Pathfinder - Small Incestuous Group of High Power PCs - Taking Applications

[Kimera]

Well maybe the artifacts they found instill upon them the spirits of those fallen warriors and thus gaining their strength and abilities...maybe?

[Zaer Darkwail]

Well maybe the artifacts they found instill upon them the spirits of those fallen warriors and thus gaining their strength and abilities...maybe?

Indeed, both stories 2 and 3 could have regular commoners as background but with surge of power gain the benefits of classes (in third scenario the farmers get it more slowly and do not even realize their potential until agents show up). It's like one farmers got 8 levels as barbarian but had no reason to tap or use barbarian class features until agents came and suddenly calm John the smith makes red paste on agents with his hammer while foam coming out from his mouth. Anyways now on opinions;

I like most story 1, then story 2 as it gives strong basis to protect nation and put stop to the war which has cost family a lot (first for heroic or villain story either way as family can be forceful even towards their own nation). But I do like story 1 as it places heroic family tainted with lich's power and then immediately forced confront their former comrades in battle. Comrades who are specialized in killing evil overlord types so their new powers and abilities are put on test. So sort epic opening is what I liked most in first story and the idea of family suddenly becoming more perverted (incestuous) one another as well.

[Kimera]

I like the first one the most as well. Then the second one. The last one needs a bit too many 'a wizard did it' to get them from their starting scenario into a bunch of (anti)heroes

[Tavarokk]

The problem with #1 is that there's a pretty narrow gap between 'Fight our former comrades? Let's not.' and 'Your characters have been insta-brainwashed into someone else entirely, all backgrounds and prior relationships are moot.'

Hence me asking about the party being saddled with some sort of red flag that would make the righteous types attack unreasonably enough that it won't be strange to fight back rather than disengage.

[Zaer Darkwail]

Perhaps during power up former heroes transformed to look more evil overlords? Than heroes who entered the lair or otherwise obviously appear evil.

[Petrus02]

or the lich had a pocket dimension. Not knowing the "proper" way out, the heroes had to find an exit by trial and error. which took time. time enough for the changes to work enough?

[Vreski]

I like the third story the best. I would love to be one of the farmers daughters who was milking a cow at the time, so she turns into a very milky half minotaur

[Angie]

My dragon sorceress can work in any of the stories, so I'm open to anything. But expect an adorably sweet Neutral Good type :)

[Chulanowa]

Here are three pitches. I'm going to post them in my first post as well. Tell me how you rate them in order! We're going to end up playing one of these. There is still some space for changing smaller details about them.

All three are fiid, but since you want 'em ranked, Third idea > First idea > Second

I like the idea of the PC's powers having a built-in storyline to pursue, and "farm-bound yokel" is one of my favorite places to start a character.

The lich storyline, while I dislike the idea of a magical personality shift, does seem to offer more character concept flexibility, and feels like it promises a "sandbox with dungeons," which I dig.

And the second storyline kinda just feels like a lot of stuff stacked together, with a MacGuffin on top. It seems like the weakest of the three despite having the most detail.

[Ryu Wojin]

My question is just... if we're doing the family concept. How far away from the family can we be? Are we all brothers and sisters or can we be as far as a distant cousin? Or can we even not be blood related as a wife or husband married to a family member? This could also help in the differences regarding race.

Also, to what degree do our personal stories go to? If we're gestalt level 10 or so along with mythic, there's gotta be a good history to explain that. mythic being explained by story progression, but a level 10 gestalt is no joke. How much of this history can we keep to ourselves? Since character development can rely heavily on a character accepting and overcoming said history. (And the best way to overcome it would be to have the help of loved ones).

I mean... if a family member left on an adventure and came back as a multi-tailed kitsune or came back as something different... That's gotta be explained in some fashion or another .

[pdragon]

First Idea > Second Idea > Third Idea

For the first idea, perhaps they don't necessarily have to immediately fight their own troops? I like the idea of them becoming corrupted, but perhaps not enough so that they're ready to start cutting down their own allies from the get go. Maybe they rejoin the battle against the liches forces, and in doing so show off their new, horrific powers. Their troops see this and are clearly disturbed by it, but instead of immediately turning on them it simply starts seeding doubt and distrust through the ranks. This could culminate in their forces eventually turning on them, with the betrayal from their men being the thing that actually tips them over into being evil rather than just because they're being magically brain washed. I think that would fit with the more tragic hero nature of the set up. Even corrupted as they were they may have intended to stay loyal to their kingdom, but their own people betraying them after their sacrifice is what drives them over the deep end, allowing them to start indulging in their new dark urges without guilt or shame.

[Waldham]

A family, descendants of a bloodline of heroes that fight side by side with their blood kin, are leading a campaign against a great lich. After a significant struggle, the family of heroes and their followers finally make their way to the lich's lair. While the supporting army holds off the lich's forces, the family heads into the lair's depths alone, to confront the lich once and for all.

After narrowly defeating the lich and destroying his phylactery a curious essence pours from the destroyed vessel. The source of the lich's power finds its way into the heroes. The feel invigorated by the immense power, but it is accompanied by other strange feelings. Slowly the group begins to reconsider what is right and wrong. They begin to entertain morals and ideals that are increasingly gray. Before they have the chance to emerge from the lich's lair and rejoin their company they decide that the companies goals no longer align with their own. Blessed now with even greater power than before they are faced with a group designed specifically to destroy the power that infests them.

Ideas for the inspiration :
Return of the Runelords :
Campaign traits :
Close Allies
You and another PC are close allies—friends, lovers, siblings, or even twins. Work with the other player to build a shared history—both you and the other player must choose Close Allies as a campaign trait, and both must agree to the nature of the relationship between the two characters.
(At the GM’s option, more than two PCs can be linked by this trait.) You and your close ally have always supported each other. You might have the tendency to complete each
other’s sentences, dress similarly, share the same religion or faith, or have endured a dangerous event together in the past. If you and the other player agree (and have chosen
either the siblings or twins option below), you might not even particularly like your close “ally,” yet you still respect them and can utilize this trait’s benefits all the same.
If your relationship with your close ally ends (as a result of death, a parting of ways, or other catastrophe), you immediately lose this campaign trait and replace it with Spirit Touched (see
below) as a result of your emotional distress.
When you and the other PC agree to take this shared trait, you must also agree on the nature of your characters’ bond by choosing one of the following: friends, lovers, siblings, or twins. If you choose twins, both PCs must be of the same race. If you choose siblings, one or both of you are adopted if you aren’t of the same race.
Whenever you are adjacent to your close ally, you gain a +1 trait bonus on all saving throws.
Once per adventure as an immediate action, you may grant your close ally a bonus equal to the result of 1d6 to a single d20 roll. You must have line of sight to your ally to
use this ability. You may choose to grant this bonus after your ally has rolled, but must do so before the result of the roll is known.

Scion of Legend
Your character has a personal link or association with one of Varisia’s established heroes. This hero should be a PC you played in a previous campaign (and could be, but need not be, one of the Sihedron Heroes). Your character could be a younger sibling, younger cousin, or even an apprentice of the hero. If enough time has passed, you
might be the hero’s child, or your character could have reincarnated from the soul of a hero that died before your character was born.
Choose two skills for which your associated hero has skill ranks. You gain a +1 trait bonus on checks with both of those skills, and those two skills are class skills for you.
Once per adventure as a free action, you can call upon a previously forgotten bit of advice or lore imparted to you by the hero to gain an insight bonus equal to your class level
(minimum +10) to a skill check. You may choose to apply this bonus after you roll the skill check, but must do so before the result of the roll is known.

Spirit Touched
As a child, you were influenced by overwhelming emotional trauma associated with death or undeath, and that influence marked you for the rest of your life. You may have been possessed by a ghost, had strange dreams in a haunted house, or suffered from an affliction from an undead source. You might even have had a near-death experience, or actually died and been returned to life. Work with your GM to determine the details of how you became spirit touched; she may have suggestions for you to tie your experience more tightly into the themes of the Return of the Runelords Adventure Path.
You gain a +2 trait bonus on all saving throws made against supernatural attacks, spells, or spell-like abilities from undead creatures.
Once per adventure, you may automatically succeed at a Constitution check to stabilize or a saving throw to remove a negative level.

For the lich, that could be the Whispering Tyrant. It's a mythic opponent.

The following ideas represent some of the most common means of ascension.
Artifact: The character come s into contact with an unstable artifact that unleashes some of its power into her, granting her mythic power. The mythic character might need to protect the artifact, as it is the source of her power.

Fated: The character was born under an auspicious sign, such as a planetary conjunction or lunar eclipse, and as such was destined to greatness. The moment of ascension comes when those circumstances repeat themselves and the character gains mythic power.

Godling: The mythic character is the child of a god, typically born from the union of that deity and a mortal.
The moment of ascension is when the character learns of her true heritage or is visited by her divine parent (or an agent of that deity).

Granted: A divine agent or other incredibly powerful being calls upon the character to act as its representative. This role gives the character mythic power, but possibly only while serving the interests of this benefactor and while holding to that patron's tenets. 

Passed On: The character is present at the death of a powerful-perhap s even mythic-creature. In its final moments, it passes on its power to the character, granting mythic abilities. Alternatively, its power might not be given voluntarily, but rather taken by the PCs when they slaying a mythic creature. These methods could even be the way that all mythic power is gained in a campaign.

Corruptions

Family Traits

Mania : engage in risky sexual behavior

I like the third story the best. I would love to be one of the farmers daughters who was milking a cow at the time, so she turns into a very milky half minotaur

A nice idea. 

Once upon a time, in the sky above a modest family farm, there is a magnificent sight. One that manages impossible brilliance, like that of a hundred stars, but that does not demand the aversion of gaze. By the simple act of basking in its glory, the modest farmers are imparted with the power of a dying deity. The power does not manifest all at once but over the following year, the blessed family begins noticing its effects. At first, the deific power presented itself only as a bountiful harvest. As time progressed, so too did the power's manifestation. Soon great luck began to bless the family in all things, and eventually, they each began to display signs of great potential.

As the family began taking advantage of their blessing, they attracted the attention of a bitter being. This powerful being was responsible for slaying the goddess that spilled her power that fateful night. The being had hoped to harvest the power for himself, but, with her dying breath, the goddess released her power to the mortals below. Now that the slayer is beginning to pinpoint where the goddess power ended up, the family has begun running into the being's agents.

Perhaps, the pieces of the destroyed artifact landed in the modest family farm and corrupted slowly corrupted. And the perpetrators of the destruction do not want to see that occuring.

[Zaer Darkwail]

It would be quite a twist to third tale to make it defeat of a evil goddess and shards of her power sunk to innocent farm fields, slowly corrupt and empower the family and then rigtheous crusaders come 'cleanse' the evil taint from land and from them (with violence and death) and thus push otherwise nice (perverted) farmer family turn into evil and embrace the dark power as means to save themselves (before that moment they have no class levels).

In that sense corruption system would work very well as it hints 'embracing dark powers to accomplish a self-righteous/noble goal'.

[Mister Ugly]

I am going to express my interest as well here. Also I have a suggestion.

The PCs are a family group from earth transported by some powerful magic/artifact/death of a lich to the fantasy world.
I would also suggest for this that the best races would Aasimar. Tiefling or a Shabti. Of course other races would work. I just like the idea of the family all similar in race and the ones listed fit my idea better then most!

MU

[Petrus02]

not sold on your idea, we ruled isekai out long ago, and the GM already presented 3 ideas for us to decide from... which you could have known if you cared to read... and certainly not sold on any of those races. if you want everyone to play the same race at last name a versatile one like... human? Half elf?

[Mister Ugly]

I did actually read the GM's Post. which was why I wrote... 'transported by some powerful magic/artifact/death of a lich'...
I believe the first idea was the death of a lich, the second was an artifact and the 3rd was magic. Was I wrong?

I also noted that any other race would work but I felt the 3 offered worked well since there are numerous aspects to Aasimar and teiflings. I just liked the idea of a bunch of statues coming to life for the Shabti.

I missed where isekai had been ruled out so sorry about that.
I was just offering a suggestion that as GM myself I could see working well.
I am sorry if that offended anyone!

MU

[Stendarr]

I'm going to expand on the first story idea and merge the second and third together. I just want to make sure I'm addressing what people do and don't like about the second and third so I can make the right changes. Once I present those ideas you all can decide which you prefer and we can move forward with that one.

As for races, even if everyone is very close family we could still find good racial diversity. I think it's reasonable to say that in a family you could find: humans, half-orcs, half-elves, and then if we consider how the source of power and other things might change people you could also have aasimar and teiflings, with even a further possibility of other things. You could even have a half-kitsune (mechanically just a Kitsune) in the family. I'm sure you could make arguments for other races as well, and I'd be happy to entertain them.

My question is just... if we're doing the family concept. How far away from the family can we be? Are we all brothers and sisters or can we be as far as a distant cousin? Or can we even not be blood related as a wife or husband married to a family member? This could also help in the differences regarding race.

Also, to what degree do our personal stories go to? If we're gestalt level 10 or so along with mythic, there's gotta be a good history to explain that. mythic being explained by story progression, but a level 10 gestalt is no joke. How much of this history can we keep to ourselves? Since character development can rely heavily on a character accepting and overcoming said history. (And the best way to overcome it would be to have the help of loved ones).

I mean... if a family member left on an adventure and came back as a multi-tailed kitsune or came back as something different... That's gotta be explained in some fashion or another .

I think whatever gives the PCs their mythic power could also be the source of their gestalt levels, but it seems like most would prefer for the characters to already have some ability or class direction of their own. I'll take that into consideration.

The PCs don't need to be immediate family, I suppose. You could also have a non-blood-related marriage as well, but there will be some degree of incest, so there would probably be a child as a third PC in that circumstance.

For the first idea, perhaps they don't necessarily have to immediately fight their own troops? I like the idea of them becoming corrupted, but perhaps not enough so that they're ready to start cutting down their own allies from the get go.

Would the first include some form of curse or maybe undead template being forced on the PCs? Otherwise I'm not seeing what stops them from just playing along, "peacefully retiring" and doing whatever they want a few months later.

I was actually thinking the ex-heroes would play along for a bit. Maybe just trying to shake off the darkness creeping into their thoughts.

It's definitely not going to be something that changes every part of their personalities. What it will do is very strongly motivate them to continue the Lich's secret work. I have yet to decide exactly the nature of that work, but it will be at least morally ambiguous.

not sold on your idea, we ruled isekai out long ago, and the GM already presented 3 ideas for us to decide from... which you could have known if you cared to read... and certainly not sold on any of those races. if you want everyone to play the same race at last name a versatile one like... human? Half elf?

Be kind, please!

[Zaer Darkwail]

Merging story 2 and 3 would be interesting. As I already suggested that before the family is threatened (by evil or good guys), the family behaves and work as normal despite the power has boosted them to have magic, class features and powers of 8th gestalt. It's like living your everyday life and your own mind shuts down your overpowered parts as your not aware of them (think superman with amnesia and his instinct limiting his power usage everyday).

Then as threat shows up, BOOM, then family instincts kick in to use their suppressed powers in full toll.

Either way, still favoring story 1 the most albeit need expanding it bit.

[ChaoticSky]

I would also be interested in this if your still looking. I'm a huge fan of incest. If possible id like to play a daughter/sister of the hypothetical family, either the youngest(ideal) or oldest(also fine) female sibling (male ones can be older or younger or whatnot).

For the ideas given;

1Civil war scavangers
2Farmers Dreams come true
3Family fighting a Lich

I think the Scavengers is best. Not quite so pure as the farmers, theyve suffered, landed on hard times, done some horrible stuff (looting bodies) to survive in these hard times. The fact they have broken some taboos already might make it easier to break others. But they are not bad people, they arnt corrupted by dark forces and dont go around pillaging innocent people. Their land has suffered and they miraculously find the power to help. So they do. And if anyone feels like judging them thats too bad.

The Farmer's dream, i think rather than being 'holy', might work better if it was abit... lovecrafty. A few tweaks to the plotline would have their land fecund, their minds and morals skewing sideways, and invigorated with strange new powers. The Dark Tapestry is Golarion's name for the darkness between the stars, and there reside beings of great power and chaos. Mayhap we find ourselves blessed by Shub-Niggurath. Otherwise it strikes me as almost too... wholesome. Maybe even alittle shallow.

The Lich would be best to avoid i think. Too much betrayal and overt corruption.

[Petrus02]

Be kind, please!

Sorry! wasn't my intention to sound unkind or aggressive, i just wanted to show my disagreement with his idea and name a few reasons.

[Ryu Wojin]

As for races, even if everyone is very close family we could still find good racial diversity. I think it's reasonable to say that in a family you could find: humans, half-orcs, half-elves, and then if we consider how the source of power and other things might change people you could also have aasimar and teiflings, with even a further possibility of other things. You could even have a half-kitsune (mechanically just a Kitsune) in the family. I'm sure you could make arguments for other races as well, and I'd be happy to entertain them.

I think whatever gives the PCs their mythic power could also be the source of their gestalt levels, but it seems like most would prefer for the characters to already have some ability or class direction of their own. I'll take that into consideration.

Theres certainly the ability to discuss it ahead of time when characters are being made.

Even though you said to wait on character character, I'm somewhat anxious to make one already. Perhaps the kitsune idea, or could even take a dip towards cluthulu based stuff with Aegis and the Aberrant archetype (tentacles!).

I'm also pretty envious of the attention you're getting. Pathfinder games havnt been offered in a long time

[Stendarr]

Sorry! wasn't my intention to sound unkind or aggressive, i just wanted to show my disagreement with his idea and name a few reasons.

All good!

Theres certainly the ability to discuss it ahead of time when characters are being made.

Even though you said to wait on character character, I'm somewhat anxious to make one already. Perhaps the kitsune idea, or could even take a dip towards cluthulu based stuff with Aegis and the Aberrant archetype (tentacles!).

I'm also pretty envious of the attention you're getting. Pathfinder games havnt been offered in a long time

Frankly, I'm a little surprised at how much attention this is getting.

We'll try and narrow it down so people can start moving into character ideas.

[Kimera]

Uhu

10+ people going for a 2-4 slot game. 

[Zaer Darkwail]

Uhu

10+ people going for a 2-4 slot game. 

Indeed, competition will be fierce and may gods have mercy on GM for making hard choices to pick the family for the story. Albeit curious on exact slots to fill; is it mother+father and 2 siblings or mother + 2 siblings and then adopted/married member to group and so on.

With 10 you can cover grandparents, parents, 2-3 siblings + those who married into family or are cousins or uncles.

[Tavarokk]

I don't think there's any point in picking exact family composition before an characters have been put forward. It'll probably have to be readjusted on the fly anyway based on who's available and who's compatible with whom.