Grishnackh's page

this is what world of warcraft has done to pen and paper games...

you dont play a cleric, a fighter, a paladin or whatever. you're playing a character with a history, a set of goals and many other things. the class you pick is just the one that comes mechanically closest to the kind of character you want to play.

maybe try that route: "im not playing a cleric, im playing a guy with this history, this kinda goals, he is pretty religious, drawing strength from his faith and his chosen fighting style is heavyly armored close combat."

@taku ooka nin
you should make a new thread for your request instead of hijacking someone elses

the most important shop of all is missing: the shop that sells "stuff". need a rope? go to the stuff shop. need trail rations? go to the stuff shop. need lampoil? stuff shop.
your baseline village has the inn, the blacksmith and the stuffshop and a marketplace thats used monthly/weekly/whatever. thats the minimum amount of economy for a village. the next are a chapel, church or temple, city hall (starting as small as a special room in the inn, ending with a palace) and more specialized shops (tailors, carpenters, etc). when the city gets big enough to have a city guard, you'll have a barracks, the city hall will propably be a standalone building, most basic shops, multiple inns and taverns and the first stonemasons. your city will get its first guildhalls around the time where it gets a functional city watch if the city is specialized. it will take a bit longer if the city isnt really specialized in anything (but then multiple guilds will be foundet at the same time)

now for a small city state i'd go with a city around 5000 people and 5 to 10 times as much population in the surrounding area (if you want it historical accurate) or a 10k city state with next to no population around it (if you consider you can conjure food out of nothing because magic!)

city hall being a small palace where the king/queen lives with a staff of around 200-400, a quarter of them being guardsman. either one major local temple with several chapels or any number of churches. also shops for every mundane good imaginable and 1-4 marketplaces that are used every single day.

a city of the size will either have a city wall, or it will begin building a citywall unless there is absolutely no need for one (a goblin and hobgoblin infestation is propably enough reason for a village with a population of 100 to build stone fortifications ^^).

the geographic position of the city will have a major trading route or a defensible position or both as a point of origin.

if you want options without sacrificying power i'd suggest either barbarian or paladin. combat maneuvers suck. killing someone is more effective then any other crowd control and a lot of times its as fast to do as tripping them. paladin gives you lay on hands, some spells and all the other little paladin goodies that let you do something else then smashing their faces in. barbarians can spellsunder, have a lot of skills and are the gods of combat maneuvers 1/encounter with strength surge. furthermore barbarians are really mobile.

rogues, monks, rangers, ninjas they all can do funny stuff, but they wont ever do the fun stuff because making basic attacks is more powerful 99.8% of the time.

if you want to do something else besides smashing faces, you want something that either isn't taxing your action economy (swift actions) or something rediculously powerful (like spellsunder). the only melee classes that do this really well are - sadly - the 2 already most powerful melee classes

In the old 3.5 it was specified that a full round action expended your normal standard plus move, thus allowing you tu use any extra action as you saw fit.

can you quote the exact passage? unfortunately my copy is in german and if i translate the passage from mine it is pretty much exactly the phrase pathfinder uses

This is a mythic ability we are talking about here.

maybe i was a bit unclear in my topic. this is in fact not about a mythic ability, the entire point of this thread is about the spirit of a core game rule. the mythic ability is just one example of many

unfortunately i cannot edit my first post since i already go answers, but the topic of the thread should have given it away ;)

Specific overrides general.

This is one of the most obvious and at the same time weirdest rules in the game. what part exactly is the more specific part?

In addition, as a free action on your turn, you can expend one use of mythic power to take an additional standard action during that turn.

I'd say specific beats general like this: you can usually only take 1 standart action. This specific rule lets you take 2. That doesn't mean that you can take standart actions alongside fullround actions. I think the letter of the rule is quite clear. But im not really interrested in the letter ;) this is about the intention.

right now i tend to think that it is indeed intended to work like you said, also i have no evidence to support it, just my speculation. The fullround action is a core concept of the game, made long before the implementation of the mythic rules. I just looked it up and the wording in 3.5e was pretty much the same (also my copy is german its pretty much exactly the same as in pathfinder english). So the fullroundaction rule is not only a lot older then mythic rules, it is also a lot older then pathfinder. it was written with the intentions of 3.5. from 3.0 to 3.5 they changed the action economy alot. especially the way haste works. stacking multiple additional attacks became increasingly difficult. this rule made sure there was no oversight. fullround is fullround, it takes a full round. but pathfinder is different then 3.5. We have pathfinder chroniclers give other partymembers additional actions. we have the quickrunners shirt, transforming a swift into a moveaction, we got mythic and thats just the first 3 that came to my mind. if i think about it in 3.5 there is only the marshal that comes to mind (one of the most broken classes in the game), but in pathfinder it's not uncommon to have more then 1 move and 1 standart per turn.
this is why i am currently under the impression that the letter of the rule is indeed old and the spirit may be more on the line of 1full = 1move+1standart

@dekalinder
i took your suggestion and made the thread. you may find it here

The rules are pretty clear about the way Full-Round-Actions work. What is not so clear is, if the way they work is the way they are intended.

There is one specific case (there are a few more. i don't want to list them all), that lets me and others asume that the wording of the rule might not be the spirit of the rule.

A full-round action requires an entire round to complete. Thus, it can't be coupled with a standard or a move action, though if it does not involve moving any distance, you can take a 5-foot step.

At 2nd tier, you gain a bonus on initiative checks equal to your mythic tier. In addition, as a free action on your turn, you can expend one use of mythic power to take an additional standard action during that turn. This additional standard action can't be used to cast a spell. You can't gain an extra action in this way more than once per round.

Per the rules it is not possible to do a Full-Round Action and a Standart or Move Action on the same turn. It just isn't, no matter how many Actions you have. This greatly diminishes any effect an Ability like Amazing Initiative could have. Additionally most options for this ability are already contained (often in an improved way) in the First Tier special Abilities of the Mythic classes.

That said, do you think the letter of the rule about Full-Round-Actions is the spirit of it? Or are the two distinct? And if they are distinct, what is the rules true spirit?

/edit
if you, like me, would like an official statement as well as a discussion, dont forget to faq-flag ;)

the real question is not so much about what it should cost and more about how you modify the crafting rules. it should cost what it ever has, no matter if magic weapons now get crafted by legendary smiths instead of legendary mages. but crafting takes time. A LOT of time crafting an item worth 8000 gold (+2 weapon) with a DC of 30, while rolling an average 40 on the craft check takes... 67 Weaks. nice only more then a year working on a single item. want to try your luck on a +5 weapon?
if the players dont want to craft magic weapons themselves, dont bother with rules, just make npcs work as fast as is reasonable, but if your players want to smith their own weapons it gets real iffy.

also, there are a few differences between crafting and enchanting:
Crafting by the base rules only consumes 1/3 the cost in components, normal enchanting costs 1/2
Crafting needs skillranks while enchanting takes precious feats

crafting is, if you dont consider time to be relevant, preferrable to enchanting in every way, so if you make time a nonissue in the end, you will leave the players with an easier time getting better items then before.

also another note: i wouldn't touch the price economy. once you dare touch the economy, there will be no end to it. its too much to balance and change (i tried multiple times before i dicided it wasnt worth the time)

easiest solution: "craft Magic Weapons and Armor" does no longer require a casterlevel, but either ranks in Craft (Weaponsmith), Craft (Armorsmith) or a Casterlevel (Skillranks=casterlevel).
if you have weaponsmith, you can use it to craft weapons +x, if you have armorsmit you can craft armor +x, if you have casterlevels you can make unique enchantments, if you have alle 3 requirements, you can do all 3 things.

crafting +x items follows the same rules as it did before, you need the feat, you pay what the feat tells you to pay. enchanting a +3 weapon with a +2 equivalent still has the price of upgrading from +3 to +5. Better crafted weapons are more difficult to enchant because... magic... enchanted weapons are harder to reforge... this actually makes sense. Only difference: the smith has to make a craftcheck, dc: mastercraft or base DC (whatevers is higher) + 5 times the enchant bonus.
example: a Greatsword +4 would be a DC 40 check (Mastercraft 20 + 4*5), a Composite Longbow [+3] +4 would be 41 (Composite bow 15 + 3*2 = 21 > 20)
Fail by >10: Loose all Material, Destroy piece of equipment (if you wanted to upgrade)
Fail by >5: Loose 1/2 Material
Fail by 1-5: only loose the time working

Swift Action Charge (make one attack), full attack, Amazing Initiative for another Standard (and so, Doublestrike).

Close enough.

Total attacks: Full attack +3.

you cannot use a fullround action and a standart action in the same turn. you're at fullattack +1

a fullround action is not the combination of your standard and your move action, a fulround action takes a full round, thats why its called fullround action and not "extended action", "complex action" or whatever else other games call their equivalent. i quoted the specific rules about this earlier

we died so much it was impossible to count. then we stopped using the nat20->nat20->confirm instakill rule. it was at least one death from that rule alone per session. now we're at around 1 death per 5-7 sessions or something

i had 1 TPK as a GM so far, felt pretty shtty, wasnt even supposed to be a hard encounter. improvised and the groups believes until this day it was a planned plotdevice =D ever since im not afraid to see my own dice roles a a GM more a suggestion then anything else :)

i wouldnt go stalwart on a char that starts lvl 11. the real reason for stalwart is lvl 6-11 when your defense sucks but you dont yet have cagm+combat reflexes+dazing assault, once you got these 3 you actually dont need any other nonmagic-defense

tattoo your cloak of resistance, get a cloak of minor displacement, prioritise dex or con depending on your GM (many mooks: dex, many big guys: con), dont even try to get AC, between RA, Rage and Cagm you're looking at -10 effective armorclass at lvl 12. charge makes for effektive -12. its really expensive to get even a little bit out of AC, so just be a man, dont carry armor and punch people ^^ And dont let anyone tell you to go urban barb. urban rage is for weaklings. later on you can pickup raging brutality, then you want your constitution!
St/De/Co 16/16/16
In/We/Ch 10/9/7 // 9/10/7

Feats: Powerattack, Combat Reflexes, dazing assault
Rage Powers: Superstition, Come and Get Me, Beast Totem line, reckless abandon

tactic:
stand in chokepoints. if there are no chokepoints, let your wizard make a chokepoint. make the enemy attack you (they will loose actions and take damage by attacking you). and most important: let your wizard cast windwalls. arrows are your doom. im not even kidding. your defense vs casters is superstition, your defense against melee is cogm. your defense against ranged is? nonexistant. you will take +4 damage per arrow more then anyone else because you use cogm all the time. your damage reduction offsets this, unless the archer has clustered shots (which he has once your GM realizes one of his players has damage reduction)

/edit

something i like to add. if you start at lvl 11, i bet you guys plan on going the full way to lvl 20. thats the main reason why i suggest not to take stalwart. that 24 damage reduction might look good on paper, but its not that much better then the 10 + remaining rage powers you get anyways. getting tireless rage a level sooner and having mighty rage in your final battle is awesome. raging brutality is a REALLY strong feat in the high levels, thats why urban rage is nice for pre lvl 10, but for campaigns that start on 10+, i wouldn't even think about it. additionally you get alot more freedom in your build. maybe you want to take some feats just for fluff, maybe you want to keep some options open. stalwart builds dont have the option. if you look at them, most have a completely fixed feat progression up until lvl 17, no room to change anything. the core barbarian is in the feats i suggested. the rest can be taken as needed.

A full-round action requires an entire round to complete. Thus, it can't be coupled with a standard or a move action, though if it does not involve moving any distance, you can take a 5-foot step.

you cannot even use a fullround action + standart action... there are many things in a mythic game that sound too good to be true. thats usually because its actually not true ;)

you can have any number of standart actions you can get, but you only have one fullround action per turn and if you use it, you can't use move or standart actions on that turn. sorry

btw: yes, this means you can stop buying quickrunners shirts in nonmythic games for move + full, its not working (you can still use it for move-spell-move or similar maneuvers)

/edit
actually im pretty confused about quickrunners right now

single bite eidolon will start out good, becomes mediocre very soon and sucks later. if we consider not getting a huge eidolon (because it doesnt fit into half the dungeons), but casting enlarge person on the large eidolon whenever there's room, it does 2d6 bitedamage. thats a greatsword. thats what 2 handed fighter types get right off the bat. now the eidolon can get the improved damage evolution, increasing the damage by one size cathegory... well... thats the damage the greatsword does, when you cast enlarge person on the fighter guy instead of the eidolon...

it just cannot compete in the long run. in the early levels the summoner more then makes up for the slightly weaker fighter the eidolon is, but in the long run your eidolon isnt any better then summon monster spells with its low damage, so your summoner will slowly turn into a sorcerer with reduced casting power

luckyly there is always a nice fix!
Should you ever realize that your eidolon sucks, you just get a complete new one on the next level

has anyone said vital strike already?

vital strike!

im assuming there is a question somewhere in this statement
im also assuming its "Can someone tell me the name of it?"

the answer is yes, its Supernatural Feast

The only game changer will be come and get me. No paladin can keep up with that level of Attacks of Opportunity.

Otherwise, making the weapon brilliant will mean every single one of the paladin's attacks is probably going to hit. Not missing ANY iteratives is extremely strong.

If the barb is Chaotic and evil, this gets even worse.

And the paladin can Smite with ranged attacks. An Archerdin Smiting a barbarian at range can kill him before he even gets close.

are we still talking high level?

in this case: my favorite non-mythic barbarian build doesn't have any AC to begin with so the paladin will hit with or without a brilliant weapon 76% of the time (cloak for 20% concealment + 95% chance to hit). he has a movementspeed of 70 feet with boots of haste, thats 140 feet charge range or -14 on perception checks for the paladin if he is ranged while nothing really stops a barbarian from having decent stealth checks. if the paladin is ranged, he'll propably go first, now lets assume he has spottet the barbarian at maximum charge range regardless of -14 perception. now what would be an average damage for high level archers? 12 (eadly shot) + 1d8 + 3d6 elemental damage from various enchants (actually he has 4 but the barbarian has elemental resistance against one) + 5 from enhancement bonus + lets say 8 from strength, thats 40 damage per arrow and he shoots 7 arrows total for 280 damage or 224 if you count in concealment (i dont count natural 1 because i dont count criticals, lets keep it simple) 300+ HP is no hard task for a barbarian (theres an item that lets you rage as an imediate action)
now its the barbarians turn... charge! lets say all in all 70% hitchance (this is conservative unless the barbarian is evil and was smited)
18 (PA) + 3d6 (large greatsword) + 24 or something from strength + 15 or something from raging brutality + 6 from enhancement bonus
thats 73,5
he makes attacks 367,5
70% chance to hit 257,25 damage
thats not as easy for a paladin to survive

now on the next turn the paladin can only make 1 attack for 40 damage that still doesnt kill the barbarian or he can try to fullattack in melee range and dies from the attack of opportunity

horny usually winds up on your chicken farm ^^ always make the chicken farm your dungeon entrance =D

unfortunately im living in germany and its getting kinda late ;) if you are stil drunk on sunday, send me a pm and its on!

i hope you realize that this fight would be kinda unfair since my barbarian won't be evil xD

You do realize that you have to beat your CMD+5 by 10 or more to dispell a spell on yourself with the Spell Sunder rage power

magic effects tend to not stick on superstition barbarian. if they stick and dont make the barbarian unable to sunder himself the barbarian has several options to increase his success rate

1. reckless abandon increases his sunder attempt by 1-6 and decreases his cmd by 1-6, making it a net 10-60% increased success rate
2. strength surge can be used to increase your cmb on a single check by your barbarian level for a total 5-100% increased success rate
3. you can full attack sunder up to 5 times per turn, not counting any natural attacks the barbarian might have
4. improved sunder increases your success rate by 10%

the fact that barbarians are able to reach the highest attack bonus in the game while usually having a s~*@ty defense makes spell sundering themselves really easy

half-orc wizard 20, favored class: something else

ST 8 DE 7 CO 7 IN 9 WE 17 CH 17, levelups in ST x3, CH x2, half-orc bonus in WE

Final stats: 11/7/7/9/19/19

Equipment: Blowgun, Buckler, Backpack filled with something heavy enough to bring him to a heavy load, splint mail
Feats: all wizard feats that do absolutely nothing if you can't cast spells

AC: 15
Attack: -3, 1d2 damage

he has 20 skill points total, 4 hitpoints +1d6-2 (average 2) per level for a total of 42 Hitpoints. Fort 4 Ref 4 Will 16.

Skill ranks: Acrobatics 2, disable device 7, ride 7, swim 4, in total +4 is the highest he has in any skill, most skills are negative in total

______________________

now for his adversary!

Human Commoner 1

ST 18, DE 12, CO 14, IN 10, WE 12, CH 7

Feats: Toughness, Light Armor proficiency

Gear: Spear, Chain Shirt

AC: 15
Attack: +4, d8+6
HP: 11
Fort: 2 Ref: 1 Will: 1

Skills: Swim 6, Craft (Smith) 4, Perception 5

________________________

He is not quite as durable as the level 20 wizard, but if it comes down to a 1v1 he will have a 50% chance to hit, while the wizard only hits 15% of the time. the wizard needs an average of 8 hits to knockout the commoner, while the commoner needs 4 hits on average and the commoner will propably win initiative

in the skills section the commoner is vastly superior. he will not instantly drown when confronted with water, he can craft some useful items and make some money and he is even a better person to watch for his partys back

@deadmanwalking

okay, my post may have been a bit bias'd towards very specific builds ;)

you can ramp up superstition to up to +16 as a human, with a cloak of resistance and 8 wisdom your weakest save will still look at 95% success rate with +26 against average primary ability dcs of CR 20 monsters that sit at 27

i guess we're at a draw in the save department, if you try to supercharge your saves with either class (the paladin can stack a morale bonus like heroism on his charisma bonus while superstition already is a moral bonus) you'll sit at 95% success rate unless your GM actively trys to affect you ^^

true, smite beats rage without rage powers where it works. assuming 26 charisma (start with 16, +6 enhancement, +4 inherent) +8 hit and +20 damage in the endgame vs the barbarians +4/+6 now lets get some rage powers and weapon enchantment. barbarians get furious and curageos weapons, ill assume the paladin has 2 additional +1d6 enchantments instead, so paladin total: +8/+27 (average) vs the barbarians +13/+9

an additional 25% chance to hit makes the barbarian a lot more reliable. 18 Damage is even in the lategame much, but i bet 25% chance to hit equal at least 15 average damage, 60 damage per hit is not hard to reach for barbarians.

in the end the major difference between smite evil and rage in the lategame comes down to smite beeing limited targets per day and rage being limited time per day (both are pretty hard to deplete in any case except if the paladin starts to smite summoned creatures or the barbarian uses raging brutality every round (in wich case noone can beat him in damage for this rounds))

not disagreeing with the point. But in the last 5 games I played as wizard; the BBEGs were a priest of a mad god, an insane sorcerer, a goblin horde, a minor demon, and an inquisitor bent on slaying the thief and all associated with him.

Access to additional spells from sources besides level up? Damn few (and the available spells were ones that I already had).
So my experience says GM whim plays a big part in the wizards viability if you use spells as a metric.

is the GM in this case preparing itemshops in advance? this is usually what happens if a GM does this because noone in his right mind grinds through a few hundred pages in a rulebook to setup a single shop ^^

Barbarians are the ultimate Gods of Melee fighting come level 12+, Paladins shine really early while the barbarian just keeps on scaling.

Once you reach the higher levels superstition gets a lot stronger then charisma on saves (except for ridiculous charisma builds that lack in other regions). The Paladins AC will usually be better then the Barbarians, but if built for AC the Barbarian can keep up (usually you wont do this because why have AC when you can smash faces?). Come and get Me + Dazing Assault is a really good defensive option. The Barbarian lacks the Paladins immunities, but again, superstition makes it hard to land any status effekts in the first place. The Barbarian even has the option of rerolling failed saves for when 95% chance to save are not enough. Rage works against everything that doesnt exhaust you before you can start your rage, not just against evil creatures. Your movementspeed will be higher then the paladins and pounce gives you unmatched mobility in the melee department. And to top it all off, you even get more skill ranks. And: Spell Sunder is just too good

Where is this view point that wizards shouldn't get lots of spells and it's all up to GM whim coming from?

Is there a notice I missed that said GMs should be dicks to wizards and not let them do what the class is supposed to do?

it started about the 10th comment or something

oh sorry @Avh, you got the same avatar, my fault xD

And the wizard is more likely to also have Magic circle against the appropriate alignment (each is a separate spell) and Dimensional anchor.

and there i was thinking that wizards never get any scrolls? how are they able to take up multiple magic circle spells and dimensional anchor? thats entirely up to GM whim!

Nearyn wrote:

@Damian Magecraft:

Everything is governed by GM whim. If the GM drops a monster in front of your group, it is his whim that decides whether or not it is a Bugbear, or an advanced half-dragon bugbear fighter 20, mythic champion 10.

If you assume the GM employs the encounters the way the book describes as "appropriate", then why is it wrong to assume that the GM treats item availability as the book describes as "appropriate"?

Because availability of XYZ has always been the simplest, fastest, and most commonly used means of character control of the GM.

And you really know, you have a good GM, if one member of the party is severly more resticed then the rest

Quote:

We're not gonna consider schools? Okay, so I assume we don't consider bloodlines as well? Well that makes it easy! Then wizard is infinitely superior to sorcs, instead of it being a duel of builds. If we're not gonna consider feats, that means we don't consider Expanded Arcana

Except... A Bloodline is a mandatory feature and Schools are an optional one.

except... schools are not optional, you have to choose one, universalist is a school

1: Any class ability that is governed by GM whim is not a good draw point for a class.

How the hell are wizards governed by GM whim? Scrolls are cheap, scrolls are items, items can be stolen. if the GM for whatever reason doesn't like the wizard the party can simply disregard every single plotline the GM trys to make and instead set on an adventure to get the wizard his spells. It's really easy once you are level 9 and have access to teleport and it's still no big deal without. if the party sets out to travel to a wizard academy and is determined, the only way you can really stop them is by murdering the entire party

if the wizard wants his spells there is nothing the GM can do about it aside from stopping to be a GM. Bullying your players will only get you one of 2 things: they will make all the preparation you take into the session be null and void OR they will stop playing with you as a GM.

the funny part about a the cryptic prophecy clichee is that everyone expects the clichee. if guised as a prophecy you can tell them pretty straight forward what going to happen and they will still be confused

@ OP

You play in an environment that makes Wizards suck. Limiting the availability of Scrolls is not intendet in any way or form. Limiting it to the Point where the Wizard has 2 Spells per Level is the next closest thing to just telling your players: "Noone plays a Wizard in my Game!"

All your Arguments against the many advantages the Wizards have break down to a broken houserule you and your friends have that makes Wizards the bad theres no point in playing one. You asked for what the advantages of wizards are, and the folks around here told you a lot of advantages the wizard has in a common setting. With your houserule you are completely right, there is no point in playing a wizard over a sorcerer with 2 Spells per Level. For the normal gamesetting this is simply not true. In a normal setting all the listed advantages are actual advantages that wizards have.

And considering Arguments such as: Intelligence isn't better then Charisma
YES IT IS! Intelligence gives you more skillranks and a bonus on intelligence based skills. Charisma only gives you a bonus on charisma based skills and no skillranks. Intelligence gives you flatout MORE. Now there are cases where you want charisma (like when you want to be the party face) and in this case you are completely right, in this specific case charisma is the better casting stat. but in MOST cases intelligence is simply better.

And something on the universalist wizard: The only reason to play a universalist wizard is because you want to do it. From a mechanical point of view the universalist is strictly always worse then a specialist.

This threat has become a discussion about houserules. If you go by the rules Wizards have advantages, if you dont go by the rules, noone in this forum can help you unless you state the houserule in the discription of your initial problem

/rant

i'd go barbarian, reckless abandon, come and get me, lunge, stack everything that reduces AC! it doesnt matter if you have 20 or -10 AC when the enemy has +20 to hit ;) Defense? You have come and get me, just make sure you hit harder on attacks of opportunity then the enemy with his attacks and it'll be a net win! Quarterstaff is only 1d6 less damage then a greatsword. Real Barbarians... äh... Wizards don't care for a lousy 3.5 average damage! Oh and take Spell Sunder, real Wizards Dispel Magic by punching it!

caster types are less reliant on equipment then anyone else. they wont be able to throw wands, scrolls, etc left an right, but their spells are nearly the same with half the money for gear

courageous weapons add half the weapons enhancement bonus to moral bonuses and it is a +1 enchant. Lets say you have a bard thats constantly spamming good hope on the party. now with a +2 courageous weapon you get +1 Hit, Damage, Saves, Skill and Ability checks. making the weapon +3 just nets you +1 hit and damage. If the weapon is +4 curageous or you are a barbarian with +2 furious courageous, the effect gets doubled.

Only works if you constantly get moral bonuses (heroism, good hope, barbarian Rage)

It gets really disgusting when a barbarian gets his hands on one of those AND has a bard for good hope ;)

My players always get a base of operations at some point, this generates a lot of downtime if the players like it.

A Base of operation doesn't have to be an actual "base", it can be a village thats important to them, a buisness venture, they start by themselves or something else.

This has severall advantages and disadvantages

Pro
1. Players have a reason for downtime
2. Its a Giant Plotdevice
3. It gives Players something to do between Sessions
4. It can be used to explain the Characters Wealth (seriously, you dont find 10000 GP lying around in a Grave)
5. It gives Players a reason not to retire at level 5 (thats 10,500 gold each, why would you keep adventuring when you are one of the richest people around, a skilled crafter with +8 on his craft skill makes 468 GP a Year, Hello 22 Years of Income in my Bag)

Con
1. If done wrong it will become a giant buisness simulation instead of good old Dungeon Crawling
2. The Campaign will become very focused on the location (doesnt have to be a bad thing, but it wont work for every campaign)

Aside from that theres always the option of "undifined time" between 2 dungeons ^^

seems like all your problems are gone if the sorcerer actually uses the spells he specialized in

its hard not to be of any use as a rogue-type when you have flanking buddys all over the place und the cleric will however nonoptimized he may be usefull once he can buff a ton of minions

More information on the entire group would be nice

case 1: this is something where the gm just has to make it up with himself

case 2: this is pretty much what happens when wizards enchant the door, but not the floor/ceiling/walls around the door ;) its an adventurers classic, if the door is more difficult to open then the floor or walls, you open the floor or walls ^^

case 3: this is completely up to the gm personally id say you should be able to flank by standing on the staircase as an exception from the usual rule (because it just makes sense and theirs no other way)

case 4: this sounds to me like the gm just really didnt want him to get flanked ^^

/edit

case 1-4
the GM is always right. if you disagree most gms like feedback AFTER the gamesession. Most unfair rulings are not unfair enough to be worth wasting gametime on

14 wis because paladin spells go up to level 4, so you can cast them without a statboost item (pretty significant difference betwenn buying +x cha and buying +x cha and wis

giving the statbooster first to someone else can work, but again: the characters always consider whats most effective, even if the players dont like it. they fight for their lives every day, the characters optimize within their limits (and item distributen is pretty much in their limits).

now for the scaling: every single attribute difference between character will stay in effekt no matter how high your level gets. Yes, your weapon damage scales linar with strength, but all your saves, your AC, your chance to hit, your skill checks, everything else scales by 5% per +1. A character with +4 Str over another character will always have a 10% better chance to hit the enemy, doesn't matter if they are at 40/44 or 14/18 strength

the only way real way to solve OPs problem is adjusting his attributes to be more in line with the rest of the party. every other opion feels like gimping yourself on purpose (wich sucks both from a player point of view and from a roleplaying perspective). even if you yourself are fine with gimping your own effectiveness, the other players will know, you are holding back, this is as bad or worse as constantly stealing the spotlight

Its the stats and only the stats that make you overpowered compared to the rest of the party. if they dont drop this will never change.

all those caster comparisons dont really mean anything because your party doesn't have a full caster. with 20 strength you will always do the same amount of damage as any other melee character can do (if they also have 20), with the exception of a barbarian (or a select few optimization builds) - which again you dont have in your party. You are more durable and a bigger threat then anyone else and this will never change.

But as a Paladin you are more limited. You can Smite X Number of Enemys per day. Increasing the number of enemys makes a paladin a bit weaker then a fighter (that has his bonus all day long), but you still have your bonus when it really matters (for the really important enemys) and you still have higher saves then a fighter could ever have, a few spells and immunities.

If your attributes are not reduced you have to options:
- live with it, while your party hates you (seriously, if its always the same person in the spotlight it stops being fun at some point)
- gimp yourself by making really stupid choices that dont make sense. seriously... the idea of making him longsword+shield may be an option, but your character is the biggest powergamer there is... he fights for his own life and the lifes of his comrades. he will not use inferior tactics because the rogues kill-count is lower then his. He will start doing this only if he becomes actually better with that weapon style (after a few feats)

myself i usually have an overarcing story arc for the entire campaign in mind and completely railroad my players through the first few sessions until it is absolutely clear to everyone what the long term goal is. Then setup a broad outline of mid-term goals that have to unfold in no particular order and not bound to any specific challenge rating until one day the grand finale is at hand.

my current campaign is based on end of the world plot. Im railroading them through the process of why and how the apocalypse is at hand, from there on its pure sandbox every step dictated by my players. In this game the first seal is broken, the apocalypse has started and cannot be stopped, they have to prepare the world for what is to come, and break the seals so the endgame beginns when they and the world are ready. How they will achieve this is entirely up to them.

i find this way to be a good one to sandbox a game without the problem of completely random player behavior. the palyers have clearly defined goals in a completely open world, this makes it alot easier.

remember that there is no need for amulet of natural armor since the mutagen already provides +2 natural armor, you can spend the gold in something else

Mutagen provides +2 natural Armor

Amulet proved an enhancement bonus to your natural armor

the 2 actually stack.

it works like Fullplate an Fullplate +2

the fullplate grants armor, the +2 grants an enhancement bonus to this armor. Natural Armor from Mutagen is the Fullplate in this example and the Amulet the +2

Okay, here's the list. Its made from a player perspective, so no flashy general theme.

Arcane Bloodline Human Sorcerer. The Important Feats would be Persistant Spell, Dazing Spell, Quicken Spell, Spell Perfection (Chain Lightning)

* is for Bloodline Spells

9: Time Stop, Wish*, Disjunction, Overwhelming Presence
8: Prismatic Wall, Power Word Stun*, Maze, Polymorph any Object, Moment of Prescience, Summon Monster VIII, Euphoric Tranquility, Dimensional Lock
7: Grasping Hand, Greater Teleport*, Reverse Gravity, Greater Polymorph, Plane Shift, Spell Turning
6: Summon Monster VI, True Seeing*, Greater Dispel Magic, Chain Lightning, Planar Binding, Forceful Hand, Sirocco
5: Wall of Stone, Overland Flight*, Communal Stoneskin, Polymorph, Cone of Cold, Magic Jar, Baleful Polymorph
4: Confusion, Dimension Door*, Resilient Sphere, Ball Lightning, Stone Shape, Black Tentacles, Ennervation, Summon Monster IV
3: Summon Monster III, Dispel Magic*, Haste, Stinking Cloud, Fireball, Chain of Peridation, Slow
2: Flaming Sphere, Invisibility*, Glitterdust, Create Pit, Levitate, Mirror Image, Stone Call, Burning Gaze
1: Color Spray, Identify*, Mount, Grease, Magic Missle, Protection from Evil, Feather Fall, Silent Image

Use at own risk, the entire list is made to spam out Save or Suck spells that target multiple creatures, targeting all 3 saves! Additionally Maze and Euphoric Tranquility will basicly remove a player from combat without anything he can do about it (no save). Witz persistant Spell and the Arcane Bloodline Bonus to Metamagic you're looking at some seriously over the top DCs against those spells

Timestop + (1d4+1) * (Ball Lightning + Dazing Spell + Persistant Spell) = Game over

Lets for a second assume that you do plan on casting spells, and your 20pt build won't feature dex of 18.

St 7, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 15, Wis 16, Cha 7 before Racials

Attributes at level 10 before Spells/Items/Race: Dex 18, Int 15, Wis 16

up to two levels can be lost from classes etc.

I think by this you mean "has to be able to cast Spells as a level 8+ Wizard

Adjusting my build from before considering the new informations:

I will not use combat expertise/fight defensively/total defense any more, as he is trying to cast spells

I will not add Attribute Boni to Wisdom unless he has an equal bonus on intelligence

I will limit myself to a reasonable amount of selfbuffs (no more stacking owls wisdom/cats grace to go cheap on items)

I will only use polymorph spells, if 1. There is actually a creature of the corresponding size and type and 2. the Creature is able to cast verbal and somatic components

I will not use any rage powers as he wants to cast spells

I will actually spend some of the money on a cloak of resistance
________________

Swirfneblin Monk 1 Alchemist 1 Wizard 8

Using Reduce Person

Attributes at level 10 (using the 7/16/10/15/16/7 array)
3/20/8/15/18/3

Feats: Dodge

Gear:
Amulet of Natural Armor +2 8,000
Ring of Protection +3 18,000
Belt of Dex +2 4,000
Headband of Int and Wis +2 10,000
Jingasa of the Fortunate Soldier 5,000
Dusty Rose Prism 5,000
Cloak of Resistance +3 9,000

spent 59k of 62k, 3k to spare

Spells: Shield, Mage Armor, Reduce Person, Haste
Other: Mutagen
_________________

Ac Breakdown:

Dodge Bonus: 1(Dodge Feat)+2(Swirfneblin)+1(Haste) = 4
Natural Armor: 2(Mutagen) + 2(Item) = 4
Dex: 6
Wis: 5
Armor: 4(Mage Armor)
Shield: 4(Shield Spell)
Deflection: 3(Ring)
Luck: 1(Jingasa)
Insight: 1(Rose Prism)
Size: 2

Base: 10

Total: 44

Lets see how an eldritch Knight build keeps up!

dont have a spelllist right now, but i think my flatmade should have one, will post that tomorrow

until then got some ideas you might be interested in ;)

1. whenever the current personality fails a save a random different personality can make the same save, if the second personality makes the save it takes over and the villain is effected as if succeeding on the save in the first place

2. depending on the number of henchmen giving him dual initiative might be a nice way (its in the mythic rules, but hey, the guy is 24th level, giving him a mythic ability doesnt make it more broken ^^). Maybe give him dual initiative once he takes some beating, as the multiple personalities start shifting over and over ever faster, coupled with 20% spell failure, as they actually shift so fast, they sometimes dont get to complete their spells

3. once he is defeated... he is not! His body errupts in ectoplasm and the ghosts of all 5 personalities unleash their wrath at the party (and the still living henchmen that failed their master!)

Then use combat expertise WHILE fighting defensively and you get +2 Combat Exp +3Fight. Def.ly if you don't want to go in full defense.

Acr. increases Fighting defensively too ^^

i never really thought about it, but combat expertise and fighting defensively actually work together, nice, thats 54 AC when casting, 59 when attacking or 60 when using full defense

Grishnack

what do you think about mixing in 1 level of alchemis for mutagen?
mutagen 4 dex +2NA -2wis (instead of amulet) and you can spend the gold in other things?
you get +8 from fighting using combat expertise (+2 from +4BA) PLUS full defense (+6 with 3 ranks in acrobatics) add it ^^

Size modifier from monstruous physique stacks with the racial size modifier from a halfling? (can't think of a tiny race)

size modifiers do not stack

alchemist is a nice idea, but we loose level 5 spells, so no more monstrous physique 3, which leaves alchemist at -1 AC compared to the wizard level. but if we go down to wizard 8 we might es well go to wizard 7 an still have level 4 spells. with one level of urban barbarian we get another +4 dex, and qualify for the extra rage power feat to pick up guarded stance and/or rolling dodge, giving another +4 AC.

combat expertise and full defense won't stack as you need to attack to use combat expertise and you need a standart action to use full defense. The acrobatics bonus is nice tho.

So im getting to 54 AC with Monk 1 Alchemist 1 Urban Barbarian 1 Wizard 7 now, +2 for combat expertise or +6 for full defense

//edit

how many wizard levels does the build have to have in order to be a "wizard build"?

Fighter 1, Wizard 9. Arcane Armor Training, Arcane Armor Mastery and Dodge. 16 Dex, +2 Mithril Full Plate, +2 Mithril Light Steel Shield, Montrous Physique III, Ring of Protection +2. Thats 36 with only a 5% spell failure chance.

Monk 1 Wizard 9

Start 20 Dex, 18 Wis, level 4 and level 8 +1 Dex

Dodge, Combat Expertise

Active Spells: Mage Armor, Shield, Monstrous Physique III, Owls Wisdom, Cats Grace, Haste

Equipment: 62,000 gp
Ring of Protection +4 32,000
Amulet of nat Armor +3 18,000
Jingasa of the Fortunate Soldier 5,000
Dusty Rose Prism 5,000
2,000 gp to spare
____

Base 10
Dodge 1
32 Dex (as a Diminutive Monstrous Humanoid) 11
Ring of Protection 4
Amulet of nat Armor 3
Natural Armor 1
Luck Bonus 1
Insight Bonus 1
Size Bonus 4
Shield 4
Mage Armor 4
Monk Armor Bonus 6
Haste 1

Total: 51 Armor, 0% Arcane Spell Failure

+2 when using combat expertise, +4 when full defensive

//edit
Forgot about owls wisdom and cats grace, added them

//edit 2
I dont think there actually is a diminutive monstrous humanoid, is that a requirement? ^^

gunslinger + improved invisibility -> attack vs AC 10+Deflection (maximum 15 AC), win initiative and kill him in one round

and since you want to build entirely to crush this one npc:

Dwarven Bane Weapon Enchant