Reynard_the_fox's page

Greater Dispel Magic seems like a good one, seeing as how that's probably how most high-level encounters with magic users start. If whatever effect getting you See Invisibility you have gets dispelled, you're probably in trouble.

Oh yeah, definitely get See Invisibility. And maybe Daylight or another high-level light spell, too, just for when you fight those pesky devils.

This is typically what a scout is for. It doesn't work all the time, but having your rogue roll a 37 on his stealth check to peek his head around the corner is typically what allows a group to pre-buff. Alternately, familiars, wildshaped druids, and divination magic helps with this, too. If they found a dungeon map, you do it right before that final, big, ominous-looking chamber (what are the odds it contains a boss?).

Basically, when's the last time you fought a big boss with absolutely 0 knowledge that you'd be fighting him when you stepped in the room? And typically, bosses know when people are traipsing about their own dungeon. Alarm is a level 1 spell, after all.

The Wild Rager archetype definitely fits your description best. The only other thing I can think of is the spell Transform... I think the orc bloodline sorcerer gets it as a bloodline ability, check that out.

Once you get superior summoning it gets kind of ridiculous.

"Turn 1: Summon (roll) 3 eagles around the lizardfolk. 3 full attacks."

"He kills one"

"Turn 2: Summon (roll) 4 more eagles around the lizardfolk. 6 full attacks."

Who doesn't want to roll 18 attack rolls a turn? :P

...hey, I think I figured out why PFS banned master summoners

Remember that an eagle or a dog may seem poor in a vacuum, when you're fighting goblins they still come in pretty handy. And summoning 2-4 ponies with a level 2 spell? That's some primo battlefield control for as long as the ponies take more than 1 hit to kill. And since your summons last for minutes/level instead of rounds, you never have to worry about duration - hell, at higher levels you could practically use pony as a mount spell.

Summoners are plenty handy at low levels, don't worry about that. It's their summons that get antiquated. But hey, that's why you learn a new one ever two levels.

Mostly look for things that don't need saving throws, plus anything you really need in a pinch (sans feather fall). I usually keep scrolls of Teleport, Dimensional Anchor, Resist Energy, Major Image (no st if not interacted with) and Gust of Wind around, amongst others.

Also consider the feat Fast Study - it allows you to prepare spells in as little as a minute, which you'll almost always have as long as you're not in the middle of combat.

If you're looking for one big hit, I feel like either the Vital Strike feats (double/triple your damage dice) or Spring Attack (attack and move back into hiding - ask your GM first) could make an appearance. There must be a good way to jack up your damage dice for Vital Strike...

Sadly, without iterative attacks or magic, expect this build to suffer in higher levels...

Something to keep in mind is that melee builds (especially ones with animal companions) tend to blow casters out of the water for the first two or three levels of PFS, and druid melee builds peak around levels 6-10. That being said, the naga thing is pretty cool, and probably better suits a caster druid considering the awesome Sorc/Wiz spells you can get.

The transform ability says it functions like shapechange - do you know if that means you can expend one use of wildshape to be able to go back and forth?

Oh, and building a grapple build could be cool with this. (You do get constrict at 8th level.)

The witch is the queen of lowering saving throws. Evil Eye, Misfortune, and cackle can keep an opponent's throws in the gutter, with practically no way to avoid.

Of course, if your group is already heavy on casters, another half-BAB class might not be the best. In that case I'd say go for a Dazzling Display build - take your pick. The Inquisitor could be a good choice.

I've never heard of a way to do it in Pathfinder. The thing is, your discoveries are based in part off alchemical items. Instead of the alchemist creating better tanglefoot bags, he focuses on his bombs, and then adds the effect of a tanglefoot bag to them. Or alchemical fire (immolation bomb). Or thunderstones (concussive bomb). Etc., etc.

Hmm, the subtle corruption of my party seems an interesting route to go down... though like I said at the top, he stepped through the arch again and so isn't evil anymore. A 13th level wizard certainly has enough power to carve out his own little kingdom once those pesky Sarenrae worshipers in his party are dead or subservient. >: )

Even scribing dozens of spells into my spellbook isn't too hard for me in my average-wpl game. You're not buying a scroll for each spell, right? It should only be 1.5x the costs written here per spell, which really isn't very much.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic#TOC-Adding-Spells-to-a-Wizard-s-Spellbo

So we were in a high-level custom dungeon crawl on Sunday, and my wizard stepped into an alcove that made him evil. (It also changed his gender, but that's irrelevant, and soon to be remedied with Break Enchantment.) Now, it happened that he turned back to good immediately after, but if he hadn't, what do you guys think is appropriate for a newly evil character? My first thought was to stab my party in the back during the next boss battle, but with no assurance that the boss would then make me his general or something, that would be too risky. Of course, he would have to hide it from the other PCs...

Long story short: if your GM turns you evil, is a TPK at a dramatically appropriate moment acceptable?

The Druid's animal companion and summons are great at soaking some aggro. The inquisitor is definitely going to want to prepare to take some hits. (A level of fighter gets you access to full plate and an assortment of other goodies.)

Mage armor will work for a while, though at higher levels you'll probably want armor so you can enchant it. I'd say invest in the belt of strength before the amulet - as soon as you start casting GMFs that last all day, the amulet needs to give different properties to be useful. Though, an elemental damage AoMF could be quite nice.

Somewhere in the mid-levels, around the time you fight starting large and huge creatures more regularly. If your campaign has more humanoid enemies it can stay more useful.

If you're going to dedicate 4 feats to Conjuration, I really think you should take it as your school. I'm playing a conjuration wizard right now, and I know that one of my highest level slots will always be filled with a summon spell - therefore, being conjuration lets my other slot or two have anything instead of something from just divination.

My main concern was arrows, flyers, and rays, so I used Mirror Image set to "whenever I'm about to be attacked." At 12th level I switched it to Greater Invisibility.

Your best bet is probably a few levels of Fighter for the feats and bonuses to attack, and then go ninja or rogue with the Scout archetype (or maybe vivisectionist alchemist). Sneak Attack is undoubtedly the best source of static damage for twf, though. (Smite and favored enemy can both come close, and improve attack as well as damage, but there's nothing like rolling an extra 5 or 10 d6 for every single attack you connect with.)

Does widen spell work on it?

Strictly speaking, no. But if you can get your GM to houserule it, I urge you to do so. Guess what a lot of huge creatures have in common? (If you guessed "poor reflex save," you're right!)

Oh, and later on: Reverse Gravity -> Hungry Pit -> dismiss Reverse Gravity. Have a nice trip!

Definitely summon some Earth Elementals. Assuming you make the pit on an earth surface, most DMs should have no problem with them gliding their way around, and big bonuses to Bull Rush (and later Awesome Blow) make them perfect for guarding. Enemies going to escape the pit? Push them back in!

Alternately, Shrink Item could be your friend here, too. Remember, the spell lasts for days per level - if you have to travel a few days to get somewhere, you should have a sizable amount of trees, rocks, etc. lining your Handy Haversack just waiting to be dumped on some poor enemy.

I was looking at all the permutations of Improved Natural Attack, Animal Growth, and Strong Jaw, and it seems no matter what order you apply them in, you end up with one size increase on the INA table and then a doubling of that.

Mithril barding at no penalty without proficiency smells a little cheesy to me, but I guess if Frodo can wear it under his clothes without any training, you could drape it over a dinosaur, too.

Looks excellent! Since it's PFS, you should focus on the early levels - I wouldn't pick Saurian Shaman unless you only want to be wildshaping for the last part of your career.

I assume there's a reason your stego can't take tandem trip until 5, so I'd probably pick Toughness at 2 - combined with the armor, you'll be able to send him into dangerous flanking positions without worrying too much. Actually, scratch that - take Toughness at 1 and LAP at 2; you probably won't be able to afford barding for your first or second session, anyway.

Well, here's what you get from 1 level of inquisitor.

Pros:
+2 Fort and Will saves
Domain/Inquisition (no bonus spells)
4 orisons and 2 1st level spells, of which you can cast 2 per day
Many favored class skills and 6 ranks to play with
Judgment (+1 to AC/atk/dmg/whatever for 1 fight)
Monster Lore (+wis to identifying monsters, which was probably not your job)

Cons:
0 BAB
d8 hit die
Slows down Barbarian progression

A second level gives you some minor bonuses to initiative, survival, intimidate, and sense motive, plus the ability to detect alignment.

It might be worth it, especially if your group is starved for skills, but a Barbarian X will almost certainly be stronger than a Barbarian (X-1)/Inquisitor 1.

I like most classes but considering you are missing any divine magic I would go that route. However, I would not make a healbot. I personally love necromancy (not necessarily undead) focus clerics.

Also, I disagree with Reynard's assessment of clerics being too feat poor to properly do item crafting. My Curse Cleric has plenty of feats for what he needs to do and still crafts magic items. In fact, with him around people rarely get injured.

- Gauss

Ah, actually I said that it would be too feat-intensive for a cleric to pursue both item creation AND archery. And I don't think you necessarily need a healbot, but if your only source of healing is the summoner's wand of CLW, you might get into trouble later on. (Breath of Life and Heal are just as important as Teleport, IMO.)

I think a mounted paladin could do pretty well here, too. Remember, you'll need a charismatic leader once you reach part 2. Ooh, now that I think about it, an Oracle might be perfect for your group!

Hmmm... Between a Magus and a Summoner you should be OK on arcane casting, but it looks like you lack ranged support, divine casting, and skill monkey. I'd advise an archer inquisitor or cleric if you didn't mind giving up on item crafting (trying to do both is way too feat-heavy for cleric, and inquisitors don't have the spell list). A sneaky Ranger could do quite well in Kingmaker, too.

You might want to look at the roles presented in the second part of Kingmaker for ruling kingdoms, as well. Most of the spots can be filled by NPCs, but you need a PC ruler, and one with high charisma. If the summoner isn't ready for the job, you'll need someone who is. Divine Hunter Paladin sounds actually quite excellent, with ranged support, healing, and hella diplomacy, though if the new player doesn't want to be lawful good you might have a problem, lol.

What about a Dervish Dancer? Keeps AC nice and high, works well on a small summoner, and means you can be great at stealth and ranged touch attacks. Granted, it requires essentially 3 feats (Weapon Finesse, scimitar proficiency, Dervish Dance) though a Half-Elf or Human could help with that. Another option to think about.

Well, against any random given enemy, yeah, you'll deal more damage with a bow and arrows. But if you're facing an enemy with high DR, or enemies get up close, or the use a Wind Wall spell or something, archers are s@%% out of luck. Being a switch hitter really only requires the Quick Draw feat, and the added versatility is usually worth it.

Also, I think you might be a little confused about Point Blank Shot. It slightly increases your attack and damage at close range, but you still trigger attacks of opportunity while shooting a ranged weapon, and you don't get to take them against others.

Unfortunately, your mental stats are all pretty bleh, so most of the caster classes are out. That leaves Barbarian, Rogue, and Cavalier as not keying off particular mental stats. Barbarian probably gives you the most bang for your buck.

Sorcerers supposedly do better at specilizing in a few select spells however. I haven't played one or with one to see it in action though. Since they're Charisma based they can certainly talk better than almost any of my wizards can.

Keep in mind that wizards can take Spell Specialization and Greater Spell Specialization to be able to cast a particular spell spontaneously and at a higher level. They also get higher level spells 1 level earlier, and can Scribe Scroll to have random other spells prepared.

On the other hand, if you routinely have no idea what you're going to be facing before you face it, a sorcerer is a bit more flexible when you get into sudden combat. Usually I have a pretty decent idea of what I'm going to be fighting, though.

That being said, if I were to try to do a melee arcane caster, it would be a really tough choice between Transmutation Wizard/Eldritch Knight and Draconic Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple...

Yup, Sap Master is definitely the way to get gobs and gobs of damage. Granted, it's nonlethal, which some creature types ignore, but you'll knock any humanoids the f*** out.

Alternately, a buddy of mine uses Greater Invis and shuriken to get ~5 sneak attacks per turn, which results on average between 20 and 25 d6.

Don't know if anyone else is having this problem, but all I can see in the linked document is the title, the top picture, the "Major Edit" section, and the "questions/comments/etc." section.

Well, scrolls usually have low DCs unless you spend a lot on them, so I wouldn't use them for that. But definitely have scrolls of spells like See Invisibility, maybe Resist Energy or Protection from Energy, and other things that don't require a high DC (Touch of Idiocy could be fun). You could also consider using your pre-buff round to cast an illusion to throw off your opponent, though talk with your GM about what gets a Will save to disbelieve.

Since you have good UMD, Silence could really screw a lot of people over if you use something (like, say, a Tanglefoot Bag) to stop them from moving outside its range. If you don't cast it on them personally, they don't get a save. (Better yet, just cast it on the tanglefoot bag in your prebuff round and throw it at them in the 1st round!)

Keep an eye out for things that force concentration checks. Summoning a creature or a swarm in your prebuff round could be quite excellent (hello Mad Monkeys), or a spell that whacks the opponent every round. Grappling is wonderful - some summoned creatures are good at it, or you could cast Strangling Hair for bonus style points.

Well, a lot of spells require line-of-sight, so pre-buffing with Invisibility is probably a good call (and make sure you have a method of defeating opponents who do this! Be ready for their pre-buff to be Resist Energy: Fire, too.) Normally, the best bet in a spellcaster v spellcaster duel is to land a quick Fort-based (for most of them, some may be weak to reflex instead) save-or-suck type spell. Regardless, you're going to have to be ready to defend yourself against these. You don't seem to have many of those, unfortunately... Acid Arrow is probably good to help disrupt enemy spellcasting, or if you go first on initiative you could ready a blast for every time the opponent starts to cast to try to make them fail concentration checks. Can you buy scrolls?

The issue I see with rangers as guides is the same as with hackers in cyberpunk games. While the ranger is doing his stuff with tracking and finding paths, the rest of the party just keeps walking behind him. Either the party arrives at the correct spot, or they show up in a different spot. But the other players have no real incentive to pay attention to what's going on and could - hypothetically - even leave the room and come back without having to be briefed on what they missed.

It's a decent class over all. But when I look at the abilities, I am wondering why it would be a better idea to take more than 3 or 4 levels instead of multiclassing into Fighter or Rogue?

Just have monsters ambush them from behind once or twice, or have them try to find the way without someone in the party with Survival. They'll learn to pay attention and appreciate a ranger real fast. (And of course, no scout will perceive everything - roll perception for the scout privately so no one's ever quite certain they're safe.)

It sounds like picking a humanoid or fey favored enemy will be plenty effective for your campaign. Rangers may be slightly weaker than a fighter in a vacuum, but once they start getting major bonuses against, say, all fey, magical beasts, and native outsiders, you might start reevaluating. Not to mention they can cast any spell off the ranger list! I can guarantee the next full BAB class I play will be a ranger.

Two words: Tyrion Lannister

One one side, it's a pretty cool concept, on other, it seems kinda too good to be true, you know?

I'm afraid that's because it is. Blood money says "Material components created by blood money transform back into blood at the end of the round if they have not been used as a material component." Permanence has a casting time of 2 rounds, and Contingency of 10 minutes. I'm afraid your blood doesn't "stick around" long enough for you to cast those.

Well for one thing, remind him that sneak attack works against undead in Pathfinder, if that is why he has been useless against them.

Ah, sorry - he was useful against undead, but not elementals (the majority of what we've been fighting recently), oozes, etc. Anyway, there are a couple fights where he's had to sit back and twiddle his thumbs.

I should check if he has ranks in use magic device - maybe I could lend him my lvl 9 wand of magic missile...

There is - it's called Dervish Dance. If you want to talk to your GM about changing the prerequisites or conditions, that's up to you.

...making Jiggy perhaps the first person to use Mage Hand as Pimp Slap

In a game I'm in now, I'm playing a 13th level god wizard, and my friend is playing a 13th level halfling ninja. He's very good at sneak attacking with shuriken and being the party face, but recently he's been pretty useless in combat against undead and elementals.

Are there any spells I could cast that would give him something useful to do in these situations? He's got 5 str and no weapon finesse, so I can't think of a useful polymorph form...

I ended up going with a rhinoceros for my upcoming druid. Solid starting stats (that 15 con is nice, scent, 40 ft move speed, and one big attack that gets bigger on a charge make him pretty solid all around. Looking forward to having my druid turn into a woolly rhino or mastodon and charging s$$* down alongside it.

Also, he won't freak out the townspeople as much as a tiger or T-Rex.

Sorry, I meant Preferred Spell.

It's not the first thing I fudge, but yeah, it can vary from time to time. Timing is key in fights, and it's an easy way to vary how many guys are around at one time.

Silent has too much utility to be ignored, especially for an illusionist. (All that mystic jabbering can really spoil a Silent Image.)

I'm assuming you're a sorcerer (and thus a spontaneous caster) here. After Silent, here are some good ones, ranked by their level increase.

Extend - good for early levels when you want things to last, but might be better on a rod
Highten - important for Spell Perfection later
Selective - if you're a blaster
Piercing - can be very helpful later on, though I'd take Spell Penetration for a prepared caster
Rime - entangled is a great debuff
Still - not as handy as Silent, but also good for sneakiness. Charm Person as a 3rd-level but completely undetectable spell is kind of awesome.

Persistent - excellent for those ones people can save against every round

Daze - REALLY powerful effect; dazing multiple foes for multiple rounds ends fights, especially if you're dealing damage at the same time

Quicken - essential at high levels

That's pretty hilarious. I'd keep going ninja and just become the most awesome sneaky type in the history of existence. (Some of the advanced talents are pretty awesome.)

Well, thus far most of our encounters have been outside, save for one underground quest and a very quick bout inside a kobold cave. I'm fairly certain that sometime soon (after we get next level I would think) we'd be trying to take over a castle run by bandits.

I could see Stone Call being useful for the castle take over, especially if there is a surplus of bandits within the area, not to mention it would help slow them while we took pot shots at those that are left standing.

Create pit however, as others have mention would be useful outside, but even more so inside and one doesn't always need a huge area of effect. Less damage, but potentially take the enemy longer to get at us and helps me control the battlefield which is the first thing I'm going for in my build, however stone call helps control the battlefield as well.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. It's about even for me now.

Just curious since I'm on this thread anyways. What happens if 2 difficult terrains overlap? Like, if I had cast Stone Call making that area difficult terrain, then cast a different spell like entangle or something else that gives difficult terrain? I'd assume nothing special and that they'd still move at the speed a normal difficult terrain would force them to.

Playing Kingmaker, huh? I'm GMing it now - one of my players used Stone Call and rolled 11 for damage, staggering half the damn bandits in the fort.

I know I said Create Pit before, but since you are going to be outside a lot where people can simply move around the pit, you might be better off with Stone Call. I'd say it depends on the rest of your party - are they more ranged or melee? Because if they're going to have to walk over the difficult terrain to get to the enemy anyway, you're better off with Pit.

I do like the idea about just getting Stone Call on a wand, though - that makes a lot of sense.

Remember with Create Pit you can ready it to cast when an opponent moves. That way, even if they make their save, they have to choose between moving again to get away from the edge, or doing what they were going to do and risk falling in.

PS: Multiple difficult terrain effects don't do anything special typically.

Arcane Archer could be quite cool - all you'd need is a level of sorcerer, wizard, bard, or even magus. Then you trade favored enemy, favored terrain, ranger spells, animal companion growth, and a few bonus feats for arcane spellcasting and awesome archery abilities.

Probably a slight power-down overall, but could be fun.

Have them preroll attacks if possible - that can save a LOT of time. Make sure you give enemies ways around summoned creatures - long ranged attacks, burrowing, trample/overrun, etc.