Hi Rennick. I am Tarack a dwarven Druid whose family had been outcast from dwarven society. I got a small leopard companion. Planning on possibly picking up couple of more pets.

Hello all, Arell is a Paladin of Abadar and is a local to Falcon's Hollow--he's also old enough that it's about time to put back on his armor and start tilting at windmills

Build-wise I'm not 100% sure yet.  I'm leaning more toward support-y than facebeat-y, but I don't want to give up too much facebeat-y.  I'll need to do some more research.

If anyone has suggestions I'm more than willing to listen.

How would you be support-y?

It's kind of tricksy at level 1, I'll admit.  But in the future there's a couple different options.

1. there's an interesting multiclass build with Oracle that allows you to suck damage away from your allies (and then heal it with Lay On Hands) whilst still beating face--but that takes until level four or so.

2. There's a tactician-y archetype that cuts back the power of Smite Evil in exchange for letting THE WHOLE PARTY use it.  That's fascinating in a "lots of little buffs are better than one big buff" kind of way and most of the party ought to be able to take advantage of it.  But it does sort of undercut what a Paladin is "supposed" to do, and now there's a bard--who does the whole group buff thing better than I could.

3. No idea.  As a core class, Paladin's have a ton of options and variations, and so I was sort of hoping someone would have an idea I haven't thought of yet (fairly easy).

So I'm up in the air on the 6th party member so I thought I'd open it up to the party on what you feel we need.

Dwarven Druid
Elven Rogue
Gnomish Bard
Human Ranger
Human Paladin

What do you feel would round out the party well

Summoner?
Wizard?
Cleric?

I have entries for all of these.

Of course I could hold it open or suggest a different class to some of the better entries...

Over in the corner a smallish figure sat with his bare feet propped up on a chair. He was plucking absently at some sort of homemade stringed instrument and it was unclear if he was tuning it or attempting to strangle it. As the others made their way into the Inn, he nodded and smiled, but continued his murderous melody.

~~~

Hey all, "Nom the Gnome" here, and yes, I'll be here all week. In fact, I'll be here indefinitely... I live here after all. *tips hat to Kirkwood* Been telling stories here for long enough. Time to earn a few of my own.

~~~

This is the first PF character I ever built here on RPOL (years ago). Ah the innocence of those days... back when I was surprised and devastated when the GM vaporized not long after character creation. I shopped Nom around several other times before I retired him at Level 1 to my no voluminous archive. Anyway, now he's back for another shot at bustin' outa this backwater and making a name for hisself! We've got a great GM here (though I'm suspicious of his unhealthy relationship with the dice-roller) and I'm looking forward to a great game!

FYI, my wife's due end of next week, but I've hired someone to go to the hospital with her so I won't miss any details here, so not to worry. :-P
This message was last edited by the player at 21:39, Mon 25 Sept 2017.

In reply to DM Dread (msg # 7):

I would prefer a Cleric. Druids are sub par healers at best.

In reply to Nomerendal Tunespinner (msg # 8):

Welcome sir and congratulations. I am sure we wish that the child takes after the mother ;)

Lol, me too, I certainly married up! ;-)

I vote cleric too...

I also agree on the cleric. We have a lot of off-healers but no dedicated one.

Ok Cleric it is.

We are complete. I think it's a pretty diverse and interesting party.

Welcome all.

*waves at 'Rendal

When I saw your name, my first thought was "I'll bet Arell gets his name wrong"

You: no no, my name is Nomerendal

Me: Exactly, Gnome Rendal.

Since you're local that probably happened ages ago...but Arell still probably calls you Rendal to this day.

On the subject at hand, I'm a little annoyed that stepping out means I missed this conversation.  Because I probably would have voted for the wizard as I was aiming to handle the healing.

Then again, if we're aiming for "Low Fantasy" a cleric probably fits that setting better.  Blaster-caster or god-wizard, having one means we are playing High Fantasy now.

And I suppose I can build for face-smashing and leave the healing to experts.

So yeah, I'm cool with the Cleric.

In reply to Arell Kirkwood (msg # 14):

A paladin healer? What would have been the first one I ever saw in Pathfinder.

That's...kind of what I meant when I said "support-y".  Clerics take their whole action to cast extremely finite spells to heal.  A Paladin pats you on the head as a move action and you're healed--meanwhile he goes and punches something in the face as well.

Of course, the best way to heal is to tank the damage and pat myself on the head.

In reply to Arell Kirkwood (msg # 16):

Yeah, I do not see that working very well in most games I played. Giving up a round of tanking for some sub par healing is not going to get you very far.

Best method is to not get hit and not need the healing in the first place. :P

ummm.... yeah. The rpol dice roller doesn't really work that way. You must be new?

:-P

Maybe it's just me.

Oh no, I have far too much experience with the dice roller, ergo let's not use it as much as possible :P

Please Cut and Paste The Combat Summary filling in your section.

Combat Summary

Arell AC:16(T-11/FF-15)CMD:16 HP:10/10
FO:2 RE:1 WL:1
1st Paladin Human Male

Nomerendal AC:16(T-14/FF-13) CMD:+11 HP:10/10 FO:+2 RE:+5 WL:+1
1st Bard Gnome Male Defensive Training: +4 dodge vs monsters (giant subtype)
Illusion Resistance: +2 save bonus vs illusion spells & effects.

Lorn AC:19(T-13/FF-16)CMD:12 HP:08/08 FO:1 RE:3 WL:6
1st Cleric of Human Male defenses, +1 vs spells(necromancy) and negative energy damage.

Rennick AC:14(T-11/FF-13)CMD:16 HP:13/13 FO:+4 RE:+3 WL:0
1st Ranger Human Male +1 saves Vs vision affects

Tarack AC:16(T-12/FF-14)CMD:12 HP:10/10 FO:+4 RE:+2 WL:+5
1st Druid Dwarf Male defenses

Devise AC:17(T-16/FF-12)CMD:17 Trip-21 HP:19/19 FO:+4 RE:+8 WL:+1
Leopard  Animal Companion

Buddy AC:15(T-12/FF-13)CMD:15 Trip-19 HP:11/11 FO:+4 Re:+5 WL:+2
Ram Pet

Variana AC:16(T-14/FF-12)CMD:15 HP:8/8 FO:+0 RE:+6 WL:+0
1st Rogue Elf Female (Immunity to Sleep Effects, +2 on Saves vs Enchantment Spells & Effects)
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:26, Wed 27 Sept 2017.

Character creation status
Arell- 25%
Nomerendal-Ready
Lorn-Ready
Rennick-Ready
Tarack-Ready
Variana-Ready

My intent is to start play Thursday morning. Anyone finished will be able to begin if the player isn't ready they can't post in the game thread. If everyone is ready by tomorrow, I'll start tomorrow
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:24, Wed 27 Sept 2017.

Done

In reply to DM Dread (msg # 21):

Where do you want me to post my animal's Combat Summary?

They are already in it. Just put the info there. And under defenses any save/things I need to know to run a combat smoothly

polling the players/DM

I'm considering the Oathbound Archetype "Oath against Chaos" which alters Detect Evil and Smite Evil to ping against Chaos instead.  This seems thematic to Abadar and not to detrimental in the long run (at 4th level I can retool the Smite to ALSO work against evil which seems REALLY worthwhile).

HOWEVER until that point, I will be tooled against Chaos only (which might mean my smite is worthless against stuff that really really deserves to be smote).  Which may be a very long time.

So, I ask you, is this tradeoff worth it in the early levels?

In reply to Arell Kirkwood (msg # 26):

Speaking in power gaming terms, no it's not worth it.

If we knew for a fact that we were fighting chaotic things, then yes, otherwise Evil is over abundant in low level gaming, chaos is not.