Pathfinder: The Last Hurrah of Joe Delver (one-shot)

[The Great Triangle]

Once upon a time, Joe Delver was the greatest hero in the land, sung of in bardsong, and known and admired by everyone for saving the kingdom.  That was many decades ago, and even the songs and legends of Delver's accomplishments have been forgotten for a generation.  Now he's reached the end of the venerable age category, and will pass away from old age in a week.  Delver doesn't want to go down with a whimper instead of a bang, and so he will pass on his many valuable magical items to a group of adventurers in exchange for accompanying him on his final quest; a search for the valuable gem of Nebuchadnezzar

The conditions of Delver's will are simple; if he passes away during his final quest, he'll give all of his magical items to the adventurers who were his traveling companions.  Joe Delver will be portrayed by a PC, and the adventure will focus on an asymmetric party, where one PC is significantly stronger than the other, on the condition that the goal of the adventure is to get the strong PC killed in the most epic way possible.  After Delver's will is executed, the adventure will continue as a high level threat forces the remaining PCs to use their acquired magic items to counter it.

This game is intended to be a short adventure, without any level-ups or advancement, but simply a self contained story.


For character creation, all Paizo material in the pathfinder SRD will be permitted, and the PCs will begin at level 4, except for Joe Delver, who will begin at level 7.  (Delver was higher level in the past, but his advanced age and senility have reduced his capabilities)  Characters begin with no traits, but may gain traits by taking the additional traits feat.

All PCs will use the following array for their ability scores: 18, 16, 15, 13, 12, 8   Those abilities may be assigned in any desired order, and benefit from the usual racial bonuses, as well as the +1 ability score bonus for 4th level.  Hit points are not rolled, but simply provide the maximum possible hit points per die at every level.  Joe Delver begins at venerable age, causing his ability scores to be adjusted as follows: -6 str, -6 dex, -6 con, +3 int, +3 wis, +3 cha.  Joe Delver may use magic to disguise his age, and this is even encouraged, though obviously it affects the kind of things that other PCs might do to curry his favor.

PCs begin with 6,000gp, and may ignore the 25% rule when purchasing equipment.  Joe Delver is the exception, and begins with 175,000gp worth of magic items, along with 85,000gp of undefined assets which may not be initially determined by the PC.  None of Joe Delver's items may be individually worth more than 43,750gp.  It should be noted that purchasing many cheap magic items to distribute to the other PCs will generally have stronger effects than just purchasing expensive items.  Joe Delver also begins with a Ring of Final Wishes that occupies one of his ring slots.  Upon the wearer's death, the ring creates a magical message that relates the way the wearer would desire their estate to be treated.  According to Delver's advertisement, the ring does not record the final minute of the wearer's life.


I'm hoping for 2-4 PCs, and one player to play Joe Delver; even though I state Joe's gender as male, the character could just as easily be female.  Both Delver and the PCs may be of any alignment, though I will try to select PCs that have a good balance of alignments when I choose which PCs will be in the game.  As a house rule, all alignment restrictions for classes, items, feats, and spells may be ignored.  There is a certain assumption of player vs. player inherent in the premise of the game, and players should be aware of that when they come in. 

As far as the level of commitment I want, I'd like each player to be able to post at least once per day, at least during combat; initiative order will generally be played fast and loose with, to help keep the game running more smoothly.  No xp will be given during the game, and character's will advance only by collecting Delver's items.  The player who portrays delver will continue to have a role in the game after Delver dies, but it is a reduced role, and can be optionally ignored.  Should the player portraying Delver drop out of the game, he will expire from old age, and the game will proceed immediately to the endgame.

[PhantomPistoleer]

A D&D Great Triangle game?  Yep.  Sign me up as a barbarian, please.

Or don't, as the character submissions roll in.  I still want to lurk, though.

[Muse]

This is kind of tempting, Triangle.  May I take the roll of Joe?  Maybe as a Fighter or Paladin?  (Or Magus...) 

[The Great Triangle]

Joe as a fighter or Paladin both sound pretty awesome, though Paladin would mean a higher proportion of evil subtype enemies;

Magus works quite well too, especially with the old age buffs to mental stats. (while being more creative than going full caster)

[PhantomPistoleer]

Have you drummed up any private interest, GT?

[yesiroleplay]

This is a really intriguing idea.

Maybe a slightly slutty female bard who's not above using both her body and her magic to seduce a guy old enough to be the childhood hero of her grandfather's father if she can get something valuable enough from him.

[PhantomPistoleer]

AWESOME.  A slutty bard is EXACTLY what every party needs. :)

[The Great Triangle]

I'm still waiting on response from players, though I'll note that encounters will generally be balanced to the party, rather than to Joe, to give everyone a chance to shine and be the hero.

The encounters will also be set up to encourage splitting the party, so one overwhelmingly powerful character cab't dominate everything.  I'll be making character sheet tweaks to individual monsters once I know how the party works and can judge what they're capable of

[TheRaven]

Any chance that you're still looking for a rogue? Because I can get one set up.  8-)

[The Great Triangle]

We could certainly accept a rogue into the party!  Here's what the group has in applications so far:


Joe: Muse as Fighter or Paladin or Magus

Group:

Phantompistoleer as Barbarian
yesiroleplay as Bard
The Raven as Rogue


With that group setup, the game can accept pretty much anything short of another Barbarian.  The group could use a way of dealing magical damage to get around damage reduction, and it would help to have both ranged and melee options, but both of those can easily be handled in the way you design your characters.  (and if the group has a major deficiency, I'll try to avoid exploiting it, since every character sheet is going to have a couple of holes) 

I should add a big disclaimer here to say that I don't want you guys trying to create any sort of "optimal" characters or party for the scenario, since I'm going to balance the game based on what you give me.  Ideally, you and your character will be challenged, but never overwhelmed or out of danger completely.  (I'll try to avoid the D&D 4E version of balance where every single encounter brings down the PCs almost to the point of losing but they pull through, then a dragon shows up as the level boss)


For a bit of aid, here's a list of character motivation ideas by alignment:

Lawful Good:  The puppy orphanage needs repairs, a grand quest against the forces of darkness requires magical aid

Neutral Good: The poor of the town could use a large donation, the king won't give me a needed magical item

Chaotic Good: Just trying to keep magical loot out of the hands of the irresponsible, my efforts to overthrow the corrupt aristocrats could use a boost

Lawful Neutral: The king told me to try and raise funds for the kingdom, I want to bring about the fulfillment of a old man's contract

Neutral: Gold for business opportunities, an opportunity to advance an adventuring career

Chaotic Neutral: What a great chance to put a magical item in every treasure chest in a cave from here to nevermore!, My pony needs to be more magical

Lawful Evil: Wealth and funding for a world shaking scheme, desire for easy riches at the expense of others

Neutral Evil: Money, and all I need to do is whack an old man, Become the envy of the thieves guild

Chaotic Evil: The barbarian hordes haven't been getting enough by raiding lately, my demonic masters command me to get more treasure

[yesiroleplay]

http://plothook.net/RPG/profiler/view.php?id=11334

It's the start of the mechanics, for now.

[TheRaven]

http://plothook.net/RPG/profiler/view.php?id=11336

Emrys Durwood, ladies and gentlemen, about 90% complete.

[The Great Triangle]

The character sheet seems like it's coming along so far, yesiroleplay, though you do need to work a bit on getting your skill ranks recorded accurately, especially in your intimidate skill.  :)  You're missing your second part of your human racial bonuses; +7 skill points, and a bonus feat; if you want, you can drop the skill points and bonus feat to change your ability score bonus to +2 to any two ability scores.   

Your circlet of persuasion is valued at 4,500gp instead of 2,250gp like it should be.  For some of your other items, I'd suggest a robe of resistance, a wand of cure light wounds (16 charges for 240gp), +1 chain shirt (or chainmail bikini, whatever), a scroll of silk to steel costs 200gp, and enables you to get an extra whip if you're disarmed; you can keep the scroll tied to your musical instrument, or sewn into the clothing that you can use as the emergency whip.  A 525gp scroll of Deep Slumber would make a good panic nuke, while a 1575gp wand of glibness with 5 charges would be quite handy for getting away with Joe's money.  You'll likely want to carry a buckler for a +1 armor class bonus, and note your costume and such on your character sheet.   One item that might be good for your character, even if it's of questionable utility is a CL 8 wand of Seducer's Eyes, which provides a +2 untyped bonus to charisma checks for 80 minutes, at the cost of 240gp per charge.



As for Durwood, after remembering that Half-Orcs have completely different racial traits in pathfinder, your character sheet looks fairly complete, though your bracers should be bracers of natural armor +1, and your hp should be 20 instead of 28, since your constitution modifier is -1 instead of +1.  With your last bit of money, I'd suggest a 25gp scroll of shield or obscuring mist to use as an emergency save your bacon trick, since you're terrifyingly vulnerable to attack.  Smokesticks for 20gp also make sense, though they're less effective in a strong wind; persuading other PCs to carry smoke pellets to provide you cover for a stealth check might also be handy.  To save time and make gameplay less random, in non combat situations, stealth checks will be made against flat DCs instead of opposed checks.  (DC= 10+observer's perception modifier +2 per additional observer, max +10)

[yesiroleplay]

The character sheet seems like it's coming along so far, yesiroleplay, though you do need to work a bit on getting your skill ranks recorded accurately, especially in your intimidate skill.  :)  You're missing your second part of your human racial bonuses; +7 skill points, and a bonus feat; if you want, you can drop the skill points and bonus feat to change your ability score bonus to +2 to any two ability scores.   

Your circlet of persuasion is valued at 4,500gp instead of 2,250gp like it should be.  For some of your other items, I'd suggest a robe of resistance, a wand of cure light wounds (16 charges for 240gp), +1 chain shirt (or chainmail bikini, whatever), a scroll of silk to steel costs 200gp, and enables you to get an extra whip if you're disarmed; you can keep the scroll tied to your musical instrument, or sewn into the clothing that you can use as the emergency whip.  A 525gp scroll of Deep Slumber would make a good panic nuke, while a 1575gp wand of glibness with 5 charges would be quite handy for getting away with Joe's money.  You'll likely want to carry a buckler for a +1 armor class bonus, and note your costume and such on your character sheet.   One item that might be good for your character, even if it's of questionable utility is a CL 8 wand of Seducer's Eyes, which provides a +2 untyped bonus to charisma checks for 80 minutes, at the cost of 240gp per charge.

• She doesn't have intimidate, instead using Versatile Performance (Comedy) to substitute Perform for Intimidate and Bluff.
• I used the Human Alternative Favored class bonus for Bards to have more 3 more orisons and 1 more 1st-level spell known instead of skill or hit points.
• I did forget the 4 bonus skill points for human.  Thanks.  I'll add them. EDIT: added.
• The feat is still open, because I'm not yet sure if I want to take any of several feats, or use the feat to acquire some traits
  EDIT: with your permission, I'd like to take the Additional Traits feat to acquire the following traits:
  
  
  
  • Love Lost (Orphaned) for the +2 to Perform (comedy)
  • Prehensile Whip
• The price of a circlet of persuasion is 4500 gp.  The cost to create one is 2250 gp.
• I'm still looking at equipment, which is really the major thing left mechanically.

[TheRaven]

As for Durwood, after remembering that Half-Orcs have completely different racial traits in pathfinder, your character sheet looks fairly complete, though your bracers should be bracers of natural armor +1, and your hp should be 20 instead of 28, since your constitution modifier is -1 instead of +1.  With your last bit of money, I'd suggest a 25gp scroll of shield or obscuring mist to use as an emergency save your bacon trick, since you're terrifyingly vulnerable to attack.  Smokesticks for 20gp also make sense, though they're less effective in a strong wind; persuading other PCs to carry smoke pellets to provide you cover for a stealth check might also be handy.  To save time and make gameplay less random, in non combat situations, stealth checks will be made against flat DCs instead of opposed checks.  (DC= 10+observer's perception modifier +2 per additional observer, max +10)

-Rogues get d8 instead of d6 for HD in Pathfinder, so I wasn't adding to maxed d6, I was subtracting from maxed d8.
-Thanks for the suggestion. I was trying to figure out something to get rid of a little more cash, considering the coincidence of ending up with 69 gold left...
-The whole "terrifyingly vulnerable to attack" thing was intentional. I've never really played a glass cannon before, and I've tried to max him for attack.
-Good to know on the Stealth checks.

[The Great Triangle]

Alright then, well I'm glad I'm still a little confused and disoriented as far as character designs go.  XD  Additional traits is something that I already allowed in the game, though, so it's quite permissible to take. 

[yesiroleplay]

Alright then, well I'm glad I'm still a little confused and disoriented as far as character designs go.  XD  Additional traits is something that I already allowed in the game, though, so it's quite permissible to take.

Thank you - though I was asking more for permission about the specific traits rather than the feat.

[The Great Triangle]

Both of those traits are perfectly fine, though your character doesn't actually have to be an orphan; the trait just assumes that your character had a harder than normal time of it growing up, so feel free to interpret that as you like.

[PhantomPistoleer]

Hey guys!

Almost finished.  I decided to spend my leftover 715 gold on a very attractive slave who keeps my character nice and refreshed.  They usually cost 200 GP for healthy ones, and it states that they are a bit more for really attractive ones.  Do you think that a 715 will buy me a very attractive slave? o_o

[The Great Triangle]

In lands where slavery is legal, 700gp should be enough to purchase a 2nd level expert with 16 charisma, and 5 ranks in perform, though traveling with such a slave will likely result in penalties on diplomacy checks with societies where slavery is illegal.  (that is, most chaotic societies, and nearly all good societies)  You might want to just purchase a hireling, and spend the rest of your gold on trade goods or potions to help your character out.

[PhantomPistoleer]

Hrm.  Okay.  Okay!  A hot slave it is!

[PhantomPistoleer]

Aronax Nier
A Barbarian and his Slave
Golgotha

Character Sheet: Here



All right!  I completed him.  He doesn't have any traits, but I didn't want any.

[The Great Triangle]

Well, that would seem to round out our group, though we can still take 1-2 more, and of course we'll need Muse to create a character sheet and approve the group we have so far.  (or find someone else to play Joe) 


Here's some information about the adventure:

The Gem of Nebuchadnezzar is the last remains of an ancient hero, at the heart of the legendary dungeon of The Lost Temple.   Many adventuring parties have gone after the gem, but finding the Lost Temple is incredibly difficult, and even though several expeditions have sent back word of successfully recovering the gem, none have successfully returned to civilization, leading many to believe the gem is cursed.  The location of the Lost Temple was placed in the sealed section of the Belmont Monastery, only to be looted by a rampaging tribe of orcs.  To get the gem, the group will have to recover the tome containing the location of the Temple from the orcs, find the Lost Temple, recover the gem, and then overcome the curse. 

To aid them, the group will have an airship captained by one Dvorak Tinkergnome, a Gnomish wizard contracted to provide transportation.  The gnome has access to a variety of magical potions, wands, and scrolls he's willing to sell for a price, as well as a ring of fast healing he's willing to pass around for free.  The orcs themselves are operating out of an old arena on the fringes of civilization, and luckily, they keep their books on the surface.

[Muse]

Whoot!  This is turning out nicely.  *Grins* 

I need to get Joe Delver going.  I'll try to be quick. 

What are we using,  Myth Weavers? 

[yesiroleplay]

What are we using,  Myth Weavers?

Hush, you!
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