Lord Phrofet's page

There is a 3.5 series of books for Diablo 2 that you might want to check out.

So I am trying to build a swashbuckler/duelist focusing on parry. I wanted to also use Crane Style if possible to add even more but I am bit confused on the rules interactions.

So I am looking for:

1.any advice on building a parry focused swashbuckler,
2.clarification on how swashbuckler parry, duelist parry and crane riposte work together.
3. any good magic items or traits that would be good for a swashbuckler.

As always thanks in advance for any assistance.

"I used to be an adventurer but then I took an arrow to the knee". This would be try if it weren't for a large variety of healing, magic and mundane, to get people back on their feet and very little (at least there was in 3.x not sure in Pathfinder) ways of dealing any sort of long term injury like a lost arm or leg.

SO my question to people is if anyone knows of a GOOD permanent wound( scars, missing limbs, bum knee, etc.) system for D20? It can be 3rd party, homebrew, or from a non pathfinder system as long as it makes sense in a fantasy d20 system.

I appreciate the help in advance!

I have not looked at your original product but I always enjoyed the occasional epic game in 3.x. So that would be a yes?

* I think martials are better then casters.

* I think that martials can do almost anything casters can do (biggest exception being Teleport....I love having a Teleporter in the party).

* I think monks are awesome but did wish FoB and speed bonus worked better together.

* I love my shiny gear....pleas do not make me not be able to have all the shiny gear I want.

* Humans are the best race...3.5 they were great and pathfinder with the +2 stat made them almost a perfect race for anything.

* I see nothing wrong with rogues/ninjas. They just need a friend.

* RAW and RAI (or the letter of the law vs the spirit of the law) are both equally important.

* I believe in creating a concept first and sticking to it even if the choices are less then optimal.

* I believe in optimizing whatever it is that I do. If I grapple I want to be the best F^$^$# grappler in the world...but I will probably suck at sneaking.

* DEATH IS IMPORTANT! Unless everyone is extraordinarily powerful (lvl 17 and above with ready access to world bending 9th spells and the martials can take on full armies by themselves) DEATH should not just be a minor hiccup.

* If you "nova" EVERY fight and run out of daily resources EVERY time I am going to eventually either leave you behind or use you as a literal meat shield strapped to my tower shield.

mplindustries:

What exactly is out of combat utility?
What can martials supposedly NOT excel at?

And we agree that most characters, martial and caster, can not be good at everything and need to pick a focus. The wizard would have to spend a large amount of money to be able to be prepared for anything (putting spells into the spellbook is EXPENSIVE plus the cost of scrolls) and even then could not guarantee he would be prepared for the specific encounters that day...specially if the GM mixed them up. A martial usually brings the same plan to the combat table and shoves it down the enemy's throat. Not always the most finesse of options but when all you got is a hammer...

EDIT: And why were you fighting an entire castle of things 2 CR above you? Your only option was to be careful if not you would have run our of resources and/or been killed quickly.

Response to three arguments I have seen that make no sense to me:

1. To those that say a party of completely (or mostly) martials can not function I am currently playing in a game with a Monk, Gunslinger (Musket), natural attack cat folk ninja (with dirty trick), natural attack half orc barbarian (with grapple) and a rogue (thug)/ inquisitor (intimidate base. Yes the inquisitor can cast spells but besides the fire + intimate one (can not remember the name right now) she relies on her thug abilities and judgement. I am hard pressed to think of any encounter (within CR) in combat or out that the group can not handle. The only issue is teleportation which doesn't usually come into play until late lvls anyways and we are lvl 8. So please tell me what this group can't do that a group of casters could?

2. To those that say the whole " and I full attack...again" and how boring it is. But the same thing applies to Save and Suck/Die spells. You just use a "newer" version but still are stuck doing the "same thing" again and again. I fail to see the difference. At least the martial had the joy of rolling some dice.

3. I just swing my sword while the caster is bending reality. Yes the caster can EVENTUALLY bend reality and do all sorts of weird voodoo crap. And the martial is expected to be able to single handily fight off entire armies or huge creatures like people of legend. It might not be as cool (to some people) as the caster sending the tarasque to the plane of fire but thats not what the martial trained for. He trained to fight things... and doing the whole hold the pass against the invading horde is also cool in my opinion.

Actually you could just use the rules for crowds:

Directing Crowds: It takes a DC 15 Diplomacy check or DC 20 Intimidate check to convince a crowd to move in a particular direction, and the crowd must be able to hear or see the character making the attempt. It takes a full-round action to make the Diplomacy check, but only a free action to make the Intimidate check.

My group uses combat maneuvers A LOT. Yes the person who is focused on a combat maneuver does less damage but sets up the rest of the party fabulously and often saves us form certain disaster...or at the very least makes the rest of the part's life much easier.

Lord Phrofet wrote:

True...I should have been more specific. They are not a good example of the full potential of the class and using them as an average benchmark to determine the effectiveness of any given strategy is a weak argument and should have little bearing to this style of discussion.

Seriously?

Min/Maxing a character against an unoptimized opponent is about as useless and one-sided an experiment as can be.

What a joke... and I thought this topic could be interesting.

The vague character build that Nicos presented ( a couple of feats, 2 magic items and standard BAB) is FAR from Min/Maxing. And he presented that total CMB against equivalent opponents of the CR...so I really do not get your argument or the reason for your apparent attitude.

I only said that the Iconics really do not represent the full potential of a class and only serve as basic intro characters (who usually want to stay away from anything even remotely complicated anyways) and to flesh NPCs.

Also, no offense to paizo, but the Iconics kinda suck. They are great to have a general idea of what a barbarian, monk, etc. looks and feels like for new players or fleshing out NPCs but they ARE FAR from optimized at all.

Ok so thanks to the Dueling FG enhancement you can apply bonuses to Dirty trick combat maneuver as long as you use the weapon to perform the combat maneuver ( Topic Here). So the topic of this thread is inventive ways to use your weapon (specify weapon type or specific weapon please!) to perform a Dirty Trick (the conditions are blinded, dazzled, deafened, entangled, shaken, or sickened).

Blinded: slashing weapons can cut the eyebrow to make blood in the eyes. Blind someone with reflective sources with light.

Dazzled: not sure actually....

Deafened: blunt object to temple. slam a weapon against sometime to make loud noise.

Entangled: polearm or rope based weapon up tangled in limbs.

Shaken: not sure actually...

Sickened: nut shot.

And I know people can do better then this (looking at your blackbloodtroll).

Ok as far as I know you can not use a weapon in conjuntion with the Dirty trick manuever. But the Dueling (FG) says the following (personal bold):

So if the above sentence is correct what weapons can be used with dirty trick? And are they limited to only one condition (hit someone someplace sensitive for staggered) or can use them for other conditions (put out eyes for blinded)?

Also in a side note does anyone know why the PFSRD removed Dueling FG from their list?

I wanted to clean my ears out with battery acid after listening to that narrator.

The guy is pretty good.

Put a charging grizzly/Lion/Tiger in front of him and lets see what he does. The only real way to test the theory under real combat conditions.

The voice is the standard Male microsoft voice (I think) because the guy didn't speak English.

Concerning the whole charging beast thing remember the biggest part of combat training is drills to be able to stay calm and respond to a situation like that. This guy is technique training not combat training. Now let him use those techniques training alongside combat training then he would have a good chance (and would be similar to the whole antique military training he is trying to emulate).

Ok I need to say something. Although Paizo and Pathfinder might have some issues that the boards scream and cry about endlessly, the fact that Sean K Reynolds and Jason Bulmahn actually took the time to come around and comment on my question is simply amazing. Thank you for trying to help your fans/customers so much even if we don't deserve it.

This question is probably going to make some people angry but I am curious. Why did Paizo decide to release the Mythic style content instead of Epic (lvl 21+) content?

On a note I PERSONALLY do not care for Mythic. The reason being is that I felt that Pathfinder was sort of a overpowered 3.5 and I was hesitant to start playing it for that reason and finally started playing it in the last year. Mythic just seems like an overpowered Pathfinder. Now I understand there is nothing wrong with that and some of possibilities ARE interesting. I was just curious why Paizo decided to release this instead of making rules for play beyond lvl 20 which do require all their own rules as the basic D20 system does start to break down after a certain point.

I also understand a lot of people do not like Epic (I personally am of two minds; its nice to sometimes see that character I have been leveling for 15-20 lvls keep going on to new adventures but it can get a bit ridiculous at times) but the possibility of continuing existing characters or having an adventure of Mythic like proportions (sorry bad word play pun) is nice.

So was there any particular reason this decision was made?

Although HeroLabs is an AMAZING program it can get REALLY expensive quickly to get all the appropriate book updates. A free Excel based one called ScoreForge might be good for you too. Also make your first character and first couple of new levels alongside your GM. By the time you have made 5-6 characters you can do it blindfolded and usually with almost no book or reference. Welcome to the gaming community and good luck.

Second Scoreforge. Its Excel based and its great. Only issue is that it can have some bad load times on a slower PC (like my laptop). The creator fixes any issues QUICKLY (as in under 10 days) and will input third party stuff upon request. Currently I THINK he is entering Advanced Races Guide as he is finished with core, advanced players, UC and UM completely (has a BUNCH of other books partly inputted).

Are they rules in Pathfinder for combining specific magic items? The items I have in mind is the Huricane Quaterstaff and the Quaterstaff of Vaulting from Ultimate Equipment.

Absolutely love this sheet.

Yeah I know they have said it...we just wish they would change their minds. Most people believe it would be easier then doing MORE changes to the Monk class itself and we do not want to REPLACE the AoMF since it is fine for natural attackers...just get something that will work just for unarmed strikes.

The Master of Many Styles loses Flurry of Blows in exchange for Fuse Style. I was wondering if a Master of Many styles could still use a ki point to grant an additional attack on a full round attack considering he no longer has flurry of blows...?

Ok so this is a two part question:

1. Does Ki focus work with elemental fist?

2. If yes to answer 1, would Ki Intensifying (UE) raise the DC of the Elemental style feat abilities (Marid, Eferit, etc.)?

I am currently building an Avatar (Last Airbender not Blue monkeys in space) style MoMS. Taking all the elemental style feats and getting elemental fist thru Dragon 2. Although the game has not started yet it seems a fairly versatile build. I rolled high stats so I am making it a high str/wis build. The point is to charge from opponent to opponent using elemental fist and dragon style and then use the third Elemental style on main opponents based on whatever thier weak save is. Not the most optimized build in the world but theoretically will be fun to play.

As a reminder to all people...remember your character is part of a team! You don't have to be great at everything! Let the fighter/barbarian beat the crap out of stuff and your casters/rangers/etc. handle range. Find something you can make your character good at and fulfill that niche in your team. Just my two cents.

So a monk is proficient in a cestus and per the armory update they do damage equal to your unarmed attack. My question is if a monks magic, lawful and adamantine ki abilities would apply thru a cestus. Also what about stunning fist and elemental fist?

Yeah one of the major things I miss from 3.5 is the "Complete" series.