Tempest - Undine Druid's page

I've recently gotten my hands on a ratling boonsheet for PFS, and have been playing around with ideas, one of which is a ratling gun cleric (re: equilibrium) using the Gulch Gunner racial archtype. The goal would be to fight adjacent to enemies and purposefully trigger attacks of opportunity (using a high AC to avoid getting hit) while providing combat bonuses to allies. Here are the concepts I'm looking to include so far... I'd love some input on how to make it more effective, or other fun flavor additions I haven't considered!

P.S. I know that the viability of this build gets a bit shaky in higher levels, but that's not the point. I want to see what the upper limits are here, so I can evaluate if it'll still be a viable build for non-seeker PFS play.

1) Gulch Gunner Ratfolk racial archtype - switches out a lot of early deeds for the ability to regain grit via AoO's against myself and several adjacent damage bonuses. One allows you to spend a grit to get a +4 to AC vs. a target!
2) Armor Trick (light) - for Reactive and Reflective Mobility features (requires Dodge, Mobility, Nimble Moves, and Combat Reflexes for both).
3) Buff up that light armor - More AC
4) Level Distribution - 5 Gulch Gunner, 1 Mouser, 6 Fighter (in this order)

My goal is to remain hard to hit, provide allies good bonuses (mouser) and basically flit around the battlefield shooting people in the face TWF with pistols. Problems I'm encountering include...
1) Reloading - I could just use pepperboxes...
2) Getting my AC to levels where it will reliably allow me to keep from getting skooshed like a bug - I've considered a level of wizard or arcanist to allow me to shield up.
3) Feat starved build - man, I want to do so much but priorities are tight. The Armor Trick shinanigans will help, but I'm not sure if it's worth all those feats, or if there isn't a better way.

A friend and I where discussing fun uses of spells and came across this option. Around Summon Monster V and VII you start getting fairly large critters to summon, and we were struck with the idea of using one, in the vein of loony toons, as a living anvil.

So, in this situation, I'd like to know how folks would handle this if a player decided to give it a try and you had to figure out how to play it. Assume, for the sake of argument, that the player has reach spell applied and can summon the critter an appropriately long distance away. I've included a storied example below with the rules that are clear to me, and follow up with where variation might start coming in.

A dragon takes flight to harass the party from the air. In a bad spot, the conjurer starts summoning something. At the start of the next round, approximately 200ft above the dragon, *BAMF* there appears a gargantuan dire crocodile, which immediately begins falling. Per the falling objects table, we can determine the likely amount of damage to be caused (8d6). This forces a DC 25 fly check to stay aloft, though most things at this level won't have trouble making that.

My Questions:
-Would you require a secondary roll for the "attack"? My VC suggested a ranged touch attack to determine where to aim at those distances, as a falling object doesn't care much about armor. Alternatively a reflex save could be used, but at these sizes, you could really start picking apart where and when one is allowed, particularly if the target is not near the edges of the crocodile's footprint.
-Does the summon get a single attack as it falls? Technically doesn't have an action to take to ready a bite before the falling kicks in (damn the lack of loony toons logic!), but I'll include it to see how people play it out.
-If, by some miracle, the dragon fails its fly check and plummets (lets say...) 150 feet to the ground. It is still technically under the crocodile. Does it suffer both the fall damage and a second object impact?
-What if I did this same thing but dropped it on top of a party of NPCs?

While much of this is inside of existing rule sets, there is precedent for several interpretations on how to handle this for the portions not covered (for example, reflex save or range touch attack). I'm also accepting that PF doesn't have a full enough ruleset to account for things like mass as it just makes a rough approximation based on creature size, so I know it won't be a perfect representation of the real world... I'm just looking for the PF representation here. Outside of the obvious "Expect table variation" reply, I'd like to know how you would deal with it.

I've been on a bit of a kick lately looking into various out-of-stereotype builds that are still effective. I'd like to hear what builds you've come across or have designed yourself that fall into this category, and why you enjoy playing them. Instead of a long description to define this, I'll provide a few examples and see what is offered up. I will add this: I'm not looking for the pinnacle of min/maxxing, just effective characters who have rocked and that you've had a blast playing, be it for role playing or for the mechanics.

Arcane Barbarian - Barbarian 1/Arcanist 7/Eldritch Knight 4+

This build was spun up by my local VL who has had a lot of fun playing a shocking effective character. With a greatsword he was able to port around the battlefield with Dimensional Slide and land very strong blows across his early levels with rage for particularly nasty fights once he was in place. Use of mage armor, shield and a few other spells let him have pretty good AC too. During the later levels of his build he would polymorph into a gargoyle and use the dimensional dervish feat tree to flank with the entire party and drop a mess of damage all at the same time, effectively buffing all melee characters for a single round while also dropping significant damage. His AC topped 40 and may have scraped low 50s through EOTT. He was more maneuverable than most builds I've encountered and could keep up with nearly any classes damage output, while still being fairly effective for skills.

Melee Summoner - (Unchained) Summoner X

Focusing on combat and not buffing as a summoner, this is something I've been toying with to see what I can get out of it, though still in lower levels. AC is around 20 at level 1 with spells, and will rapidly grow as time and money allows. I'm hoping to treat it similarly to a hunter, and branch into teamwork feats as time goes on. So far it's been really effective and I'm enjoying it. I've noticed my choice of Suli for race has caused me to rely a bit more on my Eidolon for skills, so I'm interested to see how that plays out as the build levels.

1) I am aware DR from different sources don't stack.
2) Aasimar FCB stats that "Add DR 1/evil to the summoner’s eidolon. Each additional time the summoner selects this benefit, the DR/evil increases by +1/2 (maximum DR 10/evil)." (emphasis mine)
3) The Agathion, Angel, Archon, and Azata Eidolong subtypes all provide DR/Evil at some point in their progression.

Is this an exception of DR stacking, or am I missing syntax somewhere that does prevent this? It's a pretty clear rule as far as I have interacted with it in the past, but I am not aware of any examples that use the word "Add" when applying DR to something.

Can anyone provide me with evidence that these two sources don't stack?

I recently got a hold of enough elemental boon sheets to get a Suli Paladin together in PFS. I've got all the mechanics worked out, and I enjoy the build itself, but I am still struggling to put together the most important aspect of the character.

The responses to everyday situations an INT 6 character might have.

My Paladin is based off of a mash-up of Gaston (Beauty & the Beast), Captain Hammer (Dr. Evil's Sing-Along Blog), and Zapp Brannigan (Futurama) (speech patterns most closely based on Captain Hammer). Sure of himself, trying to do good, and woefully inept all at once. I fully expect to need more than a few atonements, and probably even one or two with the full component cost simply because he is too dumb to know better (he tries).

I've been digging through quotes and bits I can find from numerous sources, and I'm hoping the community might come up with some more. Below are the ones I've come up with thus-far, and should give you an idea of what I'm looking for (pop culture references are fine if properly masked). The goal of this guy is to A) make other players laugh/have fun and B) make them regret not speaking up during RP (before most games, I will ask our GM to add bonuses/penalties as he/she sees fit).

General:

• It’s curtains for you vile fiends! *distractedly* Lacy, wafting curtains…
  
• Look friend, you don’t have to be pretty on the outside, you just need to be pretty on the inside. *flexes convincingly*
  
• Oh GODS, this is what fear feels like! I NEED SOMEONE MATERNAL! *running away*
  
• Say Hello to the psychopomps of Pharasma, or whoever does their job, but for EVIL!
  
• Ewwww…
  
• *if he sees a book* What?! How do you read this if it doesn’t have any pictures??
  
• *if he has some time with a book* Ohhh, this is word paper! If only there was a way to understand its strange markings, we might be able to unlock its secrets…
  
• Jump on my glaive while you can, evil… I won’t be as gentle!
  
• This group could do with a swift kick in the morals…
  
• You are amusing, in a "what the hell is wrong with you" kind of way…
  
• *after making a knowledge check* Feel my amazing brain. Go on, touch it!
  
• Evil 'round every corner. Careful not to step in any.
  
• Fear not! I will inspire you all by charging blindly on!
  

• May Shelyn grant my glaive her POWER!
  
• *if empowering with sonic/electricity bonuses* Thunder, thunder, THUNDERGLAIVE HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
  
• *empowering w/ fire – singing* Fire, to destroy all you’ve done! Fire, to end all you’ve become!
  

Regarding his choice of weapon (a bardiche):

• *if someone notices his bardiche* You like it? It’s a glaive, just like Sheyln has.
  
• *if called out that it is not a glaive* What? Sure it is! I made sure when I told the weapon smith what I needed to buy with my enormous sacks of gold! *he ignores any further attempts to correct him*
  
• Taste my glaive of JUSTICE! *attacks with his Bardiche*
  

• *if given a reason to bring them up* I had these stones implanted into my body. They make me better, and make my skin rock hard. *flexes*
  
• *if he's had the above conversation and gets into a fight* I’m rock hard and coming for you!
  
• *if someone actually shows interest* They are great, aren’t they? *starts stripping* I’ve got one here, and it does X, and this one here does Y…
  

Okay, I feel good enough about this that I'm willing to post it.

Brawlers: Debuffing, With Style!

It's pretty baseline in some aspects, but I hope it fills in a gap in guides for the class I've seen. I'll update it as I get suggestions, thanks!

I'm building a hunter with a gorilla companion, and had a question. First, some reference material:

Can my animal companion or familiar wear or use magic items?

It is intended that animal companions or familiars can not activate magic items. An animal companion could benefit from an item with a continuous magical effect like an amulet of natural armor if its master equipped the item for the animal companion. Animal companions of any type may not use manufactured weapons.

Animal companions are also limited by their individual anatomies. In Pathfinder Society Organized Play, animal companions always have access to barding and neck-slot items so long as they have the anatomy. For example, a horse and pig can always have access to barding and neck-slot items. A snake does not have access to either. However, an item called out to be used by a specific animal is usable by that animal regardless of slot.

Additionally, animal companions have access to magical item slots, in addition to barding and neck, as listed on the inside front cover of the Animal Archive so long as they select the Extra Item Slot feat. The Animal Magic Item Slots table found in Animal Archive is not a legal except under the following conditions. First, an animal companion, familiar, or bonded mount, may choose one slot listed under its body type when taking the Extra Item Slot feat (this feat may be taken multiple times, each time selecting a different available magic item slot based on the creature’s anatomy). Second, access to specific magic item slots may be granted at a later date by another legal source. If you do not own a copy of the Animal Archive, your animal companion may only use barding and neck-slot items.

An animal or familiar has to have an intelligence of 3+ to activate an ioun stone. If the animal or familiar has less than a 3 intelligence, they may not activate an ioun stone.

The brownie, faerie dragon, imp, lyrakien azata, mephit, quasit, sprite familiars, granted by the Improved Familiar feat, use the Biped (hands) section of the chart. The carbuncle and voidworm protean, familiars granted by the Improved Familiar feat, uses the Serpentine section of the chart. If you do not own a copy of the Animal Archive, your animal companion may only use barding and neck-slot items.

No. An Intelligence of 3 does not grant animals sentience, the ability to use weapons or tools, speak a language (though they may understand one with a rank in Linguistics; this does not grant literacy), or activate magic devices. Also note that raising an animal companion’s Intelligence to 3 or higher does not eliminate the need to make Handle Animal checks to direct its actions; even semi-intelligent animals still act like animals unless trained not to. An animal with Intelligence of 3 or higher remains a creature of the animal type unless its type is specifically changed by another ability. An animal may learn 3 additional tricks per point of Intelligence above 2.

I'd like to use Shield Wall as a companion feat with my gorilla, but am not sure if I am reading this properly.

So, as I read it, I can open up additional slots with the Extra Items feat. Can I do that for a shield so we can qualify for this feat? My local GM said I could, but I figured I'd go with due diligence and see if anyone knows of an official ruling on this, if the no-weapons rule applies here, or if I'm missing something obvious.

How would you call this situation?

A mage casts Create pit (or similar spell) and an enemy falls into it. The following round, the mage casts Wall of Stone over the pit, effectively leaving, lets say, and inch above the surface of the pit, and uses the rest of the spell's area of effect to reinforce the wall.

What happens when the Create Pit spell ends and the enemy is lifted back up?

Auto-death? Crushing damage? The GM casts NoClip? STR check to burst through with crushing damage each round (what if it's the spell Spiked Pit)? I can't find any rules or similar situations that might apply outside of a crushing wall trap, or possibly when you teleport yourself into a wall.

What if you had to call this for a PFS game?

I've got a PFS brawler and am trying to figure out how an item interaction would work. Here's the two items in question:

Cestus - I use them as my backup weapon because I never have to draw them, they let me bypass damage resistance types, and leave my hands free for grappling and disarming.

Gauntlets of the Skilled Maneuver - Hand-slot wondrous item. Adds +2 to a combat maneuver.

My Question: Can I wear both of these? The name is Gauntlet, which is a weapon, but it's not a weapon, it's a wondrous item. If they are ruled compatible, can someone draw that out for me? It needs to happen. If they are not ruled compatible, can you (PFS legally) get them made out of special materials? Finally, slightly off-topic, is there any interaction issue with Cestus and regular glove wondrous items?