Player's Guide for the Reign of Winter Campaign
Character Background
You are a native of Taldor, a nation of grand legends and ancient traditions. Once a great empire that stretched across the continent, Taldor has been reduced by war and rebellion to a small but powerful nation around its ancient capital. Still, pride swells the heart of every Taldan, from the Grand Prince who sits on the Lion Throne, to the serf who tills his master's land, knowing that Taldor is the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of culture. It is a prosperous and well-developed nation, and despite its extreme stratifications of wealth and power, the peasants who make up a majority of the population have access to clean water, good roads, and plentiful food.
You were born in Sophra, Taldor's southernmost prefecture, a fertile land with warm, golden summers and cool dry winters. Sophra is also Taldor's most heavily guarded prefecture, since it shares a border with Taldor's long-time enemy to the south, Qadira. Military service is mandatory for at least one child of each family, and those who do not enter the army often train in local militias. Most who live here support the army in some way, whether it be watching their mounts, healing their wounds, building their walls, or growing their food.
You grew up in a small village or town as a person of little consequence. What happened next however, is up to you. You can use the following locations in Sophra and the above information about Taldor as inspiration for your backstory, but feel free to do your own reading as well.
- The Jalrune River: Nearly 100 feet wide at its narrowest point, the Jalrune River marks the border between Qadira and Taldor. It is patrolled by the Zimar corsairs, privateers eager to sink any vessel that does not fly the flag of Taldor, but also willing to pick up stranded travelers. The corsairs also hunt the pirates who hide in the river's many coves and backwaters. Crocodiles and hippopotamuses lie in the river's muddy shallows, while sugarcane grows along its banks.
- The Border Wood: A vast forest of cottonwood, cypress, and pine, the Border Wood is full of rich game and treacherous terrain, including high bluffs, deep gullies, and winding creeks. It has frequently been the site of combat between Qadira and Taldor, and is filled with abandoned watchtowers, hidden strongholds, and camouflaged supply caches. It is also filled with the restless dead of those battles, including ghosts, wraith, skeletons, and more.
- Demgazi: One of several small towns on the Jalrune River, Demgazi uses its position next to the Border Wood and the river to ship lumber downstream to the port of Golsifar and upstream to the city of Zimar. Demgazi also has a small but thriving business carving expensive furniture.
- Heldren: One of many villages on the edges of the Border Wood, Heldren is a farming community that also serves as a stop on the overland trade route between the city of Zimar and the coastal cities of the Moda prefecture, especially Merciful Bay.
Character Advice
Chilling Foes
This campaign contain a variety of monsters. At lower levels you’ll face animals, fey, and humanoids, followed by giants, magical beasts, and monstrous humanoids. At higher levels, expect evil outsiders, undead, and even dragons. Many of your foes are native to icy climates and may be resistant to cold, so using other forms of attack (especially fire) may be helpful. Still, no rule holds true forever, and over-specialization may be more harm than help.
Icy Magic
Some of the foes you face in this campaign are masters of icy magic, and ranks in Knowledge (arcana), Spellcraft, and Use Magic Device may be helpful in understanding their capabilities and magic items. You may also be interested in cold magic yourself, and any archetypes or class choices related to cold, winter, or the arctic would be a good fit for this campaign. In addition, archetypes and class choices related to witchcraft or the fey would be good thematic fits.
Frozen Lands
Winter is a major theme in the campaign, and though you will not be prepared for it when the campaign begins, you will want to adapt as time goes on. Ranks in Knowledge (geography), Knowledge (nature), and Survival would be helpful in surviving these environments. Being able to survive in cold terrain is a boon, but this campaign will take you into forest, mountain, and urban environments as well.
Culture Shock
This campaign will bring you to a number of far-flung places, locations that may be extremely foreign to your character. You will be spending some time in each of these locations, so you would be well served to take a rank or two in Linguistics when you arrive in a new place with a new set of languages. In addition, you might find that ranks in Bluff, Diplomacy, and Knowledge (local) are useful in dealing with the natives of your new surroundings, as well as traditions and customs wildly different from your own.
Character Creation
I have left character creation fairly open, almost anything published by Paizo is fair game. As it is Paizo's official partner, please use https://www.aonprd.com as a resource to browse published content. Any character option you choose should fit into your character's backstory. All character options are subject to GM approval, and we'll go over your character together after it is finished.
- Level: You will begin at 1st level. You will reach 17th or 18th level by the end of the campaign.
- Ability Scores: Standard 15 point buy with two modifications: you may not reduce ability scores below 8 or increase them above 16 (including racial ability score modifiers).
- Race: You are encouraged to choose half-elf, half-orc, halfling, or human as your race, since these are the races that live in southern Taldor. To make this easier, alternate racial ability score bonuses and penalties are available for each race. If you want to play a different race for roleplaying purposes, we can talk about it. Alternate racial traits are allowed.
- Class: All classes are allowed, with the exception of antipaladin, ninja, and samurai. All class archetypes are allowed. We will be using the Unchained versions of the Barbarian, Monk, Rogue, and Summoner.
- Favored Class Bonuses: Standard, and racial favored class bonuses are allowed.
- Traits: Standard two traits, with a possible third if you take a drawback. You may not take two or more traits from the same category. All traits are allowed, as long as they are consistent with your character's backstory and the region where the campaign begins.
- Skills: Standard, but we will be using the the Background Skills option from Pathfinder Unchained.
- Feats: All feats are allowed.
- Hit Points: You receive maximum hit points at 1st level. Beyond 1st level, you gain a fixed number of hit points each level based on the hit die of the class you take that level. Classes with a d6 hit die gain 4 hit points. Classes with a d8 hit die gain 5 hit points. Classes with a d10 hit die gain 7 hit points. Classes with a d12 hit die gain 8 hit points.
- Alignment: All alignments are allowed, but if you wish to play an evil character you must create a character that is motivated to work with a party of adventurers towards a common goal.
- Equipment: Use the average starting wealth for each class to purchase your starting equipment. Your character will have additional gold when the campaign starts, so feel free to spend all of your starting gold, but any gold you don't spend will carry over to the start of the campaign. In addition, we will be using the Automatic Bonus Progression option from Pathfinder Unchained.
- Spells: All spells are allowed, but spell restrictions based on race or religion are enforced.