I've got a game starting tomorrow, and my GM ok'd primal companion hunter, 20 point buy, any race. What are some interesting things you can do with evolutions on an AC at level 1? One thing that jumped to mind was take slam attack and improved damage slam on a horse AC. Since that does 2d6 damage when you're large, with increased damage it bumps to 3d6 + str which is pretty good for first level! Any cool combos I should be aware of?

Hey all, I had a request for a character who has a giant T-Rex for a pet from one of my friends who loves the mental image. He's always wanted to play a character with a chompy pet like that following him around.

My question is... what is the best way to go about it? My initial thought was druid, because that's easy, but after digging around a bit it looks like Hunter might be good too, with Primal Companion? Any suggestions? I know it gets large sized at level 7, but is there a way to get it bigger by level 10? Looking at it, buffing strength to the max, taking improved natural attack and power attack as feats, and then buffing it with some druid buff spells seems to be the main gist, though I'm sure I'm missing something.

All paizo hardbacks allowed, any paizo race, 20 point buy, other material allowed on a per item review basis. Thanks for any help!

(also, is there a way to get intimidating prowess on your T rex? Then it really could be the scariest critter!)

A lot of the good animal companions get large at 7th level. How does this interact with the large evolution? Since the bonuses are the same my gut is that the 4 point version isn't applicable, but that you can eventually spend to spend 6 points to up size to huge, based on the extra text.

If 6 additional evolution points are spent, the eidolon instead becomes Huge. The eidolon gains a +16 bonus to Strength, a +8 bonus to Constitution, and a +5 bonus to its natural armor. It takes a –4 penalty to its Dexterity. This size change also give the creature a –2 size penalty to its AC and attack rolls, a +2 bonus to its CMB and CMD, 10-foot reach, a –4 penalty on Fly skill checks, and a –8 penalty on Stealth skill checks. If the eidolon has the biped base form, its reach increases to 15 feet (10 feet for all other base forms). Any reach evolutions the eidolon possesses are added to this total. These bonuses and penalties replace, and do not stack with, those gained from becoming Large. The summoner must be at least 13th level before selecting this option.

The ability increase evolution costs twice as much (4 evolution points) when adding to the Strength or Constitution scores of a Large or Huge eidolon.

Does that make sense? I couldn't find an official ruling and I just wanted to see what other people think. I think given the level prereq and spending 6 points is enough, any thoughts?

I've seen a lot of excellent natural attack builds around, but I was wondering, are there any good ways to build a natural attack paladin? The closest I've seen so far is the monk/paladin champion of iori stuff, but that seems like a lot of work. There has to be a relatively simple way to claw faces off for righteousness. Maybe a tiefling with two claw attacks? I would really like to stay single class, though a level or two of dips is tolerable as necessary. 20 point buy, all paizo hardbacks available.

So I'm making a character for a game in the Emerald spire module, and from what I've read it looks like a single big dungeon crawl. Other than animal companions/mounts probably not being a good idea, any suggestions for characters that flourish underground in tight spaces? For some reason I'd really like to play a wizard, and apparently the game it 15 point buy if that helps any.

Hey all, so I don't know if I've missed something, but wouldn't it be possible to summon and bind a low level outsider with teleport at will, and get them to shuttle goods between cities? It seems like "Self + 50 pounds" is fairly standard, so could you say, have a lantern archon that simply teleported between two cities where your party members were, bringing 50lbs per trip until you've moved all of the goods back and forth that's needed.

Crazy, or useful? Sounds like something a medium level part would think up to bypass the "caravan" experience. There's probably an easier way to get the bound outsider that I'm not aware of.

So I've been thinking about putting together a necromancer or possibly a juju oracle (thanks to ravingdork for some excellent inspiration). However, one thing I'm running into is the problem of actually having you minions follow you around. Is there a convenient way to have them at your disposal in case you run into trouble, but still not freaking out the local populace every time you leave a dungeon and venture into town?

So I've been wanting to make an alchemist with lots of alchemical zombies. I looked over Brewer's excellent necromancy guide, but without access to desecrate or reasonable access to animate dead (maybe a samsaran could work around that?) it seems really hard. Discoveries can get you a basic zombie, and boneshard bombs can create regular skeletons... but those aren't exactly all that impressive. That and the cost to implant bombs in your creations is absolutely absurd, on top of destroying your expensive pets. Am I missing something?

And if so do extracts count as divine or arcane? Or both? Or neither?

Hey all, I was looking over alchemist discoveries and just noticed boneshard bomb automatically reanimates creatures that you kill. Is this any good? It seems like it could be amazing (kill the dragon babies and reanimate them as skeletons to attack the mother? Check!), but I don't have any experience with the effectiveness of skeletal minions.

Is there a way to make this work well? If so it could be an awesome accessory ability to a mad bomber.

Hey all, I see people talking about natural attacks being awesome but after looking at several builds I'm having a hard time seeing how you would be able to consistently get sneak attack, short of higher level stuff like improved invisibility. Am I missing something, or is sneak attacking with multiple attacks really a hit or miss sort of thing?

After talking to my friend he complained about how wizard cantrips are pretty worthless, and he couldn't see any reason why you would ever use 1d3 ray of frost instead of say, shooting a crossbow. I remember reading somewhere about making cantrips useful, but I can't come up with much of anything. Any help? The only thing that really jumped out at me was the intense spells evocation school power, but that seems like it would take a long time to add much.

I know that most everyone around here likes to build characters that are as self reliant as possible, but in this case it's a known quantity that there will be a well built cleric, wizard, and bard in the party. Assuming the bard is optimized for support, and the other two are amenable to buffing the crap out of the damage dealers, how would that change the best builds for melee and ranged?

Normally I know everyone says two handed weapon fighting with static bonuses is the best hands down (I'm not disagreeing), but with a large bonus to hit and possibly damage as well, could other builds with more attacks surpass that standard?

So I was looking at stalwart defender and something jumped out at me. A defender with the Bulwark defensive power can add his Armor check penalty to the DC of acrobatics checks and bluff checks. The armor check penalty of a tower shield is -10, and according to the broken status effect

"If the item is a suit of armor or a shield, the bonus it grants to AC is halved, rounding down. Broken armor doubles its armor check penalty on skills."

Is there any way to use this? I've never played a stalwart defender but there has to be something you could do with it.

So I'm looking to build a paladin that can survive a huge amount of damage and keep trucking via lay on hands keeping him alive. I'm looking for a simple great sword swinging paladin (so power attack and maybe furious focus), but mainly built around surviving without any healing support. Last time I played one the cleric basically had to stand behind me and drop healing every other round and I'd like to avoid that.

Race if preferably human (though after looking the tiefling self healing bonus seems like a massive boost)... assuming WBL and 20 point buy what is the best healing I can get by level 10? Thanks for the help!

Hey all, I'm not normally drawn to crit builds, but I was wondering, are there any ways to automatically crit an attack, or barring that at least auto confirm an attack that threatens a critical? The only two things that jump to mind are the fighter's weapon mastery ability to auto confirm criticals and the coup de grace action. Any other sources would be greatly appreciated, especially if they can do it by level 12. I'm not sure if melee or ranged can do it better so I'm open to either option right now.

Hey all, I stumbled on the Nature warden prestige class and noticed that it uses favored terrain as a bonus to AC. Combined with Horizon walker for massive favored terrain bonuses, and with Slayer's terrain mastery talents. Slayer gets full BAB, same saves as ranger, some minor bonuses.

Slayer 2/ Feral Child 3 should get you access, with casting, favored terrain, animal companion, and wild empathy. 2 levels will get you Mystic harmony, and then you can enter horizon walker. Am I missing something here? Or is this just not powerful enough to comment on.

Pretty much what it says on the tin. My buddy is an optimizer and declared that while hexes are good for utlity that they don't benefit from a lot of stuff that increases spell effectiveness(items, feats, traits) and so end up weaker at higher levels. I haven't looked at any Pathfinder stuff for a while so I wasn't able to come up with a good counterargument. Any help demonstrating that hexes are as good or better than casting? Also, are there any ways to boost caster level for hexes? I don't think there are since it's based on class level, but I could swear I saw a favored class bonus somewhere or maybe an item.

So I did a quick search on here and a lot of people seem to really not like using bombs. I've never played an alchemist and am looking to do so in my next game, so I am trying to figure out how to make bombs useful. Before level 8 the best thing to do seems to be maximize intelligence with both a stat and a cognatogen to boost DCs, and then get stink bomb, force bomb, tanglefoot bomb, and maybe adhesive bomb. That way you can hit a variety of saves and have options for doing damage different ways. Am I missing something? With 1 bomb a round until level 8 it seems like debuffing/control is the way to go. With feats I would pick up PBS, precise shot, rapid shot (around 8), and then get the bombs with larger cloud effects/different elemental damage.

Would this work? Any suggestions appreciated. Also, I have read Ogre's guide, it just hasn't been updated and I was wondering if the new options have significantly changed things.

Pretty much what it says on the tin. I'm trying to come up with abilities that different classes can use to really help buff each other. The thing that for some reason hadn't clicked for me until I started looking around at stuff was Just How Awesome Aura of Justice Paladin ability.

I mean really, at 11th level that's +Paladin's charisma to hit, and +11 damage, per hit, until the enemy is gone, and all of the party members with 30 feet benefit from it! That would absolutely destroy a single boss if the party can focus fire with those kinds of bonuses.

So what other buffs are awesome like that?

Hey all, I have a friend who really wants to play a rogue who sneak attacks from ranged. I'm currently trying to talk the player into an alchemist/ninja since a rogue would be under the level of optimization of the rest of the characters at the table. However, I've also never played a character using sneak attacks with ranged. Any suggestions for doing so? I saw sniper goggles and I think I remember reading about blunt arrows somewhere that can do nonlethal... maybe? I was thinking trying to build sap master into a ranged build for some ludicrous nonlethal damage between sap adept and snipers goggles.

Some info:
-Level 12, any race, class, feats, spells, from core, APG, UC, UM, ARG. Any gear from those sources or UE is probably good, but might need DM approval.
-20 point buy
-100,000 gold to spend.

Thanks!

Hey all. Other than some odd dirty trick builds (maneuver master, orc dirty fighter) I've never really messed around with combat maneuvers. Is there a guide to different strategies with them? I have a fairly good handle on the system, but the number of feats related to maneuvers and different things at this point is huge and I don't have time to sit down with it for a couple of days at this point.

I'm thinking about trying to build a character who can bull rush/ overrun and was wondering if there are effective ways to actually deal damage with that. I assume monk or barbarian would be the best ways to go, but I haven't actually found a lot of support. Thanks for any help!

Hey all, I've been asked to put together a character that specializes in throwing shuriken. I understand PF pretty well and I've checked out the guides for rogue and ninja, but shuriken just seem to be really sucky. They have such tiny range that they're essentially melee, and if you want to throw a whole lot of them you'll be taking a lot of penalties.

Some Specifics: 20 point buy, any races available, but core/common prefered. Core/APG/ARG/Magic&Combat are the available bookes so pretty open.

I was thinking something like halfling ninja (for the bonus to stealth, saves, +dex/cha, and the size bonus to hit).

Abilities(pre racial) 12, 16, 12, 10, 11, 14.

Halfling Ninja 10
Ninja Tricks: Vanish, Flurry of Stars, Weapon Training (WF shuriken), Shadow Clone, Vanishing Blade

Feats: Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, ???, ???

The biggest issue seems to be that I have no real sources of damage! Sneak attack of 5d6 is nice, but that's only an average of 17.5 damage and I have virtually no other ways to add damage (I must be missing something). Also with (+7 BAB, + 6 dex, +2 magic +1 WF, -2 RS, -2 FoS= +12/+12/+12/+12/+7) my to hit seems absurdly low for a 10th level character.

Does this concept really suck, or am I missing something? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

I'm a little rusty on spells to change size in pathfinder and was wondering if there were any spells or class options besides Beast shape 3 or Giant size 2 to get up to huge size. Thanks for the help!

Hey all, I've been playing pathfinder for a while now and I was just wondering: are there any nice effective ways to turn into a giant bear and rip face? I know druids can do it, but some of the best characters both myself and some friends played (both most effective and most hilarious) were ones that turned into bears, either via bear warrior or other shenanigens.

I get that a lot of classes have access to the beast shape spells, but those seem to be the only way possible to transform anymore. Have I missed something? Also, is it still possible to turn into an animal and then benefit from the affects of animal growth? I get that the bonuses from beast shape are size bonuses, but since animal growth it a transmutation effect instead of a polymorph, it would seem like it still stacks.

So... After reading the fourth or 5th iteration of the beast morph/vivisectionist silliness and hearing people talk about dex based damage, I thought of a build that maxes dex based damage with guns.

So, without further ado, gunslinging Shiva. Gnome gunslinger 5/ synthesist summoner 5. Really all you need is small quadruped form, and a whole bunch of extra arms. At summoner 5 you have eight evo points, so buy three pairs of arms, pounce, and reach for your bite (wait for it). Now you can wield 5 pistols with a free hand for reloading, and you can charge up to ten feet away from enemies, and broadside them with a volley of shots. Still working on crunching the numbers, but pounce means that you should be able to target touch AC all the time.

The big downsides I see with this build, are 1. Anything that has reach can AoO you a lot when you shoot it, 2. That's a lot of chances for exploding guns. 3. Seriously sucky will save (+2 base at level ten), however stacking wisdom and Synthesist bonus will start to help.

Feats necessary: -deadly aim, point blank, rapid reload, QuickDraw, iron will, precise shot
BAB is +9 at 10th level, eidolon form should have a dex of 22 with a belt, and a pouncing full attack you would have (+12/12/12/12/12/7)x2 for (1d6+12) plus your bite attack.. That attack string is unbuffed with +1 double barrel pistols, by the way.

This build only gets better as the levels move on, with the ability to afford reliable firearms, adding more arms, and getting better casting.

Thoughts?

Hey all. I've been kicking around some ideas for characters that sacrifice to hit for defense (fighting defensively, etc) and that got me wondering if you could do that and still maintain a high enough attack to hit most enemies.

This of course, got me thinking, I've played around with a lot of characters in PF, but I've never really tried to optimize attack bonus all the way. What builds have you seen that have the highest accuracy possible? I'll get the ball rolling with a ranged build and melter build I've been trying. 20 point buy, any Paizo source.

For the archer, a Human guide ranger seemed the best place to start. 19 starting dex, bumped to 28 with level + items, +4 bow, weapon focus, point blank shot, 15 BAB, and +8 from hunter's focus. That gives +38 to hit.

For a melee build I'll go fighter(weapon master 3)/barbarian 12 to make things fairly simple. Start with 19 strength, up to 28 with level/belt. Mighty rage adds six for 34. +4 weapon, weapon focus, 15 BAB, and weapon training with gloves for +3. Sum total is +35 to hit.

So, +38 for range, and +35 for melee. How much higher can this be boosted to?

Hey all, I've seen tons of great archer builds on the boards. However I had something a little different in mind. Taking advantage of the snap shot fear chain, and the barbarian's ability to get extra attacks of opportunity(come and get me, improved dex) could feasibly build an archer that wades around in melee taking tons of AoOs? Maybe add in crane style for defense, or panther to get extra attacks? It must be feasible, but I cant get it to gel. Most of the other archery builds get an extra damage bump and I don't know if this one would have enough feats/ bonuses to pull it off.

15th level, 20 point buy, any paizo stuff available. Thanks for any help!

So with the talk about monks, fighters, and maneuvers lately I went back, did a little searching, and am looking to make the ultimate debuff/disabling build based off of dirty trick and possibly trip (grapple is it's own thing and there are plenty of builds for it)

I was tempted to go straight lore warden, given their untyped CMB bonus, Cad archetype looked Ike a trap, but maneuver master seems really good as well. I'm looking to stack as many dirty tricks on as many different enemies as I can, with the highest bonus. Any build suggestions? Human, 20 point buy, preferably online by level 8-10(up to 20). I was thinking maybe lore warden 3/ maneuver master, with some sort of dueling enchanted weapon(field guide dueling) to give a bigger bonus, or something.

Thanks for the help!

So my buddy is playing in a new game and gets into a disagreement with the DM after the session. This DM swears that fighters suck in pathfinder and that rogues and monks are way better at dealing damage. Fast forward to the end of the discussion, the DM throws down a challenge.

Level 20 Fighter in a 1 on 1 fight versus a monk or a rogue. 20 point buy, Core book only....

And no magic items. (The DM claimed "they would all come out in the wash") Under those conditions, who do you think is better?

Hey all, a buddy of mine has been designing a pathfinder scenario that's basically a gauntlet with Divinity on the line. A few things.

-Level 13 character from any paizo pathfinder source.
-25 point buy
-Standard wealth (140k)

Two big catches here. Only one party member can claim the reward, so if we do make it through it'll be a fight to the death with the other PCs. Secondly, its going to be trap heavy. He's apparently been constructing traps using the core rules and mentioned that he had a particularly nasty CR 13 trap with a DC 30 save or die. This makes me think that saves will really need to be boosted.

I was originally thinking a straight Barbarian with UMD for healing... but I don't know if that would be defensive enough, even with rage powers to boost AC/saves. My second thought was a synthesist, but I've never built one and I don't think they do that great with saves(do they?).

Any and all suggestions welcome. Thanks!

Hey all, I searched through all the threads and checked the FAQ, but I couldn't find this issue addressed. I'm looking at starting playing PFS in a few weeks and was wanting to play a human barbarian (I love PF barbarians!).

I looked at the alternate favored class bonuses and noticed that there was one for boosting the bonus from trap sense. I was wondering if that would apply to the ability that replaces trap sense for Savage barbarians? It would make sense to me if it did, since it replaces trap sense, but I haven't seen any rules anywhere either way. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Hey all, I searched through all the threads and checked the pdf, but I couldn't find this issue addressed. I'm looking at starting playing PFS in a few weeks and was wanting to play a human barbarian (I love PF barbarians!).

I looked at the alternate favored class bonuses and noticed that there was one for boosting the bonus from trap sense. I was wondering if that would apply to the ability that replaces trap sense for Savage barbarians? It would make sense to me if it did, since it replaces trap sense, but I haven't seen any rules anywhere either way and I didn't want to try and make something that wasn't PFS legal.

So... one of my buddies is running a level 20 one shot pathfinder game next week. He and I like to create fun and powerful builds and I playfully claimed to be able to one round any monster he could pull out. After betting on it, he informed me that he was going to have us fighting a "corrupted" solar. I go no biggie, then sat down to read it's stat block.

Shit.

I can put together some seriously effective characters... but I have no idea how to 1 round this thing. It's AC is 44, and with DR 15 and SR 34, both casting and large numbers of attacks are way less effective. Does anyone have a solution for this? He's not allowing any 3.5 stuff, just to nip that in the bud. I really don't want to lose 5 bucks, but this challenge might be more than I can chew. Any suggestions? Party will probably only be 3 characters. No idea what anyone else is bringing. One salvation, the leadership feat is allowed.

Hey all, my friend and I have been kicking around stuff to do with intensify spell, and other than the typical fireball application, I'm not really seeing much great use out of it. What are some effective ways you've used it, or personal favorite spells to combine with it?

Hey guys, I've got a friend who was messing around and came up with the idea of a fighter with TWF who uses a greatsword and improved unarmed attacks (with boots). I really didn't like this idea, since it seemed to be a combination of TWF and THF, but I'm away from my books and can't exactly explain why it doesn't work.

To my understanding, using an unarmed strike with improved unarmed attack is viable for TWF (for non monks, not interested in monks)... so is this legal?

Hey guys, found out from my DM that he's cooked a special boss fight up for us next session. Something about a Giant, with 3.5 templates and other stuff added to it. He's been looking to challenge us, and we just hit level 7. I've got a halfling summoner with a biped familiar (monkey fluff-wise) that I had been previously using as a skill monkey (ba dumpsh) who also flew around and clawed creatures. He's got weapon focus claws, and is in need of leveling up several levels.

Suggestions for optimal damage eidolon given that info? Thanks!

Hey guys, my group has just started RRR. We've had our inaugural year and a few extra months, and gotten our capital city up and running decently (we built at Oleg's).

We're currently sitting at 47/24/24 econ/stab/loy respectively. We control 11 squares, have consumption licked with farms, and have a treasury of 33 BP. My question is this, we're looking to build at the Stag lord's fort, to develop a city that's heavily fortified, while still focusing on economic expansion.

All we have currently is a Castle, a house, and an alchemists shop (for the magic item). We're selling a moderate & minor every turn to supplement income, so we usually have around 15 BP a turn to play with for buildings.

What would you suggest for a build order given those starts? I don't have access to the book, so I can't review anything, and I would like to have an idea before next game.

Thanks!