Epok999's page

Well I'm forced to keep the Fervor inquisition (granting me "fire of belief", with which I can make a ranged touch attack against a non-good target for 1D6 fire dmg), and Andoletta's domains are: Good, Knowledge, Law, Protection. Subdomains: Archon, Defense, Memory, Purity.
Remember that my DM's goal was to nerf us. But my goal is to try to have fun with the character I'm stucked with anyways.

I guess if my build turns out to be really weak and unenjoyable, I'll talk to my DM and I'll ask him if I can reroll with the same restrictions as before. Being (too) weak rarely brings fun in this kind of campain. But will it be that bad? I'm specifically asking if summoning with 2 level late is still going to help the party win the encounters.

Oh sorry I'm neutral good; my goddess is lawful good though.
What *was* forcing me to be a weapon thrower was some feats that I later retrained (throw anything and point-blank shot, if I remember well).
My point is that I did'nt want to play a damage dealer, plus there's already 3 other damage dealers in the group (the cleric/ranger I mentionned before chose to be 3/4 ranger and 1/4 cleric, he likes to roll big numbers with a greatsword apparently).

The only level I (kind of) ignore is the inquisitor level. But my first level litany spells are nice from time to time, and of course there's no reason not to use my 1/day judgement (swift action). My barbarian level grants me fast movement and rage, + the proficiencies I lack with the herald caller archetype, so for the moment I'm a reach fighter with a hallebard and power attack that have a huge load of scrolls in his backpack (and with only a 3/4 bab...).

I think the key is that I want to be versatile with my spellcasting, I guess that's just how I have fun in Pathfinder. Been playing the dumb fighter that one-shots everything but can't do anything else for too long.

Hi!

We recently started the Shattered Star campain. There's 5 Pcs in the group, and we've been playing together for a very long time. I think I can safely declare that, after nearly ten years of pathfinder, we all know the game well enough to be very efficient. And for my DM, that seems to be a problem (even though we all have a lot of fun optimizing our characters as best as we can).
He chose to create our characters by himself, so we could'nt abuse anything - and he purposely choose some wierd / weak combinations (there's a rogue/paladin, a sorcerer/swashbuckler, a diviner with conjuration as opposed school and a cleric /ranger).
That's how I ended up with a Barbarian 1 / Inquisitor (infiltrator) 1, designed to be a weapon thrower. My first problem is that I hate playing « pure dps » characters. My preference goes for spellcasters. My second problem is that throwing weapons is not strong at all in Pathfinder. If I was to play a DPS character, at least I'd want him/her to be strong.

I then decided I'd multiclass, a third time, in clercic (herald caller). My goal is to become a full spellcaster cleric who focuses on summoning, and I always wanted to try that reach-cleric build everyone talks about (even though I don't plan on getting combat reflexes). The DM gave me some strong ability scores that fit the clercic. So here's the build :

Carmila
LG human
Barbarian 1 / Inquisitor (infiltrator) 1 / Cleric (herald caller) X.
str15 (+1 at lv4); dex16; con18; int12; wis18; cha10.
I pray Andoletta, the Empyreal Lord.
Feats :
1) Scribe scroll; 3) Power attack; 5) Improved Initiative; 7) Sacred Summons; 9) Summon Good Monsters. I don't know yet what to choose for the late levels.

My only concern is that I'll always be 2 caster levels below any other spellcaster. Considering that, is it really worth it to summon monsters (and to multiclass as an herald caller)? I heard they were scaling pretty bad. We are actually at lv5, so I cast as a third level cleric. I'll have access to my first standard action summoning at level 7 (thanks to sacred summons), but how efficient is really a Lantern Archon, alone, at level 7? A full level cleric would have summoned it at fifth level.
What do you think? Will I just regret that multiclass? Please keep in mind that, obviously, it's not supposed to be optimized, but I'm trying to get the better out of it.

By the way, I'm not allowed to retrain any class level.

The rogue in my party is always yelling at us while fighting - "PLEASE GO THERE! FLANK THAT ONE!". For a long time we wasted our actions for him, so he could land a sneak attack.
At his turn, when he rolls his attacks (with 2 weap) he misses 75% of the time. Then he looks at us with a smile while he grabs all these D6s. Woooo... All that for 30-40dmg, and a little amount of bleeding.
Then it's the ennemy's turn, who full attacks our poor rogue for about 90% of his hit points.
Then it's our wizard's turn - everyone is already hasted, so he casts create pit or something else, whatever, and disables three opponents in his turn.
Then it's our ranger's turn; he kills the ennemy who was treatening the rogue with a few arrows, and even delivers some others to a second ennemy. Total damage: about 100.

In battles, we just waste our actions to help the rogue to delivers his sneak attacks, and they are not very effective most of the time.
After the fight, we waste our ressources to heal the rogue, because he was wrapped between two ennemies; he needed to flank... but he wears only a light armor and he doesn't have high HP. So he's always dying.
In a way he was useful. One more meatshield is always welcome.

Out of combat, I must admit, he shines a bit more. He is our front, he's good at bargaining, arguing, collecting informations, solving mysteries, etc. But to be honest it's not because he's a rogue; it's because the player is good at playing front characters. For what I know he could as well play a fighter. And of course, he finds and disables traps. We let him assume this rogue's typical role; but otherwise we could find other solutions against traps - easily.

Arcane Bloodline, arcane bond wrote:

Your sorcerer levels stack with any wizard levels you possess when determining the powers of your familiar or bonded object... This ability does not allow you to have both a familiar and a bonded item.
you cannot have both a familiar and a bonded item because of the second sentence; nor can you have 2 of either since the first sentence states that levels instead stack for the one you have (though you could use the combo to get a crazy high effective level for one, though i don't see much benefit to that)

In fact that does not mean you can't have 2 bonded items; your sorcerer levels stacks with any wizard levels for the bonded item related to this bloodline power. The sentence does not tell anything about having 2 bonded objects. If you are a wizard/sorcerer, your wizard's bonded object powers rely only on your wizard lv, while your sorcerer's bonded object would rely on both classes lv. That's all.

Usually things in the game have a note if you can stack them or use the same thing several times.

I disagree... bonuses with no specified type are known to stack with every types of bonuses. Am I wrong?

I don't really care what was the intention of the person who wrote these rules (because I already made my own idea on the fairness of having 2 bonded objects). What I want to know here is whether or not there is a clear and logical rule about having two bonded objects.

But anyways... As I read the Arcane Bloodline ruling again, I understand that it is impossible to gain a bonded item with eldritch heritage if you are a wizard.

Once per day, your bonded item allows you to cast any one of your spells known (unlike a wizard’s bonded item, which allows him to cast any one spell in his spellbook

Logically, you can't use a sorcerer bonded item to cast a spell from a spellbook.

Oh, right!

But anyways, could a wizard have two bonded objects with Eldritch Heritage?

Is that really possible? The arcane bloodline's bonded item works with spells known, not spells in your spellbook, as far as I remember.

And if we just ignore that... could a wizard use eldritch heritage to gain a second bonded item? (or a second familiar, or to gain the benefices of a bonded item and a familiar at the same time?)

A half-elf or human wizard could start at level 1 with 2 bonded items this way!

By the way,
The spell itself cost 100gp to cast and last for as long as it's still untriggered.
Permanency costs 5000gp.

Just cast it multiple times before adventuring, unless you think you will use it more than 50 times. In fact you rarely have the time to prepare yourself that much before every battles (that may depend on the campain and DM, of course).

Covering or hiding the rune renders the symbol of death ineffective, unless a creature removes the covering, in which case the symbol of death works normally.

I'm not sure if this sentence applies after the symbol is triggered or not. Is it possible to stop the active effect by covering the symbol?

For permanency:

Symbol of death can be made permanent with a permanency spell. A permanent symbol of death that is disabled or has affected its maximum number of hit points becomes inactive for 10 minutes, but then can be triggered again as normal.

The way I read it: you cast the symbol, then you cast permanency. The symbol is inactive until it is triggered (but effective, unless it is covered). When it is triggered, the symbol becomes active...

I think the first interpretation is closest to the text. But I don't like it, to be honnest. Basically you use a "trap" spell to create a zone effect, and I don't really see how the "trigger" part of the spell could be interesting then.
The second interpretation suggests that the symbol is really used as a trap.
I will have to discuss this with my DM.

You are automatically considered attuned to your own symbols of death, and thus always ignore the effects and cannot inadvertently trigger them.

In any other game I would'nt even think about questionning that, but Pathfinder is an organic game. This does only mean that you don't have to mention, when you cast SoD, that you attune yourself - but it suggests that you do it anyways. So I just think that it would be logic to be able to include yourself as well.

I read it incorrectly.

Attuning larger groups takes an additional 24 hours per 25 creatures

So technically you can attune everyone except your party members, but it will take the whole eternity to cast that symbol...

You are indeed automatically considered attuned to your own symbols, but that does'nt mean you are obliged to be attuned to your symbols. When you cast it, you just don't have to precise that you attune yourself, but logically you do it, so you could also just not do it.

When I mentionned a "piece of paper", I was talking about something like a scroll. But if you don't want it to be covered, just cast it on a plate of wood (or anothoer material, whatever) weared like a big amulet, or directly on your clothes... there is a lot of ways to bypass such a rule.

And, even if you set it so only your party members can trigger the Symbol of Mirroring, the spell affect every creature in an area. That does not solve the problem.

So you can't use Symbol of mirroring like I first tought; but then... why would you give such a strong buff to your ennemies? To create confusion? The idea to make it permanent, trigger it before a combat and cover it right after isn't bad tough. Your still gain the mirror image effect for your allies for 1 round per level after the spell ends, and you should be level 10 or 11 at that point (when you can cast permanency)... if you are lucky, this is quite enough to end a battle. I think that for 5100gp this still is a super powerful item, in comparison to other slotless items of that price.

Symbol of mirroring works like Symbol of death.

When you prepare it you can choose who will not be affected by it; we can then safely assume, I believe, that you can prepare a Symbol of Mirroring that works only for your companions if you want to use it defensively (you just attune everyone except your party members). Note that doing this changes the casting time - refer to symbol of death's description.

Then you could cast it on a piece of paper, make it permanent for 5000gp, and choose to activate it whenever you read it loud. The effect would last for 10 minutes per levels, and affect, as you would have precised while casting it, only your party members within 60ft.
And then all you companions are protected with a (kind of) mirror image spell that recovers every turns.

And if you make it permanent, the symbol stays on your page and you can activate it again and again.

Am I missing something, or is this really, really strong?