Not to mention the Clustered Shots feat in that same exact book...
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Someone thought you lost armor training or got an inferior version of it, which is not the case. I agree, losing Weapon Training hurts a lot, the only archetype that loses it (not counting all the ones that just give it to you with a specific weapon or the like) I'd ever consider is Unbreakable.
The solution is the same thing it's been for the past decade and yet to this day continues to meet overwhelming resistance for reasons I cannot comprehend: Just let the Monk be able to be enhanced as a magic weapon! No grotesquely overpriced amulets that are called Mighty Fist but are actually only worth the cost to 6 armed demons and the like. No stupid spell work arounds. No idiotic brass knuckles that twist the concept of "an attack with any part of your body is still the same weapon -- your unarmed strike" into giant pretzels until the devs go and nerf it into uselessness in reaction. No feat taxes like Monte Cook's Hands as Weapons (though, this is BY FAR the least of all the possible evils if the solution isolated above offends your sensibilities somehow). No need for a special prestige class whose primary purpose is to simply give you the ability. No making a Warforged Monk just so you can ask the DM why you can enhance your armor plating or your slam attack, but not your unarmed strike. Just let it be enhanced. It already counts as magic by level 4, and a monk's body at level 20 is somehow "perfect" and yet not "masterwork quality." Just end the madness! Please!
Tower Shield Training reverts to normal armor training when not using a tower shield, so first off there is NO downside to gaining it instead of normal armor training. At worst, you're where any other fighter would be. If you DO use a tower shield, though, you basically get an extra two points deducted from armor check penalty and +1 max dex over regular armor training's values (ie, at AT III you'd have 5 lower check penalty and +4 max dex, for example). So it's strictly better than normal armor training. They do lose weapon training for other class features, though, which may be annoying for you.
Well, there is the apppropriately named "Dervish Dance" feat, and that archetype does give you scimitar proficiency... If you're going that route and keeping one hand unused, as the feat requires, I strongly would recommend picking up Crane Style and Crane Wing feats (dipping Master of Many Styles Monk if you need to to qualify / short on feats) so you're more survivable in melee. At that point, may want Deflect Arrows, too. I have to say, though, if the PCs are so crazy broken they're doing hundreds of damage per round, damage dealing is probably not a wise route for you to go. You'll never come close to that as a bard, dervish or not. You'd be better off picking a different class/archetype and focusing on buffing allies or debuffing enemies / battlefield control at that point, so you're not just being completely outdone by the others. Just my opinion. http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/dervish-dance-combat Dervish Dance (Combat)
Prerequisites: Dexterity 13, Weapon Finesse, Perform (dance) 2 ranks, proficient with scimitar. Benefit: When wielding a scimitar with one hand, you can use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on melee attack and damage rolls. You treat the scimitar as a one-handed piercing weapon for all feats and class abilities that require such a weapon (such as a duelist’s precise strike ability). The scimitar must be for a creature of your size. You cannot use this feat if you are carrying a weapon or shield in your off hand.
UM introduced the concept of vermin companions. They're like animal companions mostly, but one nice benefit is they're mindless with Int --, making them immune to mind-affecting stuff, great quality for a companion, IMO. The downside is...they can't get any skill ranks or feats unless you give them points into int. At which point, they lose Mindless and you're left with just a really dumb "animal companion." Not bad if you can deal with the lack of feats and skill points, though (they get bonus tricks, but no others). I really like the Giant Mantis. It has great racial stealth bonuses, 3 movement modes, low-light and darkvision, and a bunch more unique qualities that set it apart from other choices. UC has the Clustered Shots feat once you hit BAB +6 and have PBS and Precise Shot. Lets you tally all your damage on a foe from multiple hits and apply his DR to that value only once. Almost essential for ranged weapon users, including switch hitters. I do have to say, switch hitters aren't as important beyond core. APG introduced the Point Blank Master feat (and UC just added a smilar feat for thrown weapons) to shoot while threatened without provoking. UC also introduced a feat like (Snap Shot) to threaten with your bow, but I'm not sure those are worth bothering with.
Not. Cleric was one of the 3 top classes in 3E and got slightly BUFFED in Pathfinder (to be fair, so did Wizards, in both cases you just wonder why), so... no way are they weak. They are the pinnacle. They are more boring than other primary casters, IMO, but boring absolutely does not = weak.
The pirate's Trap Sense replacement (it also replaces trapfinding, which is clearly a mistake) is just plain better than Trap Sense, though their trapfinding replacement is weak. The 2nd level talent you're forced to take could be good (use a reach weapon, 5 ft step after your charge, and now they have to provoke an AoO from you to attack and don't even get a full attack for their troubles) if your DM lets you use it for similar structures in environments other than a ship, which I suspect many DMs will allow. Overall a slightly poor trade, but not by a large margin, I could see it being mechanically appealing to some. Wild Rager is horrific as a full barbarian. But, as a dip for a level or two, it's possibly amazing. The save DC is based on class level and charisma mod. If you're say...a dwarf with only 5 charisma and 1 level in the class, that's a will DC of 8. More likely, you'll face an imposing DC of like...12. You get a chance at the end of each turn to end the confusion if you want, meaning you have a pretty good control over when you go into confusion and when you don't. And since confusion rounds are "free" it can be a GREAT way for a dip to pad out his uses of rage per day -- as long as an enemy attacked you last round, there isn't even randomness involved. You just plain maul the people htat tried to hurt you. So again, Wild Rager: Awful for normal Barbs, potentially amazing for a dip. The REALLY bad archetype in that book is Ragechemist. My god is that awful. And since there's no known way to end a mutagen early, certainly once you're unconscious, you're not just spending one hour out cold. You're potentially spending several hours out. And with a will save (your worst save!) each round you take damage, and a cumulative -2 each time you fail...you will be out cold very, very quickly.
Remember that exiting rage during your turn, then re-entering it means you've spent 2 rounds of rage that round instead of 1 (one automatically when your turn started, and another when you entered rage). No. One round is one round. A round is six seconds long. A round of rage doesn't terminate with the end of your turn, it lasts all the way until the initiative cycles back to you. If you choose to drop out of it before taking your actions on your following turn, it has only consumed 1 round of rage. This is how ALL round-based mechanics work in D&D and Pathfinder, and your interpretation of the duration of "one round" is wrong and messes up all kinds of spell effects and other rules. And a Barbarian jumping in and out of rage still isn't abusive. Frankly, it's the only reason I'd ever take 95% of those once/rage powers, and the best ones generally have a high level requirement or lots of prerequisite powers anyway. Really, it's no worse than a Bard (who gets the ability to start a performance as a move or even a swift action by the time a Barbarian has likely gained fatigue immunity) flipping on inspire courage for a round then using Lingering Performance to carry it, and tripling his performance rounds for the day.
The absolute worst feat I have ever seen in any d20 game has to be Elephant Stomp.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/elephant-stomp-combat So, by taking this feat...upon winning a combat maneuver check that almost certainly cost your standard or full round (charge) action to use, since it's Overrun, you get the option to give up all the benefits you'd normally get for doing so in order to waste your immediate action to have a chance to hit it for damage. When you could have just attacked in the first place. Yeah...at least the much-maligned 3E toughness actually gave you 3 hit points. It was a matter of opportunity cost, not taking something better. You weren't actually making yourself literally worse for using it. |