[Finished] Pathfinder (2.0) - Age of Ashes Adventure Path (Thurs 8-11 EDT)

[Ryukan]

So far this is what I have for my character

Name: Huulm
Male Half-Orc Monk
Perfection Seeker background
Alignment: Neutral Good

Years ago monks were gathering wood in the forest when they came upon a very young half-orc child wandering distraught and covered with ash and burns. The monks tracked his path back to the tribe and found the entire tribe destroyed by fire. The monks took the boy in and named him Huulm. They raised him at the monastery and taught him their ways, helping him to balance the conflicting elements of his human and orc nature. Huulm showed promise in the martial arts and a good deal of wisdom and perception.

When he was young Huulm had bad dreams involving great destructive fire and flames, all that he could remember of what happened to him and the end of his tribe. This affected him in the waking world instilling a fear of fire in him. The monks eventually helped him overcome his fear of fire, but he still had the terrible dreams from time to time. Because he showed great promise the elder monk, head of the monastery, became Huulm’s mentor. In his 18th year of age, during a shared meditation with his mentor, Huulm and the elder monk both experienced a vision involving fire and destruction centered around Breachill. The elder monk reflected on this vision and told Huulm he thought it might be an omen involving the god of destruction, Dahak. The elder monk told Huulm that he must journey to Breachill and seek out the meaning behind the visions for he believes my destiny is tied to Breachill’s fate and beyond. This is also my coming of age trial so to speak as I journey out into the world on my own.

When Huulm arrives at Breachill he hears about the Call for Heroes and decides that is a good place to start.

Huulm is measured and patient, but also shows the over confidence of youth. He is wise beyond his years, however he has little empirical knowledge of the outside world having spent most of his life in a monastery. He is proficient with martial arts and shows no fear in battle, but his overconfidence and lack of fear sometimes leads him to try to take on too much challenge.

Minus the headpiece and I don’t go around barechested all the time.

[ocelot]

Very cool @Ryukan!

[Rando]

So I’ve downloaded modules for:

• Bestiary (doesn’t really help y’all)
• Drag 'n Drop spells/feats/traits/etc
• Class starting equipment kits (drag 'n drop)

The Drag 'n Drop spells/feats/traits/etc is really cool. A lot of the default spells, traits, backgrounds, etc don’t have the combat effects pre-made for use on your character sheet. It also includes pre-made heightened versions of spells; something the Core Rulebook module doesn’t do.

I’m also manually making a Lost Omens Character Guide module as well as the playtest rules for the 4 new Advanced Players Guide classes. Not sure if I’ll have em done by tonight.

Ryu is the only one who has posted a pic so far that I can turn into a token btw…

[Rando]

Is anyone interested in any of the four new classes from the Advanced Players Guide playtest PDF?

• Investigator
• Oracle
• Swashbuckler
• Witch

If not then I won’t bother trying to make a module for them (at least for tonight).

[Cortillaen]

I’m just disappointed in the Oracle. Feels like they stripped out most of the build-your-own aspects of the 1e Oracle, and 2 of the 3 mysteries presented are just bad. Flames blinds and either hurts or slows itself, and Life is just suicide. I hope they revise the whole class: decouple the mysteries from the curses (or at least let each mystery choose from several curses), balance out the curses more like Battles than the other two, and expand the benefits granted by mysteries.

[ocelot]

I’ll be sticking with the core classes . Still a bit of a toss up for me between rogue and fighter but I guess I’m leaning rogue. Possibly ranger as a third alternative…

[Mithinar]

Not me, I’ll stick with the cleric.

Mith

[ocelot]

Name: Alys
Class: Ranger
Ancestry: Human
Background: Mantis Scion
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Religion: None

Bio:

Alys is the daughter of a Red Mantis Assassin and a Priest of Erastil. Although they shared a mutual love for hunting, her parents’ romance was always doomed to be short lived and its unknown even to Alys why her mother chose to carry her to term. The old man was said to have exceptional fighting prowess himself so perhaps she hoped that Alys would one day bring honor to the assassins.

Alys spent her youth in the Crimson Citadel and endured numerous physical and psychological trials in the proving grounds thereabouts. Because of this, she’s intimately familiar with the ways of assassins and their strange weapons. On her 18th birthday, Alys was brought to face her final test before becoming an assassin herself. Perhaps it was fear, or the kinder nature she inherited from her father, but she was unable to bring herself to kill an innocent. She would’ve been killed herself for failing, but the extraordinary political efforts of her mother spared her by sending her into exile instead.

Now Alys is a hunter of monsters instead of men. She knows much about the wilderness and the terrors that lurk therein. She has spent the past several months traveling by sea and land to Breech Hill - taking small hunting jobs where she can and saving enough money to book the next passage. Why has she come here? It is to find and meet her father, if he still lives.

[Mithinar]

Here is a picture for my cleric.

Elven Paladin Picture 1.jpg

[Ryukan]

One change to my character, I am changing my background to Perfection Seeker.

[ocelot]

Added Alys’ bio to the picture above.

[Cortillaen]

Random note: don’t forget any tools you will need (Healer’s for Medicine, Repair Kit for Crafting repairs), and consider a Bandolier if you plan to use them in combat. You can put a set of tools on a bandolier (taking up the whole 8 slots), which let’s you draw them for free as part of an action to use them instead of needing a separate action to get them out. This benefit doesn’t apply to anything else you put on a bandolier, though.

[Mithinar]

hmm got the repair kit, forgot the healer’s kit…

Bandoliers!!! I’ll take three… I’m gonna change to a fighter and load three healers Kits!!! I R Healzing you!!!

Mith

[ocelot]

I think I see a potential (minor) problem with my current build.

It looks like the ranger’s martial weapon proficiency tops out at Master at level 13.

The fighter’s martial weapon proficiency also reaches Master at level 13, but ultimately tops out at legendary at level 19.

EDIT:

Interesting… it turns out that at level 13 a fighter can select one martial weapon group as legendary proficiency which would extend to sawtooth sabers via the unconventional weaponry feat. So that means from level 13 onward, fighter is netting a +2 bonus to hit over ranger as well as +2 damage per hit via greater weapon specialization. Very interesting indeed.

Comparing Twin Take Down and Double Slice is interesting as well. Twin Take Down appears to be superior overall with only 1 action point but Double Slice doesn’t apply the 2nd attack’s penalty until after the action is taken.

[Cortillaen]

It’s not really a problem, just one of the differences between Fighter and other martials. Fighter is the only class that gets Legendary with weapons. That’s what I was referring to when I said they get a built-in +2 to attack rolls that no one else can get. That and the wealth of maneuvers are their main class features.

As for Twin Takedown vs Double Slice, the latter is mainly to let a Fighter bypass that worst MAP level, while Twin Takedown gives Rangers an action economy bonus and allows for 4 strikes in a turn to take maximum advantage of their flurry benefit.

[Cortillaen]

I think the difference will largely come down to which style and flavor you like better. Someone did a pretty in-depth damage breakdown for Fighter, Barbarian, and Ranger, and they all stay pretty tight. Barbarians are best when you can only make one attack in a round, Rangers are best when you can spend all 3 actions attacking, and Fighters are balanced between the two. Barbarians do win out in pure damage at higher levels, though, mainly because of their absurd rage damage bonuses. It’s hard to compete with attacks that do 24 damage before any damage dice even get rolled.

If you’d prefer the Fighter, grabbing Ranger Dedication to pick up Twin Takedown is a solid move.

[ocelot]

Sounds like solid advice - thanks Cort! I’ve probably missed several of the tips folks have mentioned just due to the learning curve of the game. There are many things for me to consider which is exciting but also somewhat adverse to my OCD Going to do some more thinking about this tomorrow and hopefully settle for real

[Cortillaen]

You’re welcome! One of the things I love about this game is there are usually multiple ways to build a concept, and each way has its pros and cons. Makes for a lot to consider but also a lot of possible diversity. And they have most of the game balanced well enough that, combined with the retraining rules, you don’t have to worry much about ending up with a broken character.

If you ever want a second opinion or to crunch some numbers to check something out, I’m happy to help with whatever. Though I suppose I really ought to get around to a name, picture, and some backstory for my character. >_>

[Cortillaen]

“Valk” Valkyne Telivir
CG Champion of Calistria

Valk is a tall, powerfully-built man who appears to be in his late twenties or early thirties, though the pointed ears of a half-elf make it likely he is at least twice that. He has dark hair, roughly cut and generally left loose, pale blue eyes, and the fair complexion common throughout southern Avistan. His most striking feature is a large burn scar, obvious despite appearing quite old, extending from the left edge of his jaw up past his ear and on to disrupt disrupt his hair. It gives him a decidedly rough and unfriendly appearance at a glance, but a few minutes around him are usually enough to dispel that notion.

He rarely removes his chainmail or sets his large, steel shield out of reach, and a curious loop of slender chain with a handle hangs at his right side opposite a longsword on the left. He also has the usual assortment of pouches, a bandolier, and a backpack, along with a reinforced scroll case on his right hip.

Some images that are “close enough” to my idea of Valk (albeit missing the shield and the scar):

His weapon of choice:

And a token:

And some quotes to give an idea of his perspective and objectives:

The scar? Fire took several buildings in my hometown when I was a child, including my house. Father was away hunting at the time. I got trapped inside when the roof collapsed, and a burning board hit me across here. I don’t remember much of what happened after that, but I suppose I must have crawled out somehow.
The scar bothers me little, but a few years back I started having dreams of that day again. Every night, the same dream: flame and smoke in all directions. After some rather restless months of that, the dream changed. Bit by bit over a year, I wasn’t inside my burning home anymore but rather walking the streets of a town ablaze.
I know prophecy and omens are unreliable at best with the loss of Aroden, but that town in my dreams is Breachhill. A well-travelled acquaintance named it from some of the landmarks I described, and now that I’m here, I recognize buildings in a town I’ve never visited. Maybe it’s nothing; maybe it’s some fey’s cruel trick; maybe I’m just going quite mad. I don’t know, but I do intend to find out.

Calistria is patron to those seeking vengeance for wrongs suffered, but it’s not enough just to want it, nor even to pray for it. For her blessing, you must have the will to carry out your vengeance with your own hand. However, normal people are often wronged by those whose power puts them out of reach. The wealthy noble who kidnaps a village girl or the vicious beast lurking in the wilds; no farmer or craftsman can hope to gain vengeance against those kinds of monsters. That’s where I come in.

My lady doesn’t distinguish between just and unjust vengeance, but neither does she mind that I do. She also doesn’t take sides when two seekers of vengeance conflict; I’ve had to face another Calistrian a time or two.

Vengeance isn’t always about physical punishment. Sometimes, the right secret revealed or the right rumor in eager ears will hurt more than any blade. Knowing the enemy is the better part of any conflict.

[Ryukan]

Great write up for your character @Cortillaen, I like the Belmont art for imagery.