Character Creation

[Penchant]

3 minutes ago, Steel Warrior said:

I see @Penchant is up to mischief again ;)
It's been a while since I was in one of his games. For the life of me, I can't remember what I played last.

Oh, people have already been picked. Guess I'll see myself out lol. Advertisement said March 29th.

No this is a re-recruitment. We lost a player. Drop an app.

Edited March 25 by Penchant (see edit history)

[Steel Warrior]

Just now, Penchant said:

No this is a recruitment. Drop an app.

Oh ok lol. Sorry for misunderstanding! Cool.

[relekorlagunis]

5 hours ago, namo said:

Heya, I'm one of the players who pushed for Spheres - and the only one with a Sphere build currently. (mostly Astrologian Scholar, FYI, focused on Sniper and Divination/Light with long-running buffs)
I'm not an expert with Veilweaving, but I've seen it mentioned a bunch of times with the "poor balance" qualifier, plus it draws in another 3rd party subsystem (Akasha) with which Penchant is not familiar either... I'd recommend going for something more straightforward. This is not a full-on Spheres / 3rd party game.

 

I am keeping my Veilweaving abilities focused on Spheres-related material. I'll be breaking it all down for Penchant in my application, but basically I've gained two abilities via Veilweaving: the ability to use Ghost Strikes as a melee weapon, including AoOs, and the ability to summon a variety of weapons (and the weapons are mostly a backup option and a way to do nonlethal damage). At the moment, I don't think I've gone too complex or powerful, but obviously the GM will be the judge of that.

[Thramzorean]

5 hours ago, namo said:

Haha, she heals you by interpreting your horoscope, I don't see what's dodgy about it. 😂

"If it doesn't come out of a hypodermic needle, it's suspect." Aetherian technocrat.

Though in truth Marshal's going to run out of talents (as usual). Always wanted to see if I could get a fancy steampunky launching crossbow working and it's chewing them up.

Edited March 25 by Thramzorean (see edit history)

[Steel Warrior]

@Penchant Does the Automatic Bonus progression stack with the level 4 and 8 ability score increases?

Edited March 26 by Steel Warrior (see edit history)

[Penchant]

16 minutes ago, Steel Warrior said:

@Penchant Does the Automatic Bonus progression stack with the level 4 and 8 ability score increases?

Yes it does 😁

[Steel Warrior]

15 minutes ago, Penchant said:

Yes it does 😁

Thanks. I am actually thinking of going a weird route. A Painted Savage barbarian.
The question I have regarding that, the archetype doesn't actually say I get the Combat Stamina feat, but I need it for my Mystic Tattoos and rage powers. I assume that I actually do get it?

Edited March 26 by Steel Warrior (see edit history)

[relekorlagunis]

2 minutes ago, Steel Warrior said:

Thanks. I am actually thinking of going a weird route. A Painted Savage barbarian.
The question I have regarding that, the archetype doesn't actually say I get the stamina pool feat, but I need it for my Mystic Tattoos and rage powers. I assume that I actually do get it?

The Enduring Temper ability gives Combat Stamina as a bonus feat. Big fan of Painted Barbarian as an alternative to traditional rage.

[Steel Warrior]

10 hours ago, relekorlagunis said:

The Enduring Temper ability gives Combat Stamina as a bonus feat. Big fan of Painted Barbarian as an alternative to traditional rage.

Doh, lol I guess I missed it. Thanks!

Another question.

Rage Powers (Ex): A painted savage may spend 2 stamina points from her stamina pool when under the effect of mystical tattoos. This allows the painted savage to be treated as if under the effects of a rage, though she gains none of the other benefits or drawbacks of raging. This effect lasts for the remaining duration of the mystical tattoos effect. New instances of mystical tattoos will require additional stamina to be spent. Rage powers that require additional rage rounds may instead use 5 points from her stamina pool per required rage round. In addition, whenever the painted savage would gain a rage power from her class levels, she may instead gain a bonus talent from the Berserker sphere.

This modifies rage powers.

If I take talents from the Berserker sphere. They are flat talents in place of a rage power correct? I have full access to them at all times, not when I am using my Mystical tattoos.

 

Rock Toss equipment talent

You can hurl the rock as a thrown weapon with a range increment of 10 ft. +10 per size category it is smaller than you. Tiny rocks deal 1d6 bludgeoning damage, Small 1d8, Medium 2d6, and Large 3d6. As long as you have martial focus and a suitable rock is within your reach, you may pick them up as part of your attack. At +7 and +14 base attack bonus, increase the maximum size rock you may throw by one size category, to a maximum equal to your current size.

My character will have Crushing Thrower (equipment), Oversized Weapons (equipment), Giant (brute), Terrain Thrasher (brute) and Titan (brute)
With Titan I will be treated as one size larger, then oversized weapons allows me to increase it again.

Now Titan combined with Oversized weapons changes it completely.
If you possess the Oversized Weapons legendary talent from the Equipment sphere, you may wield weapons of any size without increasing the effort required (i.e., you do not increase the weapon’s category by 1 step from light to one-handed, one-handed to two-handed, etc.), though you still suffer a -2 penalty on attack rolls for each size category the weapon is larger than you.

If my assumption is correct. At BAB +7 3d6 (large), Overisized Weapon 4d6 (huge), Titan 6d6 (Gargantuan), Expend Martial Focus 8d6 (Colossal) or take a -2 penalty (for larger than you) 8d6.
If I expend my martial focus, and also take the -2 penalty would it increase to 12d6 (Colossal+)?

Titan's base ability increases my carrying capacity x10. A light load is 1,730 lbs. with a Strength of 22. If I use my Mystic Tattooes are talking about a 30 strength jumping that up to 5,320 lbs.light load.

The main thing is. Throwing distance. If I am launching a Gargantuan boulder, is it a range increment of 10, since it says, 10+ per size category smaller.
I may use a belt of mighty hurling, but we are looking at 14k. If I remove the +2 Strength enhancement from it, would it drop the cost to 10k?

In regards to the automatic bonus for weapon attunement. Can I apply these to Gloves of Improvised Might? +1 Distance.
Finally if allowed, would it be increment base 10' doubled for 20 (distance), and then The mighty belt of hurling +10 for 30'
or would it be 40', Base 10 + 10' Hurling, then distance 20'x2.
 

Edited March 26 by Steel Warrior (see edit history)

[Toptomcat]

How impressive are 10th-level characters in this setting? Is the average sheriff's deputy in a one-horse town a 1st-level Warrior, a 1st-level Fighter (Trench Fighter), a 4th-level Gunslinger (Gunfighter)? Are we the best in a town, a city, some of the fastest guns to ever roam the Wastes?

On a related note, how harsh are the Wastes, and how powerful the mutants and killer machines that roam it? Is it more of a 'badlands with mean predators, raiding tribes and magitech ruins that are dangerous to those who fuck with 'em but mostly benign otherwise' kind of thing, or closer to the unholy love child of Athas, Fallout and Attack on Titan?

Expand on the laws of the Empire: are we expected to serve as hitmen for the Horologian Orthodoxy or anything else that would be grossly out of line with the 1850s-American roots of the genre?

Was the War of Reconciliation six centuries ago the same war that scarred the surface, obliterated the unnamed Precursors, and consolidated the power of the Horologian church and Aetherian state? Or was that much longer ago? What would the average bright, well-educated person know about the Precursors?

Edited March 26 by Toptomcat (see edit history)

[Penchant]

10th level is pretty impressive. You're the best fighters in the town that you've been assigned to. A deputy would be 2nd to 4th level depending. The badguys are much better though. The worst Outlaws tend to be close to your level on account of all the murdering they do with some few at or above level. It gets worse when they are also monstrous like the undead or mutants.

 

The wastes are pretty deadly. People who know the wastes can survive by knowing whats dangerous and to avoid it. They keep moving or work in large numbers like the packs of Gnolls that survive out there. It gets more dangerous when you get closer to the ruins because you're more likely to run into stuff and there are environmental hazards like poisoned air. There is a lot of Fallout influence out there :)

 

Marshals don't serve as hitmen. They have special divisions for that. Your characters can expect to uphold basic laws of good and decency. The Empire has two sides to it, benevolent and malign. The closer you get to the top, the worse it gets.

 

The precursors were destroyed at least a thousand years ago, so everything was in ruins when the War happened. What was known was lost as the Empire took hold, though it's likely some people in the Empire know more than they are sharing. What scholars know is that the precursors had more advanced technology than current day (equivalent to 1950's America) and that some of it is magical enough to have survived, but is too advanced to yet be replicated by the 1800s level of technology that exists. The empire has more advanced stuff based upon the research that relics provide, like semi automatic weapons but they still arent at the level that a relic is. The language is lost but there are lexicons of text and such that a smart person can use linguistics to decipher meanings of found text but it's still heiroglyphics without a rosetta stone at this point.

 

These are good questions. Thank you for engaging with the setting :)

 

 

 

[Thramzorean]

What Lore should we use to be familiar with the old ruins/civilization please Penchant? I’m wanting to work a bit of antiquarian hunter into Marshal’s background. Well, tech recoverer might be more apt :)

[Penchant]

Iassume you mean what skills you need? Knowledge History would be valid. Knowledge Dungeoneering would be good too. Knowledge Arcane of course. You could also do a Profession: Relic Hunter for less broad applications of a number of skills.

[Penchant]

Hey, I'm going to close apps by end of day tomorrow. If you're waiting to start an app, go ahead and drop your best idea. I don't need all the 'i's dotted and 't's crossed, but I do need to know what you're bringing to the table.

[Thramzorean]

48 minutes ago, Penchant said:

Iassume you mean what skills you need? Knowledge History would be valid. Knowledge Dungeoneering would be good too. Knowledge Arcane of course. You could also do a Profession: Relic Hunter for less broad applications of a number of skills.

Actually I specifically wanted Lore. I'd guessed Knowledge History would do, but that's a bit broad, a scholarly thing, rather than Lore for a background skill which would be more of the hobby feel I'd want. That's being overly pedantic though and I've just bunged something into the character sheet already regardless. Just about wrapped up by the way. I've another piece of storyline I want to do and add a few more alchemical minor items but the guts is there.