All For One

In a previous article I’ve touched on using a theme in your game when creating your party. The article went on to talk about two broader themes, the classical elements and Arabian nights. Today I’d like to talk about one of the other ideas I touched on but didn’t expand upon. It doesn’t happen often although I’ve done it myself one or two times, the “all one class” party.

As much as I do love the idea of the all one class party, it does pose its own difficulties. The first thing you need to overcome is the similarity of powers granted to each of the base classes. Some classes—like rogues with their rogue talents, wizards with their school specialties, and sorcerers with their bloodlines—allow for differentiation in the characters you can build at their base. Even those difference don’t always allow for a good enough spread of skills to make a group viable.

Depending on how strict you want to go with the all one class party, you could allow for some small amount of multiclassing. The combinations are pretty endless if you go this route. For many players this may seem like a substantial loss of power. Pathfinder in particular has made sticking out the full twenty levels of a base class very appealing. If you’re like me, however, a good character can outweigh the lure of power, as long as you don’t go too far and completely gimp your party.

Old school D&D introduced kits, and this helped make your character a special member of its class. 3.x D&D took this idea a bit further and brought in prestige classes, letting players branch off into specific directions for their characters. Now Pathfinder has taken the idea and added archetypes to the mix, allowing you to stay the full twenty levels in one class; although they do retain prestige classes allowing for more variations. All of these options allow you to customize your characters even further while still staying true to the same class rule.

Now that we’ve laid out how we might go about creating an all one class party I think I want to talk about of my all-time favorite ideas for a single class group: the all paladin party. For some reason the idea of holy warriors of different gods getting together interests me greatly, each going about their holy duty in their individual way. But how can you keep all the characters unique and with their own niche in the party? For this example I will stick to some of the more popular deities for Pathfinder, for those not well-versed in all their deities and those who don’t use the system.

Eris Handler

Voice of Shelyn Goddess of art, beauty, love, and music

 

Eris is a lover and a fighter. Blessed with both the gift for song and a silver tongue Eris wasn’t always a choir boy. His childhood was a life of grifting one the streets of Magnimar, one of the many street urchins in the city of monuments. After one petty theft too many he finally found he couldn’t talk his way out of being sentenced the hells. Luckily for him, his mark didn’t want to see a child good to jail.

Eris was taken in by a holy warrior for the church of Shelyn. After years by the side of his mentor, he was finally accepted into the ranks of the church and trained to become a paladin like the old man. Now he travels around Varisia bring the word of Shelyn to those who need beauty in their lives.

I’m picturing Eris as a Paladin/Bard a nice little synergy with the charisma stat for both class’ abilities. His early life abilities may make him seem unpaladinly at times. Who ever heard of a paladin that could pick a lock or palm a key?

Noran Wex

Wing of Apsu god of good dragons, leadership, and peace

 

The tales in Noran’s family always spoke of his great-great grandmother having a dalliance with a man who turned out to be a golden dragon. Although none of his forebearers ever manifested any dragon-like features or powers, the stories still drove young Noran. When he was of age he pledged himself to the church of Apsu so he could lead others into the battle against evil and bring peace to the land. Maybe it was Apsu himself or maybe it was his great-great grandmother’s dalliance but Noran eventually did manifest the abilities of a gold dragon.

For this I’m seeing Noran as a Paladin/Sorcerer (Dragon Bloodline) using his smite with his dragon-like powers. Again charisma fuels both class’ powers so we’ve got some synergy. If you want to take the theme further you could even go dragon discipline as you weren’t going to be getting to 9th level sorcerer spells anyway. Probably the most stereotypically paladin in personality of the bunch, looking to do good at every turn and admonishing those who don’t

Jalreeha Vishaharanti

Fist of Irori god of history, knowledge, self-perfection

 

Many of the men in Jalreeha’s family felt the call to Irori and went into the monasteries to perfect their body using martial arts. But it was Jalreeha, the eldest daughter, who felt the true calling of the ascended god; and not just  for the perfection of her body but also for the perfection of her spirit. Her father, however, was furious as he promised his daughter to the son of a noble family. The increase in the family’s stature was more important to him than his daughter. With sadness Jalreeha left home for faraway lands where she could expand her knowledge of things, adding a well-tuned mined to her already holy spirit and trained body. 

I see Jalreeha as a paladin of Irori (called the enlightened paladin on the d20pfsrd) which will replace some paladin abilities with some monk abilities. As much as I’d like to go full on multiclass monk/paladin I can’t deny needing to have at least six out of eight stats at decent levels to function well is just too much. I also picture her as the least worldly of the group learning about her new surroundings as they travel.

Branack Thunderstone

Itinerant of Lorris charity, the disadvantaged, and volunteering

 

Branack was an odd dwarf; he heard the calling of a deity not of the dwarven pantheon early on. The Empyreal Lord Lorris spoke to the young dwarf about charity and aid. These lessons also made him quite a bit more outgoing than most dwarves are used to. Rather than being taught the ways of paladinhood in a church, Branack learned by doing. He left his mountain home and wandered the world seeking to aid those in need. He left with but two things: a suit of armor and an odd weapon his father always kept stowed away, a pistol.

Branack will be a paladin and a gunslinger with the mysterious stranger archetype. Mysterious stranger will make gunslinger abilities work on charisma instead of wisdom. Yes, dwarves take a negative to charisma, but who cares? As for the type of character, imagine one of the samurai from The Seven Samurai. Or maybe more accurately one of the gunslingers from its American remake, The Magnificent Seven.

Have you ever played a party with all one class? If so which class? If you were going to play in a party with all one classes which would be your favorite? For our all paladin party what kind of character would you make?

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Here There Be Dragons

Apsu's Draconic Defenders

Apsu, the creator and divine patron of all the goodly dragons, especially the metallic ones. Although most of his faithful are of the scalykind, very few of them actually wield his divine power. Apsu has some mortal followers who aid his children in their fight against his “son” Dahak and the chromatic dragons he rules over. Little is known about Apsu, except he is one of the first beings and may have created all the original gods. Even less is known about his followers and so here we will explore who they might be.

Of course the question I always ask is, as we’re sitting at our imaginary table, if you had to make a character who was a follower of Apsu, what would you make? It doesn’t need to be a divine caster, just someone who is out to further the Dragon God’s goals. Would your character fit within one of my sects, or would he go his own path?

For more information on Apsu

Apsu’s Archives of Nethys Page

Apsu’s Pathfinderwiki Page 

The Brass Tongues

Although many dragons can shapeshift they don’t all understand the mindset of the humanoids whose forms they take. To this end the Bronze dragon followers of Apsu have formed a sect whose only purpose is to interact with the outside world on the god’s behalf. There are few humanoid followers of Apsu but among The Brass Tongues, almost all the goodly races have at least one representative, humans by far make up the bulk of the sect with at least one representing each ethnicity.

The members of this sect are each well skilled diplomats in their own right, preferring words to physicality. Charismatic paladins, inspiring clerics, honey-tongued bards, and many others comprise the ranks of this group. Acceptance among The Brass Tongues requires that supplicants debate an actual brass dragon. What metric these enigmatic creatures use to determine success is unknown and no aspiring member has ever actually had the last word against one of the wyrms.

The Cackling Coppers

Copper dragons are known for their love of practical jokes but what this annoying habit hides is a keen and devious mind. To that end the copper dragons who revere Apsu lead a faction of spies. The Cackling Coppers are the eyes and ears of the church of Apsu, insinuating themselves in areas where there are sightings of evil dragons.

The Cackling Coppers hide their activities by pretending to be the fool. The drunk at the end of the bar, the beggar on the corner, and in some cases the actual court fool might be an agent of Apsu’s copper dragons. Bards, rogues, investigators, and diviners all find a home among the sect, doing their best to aid their fellows—when not playing jokes on them.

The Brass Bound Boots

The Cackling Coppers and The Bronze tongues may keep Apsu chosen in the know of things in human lands but someone has got to go out into the wilds and find the enemy. Brass dragons, well known for their adventurous spirit, imparts both their knowledge and their heart on members of The Brass Bound Boots. The just nature of their cause, and the possibility of treasure keeps the members of this organization on the road more often than not.

The ranks of the Triple Bs are filled with adventurers of all types including explorers, trackers, and dragon hunters. Power arcane, mundane, and divine all aid their specialties to the organization. The Boots don’t just seek out dragons but also means to destroy them and the draconic adventurers will sign onto expeditions seeking ancient artifacts and magical items they believe can help in their cause.

Resplendent Knights of Gold and Silver

The martial arm of the church of Apsu is led by the chivalrous silver and and the virtuous gold dragons. The silvers mostly come from the ranks of Paladins, cavaliers, and fighters of great moral fortitude. The golds have their own paladins, but their true strength lies with the Monks that are trained in a fighting style that mimics that of the gold paragons of dragon kind.

When the Cackling Coopers root out evil dragons the Resplendent Knights of Gold and Silver are called into the excise the dark wyrms from the area. Many of the knights are trained in dragon fighting techniques –oath against the wyrm- and will go to almost any length to defeat the children of Dahak.

The followers of Apsu have had life breathed into them by yours truly. If you’re enjoying what I bring to you on the CRB please consider becoming a patron on my Patreon, this is how us creators survive. Want a 140ish characters of CRB goodness, come check me out on Twitter @SimonSezCRB. You can watch me live tweet my weekend games as both a player and GM. The CRB has also made its way to Tumblr where I post a lot of inspiration art and other things that strike my fancy.