Recently i noticed Ogre's guide to ramping up the difficulty level in PFS, and i would like to see if anyone has a reasonale build for running it on nightmare mode.
Here is the link Ogres guide.
And basically to run on nightmare difficulty you need to have either a gnome/halfling monk, or a vow of poverty monk. Personally i believe that just the gnome/halfling monk would be too easy, so here is the challange.
Build a VOP monk under PFS rules, and good enough that he wont burden the rest of the party. There is bonus points if you also build him halfling or gnome.
It should be a good way to determine if it is actually doable without gimping your party too much.
Halfling VOP Manoeuver Master level 10
Str 10, Dex 20, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 10
1M: Improved Dirty trick
1: Agile Manoeuvers
2M: Improved Trip
3: Dodge
5: Crane Style
6M: Greater Dirty Trick
7: Crane Wing
9: Toughness
10: Greater Trip
When fighting defensively, you have 24 AC and can deflect one attack per round. That's an ok defense for level 10.
Your saves are +10/+13/+10. OK saves for level 10.
Your HP (with FC going to HP) is 83. Not too shabby.
You can trip at +18 and dirty trick at +18. You won't be a melee monster, but you certainly can be a valuable addition to any party. Also, many mobs are immune to trip while none are immune to every dirty trick in the book.
Else go Tetori. You'll have +22 to grapple
how about doing this for feats instead:
1M: Improved Dirty trick
1: agile manouvers
2M: Improved Trip
3: exotic weapon proficiency (Kusarigama (sickle and chain))
5: combat reflexes
6M: Greater Dirty Trick
7: Dodge
9: crane style
10: Greater Trip
My idea is that he can then use his weapon, which is the only item he has, in making both dirty trick and trip attacks at the opponent. I would have liked to give him a weapon that is light, so it can be used with weapon finesse, but the kusarigama offers the monk reach and a non reach weapon, thus making it possible to threaten both 5f and 10f squares.
If we also give him the quingong monk archtype, he will actually have
10 + 5 (dex) + 2(monk) + 2(wis) + 1 (size) + 1 (dodge) + 4(f defensive) + 3 (barkskin) = 28 AC
hp is 79.
if he can get a wizard to cast permanency cats grace on him he would look even better.
As for his weapon he can spend pretty much all his alloted gold on it, so a +3/+3 weapon seems extremely attainable he could get a base of 10 + 3 + 4 + 5 - 2 = + 20. Which seems pretty reasonable.
Ofcourse he cant actually injure someone, so we might aswell give him vow of peace too, which gives him a ki pool of
5 (base) + 2(wis) + 5(vop) + 2(vopeace) + 2(vot) = 16
plenty enough to use in the combats, and on the few spells that he can.
Ofcourse i would also have him be a weapon master in that kusarigama, but since paizo have decided to restrict weapon master monks to effectively 4 monk weapon (way to go), he cant use perfect strike with the weapon, and as such it is probably better wih just plain monk manouver master.
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He's not allowed a weapon, at all, under VOP. Would make it easier. Yeah, trip
Monkey Halfling is about as good as you can do; you'll have AC and saves pretty high (relative to having no money) though not amazingly high (no dump stats legal). Probably Wis/Con 14 Dex 18 / rest 10 Manuever Master is as good as you'll get. Careful though; 3rd season has really tamped up the difficulty. I think if you want pathfinder on difficult mode you play the module scenarios; some of those are pretty sadistic.
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He is allowed a weapon, but that would be the only expensive item allowed. I would go with a good weapon to start, and eventually switch it for a belt of physical perfection.
Actually, if you were to go sensei, you could go for a headband of mental superiority, and provide your party with bardic performance while having an okay chance at manoeuvres. Qinggong would give you a few spell-like abilities to use.
Well actually this is a pure theoretical question as i have no chance at playing in PFS due to my geographical placement outside the states, but i jsut really felt like investigating if it was possible or not.
I was thinking of letting the one item he can have be the Kusarigama, because 10f threatening zone and lots of AoO's seem pretty decent, especially because he can just trip on all of them.
The reason i didnt want the belt of physical perfection, is because he could reasonably get a wizard to cast permanency str, dex or con on him, and if that fails then try to find someone to craft magical tatoos on him giving him loads of bonus stats.
The smart thing with the magical tatoos is that they arnt actual items, and as such he wouldnt be limited to them, one possibility is to spend a feat on the craft magical tatoo's, and then get your party to procure the colors and stuff for you. That way he can get seriously more buff, just think +2 str, dex, con and wis, then a constant shield and magearmor on him (which he can craft for 2k in materials each) and a +2 resistance saves tatoo.
Material cost for all this i 24k which his party needs to procure and let him use. But would result in +10 ac, +3 all saves(due to stat increase), more CMB and CMD, more hp and all that. So i would say that he should probably throw out crane style for the magical tatoo feat if he can get some party members to start buying those materials.
with those bonuses he would reach 34 ac even though he swapped out crane style. Not to shappy without any "real" defensive items.
The reason i didnt want the belt of physical perfection, is because he could reasonably get a wizard to cast permanency str, dex or con on him, and if that fails then try to find someone to craft magical tatoos on him giving him loads of bonus stats.
Permanency is not allowed in PFS.
He can't keep / have the money spent on him for those tattoos. Think of how many orphans that will feed :)."My sentimental item for the time being is a large bag of gold."
I feel very strongly about this bag and its contents. It has been in my family for many years and, while the contents have fluctuated with time, it has always been a part of me.
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I feel very strongly about this bag and its contents. It has been in my family for many years and, while the contents have fluctuated with time, it has always been a part of me.He can't keep / have the money spent on him for those tattoos. Think of how many orphans that will feed :)."My sentimental item for the time being is a large bag of gold."
Actually, Catch Off-Guard with a 50lb bag of gold would probably do at least a d10.
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What about like 20 tanglefoot bags per scenario? Are those allowed? Those things never get bad since the entangled part of the bag always goes off as long as the bag hits, plus they move at half speed even if they are not glued to the floor. The target being unable to move is just gravy. And monks has Throw Anything as a bonus feat if he wants it.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but I think you'd have a hard time arguing that 20 tanglefoot bags count as one item.
But that's a good point -- maybe it's worth investing the character's wealth in one expensive expendable (like a scroll/potion/wand) at a time, since you wouldn't be able to carry money over from one scenario to the next. You'd need to invest in Use Magic Device, though.
So a possible idea would be a half-elf monk (qinggong or whatever your favourite archetype is) with the Arcane Training racial feature (can use arcane scrolls/wands as if she were a level 1 wizard). Start off with small items, like a single CL 5 scroll of Fireball at level 1, then work up to the bigger guns.
Fair enough -- that's probably not until level 2.