Carnival in Pathfinder

[Nemesio]

Carnival stats are coming together nicely on here. You guys gonna post these in a netbook eventually?

[Mortavius]

I'm happy to have these put into a netbook if anyone think's they're good enough.

And now the NPC that has taken me the longest to create,

Tindal, the Amazing Soul-Less Man

Timeline

685 BC: Tindafalus born in Il Aluk, Darkon.
737 BC: Tindafalus journeys through Sithicus where he is caught by Lord Soth and tasked with creating the Memory Mirrors.
743 BC: Tindafalus finishes the Memory Mirrors and begins work on his experiment to replace his flaws with an idealized version of himself.
745 BC: Tindafalus’ experiment is completed but “Tindal” is pulled from the mirror and replaces Tindafulus. Soon after he joins Carnival.
760 BC: Present Day.

Twisting: The Twisting has had a subtle effect on Tindal, only reflecting the empty nature of his inner self by causing him to lose his shadow.

Base Stats
Str 13, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 17, Wis 13, Cha 15
Racial: +2 Int
Aging: Old (but only positive bonuses due to idealized version of himself)
Leveling: +4 Int
Favored Class: + Skill Ranks

760 BC (Current day stats)
CR 16; XP 102,400
Dread Fetch Wizard (Illusionist) 16
N Medium Outsider (Natural)
Init +6; Senses Darkvision 60 ft., Perception +2

Defense
AC 16, touch 15, flat-footed 14 (+3 Deflection, +2 Dex, +1 Armor)
HP 106 (16d6+48)
Fort +11, Ref +13, Will +18

Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee Staff of Illusion +9/+4 (1d6+1)
Ranged Blinding Ray +10 touch (10/day)
Special Attacks Energy Drain vs. Tindafalus (Fort DC 21)
Spell-Like Abilities Invisibility Field (as Greater Invisibility 16 rounds/day)
Spells Prepared (CL 16th, Illusion school, Opposition schools: Abjuration & Evocation, DC 17 + spell level, DC 19 + spell level vs. Illusion; however Tindal destroyed his spellbooks)

Statistics
Str 13, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 25, Wis 15, Cha 17
Base Atk +8/+3, CMB +9, CMD 21
Feats Craft Staff, Craft Wondrous Item, Deft Hands, Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, Greater Spell Focus (Illusion), Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Scribe Scroll, Spell Focus (Illusion), Spell Mastery (Charm Person, Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Prestidigitation), Toughness
Skills Bluff +19, Craft (Blacksmithing) +26, Craft (Gemcutting) +26, Diplomacy +19, Disguise +19, Knowledge (Arcana) +26, Perform (Act) +19, Sense Motive +18, Sleight of Hand +22, Spellcraft +26 (+28 vs. Illusion, +21 vs. Abjuration & Evocation), Survival +18
Languages Darkonese, Draconian, Halfling, Gnome, Dwarven, Elven, Mordentish, Sithican
SQ Arcane Bond (Staff), Extended Illusions (8 rounds)

Equipment
Staff of Illusion (30 charges), Cloak of Resistance +4, Bracers of Armor +1


Tindal was an interesting NPC. At first I needed to figure out how old he was. Carnival describes him as a middle-aged character. But in the description of Tindafalus, there is a line "...shed about thirty years of age...", and that got me thinking that if Tindafalus was creating an idealized image of himself, wouldn't it be a younger version?

Then I was thinking of where Tindafalus came from. Working back from his age, I looked at Ryan's timeline to see what domains were actually around at the time of his birth, and which ones had wizards as a common PC class. Darkon seemed the best fit, plus his name sounds Darkonian.

Finally, I had to decide how Dread Fetches work in Ravenloft. Looking at the stats, I basically decided that they are identical to their mirror image stat-wise, except they are Outsiders, have Darkvision 60 ft., can drain levels (from their mirror image only) with a touch, and have a deflection bonus to AC equal to their Charisma modifier (minimum 0).

[The Giamarga]

Nice. I would have gone for the item bond too, though i'd figured he'd have a rod. It should have a few more enchantments on it though, considering other item bonds from Ryan's thread. Maybe make it a full blown staff of illusion or stack on a few more effects. Does he have full NPC gear?

Carnival implies that he can detect magic, he says he checked the fliers. So I'd either give him use of the cantrip still or make it a permament spell effect that he applied to himself. Of course he coule be lying, but Tindal does not seem to be the sort.

His base stats are the ones from the Tindal entry in Carnival: Str 13, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 17, Wis 13, Cha 15
Looking at Tindafalus, the physicyl stats are -1 (suggesting a difference of 1 age category), but the mental ones differ even more: Str 12, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 17, Wis 11, Cha 9. Could this be accounted for in the dread fetch template somehow?

Also is not the Twisting of Tindafalus, that he is the fetch now, while Tindal is human? In The Carnival Tindafalus is the fetch.

[Mortavius]

Nice. I would have gone for the item bond too, though i'd figured he'd have a rod. It should have a few more enchantments on it though, considering other item bonds from Ryan's thread. Maybe make it a full blown staff of illusion or stack on a few more effects. Does he have full NPC gear?

He does, pretty closely. My first inclination was to give him a Staff of Illusion. The snag I ran into is that a 16th level Wizard has 19,000 gp for weapons, and a Staff of Illusion costs 82,000 gp. That's more than the total gp he would have as a 16th level character (58,500 gp).

I'm open for any suggestions you might have on what his weapon should be though.

Carnival implies that he can detect magic, he says he checked the fliers. So I'd either give him use of the cantrip still or make it a permament spell effect that he applied to himself. Of course he coule be lying, but Tindal does not seem to be the sort.

Good call! I'll look into that and see what I can work up.

His base stats are the ones from the Tindal entry in Carnival: Str 13, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 17, Wis 13, Cha 15
Looking at Tindafalus, the physicyl stats are -1 (suggesting a difference of 1 age category), but the mental ones differ even more: Str 12, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 17, Wis 11, Cha 9. Could this be accounted for in the dread fetch template somehow?

Also is not the Twisting of Tindafalus, that he is the fetch now, while Tindal is human? In The Carnival Tindafalus is the fetch.

Hmmm...interesting. At a base level you could say the Dread Fetch template -2 Wis and -6 Cha...but why? I actually decided that force of personality was important with them and affected their deflection bonus to AC. I'm not sure why Tindafalus has different stats than Tindal...maybe Mangrum (if he wrote Tindafalus) has a reason?

As for the Twisting, what you say could be true. I never considered it. I just never saw anything that said that Tindal wasn't a Fetch anymore, so I assumed he still was. It specifically says that Tindafalus is a Dread Fetch; I assumed his time in the Mirrors changed him.

It could be a good point of Twisting; making Tindafalus' reflection "more of a man" than he ever was.

[The Giamarga]

You could simply give him (a portion of) PC gear. But as it's never spelled out anywhere, maybe - as with his spells- it should be kept a mystery.

As for the fetch template, I'd really like to hear the designers chime in. Is Tindal Mangrum's creation?

I'll have to reread the Sithicus adventure to see if one can glean anything from that. I know that he makes an appearance in one of the rare RPGA adventures, which some of the FoS aquired long time ago from ebay. But there is no new info on him in there anywhere. (The twins are rather different in that one though, one of them being a rogue (ghosthunter) the other a fighter (lycanthrope hunter))

[Mortavius]

Well, returning to this after a number of months hiatus.

So I looked again at Tindal. I found a simple way for him to have Detect Magic; I replaced his Spell Penetration feat with Spell Mastery, and made sure that Detect Magic was one of the spells. I assumed he took the feat early in his life, so he has only a few spells he can use with it. Allows him to prepare and cast Detect Magic without his spellbook nicely, I think.

I've looked at replacing his staff, but it's a big jump in treasure. I should clarify that since Tindal has PC classes, I used the PC treasure, not NPC. Even if he made the staff himself, it would cost him 41,000 gp, and a PC character doesn't get that much until sometime between level 19 and 20. It looks to me like Pathfinder intends those staves to be ultimate weapons of a sort for spellcasters. Ultimately it seems like a real jump in power.

Also I considered whether or not he should be human or a Fetch. While it's certainly ironic that Tindal could be human while Tindafalus is a Dread Fetch, that seems more of a curse for the original wizard than a Twisting for the former Fetch. Carnival refers to Tindal as a wisp, someone who the Twisting has a subtle effect on, and it seems like the loss of his shadow and reflection are that effect. But I'm still open to other options if folks think it should go another way.

[jules]

what about the resident geek?(you know the classic version, the person who bites the heads off of chickens & such)

[Ryan Naylor]

Well, returning to this after a number of months hiatus.

So I looked again at Tindal. I found a simple way for him to have Detect Magic; I replaced his Spell Penetration feat with Spell Mastery, and made sure that Detect Magic was one of the spells. I assumed he took the feat early in his life, so he has only a few spells he can use with it. Allows him to prepare and cast Detect Magic without his spellbook nicely, I think.

I've looked at replacing his staff, but it's a big jump in treasure. I should clarify that since Tindal has PC classes, I used the PC treasure, not NPC. Even if he made the staff himself, it would cost him 41,000 gp, and a PC character doesn't get that much until sometime between level 19 and 20. It looks to me like Pathfinder intends those staves to be ultimate weapons of a sort for spellcasters. Ultimately it seems like a real jump in power.

Also I considered whether or not he should be human or a Fetch. While it's certainly ironic that Tindal could be human while Tindafalus is a Dread Fetch, that seems more of a curse for the original wizard than a Twisting for the former Fetch. Carnival refers to Tindal as a wisp, someone who the Twisting has a subtle effect on, and it seems like the loss of his shadow and reflection are that effect. But I'm still open to other options if folks think it should go another way.

A reminder:

PC-level treasure is CR +1.

I think it's a matter of canon that Tindal is the fetch. A solution as to why Tindafulus has lower mental stats might be because he's failed a Madness save (as I think you might, in his position).

For the staff: if you drop the mislead power, you knock 20,000 gp off the price. Dropping persistent image frees up about the same. Dropping the caster level to 11 drops off 12,500 gp. Some combination of that might get you to where you want to be if you really want a staff of illusion.

[Mortavius]

what about the resident geek?(you know the classic version, the person who bites the heads off of chickens & such)

Oh the Geek is one of my favorite characters from Carnival. Rest assured, I will not forget him. I've been working through the book in order, so it'll be a little while before I get to him (and I'm going on holidays here tomorrow for just over a week), but I look forward to doing him up.

A reminder:

PC-level treasure is CR +1.

I think it's a matter of canon that Tindal is the fetch. A solution as to why Tindafulus has lower mental stats might be because he's failed a Madness save (as I think you might, in his position).

For the staff: if you drop the mislead power, you knock 20,000 gp off the price. Dropping persistent image frees up about the same. Dropping the caster level to 11 drops off 12,500 gp. Some combination of that might get you to where you want to be if you really want a staff of illusion.

Those are some great ideas Ryan, thank you! I like the Madness idea for Tindafalus; makes complete sense. And I think I will play around with the staff and make it a weaker version of a staff of illusion. It just fits better than a staff of spell storing.

As for the PC treasure; I've just been using the table in the Core Rulebook, in the section on making NPCs. Is that incorrect? I can't recall what page it's on and I'm at work, but it shouldn't be hard to find, and you probably know what I'm talking about.

[MichaelTumey]

Rite Publishing offers a free monthly digital magazine called Pathways (designed for use with Pathfinder RPG), and Pathways #26 included a demon clown write up - kind of a evil clown lich (very cool actually). I want to include one in some scenario, and would work especially well for a Ravenloftian circus. (I didn't post a link, but you can find it at DTRPG, Paizo Store and several other places - it is a free magazine.)

[Ryan Naylor]

On treasure:

There are 2 possible places you could be talking about.

On p. 400 (scary I can quote page numbers off the top of my head), there's the list of PC starting cash by level. e.g. 1000 gp at 2nd level, 880,000 gp at 20th. If you equip a character with that much treasure, they are CR +1.

On p. 450 approx, there's a table for equipping NPCs. There are 2 options - 1 for heroic NPC and one for normal NPCs (offset by a level). That doesn't add to the CR, and if you've got an NPC with PC-class levels (like Tindal), you use the heroic scale.

[Mortavius]

On treasure:

There are 2 possible places you could be talking about.

On p. 400 (scary I can quote page numbers off the top of my head), there's the list of PC starting cash by level. e.g. 1000 gp at 2nd level, 880,000 gp at 20th. If you equip a character with that much treasure, they are CR +1.

On p. 450 approx, there's a table for equipping NPCs. There are 2 options - 1 for heroic NPC and one for normal NPCs (offset by a level). That doesn't add to the CR, and if you've got an NPC with PC-class levels (like Tindal), you use the heroic scale.

You're bang on with the second option. Page 454 to be exact, now that I'm home, is the table I've been using for all the characters. So for ones like Hermos, who only has NPC levels, I use the Basic Level column, and for ones like Tindal, I use the Heroic level scale. Looks like I've been calculating it correctly, if I understand you right. I'm going to spend some time with Tindal's staff; see if I can make it fit better. Thanks again!

So I've re-worked Tindal. I took off a few of his items, and combining all that gold, and also assuming he made the staff himself, he can afford to have his Staff of Illusion, which I agree with others here, I like better. Also altered his feats to make sure he could make the damn thing. He didn't really need Eschew Materials any ways.

[Mortavius]

Madame Fortuna

Timeline

695 BC: Madame Fortuna born to a Corvara tribe of the Boem tasque, in Kartakass.
741 BC: Madame Fortuna joins Carnival, one of the first Vistani to do so after Arabela.
742 BC: Arabela is murdered. In the aftermath of the crime the Skurra feel they need a voice, and Madame Fortuna forsakes the protection of the Skurra-vera and accepts the Twisting to become that voice.
760 BC: Present day.

Twisting: Madame Fortuna has lost her beautiful eyes, but the Twisting has granted her supernatural methods of sight.

Base Stats
Str 10, Dex 13, Con 13, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 12
Racial: +4 Wis, +2 Cha
Aging: Old
Leveling: +1 Wis, +1 Cha
Favored Class: + Skill Ranks

760 BC (Current day stats)
CR 9; XP 6,400
Vistani Rogue (Charlatan) 9
CN Medium Humanoid (Vistani, Corvara)
Init +0; Senses Lifesense 60 ft., Perception +20

Defense
Aura Boem Calm (30 ft., Will DC 15)
AC 11, touch 10, flat-footed 11 (+1 Deflection)
HP 44 (9d8)
Fort +3, Ref +6 (Evasion), Will +7
Immune Gaze attacks
Weakness Blind to anything non-living

Offense
Speed 30 ft. (often travels at 15 ft. because of blindness)
Melee Mithral Dagger +5/+0 (1d4-1, 19-20 x2)
Special Attacks Sneak Attack +5d6
Spell-Like Abilities (DC 13 + spell level)
Constant – Detect Magic
At Will – Cause Fear, Detect Chaos, Detect Law, Hold Person, Ill Omen, Spark (touch only)
1/day – Bestow Curse, Burning Gaze (nonlethal only), Charm Person, Suggestion

Statistics
Str 7, Dex 10, Con 10, Int 16, Wis 23, Cha 17
Base Atk +6, CMB +4, CMD 14
Feats Alertness, Blind-Fight, Deceitful, Persuasive, Skill Focus (Sense Motive), Voice of Wrath
Skills Appraise +15, Bluff +17, Diplomacy +17, Intimidate +17, Knowledge (Geography) +12, Knowledge (History) +12, Knowledge (Local) +15, Knowledge (Nobility) +12, Perception +20 (+24 vs. overhearing conversations), Perform (Oratory) +15, Sense Motive +25, Sleight of Hand +12, Use Magic Device +15
Languages Patterna, Balok, Vassi, Mordentish, Skurra
SQ Improved Uncanny Dodge, Mist Navigation, Moon Madness, The Sight
Rogue Talents Canny Observer, Coax Information, Convincing Lie, Honeyed Words, Rumormonger

Equipment
Mithral Dagger +1, Ring of Protection +1, Shawl of Life-Keeping, Handy Haversack, Grave Salt, Tarroka Deck



I imagine that Madame Fortuna was something very different in her youth. Perhaps she was a heartless Vistana, one who thought nothing of using her looks and charm to get whatever she could from the Giorgios. With her focus on charisma skills, I imagine her something of a con artist. What did she do to get cast out of her tribe? Did she anger the wrong person, and that anger threatened the tribe? It would have to be pretty great anger (and go against her elders) to get her kicked out. Normally the Vistani would just close ranks together against outsiders, even if they didn't agree with an individual's choices.

As can be seen her stats above, she's not much of a fighter, but she still carries that dagger around, probably as much as habit as anything nowadays. I thought that the Handy Haversack is a great item for her; she just has to think of what she wants when she reaches in and it's right on top, helping her overcome her blindness.

[jules]

don't forget that the youngest vistani in the carnival probably has at least some of the twisting in him as he was literally born in the carnival!

[jules]

you doing the man how produces the "pikled punks" yet?