Catastrophe's page

I'd just like to point out that virtually anyone can be the party scout (if that's the role you're looking to fill and want to play). Some classes just make better scouts than others. The biggest skills you're looking at is Stealth, Disable Device and Perception.

That said, you can be just about anything and still focus on those skills. Looking at your party composition as it is now, if you were looking to maximize potential, I'd suggest range of some sort. Alchemists, Gunslingers and Rangers would be able to fit this role (in addition to fitting the role of scouting). I've also heard good things about Zen Archer Monks (and have played with a guy who focused on stealth with his monk, although he didn't put much into Disable Device as it wasn't really a dungeon-crawler adventure and so wasn't really a requirement; so far, anyways).

Just read up on Slings, and I see nothing there about being unable to deal nonlethal damage. Even then, Merciful allows it do non-lethal damage - its magic, after all. So yes, the shots would do an extra 1d6 and be nonlethal.

The way my GM treats it is that the weapon 'enhances' the ammo you fire. So until you fire that bullet from your sling, its just a regular bullet. The moment you set it in your sling and release, it gains the Flaming or Merciful or whatever other property you put on there. Same with the +1 enhancement from your Divine Bond.

As far as not having Ultimate Combat - not sure what to tell you there. Here's the link for the System Reference Document containing the archetype (but whether your GM will allow it is a different matter):
Divine Hunter

Overall, it isn't anything to write home about, but what you lose versus what you gain is probably a net gain for being ranged.

You might take a look at Divine Hunter archetype (I want to say its from Ultimate Combat, but I'm not totally sure). They give up some of their melee-related things for more ranged options. For example, their Divine Bond can only be a weapon, and they can add Distance, Returning or Seeking but lose out on Defending and Disruption (all other divine bonds should work for you). The only thing on the list that probably won't work with a sling would be Brilliant Energy (which is melee, thrown weapons or ammunition).

EDIT: Keen won't work either. Never actually read it (nor have I bothered to increase the crit range as my character uses a Longbow).

That leaves you with Axiomatic, Flaming, Flaming Burst, Holy, Merciful, and Speed (and Distance, Returning and Seeking if you take the archetype). Of course, you can always just put the base +X on it as well - never a bad thing.

The benefits to this archetype in addition to the above is that you get Precise Shot as a bonus feat (losing Heavy Armor proficiency in the first place, that you wouldn't need as a ranged character). You can also use Lay on Hands from a distance (giving up your 6th level Mercy). And then you trade in your usual auras for ranged-related ones (nothing really good or bad here). Biggest drawback is you aren't able to give smite to your allies for a fight, meaning that first round when you're next to them, you're unable to do so.

I can't speak directly to sling users, but I'm playing the above archetype as a bow paladin in a homebrew game. We're currently level 11, and I've enjoyed it quite a lot.

If you get to second level spells as a paladin, consider Paladin's Sacrifice. You're able to take a hit for an ally within range as an immediate action, and since you won't be on the front lines as much, it makes the impact of that spell amazing.

Personally, I would say 1. If you set it at 2, why not just choose Flexible for 2 RP and not take that -2 on the other score? It probably should be something like 1.5, but since that's not possible (and a better option exists at 2 RP), 1 RP should work fine.

A black blade is aware of everything around it like a creature that can see and hear. It can be blinded and deafened as if it were a creature.

Seeing as intelligent items have a mental stat and are said to be treated like NPCs, I could see this being ruled as allowed. It does say 'anyone', but it doesn't require them to actually be a person or even humanoid in nature. It also says to treat them like a construct, but seeing as most constructs are mindless, this doesn't really count.

End all, its up to your GM. If you really wanted to give up the bonus from the tome to your INT as a Magus and give it to your weapon, I wouldn't stop you.

Neither class is exactly simple in terms of picking up and learning it, but if your son has experience with a Magus, that will probably help with things.

Have you considered a Kensai Magus? They give up some of their spells for more martial advantages, which would be a bit easier for her to learn and work with. You essentially are a master of one kind of weapon, and apply your DEX and INT to things (this works best with a DEX-based build, regardless if Dervish Dance is allowed as a feat or not). You lose one spell per level of spells available (giving her less decisions to make for day-to-day about which spells to cast and when). You also lose spell recall and knowledge pool (which reduces the number of choices you have as a Magus).

You still have Spell Combat and Spellstrike to learn, but you're using those abilities far less often in the early levels than a regular Magus.

Kensai also works well with Bladebound, if she's interested in having a weapon that actually talks and is sentient. It can allow for some really entertaining roleplaying between the blade (AKA you, the GM) and her character. The blade automatically grows with the Magus, meaning she never has to worry about upgrading her weapon. Bladebound also reduces the number of points you start with in your Arcane Pool, so that also reduces the number of options she has to make in a given round (although the blade gets its own arcane pool that she can choose to tap into). The blade shares the same alignment with the character, so it won't be trying to do things against the character's wishes (and you definitely don't seem like the type of GM to screw over a player because of their weapon being intelligent).

Just a suggestion. Regardless of what you do, if a certain class sounds more awesome than others for her, let her play it. Magus are great for their burst damage (AKA Shocking Grasp).

While RAW, it would appear that the bonus to attack and penalty to armor class don't apply until you reach your target and make the attack, I believe that RAI would mean the penalty applies the moment you decide to charge.

The idea of a charge is you put a lot of force behind your movement and swing at your target, at the expense of being a bit more careless and less in control of yourself in terms of defending. I would take that to mean you're easier to hit when doing said action, so it would apply to any AoOs you take while making the charge.

Prehensile Hair (Su): The witch can instantly cause her hair (or even her eyebrows) to grow up to 10 feet long or to shrink to its normal length, and can manipulate her hair as if it were a limb with a Strength score equal to her Intelligence score. Her hair has reach 10 feet, and she can use it as a secondary natural attack that deals 1d3 points of damage (1d2 for a Small witch). Her hair can manipulate objects (but not weapons) as dexterously as a human hand. The hair cannot be sundered or attacked as a separate creature. Pieces cut from the witch’s elongated hair shrink away to nothing. Using her hair does not harm the witch’s head or neck, even if she lifts something heavy with it. The witch can manipulate her hair a number of minutes each day equal to her level; these minutes do not need to be consecutive, but must be spent in 1-minute increments. A typical male witch with this hex can also manipulate his beard, moustache, or eyebrows.

Bold is mine.

Seeing as it can be manipulated as a limb and can handle things as well as a human hand, I see no reason why you couldn't use it for an unarmed attack if you wanted to.

EDIT: It makes sense that hair wouldn't be listed for monks - regardless if they're of the stereotypical baldness or not, they wouldn't have any extra control over their hair in any way, so they wouldn't have a means of making an attack with it. Now, as far as why head isn't included, I would assume it to be due to having less maneuverability with your head than any of your limbs.

From Faerie Fire, the spell:

"A pale glow surrounds and outlines the subjects."

So I would take it to mean instead of the whole gem glowing, there's just an outline around it that glows and shines as a candle.

Mechanically, I can't think of any difference this would make. I'd agree with Ipslore the Red and say its just flavor for it.

(ignores horrible stereotyping on classes in main post)

I don't think anyone ever said that magic items were common goods. That said, if you put in the work to find them, you should be rewarded for doing so (as opposed to just assuming that the shop has it).

One of the ways to do this is to roll a percentile every time you look for said item. So if the Barbarian is after a belt of giant strength +2, he might have a 95% chance to find one in the trading capital of the world, a 75% chance to find one in the largest city of the world (which has a fairly well-sized marketplace), a 50% chance to find one at any other major city, and only a 10% chance to find one in a small town.

However, if talks to the local merchants on his way out of the small town (that he'll be returning to within a couple of weeks), that percent might increase to a 30% chance of them having it. If he tries to track down one of the more well-known merchants in the world, and makes a serious effort, his % for anything he looks for from that merchant might increase by 20 or more.

+5 Longswords and +5 Full Plates don't have to grow on trees - but making them unobtainable in exchange for some more "versatile" bonus just seems like a bad idea.

Total 5D6+15... Dm stated that this was OP (over-powered).

Not in the slightest. Magus on its own is very much a burst class in terms of its damage output, even more-so if you go DEX based with a scimitar and its high crit range. What it ends up meaning is that while your average damage output is a bit lower then other martial classes (fighter), you can just explode out of nowhere and take down a single boss in the first round of combat.

If he's a bounty hunter, having an instrument to play in his downtime can fit into the character. Heck, he could've tried to make it big with his performing abilities, but after being laughed at by the other 'badasses' (other bounty hunters, city guards, whatever), he went out and brought in the most wanted guy in the town. Found out he was good at it, and kept doing it ever since. He never did give up on the guitar though, playing mostly for his personal enjoyment now then anything else (and slightly improving along the way).

One question: How much hand-holding did you do when they first started playing compared to 10 sessions in? 20? Some people just don't grasp things as fast or as easily as others, and once they fall behind the learning curve without someone to help bring them back up to speed, they'll never catch up.

-Her rogue died because she wasn't able to learn not to stand up in front of a threatening enemy after multiple previous lessons of doing that and getting knocked down again. The one time she tried that against a boss villain, she didn't survive.

How typical would that be for her to do in real life? I'm thinking more along the lines of standing up to a bully then anything else. It might just be how she would handle the situation herself and applying it to that. Or, one of her character's flaws is not knowing when to back down. Some people play characters that way. Doesn't matter what you do, they'd rather die standing up for what they believe in then living as a coward.

-The gunslinger consistently forgets he has deadly aim and can effectively double his damage.

For this, you might consider using a second weapon slot titled "Deadly Aim Shot" with the modifiers decreased for hitting and increased for damage. How well of a grasp does the player have on touch armor class and what typically does and doesn't have high Touch? I know my musket master was deadly aiming everything in sight (unless he missed on a roll of the top half of the die).

-They have a tendency to not loot defeated enemies, leaving them undergeared.

-They have a tendency to not search rooms, leaving them undergeared and lacking direction by not finding clues.

How much hand-holding did you do in the beginning regarding these areas? It might be a good idea to re-explain how looting enemies can be an advantage to the players as well as looking around rooms for clues and treasure as appropriate. That said, you could just come to an implied understanding of treasure being present. In my current homebrew game that I play in, we often don't even think to say something as usually, if treasure is involved with the encounter, it had some roleplaying to go along with it, and we're more focused on that (granted, the GM is pretty forgiving with that, at least giving a mention that it exists).

The group recently found a spellbook in a dungeon; our two casters are not spellbook users. The first thought the gunslinger had was "maybe I should multiclass so I can take advantage of that spellbook; do some utility casting." The group has two casters out of three characters; the last thing they need is to decrease their martial progression.

If they're both new players (even if they've been at it for a year) and they haven't participated in any other parties or other games to see the effects of a well-balanced vs poorly-balanced party, they probably don't even think about it. It might be a good idea to give them an understanding of party balance and how things work better when there's a mix of different people with different skills involved. That's great if you have 3 rogues in the party, because at least one will notice that trap and one of the three should be able to disable it. But what happens when you come across a spell on a door? Nothing you can do about it.

Hope these notes help in some way. Most important thing though is that the group is having fun with it and appreciates the time you put into it.