Grimnir Gunnarslag's page

The Elven Curve Blade, quixotic king of the finesse-weapon family - it's interested me for quite some time, and I originally wanted to make a Kensei Magus specialized in it, before I found out that Magi don't work well with 2-handed weapons, and there's yet to be an archetype thereof that makes the possibility viable (my other idea for what I wanted to do with a Magus was create a sinister, mail-clad "dark halberdier", so that much sucks), but I digress.

What can people tell me about their experiences/opinions of the Elven Curve Blade, and for what characters/conditions does it really shine? When answering, please keep in mind that I'm looking for something that works in Organized Play. I've been thinking of making a high-Dexterity Elven Barbarian who would wield one, but how well do you think that would actually work?

I played a Half-Elven Inquisitor of Saranrae for quite a long time using the ECB. Loved every minute of it. Our Paladin took some of the teamwork feats (I forget the names but they were: AoO on Crit, add'l damage on flank, etc) all the goodies. And with the massive crit range on the blade (plus keen) it nearly guaranteed a crit per round of combat. We were a holy terror to face in combat. Our GM had to house rule that we were only able to get one full cycle of additional attacks of opportunity, otherwise we would have been murdering everything in the first (or maybe second) round of combat. It is Just. That. Sick.

also, this:

Where in Weapon Finesse does it say that you use dex for damage? It only talks about using dex for attacks not damage.

Where does it say that???

Over the years, the first movie has grown on me a little. But I only ever watch it to see Jeremy Irons chewing the scenery.

In fact, TV Tropes said this about Jeremy Irons in the movie:

"•A review of Jeremy Irons in the horrid Dungeons & Dragons film commented he was chewing so much scenery they had to rebuild the sets twice."

yerp! Dodge, deflect and blame the other guy indeed

So apparently the general consensus is: "Play the way we say, or go play a different game?" Interesting....

And clearly anyone who doesn't DM according to forum consensus is also "ignorant"? Hmmm...

Maybe it's just me, but perhaps some of the trolls here need to stick to the OP's problem, and stop with the grand sweeping generalizations. Groups play within the rules given and whatever house rules are acceptable. We use fumble, without confirm. No one at our table has a problem with it.

...and the last said - re: money...I WANT them to keep cranking out material...you see, I WANT them to stay in business. What I don't really want is Pathfinder 2.0...2.5...3.0...ad absurdem.

For the business model to work, they need to keep giving us options.

I want them to get more material out there, but I also do NOT want this to turn out like Rifts, with OCC's and RCC's in every. damn. supplement.

Grimnir Gunnarslag wrote:

wraithstrike wrote:

Despite my last post I have used the critical fumble deck, but it was a group decision and criticals did have to be confirmed.

Funny thing about it is, we don't confirm fumbles but we do confirm critical hits. And we have no problem with it.

Aravar, not sure what to tell you, except maybe you can find some dice without a "1" on it?

I meant to say fumbles have to be confirmed.

Yeah I got it :D

To Aravar again, if I sounded snarky, I'm not try to...more like a gesture in futility from my side. Our group doesn't mind the occasional fumble, even if it means the death of my Inq.

Despite my last post I have used the critical fumble deck, but it was a group decision and criticals did have to be confirmed.

Funny thing about it is, we don't confirm fumbles but we do confirm critical hits. And we have no problem with it.

Aravar, not sure what to tell you, except maybe you can find some dice without a "1" on it?

Chev,

Take Power Attack and Cornugon Smash. Please. That combo will get you a free intimidate every time you hit with a PA. I'm not sure what the purpose is for a dip in relation to an Intimidate build as the Inq is MADE for Intimidate useage.

Make sure you put Ranks in Linguistics, as some spells (Blistering Invective, I'm looking at you...) are dependent on the target understanding you.

Intimidating Prowess isn't really all that necessary if you put ranks in Int every level, but I think you said your Charisma is not all that high. Make sure you take Outflank and Paired Opportunist. That way your "Flank Buddy" will grant you AoO every time he/she crits. For extra fun, you can ask your buddy to take those two feats as well so you can set up a daisy-chain of AoO's by critting and proccing off of each other. Make sure to use a weapon with a high crit range (Elven Curve Blade, Greatsword, Falchion etc). Your buddy should do the same.

P.S. My DM is pretty smart and saw right through the daisy-chain idea. He put the law down quickly that we were allowed only one full cycle of Crit-proc AoO-AoO etc.

Our group uses the critical failure deck and the Crit Damage deck. We like it, if only because the crit damage deck has a card that say "Decapitated!" (which came up in a clutch fight. My Magus nearly peed himself when that card dropped. I was so happy!). We consider it a fair trade.

Trying to build a Ranger/Paladin undead hunter (Archer). I would go crossbow but A)It sucks compared to bow and B)I have a player in a game im running whos already exploring the whole crossbow theme. I dont want my character to seem unoriginal. So far I have this at lvl 5

** spoiler omitted **...

My Inquisitor of Saranrae (Valor Inq) started to raise her hand then lowered it and slowly turned around... /sadface

Definitely get the Ghost Touch quality on weapons (and armor). Holy would be my next thought, but since I'm at work I can't reference anything to see if that would just be doubling up.

Between your paladin abilities and ranger stuff you shouldn't have a problem laying down the pain.

Grimnir Gunnarslag wrote:

THIS! 100%

I stopped coming to Paizo for the LONGEST time simply because the Advice Forum is all about numbers with little to no regard for character concept.

You think the name of your class name defines you?

I suggest having the number and abilities meet the concept, and there is not a damn thing wrong with that.

I think it's sad that some think the only way to meet a concept is through one class.

Worse, is the people who use "flavor" as a defense for obstinately sticking to a poor class choice, when the basis of "flavor" is based off of class and feat names.

They don't even consider that roleplay is key to flavor, not class names.

I posted my thoughts in this thread as they relate to the larger issue that I've encountered here on this forum, and specifically mentioned your post as an example. Judging by the responses here, it was an apt correlation. If you feel defensive enough to come in here and rebuke me then please consider being part of the solution instead of being part of the problem.

I also believe that it is poor form to come in here and try to bully people in to your way of thinking with derision and back-handed slights. (Which you and that other person also did in the previous thread as well.)

@the rest of the thread:

Sorry for this derail! Back to axes!

There is a ninja trick that allows you to use any trick avail but the cost in ki is substantial. I think it's called Forgotten Trick or something like that. (at work no books)

Valantrix1

"Because, contrary to popular belief, some of us don’t think it’s all about the numbers. I pick out a concept for my character, and then I stick to it. Do I try and maximize my productivity within my concept? Hell yes, but I don’t compromise my idea to get a paltry extra few points of damage here or there."

Thank you Valantrix1. I think this should be the true answer.
Since Pathfinder arrived(as I never perused the 3.0/3.5 forums) I've seen tons of combat mathematics. Is this wrong? Not in my opinion, but where's the flavor?

If you always theorycraft out a character to deal as much damage as possible, are a lot of your characters similar?

I like to have an effective character, combat-wise, but I've never personally sacrificed flavor for raw damage. And maybe you don't either. Maybe your crit build falcata guy has a lot of flavor.

When I play, I'm constantly envisioning my character in combat. While the sword was designed specifically for warfare, to me there's just something nastier about being chopped with an axe, or having your ribs cracked by a big, nasty hammer.

I love creating characters. I love every aspect, because as the stats are added, and the weapons and armor are written in on the character sheet, then the rest of the basic adventuring gear, my character comes alive. Moreso with skills and feats. I usually have at least one full page of character background, including family/friends/loved ones/contacts, etc. This is also where weapons and/or combat style comes in.

If the character likes swords, he'll use swords. If he likes maces, he'll use them. I worry more about character flavor and style up front before damage ever wanders into my mind.

That's just me. I DM every Sunday, and there have been several where we didn't roll a die in combat the entire day.

THIS! 100%

I stopped coming to Paizo for the LONGEST time simply because the Advice Forum is all about numbers with little to no regard for character concept. So sick of the DPR OPTIMIZERS telling players: "Oh, you wanted to play a [fill in base class with weapon option idea]?? Pssh, you should be taking [Base Class] plus a dip in [Another Class] and also [Another More Different Class] and don't use the weapon you said, that doesn't have enough damage/crit/whatever, you should be using [Forum Approved Weapon "A"]

I'm all for advice, but when the final "product" has no resemblance to the initial idea, there is a problem.

For Example: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2pqqg?Rogues-and-Armor

Posts by BBT and Atarlost

I'm ashamed to admit this. Our tiefling mage (while hovering invisibly over a ballista crewed by three drow), used summon monster to drop a horse from 50 feet onto the drow and ballista. He agrued that the horse wasn't really a horse but a summoned construct embodying the spirit of a horse and that no real animals were harmed in the casting. We forbade him from doing that and specifically mentioned no cows near seige engines, esp catapults...

How'd it get burned? How'd it get burned? How'd it get burned? How'd it get burned? HOW'D IT GET BURNED, HOW'D IT GET BURNED? HOW'D IT GET BURNED, HOW'D IT GET BURNED?

God that movie makes me giggle...

I'm pretty new to the world of tabletop gaming, and jumping straight in the deep end by DMing a Legacy of Fire campaign (3.5). I'm loving the game, I'm putting heaps of effort into preparing maps and spell cards, making tokens to represent everything on the board, and I've run into a problem:

My players can't seem to be bothered with even the simplest things.

The players are my boyfriend, my sister, my step-sister, a friend of mine from high school, and his friend and co-worker. They're fun to play with, and I love them all, but here's just a few things that frustrate me about my group:

-Interrupting me out of character when I'm monologuing in-character.
-Not bothering to read up on their class features.
-The cleric and druid almost never cast spells, turning every battle into a melee slug-fest, which gets particularly frustrating when the druid whines about not being able to hit anything with her sickle and 12 STR.
-Not even knowing what half their spells do - I don't expect them to keep track of every spell, but I kid you not, the druid ground combat to a halt because I had to point out to her that the spell lists don't contain all the information about the spell, and she had to flip to the full spell description about 20 pages in, and she complained because she couldn't find flame blade in an alphabetical list.
-I provide dinner, and nobody contributes to the cost, despite the fact that I'm the only one who's unemployed.
-Half the players don't assist in the cleanup after the session, leaving me and my boyfriend to clear up rubbish, wipe off the map, wash dishes, etc.
-Not adding things up properly on their character sheets, even when I'm sitting right next to them, walking them through the process.
-Getting dice confused - I kid you not, after three months of weekly gaming, two of them can't even tell the difference between a d8 and a d12.
-Being glued to mobile phones throughout the session.
-PVP.

It frustrates me that I've spent so much time and money on visual aids, spell...

BEAT TEHM!!!!! BEAT THEM WITH A STICK!!!! USE A MALLET IF A STICK DONT WORK! BETA THTEM WITH HARD HEAVY OBJECTS UNTIL THEY STRAIGHTEN OUT OR LAID OUT! AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Seriously though, some of the advice here is really good. Esp the part where that one guy said to ask if they just want to hang out.

We have a bard in the party that decided he would have fun with whips. So he took all the feats for it. We're seeing a marked increase in Disarm and Trip checks. We're enjoying it!

According to my boss Zed, 36 hours. You'll either get used to it or have a psychotic episode.