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Voting is now closed. I'm sorry to have to curtail voting like this, but in a sense it's a problem resulting from my own success - none of my previous LPs have had half this much engagement and I was not expecting anything like this many votes! I'm grateful so many people are interested, I'll just need to think about how to better handle any future voting. I'm chalking this one up to a learning experience and I'm sorry if anyone thought they had more time to get their votes in, keeping track of things was just growing untenable from an administrative point of view. As it stands, despite a strong last-second push, between this thread and discord we have a clear winner. Bard 15 Sorcerer 13 Skald 5 Kineticist 3 LPer's Choice 2 Magus 2 Alchemist 1 Arcanist 1 Oracle 1 Ranger 1 Witch 1 Wizard 1 Kitsune 15 Aasimar 12 LPer's Choice 8 Gnome 3 Dhampir 2 Half Orc 2 Oread 2 Tiefling 2 Half Elf 1 Desna 30 Cayden Cailean 6 LPer's Choice 5 Shelyn 3 Erastil 1 Nethys 1 Saranae 1 LPer's Choice 33 Katarina Turan 12 Kytherea 2 The story of the Fifth Crusade will center on a foxy bard following her [goddess of] dreams!
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Feb 15, 2024 02:01
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Hopefully this foxy bard dreamer will earn her place in history! 
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Feb 15, 2024 02:47
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One's Fifth Crusade is another's Worldwound Tour.
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Feb 15, 2024 03:20
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Rogue AI Goddess posted:One's Fifth Crusade is another's Worldwound Tour. PEOPLE OF GOLARION, I PRESENT TO YOU YOUR OPENING ACT: ARMOR CLASS/DIFFICULTY CLASS! Thunderstruck intensifies
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Feb 15, 2024 07:52
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Are you ready for the funniest poo poo in the world: 78 AC monsters?
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Feb 15, 2024 12:47
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RelentlessImp posted:Thunderstruck intensifies Y'all realize you voted for a bard from fantasy east Asia (all of it, jammed into a single country, as I understand it), right? Less rock music, more throat singing.
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Feb 15, 2024 13:13
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Tian Xia is a whole continent either around as big as or bigger than Golarion, with a whole bunch of countries in there right now. There's Minkai which has its own adventure path and is beyond the scope of this thread, the Successor States (think Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Warring States period)... also if you go south there's a forest and a naga empire and then an archipelago and another country run by a draconic monarchy... So yeah it's basically fantasy east Asia. 
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Feb 15, 2024 13:24
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Cythereal posted:Less rock music, more throat singing.
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Feb 15, 2024 13:44
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To be fair, considering just how diverse the Inner Sea region (Pathfinder's own Not!Europe setting, which includes the Worldwound area) is has been for the past hundred years or so, as well as it being very possible to land travel from Minkai to the land of the Linnorm Kings (Pathfinder's not!Scandinavia), it's not entirely impossible that a Kitsune might have been born and raised in the local culture- and I'm talking lineages of several generations here. There are significant populations of foreign descent living in the nearby areas (say what you like about Pathfinder- I certainly will- but a lack of diversity is not really one of them), so if you want a Kitsune bard rocking out to AC/DC, go ahead!TeeQueue posted:Tian Xia is a whole continent either around as big as or bigger than Golarion That might be a little difficult, considering Tian Xia is a landmass on the planet of Golarion 
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Feb 15, 2024 13:52
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CommissarMega posted:To be fair, considering just how diverse the Inner Sea region (Pathfinder's own Not!Europe setting, which includes the Worldwound area) is has been for the past hundred years or so, as well as it being very possible to land travel from Minkai to the land of the Linnorm Kings (Pathfinder's not!Scandinavia), it's not entirely impossible that a Kitsune might have been born and raised in the local culture- and I'm talking lineages of several generations here. There are significant populations of foreign descent living in the nearby areas (say what you like about Pathfinder- I certainly will- but a lack of diversity is not really one of them), so if you want a Kitsune bard rocking out to AC/DC, go ahead! I was joking, for the record. Sorta. Remember that I know almost nothing about Pathfinder's world, so the chances of oddities and mistakes when I write is going to be unusually high by my standards.
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Feb 15, 2024 13:59
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CommissarMega posted:That might be a little difficult, considering Tian Xia is a landmass on the planet of Golarion Golarion’s Not!Europe, where this campaign is largely set, is Avistan. To the south of the Not!Mediterranean Inner Sea is Not!Africa, Garund. To the east is Not!Asia in the form of Casmaron, which isn’t directly connected to Tian Xia. Avistan is, via the Crown of the World, an arctic continent. (At least, I presume there are bears.)
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Feb 15, 2024 14:08
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CommissarMega posted:To be fair, considering just how diverse the Inner Sea region (Pathfinder's own Not!Europe setting, which includes the Worldwound area) is has been for the past hundred years or so, as well as it being very possible to land travel from Minkai to the land of the Linnorm Kings (Pathfinder's not!Scandinavia), it's not entirely impossible that a Kitsune might have been born and raised in the local culture- and I'm talking lineages of several generations here. There are significant populations of foreign descent living in the nearby areas (say what you like about Pathfinder- I certainly will- but a lack of diversity is not really one of them), so if you want a Kitsune bard rocking out to AC/DC, go ahead! the main continent, where most of the APs take place you know what I mean.  this is what i get for not using the wiki... Cythereal posted:I was joking, for the record. honestly don't even worry, given the Existence of PCs in this universe, everything's made up and the lore barely matters anyways.
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Feb 15, 2024 14:31
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AJ_Impy posted:Golarion’s Not!Europe, where this campaign is largely set, is Avistan. To the south of the Not!Mediterranean Inner Sea is Not!Africa, Garund. To the east is Not!Asia in the form of Casmaron, which isn’t directly connected to Tian Xia. Avistan is, via the Crown of the World, an arctic continent. (At least, I presume there are bears.) I wouldn't say Avistan as a whole is 'arctic' per se, as the freezing cold and ever-present winter associated with the concept is just the Land of the Linnorm Kings' and Irrisen's thing; technically, the Worldwound is also located near the polar north, but all the demons and such have really messed with the weather to say the least Varisia, Korvosa, Ustalav and everything along their rough latitudes are vaguely Northern and Eastern European (except Numeria, which is Conan Meets Star Wars meets Fallout), while Andoran, Taldor and Bloody loving Literally-Damned Cheliax™ are all not just Mediterranean, but I'd argue almost equatorial, considering Garund and Osirion are just across the Inner Sea and they're Not!All-of-Africa and Not!Egypt respectively. Cythereal posted:I was joking, for the record. No worries! Just me seizing the chance to nerd out about PF's setting.
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Feb 15, 2024 14:38
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CommissarMega posted:I wouldn't say Avistan as a whole is 'arctic' per se Didn’t say it was, that was in reference to the Crown of the World.
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Feb 15, 2024 14:49
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But where is Perfidious Albion in this setting. Surely there is a Perfidious Not!Albion
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Feb 15, 2024 16:12
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Slaan posted:But where is Perfidious Albion in this setting. Surely there is a Perfidious Not!Albion The closest direct comparison in terms of location would probably be Azlant, which is really this setting's not-Atlantis instead (also a small continent, rather than just a small island). It's also been gone for several thousand years, as someone (read: aboleths who'd been manipulating everything behind the scenes) dropped a giant meteor on it. You could try and make some sort of passing comparison with one of the Avistani nations, but none of them really match up super well to British culture - Taldor is basically not-France, and Cheliax is more not-Spain if anything. Lord Koth fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Feb 15, 2024 |
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Feb 15, 2024 16:46
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Slaan posted:But where is Perfidious Albion in this setting. Surely there is a Perfidious Not!Albion Unironically, Cheliax. I'll probably get more into it if/when the god Asmodeus or Cheliax itself are mentioned, but they're a colonialist empire of devil worshippers who are also racist. Yeah, they have Spanish influences as well as Lord Koth mentioned, but I personally have always seen them as all the evils of European imperialism rolled into a single nation- so yeah, Perfidious Albion EDIT: Also, while Taldor kinda sorta looks like Not!France in aesthetics, in most other respects I actually see them as Not!Rome- a massive expansionist empire collapsing into separate nations, each with dreams of returning to their progenitor's glory? Definitely reads as Roman to me. CommissarMega fucked around with this message at 16:54 on Feb 15, 2024 |
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Feb 15, 2024 16:49
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Slaan posted:But where is Perfidious Albion in this setting. Surely there is a Perfidious Not!Albion Taldor has elements of it, though they’re also Not!Rome. Huge empire back in the day, expeditionary armies, has since decolonized and is a shadow of its former glories, still a monarchy. Galt is a better Not!France, specifically revolutionary France, all guillotines and The Terror. Absalom is another potential, in that it’s an island with a London-scale city on it.
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Feb 15, 2024 16:52
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Slaan posted:But where is Perfidious Albion in this setting. Surely there is a Perfidious Not!Albion There's not an obvious single candidate for Perfidious Albion Equivalent, unlike the situation for a lot of other countries. Absalom is the giant cosmopolitan city on an island that's vaguely like London. Taldor is the ancient empire in decline and Taldane is the setting's Literally English language. Ancient Taldor is more the ancient toga-wearing graeco-roman empire, though. Cheliax is the westernmost taldane colony who responded to the chaos of God dying with "You know what place is well organized and efficient? Hell." and so formed the assorted Hellknight orders and conquered themselves a great rear end in a top hat empire in the name of Asmodeus. Cheliax has also recently lost control of the region of Andor; Andor declared independence in the name of Freedom™ and is home to the Eagle Knights™.
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Feb 15, 2024 16:54
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Please ease off world lore chat, folks. We haven't even gotten to the game itself starting yet.
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Feb 15, 2024 16:55
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Cythereal posted:Y'all realize you voted for a bard from fantasy east Asia (all of it, jammed into a single country, as I understand it), right? When I think fantasy east asian bard, I think Wuxia. Weird martial arts that let you attack people with sound(like that one scene in Kung-Fu Hustle), insulting someone so hard they cough up blood and die on the spot, that kind of thing.
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Feb 15, 2024 18:26
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Just going to imagine the fox bard screaming like real foxes every time.
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Feb 15, 2024 18:50
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Boksi posted:When I think fantasy east asian bard, I think Wuxia. Weird martial arts that let you attack people with sound(like that one scene in Kung-Fu Hustle), insulting someone so hard they cough up blood and die on the spot, that kind of thing. Pathfinder Bards CAN set people on fire with an insult. "Blistering Invective" is such a great name for a spell.
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Feb 15, 2024 18:53
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Black Robe posted:Just going to imagine the fox bard screaming like real foxes every time. What, no lute covers of “What Does the Fox Say”?
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Feb 15, 2024 19:24
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Black Robe posted:Just going to imagine the fox bard screaming like real foxes every time. I was originally planning to make jokes about how the PC's singing goes unappreciated in this land because she practices the honored art of throat singing like her ancestors. I have decided that this is funnier to me. Traditional kitsune folk music is seldom appreciated by outsiders.
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Feb 15, 2024 21:11
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Such a pity you're not playing a Herald of the Horn Skald, then- their Horn Call ability would be a great way to reflect your growing... 'musical talent'  EDIT: Taking this excuse to post the best fox video on the Internet.
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Feb 15, 2024 21:54
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CommissarMega posted:Such a pity you're not playing a Herald of the Horn Skald, then- their Horn Call ability would be a great way to reflect your growing... 'musical talent' e: To be honest, I'm not actually sure how useful sonic damage is in the game. The mythic paths break just about everything if I remember correctly those spells are mostly debuffs. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Feb 15, 2024 |
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Feb 15, 2024 22:07
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Bard whose song repertoire is the discography of Fleet Foxes.
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Feb 16, 2024 00:14
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Vargatron posted:Bard whose song repertoire is the discography of Fleet Foxes. "I cast Haste!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRv7EjjwYBI
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Feb 16, 2024 00:59
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A Sunny Day in Kenabres Warning: this will be a crunch-intensive update.  While kitsune are native shapeshifters one and all, Wrath helpfully includes a portrait for each gender of a kitsune in their native form. This one even looks suitably bardic!  We start by choosing what our heroine's first level is in. The level cap in this game, and the assumed level cap in the tabletop, is 20. The class you start the game as does not lock you in any form, it is merely what you took your first level in. Bards have had an interesting history as a class in Dungeons and Dragons. While well known now as the traveling minstrel and entertainer class, when bards first appeared in Dungeons and Dragons they were much closer to druids in lore and scope, drawing heavily on Celtic, and especially Irish, pre-Christian religion and folklore. Originally, bards emphasized their role as lore-masters who wielded a powerful magic through song. Tolkien fans may know that in Lord of the Rings, the world was created by the gods singing the material world into being, this is the kind of thing that bards originally drew on. Less spoony, more Tom Bombadil, but that was many years and editions ago. Nowadays, bards are DnD's best-known jack of all trades class, capable of doing a bit of everything and an iconic support class. Wrath has a number of variants for every class, known variously as archetypes and kits, but I will be ignoring them and playing a traditional bard. None of the kits either do anything interesting to me, or make trade-offs that I don't think are advantageous.  Kitsune are, per stereotype from Japanese folklore, known as mischievous shape-shifting tricksters. In Pathfinder's world they hail from the region of Tian Xia, your mandatory vague mashup of China, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia that features in so many video games.  Kitsune have two racial variants. Both types enjoy a bonus to dexterity and a penalty to strength. The primary difference is whether they receive a bonus to charisma or intelligence. Bards, happily, will generally want all three of dexterity, intelligence, and charisma, and so the subraces are utterly interchangeable for my purposes. I go with vanilla by default.   Next our heroine receives a special background perk, reflecting some skills or magical knowledge or combat experience she has from her life prior to the game. In addition to a generic set, there's also a wide range of backgrounds tailored to specific regions of Pathfinder's world. I have very little idea what any of these mean and include them here for completion's sake. I'm sure one of our resident nerds can explain if anyone's interested. As we'll see, Wrath is deliberately very vague about where the PC comes from, so you're free to imagine whatever origin and background you like.  I decide that our heroine is of noble birth and spent much of her life prior to the start of the game as a courtier. The effects merit some explanation. First, if our heroine's class didn't give her Persuasion and Trickery as class skills (we'll see what that means in a minute), she'd have them regardless courtesy of her upbringing. Since our heroine does have these as class skills courtesy of being a bard, she instead gets a permanent +1 bonus to both skills. Second, if our heroine's class didn't give her proficiency (i.e. ability to use) rapiers and buckler shields, she'd have them regardless. Our heroine again does in fact have proficiency with the rapier and buckler already as a bard, so instead she'll enjoy a +1 attack bonus with rapiers and reduce any penalties from equipping a buckler by -1. I picked this background primarily for the skill bonuses. While party members can assist with skills much of the time, sometimes things will be down to just the PC and I rate Persuasion and Perception as the two most important RP skills for the protagonist. There's no background that gives a bonus to both, so I settle for Persuasion, and the bonus to Trickery will also come in handy.  Stats in this game start with a base value of 10, and we have a set pool of points to buy increases. You can see the effects of our heroine being a kitsune here: she's naturally charming and nimble, but has noodle arms. The core mechanic of this game, and any other d20 based system like Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, is the d20 in question: rolling a 20-sided dice versus a target number. Almost all the numbered bonuses and penalties you'll see in this game function by modifying that d20 roll in specific circumstances. Stats award bonuses in increments of 2: a stat of 10 or 11, for example, grants neither a bonus nor a penalty. 12-13 grants +1, 8-9 grants -1, and so on and so forth.  16 is a very good break point for the start of the game. Getting up to 18 is just too expensive if you're playing a character who gets consistent use out of multiple attributes (this is known as MAD - Multiple Attribute Dependency - and it's a curse for many classes), and bards most certainly do. For our heroine, I double down on the kitsune's natural game plan, focusing on dexterity (primarily used for making attacks with ranged weapons), intelligence (grants skill points), and charisma (governs a bard's spellcasting). You'll gain attribute points as you level up, and I'll likely dedicate all future points to dexterity. For what purpose, I'm currently undecided, either going into archery to support the team from the back ranks or picking up weapon finesse to swash buckles on the front line with a rapier.  bard.jpg Skills will come up on both the battlefield and in dialogue, and you can see one of the bard's strengths on full display here: they get every single skill in the game as a class skill. You can put one point into each skill per level, and for skills ticked for your class, they enjoy an inherent bonus. Each skill is governed by a different attribute, and you can see our heroine's attributes and background perk in action here. I will be putting points into perception and persuasion every level, and spend my other four starting skill points in each of the knowledge skills. You see, many skills are denoted as 'trained' or 'untrained' based on whether you've put a point into them or not, chiefly knowledge skills. Putting even a single point into a knowledge skill means your character genuinely knows even a little bit about the actual subject matter, rather than just relying on osmosis and hearsay. Bards, for a number of reasons, excel at knowledge checks and I give our heroine a broad base of knowledge. Very likely, I won't put another point into Religion or Nature. These two knowledge skills are governed by wisdom, not our heroine's strongest stat, and there are other skills I'd like her to develop. She'll have companions to help out with areas where she's lacking.  Feats represent a huge range of traits and abilities your character can pick up, and they range the gamut from build-defining to utterly useless. Learning feats and their prerequisites is a key part of learning how to build a character. Magical Tail here is an example of a trap choice, spending precious limited feats on gaining an assortment of magical abilities is so not worth it. This feat is exclusive to kitsune, but it is bad and whoever put it in this game should feel bad. You don't even get extra tails on your character model.  Some of the game's recommended feats are even legitimately useful. Lingering Song's usefulness won't become apparent until we actually see combat, but suffice to say that it's a huge asset to a bard's combat utility.   As a bard, our heroine also knows a bit of magic! Just two legit spells at the start of the game, but I pick up two useful ones. Cure Light Wounds is the most basic healing spell in the game and never goes amiss, while Grease will be useful for battlefield control. I'll talk about the magic system in more detail in the future, but CLW is a pretty self explanatory spell: it heals 1d8 hit points (one eight-sided die),+1 point per caster level. It can also be used to harm undead for the same value, though they can partially or fully resist its effects. Grease on the other hand is the equivalent of a giant banana peel or oil slick in a racing game, making enemies save (I'll talk about what this means later in the update) or fall flat on their rear end in an area for a period of time. Bards aren't full-tilt casters, but they get by. This is also why I made sure to give our heroine a charisma stat of 16: every casting class has a stat governing their magic, and can learn spells of a level equal to the number of points in that stat above 10. Bards, naturally, rely on charisma and so our heroine's 16 charisma means she'll be able to learn and cast up to level 6 bard spells. This is also the highest level of spells that bards can ever learn, so our heroine will have complete access to all the magic bards can do.  While the default in most polytheistic fantasy settings like this is in theory that almost everyone gives praise and worship to all the gods (or at least the good ones), Wrath like most games assumes that most people are basically devoted to just one of their choice. Per the thread's votes, our heroine is devoted to the goddess Desna. You can ignore the talk of domains and favored weapons, those are of no concern to a bard (they're mainly relevant to various divine casting classes and holy warrior sorts).  Hoo boy, I'll need to talk about alignment at some point but that day is not today. As a follower of Desna, who is Chaotic Good in alignment, our heroine needs to be within one alignment step of her: Neutral Good, Chaotic Good, or Chaotic Neutral. I pick Neutral Good, our heroine will be devoted to doing good above all else. As long as I don't slide into Lawful Good it won't be an issue.  Our heroine's appearance, which I elect to make resemble her portrait.  And because kitsune, her human appearance.  An ethnic Japanese acquaintance suggested the name Yua for our heroine, and I'm rolling with it. Birthday I picked on a whim, I don't believe it ever comes up in the game.  This is her character sheet, and there's a lot to take in here. Let's break it down.  The upper left box is largely self-explanatory, showing Yua's race, gender, alignment, attributes, class levels, and current and maximum hit points. In addition to skill checks, sometimes attributes will be directly tested on the d20 roll, so these bonuses and penalty should be kept in mind.  Our heroine's ability to kill, maim, and burn is measured here. Base attack bonus (BAB in the future) is inherent to your class, and bards start off with a clean zero. Fighters and other martial types will often start with a bonus of +1. At higher levels, as your killing power improves, many characters will learn to make multiple attacks per round which will be shown in the spaces to the right, albeit at a decreasing bonus for each successive attack. Remember, these are all about modifying the d20 roll. Because of our heroine's strength score of 9 and according -1 penalty, she has a -1 base penalty to melee attacks. This is calculated after the BAB, so in this case it's +/- 0 BAB, then -1 from STR for a total of -1. Of course, remember Yua's Courtier background - while it isn't listed here because she's assumed to be unarmed, she has a +1 bonus to melee attacks when specifically armed with a rapier, so if she can get her hands on one, she'll be back to a flat zero for melee rolls as the +1 bonus from Courtier and the -1 penalty from her noodle arms cancel each other out. On the other hand, Yua's DEX score of 16 means she enjoys a +3 bonus to ranged attacks! She'll be decently handy with a bow at the start. Combat maneuvers are a range of special attacks you can make during combat if you spend feats to learn them, like trying to knock an enemy on their rear end or disarming them. With Yua's STR penalty, she's at a penalty of -1 to initiate any combat maneuvers (not that she knows how to perform any), but she starts with a defense rating against combat maneuvers of 12. Enemies that try to perform maneuvers on Yua will need to roll a 12 or better on the d20 to pull it off - or have enough bonuses to equal 12 or better on top of whatever they did roll. Initiative represents how quick off the bat Yua is, every time combat starts every combatant rolls a d20 to see where they stand in turn order with the turn order going from highest initiative to lowest. Initiative is governed by the DEX stat, so Yua has +3 to her initiative roll (and now you know what the thread title means!). Spell Resistance denotes one's ability to resist incoming hostile magic. Yua doesn't have any resistance to magic at the moment.  Defense is the flip side of the coin. Armor Class, or AC, is a collective measure of how hard a character is to land a solid hit on, whether that means dodging out of the way or taking the hit harmlessly on the armor. Right now the game assumes that Yua is unarmored, so while the default AC is 10, Yua's native dexterity helps again by giving her a default AC of 13 - 10 base +3 from her DEX. Enemy attacks, between their roll and their bonus if any, will need to equal or exceed 13 to hit her. Flat-Footed is a special circumstance triggered by certain effects, mainly enemies striking by surprise or a character being distracted. Generally, being flat-footed denies a character's dexterity bonus to their AC, which is why Yua has the default AC of 10 when she's flat-footed. Touch is the opposite, there are some attacks that merely need to touch you to work and don't give a drat about armor. Only avoiding physical contact can help, and so Yua's back to her AC of 13 against touch attacks since the game is currently assuming she's unarmored. Fortitude is Yua's first saving throw, a d20 roll made against a wide variety of magical and mundane spells and effects. Fortitude represents one's ability to shrug it off through sheer inherent toughness - this is most iconically poison and disease to give you an idea of what this save represents. All saving throws progress differently based on different classes, bards don't grant any bonus to fortitude saves at level 1 but Yua's got some heart under her fur and so enjoys a +1 bonus to her fortitude save. Reflex saves are mainly called for dodging out of the way of things that aren't targeted attacks, think dodging a trap that your incompetent rogue didn't catch. Bards have a good reflex save progression and Yua's a nimble fox to boot so she's pretty good at this save from the start. Will saves represent strength of mind and discipline to endure and shrug off effects that would mess with the mind, like enchantment magic. Bards also have a good will save, and Yua has a small bonus to wisdom, so she does okay with this save. Speed represents how fast a character can move per round, 30 feet is the default.  Special abilities represent a grab-bag of perks. Coup de Grace is a special attack any character can make against a helpless opponent (generally this means disabled by magic or special attacks) in an effort to summarily dispatch them. It tends to hurt, but does render one vulnerable to any other enemies nearby. Treat Affliction lets a character try to cure poison or disease or similar effects if they have a medical kit item in their inventory. You'll generally be using magic for this instead. Demoralize (Persuasion) lets you spend an action trying to scare enemies to debuff them. Forget this exists unless you're on the Trickster mythic path. Tricksters can turn this from a useless curiosity to a map-clearing superweapon. Change Shape lets Yua shift between furry and human forms at will. Right now, all this really means is that when in fox form, Yua will have an extra attack when unarmed that lets her bite people. Fighting defensively is a toggle characters can make to gain a bonus to their armor class in exchange for a penalty to their attack bonus. Acrobatics lets a character slow their movement speed in exchange for immunity to certain forms of attack. I'll cover this in more detail later in the LP. Inspire Rage isn't likely to be useful, some classes can drive their allies voluntarily berserk and this lets you choose whether you want a character to go bananas when that happens. Inspire Courage, on the other hand, is one of the bard's signature moves: this is what lets Yua buff the party on command, starting with a +1 bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, and to saving throws against fear and charm effects. Bard Proficiencies are Yua's familiarity with weapons and armor at the start of the game, and ability to use them without penalty. As a bard, Yua can use all simple weapons - think basic stuff like daggers, staves, and slings - along with shortswords, longswords, rapiers, and shortbows, and buckler and regular size shields. Bards can also cast magic while wearing light armor without penalty. Cantrips are a set of level 0 spells that Yua can cast as many times as she wants without pause. They're also all pretty useless so I'll probably never mention them again. Bardic Knowledge gives Yua a bonus of half her bard levels (minimum of 1) to all her Knowledge and Lore skill checks, and in the event I hadn't put a point into each, Bardic Knowledge also lets a bard treat all Knowledge and Lore skills as trained even if you don't have any points in them at all. This is a helpful bonus that will just keep getting better.  Skills shows all of Yua's skills and total ranks and bonuses/penalties.  If a character is a caster, the number of spells they have is shown here. Yua has an unlimited number of level 0 cantrips at her disposal, and can cast 2 level 1 spells per day.  Right now Yua's martial qualities are as explained above, but things can and probably will get more involved later.  The last new window here is the Traits box. Kitsune Magic gives Yua a +1 bonus to the difficulty check (we'll talk about this later, in brief it's how hard a spell is to resist) of any enchantment spell she casts, and because she's a regular kitsune with a charisma score of 11 or more, she can cast the Light spell as an inherent magical ability three times per day - redundant with Light in a bard's limitless cantrips in this case. Keen Senses gives Yua a +2 bonus to her Perception checks simply for being a kitsune (dwarves, elves, gnomes, half-elves, halflings, and oreads also get this). Agile gives Yua a +2 bonus to her Mobility checks for being a kitsune. Change Shape is, again, her inherent ability to shift between fox and human forms. So... got all that? I'm experienced with this kind of system so I can read sheets like this with ease, but please let me know if anyone has questions!With that, we are ready to start the game at last. Beats watching a 15 minute unskippable cutscene before you get to gameplay as far as I'm concerned.  We begin in media res, at a festival in the city of Kenabres.  With our heroine being carried in on a stretcher.   "My, my, would you look at this? But why would you drag a wounded fighter into the middle of the festival square? Couldn't she be carted off somewhere else, like... oh I don't know... an infirmary? Or an accommodating ditch?"We'll get to know everyone with a portrait later. For now, don't worry about who is who.   "Demons, Prelate! We found her barely alive outside the walls of Kenabres!" "The walls, you say? The enemy doesn't usually stray so close to the city. We must fortify the defenses... And you — hold fast, don't die, we'll see you right! We'll get you patched up now. But first — you there, guard, take her weapons: bearing arms is not permitted during the festival. Wounded or not, everyone must abide by the rules. She can get her things back after the festival."For those who haven't read one of my LPs before, dialogue with a character portrait is in-game dialogue. In this game, I'll use smilies to represent NPCs not important enough to be given portraits in the game. Dialogue you see like this is added by me. When preceded by a portrait, that's me writing fanfic dialogue.   "I won't give up that easily..." "Hear, hear! That's the crusader spirit! Hmmm... My powers are not enough here. Someone, call for Terendelev! You there! Yes, you - stop dithering and gawping and make yourself useful - go and get Terendelev!" "Prelate." (The lady raises her head in an affectation of surprise.) "Surely there is somebody else here better suited to running errands." "I'll get her. Terendelev! Has anyone seen Terendelev?"Bear in mind the talk of demons, and that Hulrun was pictured casting Restoration here. Kenabres is a city on the edge of what is known as the Worldwound: a region home to a permanent portal to the Abyss, the extraplanar home realm of demons. Demons, and the Abyss's corruption, seep out of the Worldwound and the surrounding regions, including the city of Kenabres, are heavily militarized. If you're familiar with Warhammer Fantasy, we're pretty much in the city of Praag looking the Chaos Wastes in the eye.  "I'm a crusader. I came to fight demons." "Oh, Iomedae save me from green recruits... They come without planning, without preparation, and they die before they even see their first real battle. I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the utter waste of it all!"This exchange is the closest Wrath will get for a very long time regarding the PC's backstory and motives. For one reason or another, you happened to be in the city of Kenabres, were attacked by demons during the festival, and were brought here like this. All of these options are treated as equally valid, including going straight for the amnesia plot, but I elect to establish that Yua came here intentionally to join the battle against the demons. There's been four crusades against the Worldwound to date. As you might surmise, they haven't gone well.  "Hmph! All right, as you wish. You are our protector, and a dragon at that, so I shall defer to your wisdom. But be on your guard: I've been informed she was wounded near Kenabres — that means the demons are prowling just outside the walls. And the city is crawling with their spies! Others may be able to relax on this holiday, but not you or I — not the defenders of the city!" (Muttering discontentedly, the old man walks off.) (A beautiful silver-haired woman leans over you. She seems ageless, her face wholly unlined, but centuries-old sadness gleams in her eyes.) "Pry loose the grudging grip of pain. Cast off the veil of suffering flesh. Let light and life go forth in triumph to repel the skulking shade of death." (The longer she speaks, the stronger her voice becomes.) "There." Thank you for helping me. "I accept your thanks. But my work is not yet done." What happened to me? "I do not know yet, and that troubles me. I am not entirely sure what the demons did to you. This wound is no ordinary injury, and it was inflicted by no ordinary weapon. I have rid you of your pain and restored your strength, but only time will allow you to heal fully." Can I go? "Certainly, but be careful. I am not entirely sure what the demons did to you. This wound is no ordinary injury, and it was inflicted by no ordinary weapon. I have managed to get you back on your feet — but I have not healed you fully. Alas, sooner or later your pain will return. But do not be discouraged. You will recover, I promise you that. Tomorrow, come to the cathedral and say that you are expected by Terendelev, protector of Kenabres. We will find a way to help you. But for now, put this out of your mind and enjoy the festival — they are all too rare in this time of war, and merriment is one of the best medicines." Well, she wasn't wrong about that. Though if you want to know the real story of the Fifth Crusade and my part in things, excessive and poorly timed merriment played an important part in why a kitsune from Tian Xia was in Kenabres at all. At the time, though, I was just happy my lord had settled for exile rather than execution like the law decreed. Now I'm free to run around, but there's not a lot to do. This is mostly a standard isometric RPG, though it is a fully 3D world and you can rotate the camera around. Circle symbols with a hand like you can see next to our heroine represent places where you can interact with the environment.  In this case, playing darts.  The shift key highlights all interactable objects and NPCs. None of the NPCs, named or otherwise, have anything to say beyond brushing you off, so nothing to do but click on the second interaction.  And having a free drink!  Then the screen shakes and swarms of insects appear.  Demons appear and attack while a voice booms out.  Terendelev is on the scene and takes a few out with high level magic...   As best I recall, I think that at this moment I was shouting language that would get you thrown out of any reputable bordello in Tian Xia.    And now you know why Terendelev didn't get a portrait.  "What's the situation in the city?" "Who knows! Everything's on fire, crashin' down around our ears, the place is crawling with demons... Looks like a whole army attacked the city. We're sitting ducks!" "Care to lend me a weapon? I'll try to fight the demons." "Sure thing! Here, take this." (The halfling holds out the crossbow.) "Best crossbow I've got! The person who made it said it could pierce the hide of a demon lord, even! Good luck! Try not to get eaten now..." (The halfling's words are drowned out by a terrible rumbling and the rustling of countless tiny wings.) Insane? Yeah, probably, but I'd pretty well figured I was going to die so might as well go out with my boots on.   Fun fact: one ending to the game requires attacking Deskari right here, right now.      So, to recap, after being exiled from home I'd drifted across Golarion until I heard about the crusade against the Worldwound and thought it sounded like a good cause. I didn't even make it into Kenabres when I was set upon by demons, maimed within an inch of my life, wounded by a weapon a dragon couldn't recognize or fully heal, had a drink, was at the center of a massive demonic invasion, pissed off a demon lord of the Abyss, and got sent tumbling off a cliff that wasn't there thirty seconds ago. You sure you want me to keep telling this story? Fine, but there's a saying in Golarion: start as you mean to go on. In hindsight, my time with the Fifth Crusade certainly was that.New Glossary Terms AC: Armor Class, the number to beat on a modified d20 roll to hit someone. MAD: Multiple Attribute Dependency, a class or system that benefits from 3 or more high attribute scores to be effective. Saving Throw: A set of three bonuses to the d20 roll to resist certain effects and attacks. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Feb 17, 2024 |
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Feb 16, 2024 01:22
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Man, a lot of build up for such a short game. Anyway, thanks for the LP!
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Feb 16, 2024 01:45
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This is such a cool opening. There's also one slightly spoiler-y detail that's super easy to overlook in your first playthrough, but becomes more noticeable on replay. Kitsune bard is a great choice for main character, though crossblooded sorcerer would have been cool, too. I'll definitely be following this LP.
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Feb 16, 2024 01:48
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Hello silver dragon, lordly protector of the city Goodbye, silver dragon, lordly protector of the city
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Feb 16, 2024 01:53
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Definitely a strong way of setting the stakes, I'll give it that.
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Feb 16, 2024 02:14
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So what happens if you attack right away?
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Feb 16, 2024 02:28
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Quackles posted:So what happens if you attack right away? Same thing that I showed. The only thing that matters is whether you attack or try to run.
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Feb 16, 2024 02:29
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Assuming you're not aiming for that one ending, the only real difference here is whether you get a free Light Crossbow (if you choose to attack), or your helpful friend casting False Life on you (if you want to flee) before you still get dumped down the hole. The second one can actually be surprisingly helpful depending on just what class and level of difficulty you're playing on, given it's a huge HP increase for a 1st level character that lasts a non-negligible amount of time. Unless you're like playing a melee class on Unfair (already a dubious choice) though, it really doesn't matter.Cythereal posted:
They're mainly just references to what the general theme of each region is. So it's an Osirian Explorer because that's the not!Egypt place so there are a bunch of historians coming in studying the ancient pyramids and the like. Ustalov is basically Warhammer's Sylvania (I'd say Transylvania, but honestly I don't recall books referencing that making life there quite as bad), so everyone's either Vampire aristocracy (or some other horror monster), in their pocket, or a dirty peasant. Mendev is where we currently are, and for some strange reason the country on the frontline of the war against the demons has a lot of orphans. Etc, etc. I can go through them all if someone really wants, but practically none of them are remotely relevant to the campaign so it's, as Cythereal mentioned, mostly RP flavor unless you really need a particular skill. The bonuses for already having something can be somewhat useful very early game, but the ones for skills and weapons (competence and ennhancement) are ones you'll come across in the game as well - and they don't stack (enhancement is on literally every magical weapon as its numerical bonus, and competence bonuses to skills will just occasionally show up on items... and ironically Bard can actually hand that bonus out too). Armor check penalty reduction technically does stack, but that's so irrelevant it's not even worth talking about.
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Feb 16, 2024 04:13
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quote:Fun fact: one ending to the game requires attacking Deskari right here, right now. Oh, you meant reaching one specific ending. Not, attacking him ends the game right there.
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Feb 16, 2024 08:06
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Actually, Demoralizing is quite useful as it gives decent penalties on enemies.
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Feb 16, 2024 08:16
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Azata Yua And The Hopefully Last Crusade, Or, Why Are We Here Anyway? Once upon a time, there was a god named Aroden.  Pictured: Aroden being Aroden He was basically the last of the High Azlanti people (basically superhuman Atlanteans); when Azlant sank, he was basically the one person keeping its traditions and knowledge alive. In doing he became the god of humanity, as practically all modern Pathfinder humans descend from Azlanti, and all Azlanti revered Aroden. Of course, the fact that he also went around Arodoing hero stuff and generally helping out a post-apocalyptic society certainly helped.  Some of said hero stuff. Anyone here look familiar? Still, as godly duties became more and more important to him, he grew ever more distant (sometimes with disastrous results), but he did prophesize that one day he'll return for good and secure a golden age for all humanity. Since all prophecies up to that point had proven 100% accurate, people took it in stride and eagerly awaited Aroden coming back from buying milk and cigarettes.  WELP On the day of Aroden's return in the year 4606, all his clergy lost access to their magic- and the only way that could happen is if their patron god had died. Not exiled to the Outer Planes, not losing track of time while playing celestial Warcraft with the Unconquered Sun- no, I'm talking dead dead. Capital D-E-D dead. We're at Parrot Sketch levels here, that's how turbokilled Aroden was. Thus began the Age of Lost Omens, because hey, while we're at it, his death also broke all divine mechanisms of prophecy and rendered them useless. Divination magic still kinda worked (which is why we still have it as a spell school), but a whole lotta naive farm boys would end up meeting Pharasma because some doddering old twit was really sure this kid had what it took. Oh, and there's also the minor matter of a god's death causing enough of a metaphysical disturbance that it was possible to open a gate from Golarion to the Outer Rifts where demons dwelled. Yeah, probably should've mentioned that earlier.  One of them might even bear a bit of a grudge! The first Mendevian Crusade took place in 4622, 16 years after the rift opened in the wilderness of Sarkoris, because even in the face of demonic world conquest, paperwork needed to be done. To be fair though, fighting demons does require a lot of divine magic, and one of the biggest names in divinity had just carked it- even Erastil's clerics don't generally grow on trees. Still, things turned out relatively well, and while the first crusaders didn't fully push back Deskari and his forces, they still managed to gain a significant foothold, and everyone expected to be back by Candlemark. Unfortunately for the crusaders, the reason for their success was because they were at the point in the manga/anime where the bad guy smirks, says "At last, I can show you 100% of my true power," and then throws down a jacket laden with rocks.  You know, this bit. The next few crusades were a shitshow, to be honest. The second Crusade managed to shore up the defences at least with massive constructs called Wardstones, but the third collapsed when everyone decided to go full 40K and accuse everyone else of heresy- and considering Deskari had by this time recruited a lot of succubi and incubi, some of these accusations were even accurate! The Fourth Crusade ended in a stalemate, with the demons kinda-sorta pushed back but the crusaders too battered to push the advantage.  Artist's impression of the Third Crusade. And so here we are in the Fifth Crusade, almost a hundred years after Aroden kicked it, all our hopes apparently riding on a single fuzzball with a... unique singing voice and hopefully good personal hygiene (seriously, read up on how bad foxes stink, it's wonderful). It's a beautiful dream, at least. CommissarMega fucked around with this message at 08:56 on Feb 16, 2024 |
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Feb 16, 2024 08:44
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