Chevalier83's page

To my mind, the rules for social skills in general and intimidate in particular are poorly written. Do the rules indicate that intimidate works for any opponent? Yes! However, this traits indicates otherwise:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits/faith-traits/unnatural-presence-old-cults

From my perspective, the poor writing of social skills can screw over the authenticity of the world.

Regarding the intimidation of the devil / demon: if I as a DM don't want that a creature is intimidated in such a way, I will simply have it attack or discontinue the conversation before the one minute mark. The result is the same as if I just said "no, it doesn't work", the only difference is, that it's mechanically valid.

Regarding the demoralize: as stated, nothing in the rules section of intimidate indicates that it doesn't work for animals. However, the aforementioned trait does. Usually I would allow a demoralize check for most opponents since you sacrifice a standard action. Furthermore the game impact is not as severe as in the first example.

As a sidenote I'd like to add, that the first rule when playing PFS should be, that all players are haveing fun. Even if an action would be mechanically (by RAW) valid, it may not lead to that goal. If you are not losing a character over a rules question, leave it be and enjoy the game.

@Rapanuii: I'm pretty serious. You are in rules forum and call your GM a "madman" for not following Pathfinder rules. Yet you fail to see, that even though he may have taken a specific item from 3.5, that item is perfectly legal within the pathfinder rules. You even call it "he got caught, and we fixed it immediately". Personally, as a DM, I would not like to have a player with such a behavior. Even more so, as you claim to "defend your agreement of using Pathfinder rules", while you yourself make errors regarding the rules.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/faq

The brownie, faerie dragon, imp, lyrakien azata, mephit, quasit, sprite familiars, granted by the Improved Familiar feat, use the Biped (hands) section of the chart. The carbuncle and voidworm protean, familiars granted by the Improved Familiar feat, uses the Serpentine section of the chart. If you do not own a copy of the Animal Archive, your animal companion may only use barding and neck-slot items.

Regarding the Azata: the wording at the familiars is extremely vague and varies. Sometimes, there is no wording which exact alignment the master has to have (Quasit), sometimes it states the alignment of the familiar (Azata), sometimes it states the alignment + 1 step (Faerie Dragon). Personally I'd rule it per feat description for all familiars (one step from alignment).

Well, actually it depends ;)

The "maintenance" is as hard or as easy as the game master want's it to be. And seriously, from my perspective pathfinder seriously discourages spellcaster to add other classes.

If I want an arcane trickster, I will lose 2-3 class levels and be gimped compared to a pure wizard. Getting at least 1 class level back would be awesome. Surely, I think esoteric training is overpowered (you can basically built a mytic theurge with full spell progression in 2 classes until level 15), but I like the ecletic training very much.

Sooo... I'm trying to do a built based on Intimidating in Combat and AoOs...

I am utilizing a huge threath range over a reach weapon (fauchard) and armor spikes.

For feats I go for

- Power Attack
- Exotic Weapon Proficiency
- Antagonize
- Intimidating Prowess
- Combat Reflexes
- Combat Patrol

The plan is to use Antagonize to force melee foes to attack me while utilizing Combat Patrol and Combat reflexes to retreat step by step in his turn while he comes closer (and in best case position in a way that this is redoable the following round). My Intimidate value will be
4 (wisdom) + 4 (strength) + Class Skill (3) + 1/2 Inqui levels + HD + magic items
which should be enough to be able to beat the DCs you stumble across...
4 AoOs should than be enough (together with a threat range of 5) to prevent the enemy from getting close...
Further than that I will use the spell (level 2, don't know for sure abouth the name) burning invective, buffs and heals in my round, while maintaing the antagonize as free actions and using move actions to reposition.
As the built is pretty feat heavy (Society Play, so I don't want to wait to long) and using a reach weapon while having enlarge person up can be pretty dangerous I will dip 2 levels polearm figther to get short grip and 2 bonus feats.

Spell Combat let's you cast a spell as part of a full-round action:

As a full-round action, he can make all of his attacks with his melee weapon at a –2 penalty and can also cast any spell from the magus spell list with a casting time of 1 standard action (any attack roll made as part of this spell also takes this penalty). [...] A magus can choose to cast the spell first or make the weapon attacks first, but if he has more than one attack, he cannot cast the spell between weapon attacks.

Dimensional Door says

You instantly transfer yourself from your current location to any other spot within range. You always arrive at exactly the spot desired - whether by simply visualizing the area or by stating direction. After using this spell, you can't take any other actions until your next turn.

I am specifically referring to the "After using this spell, you can't take any other actions until your next turn" - part.

As I understand Spell Combat, the spell is part of a full round action; I can chose whether I want to attack first or last. Technically the attacks would be part of the action, that also triggers dimension door, which would mean, I rather finish my action than take a new one. So - in conclusion - is a magus able to Attack after casting Dimensional Door on himself or not (without having Dimensional Agility)?

Arcane Trickster DD

Tiefling Magus (Kensai, Fiend Flayer) 5 / Rogue (Knife Master) 3 / Arcane Trickster 2

Traits:
Magical Knack (Magus)
Wayang Spellhunter (Shocking Grasp)

Alternative racial traits
maw and claw (maw)
fiendish tail

Feats:
Weapon Focus (Kensai)
Weapon Proficiency (Kensai)
Canny Defence (Kensai)
Intimidating Prowess (Rogue Trick)
Power Attack
Intensify Spell
Skill Focus Intimidate
Dazzling Display (5th Magus Bonus)
Cornugon Smash
Shatter Defenses

Stats (10 Pt buy)
Str: 17 (+1 level) (+4 Magic Item) = 22
Dex: 8 (+2) = 10
Con: 8
Int: 15 (+2) = 17 (+1 level) = 18
Wis: 8
Cha: 7 (-2) = 5

Intimidate: 10 Ranks , 3 (Class Skill), 6 (Skill Focus), 6 (Strength) = 25

Magus Arcana that matters:

Arcane Strike

Arcane Pool: 4 Intelligence, 2 (Magus levels), 1 (preferred class options) = 7

As a swift action while moveing in the magus will use one arcane point to give his weapon keen and speed:

BAB 6/1

Weapon: Kukri

Spellcombat / Spellstrike:

- Cast Shocking Grasp:

- 1 hit (deliver Shocking grasp)
- 1 hit (speed)
- 1 hit regular hit
- 1 hit second hit
- 1 hit maw

as shocking grasp can be delivered in any of those hits, I will assume, that it is delivered
I will not use the +3 to hit (condition: opponent wears something made of metal, eg. weapon or armor)

the math:
First till third attack:

h = 6 (BAB)
-2 (spell combat) -2 Power attack +1 weapon focus +2 magical weapon +6 Strength
= 11 Base (~35% hit)
d = 2,5 (w4) +6 Strength +4 Power Attack +2
Weapon =
14,5 damage

fourth attack:
h = 11 - 5 = 6 (15% hit)
d = 14,5 damage

bite attack:
h = 4 = 5% hit
d = 2,5 +3 +2 = 7,5 damage

alltogether:
17,75 damage + 31,5 Shocking Grasp = 49,25
throw critical damage in: 49,25 + 13,52 = 62,77

Now it get's interesting:
on the first damage the target will get flat footed due to shatter defence - assuming a AC loss of 2:
59,32 + 16,6 Crits = 75,92
Sneak Attack damage on flat footed:
22,72 (knife master means d8s)

75,92 + 22,72 (Sneak Attack) = 98,64

the damage can be further increased by:
wielding a quicken rod (additional hit and additional shocking grasp damage)
considering the +3 to hit from shocking grasp against metal
flanking bonus +2
using arcane accuracy

examplary the use of arcane accuracy brings me to:
72,42 + 24 (crit) + 35,03 (sneak attack) ~ 130 DPR

Oh btw, another argument that the buckler is still wield while attacking with a weapon hold in the respective hand:

You will not get bonus or malus specified for simply carrying an item (e.g. if I carry my buckler strapped to my belt, there is no malus). You get a to-hit-malus while attacking with the buckler strapped to your arm, hence you obviously still wield it.