Is a friend's build legal?


Rules Questions


Was chatting with a friend and we came up with a build. I wanted to run it by the forum before he goes full force with it.

Human
Str (8) Dex (18) Con (12) Int (10) Wis (10) Cha (18)

Level 1
* Inspired Blade
- Weapon Focus Rapier (From class, gives +1 to hit)
- Inspired Finesse (From class, gives dex to hit with rapier)
- Fencing Grace (lvl 1 feat, gives dex to damage with rapier, offhand can't hold anything)
- Panache and Deeds
* Studded Leather, Rapier, Buckler

Level 2+
* Enlightened Paladin
- Confident Defense ("At 1st level, when wearing light or no armor and not using a shield, an Enlightened paladin adds 1 point of his Charisma bonus (if any) per class level to his Dexterity bonus to his Armor Class.")
- Personal Trial
- At lvl 3 get divine grace, adding +4 to all saves
* Switch studded leather to silken ceremonial armor

The Effect

Defense:
+4 AC from Dex
+2 AC from Cha (gets full +4 when he hits lvl5)
+2 AC from buckler and armor for a total of AC18 (AC20 at lvl5)

Saves:
Fort +8
Ref +12
Will +7

Offense:
+7 to hit with Rapier
1d6+4 18-20 crit with Rapier
With Ki pool equaling 4+(1/2 level), he can ignore all DR for any target of his personal trial

From there, stat increases can go to Dex to increase to hit/damage/reflex/AC. Silken ceremonial armor has no max dex AC. For the rest of PFS, up to lvl 12.

This seems to me like it will be extremely nasty, in the sense that 2 stats which are maxed out end up doing everything. Low Con/Wis doesn't matter for saves because the Cha is added to them. Lack of armor doesn't matter because Dex and Cha adds to it. Lack of strength doesn't matter because Dex replaces it. The only downside is a lack of HPs...but with Con12 and favored class bonuses, as well as HP10 class, he won't end up suffering too badly.

So is this legit? Because if so, I think that he's going to end up with quite the insane character.


Sure is. They can also take Noble Scion (War) and Fey Foundling for even more power.


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He cannot use a bukckler


while a buckler is fine for a swashbuckler because it leaves the offhand free it is still a shield and does not work with the paladin Confident Defense ability.


If he rolls 8,10,10,12,18,18 or runs a 34 point-buy, the stats are okay (I'm assuming it's pre-racial). And since you mention PFS, I guess that's a no-no. Or are you taking dual talent and it's post-racial? (in that case it checks out).

Level 1: He should have one more feat at level 1 (unless you took dual talent). You can wield buckler's with Fencing Grace (FAQ about Slashing Grace with the same wording here). However, the buckler conflicts with Enlightened Paladin's Confident Defense.

An AC of 20 at level 5 isn't high. My last Alchemist had 21 by then (without Mutagen or any other buffs). The saves are net, but that's the Paladin for you.

You should make a habit of posting the parent class to the archetypes you mention in builds. It's hard to know otherwise, since there's 40+ classes with somewhere between 2 and 20 archetypes each, in addition to the ~100 prestige classes. You should also make a habit of writing out the ability scores unmodified by racial modifiers or note where you apply them.

EDITED


Also: Studded Leather, Rapier, Buckler is 27lbs. That's one pound over your light load.


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Since it's a PFS character, besides the issue of the Buckler with the Paladin ability, does he worship Irori? Iroran Paladin is called Enlightened on d20pfsrd because they can't use setting specific stuff on the site.


Ah, my apologies on the parent class.

Indeed, he will be using dual talent as a human. Hence the lack of feats.

I'll tell him about having to ditch the buckler.

As for noble scion of war, doesn't that replace Dex with Cha for initiative? As both are 18 wouldn't that be a wash? Also for fey foundling, that can only be at lvl 1, and at lvl 1 he really needs fencing grace for the dex to damage.

Sadly, losing the buckler means that at lvl5 he'll be down to AC19. Which isn't ideal...I suppose he'll have to load up on other types of AC bonuses.

Still, glad to know that the build is indeed legal.


I believe he could use the rules for retraining to get Fey Foundling.


Johnnycat93 wrote:
Sure is. They can also take Noble Scion (War) and Fey Foundling for even more power.

Fey foundling and Noble Scion of War are both level 1 feats only.

So I don't think you can have both, unless i'm missing something.


Human


Never thought about that, good call.


If you really want to pump up your AC then look at taking a lvl of fighter. This way you can then go mithral breastplate and that will count as light armor for your paladin ability.


why do you need fighter for mithral breastplate?


Because you aren't proficient just because it's light armor, per Paizo's ruling on the matter.


Mithral breastplate armor expert...who cares about proficiency.


Build's legit, nothing too exciting though. AC and saves aren't too high, and damage should be pretty forgettable.


Riggamortis wrote:
If you really want to pump up your AC then look at taking a lvl of fighter. This way you can then go mithral breastplate and that will count as light armor for your paladin ability.

Mithral breastplates only count as light for the things it says it does. This doesn't include the paladin's ability or, in general, most things.


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FAQ in question wrote:
This means that mithral armor allows its wearer to use it when her own class features or special abilities demand her to wear lighter armor;...

Yeah....not sure where you're reading that his paladin abilities don't count as "class features".

Sczarni

bigrig107 wrote:
FAQ in question wrote:
This means that mithral armor allows its wearer to use it when her own class features or special abilities demand her to wear lighter armor;...
Yeah....not sure where you're reading that his paladin abilities don't count as "class features".

Could you link this FAQ? Can't find it.


faq
It should work fine for the Paladin if rogues can still evade in it.


I stand corrected! I thought that FAQ read differently.

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