Shadows of Thassilon Character Creation

For the most part, Shadows of Thassilon uses the standard Pathfinder character creation rules.

Player's Guides

As mentioned under Campaign Basics, there are two Player's Guides for Rise of the Runelords, one for the original 2007 edition of the adventure path and the other for the 2012 Anniversary Edition. Both contain quite different information and I believe it's worth having a look at both, though much of the rules information presented in the 2007 edition has been superseded by subsequent Pathfinder publications.

Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide, 2007 edition

Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide, Anniversary Edition

Both of the above are free downloads, but if you don't have a Paizo account and don't wish to register one, please let me know via PM and I'll see about getting a copy to you.

Alignment

Most of Paizo's adventure paths are written primarily to accommodate relatively heroic characters of good or neutral alignments, and Rise of the Runelords is no exception. I am hesitant to allow evil characters as they tend toward disruptive behaviours and distasteful character concepts; if you have an idea for a character that only works with an evil alignment, I'm happy to give it consideration but I can't promise I'll accept it.

Ability Scores

Roll 4d6, discard the lowest die result, and add the three remaining results together. Record this total and repeat the process until six numbers are generated. Assign these totals to your ability scores as you see fit.

The ability score array used by NPCs with heroic classes (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) generates a character with ability score modifiers totalling +5 before racial adjustments. Rerolls will be allowed at the GM's discretion, in the case of low ability score totals or arrays that the player finds unappealing.

Races

The races presented in the Core Rulebook (dwarf, elf, gnome, half-elf, half-orc, halfling, and human) are available for play as usual. Other races from other sources are available only at the GM's discretion.

Classes

The classes presented in the Core Rulebook are available for play as usual; the classes presented in the Advanced Player's Guide, with the exception of the summoner, are also available for play. Other classes from other sources are available only at the GM's discretion. Consider also the following guidance.

Summoner

Summoners are not available for play. There are too many ways in which their particular combination of abilities (an extra set of actions every turn from their eidolon, strong buff spells, and increased access to summoned monsters through their summon monster spell-like ability) can lead to situations that are the opposite of fun for the group as a whole.

Cavalier and Druid

Druids share many of the same qualities as summoners (a companion that grants an extra set of actions, strong buff spells and abilities, and an increased focus on summoning spells compared to other spellcasters) but have a stronger history within the game that I'm not so willing to discard, and have access to alternative choices or class features that don't necessarily lead to the same problematic situations.

The cavalier presents a different set of problems, namely that cramped dungeons with five-foot-wide corridors appear extensively in the early modules of the adventure path, limiting the opportunities for Medium-sized cavaliers on Large-sized mounts to bring their most defining class feature into play. A Small-sized cavalier will more easily find opportunities to shine, earlier in the campaign, as will a cavalier who selects options that de-emphasise mounted combat; on the other hand, I appreciate that much of the appeal in this class lies in playing the archetypal armoured knight on horseback. I don't know that there's an easy solution to this; it's simply a point I feel is worth keeping in mind.

Necromancer (wizard arcane school)

Necromancers who create undead minions combine the problems of evil characters and summoners or druids, committing evil acts to clutter the battlefield with additional combatants taking extra actions. Thus, necromancers who create or command undead are not available for play.

Feats

The feats presented in the Core Rulebook, the Advanced Player's Guide, and the Inner Sea World Guide are available for play as usual, with the exceptions and guidance noted below.

Restricted Feats

The feats Additional Traits (APG p. 150) and Leadership (CRB p. 129-130) are not available. Note that characters in Shadows of Thassilon have three traits rather than the standard two.

Item Creation Feats

Item creation feats are available as usual. Please note that items created by PCs should be intended for use by PCs, rather than as part of a money-making venture; I'm aware that the magic trait Hedge Magician (APG p. 329) and the campaign trait Merchant Family (RotRLPG p. 4) interact in particular ways with the creation and sale of magic items by PCs, and will modify these traits if necessary to prevent abuse.

Traits

Characters in Shadows of Thassilon have three traits, rather than the two specified as standard in the Advanced Player's Guide (p. 236). One must be a campaign trait, selected from the Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide. The other two can be selected from those presented in the Advanced Player's Guide, following its guidelines for trait selections and excluding the sample campaign traits therein.

Note that, in case it's not clear, all of the benefits of the campaign trait Giant Slayer apply only against creatures of the giant subtype. Consider the latter portion of the trait to read as follows: “Against creatures of the giant subtype, you gain a +1 trait bonus on Bluff, Perception, and Sense Motive checks and +1 trait bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls.”

New Party: Campaign Traits (01/04/2023)

Your new characters each begin play with three traits: two traits chosen from those available in the Advanced Player's Guide (p. 326), and one campaign trait chosen from those below. Each campaign trait is followed by a set of questions about your character's background and adventuring career; these questions don't need to be answered during character creation, but it would be useful to think about them during the first few sessions of play, and in some cases your answers to these questions might set up events that occur somewhat later in the campaign.

Acadamae Aspirant

Korvosa's Acadamae is one of Avistan's most famous (or notorious) colleges of wizardry, attracting prospective students from as far away as Geb. The Acadamae teaches all eight modern schools of magic, but specialises in the school of conjuration, and the imps that are such a persistent nuisance elsewhere in Korvosa mostly result from ill-conceived pranks or scholastic ineptitude by the Acadamae's would-be conjurers. You once sought entrance to the Acadamae yourself, and while the course of your life ultimately did not include the decade of gruelling instruction and dangerous apprenticeship that the school demands of its scholars, your retain the esoteric and specialist knowledge gleaned through your preparatory studies. Choose one subtype of outsiders. You gain a +2 trait bonus to Knowledge (planes) check to identify outsiders of that subtype and their abilities, and the save DC of your spells and abilities increases by 1 against outsiders of that subtype.

Were you refused entry to the Acadamae, or was the decision not to pursue admittance mostly your own? How do you feel about that outcome? Do you have any friends or enemies among the Acadamae's student body or faculty?

Disgraced Noble

You are a member or retainer of one of Korvosa's noble families, but through scandal or conflict, you have lost much of the cachet that your family name usually carries. Denied now the wealth, power, and prestige to which you might have grown accustomed, you have turned your efforts toward securing your own fortune and establishing your name as one that eclipses the fading glories of your former noble house. If you are a member of one of the noble families, you are most likely of Chelish ancestry, although evidence of an elven, orcish, Shoanti, or Varisian parent might be scandal enough in its own right to bar you from the corridors of power. If you hail from one of the great houses, then your surname is most likely Arkona, Jeggare, Leroung, Ornelos, or Zenderholm; if your house is of slightly lesser but still noble status, your family name might be Arabasti, Bromathan, Caligaro, Carowyn, Endrin, Fordyce, Galdur, Kroft, Peltherianon, Porphyria, or Viamio. A former retainer or once-trusted associate of the nobility, meanwhile, may be of any ancestry. Despite the scandal that dogs you, your name still carries weight in Korvosa, and you gain a +1 trait bonus to Diplomacy and Intimidate checks within the city. In addition to starting play with wealth appropriate to your level, you possess an heirloom, inheritance, or bequest in the form of a single item (magic or otherwise) worth no more than 2,000 gp.

From which of Korvosa's noble families do you hail, and why have you been disavowed by your house? Did your fall from grace leave you with a specific rival or enemy? Do you have any sympathisers among your former family?

Dragonfriend

Growing up in Korvosa, you were often witness to battles between two of the city's most unusual species: pseudodragons, native to the region since before the colony's founding, and imps, conjured inexpertly and turned loose through neglect or ineptitude by the students of the Acadamae. Your sympathies in these conflicts always lay with the pseudodragons, and your small acts of kindness and offers of assistance eventually grew into a closer kinship with the Korvosa's pseudodragon population as a whole. Choose one of the following as a benefit of your long-standing friendship:

• If you are a sorcerer with the draconic bloodline, the claws you grow using your 1st level bloodline power are treated as silver for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction. In addition, when you cast a sorcerer spell you that puts creatures to sleep, or which inflicts the dazed, staggered, stunned, or unconscious conditions, the save DC of that spell increases by +1. This is a trait bonus.
• If you possess a familiar, gained through a class feature or character option, and you begin play with the Improved Familiar feat, you may choose a pseudodragon familiar and ignore the arcane spellcaster level prerequisite to do so. Your pseudodragon familiar's natural weapons are treated as silver for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction. Upon reaching 7th level as an arcane spellcaster, your pseudodragon familiar gains bonus hit points equal to your arcane spellcaster level.
• Mishaps involving your pseudodragon allies, as well as brushes with their impish enemies, have inured you somewhat to the venomous stings of both creatures. You gain a +2 trait bonus to Fortitude saves against injury poisons.

Has your friendship with Korvosa's pseudodragons ever led you into particular trouble or danger? Have you ever gained – or lost – any especially close friends among the pseudodragons? Have you fought, or been harmed by, their impish rivals?

Guild Agitator

Korvosa's charter forbids the formation of guilds and trade unions within the city – ostensibly to prevent price-fixing, but also to more firmly secure the power of Korvosa's noble families and wealthy elites over the city's working classes. You hail from those working classes, whether through a family business, an apprenticeship, or some other bond, and you retain a sense of solidarity with those who labour to provide the city with the goods and services upon which it depends. Your determination to see the Korvosa's craftspeople and labourers placed on a more even footing with its merchants and its nobles marks you as a subversive, and you have seen your share of clandestine meetings and furtive unionists' gatherings. Reforming Korvosa's charter to revoke the prohibition against guilds and trade unions is an undertaking that will demand wealth, power, and determination, however, and it may be that you see your adventuring career as a means to that end. You must begin play with at least 1 rank in a Craft of Profession skill to choose this campaign trait. You gain a +1 trait bonus to checks using this Craft or Profession skill, and a +1 trait bonus to Bluff and Sense Motive checks. One of these skills (your choice) is always a class skill for you.

What trade or profession do you practise? Have you witnessed violence against those agitating for reform in Korvosa, or have you suffered this as a result of your own efforts? Who is your closest ally among Korvosa's underground labour movement?

Harrowed

In your travels throughout Varisia, you have frequently encountered the practice known as the Harrow, a method of divination using a deck of elaborately painted cards. Whatever your origin, and whatever your thoughts and feelings might be regarding the Harrow, you can't deny that Harrow readings regarding a certain aspect of your life have tended to be uncannily accurate. You might dismiss this as the vagaries of chance, or as the product of sleight-of-hand and chicanery by Harrowers manipulating their decks to show you what you want or expect to see – or you might instead believe that there is some greater design to your life that is being revealed to you piecemeal through every spread of Harrow cards. Choose one of the following suits of Harrow cards, each of which is associated with a particular ability score and a particular type of roll. Once per day, when you make a d20 roll using the ability score modifier for that suit's associated ability score, or when you make a check or roll of that suit's associated type, you may reroll that check, roll, or save. You must decide to use this ability before the outcome of the roll is confirmed, and you must take the second roll even if its result is less favourable.

• Hammer: Strength; attack rolls, both melee and ranged
• Key: Dexterity; Reflex saving throws
• Shield: Constitution; Fortitude saving throws
• Tome: Intelligence; Skill checks
• Star: Wisdom; Will saving throws
• Crown: Charisma; any one category of the above, made by others against you or to resist your abilities

Do you embrace the Harrow and trust its omens, or do you dismiss it as superstition even as your life seems repeatedly nudged along a certain path? What is the most crucial choice you have made, either trusting or defying the Harrow?

Hellknight Prospect:

The Hellknight Orders have arisen in recent centuries as a grim an unyielding bulwark against anarchy, corruption, and disorder. Clad in distinctively sculpted plate armour and enforcing order without pity, mercy, or distinction, the Hellknights possess a fearsome reputation – but in the tumultuous Age of Lost Omens, they are sometimes the best allies that can be found in the fight against monsters, subversives, and those who would place themselves above or beyond the law. At some point in your early life, you decided that you, too, would commit yourself to one of the Hellknight Orders and to the cause of stability and security in a world riven by uncertainty and grasping, self-serving ambition. Whether or not you trained formally under a senior Hellknight as an armiger, your have fortified your will against those who would sway you from your path, and you have been given the opportunity to study the denizens of the planes beyond in anticipation of an armiger's final test before joining the ranks of the Hellknights – single combat against a devil. You gain a +2 trait bonus on Will saves against charm or compulsion effects. In addition, Knowledge (planes) is always a class skill for you.

What first put you on the path to becoming a Hellknight? Do you still aspire to join the Hellknights, and if not, what event made you decide to follow a different path? Do you count any Hellknights as friends, allies, or rivals?

Marked for Death

Some past deed, misdeed, or association of yours has earned you the enmity of a powerful faction or individual, and you have become aware that their agents now stalk you with murderous intent. Constantly looking over your shoulder, wary of an assassin's knife aimed at your back, you may have come to Korvosa in the hopes of finding safety in obscurity amidst the city's masses, on in search of potential allies – or it may be that whatever person or power has put a price on your head is based in Korvosa, and you are determined to take the fight to your malefactor. You gain a +1 trait bonus to Perception checks while in urban areas (cities and settlements, not ruins) and a +1 trait bonus to Sense Motive checks, and one of these skills (your choice) is always a class skill for you. Should you successfully thwart an attempt on your life, you may choose to exchange the benefits of this trait for a renewed sense of confidence and security that grants you a +1 trait bonus to Will saving throws.

What faction, organisation, or person has marked you for death? What did you do to earn their ire? Have there been any attempts on your life made thus far, and if so, what did your survival cost you? How much of this is known to other PCs?

Pathfinder Associate

The Pathfinder Society has long sought to establish a lodge in Korvosa, but the city's monarchs, all too aware of the Society's low standing in post-revolutionary Cheliax, have consistently frustrated those efforts in an attempt to curry favour with House Thrune. This doesn't mean that the city is closed to individual Pathfinders or even expeditions, as long as they operate inconspicuously; you are one such associate or friend of the Pathfinder Society, drawn to Korvosa by its status as the gateway to Varisia from the south and its location atop the ruins of some of the most interesting sites from Varisia's pre-colonial period – or perhaps you are motivated simply by the desire to thumb your nose at the lords of “Little Cheliax.” While you are not acknowledged as a fully-fledged Pathfinder, your presence and investigations in Korvosa have the tacit approval of Venture-Captain Sheila Heidmarch of the Society's nearest lodge, in the city of Magnimar – as long as your actions don't bring the Society into ill repute. You begin play with a wayfinder (ISWG p. 299) and can speak and read Thassilonian. In addition, choose one of the following skills: Knowledge (geography, history, or local), Linguistics, or Survival. You gain a +1 trait bonus on checks made with this skill, and it is always a class skill for you.

Are you a local Varisian or Shoanti, or are you a foreigner to Varisia? How close is your relationship with Venture-Captain Heidmarch? What is your history with the Pathfinder Society, and how do you see your future within the Society?

Relic Seeker

The influx of colonists, explorers, and adventurers into Varisia has included no shortage of thieves, scoundrels, and grave robbers intent on plundering the region's native peoples and their heritage. Heirlooms, relics, and burial goods of all sorts all too often find their way to the markets of colonial cities like Korvosa and Magnimar to be peddled as curiosities for a handful of coins, and you have come to Korvosa in search of one such relic that was looted from a Shoanti burial site by unscrupulous outlanders. You may be a Shoanti yourself, or a trusted non-Shoanti acting as an agent or middleman – most likely either a Varisian merchant or dwarf from Janderhoff. Whatever your background, you possess – or have been forced to acquire – the skills necessary to navigate the cities and markets of the colonial powers in search of the stolen relic you seek. You gain a +1 trait bonus to Appraise checks and to checks using your choice of one of the following skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, or Sense Motive. One of these two skills (your choice) is always a class skill for you.

Are you a Shoanti, or an ally of some other heritage? If you are a Shoanti, from which quah do you hail? What is the relic that you are searching for? What hardships have you faced and overcome in the course of your quest?

Stricken Survivor

Your adventuring career has been marked by tragedy, and you are the sole survivor of a terrible mishap, doomed endeavour, or confrontation with a fearsome monster or implacable foe. The loss of your party and the narrow margin of your own survival have left you scarred, emotionally if not physically; you may be motivated mostly by survivor's guilt, or by a desire to put things right as best you can, or even by a thirst for revenge upon those responsible for the tragedy that claimed the lives of your allies. In spite of this trauma, you have refused to abandon your adventuring career, and have even gone so far as to surround yourself with new allies and to forge anew the bonds of friendship and trust, aware as you are that those bonds can be so swiftly and cruelly severed. You are constantly wary, and quick to react to danger, determined to avoid a repetition of the disaster that befell you and your now-departed companions. You gain a +2 trait bonus on Initiative checks.

What happened to your former allies? Did you do your utmost to save them, or did you abandon them to save yourself? Was there anything you could have done differently, with the benefit of hindsight, to change that outcome?