Nice fix there with the edit by the way. I was a little confused by the 100 :P
Ha! Good post.
I'll give everyone 100 on top of the RP xp.
Nice fix there with the edit by the way. I was a little confused by the 100 :P
Yeah, like a chump I rushed it for the snipe. That'll teach me.
Go us. I now need sleep desperately. Well done everyone!
Re: Berrin's Bard
The character concept sounds cool, but I don't think a TWF Bard with those stats will be very effective. If you're set on TWF, I'd just go all out on your Cha and be primarily a casting bard who also does some TWF on the side. My point buy was assuming we'd be using the same setup as we did for this game in which case if you were LG you could do:
STR 10
DEX 16
CON 12
INT 12
WIS 7
CHA 19
And then take Weapon Finesse ASAP. Still pretty risky business as Bards can't really take hits and will be in trouble in close-combat, but I could see it working out in theory. Personally I prefer Archer Bards.
|
I am afraid I fell asleep while waiting for the 1000 milestone, but we got there so that's okay! Woo! Yay us!
As for Carrion Crown, what was the alignment caveat again, get an extra point for being XX alignment? Because as a Druid I will obviously be restricted to neutral alignments and I don't really want to be penalized for that. I would probably ideally want to move from CN *shudder* to NG to enable a bit of character progression and because chaotic neutral makes sense for the background I am mulling over.
Zander: While I agree that archer bards are the most optimal route - gotta love treeantmonk - I don't think melee bards are necessarily unviable and Berrin's build looks fine to me. A melee bard is not really going to need spell dcs amped up and with toughness d8 hit die favored class bonus he can have a hearty hp total, spells like mirror image will help further, etc.
For TWF combat purposes I'd opt for a bard with something like
Str 14
Dex 15 + 2
Con 12
Int 13
Wis 8
Cha 14
Or less 10 Int and 16+2 Dex if combat expertise isn't required
Though, for a detective type character I'd expect 12+ Int and 12+ Wisdom too
Who uses 15 point buy? Aren't we using 20-23 point buy in this game?
I like DM Barcas' pointbuy system. It favors my characters which are usually lawful&good. Might be related to me preferring to play paladins and monks :P
I believe Barcas's resoning was becouse of spell effects that neutrals avoid but lawfull/chaotic characters take the full brunt off.
btw, I know were not using a 15 pt buy, I just like using it for referance and for gettin the general idea and feel of a character ;)
As a player in the same group, I'd be cool with an exception being made for Druids to still get +1 point buy based on the class requirement.
I'd kind of assumed the bonus was there for RP reasons as more strongly aligned characters are generally more dynamic to RP. My thoughts on this mostly come from nearly everyone I play with in RL playing CN characters nearly all the time so they can do whatever they want. If this was part of the reasoning, I'd say to just drop it and give us all 23 point buy since we're all proven in the RP department :)
Alright, working under the assumption that the TWF Bard can work (still up in the air for me), I'll work with it. I only count that as 19 points in Jemini's point buy. If you were to stick to that concept and spend the full 23, you could do something like
STR 16 (14+2)
DEX 15
CON 12
INT 12
WIS 12
CHA 14
This would fit in with the detective Bard since you'll have a decent int/wis. I'd recommend against the Detective archetype as you lose Inspire Courage, which with its to hit and damage bonuses are pretty integral to this build working. You'd have to bump Dex at 4th and 8th to qualify for Improved TWF, but probably wouldn't be able to get Greater, but that's not too huge of a loss as an additional attack at -10 isn't so hot. This setup would mean you wouldn't have to take Weapon Finesse which is important because you're pretty feat-starved. If you're sticking with the Shortswords and I'd go something like:
01: TWF, Arcane Strike
03: Weapon Focus (shortsword)
05: Dodge
07: Toughness
09: Improved TWF
Alternately since you don't have to finesse, you could go with a double-bladed sword and take:
01: TWF, Exotic Prof
03: Weapon Focus (two-bladed sword)
05: Arcane Strike
07: Dodge
09: Improved TWF
11: Toughness
The higher damage dice from the weapon would make it so you didn't necessarily need Arcane Strike right away and you'd end up with higher damage overall. This would also give you the option of being a Half-Elf since they can have Exotic Prof as a bonus feat and then you could have Low-Light Vision and the +2 Perception which is always nice for a detective. Also, two-bladed swords are really cool. I could see a detective dude with like a spring-loaded double bladed sword that doubled as a cane or soemthing being pretty amazingly rad. Technically you could be a Half-Orc and go for the double-axe too, but that seems a little weirder for a detective to me.
I have to admit, running the numbers with this build is slightly changing my mind on its viability...
Trying to make a Strength dominant TWF build is hard; a ranger would be much easier to do that with. I'd prefer a more finessey approach. Damage can come from Arcane Strike and Piranha Strike (from Sargava companion, essentially a "dex" power attack, works with finessing attacks):
Str 12
Dex 16 + 2
Con 12
Int 12
Wis 12
Cha 14
human: weapon finesse
lvl 1: two-weapon fighting
lvl 3: weapon focus (xxx)
lvl 5: arcane strike
lvl 7: piranha strike
lvl 9: improved two-weapon fighting
..
All that said, I'd definitely favor a non-detective bard too. Inspire courage is a really good ability.
I concidered the archer spot but I get a better feel for a melee type. It is certainly easyer to build an archer as strength drops out of the picture and becomes a dump stat so I can raise other stats, but I wanted to make a bard who is effective in combat (not best, just effective) becouse a player in my RL group is playing a bard who sucks at everything exept inspiering and spellcasting WHEN his spells fit the bill.
As to inspire courage; it helps if you think of him as a rogue with spell levels instead of a bard. The trade off I feel is inspire vs. trapfinding and rogue talents vs. spells so I see him as a rogue-ish skirmisher with magic.
That's unfortunate for us, but okay. Inspire courage is a bomb at making a bard (or any other character) a great melee combatant.
If TWF is not necessarily the focus of the character - you should consider sword-and-board for the bard. Significantly increases defenses and allows a strength-focussed build that can deal damage through few but heavy-hitting attacks.
I'd also consider a two-handed weapon. A Half-Orc Bard with a Greataxe or Falchion could be a pretty bad dude. Check Treantmonk's guide for some advice if you're looking to go down that path.
I will say though, it almost seems like you might just want to make a Rogue. It's a lot easier to be combat focused, you have a lot more skill points to spend, and you'd get all of the detective abilities in a neat little package. You'd lose the magic, but could make up for that somewhat with the Minor/Major magic talents or even a few multiclass levels. I have a friend who has a pretty good Rogue/Inquisitor build he's put together for himself. Also, you could grab the Investigator archetype at the cost of trapfinding, which isn't too big of a loss.
The thing with Bard is, they're really largely about the performances with music or dance or oratory or whatever, but your character concept of "fighting detective" doesn't really make mention of that, where a Rogue would be an much easier fit.
Sorry for not posting today. I'm at an Active Shooter class today. Got to prepare for a school/work/mall/whatever scenario. Delightful times that we must prepare for such events.
Yikes!
LOL that's exactly what I've been thinking: '*phew* we need a day off after yesterday's sprint...'
Hey look, it's 9th level Zander versus one of the Superstar Villians! This is what happens when we have a slow posting day people!
The combatants face each other, 50 feet apart, their weapons drawn.
Lyell:
Lyell advances, raising his greatsword in the air. "I'm smiting you!" he yells as his blade flames to life.
Zander smiles a crooked grin and he looses a volley of arrows into the advancing warrior. As all five arrows slam into the man's chest, piercing his heavy armor like butter and bringing him to his knees, the burn-scarred archer replies coolly, "I don't think so."
Lyell looks down at the arrows sticking out of his body as the holy energy within them courses through his bloodstream. Smoke begins to pour out of his mouth and eyes and the the half-vampire lets out a final groan as he falls to the ground, dead.
Can we be 9th level now?
Who names a bad guy 'Lyell?' I'm assuming it's pronounced as 'Lyle,' yeah? That's...that's not particularly imposing.
I'd assume it's supposed to be pronounced Lie-ell, but yeah. So out of curiousity Barcas, if you had made it to this round, did you have any plans in mind for a cool villain?
Yes, but I'm just going to roll him onto this adventure or Carrion Crown, so I'm not telling you!
We are doing IED recognition and tactics today, so expect a trap-oriented fight with the trapper. With bombs.
Verisimilitude!
Figures my first damage I take in this game is from a stupid trap. Sheesh. And me with a +8 Perception! Man I'd love to nail a Climb check right now... :-p
Hmmm, wish I had no blown most of my channel energies on the horse, but RPwise there was no way Verik was not going to heal it.
I was a little curious why you didn't just use a CLW instead of blowing the channels. We should really invest as a party in a Wand of CLW. 750 gp divided by six would only be 125 each.
Jemini has up to 5 CLW available on demand too :) - next level she can start offering lay-on-hands too.
|
|
Because a cure light is more healing, and I always seem to roll terribly for channel energy. In combat I have found its relatively rare to be able to use channel on more than 1 person at low levels, so a cure light at 1d8+2 is likely to give more bang for you buck. I still have two channel left anyway, and I seriously doubt I will want to use more.
Its just that I am running a Living Pathfinder party against an alchemist as we speak on EnWorld and he is doing some nasty damage! Mainly because the party keep clumping together... And burning.
I'll follow that suggestion.
Jemini's been rolling vastly superior to my other main character on the forums. Let's hope it keeps up.
Oh awesome Jemini has obscuring mist! May I suggest lobbing it over the house so he cannot see us advance?
Oh, I should add that I tried to pick spells that would always be relevant, and fit (with some flavor text) her mystery/curse. Since Jemini is not supposed to gain any more spellcasting endure elements and obscuring mist seemed to be most appropriate.
Well, my contact team killed a terrorist cell holding hostages. Saved all the hostages, didn't lose any team members, and cleared the building despite a bunch of IEDs. Not bad, not bad. Going back in now.
Well, my contact team killed a terrorist cell holding hostages. Saved all the hostages, didn't lose any team members, and cleared the building despite a bunch of IEDs. Not bad, not bad. Going back in now.
Fine work, sir!
@DM Barcas: May I add that you probably won't hurt your chances by telling them that you learned all your tactical know-how playing DnD ;)
The second scenario went well. It was a hostage situation in a school. The suspects were using the "kids" as a human wall. We cleared our way to them and formulated a plan to snatch them away. On the count of three, we snatched the hostages out of the way. Seeing an opportunity, I (as point on the team) leaned into the door, using it as cover. Inside the room, the hostage-taker had a "kid" sitting in a chair with a gun to him. I, operating totally on instinct and despite my marksmanship being merely adequate, took the shot and hit the suspect square in the chest. (As it turns out, I hit him precisely in the heart. I was aiming for center mass, but I'll take what I can get.) We proceeded to get the hostages out, engaging in a second gun battle with a second suspect. One of my teammates took a shot to the chest in that one, but we killed the suspect and cleared the room.
As it turns out, real life is like high-level D&D: it's all about who wins Initiative. The suspect knew we were out there, but was completely surprised by us snatching the hostages out and me getting a shot in.
We use this stuff called Simmunition, which is basically like soap bullets. It's a lot like paintball, except with real tactics and actual accuracy in your weapons.
The IED scenario was absolutely terrifying. Between having to rush past a few unexploded ones trying to prevent an execution and having a live grenade thrown at us, there is a huge pucker factor involved. It didn't help that the room we took cover from the grenade in had a terrorist in it. I took a shot at him as I made it into the room first, more or less slamming into the opposite wall before the detonation. Either my bullet or one of my teammate's killed him before he killed any of us, but it was still a "out of the frying pan, into the fire" type situations. As it turns out, he was trying to hit me but I slid out of line of fire before he got the shot off.
Makes me glad that I will probably never have to use these skills. Even simulated combat is pretty stressful. It's an excellent stress inoculation though. I could feel myself going 100% on training and instinct when the bullets went flying, and I ended up on top. That's a good feeling.
Fantastic results DM Barcas! We're proud of you. Good to know that we have a real-life lawful-good guy on our team ;)
That sounds like an amazing experience man. I'm glad you did well, and do indeed hope you don't find yourself getting shot at too much in the near future!
I try my best to avoid getting shot. Unfortunately, by statistics, 2% of law enforcement officers have an attempt on their life annually. Fortunately, thanks to training and tactics like this, only a very tiny fraction of those are successful murders.
Makes me wonder what the local statistics (here in South Africa) are. On the one hand its a rather violent place - on the other, a lot of police are quite simply not exposing themselves to violence overly much.
I imagine its far less in Ireland, but I also imagine we're catching up as gun crime increases, etc. Especially with the RA moving to Dublin and fear-timidating the entire criminal underground in the capital.
I bet Irish Gardaí miss the good old days where drug dealers and scumbags ran the crime world.
|
|
I am very glad getting shot at is no longer part of my job description - ex Cpl in the British Royal Signals. But I will admit that fake scenarios are a rush, did one as the terrorist on a ferry once for the SBS - "shot" one of their guys when they were supposed to maintain a perfect record and then they really kicked the crap out of me, lol.