Ectolord's page

I've got a player in one of my games who swears up and down that Ghorans originated from the fleshforges, I disagree with her but have thus far found proof of where they came from, nor can they.

Am I wrong?
Are they?

So we've started a new game of Fly free or die. and one thing is kinda vexing us. we cant' find the rules or numbers of how much the players get paid at the end of their job runs.

We all know the corp we work for is a soulless dreg of a company. But There is as far as our gm can tell, NO MENTION of how much the party gets paid from jobs regardless of how well we did.

Our group did the kindhearted thing on the first job. and got half payment. the other we went the corporate route because we didn't' want to A: throw Tarika under the bus for helping us f!## up another job. and B: MY character didn't want to aid another bloody rebellion.

Not only does the AP have NOTHING for us if we side with the corp ever. but it doesn't apparently mention us getting specifically paid for anything.

I just want some clarification. on a few things to help my GM out. They really want this group to enjoy the game, but it feels like we're missing a few pieces to run things smoothly.

I'm running a game and one of my players is playing an Elementalist shifter.
the wording on the abilities is vague and confusing at best. Does the shifter get any benefit for using a major form other than a movement ability and a slam attack. do they Get Ability boosts or not?

because as written;
At 4th level, when an elementalist shifter uses wild shape, she is instead affected as if by elemental body I, but she gains only the benefits listed in her elemental aspect. While in an elemental form, the elementalist shifter can speak only the elemental language associated with that form, and she can do so only if she knows it.

None of the listed aspects, (Major Forms) dictate an ability boost. and Elemental body I is small. The Aspects also do not dictate whether or not you are forced to become small, regardless of your original size.

are you supposed to apply the same element for both major and minor forms at the same time or can you mix/match like other archetypes?

Eh, Oh well, the main draw is the ability to scale mundane poisons. which those discoveries affect.

I will be dex focused so finesse I will probably try to get a wand of lead blades

Issue has been resolved, I am going with eldritch poisoner
I'll have to pick up celestial poisons to deal with more problematic enemies however.

Also, what's a good argument I can use to vouch FOR vital strike. since I'll be using a twohander (elven curveblade)

There is no build. the character is literally level one, I am looking for suggestions on how to build the character.

Likely 10 levels of slayer for the feats IF I go that route.
and yes I have presumed Slayer to be the best option. since it gives me the class skills I need to fill the role of frontliner, scout, and trapspringer.

The party is as follows
A Highlord, path of War class (third party)
An Oracle who is NOT going to be a frontliner
MY character who is to be the frontliner, scout, and trapspringer.
and a halfling barbarian who will be on the frontlines with me and giving me flanking.

Fun is something that isn't overly complicated to pull off or a buncha extra stuff to keep track of. and something that, IN MY ABSENCE, someone can easily autopilot me in combat.

Also, given that we JUST completed a campaign where I played a two weapon fighter, I'm keen to avoid two weapon fighting.

Avoiding spells if at all possible, strictly front line fighting, flanking with barbarian compatriot. I've just been getting ideas for whether it would be more fun to try and gather items like, the ring of rats(bite) mammoth lord helm (gore), Cat claws (enchantable claw attacks) and wyverns cape (Tail Sting), or if I should just get the claw blades and utilize my iteratives. or some horrible amalgamation of both. utilizing the natural attacks combat style feats granted through slayer/ranger that reduce the penalty for such for 5 to 2.

Build Ideas are as follows.
baseline High Dex Catfolk slayer. starting level 1
Stats:
STR 12
DEX 18
CON 14
INT 14
WIS 10
CHA 13

Armor is Studded Leather, will probably spring for mithral chain shirt at earliest opportunity

SKILLS:
Acrobatics, Bluff, Climb, Disable Device, Perception, Stealth, Knowledge: Local, and Geography. and his background skills are Profession Entertainer, and Linguistics

potential pathways;
1: Just use claw blades and iterative attacks (two weapon fighting)
2: use a bunch of items to get multiple natural attacks
3: Do both and have both iterative and natural attacks at -2 through the ranger combat feats slayer can take.

Ways to make any of these more fun and engaging, like I dont' know, barbarian levels, prestige classes etc. are appreciated.

I've considered the mammoth helm, it's just ridiculous enough that I could see this character using it.

on a side note, How well would monk lend itself to this build?

Alternatively since he is set to start as slayer, Picking up the natural attack combat style ranger feats is probably a given if I got a natural attacks build.

So far of the items mentioned, and found, as well as natural weapons in total

2 claws from catfolk things
Helm of the mammoth lord
Cloak of the Manta ray

Any armor spikes are purely coincidental,and there for flavor.
As far as I can tell the party has as follows;
A oracle with a batshit curse that makes random things happen around him
A halfling barbarian focused on improvised weapons
Catfolk slayer who follows calistrae goddess of lust and revenge
And some indeterminate likely caster gish

Our power is likely to be poorly optimized. (With the exception of the gish, they tend to build op characters)

As for twf being weak, I've played a two weapon fighter and he matched damage output with the barbarian.

I tend more towards flavor. Hence the claw blades route.

Also for us, stealth is a role, because not everyone can afford to put points in stealth.

I am open to ways of getting more natural attacks with a few caveats.
Race is catfolk
Gender is male
Alignment is CG
Will not touch anything undead related

Ectolord wrote:

I'm playing a Catfolk Slayer in an upcoming Run of Carrion Crown. I'm a combo of a frontliner, and a scout. but what I'm stumped on is should I focus on my natural claw attacks (with appropriate measure to get such) or Should I bit the bullet and Invest in the cat claw weapons that would give me iterative attacks?

IS there a way to truly optimize either path?
and and which would arguably more fun and less likely to make the GM panic and treat the party like we are too op to handle?

I don't think much of Claw Blades. They're just weapons. There are lots of builds for optimizing lots of weapons. Why do you want to Claw Blades? What do you want in a weapon? How do you want your character to work in melee? Do you want to move around the battlefield a lot? Do you want a devastating Full Attack? Do you want lots of Attacks of Opportunity? Do you want 1 big weapon or lots of smaller weapons? Do you want your character to do lots of tricks in combat, like tripping, grappling, reaching, and stuff? Do you like Sneak Attack Damage?

You can definitely optimize Natural Attacks, and you can definitely make your GM panic.

I guess the simplest Natural Attack Build for your Catfolk is to just be an Unchained Barbarian. You take Animal Fury and get a Bite Attack to go with your Claws. You take Lesser Fiend Totem and get a Gore Attack. Dip a level in White Haired Witch and get a Hair Attack. Your Rage gives you +4 ST, for +2 Attack and Damage for all your Attacks. You take the Powerful Stance Rage Power and do +1 Damage and another +1 every 4 levels, and that's for all your Attacks.

The way I like to do Natural Attacks, apart from being a Druidzilla, is with Warpriest. There are lots of ways to get lots of Natural Attacks, but Natural Attack Damage is usually pretty lame. So Warpriests replace the regular Natural Attack Damage with Warpriest Sacred Weapon Damage, so the result is lots of high damage attacks. I usually prefer Tengu over Catfolk for this, since...

My Catfolk slayer is there to fill the role of the party stealth/sneak attack, with a bit of calistrian sass/flirtatiousness. He comes packaged with a Halfling Barbarian skilled in improvisational weaponry. I'm leaning towards The Cat Claw Weapons for Iterative attacks, since I don't see/plan on taking the myriad of classes needed to stack natural attacks.

The issue has been resolved, they are alive again.

So I didn't quite understand what was meant by the side cart till after I hit finalize, Since I am under the Rulebook subscription does that mean that the two books I ordered won't be shipped until, it looks like, July? As that's when the next rulebook for 2e comes out. if that's the case would it be possible for me to Request those two be processed and shipped earlier?

I'm a GM who doesn't enjoy killing players, However, due to a series of bad rolls, The Wight early on in Ironfang Invasion killed one of the players, in my haste I said they could keep going as a Wight, but I feel I should give them an opportunity to either roll a new character, or take some sort of supernatural deal to have the curse of being undead removed.

Would a Fey offering them a bargain to be brought back to life be too out there? and if so what should that bargain be? any Ideas are welcome!

I'm playing a Catfolk Slayer in an upcoming Run of Carrion Crown. I'm a combo of a frontliner, and a scout. but what I'm stumped on is should I focus on my natural claw attacks (with appropriate measure to get such) or Should I bit the bullet and Invest in the cat claw weapons that would give me iterative attacks?

IS there a way to truly optimize either path?
and and which would arguably more fun and less likely to make the GM panic and treat the party like we are too op to handle?

Name: Qim
Race: Changeling
Class: Eyebiter Mesmerist

While Technically Spared death via DM fiat, the Revenant in the alleyway, took her down in two turns. She was spared death because NOONE was rolling above a 3 that night.

However having introduced the Harrow Deck of Many things, The Suli Brawler is now constantly covered in poison, the Mordant Spire Elf Occultist is now a Werebear with 2 Charisma, and the Human Bolt Ace/Sniper is now permanently Mute.

And they all hate Boat sections which is what's coming up.

So a new game is starting, and I'm itching to play a Kitsune

I opted to be the parties magical trap aficionado, and we start at level 5

Stats are: STR 14 Dex 18 Con 14 Int 16 Wis 15 Cha 18

I've started with 2 levels of Rogue to get sneak attack, trapfinding, Evasion, and Fast Stealth as a rogue Talent

Sofar my potential remaining levels include;
Eldritch Scion Magus (CHA for spells)
Nine-Tailed Inheritor Sorcerer (for all that magical tail awesomeness)

And I was planning on taking Arcane Trickster.

The current withstanding plan that I'm definitely enacting with this character is getting the nine tails through Magical Tail.

3rd party stuff IS Allowed, but it needs to be run by the DM first. Our party already consists of a Dwarven Slayer, A Catfolk Paladin, a Syrinx Shaman, and a Jade Phoenix Mage (dunno the race player hasn't picked one yet)

would it be better to multiclass, or would I get more bang for my buck and more flexibility if I just did nine-tailed inheritor and rogue multi-class Variant?

Mirror image, my buddy.

Also the cleric should consider Divine Metamagic Persist and buying a fistful of nightsticks. That would let him persist Shield of Faith and Ironskin. If he also picks up a shield, that's plenty.

It would also allow him to persist other stuff, but that's cheesy so don't.

Nightsticks? and I am planning on picking up a buckler, God's weapon is a spear so... two handed :P

(For point of Reference, I am palying a LG Cleric of Tsukiyo, the tian God of the moon, using the Darkness and Madness Domains.)

If you can count on your enemies not making a will save against a spell, Sanctuary is far from the most powerful choice out there. How about a hold person instead, and then you won't have to do so much healing.

All the aforementioned stuff made sanctuary have a save DC equivalent to a 9th level spell with greater focus and perfection. with an extra like +8 roped in. most the of the party had to nat 20 or, heaven forbid use area of effect spells. (I had creamed the caster capable of this with the paladin that was teamed up with this healer.) They managed to dominate the healer's wizard companion, and used him to drop the sanctuary with dispel. but only after the paladin was dealt with.

Either way, the problem is that the two tank characters, one is a minmaxer. they try to act like they aren't, but they are. and because of this the GM feels they have to beef up EVERY encounter to contend with them, and it leaves cleric and wizard easily creamed if they even try to participate.

Ectolord wrote:

I used heighten spell, spell perfection, and vows of peace and pacifism, result was a healer that couldn't be touched.

As a DM, in that situation, I'd just attack a different party member. Partly because I'm fine with PCs being able to do what they want to do, but also partly because it doesn't even seem very strong ... I mean, if you never do anything with your actions but heal, what motive do the enemies have to attack you? They can take you out of the fight just as easily attacking someone else.

Oh I was the GM in the incident with sanctuary and I wanted them to keep their mitts off the healer for most the fight. (was running an evil game and foolishly let them take templates, Lich Werewolf etc. combat got really outta hand it's been a mess)

And I spend most if not all my spell slots on healing the HP tank (the psychic Warrior using Share pain) because the gm targets both the cleric and wizard because they are A. Easy to hit, and B. Half the damage they take bleeds onto the Psychic Warrior.

I used heighten spell, spell perfection, and vows of peace and pacifism, result was a healer that couldn't be touched.

We kinda have a gentlemans agreement that I won't use sanctuary, at least not to the same degree I've proven I can use it. we're level 11 btw

I'm currently playing in a campaign using Automatic Bonus Progression. The GM admittedly has been having difficulty balancing encounters with the vast difference in AC between the party members. While the Cleric (that's me) and the Wizard have AC in the low 20s, the Ivestigator and I wanna say Psychic Warrior have high 30s and lows 40s of AC. I'm looking for feats and spells that could help bolster the AC game so enemies geared to the hits the tanks with 50/50 odds don't have a 19 outta 20 chance to hit the wizard and myself.

3.5 material is allowed.
Official Pathfinder is allowed.
and 3rd party is allowed after critique.

(also Ideas that dont' include AC but provide means to help mitigate how often we get thrashed are welcome as well.)

Well the wording of the flavor text of the curse, implies that I'm aware of things around me but unable to inititate.

You are forewarned of danger but can’t act to prevent it. You gain uncanny dodge, as the rogue class feature. However, you can’t take any actions in a surprise round, including free actions, except for flash of insight (see Revelations below). In the absence of a surprise round, you are staggered for the entire first round of combat.

(COPIED FROM THE PFSRD PAGE)

So my cleric is multi class oracle with the powerless prophecy. The enemy got a surprise round off on us, and the GM (lacking any truly defined rules) dictated that since it wasn't our party that got the surprise round I proced the staggered during the first round of combat issue. (I know it sounds like I'm being butthurt about it, but they got a suprise round on me and I took damage and was forced to only take one action on my actual turn in combat)

I would like an official Paizo ruling for clarification if possible.

The elven requirement was dropped somewhere around printing 3 of the CRB.

Ah well, I've got one of the older hard covers then.

Am I the only one who noticed the majority of the arcane archers weren't elves or half-elves?