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The kensai is holding a weapon ;)Only if the enemies are intelligent and have no reason to believe the wizard is a wizard. If they're not, then it's metagaming for them not to attack the wizard first.How would even another wizard distinguish between a wizard and a kensai prior to the latter using spell combat?
There are no physical or magical differences prior to that point.
The wizard is holding a weapon and, being earth school, has melee bonuses.
As far as manner of dress and spellcasting go, the only real difference between my magus and wizard are spell selection, DC's and number of spells.
Even Arcane Sight won't reveal a difference between the two. [i]Arcane Sight[i] sets the standard from differentiating casters. Most everything you are arguing fall under the purview of a 3rd level spell.
I'm not sure I've ever played any adventurer of any class whatsoever who did not have a weapon.
But the Wizard is still a lot less likely to have a big sword than the Kensai.
Plus, I mean, as a general principle, shooting your arrows at the guy with no armor makes sense since you're going to hurt him more than the guy who is wearing 20 lbs of steel. So enemy archers should shoot at the monk and the kensai too.
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But the Wizard is still a lot less likely to have a big sword than the Kensai.
Plus, I mean, as a general principle, shooting your arrows at the guy with no armor makes sense since you're going to hurt him more than the guy who is wearing 20 lbs of steel. So enemy archers should shoot at the monk and the kensai too.
Which is my point.
Most opponents have no means to differentiate between a monk, a wizard, and a kensai. All three are people in normal clothes.
But there's no reason to make the assumption there *IS* a wizard, since adventuring parties are very rare, if not unique.None of my spellcasters wear robes. Well, in 3.5 one has a Robe of the Archmage, yeah, but the rest wear std adventured garb.But from an intelligent (n.b. not every fight needs to be against smart foes) enemy perspective, the guy who is not wearing any visible armor and no weapon has a pretty good chance of being the Wizard.
The rarity of adventuring parties is dependent on the setting. In forgotten realms and golarion, there are many of them, including guilds of adventurers. In my home setting, every major noble has a crew of them that they call upon, and there are plenty of freebooters as well. Another setting I saw they were a very high percentage of the population on the dangerous borderlands, but very rare elsewhere.
But the Wizard is still a lot less likely to have a big sword than the Kensai.Plus, I mean, as a general principle, shooting your arrows at the guy with no armor makes sense since you're going to hurt him more than the guy who is wearing 20 lbs of steel. So enemy archers should shoot at the monk and the kensai too.Which is my point.
Most opponents have no means to differentiate between a monk, a wizard, and a kensai. All three are people in normal clothes.
That was PossibleCabbage who wrote that, not me.
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Take levels in Paladin and get these spells:
Compel Hostility
Knight's Calling
Paladin's Sacrifice
I wouldn't do this unless you're a full-blown "chaladin", because all three of these grant otherwise easy-to-make saving throws.
I play as my party's defender and I've found that if the GM ignores me and attacks my fellow party members, then I become mostly useless. I'm wondering if there's a feat or action I can take that will force the enemy to attack me. Any suggestions?
Come to the game session, wearing a red robe, red pointed wizard hat, and a wand; preferably one of the fuzzy glow wands with a star at the end.
Then Tell your GM, that you are dressed as your character is :) hopefully, your GM, will get the point.
So many posts on history, headbands, appearance arguments and not enough on his problem.
Firstly has anyone got any idea what Class/Feats/Levels he has?
My best advice is to pick up improved trip + greater trip + combat reflexes.
What you want to do is STOP people getting past you and kicking their feet from underneath them will absolutely stop them. You end their movement and either force them waste their standard action to stand (provoking) or force them to fight you with -4 melee attacks/-4 AC.
Enemy tries to get past you, you intercept by tripping him using your action or trip him using an attack of opportunity. You a free attack of opportunity on him from using greater trip. Now he either needs to stand up and provoke or attempt to fight you. Trying to escape only creates a never ending cycle with you bashing him in with +4 on your attacks.
Additionally you could get a Cloak of the Hedge Wizard: Transmutation and gain enlarge to increase your radius of protection.
Furthermore if you had the feats get step up>following step>step and strike
This allows you to further lockdown opponents who try and weasel away using 5ft steps.
Caustic Slur is actually a feat. It gives anyone who attacks you the Power Attack feat. So....yeah.I'm pretty sure you're joking, but the TC might think you're serious.AntagonizeCaustic Slur
At least you will die telling them how ugly their parents are.
Yeah, one of the better tanks/make-them-pay-if-they-ignore-you builds I've seen was a cleric with a spiked chain. You might use a meteor hammer now, but this guy was good at his tank and punish build. Yeah he had combat reflexes, crazy strength and he would up his strength and ac whenever he could. So he is just ripping strips off those getting past or slowing them down as they try to kill him to get to the more squishy adventurers.
I couldn't match that until second darkness and my cavalier, that really blocked the skirmisher drow from doing anything to other party members. Block tunnels, be the target for their hand crossbows, close and break finely angled faces.
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He had his answer 33 posts in when he said antagonize was exactly what he's looking for.
Caveat Emptor, because Antagonize is one of the worst-written feats in the game (read that last half of that post dealing with this feat, and then my follow-up at the end of the page). In short, don't expect to cakewalk all over an intelligent GM's adversaries with it.
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If you want a surefire way to "tank" for the party, then use a build that is not overly defensive, give yourself a lot of HP--toughness is nice--and DR is good, too, and go on pure offense.
If your damage is negligible then you are going to be the last to die. If your damage is high, and threatening to enemies, then they're going to try and kill you.
Lets look at Valeros. He is a 2-weapon fighter who charges in to kill his party's enemies as fast as he can. He is usually backed up by Kyra (who can face tank as a cleric), Merisiel (Who is probably with him most of the time so she can sneak attack), and Ezren (who nukes people to death.)
He is threatening because he tends to be the first into the fray. Enemies have to take him seriously because Merisiel can sneak attack due to his flanking. The most important part is that he can rush down opposing casters if they are not protected.
In Pathfinder the idea of tanking is based on the danger the enemies feel from each person, and how easy they think it will be to hurt them. Most enemies are going to avoid the guy wearing full plate and a tower shield if they can attack someone wearing a robe or basic clothes.
One example of this was a gnomish sorcerer turned Dragon Disciple who had 20 con at level 1, toughness, and took the favored class bonus into HP. He invested in a ring of regeneration as soon as he could, and more or less became unkillable.
At lvl 20 he had 432 hp, and he focused on spells that either caused damage when he was hit, or gave him temporary HP. He was a monster.
"You hit the gnome. It does nothing. You explode."
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GM's forces ignoring your tank and attacking the squishies behind you? Here's a way to grab their attention: Do it right back to them.
In ignoring you, the opposition isn't protecting their own assets, leaving you with free reins to go find their spellcasters and make yourself an annoyance. My PFS dwarf fighter is built upon this concept, and boy, does it work well. As a dwarf in heavy armor, with a tower shield and all, the opposition just runs right past me -- which is exactly what I want. I then go find the enemy spellcaster, plunk myself down in front of him and WAIT. Eventually he's going to have to cast, and then I'll have him, having declared my intention to strike him if he casts.
He takes a five foot step? Oh, yeah, I have Step Up. So, he takes a step, I take a step. He continues the movement to try to get away from me? Following Step.
He can cast defensively, sure. I still get to add to the DC to that check, 'cause I'm going to hit him. And I'm a dwarf with awesome Fortitude and Will saves.
Eventually the guys with the big sharp sticks have to come back to rescue their squishies from ME.
Yeah, there are ways to deal with this. Flying wizard, and I'm kind of useless. Invisible wizard, same deal. Sometimes you don't get to be the end-all be-all answer to everything. But if I'm truly useless, if the GM is truly working to make me have no reason to be there, then I take the hint, and leave the table. (Now, most GMs are not intentionally being jerks, and I can voice my frustration and request advice as to what my character should do in this circumstance, but occasionally you get the jerk GM who just wants to see your character wander about helplessly, and that's when I just get up, pack up my stuff and leave.)
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One example of this was a gnomish sorcerer turned Dragon Disciple who had 20 con at level 1, toughness, and took the favored class bonus into HP. He invested in a ring of regeneration as soon as he could, and more or less became unkillable.
At lvl 20 he had 432 hp, and he focused on spells that either caused damage when he was hit, or gave him temporary HP. He was a monster.Do you have any other info on this build? This seems like an epic build, but how does a sorcerer end up with a 20 con at level one and still have points for other stats?
5 levels of sorcerer = 6 + 3.5 x 4 = 20
10 levels DD = 6.5 x 10 = 65
5 levels of sorcerer = 3.5 x 5 = 17.5
Favored class bonus = 10
Toughness = 20
I shall try!
Come Barron Gnimish Barron-Barron!PC HP are rounded up, btw, not averaged:
d6 = 4 hp
d12 = 7hp
The build revolves around being hit, so the physical statistics are not important, though I don't recommend dumping them particularly hard. Depending on point-buy things will get hard. At 20 point buy you have enough to run 10,10,20,10,10,13, which puts you just within range of spell level 9 spells with a headband of intelligence +6.
Each ability score increase is used to increase Constitution.
10 levels of sorcerer = 6 + 36 = 42 hp
10 levels DD = 70 hp
Favored class bonus = 10 hp
Toughness = 20 hp
Constitution (20+1+1+1+1+1+6+2 = 33; [33 - 10]/2=11.5; 11*20 = 220) 220 hp
Total is = 362
I seem to have incorrectly added something previously.
Adding your math into the fray:
Constitution (20+1+1+1+1+1+6+2+5 = 38; [38 - 10]/2=14; 14*20 = 280) 280 hp
Total is = 422
Very close. Drop a False Life and call it even. ^_~*
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The latest Pathfinder Companion book that just shipped (People of the River) has a new Dueling feat:
Call Out (Combat)
A well-crafted insult forces an opponent to duel you.
Benefit: As a standard action, you can make an Intimidate check against a hostile target within 30 feet that can clearly see and hear you. The DC of this check is equal to 10 + your opponent’s Hit Dice + its Wisdom modifier. If the target is trained in Sense Motive, the DC is instead equal to 10 + your opponent’s Sense Motive bonus, if higher. If you succeed at this check, the target enters a duel with you (Ultimate Combat 150). The target cannot withdraw from the duel for 1 round + 1 round for every 5 by which the check beat the DC.
Now for PFS, this won't work as the Dueling Rules from Ultimate Combat are outlawed. But if you're in a home game, this could possibly work.
I figure grapple works fairly well for "provoking", although that's only against one enemy. And really taking down waves of little guys is more of a wizard thing anyway.
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So many posts on history, headbands, appearance arguments and not enough on his problem.
Firstly has anyone got any idea what Class/Feats/Levels he has?
My best advice is to pick up improved trip + greater trip + combat reflexes.
What you want to do is STOP people getting past you and kicking their feet from underneath them will absolutely stop them. You end their movement and either force them waste their standard action to stand (provoking) or force them to fight you with -4 melee attacks/-4 AC.
Enemy tries to get past you, you intercept by tripping him using your action or trip him using an attack of opportunity. You a free attack of opportunity on him from using greater trip. Now he either needs to stand up and provoke or attempt to fight you. Trying to escape only creates a never ending cycle with you bashing him in with +4 on your attacks.
Additionally you could get a Cloak of the Hedge Wizard: Transmutation and gain enlarge to increase your radius of protection.
Furthermore if you had the feats get step up>following step>step and strike
This allows you to further lockdown opponents who try and weasel away using 5ft steps.
Combat Reflexes, Stand Still, Pin Down, Combat Patrol
Nobody moves without the fighters permission.
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I put together a high defense dwarven fighter that forces opponents to attack him by denying them the ability to reach anyone else.
At 11th level, add the Bodyguard feat and Benevolent
Combat Reflexes, Stand Still, Pin Down, Combat PatrolNobody moves without the fighters permission.
If you play a Lore Warden (they get up to a +8 to combat maneuvers) or a Brawler fighter (they get an ability that is basically Pin Down 2 levels early, and 1/2 their level as a bonus to Stand Still later on), then this is true, even if you are fighting big beefy dragons.