Been tweaking this guy for about a week for a level 10 campaign. Let me know what you think.
Kobold Alchemist 10
HP 55
AC 23 (10+Small+Kobold+Dex+BracersofArmor+3+Darkwood Buckler+Dodge)
Touch 23
FF 17
STR 7 (11-Kobold)
DEX 23 (17+Kobold+Belt+4)
CON 9 (11-Kobold)
INT 24 (18+levels+Headband+4)
WIS 14
CHA 11
Cloak of Resistance +2
Fort 8
Ref 15
Will 7
Feat/Discovery list:
1. PB Shot, Dodge, Improved Initiative (2 Flaws)
2. Preserve Organs
3. Mobility
4. Fast Bombs
5. Rapid Shot
6. Bottled Ooze
7. Shot on the Run
8. Force Bomb
9. Extra Discovery: Wings
10.Mummification
Traits: Fast Talker, Heirloom Weapon: Kobold Longbow.
Round 1 - Our man takes to the air and buffs himself with one of the following:
Greater Invisibility- The situation is really hairy and it doesn't seem like the bad guys have see invisibility/scent
Dex boosting Mutagen - for BBEGs with super amped up AC
Haste - the enemy is far away, or there are multiple dangerous enemies, or the enemy is airborne.
Bomber's Eye - High BBEG AC, and Dex Mutagen has been consumed.
Displacement - The enemy's attack bonus is extremely high and/or there is formidable artillery.
Round 2 - If there's an enemy controller, our man should be able to attack the controller and swoop away. If the controller has artillery, our man pegs him with one bomb and swoops away. If there's no controller, then our man might try to position himself above the enemy tank. This might be a good time for a Knowledge Nature or Knowledge Arcana to try and determine the enemy's weakest saving throw. If it's Fortitude, then our man can get his bow and poisoned arrows (Dragon Bile or Purple Worm) ready.
Alternately, if allies are in a bad position, this might be a good time to divide enemy forces or cut off an approach with a Gelatinous Cube.
Round 3 - If there's artillery, our man continues to try the swoop and away tactic. If not, he might begin the full attack bombardment.
So, with Dex Mutagen and Haste and Rapid Shot, that's: (Bab+throw anything+point blank+dex+haste+small-rapid shot)
16/11/16/16
for a potential of 5d6+8 on each hit. Or 5d4+8 for critters with fire resistance. And he can do 4 of those per day.
I should mention that our DM can play rough.
When he runs out of bombs, our man has a detonate for defense (10d8 cold, which he's immune to). After that, he turns to the extracts and potions. Such as
Extracts:
Reduce Person (now he's a tiny bomber!)
Displacement
Gaseous Form (now he's an unhittable cloud!)
Burrow (now he's the stealth mole!)
Alter Self (become one of the enemy! Except he's got a terrible disguise bonus)
Thorn Body (ouch! Why do we keep taking 1d6+10 every time we hit him!)
Potions:
Cure Serious
Displacement
Undetectable Alignment (there's a Paladin in the party, and our man is LE)
Remove Disease
Remove Curse
False Life
Endure Elements
Nondetection
Water Breathing (now he's the stealth sub!)
Questions - does the Haste Dodge bonus stack with the Feat Dodge bonus? How about Mobility?
Anything I'm missing? With a pretty low HP score for level 10, I'm tempted to go for Spontaneous healing, but it seems like it's more for your Mr. Hyde tanking alchemists, and I'm having trouble envisioning a situation that I can't get out of where it saves me. And if it weren't for this DM's affinity for demonic/fire elemental type characters, I'd probably toss force bombs for preserve organsX2 and get the 50% chance of failure on a crit.
Preserve Organs gives a 25% chance to miss a crit or a sneak. Help me out, math and computer people - with a 50% miss chance (displaced), and a 25% crit failure chance, what are the odds that I avoid the crit with both up?
This may sound silly, but is there a feat that lets you move, take a full round attack, and move again?
Whaddya think, sirs?
EDIT: I don't see any rules for taking extracts or potions underwater, and our man has a swim of -2. How would one houserule this? Sleight of hand or acrobatics with a penalty? Escape artist maybe?
Since Kobolds have a +1 Nat Armor bonus, does this stack with the +2 that mutagen provides? The Stat bonus is mentioned as Alchemical; I'm not sure about the Nat Armor (which is provided by the same alchemical mixture).
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/alchemist/discoveries
Fast bomb requires 8th level. Thats why you tend to pick up a few sub par discoveries around 5-8
gaseous form: Damage reduction 10/+1 for being a cloud won't get you very far. Everyone has a +1 weapon.
Questions - does the Haste Dodge bonus stack with the Feat Dodge bonus? How about Mobility?
-Yes. Dodge bonuses are unique in that they stack with themselves and everything else. You can always get further out of the way of an attack
This may sound silly, but is there a feat that lets you move, take a full round attack, and move again?
No. full round attacks are hard to come by.
EDIT: I don't see any rules for taking extracts or potions underwater, and our man has a swim of -2. How would one houserule this? Sleight of hand or acrobatics with a penalty? Escape artist maybe?
You can drink fairly easily under water, its only a small amount.
Since Kobolds have a +1 Nat Armor bonus, does this stack with the +2 that mutagen provides? The Stat bonus is mentioned as Alchemical; I'm not sure about the Nat Armor (which is provided by the same alchemical mixture).
Upon being imbibed, the mutagen causes the alchemist to grow bulkier and more bestial, granting him a +2 natural armor bonus and a +4 alchemical bonus to the selected ability score for 10 minutes per alchemist level
That natural armor bonus will not stack with your inherent koboldness. Barkskin WILL stack with that or your natural koboldness, since its an enhancement bonus to your natural armor bonus.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/alchemist/discoveries
Fast bomb requires 8th level. Thats why you tend to pick up a few sub par discoveries around 5-8
Arg! Good call.
Alright, so let's make it look more like this:
Feat/Discovery list:
1. PB Shot, Dodge, Improved Initiative (2 Flaws)
2. Preserve Organs
3. Mobility
4. Frost Bomb
5. Rapid Shot
6. Bottled Ooze
7. Shot on the Run
8. Fast Bombs
9. Extra Discovery: Wings
10.Mummification
Better? Since he doesn't have Far Shot and he's immune to cold damage, the Frost Bombs make a lot of sense anyway. I kind of like not having to drop the damage, anyway.
Looking over the discoveries, I'm wondering in what way is Force Bomb so much better than Concussive Bomb that it warrants being later. How many creatures are immune to sonic damage? Is it really just the prone tag?
Building this guy as a loner until play, so he doesn't really have a reason to invest in Precise Bombs. Depending on how encounters go, he'll probably either take Force or Precise as his 11th level feat.
I guess you're right about Gaseous Form. I was taken in by the flavor and didn't really check out the numbers. Shifting into an untouchable mist form probably is too powerful of a mulligan for spell level 3. Thorn Body is also probably laughable at level 10.
Thanks, Norse. You're a big help.
Formula Daily:
4: Greater Invisibility
Detonate
3: Haste
Protection from Energy
Burrow
Gelatinous Cube
2 Alchemical Allocation (X2)
Invisibility
See Invisibility
Alter Self
Displacement
1 Anticipate Peril
Bomber's Eye
Detect Secret Doors
Expeditious Retreat
Reduce Person (X2)
RE: Greater Invisibility - I'm wondering hovering in one place by flapping one's wings counts as "stationary". It's the difference between a +42 Stealth and a +62 Stealth.
Huh.
What's the highest perception bonus you ever heard of?
I have to add Reduce Person to the list of options on Round 1. When the bombs leave his hand, they'll go back to normal size and do full damage. And no reduction in speed.
Does this seem like a fairly effective striker? Or maybe just the glassiest of all cannons?
Looking over the discoveries, I'm wondering in what way is Force Bomb so much better than Concussive Bomb that it warrants being later. How many creatures are immune to sonic damage? Is it really just the prone tag?
Knocking someone prone is nasty. Everyone gets a +4 bonus to hit you, you hit at -4, you loose your move action to stand up, and you get attacks of opportunity as you stand up. It pretty much ruins any full attack build/monster's day. If you freeze someone and then knock them prone they can get back up... and then their turn is over.
Force bomb also affects incorporeal creatures fully, since force effects extend out of the prime material plane.
I would count you flapping your wings as moving, even if you were hovering. That whooosh whoosh whoosh is pretty distinctive if you're holding in place. I've had big fruit bats whiz by my head and thought i was being attacked by rodan.
Still haven't gotten to play this guy. In the meantime here's a little something I've been kicking around:
Feat/Discovery list:
1. PB Shot, Dodge, Improved Initiative (2 Flaws)
2. Preserve Organs
3. Mobility
4. Frost Bomb
5. Strafe Bomb
6. Bottled Ooze
7. Shot on the Run
8. Alchemical Zombie
9. Extra Discovery: Wings
10.Mummification
This keeps the hit-and-run swoop tactic but loses the full attack, because I'm wondering if this guy is built well enough to sit still for a full round of attacks. The more I think about it, the more that seems like a job for a tanking alchemist. His will and Fort Saves aren't great, his AC is good but not great for 10th level, and he doesn't have the HP to take a crit that gets through his Preserve Organs and whatever other defenses.
The strafing, zombie(s), and ooze all make this guy a bit more of a controller, though he'll probably need to issue marching orders ahead of time for the zombie(s).
I was tempted by Force Bomb, but my thinking is that if it's immune to both cold and fire, then switching to d4s doesn't seem like the best idea. And if it's incorporeal, that seems like somebody else's job (like the Paladin and/or Cleric in the party).
Any thoughts?
I finally got to play this guy this week. Since it took so long until I got him into play (scheduling, etc), he started at 11th level, and we settled on only 1 flaw (noncombatant), with the feat tree three posts up. For my extra formula I took Arcane Eye.
As expected, the very first thing the Paladin did was cast Detect Evil once the kobold showed up in the middle of their advanced dungeon crawl. Since I anticipated this with an undetectable alignment, the Paladin had to defend me against an imminent attack with "Not Evil!" and now he's totally trusted by the party.
I'm the default party sneak, with a +28 to stealth; arcane eye helped us not to get ambushed by a nest of driders. Once we knew where they were, the summoner sent some mephits to burn the webs apart and harass the driders with scorching rays. A well-placed gelatinous cube immobilized one of them until the half-dragon fighter got tired of waiting and cut it up. Shot on the run allowed him to run around a corner, toss the cube, and zip back behind the corner before the lightning bolt.
Above all, this character is more fun to RP than any I've ever done. I had time to write a three page short story to give him some background. So I'm not playing him as "evil" so much as completely lacking empathy due to childhood trauma (I reckon a lack of empathy would show up as "evil" on a paladin's radar, and Skirwit is smart enough to realize that). I also gave him an OCD tick where he has to spell out the last word of most of his sentences. This usually puts a smile on player's faces. The two best moments of the night:
Cleric: I'm going to set up camp here. Shoo. Shoo! (Starts to set up a sleeping bag in front of a control panel that Skirwit is eager to play with, which will probably be bad for the characters but will advance the plot)
Skirwit: Very well. Good night. (Still focused on the control panel, he takes out a folding chair, sits, and "begins singing a Kobold lullaby." I lean back my head and emit an awful gargling drone. The room explodes in laughter)
...
Paladin: Is there still enough light to see?
DM: The fire is dying down, and it's getting harder for most of you to see. Make percep-
Paladin: I cast daylight!
Skirwit: Hisssss! (covers his eyes)
Thank you very much for your help, Norse. Couldn't have built him w/out you.
P.S. I put one rank into Profession: Miner at character creation because it's a trained skill for kobolds.
I actually got to roll a skill check for this to determine how thick the dirt was in our cave (to see if a Burrow formula would be worthwhile). Who would have thought I'd get to make a Profession: Miner check right out of the gate?