The Cake is a Lie - Seven Swords of Sin (Solo/Gestalt/E6/Recruiting)

[Creamsteak]

I'm looking to start a rather simple and deadly dungeon crawl adventure for one character. This will be a fairly light hearted game, though somewhat vicious. The adventure I'll be running is the Paizo Gamemastery module Seven Swords of Sin. This will be purely a dungeon crawl with no true beginning. We will jump right into the dangerous stuff. I intend to run it in a truely brutal way.

If you die, you're out of the game. If you don't die... then we keep going till you die.

When a player dies, I'll recruit a new player for the meat-grinder.

Sound fun? The game will be somewhat themed after the Portal computer game.



*Note that if you want to play in this game and you are not selected, you should NOT read the in-character thread. It will contain spoilers.

[sblock=Character Generation]Characters begin play as 6th level Gestalts with 4 bonus levels. A bonus level gives the benefits listed below.

Bonus Levels
1 hit point
1 skill point
1 action point
1 bonus feat

Point Buy is 32.

Races may be selected from the following list: Changeling, Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Half-elf, Half-orc, Halfling, Human, Kalashtar, Shifter, Warforged.

Classes may be selected from the sources below:

PHB: All.
XPH: Psychic Warrior, Soulknife.
Bo9S: All.
Comp: Ninja, Scout, Spellthief, Warlock, Wu-jen.
ECS: Dragonmarked Heir and Extreme Explorer (available in attachment).

Feats may be selected from the sources below:

PHB: All. Leadership gives one cohort of average statistics.
XPH: Psionic Body and Psionic Talent are prohibited. Otherwise all.
ECS: All.
RoE: All.
Bo9S: All.

Hit Dice are maximized.

Equipment is by my own selection.

*Alignment is stealing a number from 4e (potentially). There is Good, Evil, Neutral (for druidic neutral) and Unaligned. Monks no-longer have a restriction. This also means you can be a Paladin-Barbarian or Paladin-Bard without breaking any rules.

**Also note the Paladin of Tyranny from Unearthed Arcanna is available, but not Freedom/Slaughter. The Paladin of Tyranny will go by the Blackguard title.[/sblock]

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

I am intrigued by your ideas and wish to subscribe to your newsletter . Give me a few hours and I'll come up with an entrant for the ol' meatgrinder. Are you allowing PrCs (for the level or two we can take) from the various books? Also, is Artificer allowed?

 

[Creamsteak]

Artificer works somewhat awkwardly for this environment, and while I might eventually allow it I'm not sure it's workable yet. Maybe with some more experience with the module (a few casualties) I'll know better. PrCs out of the DMG are fine. You'll have to tell me which others you might be interested in.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Well I was considering recycling an old 'tank' idea for a Warforged Paladin/Pious Templar (I could afford one level of Pious Templar and it'd give me Mettle, which is nice). I'm still considering a bunch of other ideas though, so we'll see .

Edit: Inspiration Strikes! I think I might do a Warforged Paladin or Warblade of some variety.

Edit 2: Alright, I'm leaning towards going Paladin and dropping the Pious Templar thing for simplicity's sake. Questions about leadership: Is the cohort going to be 4th level max or 6th and 2 bonus levels max? Also, what do you mean by 'average stats' for the cohort?

 

[Creamsteak]

4th level max, standard npc array, non-gestalt, average hit points on all hit dice.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Aaaand only now do I finally notice that it's Gestalt. Reworking from scratch now

 

[Creamsteak]

If you do take a cohort, I'll allow you to run it or have another player run it. However, that player can't run through the instance again later obviously. So you get get a second opinion if you want.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Alright, here's a prototype character:

[sblock=Stats]
Jostan the Eternal
Male Human Dragonmarked Heir/Warblade 6
Alignment: NG
Level: 6 + 4

Str: 16 (+3) [8 points, + 1 Level]
Dex: 16 (+3) [10 points]
Con: 14 (+2) [6 points]
Int: 12 (+1) [4 points]
Wis: 10 (+0) [2 points]
Cha: 10 (+0) [2 points]

Racial Abilities: 1 bonus feat at first level, +4 skill points at first level, +1 skill point/level past first

Class Abilities: Favored in House, Least Dragonmark, Lesser Dragonmark, House Status, Additional Action Points, Improved Least Dragonmark, Improved Lesser Dragonmark, Greater Dragonmark, Improved Greater Dragonmark.

Hit Dice: 6d12 + 12
HP: 88/88
AP: 10/10
AC: 20 (+3 dex, +5 armor, +2 shield)
Init: +3 (+3 Dex)
Speed: 20 ft

Saves:
Fortitude +7 [+5 base, +2 Con]
Reflex +9 [+5 base, +3 Dex, +1 Int]
Will +5 [+5 base, +0 Wis]

BAB/Grapple: +6/+9
Melee Atk: Bastard Sword +10 [1d10+5, 19-20/x2]
Melee Full Atk: Bastard Sword +10/+5 [1d10+5, 19-20/x2]

Skills :
Balance +9 [10 ranks, +3 Dex, -4 ACP]
Climb +9 [10 ranks, +3 Str, -4 ACP]
Concentration +12 [10 ranks, +2 Con]
Intimidate +9 [9 ranks, +0 Cha]
Jump +3 [10 ranks, +3 Str, -4 ACP, -6 Speed]
Tumble +8 [9 ranks, +3 Dex, -4 ACP]

Feats:
1st: Adaptive Style
Human Bonus: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Sword)
3rd: Weapon Focus (Bastard Sword)
Warblade Bonus: Martial Study (Crusader Strike)
6th: Action Boost
7th: Devoted Bulwark
8th: Vital Recovery
9th: Martial Study (Revitalizing Strike)
10th: Weapon Specialization (Bastard Sword)

Languages: Common, Draconic

Maneuvers Known: Revitalizing Strike, Crusader Strike, Ironheart Surge, Bonecrusher, Moment of Perfect Clarity, Battle Leader's Charge, Douse the Flames, Mountain Hammer
Stances Known: Punishing Stance, Stance of Absolute Steel
Maneuvers Readied: Revitalizing Strike, Ironheart Surge, Bonecrusher, Moment of Perfect Clarity
Spell-Like Abilities: Cure Light Wounds 2/day (1d8+5), Restoration 1/day, Cure Serious Wounds 1/day (3d8+12), Heal 2/day (150)

Stats based on having only a large shield, breastplate and bastard sword (all non-masterwork).
[/sblock]

 

[Creamsteak]

Well that character's definitely durable, though you'll have to live long enough to get those heals off . I should be able to have something up within 24 hours.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

I just had so many ideas I was going crazy . I was really tempted to stick with the warforged paladin, but warforged can't be dragonmarked, so I decided to revise. I'm hoping this guy combines enough offense to whittle down my opponents with enough defense and healing to stay ALIVE.