Could use help with making a PC for Mummy's Mask AP


Advice


My small group is wanting to run this AP and it is the first time for all of us. I love the ancient Egyptian theme and I'd like to build a character to get into the Living Monolith PrC using a khopesh as the weapon for a martial build. I figure a fighter or barbarian would be a good start.

I also would like to ask those veteran players and GMs of what they could recommend for classes for this particular AP. We are looking at a party of four. No summoners or gunslingers would be allowed but anything else within published Paizo products would be.

Some people suggested a warpriest on the AP board for this idea. Any thoughts would appreciated. My group is looking for party suggestions as well in terms of what classes would work well together in this AP.

Sovereign Court

Anything can work for this AP to be quite honest. Since one of the campaign trait, gives trapfinding, you could potentially pick up a class that has trapfinding and trade it for another archetype, while still not losing much or simply pick a class that doesn't have trapfinding and pick up the campaign trait.


I recommend Ancestor Oracle in a party; you'd be absolutely amazed how fun and easy it is to have one work for you. Part skill monkey, part warrior, part undead killing machine. You'd still want a wizard or bard type character in the party once the researching stuff begins.

Scarab Sages

Well, my suggestion is as always to work with your group and make sure you have all your bases covered (Arcane, Divine, Melee, Trapfinding, Healing, Ranged, etc), it helps a lot. Or if you're going to have an area not covered be ready to make it up somehow. Read the player's guide.

Standard adventuring stuff, be ready at level 1 to deal with traps, locks, swarms, knowledge checks, lighting conditions, the ability to speak and read Osiriani and Ancient Osiriani, crowbars (I like the kunai for this), shovels, climbing (rope, pitons). This AP plays more like PFS (social, research, as well as the standard combat objectives) than Rise of the Runelords (mostly combat objectives).

We're playing through at the moment and it's really fun. I don't think it's a spoiler to say this campaign has a lot of undead, the player's guide shows that half of the city is a necropolis also the word mummy is in the name. Having an undead killing focused cleric has been really useful for my group, her channels have been like a bug zapper.

Scarab Sages

Just make a Paladin. I hate to say it, but the disease immunity alone is worth it. I've gotten so tired of "You guys all catch X disease and start taking ability damage." So we have to get healed and restored. It sucks. Hope you like ability damage.


So far we have my warpriest of horus with the plan of going into living monolith prc, an archaeologist bard and two spots open. I'm thinking someone will play a cleric but the last spot is unknown.

Liberty's Edge

Grond wrote:
So far we have my warpriest of horus with the plan of going into living monolith prc, an archaeologist bard and two spots open. I'm thinking someone will play a cleric but the last spot is unknown.

Well, a full Arcane Caster (Witch, Wizard, Sorcerer, or Arcanist) is the obvious fill for the last spot, though with an Archaeologist, Warpriest, and Cleric it's not precisely required.


If you're into 3PP stuff, you might want to check out the occultist class. It would fit right in.


Deadmanwalking wrote:
Grond wrote:
So far we have my warpriest of horus with the plan of going into living monolith prc, an archaeologist bard and two spots open. I'm thinking someone will play a cleric but the last spot is unknown.
Well, a full Arcane Caster (Witch, Wizard, Sorcerer, or Arcanist) is the obvious fill for the last spot, though with an Archaeologist, Warpriest, and Cleric it's not precisely required.

I'm wondering if we need a meat shield like a paladin for the last spot but not having any arcane in the group is reason to pause.

Liberty's Edge

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Grond wrote:
I'm wondering if we need a meat shield like a paladin for the last spot but not having any arcane in the group is reason to pause.

Archaeologist, Warpriest, and Cleric are all potentially solid melee characters, and if even two of them are going with melee, you should be good with no additional meat shield, hence the arcane caster suggestion. If two of the three are going another route (archery, pure casting, etc.) then yeah, a meat shield is a solid choice.


Deadmanwalking wrote:
Grond wrote:
I'm wondering if we need a meat shield like a paladin for the last spot but not having any arcane in the group is reason to pause.
Archaeologist, Warpriest, and Cleric are all potentially solid melee characters, and if even two of them are going with melee, you should be good with no additional meat shield, hence the arcane caster suggestion. If two of the three are going another route (archery, pure casting, etc.) then yeah, a meat shield is a solid choice.

My Warpriest is built as a melee guy with a khopesh and shield. The cleric will be concentrated on healing and I have no idea what the arch. bard will be. Actually never played with that kind of bard in a group, I know it is rogue-ish but not sure if it lends itself to melee combat or ranged.

Liberty's Edge

Grond wrote:
My Warpriest is built as a melee guy with a khopesh and shield. The cleric will be concentrated on healing and I have no idea what the arch. bard will be. Actually never played with that kind of bard in a group, I know it is rogue-ish but not sure if it lends itself to melee combat or ranged.

It can do either and do them well. Whether it does is another matter and depends on the particular player's choices and level of optimization.

Scarab Sages

I'm playing an Archaeologist Bard who uses ranged, it's working pretty well. Davor mentioned the diseases, I haven't caught a single one due to the range.
They play more rogue than bard (no group effecting performances, versatile performance, or sneak attack), but good with skills, 3/4 caster. You might think of mentioning that most undead are immune from mind-affecting spells to him.


One thing to consider about the Warpriest (vs. Cleric) is that as a Warpriest, you won't get access to 5th level spells until 13th level, whereas the Cleric gets them at 9th.

Be prepared to spend a fair amount of extra treasure on NPC-cast Raise Dead spells for those 9th-12th levels unless you have a very gentle GM. The (now 11th level) group I'm DM'ing for has done amazingly well and have managed only one party death so far. Judging by the area they are about to enter, though, I suspect multiple fatalities will be incoming. In my experience the Pathfinder versions of the old "Save vs. Death" mechanics start kicking in around 10th level or so.

I have to agree with Davor. As a matter of fact, the party healer just decided that the Druid wasn't cutting it and switched characters to a Cleric, mostly due to the frequent curses (hey, it's Ancient 'Egypt', what did you expect?) and stat damage. Considering that the Druid does not get Remove Curse or Restoration (or Greater Restoration), that puts them at a huge disadvantage in this Adventure Path.

Scarab Sages

Alchemist with the Crypt Breaker Archetype. You lose your normal bombs and get Alkahest Bombs which deal 1d8 acid damage to construct and undead, 1d4 force damage to everyone else. You also get trapfinding.

Liberty's Edge

Ithnaar wrote:

One thing to consider about the Warpriest (vs. Cleric) is that as a Warpriest, you won't get access to 5th level spells until 13th level, whereas the Cleric gets them at 9th.

Be prepared to spend a fair amount of extra treasure on NPC-cast Raise Dead spells for those 9th-12th levels unless you have a very gentle GM.

Uh...he already said there's a healing-focused Cleric in the group to go along with his Warpriest, so this doesn't seem to be too big an issue.

Bazaar Trader wrote:
Alchemist with the Crypt Breaker Archetype. You lose your normal bombs and get Alkahest Bombs which deal 1d8 acid damage to construct and undead, 1d4 force damage to everyone else. You also get trapfinding.

Given that they have an Archaeologist Bard..the role of trapfinder sorta seems filled.

Scarab Sages

So you may want to see if your GM will allow the Skill Unlocks from Pathfinder Unchained.
I was doing some math on this.


One of the players wants to know with the party being warpriest/healing cleric/arch. bard if the last spot they should make an undead bane or whatever it is called paladin archetype or what else would you guys recommend.

Scarab Sages

Even just a regular paladin would be a great addition.

Because there are only the four of you and 3 (4 if you get a paladin) all of you can heal in some regards even if it just using a wand, your Cleric may want to put some focus on killing undead and leave healing, remove disease, restoration, etc for out of combat. There are times where a Cleric's Channel (especially if they can up the DC for their channel resistance save) literally cuts through an encounter like nothing else.


Hrm I'm a proponent of killing things faster is the best way to heal because quite frankly the rules in this game pretty much heavily favor that kind of play. What kind of battle cleric would you have in mind?

Scarab Sages

Actually they don't need to be too much of a battle cleric.

I like the Heroism Subdomain, it has a nice buff at 8th level and the +2DC to resist Channel Energy is nice, and the Sun Domain, you get two nice undead affecting abilities.

If they go this route they may want to consider Sarenrae as a god.

They may think of going reach/summoning, Cleric as that build has a lot of utility. There are some new summon psychopomp spells that this campaign introduced she might like to use.

There's a nice Aasimar Alternative Racial Trait (Heaven Born). Note this should also affect her caster level for summoning good monsters.

If they go Sarenrae,Cleansing Light might be nice.


B. A. Robards-Debardot wrote:

Actually they don't need to be too much of a battle cleric.

I like the Heroism Subdomain, it has a nice buff at 8th level and the +2DC to resist Channel Energy is nice, and the Sun Domain, you get two nice undead affecting abilities.

If they go this route they may want to consider Sarenrae as a god.

They may think of going reach/summoning, Cleric as that build has a lot of utility. There are some new summon psychopomp spells that this campaign introduced she might like to use.

There's a nice Aasimar Alternative Racial Trait (Heaven Born). Note this should also affect her caster level for summoning good monsters.

If they go Sarenrae,Cleansing Light might be nice.

My try at making an evangelist with 25 point buy for Mummy's Mask:

Race (human)
deity (Iomedae) domain (heroism)

STR 14
DEX 12
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 13
CHA 16

floating +2 points from human to put in somewhere

Feats:
Lingering performance (for inspiring courage)
spell focus conjuration (feat tax)

trait:
armor expert
haven't decided on second one

spells:

cure light wounds and summon monster 1 as lvl 1 spells plus shield of faith from evangelist

Idea is to make it a strong summoning cleric while also having a reach weapon since clerics can contribute to damage.

Any critiques would be welcome.


I'd swap Cha and Wisdom and I'd put the +2 in either Str, Con, or Wisdom. Most optimized evangelists run around with 8-10 charisma. In a few levels you'll have more rounds of inspire courage than you'll know what to do with. If you really want the High Charisma, then go ahead and consider Selective Channel as a feat at level 3 and Divine Protection at level 5 or 7 (depending on how soon you want to take Sacred Summons). Level 9 is a toss up between Quick Channel and another Summoning Feat.

Lingering Performance is nice a first level, but I'd ask to retrain out of it later for Improved Initiative/Combat Reflexes/Augment Summons. Your channels are already pretty weak so I'd go ahead and pick up the Valor variant channel to buff allies.


I thought CHA was kinda important for an evangelist?

Scarab Sages

I think the highest unbuffed CHA I've ever seen on an Evangelist was 15?
They were using it to pick up the Flag Bearer Feat planning on getting a Banner of Ancient Kings later on down the line.


Grond wrote:
I thought CHA was kinda important for an evangelist?

No more than vanilla cleric needs Charisma. Which is not say, not much if any. Yes you get more uses of your Charisma related abilities (Channeling and Inspire Courage) but once you gain a few levels, you'll very rarely ever run out of the uses a Charisma of 10 will provide because you'll have plenty of rounds of Inspire Courage, have better things to do each standard action than channel energy, and out of combat healing will/should be replaced by a wand.

With the ACG out, Clerics finally have their real reason to invest in Charisma: Divine Protection. Adding Charisma to all saving throws is huge for anyone who can afford at least a 14 charisma. The only problem is that it doesn't become available for you until level 5, and summoning can be rather feat intensive. Between your Spell Focus Conj, Augment Summons, Sacred Summons, Superior Summons, Evolved Summons, the Spell Perfection Chain, and the Cleric's lack of bonus feats, finding the space for it can be tricky. : /

Forgot to mention, for traits I'd either pick Fate's Favored, Reactionary, or Magical Lineage (Divine Favor/Summoning Spell).
Fate's Favored combined and Divine Favor is a +2 to hit and damage at level 1 and only gets better as you gain more levels.
Reactionary = more initiative. More initiative is always good.
Magical Lineage lets you do Extended Summons for no increase in spell level. Combined with Spell Perfection with Quicken and Maximized/Empowered is cheesy. :3 (only applies to 1 spell though, so whichever one gives you the most Lanturn Archons)

Scarab Sages

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Channeling is actually a pretty darn good ability for Mummy's Mask. Having played a high-charisma spellcasting-oriented cleric in the first 2 books (at a level disadvantage, I might add), if you focus on pumping it up (namely via the Sun domain), you can end fights with a couple of channels and very little party damage. It's quite possible to make a spellcasting/channeling cleric in Mummy's Mask and have a blast with it. (Hah! Puns!)

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