Utilizing pathfinder first edition classes, races and archetypes, give me a concept for four characters for the Carrion Crown gothic horror adventure path.
Yes, give me a backup lineup as requested. Give me both line-ups, with names. I want one female and three male characters in each group, to match my group.
Give me a line-up for Strange Aeons too, make sure that I have at least one brawler (any archetype) and one slayer (any archetype) and make sure that I have at least one Occult Adventures themed character.
For Strange Aeons, I would make the party substantially more psychologically strange than the Carrion Crown groups. The campaign begins with the characters waking in Briarstone Asylum with their memories missing, so I would make each character's lost identity part of the character concept, rather than simply giving them an ordinary backstory. The Player's Guide specifically encourages this and recommends giving characters an obvious vulnerability that the GM can use for horror. I’d also make the party one woman and three men, as with your other groups.
STRANGE AEONS — The Dream-Wounded
1. Gregor Vane
Male Human Brawler — Snakebite Striker
Role: Front-line fighter / unarmed combatant
Gregor is a large, powerfully built man with the hands and scars of someone who has spent years fighting professionally. The problem is that he has no idea why he knows how to fight. When the campaign begins, Gregor remembers almost nothing except fragments: a woman screaming; the smell of blood and seawater; his own hands covered in blood; someone repeatedly calling him "the butcher"; and a strange sensation that he has fought some of his companions before. He's extremely good at improvisational combat. He can pick up almost anything and turn it into a weapon.
Class: Brawler
Archetype: Snakebite Striker
Race: Human
Combat: Unarmed, improvised weapons, dirty tricks
The Snakebite Striker fits him particularly well because it gives him the feel of a street fighter who has learned to survive through instinct rather than formal martial training. The interesting question is whether Gregor's missing memories conceal something heroic, or something terrible.
Horror hook: Gregor occasionally enters a trance when someone attacks him. For a few seconds, he fights with far greater skill than he should possess. Afterward he doesn't remember what he did.
2. Dr. Alistair Wren
Male Human Investigator — Psychic Detective
Role: Investigator / skilled operative / occult specialist
Alistair is a thin, scholarly man with wire-rimmed spectacles, an immaculate coat, and the exhausted appearance of someone who hasn't slept properly in years. He remembers almost nothing, except that he was a doctor. And that he was investigating something called the Yellow Sign. He doesn't remember why. He doesn't remember who employed him. And he has no idea why he recognizes certain symbols carved into the walls of Briarstone.
Class: Investigator
Archetype: Psychic Detective
Race: Human
Role: Investigation, knowledge, psychic abilities, support
This is the character I'd use to make Occult Adventures absolutely central to the party. The Strange Aeons Player's Guide specifically recommends the Psychic Detective archetype from Occult Adventures and points to psychic/occult classes as particularly appropriate for the campaign. The archetype also fits the campaign's central idea beautifully: Alistair doesn't merely investigate physical evidence. He investigates psychic impressions and memories.
Horror hook: His psychic abilities occasionally recover memories that aren't his. He might touch a bloodstained door and suddenly remember standing in the room. Except the person standing there was not Alistair.
3. Nikolai Orlov
Male Dhampir Slayer — Witch Killer
Role: Slayer / scout / assassin / monster hunter
Nikolai is the darkest-looking member of the group. He's tall, thin, extremely pale, and dresses in black traveling clothes beneath a battered gray coat. His eyes are an unnaturally dark red. He knows how to kill people. He doesn't remember why.
Class: Slayer
Archetype: Witch Killer
Race: Dhampir
Role: Single-target damage, tracking, stealth
The Witch Killer archetype is explicitly one of the thematically recommended options in the Strange Aeons Player's Guide. But I'd make the character considerably more complicated than "guy who kills witches." Nikolai has fragments of memories suggesting that he was once part of an organization dedicated to hunting occultists. The problem, of course, is that he can't remember whether he was a member of that organization, or one of the people it hunted.
Horror hook: Nikolai has a recurring nightmare in which he is standing before a crowd of people wearing yellow masks. They're all kneeling. And they're all calling him Master. He assumes this is evidence that he was once a cultist. It may not be.
4. Eveline March
Female Human Occultist — Haunt Collector
Role: Occult caster / relic specialist / knowledge
Eveline is the most overtly supernatural member of the group. She is a pale, elegant young woman who dresses like a Victorian-era antiquarian: high-collared blouse, long dark skirt, gloves, boots, and a collection of strange jewelry and little occult implements. When she awakens in Briarstone, she has no memory of her life. But she does have a collection of objects. She doesn't know where they came from. She doesn't know who they belonged to. And every one of them is magical.
Class: Occultist
Archetype: Haunt Collector
Race: Human
Role: Occult magic, psychic skill, relics, utility
This is probably the most quintessentially Occult Adventures character of the four. Occult Adventures introduced the occultist as one of its six major occult classes, and the Haunt Collector archetype is specifically recommended by the Strange Aeons Player's Guide. Eveline's specialty is interacting with haunts, spirits, psychic impressions, and supernatural objects.
Horror hook: She has one item she refuses to use: a small silver mirror. She doesn't know why. She only knows that when she looks into it, she sees herself standing somewhere she has never been. And there is always someone standing behind her.
This gives you exactly the mechanical requirements you asked for the Really Interesting Part: Their Memories. I'd make the campaign's central character mystery work like this: Gregor remembers violence. Alistair remembers knowledge. Nikolai remembers murder. Eveline remembers objects. None of them remembers the same part of the story. As the campaign progresses, their recovered memories begin fitting together. At first, they assume that they were simply four unrelated people who happened to end up in Briarstone. Eventually, they discover that they knew each other before the campaign began. And that's where I'd start letting the GM play with the characters' vulnerabilities. Gregor discovers that he once fought Nikolai. Alistair discovers that he once investigated Eveline. Eveline discovers that she once possessed the silver mirror. And Nikolai discovers that all three of them appear in his nightmares. The best part is that the characters themselves don't know whether these recovered memories are genuine. That's especially appropriate for Strange Aeons, because the campaign is built around the characters' missing memories and the gradual discovery that their amnesia is connected to something much larger and more horrifying.
The Player's Guide explicitly notes that the campaign works well with occult characters, but also points out that psychic characters can have particular difficulties because of the campaign's frequent fear and emotion-based effects. So I would not make Eveline or Alistair emotionally fearless. Quite the opposite. I'd make them unusually vulnerable to the things they understand. That makes the occult abilities feel less like superpowers and more like dangerous knowledge. And that is exactly the tone I'd want for Strange Aeons.
This has been useful. Can you also give me both a lower fantasy and a higher fantasy version for Skull & shackles, the pirate-themed adventure path?
Absolutely. For Skull & Shackles, I’d make the two versions feel substantially different. The lower-fantasy party would be a rough-and-tumble pirate crew: sailors, cutthroats, smugglers, and people who have learned to survive at sea. Magic exists, but it isn't the defining feature of the group. The higher-fantasy party would embrace the supernatural side of the Shackles: sea witches, magical swashbucklers, strange races, divine powers, and characters who feel as though they belong in a larger-than-life pirate fantasy. I’ll keep the same one woman / three men arrangement.
SKULL & SHACKLES I — The Salt Dogs
Tone: Master and Commander meets Black Sails.
These characters are fundamentally ordinary people who have become pirates because circumstances forced them into it. They're dangerous because they are competent, ruthless, and experienced—not because they possess extraordinary powers.
1. Elias Crowe
Human Fighter — Corsair
Male — Shipboard warrior / captain
Elias is a former merchant-marine officer who spent fifteen years sailing the Inner Sea. He knows ships. He knows navigation. He knows naval combat. And, most importantly, he knows exactly how merchant captains think. He became a pirate after his employer refused to pay the crew following a disastrous voyage. Elias organized a mutiny, seized the ship, and discovered that he was considerably better suited to piracy than legitimate commerce.
Class: Fighter
Archetype: Corsair
Race: Human
Weapons: Cutlass, boarding axe, pistol
Role: Front-line fighter / shipboard commander
He isn't a swashbuckling duelist. He's a naval officer who happens to have become a pirate. His fighting style emphasizes boarding actions, positioning, and fighting on unstable decks.
Personality: Calm, disciplined, and pragmatic. He doesn't particularly care about treasure. He cares about owning his own ship and never again being under the command of someone who doesn't value his crew.
2. Bram "Black Bram" Ketch
Human Slayer — Bounty Hunter
Male — Scout / assassin / boarding specialist
Bram was a dockside criminal long before he became a pirate. He's lean, ugly, scarred, and almost perpetually unshaven. He's also extremely good at finding people. Before joining the crew, he worked as a bounty hunter, tracker, and occasional hired killer.
Class: Slayer
Archetype: Bounty Hunter
Race: Human
Weapons: Cutlass, dagger, light crossbow
Role: Scout / striker / tracker
His preferred method of dealing with an enemy captain is to find out where the man sleeps and kill him there rather than engaging in a heroic duel.
Personality: Bram is cynical and suspicious. He expects everyone to betray him eventually. He's therefore somewhat surprised when he gradually becomes genuinely loyal to the crew. He would never admit it.
3. Tobias "Toby" Pike
Human Rogue — Pirate
Male — Rogue / thief / infiltrator
Toby is the youngest member of the crew and was born in a port city. He learned to climb rigging before he learned to read. He's a natural thief, gambler, card cheat, lockpicker, and liar.
Class: Rogue
Archetype: Pirate
Race: Human
Weapons: Rapier, dagger, throwing knives
Role: Skills / infiltration / ranged support
He's the classic pirate character—but without supernatural abilities. He is also the party's comic relief, although he becomes considerably less funny when someone threatens his friends.
Personality: Charming, irreverent, impulsive. He has a weakness for gambling and attractive women. This is frequently inconvenient.
4. Anne "Red Anne" Mallory
Human Ranger — Freebooter
Female — Scout / sailor / wilderness survivor
Anne is the daughter of a fisherman and grew up on the coast. She knows the ocean, islands, reefs, weather patterns, and coastal wilderness better than anyone else aboard. She's also an excellent shot with a musket.
Class: Ranger
Archetype: Freebooter
Race: Human
Weapons: Musket, cutlass
Role: Ranged combat / scout / wilderness survival
Unlike the others, Anne doesn't particularly enjoy piracy. She simply discovered that pirates have more freedom than merchants.
Personality: Blunt, practical, independent. She is the one who knows when the captain is making a stupid decision. She also happens to be the one person aboard whom Elias consistently listens to.
—( † )—
The group's defining characteristic: none of them is particularly special. That's the point. They start Skull & Shackles as people who are simply trying to survive. Over the course of the campaign, they become legends.
SKULL & SHACKLES II — The Black Tide
This version goes in the opposite direction. Tone: Pirates of the Caribbean + Sinbad + Pathfinder's supernatural mythology. Here, the sea itself is magical. The characters aren't merely pirates. They're becoming figures of legend.
1. Captain Lucian Marrow
Human Swashbuckler — Daring Champion
Male — Duelist / captain
Lucian is a flamboyant former Chelish naval officer who deserted after refusing an order to massacre a captured pirate crew. He became a pirate and discovered that he possessed a remarkable talent for swordsmanship.
Class: Swashbuckler
Archetype: Daring Champion
Race: Human
Weapons: Rapier, pistol
Role: Duelist / face / captain
Lucian fights with theatrical confidence. He has an enormous black coat, tall boots, a broad-brimmed hat, and a silver-handled rapier. He's convinced that every great pirate needs a great nemesis. He's right.
2. Vargan Bloodwake
Orc Bloodrager — Primalist
Male — Supernatural bruiser
Vargan was born among a brutal orcish coastal tribe. He possesses an unsettling connection to the ocean. When he becomes enraged, the veins in his arms become dark blue and his skin develops patches of black, fishlike scales. Nobody knows why. Vargan certainly doesn't.
Class: Bloodrager
Archetype: Primalist
Race: Orc
Bloodline: Abyssal or Elemental (Water)
Role: Front-line powerhouse
I'd lean toward Elemental (Water) if you want him to feel more nautical and Abyssal if you want him to feel like something terrible is living inside him. He carries a huge boarding axe.
Personality: Quiet and surprisingly philosophical. He loves the sea. The sea, unfortunately, may love him back.
3. Father Mateo Blackwake
Human Cleric — Ocean's Fury
Male — Divine caster / ship's priest
Mateo was originally a priest of Gozreh. He served aboard merchant ships until he became convinced that Gozreh's storms weren't simply destructive. They were warnings. Eventually Mateo abandoned civilization and became a pirate priest.
Class: Cleric
Archetype: Ocean's Fury
Race: Human
Deity: Gozreh
Domains: Water / Weather
Role: Healing / divine magic / weather
He interprets storms as divine messages. Unfortunately, his interpretations are often extremely alarming.
"The storm came from the southwest."
"Is that bad?"
"It means Gozreh is angry."
"At what?"
"Us."
4. Seraphina Vale
Sylph Witch — Sea Hag Patron
Female — Witch / occult spellcaster
Seraphina is a mysterious woman found drifting alone in a lifeboat after a storm. She claims she doesn't remember where she came from. She is beautiful, pale, and unnervingly calm. Her hair is almost white and constantly moves as though underwater even when there is no wind. She possesses a strange relationship with the ocean.
Class: Witch
Race: Sylph
Patron: Sea
Archetype: Hedge Witch
Role: Arcane caster / debuffer / occult utility
Her familiar is a small black seabird with disturbingly intelligent eyes. The crew eventually realizes that Seraphina can hear voices beneath the waves. She doesn't always understand what they're saying. Sometimes, however, they say her name.
—( † )—
This party is much more mythic. Lucian becomes the legendary pirate captain. Vargan becomes the terrifying monster who fights beside him. Mateo is the priest who calls down storms. Seraphina is the mysterious sea witch whom everyone suspects is something other than human.
Which one I'd choose
For Skull & Shackles specifically, I think the Salt Dogs have a particularly strong advantage if you want the campaign's transformation to feel meaningful. They start as four relatively ordinary people:
-Elias wants independence.
- Bram wants money.
- Toby wants adventure.
- Anne wants freedom.
Then the campaign gradually turns them into pirates. That's an excellent character arc for Skull & Shackles, because the characters' rise from prisoners and sailors to notorious pirate captains becomes the fantasy rather than something they already possess at level 1. The Black Tide, meanwhile, is better if your group wants to embrace the fact that Pathfinder is a fantasy game and doesn't mind having characters who are obviously extraordinary from the beginning. And if you're building a whole set of Adventure Path parties, I'd actually keep these distinctions. Your Carrion Crown group can be the gothic monster hunters, your Strange Aeons group the psychologically damaged occultists, and your Skull & Shackles group the ordinary sailors who gradually become larger-than-life pirates. That gives each campaign a very different identity rather than making every party feel like four variations on the same adventuring group.
Do you have access to the classes from the Freeport third party book, or no?
Yes—with an important distinction. I have access to information about the Pathfinder 1e Freeport material, including the Freeport Companion: Pathfinder RPG Edition and Player’s Guide to Freeport, so I can work with its classes, archetypes, prestige classes, feats, etc. The publisher describes the Player’s Guide as containing three new classes—Freebooter, Monster Slayer, and Noble—and archetypes such as Corsair, Musketeer, and Witch Hunter. The larger Freeport: The City of Adventure Pathfinder book is a 544-page Pathfinder 1e setting book with additional classes, archetypes, feats, and magic items. The earlier Freeport Companion also has its own Pathfinder material, including the Corsair and Monster Hunter classes, prestige classes such as Musketeer and Witch Hunter, and other rules.
So if what you're asking is: Can you use the actual Freeport-specific classes and archetypes when designing my Pathfinder 1e parties?
Yes. And now that I know you're comfortable with third-party PF1e material, I can incorporate them rather than restricting myself to Paizo's books.
In fact, I think this would be particularly useful for the Skull & Shackles lineup. Freeport's design is explicitly built around piracy, urban fantasy, and Lovecraftian horror, so its material is unusually well suited to that Adventure Path.
For example, I could rebuild the two Skull & Shackles groups using: Freebooter, Monster Slayer, Noble, Corsair, Musketeer, Witch Hunter, the Freeport prestige classes, and the other Freeport-specific options while still mixing them with normal Paizo Pathfinder 1e classes and archetypes. And given the correction we just went through, I can also give you the exact book/source for every non-core class and archetype, so you can tell immediately whether something comes from Skull & Shackles, Pirates of the Inner Sea, Freeport, Ultimate Combat, etc.
Yeah, that's make a third party, utilizing a mixture of official material and Freeport material, and leaning thematically more to the Salt Dogs with lower fantasy and sword & sorcery and horror rather than the high fantasy version.
Absolutely. For this version I'd make Freeport the seasoning rather than the whole meal: mostly recognizable PF1e characters, with a few Freeport classes/archetypes providing the distinctive sword-and-sorcery flavor. I would also keep magic relatively rare and unsettling. These are pirates first, adventurers second. The supernatural should feel like something they encounter in dark coves, ruined temples, forgotten islands, and places where sailors tell stories they don't like repeating.
Skull & Shackles — The Black Flag Company
Tone: Black Sails + Robert E. Howard + Clark Ashton Smith + a little The Shadow over Innsmouth
One woman and three men.
1. Elias Crowe
Human Fighter — Corsair
Male | Ship's officer / swordsman / eventual captain
Elias remains my favorite anchor for this kind of party. He's a former merchant-marine officer who spent fifteen years sailing the Inner Sea. He knows navigation, naval discipline, boarding tactics, and the brutal economics of merchant shipping. He didn't become a pirate because he dreamed of freedom. He became one because his employer cheated the crew out of their pay, and Elias organized a mutiny. Once he discovered that he was very good at piracy, there wasn't much reason to go back.
Class: Fighter
Archetype: Corsair
Race: Human
Weapons: Cutlass, boarding axe, pistol
Armor: Breastplate or light/medium armor
Role: Front-line fighter and shipboard commander
Source: Pirates of the Inner Sea
Personality: Elias is disciplined, pragmatic, and remarkably unromantic about piracy. He doesn't call himself a pirate. He calls himself captain of a private vessel operating without a letter of marque. Nobody else is fooled. He has one firm rule: We don't kill sailors who surrender. That rule becomes increasingly difficult to maintain in the Shackles.
2. Black Bram Ketch
Human Slayer — Bounty Hunter
Male | Tracker / killer / boarding specialist
Bram is the man you send ashore when somebody needs to disappear. He grew up in the docks of a major port and spent years working as a bounty hunter, debt collector, smuggler, and occasional assassin. He's not particularly charismatic, handsome, or clever. He's simply very good at finding people and making them stop running.
Class: Slayer
Archetype: Bounty Hunter
Race: Human
Weapons: Cutlass, dagger, hand crossbow
Role: Scout, tracker, single-target killer
Source: Advanced Class Guide
The Bounty Hunter is an especially good fit for the lower-fantasy version because Bram isn't a magical monster hunter. He's a professional criminal hunter who has become a criminal himself.
Personality: Bram is cynical, suspicious, and unpleasant. He doesn't believe in honor. He does believe in contracts. If he gives you his word, he'll keep it. He just doesn't promise very much.
Horror angle: Bram has killed plenty of men. He's never killed anything that wasn't human. Until the party reaches the first island where the locals insist that something comes ashore from the sea at night. Bram initially laughs at them. He eventually stops laughing.
3. Martin "Marty" Rook
Human Freebooter
Male | Scout / sailor / rogue-ish survivalist
For the third character, I'd deliberately avoid another conventional rogue.
Martin is a career sailor who has spent most of his life aboard small coastal vessels. He's a skilled climber, swimmer, navigator, fisherman, and scout. He's the person who can look at a coastline and say: we can land there, and then explain exactly why.
Class: Ranger
Archetype: Freebooter
Race: Human
Weapons: Cutlass, shortbow, boarding axe
Role: Scout, wilderness survival, crew support
Source: Pirates of the Inner Sea
Freebooter is particularly appropriate here because its abilities are built around making the entire crew more effective against a chosen enemy.
Personality: Marty is easygoing, superstitious, and almost impossible to frighten. Almost. He refuses to sail on certain nights of the month. He won't explain why.
Horror angle: Marty grew up hearing old sailor stories about something beneath the water that follows ships. He's never seen it. He desperately hopes he never does.
4. Mara Vex
Human Corsair / Freeport Witch Hunter
Female | Pistolier / occult investigator / pirate
Mara is where I'd bring in the Freeport material. Rather than making her a conventional spellcaster, I'd make her a woman who has spent years hunting the supernatural without actually being a wizard. She grew up in Freeport and worked for a time as a private investigator and bounty hunter specializing in occult crimes. She learned that most supernatural problems have very mundane accomplices: cultists, smugglers, corrupt priests, grave robbers, and greedy nobles. She is consequently very good at killing the human beings responsible for supernatural problems.
Class: Freeport Witch Hunter
Race: Human
Weapons: Rapier, pistol, dagger
Role: Face, investigator, ranged combatant, occult specialist
This is where I'd use one of the Freeport-specific options rather than simply making her another Paizo archetype.
Personality: Mara is sharp, skeptical, and dryly humorous. She doesn't believe in ghosts. She has, unfortunately, killed several. She maintains that this is different.
Horror angle: Mara knows enough about occultism to recognize when something is wrong. That makes her the first person to realize that the strange things happening around the crew aren't random. Someone—or something—is interested in their ship. And it seems to have been interested in them before they ever became pirates.
—( † )—
This keeps the party very low fantasy. There isn't a wizard. There isn't a cleric. There isn't a sorcerer. There isn't even a character who needs supernatural powers to be effective. And that's intentional.
Why I like this version for Skull & Shackles
The party starts out feeling like a real pirate crew. Elias understands ships and combat. Bram understands violence and hunting people. Marty understands the sea. Mara understands people—and the strange things people get involved with. Their abilities overlap enough that they feel like members of the same profession rather than four unrelated adventurers.
The Sword & Sorcery angle
I'd also alter the presentation of the Shackles for this party. Rather than making every island an excuse for another colorful fantasy culture, I'd emphasize: decaying colonial forts; abandoned pirate settlements; drowned temples; half-forgotten coastal kingdoms; cannibal tribes; ancient ruins; slave markets; decadent pirate princes; witch covens; ruined shrines; strange drugs and poisons; forbidden treasures; old maps that shouldn't exist; and things found in the sea that should never have been brought aboard ship.
The characters also aren't collecting magical equipment every few levels. A good pistol is valuable. A well-made cutlass is valuable. A ship with reliable rigging is valuable. A bottle of decent rum is valuable. And if they find an ancient black sword in a drowned temple, nobody immediately assumes it's a +2 sword. They wonder why it is warm. They wonder why it seems to have been waiting for them. And they probably shouldn't touch it.
One change I'd make to the campaign's supernatural escalation
I'd keep the first portion of the campaign almost entirely mundane. Then introduce one supernatural element at a time. For example: Levels 1–3: Piracy, mutiny, naval combat, rival crews, smuggling, corrupt authorities. Levels 4–6: Strange ruins. Missing sailors. Local superstitions that turn out to be partially true. Levels 7–9: Cults. Witchcraft. Sea monsters. Ancient artifacts. Levels 10+: The crew realizes that the Shackles aren't simply a collection of pirate islands. Something very old lives beneath them. That way, when the supernatural finally becomes undeniable, it feels like a genuine escalation rather than something the players have been seeing since the first session. And that makes this party's progression particularly satisfying: four relatively ordinary criminals and sailors gradually become legendary pirates who have survived things that sensible sailors refuse even to name.
OK, I'm quite enjoying these groups. Can you give me one for the Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure path, focused on lower fantasy, playing up the horror angle, and keeping it (mostly) urban themed?
Definitely. Curse of the Crimson Throne is probably one of the best Adventure Paths for the kind of party you've been building: the official Player's Guide explicitly describes it as primarily urban, with intrigue-focused classes such as investigator, rogue, slayer, and swashbuckler being particularly appropriate. It also specifically notes opportunities for occult characters around the Harrow and haunted locations. For your version, I'd lean into Korvosa as a decaying gothic city rather than treating it simply as a fantasy metropolis. Think Gangs of New York crossed with The Golem and From Hell, with the supernatural gradually becoming impossible to dismiss. I'd also keep the same one woman, three men structure.
CURSE OF THE CRIMSON THRONE — The Korvosan Four
Tone: urban sword & sorcery + gothic horror + political thriller
The important thing is that all four characters already belong to Korvosa. They aren't adventurers who happen to arrive in town. They are people who have lived there long enough to know its alleys, taverns, gangs, guards, and slums. When the city begins falling apart, their city is being destroyed. That gives them a much stronger reason to stay than simply being hired adventurers.
1. Gideon Vale
Human Investigator — Empiricist
Male | Detective / physician / forensic investigator
Gideon is the group's intellectual center. He's a former physician who left medicine after becoming disgusted with the way wealthy Korvosans could buy better treatment while the poor died in the streets. He now works as a private investigator, specializing in murders, disappearances, blackmail, and other cases the Korvosan Guard doesn't have the time—or inclination—to pursue.
Class: Investigator
Archetype: Empiricist
Race: Human
Weapons: Rapier, dagger, pistol
Role: Investigation, skills, knowledge, secondary combat
The Empiricist is an excellent fit because Gideon is fundamentally a detective, not a magical adventurer. He keeps notebooks full of sketches, witness statements, anatomical observations, and maps of Korvosa's streets.
Personality: Gideon is quiet, skeptical, and compassionate. He doesn't believe in ghosts. He doesn't believe in curses. He doesn't believe in prophecy. He believes that frightened people tell stories because they don't understand what happened. Unfortunately, he eventually encounters several things that cannot be explained by evidence alone.
Horror angle: Gideon's greatest fear is not death. It's being unable to determine what killed someone. That becomes increasingly relevant as the campaign progresses.
2. Tomas Rook
Human Slayer — Bounty Hunter
Male | Street-level hunter / investigator / killer
Tomas is a former member of the Korvosan Guard who was dismissed after refusing to obey a corrupt superior. He now works as a bounty hunter. He knows every criminal district in the city, every common escape route, and most of the city's fences and informants.
Class: Slayer
Archetype: Bounty Hunter
Race: Human
Weapons: Longsword, dagger, light crossbow
Role: Striker, tracker, intimidation
He's not a noble crusader. He's a professional. If somebody has a bounty on them, Tomas finds them. If they're dangerous, he kills them.
Personality: Tomas is cynical and deeply suspicious of authority. He has a particular hatred for wealthy people who think the law exists for their convenience. He and Gideon have known one another for years. Gideon investigates the crime. Tomas finds the criminal.
Horror angle: Tomas knows the city's criminals. That's why he's among the first to realize something is wrong. People who have survived the worst parts of Korvosa's underworld are suddenly disappearing. Not being murdered. Not arrested. Disappearing. And some of the survivors are talking about things they refuse to describe.
3. Mara Veleris
Human Vigilante — Avenger / Serial Killer Hunter
Female | Masked vigilante / urban warrior
Mara is the character I'd use to make the Korvosa itself central to the campaign. She's a vigilante who operates in the poorer districts of the city. By day, she's a respectable young woman who works as a clerk and occasional translator. By night, she becomes the Black Lantern, a masked figure who hunts predatory criminals. She isn't trying to replace Blackjack. She regards Blackjack as a legend from another era.
Class: Vigilante
Archetype: Avenger
Race: Human
Weapons: Rapier, hand crossbow, dagger
Role: Martial combat, infiltration, social identity
The official Player's Guide practically invites this concept: it specifically identifies Korvosa as an ideal environment for vigilantes and discusses Blackjack as the city's legendary masked hero.
Personality: Mara is much warmer than her vigilante persona. Her civilian identity is compassionate, funny, and surprisingly optimistic. Her masked identity is cold and frightening. The distinction becomes increasingly blurred as the campaign progresses.
Horror angle: Mara eventually discovers that some of the people she's hunting aren't entirely human anymore. The first time she kills one, she expects blood. Instead, there is something else inside it. Something that moves. She never tells the others.
4. Father Lucien Armand
Human Cleric — Pharasma
Male | Priest / healer / undertaker
Lucien is a priest of Pharasma who serves one of Korvosa's poorer neighborhoods. He's not a crusader. He's an undertaker. He buries the city's forgotten dead. He performs last rites for criminals. He identifies bodies. He visits prisoners before executions. He knows what happens to people after everyone else has stopped caring about them.
Class: Cleric
Race: Human
Deity: Pharasma
Domains: Death / Healing
Weapons: Heavy mace, dagger
Role: Healing, divine magic, undead defense
And because he's a priest of Pharasma, he is the group's natural authority on the supernatural.
Personality: Lucien is gentle, patient, and extremely difficult to frighten. He has seen too many dead people to be frightened by corpses. But he hates necromancy. To him, the dead deserve peace.
Horror angle: Lucien begins noticing something deeply wrong with Korvosa's dead. Certain bodies don't stay where he buried them. Others have strange marks beneath their skin. And eventually he discovers that some people who died in the city are not remaining dead.
—( † )—
This is intentionally a very low-magic party. There is only one full spellcaster. There is no wizard. There is no flashy magical warrior. Three of the four characters could plausibly exist in a grim historical city with only modest changes. And that makes Lucien's magic feel more significant.
Their relationship to Korvosa
This is the part I'd emphasize most. Gideon knows its secrets. He knows which murders the Guard won't investigate. Tomas knows its criminals. He knows who runs the alleys, gambling houses, and illegal markets. Mara knows its streets. She knows the rooftops, abandoned buildings, sewer entrances, and hidden passages. Lucien knows its dead. He knows who has died, where they were buried, and which bodies aren't staying where they belong. Together, they have essentially mapped the living city and the dead city beneath it. And that gives you a really nice horror structure. At first, the four characters think they're investigating different problems. Then they discover the problems are connected.
Their connection to Gaedren Lamm
I'd make all four characters victims of Lamm in different ways, rather than giving each of them an unrelated campaign trait. That immediately creates a reason for them to cooperate. Gideon investigated a series of children disappearing from the streets and discovered Lamm's name. Tomas once tried to arrest Lamm and was ordered to release him by a corrupt superior. Mara knows several children who were forced to work for him. Lucien buried one of Lamm's victims. That means the opening isn't four strangers meet at an inn. It's four people who have each been trying to stop the same monster finally get the opportunity to do something about him. That feels much more like Curse of the Crimson Throne.
And then the horror changes
I'd structure their character arcs around the transformation of Korvosa.
Early campaign: crime horror. Gangs, murders, kidnappings, corrupt guards, child exploitation, assassinations.
Middle campaign: political horror. The city becomes increasingly authoritarian and paranoid. Friends disappear. People inform on neighbors. The characters discover that the machinery of government is becoming something monstrous.
Later campaign: supernatural horror. The city itself begins to feel diseased. Dead people aren't staying dead. Old buildings conceal things that shouldn't be there. The characters begin realizing that the horrors they've been fighting aren't merely consequences of political corruption. Something much older is involved. And that's where Father Lucien's presence becomes particularly useful.
Why I think this fits what you've been doing
Your previous groups have had strong thematic identities:
Carrion Crown: gothic monster hunters
Strange Aeons: psychologically damaged occult investigators
Skull & Shackles: low-fantasy pirates who gradually encounter horror
Curse of the Crimson Throne: urban investigators trapped inside a city becoming monstrous
And I would resist making this group too flashy.
The Vigilante/Investigator/Slayer/Cleric combination is almost perfect for the tone you're describing. The official Player's Guide itself identifies Investigator, Slayer, Rogue, and Swashbuckler as particularly good urban/intrigue choices and specifically highlights Vigilante as exceptionally appropriate to Korvosa. It also notes that Occult Adventures classes can have opportunities to shine through the campaign's Harrow and haunted elements.
If you wanted to push the horror one step further, I would make Mara a Serial Killer vigilante rather than an Avenger—but only if you want the party to have a much darker, morally ambiguous protagonist. The Avenger version gives you a more traditional heroic group; the Serial Killer version would make the whole campaign feel considerably more like a grim Victorian crime-horror story.
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