Starting a new campaign as a PC and DM tells us last min that all toons start naked (rags) and absolutely no gear or money.
Any more details than that? Will wizards still get their spell books and will you still eventually find a good pair of pants and hopefully a stylish hat? Or is this a no magic items ever situation.
Casters aren't gear dependent but aren't gonna last much more than one encounter at first level due to limited spells.
3 color sprays and as many frost rays as you want, plus all those other nice things cantrips can do. They're doing better than the fighter without unarmed strikes, that guy is provoking constant AoOs!
slings are free and stones are plentiful. Other free weapons are clubs, quaterstaffs, and wooden stakes.
I'm a big fan of core book clerics for their healing and almost full effectiveness naked. Walk along, find a nice stick and pick up your club/quarterstaff until you find some gear.
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Don't plan your character around this singular campaign detail, as you haven't given any indication the campaign will stay this way. Just make a character you want to play.
Might be an interesting opportunity for a Catch Off-Guard build. Whatever junk is lying around is going to be better than nothing.
How are you going to go multiple sessions without any items? Presumably your opponents would be carrying stuff you can remove from their corpses.
First couple of sessions? You're going to be 100 miles from the nearest available gear? I would make equipment acquisition my first priority as soon as play begins! At all costs!
Without ANY amount of gear, most prepared casters are immediately gimped...Witches being the exception. Oracles need a divine focus for their spells as well.
Without ANY amount of gear, most prepared casters are immediately gimped...Witches being the exception. Oracles need a divine focus for their spells as well.
Oracles do not need to provide a divine focus to cast spells that list divine focus (DF) as part of the components.
Its a pretty easy to miss quote. This game has a silly amount of rules sometimes. Prepared casters are boned though yes.
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Monks or Sorcerers will do well with 0 items.
A druid wouldn't be too bad since your animal companion will be your beat stick and you have spells to help with.
A cleric will need a Divine Focus (Holy Symbol) and couldn't cast spells without it.
A Barbarian with beast totem wouldn't be a bad choice as he can use his natural attacks.
A fighter with improved unarmed strike might work but his AC will be poop compared to a monks of equal level and no gear.
A Bard could do without and just sing to strengthen the party and has spells to fall back on...Bad part about the spells is the Material componites.
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If you want to play a divine spell caster take the trait birthmark. This will allow you to at least cast spells. It does not specifically say it acts as a divine focus for anything else so you may not be able to use it for other purposes like channeling energy, but talk to the GM about that.
If birthmark works for channel energy a cleric would be a pretty good choice. Taking a domain that gives a magical attack as its first level domain power will also help. You will still have decent HP and good saves so overall a pretty strong choice. The GM may be in for a bit of a surprise when you are not as limited as he thought you would be.
An inquisitor would also be a good choice. They get good skills including infiltration and movement skills, which may be your best bet until you can get equipment.
Without ANY amount of gear, most prepared casters are immediately gimped...Witches being the exception. Oracles need a divine focus for their spells as well.
Witches still need a spell component pouch to cast spells with a material component.
Any caster that does not have a spell book(witchs, sorcerers) with eschew material feat should be ok
Well, I'm not trying to sell this as a powerful option (because it's not), but taking a human wizard with Spell Mastery and Eschew Materials feats would allow a PC to take a class otherwise impossible in such a scenario. A sorcerer would be stronger, though.
Last game like this I played I went druid with a crafting specialty.
At the start I just wandered into the woods and a few days later I was fully equipped with magic leather armor and a magic weapon and plenty of mundane gear.
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Just wanted to chime in that I once played a level one game where we had a sorcerer grappled by some sort of ozz that ate away all his clothing. Somehow the subject came up that all of his body hair also got eaten. The player said he could start going by the nick name smooth! When we later found a. Cloak of protection on a otherwise naked skeleton, we gave it to the naked sorcerer so he would have something to cover himself up with. I pointed out tbat with such high sorcerer charisma, he should have confidence in how good his naked form lookedand that he should stride around in a superman pose with his arms out, elbows bent in and fists on his waist. I said that would be a sight to remember. And would freak out the enemy with psychological warefare. A crazy looking guy who could cast spells is not someone you want to tangle with.
Monks or Sorcerers will do well with 0 items.
A druid wouldn't be too bad since your animal companion will be your beat stick and you have spells to help with.
A cleric will need a Divine Focus (Holy Symbol) and couldn't cast spells without it.
A Barbarian with beast totem wouldn't be a bad choice as he can use his natural attacks.
A fighter with improved unarmed strike might work but his AC will be poop compared to a monks of equal level and no gear.
A Bard could do without and just sing to strengthen the party and has spells to fall back on...Bad part about the spells is the Material componites.
As a cleric, take craft (holy symbol) - find a tree or some sticks and make your own shoddy holy symbol. YAY for free stuff.
As a cleric, take craft (holy symbol) - find a tree or some sticks and make your own shoddy holy symbol. YAY for free stuff.
Good news! Its untrained for everyone. Can craft a lot of things given the chance.
Barbarian. I can see a barbarian doing what it takes to survive, using improvised weapons, gaining what he can to survive, using crafts to make weapons, hide armors, etc. The start of the campaign sounds fun.
Remember though, the actual barbarian class doesn't get bonuses for using hides or bonuses to his ability to survive in the wild(though his archetypes might). The concept of the barbarian who does those things can be a fighter, a cavalier, a slayer, or almost any other class. You could even break the mold and be a sorcerer who does just that.
A Barbarian with beast totem wouldn't be a bad choice as he can use his natural attacks.
I almost feel like going the natural attacks route would be unfair to the rest of the party, heheh. A Tiefling or a Tengu would be starting this campaign with three attacks, which is pretty strong in a regular game but would just be silly when you're not even competing with Mr. Falchion or the other good manufactured fighters.
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A Barbarian with beast totem wouldn't be a bad choice as he can use his natural attacks.I almost feel like going the natural attacks route would be unfair to the rest of the party, heheh. A Tiefling or a Tengu would be starting this campaign with three attacks, which is pretty strong in a regular game but would just be silly when you're not even competing with Mr. Falchion or the other good manufactured fighters.
I'd be worried if they started the game disarmed though. I like having 2 arms! Gosh forbid they take away my bite... and here I thought I was getting a head in life.
That sounds fun to me.
Play what you want. You're going to have chances to get some simple gear, and at 1st level, it's pretty tough starting out with nothing, or with max gear and the rich parents trait. Even with awesome starting gear, you still have the same hit points. Gear helps a lot, but 8 hit points is 8 hit points. You gotta play smart.
Even if you play a wizard with no spells, it'll feel good to finally get that first scroll or spellbook, and immediately be able to use it. It's just 1st level.
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I did this to my players once. Their party included a monk, a summoner, a druid and a sorcerer. They broke out of their slave cabin, overpowered the guards, took all the guards' stuff, rescued the other slaves and got away clean in nothing flat. They even left the guards alive (the paladin insisted), which really freaked the slavers out. "They're confident enough not to kill the guards?! Holy ....!"
Minor point, but no gear mean no trail rations or cash to buy food. You should probably put some dots in survival so you don't starve to death.
Outside of that Spontaneous casters and monks are good without gear. There are also a few options that focus on improvised weapons for martial classes.
Though if u r going to routinely facing EL+7 need more specifics. EL+7 should wipe the floor of a typical group. Without gear it is more like EL+9.
Yeah, forgot about that the first time. CR 11 or CR 9 at APL 5 is going to be a curb stomp even without the minions. One of the primary problems? DR. In a normal party you'll have magic weapons by this point, meaning that monsters with DR/magic (Quite common at CR 9+) are not 'you lose'. Without Weapons or Armour? the enemy iterative attacks are going to be hitting if they have them, and odds on you guys are going to be missing most of the time and when you do connect, you're not going to be doing much if anything through their DR.
Their saves are going to mean that most spells are practically useless too, since even their low saves are going to regularly beat your DCs.
Suggestion: Whole party goes magic-missile spamming sorcerers,with one guy standing ready to counterspell enemy shields. small amounts of damage? sure! but Displacement is going to be a better defense than AC and at least everyone is reliably doing SOMETHING!
Also if you go a caster, take spell penetration and greater spell penetration ASAP. anything at that level with even token SR is going to render your magic all but worthless without it.
In rough order of the best suited / easiest fit for such conditions:
Sorcerer is excellent for this scenario, without any tweaks.
Oracle with Eschew Materials.
Summoner with Eschew Materials (might actually be fine w/o spells, even).
Cleric or Druid with Eschew Materials and the birthmark feat.
Bard with Eschew Materials, perform that doesn't need an instrument (sing, oratory, comedy...), and ideally knows the Charm Person spell.
**Everyone keeps saying Monk. They are very, very wrong. A Fighter w/ Imp. Unarmed Strike is better suited than a Monk in a no equipment game, even. Monk is near the BOTTOM of the list for best class for this.**
I am surprised no one mentioned the 3.5 version or different Paizo version of Vow of Poverty.
No one should ever mention the Paizo version of VoP, it's so horrible it isn't even worthy of derision, because doing so acknowledges its existence.
wow VoP exists in Pathfinders. 1 level of monk = +1 ki pool
Ninja!
You can still sneak attack the hell out of everyone with clubs and with the lack of gear your skills will help enormously.
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Lore Oracle with Eschew Materials is a nice way to get a decent AC and spellcasting without gear.
A Master of Many Styles/Brawler could make a good character, Monk at lower levels to help with AC and then after 2 levels going Brawler to get the training with close weapons[including Unarmed Strikes] to have early access to Dragon Style and Ferocity and a good gearless character.
At low levels, a single-class Monk is pretty good without gear, since all they need are clothes. Higher levels they turn into one of the most gear-dependent classes in the game though, so be mindful of that.