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Just a fun little discussion of what would be the Ultimate 4 person party for the AP, considering both utility and fun. It is obviously subjective, so please post your own.
1. Human Wizard - (Transmutation School).
Why? This is a AP all about anchient wizards. It is full of spellbooks and rollplaying opportunities and at the end, this player could become the new runelord of Greed. Hence picking transmutation.
2. Human Bard (Archeologist Archtype)
Why? This fills a ton of party roles. You have your trapfinder, secondary caster and healer, party face...not to mention the bardic knowledges are going to very much come in handy. Not a power house, but a jack of all trades that will come very much in handy throughout the campaign.
3. Human Paladin -
Why? Many campaigns are hard for Paladins. This one isn't. The bad guys are bad. Immunity to fear and detecting evil will very much come in handy at many points in the campaign. He is your tank, your secondary face, your nova against the BBEG and yet another healer.
4. Human Druid -
Why? Because this is a heavy travel campaign over lots and lots of different terrain. Wild shape is great for scouting, and you will absolutely need scouting.
Thoughts, or post your own.
1) Dwarf Ranger with Animal Companion
2) Dwarf Cleric of Abadar travel and nobility.
3) Aasimar Druid, animal companion swapped out as needed.
4) Aasimar Paladin with Mount.
I rediscovered this thread two days ago.
Everything Greycloak says on the Ranger is pretty bang on. A Switch Hitter to deal with giants, preferably a dwarf for +4 AC, would be a great boon for most of the adventure.
Perhaps more situationally, a party with at least one elf will have a much less terrifying time of Skinsaw murders. An Elf cleric of Desna would be a flavourful addition. Perhaps the days of CoDzilla are over, but with the abundance of scary conditions, harsh combats and high-stakes combat, a cleric and his planar allies wouldnt be missed.
I definately agree on the wizard, that pretty much speaks for itself, and the yeth hounds in Burnt Offerings alone are reason enough for fear immunity.
The Druid, however... I'd much rather replace with a well equipped fighter. There's a lot to be said for a high-AC high-HP frontliner in the higher levels, against opponents that will kill most PCs in one power attack, and one frontliner is never enough at my table. Besides, someone has to wield those runeforged weapons...
The one we're about to play looks pretty formidible. We're running the exact same 4-man party we ran through Second Darkness because it went so well, but adding a fifth member.
Four-man party:
Elven Wizard (Void Mage & Spellbinder) - Void Mages are the bomb, plain and simple. Elves get to use their Reveal Weakness pretty much at will and Spellbinders offer tremendous versatility for a prepared caster.
Human Arcane Duelist - recently came across a build for this archetype that I really like. Casts more spells and knows more spells than any other version I've seen and can be very effective in combat. Plus buffs. Plus heals. Plus face.
Half-Elf Summoner - the build takes one level of Fighter at 8th or 9th and uses his eidolon as a mount w/lance and arcane armor. Before that he fights behind him using a longspear. The character has a high strength and has taken the Orc Bloodline; Touch of Rage begs for an eidolon or animal companion.
Half-Elf Master Summoner - the two are twins. Having a Master Summoner makes up for not having a full martial in the group to tank for us and gives us tremendous versatility in combat. The Bard's Inspire Courage and Discordant Voice gets put to excellent use here. Having a small eidolon built for stealth and perception gives them a super-stealthy expendable scout that can see in the dark, communicate telepathically and eventually fly.
To those four we're going to add a really great Human Archer (actually a Weaponmaster Fighter with a couple of levels of Urban Barbarian, who has eventual plans to take some late levels of Transmutation Wizard and Arcane Archer).
Really going to have to beef up some encounters, I think.
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This is the party I would be afraid to face.
Dwarf Ranger Archer- Favored Enemy: Giants (max), Undead, Dragons, Human
Wolf animal companion built as a tank
Paladin: (Divine Hunter)- obviously archer
Bard- Noble Scion (war) and archery focus
Elf Wizard Diviner/ Arcane Archer
Everyone keeps their perception high and takes the Lookout teamwork feat. The Ranger and Bard can use stealth combined with the Diviner using arcane eye and other magic to scout. They should get the drop on most encounters and a full round from four archers (thanks to lookout and the diviner) will end most combats before they begin.
High initiatives (through noble scion of war, high dex, favored terrain and eventually, moment of prescience) means that the first round of combat will probably be a repeat of the surprise round.
It's not unbeatable, by any means and the first few levels could be tough, but once they get in their groove, these four will mow down most of the AP without breaking a sweat.
Well, my party is doing a great job stomping through RotRL.
We started with a 6-PC party, but two players had to resign, so we're left with...
Human (Ulfen) barbarian (invulnerable rager archetype).
--- This guy is nigh unstoppable, and dishes out ridiculous damage in melee.
Human (Chelish) wizard (universalist). No archetype.
--- RotRL is full of wizardly goodness, and there is no shortage of enemy spellbooks to capture. He's mostly a blaster.
Human (Taldan) cleric of Sarenrae. No archetype. Fire and Sun domains.
--- He's Mr. Heal-bot, with feat selections that maximize his healing and channeling. While he's mostly a support character who uses his spells for buffing, with the Sun and Fire domains, he's also useful as a blaster.
Half-elf (Varisian) ranger/rogue. No archetype.
--- He's the skill-monkey. With a ridiculous Perception and Trap Sense, the PCs almost never fall into traps. He's pretty good as a second-string fighter.
This party's big weakness is ranged combat. In situations with difficult terrain or entrenched enemies at range, the barbarian is somewhat neutralized, and they rely on the spellcasters to either hit the bad guys directly or use mobility effects to bring the barbarian into the fight.
The two PCs that left, by the way, were a human paladin of Iomedae and a dwarf ranger (crossbow combat specialist). The dwarf had been the ranged attack guy, and the paladin had been another front-line tank.
I will post Ultimate 6 characters teams, because as a Baldur's Gate fan I believe than team under 6 guys is not a team.
Also it fits because - 6 books.
So for Book 1:
cleric of Pazuzu, because it add aditional tension fighting Nualia
also Pazuzu is kinda well... you know... decent guy for a tanaari/orylith/qlippoth...
For Book 2:
fear immuned chaotic good elf paladin of Desna
For Book 3:
warrior prestiged to Hellknight
For Book 4:
obviously giant-hunting dwarven ranger
For Book 5:
knowledge obsessed wizard, can be diviner just to screw more with Runelords and their lore
For Book 6:
obviously archeologist type bard
It Lives!
Mwahahahahahaha!
We usually have 6 in our parties, so Im gonna go with that.
Warder (from Path of War) - melee badass and a true tank (substitute for Paladin if maneuvers offend you)
Ranger - giant slayer and the warders flanking buddy (Slayer also works here)
Wizard - this campaign screams for a wizard, provides all the normal wizard awesomeness (can also be Arcanist)
Oracle - life mystery, your general divine caster, the ultimate healer in the game (with the exception of maybe a Vitalist), can also act as secondary face
Investigator - empiricist archetype, the trapfinder and skill monkey extraordinaire, loads of utility, decent combatant too
Bard - arcane duelist archetype, the true party face, buff/inspire, goes archery for combat effectiveness
We usually have 5 Players, so I'm going to go with my top 5.
1. Human/Elf Wizard: Trust me, it's a good call. Arguably a witch would be good too. (slumber hex is a great thing in book 3)
2. Gnome/Human Cleric of Sarenrae or Desna: Gnome can get some fire bonuses is you go healing and fire domains for Sarenrae, which gives you extra healing and some damage. I like Desna with the luck and travel domains too, helps you move around and gives you nice buff spells.
3. Elf/Dwarf Paladin: Immune or resistant to a lot of stuff, and helps allies with fear saves, which there are a number of. I know dwarf lowers Charisma, but spell resistance might be worth it.
4. Half Orc Barbarian with Beast totem: There is one in the RotL game i am running now, I have to change most encounters so that he can't charge straight in with his pounce and bite attack from toothy, because not a lot of things can survive that very well.
5. Halfling Bard Archaeologist or Thundercaller: Archaeologist gives you a lot of useful rouge abilities, but Thundercaller lets your bard do AoE damage every round. Great for dealing with swarms so wizard can concentrate on other things.
Edit: Forgot to mention the bard takes leadership and gets Shalelu as a cohort.
Our group had 4, but picked up one more after the first chapter.
1) Dwarven ranger/rogue. One level dip in rogue, the rest ranger, axe and shield meatgrinder. Giants? Pfftt.
2) Human cleric of Sarenrae. Platemail and scimtar, Healing and Fire domains. High AC and survivability as a frontline backup, tons of healing, and minor blasting. The cleric casts Fireball!
3) Elven Wizard. Lots of fun for wizards. This one focused on Spell Penetration and Persistant/Bouncing spell. He WILL land that crucial spell when you need it. He just got Staff-like Wand, so there's that.
4) Human Bard/Fighter. Spring Attacking/Disarming/Tripping Rapier master, who is the faceman of the group and mega-buffer.
and the group was made all the better by adding:
4) Half-elven Druid of Gozreh. His perception is better then Spider-Man's danger sense. He can actually detect invisible foes just from the Perception roll. No animal companion for him (nor the ranger), but he's a summoning specialist and an incredible fill-in for all the other party roles. Good battlefield control, good blasting, good healing, wild shaping utility/scout/combatant, he can fill in for anyone in the sort term.
Note every party member except the wizard can heal, and with his UMD the wizard can also use wands of nearly anything. And with his Staff-like Wand, he's got a quiver full of them.
Just a fun little discussion of what would be the Ultimate 4 person party for the AP, considering both utility and fun. It is obviously subjective, so please post your own.
1. Human Wizard - (Transmutation School).
Why? This is a AP all about anchient wizards. It is full of spellbooks and rollplaying opportunities and at the end, this player could become the new runelord of Greed. Hence picking transmutation.
2. Human Bard (Archeologist Archtype)
Why? This fills a ton of party roles. You have your trapfinder, secondary caster and healer, party face...not to mention the bardic knowledges are going to very much come in handy. Not a power house, but a jack of all trades that will come very much in handy throughout the campaign.
3. Human Paladin -
Why? Many campaigns are hard for Paladins. This one isn't. The bad guys are bad. Immunity to fear and detecting evil will very much come in handy at many points in the campaign. He is your tank, your secondary face, your nova against the BBEG and yet another healer.
4. Human Druid -
Why? Because this is a heavy travel campaign over lots and lots of different terrain. Wild shape is great for scouting, and you will absolutely need scouting.
Thoughts, or post your own.
This +1
A couple extra points:
I'd say Gnome or Halfing Druid. It would make the fight with Gogmurt much more fun, especially for any rematches in the future when he inevitibly gets away.
For the Bard, don't forget about being able to take full advantage of the stuff in the Shimmerglens, like Mirianna's blessing and the ghost ship.
Wizard: Planning on using that Sihedron Medalion as your bonded object? wink wink
Just a fun little discussion of what would be the Ultimate 4 person party for the AP, considering both utility and fun. It is obviously subjective, so please post your own.
1. Human Wizard - (Transmutation School).
Why? This is a AP all about anchient wizards. It is full of spellbooks and rollplaying opportunities and at the end, this player could become the new runelord of Greed. Hence picking transmutation.
{. . .}
I feel like this partly validates the character concept I was coming up with for this AP (not yet made into a character), but with a different choice of specialization. For a long time, this Adventure Path was a source of embarrassment, in that I couldn't think of a fitting original character for the Adventure Path that started it all . . . and then, one day, when feeling my inherent resistance to doing anything useful, it suddenly hit me: Slacker beats Slavedriver: Thassilonian (Sin Magic Specialist) Conjuration (Sloth) Wizard! After all, the 5th chapter of this Adventure Path (or at least the product blurb fot it) does ask "Can the PCs hone the sins within themselves into weapons against their true foe, Karzoug, the resurrected Runelord of Greed?" -- Sin of Sloth, coming right up! Well, that is, as soon as I can quit procrastinating . . . .
And I finally quit procrastinating. Introducing the third member of UnarcaneElection's Weirdo Collection, Mirosir Tepescik-Tessadril (still in concept stage -- almost no Crunch).
For what it's worth, I actually finished the character sheet (along with that of his cat). Will stand me in good stead when I find another Rise of the RuneLords, Shattered Star, or Iron Gods recruitment thread (Mirosir's meant for any of these 3 APs). People were ALL OVER that RotRL recruitment thread that I tried to do this for . . . I didn't know you could have Swarms of Pathfinder PbP players.
Got to finish some of my other characters some time . . . .
About to start a new Rise of the Runelords campaign, but this one is going to include three books from Shattered Star in it as well, and I'm hoping I might even be able to get my PC's up to 20th level in it - we'll see.
There will only be three PC's with the possibility for a fourth added in at some point along the way.
Human Paladin - Oath of Vengeance Paladin devoted to Sarenrae. Planning on taking a dip on Oracle (Ancestor Mystery, Legalistic Curse). He'll be the de facto leader of the group, its face and the one who looks after the other two.
Human Oracle - Spellscar Mystery and Blackblood curse, starting out as a teen-aged girl somewhat haunted by the deleterious effects she seems to have on magic. I've re-written the 'primal' magic rules to make her character particularly fun and interesting, and she'll be drawing her spells from the Sorcerer/Wizard list instead of the Cleric/Oracle one.
Half-elven Summoner - a melee-based Spirit Summoner (ACG archetype, Battle Spirit) designed around an eidolon who takes the form of a silent figure who guides him, fights alongside him and educates him in the ways of Battle.
This party should produce some unique challenges but I'm really, really looking forward to this campaign.