Basically what it says in the title, a campaign based on the "World of Light" story mode from smash brothers ultimate.. Now obviously this wouldn't be literally that (unless that's a better idea than what I'm about to say).
All of the PF Iconics in one place, battling against a massive unforeseen threat. But are totally unprepared as they are Disintegrate/Soul Jar'd (Trophies after all) by this godly creature.
All except for one (or probably like 4). These are the PC's. and must fight off the trapped souls taking the bodies of the other iconic characters and put down this massive seraphic evil once and for all...
Is this a terrible idea or a great idea? Taking it seriously I think that the major issues would be...
1: Fighting a bunch of the same things over and over seeing as you'd be repeatedly fighting the construct clones of Iconics, with some special gimmicks thrown in for each fight... but basically I'd just be nervous that various combinations of 4 iconics could get boring.
2: just the concept being a bit silly since depending on what you want the tone to be it could be either really serious infinity war type "the whole universe is dead" type things, but also you're playing the story mode of a video game.
Don't make it just the iconics. Instead of endless fights against a certain plumber, include the Goombas and the Koopas. The force that corrupted the heroes reached into the world they came from and conjured other entities from the games.
Well I was thinking of it being Pathfinder Iconics in place of the fighters hence why I thought it would be a small pool. Although I guess now it's worth asking since you mention that... would you play like a straight up Smash based campaign then?... and what would the fighters that serve as 'bosses' and your PC's even be statted as?
The really ugly issue about a straight up "Pathfinder Smash Bros Campaign" is..
1: statting out all 69-70 fighters since... some would be relatively easy (especially with 3pp material like Spheres) whilst others would be dang near impossible.
I mean we do have a lot of anime human people that would be relatively easy to stat out (Palutena as an Oracle, Link as a Spheres of Might Armiger, Ike as a 2-hand fighter as the archetype, Robin as a Magus or some similar wizard, etc.) but then we have a puffball that gains power by eating people and spitting them back out, a literal dog... and basically here's the new roster https://www.newsweek.com/smash-bros-full-roster-super-ultimate-list-final-1 196940
Wait, I had a list lying around sometime back for how I'd go about converting the SSB4 roster, though with some liberties taken for a certain series (Smash is about game characters, not whatever goes on in knockoff anime). Assumes use of the Race Builder whenever applicable. Might as well update and post it:
Mario: Unchained monk
Luigi: Blood conduit primalist elemental (air) bloodrager (electricity is considered L's element in spinoffs to contrast with M's fire)
Peach: Covetous Ancestor Oracle
Daisy: Since we're already using sidegames as a reference, I'm going to go with geokineticist here to reference Strikers.
Bowser: Red sorc into dragon disciple (still keeps enough magical ability that I decided against bloodrager here)
Yoshi: Barbarian w/ Tyrant Totem and hurling powers
Bowser jr.: Construct Rider alchemist
Rosalina: Heavens Witch Doctor Shaman
Wario: Fighter (siegebreaker)
DK: Beast wrestler brawler
Diddy: Savage Technologist barb
K. Rool: Brawler (DKC1/DK64/KoS/JC) or gun chemist alchemist (DKC2)
Dr mario: Inspired Internal Chirugen alchemist
Piranha Plant: Wut
Link (TP): Fighter (lore warden)
Link (BotW): fighter 1/ Trap Breaker Alchemist
Young Link (OoT): ranger/sorc (destined)/arcane archer (minor spellcasting and the full set of infused arrows)
Zelda/shiek: Cold Iron warden inquisitor (fate inqusition, magic domain)
Ganondorf:Insinuator Antipaladin
Link (WW): archaeologist bard
Samus/Zero Suit Samus: ectoplasmist Spiritualist/tortured crusader paladin 2 (I decided to play up the mystic aspect of the chozo here)
Dark Samus: Black Blooded Urban Bloodrager
Ridley: Vortex dragon (racial HD or bloodrager)/antipaladin
Pit: Arsenal Chaplain Warpriest w/ Barroom Brawler
Palutena: Cleric (air, sun) (I'll openly admit that I would switch to oarcle once I figure out what curse and myster would work best, mostly to dump Wis. Nobody in Kid Icarus knows what they're doing (with the possible exception of Dyntos))
Dark Pit: Deliverer Slayer
Kirby: Spirit Dancer Medium
Meta Knight: Dusk Knight Paladin
DeDeDe: Urban Skirmisher Ranger (FE: aberrations, [Evil]) (just an in-joke to how many times he gets possessed by some horror)
Not gonna lie, this was a harder segment to do. The movesets end up pretty generic since Fire Emblem itself doesn't always have a lot of specifics to a given person.
Marth: Daring Champion Knight Errant Cavalier
Ike: Figther (I wouldn't go 2h, especially since he one-hands Ragnell in the FE games, unarchetyped is fine)
Robin: Tactician fighter/sword binder wizard -> eldritch knight
Lucina: Holy Tactician (or undead scourge, if you want) Paladin
Roy: I would go Dex fighter here. Eliwood would make a decent cavalier, but his son seems to have skipped horse riding lessons.
Chrom: I've been having a disposable weapon build in the back of my mind for a while, might as well try it out with the guy who gets his artifact sword early because he broke everything else
Corrin: Void draconic Bloodrager-> dragon disciple
Fox: Freebooter Ranger
Falco: Mysterious Stranger (i.e. cha-based) gunslinger
Wolf: Vanguard Slayer
And before you ask: I didn't focus on pokemon that would make this the easiest task (it could be much harder though, pokken has chandelure playable)
Charizard: Solar bloodline Sorcerer (I'd go pyrokineticist but it's not what you'd call sturdy)
Ampharos: bronze draconic sorcerer-/dragon disciple
Swampert: Aquanaught Fighter
Gallade: Mindblade Magus
Genesect: terrakineticist (i.e. what to take when your main blast switches between neutral/fire/electricity/water/ice based on the circumstances)
Chesnaught (might as well double on fighting types): monk of the sacred mountain
Mimikyu: Ankou's shadow slayer
Ness: occultist
Lucas: Haunted Discipline Psychic
(I haven't played any version of Earthbound, so this may be inaccurate)
Duck Hunt: Protean Sorc w/ bloodline familiar (you got some pretty flashy, pretty strange, and always indirect moves on this fighter)
ROB: ... all right. I got nothing. You win this time, gimmicky peripheral from before I was born.
G&W: Tengu (that nose) Dirty Fighting Urouge
Little mac: Steel-breaker Brawler
Wii fit: UCmonk
Olimar: broodmaster summoner
Falcon: Elemental (fire) bloodrager
Villager: Urban Druid
Isabelle:I don't play animal crossing, so I wouldn't know of anything to distinguish her
Pacman: Alchemist (ingestible self-buffs and an astonishing variety of thrown implements)
Shulk: Battlehost Occultist
Megaman: Grenadier Alchemist (be sure to invest in UMD, there are a lot of things that buffing and bombs can't do)
Sonic: martial artist monk
Ryu: UCmonk
Ken: I don't play street fighter, so I wouldn't know of anything to distinguish him
Cloud: Titan fighter 1/Mindblade Magus
Bayonetta: Spellslinger into Witch
Simon: Grave Warden Slayer (for the early, simpler games)
Richter: Occultist (mental focus is the heart gauge)
Snake: Guerrila Slayer
So a lot of martials and partial casters, but short on wizards/clerics
Of course, If I were to participate in a Smash-themed PF campaign, I would much prefer to have a freeform character select than limiting myself to canon fighters.
I guess the freeform selection thing is true, I just kinda thought stick with either PF iconics or actual smashers because of the pitch basically being.
"You are in a world where all of the famous heroes of multiple woulds around it have come for a the 5th of the great tournaments. However, things went very, very wrong..."
Edit: and I want to mention that I thought 2 hand fighter because of the fact that it specializes in singular, very powerful attacks.
Strictly speaking, Ike in the Fire Emblem games gets more attacks than usual because Aether is a two-hit move. I't not Astra's 5-for-1 (at lower damage) trade, but it is the only other skill that increases number of attacks.
Touche. I didn't know this because I didn't actually play FE..
Improved Armor (the Armor): Mechanized Strength, Energy resistance (Varia Suit to resist Fire, Improved Joints, Attached Weapon (attach a Gun or hand crossbow))) Or heck you could even go for Independent invention and Suit Pilot if you want to go full mech.
Improved Suit (Zero Suit): Augmented Reflexes, Aided Flight, Glider, Parachute
Grand Gadget: Chemical Sprayer to get a Cold damage attack, Weaponized Gadget (Attach it to a gun, or if the GM allows attach it to the gun that you attached to your armor), and Laser for fire and just being able to shoot a laser out of your dang hand. grab Permanent Gadget and use Grapple Gun for grapple beam.
Improved Boots (for Z-suit's crazy kicking heel boots): Rocket Boots both to add to jumps and for hitting people with, Super Kick.
Just.. Basically everything that both can do are right in there.
Although admittedly.. I'm honestly tempted just to make up a campaign now that's just "We're playing alternate reality video game characters all brought together to an inter dimensional tournament Ala Smash Brothers, and x number (how many players there are) characters end up caught up together needing to save the world). Design whatever crazy things you think would fit.
Edit: Removed "protagonists" from the elevator pitch, you can play villains too so long as you keep to trying to help the cause.
Also admittedly a totally silly idea.. Maybe we can get really meta in this "alternate universe version of Smash" and have it that Pathfinder itself is the AU equivalent to Fire Emblem. Which in that case... Who do you think would be chosen to represent PF in a smash type tournament?
1: damiel lost his spot as iconic alchemist?
Also thought I'd go over that list of fighters and say some things about it
1: Don't feel bad about messing up ness because what ness is in smash and what he really is are totally different.
Smash Ness: PSI Magnet, PSI Flash, PSI fire, PSI thunder, PSI Starstorm
Original ness: Lifeup, Healing, PSI Flash, PSI Rockin, PSI magnet (I think?)
Smash ness gains 2 of Paula's moves (Fire and Thunder) and Poo's move (Starstorm).
and I never played mother because it never came out in the west but Lucas has pretty much the same moves in smash.
2: A petty complaint but only 1 of the pokemon you chose were actually in smash, charizard. the others are Greninja, Pikachu, Pichu, Lucario, and Mewtwo
3: Isabelle I don't blame you for getting confused just because she's so similar and how the hell do you represent a fishing rod.
4: Bayonetta... Interesting use to have her be a primary caster, though I'd think with how much she uses weaponry and beats the crap out of people with demonic limbs that she'd be more martial.
5: Palutena, I'm right there with you that I thought oracle but that dang curse does complicate it. I'd say Legalistic but she also has deceived (though mostly in jest like the time that she told Pit that she could read his mind through a laurel crown, only to reveal she was joking).. Tongues could make sense seeing as she normally works with Aasimar or at least creatures that understand Celestial anyway, and then she later gains the power to speak with literally anything..
Though seriously we should make this campaign, even if I feel like I'd end up making a lot of expies, I want to play this.
Also with Palutena again I wanted to mention... I hate how all my ideas use 3rd party resources (specifically Spheres of Power), but...
if using Spheres I'd mention Haunted for this one. In Spheres of Power the curses that grant spells grant talents instead, and Haunted grants Telekinesis. Sooo...
1: Flight Talent
5: Greater Speed
10: Dancing Weapon
15: Flair
Power of Flight and a Telekinetic Quarterstaff anyone?
Either way, I think there's one big question.
Who would actually play a smash themed campaign in the first place.. and I think I have more concrete ideas.
For some reason, the worlds of many heroes have been all but destroyed, and those few heroes that remain (the party) lay on death's door themselves, but through some miracle. They survive somewhere on the edge of the universe. Now they must battle, regain their strength, and put the madness to an end.
Level 1 (the power stripping reverting them)
25 point buy (Even with their legendary powers taken away, their bodies are still strong)
Highly freeform character design, where basically you need to create what you think would be an alternate reality's video game characters.
Any alignment is allowed so long as you actually stick with what the party wants to do, like don't turn on your friends because they're some of the only creatures that are still alive. (though I can't recommend antipaladins or the like sadly as well the bad guys will probably be just as evil as Your Evil character if not more).
The most major issue I see with this story is simple... With a story like World of Light, literally all life has been turned into these spirits, but any good campaign needs NPCs to move the plot along.
Also I think I just got the story... Or at least a way to change the story in ways that make sense.
It started with something small, routine even, but turned into something so much more terrifying.
Heroes and villains across multiple worlds brought together for a sportsman's tournament. This had been fairly regular, though no one knew exactly how so many places in time and space were so interconnected. However despite all of this, something far more sinister was afoot than any minor thing the average bad guy was planning.
A Demon waited in the wings, stealing away the souls of any sufficiently powerful being they could get their hands upon, and only now revealed their machinations. With the strength of a thousand unknown terrors, they stormed the world of light, as well as the homes of many outside of it, until the multitude of worlds were brought under the veil of darkness.
However, somewhere within this madness was a single season of light, One place about the size of a town that has been inexplicably saved from it, and whilst most of the worlds' heroes, villains, and bystanders have been brought under the heel of this greater evil, a small number remain.
Now, Take this light you have, Bear the Torch against the cold of the night.
Fight for good and reawaken the Undying Light.