How much attack and damage is enough at 14?


Advice


I'm building a halfling Daring Champion 12/Sohei 1/Unarmed Fighter 1 (the in progress character sheet if you are interested; rolled stats and currently above WBL but may keep it all as WBL is out the window in game in question). It's a defensive build using pre-nerf Crane Style, so I'm pretty much content in that regard, but now I'm unsure of which path to take offensively. Both involve Eldritch Heritage:

1. Take a Mauler familiar through Arcane bloodline along with riding feats. At level 15 I can pick up the feat that lets me full attack when my mount moves, so pseudo-pounce! On the down side, it looks ridiculous. But Pounce!

2. Take Orc Bloodline for Touch of Rage along with the traits (via feat because none are given by default) Optimistic Gambler and Community Minded for a 1d4+3 buff of (level - 2)/2, so 6 right now, to hit, damage, and will 9 times per day. I have a Courageous weapon so that bonus would boost it to 8 on me, but it's diminished a bit by the fact it won't stack with Boots of the Battle Herald (Greater Heroism), but over time Touch of Rage will out pace it more and more, plus I can use it on teammates.

While Flurry of Blowing, fighting defensively, using Piranha Strike, and having Boots of the Battle Herald active, but no Challenge, my full attack is looking like: 32/32/27/22 for 1d3+32 (2d3+44 on crit). By replacing the boots for Touch of Rage I'd get: 34/34/29/24 for 1d3+40 (2d3+60 on crit). With Challenge, all damage would increase by another 12.

So with the damage I already put out, should I take the pseudo-pounce option or the growing massive accuracy/damage boost that I can also buff the other melee-er with if necessary? Pounce seems like the obvious choice, but at the same time I can't help but have some wriggling doubt; you never know when you might need more accuracy and the other party melee dude would appreciate the buff as well.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

It really depends on what kind of fights your GM throws at you. If you can stand your ground and force enemies to come to you the majority of the time then buffing isn't that bad.

But I don't find that's usually the case. When you have to move to your opponent pounce (and mounted (flying) full attacks are so much easier to get off its not really a fair comparison) is going to start you out 3 or 4 attacks ahead and the buff is never going to catch up on those missed attacks before the combat ends.

And don't delude yourself that you'll buff your companions on anything but the most rare time. With a duration of 1 round, its almost never going to be a very attractive use of your standard action.

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Instead of Boots of the Battle Herald, you might consider Karyukai tea set instead (AP#53). Its effective 12 hours of greater heroism + hero's feast for 6 people (the party) for 38,160gp assuming someone can make a dc 26 diplomacy check which should be very easy by 14th level.


You have more than enough damage to handle any published module appropriate for lv 14. With a wand of cure light and lesser restoration you could probably solo a few of them if you're lucky enough to not botch a crucial save. To be challenged your GM is going to have to custom craft high difficulty encounters. Your lvl suggests this isn't PFS, so whether you have enough is really up to how high your GM cranks it. I'd suggest he puts 2d4 Cthulhu's on the wandering monster table.


Just wondering, what weapon are you using? Even a halfling's unarmed strike would be a d4, not a d3.

EDIT: Oh, Cestus, I see.


GeneMemeScene wrote:

Just wondering, what weapon are you using? Even a halfling's unarmed strike would be a d4, not a d3.

EDIT: Oh, Cestus, I see.

I keep fiddling around with the sheet. Before I was using some exotic monk weapon that essentially worked like a dagger (mostly because I saw my guy as a "knife fighter") but in the end decided I didn't care enough and just went with Cestus because it was less a pain in the ass to get.

But yeah it is a home game. I always like being able to hit above my pay grade just in case it's necessary and the pseudo pounce provided by Mounted Skirmisher is better for that Touch of Rage. Funny thing, I always liked Soehi for a dip but I always ignored the fact that it lets you take Mounted Combat feats without prerequisites because mounted combat? Who cares! I felt stupid when I finally didn't gloss over that part.

Thanks for the input guys.

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