I am currently in a Pathfinder game run by my friend Brandon. At the table are my wife Gretchen and friend Jason. I've been gaming with Brandon and Jason for ... 10 years now? They are my current core group. My wife got into Pathfinder via me and has been being baptised in fire and blood for about a year now.
First - Edition Wars aside, Pathfinder IS a hard game to learn for an unexperienced player. I love the shit out of it but I see new people struggle with it quite a bit. I'm not hte best teacher so it's better for me to let Jason and Brandon handle that aspect as they are better teachers than me.
Second - I took a break for all table-top roleplaying 2008--2010. The longest I had been away from gaming, and I have been gaming consistently since 1979 when I was a we lad of 8 years old. Even while I served in the Navy I was able to find a way to game every month or so.
We play with 3 players. We had a 4th but he dropped as he had never played PF before and kind of didn't like it. Cool with us. Instead of bringing in a 4th player we decided to ghost an NPC - a tank-type. Right now Jason is playing the 4th NPC but, when at appropriate level, I will choose the leadership feat and take the NPC tank over as my cohort.
My character is a paladin named Balder. He is not your typical paladin, though I think most people that try to play a paladin can be quite unimaginative about playing a paladin. Balder is archery focused so not a plate-mail/mounted/lance/sword/knight type of paladin. He is also not lawful stupid ... and not because of an intelligence score which is pretty low anyways as we created our PCs via point-buy and something needed to get dumped to make Balder somewhat effective.
Ehr... Powergamer? Why, yes. Why not? The Pathfinder/3.x system is designed for powergaming, and by "powergaming" I mean "making your character as effective as you can within the scope of the rules". No munchkining (tweaking and exploits) but...
... here's an analogy:
You are playing the part of a hero that is trying to "save the world" for the most part. 3.x rules mandate this for the most part. You are playing the star, the hero, the saviour, the professional. Kind of like a pro football player. Why would you then opt to try to not maximize your effectiveness to do battle with the super bad in your game? If I knew that the guy oppressing my people was some ancient Lich from 2000 years ago risen, why would I not try ot get the best armor, sword, training, and skills I need to defeat it? IRL I do a lot of outdoor stuff. Sleeping on the ground can get uncomforable. To solve this I went to work (adventured), saved up some money from pay (loot), and bought a higher-end airmatress, an ExPed Downmat (a +2 mattress of warmth) to replace my older foam pad (standard, 2002 era, Z-lite foam pad).
Enough, enough.
So, Brandon is running us through the revised Rise of the Runelords by Paizo. We are in the second "chapter" called the Skinsaw Murders. It's awesome. We are following the trail of some evil psycho murderer and the deeper we get into it the more we are finding out we are the targets and not just the ones trying to stop it. There's actual "horror" going on, it get's kind of spooky at times. The party is a mercenary company called The Blue Ribbon Company (more on that later). Balder, sworn to something else, is "in advisement" only with the BRC. The others are Priestess Mikk of Desna (a gnome priestess played by my wife Gretchen) and Zelbathor (a wizard played by Jason). The NPC tank is Orick (standard platemail and sword frontline guy).
Our stats dictate our roleplaying personalities. Mikk is a haughty little gnome - passion rules her as she is always running on her emotions. It works out though as she is the one that speaks for our group and makes deals, contracts, and calms people down when that needs to happen. She's also very perseptive and empathic.
Zelbathor is very intelligent. We know because he tells everyone how intelligent he is. Why would he not do such things. He's a powerful wizard too. He tells everyone that too. He also proves it from time to time so there is no problem with him stating so. He's just being honest - He's smarter than almost everyone else and he wields arcane power that most do not.
Balder is a great guy. He smiles a lot. He's handy and handsome (imagine Alcid from True Blood but with a bow and smiling all the time and never gets angry). If you're having a bad day and he walks into the room he will help you. He's also great with animals and manual labor, which is when he takes off his tunic as that restricts his movements. He just doesn't notice things well, or know a lot of stuff about stuff or is able to deduce or process information beyond A and B. He does know that he is not very bright so that is why he has his friends around. He also knows that if one is not smart, than to be strong and helpful in other ways like mending a farm's fence, tending the animals, and fighting the evil that threatens a community.
He knows that Erastil has favored him, he's even been called a chosen warrior of Erastil, but he does not consider himself a "paladin" like that one who took him under his wing a few years ago and taught him honor and dignity in work. He is humbled and will not squander the gifts Erastil has given him. He was squired to Sir Egil Nortsson of Irori. He was killed in battle against a tribe of goblins that ambushed him and his followers while Balder was out hunting meat for the group.
In Balder's words, yesterday's session:
We are still on the road south to Magnimar. The murders heavy upon our shoulders as the community we serve is under the chains of fear. Being as we are capable we do not bather humble farmsteads for hospitality as the farms have been under strain the past month or so. Animals are afraid both wild and domestic. Rumors of scarecrows coming alive and attacking farmhands and innocents abound. Though capable, we decided to play it safe tonight and take rest at a more established farm, The Grump Farmstead.
Old man Grump gave us hospitality but we immediately heard his tales of the recent history of the area and he showed us a creature he cleaved with a shovel just yesterday. It was identified as a ghoul by Zelbathor and Mikk, Orick and I just happy the thing was dead and not something we had to do and also impressed that Old Man Grump had some fire in him to do such a thing. We also believed this ghoul was something from the sanitorium we fought the necromancer at a few days ago but Mikk and Zelbathor beleive the source is something different and in relation to what we sought.
We supped with Old Man Grump as I calmed his oxen in his barn. The general health of his animals was good, and a testament to the man Old Man grump is. Bless him.
In the morn Grump directed us to the Hamble farm down the road. We followed his directions and immediately fell into an ambush of more of these scarecrow creatures Grump told us of. Almost getting lost in the tangle of unkept crops we found our way via Mikk to the safety of the longhouse after a battle at the stead's barn. We also found Svetlana and her brother, captured and near turned into these ghouls
In the main longhouse we came upon more of the undead. We defeated them handidly but we found that all the Hambles had perished before we could aid them. We did secure the life savings of The Hambles and will be looking for the next of kin as they have the rights to the silver we found, which is under my protection.
-Balder, son of Sloan, chosen of Erastil
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