TRM's Second Darkness, a Pathfinder RPG game (closed)

[Mark Chance]

Originally Posted by The Rolling Man

@ Mark Chance : All power attack, all the time ? Interesting I didn't see anything wrong with your sheet. A few lines about Kronk's background would be great however. Edit: Actually seems like Kronk could have another language.

I'll get around to the additions/changes ASAP. I'm a bit under the weather, and not being able to stay home from work isn't helping. It's semester final exam time for my students, and I'm having to work too hard for what I get paid.

[Ambrus]

My character is largely finished I think; I'd just like to review my skills and equipment once more when I have a minute.

So do we have a final tally of who's playing and a scheduled start time yet? Is there anything else we should go over before we start?

[Voadam]

Voadam
NG Human Ranger 1
6’2” 240 lbs brown hair, blue eyes, beard

Str 14
Dex 13
Con 14
Int 16
Wis 7
Cha 10

AC 11 (+1 Dex)
HP 19

F +4, R+3, W-2

Initiative +1
BAB +1
CMB +3
Favored Enemy: Evil Outsider
Wayfarer Lore (planar)
Favored Class wizard

Attack unarmed strike +3 melee d3+2 (+2 favored enemy evil outsider).

Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Deflect Arrows
Skills:
Diplomacy +5 (1 rank, +3 int(*), +3 class skill, +1 trait)
Knowledge Arcana +5 (1 rank, +3 int, +1 lore)
Knowledge Dungeoneering +8 (1 rank, +3 int, +3 skill, +1 lore)
Knowledge Engineering +4 (+3 int, +1 lore)
Knowledge Geography +4 (+3 int, +1 lore)
Knowledge History +4 (+3 int, +1 lore)
Knowledge Local +4 (+3 int, +1 lore)
Knowledge Nature +8 (1 rank, +3 int, +3 class skill, +1 lore)
Knowledge Nobility +4 (+3 int, +1 lore)
Knowledge Planar +6 (1 rank, +3 int, +2 lore)
Knowledge Religion +4 (+3 int, +1 lore)
Perception +2 (1 rank, -2 wis, +3 class skill)
Profession Sailor +2 (1 rank -2 wis, +3 class skill)
Ride +5 (1 rank +1 dex, +3 class skill)
Spellcraft +4 (1 rank, +3 int)
Swim +6 (1 rank +2 str, +3 class skill)
Survival +2 (1 rank -2 wis, +3 class skill)

Languages: Common, Mongolic, Orcish, Abyssal, Giant,

Equipment:
140 gp budget http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1896835/
Wand of cure light wounds 9 charges 135 gp.
Black robes
Green sash
5 gp

Traits

Makes Connections: Voadam is a friendly and outgoing man with a good heart. He is willing to work with most any being under most circumstances and worked with allies ranging from renegade demons to paladins, elves, dwarves, gods and men as well as various guilds, groups, and governments. He is used to working with people or beings from a wide range of backgrounds and viewpoints and at one point was a merchant prince with a world spanning network of allies, though that was many years and worlds ago and has had to start anew multiple times on multiple worlds. He recently found himself in the Golden Goblin in Riddleport, newly arrived in the world and stripped of his former magics again. He heard that mages were not common but there was a fellow in the Goblin named Tolly who sounds like he might be a mage. Voadam decided to meet the young man (gain a +1 trait bonus in Diplomacy, and Diplomacy is always considered a class skill for you).

Tactical diplomacy: Voadam's negotiations are guided by his quick mind and keen insight into possibilities and opportunities. He applies his intelligence bonus to diplomacy checks.

Class adjustments, gave up ranger tracking, wild empathy, and animal companion for bardic lore renamed wayfarer lore.


A bearded brown-haired bear of a man with blue eyes dressed in black robes with a green sash.

After the shadow in the sky became visible from all around Riddleport, the druid elders of the Clawed Watchers sect performed auguries and all the signs pointed the same way—something or someone in Riddleport is connected to the blot, and it means bad news for the region. The sect is charged to protect the material realm from otherworldly, unnatural forces and they sought further divinations through a circle ritual about what forces they could bring to bear on the situation. These rituals tapped into ancient not fully controlled powerful forces of druidic magic. They were somewhat surprised when a black rift opened up amidst their sacred standing stones and a bear of a man in black robes crashed through. Magics coursed over him, wracking his body and leaving him a smoking heap on the ground, unconscious.

They restored him to health and answered some of his questions about where he was and what had happened. He claimed to be a demon hunter who walked worlds, of late dealing with ancient giant magics, dragons, and animals corrupted by planar forces into unnatural abominations. He claimed to be a wizard without magic, but he demonstrated he could tap into nature magics. Some of the druids felt their ritual had failed spectacularly and brought them a madman, others felt the man was sent to answer their need.

Ultimately he convinced the sect to ask him to go with their agent Rorgar to learn what the two could of the Blot. Voadam agreed, provided they grant him a druidic healing wand, and a bargain was struck.

Many considered Voadam touched in the head. The man was said to have called himself "the Green Wizard of Althora" but performed no magics claiming "it works different here" and nobody had ever heard of Althora. He swore by gods nobody heard of and was concerned about the machinations of demons and the forces of Law and Chaos. Still he is friendly, inquisitive, and quick to learn. He's also tough, brave, and ready to step into dangerous situations.

Voadam was in fact a world hopping, demon-hunting viking wizard who fell afoul of planar magics that banished him to this world as he encountered a dragon while seeking out secrets of ancient giant magic. He was skilled in spells, bladework, and the lotus petal style of martial arts learned among a Mongolic people. On arriving in Riddleport however he found that magic worked differently and much of his previous lore and powers were now inapplicable.

He has seen many things and is an experienced hunter of evil. Pragmatic, greedy, and mercenary though he may be, underneath he is a good man with a lust for life and can’t help himself from getting involved in the affairs of the worlds he finds himself in. He is currently interested in learning about where he is, recovering his magical powers, and rebuilding a new spellbook. He expects the dark forces at work in the world to draw him into their ambit before too long.

The concept is a Ranger Wizard heading towards either eldritch knight or loremaster, he is rebuilding his magical abilities from the ground up again as he learns of this new world he finds himself in.

Party role to start: Healer with the cure wand and lore expert.

Bold for speech

[Walking Dad]

Finished my character and added him to the RG.

Who wants to be Rorgar's eccentric rural friend (background)?

[Dr Simon]

Voadam: I don't know if Tolly would be that well known as being a wannbe magician, since he tends to keep such stuff to himself (until he actually masters the stuff, that is). If you want to be aware of him, that's fine, but he'll be surprised that you are.

As for job offer, I was thinking that he'd be angling for work as a croupier in the Golden Goblin.

TRM: Languages again. I looked up Pathfinder Linguistics skill and it says
Learn a Language: Whenever you put a rank into this skill,
you immediately learn to speak and read a new language
so since I've got 1 rank, can I add another language to my list?

[Voadam]

Originally Posted by Dr Simon

Voadam: I don't know if Tolly would be that well known as being a wannbe magician, since he tends to keep such stuff to himself (until he actually masters the stuff, that is). If you want to be aware of him, that's fine, but he'll be surprised that you are.

No problem, I'll try and come up with another hook then.

[The Rolling Man]

Originally Posted by Ambrus

My character is largely finished I think; I'd just like to review my skills and equipment once more when I have a minute.

So do we have a final tally of who's playing and a scheduled start time yet? Is there anything else we should go over before we start?

I don't see anything wrong with Tosh so you're good to go. As for who's playing and when do we start, I'm hoping to make the first IC post friday or this weekend, depending on the state of the PCs and my own time. The PCs are:

• Tolneus "Tolly" Garnus, human rogue and dabbler in arcane matters. (played by Dr. Simon, good to go)
• Tosh, black dragonwrought kobold rogue, boneyard sneak. (played by Ambrus, good to go)
• Chan Ti, half elf monk from far away Tian Xia. (played by ghostcat, good to go)
• Kronk Madaxe, violent dwarf fighter. (played by Mark Chance, could use a background to help me with the initial post)
• Rorgar, half-orc druid and feral shapeshifter. (played by Walking Dad, just need a few corrections, see below)
• Voadam, human ranger, madman or traveller from some other world ? (played by Voadam, incomplete)

[The Rolling Man]

Originally Posted by Walking Dad

Finished my character and added him to the RG.

Who wants to be Rorgar's eccentric rural friend (background)?

It could be Tosh or maybe Kronk since the others are all recent arrivals. I also noted a few errors on your sheet (mostly in your favor )

• Hp should be 17 (half con is 6 not 5).
• Reflex save should be +2 (+1 trait, +1 dex)
• All your skills should have an additional +1 (it's +1 (rank) +3 (class skills) +ability mods and other modifiers)

[The Rolling Man]

Originally Posted by Dr Simon

TRM: Languages again. I looked up Pathfinder Linguistics skill and it says
Learn a Language: Whenever you put a rank into this skill,
you immediately learn to speak and read a new language
so since I've got 1 rank, can I add another language to my list?

Interesting, I didn't notice that. I guess Linguistics is Decipher script + Forgery + Speak Language so, yeah, you can pick another language.

[Ambrus]

Six players. Wow. Big group. I'll need a cheat sheet to keep track of who's who.

[The Rolling Man]

Thanks for posting a good draft of your character. It sure isn't your 'cookie cutter' character . Most of it looks fine but, at first glance, I see a few errors. First, you get +7 to your initial hp (half the constitution score). Second, the will save should be -2 not -3. Third, I'm a bit confused about your skills but I guess it depends on what you get as traits so I'll hold up on checking them in details until the character is finalized. Finally, you get either +1 hp or +1 skill points if you select Ranger as your favored class (as a human you can pick any. From your background and future concept, wizard might fit too).

The bonus of your first trait poses no problem to me. If the mage Voadam is looking for can't be Tolly, he could have heard that some cyphermage or another arcanist will be at the tournement. Mages aren't really sparse in Riddleport. The bonus for Knowledgeable Wayfarer is way too great for a trait however. I'd allow something like +1 to all knowledge skills (no scaling) or the ability to use knowledge skills untrained but not both. The other possibility would be to modify the ranger class to get some bard abilities.

[Voadam]

Originally Posted by The Rolling Man

The bonus of your first trait poses no problem to me. If the mage Voadam is looking for can't be Tolly, he could have heard that some cyphermage or another arcanist will be at the tournement. Mages aren't really sparse in Riddleport. The bonus for Knowledgeable Wayfarer is way too great for a trait however. I'd allow something like +1 to all knowledge skills (no scaling) or the ability to use knowledge skills untrained but not both. The other possibility would be to modify the ranger class to get some bard abilities.

Can I ditch wild empathy and tracking for bardic knowledge?

[Voadam]

updated hp, will save, and made skill breakdown more explicit.

[The Rolling Man]

Originally Posted by Voadam

Can I ditch wild empathy and tracking for bardic knowledge?

Add Hunter's bond (the animal companion ability) to that list and I'll allow it.

[Mark Chance]

Originally Posted by Walking Dad

Who wants to be Rorgar's eccentric rural friend (background)?

I can handle that action. After all, Kronk is wearing a tunic made out of dead squirrels.



I'm fixin' to head over to the RG to add a bit of background to Kronk.

[Dr Simon]

Originally Posted by The Rolling Man

Interesting, I didn't notice that. I guess Linguistics is Decipher script + Forgery + Speak Language so, yeah, you can pick another language.

Running the Crimson Throne with Pathfinder, I've found it pays to double check everything against 3.5 rules, as there are a lot of subtle differences.

This is cool, I figure Tolly as being someone who has a knack with languages and knows a smattering of loads of different phrases "Hello, yes, no, two beers please, don't kill me" in a range of tongues.

Looking forwards to interacting with this right bunch of oddballs!

[Walking Dad]

Originally Posted by Mark Chance

I can handle that action. After all, Kronk is wearing a tunic made out of dead squirrels.



I'm fixin' to head over to the RG to add a bit of background to Kronk.

Thanks .

[Voadam]

Originally Posted by The Rolling Man

Add Hunter's bond (the animal companion ability) to that list and I'll allow it.

Done.

For a new trait how about either of the following:

1 Curious mage: If Voadam takes levels in wizard his wizard levels stack with his ranger levels for purposes of wayfarer lore. (Mechanically this means he will gain a skill rank in knowledge planar at every wizard level and will get a +1 lore knowledge bonus at his third and fifth wizard levels).

2 Tactical diplomacy: Voadam's negotiations are guided by his quick mind and keen insight into possibilities and opportunities. He applies his intelligence bonus to diplomacy checks.

3 Eclectic lore: Voadam picks up a bit here and there as he goes. Each level Voadam gains an extra skill point. This skill point can only be spent on knowledge skills that were used in the last level. Normal skill rank maximums apply.

[Voadam]

Proposed background with connections to Rorgar and therefor indirectly to Kronk:


After the shadow in the sky has become visible from all around Riddleport, the druid elders performed auguries and all the signs pointed the same way—something or someone in Riddleport is connected to the blot, and it means bad news for the region. The druid sect is charged to protect the material realm from otherworldly, unnatural forces and they sought further divinations through a circle ritual about what forces they could bring to bear on the situation. These rituals tapped into ancient not fully controlled powerful forces of druidic magic. They were somewhat surprised when a black rift opened up amidst their sacred standing stones and a bear of a man in black robes crashed through. Magics coursed over him, wracking his body and leaving him a smoking heap on the ground, unconscious.

They restored him to health and answered some of his questions about where he was and what had happened. He claimed to be a demon hunter who walked worlds, of late dealing with ancient giant magics, dragons, and animals corrupted by planar forces into unnatural abominations. He claimed to be a wizard without magic, but he demonstrated he could tap into nature magics. Some of the druids felt their ritual had failed spectacularly and brought them a madman, others felt the man was sent to answer their need.

Ultimately the sect decided to ask him to go with their agent Rorgar to learn what the two could of the Blot. Voadam agreed, provided they grant him a druidic healing wand, and a bargain was struck. So now the two are headed to Riddleport, to meet Rorgar's old friend, a dwarf named Kronk at an inn called the Golden Goblin.

[The Rolling Man]

Originally Posted by Voadam

For a new trait how about either of the following:

1 Curious mage: If Voadam takes levels in wizard his wizard levels stack with his ranger levels for purposes of wayfarer lore. (Mechanically this means he will gain a skill rank in knowledge planar at every wizard level and will get a +1 lore knowledge bonus at his third and fifth wizard levels).

2 Tactical diplomacy: Voadam's negotiations are guided by his quick mind and keen insight into possibilities and opportunities. He applies his intelligence bonus to diplomacy checks.

3 Eclectic lore: Voadam picks up a bit here and there as he goes. Each level Voadam gains an extra skill point. This skill point can only be spent on knowledge skills that were used in the last level. Normal skill rank maximums apply.

2 is fine. I don't much like 3 but I'd allow 1 if we limit it somehow. The way I see traits, they are meant to be simple bonuses at start of the game but they fade in importance as you gain more levels. Granted such levels are far away in a PbP format but I'm just trying to be fair while letting you make the character you want ... So, back at your option 1, there's an existing talent that gives +2 to one of your casting level, as long as it doesn't exceed your HDs. I think your talent should be somewhat similar. But, since bonuses to knowledge skills aren't as great as an increased caster lvl, I would double the benefits (i.e. +4 lvls) and apply it to your class ability rather then a caster lvls. So the trait could be written as such :

1 Curious wayfarer: If Voadam takes levels in another class then ranger, up to four of these levels can stack with his ranger levels for purposes of wayfarer lore.

I like the link you've made with the druids of Rorgar's sect, so I'm gonna use this in the upcoming first ic post.