Tonlim's page

With animal soul, you can get your hands on those broken 'animal only' buffs. Animal growth for +8 strength and larger size, or atavism for +4 to EVERYTHING (which can mean a +2 boost to spell DCs, all saves, hp, AC, etc.) and more natural armor. Both are great choices.

Animal Soul got one of the more baffling errata entries actually, essentially being replaced with an entirely different feat.

Animal Soul

Wild Rager barbarian for being an active threat to its own team.

Keeping skill unlocks just for rogues, will get people playing rogues again, otherwise it will just be a dip class at best and never be able to stand on its own two feet.

While I agree with the overall sentiment, skill unlocks wouldn't even be on my top five reasons to play an unchained rogue, which is a shame because I got really interested based on the blog post.

Personally I'd either roll with Mark's suggestion of all free from level 1 and +5 at level 5, or use another suggestion I've seen tossed around; letting the rogue apply 1.5 times his skill ranks at level 5, 2 times his skill ranks at level 10, and so on.

While balancing classes with exceedingly powerful spells like the wizard/sorcerer one is hard from a logistics perspective, there's also adherence to "sacred cows". Anything which would reasonably bring the druid's class features in line with other classes' power balance would attract a lot more vitriol from a greater proportion of the community than the already commonly banned summoner, since the changes would impact a greater number of groups negatively (at least from the druid player's perspective). Sad, but true.

Humans are just proportionally more innately averse to losses than we're appreciative of gains (not saying that's the case here, I don't even have the book yet and I'm not *that* into power level discussions, just in general).

Wow. Seems like I may just have a new favorite fighter archetype!

Well, Brawler's Cunning + Artful Dodger seems like a nice option to get a few early abilities I guess, i.e. the ones requiring 13 dex? Or maybe a strength-based swashbuckler 1/paladin X or the like to take dexterity feats based off of your charisma?

Anyhow. The fact that you can be a cleric of a god without adhering to every piece of their dogma, or even their alignment, can make for some of the most interesting religious characters. I believe that there's even a heathen (LN) cleric of Zon-Kuthon in Shattered Star that believes that Zon-Kuthon's commandments are a result of his condition rather than his desires, and who further postulates that the reason he was corrupted was so that Shelyn wouldn't be in his place, thus making ZK a god of martyrdom, at least in this worshipper eyes.

One of my favorite villains which I've used in my game was a zealous, NE bugbear inquisitor absolutely obsessed with Pharasma, and one of my favorite PCs was a CN inquisitor of Rovagug. This latter character believed that destruction in Rovagug's name actually soothed the Rough Beast with the knowledge that destruction was still perpetrated despite his absence, while simultaneously allowing this worshipper the right to choose the targets of his destruction, preferably the "insane heathens" who actually attempts to free the destroyer from his imprisonment.

Though pricy, a dagger of doubling seems like a good investment. Works well with the river rat trait and Pharasma's deific obedience.

I think one of my next characters will be a sylph far strike monk with the racial feat which grants flight (based on her monk-enhanced land speed!), a dagger of doubling and the Unfolding Wind style chain from Inner Sea Combat (great for a thrower, though feat intensive!).

I'm not sure picking up ITWF or GTWF will allow you to add extra attacks with flurry.

• A brawler can use the feats granted by brawler's flurry to qualify for other feats, but can only use those other feats when using brawler's flurry (as that's the only time she actually meets those prerequisites).

From the thread I linked to above (the brawler playtest thread's first post). Seems pretty clear to me.

While I agree that the Rondelero Duelist is great for something like this I'd be hesitant to multiclass for five levels since it sets back your swashbuckler progression by quite a lot and it's a hefty investment that doesn't really pay off until the early mid-levels.

Precise Strike (Ex): At 3rd level, while she has at least 1 panache point, a swashbuckler gains the ability to strike precisely with a light or one-handed piercing melee weapon (though not natural weapon attacks), adding her swashbuckler level to the damage dealt. To use this deed, a swashbuckler cannot attack with a weapon in her other hand or use a shield other than a buckler. She can even use this ability with thrown light or one-handed piercing melee weapons, so long as the target is within 30 feet of her. Any creature that is immune to sneak attacks is immune to the additional damage granted by precise strike, and any item or ability that protects a creature from critical hits also protects a creature from the additional damage of a precise strike. This additional damage is precision damage, and isn't multiplied on a critical hit. As a swift action, a swashbuckler can spend 1 panache point to double her precise strike's damage bonus on the next attack. This benefit must be used before the end of her turn, or it is lost. This deed's cost cannot be reduced by any ability or effect that reduces the amount of panache points a deed costs (such as the Signature Deed feat).

Brawler's Flurry (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a brawler can make a brawler's flurry as a full-attack action. When doing so, a brawler has the Two-Weapon Fighting feat when attacking with any combination of unarmed strikes, weapons from the close fighter weapon group, or weapons with the "monk" special feature. She does not need to use two different weapons to use this ability. A brawler applies her full Strength modifier to her damage rolls for all attacks made with brawler's flurry, whether the attacks are made with an off-hand weapon or a weapon wielded in both hands. A brawler can substitute disarm, sunder, and trip combat maneuvers for unarmed attacks as part of brawler's flurry. A brawler with natural weapons can't use such weapons as part of brawler's flurry, nor can she make natural weapon attacks in addition to her brawler's flurry attacks. At 8th level, the brawler gains use of the Improved Two-Weapon Fighting feat when using brawler's flurry. At 15th level, she gains use of the Greater Two-Weapon Fighting feat when using brawler's flurry.

So.

A first level human swashbuckler picks weapon focus (nine-ring broadsword) and slashing grace for her first level feats, gets to at least 3rd level swashbuckler and 2nd level brawler. Am I correct in assuming that she can now use brawler's flurry to essentially two-weapon fight with her nine-ring broadsword (a one-handed, martial, and slashing monk weapon) and still benefit from precise strike? If so, how viable would you say that this character would be?

According to This post by Jason Bulmahn you can use the feats granted by Brawler's Flurry (i.e. Two-Weapon Fighting for this build) to qualify for other feats (but only for use with brawler's flurry). So eventually nabbing improved and greater two-weapon fighting doesn't seem like a tall order for a dex-based swashbuckler with slashing grace.

The character would still suffer from quite some mechanical drawbacks (full-attack reliance, poor saves, reliance on a rarely found exotic weapon etc.) but given the right circumstances the payoff in terms of damage output seems like it could be rather significant.

Thoughts?

So, I haven't actually made a medium yet (been playtesting as a kineticist) as I'm somewhat turned off by not having the full list of spirits to draw upon in deciding my theme, but I am really pumped for the finished product. Just thought I'd share a couple of the medium concepts that are on my 'must play or run' list as of right now.

1) Sir Savel of the Sacrosanct Order of the Six Saints
Medium with a dash of paladin dip. Exclusively channeling the six lawful good spirits, which his order believes to be the six eponymous saints of the order. I have not yet decided if I want the order to be a splinter of Iomedae's paladinhood or if I want the Paladin status itself tied to the spirits, but I can see the flavor merit in either choice!

2) Lady Illeria, vessel of Norgorber
Cultist obsessed with mastering the four aspects of Norgorber and being an incarnation of the dark god's will on Golarion. A brief glance across the meaning of the harrow cards seems to indicate that the most thematic spirits might be the Crows (NE dexterity) for murder, the Idiot (NE intelligence) for greed, the Mute Hag (NE wisdom) for secrets and the Snakebite (CE wisdom) for poison. Bonus point for actually being able to bind all four once properly leveled. Here's hoping for a decent mechanical fit!

3) Eireen the Empty
Her father was a medium careful not to allow himself to get possessed, but one who was nevertheless obsessed by the spirits influence, and so he altered his daughter by means of magic from birth to be little but a body for spirits to possess. Eireen have virtually no personality of her own, but always acts as if her bound spirits had full influence over her (but under player control of course).

4) Zalika the Scion of Legends
Zalika's family have chronicled their history since the days of Old Man Jatembe, and their lore is rich with heroes and villains alike. Using the powers that is her birthright, she's able to call upon the esoteric skills of her ancestors to build a legend of her own.

A +2 CR creature is supposed to be roughly twice as powerful (or at least, worth twice as many points in encounter design and meant to threaten PCs two levels higher) as the original. A +3 CR creature close to 250% of their original power. Do you really think a creature that gains Uncanny Dodge, DR 1/-, +4 Str, and Rage qualifies, beyond attaching it to the lowest CR creatures?

Is a Marilith with this template the same threat level as a Pit Fiend?

Neither is a Marilith with the half-celestial template or one with six levels of aristocrat, but they'd still have the same CR. Proper judgment is necessary to really gauge when the CR guidelines apply.

I want to love everything about her.

But I just can't. Rynjin pretty much nails it.

Rynjin wrote:

Yes, she's embroiled in a web of deception

Is there a reason why the Halfling Iconics 'have' to be sneaky/duplicitous?

Lem is an escaped slave from Cheliax, fine. Exactly why, if she doesn't really intend to return to Rahadoum, couldn't Enora make a clean break, tell her superior that she would not be returning for ethical reasons, and then go on her way?
Otherwise, I love everything about her, but it's the proverbial...
Well, I can't think of an appropriate proverb & what I can think of is scatological, so I won't use it, but it's really jarring & it largely ruins it for me.

Presumably because she still have her parents in Rahadoum (with actual positions of authority) and might want to remain on good terms with them and/or not get them in trouble with the government and its agents? Seems reasonable to me at least.