Buccaneer Bard exploit


Advice


9 people marked this as FAQ candidate. 2 people marked this as a favorite.

Check this out. Bard with the Buccaneer archetype gets this little beauty:

Quote:


Knock Out (Ex)

At 5th level, a buccaneer may focus his blows in an attempt to knock out an opponent. Once per day as a swift action, the buccaneer can choose one target to attempt to knock out. The buccaneer adds his Charisma bonus (if any) on his attack roll and adds his buccaneer level on any nonlethal damage rolls made against the target. The bonus lasts until the buccaneer deals nonlethal damage to his target or until the buccaneer chooses a new target to attempt to knock out. He can use this ability one additional time per day for every six levels he possesses beyond 5th, to a maximum of three times per day at 17th level.

This ability replaces lore master.

Cha to hit, level to non-lethal damage, ends when you deal non-lethal damage to the target. Nothing keeps you from doing lethal damage, getting your Cha to attack rolls.


Other than the GM, I guess :p

Grand Lodge

Charisma to attack rolls once per day?
Not exactly a powerful exploit, but a neat trick.
Most adventures have more than one combat per day.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Yeah Rasmus, you try any of that stuff at my table, I'm going to shake my head and look very disappointed before I tell you no.

I agree that the wording is a bit clunky, but I don't think there can be any doubt as to RAI here.

Grand Lodge

I am not really seeing anything terribly overpowered.
You've got a once per day mild nova option.
Second fight of the day, and your neat trick is gone.


So your bard gets +CHA bonus to hit

and then you deliver wimpy damage with the blow ? meh

I guess you could make a strength bard and TWF etc etc but then you'd need to go with a lower CHA and thus less effective use of this power

yeah I'm not seeing it being a problem

something the save for a BBEG maybe

the effects end if you change targets so its only good against one opponent/day at 5th.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

You know, I'm almost willing to look into if that was a typo.

The ability would be much more worthwhile if it ended upon dealing lethal damage.

As it is now, it's one pitiful bard hit for non-lethal damage.


Fleshgrinder wrote:

You know, I'm almost willing to look into if that was a typo.

The ability would be much more worthwhile if it ended upon dealing lethal damage.

As it is now, it's one pitiful bard hit for non-lethal damage.

As written you can add +CHA to hit and deal lethal damage round after round until your targets dead. so long as you don't deal non-lethal or change targets the effect doesn't end.

I guess killing someone still knocks them out :P


Yeah, that's why it appears to be a typo.

If it was "until they deal lethal", it suddenly makes a whole lot more sense and isn't exploitable.


Fleshgrinder wrote:

Yeah, that's why it appears to be a typo.

If it was "until they deal lethal", it suddenly makes a whole lot more sense and isn't exploitable.

its not exploitable even as written, its a bard doing melee dmg.


Even if it's a bad exploit, it still does definitely appear as though it was not meant to be used in the way outlined in the OP.

The ability is called Knock Out and is best used to do lethal damage? Doesn't make sense.

I'd be actually surprised if that's not a typo/mistake.

Liberty's Edge

You are all forgetting something [beside the OP], what it is exchanged for:

PRD wrote:
Lore Master (Ex): At 5th level, the bard becomes a master of lore and can take 10 on any Knowledge skill check that he has ranks in. A bard can choose not to take 10 and can instead roll normally. In addition, once per day, the bard can take 20 on any Knowledge skill check as a standard action. He can use this ability one additional time per day for every six levels he possesses beyond 5th, to a maximum of three times per day at 17th level.

If you are after a combat advantage the buccaneer ability is stronger. In most other situations the standard bard ability is stronger.

Sczarni

Flagging as FAQ, because it looks like a typo to me.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Advice / Buccaneer Bard exploit All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Advice