Expostfacto's page

I've seen in several places that picking up familiars with Eldritch heritage or the wizard's arcane bond are incredibly favored with theorycrafters and the community in general.

How do you utilize these critters to their full potential? I've seen most players with familiars practically forget they have them.

So I'm going to be playing in a three man evil party and was looking to make a high damage melee half orc.

I'm thinking either Skulking Slayer Rogue or the Executioner Archetype for the slayer class.

I'm also looking at surprise follow through and it's line.

Should I start out with a level of fighter no matter which way I go?

25 point buy, I have the intelligence so high to pick up dirty trick and other feats as well as roleplaying purposes.

STR 20
DEX 14
CON 12
INT 13
WIS 10
CHA 8

I haven't done anything with pathfinder for awhile so I'd probably go Slayer except for the fact that Unchained rogue is now available. Is rogue worth it now?

Hey I want to play a half-orc investigator going to the Noble Scion PrC. While the investigator is pretty straightforward on the skill/casting side I was wondering how people build them for combat?

I didn't see any guides in the sticky. Are there others I could be directed to?

Yeah I'm sure Half orc could probably work out. Hadn't looked at blight druid but it seems like it fits very well!

Hey there!

So I'm going to be a part of a campaign that will at the very least start in a swamp and was thinking of a thematic character. I then saw the death roll ability from the Crocodile domain and have become smitten with the idea of a grappling monk/druid.

Is this as stupid as it sounds? Any prestige classes or anything else that could help with this?

The party's going all orc so race is fairly locked in.

Does it merely produce a minor potion or scroll every so often? I heard people say it would work for selling for bp but how does a 25-150gp scroll in anyway equal a 1-4k build point?

Am I missing somthing?

Blood of the moon #6

Because it keeps getting glossed over. PLAYERS CAN REFUSE THE SONG. Stop saying it keeps people from casting and read the document. Your casters won't rage if they choose not to.

Insults for one.

This version of the Skald feels like he should be a Shouter. Riling up his allies for heroic feats but also laying into his enemies regarding their cowardliness, dishonorable acts and assorted parentage.

Heck yes! Since the class seems low in features and rather bare bones add flyting. Get some viking rap battle going on to make the skald more flavorful.

I mean who wants to fight the guy with frothing allies who just called dropped the best yo' mamma poem in all of Golarion?

Really the low quality and lack of quantity for teamwork feats really hurts here. If this guide comes with more teamwork feats.that will help (plus inquisitors, tactician fighters, and cavaliers will rejoice).

Probably one of my favorite so far. Wandering spirit is definitely a nice versatility trait that feels organic.

Like others have said seems a bit too close to oracle but I don't particularly mind it.

Yeah more focus on Inspiration (maybe more related to 3.5's factotum) seems novel and interesting rather than "Hey guys we made a less ridiculous vivisectionist", which is what it feels like now.

A paladin can still use lay on hands as a swift while TWF with a light shield.

Leadership feat

Wyvern cohort

bump

Ah ok! I just misread that page. Thanks!

You can have as many as you want, you just have to pay for the preparation of each on. One district is not enough to make a decent settlement. I would say 4 is decent.

What's the cost for district preparation I can only find cost for hex preparation

What would the ACR of a diminutive Shadow(CR3) army be? Do I just drop down to fractions or would it still be too small to use?

What would the ACR of a tiny Shadow army be?

Repeat after me " vital strike is not now nor was it ever intended to replace a full attack".

Seriously this gets tedius and old and people keep msking this silly comparison. Vital strike let's you do more damage in situations where you can make only a standard action. Out side of an archer my experience is this happens all the time yet when people discuss vital strike its always in a world that all enemies are with 5 feet.

Anyhow sorry about the rant but this is the third vital strike thtead in the last few days. Vital strike let's you have more tactical options and makes the need to move and attack less painfull. Fighters have more than enough feats to choose this.

No problem with the rant!

I should have made the title less inflammatory because I didn't see vital strike as terrible as everyone seem to say it is.

Well, Mojorat just said everything I wanted to say. So, I agree with him.

Pirate Rob and I had a discussion on this at a Con last weekend. We both agreed that it's a solid feat if your GM plays encounters half-way intelligently, and doesn't just throw slog-fest after slog-fest at you.

You'd think that for how highly praised Pounce is, Vital Strike would rate a bit higher in many forumgoer's books. They are fairly similar in point. The difference between them does not account for the much larger disparity in views towards them.

Same as above for you cheapy I apologize since this gets hammered over more than it should in the forums.

I think the overwhelming opinion against vital strike clouded my judgement for a second. Then again it's just kind of a forum trend like 'monks sux lol', 'why bows>than X-bows?!!11' that show up all the time.

So in order to salvage the thread (maybe) I'll go with some of the posts above.

What are your favorite builds to put vital strike in?

(should this be moved to General?)

Is a settlement limited to one grid? If you add more how many do you think is appropriate so it doesn't get out of hand?

It really seems that by losing your static bonuses you give up a lot of damage potential.

Although I think vital strike would be better for mobile builds who want to not fall into the 'full attack every round' humdrum.

I'm gonna go ahead and say Barbarian.

While the Paladin is clanking up to the target to get his one big Smite swipe off (which he can only do like 3 times a day), the Barbarian just looks at the guy, Rages, says "CHAAAARGE!!!!" and has full attacked the beastie by the end of the round.

Smite applies to all attacks against the enemy until the paladin sleeps or the enemy dies

Nothing hipstery about the champion of hidden wonders in the dark corners of the world.
(He was into protecting the people of the Darklands before it was popular. :) )

Great choice for a svirfneblin deity-figure. Benorus got some use in Wayfinder #9 too.

I'd tell you more about my favorite angel, but he's too underground.

Also another +1 for Dammerich. He also allows me to use one of my favorite groups of phrases from the history/Big O. CAST IN THE NAME OF GOD. YE NOT GUILTY

I made an executioners sword magical item that had that scrivened in the side but changed based on who drew it. If they weren't righteous in their execution it would do less damage and become merciful and the side said YE GUILTY.

If an evil character picked it up it said CAST IN THE NAME OF GOD. YE NOT. and didn't work

Dervish Dance

Only on the paizo forums though

Examples may be fictional exaggerations from the Advice forum:

"I want to make a reach weapon dex fighter any advice?"
"You should switch to scimitar and take dervish dance"

"I want to make a dex cleric of calistria"
"You should switch to saranae and take dervish dance"

"I'm thinking of making a strength based sword and board fighter"
"You should drop the shield and strength and switch to dex and go for dervish dance"

"So I'm thinking of making a dex monk who doesn't use weapons"
"You should see if your DM will let you flurry a scimitar and use dervish dance."

Benorus

/hipster glasses

EDIT: To explain I like that even if he's lesser with little fluff there is something that is allowed to be in the underground/underdark without LOLEVIL

Alex Cunningham wrote:

I had no idea Arshea was so popular.

I think the biggest pull is that s/he's such a positive figure, but Paizo's art department perfectly pulling off making him/her attractive to almost anyone helps too. :)

Where do they have art of the empyreal lords? I only know them from the Inner Sea World Guide

blackbloodtroll wrote:

Yes.

Anything that adds to, or alters, attack rolls, does so to Combat Maneuvers as well, because Combat Maneuvers are attack rolls.

This is why Weapon Finesse can be used to alter the stat used when performing Combat Maneuvers with the appropriate weapons.

Actually... this brings up a good point, one that hurts the case for Guided Hand with CMB. As far as I know, Weapon Finesse *can't* be used with CMB. After all, isn't that why Agile Maneuvers exists?

I could be wrong, perhaps Agile Maneuvers is if you want Dex with everything, where-as Weapon Finesse only applies with light weapons and unarmed... though that still seems to cover a lot of things you'd use Agile Maneuvers for. I actually am less certain now.

Weapon Finesse only applies on finesse weapons and only works on sunder, disarm and trip iirc. Learning that has made agile maneuvers worse in my head but if you want to do dex grappling or what not far be it from me

To be honest I'm not a fan. Most of the time they don't really play different from normal characters. Like mentioned above they're the new drizz't and common as dirt. This also means that most groups don't have NPCs react harsh enough if a horned red person walks through the hamlet of Dirtvale and no one cares.

I've never seen one played in person (my group is excellent and could change my opinion) but online games have left a bad taste in my mouth.

The roleplay is going to go down three tracks:
1)Everyone hates me because I'm a devil but I'm good!
2)Everyone thinks I'm evil and they're RIGHT! MUAHAHAHA (see also players that can't play evil alignments well)
3)Oh no I have to resist my evil inner nature and do the right thing. Also known as roleplaying any character with moral qualms. But at least other morally uncertain characters don't have their angst show up when they're ordering breakfast.

Mostly I dislike alignment based outsider mixes so I dislike aasimar just as much. They show big problems of "look how much I follow my birth alignment" or "look how much I don't follow my birth alignment" roleplay.

Although now at the end of my stream of consciousness rant I realize I have seen one played decently in 4e as a female bard.

Conan is a multiclass fighter/rogue in the books. He leans more barbarian in the movies. He is a cultural barbarian not a D&D class one.

The orc cavalier in my campaign raised his allosaurus mount's Intelligence to 3 a while ago and I haven't really thought about it a lot but what are the implications of this besides sentience.

Any rules based things I should know?
Any cool tricks he could use?

Does a witch threaten adjacent squares? The character does have Feral combat training and I was wondering whether or not they could make adjacent attacks with their hair or would just use IUS instead.

Like for Catfolk with their racial trait or Ratfolk with the feat

Would teamwork feats be overpowered or too strong if inquisitors, cavaliers, and tacticians could just always use and had no round limits?

I'm thinking no but want to see opposing arguments.

So I have a campaign I'm DMing and have allowed the cavalier to use a large lance two handed when mounted.

What reach would this have around the 4 squares that represent him and his mount?

What about a normal medium lance?

For instance bloody and burning skeletons.

Actually, Ninja is Rogue.

You know what I meant

So about the ninja / rogue thing. As the ninja is an alternate class of the rogue, what class features does the character have access to? I know there is some overlap, and since there are rogue talents that unlock the Ki Pool and Ninja tricks it seems unnecessary to house rule a further exception.

Thanks!

The ninja/rogue merger is mostly due to the fact that as much as I hate cries of OP or UP on the internet, Rogues really get shafted compared to say, alchemists or bards. It's a slight boost in power to try and compensate. It's based on this thread I made awhile ago. And my solution is less boosted than many suggested but is based on a lot of the responses.

I'm the GM and one of my players is a kobold rogue/ninja (I houserule it as a single class).

His weapons of choice are the kusari-gama and the Kobold Long lash tail attachment.

I want to make sure these would work flanking. Or for that matter, which areas would he threaten?

Does it matter which way I apply templates?

If you think it does which order seems right to you?

Hmm....I honestly didn't see Thalin's post. That is interesting, but those two archetypes don't stack, sadly :/.

There's only one archetype in thallin's post though.

I'd vote paladin.

wraithstrike wrote:

I will also add that if you try to make sense of every rule in this game, so that it is realistic you might have a few headaches. Throw a bone to "because the rules say so", and life will be a lot easier.

Yeah, if there is a thing about the game that I'd take a physics microscope to, it'd be the commoner railgun (aka, line up a thousand Commoners in a row, then have them pass a cannonball to the one next to them. The cannonball will have traveled nearly a mile in 6 seconds; so when the last commoner lets go it'll be going over 250 mps [~830 feet/sec]).

The commoner railgun is a misconception by people who try to combine physics with RaW. It doesn't work that way

The cannonball does accelerate to 250mps but then is thrown as far as the last commoner can throw it based on his strength score (not far) and uses his BaB (not good).

It just rapidly accelerates and ends with a normal guy throwing a cannonball as fast as a normal person can throw a normal cannonball.

It says the character level is the caster level but what is the save DC based on?

Is there even one?

I was looking at the vitriol that is the Cavalier hate thread in general discussion and most people said that fighters, particularly the dragoon do it better.

But how to get the mount? Leadership? Class dip and boon companion?

Without going against your type and suggesting you add spellcasting here's some feats that can be cool for fighters that aren't going to focus on TWF with shields.

Shield Focus
Missile Shield
Disruptive
Spellbreaker
Ray shield

Now Disruptive and spellbreaker make you a good anti-mage and also lead into ray shield which is a lot of fun by straight out negating one of the spells cast at you.

Shield specialization isn't great but greater shield specialization is pretty good. negate a critical hit once a day and you hardly ever get critted thanks to the bonus ac vs confirmation.

Look into Tower shield specialist and Phalanx fighter if you're not going to bash.

Also I'd highly recommend combat reflexes to make sure enemies don't just ignore you.

Oh, and I don't need any comments on how "wizards are the best at minionmancy."

They aren't oracles are :p

It is 1 feat and that's the one crossbow mastery is the only thing a that isn't needed on an archer. Maybe rapid reload but that's not a problem.

Well, you can take it, now you do not provoke for shooting in melee, bad luck reloading does provoke.

I find "the book is not perfect you can always houserule" as a more honest answer, at least that admit there was a problem in the first place.

As thejeff pointed out why would a crossbowman not have crossbow mastery?

The real qustion is "why Ihave to pay an extra feat to just play my character concept and STILL be just plain inferior than archers".

2-5 damage? afther manyshot we are talking about 10+. At mid levels we are talking about much more.

And? Why does it matter? My hypothetical party member who is playing a sword and board fighter does less damage than a sword and board fighter with TWF and does WAY less damage than a two handed fighter Beef McLargeHuge clone but he fulfills what a fighter should be as far as the game goes, someone who is capable in martial combat. If I'm playing a crossbow fighter do I lament that the monster would have died 1 round earlier if I had played an archer? Nah the monster still died and we still conquered the encounter.

And point blank master make archers a melee range combatant when needed, the poor crossbomen still do not have that option.

Point blank master is totally an option for crossbow read the feat. It isn't for rangers but it is if you have a sane DM. Before you counter with "WELL YOU SHOULDN't NEED DM FIAT" remember even the core book admits the rules are a guideline.

It is all fine taht a simple weapon to be inferior, But why on earth AFTHER spending a tax feat the crossbowman is still just plain weaker? how that can be fair and good desing?

This isn't videogame PVP. As long as everyone can be useful inferior doesn't matter. Is a crossbow fighter slightly weaker than an archer? Yes. Is a crossbow cripplingly unviable? No

Expostfacto wrote:

But as I've said before if you're not playing a party of 4 schrodinger's wizards apparently you are not playing PF 'correctly' for most posters here. (Although I'd love to see how those wizards survive past level 3 in any real game)

Did someone really say that? Or are we using hyperbole?

Absolute and disgustingly unfair hyberbole :)

Really this thread is about the bottom say 20-30% of stuff that's just so awful that game would be likely be better if it didn't exist at all. This is the stuff that new players look at and think must be viable options, otherwise why would the game even bother to have them? But they aren't viable, just wastes of feats, class abilities, etc, and picking them means falling into a trap of very bad choices.

That's quite a bit different from saying people have to optimize. Heck, from a certain point of view it is anti-optimization. We're really saying that the level of system mastery in 3.5/PF is far too high, and a lower level would make for a better game. Such a thing would reduce the impact of optimizing (and make more builds viable).

No that's not what this is about that's what the "What's the most useless feat" thread is about. The OP in his first post says "WHY WOULD SOMEONE EVER FOCUS ON CROSSBOWS THEY'RE SOOOO TERRIBLE". They're not. You lose out on 2-5 damage a hit and have to take 1 more feat than bows. OH NO!

"Sub-Optimal" does not equal "Ineffective".

I have played non-Teleportation-ist Wizards... They weren't gimped.

I have played a Barbarian that didn't use any of those rage powers... He wasn't gimped either.

Never used a crossbow as my primary, but... whatever.

Currently playing a ranger with crossbow style. Works just fine.