Campaign Traits

[Guisewhy]

Harrowed City Campaign Traits

As stated in character creation, Choose three, one being a Harrowed City Campaign Trait. No campaign traits from other campaigns.

From: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits/campaign-traits/

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Campaign traits are specifically designed to tie your character into a campaign’s storyline, and often give you a built-in reason to begin the first adventure. For this reason, GMs usually create their own campaign traits for their PCs. If your GM uses campaign traits, one of your starting traits must be a campaign trait. Your other trait can be chosen from one of the other types of traits.

If you cannot find a campaign trait that is a reasonable match to your character concept, then you may ask for one. Have a character concept already halfway written up, look for a harrow card not already listed below, and ask me come up with something. Once I publish that card to the list below, other people can compete to have a character use it as well.

I'll generally expect these campaign traits to be unique across the party.

Dirtstained Crusader

Your harrow card is the Trumpet. (LG aspect) You were raised in a life of crime and poverty, and exposed to wickedness. That way had a grip on you for a time. Now you will do all that you can to see justice and mercy prevail. You may use harsh methods and associate with difficult people, but your heart and intent are pure.

Benefits: +2 Knowledge (local) and Diplomacy: Gather Information checks when you are interacting with the poor or criminal elements, and these are class skills. Once per encounter, if you damage an opponent who damaged you or an ally in this encounter, you may convert up to 1d4 lethal damage you or an ally has suffered in the current encounter into nonlethal damage. You then add the amount converted to the damage you inflicted.

Motive: Bury your guilt, and protect your honor.

The hold Medusa has on you is the knowledge of your criminal past, before you reformed. Keeping that guilty secret buried is worth the world to you. You don’t want people to know you, like that.

 

Seeker after Knowledge

Your harrow card is the Empty Throne. (N aspect). As a scholar, you have studied history. The arc of the last several hundred years intrigues you. Can the forces of progress overpower the regressive and tyrannical efforts of the magical mistress of fate, who has for so long overshadowed the world’s greatest city? You are obsessed with the historical big picture. But you have the intuition that it is among the radical and exotic elements that are pulling many threads together to combat the Harrower Queen that the pivot or crux may be found to shape history.

Benefit. You gain the Keen Recollection ability of the Investigator class. If you actually get that ability as an investigator, then you can cast Augury once per day, without material component cost.

Motive: Academic curiosity, and debt.

The hold that Medusa has on you is financial. You knew her originally only in her public aristocratic identity, and being interested in your research and publications, she lent you funds. You thought your investigations would turn up additional investors, but you got stonewalled. From a financially modest background, you dug yourself deep into debt. Now you own her, and the missions, while unbecoming to an academic, pay well and may lead to insights.

 

The Enigma

Your harrow card is the Fool. (Hazy aspect) You can feel and manipulate the ebb and flow of fate. This makes you someone the Harrower Queen is blind to, and that makes you a precious agent for protecting Medusa’s assets.

Benefits: no form of divination or precognition works on you, even if you try to use it yourself. If someone within 10’ of you has a Luck bonus or penalty, you can sense it, and either transfer it to yourself, or reverse its effect, as a swift action, for 1 minute.

Motive: Kambir Khannagon, a dwarf arms-master, found you when you were shot up and bleeding out in an alley, left for dead. He triaged your wounds and toted you back to his employer, the formidable Medusa.

Hold that Medusa has on you: Your gratitude for saving your life, and curiosity, now that the bandages are off.

 

Industrial Scapegoat

Your harrow card is the Brass Dwarf (LN aspect).

You toiled in the city’s industrial heart, surrounded by the cogs and machines that power forges and refineries. When a smelter accident spilled molten metal on several good men, you were unjustly blamed and forced out of your civilian career. The sting of this wrongful accusation drives you to seek justice against those who wronged you.

Benefits: You gain a +2 bonus to a Craft skill and a +2 bonus to a Profession skill of your choice. You are resistant to 3 hp of fire damage. Additionally, you receive a +10% increase in starting wealth, which can be used for equipment related to your Craft or Profession skills. This represents gear from your successful days as an industrialist or equipment made by you or your contacts.

Motive: Seek justice against those who falsely accused you.

The hold Medusa has on you: She possesses evidence that could help you identify and bring the saboteurs to justice. She has provided you with a team and sponsored you to rebuild your life. Once you have proven yourself through enough missions, she will give you the path to justice. Betray her investment in you, and there will be severe consequences.

 

Condemned for Foul Magery

Your harrow card is the Eclipse (LE aspect).

Once enjoying a life of privilege in academia, you now live in constant fear. Accused of dabbling in foul magic, you are relentlessly pursued by a powerful aristocratic family seeking your head. The truth of your guilt remains your secret. It was a Harrower who unleashed this pursuit upon you. Now, the Medusae Squad offers you a chance to conceal your identity, reclaim your footing, and gather the resources you need to survive.

Benefits: You learn the Flare and Light cantrips/orisons and gain the Eclipsed Spell as a free metamagic feat.

Motive: Escape from vengeance and protect your identity.

The hold Medusa has on you: She controls your new identity. If revealed, a fierce vendetta, bolstered by law enforcement, would hunt you down. Medusa's protection is your only shield against this relentless pursuit.

 

To the Manor Born, from the Manor Fled

Your harrow card is The Survivor (NG Aspect).

Born into aristocratic privilege, your life took a drastic turn when a family member made a grievous error, offending a powerful crime syndicate. To protect your family, you bankrupted your estate to pay off the syndicate, and now find yourself among the underclass miscreants. You took the fall to safeguard your family's reputation and social standing.

Benefits: You gain a +2 bonus on Knowledge (nobility), Bluff, and Disguise skill checks. Additionally, you've picked up a few tricks to turn the tables on criminals: you and your flanking partners can deal an extra 1d6 sneak attack damage against opponents who possess the sneak attack ability.

Motive: Protect your family's honor and maintain their standing in high society.

The hold Medusa has on you: She knows a buried truth that could destroy your family. As long as you stay in her good graces, you can strike back at organized crime. Betray her, and the consequences will be dire.

 

Fallen from Dark Heights

Your harrow card is the Betrayal (NE aspect).

Once a devout member of the Harrower cult, you have since fallen from their favor and sought redemption. Your reformation has not erased the mark of your past, but it has given you a new perspective and a second chance.

Benefits: You gain the Harrowed feat as a bonus. This grants you a +1 bonus on all Will saves made to resist enchantment effects. Additionally, once per day, you may draw a card from a Harrow deck you own. For the rest of that day, you can apply a +2 bonus to any d20 roll modified by the card’s suit. For example, if you drew a card from the suit of Dexterity, you could apply this +2 bonus to an Initiative check, a Reflex save, a Dexterity-based skill check, or a ranged attack roll. You may assign this +2 bonus after you make the roll, but before you know whether it was successful.

Motive: Collaborate with an ally who shields you from your mutual enemies.

The hold Medusa has on you: The Harrowers despise traitors, and the Harrower Queen surely knows your name. Her powers make you a target if you step out from under Medusa’s protection. While Medusa is often severe with others, she shows you a kind of gentle pity that others find unusual, making her protection all the more vital.

 

Chains Breaker

Your harrow card is the Unicorn (CG aspect).

The sheer injustice of slavery sears your soul, driving you to see its end. The Harrower Queen embodies a regressive and vile force, standing as a blatant adversary to the abolitionist movement. You are determined to shatter the chains of oppression and liberate the enslaved.

Benefit: You can use the To The Rescue ability of the Liberator prestige class. However, you must be actively attempting to free someone from any form of imprisonment, constraint, or oppression to use it. This can be interpreted broadly, including actions against entangle, grapple, enemy chains, lassos, and any part of a liberation mission. If you ever gain the Liberator prestige class, the duration of your effect doubles.

Motive: Leverage allies to free slaves; this compelling cause overrides all other considerations.

The hold Medusa has on you: When you discovered her agents were planning a significant slave liberation operation, you eagerly joined their cause. You've chosen your side, and despite the complexities of Medusa and her organization, you need them and will utilize them to achieve your goal of freeing others.

 

Rebel with a cause

Your harrow card is the Uprising (CN aspect).

The Ysidra working class is crushed under the boot of aristocrats, oligarchs, and the Harrower Queen’s criminal empire. Down with them all—power to the people! You stand firm in your belief that the revolutionary cause is just. The Party is the perfect haven for both a laborer and a thinker, providing protection and purpose to its members.

Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks when dealing with Communists. Additionally, you acquire the Bombs feature of the alchemist class, but at 2/3 your character level. However, you do not count as an Alchemist in any other way. If you ever become an Alchemist with the bombs class feature, up to 4 of your non-alchemist levels will stack with your alchemist levels for bomb progression. If you become an Alchemist without the bombs class feature, this ability remains distinct and advances with your character level but cannot benefit from any part of your Alchemist class features, such as Discoveries.

Motive: Maintain your cover and ability to act covertly for the benefit of the revolution.

The hold Medusa has on you: She knows your involvement and history with an illegal party branded as seditious and anarchistic. The law would quickly crush you if not for her protection. Though no friend of communists, she understands that influence peddling is a two-way street.

 

Like it Like This

Your harrow card is the Waxworks (CE aspect).

Medusa is a relentless force, and you match her intensity stride for stride. In a world dominated by gangs and gangsters, you thrive amidst the chaos. Aligning yourself with Lady Stoneheart feels like second nature, as the thrill of outwitting and dismantling targets perfectly suits your ruthless disposition.

Benefit: You gain a +2 trait bonus to Intimidate checks, and Intimidate is a class skill for you. Additionally, any opponent experiencing a fear effect suffers a -1 penalty to hit, damage, and spell DCs when targeting you.

Motive: You relish this life, thriving on the edge.

The hold she has on you: Your profound admiration for her and your insatiable appetite for as much action as you can grasp keep you firmly in her orbit.

 

Secret Vendetta

Your harrow card is The Twin (N aspect).

You were jolted awake to the brutal truths that underpin the very fabric of society. No longer will you be a passive victim; now you strive to balance the scales of justice by your own hand. In a world where laws can be as oppressive as the crimes they punish, sometimes breaking them is the only way to uphold true justice. To shield your family and loved ones from the inevitable backlash of your actions, you shroud your identity in secrecy, living a double life where every step must be carefully calculated.

Benefits: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Disguise and Stealth checks, and one of these is always a class skill for you. Moreover, your unshakeable belief that you are the true arbiter of justice fortifies your resolve, granting you a +1 trait bonus on all saving throws against mind-affecting effects and all saves against scrying and mindreading effects that allow saving throws.

Motive: Continue your covert struggle against tyranny while preserving your anonymity.

The hold Medusa has on you is: She has somehow unearthed your true identity, a revelation that would put your family in mortal peril. You will go to any lengths to ensure their safety, bound by a desperate, unyielding resolve.

 

Social Climber

Your harrow card is The Courtesan (CN aspect).

Angelica Taaffeta, a shrewd and enigmatic madame, discreetly operates a brothel within the government's very heart, while her sister, Baby Cashmere, runs another, far more brazenly, in the harbor district. You once served one of these formidable women, entrusted with delivering sensitive packages. The primary recipient of these parcels was a certain noblewoman and her shadowy agents. Upon catching a fleeting glimpse of Medusa's fearsome bodyguard, the Made Man, you knew instantly that betrayal was not an option. Yet, navigating the world of clandestine operatives felt like a significant step up from the sordid life among courtesans.

Benefit: You have mastered the art of manipulation through attire and demeanor. With 2-4 minutes and a successful DC 15 Disguise check, you can transform your appearance and behavior, making them function as a masterwork tool for one Charisma-based skill of your choice.

Motivation: Ascend the social ladder, seizing every opportunity for cunning and guileful success.

The hold Medusa has on you is: From a world where women were pawns and playthings, to a secret society where a woman rules: you idolize Medusa. You appreciate that she raised you up, and she could put you back down where you had come from.

 

Urban Guardian

Your harrow card is The Desert (CG aspect).

In the sprawling, labyrinthine streets of Ysidra, you served as an officer on the beat. You witnessed the homeless, the drug addicts, the hardworking underclass, just struggling to survive. Whether against regulations or not, you leant a helpful hand. You aided, as best you could, against a constant undercurrent of crime: the five percent who were cold of heart or dark of soul and preyed upon others either financially, or literally. Worst of all were the organized crime syndicates. These blended the power and sophistication of the elites with the ethics of gutter rats. You tracked one of these criminal to her lair and found ... that however bad she was, she was gunning after a much bigger, and much worse target. So, you joined that lawless organization.

Benefits: You gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks when dealing with police, lawyers or judges. If you intimidate someone half your hit dice or less, to do something that protects them, they will forgive you for it and their attitude won't worsen. You've got a knack for protecting the weak and innocent. As a free or immediate action with a cooldown of 1 turn, you can forfeit any amount of your movement speed. For each 5' forfeited, you can cause one person to shake off the cowering condition (if they have it), and enable them to take a 5' step (or crawl, whatever) without provoking AoOs, if they desire to do so. This only works on noncombatants with half your hit dice or less, who are intelligent, understand your language, and you have line of sight to. This may work to save them from area effect attacks if you can act before the damage is dealt, assuming a 5' step takes them out of the danger zone.

Motive: Guide and protect those struggling to survive in the harsh urban environment of Ysidra.

The hold Medusa has on you: On her vendetta against the worst of criminals, Medusa seems to be heartless, and will tolerate collateral damage. You respect the grand goal, but you know if you stick with her team you can save lives along the way. She tolerates that, not because she values irrelevant strangers, but because you help your squad keep a lower profile.

 

Echoes of Agony's Fugue

Your harrow card is The Vision (CN aspect).

Twenty five years ago, the estate of the wealthy arms merchant Kambir Khannagon fell under a sudden and brutal assault from undead originating in the Boney Tells, a large collection of ruins adjacent to the Tower Circle in the Market district. One of your parents was there. Some kind of insane occult horror attacked them, leaving your parent encased inside some kind of ectoplasmic shell of hardened resinous goo, and drained of energy to within bare inches of death. So cold and still were they, that the rescuers performing triage presumed them dead, and send the encased body to the morgue.

Well, your parent survived, astonishingly, and was chiseled out of that mess by a responsible mortician; but forever after, they were stricken with madness, and bouts of that affliction passed down to you, as you were born after that catastrophe. The spiritual affliction leaves you shaking with nightmares, experiencing intermittent visions of haunted and buried evil.

Benefits: You gain a +2 bonus on Knowledge (religion) and Knowledge (history) checks. You can use Visions of Madness twice per day as a cleric of 2/3 your character level. (If you actually become a cleric with this domain, you may add instead 2/3 of your non-cleric levels to your cleric levels in calculating this ability.)

Motive: Kambir Khannagon was the dwarf targeted in that attack. You tracked him down and learned from him the story; and that it was no random attack but part of a pattern of depredation launched by the Harrower Queen, for her impenetrable reasons, targeting the hapless and innocent. The dwarf and his clerical daughter have a hypothesis which if proven true might lead to breaking the Harrower Queen's hold on the Boney Tell undead horde. Seeking that might be a first step on a road to resolving what has been done to you.

The hold Medusa has on you: Medusa is targeting the evil which wounded and tainted your family; under her tutelage and sponsorship you have some hopes to come closer to the source of that taint. Perhaps it is vengeance you seek, perhaps it is a cure. But beyond those, there is a compulsion to seek out what is at the heart of that madness, even if doing so involves peeling away onion-layers of mystery. You have the conviction that the insurrectionist Medusa and her organization are somehow keys to the puzzle of your life. Medusa sense this, and uses it as a lever to firm her grip on you, within her organization.

 

Community organizer

Your harrow card is The Forge (LN aspect).

This is the lawful neutral card of strength. It represents strength through diversity, or strength from many sources united against a single trial,

Benefits: As a free action once for 1 minute per day, you gain the benefit of the Gang Up (Combat) feat.

As a free action once for 1 minute per day, if you are one of three people are attempting a task (one directly, and two via Aid Another actions), then add an additional +2 bonus to the attempt total. Additionally, this may be used in downtime for crafting checks if you are part of a team of 3 or more working on items together.

Motive: Your devotion to law and the order that enables communities to work together and be more than the sum of their parts is profound. This leads you to realize that the Harrower Queen and her faction are the central plague harming Ysidra, and ought to be stopped and all costs, even if doing so requires you to take on unsavory allies. Now, some of the factions that oppose the Harrower Queen might themselves be just as objectionable -- so an ideal solution involves either a proper rule-of-law faction coming on top, or else a harmonious balance replacing the city's current occult-driven, spirit ridden plague.

The hold Medusa has on you: Medusa is a woman who gets things done. If her methods can be harsh, the end justifies the means. She is an aristocrat, and an aristocratic rule of law is perhaps one possible final solution to the city's crisis. In any case, this provides reason enough for you to pledge loyalty for this crucial season of crisis.

Edited June 21 by Guisewhy (see edit history)