I may be starting a new campaign in a month or 2. Me being me, I like to plan ahead and I had 3 general ideas of what I'm interested in playing and would like to hear from those more experienced players on what they'd recommend for fun and effectiveness.
Note: I'm the type to really get into role-play and generally only do light optimization which means very little stat dumping, of course that may be because I'm not great at stating my characters. Also, the point buy and starting level are just assumptions based on past experiences with this particular DM.
Idea #1: Lv. 1 Human Rogue Charlatan - Potential Stats (15 point buy): Str. 8, Dex. 14, Con. 12, Int. 13, Wis. 12, Cha. 16 (using human stat bonus). Potential Feats: Skill Focus - Bluff, Weapon Finesse.
Would basically be (one of) the parties face as well as maybe a skill monkey. While he may focus on lying, he will definitely have diplomacy for when he needs it. Might go for a dervish build combat wise. I enjoy the thought of getting rumormonger by level 3 to start doing some fun things.
Idea #2: Lv. 1 Human Alchemist Grenadier - Potential Stats (15 point buy): Str. 10, Dex. 14, Con. 10, Int. 18 (using human stat bonus), Wis. 12, Cha. 8. Potential Feats: Point Blank Shot, precise shot.
Ranged Attacker and a possible party supporter once infusion is picked up, this build could also be very versatile. I realize he won't do as much damage as others including his Mr. Hyde brother, but I can see having just as much fun throwing bombs.
Idea #3: Lv. 1 Human Alchemist (Chirurgeon or Internal Alchemist) - Potential Stats (15 point buy): Str. 16 (using human stat bonus), Dex. 12, Con. 12, Int. 13, Wis. 10, Cha. 8. Potential Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Toughness
The brother to the build above, I wasn't sure if I should add Chirurgeon, which would make him more helpful outside of battle or the internal alchemist which can add some interesting things to do. Either way, turning into a feral beast sounds like it could be fun.
Idea #4: Lv. 1 Human Fighter or Barbarian - Potential Stats (15 point buy): Str. 18 (using human stat bonus), Dex. 13, Con. 12, Int. 10, Wis. 12, Cha. 8. Potential Feats: Catch Off-Guard, Throw Anything, Toughness (if fighter).
An improvised weapon warrior build. Stats were tough to figure out here but I know strength is main here. Also unsure which would be better, fighter or barbarian (leaning towards fighter though). This build may not be as versatile in out of battle situations.
Anyways there are my concepts, each of which I am certain I can come up with a solid and fun backstory to. Which of these 4 would you suggest for fun and both in and outside of battle interactions?
Oh, just came up with another. I won't go into super detail stat wise though. IF the party needs a caster (which I doubt it will) perhaps an illusionist wizard.
I've really only been told we may be doing a pre-made adventure in a month or 2. Knowing my DM however, all Paizo official books will likely be allowed as will all paizo non-"monster" races (i.e. no goblin, changling etc.).
As far as what the campaign will involve, I honestly don't know. Though I would assume I could do alright with any of the character concepts I've put up above. Although, I just heard he might be working on his own and he told me it will be relatively "straight forward" possibly only being in one city.
I'd like to stick to humans and the general concept of the character. For instance, if I were to play the rogue idea, I'd like to be as good as I could be at either diplomacy or bluff or if I were to play alchemist bomb chucker, I'd like to be pretty darn good at chucking bombs, other than that I'm open to feat and class ideas that might do it better, even back story suggestions if you'd like.
Thanks for the suggestions thus far bye the way. :D
Update: My DM informed me of the general culture of his setting. One large city, mountainous and cold most of the year. Viking like culture who has advanced to being able to use guns (a first as normally he never allows the gunslinger class). However no norse mythology, more so just the viking people themselves. The city, "Fall's Passage" is near the sea.
Main races, but not the only races, are humans and dwarves. I realize that this doesn't change all that much as any class can be molded to a culture, but there it is anyways. However, since gunslinger has suddenly become available to me for the first time, I'm very tempted to make a trick shooter of some kind.
i like the grenadier, or change the human barbarian to a dwarven barbarian. barbarians have awesome saves in combat, but dwarven barbaians have insane saves, the one feat doesnt outweigh the benefits of playing a dwarven barbarian.
@blackbloodtroll That seems correct. I'll have to ask if those particular races are available, but there's an ok chance that he'd give the good to go.
@Orc I will definitely consider the dwarf barbarian. After all, imagining a raging small person running at another with a broken in half musket as his weapon.
Honestly, I am considering pulling the grenadier and the mutagen builds out because they don't feel all that viking-y, although I suppose there were viking alchemist / herbalists.
Maybe replace the alchemists with a gunslinger. Either a long range "sniper" or a pistol trick shot. I don't know, so many choices. I guess I need to figure out something that will help narrow it down. I love skills, especially for role playing, so I guess I will try to eliminate the concepts that aren't that useful outside of battle in some way.
The rogue stays obviously due to their massive skill selection, Alchemists aren't all that bad, but the Chirurgeon Mutagen focused Alchemist could offer an interesting Dr. concept focusing on healing and alchemy. Barbarians, fighters and gunslingers seem lacking in skills for obvious reasons. I guess unless I can figure out what to do with the last 3 out of battle I may need to eliminate them for sake of finding something to play.
Thanks again.
|
A Breaker Wild Rager Barbarian Duergar would very awesome.
Focus on using medium, large, and gargantuan arrows.
Carry special material durable arrows of various sizes, and use them as melee and thrown weapons.
Nab the Rough and Ready trait to use them without penalty and at +1 to hit.
Wield the larger arrows with two hands to get more out of power attack.
Your enlarge ability will make you scary in combat, and your invisibility with extra skill points for stealth will make you a decent scout.
Spellcaster allies can cast greater magic weapon on 50 arrows, allowing you to do more damage.
Also, as arrows are ammunition, you can draw them as a free action, so no need for quickdraw.
That actually sounds pretty awesome. I will definitely look into it more. I'm not sure whether he'll allow it just because of all the extra abilities they get, but I'll still ask for sure.
Thanks for the info.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Alright character concepts. One of my favorite parts of this game. Ill tackle some of these in no particular order but here goes!
For starters I do not know about some of the specifics of your campaign, like what levels you intend to play around in the most, what kind of enemies you expect to face a lot of and what kind of team comp you will have, or may lack. As such, I will touch on different sweet spots, bonuses and what not.
A human barbarian is actually quite potent. I would say that the superstition rage power is mandatory, or at least very powerful. You can stack it with your favored class bonus to become quite resistant. Also dont forget your bonuses to will when you rage and at level 14. At level 4 you would have fort 7, ref 3, will 5. At level 12 you would have fort 17, ref 13, will 15. At level 20 you would have fort 25, ref 19, will 25. This makes it so that you essentially get fast progression on saves and a stupid high fort save till about level 4. After that you start eclipsing anything most other characters can do to you till the mid to mid-high levels. By level 20, you are incredibly resistant to anything magical. All this for only a rage power is a steal, and it leads nicely into Ghost Rager.
Next on the list is ragecycling. I do not know if your familiar with the term, so here it is in a nutshell. If you gain immunity to fatigue you can enter a rage as a free action, then at the end of your turn exit out of it as a free action. Any once per rage powers can now be used once per turn. The main drawback that I can think of this is if you exit rage at the end of your turn, you gain none of the benefits during your opponents turn, most notably the superstition power :( Now if you decide to ragecycle you can go about it a few different ways. The vanilla way is to wait until you hit level 17 and get tireless rage. This is a huge wait time and generally not recommended. Next and most common is a level dip in another class. You have 3 options here, Martial artist (5th level monk), Oracle (one level dip) or Horizon walker (3 level dip). The martial artist is probably the worst one, as a 5 level cost means you might as well play a monk... The Horizon Walker is my favorite as later you can get other goodies like dimension door if you decide to put more effort into it, and as a bonus you gain fire resistance 10 and favored terrain bonuses ( you mentioned that you would only be in a few select places, might be useful). Oracle is only a one level dip but you cannot gain access to the useful aspect until level 9 and your base land speed is reduced by 10. On the plus side you gain extra will save. You can pick up extra levels in oracle to gain this quicker by 1 level per oracle level (ex a level 2 oracle can get the fatigue immunity at level8). I would probably suggest this one going 2 levels. Another way to ragecycle that is rarely used is the human racial trait Heart of the Fields, this allows you to ignore 1 fatigued condition once per day.
A second form of ragecycling is to prolong the rage as much as you can. Getting the Optimistic Gambler trait turns every round of rage into 1 +1d4 rounds. As a bonus you can use once per rage powers more often, just not every round. 20 rage rounds can turn into 40-100.
For rage powers, here are some good ones to look at.
Beast totem: Has 2 less than stellar abilities and one Grade A power at level 10. Claw attacks and improved natural armour are ok if your going for natural attacks but otherwise pure power tax. Pounce is so powerful that it might be worth the tax anyways.
Superstition: Such a useful power and one I would not leave home without. See above. Opens up Ghost Rager and Eater of Magic.
Ghost Rager: Pure gold. +9 to your touch AC at level 12? yes. +13 by level 20? sweet! Bonus is you can actually hit ghosts with mundane weapons, but thats minor.
Eater of Magic: this is essentially a reroll against failed will saves. the bonus hp is nothing. 1 hp for a level 1 spell, 9 for a 9th spell. Pitiful at any level. this is an ok ability, nothing more.
Body Bludgeon: If you plan on going improvised weapon route, check this out. this combined with Giant-Hide Armour is just win :D
Spirit Totem: This is an interesting one to look at if you went the oracle route. A level 2 oracle of bones gains bleeding wounds when she hits with negative energy. Spirit totem grants you an extra slam attack that does negative energy damage. This attack is preformed by the spirit and not you, so it can be used even if you moved and attacked this turn. At level 10 you do damage to every enemy around you and they all take bonus bleed damage.
Now how you build your barbarian will determine how he functions on the game mat. A few suggestions would be to build an improvised weapon build, a pounce build, an unarmed build or even a bit of a skill monkey build.
For the improvised weapon build, follow blackbloodtroll. Build a human Breaker Wild Rager Barbarian focusing on arrows, add in superstition, Body Bludgeon, Ghost Rager and go from there.
A pounce build would go the Wild Rager Barbarian route, add Beast totem, boots of speed and Rhino Hide. Get the first level of the dragon style to charge over rough terrain and add in your choice of weapon. Bonus points for going Asterion.
The skill monkey build would see you taking the Finding Haleen trait and keeping your racial bonus skills. You would lose out on some of your rage abilities but you would gain 6 +int skill points a level. 7 if you skipped your superstition bonus. Mix and match with the other builds as desired.
Finally the unarmed barbarian has a bit of a different look. You would focus on Spirit totem, Boar style combat and bleeding people out. Similar to the pounce build, you would want Wild Rager Barbarian, 2 levels of Oracle with the mystery of bone, Boar style/shred, and Boots of Speed. the boar style can grant you up to 3d6 bleed damage a round added to spirit totem bleeding and you start getting guys taking massive extra damage even after you stopped attacking them.
This became a lot longer than I anticipated :P
Seems about right, I just cant stop talking XD
So I will post a build later, probably tomorrow
On top of that, I havent even talked about the other concepts (especially the alchemist, love that class)
Sven Stonefinger. The name brings a chuckle to the residents of Grace's Folly, A small hamlet 12 days travel North of Falls Passage. They often reminisce of a young lad who seemed to have more stone about him than just his fingers. Large for his age, even among the normally tough and hardy Northerners, and just as tough as the rocks he so loved to collect. He could often be seen showing off his collection to his friends and on occasion, using them to defend his friends when playing inevitably turned to roughhousing. As he became of age, he was told to leave his rocks behind and take up his position in the community as befitting a Stonefinger. Deeply distraught at the thought he took solace with his uncle Kron. Kron was a kind soul and always taking Sven on hunting forays encouraged him to become a hunter, reasoning that he could collect different arrows out on his trips. Taken to the Idea and zealous as always, Sven took up his fathers relic bow and a handfull of arrows, he set out at once to go hunting. Woefully prepared and with the entire village out looking for him, he came across A herd of goats. Giving chase for a full day, he cornered one and managed to kill it. By the time he came back to the village, covered in mud, twigs and carrying the goat on his shoulder, a ruined bow by his side, the village burst out laughing due to relief and the sight of the 12 year old. When he tried to explain that the bow made a poor weapon and broke almost immediately after swinging it at the goat, but the arrows worked great, he was met with gales of laughter. Shame and anger burning hot under his brow, he took off into the wild again, his anger increasing the further he went. He spent the rest of the summer out there, and even managed to survive the following winter. The time spent on his own did nothing for his anger and tho you would never see it on his face, a fire burned in his heart from that day onwards. The spirits of the earth seemed to have taken to him on those lonely nights and he took refuge in the comfort of a kindred light. Over the next winter he grew closer to the forces that seemed to help him by day and whisper to him by night. Deeply distrustful of magic and made of unnatural origin the spirits gradually changed the lad. The following spring Sven decided that he had to go back, and started heading north towards his home. Stoping for some supplies and more arrows in Falls Passage he quickly got caught up in the hustle and bustle of the larger city. Quite the uncomfortable and quiet little lad, his anger always under his skin, the changed man slowly took to his new surroundings, gradually coming out of his reclusive world all the while knowing that eventually he would have to go home.
Phew, k there is the back story, now here is the build.
Human Wild Rager/Breaker Barbarian. AKA Wild breaker
Heart of the snows racial trait, Beserker of the society and carefully hidden traits
Level 1: Power Attack, Catch off Guard
Level 2: superstition
Level 3: raging vitality
Level 4: Lesser beast totem
Level 5: improved will
Level 6: Ghost Rager
Level 7: improved unarmed strike
Level 8: Beast Totem
Level 9: Improvised weapon mastery
Level 10: Greater Beast Totem
Level 11: Dragon Totem
Level 12: unexpected strike
Str : 16 (14)
Con : 13 (4)
Dex : 10 (0)
Int : 7 (-4)
Wis : 12 (2)
Car : 9 (-1)
This gets you your strong and hardy, while none to bright and slightly reclusive barbarian.
Aim to get both boots of speed and Rhino hide by level 11 and you would get 4 attacks with a +2d6 on each. Pretty straight forward barbarian, not completely optimized, but should do good. Plenty of flavor in it as well.
I would go with idea 2, and maybe add mindchemist archetype on top. Alchemists are enough things that are lots of fun and grenadier is a solid build.
The Charlatan might be a lot of fun if you party is dead against optimization, but else you might cry in combat while having your mundane fun outside combat.
The fighter could lack a little bit of flavour outside of combat, but you could easily make up for it by playing him in a certain manner.
If you like roleplaying why not introduce a weakness into your characters? Now intelligence, charisma, or wisdom could make for some interesting and memorable characters.
Much more interesting than straight 10's in them all...
A lot of people do not realize what a 7 actually means. They see a negative and think brain dead. To put this into perspective, a 10 means your average joe shmo, a 1-2 means your an animal, a 3 is the bottom threshold to still be considered an intelligent thinking entity. A 7 is 3 points below average and 4 points above completely stupid. your actually closer to average, just not very smart.
Honestly, I am considering pulling the grenadier and the mutagen builds out because they don't feel all that viking-y, although I suppose there were viking alchemist / herbalists.
I would advise against dropping the idea completely! I love the alchemist (probably my favorite class) and bomber style can be made to fit if you want it to. I will post some more about it later, but really dont give up on it!
Nab the Rough and Ready trait to use them without penalty and at +1 to hit.
sorry bbt, but this does not work. Rough and Ready can only be used with tools used for a trade. I doubt that anyone would allow you to consider arrows to be tools of the trade, even if you tried to make a hunter as a profession. Sadly it doesnt work, woulda loved it if it did!
For a viking themed campaign, remember that the further away you get from direct martial action, the more feminine your character would be considered. The Rogue Charlatan would fit best for female characters.
The fighter would be the most common class for males, but no viking fighters would go without a sword or axe.
Barbarian, especially with a beast totem of bear, would be like a Berserker. (Literally, "Bear Shirt", who would wear a bear skin and go mad in battle--sometimes unable to distinguish friend from foe).
The Alchemist Grenadier could be described as a vikti, or runecaster. Instead of infusions or mutagens, describe your abilities as coming from viking rune stones. It will not change any game mechanics but the flavor would fit better.
The chirugeon and vivisectionist are drifting closer to the feminine side of things according to the Norsemen. Women were often the healers/casters in a Norse adventuring party ("vikings").
|
|
sorry bbt, but this does not work. Rough and Ready can only be used with tools used for a trade. I doubt that anyone would allow you to consider arrows to be tools of the trade, even if you tried to make a hunter as a profession. Sadly it doesnt work, woulda loved it if it did!
You are simply not being creative enough.
Profession(Archer)
|
Quite so. Sadly most think that a 7 in anything means you are a dirty min-maxer who cannot be trusted and cannot be a role player because clearly you are 'cheating' to get higher stats.
Also some (many even) think that 7 int makes you too stupid to talk properly, or cha 7 makes everyone hate you.
----
Playing someone a little slow on the uptake or dour I think is more fun than playing someone who is just average...
IMO the reason why people dont like seeing 7's is is the same reason why people want to play 50 point buy games, or add on rediculous templates that give +6 to all there stats. people dont like the idea of being subpar in any aspect of there character.
seriously as a gm let your players do what ever they want when making characters, see how many of them have all 18's ,or better, when they bring there character sheets to play.
You are simply not being creative enough.
Profession(Archer)
Ya I could see how that would work, BTW was looking at the professions it listed, Gambler is a honest viable career here o.O Time to roll up an optimistic barbarian gambler!