Isawa_Chuckles's page

I feel a little lost because I'm not understanding the stacking from terrain dominance and favored enemy to get +30 to hit etc. Please help? ;)

Instant Enemy:

The conjecture of this thread is that if you Instant Enemy, since the spell says they are treated as that creature type for all purposes, they also inherit that creature type's native terrains, which are the trigger for Terrain Dominance (the Horizon Walker's ability), which over-rides Favored Enemy.

The +30 is obtained by changing an enemy's type to one that has a home terrain that matches your Terrain Dominance. The +30 above specifically comes from a core of +26 due to having 13 Favored Terrains, increased by 2 for Boots of Friendly Terrain (Forest) and by 2 again for Master of All Lands, the level 10 Horizon Walker ability. It does not stack with the base +2 you have for Favored Enemy, but rather, replaces it.

I must say, "for all purposes" is a terrible, terrible way to write that spell.

Druid-Sourced Horizon Walker, Build 1: The Fox Hunter
Assumptions:
--Instant Enemy triggers Horizon Walker’s Terrain Dominance when you Instant Enemy.
--GM will not allow you to benefit from Instant Enemy without actually possessing the Favored Enemy class feature.
--GM will not allow Favored Enemy: Human to consider things like the Astral Sea their home terrain.
--GM disallows racial spell-casting as a Prestige Class entry.

Description: This build focuses on getting its capstone abilities as quickly as possible, with lower effectiveness when they are obtained. This build is also based on assumptions that your GM is rather curmudgeonly over RAW shenanigans. For instance, Humans having a home terrain of “any,” technically meaning planes where humans are definitely not natives count as home terrain, is unlikely to fly in many groups. Therefore, this character is going to pick Favored Terrain: Forest as his primary Favored Terrain, and Favored Enemy: Kitsune as his favored enemy. If your campaign’s setting is primarily a different terrain type, I would suggest adjusting accordingly, and using a Favored Enemy category with a single, clear example of Favored Enemy, to avoid GM grousing. This build DOES assume that the Instant Enemy effect allows Terrain Dominance to function, but that assumption is at the core of ALL of these Horizon Walker builds, so if the GM turns that one down, you lose a significant amount of power and flexibility in any of the proposed set-ups.
Why do we pick up the first level of Nature Warden at 6, and the second at 9? You could just go straight to nature warden 2 at level 7, but it’s rather… underwhelming at that point. At level 7, the likelihood of you being able to afford the staff of Terrain Bond without having a party member crafting it is rather low. Especially since you also want the awkward-to-craft Boots of Friendly Terrain. Even if you manage to obtain both of those items, you’re looking at a +2 Insight Bonus to AC at that juncture, which isn’t exactly fantabulous. By delaying until level 9, you gain a greater loot pool to soak the cost of the staff, and two more Favored Terrains leading into the Insight Bonus. You also pick up your Third-Level Druid Spell-casting by getting the 2nd level of Nature Warden at 9, which means you'll have Instant Enemy as a fully castable spell next level when you get Terrain Dominance. The third level of Nature Warden at level 20 is just a better package of “+1 Spellcaster level” than Druid 5, since you come away with a bonus BAB.
This build has open Feats at the following levels (BAB):
1(0BAB)
3(2BAB)
5(4BAB)
7(5BAB)
9(7BAB)
11(9BAB)
Endurance is the feat-tax for entering Horizon Walker, and as such will have to be obtained on or before your 5th level feat. This makes level 1 likely the best place to pick it up since you’ll be at BAB0. You begin with Druid instead of Ranger in order to use Mystic Past Life on a class with full spell progression. This leaves you 5 slots for Feats with BAB requirements. Due to the gigantic +Hit and +Damage bonuses provided by Terrain Dominance, anything that gives you multiple attacks, or increased crit range, is very nice.
To wit, we have the following example fighting style chains:
RANGED ATTACK STYLE:
You won’t be able to pick up Improved Precise Shot, but that just means you need a Seeking enchant on your Bow to negate concealment. If you go the Ranged Attack route, you can allocate the feats:
3: Point-Blank Shot
5: Rapid Shot
7: Precise Shot
9: Manyshot
11: Clustered Shot

If your GM rarely uses monsters with damage reduction, Deadly Aim is a good substitute for Clustered Shot. I would have to suggest Clustered Shot over it, however, as it is the stone-cold nuts against anything with DR.

DUAL-KUKRI-STYLE
3: Weapon Finesse (If you want to reduce MAD, otherwise you can shift these around and use this as an open feat)
5: Weapon Focus: Kukri
7: Two-Weapon Fighting
9: Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
11: Improved Critical (Kukri)

FALCHION-STYLE:
3: Power Attack
5: Weapon Focus: Falchion
7:
9:
11: Improved Critical (Falchion)

Do note that, when your Instant Enemy is running, or when facing enemies who are naturally part of your Terrain Dominance, you’re going to have such ludicrous attack and damage bonuses that the ranged attack build can sort of switch-hit. Who cares about a -6 penalty to your attacks for dual wielding, when you’re picking up a +14-30 terrain bonus? This also sort of de-values small attack or damage bonuses. Of course, such bonuses are still very handy for when you are not dealing with something you can Instant Enemy.

If you want to push your AC into absurdity, you could also pick up Combat Expertise, and Fight Defensively.

In summary, this build ends with: BAB+17, FORT+13, REF+7, WILL+9, 6th-Level Druid Spellcasting, a level 7 Animal Companion stuffed in a bag of holding with some leaves. It hits its capstone abilities, Insight Bonus to AC from Nature Warden and Favored Terrain Bonus as a Favored Enemy Bonus from Horizon Walker at level 9 and 10. The build has the ability to cast Instant Enemy from level 9 onward, ensuring that Terrain Dominance will be active against Bosses. With Friendly Forest Boots, you end up at a +30 Favored Terrain Bonus at level 20. You end up being Favored Terrain +4 on 12 out of the 23 "core" Terrains of your choice, in addition to the +30 in Forests. With Terrain Bond, this makes your Nature Warden Capstone provide a +15 Insight Bonus to AC, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Main disadvantages to this build lie in its inability to naturally cast Terrain Bond, forcing staff-reliance, and a reduced end-game effectiveness due to putting off the two level of rogue. These are ameliorated, to an extent, by the fact that the free feats from pushing back rogue line up reasonably well with the ranged attack feat chain’s requirements, and that Ranger-based builds are even more stave-dependent than this.

RACE: Samsaran
--Add Instant Enemy and Terrain Bond to your Druid Spell List using Mystic Past Life.
Traits: Any
Ability Scores: Minimum Wisdom of 12 before Racial Modifiers. Minimum of 10 Intelligence to hit Skill Requirements. Minimum Dex determined by desired fighting style.
Key Items: Boots of Friendly Terrain (2,400), Staff of Orison+Terrain Bond (20,800)
L1: Druid [World Walker] 1
Nature Bond (Animal Companion)
Nature Sense
Orisons
Wild Empathy
Feat: Endurance
L2: Druid [World Walker] 2
Woodland Stride
L3: Druid [World Walker] 3
Favored Terrain: Forest +2
Feat:
L4: Druid [World Walker] 4
Wild Shape 1/day
Ability Score Adjustment:
L5: Druid [World Walker] 4/Ranger [Core] 1
Favored Enemy: Humanoid [Kitsune]
Track
Feat:
L6: Druid [World Walker] 4/Ranger [Core] 1/Nature Warden 1
Companion Bond
Natural Empathy
L7: Druid [World Walker] 4/Ranger [Core] 1/Horizon Walker 1/Nature Warden 1
Favored Terrain: Forest +4, Plains +2
Feat:
L8: Druid [World Walker] 4/Ranger [Core] 1/Horizon Walker 2/Nature Warden 1
Favored Terrain: Forest +6, Mountains +2
Terrain Mastery: Forest
Ability Score Adjustment:
L9: Druid [World Walker] 4/Ranger [Core] 1/Horizon Walker 2/Nature Warden 2
Mystic Harmony
Wild Stride
Feat:
L10: Druid [World Walker] 4/Ranger [Core] 1/Horizon Walker 3/Nature Warden 2
Terrain Dominance: Forest
L11: Druid [World Walker] 4/Ranger [Core] 1/Horizon Walker 4/Nature Warden 2
Favored Terrain: Forest +8, Your Choice +2
Terrain Mastery: Your Choice
Feat:
L12: Druid [World Walker] 4/Ranger [Core] 1/Rogue [Core] 1/Horizon Walker 4/Nature Warden 2
Sneak Attack +1d6
Trapfinding
L13: Druid [World Walker] 4/Ranger [Core] 1/Rogue [Core] 2/Horizon Walker 4/Nature Warden 2
Evasion
Rogue Talent: Favored Terrain (Forest +10, Your Choice +2)
Feat: Extra Rogue Talent: Favored Terrain (Forest +12, Your Choice +2)
L14: Druid [World Walker] 4/Ranger [Core] 1/Rogue [Core] 2/Horizon Walker 5/Nature Warden 2
Favored Terrain: Forest +14, Your Choice +2.
L15: Druid [World Walker] 4/Ranger [Core] 1/Rogue [Core] 2/Horizon Walker 6/Nature Warden 2
Terrain Dominance: Your Choice.
Terrain Mastery: Your Choice.
Feat: Extra Rogue Talent: Favored Terrain (Forest +16, Your Choice +2)
L16: Druid [World Walker] 4/Ranger [Core] 1/Rogue [Core] 2/Horizon Walker 7/Nature Warden 2
Favored Terrain: Forest +18, Your Choice +2.
L17: Druid [World Walker] 4/Ranger [Core] 1/Rogue [Core] 2/Horizon Walker 8/Nature Warden 2
Favored Terrain: Forest +20, Your Choice +2
Terrain Mastery: Your Choice.
Feat: Extra Rogue Talent: Favored Terrain (Forest +22, Your Choice +2)
L18: Druid [World Walker] 4/Ranger [Core] 1/Rogue [Core] 2/Horizon Walker 9/Nature Warden 2
Terrain Dominance: Your Choice
L19: Druid [World Walker] 4/Ranger [Core] 1/Rogue [Core] 2/Horizon Walker 10/Nature Warden 2
Favored Terrain: Forest +24, Your Choice +2
Master of All Lands
Feat: Extra Rogue Talent: Favored Terrain (Forest +26, Your Choice +2).
L20: Druid [World Walker] 4/Ranger [Core] 1/Rogue [Core] 2/Horizon Walker 10/Nature Warden 3

I will have other builds to post later on in the week. While this one is not super-impressive, I like that it manages to *work* at level 10, rocking a +8 Favored Terrain Forest at that level. It does make me sad to give up the "OMG 23 FAVORED TERRAINS, ZA POWAAAAAAAAAAH" by delaying Rogue. The little timmy in my heart demands +50 Favored Terrain Bonuses. And he will force me to spend a couple hours figuring out a decent way to reach something approximating that. Unfortunately, I don't think you can use Nature Warden and still "catch em all." Some variation of Ranger 1->Rogue 1->Rogue 2->Ranger 2->Ranger->3->Ranger 4->Horizon Walker is probably the ticket there, although I shudder at its Instant-Enemy-Staff-reliance in-combat.

In regards to the Rangers taking Guide or Warden, does Instant Enemy actually *function* if you don't have the Favored Enemy class mechanic? It says "Select one of your favored enemy types," which implies that you would need to have one of said types for it to function.

If it works even without a Favored Enemy, it could finally make playing a Samsaran without abusing early-access spells amusing:

Race: Samsaran (Adding Instant Enemy and Terrain Bond to the Druid spell list).

Druid (World Walker Archetype) 6, Rogue 2, Horizon Walker 10, Nature Warden 2

Gets you 4th level druid spells (including being able to cast instant enemy as a swift instead of as a standard, as the staff-reliant builds must), 16BAB, and 9 Favored Terrains before feats. The ability to wild-shape 2x/day into a pouncing cat is decent synergy with having like +30 to attack and damage rolls.

Nature Warden 2 just seems absolutely absurd if you're going to be casting Terrain Bond with any frequency.

Hello all,
I am new to the Pathfinder system, and am joining a group that is going to be running through an adventure path named "carrion crown" (no spoilers, please), which apparently runs up through high levels, so we'll be going at it for a while. I haven't played a D20 game in ~3-4 years (last sessions were 4E Playtest sessions, which.... eh), so I'm a bit rusty at all this.

I am looking for advice on playing/constructing a Dwarven Stonelord Paladin (a new Archetype from the Advanced Race Guide). It seems to combine the old Dwarven Defender Prestige Class (Which I loved, but was generally non-viable) with enough tools to be useful in situations where you can't just plant your feet and blender your way through waves of Orcs (The lack of spellcasting, while a power detriment, is a plus for me, since I don't really want to fiddle with extensive divine spell-lists when I'm just returning. I'll save the caster for when I inevitably die and need to make a replacement character ;)).
Some basic questions before I go into set-up specifics:
1) Can Earth Elemental companions wear Magic Items? They are described as vaguely humanoid, but that is, well, vague.
2) Do the Earth Elemental Companions use the Animal Companion table like the Bonded Mounts they replace? Since the ability says “as” I assume so, but it doesn’t directly call out the progression. Without the progression the elemental seems kinda eh
3) Is there any feat or magic item that would allow me to ignore the Fatigued or Exhausted condition? This would go a very long way towards making the Defensive Stance a functional combat tool for the non-turret ideas.
4) What would you recommend for a Neck-Slot Wondrous item? Thanks to Stonelord’s baked-in Natural Armor, you don’t really need an amulet of NAC.
5) How hard would a GM punch me for trying to use Combat Patrol and Defensive Stance? Cmon, 4’ tall dwarf threatening a 35’ radius area while standing stock-still is funny!
Our Party (starting at 2nd Level, 25-point buy):
Barbarian 1/Ranger 1 (Animal Companion, Melee)
Cleric 2 (Finger-wiggler)
Druid 1/Oracle 1 (Animal Companion, Finger-wiggler)
Fighter 2 (Sword and Board)
Ranger 2 (Archer)
Me 2

(Yes, I realize I should probably be a wizard or sorcerer for arcane support, but I'm blah on that. Played enough wizards in 3.0/3.5)

The first question I have come to, is how best to use the class's Defensive Stance feature.

I have read the paladin guides in the Guide to the Guides thread, but Stonelord is in a bit of a unique position, since his Smite Evil variant doesn't work with ranged weapons (likely for a reason, turning yourself into a turret obviously works rather well with an ability that requires immobility).

With Archery being somewhat hampered (But more on that later), I turned to look at melee. This is the traditional failing of the Dwarven Defender's defensive stance: Once you root yourself, intelligent opponents tend to notice you not moving, and just walk around you. Thankfully, Pathfinder appears to have some help in *stopping* said activity (Stand Still). It seems like a Polearm-wielding, Lunge-ing caster-protector would be a decent implementation of the class, however we have a rather large number of melee bodies in between the casters and opponents, so I don't know if enemies will have the capacity to charge our casters/archer during most encounters.

~ARCHER BUILD~

STR 14 [5]
DEX 17 [13]
CON 14 [5] =16
INT 10 [0]
WIS 12 [2] =14
CHA 10 [0] =8

As a low-skill count class, I don't want to penalize myself further with a negative INT mod, and I don't really want to lose too many Lay on Hands/Earth Channels (to save my pet's bacon) to low CHA.

For feats, it would be standard Archer progression:

1: Point-Blank Shot
3: Precise Shot
5: Rapid Shot
7: Deadly Aim
9: Manyshot
11: Improved Precise Shot
13: Clustered Shot (Since you can't Smite with your ranged weapon)

My basic idea with the Stonelord Archer is to start combat by Rooting Myself and full-attacking the enemy. However, once an enemy manages to close to melee, I plan to drop my bow, drop a 2hander, and fight. With the +4STR from Defensive Stance, and with my Smite Evil-variant being available to shore up my melee weakness, I think this should be a viable decision, at least until I'm high enough level to have open feats for things like Snap Shot (possibly 13th level). If I can't go to my enemies, I’ll bring my enemies to me, as they try to stop the hail of arrows.

Additionally, the Earth Elemental companion can run interference for me while I pewpewlasers people, as he progressively gains higher amounts of reach. My Elemental’s feats would likely resemble that of a Polearm+Combat Maneuver fighter, as my own pocket defender (Main issue is low-dex for Combat Reflexes AoOs).

Defensive stance powers that seem useful for this build are: Clear Mind (Reroll Will 1/stance), Roused Defense (Enter stance while Fatigued), Immobile (+Class Level to CMD against Bull Rush/Overrun/Pull/Push/Grapple), Internal Fortitude(Immune to Sickened/Nauseated)

This option is the most straight-forward, and can borrow a lot of supporting literature from the Paladin handbooks online. What I’m more interested in seeing advice/help for are the following ideas:

~POLEARM BUILD~

The basic idea with the polearm build would be the same as any of the various ways it’s been built with Fighter: try to muck up the battlefield by tripping and stop-movementing people using your reach. This is complicated by the Defensive Stance’s complete lack of mobility (although I don’t think you’d notice it much if you spend your turns Whirlwind Attacking anyway), which means there’s a decent chance of the fight just… leaving you, if you don’t land your stop-movement effects.

This build tries to capitalize on the Defensive Stance bonuses and the class’s innate tankiness by *forcing* people to stay within the compass of your reach once they get there (or once you blindly charge into the middle of the enemy pack). The problem I see with this is that the effectiveness really drops off against bigger enemies. Against Large size and smaller foes, you can generally get multiple enemies within your Reach, and still have a good chance of beating their CMD to trip them or Stand Still them, but with anything larger than that their size, both in map hexes and in CMD bonuses, is confounding. Is there anything that helps this later on besides getting a cleric to make me grow to titanic heights myself?

In this build, the Earth Elemental would likely serve as a mobile flank buddy for other party members, and a random damage source much of the time.

For this build, I know that Power Attack, Lunge, Combat Reflexes, and Stand Still are very important, but I can’t really decide on what to do beyond that. Whirlwind attack is very nice with reach, but the feat chain leading up to it is just… meh? Maybe Cleave>Great Cleave>Dwarven Supreme Cleave for combats against weak foes where I don’t really need the defensive bonus? This is considerably less straight-forward than the archery stuff, and has less written about it online, so I’d love any thoughts/advice.

The Bulwark, Halting Blow, Intercept, and Unexpected Strike defensive powers seem tailored to this style of fighting (although I would likely get the Reroll a failed will save power instead of Unexpected Strike).

~SCREW IT, I’M A DRIZZIT BUILD~
This seems like a very bad idea, but it amuses me. With the ability to throw up a 1-round bonus to attack/damage against *anything*, that can also just happen to make your weapon ignore Metal and Stone armor, and having your own hard to kill flank buddy, it seems like there might be the makings of a silly 15-minute-adventuring-day Dual-Wielding Stonelord (Double Dwarven Waraxe rawr). You’d basically be throwing Defensive Stance out the window unless there’s a way to ignore Fatigued/Exhausted, since you’d likely need to reposition many times per fight. And with no pounce option in sight, the likelihood of you actually executing your full-damage potential seems low.

I could also just go Sword and Board, or 2hander, and just be a tanky medium damage melee dude, restricting my Defensive Stance use to the rare instances where someone needs to straddle a chokepoint, but that seems like a waste when you have CON MOD+42 rounds of Defensive Stance available each day. I was also interested in the condition-inflicting feats, but the Carrion Crown players’ handout warns against focusing on effects that don’t work on the mindless.

Anyhow, I’m looking for any thoughts, advice, or direction for playing a Stonelord as someone new to the campaign setting/system. I still haven’t decided which direction to go in, since they each have their own benefits/detriments, and I’m not super-familiar with the system and what’s available.

Also, any advice on Feats for the Servant would be awesome, I know Improved Natural Attack should be pretty zesty, as well as (potentially) Vital Strike/Imp Vital Strike, due to the good dice-base on his Slams. He's also intelligent enough to pick up Teamwork feats, so he can let you pick up the +2 to flanking feat, which is nice for 1 feat on your character proper.