Is skulls and shackles a decent campaign for a new player to start into the pathfinder world with? They have no previous rpg experience.
I was going to make her a Gillmen summoner because she wants a unicorn and I figure that way is the best mechanically and still keep the flavor. I was going to make it a hippocampus varient of unicorn (seahorse with a horne and some magical powers) since it will be in a pirate ship world so I figure will have a lot of water.
She wanted to be either a gillman or a catfolk.
again, is this a good starter campaign, and what are some suggestions on making this summoner. Again, new to rpg's as a whole so easy mechanics that can still be fun.
I wouldnt reccomend summoner myself. Full casters in general are pretty elaborate.
Ranger could work; you could start her off with a giant seahorse then (using leadership/monstrous mounts) advance it to a aquacorn of some sort. You could even allow her to buy a seahorse as a mount, and then make it her companion once she gets to the right level. It would allow ease in several ways:
1) Martials are less complex at the beginning
2) She can get "introduced" to spellcasting later (through ranger spells)
Good luck! I have no idea if skull and shackles is good for beginners, but I hope she has fun.
Well my wife (she finds casters easier than a normal roll and kill fighter) will be helping her with the spells and things like that, and I will be helping with the mechanical aspect.
I know summmoners are on the complicated side, it was the best solution I could come up with to give her a unicorn...this was the only way to get her interested, and she seemed to like the idea of a water varient within early levels.
I'll look into the giant seahorse...and I know that ranged rangers are nice dps
Any other advice? or different opinions?
Well, dont forget, as animal companions go, GMs have the final say; I've heard of a lot of GMs ruling that exotic-ish mounts where allowed (this is especially true for campaigns in strange settings), so even a cavalier riding a giant seahorse wouldnt be too strange. THen again, the giant seahorse is a third party product, so you might not want to take it either.
my game my rules :)
Trying to stay at least somewhat within the guidelines though. And one of the fellow pcs will be a psionic warrior :)
I would give her some advice about summoner not being very simple, but if she is set on it, let her. She is there to have fun, and enthusiasm helps a lot in overcoming whatever hurdles she will face.
Rangers are nice, and if she gets an animal companion I´d suggest something that can work both at sea and on land (there is a fair bit of that too). Birds can be interesting companions... so would apes, if you let her have an ape companion as a ranger. Orangutans can be mean seamen - ok, seamonk... oh c..p.
Personally, I´d hope she picks a sea singer bard and gets a parrot and a tricorne hat. Can´t beat that for a sea campaign :P .
It wasn't her choosing it, I said I would build it for her so not to dissuade her from learning how to make characters and becoming overwhelmed with the choices. I'll see if she would like any other animal, but like I said, she really pressed unicorn.
I'm hoping to at least get her to enjoy it a bit. Might just give her a unicorn with waterwalking as a constant ability. she's not very imaginative so I don't think she would find a way to exploit it.
Again, this is a homebrew game, and there will probably only be about 3 players and a gmnpc