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Go Ned Stark. Look them in the eye, tell them they're going to be executed and ask if they have any last words for their loved ones. Behead them lawfully in front of witnesses, dispose of the body in accordance with local custom. Send a messenger to the family with their last words.

If your character is a Paladin and needs to execute someone who has committed evil acts it shouldn't be "fun". It's a duty, demanded by local law or your God. If it's for giggles then you're not really a Paladin to start with!

On its own Summoning is decent:

It has duration to keep being useful the entire combat.

Summons can contribute damage most turns unless killed.

If enemies Attack Summons you don't need to waste healing resources.

By putting more bodies on the field you can limit enemy movement and provide Flanking.

Summon lists are flexible, so you could summon Dire Bats to act as temporary flying mounts or elementals to exploit damage weaknesses/immunity, or something to beat alignment DR.

If you build toward summoning it becomes nasty. Sacred Summons means your summon can attack the same turn you cast it, as it's not a full-round action. Augment Summoning makes your critters hit more reliably and harder. Superior Summoning means you get more critters. And all these feats are multiplative - each one you add makes the others more powerful. If you have other buffs available (Inspire Courage, Raging Song, Haste etc) it only gets better.

I've often thought of witches as having quite a lot of non-traditional learning or education. They might know the history, folklore and herbalism of their tribe along with a lot of gestures or incantations with ritual significance. The Patron provides the power or spark to turn those from ritual to reality.

As for the familiar, it's a bit more vague. In some cases perhaps the familiar is almost a friend or pet, but it could also be a intelligent and alien presence that shares visions of a troubling power. A witch could be legitimately afraid of their familiar, especially if their Patron was fickle or unknowable.

I have a witch I'd quite like to play but haven't had the opportunity yet:

"A shepherd, he lived in the hills with his flock and his dogs. When he travelled to towns and herding stations he spoke with the old shepherds and wise people of the hills, sharing gossip and old stories. Alone for long periods, he knew which mushrooms were safe to eat, how to birth a lamb how to set a broken bone for a long hobble home. He listened to the wise women and cunning men and learned their words of power, but the spirits never answered when he called.

As he drove his flock toward one village there was a great roar. Rounding the brow of the hill he saw a rockslide where huts once stood. Rushing down he offered what help he could, but his bonesetting and bandaging could do little for the wounded. Desperate and tearful, he mumbled the words of a healing charm over a dying man.

The man died, but he felt a presecence and turned. Sitting alert at his left side was a large, shaggy sheepdog. The same one who drowned in the floods last year. A chill ran through him. It cocked it's head and looked at his hands. He didn't understand how, but he knew the old words would work now.

A dozen or more now live because of the power he gained, crying in the rubble. When he was finished the village headman came to him, and the survivors made a wary circle. They knew his dog, and knew it had died. He saved many but he was not a shepherd any more. The headman gave him a bag of supplies, and a frightened bow, and told him that he could not stay.

The dog followed him as he walked along the track. It's loping stride kept up as he tried to walk away."

I was expecting this to be similar to a something I read a while back about the Hat of Disguise. Dress up your biggest, crudest, most stereotypical Barbarian as a Wizard, Princess, Scribe etc. Put them in the middle of the party to "protect" them.

Enemies attack, rushing for the squishy Wizard! Surprise, the "Wizard" is a Barbarian! Cue Benny Hill music and chaos.

Eldritch Scoundrel Unchained Rogue power attacking with an Elven Curve Blade. Sneak Attack is a cherry on top, but even when denied you're still doing solid damage.

Eldritch Scoundrel gets you casting, as noted. 13 Strength is enough to qualify for Power Attack, Unchained Rogue gets Rogue Finesse and 1.5x-Dex-to-damage using finesseable 2-handers. Casting mitigates a lot of Rogue weaknesses, such as Blade Tutor's Spirit helping with Power Attack to-hit penalties.

This isn't a particularly Feat-intensive build, so you have plenty left over to shore up weaknesses or diversify.

The exact appearance of casting is subject to table variation. You must "speak in a strong voice" for verbal components, make a precise gesture with one hand for somatic, be holding any focus and any material component is annihilated. It is also obvious to those around you that a spell is being cast, but the exact nature of this is not specified as far as I recall.

So casting Wish could be the following:
The caster does a little light reading after breakfast.
"I wish they'd do another couple of seasons of that Joss Whendon space show".
*Clicks fingers, the diamond held unseen in the other hand vanishes. The air tastes like copper for a few seconds before it fades*
A couple of months the later, several fanboys have joy-induced heart attacks.

Some high-level spells might actually not look impressive. Reality-bending is what Wizards do but it doesn't need shouting, flashing lights, explosions or indeed much action to function. Your Wizard could be sitting in a comfy chair, wearing a bathrobe and drinking a cup of tea while achieving their aims.

Consider Wish. "By simply speaking aloud, you can alter reality to better suit you." Now, because said Wizard has crazily high intelligence and presumably decent planning skills changing a single variable can overthrow nations, thwart demonic invasions or cause a perfect little cafe/bookshop to open up down the street. All of that can occur "off-camera" while reality looks for its underwear and wonders what it was drinking last night.

Raise Dead is pretty predictable. Reincarnate is not. You could replace Raise Dead and Resurrection with Reincarnate in class spell lists. You can get your character back, but you might need to find a new mini...

It might be worth keeping more "usual" methods of raising the dead open via quests (as mentioned above), but remove the no-risk, low-cost options.

You could consider a Ranger with companion bond instead of the more common animal companion. In the worldwound I would guess you'll face a ton of Demons so Favored Enemy (Evil Outsider) would be a pretty nice thing to share around the party. Rangers tend to have decent skills too. It's not as Marshal-orientated but could work, Rangers are badass.

If you go Sap Adept & non-lethal, look at the Enforcer feat. A free action intimidate when you deal non-lethal damage.

AKA The classic slap upside the head and "You're f***in' barred! And stay out!"

The key words in the feat are "slay at least 50 intelligent noncombatants for either your own personal gain or for no reason at all". That's evil, and no amount of "what if you were paid by an infallible diviner to utilitarian ends?" can justify it. Deliberately killing sentient beings who do not pose a threat to you for fun or profit is bad. The intent is the important part really. No "greater good" is allowed.

However you can qualify for the feat using a background and avoid this.

You can even complete the feat using "lesser of two evils" arguments.

But this is corner case, tenuous, why-don't-you-just-take-skill-focus-instead hypothetical. It's an evil feat. Tell your player. Reach a compromise.

Keeping most enemies mundane and in small groups should help avoid overwhelming them. Saving caster foes as BBEGs or their lieutenants is probably the way to go. Even then, sticking to 6/9 casters instead of full casters is a good idea.

As it's a small-scale campaign you can craft individual events to let each character shine. Maybe there's a dark warehouse/hideout the Rogue can infiltrate, opening the barred door from inside to admit the Fighter and some helpers. Or perhaps the situation calls for the fighter's immense strength to shift a cart blocking their escape route.

Your Rogue should naturally shine out of combat, and the Fighter in combat. The challenge is to make both of them useful and relevant whatever the scenario.

You seem to have it planned out - but PCs do not always follow your carefully laid trail of clues. It might be worth planning out a bunch of "what ifs" - nearby towns in case they go wandering, alternate ways of bypassing puzzles etc. You can gently hint that they're off course, but railroading can lead them to resist harder.

For example: with a frozen shut door, what's to stop them just dousing it with oil and setting it in fire?

Leaving spell slots open seems to be the best-kept secret in the game! With 15 mins of prep time you can prepare 1/4 of your spells on-the-go.

Wizards with Fast Study can cut this to 1 minute!

Dredd's an interesting character. He's almost always been written by the same writer (John Wagner) but even so he's not always consistent. But humans are not always consistent.

Sure, he upholds the law and has absolutely no compunction about physically harming either lawbreakers who do not comply or those who threaten his city. But he has actually grown more sympathetic as he's gotten older (he's aged real-time since 1977). He's championed the cause of mutants, hated because they were different, to the point of self-imposed exile. I remember a one-off strip where he literally throws himself off a building to save a suicidal heroin addict.

He's mostly LN but he strives to make his world a better place. One that he can never enjoy due to Judges monk-like existence, but that others deserve. Lawful Neutral trying to be Lawful Good, which I think is pretty poetic.

But he's also nuked a city and killed literally 500 million people. So also that.

Spike damage and Nova'ing are very useful situationally. When something needs to die fast then Smite is amazing, even if that's only a small fraction of the overall damage done in the adventure. You can often afford to cruise through filler encounters and save the big guns for a "Boss Fight" - Smite is the big guns.

Evangelists are very powerful built right, though the base Cleric is strong enough to be pretty even. A Heroism subdomain Evangelist built as a "Reach Cleric" can get ludicrous action economy and summon heavily buffed critters as a standard action via Sacred Summons. Most Cleric Archetypes are pretty bad but the Evangelist is a badass.

For a GMPC then filling a role absent in the party while not pulling focus is important. But so is consistent characterisation.

It may be worth discussing or even writing a backstory and listing character traits and how they'd react in certain circumstances. This way you end up with the same character every session despite 2 different GMs.

As has been said before, a support character GMPC can work well. Something like a healer, knowledge specialist (allowing you to inject exposition at will) or rogue-type niche skill-monkey might be appropriate. They get to remove obstacles or shout advice/warnings, allowing the PCs to do the real Adventuring. Having them in a subservient role to the PCs also reinforces that they are a sidekick not the hero. Perhaps a squire, chronicler, hired scout or guide or even an observer sent along by the party's employer to ensure a task is completed.

If you want grief, remorse or loss to be a motivating factor then go ahead. They can be powerful, but depression is distinct and different.

I would advise against using the word "depression". It's an issue that affects a *lot* of people, to the extent that one of your gaming group or someone in their immediately family is fairly likely to have had it. Portraying any mental or physical illness without (a ton of) sensitivity and understanding is a way to alienate people.

Also, in terms of roleplaying/adventuring depression doesn't make a huge amount of sense. Loss of motivation is very common in people suffering from it, as is a degree of social withdrawal, low energy levels and et cetera . Meeting up with a group of strangers and going on quest, while not impossible, would be very unlikely.

If you're handing them a "grizzled old vet" of a healer, you've also got an in-world way of offering optimisation and tactics advice.

"You're a Druid aren't you? I've seen Druids entagle whole platoons, or create mud to slow down distant foes. Something like that could buy us time to reposition next time we fight."

"I recall two warriors I fought alongside a few years back. Both loved their shiny trinkets. With the loot from an Orc lair one bought himself a magic sword, the other a ring of protection.

The Orcs came looking for us about a week later. The first volley of arrows pretty much bounced off the fella with the ring! His mate wasn't as lucky. The funeral was very tasteful, mind. I officiated it myself."

If you're creating the entire party then you get to use a number of tricks players rarely use themselves.

Teamwork feats could be more valuable for you than for a normal party. Outflank, Butterfly's Sting, Stealth Synergy - all those could come into play.

Exploiting control of the environment is another strategy. With a Half-Elf, Elf and the warrior being anything but human you've got 75% low-light vision in the party. Taking advantage of dimly-lit rooms for the 20% miss chance can be very valuable.

As well as building up strengths, minimise weaknesses where you can. NPC classes have pretty bad saves by default, and failed saves could shut down your challenging encounter. If these are more than disposable rivals make sure to have escape routes such as snapleaves or potions of invisibility handy too.

You could alternatively choose a Cornugon Smash/Sickening Strike Investigator, using a high crit-range weapon to tack on conditions from critical feats. You could also tack on poisons for more debuffs.

One hit on your studied strike target and they're having a bad time.

Thematically a high-Int Investigator or Rogue might fit the bill as your spymaster or chief of scouts. This way your Charismatic general has (literally) good intelligence to deploy your forces. The Investigator gives you access to a ton of knowledges about enemy weaknesses too.

While full casters are great crafters and allow lots of game-breaking shenanigans having them as cohorts seems a bit cheap.

As a general rule Gouda or Cheddar will be fine with any GM and are probably PFS legal, but I can't find the FAQ.

Stilton is probably pushing it, but a home-game might be fine.

If we're talking theorycraft then Stinking Bishop could be useful. But no-one's going to play with you due to the smell.

Temple of Elemental Evil is a bit of a mess, but bits of it are good. It's mostly 3.5 but with quite a few elements not fully implemented or bugged - for example Reach weapons can attack both at reach and adjacent without penalties, the spell Reincarnation is identical to Raise Dead etc. The feat list is pretty basic too.

The combat system in is quite well implemented. It's turn based and you get about 80% of the combat options you'd get in a pen & paper game. Lots of tactical stuff like flanking, battlefield control, attacks of opportunity etc work fine. When I've played it, this is the enjoyable bit.

The bad bits are the story, writing, voice acting, pacing, quest structure and the BUGS! The Circle of 8 mod fixes quite a few of the bugs but there are still some around. I know they used a classic module as the basis for the game but compared to some of other great CRPGs like Baldur's Game, Planescape: Torment etc the story, writing and voice acting fall flat. The endless, dull, counterintuitive fetch quests in the first village alone might stop you playing.

A nice simple way to take the edge off the summoned creatures problem is protection from evil/good/law/chaos, or the higher level incarnations of the spell. They cannot physically attack a target protected this way. Any summoned creature that is not true neutral can be avoided thus. These spells also have decent durations - stick them on many enemies.

Monks and Rogues tend to be good against single targets - don't offer them that. Disguise which enemy in the group is the real danger - the guy in the robe with the staff they thought was a Wizard - nope, he's a badass monk. The plate-clad juggernaut they ignored to rush the monk? Cleric.

Having multiple enemies - even if they're of lower combined CR often makes for more challenging encounters. Use enemy specials or size differences to your advantage. Be prepared for their tactics. Fight Dirty. If you want a really nasty example of all these then Google "Tucker's Kobolds".

The Feats vs. Spells argument returns. Feats are good, but locked in stone unless you're using a class feature that allows you to switch them - Martial Flexibility etc. Once you've got your primary tactic sorted you can be stuck with it, especially mundanes. Switch-hitters and the like are a minority. If your tactic gets boring - tough. If it annoys your DM and gets shut down - better hope you're allowed to retrain.

Spells, especially from prepared casters, allow you flexibility and a different play style every 24 hours. And can be enhanced by feats. The same Wizard can take two completely different roles on different days, but a fighter would struggle to even with bonus feats.

Ideally you want a +7 modifier to Handle Animal for an animal companion class. This gives you a +11 bonus for your AC, and guarantees success to get your AC to perform known tricks when wounded (DC 12 IIRC).

So 4 skill ranks and a +3 class skill bonus is really enough, unless you want to have other pets/combat animals.

It does indeed depend what sort of philosopher you want to be. Empiricist Investigators with the Student of Philosophy trait would be great as Renaissance or Classical polymaths in the vein of Descartes, Leonardo da Vinci, Aristotle etc.

Hughnme, it'd help to know which philosophers you'd been reading. Sun Tzu, Immanuel Kant and John Stewart Mill are so different that you'd need very different stats and classes to represent them!

If what this player wants is stuff that sounds cool (like stuff that would work in an anime episode) then recommend some effective builds and let him re-fluff them. Power Attack is now called "Nine-Dragon Style" and has a dance combo and blue sparks involved in it.

You could also go for more oblique insults - deliberately confuse the gender of any elf you meet and address them using the wrong gender pronoun, mispronounce any and all elf names, forget you've met NPCs before - they all look the same to your Xenophobic dwarf.

Spellshatter looks like another interesting and flavorful feat for a grumpy dwarf who doesn't like any of this fancy magic nonsense. It's basically a limited version of a Barbarian's Spell Sunder. The prereq feats are Disruptive and Spellbreaker - not bad feats in themselves.

Stubborn is a good racial trait, charm and compulsion saves are nasty - but Hardy & Steel Soul work against any Poison, Spell or Spell-Like Ability. Steel Soul is just as effective against a Fireball as it is Dominate Person, and most charm/compulsion effects will be Spells or SLAs.

Given that the Unbreakable archetype gives lots of opportunities to leverage a crazy-good Fort/Will save, I think Steel Soul works better in combination. That's just my opinion though.

*Edit* Kaouse phrased it much better than me.

Steel Soul is a very nice set of save bonuses for Dwarves, fitting well with a stoic, grumpy character. Mix in the Unbreakable Fighter archetype and you've got someone who is too stubborn and irritable to let little things like reality-bending magic, poisons or near-death slow them down.

After that all you'll need is Power Attack and a trusty Dwarven Waraxe and/or Longhammer.

It's not hyper-optimal but you'll do acceptable damage and be bloody hard to kill. Adding Stalwart/Improved Stalwart will make you near immortal.

I hope you're able to find what you need in there Rushacre.

If as Kalindlara says you are new to Pathfinder it might be worth Googling "the forge of combat" which is also by Tark (IIRC). It's not specifically about clerics but provides a good grounding in group roles and dynamics. Understanding what roles you fill can inform how you build your character.

Rich parents can sometimes break the game at low levels, but only if the player is intent on doing so.

You could technically buy a combat trained Tiger for 500gp (CR 4). If the player can make a DC 10 (12 if injured) handle animal check then you've got a pouncing death-machine on your hands that will trivialise levels 1-4.

But in general I agree with the consensus - it's a short-term gain for a long-term loss. Compared to something like Fate's Favored or Armor Expert it's weak.

Lots of things are "too good": classes, class features, archetypes, traits, feats and spells all have offenders. Many builds (even some whole classes) rely on these "features" to work!

As long as Fate's Favored is only "too good" on Half-Orcs & Warpriests then why is it an issue? Why are we not all calling for Armor Expert, Power Attack, Magical Lineage, Wayang Spell Hunter, Spell Perfection, Haste, Fey Foundling, Shamans, Student of Philosophy/Empiricist Investigators etc to face the nerf-bat too?

The short answer is that someone necro'd a 2 year old thread. It's just a game.

Fate's Favored is a nice low-investment bonus for Half-Orcs, but there are few cases where you'd choose a Half-Orc over the alternatives for that alone. Warpriests are an exception, very much not the rule.

For example - would you choose definitely choose a Half-Orc/Fate's Favored combo for a Melee Cleric/Oracle who sometimes opens a fight with Divine Favor at low levels, but will switch to Blessing of Fervor or Righteous Might at higher levels? Not a clear-cut choice.

9) A hall-of-mirrors style dungeon. Formed by lava/dragon's breath or similar coming into contact with desert sand, there are some transparent walls allowing you to see a distant goal, or allowing enemies to watch the approach. There are also mirrored walls and passages, which can be used to disorient foes or to mess with illusion or pattern type spells.

You could take inspiration from nineteenth century whalers, Moby Dick style. Use harpoons attached to rope or chains to limit the dragon's mobility and tie it down. It might well not work in the Pathfinder ruleset but does seem thematic.

I think that for a new player this thread is a bit of an information/opinion overload.

Kaim - I would suggest you have a read around the forums and get a feel for things. Most things have already had a bit of discussion, and searching for threads about oracle optimization (for example) can answer a lot of queries. D20pfsrd.org is a good searchable reference for classes, rules, feats etc if you need it.

If you have a specific question then by all means ask the forum. Even then be prepared for a hundred different opinions. More general questions tend to bring out arguments, acrimony and conflicting answers - as with this thread. Play the character you want to play and enjoy yourself, but knowing the system can enhance that in many cases.

*edit* linkified:

Forge of Combat

Guide to the Class Guides

Read the stuff relevant to you in these and you'll know more than 90% of players.

The "Link (Ex)" ability which allows handling as a free action is in the Animal Companion rules entry, not the Druid entry. It is a characteristic of the AC, not the Player Character. Any reference to the "Druid" in the AC entry refers to the PC who has one, as they are "effectively" a Druid. So any character who gets an AC gets to handle as a free action unless specifically stated otherwise.

If your GM is worried that your very optimised characters overshadow the group, build a support character. The Bards that have been suggested are a good idea, but a support & buffing focused Cleric or Life Oracle could be just as good. Optimise your character to make everyone else shine - your group will love you, and done well you'll multiply the strength of the entire party.

It sounds like many of the OP's characters have been actively combatting the GM controlled foes via damage, control or debuffing. Support characters don't need to do this as much, and can take a more passive combat role in some circumstances. Use your actions to buff and then use a reach weapon and move to create area denial -> no offensive action but still combat effective.

There are lots of sorts of heroes. Sure, you've got your martial types like Achilles who are strong, nigh-invulnerable and good looking, but there are also Guile heroes like Odysseus who think and trick their way around problems.

A character can be a hero because of their refusal to accept defeat, their inspiring leadership, their obvious virtue, their fighting ability, their wits or any number of other qualities. Some heroes have one quality, some several.

Hrothdane wrote:

chbgraphicarts wrote:

Serghar Cromwell wrote:

-Grijm- wrote:

Doge bonuses and doge feats hehehe

Very agility.

Much Dex

Such AC

Wow

Many bonus

This week the party are in a six-hour committee meeting. They must elect a new treasurer and draw up a policy on NPC hireling employment, holiday, benefits and statutory sick pay. Then there is mandatory sexual harassment and fire safety training because of recent incidents with the Bard and Sorcerer respectively. The Barbarian is taking minutes. Halfway through there will be a coffee break, but the only beverage available is instant decaf.

To quote Lilarcor from Baldur's Gate 2: "Swing harder!"

High AC turtles who hit like a wet noodle (like an MMO tank) can be safely ignored. Don't try and be unhittably tough - or nothing will even try and hit you. Having high HP and good offensive power means that enemies will hit you (and will try and hit you).

I like the Empiricist Investigator archetype for this, coupled with the Student of Philosophy trait. So many things now run off Intelligence that you barely need Charisma (and can dump it), and boosting Int gives you even more skill points. Underworld Inspiration and Expanded Inspiration give you free inspiration on loads of skills, and you can up it with Amazing Inspiration. Edetic Recollection makes you a flawless knowledge-monkey.

This guy doesn't even need to suck at combat. Mutagens can boost physical stats, Alchemy can give you loads of natural attacks and other boosts. Strength or Dex builds are both viable.

How about characters from plays or literature? A fleet named after Shakespeare characters for example. The Cordelia, The Regan and The Poor Tom sounds like a merchant fleet.

Alternatively you could go with variations on vices and virtues. Henry's Wrath, Vainglory or Pride of the Nation for warships, Sweet Charity, The Diligence or The Patient Son for traders.

One option could be to pick a language or myth cycle and go with words and ideas drawn from it. Magic swords - Clarent, Excalibur, Cortana, Joyuese, Durendal, Gram/Balmung/Nothing, Harpe?

There are lots of things that you can do that aren't directly damaging but limit enemy options and can be considered offensive - things like Wall of Stone. You don't hurt anyone, just deny an area to them and limit movement.

There is a big moral difference between hurting someone and impeding them. In game terms non-damaging battlefield control can be a powerful option.