Dire Gnome's page

Grab a class with claws as a class feature and you are good to go. (sorcerer works well as it gives spells that stack with the racial as well).

Excellent idea there. It's somewhat funny though to add a level of sorcerer to improve the monster's combat abilities!

I had ruled-out multiattack since the prerequisite is three or more natural attacks. Do you think this falls under of the spirit of what was intended, however?

I looks like driders have a secondary natural bite attack, and I was wondering how to improve the chances of this attack hitting if I were to customize the monster. It seems like multiattack should do this, but that just seems to only be for secondary natural attacks if the creature is attacking with all natural weapons, correct?

I suppose two-weapon fighting would do this, but at the expense of a penalty to the creatures' attacks with meele weapons.

Any other suggestions?

My last game session featured a group of 4 4th-level PCs (druid, fighter/barbarian, rogue, and sorcerer) going against a coven including a green hag, a 3rd-level witch, and a 2ndl-level witch. Additionally, the coven also had a centaur under their control to act as a bodyguard.

Anyway, their plan was to use trickery to lure-in one of the party into their house, and use coven magic to trap him in a forcecage. Two actually went in instead, and the 2nd-level witch was killed even before the first coven spell was completed (since it's a full-round action).

After that, the fight was interesting. The other witch was able to use her misfortune hex and several spells to great effect until she was killed (hold person, command, shocking grasp, and command). I was quite pleased with how the encounter played-out.

One change I did make was not having the witch's misfortune hex touch attack provoke any attacks of opportunity. If it had, I think she would have been toast much sooner.

I would also like to see the spell choices for an all-witch coven increased; right now they are a bit dull. The "power of three" theme can be a fun one, I think. Having a cost in prepared spells for all 3 witches is probably a good idea for balance, though.

I wouldn't allow two witches to do any kind of coven magic for thematic reasons, though - you need at least 3 for a circle, after all! :-)

By my thinking, if one dedicates his life to following certain strictures, even ones that center around personal gain or glory, he cannot be considered chaotic by definition, so I personally see the cavalier class as being non-chaotic only.

Maybe the witch's familiar should have a sanctuary-like ability to make it less likely to be targeted? If the familiar attacks, however, this ability would be suppressed for the duration of the combat.

Are witch hexes supposed to be an exception to the standard rule that supernatural abilities do no provoke attacks of opportunity? I think this puts some hardship on the witch, especially for her touch attacks!

I have to disagree with those that want the witch's spell list to be defined by certain schools from certain classes for the like. While I understand how this would make it easier to maintain the class in supplements and third party material, I think it could take some of the unique flavor away from the class compared to a hand created and picked listed of spells.

I kind of like humanoid races being a bit weaker than PC races in general - it gives options for playing something that's a bit more of a challenge. That being said, I hardly think they will be "hopelessly weaker" by any stretch. E.g. an orc fighter-type or a goblin rogue are going to be quite effective alongside their companions. After gaining a few levels, the stat discrepancy will matter less and less. The one that really would be the most challenging is the kobold, but even these guys can be turned into effective PCs if you are creative.

DMs that want any of these races as more evenly-powered player choices might want to come up with an elite version of the race along the lines of the noble drow. I wouldn't want any of this cluttering-up the Bestiary, though.

Rumor has it that the bestiary PDF should be out "about" today. :-) Does it look like it will be today afterall, or no? I am waiting on Amazon, and willing to fork out an extra $10 to be able to use it sooner. :D

I'm asking for one weapon and that's the Elven curve blade. I don't see how that's unreasonable.

Didn't you say you were running a bard? In that case, you wouldn't get the elven curve blade even as a pure elf since you aren't proficient with all martial weapons.

That being said, if all you really need is the elven curve blade, then you can get it as a member of any race or class by spending your starting feat to get it - so all the flavor you want, without disrupting game balance.

I was reading through some of the bloodlines in the core book, and something caught my eye.

The Celestial bloodline grants two spells that are normally online divine spells:
Bless (3rd) and Flame Strike (11th)

Now, couldn't a Sorcerer take Scribe Scroll, make Flame Strike into a scroll (which would be arcane at this point).
Then hand it to a wizard to scribe into his book (this is doable via p 219 of the corebook, spells copied from another's spellbook or a scroll)? Effectively making a new version of this spell, an ARCANE version?

No, because it would be an arcane spell that's not on his spell list. Just like bard spells such as cure light wounds are arcane spells that wizards can't use, since they aren't on the wizard's list, either.

One more suggestion, if you can stand any more! ;-)

You could reduce wisdom to 7, then bump up CON by one point, and put the remaining point into INT (since there's nowhere else a single point could go), which would let you bump CON to 16 at 4th-level. I think this would be much better than dropping your CHA below a 14.

I tend to favor wizards, but would do a sorcerer if a concept struct my fancy. I've always liked the idea of a dumb but well-meaning sorcerer with a familiar that was smarter than him. :-)

Any better idea on a release date now, perchance? :-)

Oh, and if you go with the bard, you might consider taking Wisdom down to a 7 (9 after racial bonus), and put the extra 2 points into CON.

The character seems feasible, certainly, but if what you are really wanting is a meele character, then a bard will probably be disappointing to you in the long term. They are certainly sturdier in Pathfinder than in 3.5, but still a far cry from a melee class.

Mind you, I think your character could be fun to play, so long as you don't mind mainly being a support character and backup melee fighter.

A couple of other options for you: take a level of fighter, then go wizard until you qualify for Eldritch Knight. You still won't be as effective as a straight fighter-type in melee, but you will be a better caster, and have better spells to buff yourself.

Or...just play what you want, and see how it goes without an arcane caster. The group I'm DMing is missing an arcane caster too, but they seem to be doing okay.

Just some thoughts!

It seemed to me that halflings got a raw deal until I realized that the merging of some skills makes their boosts to certain skills more valuable.