Grond's page

I have been asked to help build a character for a nine year old that loves pirates and wants to start playing Pathfinder. He wants a pirate with a hook hand as their main weapon.

The problem is that I have no idea how to do this. I've never built a maimed/handicapped PC before. I need to keep the build as simple as possible for a nine year old embarking on their first ever role playing experience.

My natural thoughts tend to fighter or barbarian archetypes but I don't know how to make this work. Is there anything in the books about using a hook hand as your weapon and what feats would go with that?

Appreciate any help!

One of my groups has been together for years and one of the players has wanted for years to have a Graveknight character. He has been voted down each time we play an AP or homebrew because of the obvious reasons most DMs won't allow monster templates.

But now our rotation of DM is coming up on a guy that said previously the next time he was DM he would allow him to become a Graveknight. I realize that as DM he has the final say but am I wrong in thinking this could be a bad decision? Or have some of you guys used Graveknights before as PCs and found out it wasn't so overpowered?

I don't want to keep telling this friend of mine "no" each time he asks. The rest of the group also worries about the impact this could have on a campaign. Is it as bad as we all fear? I would appreciate some feedback.

Looking at starting the Hell's Vengeance AP with a new group. I would like to use a scythe wielding melee class. Urgathoa worship is a given.

My first thoughts are either warpriest or antipaladin. Can either of those classes take the Urgathoa's Hunger divine fighting technique?

How exactly would you guys build a scythe wielding melee class in this AP? The GM said all paizo content is good, no third party and we get a 25 point buy in at character creation.

Appreciate any advise and builds. I can honestly say I have never played a scythe wielding anything and it seems like a really fun challenge to make an effective melee class that uses one.

I do not play a mesmerist but one of the players in my Runelords campaign is playing one despite, frankly, my misgivings about this very issue.

We are running into more and more big bads that are immune to mind affecting abilities which is literally 95% of the abilities and spells she has. She has no interest in melee and will grudgingly use a wand just to do something with her actions during combat.

Is there no way around this for a mesmerist? It seems unreal to me that a class would be rendered almost completely useless in an AP but that is exactly what is happening in our big fights which, as you all know, is when you need the best action economy possible.

Appreciate any advice I can pass on to her. I know she gets very frustrated when the DM says yet another bad guy is immune to basically her entire class.

One of the APs I am in (RotRL) has our group at level 8 with a first time pen and paper player with a ranger and his leopard pet. He is playing a vanilla ranger as a full blown archer build. He wants to swap his ranger for a level 8 hunter because he wants his animal friend to be of more use than it currently has been for the last couple of levels.

I have never played a hunter so I'm at a loss to help the guy. Looking at a level 8 vanilla hunter in herolab the amount of feats seem much smaller. He wants to keep his leopard pet even though he would qualify for mechanically better pets. He also does not want to change his race (half elf) just a straight class swap with our DM will allow him to do.

Any ideas on how a build for this should play out to say level 17? He wants to stay an archer but have his pet actually do more in combat. Appreciate any advice.

Now that the Armor Master handbook has been out for a bit what are your thoughts on the archetype? It definitely seems to fit the armored hatamoto feel of a dedicated bodyguard willing to do anything to protect their lord or in playing the rest of the group.

Friend of mine is in a campaign that I am DMing and would like to use a version of Orbbcress. For those not familiar this is a magical shield that can enlarge/shrink at will and also has the ability to make the surface of the shield behave like a web spell where an attacking weapon/natural attack sticks to the shield. It also has been used to adhere to a surface to avoid falling damage using that property as well.

I have no problem with one of my players having a shield like this but I have absolutely no idea how to create one. How would a shield with a webbing effect like that even work in combat? Something like...if you are successfully hit while wielding the shield the attacker must succeed a Str saving throw of DC XX in order to use the weapon/natural attack after XX rounds? Or would you have to use it offensively as some kind of shield bash to basically force the enemy to parry you and then you adhere the shield to their weapon/natural attack?

I like the idea, really liked how it was done in the books but I just do not know how to create this item for him or how to use something like that in actual combat.

Appreciate any help.

Discussing various class options in our group for a Hell's Vengeance AP campaign and one of the guys is wanting do something different. He wants to have a Monster Handler class where instead of animal companion he can use a monster in place of the animal for purposes of using it in the same game mechanic you would use animal companion.

Is there any class that lets you do that? He wants to use it like the Dark Elves from Warhammer that have monster handlers that control monsters like manticores or hydras. He specifically wants to use a hydra that can grow and gain ranks like an animal companion but I don't know how he can do that within normal rules.

Hopefully someone knows if this is possible. I can't find anything that substitutes animal types for monster types.

This AP seems to ask the players to use the betrayal teamwork feats. My group and I have been discussing the use of them in this AP. What feats would actually be worth taking? We will have a mix of martial and caster classes.

I have been waiting for Paizo for years to release a Risen Guard prestige class and it seems that is just not going to happen.

Here is some information for those not familiar with them:

http://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Risen_Guard

I can see them being somewhat similar to the Ulfen Guard (click here: http://www.archivesofnethys.com/PrestigeClassesDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Ulfen% 20Guard ) in that they serve a country's ruler and are very loyal to that leader. Since Risen Guard are brought back from death I can see them having a building to immunity to death effects. But what else would make a Risen Guard stand out as a prestige class?

So someone in our homebrew had their barbarian get killed and wants to replace it with a character built around a knight with an aquatic theme, a knighthood that worships Gozreh. Instead of sword and board, they want a trident and shield or trident and net build that can use heavy armor and has a "Knight of Manaan" theme if you are familiar with Warhammer and the god of the sea that has his own knights in the port city of Marienburg.

Basically a heavy armor martial class that has an aquatic motif and uses a trident for their one hand weapon with a shield or net in the other. I have never seen anyone use a trident in Pathfinder before so I'm at a loss for how to build something that can be viable.

All Paizo books are open, no 3pp. Appreciate any suggested builds for this.

Our group ran into some RMA out to kill the troubled rogue in our group (turns out she refused to join the RMA and they don't take no for an answer) and after we killed them we were eager to see what kind of stats the armor/gear would have.

Unfortunately, our DM said he couldn't find any stats for them except for the Mask of the Mantis http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/m-p/mask- of-the-mantis which he assumes was the mask the RMA wear.

The iconic crimson and black armor he just guessed was some version of +1 light armor with no special magical abilities.

Is this actually correct? I just looked around couldn't find any kind of stats for the actual gear the RMA wear. Which, to be honest, is a little surprising considering how popular they are as both bad guys and for one of the few prestige classes that is good.

Appreciate if anyone could provide some answers.

Our group consists of:

Archaeologist bard (party face/rogue ish)
TWF paladin with scimitar/shield
khopesh/shield trip build warpriest
cleric with reach/summoning

The bard is going for an Indiana Jones type whip build in the Mummy's Mask campaign I am DMing. I have noticed the bard does not really do much in terms of damage and the group is now 4th level with some gold to spend. The bard player has asked for suggestions on what wand to use to possibly help in combat more.

Never really played a wand using class before so I'm at a loss for suggestions. Appreciate any advice. As you can see the party is very melee focused. Was thinking of some kind of ranged damage wand.

I am GMing a Mummy's Mask campaign. We have four players including my wife, a veteran that I've played with for almost 20 years who we will name Josh (that's not his real name), a seasoned player and a newish player that has only ever played one other Pathfinder campaign that is still ongoing with another group.

The problem is between the veteran (Josh) and the the newish player (Theresa-also not her real name) on how Theresa is playing her character.

She is playing a paladin of Sarenrae. She has never played a paladin before, her only other experience in d20 games being a witch in a RotL campaign. She has no idea what the paladin trope is and is playing her character decidedly against said trope. Her paladin is cheerful,funny, flirty with the seasoned player's character (a cleric) and absolutely loves to trash talk back to me (the GM) when I am giving voice to NPCs and monsters found in the campaign.

This is driving Josh crazy. As in, he literally gnashes his teeth and will interrupt playing sessions to inform Theresa that she is "doing it wrong". Josh has played the same paladin for many years now and he plays it the same way every time: a 2 hand sword wielding, holier-than-thou and don't you forget it stereotype of the paladin trope for as long as I've known him which goes back almost 20 years now. He will tell her that a paladin can not be cheerful, definitely never flirty and talking trash to monsters and evil ne'er do-wells is, and I quote, "so far beneath a paladin that I'm shocked the GM is not giving you negative experience points every time you do it."

I have talked to him about this behavior and he is adamant that the only "real paladin" is the classic trope of one. He is constantly trying to alignment check her (Theresa does not know he is doing this but the rest of us at the table do) to trip her up and get me to switch her to an ex-paladin as a "learning experience".

FWIW I think the way Theresa is playing her character is more than fine. Frankly it is great to see someone go against the trope and still maintain the LG alignment. There is absolutely nothing that says a LG paladin can not flirt or be funny or trash talk the bad guys. She knows that Josh does not approve of how she does it but to her credit she doesn't care. She will keep playing her character as she sees fit.

Is there a polite way to deal with my friend? I think he wanted to play the paladin on initial class makeup meeting but instead is going with a warpriest that, I might add, has magically become the paladin trope but in a new class under his running of the character. This may be the genesis of why he has a chip on his shoulder about Theresa.

I can not stand what I call "RP bullying" and I have told him to stop it at the table. He has somewhat amended his behavior but still complains to me about it and makes a way to let his feelings be known in character with such gems as "I never knew a holy paladin of Sarenrae would be so shameless in her lust, is that just your sect or do all female paladins of Sarenrae behave like slatterns?"

He defends this as "just playing my character" which is just an excuse.

I don't want to kick him from the table. I have never really seen him get this way with another character before. I have said that not all paladins have to be roleplayed the same way but I just received a disbelieving silent stare in return. Appreciate any help. The campaign has been a lot of fun even with this monkey wrench tossed in.

My group is about to start playing the Mummy's Mask AP. My character is a warpriest with a khopesh and shield. I wish there was a Risen Guard prestige class to build him towards but since he will have the same look as one I was trying to find a Risen Guard miniature for him. Or failing that a miniature that wields a khopesh.

Unfortunately, I can not locate one. I would appreciate any help or links in trying to find one.

My small group is wanting to run this AP and it is the first time for all of us. I love the ancient Egyptian theme and I'd like to build a character to get into the Living Monolith PrC using a khopesh as the weapon for a martial build. I figure a fighter or barbarian would be a good start.

I also would like to ask those veteran players and GMs of what they could recommend for classes for this particular AP. We are looking at a party of four. No summoners or gunslingers would be allowed but anything else within published Paizo products would be.

Some people suggested a warpriest on the AP board for this idea. Any thoughts would appreciated. My group is looking for party suggestions as well in terms of what classes would work well together in this AP.

My small group is wanting to run this AP and it is the first time for all of us. I love the ancient Egyptian theme and I'd like to build a character to get into the Living Monolith PrC using a khopesh as the weapon for a martial build. I figure a fighter or barbarian would be a good start.

I also would like to ask those veteran players and GMs of what they could recommend for classes for this particular AP. We are looking at a party of four. No summoners or gunslingers would be allowed but anything else within published Paizo products would be.

Appreciate any help.

We have one group that has a couple in it. The male of the group is a great player both in terms of actual role playing and in game mechanics. He helps out the GM significantly in terms of printing our and updating hero lab/core fore character sheets and having a laptop at hand with every single paizo pdf on it. He is a plus player anyone would want in a table.

The problem is his girlfriend. Her main roleplaying experience is from the Vampire Masquerade setting with LARP. This has contributed to what I call the "Everything is about my character" syndrome for roleplaying games. We literally can not have a single session where she is not trying to "lead" the group no matter the situation.

I could deal with that both IC and OOC. What I can not deal with is she thinks it is "appropriate" roleplaying for her character to not help in fights and in two cases intentionally not even come to fight when the party is running into trouble.

One real example of game play: we're supposed to be helping a town. Guards were posted to protect some tunnels we discovered under the town. Three out of our four players want to explore the tunnels and the GM is broadly hinting that we need to check out what it in the tunnels.

Well little miss leader decides we are not doing that. She wants to go hop the town wall to follow tracks we found a day or two earlier from a desecrated grave. She uses her character's alignment of CN to literally tell us at the table "She's chaotic neutral, she can do anything she wants with no repercussions". She puts up a huge fight both IC and OOC about not wanting to go into the tunnels. She clearly tells us and the GM she thinks it is a waste of time...even after the GM pretty much tells her we really need to check those tunnels out.

The rest of us in the group simply outvote and tell her we're going into the tunnels. She responds by having her character avoid every fight she can in the tunnels and not staying with the group. The GM has to send in monsters approaching her while she was alone to get her to run to join the rest of the group.

When she finally does we arrive to fight the big bad in the tunnels. This is not an easy fight as the monster is invisible and can fly. She literally does nothing in the fight except as a bard throw up inspire courage and throws up some illusionary walls to hide behind. She does nothing else the entire fight and when the GM gets peeved that she is doing this the GM responds by having the monster drop summoned monsters right on top of her. She still refuses to fight the creatures and it forces the rest of us to both kill the extra mobs and then finally the big bad.

I asked her twice during this was she literally going to do nothing but hide behind illusionary stone walls. She then tries to passively aggressively explain why her character (and not the player who was IRL mad at the rest of us for not doing what she wanted) would not fight because "bards are not front line fighters and some times the best thing to do is sing one song and hide the rest of the fight."

After the session is over myself, the other player and the GM are quite upset about this. We only have four players in a group and this particular player is so sensitive that we are leery about confronting her over this behavior. If she were to leave the game or be asked to leave it would mean her boyfriend, the really good player I mentioned earlier, would go with her out of principle.

So any advice would be appreciated. I've had to deal with problem players as I've played ye olde school D&D back in the 80's up till present time but I've never dealt with a player who literally keeps their character out of combat out of spite that the she or he didn't get their way.

We don't have a whole lot of players that play Pathfinder in our local area so losing two players would be almost impossible to replace in this group.

I have been looking at PCGEN and Core Forge and do not see the new classes added in. I know Hero Lab has it but as with all things Hero Lab you have to pay out the ying yang for everything. Is there a free character creator that has the new classes or is Hero Lab still the only option for them at this point?

The background:

My wife and I and a few friends are starting a new campaign. We have decided to do the Rise of the Runelord campaign since none of us have actually played the adventure path before. We are using a 30 point buy system and we can use any and all official paizo rules, treats, feats, etc.

The other classes in the group are as follows:

human 2 hand fighter (meat shield)
gnome bard (vanilla)
elf witch (vanilla)

and then there is my class. The bard in the group has already said she has no interest in putting points in disable device or doing any "rogue" elements in the group. So I am left thinking of ways to fill the disable device/disable magic device void in our lineup.

My first thought was human ninja and taking the trap finding trait from people of the sands which gives disable device as a class skill and it enables it to also disable magic device.

My friend who is a veteran PFS GM has suggested that instead of ninja I should look at the dungeon rover archetype of ranger which gives disable device as a class skill with the added plus that I may be able to build that class to also become a Red Mantis Assassin later in the campaign.

I will admit the ranger to RMA sounds fun but I want to do what's in the best interest of the group. Appreciate any advice and build recommendations. I have never played a ninja or built one and my last ranger was a while ago.

My wife and I have a mutual friend that has never played Pathfinder or any d20 role playing game. She is a huge fan of fantasy in general but never could find anyone to play role playing games with before she became friends with us.

So we are starting a new campaign with at least four players plus the GM and essentially all of us are holding off on picking our classes until she picks what she wants. While we will support any class she wants to play (this is a home brew campaign, only rule is that all paizo official books and rules are to be used, it is not PFS) we also want to make this as gentle a learning curve as possible.

The only two things she said she definitely wants to do is play an Elf and play some kind of magic using class. I was thinking of her playing a magus with the hexcrafter archetype but I gather from another conversation we had is she wants a pure or close to pure magic user.

I will self admit that despite playing AD&D since the 80's I have never played a pure magic using class so I'm not the best judge on what is a good learning class to recommend.

Appreciate any and all advice. It isn't too often our little group of Pathfinders can add a new member and we're hoping she will have enough fun to fall in love with it as we have. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Please see here: http://www.sundren.org/wiki/index.php?title=Stormlord_of_Talos for the rules and description of what they are in the old rules from FR.

That class is hands down the most fun class I ever played in a pen and paper role playing format and it kills me that I can't find anything like it in Pathfinder.

Or perhaps I can? If you guys know how to build a class using all paizo published materials to create one and not just PFS please share your builds, information or any thoughts.

I realize the Stormlord is an old D&D prestige class but I'm hoping someone with a higher skill in mechanic-fu than I have will be able to approximate the class with existing Pathfinder base/prestige classes.

Appreciate any help. I truly enjoy Pathfinder and I'd love to get a Stormlord type of class rolling again in my next campaign which is just now starting to get together with class and role ideas.

Our group is level 3 almost four and has the following:

Inquisitor built as archer
Fighter built as archer
Sorcerer with infernal bloodline not sure the rest of how she's built
cleric with travel domain and is a straight healer
Myself as a polearm fighter going to Hellknight (my brother's HK made me build my own frankly)

The new player is a female friend of my wife and one of the other players from work. She has never played any kind of role playing game and she will be at our next game to observe us and see if she wants to play. Just based on conversations it seems she will almost certainly join us with a character.

And here's where the advice is needed: what class should we suggest for her and what direction for said class? Obviously we have zero rogues or something along that lines and we also only have myself as any kind of melee tank or melee damage.

I don't know if a completely new player could handle a rogue or a rogue like class to fill that hole for our party but perhaps I am wrong? Any suggestions on helping to ease her into playing and what class to play would be welcome.

I am trying to help my brother build a human fighter with the ideal of making him a Lawful Neutral Hell knight that specializes in polearms. Any suggestions on how his build should look from start up to level 16?

My wife and I just got this today and played the first suggested scenario and we immediately love the game.

However we are perplexed and can not find an answer to this question:

Upon defeating the first scenario the reward was: pick a random item from the box.

Does this reward item increase the amount of item cards listed on the character sheet? For example my wife played Lem and his item limit is 2 but next to it are empty check boxes for 3 and 4. We assume this means that the item reward means he now has an item limit of 3 not 2.

Is this correct?

Also after we completed the game do we keep the cards we won during the scenario that are in our hand? If so how does that impact the limits on the character card sheet?

Appreciate any help!

I am wanting to play one but as I am new to the game I must confess that I do not know how to properly make a build. I know it is a prestige class but in terms of racial options, base class, stats, feats etc. I am at a complete loss. I would really appreciate some advice.

My wife and I are new to Pathfinder as I mentioned in my other thread asking for help with duergar samurai. The group we are joining are veteran players and one of them is a friend of my wife. While talking about what we want to do after the GM had to leave for the night it became obvious one of the people wanted to play an evil character.

A discussion ensued where one of the players said that you are not allowed to use evil characters because the group is supposed to work together and not have to worry about one of its members stabbing them in the back. The player that wants an evil character responded that we wouldn't know they were evil until said character had used us for their own good and decided to part ways or betray us or simply steal the goods.

I know from another friend of mine that does PFS in another state that evil characters are not allowed in official PFS groups because of exactly this kind of problem of players being worried more about a fellow party member than the scenario and game the GM is running.

What I would like to know is how is this usually handled? I have played lawful evil characters before in Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance and had no issue with the party because since lawful evil rarely breaks their word I simply had my character swear not to betray the group...and left plenty of room for said character to be evil as needed to NPCs we ran across. I offered this as a suggestion but the other player wants their character to be a shady, chaotic person that is selfish.

I think we talked them into playing chaotic neutral at the end but I could tell my wife was already worried that she would "do something wrong" in her first time ever pen and paper roleplaying if this person does goes evil and gets us all killed as a result. Is there a protocol that is usually observed in these kind of situations? This is not using PFS just regular house rules.

Hello,

I played Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance and Ravencroft back in my younger days and now I'm trying out Pathfinder for the first time. I know I can't recreate my beloved Stormlord of Talos class in Pathfinder so I wanted to try for something different.

I usually play at least one grey dwarf character for flavor and as I was looking through the Ultimate Combat book the idea hit me that I've never seen a samurai be played by any race other than human.

Is it allowable to ply a Duergar samurai? I don't see any restrictions that say otherwise but I wanted to ask here before I tried to make the character. I would like to use a 2h katana style for my samurai and would appreciate any tips on feats and choices.

I never cared about making overpowered god mode character just things that are fun and had a distinct flavor to them. And something tells me a bitter gray dwarf ronin samurai wandering the Inner Seas sounds like a flavor I'd love to try.