PC age

Mar. 23rd, 2021 05:08 pm
beccaelizabeth: my Watcher tattoo in blue, plus Be in red Buffy style font (Default)
[personal profile] beccaelizabeth
I have been re reading 'Paladin of Souls' and getting distracted in both directions.
Daydreaming other stuff instead of Chalion, and then taking Chalion for a wander too.
Ista is a wonderful character and I love how everyone's choices make sense.

I was thinking about Pathfinder rules and how they lend themselves to characters who start adventuring a bit later in life. Say someone with an interest in magic who took many years to actually make it work, but can only cantrip after 35 and waits til age 53 to get a first level spell. From the ppint of view of someone with a rule book, that is a characrer whose stats only made it to 10 and 11 because age bonuses, and they're unlikely to be optimised as a spellcasting class. But in universe, that would be someone who reached and studied and tried, and finally got their reward. Power. But the rulebook knows they're not going to get level 2 spells until they increase their stats again. They probably dont. There are spells that tell you someone's INT or CHA, but most people most of the time would just be guessing. So they'd work away diligently and not know that without enhancement the best they'll ever be is casting level 6.

Maybe a lifetime of frustration, maybe someone with their priorities elsewhere.


Or: people in universe dont get to choose their stats. So someone could have stats to be an excellent wizard, but all they want in the world is divine magic. And the presumed a approval of their deity. And they wont get it, if they havent the wisdom score, even if their deity likes them very well. So they can master the arcane arts, but never really know what their deity thinks of that.

The rule books make it clear that not all priests are clerics. They can be a wizard priest. But without getting actual miracles live and direct... they'll end up wondering.

And maybe pouring improvement into Wisdom, even when it makes no game mechanical sense. And hoping age will teach them a thing or two.


And that's just Humans. If you add in half elves or haof orcs you have stories of people getting on quicker or slower than expected, and how that will feel. Half orcs grow up fast. It ought to look like being smartest, learning quickest, but orcs have a reputation as not smart at all, so there's tension in the image there.

(So much of the history and game rules doesnt match what we're told people believe about each other. Which I guess is realistic, in its way.)

Half elves grow up slow and frow old slower. But they're just as sharp as anyone, eventually. So what reputation do they get? Slow as in stupid or getting the credit for getting there eventually?


... if they are a Wizard one suspects not stupid. Wizards having many ways to answer that kind of reputation. But they'd still have spent more years than their peers just too young to start studying.


So, head full of thoughts about age and time and learning and adventure. Capacity and lack thereof. And how no one actually wants to have a dump stat.

Gets in the way.



Still, just thought doodles for now.

I shall continue reading.

Date: 2021-03-23 07:18 pm (UTC)
machiavellijr: Tragedy and comedy masks with crossed cutlasses (Default)
From: [personal profile] machiavellijr
This is the third interesting thing about Chalion I've seen, on three different sites, this week. Must have a re-read soon.
Has someone written up a Chalion setting for Pathfinder? I feel like they must have.

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beccaelizabeth: my Watcher tattoo in blue, plus Be in red Buffy style font (Default)
beccaelizabeth

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