Contagion's page

Love this book's idea. I know we weren't supposed to hope for the sky, but there are a couple things on my wishlist:

1. A revamped poison/alchemy system, so that they're more viable at all levels and poison is less all or nothing with little chance of success at higher levels and heavy gp cost.

2. A better stealth system and sneak attack that will help the rogue feel more useful.

3. A generally reworked Monk.

4. More martial class options that make 2 weapon fighting more viable for different classes, and generally more options to help mobile martial characters be more useful. Less standing still and full attack mechanics. I'd like to see a more flexible barbarian and a little fighter love.

5. A slightly nerffed summoner and generally reworked gunslinger to make guns less costly and no longer just touch AC kick butting. I just really don't like gunslinger mechanics.

If I got all these, I'd be a very happy Pathfinder fan. Even just a couple of these would be awesome! The ones I hope most for is a good change to the Monk and the poison rework. :)

OK thanks guys. I appreciate the advice. I'll make sure my boys cover all their bases. We'll break it over several nights and if they're struggling I'll let them lv up to 5.

I don't want to run another character. I try to avoid that whenever I can, and this isn't Pathfinder Society. I also tend to try and avoid weakening encounters, since my players like taking opportunities to feel more powerful rather then having me weaken the monsters for them. I'll probably just go with a 25 point buy to make up the difference.

I was wondering what others had done in this situation for casual play...

Hey there everyone! I'm running the Fangwood Keep Pathfinder Module for 3 friends. I understand that its for 4 4th level players, but they'd rather just keep it to the three of them. How should I buff them to help make it balanced again? should I just give them a 20/25 point buy on their stats instead of the standard 15? Or should I raise each of their levels to 5? Any advice on how best to proceed by people by who have had experience with this would be appreciated.

Contagion wrote:

Hey there Cartmanback. Thanks for making this Guide. I'm a fairly new GM to Pathfinder and have been using your guide extensively to help my players and the creation of my own characters, but I had a question:

Kobolds are awesome, of course, but the snare setter seems weaker then you make them out to be. While Ranger Traps are an awesome concept, their perception DC's seem to be weak. The saves are on par with most spell save DC's, but perception scales way faster. I was wondering, do you or anyone else on this forum know of a way to boost the perception DC for ranger traps or overcome this problem. I'd like to run this character concept in a campaign, but I'm having trouble seeing the viability if the monsters can usually detect the trap before its sprung.

Thanks again for all your hard work!

You know, I honestly never really thought of that... you're totally right, Perception does scale significantly faster than saves. I don't think there's any way to increase these, so my best suggestion would be to combine them with some sort of spellcasting to make the trap invisible or something of that nature. I'll have to take a few minutes to note this in my guide. Thanks!

No problem. Sorry if that makes the archetype look a lot less cool. I also figured spells might be the best way to handle the problem, or some house rules. Some Obscuring Mist or Silent Image could probably fix that right up. But it would require some multiclassing. :)

Hey there Cartmanback. Thanks for making this Guide. I'm a fairly new GM to Pathfinder and have been using your guide extensively to help my players and the creation of my own characters, but I had a question:

Kobolds are awesome, of course, but the snare setter seems weaker then you make them out to be. While Ranger Traps are an awesome concept, their perception DC's seem to be weak. The saves are on par with most spell save DC's, but perception scales way faster. I was wondering, do you or anyone else on this forum know of a way to boost the perception DC for ranger traps or overcome this problem. I'd like to run this character concept in a campaign, but I'm having trouble seeing the viability if the monsters can usually detect the trap before its sprung.

Thanks again for all your hard work!

I can totally buff Deadshot. Since this is a home adjusted Gunslinger anyways, we are totally open to changes. Maybe give it natural bonus damage based on level... or something. Maybe I can let the gunslinger add their wisdom modifier X2 to the damage of a Deadshot attack. Personally, it feels like we are stretching everything to get at this "cannon" concept (good description Adam). I might give the gunslinger some other magic enhancements. Maybe I can allow him to get enhancement bonuses for less money, since most of our campaigns are low level he'll be getting them early that way. I'll run some ideas around and see where we land. Thanks for the help!

Thanks Adam. The lack of power to the gunslinger is an issue, one that I wasn't sure how to over come. The idea is that I want to make them more like the Ranger. the extra damage feats also fit the style that I was looking for. The idea that gunslingers don't attack a lot but deal lots of damage is kinda cool.

Again, I'm not so conceded about the balance of the original gunslinger, we simply dislike it thematically. It's presence usurers in a new world, one where swords and armor becomes rapidly less practical. We're trying to fix that, not by making the gunslinger weaker, but changing how it works on a basic level.

Hey community! I have a kinda a weird situation I wanted to consult you about...

I have been a GM for a group of guys at my university for awhile, and in the past we've agreed that guns should not exist in our campaigns, because as soon as they become a thing, it signals the change from a swords and sorcery world to a guns and sorcery world. A number of my players really like to play sword/armor heroes, so they dislike how the presence of guns signals the change of time in the world, and their now obsolete defenses. This is largely due to the fact that guns resolve against Touch AC, thus making armor based classes obsolete in light of the new age of gunpowder.

Now, one of my players wants to make a gunslinger, and some of the other guys are not so cool with it. We've come up with an idea to resolve the situation so that both armor and gunslingers can happily inhabit the same world without either having a significant natural advantage over the other, that leaves the world's medieval themes intact and still gives the gunslinger a special place. We're not so bothered by the balance of the gunslinger, but by how it functions thematically. So, after some deliberation and consultation, we made these changes to the gunslinger to make it less thematically destructive to the world's amor and sword barring coolness, while maintaining the gunslingers streak of awesomeness and its balance.

Here are the changes, what do you think?

1- The first change is to make guns unable to naturally resolve against Touch AC.
(Magical amor or natural amor in a magical world is lighter and sturdier than in our own world, so that it can hold up against gunshots, especially old guns. Now guns hold no natural advantage over bows, except that they can be more easily aimed at weak points in armor, resulting in the next rule change.)

2- The second change is gunslingers may still use the Deadeye Deed to resolve their attacks against Touch AC, but that the first expenditure of grit only gives you the natural range of the gun against Touch AC.
(The idea is that we make this ability consumable, and must be used more carefully. Also, since guns are naturally easier to aim with than bows, one can use their natural skill (grit points) to make careful shots against Touch AC.)

3- The third argues gunslingers get good at aiming very fast so they get the PinPoint Targeting feat at the 6th level for free without meeting any prerequisite.
(Keep in mind that this feat only works when you make a single attack, and since the 6th level is when gunslingers start naturally getting multiple attacks, they have to decide when out of grit points whether to use this feat or make more attacks.)

4- The fourth rules that despite all possible deeds, feats, and alchemical cartages one can acquire, a gun can never be reloaded faster then a swift action. So, conceivably, in one turn a player could reload a gun once as a swift action, once as a move action, and once as a standard action, totaling in 3 guns reloaded in one turn, but nothing else done. This does not restrict a player from preparing several shots before combat or ahead of a turn, and firing them all at once in one round, this simply restricts the reload speed.
(old guns are hard to reload)

5- The fifth is that all guns and ammunition cost half their listed official price in the game guides. Plain and simple, but magic enhancement still costs the same as the guides say.
(This is so that we remove the frustrating cost of all ammunition and guns in the game so that gunslingers don't feel so weak in the early game, and never have to constantly worry about how much their attacks are costing them. It lessens this odd mechanic, and helps balance the nerfs mentioned above).

6- Any gun only misfires with a natural 1, even after the first misfire. Upon the second misfire, the gunslinger can pick a square up to a distance equal to the gun's first range increment, and with a successful reflex save, the gunslinger can throw the gun before it explodes into that square and have its explosion act like a slash weapon dealing the guns damage in an area. a failed reflex save causes the gun to explode under the normal rules, except the gunslinger always takes half damage.

7- Finally, only early firearms are available in our campaign. Because firearms have no natural advantage in the world over armor, other then they are still pretty effective, and because gunpowder is rare but available, people haven't developed, and may never develop advanced firearms, except in extraordinary cases.

These are the changes we agreed on, and as of yet we haven't started to test it out.

I'm curious what people think about these changes, especially those who have had more experience playing with this rather unusual class. I was also wondering if anyone knew of other home-brewed gunslingers who've adjusted the rules for similar thematic needs. Any links to such discussions would be welcome. Thanks everyone!

He'll be human, and this isn't point buy. My friends and I are rolling the old d6 method, and I literally rolled till I got a nice high starting stats. We agreed we would need high stats for this campaign cause its difficultly level is a little steep. my stats are around 18,17,15,14,13,11, without applying my human bonus yet.

All the books are available, as long as their not 3rd party published.

I'm mainly interested in a dual wielding sword master. That elven magus looks good, but not quite what I'm looking for. I like the Dervish Dancer, except that bards BAB sucks. I figure I can make up for it with the bonuses from the performances... maybe. I'm curious if there is a better alternative, maybe in the fighter class... or something.

I guess I'm curious if the Dervish Dancer is as good as it looks at the higher levels. Has anyone played it and been happy with where they got?

I should mention that I considered making him a fighter instead, but the dervish dancing advanced abilities and extra speed are so freaking cool... Not sure what's best. :/

Hey Everyone! I've been on a character building spree as I've been trying to build characters based off certain ideas. This idea however is giving me some trouble, and while I think I've finally come to a good place, I was wondering if anyone had any more advice...

For those of you who have watched Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, I'm trying to make a character based off of Fuhrer Bradley. For those of you who have not watched the show, go watch it, and the character is basically this older guy who pretends to be a gentleman, but is in fact a duel sword wielding blur of death.

I basically want to build a character who by the higher levels can move with blinding speed, dual wields swords (preferably long thin swords like rapiers), and focuses on crit. to bleed opponents to death. So basically a kick ass fast sword fighter who just shreds his opponents, and specializes in fighting other humanoids.

Originally I was planning on making Monk, for the bonus speed and flurry of blows. But there aren't really any good archetypes that worked with my idea, and had proficiency in duel wielding blades. Also, Monks are hard to scale well at the higher levels...

Right now, I'm looking at the Dervish Dancer Bard Archetype. While it isn't as good as the Dawn-Dervish at the beginning, I think it scales better and its bonus speed and some of its later level abilities are amazing. The leaf on the wind ability is great for in battle recovery, and the other powers work well with the movement and constant full attacks he should be letting off. He'll start the campaign at a high level (15ish) anyways.

I figure a STR, DEX, and CHA focused build (in that order) should get him into the right place power wise, and If I focus on two weapon fighting, and crit based feats I should have a really good fighter who moves like a blur and gets lots of attacks off. He'll wield a scimitar in his main hand, and a kukri in his other. Any comments?

I see. Thanks guys. I was told that I can't even use a wand to staff with the UMD skill check. I was pretty sure that was wrong, but not certain, the rules where a little confusing when I read both for the wand and the Thassilonian rules.

Also, thanks for the bard advice. Very cool. :)

Hey everyone. Just a quick question. If I make a character who specializes in the Thassilonian school of Greed (transmutation), I understand it restricts me from using spells of the opposing enchantment and illusion schools. But could I still use spells from those schools if I use a wand or staff?
It says, "if using a spell trigger or spell completion item to cast a spell from one of his prohibited schools, he must use the Use Magic Device skill to do so." Does this mean I can use that skill to cast prohibited spells in a wand? I want my guy to be really good at transmutation magic, but I'd also like to at least have access to invisibility spells... What's the consensus on this?

Thematically, I'm trying to build a wizard who is interested in the pursuit of ultimate knowledge and power, so that he can protect the people he loves and build a perfect society like the gods. He's fascinated with Thassilonian history and the rune lords, so he decides to brave their magic to gain greater power at potential risk to himself... I also want him to use a rapier and wear light armor. Any advice on all this stuff? Has anyone tried using this Thassilonian specialization before and found it useful?

This is pretty much just for the sake of trying on a new character. Wouldn't be able to play him anytime soon, but I'm interested in exploring Wizard specializations, and the pursuit of ultimate power within the game... kinda sounds cheesy, but I recently got into the Rise of the Runelords campaign as a GM, and its pretty cool stuff. Just brought up the question of arcane study as the ultimate pursuit of power in mind, and I want to play with the theme for my players.

Thanks.

That's defninitly a serious weakness, so yeah, against certain monsters i'll be mostly useless, but most monsters that lack any items to pick pocket are not quite intelligent enough to ignore the annoying bug dancing right in front of them. And, this character is just meant to be one of those characters, perfect in some cases, useless in others. On a thematic note, he as person wouldn't engage such monsters. If he's fighting them at all its probably out of some coercion or something. He'd just avoid them all together and move on.

I'm not saying I wouldn't be completely useless, but that's also how I'm intending to build the guy thematically, and I expect those instances to be rare... so yeah, just hope my team has got other options.

I might just keep a Kama with me for good measure, and pick up weapon finesse along the way. ;)

Contagion wrote:

Actiually, I might forgo the flowing Monk Archtype altogether for MoMS if I don't intend on ever striking opponents for damage to often. A huge part of being a flowing monk is making AoOs, and I don't need my flurry of blows if I'm focusing purely on desables, and I can keep my stunning fist feat If I don't get the flowing archetype.

This would be for a purely disabling, stealing, and untouchable Monk, who pretty much just doesn't do actiual damage at all.

What happens when you run into something you cannot disable, steal from, trip, etc.?

Lol, that's when I just get super obnoxious and get in their face drawing all the attention to my untouchable self while my allies get in their damage. Yeah, in those situations I'm pretty much useless, but I'm still as evasive as ever and can have a great time drawing enemy fire away from my allies.

No no, I mean he almost never attacks at all. He would be a monk who took the vow of peace, and entirely focuses on distracting enemies, disabling them and what not, while avoiding all of their attacks. The idea is then to pick up the steal and disarm feats so that I can constantly be taking peoples stuff during combat... I would replace all the VS and Dimensional feats with steal or disarm feats, and I would want to focus on boosting my AC again as high as possible.

Though, yeah. I should probably stick with flowing. The reason I considered MoMS is because then I could use crane style, snake style, and mantis style all together to both be hard to hit and able to constantly disable people effectively with stunning fist, but I now see those don't always work together very solidly, and they make my need for feats even more tight. Hmm..... I would probably also forgo stunning fist altogether, because that's technically an attack. How important do you actually think it is to pick up the wizard and druid parts... If I want to focus more on stealing and evasion it seems I could skip those, and just go all out AC, and combat maneuver feats, the Druid you said adds some spells and cleric domains, what do all those do exactly for your build?

I have to admit, I've learned so much! Feats I never new about! Those Dimensional Feats are Crazy! I'll probably use those with an NPC in one my campaigns. And I never noticed that Agile magic enhancement. So cool! :D

PM you? What's that?

Yeah! with MoMS I could combine Snake style with Mantis Style to both avoid all damage and make my stunning fist more effective. Add that with all the dexterity bonuses by taking Agile Manuvers, and the Qinggong powers, I'll be hard to hit and very good at disables.

Wait.... the snake style dodge only works once per turn... hhhmmmm...

And the free attempts at trip for flowing Monks are very appealing...

I'll have to work on this...

Actiually, I might forgo the flowing Monk Archtype altogether for MoMS if I don't intend on ever striking opponents for damage to often. A huge part of being a flowing monk is making AoOs, and I don't need my flurry of blows if I'm focusing purely on desables, and I can keep my stunning fist feat If I don't get the flowing archetype.

This would be for a purely disabling, stealing, and untouchable Monk, who pretty much just doesn't do actiual damage at all.

Wow! Raijin. That's freaken crazy. I had looked at your build earlier but it was kinda hard to pick up on all that. That's awesome! Yeah, didn't realize that a snake build with high enough Sense Motive essentially makes you untouchable, kinda forgot about how you actual role a d20 to avoid the hits ;)

I might forgo the damage parts of the build, because I was thinking of making a thief monk who focuses on never actually doing damage (vow of peace) to his enemies (leave that to the allies) but merely disables them, and runs about wildly stealing stuff, and stealthy creeping about when not fighting.

I wonder if I could substitute some steal feats in there instead... besides tripping and disarming/stunning opponents, I want to be lifting stuff off them constantly, weakening them by removing especially any magical wands or necklaces.

Also, I was thinking of making him a half-elf for that fee skill focus feat at the beginning. a +3 to sense motive would be awesome once he has snake style at level 3.

wow, a lot of those feats you picked I never knew existed. That dimensional savant stuff is sick! Thanks man. I'm definitely using this... but maybe with a few changes. Unfortunately, I really value role playing, and will often sacrifice some optimization for that personality factor. ;)

I'm happy with my fire monk now, but If I wanted to build just a super evasive monk who just cannot take a hit, (so the idea is that he acts as a distraction, tripping and disarming while the other teammates do damage) would snake style be better, or crane style. I would naturally take the Flowing monk Archetype, but then which styles would best fit a super evasive monk. I was thinking he would be untouchable, and good at totally disarming/disabling his opponents.

lol. thanks XMorsX. ;)

Yeah. OK, i'm now considering just going with the Qinggong Monk of the Four Winds, and maybe combining it with Monk of the Sacred Mountain for the extra big AC defense. I can get my fire in, keep my flurry of blows, eventually get the efreeti style feats by taking them naturally, and still have higher AC, a natural Toughness feat, and a constant plus 1 to my AC, which is even higher if I stay put. Basically I can get in to the middle of the fight, and then just stand my ground blasting fire attacks in all directions with flurry of blows. Between high Wisdom, a monk vow, and the extra ki feat, I should have enough ki to still use my time stop ability at the 12 level occasionally, while not having to become a Drunken Master. The Drunkeness doesn't really fit the character, and I want some of those abilities to be open to replace with Qinggong powers.

I think I finally found something I'm happy with. Thanks for all the help guys.

Thanks Mojorat. That was kinda along the lines I was thinking. And I have really smart group of people to play with. They are super clever at figuring the best way to handle just about any situation. I've been their GM for sometime and they almost always think of some way to get out of a situation neither I nor the books thought of. Its a lot of fun.

I gotta look into this 4 archetype thing I mentioned above though, probably not viable, but it still sounds super ridiculously cool.

Without having her be a monk of the four winds how am I supposed to get the elemental fists feat till way later? Its not free from the prerequisites in the Master of the Many styles path. Maybe I should just ask my GM if I can have it...

Again, I've decided I just want to smash face but with fire fists. The only way it seems to get elemental fists early on is to be a Monk of the Four Winds.

Oh, and its a her. ;) Got a really cool backstory all worked out.

Again, thanks for the help guys. I'm doing a lot of research on my own but its great having the second and third opinions. This will be the first time I've played in a while rather than be a GM. Also, I will be starting out on level 1.

Wait a minute, I think you could combine: Monk of the Four Winds, Master of Many styles, Monk of the Sacred Mountain, and Drunken Master all into one... O_o
I need to look into that.

Alright. Thanks Mojorat. I think I want to smash face. Is there a way to do that with the elemental fists of the Monk of the Four Winds, cause I just wanted to make a fire monk for the roleplaying aspects of it. It fitted into this big story idea I had. There's my GM side coming out. Could I naturally pick up some feats/qinggong powers to compliment a Monk of the Four Winds that would help me smash face?

Perhaps I'll just build a straight up Monk of the Four Winds Qinggong and pick the Efreeti style feats as I go along... Simple and easy, and I can punch people with fire, which is at least pretty cool, if not as effective as stunning fist.

Is there a viable build for a Monk of the Four Winds? I really liked thematically a Monk who uses fists of fire, who eventually adopts the aspect of the tiger... :/

Perhaps rather then grab MOM I just be a Master of the Four Winds, and pick up the Crane Style Feat manually early on, then also add in the Qinggong monk part for the barkskin and other cool abilities. That way I continue to maintain my Flurry of Blows, but also get the strong fire strikes, and the evasive abilities of the crane style.

Wow. Raijin, your Monk is so crazy! I love it. Thanks for the advice guys.

I've decided flowing monk is not what I want. My monk's theme has changed now to a more fire/tiger themed guarded brawler who can both boost AC while dishing out the occasional hard hit. I couldn't combine mm with flowing, so decided instead to do a monk of the four winds with mm and qinggong. I now am going for an efreeti fire style build combined with the crane style and focusing on a careful balance between hard hitting fire attacks with true strike and high AC with crane style and barkskin. I think that about gets me to where I'm going, and I'm pretty powerful at the early levels. Any style suggestions after I get the crane and efreeti styles mostly done?

I never thought of the Qinggong Flowing Monk/Druid hybrid. Sounds pretty boss.

Any more suggestions are welcomed. Thanks for you help guys.

Wait, I just realized you probably can't be a Monk of Many Styles and a Flowing monk might not stack... this gets complicated. :/

Any suggestions? Rather then hard hitting, should I just focus on making her good at keeping people down with trips and falls, doing what little damage I can, allowing my teammates to do the real damage while I keep the enemies occupied?

I guess I'd like to know what styles, qinggong powers, feats and items go well with the flowing monk archetype. I want to be able to hold my own in the middle of fight with a lot of critters, keeping them occupied while doing what I can. I know flanking is an issue, I was also wondering if there was a way to overcome that as a monk...

Hey guys. Just wanted to ask the community this question... I'm mostly a GM and haven't worked with monks from a players perspective before.

I'm trying to build a powerful brawler monk who can get into big fights with a high AC and big damage and just have fun.

I've built the monk with high stats in dexterity, wisdom, and strength, and have classes him as a Flowing Qinggong Monk and Master of Many Styles. The Flowing archetype makes me dangerously evasive up close and capable of redirecting attacks against themselves, and the Qinggong will allow me to pick up helpful ki powers like Bark-Skin and stuff. The styles will allow me to get Snapping Turtle, Panther style, and maybe Tiger later or Snake.

So my evasion will probably be really high, but what do I do about damage? I like being super hard to hit in the middle of a fight, but I also want to be dishing out lots of damage, not just tripping people left and right.

The unarmed strike damage frustrates me because I can't really scale it with magic enhancement. I've never really been able to test how well it scales naturally without any enhancement, and I don't want to use weapons because deadly little hands are totally awesome. Are there ways to boost the damage over time with feats or something?

Thanks.

May I suggest getting the Pathfinder Beginner Box and supplementing your own characters for the one's they provide. That's a really good starting point for new players young and old, because they simplify the rules for you and the pieces they give you are lots of fun. ;)

Ah... I see. The "This attack must be made on or before your next turn." really threw me off. I thought it meant on, as in on the turn you just did it, and not before your next turn. I get it now, and thanks for the other comments too. This really clarifies things. :)

Hey there. I'm kinda a new GM and I'm really confused about this... combat maneuver? I understand how the numbers work, but it says in the core rule book that to deny the opponent their dexterity bonus to AC on your next attack, you must make an attack in the same round as you performed the Feint... But Feint is a standard action unless you get the improved feint feat. Does this mean that Feinting is useless until you get the feat? Because you obviously can't attack in the same round after performing a standard action Feint.

Is that clear? I'd really like an explanation...

Also, what exactly is a Feint? In the dictionary of sword fighting it means faking the opponent out with a false move of the blade, but everyone on the forums describes it as falling down prone and actually... faking feinting. I'm so confused about all this... Is there anyone who can help me? :)