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I'm curious what's the level of magic in Golarion typically set at? Our GM says that it's an extremely low-magic world. Were currently in Absalom, and besides a few 1-3rd level scrolls, and a couple +1 trinkets there is nothing that you can buy magic wise. He's GMing so if he wants to set the bar that low it's fine, but I thought that typically you could at least find some decent magical items for sale at the "worlds" capital.

So I'm building a "Hulk" character out of the alchemist class.

My base strength is 20 (18 plus 2 racial).

I'm currently level 3, with the rage chemist and Vivisectionist archetypes. I've taken the feral mutagen ability

I also have power attack feat, and the enlarge person extract.

Would this mean that I'm making 3 attacks at +9/+9/+9 that do 1d8+11/1d8+11/2d6+11 + 1d6 damage? (enlarge person increase the damage dice, and the extra d6 for when I flank?)

Granted this assumes that I spent time taking the mutagen, casting enlarge person on myself and that I'm in base contact with the enemy when I finally attack.

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Ok, first off, I know that AC isn't the be all end all of defense. Especially at higher levels, it's spells not attacks that are hugely damaging. However, I have this fighter/duelist/monk build that get's me a insane AC for 20th level. Now I also have the best possible gear to max this out, so it isn't realistic, but I did think it was funny. Ok now that I've acknowledged that this isn't the most effective build, or even a realistic expectation by level 20, here it is.

25 pt buy (18 dex, 14 int, 14 wis) lvl3 monk (Master of many styles, Monk of the Sacred Mountain), lvl 7 fighter (free-hand fighter), lvl 10 duelist. Halfling.

+10 base
+13 Dex (18 base, belt, lvl increases, wish spell)
+7 Intelligence (14 base, headband, wish spell)- duelist abliity
+7 wisdom (14 base, headband, wish spell)-
+2 monk robes
+4 fighting defensively (crane style feat, plus acrobat bonus)
+2 dodge (fighter, free-hand fighter)
+1 dodge (feat)
+3 dodge (duelist)
+6 combat expertise
+5 defending rapier (agile)
+8 bracers of armor
+5 natural armor amulet
+1 natural armor (monk)
+5 ring of protection
+1 size
80 AC

Again, that's an 80 AC without any shield or piece of platemail. This also means my Touch AC is also pretty untouchable.

thoughts? mistakes on my part?

Edit: Alexander has pointed out that I could also permanently reduce myself, take the underfoot racial trait, and add +2 dex via wand of alter self, to an actual total of 83.

1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

Ok, so I have a quick question on how Punishing kick works. I'm making a duelist that has punishing kick and a rapier in hand. Now do I just add the punishing kick to my normal attacks, or do I need to make an unarmed strike in order to use it? the rules don't appear to state that you need to make an unarmed attack to have it work, but I could be wrong.

Warning: this is much longer then I thought it would be upon starting it. If you find yourself prone to TL:DR go ahead and move on, I won't be offended. With that said I think I've come up with a strong build for a small halfling duelist. I'd really appreciate any advice the forum has to improve upon it.

Halfling duelist:

So it won’t be for quite some time before I can place this character, but all this talk of making a duelist has inspired me. My goal is to make a competent duelist who uses no armor, and instead relies on his cunning and wits to take his opponent down. My next GM will most likely start us off at level 11, with a 20 point buy and the equivalent amount of wealth of that level character. With that in mind I’m curious to see what people think of this build. This character is intended to replace the Big Stupid Fighter, so his protection is key, but his damage potential also needed to remain viable. I’ll be using a rapier and my offhand as my main weapons.

Lvl 3 Monk/ lvl 5 fighter/ lvl 3 duelist

Why Monk?

Now the monk will have the Master of Many styles (MoMS), Monk of the Sacred Mountain (MotSM), and Hungry Ghost (HG) archetype. The reasons these archetypes are for a few reasons. First, Flurry of Blows will be useless to this character, since I won’t be further leveling as a Monk. Punishing Kick is better than Stunning fist for this same reason. Finally the MotSM gives me toughness and a +1 Natural armor bonus. With this in mind the Monk will allow my off hand to remain a viable source of damage, give my wisdom bonus to AC, and allow me to better utilize the Monks robes I’ll pick up later. Staying in this class till level 3 will give me a 30ft movement speed, and allow me to have an effective Full BAB on my combat maneuver rolls.

Why Fighter?

Ok, so this one’s more obvious then the monk. The Full BAB, and ton of feats will help flesh out this build, while I wait to get to the duelist prestige class. The One handed fighter archetype will give me a small bonus’s to my damage, disarm and AC.

Why Duelist?

Well this one should also be obvious. The Full BAB, getting my intelligence to increase my AC, precise strike and the ability to negate an attack (or two when I combine it with the Crane style feats).
Ok so what would my buy look like (20 pt buy):

Strength- 7 (5 racial)
Dex- 18 (20 racial) +2 (lvl 4 and 8) = 22 total
Con- 12
Int- 14
Wis- 12
Char-8 (10 racial)

Ok, so I know many of you are looking at the strength and just cringing (especially since this is supposed to be a front line fighter). There are a few reasons why this will work ok. First, since I’m starting at level 11, I’ll already have both weapon finesse and agile maneuvers, meaning that strength will be mostly irrelevant, and muleback cords and the haversack will take care of my encumbrance issues. I’ll be putting everything level bonus I get into Dex to maximize my damage, reflex, and AC.

Feats:
Ok at level 11 I’ll have 6 feats normally, 3 fighter feats, 2 bonus style feats (MoMS)

So the feats I’ll have by then are.
- Weapon finesse
- Crane Style (1st level)
- Crane Wing (Monk bonus feat 1)
- Crane Riposte (Monk Bonus feat 2)
- Improved Disarm
- Agile Manuevers
- Piranha strike
- Dodge
- Mobility
- Improved Critical
- Combat Expertise

Skills: these I’ll use to maximize my Intimidate, Bluff, sense motive, perception, and of course acrobatics ton increase my AC on defensive stance. I’ll probably also flush out a few other skills here and there for RP reasons like stealth (why not I'll be great at it).

Gear:
I’ll have 82,000, here’s what I’d buy:
+3- bracers of armor- 9,000
+2 agile- rapier -18,000
+2 cloak of resistance - 4,000
Monk robes- 13,000
+2 headband of mental prowess (intelligence, wisdom)-10,000
+2 belt of dex- 4,000
+2 ring of protection- 8,000
+2 amulet of natural armor-8,000
Muleback Cords- 1,000
handy haversack- 2,000

Ok, so there you have it. So what does all this add up to you might ask. Well first lets look at my Defense. I’ll be fighting defensively almost always and using Combat expertise.

AC = 40 = 10+3 bracers of armor + 2 ring of protection + 2 Amulet of natural armor + 2 monk AC bonus +2 Wisdom + 3 Canny Defense + 7 Dex + 1 Free hand fighter (FHF) dodge bonus + 3 fighting defensively + 3 combat expertise + 1 size + 1 Dodge (against single foe only). Not bad for a small guy with no armor on.

Touch AC = 35= 10 + 2 ring of protection + 2 Monk AC + 2 Wisdom + 3 Canny defense + 7 Dex + 1 FHF + 3 Fighting defensively + 3 combat expertise + 1 size + 1 dodge

CMD = 40: 10 - 3 strength - 1 size +10 BAB + 7 dex+ 1 FHF + 2 Wisdom + 2 Monk AC bonus + 3 Canny Defense + 2 ring of protection + 3 fighting defensively (I think it counts) + 3 combat expertise + dodge
again, not too shabby

Ok so I got a decent Ac, What about my saves.

Reflex: 16 = 6 base + 7 dex + 2 cloak + 1 racial
Fort: 12 = 8 base + 1 con + 2 cloak + 1 racial
Will: 10 = 5 base + 2 wis + 2 cloak + 1 racial (12 against fear effects)

Now I’ll also have toughness feat and a 12 constitution, so my HP should be fairly decent for when I do take a hit.

Ok, so I think I’ve shown that he’ll make a decent tank at this level. Don’t forget that I'll also gets to ignore the first attack that hits him, and makes a free AOO against that opponent. So maybe now your thinking, well sure no one can hit you but your DPR is gonna be absolutely terrible. Well, it definitely won’t match a pure DPR build that’s for sure, but it should put up some decent numbers. Lets look at it.

I’ll get 2 attacks a round that will be at

attack: 10 BAB + 2 rapier + 7 dex + 1 Singleton + 1 racial - 1 fighting defensively – 3 combat expertise( – 3 piranha strike)= +17/+12 or (14/9 with piranha strike)

Damage: 1d4 + 2 rapier + 7 dex + 1 singleton + 3 precise strike + (6 piranha strike) = 1d4 +13 per hit (1d4 + 19 w/ piranha strike).

I also will have a 25% chance of threatening a critical on every swing which will also up the damage quite a bit. Damage being 2d4 + 26 (2d4 + 38 w/ piranha strike).

So while I won’t be out damaging the rogue, I will be putting out enough DPR that I’m a viable threat.

To wrap it up, this class won’t be the ultimate min-maxed possible, but it does bring to mind a what I feel a duelist should look like. He’ll be dodging anyone who swings at him, and bringing his small weapon to bear in just the right spot.

Ok, so this is my first big post with a ton of material and coordinating bits. Does this build look viable to you? If not what would you suggest I tweek?

Ok I've seen it posted a few times that enlarge person is a great buff for melee characters. What am I missing? I don't think it's terrible, but it doesn't strike me as great either. You get a +1 damage, size increase to the weapon, reach, but you take a hit on your AC.

I don't know, maybe those benefits alone are great, or maybe I'm just missing something.

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Out of curiosity, if you summon a viper or other poison using critter, can you effectively "milk" them for the poison for any poison using buddies: ninja, assassin, ect. Or does the poison disappear when the summons ends?

I'm curious what peoples opinions are on a party that consists of no divine magic users. We're going to be running an undead heavy campaign starting at level 1-level 10. Our intial group composition was:

-fighter (net and trident user)aka BSF
-barbarian (damage dealer)aka glass cannon
-gunslinger (pistelero) aka glass cannon #2
-Bard (treamonks controller bard)
-God wizard <--- me (controller/summoning focus) aka God

Now we have a very old fashioned group, and the DM was unhappy that we didn't have a healer (cleric specifically) in our group. I argued that we'd be fine without a cleric, and that we'd eventually just pick up some wands for out of combat damage. however, after much pressure our barbarian player is now playing a general healbot cleric. They're enthusiasm has dropped greatly, and they don't seem to be having any fun with the class.

At this point I really want to convince my DM to let them switch back to their original class, but everyone else including the DM think that the cleric as a healer is absolutely necessary even if the person playing it isn't having as much fun.

How would any of you go about trying to reason with this group (They're all good friends of mine and we all know eachother well, also the DM say's it's not a plot reason for the cleric so that isn't the reason for the push to make them one).

I'm currently playing a campaign with some friends, and I have a buddy who wants to make a duel wielding pistol gunslinger. The problem is that we don't have access to advanced weapons yet.

Now I've come up with some house rules and a new archetype to allow him to play that character if need be, but I don't want to use it if there's a way for him to play this class.

The big problem is reloading needs a free hand which he won't have. He's also very against the idea of doing the vestigial arm or hex hair to accomplish this task.

if anyone has any suggestions on making this build viable let me know.

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So I've seen alot of people talk about how great summoning gets around SM3 onward. From what I've seen people find SM1-2 ackward, too short, and creatures lacking. Well I think I may have a build that helps not only makes these first few levels good, but possibly great. Now I'm by no means a master tactician, and I'm sure this has been suggested elsewhere, possibly many times before. With that said here I go.

To start your gonna need to play a human wizard (for the extra feat). Now the first thing you want is to pick up spell focus (conjuration) and augment summoning. In addition you pick up the conjuration specialization school.

Now try as I might, I've tried to find a good monster to summon on the SM1 list, and I keep coming back to the riding Dog. It has decent armor and HP for a 1st level character. On top of that with augment summoning, it'll reliably hit, and you get 2 chances to hit with it. In addition if you summon it on an enemies flank you've effectively buffed your fighter by +2. It's damage won't be too shabby at 1d6+6 (+4 from strength, +2 from smite evil), and it can trip on top of that.

By level 3 you can get SM2. Nothing on this list look particularly great. The wolf seems to be a straight up worse summons, but you can always do the summon d3 riding dogs instead. Now the problem with a d3 is that there's always the chance that you'll roll that 1 meaning that your wasting a level 2 slot on a level 1 spell. This is where your 3rd level feat comes into play. Superior summoning allows you to add a +1 to you summon monster total. This means that'll you'll get a minimum 2 dogs when you cast this spell. That's 2 dogs with 17 hps, and you can potentially put out 2d6+12 damage a turn with them. In addition you can now set up flanks all by yourself, and if you roll 4 dogs you can trap 2 targets at once.

Now the biggest issue I see is that I'm "wasting" a ton of feats to make a sub-optimal spell worth it. This might be true if these spells went out of style later, but they'll scale with you. Summoning 1d3+1 creatures just feels instantly better then 1d3, just because your guaranteed a better effect then a 1d3 alone (where 1/3 of the time you blew a higher level spell on a lower level ability).

From here you can progress down a normal wizard build, picking up feats you might have wanted earlier.

So I'm looking to make a tall brutish half-orc character that wields a giant two-handed greataxe/greatsword. I'm gonna take the titan mauler archetype, and at level six I'll be using an Ogre sized greatweapon at no penalties.

Furthermore, Since he's using a weapon such immense size (and later the weapon will get bigger) I was going to go down the vital strike path, and maximize damage through single massive swings instead of multiple ones.

Now, my question is, after level 6, I was thinking of dipping into 3 levels of fighter with the Two-handed weapon archetype. This allows me to add double my strength bonus to single swings. After which I'd go back to the barbarian class

would that be a worthwhile multi-class?

by level 9 (assuming a 26 strength while raging (18+racial+2 for level 8, +4 for raging), I'd be doing 6d6+16+ 9(powerattack)damage before I add anything else (including belt of strength, magical weapon, ability bonuses ect.), Also with furious focus, this attack would be take 0 penalties.

I'm still at a loss for rage powers (maybe intimidate or sundering abilities), and besides the obvious (powerattack, furious focus, vital strike chain), I don't know where to put the rest of my feats.

So for a campaign I'm going to be running with some friends, I wanted to make a character based off of Sub-Zero from mortal Kombat (cheesy I know :D).

I was thinking that I would take my first two levels as a monk with the Master of many styles archetype. From there I could take Dragon Style and Dragon Ferocity. Then at 3rd level I'd be able to select Elemental fists (cold) as another ability to use. From 3rd level on I'd go straight ninja.

Once I hit level 13 I could take Marid style to add more elemental damage.

I'm curious if anyone has any feat/other suggestions that would suit this character theme, while at the same time being viable?