I like almost everything in this book, but I have to ask, Paizo, do you hate ranged rogues or something? You have no rackets that support ranged attacks, and now you release two ancestries that are lorewise known for rogues: sprite and kitsune, but you give both of them a ranged natural attack feat that doesn't work with sneak attack? Why the torture?
Play a commoner with max umd and lead off with a maze scroll then set up a portable hole up on the ground where he will reappear then just ready an action to close the hole. Otherwise max handle animal and buy trained stirges with the exclusive defend and attack tricks for 20 gold a pop and just watch him drop if he swings at you and you laugh as you out duel a paladin without class features
Kensai magus with flamboyant arcana and the following feats:
Power Attack
Combat Reflexes
Martial Focus
cut from the air
This allows you to parry melee and ranged attack rolls as attacks of opportunity, much like a jedi deflecting attacks in the movies. On top of that, you don't wear armor, so you can wear just robes without gimping yourself. Lastly, you can grab spells that simulate force powers.
What about using the nameless one feat from arcane anthology? just put on your ritual mask and suddenly people can't identify you anymore, you don't need to lose any rogue levels to have a secrete identity.
Slap a Hat of Disguise on that so they won't know what's up until they charge him and get a face full of tentacle.
Its funny, because they way polymorphs effects work, he gets a + 10 on disguise checks from wildshape to appear as on octopus, but no actual penalty to disguise himself as his normal race. so in effect, with a har of disguise he has a +10 on a disguise check to appear as himself, and if they penetrate his disguise, he still looks like himself. When success or failure of a skill check has the same result, something fun and probably unintended is happening.
I don't know of any other ways, but it looks like you just want to be a super damage blaster caster, and were willing to consider being a wizard, what if you went cross blooded sorcerer 1, wizard 19 with the trait that increases your caster level by 2 up to your character level? You would end up with a spell casting progression that was slower than a normal wizard, but you would be doing up to 2 extra points of damage per damage dice.
Also worth mentioning, if you go wizard, you could also pick up the creative destruction discovery to get temp hp based on your damage dice from evocation spells.
They retain their ability to breath; per beast shape, their type and subtype does not change when using wild shape, though according to the polymorph rules in the magic section, they gain the ability to breath while swimming since the new form gives them a swim speed.
So, just to stir the pot with my paranoid and somewhat annoyed views that a vigilante is better at everything than a rogue/ fighter, there is a vigilante talent that has you choose a type of thrown weapon.
Whenever you throw your chosen weapon type, it gains the returning feature. Additionally, starting at level 14, whenever he throws more than one of his chosen weapon in a round, he can apply all magical properties that were on the first weapon he threw to every weapon he threw after that, so if you have a +5 javelin, you throw it, and your 3 or 4 other normal javelins, and they not only all return to you, but they also all count as +5 javelins when you throw them.
TO stir the pot further, the talent gains it second benefit at "level 14"
not vigilante level 14, so you could get it with a level 2 dip in vigilante.
if it wasn't for flavor though, star knives would still be better since ultimate intrigue gave us a way to add dex to damage on a starknife
I hate to say this, but with your class, Focused shot is worse than it would be for most other classes.
The Eldritch Archer has the ability to effectively skip taking rapid shot because spell combat gives him/her an improved equivalent to that ability as long as he/she is within 25 feet + 5 feet / 2 levels. Spell combat with acid splash or ray of frost gives you two attacks at the same penalty as rapid shot, with an additional 1d3 damage on one of the attacks.
Spell Combat also acts similarly to manyshot, since it adds spell damage to one of your attacks.
The problem with focused shot, is that as a standard action, it cannot be used with your ranged spellstrike ability or your spell combat ability. It is basically unusable with the parts of your class that make you a good archer.
if you really want to make the equivalent of Ashe, I would suggest using the level 1 spell snowball with spell combat as a good way to start.
As far as the feats you listed as additional options, bullseye shot can be difficult to use for the same reasons, but since its a move action, it can at least be combined with spellstrike.
You have not told us what traits you took, if you did not take the trait magical lineage or another magic trait, I would strongly recommend that you take "additional traits" feat. This would give you two more traits, and if you take magical lineage snowball, you could also pick up the intensify spell metamagic feat, and be adding quite a bit of cold damage to your attacks.
As far as multi classing goes, the magus, and the eldritch archer archetype in particular give abilities that are in most ways superior to what would be gained from going into those prestige classes. The attraction of those prestige classes is being able to enter them from a wizard, and having nearly full wizard casting progression while also being somewhat martial, as a 6 spell level caster, you lose a lot of the appeal. In Pathfinder. multi classing in general is not something that is usually done for casters.
Eldritch Archer can be a very strong single class build, So I would not recommend multi classing.
Druid with a wounding amulet of mighty fists turning into a Giant Octopus with Wildshape. This will give you up to 9 natural attacks per round and each one will add one point of stacking bleed. assuming all your attacks hit
for extra fun, give the druid some summoning feats, and shade of the Uskwood feat. Druid starts fight invisible and uses all its level 3 spells summoning 1d4+2 stirges before it attacks your players as a giant octopus. remember, stirges while attatched drain 1 point of con per round, which is sort of like bleed. You don't even need to feel bad about doing it, you said they have a wizard, if he can pass his concentration check, he can fry them all if he has even one AOE spell.
if you go to 19, pick up beliers bite for 1d4 bleed on unarmed strike
Give this character an agile + speed amulet of mighty fists, and a permanent greater magic fang, they can always make a full attack using either flying kick or dimensional dervish
with dimensional savant, if you beat any of them on initiative, you will have 6 attacks at full BAB (1 normal, 1 speed, 2 flurry, 2 medusa's wrath) plus 4 at lower bonuses, all of these attacks will get sneak attack since they are flat footed, which comes 2d8 + 6d6 + 5 dex mod damage per hit. With a dex of only 28, each hit averages 44 damage, even if only 4 of the 10 attacks hit, that is an average of 176 damage, which should be enough to put down a single person rather easily (maybe not the paladin)
For attacks where you don't win on initiative, you do the same thing, except you make your first attack a stunning fist attempt, succeed or fail, all attacks except the first one are sneak attacks, and if they fail the stunning fist save, you get two extra attacks at full BAB.
Since the paladin is the only party member with a good fort save, most of them have a good chance of failing the stunning fist save.
for practical reasons, I would always recommend killing the witch first, then the sorcerer, then, because this is supposed to be an evil nemesis, kill the paladin, saving the bard for last.
I keep a list of monster's home brewed from various mythologies or fictional series, my two favorites are:
carnivorous sheep; lightning resistant flammable sheep that have jagged teeth and a variant of the attach ability that causes bleed damage if forcefully removed (without a heal check)
Knight Hawks: Roc sized birds that live in rocky areas and hunting for anyone wearing shiny armor (full plate, breastplates and the like primarily) when they find their preferred prey, the fly down grapple their target, and carry it into the sky before dropping it on a convenient rock to break open the hard shell to get at the tasty insides (much like certain birds of prey do to tortoises.
Also, a room with a programmed image of a 60 stirges attacking mixed in with 5 real stirges
Is it just me, or is anyone else bothered by the fact that a vigilante can effectively and actually get more combat feats than a fighter while still you know, having narrative power?
Isn't the advantage of wearing light armor that you have a higher max dexterity bonus?
Besides, giving up shield proficiency is a joke, for less than 300 gold, anyone who doesn't care about arcane spell failure chance can use a darkwood heavy wooden shield without proficiency penalties. Since he is a fighter, its even worse since at level 7, he wont have any penalties from using a non masterwork heavy shield.
I would give no bonuses, and point him in the direction of the several archetypes that lose heavier armor proficiency feats, and possibly other classes such as slayer and swashbuckler.
The old KOTOR Star Wars game had "Duelist" feats that improved attack and AC when using a free-hand style, and they could do something like that easily enough in Pathfinder. As it is, Pathfinder just has some class features and feats that usually still assume you're fighting in a front-on sword-and-shield stance.
Not saying it couldn't be an option, but those KOTOR feats had nothing to do with keeping a free hand, they gave a + 1 to attack and AC per rank for wielding a single weapon, and if you watch the combat animations, they always kept both hands on their weapon.
As far as providing a benefit, there are already a number of benefits provided either by classes, feats, or magic items. Additionally, as others have mentioned, having a free hand gives you all of the benefits that having a free hand entails:
-Holding something such as a torch in your offhand
-Being able to use combat maneuvers that might not be possible with both hands occupied
--having a hand free to cast
--being able to open doors (seriously, try this holding a sword and a shield)
--Other uses for a free hand I haven't thought to mention, I'm sure there are a few
Bestiary 5 has a playable small race that has a bonus to strength rather than a penalty, Orang-Pendak,
If you want an intelligent mount, you can either put a point into its intelligence when it gets to a high enough level to have an ability score increase (bringing it up to a 3 which lets it understand one language) or you can try one of the combinations of feats or classes that can get a familiar, and give it the Mauler Archtype. (you could also play a paladin since their mount starts with an int of 6)
If you want a flying and intelligent mount, take a look at the monstrous mount feat, it will allow you to pick up an intelligent flying mount, as long as you meat all of the prerequisites.
Shadow duplicate will allow you to gain a single mirror image as an immediate action after being hit by an attack, (miss chance applies against the triggering attack) once a day, plus an additional time for every five rogue levels you have.
flanking or improved feint will allow you to add sneak attack damage and insure you benefit from offensive defensive.
your attack bonus at level 7 if you are using combat expertise will be a + 12
You are also spending less than half of your 20,000 on dedicated defensive items
Can the new spells "Dancing Darkness" and "Motes of Dusk and Dawn" create areas of supernatural darkness?
The spells lack the restriction the the darkness spell includes so it seems like they should, but at the same time, it seems slightly odd that a level 1 spell could do what a level 2 spell could not.
These spells also lack the wording in the darkness spell that prevent them from stacking with each other, so what happens in the following circumstance
Dancing darkness is cast and all 4 orbs are concentrated in the same area,does the light level drop multiple steps (one for each orb)?
Motes of Dusk and Dawn is cast with some of the motes shedding light and some shedding darkness, since the orbs have to be kept so close together that they will always overlap, do two light motes and two darkness motes negate each other causing the spell to do nothing?
Lastly, since light shedding motes increase illumination by up to two stages rather than shedding light as a torch, can they create areas of bright light?
There is also the minor issue of the mauler archetype not being applicable to a improved familiar, since the mauler replaces speak with others of its kind, which improved familiars don't receive.
For starters, you can be glad your friend isn't a Goliath druid with the destruction domain, because then the cyclops would auto confirm all of their critical threats
other than that, if you are level 13 you theoretically have a sneak attack value of 7d6, spend a bunch of gold and get a level 15 caster level wand of fiery shuriken (you are a ninja, so its even thematic sort of). at caster level 15 a fiery shuriken spell gives 8 touch attacks each doing 1d8, if you uses your invisible blade talent, they can all be sneak attacks, which will give you a standard action that does 232 fire damage on average. granted, fire resistance screws your damage, but keeping in mind that you should have higher initiative than your druid friend, you should be able to get two uses off in combat before they can attack with their summoned monster. (unless the gm is forgetting it takes a full round to cast summon nature's ally, not just a full round action)
Of course, this is just starting an arms race, and if you do go this route, bosses will be even less fun.
all these methods you guys have listed have one major flaw, they don't leave you with a tarrasque.
Best way to deal with a tarrasque is to summon an infernal duke using gate, have it melee the tarrasque once, banish it, then use handle animal to tame the tarrasque. Since drain does not heal naturally, the tarrasque will be tamable with handle animal until it somehow gets that point of intelligence back. now you have a tarrasque for a mount and you can resume conquering the world while the heroes that threw a tarrasque at you in an attempt to halt your conquering armies quake in fear at the new weapon they have given you.
at that point just sow the ground with salt, it would be cheaper, and if collateral damage is the goal, making the land impossible to farm resulting in widespread famine and starvation sounds like a great way to go about it. I mean as long as we are flying around overhead.
The magic of the Runes specifically says you have to be close (5' or 10'), meaning whatever squiggles they are made of aren't resolvable unless you are that close, even with a telescope (gotta love magic).
Explosive runes say you have to be close to take damage, but doesn't say you have to be close to trigger the explosion.
Well actually they say that people close enough to read them get no save, so if you can read them at 100 feet, that is a 100 foot radius explosion.
Give the dragon full plate, and choose spells without somatic components or even just give them woad paint. now the dragon which normally would have a difficult to hit ac is even harder to hit, and its spell casting is not really hindered.
The katana double walking stick is messed up and needs some errata. Clearly it shouldn't do bludgeoning damage with the blades and should have its blade stats as the listed ones.
The katana double walking stick along with a number of other weapons first appearing in ultimate combat have similar issues with clarity of function. Considering that they have not received an errata, is there even a chance that an errata will ever occur, especially an errata in the comparatively near future?
If not, would giving it stats like a pair of wakizashi that it is described as be appropriate or do you have an alternative set of statistics that you would recommend,
I know this is from before you started working for paizo, but whats your opinion on the katana double walking stick? does it do bludgeoning damage at all times or do the blades share stats with a wakizashi which the description says they resemble?
Two things, first, only the wearer of a handy haversack can get anything out of it. that means that if you where it while sleeping, he has to remove it from you, which you can make difficult or impossible by using glue or similar means to prevent it ever leaving your possession, locked gauntlet can also work since you can't sleight of hand things being held in hand.
Two, if you are willing to use a gammy method, carry weight up to exactly one coin over your medium encumbrance, so you are heavily encumbered. Inform your GM of the situation, and ask to be alerted if you ever become less encumbered. IF you do, then someone has robbed you.
Also, if you are 4th level or higher, just use keep watch, its a first level paladin spell.
2. This one is just wrong. Anything that adds to attack rolls adds to CMB. Heroism, True Strike, Pale Green Prism Ioun Stone, flanking, etc. This is true even for maneuvers that don't use weapons.
I would argue that since the majority of methods that add straight attack bonuses are spells, something martials generally don't have access to, my point still stands. The fact that you pointed out the ioun stone, which costs 30,000 for a +1, sort of proves my point. It's one of the few unqualified attack bonuses, and it is super expensive for very little benefit.
Two points, first, you can get a cracked version of the ioun stone for only 4,000 gold that gives the same bonus to attack. you can also pick up a flawed version for 28,000 that gives a moral bonus instead (yeah too expensive until way late game)
second, Don't all of the combat maneuvers you are saying can't be done with a weapon benefit from amulet of mighty fists?
Don't think it works with spell conduit due to specifying enemy, but I have used a similar tactic with spell storing to give myself in-combat buffs or healing by hitting myself, risky since it applies damage as well but with some builds its really good for action economy.
Thank you to everyone who has or will contribute an insight, based on your comments I will be revamping and possibly redesigning the encounter over the next couple of days and I will post back with the revised version of the encounter.
Don't care how powerful you are or what's prepped, if you're a solo boss you'll almost always fail due to "action economy". Needs at least one or two good body guards/
Think Black Tentacles have a major flaw in that Freedom of Movement (almost a must have in those high levels) make them almost worthless.
Thats why he was using spellbane to prevent anyone from benefiting from the spell.
Trait
Signature Spell Black Tentacles
Magical linage Black Tentacles
Feats
1: Combat Casting
3: Spell Focus Conjuration
5: Spell Focus Divination
Wizard: Heighten Spell
7: Spell Specialization Black Tentacles
9: Mages Tattoo (Conjuration)
Wizard: something?)
11: Steward of the great beyond (arcane discovery)
13: Spell perfection Black Tentacles (via retraining after 20)
15: Arithmancy
Wizard: Widen Spell
17: Augment Summoning
19: True Name
Wizard: Quicken Spell
He would have several instances of Quickened widened Black tentacles prepared, which would be level 7 spells with spell perfection and magical linage.
Equipment
+5 Adamantine Haramaki of spell Dodging (total effective bonus of 7)
Ring of Freedom of Movement
Belt of stoneskin
Headband of vast intellect + 6
Otherworldly Kimono
+5 Mithril buckler of spell turning
Ring of Protection +5
Amulet of Natural Armor + 5
orange prism ioun stone
His opening move of combat is to cast a quickened widened black tentacles on himself, cast time stop, cast spellbane (antimagic field, disjunction, greater dispel magic, freedom of movement) and spell bane (dimensional anchor, dimensional lock, disintegrate, and shield)
If he gets more than two rounds out of timestop he casts other buff spells on himself. On his next turn he uses his otherworldly Kimono on the most heavily armored target in the group, then spams spells starting with his lowest level attack spells until he either dies, kills the enemy, or survives getting to 40 hp (in which case his contingency'd teleport goes off).
The key portion of his build is maximizing the caster level of black tentacles. Do to spell specialization, mages tattoo and arithmancy, he is getting a + 4 to the caster level from these feats, which would be doubled to eight from spell perfection, he can add +4 from the archtype ability, the ioun stone adds one, and his trait signature spell also adds one, bringing his caster level for the spell to 34, which gives black tentacles a + 39 on its CMB checks to grapple. Since he disabled freedom of movement via spellbane, unless the party have rings of freedom of movement, or a freedom domain cleric, this should be able to grapple all but the full BAB martial characters.
The easiest way for him to be shut down is for the party to cast their own spellbane which would include spellbane as one of the forbidden spells, this could even be done from a scroll.
The party will have some advance knowledge of the wizards tactics, though how much will depend on them.
Do you have any suggestions or perhaps any ways to further boost black tentacles via magic items?
though it does beg the question; in a setting where it is established that planets move, do subjects get thrown either into space or through the planet depending on where they are when the spell goes off? And if you place the spell on someone on a ship, does it blow a hole in the back of the ship since a hardness of 30 will exceed anything the ship is likely to be made of?
I really like these kinds of questions. That said, if you let flying creatures hover on a ship (or keep up without blowing their movement each round), you should probably treat force effects the same way.
I can say with all honesty that I do not allow flying creatures to ignore movement of the vehicle they are flying over. If there is a rule somewhere that says otherwise, please direct me to it.
though it does beg the question; in a setting where it is established that planets move, do subjects get thrown either into space or through the planet depending on where they are when the spell goes off? And if you place the spell on someone on a ship, does it blow a hole in the back of the ship since a hardness of 30 will exceed anything the ship is likely to be made of?
But flurry of stars plus ki point/ mythic point... 8 stars in one turn.... Possibly more dpr I don't know. I am the only dpr focused member. The problem is encounters get smoked by me. I know. Fuk it, I'll only use shadow clone and shadow split with unarmed fighting. I'll just pull a naruto XD.
Honestly, I'll drop firearms and see what happens. Or retrain invisible blade.
Ninjas have the issue of getting sneak attack very easily once they hit level 10 and get invisible blade. I think you will have a much larger dpr drop than you believe from not using firearms. Without being able to hit touch ac, your targets should all have an ac higher than 10, which is what an invisible ninja normally targets while using fire arms (flat footed touch ac is a joke).
If your damage is still too high, then focus on other abilities and feats, or just ask the gm to let you retrain your invisible blade talent to something else. Without at will greater invisibility you will have a much harder time sneak attacking, and your damage will drop severely. Rogues and ninjas were balanced under the expectation that sneak attack was something that would be hard to get, invisible blade was a mistake of a talent, its too good for its cost, and it makes every other talent in the game look like trash, compare it to hunter's surprise, a talent that serves the same function but only lasts for one round and is only usable once per day.
What dpr should a martial level 12/2mythic character have on average anyway (if they are focusing dpr?)
Anyone doing 180-230 is on the high end of the average damage the way I figure it for level 12, mythic 2. Anyone doing more than that is a severe outlier. Whether or not doing more is a problem depends on a couple of factors; If you have anyone else in the party who focuses on dpr, beating them by more than 30 dpr a round may make them feel bad. If you are killing things in combat more quickly than anyone else in the party, or worse, faster than multiple people combined, you should tone it down, if you erase an entire combat in one round, the gm either has to tone you down, or tone the encounters up, and toning the encounters up can make the game unfun for all of your party members.
Kawarimi does nothing against magic missiles, magic missiles does not need an attack roll.
This really sounds more like a problem of you building a character that is too optimized. If your group is playing less optimized characters, building a dpr machine using the cheesiest(for the record, I view any exploitation of touch ac targeting guns as cheesy because of how exploitable touch attacks are against bestiary monsters) rule combinations you can find will anger a lot of groups.
Yes you will have to build a less optimized character for them to be happy. or at least a character that is optimized differently. I also frequently have more optimized characters than the people I play with, the way I get around the issue is to build optimally around a very sub optimal concept, (example being a bloodrager that threw cards for its attacks using a belt of might hurling, or a finesse(elven curved blade) two handed weapon tank that relied on dexterity and combat expertise for ac). Find a concept that I like that might be really weak, and optimizing that concept allows me to make characters closer to party average that I can still be happy with.
The other thing is to make sure your build doesn't step on anyone else's toes. Since you know what the others are playing, build something that does not overlap with their concepts as much as possible, if you have someone trying to be an ac based tank, don't over optimize and have higher ac than they do or it will make the feel bad. Likewise, if you have a character in the party that only does damage, then building a character that eclipses their damage and can do other things will make them feel bad.
level 12 mythic 2 gunslinger dual wielding double barreled pistols with rapid shot can pull off 18 attacks a round all doing their normal damage dice plus 21 damage per hit (10 dex, 8 deadly aim, 3 enhancement bonus) and that is without advance firearms, and without mythic they only lose 4 attacks and 1 point of damage per attack. Its not your ninja that broke the game, its allowing weapons that target touch ac to make full attacks that cause problems.
This gunslinger does similar damage to your rogue, but is harder to shut down because it isn't stopped by crit immunity or uncanny dodge.
Edit:
also level 12 barbarian with mythic vital strike and improved vital strike could be doing 3d12+111 damage per standard action, and with mythic power granting an extra standard action, our barbarian can be triggering 2 of these attacks per round. while its lower damage than the gunslinger or the rogue, it ignores most of the deficiencies with both, specifically since wind can stop a barbarian. If you use a bloodrager instead of the barbarian, the damage goes up even farther.
the real question is, if a spell component pouch has an infinite number of free items in it, how long does it take to clean up the mess when you accidentally dump it out?
That having been said, if a buckler loses its AC bonus for the whole turn even from just one two-handed attack, I see no good reason to say that a more encumbering shield encumbers your defense any less. Threatening with a weapon is, fundamentally, a different matter altogether. You CAN switch grip and resume threatening. You CANNOT switch grip and resume defending with your shield.
A lot of clerics think you are wrong as they pass their mace(insert weapon of choice) to their shield hand to cast a spell while keeping the shield bonus (This can be use with a buckler to avoid the clause that says you lose its ac bonus if you use the buckler hand to cast a spell(you don't lose the ac bonus since you used the other hand to cast the spell))
Golarion must be a very nice place; when ever I play a rogue the only traps that my GM allows to be detected let alone disabled are ones that cast beneficial spells, like cure critical wounds. All of the other traps are like the Acid Arrow in Ravingdork's example, or worse, and have been ruled as impossible to disarm or detect.
Business: Black Dog Tavern
Goods/Services: Alcohol and Spirits/Food and Provisions/Rooms/Companionship
Owner/Operator: Macol Tesmotter, aka: 'Miss T', 'Mom'
Description: The Black Dog Tavern is an rickety old haunt known for its colorful staff and questionable clientele. Originally a respectable ale house, the Black Dog has come to be known as flophouse and brothel under the direction of 'Miss T', the tavern's ostentatious transvestite manager.
The Black Dog is also said to house a lost-boys gang of miscreant rag-tag orphans who have come to be called the Black Dogs.
Notable NPCs:
Miss T, Macol Tesmotter (Human, expert 3): A flamboyant transvestite who acts as owner/operator of the Black Dog. Aside from handling the tavern's day-to-day affairs she also acts as a caretaker for the group of orphans she lets live in the tavern's basement. Though generally pleasant, if not a bit too friendly, Miss T has a short temper and no tolerance for playing games, especially when they involve money.
Lotely the Coin-Operated Clockwork Barmaid (clockwork creature, human, expert 3): This coin-operated construct acts as barmaid and house-keeper at the Black Dog and is an attraction that draws many curious patrons. Lotely's self winding mechanics are triggered by the insertion of a coin and people from far and wide come to watch the automaton whir around the tavern. How Miss T came to own Lotely is a mystery.
Wiely (human, commoner 2): Leader of the Black Dogs, Wiely is a rough and tough street-smart orphan. As he is the oldest, the younger orphans look up to Wiely and follow his lead.
Plot Hooks:
Hair of the Dog: A local business owner was recently robbed. As the criminals fled, the shopkeeper managed to grab one by the hair which yanked right out of the thief's head. The shop owner thinks that the Black Dogs are responsible and requests that criminals be found and be made to return what was stolen or pay for their crime.
Extraordinary Machine: Miss T's clockwork construct is a mechanical marvel and a local alchemist would love to get his hands on the machine to study it's inner workings. He promises to pay handsomely for a chance to peak under the hood and requests that the construct be acquired for him, legally or otherwise.
The homebrew campaign I have been running has come to an important point in the story and I am at a bit of a loss. Here is some information on the background of the campaign and what the players have faced so far:
*Joined up with the King's Army to face a mutual threat
*Reclaimed a ruined fort that would be the setting of a large battle
*Rode south to recruit more aid for the war effort
*Defused a secret war and recruited the help of two warring tribes
*Returned to the fort and engaged in a huge battle
*Turned the tide of war by achieving a great victory
*Received news that an important sight to the north was under attack
*Rode to the north to discover the enemy and face it head on
*Followed the enemy into the Ethereal Plane
So, in my world there are ley lines of magical energy and physical manifestations of concentrated magical energy known as nodes. These nodes have been researched by magic users but as of yet no discovery of their origin or use has been made.
It seems the invading army has taken a great interest in the nodes and has been conquering and expanding their empire to hold power over more and more of them. The PCs have found out that the nodes themselves link the material plane with the ethereal plane and they serve some greater purpose.
Now here is my issue: What is their purpose?
I have thought that perhaps each node holds within it the shard of a powerful artifact that can grant the owner of all the shards immortality. So the PCs quest would turn to preventing the enemy from collecting the shards and attaining immortality.
I am not 100% sold on this plot, there are so many things left unanswered and so many holes to fill. Any advise on which direction to take the story would be greatly appreciated!
I am currently DMing two campaigns in my day-to-day and I would like to joining a game as a player, even if it is PBP. Anyone know of any games that are starting up or ones in progress that are looking for more players?
This may seem like a silly questions but after looking over the races in the core book I was left wondering why none of the core races have a +2 to the Wisdom Ability Score as a Racial Trait?
Is this for balance reasons? Would characters with a higher base wisdom need some complicated level adjustments? Please cure me of my ignorance!
During Combat Zavilerira uses charm person to attempt to subdue one of the PCs. If successful she will order the charmed PC and her the charmed cannibals to attack the other PCs. On her next round she will cast shield on herself before taking flight. She will then attempt flyby attacks while periodically using laughing touch, daze or flare to subdue more of the PCs. When both cannibals fall Zavilerira will begin her captivating song and will only break her tune if none of the PCs are effected or when one PC is within range of her melee attacks.
Morale If Zavilerira is reduced to fewer than 15 hit points, she will attempt to surrender by enticing the PCs with knowledge of a hidden treasure. (Sense Motive vs Bluff) If the PCs believe her she directs them to the former camp of the Bearded Harpy's crew where a Shiv Dragon has taken up residence. If the PCs take the bait Zavilerira will go into hiding and if not she will attempt to flee by flying south over the ocean toward the red mountain.
STATS
STR 16, DEX 19, CON 14, INT 11, WIS 16, CHA 21;
Base ATK +7; CMB 10; CMD 25
Feats Dodge, Flyby Attack, Great Fortitude, Skill Focus (Bluff)
Skills Bluff +10, Fly +14, Intimidate +9, Perception +10, Perform (Song) +7
Languages: Azlanti, Common, Polyglot
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Captivating Song (Su)
A harpy's song has the power to infect the minds of those that hear it, calling them to the harpy's side. When a harpy sings, all creatures aside from other harpies within a 300-foot spread must succeed on a DC 16 Will saving throw or become captivated. A creature that successfully saves is not subject to the same harpy's song for 24 hours. A victim under the effects of the captivating song moves toward the harpy using the most direct means available. If the path leads them into a dangerous area such as through fire or off a cliff, that creature receives a second saving throw to end the effect before moving into peril. Captivated creatures can take no actions other than to defend themselves. A victim within 5 feet of the harpy simply stands and offers no resistance to the harpy's attacks. This effect continues for as long as the harpy sings and for 1 round thereafter. This is a sonic mind-affecting charm effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.
ECOLOGY
Environment: Tropical Island
Organization: Solitary
Treasure: Standard (Morningstar and other treasure)
I imagine Zavilerira to be an exotic variety of harpy, possibly sporting bright colors of tropical birds. I changed her alignment to NE to give her a bit more cognitive freedom and flexibility. As this battle is sure to prove difficult there should be some great reward or big pay-off. What treasure have you given to your PCs?
Also, what motivation did you give the harpy to want to protect her perch other than 'she is obsessed with the wreckage'? Perhaps her mother arrived on the Shiv aboard the vessel and it has become something of an heirloom to her?
As I know this is the best place to address an issue like mine, I have turned once again to the limitless wisdom and guidance of the Paizo Forum masses.
I am currently running a homebrew campaign setting and my players have discovered an old temple once used by cultists who worshipped an evil goddess. Presently the temple is occupied by a Sorcerer and a Witch who have kidnapped all the children from a neighboring village and are performing terrible experiments on them.
In the last adventure the PCs stormed the temple and laid waste to six Soulbound Dolls that had been constructed from the remnants of murdered children. They also discovered the skinned corpses of many more children and even some children left alive and mentally scared for good measure.
Tomorrow night they will continue their investigation and I would like them to encounter a flesh golem that is made from children. I was thinking that the traditional flesh golem is too physically strong and was wondering if there are any variants out there that would be more suitable. Something like a quick and vicious flesh golem about the size of a teenager?
Any other moster recommendations would be welcome as well.
I will be starting up this AP in a few days and I have been wondering how I can give the PCs a sense of where they are on the island without giving them an actual map. As no detailed map of the island is provided (in game) to the characters, I feel a bit odd giving them a map, even if it is a blank version depicting just the island.
I thought that perhaps one of the PCs might be bright and take ranks in Profession (Cartographer) or Craft (Map) but as these are not listed along side common options for the respective skills I doubt that will happen.
So I am curious about how other DMs have delt with this issue. Did you simply give them the map in the AP or did you let them nagivate blind? I was thinking that I could have one of the NPCs take ranks in Profession (Cartography) and they could then make a simple outline of the island, drawing from the map of the inner seas found in Jenivere's wreckage. As the PCs explore the island, they could fill the map in.
One of my players is interested in playing a Rogue with the Poisoner archetype but after looking it over we were left wondering if the substitutions are a fair trade.
First, 'Poison Use' replaces 'Trapfinding'. Being able to apply poison without fear of harming yourself is a great talent but to loose the ever increasing bonuses to finding and disabling traps is a big loss. 'Poison Use' dosen't get better as you gain levels but it might be a fair trade, I'm on the fence. I feel like there should perhaps be the same bonus (1/2 Level, min +1) given to Fortitude saves made to resist being poisoned as a result of exposure and building up an immunity. Any thoughts on this?
Second, 'Master Poisoner' replaces 'Trap Sense'. This is another example of an ever improving trait being replaced by a stagnant one. Will the rogue loose its trap sense all together or would it just pick up at level six? Is the ability to change a poison's type worth loosing the ever improving bonuses to avoid taking damage from traps?
I would be interested to hear anyone's experience playing with this archetype and how the adjustments worked out. Any advice would be great.
I've decided to share with my community a campaign setting I have been working on. Please keep in mind that most of the artwork is barrowed from various other artists and sources so please do no publish or repost my work without the proper disclaimer.
Always looking for critiques but keep in mind that this is my first guide and still needs some tweaking and supplementary material. Looking forward to hearing what you all think.
Remember this is fan created media for free use. Enjoy.
