KCWM's page

The way I look at intimidate is a lot more like Adelei Niska's speech to Mal in Firefly about reputation. Or maybe in Person of Interest when John tells the thug he will burn a quarter million dollars to convince the thug's boss that the thug stole it. Or even in Wizards First Rule when Zed has the peasants describe all the horrible things a warlock can do and then compliments them on their bravery for confronting him. What I'm getting at is, intimidate isn't just flexing your muscles and growling. Or even just saying "I keel you." Intimidate is making the person believe that you will do horrible things to them, their family, their career, or something that they care about. That is why it is charisma based. Can you eloquently and believably state the threat.

In this instance, I probably would have told the players that "f-off or I kill you" isn't enough for any sort of intimidate.

Maybe I am reading too much, but since intimidate specifically uses friendly and unfriendly, I would also be inclined to go back to diplomacy and look at what sort of things friendly and unfriendly allow. And there is a line that states, some requests automatically fail. This might fall in that area.

I agree with this.

Fortunately, the guys I play with are pretty good about talking things out. If they'd truly said "F*** off and die" I'd respond with, "That's what you say to him?". If they said yes, then I couldn't care less what their intimidate roll is. If they say, "Well, no, what I mean to say is...." then I'd take into consideration what they say.

That being said, I think Intimidate and Diplomacy, at least by RAW, has the potential to be too much of a game changer. My players know how I handle the skills, so it's not a big deal for our group. If we had a new player come in, I'd explain it.

We have some min/maxing optimizers in our group. While it makes balancing encounters a chore for the DM, none have intentionally tried to break the game and all have been willing to work with me when I've asked them to.

I don't think min/maxing ruins the game, but some people simply can't do it and not crap all over the fun of others.

I plan to DM the Pathfinder Module "The City of Golden Death" for 5th level adventurers.

One of the possibilities on the random encounter table in the very first part of the story when the players sail to the city is a ghost.

I go to the ghost in the bestiary, and this is what it says:

"More than most of the monsters in this book, a ghost benefits from a strong and detailed backstory. Why did this character become a ghost? What are the legends surrounding the ghost? An encounter with a ghost should never happen completely out of the blue—there are plenty of other incorporeal undead like wraiths and spectres to fill that role. A proper encounter with a ghost should be a climactic scene after a lengthy period of tension building with lesser minions or manifestations of the undead spirit."

wtf paizo! make up your mind!

My first thought was that you simply need to provide some immediate background for the ghost and let the PCs uncover more of it as they go along. If you need a moment, ask your players for one.

Instead of thinking "Paizo, WTF@??!?!" think "How can I make this work".

Personally, I prefer 'Your are getting the feeling that... blah' or 'You're feeling like... blah'. To me, sense motive has always been more of a 'feeling' type skill, rather than a 'know' type skill.

I agree with this, even as a player, this is how I prefer a DM to handle Sense Motive. I feel that it provides a direction for roleplaying but doesn't provide the answer. Now, if a player rolls a 20 or something, even though crits don't necessarily apply to skill checks, or a player simply rolls something astronomical, then I think it's the DMs discretion to provide something more concrete.

For the record, as a DM, i think the OP handled it just fine. Sometimes, people take the wrong course of action. I don't use Intimidate or Diplomacy as magic buttons either. Tell me what you're saying. Make it sound good and I'll even give you positive modifiers. Fortunately, my group doesn't just say "roll diplomacy and make him my friend" kind of stuff

That last paragraph was a bit harsh. Good thing it's their character and not yours to find interesting. I get the impression that bringing characters to PFS that other people find interesting isn't the normal practice.

I can't believe I actually read this whole thing. A few thoughts, though none that add to the "make a good rogue"...that conversation has been done to death.

I'm also glad that I don't play in PFS if the players act like people in this thread say that they do. It doesn't sound much better than the people I played RPGA with, which actually led me to drop D&D altogether until my friends asked me to run a PF campaign.

As a DM, I'd find a use for the skill monkey Rogue's skills in combat. I have that 101 uses for skill book, or whatever it's called, and it's something that I allow in my campaigns. I may complain about my players' min/maxing, but they don't use it as a way to say "that class sucks" or "I wouldn't have fun with X build at my table". I will probably also ban certain archetypes in future games.

In the Kingmaker campaign I ran, while it did take a while, the Rogue was doing solid damage. Of course, the group worked to get him flanking, even when I played the NPCs smartly. When he couldn't get flanking, it as described in this thread. I'm actually going to go with the house rule that rogues get full BAB. While I don't play one in the campaign I'm playing in, I'm going to make this suggestion to our DM for the guy that is playing a rogue.

It's been entertaining.

I like Golarion. It's well put together, I like the lore (especially the gods), and yeah, it requires little work on my part.

My homebrew setting is basically just "Golarion with this new city here".

This is what i'm doing for the campaign ideas that I'm throwing together. I'm putting together a large city with adventure ties to different locations within Golarion. After running four of the six Kingmaker books, I dig the idea of an upstart city that's working on expanding its lands.

My group uses the Combat Pad that I picked up when I was running Kingmaker. It's made a huge difference. We have one particular player that tends to run it and it really keeps combat moving.

As a DM, I make extensive use of my laptop, iPhone, and iPad. Specifically, I use Excel to keep track of monster/NPC health. When I'm running a homebrew campaign, I use Word to keep up with my notes and for NPC Stat boxes.

I really like the idea of bottle caps as status effects and poker chips to represent health.

What I'd really love is a good iPhone/iPad app that allowed you to easily apply templates to creatures, like applying the advanced template to an NPC. Maybe one's out there and I just haven't stumbled upon it yet.

I look forward to reading this at home since google docs is blocked here at work.

Just take them through Cheliax for a moment. That should be fun to watch.

I was playing an Aasimar Paladin in my groups run through Council of Thieves. That was an interesting bit of fun. Unfortunately, we stopped playing that campaign and my little Paladin waits for the day that we start it back up, if we start it back up.

When I DM, I do my best to stick within the rules while also allowing for cinematic/narrative. For example:

· In most circumstances, I don't roll critical failures for players. A roll of a 1 is simply an automatic failure. However, three rounds of a 1 in a row might change that. Even though I believe that PCs should be heroic/above average/etc, even heroes are prone to screw ups.

· If a player wants to attempt a skill that they are likely to fail at because they min/max'd, I let them. Depending on what they say, sometimes I don't require a roll at all. Other times, depending on the NPC, I do, but modify it appropriately. Even someone who has a low CHA score can move someone with their words. I try not to get stuck on the idea that a low CHA/INT/WIS paints those characters into a corner.

· I try to narrate battles based on the results of the entire battle. I don't always remember to do it, but a nice cinematic summary, especially at the end of an intense round, is a great way to spice things up.

So what...Player B tells me that he attacks using a full round action, hits for 14 points, and then 5 foot steps. I tell him that as he slides to the right, he ducks under the nasty orc's wild swing (it missed that round) that left itself open for a nasty slice of Player B's longsword. The 14 points causes the orc to wobble, obviously stunned by the blow as he grabs his side and bellows at the player. Maybe I even give the orc a -2 on his next attack because he's close to death.

If a player is caught up in the bland description, it's my job as a DM to spice things up. It's my job to narrate and make the battle come to life. Sure, if a player steps up and adds some detail, great, but it's not something that I should expect.

I'd rather have a group full of players that say "I attack and hit for 10 points of damage" over a single player that says "I want to shoot an arrow at the giant's eye to blind it". Well, sure you do, but I'm not going to let that happen just because you want to it. Sure, I do want PCs to feel heroic, but not super heroic. There's a line that I, as DM, have to maintain. Now, declare that and roll a critical and I just might very well let it happen.

· I ask players for a bit of background on their character. One paragraph, three pages, whatever. Give me something and I'll incorporate it into the story. The more they flesh out their character, the more I have to go on and more I can weave them into the story to make them more invested. At the same time, it's my job to give NPCs personalities. I might not give them specific voices, but I do everything I can to make the important ones as real of an interaction as I can. Sometimes I fail, sometimes I succeed.

IMHO, if someone says that Pathfinder isn't narrative or cinematic enough isn't trying hard enough. The more you know the rules, the more you will know how to bend them. The more you know how to bend the rules, the more "cinematic" and "narrative" you can be within the rule set. It's there, you just have to work at it.

Dotted...there's some great stuff here.

If you haven't already, then give http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2nix8&page=1?Zen-and-the-Art-of-Monk-Mainte nance-A-Guide a read, but be sure to read it all and the spoilers because it has some stuff that some DMs might disagree with.

I'm currently playing an middle aged Aasimar Zen Archer. I used the Immortal Spark racial trait from the Advanced Players Guide to replace my Daylight ability because someone is playing an Orc and the Daylight dazzles them. Immortal Spark allows you to cast Lesser Age Resistance once per day, allowing you to effectively ignore the physical penalties due to middle age while retaining all of the mental ones.

You also give up the Aasimar racial bonus to Diplomacy and Perception, but you're already not getting those, so it's not a big loss.

Unless there are rules against dipping to a 7, you could do what I did to get a more rounded stat line:

STR 14 (5)
CON 14 (5)
DEX 14 (5)
INT 9 (-1)
WIS 16 (10)
CHA 7 (-4)

With the +2 to WIS and CHA, along with the +1 to INT, WIS, and CHA for middle age, it gives you well rounded physical abilities, no negative modifiers, and seems a LITTLE less optimizer than having a 21 at the onset. At level 4, you get your 20 and your +5 back, just after you start to benefit from being able to use your WIS for your ranged attacks. You still get Darkvision and you get a few resistances which are nice at lower levels.

Now, I started with the Aasimar because I just like the race. Once I found out someone was playing an Orc, I set out to check out the Racial Traits to see what I could do to replace it. Once I found the Immortal Spark Racial Trait in the ARG, my character idea fully fell into place. A little bit of optimization, a little bit of character story.

As for the first few levels, I didn't add much damage at levels 1 and 2, but since I can make AoO even when wielding a bow to to IUS, I tried to stay between the monsters and the casters. It wasn't until this past weekend during our first game at 3rd level that I noticed my damage and effectiveness make a jump.

It's been a fun class to play and the guide I linked was very helpful.

As a practical convenience, most GMs don't track CON, stabilize rolls and similar things for monsters. Mostly because it's too much work, for too little gain.

If it's regenerating or a smart cooperating group with a healer, that's different.
It also means the party doesn't have the moral dilemma of going around slitting throats after each fight.

That said, if they want the enemy to survive, it's easy enough retroactively apply the normal rules.

This is how I handle it when I run games.

I could see keeping up with a major NPC, but in the games that I've run, those NPCs have been reduced to well below their CON scores by attacks.

When it comes to trolls, they've always used fire/acid because I've always played that some aspects of certain monsters are common knowledge.

Ha...I play the class and forgot about that...

@crippledlord:

The attack at 6th Level should be +6BAB +6Wis +2magic (Bow) +1Point Blank Shot +1Weapon Focus -2 Deadly Aim -2 Flurry = +12

BAB at 6th level is only +4

2) The fettered. Batman (some versions, let's not get into a batman alignment debate) or Samuel Vimes. This route is open to anyone with sufficient self discipline, even sociopaths.

In the last campaign I played in (I normally DM), I played a Paladin who was very similar to bits and pieces of some Batman incarnations. I remember finding a site that really help me nail down how this works, but it's been well over a year and I can't seem to find it again.

I discussed it with my DM and he agreed that it would fit. I ended up finding some item that allowed me to know whether or not an action would cause me to fall and was a great investment as I got a feel for the DM and how he approached Paladins.

The other players in my group weren't keen on the idea but after the first session, they really had little issue with it.

dotted.

Not getting into the rest of the AC talk, but I'd put out that Malfus said when the Dodge target was indicated...the Dodge feat in PF applies to AC...no longer requiring a target be declared...not counting house rules to return it to 3.5 flavor.

I have a player in my Kingmaker campaign that is playing a Bone Oracle. They just hit 10th level and, with his two big bloody skeletons (animate dead), he definitely contributes to the damage output of the group.

My concern isn't about how powerful or necessarily what creatures he has. While they are decently powerful (the chuul and brute have good stats, multiple attacks, and good damage for their role), that isn't my concern.

My concern was regarding how bless would interact with them since the Oracle prefers to run bloody skeletons in a group with the cleric that runs bless a lot of the time. That was the reason for my post. As the effect remains, which means within 50' and centered on the cleric, this will cause them to adjust their tactics.

In addition, our group has discussed the evil aspect of necromancy. We've actually come to an agreement that there are circumstances where it's evil and some where it's neutral. The chuul and bulette were not evil and they have been used in the name of good.

As one of the leaders of their kingdom, it hasn't come up, but I intend for their to be consequences, both RP and in their kingdom. Simply because our group has agreed that we are handling necromancy one way doesn't mean that the people of the world see it the same way. It will be interesting and provide some good roleplay moments.

Edit: That isn't to say that I don't appreciate the responses. I definitely do. As a DM who tries to be fair, I always appreciate the input of others, especially here on the Paizo forums.

Bone Oracles get animate dead as a bonus spell at 6th level. He used animate dead to raise these creatures. Those, as far as I'm aware, is permanent.

Interesting. This could present an interesting situation for our players during combat, as the cleric moves in to heal and brings the skeletons into range of the effect.

I'm running Kingmaker and they have both a huge chuul and bulette. The combination makes for some decently powerful undead and I know the player is going to be upset when I start enforcing this rule and he loses one of his toys. Or, they just run without Bless, which is a distinct possibility.

My players have both a Bone Oracle who runs with a couple of fairly powerful bloody skeletons and a Cleric who likes to cast Bless. The Bloody skeleton is destroyed if killed within the area of a Bless spell, so this could present a potential, and thus far overlooked, issue.

So, let's say that the Cleric casts Bless. The area of effect is a 50' burst centered on the cleric. A Bloody Skeleton killed in the area of a Bless spell is permanently destroyed. This is where I'm getting confused.

Does the area where Bless spell was initially cast stay blessed as long as the spell lasts? Does the Bless spell stay centered on the Cleric as long as the effect lasts?

Otherwise, if the area of the Bless spell dissipates after the cast, the opportunity to destroy a bloody skeleton with a Bless spell becomes an extremely narrow window.

Or maybe I'm overthinking it.

I hope that made sense.

I'm in a similar position. After nearly two years of trying, my wife has relented to a game of PF. She played a druid in WoW and expressed interest in the PF version, so we've started making her a 25 point buy druid with a pet panther.

At first, I looked into modules but realized that I'd be better off creating quests for her, starting with a scenario involving some nasty, evil loggers/poachers.

I've run a couple of long term solo Star Wars campaigns in the past, so I have a good idea on how to challenge a single player. Early in her adventure, she will find an NPC adventuring buddy for roleplay and combat help.

As a DM, I find it challenging to create content for a single player...in a good way. I have to create something that will keep my player interested and engaged, especially with her having been so hesitant to play. I look forward to the challenge and wish the OP the best of luck.

Picture this- The three wizards have clouds of floating stones orbiting their heads.

One by one they break off and go shooting towards the PCs, each doing 1d6 dam (large slingstones).
(Or if you want more drama, use floating globes of fire or acid.)
It gives you the same effect (but at 45 attacks of 1d6).
It can occur during the suprise round.
And if your projectiles are burnt out ioun stones (grey?) with the Returning enchantment, you automatically reload.
(Just give your telekinesis specialized wizards the ability to enchant Returning without the base +1 to "sling stones". Note that Telekinesis is the spell required to enchant Returning.)
You trade off the greater damamge from the large greatswords for less cheesy sling stones, but you can repeat each round as the PCs attack.
Bonus points to PCs who realize they can grab the stones (though it will be more effective to attack the wizards- except there's all those mooks between them.)
Prestidigation can make the stones multicolored and glowy to freak out the players.

I actually REALLY like that idea. I think I might have to introduce a minor villain into my next Kingmaker module that's like this...and have it resolve in the one after that.

If it's a question of healing, provide the players with a CL1 wand of Cure Light Wounds. It won't help with healing in battle, but it will help afterward.

I believe JJ or SKR has stated that it's not flammable, as that would make a level 1 spell far more powerful than it should be. I found the post here in the forums a week or so ago during a session where this came up.

Also, your DM should not be tossing monsters at the party that the party cannot heal the damage of. When you hit that temple, why didn’t the party get you restored?

With the most recent reply in mind, THIS. I can understand temporary ability drain, but permanent ability drain at level 2 to multiple ability scores is pretty rough.

Some good and interesting discussion in this thread. I like it.

When my group first started playing 3.0, we opted for the 4d6, drop the lowest. The first character was made and four sixes were rolled. Awesome...18 strength. The next roll? Four ones. The half-orc Barbarian "Blarth" was born and played to comical brilliance. It's difficult to roleplay, but, if done well, makes for a very memorable character.

RotFQ would loosely fit in with the Kingmaker scheme of things, with the fey and First World.

I'll have to check into the other two when I get home from work.

Thanks for the suggestions!

My players ended the third module of Kingmaker at 9th level, and a little more than a third of the way to 10th. We are going to be adding a 6th player, who's made a 10th level character in anticipation of starting the 4th KM module, but he can't make our next KM session.

Rather than just giving the players 2/3 of a level of XP and having our 6th come in during the middle of a module, I want to run an adventure of a different flavor from feel of Kingmaker.

I'm looking for a good adventure/module to run. Our sessions run pretty long, normally 12-14 hours, if that helps narrow it down. The characters that will be running this are:

Synthesist Summoner
Bone Oracle (currently commanding a huge skeletal chuul and bulette)
Ranger (ranged focused)
Rogue
Healbot Cleric

The group puts out a lot of damage, and are often up against the 6-man Kingmaker conversion available on the forums

Any Pathfinder or PFS suggestions are welcome!

As the dog acts on instincts, it's neutral. It took food from the animal it recognizes as the alpha and hides because of this, not because it knows that what it does is wrong. One cannot fall into the trap of equating animal instinct into sentience and the knowledge of right and wrong. It's why an apex predator like an owlbear is still a neutral creature in spite of it's aggressive, and potentially destructive, nature.

Even if you choose to go 2H...take a 1H and shield with you. Not sure why people just ignore the chances they may need that extra 2-5 AC to survive an encounter...

I agree with this mentality. I want to have the extra AC in the event that we are going up against a lot of opponents or ones that we know hit hard. Yeah, the extra damage is nice for those fights, but survivability is important as well.

I haven't used my sword and shield yet, but I've been tempted to.

I'm currently playing a two-hander Paladin and having lots of fun with it. I do carry a longsword and shield for survivability purposes, but haven't had to use it yet. I'm playing Council of Thieves and have no intention of taking the mount Divine Bond, so I can't speak to that.

Wow. I had a 1200+ word response written up and fatfingered my keyboard. Ugh. Oh well, that was a waste of 20-25 minutes. Oh wait...the point was raised that writing a 1000 word background story was incredibly time consuming and that having a full time job and family made it nigh impossible. Point disproved.

After reading the thread, I agree with Auticus. I both DM a Kingmaker campaign and play in a Council of Thieves campaign with 15 point buys and hero points. Believe me, in both campaigns, it's been plenty effective. Granted, most of the players in our group stat dump...something I'm not a fan of in any way.

Auticus did nothing but present the background story as anything but a reward. It was other people who came in and twisted and argued a point so that it appeared to be a penalty and then ran with that idea. On top of that, they certainly appeared to assume a stance of superiority for it.

The 15 PB has served us well in both of our campaigns, we've had powerful, capable, and specialized characters. I don't like every character to be good at everything. It's a personal preference...something it appears that some posters have taken to equating to right vs. wrong.

I had a Magus in my Kingmaker campaign that did ungodly damage before level 7. Leveled something like 140 on a forest drake. I can't remember the build.

My biggest issues are with players not giving me their spell lists or telling me what they have memorized. So, when it seems like the spontaneous casters have the most convenient spells memorized, it made me start to wonder. I recently called the cleric on it...actually had the odd spells written on his sheet and hadn't used them because the situation hadn't called for them yet.

Interestingly enough, if I recall correctly, the Adventure Paths we've played (Kingmaker and Council of Thieves) are written for a 15-point build, 4 person party. I can't say that I find 15 point builds stingy if the APs are designed with them in mind. As a player on our CoT AP, I'd have loved to have 20 points to spend, but our party (of 5) is doing just fine with the 15 point buys.

Thanks to all that responded, especially SKR. It seemed obvious, but our group was unfamiliar with SoS, so we wanted to be sure. Excellent stuff!

The reason it came up was because, normally speaking, you can not have two magic items in the same slot and get the benefit. The question arose because you're taking something that normally orbits the body and putting it into a specific area of the body, areas of the body that are normally governed by the whole "one item per slot" rule.

Because the rules didn't say one way or another, I ruled that they didn't take up the slot, but we wanted to make sure this was the intent of the rule as it would change how our group handled ioun stones.

No harm in asking for the sake of clarification, right?

Normally, ioun stones do not take up a slot, as they float around the head. A question has come up from a new player regarding implanting the stones in the body, as per the rules in Seekers of Secrets, regarding whether or not the implanted stones take up a slot.

I can see both sides of the coin and the rules don't state that they do. Is the fact that ioun stones are slotless an inherent characteristic of the stone itself or is it because it floats around the characters head?

I did a search and couldn't find anything, but I might have overlooked it.

My group also uses the "average of the dice roll plus 1" when leveling up. This has proven to be both fair and provided us with heroes that are hardy enough.

Sorry for the novel.

I've been DMing for the past few months and my NPC design goes in a different direction than PC design does. Although I've come to some decisions already, I'd like to bounce some ideas off of you guys and see what you think. I'm going to be playing an Aasimar Paladin of Iomedae. I've decided on my stats, but there are so many traits and feats to decide between, I'm feeling a little indecisive.

Last I heard, our party will consist of a bard (whip/net/debuffer), ninja, fighter (2h), and an oracle of some sort a couple of weeks into the campaign.

I will be going with one of the two builds below:

Str 15, Con 14, Dex 12, Int 8, Wis 8 (10 racial), Cha 14 (16 racial) or
Str 16, Con 14, Dex 10, Int 8, Wis 10 (12 racial), Cha 12 (14 racial)

Traits

The Pathfinder's Exile: Fits the story I've come up with where the rich kid doesn't feel quite right in his surrounding and turns to "adventuring" around the city, which piques his interest about the closed up Pathfinder lodge there, and allows room for the trait to make sense.

Rich Parents: While useless past level 2, I've considered this because of the background story. Effectively, once the character realizes his call to be a paladin, he leaves Cheliax. He takes money that he feels that his parents won't miss (and frees their halfling slaves as well) and leaves. This would be a pure flavor choice, being used to allow for some different ideas I have for the character's background, generic as it may be at the moment.

Reactive: As I have a low Dexterity and I'm going to be a melee focused character, a small boost would be nice, but may ultimately end up being unnecessary. I could see the character being bullied (as the flavor description says) in spite of being well to do...bullied by those further up the "food chain" of his social circle, leading to his desire to get out and explore the city rather than playing with his "friends". This could actually provide a potential story hook/detail for my paladin to run across one or more of these people from his past gone truly bad and be tempted to take revenge.

Conspiracy Hunter: I'd likely go with Perception as a class skill, as most of my fellow players are dumping Wisdom. As I will likely only have a 10 or 12 in Wisdom, it might not be as wise of a choice. I'm not really liking this one as much as some of the others.

Iomedaean Sword Oath: In light of some Developer posts regarding this in home games, my DM has ruled that I can take it as a Trait rather than a feat. This would limit me to longsword, so I'm not sure if it'd be worth spending a trait on. Weapon Specialization would be nice, but I'm not sure how it plays out since it would only apply for a longsword.

The bard is going to take Dazzling Display, so I'm thinking that bully wouldn't do me as much good as it might have. I was considering that before learning about his intention because it fits in with the way I intend to play the paladin.

I've looked at others, but these are the five that stick out.

Feats

I'm definitely going with Power Attack as my level one feat. As we are using Hero Points, I'm tempted enough to forgo them to pick up a bonus feat that I've worked it into my build plan. I'm looking at weapon focus: (insert weapon) or Quickdraw to make use of a Quickdraw Shield to either use a longsword two handed or a two handed weapon.

So far, I'm thinking of going with the following feats:

Anti Hero - Weapon Focus (longsword) or (falchion/greatsword)
1 - Power Attack
3 - Greater Mercy (we will be low on healing, so this could potentially be a nice bump)
5 - Extra Lay on Hands (going to be taking the Oath-Bound Paladin and going with the Oath of Vengeance on most occasions)

After reading through one of the other Paladin threads, I've considered Radiant Charge, Reward of Grace, and Ultimate Mercy will be somewhere down the line for me.

Quickdraw would be nice for the following reason. Let's say that I took the Iomedaean Sword Oath, I could use a Quickdraw shield. As our group plays that you can take more than one free action (within reason), I could quickdraw the shield off, attack two handed, and then quickdraw the shield on. Cheesy, but within the rules, unless I've missed an errata or developer post.

We considered me going down the Ranged Paladin route, but the bard designed his character with the idea of a melee heavy group in mind. I'm not sure how much of a role ranged will play in the AP we are going to be running, and I can only imagine that the immunities/auras of the Paladin will come in quite handy.

I've given some consideration to the Warrior of the Holy Light archetype. There are some nice spells to be had, especially some that can entice enemies to attack me.

I don't know...this has meandered on a bit. I've actually put some thought into this, so I have a direction in mind. Thanks for your advice and understanding!

The initiative tracker has been a big success in our group. It's the best "add-on" I've bought.

If you have an iPhone or iPad, the PFR app from ufisk has been incredibly useful as a DM tool, as has a couple of different PFR specific spell apps that have made our casters' lives a little more manageable.

I know how many I should have. The sheet works somewhat odd compared to what I'm used to. For example, the sheet adds all the skill ranks, int bonus and skill ranks from favored class boxes all independently of each other. So, in the class block you're only supposed to enter 2 instead of 5, in this case, whereas in my head to automatically do that math and was putting in 5 in the class block and I wasn't even using the favored bonuses boxes. It's a matter of getting used to the sheet, not the rules. ;)

I didn't mean for it to come across that I thought you didn't know the rules. I should have been clearer and said that the sheet pulls your INT and favored class bonus based on what you enter on the sheet.

It looks like we are on the same page now.

As for the other sheets, I'll have to check them out...paying $.99 for a sheet could be a great deal, especially if it does a lot of the calculations for me. I'd love to know of a good, solid app for the iPad without having to pay the amounts the designers are asking for to find out if they really are good.

Design a specific magical item for each person. Have it scale with their level so that it becomes a "character" in its own way as the characters grow in power.

In fact, you could even have one of the items be intelligent and have the intelligence awaken as the character grows in power. You could even go as far as to have them BOTH be intelligent...sibling items created to work in unison with each other. Even though they'd be used by different people, they'd be in proximity to each other.

It could make for some interesting roleplay between you and the two players, especially as the items intelligence awakens and it begins to exert its own will. Imagine the first time a character does something and the item speaks to them, either out loud or telepathically. And the best thing would be that you'd be able to control how powerful it was at a given time. It'd be a lot more work for you, but it could a lot of fun.

Some of the most memorable items from the campaigns I've both DM'd and played in were items similar to this. Design it so that it's a 25k item but the item doesn't realize it's full value in effects/powers until it's near the appropriate wealth level.

TL;DR - create specific items that are currently level appropriate and grow in power as the characters do. Maybe even make them have intelligence that awakens as the characters reach appropriate levels.

pounce isn't really that required if your reach is 15 feet though if not 20. Considering that he could be spending points in other places then catching up on arms and strength. Besides having reach helps you generate more attacks.

May be. I can't speak to that because I haven't seen a biped synthesist in action. I CAN speak to how effective his has been. Although not optimized to squeeze every last bit of juice out of it, the character has been more than effective as a member of 15 point buy, 5 player group facing a majority of the Kingmaker 6 player conversion found elsewhere on this message board.

He asked for advice, I gave it based on my experience as a DM dealing with a Synthesist through 3 modules and almost 10 levels. He was free to do with it as he pleased. But hey, he's going with a normal summoner, so best of luck to him. I'd like to see one in action.

I tried that sheet and it says I have 15 total skill ranks available to my level 1 Elf Witch with a 16 INT. Have I missed something in the rules?? o.O

On the Badass Bandanna one, if that's the sheet you're referring to, you enter the amount of skills the class gets next to the class. If you were getting 15, I'd be inclined to believe that you typed 12 instead of 2 in the skill ranks section. Or, instead of 15, you meant to type 5.

As the poster above said, 5 or 6 would be correct, with 6 being correct if you put your favored class bonus into skill instead of HP.

One of the players in my Kingmaker campaign is playing a synthesist. He plays a quadruped. For a while, he took the arms evolution so that he could cast his self-heal spells. Eventually, I made a homebrew feat that allowed him to bypass the somatic component while fused, much like the feat that Druids can take to do the same thing while wild shaped. You might discuss this with your DM, as you give up a feat to do so.

Reach is nice, but the ability to take pounce as a 1 point evolution has been a big difference for him. The ability to charge and make a full attack can be very useful, especially as your strength increases and you multiple smaller attacks start doing more damage.

The players recently leveled to 9 and he's made some changes, but prior to that, for levels 7 and 8, he had the following evolutions:

1 point - Pounce, Improved Natural Armor, Claws (legs), Improved Damage (claws), rend
2 point - Improved Attribute (str) and Energy Attacks (fire).

He could honestly drop Improved Attribute and Rend and have 3 more points. He takes a lot of damage, has a very impressive AC, and, during the recent Kingmaker module we finished, did a lot of damage.

I've had to change tactics to accommodate for his character. Even if your DM didn't allow you to take a feat to bypass the somatic requirement of your spells, you could take the arms evolution, add claws to those limbs as well, and have 5 natural attacks (bite, arm claws, leg claws).

The biped is nice, for sure, but after seeing the quadruped in action, both before and after my homebrew feat, I was quite impressed...especially with pounce. That's been big in a lot of fights.

My group has been using the Badass Bandanna one that I found on the Pathfinder Database site.

It does a lot of the calculations and there are multiple entries that pop up a little window that allows you to provide a breakdown of how the score/bonus was determined.

For example, when entering the attribute scores, I enter the base score, racial modifier, equipment modifier and bonus type, etc...each on their own line. I do the same thing for Hit Points, skill bonuses, etc.

The only down side is that it doesn't have a set place for magic spells and DCs. It does, however, have multiple spots for notes, and that's worked for our group.

Of the editable PDFs out there, it's one that the 7 of us agree on.

Radiant Charge
Greater Mercy/Ultimate Mercy
Reward of Grace
and maybe Voice of Sibyl

Radiant Charge, Reward of Grace, and Voice of Sibyl fit with the role that I'll be in the party, which is a damage dealer/self healer/diplomacy guy. Greater Mercy/Ultimate Mercy grants a greater benefit to the Mercy class ability, which ups my survivability.

I'll also be taking Extra Lay on Hands at some point as well. I'm going to be taking the Oathbound Paladin and working in the Oath of Vengeance. This combination effectively makes the Extra Lay on Hands feat more like an Extra Smite feat. I either can't find or have overlooked an actual feat for an extra use of Smite Evil, so I'd gladly take that. Plus, if need be, I can combine it with Greater Mercy and get that much more healing in a day.

It's been almost 20 years since I've played a paladin...and that was back in the AD&D days. I'm looking forward to the changes.

Maybe those feats aren't as useful as I'm thinking they are, but they sound pretty cool so far, and since I'm going to the two handed weapon route, I will have some feats to spare.

This thread has given me feat ideas I hadn't considered for my upcoming paladin build, so I love it.