Drakkonys's page

The reason I went for Diplomacy is that I want the character to be useful in social interactions since you never know what other people at the table will have. Besides, it kind of fits the whole "cooperate" feel of PFS. A lot of guides I read online suggest Diplomacy as one of the more useful skills. I was hoping the bonuses can off-set my low CHA.

I'm not sure how well a character with no social skills would work in PFS. Is it possible?

As for preparation, I have some nice index cards from Dyslexic Character Sheets.

BTW, what are the skills I should keep maxed or close to maxed out? I was thinking of Perception, obviously, but also Survival or possibly Sense Motive.

I was also thinking of putting some ranks in several important Knowledge skills so that I can at least roll the check.

Thanks for the input!

Looks good overall, but you Str is pretty low for melee/Wild Shape.

I guess I can switch Str with Dex. I was partial to Dex thinking it's better to have that +1 to AC, Reflex, and Init than a +1 to hit and damage.

Hello, everyone!

I've been toying with an idea for a PFS Druid character. Even though I have a lot of experience playing PF, I haven't played PFS before.

So, I've been looking to build a well-rounded character focused on summoning and battlefield control. After going through some threads and guides, this is what I've come up with.

I plan on picking up Augment Summoning, Superior Summoning, and possibly Versatile Summon Nature's Ally. Though, I'm not sure how useful VSNA would be. Any thoughts?

Combat-wise, at later levels, I think Wild Shape and my AC will allow me to hold my own or, preferably, support a more martial oriented class. Having never played PFS before, though, I'd appreciate some feedback on it.

I was thinking of going for the Mooncaller archetype, just for the flavor of it. Wolf Shaman gave me the jitters for a second seeing as summoning as a standard action is nice, but after realizing there are no huge canines to wild shape into, it felt kinda underwhelming. Bear or Saurian Shaman might get more use here, but story-wise, it doesn't fit my character.

And one thing I am not clear on is the difference between Come and Heel as tricks. Don't they basically do the same?

So, what do you think, how viable is this character? I'm not looking for a super optimized build as I've played the death kitty druid before, but it looks like this one could do well.

Appreciate the feedback! Thank!

Animal Companions are supposed to be handled by the GM since they fall into the non-sentient companions category according to Ultimate Campaign. Unless the master and the companion can communicate in some way, that is. Most of the time, the GM will leave the AC to be handled by whoever owns it, for practical reasons.

Nonsentient Companions: a nonsentient companion (one with animal-level intelligence) is loyal to you in the way a well-trained dog is—the creature is conditioned to obey your commands, but its behavior is limited by its intelligence and it can't make altruistic moral decisions—such as nobly sacrificing itself to save another. Animal companions, cavalier mounts, and purchased creatures (such as common horses and guard dogs) fall into this category. In general they're GM-controlled companions. You can direct them using the Handle Animal skill, but their specific behavior is up to the GM.

Druids don't really need to put ranks into Handle Animal; their AC get bonus skills. Although, having no ranks in Handle Animal will make for a poor druid and it'll make teaching your AC additional tricks and pushing it that much harder. Still, you would get that +4 circumstance bonus.

An AC with an INT 2 wouldn't carefully circle an opponent to flank him; he'd provoke an AoO. That's where Mobility and Acrobatics come in. An animal is still smart enough to try and evade its opponents attacks with a successful Acrobatics check.

I love playing druids with animal companions, and it is kinda unrewarding if your GM is handling them. Feels like you don't own them :) But, if you're going to let your players have control over them, you have to be really careful not to let them exploit it and have their AC's do things a normal animal wouldn't. Yes, a druid's AC is special, but it is by no means a more intelligent member of it's species. Unless you boost it's INT to 3. However, training an animal to be smarter, more intuitive, or more self-aware is less easy to justify; except in the context where people can cast spells and speak with animals.

Some things are fairly obvious and instinctual for an animal; a lion will pounce and grab, a wolf will trip, a snake will constrict, etc. But having your lion circle around the enemy camp and sneak up on an enemy wizard or cross a Wall of Fire would require some handling, in my opinion.

Animal Archive and Ultimate Campaign both hold many useful information on Animal Companions and how to control them.

Sorry for rezzing this thread from the dead, but I was going through it to find some inspiration for my character and I noticed this "ape wielding sword" nonsense...

Not only it sounds awkward from a role-playing viewpoint (why would a gorilla swing a blade?), rules on intelligent animals have clearly defined this case.

An intelligent gorilla could hold or wield a sword, but its inclination is to make slam attacks. No amount of training (including weapon proficiency feats) is going to make it fully comfortable attacking in any other way.

This is just something I could not keep my mouth shut about as it's completely ridiculous.

On-topic, however...

Feats for companions would largely depend on what purpose that companion would serve. Some feats I prefer are Toughness, Weapon Focus, Improved Natural Attack, Skill Focus, Power Attack, Blind-Fight, etc. I had a Dire Lion with Skill Focus (Stealth) who specialized in taking out squishy wizard and support characters by sneaking up from behind them and ripping them to shreds.

Cats and wolves are all good. In my opinion, wolves are more for teamwork since their trip makes for some good AoO's. Casters can still cast defensively, so being prone is not much of a drawback in my opinion. Big cats, on the other hand, have grab which is very nice. You still deal roughly the same amount of damage (bite damage plus rake damage as opposed to bite plus claw damage in a full round) and the plus side is that any caster will have a tough time casting anything unless it's a Vocal only spell. Big weapons are also no use in a grapple.

I'd take grab over trip any day.

You cannot become a larger version of an animal, unless that animal is in the bestiary (i. e. wolf - dire wolf).

Although many of the fine details can be controlled, your appearance is always that of a generic member of that creature's type. Polymorph spells cannot be used to assume the form of a creature with a template or an advanced version of a creature.

Basically, becoming a large raven would be adding a template to a raven.

Wrath of the Righteous is not a good AP for a large mount. You'll spend the first two books trudging through dungeons, citadels and whatnot (that's as far as we've got). I play a paladin and was tempted to take the mount Divine Bond feature but most of the time even our druid has difficulties pushing his large wolf to the front line (he's dead now). Most of the challenging encounters are enclosed in tight spaces (large creatures would have to squeeze or would block other party members).

Kingmaker, on the other hand, is an excellent path for a large mount; virtually every encounter (except some boss fights) is outdoors. Our mounted cavalier, wild-shaped druid and his large AC have little to no trouble positioning during battles.

You receive 1d4 nonlethal damage every round staring at the Sun?

You can find the "rules" in the Transmute Metal to Wood spell description.

This spell enables you to change all metal objects within its area to wood. Weapons, armor, and other metal objects carried by creatures are affected as well. A magic object made of metal effectively has Spell Resistance equal to 20 + its caster level against this spell. Artifacts cannot be transmuted. Weapons converted from metal to wood take a -2 penalty on attack and damage rolls. The armor bonus of any armor converted from metal to wood is reduced by 2. Weapons changed by this spell splinter and break on any natural attack roll of 1 or 2, and armor changed by this spell loses an additional point of armor bonus every time it is struck with a natural attack roll of 19 or 20.

The only thing you'd get form MT levels with a cleric/wizard build are spell slots for both divine and arcane casting and caster level. You also get divine spells known (as they're learned automatically). Everything else that is class dependent (specialization and domain slots, channel energy, familiar progression, wizard ability progression, wizard spells known) you don't get. You have to buy/find scrolls and inscribe them in your spellbook in order to increase your wizard spells known.

Think of it as a incentive to stay single-classed in such classes. Otherwise, who'd play a wizard for 20 levels?

You can go with this

Str 15 Dex 12 Con 15 Int 14 Wis 13 Cha 16

Both Oath of Vengeance and Oath against Fiends are good for this AP. You'll want high CHA for smite evil as the path is full of evil outsiders and other (mostly evil) monsters. Swinging a greatsword is a great way to cut through demons with Power Attack (or Mythic Power Attack). By level 6-7, you can easily dish out 70-100 HP damage in one round (with Sudden Attack if you follow a Champion path). Seeing as you have a witch and a wizard, you'll either be a tank or a primary damage dealer. Any variant of an aasimar race is good (notably angelkin aasimars).

We Be Goblins. Yes.

Here's a copy-paste from The Escapist:

David Millians is a teacher at the Paideia School in Atlanta, Georgia. Every weekday, he meets his class of thirty 10- and 11-year-olds for a full day's worth of education. Currently, he is teaching them about the Civil War; they read, do art projects, watch videos, and conduct research. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, they become the citizens of a northern Georgia village during the Civil War.
David runs a live-action role-playing game, or LARP, entitled "Crossroads," in which his students play their own individual parts. In a LARP, the players interact with each other in a much more freestyle manner, and traditional RPG elements such as dice and rulebooks are rarely consulted. As a result, the game becomes more of an impromptu performance, and, in this case, an educational experience.

RPGs are no stranger to David's classroom; in the past, he has run other games in simulations, and some of his students are permitted to run their own games during breaks. Decks of Magic and Once Upon A Time, a card game in which the players create their own faerie tales, are readily available to his students to play during break times (Millians).

At it's most basic level, an RPG can be used to teach the process of cause-and-effect, as well as the benefits of acting as a group. In a case study written by Luis Zayas and Bradford Lewis, eight boys of ages 8 and 9 were introduced to D&D in an after-school program that took place in a grade school in New York City in the fall of 1985. Each of the boys were identified by school staff members as having displayed hyperactivity or problems with personal interaction. With the help of a worker, the boys created characters for the game, and began to play. During the course of these sessions, the children were exposed to the importance of acting as a group to achieve their goals, and to take advantage of each individual's strengths. In one example, two of the boys who were playing fighters faced a long, dark corridor. When asked what they would like to do, they decided to rush down the corridor. When the boy playing a thief asked if they would like him to check the corridor for traps first, they declined his help. After getting to the end of the hallway, a pit trap opened in the floor, and one of the fighters fell in. When asked about their decision, the boys stated that they had learned their lesson, and that it was important to keep the fighters safe in order to combat any monsters that they would encounter in the future. As a result, they not only learned the consequences of their actions, but were also considering the possibilities if those consequences had been more severe (Zayas 60).

Other teachers have used Magic exclusively to teach a variety of lessons. Jeff Brain, a teacher in the San Francisco school district, uses Magic cards as visual aids, as well as allowing his students to play with them. In a lesson in database management he has prepared, he allows his students to create computer databases of Magic cards that are based on their various elements; the colors, numbers, and symbols found on the cards. Then, he has them access their database to find all cards that contain a certain element. To teach statistics, Jeff gives each student seven mountain cards and one dragon card, then asks the question: What are the odds, if the cards are shuffled and one drawn, that the dragon will come up? He repeats this lesson, changing the selection of cards each time. Jeff also uses the visual elements of the cards to teach mythology: "When you break the colors of Magic down, you can look at how primitive peoples start using color to describe certain elements, such as red for fire and green for growing things and blue for water or air (Mohn 56)."

Susan Mohn, head of the Education and Training team at Wizards of the Coast, the company that brings us Magic: The Gathering, has begun a plan to bring the card game to the classroom to teach a number of skills. These include critical thinking, reasoning, computational, reading comprehension, communication, interactive, and resource management skills, as well as improving attention span (Mohn 3).

The advantages of role-playing and card games are not only tapped in the classroom; these games are, after all, designed to be played at home. Without a teacher or supervisor, a child can learn a variety of lessons just by opening an RPG book. Many games use the metric system for measurements, such as how far a character can run in a set amount of time, or how far they can throw an object. In order to fully understand these concepts, the player will have to be familiar with the metric system. In the same vein, text found in a book or on a card may contain words that are unfamiliar to the player; often, this will result in the player having to do a little bit of research.

The act of playing an RPG involves many brief lessons in mathematics and statistics; for example, if you need a 18 or better to hit that dragon with your sword, and you're rolling a twenty-sided die, should you try running away instead? What if your sword is magical, and adds 2 to the result of that die roll? Or your armor and shield give that dragon the same number to hit you as well? This same lesson is learned in a more concrete sense when a player creates a deck of Magic cards, or cards for any other game; if more cards are added to the deck, it increases the odds that those cards will not be drawn.

These educational benefits are, by no means, universal. As David Millians said in an interview, "Simulations and storytellings are not every learner's best avenue to understanding." (Millians) Many are accustomed to or simply respond better to more traditional methods of teaching; handing them the responsibility of portraying a character would probably do more harm than good. An educator using these methods must be fully aware of their student's needs.

Stealth checks are opposed to Perception checks of anyone who might notice you. That means that every time you roll a Stealth check, anyone who might notice you rolls a Perception check. When making an opposed skill check, the attempt is successful if your check result exceeds the result of the target.

No matter what form you're in, if someone sees you while you're casting a spell, they get to roll a Spellcraft check. I assume that Spellcraft, as an art of casting spells, includes lore about "them druids taking forms of animals and casting spells".

Naturally, they must be able to clearly see the spell as it is being cast and that means Perception checks. You can always use your form to your advantage, i. e. take the form of a diminutive animal, use stealth, and cast away.

Why would you need a bonus to CMD to escape a grapple? You make a CMB check opposed by the CMD of the creature grappling you with all the grapple bonuses you have. If you win, you escape the grapple.

Spell-like abilities are magical and work just like spells (though they are not spells and so have no verbal, somatic, focus, or material components).

In a homebrew campaign, everything the GM allows is allowed, but... It's still pretty cheap to cheat your way in a prestige class in this way.

Thanks. I was wondering if you could have both the bonded item and a familiar, but something was telling me it was too good to be true.

Can a wizard start off with a bonded item and then take the Improved Familiar feat at level 7 to gain a familiar as well? I've read somewhere that you need to start off with a familiar.

Be that as it may, but continual flame counts as a sorcerer/wizard spell if it's a spell-like ability (as per the Universal Monster Rules), so it's an arcane spell, not divine.

Agreed. Detect evil on a paladin is a spell-like ability (Sp) and such abilities require a standard action to use (unless otherwise noted in the description). Paladin's caster level for said detect evil is his paladin level, so a 7th level paladin can maintain his detect evil for 70 minutes if he were to concentrate the whole time. The at will part simply means he can use such an ability as many times as he wants, just as a druid 20 can wild shape as many times as she wants; still takes a standard action (without Quick Wild Shape).

I'm a bit confused. How can you qualify for Mystic Theurge with only one level of cleric? You need to be able to cast 2nd level divine spells.

You can find Erastil's paladin codes in Faiths of Purity, page 26 :)

One of the requirements for Magambyan Arcanist is a good alignment, so you can't qualify if you're not good.

You can use this paragraph from Animal Archive as a guideline:

Avians: Raptors such as eagles, hawks, and owls—as well as more bizarre fliers—tend to develop aloof, detached personalities, while smaller individuals are often more social and high-strung. Awakened avian animals keenly observe the world around them—often understanding it much better than their demure natures might imply— and are adept at inferring others' desires, motives, and intentions. These intelligent flyers are shrewdly calculating and opportunistic, especially when it comes to ensuring their own survival. Awakened birds can often be found high above a fracas, coldly deciding on the best course of action, and only entering a fray when it's in their best interest or that of their friends.

In combat, avian animals enjoy taking opponents by surprise, favoring training as rogues and ninjas, though they may also enjoy a bard's ability to soar above the fray and inspire with their songs and majestic screeches. In these capacities, the birds often use their winged stealth to their advantage, taking cover in trees and then striking quickly and silently. Awakened avian animals use their natural weapons, but often with a twist—devious awakened flyers have been known to drop smoke shot, chain shot, and even bombs on unsuspecting enemies.

Barring that, a Wisdom based spellcasting class would also do well. A raven cleric? Or a Druid?

I'd reckon you need two hands to attack with both ends of a double weapon.

For FAQing:

Regeneration (Ex) A creature with this ability is difficult to kill. Creatures with regeneration heal damage at a fixed rate, as with fast healing, but they cannot die as long as their regeneration is still functioning (although creatures with regeneration still fall unconscious when their hit points are below 0). Certain attack forms, typically fire and acid, cause a creature's regeneration to stop functioning on the round following the attack. During this round, the creature does not heal any damage and can die normally. The creature's descriptive text describes the types of damage that cause the regeneration to cease functioning.

The above statement seems pretty all encompassing. Can a creature with regeneration be killed by an attack-form that doesn't deal hit point damage (such as disintegrate, a death effect, or energy drain) despite its regeneration ability?

Disintegrate deals HP damage, so if you don't negate the regeneration, it would not kill a troll. You could argue it's dust and it can't piece itself together, but a tarrasque can also be dusted and will regenerate since you can't disable its regeneration.

As for death effects, it really depends on the effect. An ability is a death effect if it's labeled as such in its description. Spells with [death] descriptor are also considered death effects, although there are no "save or die" spells in PRPG as such (barring when you fail your save and die from HP loss).

So, technically, you could drop a troll to -100, but he'll still regenerate unless you douse him with fire or acid. Energy drain and negative levels CAN kill a troll if those negative levels are equal to or exceed its total Hit Dice because they don't inflict HP damage.

Yes, but hippo's bite attack (as well as all animal attacks) are natural weapons, not unarmed strikes.

With Improved Natural Attack (bite) you'd have 6d8 with a bite attack. I assume Strong Jaw would double the damage to 12d8, seeing as there's no fixed value on the table. It does say

"If the creature is already Gargantuan or Colossal-sized, double the amount of damage dealt by each of its natural attacks instead."

Also, if you look up under Improved Natural Attack description you'll see that 6d8 scales to 8d8 then to 12d8. That's two size categories larger.

Stonefist Gloves double your unarmed strike damage, and here you have a natural weapon so they would not apply. Feral Combat Training does not increase damage from natural weapons and it's used for monks who have natural weapons (a lizardfolk monk, for example).

Improved Unarmed Strike, Weapon Focus (Bite) and Feral Combat Training (bite) would have no impact on the damage you deal while wild shaped since unarmed strikes do not count as natural weapons.

Any ideas on how to bypass damage reduction in the forms that rely on natural attacks? Other than Amulet of Mighty Fists.

Sorry for digging this thread from the grave, but I didn't want to start another one. Anyway...

Leadership rules state that you can enlist a Young Dragon as a cohort, but I'm still not clear on a few things.

Say you want a Young Silver Dragon as a cohort. His cohort level would be 18 (8 + his CR), but the Leadership table goes only as far as level 17. According to the Leadership feat rules the maximum level of a cohort you can enlist is 17 with a 25 or higher leadership score. So what's the deal with this? Does that mean you can't enlist a Young Silver Dragon as a cohort or what?

Also, the rules say that you can only recruit a cohort who is two or more levels lower than yourself. So, basically, you're limited to dragons with CR 9 or lower. Correct?

Raijin, I was thinking on the Whirlwind ability, not the spell, but thanks, anyway.

@BigNorseWolf - I was thinking of the exact same thing, although I was curious if there were written rules about that.

Thanks, everyone but I have more questions.

When a Druid shapeshifts into a Large Air Elemental and uses Whirlwind, does he qualify for the 3d10 electricity damage when he casts Call Lightning?

Also, how do you calculate the Whirlwind's volume for the purpose of trapping creatures in it? I've gone through the Universal Monster Rules in Bestiaries, but I haven't found anything on the number of creatures an Air Elemental can trap. I know that the creatures must be one or more size categories smaller, but I can't seem to find how many can you trap and carry with you.

Thanks for the input guys.

I have several questions about wild shape that seem ambiguous.

1. Polymorph rules say that you gain any of the natural attacks of the base creature, including proficiency in those attacks. These attacks are based on your base attack bonus, modified by your Strength or Dexterity as appropriate.

Does that mean you use the highest of your modifiers while shapeshifted? Someone somewhere on this forum said that Small and smaller animals use their DEX modifier to attack, but I can't find the exact RAW.

2. Rules also say that while under the effects of a polymorph spell, you lose all extraordinary and supernatural abilities that depend on your original form...

Does that mean you lose your ability to Wild Shape while shapeshifted and you need to revert back to your original form and use Wild Shape again if you want to change your form? For example, you're fighting as a Tiger and things go south and you decide to flee. Can you shapeshift into an Eagle and fly away or must you first change to your original form? Wild Shape is a supernatural ability, although I'm not keen on what does the that depend on your original form part means.

3. Also, if you assume a small bird form with Beast Shape I, you get fly speed, but which one do you get? The one listed in Beast Shape I description (fly 30, average maneuverability) or the creature's (fly 80, average maneuverability, in case of an Eagle). Same goes for other types of movement. Do you use the one listed in the spell's description or the one listed in the creature's description?

I'd appreciate if you could link the rules or reference a manual.

But should they be able to smuggle a life-size, 200lb statue by turning into an elephant, strapping it to their back, and then turning back into a humanoid and walking into a secure building

Rules about equipping an item are pretty clear (slots and all). Just holding it (unless it's a weapon/wand) or strapping it to your back does not count as equipping an item. If you want to smuggle a magical belt, you have to wear it on your belt slot.

Now, rules say that "all of your gear melds into your body", but it's not clearly defined what constitutes as gear. Does your backpack count as gear? Merriam-Webster says that gear/equipment is "the set of articles or physical resources serving to equip a person or thing", so I'd say that only what you have on your body slots (14 of them, I think) counts as gear.

I was under the impression that the Grappled Condition applies only to the one who is being grappled as it says that you cannot move while in Grappled Condition, yet if you are the one grappling someone and you win your check to maintain a grapple, you can move both yourself and your opponent as part of that standard action up to half your move speed.

Unlikely, since I copied it from the SRD.

I'd say that the Grab ability depends on the type of cat.

Once you succeed at grabbing, you and your opponent gain the Grappled condition and your turn is over. If you do not release the grapple, you must continue to make a check each round, as a standard action, to maintain the hold. If your target does not break the grapple, you get a +5 circumstance bonus on grapple checks made against the same target in subsequent rounds.

In every round (on your turn) in which you win the grapple check you can inflict damage to your target equal to your unarmed strike, a natural attack, or an attack made with armor spikes or a light or one-handed weapon in addition to you rake damage (if you have any).

You cannot make attacks while you are grappling someone. You inflict automatic damage every time you win an opposed check.

In all fairness, you could release the grapple as a free action and then attack, but then you'd have to start the grapple all over again.

"A grappled creature takes a -2 penalty on all attack rolls and combat maneuver checks, except those made to grapple or escape a grapple."

The penalty applies to the creature being grappled, not the creature grappling. Each time you use a standard action to maintain a grapple and you succeed, you deal your bite/claw damage (whichever you initiated the grapple with) and rake damage which is listed in the creature's description.

If a Druid in Wild Shape becomes a target of Baleful Polymorph he must make two saves. A failed Fortitude save turns him into a "Small or smaller animal of no more than 1 HD."

A failed Will save causes him to "lose its extraordinary, supernatural, and spell-like abilities, lose its ability to cast spells (if it had the ability), and gain the alignment, special abilities, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores of its new form in place of its own."

However, if he makes his Will save, in effect come the Polymorph rules which say that "If a new polymorph spell is cast on you (or you activate a polymorph effect, such as wild shape), you can decide whether or not to allow it to affect you, taking the place of the old spell."

If he chooses to accept the new form (perhaps to fool his enemy into believing he's a harmless critter) he cannot use Dispel Magic to dispel his current form, nor cast any spell for that matter, because he cannot make the verbal and somatic components of the spell in his new form. Natural Spell allows you to "complete the verbal and somatic components of spells while using Wild Shape" which is similar, but not the same as being under the effect of a polymorph spell. His only choice is to use Wild Shape, seeing as Wild Shape is a supernatural ability and he hasn't lost it since he made his Will save.

That being said, if the Druid in question fails his Will save he's pretty much stuck until someone else can dispel Baleful Polymporph.

Baleful Polymorph would only cancel out your Wild Shape if you fail your Will save after your Fortitude save because "the creature loses its extraordinary, supernatural, and spell-like abilities..." and Wild Shape is a Supernatural ability. If you make your Will save, you can change your shape back as a standard action, assuming you haven't used up your Wild Shape for the day.

As for the party equipping you with items in Wild Shape, polymorph rules state that "If your new form does not cause your equipment to meld into your form, the equipment resizes to match your new size."

And yes, Druids make for perfect smugglers because you can take something, equip it and Wild Shape into something inconspicuous and run away. No one pays much attention to a cat, a rat, or a bird.