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So...one of my gaming groups recently learned that we're going to be playing Council of Thieves. I was hoping that people who have played it before might be able to supply a SPOILER FREE run down on what types of classes and races (or combos there of) would be most beneficial or enjoyable. Not to mention any specific personality traits or characteristics that would lend itself well to this particular AP.
Subsequently...any key things that should be avoided would also be of great benefit. For instance if an Elven Paladin of Sarenrae just would NOT fit at all...please by all means let us know. Additionally...if an Inquisitor of Bob <---- fake god, would be a great thing to blend into the story...awesome, please let us know.
I'm asking this because where most of us have been gaming for a long time...our old GM sadly passed away. Now...off more than a year away...all of us have decided to get back together to game again and one of us finally decided to jump into the GM chair. Since he has never really GM'd before...we would all like to make this as smooth as possible for him (and us) by being able to craft characters that will easily be able to blend into the AP's story.
We're all well established gamers as well as a few of us being excellent roleplayers as well (aka...not just dice tossers) so if anyone even has a recommendation for personalities and motivations that would be particularly hilarious or fun...shout those out too...I'm sure we can be convinced to even give write-ups about it all for people's enjoyment.
I thank everyone ahead of time for any help. To additionally clarify...all classes/races I do believe are viable out of any official Paizo publication...so don't feel like it needs to be limited to something out of the core book. All we ask...is please keep the recommendations spoiler free! (Recommending a Paladin of Bob who specializes in smite is spoiler free...giving an explanation on exactly why it's recommended - because of evil doers susceptible to smite in book 2...would not be). Thank you again!
Bard
So...one of my gaming groups recently learned that we're going to be playing Council of Thieves. I was hoping that people who have played it before might be able to supply a SPOILER FREE run down on what types of classes and races (or combos there of) would be most beneficial or enjoyable. Not to mention any specific personality traits or characteristics that would lend itself well to this particular AP.
Subsequently...any key things that should be avoided would also be of great benefit. For instance if an Elven Paladin of Sarenrae just would NOT fit at all...please by all means let us know. Additionally...if an Inquisitor of Bob <---- fake god, would be a great thing to blend into the story...awesome, please let us know.
Keep in mind that Council of Thieves is a very urban AP. This puts a premium on social skills. Also trying to causally walk around (without some kind of right, such as being a Hellknight) heavily armed and armored will result in confrontations with the Dotarri (Westcrown's City Guard).
Related to this, Cheliax is a Lawful Evil Police State. None the less, House Thrune is surprisingly tolerant of other faiths. Iomedae and Shelyn are quite popular with the general populace.
Paladin would need to be very careful not to violate the law of the land - he/she may be forced to do nothing while some repulsive things happen.
Be warned, however, despite the the apparent intro to the AP, this is not a story of rebellion. Characters hoping to overthrow the grip of House Thrune or the Church of Asmodeus will not receive very much focus on those goals.
What you will want is some conflict in your character's background with Westcrown's (intentionally nebulous) Shadow Curse. This is a key motivation in this AP, and is not strongly established in the Player's Guide.
Class Mix:
-- a Bard's social skills will be very useful.
-- a positive channeling Cleric will be a life saver.
-- a Paladin's "smite evil" will by very helpful - but as noted above, the class is challenging to play in this environment.
-- Wilderness oriented characters will not be happy.
-- a Cavalier will want to emphasize other aspects of the class. Mounts are transportation in Westcrown. Mounted combat will not happen very often.
-- Gunslingers might cause some problems with the AP, as the environment of most of the battles will make them extremely powerful.
Bard and a Channeling cleric or possible Oracle of Life...check. Now I just have to figure out how to make a bard viable in combat other than just singing away, heh. Thanks for the advice...and yes...I kind of figured Paladins might be a tad difficult to get to work
Archeologist archetype from ultimate combat is the best! no singing, trap finding and bard spells! we literally have had one in every adventure since i got ultimate combat:)
Archeologist archetype from ultimate combat is the best! no singing, trap finding and bard spells! we literally have had one in every adventure since i got ultimate combat:)
Speaking of Trapfinding, an Urban Ranger (APG p. 129) could do exceptionally well in this AP.
If you are looking to make the Bard more "fighterish" consider the Arcane Duelist (APG p. 80)
i went with eldritch knight prestige class for extra ass kickin'
Any other suggestions? One of us is seriously considering an Inquistor...to me that sounds like it should work in well.
inquisitors are a good choice:)
It really depends on the tone of your campaign. I GM Council of Thieves and the players wanted to play Evilish characters so obviously I adapted the tone of it to let them play the game they wanted to play.
Intreresting characters that made sense in this quest with my players were:
Cleric of Calistria who trips with his whip. That is a great strategy for a lot of encounters in this AP.
Undercover Red Mantis Assassin (must have good backstory with the GM on why he is part of the group.)
Tiefling Rogue. Out of all of the countries on Golarion, Cheliax is your best opportunity to play a Tiefling whose race identity is a key component to the AP.
Good to know. I seriously doubt we'll be playing any kind of evilish characters...as the very, very rare times we ever have...we tend to play them the way evil characters WOULD be played. Which basically means unless we're all running around as severely Lawful evil someone will get shiv'd in the back and looted and walk away in the name of greed and self-preservation. Kind of hard to keep a party together that way.
I've been giving serious thoughts about a Tiefling of some type due to their place in Cheliax society. I originally wanted to try a Tiefling oracle with the Harrower Prestige class (especially with the re-release of the cards and the new handbook). However, I was severely disappointed in the handbook and couldn't figure out a way to make the character viable. AKA...she would have paled horribly in comparison to other characters in capabilities.
I've never been a min-maxer and don't enjoy it (those who claim optimization is not min-maxing are fooling themselves), however I do like to make sure my characters don't wind up being the obvious weak link. I love Pathfinder and Golarion as a whole...but I do struggle with some obvious non-balance among classes.
Thanks to everyone again for the class/race suggestions for the AP
Well if you still want to play a Tiefling, don't forget that a lot of human Westcranis have a lot of prejudice against tieflings. So even in the aristocracy, tieflings are not likely to go up the social ladder. So i would stay away from classes that are prestigious in society.
The rogue class makes sense because Wescrani society did push a lot of tieflings to the edges of the lawful society. So a lot of tieflings band together to become thieves.
Some go into becoming clerics of Asmodeus or other devils... Probably to get closer to their racial origins. On thing to keep in mind is that in Cheliax, Asmodeus is worshipped but mostly through Diabolism which is about humans using devils. I feel a tiefling cleric of Asmodeus would think that it is wrong and that it should be the other way around. So you have nice religion roleplaying possibilities.
If you wanna play a halfing wanting to free other halflings from slavery I strongly suggest tying your character to the Bellflower Network. They do have a base in Westcrown at the Bell of the Sea.
Finally, if you look at the Milani wiki page, you might find inspiration for a rebellious character wanting to fight oppression and unjust rule coming from the Westcrown government.
Make sure someone has Perform(act). Our party made sure everyone who needed to aim had darkvision, and we don't regret it. At some points, several secondary healers can be better than one primary healer. Just make sure that most of you can operate a CLW wand.
Yarr. I played an alchemist, Ren, with the vivsectionist archtype. He was fun to play, yet the charisma hit he took made things difficult during certain parts of the campaign. A more rounded character would be helpful (probably in general since he had a dump stat). As others have said it is a mostly urban environment. You could always have a synthesist in your party (Aear) loot the swath she makes :)