Ahoy!
I'm putting together a game here on the Paizo boards that's a way to salvage a RL table that never happened - I have three folks who want to play Skulls & Shackles and am looking for two more players to start at the beginning and go the whole distance of the AP.
The other three players have rolled up their characters: a wizard, a slayer and a brawler which might help you figure out if you want to play.
Character creation rules are:
-Core races and familiar races below 12 RP except orcs, goblins and kobolds.
-Max starting gold.
-20 point stat buy.
-No summoners or gunslingers.
-No third-party builds/feats.
-Three traits, one from the Player's guide.
-No evil characters (I'm the only one who gets to be evil).
I'm hoping to get started no later than the beginning of next month, so submission cutoff will be 2/26/2015 and decisions will go out no later than 2/28/2015.
Edit - I should note I'm hoping to have people post at least once a day to keep the game moving at a good clip.
Dotting
dot
It just always seems odd whenever Gunslinger are not allowed in SnS. I understand why, it just seems odd.
It's true that of all the AP S&S is the best suited to include gunslingers, I just prefer to not have them in my games.
Very interested!
Hello I am the Wizard, here is my build DM
Sylph Wood Wizard
STR 10
DEX 16
CON 12
INT 17
WIS 13 (+1 School Bonus)
CHA 11
HP 7/7 AC AC 14/13/11 Fort +2 Ref +3 Will +5 Init +5 Spear 5/5
Wood spear+3 100 ft range for 1d8+1 bleed per rd
CI Dagger+0 1d4
Skills 5/Level
Percep +8 (10 vs surpise)
Heal +7
Alchemy +7
Craft: Carpentry +7
Spellcraft +7
Spells:
0 DC 13: All
1 DC 14: Mage Armor, Hydraulic Push, Color Spray, Monkey Fish, Bouncy Body, Burning Hands
backpack, a bedroll, a belt pouch, a flint and steel, ink, an inkpen, an iron pot, a mess kit, soap, a spell component pouch, torches (10), trail rations (5 days), and a waterskin. Cold Iron Dagger, Water proof scroll tube
Scrolls: Monkey Fish, Mage Armor x2, Bouncy Body, Healers Kit 10/10, 3 Acid Flasks
N Tiny construct
Init +2; Senses blindsight 30 ft.; Perception +2
DEFENSE
AC 16, touch 15, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 size)
hp 3 (1d10)
Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +4
Immune construct traits
OFFENSE
Speed fly 30 ft. (average)
Melee slam +0 (1d4–3)
Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
STATISTICS
Str 4, Dex 15, Con —, Int 6, Wis 14, Cha 5
Base Atk +1; CMB +1; CMD 9
Feats Dodge
Skills Fly +10, Perception +2
Languages Common (can't speak)
SQ ioun affinity, share iouns
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Ioun Affinity (Su)
An ioun wyrd may integrate a number of ioun stones into its body up to 1 + 1/2 its Hit Dice.
Because an ioun wyrd sees all ioun stones as equal and gains no benefits from them, the wyrd's ioun stones can be swapped out by any creature the wyrd trusts.
Share Iouns (Su)
A character with an ioun wyrd familiar gains the benefits of its ioun stones as long as he's within 30 feet of the ioun wyrd.
Flexible Enhancement (Su)
A master of the wood element is able to bend like bamboo when stressed and snap back into place. You gain a +1 enhancement bonus to your Dexterity, Constitution, or Wisdom ability score. This bonus increases by +1 for every five Wizard levels you possess to a maximum of +5 at 20th level. You can change this bonus to a new ability score when you prepare spells. At 20th level, this bonus applies to two of these ability scores of your choice.
Splintered Spear (Su)
As a standard action, you can create a wooden shortspear appropriate to your size, which hurls itself as a ranged attack against one target within 100 feet (range penalties apply), using your Intelligence modifier as an attack bonus instead of your Strength or Dexterity modifier. The spear deals normal damage according to its size, plus your Intelligence modifier, then breaks into countless splinters; the target takes 1 point of bleed damage each round on its turn. At 6th-level and every 6 levels thereafter, the spear gains a +1 enhancement bonus and the bleed damage increases by +1. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier.
Defense Racial Traits
• Energy Resistance: Sylphs have electricity resistance 5.
Magical Racial Traits
• Sylphs can use feather fall 1/day (caster level equals the sylph's total level).
Senses Racial Traits
Darkvision: Sylphs can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.
Air Insight Sylph spellcasters sometimes find that their elemental heritage makes creatures of air more willing to serve them. Summon monster and summon nature's ally spells that the Sylph casts last 2 rounds longer than normal when used to summon creatures with the air subtype. This racial trait replaces air affinity.
[spoiler=Background Arial]
Arial spent his youth carefree and easy, like a child he wandered everywhere. All went well until the day that he stumbled upon a cult practicing some evilness. Before he knew what had hit him, he had been polymrphed into a tree, and he remained a tree for decades.
After time a Dwarven Wizard happened upon the tree, and thought it a good place to make camp. Over the night he dreamed of something greater in the tree. The next day he returned Arial to his true form, and for the following years Arial traveled with him, learning the ways of the dwarves, and of wizardry, this combination made his education quite unique. This eventually lead them to Shackles, by ship where they were attacked by Pirates and his mentor was slain before his eyes, the ship sunk. As luck would have it Arial knew various spells that prepared him for just such a situation, and he made it to shore at Shackles with his masters, now his familiar Rocky.
Tired and drained Arial ordered a mug of Dwarven ale, strange that after only one sip he felt so tired.
avast! i be wantin' in!
I don't have time for a full work up right now (and you didn't specify what you were looking for in a pitch), but I have an idea I really want to try...
Culder 'the Captain' Hargraves
a human fighter with the eldritch guardian archetype (from Paizo)
his familiar would be a parrot with the sage archetype (also from Paizo)
Culder wouldn't be overly bright but he'd ask his parrot when he needed to know something (and it would squawk responses in common)
He'd also carry around an anchor (a remnant from a ship he used to own/captain until it went down) that he would use as a weapon
let me know what else you'd like to see and I'll post it soon. Also, please feel free to check out the posting history on my aliases to see my posting style and frequency.
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-Core races and familiar races below 12 RP except orcs, goblins and kobolds.
Would Skinwalkers (10RP) and Kuru (??RP, they're in the Isles of the Shackles book) be acceptable?
Would Skinwalkers (10RP) and Kuru (??RP, they're in the ISles of the shackles book) be acceptable?
-Core races and familiar races below 12 RP except orcs, goblins and kobolds.
Ooo, a wereshark kin magus could be interesting.
I... have no idea what to make... but I'll think of something!
(Maybe a waterbender sorcerer.)
How do you feel about players that have previous experience with the AP? I've played this Oracle in a previous Skull & Shackles/Dragon's Demand game that fell apart. We had very little interaction with the S&S AP itself before we moved into the module part.
If previous experience isn't an issue, I'll just need to pick an additional trait, otherwise she should be good to go. If accepted, I will keep my out of game knowledge separate from my in game knowledge, no problem.
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How about a gnome alchemist (jokey smurf), who pranks the players with suprise booby traps (non-damaging) in his downtime?
(i.e. - player hops into his bunk and finds it was filled with itching powder. player opens a door and water gets dumped on them. player blows their nose and the klenex is coated in sneezing powered... you get the idea. nothing harmful, just good old-fashin gnomish fun
Here's the basic outline. might need to be tweeked before we start.
Taking questions in turn:
Rorek - I'm not going to allow the glory rogue because it looks like a 3rd party class change and not an archetype, if you'd like to change the character to a regular rogue or submit another character for consideration please do so.
Nate - Good point! I'd ideally want your crunch and a back story including why you're in Port Peril (the more the better for me, but if it passes 15,000 words I'm going to worry). It looks like I need to grab the Familiar Folio, and would the anchor be a special weapon I'm not familiar with or flavor for a greatclub (as an example)?
Rysky - I'm not going to dismiss either race out of hand - after going through the Race Builder in the ARG I think Kuru is around 6 or 7 RP depending on how you view Cannibalistic Vitality. Kuru do have light-sensitivity to worry about and that would almost certainly be a factor early in the AP, not to mention the fact that you'd have some interesting roleplaying challenges in front of you (which might be a plus, assuredly!) Since they're less common choices I'd want a good back story you can draw on to go with either selection however.
Yuki - I don't have a problem with it at all as long as you can separate player knowledge and PC knowledge, which most players can in my experience. I've been in a S&S game that fell apart right before the end of the first book because the DM vanished on my group which is one of the reasons I want to run the AP myself!
Figit - As long as you can tread the line between amusing and annoying your fellow players I don't have an issue - you'd have to read the other players to find out where the line is of course :D
If I haven't answered your question (or haven't answered it well enough) just let me know.
This is Nate Lange- I couldn't resist making an alias, though it's nowhere near done (I'll post again to let you know when it is).
The anchor would be an anchor... it would count as an improvised weapon (and probably default to greatclub stats for that?) At some point he'll either have to consider getting a real (magical) weapon, or paying someone for masterwork transformation and then getting it enchanted (if you'll allow that on an improvised weapon).
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This is Nate Lange- I couldn't resist making an alias, though it's nowhere near done (I'll post again to let you know when it is).
The anchor would be an anchor... it would count as an improvised weapon (and probably default to greatclub stats for that?) At some point he'll either have to consider getting a real (magical) weapon, or paying someone for masterwork transformation and then getting it enchanted (if you'll allow that on an improvised weapon).
Could do some interesting things with a slightly tweaked Equipment Trick (Anvil) feat.
All right, I added a trait to Yuki's sheet and she should be good for level 1. Background and character sheet can be found under her alias.
Just to let you know what to expect if she is chosen to join the game, I plan on taking a level of Fighter at 2nd level to give her a better choice of weapons and get the extra feat to round her ranged abilities. Afterwards, I would return to Oracle for the rest of her leveling.
At the beginning, she'll primarily be a ranged attack character, but as she levels with a dip in fighter and acquires more divine spell buffs and revelations she should be fine on the front line as well. As an added bonus, she can act as the healer and/or the party face as necessary.
Dotting. Thinking of a bard, because the party as it's laid out could use some charisma, and someone to sing sea shanties hardly seems remiss. Is the Slayer building ranged? Might go archer Bard if not, but in my mind pirate equals swashbuckling, which means rapiers. Full disclosure though, I DMed a meatspace group through the first book and know roughly the first book and a half worth of the game, but I'm a grown-ass adult and wouldn't abuse that fact.
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I have a couple of questions if you will indulge me DM Davy Jones
1- How do you envision a good pirate acting (Say Chaotic Good), merely asking as some peoples views are different than others. Especially seeing as they will most likely be out voted on party actions by those less forgiving.
2- Are you ok with a Lizardman character using the rules from the Paizo Race builder 8rp version?
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advancedRaceGuide/raceBuilder/exampleRac es.html#other-race-examples
Culder - I would think a greatclub would probably be the best comparison although I would think any decent ship's anchor would be very heavy. If you can give me an idea of the size of the boat I can do some research to determine how feasible the idea is, although I do live the picture of an anchor wielding sailor.
Yuki - thanks for the note about future plans but once we're running how you guys want to run your characters is up to you - the other players might have worried though so it's a good note!
Nidoran - the Slayer was building a switch-hitter build, so he'll be doing both ranged and melee. And thanks for the disclosure, it's not an issue.
Tharasiph -
1) To me at least, a CG pirate (hard to see a NG or LG pirate) would probably view piracy as more of a game and try to limit their targets to either large merchant concerns or worthy pirating targets - slavers, Cheliax, cannibals. They would probably have issues with murdering whole crews or other acts of potential barbarism but since there are no evil characters there will be less of an issue (hopefully!) than there would be otherwise.
2) I think Lizardmen are a little too rare so I will disallow them - I'd do the same with Wayangs for example - even though they're in 10 RP.
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Oooh, boyo, I was thinking about Skull & Shackles the other day. I was interested in playing a druid, and a man who reveres the sea, rather than the sea gods would most likely be a fit in this campaign.
Probably an offensive caster, blaster or controller depending on the situation and his companions, and the best helmsman this side of The Eye of Abendego. (According to him.)
Human Storm Druid, Heart of the Sea and Focused Study (Skill Focus) alternate racial traits.
I'll present a backstory in a bit. Will probably be using the ten-minute backstory, if that's ok.
TLC -However you want to generate your backstory is OK with me, as long as it's there. Especially initially having a good grasp on who your character is beyond a group of stats is important.
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Experience:
Male Human Druid (Storm Druid) 1
TN Medium Humanoid(Human)
Initiative +2
Senses: Perception +8
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Defense
AC:16(18); 12 touch, 14(16) FF (+0 Dex, +5 Armor,)
HP:11(1d8+2+1)
Fort +4, Ref +2, Will +6
Speed 30ft (20 in armor)
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Offense
Melee +2 Scimitar(1d6+3, 18-20x2) or
Ranged +1 Dagger (1d8+2, x3)
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Str 14, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 18, Cha 8
BAB +0, CMB +0, CMD 12
Feats:Skill Focus(Profession Sailor), Spell Focus (Conjuration)
Traits: Besmara's Blessing, Two-World Magic, Focused Mind.
Skills; 4/level
Survival +10 (1 rank, 3 class, 4 WIS, 2 untyped)
Perception +9 (1 rank, 3 class, 4 WIS, 1 trait)
Profession(Sailor) +14 (1 rank, 3 class, 4 WIS, 3 SF, 2 racial, 1 trait)
Knowledge(Nature) +6 (1 rank, 3 class, 2 untyped)
Languages Taldane, Druidic
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Items:120 gp
Armored Coat 50gp
Quarterstaff
Sailor's Clothing
Backpack 1gp
Fishing Implements
Scimitar 15gp
Heavy Wooden Shield 8 gp
Spells prepared usually,
1st lvl, Obsuring Mist(domain), Goodberry, Snowball
0th lvl Mending, Know Direction, Guidance
Born by a Besmaran priestess aboard a ship in the last hours of her life, Galean spent his entire life by the sea, on the sea and with some brief moments under the sea. He is a rather introspective sort, preferring to stare at the great blue wonder. He does eventually crack jokes at the appropriate time. He is willing to teach anyone how to sail, fish, or handle life in the sea, with almost supernatural ease.
While growing up, he almost drowned after a storm destroyed his fishing boat and knocked him uncouncious. He had a strange vision, showing him as part of the crew of a ship with sails red as blood and made of wood as black as night, flying the Besmaran flag.
His greatest accomplishment is to win a bet that he can raft from Port Peril to Drenchport, a bet that, despite almost drowning once, almost getting eaten by a shark, and almost starving to death, is a cherished memory has won him the respect of many a navigator and captain.
His greatest dream is to one day serve a captain who is worthy of respect, who treats his men well, and respects the sea. He despises slavers and slavery, seeing it both as an affront to nature and a personal dislike.
Galean is an average sized man, with short brown hair and eyes the color of the ocean. He wears a terrifyingly thick jacket over a set of normal (though, cleaner and patched up) sailor's clothing. He has a tattoo of a swordfish on his left forearm.
Unlike most people in the Shackles, he carries a large wooden shield on his back, made of wood apparently older than he is, claiming it to be "my ship away from the ship". A cutlass is worn on his belt, though it's apparent that he hasn't got much experience with it.
TLC, two notes - you have two magic traits so you need to pick one and change the other; also I wanted to note that the armored coat still counts as metal armor for your druid because of the metal strips inside the coat.
I'm going with a Sylvan Sorcerer with a Roc companion.
How attached are you to Paizo's alignment restrictions? I want to play a Sensei Monk but I am under the impression that a lawful alignment would be problematic in an S&S game.
Physics, my ancient nemesis... We meet again...
Anchors typically rely on the hooked ends catching on something, not on their weight... So it could be smaller/lighter than you might assume (irl- I grew up on an island). That said, they do still get pretty heavy... The heaviest 2hander I can think of (the longhammer) only weighs 20 pounds, so I would guess 30 or maybe 40 pounds would be the limit for what could be used effectively even as an improvised weapon...
I just did a little research and 40 lbs anchors are generally rated for 38' to 43' vessels... So if you're willing to be a little bit liberal i could have captained a keelboat...
"It's Nym! NYM DAMMIT!"
For what it's worth, there is some precedent for characters using an anchor as a weapon in pop culture, though Guilty Gear is likely far removed from the type of setting the GM wants here.
Arachnofiend - I prefer to vary as little as possible from RAW for the most part on alignment issues, and it would be very, very hard to play a lawful alignment in the S&S AP.
You might be able to pull off a LE alignment with a personal code that is basically the strong take from the weak but since evil is disallowed it wouldn't work well.
Side note for TLC - DMummy is another alias I'm using for a different game, sorry for any confusion.
Culder - thanks for researching on your end too, a keel boat would work fine for character generation purposes.
thanks for the feedback! Does that mean the anchor is ok too? If we're close but not there yet we could always make it a broken anchor- if one tine was broken off it would still have the right basic look/function but would weigh less; if it's not feasible maybe we could talk about using an anchor chain (maybe with a little piece of anchor still on it) as a reskinned dorn dergar (dwarven chain flail) or meteor hammer?
Ha all that remains of you ship is the broken anchor. How tragic. Could be the same ship I came from
Welp, so much for that concept then. Is the Slayer an archery build or a melee build? I might put together a Skald if its the latter.
Edit: Looks like you already answered that question; yeah, think I'll make a Skald. This is a party in desperate need of a buffer.
Also curious, since there really hasn't been an official ruling (that I know of) regarding it, would Amphibious/aquatic/creatures with swim speeds suffer the Underwater Combat penalties or not?
Kinda determines if I take the Besmara's Blessing or Touched by The Sea campaign trait.
I'd love to get in on this one. I'd be looking at a rogue with the scout and pirate archetypes, focused on knockouts with the bludgeoner and sap adept feats.
He and some others, possibly the slayer if he's a melee focus, recently started working as a roving press gang for ships in port. Another local group, not happy with the competition, arranged to have something slipped into their drinks at a local bar and had them on a ship out of town that night.
dotting for interest
How do you feel about a Gunslinger with the Bolt Ace Archetype? Basically swaps out firearms for crossbows.
Heres a link to the Archetype, it is from Advanced Class Guide.
Thanks for being so good about getting back to people. I don't want to seem impatient but I'm planning on working a little bit more on my background tonight and if you could clarify whether/how the anchor will work i might be able to finish up his crunch as well...
How attached are you to Paizo's alignment restrictions? I want to play a Sensei Monk but I am under the impression that a lawful alignment would be problematic in an S&S game.
Arachnofiend - I prefer to vary as little as possible from RAW for the most part on alignment issues, and it would be very, very hard to play a lawful alignment in the S&S AP.
You might be able to pull off a LE alignment with a personal code that is basically the strong take from the weak but since evil is disallowed it wouldn't work well.
I feel obligated to jump in here.
Lawful does not mean that you have to blindly follow every Law. One could make a case that when a government is immoral or a regent is evil, that fighting it (even outside of the system) is a lawful act. In addition, it's worth noting that lawful can be your own moral code, which is something that even a pirate can have. Or there can even be ship codes.
A pirate who honors their arrangements, obeys their superiors, and strives to keep their word would be lawful. And killing other pirates, again, from a certain perspective, would be lawful. Okay, you're stealing, but who are you stealing from? You're murdering, but that doesn't mean you're killing people who are unarmed or are children.
This brings me to the notion off survival and desperation. What if you're plundering food instead of gold? What if you're not kidnapping not a helpless young woman, but a doctor? Having a lawful character in these kind of circumstances seems endlessly interesting to me.
And as I understand it, Skulls and Shackles is fairly Sandbox, there are a lot of ways that it can go - and having players who seek to do something new and interesting with their characters is kind of the entire point of RPG games, isn't it?
Question - are we allowed to reskin the campaign traits? I'm thinking of making a Warpriest of Desna, and Besmara's Blessing seems closest to what I have in mind, but why would someone born under Besmara's blessing become a warpriest of Desna? With your permission I'd like to reskin it as Desna's Blessing (functionally the same, but more fitting for his background).
Culder - I'm OK with the anchor as an improvised weapon, I don't really have an issue with masterwork transformation if it comes to that. Arachnofiend is correct though I am not going for a Guilty Gear feel.
TLC - Thanks for the update.
Nymph/Rysky - Looking at RAW I don't think they would - the underwater combat penalties are meant to apply to land creatures and amphibious creatures are aquatic per RAW.
Deliverance - Good question - my main objection to the Gunslinger class is firearms in the campaign (for various reasons) - a Bolt Ace would work. Sorry to anyone else who really wanted to play a Bolt Ace and was scared off.
Davy,
Are you against the gunslinger class or just guns? I would like to write up a Bolt Ace Archetype (Crossbows) gunslinger if that is acceptable.
EDIT I withdraw the question as its already been asked and someone else is interested in the concept.
Yorick - You make several good points about the Lawful alignments but I don't think LG would work at all - there's really no way to see piracy as benefiting society, even with a strong personal code.
Lawful neutral might work but to me it's still a stretch and given the free-booting nature of the adventure path I really don't think it would work with a monk.
Gavmania - for most traits I wouldn't mind but I'm not sure why Desna would boost Profession (Sailor). But Besmara's a pretty loose goddess so as long as your destiny was furthering her interests - piracy, destabilizing society, etc - she'd still extend the blessing to you.
Yay! I guess Besmara's Blessing it is!
@Gav - Nymph may have the trait and may pay heed to the goddess of pirates and oceans but tgat doesnt stop her from worshipping Sekhmet. You can a life blessed (abd cursed) by multilple powers lol