i need concepts for a 9th level skull and shackles character about to join a 10th level party this saturday.
basic character creation rules
- 25 point buy
- 2 traits
- in leiu of skill points derived from class at 1st level, PCs recieve a free rank in all of their class skills that are neither perform, profession nor craft. but only for their first character level. this doesn't count stuff like favored class, intelligence bonus, or racial bonuses to skill points
- HP progression is max at 1st level, using half max+1+other bonuses upon leveling. (see PFS)
- item creation is banned with the exception of consumables
- new characters join 1 level below APL (rounded up)
- no evil aligned PCs nor lawful good ones either
- dervish dance works with any 1handed slashing weapon from the light blades or heavy blades family (including light)
- anything allied with Cheliax, Pathfinder Society or Aspis Consortium is banned as are appropriate archetypes and prestige classes from those groups
allowed books are
- core rulebook (except paladins and leadership)
- APG (except inquisitor, cavalier and summoner and related archetypes)
- Ultimate Combat (except guns and optional rules)
- Ultimate magic (except homebrewing spells and antagonize)
- bestiaries 1-3 (familiars, summons and animal companions only)
- advanced race guide (any race from chapters 1-3 with appropriate alternate traits except duergar, svirfneblin, dhampir, and furry stuff like catfolk, kitsune, strix or tengu)
- inner sea world guide
- anything resembling an official pathfinder companion pamphlet if you can bring a physical copy of the appropriate content
known group members include
- male human wereshark fighter/barbarian who 2hands a katana and has a chance of attacking party members on a failed will save
- male dwarven fighter who dual wields sawtooth sabres
- male drow rogue who shows up intermittently and rarely ever gets off a sneak attack
- male nagaji dual cursed waves oracle who wields a longspear and spiked gauntlet and is built towards combat reflexes
- male halfling witch who uses a combination of hexes and weak evocation spells
- male human bard who provides support through casting and skill checks but can't fight his way out of a paper bag
- i don't know what he is playing and have no way to find out, but he tends to be reckless and die quite a bit and changes quite often
- a male human barbarian with an earthbreaker who rarely shows
if you can whip up a touhoufied concept that fits my Gensokyo filter, i'd take it up in a heartbeat. doesn't have to actually be a canon character, just fit the visual.
characters i played i don't have permission to repeat
Conflitta, female human fire elemental sorceress. face and blaster, guards tidewater rock
Umbri, female fetchling ninja, killed by undead, reanimated as a zombie and died a second time against the party
Lumi, female angelkin metal oracle, similar build to the nagaji, died protecting the crew
Rex, female human dragon style martial artist, killed zombies with a single punch, got killed by zombies when paralyzed by a mohrg
ideas i was considering that may seem a little questionable
Auren "Rin" Cloudstrider, Female Sylph Air Elementalist Wizard. essentially a street performer who invests a bit into some key roguish skills and is essentially a larcenous wizard
Tsumura Tsukiko, Female Human Undead Bloodline Sorcerer w/ eldritch heritage (shadow), a necromancer flavored with having the blood of the ferryman (think Charon) running down her veins, going through a phase of undead apoethesis as she levels, becoming more undead like as she levels. recycles deceased crew members as bloody skeletons
Selene Moonflower
Female Aasimaar dual cursed life oracle w/ scion of humanity, has blackened and haunted curses. dumps wisdom. worships Tsukiyo and heals with the moon's blessing
Rena Shadowsong; female elf master summoner, small framed elf who specializes in calling out the fiends of hell to combat the chelexian empire, informing them of how their heartless chelexian masters abused them for years, and how they should take revenge. i could make an appeal to see if this exception to the no summoners rule could be made.
List of Character Ideas
- Auren “Rin” Cloudstrider, Female Sylph Rogue/Teleportation Conjurer/Arcane Trickster, utility and skills, poor combat ability, has like the wind, weather saavy, and breeze kissed traits
- Tsumura Tsukiko, Female Tian Undead Bloodline Sorcerer focused on Necromancy, debuffer with a few blasts, could also be done as a life or bones mystery oracle, has focused study for perception and diplomacy
- Tsui Shui Feng: Female Undine Cleric of the Azure Dragon with the healing and water domains, and a Jian, has amphibious, flesh cameleon and hydrated vitality alternate traits, dervish dances with a jian
- Rina Shadowsong: Female Elven Master Summoner, has an avian eidolon for scouting, and uses summoned elementals, has limited ability to grant regeneration and uses the elementals to soak damage, has the darkvision and arcane focus traits
- Kleiner Teuffel Female Tiefling Teleportation Conjurer; battlefield control specialist, has a variety of summons buffs and blasts, has the vestigial wings and prehensile tail trait
- Princess Cherie Del Sol, “37th princess of Quadira”; female ethnically confused Ifrit fire elemental bloodline sorcerer, has wildfire heart alternate racial
- Rraakna: male half orc scarred witch doctor, has the skilled and extended darkvision alternate racials, giving him darkvision 90 and an extra skill point per level at the cost of ferocity. Has the healing patron
- Doctor Dimitri Mortonzoff Male Russian Vivisectionist/Master Chymist, provides some heals and buffs, but is essentially another tank
- Artemis “Luna” Moonwhisper; Female Fetchling Bard, Umbri’s 4th cousin and a discarded countess of the chelexian empire left to die before she sought to cure her illness by means of adventuring for leads, has gloom shimmer alternate trait
- Helia “Solaris” Dawnbringer: female aasimaar dual cursed life oracle of Sarenrae, Lumi’s 3rd cousin, thrice removed, healer and fire themed support caster, has scion of humanity alternate trait and human favored class bonus
- Nekogami Shinkuro Male Tian invulnerable rager beast totem barbarian, uses natural weapons and unarmed strikes to deal massive damage via claw, fang, and kick, modeling his style after the tiger
- Kira Moonsong: female elf sage bloodline seeker sorcerer w/ darkvision and arcane focus alternate racial traits, former member of the pathfinder society held against her will and forced to serve the crew of the reaper
- Bleeding Rain: male half orc switch hitter ranger with the skilled and extended darkvision alternate racials, effectively giving up ferocity for extra skills and darkvision 90
- Jadelocks, Male Oread Ironskin Martial Artist Monk of Many Styles, has thick skin, uses dragon and crane styles, hits hard and has a decent wisdom, wields a temple sword and longbow for backup. Compensates for AC by wearing mithril kikko under a silken ceremonial robe
- Jack “Chain Devil of the southern gate mercenary corps”. A former mercenary turned to a life of piracy, wields a meteor hammer and focuses around tripping, has archery as a secondary gig
- Klaus Earthspeaker, male dwarf druid w/ a large cougar companion, wildshaping caster who takes the form of a bird and has his cougar do the fighting for him
- Patchouli Violetta: female samsaran Teleportation Conjurer/Cleric/mystic theurge, sickly librarian who serves irori and appears frail and slight of frame
- Harmonia, Female Chelexian Flames Oracle, Conflitta’s twin sister, healer, and blaster, doubles as a face
- Sylphenia Windblossom, Female Elf kensai/black blade magus who dervish dances with a sawtooth sabre, taking the darkvision alternate racial trait
- Akane Saitou, Female Tian Ronin Sword Saint Samurai, dervish dances with a wakazashi and carries a longbow as a backup weapon.
i can't decide. and the group will offer another look this saturday
first - I am confused : Summoners do not seem to be permissible, but you list at least one master summoner^^
Who would be.... a prime choice
Second : I have no idea what a Gensokyo filter is^^
If you pick caster : pick something with a good endurance on spell effects. like "many" or "repeatable"
The flames oracle sounds like a deadly combination of offensive spells and social usefulness. If you can make it work aboard a wooden ship, more power to you....
Similar - for the Sylph elementalist, espcially if you pick the sylph's racial traits. Nasty, nice hits the spot
Personally I am not too much of a fan concerning physical striker types. Especially one's without nightvision. nevermind the group seems to be full of them.
From running the campaign to 16th level : Witches, especially one's with flight, Evil Eye (and persistent Hexes) and advanced familliars for spell delivery..... are major bad-asses, can use a number of items the group as is seems not capable of using and provide social spells that seem lacking.
Try Sylph, Tiefling or Aasimar as base races. Resistances and Darkvision.. come in handy.
And I guess you can cloak them in any type of japanese-flavour
Updated List of Current Group Members
- male human wereshark fighter/barbarian who 2hands a katana and has a chance of attacking party members on a failed will save
- male dwarven fighter who dual wields sawtooth sabres
- Ranger of Unknown Specialty who shows up every other week
- male nagaji dual cursed waves oracle who wields a longspear and spiked gauntlet and is built towards combat reflexes
- male halfling witch who uses a combination of hexes and weak evocation spells
- male human bard who provides support through casting and skill checks but can't fight his way out of a paper bag
- some kind of melee fighter, will most likely die quickly
- a male human barbarian with an earthbreaker who rarely shows
Characters on my current list to propose
- Akane Himura was created in a beaker using the seed of an Illithid with a captured surrogate Tian mother to carry her to term by a group of cultists dedicated to Lamashtu. When Akane Was Young, the cultists were slain by a band of adventurers and her Psionic talents quickly manifested, Mimicking a limited variation of the Illithid concept of the hive mind, and the ability to heal through this network. Though perfectly human in appearance, her mind was rather aberrant, making it difficult for her to empathize. Despite being able to forge psychic bonds with anyone for 24 hours apiece. She became a healer and was accepted into the crew of the thresher before being accepted into the crew of the reaper when the thresher was captured; Akane is a Female Elan Vitalist from psionics expanded with the failed experiment (Human) alternate racial trait, granting her skilled
- Rakh-Narh is the offspring of an orc and a mwangi human captive after a tribal raid by orcs, trained to become a witch doctor through a life of ceremonial abuse. Hia scars gave him power, and he became a great orcish healer in the tradition of the orcs of the expanse. His tribe was decimated by Kuru and he was saved by an aspis consortium ship that eventually got captured by the reaper. Rakh Narh is a male half orc Scarried Witch Doctor with the skilled and expanded darkvision alternate racial traits. Effectively trading ferocity for skilled and an extra 30 feet of darkvision
- Auren “Rin” Cloudstrider is a sylph raised by a varisian caravan and at a young age, she was kidnapped by gaedren lamm, she became a beggar, theif and performer to earn the funds to afford a safe passage to Sargava, while still sargava bound, her ship was captured by the wormwood, and she hated every day of it. The reaper promised her a chance to punish captain harrigan, and she accepted, following caulky and becoming an assistant cook to fishguts. Rin is a female sylph air elementalist wizard with the ‘like the wind’ ‘weather saavy’ and ‘breeze kissed’ alternate traits
- Rina Shadowsong is a forlorn small framed elf raised by multiple groups of chelexian foster parents. She was apprenticed to a powerful conjurer as a child, whom offered her lessons in exchange for intimate favors. It was a deal her chelexian foster parents approved of. To summon she learned, and the teacher looked for every last excuse he could to squeeze extra pleasure for his sick self. Eventually she joined the chelexian navy because she wanted to escape the hell known as westcrown. When her ship was captured by the Reaper, she was glad to be free of those infernal bastards. Now she rebels against the empire with the very fiends they take so much pride in. Rina is a female elven master summoner with the darkvision and arcane focus alternate racial traits
- Klaus Earthspeaker is a dwarf that grew up in a mountain range fairly close to Sargava, serving as a Geomancer, speaking to the earthmother to find worthwhile digging sites for the fellow dwarves, and housing sites for fellow humans. Like any dwarf, he was susceptible to greed, and promises of wealth led him to the life of a pirate, he joined the crew of the Lucky one, because the captain was a fellow dwarf, and because he could relate to the feelings of greed. Klaus is a Male Dwarven Druid w/ a large male Cougar Companion named Hans
- Ilina is the young daughter of a celestial nymph and a taldan human fetchling. Though the celestial genes are dominant, she can also give birth to a fetchling as well. She is a healer who seeks to bear the finest pair of twin daughters to spoil, but first, she must develop a fortune to spoil those daughters from. So she became a healer for the pathfinder society before her ship was captured. Her method is saving lives, and bringing ill fortune to those who threaten her life. She is haunted by the spirits of misfortune, and she is highly untrained in combat to the point of being so nonproficient, it is a joke. She compensates through magic, wielding fire and spirits as tools. Ilina is an Aasimaar Dual cursed life oracle with the blackened and haunted curses and Scion of Humanity and swim speed alternate racial traits
i know i am going to require permission for Akane or Rina. but those are the two i really want to play. the others seem fairly fun too. like Klaus and Hans, Rahk-Nahr, Ilina, and Rin.
given your pre-selection.... go for the sylph elementalist.
In all honesty, we do seem to play stuff down pretty different paths, so my advice might be "off" for you. Basically, because most of the concepts would occur instant enmity by both my co-players and most GMs I know, for being slightly overwrought and "attention-grabbing".
just my 2 cents, and the way things look, your group ticks differently.
i guess i could instead let the group decide what roles they prefer and i will build a character around that there. i mean the game is tomorrow. of wait, less than 25 hours away.
well, since the group lacks a healer, a stealth guy, and a battlefield controller.
i guess i will bring in the dwarf druid and his pet jaguar. the jaguar covers the stealth niche, even if he is a little large (8 feet long, not counting tail, about 500 lbs or so). the druid covers the healing and battlefield control niche, not perfectly, but enough to assist as a secondary or tertiary. and both can do some fighting (earth elemental form for the dwarf)