Gnosoupforu's page

Sorry if I am asking a question that has already been beaten (no pun intended) to death but over the weekend I ran into an issue while using my whip in combat.

While I understand that attacking with reach into melee may incur a -2 cover penalty when using a whip if my target is behind another person or has "cover" from some other means. But I was told that since I was attacking into melee with my whip that I suffered a -4 penalty for my attacks since I did not have Precise Shot feat. This made my total attack penalty -6 (-4 [attacking in melee] + -2 [cover from my ally]). I am not sure if this was changed with any errata to reach weapons in general.

Also, reading the description, I wonder if the wording of within the whip caused the confusion.
"Using a whip provokes an attack of opportunity, just as if you had used a ranged weapon".

Again, I apologies for bringing this subject up if it has been debated and discussed many moons ago. If this was a mistake on the part of my DM, where would I get an official ruling that I may keep with me if this comes up again at future games days or Cons?

Cheers,

I too am making a shield and whip fighter but I have gone a different direction since I am limited in the PFS rules.

If you want to focus on using a whip to trip, I am not sure you want to use Power Attack since that will affect your CMB and whip honestly is not the right weapon for damage since peeps with armor will not be hurt. You can use a scorpion whip to get around that but again, Power Attack might not be the right feat. If you are taking only to get access to Cleave, then make sure you can trip in a cleave but my gut feeling is no you cannot but I have been wrong in the past. :)

Instead, take a look at Serpent Lash. It is from the Osirion companion book. It requires Weapon Finesse but in a nutshell if you successfully trip someone, you get a 2nd attack where you can attempt another trip (only 1 additional attack per round). Since you are using STR you are not going to take the attack penalty using a shield to finessing your whipe because you are not using your DEX for attacks. Serpent Lash also gives you some other nifty attacks like pulling a target (like pulling a player from a swarm) or disarming an opponent and pulling the item into your square or your hand if you got a free hand and can beat their CMD by 10 (5 to pull the item into your square).

I know it sucks to put points into INT since that is a dump stat but getting it to 13 and adding Improved Trip is a good way to assist you to trip creatures. After looking at a handful of creatures in the Beastery and found many creatures have higher CMD against Trip due to being 4 legged. Your size will help as well as your increased STR but still, fighting a +4 CMD to trip is hard to beat compared to other CM.

I would like to hear from others to see their thoughts. As I said, I am planning a similar build myself.

Cheers,

I guess it never occured to me to use the school for the benefits rather than the flavor. Divination has the best school benefit out of all but it was the having to use spell slots for divination spells that appeared more out of combat than in. True stike would be very useful is I were planning more targeting spells.

I agree that the teleportation is a get out of jail free card but if you are in jail having to roll for concentration to cast a spell, it is pretty handy to have.

I forgot to mention that this is for Pathfinder Society game so I am already limited in terms of feats, levels, and available items.

Thanks for the information. This really helps me pin what I am going to do.

Cheers,

I am toying with the idea of playing either a human or elven wizard specializing in conjuration school but could be convinced into playing a summoner. I am using the new Teleportation School from the Advanced Players Guide. I feel the 1st level teleportation ability, though short range (5' / 2 levels) is better than the acid arrow from the original specialization school. One way I was planning on controlling the field was through conjuring minions onto the field to hopefully take attacks away from other players or to reach hard to get casters in the back. One way to help keep my minions on the field was to take a trait that grants added levels to my caster level for summoned creatures. This may means more at earlier levels than in higher levels I would imagine.

Secondary role I want to fill is buffing allies for quick victories or protection or debuff our foes for obvious reasons. For this, direct attacks are not something I plan to do a lot of if any.

Since I am not concerned with dishing damage, evocation comes to mind as a good school to drop. But for the 2nd school I am trying to figure out between divination or abjuration. It seems that divination spells can easily be cast through scrolls or wands. Are there others I should consider over the ones I have mentioned given my target role?

I have looked over Treantmonk’s Guide and found it pretty insightful since I am unfamiliar with playing wizards although it is out of date considering all the new material that is available.

Your input would be more helpful and appreciated.

Cheers,