Introducing Nagiphax, Cyclops-kin rogue

Our first character portrait, courtesy Luis:

Alignment

The following alignments are permitted for starting characters:

Lawful Good
Lawful Neutral
Lawful Evil
Neutral Good
True Neutral
Chaotic Good
Chaotic Neutral

Chaotic alignments are rare in a hyper-lawful society like Cheliax, and any chaotic characters (particularly chaotic neutral) should espouse a philosophical/political vantage point, rather than just being chaotic neutral as an excuse to act like a total nutter.

I'm going to be more strict with tracking alignment with this campaign, particularly for characters like paladins, clerics, and monks. I'm going to use an ethics/morals chart to keep track of alignment. Each axis (ethics = law/chaos, morals = good/evil) will be tracked on a 1-100 scale using the system at this link. The chart at the bottom of the link indicates coloured blocks representing varying degrees of each of the nine alignments, and grey blocks indicating transition areas between alignements. Starting characters should be in the middle of their chosen alignment. A lawful good character, for example, would be at 85 on the ethical scale and 85 on the morality scale; a neutral good character would be at 50 on the ethical scale and 85 on the morality scale, and so on.

Your character's actions during the campaign will affect his/her standing on the alignment scale. Classes with abilities tied directly to alignment will find themselves hindered if they reach the grey areas (paladins may lose their highest level ability, for example) and may lose their abilities entirely if they fall on the other side of the grey scale.

I've never been very strict with alignment before, but after completing the Savage Tide campaign I felt that implementing consequences for the many questionable decisions you were forced to make would have made for a more interesting campaign. Council of Thieves should offer up some similar ethical quandries, so we'll see how it goes.

Races of Golarion

All standard PC races are available for play in the Council of Thieves campaign. Here are some links:

Dwarf
Elf
Gnome
Half-Elf
Half-Orc
Halfling
Human - Azlanti
Human - Chelaxian
Human - Garundi
Human - Keleshite
Human - Kellid
Human - Mwangi
Human - Taldan
Human - Tian
Human - Ulfen
Human - Varisian
Human - Vudrani
Tiefling

Character Traits and Tiefling PCs

I touched on character traits briefly in my last post. As mentioned, all of the players should select a character trait from the Council of Thieves Player's Guide for their character. You may select one additional basic trait from the Pathfinder Character Traits web enhancement from Paizo's website (available at the link under Free Pathfinder Roleplaying Game PDFs - Character Traits).

You can play a tiefling in this campaign, but you have to take the Infernal Bastard character trait in the player's guide, which slightly de-powers the tiefling to bring it in line with the other PC races. Tiefling PCs can still select one additional basic trait, or can choose another campaign-specific trait from the player's guide instead of a basic trait.

Preamble

Devils and Dilettantes is my attempt to chronicle the events of our upcoming Council of Thieves campaign. The first few posts will concern issues of character creation and adventure background.

The Council of Thieves will be using Paizo's Pathfinder rules, including the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Pathfinder Bestiary, parts 1 to 6 of the Council of Thieves adventure path, the Pathfinder Chronicles Golarion Campaign Setting book, and several 'fluff' books for flavour and background as necessary. We'll be sticking to the core rulebook as far as character creation and advancement goes, although I may allow setting-specific prestige classes as the campaign progresses, especially if they're presented in the adventure path itself.

For those without the Pathfinder rulebook, you can access the Pathfinder RPG Reference Document for rules information, race and class information, etc.

Character Creation

Ability Scores: Standard point-buy - 15
All abilities start with a base score of 10. Apply racial bonuses after spending your points. You can't reduce a score below 7. Costs to increase abilities are as follows (bonus points for low scores are preceded by a -):

Score (point cost)
7 (-4)
8 (-2)
9 (-1)
10 (0)
11 (1)
12 (2)
13 (3)
14 (5)
15 (7)
16 (10)
17 (13)
18 (17)

We'll be starting the campaign at level 1, and the majority of the adventure path will take place within the city of Westcrown, in the devil-tainted Empire of Cheliax. For information on Westcrown, Cheliax, and the various races and classes that predominate within the city, refer to the Council of Thieves Player's Guide. The player's guide is availabe for download at the link, or I can email it to you if you prefer.

The main thing I'm concerned about regarding character creation is that none of the characters should be particularly fond of the way the government in Westcrown currently operates. I'd like each player to outline some particular complaint against the Wiscrani government; an example of how your character has been stifled, annoyed, or hindered by the tyrannical establishment. The player's guide provides campaign traits that you can select for your character. These traits also provide a minor bonus in certain circumstances. You can choose any of these traits and work them into your character's background as you wish.

More on the various races of Golarion and the Empire of Cheliax later on! In the meantime, interested players can check out the PathfinderWiki for more information on the Golarion campaign setting.