Master of Heroes

[SriK]

[SriK]

Galden is now investigating the Skeleton King's Crypt.

[Battlegrounds]

Galden has emerged victorious from the Skeleton King's Crypt!

Read Story: https://culture.vg/forum/topic?p=39374#p39374

“So,” [the Skeleton King] rasps in a voice like two stones scraping together. “Your pitiful town has sent a champion. How kind of them. Since you’ve clearly slain my goblin servant, it’s only fair that you take his place and join me—in death!” With a grating laugh, the skeleton stands and moves toward you, readying its longsword to attack!

[icycalm]

Since Galden wasn't stated—because his stats were embedded in the text of the scenario—I had to deduce his stats from the text so that SriK could take him to the next scenario. This was a little tricky to do.

Strength
The text gives his dmg with longsword as 1d8+2, meaning a str of 14-15. But it also gives his Attack Bonus as +5. +1 of that comes from the fighter's BAB, and another +1 from Weapon Focus longsword, plus +2 from str. So where does the remaining +1 come from? I read and reread the "Beginner Box" rules and the scenario, but couldn't figure it out. I was almost going crazy over it until I thought, it must be a masterwork longsword, there's no other explanation. So then I looked back at Galden's intro description, and the sword was described as "your father's old longsword". That's good enough for me, unless anyone has any other ideas.

Dexterity
His AC is given as 16, and he wears chainmail which gives +6. So he has +0 dex mod, so his dex must be 10-11. This means his Reflex save is +0. HOWEVER, at one point in the scenario he makes a Reflex save and the book says +2. So it must be a feat. And indeed the basic rules include Lightning Reflexes which gives "a +2 bonus on all Reflex saving throws".

Constitution
This was easy. His HP is 12. He's a 1st-level fighter giving 10 HP, so for +2 HP he must have con 14-15.

As for int, wis and cha, we have no indication because he doesn't undertake any mental actions in the scenario. So these could be anything.

So the next step was to generate his stats with these limitations:

Str 14-15
Dex 10-11
Con 14-15
Int ANY
Wis ANY
Cha ANY

I used this character roller: https://rgbstudios.org/projects/dnd-dic ... ter-roller

It's for D&D, but it works fine just for the rolls. Since the "Beginner Box" rules give the "4d6, keep best 3" method, that's what I had to use for Galden (and it's anyway the one we use for everyone).

It was surprising how many times I had to roll to fulfill the requirements. I needed two 14-15s and one 10-11, and I must have rolled two-three dozen times to get them. Finally, I got this:



Some final bit of deduction was needed to allocate all the scores. First of all, even though the 16 should clearly go to str for a fighter, I can't do that because the scenario uses 14-15, and since we rolled a 15, that's going to str. Which means con gets the 14, and dex the 11. That takes care of the physical stats, but the mental ones allowed for actual choice. But choice was what I didn't want to use, because this isn't my hero. Moreover, I didn't want to turn this choice over to SriK either because, even though Galden IS his hero, he's not his CHARACTER. His roleplaying character/main Battlegrounds character is the one he'll be playing in Kingslayer, and all heroes should be randomly generated both for speed/efficiency of play and also to distance the player from these heroes and make them feel more disposable as is appropriate for an adventure-strategy game/layer, as opposed to a roleplaying one.

So I had to devise an algorithm with which to assign the last 3 scores. And I simply went with the fact that, if the rolls were made in the same order as the traditional ability order, int would be 11 and cha 9. Which leaves the 16 to be used for wis, giving us:

Str 15
Dex 11
Con 14
Int 11
Wis 16
Cha 9

As a human, Galden can add +2 to one ability, but unfortunately it can't be the physical ones because, again, those are set by the scenario. So I simply rolled 1d3 with 1 being int, 2 wis and 3 cha, which came up 1, so I put the +2 in int, giving us:

Str 15
Dex 11
Con 14
Int 13
Wis 16
Cha 9

So this is what we have, a very average fighter, who is however exceptionally wise and quite intelligent for his class. SriK could roleplay him like this if/when he gets a rare opportunity to roleplay him. But there will be very little roleplaying in the adventure-strategy layer. Of course, it's possible for an adventure-strategy hero to be drawn into the full-blown roleplaying layer, and then SriK will have to fully roleplay him.

Don't forget he also has Weapon Focus longsword, Lightning Reflexes, and a masterwork longsword.

But we ain't done yet. Plenty of more stats to determine. So what I did at this point is go to this fully-featured PF1 random character generator and hit "Generate": https://lcb931023.github.io/pathfinder_ ... _generator

From the results, I took alignment as chaotic neutral ("You are free from society's restrictions and do-gooders' strict ethics"). Age was 15, but I couldn't use it because look at Galden's pic, he looks mid-20s at least if not 30s, so I gave him 30. Hair came up as "dark blonde" which I couldn't use for the same reason, so I went with brown, and eyes as "green" which I kept because in the illustration he is squinting and you can't make out his eyes so they could be anything. Since race came up halfling, I couldn't use the height and weight. Nor could I use the gold because class came up other than fighter. So I simply kept generating new characters until I got all the stats:

Name: Galden Gender: Male Race: Human Class: Fighter
Age: 30 Size: Medium Humanoid (human) Height: 75 Weight: 180
Hair: Brown Eyes: Green Gold Pieces: 170 Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Level: 1 Hit Points: 12 Hit Die: d10 Armor Class: 16 Speed: 30ft

Str 15 +2
Dex 11 0
Con 14 +2
Int 13 +1
Wis 16 +3
Cha 9 -1

Fortitude Saves: +2 Reflex Saves: +2 Will Saves: +0 BAB: +1

Languages: Common

Class Skills: Climb, Ride, Knowledge (Dungeoneering), Swim

Skills (4): Climb, Ride, Knowledge (Dungeoneering), Swim

Feats (2): Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack

Weapon Focus: Longsword

SPEED 30 FEET (6 SQUARES)
Your normal speed is 30 feet. When wearing medium or heavy armor, your speed is reduced to just 20 feet (4 squares).
BONUS FEAT
Humans have a knack for learning special tricks called feats. You start the game with an extra feat!
BONUS SKILL RANKS
Humans learn things easily. You get an extra skill rank at every level.

You might think I might have made some subjective choices above, but I assure you I didn't make a single one. When there was a choice to be made, I simply went with the "Beginner Box" rulebook recommendations for a fighter. All 4 skills above are its recommendations, as is the Power Attack feat after spending one feat on Lightning Reflexes mandated by the scenario. The basic rules don't include languages, but I gave him Common anyway since every Sandpoint native is supposed to have it. We can add languages when we move the adventure-strategy layer to the full PF1 rules.

Two things remain to be determined: How much XP SriK earned in Skeleton King's Crypt, and what money and items he gained so we can get his full inventory. I'll do this in the next post.

The above was quite a bit of work due to having to work around the scenario's restrictions. Future heroes will be generated with just a couple clicks, so it won't be an issue.

[icycalm]

So it occurred to me that since everything in the scenario was fantasy, Galden gets no XP or items/gold from it! Nada!

The only thing he gets is a pouch with "dozens of gold pieces" from Aldern (which let's make it 100, same as the mayor would have given), and whatever XP I determine he should get from the audition, which I suppose counts as a successful Perform (Act) check. However, Perform isn't in the basic rules! But this probably won't end up mattering anyway because... we'll be using the Pathfinder Society's simplified XP system as much as possible in the adventure-strategy layer, so I need to look into that. I think it gives 1 XP for every successful scenario, and at 4 XP you level or something. Don't quote me on this though, I need to look into it. And moreover, the Ultimate Campaign rules don't work on this system, they use normal XP rules, so I'll have to harmonize the two systems somehow. It's not a job that needs to be done right now, because Galden is far from leveling. So let's play the Master of Heroes tutorial (the first 7 turns), and then a couple more scenarios and a few more turns with a few more players and heroes, and at that point I'll have enough experience with the systems to start thinking about how to streamline the XP. We don't want to obsess about every last hero's 50 XP bonus when having to run dozens of heroes every turn! We need a simpler system for this layer, and I think the official PFS rules will give it to us, or at least a starting point for it.

So let's put ??? next to Galden's XP for now, and 170 + 100 = 270 for GP, which is quite a good starting sum that will come in handy with the adventure-strategy activities!

Equipment is chainmail and longsword.

For now we'll keep these stats in this thread, but soon I'll have a page for them up on the site, and later full integration with the Battlegrounds Codex when it comes online.

[icycalm]

https://akbattlegrounds.net/w/multiverse/a/galden



This is the preliminary hero page. It was launched recently in the ongoing Master of Heroes Tutorial. I am in the process of upgrading the page both functionally and aesthetically, but for now this will get the job done. Moreover, I have just fixed three issues with Galden's stats:

1. I added his 167 XP as derived in Ultimate Edition: 4X Experience (PF1).

2. I added his extra language due to his int bonus. I didn't belabor the choice and just gave him Varisian, but for future heroes I'll have to devise a semi-random method of giving them starting languages, so that when a player gets a hero with an unusual, and useful, language, he'll be pleasantly surprised. Btw there are over 100 languages in Pathfinder lol. I have a Reddit thread with a near-complete list that even includes languages introduced in franchise-crossover comics! (Like Red Sonja and Tarzan in Pathfinder lol.)

3. After looking over all the clothing outfits in the "Core Rulebook" and comparing them with Galden's image, I determined that a traveler's outfit is what he's wearing and added it to his inventory (this outfit also comes with "an ample cloak with a hood", which is not shown in the image, but the image isn't supposed to be a real-time representation of what the hero is wearing, so it will never exactly reflect his gear). This outfit comes free because "All characters begin play with one outfit, valued at 10 gp or less. Additional outfits can be purchased normally."