DHAnubis's page

Alternatively, there is a Magus Arcana listed on the d20psfrd site (I believe its 3rd party?) that lets you spend an arcane pool point to allow you to wield a 2 handed weapon and still use spell combat. Enrune Great Weapon. It's a bit of a drain on the pool till you get the Greater version that makes it last an hour per level, but it is an option.

Thats about what I figured, but again, wanted to make sure there was no rule buried somewhere that I didnt remember.

Hijacking this thread just slightly, is there anything that prevents wearing magic gloves and fist-style weapons at the same time? Like, would a person with a cestus on each hand be able to wear and make use of Gloves of Dueling? I'd imagine that's fine, but I want to make sure there's no rule written somewhere that I missed.

If 3pp stuff is an option, the Pyromancer is one of my favorites. 9th level caster, gets Charisma (their casting stat) to damage with fire spells, a short 2 feat tree to get double Charisma mod to damage, able to eventually bypass resistance and immunity (around 15th or so I think. I dont think its their capstone) Plenty of flame spells to set the world alight with.

Note: Know nothing about the book or movie, so cant guarantee the concept fits.

Darksmokepuncher wrote:

Having the insides be a dungeon is an interesting idea!

Claxon: I have never found stats for rovagug, but essentially, that is the story we're running with only we are not playing on Golarion.

You wont find stats for Rovagug. He is a deity, and in Pathfinder deities are unstated.

Essentially this would be a game of "Prevent the crazy people from freeing Rovagug" because if he escapes it's pretty much game over.

The combined might of (most of) the gods of Golarion were barely able to defeat and imprison him. We don't know enough of the details, but nothing short of deific cooperation would stand a chance of defeating him once released.

Such a campaign would probably start of with fighting cultist of rovagug and working your way up the food chain until you figure out how they intend to free him. Along the way you're likely to fight the Tarrasque and other spawn of Rovagug (don't know if others have stats). You could even go as far as fighting lots of Kaiju which are thematically appropriate world destruction entities.

If I remember right, at least one of the other heralds has stats...I know the pfsrd has it just listed as the Firebleeder at CR24. Granted, that's apparently a 3PP conversion, but its there.

Thats a fair enough assessment. I cant really remember if the Warpriest has its Sphere access somehow tied into the Blessings it chooses or not. I suppose, even if the GM decided that it wasn't allowed, the Warpriest would still be a solid class to use over the Magus for the other bonuses I'd get, but that swift action would be useful in those "oh crap" moments.

Hopefully a simple question. I know that the Spheres of Power expanded options book has conversions for the hybrid classes, Warpriest included. As far as I remember (dont have access to it right now), the Warpriest keeps its Fervor ability, but it makes no mention of its ability to cast self buff spells as a Swift action. Was it intended for the SoP version of the Warpriest to be able to spend a use of its Fervor and use a self-targeted Sphere ability? Example, spend a use of Fervor to Swift action use the Alteration sphere's Shapeshift to alter your size and gain a couple natural attacks, then full round the closest enemy, assuming in range.

Only ask because I'm trying to make an Unarmed/close weapon using TWF build, and the Magus is my current base, swapping between Spell Combat to Alteration or Destruction and full round or TWF. However, the Warpriest gives me a lot of things I'd otherwise need to spend feats on/wait a few levels for, like higher armor proficiency, weapon focus, scaling fist damage, and bonus feats. If the Fervor ability works the way I'd expect, Warpriest is the way to go for me.

Also, sorry for double threads. Computer at work lagged out and made two.

Players don't love witches, yo.

In all seriousness, it does seem to be one of the more underserved classes in Pathfinder. I think there's some solid 3pp options for expanding witches though; if I recall correctly, Flying Pincushion Games has a Witch entry in their "Into the Breach" product line that has some flavorful and well-balanced options.

The archetype I remember most vividly from that book did not get spells till either 4th or 5th level (then proceeded normally), but got an ability similar to a rage that also gave them Eidolon evolutions while the raged. I've always wanted to try that one out. Because being a raging hex monster sounds lovely.

Yeah, between this and the Destruction handbook, my two favorite Sphere's are getting nice upgrades.

Only other thing I can really think of for Reach that doesnt make the body parts look extended is see if your GM will let you fluff the Reach as sort of slash marks or shockwaves of energy. Not in the projectile sense, but a lot of series have attacks which produce a spectral image of a claw mark or fangs. Pokemon games tend to do it a lot.

Mostly the story telling, but the looks the players get on their faces every so often is just the icing on the cake.

There was a time where the players saw that the host of the library they were in was slowly transforming into...something. Fiance rolls something crazy high on her knowledge checks to identify it. When I told them the host was turning into a dracolich, the general reaction was "Oh. Oooooh. Oh god," "Wait, what?!" and "Uhhh...do we run now?" Seeing their faces on that sort of thing was beautiful.

I have a few, but my biggest one is that archetypes can stack even if they effect the same class feature. Just depends how they affect that feature. For example, if one archetype changed a classes casting to spontaneous and the other reduced the numbers of spells they could cast per day by 1, I'd allow that to stack. Its a case by case basis thing, but I always tell my players that if they wanna see if two can be combined, they just have to ask.

First thing that comes to mind with SoP is that there should be some way to use the Alteration sphere's Shapeshift on the wasp. Im not sure if the companion's Share Spells feature translates to SoP directly, or if you'd need to take the Alteration talent that lets you affect others with Shapeshift. Because screw it, ride around on a dragon bee.

As for other advice, yeah. What Claxon said.

DHAnubis wrote:

I'd imagine that "just like its master" line is meant to stop people from trying to choose a type of Bardic performance the Bard doesnt have, like one from a specific archetype.

Seems unlikely, given that the next sentence deals with what performances the familiar can use =)

Fair enough. I wasn't actually looking at the duettist archetype when I wrote the response, totally should have been.

I'd imagine that "just like its master" line is meant to stop people from trying to choose a type of Bardic performance the Bard doesnt have, like one from a specific archetype.

Playing a Samsaran can get them on the list, the Harmonic and Jinx Blending Magus arcana let you take spells from the Bard and Witch list respectively (but those Arcana are 3rd party I believe, so, ya know...). Those are the ways that come to mind at the moment.

Only thing I can see would be people getting hung up on the words "wield" and "wielding." I'd definitely allow it though.

I've always been a personal fan of the idea of puppet based classes. I think a big thing to determine is what happens when you decide to make another puppet instead of tuning up the first one. Do you get what is statistically another Eidolon? Do you get to choose which puppet you control at which time? And if so, how quickly can you break the control of one and swap to another? I only ask because I like the idea of, say... using your standard to have puppet A use a standard action to attack, or maybe eject a bomb for you (like the Alchemist bomb, but you can designate a puppet as the point of origin) then quickly swap to Puppet B and use a move action to get it into a flanking position for an ally.

I wouldn't mind a swarm based eidolon and archetype for the summoner or unchained summoner.

Or even just a series of evolutions to give it the eidolon the swarm quality.

Also, a telepathy evolution would not go amiss.

It is 3pp, but Into the Breach: Summoner does have a swarm body type that any summoner could take, and a Swarm Sculptor archetype that requires that body type and lets you summons swarms and wear them as armor.

I almost imagine it like the Naya Hushblade's weapon from Magic the Gathering. It's even an Elf Rogue creature two handing the weapon.

A Magus archetype that can really weaponize illusions, possibly delivering its spells through said illusions, or using them as the origin point of its spells (I had hoped these would be sort of what the Puppeteer Magus would be like when I saw its name, but I was sadly wrong.)

A different form of Synthesist summoner that carries the same feel as wearing the Eidolon like armor. Dont replace the Summoner's stats with that of the Eidolon, but perhaps get a buff to 1 or two stats based on the form. Im imagining something sorta like Shaman King where the spirits more or less mimicked their partners moves (from what I remember), or Crown Clown from D.Gray-man as armor that sort of had a mind of its own.

Some sort of archetype that gives the Magus some of the Kineticist's abilities. Love the idea of being able to attack with a sword in one hand and blast enemies across the battlefield with the other. Yes, I am aware I can easily do this with Sphere's of Power, but I'd like to see a Paizo attempt.

Similarly, a Witch Kineticist that focuses on hexing people and throwing out elemental blasts, sort of like a 3.5 Warlock. Again, SoP can do it quite well, but I'd like to see the attempt.

A Druid variant (can't really imagine this as an archetype) that focuses on wildshaping into constructs instead of animals and plants and elementals. Maybe start it off at level one with a limited use ability to shift its hands to get increased unarmed strike damage, advancing it till it can shapeshift its entire body.

A heavy armored, strength based Magus that loses Spell Combat but can channel more spell types through Spell Strike. Like wading into battle and Striking an enemy, detonating a Fireball spell to deal AoE damage. Or swinging the weapon and unleashing a Cone of Cold.

As others have said, Kineticist archetypes that benefit from taking only 1 element.

I have a friend that I just got into PoW that will absolutely love the Ambu-Lancer. In general, I really like the look of the Medic. Really want to play a character that scrambles around the battlefield with just a hint of over protectiveness.

Balancing RP flavor and mechanics is always something to pay attention to. I had a player in my last campaign that played an egotistical Ranger. "Surely you've heard of me! No? Of course you haaave." Was a great character, caused a lot of relevant story events to happen. However, he focused statistics and skills more on the personality of the character. Which was all fine half the time, but when it came time to fight, he was under performing a good deal. And though he said otherwise, it certainly seemed that he was annoyed by this aspect.

To me, you can totally make a build a character with, well... character, and make it work both RP wise and mechanically. But its something that needs balance. I hate seeing players that stop having fun when the night shifts over to an aspect they're not set up for because they focused too heavily on flavor or beating the living tar out of the monsters.

DHAnubis wrote:

So, just got the PDF on Sunday. Havent read through all the finer details yet, but I do very much want to play a Ravenlord as soon as I can.

Question. I skimmed through this thread over a couple days before purchasing the pdf, and I saw mention of a Summoner archtype that let both Summoner and Eidolon use maneuvers. Mirrored Soul, I think it was? Im not seeing that in the PDF. Am I to assume that it was scrapped?

Mirror Soul came up very late in the development cycle, it was an idea that was floated with enough backing to have some material written for it. However, it did not have the time to be properly vetted through playtesting or Dev investigation, so it was never added to Path of War: Expanded.

Perhaps we'll explore the idea further down the line, but for now, Mirror Soul has been scrapped.

Makes sense to me. Thanks for the reply.

So, just got the PDF on Sunday. Havent read through all the finer details yet, but I do very much want to play a Ravenlord as soon as I can.

Question. I skimmed through this thread over a couple days before purchasing the pdf, and I saw mention of a Summoner archtype that let both Summoner and Eidolon use maneuvers. Mirrored Soul, I think it was? Im not seeing that in the PDF. Am I to assume that it was scrapped?

I've always enjoyed Psionics more than traditional casting methods simply because the power point system feels more natural to me. Plus I find the classes themselves have a good bit of mechanical aspects that are fairly new and not as well represented.

The few times I've actually GM'd, the big thing I allow is, as a couple people have said, archetypes that affect the same ability in different ways to be combined. Like if one Magus archetype gave you diminished spellcasting, and the other made you spontaneous casting, but no other features were touched, I'd allow that. Case by case basis, of course. But that's my big thing. For the most part, I don't think anyone in my playgroup really used a lot of the options that were nerfed or affected by Errata anyways, so those dont come up. Though I'd definitely let people use the old Scarred Witch Doctor if they wanted.

Ahh, thank you, Seginus. I had seen that spell before and completely forgotten about it.

Magus is probably my favorite class despite not being able to play much anymore. I've always tried to make Magi that dont just Shocking Grasp scimitar things to death. For the longest time I was trying to make an unarmed/cestus TWF magus to work. I think the biggest issue with the class is actually the spell list, and its not really that big a deal. It has a bit of this and a bit of that, which isn't really a bad thing, usually, but to me it feels like it keeps the class from specializing a bit. I know people have said that the Magus, for being all about the Spell Combat/Spell Strike, doesn't have a lot ton of touch range spells. That's why I've actually wanted to build a Magus with the Spheres of Power conversion. Because being able to, from level 1, use Spell Combat to shapeshift and then full round, or full round and Destruction Blast, or teleport and full round, makes the character really feel like it blends magic and melee a lot better than the usual "I full round and Shock it." Yes, I know that that isn't every build. But it is the build commonly viewed as the norm.

Shadow Gambit is roughly what I'd want to do with the illusions, though I agree with CLH that while its really cool, it may not be worth it. I suppose I could just make do with the Shadow spells like Evocation and Conjuration. Thanks, all, for the responses.

Is there a way to make illusion spells deal damage? I know there's the Shadow spells that are only semi real, like Shadow Evocation. But I mean, for example, is there a way to make an illusion of, say, a dragon, actually be able to hurt an enemy. I think there's a couple feats that are Gnome only that let illusions count towards flanking, and I think the Nightblade 3pp class has some way of making damaging illusions or something similar, but is there any other way?

I've been wanting to design a stealthy character that relies on illusions and such for both offense and defense. I know there are various stealthy classes that can fill this roll like certain bards, Eldritch Scoundrel rogue, and Arcane Trickers, but I like the idea of the character hiding away some place while using illusory soldiers to attack the enemy. I was hoping this is what the Puppet Master Magus archetype would do, use Illusions to deliver its spells and such, but sadly, was not the case.

So, is there a way? Paizo or 3pp material is fine, but Im curious.

I would imagine that healing with a gun would be done by dealing non-lethal damage with the gun. The healing effect would heal both lethal and non lethal damage. As far as I know, there's nowhere that says guns only deal lethal damage, so that could work.

Fair enough, good to hear. Its something I'll for sure have to look in to, and thanks for the response.

If 3PP is allowed, I recommend either the Skin-Changer above, or the Shifter from Spheres of Power.

Do you need to purchase the Construct Companion to use these 4? The idea of playing a character that can wear its own golem mech suit sounds grand to me, and as such I'd love to get the Engineer, but for money sake, I dont know if I could really get both at the moment.

Max hit die is, for the most part, the only way my group has ever played. I know several times our barbarian has been happy for the max hit die, as she tends to crit a lot and be crit back nearly as often, so every bit of HP helps. Our witch also enjoys the bit of extra HP on those times that something manages to get close to her.

DHAnubis wrote:

While I dont think there's an Arcane or Divine counterpart, there is a Psionic power that lets you heal for your weapons base damage every time you hit an enemy. That could be somewhat close to regaining your health by hitting the enemy that hit you. Psychic Warriors get it.

Could you please give the name of this Psionic power? I'm interested now.

Vampiric Blade does it for a manufactured weapon, and Claws of the Vampire does it for natural claw attacks for claws gained through the Claws of the Beast power.

For a long time, it would have been the Synthesist, as I love the idea of wearing a suit of armor that's so customizable, but other classes fit that need better with simpler mechanics. I personally love the Shadow Summoner from Flying Pincushion games that theheadkase mentioned, despite a minor rules issue here or there with it. While the Summoner and its Eidolon were capable in melee together, the Eidolon was also great at infiltration and stealth, and the bonus darkness spells the Summoner received were always great to have on hand.

No problem! And I will have to check out that Trickster class as well. I've been having the urge to play a sneaky mage rogue lately and that may well work.

They're talking about the conversion done by ERTW here on the forums.

Here ya go.

Not an official answer, but I would imagine they would affect Incorporeal the same way normal spells do, seeing as there is the whole "what effects magic is generally assumed to affect psionics" thing going on. Detect Magic works against Psionics, Power Resistance can also be Spell Resistance.

Also, there is this feat, Ectoplasmic Power.

Benefit: To use this feat, you must expend your psionic focus. An ectoplasmic power has full effect against incorporeal or ethereal creatures. Using this feat does not increase the power point cost of the power.

I am honestly surprised this ended up resurfacing. Thanks all for the responses. You all have raised solid points. I think with some of the newer material that has come out, it is definitely possibly for me to build a character that would be comfortable in both ranged and melee combat.

The character Ive been slowly working on for a while (never have a chance to play it) is a Magus using the Spheres of Power magic system. The general build idea I was going for was a TWF magus with high strength and using Artful Dodge to use Int instead of Dex for TWF. As Sphere powers dont normally have spell Failure, II'd be able to wear whatever weapon I want. Attack routine would be to hit one or several enemies with a a blast or two from the Destruction Sphere, then either use the Alteration sphere to grow Large and then Pounce the opponent, or use the Teleport sphere to warp to them and attack. The destruction blasts may not do as much damage as a tooled out blast caster, but I can do it all day if need be, and the Alteration sphere helps boost my martial capabilities.

The other option would be to use the SoP conversion of the Bloodrager. Swap the TWF idea for a good two hander, use the Alteration sphere to grow in size and gain several natural attacks, and use Destruction if need be. Though, to be honest, there have been a couple suggestions in the thread I'd enjoy playing. Always wanted to give Disciple a try, and that Tengu natural attack amalgamation looks like it'd work solidly.

Not a problem at all, glad to help.

You do not get more natural attacks with higher BAB. You only get 1 attack per natural attack you have. The point of writing the extra +6/+1, other than being how all classes are written, is that, from what I remember, Taninim can wield manufactured weapons. They're just not the greatest at it. So you would get iterative attacks with for those based on your BAB.

I cannot remember the name of who did it, but I rather liked the Automata race. 4 different "sub races" with different ability scores, traits, and appearances. Also contains background information about the race and aspects of their culture.

If anyone in the group is afraid of spiders, I've always found the Skinwalker dragon to be quite...nope. Basically, its a dragon thats constantly hungry, has spiders crawling in its eyes, mouth, and under its scales, its breath weapon is a cone of spider spores, and it hoards bodies, not treasure, in a form of larder after it paralyzes the prey. I told the group I play with about that one, and the general reaction to that was a resounding "eff that."

Gonna go with Bigger Club here and suggest the Marksman from Dreamscarred Press. It even has a combat style that focuses around making 1 attack and dealing extra damage. Basically, it gets a scaling Vital Strike like effect that stacks with the Vital Strike feats. Its probably still better to just make many attacks with lots of static mods, but if you like the flavor and imagery of making 1 big ranged attack, then that's the way to go.

I am definitely interested in seeing what kind of monsters this will let me play as. Will keep an eye on this for sure.

Somewhat unrelated to the topic, but its times like this I wish there was a Wild enchantment for weapons. Like how Wild armor can gives its armor bonuses to a shapeshifted druid, imagine a Druid who uses...say a great sword shifting into a large scorpion. Said scorpion's stinger is not a lot bigger, metallic, and gains bonuses from the weapons. Or some sort of TWF dagger druid turning into a tiger with metallic claws. Mostly because an armored up dragon is a really cool visual to me.

Related, there is a 3pp race that is a small dragon (Taninim I think d20pfsrd has it listed as?) that can wield weapons, but they take a penalty to hit because of their hand/claw structures, and can only use 1 handed or light weapons as they need the other arm to help them walk.

Just saw the Blaster Armorist archetype, and oh my, do I enjoy that very much. That will probably end up being the go to archetype for me if I want to just deal damage from a range, and the visual for it is great. Time for me to build a certain nuclear crow from a certain bullet hell game....