J. S.'s page

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.

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?

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.

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)?

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?

(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?

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

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.