undead master's extra animate-only CL/HD is helpful for template-ing your undead more flexibly in a single cast, which is helpful-but-not-required. it does let you animate and control more basic minions beyond your control limit if you're 'overcharging' your animate dead (provided you dont have or dont mind losing control of undead from previous castings)
CL math, some items, example minions/army, and side notes:
items include:
-orange prism ioun stone
-circlet of the moon
-string of prayer breads (standard), for bead of karma
-salt (reagent)
-lesser metamagic rod (threnodic spell) - unrelated to CL boosting, but helpful for buffing undead minions
[UNDEAD BUCKETS] (casting at night, during full moon, with death knell and desecrate spells active)
animate dead - CL 42 (20 level, ([+2 focus/gtr, +1 tattoo, +2 spec, +1 tenebrous]*2) +12 feat, +1 trait, +1 reagent, +1 death knell, +1 ioun, +4 bead, +2 circlet)
HD: ANIMATE 200 (([42 CL, +8 feat]*2 HD)*2 desecrate) | CONTROL 168 (42 CL *4)
filler undead can include things like:
-bloody skeleton ogre (4HD): bargain bin beater. proficient in greatclubs, javelins, and medium armor, so with a bit of gear investment they can last you long into your career.
-bloody skeleton troll (6HD): a tanky alternative beater, trolls have regeneration (which is a part of their HP, *not* a defensive ability), which pairs well with bloody skeleton's fast healing ability. no weapon/armor proficiencies tho.
-bloody skeleton hill giant (10HD): the gold standard. a solid beater monster that bumps right up against the HD limit. proficient in greatclubs and medium armor so they can take whatever equipment your ogres used.
-bloody skeleton [BIG CAT] (3-6HD): tigers, leopards, lions, and so on. lots of natural attacks and grab. grappled is a pretty good debuff, especially for free.
-bloody skeleton or relentless zombie dragon (usually juvenile): very rare but has all the benefits of the hill giant and the big cat combined. juvenile black dragon is perfect HD for the bloody skeleton limit. bloody skeleton is less likely to be destroyed, but relentless zombie keeps it's fly speed/gets and extra full-attack/climb speed of 35ft/+2 bonus HD.
-fast zombie [mount] (HD varies): increased land speed, additional attack on a full-attack, and never tires! what's not to love.
though if there's money to spare you can deck out your undead with armor/barding and any weapons they had proficiency with (anything listed in their bestiary entry/statblock). even unenchanted gear can give some serious bulk to your forces. though if you can get an armor/barding down to 0 armor check penalty (such as a mwk studded leather set, or mithral etc) you can have them equip it at no penalty even if not proficient.
gets undeath wordspell at 5th to start the army properly, animate dead at 7th, and snowballs from there to a solid ~300HD of undead at level 20. could potentially get experimental caster at 4th at the earliest, but unsure how to do so short of retraining a CL-boosting feat. also has some gnarly necromancy spell DCs as a byproduct (ghoul touch, bestow curse, etc etc).
sadly i don't know how to get command undead spell over to the cleric list to snag that extra pool of undead.
unsure on what weapon would give the most bang for my buck (scythe is thematic and scary on crits, but it doesn't gotta be your deity's weapon).
for alternative classes i'd considered antipaladin, but it gets animate dead too slowly (10th level).
cleric doesn't really get enough feats to cover both sides, even if it does get higher-end spellcasting.
i've heard about occultist (vanilla or necro-) and spiritualist (phantom blade?), but i'm an oldie who hasn't taken much time to even look at the occult stuff to judge properly.
considering arsenal chaplain archetype for the weapon training+dueling gloves bonuses for more melee stonks, but that would remove any blessing versatility (war only) and channel energy stuff (command undead feat is pretty bad but still an option for max army size i suppose)
not sure if i'm forgetting anything super important for the melee or necromancer sides off the top of my head (some domains have helpful powers but unsure on how to tack those on).
any suggestions to squeeze a bit more out of this--or corrections if i got my CL math wrong?
I've been invited to an irl game for rise of the runelords, starting at level 3.
...with level 1 starter wealth, citing fears that players would break the game with "too much" money (see: the average expected assets to have your gear/etc up to par for threats of that level).
...similarly, we are also barred from any item creation feats or traits that circumvent the issue of lack of funds (such as signature moves, heirloom weapon, etc).
...and multiclassing is being houseruled as a "dead" level before coming online--so a fighter changing class to ranger would have to act like a ranger for an entire level with no benefits (including base statistics, effectively a level lower for that duration) before being allowed to benefit from their change of vocation. variant multiclassing is also disallowed.
Since every other player I've spoken to or spitballed character ideas on is some manner of melee-oriented character (and a necro wizard), which tend to require gear bonuses to continue hitting and surviving hits and effects, I'm thinking of something along the lines of a bard or paladin--basically just providing as many party buffs in as many fields as possible at once, to try and cover for the defecits.
I'm wondering if there's some sort of bard-ish paladin or paladin-ish bard or other similar setup (evangelist cleric?) available to pick up and just slap as many group buffs as possible at once for the group. I want to make the entire party into supersaiyans, whether they or the GM want them to or not.
I'm asking mostly out of idle curiosity, as someone reminded me that quivering palm now has a verbal component for fist of the north star meme goodness, but it requiring an enemy to critically fail on a fortitude save (see: basically never, between jacked up saves and crit fail conditions) completely ruined it's effect text, making it functionally just a stunning fist that actually stuns at an extremely late level (since base stunning fist only flatfoots/stupefy's people now).
I cannot download the various playtest update pdfs and whatnot at present, so i'm having to work entirely from web-based info sources (such as pf2playtest.opengamingnetwork and similar) which may be out of date, so please correct me if i'm way behind here!
Now that the forums aren't on fire anymore (for however long that may be), I thought i'd drop the results of my groups run of Doomsday Dawn Ch1: The Lost Star.
Before we begin here's a previous summary of my own likes/dislikes/etc for the system:
Spoiler:
what I like:
1. action economy: while some reactions shouldn't be reactions and some things have become super clunky in the transition (which i hope get ironed out over the course of this playtest), by and large it's FAR simpler to introduce players to, and makes combat scoot along much faster than previous.
2. more granular pass/fail states: while the number squish/DC balancing (see dislikes) makes actually getting the +10 for a critical success intensely difficult for players, it allows for FAR more space when designing and balancing effects like spells or powers.
3. spellcasting (for the wizard at least): auto-heightened spells and cantrips are a solid idea, and the ability to invest more or less actions into casting to greater/lesser effect makes spellcasting an interesting tactical choice every turn.
4. ancestries (and half-ancestry opportunity): while races need to be polished up (and could stand to be a great deal more frontloaded on the heritage side, as currently they're just near-identical grey blobs for half their career), but what actually excites me are the half-ancestries and the potential for more exotic and more general-access/non-human ones that it opens the door for (i believe mark seifter made a comment to that effect in the ancestry article). the sheer number of interesting character ideas that allows for (aasimar-elves, oread-dwarves, half-elf-orcs, and on and on) is mindboggling! though this would need to move to the "want to like/needs improving" section if that potential was wasted.
what I really want to like but need major improving:
1. class feats: i like that every class (in theory) now has a unique "thing" for their class like the rage powers, rogue talents, arcanist exploits, etc of PF1e. and the intent seems tob e to "build your own class". However, as they are, class feats are uninspired and come at direct cost to the other classes--with many class feats being 1e general feats that have been segregated (and reprinted with a different name when more than one class gets it) for no apparent reason, rather than keeping those general feats as just that, and giving the class a mechanically solid and flavorful ability instead (like the rage powers of 1e)--something that makes that class able to do something unique with their options or to expand those options further, rather than simply making them more competent at a single chosen approach.
that many classes are outright lacking facets of their iconic design (smite evil for paladins, wildshape on druids, etc) and have to purchase those later to even try to play that type of character is just sad to see, especially with how late archetypes and multiclassing is allowed (minimum 4th level before you're able to play even the most basic version of the character you sat down to create)
one should be excited to choose the fighter class because they're especially good with, or can do something wholly unique with two-weapon fighting (or whatever other combat style you may want), not because they're the only one allowed to be competent at it in the first place.
2. skill feats: as with class feats, they lack interesting options, and are largely comprised of actions that one could previously do at anytime in 1e, just gated off behind a feat now. skill feats should allow one to go above and beyond a skill's usual limitations (and become more interesting the greater the proficiency), not simply allowing older uses of the skill. where's the master/legendary stealth feats to be treated as under the effects of 'blur' or even 'invisibility' (on a certain DC success, with modifiers for light level or cover) or somesuch? or the ability to hide in plain sight at all (as that appears to be completely gone from the system, despite being in plain sight being an auto-fail condition)?
one should be excited to choose a skill feat because it's a cool action beyond the normal skill's scope or suits their character idea very well, not because it allows them to actually use the skill as intended.
3. proficiency: i think many of the bonuses for gear level--conveniently on the same track!--should be made part of the character's proficiency level instead (such as a weapon's scaling dice and armor's reduction of ACP and speed penalties), the idea of proficiency levels is an interesting one. however i feel that improving one's proficiency has very little payoff currently: you're simply +1 'better' than the rank previous and gain access to fairly uninteresting proficiency-locked feat choices that you have precious few opportunities to try out.
4. signature skills: the idea that having a set of skills that your character is particularly, well, skilled at is a good one, but as it stands this is far too limiting in most cases, and you get very little for doing so (see "number squish" in dislikes). a free-floating extra signature skill or two would certainly go a long way towards more diverse characters.
things i don't like (and why!):
1. resonance: needlessly limiting across the entire system (especially for the poor alchemist), despite appearing to be made to remedy a small PFS problem (abusing cheap healing items). The single-use consumables costing points is particularly harmful. I see no reason why this should be in the system at all.
2. unclear class direction/direction is unsupported by rules: things like the paladin being incentivized to allow his allies to be hit (otherwise they cannot use a core pillar of the class). the sorcerer (the "flexible" arcane caster) having the least flexible spells, being forced to learn the same spells repeatedly to keep them up-to-date and being forced to wait for ingame downtime to retrain their now-obsolete previous version to something else. the rogue being unable to sneak attack an enemy when sneaking and attacking (unless they're a goblin, of all things!). the ranger gaining the ability to make traps and snares for free (at a penalty) at the same level that spellcasters gain 9th-level spells.
3. number squish: with proficiencies being such a high initial jump but slow curve afterwards, and feats and items having so little impact, it feels like we're left with a system where it's tough to fail (yay!) but hard to excel, which harms a great many character designs and ideas.
4. DC rebalance: with many DCs appear to be set to be a challenge as you level, most checks and saves end up being a 40-50% chance to succeed on average, or ~65% to succeed if you're completely specialized in it. this makes actually getting to that +10 above DC threshold for a critical exceedingly rare even for the most specialized of characters, and leads to even what characters dedicate time and resources toward being good at still being wildly unreliable--even before other rules limitations that come into effect, such as with stealth's many chances to fail (each monster gets their own roll) and direct auto-fail situations (you instantly fail if you dont have cover at any point). this leads one to wonder, why try to be good at anything, if it only comes down to a slightly better coinflip in the end?
5. the caster/martial disparity: yes, i said the magic words! i'm sure some will completely disregard my post for bringing this up, but it needs addressing: every single class gets roughly the same amount of class features, class feats, skill feats, and general feats to help build their character in the direction they like, and then casters get spellcasting (multiple powerful, thought-provoking options) on top of that. non-caster classes should get something that doesn't cost feats or proficiencies of around equivalent value, be it stronger class features on average, or more interesting and flexible class feat selections, or some equivalent set of actions that they can do instead (DreamScarredPress's martial stances and maneuvers from "Path of War" was one solution: allowing martials abilities to target various saves, inflict different status effects normally impossible, smooth out the clunkier actual maneuvers like disarm or feint, and more. Though I don't think it is the only way to solve the problem, it was a solid attempt). I repeat, whatever the solution may be, it cannot, must not require a tax, because the entire point is to give them something "on top" to even things out in comparison (and martials don't have a feat advantage with which to pay those taxes anymore).
the point to this statement isn't that we should hammer down casters, it's to elevate non-casters to a rough ballpark of similar flexibility and narrative impact.
- - - - - - - - - -
things that came up during from my group's "session zero" and subsequent playtest session on the 25th (in no particular order):
-races were met with complaints all around, generally along the lines of "why am i not a level 1 elf (in PF1) until level 10+ (in PF2)?".
-the lack of a general feat at 1st level makes trying to branch out a character's design, even something as minor as using a unique weapon, VERY difficult (the alchemist had to change her entire race and backstory to actually use the weapon she wanted, since it required human to get the feat to wield it). consider granting a general feat at level 1 for more unique character options at start.
-backgrounds like nomad grant the assurance feat for survival, but do not grant training in survival (which means you dont meet the prerequisites for the feat).
the flipside of this is that if these also grant the skill training for the feat, then these backgrounds are generally flat better than others, as they grant a feat and two skill trainings (the relevant feat skill and their specific lore)
-there doesn't appear to be much of a difference between Agile and Backswing weapons (one lowers multi attack penalty, the other lowers multi attack penalty only when you miss, which is plain inferior).
-notable lack of beginner kits for items (dramatically slows character creation)
-alchemist lacks poison use, making much of their craftable list entirely useless to them.
-resonance on consumables elicited several remarks as to how dumb it was to get to drink 1 healing potion a day (especially in parties without a dedicated healer cleric).
-bags, sacks, and satchels' weights in bulk should be labeled more specifically (that they are negligible rather than weightless, and upgrade to light bulk when in stacks of 5+ or when stowed, etc), and more readily explain what exactly Stowed means.
-giant totem gives increased size for weapons, doesn't immediately point to what this actually MEANS (most people expect using a weapon twice the size to have quite the effect), and aside from weigh more in bulk and inflicting the sluggish 1 debuff on the wielder, there is pitifully little effect. after having found the sized weapon text (that is mentioned once as a throwaway line in the barbarian text and then nowhere else in the book), both i and my players were thoroughly disappointed that wielding a ~14-foot long greatsword amounted to +2 damage, only while raging, and with several other penalties to deal with as well.
-many actions shouldn't be actions: that it's separate actions to change hands, grab an item, and use an item is rough for a two-handed wielder, or an alchemist having to grab an item, throw an item, grab an item with their incredibly poor list of consumable options (which dont scale well--if at all) makes them feel especially underwhelming.
-resting with a constitution modifier of 0 or less currently means you either recover no hp during downtime, or are actively dying during downtime. consider adding 1 hit point minimum recovered to that formula.
-on character creation: stats feel very homogenous. every barbarian's stats will be identical, all alchemists will be identical, and so on. while it allows for a sort of "effectiveness floor", it feels incredibly bland for the players.
-(from the alchemist and barbarian players) skills feel almost too "rolled together"--perception seems to be almost half of the things you roll for (like appraising an item's value, sense motive, etc. all appear to be part of it, or the most appropriate for it, despite it no longer being a skill).
-many skills feel very inflexible, especially with the smaller list, making doing things not specifically listed rather hard to do or hard to identify HOW to do (such as using mercantile lore or diplomacy to attempt to haggle or gauge whether they're being ripped off).
-the dying rules were both confusing and came up often (with the druid hitting the floor twice and the alchemist hitting the floor once), with how overtuned the enemies are. however, this playtest occurred before the dying errata was released, so this one should be taken with a grain of salt.
-related to the above: monsters are FAR overtuned compared to the players. they easily hit 65+% of the time (far better odds than the players get, even optimized), and even their iteratives have a good chance to land. for reference, the boss is the one who took the alchemist out of the fight, doing so in ONE hit in the opening round (before sneak attack dice), due to how high his to-hit/effective crit chance was. this did not please the alchemist player, having to effectively sit out the climactic fight. it didn't make me feel to great either.
-our druid player simply was not allowed to play one of the core, most basic aspects of his class' identity: wild shape. you don't ACTUALLY get wild shape, the real one, until 4th level--far beyond the length of this adventure, and would take several months of later questing, as we all have lives and jobs and can only game once every weekend (though more often than not it ends up being bi-weekly). the lost star itself has very little opportunity to make use of the vermin form ability as well, leaving him as a simply worse melee combatant for the most part.
-related to points above: our alchemist player ended the adventure vowing never to play the class again, as many of her turns came down to a choice of damaging her allies to deal minor damage to an enemy, or not damage her allies and deal one (1) whole point of damage via splash. and she only gets to "attack" ten times a day if she spent 100% of her resources letting her do so (meaning, no healing potions, no utility items, nothing). paired with the nightmare of inconvenient action costs, the entire experience of playing the class was unpleasant from start to finish.
this is unacceptable.
-our monk and barbarian player had a decent time of it, being able to kill most minions in a single hit--provided they actually hit the enemy.
the monk had to pull medic duty for all three of the party knockouts, as he was the only one who had access to medicine (going out of his way to take it) and had the foresight to purchase a kit for it. the alchemist wanted to actually play her class, rather than being stuck as a healbot, and was largely unable to help on the healing front (or in any utility) due to the harsh RP limitations of the class.
-the party wizard (the final of our band) managed well, staying in the back and using all of one 1st-level spell the entire adventure. he felt that using the 1st-level spells on simple goblins was a waste, given how few he had to use in a day, and the boss only survived for two rounds between a shocking grasp, raging giant totem barbarian, and monk, so he didnt really get the opportunity to do anything all that impressive.
-as a rather humorous side note: this adventure was definitely not meant with evil atheists in mind (though there were only two evil-aligned members), as the party completely avoided the quasit fight, accidentally releasing them when they attempted to have the idol appraised for sale after the adventure concluded! plenty of laughs around the table when i explained what happened.
they also completed the adventure without interacting with pharasma subplot at all (as none of our party had chosen to spend their precious few skills on religion, and we lacked the apparently mandatory healbot cleric PF2's balance seems to expect), outside of finding the vision at the end rather curious.
-my personal takeaway after the adventure is that (aside from my comments at the beginning) there's far too long of a lag time to actually play the character you want--you're not "really" your race until level 8-12, and you're not "really" your class/multiclass/archetype until 4+. it makes the entire process of early levels and character creation feel boring, especially with your character at their very best being worse in almost every field compared to an average monster of their level.
which to me sounds like a decent starting point: consider condensing the earlier levels' features into the start and then working up from there.
-
all in all: the group as a whole were either unimpressed at best or actively made to dislike the system over the course of play at worst, and we fairly quickly reached a consensus once the adventure was done that until things were made more impressive (particularly for the poor alchemist) and overall jank was reduced, they're not really interested in continuing with the system, and i have no plans to subject them to it further.
we'll be moving back to 1st edition pathfinder in the meantime (using the revised action economy rules from unchained, as that system at least went over particularly well, and DSP's path of war content to help bring martials up to par), and i hope this system improves enough to be worth taking a second look at some point.
as it is, if we were to pick the system back up, it would be at a bare minimum of level 4, since that's when many classes appear to actually become the classes they're advertised as (druids can properly wildshape, alchemists can get int to splash and not harm their allies with their core ability, and now have a general feat for the apparently mandatory resonance general feat to function, and so on), multiclassing/archetypes are actually allowed to occur by then (for some modicum of unique character design), and classes appear to be largely cookie cutter copies of each other until then.
while my group's initial impressions of the PF2e system have been rather negative (too dense with keywords and cross-referencing, things not being listed properly in the index if at all, appendix entries not being particularly helpful, etc etc) they are down for playing the playtest adventure.
since they're coming into this with the attitude of "this isn't going to be a long adventure, let's play some weird stuff", one player requested to play as a centaur monk, which i'm fine allowing (there's been weirder at the table, frankly).
so i went through the ancestry entry and slapped a rough race together for it (largely using the dwarf as a baseline, and with some looking at horse's statblocks as an animal companion and as a creature), i'm wondering if i've forgotten anything or whether this is over- or under-tuned:
CENTUAR
hit points: d10
size: medium
speed: 30
ability boosts/flaw: +2 con, +2 wis, -2 cha
languages: common, centaur (bonus: dwarven, elven, giant, orcish)
traits: centaur, humanoid, animal
special abilities:
- darkvision
- Equine constitution - centaurs are treated as mounted for all feats and classes which require it, and cannot mount a creature of less than Huge size. for classes which gain a mount, you treat yourself as your mount. you do not gain any benefit from feats or abilities that modify the statistics of a mount (such as advancing the type of the mount from young to adult and other specializations).
ancestry feats (*=heritage):
- Nimble* (1) - (see elf)
- Centaur combat (1, str 16) - you can act as a mount for a creature of medium size or smaller (the mounted character only has 2 actions on a given round, as if they have already used the handle animal or command action). your carrying capacity increases by 5, and you are treated as Large when determining what bulk you treat as light or inconsequential.
- Steady footing* (1) - ignore 1 tile of rough terrain for each stride action and gain +2 circumstance bonus on reflex saves against trip actions and similar natural hazards (such as unstable footing).
- Advanced horsemanship (5) - you gain the Gallop (bestiary p.81) and Work Together (CRB p.283) actions as if you were a horse animal companion.
- Horse whisperer (5) - you can ask questions of, receive answers from, and use the diplomacy skill with horses, unicorns, nightmares, kelpies, and similar creatures. the GM determines which creatures count for this ability.
Does anyone have a link handy for the official clarification/explanation as to what you can and can't qualify for with it (such as a half-orc taking a human feat, racial favored class bonus, racial archetype, prestige class, etc)?
I know it's not just that you have a double weakness to the Bane enchant.
My search-fu is weak, and the only threads coming up are from in 2013 and have contradicting answers.
I'm having my character for an upcoming kingmaker game (a spear-wielding draconic bloodline bloodrager) hail from numeria, but I'm rather stumped on what sort of look to go for his equipment and such.
so, I'm looking for things like numerian military uniforms or other standard battle gear--though mostly barbarians, surely the technic league and the black sovereign must have a standing army? according to google images, there's a numerian captain NPC who seems fairly rough, but I'm wondering if "ragged black cloth with sharp bits here and there" is the norm or not.
I'm hosting a game later this week, and a player has expressed interest in having his familiar aid him with teamwork feats (namely coordinated maneuvers, since he's focusing on trip despite my warnings of its weakness later).
which raised the question to me: do familiars even GET feats as they advance?
the top of the familiars section says they keep all the basic feats from a normal animal of it's type (but it treated as a magical beast for things that affect type), but the advancement chart and 'familiar basics' section make no mention of gaining more feats as they advance, which makes me think they don't.
the player's logic is that because they advance in HD (and most creatures do gain feats when doing so) and there are feats that specifically call out familiars as a viable recipient. I noted that the 'familiar' addition may simply be an editting oversight, since every other companion listed has feats gained specifically listed in their advancement sections.
TL;DR: I need some 'achievements' of sorts to add enchantments to gear as my players go along.
Some context (feel free to skip):
Spoiler:
I'm running a home game set in a sort of nordic/gaelic mashup grimbright universe, and trying to put a bit more meaning into the player's gear than just another +X that will be sold or abandoned for better gear as soon as something better pops up.
To that end, I'm going with the Lord of the Rings-esque approach of giving equipment enchantments and increases as it accomplishes various Deeds and gains a reputation for itself through them. A sword that killed 100 orcs would likely gain the Bane [orc] enchantment, and might get things like rolls to intimidate orcs when it's drawn as it kills more. a shield that has withstood gouts of dragonfire might get the [element]-resistant enchant, and so on.
basically as the item's legend builds, it grows in power according to what it or it's wielder has accomplished.
I realize this sorta turns standard gear progression on it's head, So I'm planning to have the enhancement bonus naturally scale as they level, with auxiliary effects being added through the player's deeds.
a few enchantment pre-req ideas to get things started:
WEAPON
Spoiler:
Bane: slay 50-100 enemies of [subtype]
Keen: 5-10 confirmed natural-20 critical-hits
Heartseeker: delivered 5 coup de graces in combat
Furious: 200-300 rage rounds used while wielding the weapon
Phase-locking: Slay 3-5 opponents who had previously escaped combat against you with teleportation
Menacing: slay 100 opponents while flanking (halve this rate for characters with the 'sneak attack' class feature)
Spell Storing: receive 50 buff spells relevant to the weapon itself (abilities such as divine bond, judgment, the magus' arcane pool, and similar do not count towards this)
Distance: successfully land 50 attacks while suffering a ranged penalty of at least 2 range increments (each additional increment beyond this adds +1 towards the rate this is completed)
Ghost Touch: slay 50 incorporeal undead or similar targets
ARMOR/SHIELD
Spoiler:
Deathless: successfully save against 10 negative levels
Spell Storing: receive 50 buff spells relevant to the armor itself (see above)
Rallying: 25 allies succeed saves vs. fear due to your assistance (such as bardic performance, aura of courage, etc.)
Creeping and/or Shadow: successfully evade detection by enemies 10-20 times (more for greater variants of the enchants)
Fortification: Survive 25/50/100 critical hits and/or sneak attacks
Spell Resistance: successfully save against 200/300/500 harmful spell effects.
Impervious: 25-50 successful saves vs effects that would damage or destroy the equipment specifically (such as sunder combat maneuvers, rust monster's ability, and so on)
Ghost Touch: successfully avoid or save against 50 attacks from incorporeal undead or similar targets
.
Beyond plot achievements (for killing notable foes and the like) which i'll be controlling personally, suggestions for other enchantments tied to things like those listed above would be appreciated.
advice or comments on the ones listed here (like increasing or reducing the requirements) would also be very helpful.
So i saw that daring champ gets challenge (level to damage), and at level 4 gets the precise strike swashbuckler deed (also level to damage, that you can double by spending panache).
did the editors miss that or was it intended to run around dealing +40-60 damage before mods (like the +10 challenge damage dwarf FCB, or +6 from order of the cockatrice, or feats, or you know, stats) at the high end?
even being stuck with one-handed weapons that seems pretty a ridiculous.
the thought crossed my mind when i remembered just how much gold a player character goes through regularly--when a commoner gets a few copper pieces a day's hard work, an adventurer rolling in with several (hundred) thousand gold would be completely outlandish.
in a fantasy world i can see 'adventurer' existing as an occupation, since they're effectively glorified pest control (who deal with REALLY exotic pests).
adventurers in themselves are an interesting concept--from the outside they're obscenely wealthy homeless people who are equally likely to tip with bars of solid platinum as they are to burn your city to the ground. while most of their obscene wealth is poured into keeping up with the increasing power of the pests they deal with, over the course of their career more money passes through and adventurer's purse than most small kingdoms have in their entire treasury.
18th-level fighter mclargehuge buying that +5 dragonslaying falchion of awesometude is effectively injecting ~200,000 gold into a single city's economy, which would lead to complete chaos--or at the very least the 'magic mart' closing down entirely as the shopkeep goes into early retirement on his own ISLAND because of how staggering that amount of money is for a regular kingdom.
so how does fantasy world support itself (dont say magic dont say magic)?
I'm not sure where to place this. It seems like less of an upgrade and more of a utility side-grade for a caster, since you're effectively trading class-advancement increases like bloodline or arcane schools and a caster level for lots of little powers.
the grabbing other class' spells is really nifty looking though, and the dispel focus might be neat for arcanists as well i guess?
As a thought exercise/personal challenge I thought I'd throw together the vices' and virtues' personifications (in pathfinder), and am looking for comments, suggestions and speculation on which virtue/vice might be what class (or focus therein).
i'm trying to keep each one unique, but i'm having issues lining up some of them (particularly the virtues) without being rather sameface.
wrath - barbarian "ATOMIC RAGE"
gluttony - alchemist or monk (drunken master or hungry ghost)
envy - witch (grudges, curses, and whatnot) or an illusionist/transforming character of some kind
greed - wiz/clr/MT "all magic belongs to me" or (more simply) rogue/ninja (for obvious reasons)
lust - bard "i roll to seduce"
sloth - summoner "fluffy, take care of them, would you?"
pride - antipaladin or wizard
the main purpose is to have a thematic opposition on-tap for games like 'wrath of the righteous' and 'way of the wicked' if you wanted to add your own challenges for the party, or for home games of a similar bent.
once the classes are hammered out I can go about making proper builds for each of them; currently races, archetypes, etc. haven't really been considered so far, hence my request for suggestions.
I've made a few builds here and there of stat-centric builds, but what's the SAD-est you can think of?
A couple of ideas:
WIS BASED
inquisitor 2 / shaman (nature) 1 / monk zen archer (3+) or sensei (2+) / [whatever you want--i'd suggest zen archer, inquisitor, ranger]
WIS to: hit, init, will and reflex saves, AC (double dip), knowledge/intimidate/sense motive checks. you can add wis to another skill with the wisdom of the flesh trait. you can go for snake style with your great sense motive bonuses as well.
CHA BASED
oracle (lore) 1 / paladin 2 / [whatever you want--bard, sorcerer, bloodrager, and (anti)paladin are all solid choices]
with noble scion (scion of war) and osyluth's guile, you've got cha to init, AC (double-dip), saves (double dip on reflex), and smite bonuses (+cha to attack, DR bypass, bonus damage). you can swap lore for nature to change the reflex bonus to CMD bonus instead. as a byproduct you're also amazing with face skills as well.
CON BASED
urban barbarian 1 / scarred witch doctor X
grab raging vitality, pump your con with controlled rage and cast away.
- - - - - - - - - -
anyone else got any similar builds or ways to make these scarier?
Long story short I've decided to take the spell mastery feat with my high level wizard (divination specialist, illusion/enchantment prohibited).
his int mod is currently +10, so my question for you all is this:
What spells would you suggest my wizard take to prepare for the eventuality that someone will be stealing his spellbook?
criteria
-any spell up to 9th level is fair game
.
current (in progress) list and reasoning:
-time stop (gives time to assess the situation and get out)
-greater teleport (get out of dodge and into the safe house)
-emergency force sphere (quick and easy defense in an emergency)
-overland flight (good for travel)
-mind blank (good for traveling unnoticed)
-plane shift (in case of being stranded on another plane)
-protection from elements (in case of being stranded on another plane)
-contingency (contingency)
-
-
-
-
I was looking through some of the lesser-viewed books in my collection, and remembered ultimate magic's section on wordcasting. I got to thinking on interesting wordcasters, and threw together a wordcasting arcanist, thinking to combine the two's flexibility. gotta say i'm liking the results, but i'm unsure on the feat selection.
currently he's an ice blaster/necromancer (with none of the limitations on elemental blasting, since you can tack on other elements hilariously easy with wordcasting), have a look:
Spoiler:
arcanist wordcaster
human arcanist (wordcaster) 20
str 10, dex 20 (+5), con 20 (+5), int 34 (+12), wis 10, cha 24 (+7)
int/int/int/int/int (level), +6 dex/con/int/cha (belt/headband), +5 int, +6 cha (book/wish)
Effect Word Combinations
Word One Two Three
Level Effect Word Effect Words Effect Words
0 0 — —
1st 1 — —
2nd 2 0/0 —
3rd 3 1/1 or 2/0 0/0/0
4th 4 2/2 or 3/1 1/1/1 or 2/0/0
5th 5 3/3 or 4/2 2/2/2 or 3/1/1
6th 6 4/4 or 5/3 3/3/3 or 4/2/2
7th 7 5/5 or 6/4 4/4/4 or 5/3/3
8th 8 6/6 or 7/5 5/5/5 or 6/4/4
9th 9 7/7 or 8/5 6/6/6 or 7/5/5
words
0 - all 0-level effect/meta/target words
1 - alignment shield (alignment), burning flash (fire), dash (time), fade (concealing), fog bank (weather), force shield (armor), friendship (command), glide (flight), wrack (pain) | burst (target), line (target) | careful (meta), quiet (meta), simple (meta)
2 - accellerate (time), disappear (concealing), float (flight), frost fingers (ice), enhance form (body), energy resist (body), decelerate (time)
3 - undeath (death), servitor III (summoning), torture (pain), complex order (command), paralyze humanoid (binding), dimension hop (teleportation), lightning blast (electrcity), fire blast (fire), wind wall (wall), ice blast (ice), translate (language) | barrier (target)
4 - ice wall (ice), acid wave (acid), bestial form (change), servitor IV (summoning), ice blast (ice), unseen shell (concealing), sound blast (sonic), altered form (change), borrow future (time) | manifestation (meta), mind warp (meta)
5 - servitor V (summoning), stone wall (wall), crush will (command), dimensional jump (teleportation), far casting (language) | irresistable (meta), penetrating (meta)
6 - servitor VI (summoning), negation (dispelling), resist arcana (dispelling)
7 - servitor VII (summoning), dimensional shift (teleportation), caustic cloud (acid)
8 - servitor VIII (summoning), permanent paralysis (binding), thunder strike (electrcity), winter's wrath (cold)
9 - Servitor IX (summoning), control time (time), dimensional gate (teleportation)
the build assumes the arcanist will get the usual human FCB of "grab an extra spell" with the official release this year.
i took the undead master feat to get around the lack of desecrate interaction with the undeath word (it's not animate dead, and desecrate has no clause for it, so whatev)
I've got a group of friends that gets together weekly for gaming, and they've posed interest in playing PF on weeks when our normal 6-7 players can't make it (when it wouldn't be right to advance the story without half the party present), but don't want to go through the trouble of hunting through books and making characters and fretting over minutia.
I've volunteered, since I have ample spare time and a large collection of resources to look through.
Trying to cover enough bases that no matter who picks what they'll be able to do respectably well.
Currently i've got ten partly made so far--i'm trying to keep them relatively unique from each other, even if it isn't the best way to build them. I'm having the most issue picking weapons/styles for everyone without making them carbon-copies of each other.
here's what i've got so far (still being assembled, races were rolled randomly):
"all-rounder" elf fighter (dawnflower dervish) 3
"scary smiter" human paladin of iomedae (oath of vengeance/oath against fiends) 3
"unkillable" half-orc barbarian (invulnerable rager) 3
"welcome to mounted combat" halfling cavalier 3
- - - - -
"totally a rogue" elf bard (archaeologist) 3
"i'm kinda disappointed" human monk 3
"reach cleric" dwarf cleric of torag (good, protection) 3
- - - - -
"god-wizard-in-training" human wizard (+diviner, -evo/necro) 3
"who says blasters suck?" halfling sorcerer (tattooed sorcerer, draconic bloodline)3
"mini-mystic theurge" human witch 3
some comments:
-i'm missing basic gear and skills for all of them, i know. that's being worked on.
-i'm unsure if i should get into multiclassing, though it'd generally be 1-level dips (if that).
-i'm considering replacing the monk with a "monk" warpriest of irori, since it (if going for the 'unarmed mobile guy' angle) seems to be mechanically superior everywhere but extremely late-game, if that. or brawler, or monk 1/fighter X.
-i'm also considering scrapping the "rogue" bard and making an investigator to fill that role instead, since again, both are pretty much straight-up better than a base rogue.
-there's classes that don't have any representation yet (magus, oracle, gunslinger, vanilla bard, ranger, druid, pretty much everything from the ACG playtest doc, etc.), i need ideas for them.
-still very unsure on the feats for them (particularly the spellcasters), need ideas or suggestions if anyone's got 'em
topic says it all. I'm getting these really big popup bars at the bottom and right side of the page(s) here, which makes it kind of hard to post or reply to threads since those buttons are covered by said popups.
I have accidentally opened them a good few times trying to close them to get them out of the way.
No idea why they're even displaying, since I have adblock installed and up-to-date. Its only on this site (the paizo forums) too.
While I'm certain this isn't the first thread of it's kind (and likely not the last either), I've assembled a doc and am looking for ways to make the monk less... scattered, both opinion-wise and mechanic-wise.
most of these were thought up in a fit of shower logic or houserules used to patch various "holes" in the monk, so are probably wildly overpowered (in which case i'd love suggestions on how to tone them down).
.
Current changes:
+d10 HD *may not be entirely necessary*
+full BAB *no more prancing about pretending it is*
+proficient with all simple and weapons with the "monk" trait. *addresses fighters having a larger 'monk' weapon selection than the actual monk*
+flurry lets you (optionally) move during it at 8th at the cost of your bonus attacks, that upgrades at 15th. *this is mostly to deal with the clash of their mobility and stationary abilities, and is still rather tenuous--i'm unsure of how exactly to attempt to balance this without making it more powerful than pouncers while keeping it an attractive choice*
+maneuver mastery changed to a scaling CMB bonus. *now they can possibly compete with fighters at maneuvers*
+the ki strike bonuses are now a static enhancement bonus (which accomplishes the bypass DR bit without being as needlessly restrictive). *might extend this to all monk weapons as well so the class isn't shoehorned into unarmed combat. this change also makes the AoMF an optional purchase for auxiliary effects, instead of your end-all be-all neck slot, making the bodywraps of mighty strikes a decent option if you use the lategame pseudo-pounce-flurry often.*
+still mind gains an upgrade at 9th and 15th
.
looking at:
-bonus feat list *with all the new material out it could stand to be a bit better, and there's some lackluster choices on it that could be done away with as well*
-slow fall/high jump *may bundle these together and replace one with something else*
-wholeness of body *kinda lackluster*
-purity of body/diamond body/timeless body *may bundle these together and replace some with something else*
-abundant step *seems alright as-is, besides coming a bit too late to really build around*
-tongue of sun and moon *kinda lackluster, if very fluffy*
-perfect self *the DR is rather useless since nigh-everything at 20th level has +5 enhancement or better to bypass it, and the change to outsider can mess up your buff options.*
.
comments/notes:
still trying to think of ways to make it less MAD.
worried about some levels being too "sweet" (15th gets two big buffs at once, for example).
my overall goal is to help bring the monk out of it's slump next to the rogue and keeping its core of "mystical non-armored mobile combatant (with various auxiliary defenses)", with it as a competitive choice without being outright better or more flexible than other full-BAB folks (fighter/barbarian/paladin/ranger/cavalier).
i worry my alterations my be too much--hence this thread.
Could someone PLEASE doublecheck my work for issues? He seems pretty freaking powerful right now.
“Bane” 2.0
Spoiler:
“Trust me, this is going to hurt you way more than it hurts me.”
Tiefling (demon-spawn) Bloodrager (abyssal bloodline) 12 / Fighter (two-handed fighter) 7 / Oracle (lore/lame) 1
-Scaled Skin racial feature taken
-power attacking or dropping an enemy gives a free intimidate check to demoralize (+48 intimidate (23 ranks/class, 6 cha, 19 str), works on animals and vermin)
-attack flat-footed AC of shaken enemies
-sickens shaken enemies (for a total of -4 attack/saves/skills/ability checks and -2 damage between the two) when you hit them
-30% crit chance, inflicts staggered condition (DC39)
-CL14 Bloodrager casting
-CL1 Oracle casting
-immune to fatigue
-no speed reduction from encumbrance or armor
rough item list:
weapon: +10 falchion (+5 furious courageous cruel keen) (200,400)
armor: +8 Mithral Breastplate (+5 ghost touch determination (+30,000g)) (98,600g)
head: Vudran Ashak/Tri-Faced Helm (22,000)
headband: +6 int/wis/cha headband (144,000g)
eyes: Lenses of Detection (3,500)
neck: +5 Amulet of Natural Armor (50,000g)
shoulders: +5 Cloak of Resistance (25,000g)
chest: Bane Baldric (10,000g)
body: Quick Runner’s Shirt (1,000g)
wrist: Vambraces of the Genie (djinni) (18,900g)
hands: Dueling Gloves (15,000g)
ring1: +5 Ring of Protection (50,000g)
ring2: ???
belt: +6 str/dex/con belt (144,000g)
feet: Boots of Speed (12,000g)
slotless:
Ioun Stone(s)
-clear spindle (don’t need food/water) (4,000g)
-pale green prism* (+1 attack/saves/skills/ability checks, competence) -- (remove fatigue 2/day, free action) (30,000g)
-flawed pale green prism (+3 attack/saves/skills/ability checks, morale+courageous) (28,000g)
-dusty rose prism (+1 AC, insight) (5,000g)
-cracked dusty rose prism (+1 init, competence) (500g)
-cracked incandescent blue sphere* (+1 perception, competence) -- (blind fight) (200g)
-Ebon Wayfinder (pale green prism and cracked incandescent blue sphere slotted into it) (18,000g)
total: 880,000/880,000
could easily save money by reducing the headband to +2 int/wis +6 cha, dropping the vambraces, etc.
long story short:
HP: 314 / 494 (rage)
BAB: +19/19/+14/+9/+4 (with haste)
CMB/CMD: 38/51
AC: 38
Saves: 32/21/21
Attack: +56*/52/+47/+42/+37
Damage: 70 avg
-power attacking or dropping an enemy gives a free intimidate check to demoralize (+47 intimidate (23 ranks/class, 6 cha, 18 str), works on animals and vermin)
-attack flat-footed AC of shaken enemies
-sickens shaken enemies (for a total of -4 attack/saves/skills/ability checks and -2 damage between the two) when you hit them
-30% crit chance, inflicts staggered condition (DC39) (only a single move or standard action/round (no full-round or full-attack actions), swift/immediate actions as normal)
-CL14 Bloodrager casting
-CL1 Oracle casting
-immune to fatigue
-no speed reduction from encumbrance or armor
This guy can hit an ancient red dragon on anything but a 1 for all but his last hit, and still at 80% to hit on that.
weaknesses:
-low ref/will saves for his level
-middling AC
-needs a ring of FoM
-antimagic field REALLY hurts this guy, since most bloodrager abilities are (Su), but he can still stab you pretty well.
EDIT: noticed the strenght was off, and the strength to damage was WAY off. corrected.
I tossed together a punchy-fisty monk build and I'm wondering how it pans out. I'm trying to make one who can hit passably through their career, deal decent damage, and can survive and function at their level in terms of HP/AC/saves; I'm not sure how well I'm succeeding at this point.
focused skills would be acrobatics, perception, sense motive, UMD, and the spare points from FCB spent on utility skill dips (such as knowledges, climb/swim/fly, ride, etc.)
* - if you start and end your turn in the same square--this doesn't mean you cant move, only that you end up back where you started.
** - requires you to keep your vow of silence.
WBL @ (rough gear estimates):
[spoiler]
4 - 6,000g (cracked opalescent white pyramid ioun stone (unarmed strike) (1500), wayfinder (500), chain shirt (100), cloak of resist +1 (1000), ring of protection +1 (2000), cold iron brass knuckles, alchemical silver brass knuckles, misc.) ~900g remaining
8 - 33,000g ([above], cracked pale green prism ioun stone (attack) (4000), monk’s robe (15,000), +2 wis headband (4000), +2 str belt, +1 AoMF (4000)) ~1,900g remaining, sell the chain shirt when you get the robe
12 - 108,000g ([above], +3 AoMF (36,000), +3 cloak of resist (9000), ring of protection +2 (8000), +3 bracers of armor (9000), bane baldric (10,000), dueling gloves (15000), boots of speed (12000)) ~10,000g remaining
16 - 315,000g ([above], +5 AoMF (100,000), +5 cloak of resist (25,000), +6 bracers of armor (36,000), +4 ring of protection (32,000), +1 holy bodywrap of mighty strikes (27,000), +4 str+dex belt (40,000), +4 wis headband (16,000) ) ~33,000g remaining, sell monks robe when you get the bodywrap
20 - 880,000g (max out your current gear, you’ll have money to spare)
main items:
+8 bracers of armor, +5 ring of protection, +5 cloak of resistance, +5 AoMF, +6 str/dex belt, +6 wis headband, +1 Holy bodywraps of mighty strikes (HERESY), dueling gloves (+3 atk/dmg), flawed pale green prism ioun stone (+1 atk), wayfinder slotted opalescent white pyramid ioun stone (unarmed strike) (+1 atk), bane baldric (+2 atk, +2d6 dmg, swift action), boots of speed (+1 ac/ref, +1 atk, +30 spd, free action)
fun fact: until level 7 you can wear a chain shirt at pretty much no loss, ability-wise.
[/spoiler]
I'm mainly unsure of what to take as a second trait (a save or init booster i'd think), the bonus feat at 4th level from fighter 2 (no not power attack, that actually hurts monks in most cases. dodge might be an okay choice), and the post-PFS feats.
I'll try to assemble some gear and attack/AC at 4-8-12-16-20th level to see how they stack up, since 20th level with WBL in a vacuum may not hold up at lower levels.
Seeing the "Let's make the rogue work" thread here got me thinking--lots of folks (myself included) feel the monk has issues as well. So, this thread is in a similar vein: to build a collection of builds that are competent in spite of some of the class' flaws.
a few guidelines:
-this is a monk build thread, so lets try to keep any builds posted in "mostly-if-not-pure monk" territory.
-tetori and zen archer are actually rather good within their niches (grappling and archery, respectively) for the most part. let's show some of the other archetypes (or even the core monk) some love.
-let's keep discussion less on the problems on the class, and more on how to address them (such as ways to shore up their to-hit, AC, etc.)
common complaints against the class (to my knowledge):
-lack of synergy in abilities (such as mobility on things and having to be stationary to hit things via flurry)
-issues hitting things (due to lack of attack bonus sources)
-issues bypassing DR
-low AC until high levels (when you can afford a decent set of bracers and your WIS/class bonus reaches respectable levels, since you cant wear armor without losing a lot of your class abilities)
-money issues (particularly involving the AoMF)
I'll start off with some random advicey things:
-the quick-runner's shirt is a great purchase for a monk at 1000g, since you can spend a swift action for an extra move action, allowing you to close for a flurry and then flurry in the same round (unfortunately only once per day), and can be worn with a monk's robe (since they're different slots).
-the cracked green prism ioun stone is also a steal at 4000g, for a +1 bonus (competence) to attack.
-for those interested, a dip in crusader cleric can net you a variety of boons (bonus feat--probably weapon focus, domain power, utility spells, channel energy, free UMD with cleric list items), including some rather nice weapons, the ability to get WIS to hit (with guided hand, which can help reduce MAD somewhat), and the ability to flurry with them (with crusader's flurry)--sir thugsalot (i think) brought up a build a while back of a cleric (crusader)/monk (hungry ghost/sacred mountain with vow of silence) who could flurry with a katana!
-the nature soul and animal ally feats (from faiths and philosophies) are great for a sohei--it lets you get an animal companion at your level-3 (which can be brought up via boon companion) to use with your monastic mount powers.
until 5th level you just ride on a purchased horse (theres a trait for that, if you want one free).
For the mount go with the Bodyguard archetype, pick up Bodyguard and In Harm's Way for combat shenanigans (they aim for you, horse takes the attack from IHW, you then negate it with mounted combat), and Narrow Frame so you can actually take it places, and maybe Sure-Footed or Wind Stance later.
This is assuming the feats need to line up with their prereqs. since they're monk bonus feats they may not need to, which throws this order out the window--you could grab mounted skirmisher at level 10, just after your fancy new iterative, or even at level 6 if you wanted.
it still has to deal with hit accuracy and lack of armor, but the latter is helped out by the horse being able to help negate a hit aimed at you, and when you DO hit, your damage will be respectable thanks to the lance and spirited charge.
now i'm positive there are many more helpful things you all know, so post them here! we can get a nice archive of helpful things for the monk going, with any luck.
For those of you that have played Final Fantasy 12, tactics/advanced/A2, or vagrant story, I'm trying to construct the various races that live there, and am looking for suggestions on how to represent them accurately.
Monastic Mount + Animal Companion (ECL-3 until boon companion, then full level) Makes for quite the beefy mount.
Since sohei can grab mounted combat feats as bonus feats (that align quite well with said bonus feats' levels, incidentally), and most of them are dependent on skill ranks, not BAB, which means he can grab most of them up front, so i thought, why not?
For the mount go with the Bodyguard archetype, pick up Bodyguard and In Harm's Way for combat shenanigans (they aim for you, horse takes the attack from IHW, you then negate it with mounted combat), and Narrow Frame so you can actually take it places, and maybe Sure-Footed or Wind Stance later.
Then again, this is assuming the feats need to line up with their prereqs. since theyre monk feats they may not need to, which throws this all out the window--you could grab mounted skirmisher at level 10, just after your fancy new iterative, or even at level 6 if you wanted.
I'm planning running some buddies through a gauntlet this weekend to get some playtest info on the new ACG hybrid classes (there's been interest expressed in the brawler, bloodrager, arcanist, and slayer so far)
anyone know any big, daunting dungeons to crawl?
I've heard horror stories of rappan athuk and the like, and would like to really put them through the ringer.
At the top of the new class entries I note there's a section that lists what class(es) they're an alternate of (such as brawler being fighter/monk). I assume this is to prevent multiclassing into either of those parts, but can hybrid classes take archetypes of their base classes, provided they have the available class features to be replaced?
an already existing example of this would be a ninja (an alternate class for the rogue) being able to take the scout archetype.
if they are, this makes archetype creation for the dev team easier (instead of making two similar archetypes for the rogue and the slayer, you could simply make one that uses), and would allow the newer hybrids to be both forwards- and backwards-compatible, offering more support for them without needing entirely new books specifically for the hybrid classes.
I made The Dwarfiest Dwarf for the guide to the builds thread, and since it's pretty flexible, there's lots of ways to build it; it can handle a multitude of archetypes, and has 3 feats that are open (steel soul, master craftsman, craft magic arms/armor) to use better, though that's not to say that it cant be finagled with to free up more!
comments, ideas, and suggestions are all welcome, and if anyone finds any issues with my maths, please point them out so that i can correct them--i'm terrible at number wizardry.
after having looked over brewer's guide to undeath, it lists just the creatures from bestiary 1 (which is awesome and i thank him for the effort).
i do know that certain templates are quite useful, like the bloody skeleton, fast zombie (or their better big brother, relentless zombies and void zombies), and--my personal recommendation, in some cases--juju zombies. i'm also interested in the usefulness of multiplying skeletons (from classic horrors revisited, like the relentless zombies).
.
the general categories noted in the guide are:
-bloody skeletons whenever possible (they're quite resilient and less likely to waste your money)
-fast zombies (for flying things, and things over 20HD)
one thing i note for juju zombies that makes them semi-competitive with fast zombies is that they don't have the staggered condition tacked on (like fast zombies), and while they dont get the extra attack, they keep their weapon proficiencies and defensive abilities (and gain more fom the template). this makes it useful for creatures with proficiencies from before you killed them (i.e. things with class levels, like fighters, barbarians, gunslingers, etc) and things with regeneration, such as trolls.
.
creatures to look out for (from my understanding):
giants (hill<frost<fire<cloud<storm):
big, strong, decent on the HD. they make for a good brute squad.
pouncy things/things that get lots of natural attacks ((dire) lions<(dire) tigers<hydras<dragons):
your standard fare DPS, they charge in and blenderfy what they're attacking.
an addition of mine:
trolls/things with regeneration (moss<ice<scrag<regular<rock<two-headed<mountain):
decent HD for their CR (6-9HD for anything but mountain trolls), regen 5
mountain trolls are quite neat; 18HD at CR14, 40 strength with juju template, 23 natural armor with juju template, 40ft land speed and climb, 10ft. burrow, regen 10.
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does anyone who's more experienced at necromancy have any preferred undead for their entourage? i know purple worms make for good transport.
A player presented this to me, and so far it seems legit: the two mysteries (lore oracle's Sidestep Secret and the nature oracle's Nature's Whispers) allow you to use your CHA for AC instead of DEX (as well as reflex saves for lore and CMD for nature), and osyluth's guile adds a dodge bonus equal to your CHA to AC when fighting defensively. since both are different types of bonus (one being the "DEX" bonus, and the other being a dodge bonus) It seems like they can stack.
Anyone else found any weird combos like this elsewhere?
I was musing about ways around some of the weirder builds seen here on the boards, and thought I'd commune with y'alls collective knowledge on system mechanics. Your thoughts and advice (or additional broad types) would be much appreciated. Using it as a sort of go-to for DM's to have ways of challenging their players' twinked out characters (but with some self-restraint, not completely neutralizing them--all things in moderation).
ultra-high AC build #452,007
Problems: really high AC makes early encounters an issue (not so much the later levels when spells and spell-likes are the name of the game)
Solution: hit their saves (particularly ref and will), touch AC, combat maneuvers (being tripped might put a bee in their bonnet, perhaps), rough terrain helps stop charging shenanigans.
superstitious powers invulnerable rager barbarian:
Problems: decent-to-great AC, DR/-, and that pesky superstition bonus makes for a tough nut to crack.
Solution: same idea as above I'd think, and if you MUST use magic for whatever reason, there's no-save spells and spells that don't directly affect them, like pits and walls (or illusions of walls--if they can't see you they can't charge you, and AFAIK must interact with the wall to disbelieve it).
enchanter/witch:
Problems: can end fights before they begin with scary mind-affecting abilities
Solution: mindless stuff (undead, oozes, vermin, etc.). do note that the player can get around vermin and undead with feats and traits, IIRC.
NOTE: when using these, I'd advise having a "controller" enemy (a crazy cat lady, ooze-farming wizard, necromancer, etc.) so the player doesn't feel completely useless.
Properly Built Monk
Problems: good AC and touch AC, saves, usually CMD, and surprisingly mobile.
Solution: not too sure actually. advice?
Paladin McSmiteypants (particularly oath of vengeance):
Problems: smite makes for some crazy damage, paired with their good AC and saves.
Solution: touch AC, no-save spells, non-evil targets, golems, targets with leverage (hostages, for example).
NOTE: DO NOT make the player fall if you present them with a hostage situation (or similar) and they can't (or were unable to) save them in time, that's a dick move.
Guns and all their wielders:
Problems: hitting touch AC ain't nothing to laugh at, especially with classes that can pile on the damage.
Solution: not too sure actually. advice?
all around no-save spells, flying enemies, swarms, incorporeals, and oozes can ruin people's day.
another thing you could do is simply ask your players to tone it down a bit if they're vastly outpacing the rest of the group.
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Please give more suggestions or corrections or your own methods of dealing with things, if it pleases you.
Let me start off by saying this isn't my idea--the basis of this was brought up on the forums in a "how to make a decent MT" thread. I'm just trying to get one built out to see how it looks.
the idea is that the character doesn't quite get to be both arcane and divine caster, but plays a divine caster that can cherry-pick tons of arcane spells.
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The current build is looking like:
Elf Ancient Lorekeeper Oracle (haunted curse, lore mystery) 20
STATS
dont particularly matter, other than a high CHA for casting and AC/reflex with sidestep secret, and knowledge skills with lore keeper revelation
SKILLS
get what you want and pump dat UMD, because you're gonna want it.
1(Curse) mage hand, ghost sound
2 1 spell (cantrip, counts as 1st-level slot)
4 1 spell (1st-level or less, counts as 2nd-level slot)
5(Curse) levitate, minor image
6 1 spell (2nd-level or less, counts as 3rd-level slot)
8 1 spell (3rd-level or less, counts as 4th-level slot)
10 1 spell (4th-level or less, counts as 5th-level slot)
10(Curse) telekinesis
11(EH) 1 spell (5th-level or less*)
11(Rev)** symbol of:
mirroring (2nd),
revelation, slowing (4th)
scrying, sleep, striking, pain (5)
sealing, persuasion, fear, (6)
stunning, weakness (7)
insanity, death (8)
vulnerability, strife (9)
12 1 spell (5th-level or less, counts as 6th-level slot)
14 1 spell (6th-level or less, counts as 7th-level slot)
15(Curse) reverse gravity
15(EH) 1 spell (7th-level or less*)
16 1 spell (7th-level or less, counts as 8th-level slot)
18 1 spell (8th-level or less, counts as 9th-level slot)
19(EH) 1 spell (9th-level or less*)
20(FRev) wish
arcane bond: +1 free from spells known (1/day, no metamagic)
arcane archivist: +1 free from spells known (1/day, spell costs 1 level higher, must come from spellbook you own, spell in book is erased after casting)
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COMMENTS
feat/revelation comments:
Spoiler:
scribe scroll seems like pretty much a must for the arcane archivist power (to keep those spellbooks stocked with spells for it to use, and with it only being once/day its easy to keep it topped up)
craft wonderous item and craft magic arms/armor is a good idea since youre going to be carting around scrolls for everything.
the fortune teller general feat seems like a neat fluffy choice as well.
you could get arcane archivist at 13th instead of 15th if you took the extra revelation feat if youre in a big hurry to get it.
spell comments:
Spoiler:
* - may actually be one level lower, since its at your ECL -2 for the eldritch heritage feats, but the new arcana power of the arcanebloodline says anything you'd be able to cast at those levels, so perhaps the level penalty is a boon in disguise--i would love for folks to weigh in on this matter.
** - for the spontaneous symbology revelation, ask your DM if you could get additional spells like arcane mark, emblazon crest, erase, explosive runes, magic circle against good/evil/law/chaos, sepia snake sigil, secret page, sending, undeath ward, circle of clarity, or other suitably fitting "symbol"-type spells.
this does make the revelation quite a bit more powerful, so don't feel to surprised if they turn you down, but if your GM's okay with it then do it.
general comments:[spoler]Wands and scrolls are your best friends.
by extension, things like the handy haversack (duh), pathfinder's pouch (put spellbook in waterproof bag, put inside of this and you have a very simple, relatively cheap protection set for your book--also, if it IS damaged, then no huge loss because you're not a wizard), and efficient quiver (due to size equivalency, one can hold 60 wands, 18 scroll cases, and 6 staves. also remember that each scroll case can hold up to 4 scrolls) are also your best friends.[/spoiler]
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any advice on feats/other ways to get additional spells or comments would be appreciated--especially for useful spells someone with this build could pick for their list of spells known (permanency is pretty much a must with all these symbol spells)
Are there any classes that can get a large-sized spider (or medium-sized for small characters) to ride around on that wont immediately get smashed by enemies (beast master cav, ranger, druid, and perhaps summoner spring to mind)?
(mostly cav related) can things that can walk/climb on walls charge while doing so? because that would be both wonderful and mindbending (to visualize) for lancers.
Wanna make THE item crafting character for my party to purchase the services of--after some questing of course.
probably a human (conjuration/creation) wizard / (artifice/??? domain) cleric / MT, favored class wizard.
I'm not sure on the particulars of mystic theurges, but I know you're supposed to favor one class over another level-wise so you get SOME 9th level spells. craft magic arms/armor, craft wondrous item, scribe scroll, and maybe craft staff are musts for this, but i'm not sure on anything else, feat-wise.
any ideas, alternatives, etc. would be appreciated.
Pardon if this has been asked before, but my google-fu seems to be weak today.
While building a conversion of Noel Vermillion i noticed that myrmidarch gains fighter training at 7th level (level counts as magus-3 for fighter feats, replaces knowledge pool), but the archetype doesn't seem to replace the regular fighter training gained at 10th level (1/2 level counts for fighter feats).
How exactly do they interact for the character (I'm assuming they don't stack, because that'd give you a fighter level larger than your actual level at higher levels)?
does one supersede the other? It'd be weird if you suddenly went from 9th level (have the 7th level fighter training, effective fighter level 6) to level 10 (pick up the second fighter training at 10, suddenly effective fighter level 5, also gimping the progression)
Or am I missing something important and just being dumb?
got a game running with some buddies of mine, looking for good sources for backround music and such.
i've got a good collection of Two Steps From Hell's stuff (upon recommendation), but it feels a tad too heavy for minor battles and ambient bgms.
any suggestions? and what do you listen to at the table, if you've got background music?
paticularly i'm looking for... celtic inspired stuff (not sure of the exact genre name), think lord of the rings movies or final fantasy crystal chronicles-sounding.
running a dungeoncrawl for some friends of mine this weekend (i.e. tomorrow) and i'm in need of some quick npc's for the town outside the dungeon (think etrian odyssey's "town built overtop huge dungeon, main exports are treasure, monster bits, and injured/dead adventurers"). current places in town are thus (more places would be cool too, it's a fairly bustling city):
inn/tavern,
blacksmith,
alchemist,
enchanter/mage academy,
general store,
tailor/cobbler/haberdasherie,
hospital/temple,
thieves' guild/black market,
various business guilds (carpenters, bakers, etc.),
town guard barracks,
town hall/keep/ruling people area,
If they like the setup and wanna keep at this, I plan on letting them start their own guild (and as such commission the construction/furnishing of their very own guild hall).
airships are not a thing (yet), but i'm thinking that maybe balloon travel ain't so bad, and dirigibles/airships are just a stone's throw away from that.
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don't need too many per place, a single "figurehead" npc for each will do.
any race is fine, but I'd prefer it to be more core dominated race-wise.
name, race, class, an personality type would be much appreciated.
I've got a friend telling me that you add all the enhancement bonuses (or effective ones from enchant costs) and use the chart to determine it's cost--for example, a +1 keen flaming longsword would be 18,000g + base + masterwork (because of the total +3 effective bonus).
However, I was under the impression you had to add them individually to the cost, making that same sword cost 6000g + base + masterwork (because +1 (2000g) keen (2000g) flaming (2000g) as they are all +1 bonuses).
that said, that's quite a major price reduction, so I'm starting to think he's correct in his thought, otherwise we'd all be swimming in ultimate gear. I have no problem being wrong here, just wanna make sure.
I'm making a samurai for an acquaintance with a few rules:
dude is supposed to be absolutely phenomenal with a katana, and must have the infernal eldritch heritage feats (at least up to improved for the pit-touched con bonus). taking it as a challenge i got to work and ended up with the following:
Spoiler:
half-elf samurai (shogun) 17 / fighter (weapon master: katana) 3
the shogun 3rd party AT has been given the greenlight by the DM of his game, and the fighter levels are taken at 11th through 13th.
weapon will likely be something like a +5 adamantine/living steel/whathaveyou katana with:
conductive (1): spend two uses of a touch ability to deliver via weapon strike--works well with a decent CHA and the EH touch ability),
ominous (1): enhancement bonus to intimidate rolls, critical hit causes shaken for 1 minute (DC13 negates), this particular instance of shaken cant be inflicted more than once per target per 24 hours),
cruel (1): when striking a creature that is shaken/frightened/panicked, sickens the target for one round. dropping such a target gives 5 temporary hp for ten minutes),
shocking/acid/etc. burst (2): because critfarming
staple equipment will likely be:
-a str/con (maybe/dex as well) belt (90,000g for str/con, 144,000g for str/dex/con)
-cha headband (36,000g)
-gloves of dueling (15,000g)
-ring of splendid security (180,000g)
-ring of spell turning (100,000g)
-minor cloak of displacement (24,000g)
-vudran ashak helm (22,000g)
-quick runner's shirt (1,000g)
-crusader's tabard (6,000g)
-whatever else i can think of that fits in the price range
best armor for these stats seems to be a mithral agile breastplate (if dex belt) or mithral fullplate or hellknights plate (with champion (1) + other enchants) and a +5 mithral buckler (heavy fortification) for those times you don't wanna 2H the katana, since you do respectable damage with str+con+challenge+30% crit rate(with +5 to confirmations) anyway
to note:
-i have absolutely no idea what order those feats should be taken in-- i know PA/FF/CS are late as all get out, which needs to be remedied, but i'm not sure where/when to squeeze them in! (this is the headache)
Friend of mine turned to me for some ideas for pathfinder versions of some characters from a series she and I read (with a few twists).
long story short, i need ideas for 3 10th-level characters: a luck-stealing pirate, an anti-magic gunmage, and pretty much a person who *is* the ocean.
current ideas I've got are:
luck pirate: something with witch, because that is the only class that comes to mind that's bent around making yourself more fortunate and others less so.
antimagegun: i'm thinking myrmidarch magus, with the appropriate gun feats and pretty much nothing but dispel magic and the like prepared, or a spellbreaker inquisitor or something.
totally-not-poseidon: aquatic druid with the water(oceans) domain/subdomain.
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any ideas/suggestions/alternatives would be appreciated.
Thinking of most MMO's players usually have their name floating over their heads, which sort of defeats the purpose of being a sneaky type, since (say you wanted to sneak into a guild hall and assassinate a player/steal mcguffin) anyone can just see your name through the walls and chase you out or kill you. the only time you'd be able to do anything would be when no one's there, in which case why be sneaky at all?
or trying to sneak through a dungeon (likewise impossible, usually) since every enemy has a perfect sphere of "automatically sense and attack anyone who enters, be they hiding perfectly behind that shrubbery or through the freaking wall/floor/ceiling."
I hope we don't end up with something like this in PFO.
