Deadpool
CN Medium humanoid
Init +6; Senses Perception +5
DEFENSE AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 10 (+2 Dex, +2 dodge)
hp 32 (5d10); regeneration 5
Fort +1, Ref +6, Will +4
Immune disease, mind-affecting effects, poison
OFFENSE Speed 30 ft.
Melee masterwork katana +9 (1d8+3/18-20) or 2 masterwork katanas +5 (1d8+3/18-20)
Ranged masterwork revolver +8 (1d8/x4) or 2 masterwork revolvers +4 (1d8/x4)
STATISTICS Str 16, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 16
Base Atk +5; CMB +8; CMD 22
Feats Combat Reflexes, EnduranceB, Improved Initiative, Two-Weapon Fighting
Skills Acrobatics +10, Climb +11, Linguistics +7, Perception +5, Ride +10, Stealth +10
Languages Chinese, English, German, Japanese, Pashto, Russian, Spanish, Urdu
SQ bizarre arsenal, fourth wall breaker
SPECIAL ABILITIES Bizarre Arsenal Roll randomly on the following weapons chart before each game. Deadpool brings the rolled weapon with him and is proficient with it.
(I haven't put this table together yet)
Fourth Wall Breaker (Ex) Deadpool is aware that he’s a fictional Pathfinder character being played on a tabletop. The player playing Deadpool has perfect information about the game and is allowed to meta-game in any way he’d like. This can manifest itself in the form of knowing the exact location of an invisible creature, knowing that a polymorphed creature is disguising itself, knowing that a creature has readied an action, or in any other way the player can think to abuse it.
STATISTICS Str 14, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 16
Base Atk +3; CMB +5 (+7 when disarm or tripping); CMD 23 (25 vs. disarm and trip)
Feats Combat ExpertiseB, Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, Weapon FinesseB
Skills Acrobatics +10, Bluff +9, Diplomacy +9, Disguise +9 (+19 when using change shape), Intimidate +9, Linguistics +5, Perception +5, Sense Motive +8, Stealth +10, Survival +8
Languages Czech, English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish
SQ change shape (alter self), force of personality, perfect copy
SPECIAL ABILITIES Force of Personality (Ex) Mystique adds her Charisma modifier to all her saving throws. This is reflected in her stats. Additionally, when an opponent targets her with a melee or ranged attack while she’s using her change shape ability to take the appearance of an ally of that opponent, she can spend an immediate action to make a Disguise check. She uses the result as her AC or touch AC against that attack. She cannot use this ability against creatures with scent or against Deadpool or Rogue.
Perfect Copy (Ex) When Mystique uses change shape, she can assume the appearance of specific individuals.
Colossus
LG Medium humanoid (mutant)
Init +0; Senses Perception +0
DEFENSE AC 18, touch 10, flat-footed 18 (+8 natural)
hp 36 (5d8+10)
Fort +6, Ref +4, Will +1
DR 10/—; Immune exhaustion, fatigue, precision damage
OFFENSE Speed 30 ft.
Melee slam +9 (1d8+9)
Special Attacks fastball special
STATISTICS Str 22, Dex 10, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 12
Base Atk +3; CMB +9 (+13 when grappling); CMD 19 (21 vs. grapple)
Feats Endurance(B), Furious Focus, Greater Grapple(B), Improved Grapple(B), Power Attack, Throw Anything
Skills Diplomacy +6, Heal +8, Profession (artist) +8
Languages English, Russian
SQ organic steel
SPECIAL ABILITIES Fastball Special (Ex) Colossus can throw creatures he’s grappling as though they were improvised weapons. Creatures thrown in this way take damage as if falling, treating each 10 feet they’re thrown as 10 feet of falling, and creatures hit by a thrown creature take damage as if being hit by a falling object of the appropriate size category. If Colossus misses his target when throwing a creature, randomly determine which adjacent square to his target the creature hits.
Organic Steel (Ex) Colossus has the ability to transform his living tissue into an unbreakable organic steel. He can activate and deactivate this ability as a swift action. While encased in steel, he has a +6 enhancement bonus to Strength, a +8 natural armour bonus to AC, DR 10/—, and he’s immune to precision damage. These bonuses are reflected in his stats.
After showing these to a friend, I've made some modifications.
Nightcrawler: I did away with his racial bonus to Stealth (which I had forgotten to include in his stats anyway), but made it a class skill. It's now a +10 normally. I also added the bonuses to grapple from his Improved Grapple feat to the stats, since I'd forgotten to do so before.
Wolverine: I increased his racial bonus to Will saves from +4 to +8.
Psylocke: I dropped her down to 3 HD (dropping her hp to 24), increased the activation time of feeblemind to two consecutive full-round actions, changed all her mental stats to 12s, made her telepathy DCs Charisma-based, and changed her psychic knife ability to the following.
Benn Roe wrote:
Psychic Knife (Ex) As a swift action, Psylocke can generate a blade of psychic energy that extrudes from her hand. She can end this effect as a free action. While this blade is materialized, she can choose to deliver her telepathy with a touch attack using the normal action for the effect she chooses and expending the appropriate number of psi-points. If this attack misses, the ability has no effect. If it hits, she adds +5 to the save DC to resist and can maintain the effect as normal for as long as she likes. Additionally, Psylocke can utilize this blade as a standard action to make a touch attack against a creature, immediately ending all mind-affecting effects currently affecting her target if she succeeds.
Gambit: I made it so he can charge up to three fine objects using a single swift action and added a clause that he could throw three fine objects at once, counting as a 15 ft. cone of force emanating from him that allows a Reflex save for half instead of requiring a ranged touch attack. Otherwise his abilities are unchanged. This is just an additional way of using it.
I finished a few more characters and am posting them momentarily.
Gambit
CN Medium humanoid (mutant)
Init +3; Senses Perception +8
DEFENSE AC 17, touch 17, flat-footed 10 (+3 Dex, +4 dodge)
hp 21 (4d8)
Fort +1, Ref +7, Will +2
OFFENSE Speed 30 ft.
Melee masterwork quarterstaff +5 (1d6+1)
Ranged playing card +6 (3d6 force)
Special Attacks molecular acceleration
STATISTICS Str 12, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 16
Base Atk +3; CMB +4 (+6 when stealing); CMD 21 (23 vs. steal)
Feats Combat Expertise, Improved Steal
Skills Acrobatics +10, Appraise +8, Bluff +10, Disable Device +10, Escape Artist +7, Perception +8, Sense Motive +5, Sleight of Hand +10, Stealth +7
Languages Cajun, English
SQ pick a card
SPECIAL ABILITIES Molecular Acceleration (Ex) Gambit can excite the molecules in an object he’s touching, charging it with kinetic energy and causing it to explode. The action it takes to charge an object, the amount of damage it deals, the amount of time it takes to detonate, the size of its explosion, and its range increment if thrown are based on the size of the object as listed on the below chart.
Fine / Swift action / 3d6 / 1 round / 0 ft. / 20 ft.
Diminutive / Swift action / 3d6 / 1 round / 0 ft. / 10 ft.
Tiny / Move action / 4d6 / 1 round / 0 ft. / 5 ft.
Small / Standard action / 5d6 / 1 round / 5 ft. / N/A
Medium / Full-Round action / 6d6 / 1 round / 5 ft. / N/A
Large / Two consecutive Full-Round actions / 7d6 / 2 rounds / 10 ft. / N/A
Huge / Three consecutive Full-Round actions / 8d6 / 3 rounds / 15 ft. / N/A
Gargantuan / Four consecutive Full-Round actions / 10d6 / 4 rounds / 20 ft. / N/A
Colossal / Five consecutive Full-Round actions / 15d6 / 5 rounds / 30 ft. / N/A
To charge an object, Gambit must expend the listed action(s). If he does, the object explodes after the listed number of rounds, utterly destroying itself and dealing the listed amount of force damage to any creature within the listed explosion radius from itself, including any creature with whom it shares a square. This ability cannot be used to charge a creature.
When Gambit charges a Tiny or smaller object he’s holding, he can choose to throw it as a standard action by making a ranged touch attack (with the listed range increment based on its size), causing it to detonate upon impact instead of doing so one round later. If he misses his target, randomly determine which adjacent square to his target the object hits. The thrown object deals no damage except the listed force damage based on its size.
Gambit can also use this ability to accelerate the extant kinetic energy in a weapon he wields. As a swift action Gambit can charge the weapon he’s holding, dealing an extra 2d6 points of force damage on the next successful hit he makes with that weapon this round.
Pick a Card Gambit treats all fine and diminutive objects on his person as ammunition for the purposes of drawing them.
Psylocke
NG Medium humanoid (mutant)
Init +7; Senses Perception +5
DEFENSE AC 17, touch 17, flat-footed 10 (+3 Dex, +4 dodge)
hp 30 (4d10+4)
Fort +2, Ref +7, Will +5
Immune mind-affecting effects
OFFENSE Speed 30 ft.
Melee masterwork katana +7 (1d8+3/18-20)
Special Attacks psychic knife, sneak attack +2d6, telepathy
STATISTICS Str 14, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 18, Wis 12, Cha 10
Base Atk +4; CMB +6; CMD 23
Feats Improved Initiative, Improved Unarmed Strike
Skills Acrobatics +10, Bluff +7, Climb +9, Escape Artist +7, Knowledge (nobility) +8, Perception +5, Sense Motive +5, Stealth +10
Languages English, Japanese, telepathy
SPECIAL ABILITIES Psychic Knife (Ex) As a swift action, Psylocke can generate a blade of psychic energy that extrudes from her hand. She can make a touch attack with this blade as a standard action, and if she succeeds, she can choose either to end all mind-affecting effects currently affecting her target, or to immediately activate her telepathy ability against the target. If she chooses the latter, the effect is activated as part of the standard action used to make the touch attack, she pays half the psi-points (rounded up) to activate and maintain the effect, and the DC for the will save associated with the effect increases by 2. The creature must be a legal target for the effect she chooses.
Telepathy (Ex) Psylocke can duplicate the effects of a number of different spells using the power of her mind. At the beginning of each of her turns, she gains 5 psi-points which last until the beginning of her following turn and can be spent to activate or maintain these effects. The spell effects she can duplicate as well as the action necessary to utilize each effect, the number of psi-points necessary to activate or maintain that effect, the range of the effect, and whether or not it must be maintained are listed on the chart below.
table wrote:
Spell / Action / Psi-Points / Range / Status
Battlemind Link / Swift action / 3 / personal and 40 ft. / Must be maintained
Charm Person / Standard action / 1 / 40 ft. / Must be maintained
Dominate Person / Full-Round action / 4 / 40 ft. / Must be maintained
Feeblemind / Full-Round action / 5 / 40 ft. / Instantaneous
Hold Person / Full-Round action / 3 / 100 ft. / Must be maintained
Invisibility* / Standard action / 2 / personal / Must be maintained
Major Image** / Standard action / 3 / 100 ft. / Must be maintained
Seek Thoughts / Standard action / 2 / 40 ft. / Must be maintained
Telepathic Bond*** / Swift action / 1 / 40 ft. / Must be maintained
* Creatures with line of sight to Psylocke get a will save to ignore the effects of invisibility. This will save applies once per activation of this ability per creature and is taken by each creature the first opportunity it has to draw line of sight to Psylocke.
** The effects of Psylocke’s major image can occupy any number of spaces within range of her.
*** Telepathic bond can target any number of allies within range of her.
Each of these effects can be activated by expending the listed action and spending the listed amount of psi-points. Many of these effects must be maintained each round to continue to function. Maintaining an effect is a free action, but must be done at the beginning of Psylocke’s turn immediately after she gains psi-points, and costs the same amount of psi-points as activating the ability. If she fails to maintain any effect, it ceases to function until she activates it again. If an effect is listed as instantaneous, she need not maintain it and its effects are permanent upon its activation.
Each of these effects is mind-affecting and allows a will save with a DC equal to 10 + ½ Psylocke’s HD + her Int modifier. Creatures with immunity to mind-affecting effects or who succeed on their saves against invisibility or major image see through the illusions provided by these effects.
Additionally, Psylocke can expend 1 psi-point as an immediate action to gain a dodge bonus to AC against one attacker equal to that attacker’s base attack bonus. This effect lasts until the beginning of her next turn, but does not apply against creatures that are immune to mind-affecting effects, and the attacker can make a will save to ignore its effects.
DEFENSE AC 16, touch 14, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +2 dodge, +2 natural)
hp 47 (5d10+15); regeneration 3
Fort +7, Ref +3, Will +10
Immune disease, fatigue, loss of limb, poison, sickening
OFFENSE Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 adamantine claws +8 (1d8+3)
Special Attacks claws
STATISTICS Str 16, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 12
Base Atk +5; CMB +8 (+10 when sundering); CMD 22 (24 vs. sunder)
Feats Endurance (B), Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Power Attack
Skills Intimidate +9, Knowledge (history) +7, Linguistics +7, Perception +15, Sense Motive +15, Survival +10; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception, +8 Sense Motive
Languages English, Japanese, etc., etc.
SQ berserker rage
SPECIAL ABILITIES Berserker Rage (Ex) If reduced to a quarter of his total hit points, Wolverine enters a rage state like that of a barbarian. This rage is involuntary and cannot be ended by any means other than being restored to above half his starting hit points.
Claws (Ex) Wolverine can extract or sheathe razor sharp claws from his forearms as a free action. While extracted, these claws are treated as natural weapons made of adamantine, allowing him to make two claw attacks. These claws are primary attacks that each deal 1d8 points of damage.
I have a few rough drafts of stat-blocks done at this point, so I figured I'd start posting them for commentary.
Nightcrawler
LG Medium humanoid (mutant)
Init +4; Senses low-light vision; Perception +4
DEFENSE AC 18, touch 18, flat-footed 10 (+4 Dex, +4 dodge)
hp 17 (3d8)
Fort +1, Ref +7, Will +4
Defensive Abilities blend into shadows
OFFENSE Speed 30 ft., climb 20 ft.
Melee masterwork rapier +7 (1d6+1/18-20), slam +1 (1d4), tail +1 (1d6) or rapier +7 (1d6+1/18-20), 2 slams +1 (1d4) or 2 slams +6 (1d4+1), tail slap +6 (1d6+1)
Special Attacks bamf
STATISTICS Str 12, Dex 18, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 14
Base Atk +2; CMB +3; CMD 21
Feats Dimensional Agility (B), Dimensional Assault (B), Dimensional Dervish (B), Dimensional Savant (B), Improved Grapple, Improved Unarmed Strike, Weapon Finesse (B)
Skills Acrobatics +14, Climb +15, Escape Artist +7, Heal +7, Knowledge (planes) +4, Knowledge (religion) +7, Perception +4, Sense Motive +4, Stealth +7; Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics, +8 Climb, +4 Stealth
Languages English, German
SQ prehensile tail, wall crawler
SPECIAL ABILITIES Bamf (Ex) Once per turn as a move action, Nightcrawler can teleport himself, and up to one other creature with whom he’s in contact, as though using dimension door with a range of 500 ft. He can use this ability to teleport an unwilling creature, but to do so he must either already be grappling that creature, or must first make a touch attack against that creature as a standard action. When he teleports with another creature, both become sickened and fatigued for 1d4 rounds. It’s possible to teleport further than 500 ft. using this ability, but for each increment of 500 ft. beyond the first, Nightcrawler takes 1 point of Constitution damage.
Blend Into Shadows (Ex) Nightcrawler gains a +20 circumstance bonus to Stealth in areas of dim light or darker.
Prehensile Tail (Ex) Nightcrawler has a long, flexible tail that he can use to carry objects. He can wield a weapon with his tail, and he can use it to retrieve small objects stowed on his person as a swift action.
Wall Crawler (Ex) Nightcrawler can climb sheer surfaces as though under the effects of a spider climb spell.
My birthday's in early May. I'm turning 30, so to celebrate how responsible and adult I am, I'm organizing a birthday Pathfinder PvP team battle where everyone's playing an X-Men character. Rather than try to use existing classes, I'm basically putting together monster statblocks for each character that reflect the actual power sets and characteristics of each individual character. My plan at the moment is for everyone to have between 3 and 5 hit dice, and to keep the relative power level low so that the heavy hitters feel like heavy hitters, etc.
As a starting point, I decided to look at the "stat-blocks" Marvel publishes for each of their characters and see if I could port those numbers over to Pathfinder stats. So, the numbers listed after each character are their Intelligence, Strength, Speed, Durability, Energy Projection, and Fighting Skill, respectively (on a scale of 1 to 7).
How much weight should I give these numbers? Some of them feel a little weird to me. And do people have suggestions on how to implement these numbers? My gut is that the intelligence and strength scores listed should actually just be the characters' Int and Str modifiers. Maybe do the same with speed and durability? Just port them directly as Dex and Con modifiers? I had some ideas about using fighting skill to figure out BAB, but nothing's clicking so far. What do people think?
Once I have the basics worked out for the system (and I do want to stick as closely to actual Pathfinder rules as possible, not reinvent the wheel), I'll start posting my first drafts of stat-blocks here for people to critique and help me balance. I think we're going to actually play on May 12th, so I've got until then to get everything done!
Those are all interesting ideas. I'm looking into this cleric idea, but I think ultimately I'll probably stick with druid. I did notice that if I went with the weather domain rather than air, the "lightning lord" ability is pretty excellent, and it would give me call lightning as a domain spell. But you're right it would still be a whole lot less lightning overall, and as awesome as the consecrate spell idea is, it's just not as good without any real lightning to maximize.
Thanks for the ideas to chew on, though! I'm currently thinking natural spell and spell focus (evocation) might be the way to go... I was just hoping there was something obscure that would fit my concept really well. Thanks again!
I have a garuda-blooded aasimar druid with a celestial roc animal companion that I don't really want to play until the roc's big enough that it can serve as my mount. So, I've been dumping GM credits on it and I'll start playing the character once he hits 7th level. In the meantime, I have a 7th level character to put together. Here's my starting point:
DRUID Ability Scores: Str 14, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 21 (includes bonus from headband), Cha 8
Feats: Celestial Servant, Mounted Combat, [insert feat here], [insert feat here]
Notable Equipment: +1 bronze dragonhide breastplate, +1 scythe, headband of inspired wisdom +2, acrimony veil (from GM cert)
ROC Ability Scores: Str 22, Dex 19, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 14 (includes bonus from headband)
Feats: Light Armour Proficiency, Combat Reflexes, Power Attack
Tricks: Attack (x2), Come, Defend, Down, Fetch, Guard, Heel, Stay
Notable Equipment: +1 chain shirt barding, headband of alluring charisma +2
And tactically, my plan is not to really wild shape often (if ever), but to ride around on my mount, letting it take full attacks when possible, and raining down lightning from the sky in the form of (sometimes empowered) call lightnings and ball lightnings. I like that I can move ball lightning as a move action, and call down lightning bolts as a standard action, allowing me to do both while either remaining mobile or letting my mount do even further damage.
It's more a concept build than a power gaming strategy. I like the idea of stormy heavenly bird druid guy, riding around on his great big heavenly bird. Consequently, I'm a little stumped on the feat slots. Celestial servant is a non-negotiable, and mounted combat makes a lot of sense since I plan to pretty much always be mounted, but after that I'm at a loss. Natural spell seems like an obvious choice since I'm a druid and I can wild shape, but it's not really a cornerstone of my strategy. And I considered ride-by attack and possibly spirited charge, but I just don't see myself charging very often. Ride-by attack isn't very clear, but it doesn't necessarily seem to involve my mount being able to attack too, and frankly my mount's the one that wants to be making melee attacks, not me. And my mount would rather be full-attacking.
I don't know. Does anyone have recommendations for feats that advance or synergize with my proposed strategy?
Basically, this could easily be interesting, but it's sufficiently different that it's unfair to the players to drop it on them without warning. Especially since it impacts some character types more than others.
On the contrary, as long as it's well planned out and you've accounted for all the potential problems that could arise, I actually think the surprise factor can be pretty important. I think if our GM had recruited for our campaign by saying "you guys are stuck in a time loop," a few people wouldn't have been on board. The fact that he just recruited for a regular campaign, told us we needed to start at 5th level to facilitate the campaign, and then sprung it on us in-game was essential to the plot development! In fact, the first two times we died, we thought he had been playing out elaborate dream sequences. Then we realized what the major plot point of the campaign was and immediately asked him if we could play again tomorrow (which we did).
I've been playing in a game like this for a few years now, and it's one of my favourite games ever. It's necessarily fairly low item. The ways my GM handled this included starting us at 5th level to make sure we had decent starting gear before we got stuck in the loop, allowing us to find a basket that persisted through the time loop like our memories (so we could find things and put them in the basket to keep them), and inventing magical stones that could be expended to give us weapon or armour enhancements that persisted through the time loop. He also gave us a way to travel by putting complexes all over the continent that would serve as our start point each week but had portals to each other within them. The time loop was a week long, so for instance once we died at the end of a week, we'd begin the new iteration of the time loop in whichever of these complexes we were last in. This gave us meaningful limitations but a fair bit of flexibility. We haven't played the game in a long while, but I hope we eventually finish the campaign and figure out what was causing the loop. That game is so awesome...
This definitely improves the animal's BAB, HD, etc. The listed values on the chart in the druid's animal companion section only correspond to typical animal companions, so as to make leveling easy for the 99% of animal companions that use standard rules. Do you think that putting ability score bonuses into Int for an animal companion doesn't raise the number of skill points it gets? The chart's only the final authority for HD, natural armour bonus, Str/Dex bonus, bonus tricks, and most parts of the special column, because those are the parts of the chart that are specific class abilities and not just following the rules of the game. If a template makes it a magical beast and doesn't specifically say that you don't recalculate its stats, then you do, because being a magical beast changes a lot of fundamental numbers. Likewise, "nature bond" isn't a class ability that "affects animals." The exception clause is built into the feat so you can still cast spells like anthropomorphic animal on your companion, etc.
What isn't clear to me is how the spell resistance ability combines with the animal companion, since it's based on CR. What is an animal companion's CR? Druid level? Druid level minus one? 0? Its HD? There are no rules for designating a CR for an animal companion.
I know I don't actually need a martial weapon. I really like the idea of fighting with a pole-axe of some sort, though. I've just always liked them for this sort of character. I think I might just have to take the level of fighter and choose between 10-foot teleportation and 7 pre-prestige levels sometime when I get closer to 7th level. I'm not married to using the wayang boon for this, but it fits the build pretty well. The boon also has nagaji or kitsune as options and I do like the idea of a nagaji rage prophet too.
I have a few GM certs on a character I have yet to build and I want to put together a Hellknight Signifer. I've always been into mixed martial and magical characters and this class just seems awesome. I've looked into some options and it seems like cleric 5 is the easiest and most effective way to get into the class. Unfortunately, I'm just not that into the idea of playing this as a cleric.
I'm 99% sure I want to go wizard or witch (though feel free to try to change my mind), and the more I've looked into the two options, the more confident I am that wizard is probably the route I want to go. This is for two reasons: 1) I compiled a list of spells without somatic components and/or with swift or immediate action casting times, and the wizard just has the better list than the witch (and these spells seem important additions to the character, so I can attack and cast in the same round, and so I can cast without always having to activate those terrible arcane armour feats); 2) arcane bond just seems the better fit than a familiar (having spontaneous access to one situational spell a day seems useful, and being able to enhance my own weapon in PFS where NOBODY can normally enhance their weapons seems massive).
If I'm going wizard, I want to go teleportation-specialist wizard for the swift dimension door ability, but 15-foot teleporting is a huuuuge step-up from 10-foot teleporting, which makes me want to take 6 levels of wizard. Unfortunately, given that this is PFS, I just can't fathom taking more than 6 levels of anything before I start my prestige levels, so I can actually get decent play-time with the prestige class. And unfortunately, I'd have to take two armour proficiency feats and a weapon proficiency feat to reasonably play the character and qualify for the prestige class. This leads me to think a level of fighter is pretty much a must-have, but again--I don't want to do fighter 1/wizard 6 because that's 7 full levels before I get to start up with the prestige class.
So, what I need is PFS-legal suggestions or ideas for traits, spells, equipment, or anything else that will either allow me to cheat an effective additional wizard-level onto my swift dimension door ability with only five actual levels or ways that I can avoid the fighter level without having to have four terrible feats somehow squeezed into 6 levels.
I also have a wayang boon and was considering using it for this character.
That's an interesting idea, but I worry it might leave the class a little weak. I guess that would ensure that adding a number of additional arcane spells to their list wouldn't be overpowering. Worth some thought, anyway...
After thinking about it a little longer last night, I think the following makes more sense than the above dimension gap.
Dimension Door, Lesser School conjuration (teleportation); Level bard 2, magus 2, sorcerer/wizard 2, summoner 2, witch 2
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target you
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
You teleport yourself from your current location to any other unoccupied spot you can see within range. After using this spell, you can't take any other actions until your next turn. You can bring along objects as long as their weight doesn't exceed your maximum load, but not additional creatures.
I'm a huge fan of teleportation. The last time I played a duskblade (before Pathfinder arrived), I got approval from my GM to add a bunch of teleportation spells to the duskblade spell list. Currently I'm playing a magus going for the dimensional feat tree. Given that I want teleportation to be a major part of what my character does, and the magus can't do it until 10th level, I began to look at additional spell options to try to add to my character, and found that many of Paizo's options seem available only to strange class choices and mostly seem underpowered (especially when compared with the travel domain and teleportation specialization wizard options), almost all of the third party options out there seem either over or underpowered, and that most of the old 3.5 spells seem pretty overpowered. So, with GM approval, I'm authoring some of my own, taking into consideration all of the preexisting options I found.
I know I want a 2nd level spell and a 3rd level spell, and I want one of them to be usable offensively in conjunction with spellstrike, so the following are what I came up with. I wanted very basic spells as my starting point, but I'm open to more interesting ideas in addition if people have any. I'm looking for power level feedback mostly (since existing spells are all over the place and hard to gauge)!
Whisk School conjuration (teleportation); Level magus 3, sorcerer/wizard 3, witch 3
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V
Range touch
Target creature touched
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes
You teleport the target (and all objects it's wearing or carrying) a distance of 25 feet plus 5 feet per two caster levels to an unoccupied space you can see.
Dimension Gap School conjuration (teleportation); Level bard 2, magus 2, sorcerer/wizard 2, summoner 2, witch 2
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target you
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
You teleport yourself from your current location to any other unoccupied spot you can see within range. After using this spell, you can't take any other actions until your next turn. You can bring along objects as long as their weight doesn't exceed your maximum load, but not additional creatures. This spell counts as dimension door for the purposes of qualifying for or benefitting from the Dimensional Agility feat and feats with Dimensional Agility as a prerequisite.
Foothold School conjuration (teleportation); Level magus 1
Casting Time 1 swift action
Components V
Range personal
Target you
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
You teleport yourself to standing position from lying prone. You must begin and end in the same space.
I'm actually in the process of playing a magus who's going for this very concept using the dimensional feat chain. Unfortunately, as others have mentioned, the prerequisites in the chain make the feats really, really hard to get at appropriate levels, so my GM and I have cooked up some RAW-as-far-as-we-can-tell-but-certainly-debateable rules to kickstart slightly earlier access to the feats. I actually think the feat chain by itself goes a long way toward making your concept work.
If I were making a prestige class like this, I'd likely try something with 2nd level spells, medium armour proficiency, and 5 ranks in a particular skill as part of its prerequisites, but keep the basic requirements pretty light, and then have the class slowly grant the feats, the means to use the feats, and ways to slightly modify the feats. For instance, at 1st level of the prestige class add a 2nd level spell that allows teleporting five feet for every two caster levels or whatnot to your class spell list, and give the class an ability that says "you can use this spell with the dimensional feats." Then at each even level give the class the next dimensional feat in the chain, skipping the first one since it actually doesn't do anything without dimension door, specifically. On odd levels, give the class abilities that either synergize with or modify the feats. Voila!
I hate prestige classes that force you into particular classes (unless the concept requires it), and I think the idea of a teleporting martial artist could really use almost any spellcasting and martial combination of classes to achieve the desired result (including pre-canned combinations like the magus). The focus should be on allowing them to do so at a reasonable level, which just isn't possible with the feats alone unless you and your GM are willing to explore reasonably creative interpretations of the rules.
Thanks for all the suggestions, guys! I'm open to a lot of them, but I figured I'd go point by point and explain why I did what I did, because a lot of these suggestions will increase the power level for the build and I've been intentionally cautious thus far.
Quandary wrote:
I like the overall gist... Here's my critique:
Keep the option to have a Familiar... That's extremely Wizard-esque, and crucially is an Arcane-y alternate to Familiar.
(having a 'Wizard Level Adjustment -4 seems reasonable since you gain the Bond later, just like Ranger ACs)
Familiar's aren't usually as combat-useful as AC's, but can be more useful in other ways.
The main thing I disliked about my first draft was that it was still essentially using the divine model of casting (spells known=class spell list), but calling it arcane. And I really needed that to change. I don't want a divine ranger with arcane spells. I actually want an arcane ranger who casts the way an arcane caster would. It just doesn't make any sense to me that the class would use a spellbook, though, so I started thinking more about a solution not unlike the witch's familiar-as-spellbook. But thinking about that just made my head hurt, because the class had the ability to choose a bonded item OR a familiar, and writing the rules to enable the choice to use either one as a spellbook felt really messy and outside the scope of an archetype. At that point it's a major class feature.
I think the bonded item option is important, though, and fits really well with the ranger... which led me to the notion that perhaps the familiar needed the axe. This was further backed up by the fact that many of the spells I was cutting were animal-oriented, and no matter how I thought about it, I couldn't shake the idea that familiars (being animals) didn't fit as well with the class. I have a lot of ideas about what a ranger is, and it actually proved really difficult to cut away the right portion of that to make room for arcane spells. This ranger is a tracker, a guide, a nomad, or maybe even a bit of a hunter, but I don't think of her as someone with any sort of spiritual connection to the natural world, and even though familiars are arcane in nature, they felt like an odd fit for that train of thought.
As for the "ranger level minus 3" qualification, I'm okay with that. I deleted it because it doesn't seem like it does anything when combined with a bonded item. I could see an argument that you would need to be three levels higher than than the prerequisite for a casting feat in order to count as having the feat for your bonded item, but that was almost a reason to cut the reduced effective level in and of itself, since it isn't clear-cut and would likely just cause confusion. Similarly, I nearly put in a paragraph about how you can use your bonded item as the bonded item for another class, but you always use the transcendent wayfarer rules for bonded items (a'la the witch's familiar clause), but realized that the rules already allow for using the same item as a bonded item for different classes without explanation, and the text actually complicated the issue by implying that there would be some sort of benefit for using an item in common, even though the two class abilities wouldn't interact in any meaningful way.
If anyone has a suggestion that solves all these dilemmas and still allows for a familiar, I'm absolutely open to the idea! But I thought I should let you know what went into my decision to cut the ability.
Quandary wrote:
Improved Familiar could be a Combat Style Feat.
(Arcane Armor Training/Mastery just aren't going to be taken by 99% of players, given Mithril Medium Armor has no ASF% as it counts as Light except for proficiency sake)
I love the idea of improved familiar as a combat style feat, and I agree that the arcane armour feats are completely awful. I left them in because I wanted to give players the option of heavy armour if they were multi-classing or otherwise choosing to heavily arm. Or if mithral was scarce in a particular setting, etc. I just don't know how to fit familiars as mentioned above. I will give this thought, however.
Quandary wrote:
Instead of turning Bonded Items into 'get a bonus' ala Familiars, I think just standard Bonded Items is fine for those who want that: 'no Feat' item enhancement for Weapons is great for a Martial, and casting anything from their spellbook is great for a prepped caster, especially focusing on utility spells.
The idea here was that changing the spellcasting from Wis to Int made the class more MAD since the important ranger skills tend to be Wisdom-based. Again, I needed a spellbook solution, and it felt weird to keep Wisdom as the casting stat since the class was now an arcane prepared class, BUT a ranger is still a ranger and still needs Perception and Survival. I didn't want Str, Dex, Con, Int, AND Wis to all be important. I'm open to changing the model on how this works. I honestly thought about just including a clause about adding Int bonus to two skills of the player's choice as part of the Detect Magic/Read Magic ability, since getting two cantrips is definitely mostly about flavour anyway. This just seemed like a cool nod to familiars.
Quandary wrote:
2) I think they could do with expanding the spell list further...
of course Specialization nets them some more spells, but I think they could use more across the board... Especially since depending on your Specialization, you WILL get some of these spells anyways, these should be looked at with an eye to adjusting their spell level downward... Bard spells or Inquisitor spells or Magus spells are appropriate as well. It may also make sense to have a list of spells gained at lower spell levels, depending on the School Specialization.
It seems reasonable that they could also gain the benefits of Wizard School Specialization...
Certainly if they suffered the penalties (2x slot cost for opposed schools, etc)
I'm open to this, but I was trying to be cautious. I did add a few staple arcane spells to their list already, but arcane magic has way more offensive potential, and I was trying not to push the power level of the class over the top. I did actually already write in the benefit of school specialization with the last draft I posted, but frankly I wasn't sure that would be okay. I did it because realistically rangers really don't have a lot of spell slots, but I want to be wary of giving out too many benefits with not enough trade-off. Right now the class stands to gain way more spells than they lose AND gain an extra spell slot at each level AND the spells they're gaining are arcane. What are they losing? And is it enough? Again, I'm open to some key additions to the spell list. I just want to be careful. Spells like invisibility crossed my mind, but do we want a full BAB guy to have such easy access to that spell? It's probably not a big deal, but what if it is?
Quandary wrote:
Focusing on 'what is the difference from an Arcane Ranger to a normal one'? I would think Arcane Rangers would be about dealing with arcane/magical stuff that happens to be out in the wilderness... Identify seems like a great spell in said context. WHere is See Invisible... Much less Invisibility? Those should definitely be on there, possibly at lower than Wizard spell level. Arcane Rangers would plausibly be more...
As I mentioned above, I think of them on one hand as the traditional ranger: a guide, tracker, and hunter, but on the other hand a disciple of the arcane rather than that of nature. It's difficult to put into words. I think somebody who deals with magical problems in the wilderness certainly falls within the scope of this class, but isn't necessarily the limit of it. I did put glitterdust on the spell list already, thinking that seemed a little more rangery than see invisibility, but I'm not opposed to the switch. And I'm definitely open to lowering spell levels within reason. I just want to be careful. I lowered greater dispel magic to 4th level, because it fit the class and didn't seem overpowered for the level they'll get it, but lowering spells to 4th level or 3rd level is really tricky, because that opens them up to wands and potions when they otherwise wouldn't have been. A wand of greater dispel doesn't worry me, but a potion of greater invisibility maybe does.
You had a lot of fantastic suggestions, though! And I appreciate them! I'll post the next revision of the class when I've thought enough about the ramifications.
SmiloDan wrote:
And remember, if a ranger gets a familiar, it gets half of d10-based hit points, so it will be considerably more beefy than half of d6-based hit points.
That's a good point. See my above thoughts on familiars, though. Do you have any suggestions that assuage my other concerns?
SmiloDan wrote:
I really like the idea of the arcane weapon bond skill bonuses, etc. I just wish there was some more variety in the skill bonuses given out.
To let you know what I was thinking there, I figured that rangers didn't need help on skills or saves that relied on physical stats. They were already going to need Intelligence for casting, and given that the idea behind adding the skill bonuses was to reduce MAD issues, I decided it didn't make sense to give them help on Intelligence skills either. That left Cha and Wis, so I figured I'd vary the list as much as I could without really veering away from those two ability bases. I would loooove input on the specifics of that list, as I'm not 100% happy with it and a lot of the weapon groups were pretty tough to assign skills to, but I thought I should let you know a little bit more about why I chose what I did. Any suggestions?
SmiloDan wrote:
If this becomes a little bit more anti-caster, then you might even want to figure out a way to get the Superstitious rage power tree somehow added to the bonus feat list.
That's an interesting thought, and I'll ponder it a bit. My gut reaction is that it might be a little outside the scope of an archetype since it would involving canning class abilities and making feats out of them, but it's not a bad idea. I don't want the class itself to be "anti-caster" by default, but I like the idea that that could be an option.
SmiloDan wrote:
Definitely throw in some see invisiblity and invisiblity, maybe even faerie fire and glitterdust. Lower darkvision to 2nd level, maybe even 1st.
I did already include glitterdust on their list, but there seems to be a lot of support for invisibility and see invisibility so maybe I'll try adding those. faerie fire makes some sense too. Fae are basically the intersection between arcane magic and the wilderness, which is basically where I want this class to sit. Hmm... I love the idea of dropping darkvision down in level a bit. That makes a ton of sense for an arcane ranger.
SmiloDan wrote:
Actually, you may want to expand the spell list to grant the arcane ranger all sorts of utility stuff that melee or ranged warriors could really use: mobility enhancement (flight and teleportation and freedon of movement, maybe even haste), sense enhancement (darkvision, see invisible, detection spells), and maybe even some battlefield control (walls, entangle, pits, etc.). Maybe some fear effects, de-buffers, and protections.
Again, I'm open to this. I just want to be cautious. Haste in particular is interesting. I actually removed entangle which is normally on the ranger list, because it was a little too naturey, but I'll definitely look into some of these, and I truly appreciate the feedback. I've been agonizing on whether to keep tree stride or replace it with dimension door. The problem is they ultimately do such different things, and walking through trees just feels so rangery to me. There's always teleport, but there's no way I want that spell to exist on a wand, you know? So I can't really make it a 4th level spell for anyone.
I'll keep thinking about it. It's a tricky balance to achieve.
I've made some revisions! I tried to make it clearer what I was actually changing from the original ranger too. As for the spell list, check down at the very bottom of each spell level and I've added a list of which spells were added and removed from the original ranger spell list.
Transcendent Wayfarer Ranger Archetype
Class Skills
A transcendent wayfarer gains Knowledge (arcana) (Int) and Use Magic Device (Cha) as class skills and loses Heal (Wis) and Handle Animal (Cha).
Weapon and Armour Proficiency
A transcendent wayfarer can cast transcendent wayfarer spells while wearing light armour without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. Like any other arcane spellcaster, a transcendent wayfarer wearing medium armour, heavy armour, or a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the spell in question has a somatic component. A multiclass transcendent wayfarer still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from other classes. She otherwise retains the standard ranger weapon and armour proficiencies.
Magic Sense (Sp)
A transcendent wayfarer can cast detect magic and read magic as spell-like abilities at-will with a caster level equal to her ranger level.
This ability replaces wild empathy.
Combat Style
A transcendent wayfarer gains access to the following combat style. She may still only choose one combat style to pursue.
Arcane Combat Style:
If the ranger selects arcane style, she can choose from the following list whenever she gains a combat style feat: Arcane Armour Training, Arcane Strike, Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, and Spell Specialization**.
At 6th level, she adds Arcane Armour Mastery, Arcane Blast*, Arcane Shield*, and Greater Spell Specialization** to the list.
At 10th level, she adds Destructive Dispel*** and Spell Perfection* to the list.
Bonded Weapon (Su)
At 4th level, a transcendent wayfarer forms a bond with a weapon of her choice, drawing power as though through an arcane conduit. She may choose a masterwork weapon she already owns or gain a new one at no cost. This functions like the wizard’s arcane bond class feature, except as noted here.
A transcendent wayfarer must study her bonded weapon to prepare her spells. Bonded weapons store all of the spells that a transcendent wayfarer knows, and a transcendent wayfarer cannot prepare a spell that is not stored by this weapon. A transcendent wayfarer’s bonded weapon begins play storing three 1st level transcendent wayfarer spells of her choice, as well as a number of additional 1st level spells equal to her Intelligence modifier. At each new transcendent wayfarer level, she adds two new spells of any level or levels that she can cast (based on her new level) to this weapon. A transcendent wayfarer can also use a scroll to add a new spell to her bonded weapon. This process takes 1 hour per level of the spell to be learned, during which time the scroll is absorbed by the weapon, destroying it entirely. At the end of this time, the transcendent wayfarer must make a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + spell level). If the check fails, the process went awry in some way and the spell is not stored in the weapon, although the scroll is still absorbed.
A transcendent wayfarer’s bonded weapon only stores transcendent wayfarer spells. Spells received from other classes are accessed as noted in their class features. If a bonded weapon is lost or destroyed, it can be replaced 1 day later through a special ritual that costs 500 gp per transcendent wayfarer level plus the cost of the masterwork weapon. The ritual takes 8 hours to complete. A new bonded weapon begins knowing two spells of every level the transcendent wayfarer is able to cast.
A bonded weapon grants special abilities based on its weapon group to its wielder, as given on the table below. The weapon groups are defined as by the fighter’s weapon training class feature. If a bonded weapon resides in two or more groups, the transcendent wayfarer may choose which applicable bonus her weapon grants.
Axe: +3 bonus on Intimidate checks
Blade, Heavy: +2 bonus on Will saves
Blade, Light: +2 bonus on Will saves
Bow: +3 bonus on Perception checks
Close: +3 bonus on Bluff checks
Crossbow: +3 bonus on Perception checks
Double: +3 bonus on Use Magic Device checks
Firearm: +3 bonus on Perception checks
Flail: +3 bonus on Bluff checks
Hammer: +3 bonus on Intimidate checks
Monk: +3 bonus on Use Magic Device checks
Natural: +3 bonus on Survival checks
Polearm: +3 bonus on Sense Motive checks
Siege Engine: +3 bonus on Survival checks
Spear: +3 bonus on Sense Motive checks
Thrown: +3 bonus on Survival checks
This ability replaces hunter’s bond.
Spells
At 4th level, a transcendent wayfarer gains the ability to cast a small number of spells exactly like a standard ranger does, except her spells are arcane and drawn from the transcendent wayfarer spell list and she uses Intelligence instead of Wisdom when determining the highest level of spells she can cast, her spell save DCs, and any effects of her spells normally determined by her Wisdom.
A transcendent wayfarer must also choose to specialize in one school of magic, adding all sorcerer/wizard spells of 4th level or lower from that school of magic (that are not already on her class list) to her class spell list at the same spell level a wizard would receive them. This choice must be made at 4th level, and once made it cannot be changed. She also receives an additional spell slot of each spell level she can cast. Each day, she can prepare a spell from her specialty school in that slot. This means the transcendent wayfarer always gets at least 1 spell (of her chosen school) per day as soon as she gains access to a level of spells, even if Table: Ranger lists 0 for spells per day.
Each day, instead of meditating, a transcendent wayfarer must spend 1 hour studying the secrets of her bonded weapon in order to prepare spells for the day. While studying, the transcendent wayfarer decides which of the spells stored in her bonded weapon to prepare.
Reflexive Magic (Su)
At 15th level, a transcendent wayfarer can cast one spell per day as if it were modified by the Quicken Spell feat. This does not increase the level of the spell.
This ability replaces the ranger’s fourth favoured enemy.
Transcendent Wayfarer Spell List 1:abundant ammunition***, air bubble***, alarm, ant haul*, anticipate peril**, bowstaff***, cloak of shade*, dancing lantern*, deadeye’s lore***, delay poison, detect aberration*, detect animals or plants, detect poison, detect snares and pits, diagnose disease**, endure elements, feather fall, feather step*, glide*, gravity bow*, hide from animals, horn of pursuit**, hunter’s howl*, jump, keen senses*, know the enemy**, lead blades*, liberating command***, longshot***, longstrider, negate aroma*, obscuring mist, pass without trace, residual tracking*, resist energy, returning weapon***, shield, sun metal***, tireless pursuit*
(Ranger spell list minus animal messenger, aspect of the falcon*, call animal*, calm animals, charm animal, compel hostility***, entangle, magic fang, read magic, speak with animals, sumon minor ally**, summon nature's ally I, and wartrain mount** and plus feather fall, obscuring mist, and shield)
(Ranger spell list minus animal aspect***, aspect of the bear*, barkskin, cure light wounds, hold animal, lockjaw*, owl's wisdom, perceive cues*, returning weapon (communal)***, speak with plants, spike growth, summon nature's ally II, web shelter**, and wilderness soldiers*** and plus bull's strength, fog cloud, fox's cunning, and glitterdust)
3:blessing of the mole**, burrow**, burst of speed***, clairaudience/clairvoyance, cloak of winds, darkvision, delay poison (communal)***, dispel magic, feather step (mass)*, fickle winds**, instant enemy*, life bubble*, named bullet***, protection from energy (communal)***, resist energy (communal)***, tireless pursuers*, venomous bolt*, water breathing, water walk
(Ranger spell list minus animal aspect (greater)***, aspect of the stag*, bloody claws*, command plants, companion mind link***, cure moderate wounds, diminish plants, magic fang (greater), neutralize poison, plant growth, reduce animal, remove disease, repel vermin, strong jaw*, summon nature's ally III, and tree shape and plus clairaudience/clairvoyance, dispel magic, and water breathing)
4:blessing of the salamander*, bow spirit*, commune with nature, darkvision (communal)***, darkvision (greater)**, dispel magic (greater), find quarry***, freedom of movement, named bullet (greater)***, nondetection, stoneskin, terrain bond***, tree stride, water walk (communal)***
(Ranger spell list minus animal growth, aspect of the wolf*, cure serious wounds, grove of respite*, raise animal companion**, and summon nature's ally IV and plus dispel magic (greater) and stoneskin)
Yeah, I keep thinking that might be abusable, and although you're right--she's a new player and likely won't easily spot breakable loopholes, I'm still interested in making sure this is balanced. I'm going to start putting together a custom material wiki for my playgroup and I want everything I put up there to be usable by newbies and veterans alike. The thing is I can't think of anything all that abusable that can be done with this. The class could be really good at delivering touch spells, but will always have the caster level handicap, and both transmutation and illusion offer up some spells that seem a lot better in the hands of a full BAB character BUT those spells will be picked up late and will require using valuable actions to cast. Plus those effects are usually easily picked up using equipment-based options anyway. The class definitely opens up slightly earlier access to arcane archer, and on a base class that synergizes well with it, but that was intentional and is balanced by its delayed access to spells and much more limited spell slots, I think.
I don't know. I'm definitely all ears if you can think of any specific abuse this opens up. Thanks for your comment.
Hey there! My GM and I recently began work on an arcane ranger archetype because it fits the character concept of a fellow player who's brand new to the game and who started off taking levels of ranger, but has decided she wants to go a more arcane route. Neither my GM nor I is the most experienced ranger player, but we're both reasonably experienced players, and this is our first stab at an arcane ranger. The basic concept is to remove the really druidy feeling aspects of the ranger and replace them with more wizardly feeling parts instead. Please be honest about this and open with feedback! I can take critique and constructive criticism, but I'm not even going to acknowledge scathing remarks or posts to the tune of "this is a stupid concept and you shouldn't even bother with it." Our mind is at least made up that we are going to put forth this archetype as an option to the player. We just want help making sure it's not too over or underpowered. Thanks!
Transcendent Wayfarer Ranger Archetype
Class Skills
A transcendent wayfarer’s class skills are Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (geography) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Stealth (Dex), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), and Use Magic Device (Cha).
This replaces the standard ranger class skills.
Weapon and Armour Proficiency
A transcendent wayfarer is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with light armour, medium armour, and shields (except tower shields). She can cast transcendent wayfarer spells while wearing light armour without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. Like any other arcane spellcaster, a transcendent wayfarer wearing medium armour, heavy armour, or a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the spell in question has a somatic component. A multiclass transcendent wayfarer still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from other classes.
This replaces the standard ranger weapon and armour proficiency.
Detect Magic (Sp)
A transcendent wayfarer can cast detect magic as a spell-like ability at-will with a caster level equal to her ranger level.
This ability replaces wild empathy.
Transcendent Wayfarer Combat Style
A transcendent wayfarer gains access to the following combat style. She may still only choose one combat style to pursue.
Arcane Combat Style:
Arcane
If the ranger selects arcane style, she can choose from the following list whenever she gains a combat style feat:
At 6th level, she adds Arcane Armour Mastery, Arcane Blast*, Arcane Shield*, and Greater Spell Specialization** to the list.
At 10th level, she adds Destructive Dispel*** and Spell Perfection* to the list.
Arcane Bond (Ex or Sp)
At 4th level, a transcendent wayfarer gains an arcane bond, as a wizard equal to her ranger level minus 3.
This ability replaces hunter’s bond.
Spells
At 4th level, a transcendent wayfarer gains the ability to cast a small number of spells exactly like a standard ranger does, except her spells are arcane and drawn from the transcendent wayfarer spell list and she uses Intelligence instead of Wisdom when determining the highest level of spells she can cast, her spell save DCs, and any effects of her spells normally determined by her Wisdom. She must also choose to specialize in one school of magic, adding all ranger and sorcerer/wizard spells of 4th level or lower from that school of magic (that are not already on her class list) to her class spell list at the same spell level a standard ranger or wizard would receive them (whichever is higher). This choice must be made at 4th level, and once made it cannot be changed.
Each day, instead of meditating, a transcendent wayfarer must spend 1 hour communing with her familiar or studying her bonded item (depending on which she chose) in order to prepare spells for the day, though she may still prepare any spell on her class spell list, provided that she can cast spells of that level.
Transcendent Wayfarer Spell List
1:abundant ammunition***, air bubble***, alarm, ant haul*, anticipate peril**, bowstaff***, cloak of shade*, dancing lantern*, deadeye’s lore***, delay poison, detect aberration*, detect animals or plants, detect poison, detect snares and pits, diagnose disease**, endure elements, feather fall, feather step*, glide*, gravity bow*, hide from animals, horn of pursuit**, hunter’s howl*, jump, keen senses*, know the enemy**, lead blades*, liberating command***, longshot***, longstrider, negate aroma*, obscuring mist, pass without trace, read magic, residual tracking*, resist energy, returning weapon***, sun metal***, tireless pursuit*
3:blessing of the mole**, burrow**, burst of speed***, clairaudience/clairvoyance, cloak of winds, cure moderate wounds, darkvision, delay poison (communal)***, dispel magic, feather step (mass)*, fickle winds**, instant enemy*, life bubble*, named bullet***, neutralize poison, protection from energy (communal)***, remove disease, resist energy (communal)***, tireless pursuers*, venomous bolt*, water breathing, water walk
4:blessing of the salamander*, bow spirit*, commune with nature, cure serious wounds, darkvision (communal)***, darkvision (greater)**, dispel magic (greater), find quarry***, freedom of movement, named bullet (greater)***, nondetection, stoneskin, terrain bond***, tree stride, water walk (communal)***
We've had a lot of response so far, and tables are filling up quickly. I expect that to accelerate come Wednesday night after our weekly game. Anyone who wants to get in on Friday night's Year of the Shadow Lodge, I encourage you to sign up soon. We cannot add additional tables to Friday's schedule and the four tables we have are first-come, first-served.
Yeah, it's even weirder with it being an animal companion, though, since we're talking about a class-feature-ized version of a creature from the Bestiary that at one point had an official CR anyway.
Redcap's Corner is proud to present the Unseelie Court, a weekend-long Pathfinder Society event from October 12th to 14th. We'll be running all the convention specials, a few tables of the Cyphermage Dilemma, a few sanctioned modules, and a variety of recent season three and four scenarios, with GM appearances by five venture-officers! The event is $10 to enter, regardless of how many tables you play, and we're running a single slot Friday night, as well as three slots each day Saturday and Sunday.
I played part 1 of Rats of Round Mountain the other day. I plan on playing part 2 with the same character before playing any other scenarios with that character. The chronicle sheet quite clearly states that the special reward is only available so long as my next chronicle sheet is part 2. Does that really mean that if I had taken a holiday boon as part of part 1, or if I GMed a different scenario for credit on this character between parts 1 and 2, that I wouldn't be eligible for whatever additional benefit is available for playing them back to back? I understood the point to be that the benefit was for having your character remain in the field between scenarios, and as far as I know GMing or taking a holiday doesn't have any bearing on that.
Congrats, and welcome, Tom! I just posted a similar spiel in Brian's South Jersey VL welcome thread before seeing this, but my name's Benn and I'm a Philadelphia-based game shop owner as well as (very) recent VC applicant. Please shoot me an email at justify.the@means.org so we can strike up a relationship! Regardless of how my application ends up, I feel you and I probably have a lot of ways we could help each other and, by extension, help the Pathfinder Society community!
Congrats, Brian! I'm the owner of Philadelphia's Redcap's Corner, and I look forward to meeting you! I found this thread only a few minutes after finalizing and sending off my application for the Philly VC position, but regardless of how that goes, I think you and I probably have a lot to talk about and a bit of a relationship to foster. Please feel free to email me at justify.the@means.org so we can help each other out!
Greater Hat of Disguise is actually hilarious. He doesn't lose anything from that (aside from obvious size-related bonuses to AC, etc.), does he? Even his fly speed?
* half cost (or is it full cost, since the quasit isn't technically a "humanoid"... is humanoid being used as a creature type or to check whether or not it has arms and legs? And if it is half-cost, does that also halve the cost of special materials like mithral?)
* one tenth weight
* half armour bonus
But the quasit isn't proficient with armour. Does it still suffer the normal armour check penalty? Especially if armour is full cost, this all seems to be boiling down to kind of a bad deal, but you're right, I should be buffing his AC as much as possible.
I have a ninth-level witch with Improved Familiar and a quasit by his side. I understand the risks of having my spellbook wander into battle, but I chose the quasit for its resilience (my spellbook has fast healing 2!) and I know when to use him and when to hold him back. Unfortunately, the quasit basically does nothing, and I have a feat invested into him. Solution? Time to turn my piles of gold into "equip my quasit."
Anyone have any suggestions for items that would make the little devil (I mean demon) a little more useful? He doesn't currently have UMD, but if he needs it I can get him up to a +9 next time I level up. Right now, he just has an Amulet of Mighty Fists that bestows vicious on him.
You're right. Not all third party content is crap. I didn't mean to imply that it all is. It's not actually what I even said. I own a variety of third party books that I enjoy. I've also read more than a fair share of really, really terrible third party products. All I said is that a significant amount of the material on d20pfsrd.com is of the latter category, crappy third party material. And I don't want to have to screen through all that for material, especially when I'm playing something like Pathfinder Society. I agree that not all Paizo material is fantastic either, but they certainly have a stronger than average record.
Yeah, I know that site. It bothers me how much of the material on that site is poorly tested third party material, or otherwise custom content, again because it dilutes the real substance, but I definitely use it. I can't find these shackles of truthfulness (not necessarily their real name) anywhere on there either, though.
I know about archivesofnethys.com, but it seems like that site hasn't been updated since November or so, and it seems like the owner of that site decided to dilute its purpose by adding in all the hardback content too, which just isn't necessary since it's available so many other places, and arguably isn't even really desirable since it clutters the resource quite a bit.
Has anyone else stepped up to bat since Archives of Nethys stopped updating? Amongst other things, there's an item a friend recently saw in a newish paperback book that was something to the tune of Shackles of Truthfulness, and neither of us can find it now. It was an item similar to Manacles of Cooperation but more focused on forcing the wearer to tell the truth. And I'm also on the hunt for an item or feat that will give my 9th-level witch access to greater invisibility.
But what you're missing is that this game is an abstraction, and it's intentionally a wildly unrealistic abstraction designed to allow players to constantly improve and discover new powers. The reason being that this approach makes for very compelling game-play--not because it enhances the storytelling in any way. If you want a game that conforms to a strictly real world interpretation of skill-sets and abilities, Pathfinder is just not the right game for you. What it sounds to me like you're doing is entirely ignoring the game-play in favour of doing away with abstractions that are necessary for game balance, and wondering why the game isn't fun to play.
I agree that NPC stats often make no sense in a real world sense, but if I want to keep gaining new powers and abilities for my characters while also having fun and being challenged while playing, I have to suspend disbelief that the mayor is a 10th-level desk-chair-sitter, and his secretary is an 8th-level typist. What sense is there to leveling up if 1st-level characters of the worst class in the game are still a lethal threat?
I have a ninth-level witch who could benefit greatly from the addition of greater invisibility to his repertoire. I have my ninth-level feat slot open, so a feat would work, and I also have about 23,000 gp so an item would work too. Right now I'm leaning toward a Staff of Stealth from the APG, but I wondered if people had other suggestions before I commit to that. Thanks!
While I agree that killing the players is one way to make the game feel more dangerous, I'm serious about the ludicrousness of using 1st level commoners.
Cranewings, have you looked at the NPC stat-blocks in the GMG? The only thing that's a commoner 1 is the village idiot. A barmaid is a commoner 2. A beggar is a commoner 1/rogue 1. A drunkard is a commoner 1/warrior 2. I think your game is suffering from you using a fairly bizarre scale for your commonfolk. Other relevant statblocks from the GMG for your game include:
I don't think you should have any reasonable expectation that 1st level commoners can hurt 6th level PCs. You should probably either accept that the average NPC in this world is not just a 1st level commoner OR choose a different system to use to run the game. Maybe some sort of modified Shadowrun would make more sense than Pathfinder if you want to preserve a guns are deadly feel in your game? Pathfinder is a game of superhero adventurers who don't just die when shot (or injured by a battleaxe, etc.).
I guessed as much, but wasn't sure if it counted as something different since it doesn't require any sort of crafting feat or skill check to accomplish.
