Arcasus's page

We played Black Fang last night after getting the beginner box. I opted to start the PCs in Sandpoint at the Rusty dragon to start introducing them to the town. They got the info for the 'hunt' off he help board in the inn and had to go speak with the mayor to get the full info and officially accept the 'hunt'. That added a bit to it both time wise and in player/ncp interactions. We played for 5 hours and they died right before the end (lol) so we are finishing up today. If you stretch and pad it a bit it is defiantly enough for a full session. I Was worried at first about that as well. After BFD we are going to do the deadly mines with an add on attachment from one of the wayfinders (into the dark wayfinder #9). Wayfinder #9- into the dark, the gateway to the nar voth, and Deverins folly-has a lot of good ones that go well with the beginner boxas does wayfinder 10,11,12 and that I feel will be a good follow up. After we have done some of those and I feel we all (me as a GM and they as players) have enough experience to really start an adventure path we are going to start Rise of the Ruin Lords. I am a new GM but the things I listed give me every thing I need to make a worth-wile game that has good content all around.

I'm glad you had a great time with it. I had a couple of players new to vtt so I decided to run them through the box set as well! I kicked things off with farmer grump running into town saying that something has been snatching live stock from his farms. I recorded the session if anyone would like to give it a look.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFVqQ7AqbQ4&list=PLCi4BJv_WJ6xtCKKWr-PF OLa-E_2DChlf&index=2

Arcasus wrote:

A creature that fails its save against the toxic secretion also gains these conditions until it succeeds at a save against the secretion, or until the toxin’s duration ends.

This is telling you the bleed(or other condition) ends on a successful save or when the duration runs out.

Bleed Condition wrote:

Bleed: A creature that is taking bleed damage takes the listed amount of damage at the beginning of its turn. Bleeding can be stopped by a DC 15 Heal check or through the application of any spell that cures hit point damage (even if the bleed is ability damage). Some bleed effects cause ability damage or even ability drain. Bleed effects do not stack with each other unless they deal different kinds of damage. When two or more bleed effects deal the same kind of damage, take the worse effect. In this case, ability drain is worse than ability damage.

So, Toxicant creates and imbibes the tincture.

Later in the day, a crab decides to pinch them, and hits.
Crab needs to make a fort save, on a failure they take 3 damage and gain 1d6 bleed but take no damage from the bleed effect. Max Duration of the poison is 1 round + 1 per 4 levels, so currently 1 round.
Start of the Crabs next turn it actually takes the 1d6 bleed damage.
If the Toxicant is currently level 3, that's it. Duration over, don't need to save again.
If the Toxicant is level 4, save vs poison again. If the Crab Fails its second save it takes 3 damage and 1d6 bleed.
Bleed damage typically doesn't stack, but sort of overlaps.
Crab starts it's turn again and rolls 1d6 twice take the highest for the bleed.

It gets a little more complicated when the crab is attacking the Toxicant multiple times a round and failing the save multiple times, because then you need to get into the poison stacking rules.

If the crabbed attacked twice it wouldnt be stacking the bleed damage it would then be upping the dc by two correct?

so the toxicant reads at 1st level, a toxicant has learned to mimic creatures with the ability to secrete harmful toxins through the skin. Once per day, in a process that takes 10 minutes, the toxicant can create and imbibe a tincture that causes her skin to secrete a mild toxin. The toxicant is immune to this secretion, but any creature that hits her with a natural attack or unarmed strike must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the toxicant’s alchemist level + the toxicant’s Intelligence modifier). On a failed save, the target takes an amount of damage equal to the toxicant’s Intelligence modifier. At 4th level, a target that fails its save must succeed at a second save 1 round later or take the same amount of damage again. This effect repeats as long as the target continues to fail its saving throws, to a maximum number of rounds equal to 1 + 1 for every 4 alchemist levels the toxicant possesses (to a maximum of 6 rounds at 20th level).
At 3rd level and every 3 levels thereafter, the toxicant can choose a condition to have her toxin impose.

Once this choice is made, it can’t be changed. A creature that fails its save against the toxic secretion also gains these conditions until it succeeds at a save against the secretion, or until the toxin’s duration ends.

At higher alchemist levels, the toxicant gains access to stronger conditions; some replace lower-level conditions, which must be selected first. The following conditions are available at the given alchemist levels: 3rd—bleed (1d6), dazzled, fatigued, or sickened; 6th—dazed or shaken; 9th—blinded (replaces dazzled) or staggered (replaces dazed); 12th—exhausted (replaces fatigued); 18th—stunned (replaces exhausted and staggered).
my player chose bleed
so woudl it be a 1d6+3 damge when they fail the posion then they bleed for 1d6 until they heal or use a heal check. By rules of bleed they would take the bleed damage on there turn only? The description says on a failed save the target takes the bleed amount. a little confused by this.

Also the alchemist is a gun chemist mixed with a toxicant and it feels like this class is doing major damage at level 3. Maybe we are over looking the rules or misreading something.

Quixote wrote:

I'd consider looking at the terrain itself as an enemy with its own objectives.

Slick, natural stone bridges want people to slip off of them, or at least make them take extra care while moving.

Blasts of chill, dank wind wants to slow everyone's movement and maybe push some folks off the bridges.

Stagnant cavern pools want to...drown people where they're deep enough? Or just hide some nasty things down there. Leeches or hungry albino cave-fish or giant crab-ticks or a small horde of zombies or some sort of ooze?

What if there was something about these caves that absorbed natural and magical light? The players would have to spend turns recasting spells so they can see again, and maybe would want to move to specific areas to destroy/disable/whatever these things are so they can fight the monster effectively.

Bat swarms are fine, but what if the whole area was full of fluttering bats? No damage, but everything has a weaker form of cover, there are penalties to ranged attacks and Perception and there's a static Concentration check needed? the fluttering bats is a cool idea. I could maybe make the bats move every round so that the party members may cast certain spells when the bats are not around. very good idea. i think if someone falls off alone into the water. Even a weak level 1 water monster could kill the player.

If the environment is interesting and engaging enough as it's own thing, slap some fast healing on that were-dire-bat and make several separate encounters with the same foe.

Thanks for the input everyone.

I'd consider looking at the terrain itself as an enemy with its own objectives.

Slick, natural stone bridges want people to slip off of them, or at least make them take extra care while moving.

Blasts of chill, dank wind wants to slow everyone's movement and maybe push some folks off the bridges.

Stagnant cavern pools want to...drown people where they're deep enough? Or just hide some nasty things down there. Leeches or hungry albino cave-fish or giant crab-ticks or a small horde of zombies or some sort of ooze?

What if there was something about these caves that absorbed natural and magical light? The players would have to spend turns recasting spells so they can see again, and maybe would want to move to specific areas to destroy/disable/whatever these things are so they can fight the monster effectively.

Bat swarms are fine, but what if the whole area was full of fluttering bats? No damage, but everything has a weaker form of cover, there are penalties to ranged attacks and Perception and there's a static Concentration check needed? the fluttering bats is a cool idea. I could maybe make the bats move every round so that the party members may cast certain spells when the bats are not around. very good idea. i think if someone falls off alone into the water. Even a weak level 1 water monster could kill the player.

If the environment is interesting and engaging enough as it's own thing, slap some fast healing on that were-dire-bat and make several separate encounters with the same foe.

Arcasus wrote:

Maxim Perdan wrote:

Agreed all around on the action economy issue, especially if your combined party has multiple save-or-suck builds or a lotta attack rolls. Get some minions in there or tie up a portion of the party at all times with environmental effects or processes that require their attention.

Arcasus wrote:

if you fall through someones square would that person get an AAO ? I wonder?

To my understanding, involuntary movement doesn't usually trigger AoO. There was actually a neat mechanic in a Season 9 PFS scenario involving players who fell off the platforms looping back around to the top, Pac-Man style, until they arrested their momentum. Good time!

what if a were bat stopped flying to free fall, its not involuntary movement at that point?

If the werebat's choosing its path, either freely or by making checks to move along it, that sounds voluntary to me!

its going to be many months down the road but wanted advice. will post when we get to this point!

Agreed all around on the action economy issue, especially if your combined party has multiple save-or-suck builds or a lotta attack rolls. Get some minions in there or tie up a portion of the party at all times with environmental effects or processes that require their attention.

Arcasus wrote:

if you fall through someones square would that person get an AAO ? I wonder?

To my understanding, involuntary movement doesn't usually trigger AoO. There was actually a neat mechanic in a Season 9 PFS scenario involving players who fell off the platforms looping back around to the top, Pac-Man style, until they arrested their momentum. Good time!

what if a were bat stopped flying to free fall, its not involuntary movement at that point?

If the party is level 4-5 and there are 8 of them, then your Werebat is going to run into serious action economy issues and get pulverized before he can do anything, unless you also plan to have additional mooks and baddies out there protecting him. Tbh, I would have 2-4 Bat Swarms (CR2), and maybe 1-3 "Lieutenant" Werebats (CR3-ish), and maybe 1-2 Mobat (CR3) for an AoE Stagger screech. Staggering some PC's will definitely reduce their action economy to ensure your Boss doesn't get pulverized in 3 rounds.

Terrain:

I would make this cave they fight in something like a large open expanse, and the floor slopes upwards towards the back of the cavern at a 30ish-degree angle and the floor is broken up into two sections with a ravine in the middle (with the bridges connecting them). That way when you knock them back from wherever they were standing, the falling damage at wherever they land is exacerbated slightly because of how the floor slopes, AND there's always the threat of falling down the ravine in the middle. I think the Vines are cool addition, because that can provide an acrobatics check to grab one while they're falling, if you want.

BBEG:

As far as a build, I'd recommend downloading the Combat Manager app to your computer/laptop/phone, and choose Werebat, Nycaloth, or something similar, and adjust its stats/CR as you see fit. If you're not up for that, just make a level 5 Cavalier and add the Magical Beast Template, and give it feats: Spirited Charge & Fly By Attack.

i think im going to make the vine bridge have mud on it as well and be like one of those bridges you see that is made purely of natural elements. Im going to make one for the werebats a cave druid and do soften earth and stone to make the party's members stuck. the next turn have the druid do it on the cave ceilings for a small cave in.

I assume you are talking about a Dire Bat, not a Werebat?

I would switch a Dire Bat's feats to include Hover... since it is large, it will disturb the ground below it... and let it just rock the bridges below it as it flies over them. Possibly give it Flyby Attack, as well.

At this level, the darkness/light setting, and either a wind that blows out mundane torches or dampness that snuffs mundane torches, will provide a decent environmental challenge.

Make the fall from the bridge enough to knock a healthy player unconscious, but not kill them. However, it may end a wounded character if they fall. I was going to use a were- bat and make him larger. great ideas tho.

the problem with a solo boss fight is that either a boss gets ganked quick because of the huge difference in number of attacks/actions weighing against them, or they are built to compensate and then most of your players spend the entire combat trying to catch up to them and never actually getting to engage, because the boss is doing some version of ride-by or fly-by attacks.

thus, minions! Add in some batswarms and larger bats for the group to tussel with while the werebat can focus on a foe or two at a time. Also, what do the players who get knocked off the bridges fall to? Their death? a pillow factory? Insta killed because something bigger and stronger than you rolled a 5 and sent you plummeting to your death is also not very fun. Either give lots of opportunities to catch themselves on lower levels, hanging ropes/vines or let them land in something non-lethal but then maybe put a zombie or giant leech down there or something for them to fight, as they're probably out of the main combat at that point (fighting and then killing whatever is down there, only to recover a bow with silver shapechanger bane arrows from the last poor sod that tried to kill this werebat would be neat aspect to this fight).

Terrain is a often overlooked aspect of many fights and I think are the spice that makes any encounter better, but you must also take into consideration of those terrain features and what happens when a player inevitably falls into them and how they can be used to enhance the scene, not just make it harder.

I was going to put water about 20 ft down. i have a very very rough image of it before I start working on a photoshop version. https://postimg.cc/grVTsbYT

A bull rush build should accomplish it, especially if you can swing reach. Smaller PCs? Pick 'em up, fly 'em up, drop 'em (definitely boost Strength on this werebat for that, which could also help legitimize the Awesome Blow idea).

Far as terrain, couple of thoughts. Gusts of wind between the bridges could throw off ranged attacks, launch fallen or traversing PCs, and temporarily restrict the boss's movement. Holes in the bridges or partially standing walls could provide interesting geometry for attacks from both sides. Finally, if this is an enclosed space, maybe an intermittent deeper darkness effect or the ability to trigger one, forcing the werebat to rely on scent and echolocation while the blind players hide themselves via stealth checks.

if you fall through someones square would that person get an AAO ? I wonder?

Im currently running two groups within the same world that sometimes joins together to face huge a threat. Im designing a boss encounter that's going to be a large were bat. Its going to have to withstand a party of 8 pcs. I was thinking of adding cavalier for areal charging but I would like the boss to be able to do knock backs so that pc's will take falling dmg. The room set up is the important part. I've seen a group of pcs destroy monsters at a much higher cl than the group and its bc the dm failed to add terrain to the combat.
What I have right now is the room is going to have two to three bridges spanning across it. I was going to have multiple vines hanging from the celling as well. In case a party member needed to jump from one bridge to the next that could use acrobatics checks to do so.
My question is does anyone have a build for the were bat or any unique encounter or terrain ides. The party will be level 4 or 5 when this happens. I was thinking of hand waving things and giving the creature awesome blow to accomplish some of my goals.
Arc

Spoilers below if you are a player of a Rise of the Rune lord Campaign AP.

The book gives the traits in how to make your characters involved in sandpoint. I thought that was neat as I read the description and I got the idea of maybe instead of just giving the players traits to make them invested . How about I make them from sandpoint and let them earn traits through a prequel . Plus I’ve ran the story a couple of times and I have two players new to roll 20. I figure hey this will give them time to learn the system before I record it and put it on the internet to look back on.
I ran the beginner box for the new players and had Tsuto and Nuaila be back ups so when they got older , was going to do a time jump , it would really hit home. A player died during the dragon fight and since Nulia was a child I had the fountain in the beginner box set start glowing . This event resurrected the player but also is when nulias angelic traits came out . One of my players is nualia brother so when this event happened he began his transition but it didn’t a 100 percent take over . As the back ground says she begins to get her hair pulled and poked in order to gain tears . Marius ,Nualia’s brother , tries his best to protect her until father tobyn puts his foot down and stops her from leaving the church . The town is hit by a disease , which is a little foreshadowing to COTCT, and the players go out and collect ingredients to stop the plague . They are only able to collect 2/3 which then causes 37 percent of the town to die .
At the end of the session tonight I asked everyone how they felt and thought about the town losing so many people . One of my players said you know we can spin this that the town was sick and a God brought Nualia to save the town . The evil people died from the plague and the good people lived . My players went in an hour rant of how the church could try to use this as leverage to take over the town and how the merchants would fight back. New roads would have to be built . One mentioned how since desna has no main church , to our knowledge, sandpoint under Tobyns rule would be a main church of the religion . He mentioned that since he raised Nulia and shes angelic now he must be doing something right and people would flock to the city in order to see her .
I have some ideas on how I could expand the prequel more before the actually story starts Include : save town, make nualia center of new religion, expand town, put down heratics, expand territory . If anyone has any other app’s, ideas, modules, movies, etc I would love the help. I didn’t think it would make for such a rabbit hole.

Spoilers below if you are a player of a Rise of the Rune lord Campaign AP.

The book gives the traits in how to make your characters involved in sandpoint. I thought that was neat as I read the description and I got the idea of maybe instead of just giving the players traits to make them invested . How about I make them from sandpoint and let them earn traits through a prequel . Plus I’ve ran the story a couple of times and I have two players new to roll 20. I figure hey this will give them time to learn the system before I record it and put it on the internet to look back on.
I ran the beginner box for the new players and had Tsuto and Nuaila be back ups so when they got older , was going to do a time jump , it would really hit home. A player died during the dragon fight and since Nulia was a child I had the fountain in the beginner box set start glowing . This event resurrected the player but also is when nulias angelic traits came out . One of my players is nualia brother so when this event happened he began his transition but it didn’t a 100 percent take over . As the back ground says she begins to get her hair pulled and poked in order to gain tears . Marius ,Nualia’s brother , tries his best to protect her until father tobyn puts his foot down and stops her from leaving the church . The town is hit by a disease , which is a little foreshadowing to COTCT, and the players go out and collect ingredients to stop the plague . They are only able to collect 2/3 which then causes 37 percent of the town to die .
At the end of the session tonight I asked everyone how they felt and thought about the town losing so many people . One of my players said you know we can spin this that the town was sick and a God brought Nualia to save the town . The evil people died from the plague and the good people lived . My players went in an hour rant of how the church could try to use this as leverage to take over the town and how the merchants would fight back. New roads would have to be built . One mentioned how since desna has no main church , to our knowledge, sandpoint under Tobyns rule would be a main church of the religion . He mentioned that since he raised Nulia and shes angelic now he must be doing something right and people would flock to the city in order to see her .
I have some ideas on how I could expand the prequel more before the actually story starts Include : save town, make nualia center of new religion, expand town, put down heratics, expand territory . If anyone has any other app’s, ideas, modules, movies, etc I would love the help. I didn’t think it would make for such a rabbit hole.

There will also be more than that oversized weapon to consider. The 9th synthesist level gives the multi attack feat, so he’ll be able to attack with various non-arm natural attacks while full attacking with the earth breaker, with only a -2 to those natural attacks.

I’ve been using diseases and positions to neutralize him. It’s been working but I can’t always do that . It fits the theme of the story so it’s working as of now .

Arcasus wrote:

Melkiador wrote:

Arcasus wrote:

... he said he would take levels in fighter to make the character not as strong

This is either a fallacy or an outright lie. The synthesist is very front loaded. While it's strong 1 through 20, you could gain a lot of power by dipping past the low levels. I imagine he's going far enough into summoner to get the large evolution and then intends to combine that with something like a huge earth breaker to get a weapon that does a high number of damage dice.

Since the synthesist spends most of its actions attacking instead of casting, giving up its spell casting to multiclass isn't as hard of a hit.

Yeap that’s what he’s doing . I asked everyone what are some armor and weapons they wanted and he mentioned earth breaker. His goal is to go I think 10 summoner and 5 fighter.

He wants enough summoner that he can throw Haste all day long, and enough fighter he can actually hit things. Considering the situations, this is the most cheese ball build the player could select and still be all piazo for rules. Make the fighter take Titan Fighter archetype and you're looking at a Huge Earthbreaker that does a base damage of 4d6, or 6d6 with 1 virtual size increase. If the player goes even cheasier he'll pick up the 3 Shikigami style feats, a Sledge (improvised earthbreaker), and the trait that gives him +2 to hit with improvised weapons and he'll be rocking a 12d6 base damage for that Sledge hammer.

. He mentioned taking titan fighter . I’m currently in nursing school so I had the time to make monsters harder with adding class levels to npcs during quarantine but as things are open I back up I won’t have that same free time. Hopefully the rest of the group continues to have fun . If they don’t I will talk to him but it’s my fault for allowing it in the first place .

Arcasus wrote:

... he said he would take levels in fighter to make the character not as strong

This is either a fallacy or an outright lie. The synthesist is very front loaded. While it's strong 1 through 20, you could gain a lot of power by dipping past the low levels. I imagine he's going far enough into summoner to get the large evolution and then intends to combine that with something like a huge earth breaker to get a weapon that does a high number of damage dice.

Since the synthesist spends most of its actions attacking instead of casting, giving up its spell casting to multiclass isn't as hard of a hit.

Yeap that’s what he’s doing . I asked everyone what are some armor and weapons they wanted and he mentioned earth breaker. His goal is to go I think 10 summoner and 5 fighter.

Well if he just starting I think he will put at least 4 points in int, but still don't understand why he put 17 in str unless he wants a muscle summoner

those stats are him being fused.

I would run inquisitor/ranger or inquisitor/slayer and gestalt the classes. look at Sacred Huntsmaster to get a flanking buddy. I think someone who can track with a pet is pretty cinematic. Or look at a wisdom base caster but it would be for buffs.

The problem with low point buy is that it doesn't do much to slow down a min-maxer. There are more than enough Single Ability Dependent builds to go around. And many of those SAD builds are also among the most powerful.

In the future if you want to increase the difficulty of a published adventure, then just add the advanced simple template to most of the enemies.

My preferred method of ability generation is collaborative rolling. That's where you get all of your players to roll a stat array and then players can choose one of those arrays for their stats. I find the standard 4d6 drop the lowest works fine for this, but if you wanted lower stats over all, you might try just 3d6 or 3d6 with reroll all 1s.

In you opinion why would a point buy system be used over collaborative rolling and vice versa?

The stat adjustments are from the Advancing Monsters section. I believe it's from the Bestiary, but I prefer the format on D20PFSRD... despite it being less official.

Having a Climb speed and grabbing the UnRogue skill unlock for Climb with max ranks can almost guarantee success for the maneuver, even without Athletic, Skill Focus Climb, or Agile Maneuvers... although all of those definitely help.

Whoever you are climbing takes a penalty to attack you AND a penalty for attacking anyone other than you! It's hilarious.

I did a rough write up

Still working on the unchained monk part or going another level vexing dodger.
Arc

Arcasus wrote:

Hello All

I have a question regarding a class one my player are wanting to play. My group has had some issues with scheduling so we voted to restart our strange aeons AP. The party will consist of a bard, blood rager( arcane blood line ) , gun slinger , Oracle , and finally a synthesis summoner . Now I usually don’t allow summoners in my group but he’s wanting to play a synthesis summoner with the squire feat at level 3 and once he gets level 10 go fighter... Should I allow this player to play this class or just rise to the challenge. I’m also worried about him over shadowing the other party members . The reason I ask is bc I’ve played in games where the summoner and cleric destroy everything and the rest of the party members just sit there .(I was the summoner )
Thank you for your time
Arc

As GM, Summoner is the one class I will require my players to use the Unchained version of, end of story. The Summoner is not a balanced class IMO. I recommend the unchained version of the other ones too as they are either superior (rogue, monk), more balanced (summoner), or easier to keep track of (barb). Even though you're using an extremely low point buy there is still that danger. However, if you decide to allow it I wouldn't lose any sleep. If it does become a problem that's when you could have a conversation with him. It's just easier if things are set that way at the beginning.

I was going to recommended that but he said he would take levels in fighter to make the character not as strong . Again if everyone was a min/maxer in the group I wouldn’t mind as much . I just want my other players to have an enjoyable time which they are . Out of all my players he messages me at least three times a week and we talk about an hour one on one after each sessions.

The problem with low point buy is that it doesn't do much to slow down a min-maxer. There are more than enough Single Ability Dependent builds to go around. And many of those SAD builds are also among the most powerful.

In the future if you want to increase the difficulty of a published adventure, then just add the advanced simple template to most of the enemies.

My preferred method of ability generation is collaborative rolling. That's where you get all of your players to roll a stat array and then players can choose one of those arrays for their stats. I find the standard 4d6 drop the lowest works fine for this, but if you wanted lower stats over all, you might try just 3d6 or 3d6 with reroll all 1s.

. That would have been a good idea

Where did you get the "Is the Ratling getting the +4/+4/+2/+2/+0/-2 stat adjustments for adding class levels?" from?

Its just and idea for a character. I like the idea alot. I forgot all about the climbing feature of the class.

*takes deep breath*

The Synthesist player isn't "cheating the system". He only does what's in the human nature, to adapt in the face of adversity. He does exactly what the game is all about.

The actual problem here is that "my players are using a ten point buy in order to make the adventure path harder" is an utterly wrong presumption. It doesn't actually work like that. The classes aren't well balanced, and low point buy doesn't affect everyone equally. The classes that are already by far the strongest are almost unaffected by a low point buy, because they're SAD and/or because they have combat options aviable that don't actually scale with ability scores. Other classes are de facto disfunctional on a low point buy, and these are the classes already weakest to begin with.

Picking stronger and less ability score dependent classes is the natural reaction to a point buy that leaves many classes virtually unplayable.

Shooting half the classes in the game in the proverbial knee is not the way to true difficulty. Note that other common attempts to increase difficulty, namely lowerign the amount of magic items or the amount of sources (i.e.books) allowed, have the same, misguided effect.
Actual, real difficulty without f!+%ing up inter-class balance worse than it is to begin with lies in the hands of the GM. Playing enemies smarter (especially using environment more) and adding monsters to encounters or templates to existing monsters is the way to do it. Keeping the PCs a level behind expectation might also work.

Thanks for the advice. With the reasoning you gave it makes sense, The reason why I use the 10 point is Because all of my players for the most part are min/maxers. Some classes are natural better than others and the low point buy system was to stop the group from being insanely powerful. We have had a couple of sessions now and I've added some alternate rules/ motivation to make the game harder for the group. From what the group has told me everyone is enjoying the game and mentioned that combat has been challenging and fun.

His stats are
Str 17
dex 13
Con 13
Int 12
Wis 16

AC 17

I don't have his HP in front if me. His attacks are two claw attacks and a bite with poison damage. Its been alright so far. HE does add alot of combat to the party. Right now the party consist of Blood Rager, investigator, occultist, and him. Had some players change classes and one quit.

Its sad that when I get off of social media and come to the advice page to look up character builds I'm hit with the same world I need a break from.

What are some great Martial classes for a ratling to take? I was thinking of maybe a mouser swashbuckler or a cavalier that rides a rat. How would you build this as an effective character?
Arc

For those who remember JUGLAN RIVERCANE tied up about to be eaten by the ghoul was laid out to be just another quirky NPC. Since Juglan had the holy symbol of yog -Sothoth on his forehead I made my players role a religion check. They failed SO i told them it was the holy symbol of pharasma. When they started questioning him he gave the typical response he normally does. He shouted all the words as scripted. MY players tied him up and carried him to the church. When one player found the lesser restoration wand he thought it was a great idea to use it on juglan. I role played juglan up as having lost his mind at the ungodly sights and torture. With the added wisdom he thinks he is a cleric of pharasma. As he continues to rest and heal wisdom damage I'm going to secretly make him a cleric of Yog-Sothoth to back stab my players in the back when they least expect it.
Arc
You can check it out around the 1 hour mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QZLvCuumMk

Yeah, that's quite possibly a super easy path to cheese. Titan Mauler is somewhat suboptimal, but if the character's strength is high enough then it won't miss that often and so all you're seeing are massive weapons with massive damage.

he wants an earth breaker and I Believe titan mauler . If I’m not mistake I think he wants to go summoner 10/fighter 5. I know wizard are crazy at high levels I’ve just never seen a summoner past level 7. This group is a really good group and I have no doubt the campaign will fall apart unless I (the dm in nursing school ) drop out .

I'm just going to ask: is anyone in this party actually built to perform rituals? You really do need an int based skill monkey or you'll have a very Bad Time.

yeah I have a bard in the group.

Squire is an early entry version of Leadership. Summoner doesn't naturally qualify to take Squire because you need to be both 4th level and have proficiency with all Martial weapons. There are ways to get that martial proficiency, but I haven't herd anything mentioned about it yet and they player wants to take it a level too early.

Synth summoner is a way to get good physical stats without paying for them. Compared to every other character you've mentioned, this is total cheese balls.

Ask the player if they are willing to play a Unchained Summoner, with no Synth allowed. The UC Summoner can be OP if you play it right, but not as broken. I bet he'll change class.

he could take a level of fighter at level 3. He wants to be a syn summoner and then go fighter ( titan mauler archetype i believe.)

Wait are you going to restart from 0 the AP and all the players are going to start at lv7?

we are restarting the entire ap. its been a mess and ive added new characters. at this point I don't have anyone from the original party and no one knows whats going on.

Hello All
I have a question regarding a class one my player are wanting to play. My group has had some issues with scheduling so we voted to restart our strange aeons AP. The party will consist of a bard, blood rager( arcane blood line ) , gun slinger , Oracle , and finally a synthesis summoner . Now I usually don’t allow summoners in my group but he’s wanting to play a synthesis summoner with the squire feat at level 3 and once he gets level 10 go fighter. . I will add that my players are using a ten point buy in order to make the adventure path harder . I do want to mention everyone is very experienced with pathfinder. The blood rager , bard , and gun slinger are optimized. Should I allow this player to play this class or just rise to the challenge. I’m also worried about him over shadowing the other party members . The reason I ask is bc I’ve played in games where the summoner and cleric destroy everything and the rest of the party members just sit there .(I was the summoner )
Thank you for your time
Arc

Im currently dming this ap for a group that consist of a Black Powder Inquisitor , magus, and a bloodrager. We are adding a player who wants to play a bard. I saw that a lot of bards flavor come from mind affecting spells and abilities. Will a regular bard still be effective in this ap or should I point him in the way of dirge bard or archivist. I only have the first two books. Book 1 seems like he will be gimped but book 2 seems like he will be effective due to the amount of humanoids the party will be facing.

Be aware of your prerequisites : PBS is needed to take Precise Shot. You'll have to flip those two.

A lot depends on what guns he ends up using. Namely, if he goes for pistols, Rapid Shot would be nice (once he reloads as a free action).
I'm not convinced Vital Strike is all that useful here. You're fighting at range (if very short range) and should hit decently reliably : might as well full-attack. It's a bit of matter of taste and a recurring debate, plus he'll have 9 levels to decide on that : he can take his time to think about it. With everything an Inquisitor can stack on a damage roll I'd absolutely go for multiple attacks, but not everyone's gonna agree.

All in all, a straight-up Gunslinger isn't built all that differently from a more classical archer.
So, how much your friend wants to invest on the Inquisitor bit is something to consider as well.

Finally, Keen Senses cannot be traded for Ancestral Arms, that's an Adaptability replacement.
And with proficiency in all martial weapons and firearms, I'd worry more about replacing Multitalented, and possibly said Adaptability, than Keen Senses. Perception in useful and an Inquisitor will have wisdow anyway.

Thank you so much for your input. it gives us something to work with. We play tonight. I will tell you what we come up with and if you have anything you would like to ad after.

I have a friend thats playing in the strange aeons AP. He wanted to play a gun slinger but I figured that a black powder inquisitor would be better in the long run. the party make up is witch, blood rager,alchemist or wizard ( person hasn't decided yet), and magus, monk. He also wants to be an half-elf. We are using a 10 point buy system .I've came up with this so far:

1:Precise shot ( still undecided)
2:Point Blank shot
3 Deadly Aim
5:Rapid Reload ( still trying to determine which guns the gm is going to allow)
7: undecided
9: Vital strike
11: Devastating Strike

We had thought about replacing keen senses with Ancestral Arms but are unsure what to get. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

From my understanding Intimidate, in particular, is a mind-affecting fear effect, so fearless and mindless creatures are immune to all uses of Intimidate.... There are creatures that are immune to mind-affecting in this AP. The build is nice and you will be useful in the campaign but you my be gimped during the play through. I'm dm'ing it now and I've only read up to the third book. I know book one by heart now and i can tell you theirs a bunch of enemies that are immune to mind-affecting spells and abilities. I hope I didn't spoil it for you. Just wanted you to be warned.

Arcasus wrote:

Could anyone tell me if any of the NPC's besides Winter are important for the other modules. I only have a copy of In Search of Sanity.

They aren't, not really. You can always make them significant, but the AP doesn't assume anyone from In Search of Sanity continues into later modules. Even Winter isn't vital--as written, she's a useful way to introduce the PCs to Thrushmoor in the next chapter.

NOTE: I rebuilt her as a Royal Accuser inquisitor changeling, gave her a sardonic personality, and had her helping the PCs out for both this chapter and the next one before she went on to other things.

I was going to have B7 be a room kept locked in my story. I was thinking about making the shrine a way to resist ghoul fever and the like. I wanted to give Vaustin York a son that's there being treated for it by an orderly. Once the pc's first enter the barricade they are able to go inside the room but see its more for quarantine and chose not to explore. The next time they decide to come back its noted that his son is sick and cant see any visitors. I wanted to have him succumb to ghoul fever, bite the orderly then start attacking survivors. Once the players come back a third time they note the survivors are almost completely wiped out with a trail of blood through the hallway and church.

Isthill wrote:

I made it one of my PC's old gear, personally. The magus used to be an eldritch knight, and red destiny was his bonded item (this was decided after the magus was the one who decided to use it, though).

I had similar thoughts but wondered if this was another "viol" with connections to an NPC later in the campaign, or was otherwise a tie-in to some Lovecraft-related tale.

I have a demon spawn tiefling in my group that I'm going to say was an assassin of lowels. I'm changing the name to Red Murder which on a critical hit is going to summon a murder of crows to fight for him for 1min or until destroyed.

Could anyone tell me if any of the NPC's besides Winter are important for the other modules. I only have a copy of In Search of Sanity.

I'm sorry, I have to ask: how did an assassin vine kill everyone in the party?

I didnt want to ask but since we are here.

It looks like it's based on frostbite doing nonlethal damage, and an interpretation that enforcer's requirement that you do nonlethal damage with a melee weapon works if you use frostbite and spellstrike. It wouldn't apply on normal attacks, just when you're hacking away with a scimitar loaded with (rime) frostbite.

where is the entangle coming from " cast Frostbite and for one attack per level you get to fatigue, entangle, and shake enemies at the same time;"

Druid or cleric would be my choice. If you wanted to do a front line fighter build a Druid that used wild shape primarily. I would suggest magus as well.
Arc

Quote:

If a creature has only one natural attack, it is always made using the creature's full base attack bonus and adds 1-1/2 the creature's Strength bonus on damage rolls.

If your GM doesn't allow things that are clearly in the rules, then we can't give meaningful advice in the first place, because we don't know what is true and what isn't for your table.

I'm the gm and I'm pretty open minded about rules as long as they are not game breaking and the entire party as a whole are having a good time.

All this Player wants to do is attack people with her hair and still have a great time role playing. she doesn't care how she does it she just wants to do this while being useful in combat. I will look into the shaman and see what I can come up with.

I'm starting another group planning to run rise of the runelords. I have a player who wants to play a class that lets them use their hair as a weapon. ive been trying to explain to this person how the game works and searched the internet as well as tried to give them advice about the character. my concern is will this class be able to keep up throughout the story? I've never dm'd for a witch up to that level so i honestly have no clue how good the class is. the classes we have are Wizard, magus (dex),slayer, and this person. Everyone else is experienced . While doing researched we found that it seems like the easiest thing to do is go hex crafter magus. Im just worried that having two magus in the group will cause one or the other to feel inadequate. I've never dm'd for two of the same classes either. The player really just wants to be able to use her hair as much as possible while still being useful.
The build we have so far with a 15 pt buy human
STR: 13 DEX: 14 CON: 11 INT: 16 WIS: 10 CHA: 7

1 (Witch 1) (White Haired Witch archetype) Feats: Rime Spell, Combat Reflexes
(King Crab familiar, Strength or Wisdom Patron)
2 (Witch 2) - Constrict
3 (Magus 1) Spell Combat, Arcane Pool Feat: Power Attack
4 (Magus 2) Spellstrike
5 (Magus 3) Arcana- Arcane Accuracy Feat: Final Embrace
6 (Magus 4) Hex Arcana- Prehensile Hair
7 (Magus 5) Feat: Cornugon Smash Bonus Feat: Extra Arcana (Flight Hex)
8 (Magus 6) Arcana: Spell Scars
9 (Magus 7) Medium Armor, Knowledge Pool Feat: Lunge
10 (Magus8) Improved spell combat

thank you for your time.
ARC

Thank you everyone for the awesome suggestions. I will do a sword and board slayer and mention it to him . If anyone has any builds feel free to post them but it seems pretty straight forward from what I’ve seen. Again thanks everyone for commenting.
Arc

I’m running the ROTRL adventure path modified(expanded the skinsaw murders) and we are getting a new player. He wants to play a half orc fighter that thinks he is a rogue. For example he walks up to a door to lock pick it but with his strength he just break the lock off and says to the party” no one heard that we are fine” . He’s big into role play and not worried about combat too much. My concern is once we get to the giants I know combat is going to be a bit harder. Does anyone have any ideas of how to make this build viable for combat but still fun for him to role play ? He will be level 7 and he mentioned wanting to use a one handed weapon. I’ve looked at the sword and board builds but I’m not sure that’s the route he wants.
I’ve been looking at a falchion for his weapon and feats such as power attack, weapons focus, weapon focus & greater , improved critical and maybe deadly stroke. Traits toothy and fey thoughts.
Arc

I’ve asked both players several times what are some things they would enjoy doing or would like to do or how they see there character . The bard says he likes the story and the paladin told me he thinks he would enjoy the game if he knew how to play his class better . I then sent him some links to YouTube videos and a class guide. I will give it another try and see what happens.
Arc