World-Building Campaign PC Help

[TeeHee]

So my DM and I were discussing a kind of world-building campaign where myself and another PC would start a colony of sorts and both take the leadership feat. If you have any links to posts about this sort of campaign I would love to see them for ideas for the DM and for me. What sorts of classes would be good? I was thinking artificer for the crafting and building aspect, and if it's Gestalt then I considered an Artificer/Wizard or Artificer/Cleric for creation and building spells. Any ideas for feats, useful spells, items, etc would be most appreciated as we have never attempted this sort of thing before. Please if you have played in this sort of game before tell your stories as any sort of inspiration as to how to structure it and what to build would be great. I believe the majority of the play time will be spent on special missions to secure resources and combat other factions, with crafting and building between games.
Thank you in advance!

[Fuzzy McCoy]

One big thing to think about is how much micromanagement you want to do. For a while in my Saturday game we were given control of a ruined fortress, and we were really micromanaging it - who was on guard duty when, what the exports we wanted were, what the defenses were like, etc. That turned into a kind of big mess, so the game is a bit on hiatus until we figure out a solution. However, here are some feats/spells that should be helpful (in 3.5, not necessarily pathfinder).

Wall of stone/iron/salt: All three of these walls produce a valuable product. Wall of stone and wall of iron for building materials, wall of salt for money and food preservation.

Wood warp/stone shape/fabricate: good for construction in a hurry.

Stone metamorphasis: this spell from Underdark is a bit of an interesting one. It's useful for creating beautiful works of art (change to marble) or making stone slightly harder (making the default from wall of stone to granite, for example). Not the first spell to grab, but should be grabbed at some point.

Planar Binding: Djinn are powerhouses* here. Major creation is fairly powerful, and they get non-living vegetable matter as permanent. So things like wood, flour, and spices are all on the list, and they stick around forever. They also can create wine instantaneously. Imagine being able to sell a barrel of Grand Cru every day and swim in your gold pile. Even if your DM rules it's only table wine levels of price, being able to produce several barrels of wine a day is extremely helpful in keeping your colonists happy.

There are also other possibilities: Migard Dwarves are consummate crafters if supplied with xp, and trumpet archons and ghaele eladrins both cast as 14th level clerics.

Plant growing: See this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?476382-Magic-Horti-Agri-culture-Optimization) for ideas.

Decanter of endless water: not a spell, but so amazingly helpful it's not even funny. The geyser mode produces 5 gallons per second, which equals about three million gallons per week. The average american uses something like 400 gallons a day, so one geyser, if left running for a week, can support something like 60000** colonists for one day.

Charm monster: good for forging alliances with big dumb brutes to help with construction.

Quench: an oft ignored spell in core, but not bad for city building. Put out a large amount of fire almost instantly.


On the feat side of things, it's a fair bit sparser. The one that stand out in my mind are Extra Followers, since more followers are good.

*ignoring efreeti wish abuse
**assuming all my math is correct

[ThisIsZen]

You might need to adjust it to suit your needs, but I think the Pathfinder Kingdom rules from Ultimate Campaign are actually fairly good as a starting point for raising up a colony into its own state. It would also obviate the need for Leadership as a mechanism - you could still take it, of course, but your town would grow on its own merits rather than just as a result of your Leadership score increasing.

[TeeHee]

Thank you both!
And what about the idea of an Artificer? Would it be feasible to use their abilities to build a colony or would that be a waste of their potential somehow? I have never played one personally.

[Fuzzy McCoy]

Artificer's not a bad choice, but I think wizard might be better. Obviously if you gestalt, you do both, but an artificer is a consummate crafter, while the wizard is a bit more of a generalist, and able to get things done on the fly. If you need to be a face suddenly, the artificer can boost charisma, maybe craft an item if given a few days notice. But a wizard can prep suggestion, charm monster, voice of the dragon, and half a dozen other spells to ensure success. Also, the artificer can be even more complicated than a wizard, so there's that too.

Now, it sounds like I'm rather harsh on the artificer. If you went that route, you'd be good at it - artificers have their tier 1 status for a good reason. And an artificer would make an excellent cohort. But at the end of the day, I would choose wizard over artificer.