Epic Rise of the Runelords (Inactive)

Game Master nate lange

@dragon- going with the FAQ ruling: Sohei can flurry in light armor (including mithril versions of medium armor), but do not gain the monk armor bonuses (neither the Wis to AC nor the stacking leveling bonus).

Hmm... I also kind of feel like making a force magus. It's a bit of a shame that Battering Blast isn't on the magus list. I'd have preffered to go fighter on the other side.

@dragon- There are options:
- You could go fighter/magus and take pragmatic activator and the wand related magus arcana- that would make a battering blast wand pretty functional
- you could go wizard or arcanist/kensai instead and miss out on the feats/BAB/hp but have way more options for self buffing (and more/stronger spell options for spell combat/spellstrike)
- you could go pally/eldritch scion... You'd have to give up on battering blast or still take wand arcana and use UMD, and your swift action could get a little clogged up at times (though being high enough level to use spell combat normally will help with that), but if you built as an aasimar you could take those feats that let you push/pull things around with your channel. (I think maybe you have to do damage to use it, so as a pally that might only be useful against undead unless you spend feats to affect outsiders, elementals, etc.)

Oh, well this is rather neat! I'd like to propose interest in this game- Admitabbly rather low on ideas, though I do have a few.

While playing a Lyrakien would be nice, and we could probably fit it in rather easily. It'll probably be either a Oracle//Something, or a Cleric//Something. Might roll Wizard, actually, but I'm not too sure. Maybe a tiny, quick, terrifying monk. Alternatively, Wizard and Investigator levels, being sent as an infiltrator to figure out if anything is going down there.

If I can't play a Lyrakien, I have two more ideas- One that might not fit, and one that still needs some work:

1- The Scarlet Archmage, in secret, the daughter of a influential merchant from a far away city (Originally designed to be Magnimar, but I'd prefer if nobody knew who she was), she taught herself wizardry on her own, being a genius in her field, dabbling in Alchemy also, hiding it from her mother's scornful gaze, who thought that Wizardry was a unwomanly craft. In time, she grew in strength, until The Scarlet Archmage was known throughout the city. In time, her city grew stable, and the Scarlet Archmage was no longer needed. Then her father recommended that they go over to Magnimar, for business interest. They decided to stop by Sandpoint for a while, for the festivities.

Functionally, she'll be a Wizard without a doubt- She was originally designed with Vigilante in mind, but I'm not too certain about that anymore. I might ask if I can simply make a custom spell that lasts 1 hour per caster level that misdirects her to a copy of her that's mostly mundane, or something. Probably either Investigator or Alchemist for the other side.

(Small note: Do you think that Sanctum is worth being a tier 6 ability? Because I really want to take Sanctum.)

2: A lonely little girl, who, in an unending desire for family, learned how to summon, through sheer force of will. Born and raised in a tower for the first ten years of her life, she, though sheer determination, learnt powerful arcane spells from her father's tomes to be able to summon company. She got rather good at it, when adventurers killed her father. She didn't mind his death, and they took a shine to her, raising her from the age of 10 to her current age, 20, as one of their own. They had no idea who they picked up, though, as she easily assisted them in battle, and proved to be a terrifying opponent- And a great friend.

In time, however, they died, or retired, or left in a huff. She tried settling down, but... Deep in her soul, she knew adventure was what she desired. So she left them, and carved her own path, to where she is today.

Mechanically, she'll either be a Summoner//Wizard, or a Wizard//Alchemist, taught alchemy by one of her old friends.

Zair and Tsun- if possible please add a link to your character sheet so I can look at your fluff from there (if that's not possible can you please give tanner a different link that will take me somewhere where I can see your fluff with a link to the myth-weavers sheet?)

Fluff is here, and there should be a link to the Character Sheet in the profile. Lemme check if something didn't save.

Edit: Yeah, it's all here.

Hmm... I also kind of feel like making a force magus. It's a bit of a shame that Battering Blast isn't on the magus list. I'd have preffered to go fighter on the other side.

Luckily, Spell Blending exists for this very purpose. =)

I'm going to have to say no to monstrous races. If you want to play a small otherworldly character you could be a gnome (they're fey in this game). Aasimar or Sylph are both options too if you want to go for a lyrakien feel at medium size... Regarding your two concepts- they both have potential. We're not using the vigilante play test stuff at all so you'd have to figure out other ways to get that flavor but between wizard and alchemist you'd have tons of options. Learning magic through summoning would be fine as a story element but you might not want to focus on it too much (summoned creatures probably won't hold up super well against enemies designed to challenge mythic/gestalt PCs).

The Dragon wrote:

Hmm... I also kind of feel like making a force magus. It's a bit of a shame that Battering Blast isn't on the magus list. I'd have preffered to go fighter on the other side.

Luckily, Spell Blending exists for this very purpose. =)

Thank you! That's very neat.

Luckily, Spell Blending exists for this very purpose. =)

Lol- all my suggestions and I totally forgot about the simplest, most obvious one... Can you tell it's been a long week?

Graverattler's background and post-sampling have been completed.

Rynjin wrote:

Luckily, Spell Blending exists for this very purpose. =)

Lol- all my suggestions and I totally forgot about the simplest, most obvious one... Can you tell it's been a long week?

Bad time to tell you it's still only Wednesday? =p

Rynjin wrote:

Luckily, Spell Blending exists for this very purpose. =)

Lol- all my suggestions and I totally forgot about the simplest, most obvious one... Can you tell it's been a long week?

Just throwing one more option into the ring:

Eldritch Heritage with Arcana Bloodline. It WOULD take Cha+3 feats, but depending on build...
(e.g. with the Human Focused Study racial trait, it may be a valid option, one feat for bonded object/familiar, second to get the extra spells. Optionally third later on to get a beefed up stacking spell focus.)

Oyzar's character here. Rukzha is pretty much done mechanically, but I haven't finished the fluff yet, sorry. After reading up on Belkzen Hold, half-orcs and the area around it seems that trying to interact with the Shoanti as a half-orc would be more difficult than to work with the orcs.

Eldritch Heritage doesn't work anymore due to this FAQ.

What link do you want me to post? All I have is the character sheet on Myth Weavers, as I don't make an alias unless I make it into the game.

Oyzar's character here. Rukzha is pretty much done mechanically, but I haven't finished the fluff yet, sorry. After reading up on Belkzen Hold, half-orcs and the area around it seems that trying to interact with the Shoanti as a half-orc would be more difficult than to work with the orcs.

Eldritch Heritage doesn't work anymore due to this FAQ.

Oh look! That means Spell Blending doesn't work either! It doesn't add the spells to the magus list! -.-'

Half-arsed faq-logic strikes again.

They decide on the results they want for balance, and then go looking for arguments for those results afterwards. This brings us ridiculous things like Arcane Deed -> Precise Strike faq meaning that apparently, the Daring Champion archetype also has a swashbuckler level of 0.

They should just say 'this particular use of (whatever ability)' is overpowered and banned in pathfinder.' That's what they mean, and it neatly avoids inflicting their screwy logic on the rest of the system.

This is the alias for my(highonholywater) gunslinger/inquisitor. Just equipment and backstory that I am working on still.

how do i create a profile?

To the DM!

I'm going to have to say no to monstrous races. If you want to play a small otherworldly character you could be a gnome (they're fey in this game). Aasimar or Sylph are both options too if you want to go for a lyrakien feel at medium size... Regarding your two concepts- they both have potential.

It's more I like playing really tiny characters. I don't know why, it's just a thing I like to do. Playing a tiny character is just entertaining, and I like the stealthability of them, and how reasonable that is. I like having my characters stare up to giants, and glare them in the eye. And Gnomes... Are too big. They're a solid three feet tall, I like having my small characters be able to fit on others shoulders.

Regarding your two concepts- they both have potential. We're not using the vigilante play test stuff at all so you'd have to figure out other ways to get that flavor but between wizard and alchemist you'd have tons of options.

Indeed- though the flavor is far less of an issue, as is the mechanics of folks not figuring out that Alice is The Scarlet Archmage. Swashbuckler has the Mysterious Avenger archetype, but I don't really like swashbuckler. I don't want to play a Swashbuckler either- Though maybe a dip into Inspired Blade might be useful for Dex to Damage in case she DOES go into the fray (She's far more of a backliner). I'm really tempted to just ask for a spell that labels her as a lower level character to all divinations while not disguised. I don't suppose I could get a custom spell that does that?

Learning magic through summoning would be fine as a story element but you might not want to focus on it too much (summoned creatures probably won't hold up super well against enemies designed to challenge mythic/gestalt PCs).

Yeah, you're probably right that summoned creatures won't be up to snuff against our enemies, especially with us only getting to mythic tier 5. I honestly doubt a mythic template will deal with shore up their weakness, which makes me sad. Wish there was more I could do to buff them.

Thinking about it, I'm... Kinda thinking up another idea that will probably be vetoed, but what the heck- The idea I'm thinking of is that the little girl was made with Wizardry in mind- Hence why she was as good as a level 5 wizard at the age of 10, and grew into being a level 11 wizard by the age of 18. She was designed to be the perfect wizard, by a wizard. She was made for, however- Divination. I feel like the stats should reflect that somehow...

Ending that... I don't suppose we could use Background Skills? I like Background skills. They add a nice bit of fluff to the characters with Profession skills.

To Other Players!

How do I create a profile?

Click on My Account- Third box down on the left, below messageboard setting, is Aliases. Click Create New Aliases, set them up, then fly away into the sunset.

Oh look! That means Spell Blending doesn't work either! It doesn't add the spells to the magus list! -.-'

Half-arsed faq-logic strikes again.

They decide on the results they want for balance, and then go looking for arguments for those results afterwards. This brings us ridiculous things like Arcane Deed -> Precise Strike faq meaning that apparently, the Daring Champion archetype also has a swashbuckler level of 0.

They should just say 'this particular use of (whatever ability)' is overpowered and banned in pathfinder.' That's what they mean, and it neatly avoids inflicting their screwy logic on the rest of the system.

Yeah, Paizo derped hard on that one- They have used that wording for various favored class bonuses for other classes, so simply making it so that they can't actually USE that is foolish. So, yeah- Knee jerk FAQ that affects the whole system.

Play a Gnome, get Reduce Person cast on you with Permanence.

Play a Gnome, get Reduce Person cast on you with Permanence.

Yeah, but it isn't natural, it's a misalignment of crunch and fluff- I don't want them to have been born fairly large, I want them to have been born small- to be from a race of small creatures. It might not seem like much, but you'd be surprised how much those little breaks in your characters facade can have on your immersion.

Sorry Nate! Just fixed the Flurr, didnt catch that. I just outported this statblock from Herolab and the program calculates full BAB monks wierd

Vagabond, I feel you. I love playing Tiny characters.
Then again, I also love playing Swarms. Which is fun. But same as Tiny, breaks a lot of balance when everybody is supposed to be larger.
The +AC/Attack, for example, combined with dex size bonus and stealth size bonus, make a sneak-attack or ray-based class extremely powerful.
Alas, AFAIK there's no custom races in this, nor monstrous races, nor altered races, so it may not be exactly what you are looking for, then, as I see the chance of you getting to play something you actually enjoy very slim, at best.

@Ashmael, I'm curious, though. How do you get the +33 on the flurry?
At level 11, we have 11 Bab with a full class, and flurry on the normal monk is at -2...so you are working on a base of +35 to hit, which is a +24 bonus to your 11 bab. I can see 6 from Dex if you finesse, +2 from enchantment, theoretically +4 from weapon focus and greater weapon focus due to mythic weapon focus(I assume you have them since that has weapon focus as prereq but I can't see them), +3 from weapon training. Then I'm drawing blanks. But thats only +15, so I'm still lacking a +9 there. I would love to understand your build because it looks fancy for a NPC char to send against my home group but I'm kinda stuck there.
(Unless of course it's calculating from a Level 20 basis, which would be +9 bab from Level 11...because in the special abilities, it lists Flurry with 20/20/15/15/10/5/0...which definitely should not be true for level 11...)

yeah Vagabond, I feel you. I love playing Tiny characters.

Then again, I also love playing Swarms. Which is fun. But same as Tiny, breaks a lot of balance when everybody is supposed to be larger.

The +AC/Attack, for example, combined with dex size bonus and stealth size bonus, make a sneak-attack or ray-based class.

Yeah, I know- Makes me sad. Just figured that this is already a fairly high-powered game, so might as well throw out the option there.

And I generally avoid direct combat. It terrifies me- I usually buff and battlefield control, if I can.

Alas, AFAIK there's no custom races in this, nor monstrous races, nor altered races, so it may not be exactly what you are looking for, then, as I see the chance of you getting to play something you actually enjoy very slim, at best.

Oh yeah, I know- Just thought I'd throw that idea out there- I'm still building her as a fairly default character, just with a faint hope that I can slightly mod it so that I can have the crunch and fluff I desire align. As it is, I'm willing to go with what I got. Though I missed the "No altered races" thing (in my defense, 200 posts).

@Vagabond- no custom races. If you want to have your fluff be that you were created or modified to be a caster that's fine but it will be fluff and you'll have to pick a regular race. Something like a Human with 20 Int and very few points in physical stats who went wizard[diviner]/wildblooded sorcerer[sage] with the archmage mythic path would probably fit what you're going for very well and be within the rules...

I see what your talking about, I need to review that flurry, the gestalt program on herolab doesnt know how to calculate flurry, im a rather busy person and i apologize for these stat-block mix ups, but I will try and fix that problem as soon as I can.

That's why I don't use programs like Hero Lab, they never get things just right for builds like this. Well, that and I like doing things in my head.

@Vagabond- no custom races. If you want to have your fluff be that you were created or modified to be a caster that's fine but it will be fluff and you'll have to pick a regular race. Something like a Human with 20 Int and very few points in physical stats who went wizard[diviner]/wildblooded sorcerer[sage] with the archmage mythic path would probably fit what you're going for very well and be within the rules...

Am sad, but not surprised. I'll be frank when I say that I don't think the sorcerer dip does nothing to assist the fluff- While the bloodline abilities are a neat feature, they don't quite detail what being an semi- different species from regular humans are (Which is the idea I got behind with the custom race). The abilities, while inherent, don't "fit" as well, is what I'm trying to get across? Being inherently good at divination and magic, to the point where you can see it easily, sets up a far better base for fluff-crunch interaction than "Whoo. I have +2 to spellcraft."

Sorry- Just that I'm kind of a stickler for having my crunch properly reflect my fluff- And I don't think I can passably (Bordering on at all) reflect the fluff I desire out of that WITHOUT a custom race- So I'll probably drop the "Made for magic" part with just being really, REALLY damn desperate for friendship.

As it is, we could probably just have it so that I'm a half elf who, instead of gaining the Fast Learner bonus feat, got the Elven Magic racial trait instead, or constant Detect Magic. (We do have Alternate Racial Traits for a reason).

SUBMISSIONS

Tanner Nielsen - Victoria Whitesmith - (Archmage/Champion) LG Human Fighter (2H) 11 // Wizard (Transmuter) 5 / Hellknight Signifier 6
Nevaal - Nevaal Sparrowhawk - (Trickster) NG Human Rogue (Unchained) 11 // Sorcerer (Shadow) 11
TheGwarganaught - Ashmael Spiritfire - (Marshal) LG Human Fighter (Weapon Master) 11 // Monk (Weapon Adept) 11
Arrathion - Shirin Ravengale - (Champion) NG Human Ranger (Toxophilite) 11 // Druid (Storm) 11
Critzible - Lady Ziera Wyvernrose - (Hierophant) LG Human Cleric 11 // Monk 11
Rynjin - Zair Alkovoran - (Champion/Trickster) NG Half-elf Fighter (Mutation Warrior) 11 // Investigator (Empiricist) 11
DekoTheBarbarian - Tsun Wu - (Champion/Hierophant) LG Human Samurai (Sword Saint) 11 // Cleric (Scroll Scholar) 11
adsapiens - Abbo Lyrio - (Guardian) LG Human Paladin (Iroran Paladin, Divine Defender) 11 // Blood Rager (Crossblooded, Spelleater) / Oracle (Lore) 1 / Dragon Disciple 6
TheWaskally - Josef Waskelian - (Archmage) LG Human Paladin (Enlightened) 11 // Sorcerer (Celestial) 11
Reckless - Graverattler - (Hierophant) LN Human Druid (Mooncaller, Shoanti Shaman) 11 // Monk (Unchained) 11
MordredofFairy - Turion Alagostor - (Archmage/Trickster) NG Elven Slayer 6 / Arcane Archer 5 // Arcanist (White Mage) 8 / Sorcerer (Elemental Air) 1 / Rogue (Unchained) 2
pavaan - Nethal Olsban - (Marshal) Investigator 11 // Cavalier 11
Edward Sobel - Unnamed Hero - (Champion) CG Human Barbarian (Brutal Pugilist, Drunken Brute) // Fighter (Unarmed) 11
Bane 88 - Date Oda Katsuo - (?) ?? ? ? // ?
oyzar - Rukzha Shadowsoul - (Archmage) NG Half-Orc Witch (Scarred Witch Doctor) 11 // Bloodrager 11

Joe Ludwick - Paladin // Rogue

@Dragon- spell blending has enough language to still work. It says you add it "as a magus spell" so that will constitute adding it to your spell list.

If anyone has any questions about recent nerfs, especially accidental ones, feel free to ask about them. Some of them will stand but some we may be flexible on.

@Vagabond- the fluff of arcane/sage sorcerer is that magic is intrinsically in your blood...

@Vagabond- the fluff of arcane/sage sorcerer is that magic is intrinsically in your blood...

The thing with that is, that's it's a bit too natural (Not to mention redundant, and my mild dislike of the Arcane bloodline), and far from specific enough, AND not weighing enough- I want my fluff to have solid mechanical consequences, is the thing.

Question not relating to the nerfs, but to various concepts:

One- Guns. Are they a thing? I'm assuming so. Secondly- Advanced Firearms. I want to buy a Pepperbox Rifle/Craft it. I'm thinking of her doing some practice. I think I might go Grenadier alchemist, using the range of the Rifle to apply my alchemical doom to my enemies, while staying out of direct fire- Does that sound okay?

Secondly- Let's say I take the Homunculist archetype, but also take Improved Familiar to get a Lyrakien familiar- (1) do I have multiple familiars (Assuming no here), (2) am I stuck with the homoculus as a familiar if I do take that archetype, (3)If I'm not, can I apply the experiments to my Lyrakien familiar?

Fluff wise, it would be that she has gone so far into the unthinkable with Alchemy, that she has created an outsider out of stone.

Finally- Can Improved Familiars take Familiar Archetypes? I'd love for my familiar to have the Valet archetype, but I'm not certain if that'll be permitted.

@Vagabond, the ONLY way I can see of you getting your way within the given ruleset is actually rather simple.
Be a beastbonded dead Witch. Pick up improved familiar, and decide to reside in it together with it.
It could be interesting, but it will be a challenge to roleplay...because its a truly schizophrenic package deal.(plus, of course, it's incredibly squishy...but as you said, you want to avoid combat anyway and buff/control from the shadows)

And all without needing to alter rules to create custom content(which is a slippery slope I would never take if I was GM...because if it's allowed once, GM would get flooded with requests to alter existing stuff "for fluff". Can't speak for this GM, but I believe most either outline in the recruitment post that it's possible, or don't accept such alterations at all.)

@vagabond- you can take any alternative racial traits that paizo has released for your race. If you want the arcane pool, just make an elf instead of a half-elf...
1) as previously mentioned, there are emerging firearms. That means early firearms are pretty rare and there are no advanced firearms. You could take a musket if you want to expand your bomb range with explosive missiles.
2) The homunculist archetype is oddly worded but it seems like it doesn't actually let you call a familiar at all, it just makes it so your homunculus functions as one (thus allowing its other class ability to function on it). The archetype, then, doesn't qualify you for improved familiar (since you can't call a normal familiar). If you gained a familiar from another source (like wizard levels) you could apply your experiments to it instead but you'd have to dismiss the homunculus because you can't have two familiars at once. Advanced familiars can take archetypes but only if they still get the abilities that the archetype requires them to sacrifice (if an archetype replaces an ability that they didn't get because advanced familiars don't get it then they cannot take that archetype).

OK just to say I am still here, I am working on the back story and condensing it to a manageable length to be easier to read.

Nate just let me know if there are any questions regarding my Character (have not seen comments on it yet so I assume you just are waiting for the final application.)

Ed- on a casual read through I don't see anything wrong with your crunch. (That's the extent of the feedback I've been offering so far.)

@vagabond- you can take any alternative racial traits that paizo has released for your race. If you want the arcane pool, just make an elf instead of a half-elf...

Dangit- Sorry, was tired when I wrote that (Was getting to be around midnight), what I meant was...

1) as previously mentioned, there are emerging firearms. That means early firearms are pretty rare and there are no advanced firearms. You could take a musket if you want to expand your bomb range with explosive missiles.

2) The homunculist archetype is oddly worded but it seems like it doesn't actually let you call a familiar at all, it just makes it so your homunculus functions as one (thus allowing its other class ability to function on it). The archetype, then, doesn't qualify you for improved familiar (since you can't call a normal familiar). If you gained a familiar from another source (like wizard levels) you could apply your experiments to it instead but you'd have to dismiss the homunculus because you can't have two familiars at once. Advanced familiars can take archetypes but only if they still get the abilities that the archetype requires them to sacrifice (if an archetype replaces an ability that they didn't get because advanced familiars don't get it then they cannot take that archetype).

Alright, nothing unexpected- The loss of a rifle will be missed, but there are other weapons that will serve just as well.

As it is: MORE QUESTIONS! (I'm probably getting annoying, but I want to make sure the ideas I have work).

Does the 5000 gp pool also apply to mundane items? Let's say I can craft alchemical items, does that mean I have 5000 gp to spend on making alchemical items?

Can I apply Alchemical Weapon, from the Grenadier archetype, to my bombs?

Arcane pool can be used to augment any weapon, not just melee ones... But no, I'm not going to offer alternative racial boons. If you don't like the racial boons available there are other races that don't get them that you can choose from (like aasimar or tiefling if you think those might work better).

No...
Mundane Crafting- If anyone wants to take a craft skill I'll give you 100g per skill rank of free items of that type (but you 'buy' them at full price not half)- so if you take max ranks in alchemy you can start with 1100 gold worth of free alchemical items.

Yes- alchemical weapons can be used to add alchemy stuff to your bombs. I will, however, try to use common sense in determining the results... so, if you put liquid ice on a fire bomb it will decrease the damage instead of adding to it, if you put a tanglefoot bag on an acid bomb it may shorten the duration, those sorts of things.

I see what your talking about, I need to review that flurry, the gestalt program on herolab doesnt know how to calculate flurry, im a rather busy person and i apologize for these stat-block mix ups, but I will try and fix that problem as soon as I can.

Well it was created by a fan who is also supporting most of the other homebrew/3rd party stuff on hero lab. It doesn't help that a lot of basic rules stuff has changed. While Shadow is pretty awesome, he's also just human.

That's why I don't use programs like Hero Lab, they never get things just right for builds like this. Well, that and I like doing things in my head.

I use it because it gives me all of the options in an easy format to choose from. Of course I then go through and double-check my numbers.

=-=-=-=
And it's nice when you log on and get an answer to a question you were about to ask.

May I introduce Malgrim Ironsoul, Hobgoblin barbarian (superstitious) 11/inquisitor (witch hunter) of Trudd 11/Champion 1 (Gestalt/Mythic). Born into arcane slavery, freed by Dwarves, and trained to hunt spellcasters.

Crunch below, background writeup to come. I'll have it up as soon as I can.

Arcane pool can be used to augment any weapon, not just melee ones... But no, I'm not going to offer alternative racial boons. If you don't like the racial boons available there are other races that don't get them that you can choose from (like aasimar or tiefling if you think those might work better).

No...
Mundane Crafting- If anyone wants to take a craft skill I'll give you 100g per skill rank of free items of that type (but you 'buy' them at full price not half)- so if you take max ranks in alchemy you can start with 1100 gold worth of free alchemical items.

Yes- alchemical weapons can be used to add alchemy stuff to your bombs. I will, however, try to use common sense in determining the results... so, if you put liquid ice on a fire bomb it will decrease the damage instead of adding to it, if you put a tanglefoot bag on an acid bomb it may shorten the duration, those sorts of things.

Alright- Understood. Just figured it might be neat, to grant a wider array of flavor options.

I also don't think I ever got an answer on Background skills.

Thank you- Not as much as would be amazing, but rather nice, none the less. (Also- Crafting items reduces the cost to 1/3rd the base price- Common misconception.) Can I use my regular income to craft mundane items? Will I craft them at crafting cost, or will I have to buy them at full cost.

Finally, can I add special properties to my weapons with Armor and Weapon Attunement? Can I be attuned to BOMBS!? (I'm assuming not, but I might as well ask)

So I'll be using a katana as a kensai from Tian Xia, is there a way to get DEX to hit instead of STR for a katana? slashing grace requires weapon finesse and works for a katana, but weapon finesse itself doesn't? That seems wonky to me, am I interpreting it wrong?

Swashbuckler finesse let's you use dex to hit with one handed piercing weapons. Slashing Grace lets you treat a Katana as a one handed piercing weapon, hence letting you use dex to hit, but only for a swashbuckler.

@Vagabond- you know what, i wasn't going to use background skills because with being gestalt already i figured people could use class combos to get enough skill points, but I like background skills so...

Background Skills- We will use the background skills rules from Unchained. If you take a craft skill as a background skill you do not gain any free crafted items from it (see "mundane crafting" comment above).

@Vagabond (continued)- no, the free gold pieces worth of crafted stuff is to represent the fact that you've crafted some stuff at the reduced rate, so no additional reduced rate crafting beforehand. if selected, you can use the rules for crafting while traveling to make more stuff at the reduced rate (provided you bring along an alchemists lab in a bag of holding or something like that). You cannot attune to bombs, you could attune to a bomb but that's not likely to be useful for long. If you took the explosive missile discovery you could attune yourself to a bow or firearm and get that bonus when you use it to deliver bombs... you could also (if you make an elf) use your arcane pool to augment that same ranged weapon. You cannot 'buy' special properties with your attunement bonus, you have to actually buy them (in the form of magic weapons or armor) but they still eat into your attunement bonus... (i made a post up thread trying to explain how that works if you go look for it)

@Date- Sadly, slashing grace is a poorly written feat. A 1 level dip in swashbuckler or daring champion cavalier solves your problem... there's an item called "effortless lace" that's honestly kind of sketchy in terms of game balance, but I haven't banned it so you should check that out.

@Special properties: It's answered in the link about Automatic Progression.
You can BUY something with special properties, at cost, and it gets deducted from your bonus.(so if you pay for seeking, instead of a +2 seeking, it's only a +1 seeking weapon).
GM gave the options a bit earlier in the thread.

@Crafting: I think it was mentioned that things will go along quite quickly, with little downtime, so you should probably not depend on a regular income to craft stuff with.

@Background Skills would indeed be nice. GM covered Unchained and what is and is not used from it, and Gestalt usually has plenty of Skill Points compared to normal build, but Background skills are always sweet, so I would be totally for them(but understand if its a no).

@Mordred- I totally ninja'd you

(Of course, I also got partially ninja'd by Oyzar...)

@Mordred- I totally ninja'd you

you totally did(by 8 seconds, no less) ^_^

ninja chain?

Ok effortless lace could work. Also if we could sub scimitar for katana in dervish dance...

Here is my rp post. reposting it in profile. how i view my role in the party is as support and moderate damage and skills monkey/lore master oddly having all but fly as class skill,useing aid another i will be giving 11 to ac for adjacent characters using my aoo, +6-9 to hit as a swift or move action on those in reach, and +6 to all skills.

I make myself large with a reach weapon, also using long arm spell, and improved unarmed strike to threaten 25 feet from me all squares.

Also tried to find a way to lose mount but none of them were good, i wont be too sad if i do lose it though.

Background skill are definitely appreciated. :) It's one of my favorite options from unchained.

Date- we're not going to start customizing feats (that's a slippery slope). You can take an effortless lace. Another option (and this is maybe kind of a gray area but I'd allow it) if you're a human would be to take martial versatility for dervish dance, that way you could use Dex to hit/damage with all heavy blades provided its appropriately sized for you and you're using it one handed with no weapon or shield in your other hand, as per the feat

Or you can use your mythic feat to get dex to damage on finessable weapons.