Casey Hudak's page

None of the PCs are good, two are evil, and they work for the Red Mantis Assassins, a LE organization. However, they have been filled in that if they're responsible for the child's death, their lives are forfeit as far as the organization is concerned.

To further color the situation, they are planning on killing his mother, a powerful cleric of Shelyn, in order to get to her son. It hasn't played out quite yet so we'll see what happens, but there's a good chance that the son will bear witness to his own mother's death.

A cuckoopuff of cacodaemons

A ________ of wood golems

An insanity of Great Old Ones.

A _______ of mohrgs

I'm running a campaign where my PCs have been tasked with kidnapping a child prodigy bard, who is the the son of Shelyn's herald The Spirit of Adoration. The child is a musical prodigy who despite only being only six years old is already at 4th level. I'm planning for him to be an Aasimar, and I'm thinking of applying either the half celestial or a mythic level in trickster, possibly both. My PCs are at sixth level.

I want to design this character not to fight the PCs, but to escape from them. I want the encounter where they search for him to be memorable and difficult, but not impossible. There should be an opportunity for them to fail, and consequences if they do fail. They'll be searching for him in a large mansion, and possibly in a demi plane that connects to Shelyn's realm on Nirvana.

What Bard abilities would make for a memorable round of hide and seek? Should I incorporate Mythic or Half Celestial into the mix? How do I make this challenging and memorable without focusing on direct combat? What holes could my PCs exploit in order to find the child?

I'm just curious if anyone has run something similar or if they've played Bards enough that they have general advice. It is vital to the story that this character is a Bard, and it is vital that the character is very young, but otherwise everything is flexible.

As far as an adventure that gives the characters a satisfying and heroic arch, I think that Wrath of the Righteous is a great choice. The story is very much one of good triumphing over evil, but even though the pcs are confronted with an unambiguously foul foe, they often have to hard decisions in order to ensure that they do what's best for the people they're protecting. I would run it without mythic rules though, mythic rules are complex and they tend to break the game.

A kerfuffle of pseudodragons

A ________ of Leng Ghouls

You can alienate all of your friends and drive them away from your table... BECAUSE YOU'RE THE GM

A stew of froghemoths

A _______ of dweomercats

A library of Loremasters

A _________ of Lamias

I really want to play a paladin of Shelyn dedicated to love and compassion, healing the broken, and protecting the weak. Cheliax has so many of the wounded and the downtrodden that I think it could be a very compelling fit.

As a DM running a recently concluded kingdom building campaign, I'm now really tempted to reconvene my group because an evil archmage has literally flown away with their kingdom.

Is Rasmir Golarion's magnificent bastard? Seems like you'd have to be not just powerful, but pretty savvy and charismatic to convince an entire nation worth of people that you're a living god.

If someone leaves your two person game, you find someone new or it dies, end of story. But that's kind of a risk you have to take when you're running with a small group. In general, it's best to build towards the characters skill set. With a larger group, PCs can come up with solutions to just about every kind of problem, but with a two person group it's way easier to come up with an encounter that the PCs simply CANNOT solve. If they have no way to attack an enemy at range, for example, and their enemy can fly then they are just screwed. You as a DM have to be much more aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and you must always plan accordingly to keep things fun for them.

What if there was a tavern serving spiked potions, with drug like effects that are thematic for the spells that they mirror? Like, a tavern that serves potions of barkskin that cause imbibers to feel a heaviness in their limbs, or potions of haste that make you feel super jittery, or even something crazy like a potion of color spray that would really mess you up.

I'm currently in a Reign of Winter campaign playing a lunar oracle. We're pretty flush with cash at this point, and I was thinking of picking up a Ring of Revelation. Now, it says on the pfsrd that if you have a high enough UMD you can make use of the revelation in the ring even if you're not of the correct mystery. What are the most powerful revelations that you can pick up using this trick?

My suggestion? Just make it a magus archetype.

My favorite character I've ever played is The Great Gambolbini, a human arcane sorcerer who was absolutely convinced he was a wizard when in fact he was an absolute idiot with an intelligence of 6. He would constantly give misinformation on different monsters the pcs were fighting, often exchanging a single word to disastrous results. However, he was so charismatic that he was very good at convincing everyone to go along with anything he said. Also, he would consistently forget his own name, and add various syllables to it.

I had a character who was a great playwright and he used Craft (Playwright). I would go with that one.

Archer Rangers deal a ton of damage per round because they get so many attacks.

There's also the Spell Dancer Archetype for the Elvish Magus. It is an elf specific racial archetype, but it's not like being an elf is bad if you want to play a magus anyway.

You are not giving any relevant advice to the OP. This thread is three years old. They've likely already finished running a full adventure path at this point. Start a new thread where you tell people what adventure paths they should run if it strikes your fancy, but please don't drag a thread like this one screaming back from the dead. It clutters the front of the advice page.

Have them fight something that uses a mind control ability that turns the party against itself, like an aboleth, while the actual monster remains out of sight. Instead of just killing their fellow party member, it will force them to try to figure out what is causing the mind control from afar. Nothing helps players go back to strategy instead of brute force like fighting an intelligent enemy with powerful spell like abilities that remains out of sight.

RAW, eldritch heritage cannot get you an animal companion through the sylvan bloodline. First, you cannot use eldritch heritage to get a bloodline ability from a wild blooded modified archetype, because it comes from an archetype. Second, and more importantly, the animal companion ability of the sylvan bloodline counts as both the first level bloodline power and bloodline arcana, because it replaces both from the original bloodline. Eldritch heritage only gives you access to the bloodline power, not the bloodline arcana. That being said, if your GM is amenable and it's central to your concept, I say go for it. It's not that much of a bending of the rules.

Play an oracle. You get to decide whether you cast cure or inflict regardless of alignment and they can act as great support.

The Giant Owlbear in Kingmaker

Way of the Wicked by Fire Mountain Games is pretty stellar and exists in a world outside of Golarion. Really great adventure if you don't mind dealing with an entirely evil party.

It stacks, you do not get two familiars. They are considered to be the same class feature, not different kinds of class features. If you had a wizard with a familiar that took the eldritch heritage (arcane) feat to get another familiar, it would not work because it is a redundant feature.

A really good build is empyrial blooded sorcerer (using wis instead of cha as prime casting) into Sohei monk into eldritch knight. This lends itself to an extremely defensive build that has proficiency in all martial weapons, but still boosts your casting well.

Also a flame oracle might be what you're looking for.

I guess if you're already playing gestalt it's fine, I would just hope that the rest of the people in the party are on a similar level of being generally scary. What does deadly agility do?

This seems like it's good old 3.5 broken.

I've had multiple animal companions before, but the way that I've done it such that it doesn't wig out the party is that they're the same kind of animal and they take redundant actions, that way it doesn't take a ton of time to play them. Also I limit myself to taking only two companions at a time for two reasons, because each individual companion will be stronger that way (less spread on levels/boon companion needs) and because it takes substantially less time. If you want to play with more than one companion, for the love of god do not play three wildly different to play companions.

Sylvan Sorcerers are great, and you should play one of those. The battlefield control potential on those is second to none. Also, don't forget to pick up boon companion to get a fully leveled up animal companion.

An oracle with the nature mystery or a cleric with the animal or plant domain who worships a nature god might also work for this concept.

Yes. It would certainly break the game. Your character could cherry pick the best spells from each caster list, and you'd end up with a monstrosity. If you're still concerned about the rift between wizard and sorcerer, just let sorcerers get second level spells at third level.

So, I'm currently in a pathfinder game where I'm playing an oracle with the deaf curse. I want to pick up the spell Command, because it seems very powerful. Command has a verbal component, which presumably would be silenced as per the silent spell feat due to the 1st level perk from the mystery. However, it's also a language dependent spell. Would my deaf oracle be able to cast the spell without the 20 percent spell failure? Would silent spell even be applicable to a language dependent spell in general? How does this work?

Way of the Wicked isn't a paizo adventure path, but in my opinion it is the most masterfully written adventure path ever written.

Paragon surge is still worth it, regardless of the various nerfs, although now I will probably swap the skill focus for exotic weapon proficiency, Fauchard, which is basically just a better longspear.

@Anzyr: In order to get the CHA to AC that stacks with dex from Celestial Obedience (Arshea), I have to be 12th level. So while if I was starting the campaign at 12th level it would be a good pickup, I think for now I'm just gonna go for Prophetic Armor.

I like Noble Scion, Scion of War, but I really don't have the first level feat for it unless I want my character to really suck for the first two levels. I would have the feat at third considering I'm not picking up eldritch heritage anymore, but it says I can only take the feat at first level. Much as I want the extra feat, I really can't be human because so much of my build is reliant upon half elf status (boosted animal companion and paragon surge). I'll probably just bite the bullet and take extra revelation at 3rd instead of at 1st level.

I think this build is still quite solid, just not quite as broken as it used to be before the FAQs. Thanks all for bringing the flaws in my build to my attention.

-2 dex, -4 for being deaf. Currently initiative is this character's biggest weakness.

which book is the celestial obedience featured in?

Rangers are pretty friendly and very fun to play. I suggest the ranger because it's more versatile and more powerful than both the fighter and rogue while still being fairly simple to build and play. Same with a barbarian.

So, I'm building a half elf lunar oracle for an upcoming Reign of Winter campaign, and I want to build this character using all of the most broken oracle tricks that I've discovered over the years. I want this character to be the most flexible character possible, capable of emulating the greatest number of powerful features from other classes. I'm not looking to build this character to shut down the usefulness of other characters and dominate every encounter, but rather to be able to contribute in every possible situation and to be incredibly resilient. I'm looking to make sure that I've build my character according to RAW and that I haven't overlooked any powerful tricks I should be aware of. The GM has decided to give us 20 point buy instead of 15, and we are starting at level one. So far, here is my first level build:

Jorvan Grint, Half Elf Lunar Oracle 1,
Str 16, Dex 7, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 7, Cha 19
HP 10, Fortitude +2, Reflex +4, Will +0. Base Movement 30 Ft, Init. -6
AC 19 (Chain Shirt with Armored Kilt +5, +4 from Charisma)
CMB: +3 CMD: 17 (+3 from strength, +4 from Charisma )
Dual Cursed Archetype, Deaf (primary) and Wolfscarred Curses (Wolfscarred curse gives a 20 percent spell failure on all spells with verbal components, but deaf lets me cast all spells as if silent, so it balances out)
Prophetic Armor Revelation (Cha instead of Dex for AC, CMB and Reflex Saves) and Primal Companion Revelation (one from extra revelations feat) getting a Big Cat Animal Companion
Skill Focus Knowledge (Religion) from Half Elf Adaptability Racial Trait.
Cold Honed, Keen Senses, Low Light Vision, Elf Blood, and Multitalented Racial Traits.
Longspear +3 1d8+4 Damage with Reach and Brace
Bite +3 1d4+3 Damage.
Put Favored Class Bonus for first level into Boosting Primal Companion Revelation by half a level.
Umbral Unmasking Drawback, Bully Trait, The Pack Trait, Keeper of the Veil Trait.
Disguise +9, Handle Animal +10, Intimidate +9, Knowledge (Religion) +7.

I decided to go Half Elf because I have access to the powerful human favored class bonus (extra spells known at one bellow highest casting level) and Elf favored class bonus for oracles (+1/2 level of Oracle Revelation). This will give me both extra spells and an animal companion that is a few extra levels above the curve. I plan to alternate taking these different perks every other level.

Also, half elf gives me access to the extremely powerful paragon surge spell starting at level six, which lets me nab any extra feat that I do not have but qualify for for the duration of the spell. I can use this to get the Extra Revelation Feat and give myself any revelation of the lunar list that I do not have, or gain any spell from the oracle list that I do not have temporarily through the Expanded Arcana Feat.

At Third Level I plan to take the Eldritch Heritage (Arcane) Feat to gain a familiar. This will set me up at level eleven to be able to temporarily cast any divine spell off the Wizard or Sorcerer List if I use Paragon Surge to give myself the Improved Eldritch Heritage (Arcane) Feat. I also plan to take the Gift of Horn and Claw Revelation to give myself two extra claw attacks in addition to the bite.

At Fifth Level I plan to take the Divine Protection Feat to give myself my Charisma bonus to all of my saves. At this level I'll take the Misfortune Revelation from the Dual Cursed Oracle Archetype to force opponents to reroll as an immediate action.

At Seventh Level I plan to take the Still Spell feat, giving myself the ability to cast spells at one level lower without either their verbal or somatic components. Consider that I plan to take the Form of the Beast Revelation, this will let me use beast shape and still give me the ability to cast spells (but at one level lower and as a full round action) while in beast shape.

Past that, I do not have my character planned out.

My Oracle will both have more spells than the average oracle and a higher level animal companion than the average druid. Furthermore, the character will have the ability to wildshape below the ability of a druid while also casting spells, but they will have this ability nonetheless. Furthermore, access to paragon surge will give them temporary access to every utility spell on the oracle list that most oracles will not be able to take. Charisma is my primary defensive ability, as it applies not only to AC, Combat Maneuver Defense, and Reflex Saves Twice, but also to all of my other saves. My character should have decent strength and a beefy flanker to contribute to Melee even when not casting spells. And at level eleven, this character has temporary access to all spells on the wizard and sorcerer list through Paragon Surge.

I've used a number of different pathfinder books in building this character, but I was wondering if my build is missing anything that could make it more versatile or powerful. Again, my goal is not to invalidate the rest of my party, but rather to be both flexible and resilient. Also, I want to make sure that everything works as I think it should RAW. Thank you for your time, and any help is greatly appreciated.

Ring of Revelation is always a good choice for oracles. It gives them another revelation either from their mystery, or if their use magic device skill is high enough, it can even give them a revelation from a different oracle mystery.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/rings/ring-of-revelation

I think good GMs can do a lot to bridge the gap between casters and martials in higher levels by prescribing to the "rule of cool". For example, I was playing a 13th level game with a Barbarian with an extremely high intimidate check. We were fighting a lich and his black dragon minion. So, the whole party is having a really hard time with the encounter when the Barbarian jumps onto the back of the black dragon and makes his intimidate check by a mile. He then asks if he can use the check to ride the dragon, and command it to start fighting the lich. Because he got such a high score, and the idea seemed so cool, the GM went along with it even though it wasn't explicitly written into the rules. The creativity of the player and the agreement of the GM led to a super flavorful solution to a very difficult encounter that the rest of us were willing to accept.

Versatility equals greater power, but only in the hands of a superior pilot. In the hands of a perfect pilot, I think the caster would ALMOST ALWAYS be more relevant than the martial character. But luckily, Pathfinder in practice is not a game of perfect piloting, but rather of imperfect players trying to figure out situations on the fly and solve them given a character concept. Martial characters always and constantly supply a powerful baseline, the ability to deal damage, that is applicable to practically all of the obstacles that a GM throws at their characters, while a caster may be better or worse able to contribute on the basis of the applicability of the spells they have prepared.

But even more importantly, Pathfinder is a cooperative game between players. This argument doesn't matter a whole lot because, when played well, the whole team is contributing to solve the problems thrown at them, and the GM is designing the problems to throw at his playgroup with the parties composition in mind. Often the best spellcasting strategies are the ones that use the martial characters to their best advantage and give them more of the spotlight, such as buffing and healing. The game is won or lost as a group, not as an individual. So I wouldn't worry about the argument overmuch unless you have disruptive players who are taking away from the groups overall enjoyment.

I think casters are generally considered to be more powerful than martial characters not because they have any one ability that breaks the game, but because of the absolute versatility spells lend them in solving the problems that the game throws at them. I've been in a game where it was not a caster, but rather the ranger who was breaking the game, killing the entire encounter with his arrows before anyone else had the chance to act. But the GM designed several clever encounters to separate the ranger from their bow, and they were next to useless. They could only really attack problems along a single axis, and as soon as the ability to attack along those lines was taken away, it invalidated that character.

Casters, meanwhile, gain more and more spells with each level they advance. Each spell offers the chance for attacking encounters along a different axis. A caster can pigeonhole themselves to attacking along a single axis, such as pure blasting builds, but there is no need to do so. Each caster can pick a number of different spells, and most casters can change the spells they prepare each day. When a caster has an understanding of the game and how to solve each problem it throws at them, there's almost always a spell at their disposal that will serve as a solution. And as they accumulate levels, the number of problems they can solve per day increases.

Meanwhile, martial characters rely primarily upon static feats and class abilities to confront the problems that the game throws at them. And while a martial character can be built to overwhelm most problems, it is impossible to build them to solve all problems, like you can build the caster. The number of class features they are offered are simply more limited than the number of spells a caster is provided with.

Winning everything is about always being relevant, always having solutions to the diverse problems that pathfinder as a game throws at players, and I think the caster delivers in this regard while the martial character is lacking.

Already a half orc scarred witch doctor is being played. It doesn't get more optimal than that archetype.I say go nuts on the paragon surge oracle, but do it as a half elf. In everywhere but pathfinder society, half elves get the choice of either human or elven favored class bonuses. Elves have the same favored class bonus as aasimars. Your character will be less special snowflake and less munchkined out, but still quite powerful.

So, as a Devil Spawn Tiefling with three levels in Cleric and one in Wizard who can cast Pyrotechnics (an arcane spell) racially, I can take a level in Mystic Theurge at 5th?

I personally like settings in which my character is on an even keel with those around me. I think it becomes too easy when your character is head and shoulders above everyone else for the character to develop a mentality where they feel they can do whatever they want. Pathfinder is about the GM and the players coming together to tell a story, and when a character's actions no longer have consequences that makes for a lousy story. If my character can do whatever they want, is unbelievably untouchable, and comes out on top every time, then where are the stakes? I view every class feature I get as an opportunity to further the collective story, and if I can blow everyone else out of the water, then what's the point of working with others to create a narrative? Telling a good story involves weaknesses, and shifting focus away from the individual and onto the group, including sometimes shifting it to the greater world that the characters exist in. My character's actions should matter, but they shouldn't be the be all end all in the world, and they shouldn't just be able to do whatever they want. They should be allowed choices, but they should still be playing inside a collective narrative.

You could, if your GM worked with you, play an archmage's familiar getting up to all sorts of crazy misadventures on the side. Play with familiar statistics for a 20th lvl familiar. You might be able to hack it. It's not RAW, but if your DM lets it fly it could be really flavorful.

My favorite characters all have animal companions. There's something incredibly fun about having a bear tear out the throats of my enemies.