Goblin Squad Member. Pathfinder Modules Subscriber. Pathfinder Society GM. 1,709 posts (1,719 including aliases). 1 review. No lists. No wishlists. 5 Pathfinder Society characters.
Paizo did sell them in the past but I don't know if any are in stock. It likely comes with a 30mm base (need to check mine somewhere tugged safely away) but I'm sure you can mount it on a 25 mm base.
It actually comes on a 40mm base and stands 38mm tall. Awesome looking mini and it comes in 5 separate pieces.
The best way to use a charm spell is to simply use it to reinforce a perfectly reasonable suggestion.
One of my preferred method is to cast it on the target and then direct the request like this.
Quote:
"My friend, we're having a misunderstanding here. Please take this gold piece and run down to X tavern (furthest away) and buy a bottle of wine and bring it back. We all can work out this misunderstanding over a drink and become friends."
Even when the spell wears off it still seems like a reasonable request, removes the target from combat (and makes him come back to finish him off) and if you lose the fight your new friend is still inclined to help rescue you.
We've all met someone who was so charming that we followed along with a lot of what they suggest even though we know we probably shouldn't. Like that person you met at a bar and KNOW you shouldn't go home with them but you still do. Use the spell like that and reap the benefits especially if you keep the requests reasonable and when it wears off the ill-will should be next to nothing.
On a side note, the whole haste thing has no impact whatsoever on the fact that Spellcombat is not a full attack and can thus not be used with pounce.
Also yeah, bladed dash, force hook charge etc...
Quote:
It's based on the manner in which Haste and Full-Attack interact and the categorization of abilities under their respective action types.
And basing the ruling on this iteraction without errataing the skill is the whole problem here, since that categorization also catches the iteratives....
I've been following this thread for awhile and (though I fully agree with Teller of Tales on the ambiguity of the full round action) I'm beginning to think this is intentional.
As a Magus player I've personally had the massive 1 shot kills when I crit but just as often that crit didn't kill the BBEG but the follow up iteratives did finish him off. If this clarification DOES make spell combat work as Teller describes then perhaps the Dev's current intent is to reduce the magus down to 1 spell and 1 attack?
This would bring the magus DPR down to manageable levels across the board without requiring anything more then the errata notice they've put out so far. It would take some time to adjust to the new playstyle but overall I could see this as being a functional re-balance for the class.
It's also in-line with the last several faq updates that significantly curtailed the power of some of the new classes.
I'm not a fan of the re-balances but I can see the reasoning if that's what they are doing.
Scent has 3 main benefits and is actually pretty easy to handle though you'll need to remind your GM a bit about them for awhile.
A. Scent grants a simple +8 to all perception checks made inside the range of your scent ability (Usually 30 feet but sometimes more or less depending on environment) that could benefit from it. I routinely make use of it for looking for traps (sniffing the oiled gears) & picking out hidden invisible targets.
B. Tracking, scent allows you to track any target without needing to invest in the survival skill. Normally you must be trained to follow tracks with a DC over 10, scent bypasses that restriction. The mechanical benefits of having scent and survival together allow you to ignore the effects of surface conditions and poor visibility the two biggest modifiers to tracking. You still only make 1 check but the DC is much MUCH easier.
B. Finally the biggest advantage is dealing with invisible/hidden enemies. Remember it's a move action to actively sniff around to determine if something is in range and no action at all anytime you come within 5 feet of a target you automatically pinpoint them no matter what.
If you have an invisible or hidden target somewhere out there you simply roll Perception +8 vs their stealth (ignore the +20 bonus for invisibility since you aren't using your eyes) to determine what direction and move that way. As soon as you come within 5 feet you auto notice them and pinpoint the square.
IF you fail that Perception check then you roll survival instead (DC 10 +size modifier) to find their tracks and follow that to their square and THEN you auto determine the square. Invisibility and Stealth mean NOTHING to you, no one can hide from you now.
I think it's actually a 25 int after a headband +6 (17 base, +2 for levels if I remember right for how the witch has 19 pre-items) with the corset of dire witch-whatever that gives one hex a +2 CL to make up the 23 instead of 22 save(so CL 13 on ice tomb with 10+1/2CL+int save seems to check out as 23). I could have it wrong and it be a 20 base (18+2 for levels) with the +6 int and the corset applying to something else.
Yeah, the more I read the more poorly worded it seems, taking into account nothing and being iffy enough that I read a compelling argument on whether it can even affect objects/undead. I think 60' works for a range, until now we've just used "in sight" but the witch hasn't been abusing it from hundreds of feet away or anything. Cold resistance I didn't think about using, last session the witch iced a succubus and did no or little cold damage through resistance (can't remember exactly) but I had it iced, wish I had thought of that ahead of time since that could be another limiter.
Hmm, I guess that brings up a question, does it seem like a fair move as DM to make immunity to paralysis or immunity to unconsciousness cancel out the hex, or would that just cancel out that part of the hex and the rest (encased in 6 inches of ice at least, the other of paralysis/unconsciousness too if the enemy doesn't have both) still goes through?
If you do decide to go the route of making those immunities work then go all out. Swap out all the demons for summoned Ice Elementals instead. Your 2 big bads, a shadow demon and 3 Ice Elementals (large) gives you a EL of 12 (13 if you ice the floor which I really think you should, force them to fly or make acrobatics checks) and is visually awesome.
You have a frozen cavern dimly lit from lights glittering off all the icicles with a sheer transparent wall ahead of them with the sorceress madly summoning something. As the party moves to engage enormous serpents made of snow and ice erupting from the slick floor of ice to engage the party frontliners and slipping back into the ice when your players attempting to bring their might to bear on them.
All this while the faint sound of metal sliding on ice is heard as the invisible duelist ice-skates around the party striking hard and skating away.
Overwhelmed the party seeks to re-group when swooping down from the ceiling is an impossibly black shadow with murder in it's eyes come for revenge on the foolish mortals who thought they had destroyed him.
Every party ALWAYS has a glitterdust prepared which is why the bad guys are using demons and a SINGLE shadow demon. As soon as the glitterdust or other light spell gets sprung out comes the at-will deeper darkness, negates the glitterdust long enough for the duelist to retreat back to the sorceress to have it dispelled, and moves the shadow to the top of the parties attack list instead of your BBEG's.
Follow that up with a few lesser minions (that the party can wade through easy to keep them happy and involved) should stretch the fight out long enough to feel like a challenge and when the party whens they'll remember that combination of frustrating opponents and glorious carnage they got to inflict in the fight.
You want the party to win in the end and feel good about it while still having that since of desperation fighting the forces of the abyss. THOSE are the sessions players remember the most.
First of All, Ice Tomb is ridiculous! I thought Freedom of Movement might stop it, but if you fail the save you are unconscious.
Give both enemies Great Fortitude. In addition have the Sorceress cast Undead Anatomy on herself. This will turn her undead and give her Charisma to HP and Fort Saves. Have the Bladesinger read a scroll of the same. With rings of Freedom of Movement, both become immune to the effects of Paralysis and Unconsciousness that the Ice Tomb hex cause.
Good start but it won't stop them from being encased in ice.
The main weakness for Ice Tomb loving witches is that it requires line of effect to work (put the target behind a pane of glass and they are immune to the Hex) and line of sight to target (make the target invisible and they are immune to all witch hexes).
In your specific case I'd go with greater invis on the Duelist making him untargetable by the witches hexes (but still an open target for the rest of the party), while the sorceress casts wall of force between herself and the party while summoning demons (and a single Shadow Demon in the mix) and casting illusions.
The Duelist will be inflicting tremendous (but survivable) damage against the party and giving the Druid and Monk a melee target to deal with while the Witch and Inquisitor are bogged down handling the demon assault and desperately trying to bring down the Wall of force to stop the sorceress.
It should be fairly exciting, winnable and each player will get several moments to shine in the fight.
I'm willing to be proven wrong on this, but I don't see a problem with the math. The axe has a 5% chance to threaten a critical. The sword has a 10% chance to threaten a critical. The multiplier is only 50% higher. I'm kind of bored with every fighter in the games I play using swords, so I'd love a good reason to pick axes aside from flavor.
That "50%" comes from comparing the wrong numbers, btw. It's +100% damage vs. +200% damage. It's *1 additional damage vs. *2 additional damage.
In a statistically simple world, the battleaxe and longsword are exactly even in the long run. But that's assuming no crit riders and no overkill, no significant DR or need-20-to-hit opponents.
Ah, I stand corrected. Though with enemies that you need a crit to hit at all, the larger crit range would still provide more utility. Most DR can be overcome with the correct materials or magical enhancements. I still think the game leans towards swords being a better choice for front-line fighters.
If I'm understanding your statement here you are making a fundamental rules mistake.
Just because your weapon threatens a crit on 15-20 doesn't mean that 15-19 are automatic hits. Only a 20 on the die roll auto hits and threatens a critical.
The expanded threat range on the swords simply means that IF the 15-19 would hit normally THEN you threaten a critical. If they don't hit you get nothing.
Here's a point that I don't think has been mentioned yet. Currently there is no way for a Lawful Good Arcane Caster to have an Improved familiar who can use a wand.
There is only one option on the list that are within one step of Lawful Good: The Brownie who requires you to be Neutral not just within one step of it.
Making the Mephit (or the Elemental) a legal wand wielder will fix this problem and allow Lawful Good casters to be equal to all the other alignments of casters who can have a wand wielding assistanct as well.
When I was a store liaison, one of my selling points for Pathfinder Society was the system's flexibility in accommodating different players' busy schedules; it's no different for GMs. I set personal, star-earning goals that were comfortable for me, and even though I gained stars more quickly than some other GMs, it was and still is a pleasure to hear when another judge hit a milestone.
Thanks for GMing and sharing the game, Jeffrey.
Now John, you know no one is going to take you seriously without an avatar, get to work. :P
I'm in the same boat as Nosig and the Fox, after hitting my 2nd star life begins to interfere and everything slows down. I have come to the realization though that number of games run pales in comparison to quality of games run. If I can only do 1-2 games a month I just content myself with making them the best games I can possibly do and take joy in my players having fun and looking forward to the next.
Take your time and ENJOY it, it's a game and you should be treating it like that. If you're doing it for a goal it starts sounding like a job.
First lets remember that the Polymorph subschool has been nerfed so badly it's ALMOST useless. You are now denied nearly all of the new forms abilities and can only pick from an extremely limited set of powers each form has. It's so short lets list them here.
If you'll notice you get none of the defensive abilities (not even their natural armor is allowed over) and several of the abilities are not available on any monstrous humanoid form (I'm looking at you pounce, rake, web & trample).
Now with that said these are the best forms I've been able to find for using this spell.
The best possible forms to assume are:
1. The 4 armed Gargoyle from Shadows of Gallowspire. This form gets gets 6 full BaB attacks a round + 60' flight and 40' land movement as well as the freeze special ability and darkvision. (The regular gargoyle form is almost as good but this one takes a slight lead on it).
2. The Witchwyrd, this form only gives you 4 full BaB attacks a round but you also get the Grab ability on each so can take advantage of all the goodies that comes with multiple grab attempts per round as well as darkvision.
3.Four-Armed Sahuagin Mutant, this bumps you back up to 5 full bab attacks a round and gives you the aquatic and ampibious traits with Darkvision. Situationaly these can make for an even better form for dungeoun crawling since you rarely have room to fly.
4. Caliking, you only get 4 natural attacks (the other 2 or iterative attacks with weapons) making all of them at BaB-5 and your iterative attacks are also at -5 (except the first one). You get a lot of attacks but with the natural penalty and the spell combat penalty you will be missing a lot. Arcane accuracy will remove the penalty (mostly) but any of the other forms will give you so much more from it.
(Calikang is nice but please remember you only get what's on their stat block so only 4 natural attacks and nasty penalties if you try to wield manufactured weapons. A sorceror or witch/hexcrafter who can grow claws however would get all 6 attacks).
Also all of it's special abilities are lost since the polymorph school doesn't allow you to get ANY of it's powers. It's a nice form but not good enough.
That's why Mathawei's defiler is still awesome.
It's attack is 15/15/15 vs a Scimitar user at 15/10/5.
It hits a lot more but lacks the crit range of a scimitar.
Plus needs a Amulet of Mighty Fists to get an enhancement bonus. (It's WAY more expensive than a weapon) but he lays a ton of Conditions per hit.
And hair takes a standard to activate, where a scimitar can be carried indefinitely.
So a Hair build is wicked for BATTLE CONTROL.
A scimitar build is for burst damage
I have been giving some thought to the melee transmorgist and how it fits in with all that we've learned about Hexcrafters in the last few months and I've come to a few conclusions.
First, The Caliking is a sub-optimal choice for forms. I'm not saying it's bad just that there is a MUCH better choice considering the nerfbat that hit the polymorph school.
Second, this build NEEDS to be a strength build since all the best forms are built around strength. This has it's on challenges to it but really keeps things simple and saves you several feats.
Third, this build is all about sustained damage. With the right spells running (Chill touch, frostbite, enlarge person, etc) you will be able to consistently 100 pts of damage a round, every round.
Finally, this build is the quickest to get your primary role working (4th level at the latest) but is also the most likely to end in character death. You can put out a lot of damage but it has the lowest hit points and armor while still needing to get into and stay in melee.
The best possible forms to assume are:
1. The 4 armed Gargoyle from Shadows of Gallowspire. This form gets gets 6 full BaB attacks a round + 60' flight and 40' land movement as well as the freeze special ability. (The regular gargoyle form is almost as good but this one takes a slight lead on it).
2. The Witchwyrd, this form gives you 4 4 full BaB attacks a round but you also get the Grab ability on each so can take advantage of all the goodies that comes with multiple grab attempts per round.
3.Four-Armed Sahuagin Mutant, this bumps you back up to 5 full bab attacks a round and gives you the aquatic and ampibious traits. Situationaly these can make for an even better form for dungeoun crawling since you rarely have room to fly.
4. Caliking, you only get 4 natural attacks (the other 2 or iterative attacks with weapons) making all of them at BaB-5 and your iterative attacks are also at -5 (except the first one). You get a lot of attacks but with the natural penalty and the spell combat penalty you will be missing a lot. Arcane accuracy will remove the penalty (mostly) but any of the other forms will give you so much more from it.
Also all of it's special abilities are lost since the polymorph school doesn't allow you to get ANY of it's powers. It's a nice form but not good enough.
Advice:
From 1st till 4th level the primary spells to use will be Stone Fist + Enlarge person (for reach and 1D8+str damage) backed up with either chill touch or frostbite based on the target.
From 4th till 7th you use Alter Self to turn into either a Trogolodyte (for 3 natural attacks and Darkvision) or WereTiger (for 3 nat attacks, low light and Scent).
From 7th to 10th you use Monstrous Physique I to assume the form of a Four-Armed Sahuagin Mutant (5 attacks & darkvision) or the regular gargoyle (4 natural attacks, darkvison & flight) or the Withwyrd (also 4 nat attacks, darkvision but grab instead of flight). The sahuagin form has drawbacks so only go that route if you can be assured of avoiding it's light blindness.
From 10th on you'll be focused on just using the Four armed Gargoyle form as much as possible (pending new monstrous forms being introduced) since nothing else really comes close to it in terms of damage output, maneuverability and special abilities.
I'm working on an actual level by level build on this theme but it's still a bit rough.
I also see this as a much more interesting way to introduce new players into Pathfinder & Society play at those level.
1st and 4th level do give a good overview of basic pathfinder play but do nothing to help players increase their system mastery and leaves them truly unprepared for how complicated the system can get at the higher tiers.
5th level pregens however are right at that sweet spot were all the options start opening up and players can really see if they like how a class plays without being totally overwhelmed by the glut of options.
An unmentioned side effect is this is where the WBL restrictions start falling off and pregens can actually have a decent/interesting piece of gear or two while still having SOME consumables to work with.
Tell her it's a huge waste of time & resources.
If she's just trying to be armed for AoO's she should just put spikes on her armor and go from there. Mixing Natural attacks and iterative attacks on a 3/4 bab class that has as many options as a magus is just going to give her a headache juggling it all.
I soooo wanted to look forward to this but they have ruined everything that was good about this book.
Should have turned it into a TV show (ala walking dead) for HBO or Showtime. Would have been the greatest thing ever.
I'm guessing, yes, but I'd hate to show up to a table with a brand new imp at level 7 and be told no.
Also, if I'm allowed to have one, what alignment is the imp? Is it still evil?
The real question is not can you have an imp, but is that big of a power boost okay in PFS?
Having an imp familiar is an insane increase in power for several spellcasters and can trivialize most encounters or scenarios. The secret is in this spell Familiar Melding and how powerful it makes you with certain improved familiars.
With an Imp familiar you suddenly have a full spellcaster with free invisibility at will, tiny size, permanent flying, DR 5/good silver, Immunity to fire & poison, at will shape change (beast shape 1), see in darkness (at 7-11 play this completely changes the game) and fast healing 2, Telepathy, Summon other devils and Poison.
A tiny, flying, invisible, spell casting, Hex throwing Witch who can't be killed during a scenario is kinda dangerous. Grab a couple scrolls of shrink object or secret chest and safely store your body nearby and you will safely tromp through a scenario unscathed.
It's just a demon body, who cares if it dies, it just costs a little cash to get another one.
I can't wait, I'm 2 scenarios away from getting my imp. This is gonna be funny.
1. A magus is a Fighter who casts, most of his best spells rely on beeing in melee or putting you in melee.
He's really not a fighter who casts. He has no full bab, no d10 hd, and far, far fewer feats. Yes, he must be in melee, but that a fighter does not make. His primary punch is from his spells due to the scarcity of feats/bab, trying to fight like a fighter sorta misses the point. I think that was the point of the poster to whom you were responding.
This is part of why I said that a Magus is a caster first and foremost. any round where they are not casting a spell or under the benefits of another spell/supernatural ability they are a sub-par melee combatant barely better then a rogue.
Everything about the magus is really focused on using melee options to deliver and augment his spells, without those the magus is really not much of a threat. With his lower then average to hit bonus (3/4bab on top of his -2 to hit with spell combat), with his inability to two-hand his weapon when using spell combat, his lower HP's and lower AC makes him far less effective in melee then a comparable full bab class. He is required to expend finite resources (spells/arcane pool) to keep up with the other melee types.
This build focuses entirely on the melee side and neglects the caster side so it's damage/survivability is always going to be lower then an equal level ranger/fighter/barb/etc.
Magi are casters, first and foremost accept it, embrace it and enjoy the carnage that brings you. Anything else is likely to be truly disappointing.
When a weapon constructed of wyroot confirms a critical hit, it absorbs some of the life force of the creature struck.
Wyroot grants a point to the arcane pool when you confirm a crit, not when you finish someone off.
Coup de Grace wrote:
You automatically hit and score a critical hit. If the defender survives the damage, he must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + damage dealt) or die. A rogue also gets her extra sneak attack damage against a helpless opponent when delivering a coup de grace.
You never confirm a critical hit in a coup de grace, it's just an auto-crit.
You actually have to use a wyroot weapon in combat to benefit from it.
Well that's not EXACTLY true, you don't need to be in combat you just need to confirm a crit which you can do without being in combat. All you need is a small sized ironwood Kukri and a few rats tied up in a bag.
Keen it and then stab the rats for non lethal damage, you'll hit every time and you'll crit 1 out of 4 times (give or take) and since you are doing non lethal damage the rats don't die.
On average for every arcane point you spend you get 3-ish points back so no matter how many arcane points you have you can refill your pool inside of 5 minutes an unlimited number of times per day.
A Wyroot Bardiche is a very good weapon for a magus. If Wyroot effect trigers on a Coup De Grace it is even better. Think recover a few arcane pool points after each battle.
So you want to wander around on the battlefield killing of unconcious people to get magical power?
In my game that would be a quick way to evil alignment.
No, you carry a bag of rats around and CDG them.
Unlimited arcane pool points for a gold a day (less if you can make the survival checks).
Does Fireball REALLY destroy the bridges if it does 20 damage? Because if so, the final boss can easily auto-kill any level 3 to 4 player standing on the bridges above one of the 200 foot drops...
If you rule that thick wood/rope doesn't have time to burn through from an instantaneous fireball and apply the half energy damage rule for objects - then no it doesn't.
Expect table variation.
PRD: "Energy Attacks: Energy attacks deal half damage to most objects. Divide the damage by 2 before applying the object's hardness. Some energy types might be particularly effective against certain objects, subject to GM discretion. For example, fire might do full damage against parchment, cloth, and other objects that burn easily. Sonic might do full damage against glass and crystal objects."
PRD: "Spells with an instantaneous duration don't normally set a character on fire, since the heat and flame from these come and go in a flash."
The bridges are rated at hardness 5, HP 15 (therefore 1.5 inches thick wood).
If you apply the half damage rule then you need a 40 point fireball to destroy a bridge in one hit. At tier 3-4 this is not possible. At tier 6-7 there is a 4% chance you roll 40+.
You're missing the real issue here, it's a ROPE bridge. A sizable majority of people will accept that the ropes will take full damage from the fireball and since they have hardness 0 and 2HP's/inch the average fireball will automatically destroy them.
It does give you the cool cinematic of the burning bridge falling into the darkness though, so points for coolness do apply.
Condition stacking builds tend to get boring fast but if that's what you really want to do then nothing is as effective as as the Defiler Magus.
At 7th level a prepared Defiler can inflict Grappled, Staggered, Fatigued, Entangled, Prone and Shaken onto a target with a single standard action. If he decides to make a full action he can also add Blind or Sickened to that target. At the same time he's stacking all these conditions he's still putting out a scary amount of damage (Routinely 30-40 DPR) while spending next to nothing in resources (1 arcane pool point and 1 first level spell per target).
If anything leaves through that first round then you probably shouldn't be fighting it anyway.
The claw/claw/bite routine is powerful at low levels but past about 11th level the regular weapon based attacks catch up and pass the natural attacks in potency.
Make sure your GM understands this before he nerfs your claws into secondary weapons.
Even before 11th level you will start running into problems hitting your target (it's prohibitively expensive to get even a +2 to hit on your weapons) and then the issue of DR comes into play, at best you can get through silver and magic with a feat but the rest of them are almost impossible to get past.
Basically you get more attacks early in the game but the damage on those attacks is much lower.
The trick works he's just written it out backwards. you don't start with the bladed dash, you start with the swift action Dimension Door -> Dimensional Dervish. This lets you teleport bounce and Then spell Combat and attack as many targets as you have attacks THEN you cast the bladed dash to run you back behind the party tank while attacking every target in the way.
Everything works you just have to get the order of operations correct.
edit: Also teleporting first makes it easier to set up a better charge lane since your final jump can be to maximize the line of targets until you get home.
Just a note: you cannot raise a Homunculus' HD more than once (to 3HD). Ultimate Magic p113 states that you cannot raise the HD of a construct by more than 1/2 of it's original HD.
- Gauss
As I've said before, that is a strictly optional rule from an optional chapter in that book. It in no way affects a standard constructs creation.
2 people marked this as FAQ candidate. Answered in the errata.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Michael Brock wrote:
Chris Mortika wrote:
First, off, Mike: Thanks for the changelog. This is one of the ways in which you have terrifically improved PFS play.
GtPSOP wrote:
Page 34–35: Added the following sentence under Alignment Infractions subheading: “Characters who commit potentially evil acts (casting spells with the Evil descriptor, killing or maiming someone, etc.) while following specific orders from their faction or the Pathfinder Society, do not suffer alignment infractions. These are cases where karma applies to those making the orders, not their tools.”
Does this karmic shift extend to the requirement that paladins who use poison (or lie, or otherwise break their oaths) need to atone to recover their divine powers?
Nope. Paladins are bound by a higher authority than a faction mission. They will still need to decide whether completing the faction mission is worth an atonement.
Follow up question;
Does this clarification of evil spells mean thoze characters who regularly use Infernal Healing spells risk removal from play?
That spell is marked with the evil descriptor.
the problem is you can really push just one favored terrain, if you split it to two, it's still allright, but 3 choices is a but much to spread your modifier.
Favored terrain gives +2 to only one terrain you've already selected, not all of them (as I thought for a while).
A rogue/horizon walker who ups 3 terrains simultaniously is probably not much better than a good fighter even in those terrains, and seriously weak in the rest.
Ok, you're looking at it wrong.
the uber build that is being referred to hinges around the stacking of the Ranger favored terrain and the rogue terrain mastery ability.
First the
Terrain Mastery wrote:
A rogue can take this ability multiple times, each time applying it to a new terrain, and granting all other favored terrains a +2 increase to the favored terrain bonus.
With this feat every time you take it you get another favored terrain and ALL your other terrains get an additional +2. Take it 4 times and get a +10 to every other favored terrain you have.
Now this also stacks with the increase you get from leveling as a ranger and leveling as a horizon walker. Put it all together and you can easily have a +20 to hit/damage/init/perception/stealth & survival for 2 or more terrains and all creatures native to that terrain. Doesn't matter where you are if you are fighting something that is native to one of your terrains you get your bonuses against it.
Now to make it perfect pick up a ranger wand of Instant Enemy and use it (swift Action) and point it anything that's not native to your highest favored terrain. Now it is, use your highest bonus against it for the cost of a wand charge.
Here's my first pass on the Defiler/Debuffer. It's still a bit rough but I think it's all legal and just needs a bit of Polish.
The Defiler: This debuff build is focused on piling on negative effects and rendering every target as harmless and easy to kill as possible. This is a Melee effective option that is fully developed by 6th level with everything after that making it more destructive.
The with a 20pt buy the best I can think of is Human
STR 13 DEX 14 CON 14 WIS 10 INT 18 CHA 7
Note: A 2 level dip in White Haired Witch is needed to REALLY up the Debuffs and action Economy on this build.
Traits: Magical Lineage (Frostbite), Wayang Spellhunter (Frigid Touch)
1 (Witch 1) (White Haired Witch archetype) Feats: Rime Spell, Scribe Scroll
? (King Crab familiar, Strength or Wisdom Patron)
2 (Magus 1) Spell Combat, Arcane Pool
3 (Magus 2) Spellstrike ? Combat Reflexes
4 (Magus 3) Arcana- Arcane Accuracy
5 (Magus 4) Hex Arcana- Prehensile Hair, Feat: Extra Arcana (Flight)
6 (Witch 2) - Grab
7 (Magus 5) Feat: Cornugan Smash, Bonus Feat: (Power Attack)
8 (Magus 6) Arcana: Sleep Hex
9 (Magus 7) Medium Armor, Knowledge Pool Feat: Lunge
10 (Magus8) Improved spell combat
11 (Magus9) Arcana: Hasted Assault Feat: Elemental Spell (Acid or Cold)
12 (Magus10) Fighter Training
13 (Magus11) Spell Recall Bonus Feat: Sickening Spell
14 (Magus12) Hex Arcana: Ice Tomb
15 (Magus 13) Heavy Armor
Why it's good: At 7th level a prepared Defiler can inflict Grappled, Staggered, Fatigued, Entangled, Prone and Shaken onto a target with a single standard action. If he decides to make a full action he can also add Blind to that target.
The bad: It?s a dedicated melee build with lower HP?s than any other and has delayed getting access to Heavy armor until 15th level.
How it works: This build hinges around using your Hair natural attack for ALL your attack actions. As your only natural attack it is always at Full Bab and does 1-1/2 times your Strength bonus on damage rolls. Since you use your Intelligence bonus in place of strength every time you boost your Int you boost your melee to-hit and damage. Taking two levels of Witch grants three important benefits:
1. An always on Natural attack that can never be sundered, disarmed or stolen.
2. A superior Grab ability that naturally doesn?t make you grappled when you initiate the grapple (everyone else has to take 20 on each grapple check to get this)
3. A constrict ability that is based off your Intelligence and works with Power Attack.
Now this is a debuff build so our go-to spells are FrostBite (Rimed) and Frigid Touch mixed with Power Attack and Cornugan Smash all channeled through 4 different combat maneuvers (Grab, Trip, Sunder & Disarm).
Note: All combat maneuvers are attack rolls, anything that is activated by a successful hit are activated by a successful combat maneuver as well.
Combat begins by activating your Prehensile Hair and using your arcane pool to get the +attack on it as high as you can and moving into position to respond to any AoO provoking action. At your first chance Spellstrike a Rimed Frostbite and attempt a combat maneuver (trip is best) on a target 10? away (try to always power attack this).
(This will be at full Bab + Int Bonus +Arcane pool Bonus-Power attack Penalty vs. targets CMD)
If successful this will trip the target, and inflict the Fatigued and Entangled condition as well as 1D6+level non lethal damage.
(Prone is -4 to attacks and CMD, Fatigue is -2 to dex and str for another -2 to attacks and CMD, Entangled is another -2 to attacks and -4 to dex for another -2 to attacks and a concentration check to cast spells. Total = -6 to Dex, -2 to Str for a -4 to attacks, -8 CMD, -3 to AC)
This also triggers your Grab ability so now make a Grapple check against their CMD -8. If you succeed then move them to any square adjacent to you (automatic action) and inflict Constrict Damage against the target. (1D4 + 1.5xInt modifier + Power attack Bonus). This will also activate your Cornugan Smash Feat so also make an Intimidate check now to demoralize them to inflict the Shaken Condition.
(Adding the Grapple condition reduces Dex by an additional -4, Attack rolls and Combat Maneuvers by 2, and adds another concentration check to cast, Shaken reduces attacks/saves/skill checks/ability checks by 2 more. Total = -10 to Dex, -2 to Str, -10 to attacks, -2 to saves, skill checks and ability checks and requires 2 Concentration checks to cast a spell)
All of this is done with a single standard action. If you decide to use Spell combat all of the above will happen with the addition at the end to cast an additional spell (which will end the charges from Frostbite), we usually use a Frigid touch spell to inflict 4D6 damage and the staggered condition (it is recommended to either use a Metamagic on this, either Rime, Sickened or Empower).
A Defiler should invest in an Amulet of Mighty Fist (not needed but truly worth it) and keep either a Blindness, Rimed Frigid Touch or Bestow Curse in it at all times with Blindness being the most effective.
With this build raising your Int as high as you can is paramount since it powers ALL of your combat ability (attacks, damage, CMB, etc) followed by either your Dex (for more AoO's, Dex and reflex saves) or Con (to absorb all the damage that will be thrown your way the first time you use this trick) Strength needs to be 13 for Power Attack and after that it's useless.
Keep your Intimidate as high as you can (class skill from your Witch dip), and get as many +hit bonuses as possible to make sure you can always succeed on your Combat Maneuvers.
If you would like to do more damage while doing this, always remember releasing a target from a grapple is a free action and the spell from spell combat can go after all your normal attacks. So after the steps above release the target and do a normal attack with the hair triggering everything again for more damage THEN do the spell combat for the Frigid touch spell for a third touch attack (this requires you to have pre-cast the Frostbite in a previous round).
Finally got a chance to run this for some of my usual group and 2 new players doing pregens (ezren & merisel) at tier 7-8 (no matter how I tried to get them to play up).
As expected everyone had a blast (2 instant converts to Pathfinder & PFS where made this day) and they are all clamoring to run part 2 asap. A table full of Qadirans, Sczarni and Andorans made quick work of the faction missions and easily opened diplomatic relations with the ratfolk.
When the party asked if there was anything they could do to help cement a trade deal with the ratfolk the crafty captain asked them to present a trophy to the empress taken from a great danger they overcame on their travels to the Pagoda.
They easily overcame the Dark Stalker due to the first of my MANY horrible die rolls (how could I roll a 3 or less every time I tried to use the wand of dispel), but spent 15 rounds chasing the dark slayer around the alter getting blasted by every spell he had. (He really needs some aoe spells for situations like this Kyle)
The centipedes did there job perfectly and buried half the party in rock with the cleric unable to heal anyone until she was dug out. Unfortunately it was only the cleric who took damage so it wound up being just a speed bump during play.
Then we come to the non-optional encounter (I will ALWAYS find a way to use this fight), the party choose to dig a small tunnel through the rock and go through single file with mr heavy fighter the first to encounter the Gug. One awesome blow and a full round attack later the fighter is at 6 HP and has a new name... Mr brown shorts. This is where my dice really start betraying me and the party comes together. Glitterdust + Bestow Curse + viper Poison + Super channel cleric + Tangle Foot Bags + a DM who can't roll over a 7 on any save + a rogue who rolls and confirms 3 sneak attack Crits in one round allows the party to overcome the Gug (though everyone was down to single digit HP's multiple times during this fight.
Kyle, you'll be happy to know this is the first time in my PFS career that the party has said we need to rest and camp for the night. They literally had to burn every resource they had to defeat your baby here.
(At this point the conversation turned to how bad it would be at 10-11. I showed them, they cringed and turned white, swearing to NEVER play this at 10-11)
Finally they meet Xiangnuer, the argument over what loot to give her was hilarious. Half the party wanted to give her EVERYTHING they'd found on the way down (dark folk stuff, aspis weapon/spellbook) but they greedy rogues weren't having any of it. Eventually they attack and my dice betray me again. Fails every save and Boneshatter is an obscene spell to have cast on your creature. When they drop her under 40 HP's (1 HP left) she flees and a desperate dimension door to throw the rogue onto the dragons back to take 1 last shot manages to pierce her DR (no sneak bonus) for 2 hp of damage and watching her (and the rogue) fall 3000 feet to the ground before the Pagoda.
Only a readied teleport from the flying caster managed to keep the rogue alive.
Everyone had a blast and are trying to re-arrange their schedules to play part 2 this week. This scenario gets rave reviews from my table of 6.
Edit: They all recieved the dragon killer check but are freaking out on how the rats will respond to them killing their dragon ruler since nothing on the sheets actually says killing her was a good thing. :P
Hall is fun but personally I love Rebel's Ransom myself. Interesting setup, fun encounters and almost guaranteed death when they antagonize the wrong girl.
Not 10-11. ;-)
Should be considering it's lethality.
Last time I ran it took 3 rounds before the party cleric (only one still above 0 HP) was on his knees begging her not to kill him. Made him pay her every dime he had for the privilege of living.
Then once they made it to the last room and tried to leave she was sitting at the front door waiting for her "share" of the loot.
We can only respond to the builds you post and if that build is full of errors that is what's going to be called out. Now if you wish to flip it to Spell specialization and a rod of intensify then that Magus will STILL be limited to 5D6 damage per shocking grasp. (You can't use a Rod while spell striking OR spell combat with the build you posted).
Now if you want him to use that rod it's going to take 2 rounds to deliver that shocking grasp (unless he decides to just touch him, which kills his chance to crit).
Now as others have said comparing a magus to a Rogue is like comparing ANYTHING to a rogue, the rogue is garbage plain and simple and makes everything else look OP. (Just for clarification the rogue I referenced is the default best melee rogue... the half-orc.)
The magus is a nova class, he gets to shine once or twice a day and the rest of the time everyone else is usually performing better. Please reacquaint yourself with all limitations built into the class and try again.
Seraphimpunk wrote:
Mathwei ap Niall wrote:
Spell Focus and Greater Spell focus increase the spells DC not it's caster level. Gifted Adept does boost it so he'd be at Caster level +1. I'm not concerned about an 8D6 shocking grasp, it's only averaging at 28 damage a hit.
Not greater spell focus. Spell specialization. The caster level with the selected spell goes up by two.
Mathwei ap Niall wrote:
And a strong rogue who uses a real weapon will be doing a LOT more then that every round non stop. Make a strength based rogue who sneak attacks with a greatsword and power attack using improved feint and he'll make that magus cry for the damage he puts out (6D6 +15ish is pretty easy to do at that level).
With improved feint, he's still stuck using his move action to feint for 6d6. The magus can move , cast as a standard action, and attack with his weapon to deliver the spell as the free attack. (the aforementioned 10d6 + whatever the baste weapon damage is)
And this is the 6th level magus, at 7th he gets nastier. With specialization, and a rod of lesser intense spell. Vs a rogue that has sunk his feats into martial weapon proficiency, combat expertise, improved feint, and power attack.
Mathwei ap Niall wrote:
Yes I can see why he retired it, everything on this character is wrong and wouldn't pass any audit at any game I've ever played in. Let's look at what this character REALLY is shall we?
+2 Keen weapons cost 18300+ gold, a 6th level PFS character who has NEVER failed a faction mission is limited to a maximum of 11,750GP on an item. This weapon is illegal.
+2 keen is the effective output of using 1 point of his arcane pool at the beginning of combat as a swift action to add to his normally +1 katana. By 7th he can add +2 to the weapon, choosing in this case keen and increasing the +1 to +2.
Magi effectively get 10k gp in enhancements As a swift action in most combats by 5th level.
Mathwei ap Niall wrote:
Arcane pool is not 13 it's 9, Int bonus (4) + 1/2 magus level (3)
Yes I can see why he retired it, everything on this character is wrong and wouldn't pass any audit at any game I've ever played in. Let's look at what this character REALLY is shall we?
+2 Keen weapons cost 18300+ gold, a 6th level PFS character who has NEVER failed a faction mission is limited to a maximum of 11,750GP on an item. This weapon is illegal.
Arcane pool is not 13 it's 9, Int bonus (4) + 1/2 magus level (3) + Extra arcane pool (2) = 9.
Magical lineage means he CAN'T have any other magic traits and he took Empower so no intensified metamagic so he's limited to a maximum of 5D6 shocking grasp damage.
As for your weapon damage numbers, ASSUMING he kept it a legal katana he'd be doing:
(Remember spell combat requires you to have an empty hand for that entire round so no 2hd bonus for strength OR power attack)
Throw perfect strike in there and assuming he did confirm the crit it would only do 3D8+27 for an average of 40 pts of damage that round.
(Perfect strike is EITHER max weapon damage OR +1 crit multiplier not both)
Finally there is no such thing as Arcane Power Attack, he may be referring to arcane strike but if he is then that requires a swift action so it can't be used in any round he's using Arcane Accuracy.
Yeah this guy is going to miss ALOT more then the twf rogue at this point.
Now if he wanted to burn through his arcane pool and spend 4-5 points on every fight (meaning he can do this trick once per day) then yes on one attack if he's lucky enough to crit and confirm and roll maximum on his damage dice then yes he can do a maximum of 137 points of damage (average of 69) to a single creature.
Then he's pretty much done for the day.
Congrats, you just barely beat the greatsword wielding barbarians single round output.
This is not what I consider broken.
PS: As I said before there is no legal way for this magus to have a caster level higher than 6 and no way to get more then a 5D6 shocking grasp.
Seraphimpunk wrote:
my friend that retired his PFS character at 6th level had the following build:
AC 16, touch 11, flat-footed 15
Hp 51 (6HD)
Melee +2 keen katana +11 (1d8+8/15-20)
power attack: +9 (1d8+14/15-20)
perfect strike: 2 arcane point to increase crit multiplier so he does 3d8+42 dmg.
Arcane pool 13
Str 16 (18), Dex 12, Con 12, Int 18, Wis 7, Cha 12
Feats 1. Toughness, H. Extra Arcane Pool, B. weapon proficiency (katana), B. weapon focus (katana), 3. Power attack, 5. Extra Arcane Pool, B. Empower Spell
Arcane Pool Arcane Accuracy (+4 to hit for 1 round), Arcane Power Attack
traits: magical lineage (shocking grasp)
on a crit he'll do 3d8+42 , + shocking grasp or empowered shocking grasp. (5d6 or 5d6 + 1.5)
..
his build could easily swap out the extra arcane pool feats for spell focus (evocation) and spell specialization to have an 9th CL shocking grasp at 6th level.
I couldn't find where the arcane power attack is from. i didn't see it anywhere. his notes say it let him
your familiar should be using wands with the UMD skill, it is like having a quickened spell every turn.
As a DM if someone was metagaming their familiar this hard, it would be dead, very quickly. With only half the HP of their master, pitiful AC, and mediocre saves your better off not making it a easy target.
Also I like the faerie dragon if you want something neat. Cone of euphoria while it has a low DC, is good RP fluff and the occasional lol at lower levels.
If you really need to make your familiar like a summoner eidolon in power, make a summoner. Familiars are better off as passive bonuses, seeing as how your spellcasting is tied to them.
Eh, to do this it already has to be an Improved Familiar (Nothing that can speak can hold a wand on the standard list) and at that level of investment you deserve to get something out of it. Wands cost money per use, so using one every round gets expensive fast. and an occasional (effective) quickened spell at minimum caster level sounds about right for a feat.
Incorrect. EVERYTHING on the normal familiar's list can talk... at 5th level. The speak with Master ability grants them the ability to speak a specific language and that's all it takes to use a wand.
As for keeping it safe in combat it's not that hard. Build a nice top opening cage and attach it inside your napsack with the flap open. Familiar lays in the cage and stands up (move action), uses the wand (standard action), drops prone (free action). While it's in the cage it has full cover and full concealment making it REALLY hard to target or melee and with it's evasion and concealment it's pretty safe from every spell that you can throw it's way.
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Darkghost316 wrote:
@Michael Foster 989: I agree that toughness was overkill, but at the time I wanted to protect my party and since we are low level and doing the slow level up progression =/, I thought I needed as much HPs to survive the levels, but yeah sadly I shouldnt have taken it with my 18 con, but at least I can say I am tough! lol :D.
@Mathwei ap Niall: I must say looking at hexcrafter and the spell recall. I can see why its definitely helpful more so, for tanking purposes. The spell recall will hurt and definitely at higher levels, but definitely I can see my resources being used somewhere else. But how would I use hexcrafter if I went that way? I think evil eye is good and so is flight, but thats it. I think presentile hair isnt that great because for tripping it would use my INT bonus instead and my STR is like +4 compare to the +3. Also how can a familiar help me use wands and so forth, do they have the mind capacity to use the magic out of the wand and cast it on me?
Also frigid touch is a level 2 spell and it only does 4d6, do I use magical lineage on that spell so it won't boost up my spell level when I put the metamagic feat Rime on it?
Here is the build with hexcrafter in mind. Thanks for the input, I think I am getting there :D.
Feats are bold, magus arcana/hex are italics
3rd: Extra Arcana(arcane accuracy), evil eye
4th: presentile hair maybe not sure yet
5th: Rime spell
5th: Extra Arcana(Familiar)
6th: Flight
7th: spell penetration
9th: spell blending, open slot
Blargh, I meant Frostbite not Frigid Touch (Frigid touch is my go to after 10th level). Magical Lineage (frostbite) allows you to use Rime spell metamagic on it and use it as a first level spell. That's an additional 1D6+level damage on your next level number attacks.
As for spell recall you still get it, it's just delayed till 11th level and THEN you get spell recall in place of the improved spell recall normal Magi get at 11th level. Till then use pearls, they are dirt cheap (especially if you make em yourself).
Yes prehensile hair uses your Int score (which is only 1 pt lower then your strength but a headband of int keeps it in step with your Str) and but since Trip is a CMB check not a regular attack roll the difference is marginal at worse. Also when you make the trip attempt it applies a charge of your frostbite to your target too.
Your familiar uses your skill ranks as it's own and you have Use Magic Device as a class skill. It is smart enough to use that skill to try to use those items and there are dozens of ways to get it's score high enough to routinely succeed all the time.
If you'll look at the Familiar chart they start with an Int of 6 and it goes up based on your level.
This gives you all your main tricks by 5th level and allows you to control everything within 25ft of you (Enlarge Person gives you 10' reach, prehensile ups that to 20ft and lunge makes it 25) so you are constantly getting AoO trip attempts on anyone you meet with your hair. Once they get into melee range THEN you beat them with your sword.
(Generally you want your first level feats to be Rime Spell and Combat reflexes or extra arcane pool but too late for that).
As for spells focus on the ones that last more then 1 round (enlarge person, grease, color spray, FrostBite, etc), you'll get much better returns on those then you ever will from direct damage spells and it will help stretch your limited castings further.
Well first I'm not a fan of the Tiger as an AC, it's pounce is very nice but I find it's damage output is actually pretty low and improving it to the point where it's relevent in combat is VERY expensive.
Here's the issue, the big cat is dependent on charge to get any damage (he has to charge to pounce) so if anyone ever gets in his way (which they will since his initiative is going to be lower then the average melee PC) or there's difficult terrain he only has a 1D8+5 bite attack to contribute.
On top of all that improving him with the standards feats (improved natural attack, power attack, etc.) only benefit him as if it where a dual wielding rogue (light 1hd weapons) so bleh.
It looks good on paper but in actual play he's less then effective.
Personally I'd say go for the Wolf instead, much better for you.
He takes half as many feats to power up and gets twice as much out of them as the cat.
lets take a 10th level wolf and the 3 main feats it needs, Power Attack, Improved Natural Attack and Vital Strike and see what it does on a normal attack.
4D6+13 damage (minimum) on every shot, and a free trip attempt every time. The cat at best can get a grab (only if it hits with the bite BTW) for a grapple penalty (preventing it from full attacking the next round) instead of the uber prone penalty and the goodies that offers.
Where are you getting that the cats claws are light/secondary? they are primaries, and thus get the one handed -1/+2. And the cat isn't "dependent on charge to get any damage". Sure, if he can't charge he does less damage than the wolf, but the next round when the cat get's a full attack with bite, claw, claw, grapple, rakerake, he's doing a bit more damage than the wolf.
Never said it was secondary, merely that it was light which is bad enough. The main advantage of pounce is that it lets you do a full attack in the first round of combat, that's the main draw of the big cat. It's damage from full attacking isn't really that good.
If the big cat hits with every attack it has will max out at 3D6 + 1D8 + 15 for an average of 30pts of damage (41 max) when it can stand and plant and hit with every attack (remember it only gets one rake). Now as every melee player will let you know you are lucky to get to full attack half the time so the Cat will be doing about 15-20 pts of damage a round and significantly less if the target is the mobile type.
Also if the cat does decide to grapple it goes down to just 1D8+5 per round if it succeeds on it's grapple check.
The wolf on the other hand will ALWAYS do at least 4D6 +13 (avg 27, max 37) every round (he'll either VS every hit or get his second attack when he gets multiattack). He get's 1.5x str on EVERY hit so his base damage is always going to be higher and he gets -1/+3 damage with power attack which the cat can't match.
The cat has to pounce just to equal the wolf on average damage in the first round and if the target moves 6 feet away the cat's damage goes to crap (1D8+5 + whatever spell you put on him), the wolf just continues hitting that hard no matter what the target does. Also Trip provokes AoO's (try to get up, move, cast, etc) and makes it so easy to hit, grab on the other hand... well grab sucks as a flanking bonus in comparison.
Finally (and this is the best part), Strong Jaw is an insane bonus for the wolf (good for the cat but better for the wolf) kicking it up to 8D6 on every attack every round.
The wolf just has a much higher base damage and needs fewer extras to contribute meaningfully and when you can't take the time to drop buffs on an AC (or don't have the cash to buy all the gear that cat needs) it's no contest.
Now if money and time are no object then yeah the cat will do more damage but how often do you have all the time and money you need to throw on a secondary critter?
Well first I'm not a fan of the Tiger as an AC, it's pounce is very nice but I find it's damage output is actually pretty low and improving it to the point where it's relevent in combat is VERY expensive.
Here's the issue, the big cat is dependent on charge to get any damage (he has to charge to pounce) so if anyone ever gets in his way (which they will since his initiative is going to be lower then the average melee PC) or there's difficult terrain he only has a 1D8+5 bite attack to contribute.
On top of all that improving him with the standards feats (improved natural attack, power attack, etc.) only benefit him as if it where a dual wielding rogue (light 1hd weapons) so bleh.
It looks good on paper but in actual play he's less then effective.
Personally I'd say go for the Wolf instead, much better for you.
He takes half as many feats to power up and gets twice as much out of them as the cat.
lets take a 10th level wolf and the 3 main feats it needs, Power Attack, Improved Natural Attack and Vital Strike and see what it does on a normal attack.
4D6+13 damage (minimum) on every shot, and a free trip attempt every time. The cat at best can get a grab (only if it hits with the bite BTW) for a grapple penalty (preventing it from full attacking the next round) instead of the uber prone penalty and the goodies that offers.
Trust me, take the wolf give it power attack, improved natural attack, vital strike (and if you have the feat to spare = Multiattack).
That will make your wolf an amazing flank buddy and an even cooler mount.
One trick I've discovered to actually make the sniper rogue slightly less fail (and this works MUCH better for the alchemist BTW) is to take the Gang Up feat.
gang Up:
You are adept at using greater numbers against foes.
Prerequisites: Int 13, Combat Expertise.
Benefit: You are considered to be flanking an opponent if at least two of your allies are threatening that opponent, regardless of your actual positioning.
Normal: You must be positioned opposite an ally to flank an opponent.
With this feat IF you have more than one melee'er in your party you are ALWAYS flanking and your sneak attack goes off on every arrow regardless of where you are.
It does have the feat tax of needing to have Combat expertise but it's an acceptable price for consistently getting your Sneak Attacks off.
If you don't usually have 2 or more melee available then you will need to make use of James Maissens idea from above.
Pick up a vibrant Purple Prism Ioun stone 2k and a wand of Summon Minor Monster. This will let you put 1+ extra allies into melee with the target letting you benefit from Gang Up and keeping your Sneak attack going.
Alchemists can actually just summon a lvl 1 critter into melee and go from there.
Rogues are just pretty bad in general but trying to make an archer one is just painful.
I think that the archetype is meant only for witches that take a creature of the animal type as a familiar.
StreamOfTheSky say "Considering IMO most witches will have taken Improved Familiar by then". Really? And they will kill their familiar to replace it? As far as I can see there are no rules for dismissing a familiar.
Then, even if you allow the dismissal of familiars, there is the problem of all the extra spells know to it and now lost.
PRD wrote:
If a familiar is lost or dies, it can be replaced 1 day later through a special ritual that costs 500 gp per witch level. The ritual takes 8 hours to complete. A new familiar begins knowing all of the 0-level spells plus two spells of every level the witch is able to cast. These are in addition to any bonus spells known by the familiar based on the witch's level and her patron (see patron spells).
Replacing your familiar at 7th level to get an homunculus mean getting a grand total of:
all the 0 level spells, 2 first level, 2 second level, 2 third level and 2 fourth level plus the patron spells.
Full stop.
Less than the 2 spell for each witch level that she would get normally.
@ Mathwei ap Niall
Sure, the level 10 power is an extra chance of survival, but being struck in a animal body till you can find a new suitable one isn't so good.
As written it will interfere with raise dead and resurrection, as the soul isn't available to be recalled to the body.
So you need to clone your old body or get it revivified without a soul.
You exchange a way to return to life for a way cling to life in a diminished form.
Very good for NPC that are more often loners, less good for the players characters that normally operate in a group.
The Devs have already responded that if you take an improved familiar you don't lose anything. You only ever lose the spells a familiar holds if it DIES or you LOSE it anything other then those two options and you keep all the spells it knows.
Also, have you looked at what you can do with an at-will magic jar with no receptacle? Any creature you see with a soul (ie. EVERYTHING but constructs) can become your new PERMANENT body.
Decide you want to be a king? He fails his save he's kicked out of his own body and dies (a soul with no place to go immediately dies and goes to the after-life) you move in and you are now the king for as long as you want.
Now replace the word king in the above statement with (in no particular order): Baby, Dragon, Tarrasque, Elf, Caliking, Demon, Giant, etc. You can KILL any of these at will with a single Will save (which you can debuff the heck out of as a witch) and turn the resultant meat shell into your parties punching bag or finger puppet a hundred times a day with no penalty to you.
This will give you a big bad who can remotely spy on, disable and attack your party from a mile away. It'll have access to EVERY spell in the game as well some truly unique spell like abilities.
Since it's part of a group of BBEG it can also function as an amazing party buffer and unseen back-up since everything it does is from a mobile artillery base a mile away.
Okay, it looks like the homonculus idea won't work (for the purposes of getting an improved familiar with the cooperative crafting feat). As a construct, you can add one additional HD to a homonculus (50% more HD than base). This gives it 3 HD, which gives an extra feat and some skill points. While skill points can be invested in Craft (alchemy) to meet the feat's requirements, the feat also requires that you have another item creation feat...which the homonculus doesn't. Basically, you're still a feat short.
Oh, well. It would've been cool to have a little homonculus alchemy helper.
[edit]
Here's the feat in question:
Cooperative Crafting
Your assistance makes item crafting far more efficient.
Prerequisites: 1 rank in any Craft skill, any item creation feat.
Benefit: You can assist another character in crafting mundane and magical items. You must both possess the relevant Craft skill or item creation feat, but either one of you can fulfill any other prerequisites for crafting the item. You provide a +2 circumstance bonus on any Craft or Spellcraft checks related to making an item, and your assistance doubles the gp value of items that can be crafted each day.
Is this feat even as good as I'm thinking it is? Obviously a +2 to the craft check is nice, but it's that last part: "your assistance doubles the gp value of items that can be crafted each day." Does that basically mean that items take half as long to make (since time to craft is measured by the gp value)?
Just wanted to jump in and correct an error in your assumptions.
First, the rule that Gignere is quoting is an OPTIONAL generic rule for modifying constructs and is different then the increasing hit die rule specific to Homonculi.
By default the only limit to how many Hit Die you can add onto a normal Homonculus is how much cash you spend.
Second the feat is really not worth it, as Benchak said it's much easier to just buy your Homonculus with Master Craftsman, craft wondrous item and evolved familiar (skilled) feat. Take that little trunk monkey and put it in a bag of holding with the materials it needs and have it craft the items for you.
As a construct he never gets tired so he can craft 24/7 (3 times faster then you) and with his significantly higher skill ranks then you can easily make anything you tell it to make faster then you ever could. Add to that since you can have more then one Homonculus at a time buy it 2 lesser ones to assit it with aid another checks (or up their HD and have them craft other items alongside it in the same bag).
This is how the Kingmaker AP is probably churning out all those potent magic items every month. :P
Oh definitely true Ogre, this is more of a boss or big nasty tactic. Usually you'll spend the first round moving into flank with another PC or tossing a poke ball (summon monster/nature's ally/minor monster/etc) from a 2nd level wand to setup flank and then unleash.
It's not a super EASY think to keep running all day but whenever you want to this build murders everything. Quickly.
edit: Abraham don't forget the effective bonus of ignoring your opponents dex modifier. It's usually worth at least a +1 - +2 more to hit.
And it's not 3 rounds spent buffing it's 1 round spent buffing.
Round one:
Tumor Familiar pours Alchemical Allocation down your throat on it's action (Full)
Slam invisibility Potion (move) (assuming he took accelerated drinker)
Slam Cat's Grace Potion (move) (this one doesn't get the allocation though, good thing it's cheap and quick for you to make one)
Move into melee and murder the boss and you only do this until you get a +4 Dex belt then you never worry about it again.
At 3rd level, a horizon walker learns total dominance over one terrain he has already selected for terrain mastery. When dealing with creatures native to that terrain, the horizon walker treats his favored terrain bonus for that terrain as a favored enemy bonus (as the ranger class feature) against those creatures. This bonus overlaps (does not stack with) bonuses gained when fighting a favored enemy.
You don't NEED (or even want) a Favored enemy if you are going into the Horizon Walker Prestige Class. It gives you a better FE then rangers get AND gets a higher bonus faster too.
Weapon Training + Gloves of Dueling (+Greater Focus/Specialization). Rangers, read it and weep. :p
Ranger/Horizon Walker + Instant Enemy = +20 to hit & +20 damage & +20 initiative.
Fighters, read it and weep. <Channelling Nelson> HA HA
"When dealing with creatures native to that terrain, the horizon walker treats his favored terrain bonus for that terrain as a favored enemy bonus (as the ranger class feature) against those creatures.This bonus overlaps (does not stack with) bonuses gained when fighting a favored enemy."
I don't think Instant Enemy combines with that by RAW...
You're looking at it wrong.
Pick a creature of a type that isn't your favored enemy then cast instant enemy on it so that you can treat it as the TYPE of one of your FE. Choose the type that is native to the terrain that you have stacked for your Terrain Dominance.
This fulfills all the requirements to get that +20 (or higher, buy the boots) for Dominance.
Profit.
Seems wrong. The creatures still have to be native to that terrain, or?
If you get to boots or not doesn't really matter if the creature isn't native to that terrain. Can you explain in to me?
You really need to read the intant enemy spell to get this.
Instant Enemy wrote:
With this spell you designate the target as your favored enemy for the remainder of its duration. Select one of your favored enemy types. For the duration of the spell, you treat the target as if it were that type of favored enemy for all purposes.
I bolded the important part. When you use this spell whatever your target is it is now considered of the type you choose INCLUDING what terrain it is native too.
You've stacked all your favored terrain bonuses for one terrain (and wearing boots of that terrain as well) so now that terrain bonus is your new favored enemy bonus vs that specific opponent.
You should be rocking a +20 to a +24ish bonus on hit, damage, Survival, perception, Sense Motive, Bluff and Knowledge vs the target of this spell. And if you are actually in that terrain at the time you get that bonus to your initiative as well.
For more uberness take the Guide archetype and add an additional +6 to hit and damage as well.
@streamofsky, 9 times out of ten what ever you choose as your favored enemy is going to be native to the terrain you took as favored terrain (stack your bonuses man) so you don't need to cast IE, you're already rocking those bonuses already and you can save the spell.
Realistically the best thing to do is take favored enemy=Human & favored terrain=Urban. Then like 60% of the time you are rocking your bonuses against anything you fight. Everything else gets instant enemy and then QUICKLY dies.
You get +5 to attack on an ariel charge instead of normal bonus.
normally you get +1 for higher ground and +2 for charging.
I'm not sure if the feat is worth it.
The advantage is pairing it with the Tactical Acumen spell (which should be up pretty often). That +5 bonus will get up to a +9 to hit (massive bonus on a 3/4 bab class that is often tanking their to-hit bonus).
Put this on a strength magus with power attack and you can pretty much never miss for that one big massive blow.
It makes for a great opener (or finisher) with a minor investment.
This archtype looks like someone watched The Forbidden Kingdom one afternoon and decided that Li Bing Bing was called a witch, had white hair, and could grapple and trip people with her hair, and decided this would make an awesome...
My first, immediate thought as I was reading their first level ability before I read all the way through and got the the "replaces hexes" part, was...
"...A Witch archetype to make Bayonetta, perhaps?!" *crossed fingers*
Oh well, there's always the Hexcrafter Magus.
Ayup, a 2 level dip into this with the Magical Knack trait so you get the reach. Then take 4 levels of Magus (hexcrafter) to get the hexes back and that sexy, sexy spellstrike ability. 10 ft reach touch attacks that snatch your target into melee range and drops the grappled condition on them to boot. Then you go to town with your haste driven, keen'ed, thundering, frostbite empowered scimitar for all the nasty goodness that gives.
Your GM will weep.
That or you go Feral Alchemist (vivisectionist) instead and pile on the 5 extra sneak attack powered primary natural attacks.
Seems overkill but it's funny to watch.
Yeah, this is a truly horrible archetype when looked at on it's own.
It is however probably the best dip class for melee I've ever seen. Mix this with any of the natural weapon builds out there (Ranger, feral alchemist, Beast totem Barbarian) or maneuver focused character (tetori, brawler, Maneuver master monk) or ANY flavor of Magus and watch every GM cry.
The free grapple check on ANY successful attack (other combat maneuvers are still flagged as attacks) mixed with agile maneuvers + True Strike is just abusive.
A single level dip in this on a natural attack using build is just insanely dangerous and throwing in the Witches spell list is just vicious..
