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Followed immediately by, "Do you think they left his stuff there after they killed him?"

I've had similar thoughts, TC. The answers tend to be something along the lines of "because."

Agreed. Every one of my builds is playable from level 1 and none of them require specific magic items in order to function. Those are the two most important criteria of any build I put together.

Those are good criteria, though I'm not adverse to trying to find room for a crafting feat if a build just really won't work without a certain uncommon weapon property. Having a self sufficient build is pretty important if Magic Marts aren't in the game.

Combat Maneuvers are harder than just hitting something with a stick. So it stands to reason that pulling off a Maneuver without getting smacked would require some basic training in just not getting smacked.

And yet they are far less effective in many situations then just using that stick, which kinda leads back to the idea that a lot of people just shrug and don't bother. The feat that you're never going to use as a prerequisite to even be kinda ok at a maneuver is just an extra slap in the face.

Yes in a full round attack it gets all 5 natural attacks. The breath weapon is a standard action usable once ever 1d4 rounds so the monster could choose to do its attacks or breath weapon if its up, but not both in one turn.

I'd assume you would roll once (or just pick whichever dragon type would be appropriate as the DM) to determine breath weapon type as the creature description mentions that it can have a dragon head of any evil dragon type. Once it's decided I don't see why it would change unless you're going to say it spontaneously changes its red dragon head to that of a black, etc.

Daze only affects up to 4HD, is easy to save against, and then can only affect a creature once per minute. I don't see the appeal.

What’s funny is that you see just as Cleric, Sorc & Monk builds than Fighter builds who have dumped INT. Heck, and Sorc builds with dumped WIS too.

So, maybe it’s just been a couple of builds that went too far. Just don’t allow stat dumping and you’ll be fine.

That's pretty unfair to classes that don't need only one stat to function, i.e. pretty much everything that's not a full caster.

I marked it for later but I don't have the pdf for the class in question yet so I can't offer any thoughts.

Calybos1 wrote:

Ranger 2 (crossbow): “Hey, me too! Heck, I don’t even OWN a melee weapon.”

That guy won't last long... lol

Not really. A melee weapon is there if you get grappled and can't escape or you need to cut a rope, but besides that 5 foot step is pretty much all you'll ever need and then not even that once you get Snap Shot.

In my experience, some players (or people, for that matter) just don't learn from their mistakes, and end up never rising above "mediocre player" status at best. I've always just tried to deal with it as best I can. As long as everybody is enjoying the game, it doesn't matter all that much.

True enough, though people refusing to contribute meaningfully is still a pet peeve of mine. My personal favorites are:

1. "I heal my animal companion even though its not helping really and the main damage dealer is unconscious."
2. "Hey guys I'm gonna spend 3 rounds buffing only myself and then stand in the back."
3. "I'm going to take 20 to look for good magic books in this public library while I know the others are fighting a giant daemon in the secret room downstairs."

I would make this as a Witch. I did a similar concept where I focused on keeping Fortune up on my allies and my Cackle was saying things like "Good job guys!" and "I believe in you!". I could see something similar working here and you can flavor your debuffing hexes the same way.

For Full Moon you could give a pseudo-Rage. I would either really limit the duration to something like Wisdom modifier + 3 rounds per day, or instead give a longer duration but instead have it start only giving +2 strength and con and have it scale to maybe +4 at level 8-10 and then +6 eventually. Maybe throw in a clause that it can be taken multiple times and each additional time gives you access to a Rage power treating your Barbarian level as 1/2 Monk level, though you have to spend 1 ki per power you want active when you activate rage.

For Sprite the only thing that came to mind was perhaps giving a familiar that works as per the Tattooed Sorcerer so that it is detachable. Could have your CL be treated as Monk level - 3 as it would be fitting as Sprite was default accessible at 4th level.

That aside, I also had some comments that about the changes from the latest version posted on this page to the googledoc version.

1. Why did you decide to change Flurry to how you have it now, which is essentially base Flurry but worse as you don't use your character level as BAB when using it? I'm really curious because your version that got rid of the whole two weapon fighting tree idea and instead gave less attacks overall but all at full base Monk BAB was a great one in my opinion. Did you test it out and find it too good?

2. Taking away Stunning Fist as a class feature and instead making it a feat that can act as the base class feature if you take it is kinda weird. Maybe take it off the bonus list and instead give a new feature at level 1. Maybe something like:

Monastic Path- The Monk chooses a feat from the following list at first level: -insert list of feats Monk archetypes give instead of Stunning Fist-

This feat is usable a number of timer per day equal to Monk level and scales as per the -insert Archetype- for -insert feat-, -insert Archetype- for -insert feat-, etc.

Domains can give some good powers, but you also have to pick the Domain as a whole (barring using Subdomains to trade off the really awful abilities for something else). The Oracle's modular design means that joke abilities aren't bundled with the abilities you really want. Domains are also RAW tied to your deity, so your combinations are also pretty restricted.

Divine Interference is a great feat, but it can only be used on enemy attack rolls. That's a rather large step backwards compared to Misfortune. Misfortune is also available at level 1 as opposed to CL 10 which means that unless your game starts near that, you'll have a lot more mileage out of Misfortune.

Mystic Theurge is really lackluster until really high level due to having low level spells of both Arcane and Divine while everyone else is getting their good high level toys.

To qualify for MT you need Arcane and Divine 2nd level spells; so that means Oracle 4 / Summoner 4 before you can even qualify. So at level 9 you function as a level 5 Oracle and a Summoner 5 so you're behind 5 evo points as well as Summoner level that you need to qualify for the good Evolutions and you can only cast 2nd level Divine spells instead of 4th.

You seem to be going in all directions when it comes to what you want to be able to do. I would suggest considering a couple of things you really want and not worry too much about the rest; you do have teammates after all. Trying to do it all yourself tends to make you ineffective at everything as you spread yourself too thin.

I didn't consider a dip; I assumed straight Oracle, but yeah Oracle 1 then all Sorc would be a great way to do it. He specified Gnome so Samsaran isn't in play, but you say there is a similar "something" to that? Do you happen to remember specifics, as I find that interesting for future use.

If you like the flavor of the Curse then go for it. As for Cure Light Wounds... meh. Lots of classes can get Cure spells and use them more efficiently due to a higher CL, or you can buy a wand fairly cheap that someone in your party will probably be able to use without a roll. Also CLW won't work on your Eidolon suit; need the specific Summoner spell for that.

How are you casting Color Spray as a Dual Cursed Oracle? The archetype replaces your first 3 Mystery spells and Color Spray isn't on the Oracle spell list, so you can't just pick it.

Savage Warrior. It's not very good and requires Fighter 5 to really get you anything close to worthwhile, but Fighter isn't a bad dip to get your proficiencies as you still get BAB plus a feat from it; I'd personally pick Fighter for that over 1 level of Oracle.

True enough, but proficiency with all martial weapons is a prereq for EK so he kinda has to unless the DM is willing to waive that as well.

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Hell yeah they need to be double tapped. I've seen those adventurers go down just to get up as soon as some guy runs over and tapped a stick against them. Trust me you don't want that.

Really? I never saw that in the Core Rule Book. I just knew that Paizo expressed disinterest in it for the most part. Sorry can't help ya there as I never even knew it existed.

I thought I did answer it, but I'm sorry if it wasn't as clear as I meant it to be; a Sorc 7 / EK 2 has identical spell casting to Sorc 8. This would include all the spell slots and spells known of a Sorc 8 (which would include 4th level spells).

Increased effective level of casting = caster level
Additional spells per day = access to higher tier spells

Together (plus the spells known clause for spontaneous casters) means that each time the prestige says it increases casting, you essentially act as though your previous spell casting class went up a level regarding spells.

Also EK does not give increased casting on EK 1, so your Sorc casting would always be one level behind.

Called may be what you are looking for and it is only a +1 property.

In that case I second flamboyantly dressed Antipaladin, unless the entire game is going to be Evil versus Evil in which case Smite Good is a sad panda.

I understand that it's an evil game, but I still had to suggest Infiltrator as this would probably be the only time the archetype would ever be useful and it could still easily fit in depending on the DM style. I thought playing a mole would be pretty cool ;p

I see your point; I have no idea if you'd suffer both ill effects. I thought you were saying that if you failed you still cast the spell but just provoke, which was why I responded.

Anyway, as far as level 1 Magus goes, I really can't think of a good representation of combat; you don't even have your signature Spell Strike yet.

Pick a good deity with longsword, great sword, or bastard sword as favored weapon. Be a CG Infiltrator Inquisitor disguised as part of the evil plot while subtly derailing it from within while struggling with your own conscience.

Could you specify what in particularly is causing your problems? I assume this is for PFS, in which case it uses a 20 Point Buy for Ability Scores if I remember correctly. The link there will give you the table for how much each score costs; you buy each of your Ability Scores but you only have a set number of points to spend. Once you are done you apply your racial bonus.

Also here's a handy Character Creation Outline. It goes over all the steps of making a character. PFSRD is an excellent source over all.

Edit: wow I screwed up those link tags bad.

1. AoO's, you only provoke if you don't successfully cast defensively while in melee range.

I thought that's how it was for a long time and maybe it was that way in 3.5, but if you fail to cast defensively you lose the spell as opposed to just provoking as normal. Link

Dwarf Sensei/Qingong/Drunken Master. He's a washed up drunken Drill Sergent who constantly berates the party and yells buffs at them.

A lot of classes that aren't two handing with Power Attack are kinda lackluster at level 1; don't let that hold you back.

When casting in AoO range you have to cast defensively or eat the AoO. It can be hard early on, but eventually it becomes a joke. You can cast, 5 foot step, and then go through your attack routine using Spell Combat iirc.

If you aren't necessarily playing strict RAW, I'd consider asking your DM if you could take Combat Casting and maybe trade it out for something else at a later level.

If you use Spell Combat your weapon attack and your spell's to hit roll (if it has one) both take a -2. Spell Strike really is the big draw to the class and that comes at 2nd level. With that you can get your regular weapon attack and then deliver a touch spell, normally Shocking Grasp, through a weapon attack, so you essentially get two weapon strikes plus Shocking Grasp damage. Also note that your spells share the weapon crit modifier, so with an 18-20 and eventually keen weapon your Shocking Grasp will be doing double damage 30% of the time.

When it comes to Archetypes, I think straight Magus is best. Spell Recall is a great ability as it lets you Shocking Grasp all day. A lot of people like Kensai, but I don't see the draw personally. Hexcrafter is also popular; lose Spell Recall but get the ability to use Witch Hexes. There is also Bladebound which gives you a scaling intelligent weapon and stacks with all Archetypes, but the issue with that is that you have a smaller Arcana Pool.

I think rogue-mage may be reading this as wizards get both druid and wizard spells.

I think you may be correct. That's the only way this would be impressive at all.

It hurts for getting out Scrolls and Wands. Still I don't think it's that bad even as a martial Oracle as for the most part you only have to draw a weapon one per encounter and that's only if you don't already have it out because you're in a dungeon. I also remember seeing somewhere that RAI it wasn't supposed to affect weapons but I'm not entirely sure if that was right.

If you're taking it with Dual Cursed I'd definitely take it as advancing though too.

Yes, it would increase according to base class, though you should note that EK 1 does not increase casting. So by your example, a Sorc 7 / EK 1 would cast as a 7th level Sorc, but a Sorc 7 / EK 2 would cast as an 8th level Sorc. Your Bloodline would not level though by taking EK. Also note that by RAW, prepared casters like the Wizard and Magus would not get free spells known through EK as it specifies that only spontaneous casters do; they have to buy them and add them to their spellbook.

"Increased effective level of casting" = Caster level only.

As for epic level, your group has to figure that out. There is no Paizo support for epic.

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The 7 types of DR you can bypass only apply to those specific attacks; all of the other ones are still screwed. The point of so many attacks is defeated if only a couple of them can actually do damage in the full attack.

I agree with Misfortune being well worth all the downsides of Dual Cursed. Negate crits, force rerolls for save or sucks, and stop yourself and friends from botching important rolls. What's not to love? I am wondering what level you are though still, just to get a feel for your issue.

"Skills: For each skill in which either the master or the familiar has ranks, use either the normal skill ranks for an animal of that type or the master's skill ranks, whichever is better. In either case, the familiar uses its own ability modifiers. Regardless of a familiar's total skill modifiers, some skills may remain beyond the familiar's ability to use. Familiars treat Acrobatics, Climb, Fly, Perception, Stealth, and Swim as class skills."

So familiars use the ranks that the base animal has or the PC's ranks; they don't actually gain any of their own.

What level are you? If you're focused more on casting than battle, then early levels really can make you feel like you have nothing to contribute once your small number of spells per day are used, but it gets much better later when you really have to try to burn all your slots.

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In addition to a staggeringly huge stable of early access spells, the following are some of the 7th through 9th level spells that appear on the summoner's "6 level" spell list.

Summoners get 6th level spells at level 16. It's not all that early for the spells listed; at that level Sorcerer just got their 8th level spells and at 17th Wizards get their 9th level spells.

I'm looking at the Dorn-Dergar for a Stonelord Paladin. They can't move once the Defensive Stance is up, which means 1) you want Reach to hit people and 2) you can't 5ft step away if they get adjacent to you.

I was thinking of the same concept, but as a heads up don't forget that Stonelords still get exactly one Mercy for their Lay on Hands and there is one that removes Fatigue; Defensive Stance suddenly got much more usable :D

The "free attack" replaces the normal touch attack you would get by casting the spell, so he could cast 10 feet away, move, and then deliver the spell through a weapon attack instead of touching, but he would not get his normal attack too.

Here's some general thoughts I had (in no particular order):

1. Force Charge feels a little weak for an ability with such limited uses. The extra damage and burst of mobility (being able to move and then essentially double move via charge and attack is interesting) is nice, but it seems to fall a little flat when compared to other abilities that have such a small number of uses. For instance it has the same use progression as Smite Evil and Challenge, both of which last until the target is down.

2. Concussive Blast also seems a little iffy in actual utility. When I read it I was thinking of Nova, which from ME was an incredibly powerful but incredibly risky attack; I don't feel like Concussive Blast really captures that. I'd consider buffing this ability up into something more powerful and then perhaps give it a use progression you're using for Force Charge (and give force charge the larger number of uses per day); if you'd do that then I would think of adding a line under Force Charge that lets you use this at the end instead of a normal attack.

3. Cunning Defense is a really nice ability and I think it was good that you placed it a little bit into the class to prevent dipping strictly for it.

4. I don't really see the Arcane Bond/Familiar or the Magical Aptitude flavor. Along the same lines, have you ever looked at Psionics Unleashed?. A small number of Power Points plus access to small amount of powers might be more fitting for this than the Pally/Ranger spell progression.

5. One miscellaneous idea about Force Charge/Concussive Blast uses; maybe give the class some sort of resource pool, like Ki or Arcana Pool that need to be spent to use those abilities instead of set uses? Along the same lines you could make it so those powers could be augmented based on the number of points spent; like a base Force Charge costs x but you can do a Force Charge that does 1d6 per level instead of 1/2 level for 3x. Or something. If you went the Psionics route then Power Points could be used in place of or in addition to.

6. Combat Mastery is a little unclear to me. So you get Weapon Training which would increase every four levels, so 13 and 17 for +3 hit/damage total? If so the second weapon training is kind of a waste because all it will ever do it give +1.

7. Defensive Mastery has some nice additions, but many of them feel a little late to the party (especially Tower Shield Proficiency and not being gimped by it all the way at 18).

8. Combat Casting could be interesting. The reduction of metamagic costs could be ok depending on the final spell list. The ability to use signature abilities as move actions is also cool; move action Force Charge (which ends in an attack) and then still have a standard.

9. For Assault Training in general I get the feeling it would be more beneficial a little earlier and have it grow a little more naturally instead of just having three stops along the way.

Just some thoughts I had looking it over so far.

I'm assuming you are using these stats for Gargoyle, which makes it a 36 RP race. Not sure why being an Oracle would matter at all (-2 to Cha hurts too) at this point as it's a melee beast pretty much without class features. +2 Str, +4 Con, + 5 Natural Armor, 10 DR/Magic, 50 Fly, and 4 Primary Natural attacks. Wow.

Unless the rest of the party is some sort of advanced race, I don't see why you allowed this either. I'd suggest telling the player you made a mistake allowing it and ask him to politely to rewrite, or work with him to nerf the racials; maybe give them back as he levels.

Never blame yourself, as a GM, for an attack method that may seem unfair. (don't hate the GM, hate the game)

But especially if it is something the players can do in return. Every now and then it can be exciting to have an opponent with similar tactics

I agree with the "every now and then." Things like sundering, ability damage, negative levels, etc. aren't that bad if they happen occasionally and if there is a way for the players to reasonably be able to handle the effects (or if new gear is going to be coming in the near next couple sessions future if we're talking about sundering). It's just when every enemy starts making it their life mission to debilitate instead of just damage that it starts to get old. Of course you can argue that the players can do it (whatever tactic we're talking about) too, but realistically as the DM you get all the short lived characters to play in the world. It really isn't the same for you as it is for the player who only has their one character and actually has to deal with the aftermath.

Hama wrote:

There is a third party prestige class called the pimp. He has the pimpslap special ability which adds extra nonlethal damage to his unarmed strike and makes it an armed attack. I love that prestige class.

I remember that! He could summon 1d3 'ho's and got a pimp cane 1d4 dmg. It was actually a really well-balanced PrC!

If this is a real thing I need to see it.

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You can flavor them anyway you like.

Mrs. Bell has an interesting combo with sound striker. She is a geisha/sound striker bard. Tea ceremony lets you provide the benefits of inspire courage without having to maintain it. So she loads up the heavies and archers with inspire courage, then uses sound striker as needed.

I don't think that's a particularly good use of performance rounds. It takes 10 minutes to buff everyone and then it only lasts for 10 more minutes, plus it costs 4 rounds of performance for each ally. A bard gets 4+cha rounds at first plus 2 rounds per level after, which is might as well be infinite as far as most days are concerned, but suddenly losing 16+ rounds is a huge hit, especially when combat tends to last less than a minute and the buff is only lasting for 10 minutes... which could be enough for you to explore, find nothing, and have the Bard completely empty (which seems likely as it's not a buff you can do the fly).

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The people I play with always try to use character name while talking in character, but we don't really have any rules about what you can or can't be named. Most people tend to avoid obvious joke or pun names.

Anyway... fantasy cultural naming conventions. I can't help but feel that some the awfully specific names people have kinda limits their life choices. I mean your parents named you "X the Skullsplitter" what else were you going to be when you grew up?

The 21,000 was the cost without considering material component cost, so that would bump it to 26,000 or 71,000 respectively. Wow.

Most games I play tend to end within 4 levels of whatever the starting level was, normally 1 or 3. It annoys me to be honest. I've been in two games that were long runners and like Daethor said it was satisfying to be able to look back and see about how I used to try to use Mage Hand as an offensive spell because I literally had nothing else I could do to Black Tentacles everywhere. But yeah, that's rare. More likely we start, I have a cool idea for where I want my character to go and in a few weeks to months the game dies and the same DM wants to start us low level again. F~$$ that. Been there, done that. For once I'd like to be able to not have to front load a build for all its worth because level 11 might as well be on moon for how likely it is I'll reach it.

Minor vent apparently :O

I never noticed that part of wand creation. This really is a much harder question than previously expected, though I guess the most obvious solution would be to say you pick when you make the wand and then it's locked in.