Fan-Made Player's Guide

[ubiquitous]

Ubiquitous' War for the Crown Player's Guide

I wrote up a short Player's Guide for my own upcoming War for the Crown game, and figured I might as well share it with the forums to see how it can be improved before turning it over to my players. And if it's useful to anyone else with their own games, bonus!

Would love suggestions for the Character Creation Tips section: haven't played Pathfinder for so long I don't know what cool classes and archetypes to suggest for such a politically-motivated and social-heavy adventure path.

[Jack Stargazer]

Looks great so far, I especially like your short explanation of social interaction.

I find the base traits to be a bit boring though, here's what I'm using with my group:

Athletic Champion: +2 to Escape Artist checks, becomes a class skill

Disgraced Noble: +2 to Bluff checks, -2 to all Social skills if target knows your true identity, Bluff becomes a class skill

Rising Star: +2 to Disguise checks while pretending to be someone important or famous, Disguise becomes a class skill

Senatorial Hopeful: +1 to all checks to Influence people in social combat

Taldan Patriot: +2 to Sense Motive and Perception when interacting with Taldan nobility

Young Reformer: +1 to Disable Device, becomes a class skill, can disarm magical traps like a Rogue

A flat +1 to a skill check is fairly weak for a campaign trait, which tend to do a +1 and other things, or a +2 conditional.

The Character creation section would be very large. I can suggest a few:

The following would be very good archetypes:

Empiricist Investigator
Urban Barbarian
Urban Ranger
Alley Witch

Any arcane spellcasting class (Wizard, Magus, Sorcerer, Arcanist) is going to be very well regarded in Taldor with their relationship to Azlant and arcane magic.

This might be the best game for a Vigilante since Hell's Rebels.

Race wise, human is obviously going to be the most well received, with Elves, half Elves and Dwarves close behind. Half Orcs and Tieflings are likely to have some social issues unless they can pass for human.

People of obvious Qadiran descent would be viewed with suspicion.

I suspect Ifrit would work well, not just because of their natural attractiveness, but because in Qadira they are often kept as slaves, and so those in Taldor might be the most fervent converts in comparison.

Obviously any other class focusing on a high Charisma or Intelligence could be fairly useful. You should emphasize how important social skills are in this game, and that probably nobody should be hard dumping CHA.

[ubiquitous]

Fantastic stuff, thanks for the input. I've updated the guide to include some of those suggestions. Still working through fleshing out the classes section.

[SuperFaex]

According to the campaign setting "Taldor, the first empire" the country has large populations of aasimar and gillmen. So you could easily consider those for PCs aswell.

[Lemartes]

Jack did some good traits there however, just for fun I'm going to try a few of my own. Note these may not be balanced adjust accordingly for your table. I've only thought about them briefly so don't be too harsh. Ah whatever I can take it. :)

Now time to put my thoughts into words:

Local Strongman/woman: You never fail to impress with your feats of strength. Your strength score is considered one point higher for lifting and dragging but not for carrying capacity. Once per day you may add double your strength modifier to any one strength related ability or skill check.

Infamous Instructor: You were taught swordsmanship by a universally feared fencing master. Your precise strokes and masterful footwork can leave all enemies who see such a display awestruck allowing you to gain a tactical advantage. You get a +1 trait bonus to intimidate and intimidate becomes a class skill for you. In addition if you have the dazzling display feat once per day with either a falcata or a rapier you may use dazzling display as a swift action.

Hmm that's it for now. I have a few ideas on how to make either of these more or less powerful if anyone is interested. :)

[glubtier]

Thanks for this! I'm personally pretty set on using the actual traits whenever we get them (I don't want to get into the sticky situation of "but I liked the homebrew trait better...") but the information as a whole is going to be super helpful for my players. A few of them are already revising their characters and tweaking backstory to fit a little better.

[Lemartes]

Oh I would use the actual traits too. I'm just having fun. :)

[The Rising Phoenix]

Nice job putting something together for the people who wanted to start before the official guide is out Ubiquitous!

[deuxhero]

"But like ancient Rome", as the only reference to the real world, is out of style. This easily replaced with "Like any empire" or the like.

Under human ethnicity I'd mention Tian and Amandar. Actually, Amandar is worth a mention in a few other places.

Under classes, while I know what is meant by "well-known espionage corps", it should be rephrased. Faceless Enforcer is worth a mention as a Vigilante archetype. "Black Knight that keeps her identity hidden behind a suit of armor" is a classic concept that people tend to overlook when seeing vigilante in a fantasy game. There is no mention of Druid, so add Urban Druid (however pointless its wildshape penalty it gets nothing in return for is.)

[Here4daFreeSwag]

Good to have some free unofficial fan-made War for the Crown's Player's Guide stuff out there too; might even be fun to compare both official and unofficial versions too... ;)