Experiment 626's page

Man, I thought this guy was a brother from another mother for a minute there. This could have spun off into a crazy town of (literally!) cutthroat business dealings, seeking lost recipes or ingredients, reaching trade agreements with unsavory characters, courting just the right NPC to make the business fly, etc. Dude's after the wrong thing if he just wants GP, in my not-so-humble opinion!

Leadership can mean a lot of things. In our campaigns it also substitutes for a network of safe houses and support. You don't necessarily need a feat for that, but it an help justify it for the GM. I almost always take it. When I GM, I give it away for free and try to find a suitable substitute if people don't want a flunky, staffed mansion, business or other organization to belong to.

Unfortunately, SM IV would be mid level, and out of each for my NPC.

What about SMM Summon Minor Monster? Does it bring anything to the table?

** spoiler omitted **

/cevah

Mayyyybe!

They can. There are some interesting builds involving Frostbite that use one weapon + Spell Combat, then next round mix in unarmed strikes or a second weapon to deliver more Frostbites than are normally doable. Since using another Spell Combat will override your remaining Frostbite charges, at the higher levels this is a decent way to maximize your spell efficiency, and it gives you more endurance than the norm.

Yeah, I was thinking some spiked gauntlets or a cestus might work for something like that. A Glove of Storing or shield for bashery might be options, too. Even a bare hand delivering touch attacks seems like it'd do fine, especially with some sneak dice on top of it.

I wouldn't add more mooks. Your summoner is already acting appropriately by summoning more chumps to deal with the numbers, and that's what's causing the problems.

Add better quality opposition by tacking rogue levels on adepts and giving them partially-charged wands of Scorching Ray instead. When they pop out of stealth and nail someone with a scorching ray or sneak attack acid splash, its gonna hurt. 3 levels of poisoner rogue and now you've got drow sleep poison that's inhaled...feel free to toss them augmented smoke bombs and watch the summoner drop and his summons go "poof!" in the process.

Krell44 wrote:

How do I determine when I could normally acquire a new familiar?

Ask your GM. Technically your current familiar needs to be dead or dismissed first, but many GMs and players find that ridiculous.

Especially because you're an alchemist. Come on...a week in the lab and you can turn a bat into a scorpion! Sure, they called you mad back in the academy, but you'll show them! You'll show them all!!!

Level 5 party? And no one animated the thing and turned it into a zombie submarine yet?

We all live in a zombie submarine!
a zombie submarine
a zombie submarine

Kolokotroni wrote:

1. If by anti gm, you mean gms are not treated as unapproachable infallible gods...then yea I guess you are right. The paizo boards are actually fairly balanced in the overall opinion. The thing is, by now MOST experience gamers have been on both sides of the screen. And a great deal of the entitlement on both sides (as a player and a gm) gets mitigated by the universal experience.

In the end there is an Anti Jerk sentiment. If you are being a jerk, whether a player or gm, you get called out on in these boards. For the most part, gms have the most influence over a game, so they have the most opportunity to be a jerk. Chances are thats why you have your impression. Either that or you think gms are still infallible, unquestionable demigods whose every whim needs to be catered to. Then I've got nothing for you.

2. I can agree here. In the end, everyone plays their own way. And there are so many uncontrolled factors in a given game/group for there to be some kind of universal consensus. It's important to listen to the OP when trying to help them. Because often, our assumptions on what works within a given situation will be altered by the poster's game group.

1. I still think this board tends to skew toward player favoritism. For example, whenever there's a thread where people talk about their house rules, the following will happen: Someone will say they don't allow this feat or that race, or what have you. Inevitably, several people will chime in and either tell the person they're wrong for disallowing that choice or demand justification for their decision so they can argue that the person with the house rule is wrong. However, house rules that give the players an extra benefit, such as high stat arrays or extra abilities, are almost never questioned.

You say that it's just an anti-jerk sentiment, but that doesn't really do anything to dispel anti-GM bias when people are extremely quick to characterize the GM as a jerk for doing anything unfavorable...

Just say YES.

People come to the boards to complain about things, among other reasons. Other complainers jump on board if they're encountered similar hassles. I've certainly been there.

Some of us have a "Why not?" mindset and often challenge seemingly kneejerk or strangely arbitrary restrictions (I don't want no ninjas in my Western European game!" "You do realize that's just a name plastered atop a bundle of game mechanics, right?"). Some people seem to view things more along the lines of the Archie Bunker style of GMing. Naturally, there's conflict between the two mindsets.

As a GM, I am comfortable with the role of being the Guy Who Occasionally Says No. That often leads to feelings of persecution. I try to review my decisions and reverse or modify them if they seem imbalanced or flat out wrong. That's hard to do, as everyone wants to be Right, and that probably leads to a lot of unnecessary squabbling.

I'd like to think that if dispassionate, logical arguments and math are put forth, both parties can reach an equitable agreement. I've not always found that to be the case, unfortunately.

Sissyl wrote:

The spell could select enemies from those the caster considers enemies. Just sayin'.

That's how I run it. These aren't natural creatures; they are magically summoned/conjured creatures. They are created for the sole purpose of attacking the summoner's enemies. (Hence the "attack to the best of their abilities" clause.) You can't communicate with them, unless they have a form of speech and you have that language, but can be "nudged" via Handle Animal to attack someone other than the closest enemy, move into a flanking position, or take non combat actions.

Right on.

And anyone who isn't willing to put in the prep work shouldn't be clogging up game time. It doesn't take very long and there are some inexpensive notecards available with the stats preprinted.

It took me maybe an hour or so to set that up for my master summoner, along with making sure the tallies for the earth and water elementals were correct. I even put up a table tent that said, "power attack is always ON unless otherwise declared.". That stopped the silly "gotcha!" games my GM was always playing where I'd always roll my attack with the lower modifier and then wouldn't get the extra damage since I didn't declare it first.

Kobold Rogues with UMD and wands of acid splash, Magic Missile, Burning Hands etc are always amusing. Make them only have a few remaining charges so not that expensive.

Anyone remember the Deluxe D&D Adventure Dragon Maintain? Had a Big Red Dragon as the boss and his was giving out minor single use and limited use magical items to his Kobold minions. They were fighting off parties of level 10 or more.

Worth picking it up if you can for the tactics alone. Close quarter fighting, traps, swarming techniques. Hopefully not too expensive now …

Regards

Sic

Hero Snare was recommended for similar reasons in an earlier thread on a very similar topic.

As a team player and strategy-minded guy, I'd despise that. I want to know who's got what, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how they can be best deployed so I can support them. I'm usually in the role of the party's God Wizard and part-time buffer so those things are important for me to keep in mind.

Fluff and roleplay are different, and I'm cool with supporting that, in character. Playing "guess what's on my character sheet? Hee hee!" is just going to make me want to vote you off the island.

I don't play PFS, but this wouldn't even fly in the home games I participate in.

Sure. This guy.

He's a Lawful Evil monk, so was all about going along to get along, using the letter of the law to advance his own goals, and keeping his promises...especially the loopholes!

Its really never the character that's disruptive, its the player. I'd be more apt to raise an eyebrow at Chaotic Neutral aligned characters, as that's been the "I'll do whatever I please and justify it with my alignment" card that I've seen played a lot recently. Whatever alignment that kind of player has on his sheet probably should be crossed off with "Chaotic Stupid" written in its place.

If that be the case, he can beat the Rogue unconscious, in a "funny".

Have the PC suddenly behave in a silly manner. Then mosey on over to Rogue, in a stereotypical "retarded" manner, possibly muttering to himself, "herp derp dippity derp", then attack.
Have the PC talk in a similar manner whilst beating the Rogue, "herp derp derpity derp, beating up the thief, derp dippity doo". Maybe even descibe the unarmed strikes, as beating him with a unmentionable body part.

"Comedy" achieved, so now he can do whatever he wants.

There's Dirty Trick combat manuever, and then there's the really dirty trick combat manuever.

The difficulty with the summoner versus druid or wizard argument is that the summoner peaks almost immediately and never really has a down level, where the other original classes have very noticeable ups and downs. The summoner never reaches the same heights as either the druid or the wizard, but also never suffers similar downturns. Over the course of a campaign, the summoner will be at or perhaps even a bit under the overall power of a druid or wizard, but at the very early levels where most people get first impressions, it can definitely seem far more powerful when in reality it just reaches it's potential sooner than most classes before leveling off.

The key to managing the summoner is not to get caught up in what they can do at 1st or 2nd level, but what they are doing at 5-8th level, where most of the original classes really come into their own. These are common levels to see by mid campaign, and generally the summoner's early advantage will barely be seen at these levels. Even at the early levels, a few basic house rules, like limiting the number of active summons, and a variety of enemy tactics and terrain go a long way to reducing the problems they can cause at the table. They do require a bit of preparation and understanding to run effectively, both for the player and the DM, but it's not that much more than preparing for a druid or a wizard; it's just a bit different, which is where most people get caught off guard.

This is it, in a nutshell.

I think the sweet spots for a Master Summoner are from levels 3-5.

At 3rd you can spam eagles or bring elementals for utility.
At 4th you make a beeline for the Haste spell. This might be a welcome relief for the GM, as your first round action as a summoner might be "I cast haste!" instead of "I summon X!"

At 5th you get more utility critters and can spam elementals. You can also bring forth more eagles, but I'd question the value of that except in very limited circumstances.

5th level, as mentioned above, everyone else is coming online and the wizard's going to start using his larger bag of tricks to Batman his way out of most out of combat problems (Assuming the Alchemist hasn't beaten him to it!) that hang the summoner up - summons can have some good utility value, but they're a lot more limited. His 1/2 strength eidolon should probably be configured to be a scout/wand user by that point, adding to the utility role. The skilled evolutions can grant a lot of perception and stealth bonuses, and Lesser Evolution Surge can handle a lot of contingencies.

In one of our games, I was playing 1 of 3 half brothers. I was a Human, LE, maneuver master monk//inquisitor that I referred to as the Shogun of Harlem. Another player was a LN, Oread fighter//alchemist. Another was a half elf, LG wizard (Yeah, Dad got around.). We made these all independently, mind you, but the brother mechanic was put in place because it seemed to fit. When it came time to announce our names, the LG wizard called himself Abel. After he declared that, what could I do? I stated that my name was Kane, and we were off and running.

At any rate, I kept initiating grapple checks and making dirty trick rolls at various points (out of combat - this was a flavor thing), as befitted my bullying character. At one point, we found a chest that some ogres had had and I initiated a grapple check to stuff him into it when we were sitting around the campfire that evening.

The player apparently couldn't figure out that I was beating up his character, not him, and seemed to take it personally after a while when I meant nothing by it and he told me he was fine with it when we started off. I don't know if anything even remotely resembling this is going on or not, but I figured I'd bring it up as a maybe.

Just remembered another thing I had to learn for the more recent versions of the game.

Back in my AD&D and 2nd Ed days, we could usually run the modules as written. They were normally decent to challenging for the average player.

Most of the time, this is NOT the case for recently published material for PF. The AP’s are written for using 15 point buy for PC’s (most groups use 20 or 25), for players (many groups have 5 or 6 players), and most importantly they assume pretty much neophyte players without much system mastery (yours and many other groups have much more than that). That can make a huge deal.

I usually find that any encounter that was intended to be significant or challenging I basically have to re-write and massively up the power level. I double quantity, add class levels, optimize builds, adjust tactics, add traps, environmental barriers, add hostages, and/or improve equipment.

If I don’t, they just waltz through the entire thing without any real effort. Quickly becomes boring for everyone.

It took me a while to accept the significant power difference between the minimum assumed by the authors and what my experienced players actually bring to the table.

So...looking for another player? :D

I had considered house-ruling that eagles only get 1 attack at +3, not 3. But then looked at a druid's animal companions and realized I'd have to do the same thing there, too, in order to be more fair and not targeting my friend's MS specifically. So I am letting the eagle stand as is, even though a SM1 with 3 +3 attacks/rnd is unbalanced compared to the rest of that list.

Eh, its the combat brawler of the 1st level list. Diehard just make it stick around to be a PIA, as the staggered condition leaves it with 1 attack, not 3. It gets to land 3 shots, even if its on the ground (huh?) I'd think it'd need to be hovering and to make its flight check for that one.

At 3rd level its relevant. By 5th its a mere distraction.

My GM let me use Summon Minor Monster as part of my SLAs. If you want overpowered, sic 5 skunks on someone (That lasted 1 encounter as well. I keep those in reserve for roleplay fun like turning them loose on bar fights now).

I'm ancient and decrepit as well. I just turned 44, am married, and have a non-RPGing yet understanding wife.

I can see how the summoner gets a bad rep. The SLA ability knocks it out of the park at low levels.

How about, "you get 2 channels at a time. 1 of them can be your eidolon"? To dismiss the action economy bottleneck I noticed, let them freely dimiss their eidolon when they bring something else in, maybe at 4th level?

Or, just leave it as is, and let them enjoy their nova 1 or 2x/day if they so choose. Beyond 5th level, I don't think its going to be much of an issue except for turn hogging.

I think that the more important questions are: where is Otherworld gaming and how do I get in on it? He sounds like he runs a good game!

BTW, should anyone care, here's my gestalted, heavily houseruled Master Summoner, and here's my customized (we swapped stats around) eidolon.

Charon's Little Helper wrote:

JJ Jordan wrote:

On his turn, he begins casting. Then on the bad guys turn, they see him casting, attack him, and force concentration checks by him just to complete the spell.

Except the MS gets to summon as a standard action as an SLA.

Okay, that archetype is broken, yo.

Have the ruins underneath Sandpoint activate "something" so that dimensional travel is limited and get the player to play as a regular summoner.

Every summoner gets that as a standard action, yo.

Experiment 626 wrote:

Diehard's probably coming from "Summon Good Monster".

And if they have horsechoppers, he's going to summon the eagles inside their reach. I would.

Yes - he's got Summon Good Monster (being a good-aligned Aasimar and all).

Dang! Right. He has summoned them right next to the gobs, so no AoO coming in.

Adept goblin, burning hands spell, use the traits and feats characters get so they're cranking out +2 CL. Add a level of rogue so even their acid splash cantrips hurt, use the goblin racials on stealth, and give them cheapo, partially charged wands with their wealth by level money. A couple of web spells on the summons or scorching rays sent in the summoner's direction will help matters.

Ashiel has a lot of "evil goblin tactics" posts on this board. They're a hoot to read and full of fun tricks to pull on your players.

Keep in mind that the eagles don't start out flying either...you can't summon something in mid-air.

Citation? As far as I know, that rule is to prevent people from dropping summoned creatures like rhinos on people's heads. A summoned critter can start in any "safe" space.

Now that I think about it, that seems to mean that earth elementals can start underground.

Its a game, cool your jets chief.

Mark it zero!

The way your eidolon looks is up to you. Some people can't stand that its so open-ended, but I love that. Its the missing piece that allows me to flesh out a lot of character ideas that otherwise wouldn't work.

When I was playing gestalt games I built a Tony Stark Iron Man by going gnome Synth//Alchemist (grenadier). The gnome racial goodies made for cool stuff - master tinker and +1 bomb/level really helped flesh out the mad bomber/inventor shtick. I had plans to make a homunculus tumor familiar named "Jarvis" and flavor a lot of the alchemist discoveries as suit-related tech but the game never got that far. Any summons I made would probably have been "drones" or something similar - the game provides the mechanics, I'll supply my own fluff.

I built a synth//ninja (scout) for a stealthy, pouncing scout styled after Venom with sky high perception, stealth, and disable device skills (+8 racial bonuses to skills for 1 evo point. Gotta love em!). It played a little like a tanky arcane trickster due to the ability to get acid splash and sneak damage, but was a problem on the front line due to the low-ish fortitude save. Climb and swim speeds on demand made for a robust explorer, and dropping a point for cold resistance really helped out in our cold climate campaign. I was heading for wingless flight at 5th level, and would flavor it as just being extra stealthy ("Not even tremorsense can detect me due to my suit's amazing blablablah!"), being an amazing leaper, and being able to climb even the slickest surfaces. Getting reach on the claws would have helped set up flanks, and I'd have flavored any summons as bits of suit or possibly "creatures of shadow" - we didn't play long enough for that, and the few times it might have come up, I was wearing my suit so couldn't use them.

Lastly, I helped a friend put together another for his cleric//synth combo. The cleric//synth was a reach build guy who normally ran around without his meatsuit. He used summonings to troubleshoot and turned into a big, flying, armored angel for big battles. That let him avoid the whole large/huge size problem in small spaces, too.

Linguistic tricks can be helpful. "Ben's really built around doing X, Y and Z to help _____. Buzzsaw Wolverine seems build on TWF, and I see that my strategy could get in his way. Would featherstep help him out?"

By using character names it helps shift focus from a player to his character and help keep emotions out of things. I used that approach last week in a superhero game and it seemed to work.

Banning everything that isn't direct damage is a good start.

After that, try banning everything that isn't core monk, rogue, or fighter.

I love this community! Over the last 8 years, I've been:

- threatened with physical violence
- using firearms, once
- both occasions, luckily, would require the other party to fly over the Atlantic, so no biggie
- put on an ignore list a zillion times (magnuskn still gets nightmares about how the ignore script stops working and he sees my posts again)
- had letters sent to my workplace telling that I'm a bad person and should be fired ASAP
- threatened with lawsuits (always get a giggle from these)
- told that Jesus hates me
- told that Jesus loves me
- tempbanned twice (I blame Edition Wars)

But also I've met dozens of amazing people and I hope to meet them some day. And have a drink. And play a game. Which hopefully doesn't involve physical violence using firearms...

Jesus loves you, so do I, and you can borrow one of my firearms should you ever need one!

Also, shouts go out to Dragonchess Player. That cat is always dropping knowledge. James Maissen's been very helpful in the past, too.

edit: dang it! I keep forgetting to mention EvilLincoln!

You get 1 feat at every odd level. The Ranger combat style feats are a bonus, and they don't need prereqs. For example, you can take precise shot without taking point blank shot first if you take the Archery combat style. You'll want PBS anyway because its required as a prereq for other archery feats, though.

Improved Precise at 6th level is a real bargain. It normally has very steep prereqs that you get to bypass due to it being part of your combat style.

Making a level 1 anything won't take much time.

What would you like to do?

Rogue? Rogue with a splash of magic? Ninja? Evil casty? Fighty guy?

Once you narrow it down to a type, we can go further into archetypes, feats and the whole shebang.

I just put your stats in Herolab and made you a half elf shadow sorcerer. Nowhere near finished as yet, but:

Eeeevil Casty
Half-Elf Sorcerer (Wildblooded) 1 (Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic 0)
N Medium humanoid (elf, human)
Init +7; Senses low-light vision; Perception +3
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 13, touch 13, flat-footed 10 (+3 Dex)
hp 8 (1d6+2)
Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +3; +2 vs. enchantments
Immune sleep
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Sorcerer (Wildblooded) Spells Known (CL 1st; concentration +7):
1st (5/day)—color spray (DC 17), vanish[APG] (DC 17)
0 (at will)—detect magic, ghost sound (DC 16), light, penumbra[UM]
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 11, Dex 17, Con 15, Int 17, Wis 12, Cha 22
Base Atk +0; CMB +0; CMD 13
Feats Eschew Materials, Improved Initiative, Skill Focus (Stealth)
Skills Bluff +10, Intimidate +10, Knowledge (arcana) +7, Perception +3, Spellcraft +7, Stealth +10, Use Magic Device +10; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Common, Custom Language, Custom Language, Custom Language, Elven
SQ cloak of shadows, elf blood, hero points, mutated bloodlines (umbral)
Other Gear 150 gp
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Cloak of Shadows +1 (9/day) At 1st level, as a standard action, you can grant one target a cloak of shadows. This cloak gives the target a bonus on Stealth checks made in areas of dim or no light equal to 1/2 your sorcerer level for 1 round per 2 sorcerer levels you possess (mi
Elf Blood Half-elves count as both elves and humans for any effect related to race.
Elven Immunities - Sleep You are immune to magic sleep effects.
Eschew Materials Cast spells without materials, if component cost is 1 gp or less.

Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Umbral Your nature is to gather the darkness into yourself.

Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com
Pathfinder® and associated marks and logos are trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC®, and are used under license.

I'd go cheap on equipment. Sling, dagger, club...maybe longspear and cestus if you want to get fancy. That gives nice options to threaten at range and still punch someone if they get in your grill.

You've got nothing for swarms, so maybe some alchemist fire and acid for lobbing at whatever needs a good dose of either.

He also needs some traits, so you can pick up some class skills. You can multiclass with rogue or ninja and move toward arcane trickster levels if you like. I can't help thinking that a guy with a lot of skills is going to serve you better in what amounts to a low-magic environment, and that's pushing me toward the arcane trickster, bard, or possibly summoner (Using the eidolon as a summonable rogue-substitute while you stick with "face" skills.)

Fixed. EDIT: Dang it! You fixed it! Now I just look like a moron! I'm totally leaving it, though. :P :D

You're a pretty cool cat, too, btw. ;)

And this is how I know I'm not popular :P

Actually,I been liking the cut of your jib for a while now. Should have mentioned you.

Someone else mentioned ChainsawSam, too, which I should have. STRranger and Mathwei Ap Niall have dropped some good advice and interesting ideas over the years, as has AdAstraGames. Ravingdork's always stirring the pot, too. Set's got some funky ideas for setting.

Anyway, lots of good people on the forum, and I come away with good ideas all the time.

Now if N. Jolly would finally finish that Synthesist guide I could totally mention him here...

I'll hop on board* and agree that Ashiel and DrDeth are pretty sane, reasonable, friendly folks even when I disagree with them strenuously. I actually feel like I agree with both of them way more than I disagree...the disagreements just seem to come up a lot more in discussion.

Ain't that the way? People probably see these forums as hotbeds of strife and disagreement, but that's because people usually don't bother to post when they're nodding vigorously in agreement with what's been said. That'd make for some pretty long, boring threads if they did...

"blah blah blah, therefore, something or other."

"Yep!"

"Ditto!"

"You're so right!"

"+1!"

As to Mad Geniuses I read with enthusiasm:

Ashiel, Mark Hoover, Tarkxt, AdamantiumDragon, Deadmanwalking, Streamofthesky, AHighlyRegardedExpert, Abraham Spalding, Deathquaker, Soulgambit, Tels, TheLoneCleric, Sir Thugsalot, Cheapy, Treantmonk, Blueluck, Lemmy, Ice Titan, Lamontius, Gauss, Grick, TOZ, blackbloodtroll, MC Templar...I'm sure I'll think of 5 others just after posting this.

Menhirs will be better scout, rp and caster.

Heck, the roleplaying can be good with either. It just seems to fit the campaign world and situations our groups tend to find themselves in a little better.

I've got a saurian shaman gestalt with drunken qinggong monk levels that I'd love to play, too.

"Open the door, get on the floor, watch out for the drunken allosaur!"

Look, it's better than blindly firing arrows with notes attached to them.

Works for us!

My players will be tasked with finding some old caches of military weapons left buried by an empire that freely used necromancy and alchemy to bolster their military might. Can anyone think of some good things for the PCs to find?

Thus far I've got catapult munitions containing fast plague zombie botfly swarms, more with shadows inside contained by ghost salt, normal alchemical ammunition, frost giany bloody skeletons that were to be used as mobile artillery platforms, undead troops awaiting orders, and carrion golems.

Any other ideas? Are there some supplements or adventure paths I can snap up to help with writing up the quest for these caches?

(NSFW) Preach on, my oppressed brother!

I put a gnome pyromaniac in a synthesist suit with alchemist (grenadier) levels to simulate Iron Man in our gestalt game.

So we've got a complaining grasshopper and an industrious ant, straight out of Aesop's fables.

The guy who always comes equipped with his own healing and buffing items and spends his own gold getting them should be rewarded for his foresight. Penalize the whiners who didn't buy their own happy healing sticks instead - they're an excessive drain on party resources.

This article proved helpful for my group!

You can't go hardcore melee with that constitution and this guy is a bonus character so you might as well have fun with him by making him into a scoundrel. Harassment by hit and run raids, debuffing and cons would seem to be his bread and butter.

Be a nuisance by spamming alchemist's fire and hand crossbow bolts. Take the poisoner archetype and put drow poison on everything. Change some to inhaled type and mix it with smokesticks if you can, or use poison tubes if you can't. Use nets. Jack your disable device as high as you can and then set about sabotaging everything. Buy a bunch of bear traps and trespasser's boots and use them. Use sovereign or alchemical glue to glue doors shut and render locks unusable. Seduce maidservants and steal or make impressions of important keys and case households. Using combat maneuvers with a reach weapon to avoid AoOs would also seem prudent, as would buying trained riding dogs and other guard beasts and using hired muscle to do your dirty work for you. If you have to do the combat thing, you can always stay at reach and flank with a long spear. You've got lowish hit points and not much armor, so positioning and miss chances from smoke will have to do.

I'd probably switch to alchemist levels next and either keep racking up your sneak attack dice by going vivisectionist with a side of internal alchemist or grab grenadier levels and enjoy packing alchemical weapons into your longbow (or crossbow if you decide to pick up something else with your martial proficiency).

Check out these threads for some inspiration:

Being Batman

Rogue Optimization

The ninja archetype/alternate class would be even better, IMO, due to the ki pool tricks. Does he hate them because of the Asian fluff? If so, ask to take regular rogue weapons and grab the ki pool...you can call the shuriken "throwing knives" and use the same mechanics. Its hard to beat the action economy that the ki pool gives you for smoke bombs and vanishing, and I hate having to waste a rogue trick getting access to it only to have it not be as good.

Its too bad there's a "no 3rd party" rule in place. I just picked up Rogue Glory and it has a lot of great stuff in it - equipment, improved rules for crafting simple traps and some archetypes that I thought were pretty cool. You might want to pop for it and hope he lets some of the stuff in, if not the archetypes. Its quite inspirational, if nothing else.

Ah, thanks for the heads-up there. I don't play PFS, so that's never come up.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that you can comission armor for your familiar, too. A tiny suit of masterwork studded leather armor is a mere 175 gp, weighs 2 lb, max dex bonus +5, and no armor check penalty, so it shouldn't impede a familiar with a Str greater than 1 (it's a medium load for a tiny Str 1 familiar, such as a house centipede). You could also conceivably put a masterwork buckler (also no armor check penalty) on some familiars, such as a monkey.

The upside to this: it's a super cheap +3 bonus to your familiar's AC and it's hella adorable. The downside: your familiar will stand out like a sore thumb.

Tiny armor divides the AC boost by half, so your +3 boost drops to +1. You're better off with plain leather or maybe a mithril chain shirt.

Our monkey has a red fez that doubles as a handy haversack. It'll be real cute when he hauls some tiny pellet grenades out and goes to work!

Is there a reason you're not checking out the hexcrafter?

I was with Lamontius until he suggested actually paying for the drink instead of slipping out and leaving the other guy with the check.

Just yell, "Fire in the hole!" and cut loose. They'll learn soon enough!

This is part of the reason why I do not allow evil characters in my game. Even if done well, as this one seems to have been done, people get mad.

Did you not read where the player is all butthurt and insulting? That has nothing to do with character alignment.

In fact, you might as well insert "Eric Cartman" as the alignment, as all I'm seeing is "screw you guys, I'm goin' home!" as to how he handled the situation.

Look stronger.

You must be daft! ;)

Cheapy has an Eidolon-less Master Summoner as well.