Search Posts
Hello everyone, I got a random itch to think up a Draconic Bloodrager (Rageshaper, Primalist) that focused on Natural Attacks. My question comes down to whether I want to stick with levels of Bloodrager or if I wanted to switch over to Dragon Disciple for four levels? Dragon Disciple gets a lot of goodies (Str bonus, Natural armor, amazing bite attack, decent saves, etc), but my already stunted spellcasting becomes even slightly more stunted. Any thoughts?
I was talking to the GM about a hypothetical character that revolved around being stationary but making up for it in large damage, kind of like stationary artillery. There is some iconography in fantasy of this (in Dark Souls we have the Silver Knight archers with their greatbows). Since there's nothing like that in official materials I decided to think one up and I was hoping for input from the community about it. Some conceptual starting points:
I originally looked into the weapon creation guidelines but it seems like a very commonly used weapon, the Composite Longbow, already kind of blows past the weapon creation guidelines so I decided to just use the Composite Longbow as a starting point. I initially erred on the side of caution to make sure it didn't get over-powered before getting input. So, here's the stats and features I brainstormed:
Greatbow Stats:
Greatbow/Composite Greatbow 2-handed Ranged Martial Dam: 2d6 Range: 100ft Crit: 20 x3 Weight: 10 lbs Description:
Special: A character with the Rapid Reload (Greatbow) feat may ignore the movement restrictions on the number of attacks mentioned above, regaining the normal interactions between 5-foot steps, full-attack actions, standard actions, and move actions. My main concern is that, as it is now, there isn't much use for the Greatbow over the Composite Longbow at all. Consider if you had the base 14 Strength needed. At 14 Strength a Composite Longbow would be doing 1d8+2 for an average of 6.5 damage with the Greatbow doing an average of 7 damage. Considering the enhanced weight and needing a feat in order to bypass the normal "less movement" restrictions, a difference of .5 damage on average just doesn't seem to cut it. Ideas:
2. Much of the inspiration for this weapon comes from Dark Souls, and one of the main things about the Greatbow in Dark Souls is that it knocks you right on your ass because of the force of the bow. Should I make the user of the Greatbow get some kind of free CMB check to knock a target prone that it hits? I wouldn't want it to just use a Trip attempt because I feel like something like a mermaid that doesn't have any legs would still have a good chance of being knocked over. Should I put in a generic CMB vs CMD check (max 1 size category larger using Dex or Str, whichever higher) to knock the target prone? 3. How about some cover-piercing properties? My initial thought would be the cover would have to be an inch thick or less with a maximum hardness of 5 (aka wood) for the Greatbow to pierce through, with each +1 magical enhancement allowing it to bypass an extra 2 hardness. This might also have the side-effect of allowing the Greatbow to ignore Shield Bonuses to AC of wooden shields of equal or lesser enhancement bonus, very hard to bypass AC of metal shields, and never through adamantine (unless also using adamantine arrows). I'm much more reluctant about this one than the other two ideas because it basically has all the headaches of a Sunder character for the GM, having to keep track of Hardness and keeping in mind different armor stats just because I'm attacking but it's fairly flavorful. What do people think? If I add only one of the ideas above, my gut is to say to 2d12 damage or the prone idea. If both, go with 2d8 damage + potential prone.
I was looking at the the various feats for Dirty Tricks and I came across some odd wording when it comes to the Dirty Trick Master feat. In particular:
Benefit(s): Whenever you successfully perform a dirty trick combat maneuver against an opponent who is still affected by a condition inflicted by a previous dirty trick (whether your own or another creature's), you can cause the condition to worsen. In addition to increasing the duration of the condition as normal, you cause an opponent who is dazzled to become dazed, entangled to become pinned, shaken to become frightened, and sickened to become nauseated. This worsened condition replaces the previous dirty trick condition, and lasts for the duration of the dirty trick (including any rounds remaining from the previous dirty trick condition) However, I don't see any wording in the rules for Dirty Trick or in the Greater Dirty Trick feats about the duration of a Dirty Trick stacking with a previous effect. What I mean by this is if you had Greater Dirty Trick and the opponent has 2 rounds of blindness left, if you did another trick that blinded for 4 rounds then the total time is now set to 6 rounds. The rules for Dirty Trick itself makes no allusions to this stacking of durations but Dirty Trick Master seems to imply that the durations do even without this specific feat. Normally I would assume that it just means that the longer of the two durations take precedence but the wording of the feat specifically says "increasing the duration of the condition as normal". This duration stacking isn't mentioned earlier in the feat's description either meaning it isn't referencing something brought about by this feat itself. This makes it sound like there's only one outcome possible when you succeed (increasing the duration) and excludes the duration staying the same or shortening. To put it simply: Does the duration of an existing condition caused by a Dirty Trick stack with a second Dirty Trick applying the same condition?
There are some text that say "if you have the ability of X, then Y". My question is what counts as having the ability of X? As a more specific example, this came up when I was looking at the feat Dirty Fighting. Benefit(s): When you attempt a combat maneuver check against a foe you are flanking, you can forgo the +2 bonus on your attack roll for flanking to instead have the combat maneuver not provoke an attack of opportunity. If you have a feat or ability that allows you to attempt the combat maneuver without provoking an attack of opportunity, you can instead increase the bonus on your attack roll for flanking to +4 for the combat maneuver check. Of course if you have one of the "Improved (insert favorite combat maneuver)" feats then it counts. However, what if you had a weapon or random piece of equipment that lets you not provoke? A specific example of this is the Tekko-Kagi. Benefit: A tekko-kagi can be used... to disarm an opponent’s weapon without provoking an attack of opportunity. While using this weapon to disarm does my character "have" the ability and therefore get the extra +2 from Dirty Fighting, or must the ability come directly from my character himself? My gut reaction says that this counts since Dirty Fighting calls out a difference between feats and abilities and I don't see many ways to gain this "ability" other than through feats, meaning this was meant to work.
In a campaign I'm in, the idea was thrown around a bit of my character getting a Faerie Dragon as a kind of companion/GMNPC. This is as much for the GM as it is for me due to possible fun group dynamics (we have a very firmly running joke of butterfly/dragon interactions). My only concern is how this might effect the overall balance of the group. I was wondering when introducing the Faerie Dragon into the group would be a good idea? It's been firmly established that it will happen, but I want to see it implemented smoothly without throwing too big of a wrench into things. You can see the stat block here. To provide more info, it's a group of 3 and we're somewhat close to hitting level 3. We have a Kineticist (myself), a Warpriest, and an Investigator. I imagine it will be a very passive member when combat comes (possibly tossing a random grease now and then or something) and maybe used a bit for out-of-combat utility. That's very much up to the GM how she wants to handle it when the time comes. The other part is if the Faerie Dragon should be allowed to gain levels as the party does? And if so, should it be kept at some kind of level adjustment below the PCs? This would be mainly to make sure it doesn't just get fried if hit with some kind of AoE and, to make it so that if it does decide to get involved with combat, it won't be absolutely useless. The entry for the Faerie Dragon states "Faerie dragons grow in power as spellcasters as they age (typically gaining levels in sorcerer), learning more powerful spells to complement their innate abilities." Since it's certainly an intelligent/sentient creature I can imagine that while adventuring with us it gained levels close to how a PC could.
Hello everyone, I was hoping you guys could help me out with something. A group I'm playing with is setting up a game geared toward new and inexperienced players (we're all not the most experienced). Long story short, there is a new addition to the gaming group that we've only met once before so far. I want him to play the kind of character he wants so he can have fun, but I also don't want him to step on the toes too much of others that have already gone through the process of creating their characters. Everyone in the group has already decided/chosen their characters but we needed one more to join, so we reached out to the general community and found someone that had only played a tabletop RPG once before and he had a blast with it (which is perfect, because that's the kind of player we wanted). So far in the group we have an Investigator, a lightning Kineticist who will be mixing Kinetic Whip with ranged blasts and hasting, a Fighter (don't think there's any archetype attached) that is focusing on AoO with a Flying Blade and Combat Maneuvers, and then the new player. So we essentially have skill monkey/support, a switch-hitter, and a reach beatstick. As you can see, we're sorely lacking any real spell-casting ability. The new player has expressed interest in playing a kind of warrior-type. His character in the other game was apparently a Dwarf with an axe (or other such melee weapon) who threw tomahawks when needed for ranged attacks but generally waded into the middle of a fight. I was thinking maybe a Bloodrager to add a little more arcane casting to the group but that's still very limited on the spellcasting scale. Another player came up with the idea of a Druid that shapeshifted a lot and pounced so that he can be in the fray while also having spells. Yet another idea was a Warpriest since they have decent martial ability and 6th level casting. What I really need is a brainstorm of possible classes (including archetypes if applicable) that I can go over with the new player while we're creating his character. I really want him to have as much fun as possible while also creating a bit more diversity within the group roles. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I want to make a Kineticist that likes to focus on the Kinetic Blade theme. The Annihilator archetype seems like it's meant for this kind of thing but I can't help but feel like it's simply inferior to the base Kineticist for this. Now I may be wrong and misinterpreting some things, but here's how I understand the pros and cons. Base Class:
Pros: -When full attacking, you deal the full damage of your blast on every hit. That's a lot of damage eventually. -Allows you to hit touch-AC if using energy based blasts, meaning even iteratives have a solid chance of connecting. Cons:
Overall feel:
Annihilator Archetype:
Pros: -Full BAB when using the blast/blade, as well as getting 1.5x Con mod to damage. -Free combat feats. -Threatens at all times straight from level 1. -More "regular" influence on attacks allowable such as Haste for Flurry of Devastation and for more feats to work on my attack options such as Vital Strike and TWF. Cons:
Overall feel:
Honestly, I think it really comes down to two things: targeting touch-AC and how much damage per hit. While the Annihilator will overall get more attacks, the base class hits much harder per attack and is much more reliable to hit with those attacks. If anybody wants to weigh in with their opinions please do so because currently I don't see much use for the Annihilator archetype for this character.
So a thought came to a friend and I while looking through some things, and an interesting conundrum appeared. Some information: Snatch Arrows:
Benefit: When using the Deflect Arrows feat you may choose to catch the weapon instead of just deflecting it. Thrown weapons can immediately be thrown back as an attack against the original attacker (even though it isn't your turn) or kept for later use. Returning:
This special ability can only be placed on a weapon that can be thrown. A returning weapon flies through the air back to the creature that threw it. It returns to the thrower just before the creature's next turn (and is therefore ready to use again in that turn). Catching a returning weapon when it comes back is a free action. If the character can't catch it, or if the character has moved since throwing it, the weapon drops to the ground in the square from which it was thrown. So what happens if someone (Person 1) throws something like a Javelin with the returning property and the other person (Person 2) catches it in the air? Does it poof out of Person 2's hand at the beginning of Person 1's next turn? Or not since it's essentially in possession of Person 2? For extra shenanigans if Person 2 then throws it back, does it appear back in Person 1's hand at the beginning of his turn from inside his belly? Or does Person 2's throw completely overwrite Person 1's throw? Edit: Would the same idea essentially apply to the Blinkback Belt?
I'm going to be playing in a home game soon. I'm starting as a Sacred Fist Warpriest and then taking a dip into MoMS monk. The GM is allowing everyone to have a couple liberties during character creation. For me, he's allowing me to start with a Clockwork Prosthesis (awesome backstory stuff and helps a little with the cost of AoMF. Basically going for a "falcon punch" feel with the prosthetic arm) and is also allowing the AC bonuses of both classes to stack. I'm going to be using the Enforcer feat to make intimidate attempts and focus on doing nonlethal damage when possible. My main question is whether I should take a level dip in the Thug archetype to apply the Frightened condition. My build currently looks like this: Human
Lvl 1 (Sacred Fist): Enforcer, Pummeling Style (H)
Reasons I've built this way:
Extremely high Wis to make use of the double AC dip. We've been told there will be a good amount of guns (think around mid 1800s) so Touch AC was a high priority. Int isn't dumped because I hate 2+int skills. This setup gives me 4 skill ranks to cover some important skills. Speaking of skills, is Spellcraft important for this character? Con is always needed for a front-liner. Unfortunately this made me dump Charisma just a bit to get Strength at least halfway good enough and Intimidating Prowess practically negates this. Dex stayed at 10 because Wis is capable of all the heavy lifting for it. Power Attack isn't a "right away" priority since I need to focus on actually hitting to apply the debuff instead of straight damage. Please tell me if you think I should build starting points differently. However, what about a level dip into Thug at third? Frightened can be extremely useful. Pros:
Cons:
Any suggestions on feats? I'm already looking at Horn of the Criosphinx and Intimidating Prowess, but what others should I get and when? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Under the Rageshaper archetype for Bloodrager, there is an ability called Bestial Aspect.
Bestial Aspect:
Whenever a Rageshaper gains a natural attack from a polymorph spell, he can increase the damage done by that attack by one die... If the Rageshaper's bloodrage powers already grant natural attacks...then the bonuses granted by Bestial Aspect also apply to these bloodrage powers My question is this: how is the damage increased? "One die" could mean a few things in this case and I'm not experienced enough to know any precedent supporting one or the other. Let's assume for simplicity that you only have the two claw natural attacks from either Draconic or Abyssal bloodlines. Here are the possibilities I see: 1. Both claws get increased by "one die" meaning each claw now does 2d6 damage. Seems plausible, but almost too good to be true. Maybe martials can get something nice? Damage becomes 2d6+str/2d6+str 2. One claw gets increased by "one die". This is taken from the singular "gains a natural attack" from the first sentence. Anecdote:
This seems weird at first, but imagine if all natural attacks from a polymorph spell got increased. Imagine Form of the Dragon spells. All of those natural attacks would be increased, meaning way high damage. Damage becomes 2d6+str/1d6+str. 3. "Increased by one die" means "increased by one step" like from Improved Natural Attack, and is applied to both claws. This seems the most likely to me, but if it meant "increased by one step" then shouldn't it have said that? Damage becomes 1d8+str/1d8+str. 4. It means one step up from before and only one claw. Damage becomes 1d8+str/1d6+str. #1 is my hope and it seems plausible with the wording, but it almost seems too good to be true. Any light someone can shed would be wonderful.
So looking through a bunch of stuff here on the forum, there's a build I want to try out. It's a Drunken Qinggong Master of Many Styles. The idea is to drop a Ki point to get +4 dodge AC bonus as a Swift Action, stagger around all the enemies to provoke AoOs so I can retaliate with Panther Style feats, then take a swig of alcohol to get another temporary point to be used next round. I'm having some trouble on which feats I should grab though. I don't want to destroy my damage too much in case the mooks decide to simply stop making AoO on me so finding a balance between being able to do some damage plus having this fun little combat style is stumping me. Right now I'm looking at this: 1st: Combat Reflexes, Panther Style, Snake Style (monk extra)
I have no idea why, but I feel like there's a much better feat selection right in front of me that I'm not seeing. The other idea is to drop MoMS to keep Flurry and just go around in Panther Style. That makes me lose a lot of the potential provided by adding in Snake Style AoO from missed attacks though. Some input would be greatly appreciated.
That was weird...:
I thought I made this thread but it isn't showing up at all anywhere and it isn't even on my list of created threads. I guess I must have accidentally clicked the wrong button at the bottom of the page as I was trying to rush out the door. Anyway, in a home game of mine the GM said he'll allow me to make a Synthesist as long as I don't try to make it too good. I was hoping to make my character much like Artorias, and have him look like Sif when fused with his Eidolon. I'm also pretty new, so I don't really know what I'm doing too well and the other players are new as well. I know medium armor is pretty bad for arcane spellcasting, but considering it's going to be secondary compared to a greatsword and the fact that it's a natural counter-balance to simply being a synth I'm fine with the failure chance until I can get Arcane Armor Training. I was thinking first level I would actually start as something with Medium Armor Proficiency and Martial weapons so that I don't need to burn extra feats, so probably Ranger and then immediately go to Synthesist at level 2. He also has us roll for stats so I can't provide any numbers for stats right now unfortunately. My stats starting last game with this GM ended being the equivalent of like a 40 point buy (18, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12 and seemed pretty normal compared to the other players) so I'm assuming I can cover the needed ability scores adequately. Basically, I want to play him something similar to a 2-handed ranger that's arcane instead of divine. Eidolon Progression thoughts:
Main Questions:
Best Regards,
Alright, so this will be broken up into two parts. The first part will be about rules and the capability of doing something with a Klar as there seems to be some back-and-forth about the subject. My hope is to be able to copy/paste the relevant posts (both agreeing and disagreeing with me) into a compact list so I can discuss, openly and truthfully, the gray area with any GM (well, not so much discuss. Just give it to them a few days in advance if need be so they can go over it at their leisure or however they want to handle it) to prevent any possible derailment during a game. If they rule that I can't do what I'm about to describe, then them's the breaks and I won't argue and instead find a way to work around it. The advice part is just a general noob question in regard to what I should do about light sources with my character. Rules Question:
I'm basically wondering how hard it would be for me to cast spells using Thunder and Fang. Alright, so this mainly gets broken down into two parts. 1. The Klar says it is treated as a light shield with spikes. Is the Klar considered a light shield in regards to the ability of having a hand free? Relevant quotes: The traditional form of this tribal weapon is a short metal blade bound to the skull of a large horned lizard, but a skilled smith can craft one entirely out of metal. A traditional klar counts as a light wooden shield with armor spikes; a metal klar counts as a light steel shield with armor spikes. You strap a light steel shield to your forearm and grip it with your hand. A light steel shield's weight lets you carry other items in that hand, although you cannot use weapons with it. Whether wooden or steel, a light shield offers the same basic protection and attack benefits, though the two varieties respond differently to some spells and effects (such as rusting grasp). The problem tends to revolve around the fact that a Klar is categorized as both a shield and a 1-handed weapon. It sounds to me that as long as I'm not swinging the Klar around while I'm holding something, I still technically have that hand free to hold things. Is this correct? 2. This is only needed depending on the answer to 1. If 1 is "yes", this means you can still hold something in that hand along with the Klar. I'm well aware of the fact that the Buckler directly calls out that you can cast spells with it but Light Shields don't. However, having the hand able to hold things allows for the whole "make Klar hand hold the EB, cast, switch back" trick. Would I be able to cast somatic spells that way without slowing down my character's action economy more than usual? Here is a quote from James Jacobs about this: A light shield allows spellcasters to use their hand to cast, and lets you carry an object; the only thing it actually prevents is wielding a weapon... Switching a held object from one hand to the other doesn't require an action, so the end result is the same whether or not you use the light shield hand to lay on hands or your weapon hand after switching your weapon to the off hand, and then back to your weapon hand. While not an official errata, this sounds like things are good to go. Light Source Advice:
So I just got through my first session of PFS a bit ago and I realized something: I have no good light source. My character doesn't have low-light vision or darkvision meaning I have to have some kind of actual light source. I don't get the Thunder and Fang feat until level 3 so I can't use my Earthbreaker and hold a torch at the same time. I could always put the Klar on the main hand and hold a torch in the other but I don't fancy relying on torches, and for aesthetic reasons I want to be casting with the offhand instead of the mainhand and I would much rather be using my Earthbreaker whenever possible. There's the Helmet Candle but that doesn't really give much light. However, what about spending a Prestige Point on an Ioun Torch? From what I've gathered, PP isn't too hard to come by. It makes me sad that I can't get a Wand of CLW right away if I do this (especially as a Ranger). However I can either get a Potion of CLW for an emergency and buy the wand at my earliest opportunity, or just bite the bullet (and disappoint everyone) and simply not get the potion for next session to guarantee that I can buy a wand next time. Having an everlasting little ball of flame that I don't need to hold as my light source sounds like it would work really well. I would maintain my maximum DPR, not have to worry about what hand is holding what and it seems it would be a purchase that will remain useful pretty much through all of my character's life. What does everyone think I should do?
Any help and advice you could give me on these matters would be greatly appreciated. Best Regards,
Here's a question regarding the Shield Sconce modification. Does it work for weapon-like shields? I'm specifically talking about the Madu and Klar. I realized my character (Thunder and Fang user) has a bad time with visibility, and if I hold a torch then I can't cast spells or use the Klar. If I use a Torch Sconce though I could just strap a torch to the front of the Klar and still have full functionality and be able to see. Would this be legal? Or should I just go with an Ioun Torch?
So for PFS, I've been thinking of making a Ranger that uses Thunder and Fang. Looking around the forum I see some discrepancies. However, the threads seem to be rather old so maybe something has become more clear along the way. This may cause a lot of angst, so be ready! I'm basically wondering how hard it would be for me to cast spells using Thunder and Fang. Alright, so this mainly gets broken down into three parts. 1. The Klar says it is treated as a light shield with spikes. Is the Klar considered a light shield in regards to the ability of having a hand free? Relevant quote: The traditional form of this tribal weapon is a short metal blade bound to the skull of a large horned lizard, but a skilled smith can craft one entirely out of metal. A traditional klar counts as a light wooden shield with armor spikes; a metal klar counts as a light steel shield with armor spikes. 2. This is only needed depending on the answer to 1. If 1 is "yes", this makes it sound like you can still hold something in that hand along with the Klar, allowing for the whole "make Klar hand hold the EB, cast, switch back" trick. Would I be able to cast somatic spells that way without slowing down my character's action economy more than usual? Here is a Q&A regarding this:
While not an official errata, this sounds like things are good to go depending on the answer to 1. 3. If all else fails along these lines, is there a way that I can make this work without having to fully sheathe and unsheathe my weapon whenever I want to cast? Essentially, something that allows me to cast one turn and be fully ready to TWF the next without opening myself to an AoO.
So it states clearly in the rules that you need to have some kind of physical copy of the material ready (if needed) as well as own the material yourself. I'm hoping to get a friend of mine interested in Pathfinder, but neither of us have enough money for the CRB, APG, and whatever other sources we would want. What are the rules if you went 50/50 on the materials with someone? Keep in mind that we would be doing online sessions since there aren't any PFS tables anywhere near where we live. If we just stayed in the same room during that session with the materials in easy reach, would that satisfy any conditions regarding us having the source material sufficiently? |
