature’s Hit Dice.
Spell Resistance (Ex): A pseudonatural creature gains SR equal to new CR+5.
Alternate Form (Su): As a standard action, a pseudonatural creature can take the form of a grotesque, tentacled mass (or another appropriately gruesome form, as determined by the DM). Despite the alien appearance, its abilities remain unchanged. Other creatures receive a –1 morale penalty on their attack rolls against a pseudonatural creature when it is in this alternate form.
Hit Dice // Resist Acid, Electricity // DR
1-4 // 5 // --
5-10 // 10 // 5/magic
11+ // 15 // 10/magic
@mangalore, you can randomly roll for tiefling features, or you can just customize his appearance yourself if you want to.
@Vanulf, detailed comments on Jaxom coming up later this evening.
@Me'mori, thanks for posting that template. Should work out okay, I think.
Gah. After all that the teifling turned out to be a half-elf. A bit more subtle. Thanks for the info though guys, appreciate the effort.
I've nearly finished the character crunch, should be up soon.
@ Jaxom: he looks cool, I can tell we'll be buying him a lot of thank you beers :)
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I'm presuming your cleric would be able to play nice with others (probably moreso than the typical Groetus-worshipper) so long as he saw their presence as helping to further his agenda. Am I close?
That would certainly fit with my character concept - He does not want to destroy the world personally; he knows that it is going to be cleansed in the future, but his role is to make sure that someone else does not screw-up Groetus' timetable.
Other people can certainly be useful to help with that, but I would recommend that people invest in a Wand of CLW each for healing purposes if they want to stay healthy.
(He will have no qualms about healing other people he knows can be useful; it is simply that he does not have a lot of healing magic personally...)
Sorry, forgot to add the +1 ablility adjustment at level four (+1 to Strength. now an 18 not 17). I had it in the mock-up I made, just didn't change it here. Got to stop doing these things late at night.
@mangalore: Half-elf works fine too, no problem.
@luke: Thanks for clarifying on your cleric's outlook. Sounds like he should do well with this group. I'm looking forward to seeing some IC posts to see what you do with him!
Everyone, I will have the house to myself tonight, so I'll have plenty of time to crunch numbers and check stats for Jaxom and anyone else who is ready. Keep me posted on your progress.
I would recommend that people invest in a Wand of CLW each for healing purposes if they want to stay healthy.
Never thought of that... and tactically it's a sound idea... but where's the fun of begging for the healing mercies of the God of Armageddon when you've got a cleric-on-a-stick?
Not to mention that said God may be "disinclined to acquiesce" to your request... :p
Can my gnome have a pet? In general, I'm not a big fan of mounts, animal companions, familiars, etc., as I don't like keeping up with an extra set of stats, but I keep picturing her with a baby shocker lizard or two crawling in and out of her backpack, purely as fluff and not to be used in combat. If you want to put a price on them, I'd pay for them out of her gold, and she's taking Handle Animal to portray her past experience with them, regardless.
Can my gnome have a pet? In general, I'm not a big fan of mounts, animal companions, familiars, etc., as I don't like keeping up with an extra set of stats, but I keep picturing her with a baby shocker lizard or two crawling in and out of her backpack, purely as fluff and not to be used in combat. If you want to put a price on them, I'd pay for them out of her gold, and she's taking Handle Animal to portray her past experience with them, regardless.
Pets are COOL. You can really work the Animal Handling to make them Combat Monkeys and they're great at messing up spell casters.... just don't get too attached to them.
OK folks: Lurkio van der Djann is all crunched out. Background and Description to come.
Can my gnome have a pet? In general, I'm not a big fan of mounts, animal companions, familiars, etc., as I don't like keeping up with an extra set of stats, but I keep picturing her with a baby shocker lizard or two crawling in and out of her backpack, purely as fluff and not to be used in combat. If you want to put a price on them, I'd pay for them out of her gold, and she's taking Handle Animal to portray her past experience with them, regardless.
Yeah, I'd be cool with this. I do think some kind of price would be appropriate, but I'll need to think a bit about how much.
"and not to be used in combat."
Ooops missed that bit :)
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Simple Simon, a question about unique item design: Specifically, will you allow it?
For example, Goggles of Death Watch would, I think, be quite appropriate for a cleric of the Lord of End Times.
(Crunch-wise, A 3,000gp Face slot item that grants continuous Death Watch - not the most powerful of items, but certainly flavorful :-D )
Also, what are your thoughts on Intelligent Items?
For example, I could see the above goggles being a pseudo-cursed item - once put on, they cannot be removed, and whenever the wearer looks at a creature whose time Groetus (via the item) deems 'to be nigh', he feels *urges* rising deep from his hind-brain encouraging him to end them - which could be quite inconvenient, depending on the situation ;-)
(Crunch-wise, just paying the +500gp to make the goggles intelligent, with Int/Wis/Cha all 10, and communicating via Empathy; again, I could see this as being quite thematically appropriate!)
Rough start on Jerjia Nimburhombus. I still have to pick traits and a feat, and I might switch around her gear a bit.
Link for reference.
Still working on formatting the background from the pieces I've posted.
Link for reference.
Still working on formatting the background from the pieces I've posted.
Nice background, Seekin... you're so fragged.
Will be fun to watch.
Here is the crunch on Tyrrol, Cleric of Groetus.
I will add his background in a little while :-)
Here is the crunch on Tyrrol, Cleric of Groetus.
I will add his background in a little while :-)
Awesome, what a monster... he'll make a great shield to hide behind :)
Isn't his BAB +3?
Nuther half elf too... think there's a background connection there?
Awesome, what a monster... he'll make a great shield to hide behind :)Isn't his BAB +3?
Nuther half elf too... think there's a background connection there?
Well, I *did* say that he was going to be a combat brute :-P
No, my BAB is correct; I am going with the 'militant cleric' build from the Pathfinder Campaign Setting.
I sacrifice both my domains to gain full BAB progression, and d10 HD
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EDIT: Wow, we are apparently both from Karcau! Given that half-elves are probably not *that* common, I dare say there probably is a connection :-)