Rise Of Tiamat, Episode 0001, The Introduction (RAW Cut)

This is the start of the Rise Of Tiamat series. In this episode, our characters are introduced, and we travel from our starting locations to the village of Greenest. There is some vagueness and lack of preparation from the GM evident, which will get better in the second episode and probably continue to get better over time. Once we reach Greenest, we find it under attack, and we take a rather unique tack of stopping the invaders and driving them back, all in a single episode. Give it a listen.

Edgar serves as the GM for this series. The game is based on Pathfinder First Edition.

Edgar is using our table's fairly standard suite of house rules, plus an extra set of rules for gestalt characters, to create high-powered hyjinks. These rules include basic tweaks to the way attack and damage works.

• The most significant change was to make armor count as damage reduction, and to make that change not break the game by using Base Attack Bonus for defense, damage, and damage reduction as well. Reference Star Wars Saga Edition to see how that works in a D20 game.
• Characters started with more Feats than normal. We are also using Traits, and characters are allowed on Flaw as well.
• Under our rules, a Gestalt counts as two Effective Character Levels (ECL). Custom races are allowed, with each 20 Race Points or so counting as one Effective Character Level. As a special rule, a character may gain +1 ECL in order to gain an immediate ten bonus Feats. And finally, when a Feat is gained every odd-numbered level, one Feat is gained per "side" in the Gestalt, but the Feat selected must be thematically appropriate to the classes in that Gestalt "side".
• The GM has made numerous minor changes to specific rules and items. For example, the "Wild" armor ability is not druid-specific, and is instead shapechanging-specific. Bows add bonus damage from Wisdom. AC is renamed Defense. Everything is more variable, such that both attacks and defenses are rolled. And more besides. A rules document will be published later with the relevant text, for those interested, as will be character sheets.

Our cast is as follows:

• Solander Of House Daevyl, a Drow Noble who attempted an Ascension ritual to become a God and wound up becoming transformed into a shapeshifting metamorphic oozelike being made out of a sort of protoplasmic energy. He combines pure magic as a sorcerer/witch (Eldritch Warlock, Psychic Bloodline, TIme Patron) with a magical method of martial prowess as a cross-classed fighter/wizard (Dimensional Warrior) and Formbender (Monk/Summoner). Solander is played by Brock, who usually is the GM.
• Edrelle Hellspawn, a half-fey and half-orc with a healthy amount of fire giantess blood to boot, descended from the infamous Kurgoth Hellspawn. She combines the power of fury and spell as a wizard/barbarian (Runescarred Fury), and adds a dose of raging arcane songs as a bard/barbarian (Skald). Her Runescarred Fury archetype allows her to scribe spells into her skin, and into the skin of others, making her a terrifying sight to behold when she enters the field prepared for battle. Edrelle is played by Robin.
• Zaigan O'Connor, an Aasimar Necromancer Illusionist. He specializes in using arcane power to raise armies, and to create the semblance of further armies, with a suite of healing powers and trickery besides. He combines the power of the third party Necromancer class from Samurai Sheepdog Games with a complex sorcerer build for maximum spell versatility (Crossblooded Sorcerer, mixing Impossible and Undead Bloodlines to take maximum advantage of pairing those Bloodline Arcana). His Necromancer class is a Pale Necromancer with the Resurrection Domain, the Lich Curse, the Life Mystery, and the True Necromancer Study, which grants him the remarkable ability to Channel Energy for both positive and negative energy while affecting himself positively with either one. Zaigan is played by Jeffery.

As a RAW cut, this is almost entirely unedited. There are audio problems and only a static image for the background. Enjoy, if you like RAW cuts or want an early view of an episode.