Tengu

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19 posts. Organized Play character for Negative Zer0.


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PLay a tengu - you wont need to waste a feat on Exotic Weapon Proficiency for the katana

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Ex (see previous post first):

On a 1-5 using charmed life is useless it wont be a big enough boost to help

on a 16-20 using charmed life is also useless you most likely succeeded without using it

on a 6-15 you have a chance it might be the difference between a successful save or not. So at level 6 you get 4 uses. 2 of those usses are going to be a complete waste (1-5, 16-20) so your down to 2 uses. Even then half the time you are either going to pass or fail anyway without the small boost.

This ability vastly improves if you can roll the D20 first then decide to use charmed life or not. At least then you are getting a real shot of choosing a time where using the ability will actually matter, meaning you'll get 2-3 solid uses out of the ability.

Charmed life should have been an imediate re-roll if you fail a number of times/day = to your cha. We have 2 weak saves this ability needed to be good to offset that and instead we got crap. I love my swashy but this ability annoys me to no end because of how bad it is.

I'm level 5 and have successfully used charmed life ONE TIME in 12 games. The ability SUCKS.

TLDR: Charmed life sucks.

P.S. Did I mention charmed life sucks

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or if you could decide AFTER rolling the whole decide before you roll just makes charmed life a shit ability. Don;t get me wrong it has its uses but it's a comp crap shoot when you decide to use it if it will make a difference or not.

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Keep in mind you get size-able boost in power at both level 3 and 5

Lvl 3 gives you Precise Strike
Lvl 5 gives you Weapon Training (improved crit)

So keep that in mind as levels 1 and 2 you will be out-shined a little by fighters and barbs. But you will come in to your own a few levels later. Don't want to see you get discouraged with your new swahsy.

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The problem I have with the inspired archetype is it swaps int as your stat that determines panache points but cha still remains important for other things this class does. This really stretches you stats thin. That said there are some benefits for this archetype so it's worth looking at.

If you do go inspired you are pretty much required to dump str to get the extra points you will need as Dex, Con, Int, and Cha are all important stats with this archetype.
8 | 17 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 14
7 | 17 | 14 | 15 | 10 | 14
Climb and swim (the 2 biggest uses for str other than attacking which you will not care about) are both class skills so a single skill point in each will net a +4 thus canceling out your negatives from dumping str but this will still come back to bite you in the @$$ a few times throughout the characters life in other ways.

Dumping str is something that can be overcome but not something I recommend to a first time player. But if you want to go for it by all means, it can be fun to play a character that has weaknesses.

TLDR: I recommend keeping it simple and sticking with the base class, but if you want to get crazy the inspired archetype does have some befits.

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Be very careful with power attack on a swashbuckler

The issue with Power attack on a swashbuckler is that the penalty to your attack roll will apply to your Opportune Parry and Riposte double

First your parry is an attack roll so if you used power attack on your turn you take the penalty here, then if you beat the opponents attack roll and attack back you make a second attack roll again suffering the penalty to your roll. The extra damage is a note-able boost but the penalty to your attack roll might mean failing the parry roll which means both you get hit and your not able to make a riposte attack.

Taking power attack is not necessarily a bad choice just make sure you know what the downsides are.

Power attack build
STR DEX Con Int Wis Cha
12 | 15+2 | 14 | 10 | 11 | 14

I personally dont see the need for extra skills on this character so no need for 12 int. This change allows you to boost Dex to 18 at lvl 4 and get your 13 str at level 8 (again PA attack is a double edged sword for this class so waiting on it untill the damage boost is much higher is not a bod idea) and finally your left with 11 on Wis allowing you to boost that at lvl 12 to improve those really poor will saves (any boost here is worth it)

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Playing a tengu swashy myself and really liking the class.

You are absolutely going to want to bump con, you have crap saves for Fort and Will and you are front line. Your not a tank but you are still a front line fighter which means you will be tanking at least some of the time.

Suggest

Str 10, Dex 16(+2), Con 13, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 15
If you want to min/max you can dump Str to boost con and Wis
If you are new to the game I don't recommend this their will be negative side effects to this.

Then using the bonus ability points on
Cha at 4 and Con at 8
(you can reverse this order if you are finding yourself being the tank for your party too often, you;; be picking up extra panache at some point so you'll be at 4 panache, this gives you plenty of room to hold off on the extra cha point so really give this decision some thought when it comes time.)

Weapon focus and Slashing Grace/Fencing Grace should be your first feats

Other feats: Extra panache and combat reflexes are prob both something you will want by level 5. You'll get a feat at 3,4 and 5 so this leaves you one feat to play with still. as far as what order to go with these 3 really depends on how your games are going.

Remember Master Work reduces ACP by 1 so a MW Buckler will have a 0 ACP and only costs 155 total. So yes you want a buckler but might want to wait until you can afford the MW version.

MW on a chain shirt combined with taking the Armor Expert Trait means 0 ACP on your armor (note: RAW this trait does NOT work for shields). Until you can afford MW you can get parade armor or studded leather and thanks to armor expert these both have a 0 ACP. Although Armor Expert is very good you should still consider other traits before you jump on this. (ex: NOT taking Armor expert and having MW Studded leather is 0 ACP, the choice to get AE or not will somewhat depend on how much you will need to be the tank for your group)

And since we are talking traits, assuming you get 2, Irrepressible or birth mark are extreamly good for the swashbuckler (your will saves SUCK, anytime you can improve these helps).

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Galnörag wrote:
Kōtenbō wrote:
kvnireland wrote:
What happens if the enemy rolls a natural 20, but the swashbuckler has so many bonuses that the AoO ends up being higher than the natural 20?
The swashbuckler has mounted a even more skillful defense then that nat 20 attack and blocks it. Keep in mind this requires expending a finite resource (panache point) and requires activation before seeing the roll this seems perfectly reasonable for it to work this way.
Other side of that coin, if the swashbuckler rolls a 20, but with all the bonuses counted in is still less then the attack they are attempting to rebuff, by raw the attack hits?

I would say absolutely you fail to parry the attack. The creature attacking you is far too skillful or powerful to be blocked.

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I play mostly society - otherwise i would just ask my gm to allow me to use the + 1/4 panache on my current char

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I already stated that the Advanced Class Origins does not have these.

Was quite disappointed as this should have been a simple addition and one that would have fit perfectly in this book.

Ambrosia Slaad wrote:
Were you looking for any particular non-core races?

I actually built my Tengu swashbuckler for pfs with my points going into Favored Class Bonus in anticipation this would be part of this book so I wouldn't have to pay to re-spec my character but alas looks like i have some extra skill points now :(

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So in the ACG we got favored class bonuses for only the core races. My hope was this would be addressed in the Advanced Class origins that was released today but there is no mention of this.

Is there a plan to address the other races and add appropriate Favored Class Bonuses for ACG races?

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Call me crazy but tomorrow marks 2 months of season 6.
Seriously how [censored] long does it take to update these?

I realize this is of minor importance but 2 months is a stupid long time.

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kvnireland wrote:
What happens if the enemy rolls a natural 20, but the swashbuckler has so many bonuses that the AoO ends up being higher than the natural 20?

The swashbuckler has mounted a even more skillful defense then that nat 20 attack and blocks it. Keep in mind this requires expending a finite resource (panache point) and requires activation before seeing the roll this seems perfectly reasonable for it to work this way.

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Finlanderboy wrote:
cape of feinting. a level 7 swashbucklet can daze lock any creature.
Kelly Youngblood wrote:
For the latecomers, this has been removed from additional resources.
Additional Resources wrote:

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Class Guide

Equipment: all equipment and magic items on pages 202–237 are legal for play, except dust knuckles, false face, rod of abrupt hexes, and rod of voracious hexes.

So where exactly does it say this is removed?

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Wand of CLW (other wands as well obviously but feel free to list ones you find especially useful for this choice)

Snapleaf

What other interesting 750ish gold items do people spend those first two PP on?

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RumpinRufus wrote:
Just had an idea... can you stock up on these, and replace as needed? Basically buy more panache per day for 1,000 gp a pop.

RAI-

There is no reason to think this feather should be any different then a Pearl of power in terms of its mechanics.

I will be treating it exactly like how a pearl of power is used (until they errata the wording) aka activating it is a free action and there is no limit on how many you can have and they refresh automatically once every day. Although I would also rule the required hat value stacks just because it's funny. If you have 10 feather's you better have one damn fancy hat to put them in.

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7 people marked this as FAQ candidate.

Whoever wrote the description for this item needs to be firmly smacked in the back of the head:

Activate as a swift,free,standard,move?
If it is indeed activate as standard (Raw would be a strand action - then there is no description of how that point is then used to perform a deed)

How/When is the feather recharged?
Can I recharge it with panache I have available? Do I need to regain this point by getting a critical or killing something? Does it refresh every night?

"plume provides her with 1 panache point that can be used for that deed"
This is horribly written and needs to be reworded. We all assume this means it can be used for any panache deed but does not actually say this.

A lot of these question can be answered very easily with RAI it works this way but RAW this items does nothing

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@ Jayson - This is by far the exception to the norm.

Most players will not have anywhere near that may circumstantial benefits and Pirate Bob's answer is indeed the ideal way to handle this.

In the instances where you have 9001 circumstantial bonuses then a card with your circumstantial benefits should be prepared and given to the gm to reference.

Taking it one step further and add in what GM lamp said:

As the GM have players give you their roll + any non circumstantial bonuses.

"Will Save? 8 on the die so with my normal will save 16"

Then if they fail but are within 5 points of passing you can ask if they have any situation benefits that may add to that roll. They then list the benefits and you apply them only if it matters and simply say you passed or failed. Doing it this way still may tip them off a little* but cuts down on the book-work aspect. A pretty good happy medium between not providing details about somethign thats suposed to be hidden and maintaining the flow of the game

*You can always ask a few time for bonuses even when it wont matter just to throw players off from being able to use this question to garner information.

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Daring champion lacks some crucial abilities from the swashbuckler. The saves are better but the archtype is blah