A min-maxed bard? They just seduce everything. And once they have glibness, they convince the king they are their long-lost child and it's about time they abdicate. :D
(In other words, aside from combat, bards can be skill-beasts. With magic.)
What we might need? Maybe a Tank Frontliner, yeah. Not sure we need a full divine caster though. A chosen one Paladin of Sarenrae maybe?
(chosen one=> paladin in training, with the guiding familiar, would be a fun alternative to usual paladins, and the "in training" part would be right up the sandpoint flavor - could have been sent to support us as part of said training)
We could also use some dedicated ranged damage - we are mostly melee or spells. A Divine Hunter of Erastil?
(Gets a Domain and a template for the AC. Loss of Teamwork/Hunter Tactics means they can operate more independently of each other. And the bow would be excellent fit for Erastil.)
Or a controller of some sort? A Kensai Magus of Shelyn using a Glaive via Bladed Brush?
(Alternative: Bladebound, still with the Glaive - would be curious to find out that weapons purpose :) - either way, a Magus with a reach weapon is always fun to have around)
Tons of options, really. But I'd mostly let them come up with a few ideas they would find fun, then "pick" out of those.
I'm not sure what a minmaxed Bard would even look like. Unless it's for drama; Ro can bring the drama.
A really super good face, buffer and emotional blackmailer which comes in a package of having to know everything in terms of skills. That's a min maxed bard.
I guess it might be worth asking what we might be looking for or we might need from a couple of new characters?
A couple of things that come to mind for me are:
1. We're down to only 3 of the Sandpoint Cathedral 6 represented in the party Shelyn, Erastil, and Sarenrae are all empty spaces. It would be nice to fill a couple of those since that was the original concept.
2. We could probably use another frontliner of some sort. Our main weakness there isn't so much DPR as bad AC all the way around. I think we need someone who can either take attacks without getting shredded, or can bump our damage so we kill things faster.
3. Personally I think a divine full caster would be nice. It's in keeping with the party concept IMHO, and would let Drasven use his spells for self-buffing. Warpriests tend to be very buff hungry in combat in my experience. Wands can do the job as well, but we're poor.
I'm now a Cleric. A full divine Cleric.
And I'm hoping to go the party buffer route.I would like a DPS or a tank or a combination of that and yes we have only 3 of the 6 represented. I would look forward to someone who could fill those roles.
We're not exactly optimized and I apologize for Drasven being strangely built as he comes.
I unfortunately don't have anyone to recommend atm.
I agree that we should check on previous players first to see if they are interested at all to get back in. I for one miss Jiliana and Edgar.
I even remember something about Jiliana wanting to return later if she could.
As far as recruitment goes, then anything is fine. These character builds are pretty wild. But if I had my pick, a full on Rogue of some sort would be nice. Ro is awesome, but sometimes it might be nice to have a full rounded lock-picker/backstabber type. Just saying...
@Lia, we need pick up some basic party buffing spells for you: Haste; Protection from Evil, Communal, or even a basic Blur spell is nothing to sneeze at.
So is asking players who used to be part of this group if they'd like to rejoin a thing that people want to do? I know Ro was saying that she already had someone to recommend, but maybe we could contact them if those folks aren't interested?
Drasven, did you change from warpriest to cleric and I didn't notice, or have you always been a cleric and I've lost my mind?
A min-maxed bard? They just seduce everything. And once they have glibness, they convince the king they are their long-lost child and it's about time they abdicate. :D
(In other words, aside from combat, bards can be skill-beasts. With magic.)
A really super good face, buffer and emotional blackmailer which comes in a package of having to know everything in terms of skills. That's a min maxed bard.
I guess Ro needs to stop slumming it and up her game then. :p
Actually in IMHO the Investigator ate the Bard's lunch and kissed his girlfriend on the way out the door if it's about skills and social savvy. Inspiration plus an INT focus is just unbeatable. Choose the Questioner archetype and you get the Bard's spell casting as well, which means Glibness.
My Investigator in WftC does everything Ro does better and before noon. She isn't as sweet and sour though.
Jilliana hasn't posted under any alias for about a year now so it looks like she's no longer on the boards.
Edgar is still around though, so maybe he'd be interested?
Maybe we talk to Edgar first? I haven't mentioned it to anyone I had in mind yet.
I also feel that people don't necessarily have to come back with the same character if they want to rejoin. I could see it might be weird for some to do that, like putting on old, worn clothes first thing in the morning.
So I went ahead and went through everyone who's played in the game previously. There are only two of them who have posted on the boards within the past year. Edgar is one of them, and Storyteller Shadow is the other. He's back and active as a player in one game.
Should we ask him if he'd like to come back as a player for old time's sake, or is that a super weird thing to do?
Oh, I do have haste. That's not the issue. But I only have 2 Level 3 Spell Slots at the moment(Arcanist's "Drawback" along with the slow progression), and I opted for one blast option(lightning bolt) and one debuff(Stinking Cloud) this time around.
Last time, I had Haste and Fireball.
That said, I don't mind throwing out an odd buff, but Lia is not a buffer - the idea was controller and disabler - I just had to shift focus when Karmid insisted on staying in the danger zone of her spells. (I know that's his own decision and all that, but Lia would not want to risk her companion's well-being even if they are reckless themselves).
Aside, I haven't swapped out spells before this, and she also has some quirky decisions, such as keeping "Summon Minor Monster" in the Spell Level 1 active list, so that she can summon a bunch of kittens to play with at the end of the day if she has unused slots. :)
@Investigator: Yeah, some of the Hybrid Classes can be straight upgrades over their basic components - Investigator is one of those.(worst offender imho is Slayer, though).
And no, Drasven used to be a Warpriest, but rebuilt into Cleric. Hence why I meant, not sure we need another full divine caster. (Or another Party Buffer - I know some of those are arcane exclusives - just saying.)
As for who to ask or invite, no strong feelings from my side. You guys pick someone that seems suitable - I'm still busy with myself for now.
So I went ahead and went through everyone who's played in the game previously. There are only two of them who have posted on the boards within the past year. Edgar is one of them, and Storyteller Shadow is the other. He's back and active as a player in one game.
Should we ask him if he'd like to come back as a player for old time's sake, or is that a super weird thing to do?
Thank you for taking the time and looking everyone up, Ro. I was planning on doing that, but you beat me to it!
No, I don't think it's weird to ask past players, although I think we want to bring in folks who are actually excited about the game and will put in some effort. I think that's the defining criterion we should be looking for. It doesn't matter to me whether that's a new player or a returning player.
In other words, Ro, if you know people who are good who might be interested in joining us, I think that's a better benchmark than whether they used to be part of this game.
No Ro, you're Fine.
Yep I changed to Cleric from a warpriest. Felt that a warpriest wasn't doing very well since chanting slogans while plonking with a crossbow which was never going to hit anything seems way off.
SMH my warpriest does much much better in this little throwback to the Rise of the runelords.
And I like Slayer. Really really like slayer lol.
Our GM accepted my Gruff please on that.
I wouldn't mind Story teller joining us as a player.
I hope things are going well for you Lia.
Oh, Drasven, I love Slayer :) It's incredibly fun/satisfying to play. But it's still, in my eyes, the worst offender regarding power creep over it's component classes.
I've played a Slayer and I really like it, but in most cases it's made the Ranger obsolete except for games where the enemies are well known and there's lots of the same thing. Giantslayer comes to mind, maybe Carrion Crown, for ones where the Ranger would still shine.
Alright, the best way I've come up with to balance slightly conflicting opinions on recruitment is to split the two openings. I also looked at potential players' current games, etc., and it turns out one of the people I had in mind is playing RotRL in a campaign thats just slightly behind where we're at.
For one spot I'll contact Storyteller first, and if he passes contact Edgar.
For the other I'm contacting Polyfrequencies first and if they pass I'll go on to the next on my list.
For one spot I'll contact Storyteller first, and if he passes contact Edgar.
For the other I'm contacting Polyfrequencies first and if they pass I'll go on to the next on my list.
Sounds fine by me.
Ok I got to agree on slayer making Ranger obsolete in some cases.
Then again I played rangers and taken archetypes that don't make it much of a ranger anymore.....
If I ever get a chance to play Wrath of the Righteous (which honestly isn't an AP that appeals to me much) I'll go with a Tanglebriar Demonslayer / Transporter Ranger. The Transporter archetype is really cool.
Regarding Slayer, thats what I meant - it outperforms Ranger, I'd even wager it gives them a close run in those AP's you mentioned.
And it does even worse things to the regular Rogue...and even the unchained one.
But that is exactly what I meant: Slayer is absolutely fun to play. But an optimized Slayer would so not fit into our current group because it would outperform our pre-existing players, fiercely.
And while we want someone able to pull their own weight, they should be on the same power level as the others.
Greetings! I am the aforementioned player that Rojava mentioned.
I have been scanning through the recent gameplay and discussion, taking a look at your party's abilities and dynamics, and trying to come up with a few concepts that I think could be fun to play with. It looks like your strongest skills are Diplomacy, Disable Device, Heal, Knowledge (planes), Perception, Sense Motive, and Stealth, and almost everything else is at least moderately covered.
Sarenrae's Shadow: The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes. That is something this person has learned in his years of devotion to Sarenrae. In order to combat darkness in the world and try to redeem those who have lost their light, it sometimes necessary to dabble in the shadows. Mechanically, this person would be a Oracle of the Shadow mystery. I was previously playing a halfling , and I was loving playing a character who was simultaneously scared of the dark but drawn to it. In combat, the Shadow would be able to turn into a Shadow, flying around as an incorporeal creature and doing strength damage. Great reconnaissance capabilities, playing up the connections between light and darkness, and poaching the best illusion spells from the wizard list. It would be interesting to prestige into Dawnflower Anchorite.
Shelyn's Rose: While the religious leaders in Sandpoint may be good, there is religious hypocrisy throughout Golarion. This person is an enemy of a false piety and a devoted defender of justice and equality in practice rather than merely in words. They would be a fervent, strongheaded defender of the downtrodden. Mechanically, this person would be a paladin. I started building someone like this over a year ago, but the character wasn't picked up. A pally gonna pally, and I like all of the opportunities brought out by the glaive. I could see prestiging into Devoted Muse, too.
Erastil's Archaeologist: Erastil teaches the maintenance of tradition, and what better way to understand the merits of tradition than to study and teach history? This person is committed to understanding what came before, drawn to the natural world and what it can show. They also carry around several items of importance to the Erastilian church, from which they draw on Erastil's power. Mechanically, this person would be a reliquarian occultist. The Saint's Holy Regalia is a natural progression after picking up the abjuration and conjuration implement schools, so there will be a decent amount of both healing, protecting, and summoning. A good support character.
I have a fourth vague concept for a magus, but I'll probably only start developing that if none of the above three tickle your interests.
My preference is that you play the PC that you think you'll enjoy playing the most in a Rise of the Runelords campaign. The more you enjoy the RP with the character, the more you'll be invested, IMO.
How familiar are you with the AP?
I too will echo this sentiment, play the char you feel best to work into this party.
Also Welcome into the party.
Having something to cover up our skills is nice but sometimes we just wing it.
The party as a whole would like some umph in combat power since we have one true combatant.
I like the first two concepts and I'm not sure but I think I may have being in an attempted game with you before.
or failed to be selected for a game.
Just to be clear, I am of the opinion that there is too much combat in Pathfinder, at least when you run it in this format. Combat just takes too damned long in PbP, so I take out most of the combats that I don't feel advance the story or that don't contribute significantly to the overall feel and theme of the adventure. This means that you can get by with a less-than-optimized party generally in the games I run. I don't make the set piece combats less dangerous, mind you, I just remove the less important or memorable ones.
I agree you should play the character you want to play.
But I wouldn't mind seeing the Sarenrae's Shadow character played or your idea for the Magus either.
First, welcome.
Second, thank you for fancying me. :)
Of course, as the others said, you should play whatever you fancy. But I expect you only threw those options out there because you are fine with all of them.
So, on to comment, from my personal perspective:
Third place, the Reliquarian Occultist. Occultist is a fancy class, didn't get around to play it myself but have seen some played. They are certainly valuable additions, but as you wrote, it would be an awesome support - where I think a bit more "direct" contribution would be preferable.
Second place, the Shadow Mystery Halfling: A very nice concept and I did play something similar and it was fun. Alas, there would be significant overlap there - where we already have one full divine caster and an Arcanist with Illusions. With some coordination, we can certainly still make this work...but again, it seems more of a supporting cast member.
So first place, imho, goes to the Shelyn Paladin. It would be a decently self-sufficient frontline character, the Reach Weapon affords good Area Control, and with the full BaB (and Dex-Focus if you keep it from your linked build) you could also pull out a bow if needed, patching up another weakness we have(not looking for Feat investment there, just the fact you CAN shoot something and hit is already good enough). (That, and smite is always a welcome Nova against Bosses/tanky roadblocks). For me, this is a clear favorite.
Heya Polyfrequencies, good to see you here!
I don't really have a clear preference for one of the options you posted over another either. So yeah, really it's what you'd prefer. As for comments on the three:
1. Occultist isn't a class I'm familiar with. I've never really tried to figure out the occult classes in general. I like the concept you have, but can't knowledgeably say anything about it otherwise.
2. Paladin would help with combat obviously. Melee right now is something both Karmid and Drasven can do. I think Ro is approaching the end of the period where she can enter melee without getting squashed like a bug. She's already mostly throwing starknives and staying out of reach. If Drasven progresses like most Clerics, he'll wan as a combatant in favor of casting as his spells get more powerful. That leaves Karmid to handle things alone with a bit of support. If an enemy gets in a couple of lucky hits and takes Karmid out, or if numbers are badly against us, we don't have a backup that prevents all of us from getting tidily wiped out. Paladins are quite stout so it helps prevent what I believe to be our mostly likely disaster scenario.
3. I think an Oracle is a great class for the overall campaign concept of divinely chosen characters, and more spell casting is always welcome. Also Oracles can be effective melee combatants. Could your Oracle help out in melee, or is your concept more caster centered?
4. Magus could help similar to a Paladin, but instead of being a tank to draw attacks away from Karmid, you help kill things faster so fewer attacks are made in the first place.
There is one other thing to consider. We are recruiting 2 new characters. The second one just hasn't been found yet. If they want to play a character that is melee focused, etc. Our needs (at least as I've described them) may well change. If you want to wait and see before making your decision you have some time.
So I haven't heard back from Storyteller Shadow yet and it's been a few days. I looked at posts and he's been posting very sparsely, with the last game post in his game being a couple of weeks back. I think he's probably too busy with RL to be a consistent poster in ours.
I did the same check with Edgar. He's not currently in any games and last posted at all about a month ago. I don't think he'd be a likely consistent poster either. He's not applying for games.
I'm going to just go ahead and contact the next person I had in mind so we can hopefully wrap this up soon.
In other news, I finally bit the bullet and went back through the discussion thread to look at every one of Ro's level ups, something I'd been to lazy too do before. I thought her HP looked low considering +2 for fort and all FBC points going to HP. I was right, her actual HP is 60 rather than 53. I've made the change.
2. Paladin would help with combat obviously. Melee right now is something both Karmid and Drasven can do. I think Ro is approaching the end of the period where she can enter melee without getting squashed like a bug. She's already mostly throwing starknives and staying out of reach. If Drasven progresses like most Clerics, he'll wan as a combatant in favor of casting as his spells get more powerful. That leaves Karmid to handle things alone with a bit of support. If an enemy gets in a couple of lucky hits and takes Karmid out, or if numbers are badly against us, we don't have a backup that prevents all of us from getting tidily wiped out. Paladins are quite stout so it helps prevent what I believe to be our mostly likely disaster scenario.
*Cough Cough*
Drasven was originally a crossbow dwarf. not a very good one but yeah was supposed to be one.
I mean my AC at this level is really bad to be a frontline combatant.
Ro's AC is bad too. Karmid's is just barely acceptable. It's a problem all the way around.
Aye, that's why I favor the Paladin...capable of decent AC, self-healing capability for sustain, and the glaive threatening an Area buys breathing room for the rest of us.
No need to do any of that in a min-maxed way, just being better than us would be decent.
Thanks for the warm welcome!
How familiar are you with the AP?
Semi-familiar. I have listened to the Rocks and Runelords podcast, but it feels like they have frequently gone way off script. It has also been a long time since they were in Book 2, so I barely remember anything.
I'm not sure but I think I may have being in an attempted game with you before.
or failed to be selected for a game.
Maybe! Scanning through your campaigns, nothing looks immediately familiar. But I certainly do like to haunt.
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It's true, I'd be happy playing any of the submitted concepts. Since it seems like there is the most general draw towards the oracle and the paladin, I can draft up rough sketches for both of them. I'd be happy playing either. The shadow oracle could absolutely be a competent melee combatant. Strength damage as a touch attack that can kill a creature is a fun trick. Beyond that, I could potentially gear more towards summoning and just wreck face with other creatures. Oracles are rarely primary damage dealers, but there are a lot of ways that they can be force multipliers.
The paladin, especially if I go the Virtuous Bravo route, will be a palpable damage dealer and controller. Devoted Muse might reduce the overall damage output, but enables many different ways of controlling the battlefield.
To that end, I do have to ask a question of the GM (because different tables differ and I haven't seen an official FAQ answer): does slashing grace allow a character using a glaive with bladed brush to use Dexterity for damage instead of Strength?
Strenght damage is a fun trick, but many monsters tend to have huge strenght scores, in which case it turns more into a stacking debuff.
It's absolutely splendid fun when you can get a caster or something, but imho there's only a subset of creatures where trying to kill them via strenght damage is a good approach - especially because that means we are racing in parallel(with HP damage on one side, to which you don't contribute - and strenght damage on the other, to which we don't contribute).
There are "Combat" Oracles - but they need specific mysterys and builds - so I maintain that the Pally would be more beneficial to our dynamics. As Ro said, we have few people that can stand in the frontline reliably, and if Karmid would go down, or be controlled, things COULD become ugly, swiftly.
As for your question, I'm not GM, but bladed brush does say "you can treat it as a one-handed piercing or slashing melee weapon and as if you were not making attacks with your off-hand for all feats and class abilities that require such a weapon" which should be exactly fulfilling the prereqs...:
"Choose one kind of light or one-handed slashing weapon (such as the longsword). When wielding your chosen weapon one-handed,"
The italic part is the only thing I could see as problem - because while you can treat it as a one-handed weapon, Slashing Grace also does require you to wield it one-handed.(but since Bladed bursh says you are not making attacks with your off-hand...). So for all intents and purposes, the Glaive should turn into a functionally one-handed Reach Weapon.
(Of course, I'm not the GM, but just weighing in that under my reading of the rules, it should work. There is some Feat investment to be done to make it work, and based on their raw stats, glaives are hardly overpowered weapons. (If it was a Fauchard, I'd think twice. With a Glaive, I'd totally accept it at my table.).)
To that end, I do have to ask a question of the GM (because different tables differ and I haven't seen an official FAQ answer): does slashing grace allow a character using a glaive with bladed brush to use Dexterity for damage instead of Strength?
It's a little iffy in the wording but I'd allow it for no other reason that it's a 4 feat buy-in to achieve it.
I made a similar build in a Crimson Throne AP before.
My GM called it broken but he allowed it.
That said, if you start soloing all the combats, I reserve the right to revisit this topic :)
Here's my baseline when it comes to these types of questions: Does X increase or decrease the fun had by all players (including the GM) in the game? If the answer is the latter, I will almost always say no.
Hum? Broken? I can do much worse things with 3 Feats...
(You'll want Weapon Focus for many other things, or Weapon Finesse for a Dex char, so I only count them as 0.5 tax :) )
(Honestly, I think it's decent enough, as most Dex-Focused builds, but not to the point of trouble.)
Regardless, polyfrequencies, I just wanted to say that despite my mental lock-on towards the Paladin, by all means feel free to play what you think will be most fun for you. We'll make it work. Just wanted to put that out there.
As a caveat, I've played in double digit levels so little that I don't have much of an idea how things work up there...
From what I've seen though, unless a character has some way of getting extra damage like the Swashbuckler's level to damage, Dex melee builds never really deliver crazy damage.
It's nice to be able to get the benefits of being able to increase AC, Attack, and Damage by investing in one stat, but armor choices usually become limited as part of the deal. I don't see how it's broken because I don't see how it surpasses a strength melee build anywhere.
Also, I want to remind everyone again that I will leaving town this coming Thursday (7/28) and won't be back until August 16th. My computer access will be VERY sporadic as I will be camping most of that time, and although I may post from time to time, don't expect much until I return home in mid-August.
My GM has a sort of Phobia against Dex based Swashbuckler types builds.
So anything resembling any sort of quick pointy wielded stuff tends to make him call it broken.
(He also ran Pathfinder Society and swashbuckler builds tends to irritate him since usually nothing in the scenario could hurt them.)
The again in the circle that I played he was also the type to throw in ridiculous encounters just because he felt the normal ones didn't pose a threat to the party. My party of level 8 had to do battle with Two Marilith one time who were in an agreement with a recurring NPC Sorceror.
Well out of 6 of us, only 2 survived that encounter while the rest of us were raised. I didn't survive the 1st round so.............
I've had experience with this type of arms race myself, Drasven, and it never leads anywhere good. In the end there are only losers, so I try to nix it as soon as it rears its ugly head. Thankfully, in this game we seem to have been avoiding it.
I'm sorry, your GM threw a CR 19 encounter at your APL 8 party for kicks? That's disgusting.
It would also be very reasonable to just build a strength-focused glaive-wielder, which would get the build online even sooner to do more fun things with (combat patrol and trip shenanigans). A straight up fighter would be able to lay out even more ridiculous, consistent damage.
I will note that the virtuous bravo does get the swashbuckler's precise strike ability and adds level to damage (as precision damage). The devoted muse stacks with levels that grant swashbuckler abilities, so it could get nasty. I'm mostly just trying to figure out if there is a rules-legal, table-accepted, fun-promoting way to actually use Shelyn's favored weapon in Shelyn's favored prestige class.
I'm mostly just trying to figure out if there is a rules-legal, table-accepted, fun-promoting way to actually use Shelyn's favored weapon in Shelyn's favored prestige class.
Yes, that's always the trick right? I always wanted to build a cool scimitar-master build for a Sarenrae worshiper, but never found the right combo and still have decent spellcasting too. I'm sure there is a way to do it, but it eludes me for now...
I'm sorry, your GM threw a CR 19 encounter at your APL 8 party for kicks? That's disgusting.
We may have goaded the GM's NPC a little bit too much. lol I mean calling out your opponent's deity might piss him/her/it off.
I'm curious to see how that build will turn out though. My build didn't have Devoted Muse but instead I went Evangelist
I'm mostly just trying to figure out if there is a rules-legal, table-accepted, fun-promoting way to actually use Shelyn's favored weapon in Shelyn's favored prestige class.Yes, that's always the trick right? I always wanted to build a cool scimitar-master build for a Sarenrae worshiper, but never found the right combo and still have decent spellcasting too. I'm sure there is a way to do it, but it eludes me for now...
I've always liked Dawnflower Dervish Bard 1 / Magus (pick you flavor) X for that kind of build Karmid. That was the very first character I ever built back when I played PFS. I chose Hexcrafter myself. It's very serviceable and gets you Dex attack and damage from level one. Eldrich Scion didn't exist back then, but it would allow you to stick with CHA for casting all the way through, and there are several really sweet bloodlines to choose from. Take the Bade of Mercy trait and it's a really good intimidation build.
If we're having some trouble figuring out balance, there is another option that would give some more leeway on the character build side of things.
I received a "Thanks but no" from one person about joining, and it's been a couple of days now without an answer from another person. If this second person declines or doesn't answer (and I hope they answer because they're GM for a game of mine!), we could stop the recruitment and go with a party of 5 rather than 6.
Whatcha think?
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I'm happy with any number, honestly.
As an aside unrelated to this game, I think I've come to the conclusion that gestalt and a party of 3 to 4 is actually the best composition for PbP.
Gestalt is just plain fun, and doesn't ramp up character power as much as I had always assumed. A smaller party tends to move faster gameplay-wise.
We may have goaded the GM's NPC a little bit too much. lol I mean calling out your opponent's deity might piss him/her/it off.
The horror! Still, ouch.
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I am in a handful of small-party gestalt games, and they are a lot of fun. It works especially well (if you're not trying to min-max) if you choose the second class more on flavor than on synergy. It's easy to get all good saves, full BaB, and some degree of spellcasting. But you can also just chill out and make a character instead of a dice machine.
Another alternative that a GM I started playing with has employed is a sort of free archetype, where everyone gets a free VMC without giving up half of their feats. That is essentially what you all already have here with a stronger vmc Cleric! That's part of what excited me about this game when Rojava pinged me.
Anyway, I may build a strength-based paladin and still take the virtuous bravo archetype for the panache goodies. When I run out of panache, I may switch to a one-handed piercing melee weapon with a high crit range (so, a rapier) to regain things. I'll see how I feel about proceeding into devoted muse as I build more.
Yeah, I think of gestalt as an opportunity to use some of the archetypes that I like but probably aren't very good in practice.
I had a Warrior Poet Samurai / Time Mystery Oracle who was a Wabi Sabi and Kintsugi practitioner. That was fun while it lasted. (See what I did there? :P)
I also had a Sister-in-Arms Cavalier / Cleric of Kurgess who was a traveling referee for fair and carnival contests and such.
The only one I still have going in a game is a Swashbuckler / Archaeologist Bard, a posh rogue type who wants to become famous by writing serialized autobiographical pulp-style books about her adventures. This one is actually a very good build combo.
Aye. I absolutely love Gestalt :)
As already mentioned, it's not about stacking power...and in my eyes, flavor is a bonus - the true purpose is flexibility.
To have more options at hand to deal with any situation you come across.
It's easy to have plenty of skills, to have 2 out of ranged, melee and spellcasting covered, if not all 3.
Not doing any of that better than a focused character, but being able to decide what means you use to deal with an issue. Pity there are too few of those games around.
5 players is fine by me!
I do like playing a gestalt. I have one long-play game where I'm playing a 1/2 elf Unchained Summoner(Synthesist)/Paladin still. One of my favorites. It isn't broken or anything so far, even though I'm the tank of the group basically.
I like Gesalt.
I had a few games with those in play.
I'm in two games where one is a fluff bunny shifter/druid and the other is some combat monster I created..an Antipaladin/Magus where I do Intimidate and offer to step into combat only when things get dire (which is rare)