General Tips

1. This is a one-shot adventure, taking place over the course of a couple of hours (if the PCs are on fire) to a couple days in in-game time. Leveling is not going to happen (we're playing without experience points) and your character must to be functional at play (if your build requires eight levels to get going, you'll be wasting your time). 5th-level.
2. Building off the previous point, crafting and downtime won't be of much use during this adventure, since it's time sensitive. This does not mean that your character submission will be rejected if you take a Craft feat, just that it's not very likely you'll get to use it.
3. This is a Pathfinder 1e game I'm running in the Greyhawk Campaign Setting;

Creating Characters

• Make a Character Thread and Fill Out A Character Sheet.

• Bards: Bards are banned and forever more referenced as b*rds. This is not a joke.

• Wealth-by-Level: Main Player Characters, get Wealth by Level, according to their level. Crafting and various Downtime mechanics may not be used to accentuate Wealth-by-Level; that is, if your character's gear and available items were to be audited, they should equal the wbl entry.

  • You can designate a certain portion of your wealth as a sort of vague, abstract and undefined pool of expensive materials that your character draws from. If your character needs 100gp of diamond dust for a spell, they subtract it from their 5,000gp pool. 

  • An adventurer’s primary source of income is treasure, and his primary purchases are tools and items he needs to continue adventuring—spell components, weapons, magic items, potions, and the like. Yet what about things like food? Rent? Taxes? Bribes? Idle purchases? You can certainly handle these minor expenditures in detail during play, but tracking every time a PC pays for a room, buys water, or pays a gate tax can swiftly become obnoxious and tiresome. If you’re not really into tracking these minor costs of living, you can choose to simply ignore these small payments. A more realistic and easier-to-use method is to have PCs pay a recurring cost of living tax. At the start of every game month, a PC must pay an amount of gold equal to the lifestyle bracket he wishes to live in—if he can’t afford his desired bracket, he drops down to the first one he can afford.

    • Destitute (0 gp/month): The PC is homeless and lives in the wilderness or on the streets. A destitute character must track every purchase, and may need to resort to Survival checks or theft to feed himself.
      
      Poor (3 gp/month): The PC lives in common rooms of taverns, with his parents, or in some other communal situation—this is the lifestyle of most untrained laborers and commoners. He need not track purchases of meals or taxes that cost 1 sp or less.
      
      Average (10 gp/month): The PC lives in his own apartment, small house, or similar location—this is the lifestyle of most trained or skilled experts or warriors. He can secure any nonmagical item worth 1 gp or less from his home in 1d10 minutes, and need not track purchases of common meals or taxes that cost 1 gp or less.
      
      Wealthy (100 gp/month): The PC has a sizable home or a nice suite of rooms in a fine inn. He can secure any nonmagical item worth 5 gp or less from his belongings in his home in 1d10 minutes, and need only track purchases of meals or taxes in excess of 10 gp.
      
      Extravagant (1,000 gp/month): The PC lives in a mansion, castle, or other extravagant home—he might even own the building in question. This is the lifestyle of most aristocrats. He can secure any nonmagical item worth 25 gp or less from his belongings in his home in 1d10 minutes. He need only track purchases of meals or taxes in excess of 100 gp.

• Ability Score Generation: To generate ability scores, roll 7 4d6, dropping a d6 and one set of 4d6 until you get something you like or do a 20-point buy.

• Hero Points: Hero Points are awarded, like and instead of Experience Points, to be used by characters to effect the game. No Hero Points are awarded at character creation, they're only awarded.
• Ability Score Increases: Every four levels, Main Player Characters can increase one ability score by +2 or two ability scores by +1.
• Hit Points: At first level, your character has maximum hit points. At ever subsequent level, choose between either taking half of your hit dice or rolling for it and modifying it as usual (if your character has 16 Constitution and d8s as hit dice, they could roll a d8 and add 3 or take a four (4) and add 3. Once the choice is made, it cannot be undone. Constitution Modifiers are Retroactive.
• Feat Progression: Pay Attention
  • First, you gain one feat at every other level starting at 1st-level.
  • Second, you gain one bonus feat for every four levels you take in a base class.
  • Third and finally, at 1st-level, you gain one bonus Regional Feat from the Greyhawk Campaign Setting. These Regional Feats can be sourced here. They may not be retrained. Your character must qualify for the Feat.
• Elephant in the Room: 'Mathew' of MichaelIantorno.com's 'Elephant in the Room' Rules are in effect.
• Traits & Flaws Drawbacks: Up to two of each , taken at 1st Level. A Drawback allows the taking of another Trait. Dragon Magazine content is preferred over those in Unearthed Arcana.
• Skills: We're making use of the Consolidated Skills.
  • Knowledge has been tweaked a little:

    • Common Uses: For any General Knowledge Check that does not reference the Knowledge Skill DC’s Table, for every five points above a DC 15, ask a question of the DM, which they will answer honestly, within reason. You must ask a question. Simply rolling a bunch of dice is not going to cut it.

    • Monster Lore: A successful check allows you to remember a bit of useful information about that monster ask a question of the DM, which they will answer honestly, within reason. For every 5 points by which your check result exceeds the DC, you recall another piece of useful information ask a question of the DM, which they will answer honestly, within reason.

    • 10 Ranks: When you successfully identify a creature, you gain a +1 competence bonus on attack rolls, opposed ability checks, skill checks, and caster level checks against creatures of that kind (e.g., glabrezu demons, but not other demons or evil outsiders) for 1 minute. This bonus increases by 1 for every 5 ranks beyond 10 you possess in that Knowledge skill.

    • Knowledge Devotion: Whenever you fight a creature, you can make a Knowledge check based on its type, provided that you have at least one rank in the appropriate Knowledge skill. You then receive an insight bonus on rolls, checks and saves against that creature type for the remainder of the combat. The amount of the bonus depends on your Knowledge check result (. The character can make only one Knowledge check per creature type per combat. If the character fights creatures of multiple types during the same combat, they can make one Knowledge check per type, thereby possibly gaining different bonuses against different opponents. For every five points by which they exceed the result, the character can share these bonuses with one (1) other character. This benefit is an extraordinary ability.

      • Check Result	Bonus Granted
        15 or below	+1
        16—25	+2
        26—30	+3
        31—35	+4
        36 or higher	+5

  • • Diplomacy, a creature can use their HD in place of their Charisma modifier, whichever is more beneficial.

Gentle Reminders

• Stacking Modifiers: In most cases, modifiers to a given check or roll stack (combine for a cumulative effect) if they come from different sources and have different types (or no type at all), but do not stack if they have the same type or come from the same source (such as the same spell cast twice in succession). If the modifiers to a particular roll do not stack, only the best bonus and worst penalty applies. Dodge bonuses and circumstance bonuses however, do stack with one another unless otherwise specified. The breaking of this rule with the same ability score modifier has to be one of the ones that sends me from 0 to 100 the fastest. Do not attempt to stack Wisdom or Charisma on the same roll more than once on the same mechanic. Do not do it.

• Detect Magic: Detect Magic and similar 'Detect' spells are purely a result based divination without any sensory component. You have to get to Arcane Sight to get the visual, sensory input.

• Invisible Light: Light, that is electromagnetic radiation, especially within the visible range, or the lack thereof, cannot be made invisible. Period.
• Rough Vision Limits:
  • Mountains can be seen from great distances, 60 to 100 miles or more, yet virtually no detail can be seen.
  • On level ground, the horizon is about 5 to 12 miles away, but a character usually cannot see a specific object that far away. The limit of vision for seeing and identifying man-sized objects is much less than this.
  • Under optimum conditions, the maximum range at which a man-sized object can be seen is about 1,500 yards, or 4500 feet if it is moving. If the object doesn't move, it usually cannot be seen at this distance. Even if it is moving, all that can be seen is a moving object. The character cannot tell what it is or what it is doing.
  • At 1,000 yards, or 3000 ft., both moving and stationary man-sized objects can be spotted. General size and shape can be determined, but exact identifications are impossible. It is not likely that creature type can be identified at this range, unless the creature has a very unique shape.
  • At 500 yards, or 1500 ft., general identifications can be made. Size, shape, color, and creature type are all distinguishable. Individuals still cannot be identified, unless they are distinctively dressed or separated from the rest of the group. Livery and heraldic symbols or banners can be seen if large and bold. Most coats of arms cannot be distinguished at this distance. General actions can be ascertained with confidence.
  • At 100 yards, or 300 ft. individuals can be identified (unless, of course, their features are concealed). Coats of arms are clear. Most actions are easily seen, although small events are unclear.
  • At 10 yards, or 30 ft., all details but the smallest are clear. Emotions and actions are easily seen, including such small actions as pick-pocketing (if it is detectable).
• Rough Hearing Limits:
  • Under normal conditions, hearing range is a 120 foot spread (i.e., it can turn corners and so forth). This is the range at which a single bard can be heard sufficiently well to affect a target with one of their bardic music uses or effects unless other ranges are indicated.
  • The spread can make its way through solid items (such as doors and walls) at a cost of 10 "feet" per point of Hardness possessed by the item.
  • Areas of silence as though they were impenetrable walls of force for determining the reach of the spread.
  • Each additional musician beyond the first, or playing or shouting loudly, increases the range of the spread by 40 feet (while not strictly correct physically, it is the "closest fit" for groups of fewer than 8 musicians).
  • A musician, singer or speaker may always choose to play more softly and decrease the hearing range. Thus a whisper can only be heard in adjacent squares.
  • It is possible to hear the music that a musician is playing outside of this range; it is simply too indistinct to allow the effects of the mystic music to be effective. Anyone attempting to perceive that the musician is playing who is outside of the "hearing range" must succeed at a Listen check (DC 15 + 1 for every 10 feet between the subject and the hearing range). For example, in normal conditions, a character 200 feet away from a musician who attempts to Listen to see if the musician is playing must succeed at a Listen check against DC 23 (he is 80 feet outside of the hearing range of 120 feet, so the DC is 15+8).
  • Some effects are only effective within a certain range (usually this range is shorter than hearing range). If conditions would reduce hearing range to less than the designated range, use the hearing range value instead. This gives the range at which the effect can work and is not adjusted for conditions except as already noted (i.e., when hearing range is so drastically reduced by conditions that it is shorter than the listed value).

    • Audible Ranges:

      In order to even hear that someone is yelling requires for the listener to be within these ranges. To actually understand, requires them to be in the next best range (within conversation range to understand yelling and within whispering range to have a conversation and to eavesdrop on whispering, requires one to be within ten feet or a Perception Check).

      Trying to be Quiet (Whispering): 2d6 x 5 ft.

      Normal Noise (Conversation): 2d6 x 10 ft.

      Very Loud (Yelling): 2d6 x 50 ft.