Ok, so I've taken to the task of introducing some people to Pathfinder. To make it easier for them we're doing a one-shot, and if it's successful it will lead to a campaign. To save some energy I'm building the characters for 3 of the players. I do have 1 experienced player.
I chose to make the setting Middle-Earth to make it easier for them to understand, as none of them have any tabletop experience. I requested a race, class, and gender and have been working on their characters. It's going to be an E7 campaign to simply things, and fit thematically with Middle Earth.
Here is what I have:
PC 1
Race: Dwarf
Sex: Male
Homeland: haven't determined where he is from yet
Class: Paladin (Warrior of the Holy Light)
PC 2
Race: Elf
Sex: Male
Homeland: Rivendell
Class: Ranger (Skirmisher)
PC 3 (This is my experienced player)
Race: Istari (Gandalf's race)
Sex: Male
Homeland: Valinor
Class: Wizard
As far as this character goes, I spent time with the person building it. I'm not worried about him being an Istari. And yes, I know this would not be canonical.
PC 4
Race: Hobbit (Halfling)
Sex: Female
Homeland: Shire
Class: THE PROBLEM
Here is the problem. We discussed doing a rogue, but I don't want her character to feel unimportant to the game. I know rogues can be useful, they just don't tend to shine well in the games I run. I don't design a lot of traps, and I'm worried that she's not going to be as interested in a lot more of the maneuvering that takes place during combat to get sneak attack. She's the most shaky of the players to stick around, she's I think nervous to roleplay.
I was considering switching her to a Trapper Ranger, but I really don't know. I don't want to do anything involving spellcasting due to the setting, and it being a lot more to learn the first time out as a player. I'm kinda just fishing for some advice here.
The only thing she did say about her character is that she wanted to be a gardener lol
The plot hook for the adventure will be her sister being kidnapped when they go to sell goods in Bree, and she has to get people to help get her back.
We play tomorrow and I've just not been able to figure out this issue.
stats?
level?
Halfling druid maybe? With a decent dex and the warslinger trait it can do okay with a sling and spell chucking. Maybe use the animal companion for some damage or give her the plant domain (maybe growth subdomain) for more spells and have a lot of buff spells. Spells like entangle and goodberry fit with the gardner theme. If she does go for slings the magic stone spell fits in really nice.
They all have the starting array of 16,14,12,10,10,10.
They're also level 1.
Haruhiko88: I'm trying to avoid spellcasters as I mentioned. Partially because of the middle earth setting, and secondly because of it being the persons first time playing a tabletop game.
Hm... bard has been my only consideration that does have spellcasting. I guess it would be possible to slowly introduce the spells. They also wouldn't have much in the way of spells at level 1 as a bard anyway.
Well if it is low magic, maybe a rogue? Nix the rogue tricks that grant spells and the ninja trick option. With the amount of skill points you can afford to spend a few skill points on a profession for gardening. It can also tell stories etc. A few archetypes work fairly well. The filcher or burglar fits very well with the middle earth theme (after all, what do you hire a hobbit for other than being a burglar?) although if you want expand on the gardner maybe the spy and harvest poisonous plants. Other classes that work could even be an alchemist as it is at most a psuedo magic, but let's stay away from all magic.
Halflings make good archer fighters (despite a low strength score). An order of the paw cavalier would not be bad for the halfling idea. Str 14 (including the -2 str pen), 12 dex (including bonus), 14 con, 10 int, 10 wis, 14 cha (including the bonus). The standard cavalier works very well, the cavaliers charge works very well since let's face it, small characters on medium mounts are awesome indoors.
its tough to build a whole party of non-casters that are diverse and cover a variety of roles... if you're willing to deviate from that, a bard brings a lot of different tools to the party (many of which will be very helpful); if not, maybe a cavalier... there is some canonical support for halflings fighting on pony-back- they get all the 'face' skills as class skills (with 4 points/level), and the mount and mounted combat feats/abilities will help her be useful in combat (and a medium mount will be able to go pretty much anywhere the party goes).
Bard fits. Very Bombadil-ish. Problem is the OP says the player in question is "iffy" about the roleplaying aspect. Playing a bard might put her on the spot.
I might consider encouraging a straight-up fighter type, with the Catch Off-Guard and Throw Anything feats. That way, she can throw rocks and use other improvised weapons with ease. Very handy in a place like Bree, where an attack could come in the Prancing Pony, or other such public place.
I might consider encouraging a straight-up fighter type, with the Catch Off-Guard and Throw Anything feats. That way, she can throw rocks and use other improvised weapons with ease. Very handy in a place like Bree, where an attack could come in the Prancing Pony, or other such public place.
She could also use Equipment Trick with a rake (use the Heavy Blade Scabbard Tricks or make up your own). Granted, I don't know how effective this would be, but it would at least be interesting.
You may want to consider a different class for your Dwarf as with those stats a lot of his class abilities will not be very useful, lay on hands, divine grace, and the like will not work well for him. Warrior of Holy Light gets rid of the spellcasting, but he still needs his CHA and STR because he appears to be the only fighter type, so I would recommend a straight fighter out of Core. Give him the basic build:
Dwarf Fighter build
Feats: Power Attack; Weapon Focus(Dwarven Waraxe)/Toughness
The dwarven waraxe is the best weapon for him to use, he can carry a shield, but can also choose not to use it and should most of the time not have his shield drawn until he hits a combat where he really needs the boost in AC. For a low powered simple game, Shield Focus, and other feats that just give +1's to AC would be best rather than having them make super complicated builds that require a bit of system mastery. I've found that new players need to get used to rolling dice and adding modifiers before they get used to designing strategies by synergyzing feats.
I would presume that your elf there wants to be an archer type ranger, or a switch hitter, with those stats I am leaning toward archery.
Elf Ranger
Feats: Point Blank Shot
Give him a longbow, but don't expect him to master the use of a composite bow since the build doesn't really allow for it. He will have the best to hit in the group and once his combat style starts picking up he will probably also have the best damage, as a result he should keep only light armor (elven chain would be perfect, mundane and fit your setting) and focus on ranged attacks.
Your Istari Wizard (whom I can only assume is Gandalf, or one of the Blues) is a little trickier. I am not sure if you even need to make a build for him since you said your experienced player is running this one. The only 'stats' I found for an Istari race were on a 3.5 homebrew page, and they listed all physical stats -2 and all mental stats +2 with really no other racial features, so I am guessing you would want to fix that since it seems really weak to me.
Your hafling could very easily be a bard or a paladin. For a low powered and low level game though you should not feel like a rogue is useless, especially if there is only one spellcaster in the group whom you trust to not ruin the game.
I think I'll write up a rogue and bard. Then I can discuss both with the player and let them pick which they prefer.
Thanks for the advice guys!
I actually had the same plan for the Ranger, with only being slightly different.
While the dwarf isn't going to really be optimized with these stats, it's the class he's determined to play. He wanted a heavy fighter that uses holy powers. Funny enough he gave me that description before me ever mentioning paladin.
I'm considering giving them one more 12 in place of a 10 stat to help them out.
The character with the Istari is already sorted out. He knew what he was doing and we used Samsarans as his race. Which I remembered, he's actually playing a sorcerer, not a wizard.
I actually had the same plan for the Ranger, with only being slightly different.
While the dwarf isn't going to really be optimized with these stats, it's the class he's determined to play. He wanted a heavy fighter that uses holy powers. Funny enough he gave me that description before me ever mentioning paladin.
I'm considering giving them one more 12 in place of a 10 stat to help them out.
The character with the Istari is already sorted out. He knew what he was doing and we used Samsarans as his race. Which I remembered, he's actually playing a sorcerer, not a wizard.
16 14 12 12 10 10 is a decent array, I would thing two 14s would be better, a little high powered, but easy enough to make a character that functions which is more important for teaching new players imo.
I think I'll stay with the current array and see how it goes. I'm wanting to stay more toward the middle on power levels.
With this the Paladin can also have a 12 Cha. With a 16,10,14,10,12,12. (after racial adjustments)
I think I'll stay with the current array and see how it goes. I'm wanting to stay more toward the middle on power levels.
With this the Paladin can also have a 12 Cha. With a 16,10,14,10,12,12. (after racial adjustments)
Have you considered the Warpriest for him?
If this was my normal group of players I'd go with warpriest. I don't really want to use playtest material with new players. It also drifts more toward spellcasting, which I'm trying to avoid.
The races are locked. The players specifically mentioned what race/class combo they wanted other than the halfling. They wanted to be halfing (hobbit), but didn't care as much about the class other than being a gardener.
I don't expect this to be a high powered campaign, and they'll only end up as E7's. It's not quite my normal campaign style, but I can keep the difficulty in check. And eventually when they hit 7 they can start adding points to their stats.
Hobbits have some history of fighting goblins in the shire so a cavalier/samurai would make for an unusual but canonical story.
If cavalier is on the table, and you/your player doesn't want to deal with mounted combat (granted it's a bit easier with a small character, but still), maybe allow the Inspiring Commander archetype by Rite Publishing. It makes a great cheer-leader, especially when paired with the Order of the Dragon.