QuidEst
2012-06-02, 09:36 PM
Well, I'm (hopefully) starting my first real campaign soon. It'll be rather focused on undead- fighting zombies and the like. Dunno if we'll be seeing as much roleplaying as I'm partial to, but that's hardly a surprise. I thought I'd write the character up here and see what folks think. Comment, critique, suggest mechanical stuff, whatevs!
We already have a Cleric of Pharasma looking to lay down some serious hurt on the undead, which leaves me with some room to play around a little. (And skip spell-tax ability score healing for my Eidolon!)
I'm using an existing character I have, just translating her to the Pathfinder setting. Say hi, Avaula!
http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/7120/avaulacomm.png
The big guy is Ishkin, her Eidolon. That thing in her hand is Pandora's box.
She'll be a TN Human Summoner.
STR: 8 (Spending much of her time studying or going on long walks has done little for her upper body strength.)
DEX: 13 (Years of dealing with monsters have improved her reflexes some.)
CON: 14 (She's unusually tough for a woman her age thanks to hikes inspired by her uncle's tales of the wilds.)
INT: 14 (While not brilliant like most of the students studying magic, she's still very sharp.)
WIS: 9 (Her judgments tend to suffer when she can't analyze things thoroughly, often giving way to her natural curiosity. She also needs glasses to see well.)
CHA: 16+2 (She has a very forceful personality and a knack for convincing people to see things her way.)
Background: (still polishing this up a bit)
Avaula's uncle is a traveling bard who always brings back trinkets and the like from his journeys for her and her family. It's tacitly understood that quite a few of these were obtained through methods your local paladin wouldn't be terribly happy with. Growing up, this settled in Avaula's mind that people with magic were the ones who went places and did things, while people without magic were stuck taking what they could get. She didn't have a natural talent for magic or even music, and her family was far too poor to afford tuition for her to study magic formally.
When she was thirteen, however, her uncle gave her an unusual box he'd "acquired" from a street market since he thought it would suit her. When she opened it a week later to put something in, however, a monstrous claw reached out and tried to swipe at her. She had the presence of mind to slam the box shut (although this took some considerable effort on her part to force the claw back inside). Further cautious experimentation revealed that the box was full of monsters. A little cunning on her part allowed her to convince one of the smaller schools that she had some natural talent in summoning, a dangerous enough gift to merit guidance and tutelage. During her studies, she has also begun training some of the monsters in secret. She'll be dropped into the campaign at age twenty-three, having left the school with several books to study when it seemed like she would not be able to keep her secret hidden much longer.
Eidolon
It's not a pretty sight for the optimization-inclined. I came up with the design first.
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e87/neesboy/IshkinMonsterShaded.png
He'll be starting with arms and claws for his three evo points. I'll be getting Large as soon as possible, and getting improved damage/natural armor in the meantime. He'll eventually get the works on grab and constrict, tied to his bite since the reach is free. Little weird to not be using the claws for it, but we'll go with grabbing their face and pulling them in with his mouth-tendril-things. Recommendations that fit the design are welcome! (E.g. poison on the bite. :smallamused: If we get past undead.)
At level 10, he will probably be contributing an evo point or two to Avaula, probably for the skilled evolution. Seriously, though. +8 racial mod in something? Drop that sucker in Spellcraft. Or Diplomacy. Or Bluff. Or Bluff and Diplomacy!
Spells
I love my caster classes!
Avaula will start off with:
Read Magic, Mage Hand, Detect Magic, and Guidance
Mage Armor, Unseen Servant
(Yes, I'm waiting for level two to get Grease. But those are what I think she'd start off knowing from her studies.)
List at level 11:
0th
Read Magic, Mage Hand, Mending, Message, Detect Magic, Guidance
1st
Mage Armor, Unseen Servant, Shield, Unfetter, Grease, Magic Fang
2nd
Ablative Barrier, Barkskin (Consider Haste or Evo Surge, Lesser), Create Pit, Glitterdust, Invisibility
3rd
Greater Magic Fang, Black Tentacles, Greater Invisibility, Fly or Heroism
4th
Stoneskin (Communal), Teleport, something else.
I'm not terribly fond of magical flight. As extremely practical as it is, it's not something I see my characters doing. Haste isn't big on the list until I work out what benefit I get with natural attacks. There may be an Expanded Arvana thrown in.
Questions!
• Do I really need to sink skills into Handle Animal? The DCs to do much are awfully high for the benefit, and summons attack automatically. I'm planning on focusing on UMD, Spellcraft, Knowledge(Arcana) with a rank in Dungeoneering and Planes, Bluff, and Diplomacy.
• I'm playing human. Should I sink both feats to get Augmented Summoning right off the bat?
• Good summons recommendations at each level would be cool! I won't be getting to make use of any poison most of the time. Undead enemies, and all that.
Fluff Stuff and a Few Sundry Details
Traits will be Naturally Curious (+1 to UMD) and Fast Talker (+1 to Bluff, now a class skill). I think they fit her well.
She wears glasses, which I think fits a low Wisdom score well. The Cleric is maxing his ranks out along with some seriously boosted Sense Motive, so optimization-wise, it'll be fine.
I really like the idea of her taking a couple books from school with her. Nice explanation for new spell levels.
The modern version of Avaula has made D&D jokes for a while now. She's advised somebody to put more ranks into Bluff, so I made sure she followed her own advice.
Thanks for having a look, folks! Any comments, etc. are welcome.
We already have a Cleric of Pharasma looking to lay down some serious hurt on the undead, which leaves me with some room to play around a little. (And skip spell-tax ability score healing for my Eidolon!)
I'm using an existing character I have, just translating her to the Pathfinder setting. Say hi, Avaula!
http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/7120/avaulacomm.png
The big guy is Ishkin, her Eidolon. That thing in her hand is Pandora's box.
She'll be a TN Human Summoner.
STR: 8 (Spending much of her time studying or going on long walks has done little for her upper body strength.)
DEX: 13 (Years of dealing with monsters have improved her reflexes some.)
CON: 14 (She's unusually tough for a woman her age thanks to hikes inspired by her uncle's tales of the wilds.)
INT: 14 (While not brilliant like most of the students studying magic, she's still very sharp.)
WIS: 9 (Her judgments tend to suffer when she can't analyze things thoroughly, often giving way to her natural curiosity. She also needs glasses to see well.)
CHA: 16+2 (She has a very forceful personality and a knack for convincing people to see things her way.)
Background: (still polishing this up a bit)
Avaula's uncle is a traveling bard who always brings back trinkets and the like from his journeys for her and her family. It's tacitly understood that quite a few of these were obtained through methods your local paladin wouldn't be terribly happy with. Growing up, this settled in Avaula's mind that people with magic were the ones who went places and did things, while people without magic were stuck taking what they could get. She didn't have a natural talent for magic or even music, and her family was far too poor to afford tuition for her to study magic formally.
When she was thirteen, however, her uncle gave her an unusual box he'd "acquired" from a street market since he thought it would suit her. When she opened it a week later to put something in, however, a monstrous claw reached out and tried to swipe at her. She had the presence of mind to slam the box shut (although this took some considerable effort on her part to force the claw back inside). Further cautious experimentation revealed that the box was full of monsters. A little cunning on her part allowed her to convince one of the smaller schools that she had some natural talent in summoning, a dangerous enough gift to merit guidance and tutelage. During her studies, she has also begun training some of the monsters in secret. She'll be dropped into the campaign at age twenty-three, having left the school with several books to study when it seemed like she would not be able to keep her secret hidden much longer.
Eidolon
It's not a pretty sight for the optimization-inclined. I came up with the design first.
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e87/neesboy/IshkinMonsterShaded.png
He'll be starting with arms and claws for his three evo points. I'll be getting Large as soon as possible, and getting improved damage/natural armor in the meantime. He'll eventually get the works on grab and constrict, tied to his bite since the reach is free. Little weird to not be using the claws for it, but we'll go with grabbing their face and pulling them in with his mouth-tendril-things. Recommendations that fit the design are welcome! (E.g. poison on the bite. :smallamused: If we get past undead.)
At level 10, he will probably be contributing an evo point or two to Avaula, probably for the skilled evolution. Seriously, though. +8 racial mod in something? Drop that sucker in Spellcraft. Or Diplomacy. Or Bluff. Or Bluff and Diplomacy!
Spells
I love my caster classes!
Avaula will start off with:
Read Magic, Mage Hand, Detect Magic, and Guidance
Mage Armor, Unseen Servant
(Yes, I'm waiting for level two to get Grease. But those are what I think she'd start off knowing from her studies.)
List at level 11:
0th
Read Magic, Mage Hand, Mending, Message, Detect Magic, Guidance
1st
Mage Armor, Unseen Servant, Shield, Unfetter, Grease, Magic Fang
2nd
Ablative Barrier, Barkskin (Consider Haste or Evo Surge, Lesser), Create Pit, Glitterdust, Invisibility
3rd
Greater Magic Fang, Black Tentacles, Greater Invisibility, Fly or Heroism
4th
Stoneskin (Communal), Teleport, something else.
I'm not terribly fond of magical flight. As extremely practical as it is, it's not something I see my characters doing. Haste isn't big on the list until I work out what benefit I get with natural attacks. There may be an Expanded Arvana thrown in.
Questions!
• Do I really need to sink skills into Handle Animal? The DCs to do much are awfully high for the benefit, and summons attack automatically. I'm planning on focusing on UMD, Spellcraft, Knowledge(Arcana) with a rank in Dungeoneering and Planes, Bluff, and Diplomacy.
• I'm playing human. Should I sink both feats to get Augmented Summoning right off the bat?
• Good summons recommendations at each level would be cool! I won't be getting to make use of any poison most of the time. Undead enemies, and all that.
Fluff Stuff and a Few Sundry Details
Traits will be Naturally Curious (+1 to UMD) and Fast Talker (+1 to Bluff, now a class skill). I think they fit her well.
She wears glasses, which I think fits a low Wisdom score well. The Cleric is maxing his ranks out along with some seriously boosted Sense Motive, so optimization-wise, it'll be fine.
I really like the idea of her taking a couple books from school with her. Nice explanation for new spell levels.
The modern version of Avaula has made D&D jokes for a while now. She's advised somebody to put more ranks into Bluff, so I made sure she followed her own advice.
Thanks for having a look, folks! Any comments, etc. are welcome.