The Spiral Wanderers (Inactive)

Game Master adsapiens

@Lucky: Unraveling the secrets of the universe, and the wizard asks you to write some of it down and you just respond "Oh I can't write. Or read."

"I've just been blessed with some unnatural talent for deciphering the universe."

Race: Human
Origin: Most likely Taldan nobility
First Class Path: Magus 12 (Kensai/Bladebound)
Second Class Path: Arcanist 12 (School Savant Admixture school)
Third Class Path: Swashbuckler 12
Mythic Path: Archmage
Secondary Mythic Path: Champion
Main Role: DPS, Battlefield Control, Debuffing
Secondary Roles: Knowledges, potentially a party face, magical problem solving (teleport/scrying/etc)
Campaign Trait: No Rest for Old Men

I'm still working on fleshing out my background and fiddling with my character's build. I'm not in love with the Taldan nobility angle that I had originally thought of, so I've been revisiting that. More updates to come as I figure out more about Theo.

so, I've been working on my tank build... I've got him pretty durable and adding a little durability to everyone else (can grant everyone fast healing 4, DR 3/-, and bonuses to healing; plus make everyone else within 10' take 1/2 damage from a target when he smites). My concern is that he really doesn't do much damage. At all. My healer friend wouldn't either...

Is that what you were looking for when you said you wanted us to focus on a role? I have a couple little tricks to try to encourage things to attack me but are we gonna fight a lot of things that will just ignore me and attack the DPS/casters if I'm not putting out enough damage? Am I gonna hold back the party if I'm not putting out big damage (like are you building encounters planning to have 5+ people dealing damage or are you planning on 3-4 people really dealing damage while the others focus on their jobs)?

I could make a couple of small changes that would increase his damage quite a bit, it just takes some focus of being durable and adding durability.

so, I've been working on my tank build... I've got him pretty durable and adding a little durability to everyone else (can grant everyone fast healing 4, DR 3/-, and bonuses to healing; plus make everyone else within 10' take 1/2 damage from a target when he smites). My concern is that he really doesn't do much damage. At all. My healer friend wouldn't either...

Is that what you were looking for when you said you wanted us to focus on a role? I have a couple little tricks to try to encourage things to attack me but are we gonna fight a lot of things that will just ignore me and attack the DPS/casters if I'm not putting out enough damage? Am I gonna hold back the party if I'm not putting out big damage (like are you building encounters planning to have 5+ people dealing damage or are you planning on 3-4 people really dealing damage while the others focus on their jobs)?

I could make a couple of small changes that would increase his damage quite a bit, it just takes some focus of being durable and adding durability.

Flint can handle the slack of at least one other. Two with some preparation and buffing. Don't know what paizo was thinking when they gave a single class dex to damage, range, and touch attacks. But I still love it.

Really the options with these kinds of builds are rather staggering. I'm just sitting here going over them seeing what I like and coming up with idea after idea.

As for fear of lacking damage, depending on the party composition, it's possible you may have others that can help boost your output.

@nate: This is just my opinion of course.. But if you can somehow taunt the enemies into attacking you, then resisting damage is probably more valuable. But if you can't avoid the enemies simply going for our squishes it's probably better to be able to do quite a bit of something else as well, either damage or control. Though forcing enemies to attack only you is a sort of control as well, however I'm not aware of too much in the way of such effects that can do so without saves. If I get selected I'll be able to share the Meek Facade Mesmerist Trick with you in order to help somewhat, but even that requires you to reach the target and it doesn't work against all enemies (although Psychic Inception along with using hypnotic stare can make it greater chance to work). There is always a balance. Giving up a lot of damage in order to gain a tiny bit more tankiness is probably not worth it.

Yea not every class is designed for maximum damage output.. Having a tank with buff/healing options will benifit the party greatly. And as others have already said damage output from classes built for it is insane with this setup.. Im fairly eager to see what Mal is capable of..

You can gain DR 10/- with Combat Expertise, Stalwart, Improved Stalwart, and Mythic Combat Expertise with no penalty to hit..

Depends on what kind of control you can put out. If you can them waste turns just trying to get into position to attack your allies, that in itself is a useful job. Most likely the other players in the group will have good damage to make up for it.
Especially if you can control in a way that makes it easier for your allies while making it worse for enemies - pulling enemies over so sneak attack allies can flank them, keeping them in place once flanking is achieved, pushing them to be near other enemies so they can be AoE'd, etc

But if your plan is 'soak up damage', then you'll probably need something, either damage or abilities, to force them to attack.

You can gain DR 10/- with Combat Expertise, Stalwart, Improved Stalwart, and Mythic Combat Expertise with no penalty to hit...

Yup, and it explicitly stacks with class abilities to get me up to DR 19/-

What oyzar said makes sense to me too. If you can't find ways to "generate threat" (or however we want to call it), the mitigation won't do you much good. I think a good "tank" in Pathfinder would be someone with good enough HP, mitigation and mobility. There are a few things to "catch someone's attention" (like Antagonize), but I think I'd recommend rather investing in causing some damage and having good mobility and crowd control capabilities to put yourself in front of your allies.

That answers my question excellently, thank you. I'm going to make a few little changes to deal way more damage.

This looks really cool. Hope I'm not too late to the party! I'm the friend of Nates that he mentioned. I'd love to put together a healer (palidin,oracle,bard), who would also have some problem solving/buffing, but really crank out the healing as his focus.
I will try to get at least a skeleton up asap.

:)

- Upbringing and 1st Level Only Feats: Big Game Hunter, City Born, Country Born, Elven Spirit, Fey Foundling, Fiendish Facade, Fiendish Heritage, Hermean Blood, Human Spirit, Jackal Heritage, Lone Wolf, Monstrous Mask, Noble Scion, Revered Guidance, Shingle Runner, Totem Spirit, Unusual Origin. If there's any other feat you feel that should be in this group, please bring it up to me.

You mentioned the following in one of your earlier posts. I happened across d20pfsrd stating that "Story" feats are also sometimes referred to as upbringing feats. What is your take on this?

On another note, I'm redesigning my character for crowd control and working on his backstory. He'll find up under the Guardian/Marshal categories instead.

No, I'm not including the story feats on that list.

Thank you for the clarification. I thought it worth asking.

On another note, how do you handle reincarnation for a character that has racial specific archetypes, feats, and/or traits? Do they lose everything? Or would they lose what does not make sense any longer?

I just want to make sure I do not set myself up for some major disappointment if the unmentionable happens.

It wouldn't make sense for most Feats to be lost...mental attributes and abilities remain unchanged.

You could run into some issues with Orc/Half-Orc Feats like Ironhide and traits like Tusked though.

There is this little tidbit from the campaign info:

"During this campaign, no form of ressurrection other than something fairly immediate (like Breath of Life, for example) will be able to bring a character back - after a certain number of rounds, every soul is consumed by the newly released waves. Keep it in mind."

That in mind I don't think you need worry about reincarnations..

Yeah, don't worry about reincarnations or ressurrections... There's a reason I put it on the first post, and a reason why Samsarans are blocked... :X

(By the way, another reason why familiars, companions, eidolons etc might be a tad bad idea)

Shoremoth has now found time to write down the (abridged) version of his life story, as well as find out the last of his abilities.

I do recall that now. Sorry, I was looking through some Archetypes and at least one of them gives the ability to reincarnate so that is why I was asking. I'll lean away from such options since they will not work.

No need to apologize, my friend! It's just something unique of the campaign. :)

Yeah, don't worry about reincarnations or ressurrections... There's a reason I put it on the first post, and a reason why Samsarans are blocked... :X

(By the way, another reason why familiars, companions, eidolons etc might be a tad bad idea)

Does this apply to the standard tricks like Miracle -> Resurrection and other similar options that let you cast a spell as a Standard when it would not otherwise?

Mind you this is generally a bad idea, but it would be nice to know if we have some recourse to fall back on should someone be Disintegrated or turned into an undead.

If someone is disintegrated or turned into an undead, I think we need to pray for their soul and go on. :)

That's...worrying. Tristalt characters are incredibly time consuming to build, and levels 12+ are where those sorts of things start becoming all too common.

If someone is disintegrated or turned into an undead, I think we need to pray for their soul and go on. :)

This is why I have high reflex and took Spontaneous Healing.

Neither of which helps that...

Race: Halfling
Origin: In progress
First Class Path: Druid 12
Second Class Path: Lore Warden (Fighter) 12
Third Class Path: Unchained Rogue 7 / Halfling Opportunist 5
Mythic Path: Heirophant
Secondary Mythic Path: Guardian
Main Role: Crowd Control (Debuffing and controlling enemy movement.)
Secondary Roles: Buffing, DPS, Healing, Skills
Campaign Trait: Sylvan
Upbringing Feat: Fey Foundling

Often one is told to not judge a book by it's cover, but many disregard these wise words despite the magic that permeates the world of Golarion. This particular halfling enjoys helping the world further understand just how many natural wonders there are and the truth behind those words. Through his martial prowess and naturally given gifts, he takes control of the world about him to hinder his foes with debilitating injuries while using his mystical powers to aid his allies.

Race: Halfling

Origin: In progress
First Class Path: Druid 12
Second Class Path: Lore Warden (Fighter) 12
Third Class Path: Unchained Rogue 7 / Halfling Opportunist 5
Mythic Path: Heirophant
Secondary Mythic Path: Guardian
Main Role: Crowd Control (Debuffing and controlling enemy movement.)
Secondary Roles: Buffing, DPS, Healing, Skills
Campaign Trait: Sylvan
Upbringing Feat: Fey Foundling

Often one is told to not judge a book by it's cover, but many disregard these wise words despite the magic that permeates the world of Golarion. This particular halfling enjoys helping the world further understand just how many natural wonders there are and the truth behind those words. Through his martial prowess and naturally given gifts, he takes control of the world about him to hinder his foes with debilitating injuries while using his mystical powers to aid his allies.

I think Guardian actually makes more sense as my primary, with Heirophant coming in second. Would you like for me to put up a post correcting this? Unfortunately I'm past the edit time.

Hi. Finishing touches here, but another question:

Items that only grant bonuses to AC, saving throws, and ability scores don't exist in this variant, and wish and similar spells never grant inherent bonuses to ability scores.

Does that mean that there's no item giving an armour bonus aside from an actual armour? No bracers or anything? Ouch...

That's correct.

*Bored sigh* Still another 12 days until recruitment end.

Are we still capable of using spells like Barkskin, Magic Fang, Magic Vestment, and Magic Weapon? If so, do we still trade out enhancement bonuses for special weapon qualities and special armor qualities correct? Could this be used to activate special weapon qualities and/or special armor qualities we would not normally be able to activate at this point in time, effectively activating them through our own magical resources?

Even if this works, it's unfortunate that the Amulet of Mighty Fists is not a viable target for these kinds of spells.

Additionally, is it possible to put multiple special abilities on an item and have them active at different times?

Such as having a Merciful Shocking club with a +1 enhancement attunement on it and only activating one of those abilities at a time? Perhaps even being able to deactivate them both for the +1 enhancement?

What about it one of the abilities was constant like Keen? Would activating Shocking on a Keen Shocking scimitar cause Shocking to take precedence over Keen and effectively make it just count as a Shocking scimitar?

Here is the revamped Mladris Genmaris summary and I will post the whole character before close at the end of the month or when necessary. The character is finished as is but I am still proofreading the character and checking everything.

CHARACTER SUMMARY

Race: Elf
Origin: Greengold, Kingdom of Kyonin
First Class Path: Unchained Monk
Second Class Path: Magus (Esoteric)
Third Class Path: Unchained Rogue
Mythic Path: Trickster
Secondary Mythic Path: Archmage
Main Role: Disruptor/Striker/Range Disable/Range Disarm
Secondary Roles: A Dabble of Everything Else
Campaign Trait: Spectra of Another Life

In a sexy woman's voice, "Unseen and Silent defeat is coming to all Evil Spell Casters and Archers, or Equivalent!"

Hey all, we should all at least add Outflank Teamwork Feat to our character sheets. This will help everyone who forms flanks and your precision damage folks. Even if all of our foes are made immune to precision damage because certain Rogues/etc are causing too much precision carnage, it is still an extra +2 to hit (+4 total) for flanking and a granted AoO to an ally on a confirmed crit.

Not finished yet, still need to pick up some gear, but it's going to be mostly this:

@GMArchlich: please have a look and tell me what you think or if there's anything that could be improved, like format, linking, etc (take into account it's not yet finished). I'd like to offer as much help as possible for you to manage the data easily.

Building the skeliton today! Input welcome.-Joe

Ezra Haynes
race Aasimar
origin (working on it)
first class path Life Oracle
second class path Sacred Shield Paladin
third path class Bard
mythic path Hirophant
main role Healer
secondary role Buff/Status Removal
campaign trait Vanguard of the Rearguard

Hey, you stole my paladin archetype!

This is still very much a work in progress (especially now that my brother took the paladin archetype I was going to take), but here's where we're at right now...

race: Aasimar
origin: (working on it)
first class path: Invulnerable Rager Barbarian
second class path: Skald
third path class: Paladin? (Possibly rogue?)
mythic path: Guardian
main role: Tank
secondary role: Buff/support, melee
campaign trait: ??

Alls fair bro! grabbed it cause I figured you would ditch it anyway to up your DPR. Traditional Smite is hard to beat.

Well, maybe I'll just stop being your brother and make The Fantabulous Doctor Arcanium instead...

Thats fair. Its about time I got out from under my 4-minutes-older brother anyway! (Also, Mom liked me better)

You'll never be out of my shadow... Even if you end up adventuring with the good doctor you'll still know that somewhere out there your older brother is doing things even more important than your adventures...

Also, I was planning to use the fact that I was the only one the enemy could inflict full damage on to help encourage it to focus on me... though, honestly, it might not be terrible if we both take it because then we'd have more uses and it would be easier to include the whole party in the area...

Alright, I think I can finally say the PC is done. Finished calculating stats, linking, and added a final chapter to his background (called "The End").

You'll never be out of my shadow... Even if you end up adventuring with the good doctor you'll still know that somewhere out there your older brother is doing things even more important than your adventures...

Also, I was planning to use the fact that I was the only one the enemy could inflict full damage on to help encourage it to focus on me... though, honestly, it might not be terrible if we both take it because then we'd have more uses and it would be easier to include the whole party in the area...

You could use the marshal ability to share the smite. If you each pick a different smite the whole party could have each kind of smite...

The sacred shield smite you don't want to share that way- it creates an aura around you that makes everyone except you take 1/2 damage from one target (you still take full damage)... If the GM was favoring character-centric rules interpretations that might stack and make everyone take half damage, but given his track record of extremely conservative rulings it seems much more likely that everyone would take full damage.

This GM is an A*! :)

Still working on things, I'll work on getting a background and such up this week. Equipment wise I was wandering about my earlier questions in regards to the spells that enhance weapons and armors, and your take on how they work.

Looking forward to an answer so I can work on getting things finished up.

This GM is an A*! :)

As long as rulings are consistant across the board, strict and conservative is fine. Its the games where some rules are strict and others are lax that drive normally sane players into the deep.

Lol- I made no value judgement, I merely stated an established pattern.