D'arandriel's page

How the DR is applied vs. lethal and non-lethal is also up for interpretation. I do agree with Writer's interpretation, since it is two different types of damage being applied against the barbarian, then both his regular DR and his DR vs. non-lethal should apply against each damage type. Why shouldn't the DR be applied twice?

I did forget about the pre-req for Stalwart and Improved Stalwart.

I don't think I'm wrong about applying all dodge bonuses while fighting defensively, but it is a matter of interpretation, and if you are correct, then clearly Combat Expertise is the way to go. The way I see it, since all dodge bonuses stack, then while fighting defensively, all your dodge bonuses by default are dodge bonuses while fighting defensively.

I would still prefer to use Flesh Wound once per round than need to wait for a specific circumstance to occur before Guarded Life kicks in.

But to each their own.

D'arandriel wrote:

I think Guarded Life/Greater Guarded Life is worthless. There's better rage powers you can take. I would suggest one level dip into oracle or a magic item to gain fatigue immunity. Then you can use Flesh Wound every round instead of once per rage. Much more effective than Guarded Life.

Dipping into Oracle pushes back his Rage Powers and the effectiveness of his Barbarians abilites even more, and I always discourage people from building around items they may or may not have access to.

The aspect of Guarded Life/Greater Guarded Life that you're missing is the ability to convert damage that would take you below 0 to non-lethal. A 12th level Invulnerable Rager (for instance) would be able to convert 24 points of damage that would take him below 0 to non-lethal damage - and his DR is doubled against non-lethal damage up to twice his level, meaning those 24 points are negated. THEN normal DR applies to the remaining damage. Its a big part of what makes a Barbarian with this build virtually unkillable.

D'arandriel wrote:

If you want another feat, and don't want to invest points to a 13 Int, just get rid of Combat Expertise and Fight Defensively. With Dodge (+1 dodge AC) and a runeforged weapon (another +1 dodge AC) - you can actually get a +10DR from Improved Stalwart quicker than with Combat Expertise.

Stalwart/Improved Stalwart does not grant DR bonuses based on your total dodge bonus regardless of source, only that gained from Expertise (scales with BAB) or Fighting Defensively (static -4 attack/+2 AC).

In short:
Fighting Defensively with Improved Stalwart = -4 attack/+4 DR
Combat Expertise with Threatening Defender and Improved Stalwart = -3 attack/+8 DR

The numbers make Expertise definitely the way to go - especially with Threatening Defender - and a few extra skill points never hurt. Also, I'm not exactly sure how dropping Combat Expertise and taking Dodge grants him another feat...

I don't like building around items either, BUT...if he's starting at 12th level, I would assume he can purchase items. If starting from 1st level, I would never build around items and would think that whatever build you have in mind will probably change to some extent.

He does not need to dip Oracle to gain fatigue immunity, there's two magic items that will do it for him. If the GM allows custom items, then all the better.

Fighting Defensively vs. Combat Expertise:

Fighting Defensively: +2 AC + 1AC (with 3 ranks of Acrobatics) +1AC (Dodge) + 1 AC (dodge bonus from runeforged weapon) = +5 AC = 10DR, with -4 to hit. This can be achieved as quickly as he can get his hands on a runeforged weapon, and he can have the 8DR by 3rd level without a runeforged weapon) instead of 12th level (not that it matters in this case, but the point is he can have a +10DR at his level instead of a +8DR). Remember dodge bonuses stack and your dodge bonuses apply while fighting defensively, so you get the DR.

Combat Expertise with Threatening Defender: Need to be 12th level to have 8DR/-3 to hit and 16th level to have 10DR/-4 to hit.

One thought about Threatening Defender - The GM may allow Threatening Defender with Fighting Defensively. It does fit within the "spirit" of the trait.

Guarded Life/Greater Guarded Life vs. Flesh Wound (with Rage Cycling):

Guarded Life/Greater Guarded Life: With Guarded Life you need to be below 0 HPs before this kicks in. Admittedly, the combination is not bad once it kicks in.

Flesh Wound: With rage cycling, this becomes a great power. Without rage cycling, I would take Guarded Life over Flesh Wound. Once you can use this power every round (instead of once per rage), you can essentially negate 20-30 HPs every round. Most creatures have some attacks that are weaker than others. Use this ability on the attacks you know you have a good chance of making the save. That's almost as good as fast healing 20-30, isn't it? Also, this works on all types of damage. If you were just blasted by acid or fire - as long as you can make your save, you just took half damage, and it's now non-lethal. I see more utility in using an ability every round, instead of waiting for a specific condition (dropping below 0 HPs) to occur.

Anyway, that's my two cents.

Stalwart and Improved Stalwart is definitely worth it.

It looks like you have a Courageous weapon. Where's the furious weapon? Also, Courageous adds a bonus equal to half the enhancement bonus of the weapon to all morale bonuses (that means, Str, Con, Superstition, etc. while raging). I think Hero Labs screwed up in their interpretation of how this works.

I think Guarded Life/Greater Guarded Life is worthless. There's better rage powers you can take. I would suggest one level dip into oracle or a magic item to gain fatigue immunity. Then you can use Flesh Wound every round instead of once per rage. Much more effective than Guarded Life.

Maybe I've missed something, but how are you gaining resistance to both cold and fire? It's one or the other.

If you want another feat, and don't want to invest points to a 13 Int, just get rid of Combat Expertise and Fight Defensively. With Dodge (+1 dodge AC) and a runeforged weapon (another +1 dodge AC) - you can actually get a +10DR from Improved Stalwart quicker than with Combat Expertise.

There's a couple of extremely high DR builds in the guide to the builds. I would classify these as "unkillable". They can easily be tweaked for a half-orc. You will want the Ferocious Tenacity feat for the half-orc. If you can gain fatigue immunity (look at cord of stubborn resolve or flawed scarlet and green cabochon ioun stone plus Internal Fortitude rage power) and can rage cycle (highly recommended), then Flesh Wound is great to virtually negate one attack per round. No need to dip Unbreakable fighter if half orc - they can start with Endurance by swapping out Intimidating, but dipping Unbreakable is not a bad way to go either.

So limit Spell Sunder. Make it like a lot of other class abilities and only allow it to be used 3 + Primary Ability mod times per day.

I know that it's not exactly canon, but I view a Barbarian's rage as a semi-mystical battle state, where he actually has heightened awareness of his surroundings and is focused on dealing death; for anyone that's read the Sword of Truth series, imagine how they describe Richard when he is in his "dance with death" state, and to me that's rage.

A barbarian who is within that state and who has Spell Sunder can actually 'see' the mystical structure of the spells on the target, and can focus his rage to 'attack' them.

Definitely not canon. Call me crazy and unimaginative, but Conan is the first thing I think of when I think barbarian.

I really think Spell Sunder should work more like the rogue talent Dispelling Attack - if the barbarian damages the opponent, then the spell sunder should go into effect.

Yeah, Spell Sunder can be performed as part of a regular sunder, which can be performed in place of a regular melee attack. Which with Greater Beast Totem and the ability to rage cycle means the barbarian is charge pouncing-full attacking-spell sundering every round.

Yeah...like I said, the GM is not thrilled with Spell Sunder.

Feat. Right. And a good one.

Raging Vitality should be enough to prevent Sudden Barbarian Death Syndrome. A handful of d6 isn't going to save you if you're in real trouble. Flesh Wound would actually work out better frequently.

Have Raging Vitality. I really did narrow down my list to Flesh Wound, Ghost Rager and Dazing Assault for a reason.

D'arandriel wrote:

I think with Flesh Wound trying to negate the big hits is the wrong tactic. I want as much of a sure thing as possible, so I would want to negate the small- to medium hits (20-30 hps) every round. I see nothing wrong with having an extra 20-30 hps every round. And with most creatures having some weaker attacks, I think it's simple enough to know when you want to use Flesh Wound before the damage is rolled. Anyway, that's how I envisioned utilizing Flesh Wound.

I agree with you that the better strategy is to try and negate hits you know you can negate.

But it's once per rage not round, unless you have gained rage cycling earlier than 17. At once per rage it doesn't make sense grabbing until you can rage cycle. Dazing assault on the other hand negates ALL damage if you land a daze and you can use it every round.

My go to defense against hp loss for barbarians is moderate fortification, DR, and a ring of blinking. Between those three you don't really need an AC.

I should have probably painted a clearer picture. Yes, I have rage cycling via cord of stubborn resolve.

Love the ring of blinking...don't know why I never saw this.

The big problem with Dazing Assault is that it's a feat and D'arandriel needs to replace a rage power. And the hole is probably at level 6 and your replacement requires 11 BAB.

The GM is letting me take any feat or rage power for which I currently qualify as a level 12 barbarian to replace Spell Sunder.

Dazing Assault - It's not about the monster making their fort save once. It's about that monster making their fort save 7 times a round. Once you turn on Dazing Assault it is on for the round it applies to all attacks that round (Iteratives and AoO). A CR 12 monster on average has a +15 Fort save. That means you have a 35% chance to daze per hit. So, unless the monster has a huge Fort save (much higher than average Monster Creation Table), that monster will never get to act. P.S. Daze locking the BBEG can cause GM's to pout and throw their dice down long hallways.

Fleshwound - Does not work as great as you would want. You want to negate those huge hits that put big dents in your HP. However, those bigs hits require huge saving throws to negate.

Ghost Rager - pretty sweet, especially if you have big superstition bonuses.

Eater of Magic - You can still roll a 1 on a save, so a re-roll is always nice.

Knockdown/knockback - Knockback is better, especially if you have reach. Knockback is once per round while knockdown is once per rage.

I think with Flesh Wound trying to negate the big hits is the wrong tactic. I want as much of a sure thing as possible, so I would want to negate the small- to medium hits (20-30 hps) every round. I see nothing wrong with having an extra 20-30 hps every round. And with most creatures having some weaker attacks, I think it's simple enough to know when you want to use Flesh Wound before the damage is rolled. Anyway, that's how I envisioned utilizing Flesh Wound.

Dazing Assult is pretty amazing I think. The big thing is that it shuts down foes from hitting back with come and get me. I'm a little worried about banning spell sunder though.

I don't typically argue with the GM. Besides, like I said, I have a hard time visualizing how it even works, so I'm more or less Ok with it. If spell sunder was contingent on the barbarian doing damage to the caster, it would at least make more sense to me.

So let ask another question about Dazing Assault, is it worth having if the only ones that will be affected are the mooks and not the boss (unless the boss rolls a 1 - which I don't like to rely on). It seems to me that my character could easily kill the creatures that would fail their fort save vs Dazing Assault anyway.

My saves are already through the roof due to superstitious and human favored class bonus. So Eater of magic is out. It won't come up often enough to be worth the investment. When it does come up , I realize I'll regret not having it though.

Already have Strength Surge as well as the Beast Totem line. I have considered Knockback or Knockdown, as well as Desperate Battler (with my courageous weapon) or Raging Brutality, but really leaning toward either Flesh Wound, Ghost Rager or Dazing Assault.

I'm can't imagine Dazing Assault would work 50% of the time on a CR20 creature (BTW - my character is 12th level). I would have expected it to be closer to about about 5% of the time at that level. Anyway, if this is even remotely accurate, then it may well be Dazing Assault all the way.

My GM is not thrilled with how spell sunder works (truth be told, I have a hard time visualizing how it works, but it was very, very useful). Anyway, I need to select another feat or rage power to replace it with. I was thinking of the following:

Flesh Wound - to potentially negate one attack every round and can be used against energy attacks. I see this as being useful in every combat situation. I also have not seen the damage scaling to such an extent that I could not make my save on most of the weaker attacks from creatures. the way I see it, if I negate 20HPs per round, then that's almost as good as fast healing 20, which is pretty darn good.

Ghost Rager - for the superstition bonus to touch AC. Does not come up a lot, but when it does, it could be really useful, since the attacks could miss entirely and I would take no damage (or even works ability or energy drain) at all.

Dazing Assault - I keep hearing how good this is with CaGM, but still not 100% convinced, since most of the creatures we face seem to have a pretty high Fort save. The ones that don't, I could most likely kill outright anyway. But it is a serious consideration, since most everyone on the boards seems to recommend it highly.

I would think simple common sense would dictate that the lance should get the two-handed bonus to damage on a mounted charge (after all, you do have the mass and speed of the mount behind the charge), but then again common sense doesn't always factor into the rules...

Otherwise, there's really no ambiguity on whether or not a weapon is being used one handed or two handed.

I think it can be argued that since one is morale bonus to saves and the other is a morale bonus to AC, they are two different morale bonuses, and therefore the courageous weapon enchantment should apply to both. Although my common sense tells me that since I'm already applying the courageous bonus to Superstitious already, it just doesn't "feel" right to apply it again, even though its to AC instead of saving throws.

I would certainly like to be convinced otherwise.

Any other opinions on how this would work? Would I be able to apply the bonus from courageous twice? Once to the morale bonus to saving throws from Superstitious and then once more to the morale bonus to AC from Superstitious.

I think that since these are two different types of morale bonuses, I should be able to double dip with courageous, but admittedly, it seems cheesy.

I have a barbarian that just reached 12th level and took Come and Get Me. I was hesitant to take Dazing Assault at 11th level (taking Spell Sunder instead), but considering it for level 13. I just wonder just how good Dazing Assault (or Stunning Assault) really is. Most of the creatures we face seem to have pretty good Fort saves, so they would only fail on a pretty bad roll (which will of course happen). But if their Fort saves are not great, they are probably mooks anyway, and I figure my character can just flat out kill them anyway. I would like to hear other people's thoughts.

How exactly would spell sunder work against a personal spell like mage armor or shield? Is the DC based on the creature's CMD or caster level?

My character faced this conundrum, and he had forged a will from Aldern Foxglove leaving Foxglove manor to him, bribed a city official to lose the city's copy of the deed, and had plans to sell the manor at a deeply discounted price before the brotherhood (or what was remaining of them at that point) could do anything about it. Of course, this was all unraveled by poor roleplaying on the part of the "good" cleric who somehow knew about all this and notified Aldern's sister so she could arrive in time to claim the property for herself...so much for the best laid plans....

Not to be demoralized by the unfortunate turn of events, my character decided to sell the skinsaw masks, even though the rest of the party wanted them destroyed. Needless to say, the sale of the skinsaw masks were not shared with the party.

D'arandriel wrote:

Maybe it's just too obvious, but why not Ranger (Urban or Skirmisher) and/or Rogue (Spy or Investigator) to Master Spy.

Why obvious? I don't see the two Rogue archetype's abilities exceptionally Bond-like.

Maybe an Urban, Skirmisher, Trophy Hunter ranger with Improved Unarmed Attack. I think all those mesh. The one problem with Urban is that all the abilities only work in specific Favored Communities, which I don't think Bond has.

We clearly have a very different idea of who and what James Bond is. In my mind, he's first and foremost a spy. That means gathering intel, deceiving people and assassinating them when necessary. I think both rogue archetypes capture this to some extend or another. I agree that urban ranger is not ideal, but it could work. Ninja is just too Asian in flavor for my tastes, but I agree it could work (especially if re-skinned). 100% disagree about monk. I'm more inclined towards gunslinger before monk. Anyway, this is the issue with trying to create a character from literature or some other medium in an RPG - it can't really be done well. Depending on which aspect of James Bond you wish to capture, you can probably simulate that aspect pretty well - everything else will suffer to some degree or another. If you want to make him a deadly hand to hand combatant, then he'll probably be a mediocre to good spy. If he's a master spy (not the prestige class necessarily), then he may not be so great at hand to combat. If he's an expert marksman...well you get my point...

Maybe it's just too obvious, but why not Ranger (Urban or Skirmisher) and/or Rogue (Spy or Investigator) to Master Spy.

Sorry, don't mean to hijack this thread, but I loved WFRP 1E and 2E. I never purchased 3E, because it looked so radically different from anything else. I was actually thinking of using PF rules in the Warhammer world. Have you (or anyone else) done anything like this?

My very first Pathfinder character was a barbarian - plain vanilla barbarian. I quickly found out that Uncanny Dodge, while good, was really no big deal. My GM let me change archetypes to Invulnerable Rager. The additional DR is fantastic. Uncanny Dodge may come up 50% of the time, and only at the start of combat (depending on your initiative roll), but DR will come up 99% of the time in combat. I fully endorse Superstition, Beast Totem line and Come and Get Me. Yes, you may lose out on buffs with Superstition, but you can always delay your action if you go ahead of the party wizard to get the all important Haste buff. As for healing, the DR is like having additional hit points, and most fights don't last more than 3-5 rounds. Most healing takes place after the fight. Healing is just highly inefficient during a fight. There will, of course be some rare occasions that you will need healing during the fight, in which case you could be screwed, or you drop out of Rage and get healed up. I would also consider using reach weapons and Lunge to further mitigate the damage you take. The creatures can't attack what they can't reach. Unexpected Strike is a very good rage power if you have fatigue immunity. It's basically a free attack every round when a creature enters (not moves through) your threatened square. The trick is to gain fatigue immunity. There are number of ways to gain fatigue immunity - just do a search on the boards. Lastly, the invulnerable Rager gains the benefit of a permanent Endure Elements to either heat or cold. I would think that for Reign of Winter, being able to withstand extreme winter temperatures would be thematically appropriate and very useful.

It's hardly a curse if these malevolent spirits only hinder you from drawing object from a pouch and not weapons. I think the RAI is at least clear.

Stalwart isn't a rage power. Its a feat with 2 prereqs that don't usually come into play(best gotten from a dip into the fighter archetype that gets them both imo). Just a reminder.

Half of what I suggested were feats and not rage powers, but its a viable option for an invulnerable rager to make him even more "invulnerable". You can dip into unbreakable fighter for the two prerequisites for stalwart or you can start as a half orc and get endurance for free, then pick up diehard when you can without ever leaving barbarian.

I've seen some posts for this type of build - do a search, it looks pretty good. Having played a superstitious, beast totem, come and get me barbarian, I would consider this type of build if I were to play another barbarian.

If you've never played a barbarian with the Beast Totem and Superstition line of rage powers, then what does it matter what other people are playing? It will be the first time for you, won't it?

If you insist on making an invulnerable rager without these rage powers, consider a very hard to kill half orc with flesh wound, guarded life, greater guarded life, ferocious tenacity, stalwart/improved stalwart. I think this would be fun invulnerable rager barbarian to play, but probably not as fun as a beast totem, superstitious, come and get me barbarian.

I know its crazy, but its unrealistic for someone to buy or sell goods at the same costs as everyone else if they are skilled at haggling, have the appropriate connections, is a trader/merchant by profession, etc. I don't want to unbalance anything, I was thinking +/- percentage equal to the total pluses of the character's profession - merchant skill to buy and sell items. So this character would buy items for a little less and sell for a little more. Think this works? If he wanted to really make a profit, he could set up shop and become an NPC.

Just wondering how people handle selling loot if a PC has Profession (Merchant)or some other applicable skill? Is it unreasonable to have the PC sell the item(s) at 100% of value? Maybe 75% of value if they have not set up shop? I'm not even sure what the DC of the roll should be to sell items for more than 50%, but I do think the PC should be rewarded for investing skill ranks into his profession. This is clearly not for PFS, and I am looking for advise, not rules (unless there are rules for handling this situation that I've overlooked).

Is there any reason you couldn't use the blade of the weapon as an improvised weapon with catch off guard? By choking up on the haft, you are effectively using the polearm in a manner that it was not intended to be used, thus making it improvised. Maybe the damage die should be reduced one category since you are effectively losing momentum on the swing.

It's actually ok.

There reason for going with it is you get to play a barbarian with spells. Plus the perception bonuses are huge.

And you only lose 1 combat style feat.

One thing it does very well is being a scout tank.

Take improved Shieldbash as a regular feat and Shieldmaster at level 6.
Use other style feats for twf and bashing finish.
As for rage powers: RECKLESS ABANDON works well with this archetype if you go shield style and tue beast totem line pumps AC further (finally) getting pounce somewhere around 15.

Losing only 1 combat style feat is up for interpretation, so it is actually not a bad archetype if that's what you lose.

But the way I read it, you lose your combat style feat as a class feature, which means you lose all your combat style feats, which makes this a terrible archetype.

Best use of portable hole ever...

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/850/superweaponarrowhead.gif/

Why not just play a barbarian? The wild stalker is just a terrible archetype.

It seems clear (at least to me) that the intent is to replace the fighter's martial weapon proficiencies with the unarmed fighter's monk weapon proficiencies. But then again, the intent and spirit of the rule is more important to me than the actual letter of the rule. I certainly don't think it would be unbalancing to have the unarmed fighter be proficient in all martial and monk weapons. And I can certainly see how it can be interpreted this way.

With all due respect to SKR, I can't imagine that the intent is to use a standard action to move 15 feet. It seems clear that the intent is to substitute 15 feet of movement instead of a 5 foot step up to 3 times per day, otherwise it's a completely useless item.

My own take: Yes, you can use it as though you are unarmed for practically any feat.

-A Katana is a 1 handed weapon. Thus at any point you could change grips(debateably a non-action) and wield it 1 handed and unarmed strike with the other. As such, I don't see why one wouldn't just skip the non-action malarchy of changing grips and just allow it. The only difference is the Sword will only do STR instead of 1& 1/2 STR that turn, which isn't huge since...
-A Monk has to blow a feat just to use a Katana. A Monk is NOT proficient in a monk weapon nor is one proficient in a martial weapon. Thus, they're blowing a feat to use it so they're giving a lot imo. Why not let them use it to it's most favorable extent?

Also with regards to Crane Style and Crane Wing:

Quote:

Once per round while using Crane Style, when you have at least one hand free and are either fighting defensively or using the total defense action...

Since it has to have a free hand open, as many of the Style feats specifically say, you'd have to change grips for that round of attacks if you wanted to use it with those abilities.

I don't think a monk needs to be proficient with a blade of the sword saint. He utilizes the blade as if he were unarmed. Since a monk is proficient in unarmed combat, he has proficiency with the blade. I don't think the intent was to allow the monk to use his unarmed damage with the blade, but I do think it works by RAW, because he would be employing the bade as if he were unarmed, which would mean that his unarmed strike damage should apply when using the blade. Now, they really need to consider making a blade of the sword saint for the kensai and sword saint archetypes.

Nothing states that an attack with the sword counts as an unarmed strike.

It could be used with things like the Duelist class features, I suppose.

Everything about the description of the weapon states that it can be "employed as if the wielder were unarmed". There's no ambiguity about that. It's just a shame that a monk needs a very expensive magical sword to be able to flurry or use with "monk" type feats. It's as if the game designers never watched a Saturday afternoon Kung Fu flick.

The haunted curse could be the worst curse for a combat oriented oracle. Disarms are just really, really effective against you. How about tongues instead? You could be "possessed" by spirits or demons, and therefore talking in another language.

Tusked is very nice for an extra attack - you can never have too many attacks in a round - especially when you're disarmed.

I'm not so sure about Demonhide as a revelation - you are already going to wear armor, right? Although the DR 5/cold iron is not bad.

You may want to start as a barbarian for level 1 for the extra HPs.

Also, it doesn't work with the possessed oracle archetype, it's completely overdone and unoriginal, but have you considered the lame curse to get fatigue immunity and rage cycling.

I think it really depends on what you like. I'm sure the math will show that its better to have one extra free attack every round (even if its some minor damage) vs. getting +1/2 your level to all attacks and damage for up to 3 full rounds a day. I would prefer Touch of Rage. Spirit Totem doesn't thrill me, but it's certainly not terrible.

I would not bother with Resilient. Your Fort saves should be pretty good (especially when you're raging). Maybe a trait to increase will saves instead. Tusked is nice too. Having an extra attack is never a bad thing, but biting my opponents is not my cup of tea.

I don't think your Charisma needs to be quite so high. I would probably not have it be more than 12-14, and it can be increased later with a headband.

I'm playing an invulnerable rager in RotRL now, and he's a juggernaut, but I think if I were to go with a rage prophet, I would definitely consider titan mauler for the big weapons or armored hulk for the heavy armor. The titan mauler's evade reach ability will come in very handy in RotRL.

Having played Warhammer (through virtually every iteration), nothing says Chaos Warrior like big weapons and heavy armor.

What feat should I replace for Quicken Spell-like Ability?

Should I replace the Resilient Trait with another?

Any other suggestions?

I don't think there's much synergy between Invulnerable Rager and Rage Prophet. You may be better off with the Armored Hulk or Titan Mauler Barbarian Archetypes. I would probably pick Human or Half Elf for race to start off with the free skill focus feat. I don't recall the racial trait, but there's a human racial trait that trades the human bonus feat for skill focus at levels 1, 8 and 16. It's skill focus, but that's 3 feats for 1. Seems like a good deal to me.

I would get rid of Extra Rage Power for Quicken Spell Like Ability and take Power Attack much sooner.

Touch of Rage is a fantastic self-buff once you can get Quicken Spell-Like Ability.

I don't believe Rage Prophet levels count towards level requirements for either rage powers or revelations. Rage Prophet levels do count for determining the effects of existing rage powers and revelations though.

Having never played Carrion Crown, it seems so counter-intuitive to me that a paladin would not be one of the best choices to play in a campaign heavy with undead.

Should I go for the Abyssal Bloodline instead?

Also, do Rage Prophet levels count for which Rage Powers and Revelations I can choose?

I would actually consider the Orc Bloodline over either Pit Touched or Abyssal.

I think this becomes a campaign world issue. Golarion is a high fantasy/high magic world. So creating magic items is not particularly difficult or rare. I think of it as being similar to Harry Potter's world, where you could buy magical items for the some very mundane things. If this were a low fantasy/low magic setting (like Middle Earth, Warhammer or Conan), I would have no objections to crafting being more difficult or eliminated altogether. Again, as has been pointed out numerous times in the thread, the GM has the ultimate decision on what items can be crafted, how much it costs, how long it takes, etc. the item crafting guidelines are just that - guidelines so the GM has some type of benchmark.

Clearly no one will convince you otherwise, so I think you need to live with the fact that magic item creation can be broken and unbalanced. But then again, every other aspect of the game can be broken and unbalanced if one sets their mind to it. I've yet to find a game that couldn't be broken.

Maybe I'm far too logical about this, but in a world full of magic, where magic has essentially replaced technology, why on earth shouldn't custom items exist? Custom cars exist, right? And if someone can actually make these items, why on earth would they pay the same price as the schmuck buying the item from "ye olde magic shoppe"?

The game is inherently "unfair" - some classes are clearly superior to others, some magic items are better than others, some combinations of magic items /classes work better together, etc. If I were you, I would not get too hung up on what is fair and what is not.

It's not perfect, and it could be exploited if the GM allowed it to be, but it's really not a bad system. The costs are just guidelines - they are not set in stone. As for crafters creating two items for the price of one. I think this is completely fair. This is no different than a manufacturer making something at their cost and the consumer purchasing the same something at the full retail cost.

I'm really not sure what the complaint is. If you don't like how the GM runs it, don't play with him/her. If you are running the campaign, then you get to dictate the costs of custom items.

Monk of the empty hands will essentially give you "proficiency" with every weapon - you just treat them as improvised weapons, and you can flurry with them.

A maneuver master can spend a feat or trait (heirloom weapon) to get a polearm and use flurry of maneuvers.

Or go sohei (but wait until 6th level) to flurry with a polearm.

D'arandriel wrote:

People are just too hung up on the description. Reactionary could just as easily be called "Quick Reflexes" and grant a +2 Initiative. the description is just fluff, and players should feel free to invent their own descriptions to explain the trait bonus.

There's always going to be some traits that are "better" than others. It's no different than virtually every fighter type taking Power Attack as a feat.

I would disagree with this. Traits were designed explicitly as a way to flesh out a character's backstory (which, tangentially, makes the additional traits feat weird; "I suddenly remembered I was bullied as a kid!")

That being said, traits are a pretty bad way to force characters to have a backstory (with the exception of campaign traits, which create an interesting hook into a campaign). I would prefer traits to be de-flavored and given for free on levels where you do not gain a feat or an attribute bonus.

And what I'm suggesting is that the player and/or GM can create their own back story for their traits. I personally can't stand some of the traits descriptions, and there can be many ways a PC can acquire a trait that grants the same bonuses as another trait.

People are just too hung up on the description. Reactionary could just as easily be called "Quick Reflexes" and grant a +2 Initiative. the description is just fluff, and players should feel free to invent their own descriptions to explain the trait bonus.

There's always going to be some traits that are "better" than others. It's no different than virtually every fighter type taking Power Attack as a feat.

Monk of the Empty Hand. You can use every weapon in the book, although they are improvised weapons for you - which is not necessarily a bad thing, since you can flurry with them. Two handed weapons do damage as a quarter staff for you.