#pathinder character

[dandyonmain]

Nartia, Scholar of the Streets A surprisingly well connected in infamously amorous merchant. He seems to ultimately be a decent person, somewhere deep down, but it can be hard to tell if you're not his friend. As likely to heckle you into being a part of his most recent scheme as he is to help you out, he's a good ally to have if slightly draining at times. Whether its a few coins or a night of companionship, it often feels like Nartia is after something when talking to you. A Naga NPC for an upcoming PF2e campaign I'm running! I really really love how he came out!

[natzomi]

Our monk and his MANY weapons

[rpgbot]

Pathfinder 2e - Updated Half-Orc Handbook

[texturedwater]

this was meant to be an emote but i put some math behind it. now he thinking for real

[dare-to-dm]

Im sure you've gotten this question a thousand times but how would a new DM go about building encounters and making sure they're balanced for the party?

If you’re just starting out, I would follow the Challenge Rating guidelines.  For those who aren’t aware, every monster in D&D has a Challenge Rating (CR for short) in its Monster Manual entry that tells you about how difficult that monster should be to defeat.

So, if a monster has a CR of 8, that means on it’s own it will be a moderately challenging encounter for an average sized party of level 8 characters.

There are of course several variables to consider when balancing encounters, such as the size and experience level of the party, how recently they’ve been able to rest up and heal, what equipment they have available to them, the number of opponents, and environmental situations that can put one group at an advantage or disadvantage.  But CR is a good place to start.  Here is a 5th Edition CR Calculator and a Pathinder CR calculator that can help you accurately figure out CR for groups of mixed level opponents.

If you make a mistake and accidentally make an encounter that is either too easy or too difficult, I recommend you fix it on the fly by altering the monster’s stats or tactics.  Here are some more specific recommendations on how to do that.

[tarkirrpg-blog]

Designing the Antagonist

“A protagonist and his (or her) story can only be as intellectually fascinating and emotionally compelling as the forces of antagonism makes them” --Robert McKee

The antagonist, commonly referred to as the BBEG, or Big Bad Evil Guy in RPGs, sets the tone of the adventure. They may operate as a constant foil to the players, or merely wait at the climax as a final challenge to overcome. When done right, they ARE the game, moreso than the setting or any other NPC.So for that reason its important to craft a strong antagonist for the players to butt heads with. What’s more is that the antagonist must embody the themes or ideas of the campaign, or at the very least their antithesis. So when we create an antagonist, we’re also developing the central themes.

Now in Magic: The Gathering, in every set of cards there are a number of important NPCs that serve important roles in the narrative. These NPCs (though actually playable in the card game) take the form of “Legendary Creatures” or “Planeswalker” cards. These grandiose titles hint at their relevance, and quite often these cards are stronger than the average power level for similarly-costed cards.Its at this point I have to address the elephant in the room.

Planeswalkers have the innate ability to travel (or walk) between planes. They are rare beings of powerful magical aptitude, usually specializing in a particular form of magic (e.g. necromancy, pyromancy, enchantments, etc). Narratively they cause some difficulties, after all what stakes are their for these beings if they can jump ship to an adjacent plane at a whim? They serve a purpose from a meta-narrative point of view in that they offer some amount of consistency between sets of cards (and planes/settings). And if you were to stretch your campaign across multiple settings or planes, they’d be a great narrative device for shifting between planes. The thing is, I’m developing this setting for Pathfinder, and in Pathfinder, the magic to travel between planes is a very high-level ability. For Sorcerers and Wizards its a 7th-level spell, meaning a character wouldn’t be able to cast it before 13 or 14th level. For this reason I’ll be choosing to ignore the idea of planeswalking for this campaign setting.

Above I’ve included the image of one such planeswalker that appeared on Tarkir, a powerful vampire mage named Sorin.Though a potentially powerful nemesis for our players, Sorin is only tangentially related to the events on Tarkir, and is unlikely to add much to the narrative, and may even cause confusion among the players. After all, Sorin’s motives for visiting Tarkir fit into a meta-narrative in the MtG lore, that involves a separate plane. In fact his time on Tarkir is relatively brief. His motivations involve protecting his home-plane and defeating a cosmic threat beyond the scope of this campaign. So though he may feature as an encounter or sidequest for higher-level adventures, he is unsuitable as our main antagonist.

When I first started conceptualizing Tarkir as a campaign setting I became somewhat obsessed with another planeswalker, named Sarkhan Vol. Sarkhan, meaning “Great-Khan”, is a man possessing the ability to transform into a dragon, originally hailing from Tarkir, and in fact reaching a position of power among the Mardu, though never actually reaching the position of Khan. He is a man that his been tormented by dragon-kind. From an early age he has yearned to see dragons soar through the sky, and take their place as alpha-predators, instead of having their bones re-purposed by Tarkir’s inhabitants. His abilities to shapeshift into dragons,and to travel between planes emerged simultaneously, shunting him to a plane where dragons ruled without question. This filled him with great joy, but he soon found a new purpose in seeking a great dragon to serve. This search eventually led him to Nicol Bolas, a dragon of un-paralelled power and evil, who took his new willing pawn under his wing.

Eventually Bolas’ schemes brought Vol in contact with the artifact of another great dragon. No sooner than Vol touched this artifact did he begin to hear the voice of this new great dragon. This voice also began to free Vol of the mental shackles that Bolas had subtly placed on him.Confused and haunted by these voices, Vol returns to his home plane, where the voices guide him towards the remains of the dragon to which the voice belongs. His arrival on Tarkir, in his dragon form no less, causes great uproar among the clans. The return of dragons could be catastrophic if the history lessons are to be believed. And that is approximately where our story begins.

In fairness to Sarkhan Vol, he is a simple man, he wishes to see the restoration of dragons, he admires them above all other life forms, and is happy to devote his life to the preservation of their species. Originally it felt it would be obvious that he would serve the role of the primary antagonist, but he’s not really suitable. In the third Act, he has already achieved his goals, he has no reason to fight the party, he’s already “won”, he could die in peace. So I eventually realized that it was in fact the second dragon that whispered to Vol that was the REAL antagonist.

Quick sidenote: at the time of writing this Paizo has announced the Ultimate Wilderness rulebook for Pathinder, which will include the new class called the Shifter, a class that can change shape more adeptly than druids, which I believe will be the ideal fit for Vol’s statblock, if I stat Vol before that, it will likely be as the Draconic Druid archetype.

Eventually I realized that the great spirit-dragon Ugin would be our primary antagonist. Though Nicol Bolas is a recurring villain in MtG lore, he makes only a brief cameo in Tarkir’s past to defeat Ugin, thus ending the dragon storm, the source of all dragons, and allowing the clans to eventually hunt dragonkind to extinction. Vol’s appearance with the magic artifact wraps Ugin in a cocoon that gives the spirit dragon time to recover, and the dragon storm continues to birth new dragons, until eventually the clans swear fealty to the dragon lords.This is just some speculation on my part, but after seeing Bolas’ antics on Amonkhet (the latest set of cards), I believe that he may have planned for Ugin’s revival and the restoration of dragonkind on Tarkir. It seems like too much of an oversight to allow his ancient rival o be revived.

Ugin needs a little adapting. Frequently seen as the “good’ counterpart to Bolas, his reaction to the destruction of the Eldrazi on Zendikar (apologies, I’m going deep into Tarkir-unrelated lore), hints that he is not a being above his own scheming. Though he seems to be on the side of “life”, that could just be a coincidental alignment of interests. As I’ve said previously Act three needs some working, and in fact the lack of conflict, and the anti-climactic resolution of dragonlords ruling the humanoids, tells me that Tarkir may be a part of one of these great draons masterplans in future MtG sets.

But getting back to Antagonist talk. Vol, is going to incite the events of our campaign, he may even serve as an interesting lieutenant to our BBEG, but he is definitely no mastermind. That said, he reflects themes of draconic supremacy. Ugin also reflects this theme, being the literal source of all dragons. Being a spirit dragon, and communicating via telepathy from beyond the grave, he feeds into an occult theme that I’d like to get back to in a later post. The last major theme I’d like to represent is war. in Khan-Tarkir all the clans will be at war. War will also be present in past-Tarkir, but in dragon-Tarkir, war will be less visible, if present at all. It would seem that most of the dragonlords, are uninterested in expanding territories, concerning themselves with other pursuits. Ugin doesn’t really represent this theme unfortunately. But then his place in Dragon-Tarkir is also unclear, and that will require some brainstorming. That said, I’m excited to borrow from the astral dragon statblocks when I do stat this BB(maybe not so-)EG

[shamusu]

Mass Effect RP character. Sepah’Ouam is a quarian entomologist, who joined Andromeda Initiative after being denied her Pilgrimade gift by every single ship on the Migrant Fleet (because she is so useless noone wanted her aboard, and pretty much noone care about an exhaustive collection of Tuchanka’s flies).

She ended up being the Pathfinder of the quarian ark somehow, after the initial Pathfinder, Raaj’Kwitt, left the ark shortly after their departure. She was in stasis in the wrong pod (following administrative issues) so Raaj gave her the Pathinder acces by mistake. She awakes in Andromeda with SQ: (her version of SAM, bugged af and blocked in qwerty) and since lives in denial.

She is useless and annoying, but very nice, tho.

[swordsandsorcerypodcast]

Xander

Hello again friends! Today I am happy to introduce to you the third of our four player characters, the Aasimar Bard Xander. Xander is not your typical Bard, he doesn’t play an instrument and won’t be lulling anyone to sleep with a lute, Xander works in much more exciting ways. You’ll have to tune in to our podcast to hear more about the thrilling Xander and his unique Barding methods. Xander will be played by our resident rules expert, Phillip. Phillip is a gaming veteran and provides a lot of insight for our group on how the rules of Pathfinder work.

Now, on to the fun stuff! Meet the one and only Xander!

______

Xander stared down the long wooden table laden with food and surrounded by revelry. Bowls of exotic fruit glistened with dew alongside gold lined plates assorted with fresh cheeses.  Fine chalices brimming with wine sit scattered among large platters of perfectly roasted meat. The tantalizing aromas waft through the air and Xander’s mouth watered. Suddenly, the surrounding voices dropped to silence.

Xander looked around at his people and grinned. This is one of his favorite parts.

In unison, his people all raised their voices in praise of his glory.

“Blessings upon Lord Xander, Lord of Lords! May he rule for eternity! Long live Lord Xander!”

Xander sighed as the daydream flowed through his mind. Leaning up against the dusty tent, he idly rubbed his thumb across the letter. He would make this daydream a reality and this was his chance. He would have coffers full of gold and gems, extravagant feasts, adoring people, beautiful women vying for his attention and bards to sing tales of his glory. Xander would have it all and this letter was the key.

It had been a few years since that night. Xander was helping prepare for the next show just like any other night. He smoothly moved through the crowds making mental notes of the night’s marks. A young girl dropped her treat to the ground next to him and began to cry. Xander reached down to the ground plucking a blade of grass from the ground and turned to her. He relaxed the hold on his power and the light grew over his head coalescing into the telltale halo of an Aasimar. With a flourish, he presented the grass to the girl. “A beautiful flower for a beautiful maiden.” 

The girl’s eyes lit up. Her father rubbed his eyes and stared incredulously at Xander’s hands. Xander only held a piece of grass but suddenly, they both saw a rare, colorful flower in its place. Xander winked at the girl before turning on his heels and walking away. He focused on the light inside him and pushed it back into himself causing the halo to disappear.

That’s when he saw him. The man was intently watching one of the performers, Sven, juggle knives before throwing them into a nearby target.  His clothes immediately caught Xander’s attention.

Definitely not a commoner but not quite a noble.  Perhaps some sort of scholar, Xander thought with a smile. They tended to carry magical trinkets upon themselves and he looked very distracted with the show.  Too easy, Xander thought. With a purposeful stride, Xander moved to bump into the man providing an opening to pilfer items from him. Destiny had other plans in mind.

The ground suddenly shifted under Xander’s feet and he found himself unable to stop the momentum. With a crash, he fell into the man knocking him to the ground. As he fell, he felt a mysterious sharp pain in his arm. As he disentangled himself from the man, Xander looked over at the knife sticking out of his bicep. The knife thrower ran up to him lifting him up from the ground.

“It slipped from my hands! I was sure I was going to hit the customer until you dived in!” Sven proclaimed.  Xander glared at the performer as he pulled the knife from his body.  Xander was about to let loose a torrent of curses when the customer grabbed ahold of his hands and looked at him with eyes wide.

“You saved me!  I can’t believe how fast you were!”

Xander bit his lip and smiled. “Of course, good sir! I couldn’t let a man of your obvious stature be harmed!” 

���I’m Professor Petros Lorrimor.  Let me buy you a drink. It can’t make up for what you’ve done for me but it’s a start”.

Xander may have lost his quarry that night but years later, his accidental heroism was finally paying off.  The timing of the letter was perfect. The crowds had dwindled, and the money was no longer flowing.  Xander had skipped meals a number of times lately. The carnival wouldn’t miss him at all. One less mouth to feed.

“It’s time to move on. I’m meant for more than this.” Xander mumbled to himself as he headed off to his tent to pack.   

[artists-table]

Merfolk illustration for Pathinder character, Process Video in comments. via /r/IDAP http://bit.ly/2S827AU by rookzer0

[dandyonmain]

Luminous Petal, Wayward Arbalist

More art for a friend, this time of Luminous Petal, or Petal for short, an ant Kholo (Halfling Gnoll for all you DnD players out there) adventurer armed with her custom crossbow Poracha and a love for adventure she's an absolute disaster and everyone's problem. She's an artist and an explorer at heart and has a love for all the creatures she meets on her adventures, even taking in a few as pets. She has just a bit of every type of Kholo, and a few other races somewhere in her family tree and considers wherever she's standing at the moment to be home and whoever she's spending the night with her family. I was surprised to see so few Kholo on tumblr to draw inspiration from so I ended up borrowing from @c-rowlesdraws art style a little more than I intended, if you stumble on this be sure to check her stuff out.

(Also, I know its one day late but can we pretend its still gnollvember? Just for me, please?)

[dandyonmain]

-Voæsh, the Technicolor Thief- Voæsh worked very hard to set up her camera and wade into the pond at her local park to get this shot of herself, good thing it turned out so well! Please no one tell on her for going against park regulations. (For a player in an upcoming campaign of mine, the character in question is a loveable scamp and I am SUPER excited to GM for her)

[rpgbot]

Pathfinder 2e - New Gnoll Handbook

[dandyonmain]

Start of the week reblog

Luminous Petal, Wayward Arbalist

More art for a friend, this time of Luminous Petal, or Petal for short, an ant Kholo (Halfling Gnoll for all you DnD players out there) adventurer armed with her custom crossbow Poracha and a love for adventure she's an absolute disaster and everyone's problem. She's an artist and an explorer at heart and has a love for all the creatures she meets on her adventures, even taking in a few as pets. She has just a bit of every type of Kholo, and a few other races somewhere in her family tree and considers wherever she's standing at the moment to be home and whoever she's spending the night with her family. I was surprised to see so few Kholo on tumblr to draw inspiration from so I ended up borrowing from @c-rowlesdraws art style a little more than I intended, if you stumble on this be sure to check her stuff out.

(Also, I know its one day late but can we pretend its still gnollvember? Just for me, please?)