Taldor--Character Creation

Part of the Taldor Campaign

Character Creation Rules

Pathfinder system

We’re going to be using Pathfinder rules for this outside of the gestalt stuff meaning no, zip, zero stuff from 3.5 books, and no third party material. If you are just otherwise dying to use something third party, the most I could swing with is something from the stuff Kobold Press has put out, as their stuff has been generally pretty solid and interesting. I can talk that out at least.

One feat per level

Starting level from 8 to 14, depending on character background and campaign contributions.

Pick two traits. If you want to take an existing trait and rename it something else, that's fine, as long as it's not one of the ones that has a specific race or religion prereq.

Races

No LA races (any player character race from Advanced Race Guide, from the Inner Sea World Guide, from the Inner Sea Bestiary, or from the Pathfinder Core are probably cool just fine though. Though you’ll really need to sell me on the more outlandish ones).

Classes

Gestalt characters ( http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/gestaltCharacters.htm)

The rough guidelines would amount to that if you take a prestige class, you have to take it all the way through, that if you multiclass, you take at least 4 levels of that class, and that gestalt means none of the strong hybrid prestige classes or base classes (which basically amounts to..no eldritch knight, arcane trickster, that cleric/fighter hybrid prestige class whose name escapes me, the bard/cavalier one, and no magus. Gestalt Fighter/Wizard or Sorcerer, Wizard or Sorcerer/Thief, Cleric/Fighter, Bard/Cavalier, and Fighter/Wizard or Sorcerer would cover you for all those, respectively)

No Summoners (they are a screaming road to busted, I’ve yet to ever find them not be)

I’m also going with no Gunslingers but, honestly, that’s nothing against how balanced they are, I just don’t find them fitting the thematics.

A guide to mundane classes, for those who want no spells: Pathfinder-mundane classes

Cohorts and Leadership

Everyone gets the Leadership feat for free. Leadership comes complete with one (1) Cohort and a number of followers, according to the feat (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/leadership---final) Note that no matter how high your leadership score is, your Cohort can be a maximum of your own level minus 2.

PC's may use the "Monstrous Mounts" section of the Leadership feat, but only if done in a way that will not make the GM cry.

Everyone with a Charisma of at least 12 can take the "Extra Cohort" feat, and many characters can take it multiple times. Specifically, you can take Extra Cohort up to the limit of your unmodified Charisma bonus. So if your PC has a Charisma of 18, you may take 4 Extra Cohort feats, for a total of 5 Cohorts. You don't get the extra cohort feats for free -- they must be bought with your feat slots just like all other feats (except for the free Leadership one). Extra Cohort is listed here: (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/3rd-party-feats/super-genius-games/general-feats/extra-cohort). Note that Extra Cohorts can be a maximum of your PC's level minus 2 (not 4, as the feat says). Also note that this is a 3rd party (non-Paizo) feat; this is a unique exception to the "no 3rd party material" rule.

Cohorts are created just like PC's. They use the same die rolling scheme for stats, they get one feat per level, they are gestalt characters, etc. Cohorts may take Leadership, but only for purposes of getting a Monstrous Mount; they do not have cohorts and followers of their own.

You may create other NPCs that are part of your character's organization, but they are then NPC's controlled by the GM, not trusted cohorts. See the section below on Organizations for more details.

Stats

Going to go with what a friend of mine calls epic rolling: 5d6, take 3 highest, reroll 1s, roll 7 times, drop lowest roll, arrange to taste otherwise. If you get below +10 in total stat bonuses, reroll the whole shmear. If it again sucks or is just not to your liking, just use 30 point buy.

If you're using a die roller like Invisible Castle (www.invisiblecastle.com), one way to do this is:

7 rolls

5d5.takeHighest(3) + 3

Then take the top six and arrange as you like.

Hit Points

Max hit points at first, average +1/2 every level after, or you can rolls the dice and takes your chances per level, your choice.

(Average + 1/2 means that for a d10 that's 6 points, for a d8 that's 5, etc.)

Castes

Oh, quick irresponsible workday note on the Royal/Senatorial thing.

So both castes/social strata make up Taldor's upper crust, aka the Bearded (called such because if you are a Taldan, only men of the bearded get to have beards, and are expected to have some well taken care of growth there, be they some full out dwarf thing or a carefully groomed chin strap. Foreigners and demihumans are exempt. Basically it's a sign that you have the time and luxury to, well, take care of a beard of some shape).

The main difference is that the royals are, well, royal. The Grand Prince, (the head of Taldor's title) comes from the royal nobles, and particularly when the current one has no male heirs, one gets picked out from the other royal families some way or another. While a decent chunk of them can trace descent to the founding of Taldor or close enough, an even bigger chunk of royals got their status from being given it by some past Grand Prince or another for some accomplishment or another, though this is done only /just/ frequently enough to leave it a semi plausible dream in the eyes of the underclass. The royal families are at this point many, often rich as fuck, and in many cases indolent/decadent/corrupt. On the other hand, they also provide a lot of the Taldan military as far as house forces that can be rallied in a pinch, and a good chunk of the officer corps besides (not always the quality officer corps, but hey).

The Senatorial class are called such because, well, they sit in the Taldan Senate, in the magnificent old Senate building they often go in the back of rather than take the many tiring steps that are supposed to be a reminder of duty. The Senate has more or less the power the Senate did in the Roman and Byzantine Empires, aka as far as determining national policy, sweet fuck all usually. /But/, the Senate does control and manage the (corrupt, bloated and inefficient) imperial bureaucracy, which is where the caste gets most of its power from. So the Senate meets and debates about that kind of thing, and on whatever other issue they feel like (one of the big acrimonious debates in the Senate is which national enemy of Taldor should be focused on, Galt or Qadira). There are certainly ancient senatorial families that go back to the founding, buut, the Grand Prince will more frequently elevate a commoner to senatorial rank for whatever reason, making it even more of a "work hard, keep your head down, be a good little Taldan, and someday even you!" and so forth. They're rich, though not quite so rich as the royals, and powerful, but they more wield their power in blocs. They're the lesser nobility, more or less.

Exceptions exist certainly. There are certainly senators richer than royals, and royals who manage to get hooks into the bureaucracy, but on the whole, that's the shape of it. There can and are fierce rivalries between members of the groupings, but considering the more sweeping societal prestige of the royals, they can sometimes be one sided (but then again, sometimes not).

Both groups will totally defend their priveleges like whoa, regardless.