J. S.'s page

Ideas for other characters:
"Beastial Berserker"--shield biting and foaming at the mouth--either shield bashes or natural attacks (Lots of options, what's your favorite?)
"Shield-Maiden of Legend"--strength-based two-handed shield-bashing skirnir magus
"One-Eyed Spearman"--Odin-esque leader with a wide-brimmed hat and spear--maybe a standard bearer cavalier/exemplar brawler/battle herald
"Horn Blower of Destiny"--some type of bard

Missing a good ranged character that fits with the theme.

Another trait for the same character--Zest for Battle. He also wouldn't have buckler proficiency until taking the fighter level.

A group exercise for fun.... Design a warband for a dark ages fantasy setting.

Parameters--Outline the build for your character and pass it on to the next person. Optimize within concept not minmax. Bonus points for synergy with other party members. Comments on builds or new characters are both welcome. Outline your plan for at least a few levels. If practical, maintain flexibility between point buy/die rolls.

I'll go first...
"The Raven of Battle"
A saxon huscarl-esque figure clad in chainmaille, carrying a dane axe, with a raven perched on his shoulder. His warsong echoes across the field, inspiring his comrades and causing his enemies to tremble. His eyes glow with fell lust for battle as enemies fall before his blows and the raven urges him on to greater glory. After the battle he looks upon the field and weeps as the raven feasts.

1st level build
*Dwarf
*Shaman
*Stats--Wisdom (casting stat) 14 post racial modifier. Use points/better die rolls for physical stats. Apply all stat increases from leveling to Wisdom.
*Traits--Fate's Favored, Heirloom Weapon (Dwarven longaxe)
*Feat--Light Armor Proficiency for familiar
*Spirit Animal--Raven
*Spirit--Battle
*Favored class bonus goes towards hit points or familiar's natural AC bonus.
*Equipment--Dwarven longaxe, spiked gauntlet, buckler, chainmaille.

Redesign at 2nd level
*Shaman 1/FIghter 1/Shaman X
*Traits--replace Heirloom Weapon with ???
*Equipment--Swap spiked gauntlet for Dwarven boulder helmet

Progression
*Shaman 1, FIghter 1
*****Feat--Combat Reflexes
*Shaman 2, FIghter 1
*****Hex--Healing
*****Feat--Improved Familiar (apply alignment appropriate template to raven familiar)
*Shaman 3, FIghter 1
*****Familiar starts delivering touch spells.
*Shaman 4, FIghter 1
*****Hex--Battle Master
*****Wandering Spirit--usually choose Life
*****Feat--Weapon Focus (Dwarven longhammer)

Haven't thought it out beyond that.

Play like a reach cleric. Cast enlarge person whenever possible. The raven uses aid another and flies around delivering touch buffs to the party or (cautiously) touch debuffs to opponents.

Thanks, I'm learning a lot as we talk through this.

I missed the impact of the "can't take more ranks in a skill than you have total hit dice" rule when I was planning.

Craft checks show one week worth of progress so I was I dividing by 7 days x 8 hour days to convert weekly progress into progress per hour up front.

Does Pathfinder assume a 5 day or 7 day work week?

I also missed that adventuring cut the multiple in half.

Double-checking our math for first level cure light wounds...

3 gp ingredient price = 9 gp market price = 9 sp for checking progress.

15 X 15 = 225 sp of progress per week.

That's 225/ 9 = 25 times the required result ---> 12.5 times the required result when adventuring.

For a 5 day week that's 12.5/5 = 2.5 batches per day or ~ 3.2 hours per batch.

For a 7 day week that's 12.5/7 = 1.79 batches per day or ~ 4.47 hours per batch.

Heal gets a +3 for being a trained class skill and wisdom bonus, excess skill ranks, or a healers kit would make this faster. For instance, a 17 result would turn this into....

17 X 15 = 255 sp of progress per week.

That's 255/ 9 = 28.33 times the required result ---> 14.17 times the required result when adventuring.

For a 5 day week that's 14.17/5 = 2.83 batches per day or ~ 2.83 hours per batch.

For a 7 day week that's 14.17/7 = 2.02 batches per day or ~ 3.96 hours per batch.

Holing up in an inn or something that would count as "not adventuring" would cut each of those times in half.

I think we've hit on a feat that works.

Instead of,
"Compare this to the item’s sp value (not gp value) when determining your progress." my previous post should have said,
"Use the item’s gp value as its sp value when determining your progress."

Here's another shot... Requiring more skill ranks as compensation for including the reduced time portion of master alchemist. I'm not terribly attached to heal vs. alchemy vs. spellcraft for the skill check or wisdom vs. intelligence for the number of doses. Heal just seemed like better fluff.

Salve Crafting
You can create healing Herbal Salves that spread the effects of your Cure spells out over multiple doses, although they have significant drawbacks over a Cure potion.

Prereqs: Healing (wis) 5 ranks, ability to cast a Cure spell.

Benefit: You can cast a single Cure spell and distill it into a batch of herbal salve that you are crafting. Each batch can consist of at most a number of doses equal to your wisdom modifier (minimum 1). These additional doses do not increase the time required, but they do increase the raw material cost. The herbs and other ingredients cost only 5 gp x spell level x caster level.

You must succeed at a Heal check based on twice the ingredient cost of one dose to craft a batch of Herbal Salve. If you botch the crafting, your spell is lost.

Assess progress as in a craft alchemy check (skill check+(skill ranks+ability modifier) x (DC) / (56/hours crafted). Compare this to the item’s sp value (not gp value) when determining your progress.

While you can apply a dose of salve as a standard action, it takes a full minute for the recipient to gain the effects of the Cure spell.

Unfortunately, if the salve is not used within 24 hours, it becomes inert and the ingredients are lost. Its market value is double the ingredient cost only if the customer trusts that the batch is freshly made.

No worries. We're brainstorming for fun not pay.

For anyone following along--here's the master alchemist feat http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/master-alchemist/

We did a dice roll. My int is currently 10, but I can ask to change it around.

At 5 gp x spell level x caster level that's 5 gp = 50 sp with a level 10 craft check for first level cure light wounds. 50 sp of progress is needed to finish.

Assume take 10 for automatic success, divide by 7 for daily progress, and then divide by 4 to represent 2 hours of crafting. That would be (10+((skill ranks = 1)+ability modifier)) x (DC=10) / 28 ~ 3.93 < 50. So 2 hours isn't anywhere near enough.

This wouldn't work for end of adventure day healing unless we include another part of the master alchemist feat "...use the item’s gp value as its sp value when determining your progress (do not multiply the item’s gp cost by 10 to determine its sp cost)."

That plus a combined ability bonus and skill rank of 4 would give (10+ 4) x (DC=10) / 28 = 5 . So, automatic success in 2 hours.

As I side note, I found it interesting to learn that alchemical crafting gets way nerfed on time vs. potion crafting or wand crafting.
"Brewing a potion takes 2 hours if its base price is 250 gp or less, otherwise brewing a potion takes 1 day for each 1,000 gp in its base price .... The DC to create a magic item is 5 + the caster level for the item."
vs.
[For other magical items] "Creating an item requires 8 hours of work per 1,000 gp in the item’s base price (or fraction thereof), with a minimum of at least 8 hours."
vs.
[For alchemical creations] "Make an appropriate Craft check representing one week’s worth of work."

And another thought on the original topic--returning to the feat idea for a moment.

"Create Herbal Salve"--Works as Create Wand (i.e. crafting a device with multiple charges to be used over time) with the following exceptions.
**Only allows crafting of cure spells.
**Said cure spells are to be cast outside of combat.
**Herbal salves may be crafted in increments up to 50 charges. Cost per charge and time to craft per charge is set by the GM. (Using standard Pathfinder time and cost it would be 15 GP and 9.6 minutes per 1st level cure light wounds spell.)

This would be a weaker (only cure spells) but more flexible (crafting quicker and cheaper) feat than Create Wand. Would earlier access (say level 1) be appropriate?

If limited to cure spells, spells like restoration would still require using spell slots.

Another way to use this feat would be to craft *after* hit points were lost. By crafting afterwards, I would only have to save one spell for the end of the day instead of hoarding all my buffing spells.

That sounds like a really fun idea. Repeat the biography enough times and everyone believes it... Could range from a serious character to camp like Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter.

Although wandering away from the original topic, I was thinking about the Warpriest scaling weapon feature a little more...

A Warpriest wielding a large reach weapon (like the Dwarven long hammer), could take weapon focus gauntlet or weapon focus Dwarven boulder helmet. This would eventually let him attack an adjacent square with more/larger damage dice.

Drawback is that Warpriest doesn't get lead blades on their spell list like Forge Master does, so they couldn't buff their Dwarven long hammer as much at early levels. (Lead blades is a first level spell that makes 2d6 turn into 3d6.)

Which is better? I don't know. Probably depends on how you play.

Other ideas:
***Illuminations. (Many bibles/chronicles/histories were heavily illustrated.)
***Bibles. (Exp. Maciejowski Bible.)
***Chronicles. (Exp. Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle.)
***History of a kingdom--Often claiming that the rulers were descended from biblical figures. (Exp. The History of the Kings of Britain.)
***Religious/philosophical essays (Exp. works of Thomas Aquinas.)
***Greek and Roman texts copied by (sometimes illiterate) monks. (Exp. works of Archimedes, Aristotle, Plato, etc...)
***Treaties or legal agreements. (Exp. Magna Carta.)
***Notes about anything and everything involved in day to day life. (Exp. Notes on birch bark from Novgorod.)
***Myths and legends (often originally told orally.) (Exp. Beowulf, medieval poetry that inspired the Ring Cycle, tall tales like Baba Yaga...)

Not all of these would motivate someone to forge them, but hopefully that inspires a few ideas.

I was visualizing the additional restrictions you mentioned and didn't even realize it.

Yeah, I looked at the warpriest. The forgepriest archetype seemed similar to my orginal forgemaster/fighter concept. Decision points were which HeroLab modules we had access to and a faster spell progression towards the higher level condition removal spells (my attempt to be a team player.)

Warpriest would play differently--buff and attack first round vs buff first round and stand back for attacks of opportunity. I'm not sure how to make the scaling weapon damage work for me when I'm wielding a 2d6 weapon to start with.

By the way, thank you. I like your version a lot.

I'll talk it over with my DM and the rest of the group next time we get together. We'll be doing a level up, so the timings perfect for a redesign.

"My husband Debnor warns that you may sorely miss your AoE damage via Channel Energy the first time you meet Barrow wights. But you knew that."

Yeah, there's always something...

My other party members may push me to be a team player by playing a more traditional cleric for precisely that reason. Kind of like we shouldn't tangle with a barrow wight until I can cast death ward and restoration.

Game system vs. world we're campaigning in vs. my expectations vs. party expectations.

I wanted to play a dwarf and remembered that dwarves have always made good battle clerics. Then I saw the cool sounding archetype--Tolkien dwarves craft stuff. Party hears "cleric" and thinks healbot (not in a bad way just what they know.) We've lucked out so far--my cure light wounds spells have been enough. Not buffing to hoard my spells is a rough dynamic.

The dwarves we met weren't herbalists. Maybe other dwarves could have been. Does that break immersion?--I don't know.

MERP also expanded on the setting a lot. For instance, in MERP's version of Middle Earth the dwarves worshipped Aule. The question then becomes what Aule would want his clerics to do. My answer to that is--craft stuff, preserve knowledge, and protect their own. Protecting their own would involve hitting things hard and some type of healing.

I like my "replacement for healing via channeling" in the above post. I don't really like the "replacement for damaging undead via channeling." Guess I could just voluntarily scrub that part of it.

An attempt at a more balanced write up....

The following abilities replace channeling (or equivalently replace rune forger.)

**Replacement for healing via channeling.**

A character who knows "medicinal herbalism" can create herbal concoctions for the treatment of wounds, diseases, and other medical conditions.

This character may create a number of medicinal herbal concoctions per day equal to 3 + (pick an ability modifier--which to use?) These concoctions act on one character and heal a number of hit points equivalent to the channel energy ability of a cleric of the crafter's level.

Time to create each concoction is equal to 1 hour / uses of this ability day. Once created, the concoctions may be applied by any character. Applying these concoctions is a full round action. Herbal concoctions keep for 24 hours.

Herbs may be scrounged or purchased at DM discretion.

**Replacement for damaging undead via channeling.**

In lieu of traditional channeling, this character has the special ability to cause extra damage to undead when attacking them with his melee weapon.

This works as the channel energy ability of a cleric but the "Channel Smite" feat is required to be applied.

The melee weapon glows blue when this ability is in use.

Healing in the books involved herbs and being a "special character." Aragorn does a lot of the healing--performing first aid on Frodo after the skirmish at weathertop, and treating injuries after most of the big battles. I think there was even a bit about "the hands of the king are the hands of the healer." There were also injuries that could only be treated by some of the elves in Rivendell. Consumables were either scrounged (gathering herbs on the spot) or the expense wasn't mentioned.

MERP did something similar--A hobbit or common man could use herbs to treat a headache. A Dunedain or high elf could use the same herbs to heal injuries. Animists (kind of like non-armored druids) may have also been able to treat injuries or conditions. MERP was also way higher magic than the books. I'm not sure how much the herbs cost.

Decision becomes how to reconcile this with playing in the Pathfinder system which assumes access to something like cure light wounds wands.

I like the one hour idea, especially if I could divide that time further based on the number of potions needed.

If it's going to replace channeling, should it also include an option for a negative effect vs. undead?

Here's another shot at a re-fluffed creation feat or domain power (borrowing heavily from druidic herbalism):

A character who chooses to learn "medicinal herbalism" can create herbal concoctions for the treatment of wounds, diseases, and other medical conditions.

Only medicinal herbal concoctions may be created with this ability. Specific medicinal concoctions may only be created by a character who has that spell on his spell list.

A character can create a number of free "cure light/moderate/serious wounds" herbal concoctions per day equal to 3 + his wisdom modifier. These may be brewed without expending spell slots or rolling a spell craft check and only require the small amount of herbs that the character normally carries or scrounges. The act of creating and applying these herbal concoctions requires 15 minutes each. These herbal concoctions are highly perishable so the spell casting character must apply them to the injured party promptly.

Notes:
*3 + wisdom modifier per day may be too much, it's just a starting place.
*I'm aiming for this to replace the creation and use of standard "cure" consumables.
*Does this feel more like a feat or a domain power? It's cure only and not area of effect, so feels weaker than channeling.

Thoughts from the community?

Correction to one of my previous postings--craft wands can't be taken until 5th level.

Thanks for the input, folks.

I'll look harder at the chirugeon and restorer.

I am intrigued by druidic herbalism. It looks like the equivalent of a cleric domain so could probably swap for one of those with GM permission without changing power level of the character.

Unfortunately, it looks like all crafting requires expending a spell slot.

Clarifications--I visualize that the character doing the healing is administering the potion to the character being healed (cured/restored/condition removed.) I also visualize this happening after combat is over instead of during combat.

Alchemist self buffs and heals but it seems more about mutagens, tentacles, and bombs (depending on archetype.)

Brew potion or craft wand can also be used with any spell. I visualize gimping this feat to only healing-type spells.

I'm currently running a 2nd level character. Regular brew potion can't be taken until 3rd level. Potions are more expensive per spell. Any character can drink a potion.
I don't visualize passing out potions for other characters to chug mid combat.

Regular craft wands can be taken at 1st level. Wands have multiple charges, so they are cheaper per spell. Wands either require the user to have the spell on their spell list or can be used by any character with a use-magic-device check. (Correct me on that last point if I'm wrong.)

A refluff of either feat would do it. Just want to hand my DM a more polished version before we discuss it. "Hey, wouldn't this be neat?" instead of "Do the work for me."

The character I'm running is a low level dwarf cleric (forgemaster) 1/fighter 1/forgemaster X. My "magic use" is low key--I'm self-buffing with spells and wading into combat with a dwarven long hammer and buckler. The archetype eliminates channeling. If I hoard my buffing spells, I can burn them to spontaneously cast cure spells. Then the herbs are just roleplaying like you said.

What I would do to heal with that character in a typical campaign is to use a wand of cure light wounds (either buying it or taking create wands as a feat) and preserve my spell slots for buffing.

I don't want a big rule change. My feat idea is intended as a straightforward replacement for taking create wands and using that to make a cure light wounds wand.

I'm playing in a homebrew campaign set in 4th age Middle Earth (based on old MERP material but using the Pathfinder ruleset.)

I'm looking for feedback about the following homebrew feat (or maybe it should be a replacement for cleric type channeling or a domain power?) before discussing it with my GM. Purposes of this feat are to:
(1)Fluff healing spells into something more consistent with Middle-Earth, and
(2)Allow additional healing without wands of cure light wounds.

"Brew Healing Potion"

Pre-req: Able to "heal" including any of channelling, lay on hands, or casting healing, condition removal, or restoration spells.

Description: Given access to a sufficient quantity of athelas or other medicinal herbs, a character may brew a potion or ointment of any healing, condition removal, or restoration spell on his spell list. Brewing the potion does not require casting the spell. The spell casting character must be the one to administer the treatment. Treatment must take place outside of combat.

Questions:
*Stockpiling the potions seems wrong. How perishable should they be?
*Should the potions be subject to the same spellcraft check and crafting time requirements as typical Pathfinder potions?

MIniature -> character instead of character -> miniature may be an atypical approach or even bassackwards. For me, sometimes visuals spark creativity.

Cavaliers seem to be focused around mounts, and the dwarf cha penalty might be difficult for a bard. Both might be tricky builds, but could be fun.

For fun...

Has anyone else built a character to match a cool looking miniature they ran across?

Here's an example http://www.sgmm.biz/ND1-Dwarf-King-and-Guards_p_339.html (Of course they could all be fighters, but let's be more creative.) I'm thinking:
*Hornblower--maybe a skald, maybe a summoner, maybe some fog-like area of effect spell could billow forth from the horn when he blows it?
*Standard bearer--some type of inspirational buffer?
*King w/ sword and shield--fighter archetype that lends teamwork feats to other fighters?

Not sure how I'd build any of them.

What direction would you take the different figures? Or share a cool example of your own.

Darn, that makes this ability way less useful.

The idea of a shield erupting in a flash of light blinding enemies in front of you sounds like classic fantasy. Since the area of effect is a sphere, it seems like a party member would always be too close to use this ability.

Maybe applying the runes to a sling bullet or crossbow bolt would be more useful.

What is involved in "commanding the rune to erupt"? It's a standard action. Can it be done at range?

What are the rules for deciding where a projectile goes after it hits or misses?

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/core-races/dwarf/forgemaster-cleric-dwarf/

"Glowglyph: The inscribed item sheds light as a torch. As a standard action, the bearer can command the rune to erupt in a burst of light as a shield with the blinding special ability with a burst radius of 5 feet per glowglyph rune inscribed on the item. This expends all glowglyph runes on the item."

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-armor/magic-armor-and-shield-spec ial-abilities/blinding/

"A shield with this ability flashes with a brilliant light up to twice per day upon command of the wielder. Except for the wielder, anyone within 20 feet must make a successful DC 14 Reflex save or be blinded for 1d4 rounds."

Is the only allowed area of effect shape a circle? Or would a character be allowed to command the runes to erupt in a semi-circle or cone (to represent being placed on the front of his shield)?

Yeah, lay on hands would give the healing mechanic I'm visualizing.

After re-reading the war priest fervor rules, that would also give the same healing mechanic but times per day would be based off of wisdom.

How about the damage mechanic I'm visualizing?
*Channel energy includes a burst ability even with the previously referenced channeling feat.
*Fervor causes damage via a touch attack not through a weapon.
*Smite evil is different but would also give extra damage versus evil creatures.

What benefit would you give a cleric or war priest for swapping out their healing or damaging channeling abilities for Paladin-style lay on hands or smite evil?

Primary goal for this exercise is to make a dwarf front line fighter/cleric type match the aesthetic of a game I'm playing in. Secondary goals are to: (1) maintain more spell casting than a Paladin gets, (2) base abilities off of wisdom instead of charisma, and (3) choose abilities that offer feats for extra use per day--(This seems like a big drawback to using fervor to heal and do damage.)

I'm looking for a way to completely replace cleric or war priest channeling as a burst with a different delivery method. Is this within the current rule set or would it require a homebrew arrangement?

I'm visualizing something like this feat http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/channel-smite-combat/ expect that I would be REQUIRED to channel through my weapon and unable to do so as a burst.

How about for channeling to heal? I'm visualizing a requirement to touch creatures and heal them one at a time and being unable to do so as a burst.

Thoughts?

Your brother's planned campaign sounds fun, too. I could see either of those characters fitting in as long as you don't go too "Mr. Hyde" with mutagen effects.

I'm relatively new to the system--is there a big power change when clerics get access to level 5 and higher spells? Level 3 spells would get me through cleric level 6. Level 4 would get me through cleric level 8. Eliminating summoning spells would make sense.

Here are a couple examples to illustrate my (still evolving) thought process about some of the cleric spells and Tolkien's world:

***Example that may break theme.***
Low-level cleric casts Create Water at will during a journey to minimize worries about a party of adventurers surviving in the wilderness.

vs.

***Example that may be overpowered, but feels more plausible within theme.***
A group of dwarves find their mountain home under siege. Isolated and cut off from their lines of supply, they are near dying from thirst and then eventually hunger. A high-level cleric walks into the lower chambers and strikes the ground with a mighty blow of his hammer. Aule takes mercy on his children and a spring of water gushes forth, eventually filling that chamber with water. This new water reservoir enables the dwarves to survive the siege of their mountain. Tales are told of this miracle for generations.

Decision becomes where to draw a line between the two.

It feels like a lot of the first-level spell list should disappear. DM is the final decision maker, but I'm looking for ideas.

1st level Cleric spells (I think I've removed all evil spells from this list.)

Abundant Ammunition
Air Bubble
Ant Haul
Abstemiousness
Aspect of the Nightingale
Bane
Barbed Chains
Bless
Blessed Fist
Bless Water
Blessing of the Watch
Burning Disarm
Carrion Compass
Cause Fear
Celestial Healing
Clarion Call
Command
Compel Hostility
Comprehend Languages
Cultural Adaptation
Cure Light Wounds
Dancing Lantern
Deadeye’s Lore
Deathwatch
Decompose Corpse
Desperate Weapon
Detect Chaos/Evil/Good/Law
Detect Charm
Detect Demon
Detect the Faithful
Detect Undead
Divine Favor
Diagnose Disease
Doom
Dream Feast
Embrace Destiny
Endure Elements
Enhance Water
Entropic Shield
Face of the Devourer
Fairness
Firebelly
Forbid Action
Grasping Corpse
Guardian Armor
Hairline Fractures
Haze of Dreams
Hedging Weapons
Hidden Diplomacy
Hide from Undead
Ice Armor
Inflict Light Wounds
Ironbeard
Karmic Blessing
Know the Enemy
Liberating Command
Lighten Object
Magic Stone
Magic Weapon
Marid’s Mastery
Mighty Fist of the Earth
Moment of Greatness
Murderous Command
Obscure Poison
Obscuring Mist
Poisoned Egg
Protection from Chaos/Evil/Good/Law
Ray of Sickening
Read Weather
Recharge Innate Magic
Refine Improvised Weapon
Reinforce Armaments
Remove Fear
Remove Sickness
Restore Corpse
Rite of Bodily Purity
Rite of Centered Mind
Sanctify Corpse
Sanctuary
Shadow Trap
Shield of Faith
Spiked Armor
Stunning Barrier
Summon Minor Monster
Summon Monster I
Sun Metal
Swallow Your Fear
Tap Inner Beauty
Touch of Blindness
Touch of Bloodletting
Touch of Truthtelling
Tracking Mark
Unbreakable Heart
Weapons Against Evil
Weaponwand

Definitely doing a lot of reading to get ready for this one. I ran into an interesting essay about why Melkor and Aule were different despite both being obsessed with creation. interesting essay

Our campaign is set in 4th age, after the events of LoTR. Some of the ravaged areas have been rebuilt, but "big bads" have moved into other areas.

A level cap isn't explicitly defined, but we're first level characters so I don't have delusions of Gandalf-ness. Leveling up is at the discretion of the GM. I might run the idea of alternating cleric and fighter levels by him. Heck, I started this thread to get ideas about which spells to remove from my spell list.

The jump I'm making that leads toward cleric is visualizing temporary buffing bonuses to enhance weapons and armour as a natural extension of master/magical crafting.

I visualize a cleric of Aule as someone who is in danger of "thinking about whether he can make something not whether he should." Exceeding his station combined with excessive pride in his creations could lead to corruption.

Worshiping knowledge and protecting his people instead of fetishizing the act of crafting would definitely be another way to play the character.

Lots to think about. Thanks.

Good points. It definitely wouldn't be appropriate for entire an entire Middle Earth party to consist of magic users, especially high-level ones. Our DM's vision is consistent with including a few low-level magic users in the party.

We only see a few dwarves in Tolkien's stories--Gimli during the Ring Trilogy and the party of dwarves and Dain's clan during the hobbit. There's no telling what they got up to in their caves.

A lot of the buffing spells are basically invisible. For instance, if the other characters see me writing runes on my hammer before an encounter, they don't know that I cast lead blades on it.

I hadn't thought about where cave-dwelling dwarves got their food and drink. That's another really good point.

Examples of what I visualized a dwarf cleric of Aule doing include: crafting weapons and armor that are so well made they just happen to be "magical," crafting magic-esque devices like the hidden back door to the Lonely Mountain, and (at levels higher than a PC) crafting the dwarf rings of power.

Maybe I'm too caught up in the concept of runes, smithing, and crafting. Aule's crafting was pretty expansive (he created the dwarves as basically stone golems,) so maybe I should be more liberal with the way I visualize this.

1st level spells are going to take longer since I have to eliminate the chaotic and evil spells from my list before deciding whether they're thematically appropriate.

Artifice domain spells

1st—animate rope, 2nd—wood shape, 3rd—stone shape, 4th—minor creation, 5th—fabricate, 6th—major creation, 7th—wall of iron, 8th—statue, 9th—prismatic sphere.

All of these seem thematically appropriate.

Forgemaster spells

1st—crafter’s curse, crafter’s fortune, lead blades; 2nd—chill metal, heat metal, shatter; 3rd—keen edge, versatile weapon; 8th—iron body, repel metal or stone.

All of these seem thematically appropriate.

My initial thoughts:

0-level spells
Bleed................................NO
Create Water.....................NO
Detect Magic....................YES, general awareness of magic items
Detect Poison...................NO
Enhanced Diplomacy........NO
Guidance...........................YES, runes written on weapons or armor
Light.................................YES, runes written on object that is carried
Mending............................YES, but repetitive with Artificer's Touch domain power
Purify Food and Drink........NO
Read Magic.......................YES, with possible limitations based on languages known
Resistance........................YES, runes written on armor
Spark................................YES, starting the forge fire
Stabilize............................YES, applying herbs to wounds
Virtue................................NO

(Hope the advice section is the best part of the board for this post. I'm looking for specific advice, not a debate on whether Tolkien works with Pathfinder.)

Dwarf cleric of Aule in a campaign set in Middle-Earth. Forgemaster archetype because it's thematically fitting. (Forgepriest was another possibility.)

Wielding warhammer and shield for thematic reasons. (If I pick up combat expertise and martial weapon proficiency, I might swap out for dwarven warhammer to play the attack of opportunities/range game). I visualize acting a lot like a fighter at low level, writing runes on weapons and armor to buff up, putting herbs on wounds (i.e. casting cure light wounds after combat is over), and crafting items during down time (to the extent allowed by my DM.)

Here's the part I'd like advice about--To fit with the theme, what spells should be removed from my spell list? What spells from other classes would fit this theme? 1st-level character, so focus on low level spells.

Links to relevant info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aulë
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/core-races/dwarf/forgemaster-cleric-dwarf/
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/cleric/domains/paizo-domains/a rtifice-domain/
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/spell-lists-and-domains/spell-lists-cleric/

Thanks for your help.

A stereotypical party has characters of roughly equal ability levels with different specialties that (ideally) combine into a sum of greater parts.

Has anyone tried a different model where the players are leading a group of less skilled NPC-types? This could be a Seven Samurai-esque situation or Viking warband-esque where the underlings are forming a shield wall. The PC's would have a responsibility to keep the NPC's alive during encounters and distribute loot as largess.

If you've tried it, how well did it work? If not, does it sound fun? What would be the best way of managing the NPC's during an encounter without getting overwhelmed by the mechanics?

New to the system so hadn't found the piecemeal armor rules yet.

After looking at them--they are in a similar spirit, but I was visualizing the in game effects differently.

It looks like if you have a homogeneous armor that you are proficient in wearing, there is no benefit for not wearing part of it (other than the total weight of the armor and reducing the time to put it on/remove it.)

I was visualizing--if you elect not to wear armor outside your core, your AC decreases but the max dex bonus and arcane spell failure chance also decrease.

Have any of you experimented with a house rule granting the ability to remove or add parts of the basic armor types to have different AC's and penalties in different situations? Was this a fun dynamic?

For a historical example--(Byzantine in this case)--you could say that the following three guys are wearing basically the same armor but have left different parts of it back in the baggage train.

heavy armor

medium armor

light armor + helmet

Calling my kit light armor would definitely simplify things.

My GM is the one that originally went "Pick scale mail because that's what you always wear" and I think it'd really violate the story he has in his head if I arbitrarily ditched it. Maybe I could make the case that stainless steel = mithral ;-).

Lots of good ideas here and I've got a lot to process. I've provided more background and raised a few questions to confirm that I understand the options provided by the rules. Feel free to critique.

I want to survive role-playing the process of discovering any magical abilities we write into my character. This means that I have to be able to use the gear I brought with me--scale armor, metal shield, and longsword. Being able to use looted gear would be convenient.

Options for a magic user to get medium armor proficiency, martial weapon or long sword proficiency, and shield proficiency at level 3 are one of:
*Take at least 1 level of fighter.
*Use class and/or race combat feats to fill in the missing proficiencies for a given class.
*Be a deep marshall.

I can't count on being able to buy or loot any specific specialty armor or weapons since this type of stuff will show up at the GM's discretion.

With three levels to play with, options for a medium armor-wearing character to immediately cast arcane spells would be:
*Cast spells (buffing spells or utility spells) before or after combat while not wearing the armor.
*Cast non-somatic spells in combat.
*Attempt to cast somatic spells in combat and accept the possibility of failure.
*Spend GP and time to scribe pre-prepared scrolls. May these be read 1-handed while wearing medium armor?

Long-term options for this character to eventually cast arcane spells in medium armor are:
*Take the metamagic still spell feat.
*Take levels in Eldrich Knight.
*Level-up further as a magus.

How does this mechanic change with potion and/or bomb abilities that aren't arcane or divine?
*May investigators and alchemists drink their potions in medium armor?
*May alchemists throw bombs in medium armor?
*Are these one or two handed actions?

If the assumption is that I'm (at least for now) juggling sword, shield, and a scroll (or potion, or other spell-like item), it seems like a "quick draw" combat feat might be useful. Enter with the scroll in my hand, cast it, and draw another scroll or my sword as a free action.

Thanks, folks. Will sit down after work and give your advice more thought.

Another direction would be to go straight fighter and throw most of my skills into something like alchemical crafting. Have to do the math (when I'm more awake) to see how long it would take to make items. Don't want the party to have to stop and wait for me to make items unless it serves a plot point.

Edit--Our messages crossed in electronic space. I'll look up those two classes. They're not in the core rulebook, so I hadn't made it that far.

Moderators--If there is a better place to discuss this topic, just let me know.

A buddy talked me into playing into joining his ongoing Pathfinder game. Due to lack of rules familiarity, I'm having trouble balancing the details of character design vs. character concept to create a character that functions effictively (leaving us free to role play.)

His game is kind of like quantum leap in a medieval-like fantasy world. We still know who we are, but our characters are chosen based on how the members of this other world might see us. Our ultimate goal is to figure out how to get home, but he could throw anything at us in the meantime.

Here are the different aspects of my life that got me thinking "dwarf fighter-wizard:"
*I fight in the SCA.

*My first game session started with me grabbing camping supplies and my SCA kit as I went through a portal into this other universe. My kit is a lot like this image SCA kit (without the horse, obviously.)

*I'm a physicist. I could see this becoming magic themed as--electricity and magnetism, light, sound, pressure, small explosives, non-combat tasks like deciphering runes or scrolls, etc... We could call this rune-based or science-based (but that's just fluff.)

*I have a beard ;-) and a favorite "grumpy dwarf" coffee mug.

*I visualize dwarves less campy-Peter Jackson-esque and more like Fafnir (in a magical direction) or like combat engineers (in a technology direction.)

I've got 3 levels to play with and originally did a sloppy write-up as a 1/2 fighter/wizard with alchemy crafting, armor crafting, and engineering skills. We're only a couple sessions in and my character hasn't realized he can throw spells yet, so I could probably talk my friend into letting me readjust my character.

Set aside details like ability scores for now. (Honestly mine seem inflated. I may check with my friend to confirm that they are normal in his campaigns.)

What advice can you offer about how to combine this type of themed spell-casting with a fighter to produce an effective melee character?

Is scale mail the best way of modeling my kit in the game? (Honestly, before a real combat situation, I would evaluate whether to ditch confining armor parts like gauntlets.) On initial read-through of the wizard class, casting in heavy armor throws up a big red flag limiting spell options.