a) the advanced orc weapon, the necksplitter, is only d8 for damage, but the feat turns the weapon proficiency into martial, which Ruffians can't sneak attack with
b) the falchion and the greataxe, which turn into simple weapons, have too big a damage die for the Ruffian to work with
I feel that I should point out that these feats are being read incorrectly, so that people don't walk away from this thread with a misconception. Those feats do not make a martial weapon simple and allow ruffians to sneak attack. They make martial weapons simple for the purpose of determining your proficiency.
Remember that PF2e plays differently to PF1e as well, what is optimial is different. Build your character concepts based on the idea behind them, not trying to match mechanical play styles. You will have characters that play better this way.
In PF1e I built a half-orc rogue who sneak-attacked with a greataxe, and while it started from a mechanical standpoint (cursing out D&D 4e's Charisma rogues), I really grew to enjoy playing my 'woodcutter', who disdained the idea of rage or anger as a needed component of combat but was still deadly. He also liked to pester dwarven party members if they 'hated' him specifically, and would ask if charmed would they use their +1 to attack against him.
Now it looks like I can be a half-orc Ruffian rogue with the Orc Weapon Familiarity feat but
a) the advanced orc weapon, the necksplitter, is only d8 for damage, but the feat turns the weapon proficiency into martial, which Ruffians can't sneak attack with
b) the falchion and the greataxe, which turn into simple weapons, have too big a damage die for the Ruffian to work with
booo....
Well, hopefully I'll still have my 'deal with a demon' summoner/eidolon combo when that book comes out. Or maybe we'll get 'crappy' materials like bronze that will knock down the damage die on a falchion.
Hi folks, I guess I've 'come in from the cold', and decided to start trying to learn the 2nd Edition rules. I've been reading over the first rulebook, and I'm thinking about how to re-build a bunch of my 1st Edition pet builds. I could use a little advice, if that's okay.
1) I have a greataxe-wielding half-orc rogue. 1a) Is there a way in 2nd Edition to get sneak attack with a greataxe? (I actually built this character as a protest against D&D 4th Edition rogues.) 1b) Is there a way to get a feat similar to Surprise Follow-Through?
2) I have an Order of the Paw halfling cavalier. Now, if I want a wolf-mounted PC, I basically have to be a goblin, right?
3) I made a team of wolf-mounted halfling PCs, using the bard's inspire courage and the nature oracle's friend to the animals to maximize buffs to the whole party. Is there a similar ability that can give buffs to a bunch of animals that stacks with inspire courage?
4) I haven't picked up the Advanced Players' Guide yet, but do I have it right that an oracle of a given mystery always has the same curse?
5) So I built a white-haired witch back in the day. Would that basically be a witch with the Living Hair feat and multi-classing to monk? I take it that I shouldn't take any monk feats that grant a stance with a specific attack if I want to keep attacking with my hair?
6) Druids can't turn into different creatures anymore? Asking for songbird or hippo builds.
7) I built a bard with fun extra options like Diva Style and the masterpieces from Blood of Angels. 7a) Is there a similar 'fightin' bard' set of feats? 7b) I guess I could multiclass to cleric and pick up some domain focus spells, but since Shelyn (my goddess of choice) doesn't have either the freedom or the sun domain, I couldn't pick up focus spells like the symphony of the Elysian heart or the pallavi of Nirvana's blossoming masterpieces?
8) There's that cool picture of a monk/dragon disciple from the D&D 3.5 DMG. To take the dragon disciple archetype as a monk, first I'd have to 'multiclass archetype' to either a draconic sorcerer or a draconic barbarian, right?
I think that's enough of that. I might have more questions later, but these were the first I could think of trying to slot my square pegs into the round holes of 2nd Ed. Thanks for your time.
Hi there. I'm trying to retire at least 1 PFS1 character before I try out PFS2, so to that end I'm going to try earning some points by running some scenarios for a change. And because a) I don't see them offered very often anymore (where I live), and b) my poor character is of high-enough level to benefit from them, I'd like to try GMing some 7-11s (or maybe a 5-9 or two).
What are some of your favorite 7-11 scenarios? Maybe there's a cool fight scene in one, or a wacky magic boot on the chronicle of another. Tell me what floats your boat, and I'll try to set up a table and run it. Thanks!
lantern staff: This long metal staff has reservoirs for lamp oil, and a lantern-like structure at its head. The lantern staff is fueled as and provides light as a hooded lantern. While lit, attacks with the lantern staff deal 1 point of fire damage in addition to the normal damage. Any effects that apply to a quarterstaff, except those that require it be used as a double weapon, also apply to a lantern staff.
Ultimate Equipment wrote:
fire-forged steel: Dwarves stumbled across the secret of crafting fire-forged steel in an effort to make forge-friendly tools. It didn’t take them long to adapt its unique properties to arms and armor. Fire-forged steel channels heat in one direction to protect its wearer or wielder. When it is crafted into armor, heat is channeled away from the wearer, offering some limited protection. Armor crafted from fire-forged steel grants the wearer fire resistance 2.
Weapons crafted from fire-forged steel similarly channel heat away from the wearer; this does not grant the wielder energy resistance. Instead, the blade absorbs and channels heat to the parts of the weapon that contact enemies. If the weapon is exposed to 10 points or more of fire damage (such as from an opponent’s fireball or by holding it in a campfire for 1 full round), the weapon adds +1d4 points of fire damage to its attacks for the next 2 rounds. If the wielder is wearing fire-forged armor and using a fire-forged weapon, this bonus damage increases to 1d6 points of fire damage and lasts for 4 rounds. This bonus damage does not stack with fire damage from weapon enhancements such as flaming.
1. Make a lantern staff out of fire-forged steel.
2. Light it.
Does it deal +1 fire damage, or +1d4 fire damage?
Bonus question!
Ultimate Equipment wrote:
shield sconce: This metal frame holds a torch and is designed to be strapped to the front of a light, heavy, or tower shield, allowing you to carry a torch without giving up your shield or occupying your weapon hand.
1. Craft a light steel shield out of fire-forged steel.
2. Strap a shield sconce to it, and stick a torch in the sconce.
3. Light the torch.
Does this shield
a) offer the wielder fire-resistance 2?
b) grant +1d4 fire damage on a shield bash?
c) do nothing special?
How about a really big snot dragon sleeps in an underwater cave, which turns a wide swath of the waters surrounding the island into a bubbly muck (which of course hide deadly reefs from otherwise careful sailors).
The island itself is home to only a rather out-of-place baroque tower, which is filled to the brim with ticking clocks of all shapes and sizes. Next to each clock is a placard with a name engraved on it.
Also the whole shebang is defended by a platoon of soap golems.
Let's use shields as a good stand-in for walls. While there aren't rules for adamantine shields (sadly), let's use the UE benchmark of 300gp/lb as a good example. A light steel shield for a medium-sized creature weighs 6 lbs, 1 lb more than a wooden one (and let's not bring real-world physics into this if we can help it, please). 4 light steel shields welded together makes a fairly convincing 5' square steel wall, and weighs 24 lbs. 24 x 6 (for a cube) is 144 lbs. (144 lb x 300gp/lb) + (24 shields x 9gp/shield) = 43,416gp for such an impregnable box. Throw an extra 1 or 2 thousand for a suitable door or locking mechanism, and you've got a very reasonable 45k gp for an adamantine safe.
But seriously, don't make a safe out of adamantine, adamantine is vulnerable to rust. Actually, if your admantine shields are actually +1 adamantine impervious light steel shields (I'm pretty sure that's what you call these), that changes the cost per shield from 1809gp to 5809gp. Ouch!. That bumps the cost to 139,416gp (before your hinge and locking mechanism). Really only store stuff in there that you absolutely couldn't put anywhere else.
There is a cheaper alternative, however. Make a smaller safe out of 6 light steel shields made out of sunsilver. 1 of these is 309gp, and so 6 of them are 1,854gp for a, let's say, a 2.5' cuft box. There's still the problem of sunsilver being too soft to withstand adamantine weapons (hardness 8), but that's where fortifying stones come in. Because this box does weigh less than 100 lbs, you can attach three of these stones to the inside of the box, which bumps the hardness to 23 and the cost to 4,854gp (the entry for the stones does say that you could affix multiples to same object). Throw in some cash for a hinge and a lock, let's put it at 7,000gp total. Very doable. Kill whoever you want to stuff in there, trap them in a soul gem, and stuff their corpse into an anoxic bag of holding, and you should be set.
a) I think your next feat should be Canny Tumble. This will give you a decent way to just auto-sneak bad guys.
b) You will also want to invest in the naughty decoy ring. This ring can give you 'greater-ish' invisibility for 2 rounds out of 3.
c) To boost your will save, there's always a four-leaf clover. Those are very good for the price, and slotless. You might also go for one of those protection from evil talismans, a lesser pentacle talisman or three.
d) You might also want to invest in a swarmbane clasp at some point, because sneak-attacking swarms is great fun.
1. Seems legit. Probably an oversite, but what's written is what's written.
2. Nice.
3. Nice again.
4. Why won't you suffer a negative level? They grant the HOLY weapon properties, one of which is negative levels for evil people ...?
Seems like a good item, but I'm not sure you're getting around the alignment thing.
Yeah, oops! There's a bunch of specific magic items that give you a negative level for having the wrong alignment, I just assumed that the holy weapon property was a specific weapon for some reason. In my defense, uh, I was pretty delirious from fever when I wrote this...
Right. So, I have an unchained eidolon, and I know there is at least a little variance about taking evolutions from Ultimate Magic, buu~uut if hooves were okay with a GM...
Animal Archive wrote:
horseshoes of sacred silver: These mithral horseshoes are imbued with heavenly power. They grant the holy weapon special ability to the wearer’s hoof attacks, and if the wearer hits an evil-aligned target with both hooves in the same round, the target is staggered for 1 round (Fortitude DC 16 negates). In addition, the wearer gains a +2 sacred bonus on bull rush, drag, and overrun combat maneuvers. If the wearer is a mount and the rider uses the Trample feat, add 2 to the rider’s overrun combat maneuver check. If the wearer uses the trample special ability, increase the trample DC by 2; if the target fails its save against the trample attempt, add the damage from the holy weapon special ability to the trample damage.
1. These are some of the very few horseshoes that do not say you have to wear all four. An eidolon with only two hooves could wear them just fine.
2. They are made of mithral, one of the very few ways you can tack a DR-bypassing metal onto a natural attack. Horseshoes of crushing blows can also be made from special metal, but unfortunately you have to have four hooves for those.
3. They don't care about the wearer being a horse (horseshoes of a zephyr), or have a command word that only works for a mount's rider (sorry nightmare horseshoes), or force the wearer's family to be from Kelesh (the overpriced horseshoes of desert fury).
4. The wearer of these horseshoes can be evil, and won't suffer a negative level from wielding a holy weapon.
So, hooray to whoever wrote these! They are perfect for a hooved, evil eidolon who wants their feet to count for something.
deliquescent gloves: These heavy leather gloves ripple and flows at the wearer’s command, reshaping to fit any hand, claw, tentacle, or alien limb. The wearer’s melee touch attacks with that hand deal 1d6 points of acid damage. If the wearer uses that hand to wield a weapon or make an attack with an unarmed strike or natural weapon, that attack gains the corrosive weapon special ability.
1. The item is described as 'heavy leather gloves'. I would presume that means you get more than one.
2. On command, these gloves can reshape themselves to fit any hand (or claw, alien limb, but not hoof). Okay.
3. The hand around which these gloves reshape themselves gets to be corrosive. Does your other hand get to be corrosive too, or just the one hand? Do the gloves fit around your one corrosive hand like a 'glove sandwich', or do you, you know, get to actually wear these mutating gloves on both hands?
And of course my real question is this:
4. Assume that a bipedal eidolon has two limbs (arms) evolutions. Now assume that the eidolon has a claws evolution for each set of arms, and is wearing a set of deliquescent gloves. Does the eidolon get one corrosive claw attack, or two, or four?
5. Or, does gaining an extra set of arms grant an extra set of magic item slots for those arms (two ring slots, a wrist slot, and a hands slot)?
well, ???, I might as well try to flesh these out myself. And why not, let's use 'Abbey Road' order.
Human Inquisitor (Expulsionist) of Torag 6
Feats
H: Weapon Focus (warhammer)
1: Weapon of the Chosen
1: Alignment Channel
1: Turn Undead
3: Deific Obedience (Torag)
3I: Hammer Guards the Anvil
5: Divine Fighting Technique (Torag's Patient Strikes)
6I: Shake It Off
Spells include cure light wounds and defending bone.
Expulsionist gets channels vs. undead (and demons), Weapon of the Chosen goes well with the expulsionist focus on incorporeal creatures, and Torag's obedience and fighting technique are pretty great. I like it!
Two cheap ways of getting sneak attack, movement with the scout, and invisibility from vanish. The original character had a bow and could switch between bow and daggers at will, but that's somewhat tricky in Pathfinder. It's nice that you can cast acid splash with daggers in both hands using minor magic.
I'm not completely happy with this build, for two reasons. One, acid splash is cool, but it's not a bow. I also kind of want Deadly Aim, even though it's probably not that good for a rogue. Two, spells are sort of outside the rogue's wheelhouse. I know these spells are great, but I wish there were roguey things that were as good. For instance, I know that you can't Deadly Aim with a ranged touch attack. If there was a way of switching between dual-wielding daggers and shooting a shortbow without spending a round doing it, then I'd do that. Probably wishful thinking though.
The fighter gets a 'better' sword for their sword-and-board build. The three PF options are bastard sword, aldori dueling sword, and falcata. I chose falcata. Fortified Armor Training also sounds kind of neat, actually.
]b]Human arcane bloodline Sorcerer 6[/b]
Traits: Wayang Spellhunter (snowball), Magical Lineage (scorching ray)
Feats
H: Point-Blank Shot
1: Precise Shot
1: Eschew Materials
3: Rime Spell
5: Flaring Spell
6S: Spell Focus (evocation)
Spells include snowball, invisibility (which is a bloodline spell), and scorching ray.
The original is a 'wizard', but gets so few spell choices I decided to go with sorcerer for the extra slots. An evocation specialist with some extra debuffs for when the damage spells hit. Probably pretty underpowered as arcane casters, but the ray focus is solid.
Hi there. I got a Kickstarter copy of Heroes & Treasure, which is half an RPG dungeon crawl, and half a boardgame. It's pitched to be very family friendly, and it's pretty easy to pick up. Here's the link, if anyone's interested: Heroes & Treasure.
And, well, because non-tragic heroes grow up eventually, I figure I'd make 6-level Pathfinder builds out of each of the PCs. Let me describe the PCs, and my starting notes, and maybe I could get some advice to these builds? I'm a little rusty making Pathfinder builds.
Spoilers for the treasure found in Heroes & Treasure's first campaign, if that matters to people here.
Rogue
The rogue does sneaky rogue things (spotting clues, finding hidden treasure, and hiding). He/she fights with two daggers, and eventually receives a bow. The bow is interesting because it's a very risky weapon, usually missing but capable of dealing high damage.
My first thoughts are a human rogue with Improved Initiative (because Rogues always go first), Two-Weapon Fighting, and Deadly Aim. Maybe the adoptive parentage (elf) alternate racial trait for the longbow proficiency, but that's not strictly necessary.
1) How does one go about making a good switch-hitting rogue or rogue-alike?
Fighter
The fighter has a sword and a ton of hit points. They eventually get a better sword and...more hit points. They also have the ability to break shields to negate damage. This fighter wants to be in front attracting attention and absorbing hits.
My first thoughts are a human fighter with later feats in Exotic Weapon Proficiency (falcata), Toughness, and Fortified Armor Training.
2) How does one distinguish a defense-oriented fighter from a summoned monster?
3) Aside from moving my 4-6 feats to earlier, what are some good feats for a sword-and-board?
Wizard
The wizard eventually gets three spells: some sort of frost ray that can rob an opponent of their next action (by freezing them), invisibility, and a single-target fireball that can also steal the target's next action (by stunning them). Other goodies include a frosty dagger and a wand of AoE fireballs. They also get really few hit points.
There really isn't a great cognate between all this stuff and what a Pathfinder wizard can do. Let's start with a human evoker with an arcane bond to a wand, the trait Magical Lineage (snowball), and Rime Spell. Spells include snowball (the Ultimate Wilderness one, I guess), invisibility, and fireball. Maybe Point-Blank Shot and Precise Shot in order to hit with snowball reliably.
4) Aside from butterwitchery (using an acid-enabled grease with Dazing Spell), what are some good options (spells, feats, class options) for a wizard or wizard-alike to deal energy damage and control the battlefield?
5) Since there are so few spells, should I just go with a sorcerer? What bloodline would be good for both evocations and invisibility?
Cleric
The cleric is also defined by their spells, a cure spell, something that damages undead (good thing there are undead monsters, eh?), and a protection spell (similar to the fighter's shield, the spell shield breaks to stop a hit). The cleric has fewer spells than the wizard, but can cast any of them with their slots. There's also an upgrade from a mace to an undead-smooshing hammer.
Lots of choices here, let's see. Starting with an adoptive parentage (dwarf) human oracle of life for the warhammer proficiency and channel energy. Maybe Channel Smite and Weapon Focus?
6) Is there an oracle archetype that gets diminished spellcasting in exchange for something else?
7) Is there a divine spell that acts like the 'damage undead' part of channel energy? That would mean I could pick a different mystery.
8) Is there a divine spell that acts like an ablative piece of armor, like a once-a-spell negating a hit or a crit?
If the cleric gets so fewer spells than the wizard, how about starting as a base inquisitor or a vampire hunter? Could get an undead-bane weapon with judgement. Okay, that really works.
9) Is there an inquisitor archetype or domain power (or spell) that gives access to the 'damage undead' side of channel energy?
Clockwork Bond (Ex): At 1st level, a tinkerer forms a bond with one of her creations, and begins play with it at no cost. This functions as the familiar option of the wizard’s arcane bond class feature, with the tinkerer’s effective wizard level equal to her alchemist level. If a tinkerer would gain a familiar through another class, those levels stack for purposes of determining the familiar’s abilities.
Ultimate Magic wrote:
Tumor Familiar (Ex): The alchemist creates a Diminutive or Tiny tumor on his body, usually on his back or stomach. As a standard action, the alchemist can have the tumor detach itself from his body as a separate creature vaguely resembling a kind of animal suitable for a familiar (bat, cat, and so on) and move about as if it were an independent creature. The tumor can reattach itself to the alchemist as a standard action. The tumor has all the abilities of the animal it resembles (for example, a batlike tumor can fly) and familiar abilities based on the alchemist’s caster level (though some familiar abilities may be useless to an alchemist). The tumor acts as the alchemist’s familiar whether attached or separated (providing a skill bonus, the Alertness feat, and so on). When attached to the alchemist, the tumor has fast healing 5. An alchemist’s extracts and mutagens are considered spells for the purposes of familiar abilities like share spells and deliver touch spells. If a tumor familiar is lost or dies, it can be replaced 1 week later through a specialized procedure that costs 200 gp per alchemist level. The ritual takes 8 hours to complete.
1) Can a tinkerer take the tumor familiar discovery, and have two familiars, one of flesh and one of cogs? Neither familiar is gained 'through a different class'; they're both class features of the alchemist.
2) If no to two familiars, do the 'familiar levels' from the discovery stack with the 'familiar levels' of the class feature, giving you a 2*level familiar? Would a clockwork familiar with 'tumor powers' be able to gain fast healing 5 if its master had some sort of 'cyber-clockwork energy port' that the familiar could attach to?
3) Not a question about the amalgam, but about the clockwork familiar and archetypes: A clockwork familiar eventually gets a 'deliver extracts' power, and a 'speak with other clockworks' power. Can these (plus speak with master) be traded out for the mauler archetype?
So here's a grappling eidolon with frankly a lot of sub-optimally spent points who might just be able to eat people. Failing that, it could probably bite a bad guy and rake it to pieces with the many attacks you get from your many grapple checks + rake attacks.
What are some spells and/or other tricks that a summoner could use to
a) make it harder for a victim to escape a grapple
b) make it harder for a victim to use their natural attacks against the eidolon (caustic blood looks nice)
c) steal or break a victim's light or one-handed weapon
Hi folks. A few weeks ago I solicited some ideas for a 'Shelyn team' of agents/adventurers/whatever, mostly because I had two great ideas for Shelynites, and I wanted some more. So...here's a team of PFS-legit characters who are all into Shelyn in various ways (presented in the order I thought them up). I'm just doing feat (and other big choices) lists, the rest is not as important. Please let me know what you think.
Notes
The obvious first choice for a Shelynite, someone who uses music and magic in battle. I liked the idea of 'bard martial arts' (the Diva Style line), and the rest of it came together. For spells I have a mix of pregen spells, spells from the exalted boon of Shelyn (even though he doesn't have the feat), and the bardic performances from the Blood of Angels book, replacing their slots a few levels later with the human bard FCB. The versatile performance choices are good because they don't overlap their skills, allow for those special performances, and let you go into a fight with Master Vidlian's squeeze-box, if you so choose.
I designed him as a guy, because I was kind of in a rut designing low Strength, high Charisma women. So, let's flip the script on the other teammates too.
Notes
The devoted muse prestige class presumes that you're using a glaive in combat with Bladed Brush. That feat is a little weird, so I went with falcata instead, because it has a better crit range. Moonlight Stalker has a crazy-fun strategy with the distracted flourish, and at 11th level, you might be able to take the bard's job with an inspirational strike.
Of the three races (human, half-elf, tengu) that can cadge EWP (falcata) for free, only the half-elf can get a racial Charisma bonus and doesn't need to take two alternate racial traits. Think of this guy like Lotor from Voltron if he wasn't evil.
Notes
Think of a little girl with a magic paintbrush, who ends up painting tons of animals and things, and at the end she paints a giant dragon and flies away into the sunset. That's this!
I picked Magaambyan initiate because a) they have an aura (for Sacred Summons) and b) they can grab a single summon nature's ally for the *light Summons feats. Do you think that feats designed to make cleric conjurers and druid conjurers better would be good on an arcane chassis? I think so!
I don't know how to squeeze one more feat out of these levels (without being a human) for Superior Summoning, but that's the only missing piece I think. The exploits I chose to look mostly like the conjuration wizard school, but are otherwise unoptimized. Maybe all that acid is like primordial magic paint?
paladin/sentinel: devotee of the glaive:
sacred tattoo half-orc paladin of Shelyn w/oath against grotesquery 5/sentinel of Shelyn 6
1: Weapon Focus (glaive)
3: Power Attack
3: Paladin Mercy: shaken
5: Deific Obedience (Shelyn)
7: Combat Reflexes
S2: Combat Expertise
9: Improved Trip
11: Greater Trip
Notes
A paladin of the deity of beauty being a non-traditionally pretty armored half-orc lady? Sign me up! I went with a tripping build here because the oath against grotesquery might preclude harming intelligent creatures with lethal damage. A merciful glaive might be a good investment. The other fun thing is Glorious Might, the 'cap' divine boon for sentinels of Shelyn: double your Charisma to attack with a smite. Would you care to turn on Power Attack and Combat Expertise both at the same time? Sounds great! The only downside is missing that last paladin level, because paladins get some nice bennies on even levels. Maybe feat 13 would be Felling Smash, which I never thought I'd say.
Maybe a 'bladed brush' can be a glaive wielder that paints giant murals with it, using the blade like Bob Ross used an art knife. Then I realized that fame in Pathfinder affects crafting time. Weird.
I'm not much for playing lots and lots of Pathfinder, so right now I've gotten Mr. Bard up there up to level 2 in PFS. I just figured I'd share what I thought of.
I'll never understand how people can argue that you can worship something that is fundamentally opposite to every belief you have as a person.
A chaotic evil person has literally nothing in common on a moral scale with a lawful neutral God.
Your "faith" is basically "you have a cool feat I want, ok good bye". Which isn't worship at all.
Oh, well, please excuse the misunderstanding. I don't want my character's chaotic evil pet to worship Irori, I want my character's chaotic evil pet to cheat at worshiping Irori and sneak a feat she shouldn't have. Was that not clear by the thread title?
I guess there isn't a phylactery of heresy, is there?
Also
Pathfinder Unchained wrote:
An eidolon must be within one alignment step of the summoner who calls it (so a neutral good summoner can call a neutral, lawful good, or chaotic good eidolon) and can speak all of his languages.
It is legal, and PFS-legal, for a chaotic neutral summoner to have a chaotic evil eidolon. Which is great RP fun, by the way.
What feat is it? Sometimes there are other ways to get a similar effect.
Inner Sea Gods wrote:
Steady Engagement: If you use Stand Still to prevent an opponent from moving, you may make a disarm or trip combat maneuver against your target as an immediate action.
I really like this feat, because I really like Stand Still, but...this is for a chaotic evil eidolon, not really into Irori so much...
I was thinking about a kid wizard with a magic paintbrush who could conjure things and creatures by painting them, with of course the pinnacle of the art being to summon a large dragon or a phoenix and flying away with it.
Is it possible to summon a dragon, phoenix, ki-rin, or heck, one of those very large turtle/island critters in Pathfinder? I didn't see any obvious way to accomplish that.
There's a feat I have my eye on, but it's got a totally incompatible religion requirement. So that's a bummer, but I'd love to be able to cheat it. Any way to 'fake' being a worshiper of a deity, enough to fool a feat requirement?
I had a cool idea for a bard that was very into being religious for Sheyln, because a lot of, you know, classical music was religious. Plus polka music.
Then later I had a cool idea for a swashbuckler/devoted muse bird person wielding a falcata.
So, now...I kinda want to fill out this adventuring party in my head, you know?
Maybe some kind of conjurer/summons master that paints monsters onto the field, sort of like Relm from FFVI, or the traditional kid with a magic paintbrush? Or, what would a Shelynite alchemist look like? A good Oath Against Grotesque paladin build? paladin/sentinel?
Anyway, I'm looking for ideas for Shelynite characters who are _not_ swashbucklers or bards, and would possibly make for a good team-up with said swash and bard.
I understand why they did this, but - You can't multi-class Paladin/Barbarian due to alignment restrictions. Thematically this kind-of makes sense until you read all the material out there about "re-flavouring rage". But mechanically this stops you picking up the Fatigue Mercy and rage-cycling from character-level 4 onward (the ability to ignore post-rage-fatigue is a level 17 Barbarian ability).
Except ever since the release of the Bloodrager class this has kind of been a moot point. You can absolutely have a Rage-cycling Paladin if you dip into Bloodrager instead of Barbarian.
no paladin/barbarian...how about paladin/Ulfen Guard?
I posted this at the bottom of a long-dormant thread, and I didn't get any nibbles. So I thought I'd try again
Say you have a Small-sized summoner. 27 lbs soaking wet, 46 lbs with gear and armor (falling juust below the encumbrance limit himself).
And say the summoner's eidolon is a biped with 18 Strength, 100 lb weight limit and no armor. 26 lbs gets spent on weapons and ammo and such, so the eidolon has plenty of spare weight capacity. The eidolon has the flight evolution, with wings.
And lastly let's say the summoner is proficient with the blade boot and the barbazu beard (both weapons that you don't hold in your hands), and has Still Spell
Scenario #1
The eidolon picks up the summoner and holds him. What can the summoner do? What can the eidolon do?
Scenario #2
1) the summoner double-moves to a square adjacent to his eidolon.
2) the summoner's eidolon spends one move action picking up the summoner (probably using the eidolon's first two arms), and another move action moving somewhere (flying or not)
3) the eidolon then spends a free action to drop the summoner, hopefully into an adjacent square.
The summoner triple-moved. Is this legal?
Scenario #3
1) the summoner spends a move action to grab ahold of the eidolon's ankles.
2) The eidolon flies off somewhere.
Can the summoner cast Still spells? Can the summoner fight with his sharp shoe and beard?
1. religious paraphernalia for an evil religion
2. a torture device
3. a bunch of warforged corpses
4. the wizard's venomous familiar
5. way, way, WAY too many skulls, clearly labelled
6. poetry
7. letters of marque and reprisal for some other dastardly plot
8. a forged invitation to a noble's upcoming ball
9. the bag contains an enormous demiplane full of sand and ruins...perhaps it's the excavated rubble from the now-empty giant underground chamber
10. a fairy
It's impossible to use the feat as smite has no discernible indicator. Completely understandable to ban a feat that requires you to metagame in order to use it.
The feat is also poorly written in that its language doesn't quite match how smite works. For example, smite isn't actually an attack but rather a buff that augments your attacks against a particular creature.
a) no discernible indicator, eh?
Core Rulebook wrote:
Smite Evil (Su): Once per day, a paladin can call out to the powers of good to aid her in her struggle against evil. As a swift action, the paladin chooses one target within sight to smite.
One would think that to 'call out to the powers of good' is to perhaps use your voice when doing so, no? Is 'calling out' a purely mental action then, something you could do while paralyzed?
I think that when a dude wearing heavy armor starts screaming to his deity and is pointing at you with a sword, that that is very good indicator of a smite being activated.
b) well, some things called 'smite' are actually attacks (with attack rolls and such). I'll agree with you that the implementation is a bit weird (does using 'smite evil' provoke, or does attacking someone you've 'declared smite' on provoke?) But still...this armor enhancement is PFS-legit for some reason.
Ultimate Combat wrote:
warding: Once per day as an immediate action, the wearer of warding armor can activate it to end all active challenge, judgment, and smite abilities affecting her. This does not prevent opponents from selecting her as a target for these abilities in the future. As a swift action, the wearer can expend one of her own challenge, judgment, or smite abilities to refresh the armor’s ability to end these attacks.
If you're wearing warding armor, and you call out to the forces of good against a target, can you use an immediate action to cancel your smite? I mean, it is 'affecting' you, certainly.
I think the intent of Smiting Reversal is clear. If someone attacks you in melee with something something 'smite', then you get to hit them back. Plus, if warding armor lets you affect others' smitey powers, is PFS-okay, and is also a little ambiguous, I don't think Smiting Reversal's problems should disqualify it.
Your setup doing awesome amazing things with slings is pretty rad, but I think this setup works for anyone with good Strength and doesn't have bow proficiency. Plus I am pleased with the overall bundle of cords and straps and whatnot, because I'm hoping to have only cord- or strap-based magic items.
sling: A sling is little more than a leather cup attached to a pair of strings.
Ultimate Wilderness wrote:
speed sheath: It [the sheath] can hold one forearm-length item, such as a dagger, dart, potion, scroll containing a single spell, or wand.
1) Can you put a sling into a speed sheath? Is a sling a 'forearm-length item'?
Ultimate Equipment wrote:
weapon cord: Weapon cords are 2-foot-long leather straps that attach your weapon to your wrist.
2) Can you attach a weapon cord to a sling? Or, can you tie a leather strap to a string? (also, in RL, isn't that how slings work? Aren't you supposed to tie one end to your wrist or your finger?)
3) Can you tie one end of a sling to a weapon cord attached to your wrist, and stuff the other end of the sling into a speed sheath? Or, like, tie it in a slip-knot around your wrist for easy untying?
What I'd love to do, and I'm not 100% that the rules are there (which is why I'm asking), is:
1) I'd like to run around with my hands free.
2) Then I'd draw, load, and fire a sling in a single turn (swift to draw the sling, free for the ammo, move to load, standard to fire).
3) Lastly, I might drop the sling in combat and not lose it later.
I think I'd be okay having a sling dangling on the end of a strap attached to my wrist without looking too uncool. What do you think?
well, I would say summoner, because then you could make a tanky eidolon.
But all but the core classes are out, and said tank player doesn't want to be a front-liner?
Play a druid.
1) You can turn into a bear.
2) You can have a bear animal companion.
3) You can summon a ton of bears onto the field with summon nature's ally spells.
Rondelero Swashbuckler starts with falcata proficiency and can finesse the falcata.
Hey, that's pretty cool. I guess I should have searched the word 'falcata' in the archives. I'm a little on the fence with that one, because
a) While you save a feat and a half over the vanilla swashbuckler, you don't get the Dex to damage that you would with Slashing Grace. I think I want that.
b) rondelero style (falcata + buckler) doesn't mesh so great with devoted muse, because they generally don't want to use a shield
avr wrote:
You're probably going to want a means to feint without spending a move or standard action. You could get either moonlight stalker feint or swordplay upset at level 11 exactly, or you could take a 1-level dip in monk to get feinting flurry at 9th.
Ooh, I like Moonlight Stalker. That's classy. Flourish feint to get to distracted, and while your target's AC isn't going down, you get just a plain +2 to attack and damage. Very nice.
I'm not so sure about the Swordplay Style chain, mostly because those two different shield bonuses don't stack.
So here's a V2 chassis. What do you think?
Devoted Muse of the Sword-Axe
Human
Alternate Racial Traits: Military Tradition (falcata and 1 other exotic weapon, maybe fighting fan or deer horn knife), Heart of the Fey
swashbuckler 5/devoted muse 6
Traits
Reactionary
Irrepressible
Feats
1st: Weapon Focus (falcata), Weapon Finesse (ish)
3rd: Slashing Grace (falcata)
4th: Combat Expertise
5th: Improved Feint, Improved Critical (ish again)
7th: Blind-Fight
8th: Greater Feint
9th: Moonlight Stalker
11th: Moonlight Stalker Feint, Skill Focus (Bluff)
If you're holding something but not using it (say, a fighting dan you have no intention of attacking with), does that count as your hand being 'occupied' for Slashing Grace?
The devoted muse prestige class likes to fight with something with a high crit multiplier, with the assumption that you'd use a glaive with Bladed Brush.
a) Bladed Brush has problems, and isn't PFS-legal.
b) The 6th-level power, inspirational strike, is a lot better if you actually crit when it happens. This is tricky for high crit multiplier weapons.
Except for the falcata. It's the only weapon I can think of that's got a crit chance of 19-20/x3.
So here's a chassis for a swash 5/devoted muse X. High Dex, high Cha
Feats
1st Weapon Finesse (from swashbuckler), EWP (falcata) (from somewhere), Weapon Focus (falcata)
3rd Slashing Grace (falcata) (at this point you can actually finesse the falcata, plus you get Dex to damage)
4th Combat Expertise
5th Improved Critical (from swashbuckler), Improved Feint
And at this point the swash is qualified (with the right skills and alignment) for devoted muse.
So, I need advice.
a) the 'from somewhere' to gain proficiency with the falcata. There's 3 race choices that'll work: human (military trained or otherwise), half-elf, or tengu (a falcata is a kind of sword). Which one would you choose? Is one those 3's alternate FCB for swash really powerful?
b) So, a swash plus a prestige class that mimics a swash is a bit limited, right? Kinda crummy saves, really focused on dealing damage. I'm...okay with that, but I've only got feats figured out to 5th level. What next?
c) any good traits out there, besides probably Indomitable Will?
evolution surge: This spell causes your eidolon to take on new characteristics. You can grant the eidolon any evolution whose total cost does not exceed [2,4,6] evolution points. You may only grant one evolution with this spell, even if that evolution can be taken multiple times. You can grant an evolution that allows you to spend additional evolution points to upgrade that evolution. This spell cannot be used to grant an upgrade to an evolution that the eidolon already possesses. The eidolon must meet any prerequisites of the selected evolution. This spell does not allow an eidolon to exceed its maximum number of natural attacks.
I have a bunch of questions, because while this spell is transmutation, it's not in the polymorph subschool. Let's talk about what happens when you grant the Large evolution.
1) I know this has been asked before, but what happens to the Ability Increases you've already purchased?
2) While the Large evolution grants size bonuses, what's another good polymorph spell that can add to this one? (more of an advice question, sorry)
3) When you go from Medium to Large, it doesn't say anything about the eidolon's gear growing either. Does this mean that (say), the eidolon's belt of giant strength snaps off during the surge?
4) So, you can't upgrade an evolution that you currently possess (no going Huge with greater evolution surge). However, even though your surged evolution only lasts minutes, could you spend real points to upgrade spell-given points? Here's an example:
a) cast evolution surge on your eidolon, making it Large.
b) somehow cast transmogrify with a standard action, instead of the usual 1-hour casting time.
c) Can you shuffle the points around so that the first evolution surge spell is the one that grants Large, and then you spend 6 points yourself to grant Huge.
Can we ask why 6 hours of functioning light isn't enough?
Or are you trying to not have to take an action to light it once in combat while not having it be bright and glowy till you draw it?
Sure! It looks like a lit lantern staff is the best bludgeoning two-handed simple weapon (1d6+1/x3), which means I'm interesting in giving a silver one to my normally-natural-attacking bipedal eidolon when she runs into a vampire.
However, since my summoner has to spend an action to cast lesser evolution surge to give the eidolon temporary proficiency with simple weapons, and because I think it's really weird to keep a 5-foot stick (or several) in a 'sheath', I was hoping to draw the lantern staff, pre-lit, out of an efficient quiver.
I think I won't bother overthinking this, and settle for a silver spear instead. Golf bag full of sharp stuff, just the thing for the eidolon who's got it all!
Lantern staff: This long metal staff has reservoirs for lamp oil, and a lantern-like structure at its head. The lantern staff is fueled as and provides light as a hooded lantern. While lit, attacks with the lantern staff deal 1 point of fire damage in addition to the normal damage. Any effects that apply to a quarterstaff, except those that require it be used as a double weapon, also apply to a lantern staff.
Core Rulebook wrote:
efficient quiver: This appears to be a typical arrow container capable of holding about 20 arrows. It has three distinct portions, each with a nondimensional space allowing it to store far more than would normally be possible. The first and smallest one can contain up to 60 objects of the same general size and shape as an arrow. The second slightly longer compartment holds up to 18 objects of the same general size and shape as a javelin. The third and longest portion of the case contains as many as 6 objects of the same general size and shape as a bow (spears, staffs, or the like). Once the owner has filled it, the quiver can quickly produce any item she wishes that is within the quiver, as if from a regular quiver or scabbard. The efficient quiver weighs the same no matter what’s placed inside it.
1) If you light a lantern staff, and you stick it into the 'bow pocket' of an efficient quiver, will it damage the quiver, or things inside the pocket?
2) Will the flame in the lantern be extinguished, or will it continue to burn, or what?
and 3) If normal lit lamp oil would be too dangerous or obnoxious to have in a quivered lantern staff, can you think of a way to keep the lantern lit (and capable of dealing damage) without needing oil?
Another option I've considered for playing a religious bard (because, you know, there's gobs and gobs and gobs of Western classical music that is at least meant to be played in church) is to pick out the bardic masterpieces found in Blood of Angels.
Or there's the silver balladeer archetype. While apparently the source material isn't overtly religious, you could certainly give it that bent if you wanted to.
ooh, I ate my own post on this one. Fun archetype!
a) the only familiar on the list that flies out of the box is the raven. Raven familiars can talk. Find out if there's a teamwork feat that does something bad to someone who listens to a team of babbling people, and give that to your fecund crow.
b) you can fix the flying thing by taking a figment familiar, which would eventually give you two evolution points for flying centipedes. and it's probably true that a single figment familiar with psychic magic: telekinetic projectile won't suddenly get a few hundred charges of that to cast.
c) Losing share spells doesn't mean that any spell you previously cast on your familiar ends...so...maybe you'll get a swarm where each creature is affected by the spell?
d) you have a swarm that's at least a little intelligent and can understand your commands. That sounds really dangerous. Like, the swarm subtype says that swarms don't take attack actions, but nobody said anything about spellcasting or archery or anything.
e) like, you could cast burning gaze on your familiar, have it split into 300 creatures, and then, I dunno, turn a single action fire spell into an AoE? How 'identical' are the copies anyway? If you cast anthropomorphic animal on your familiar and gave a widdle, oh, blowgun, would then each copy have a similar blowgun? I dunno.
This is, what, maybe 1/3 of the way towards full plate? and it's totally okay for a druid to use these without losing their powers? or, a wizard with no arcane spell failure chance? or an eidolon at all?
Also, while I'm here, how come there are no magic greaves or sabatons? Can someone provide an example of one of those I missed?
I'm going to necro this thread, because it is just the perfect question.
Scenario #1
1) a Small summoner double moves to a square adjacent to his eidolon.
2) the summoner's eidolon spends one move action picking up the summoner (probably using the eidolon's first two arms), and another move action moving somewhere (flying or not)
3) the eidolon then spends a free action to drop the summoner, hopefully into an adjacent square.
The summoner triple-moved. Is this legal?
Scenario #2
1) A Small summoner with Still Spell and a blade boot (and possibly a barbazu beard) spends a move action to grab ahold of a flying biped summoner's ankles.
2) The flying eidolon flies off somewhere. Fly, my pretty!
3) Since the summoner can't use his arms while he's holding on for dear life, he has prepared for this contingency with ways to cast and fight without using his hands.
4) My wife raises a good point: the summoner is probably encumbered (unless you're a pretty strong Small person or have ant haul on or something), because he's holding himself up.
The summoner is not mounted, but is using his eidolon's wings (or other means of flight) to go places anyway. Is this legal?
without an archetype to customize, your next point of customization is feats.
For a 'tank', you might try feats that do things with shields, such as Vanguard Ward.
Or how about this, wielding a longspear to start (requires a Dex of at least 15)
1 Combat Reflexes
3 Stand Still
5 Shield Focus
7 Shield Brace
9 Two-Weapon Fighting
11 Shield Slam
something like that. Basically, you protect your allies by being hard to move around (with Stand Still), and then when someone gets too close, you can bash/slam them farther away.
I'm just lucky I get time off from life to play, you know? As an example, I have 5 PCs at various levels, none higher than 7. Messing with continuity isn't going to bother me that much.
One reason to get a mithral weapon is if you're obsessive about tracking your encumbrance limits. In that case it's really only worth it for a weapon that's pretty light to begin with, like a rapier or short sword.
Another reason is if you're a silver balladeer, which is a bard archetype that gets +1 to hit with a mithral weapon.
A barbarian you say? Ehh, are there likely to be a lot of werewolf horses? Zombies with DR/silver and slashing?
If the sword is unholy, then the sword itself is going to give you a hard time (negative levels).
If the sword is intelligent and evil, that goes against the code about working with evil allies, but there's the proviso on that part that says you can do it, but only when strictly necessary. The sword will still give you problems with its Ego.
It's otherwise difficult for me to justify an 'evil' sword, because a sword only does bad things if the arm holding it wants that to happen. Maybe the sword casts an evil spell when it strikes someone? That would do it. Maybe the sword gives a buff to evil people who use it (without being intelligent), and so evil people would seek it out to perform evil acts with.
If I had a choice between using a powerful sword that was evil, and on the other hand resisting the temptation of that power in favor of upholding your moral code...that's a choice you have to make!
Maybe it's a cool concept that your paladin uses the sword and falls! Maybe your code means more than your sword! It's your choice, and you get to choose what fits your narrative best.
So, I play PFS around 1/month. One effect of this is that my characters tend to have chronicle sheets from several years back, and another is that I haven't yet run into a situation where I'd be stuck playing a scenario I've already played.
Sometimes on the scheduler I see a bunch of scenarios that say, 'This scenario is intended to be played in order with this other one, or these other two'. I've never felt that I could play in these because I'm like, you know, Neptune, my frequency of gaming is much slower than the other folks I typically play with.
But, eh, this month that's all I see that fits my schedule. What happens if I just play the one scenario? Will I still get a chronicle sheet? Or is my character 'stuck' until eventually I get to finish the multi-parter?
Take the cloak and roll it up before putting around your shoulders.
Like an Erfworld magic carpet. I love it.
VoodIstMonk wrote:
Everything that manifests wings says your gear and armor reconfigure to make it work, I don't think anything has to change, at all.
I get what you're saying, and I know I'm being really picky. Ever tried out heroforge? wings + a back item (such as a cloak) just doesn't look right at all.
muleback cords of resistance sounds cool. I could have magic items that are nothing but buckles and straps and cords.
muleback cords (of resistance) eidolon anchoring harness belt of giant strength
and what the heck, toss on an armbands of the brawler in there just for good measure.
now I'm a little sad that the amulet of mighty fists has no flavor description.
