SirBlackAxe's page

Depends how fast you can press the button. If you fall in steps by repeatedly pressing the button, dropping for a couple seconds, and then freezing again, you might have a shot, although there should probably be skill checks involved somehow.

There are groups that don't use homebrew? Does the GM never make their own monsters? Are all magic items in the campaign out of the CRB? No custom spells or feats?

Yes.

Except for the -5 to Climb to GM gave my Merfolk for having no legs.

You may perform a touch attack while wearing gloves. It's covered in the FAQ.

It is? I search through for stuff that mentioned touch spells and the closest thing I found was one where it said that you don't automatically discharge the spell on your own equipment. Nothing about being able to cast through your equipment. Is there another page of FAQs somewhere besides the one linked in the pinned post?

SirBlackAxe wrote:

Arcane duelist lets me use the hand holding my bonded weapon for semantic components of spells. Does this mean I can use it to make touch attacks? (Not in addition to a regular attack, but just touching them with the weapon)

No, it never say this.

Alrighty, I was just wondering if the touching was considered part of the semantic component.

Thanks for the quick answers!

Arcane duelist lets me use the hand holding my bonded weapon for semantic components of spells. Does this mean I can use it to make touch attacks? (Not in addition to a regular attack, but just touching them with the weapon) If not, does this mean that I have to have my other hand free to make a touch attack, or can I make a touch attack with any part of my body?

Does a touch attack have to be made with bare skin, or can I make one while wearing gloves?

Vanish lasts for 1 round/level (up to 5 rounds). If I use the Extend Spell metamagic feat / rod to double the duration, does this apply before or after the duration is capped at 5?

Making a weapon out of cold iron cost twice as much as normal. Does the price double before or after you add the +300gp to the cost for making it masterwork?

Does playing a merfolk have an unwritten consequence of losing your feet magic item slot since you don’t actually have feet to wear footwear on?

Here is an idea, since you have access to Advanced Players guide is to build an Arcane Duelist. There is a guide for the bards that lists the Arcane Duelist and it gives what to take etc.

On the other hand with your Barbarian dip, you could build a Savage Skald.

Both keep Versatile Performance.

Arcane Duelist /does/ lose Versatile Performance in exchange for bonus feats, which is a pity since otherwise it looks nice enough to be tempting despite that.

Arcane Strike is probably worth taking, more so that maneuver feats that require me to get combat expertise.

Savage Skald is definitely an option, but since all it does is swap two performances in my level range around I think that leaves me with the same questions as a core bard.

Although maybe Arcane Duelist would be worth it anyway? My Acrobatics won't be quite as high if I'm not dancing for it, but I still have good dex. I do lose sing to sense motive and bluff, but I suppose I don't know how much those skills would be worth to me. I don't think I do enough damage to get much out of feinting, and I don't know how often sense motive comes up.

The more I think about it the more appealing it seems. I mean, if I was going to get Arcane Strike anyway I could use that feat slot for a skill feat instead.

link

While the spell ratings in here are nice, the rest of it doesn't look like it'll help me much since it seems to focus exclusively on combat ability and all three builds assume I'm using strength and willing to put all my resources into fighting things. Spending a feat on a combat maneuver of some kind is probably a good idea though.

Because of your character's extreme low speed, I would build some kind of archer. The problem with building a melee character is that you chose a Race that has 5 feet of movement. If your GM doesn't start combat right THERE then you spend most of the combat just getting there.

There is the 1st Level spell Expeditious Retreat which will give you an additional 30 feet of movement. You would be just on par with the regular move of everyone else.

Oh, I forgot to mention this in my massive post, by my speed isn't an issue. I have a base 15 from the Strongtail trait and +10 from Barbarian 1 Fast Movement, for a total of 25'.

(Just to be clear, I don't feel the need to be super optimized or anything. I just want to not hold the party down and I don't really know what the game mechanics expect of PCs yet.)

I have no prior experience with D&D except for 4E, and we are only using material from the Core Rulebook, Advanced Player's Guide, and Advanced Race Guide.

The party consists of myself, a Goblin Druid with a pet wolf, a Wayang Rogue with really high stealth, an Oread two-handed Fighter who smacks stuff for massive damage, and a Suli Sorcerer with a habit of dying.

My character is a Merfolk Barbarian 1 going on Bard 4, and I need to level her straight to level 5 from level 1. What I kind of want to know is mainly which skills I should put little to no investment in, and which I should keep high, what I should be spending my wealth on, and maybe suggestions for useful feats and spells. Which is rather a lot and pretty much everything.

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Stats after racials and the 4th level ability bonus are:
Str 10, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 8, Cha 18

Attack bonus = +9 (BAB +4 and weapon finesse for Dex +5)
Presumably I should buy a +1 magic rapier, and masterwork versions of my secondary weapon collection? (Working off rapier/longbow/light hammer/kukri currently) I don't do much damage, usually 1d6, but I am pretty versatile. How relevant are weapon materials?

AC = 21 (Touch 15, Flat 17) - I have the highest AC in the party. However, I have done some reading around and have heard that AC becomes irrelevant at higher levels. I don't know when this kicks in though, and the DM is planning to end the campaign before level 10, so I'm not sure how much of my wealth to invest in armor. Do I want to spend 2,100gp on a +1 mithral chain shirt (effectively +2)? Should I spend double that on a mithral breastplate (effectively +3)? Or less on something else?

I've got 32 skill points to spend. I hear that maxing perception is mandatory, and I want good perform, but I'm not sure what else I should put a heavy investment in. I figure I'll drop ones in a bunch of stuff to activate the trained bonus, but I'll still have lots of skill to spread around and I figure there are a few of them I don't really need to put anything into.

We also got given slightly more than 9,000gp to use, and I don't really know how I should break that down. I really like the look of the Circlet of Persuasion (4,500gp), but I don't know if spending that much of my wealth on something that isn't armor or weaponry will cripple my character.

I've been using a Donkey to haul around all the stuff my low strength doesn't let me carry. I don't know how likely the level spike is to make him suddenly die when combat starts in the future though, and more specifically whether I should allocate a portion of my wealth towards a bag of holding/handy haversack/muleback cords.

I also get to learn a bunch of spells (6 lvl 0, 4 lvl 1, 2 lvl 2), but I'm a bit overwhelmed by the options.
I figure Detect Magic/Ghost Sound/Mage Hand/Mending/Prestidigitation/Resistance for my level 0 stuff, but I'm not really sure what I should go for at higher levels in addition to Silent Image which there's no way I'm not taking. I've heard that I should avoid stuff that cares about the number of hit dice stuff has though?
(And that's not even getting into wands.)

No idea what I should aim for in feats.

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Other stuff:

I'm the only character in the party without darkvision (and I traded my low-light for seasinger). While most of the time this doesn't matter much, I just had to sit out of the climactic boss fight that took place almost entirely within a cloud of darkness since no one else in the party had a reason to leave it. No idea how often this kind of thing is going to crop up in the future, and what I should do if it does.

I want to Versatile Performance both Sing and Dance eventually, and I figure I should start with dance since I'm guessing that Acrobatics will be more useful than Bluff+Sense Motive. Is this assumption correct?

EDIT: Speed doesn't seem to be an issue, with Strongtail and Fast Movement I've got 25' to work with.

While I am more or less equally competent ranged and melee, I prefer to melee for both in character reasons and because I am relatively durable so I can keep stuff away from the more fragile party members.

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Ideally, I'd like to make my character good with skills and relevant in combat. (Relevant doesn't necessarily mean dealing a lot of damage, I'm aware that's something I won't be doing.)

I'm new to Pathfinder, and I have a couple questions about rules stuff!

Does this include when effects would reduce your speed to 0 feet, or only when your speed is insufficient to overcome things like difficult terrain?

Does sheathing a weapon as a free action during a regular move still provoke an opportunity attack?
What counts as a 'regular move'? Is it only the Move (your speed) action? Move actions in which you cover distance? What about a 5' step or standing up or running?

If you still provoke Opportunity Attacks, does that mean you can provoke two attacks with the 'same' action?
If you don't, could you can take Move, cover no distance, and sheathe without provoking?

What is a 'regular action'? Does that mean standard action? If so, does that mean when your readied action goes off you can take the rest of your turn immediately?
Or does it mean your entire turn?

If you are threatened by multiple enemies, do you make multiple checks or use the same check for all of them?
Do you make a check against the enemy for each threatened square you move through, or just once for the entire movement? If you check for each square, does the DC+5 for moving through an enemy's space apply when you enter their space, when you leave it, or both?
What happens if you fail your Acrobatics check and get hit with an opportunity attack that stops your movement while you are moving through an enemy's space?