Thac20's page

The Rogue isn't going to do well without flankers, so could be switched to a Summoner. Have the Eidolon be the front liner.

Most bleeding attacks don't stack. Bleeding Critical is an exception.

Use Hero points so your wife has an emergency resource for getting her character out of a jam.

You could allow gargoyle as fluff but model the character on one of the allowable player character races in terms of abilities.

Human Zen Archer Monk, putting Wis up to 20 would be powerful.

With 2 wizards and a sorcerer in your group, coordinated blasting becomes powerful. 2 or 3 fireballs in the first round of combat can drop more foes than having 2 hasted martials.

Lesser selective metamagic rods are cheap, for when you need to blast with your allies in the area.

If there were more martials and fewer spellcasters in your group, Haste would be ideal. But that isn't the case.

My view of playing a paladin: Detect Evil is not something I would use willy-nilly on anyone I met. There would have to be a reason. I would use it on my companions when first joining, since as a paladin I wouldn't want to associate with evil. I would use it on any employer, since as a paladin I wouldn't want to work for evil people.

If while clearing out a fortress of an evil person and I encountered prisoners, I would assume they are unlawfully imprisoned and want to free them. If I used Detect Evil, it would determine which prisoners I could trust if they wanted to arm themselves once freed.

Detecting as evil is not evidence of a crime, so as a paladin I would not use that as a basis for rendering judgement. However, if there is evidence of evil acts my paladin would not hesitate to render justice at the end of a sword. I see a paladin as having the authority to administer justice (including execution) if there is clear evidence of a crime.

A longsword crits on a 19 or 20 for x2 damage, so 10 percent of the time you get 1xdamage extra. A battleaxe crits on a 20 for x3 damage, so 5 percent of the time you get 2xdamage extra.

Theoretically these are the same, but scoring crits more often is better for a couple reasons - crit effects, and less wasted damage on low HP targets.

Though it requires exotic weapon proficiency, a falcata (crit 19-20,x3) is strictly better than a longsword.

Anyone basing their chracter progression on critical feats will want a weapon that crits on 18-20, then take Improved Critical or use a keen weapon.

When paired with someone with Butterfly's Sting, you may look for a weapon with a high crit multiplier rather than large crit range.

I think that the Titan Mauler's Massive Weapon abillity is nice and all but you wont be gaining anything from it unless you are weilding a gargantuan dagger, something anyone can do now but with a penalty to attack. Who would choose to build a character using this weapon and what do they really gain by doing so?

Titan Mauler / Knife Master. "Now THATS a knife".

Silent Image of one of your characters sneaking, to draw their fire. Have that precede your real sneaking character.

What domains or subdomains are considered powerful will vary based on personal perception and the specifics of the campaign setting.
I'm guessing Restoration / Defence combination was considered too powerful because it increased chances for survival in a tough world.

The one cleric I've played went with Travel and Luck domains. I consider those domains powerful for the options they give. However, the campaign I played in didn't have frequent player character deaths.

I understand your frustration at incrementally finding out the rules. Though I don't agree with the tone of ciretose's posts, the message of talking with your GM on your character concept before the game is a good one.

If you have the healer role but are starting at 8th level, have you considered the option of playing a paladin with the hospitaler archetype? If this interests you, run it by the GM and come to agreement on the specifics of following the paladin's code of conduct. Paladins have good survival value. Hospitaler paladins with some feats (Extra Lay on Hands, Extra Channeling) have a lot of healing power while remaining effective in combat.

As GM I never let the social roll happen unless the player can describe what they are trying to achieve and how. Not the details, just the intent and the general idea of how they mean to go about it. For example the player might wish to make a soldier angry. That is the intent. They then would say how, insult his fighting skill? Imply his wife was also into a bit of extra martial sword play?

Reliable remark to make a soldier angry: "Did your MOMMY make that armor for you?"

Weapon Focus and Power Attack. Weapon Focus because level 1 characters have trouble hitting, even with 18 Str. Power Attack for fighting anything that you can't one shot without Power Attack. Though there are other good options, you won't regret having these 2 feats as you level up.

"An incorporeal creature can enter or pass through solid objects, but must remain adjacent to the object’s exterior, and so cannot pass entirely through an object whose space is larger than its own."

It seems to me that spectres hiding in walls beyond detect range is not legal, as they must remain adjacent to the object (wall) exterior. It also seems they could not pass through a wall if the wall is too thick.

Maybe have a number of different personalities worked out, and have your character temporarily switch to one of those personalities every so often.Then revert back to your normal personality and act as if nothing happened.

Smoked goggles are useful when you know you are going up against a monster with a nasty gaze attack. The cost is cheap (10g) and the bonus is susbstantial (+8 on saves). There are penalties for wearing them, so you would only want to have them equipped when you know they are needed.

Consider dipping one level of Sorcerer, cross-blooded Orc / Draconic(Silver). + 2 per damage die on your cold spells in addition to your Evoker bonus adds up. 1d3+2 Ray of Frost cantrip gives you some sustained firepower at level 1.

Gorbacz wrote:

Seconding a 12 PC problem. If your player is of the socially impaired type, you're potentially setting yourself up for her getting lost and confused in all of this, *especially* given that you're planning to run level 10 characters, which at this point usually have bucketloads of options.

If your player is of the "don't overwhelm me" type, I'd recommend to start with something small and low, and gradually work up from there.

just for simplicity, i am going to show her a claymore inspired greatsword/longbow fighter. not quite optimized, but effective enough at melee while having 2 options.

fire a bow, or swing a sword.

One possible build:

Traits Indomitable Faith (Will+1)
Deft Dodger (Reflex+1)
Feats
1 Power Attack
1 Point-blank shot
1 Rapid Shot
2 Weap Focus Greatsword
3 Weap Focus Longbow
4 Weap Spec Greatsword
5 Weap Spec Longbow
6 Quick Draw
7 Deadly Aim
8 Improved Crit Greatsword
9 Improved Crit Longbow
10 Critical Focus

You may as well have fun with it. Capture the druid and make him wear a tin foil hat.

Deputize the non-lawful Barbarian.

Thwart the lawful Monk with a No Trespassing sign outside the dungeon.

I wonder how often this situation comes up. I played a fighter in a Kingmaker AP, and am playing a fighter in a Legacy of Fire AP. I've never encountered a situation where I would want to attack without activating Power Attack and then want to do an AoO with Power Attack.

If you are outdoors, ride a mount. Then you don't lose mobility since you can Cackle while your mount moves.

535. A famous gunslinger is coming to town to fight you, and all you have is a knife.

How about Sorcerer (Draconic) then become a Dragon Disciple?

Strength looks a little low for a medium armor-wearer. Maybe lower Wis and Int a bit to allow for 12 Str.

We have this magic ring that needs to be destroyed ...

55. I'm their parole officer.

Re: Points systems, I don't use them because of min/maxing and dump stats - an actual party I have seen was a 7 Int Sorcerer leading a party where all the other members had 7 Charisma! In other words a super-charismatic idiot leading a bunch of obnoxious so and so's! That is a travesty of role-playing in my opinion.

Thats called Futurama, with Zap Branigan et al.

Strength is also useful for CMB / CMD. Dex based fighters need to worry about getting grappled, so they should put some of their limited skill points into Escape Artist.

During the surprise round you can take a standard or move action. Thus, you cannot do a pounce / full attack since that is a full round action.

Travel Domain - Dimensional Hop. The +10 movement you get from Travel Domain is pretty useful for dwarves.

For example, say a peasant is poaching deer from a noble's land to feed his family during a famine. The penalty for poaching is severe, but the noble is an important ally to the paladin's order. If the paladin looks the other way while the peasant poaches and the noble finds out, the paladin's order may not get support from the noble the next time orcs/hobgoblins/etc invade (for this example let's say the paladin order is in a neighboring barony and the noble could look the other way when the paladins need soldiers from the noble).

For this example the paladin could turn the poacher over for punishment, but ask for a large fine as an alternative over the usual hanging. The peasant wouldn't be able to afford paying the fine. But the paladin's order could pay the fine as an act of mercy.

I would prefer the minimum skill points for all classes to be 4+Int, to allow more character development.

I would like Fighter archetypes better if they didn't replace Armor Training and Weapon Training. These are unique to the Fighter class, and help separate them from other martial classes.

Detailed information on the setting should be provided by the GM, so the players can make characters consistent with the campaign world. The GM can work with the players to fit their character background into the world.

Thac20 wrote:

At the point where you gain an additional attack, Quick Draw allows you to drop your bow as a free action, draw your sword as a free action, then full attack.

Not really the same.

Let's take this situation:

Round 1: Enemy is far away > Longbow
Round 2: Brawr with greatsword (drop longbow on ground)
Round 3: Enemy in front is dead, next at 20 feet so have to switch to longbow. But since it's on the ground > move action to pick up?

Alternative for round 3: Move 30 feet, and use vital strike.

>> 1 feat (vital strike) opposed weapon focus/spec (bow) + quickdraw +...

Counterpoint: it may be more common to encounter fliers than to encounter enemies that maintain spacing. Though your point is taken.

As an alternative to Vital Strike, here is a possible feat progression for a fighter using a Greatsword and a Longbow. The idea is that the fighter would use his bow unless an enemy moves adjacent.

1 Power Attack
1 Point Blank Shot
1 Rapid Shot

Initial weapons are Greatsword and Short Bow. Upgrade to Composite Longbow when you can afford it.

2 Weapon Focus Greatsword
3 Weapon Focus Longbow
4 Weapon Specialization Greatsword
5 Weapon Specialization Longbow
6 Quick Draw

At the point where you gain an additional attack, Quick Draw allows you to drop your bow as a free action, draw your sword as a free action, then full attack.

7 Deadly Aim
8 Improved Critical Greatsword
9 Improved Critical Longbow
10 Critical Focus
11 Bleeding Critical
12 Greater Weapon Specialization Greatsword
13 Greater Weapon Specialization Longbow
14 Greater Weapon Focus Greatsword
15 Greater Weapon Focus Longbow
16 Toughness

Priorities for point buy: 1) Strength 2) Dexterity 3) Constitution

Though I haven't played this build, I think it would be effective in most combat situations. Possibly some of the Greater feats could be replaced with Iron Will / Improved Iron Will or whatever else is needed over strict damage-dealing.

Tanglefoot bags. Though the DC to avoid being unable to fly is pretty low.

Lets try to stay on topic here:

Trap Items: Adamantine Arrows, Bullets, or Bolts.

Adamantine costs 60 gold per missile.

Adamantine weapon blanch costs 100g and coats 10 missiles and lasts until the ammo is fired. It even persists from PFS scenarios.

It's 600g to make 10 missiles out of Adamantine, but only 100g to blanch 10.

Can't you recover and reuse Adamantine arrows, bullets and bolts? Whereas weapon blanch is one shot.

I think that the form of attack from the target of Antagonize would depend on the situation. If used during combat, I would expect the target to use some effective form of attack.

If used in social situations, a ranged attack of spitting might be appropriate. Or a glove slap to the face accompanied with a challenge to a duel.

This is fairly mild for a scandal, but you could have a separatist movement within the Church. See the Separatist archetype.

I'm currently playing a Halfling Fighter (no archetype) dual wielding agile kukri. At level 8 he is already a monster for DPR with 4 attacks at +19 for damage (+25 versus large) that crit on 15-20.

A couple disadvantages: starts out very low on damage and doesn't use the Fighter class skills. The Cad archetype would have the proper class skills, but I didn't want to give up Armor Training for it.

Armor Training and Mithral increase the max Dex bonus, which is a limiting factor on AC for high Dex fighters. Eventually Celestial Chainmail becomes affordable.

Weapon Focus, Weapons Specialization, Weapon Training - all reasons for a Fighter to use the same light weapon in each hand.

Kukri have the best crit range for light weapons. Daggers can be thrown and work with the River Rat trait. I think those are 2 good choices for TWF.

You could try to trap it by using its colossal size against it. Essentially, trap it by getting it to follow you into a place it can get into, but not out of.

If going with Agile weapons, you could use either Elven Curve Blade or a pair of Kukri to get a 18-20 crit range, which can be expanded to 15-20. Use Piranha Attack instead of Power Attack. Two Weapon Fighting is very feat-intensive, so the 2H weapon might be the better option.

Celestial Chainmail would be good armor when you can afford it. Not being a Fighter with armor training, you will quickly bump into the max dex limit for armor.

You could have quest NPCs promise them the world, but deliver to them an acre.

Traits - you could have a standard skill trait, +1 on the skill and it becomes a class skill - just add flavor. No other skill-related trait should be strictly better than this.

WBL - In lower magic campaigns, you could have: 1) Magic is rare - magic items cost double and characters can take one magic item creation feat maximum. 2) Magic is very rare - magic items cost 4 times as much, no magic item creation feats may be taken.

The most cost effective is to use all possible slots to improve AC. Its better to have cheaper items in every slot than one expensive item.

Games with more than 5 players get bogged down, usually with several players not actively participating. That has been my experience.

I love gnomes ... with hot sauce.

How about playing a gnome named One Trick, riding a war pony.

Heavens Oracle 2 / Sorcerer 2 (Arcana bloodline)
Feats - Spell Focus (color spray), Greater Spell Focus (color spray)
Traits - Magical Knack (sorcerer), Reactionary
Revelation - Awesome Display
Equipment - Headband of alluring charisma +2

Start with 18 charisma pre-racial.

Take Heighten Spell as your next feat when you level.

There once was a fighter named Stuie
Who stepped in a pile of green gooey
With face turning red,
His armor he shed
While screaming and shouting "Ah phooey!"