NeoExodus: Creating the Iconics

I have been working on the Iconics for NeoExodus for the past few days. It should come as no surprise as the time of the play test for Encounter at Ramat Bridge approaches (next Monday!). So I kicked myself in the rear to Git'R'Done. I really have to. With interest in NeoExodus building, I tried to think about iconic characters that would represent the setting and be interesting to play.

Now, in the past I wrote a number of stand-alone events, with characters written specifically for that adventure. Making sure that characters have all the abilities they would need to complete the adventure is an important part of it.

But iconics are designed to be used and re-used over many adventures. They are not specific to a single, specific adventure. This in itself creates a few issues. Nothing impossible to resolve, but they have to be thought through to really be good.

Let's take a quick look at the other main group of iconics: 3e's and Pathfinder. Let's take the fighters: Redgar and Valeros. Redgar is the heavy armored, big weapon wielder. Valeros is a two-weapon fighter. Concept: simple and easy to understand. Everyone can pick them up and know what the character's role is and what is best for him. While he may not be optimal for every situation, they can be sent into any adventure and be effective.

I mean neither of those characters have strange concepts. They don't rely on overly complex combos to be effective. They do not use material from sources beyond the core book. They are simple, efficient and easy to understand how to use.

With all this in mind, I began to take a look at the races of NeoExodus.

Many of the races are what I would call complex races, like the Cavian (psionic rat-men), the Dalreans (plant-men) or the Sasori (humanoid insect information gatherers). Although I would love to include those races, I have to put them in the "complex" category. Scratch them for this first batch of iconics.

A quick look over the races... Let's see, Cynean, Enuka, Gevet, Human, Prymidian, P'Tan. After some thought the Gevet may be a little too focused so I took them out and replaced them with another human character.

On to the classes, but first things first, the basic four have to be represented: cleric-fighter-rogue-wizard. As I've been working on the Order of Kaga recently I think that using the "Cleric of Kaga" archetype. That should put a nice spin to it. Fighters are great in Pathfinder, so after thinking about using a paladin or a barbarian, I settled on the good ol' fighter. Trusty reliable fighter. Same goes for the rogue. I don't know of any class that fills the trapster niche like the rogue. Came time for the wizard, I had two choices either a sorcerer or a wizard. Since I used the "Cleric of Kaga" archetype, I went with the sorcerer.

So Cleric of Kaga, Fighter, Rogue, Sorcerer and two more.

Before moving on, I matched those classes with races. Clerics of Kaga made most sense to be human (since the prestige classes go that way). Fighter and Enuka are a match made in heaven. Rogue... hummm Prymidian or P'Tan... After some thought, I went with the P'Tan because making a Prymidian rogue would create a Charisma-based character and I wasn't exactly thrilled about that. Finally Sorcerer called the Cynean out.

That left me with a Human and a Prymidian... And two support classes to go.

The Prymidian race just calls for a bard so I went with that. Its a natural mix for them.

Finally I was left with a human character to go. In NeoExodus, the Arman Protectorate created cannons and large constructs to fight against the magically superior Dominion Khans. With Paizo play-testing the gunslinger class, I thought it would make a lot of sense to add one in there.

So that is how I came up with the first group of NeoExodus iconics. With regards to gender, I used miniatures at my disposal to chose. Since Encounter at Ramat Bridge is designed for 3rd level characters, each was built up to 3rd level. Also, while it might be optimal to multi-class certain characters, I opted for the straight class. As those characters are Iconic, I want to keep the simple, much like Redgar and Valeros. It is my not-so-secret hope that at next year's PaizoCon players come with their own characters!
   Cynean Sorcerer (male)
   Enuka Fighter (male)
   Human Cleric of Kaga (male)
   Human Gunslinger (female)
   Prymidian Bard (male)
   P'Tan Rogue (female)

So here you are folks... The NeoExodus iconics! Unless something major is found during the play-test, those are the characters who will be at PaizoCon