Well, the most damning part is the 2% for backstory. So while I personally like the character, I’d hate to play something that is against the lore. For frost folk, where can I read more about them?
Yeah, backstory wasn't bad and I kinda liked the feel of it, but a lot of lore conflicts with that one for the races, and difficulties to get to that backstory given the races and what they are doing.
------
Frost folk are northern humanoids with the COLD subtype, they tend to survive off the land, and generally are barbarians.
Like Orcs, Frostfolk are raiders when not taking care of their livestock or going hunting,
and if they cross-bred with something, it was likely not in a loving way of a loving couple, but leaving a b4stard child behind.
They tend to raid on Human, Half-elf, or Elven settlements, and don't bother raiding orcs, as the orcs likely don't have the supplies since they also do raiding.
The half-frostfolk weakness Weak to Heat adjusts the warmer temperature bands meaning in temperatures that most characters find warm and comfy,
you find a bit too hot and will need to make some fort saves.
There are counters to dampen the weakness, and all require investments of some kind.
Frostburn has an entry on full blooded Frostfolk, and given the inheritance options for half-frostfolk most have a frostfolk father,
and very few would have a frostfolk mother (the ones with the cold subtype)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
For Grumbaki’s half-minotaur, maybe some sort of magic shenanigans without experimentation could work to lightly tweak the backstory? I’m thinking along the lines of the OG son of Minos minotaur, only sort of backwards?
I think way back when in the v. 3.5 days, there were rules for monster cults which involved a certain amount of transformation, and it’s definitely canon in Pathfinder that there are rituals for that sort of thing. Maybe Ghur’s father is a reformed ex-Baphomet cultist, who had, at one point, advanced an alarming degree in the mysteries and acquired horrifying profane blessings – but when he turned away from the demon lord, those were taken away from him, but not without leaving a mark. (Which would, meta-wise, account for why, even as a non-minotaur, Ghur’s non-orc parent can’t ease the family’s integration into ordinary society.) But, because demons are warped and evilly cunning things, when Ghur was in the womb, he was cursed/blessed with full (as it were) half-minotaur “ancestry,” so that every time his father looked upon his progeny he would be reminded of his shame or (as Baphomet might see it) all that he threw away. (With the potential for all sorts of toxicity stewing as a result.) And with an implicit promise that the child might have potential that his father lost…
Something like that? A fun bit of angst that retains a bunch of the grim, but lets Ghur’s parents be trying to be better? Especially, if we're setting this in the River Kingdoms, which I gather is in some ways Golarion's Island of Misfit Toys, where all sorts of odd outcasts can pop out of the rural woodwork, compared to all the weirdos that a large metropolis can explain just by sheer numbers.
Only a bit of time left to get an interest in before I close the door.
Fixing Ghur. Making him medium for ease of use in campaign.
First things first. I screwed up stats. Ran the rules and numbers through ChatGPT a few times to figure out how I had screed it up and realized that step 2 was wrong. Specifically:
New Hybrid PointBuy_Dice System at 25 PB (Stats: Min 8, Max 22 Post-racial)
Roll 1: 2d3 + 12 ⇒ (3, 3) + 12 = 18
(17pts: 8 left)
Roll 2: 1d8 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18
(17pts: negative 9 points)
Roll 3: 1d6 - 1d3 + 10 ⇒ (2) - (2) + 10 = 10 0 points
Roll 4: 1d6 - 1d3 + 10 ⇒ (2) - (2) + 10 = 10 0 points
Roll 5: 1d6 - 1d6 + 10 ⇒ (1) - (6) + 10 = 5
(-6pts: negative 3 points)
At roll 2 I did 1d8+10. It should have been 1d6-1d3 +10. So I’m fixing this now. Luckily that’s the only roll that needs to be changed.
Roll 1: 2d3 + 12 ⇒ (3, 3) + 12 = 18
(17pts: 8 left)
(2pts: 6 left)
Roll 3: 1d6 - 1d3 + 10 ⇒ (2) - (2) + 10 = 10 0 points
Roll 4: 1d6 - 1d3 + 10 ⇒ (2) - (2) + 10 = 10 0 points
Roll 5: 1d6 - 1d6 + 10 ⇒ (1) - (6) + 10 = 5
(-6pts: 12 left)
That makes 18/12/10/10/6
12 points pushes 6 to an 8 (2pts) and makes the last stat a 16 (10pts)
Thus 18/12/10/10/8/16
However…5 points for being medium half minotaur. It drops the 16 to a 14.
Therefore, 18/12/10/10/8/14
Ghur knew his parents. The only ones who truly mattered, even though it was clear that he was not biologically related. They were only human, afterall. But they were the only family he had ever known. Many a time he had asked as towards whom his parents were, and the answer he had received through most of his life was that they had not survived. It was not until he left his home that his father had admitted that this had been a half-truth. For half-minotaurs were generally made as a result of magical cross breeding experiments, and Ghur was no exception. His mother had been an orc, captured and selected for the purpose of breeding a strain of minotaur that was less ungainly in size. His father, the man who had raised him, had been a member of the cult that had created him. Despairing at the vile atrocities he had committed in the name of deity whose name he had refused to utter, he had stolen away one of the infants that had been created and fled, hoping to raise the child in penance for the evil that had been its birth.
Fleeing as far as he could, he eventually settled for a ramshackle farmstead that he purchased with the last of his coin. And there he raised his son, hoping to overcome his evil nature as a way of proving that he could reform himself of his own crimes.
While the local farmers and villagers had initially been terrified of the monstrous child, as years went by they became just another local fixture. Something travelers were afraid of, which caused the locals to laugh. There he was born and raised, gladly helping in any way he could. When he was still young his father had married a woman he would come to know as mother.
There was no trauma in his childhood, just hard work and two loving parents. And there he would have stayed, but-for the goblin infestation. Driven out of the hills by adventurers, they became a blight on the farm. Cattle went missing, vegetables were eaten, and buildings were set aflame by the pyromaniacs. And whenever he, or his parents, gave chase the pests would scatter and flee. Business had always been slow, for selling produce and meat was often met with more than a little apprehension. But the losses inflicted by the goblinoids was catastrophic. Eventually, the last few cattle were sold to hire an adventuring party that could truly drive the goblins away. When all was said and done, the farm was saved, but it faced a new crisis: financial crisis. The farm was damaged, the crops raided and the cattle gone. It looked like they would have to leave, and his parents were far too old to set up a new life. And that was why Ghur left, in the hope of earning enough coin to bring home to save his family farm. Of course, he explained, he had told them that he had left to perform more honest work…
——-
Personality: Ghur is a living embodiment of the question “Is it better to be born good, or to overcome one’s evil nature through great effort?” Violence comes naturally to him, a fact he had learned when goblins had infested his family’s farm, and of all of his emotions anger is the most prominent one. This should come as no surprise, given that his existence was the unnatural union of both an orc and a Minotaur. Aware of the crime against nature that his life is, Ghur has resolved to prove himself better than what he was made to be. This has proven to be a daily challenge.
That should fix the background. Now finally I’ll make sure that the numbers and feats are all correct.
Nope
You have to Dock the template Cost First before any rolls, which changes the first roll to 2d4+10, not 2d3+12.
and if you get an 18 on the first roll, expect to roll around a 10 in stats as you'll be rolling 1d6-1d6 +10 not 1d6-1d3+10 for a good while until the PB point pool is over 6 and if the PB pool is negative you'd be rolling 1d3-1d6 +10
as 18(17),12(2),10,10,8(-2),14(5) is 22 PB. which is off also by 2
The first roll and all following rolls were the incorrect dice..
So, your keeping the stats I rolled; 15,15,12,12,11,11
Ah! That makes sense. I had thought it was at the end. Have to say, pretty complicated stat rules for this. Glad I finally understand them.
Does the background work?
A lot less lore conflict, and it works, not perfectly, but it works.
“A lot less lore conflict, and it works, not perfectly, but it works.”
Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it. Maybe it’s just me, but I’d like to make sure any character I run fits cleanly into the campaign and setting, and doesn’t take away from anyone’s experience, players or GM alike.
If you have any advice on what I could change to remove the remaining lore friction, or to help it work perfectly, I’d be happy to simplify, tweak, or drop anything that’s getting in the way. Just let me know what would help.