Grindergrend's page

In my opinion, the swashbukler is actually an option worth considering. Your tanking ability will be quite good at any level, you get high AC, high CMD (which is a crucial element of tanking) great saves when you need to, d10 hp and very nice parry/riposte mecanics.

You get 4+int skills per level and are proficient with many social skills which combined with high charisma get you at a reasonable level of facing (you will never match a bard though but lets face it, who does).

You get very nice casting disrupting abilities later on.

You are dex based so innitiative will be fun.

Your only issue will be damage at early levels (before level 3). If human you can pull some 1d6 + 5, with high crit chance, using slashing grace on a rapier. After level 3 you start adding your level to damage and the sun will be shining from this point (though you will not match the dps of a barbarian even then).

All in all it nets you a very survivable character with some damage potential (except at very low levels) and reasonnable facing capabilities.

Now regarding you initial question, I understand that you want something usefull to do outside of combat (not just some RP flavour, if I understand correctly, but something that will actually benefit the group). This question cannot be answered without knowing the out of combat roles that your team mates will fulfill. For example, if you have a bard in your group, my swashy suggestion is completely pointless as your bard buddy will be handling all the social stuff anyways. Same goes for the ranger survival skills if you have a druid aboard.

One option that will never fail however (it actually can fail if your DM never gives you any cash) is using two feats out of a fighter's massive pool to craft arms and armors or wondrous items (both, why not?). Even with a pretty intensive magic items crafting team, crafting delays always remain an issue and saving cash never hurts. It is not the most fancy job though, but it is definitely usefull.

So that balefully polymorphed cloud giant would end up being a 27 Strengh eagle, still bad, but not that Bad.

And an Imp polymorphed into a boar would end up with a net +6 size bonus to strength (for a nice 16 total). Groovy!

Thanks a lot,

so no potion of true strike at least, that's a relief.

Thanks a lot. Is that table available somwhere online?

Medium creatures are the baseline. For the giant druid, I would guess you first neutralize the bonuses due to size, then add in the new ones for a Small creature.

That seems reasonnable, but does it mean that small sized creatures should actually get a bigger bonus than the one stated in the spell?

an Halfling druid turning into a wolf (beast shape I ) should first apply attribute change for a medium creature (+4 Str, -2 Dex, +2 Con) and then apply the spell bonuses. If so that would certainly make small sized druids an interesting option.

Can spells with taget: self be stored into potions, wands or scrolls.

If so that could lead to very powerfull combinations.

examples:

time stop
tenser transfmormation
many transmutations
mirror image
improved flight
true strike
holy might

For me there are three options:
1 the spell affects the wielder of the item (exploit here)
2 the spell affects the creator of the item who is happy (exploit here)
3 the spell simply cannot be placed into an item

If it is the 1, resulting items can be very powerfull
If it is the 2, possibilities are immense

Alternatively, how do spells like the paladins' holy sword work if they are cast from a spell emulating item. This spell targets a weapon, but the weapon loses all the properties granted by the spell if it is wielded by anyone else than "the paladin".

For me there are three options:

1 the person using the item is "the paladin" (very powerfull option)
2 the person who created the item is "the paladin" the spell is mostly useless (though exploits are possible)
3 : this spell cannot be placed into an item

thank you for your insight, and please post links to official material when possible.

Transmutation spells are a very interesting option though they remain a very powerfull way of breaking a game system entierly.

I ame currently trying to figure out how size change is supposed to be accounted for creatures of unusual size.

A cloud giant (Huge creature) druid 5 can wildshape into a small creature, for instance, an eagle. If i simply apply the ability effects as written, I end up with an eagle pocessing a nice 35 strength while retaining all its nice small size bonuses to attack and AC.

I was wondering if this is the desired result or if I messed up somewhere.

Things get very fun when the same cloud giant uses giant form 1 to take the form a smaller giant (say a hill giant) and gaining a nice strength bonus in the process.

If the same giant decided to use Giant form 2 to change into a cloud giant that could be interesting too.

Now some might say, these situations are not standard game encounters, although that last point is debatable, I could reformulate the point this way.

If fighting against a nasty evil cloud giant monster, a benevolent wizard PC managed to toss in a succesful baleful polymorph, would the resulting creature retain the fearsome strength and Constitution of the original creature.

That seems totally absurd to me, but can lead to interesting situations. Maybe i overlooked something, but untill now, I could not find any official ressource that helped me clarify that point.

Of course the situation can also work the other way round, for example an imp using his shapechange power to take the form of a boar only taking a slight +2 size bonus to Strength.

If anyone has answers I will gladly take them. Please attach links for official material.

Good morning all, I have been reading the monsters as PCs and monsters as Cohorts rules and I am still very confused. I am a DM and I planned to use these rules as guidance, to avoid major balance issues.

MONSTERS AS PCS QUESTIONS

I will take the example given on paizo.com. For example, in a group of 6th-level characters, a minotaur (CR 4) would possess 2 levels of a core class, such as barbarian. I looked at this example from every angle and still cannot figure out how it works. From what I understand, this character has 6 racial hit dices and two class levels. It has a bab of 8, awesome saves (when compared to a 6 th level warrior or barbarian), 5 points of natural armor, immunity to surprise (awesomeness), large size (extra damage, manoeuver check bonus and defense and natural reach).

- did I get it correctly or is their some kind of subtle misunderstanding

- does the minotaur PC have standard minotaur abilities (STR, DEX...), feats and skills from racial hit dices or should it spend them as a regular PC.

As I get it the further the minotaur levels up and the bigger the gap gets. Our minotaur PC whould end up having 4 more bab than a standard PC with only 2 class levels lost.

MONSTERS AS COHORT QUESTIONS

So if I take prestige as my 7th level feat, I happen to have 12 charsima which gives me a prestige score of 8. I therefore am elegible for a level 5 cohort. According to the monster as cohort table, I can choose a ghoul as a cohort (level 5 equivalent). I have several questions:

- Does this ghoul have class levels yet or only its racial hit dices.

- Does this ghoul have standard ghoul abilities (STR, DEX...), feats and skills from racial hit dices or should it spend them as a PC.

if I get them correctly the monsters as cohort rules seem much more balanced to me than the monsters as PCs, although most monsters in the table cannot be goten before very late in most core campaigns (at least those I have DMed).

I understand that those two chapters are very DM dependant, and I am only looking for good guidelines to allow those options in my games, because I like the RP and tactical possibilities of these options and because I like it when my players enlist their former allies or enemies and go adventuring with them.