Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy (Pathfinder)

[Mysterica]

I'm still here and concur that we can't really decide for certain just what to play until that is finalized.

[Marie Reynolds]

I am still interested in this.

[Videospirit]

Well Lust, that's 8 interested, 1 on the fence. I think you've got a solid playerbase for this wonderful idea.

Is there anything you want from us before you make the crunchy decisions?

[Inerrant Lust]

Starting Level: 10
Pointbuy: 30
Starting wealth: 3100 gp worth of non-magical equipment.
Limited Spell Levels
Possibly another one of Ghostwheel's variants. One lesser magic item.
Total bonuses would be; +5 to one ability score, +3 to all others, +7 AC, +2 to attack and damage, and +3 to all saves

Race Overview;
Humans; The most common among survivors, accounting for 70% of the remaining population, with half-human tieflings composing 20%
Tieflings; Half-breeds created by the fiends to breed out humanity. Must use an alternate for fiendish resistance and the SLA Darkness
Dwarves; In the beginning of the end, they dug deep into the mountains to hide from the encroaching forests and fiends.
Elves & Gnomes; The forest-dwelling subraces joined their more urban brethren in high-elevation cities located above the clouds, once known for their powerful magic.
Half-Elves & Half-Orcs; Can mostly be found attaching themselves to other communities, often human-led.
Halflings; Often found scavenging things from ruins, operating in small familial bands.

Undead; Beings who have come back from the dead, mostly during days where the sun is brightest. They are not immune to mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms) and are eventually driven mad by their unlife. A corporeal undead that has its HP reduced to 0 has a chance to become an incorporeal undead.

Night Servant (Racial Feat)
Prerequisites: Undead, Neutral or Good Alignment
Benefit: As a full-round action, you may touch a character who is dying or has died in the last minute. Doing so may prevent a soul from becoming undead. As a full-round action, you may touch a willing undead and instantly reduce its hitpoints to 0. This is a divine effect.

...Might nix the Undead bit. It exists in the world, but isn't going to be the primary focus of this plot.

For this game, the main theme will be Blight and Nature. The basic story is this; One of the last noble lords/knights/adventurers has called together a group of little more than a dozen, including your characters- to embark on an expedition into Great Forest, seeking out a fabled lost city and what is rumored to be the source of all life. Once majestic, the forest has become a place of horrors, encroaching upon everything with its toxicity.

[Muse]

What about item creaiton feats? 

Specifically Scribe Scroll?  All wizards get it.  If you don't want me to scribe scrolls, may I swap it for a different feat?

[Ghostwheel]

The very bottom of the page describes Scribe Scroll

[ShadowFox89]

 You should read "The Dreadful" probably a bit more Wild West than you're planning, but seems to have the same style.

http://www.nuklearpower.com/

[ExisD]

I'm still going alchemist I think, but ouch on tiefling. Is it possible to use alternate race features for them?

I was thinking of taking the prehensile tail and clawed, along with the feat for a variant(daemon spawn) that drops WIS instead of CHA since that feels more in character for a mad scientist type.

Is there anything we can trade the resilience for since they look like weak elves mechanically without it? Same attribute mods, a very weak skill feat, and darkvision in stead of low light vision. The only benefit it the native outsider type since it gives resistance to some effects. Maybe using the random variant table at the bottom of the page?

I'll still pick tiefling based on fluff and interesting back-story either way.

[ShadowFox89]

 Also ouch on non-magical weapons. Kinda kills a lot of mid-level builds, especially for rogues/ninja.

[ShadowFox89]

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=765893

Character so far, just need fluff.

[Inerrant Lust]

ExisD, yeah, that's fine- feel free to swap out your ability score modifiers for daemon-spawn without spending the feat. And instead of Fiendish Resistance and Darkness, you can pick one of the traits rather than rolling for it; http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/fiendish-heritage ...although probably run them by me first.

I'll edit my last post accordingly.

Although I should mention, Fiends will likely NOT resemble the ones taken from core. Therefore, there's no specific distinction of devil, demon, demodand, ect. They operate slightly differently.. Someone with ranks in History or Know(Planes) would tell you that it used to be the only way fiends could enter the material plane was by possessing a humanoid..

[Ghostwheel]

+26 knowledge check when identifying these fiendish fiends, reporting.

[Inerrant Lust]

Okay, I realize there's not much to go off on with the setting's peculiars, so hopefully this will answer some questions. I've been wanting to explain things but am trying to avoid making a wall of text or revealing too much, since ignorance beyond one's personal experience likely pervades this setting. So, I'll just do it in Q&A style. You should add me on AIM if you're curious, and i'll invite you to the groupchat!

How exactly did the world become like this?
Nobody knows, or has forgotten.

What happened to the people?
Generations and generations of not meeting replacement population levels.

How long ago did the demons invade?
Only in the last hundred or so years... in fact, they were always around, but could only possess people to manifest physically. It increased in frequency up until they were walking through (presumably) planar rifts. Blight's been around longer, magic started to fail 800 years ago.

What major cities are left?

Where could we have come from now, after everything went to shit?


    What happened when the blight appeared?
    Minor dosage. Soil becomes infertile, food goes rotten faster, and animals develop necrotic tissue for no raisin.

    How did this affect the nations of the world? In what state are they in now?
    Nations have probably crumbled apart and fallen into county-lord county-lords* even. Pretty much. City-states mostly... if you can call them cities.

    So multiple county-states? How do they get fresh food if most everything's rotted?
    It doesn't rot right away

So the demons leave acres and acres of fields untrampled and unburnt and allow people to peacefully gather in food? How do they keep the demons out?
Demons can be kept out by hiding or by serving them. Usually hiding also means violently dealing with anyone who could lead them to you. Some combination of secrecy and powerful defenses. Some demons and devils also consider the world already conquered, or they fight amongst themselves.

How do people make food if they're hiding? Is the whole world covered in blight, or simply large enough patches that makes nations hard to form?
It's dangerous, but with everyone at least level 5- some go out to hunt or forage.

So animals survive in mass enough numbers despite the blight to be hunted and not go extinct? Same with vegetation? I mean, you need a TON of food to feed a whole city--how are those kept fed?
Yep. You just have to carve away 80% of the food to eat it unblighted... or just stomach through the poison.

This is why I suggested that the blight is a mutative agent rather than necrotic agent >.>
It is... Just not to humanoids.

So entire cities are fed by people hunter-gathering? Would that be correct?
A whole city might not be more than a few hundred. Crops can be grown, but very carefully. It makes maintaining the walls harder. Most likely, the agricultural people have some sort of agreement with the fiends to get off their back. Fiends also have servants and slaves, or tieflings. Need to feed them too.

So rather than hunting-gathering, the primary way to feed the cities is for people to play robin hood? Do demons have holdings on the material plane?
Likely. Stealing from the fiends would likely be very profitable.

Hellscaped cities with food that has been untouched by blight? The fiends and their servants don't mind and don't just go raze the cities? Or are all the cities hidden ones?
Some parts of the material plane ARE simultaneously in the hells. Planar rifts. But they also took control of some ruins and cities. The robin hoods likely are very good at what they do. :-P Yeah, most 'good' cities are hidden... or far away. There isn't a fiend for every square inch, afterall. And if you leave to go marauding, that other neighboring fiend might jack your shit. Or unintelligent fiends might rape/kill your servants.

So the entire "good" civilization is built off of a bunch of Naruto-like hidden gakure/cities where people for the most part generate food by stealing it from the followers of demon overlords? Would that be about right?
Could be. Also could be underdark-esque... eating moss and fungus and raising roth herds. :-P  Hunting is viable too. Probably less dangerous than stealing.

Sure, but you can't feed even a small population daily when 80-90% of what's foraged is unedible
A dire boar is what- 2000 pounds? :-P Most probably strip it of its meat on location and hunt for more rather than bring the whole carcass back.

Of the total fiends in hell... probably no MORE than 1/8th are interested or capable of going to the material plane. I haven't decided yet just how populous or not they are in the Material plane.. There's also, as I mentioned- physical difficulties getting onto the Material plane. Considering whatever happened has been in effect for a thousand years... it's a testament to their difficulty getting through that it's only possible en masse now.

How are humans surviving then if there's such powerful challenges?
They rise to meet them. Level 5 might be too low, in fact..

The main continent is divided into three parts, it's kind of crescent shaped. The West side is about 50% of it.. mostly european in style where this campaign is. The center is Greatforest, which is about 30%, the east side is eastern in style and is likely lightly forested all over since it's being consumed.
So easterners likely come in two flavors; stubborn types who will die in their homeland... and those smart enough to flee it by sea.

What city do we hail from?
You can make that up, really. :-P Not everyone will be from the same place. The lord who is leading this expedition has been preparing it for years now, trying to find heroes to bolster their ranks.

You might want to post all the above in your original post on the thread for background info for everyone else :-P

And also, a lot of things are mysterious. IE; Ask an easterner about their homeland and they could only tell you their personal experience. There ARE survivors, even in the forest... but they aren't exactly... conventional.
    Liberal usage of word survivor.

[ExisD]

Explosive alchemist reporting in. Well mostly, I still have gear to buy and a trait to pick. Might shuffle skill points and a feat around as well based on what everyone else has. For instance, I didn't realize anyone else would have high disable device before.

One last question for chargen, how are we determining hp: rolling, max, average, some combination of the above?

[Inerrant Lust]

Oh, and everyone can get one lesser magic item. Though I should note, the creation of said items is mostly a lost art... and items once magical might have lost power long ago. Your magic item might be something worth describing how you got it.

My inclination is averaged HP.

[ShadowFox89]

Explosive alchemist reporting in. Well mostly, I still have gear to buy and a trait to pick. Might shuffle skill points and a feat around as well based on what everyone else has. For instance, I didn't realize anyone else would have high disable device before.

One last question for chargen, how are we determining hp: rolling, max, average, some combination of the above?

Two with a high disable device is good! Even better since you can dispel magic and I can't, so I'm ineffective at actually disabling most things T___T

[Inerrant Lust]

Also, those of you with knowledge skills can feel free to ask me questions that I'm not answering in the chatroom...

[ExisD]

Two with a high disable device is good! Even better since you can dispel magic and I can't, so I'm ineffective at actually disabling most things T___T

I actually can't dispel magic either.... Though we both have poison use so we can do something there.

[Ghostwheel]

I can dispel magic if need be.

[EroticFantasyAuthor]

So the demons and devils are more along that lines of possessions than encountering the various types of devils and demons from the bestiary? Didn't someone mention the possibility of encountering a balor on the road?

Also, why the variants? Why not just stick with good standard/regular Pathfinder?

As for magic items, with the variant, we basically just get one magic item that has the listed bonuses? "+5 to one ability score, +3 to all others, +7 AC, +2 to attack and damage, and +3 to all saves" And no magical weapons? Correct?

[Inerrant Lust]

Demons and devils; No, they are physically in the world. Some might have gotten there by possessing a person and morphing their body a la Diablo. Others might have simply walked into the Material Plane a la Doom. It's likely that ALL of them have the ability to possess people, but it's a slow and laborious process to do subtly.

Well, the magic variant is for two reasons; A. The story demands it! B. ...Pathfinder is terribly skewed in favor of magic anyways.

And the variant on magic items; no. YOU have those listed bonuses. A weapon you hold gets the enhancement bonus, an armor you wear gets the AC bonuses- or even if you don't wear armor at all.

It is meant to replace things like Amulets of Natural Armor, +whatever Armor, and Rings of Deflection and so on and so forth.

[EroticFantasyAuthor]

If not through magic items, how are the bonuses that everyone gets explained, in character?

And would masterwork weapons still give a +1 to attack? I'm figuring, no.

[Inerrant Lust]

Well, point buy is already pretty high. Compared to the heroes and adventurers of old, you've lived through tougher times, faced tougher enemies and been doing all of that without much help, magical or divine or even material. You're simply better because of the world you've lived in.

The attack bonuses count as enhancement bonus so it doesn't stack with mastercraft.

[Videospirit]

I'm confused by this lesser magic item business. I'm not that familiar with Pathfinder magic items to begin with, and thinking about it, it doesn't matter too much, so I'll let you pick whatever weird little trinket my character has lust.

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=766355 Crunch is done, will do the backstory later.

[Inerrant Lust]

Basically, pick a magic item roughly 4000gp or less and it's yours.

Also... 50 days of animal feed but no rations?

I would say the gunslingers' damage output is a little low.. cause some of the other sheets have huge DPS capability (5d6+15 bomb, 1d6+2+5d6 sneak attack, 15d6 fireball) Monsters would likely be tougher to compensate for this, but that would make your character even less useful in comparison... Man, I forgot how bad Pathfinder was at times.

But on the plus side, your survivability is through the roof. The halfling gunslinger as a tank? <_<