Everyone: I intend to close recruitment this Friday. If your submission is not completed by that point, then I will evaluate based only on what you have (with the understanding that you can finish filling in what you need to after being selected). I will decide who gets in either on Friday or this coming weekend.
I am going to assume that submissions on friday are okay. I've been busy this week but am working something up now.
A few questions:
* Is item crafting allowed? (and does the campaign have downtime to use them?)
* Are you using the Background Skills variant?
* How do you feel about the spell Burst of Radiance? It is not from the approved list.
* What about alternate racial traits from the ARG? I am thinking of this one:
I may not see your answers in time for the deadline so I'm putting things together and will change them depending on your answers.
Unfortunately something has come up and I find myself without enough time to get a character completed by the deadline, so I will be pulling out. Good luck to everybody else.Okay, good luck with the other thing.
Everyone:
The completed submissions that I see are:
1) Edeldhur: Krezen, half-orc bard 6//fighter 62)Arkwright: Saint Trevor, human cleric 6//vitalist 5/thrallherd 1
3)Helikon: Runa Fendinn, aasimar paladin 6//bard 6
4)Angelpalm: Genevieve, tiefling stalker 6//warder 6
5)DeviousDevious: Rodok the Body, dwarf soulknife 6//vitalist 6
I'm going to bow out. I like my character mechanically, but I'm not sure if I could see myself RPing him in a way that's fun and beneficial to this particular party. Have fun!
OK, here's my submission, Jan Carpenter. Crunch is done, background is mostly fleshed out. Still need to pick up mundane gear like backpacks and rope. Also might need to rejigger some skill ranks around.
This better not be another ambush, thought Jan. House Thrune's agents have been popping up like flies lately.
Jan moved quietly down the dark street, lurching occasionally as if drunk. Periodically he turned around as if lost, doubling back and looking around, confused. Nobody was around; the streets of Sanara were quiet.
Well, I'm not being followed, he thought. That means at least Zaro is still clean, though we will have to see about his contact.
He came up to a green-painted door. "SCREW JAX VOLTER!" Was carved in small letters in the door; the graffito had been painted over but was still visible, despite the paint. Jan knocked six times, quietly.
The door opened just as quietly, and there stood a purple-faced tiefling, wearing a long bathrobe and slippers. His eyes glowed a faint green and two small horns protruded from his forehead. The tiefling smiled and nodded, stepping back into the shadow of the doorway. Jan entered without a sound, and closed the door behind him.
The tiefling lit a lamp, which illuminated the small chamber. "I am glad to finally meet you," the tiefling said with a mellifluous voice. "I have heard so many things about you." The tiefling sized Jan up with a grin.
"Have you now?" Jan asked, eyebrow raised. "People shouldn't talk out of hand. What, pray tell, have you heard?"
"I know about your ancestry. Just as with me, you have the blood of an outsider in you. Only where my ancestor was from the darkness, yours was from the light." the tiefling said. "Tell me... does it bother you to deal with a corrupted soul like mine?" The tiefling suppressed a giggle.
Jan shrugged. "I don't advertise, but many have guessed what you claim to know about me; it is not a big secret. And an aasimar in a town full of tieflings, well, at least we can understand each other in ways humans cannot. I work with men like you all the time. I am used to it."
The tiefling nodded sagely. "Good, good. But as to your ancestry, I know more than that. I know that the family that raised you is not the family that bore you. You were a foundling."
"That..." Jan stopped, taken aback. I'll grant that this is not common knowledge. How do you know?"
The tiefling smiled broadly. "I know because you have kin, kin from your true family. A brother! And he is very desirous to meet you."
Jan gaped. A brother... ! I never knew my true mother or father... but I never considered I might have a brother...
The tiefling rubbed his hands together. "So... do you have the thing that I asked you to bring?"
Jan pulled out a small red gem from his belt pouch. It glowed with a faint inner light. "This is what you wanted?"
The tiefling's eyes lit up, and he reached for the gem. But Jan snapped his hand back, holding the gem out of reach. "Ah! Not yet... I want to hear more. I shall give you this when you have arranged this meeting."
The tiefling puted, feigning hurt feelings. "Tut, tut, my fellow outsider. If we cannot trust one another, who can we trust?" The tiefling turned and pulled a piece of parchment out of a small box.
"Your brother has made arrangements to bring you to him. You see, he is an outsider like you, but unlike you, he is... on the outside. He resides on a different plane of existence than this one. All I need do is read this scroll, and the spell herein will transport you to the place where your brother resides."
Jan looked at the tiefling, eyes narrowed. "And what happens if it doesn't work? You hightail it off with the gem and I am left with nothing!"
"Leave the gem on that table there if you wish. If the spell does not work, you can simply pick it up again. Understand that scrolls like this are not cheap. The gem merely compensates me for its use." The tiefling folded its arms across its chest, and waited a moment. "Well?"
Jan hesitated. I wouldn't trust this man as far as I can throw him... but... a brother! I give up this chance and I will never know... Jan slowly and gently placed the gem on the table.
The tiefling grinned. "All right then, let's get started. Stand over there." The tiefling began to chant, reading strange arcane words from the scroll. The letters on the scroll began to glow. Suddenly, the tiefling pointed at Jan.
Jan felt his head spin. Then it seemed as if the whole room was spinning. He could not move; helpless, he felt as if he were shrinking, and swirling downward, as if pulled down through a whirlpool. The room began to darken, and it seemed more and more distant.
He could hear the tiefling laughing. "Goodbye Jan Carpenter! I will see you again in this world... if you can find a way to return! Ha ha ha ha ha!" The sound of the tiefling's voice faded as his world turned to black.
Jan is an Oracle (Wood) 6/Unchained Rogue 6. He seems essentially unarmed, carrying around only carpentry tools and a satchel with various lengths of wood. And yet, he can use these implements to great effect, and can summon wooden armor to protect himself.
He has a lot of skills and his magic mostly focuses on self-buffs and utility spells. He can do a fair bit of healing, though he isn't built as a healer and doesn't channel energy. He fights using TWF and a quarterstaff.
His DEX score includes the 4th level bump and a belt of DEX +2.
DMB: Have you taken a look at the Zealot class yet?
I was discussing some healing options in another game and I got it in my head to throw a zealot//wilder together and go full heal and kill mode on these double dealing pyramid peons. I feel like that would have so much synergy together, and make the crew actually feel like they stood a fighting chance as opposed to your average heal-scrub.
Someone else would still need to focus on that knowledge issue they were having. Could change Genevieve from an assassin to a warrior-nun on the same mission to rescue an ally and having unwittingly followed them into the accursed shadow pyramid.
Crafting is allowed, though finding material to craft with in the Pyramid is hard. Background skills are not being used.
Both of the other two options you asked for are okay.
OK, will update skills (probably shift FCB to skills instead of HP). Not going to worry about crafting for now.
Your HP should be 46, not 51.
Okay, got it. Will update.
Cheliax is the country controlled by Asmodeus, right?
That's the one.
When the country was thrown into disorder, one of the noble houses (House Thrune) made a bargain with Asmodeus in order to restore order and take over. Not a fun place. But outsiders have an undue amount of influence there, which I thought fits with the extraplanar nature of your adventure.
The Pyramid itself may be relevant to the struggle in Cheliax and the contests of power between interested outsiders. Forces outside the Pyramid may have an interest in what happens within. Desna is a CG goddess and naturally opposes Asmodeus, and there is something of a Desnan underground in Cheliax.
you have effecitvely left open the question of whether it was Karavakos who brought Jan into the Pyramid, or whether it was a fiend...
Yes, that's kind of the idea.
Since other beings seem to get dragged into the pyramid by accident, I also thought it could be a high-level third party who was looking for a way to escape and thought that dragging someone else in would make it possible for him to leave (whether that would actually work or not).
It need not actually be his brother being responsible, or possibly his brother is present but the ones arranging his arrival impersonated him. His brother could be good or evil.
It's pretty wide open, but whatever the case is, when Jan arrives his brother should be nowhere to be seen. It would ruin the buildup if he was right there.
BTW: How do you feel about Jan starting with a partially-charged wand of Cure Light Wounds? I don't quite have 750 gp left for a full one. So maybe a 20 charge wand for 300 gp?
Edit: Also wanted to mention: I only skimmed the summary (I wanted a lot of the info to come in-character) but I note there is a plant race present. Jan's plant affinity may be relevant there, or there could be some connection to his Azata ancestry.
DMB: Have you taken a look at the Zealot class yet?Is this the Zealot fro Path of War Expanded, or the Zealot from Ultimate Intrigue?
Yeah sorry it is the one from Expanded, it's a charisma based full bab semi psionic class. A extremely tankier version of the aegis in some respects.
Isn't there an aegis archetype that is charisma based, anyone remember what the name of it was?