I figured as much, thanks.
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The human silver tongued racial option gives a character the ability to shift a creature's attitude 3 steps instead of only 2. Likewise, the cloak of the diplomat wondrous item also says it allows a player to shift a creature's attitude 3 steps instead of only 2. Because of the way it's worded, it doesn't seem like they would stack and they would just be redundant. It does kind of makes sense that they would, though, assuming players were obeying the rules for diplomacy and only using the checks outside of combat and when 1 minute of interaction time is available. It makes players obscenely good at making enemies into friends, but only off the battlefield...unless I am missing something. Is it stackable or isn't it?
I found that out an hour ago on my own. Technically the rules dont exclude them as written, but it's considered an error.
A bit more info: this character is intended to be a party face that utilizes a great deal of CHA, hence the choice of sorceress over Wizard. Thusfar, the build I have is (starting at level 3) 2 Sorc 1 Gunslinger (pistolero, mysterious stranger). The idea is that the sorceress gets the benefit of the 1-level dip in Stranger to add her CHA bonus to her damage rolls along with dexterity (guns everywhere rule, slingers get gun training at level 1). so, despite a lower BAB, the appeal was casting ricochet shot and having the bullet him every target for 1d8+CHA+DEX+other stuff very round. Cool, right? But the spell just doesnt seem to accommodate the concept the more I look at it...it's just not enough hits to be worth losing the round casting, and she'd just be better off using nova cannon spells instead. A shame, since the existence of Ricochet shot made me hope there was a way to replace the typical blasty blasty of Sorc with gunplay in some solid fashion.
Ricochet Shot (spell) You imbue a projectile weapon with the ability to ricochet any projectiles that hit one target so that they also hit another. When the wielder ricochets a projectile, she selects a primary target to attack. If she hits the primary target, the projectile ricochets instead of being destroyed. The wielder can then select a secondary target that is within 20 feet of the primary target. She makes an attack roll against the secondary target at the same base attack bonus, but does not gain the benefit from any enhancement bonuses or magic qualities on the projectile. If the shot comes from a firearm, the ricochet targets normal AC rather than touch AC. While the spell lasts, the target weapon’s wielder can ricochet one projectile per three caster levels you possess, to a maximum of six at caster level 18th. Once the target weapon’s wielder ricochets that many shots, the spell is discharged. If the weapon’s wielder fails to use all the ricochets before the spell end, those ricochets are wasted. I'm having a very hard time understanding how this spell could ever work. I really, really want to make a sorceress who uses a pistol for a steampunk-ish game I am about to join, and this spell seemed as close as I could get to being useful and interesting in combat with a firearm. Trouble is, as I understand it, the cap of 1 ricochet allowed per shot and only 1 successful hit per 3 caster levels make the spell almost completely useless. Worse, the ricochet attempts are against full AC, not touch, meaning they are more likely to fail and just be wasted... Is there some way I can take advantage of it I'm not seeing?
It's an attempt to give my completely un-combat-oriented oracle something to do when combat does happen. She's got no DEX or STR to speak of and focuses on Divination spells instead of the typical blow stuff up ones. Idea is even with no attack mod and 3/4 BAB she should hit touch AC ok, especially considering she can use her CHA bonus in tandem with feint to make it FF touch AC instead. >feint as move
8+8+8 (weapon dmg) + 10+10+10 (caster level) + 5+5+5 (arcane strike) + 4+4+4 (devastating strike) + maybe weapon spec or something 1 big hit that's roughly equivalent to hitting with all three of her hits. Trade off is she'll miss out on haste and such for not taking FRA, but like I said she was never designed to be a combat monster.
"The bonus damage does not apply to touch attacks or effects that do not deal hit point damage." You are right. But Maximize spell should still work, yeah? Or no?
Why wouldnt power attack work? You can choose to take a –1 penalty on all melee attack rolls and combat maneuver checks to gain a +2 bonus on all melee damage rolls. Is a melee touch attack not a melee attack?
You wield this spear-like bolt as if it were a trident (you are proficient with the bolt). Attacks with the trident are melee touch attacks. The bolt deals 1d8 points of electricity damage +1 point per two caster levels (maximum +10). That sounds an awful lot like variable damage in the spell that can be maximized. I see where you are coming from, but I also see a damage formula right in the spell description.
The wording on Gozreh's trident is a bit vague, so I'm not sure what feats if any apply to it. Normally it's 1d8+(1/2 caster level, or 'X') dmg. That being said... >Can you apply vital strike to have it do 2d8+X dmg? >Greater Vital Strike for 3d8+X? >Can you use Maximize Spell AND Vital Strike with it for 8+8+8+X? >And with myhtic vital strike now in the mix, 8+8+8+X+X+X? >Does power attack work with it?
A side note on this: mythic weapon finesse allows you to add dex to damage with your finesse weapon, scimitar or not, so it allows a few more options.
If you keep at least 13 Str you can keep Power Attack too, which should help. You're right, I'd keep the damage, at least. Where I'm torn now is what weapon to take... I was using a small fauchard for the reach before, which traded a -2 to hit for hopefully more AoO with a reach weapon. Now that I have to use a finesse weapon, I'd either have to make it a tiny fauchard and take a whopping -4 to hit, or switch to a rapier or wakizashi and lose the chance to put those 14 AoO per turn to use. Seems so wasteful to get that many AoO for free without ever using them.
I was just experimenting with that myself and came to a similar conclusion. Basically, because there is no such thing as mythic piranha strike, I will lose 4 dmg per hit and 32 dmg per critical by switching over to DEX from STR. However, I can also get my DEX up to +11, with which weapon finesse and mythic weapon finesse will recover the lost 4 dmg per hit and even give me +4 higher hit chance than before. My Reflex goes up to 24, and my AC also gets a nice +5 boost it didnt have before. I can also drain out from INT because, after thinking about it, those last 6 points in INT only bought me three spells and some spell DC...putting them in DEX gets a lot more mileage out of them, especially considering neither shocking grasp nor vampiric touch offers the target a save anyway. It may make Disintegrate more difficult to hit with, but I'll just have to make sure I use it on low Fort targets. TL;DR: drain INT and STR for more DEX, get Reflex, AC, +hit at the expense of 3 spells, +2 spell DC, and 170 crit dmg instead of 200.
I made one typo up there: it's -3 CHA, not +3...one keystroke to completely mess it up. To answer your INT question: kensai adds INT to initiative, AC, damage vs FF, AC again from spellshield, rounds for haste duration, number of AoO per round, +hit with arcane accuracy...a lot of things. Also, at mythic 10 high spell DCs are a must...those spells MUST go through, since I imagine there wont be time for second chances. Stat array: STR 28
How should I get them, then? I'll have a +2 morale bonus from Lord's Banner, but haven't found anything else to buff them with. Already included is a +1 circumstance from an Ioun stone, not included is the +1 luck bonus from Prayer which Crown of Conquest will give me after my first crit. Draining my high stats for an extra 1 or 2 on the saves doesnt seem like it's going to help enough to be worth it, so what do? Pointing out a problem without a solution is barely useful.
Read last post.
You are correct, I didnt look it up correctly. It's 1d6 per CL until level 5, where it caps at 5d6. Intensify bumps it to 10d6 at CL 10 since you get 1d6 per CL. Vampiric touch only gives 1d6 per 2 CL, so it's max extra is 2d6, not 5d6,and you'd have to have CL 24, right?
Reverence unto you, forum spirits. A friend of mine invited me to a game next week: straight up level 20, mythic tier 10 characters, 880k, 25 point buy. The purpose? He just wants to kill people with his custom monsters I'm pretty sure - the guy loves to munchkin. Regardless, I took up the challenge and made a level 20 tier 10 Kensai to throw into the mix, mostly because I'm not very good at optimization and wanted to give it a try. My goal is to survive at least long enough to impressively slay some things, even if I'm not the tightest screw in the game. A couple of notes: 1) Yes, it's a kensai and will stay that way. I know majority opinion is that the Magus is better, but the kensai flavor is cooler. Sorry vanilla magi, it's true. I'm sticking with it even though it's worse. 2) I wanted to incorporate crits into the build because they are fun. They don't have to be everything, but spellstrike's crit modifying thing, free weapon mastery, etc. convinced me to go that route and I'm going to stick with it. That out of the way, here is what I've come up with thusfar: STR +9
Initiative: +32, HP: 293, AC: 60, Touch: 42, BAB: 15
Fort +27 (+2 morale)
Traits: Reactionary, Magical Lineage (Shocking Grasp) Feats: L1: Spell Penetration
Magus 1: Weapon Focus (Fauchard)
Mythic (23): Mythic 1: Dual Path
Arcana (29)+ black blade (5): 3: Spell Shield
Mythic Paths: Titan's Bane (makes large creatures FF)
Tier 10: Legendary Warrior (20's grant 1 mythic point, reroll misses vs non-mythic enemies) The planned action economy is: 1) GO FIRST with 20+32 initiative
Full BAB (1st) + Full BAB (2nd) + Haste + Spellstrike + Spell + -5 third attack. Each one is about +35 to hit, for d8+41 dmg +14 dmg against FF targets, with a x4 crit mod on a 15-20 threat pole. All crits auto-confirm, spells on spellstrike do x2 on crit. If it's a big scary thing, burn 3 arcana to maximize spellstrike and melt it for full damage with disintegrate, vampiric touch, of shocking grasp. The spells will be empowered by Arcane metamastery for +50%, intensified for +50%, maximized if necessary, channeled for +50% if necessary, and made mythic if necessary. 6) Try to finishing thing with vampiric touch to get temp HP, if attacks are leftover throw them at something else in reach. 7) Collect arcana off dead thing/things, mythic power from 20's rolled if any. 8) If hit a second target, use immediate action on Prescient Attack to make it FF next round. 9) Use reach weapon to get AoO on things that move close for melee counterattack, more chances for 20's to give mythic points back and fuel more mythic spells Next round: 10) If FF thing isn't dead, FRA it and move 190' before or after as necessary. No swift this round, so play conservative. Immediate action Spellshield if necessary to get +14 AC. Well, how did I do? I have 1 unused feat, and am very open to critiques since this is my first level 20 build ever, and also first caster of any flavor ever. Thanks in advance!
I've had it explained to me, but not as clearly as I need. Hopefully I can articular the issue clearly enough to get an answer. Intensified Spell (Metamagic)
Benefit: An intensified spell increases the maximum number of damage dice by 5 levels. You must actually have sufficient caster levels to surpass the maximum in order to benefit from this feat. No other variables of the spell are affected, and spells that inflict damage that is not modified by caster level are not affected by this feat. Level Increase: +1 (an intensified spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell’s actual level.) So shocking grasp, for example, which caps out it's damage at 10d6 @ level 10, can have its damage dice increased to 15d6. What about a spell like vampiric touch, which gives you 1d6 per 2 caster levels until 10d6 at CL 20? Does it increase to 15d6, or does it hit a ceiling because the damage scales naturally all the way to CL 20 without intensify? |