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 Recent Posts
I just finished school (grad degree after a couple years of work) and I am returning to Boise. I have had really good luck with games on the East Coast...I have gotten through most of Savage Tide, AoW, and LoF. I DMed all of Kingmaker and will finish Carrion Crown Sunday. Anyway, I am moving back and want to play or run Skull and Shackles. I get to Boise at the end of May, but would like to make arrangements beforehand. Let me know if you are interested.
There are a couple new spells which allow high level clerics to make their own, awesome deminplanes. If you guys wanna split the costs (~20k), we can make have a pocket plane to flee too if need be. that would be a cool place to have a Worldmeet Glade. For a little extra money we can make time flow differently in order to rest quickly and return to the action quickly.
Options: 1) Don't worry about it and use a decent simple weapon.
I think an all Dex shield/TWF bard is a viable switch hitter. I would grab a paladin level at 7 to get free Precise Shot off an archetype and smite (mostly to overcome DR and for the huge to-hit boost). 1 Weapon Finesse
By level 3 you are solid in mellee. By level 5 or so, with Agile weapons you have Dex to damage. By level 9 you have solid archery. Level 13 you can move and full attack if need be. Level 16 you can have nearly unlimited smites through Oath of Vengeance, great saves, awesome AC. The build isn't very MAD and does what I think a bard is a good chassis for: competent dabbling. Plus, you can do it, and do it well, on a halfling.
This looks like an interesting setup and I enjoy the PF Modules. Background:
As the lion is the king of the beasts, so Aerefan was meant to lead. His pedigree is well-established as he can trace a direct line of ancestry to the leader of the druidic circle who signed the Treaty of the Wildwood. As a child, he swam the rivers and climbed the trees of the Verdruan Forest making its vast wilderness his home. His father and mother raised him well. His father taught him practical skills: hunting and gathering, crafting necessities, recognizing the calls of each animal. His mother taught him the secret language of their order, to heal man and beast, and to wield magic in the aid of his people. As a young man he was sent away from his tribe, as per their custom. His father told him not to return until his words would sway men's hearts and minds, and his mother told him not to return until he found his totem spirit. Together his parents purchased an expensive passage across the deserts of Katapesh and into the Mwangi expanse. He found his totem animal first. A young male lion nearly crippled by a rhinoceros came upon his caravan at night, hunting the easy prey of unwary human travelers. The big cat took town a sleepy sentry before Aerefan could drive it off with his sling. The lion attacked again and again, injuring, but not killing those who went into the shadowy desert night. Each night Aerefan drove off the beast. After three days of attacks, Aefan went after the creature and tracked it for days. When he found it, it was emaciated and dehydrated, curled up in the shade of a rocky outcropping. While the animal lay dying Arefan spoke the words of power his mother had taught him and proclaimed his bond with the creature. The beast acknowledged the bond and was slowly nursed back to health. Earning the trust of his fellow man and leading them took far longer. He did not speak the language of the Mwangi, and the tongue came to him only slowly. He was recognized as a fellow druid by a local tribe, but their trust was hard to earn given his foreign words and rites. For years he apprenticed himself to a local druid who oversaw ancient ruins. Together the two would venture into the decrepit vaults and clear it of its eldritch horrors. Aerefan grew in power, the older man grew more and more ill as weakness entered his bones and eyes, taking his vigor and sight. Thus the older druid granted Aerefan the authority to perform rites in his name. For two years Aerfan continued this work, acting as a local priest until a replacement could be found. Aerefan brought the old druid back to his forest home, partially as proof that he had met his father's demand, but also because the old man's sickness was aggravated by the wet climate and biting insects. Aerefan and the old druid traveled back to his boyhood home. This time the trip was far faster as magic aided their travels. His parents accepted him back into the community and the remainder of the circle invited him into formal membership. Since then his status as a leader has been recognized both by the druidic circle, but also by the local authorities. Many of them have noted that his companion lion is uncannily similar looking to the white lion on the Taldan crest. Aerefan is quick to explain that the lion's coloration is typical of desert lions, but many of the local town leaders believe the animal is a powerful symbol. Aerefan is attending the wedding as his parents are acquainted with the bride's father and sent him to make an appearance.
Personality:
Aerefan is was well brought up and has experienced much of the wide world. For both reasons, he had good manners and a gracious nature. He often answers questions with a bit of experience of a homespun example. More than any other trait, others note his deep loyalty and honor. Aerfan's parents raised him to be a leader of men and Aerefan takes that seriously. He expects others to treat him with respect and to value his wisdom. Those who fall under his protection: the weak, allies, and friends know that his patients is nearly endless, but that his righteous anger is fierce.
Crunch:
Aerefan is a human Lion Shaman Druid. His skills will probably be: diplomacy, survival, perception, knowledge nature, and spellcraft.
TWF is nice for a couple reasons: 1) It does a ton of smiting damage.
Alternatively you can go full dex based, rock an agile weapon and skip strength (this does limit your effectiveness when you switch to wielding a weapon in 2 hands because you don't get a full attack). It does cost a chunk of ability points. I wouldn't do it with less than a 20 PB (unless going full dex and agile weapons)
OK, I guess I better factor crits in then. Especially since Aspect of the Falcon gives bows a crit range of 19-20...Because static plusses are multiplied on crits and at +3 and higher you start overcoming DRs other than magic.You can in fact add enhancements to an already made item. Cost to upgrade is (cost of item after upgrade) - (cost of item before upgrade). And I'd go +2 before I go +1 elemental.Why would you do this? I've run the numbers several times and unless you are needing an 18 or more to hit, the energy bow does more damage even though it hits less. It only hits one less out of 20 attacks but does d6-1 more damage per hit. If you need an 11 to hit with the +1 shocking bow, it does 16.5 more overall damage than the +2 bow over those 20 shots. That's almost two points per hit. 1) Elemental resists can eat up a lot of that damage. 2) As damage scales up +hit becomes more valuable. Buffs, ability scores boosts, etc all matter.In your example the break point is 15 average damage...a lot of characters hit that. A 9th level fighter with 18 strength and pretty minimal buffing hits that: 4.5 from a long bow + 4 str + 2 weapon spec + 2 weapon training + 1 weapon + 2 bard song (or other buff). A smiting paladin would hit this earlier. 3) Extra damage is often wasted (a monster can only be so dead) while extra hits may not be.
I made a lvl 17 RP for Witchwar Legacy. I took more levels of oracle than barbarian and grabbed spell perfection (divine power). With a battle oracle you can 1) Win init with warsight
Take the trait for +2 caster level and
Off the cuff math:
+34/+34/+29/+24 2d4+41 (15-20x2) Chances are you turn a crag linnorm into fine mist in the first round. First 3: 66.5% hit, 28.5% crit, 5% miss
Average attack outcome and minimum damage rolled: 204, crag linnorms have 202 hit points...fine mist achieved.
I think if you use the spell levels as equivalents you can get: Form of the dragon I at level 10 (same level as plant II an elemental III).
So levels 10 and 12 are covered. Levels 4-8 I think the easiest fix is just using beast shape as a base. Level 4:
Level 6:
Level 8:
I made some changes because my group was big (6) and very coordinated.
If you do this- roll her extra rounds and plan what she does. With quicken she is getting tons of spells off and the wait would be hard/ 2) Swapped spells to buff her considerably - they could hit her pretty easily - they had bardic music plus tons of buffs in pretty much every fight (that is what the bard did before dying most every fight) - but she had fire shield and the druid thorn spell (or maybe wind spell) such that hitting her did 30+ damage in mellee and she created wind to shut down archery
The party won, but not after burning through 10 heal spells. It was a tough fight.
Bard issues:
2) You will need tons of healing items.
First level bard- 11hp spells
10th level bard: 302 spells
At 10th level you need a wand of CLW a day to hit a cleric's output. This isn't to say you will always burn all spells healing, 3) Sometimes (rarely) blasting is the thing to do. With your physical damage focused group that will occur more frequently. Clerics have better blasts. 4) It is CC in USTALAV...offensive channeling seems worth it.
1) Context of fights Disjunction, Anti-magic sphere, encounters where the enemy isn't hosed by movement but the PCs are (like difficult terrain or environments that make fly checks tough). 2) Action economy So he kills 1 monster a round...if there are many they will persist. Space them out. 3) Specific Precautions If ranged - wind wall
Switch hitting should switch to a 2hander. Quick draw costs an action. That action would often be spent moving in anyhow (and you can draw while moving in). So the feat is ok. If you really want to swap, you don't need Quick Draw. At low level I think swapping to a 2Hander is fine, especially if you have 14+ str. It stays fine over time, maybe grab PA if your weapon is enchanted and your strength stays good. At higher level IF your dex is way higher than strength, I would be tempted to grab weapon finesse and an agile weapon as a backup. I think getting your archery feats in order at low level is a priority (RS, PBS, PS). From there you can diversify out.
No casters and tons of mellee says 1) group buffs (especially after mid level)
CC says:
I would consider a heroism subdomain cleric. Swift action strong buff at lvl 8. +2 on DCs for channeling for damage, and a hefty skill buff. I would choose a second domain with strong group buffs or a decent aoe. fire isn't awful. Healing brings a lot to the table. Sarenrae has it all, plus her favored weapon is solid.
Paladin brings a ton to the table: 1) arguably best saves in the game, and certainly better than fighter. Solid AC and HPs and immunities to some sucky conditions make paladin a very good defensive class with little investment.
Most pfs adventures would work just fine for this. I have used them for this purpose once or twice. Plus they are really cheap so it isn't a huge deal if one doesn't work out. I suspect if you went to the sub-forum and asked which worked best (and had plots which did not depend on being a pathfinder) you would get a solid list.
I thought hex crawling was fun in the first few books. It was not fun in later books. In those books I tended to lump encounters or let NPCs explore. When you get to kingdom building...the rules don't work really well for making a kingdom...sensible stuff fails, odd strategies work well. What they do succeed at is making magical marts palatable and workable. In any case, I second doing most of the kingdom stuff at some time other than at the table. In my case, one or two players really enjoyed it and I let them do it - the rest got a reprieve. Don't be afraid to turn encounters into NPCs especially random encounters/hex encounters that would otherwise make lame fights or very deadly fights. Spoilers:
Prep for later books early. 1) Have the PCs meet Varn in book 1, just as a friendly visit. It makes book 3 better. 2) I rolled random encounter troll and had trolls harrass them in book 1. I made the troll boss in book 2 that troll (they knew it because he had items he stole from them at lvl 1). 3) My PCs always heard about the yearly contest in Pitax and were always informed that they were too small to be really considered a "kingdom: to go to the games. By the time book 5 came along, they really wanted to go. 4) Some encounters are way better if you make them kidnapping encounters. The NPCs from book 1 made great kidnap victims. 5) Make sure to keep the comedic NPCs (the fey and maybe the alchemist in book 1) alive because they make for good times.
I would also love to buy these. I don't (and by choice won't) have a minis budget. There is always someone with a solid minis stock and none of us care to drop tons of cash on making sure we have minis to match an AP or module. But I have dropped cash on paper minis. I like having the "right" monster. I like being able to show off AP art without having to make a crappy home printer version or try to cover parts of the magazine PCs cannot see. I like not having a 20 lb pile of plastic. Paper minis are so much easier to sort. I have considered buying the beginner box (which I have no need for other than these) and the WotC sets. But I would love to be able to buy high quality paper minis and I would LOVE if they came out alongside APs. For me, those would be a great subscription product.
What I did for prep: Print out the map. On the back label the hexes. Cut the hexes out. Make a backing so that you can glue the hexes to a board as they are discovered. Make a short list of environmental rules you expect to come up. Roll random encounters in advance. Make up notecards for the NPCs you expect the party to come across in the first few adventures.
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