I have not been able to locate much discussion on this topic and all the news I can find is bad. Here is the issue in a nutshell. The Zen Archer Monk gives up the Still Mind ability for Point Blank Master. I believe it's generally understood that this would prevent a Zen Archer Monk from taking Vows as well as taking the Champion of Irori/Enlightened prestige class as they both also require a substitute for Still Mind.
Does anyone know of any published material that provides a way around this issue including 3rd party material. I've heard a rumor of a trait that addresses it as well as the possibility that Unchained Monk Archetypes may allow for swapping of abilities, but I have been unable to locate anything. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks.
My son has asked me to build a character for him. He had specific instructions. He wanted to fight with two swords and have a bear (aaand a tiger, oh, and a wolf) for a pet. So at first I thought about the TWF Ranger which seemed pretty easy, but then with the added menagerie of animals, I started looking at Pack Master Hunter. It seems like Boon Companion is going to be my friend for this build, but what I'm most curious about is what levels to build the ACs at. For those with experience in this, is it better to have all the ACs at an equal levels, or to have one more powerful than the rest?
I have looked around and don't see this addressed anywhere else. If you have a race with Powerful Build (say half-giant) and you take the Two-weapon Fighting feat, what size does the weapon in your off hand have to be? Does it get the benefit of increased size as well allowing it to be medium, or does it still have to be light?
We are running Jacob's Tower and I decided to go with a meat shield. I've built a half-giant Invulnerable Rager with planned dips in Aegis and Fighter. The fighter dips are mostly for the feats, but I'm debating the 3rd level of Weapon Master as I'm not sure if it would be better than another level of either Aegis or Barbarian. Since half-giant is a Psionic race, I decided to check out the Psionic classes and like Aegis. I think it compliments this build fairly well, especially with the feats I've chosen for it. Anyway, hear is the build. The feat at level 19 was a head-scratcher. I figured a lump sum of 19HP wasn't a bad thing. He just reached level 3 so it is definitely not set in stone. Your gentle critique would be greatly appreciated.
Psionic Feats:
For your reference, if you're unfamiliar. From Psionics Augmented.
Raging Hulk: Your rage infuses your astral suit, turning you into a hulking monstrosity.
Prerequisites: Rage power class feature, astral suit class feature
Benefit: For the purpose of level requirements for rage powers or astral suit customizations, add your levels of barbarian and aegis together. Damage reduction from either class stacks. In addition, any time you enter a rage, you can activate augment suit as a free action.
Student of the Astral Suit:Your studies in other areas has not hindered your skill with astral suits.
Prerequisites: Invigorating suit class feature.
Benefit: Treat your class level as four higher to determine your number of customization points and which customizations you can select for your astral suit, to a maximum of your character level.
Half-Giant Invulnerable Rager Barbarian
18/12/17/8/10/7
Traits:
Axe to Grind (Combat)
Adopted: Carefully Hidden (Human)
Feats:
L1B1 Raging Vitality
L2F1 Power Attack
L3B2 Extra Rage Power, (RP) Reckless Abandon, Superstitious, DR 1/-
L4F2 Furious Focus
L5A1 Raging Hulk
L6B3 (RP) Witch Hunter
L7B4 Combat Reflexes, DR 2/-
L8B5 (RP) Spell Sunder
L9B6 Improved Sunder, DR 3/-
L10A2 (RP) Internal Fortitude, DR 5/-
L11A3 Student of the Astral Suit
L12B7 (RP) Eater of Magic
L13B8 Extra Rage Power – Strength Surge, DR 6/-
L14B9 (RP) Unexpected Strike
L15B10 Extra Rage Power –Come and Get Me, DR 7/-
L16F3 Weapon Training
L17B11 Raging Brutality, (RP) Mighty Swing
L18B12 DR 8/-
L19B13 Toughness, (RP) Renewed Vigor,
L20B14 DR 9/-
I'm in the process of building a Barbarian/Aegis and I have a question about how Nimble works with the Astral Suit. My intention is to primarily use the Astral Armor which states that it provides the same mechanical attributes as Masterwork Chainmail. Chainmail has a max DEX bonus of +2. What happens if your PC has a DEX of 16 or higher, or adding the Nimble customization takes you to 16 or higher? Does that mean that Nimble will not function?
We are getting ready to run Jacob's Tower. I have been trying very hard to keep from reading it, so NO SPOILERS please! Since they've only published 11 levels so far, I don't think this will be a 20 level build, but anyway...
I'm trying to build a big tank. I'm going primarily Invulnerable Rager, but am looking at dips of Fighter 2 (maybe 3 if Weapon Master) and Aegis 1 for the suit. I'm torn between Human, Half-Orc, and Half-Giant. I'm not really all that interested in any other races, though I know there might be some that are also good (I'm looking at you Ragebred Skinwalker). If I really had my druthers, I'd choose Goliath, but, sadly, it is out of reach. Half-Giant sorta fills that niche and fits best with Aegis, Human gets all the good stuff, and Half-Orc is the classic Barbarian.
Is it worth two levels of Fighter for the feats, or should I go straight Barbarian? Is the suit (and power points) worth a level of Aegis?
I'm currently playing a ZAM and am really enjoying the character. He is really an experiment in multiclassing with as much synergy as possible. Here is where I am so far:
ZAM 5/Serene Barbarian 2/Tattooed Empyreal Sorcerer 1. He is also at Mythic Tier 2. Andoran Faction, while we are not playing strictly PFS legal stuff, obviously, but we have been using factions to a limited degree.
Aasimar - Archon-Blooded (Scion of Humanity)
Traits: Wisdom in the Flesh (Dis. Div), Magical Knack, Enlightened Warrior (Aasimar), Mark of Slavery (drawback)
My question is, at what point do I bail from ZAM and start hitting some of the other dips I'm interested in? I've heard decent arguments for both level 6 and level 8. I'm leaning heavily toward level 8 for that extra attack, and AC and unarmed damage bumps.
It looks like that will take me to level 11 which would leave me nine levels of other stuff to consider. Here is what I've considered so far:
Inquisitor: For all the usual reasons. Probably going Conversion Inquisition for the social skill buffs. I have toyed with the idea of the Infiltrator archetype for the double dip to several of those social buffs, but don't know if it's worth losing Monster Lore. The big question for me is how many levels of this do I take? It seems that two is the minimum and 5 is the max.
Fighter (Weapon Master): No brainer really, +3 BAB, +1/+1 for bows, 2 feats, CMD bump, and a couple of extra HP.
If I do go with Inq 5, than this leaves me with one more level. I'm interested in Ninja, but would rather take at least 5 levels of it if I take any. Sneak attack would be very nice to have and extra Ki is a bonus. Would there be a good reason to advance my Barbarian or Sorcerer classes? What other classes would be interesting and provide good synergy?
Feats...?
Monkey Moves at level 9
Clustered Shots at 11.
After that I'm not sure where to go with feats. I've heard lots of pros and cons about Hammer the Gap. I may take it. I think I've been sufficiently convinced on the Vital Strike/Improv. Vital Strike combo for rounds where I need to take advantage of my great speed. These could be my fighter bonus feats at 14 & 15 if I take two levels of Inquisitor right before them. The Snap Shot tree sounds interesting, but it irks me that I have to burn a feat on Rapid Shot for it. Ki Infusion seems interesting as well, but really only if I think I need my Gravity Bow spell longer than 30 rounds. I suppose it might also have some bearing on what Inquisitor spells I may choose. Heightened Precision seems nice if I do make Ninja 5.
At any rate, I need to come up with feats at 13, 15, 17, and 19.
What about Boon Companion? How much better is a level 5 monkey familiar than a level 1?
Remaining mythic feats will be Precise Shot, Point Blank Shot, Weapon Focus, and Weapon Specialization.
My bow is an artifact that keeps "unlocking" new abilities as I progress in mythic tiers (it granted my mythic ascension). As of right now it is a +1 Adaptive Impervious Greenwood Composite Greatbow. I get Improved Critical from my Bracers of Falcon's Aim. I'm pretty sure I'd pay to buff them before I'd get rid of them for something else.
What am I missing? Thanks in advance for your help.
I've had this idea for a while. It might not be new, but it was new to me at the time. The concept is for a character that is disguised as an animal companion or familiar of another NPC or character under my control (remember the old movie Lady Hawk?). I'm curious what would be the best way to achieve this. I have considered the PC being a high level Druid with the Leadership feat and having a Ranger or Wizard Cohort. I have also considered having the PC be a natural Lycanthrope. It seems like the Leadership feat would be required to pull it off. As for motivation, there could be any number of reasons for doing so, so I'm mostly interested in the best way to make it work mechanically. I'd appreciate your insight.
My wife is playing Pathfinder with my group. She is only half interested most of the time, but she played without me one day and had to pay attention. She did very well and came up with some pretty good ideas that won the day and is now paying a little closer attention to her character.
She is a 7th level Dwarven Cleric of Torag (Mythic Tier 2) and is about to level up. I have made a stew out of my character with level dips and I have mentioned the option to her. My problem is that I'm not sure what is best and how much is too much. She is a little bit squishy with a +0 DEX, so no AC bump and a bad Reflex save. WIS is at 20, CHA is at 14, and STR is at 11, so I recommended her 8th level point go to STR since she has a pretty nifty hammer of smackiness.
Here are my thoughts so far:
Monk 2 for WIS to AC & Evasion (primarily), bonus feats (Dodge and Scorpion Style?), Good saves, Flurry and Stunning Fist (and Scorp.) for touch attack spells.
Paladin 2 for Divine Grace (primarily) with the next mythic +2 going to CHA, Smite works with her hammer, best thematic fit for PC.
We talked a little bit about her specializing in Knowledge since we don't have a Bard. She's a brainy person, so that sounded interesting to her probably at a bit of a detriment to her melee prowess. In light of this...
Oracle 1 Lore Mystery, Lore Keeper Revelation (+ Extra Rev. feat and Sidestep Secret to help a little with squishiness). Curse: ?
Inquisitor 1 mostly for the knowledge bump from Monster Lore, but the skills would be helpful, the saves are decent and the Judgment could be useful. Domain Powers stack, so she wouldn't lose that bump.
...Or, should we just stick with Ceric? I know this is mostly personal preference, but I'd be happy to be shown any pros or cons or other suggestions I may not have thought of. I did look at Tark's Big Book, but I think I'll have to steer clear of Alchemist and Synthesist or anything too far out of the ordinary and difficult to understand. Thanks in advance.
I can't seem to find an answer to this anywhere. I'm curious if an outsider PC, in my particular case an Aasimar, could be a lycanthrope. I'm toying with PC ideas and this is, admittedly, probably an overpowered concept, but just for the sake of knowing, please indulge me with your opinions and any possible sources. It is my understanding that outsiders are assumed to be immune due to their lack of the required humanoid subtype, but would the same apply to Scion of Humanity (or Scion of X)? If not, how would their stats be adjusted?
A secondary question... in hybrid form, can lycanthropes still use the same weapons they use in human form?
I recognize that the Mythic Adventures are relatively new and some things haven't been ironed out yet, so perhaps this is one of those things. Since this question is in regard to climb speed, I will quote the relevant parts of the descriptions below.
Climbing Master (Champion 1st tier Path Ability):
"You gain a climb speed equal to your base land speed and a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks. If you already have a climb speed, your base climb speed increases by 30 feet."
Monkey Moves (combat feat):
"Benefit: While using Monkey Style, you gain a Wisdom bonus on Climb checks. You can also can climb and crawl at half your speed; you can take a 5-foot step by jumping, crawling, or climbing; and you retain your Dexterity bonus to AC while climbing."
Impossible Speed (Champion 1st tier Path Ability):
"Your base land speed increases by 30 feet."
My Character is currently Serene Barbarian 2/Zen Archer Monk 3/Mythic Champion 1 (for those it will matter too, my race is Aasimar and I took the Aasimar trait Enlightened Warrior that allows me to take Monk Levels with Neutral alignment). My current base speed is 50.
At my first Mythic tier I choose Climbing Master. I now have a base speed of 50 and a climb speed of 50. On my second tier I will choose Impossible Speed which will/should then make my speed (base/climb) 80/80. He's starting to look like Spiderman which seems like a good thing to me.
Four levels from now (assuming I take my feats in the proper order) I select the Monkey Moves feat from the Monkey Style feat tree. Here's where it gets confusing. The way I understand it is that the "climb... at half your speed" is negated because Climbing Master already allows me to climb at full speed and I would simply acquire the other benefits of the feat (most importantly for me, WIS bonus to Climb check). However, my GM says that selecting Monkey Moves gives me a climb speed of 1/2 base speed effectively reducing my climbing speed and then kicking in the +30 climb speed from the Climbing Master ("if you already have a climb speed) instead of matching my base speed. From then on, my climb speed would continue to be 1/2 my base speed +30 so 80/70, and as my bonus speed from gaining Monk levels scales, then 90/75, 100/80, etc.
While a 70 climb speed instead of 80 is nothing to sneeze at, it is the principle of the thing to me. It doesn't make sense that a feat taken after a mythic path ability should be able to alter and/or limit that ability taken much earlier. This seems to me to be a classic scenario of RAW (rules as written) vs. RAI (rules as intended). I'm willing to go with the GM ruling, but it would be great to have some official clarification as well as a few informed opinions to either back me up or help me understand something I don't. Please let me know if I have been unclear in any way.
I'm playing 5th level character that has just gone mythic. The rest of our party is slowly following suite, but my character is the first. He has 3 levels of Zen Archer Monk and 2 levels of Serene Barbarian. I'm am very much flirting with one level of Empyreal Blooded Sorcerer and possibly 2 levels of Inquisitor. I'm aware of all the pros and cons and arguments for and against multiclassing, but I have this particular character concept in mind and need to play it out. Moving on...
I have no idea which Mythic Path to take. Champion seems like the only option to me. I've been told that we are not allowed to take the Dual Path mythic feat, but I haven't been strictly forbidden from going Trickster and taking the Path Dabbling ability at each level. There seem to be few archer specific and/or interesting ranged focused path abilities in either path (including the Mythic Archer PDF). Certainly not 10. Please help me think outside of the box and come up with viable options for my character.
I seem to have this hangup with INT. I can't dump it with any character for one reason, skills and skill checks are 80% (give or take) of roleplaying. Almost everything outside of combat eventually requires skill checks. If you only care about combat, or you just rely on the party rogue to do everything for you, than it's probably not that big of a deal to you, but in my limited experience, rogues are not that honest and probably shouldn't be. Sometimes you just need to be able to jump, or converse, or know (anything), or just tie your own shoes. I'm not satisfied with anything below a 14 INT with any character and I rarely if ever play a character with INT as a main stat.
It's basically for this reason that I've decided to give a Sorcerer with Sage bloodline a go as my next character just to make it as simple as I can. I'll probably head toward Dragon Disciple with it.
Am I alone on this island? I'm interested in lots of opinions. If you can break me of this long-held belief, I'd be appreciative. On the other hand, if I'm right I'd like to know I'm not crazy.
