Character Creation Guidelines
I haven’t posted any real setting info yet, so I know this might be putting the cart before the horse for some of you, but for those chomping at the bit to start looking at build specifics here are the basics. We’ll be starting at 9th level.
Paizo only (for the most part). We’re not going to use any 3pp materials at all, but I’ve done some design work in the past and am willing to look at making an archetype (or prestige class) for you if you have an idea that you just can’t quite pull off with the official options.
Alignment- no evil, and I’d prefer nobody be chaotic-neutral
Point Buy- 25 points, standard Paizo sliding scale. I discourage dumping; one stat at 8-9 you might get away with but any more than that and you may find you’ve shot yourself in the foot.
Hit Points- I’m not completely decided on this yet but I’m leaning towards max every level (so I can really throw some challenges at you). If not that we may just do half rounded up after max at first.
* Humans follow the normal printed rules except as follows: they gain +2 to any one physical attribute and +2 to any one mental attribute instead of their standard attribute bonuses; they cannot select the dual talent racial option.
* Halflings are not a race on their own but a rare variant of humans. They are small-sized humanoids with the human subtype. Their movement speed is 20’. They gain a +2 bonus to Dex and any one mental attribute, but suffer a -2 penalty to strength. They gain a bonus feat at first level and one additional skill point each level as a standard human, and they can take alternate racial traits from the standard human list (though, dual talent remains unavailable). Because of their child-like appearance, they gain +1 to bluff and diplomacy checks against humanoids with the human subtype.
* Half-elves, as printed
* Half-orcs, as printed
* Half-dwarves are medium-sized humanoids with the human and dwarf subtypes. They have a movement speed of 30’ and darkvision 60’. They get a +2 bonus to any one attribute of their choice. Like their dwarven kin, they are hardy and gain a +2 racial bonus to saves against poison, spells, and spell-like abilities. Their dwarven capacity for carrying a grudge and human adaptability make them adept at fighting those who have wronged them; at 1st level, they receive grudge fighter as a bonus feat, ignoring its prerequisites. Half-dwarves are also gifted tinkerers; they get a +1 racial bonus to disable device, knowledge [engineering], and craft [clockwork].
* Mims diverse racial heritage attune them to planar energies in a way scholars and sages do not yet understand. They each function as an aasimar, ifrit, oread, sylph, tiefling, or undine with the scion of humanity, mostly human, or pass for human alternate racial trait.
* Elves, as printed; elves from a racial enclave know how to find and enter that enclave but do not receive Common as a starting language.
* Dwarves, as printed; dwarves from a racial enclave know how to find and enter that enclave but do not receive Common as a starting language.
* Orcs follow the normal printed rules except as follows: they get +2 Str, +2 Wis, and -2 Int instead of their standard attribute bonuses, and they lose the light sensitivity racial trait. Orcs from a racial enclave know how to find and enter that enclave but do not receive Common as a starting language.
* Gnomes in this world are fey creatures, not a playable race.
* In most places, arcane magic functions normally, but there are some areas of high and low magic. In low magic areas the eschew materials feat does not function and excessive use of arcane magic may even cause fatigue or non-lethal damage to the caster. In high magic areas all arcane casters can ignore the need for material components worth less than 1 gold. Sorcerers and bloodragers may take spell focus as a bonus feat in place of eschew materials if they wish. Alchemy functions normally in all three areas and alchemists are more common in and near low magic areas.
* Guns are rare. We’ll technically be using the “emerging guns” category but we are definitely on the early side of that. Gunslingers are very uncommon and mostly from low magic areas where alchemists have been experimenting with blackpowder. Archetypes that add gun-based abilities to other classes may only be used if they grant the gunsmithing feat.
* Divine magic falls into two broad categories: planar and primal. Primal magic (used by druids, shamans, hunters, and rangers) is rooted in the divine power inherent in the natural world and is affected by areas of high or low magic in the same ways as arcane magic. Planar magic (used by clerics, oracles, inquisitors, warpriests, and paladins) originates from outside the natural world and functions normally in all three areas. Basically any good or neutral god is fine. The general consensus among scholars of the day is that there are a reasonable number of gods (respected theories range from 8 to 45) and that the vast number that appear to be, or have been, worshipped is simply a case of people giving different names to the same gods, though every divine caster worth their salt knows that they’re worshipping the true version of their god.
* Vigilantes are designed for a specific type of campaign and may have trouble making good use of their abilities in this one. If you want to play one, archetypes that add spellcasting will be affected by magic zones as above (zealots are planar casters).
* Occult magic is probably affected by high and low magic zones too. If someone wants to make an occult caster I’ll read up on it and tell you what the effect will be.
Pretty much all paizo stuff should be fine, but we’ll tend to favor RAI over RAW whenever combinations of rules (or poorly worded rules) would allow for something unreasonable. Everyone gets 2 traits, following the normal rules. No campaign traits, and no drawbacks. If a trait you want requires a specific location or faction let me know and we’ll talk about how you might be able to take it (or something very similar) in this game. Everyone gets 2 extra skill points per level to spend on background skills, but we’re not going to use lore or artistry. If you’re unsure which skills count as background skills please ask, and please note on your character sheet where you spent those points (when you get that far). Normal rules for feats, with the following exceptions.
* Weapon finesse is no longer a feat; anyone wielding a light weapon or one with the finesse quality can choose to use their Dex instead of Str on attack rolls. Like the feat, if they use a shield its ACP applies to attack rolls while fighting this way. Swashbucklers, and archetypes that mimic them, treat any other weapons called out in their finesse class feature as though they had the finesse quality. Anyone with a +1 BAB or higher counts as having weapon finesse for the purpose of qualifying for other feats.
* Fencing grace, slashing grace, and dervish dance are all replaced by the following feat.
Graceful Strike
You have been trained to nimbly strike at vulnerable areas rather than relying on brute force.
Prerequisites: Dexterity 13, BAB +1
Benefit: When attacking with a single light or finesse weapon you may add your Dex bonus instead of your Str bonus to the damage dealt. If your Str is below 10 you can only use this feat with light weapons as one-handed and two-handed weapons are too heavy for you to wield so gracefully. This technique requires focus and cannot be used when raging, or when attacking with a second weapon or using similar abilities (such as flurry of blows or spell combat).
We’ll be using fractional bonus progression… If you’re not planning on multiclassing than this rule will have literally zero effect on you. If you are thinking about multiclassing let me know and I’ll go over it with you, but basically instead of gaining whole number bonuses to things like BAB and saves at some levels and nothing at others you gain a set fraction at every level and always round down. The result of this is that your BAB doesn’t get completely wrecked if you’re multiclassing between low or medum BAB classes but you can’t stack saves for a monster bonus.
We’re also going to be using automatic bonus progression. If you’re unfamiliar with this system please read up on it here at this link, but the nutshell version is that everyone automatically gets the bonuses from the ‘big 6’ magic items as sort of innate bonuses. This helps keep the party a little more in balance with each other and also opens up those item slots for more fun/interesting items. To account for all the free bonuses, though, you only get half of the standard wealth. That means everyone will be starting with 23,000 gold. I’m not going to fool around with people having crafted stuff before we started (except gunslingers having powder and cartridges ready) but if you take any magic item crafting feats I’ll give you some bonus gold to spend to represent crafting work you’ve done before.
I'm sure that I've forgotten stuff so please feel free to ask questions. I'll start writing up some setting info and post it as soon as possible, but tomorrow looks busy so it might be a few days. In the meantime, please check in and say hi and let each other know what kind of characters you're thinking about playing. As I believe all of you have heard, the power level will ramp up between when we start and 11th level (when we should be actually entering the tower) so if it seems like there are some weak spots in the party starting off it may not really be too much to worry about.
Hello all, I am John (who runs Polli for giant halfling's reference). I am fiddling with a magus/rogue/barbarian covering locks and traps, a bit of magic mostly from wands, and a primarily melee attacker.
Still far away from being settled, and need to adjust due to races (and make hero lab understand), but most likely they will be human. But also very willing to change/edit to fit the group.
Dotting
John- feel free to build whatever you want but bear in mind that splitting levels between 3 different classes might leave you mediocre at 3 things instead of good at one. Could you accomplish what you’re trying to do with less classes? Maybe a bloodrager/rogue or some kind of skald?
Also, remember that you’ll be getting more power/abilities over the next two levels which may help some with your flexibility/utility too. I don’t want to give too much away but I think the increases in power over the next two levels will, hopefully, add options/breadth to most or all of the characters as well as adding to what they’re good at.
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Making full arcane caster with Divination specialty school. High Perception and skilled with all things magicky. The general idea (nsfw).
Gavin will be a full divine caster. Buffs, heals, status removal and light melee. I may also tool him to be able to cast multiple fireballs.
They are mostly a magus, but rogue for trap finding and weapon finesse. And something martial to push them over to 7 base attack bonus.
@John- you should read over the feat spoiler again in that case... weapon finesse no longer requires a feat (and Dex to damage is easier too, though it still has a hitch that magi don't care for).
@Everyone- I've opened the gameplay thread so that you can dot and delete to add the game to your campaign tab. Please don't jump ahead to RP stuff there yet though; I'll make an official post to start things moving there once we're ready to go.
Yep, I saw but started making before character creation rules are up. Trapfinding and the plethora of class skills makes a level of rogue nice even without the need for finesse.
Right now they are a magus(kensai) 7, rogue(unchained) 1, and aldori swordlord 1. But might change.
Are we an established group of adventures or just meeting now?
We are the Posfurore twins. Quiet Seth and Angry Lyra. We were smothered and sheltered by a loving mother paralyzed in fear we’d croak if we set foot out of the manor. See, we died, moments after our first screams at the world. Not for long, and we have no memory of gods or goddesses welcoming us into the afterlife, we were seconds old and all. But it was enough to terrify Mother.
Two kids locked away. We were a bit of a mess so Mother had reasons other than that first blip. We bruised at the drop of a hat, gushes at the slightest cut, and caught every sniffle, fever, vomit storm that came through Dad’s doors.
Dad was a doctor by the way. One of those that wore the plague masks(we stole it and pranced around as much as possible yelling I am a Bird). The brilliant alchemist did his best to heal us of our condition. And failed. Divine magic might have helped but something happened in dear old dad’s past to make him hate the gods. All of them.
We had books, instructors, and each other so life wasn’t crap. Arcane magic and swordplay (oddly allowed even though we bleed and bruised so easily) were both of our favorites. Plus a little skullduggery to swipe sweets from the kitchen.
In our later teens, Mother’s fear finally got the better of her and she finally broke the divine line. An amulet blessed by a goddess of healing to prevent illness. Expensive so she only bought one, but it was to prove it would work to Dad. Properly convinced they would buy another and We Would Be Free!!!
But fate sucks… that plague hit. The bad one. Sores, bleeding, coughing until you died. Mother, Father, the servants, most of the town. We shared the one amulet, tried to wait it out… but…
Now we are only me.
That was many years ago. I grabbed life, became an adventurer since it was my twin’s dream of dreams. Wearing Dad’s doctor’s mask and Mom’s amulet, a bird of magic and blade, still battered at every nick and nudge but never enough to let them down.
The Broken Crow(Seth) or The Bruised Pigeon(Lyra)
Note: the image I started with had one of those plague doctor’s masks that happily pathfinder has as well, which is where the bird nicknames come in. Initially, I had made them as a grimspawn tiefling who always looks sickly, where the bruised and broken parts come in. The twins part worked out cause I wanted to start writing up something but didn’t know I wanted them as male or female. Still don’t...
The bruising and blood gushing is just meant to be cosmetic.
Last thing to bug you with today... hopefully.
Right now they have craft wand and 9000gp worth of wands. They haven't spent over the 23000 though. I can drop the feat or take the bonus gold you had in the notes. Whichever works best for you.
I'll work on more tonight. My background has Gavin meeting the Witness, but that could happen yesterday, or a few years ago at lower level.
It will be up to you guys to decide how fully formed of a party you are. If you all want to be childhood friends who have adventured together your whole lives, that’s fine- I’ll help you work out some previous adventures. If you want to be meeting for the first time in this room outside the portal, that’s fine too- the odds of 4 random strangers arriving at the same time on the same day seem fairly slim, but perhaps fate planned a hand in it. And really anything in between can work. Talk amongst yourselves and let me know what you want to do.
@john- you’re welcome to take craft wand, or any other craft feat you want. Most of the time, I think, you guys should be able set your own pace enough to set aside some crafting time if you want? In terms of how it effects things starting off, you’ll still have to pay full price for every item you start with but I’ll give you 2,000g extra starting wealth for every crafting feat you have (8,000g max). That last bit should probably be for everyone.
Everyone- Those of you looking at taking crafting feats... you still have to pay full price for all of your starting equipment but you get an extra 2,000g of starting wealth per feat to spend (max of 8,000g).
Thank you sir.
GH: Is there a limit to scroll spell level we can purchase for starting equipment?
Scrolls, eh... Anyone with scribe scroll can take as many scrolls as they want of any spell level they can cast themselves, otherwise here are the limits of what you could have reasonably tracked down.
6th level- 1
5th level- 3
4th level- 5
3rd level- 9
No limit on 1st and 2nd level scrolls. Similar guidelines for potions and wands- if you don’t have the feat to make them yourself, no more than nine 3rd level potions and no more than five 3rd level and/or three 4th wands (although, you actually probably couldn’t even afford that many high level wands, lol). I don’t want to get into a bunch of partially-used wand nonsense, but (because I’m feeling generous) I’ll allow each player one ‘split’ wand (two wands of the same level/cost that are both half-charged, for the normal cost of one full wand).
@john- I know I said in my initial post that a vigilante might not be able to make good use of its abilities in this game but I’ve been thinking about your background (and especially your difficulty choosing a twin), and I’m wondering if there might be an opportunity there worth considering? It’s not exactly how the class is meant to be used but what if you made one identity one twin and the other identity the other twin? The PCs would probably know (or learn before too terribly long) that the two are somehow one person but they (and even you) could be pretty unclear on how that works. I don’t think you’d be able to get Int to AC that way, but there’s at least one archetype that gets magus casting (not sure about spell combat/spellstrike), and there’s probably a talent for trapfinding. I don’t know, maybe it won’t do what you’re looking for, I just thought I’d mention that I’m alright with the idea of it (and with never really defining which one you ‘really’ are).
That is a pretty cool idea. I have never made a vigilante so let me look at it. If nothing else it will get me to stop fiddling with this build. Which I will probably do otherwise until you said we are ready to start.
I'll copy what I have in the alias so if it is taking me a bit (since tomorrow is monday) I have something.
I'm sorry, John. It occurs to me that I did not introduce myself. I'm Joe, RL friend Giant halfling for a few decades. Long time player (on tabletop) and no stranger to the forums. I gravitate toward support/healing roles (though I think Gavin will have more offence than most of my characters)
I'm pleased to make your acquaintance. :)
A pleasure to meet you as well, sir. I've only had the pleasure of knowing Mr. Halfling a few months now but it has been fun. My character has only yelled at him once (compared to the many times they have yelled at other people, they are cranky). Oddly, I do believe you are the first two I would be gaming with that know each other in real life and pbp.
I generally like healing/support as well. The first pbp character I made was a cleric cause I figured EVERYONE needed a healer. Happily, I was right.
I am reading about the other class currently, but if there is anything you'd like to combine storywise, any teamwork feats you'd really like to try out, or anything you think I've missed, let me know I can move things around a bit.
If any of you are interested in teamwork feats (and decide you’ve been together long enough to have them), you would get a ton of mileage from lookout if the Witness can make room to take it...
Also, regarding spell components- I’m not huge on bookkeeping. On your character sheets you can all list your liquid assets as “coins and gems” and just keep a gold piece tally without worrying about what type of coins or gems. That might not seem related to spell components but I’m willing to lump dust and whatnot into that too... so any spell that requires gold dust or powered diamond or whatever you can just subtract the appropriate amount from your “coins and gems” and we won’t worry about tracking how many of your gems are fire opals or which of your diamonds are crushed.
Along those same lines, I’m gonna be pretty laid back about encumbrance. Like, I’m not going to look for a pound by pound break down of every single thing you’re carrying. That said, if your Str is relatively low (and right now it sounds like we have a wizard and 2 Dex builds) you might want to invest in a handy haversack or a bag of holding because if you’re running around with bunch of stuff, or find something heavy you want to take, I may do a little quick math (or tell you to do it).
muleback cords are also a wonderful wonderful thing.
Already grabbed muleback cords and handy haversack.
This will be my official GM alias for this game.
I know introducing a whole new campaign setting makes for a ton of info to convey, but I'm working on a document to link here that will be sort of a primer on what worldly/traveled people with 0 ranks in knowledge skills would know. Those of you who put ranks in knowledge skills I'll try to write up some more stuff for, but I'm not going to go overboard with details that I can just tell you if they ever become relevant. In the meantime, here's the 2cp crash course...
Cardriss is a continent roughly the size of North America. It's shape vaguely resembles Australia, or a kidney bean. There are around a dozen major kingdoms (depending on how you define major) and some of them have unclaimed lands or smaller nations in between them.
*The northern coast of the continent has long harsh winters and basically a viking people/culture.
*The southern coast is, geographically, two separate regions. The western side has plains and rolling hills, which eventually give way to the rocky foothills of a mountain range that extends Northeast across the continent; the culture and people there are more or less northern Mediterranean. The east side of the southern coast has a relatively narrow band of fertile lands surrounding a big desert; the people there are dark skinned and the culture is a little bit of a mishmash of Meso-American and southern African influences.
*The western region is mostly plains and forests (though the end of a mountain range cuts through its northern side). The culture and people here are the most stereo-typically medieval (sort of English, French, and southern German elements).
*The eastern region is also mostly plains and forests (with the end of a different mountain range cutting through its southern side). The people here have similar skin-tones to those in the west but nearly universally have a notable amount of freckles. Their eyes are blue or purple and their hair ranges from a rich auburn to raven black. They are the most insular humans and their culture, which they claim to be the remnant of a forgotten ancient human empire, bears some similarities to Basque and Finnish natives.
*Islands, some of considerable size, dot the waters around the mainland, especially around the southern half of the continent. Some of these, especially in the north, are part of mainland civilizations (and populated by those mainland people), but there is also a seafaring people that populates many of the southern isles. These people, and their culture, are basically polynesian.
*The Tower of Ages (also sometimes called the Axis of the World, or the Godspire) sits at the center of the world (and roughly the center of the continent). Korryn, the city at the center of the world, sprawls out around it. Some of the cities on the coast can be quite urbane or advanced, but none can match Korryn in it’s diversity or grandiosity. As a general rule, the farther inland you go the more of a melting-pot of peoples and cultures you find, and the more advanced the magic and technology become (blackpowder being a bit of an exception, due to the number of alchemists experimenting with it in or near areas where magic is less reliable). While people from all over (and elements of their culture) can be found throughout Korryn and its region, the base culture is… sort of, vaguely, Eberron-esque, if any of you ever played in that setting. Nice neighborhoods have magical streetlights and (low-level) municipal wizards directing unseen servants to clean and garden. Constructs pull long carriages of passengers along set routes through the city. Guilds are kind of a big thing. If the renaissance took place in a high-fantasy medieval German society with advanced clockwork skills that might be sort of what I’m trying to describe.
*There are four significant areas of low magic, and those of you with a decent knowledge of geography will know where they all are. The rest of you just have some sense that they exist unless you happen to be from near one; and, you can be from pretty much any region and be from near one, unless you want to be from Korryn.
Alright, that’s probably enough for now. Please feel free to ask questions, and I can try to fill in some gaps for your backgrounds and what not.
Oh! And, no there is not an Asian culture in Cardriss. Monks are still a thing and most of the cultures/regions have unique fighting styles that focus on discipline and harnessing inner-strength to accomplish supernatural feats. Ninja are just rogues who embrace that path, and samurai are cavaliers influenced by it. If you want to use “eastern armor” that’s fine; the SE people make elaborate armor with a lot of leather, bone, and treated wood… pretty much any eastern armor could be from there with only a small change to the description (different colors, and the masks would be animal heads instead of Oni faces). The E people have retained ancient smithing techniques and any “eastern weapons” could be from there. Okay, now feel free to ask questions.
Sorry that's so long... maybe I should have made it multiple posts. It looked shorter while I was writing it in google docs.
Any weird languages we should be aware of?
Good question.
Common is the language of Korryn. Each of the other five regions have a regional dialect that most natives speak (usually in addition to Common). Elven, Dwarven, and Orcish are rare but available (sort of like learning Welsh or Basque). There are also dead languages if anyone is really interested; there’s a few that were precursors to modern languages (sort of like Latin or Old English) and one or two others that are exceedingly rare (like learning Urgiritic today).
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I'm sorry, John. It occurs to me that I did not introduce myself either. I'm Ed, RL friend of Giant Halfling for a few decades. Long time player (on tabletop) and no stranger to the forums. While I sound similar to Joe on paper, I assure you we're quite different :)
I gravitate towards specialized characters of all varieties with one or two clear "axioms" to fall back on for RP guidance, though more often than not I play a caster of one kind or another. My specialization has been known to reach borderline inappropriate levels from a mechanical standpoint, and my characters are generally fairly obsessive about their particular specialties. (By way of for instance, I'm currently trying to restrain myself from increasing The Witness's initiative bonus past +18.)
I'm also pleased to make your acquaintance!
Hello Ed! I completely understand falling down the rabbit hole on stats at times and +18 is delightful.
In theory, we should have one more player who I think may be checking in this evening, hopefully.
For the languages, since I know some of you are taking linguistics, that list wasn’t meant to be at all exhaustive. There’s still all the planar and elemental languages, and most of the monster languages (like giantish and gnome) exist although those are more rare than elven or dwarven. And, the comparisons to real world languages were intended both to give you an idea of how often you might encounter them, and also how hard it would be to learn them. The more common dead languages could be learned at any decent academy, but the rare ones you would have had to travel to one of the 1-3 institutions in the world that teach that one.
Also, sorry none of the regions/languages have names right now... I’m having trouble finding more of my notes than I realized (which shouldn’t be a surprise since the last time I ran this was at least 15 years ago) and didn’t have time to think of new names yet. I’ll rename them soon.
edit: I’m Nate, since we’re including that in introductions. And, I love that your banner says ‘oversized hobbit’ John.
If any of you are interested in teamwork feats (and decide you’ve been together long enough to have them), you would get a ton of mileage from lookout if the Witness can make room to take it...
The Witness can always act in the surprise round, so if anyone wants to commit themself to a feat and to defaulting their position to be adjacent to him, I’m game for taking the feat as well.
I can certainly make room for that.
I'm sorry, John. It occurs to me that I did not introduce myself either. I'm Ed, RL friend of Giant Halfling for a few decades. Long time player (on tabletop) and no stranger to the forums. While I sound similar to Joe on paper, I assure you we're quite different :)
Indeed....a veritable Yin and Yang are We two.....and in the interest of disclosure, Ed has an extra decade of quality 'Nate time'.
Alright, I’ve written down the Lookout feat on what passes for my character sheet. In ink. No changing it now.
Hey guys! I am Dylan. I am Joe's (Gavin) step son and have known Nate for most of my life. I have also met Ed on a couple of occasions (mostly to play Pathfinder). Sorry for the delay in posting, just started a new job and trying to balance out my life.
I have been playing table top RPGs for my whole life. I dabbled in PBP for a couple of years but stepped back a couple of months ago. This is my first dive back in.
I am not sure I have much a type of character besides I struggle to roleplay anything not good. I do play the intellect characters often as well.
So that brings me to this character. I do not have something set in stone but, I am thinking an inquisitor. Maybe paladin. Something that has some solid melee power behind it but uses some magic and I think is the way I want to go with a Divine background. I will think of how the character will fit into this world and see where that leads me on class.
It is wonderful to meet you and thank you for inviting me in on this game!
Additional Information.
The primary calendar is a solar one (like we use today). There are 12 months with 30 days each, and they correspond to the seasons- New Year marks the beginning of 3 months of spring, followed by 3 months of summer, 3 months of fall, and finally 3 months of winter before the next New Year.
There’s also a lunar calendar that very few people use at all any more, except druids and sages. Each month is 28 days long (one cycle from new moon to full moon and back), and there are 15 months in each lunar year. There’s a season-like cycle of affinities associated with the calendar but few people know anything about it.
The best known feature of the lunar calendar is that it lines up with the ‘real’ calendar every 9 years (9 solar years = 8 lunar years). This 9 year period is called a tran. New Tran is marked with extra large celebrations at the beginning of each of these 9 year periods when the solar new year and lunar new year are on the same day.
There is a special celebration in Korryn every New Tran because that is one day every nine years that people can enter the Tower of Ages. (We’re beginning a few weeks before New Tran).
There’s also an astrological calendar but, unless you have ranks in a related skill or group up in a cult that used it, you’ve probably never heard about it.
Side note: a tran is also sometimes called an ‘elf-year’, mostly because some elves will use the Common word “year” to refer to a tran, like saying “I was there, 20 years ago,” about something that actually happened 180 years ago (which humans pretty universally agree is a d!ck move).
Also, welcome Dylan. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Hello Dylan. Good choices on classes. Ed, I'll write in Lookout, no being ambushed for us!
Not sure of class yet, but I am thinking of being an orc, not from the enclave. Most likely from Korryn. The background I would go with is essentially as a child, I was found (either with humans killing my parents or for some other reason for me being abandoned. Side note, you mentioned a that there are so few orcs, just for an understanding sake, is the disparity because of hostility?). I was taken in by a wealthy family in Korryn to essentially show off about how charitable the family is. Once the whole gimmick of having an orc child died off and the family was no longer getting attention for it, they sent me off to go to some religious school to "teach me to be civilized and remove my insticts". Therr is where I took on my training as...
That is about as far as I got. Thoughts? Does it seem to fit in line with the tone of the adventure?
Orcs aren't the savages in Cardriss that they are in many settings. They are warlike, yes, but they understand discipline. Their largest kingdoms were LE--not CE like they default to in Golarion--and they developed monastic traditions and had standing armies and trade treaties with neighboring kingdoms of other races.
The fantasy races are dying off for a number of reasons... war and the expansion of human kingdoms are certainly some of them, but they also just seem to be reproducing less than they used to?
An adopted orc child would be a bit of a novelty but it wouldn't necessarily show off how charitable a family was any more than adopting any other child. Also, Korryn is home to over a million people so even with orcs being less than .3% of the population there are 3,000 or so in the city.
You could still use that background if you want (a wealthy family whose aspirations for social climbing are bigger than their understanding of what the adoption will convey tries to use the child to showoff; it doesn't work like they hoped it would so they ship him off to some temple for training), but you could just as easily be from one of the orcish families living in the metropolis. If you were from a smaller city closer to the coast an orc would be a bigger deal.
Hmmm. Okay. Then I might eliminate the novelty of being an orc and make the character relatively famously orphaned and a family adopted him for the same reasons as above. I will work on the story why this child being orphaned is so public or meaningful, but a lower wealthy family hoping to move up the ranks is a fun idea for their background and booted off to the temple once the family deemed them no longer useful.
I will give more story on that later when I come up with something good. I am currently leaning towards inquisitor. I think there is a fun interaction of the character being taken in by the God but having a bit of resentments towards the church itself since they know they were shipped here because they are no longer serving the family's needs. So they choose to dedicate themselves to the deity but feels that dedication to the God is different than dedication to the church.
Gavin is pious and my pigeon refuses to worship any of them on principle. And your person is a mix of the two. Good start to a healthy party dynamic :)
I believe I am keeping my magus. Time is not on my side this week. But thank you for the consideration in allowing the vigilante, Nate.
@John- Keeping the magus// is fine but if the only problem is time don't feel too rushed... I'm still at least a few days out from being ready, and so far nobody has finalized a character, and there's still big questions for the party to answer (like how did you meet up? is your grouping a formal arrangement? if not, what binds you together? how long have you all been together? etc)... so you've got some time yet if you want to keep hemming and hawing.
Alright, here’s your 0 rank descriptions of the 6 regions (besides Korryn), for non-natives. I can do names of kingdoms/cities/whatever for your backgrounds by request and I’ll send you each a little more info by PM once I know where you’re from and how many ranks you’ll have in various knowledge skills.
northern region
western region
eastern region
southwestern region
southeastern region
southern isles
I think there’s probably enough on Korryn in the first info-dump for now; literally any class (or ethnicity) can be from there, although ones like ranger or barbarian would most likely have urban archetypes unless they’re from the outskirts.
Sorry this took so long; I still haven’t found the notes on this stuff so I had to write it up from memory/scratch. If I can’t find the map today I’ll do a crappy sketch of a new one and try to post that tomorrow.
As some of you start looking at finalizing a character please include something about where they are from (and think about what impact that’s had on their attitude/outlook, and their appearance).
edit: And, as always, please feel free to ask questions
John: FYI If you’re taking trapfinding due to concern over someone in the party having it, I could cover that base relatively easily via a Find Traps wand and a few ranks in Disable Device.
I think I'll keep it. A level of rogue opens up so many class skills that a person with a high intelligence can take a great amount of advantage. I'm imagining this character could be a scout for the group.
Okay, I'll decide on the last bits of the character, and take one last look at vigilantes (I suck at spelling and have more trouble with that word than 'necessary')
No matter which way I go class-wise, this person is a professional adventure. Living instead of hiding for the last decade or so. Late twenties probably. So could have easily been on some with any of you, either in the past or now.
I've added the details of my character sheet work in progress to my alias profile - mainly only the Statistics, Class Abilities, and Spells spoilers have any info. I've still got some feat and skill choices to make, so I have some bend in what I can achieve.
My "keywords" for The Witness are Perception, Understanding, Magic, and Anonymity/Inscrutability.
I'm definitely going to boost his Perception through at least items and spells, if not more feats - the guy's name is "The Witness" after all. It's kind of his bag (see first keyword above.) I may also work on his Sense Motive.
Not sure if face skills are somewhere we could use a boost. I could swing being good at negotiating and lying by taking the Additional Traits feat and picking up the social trait Student of Philosophy. This would allow me to use my Int on Diplomacy checks to persuade and Bluff checks to lie, and I could put some ranks in those. I can also acquire them as class skills through either alternate human racial traits or the Cosmopolitan feat. (Honestly there are more than 2 more traits I wouldn't mind having, so I may take Additional Traits feat regardless.)
I'd prefer not to step on anybody's toes too hard if there's something they're hoping to shine at outside of combat, so please let me know if it looks like I'm doing that!
Gavin won't mind playing second fiddle in any skills. He will have decent perception and diplomacy, but will yield to whomever wants to be the party face.
I'd like gavin (with Nate's blessing) to be fairly well traveled. Having seen most of the civilized parts of the continent. It will have been a good 30 years since his prison time. His motivation for being with the group is because of his dream (weather right or wrong) and a bit of curiosity.
I would prefer to be the first to encounter the Witness, but after we start traveling together, would welcome new companions.