Astrikkar Arkylon's page

If I quicken a fireball and then use ranged spellstrike shocking grasp will that arrow carry both spells?

Second question, is pinpoint accuracy compatible with ranged spellstrike?

Diehard at first level, if I'm going to die when I get to 0 I might as well stay up as I'm dying.

Okay so bear with me on this on. A while back I got to thinking about tropes in anime and one thing that stuck with me was the wise old master who bulks up when he is about to fight. I'm specifically thinking of Master Roshi/Jackie Chun. He takes his shirt off and he is this frail little old man, but then he suddenly flexes and becomes very large and quite muscular. So I thought how could I play that character in Pathfinder. I figured it out.

To posit that the multi class build is better or at least on Par with a standard monk I intend to compare the loss/gain of this build. Let's begin:

I intend to build a Qinggong monk/19 Synthsist 1. Ultimately, the player loses the 20th level of monk and is effectively one level behind comparable monks of his level, but what is he really giving up?

-1 on all his flurry of blows attacks
-1 AC bonus
-4 To max damage on his attack rolls (avg -2.5 per attack)
Perfect Self which provides two benefits-
Becoming an outsider
and DR 10/ Chaotic

He gains
+2 Natural armor at least from his synthesized eidolon
becoming a native outsider while fused with his eidolon
Evolution Pool that can be used to gain DR10/Chaotic
Further, with a well timed Evolution Surge the monk gains numerous potential buffs.

So, how to optimize?
15 point buy
7 str
7 dex
7 con
14 int
18 wis
14 Cha

After aging to venerable these become:

1 Str
1 Dex
1 Con
17 int
21 Wis
13 Cha

Because the eidolon replaces the physical ability scores, assuming you choose a biped you end up with

16 Str
12 Dex
13 Con
17 Int
21 Wis
13 Cha

This is the equivalent of a 42 point buy character.

Now, I know what you are thinking, wait! what about his hit points?

because the Eidolon provides Temp HP equal to its normal hitpoints, and it can be dismissed in the evening and resummoned during the day at full hit points, if you get wrecked in combat, a simple nights rest will restore the gross majority of your vitality.

Qinggong monk allows you to one off replace the useless ability "Timeless body."

So, I am looking for any feedback you can give me looking at these numbers. did I miss something? can I improve the build? Does it not work utterly? I appreciate your feedback!

DM_Blake wrote:

No player has EVER beaten a GM. Any player who thinks they have is wrong - that player's GM simply tanked the fight so the player could win. Any player who thinks he can beat the GM is wrong. It can't be done.

I have, several times. Under conditions very similar to those described by the OP.

It was always a pyrrhic victory, it destroyed the campaigns.

Bag of holding+portable hole= hold the game hostage

I'd like to use the variant Multiclassing rules from'unchained' but the class I want as my secondary is Synthesist summoner. I don't much care for the other abilities I just really want the eidolon. Do the rules prohibit this since I won't have all the class abilities to replace or can I replace the class abilities offered by the secondary class?

So vital strike is off the table but everything else is legit?

Just so I'm clear, I can make the following turn actually happen:

Feats:
Rapid Reload
Intensified spell
Focused Shot
Vital strike

Standard action: Cast intensified Shocking Grasp (CL 10)
Deliver through a heavy crossbow Vital strike with Focused shot
2d10 +10d6+int

Move action Reload heavy crossbow.

This is before any of the fun that comes from arcane archer which is a significant boost to BAB in the end.

Is this legal? if so any other cheese I can add on to this?

So, I am finishing up writing a complete module and I need to know how long it will take for PCs to run it completely. anyone have tips for estimating dungeon run time?

I want to make a bard character. Gnome, standard bard, Perform Conducting. I want to take leadership and have all my followers also be bards. In effect I want to have a full orchestra follow me around. Here is my question, if 130 bards play in unison what can I recommend to my GM as ways to handle this in a non game breaking way. (Does inspire courage even stack?)

Definitely feel like masterpieces are an option, was also thinking Expanding area of effect for members of the orchestra centered on the Maestro.

I should clarify, party wants to do roll four drop lowest put stats where you want which is what we are going to do. When I am a player I usually like to play underpowered.

Hey guys,
I'm going to run a table in april and one of my players is having difficulty motivating herself to make a character. Player is limited in experience in Pathfinder, and feels like the rules are too binding (our other GM is a rules Lawyer).
Aside from that, her last character was a half elf Summoner/Arcane Archer and did almost no damage against creatures with damage reduction. She wants to wreck house and doesn't want to play a fighter.
I was thinking magus kensai, but I'm not sure. I've never been a power gamer, in fact as a player I prefer playing roll three six times and keep the stats in the order they land.

Assistance?

I am creating a character for a campaign and I want to take full advantage of the mundane alchemy items available in Pathfinder. I'm having trouble figuring some things out. If my character wanted to craft a flask of acid, for example, he would need 33 silver and a DC 15 check. It would take a normal character 1 week to make. Because I am a level 4 alchemist, I have a Craft (alchemy) check of 16 and I craft in half the time so in one week I would make 2 flasks for 66 Silver with two successful checks(We play with the rules that you take one week regardless). Now, if I take the +10 to craft quickly, how much faster do I craft? What if I take the Master Alchemist Feat? Essentially, How much can I craft with alchemy in a week?

Note: This excludes Poisons which I am not interested in and the rules for which are very clear.

I was hoping that someone could point me in the direction of a few good virtual table-tops. As the years have gone on my good friends have scattered to the winds and many pine for the old Friday night game. I really want to run with a vtt and I am currently looking at Roll20 and RPG with me. I do have some preferences but I am very flexable.

Some features I am interested in:

A non-browser client. Browser based programs have had a history of being a pain in the ass for me.

Internal character sheets. Roll20 doesn't seem to have character sheet support, and RPG with me requires players to use herolab. I am not opposed to buying hero lab, I'd rather use my books though.

Fog of War. Visability has always been a tough rule to manage at the table with minis and the like, so a fog of war would be wonderful.

in client mapping program.

If someone could point me in the right direction that would be wonderful.

Imbue arrow with detonate. That's one hell of an explosive arrow. Add meta magics for more fun. Empower or maximize will always give you the best output, but because you can determine the energy type of the spell on cast, there are energy type dependent metamagics that would be brilliant in conjunction with this.

@Mergy I don't remember off hand, but he proposed his tactic to me and I allowed it.

@ Adamantine Dragon
Scribing a scroll takes 2 hours if its base price is 250 gp or less, otherwise scribing a scroll takes 1 day for each 1,000 gp in its base price. To scribe a scroll, you must use up raw materials costing half of this base price.

I don't remember reading that only one Item can be created per day, but afrer reviewing the rules I suppose this is the case, under that circumstance I would revise my prior statement by saying There is no reason to not leave a spell slot open and at the end of the day prepare a spell and scribe it into a scroll, in effect making one scroll per day.

As a dm I had a player that used Create water to Waterboard his enemies.
I've had wizards Ghost sound fanfare to victory in battle.
I've had a rogueless party use Open/close on every door and chest, and one time they got a surprise round on a mimic.

As a player I rolled a druid who used create water and Animate water to assasinate an entire town. The water flows under the door and drowns people in their sleep (Coup de Grace)

Just saying, if you get full strength bonus on your first attack and half strength bonus on your second attack, that equals strength and a half.

One quick note about shield: I had the party fight a Dwarven defender once who had an ac so high that they had to roll a 18 or higher to hit him. He didn't attack, but the room was rigged with wands of magic missile that would discharge on random party members each round. The sorcerer cast five minutes of shield and the group pound down commenced. Never seen so many sunder attempts.

You are playing a wizard, great! If you aren't making scrolls in town you should consider doing so. On days when the party is not in immediate danger of being absolutely slaughtered you can scribe all your spells per day onto semi-permanent scrolls. I believe it takes 1 hour per spell level, so it's not like you can make 4 scrolls of ride the lightning, but you can, and probably should, stock up on spells you think you will want on a situation basis. As a GM, I allow my players to create the scrolls as lower caster levels than they actually are, down to the lowest level the character would have access to the spell at. That saves them some money. In any case, the biggest perk to wizards is the ability to have nearly unlimited spells per day (As long as you have the coin).

If you are worried about using the scroll in combat and losing a turn, I suggest you make one or two scrolls per party member while you're in town. When it comes time to enter the dragons lair you can give each party member 9 hours of protection. Mage armor also lasts while you sleep so you can cast it on players in camp to help ward against the inevitable ambush at night.

Cursed Items are always fun too.

While the party is sleeping Have them all roll for initiative, tell the player he now sees them all as hostile threats. Add in a few monsters, wait until the entire party is dead and he is on his last leg.

Tell him he wakes up from his nightmare. Everyone laughs a little at his expense. Be gracious with the XP rewards.

145. Loot the bodies,i I would do it myself but I don't have that kind of strength score.

Ive always wanted to make one, but there aren't any archetypes or feats that offer benefit to double weapons.

Does anyone ever actually use Double weapons?

Who has war stories about getting their butts kicked by an illusionist besides me?

It was an evil campaign, everyone in the party was lawful and followed their own laws. I was but a Young Fighter of only level 2 and my brother was playing a gnomish illusionist named Grimble. I don't remember the exact circumstances, but I was on a train protecting a guy with a sachel. the party didn'd know what was in the sachel, but we were guarding it's delivery. We had a Chaotic neutral Barbarian who I believe had brain damage, and Grimble had him charmed for most of the game.

At some point in the train ride grimble decided that the sachel belonged to him and told the barbarian that there were bunnies in the bag that the man planned to kill. The Barbarian raged; I stepped in to stop him, and Grimble colorsprayed me. I fell asleep, and the little bastard coup de grace'd me.

Never underestimate a gnome backed into a corner.

Any other fun stories?

In pathfinder the stats on lycanthropes are quite simple unlike in 3.0-3.5. All lycanthropes get +2 wis and -2 cha in all forms then when they are in the hybrid or animal form they also gain +2 str and +2 con. I do not have my books with me at the moment but I know they also get +1 or +2 natural armor but I am not sure if that is in all forms or just animal/hybrid form. It is the same for every type so this makes it very easy to remember.

I had a Pirate campaign where my party got inducted into a Were-crew and each party member got an extra +2 bonus (+4 in a few places) to stats where their creatures were exceptionally strong, and a natural weapon or special ability that fit the bill. The encounters were tuned to fight a CR +2 party. It worked out pretty well. My favorite PC played a were-drake fighter who used his gore attack as the basis of combat feats.

You could also ignore the fact that they're OP and "punish" them by putting them up against encounters that are designed for non-munchkins. After several fights that are nominal at best they will reconsider their character choices. Or they won't, in which case you as a dm could focus on story more and combat less. If they don't want a challenge, why pull your hair out giving it to them?

Ah! I didn't mean animal empathy, I meant Animal Affinity. The idea behind that one was a passive +10 feat bonus, 10 ranks, +3 class skill, and +2 Stat Bonus would give a base ride score of 25. Shield focus is easy to add in when I take out the overrun feats and charge through.
Which leaves us with 6 or so feats to figure out.

Thank you all :) I really feel like there should be a consolidated source for these rules in CORE. You've helped me a lot. :D

No, I want them to have lower, more manageable stats; it has just been several years since I've had a party with no natural 18s and at least one stat per character under 10 (I've never DM's one to be sure). Truthfully, I am rather excited to see my players role play their deficiencies.

The Emmisary archetype gives trick riding and puts the cavalier in medium armor, not much to do about that. I'll keep in mind the mount doing the cmd stuff, that's good to know and frees up some feat space. Also, the mount is the one that takes the attacks of Opportunity for running through combat. As far as Dex being higher than Str, I am allowing the Order of the Sword 8th level which allows them to use their mounts strength on attacks in addition to their own.
thanks for the help ^_^

3d6 put em where you want em. I got a player with a five, tough break.

I've never realized the restrictions on ability score boosts (probably because I have never had a party that got terribly high).
What are the various buffs and boosts players can get an what is the maxium players can artificially increase their scores.

+5 Books (can I put one in each score, or does a character get one book in
their career)
+6 Top three belt of win
+6 bottom three Headband of win
+1 x5 for leveling up

Is that it? Are there other ways (outside of class abilities) to increase ability scores?

I made my newest party roll Classic style so some of their more painful rolls might thank you.

Bump

Still thats a 36 without the stone.

I'm pretty sure this has already been discussed,but i don't find what i really need.

Soon i could need a home rule to prevent a couple of spellcasters from casting their spells,a magus and a sorcerer.
It is still hypothetical,but i'm pondering the possibility of having my party captured/enslaved soon or in upcoming quests,but now the problems i'm having is how to do it.
I know a GM must be extra careful when handling such situations,and the real concern isn't to arrange for a cool escape,but how to keep the spellcasters imprisoned for awhile.
When a player asked me, i told him "of course there are ways of keeping you from casting your spells...or else when a BBEG captures the PCs,and it happens sometimes,the only other possible choice to be sure you won't cast the spells you still have memorized is outright killing you"
When and if it will happen however i'll need to know what such ways are;
a sorcerer (draconic bloodline if this is important)is a pain in this regard,since she already has Eschew materials and if he takes Still spells and Silence spells....i don't want to think at that;for the magus it should be enough to strip her (female elf) of spellbook/components bags,but she will still have memorized slots, and can still take the aforementioned feats.
I thought of maybe some necklace that casts a personal anti-magic field and is person-specific,so it wouldn't work on other spellcasters,but maybe i'm overacting with designing such an item? Isn't it too powerful?

I made an encounter once that I put a level seven party with a wizard, a cleric, and a summoner up against. It had four clerics, two paladins and an inquisitor. I broke the rules somewhat and gave them each the Disruptive Feat. The clerics took turns channeling energy to disrupt spells and the Inquisitor... something... I don't remember why he was there (perhaps only for RP). They were a group of Anti-arcane Church Inquisitors. you could try something like that.

Astrikkar Arkylon wrote:

Any how that's what I've done for OP parties in the past. I just got done with a party that had a wizard with a 37 int. the rest of the party started feeling a little outclassed by the end

May I ask how he got to 37 Int? I only query because natural progression, maximum stats, full level point increase and magical items have a maximum score of 31. I assume there's a wish or two involved and some other tricks I'm aware of, but just curious in either case.

18

He was a total munchkin by the end. I used to allow 3.5 prestige classes at my table, but he came up with this ridiculous combo with his Pathfinder wizard Sorceror and the Ultimate Magus from Complete Mage. He took that and I think two feats. With that build he was able to use his bonus spells on his sorcerer side and spontaniously add metamagic feats to his Prepared spells (Evocation School ad mixture subschool) He was letting fly Enlarged Maximized Sonicballs (Fireball) each round. Almost nothing resists sonic energy. Needless, "Jeremiah Powergamer" became the center point of my encounter design. I had to adopt a philosophy of "Make the fight easy for the rest of the party and hard for the wizard to keep it balanced. Total nightmare, I grew from it though.

This is what I recommend
1. Make it fair, Roll your monster stats
2. Use lower level monsters with class levels. A raging red dragon with one or two levels of barbarian of medium size can be as hard as a large one without giving him the deadly breath attack or a fear aura your party cant handle.
3. put them up against a mostly human party and use higher cr monsters as bosses. This is good if you want to burn them down over a couple encounters but keep enough of their abilities for a larger boss.

Any how that's what I've done for OP parties in the past. I just got done with a party that had a wizard with a 37 int. the rest of the party started feeling a little outclassed by the end

This is what I recommend
1. Make it fair, Roll your monster stats
2. Use lower level monsters with class levels. A raging red dragon with one or two levels of barbarian of medium size can be as hard as a large one without giving him the deadly breath attack or a fear aura your party cant handle.
3. put them up against a mostly human party and use higher cr monsters as bosses. This is good if you want to burn them down over a couple encounters but keep enough of their abilities for a larger boss.

Any how that's what I've done for OP parties in the past. I just got done with a party that had a wizard with a 37 int. the rest of the party started feeling a little outclassed by the end

... I am helping a player of mine on their character.

They're playing a Gnome Emissary (Archetype) Cavalier and using only content from CORE, APG,Ultimate Magic,or Ultimate Combat. the feats I recommended are:

1)**Mounted Combat (Combat)
1)Ride-by Attack (Combat)
3)Spirited Charge (Combat)
5)Skill focus (Ride)
5)**Mobility
6b)Agile Maneuvers (Combat)
7)Power Attack (Combat)
9)Animal Empathy
9)**Trick Riding (Combat)
11)Improved Overrun (Combat)
12b)Charge Through (Combat
13)Trample (Combat)
14)**Mounted Skirmisher (Combat)
15))Greater Overrun (Combat)
17)Mounted Shield (Combat)
18b)[Undecided]
19)[undecided]
**Denotes A feat from a class skill.
I am allowing them to take the Order of the sword 8th level ability in place of any other order's.

The idea is to charge through combat and stay away from the bulk of fighting.