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I've been toying with this build for a while now and wouldn't mind having opinions/comments/advices from this board.

The general ideas revolves around whips, intimidate, damage dealing and debuffs. I basically wanted to have more versatility out of a melee build. The 5 levels dip into fighter are accelerating the BAB progression for whip feats but also bring other goodies (medium armor & shield, armor/weapon training, extra feats).

Half-Orc
Str +2
Intimidate +2
Darkvision
Sacred Tattoo (I'm not a big fan of Orc Ferocity)
City-raised (Gives whip proficiency and levels of Fighter brings martial anyways)

Ability score
Str 18 (+2 racial)
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 10
Cha 10

Levels
1. Thug 1 (Skill Focus (Intimidate), Frightening)
This brings my Intimidate to +9, success = at least 2 rounds of shaken.
Whip doesn't threaten and is useless vs armor but can trip/disarm at 15ft.
Otherwise a backup weapon can be used (shortbow, rapier, whatever).
Sneak Attack +1d6.

2. Thug 2 (Weapon Training (Whip), Evasion)
The rogue talent gives Weapon Focus for free

3. Figther 1 (Power Attack, Whip Mastery, lots of proficiencies)
Now that whip starts to really be useful. It still does not threaten but at least it is a reliable source of damage and doesn't trigger AoO.
Power Attack is self explanatory.
I can now use a Spiked shield to threaten with a shield bash.
I can also trade Evasion for Medium/Heavy armor.

4. Fighter 2 (Enforcer)
Since a whip can deal non-lethal damage, Enforcer really extends the shaken duration of a demoralize check. And 4+ rounds of shaken = 1 round of frightened, thanks to Thug's Frightening.

5. Fighter 3 (Dazzling Display, Armor Training)
Dazzling Display gives a full-round option but it is mostly a requirement for Shatter Defenses.
Armor Training + Mithral Breastplate = High AC + Evasion at full speed.

6. Fighter 4 (Improved Whip Mastery)
Now that whip threatens at 10 ft.

7. Fighter 5 (Shatter Defenses, Weapon Training (Flails))
BAB is now +6/+1 so 2 attacks on a full-round. First deals non-lethal with Enforcer for shaken, second causes target to be flat-footed (only to me) until the end of my next round. Then sneak attack at will.
Weapon training gives a boost on attack/damage.

8. Thug 3 (Brutal Beating)
Sneak Attack +2d6
I can also forgo 1d6 of sneak attack for sickening debuff.

9. Thug 4 (Combat Reflexes, Strong Impression, Uncanny Dodge)
Finally making use of the whip's threat range.
Strong Impression gives a boost to Intimidate

10+. All Thug levels, improving sneak attack and critical feats for more damage/debuff. At level 13, BAB is +11/+6/+1 so the combo becomes (provided everything hits): Enforcer + Shaken / Flat-footed / Sicken + Sneak Attack. Eventually Sneaking Precision can also apply one critical feat effect (Tiring/Exhausting Critical) when target is hit twice by sneak attack in a round.

Anyone else like me is still looking for a home? Write up a description of what you are looking for and let the settlement recruiters sway you :)

So here goes:
I'm planning on having a Half-Elf Ranger as my primary character and a Gnome Arcane Caster (Wizard, Sorcerer, I may even consider Bard) as my Destiny's Twin (well, Half-Elf, Gnome and Ranger will have to wait so probably Human or Elf Fighter and Human or Elf Wizard at first).

I'd like to focus my Ranger into exploration, resource gathering and PvP. Basically roaming the wild, looking for goodies and skirmishing whenever necessary. The caster will focus on turning those resources into crafted goods, play the market and probably help defend the settlement with buff spells.

Alignment-wise, I see my ranger going True Neutral and my Caster more on the Lawful side. It's not a hard requirement though, I can easily fit whatever alignment the settlement requires (not CE though).

I'm really not into "roleplaying", so settlements with fancy backstories and all do not appeal to me.

Also, I'll be a casual player (having kids does that to your gaming schedule), on EST time zone.

I don't know if it's been answered somewhere else, I didn't find anything.

Here's the scenario, I have a fighter with 12 Int going on level 4. I wish to get Combat Expertise as a bonus feat, which requires Int 13. So can I increase intelligence first (level 4 increase) and then select Combat Expertise or do I need to meet the requirement prior to leveling up?

This totally falls into the "nice to have" bin but I'd like to see different governance styles for settlements.

An obvious one would be total dictatorship. The settlement leader can set any law/rule/tax/war he wants, whenever he wants. He may of course appoint people below him with specific roles but overall, the membership has nothing to say on anything. It would also be nice to have a failsafe mechanism for members to challenge the dictator and possibly dethrone him (in direct 1v1 combat or maybe XvX).

Another system would be direct democracy. Giving a single vote to each member and passing every law/rule/tax/war under vote. This would involve each and every member but would cause long delays (I wouldn't expect votes to happen at a precise instant but having like a 24h window where people can cast their vote).

The last idea I had was to manage settlements like a business. Any player (member of the settlement or not) could buy equities. They could then vote for a board of administrator that would lead the settlement. The board would be elected but they would have to appoint any "executive" to do the day to day management.

As a side note, I wouldn't bind any of those systems to a specific alignment. As see a LG paladin organization setting a dictatorship system so they act with a military chain of command just as much as I see a CE settlement setting a direct democracy so anyone can decide to add/remove laws whenever they feel like it.

I believe such systems wouldn't be too hard to implement (mostly iterations over the basics) and could add a lot of meaningful interactions. Like crafters in a democracy organizing a lobby to lower taxes, minions in a dictatorship preparing a revolution in secret, two big neighboring settlements investing money to finance a 3rd "trade" settlement they could then control remotely.

One of the things that bugs me most in MMOs is the lack of proper organization outside of the game. What I mean is usually, inside the game, you are a member of a guild, with maybe privileges like being able to recruit members, giving reputation (good or bad) to other guilds, etc.

But once you close the game, none of that is maintained. You are just a username and password away from any blog/forum. And that username might have nothing to do with your character name.

What I'd like to see is an official forum that links to the game's database. If I'm a member of XYZ guild, then I have access to XYZ forum's section. If XYZ is part of the ABC alliance, then I also have access to that forum. If I'm given an administrative title in-game, it can also be mirrored out-of-game (guild master -> admin, recruiter -> moderator, etc).

I think that's the kind of feature that would enrich any MMO. But this is especially true for MMOs focusing on players interactions.

I'm building a mounted ranger and was looking at the Heel ability from the Skirmisher archetype.

Heel (Ex): The ranger can use this trick as an immediate action when his animal companion moves. When the companion moves, the square it starts out in is not considered threatened by any opponent it can see, and therefore visible enemies do not get attacks of opportunity against it when it moves from that square. The companion must end this movement in a square adjacent to the ranger. The animal companion must be able to see and hear the ranger to take this movement.

The ability is triggered whenever my companion moves so no problem here. But that move needs to end in a square adjacent to my character. My question is quite simple, if I am mounting my companion during the move, does that count?

The idea here is quite obvious, It would allow me and my mount to escape tight spots without AoO...

I was reading the GMG tables for random loot and for some items, I find it hard to determine exactly what I must consult.

For example, the only way to get a staff or a rod is to roll for a major item, even though there're medium staves and rods in the Core book.

Is the medium staves and rods were intentionally removed from the medium list?

If not, when using the major items list, how do I know if the staff or rod is medium or major?

Hi,

I want to refit a 3.5 wizard conjurer into a pathfinder one and I'm wondering what happens with PrC that says: "+1 level of wizard spellcasting ability".

Do I get Dimensional Steps at level 8 even if I'm only wizard 3 / master specialist 5? In other words, do Dimensional Steps considered a spellcasting ability?