Oddly themed party...

[VoodistMonk]

Do people ever build themed parties? I have heard of entire tables playing the same race before, and there is always talk of the all Bard party as a touring band... what are your experiences with it?

As an example, think of a party with a:
Cavalier named Chevy,
Ranger named Ford,
Rogue named Nis'san,
Samurai named Sue Zuki,
Wizard named Isuzu...
Now, I'm not saying you should sacrifice optimization for something that could ultimately be distracting to the detriment of the story being told, but it seems like it would be easy enough to coordinate.

Has anyone actually done a Lord of the Rings or Sailor Moon or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or literally any themed team where the whole party coordinated to play characters from some other media or theme?

[MrCharisma]

We did an all divine party devoted to Iomedae.

We started Kingmaker with 3 Paladins, a Cleric and a Ranger. Unfortunately the Cleric player and the Ranger player left fairly early in. The others wanted a Cleric so I converted my Paladin to a Cleric overnight (Oath of the People's Council Paladin to Evangelist Cleric, so it worked thematically very easily). In retrospect I think it probably would have been more fun to just rock the Paladin Party, but oh well.

It was pretty fun. We were fairly invincible with all that healing - not that Kingmaker is an especially deadly AP - so combats were usually a bloody slug-fest. Out of combat we were a very charismatic lot for a party with 2+INT classes.

Our settlement "Lumen Gladium" (I wanted to call it "Anor Londo") was suuuuper stable - it turns out when you begin the settlement building military buildings and churches the stability rating goes through the roof. So we basically broke the kingdom-building game within the first year.

Unfortunately we didn't finish Kingmaker - we also broke a few other parts of the game and the GM wasn't having fun, so we moved on to other campaigns.

For Carrion Crown we accidently started with a theme. We had a Brawler, an Inquisitor and an Alchemist, but without conferring at all we all decided to play them as bookish-types. So as soon as anything happened we'd go off to the library to see what we could find. Nothing particularly about the mechanics made them need this, just the way we'd each decided to play our characters.

[Mark Hoover 330]

1. 3 barbarian brothers, all voiced with an exaggerated Schwarzenegger accent, who were "managed" by a wizard

2. Several parties of all one class: all fighter, all wizard, all divine classes, all cavaliers

3. Several parties of all one race: all halflings, all tieflings, all elves (funny story; the Elf party went around making fun of humans as "monkey boys" and speaking in terrible French accents)

Once the novelty of themed parties wore off in my games, the campaigns fell into predictable tropes. The powergamers powergamed, the rules lawyers complained and corrected a lot, and the initial silliness either gave way to a concerted effort to DPR or the need to take every piece of potential loot on the horizon.

In other words, IMO themed parties don't really add or subtract anything from the game. Not long term anyway. The one place it did was in a Marvel Super Heroes campaign, but that's because the "theme" also made everyone "street level" heroes so the campaign as written, pitting the characters eventually against Dr Doom, had to be scrapped for something more power level appropriate.

[VoodistMonk]

I definitely think that Kingmaker offers a good platform for a themed party... and there are lots of themes that could be both fitting and effective in that campaign. Nothing too deadly, so you can just kind of enjoy playing whatever you want to play. The kingdom building stuff could offer a lot of opportunity to roleplay different aspects of your character that may otherwise never be seen. Group of nature-loving, treehugging hippies trying to preserve the wilderness, a group of lumberjacks seeing nothing but a huge, untapped resource. Religious zealots spreading the "glory" of their god to the heathen savages of the wilderness. Bunch of lost city kids that took a wrong turn on the way to Restov. Traveling Ska band from Pitax. Lol.

[Tim Emrick]

1) When my home group decided to try out Core for PFS, we built an all-cleric party. We managed to get clerics of all different gods, and all different PFS factions. We never did a lot with those characters (they're still 2nd level, and haven't been played since before Covid), but it was fun for a while. Pro: Lots the healing! Con: Too few skills! (My Callistrian multiclassed into rogue at 2nd level, which helped.)

2) My last Freeport campaign *almost* turned out all geniekin. We had a sylph, an ifrit, and two undines, and the last PC was a vanara. That PC's player joked that if his character ever died, he was going to play an oread next, just to complete the set.

[DungeonmasterCal]

I haven't done it, but ten minutes into the movie "The Road to El Dorado" I wanted to run a Rogue and Bard only campaign. I obsessed about it for over a week.

[TriOmegaZero]

Oh yeah, I totally wanted to run a pair like that with my brother. Hasn't happened so far.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

If/when the PCs of my current game finally achieve Immortality, the next D&D game I run will be an all cleric (or equivalent) party of the new Immortals. A player cannot play the priest of their old character, so it will be fun to see how the players interpret the other player's god.

I've also wanted to play or run in a game where everyone has exactly the same build - class, race, alignment, feats, everything - and see how they are roleplayed differently. Sadly, I think I would get maybe one player in on this.

[Mark Hoover 330]

Here's a crazy theme that's been laughed off at my tables for years now:

A group of 4 PCs, 15 point buy, using only the Core book, no Traits, and standard average starting wealth.

So far none have embraced such a ludicrous idea

[VoodistMonk]

Mark Hoover 330 wrote:

Here's a crazy theme that's been laughed off at my tables for years now:

A group of 4 PCs, 15 point buy, using only the Core book, no Traits, and standard average starting wealth.

So far none have embraced such a ludicrous idea

This is exactly how I ended up with a strength-based cRogue Tengu swinging a Greatsword. Lol.

Well, I started as a Human Bard, but didn't have anything to overcome DR, and got my guts ripped out of my mouth by a horde of zombies. The GM had a thing where, if you die, you will be assigned the nearest/most convenient NPC with class levels... that's your character now. You are allowed a rewrite before the next session, but name and class and stuff remain mostly the same.

There was a graverobbing Tengu Rogue, named Izzek, in the crypt where Syr (my Bard) was killed. What a nightmare campaign... it was supposed to be more challenging, instead it was kinda lame... people play fantasy games for a reason. Lol. Or, at least I do.

I can live every day of my life with a 15pt buy. Not above average in anything, and that's just my life... every day. Why would I want to play that in a tabletop game?

[Mark Hoover 330]

Here was my response when a player made that same observation years ago: why would folks want to play with those restrictions (Core only, 15 point buy and such)?

B/c that's what the Bestiary is based on. That's the math the original game started with. I have no idea how lethal Core play is, b/c I have literally never tried it.

[RedRobe]

My Iron Gods group has a Guardians of the Galaxy theme:
Peter "Astro Baron" Quill - m, human Numerian Scavenger rogue
Rocco - m, goblin spellslinger wizard
Grit - m/f, ghoran brawler

The other half of the group all have breakfast food names:
Biscuit - m, aasimar monk, twin brother to
Gravy - m, aasimar summoner
Lox - f, aasimar hedgewitch (and her familiar Rasher the racoon), mother of the twins and
07-CB aka Constellation Bacon - f, android warpriest of Torag.

Collectively they are known as the Guardians of Numeria.

[Tim Emrick]

Mark Hoover 330 wrote:

Here was my response when a player made that same observation years ago: why would folks want to play with those restrictions (Core only, 15 point buy and such)?

B/c that's what the Bestiary is based on. That's the math the original game started with. I have no idea how lethal Core play is, b/c I have literally never tried it.

My wife (who recently earned her 5th star) just finished GMing a group through all four parts of Eyes of the Ten, and felt that her party had far too easy a time of it (as did the group when she and I originally played through it a couple years ago). She has wondered aloud about how that series would go with a party more in line with what the adventure was originally designed for--not quite as limited as Core, but using only sourcebooks that were in print at the time that those early-season scenarios were released. (Naturally, she strongly doubts that she could ever convince enough people to agree to the experiment.)

[VoodistMonk]

It would probably be easier to assemble a two-person gestalt party, and run the AP as-is. Easier to align schedules with fewer people, might even be able to play more frequently because of it. AND, to come back around, it would probably be easier to convince both players to pick a theme. Lol.

Plus, it is easier to create a complete thought with gestalt... and still have a functional character. Gestalt gives you the liberty to make certain story-driven, thematic choices with your character and not hinder its combat effectiveness (too much, when you consider what could otherwise be accomplished with a gestalt murderhobo)...

[Darigaaz the Igniter]

DungeonmasterCal wrote:

I haven't done it, but ten minutes into the movie "The Road to El Dorado" I wanted to run a Rogue and Bard only campaign. I obsessed about it for over a week.

That's more like 3 rogues and an awakened horse fighter.

[Sysryke]

Love them, hardly ever get to play them. Don't think I've done one in PathFinder yet.

Years ago, played an Avatar the Last Air Bender game in the Marvel Universe Role Playing Game. Everyone was a bender of a different element. Had to have an elemental mastery and a movement or martial art based power that directed the mastery.

Slightly different group ran a brief awakened animals story. Everyone had to build a mundane animal that you could then add one low level power too if it fit the mythology or folklore of that animal. One player played a snake that could do a very weak hypnosis for instance.

Closest I came to a D&D themed group was in 4e. In a larger store game, ended up with 4 dwarves. 3 of us were from the "controller" classes, a wizard, an invoker, and a druid. 4th was a classic fighter. We didn't all know it when we firt came in, but we quickly realized we were searching for our missing 3 brothers.

[Friendly "Fire"]

I have played in a group of 4 Bards (very different Archetypes and actually very balanced with diverse abilities).

but I have also played in a group of all Alchemist - two friends and I have run a team of 3 Alcemists... each a different element race (Ifrit, Oread, Sylph) we were "Earth, Wind and Fire"...

Our Tank is Earth (Beastmorph w/Feral Mutigen, and boosted strength)
Our "Rogue" & "Healing skills" is Wind (Crypt Breaker/Chirurgeon alchemist)
and I'm the Face (Grenadier alchemist, with lots of social skills).

We all can do healing (wands mostly) and we all have bombs for ranged energy damage, and Extracts for spells... and lots of skill points (being Int based PCs...).

(We used to have an Undine with us, but he doesn't play anymore... he's "all wet")

We've played this group in PFS up thru 10th level (so the Chirurgeon got Breath of Life), and they seem to work pretty well at all the levels up to there. Each very much unique and very much part of the team...

[Mark Hoover 330]

I kind of always wanted to do a "Bremmentown Musician's" type game; not in the sense that each PC was a bard, but more like each PC is a common Small or Medium sized animal. Don't change their physical stats at all, give them a handful of points to buy mental stats, and don't make them bipedal or give them hands to grasp with either.

Each PC animal has the gift of speech free with their mental stats and their animal form has somehow developed the physical capability for it as well. Other than their mental attributes and speech though, they're just regular animals.

Now, each player has to pick a class that could work under these conditions. I could see an Oracle or Sorcerer for spells, Monk or Brawler in melee and a kineticist for ranged attacks? I don't know, maybe this is just garbage, but it felt like a cool idea in my head.

[VoodistMonk]

The zootopia party would be awesome, however I feel that is its own thread, entirely. What a fun concept, though.

That elemental-themed Alchemist group sounds fun. An Alchemy-based adventure could be amazing... especially if it was just a party choice and the enemies had no such "restrictions". Lol.

I have mad respect for Alchemy/Alchemists/Divine Alchemy/Druidic Herbalism/Investigators... yeah, I like all of it. The way people seem to like prepared casters over spontaneous, I prefer Alchemy over magic, in general... arcane, divine, or otherwise. After that I prefer spontaneous casting, without distinguishing betwix arcane or divine... but nobody gives $#!+ about my preferences for make-believe magic in a fantasy game. Lol.

Three-person parties are rad. I think a moderately optimized party of three is about perfect for 95% of the printed AP material.

[*Thelith]

Mark Hoover 330 wrote:

I kind of always wanted to do a "Bremmentown Musician's" type game; not in the sense that each PC was a bard, but more like each PC is a common Small or Medium sized animal. Don't change their physical stats at all, give them a handful of points to buy mental stats, and don't make them bipedal or give them hands to grasp with either.

Each PC animal has the gift of speech free with their mental stats and their animal form has somehow developed the physical capability for it as well. Other than their mental attributes and speech though, they're just regular animals.

Now, each player has to pick a class that could work under these conditions. I could see an Oracle or Sorcerer for spells, Monk or Brawler in melee and a kineticist for ranged attacks? I don't know, maybe this is just garbage, but it felt like a cool idea in my head.

And they get their quests from some elves in the forest...

Protect the forest from the evil humans chopping it down for fire wood!

I think that would be a fun game.

Until they all take druid levels and you have foxes turning into dinosaurs..

[Pär Joakimson]

A table I know turned act 4 in wrath of the righteous into "Sabaton picks up Tarja Turunen for secondary vocals and tours the abyss", as a cover for their actual identities.

[KingGramJohnson]

I'm GMing a game of Mummy's Mask, and it's a party of alchemists. They are all brothers named Tin, Rubidium, Cesium, Titanium, Nitrate, and Anaximander. The alchemists and element jokes go on for miles at our table.

[*Thelith]

KingGramJohnson wrote:

I'm GMing a game of Mummy's Mask, and it's a party of alchemists. They are all brothers named Tin, Rubidium, Cesium, Titanium, Nitrate, and Anaximander. The alchemists and element jokes go on for miles at our table.

Elements .