Aveldaxis's page

I've finally settled on what I'm going to bring to the table this coming weekend (level 7 game, GM has declared it to be PFS-legal only). I'm going with a human "Oath of Vengeance" Paladin, wielding a Falchion two-handed. Since that's all relatively cookie-cutter, I'm just getting it out of the way.

Now, what I actually need advice on: feats, stat spread, etc.

At present, my starting ability scores are looking like 18 Str (+2 race), 10 Dex, 14 Con, 7 Int, 7 Wis, 17 Cha. At 4th level I'd throw a point onto Cha, of course.

For feats, I'm thinking of Power Attack and Cleave at 1st level, Extra Lay On Hands at 3rd, Great Cleave at 5th, Lunge at 7th.

The key strategy for this character is to charge into a mass of enemies and just start handing out beatings like candy. While my DPR isn't going to outshine any of our true damage dealers, it should be significant enough that at least some of our foes waste their load on my respectable AC/HP, amazing saves, and swift self-healing.

Thoughts, suggestions, observations, blatant personal insults?

The Pathfinder Society Additional Resources page states the following:
"To create an aasimar, dhampir, fetchling ifrit, kitsune, nagaji, oread, sylph, tengu, tiefling, undine, or wayang character, you must have a Chronicle sheet that opens the race as a legal option at character creation."

And also: "In Chapter 3, nothing from the changelings, duergar, gillmen, gripplis, merfolk, samsarans, strix, sulis, svirfneblin, vanaras, and vishkanyas entries are currently legal for play."

So my question is this: what races in this book, if any, are legal for use in PFS without a special chronicle sheet? I would really appreciate knowing before I buy it.

I'm looking for build recommendations on a character who spends all day protecting squishies and otherwise keeping his party alive by being in the way.

The traditional "tank" role in online strategy games is generally defined by two key elements: being able to survive everything your enemies can throw at you, and forcing them to throw it at you instead of your allies. The latter is significantly easier in video games where you're often fighting programmed NPCs with predictable behavior which can be taken advantage of just by standing closer to them than your wizard. In Pathfinder, it takes a bit more work.

Right out of the gate, I would like to firmly discourage Fighter builds, for the simple reason that no matter how high your AC and HP are, a failed save is a failed tank. As a result, I feel like Monks (perhaps Flowing or Many Styles) and Paladins (Oath of Loyalty and/or Divine Defender?) are much more appropriate options, as they can both withstand physical attacks relatively well while also sporting excellent saves across the board.

However, making an indestructible character isn't very difficult. The challenge is having all that defense help the party, either directly (by actually forcing enemies to attack you) or indirectly (by being so much of a bother to enemies that they have to deal with you if they want to move/cast/etc at all).

I already have a general idea that feats like Stand Still and Step Up are going to make an appearance in this. Disruptive would be fantastic if it weren't Fighter-only (which I'm hesitant to play for aforementioned reasons).

Really just anything you can think of and why. The ultimate goal here is A) to make enemies have to deal with you and B) to have enough defenses (including saves) that they can't.

I have a general understanding of the divide between Intelligence and Wisdom, and their roles in the way that a character is portrayed. If I remember right, the way Gygax put it, the Int guy knows why smoking is bad for him and the Wis guy chooses not to smoke. But what happens when you dump both, yet you've got so much Charisma that you can convince anyone to do almost anything for you, sway the hearts and minds of millions, and bend leaders to your whims with but a word?

Mechanically, max Cha allows you to manipulate those around you with extreme success, but this has a thematic assumption that the character in question is also relatively clever and experienced- he would have to be, otherwise how could be make such a strong case in any debate the way he does with those 20+ Diplomacy roles? So when you take a character who has the Charisma to win every argument, haggle any merchant, and inspire armies to greatness, but is as smart as a brick and as wise as a goldfish, how do you roleplay that? There seems to be an in-built contradiction when presented with this stat spread.

While I realize the easiest answer is "you're pretty," that doesn't feel adequate to explain the kinds of things you can do with maxed out Diplomacy. Especially if the character is interacting with NPCs of the same sex, who are significantly less likely to be influenced by your looks. Unless you're in the Kingdom of San Francisco.