Campaign Backgrounds

The Tyrant’s Grasp Adventure Path takes players across Lastwall and into Ustalav, as well as to far more distant ports of call. The campaign begins in the border town of Roslar’s Coffer, and player characters should be natives of the community or its surrounding environs. Regardless of their backgrounds, every character should have a vested interest in stopping the rise of undeath and evil that threatens to conquer all of Avistan.

Each player character gains one of the following campaign backgrounds, replacing regular backgrounds and benefits.

The Artisan

Precision is important in getting exactly what you want, and you give careful consideration in building everything from homes and vases to roads and empires. Your own attention to detail has proven vital in rebuilding Roslar’s Coffer from the orc occupation a decade ago, whether you are an alchemist, engineer, or herbalist.

Benefit: Choose Dungeoneering or Heal. You become trained in this skill. In addition, you gain the alchemist feat and may substitute any skill checks to create alchemical items with the chosen skill. You also gain the brew potion ritual and count either your Dungeoneering or Heal skill for the purposes of this ritual.

The Lawbringer

The frontier is a land of risk and disorder, and while people are welcome to brave those elements themselves, they all too often bring pain down upon folk who never wanted such a risk. You might serve on the town guard or as part of a detachment of soldiers supported by Vigil, or you could be simply a concerned farmer who endures when others cannot, but your purpose is to stand as a bulwark against the cruel whims of fate for anyone who needs it.

Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to saving throws against fear effects and +2 bonus to death saving throws.

The Optimist

People don’t need to take your word that things are getting better; they only need to look around and see the proof before their eyes. The town’s recovery from the orc occupation more than a decade ago is all but complete, and the monster in the Sarenite temple outside of town has finally been bested. Your irrepressible sense of optimism seems to fly in the face of the hard life that most residents of Roslar’s Coffer face, but you’re convinced that your positive attitude lifts up your community.

Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to saving throws against charm effects. When you spend an action point all allies within 5 squares gain this bonus until the end of your next turn.

The Outsider

You don’t have a place, but the frontier seems comfortable enough for now. Maybe you’re too informal for city life, too selfish for Lastwall’s general culture of camaraderie, or too scarred by things you’ve seen to entirely trust another person. You are accustomed to moving without drawing much attention to yourself.

Benefit: Choose Stealth or Nature. You gain a +2 bonus on checks with this skill, and it is considered a class skill for you. When you spend your action point and have no allies within 2 squares of you (familiars, summons, and animal companions do not count for this ability), you gain 5 temporary hit points. This increases to 10 at paragon and 15 at epic.

The Pessimist

You expect the worst and have rarely been disappointed. Your dour outlook may hail from the original destruction of Roslar’s Coffer at the hands of the Twisted Nail tribe, the exile of the faithful from the nearby Sarenite temple, or some more personal misfortune, but it has set you apart among the largely forward-thinking population of Lastwall.

Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to saving throws against charm and fear effects. This does not stack with the Optimist's action point ability.

The Reclaimer

You lost something precious in the destruction of Roslar’s Coffer 12 years ago—a home, a legacy, perhaps even family—but returned because a soul shouldn’t run from pain, but heal from it. Rebuilding your life and preventing that same hurt from dragging down others drives you to serve and protect, perhaps as a politician, charity worker, healer, or soldier, but that same loss fills you with an uncharitable anger that is often difficult to reconcile.

Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to perception and perception becomes a class skill. When you spend an action point you gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls vs any enemy that dealt damage to an ally in the previous round. This bonus lasts until the end of your turn.

The Snoop

You know a little bit about most everything and everyone in Roslar’s Coffer. It may be your profession, as you could be an archivist, crier, or librarian—or you simply make a hobby of gossip. Either way, you have a gift for recall and reading others.

Benefit: Choose History or Streetwise. You become trained in this skill. Once per day you can use the chosen skill to make a bluff or insight check against a creature you have known for at least 24 hours.

The Word

In a nation overcrowded with faith, you often worry that your message is drowned out, but nonetheless important. The souls in Roslar’s Coffer needed comfort and charity once upon a time, but have bounced back so fully—in part thanks to your hard work—that you worry you’ve made yourself unnecessary.

Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to religion and religion becomes a class skill. You may use religion in place of heal checks.