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Many of us are familiar with the concept of riding your familiar. A small hero with a flying improved familiar and, for example, undersized mount feat, could easily ride his familiar.

But what about the inverse? If a familiar had Mounted Combat and was "riding" his master (sitting on a shoulder, for example), could he utilize his Mounted Combat Feat to negate a hit on his Mount (the Master?)

This interaction becomes further complicated when you can share combat feats with your familiar (Eldritch Guardian Fighter Archtype) and the Familiar attempts to utilize Spirited Charge and/or Ride-By-Attack with the Master as the Mount.

For a character Concept demonstrating how one would achieve this interaction, feel free to check out this post.

Thanks for your help!

Hi Forum Gurus,

I played a fun tanky Gnomish Artificer in the olden days (3.5/Faerun setting) and really enjoyed the flavor and crunch.

I am looking to recreate a little of the flavor and fill the role of a party front-line fighter. I don't need to be min-maxed to the gills and I also don't have to be the primary damage dealer (we have a ranger/archer and a rogue on top of a support oracle).

The character concept and flavor is that of a older military vet who has a gift for developing clockwork toys for children. He improved his skills over the years and managed to graps some basic aspects of alchemy, which allowed him to create "life" in the form of a clockwork-ish homunculis. He takes improved familiar at lvl 7 to take a clockwork familiar, which resembles a small ball with crab legs and a stinger (instead of the listed bite for clockwork familiars. It also loses the flight in exchange for a climb speed.) His clockwork/magical experimentation has also granted him a "grafted" clockwork arm (vestigal arm).

The cunch goal is to get a "mounted" character who rides his familiar (mauler) when convenient, and who'se familiar rides HIM when otherwise inconvenient. Since the familiar gets the same feats (Fighter Eldritch Guardian Archetype), it could contribute reasonable damage from his shoulder with reach-evolution stinger (Alch Homunculist Archytpe). He fights with a 2H weapon and a shield, using the vestigal arm to get the 2H strength bonus on a reach weapon (maybe a lance?) that also lets him in the future utilize combat reflexes to his advantage. He takes mutagen to get a combat boost, but it won't last long due to alch 4.

I threw together this idea and I feel it is zany enough to be fun and I just want to tinker a little with the crunch, so suggestions are welcome. I don't know where I want to take it, but we are starting at lvl 8. Note: I pruned the statblock info down to just the core concepts.

Thanks

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Carnige Cogwright
Gnome alchemist (homunculist) 4/fighter (eldritch guardian) 4 (Pathfinder Player Companion: Familiar Folio 7, 8, 11, Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide 26)
CG Small humanoid (gnome)
Init +2; Senses low-light vision; Perception +13
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Defense
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AC 22, touch 13, flat-footed 20 (+6 armor, +2 Dex, +3 shield, +1 size)
hp 68 (8 HD; 4d8+4d10+20)
Fort +10, Ref +7, Will +2 (+1 vs. fear and mind-affecting effects.); +2 bonus vs. [language-dependant], glyph, symbol or writing-related spells
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Offense
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Speed 20 ft.
Melee +1 lucerne hammer +10/+5 (1d10+11)
Ranged bomb +11 (2d6+1 Fire)
Special Attacks bomb 5/day (2d6+1 fire, DC 13)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 8th; concentration +9)
1/day—arcane mark, comprehend languages, message, read magic
Alchemist (Homunculist) Extracts Prepared (CL 4th; concentration +5)
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Statistics
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Str 16, Dex 14, Con 15, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 12

Base Atk +7; CMB +7; CMD 21

Feats Brew Potion, Improved Familiar, Mounted Combat, Power Attack, Ride-by Attack, Spirited Charge, Throw Anything

Traits nirmathi militia

Skills Perception +13, Ride +12, Spellcraft +5, Use Magic Device +14; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception

Other Gear elven chain, +1 heavy wooden shield, +1 lucerne hammer[APG], 24,326 gp

I have a PC who has a pretty specific idea of a character. Dwarven martial type, who rides a boar, and uses a dwarven waraxe and a shield.

How to make this the most effective way? I thought initially cavalier, with beast rider archetype, and if I so choose, house rule in that he can take the boar at level 4 (when small Beast Riders can take a boar) and ride it using the Undersized Mount Feat. Everything is ok so far.

But, the problem is, how to make it a viable damage source when he's using the sub-par sword/board option? I had considered the following (in no specific order):

Outflank
Pack Flanking (and granting it to the boar mount via a Nose Ring or a Saddle)
Wild Flanking
Menacing Weapon

I know these choice would also work on a two handed fighter, but he wants the shield, and this was the best option I thought of for generating damage for a sword/board fighter.

Using Wild Flanking, maximizing your damage reduction becomes necessary or you nickle-and-dime yourself/your mount down in health, so something like an Adamantium Fullplate would be ideal. Also, the Order of the Shield would allow you to convert lethal to non-lethal damage, providing effective DR to the Wild Flanking damage. But, both require heavy armor prof, and Beast Riders trade that away for better mount choices.

Does anyone have ideas on how to keep an all Cavalier build, with a Boar mount, using a Dwarven Waraxe + Shield, and yield decent damage? I want a flexible build, not a rocket lancer...something decent even when not on the mount.

Thanks

Two Weapon Rend states you must hit with both main hand and off hand to trigger the rend. If you have a weapon, and armor spikes as off hand, it's clear how it functions.

What happens in the following scenario: You have a main hand weapon, off hand shield (with associated bash), and armor spikes. You have Shield Slam, Spiked Destroyer, and Two Weapon Rend.

You attack with your main hand, and MISS, then you follow up with a shield slam, hit, bull rush, and trigger spiked destroyer. Which you also hit. Is this sufficient to trigger two weapon rend?

I suspect it is not, but I haven't delved through all the rules yet. I did do a cursory search, and found nothing specifically related to these three feats.

Thanks for your input!

Hi Paizo Forums!
I am looking for help finding a viable weapon agnostic TWF Build.

Requirements:
- no weapon specific feats, if possible (weapon focus, spec, etc)
- a martial theme (no, or little, rogue, bard, etc)
- 25 point buy (try not to dump int/char, if possible)

Any advice is welcome!

Thanks!

Hi Paizo Forum!!!

Long time reader, first time poster.
I need your help with an NPC that exists in my home-brew campaign.
I intially envisioned him in 3.0/3.5 as a TWF fighter, back when there was no weapon training. The existance of which makes his build much less optimal than it was in the past, and even then it was more for flavor.

Regardless, here is a quick overview of the crunchy bits I would like to see.
- TWF Character (STR or DEX is irrelavent)
- Has one "Signature Weapon",a longsword, which is tied to his family line (he's a noble)
- Has a few other "situational weapons" which he totes around as a sort of go-to-armory. Things like a disruption mace, merciful shortsword, etc.
- He has a gauntlet that grants the "Called" special attribute to up to 5 weapons, which are those in his "armory"
- In the original concept, when he was "done" with a weapon or needed a different one for a situation...he simply threw the unneeded one at a random target or dropped it, recalling it later with the Called property when necessary. This was made possible by the Throw Anything feat, which I'd like to keep if possible.
- He's moderately charismatic and intelligent, but slightly head-strong and reckless. He is a general of a royal military force and quite competant, if sometimes "too bold" as mentioned above. Being a complete dunce is not an option, and some leadership ability is to be expected. Seeing as he's a storyline centric NPC he works off 25 point buy.

Any suggested class combinations are welcome, though he's decidedly not a spell caster. I am not dead-set against classes with spells, but I am leaning strongly towards things like fighter, ranger, slayer, etc.

Of note is the fact that he does not fight in a vacuum. He has a dedicate cadre of bodyguards/lieutenants and they fight smoothly as a team. The other members are 1) Dwarven Barb/Fighter, 2) Paladin (Holy Tactician) 3) Archer Slayer 4) Tower-Shield Fighter (with bodyguard, in harm's way, etc).

Thanks for your help!