Since people seem confused as to the multiple summons of the Master Summoner in this thread:
PFSRD wrote:
Starting at 1st level, a master summoner can cast summon monster I as a spell-like ability a number of times per day equal to 5 + his Charisma modifier. The summoner can use this ability when his eidolon is summoned. Only one summon monster spell may be in effect while the eidolon is summoned. If the summoner’s eidolon is not summoned, the number of creatures that can be summoned with this ability is only limited by its uses per day. This ability otherwise functions as the summoner’s normal summon monster I ability. Other than these restrictions, there is no limit to how many summon monster or gate spells the summoner can have active at one time.
Keep in mind this is only for the master summoner archetype.
I always strongly suggest that all characters in a party have some role in combat, so here's how I helped build an investigator for a friend of mine in the playtest (and some changes I'd make w/ the final version).
First: Your role isn't damage. If we go on the forge of combat analogy, you're not the hammer, you're an Arm. Your job is the facilitation of party damage. The best way I found to do this was through debuffs. You can take the enfocer/bludgeoner route (intimidate any enemy damaged by your nonlethal damage) and either a cruel weapon or the sickening offensive investigator talent later on. You can also go the trip route with some weapons, or if you don't want to get in your allies way, use a polearm and the Spear Dancer feat to inflict the dazzled condition. Stat priority, Int>Str>Con>Dex>Wis>Cha. Use Studied combat for the huge bonus to attack rolls, ignore the badness that is studied strike, and keep your opponents from being a threat to your party! (I mean really, later on when you have bludgeoner/enforcer, a polearm like a lucern hammer, cruel and spear dancer, you're easily inflicting a -5 to attack on any enemy).
I saw a fair bit of comments about don't run it cold, etc., it's badwrong, never do it, but I admit in rare cases (last minute offer to GM comes to mind a few times) I've had to run cold and had a fair bit of success.
Running cold isn't for everyone. You need to be a fast reader, and have very good-exceptional system mastery. You need to be adaptable and quick thinking.
-Even when running cold, I almost always have time to read through at least once. Take time while players are sitting down or introducing themselves to do this, if you need to.
- I would always suggest making quick notes about feats and buffs in stats-blocks, and to always focus on statblocks above the other stuff. If you have better system mastery/good in combat decision making this becomes less necessary.
-Fluff can usually just be read on the fly, though
-Keep your eye out for the capitalized DC or numbers, these are often the important bits. Sidebars also generally have important bits
-PCs will almost always dither around talking to themselves, use this time to read further into the scenario.
For the system mastery, it sucks when I GM has to waste time digging into a book to find out what x does (though this happens even in prepped scenarios), so knowedge of feats and spells is really important for running cold. If you don't think you're good at this, maybe cold-running isn't for you.
I once had to run a special cold at GenCon (I heard they didn't have enough GMs for the special so I went up to Mike Brock and offered to GM). I had maybe a few hours (less since I was also playing and had to get food) so I did get 1-2 read throughs, but no thorough prep. At the end every player thanked me and one even asked if I was a 5-star GM I ran it so well. If only.
Just a couple thoughts from me on the matter (as somebody who plays a ton of barbarian):
This class is so good. Ungodly good. I would dump Cha to 7 and still play this class. The bloodlines are greatly unbalanced currently. Destined, Celestial, Aberrant, Abyssal, and Arcane (by far the worst offender) above and beyond outclass the other bloodlines. Wings is one thing I'd like to point out. For a normal barbarian, getting wings was a big rage power investment that blocked access to beast totem, and cost extra rage rounds. For something like celestial, there is no cost at all. Also, some of the other bloodlines (dragon jumps out) get worse flight, at a later level.
Arcane is just too good. Not only does it make a great anti-mage, but the ability to just enter a rage and counter-act the greatest weakness of a barbarian (low AC) with something as godly as displacement is just astoundingly good. Also, does the displacement last the whole rage or just rounds/level. Does it last after rage? The other buffs are just icing on the cake. And the level 16 polymorph spells are really cool too. I can just imagine getting the polymorph stat boosts, plenty of natural attacks, rage bonuses, and displacement to top it off.
Spells: It looks like the spells are restricted to only being cast when in rage. I think if I were to use a bloodrager I would rarely cast spells, and only use them for utility like see invisible or something. It's not worth spending a round casting during your limited resource rage rounds (that have a penalty for raging longer) instead of straight killing the enemy with your boosted strength.
MAD: This guy isn't MAD at all. I wouldn't ever grab a charisma higher than 12 because there is no need to go higher than 12 (and by changing this I think it will bring his power down a bit). While there are some DC spells, that isn't what this class is about, or really what the magus was about, even. The touch spells are ok, but the buffs are where it gets good, which requires no charisma other than the minimum to cast. By buying a 12 charisma (only 2 points) and an easily affordable headband of charisma in the high teens, the bloodrager is set.
Power creep and new classes always means some things get left behind. I know a pf dm that is disgusted with the creep. This guy used to be a pf fanboy, now he shakes his head and sighs.
I liked the beta fighter a fair bit.
I'm a bit confused as to where the creep comes in.
The three best martial classes are in the CRB: The Ranger, the Barbarian, and the Paladin.
The martial classes released afterwards are the Cavalier (better than teh Fighter, worse than those 3), the Ninja (better than the Rogue, but worse than those 3), the Gunslinger (better than the Fighter, and about on par with those 3, but with admittedly wonky mechanics), and maybe teh Magus/Inquisitor/Alchemist (better than those 3 overall but only by virtue of having 6 level casting).
Where's the creep?
Power Creep is not "better than the worst options", you know.
I think the power creep isn't so much new more powerful classes, it's that those three classes got huge boosts the fighter didn't. The barbarian rage powers in the CRB are nothing compared to the APG and UC ones (APG especially). The ranger and paladin have gotten a ton of neat spells (instant enemy, hero's defiance, litany of righteousness). A vanilla CRB barbarian is on par with the fighter combat wise, not ahead, but he still has a much greater out of combat utility.
Like the others have said, private messaging is the best. A Venture Officer once told me that he and many others specifically avoid posting on the boards simply because if they ever make an honest rules mistake they get a ton of flack for it.
Also, relevant to the other post: Think of a VC as a GM who organizes events and games. For the actual game they are no more perfect/flawed than any of the rest of us. Always try private discussion over public discussion.
This is just wrong. However, especially because this person is a VC, the better approach would be to message the Campaign authorities (Brock or that new guy) rather than making a post.
I started seeing it a bit more lately. I GM/play PFS, and I started to see people buying hero's feasts. It's only something like 110gp each and will generally last the scenario.
+3 weapons act as cold iron and silver. +4 acts as adamantine, +5 acts as aligned.
Archers probably have the least issues with alternate materials. Now, I've never played carrion crown,but cold iron arrows cost all of 1 gp more, so most archers never buy regular arrows. Rather than buying material'd arrows, buy silver and adamantine weapon blanches, they are super cheap, and add them to your cold iron arrows. Now they're silver/cold iron or cold iron/adamantine! Blanches are super cheap to put on arrows, and if you have some extra dimensional storage just pull new arrows out when you run dry. An efficient quiver holds 60 arrows I believe.
The last amazing blanch is found in the Pathffinder Society Field guide, and is called ghost salt weapon blanch. Basically, you spend 200 gp and suddenly 10 of your arrows can hurt incorporeals for full damage. It's a specific +1 weapon enchantment (ghost touch) for 200gp on 10 arrows each (oh, and it get's past the dr of those rare incorporeal demons or fey because there's no point to not use cold iron arrows as well)
To note for blanches: each blanch applies to 1 melee weapon or 10 pieces of ammunition. It is only effective for 1 hit. Good thing arrows are destroyed when they hit. It stays on when you miss and need to roll the 50%.
Hospitaller is one of the top three healers in the game (arguably, but I strongly believe they are neck and neck with Life Oracle for #1). I strongly suggest taking the Fey Foundling feat from the Inner Sea World Guide as your first feat. The dice rolling from LoH and channel makes it a huge boost.
Stat Priority: Charisma>Con>Str>Int=Dex>Wis
Feats: Fey Foundling, Greater Mercy, Selective channel, the rest gets much more flexible. Extra channel/LoH is always useful. Power Attack if you have the Str will make you hit significantly hard when not smiting. Ultimate mercy, extra mercy, a few others. Quick Channel is quite handy.
Scrolls of shield other are your friend. Or ring if you can afford. The hospitaller focuses on the ability to be able to heal himself 3 times in a round, and AoE heal twice, and shield other allows him to spread the damage a ton, and with fey foundling you heal more, so damage on you is actually less than damage on allies, if you think about it the right way.
Bracers of the merciful knight are basically a requirement, and either headband of charisma or phylas terry of positive channel (most say headband, if your GM allows crafting and adding properties, add that phylas terry when you can!)
On top of all this you're a front liner in full plate with a weapon and amazing saves and smite,
As mostly established above; the barbarian is in almost every way superior to the fighter, in combat and especially out of combat.
The Barbarian is Better:
In-combat: If you look at straight numerical bonuses, it appears the fighter has the advantage. Using 4 of his 11 bonus feats, he gets a +2/+4 bonus. That combined with the +6/+6 from weapon training/gloves of dueling is fairly significant. However, the barbarian also has his tricks to get high numbers. The furious weapon is a bonus +2/+2, the courageous weapon enhancement will eventually give a +2-+3 bonus to strength. At mighty rage, we have +8 str(+11 with courageous) giving +5/+7(+7/+9 with furious) so he's only +1 behind a fighter! That's not much. Then add in reckless abandon, pounce, superstition(make him a human and watch every spell ever be ignored), and you see the barbarian pulls far ahead. These make barbarian damage vastly more consistent, because the barbarian will be getting more attacks, hitting more often with iteratives, AND won't be spending countless rounds trying to kill his allies. Also, the barbarian can do more stuff than: I move to get nearer, or I full attack. He gets spell sunder ("oh, your fighter just got 100% aken out of the fight because of wall of force? let me sunder it for you"), pounce, unexpected strike, etc. He will also get tons more attacks than the fighter through Come and Get me, making his damage that much higher than the fighter at high levels. While it's suboptimal, he gets freaking body bludgeon! How cool, right?
Out of combat, the barbarian gets more skills, stuff like trap sense (scratch that, invulnerable barbarian for the win) and the ability to spend maybe 1 round of rage to do feats of amazing strength that the fighter, in his bland consistency, cannot pull off. Magical trap? no problem rage for one round to sunder. Strength surge, any of the raging insert skill here rage powers. Yes rage is "limited" but so are a fighter's hp, a wizard's spells, the cleric's heals, etc. The argument of limited resources is a silly one made by people who refuse to realize how the game is made to be played.
As for the argument that the fighter has better AC, if the barbarian spends one feat on heavy armor proficiency and spends 9000 on mithral full plate, a pittance at the higher levels, the barbarian will beat the fighter at the AC game. If you claim that the fighter doesn't have to buy that feat, I will tell you the barbarian class has only 4 other feats: power attack, raging vitality, combat reflexes (for those CaGM barbs) and extra rage power. They have a few feats to spare. Now we tack on beast totem and that's a +4 armor higher than the fighter. There are so few feats to boost AC out there the barbarian can probably take almost all the ones the fighter can. Oh, and did I mention we'll actually be able to cover more than one defense? The AC optimizer fighter gets all of AC and fortitude protected. The barbarian gets more. Also, after a while AC becomes far less relevant, because monster to-hits scale much faster, and abilities target touch and other defenses. A far more consistent defense for the barbarian is the DR route, going invulnerable rager, tasking the dragon totems and combat expertise -> stalwart.
Sidenote: The courageous weapon property is freaking amazing, and it's standard for barbarians because they get a morale bonus to strength. And a bard with good hope to the party and the barbarian is exceptionally better than the fighter, more so than before.
I'm surprised I only saw one paladin. Here's the(allegedly) invincible paladin build
Demon Spawn Tiefling Paladin (oath of vengeance)
Stats:
Str: 18 +1 at 4 and 8
Dex 10
Con: 14
Wis 8
Int 10
Cha 16
Skills: Perception and Diplomacy, use a trait for perception (either the osirion faction trait or eyes and ears of the city)
Feats
1: Fey Foundling. This is really all you need to break this build
3: Power Attack
5: Greater Mercy (as a paranoid fool who hates the darkness rules, I actually took fiend sight twice at 5th and 7th, but the chances of it being relevant are rare I admit. This gives you 1d6+2 hp for almost every LoH)
7: whatever you want (suggested: lunge, extra LoH fiend sight-see 5
9: whatever (add improved crit to the suggestion, you probably already have your weapon keen though. If you've started heavily investing in extra LoH take ultimate Mercy because bringing dead people back to life is good)
11: what ever
Favored class point: +1 hp healed when using LoH to heal yourself. This + Fey Foundling=win
Spells:
1: Hero's Defiance. More hero's defiance
2: Litany of Righteousness. There's no reason to take any other litany
3: daylight or maybe something else. If you went Oath vs. dragons instead of vengeance(slightly suboptimal) take fly. More litany of righteousness it's that good
Equipment:
no-Dachi. Keen it when you can
Full plate. Just because you have the most hp in the game doesn't mean you need to let everything hit you. Only +s for this
Belt: Str primarily. If for some reason you're still worried about dying tack con on
Headband: Charisma! We need more LoH!!!!! The more the merrier!!!
Bracers: Bracers of the merciful knight. Get these PRONTO!!!! Yes they're 15k but they give you 2d6+4 hp from every LoH PLUS 2 more LoH!!!!
Cloak: of resistance, maybe minor displacement but seriously saves can never be too high
Way finder+clear spindle ioun stone. Yes your saves are some of the best. There's always the chance of a one, and your allies certainly won't be able to kill you or really deal with you.
At 12th level you have a ton of LoHs healing at (assuming no applicable mercy) 9d6+30 hp as a SWIFT ACTION. You still have the ability to full attack for a bunch of damage and wreck face. As if this weren't enough, when you drop you can as an immediate action heal yourself for 10d6+32. You ain't dying
So I've been reading up on this thread the past few days, I'm only on post 2200 so of I say anything that's an undead horsein the past 600 or so don't shoot me too much.
The main problems I've seen (an possible addresses to those problems)
1. Out of combat utility
I agree on 4+ Int here. Standard fighter feats plus somewhere between 2-4 additional skills picked from a list (know nobility, handle animal, heal, etc.). Make sure they are fighter themed, but vary them or the leader or te footman build ideas.
2. Vulnerability
Fort as a class skill and one flexible save. I'm also supporting scaling feats to a degree. Also, see the next part.
Another thing is I've always thought armor training was a bit weak (the movement was cool but the rest was meh). The Viking Arhetype definitely took it the right way. Making the max dex increase instead a dodge bonus is the right way to go here.
3. In combat versatility. "I full attack (when I rarely can)" is boring. I move to get there is worse)
I think grit is the key mechanic to work off of here. It is mundane, but heroic, and that is the heart of the fighter.
Drive:
In a world filled with magic and monsters, the fighter is the mundane exception. It is the fighter's ability to dig deeper, to rely on his experience, growth, and trials that allows him to compete and succeed on this magical battlefield. (Here are some big things I'm looking for in this: staying power as the day progresses. The abilities will improve once the fighter is below half health, and it's a resource that builds rather than fades)
Drive is based on drive points. Unlike other resource based mechanics, this ability starts at zero everyday and builds up as the fighter faces and conquers his trials. A drive pool can never start at more than half his total drive pool(see feats and favored class options)The maximum drive a fighter can have is equal to his fighter level.
Drive is generated: every third round of combat(I can see this being every two. Also, rounds roll over, so if a fight took five rounds after te first round of the next fight you'd get a drive point), defeating an enemy (kill, knock unconcious, be the one that forces a surrender), scoring a critical hit, being critically hit, failing a saving throw against a debilitating effect, performing a non-drive enhanced heroic act (similar to the gunslinger daring act, up to GM discretion)
Spending drive: there are many ways to spend drive, each making the fighter more effective in combat, durable, or versatile. (I have yet to decide if these abilities are based on level, always available, or acquired one at a time given out every level or every other)
Spending Drive:
Blitz: The fighter gains a bonus to initiative equal to half of the current drive in his drive pool. By spending one drive point, a fighter, as a swift action can make a single move action, as long as the fighter ends this movement adjacent to an enemy. When the fighter is below half health, any enemy the fighter ends his movement adjacent to is flatfooted to any of the fighter's attacks for the remainder of the round. (a la pounce, but limited by resource management)
Adrenaline Rush: As a swift action, the fighter can spend 1 point from his drive pool to take a -2 penalty to all of his attacks to gain an extra attack at his highest base attack bonus. If the fighter has the Two-weapon fighting feat, the fighter makes an additional attack at his highest BaB with both his mainland and offhand weapon. Below half health, the fighter instead gains a +2 to all of his attacks instead of a -2 as his sudden frenzy threatens to overwhelm his foe.
In the Nick(spellcheck?) of Time: when writhin 5ft of the edge of a spell effect, the fighter can, as an immediate action, spend a drive to move up to his speed to avoid the effect. When below half health, the fighter gets a bonus to this movement equal to half his speed. (examples: foreball centered on you? lol nope! That wall of force planted in front of you to block ou off? Lol nope you're still in their face! This is the main ability I see to avoid battlefield control. Sorry I can't get you fly)
One Mind: The fighter is his own man. Whenever the fighter fails a will save, as an immediate action, the fighter can spend any amount of drive(minimum one) points to reroll the save with a bonus to the save equal to the amount of drive spent. When below half health, the fighter ignores any effect from a successful save.
Fateful Leap: One mind, but for Reflex
Fiery Blood: Yup, Fortitude now
Onslaught: The fighter strengthens his blows in a sudden surge of motivation. As a swift action, the fighter can spend any amount of drive points to increase the damage of all of his attacks by the same amount of drive he spent (standard str modifiers apply. Ex 2H gets 1.5x damage. Double Slice applies). The fighter passively gets a bonus to damage equal to 1/4 of the current drive in his drieve pool When below half health, the bonus damage doubles.
These are just a few thoughts of Drive Powers. I'm sure more can be added, perhaps for an attack bonus similar to onslaught, or some kind I critical strike confirmer.
Potential other drive powers I was too lazy to write: reroll a save of an ability you're currently under. Been under dominate and been in combat long enough to get some drive? Fight back!
Some drive powers that modify jumps or other skills. Get a climb speed or swim speed? Spend some drive to get a bonus to jump (and maybe add your str mod? Seriously while was jump made dex based?)?
Drive feats:
These are some sample feats available to modify a fighter's drive pool or powers. These are all combat feats.
Forever motivated
Prereqs: Drive pool, fighter level 8
Always start the day with 2 points in the drive pool.
Special: this feat can be taken again at a minimum of 12th and 16th levels. Each time the starting drive pool is increased by 2.
Vast motivation
Prereqs: Drive pool, fighter level 4
A character who takes this feat increases the maximum of his drive pool by 2.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times. The total amount of drive possible can never exceed fighter level x1.5
Determination
Prereqs: Drive pool, fighter level 5
A fighter never flinches at daunting odds; rather, he relishes the opportunity to succeed where others might fail. The fighter gains DR/- equal to the amount of drive currently in his drive pool. (this is a big one I wonder at balance for. Given that Barbs have constant DR and the drive is hopefully always fluctuating, I don't see it as too dangerous. Should I make this stackable with other sources of DR/-?
Unbeatable Determination
Prereqs: Fighter level 10, Determination
A fighters determination is unparalleled. A fighter with this feat gains the following drive power: Unbeatable Determination. As an immediate action after attacks are declared but before they are rolled a fighter can spend any amount of drive to gain DR/- equal to twice the drive spent. This lasts until the beginning of the fighter's next turn. When below have health, the fighter also gains temporary hit points equally to three times the drive spent. These temporary hit points last an hour.
I can definitely see more drive feats along these lines.
Drive Favored Class Options:
Human: add 1/4 to the fighter's daily starting drive
Dwarf: Add 1/4 to the fighter's total drive
Halfling: whenever a fighter gains a drive point (not by starting with it at the beginning of the day, such as from Forever motivated) add 1/6 to the amount of drive gained (round down)
Is drive a bit too powerful? Are there drive powers/feats I should add to this? Should this replace other abilities, and if so, which? Is the costing right?
I really like this, I may have to play test it in my Jade Regent campaign.
I believe it's any class, as long as it's draconically themed? In which case, I suggest the Paladin/sorcerer/Dragon Disciple.
Race: I don't see this build being too hard on feats, so let's make this Angel-Kin Aasimar (from blood of Angels, if you don't have this then go human, they are VERY close). This gives us +2s to our favorite stats, and a few meh stuff. Resistances are pretty much negligible, as well as darkvision. The skill bonuses are weak, as well as the SLA. It's pretty much a toss up between a feat in a not too feat heavy build, or a bonus to charisma, which gives +1 to all saves, +1 to AC (if you take a 1 level oracle dip), and some other bonuses.
Class: DD10/Paladin 4(Oath of Vengeance)/Sorceror1(Draconic BLoodline only) Takes you to 15. Then you have a choice. 5 more levels of sorcerer takes you to CL 13. The paladin levels give you more smites (pretty ignorable given oath of vengeance) and some more paladin spells, along with a meh aura. Divine Bond is sorta cool. Since I don't know quite what you want, I'll leave the last 5 levels open. You might also want to take a single level oracle of lore dip to get the charisma to AC rather than dex. THat's pretty powerful. The rest will assume you take that one dip.
Stats: Base-Str 17 (13 pts) Dex 10 Con 14(5 pts) Wis 7 Int 11 (1 point) Cha 15(7pts)
Level spending: +3 str, +1 cha, +1 in either wis or int (your choice, Skill points or a bonus to will and perception).
Race spending: +2 str, +2 cha is aasimar.
Final Modified without magic: Str 22 Dex 10 Con 14 Wis 8 Int 11 Cha 18
These stats are the most variable part of this build, you can easily make this more balanced by lowering the strength by 1 or 2.
Feats:
1: Power Attack
3: Skill Focus Perception
5: Arcane Strike-Seriously swift action more damage. Use this when you aren't smiting.
7: Craft Wondrous Item (only if you take those 4 levels in sorcerer, this will greatly reduce costs for wondrous items)
9:Eldritch Heritage: Orc we want the bonus to strength and the lvl 15 power is nice too. The whole chain is from UM
11: Improved Eldritch Heritage
13: Dimensional Agility
15:Dimensional Assault
17: Greater Eldritch Heritage. We now have sweet dragon form AND Giant form when those are used up.
19: Dimensional Dervish (this is pounce)
(Bonus if human) Take the alternate giving you 3 skill focuses. Do perception and any two others, diplomacy and something else. You can then replace the SF Per with Rending claws if your GM allows it (it requires claws, it''ll depend if he counts the class feature or not). If your GM doesn't, then I really don't know what to put here. Lunge might be good.
Bloodline feats (3 from DD, more if you take the final 4 levels as sorc): Improved Initiative, Blind Fight (seriously, with blindsense this is pretty awesome for fighting invisibles and the like), Power Attack. Toughness is a good #4 choice, as the sorc levels don't have great hit dice, and this will be front line. Other feats to consider: with the oracle dip, you might want to go dual-cursed (tongues and Lame, use lame as your progressing one, tongues for draconic) to get the misfortune revelation. Seriously, immediate action rerolls? Sign me up.
Traits:MAGICAL KNACK +2 CL to sorcerer.
Reactionary (unless you have a skill in mind you really want to take ranks in)
Magic: Wow, 350k only? Ouch. +5 WIld Mithral Full Plate of speed : 89,500 gp.
Ring of Evasion: 25k (iffy, but very nice to have)
If you have Seeker of Secrets: Clear Spindle Ioun Stone and Wayfinder 4,500 gp. Immunity to mind control like dominate or charm or hold person (NOTE: Does not protect from Confusion. Some believe it's vs. evil only, but I don't believe that)
Amulet of Mighty Fists: +3 or so, give it keen and ghost touch. Sadly, you can't craft wondrous on this.
+2 Keen Ghost Touch Adamantine No-Dachi. This is sorta a backup weapon in the rare case you run out of claw rounds anf form of the dragon. It's also pretty nifty, you might just want to use it instead.
Belt of Physical Might+6Str/Con: 90,000, only in our price range with craft wondrous item, bringing it down to 45,000
Headband of CHarisma +6: 36000, 18000 with Craft.
Beyond these, your magic is fairly customizable. A lot of it is your own preferences, and I was underestimating the weapons a bit, you might want to invest more in those (I'm pretty sure this leaves you still with a fair bit).
I know of few of these threads are already out there, but I'm adding some abilities I haven't already seen, and so I'm wondering what class combinations would be best. (this is for a PFS character)
In addition to the usual Helpful trait halfling
Spoiler:
Whenever you successfully perform an aid another action, you grant your ally a +4 bonus instead of the normal +2.
and Bodyguard feat
Spoiler:
When an adjacent ally is attacked, you may use an attack of opportunity to attempt the aid another action to improve your ally’s AC. You may not use the aid another action to improve your ally’s attack roll with this attack.
I have a few questions.
Will the Shadow Lodge trait Aid Allies
Spoiler:
When using the aid another action, you give your ally a +3 bonus instead of a +2 bonus
stack with helpful for a final +5 bonus?
I will most likely add the trip chain to increase my usefulness, as well as the Flagbearer feat.
Spoiler:
As long as you hold your clan, house, or party’s flag, members of that allegiance within 30 feet who can see the flag (including yourself ) gain a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, and saving throws against fear and charm effects. You must hold the flag in one hand in order to grant this bonus. If the standard is taken by the enemy or destroyed, this bonus becomes a penalty, affecting all creatures that the bonus previously affected for 1 hour (or until you reclaim the lost flag).
Should I stick with Lore Warden, or should I add a few levels of MoMS to get Crane Style/Riposte (Wing won't be as useful since a flag in one hand and a weapon in the other won't leave me a hand free, but the two combined will give me a nice reduction of the fighting defensively penalty, as well as a boost to it)
On Crane Style: Crane Style/Riposte will lower the fighting defensively penalty and more importantly increase the AC bonus. I plan to combine this with Cautious Fighter
Spoiler:
When fighting defensively or using total defense, your dodge bonus to AC increases by 2.
and Blundering Defense
Spoiler:
Whenever you fight defensively or use the total defense action, allies gain a luck bonus to AC and CMD equal to 1/2 the dodge bonus you gain from the action you are taking. Allies only gain this bonus while they are adjacent to you.
.
Other things I have been considering is the first two feats of the Whip Mastery chain as well as the feat Butterfly Sting
Spoiler:
When you confirm a critical hit against a creature, you can choose to forgo the effect of the critical hit and grant a critical hit to the next ally who hits the creature with a melee attack before the start of your next turn. Your attack only deals normal damage, and the next ally automatically confirms the hit as a critical.
In the end, my question is this: Am I trying to do too much? How effective will this be? What should I take, and in what order?
EDIT: After consideration, I think Butterfly Sting will be better used with a better crit range weapon dual-wielding kukris to help out a very powerful x3 or x4 melee ally.
When you are mounted and use the charge action, you may move and attack as if with a standard charge and then move again (continuing the straight line of the charge). Your total movement for the round can’t exceed double your mounted speed. You and your mount do not provoke an attack of opportunity from the opponent that you attack
Mounted Combat Section of Combat wrote:
If your mount charges, you also take the AC penalty associated with a charge. If you make an attack at the end of the charge, you receive the bonus gained from the charge. When charging on horseback, you deal double damage with a lance (see Charge).
Pounce wrote:
When a creature with this special attack makes a charge, it can make a full attack (including rake attacks if the creature also has the rake ability).
To charge while mounted your mount has to charge. Ride-By Attack says you have to charge, which means your mount is charging. If your mount is charging, it can pounce. So yes, you can charge an enemy and have your lion pounce and then ride off into the sunset. I'm trying to picture it now and it's tough. Personal nitpick: there was a ruling made...somewhere, that says your charging bonus to your lance only counts to your first attack, trying to nerd the rage lance pouncers, but by RAW I don't see it.
For the record you can't apply our distance from the moon to Golarion's distance from the moon. It's possible it's much closer, or that you jump and hit an extraplanar eddies carrying you over the moon.
I really want a special like the first one, Year of the Shadow Lodge. The work between tables was the best then. I feel the cooperative elements having been lacking in the more recent specials. Its possibly the best part of the GenCon experience, knowing everyone else in the room is working together to overcome this massive challenge. And it's going to be even greater this year with the new room.
EDIT: I agree with Chris in some regards. The different tiers should have different tasks that all relate to the central plot, and each tier's significance becomes revealed in the final encounter.
