Species Profiling: The Dragonborn

So yeah, in case you hadn't noticed Shiro is a homebrew race, a Dragonborn, as I'm feeling generous I'll Put the stats and other such stuff up here, if anyone comes up with some good Alternative Racial Traits or extra feats stick them in the comments, and I'll throw them into the mix with your name in brackets.

The Dragonborn (RP 26-27, Thanks to Saint_Yin, for doing the maths)



Physical Description

Physically, Dragonborn are an imposing species, towering over all but the tallest of Humans and elves, with a powerful build reminiscent of their Draconic ancestry. However their scale colour, horn patterns, and markings vary wildly from individual to individual; a Red Dragonborn can be bright crimson in colour, or have dull rusty scales, however it is somewhat hereditary; A Red parent and a Gold Parent may have a Red, Gold, or Brass hatchling, but they are unlikely to have a Silver or White offspring, as such, Dragonborn clans tend to not put much stock into scale colour.

However as Dragonborn resemble their Draconic ancestors so much, their facial structure is largely static, lacking lips and complicated facial musculature, often making them hard to read emotionally, however they often denote emotion by either swinging their tails or through their choice in words.

Male and Female Dragonborn have very little difference in their appearance, besides the Females having wider hips and a slight softening of their facial features, however Females do have a taste for ornamentation with fin studs, tail hoops, armlets, bracelets, and anklets on display when they are socialising.

Society

Dragonborn society is somewhat nomadic, while it is not unheard of for Dragonborn to found villages, small towns and, very rarely, cities, it is very rare for large numbers of Dragonborn to maintain a permanent residence there, instead leaving a Token defensive force to watch over the settlement's farms, workshops and keep the peace, while a large majority of the population form into multiple small clan groups, usually somewhere between 20-100 members strong depending on the size of the settlement, and travel looking for Mercenary work; as such a Dragonborn settlement rarely has a stable population due to mercenary "Clan Companies" often packing up bags and leaving for long periods of time.

The normal population of a settlement is made up of the Wounded who can still farm, teach combat, create weaponry, or perform one of the other necessary tasks to keep the settlement running, and a single Clan that are letting their warriors heal, however most settlements have enough resources to manage 3 Clans for a short period of time.

While growing up most Dragonborn hatchlings are taught the basics of fighting from about the age of 5, which is quickly followed by the clan elder teaching them what little history is actually certainly known, alongside the myths and legends of Dragonborn culture

Scale colour is usually a non-issue in Dragonborn society, a White can lead a clan group of Greens, Brasses, and Bronzes if he proves himself to be a physically strong, charismatic and tactically sound leader, however Purer colours are seen as socially attractive, with metallic Males and chromatic Females, and some of their legendary figures, such as the Son and Daughter of Io, the founders of their race, are seen as being Platinum scaled, or Prismatic scaled, incorporating all of the scale colours in a single pure radiance.

However Dragonborn culture does put a lot of emphasis on physical skill and verbal eloquence, with Dragonborn bards preferring to tell their stories with wordplay, rather than music. If an important position has to be filled and there are multiple, suitable, applicants the position will normally be decided by a physical contest of skill, or a match of wits before an audience.

Relations with other species
 
Dragonborn do not have the best relationship with other species, mostly talked about as overly simple mercenaries who'll do anything for something that only looks valuable, or as cold, calculating killers who spend their time profiting from the misfortunes of others, and for their part the Dragonborn find the rest of the world to have their own major faults, and enjoy needling any other species who bring up the Dragonborns faults during a discussion. Elves are viewed as frail and weak, and in extreme cases insinuated to have intimate relations with trees, Dwarves are seen as too rigid and traditional and a long running joke for Dragonborn culture is why Dwarves have such a great supply of Brown Diamonds, and Humans are considered as overly emotional, prone to breaking their word on impulse and letting their negative emotions lead them to make terrible decisions on a regular basis.

Strangely, on the rare occasion that they meet, Dragonborn and Kobolds maintain a fairly civil, if strained, relationship; recognising their common ancestors and the similarity of their histories. However most Dragonborn despise the Kobolds almost natural, and slavish, subservience to true Dragons, while the Kobolds hate the fact that Dragonborn have the power that they want, but refuse to use it to rule over other races, instead using it in the service of others, leading to a simmering enmity that occasionally erupts in incredibly bloody conflict every few decades, especially in areas where Kobolds have a true Dragon sponsor.

Ethics (Alignment) and Religion

In terms of religion Dragonborn have almost no use for gods or organised religion; sometimes outright denying their services to churches and high clergy, unless they require a service that the Dragonborn personally agrees with, however this is rare, and while a minority of Dragonborn Mercenary captains will have nothing to do with Divine magic even in the direst of circumstances, others will readily make use of a priests healing services if they find it advantageous, make a small donation as thanks, and then leave. The few Dragonborn that do take to Divine magic in battle usually worship either Cayden Cailean, Gorum, or Irori as gods that allow their worshippers to be free to worship in their own way, whether that is doing the right thing, proving one's strength in battle, or seeking personal strength, or draw some form of Divine power from powerful figures in their myths and legends such as "He Who Tamed The Storm".

Ethically, Dragonborn usually have a personal code of ethics that they follow loosely, no matter what situation they find themselves in, for example, if a Dragonborn dislikes slavery they will still help a slaver recapture escapees, however they will charge far more as payment than they would for killing bandits and if one of the escaped slaves has enough to make a suitable counter offer, the Dragonborn will help them escape before returning the slaver's money if at all possible. However, no Dragonborn will lie about a contract, and if they discover that they have been lied to about a contract they will either rescind their services until they hear the complete truth, or just leave a job unfinished if they feel the lie was too great.

Adventurers

Dragonborn often travel as part of a mercenary group, but if work is currently unavailable, or multiple clans are resting, it isn't unheard of for the younger Dragonborn to go adventuring in order to gain experience and reputation. Due to their training most Dragonborn tend towards Martial classes such as Fighter, Barbarian, Cavalier, and Bards.

Standard Racial Traits
 

+2  STR, +2 CON, +2 CHA, -4 WIS, Dragonborn are Strong, Resilient, and Vocally Persuasive, but their over-confident natures lead them into easily avoidable situations.
Size: Dragonborn are Medium creatures and thus receive no bonuses or penalties from their size.
Type: Dragonborn have the Dragon type
Speed: 30ft
Languages: Dragonborn begin play speaking Common and Draconic. Dragonborn with high Intelligence scores can learn the following languages: Dwarven, Elven, Halfling, Ancient (A single relevant ancient language of the DM's choosing), or Orc.

Defensive Traits

+2 Natural Armour
Immunity vs Sleep & Paralysis
Resist 5 to your Breath Weapons Energy Type (Optional, my DM thinks I should have, but it should be a Feat of some sort)

Feats & Skill Traits

Historic: +2 to Know(History), and Know(History) always considered a Class Skill
Intimidating: +2 to Intimidate, and Intimidate is always a Class Skill

Senses Traits

Low-Light Vision
Darkvision (60ft, Monochromatic)

Offensive Traits

Dragon Breath: 1/day See table below

Black - 30 ft line, Acid
Blue - 30ft line, Electric
Brass - 30ft line, Fire
Bronze - 30ft line, Electric
Copper - 30ft line, Acid
Gold - 15ft Cone, Fire
Green - 15ft Cone, Acid
Red - 15ft Cone, Fire
Silver - 15ft Cone, Cold
White - 15ft Cone, Cold

Reflex Halves DC = 10+1/2HD+CON)

Damage increases by 2d6 at every 5th level, dealing 2d6 at lvl 1, then 4d6 at lvl 5, 6d6 at lvl 10, 8d6 at lvl 15, 10d6 at lvl 20, this progression continues into Epic levels.

Alternate Traits



Racial Feats

Draconic Claws

Prerequisites: Dragonborn

Benefit: Your hands turn into claws, each deals 1d4 + STR damage, these are considered primary natural weapons.

Draconic Wings

Prerequisites: Dragonborn, Character level 5th

Benefit: Your vestigial wings grow strong enough to carry you aloft, poorly, gain a Fly speed of 50(Clumsy).

Expanded Breath

Prerequisites: Dragonborn, Character level 7th

Benefit: Your Breath weapon now covers a larger area, Lines are extended to 60ft, and Cones cover 30ft.

Extra Breath

Prerequisites: Dragonborn, Character level 7th,

Benefit: You can now use your Dragon Breath an extra 2 times per day, however your breath takes 1d4+2 rounds to recharge.

Flexible Tail
 
Prerequisites: Dragonborn

Benefit: You gain a Tail Swipe attack that deals 1d8 + 1/2 STR damage as a secondary natural weapon, and you gain a +4 on climb checks and acrobatics Checks made to balance.

Greater Resistance

Prerequisites: Dragonborn Character lvl 3, 7, 11, 19

Benefit: You grow ever more used to the violent magical energies inside you, your energy resistance increases by 5 against your breath weapon energy type.

Special: This feat may be taken after each level show in the prerequisites, increasing your resistance by 5 each time. If the feat is taken after lvl 19 you gain immunity to your chosen energy type.

Practised Flier

Prerequisites: Draconic Wings, Character level 9th

Benefits: Your Fly Speed Increases to 60(Good), and Fly is now considered a Class Skill for you

Shape Breath

Prerequisites: Dragonborn, Character level 5th

Benefit: You can now use either a 30ft Line or 15ft Cone template for your breath Weapon. This feat is altered by Expanded Breath to a 60ft Line or 30ft Cone.

Variable Breath

Prerequisites: Dragonborn, Character level 9th

Benefit: Choose another energy type, you can now choose which energy type you are using when you use your breath weapon. This choice has to be declared before enemies roll their saves.

Character Growth: House of Flying Blades

So something a little different from my previous Character Growth posts this is more along the lines of a Character Build, so for now let me espouse on the building of a character built to make the most of Attacks of Opportunity.

The Whirlwind of Steel

So there are 4 things we need to take advantage of for this character build

1: Combat Reflexes, this feat allows you to make as many AoO as your DEX+1, compared to the single AoO that every character gets.

2: Weapon Finesse, Unless you want to MAD both your STR and DEX, Weapon Finesse will give you your DEX to your attack rolls instead of your STR, and synchronises well with Combat Reflexes.

2b: While it's not rules legal to give a Flying Blade Weapon Finesse, but the weapon came out in a later book than Weapon Finesse, so an understanding DM will most likely let you have this, if not, you gotta get MAD.

3: Heirloom Weapon, this trait gives you a +1 Trait bonus on AoO with a Heirloom weapon passed down by your family members EDIT: This trait cannot be taken with the "Flying Blade" weapon, as it's an exotic weapon, my mistake.

4: Flying Blade, this Exotic Weapon deals 1d12 damage, has a Crit Zone of 20(x3), and takes a -2 on regular attacks, in exchange for a +2 on AoO, alongside reach. (Found in Ultimate Combat, Paizo)

4b: While the flat rules for Reach say a Reach weapon can't be used to attack an adjacent foe, the Flying Blade is attached to a flexible chain for spinning it around, you could reasonably ask your DM to allow you to attack adjacent foes with a minor penalty.

So just to start we need a character with High DEX, STR, and at least 13 INT, and 3 feats, or Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Flying Blade) and 2 feats, making the best fit either a Fighter (Any Race), a Scout Rogue Archetype (Human/Tengu), or a Kensai Magus Archetype (Human/Tengu).

Once these starting points have been met, there are another 3 things you need to achieve

5: Get Dodge and Mobility, a somewhat aggravating feat tax for several necessary feats that will help this build take off, but the +1 Dodge to AC, and the +4 vs AoO will be useful, even if it's not outstanding.

6: Get Combat Patrol, this allows you to increase the range at which enemies provoke AoO from you at the cost of movement, meaning your next step is to.

7: Boost your movement speed, any way you can, if you're a Fighter, grab Fleet a couple of times with your plethora of bonus feats, if you're a Rogue grab a wand of Haste or expeditious retreat, if you're a Magus, learn Haste, and regardless of class, grab one of the following Boots of Striding and Springing, Feather Step Slippers, Boots of Speed, or Boots of the Raptor (3rd Party)

So at this point this build is starting to come together, as a Fighter you'll be getting these feats earlier, so you should have an easier time spotting and shoring up any weak points that reveal themselves, before the final few touches.

8: Spring Attack & Combat Expertise, another 2 tax feats, Spring Attack is useful as a feat that helps with mobility in situations where enemies aren't provoking AoO from your Combat Patrol, Combat Expertise however is a TAX, pure and simple.

9: Whirlwind Attack: the point of the 2 feats above, and most likely the last feat you'll get in this build unless you're playing a Fighter, this feat allows you to attack everything in range of your weapon as a Full Round Action, with a reach weapon that comes out to 16 squares of attack, meaning that your enemies can't simply just gang up on you to shut down your Combat Patrol without some punishment coming down on them.

10:Weapon Enhancements, Keen, Heart-seeking, Element of Choice, +1 at minimum, I would advise against getting any ability that activates on a crit as the crit range for this weapon is as small as possible.

11: If you have any spare feats at this point they'd be best spent on stuff that just boosts your to hit chance, Weapon Focus (Flying Blade), Greater Weapon Focus (Fighter or Kensai), Disruptive and Spellbreaker are good choices if you find yourself going up against Casters (Fighter or Kensai), teleport tactician may be a useful choice, if somewhat niche.

So by endgame, you should be able to, at least, make Attacks of Opportunity against opponents across the map, attack any foe who decides that keeping you from moving would be a good idea, and present a serious problem to spellcasters regardless of the distance they stay away from you.

As for everything else, Weapon Groups, Rogue Talents, or Magus Arcana, that's entirely up to you, but as always, have fun, and go out swinging.

Contract Journal 1: Bandits in the Swamps

Been a while since I last had to dust you off, eh.

Managed to get a new contract, finally, maybe I'll get something interesting to do for a change, but I doubt it, it's just clearing out bandits, again.

Agreed upon rates, 220 per pair of ears (Notifying mark is a small tattoo), and 500 per bandit leader.

Signatories, Shiro, the Clanless, and Guard Captain of Mechanist.

So first things first, got to organise transport for myself and 4 others to the Town of Drellin, further in the swamps, which has apparently been set upon by several organised groups of Bandits in the last few days. Victor keeps crowing about how he can summon us ghostly steeds to carry us above the water, but given the fact that we don't know exactly what we're going to be going up against I told him to not bother, and just look for something more mundane.

Luckily we didn't have to look for long, a resident of the area, who calls himself "Ducky", offered to ferry us "Fine looking adventuring types" for a "Small fee" of 4 gp each, which we decided to accept after seeing his boat, which looks fine, apart from the holes, and the stench of fish, and the dark, ooze that seems to have filled several recesses on the hull.

Interesting note,"Many Names" is seasick, clearly we need to use boats for transport more often.

After an hour or so we entered the first of the Mangrove trees, this swamp air is starting to disagree with me, and according to Lily and "Many Names" we were being followed by something on the banks, is it wrong that I want the bandits to have tamed ape-men, and use them for combat, but nothing materialised from the trees, during that leg of the journey.

And we've come to a fork that our intrepid guide doesn't remember existing, I told people to take the right fork, but did anyone listen to me, of course not.

And now with a 5 minute break to argue, and reconsider, and to form a committee, and argue, and panic, and argue some more, before deciding yes we'll go down the right fork. At least Chak shows some tactical sense and suggested that we try to confuse our pursuers by using an illusion of ourselves going down the other fork, combined with a cloud of fog summoned by Victor, got our pursuer's off our backs and going the wrong way.

After moving far enough down river, we disembarked from the boat, covering it with debris from the riverbank, and leaving Ducky behind to protect the boat.

We quickly came across a lone bandit collecting firewood, which we proceeded to capture, with the intention of interrogating him for information, before being rudely interrupted by another two bandits, who were promptly dispatched, and de-eared, which may have had something to do with our captive's sudden show of compliance, that and Chak took his ears off with a dagger, on a surrendered opponent.

Luckily our captive was able to tell us about one of the three camps, and give us some basic information on the camps boss, Clayton, at which point we managed to formulate a fairly basic plan, which goes as follows.

Step 1) The rest of the group hide in the trees around me as I walk up to the bandit camp, and challenge their leader to single combat, where if I win they surrender, and come in willingly, and if I lose I lose.

Step 2) If the bandits cheat, I mean when the bandits cheat, the rest of the group springs from hiding and uses their surprise appearance to their advantage.

And the plan worked, mostly, Lily failed to hide successfully and walked into the bandit camp with me, where we were bound with leather straps, and almost thrown in a pit before I gave the signal. After that it was an easy enough fight, the bandits cleaned up with no difficulty, although I hope none of the bandits escaped to warn the other camps.

The Motliest crew of Ne'er Do Wells

I realise this one's a little late, but I wanted to play a couple of sessions before writing up anything on the other characters in the campaign, otherwise I might have misrepresented them.

Firstly is Lily a Changeling Druid, played by C

It occurs to me that I should at least be trying to keep notes on this band of ne'er do wells that I seem to have accrued recently, for tactical and social reasons, that and I can remember who exactly is violently sea-sick.

So let's start with the least personally offensive, Lily; judging by the little I've seen her do in combat, or in anything really, I'd assume she's a Druid, but I'm not 100% certain, either way she's certainly quiet and reserved, not speaking up in any situation unless I press her for an opinion, and even then she's fairly monosyllabic. I suppose when you can summon and control your own lightning cloud, you don't need to say much at all. I've got no real problems with her and I don't expect to really meet any.

Next up is Victor, an Elf Wizard, Conjurer, played by M

And swiftly following her up on the problems scale is Victor, who by all of his accounts is a Wizard, and the Wizardiest Wizard of all, and his Familiar Ludin, a Dust Mephit who he has rather disturbingly dressed up as a 12 year old Girl, and constantly insists that we refer to her as we would a normal child. The fact that he has never shown his face to us either is somewhat disturbing, but I have no reason to believe that he actively means the party any harm, still the fact he throws around his spells openly does not instil me with confidence of his mental state.

Followed Swiftly by Chak, a Ratfolk Bard, played by K

And Chak, oh dear, Chak. He introduced himself so well, seemed interested in actually forming a group in order to make some money, and do some good, and then shattered all of our trust in him by cheating at cards, over copper pieces. He says it was just to test our skills, and while I may appreciate the excuse, it doesn't alter the fact that he tried it multiple times, and despite his argument of, "I wouldn't adventure with someone whose skills I don't know" the fact we had to catch him doing it breaks any trust he had, and once trust is so easily broken, it is much harder to repair. Can sing really well though.

And Lastly "Royce", a Human Knife-Master Rogue, Played by A

And now we finally get to "I Have Many Names, Some Call Me the Black Fox, Some Call Me the Scoundrel, Mostly the Ladies Call Me the Scoundrel", IHMNSCMTBFSCMTSMTLCMTS for short, or "Many Names" for when I don't want to lose my mind. He's as quiet as Lily, as trustworthy as Chak, and as serious as Victor, and the only person to openly challenge my leadership, and do it incompetently at that, "What can you sit on, but not take with you? A Chair" A chair my cold, scaly ass, I could carry the Clockwork throne of Mechanist across the world without tiring. A prolific womaniser, I'm waiting until I see him in combat to judge whether or not I want him around, still if he's half the thief he claims to be I can find a use for him, liking him or not is a secondary matter.

The Bloody Past Revealed, Meet Shiro the Wanderer

So Gulag's dead, alongside several other people, and the DM has decided to move his campaign away from the ancient, undead infested library where we last left "The Dead Men" meaning that not only have I rolled up Gulag's replacement, Shiro the Wanderer, but everyone else has rolled up new characters as well, so that's 2 blog posts right there, but for now I'll focus on Shiro.

(Once again using the Pathfinder and 3.5 rules, although the DM allowed me access to a homebrew race that he helped me build)

Shiro is a Dragonborn (if you guys start yelling Fus-Ro-Dah over the internet I'll do nothing because you're safe behind the internet), who wants for nothing in particular, other than gold to buy food, a villain to kill for gold, and a history book to read while drinking booze. Maybe he'll try to find the mage who killed his entire clan in a single night of blood and fire, maybe he'll tell tall tales in a town tavern for a tankard of ale, maybe he'll wander into a ruin for a chance to find some unexplored facet of the world's history; but whatever he does, at that point in time it'll be the best choice he can make, and he'll do it regardless of what he has to personally sacrifice.

Personality wise, Shiro is mellow enough to roll with life's punches and while he is often openly  sarcastic, foul-mouthed, and dismissive, he tries to restrain himself from taking the violent option; even after threatening such an outcome. He's also fairly physically competitive, while he might not openly challenge others to display feats of strength, he will unconsciously try to one up them when such things come up.

As a combatant Shiro is a powerhouse (Class is Fighter, with the stacked archetypes of Two-Handed Weapon Fighter, and Dungeon Crasher from D&D 3.5), charging straight into the centre of any melee and striking at any opponent within reach with his sword Strength of the Betrayed (also known as Angelslayer's Fang, Truth Seeker, Blade of Regicide, Poison of the Weak, and Rebellion), or throwing his opponents around with enough force the not only break his opponents against walls, but break the walls as well.

At the moment Shiro is travelling with the party in an attempt to find a cure to the Rune-Plague that is sweeping the southern Marshes of Ark, and hopefully make some money doing so.

Mechanical Talk: Taking the Initiative

Hey all, how ya doing?

I've been thinking on this a bunch and while I'm not one-hundred percent certain, initiative really feels like a gamist concept.

Now I'm not going to say it's wrong the way it's handled in games, after all you're attempting to simulate how a person responds to sudden combat, fast people can suddenly fumble all of their actions as the shock of aggressive actions stuns them, and slow, clumsy people can respond to their aggressors in a matter of moments. A D20 which gives you a certain level of luck on these rolls is a good way of simulating luck, but once it's been rolled Initiative remains static and unchanging, and for a mechanic that's supposed to represent the chaotic nature of actions in combat that's just a little bit naff.

Now there's nothing to be done about the fact that initiative is a gamist concept, even rolling for initiative is unrealistic, and simulationist, but there are a couple of ways of changing up the system, some of which are better than others, and others which help give the feeling of being in a very chaotic fight with advantage shifting from fighter to fighter.

So with that said let's get started

Method 1: The Regular Method

I've already said what I feel needs to be said on this systems disadvantages, but it's a good system for a simple non-important fight, 5 Heroes vs 30 Goblins, sort of thing, it's simple, easy enough to track, and only requires one roll, and can be house-ruled easily enough.

Popular house rules involve, +WIS to your initiative, natural 1 means you don't act in the first round, and only taking one action each in the first round.

Method 2: The Re-roll Method

This method is good for representing a chaotic fight between roughly equal forces, both in power and number. At the beginning of the fight everyone rolls initiative, goes in that order, and at the end of the first round, depending on how you want to rule it, either everyone or just the people who want to, re-roll their initiative for the next round, before the fight continues.

Now obviously this method requires more book-keeping on the part of the DM and players, so it might not be suitable for a singular DM, or an inexperienced DM, but as I said it can help set the scene for a chaotic bar-fight, or a melee on top of a city wall where combat flow is often prone to change and tracking large amounts of initiatives isn't an issue.

Method 3: The Direct Roll Method

This method is just another version of method 1, but it does warrant it's own title if only because whenever it comes up it seems to carry a stigma. This method completely ignores any positive stat modifiers that might alter the Initiative roll, and just relies on the roll of a D20. If a slow Fighter with a DEX of -1 rolls an 18, and the nimble Rogue with a DEX of +5 rolls a 15, well too bad the fighter's going first, he rolled higher, you want to go first, roll higher next time fuckwad.

Now this method may be almost completely luck based, but it does have it's advantages, surprise rounds for one, you're flat-footed and unable to respond, I wouldn't allow you to add your positive DEX mod to an initiative roll in the that round; negative modifiers still apply, but that's because that makes sense for that particular situation, and really if you're unlucky enough to still be rolling a penalty stat in these days of Stat buy and 4d6 , re-roll low, drop low then either cover for it with tactics or suffer for your shitty luck

Method 4: The Direct Stat Method

Kinda similar to the above Method 3, but instead of rolling a D20 and going with that, your Dexterity score is your initiative in combat, only way to change it is through magical items that increase your dexterity score, or Improved Initiative.

It's not very fun, but it requires almost no book-keeping on the DM's part, and can be altered simply to be Dex Score + DEX mod, or  roll but you can't roll above your Dex score + your DEX mod. (Eg, a Alchemist with a Dexterity of 17, and a mod of +3, couldn't roll above a 20)

Method 5: The -10 Step Method

This method might be my favourite in concept, but I've never got to play it, so I can't speak for it's effectiveness, but at the start of combat everyone rolls their Initiative and throughout the turn, acts at their initiative, and again at the initiative -10, -20, -30, until the initiative reaches 0, and everyone re-rolls initiative.

This one might be a little hard to explain via words, so I'll quickly do an example

Initiatives:

Rogue 23,
Fighter 9,
Wizard 16,
Cleric 13,
Goblin A 19,
Goblin B 5,
Goblin C (Nat 20 so +10) 33.

So the turn order should look like this

Goblin C Acts at 33
Goblin C acts before Rogue at 23
Rogue Acts at 23
Goblin A acts at 19
Wizard acts at 16
Goblin C before Rogue and Cleric at 13
Rogue acts before Cleric at 13
Cleric acts at 13
Goblin A acts before Fighter at 9
Fighter acts at 9
Wizard acts at 6
Goblin B acts at 5
Goblin C acts before Rogue and Cleric at 3
Rogue acts before Cleric at 3
Clerics acts at 3
Initiative reaches 0, everyone re-rolls

As you can see if someone rolls luckily on Initiative, or has put a lot of time, money and Feats into improving their initiative, they get a lot more chances to alter the way combat happens, but this method is also immensely complicated and requires far more book-keeping than any other method shown above, and I wouldn't recommend this method for large combats, but I would say to use it for duels, climatic final fights, and small but important combats.

It all depends on how much book-keeping you want to do mostly, and while most people are plenty happy with method1, it's all up to you if you want to spice up your combat.

and if you do so take the initiative, Carpe Jugulum.

Journey Journal: Dawn of the Second day

Just bear in mind that almost nothing happened and I am attempting to do my best to stretch this out into a somewhat readable entry because I feel like I gypped you guys last week with the "Gulag's Dead, go home" entry

So that was an absolute disaster.

Should have been simple, the Hell-knights roll up to the city intimidate everyone into doing what they're told and claim the city in the name of the crown while I scare some people, and get the money that I was supposed to be paid, you can guess how well that went Journey Journal.

So my night was mostly dragging beaten, battered, and bloody corpses to a god-damned pyre because the Hell-knights wouldn't; my only help being an old man who was so far past his prime that you couldn't see it with a telescope, whose thanks was so profuse you'd think I'd made him young and virile again.

I couldn't bring myself to sleep under the same roof as those murdering bastards so I decided to sleep on the roof, safely tied up in one of the few banners that the castle's new occupants hadn't managed to remove.

After my nap, I flew down to the town, and after a little searching managed to find the only work-shop still open in town, where I made a "small" investment, on the promise that said investment would go into rebuilding the town, and visited to local messeneger's office who promised to carry a letter and a package to my hometown just to let my parent know I'm okay.

I've got to go now Journey Journal, one of the priest's is calling me, it seems like they've found another survivor, this one's covered in burns and lacerations that have already started to go septic, and I doubt I'll be able to him, but I've got to try otherwise what kind of alchemist am I?

Story Time: The Restless Dead

So in my last Story Time entry I talked about how to give someone who wants to go off the rails something to be interested in, even if it's just for a single session, and  a lot of my ideas used undead, why, I like the undead, especially mindless undead, as a minor threat. Why? there are so many options, especially at low to medium levels.

For example, and I've used this encounter to great effect, the party is walking through an old Forest following an overgrown trail and they come upon an abandoned temple (any god, but I used Pharasma), the interior is gloomy and poorly lit by intermittent beams of light coming from Ivy covered holes in the ceiling, just inside the door, there are three crumbling pillars each 10ft apart from each other and the walls. Beyond the pillars (about 15-20ft) lies a 4 foot tall wall that surrounds a murky, stagnant pool, almost 20ft wide and 40 ft long, its surface covered in rotting leaves, and thick scum, the water laps several inches below

As the PC's approach the Pillars, rotting hands grasp at the wall around the pool, and several waterlogged, swollen Corpses pull themselves from the pool and start shambling towards the PC's.

Looking at my notes from that campaign, the only difference I made to the Zombies in that encounter was to give them Fire Resistance 5, and yet those 5 Sodden Zombies were one of the hardest fights of that campaign for a group of lvl 2 PCs.

Alternatively, and this is an idea I've yet to fully expand upon or write down, was the PC's have to go through a narrow cramped dungeon before finally ending up in a wide antechamber where the McGuffin, or treasure or plot-device is on a plinth in the centre of the room. When a PC picks up the item the walls start spewing out bones, which coalesce into multiple Skeletons (Use the Exploding Skeleton template for extra fun) before any PC's who are in the room are surrounded. and the doors to the room slam shut.

Using the Explosive Skeleton template in this fight, with its cramped conditions makes for a fun potential chain reaction when the first Skeleton goes down.

And these are just the 2 most common types of undead, I can think of off the top of my head, I haven't even got into Ghouls, Ghasts, Draugr, Wights, Mummies, Haunts, Dullahans, Crypt Things, or anything else.

So I suppose what I'm saying is that, get grave-digging you'll never know what you might come up with.

Journel Entry 3

Gulag is dead, this journal is now deactivated.

Wiped out by an Undead with explosive Cysts and a failed save.

Please wait while party either clears dungeon, or gets wiped before I start new character Journal.

Have a good one, and treasure any character still living, for death is swift, sudden and unwelcome.

Character Growth: You Gotta Have a Goal

Do you have a goal? You can't be a hooker forever.

Character motivations are a rare and beautiful beast, done well you'll never see them at all, done poorly you'll see them all over the place, and if a character has no motivation beyond "go there, kill thing, XP, ???, Profit" then it will be the most visible thing ever.

They also happen to one of the most divisive thing ever in my group, possible many more groups, and when a DM attempts to force a motivation onto players it can ruin that player's enjoyment of a game.

So what's the point of character motivation where if you do it well it won't be noticed, and a bad character motivation takes away from the game? Simple, it's your character, your dudes, your world, why would you not want to have them go through challenges, achieve personal victories, and make their mark on the world?

"No, it's a game, all that matters is getting sweet loot, and being powerful", I hear none of you say, mostly because I'm secure behind the internet, and also I trust most of you guys to be smart, decent, emotionally invested, and awesome players, and while I may be entirely wrong, I want to be right on that count.

So how about a player's who's character motivation acts against the party? They're fine. I mean I don't like them, but people disagree, and character motivations are not exempt to this rule, PC's are going to disagree, and having 2 characters argue about how to proceed is as natural as breathing, interfere if it comes to blows, in game or out of game, mostly because it's a game.

So how about characters that are made to get revenge on a PC, and make it their sole reason to continue existing, maybe because that PC killed that player's previous character, or because the PC wants to play a CE prick who does things because reasons? I call these spite characters, and occasionally spite players, what do you do with them? I dunno.

Some people like to fuck with them, constantly killing each new spite character as it comes along, some people try to talk to them and get them to stop it for the sake of the group, some people just kick them out, never to return, leaving other gaming groups to deal with their spite. I haven't had to deal any spite players yet, besides the occasional "Let's keep a secret from Chris and only Chris" but that's fair enough, it was the sort of secret I would rage over, and did rage over when it was revealed (As an aside, leadership is bullshit).

As it stands Character motivations are one of those nebulous areas of RPG's where no-one is right and no-one is wrong.

But regardless shoot for the moon, it'll be awesome, and you'll have a story to tell.

Story Time: You Find...

Okay, this is a continuation of my last post, sort of.

For those of you expecting another character journal, game got called this week on account of schedule, and so I decided to bless you with another story Time post, so ... are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

So in my last post I talked about how the DM for that campaign took the time to make what is quite literally the first full world map I have ever seen for any homebrew campaign, and I love that fact, it helps the world feel real, and gives me a point of reference when the game is happening, even if he doesn't really use it, I'm grateful for the fact that he even took the time to make it.

Now here's the crux, what does the map have? Town names, Forests, Mountains, Rivers, Lakes, and Political Borders.

In other words, the bare minimum that a map should have if you're making a map that goes into an atlas.

I did talk to him about putting roads in at one point, I can't remember when, and he said that "It's kinda obvious where the roads should be man" and I couldn't argue with him, because 1) it kind of is obvious, and 2), well if there's nothing in the way then the road goes in a mostly straight line, otherwise it follows a river, the coast, or contours around the mountains, not really necessary to draw a bunch of straight lines all over your shiny new maps.

Here's where my point comes in.

Let's say you're a player, and your party is travelling down one of these straight line,empty plains roads, your DM is grabbing his notes on the next city while you and the others maybe describe the journey, maybe chat amongst yourselves in character or out of character, and one of you decides that he wants to describe one part of the landscape, or go off the rails. And so he says loudly.

"I spot a stone circle/ copse of trees/ abandoned structure a short distance from the road" before calling the groups attention to it and going to explore it. The rest of the group, motivated by loot, exp, or RP may follow or not.

Now as a DM your first inclination may be to just go, you find this place, but it's mostly abandoned, except for a nest of starlings/ Bats/ Mice or some other harmless creature entity, and if your players do this a lot, then I'd recommend doing this roughly 2 out of 3 times, it's not like the entire world is festooned with dungeons, abandoned temples full of loot, secret wizard towers or hidden dens of rare monsters. But this tells you 2 things, 1) your players, at least one is interested enough in your world to want to explore and 2), that player is bored enough to start trying to force exploration.

At this point you've got 2 options, 1) the above option where you deflect the exploration, and get your players back on the rails or 2) drop your city notes, and see if you've got a random dungeon ready to go, or make one up on the spot, before using the completion of the dungeon to push the players towards the town where you wanted them, either to sell their shiny new loot, or to lick their wounds depending on how well they did.

Now I'm aware that no everyone is amazing at improvisation so I'll put down a couple of examples that anyone can use.

Ancient Barrow: A player spots a Barrow several hundred meters from the road before running over to inspect it for loot, or check it for the unquiet dead, the classics here would be Barrow Wights, Sword Wights, and Cairn Wights, although if you wanted to have some fun, there could be ghouls that have settled here and use the Barrow as a home base from which to attack travellers who camp nearby.

Stone Circle: Players with decent perception (+8 or higher) notice that there's a breeze coming from the base of an altar in the centre of the circle, any player who can move the altar will find a circular chamber with a powerful planar seal. Natural constructs, wood Golems or elementals try to force the players away without them disturbing the seal, turning violent if the PC's try to use force, or Undead sealed within the chamber try to use the PC's to break the seal holding back a powerful Lich or Demon which becomes a extended sub-plot throughout the campaign.

Huntsman's Cottage: A PC who notices this cottage can approach and knock on the door, either meeting a friendly old woman who offers them come inside, have some food, and rest for the night, eventually her husband comes back with a dead deer/wolf and offers to sell the PC's the hide for crafting purposes at a fairly low price if the PC's tell him stories of their adventures, alternatively the PC knock on the door, and is greeted with silence, entering the cottage he sees the dead body of an old man and woman, before their killer ambushes him.

Abandoned Tower: A PC who draws the parties attention to an old, derelict tower, after venturing inside they trigger a magical summoning trap which creates a number of suitable creatures for Summon Monster IV or V, that last for 11 rounds, or they find why the tower is derelict, one of the owners experiments escaped, and has made this tower its home that it defends with its life.

Stand of Trees: A PC who suggests a stand of trees as a good camping spot may by accident have set up shop a stone throw away from a den of wolves who are sleeping at the moment, or Pixies and Sprites come in the night and start playing pranks on the Party.

Broken Wagon: A classic, whether done by bandits, the wagon owner transporting dangerous animals and magical beasts that have broken free, or just a wagon breaking down and needing repairs.

Moorland Pool:A PC stops to fill up his canteen from a quick running stream that feeds into a small pool, if the PC's all decide to stop and water their horses for a short while, then whatever has made that pool its hunting ground attacks.

... and with that I'm out of ideas for now.

Just remember, the wasteland holds more adventure than just the plot, and exploring can reap great rewards.

Best of luck.

Story Time: Empty Spaces & Loneliness

Empty Spaces, what are we playing for?

For those of you who are reading these posts in order, trawling through whatever mess of an archive I have, firstly I apologise, secondly, if you read the massive "Real Talk" segment from Seltyiel's last journal entry, may have gleaned that I'm both annoyed with my DM, and bored/confused with his campaign, I should probably clear this up in my normal rambling, tangential, circular manner.

Firstly I should probably talk about what the DM said he was trying to do with the campaign. He was, and I paraphrase "Trying to get a very "Game of Thrones" style sandbox campaign with the big bads being the Seven Sins" now this being his first campaign I sent him two APs, "Kingmaker" and "Rise of the Runelords" both having themes that touch with what he was/is trying to do.

Secondly, he's only, as far as I know, watched the "Game of Thrones" series on TV. Now I'm not being some kind of elitist reading snob, there are plenty of positive sides to telling a story through a televised series, for one thing it allows the environments and world to feel solid and tangible, and it makes the action far more visceral, however I think "A Song of Fire and Ice" lost something very important in its translation to the small screen; scale.

Watching the TV series and reading each book side by side, the world feels somehow smaller, like cramming the books into 10 episodes, 60 minutes of runtime each means that a lot of the non-essential world building has to be thrown to the roadside so we can have more sex, violence, politics, and memes. I feel like I'm watching a world in snippets only being shown the bare essentials where the only things happening on screen are vitally important to the plot.

Now I know that's not fair, if you're going to take the time out of your schedule to read a 600+ page book, and a 1 hour TV show you obviously have differing amounts of free time, and you can't have an episode where all the characters do is ride on horseback and make small talk about how nice the weather is, or how they're interested in old books, while dedicating several pages in a book to such activities is much easier, if no less boring when done incorrectly; but Pathfinder is neither a TV show or a Book, it is an RPG.

It is equally reliant on the players and the DM to tell the story. A story that can change with the roll of a dice.

It is a game reliant on clear, concise, communication.

It is a world populated by one person.

It is easy to fuck up.

So let's start at the beginning.

Campaign begins, M, K, and S are in a battle with their NPC charge, a prince. the battle goes poorly and they flee into the forest, where they eventually meet Me, C and V's original character, and get to the city of Kentonborough within a day. After staying the night at Kentonborough, we get a cart to the Capital city of Rhuen, along the way we are attacked by a mysterious assassin after the life of the Prince. We keep the prince alive as we travel to Rhuen, and spend the night there, before leaving the next day, the prince rewarding us for escorting him and saving his life. It takes us half a day to make our way to Bastion Zenith (which considering it's twice the distance on the map from Kentonborough to Rhuen astounds me) where M, S, C and K are given their continuing orders, M has a duel to the death because he felt insulted and wins because he cheated, before we rest another night, M and V perform a blood sacrifice to an unknown deity that whispers 2 days in their heads, before M, breaks all of his vows and breaks a small girl out of jail. We continue on towards High Haven, a journey that takes another 1/2 day despite what the map says, and pick up another jail-breaker on the way. Once we reach High-Haven we don't rest for the night, except Seltyiel who makes the most of his Ring of Sustenance and naps for 2 hours on a rooftop, before we are kicked out of the city to deal with the Von Heltzer Army that is laying siege to the city, which we do in one night, as the Lord of High Haven, and Sij, V's original character are killed by an assassin. We are then given a night of rest, and leave the city for the 4 hour road trip back to bastion Zenith which I have ceased caring about because space is warped and time is bendable, where M reports back to his boss, and is told to go conquer High Haven in the name of the Queen, which we do in probably the most violent and bloody way possible, because of course D'n'D has to bloody and violent, what's this diplomacy shit you keep talking about, and that's where we got up to.

If you've noticed one thing missing from this wall of text, it would be, we take the day to recuperate, relax, craft some potions, try and find some better gear; additionally, although the DM took the time to make what is quite literally the first world map I have seen made for any of our campaigns, he refuses to use it, instead warping distances so we arrive whenever he wants us to, and removing any chance for world building, or learning about the world, instead just throwing us into combat after combat, not realising that all he's doing is basically running a dungeon crawl with no roof.

Empty space is incredibly important for setting atmosphere and setting, allowing characters to slowly get invested in a world, especially when your players know next to nothing about the world they're in, good examples of this would be Dark Souls and Fallout 3, both massively empty games, full of desolation, monsters, and a storied history that you're only going to find out if you explore; this is especially important for PC's who are already separated from the game world by the 4th wall, unable to know what their character feels, tastes, smells, sees and hears, except what snippets are told to them by the DM.

Empty space also allows PC's and Players to rest, recover, absorb what just happened, there has to be a calm point, an up to a down, a yin to a yang. If all you eat is chicken mcnuggets then your body is going to go, get the fuck out, and throw them out, possibly shut-down completely.

The point I'm trying laboriously to get to is this, Pathfinder is not a TV show; without empty space or rest time you confuse and tire your players, and lessen the importance of your campaign world. I could tell you more about the seaside, mining town we spent three days in, than I could tell you about A's entire world, and it's all because we had to wait there with nothing to do but explore.

Leave your world empty, it'll be that much more fun to explore, for both you and your PC's.

Journey Journal, Entry 2, Same Day, Date still unknown

So Hel pointed out that I'd misspelled Journal in my last entry, I graciously accepted the fact I'd made a mistake before she was called away by Neffarion again, probably to spit shine his armour while he engages in acts of bloody debauchery.

So a lot happened after we left the Hell-Knight den of iniquity, mostly the bloody and violent invasion of a major city with the aid of 10 Hell-Knights, 3 of them Signifers, that was aligned with their cause as far as I knew; I'll explain from the beginning.

Real Talk, I have no clue why we invaded this city and put it to the sword, they were planning on defecting because the royal court wasn't sending them any reinforcements to a problem that had showed up either 2/3 days prior, or 4 months ago, either way sensible story telling took it right in the logical progression of time. The lord, and his counsel including some fairly important city figures promised to not defect if the party dealt with the 2000+ strong army of Paladin's, Knights, Fighters and trained Griffins, which we did by crippling their command structure in a night of brutal and rapid assassinations, during this night the lord was killed by a member of Ramos's order, because reasons, and according to the campaigns DM, the moment a lord dies, the city loses it's entire command structure, and turns into a melting pot of stupidity, fear, and traitorous intent, any time I questioned this I was met with an answer that was essentially, "Because I want it to be so", and I have been incredibly displeased with the way the DM handled all of this, because he basically made a night of awesome rolls,  stellar role-playing, intelligent usage of skills and excellent combat ability entirely pointless. Meta-rant over.

Turns out I'm not very good at horseback riding, as Neffarion gave the signal to halt our steeds some distance before the city gates, my Horse, You, didn't listen to my request to politely stop, and instead  charged the city gates on his own initiative, with me still riding him. The guards shot at both You and I, prompting him to throw me from the saddle and dump me arse over teakettle on the ground before cantering away, and fading out of existence.

Taking the arrows as a sign of a fight about to break out, and knowing that if I stuck around I was going to see something that made me deeply and personally unhappy, maybe even enraged, I decided to fly to the castle hoping to persuade the idiot who was running the show to surrender, instead what I found was a bunch of palace servants and unofficials looting the place and taking as much money as they could.

After relieving what appeared to be a minor unofficial of some gold, I decided, rather on the spur of the moment to, empty the Castle's vault of all the gold I could find, for a purpose I shouldn't elaborate on until it comes to pass, that's a fun turn of phrase isn't it Journal? comes to pass.

Anyway, as part of my cunning ruse, I headed down to the castle jail, and busied myself with rummaging through the confiscated bin, pretending that I thought I could find something of rare value there.

I'm going to stop writing now, I think I can hear someone coming, I'm too deep in this plan to stop, and my success is entirely up to the winds of fate and the whims of the gods.

Mechanical Talk: Blazing a path with Firearms

Okay, so last time I talked about Broken characters, and anyone who is not my friends will notice I put down Pathfinders firearms as an example of broken mechanics under a particulars persons opinion, I should probably be clear as to why I chose that example.

I love the Firearms in Pathfinder.

Gameplay-wise it takes nothing away and adds another dimension to swords, stealth, and sorcery. Story-wise there's that pulpy feel of a junker pistol misfiring in your hand when you need it most. Character-wise, tell me that not one of you has wanted to do the Dirty Harry "Do ya feel lucky, well do ya punk?" thing, or the wandering Gunslinger, striding out of town into the setting sun.

Medieval stasis has its place, don't get me wrong, if the next Hobbit or Silmarillion Film (ya know they're gonna do it, if only to make some more money) comes out, and suddenly we've got Dwarves wielding shotguns and Elves duel wielding Uzis, I'm going to just as betrayed as the next person, Middle Earth is not the place for that kind of stuff, it goes against one of the underlying themes of the universe.

But similarly, not all fantasy universes should be stuck in a medieval setting. I have argued multiple times with my friends, and my family on occasion, that although you've got magic, that does not break the underlying rules of physics, matter cannot occupy the same space as matter, two identical entities cannot exist at the same time (although I can explain why there could be 2 of someone running about without breaking this rule, it hinges on observation which alters the state of things), thermodynamics still works, and you can't opt out of Gravity without some serious mystical mojo, and a lot of diamond dust.

So if science still works on the same central conceits, then the advancement of science will take the same general path, maybe we'll get penicillin before flintlock pistols, maybe we'll never learn anything about pathology before someone creates a rotor-craft capable of basic aviation, but science will still advance, it's what science does.

Which brings us back to, in a roundabout way, Firearms. Firearms represent the continual advancement in military technology as kingdoms without magical capabilities search for a method to match magic users on the field of battle, and the rules for Firearms in Pathfinder remind me a lot of a casters ray spells, in their application and execution.

So let's start with how Firearms work in game. basic one-handed or two-handed firearms, same rules one-handed do less damage, but give you a free hand either to use a shield or use another firearm, while two-handed firearms do more damage and have better range but take longer to reload. However unlike bows and crossbows, the fighters normal method of enacting ranged slaughter on his enemies Firearms target Touch AC, ignoring a good chunk of most PC's and NPC's armour making them possibly one of the most accurate weapon types in Pathfinder, possibly any RPG.

(I'm not 100% sure, but I remember seeing somewhere recently that Firearms do not ignore Shield Bonuses to AC, but I've been unable to confirm or deny this so, if anyone does know, post a link in the comments please)

This massive bonus to accuracy comes at the cost of your firearm occasionally exploding in your face, each firearm has a misfire range, often in the range of 1 - 3, if a gunslinger naturally rolls one of these result on the to hit roll, the firearm misfires, initially breaking, which expands the misfire chance by a +4 making it more likely to misfire again, subsequently exploding. This is a bad thing since now, not only are you the possessor of a stump where your hand should be, you've also lost something to the tune of at least 1,000 GP, often more.

Naturally the Gunslinger class, and other class archetypes that specialise in Firearms have some methods of restoring a Firearm to proper condition given enough time and money, but a Firearm misfiring in the middle of a fight can change the flow of battle significantly, often with disastrous consequences for the wielder.

At the end of this post all I can say is that while I'm unlikely to change to opinions of the players who hate Firearms for story reasons, or the way they alter game balance, I do encourage all of you to give them a shot (figuratively, don't take a gun and wander down the street shooting wildly into the air, that'll get you arrested in most places) and see just how much you enjoy them.

I hope you have a blast.

Journel Entry 2

Got 5 minutes before we run into this hole, may as well update this journel for now, I doubt I'll have time to do so while inside.

After meeting Borkul and agreeing on some supplies for what turned out to be a remarkably short journey, we went to a shadow puppet show to waste time until the evening. There both Valyri and I saw Sabien, surprising to say the least because he's been dead for 4 years now, deciding to follow him, mostly out of some form of purely morbid curiousity, he was attacked by Nimrodel.

Chasing the both of them, we watched Sabien escape after animating a Gargoyle to block Nimrodel's path, and our attempts to interfere were stopped by the appearance of Esmerelda Wune, and Darnis, who has now defected from our group to join the Rebels.

As Sabien managed to escape I felt no importance in stopping Nimrodel, Esmerelda or Darnis and ignored their escape, but not before they dropped some hints of great things to come.

After that I returned to the temple of Phobos and slept to prepare for the journey I thought we were going to face today.

After waking the group were led to a beast of burden (the name escapes me) and brought to the trading post at which point Valyri decided to cajole me to buy enough raw Mithral to make a Chain Shirt for her.

After which we were approached by a messenger who gave us the notice that my Master was waiting for us at "The Stone Table" a nearby, ruined temple.

At his own choice my master was in disguise as a Human, and preformed a trade with Flynn, the Prince, I didn't see what the prince traded away, only that it was a weapon of some sort, and he recieved the Brass Dragon orb temporarily in return, the prince calling it "the Keystone".

After this trade concluded, and some milling about, the prince proceeded to lead us further into the mountains until we came across a cave that only the prince, 'Lady' and I could see. Carrying the orb to a sealed door in the back Flynn set it into a depression in the door, which then proceeded to retract into the mountain. The dead air of the ancient library rushing out against us, before Usagi ran inside shouting about seeing something shiny.

Going to follow him inside in a second, wonder if he has anything valauble that he wanted to be buried with.

Mechanical Talk: Breaking Things

So, let's talk about game mechanics, I'm not good at coming up with new game mechanics, mostly working well within a system I'm familiar with, but I always enjoy creating things within those mechanics, and expanding them to do multiple things, letting mechanics overlap, and intermingle, it allows players to find a mechanic they like and not be catastrophically confined to doing one specific thing, UND ONE THING ONLY!!!.

However, in between crippling overspecialisation and jack of all trades, master of none shenanigans, there is that sweet spot of being able to do multiple things well and being competent at their connected abilities, and if a party of PC's each has their own set of abilities that compliment each other without stepping on each others toes then that party works like clockwerk, making combat smooth, powered by the players who wanted to specialise in combat, and social skills flow from one to another, each person making a contribution suitable to their character.

Naturally, even in the perfect setup, there will be characters that overlap in skills and abilities, but having a player who greases the social wheels via bluff and perform will find his skills being used in different situations than the player who chose to be an intimidating thug that gives NPC's the choice of telling them what they want to know or losing their teeth, and if the players talk about it, that setup allows for great good-cop, bad-cop social encounters.

However, it's one thing to have a theoretically perfect party who have different specialisations and skills, and a party where nearly every character has the same abilities (normally caused by a lack of player communication); even in this situation it's entirely possible for a cunning DM to set up encounters and challenges where each PC is allowed to shine through.

If you're wondering why I've got 3 paragraphs detailing how having a varied party is a good thing, then you've either never played in a party where everyone chose to play similar roles, or you did and had a REALLY good DM for that party, because this is where I get onto the entire point of this rant: Broken Characters.

Now lots of players and DMs have entirely different measuring sticks for what constitutes a broken character, one of my current DMs insists that the coup-de-grace rules as written are broken beyond belief, and the other hates the Gunslinger rules with a level of passion normally reserved for a personal nemesis, and every player at my group except for one honestly believe it's impossible to play a Summoner without overshadowing the group entirely (It's not, but you need to know what you're doing).

Personally I think a broken character is a character that, either by accident or on purpose, overshadows other characters in their class specific abilities.

Compare a lvl 1 Fighter and Barbarian, there is no way that a Fighter will ever really out damage a Barbarian, and a Barbarian cannot wear the heavy armour that the Fighter can, but imagine that the Barbarian did gain Heavy Armour Proficiency, they'll lose some abilities (mostly Fast Movement), but now they can both out damage and out AC the Fighter, and if that Fighter chose that Class specifically to be a human shield, then that Barbarian has just purposefully decided that he wants to be as much of a human shield as the Fighter, and given his class abilities he can still generally out damage the Fighter, and so the player has created a broken character on purpose, either maliciously or because he thought it would be a good idea.

Contrast and compare to a group of players who had no communication during character creation, and they come up with individually; A Nerfer Wizard, A Blaster Sorcerer, a Super-Solo Summoner, a Nerfer Malefactor, and a Brick Paladin, now identify the broken character.

3

2

1

If you guessed the Nerfer Wizard/Nerfer Malefactor, based on class ability crossover you'd be wrong, the Nerfer Wizard and the Nerfer Malefactor can specialise in separate styles, the Wizard going 1v1 with powerful save or suck spells, and the Malefactor granting a general area penalty to all saves. No the broken character here is the Super-Solo Summoner based on the fact that due to fact that nobody had any communication they decided to make a character that could potentially fulfil any role, and in doing so overshadowed the entire party, often making them useless.

Now I'm not saying that an Over Powered character is broken, or that any Broken character is automatically Over Powered, it's a lot more likely though; but that a character who repeatedly, without any real effort takes away the purpose and necessity of another party member is broken.

If you're having trouble with a broken character, then there is an easy fix, talk to the player, ask him if he wouldn't mind taking a back seat when issues come up. A character that specialises in combat to the point where he doesn't need the party to beat most fights, could feasibly hang back and use Aid Another, usually beating the AC of 10 in order to help their party members, allowing them to both make a contribution and not make the other party members feel useless, socially it is entirely possible for a character to just step back and allow the other party members to talk to the king, only stepping in if things start to go wrong.

Ultimately it's up to the player whether or not they step back or continue to overshadow the other PCs, however remember all Broken characters have a weakness, and it's often one that they don't expect to come up in gameplay.

Just remember you're playing the game to have fun, and if you have to gank someone to do so, don't let that stop you.

Journey Journel, First Entry, Date unknown

So we left High Haven, leaving Ramos behind, thank Erastil, and set on the road to Neffy's bastion. Strangely enough, halfway there Ysera turned around and headed back to High Haven, muttering something about a mad wizard and a book, I don't know, she's been acting strangely ever since we left the Artillery camp, randomly swapping between personalities. I think she might be insane.

When we finally got to the Bastion, Neffy had his own welcoming comitee of 3 heavily armed Hellknights, who told him he had to go see the Archlictor for some reason and what  little I could see of his face seemed really worried.

I went to the Mage to buy some new toys, it turned out that she had a shiny new amulet that cost me far too much money, and a scroll that I should try and rewrite in a formula.

* * * * *

Well we're headed back to High Haven for some reason with a bunch of Hellknight soldiers, apparantly Neffy wasn't in trouble. I hope we don't run into Ramos back there.

Travelling Through Hell and Back With Friends

So another round of characters for another Campaign, this one's being run by A, so he won't be on the roll sheet.

Once again player names have not been changed to protect the innocent because I'm lazy, have fun guessing if you know these people.

First up is Hellnight Nefarion, played by M

I just remembered I had this, silly old me, it was buried right at the bottom of my coffin underneath all the spoiled herbs that I was testing for Hypoglaucomatic sensitivity, I was supposed to be keeping notes on that experiment and nows it's been completely ruined, I need to use you for something, don't I journel, how about the journey I'm on, I'll call you my Journey Journel, and we can be friends who'll never tell other people our secrets.

Do you want to know about the monsters I'm travelling with? You do. Brilliant, just let me find some more ink.

Well firstly there's Neffy, he's a bad person, hiding behind the protection of the Hellknights, meaning that if I try to stop him from hurting people I get hurt too, and he delights in hurting people. He stopped being so mean to me after I beat him in a fair duel, but I can't not get a bad feeling from him, and he keeps licking his lips whenever he sees bleeding people.

Secondly is Hellknight Signifer Ysera, played by S, the DM for the other campaign.

 and everywhere he goes Ysera isn't far behind, she's not as bad as her brother, but she's the one holding the leash on him, and it's quite clear that she's not keeping a tight hold on it. She's a magic user, and the few times we've talked she's seemed intelligent enough, but I don't think she'd hesitate for a second if any of us were to become an obstacle to her.

After her come Hel & Mel, Played by K, the running gag here is that her character is incredibly forgettable.

 and course Neffy's apprentice/scapegoat, Hel, I like her, she doesn't act like a monster and seems like she doesn't want to hurt people, of course the fact that she has one of the restless dead following her around, obeying her commands is less than promising, but I'm not going to judge anyone for their appearance, I have enough trouble with mine.

I don't think she likes my bombs though, whenever one of them explodes, she tends to flinch violently even if the flames don't touch her.

And leaving the Hellknights behind we have their prisoner Cynthia, played by C.M

I don't mind Cynthia, I mean she's a prisoner of the Hellknights, so she's probably done something, but she doesn't act like a bad person, and she doesn't look like she enjoys hurting people. She doesn't seem to have much of a sense of direction though. Apparently she followed us west, thinking we were heading east to Ostenheim. Things always seem to go wrong for peopel whenever she's around and I think she might be another magic user, but she's never done anything explicitly magical.

Before finally reaching Ramos, played by V (yes that V)

I don't like Ramos, for one thing he clearly has something big to hide, and for another he called me stupid, apparently saying I need you do a small favour for me, while tied up by two violent, pyschpathic, hellknights and then offering me enough gold for several healing potions makes complete sense to him, and I'm the fool for not following through on his offer. I'm glad to be shot of him, leaving him in High Haven.

If you wan anymore information on the character and the Campaign setting, A is doing his own blog here

http://alexcampaign.blogspot.co.uk/

other than that I'll be going straight into Seltyiels Journey Journel next entry

Into the Mind of a Madman

Right, and now, with the session upcoming I introduce to you Seltyiel 'Madman' Garrott, a Tiefling Beastmorph Alchemist, with a penchant for explosives, potions, and turning into an indescribable horror to eat face.

Once again, I'm using the Pathfinder Rules for this character, so if you want to double check things it should be easy enough to check the D20PFSRD site.

As previously mentioned Seltyiel is a Teifling Alchemist, more specifically a Beastmorph Alchemist, whose repeated experimentation on his body, in an effort to turn himself into a Half-Elf like his parents, has caused his body chemistry to be incredibly unstable; mutating him furher, and further away from his goal, or in Meta terms my DM allowed me free reign on the Alternative Physical Features table, and I went somewhat overboard, currently he's rocking Horns, Pointed ears, Clawed Hands, Digigrade Clawed Feet, Fangs, Patches of reptilian scales, a draconic tail, a body temperature of about 5 degrees celsius, Glowing single colour eyes (No whites or pupils, just solid Magma coloured eyes), and Smoke pouring from his mouth, nostrils and Eyes. A grim reminder that winners don't do drugs if they want to remain pretty.

Personality wise, Seltyiel is intense, his emotions often unchecked but directed, much like a runaway train that has yet to be derailed. When he feels joy, it is the joy being reunited with a friend who has been missing for years, his grief envelopes anyone near him in a pallid shroud of gloom, and his anger is a sight to behold as he charges through hell and fire to wreak his vengeance. However his singing voice needs work, as atestted by every party member trying to find a way to shut him up.

However it should be remembered that this intensity, and complete lack of any social skills beyond the fact that his smile  extends to the back of his head doesn't mean he's dumb, being the main planner of the group and plenty capable of thinking his actions through, he just might continue with those actions after thinking that they'll be a bad idea.

In Combat Seltyiel is a whole different beast, quite literally in this case, as his many and varied potions and mutagens warp and twist what little regular features he has left into new and exciting shapes for the combats duration, and due to his often careless use of bombs he represents as much a threat to himself and the party as he does to his enemies, and at the moment his most commonly used spells are Cure Light/Moderate Wounds, Shield, Barkskin, Invisibility, and Cat's Grace.

Seltyiel currently has no reason to travel with the party other than his curiousity, and acts as an often ignored moral compass, encouraging that the party doesn't set fire to people, or give old men heart attacks, but his morality doesn't extend much past that.

Seltyiel Character Sheet Here

Seltyiel "Madman" Garrott

Journel Entry 1

So I'm writing in this journel before I try and find an alcove to sleep in.

Back in the Dustlands, sooner than I thought I'd be back here, at least here I actually know where I'm going, got to say the flight here was comfortable at least, also got in flight entertainment watching 2 grown men try to train a girl in combat with a broken mop.

Landed on a plateu about 4 hours of travel short of the Trading post in the middle of a dust storm, the journey was mostly uneventful, apart from an attack from 2 Chittering Hulks, thankfully none of us died this time, but I'm not hopeful on leading these people over the next few days. Hopefully Borkul will be able to spare us some supplies for the next few days, I'm not holding out hope though.

Next entry should when we make it to the mine.

I Could Show you the World

Didn't plan on doing another non-journel post so quickly as the game was today and I'd put this after that, but life happened and the session got moved to later in the week effectively meaning that I wasn't going to have anything up for a couple of days so I may as well try and tell you something about the Campaign world for Gulag.

Well for one thing the campaign takes place on the continent of Ark, a place of great magic and greater heroes, heroes such as Kyme and the Seven Swordsmen, The Pheonix Summoner, Cursed Nimrodel of the Woods, and the Dark lady, Esmerelda Wune.

In ages past, came the first Summoner, a mage capable of dragging forth the sleeping spirits of the world, and the true essence of the arcane planes, to wreak destruction. He razed a trail of chaos across the land before disappearing back into the wilderness.

It wasn't long before more summoners appeared, their powers capable of fightign armies evenly, the only way that the lords of each kingdom could see to protect themselves from these mages was to either send armies against them and pray that they would die through attrition, or to trick the summoner into a dangerous place and turn the land itself against them, flooding valleys, crushing them under avalances.

The various villagers quickly fell into a witch hunt in order to protect their homes, and holdings, both against the Summoners destruction and their lords extreme measures to stop the summoners. Anyone born with a summoners mark was quickly hunted down and killed, or imprisoned, leading to the remaining summoners to go into hiding.

It is into this world that the party is born, coming from all walks of life, a Drow running from home, a Soldier unfairly dismissed from his service, a Kobold hoping to redeem his race, a Demon-Hunter seeking vengeance, a Hengeyokai out discover the world, and his Protector, swaddled in steel.

The Dead Men

Right so I said I'd get this done, and I may as well get it done before next session before I humanise them too much, so let's get started on the other characters.

Player names have not been changed to protect the innocent, because I'm lazy, and I'd probably forget at some point, but they have been shortened to the first letter because that's easy to remember, I'll try to keep this in Gulag's perspective from this point on, anything in this text colour is just me

First up is Legatus Nero, played by M (No he is not Judi Dench)

May as well get my journel started now, got a moment of peace and quiet for a change, so how to start, not much point in writing about myself until the end, what to do, what to do. Writing about my companions seems like a good start, well a neutral start, but I need to say something at their funerals this should help.

Where do I start, well the ones who survived this long seems like a good start, so lets talk about Nero. He is, in no uncertain terms, a Malai, incapable of restraint, damaging to the team, interested only in himself and overly proud of re-inventing the wheel, a recent encounter might do something about his over-abundance of  malaikur, but I doubt it, and judging by the conversations I've been over-hearing he's going to run out of thurirli that'll stand up for him soon enough.

Valyri, played by A

And the other long-term Survivor, besides me, would be Valyri, a Ingoeth, a Drow for those of you that don't speak Draconic. I would be hard pressed to call her a good person, mostly because of her heritage, but she fled from those dark cities for her own reason, and that's enough to give her a chance to prove herself better than the rest her pale-eyed kin.

Decided to found a, what did she call it, a 'PMC' with Nero, during the 4 years we spent apart for the purpose of hunting down rogue magic users, and summoners, and is constantly trying to find a man who's seltur persvek wer fothisev. Also she's holding onto one of the most powerful magical artefacts in existance, just thought that important to mention.

Darnis Corvo (Darnus Corveu) Nobody knows how to say or spell his name besides his player, running joke at this point, played by V (not that V)

 Moving onto my less long term kiabili, we have Darnus, a human slinger, who for some reason chose to lug a cumbersome rifle and scope into a cramped, enclosed space, where we'd be fighting small, acrobatic thieves in their home turf. Granted I don't think it's the pure unthinking malaikur of Nero, but he is incredibly sharten, almost to the point of his death several times, refusing silver bullets on a wererat hunt, walking into enemy territory without proper backup, deciding to try and venture through a pitch-black labyrinth without torches or food are just a few example of what I'm sure is a life full of suicidal choices that he somehow managed to survive.

More to the point I think he may infected with Lycanthropy, not only did he charge into a den of Wererats, he was dragged back out by our healer, while covered in wounds, and the day after they spent a fair bit of time together speaking privately. If he doesn't turn next full moon all the better, but I'm going to be sleeping with my gun under my pillow, and silver bullets loaded.

Also has promised me a slow and painful death for tripping him over a cliff, long, boring story, I might put it in here if I've got slow day at some point.

Usagi, played by C.M, new character, old one died in Wererats den previous session.

I'm completely new to this one, he looks like a cat if someone cut its head off and stitched to a halflings body, awkwardly

Lady (Name Unknown), Played by K, New character old one died in wererat den previous session.

 Once again I'm completely new to this one, she hasn't even taken her armour off, I'm guessing she's a female, othewise she's a man who wants to be called Lady, and I'm not going to touch that with a Dragons tail.

And a quick translation of the draconic I put in here

Malai = Idiot
Malaikur = Idiocy
Thurirli = Friends
Ingoeth = Drow
seltur persvek wer fothisev = Soft in the Head
Kiabili = Companions
Sharten = Stubborn

and if you want to use the translator I used it can be found here

 http://draconic.twilightrealm.com/

Meet Gulag

So it might just be worth detailing each character before I actually get into the process of putting their thoughts down on "paper" let's start with Gulag.

And just so that nobody can yell "that's not how that works" or "is that a custom class" all of my characters are using the Pathfinder Rules, unless specifically stated otherwise.

Gulag, is a Kobold, more specifically he is a Crystal Kobold, meaning he looks more like a crystal dragon than anything else, with shiny, glassy, quartz like scales, and deep red horns that look like crystalline growths, this is about all the difference there is, nothing mechanical, I just wanted to use a non-chromatic dragon and Pathfinder does have a precedence of "Ghost" Kobolds that I used as my base.

Personality wise, he's immensily snarky, and has pride in himself, but nothing to back it up with, or more accurately, he wants to be proud of himself, but everyone tells him that he can't be, because he's a Kobold. This is backed up with a general level of pragmatism,

Gulag: "If we're going up against Lycanthropes, we're going to need silver weapons"
Darnis: "Nah we'll be fine"
(actual freaking conversation from game)

Kobold knowledge of weaknesses, a healthy fear of dying after too many close calls, and of course his guns.

See, Gulag's class is Gunslinger (Pistolero) 6/ Barbarian 1, with a rank in Trickster, so while he is mechanically as far away from party face as is functionally possible, there is no problem he can't solve after looking at it long enough, shooting enough bullets in its general direction, or just talking to the NPC like they are an actual person. Of course this doesn't actually take the place of a good charisma score and ranks in Diplomacy, Bluff or Intimidate and when the dice come down is when Gulag's social moxy flies out the window, but whenever a conversation involving firearms is brought up Gulag will inject himself into the conversation, sometimes forcefully, no matter who is involved, this can lead to fun times when the anti-tech faction goes

"Firearms are the root of all evil, they take away the weight of killing an intelligent creature and go against natures rule of the strongest survive" to which Gulag responds "yeah, Guns are awesome aren't they"

In combat is where Gulag shines, with a gun in each hand and reflexes fater than the bullets he fires (Init +16, yes it's fully rules legal), able to dodge every blade that comes his way (AC 25-30, once again rules legal) and is inhumanly accurate with his firearms (Okay only a +15 here, but against Touch AC that's pretty good), combined with his mobility, these factors make Gulag a force to be reckoned with in combat, unfortunately, he also refuses to run from a fight if there are helpless people behind him which has led to several points where he's been fighting on against impossible odds because he has to protect the injured Wizard and Scholar from a horde of Hobgoblins, while fighting on a crumbling bridge. Thank god for the CON boost from Barbarian Rage or he would have been dead several times over.

Currently Gulag's primary motivations for going along with campaign are threefold.

1 - He wants to be known as a hero, let people see that he and his race aren't pointless vermin to be exterminated whenever is convenient, and for this reason it annoys him that he keeps on getting written out of the "official" versions of the stories that the Bards tell.

2 - He's looking for an old weapon known as the Velseki Blade, a sword several millenium old, so far he's only found the hilt which has a part of the shattered blade, but he believes it will help him with his goal of becoming a hero.

3 - He found mention of an old firearm called "The Shard of Brionac" in a scroll he found in a ruin, unfortunately he only has part of the blueprints, and is currently on the lookout for more information on where he may find the other pieces, mostly out of personal curiousity.

The original Picture, by a friend, commissioned for a pizza

And Gulag's character sheet is here

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=43253

Welcome to my mind

Yo, I'm Groggy, also Groggles, jerk-face, Scottish, Rules-Lawyering Bastard, that cunt with the bad hair and poor fashion sense, or "OI You, get me a beer".

This blog is primarily going to be an "attempt" to record the actions, outlooks, inner-thoughts and outer actions of my RPG characters, primarily starting with "Gulag, Serakphim of the Embermaw" and "Seltyiel 'Madman' Garrott" also known as "stop being overpowered" by the DM, but if they die then I'll move onto other characters and put their stories up for the internet to read and mock.

Interspersed between character thoughts and journels, I may post  things that just pop into my head, alongside homebrew rules, items, races, classes and systems, but don't expect too much of those.

That said, strap in and enjoy the ride