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My name is Pogrist the Great, Necromancer of the Pathfinder Society. I have just attained the third degree of proficiency in wizardry, specializing in necromancy, of course. My first few missions for the Society have gone reasonably well, but I find myself on the receiving end of unwanted enemy attentions a bit too often, receiving serious injury more than once.
I am considering bringing my faithful hound Dargon along as a bodyguard. He is a sturdy dog, trained in combat and tracking the dead, yet I fear for his safety. Also, I am forbidden by the Society to maintain any undead retainers I may acquire or eventually create, so that avenue of defense is also unsustainable.
I am well versed in Mage Armor and will likely research Defending Bone in the interim, yet these fall short at times. What protection is recommended to wizards of more conventional methods?
Get a familiar and use it to scout. Get the dog barding. See if you can find some way to improve it's Acrobatics skill. Improve your's and your dog's initiative. Obscuring Mist and Fog Cloud; also smokesticks. Darkness. Clever use of Readied Actions. Hire a warrior 1 with decent armor.
Well, looking at your profile you have a 10 CON on this character, with it being a D6 hit die.
Since you trade out Scribe Scroll for Spell Focus in your given school in PFS, you essentially have one feat to burn. Picking up Toughness would be a good start.
The False Life spell is another option.
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Well, looking at your profile you have a 10 CON on this character, with it being a D6 hit die.
Yikes.
Please tell me you're putting your FCBs into HP. If so, that puts you at 5HP/level, which is still frighteningly low. If you add Toughness, that's 6HP/level, which is still dicey.
I suggest that you both take Toughness and pick up a +2 CON belt ASAP. That'll get you up to a reasonably comfortable 7HP/level (again, if you put your FCBs there), which is where I've got my sorceress.
For reference, I've been in a scenario at the 7-8 subtier where a fight started with everyone getting nailed for over 50 damage (the save DC for half was in nat-20-only range) before anyone could act, and with no possible chance of advance scouting.
If you were 8th level, with nothing but 10 CON and your FCBs, you'd have had 42 HP and a death threshold of -10, for a total HP range from full to dead of 53.
Boom. Insta-dead before you can act.
If instead you had 12 CON and Toughness, you'd have had another 16 HP (58) and dead at -12, for a total span of 70. You'd have still been not only alive, but up and kicking.
Now, maybe you enjoy playing it close to the wire and using other methods of defense. If so, that's fine. Just want to give you enough information for you to make an informed decision. :)
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Dear Pogrim,
Buying higher level scrolls can provide you the protection much needed at lower levels. Scroll of Mirror Image is only 150 gp which might be easy to gain by simply asking your faction friends (1 Prestige Point). You can also buy scrolls with multiple castings if you might need it.
The all known Mage Armor and Shield can provide a moderate form of protection also at lower levels, but drain fairly your magical energies. They might be good as wands and scrolls also to have if that is acceptable for you.
Upon gaining more experience (levels 3-5) you might learn of fabulous necromancy spells of False Life and Vampiric Touch. They will provide you temporary but long lasting protection.
These are several main advices for a necromancer which might give you some clues.
Malag
For reference, I've been in a scenario at the 7-8 subtier where a fight started with everyone getting nailed for over 50 damage (the save DC for half was in nat-20-only range) before anyone could act, and with no possible chance of advance scouting.
If you were 8th level, with nothing but 10 CON and your FCBs, you'd have had 42 HP and a death threshold of -10, for a total HP range from full to dead of 53.
Boom. Insta-dead before you can act.
Sounds like someone just played...
I actually gave Pogrist the Fast Learner feat, which from 3rd level on is essentially equivalent to Toughness. I am now a bit regretful at not giving him a bit more CON and less WIS...
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I commend the earlier advisors. My side comments.
Sight - especially at the low levels - knowing who has, who does not have, and who does not care about light is a good armor class all into itself (if you have access to darkness). It does not help you at all against those with darkvision, if you don't have darkvision, or don't have access to darkness.
Gear - Ceremonial Silk Armor (no arcane failure) may be a way to get an added spell in via spell storing (Congratulations you hit me, here is your prize! - xd6 vamp touch (you're a necromancer after all)
You made the typical move of many who follow theorycrafting messageboarders. You neglected your Con in your pursuit of an 18 stat. At least you did not totally dump it.
I would never ever start any PFS character no matter what class, with anything less than a 12 con.
Why the high charisma, especially given the description you laid out?
The 13 CHA is for commanding undead, the +1 to CHA based scores and 1 follower, and a feat prerequisite that I now cannot remember... I actually didn't attempt to min/max or theorycraft, rather an attempt to play up my original character concept while making him survivable in a 20point-buy system. Shoulda put 12 in CON, 10 in WIS...I never dump a stat below 10 unless it's thematic.
I would consider purchasing a scroll of shield other and give to a friendly paladin, or perhaps cleric. And beg them to share their life with you.
: What are you suggesting exactly? A marriage proposal or fate bond? ;)
No, no, he certainly needs a defender of some type, yet other party members have their own goals besides keeping a necromancer alive at all costs, lol. How viable is buying a combat-trained dog (for thematic reasons), barding and buffing it?
Leadership as soon as possible.
Stay alive until then.
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Serpentine! Serpentine!
Seriously though, all of your strategies should be predicated on the concept that you don't fight fair. You hide, you sneak, you send in minions, you make your party members tougher, faster or more accurate. There are low level scrolls, wands and potions that can make up for spells you may not have in your spellbook. I am a big fan of "vanish" for such characters.
Why are you taking so much damage in the first place? Are enemies engaging you directly in melee? Are they hitting you with projectiles? Are you collateral damage in AoE spells targeting your other party members?
There are ways to deal with each of those situations.
Leadership as soon as possible.
Stay alive until then.
This is a PFS character. Leadership is not legal in PFS.
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More con. You cannot always count on a good meat shield. Sometimes there's no fighter, sometimes you're playing up and the fighter is so low level that the wizard is meatshielding for HIM.
Mirror image- ac is for suckas.
More con
DO NOT open the fight with a nuke. You've just went from A target to THE target.
More con
Hat of disguise. Look like the rogue or a fighter, get targeted by the will save spells.
Buff your allies. The best AC you can have is good minio.. party members.
more KAAAAAAHHHHHN
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Buff your allies. The best AC you can have is good minio.. party members.more KAAAAAAHHHHHN
HA! That's great! is there a PFS legal way to move two points from WIS to CON at level 3?
Run some games and apply your GM credit to your character.
What sort of credit can I apply to my character? This may be a FAQ, but is there a list somewhere? I'd love to GM...
This is a PFS character. Leadership is not legal in PFS.Leadership as soon as possible.
Stay alive until then.
That's a shame.
Just do the 'stay alive' bit, then.
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What sort of credit can I apply to my character? This may be a FAQ, but is there a list somewhere? I'd love to GM...
When you GM a scenario, you get a chronicle sheet just as if you'd played it (but you can only get a chronicle the first time you GM a given scenario, and you can't put it on the same character that you played that scenario with). You get full gold, XP, PP, and boons. It's a great way to get characters past the awkward lower levels.
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Ok, here are a couple of other ideas:
Even though you (foolishly I think) took illusion as an opposition school, you can still use the spells. Especially in wand form.
A level 1 wand is really useful defensively and they only cost you two prestige points.
Good spells for you would be:
Mage armor - This frees up a slot so you don't have to cast it yourself, giving you more spell options
Shield - This is for use in close quarters where it's hard to get out of the way.
Expeditious retreat - Use this when you would otherwise do a double move in combat - you get the same movement out of the current turn and all future turns are super fast.
Silent Image - great for distracting people from you.
true strike - for when you really need your touch attack to hit
Other than mage armor, these wands are all sub-par because they cost an action in combat, but they are good to have as back-ups and at the cost of two prestige points, you really can't go wrong.
Losing invisibility is not such a big deal, but losing greater invisibility is. As a necromancer, you are basically a direct fire cannon (undead creation sucks for wizards), and being unseen is a big advantage. That said there ARE ways around this.
Some of the funner ones include Tiny Hut - this lets you see out, but have full cover. There are other spells that do the same thing. Darkness + darkvision can also work, but tends to screw up the rest of the party.
Another good trick is shrink item. Create pallets made of wood that stand on their side - it's basically a portable blockade made of wood. Shrink it down and deploy in in combat for a +4 cover bonus. Because shrink item lasts for days it is possible to keep this around at all times. Note that it stacks with mage armor and shield spells, and you familiar can deploy it for you (I think).
The only real down side is that the DM may require that you start the adventure with no pre-cast spell running. Still many society adventures last for several days of game time.
Obviously some of these tricks will have to wait for you to level a bit. That's all I've got off the top of my head. Hope that helps.
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You are only level 3. At this point your best option out side of a mjor overhall. Is to start over wifh a new level 1. No its not the best option. However from what I lnow of the retraning rules. You can't redo ability scores. And that is your base problem.
I have a wizard for PFS. However he hase survived playing up more then one time. Due to build choices i made at level 1. Dwarf Wizard (Arcane Bomber) 5 starting Con 18 HP 47.
Use stealth to hide during fights.
Spend the whole fight casting defensive spells on yourself.
Don't take offensive action, it will only make you a target.
Wear full plate and utilize a tower shield, don't worry about the penalties to attack as you are not going to be attacking. Buy a wand or two and use them if you want to cast spells.
Hire a halfling with a good ride skill and the Mounted Combat feat to ride you.
Dip a level of monk for better saves and deflect arrows. Dip a level of barbarian for hp and faster movement. Don't worry about losing out on higher level spells, as those will just make you a bigger target. Highly defensive and ineffectual characters live to (not) fight another day.
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Scrolls of mirror image. 2PP = a scroll with 5 castings on it. My level 11 conjurer rocks a 13 AC and still rarely gets hit because of liberal use of invisibility. Buff your fighters at all costs. Summon stuff. Animate stuff and buff them (fast zombie owlbear with displacement? Hell ya!). A wand of vanish, used with the ready action of 'I use this on Fred when someone attacks him' will make you everyone's friend and so they will protect you. But mainly, find a way to Buff, Survive, and Blast.
HA! That's great! is there a PFS legal way to move two points from WIS to CON at level 3?...
Buff your allies. The best AC you can have is good minio.. party members.more KAAAAAAHHHHHN
Nope. You should be able to buy a belt of con relatively soon though.
Run some games and apply your GM credit to your character.What sort of credit can I apply to my character? This may be a FAQ, but is there a list somewhere? I'd love to GM...
If you DM, its as if your character played. So as long as the mod is a legal one for your character (a 1-5,1-7,3-7) you just sign it yourself and stick it in the with rest, as if you'd played. if you're not high enough level yet (say a 7-11) you have to wait till you hit 7, at which point you get extra credit.
I dm a little bit , most of my credit has gone to saying PBTHTHTHTHS! to first level play.