Buck Brandy's page
No posts. Organized Play character for Rasmus Wagner.
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9 people marked this as FAQ candidate.
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Check this out. Bard with the Buccaneer archetype gets this little beauty:
Quote:
Knock Out (Ex)
At 5th level, a buccaneer may focus his blows in an attempt to knock out an opponent. Once per day as a swift action, the buccaneer can choose one target to attempt to knock out. The buccaneer adds his Charisma bonus (if any) on his attack roll and adds his buccaneer level on any nonlethal damage rolls made against the target. The bonus lasts until the buccaneer deals nonlethal damage to his target or until the buccaneer chooses a new target to attempt to knock out. He can use this ability one additional time per day for every six levels he possesses beyond 5th, to a maximum of three times per day at 17th level.
This ability replaces lore master.
Cha to hit, level to non-lethal damage, ends when you deal non-lethal damage to the target. Nothing keeps you from doing lethal damage, getting your Cha to attack rolls.

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So, I'm running Serpent's Skull, and I just started book 5. I decide to check out the pregens in book 6, to see what the Paizo idea of a level 15 party is.
The wizard has 2 8th level spells memorized. Iron Body, and Polar Ray. Whisky. Tango. Foxtrot. This is not sandbagging, this is stuffing rabid badgers don your pants.
Let's take Polar Ray first, as it's merely very bad. One ray, ranged touch, 15d6 cold damage and 1d4 Dex drain. The Dex drain is a terrible debuff, he will never be able to drop an enemy with it and it's one, maybe two points of AC and reflex. Also, 15d6 to one target after an attack roll is super dork lame. He's got a +6 ranged touch attack; the first 3 monsters I find in the book are touch AC 17, touch AC 13 but randomly immune to cold, and touch ac 17 again. That's 11+; a 50% chance for his highest level spell to do nothing, even assuming optimal conditions (cover, firing into melee etc).
The guy could seriously be casting Quickened, Empowered scorching ray for swift action 3*6d6 instead, out of the same spell slot. And that would be bad too, but straight up better by a mile.
Now, the other spell. Iron Body. It's a transformation spell, personal range, 1 minute per level. Right off the bat, it gives him a 35% arcane spell failure chance. And he doesn't have any bypass for that, so let's assume that he intends to melee after casting it. He even has Arcane trike to buff his melee attacks. And hey, he has Bulls strength and shield memorized, let's assume he's pre-buffed with those too.
Now, he has an AC of 18, DR 15/adamantine, 89 HP. He has a speed of 15' (and doesn't fly), and a full-attack routine of....+10/+5, 1d6+8.
The rest of his spell selection is merely bad, but these two are jaw-droppingly terrible.
The ability infuses "a harmful alchemical liquid or powder". Your bombs match that description. But they are conspicuously NOT called out as an example, and they don't really exist outside the prep-and-fire action, so i think not.
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3 people marked this as FAQ candidate.
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So, everyone knows about Variant Channeling and how it halves your Channel Energy amount. But what does "halving" mean? The example given is a level 7 cleric, who goes from 4d6 to 2d6, not "roll 4d6, divide result by 2".
By that example, the 1. level character gets 0.5 dice. Rounded up or down? Well, other class abilities tend to be "half level, minimum 1" and the bonus is set until level 4. In the case of Variant Channeling, I guess it's 1 die=1 die, 2 dice = 1 die, 3 dice = 1 die (becasue you generally round down, level 1 is the exception), and you need 4 dice to get your second die when channeling.
Am I right?
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3 people marked this as FAQ candidate. Answered in the errata.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
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Ultimate Magic mentions "other domain-using nature-focussed classes" as potential users of Animal and Terrain domains. The sRD lists them as options for Clerics and Inquisitors. Are they legal for any Clerics or Inquisitors in Organized Play?

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6 people marked this as FAQ candidate. Answered in the errata.
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Cleric Domain Powers, especially Aura-type powers. What kind of action to activate?
A lot of Domain powers are usable for 1 round per day per level, these rounds don't need to be consecutive. As written, those powers take a standard action to activate. That just doesn't seem right, considering the duration and the scope of these powers. The powers in question are:
Aura of Repetition, Aura of Chaos, Eyes of Darkness, Aura of Forgetfulness, Destructive Aura, Deadly Weather, Divine Presence, Protective Aura, Aura of Menace, Freedom's Call, Aura of Madness, Aura of Protection, Ward Against Death, Might of the Gods, Nimbus of Light, Master's Illusion, Gale Aura.
Other powers share the same 1 round per day per level duration, but are less troublesome.
Remote Viewing and Read Minds are phrased differently, and make sense as standard actions. Rage is implicitly a free action, Bramble Armor explicitly so. Aura of Heroism and Weapon Master are swift, Body of Ice and Aura of Decay are called out explicitly as standard actions (which really isn't necessary unless other powers are free actions). so what gives?
The White-haired Witch. As written, this archetype uses Intelligence to grapple and adds it as a bonus to damage, but otherwise uses strength to hit, trip, reposition and maybe damage. I can't believe that's intentional.
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4 people marked this as FAQ candidate.
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The White-Haired Witch archetype uses Int for damage bonus and for the CMB with the grab-like ability. By RAW, that means it uses strength for the following:
*Attack bonus. Unclear whether damage bonus is str+int or just int.
*The level 4 trip ability
*The level 6 pull ability
*Any other combat maneuver you choose to use your hair for.
Deliberate intent or shoddy writing?
EDIT: Oh, and grappled creatures roll vs. 10+BAB+str+dex; the WHW can grab, but sucks at holding on.

The plan is to use Far Challenge and a sling-staff to pelt the enemy at range. The mount acts more like an animal companion, and is geared for charge interception and flanking excellence. When the enemy manages to melee me, switch to using the sling-staff as a melee weapon.
At level 1 & 2, use sling-staff or mounted lance charge. Dismounted, use sling staff at range, change to two-handing lance if an enemy charge is imminent (reach weapon).
This is the character. I assume that the War Slinger racial ability and the Sling Flail feat both work with the Halfling Sling-Staff (Otherwise, the entire concept is bunk).
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Rolled stats 15 15 14 13 11 9
Str 13
Dex 17
Con 14
Int 11
Wis 9
Cha 15
Race: Halfling Racial Traits: Small, Slow, Fearless, Halfling Luck, Keen Senses, Weapon Familiarity, Warslinger.
Class & archetypes: Cavalier (luring, beastmaster)
1: Far Challenge 1/day, Mount: Wolf, Order, Tactician). Feat: Weapon focus (halfling sling-staff), Tactician feat: Precise Strike. Proficiencies: Light & Medium armor, Light & heavy shields, simple and martial weapons (including sling-staff).
2: Order ability
3: Careful Aim, feat: Sling Flail
4: Far Challenge 2/day, new options for mount
5: Feat: Point blank shot
6: bonus feat: Rapid shot
7: New mount options, feat: antagonize
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Ideas, opinions?

Occasionally, non-Clerics get their hands on some kind of Domain acces. Here's my take on various scenarios:
- Non-domain casters that gain access to a Domain spells(but don't get bonus slots), should probably just use 3.5 rules.
- Clerics who gain the ability to spontaneously cast the spells of one Domain should do the same. So, for example, Ordained Champions (Complete Divine) get the ability to spontaneously cast any spell on the old War Domain list.
- Characters who manage to get a domain granted power but not spells, should get the 1. and 8. level abilities (and should use their class level in whatever class gave them the ability, as appropriate).
Clerics are now assumed to get Spell-like abilities, and therefore have far fewer spell slots. Exchanging a full Domain for one of the "Devotion" feats is out of the question. Trading the 1. and 8. level abilities seems about right.
The Reserve feats from Complete Champion merit an individual treatment:
- Charnel Miasma: Use any divine Necromancy or [Fear] spell.
- Fragile Construct: Has anyone ever used this?? use highest-level available cleric spell, and it's still a bad feat.
- Holy Warrior: See below.
- Protective ward: It requires the Protection domain, but triggers off any abjuration spell. Fine as it is.
- Touch of Healing: Doesn't trigger off a Domain descriptor. Works fine as-is.
- Umbral Shroud: Fine as-is.
The old War domain covered weapon buffs, personal buffs, area-effect damage, Enchantment one-target fightstoppers, created weapons, and spans several different schools. It's very hard to hang a feat like Holy Warrior on. Make it a feat that requires the sacrifice of a spell slot instead - I'm not satisfied with the solution, but it'll still be a worthwhile selection.
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