How to make enemies miss more?


Advice

Liberty's Edge

I'm planning to play an Inquisitor with the Deception subdomain (probably Picoperi as a deity. Besmara is a possiblity, but I don't like the "yarr I'm a pirate"-stereotype) and the Sanctified Slayer archetype and start sneak attacking as much as possible, but now I'm just wondering how I can make enemies miss me more. One option is just to boost AC as much as possible, but that only gets me so far (Dex 16, medium armour). Are there any cool magic items, traits, feats, or spells that help me get into flanking position by almost, but not quite, getting hit? A few possibilities I've already considered:
- Dodge and Mobility. I say I want to move, I provoke, hopefully miss, and teleport behind him (if I couldn't reach it normally), then strike. This only gets me +5 AC total.
- Mirror Image. Not sure if it counts, because it technically hits my AC, but not me. Can't cast this spell, so I'd need to use UMD for that.
- Dual-Cursed Oracle for the Misfortune. Don't like level dipping just for that, but it's an option.
- Witch's hex Misfortune. Even worse, as it eats a standard action to use.

I've been feeding this character GM credits, so I haven't actually played him yet, but I'll play him next week, and he'll be level 2. I could also re-work this character entirely and make him a Cleric, which gives me access to another domain, the Mirror Image spell (multiple if I use the Theologian archetype), but I chose the Inquisitor because of its class features and damage capabilities. Level dip would work, but it's not ideal (besides, I already have a Cleric, although he's 100% support, so a striker Cleric would be nice). Also, I'd built him as a Half-Orc, but that's not set in stone.

Grand Lodge

Blur, displacement, entropic shield (but that is against ranged only).

Obscuring mist and its relatives, including the mundane smoke stick.

If your PC will have darkvision, ways to generate darkness, as long as the rest of your party can handle it.

Trickery domain for copycat (single image mirror image)

There is a ring, name I cannot remember, which makes the PC invisible and creates 4 copies when the PC is either knocked unconscious or performs a withdraw action.

The Ninja Vanish trick, but that may take several feats and/or levels to bring into play.

The Exchange

If you don't mind the "no armor" problem (work with mage armor) check out Mistmail. The 20% miss chance can be sweet. (saved me a few times....esp. great when it was an X3 Crit that misses...)

Silver Crusade

Don't forget the Acrobatics skill and tumbling past foes.

Any cover or concealment prevents them from taking attacks of opportunity on you, such as a Ring of Blur, or one of Displacement.

Shadow Lodge

That ring kinevon is describing is the Decoy Ring.

The Exchange

Cry Challenge (feat) from pg.22 in Giant Hunter's Handbook ... (+4 to AC vs. AOOs provode when you 5' step)

Liberty's Edge

I'm not a big fan of things that provide 20% miss chance, as they're too unreliable to work for me. Also, I think it prevents me from using sneak attacks, but I'm not sure.
After looking some more, I think Bastet is an ideal deity for me, as she gives access to the Protection domain, and the Defense subdomain. The subdomain power is only once a day, but it does give Shield, which is another +4. Still not sure if I want to multiclass, but it's appealing. Too bad a Theologian can't choose both, as it clearly states If the inquisitor has cleric levels, one of her two domain selections must be the same domain selected as an inquisitor, so if I choose one of the two domains as my Theologian domain, my Inquisitor domain must be the same, so that's only 1 Shield per day.

Cry Challenge is nice, but it requires Antagonise, and I was planning on dumping CHA for more damage, so it's a bit of a waste, but it's certainly an option. Also, the Giant Hunter's Handbook is not yet PFS legal, I think, but I'll keep it in mind. Requires some reworking, but it's certainly doable. Stacking that with Mobility means a +8 to AC, that's awesome. Hmm, I can see this work. As a Half-Orc, my +2 to Intimidate will negate my -2 to CHA, but if I'm a Human, I get an extra feat and all these feats at level 5, rather than 7. Then again, I don't need to use the feat, it's just a dumb prerequisite, but it's kind of a waste if I don't use it...

The Exchange

Lux Lucian Caulfield wrote:

I'm not a big fan of things that provide 20% miss chance, as they're too unreliable to work for me. Also, I think it prevents me from using sneak attacks, but I'm not sure.

After looking some more, I think Bastet is an ideal deity for me, as she gives access to the Protection domain, and the Defense subdomain. The subdomain power is only once a day, but it does give Shield, which is another +4. Still not sure if I want to multiclass, but it's appealing. Too bad a Theologian can't choose both, as it clearly states If the inquisitor has cleric levels, one of her two domain selections must be the same domain selected as an inquisitor, so if I choose one of the two domains as my Theologian domain, my Inquisitor domain must be the same, so that's only 1 Shield per day.

Cry Challenge is nice, but it requires Antagonise, and I was planning on dumping CHA for more damage, so it's a bit of a waste, but it's certainly an option. Also, the Giant Hunter's Handbook is not yet PFS legal, I think, but I'll keep it in mind. Requires some reworking, but it's certainly doable. Stacking that with Mobility means a +8 to AC, that's awesome. Hmm, I can see this work. As a Half-Orc, my +2 to Intimidate will negate my -2 to CHA, but if I'm a Human, I get an extra feat and all these feats at level 5, rather than 7. Then again, I don't need to use the feat, it's just a dumb prerequisite, but it's kind of a waste if I don't use it...

actually, Mistmail gives you concealment (YMMV), so they don't get Sneak dice, but you can use Stealth, which would give you sneak dice. You get yours, they don't get theirs.

Also, the 20% miss chance means they can miss on a die roll of '20' (1/5 of the time the crit just didn't hit you). I combine it with a high AC from other sources, it actually gives a good return... No mater what the monster has as a bonus to hit, 1/5th of the time it misses.

But to each his own... whatever you are comfortable with.

(I have a Cleric in Full Plate and Tower shield, that still uses the Love Domain Power to prevent many things from swinging that first swing...).

Liberty's Edge

Ah, thanks for the correction. It's kinda late here and I'm mixing up my terminology.
Yeah, 20% is nothing to scoff at, I admit, but I have rarely witnessed it actually missing an important attack. Yeah, it happens, but 20% isn't much to write home about, IMHO. Still, valid fallback, should I run out of options.

Grand Lodge

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DesolateHarmony wrote:

Don't forget the Acrobatics skill and tumbling past foes.

Any cover or concealment prevents them from taking attacks of opportunity on you, such as a Ring of Blur, or one of Displacement.

Nope, for concealment, only Total Concealment prevents an AoO. Partial, the 20% miss chance level, does not prevent AoOs, just being the target of (most) sneak attacks.

Consider a Goz Mask, for when you can afford it, as that means you can run around in mist/fog, but not give up being able to see and get sneak attacks in.

One thing to remember, for later in your career, is that some things may no longer give benefits as often, or as well, as they used to. Higher CR monsters frequently have True Seeing, blindsense, blind sight, tremor sense, scent, etc.

Higher level casters have all sorts of ways to shut down invisibility, see invisibility, true seeing, invisibility purge (awesome spell!), etc.

Which is why things that grant concealment are good. Fewer ways to bypass it, for instance. And many of those are available to the PCs, as well, like Shadow Strike, Goz masks, etc.

As a side venture, one thing to think about are the cracked purple prism Ioun stones, which are spel storing items, for one level of spell. There are a bunch of first level spells that, even at CL1, can be useful. True strike, vanish, etc.

Silver Crusade

nosig wrote:
Cry Challenge (feat) from pg.22 in Giant Hunter's Handbook ... (+4 to AC vs. AOOs provode when you 5' step)

Do note that until Additional Resources gets updated with the Giant Hunter's Handbook, Cry Challenge is not legal for play.

The Exchange

UndeadMitch wrote:
nosig wrote:
Cry Challenge (feat) from pg.22 in Giant Hunter's Handbook ... (+4 to AC vs. AOOs provode when you 5' step)
Do note that until Additional Resources gets updated with the Giant Hunter's Handbook, Cry Challenge is not legal for play.

yep, missed that.

Just got it for christmas and was enjoying reading it.... hadn't got to actually USING it yet


Thinking In terms of the divine...

Darkness domain can strike em with a 20%miss chance.
Madness domain can make all attack rolls and saves -1to-10 depending on level on one target for 3 rounds.
Bestow curse offers a -4 to their attacks rolls.
Deception/trickery grants mirror image like effect 3+WIS times a day (not having spells is bad though as it had some good ones like mirror image)

Another thought. Improved eldritch heritage would allow you to grab most any spell that someone names that has great appeal to you thanks to arcane bloodline. The familiar can also help you in a few ways as well.

Scarab Sages

Renegadeshepherd wrote:

T

Another thought. Improved eldritch heritage would allow you to grab most any spell that someone names that has great appeal to you thanks to arcane bloodline. The familiar can also help you in a few ways as well.

After the Paragon Surge FAQ, this no longer works. It lets you add a spell to the sorcerer list, but if you can't cast sorcerer spells, it doesn't help you.

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