You know, i could totally see someone writing a PFS scenario where some society agents have some business there.
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Since I posted up the map, I might as well post up some notes I wrote on those other spots I put on the map, thus marring it forever. There are a few errors in this (for instance, I haven't verified the distance between the Vashau League and Hivemarket- being Mars-like, Akiton's only about 3,000 miles in diameter, and has only about 25-30% of Golarion's surface area), but overall I think it's all solid enough to work with as-is.
Arl, Hivemarket, and Maro are the three largest and most politically powerful cities on Akiton, but they aren't the only three. Almost a dozen city-states dot the surface at any given time, surviving for centuries or millennia before succumbing to war, political decline, or catastrophe.
Once-mighty Gent (35,650) has been in decline for hundreds of years. At its height, Gent claimed twice its current population, and the city is a tangle of uninhabited districts overseen by a nobility devoted to squeezing the last bits of wealth from its drastically impoverished citizenry. It is only a matter of time before the ruling family finds themselves deposed at the end of a sword.
Rahmpasha (37,630), by contrast, is a city-state on the upswing. Founded only a hundred years ago in the Dune Seas between Arl and Maro, disaffected citizens from both those cities find their way to this egalitarian democracy, and its population grows daily. Most Akitoni assume it is only a matter of time before Arl or Maro (or both) decide to take action and put down the young upstart before it becomes a true threat to either city's primacy.
The Vashau League consists of the allied city states Kaunna (27,840), Haufan (16,700), and Vurrt (20,190), laying claim to a small region about a thousand miles southwest of Hivemarket. The political ties that bind the three cities started as a union of necessity, but has grown into one of friendship, trade, and culture, and many people in the League refer to themselves as Vashans as opposed to citizens of their own city-state.
The city of Fu Le (11,200) is a scholarly paradise; only The Halls of Reason can lay claim to more arcanists and sages, and that city is closed to most outsiders, making Fu Le a haven for the exchange of knowledge. The biggest threat to Fu Le's existence is its relative proximity to Arl; as Fu Le grows, it becomes an increasingly tempting target for Arlian subjugation.
Overseeing the Bowl of Kaum, Akiton's largest great dead sea, Ysoki-dominated Kexchitl (14,000) is an industrial powerhouse, designing and producing around sixty percent of Akiton's firearms. The city has strong ties to the Tech-Priests, who have their second-largest factory within the city's borders. This de facto alliance spares Kexchitl from most foreign aggression, as well as the city's notoriety for being a place where every citizen is armed.
Shrom (21,500) is the city-state closest to the southern Winterlands, and makes most of its fortune in ice shipping and recovered ancient technology. Its export of precious water makes it an ally to most city-states, and its remote location and lack of natural resources make it a threat to none. Shrom, for its part, is happy to remain neutral, and its hardy citizens take pride in their self-reliance and modest success.
Fun Fact: I double-checked, and despite looking like they're the same distance from the Winterlands, Shrom does indeed lay several pixels closer.
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More on the Great Dead Seas:
The largest of the great dead seas is the Bowl of Kaum, a vast depression hundreds of miles wide and over a mile deep. Smaller dead seas dot the landscape, such as the Bone Fields outside of Arl and the Sunken Sea south of Ka, but none are as overwhelmingly vast as the Bowl of Kaum. The Bowl of Kaum is home to hundreds of tribes and small communities who trade beautiful seabeast ivory items for weapons and technological wonders from Kexchitl. In fact, Kexchitl's seabeast ivory firearm stocks and grips come from these tribal realms, and sporting a firearm with a Kaum-crafted grip or stock is considered a sign of wealth and nobility.
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I should also mention some of the projects I've got in the hopper outside of little PDFs on city-states and whatnot.
One of the plans is a Rules Document, which will have a few new feats, a couple new weapons (firearms, mostly), and suggestions on how to run an Akiton campaign the way you want to. One example is the discussion on gravity vs. mass from way back in page 1 of this thread. I'm going to offer suggestions on running a game with "accurate" physics vs. "high fantasy" physics, so if your group is a fan of jumping around like lunatics danger-free, or if you prefer for those insane jumps to end in splintering shinbones, I'll suggest how to do it.
A note I'm happy to bring up now: Akiton is supposed to have a year that's twice as long as Golarion's. I ran some math on how to do this, chaining myself to a 672-day year that I barfed up arbitrarily many months ago, but you don't have to. Easy math is to give Akiton a 728.25-day year (double Golarion's year), with the standard 24-hour day, 7-day week, and months of 60 days each. Every four years, you'll get a leap year, which you can throw into the middle of summer, if you like. Current year as I've factored it is 6033 AC (Arl Count), specifically sometime in the fall. The new year will be 1 Abadius, making it 6034 AC (4714 AR), but 6035 AC won't start until 4716 AR.
The complex math version is:
Arl has 672 days. No leap years.
Each day is roughly 26 hours (26.00892857142 or thereabouts).
Each year has 24 months, divided into four seasons of six months each.
Each month has 28 days.
Each week has 7 days, so there's exactly 96 weeks in a year.
The only major game rules point that this involves is spell duration. The easiest fix for spells with a 24-hour duration is to make them last the extra 2 hours, and anything less is not seriously affected. Anything more just lasts the standard number of days, weeks, or months, and spells measured in years use a half-year instead of a full year.
The other factor, from a real-world standpoint, is that the longer day is going to ravage a Golarion native's circadian rhythms. Me, I'd just ignore it, but some folks prefer a more realistic approach. I'd day after a week on Akiton, in addition to the Fortitude saves for tooling around in a low-oxygen environment (similar to the high elevation rules; IIRC, the Core covers that, and if not, the GMG will), once per week, an additional DC 15 Fortitude save, +1 for every week after the first, is required to prevent becoming fatigued as the body attempts to adjust to the difference in day length. Hypothetically, you don't "acclimate" to weird day lengths, but playing a campaign full of inevitable fatigue sounds like no fun to me, so I'd say two successful saves in a row will fix the issue, or six months of acclimation, whichever comes first.
Or just make potions or rings or amulets of you're acclimated now. I'll be making a planetary acclimation spell (or spells, so a lesser version covers Akiton and other planets with minor difficulties, while a greater version is needed for, say, Aucturn), but long-term stays might force some pain-in-the-ass adjustment.
Brian, BTW: I assume the stay on Akiton for your group will be no more than a week, unless they dawdle, so long-term acclimation isn't an issue, but neither is the longer day going to mess them up, assuming you use that optional rule. For your game, you could even ignore the thin atmosphere, hand-waving it by saying the extreme low elevation (bottom of the Edaio Rift and all) cancels it out somehow. I am not a scientist. Ask someone with letters after their name if that technically works in worlds where the atmosphere is thin, as opposed to simple atmospheric elevation, if you need something accurate. :P
Downside to acclimation: after a while, the PCs will also acclimate to Akiton's lower gravity. I don't know how long that usually takes, but I do know even brief trips into space, where gravity is basically zero, cause loss of bone density and muscle atrophy. If 30 days in space requires minor rehab, an Akitoni year feels like a decent guess for gravitational acclimation. Akiton's gravity is 1/3rd of Golarion's, so every 12 Akitoni months, reduce the bonuses Golarion natives get for being in low-gravity by 1. So after 12 months, Golarion folk only jump twice as high and can carry only twice as much stuff, their thrown weapons go only twice as far, etc. Another 12 months, and they're like natives.
I hope at least some of all that made sense. I really should sleep more.
Actually i meant you. This stuff is awesome. Use it.
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I think they're still not accepting unsolicited PFS scenarios. They were going to scout for new talent with the Quests line, but no one wants to write those, or use them, far as I've seen. And they were going to be published in KQ, which shuttered its e-doors a few months after the announcement.
'Sides, Mark Moreland's in charge of that pot of fish-heads, and I don't think he cares for me much. I can be a bag of butts sometimes.
I could give it a shot, though. Worst-case scenario, we have a non-canonical Community Use Akiton adventure. Best-case scenario, I have an official writing credit under my belt, a couple more bucks in my pocket, and the knowledge that somewhere someone's running an adventure I barfed up.
That's all in the future, though. I'd have to finish making the Hivemarket PDF, then wait for full details on the Season 5 meta-plot so's I don't gank up that whole thing, then write an adventure, then send in the adventure, then wait 318 years for someone to bother to respond with anything more than a form "we are not accepting submissions at this time take off every zig" letter, then rewrite the whole adventure when everything I wrote is wrong, then fight a ninja, then finally get approval and wait 'til they jam it into the schedule.
Maybe I'll just skip the hard stuff and fight a ninja.
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Speaking of ninjas: did I mention I have a concept for a monastery built into the side of Ka around a portal to a tall mountain in Golarion's Wall of Heaven range, where ninjas and monks train to take advantage of altitude acclimation and Golarion's heavier gravity so's they can throw shuriken up to 150 feet and not get tired breathing thin air?
Monk speed + Akiton low gravity + weird ninja jump powers = I flew to the moon.
Dot.
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Human base speed 30 ft., +30 ft. (10th-level monk bonus speed), +10 ft. (boots of striding and springing) = 70 ft. movement = +16 bonus to jump. Boots give an additional +5. Monk level gives an additional +10. 10 ranks, +3 (class skill bonus), +4 (18 Dex, at least) = +48 jump. Add ki point (+20) to got to +68.
Average roll of 10 is 78 on a jump check, which equals 78 feet, rounded down to 75. 75 x 3 (low gravity) = 225 ft. if one ignores the "jump up to your speed" restriction (I usually make it so you move your speed each round until the jump's completed, so 4 move actions' worth in total). Long jump height is distance/4, IIRC, so 56 feet at the apex. That monk just cleared an average 5-story building, including outdated TV antenna, with room to allow passing doves to fly under him. With Shot on the Run, he could also Gun-Fu as he did it.
Useless monk tricks are awesome.
I see your Dot and raise you a Junior Mint.
Oh, man, I love junior mints.
Just for that...
Human base speed 30 ft., +30 ft. (10th-level monk bonus speed), +10 ft. (boots of striding and springing) = 70 ft. movement = +16 bonus to jump. Boots give an additional +5. Monk level gives an additional +10. 10 ranks, +3 (class skill bonus), +4 (18 Dex, at least) = +48 jump. Add ki point (+20) to got to +68.
Average roll of 10 is 78 on a jump check, which equals 78 feet, rounded down to 75. 75 x 3 (low gravity) = 225 ft. if one ignores the "jump up to your speed" restriction (I usually make it so you move your speed each round until the jump's completed, so 4 move actions' worth in total). Long jump height is distance/4, IIRC, so 56 feet at the apex. That monk just cleared an average 5-story building, including outdated TV antenna, with room to allow passing doves to fly under him. With Shot on the Run, he could also Gun-Fu as he did it.
Useless monk tricks are awesome.
Sadly, the monk's fast movement and boots of striding and springing both provide an enhancement bonus to speed.
Your trick is made of lies and falsehoods. And junior mints. I like the last ones.
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CONFOUND YOU, SIR! My off-the-cuff maths have been defeated by RAW! It appears this 10th-level monk will have to make do with an Acrobatics check of 69, rounded to 65, multiplied by 3, for a total long jump of a mere 195 feet. His jump height of 48 feet means he's impeded by that 5-story building and must now simply slow-fall to safety upon contact, and his guns shall remain sheathed while the doves fly off unnoticed by John Woo's camera.
CONFOUND YOU, SIR! My off-the-cuff maths have been defeated by RAW! It appears this 10th-level monk will have to make do with an Acrobatics check of 69, rounded to 65, multiplied by 3, for a total long jump of a mere 195 feet. His jump height of 48 feet means he's impeded by that 5-story building and must now simply slow-fall to safety upon contact, and his guns shall remain sheathed while the doves fly off unnoticed by John Woo's camera.
Bwahahahah! Take that! THAT I say! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAH!
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Now that I've had lunch, I should point out this opens the door for an improved ring of jumping. So we're at 79. If we could get a guidance cast, we're at 80, getting us to 240 feet across and 60 feet high. Only another +114,400 to go and we can jump the Edaio Rift!
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XP 38,400
Variant robot animated object tactician fighter 2/rogue 7
N Medium construct (robot)
Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +16
DEFENSE
AC 37, touch 18, flat-footed 33 (+7 armor, +3 deflection, +3 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 insight, +13 natural); uncanny dodge
hp 108 (5d10 plus 7d8+7 plus 32)
Fort +10, Ref +13, Will +7; evasion
Defensive Abilities hardness 20; Immune construct traits; Weaknesses vulnerable to critical hits, vulnerable to electricity
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.; climb 30 ft.
Melee 2 +2 spell storing adamantine gauntlets +19 (1d6+17/19-20 plus spell)
Ranged masterwork revolver +13 (1d8/x4)
Special Attacks rogue talents (hard to fool, offensive defense, powerful sneak), sneak attack +4d6
TACTICS
Before Combat Unless fioghting in the arena, Soldier 94 prefers to approach his enemies invisibly, striking from concealment before engaging a large group of foes.
During Combat Soldier 94 attempts to use its ring of invisibility to create opportunities for nonlethal sneak attacks, preferring to focus on softer targets whose flat-footed AC is well withing its ability to hit, or to strike a foe that seems particularly vulnerable to its spell stored hold person spells. Held targets are subjected to a full barrage of nonlethal attacks, which Soldier 94 hopes will bring them to their knees. Against disorganized foes, Soldier 94 picks on those who fit the above criteria but also seem the most dangerous, hoping to force the remaining enemies to scatter. Against well-organized enemies, it instead targets the weakest-looking opponent, hoping to take that creature unconscious but alive back to its lair and force pursuit.
Morale Soldier 94 sees more benefit to staying functional than attempting to stop determined foes. It flees when reduced to 25 hit points or fewer by activating its ring of invisibility before clambering up a rooftop or ducking down an alley to evade pursuit. If presented with no other option but surrender, it offers PCs a substantial cash reward for its safe return. Enemies who force Soldier 94 to flee or bargain for its safety are marked as troublemakers; such characters find it hard to buy even basic goods in the Hivemarket and are frequent targets for pranks and other harassment.
STATISTICS
Str 28, Dex 17, Con —, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 6
Base Atk +10; CMB +19; CMD 32
Feats Dodge, Improved Critical (slam), Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Sap Adept, Sap Master, Toughness, Weapon Focus (slam)
Skills Climb +32, Craft (machines) +18, Diplomacy +13, Disable Device +20, Knowledge (engineering) +18, Knowledge (geography) +18, Knowledge (local) +11, Linguistics +11, Perception +16, Sense Motive +16
Languages Akitoni, Azlanti, Common, Draconic, Low Arl, Shobhad, Vercite, Ysoki
SQ construct points (adamantine, additional attack, additional movement (climb)), self-modified, strategic training, tactical awareness +1, trapfinding +2, trap sense +2
Gear +3 mithral shirt plating, 2 +2 spell storing adamantine gauntlets (each contains hold person (DC 20)), masterwork revolver with 24 bullets, amulet of natural armor +3, belt of physical might +4 (Str, Dex), cloak of resistance +4, dusty rose prism ioun stone, headband of mental superiority +2(Knowledge (geography), Vercite), ring of invisibility, ring of protection +3, masterwork thieves' tools
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Self-Modified (Ex): Soldier 94 has spent decades—if not centuries—modifying itself. Soldier 94 gains an extra construction point for every 2 hit dice it gains. This is in addition to the standard 2 skill points for Medium animated objects. Soldier 94 can also reallocate its construction points with 1,000 gp in raw materials, a successful DC 20 Craft (machines) check, and 1 day's worth of work per construction point to be reallocated. A failed check wastes half the raw materials, but may be retried as with a normal Craft check.
Wealthy: Being a construct without need to eat, sleep, or purchase creature comforts, and being a long-standing institution in the Hivemarket, Soldier 94 has accumulated vast wealth in its long years of operation, and has had time and money to modify its' physical structure and internal components to an astounding degree. Soldier 94 has starting wealth equivalent to a PC, and its statistics are derived using a 25-point buy. In addition, Soldier 94 is of a prototype design (+0 Wis, -6 Cha). These benefits increase its CR by 1.
Man, this thread is awesome.
You need to make a pdf of this...
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There's one PDF so far, Thanael, in the form of Cities of Akiton: Arl. I'm planning on doing several more. I think it'll be Hivemarket next, followed by a world overview PDF covering the calender, society, flora and fauna, and other stuff along those lines.
BTW, the Community Use rules dictate that I post links to all the PDFs I make that are part of the Community Use license. So if you check my user profile, there'll be links to all of it there.
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I may have to tweak Soldier 94's CR a bit just because of sheer AC-ness. That, or burn a point or two's worth of armor bonus to get electricity resistance. An AC of 35 is still 6 points higher than "average" for a CR 14 monster, but its also a few points below for attacks and saves, and about half the number of hit points (mitigated by the high AC and hardness), so I think with that simple adjustment, it's on like Donkey Kong.
Soldier 94 isn't really supposed to be a villain, though. It's a major ally for anyone looking to get in touch with one or more power groups in the Hivemarket, since its on good terms with basically all of them, and is a useful impartial negotiator when two or more groups go at each other.
I just wanted to stat it out. Because, y'know, robots.
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Ick. It's 18,000 to get resist energy 10 on a suit of armor? The ring version's cheaper at 12,000, but then I have to lose one of my two other rings, unless I buy a hand of glory, which is 8,000 gp AND makes me lose my amulet of natural armor...
Looks like it'll just be time to suck it up and enchant the armor, then.
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Alright. For those playing along at home, Soldier 94's AC dropped to 35, touch 17, flat-footed 32 (+7 armor, +2 deflection, +3 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 insight, +12 natural). It now has resist electricity 10, and its revolver is now a +1 revolver, making its ranged attack +14/+9 (1d8+1/x4).
I'm also adjusting its gauntlets to +1 merciful spell storing gauntlets, lowering its attacks to +18 and reducing damage to +16.
However, when doing a nonlethal sneak attack slam against a flat-footed opponent, average damage is:
3.5 +16 (base damage)
4 x 8 = 32 (sneak attack dice, doubled from Sap Master; Sap Adept treats all 1s rolled as 2s, adding essentially an extra .5 to average damage dice)
3.5 (merciful)
...55 points of nonlethal. That'll knock out the average 11th-level full arcane caster in one hit, assuming their Con is 13 or lower.
A full attack from invisibility is 110 points of damage, which brings down an average fighter with a Con of 17 or lower, though I'd take out the healer before that.
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Soldier 94's second-in-command is a clockwork servant with the clockwork subtype swapped out for the robot subtype, made intelligent and given around 8 levels of wizard; it can use its repair ability to keep everything in working order, and is probably a liberated and mdified Vercite repair drone. It's also got a pile of robot soldiers to help enforce what little law the assorted Hivemarket guilds and criminal organizations can agree on.
A curious ability I've been tinkering with is Soldier 94's ability to communicate with Aballonians. There's almost no contact between Akiton and Aballon, but there's some members of Those Who Become who are reaching out to other sentient robots. There's only two real places where robots are running around in large numbers in the solar system, and that's Akiton and Verces. Numeria's got a few, of course, and I'd bet dollars to donuts the Eoxians have some, but the Numerian machines are too rigidly contolled by the enigmatic forces within the Silver Mount (not the Technic League; those guys just think they're running the robot show), and I expect the Eoxians keep their 'bots on a very tight leash. Apostae has a few robots inside it, but the key issue is that no one can GET inside Apostae, so no one knows they're there. Then there's some robots bouncing around the Diaspora, which might even be Aballonians, or at least constructed by the enigmatic First Ones, but seem content to just jump around mining the asteroids.
Akiton's an excellent place for Aballonians to "recruit" allies to their side, or study new and unusual (to them) designs. When a robot's ownerdies, if it didn't plan on passing the robots down to an apprentice or something, they have a tendency to wander around on whatever their previous mission was, and eventually the sudden lack of orders causes them to either go nuts, or accept that they're their own master now. Robots are rare. But they've been around for several centuries. So there's probably a few hundred "emancipated" robots running around the surface of Akiton.
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I should also note, in case its not obvious, that Akiton is not some high-tech paradise. Guns are still floating around Wild-West-era Earth tech. Most citizens couldn't dream of affording a robot, even if they have seen one. There's sandships and skyships, but owned by only the city-states or incredibly wealthy individuals and organizations. Most everyone gets around on thooks (a six-legged Large-size lizard I'll be statting up), while Ysoki ride lao-laos (Medium-sized rat-things), and the Shobhad-neh ride Thachi (bigger lizards). When speed is of the essence, a cliopteris is the way to go (two-legged half-bird, half-lizards that run like the dickens- think partially feathered deinonychus and you're mostly there).
Guns are plentiful (Akiton's purpose-made for the "Guns Everywhere" info from Ultimate Combat, and all the info I'm making uses that assumption), but the way of the sword is a long-standing, proud martial tradition, considered still to be the height of martial prowess. Longswords in particular are popular, and there's a fighting style that allows one to wield most any sword-like weapon with finesse instead of brute strength (though that route is no less valid). Expect to have plenty of chances to engage in classic sword-fights, wander the vast Dune Seas astride a scaly alien beast, and other suitably action-packed fantasy action.
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A further note, and something I'm going to discuss in the New Rules document, but I'm going to start brainstorming here.
In most sword and sorcery campaigns, the traditional armor of the plate-clad knight, the rogue in black leathers, the chainmail-clad cleric, and the wizard's enchanted bracers function by the rules as written with only small changes in appearance to fit the theme of the campaign (medieval Europe, feudal Japan, ancient Rome, and thousands more). The spiritual inspirations for Akiton present a rather interesting conundrum for this standard system.
Everyone's basically naked.
True, one can easily ignore the standard tropes of the Martian space opera genre, sending heroes and villains clashing fully garbed in traditional armors, with no modification to its appearance. But a bit of the exotic-ness of Akiton gets lost in a straight translation of armor appearance and rules. So what's a GM to do?
I'm not here to get into an argument about modesty, gender disparity, or even practical armor design. I'm here to roll some dice, to help you roll yours, and have a kick-ass time doing it. If the very concept of imaginary people on an imaginary world doing imaginary things for imaginary goals and rewards while wearing impractical outfits wigs you out, this campaign may not be for you. Akitoni society is as gender-equal as any world the fine folks at Paizo have designed them (and indeed, it is by design; Paizo's working hard to slay the "Women in Refrigerators" demon that plagues the gaming hobby to this day); everyone's just barely clad.
A few suggestions on how to run your game are provided below.
Chainmail Bikini/Oppan Conan Style
In standard campaigns, this drives me nuts, especially when its only the women running around in impractical armor that better serves as uncomfortable intimate apparel. But with Akiton, it's fitting, and definitely gender-neutral: yes, the women are wearing, at best, Princess Leia's slave outfit from "Return of the Jedi", but the men are also running around like Conan or Tarzan, and no one cares.
In a nutshell: armor uses the same rules (weight, cost, armor penalties, max Dex bonus, etc.) as presented in the Core Rulebook and other sourcebooks. It just looks way different. For example, a suit of full plate may more accurately look like something worn by a gladiator, but it still costs 1,500 gp, provides a +9 armor bonus, has a max Dex bonus of +1, has an armor check penalty of -6 and a spell failure chance of 35%, reduces its wearer's speed, and weighs 50 lbs.
This is the easiest solution, game-rules-wise, since all it changes is aesthetics. Its downside is that when a group of strangers arrive wearing "real" armor, it becomes hard to explain how an arm-guard costs the same, weighs as much, and protects equally to a full suit of leather, chain, or plate. If your game never has strangers appear from off-planet (without "going native," at least), this won't be a problem. But it may still require more suspension of disbelief than some folks are willing to accept.
This is the core assumption for these rules for ease of use and/or conversion, but it's not for every game; however, replacing it with the alternatives presented below should be pretty easy to work with.
An alternative to this, um, alternative might be to use the Piecemeal Armor rules found in Ultimate Combat, and encourage native Akitoni PCs to pick classes and class archetypes that focus less on physical armor, or not at all. Shields get regular use on Akiton, as well, so archetypes and feats that enhance the use of a shield may also help to flavor Akitoni melee combatants.
Of course, the easiest solution of all is to simply “remove” most armors from the planet, expect that there's a lot less armor, and therefore folks will get hit more often. Forewarning your PCs might help guide them to abilities that can help mitigate this, such as classes and archetypes that provide DR. Indeed, the flavor of Akiton lends itself well to a world where agile swordsman use wit and agility to avoid attacks, and brutal barbarians simply take hit after hit and keep coming.
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I may do a few generic NPC builds with melee combatants who are unarmored, lightly armored, or just tough as nails. In addition, the Agile Blade feat I'm working on basically lets you treat most (if not all) swords as finesse weapons and lets them be considered "piercing" weapons for the purpose of the duelist class. Having a lot of finesse fighters, especially higher-level ones with levels in duelist, can get some NPCs (and PCs) an AC high enough to avoid most attacks from level-equivalent foes.
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Here's a dude who, like Danzig, never wears a shirt.
Space.
Used.
To keep it real.
XP 600
Akitoni human savage barbarian 3
CN Medium humanoid (human)
Init +1; Senses Perception +7
DEFENSE
AC 14, touch 11, flat-footed 11 (+1 Dex, +2 dodge, +3 shield; -2 rage)
hp 40 (3d12+15)
Fort +8, Ref +2, Will +4; +1 vs. fear
Defensive Abilities uncanny dodge
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee mwk longsword +8 (1d8+4/19-20)
Ranged javelin +4 (1d6+4)
Special Attacks rage 11 rounds/day, rage power (guarded stance)
TACTICS
Base Statistics When not raging, the barbarian's statistics are AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 13; hp 34; Fort +6, Will +2; Melee mwk longsword +6 (1d8+/19-20); Str 15, Con 16; CMB +5; CMD 16; Climb +8
STATISTICS
Str 19, Dex 13, Con 20, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8
Base Atk +3; CMB +7; CMD 18
Feats Dodge, Shield Focus
Skills Climb +10, Handle Animal +5, Perception +7, Ride +7, Survival +7
Languages Akitoni
SQ fast movement
Gear masterwork heavy seabeast ivory shield, masterwork longsword, 3 javelins
Boon A Dune Sea raider can guide a group of PCs through up to 3 days' worth of native terrain.
The primary hunters and warriors of the trackless Dune Seas, every small community in the tribal lands is host to at least a handful of these uncouth barbarians. Sometimes, Dune Sea raiders can be hired as mercenaries, adding savage brutality to offensive maneuvers for a meager handful of coin, food, or livestock. More often, small roving bands of raiders mounted on thooks are encountered by travelers, meetings that usually end in bloodshed.
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"Waiter, what's a thook doing in my post?"
"It appears to be up in ur base, eating ur commoners, sir."
"This joke is so not funny. Let's just stat the damned riding lizard already."
This large, six-footed lizard trundles swiftly almong the ground, a feathered frill standing upright along its head and neck.
XP 400
N Large animal
Init +2; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +6
DEFENSE
AC 11, touch 11, flat-footed 9 (+2 Dex, –1 size)
hp 18 (2d8+9)
Fort +6, Ref +5, Will +1
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee bite +4 (1d8+3)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
STATISTICS
Str 16, Dex 14, Con 17, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 3
Base Atk +1; CMB +5; CMD 17 (23 vs. trip)
Feats Endurance, Toughness
Skills Perception +6
ECOLOGY
Environment cold deserts (Akiton)
Organization solitary or mated pair
Treasure none
The primary pack and riding animals among Akitoni humans and lizardfolk, thooks are large, surly warm-blooded lizards with impressive strength and poor temperaments. All thooks are considered combat trained, though the Handle Animal skill is still required to make it accept commands. Thooks stand 4 to 5 feet tall at the shoulder and weigh between 1,000 and 1,500 pounds.
The statistics above are for a typical thook. Some thooks are larger and heartier, bred for vicious combat, or more rarely, exceptionally hard labor. These thooks are called “war thooks” and gain the following adjustments to the base statistics detailed above.
War Thook: A war thook gains the advanced simple template. In addition, it also gains a tail slap as a secondary attack that inflicts 1d8 damage.
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Three Dune Sea raiders mounted on thooks is only about 200 XP shy of a CR 7 encounter; I'll have to make some CR 1/2 pet for them to bring along as well. For now, just use the stats for an eagle, re-skinned as a feathered reptile that aids them in hunts and whatnot.
Adding a CR 4 barbarian huntmaster or sub-chieftain by throwing another two levels of bar-bar onto him, plus mounted on a thook to call his own, gets you a CR 8 encounter. Though I generally dislike mook-fights like that because PCs have a tendency to be bastards and swiftly kill anything that isn't 2 above their APL.
Or maybe that's just my group.
Still, an APL 6 group might get a workout defending a small community from a gang of raiders, or an APL 4 or 5 could feel mighty epic slaying such a threat. Thooks are also fast enough to run alongside a sandship (literally run, with the barbarians bailing onto the side of the ship), allowing for Eberron-like "fight off the boarding party" action.
Not really. You´re just kinda standing on a stage telling tales about Akiton here that make people listen in awe^^
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That's far too flattering. I'm more like a crazy street preacher babbling about a far-off world where four-armed giants clash with loincloth-clad heroes bearing swords, while massive cannons fire from hovering sandships, spilling bright blood on red earth under orange sky. A storm brews in the east, and I can hear it conceals savages chanting, "An-CHOK! An-CHOK! An-CHOK!"
I really like at least 75% of the pantheon I made up.
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They're my invention. I did a Wiki-hunt on Burroughs many months ago (I haven't read any John Carter, nor seen the movie, but I'm somewhat familiar with the genre tropes by casual osmosis), and there were creatures called thoats or something that the giants rode around on. I wanted to offer a Medium mount, two Large mounts (one light and swift, one slower and like a heavy mount), and one Huge mount (for the Shobhads).
The name thook just came to me, and it works. It just sounds... right. The other names were similar "mash syllables together 'til they sound right", with slightly less success.
I thought I posted up the other mounts, but maybe they're just buried in my notes. Hmm.
EDIT: Nope, they're up in one of the random posts.
I'll prolly jump on laolaos next (hopping man-sized kangaroo rats), then cliopteri (speedy two-legged pseudo-raptors, as described above), then onto thachi (Huge six-legged lizard-things purpose-bred for war).
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I'm considering firing off a message to James Sutter for suggestions on how he imagines the khulan. I have a few ideas, but I don't really just want to make another mid-to-high-single-digit-CR incorporeal critter that does nothing new. It's his concept I'm building on (thether with diamonds or crap is up for debate, but so far, people seem to be leaning to the superdense carbon side), and I'd like to include as much of his vision as I can.
After all, maybe they'll do an Akiton sourcebook and want to borrow my ideas. It's easier to mash 'em in if it's basically as canonical as can be.
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Grab that Ysoki warrior from several pages earlier, throw 'em on this bad boy, and hop onto some poor suckers like a mofo!
HOP
HOP
HOP
This two-legged, rat-like creature stands almost as tall as a human, its protruding black eyes, folded upper limbs, and hairless pink flesh giving it an alien appearance. Its strange trunk-like nose snuffles, twitching its short whiskers furtively.
XP 400
N Medium animal
Init +1; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +6
DEFENSE
AC 11, touch 11, flat-footed 10 (+1 Dex)
hp 13 (2d8+4)
Fort +5, Ref +4, Will +0; +4 vs. disease
Immune filth fever
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee 2 claws +2 (1d4+1)
Special Attacks pounce
STATISTICS
Str 13, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 4
Base Atk +1; CMB +5; CMD 17 (23 vs. trip)
Feats Endurance, Run
Skills Acrobatics +1 (+9 to jump), Perception +6; Racial Modifier +8 Acrobatics to jump
ECOLOGY
Environment cold deserts (Akiton)
Organization solitary or pack (2-20)
Treasure none
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Disease (Ex) Filth fever: Claws—injury; save Fort DC 12; onset 1d3 days; frequency 1/day; effect 1d3 Dex damage and 1d3 Con damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Laolaos are the favored mounts of Ysoki, dwelling within their warrens and dens, frequently even sharing the same nest. Laolaos are meticulously clean creatures, save for their claws, which they purposefully lick with diseased spittle; all laolaos are innately immune to filth fever, but can serve as carriers with their weak bite, or on their sharp claws. All laolaos are considered combat trained, though the Handle Animal skill is still required to make it accept commands. Laolaos stand 3 to 4 feet tall at the shoulder and weigh about 200 pounds.
The statistics above are for a typical laolao. Tougher laolaos with the advanced simple template exist, but are relatively uncommon; such creatures gain a bite as a secondary attack that inflicts 1d6 damage.
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So let's adjust the Ysoki scavenger encounter accordingly:
1 Ysoki scavenger + 1 laolao = CR 1 encounter.
Multiply by 2 to get a CR 3 encounter. Multiply by 3 to get a CR 4 encounter. Multiply by 6 to get a CR 6 encounter.
When picking your CR, don't forget that the PCs will most likely have a day of rest between any major encounters, so feel free to test them.
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I am reading WAY too much about iron, rust, oxidization, and corrosion resistance. Akiton's got a really dry climate, so that helps, and of course we have magic (which is probably how they're able to convert all that surface rust back into workable iron), but I'd like to use as much science (or pseudoscience) as possible.
I've also decided to add a relatively small area of highly radioactive materials to the surface, called the Glowlands, perfect for spawning irradiated mutant monsters when you need something weird. Though there's also the Under, the Akitoni version of the Darklands. Nothing crawling out of there is good news.