Eigengrau's page

I've got a Kensai Magus, currently 18th level, who will be using Sense Vitals spell in a battle with a dragon.

What are some ways I can get Sneak Attacks in, besides flanking, against an Ancient dragon? I know about the Magus Arcana Prescient Attack already and will be using that too when I can. I also hope to use Gang-Up feat to help get flanking easier.

I'll be getting melee help from a 2-handed weapon fighter and an Unchained Rogue.
Also have a Skald and Wizard in the group.

Also looking for help on ways to overcome the dragon's spell resistance.

Thanks everyone for the help!
I'm going to find myself some Soulsight Goggles and Wands of Faerie Fire and Glitterdust.

I mean, that's gonna be rough anyway. Even with See Invisibility active it's perfectly possible for the enemy to simply hide and summon monsters to attack you.

One higher level trick (which you'd need Spell Blending for) is the spell SUMMONER CONDUIT.

EDIT: It's a 5th level arcane spell, but if you have a good UMD (or a divine caster in the party) you can get it in a wand.

Can I use Spell Blending to gain spells that are labeled as Occult Rituals like Summoner Conduit?

That's a mighty fine looking spell if I do say so myself.

Should've mentioned already that I knew about Glitterdust but Thanks for reminding me about True Strike.

I need something that can keep me from missing out on a spying enemy or someone controlling a summoned monster while invisible. Ran into this problem this evening and by the time I was able to move close to his location, he teleported away when he lost his invisibility.

I was planning on a Ring of Spell Storing at some point in my future.

Like the title, what options do I have besides Spell Blending to get spells like See Invisibility? Is there any items out there that allow for seeing invisible creatures?

I know True Seeing is available as a 6th level spell. Looking for lower level spells or items.

Eigengrau wrote:

My main attack schtick is casting Shillelagh on my Great Club. And using the Work Together Bear benefit of 1d8 slashing damage from the bear getting 2d10 Shillelagh and 1d8 slashing per hit. Next comes in Savage Slice to grant me another attack doing 3d10 Shillelagh and 1d8 slashing, this routine can last for about a minute.

Is this a loose interpretation of Savage Slice where the Work Together Bear Benefit makes your Weapon strike Slashing? I took it as the 1d8 was additional damage but not the strike itself, which is still blunt. Pretty sure Savage Slice has that specific requirement to prevent any use with Shillelagh.

Also really curious to where it states that you and your pet share the same multi-attack penalty.

Yeah that's how I'm interpreting it.

I don't think my animal companion would ever share my multiple attack penalty. I've found nothing in the rules that remotely even hint at that.

Eigengrau wrote:

My next character is going to be a 4th level human druid with a bear companion ...

Hmm. Its scary how similar to my druid this character is.

One data point isn't enough to draw conclusions from but it makes me wonder how many "optimalish" characters there really are.

1st level human cleric of Gorum choosing Zeal Domain. Take your 1st level ancestor feat for a general feat of Toughness. Max out Strength. Use Magic Weapon spell for your Greatsword. Use Zeal domain power for Weapon Surge. Now you have an attack that does 3d12 damage plus strength. Lots of healing too.

Halfling cleric using his sling staff and worshipping Iomedae for Zeal domain and Magic Weapon spell makes for a heavy hitting archer in the back lines. 3d10 damage up to 80ft. All of this at level 1.

The Druid feat Savage Slice, its requirements state that your last action was a weapon strike that did slashing damage. It the tells you to make another strike with the same weapon and if it hits add an additional die of damage.

Other feats specifically call out multiple attack penalty and some feats state that they count as 2 actions etc. Savage Strike mentions nothing about penalties or actions etc. Is this another action to get a strike and not have multi attack penalty?

Yeah Volley is one of the worst things i've ever seen in game rules so far. Compared to actual realism of course.

Animals aren't proficient in any weapons, either, so it would have to take Simple Weapon Proficiency as well.

Not sure how this even relevant, there is no prerequisite to get Improved Unarmed Strike.

@ Melkiador, my cat does have an Int of 3 currently.

Share shape + twin companion: 3 pouncing cats that share teamwork feats and planar focus. Go Team Kitty !

Are these spells, feats or abilities.? I can't find them.

I'm looking for more ways to increase the number of free attacks per round or Attacks of Opportunity per round for a Hunter with Paired Opportunists. Basically a list of sorts. Besides using reach weapons or the Fortuitous enchant.

There's Broken Wing Gambit & Wounded Paw.
Greater Trip & Viscous Stomp
Monkey Style with Intrepid Rescuer
Resisting Grappler from Monster Hunter handbook.
Outflank and Seize the Moment.

I can't think of any more for melee attacks.

For just regular extra attacks there's Haste, Speed weapons and Two Weapon Fighting etc. Also Hurtful feat.

Any suggestions on more?

I'm looking for ways to increase Touch AC, I've probably missed some things with all the books that have come out lately, so I'm asking for help.

I know of the:
Jingasa of the Fortunate Soldier for Luck to AC
Ioun Stone that gives Insight bonus to AC
Dexterity obviously
Intelligence for Kensai/Duelist classes (I'm a Kensai by the way)
Dodge feat and Dodge bonuses
Deflection from spells and rings
Haste spell
Size bonus possibly
Sacred or Profane bonuses

What items and feats am I missing that could give me more Touch AC?

Is there any magic item or feat or spell that gives Circumstance or Competence bonuses to AC?

OR magic items that give Profane or Sacred AC bonuses?

Sorry it took so long for a reply, but here is the build you wanted linked. Its from poster "AndIMustMask" here on the forums.

half-elf unchained rogue 20
FCB: 18 human (+3 talents), 2 hp
Alt racials: dual-minded (+2 will)
example stats (dex>cha>con=wis>int>str)
base: str 10, dex 16 (5+2r), con 14 (5), int 10, wis 14 (5), cha 14 (5)
final: str 16, dex 32, con 20, int 16, wis 20, cha 24
+5 dex (level), +6 all (gear), +5 dex/+4 cha (book/wish)

traits - river rat/reactionary

edges
5 - stealth
10 - perception
15 - sleight of hand
20 - escape artist

talents
2 - combat trick (TWF)
4 - minor magic (detect magic at-will)
6 - fast stealth
6* - major magic (chill touch 8/day)
8 - ninja trick (pressure points)
10 - double debilitation
12 - slippery mind
12* - crippling strike
14 - opportunist
16 - improved evasion
18 - ???
18* - ???
20 - ???

feats
1 - skill focus (stealth)
1* - weapon finesse (dagger/???/??? +D2D)
3 - eldritch heritage (shadow 1)
5 - steadfast personality
7 - hellcat stealth
9 - ITWF
11 - improved eldritch heritage (shadow 9)
13 - dampen presence
15 - ???
17 - ???
19 - ???

-pretty much always attacks touch after level 6 (helps offset TWF penalties and low bab)
-can inflict 2 debilitations + stat damage (str or dex) on sneak attacks
-has HiPS light+dark+blindsight/sense at levels 7, 11, and 13 respectively, moves full speed during stealth at no penalty, and the stealth-break sneak attacks last all turn instead of a single attack (depending on stealth ranks).
-fairly MAD, but gets both wis and cha to will saves as well as slippery mind.
kinda lowish on accuracy, but after activating chill touch and you get an AC debilitation on them you're all set for the most part.

the build becomes MUCH more flexible with the action economy rework, since he could [move or step+stealth]+[TWF]+[ITWF] for four sneak attacks and loads of debuffs pretty much every round.

Looking at the VMC again Skill at Arms caught my eye: Prof. with all martial weapons & Heavy Armor.

A Wizard taking VMC Oracle with Battle Mystery & Skill at Arms can get into Eldritch Knight at level 6. Take Light Armor Prof feat as your human bonus feat, Take Arcane Armor Training as your EK bonus feat, take Medium Armor as your 2nd EK bonus feat, and take the next 10 levels in Hellknight Signifier(enforcer). BAB of 17, wizard level 19.

Or mix & match the classes to suit you. Since we can't use SLA for early entry & feat requirements anymore, I think this is the highest caster level & BAB you can get as a full caster.
Saves & skills suck though.

Still have 1st/5th/9th/13th/17th level character feats and 5th level Wizard bonus feat. Might even have another EK bonus combat feat if you took that many levels in it.

All the VMCs are terrible, unless you have a plan to get something scaling.

Witch is probably one of the better of them and also gets you a famiiar. However, I'd rather take extra arcana 5 times than VMC most of the time.

I'm interested in knowing why you think the Witch is the better of them?

You choose a patron but never get or qualify for Extra Hex.
At 3rd level, you get a familiar
At 7th level, gain a hex of your choice as a 1st level witch, but If you take the slumber hex, it can affect only creatures with HD less than or equal to your character level.
At 11th level, gain a witch cantrip and can cast that cantrip as a SLA at will, equal to character level.
At 15th level, you get a 2nd hex as a 1st-level witch, your 1st hex advances as if you're an 8th-level witch.
At 19th level, you get a major hex as a 10th level witch but it can't be the Ice Tomb Hex.

The things I don't like about it is you wait until 15th level to treat 1 Hex as being equal to an 8th level witch. Until then your hex has a Save DC, duration and effects as only 1st level witch hex. So no Fly until 15th level. If they treated the hexes at your character level I'd be all over it.

Did the VMC gunslinger get gun training 1, 2, some deeds and nimble?

3rd level you gain Prof. in all firearms

When I was just starting out with my Kensai Magus I thought about taking levels in Ninja, seeing as how it fit the oriental theme I was going for as well. I also thought about taking some Duelist levels but decided against that route.

I eventually changed my mind with taking levels in Ninja and I just play him like one anyway. Our stats aren't too different with how your's are set up. Kensai offers a lot for a Ninja, INT to AC, INT to Initiative, INT to AoO's and the ability to draw your weapon & make AoO's flat footed.

With the AoO's I went with a Fortuitous enchant along with Keen & Impervious & Spell Storing. I thought about Courageous but decided against it.

There's a trick with an Adamantine Impervious Anchoring weapon that I want to get eventually when funds permit. Basically when you hit someone with it, the Anchoring keeps that enemy from moving anywhere unless they make a DC30 STR check as a full round action. Your enemy would need a minimum Strength bonus of +10 to even have a chance of making that check on a Natural 20 roll. The Adamantine/Impervious part comes in to help it resist Sunder attempts. With your wish to have multiple weapons on your person to optimize certain encounters/situations this could be a big help.

Combine that Anchoring enchant with a Spell Stored Ray of Enfeeblement or Spell Combat Ray of Enfeeblement. Also maybe have a Returning enchant on it, so you can call it back to you once you've gotten away from someone you didn't want to fight. Serious Ninja-Arcane sneaky tricks with this.

PH's are also great for necromancers. I used to keep spawn creating undead in them and toss a few helpless npc's in. I really tried hard to bring about my own undead apocalypse, by releasing them in towns the morning we were leaving.

Half drow Orc goblin, using a torch as a weapon but it remains improvised

Has "Orc" in the title

Eventually deal 1d10+1d4+20 damage per hit

Two weapon fighting...

I'm confused on this one.

So browsing through my Familiar Folio companion book today I noticed a lot of cool stuff. What really caught my eye was the archetype for Fighter called Eldritch Guardian and the Familiar Archetype called Mauler.

What Eldritch Guardian does for Fighter is you give up your first 2 bonus feats and Bravery for a Familiar and a +1 on will saves vs. fear/enchantments. You only need to dip 2 levels. What you gain is a familiar and if it's within 30ft of you it gains all of your Combat Feats.

Mauler is pretty cool, it takes away speaking w/master, speaking in general and speaking with animals of its type. It also limits the familiars INT score to no higher than 6 and takes away touch spells. I think that's it.

What Mauler gives is a +2 morale hit/damage for 1 round if your master drops a foe to 0 or less hitpoints. The familiar also gains +1 STR at 3rd level and every 2 levels after, they also gain +2 STR when they use their AT WILL ability to increase their size to Medium which stacks with the Size increase bonuses to STR.

Originally I thought of making a CN Swashbuckling Capt. Hook type of Pirate with a Sprite Tinkerbell familiar.

What I came up with is so dang cheesy its awesome but weak too.

There are 3 feats any class can take to gain a familiar equal to your HD, similar to the way to get an animal companion. Iron Will, Familiar Bond and Improved Familiar Bond. With these 3 you gain a familiar equal to HD and you have all the abilities granted to having a familiar.

I thought about this build: Zen Archer 6/Eldritch Guardian 3/Cavalier 1. Taking Improved Familiar Sprite at 9th level.
Yeah you got to lose your LN status and go CN but hey its Fifty Shades of Zen Sprite up in here anyway.

Feats that are taken and shared with your Sprite are:
Weapon Focus Comp. Longbow, Weapon Specialization Comp. Longbow,
Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Point Blank Master, Perfect Strike, Improved Precise Shot, Deadly Aim, Rapid Shot and the Cavalier's Target of Opportunity.

Other feats you need to blow to make it work are Iron Will, Familiar Bond, Improved Familiar Bond and Improved Familiar.

What you get is a Tinkerbell who can fly, turn into medium size, spell like abilities and has all your combat feats as long as she stays within 30ft. I suggest just leaving her Diminutive size and stay in your square so she keeps her DEX bonus and size mod to hit with her bow. At 9th level her BAB is +7, +4 size bonus and +3 DEX.

With Weapon Focus & Point Blank/Deadly Aim/Rapid Shot her attack bonus is +12 within 30ft. Doing 1d2+6 damage. Not including spending money on magic items for your new girlfriend though, like a dex/str enchanted gear, magic bow, armor etc...

Cool part is the Target of Opportunity giving you a free shot every round if she can make a ranged attack hit. She gets one too.

You could do the same with Brownie/Quasit/Imp/Consular Imp too. Probably have to get them get a proficiency in Longbow though.

This book is pretty cool and I recommend you go out and pick it up.

I think the Aldori Dueling Sword looks more like this.
http://www.myarmoury.com/swor_aa_swisssaber.html

It still irritates me to no end that the threat range isn't as good as a Scimitar or Rapier.

Far Strike Monk4/Ninja-Scout+ is great, Zen Archer Monk 4/Ninja-Scout+ is great.

Monk? 4/Ninja-Scout 5 focusing on non-lethal damage could be fun. Sap Adept/Sap Master/Knockout Artist, On a charge/flat-footed/flanking scenarios you could do 6d6+18 nonlethal damage not counting STR, then swift action invisible after the attack and do it again next round. Be kind of fun.

Start by limiting certain feats/class abilities that can be learned by the players, that is if they want to learn them when they level up or retrain, that they have to find your NPC trainer who may or may not have a mission for them to do first.

Make the mission personal I guess, items stolen from PC's as they slept, annoying NPC or creature that harasses them non-stop at night, cases of mistaken identity for 1 if not all the PC's, etc...

Well I really hope GW figures this out BEFORE EE.

Some things to note about this. I played a Fighter/Rogue Sunday evening for 7 straight hours and didn't get any Light Armor or a Longbow. The only armor I got was Heavy. I killed hundreds of humanoid mobs and wolves to get that heavy armor, which I gave away with a bunch of stuff.

I wanted to be a Swashbuckler style Rogue character along with ranged for PvP. I wanted to play PVE solo, not grouped with others, and the way the starter gear was dropping or I should say not dropping, I couldn't get a light weapon or light armor at all. I died so very many times, my club broke and even got another off a crafter alt and it broke too. So by the time I was able to get a Shortsword from someone in game who traded it to me, I was still dying without armor from mobs, but I was at least able to kill 3 times as many before without the appropriate melee weapon. Ranged mobs were my melee swashbuckler's bane.

I'm thinking when you choose a Role, you should be given some basic armor and a weapon to fit that role you chose. Once that stuff decayed from death and broke, then you had better had one crafted for you or you'll be SOL. This will allow new players to get a better feel for the game and see how their play style for their role works.

Ranged weapons of any sort are very powerful in the real world, no reason why they can't be deadly in a game. Whatever you guys decide to do with bows/arcane weapons, it better not gimp bows in PvP.

I completely agree with that Caster types shouldn't be able to cast spells on the move, I haven't played one yet in game, but no reason they shouldn't be able to use wands/staves while moving.

However some of the ideas so far make it sound like, nobody wants ranged players to be viable in PvP or easy pickings when encountering them doing PvE. Not everyone wants to be melee. I want melee for PvE but not for PvP, not with the mechanics of your stuff gets destroyed or looted, I want to be able to deal out damage somewhat safely from ranged, so if things look bad I can turn tail and run.

Also I admit that a newbie with just a bow can own mobs the way the game is now. Just letting you know I'm not saying it's not overpowered and doesn't need a fix.

Maybe some things can be changed, like when the mobs are being Kited by ranged, they all run off in different directions, so you can't chase after them and kill them off in row. Or maybe they run off into other mob locations and get them aggro'd to you as well. Those will most certainly hamper the kiting play style a bit.

Well Sterofm, i hate to say it, but the crossbow made it easier for the French to fire it while retreating/running away.

I jest of course.

Those last 2 posts were awesome.

Sawtooth Sabres work (in fact they're your only real choice if you want TWF with this feat), but 19-20 base crit range isn't ideal for either a Magus or a Panache user. The Magus might as well just take Dervish Dance since his off hand needs to be empty anyways.

Well my point with the Kensai Magus was just for Cheese. It'll be a 1 level dip for the perks. 2 feats for free, opens up Arcane Strike, Arcane Pool for some of the combat you'll see in a day.

Heck by 3rd level you could grab 2 levels of Hunter, and have Outflank & Two Weapon Fighting. Full Dex damage on your off hand attacks and cast Lead Blades on them. Animal Companion to help with flanking bonus of +4, and your weapons dealing 2d6+ Dex + Arcane Pool each. 3 attacks per round w/companion attacking, another level of Hunter can nab you Precise Strike teamwork feat free. Now at 4th level while flanking your 2 attacks deal 3d6+Dex+Arcane Pool and your companion attacks at 1d4? + 1d6 on attacks. Both of you gaining +4 to hit while flanking. Add a fighter level at level 5 for more cheese and pick up Combat Expertise and Pack Flanking Teamwork feat (train it out when you raise Hunter levels), and as long as your companion is adjacent or behind your enemy you'll be getting your +4 flanking bonus and +1d6 Precise Strike bonus. 20 Dex, WF, Arcane Pool enchant your looking at +12/+12 on attacks w/pet by your side, 3d6+6 dmg on each hit.

I'm sure there are better stuff but I was currently reading the Hunter section and just threw that in there.

Decided on Magus with some Craft Alchemy and other craft skills.
We also have a Druid, Pally LOL, Archer and we did have a Lizardfolk Fighter (he died very horribly)

Setting is some kind of homebrew to my knowledge anyway, that resembles A LOT of like the early Crusades/Pilgrimages/Arab desert area. GM had recently watched Kingdom of Heaven not long ago. Uneasy peace between the indigenous population and foreigners.

Outlaw of magic is due to the local King in fear of threats to his rule and safety of the kingdom and the destruction it can cause.

I went through last night and didn't cast 1 spell. Never really needed to actually and when I could have I would have been seen in the town we were in.

We fought a couple Fire Beetles, had an LOL encounter with a Spider Swarm, missed out on tracking down some Large Centipedes.

I personally was able to bluff a scrupulous/shady individual into thinking we were members of a Silver Ingot caravan heading to the capitol, my plan was to create the interest in robbing the wagons and ambush him in the attempt. This worked well into a solo combat where I netted a set of thieves tools, bag of caltrops, 2gp 2sp, 3 daggers and padded armor. Big winnings there.

Also later on our Lizardfolk Fighter got drunk while we were sleeping in an inn and went exploring with an old drunk guy he met at the Tavern. They went into the desert to see some old ruins and met an Ogre.
Ogre killed the drunk old guy and the fighter almost made it back to the town before getting hit with a critical javelin throw.

The strange death of the 2 guys made the town news in short time the following morning. Lizardfolk had never been seen in this area before and it was interesting RP stuff for that.

The Druid and I drug our dead compatriot through the town by his tail and found a Skinner/Taxidermist dude who made me a Solomon Kane/Inquisitor style hat, the Druid a short cape and the Archer a lizardfolk skin quiver. That was quite humorous.

Later we tracked down the path the fighter had taken and found the ogre. The LOL Paladin ran to get the city guards that were 1 mile away. We decided to "Risk it to get the Biscuit" and attacked the Ogre from Ambush. Archer rolled extremely well and pretty much killed him on his own with 2 critical composite longbow hits. The Druid and I basically looked like we kicked sand on him when he fell down.

Pally comes back with Captain of the guard and 3 soldiers and here we are posing over the dead Ogre holding his severed head. Pally wasn't amused, Captain was in awe of the Archer's exploits and got us some party thrown in our honor. Archer was rewarded with a Strength bow fit to his score in exchange for his old bow which they hung on display in the Tavern with the Ogre head.

Everyone got around 400xp or so. Leveling is going to suck balls at that rate.

Had a lot of fun. Nobody knows I'm Lawful Evil yet either lol.

An Alchemist/Crossbowman or Alchemist/Ranger Crossbow-Style character sounds like it could be fun for you EsperMagic.

However, I think you could be pretty effective as a 1/2 Orc, 8th level Crossbowman/ 8th level Scout/Skulking Slayer. Basically Fighter/Rogue 8/8
.

You'd be a switch hitter for one thing. Doing d8's on your sneak attacks when you charge with a 2-handed weapon and anytime you move 10ft or more in a round you can add sneak attacks on that attack as well. This would be great for beefing up your Crossbow damage. Using Blunt arrows/bolts and taking Bludgeoner, Sap Adept and Sap Master feats would also net you a huge amount of sneak attack dice and bonus damage on top of the dice by using non-lethal damage. Adding in Vital Strike/Improved Vital Strike would look like this if you made a sneak attack: 3d10+ 1/2 Dex +8d6+16 non lethal damage, not counting weapon training, magic or weapon specialization yet. Improved Critical would be a great addition too and if you also had Deadly Aim (power attack for ranged weapons) the damage can climb higher.

But this is just a class that only does charge or move or ready-actions to do sneak attack damage. I think going the Alchemist/Whatever would be more amusing and add in a lot of flavor to a game night.

I must say that I found this thread and immediately became entranced with it. Only to have found it leaving me hanging, due to the answers in DPR etc... not figured out yet. Argh.

Here is me wishing you all luck and having ample time to do this for the community. Thank you.

P.S. Please hurry lol.