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I'm currently building a Level 5 Wizard from scratch, and I expected that I would be able to start out with a +1 Explorer's Clothes given that the +1 Potency Rune for Armor is a 5th level item. However, going over Table 10-10 Character Wealth, it seems I'm not allowed to pick any 5th level items for my character.

I find this rather weird, because going by Table 10-9 Party Treasure by Level, the row for Level 4 indicates that the party as a whole should already own 2 5th level items by the time they reach Level 5. Also, wouldn't it be a big deal for a Level 5 character to *not* have a +1 armor, given how the game is balanced around the idea of the PCs having access to such items at the appropriate levels?

What makes this a bit frustrating for me is that I was planning on making my Wizard specialise in Crafting, so even though I wouldn't be able to start with a +1 Explorer's Clothes, I would be able to Craft one just fine. Is there anything preventing me from doing that?

Am I missing something here?

The title says it all really. If I'm an Oracle VMC Cleric can I take an Inquisition or an Animal/Terrain domain as my level 3 VMC ability?

The title says it all really. If I'm an Oracle VMC Cleric can I take an Inquisition or an Animal/Terrain domain as my level 3 VMC ability?

Take the feat "Additional Traits" for Hierloom Weapon and Killer.

Hierloom Weapon can give you proficiency with the Scythe.

And Killer would add +4 to your damages on a crit/CdG since your Scythe has a x4 modifier. That should help make up for your negative Strength modifier.

Why would I need proficiency if I only want to use this weapon for coup de grace which automatically hit anyway?

Pretty sure your crit would be 8d4 + 3d8 - 2 with that scythe… I don’t remember exactly where the rule is located, but I remember there is a rule that states you do not multiple negative ability modifiers on crits.

AFAIK you simply roll damage a number of times equal to your crit modifier, which would mean you also apply your penalties an equal number of times (since you would normally also apply them to each damage roll individually).

The only thing I can think of is to use a firearm instead.

Technically a coup de grace has to be done with a melee weapon, a bow or a crossbow (unless I missed an FAQ or something) but this is clearly an oversight, so any decent GM should allow it.

The main advantage of a firearm is that you don't suffer the STR-penalty, but also a Double Hackbut deals 2d12 damage, so a +1 Thundering Double Hackbut would deal 8d12+3d8+1 (~66.5) damage on a crit. The main downside is that it's heavy.

Obviously if your GM doesn't want firearms in your campaign you can ignore this advice.

The other thing I thought of is to get an Agile Thundering Light Pick when you get to a a level that would let you take a +2 enchantment, but that's probably not yet. I also haven't checked the maths on it.

While I love this idea mechanically, the idea of roleplaying a stealth assassin witch slumbering people, only to then kill them by setting up an entire heavy firearm contraption just to kill someone seems a bit impossible to me haha. I guess the Thundering enhancement doesn't synergize with stealth assassinations either since it involves sound and sonic damage, but that somehow seems less far-fetched to houserule as only affecting the creature struck (since no else seems to suffer any damage either).

Hi all,

I'm building a Witch with the Slumber hex and I would like for her to be able to coup de grace her helpless enemies herself. However, she has 7 Str, so her damage output is abysmal, meaning even if she would coup de grace someone they would most likely still be able to make their Fort save. So I got to thinking what would be the best weapon for her to coup de grace with to potentially boost this damage.

She's a level 6 character and we're using automatic bonus progression, meaning she can get a +1 enhancement bonus on a weapon or an equivalent special weapon quality. Here's what I came up with:

1) Coup de grace automatically hits, so she doesn't even need to be proficient with the weapon, since the only penalty for non-proficiency is a -4 to your attack roll. This is entirely irrelevant here.

2) We want a x4 crit weapon.

Combining points (1) and (2), the scythe (2d4-2/x4) is the most obvious choice. However, this still only deals a meager 8d4-8 damage. Quite terrible actually.

3) We still have a +1 enhancement bonus to play with, and thanks to Automatic Bonus Progression this can also be a special weapon property with a +1 equivalent bonus. For this, I think we could make use of the [Thundering](https://aonprd.com/MagicWeaponsDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Thundering) special weapon quality:

A thundering weapon creates a cacophonous roar like abilities thunder whenever it strikes a target with a successful critical hit. The sonic energy does not harm the wielder. A thundering weapon deals an extra 1d8 points of sonic damage on a successful critical hit. If the weapon’s critical multiplier is ×3, add an extra 2d8 points of sonic damage instead, and if the multiplier is ×4, add an extra 3d8 points of sonic damage. Subjects dealt critical hits by a thundering weapon must make a successful DC 14 Fortitude save or be deafened permanently.

Since the scythe is a x4 crit weapon, I think this would automatically deal an additional 3d8 damage on any coup de grace for a total of 8d4 + 3d8 - 8 damage, which is an average of 25 damage. This would make the DC of the ensuing Fort save 10 + 25 = 35, which is pretty impossible for anyone to hit at level 6.

My question is twofold: (1) Is all of this valid? (2) Can you do better?

The Spell Entangle requires preexisting plants, weeds, or something similar to be present in order to function at all, so it usually cannot be cast indoors (the presence of decorative plants and the like notwithstanding). I'm looking for ways to create the necessary conditions for Entangle to function in otherwise barren places without resorting to cheese like carrying around a plant all the time.

I recently stumbled upon the Witch hex Swamp's Grasp, which states:

The witch can cause an area to become an entangling quagmire.

Effect: One 10-foot square per witch level within 90 feet becomes difficult terrain for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the witch’s Intelligence modifier. If the witch uses this hex again before the duration of the previous use has expired, the effects of the previous use of this hex end immediately.

It doesn't explicitly mention plants or the like, but as far as I know "plants" is not an actual game term (aside from the creature type, which is not relevant here), let alone "weeds", etc. The other flavor terms used in the ability ("swamp", "quagmire" and "entangling") suggest to me it wouldn't be unreasonable to target such an area with the Entangle spell.

Would you say that an area affected by Swamp's Grasp would meet the necessary conditions for Entangle?

Thanks! That lines up with how I would intuitively expect this ability to work, it's just that the wording made me confused a bit.

I have a question about the action economy involved with the Deliver Touch Spells ability of the Ashiftah Witch archetype. It says:

Deliver Touch Spells (Su): Starting at 3rd level, an ashiftah can use her veil to deliver touch spells. After casting a touch spell, as a full-round action, she can tear a strip from her veil and whisper to it, designating a target. She then releases the scrap of fabric, which drifts on the wind to the target and delivers the spell as a ranged touch attack. The target must be within 20 feet of the witch. The veil mends itself after the spell is delivered.

The ability mentions that she can deliver touch spells as a full-round action after casting a touch spell. I take this to mean that you cast the touch spell as part of the full round action that it takes you to deliver it, but RAW this seems a bit unclear. It could also mean you first must use a standard action as normal to cast a touch spell, and then on your next round you can use a full round action to deliver it.

What do you think?

Happy to hear that, thanks!

Slightly off topic but would the distinction between nonlethal and lethal even matter in this case? I mean, say you wanted to lethal damage rather than nonlethal damage. The only difference is that the nonlethal damage would cause the enemy to fall unconscious rather than die, but at that point you can just walk up to them and kill them after the fight anyway, right?

So, really, the fact that you're dealing nonlethal damage seems like an additional perk of this ability, seeing as how you can easily "convert" it back to lethal damage retroactively by simply doing a coup de grace on the unconscious target.

The Torture subdomain's Painful Smite ability says:

Prior to making a melee attack roll, you can choose to convert all damage from that strike into nonlethal damage, adding your Wisdom modifier to the damage. [...]

Say I'm attacking with a greatsword and I want to use this ability. Will I have to take a -4 penalty on the attack roll because I'm using a lethal weapon to deal nonlethal damage?

The Hexenhammer's Withering Gaze ability states:

Hexenhammers study the effects of a witch’s evil eye, and can use this dark magic to steel their gaze in a similar manner. Beginning at 1st level, whenever a hexenhammer successfully demoralizes a creature as a standard action, instead of applying the shaken condition, she can apply the effects of the witch evil eye hex as if she were a 1stlevel witch (save DC = 10 + 1/2 the hexenhammer’s inquisitor level + her Wisdom modifier).

The important bit here is that this only works if you demoralize as a standard action, so it won't work with things like Cornugon Smash which demoralize as a free action. My question is about the Inquisitor spell Blistering Invective, which you cast as a standard action and states

You unleash an insulting tirade so vicious and spiteful that enemies who hear it are physically scorched by your fury. When you cast this spell, make an Intimidate check to demoralize each enemy within 30 feet of you. [...]

Would the demoralize from this spell work with the Withering Gaze ability, since the spell is cast as a standard action?

If I am a Wizard VMC Rogue for example, would I also get all the Rogue's class skills in addition to those of a Wizard?

The Enlightened Paladin gets the Ki Pool ability at 4th level, which states:

At 4th level, an enlightened paladin gains a ki pool with an effective monk level equal to his class level. The number of points in an Enlightened paladin’s ki pool is equal to 1/2 his class level + his Charisma modifier. By spending 1 point from his ki pool, he can ignore any damage reduction possessed by the target of his personal trial ability for 1 round. This ability otherwise functions as the monk ability of the same name and replaces channel positive energy.

My question is about the part where it says it "otherwise functions as the monk ability of the same name". A Monk can spend ki points to increase his movement by 20ft or gain a +4 dodge bonus to AC for 1 round. Does that mean the Enlightened Paladin could also spend ki points to gain those effects? Or can he only use his ki pool to ignore damage reduction on his personal trial target? I'm a bit unclear what the word "otherwise" entails in this context.

If anyone has any Feat (chain) suggestions for this build in general, those would also be greatly appreciated.

@blashimov: Thanks for the detailed feedback, I can definitely see where you're coming from. I actually hadn't seen the Unchained Barbarian before, but that sounds perfect for what I want. I will consider everything you said and see if I can figure out a new build. Opening up feat slots by dropping Raging Vitality already sounds good, though I wouldn't immediately know what to swap it with. Especially because the Level 7 Power Attack came from a Bloodline Feat, so if I move that to Level 1 I can only replace it with a very limited amount of other feats.

Also, wouldn't I technically enter Level 6 with 2 Arcane Strike damage because of Magical Knack?

As for buying inherent bonuses, are you talking about scrolls of Wish or similar stuff? I think those take a little too long before they become accessible for me.

Savage Barbarian sounds very good if I do indeed take 3 levels in Barbarian, very interesting!

Your BaB will suffer drasiticly in your current build. You are going to need help hitting high AC targets since 2/3 classes are not full BaB.

I do plan on being mostly melee focused, but I am in doubt about whether or not adding a few more BAB is going to be worth dropping the ability to cast higher level spells for.

The way I see it, Dragon Disciple and the Abyssal bloodline power gained through Eldritch Heritage give me a total of +10 Str, which translates to an additional +5 to hit I otherwise would not have had. In effect, as far as my to-hit is concerned, this would be equivalent to having a BAB of +18. What's more, since I focus on natural weapon I can make all of my 4-7 attacks using my full BAB instead of having a lower to-hit on each consecutive attack were I to use iterative attacks.

Add to that the Str bonus I get from raging, or the Str bonus I get from going into Dragon Form and the eventual +6 bonus from a Belt. All these things combined, I will have a to-hit bonus of +36 to +41 at level 20 on all of my attacks. Am I wrong to think that this should be more than enough to hit even higher level enemies reliably?

As for your build, I feel you will lack rage rounds into the higher levels. Perhaps Community Minded instead of Berserker of the society will net you more rage rounds.

I agree that rage rounds may be somewhat limited at later levels. By my calculations I should have about 16 at level 20. For sustained battle this is likely not enough, though in these cases I could temporarily switch to either using my Breath Weapon or going into Dragon Form without raging, which should still be plenty sufficient at dealing damage I think. Also, am I missing something? I do not immediately see how Community-Minded would help with additional rage rounds for me?

I will reitterate...if you try to do too many things you will not be great at a single thing. Pathfinder rewards a narrower focus of your character.

I agree. I try to find a balance though, between having a narrow focus and keeping the character varied enough for optimal playing pleasure. Obviously I have made some compromises in favor of flavor and deeper spellcasting progression, but as I point out earlier in this post, I think the compromises I made do not invalidate the melee aspect of this build in the slightest. I think the character will still be a very reliable melee fighter even in later levels, and even with the compromises I made.

At level 20 I should be able to do any of the following while raging and in human form:

bite +36 (1d6+31+1d6+1), 2 claws +36 (1d6+23+1d6), 1 gore +36 (1d8+23) or

+5 furious longsword +36/+31/+26 (1d6+23/19-20), bite +31 (1d6+15+1d6+1), claw +31 (1d6+15+1d6), 1 gore +31 (1d8+15) or

+5 furious longsword +36/+31/+26 (1d6+31/19-20), bite +31 (1d6+15+1d6+1), 1 gore +31 (1d8+15)

This is excluding Arcane Strike and Power Attack damage, which would amplify the damage way more. It is also excluding any potential spell buffs I could give myself, such as Haste, Heroism, etc. I can also apply Cornugon Smash and Noxious Bite for further debuffs. And obviously this gets even more impressive if I do take on a Dragon Form, which not only adds more Strength but also adds 2-3 more natural attacks to work with.

I've been wanting to make a Dragon Disciple build for a long time. After a lot of thinking and tinkering I decided on going for a Barbarian 2 / Sorcerer 8 / Dragon Disciple 10 build focused on using natural weapons. I chose natural weapons both for thematic reasons and because my BAB will be relatively low, making natural weapons a better offensive choice than iterative attacks (especially during lower levels).

I also realize that Bloodragers exist, which basically combine the Barbarian and Sorcerer classes into a single convenient package, but I decided against this. The main reason was that I wanted more than just 4th-level spellcasting. From an optimization perspective it is probably not optimal to take all 10 levels of Dragon Disciple, instead only taking 8. Again, for thematic reasons, I decided to do so anyway, because the upgrade to their Dragon Form ability really fits with the character I'm imagining.

The flavor of my character in short is basically someone who has a demonic dragon's spirit raging within him (represented by the Barbarian's Rage ability at lower levels). As he progresses in levels, this dragon spirit manifests itself in physical changes (claws, horns, wings, and bite attacks), and in the ability to tap into the draconic energy for spellcasting.

The build I'm currently thinking about is as follows:

Race: Human
Stats: STR 16+2, CON 15, DEX 10, INT 10, WIS 8, CHA 14 (20 point buy)
Bloodline: Draconic (green dragon)
Traits: Berserker of Society, Magical Knack
Racial: Focused Study (3 Skill Focus feats over time instead of the single Human bonus feat)

Progression:
1. Barbarian 1 (Feats: Skill Focus (Knowledge planes), Raging Vitality)
2. Barbarian 2 (Rage Power: Lesser Fiend Totem)
3. Sorcerer 1 (Feats: Eldritch Heritage (Abyssal), Abilities: Claws (1d4))
4. Sorcerer 2
5. Sorcerer 3 (Feats: Arcane Strike, Abilities: Resist acid 5)
6. Dragon Disciple 1
7. Dragon Disciple 2 (Feats: Power Attack, Cornugon Smash, Abilities: Dragon Bite, Claws (magic))
8. Dragon Disciple 3 (Feats: Skill Focus (Intimidate), Abilities: Breath Weapon (1/day))
9. Dragon Disciple 4 (Feats: Intimidating Prowess, Abilities: Claws (1d6))
10. Dragon Disciple 5 (Feats: Toughness, Abilities: Blindsense (30ft))
11. Dragon Disciple 6 (Feats: Improved Eldritch Heritage (Abyssal), Abilities: Dragon Bite (+1d6 acid), Resist acid 10)
12. Dragon Disciple 7 (Abilities: Dragon Form (1/day))
13. Dragon Disciple 8 (Feats: Quicken Spell, Noxious Bite, Abilities: Breath Weapon (2/day), Claws (+1d6 acid))
14. Sorcerer 4
15. Dragon Disciple 9 (Feats: Iron Will, Abilities: Wings (60ft))
16. Dragon Disciple 10 (Feats: Skill Focus (Perception), Abilities: Dragon Form (2/day), Blindsense (60ft))
17. Sorcerer 5 (Feats: Favored Prestige Class, Abilities: Wings (90ft))
18. Sorcerer 6
19. Sorcerer 7 (Feats: Prestigious Spellcaster, Great Fortitude, Abilities: Breath Weapon (3/day))
20. Sorcerer 8

I will put the level 4 stat boost in Con and all others in Str. Combined with the stat boosts provided by the Abyssal bloodline and the Dragon Disciple class, this amounts to +14 Str, +3 Con, +2 Int and +7 natural armor at level 20. I will be able to cast 8 level spells at level 20 at an effective caster level of 18.

The build is focused around natural weapons as I said. Through the draconic bloodline, the Dragon Disciple class and the Lesser Fiend Totem rage power I have access to 2 claws, 1 bite and 1 gore attack. When transforming into a dragon I gain 2 wings and on later levels 1 tail slap attack as well for a total of 4, 6 or 7 attacks depending on the form I'm in. When my BAB becomes high enough (11+) I may also start wielding a one-handed weapon to gain 3 iterative attacks at the cost of a single claw attack (or two if I decide to wield it two-handed).

In combat I will mostly focus on being the melee damage dealer with the occasional buff/blast spell. Outside of combat I'd like to also use spells for utility and get things done through Intimidate. For flavor I also wanted to focus a bit on intimidation during combat. This is what Cornugon Smash and Intimidating Prowess are for (and I also get Skill Focus (Intimidate) for free, which certainly helps!). The idea is that my Strength and thus my Intimidate bonus will be massive, allowing me to make almost any opponent I hit shaken for 2+ rounds. As this gives them a penalty on their saving throws, I can then more easily make them nauseous with Noxious Bite that very same turn.

I think I've covered a lot of bases and I think I made a pretty good compromise between optimizing the build and staying true to the character concept. I'd like to hear any advice you may have on this build, mainly to see if I missed any potentially fitting choices! I'm open to feat suggestions, alternate multi-class progression (though I really want to be able to cast 8-level spells so I can achieve the ultimate dragon form through Form of the Dragon III), etc.

Thanks in advance for your input! (And sorry for the long post)

If I start out as a cross-blooded Sorcerer with the Draconic/Orc bloodlines and I take the 9th level bloodline power of the Orc (+2 Str which increases to +6 over time), can I also take the Improved Eldritch Heritage feat for the Abyssal bloodline and get the inherent Str bonuses provided by that bloodline and have them stack?

Assuming levels in Dragon Disciple advance both of my bloodlines (Draconic and Orc) I would eventually get +6 Str from Orc, +6 Str from Abyssal (through Improved Eldritch Heritage) and +4 Str from the Dragon Disciple stat boosts. Is this correct?

Remember that dampen presence merely allows you to make a stealth check. You still need your stealth to beat their perception (without the invis bonus I think), you still need to take move actions to hide. It's great for sneaking around but not always so wonderful in combat.

Scent isn't really a big issue. It's too slow and short range to find you.

Vanishing trick making only one attack a sneak attack can be a problem once you get more than one attack per round. From 8th level on your current character build.

Yeah, I just mentioned those feats in case they would help with what BadBird was talking about. But they don't so they're already gone! From level 12 onward I have Invisible Blade which makes Vanishing Trick work like Greater Invisibility, so at that point I can actually make multiple attacks off of a single Vanishing Trick. It seems to me that the only levels I may suffer from Vanishing Trick's single attack are levels 8 through 11, but I'm okay with that.

At level 10 I can simply cast Greater Invisibility on myself if necessary, so there's that. And I'm absolutely hooked on the idea of Dazzling Blade right now, which should also help a lot with getting off additional sneak attacks. I totally overlooked the fact that it was a swift action, which makes it so much more flexible.

I don't think I have the feats to spare for a good Two-weapon fighting build. Also, what makes Dazzling Blade better than, say, Color Spray or Glitterdust? Both of them also target Will saves and have an AoE instead of being single target. I'm also planning on taking the Blinded spell which is single target, but requires a successful Fortitude save. That way, I can target either Will or Fortitude with blinding effects depending on who I'm up against.

Also, you say Invisibility gets unreliable at higher levels; could you elaborate? I've never had a campaign go to level 10+ but we're soon starting one that most likely will. The way I understand it, there are a couple of counters to Invisibility, namely stuff like blindsense, tremorsense, scent, etc. If this is the main issue with Invisibility, I can take the Conceal Scent and Dampen Presence feats, which basically counter all of them. Except for tremorsense, but I can simply cast Fly on myself to counter that.

I realize that Vanishing Trick only works for a single attack, but at the meager cost of 5,000g I can get 5 Pearls of Power for 1st level, which makes it so I can cast it 10 times a day. That should be fine for the most part I think. If I need more attacks, I can always fall back on blinding effects or flanking, or I can just start blasting with my spells instead of trying to sneak attack.

Hey everyone, I recently posted a different thread asking for advice on a spellcasting rogue. In that thread I tried making an Arcane Trickster build, but I was told that the Arcane Trickster class is more about spellcasting than it is about sneaking about like a rogue and attacking in melee. I wanted a character whose main identity was still a rogue who mainly uses his spellcasting ability to buff himself and debuff his enemies.

So I switched to the Eldritch Scoundrel archetype for the Unchained Rogue, which was precisely what I was looking for. It gives up a few things of the Unchained Rogue, but in return you get magus-like spellcasting! You can also pick Ninja Talents in addition to all Rogue Talents, expending daily spell slots to pay for ki costs.

This is essential, as it allows me to use Vanishing Trick from level 4 onward to become Invisible as a swift action and thus easily get my Sneak Attacks off. This is why 1st level Pearls of Power are so essential. Even if Vanishing Trick is for any reason unavailable, I can use Color Spray or Glitterdust to blind my opponents and also get my sneak attacks off. If I don't want to go into melee, I can also use Acid Splash, Snowball or Scorching Ray as ranged touch attacks to also trigger sneak attacks from a distance.

My spell selection is mainly focused on buffing myself (Sense Vitals is essential for insane sneak attack damage), dealing ranged touch attack damage to trigger sneak attacks and debuff my enemies (Mirror Image, Glitterdust and Slow). Since I need one free hand to cast spells, I decided to go for a single weapon instead of going for two weapon fighting. With the Elven Curve Blade I have solid damage (1d10 with 1.5 DEX bonus damage), while still being able to cast spells whenever I want.

Feats are a bit random perhaps, but the idea is to maximize my durability (Toughness, Iron Will) while also improving my sneak attack consistency (Weapon Focus, Point Blank Shot, Accomplished Sneak Attacker). Heighten Spell is there so that I can toy around with my spell levels very freely. With it, I can also ensure that Glitterdust and Color Spray remain viable even up until the late game.

Below is a 10th level build for this character to give you an idea of what it would look like in terms of stats, etc. I'm looking for any kind of feedback you may have. Thanks a lot!

Gabriel
Elf Eldritch Scoundrel Unchained Rogue 10
N Medium humanoid (elf)
Init +9

DEFENSE
AC 24, touch 19, flat-footed 17 (+4 Armor, +7 Dex, +1 Natural, +2 Deflection)
HP 80 (10d8 + 10 + 10 + 10)
+8 Fortitude, +15 Reflex, +5 Will

OFFENSE
Speed 30ft
Melee +3 elven curve blade +18/+13 (1d10+13/18-20/x2)
Special Attacks sneak attack (3d6)

Spells
0th (5/day) Acid Splash, Detect Magic, Read Magic, Light, Prestidigitation
1st (6/day) Snowball (x2), Color Spray (x2), Silent Image, Reduce Person
2nd (5/day) Sense Vitals (+3d6), Glitterdust, Mirror Image, Scorching Ray (x2)
3rd (4/day) Fly, Slow, Haste, Fireball
4th (2/day) Greater Invisibility (x2) [at level 12 and higher I don't need this spell anymore, so I will use Confusion and Enervation instead]

STATS
STR 7, DEX 25, CON 12, INT 18, WIS 10, CHA 7
BAB +7, CMB +5, CMD 22

Rogue talents 4) Vanishing Trick, 8) Slow Reactions, 12) Invisible Blade, 16) Hunter's Surprise, 20) ?
Abilities trapfinding, evasion, alarm sense, debilitating injury, rogue's edge (Stealth, Spellcraft)
Feats Rogue) Weapon Finesse, 1) Weapon Focus (Elven Curve Blade), 3) Point Blank Shot, 5) Accomplished Sneak Attacker, 7) Toughness, 9) Heighten Spell, 11) Iron Will, 13) Extra Rogue Talent (Improved Evasion), 15) Quicken Spell, 17) ?, 19) ?
Skills Stealth (+20), Knowledge (arcana) (+12), Spellcraft (+17), Perception (+13), Sleight of Hand (+20), Sense Motive (+8), Disable Device (+20), Escape Artist (+15), Acrobatics (+15), Diplomacy (+17)
Languages Human, Elven, Celestial, Draconic, Orc, Sylvan
Traits Reactionary, Clever Wordplay (Diplomacy)
Combat Gear Headband of Vast Intelligence (+2), Belt of Incredible Dexterity (+4), +3 Elven Curve Blade, +1 Mithral Chain Shirt, Ring of Protection (+2), Amulet of Natural Armor (+1), 5x Pearl of Power (1st level), Cloak of Resistance (+2)
Bag Gear Cloak of Elvenkind

A Human's favored class bonus for Rogue's is that they get 1/6th of a new rogue talent. I have two questions as to how this FCB interacts with the Eldritch Scoundrel archetype:

1) Eldritch Scoundrels do not get a rogue talent at every 4th level, starting at level 4 (and then 8, 12, 16 and 20), but can I pick this FCB even before I ever get the rogue talent class feature? That would mean I actually get rogue talents at levels 4, 6, 8, 12 (2), 16, 18 and 20.

2) Eldritch Scoundrels have a modified rogue talent ability in the sense that they can also select from the list of ninja talents. Does this mean I can also select a ninja talent whenever I would normally get a rogue talent from the human's FCB?

Thanks!

Thanks again for all the feedback guys, really helpful! Quickened Thunderstomp sounds awesome! The Sansetsukon sounds perfect for what I want: better base damage than the scimitar and I can flurry with it like you said, totally overlooked that. Forgive the silly question (I'm still a beginner I'm afraid), but what's the benefit of having the weapon change shape and appearance? Is it necessary before it can be wielded by, say, a large earth elemental? Or will it increase the damage? I assume you're talking about the Glamered enchantment by the way.

Also, do you know for sure that primates are able to wield it? I couldn't find a source that said so, so if you have one, I'd love to read it. It sounds great!

Flowing Monk can only use their signature ability once/day at level 1. I'd use Unchained Monk if possible.

Are you set on going animal form, or are you potentially interested in elemental shapes? A big elemental swinging a weapon in two hands is a riot.

You can actually make a very interesting and powerful non-shaping melee Urban Druid as well, if that interests you; Druid spells and Divine Favor on a big, armored war-Druid with weapons.

I'm not set on going animal form only; obviously I'd start that way, but I do want to progress into elemental forms at some point as well :-) They sound really fun and I think it would make sense for my character to progress in that direction from a narrative standpoint. If I do go that way, is a scimitar still a good enough weapon do you think, or are there other better options?

I understand the logic behind splitting points between Dex and Wis for AC, but I'd rather boost Wis some more because it has better synergy with the rest of my build. I have updated by 15 point buy to be as follows now, following some of the advice from this thread:

STR 18, DEX 13, CON 14, INT 8, WIS 15, CHA 7

Where I took the human alternate racial trait that lets you put +2 in two ability scores of your choice in exchange for the bonus feat and the extra skill rank each level. That way I can get the 13 Dex required for stuff like Greater Grapple, have 14 Con + Toughness for a ton of HP, and still get my 18 Wis and 20 Str at level 7, items included.

I just realized though that even if I take 13 Dex and Greater Grapple as a feat, I can't actually use that feat in animal form as soon as I transform into an animal that is size Large or larger, since then I get the Dex penalty and no longer qualify for the feat. So yeah, that makes me rethink that entire feat line as well to be honest...

Pearls of Power are a good idea too, I hadn't thought of that. I should be able to buy some of them given that I can save some money since I don't have to buy armor.

1) If I am a Druid with 13 Dex and I have the Greater Grapple feat, what happens if I wild shape into a large animal and get a -2 penalty to Dex? Does that mean I can no longer benefit from the Greater Grapple feat until I change back to a regular Druid, since I no longer satisfy the prerequisites?

2) If I wild shape into a Behemoth Hippo and I have Improved Natural Attack (bite) and Vital Strike as feats, plus I have cast Animal Growth and Strong Jaw on myself, exactly how many dice would I roll? Normally the hippo's bite attack is 4d8, so using the progression from the Improved Natural Attack page, that would be boosted to 6d8 thanks to that feat. Then Animal Growth would turn this Hippo from Huge into Gargantuan, thus turning each 1d8 into 2d6 according to this table. So now we're up to 12d6. Strong Jaw then says to count yourself two additional sizes larger for the purposes of computing the damage dealt, but since we're already Gargantuan, the total damage is doubled instead. Before that though, Vital Strike doubles the number of dice we roll.

So to summarize, the way I see it is as follows: I would roll 24d6, then add my Strength modifier, and finally I would double the total damage dealt thanks to Strong Jaw. Is that correct?

[b]3) Do I have to make a full-round attack to get 150% STR bonus instead of the usual 100% when attacking as an animal with just 1 natural weapon? (Such as the Behemoth Hippo from question 2.) Or would I also get that increased bonus on a standard attack?

Thanks so much for answering these. I may think of more questions later but I'll just add them then :)

Thanks for all the feedback. The Flowing Monk was an old thing I forgot to remove, I've since updated my original post accordingly. Improved Trip was indeed supposed to be Improved Grapple (which removes the need for the Flowing Monk). The reason I took Dirty Fighting was indeed because I couldn't get to the 13 Dex. I could drop Wis a bit, but I really want to keep it at its current stat because of how it synergizes with the Monk's Wis to AC ability and by starting out with 16 I can eventually get up to 22 with maximized headbands, giving me an additional Level 2 Spell to use each day. And I plan on using a lot of those.

I did not go for the Goliath Druid mostly because of thematic reasons, but thank you for the suggestion nonetheless. I might have another look at it :)

What are some alternative feat chains that would work well for this character aside from the Vital Strike one? If I focus mainly on grappling, it would perhaps be beneficial to not focus on animals with just 1 attack, but those with multiple. And in those cases the Vital Strike chain won't provide as much given that the number of base dice will almost always be lower. Foregoing Vital Strike also leaves more options open, because if I do take it I might feel like I always need to transform in a Hippo...

So yeah, any advice regarding alternative feat chain?

Hey everyone,

I'm planning on playing a wildshaping melee druid in an upcoming campaign. I know that summoner druids are generally stronger, but I like the wildshaping one more from a role-playing perspective. I'm not entirely sure what would be a good build for one though, so I was hoping to get some advice from you guys. Below is a sample build I've been working on for level 7 (we're going to be doing a one shot in the near future to test our characters, and that will be held at level 7, just in case the level seemed rather random). I have listed the feats I plan on taking even after level 7 and all ability score increases from level 8 onwards will go in Strength.

Human Menhir Savant Druid 6 / Flowing Monk 1
N medium humanoid (human)
Init +3

Defense
AC: 16, touch 16, flat-footed 15 (+1 Dex, +4 Wis, +1 Deflection)
HP: 58 (1d10 + 6d8 + 7 + 7 + 7)
Fortitude +10, Reflex +7, Will +11

Offense
Melee: +1 scimitar +11 (1d6+8/18-20/x2)

Spells
0th (4/day) Detect Magic, Create Water, Light, Guidance
1st (4/day) Longstrider, Faerie Fire, Entangle, Bristle
2nd (4/day) Barkskin, Eagle Eye, Warp Wood, Cat's Grace
3rd (3/day) Greater Magic Fang (2), Aqueous Orb

Stats
STR 20, DEX 12, CON 12, INT 8, WIS 18, CHA 7 (+2 STR racial, +1 WIS at level 4; +2 STR, +2 WIS due to equipment)
BAB +5, CMB +10, CMD 25
Abilities: Nature Bond, Spirit Sense, Place Magic (7/day), Wild shape (2/day)
Traits: Reactive, Eye for Talent
Skills: Perception (+14), Sense Motive (+10), Swim (+9), Acrobatics (+5), Climb (+9), Fly (+5), Stealth (+7), Handle Animal (+4), Survival (+10), Knowledge (nature) (+7)
Feats: Monk) Improved Unarmed Strike, Monk) Stunning Fist, Monk 1) Improved Trip, Human) Dirty Fighting, 1) Power Attack, 3) Toughness, 5) Natural Spell, 7) Improved Natural Attack, 9) Greater Grapple, 11) Vital Strike, 13) Extend Spell, 15 Improved Vital Strike
Gear: Belt of Giant Strength (+2), Headband of Inspired Wisdom (+2), Ring of Protection (+1), +1 scimitar, Cloak of Resistance (+2), Wand of Cure Light Wounds (50 charges)

---

So basically the idea here is to use Wild Shape and do melee combat. If necessary I can still cast spells as well, so shaping into a flying creature and casting spells from mid air is also still a possibility, but melee is where I want the focus to be. I took 1 level in Monk so that I get Wis to AC and CMD, which really helps while I'm in my beast form. I think the Wild enchantment is just too expensive to be worth it, and this way I still get a +6 bonus through my Wis stat when I get the headband that gives +6 Wis.

I plan on casting stuff like Barkskin, Cat's Grace and Longstrider on myself to keep myself buffed and increase my AC. At higher levels I will have the Animal Growth spell and all the higher level feats (Vital Strike chain mainly) to massively increase damage for things like the Hippo. Other than that I expect I'll still be summoning some creatures, but again, I just don't want it to be the focus.

Thanks to the Monk dip I get Improved Grapply as a bonus feat as well at first level, alongside Dirty Fighting through my Human race, meaning I'll be able to grapple pretty reliably even at lower levels. Losing 1 level of spellcasting isn't that big of a deal since I'm a Menhir Savant druid and I can thus use Place Magic to increase my caster level by 1 and have it be the same as my character level again.

I would really appreciate any advice, mainly regarding the feats I've selected, my stat line and higher level equipment. Tips for my animal companion are also more than welcome!

For feats I was thinking something like:

1) Weapon Finesse, Skill Focus (Stealth), Weapon Focus / Improved Initiative
3) Accomplished Sneak Attacker
5) Combat Casting
7) Dampen Presence
9) Intensified Spell
11) Empower Spell
13) Quicken Spell
15) Spell Perfection
17) Spell Penetration
19) Greater Spell Penetration

The only problem with that is this is that it doesn't leave room for a potential Extra Rogue Talent, which sucks because Slow Reactions sounded like a nice one for this build.

You're making a mistake in dumping Strength and Charisma to 7. Perhaps you could begin with a 17 Dex and/or 15 Int? You'll get that first ability score point at 4th level...

Could you explain why I would need Strength and Charisma? The campaign will start at level 3, so I basically start with Dex to damage right off the bat. Charisma I could understand because of how I might want to save it for Disguise and Diplomacy, but even then I think the points are still better spent in Dex and Int.

If your game allows for 3rd Party material the Trickster from Kobold Publishing is EXACTLY what you're looking for.

Thanks for the suggestion, though I'm afraid 3rd party content is off the table.

I was also planning on taking the alternate Elven racial trait Forlorn which gives me Skill Focus (Stealth) as a bonus feat at level 1 in exchange for Elven Magic (+2 racial bonus on caster level checks against spell resistance) and Elven Weapon Proficiency. The Weapon Proficiency is completely useless to me, but the +2 racial bonus I'm sort of hesitant to give up...

But the Skill Focus bonus feat sounds particularly nice in this case and opens up more feat slots later. If I really start missing the +2 racial bonus, I could just take Spell Penetration later on and It'd basically be as if I hadn't picked up the alternate racial trait at all. With the added benefit that I now do meet the requirements for all feats that list Skill Focus (Stealth) as a prerequisite.

Thank you so much for the extensive feedback, it really helped give me a clearer picture of the archetype and what it's all about. Your advice on the ability scores and feats made a lot of sense as well and I feel like I have a better sense of direction now.

As for your other points, if I understand you correctly, you're basically advising me to stick to an Eldritch Scoundrel and not take any levels in Arcane Trickster. I had considered that, but I initially decided against it. It basically came down to listing the pros of each decision and weighing them against each other.

Pros of the Arcane Trickster
- You get Impromptu Sneak Attack;
- You get better Sneak Attack damage;
- You get Invisible Thief (the way I see it this is basically 9 rounds of guaranteed sneak attacks on all your attacks/spells per day, so in that sense the Arcane Trickster class most definitely does give you additional ways of triggering your sneak attacks);
- You get Surprise Spells (which sounds like one of the most unique and fun abilities in the game, allowing you to cast an Intensified Fireball for 14d6 damage + 7d6 sneak attack damage at level 14);
- You also get some other stuff like ranged legerdemain and tricky spells but those are pretty inconsequential aside from pure roleplaying encounters so I don't really count them as major pros

Pros of the pure Eldritch Scoundrel build
- You get 3 more rogue talents (though you could take feats to get the non-advanced ones even as an arcane trickster)
- You get better BAB progression
- You get rogue's edge
- You also get the level 20 master strike ability but it's doubtful our campaign will go on until 20th level anyway, so this is also rather inconsequential

To me personally, the pros for the Arcane Trickster outweighed the ones of the pure Eldritch Scoundrel build, mostly because it feels more unique and fun to play, and I can still pick up rogue talents through feats if I really want to. That means the only things I really lose out on are BAB (+8/+3 for the Arcane Trickster vs +11/+6+1 for the Eldritch Scoundrel at level 15) and rogue's edge. And if I really wanted to, I could still take a single rogue's edge by just taking 1 more level in Eldritch Scoundrel along the road. Also, after completing the 10 levels for Arcane Trickster I plan on taking any remaining levels (probably just 1 or 2 for our campaign) in Eldritch Scoundrel so eventually I would still get at least 1 unchained skill out of rogue's edge.

That's basically why I decided to go for the Arcane Trickster in the end. Hopefully that made sense, and I'm curious to hear your thoughts on that.

I'm currently working on a new character for an upcoming campaign. I'm not sure what the rest of the party will be playing, but I decided I want to play a rogue-like character capable of some spellcasting to enhance their stealth and sneak attack related abilities. Out of combat I'd like to be the party's "skill monkey" in the sense that I'd like to also be able to perform a myriad of roleplaying tasks the GM might throw at us (for example, social encounters, heists, etc).

I have come up with a shortlist of things that I'd like to incorporate into the character one way or another:
- Has to be able to deal damage both through melee attacks (Dex to damage prefered) and spells (Scorching Ray would be a must since it enables sneak attack damage, but regular blasting spells would also be welcome).
- Has to deal as much damage with sneak attack as possible (without resorting to terrible feats like the one that changes 1s and 2s into 3s when rolling for sneak attack damage).
- Has to be able to reliably trigger the sneak attacks without relying solely on flanking.
- Has to be Int-based so that I have access to a lot of skill points.

I have done some research into the possibilities already, but I'd still like your opinion in case I missed something obvious. So far an Eldritch Scoundrel 4/Arcane Trickster X build sounds the most fun and seems to match my preferences closest. I was planning something like this:

Current build
Race: Elf
15 point buy: STR (7), DEX (19), CON (12), INT (16), WIS (10), CHA (7)
Traits: Reactionary, Magical Lineage
Skills/level: 4 + INT (=7)

Level progression: (I left out the class abilities I consider mostly filler)
1: Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (dagger)
2: Evasion
3: Accomplished Sneak Attacker, Finesse Training (dagger), Sneak Attack (1d6)
4: Vanishing Trick (the ninja talent), Debilitating Injury

At level 4 my character would be able to:
- cast 2nd level arcane spells;
- use Dex to hit and Dex to damage for daggers;
- use sneak attack for 2d6 (max possible for a level 4 character, despite the Eldritch Scoundrel having lower sneak attack progression);
- use Vanishing Trick to become invisible at will as a swift action and trigger a guaranteed sneak attack;
- go into Arcane Trickster from the next level onwards.

The spells I'm most interested in using with this build for the first few levels are:
0th: Detect Magic, Read Magic, Acid Splash (because it's a ranged touch attack and therefore compatible with sneak attack)
1st: Shocking Grasp, Snowball, Color Spray (if my opponents are blinded, I can also make sneak attacks against them)
2nd: Scorching Ray, Mirror Image, Cat's Grace, Invisibility, Glitterdust, Sense Vitals

Feats I'm interested in are mostly some metamagic feats like Intensified Spell and Empower Spell (both of which work well with Scorching Ray). Perhaps I could also pick up Extra Rogue Talents via feats.

Issues I have with this build
So far, so good. What's the bad news? If I only stick to the Eldritch Scoundrel archetype, my sneak attack progression isn't optimal, since they only increase the damage at level 7, 11, 15 and 19. That's why I considered going into Arcane Trickster afterwards, seeing as how their sneak attack progression would perfectly align with my build so far. However, the problem with Arcane Trickster is that their BAB progression is significantly worse than the Rogue's.

On the flipside, this progression does make it so I never miss any levels in my arcane caster class, so my spells won't be delayed unnecessarily. As a result I don't have to take the Magical Knack trait, so I can instead pick Reactionary and Magical Lineage (most likely for Scorching Ray).

Are there any obvious alternatives I'm missing here? I'm aware of the popular Wizard 3 / Rogue 1 / Arcane Trickster X progression which has the advantage of opening up level 7+ spells as well, but there are a couple of downsides to this in my opinion:
- Your BAB becomes even worse because of the 3 levels in Wizard;
- You lose Evasion;
- You lose Dex to damage for daggers;
- You lose Debilitating Injury;
- You lose Vanishing Trick;
- You will be 1 level behind on your sneak attack damage;

Obviously the fact that you get faster spell progression and access to higher leveled spells counts for a lot too, but I wanted my build to be more about the rogue aspect of my character than the spellcasting aspect. Also, I have completely fallen in love with the concept behind Vanishing Trick so I really don't want to lose that.

Concrete questions about my build
- What do you guys think of my proposed class/level progression given my intentions for this character?
- Are there any other viable (prestige) classes which give optimal sneak attack AND caster level progression that stack with the ones from the Eldritch Scoundrel? Bonus points if they have 3/4 BAB progression, but I really doubt those exist.
- What other feats would you recommend for this character? I don't think stuff like Piranha Strike or Two Weapon Fighting is worth it... I think what's most important is making sure my attacks hit despite my less than optimal BAB which is what Weapon Focus is for. Anything else?
- Right now I'm prioritizing DEX over INT in my ability scores. Would it be better to do it the other way around? The reason I picked DEX as my primary stat is because it helps with my AC (Eldritch Scoundrels are not proficient with any kind of armor), my to-hit (very important for sneak attacks) and my Reflex saves (which means evasion becomes more helpful). I'm not sure if it's worth to compromise on those things for a higher INT stat, so I'd love some input on this.

I'm sorry for the long post, but in every thread where people ask for advice I always read responses about how the person should give a clear idea of what they actually want with their character, which is why I decided to give you all a very clear picture of how I envision him :-)

Thanks in advance for any help!

Hey, I have a question about Spells that deal damage each round, but also allow for a new saving throw each round. For example, the "Breaching the Gulf" spell-like ability of starsoul sorcerers:

Breaching the Gulf (Sp): At 15th level, your caster level is increased by 3 when casting spells of the teleportation subschool. In addition, once per day you can teleport a single creature within 30 feet into the void of space if it fails a Will save. The save DC is equal to 10 + 1/2 your sorcerer level + your Charisma modifier. The target can attempt a new saving throw as a full-round action each round to return. While trapped in the airless void, the target suffers 6d6 points of cold damage per round and must hold its breath or begin to suffocate.

Say the target fails the initial Will save and are teleported to space. When exactly do they then take the 6d6 points of cold damage? At the start/end of their own turn, immediately when the spell is cast or both? Also, when do they make the new saving throws? At the start/end of their turn? Before or after they have taking the 6d6 cold damage?

Thanks for any help with clarifying this!

I recently GM'd for the first time and did a one shot at level 10. One of the PCs was a Wizard with the Babble spell. He targeted a boss enemy I had created and I rolled badly on the save. This basically took away all the suspension because as I understand it there is no way to get rid of the nauseated condition after that.

How can you as a GM make it so that if you fail 1 single save on a spell like Babble your encounter is not entirely ruined as a result? I'm having a hard time thinking of a balanced way that wouldn't ruin the fun of the player casting it, while at the same time making it so that a boss I worked very hard on is turned into a babbling idiot before it's easily killed by the party.

Thanks for any suggestions :)

They stack because one provides an armor bonus to AC and another a shield bonus to AC. (I'll let you figure out which does what)

Haha, thanks. I should manage that ;-)

Can I carry a +5 masterwork Buckler and a +5 Mithril Chain Shirt for a total AC bonus of 6 + 9 = 15 from these two items alone? I'm not sure what the rules are for enchanting a buckler and how it stacks with regular armor.

The way I understand it, shields and armors can both be enchanted separately and apply their bonuses separately as well. Additionally, with bows you don't suffer the penalties from the Buckler and the Buckler doesn't have a maximum Dex boost, so this defensive core would be perfect (a little too good to be true, perhaps?) for high Dex archers builds. They'll only be limited by the +6 Dex boost from the Mithril Chain Shirt basically, but even then you still get a total bonus of 6 + 6 + 9 = 21 AC if your Dex is high enough.

A follow-up question to the armor my ranger would be wearing: Right now I'm planning on just getting a mithral chain shirt and improving it with enchantments as my character's wealth increases. Assuming that my GM won't allow Celestial Armor in our campaign, is it worth the money to keep investing in enchantments for this mithral chain shirt, eventually creating a +5 version of the item with some useful magical enchantments on top of that? Or would that money be better spent on some other piece of armor late game, in which case I will probably only invest in a +1 mithral chain shirt and then start saving up.

When in doubt about the rules, the best place to look is....the rules.

From the CRB Combat chapter under the heading "Mounted Combat:"

" If your mount moves more than 5 feet, you can only make a single melee attack."

That's for melee attacks only though, apparently you can make a full-round ranged attack after moving with your mount.

Also I know to check the rules, it's just that sometimes things can be a bit hard to find in there so I'd feel more comfortable checking here.

Fantasty wrote:

There still seems to be some disagreement on whether or not I'm allowed to use my mount to make a move action of 50ft and then make a full-round attack myself. I was under the impression that, even if you mount your animal companion, it still gets to complete an entire turn of its own.

Your attacks happen while your mount is moving .

If you are making a melee attack you have to wait until the end and then can't full attack (unless your target is on the back of the mount with you or something)

You can use ranged weapons while your mount is taking a double move, but at a –4 penalty on the attack roll. You can use ranged weapons while your mount is running (quadruple speed) at a –8 penalty. In either case, you make the attack roll when your mount has completed half its movement. You can make a full attack with a ranged weapon while your mount is moving. Likewise, you can take move actions normally.

It is implied here that you only take the -4 and -8 penalties if your mount takes a full move action or is running, respectively. I'd say if your mount performed a regular move action, you get to perform a full-round ranged attack without any penalties.

Okay, thanks for the clarification people, so it does take up an area of 2x2 squares.

There still seems to be some disagreement on whether or not I'm allowed to use my mount to make a move action of 50ft and then make a full-round attack myself. I was under the impression that, even if you mount your animal companion, it still gets to complete an entire turn of its own.

I don't see the need for Point blank master myself, Improved precise shot at lv6 is your best bet, remove a -4 penalty on a lot of shots.

I do like Improved Precise Shot a lot, but I plan on using my animal companion as a mount. That would allow me to still move around and try to get into a position from which I can fire without having to deal with cover, thus bypassing the need for Improved Precise Shot.

Hmmmmm, you may be right there. I keep forgetting you're a Half-Elf. 10th is about the latest I'd take it, but you should be fine until then.

Okay, thanks again :) Yeah I know I probably should have picked human from an optimization point of view, but yeah... I already had a backstory written for a half-elf even before I really looked into the specific benefits of each race and like I said, everyone picked human which felt a bit boring.

As for my stat line, I've decided to go with the following in the end:

STR: 12
DEX: 18
CON: 12
INT: 8
WIS: 14
CHA: 8

This feels the most comfortable to me. Having 8 INT and 8 CHA doesn't feel like tanking them and makes me more comfortable roleplaying my character. It also leaves me with 5 skill ranks instead of 4 which is nice because I want to also rank up Ride for my animal companion. (Yeah, I just decided to use a horse instead of a raven so that I can move around while still making full-round attacks as long as I'm mounted)

At the same time I get a little bit of STR bonus and I get to keep my 14 WIS. I think even the 1 point of bonus damage is going to put in a lot of work once I start firing off multiple attacks per round and even though 2 points of bonus damage would obviously be even better, getting to 14 STR is just too big of an investment for me.

Thanks everyone, all of your answers make a lot of sense (and they were precisely what I wanted to hear as well, haha!).

One thing though:

it occupies 2X2 squares. You are considered to be in all of them.

I remember reading in several places that horses and wolves are only large in the sense that they are "long", meaning they don't take up the usual 2x2 squares for a large creature, but only taking up 2 squares for its length, ie a 1x2 area.

I'm playing a ranger with a horse as my animal companion. During combat I'm frequently mounted on my horse so that I can fire off full-round attacks while still technically being able to move. There are a couple of things I'm unsure of with this strategy though:

1) Since the horse is my animal companion, I can command it with Handle Animal as a free action. That means I can tell my horse to move up to 50ft and then still make my full-round attack right?

2) If I am the target of a splash attack like an Alchemist's bomb for example, does my horse also get hit? If so, against whose touch AC is the attack made?

3) Since my horse is large, it occupies 1x2 squares, so if I am mounted on it, in which square am I considered to be?

4) Follow-up to questions 2 and 3: Since my horse occupies 1x2 squares, if one of the squares it occupies is the target of a splash attack, does it (after taking full damage from the main attack) also need to make a Reflex saving throw to avoid the splash damage that would normally affect the adjacent square that is also occupied by my horse?

5) If I use Handle Animal as a free action on my turn, does that mean that the horse's turn takes place "during" my free action? For example, my turn starts, I declare I use my free action to perform Handle Animal on my horse, telling it to use an Overrun attack. After that has resolved completely and my horse has moved as a result, I finish the rest of my turn by either doing a move + standard action or a full-round attack. Would that be how it works?

Thanks a lot in advance for any help you could offer with these questions.

As for dropping your bow, you'll be unlikely to ever need to. As long as you grab Weapon Focus as planned by 5th, your 6th level Combat Style Feat should ABSOLUTELY be Point Blank Master. No more provoking for shooting, so you don't really need to worry about backup weapons unless someone outright SUNDERS your bow.

Before 6th, enemies with Reach are rare, so you can just do the 5 ft. shuffle any time someone gets in melee range to keep shooting.

I do plan on taking Weapon Focus, but I'm not sure if I can do it at level 5. Right now I'm planning the following feats at the given levels:

1 - Point Blank Shot
2 - Precise Shot
3 - Rapid Shot
5 - Deadly Aim
6 - Manyshot
7 - Weapon Focus
9 - Snap Shot
10 - Point Blank Master
11 - Improved Snap Shot

After that I hadn't thought about it yet, but this should be enough for the next couple of months at least. Would you recommend I take Weapon Focus before level 6 so I can take Point Blank Master at 6? If so, which feat would you trade for it? I feel like if I postpone Deadly Aim too long my damage output is simply too low, especially since I'll also be postponing Manyshot as well.

@Glorf Fei-Hung: Thank you so much for the detailed response. It's a bit too much to quote, but all of it was very useful, especially the advice on role-playing low-INT and low-CHA characters. I sort of took this page on ability scores as a guideline for roleplaying and there it states that an INT of 7 corresponds to someone who is "Dull-witted or slow" and "often misuses and mispronounces words". That didn't sound like a lot of fun. Same with a CHA stat of 7: "Uninteresting, rude, boorish, and generally unpleasant to be around." But maybe I just should not take these so literally?

Your comments about having to drop my bow sometimes make sense, I had not considered that yet. I also indeed plan on being able to fire up to 4 arrows by level 6 (2 regular attacks, 1 additional attack through Rapid Shot and 1 additional arrow through Manyshot), so then any STR bonus you get is basically multiplied by 4 which is huge.

So just as a follow-up, you would recommend keeping WIS at 14 instead of dropping that to 13?

For archers it's tough. In the short term, yes, the Mithral Chain is best. In the long term, by the time you hit 24 Dex (which you will, and likely beyond) you've surpassed the Dex bonus of your armor, so any after that is wasted for AC. At that point, you want to buy Celestial Armor which will give you wiggle room up to 28 Dex, and even beyond that the flat armor bonus from the Chainmail will outshine your raw Dex bonus to AC.

You're correct that going normal leather to Mithril Chain is a good path, as well as Mithril Chain (already being Masterwork Quality) can become +1 Mithril Chain with the additional 1000g cost for +1 Armor, if you keep 10 Str a Longbow is fine as opposed to a composite longbow. However you will want to get a Magical Bow.

This is very good to know! Then I'll start saving up for that 1100g right away. As for the Celestial Armor, that's awesome! It will still be a long while before I will be able to buy it, but it's cool to know it exists :)

Thanks so much for all the replies people, I really appreciate it and things are much clearer now :)

2) Forget about saves. Keep wisdom at the minimum to cast spells, 14 or at least 14 by late Levels. Because the DC for a Tm rangers saves are 10 + WIS mod + level of the spell, and your spells max out at a pathetic level of 4, the math gimps your offensive capacity. Wizards have a maximum sPell level of 9, more spells, etc. Use your no save spells. Principally buffs and utility spells.

That was my plan, yes. The reason I mentioned saves was not because I wanted to use spells that have an associated save DC, but because I wanted to buff my own Will Saves.

I'd offer this. At level 4, pick up the Animal Companion. 5, grab the Boom Companion Feat. Suddenly have an Animal Companion on part with a druids. I'm assuming you know that most of the enemies are undead?

I considered this, but I think the archery feats are more important to my character. I did not plan to really use my animal companion much during combat anyway; I wanted to take a raven for backstory/flavor purposes and as such I wanted to use him mainly to scout and fun stuff like that.

Why do you want Skill Focus: Perception?

I don't want it per se, I just wanted to play as a Half-Elf and they get Skill Focus as a free feat at level 1, so that's why I have it. I could have picked Human as my race and gained a more useful feat, but everyone in my party was already playing a Human character and I wanted something different. Maybe not the best choice from an optimization viewpoint, but I liked it flavor-wise.

Consider dropping your Wis to either add to Str or Con more.

I was thinking about going for 13 WIS and putting 2 points in STR, but the reason I like 14 WIS is because:

I'm still very much in doubt about what to do though. The 12 STR sounds really promising as well, but I'm not sure if the +1 damage outweighs the pros of having 14 WIS compared to 13 that I listed above.

Consider taking the Hunter's Bond option that forms a bond with your party. You can make a pretty solid situational buffer that way, and Ranger Animal Companions usually suck.

I had not considered this yet. I originally planned on taking an animal companion purely for flavor purposes. I was planning on taking a Raven with the Totem Guide archetype so that at his third level he could just hang in the back with me and spend his full-round actions to give me a +1 to my first attack roll each round using Guidance.

Hey everyone,

Just some context to start off with: I just started playing Pathfinder for the first time with a bunch of friends (also first-timers, so we're all discovering everything together!). We're currently playing the Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure as our first campaign. Since this is the first time playing this game I am a bit worried about the extent to which my choices during the early game might negatively affect my late game situation, as I have no idea what the late game is like in Pathfinder.

My character
I'm playing a Half-Elf Ranger character with the Toxophilite archetype. Needless to say, I want my character to focus primarily on archery during combat. My planned strategy would be to spend the first turn of combat to get into a nice position from which I can continuously fire full attacks that trigger all my feats (Rapid Shot, Deadly Aim, Manyshot, etc). As such, I can also spend the first turn casting a single spell such as Gravity Bow or (later on) Instant Enemy.

Stat line
All that is still a ways into the future though, as we're just starting out and I'm only Level 2 at the moment. My stat line (15 point buy) is looking as follows:

STR: 10
DEX: 18 (including the +2 racial bonus)
CON: 12
INT: 10
WIS: 14
CHA: 8

I plan on increasing DEX at every level I can. As for feats, I currently have Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot and Skill Focus (Perception). I plan on getting Rapid Shot, Deadly Aim, Manyshot and Weapon Focus (Longbow) over the next 5 levels.

Specific questions
- How important is STR as a stat for archers in the future? Personally I'd rather focus on WIS as my secondary stat for better saves and more bonus spells. I do wonder though, would it be better to go for 13 WIS and 12 STR with a composite +1 longbow?

- What would be a solid equipment progression for this character? For armor I started out with simple Leather, but I plan on upgrading this to a Mithral Chain Shirt as soon as I can. Am I also right in understanding that I can buy this Mithral Chain Shirt for 1100g and then later on spend an additional 1000g to give it a +1 enchantment bonus? As for a bow, if I keep 10 STR I think a simple Longbow will suffice?

Thank you guys for any insights you may have. Aside from the questions above I'm open to any other tips about my character. I do like to optimize him, but I also want to keep role-playing into mind a bit (so I don't want to completely tank CHA or INT, even though I don't really use them).