Please Advise how to Best Use this Weird Battlefield Control Technique


Advice

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Silver Crusade

Wow! Lots of good stuff.

@Serum: You might be right. I go almost entirely off the pfsrd, and buy all the required Paizo source as a PDF. I rarely bother to download and read the watermarked PDFs. That's what I did in this case: I bought the Blood of the Moon Players Companion PDF for $8.99. I've never downloaded it. I'll have to read up and verify what you say. If so, that's too bad and I wasted $8.99, but doesn't really hinder Ben's build. Swamp's Grasp is his secondary technique to create difficult terrain. Thanks!

@Drogos: Thanks!

@Imbicatus: Yes. Marketing 101.


While having the feather step slippers for everyone else is very nice, I expect most characters have some sort of footwear that they actually want to use. It seems that forcing them to use that slot for your tactic is the biggest downside here.

I'd also say that while clever, the difficult terrain, using reach weapons and 5-foot stepping away from foes so they could never attack you seems entirely unfun after maybe one time. In a home game, a GM could adapt to that and find ways to keep the game challenging. PFS doesn't have that option. I certainly think that this might be a winning strategy, but I don't think it would be a fun one to play at all, especially for anyone else.

If I'm playing a game I want to feel challenged some of the time.


Ben carries Wands as his Plan B for those who don't want to wear the slippers.

Fun depends on who you are. Different people enjoy different things, and some do enjoy crushing their enemies beneath their tactically-superior Slipper-clad bootheels.

'sides, it's PFS. It only has to be fun one time. After that, new group.

Shadow Lodge

Magda Luckbender wrote:

@Serum: You might be right. I go almost entirely off the pfsrd, and buy all the required Paizo source as a PDF. I rarely bother to download and read the watermarked PDFs. That's what I did in this case: I bought the Blood of the Moon Players Companion PDF for $8.99. I've never downloaded it. I'll have to read up and verify what you say. If so, that's too bad and I wasted $8.99, but doesn't really hinder Ben's build. Swamp's Grasp is his secondary technique to create difficult terrain. Thanks!

off-topic PFS:
Are you only ever playing play-by-post? If you're not, you need to have at least printed out the pages that include every ability used from the water-marked pdfs. You also probably want to look at the additional resources page whenever you're pulling stuff out of soft-cover material (if not when looking at any material).

Also, Archives of Nethys provides a fairly quick way of seeing what's PFS legal and what isn't, at least when browsing.

Silver Crusade

Off topic PFS:
Correct, I only ever play PFS online. Not PbP, but live games with VTT and voice chat. Sometimes I GM PFS in person, but never played PFS that way. Thanks for pointing out Archives Of Nethys - I'll use that in the future to double-check.

At not quite 6th level, half way to retirement, Ben has yet to encounter even one ally who already has a magical foot slot. The Wand is to cover this case, and for when there are not enough slippers.

@Dave Justus: It would be rude and silly for Ben to use this sort of battlefield control in a ROFLstomp scenario. For those it's best to let the party Wizard defeat the boss with melee combat, as that is the only way to find challenge. Ben's techniques are for difficult scenarios. Sorry if you don't like this approach. I do like crushing foes under my tactically-superior slipper-heels, it's true :-) To each their own.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Magda Luckbender wrote:

Off topic PFS:

Correct, I only ever play PFS online. Not PbP, but live games with VTT and voice chat. Sometimes I GM PFS in person, but never played PFS that way. Thanks for pointing out Archives Of Nethys - I'll use that in the future to double-check.

I think that could make a big difference with communication strategies. How much time is there with online live games to make a conversation about tactics and strategy? I would think that GM set up time would be less obvious on your end, and that there would be less free time to discuss this sort of stuff.

I do know that in both in-person and pbp games there is enough down time to get the point across. However, I think the very format of online live may be working against you here, Magda.

Hmm


Shameless raise thread:

I've been thinking about parts of this combo, and been wondering about how it would work together with a Nature Fang Druid, especially since the early entry MT has been torn to pieces.

Narcisco Fogrunner, Half-Elf Nature Fang Druid of Sarenrae

Spoiler:

STR 15+2 (+1 at 4th) DEX14 CON14 INT10 WIS 14(+1 at 8th, keep going from there) CHA 8

Domain: Plant (Growth)
Feats: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Elven Branched Spear) (Half-Elf), Combat Reflexes (1st), Power Attack (3rd), Improved Initiative (4th, RCS - Sarenrae), Rime Spell (5th), Whirlwind Attack (6th, RCS - Sarenrae), Pushing Assault (7th), Lunge (8th, Combat Trick), Cornugon Smash (9th), Weapon Focus (10th, Weapon Training) Divine Interference (11th), Quicken Spell (12th - Advanced Rogue Trick (Feat))
Traits: Ancestral Weapon for the free first level MW weapon and the +1 on attack rolls with the selected material, and Magical Lineage (Ice Slick)
FCB: +1/2 use of 1st level domain power / level.

Narcisco probably takes the martial aspect of Ben to a higher level, although he is not a "stomper" per say. I guess you could think of him more like some sort of a shepherd - he still has the ability to no-save entangle his foes and grow large as he does so, but he also gets the ability to keep everyone where he wants them to be with pushing assault + whirlwind attack and a further +2 on movement AoOs due to his weapon. My question is more, where should I go with him? He remains a 9th level caster and has picked up two metamagic feats by L12, so he is well on track to get Spell Perfection at L15 should he so desire, but I'm struggling to find out what might be of greater use. Any suggestions?

EDIT: I feel like I should add that a Goz Mask is very high on his items-to-get list already.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I've actually been thinking along these lines for other PFS build possibilities.

  • Flamedancer bard and a wand of Obscuring Mist (either via UMD, or handed off to another caster...)

  • I have a bard paired with a bloodrager, and we realized that Stone call for the bloodrager comes in at the same time as Mass Feather step spell does for the bard.

It can be fun to build a strategy like this and make it work!

Silver Crusade

Nice to see people are thinking about this approach.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

What can I say? You're one of my mentors.

I stand on the shoulders of giants Magda!


I've certainly learned a lot about reach tactics from your posts as well Magda, so keep it coming!

I feel like it should also be added that a druid can pull off Stone Call & Feather Step (and most likely quicker than any other class), so it seems good. With all the free feats you get from Nature Fang, I guess you could even consider *shudder* picking up Witch VMC for Swamp's Grasp should you want it at L7 - though it remains one square for a long time... but I doubt it is worth it.

The druid will not be able to cast both Rimed Ice Slick & Stone Call in one round w/o Quicken Spell and way higher levels, and that again will interfere with the Enlarge ability. However, it should still be able to push everything around enough to keep them within the area of Stone Call the following round, so hopefully it'll remain potent.

Druid Spells to love:
L1: Featherstep, Obscuring Mist
L2: Rime Ice Slick, Stone Call

I'm really looking forward to playing this guy. Prepare for utter battlefield dominance!

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