Remco Sommeling's page

I'd probably create an adventure around a dragon or other legendary creature terrorizing the country side in the event it is defeated have the animal companion drink it's blood giving it some kind of special quality.

Depending on the creature it might give

* Dragon (cold), possibly a corrupted silver dragon

- Qualities much like a winter wolf

Raise ability scores to be at least as high as those of a winterwolf :

str 20 dex 13 con 18 int 9 wis 13 cha 10

darkvision 60 feet, breathweapon for 6d6 cold, cold immunity, vulnerability to fire, 1d6 cold damage on bite attack and whatever else that is superior to your animal companion wolf.

* Powerful Fey

- Fey touched

DR (1/2 wolf's HD)/cold iron, +4 dexterity

(I might go with this one and increase it's base speed by 10' as well)

How about generic bloodline power choices that sorcerers can pick instead of the preset bloodline powers of the class?

When getting a bloodline power, the sorcerer can take the appropriate level (or lower) bloodline power, or pick from a generic bloodline power list.

Example Generic Bloodline Powers:

*** +1 caster level with bloodline spells

*** +1 DC to bloodline spells

*** ability to cast bloodline spells without AOOs

*** ability to use a previously picked bloodline power one additional time per day

*** +2 spell penetration to bloodline spells

etc.

These generic bloodline powers might be picked via a bloodline feat as well instead of getting the feat.

I rather expand the bloodline feats to a generalized list that sorcerers can pick as bonus feats besides the bloodline feats available, I already added all the meta magic feats but there are certainly more options that could be added. I think there are feats around for most of your examples, doing that or more.

I want to avoid focusing too much on the bloodline spells for the base class because like I mentioned some bloodline spells are fairly useless to enhance (no combat application, no variables, no saves, no SR).

The refurbished sorcerer should be fully compatible with almost any option that is out there and should be easy to put into play.

"Polymorph: a polymorph spell transforms your physical body to take on the shape of another creature. While these spells make you appear to be the creature, granting you a +10 bonus on Disguise skill checks, they do not grant you all of the abilities and powers of the creature. Each polymorph spell allows you to assume the form of a creature of a specific type, granting you a number of bonuses to your ability scores and a bonus to your natural armor. In addition, each polymorph spell can grant you a number of other benefits, including movement types, resistances, and senses. If the form you choose grants these benefits, or a greater ability of the same type, you gain the listed benefit. If the form grants a lesser ability of the same type, you gain the lesser ability instead. Your base speed changes to match that of the form you assume. If the form grants a swim or burrow speed, you maintain the ability to breathe if you are swimming or burrowing. The DC for any of these abilities equals your DC for the polymorph spell used to change you into that form."

While the bolded part doesn't say explicitly that you can breathe underwater that seems the only sensible explanation.

The Spell component pouch is kinda a 5gp tax on the wizard, but I think it adds a lot of flavour. But there's no listing of the contents and no number of uses. The wizard buys it once at 1st level and they don't ever need to restock-up on bat guano or pork fat again.

I was thinking of adding a limit to the number of times a single pouch can be used. Tracking individual components seems the way of madness, so a cap on uses (like a healing kit) seems to be the idea way.

Off the top of my head let's say 50 uses for 10 uses per gp with each spell with a material component using 1 user per spell level.
Or would it be better to just go with something like 25 uses (5/gp) with no spell variation.

And, of course, Knowledge (nature) or (arcana) might be able to restore a couple uses from a corpse or when exploring the wilderness.

Thoughts?

It does give a (slight) incentive not to waste spells and, if you apply it to cantrips, prevents spam casting to some extent, but the bookkeeping will only be fun at the lowest levels of the game.

I am looking at it and I think there is too much focus on the bloodline spells, particularly Eldritch Focus, there are just too many spells that are not affected much by caster level and others that benefit much more.

I will change Eldritch Focus to provide a bonus of +1 to concentration checks and skill checks concerning the sorcerer's bloodline skill, increasing every 4 levels after 4th. This reflects the sorcerer's more natural approach to magic compared to other casters.

1st__Bloodline Power, Bloodline Spell, Eschew Materials, Cantrips
2nd__Bloodline Feat
3rd__Bloodline Power, Bloodline Spell
4th__Eldritch Focus +1
5th__Bloodline Spell
6th__Bloodline Feat
7th__Bloodline Spell
8th__Eldritch Focus +2
9th__Bloodline Power, Bloodline Spell
10th_Bloodline Feat
11th_Bloodline Spell
12th_Eldritch Focus +3
13th_Bloodline Spell
14th_Bloodline Feat
15th_Bloodline Power, Bloodline Spell
16th_Eldritch Focus +4
17th_Bloodline Spell
18th_Bloodline Feat
19th_Eldritch Scion
20th_Bloodline Power, Eldritch Focus +5

Changes to the base sorcerer from the CRB :

- Bloodline spells are gained much earlier, all except the 1st level spell are gained a level before you gain the actual spell level, this prevents you from not picking that thematically appropriate spell the first chance you get. (see next point)

- You get a single bonus spell slot you can use to cast any bloodline spell you know, if you use it to cast a spell of lower level than your highest level sorcerer spell known you can apply meta magic feats to raise it's level up to your highest level spell known, though you still have to use a full round action to cast it if you do.

- The sorcerer gains a bloodline feat at 2nd level and every 4 levels after 2, 6, 10, 14 and 18 (instead of 7, 13 and 19). Add all meta magic feats and skill focus in the sorcerer's bloodline skill to the possible feats you can select.

- At 4th level, the sorcerer gains Eldritch Focus which gives a +1 concentration checks when casting sorcerer spells and on skill checks with the sorcerer's bloodline class skill. This bonus increases by +1 at 8th level and every 4 levels after.

- At 19th level, you gain Eldritch Scion as a class ability. This allows the casting of any bloodline spell as if cast with still and silent spell meta magic feats without increasing casting time or spell level.

I really like the idea I read a long time ago that gave sorcerer 0 spell slots for a spell level 1 level earlier (so 1 spell slot with high enough CHA - skin to paladin spell slots) and then the bloodline spells were known 2 levels earlier.

Example: 3rd level - draconic sorcerer - 14+ CHA - has 1 2nd level spell slot and knows Resist Energy as a 2nd level spell

This made it to where the bloodline spells were more favored whereas currently they arrive way too late in my opinion. An elemental sorcerer is going to want to cast Burning Hands at first level, not wait until third to get the spell.

Thinking about it I changed things extrapolating upon your suggestion. I managed to fit things in while avoiding dead levels and gave the 1st level bloodline spell right off the bat which seems appropriate :

1st__Bloodline Power, Bloodline Spell, Eschew Materials, Cantrips
2nd__Bloodline Feat
3rd__Bloodline Power, Bloodline Spell
4th__Eldritch Focus +1
5th__Bloodline Spell
6th__Bloodline Feat
7th__Bloodline Spell
8th__Eldritch Focus +2
9th__Bloodline Power, Bloodline Spell
10th_Bloodline Feat
11th_Bloodline Spell
12th_Eldritch Focus +3
13th_Bloodline Spell
14th_Bloodline Feat
15th_Bloodline Power, Bloodline Spell
16th_Eldritch Focus +4
17th_Bloodline Spell
18th_Bloodline Feat
19th_Eldritch Scion
20th_Bloodline Power, Eldritch Focus +5

Changes :

- Bloodline spells are gained much earlier, all except the 1st level spell are gained a level before you gain the actual spell level, this prevents you from not picking that thematically appropriate spell the first chance you get. (see next point)

- You get a single bonus spell slot you can use to cast any bloodline spell you know, if you use it to cast a spell of lower level than your highest level sorcerer spell known you can apply meta magic feats to raise it's level up to your highest level spell known, though you still have to use a full round action to cast it if you do.

- The sorcerer gains a bloodline feat at 2nd level and every 4 levels after 2, 6, 10, 14 and 18 (instead of 7, 13 and 19). Add all meta magic feats and skill focus in the sorcerer's bloodline skill to the possible feats you can select.

- At 4th level, the sorcerer gains Eldritch Focus which gives a +1 caster level to her bloodline spells when cast as a spell from her daily slots or from an item. This bonus increases by +1 at 8th level and every 4 levels after.

- At 19th level, you gain Eldritch Scion as a class ability. This allows the casting of any bloodline spell as if cast with still and silent spell meta magic feats without increasing casting time or spell level.

Ok, the power got boosted significantly compared to the 1st incarnation but I do not think it is over the top. I had to push some powers forward to fill the gaps left by pushing the bloodline bonus spell forward and thus ended up adding Eldritch Scion at lvl 19 and Eldritch Focus +5 at lvl 20.

The 3.5 VoP specifies that they DID take thier share and donated it. Doesnt change WBL at all.

That does make it better I suppose, though I'd have a minimum amount of donation to get the next level's powers.

Still think the game needs a more fundamental change in this area, dont think that will ever happen though.

ok, I like sorcerers, they are flavorful but I feel that they are getting to be a bit outdated. The oracle as a class seems to run smoother and with a more nicely integrated bonus spell progression, wizards get more ability to cast spells spontaneously and many adventureres can claim arcane ancestors and flashing their bloodline powers through Eldritch Heritage feats. This is not meant to be a radical change to the sorcerer, just an attempt to fill out some dead levels and give it back a little of it's lost shine.

1st__Bloodline Power, Bloodline Arcana, Eschew Materials, Cantrips
2nd__Bloodline Spell
3rd__Bloodline Power, Bloodline Feat
4th__Bloodline Spell
5th__Eldritch Focus +1
6th__Bloodline Spell
7th__Bloodline Feat
8th__Bloodline Spell
9th__Bloodline Power, Eldritch Focus +2
10th_Bloodline Spell
11th_Bloodline Feat
12th_Bloodline Spell
13th_Eldritch Focus +3
14th_Bloodline Spell
15th_Bloodline Power, Bloodline Feat
16th_Bloodline Spell
17th_Eldritch Focus +4
18th_Bloodline Spell
19th_Bloodline Feat
20th_Bloodline Power

Changes :

- Bloodline spells are gained at the levels you gain the appropriate spell level, this prevents you from not picking that thematically appropriate spell the first chance you get.

- The sorcerer gains a bloodline feat at 3rd level and every 4 levels after (instead of at 7, 13 and 19)

- At 5th level, the sorcerer gains Eldritch Focus which gives a +1 caster level to her bloodline spells when cast as a spell from her daily slots or from an item. This bonus increases by +1 at 9th level and every 4 levels after.

Don't be shy with your (constructive) criticism, the changes are fairly minor but if you have suggestions or think this or that could be done better please do tell.

Ok with all that had been Said on this I have one Question.

Can personal Spells be made into Wondrous Item at all? if Not where does it say so. I know this applies to potions.

There is no rule against it, but there are precious few hard rules with item creation as is, spells themselves are not always made to balance very well or written with an arcane caster in mind.

Thanks, Remco. Actually, I am planning to take the Craft Construct feat and prereq's as well. I probably should just focus on the Machine Soldier. As you say, a mindless character really wouldn't make a good Cohort.

I can see your point on the Armor training and armor proficiency. I think armor would just take away from my concept of the Machine Soldier. I think I will pitch your ideas to my GM as well. I may let the Bravery just be a waste, so I am not requesting too much at once.

Appreciate your input, my GM will get the final say of course, but I like to have an idea of what seems fair before I propose this to him.

you are welcome, I actually like it enough to put the machine soldier in my game as a wizard's bodyguard. It doesn't seem overpowered at BAB +7 base, +4 (str 18), +1 (WF), +1 (magic weapon), +1 (str belt) = +14/+9 seems very managable and not outshine any warriors in a 10th lvl party.

It is damn durable though as long as you don't forget to have some scrolls with 'make whole' handy, an intensified make whole will cure 10d6 points at 10th lvl.

Rapid repair (lvl 5) is also very useful and keep it the hell away from people with adamantine weapons.

I see a number of factors and potential problems/fixes. You're already into "ask the DM" territory by allowing magic item crafting, you might as well throw in some DM fiat to cover up any problems in foresight.

First, this item can't be "slotless" if it's a ring. I don't know where that came from. What this does allow for is wielding a two-handed weapon or use of two-weapon fighting while maintaining a shield bonus.

Since this isn't an actual shield strapped to the character's arm but rather a spell effect, I would rule that feats such as shield focus and such do not apply to the effect. It cannot be upgraded like a normal shield (so it will always be a +4, and can't increase to +7 AC like a +5 heavy shield).

If the player is specifically interested in blocking magic missiles...? Okay... is that something that happens every session? Even every other session? If it's happening enough that you think it will break your game balance, I would respectfully suggest that you consider having your NPC spellcasters try new things. Magic missile is a solid fallback, and easy to predict in terms of how it can impact combat, but it's far from the best use of a spell slot.

I'm also similarly unimpressed with the 'ghost touch' property effect. Ask yourself how often this will come up and whether or not it will break your game. Don't shut your player down just because a bunch of people on a forum insist that it's worth X amount of gold.

Ask yourself these questions and really come at them with a SUBJECTIVE view point. It's my personal opinion that ghost touch is overpriced. Some people get more mileage out of incorporeal enemies, that's them. But what about YOUR game? You don't have plans for lots of ghosts and uh... what else is incorporeal? (See? I hardly use them.) Then the force effect is kinda meh, and you don't want to stick your player with a cool but otherwise useless piece of gear that he shelled out a crap ton of gold on.

Point is, take the advice given here with a grain of salt; it's all...

I disagree with most everything you say, but agree with your opinion that ghost touch is overpriced.

To me that is a side effect of the shield though, the shield bonus itself is a bit of a problem granting it too cheaply will allow more AC stacking and diminishes shield users, custom crafting items is fine but when you are stacking bonuses that are not easily available in the Core it can cause problems, item creation is meant to be fun not to upset the game's balance. It will not cause higher ACs directly, but it will create characters with high AC that hit as hard as characters with lower AC now and shield users feeling silly for even bothering with a shield.

I still think it's fine, we all know it is not an option from the CRB it is in the advanced book, if we are worried for player to not recognize a bad option for their character they will have bigger problems.

As it is the VoP monk can be taken by PCs but will end up being a bit silly since you can pick one item and have it enchanted till infinity at an additional cost.

So monk with VoP will have a +5 amulet of mighty fists, +5 natural armor, +5 deflection, +5 saves, +8 armor, +6 strength, +6 dexterity +6 constitution and +6 wisdom by epic levels... probably wouldn't really need the actual item, but VoP does not play nice with the pillage and loot system otherwise, I mean WBL. It makes other players comparatively stronger by having the monk not take his share.

every complete 4 levels you exchange your favored class bonus to get extra points, it means you will get no benefit the first 3 levels, but the wait is worth it.

Animal companion is much tougher to replace than bought animal as well.

Actually according to the druid entry it is quite easily done.

As a GM I would not allow a mindless automaton for the leadership feat as such, if you can spare 3 feats to craft them they can be quite viable and not too expensive.

The machine soldier would be ok in my book, a normal lvl 8 cohort would be CR 7, the machine soldier is CR 4 adding 3 fighter levels should be alright.

I'd encourage an archetype without armor training and bravery and see if you can exchange the armor proficiency for something useful maybe 1 or 2 feats. Though the machine soldier doesn't specifically forbid armor it seems to imply that.

Machine Soldier archetype

replace bravery
replace armor training
replace light, medium and heavy armor proficiency

- Toughness and combat expertise as bonus feats

- A machine soldier can not gain proficiency in any armor and gains an additional armor check penalty of 2 when it attempts to wear any armor. The GM might allow custom armors that ignore this added armor check penalty at an additional cost in crafting of 500 gold, it can not be made masterwork armor in addition to this modification, but could be made of specific materials or enchanted as if it was masterwork.

- At 2nd level, a machine soldier gains a +1 bonus to CMD against bull rush, drag, overrun, and trip attempts. This bonus also applies on saves against trample attacks. The bonus increases by +1 for every four levels beyond 2nd.

- At 3rd level, A machine soldier gains a +2 bonus to existing natural armor. This bonus increases by +1 for every four levels beyond 3rd.

- At 7th level it gains light fortification, at 11th level it gains moderate fortification, at 15th level it gains heavy fortification.

This would start the Machine Soldier at lvl 4, with 74 hp and an AC of 20, not counting a potential shield, feats taken (improved natural armor or dodge come to mind) or spells cast (mage armor).

So, it either costs 22,000 or 38,000 gp for this item. Now, importantly, we're all assuming this is a slot-item (which it should be), and the question that springs to mind is should we make the wizard pay through the nose for an item that a fighter gets to have with an outlay of +2 heavy shield of shielding 10,000 gp (in exchange for encumbrance and having to strap on a physical shield)? I'd say no, so my final GM price comes in at a measly 22,000 gp, using the armour (enhancement) pricing option.

Strapping on a shield is a choice of combat style with it's own benefits and disadvantages, and for which shield proficiency is required. A shield would hinder a fighter using his off-hand for anything than holding the shield negating superior 2-handed weapon choices (bows and big swords) or taking advantage of other effective weapon styles (dervish stuff).

This shield just hangs there all the time and can allow that same fighter to get a shield bonus without sacrificing damage potential, monk can get a shield bonus that it normally would not have access to, a wild shaped druid would become more formidable.

Also it stacks completely with anything but a shield and shield spell, if you make it 'cheap to get' AC it will end up raising the AC of everyone but the shield fighter.

And finally, I want to apologize. You have touched on a nerve with me. Two, actually. Let me explain. I have a couple of pet peeves that you managed to nail pretty hard:

1. When someone posts something on a forum and says "I want to play X" and someone else posts, "You shouldn't play X. You should play Y instead because it is much better."" That person didn't ask for opinions on a completely different kind of character. They asked for opinions on how to make the type of character that THEY wanted to play. The person offering his "advice" wasn't being exactly helpful.

2. When someone says, "I want to make a character that does X." and someone else posts, "You should play a Summoner because a Summoner can do better at everything than any other class." And, yes, I understand that I am exaggerating here. It was intentional because this is how I perceive it now after seeing so many people post something similar to this. I understand I'm sensitive to this but, well, Summoners just annoy me. Perhaps it is even due to their versatility. I do not like it when caster classes (say the Synthesist Summoner for example) can make better melee combatants than classes that were designed for it (like say the Fighter).

So no hard feelings, but the Summoner advice will not be getting used for this build. Thank you for posting your suggestions, though.

Fair enough, I didn't think it was a completely different character and thought it might have been helpful, I was trying to focus on the things you wanted it to do and not make it better in all ways. My apologies if I ended up doing the opposite of helping. I should note that I do not like summoners either mostly because they are so easy to abuse and make something entirely devoid of flavor but they have potential if you stick to a theme. The summoner is mechanically capable but with a stronger focus on buffing and casting, but.. I better not get into it any further. No hard feelings I am just trying to help to make a viable build.

Permanent shield should not be 4,000 gold, I am sure there are other threads on this but.. mixing up a few different PoV I would estimate the price by.

Compare it to bracers of armor, it should have a CL of 8 at least and cost 16,000 gold for an armor bonus.

The interesting bit here is that it isn't actually much more expensive than a continuous mage armor, it would be 16,000 gold for a CL 8 armor if it had a 24 hour duration and 24,000 gold for 10 minutes per lvl, it probably should be somewhere in between but 1 hour/lvl isn't in the table it can go either way in this case it is cheaper, since it is so easy to get without investing in an item presumably.

A shield spell, estimated at CL 8 would be fair by the same standards, multiplied by 2 since it is a minute/lvl duration, it comes down to 32,000 gold, but.. it is usually a personal use spell, while that is hard to estimate I'd round it up to 36,000 gold.

A ring of force shield seems to be close enough at 8,500 gold quite expensive for it's primary purpose (providing a shield bonus), though there are some other situational uses I will ignore them for now, the 500 gold as well as the fact that you still need to wield it should handle that. 8,000 gold for a +2 shield bonus, would translate to roughly 32,000 gold for a +4 bonus but wouldnt include magic missile immunity unlimited brooch probably twice the price at least which is 3,000 gold - price would be 35,500 gold for a force shield with +4 shield bonus and magic missile immunity by my estimation, 37,000 if you want to add the 50% cost for extra enchantments.

Seems fair enough to put it down at 36,500 gold, with a CL of 8 in my opinion. 32,000 for the shield bonus and 4,500 for unlimited brooch of shielding, though I might make that 3,000 gold since it is thematic and copies the shield spell for a total of 35,000.

I'd allow the shield to be upgraded up to +6, a bit less than bracers of armor, a +5 ring of shielding would be 53,000 gold, +6 would be 75,000 gold. A weaker ring would be +1 for 5,000 gold, +2 for 11,000 gold or +3 for 21,000 gold.

If I'd go with the more expensive version it would be :
+1 for 6,000 gold, +2 for 12,500 gold, +3 for 22,500, +4 for 36,500, +5 for 54,500, +6 for 76,500. I am more inclined to use this version since I do not want a shield bonus to become a common source of AC bonus unless you actually wield a shield (or can cast a shield spell).

Perhaps it is an option to change domains somehow, it does not seem too far fetched considering most GMs have some way of having clerics change deities (and thus presumably domains) as well, and considering your GM allows 3.5 material he might also be willing to have you change domains.

Sylvan bloodline might work as an alternate way of getting an animal companion though that would take two feats for a weaker animal companion, which seems about right, with boon companion added you get a full druid companion. Ofcourse you also get +6 on knowledge nature checks at 10th+ and can spend another feat at lvl 11 to get greater invisibility for x rounds per day or gain woodland stride (and after that change into a pixie for x minute/day for another feat), though it is open to discussion wether it is allowed it seems fine to me.

All fine, mostly solid arguments since I do not know what your son wants exactly I am just stating it as an option I will go through the objections you listed.

1. True, it isn't faster so it only matters if the build is infact perceived to be better for this character.

2. Fair enough, I do not know what your son wants exactly, but comparing the eidolon and an AC :

- you can not compare them at lvl 1, since you do not have an AC at level 1, at the earliest you can take Eldritch Heritage at lvl 3, with cha 13 (which can be houseruled away, possibly) at which point the Eidolon would be a 3rd lvl Eidolon vs a 1st lvl AC.

- The Eidolon does not 'die' it gets unsummoned, a substantial benefit at any level.

- You forgot the +2 starting AC for the Eidolon and it has another 3 EV points to spend, so start AC could be as high as 17 with 2 more points to spend, since it has hover it can just about always benefit from higher ground for +1 to hit, has a superior standard action attack and has no cost or Armor Check penalty for light armor.

- Superior skills and intelligence with a telepathic link, you dont need handle animal checks to control it which are hardest to do at low level.

- AC and Eidolon have average hp so Roc 7 hp, Eidolon 6 hp (but as said comparing at 1st lvl is not really applicable).

- Your sample for 8th lvl Eidolon is way off, comes up 1 EV points short at the base, does not include stats for being large, ignores 2 EV points from the suggested archetype, an half-elves (potential) extra EV points and the +2 starting AC for the base form. Eidolon hp is 6d10+18 (51), animal companion 6d8+18 (45 with toughness feat). I'd also say that the summoner can easily cast an armor spell to buff the eidolon, negating most of the benefit of light armor and with the extra EV points and armor will come out with far superior AC (25 base, 29 with mage armor).

Spells missed at a casual glance :

1st - mostly inconsequential

2nd - glitterdust and some mostly inconsequential ones

3rd - dispel magic is not an area spell anymore.

4th - acid pit, faithful hound, wall of stone

5th - dispel magic (greater), hungry pit, tarpool, wall of iron

6th - incendiary cloud, antipathy

important to note :

AA1 1st lvl (CL 3)
3rd lvl (CL 9)

grease, glitterdust, create pit, wind wall, black tentacles, obsidian flow, pellet blast, spiked pit, wall of fire, wall of ice

AA3 1st lvl (CL 5)
4th lvl (CL 11)

+ acid pit, faithful hound, wall of stone

AA4 2nd lvl (CL 6)
4th lvl (CL 12)

AA7 3rd lvl (CL 8)
5th lvl (CL 15)

AA10 4th lvl (CL 10)
5th lvl (CL 17)

you made some good points on spells you miss, but caster level will be abominable for the most part, arrow eruption will target up to 10 creatures at AA 10 (lvl 18) and up to 6 at AA 4 (lvl 12) and still allows SR, making CR appropriate creatures with SR very unlikely to be affected. The CL is so bad that it is mostly not worthwhile to use imbue arrow in my opinion, the spell list of summoner starts much more appealing in my opinion and both can only select a number of spells as spontaneous casters which reduces the benefits of a diverse spell list somewhat.

I kinda like Paizo's VoP though only for NPCs, but I am fine with that.
I see no need for the sillyness of 3.x vow of poverty if you want to eliminate magic overload from the game do it for all classes, people looking at the mechanical benefits for the Vow of Poverty somehow strikes me as wrong.

I'd treat the 10'radius emanation just like a creature with 10' reach, the point the same squares you threaten are where the field is active, I compare it to a metal object emanating heat to a 10' radius if that object is 15'on all sides it still reaches 10' beyond that all around.

I would think it wouldn't keep you from being hit by ranged or far reaching weapons but natural attacks should be blocked, seems the only sensible way to deal with it.

Troglodytes are great for this. CR 1

Skum and skumbred humans might be even better if it is not creepy enough for you. CR 2, skumbred humans are presumably same stat as humans.

Mudra skeletons hint at something alien, maybe even a mudra skeleton champion. CR 1/2

Morlocks are basically degenerate humans that fit quite well too. CR 2

Adherers and derro are cool too but a bit high at CR 3.

Chaotic Evil Mongrelmen, slightly refluffed CR 1

gourry187: Why would he not be able to ride it? I did not see any rule stating that a mount has to be one size category larger than it's rider.

I am quite sure it is true, though I wouldn't know exactly where to find it, maybe it is not part of RAW anymore if it ever was, it makes sense that you cant ride a bird that isn't bigger than you though.

Remco Sommeling: In what way would Summoner help fit the priorities that I posted above?

1. It wouldn't enter AA any faster
2. It wouldn't have a Roc as an animal companion. The thing that it would have would not continue to progress after going into Arcane Archer.
3. The spell list for Summoner sucks for Arcane Archer. It just does.
4. You don't get even nearly the number of feats so I'm not sure what your plan is for fitting in the archery feats plus the ones I mentioned above.
5. Summoners are definitely not known for being sneaky. ...or archers.

gourry187: You wouldn't need Fighter 7. Fighter 6 gets enough BAB to qualify. But going straight fighter does not give the number of feats that the above build does nor does it cover his priorities to the same degree.

As far as birds of prey being stealthy... well, actually they usually are. And he was going to have his Roc take Hellcat Stealth as well and find other ways to pump it's Stealth check.

Besides that though, he wasn't planning on using Stealth while mounted often. That was mostly for when he was not mounted.

I missed the fact that you were allowed to use Eldritch Heritage to get the bloodline so I assumed your AC was static.

1. It wouldn't be slower

2. That is true it wouldn't advance unless you take more summoning levels, but you can wonder what you want from the AA class, nobody I know that has taken levels in it takes it all the way. The Eidolon itself is quite a bit superior to an AC so even losing a few levels would not be bad.

3. The spell list might be inferior to sorcerer but you enter the AA class as a sorcerer 1, compared to the spells an 8th lvl summoner has it's actually much superior, it does get quite a few handy spells with a much superior CL. I'd like to know what spells you really miss though, you would end up as an 8th lvl sorcerer after 10 AA levels compared to the list of a 15th lvl summoner.

4. Mounted combat is not needed, the AC of the Eidolon will be pretty good and there is the possibility to transfer hitpoints if needed. You would not need skill focus knowledge or Edlritch heritage, skill focus stealth is an half-elf bonus feat. Neither do you bother with boon companion, you are right though feats come up a bit short, I forgot that the summoner is not proficient with bows.

5. You dont really need charisma beyond 14, the rest you can put in dex, str, con which will make the summoner more sneaky once it enters AA and gets stealth as a class skill. They have average BAB and good buff potential, I guess they can be pretty decent archers

Also you do need a charisma of 13 for eldritch heritage regardless, so charisma 8 would not be possible to take the feat, if you boost charisma it will cost you points from your other stats.

Not sure if it has been said but you would not be able to take Boon Companion if you do not have the AC class feature, unless the GM gives his fiat ofcourse.

Summoner does not qualify for Arcane Archer until 8th level making it a fairly late entry. Aside from that their spell list is terrible for Imbue Arrow. It is my opinion that Summoner makes for a poor Arcane Archer.

I believe that the Arcane Archer is better suited towards a martial build that focuses more on the archery than the arcane. The arcane needs to come from a class that can contribute to Imbue Arrow though making Wizards and Sorcerers the best. Magus also has a pretty decent spell list for this and I have considered a build using that as well but again, that is late entry. But, at least with the Magus you can have the Arcane Archer feel all the way through with the Myrmidarch's Ranged Spellstrike ability.

The Sable Company Marine wouldn't be too shabby mechanically speaking for the build. However, it is from the Paizo blog and I am not sure if my DM would allow it. Even so I'm not sure if it offers much over the base Ranger using Eldritch Heritage: Sylvan with Boon Companion.

I'm going to look at a few builds using that and see how it works out.

The more I am looking into it the better Summoner is going to look though, it has the same BAB, same level entry as your latest suggestion and it's spell list though restricted does have enough spells to make it worthwhile, especially considering your very low sorcerer level with the other build.

I'd make it an half-elf Wild Caller from the advanced race guide giving it 2 more evolution points by level 8, it can get another 2 from having summoner as favored class. Drawback are the eidolon is restricted from some evolutions by making it more savage and animal like and exchanging summon monster for summon nature's ally as SLA.

I'd work on AA appropriate spells and a natural progression for the eidolon but as far as I am concerned it is likely the most effective build and isn't taxing on ability scores needing relatively low charisma.

My only concern here is that there is no base form that is exactly suitable, homebrew Avian :

Size Medium; Speed 20 ft., fly 40 ft.; AC +2 natural armor; Saves Fort (good), Ref (good), Will (bad); Attack bite (1d6); Ability Scores Str 12, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 11

Free Evolutions

bite, flight (wings) (3), low light vision

1st lvl I'd add limbs legs and claws (land and fly speed + 10')

2nd lvl mount possibly

3rd lvl improved natural armor

4th lvl another four evolution points..

Any non-damaging effect will affect both targets. Poison, bleed, critical feats. Any combat maneuver that can be used in place of a melee attack, as well. Double Trip.

It's a 1st level spell for crying out loud, it shouldn't bring down the house. It's up to you to make it useful. How useful is Obscuring Mist? Great! Now no one can attack anything! Pretty bad, unless you know how to use it.

I figured it to be pretty neat for a 1st lvl magus spell for the purpose of maneuvers, the +2 bonus vs flanking opponents is nice.

I am not sure on things like poison that is supposed to 'discharge' after a hit.

The meta magic feats should provide casters with flexibility but as of the moment they do not deliver. Everybody loves metamagic rods as a player but that is something that really needs to be taken down a few notches imo.

I'd like to see something like burning additional slots to power metamagic up to a limit, the thing most annoying about metamagic rod is their price which is far too cheap and that they are capable of supercharging spells instead of providing flexibility.

metamagic is alright for a spontaneous caster making the spells you do have more flexible, even for a cleric a spontaneous quicken or reach cure spell can be decent once in a while.

They tend to be a bit less powerful than an actual spellslot of that level, though some feats that build upon metamagic feats make them worthwhile.

Metamagic rods are too damn good by any stretch, everybody agrees that casters are better and metamagic rods dont help, I ban them by default.

Comparing damage output of more or less humanoid-like creatures, I just use a human with a greatclub and advance size by using size adjustments, overall being +8 str every size category.

1d10 +3 : avg 8.5, medium, 1x1, str 14

2d8 +9 : avg 18, large, 2x2, str 22

3d8 +15 : avg 28, huge, 3x3, str 30

4d8 +21 : avg 39, gargantuan, 4x4, str 38

6d8 +27 : avg 52, colossal. 6x6, str 46

medium to large roughly x2.1
medium to huge x3.3
medium to gargantuan x4.6
medium to colossal x6.1

Seems to roughly relate to the size increase creatures have on the (battle)map if you look at damage output, power attack will tend to increase damage as bigger creatures have more HD and thus better AB, more HD also tends to be translated in higher ability scores overall.

Still some creatures seem to be estimated fairly roughly and have pretty low strength for their size, they might be on the low end of their size category though, in some cases I tend to increase strength a little.

If you want to make dragons physically more fearsome, maybe just apply the advanced template to your dragons and increase their CR by 1.

A single level in barbarian can go a long way too, giving a net gain of +8 strength and constitution while raging making it's attacks and breath weapon that much more dangerous, as a GM I'd probably scrap armor, weapon and shield proficiency and enhance it's natural armor bonus by 2 instead.

- I would like to see something similar as grit for fighter, maximum grit equal to bravery modifier + charisma bonus (if positive), being able to use it for rerolls on saves, attack rolls or certain skill checks.

- more skills and sure add perception.

Change feats :

- I would like weapon focus and specialization to affect weapon groups rather than a single weapon type.

- Vital strike and some other similar action feats could be expanded upon to make them more useful in more situations.

While I like the idea about trying to save the dryad, I have a feeling this party wouldn't unless just flat out told to try. This is a new group for me and they seem like a "kick in the door, kill it take its stuff" kind group.

Great ideas everyone, helping me think it through.

How about:

As a last desperate act before he kills himself the captain orders some men to go and "deal with the beast"
The men go down and try to set fire to the dungeons, some are trapped and rise later as burning skeletons. Due to the combination of magic and pure hatred the dryad still inhabits the dungeon.

Dryad gains the Elemental -Infused (Fire)Template - appearing to be a burned tree in the shape of a woman until the PCs investigate then burning once again as she tries to take her revenge on the male PCs in the room.

In the end the PCs will be rewarded by an agent of the Queen of Ravens if they bring out the dryad's necklace, which is in the ghostly captain's possession and destroy the totem that bound the dryad to the cells.

You could do that, I think I'd personally go for an amalgam creature of medium fire elemental and dryad. which will have her mental abilities suffer greatly but change effectively nothing in physical abilities.

improved initiative, weapon finesse will be bonus feats, dodge will replace weapon finesse - net gain improved initiative and dodge.

it becomes an outsider (elemental, fire) giving 6d10 dice instead of 6d6, adds up to +12 hp, saves are the same, also get elemental and outsider qualities, immunity to fire and cold vulnerability.

She gains : Burn (1d6, DC 14) and a slam attack + 10, 1d6 (+ burn)

Alignment : CN

str 11 dex 18 con 13 int 9 wis 13 cha 14

Probably not worth increasing CR

much less skill points due to lower intelligence, lower will save by 1, lower DC of SLA by 2, lower concentration.

elemental immunities to flank, SA, crits and a few others, increase AB and damage in melee, the burn can be quite lethal, increase move to 50'.

* I wrote things down as I saw them but you can organize a creature quite easily based on the amalgam template in PFSRD, it looks interesting and weakens and enhances a dryad in just the right places in my opinion.

Sagotel wrote:

Sagotel is a magus at first level, who has not yet played (PFS).

I shall, I think, print your excellent example.

Just remember that you don't get Spellstrike until 2nd level. Also, the -2 penalties from Spell Combat apply to ALL attacks you make as part of the full-round action. (They do not apply to AoOs or attacks made as a swift action outside of Spell Combat)

The key is understanding how normal touch spells work. Once you really understand touching, holding the charge, and how every normal wizard/sorcerer can use them, the magus makes a lot more sense.

I am doubtful on not suffering the TWF penalties on AoO and any other attack you make in a round outside of the full round action, can't say it has actually come up yet in any game but do you have any clarifying sample or text ?

heroism, mirror image. Can't really go wrong with either and they remain useful at any level, heroism has great damage dealing potential by providing a +2 to hit, saves and skill checks for 10 minutes/lvl.

You can take a hawk familiar, an eagle would definately be an improved familiar by comparison (roughly 5th lvl caster required) but is not an option by the rules.

Ok, with a few changes :

1 - Any (lethal) damage you get gives an equal ammount of non-lethal damage and causes you to be affected by 2 negative levels once your non-lethal damage exceeds your current hitpoints.

2 - Non-lethal damage will be converted to lethal damage once it exceeds your maximum hitpoints + constitution score.

designer's notes :

- undead, constructs and elemental subtype creatures are immune.

- Gives more in game justification to in combat healing, since it also restores effectiveness besides healing.

- It is easier to determine when a foe is seriously hurt, or vice versa.

- I hope it will create a more tangible threat in combat, since much of the time PCs will be at risk of becoming staggered.

I am intrigued by the idea of having a 'comeback', not sure how to implement that yet though.

This seems like it would make melee combat more lopsided or slow paced, depending. Once a creature becomes staggered, it becomes far less dangerous and has a more difficult time trying to escape or maneuver. Considering how quickly the health pools of creatures in combat already disappear, it just seems like whoever got the initial upper hand in the fight would just win by an even larger margin then they would have with a much lower chance of the other side making a comeback.

In the case that one side quickly lowers the other to half, they now have an action advantage allowing them to maneuver more than the other team.

In the case that both sides hit half health about the same point, they each now have standard actions to try and kill each other rather than a full round of actions, slowing the combat without necessarily making it any more interesting.

You have a point after thinking about it for a bit, perhaps staggered is too much of a penalty, also I rather want a penalty that does not just penalize martial characters.

Maybe I will simply tag on 1 or 2 negative levels when creatures get over half their hitpoints.

shameless bump, I'd like some feedback on these.. I will just bump it once.. promise.

spider wight

You will have to change the slam attack to be a bite that energy drains, and give them a charisma score of 12 and possibly some mild intelligence.. 3 or so.

spider skeleton

It can be used as is, though I'd give their bite the effect of a chill touch spell, raise their charisma to 14, have them heal/gain temporary hitpoints when they deal strength damage and give turn resistance +2 if I want to make them a bit more threatening, CR+1.

ghoul spider

Much the same as the wight, but remove the command ability and claw attacks, raise charisma to 12 instead and an intelligence of 4, since this still feals a bit unfair have the bite deal 1d6 negative energy or cold damage in addition to it's usual damage.

EDIT : If you give us a CR and some more information about the cleric I might come up with more suitable creatures to use.

I'd like to share a possible variant of dealing with lethal/non-lethal damage and hope to get some feedback on them :

1 - Any (lethal) damage you get gives an equal ammount of non-lethal damage and causes you to be staggered once your non-lethal damage exceeds your current hitpoints.

2 - Non-lethal damage will be converted to lethal damage once it exceeds your maximum hitpoints + constitution score.

designer's notes :

- This will (typically) result in being staggered when you lose half your hitpoints since your non-lethal damage equals or exceeds your current hitpoints.

- The 2nd point is there to prevent effective doubling of damage once you go unconcious and also creates a window where a creature being pummeled by non-lethal damage will be staggered, it also makes dealing non-lethal damage inherently a bit less optimal.

- Makes undead, constructs and others immune to non-lethal damage more dangerous since they suffer no risk of being staggered, making them more 'relentless' which I like, since they can be critted in PF I feel this gives them back some flavor.

- Gives more in game justification to in combat healing, since it also restores effectiveness besides healing.

- It is easier to determine when a foe is seriously hurt, or vice versa.

- Makes Vital Strike and several other standard/attack actions/feats more interesting to pick or use.

- I hope it will create a more tangible threat in combat, since much of the time PCs will be at risk of becoming staggered.

- I am not sure wether this will end up being too lethal, I am still considering wether this variant would work better with maximum hitpoints overall. Though probably just for elites and PCs.

Remco Sommeling wrote:

I changed the way saves worked making them 1/2 character lvl without good saves, making it less obvious what a particular characters weakness is and making certain classes less vulnerable in low magic settings in particular.

Not sure I understood. Does this mean all classes have the same saves? What are the save progressions? What is the difference between good and poor save progressions? And how does this change affect the game?

Yes, this does mean that all classes have the same saves, or rather that saves are determined by character level rather than class levels and ability scores are an important part in making a difference. Overall it decreases the difference between bad saves and good saves, negates class stacking resulting in high/weak saves, there is less (almost) certain success/failure on saves, enemies are judged on their apparent ability rather than a focus on their class or creature type. I did adjust a few class abilities though, bravery allows for a reroll of a fortitude or fear save 1/day at 2nd and an additional time at 6th and every 4 levels for instance. Monks can use a ki point as an immediate action to reroll a save once per round, barbarians can consume 4 rage rounds as an immediate action to reroll a fortitude or will save entering rage on his/her turn etc.

Remco Sommeling wrote:

Giving characters a level based (dodge) AC bonus as the gunslinger class, we dont use this class but if we did probably would add +1 AC every 2nd level instead.

What is the bonus you give them? I considered doing the same thing in my games, the bonus I was thinking of was (BAB+1)/3. I just didn't do it out of fear of unbalancing encounters.

This means that the more combat focused characters (fighters/barbarians) would learn to defend themselves better than the ones who only partially focus on combat (rogues/clerics) or not at all (wizards/sorcerers). It also "ends" nicely. With Full BAB having +7 AC at 20th level, medium BAB a +5, and poor BAB, a +3.

I gave them an AC (dodge) bonus based on character level at 2nd lvl and every 4 levels after. I didn't make a distinction per class, since the overall balance stays the same (a character that had AC 6 higher, will still have AC 6 higher)

I'd not complain too much, this party seems like one that makes preparing a challenging encounter much easier, on the other hand you might have to take things a bit easy on them and possibly give them a little more WBL with items to compensate for their lack. buffing items and healing will be greatly appreciated.

I see that the humans are better to specialize but they do not seem better to me.

So they get a bonus feat.. and.. skill points, what is it that makes them better ? Other races get a bunch of abilities that while not specialized add up to two feats or more. The ability modifiers tend to be a bit weaker, but again not much.

A dwarven paladin suffers with relatively low charisma, it is not that terrible really :

human 15 pt

str 16
dex 10
con 14
int 10
wis 10
cha 14

dwarf 15 pt

str 14
dex 10
con 16
int 10
wis 12
cha 12

So dwarf.. -1 cha modifier, the saves only end up with a -1 on reflex saves at 2nd lvl, a -1/-1 to hit and damage and -2/-1 when smiting, a use of LoH less, also -1 sp per lvl and a move of 20', it also has a feat less.

dwarf

+1 hp/lvl - compensates for less sp
slow and steady - compensates 20' move
hardy - compensates for a feat and the -1 reflex saves

stability, defensive training, darkvision, greed, stone cunning, hatred and weapon familiarity are left to compensate for a -1/-1, less smiting goodness and LoH.

* darkvision, greed and stonecunning imo compensate for the LoH and diminished smiting.

* stability, defensive training, hatred and weapon familiarity will compensate for the -1/-1, weapon familiarity will increase damage by 1 and the rest while not directly optimal can compete with a +1 to hit.

Rough guideline, I'd still be hesitant to pick dwarf since the -1 to hit and damage will hurt for a somewhat random slew of abilities (though they can be modified a bit to fit a particular AP), but more hitpoints is always nice, I'll gladly be a xenophobic dwarf for another +1 vs mind affecting, I can deal with a few less skill points. Without checking I think some archetypes might diminish the sting of charisma loss further, stonelord comes to mind but I'd have to check to be sure.

All in all not a terrible trade, the dwarf will look better if we pick a class that doesn't use charisma.

Frankly, I'd step away from wholesale application of ability drain this early in the game.

It may be pretty beyond a level 1 or 2 party's capability to have it removed any time soon after the adventure, and I am not much of a fan of permanent disabilities.

I agree, altogether it might be better to make the drain either damage or, in the case of the gaze attack, a penalty and skip constitution penalty/drain/damage altogether.

In short, we made free:
Power Attack
Deadly Aim
Piranha Strike
Combat Expertise
Weapon Finesse

I allow power attacking and deadly aim for free except the penalty on attack rolls is doubled.

Piranha Strike, still costs a feat as usual.

Weapon Finesse, everyone gets it for free.

Combat expertise, changed it to give +2 to hit when fighting defensively.

Did away with:
Multishot
Precise Shot
Improved Bull Rush
Improved Dirty Trick
Improved Disarm
Improved Overrun
Improved Reposition
Improved Sunder
Improved Trip

didn't do anything with those, precise shot is a perfectly reasonable feat and I can't be bothered to make maneuvers easier, maybe it breaks apart beyond lvl 13 or so but so far it works fine in my campaigns

Altered:
Improved Unarmed Strike
Point Blank Shot (combined with Precise Shot)
Critical Focus (as a pre-requisite)
Vital Strike feats (expanded use)

I do not see the point in making unarmed strike better, it is supposed to be inferior in my opinion.

Point Blank Shot is a good deal for a feat.

Critical focus I do not have an issue with, but since I am thinking of changing the crit system (making crits more rare) I might remove it as a prerequiste too.

Vital Strike, completely agree on this change, I will do the same

Added:
Improved Rapid Shot
Greater Rapid Shot
Doubleshot
Split Focus
Improved Dodge
Greater Dodge
Light Armor Expertise
Medium Armor Expertise
Heavy Armor Expertise
Lucky

The rapid shot chain seems overkill to me, done well it is already one of the best combat options and I like melee better, so I choose not to encourage it further.

No big deal on the dodge feat, though I do not put them in game.

The armor feats seem a bit unfair, a heavy armor using fighter will have to sink in 3 feats before getting any benefits :

1) armor expertise +1 any armor (prerequiste light armor prof)

2) improved armor expertise, +2 medium and heavy armor -1 AC penalties (prerequiste medium armor prof and armor expertise)

3) greater armor expertise, +3 heavy armor, -2 AC penalties (prerequiste heavy armor prof, armor expertise and improved armor expertise)

Obviously we don't have fewer feats, but we feel as if we're making better use of the ones we have. A couple of things to keep in mind - we tend to run in a lower magic environment and some of these feats are still in the 'play-test' stage...

A quick few changes of my own for low magic especially, though not directly feat related :

I changed the way saves worked making them 1/2 character lvl without good saves, making it less obvious what a particular characters weakness is and making certain classes less vulnerable in low magic settings in particular.

Giving characters a level based (dodge) AC bonus as the gunslinger class, we dont use this class but if we did probably would add +1 AC every 2nd level instead.

Maybe a 'Broken Soul' template, it will radically reduce her charisma and is not optimal for a dryad but perhaps fitting. it doesn't make the dryad undead which I guess is what you are looking for. The +2 modifier is too high for a dryad though, +1 should be fair enough I think.

I changed my mind on taking down the CR, it has some really wicked, possibly too wicked abilities for a low level encounter, the saves for her abilities are still fairly high due to a dryads number of HD and high starting charisma.

I'd suggest making baleful gaze a bit weaker and keep the +2 CR :

* baleful gaze 1d4 penalty to strength and charisma rather than drain to strength, constitution and charisma. Have the penalty endure for 1 hour or so.

A dryad with 2 levels of barbarian (wild rager) can also be fitting, possibly add insanity psychosis, effectively making her chaotic evil.

Remco Sommeling wrote:

Maybe a 'Broken Soul' template, it will radically reduce her charisma and is not optimal for a dryad but perhaps fitting.

Umm... where would I find this?

linked to pfsrd

Maybe a 'Broken Soul' template, it will radically reduce her charisma and is not optimal for a dryad but perhaps fitting. it doesn't make the dryad undead which I guess is what you are looking for. The +2 modifier is too high for a dryad though, +1 should be fair enough I think.

What is the hate against a movable hallow?

I am not finding anything particular overpowering with some creative uses of this spell.

Because it is cheese, this is a prime example why GMs are in this game to begin with, the particular overpowering thing is giving casters way more leeway than is needed, if you want to check martial/caster disparity you should not allow cheese like this.

but well you are a troll so I guess it is alright..