Laurela Oakensong's page

Hello I am nearly finished creating a new bard for the adventure hell's rebels. Going with a thundercaller bard muse-touched aasimar to fit the liberating wandering theme.
The group has a wizard, melee paladin, sin eater inquisitor support healer, and ranger/rogue.

with a 15 point buy i was considering the stats as follows:
12 str 14 dex 13 con 12 int 9 wis 17 cha

I'm typically bad for wanting to do too much, and find it difficult to stick with the K.I.S.S idea but I'm trying!

I want to take leadership and be able to contribute to combat, party face type person. for traits I'll be taking natural born leader and birthmark.
3rd level feat will be deific obedience for milani and then taking evangelist once i qualify. Considering taking a level of Oracle for either
the lore mysteries sidestep or nature for natures whisper to get cha to ac and either to reflex saves or cmd. not sure which is better,
and lore also has cha to knowledge checks which would probably be better if i still had bardic knowledge but that gets swapped.

Using a rapier and kukri and shortbow (avg starting gold) would best combat feats be weapon finesse, point blank shot, precise shot?

other feats I've taken interest in are discordant voice, Lingering Performance, divine protection, angelic blood, angel wings,
prodigy, skill focus perform, spellsong, craft wonderous item (tuned bowstring) spell focus enchantment, greater spell focus enchantment.
Prophet storyline feat.

Spell ideas are as follows
cantrips : 4 spark, prestidigitation, dancing lights, unwitting ally

1st level spells : 2 saving finale, liberating command

I missed your previous post all those months ago. There are a bunch of wizard class guides lying around, most of them touch on feats. An arcanist gets much the same usage.

Multiclassing wizard and arcanist isn't helpful to the power level of your character at all. If it's essential to your concept, fine, but realise you're not going to get a lot out of the wizard level compared to just more arcanist (or a couple or arcanist levels, compared to all wizard.)

It's usually a good idea to have at least one spell which can take people out for more than a round; sleep or color spray, maybe snowball. Debuffs are good but they can't be everything to you.

What spell you'd use magical lineage on obviously depends on which metamagic you want to aim for. Is it rime spell, to entangle the targets of your chilling spells? Try snowball or frost fall. Is it persistent spell, to make your enemies fail their saves? Glitterdust or color spray or something.

+CL on abjuration spells mostly means extra duration, at least until you get dispel magic. Handy, but nothing to build your character around.

Your character's race seems similar to an elf. Given the 17 dex and stealth as a class skill you might see if you can get blend, an elf racial spell. It's better for sneaking around for more than a few seconds than vanish is.

The race type does count as elf and fey so i could pick up that racial spell.

Enclave Protector: Nemura add +1 to the caster level of any abjuration spells they cast. They also gain the following spell-like abilities:
constant—nondetection; 1/day—faerie fire, obscure object, sanctuary. The caster level for these effects is equal to the user's character level.
Also i get displacement 1/day CL = to character level

for meta feats i was thinking dazing, persistent and heightened. I did read up Q's wizard guide and i forgot snapdragon fireworks had an honorable mention for meta feat fun.
I know the remaining original member is a illusionist halfling wizard with some spells i can nab like colourspray.

Okay i need to take a different opposition school.

Okay so we had a TPK except the one person that didn't show up for that day inside Rappan Athuk and I now get to put this character concept into motion! A mixture of sad and excitement to be sure.

The character gets to start at level 3, so I was considering a level of wizard with spirit binder archtype (the characters dead sibling that died in Rappan Athuk)
Raven familiar that was friends with the one surviving party member.
I'm going to take the void school and probably fire as my opposition.
For my Arcanist exploits I was thinking school understanding, and familiar as my first choices past the mandatory twilight/arcane barrier.

The character is a created race with the stat adjustments as follows: +2 dex, +2 cha, -2 str.

I rolled 12,12,13,15,15,16 for stats.
my best thoughts was to arrange them: 10 str, 17 dex, 13 con, 16 int, 12 wis, 17 cha

I need to take a necromancy spell each level so
0 level spells: detect magic, dancing lights, mage hand, ghost sound, prestidigitation, disrupt undead
1st level spells: (Abjuration)Protection from evil, shield, mount, mage armor, Ray of enfeeblement, vanish, ear piercing scream, comprehend languages, enlarge person, feather fall, chill touch

I get +1 CL to abjuration spells, point blank shot as a bonus feat, elven immunities and weapon familiarity, perception and stealth as class skills. also 2 feats at first level due to a written backstory.

traits are warrior of old and maybe magical lineage but i don't know what to apply it to.
Does this look okay? My first attempt at a pure caster.

My advice if you're going to be forced into the guardian path is this:

Dual Path and Go for Champion abilities.

Get legendary Item 3x for a Greater Artifact Designed by you.

This will help you not be penalized for having to choose from the worst 2 mythic Paths.

I'm not sure i can dual path into champion I'll have to ask tonight.

So far Radiance is under the arcanists kimono and i managed to offend her and the magus (both from mingkai rping as a countess and her servant). I did take combat reflexes and the mythic counterpart so
hopefully with some combat tactic discussions we can start to communicate and develop strategies.

I have read the Bodhi guide a lot, i just have no experience being in melee or a character in heavier than light armor. the 15 point buy is the recommended stat purchase in the player guide for the campaign. (i think)
I have made a couple mistakes with how i thought mythic works already and had to change my call from sudden block to beast fury.

I've taken 1 level of arcane duelst bard, 2 levels paladin and 3 level of orcale life mystery.

arcane strike, fey foundling, combat reflexes, deific obedience, mythic combat reflexes.

I'm going to eventually take the mount from paladin and make it a bodyguard of sorts and a flanking buddy. lots of fun things in the animal archive like valiant steed and the bodyguard archtype and cool tricks.

Found out no unchained class changes. I didn't know that is what the VMC was a part of.

I'll echo that Variant MultiClassing (VMC) is the way to go here. From what I understood, you're concept is a Shelynite Oradin with minor bardic powers to keep with the Shelyn theme, right? By going Bard VMC, you'll be able to do that without having to resort to one level dips in bard, or crippling your BAB and burning a feat to go into Evangelist. You'll actually get that bard abilities earlier, and in the long run they'll even be better!

If i only want bardic performance can i pick only that ability? I do like this multiclass variant to pick up my BAB. I'm taking a lot of Shelyn spells and a trait so Evangelist isn't as great as Sentinel for paladin abilities but I want my mount to not fall behind.

In that case, you could go the standard Oradin progression (Paladin 2/ Oracle 4/ Paladin X), maybe with picking the Hospitaler archetype with the Pally: the only thing you lose this way is the ability to go mounted combat. For it to not be exceedingly frustrating, you would have to pick both Narrow Frame, Boon Commpanion, and other things to make it useful: you're too feat starved for it with the VMC, so you'll have to find another combat schtick. That's were Guardian comes in!

Guardian has a ton of abilities that work really well with reach combat, and Shelyn's holy weapon is the glaive: flavorful, effective, and you need only one feat for it to work, considering that you're going mythic (Mythic Combat Reflexes gives you unlimited AoO, independent of your DEX modifier. Huzza!)! ^.^

How about something like this?
Hospitaler Paladin 2-->Oracle 4-->Hospitaler Paladin X

1)Fey Foundling
3)Bard VMC: Bardic Knowledge
5)Combat Reflexes
7)Bard VMC: Inspire Courage & Competence
9)??? (Deific Obedience for flavor?)

Mythic Feats:
1st tier) Mythic Combat Reflexes
3rd tier) Dual Path?

Now, Dual Path could be interesting: at the level you'll gain the 3rd tier, you probably won't have any feat to upgrade to mythic. Luckily, by dual pathing Marshall, you gain a lot of cool and useful options to pick from: Guardian...

I do only plan on using my mount as a mount and a combat buddy. I'm taking a spell shield companion to absorb damage it takes.

I do like the combat reflexes ideas with a glaive, i bought a mw one and eventually i'll try to get Shelyns Blade of the 3 fancies.

How do i keep the baddies from advancing past me to my allies?

Did you mean Paizo printed material? Because Path of War is Pathfinder material.

ah my bad yes paizo printed

Ahh sorry it has to be Pathfinder printed material, I tried for some 3.5 gods n goddess with whom I'm more familiar but cannot.

There is a feat that allows oracle levels to stack with bard for determining your performance action economy and duration. it escapes me at the moment.

Opps I plan on taking deific obedience at 3rd level and take the Evangelist prestige class for paladin. It offers versatile performance at the 2nd level boon.

Other than first level it continues the complete gain of all paladin class abilities.

I definitely want to offer some advise. Though I have a few questions.

What class feature is Boon Companion for? Are you getting a familiar from a Paladin archetype? Divine Bond doesn't kick in until 5th level paladin, so that's my best guess.

If you want Bard flavor, you could use the VMC Bard rules. It'll cost you 5 feats overall, but you won't have to take actual levels to gain bard like abilites. Its definitely not 'uber'.

3rd level: Bardic Knowledge (at character level)
7th Level: Bardic Performance: Inspire Courage/Competence (character lvl -4)
11th level: Versatile Performance
15th level: Lore master
19th Level: Gain Dirge of Doom (at character level -4)

I was taking boon companion for the Paladins mount, since it functions like a druids animal companion.

Sorry i didn't list the feats at the level i get them but the order i would chose them. so 7th level I'd take the 5th level of paladin and gain the mount.

What are VMC rules?

Someone suggested Empyreal knight for a celestial template and eventually flying mount.

Hello as the title suggests I will be joining an existing group that needs another player. I would greatly appreciate help with building a character and advice on buying items etc.

They currently have a Tiefling magus, Tengu Cleric, Strix ninja/monk and kitsune arcanist all of whom have 1 mythic path.
Since each player must chose a path not already taken only guardian and marshall are available to me.

Angelkin Aasimar scion of humanity that will be taking a flavour level of Bard (Arcane duelist) 4+ levels in paladin (Shelyn) and 4 levels oracle with life mystery and life link revelation. I get to start at level 6 with 1 mythic level.
I'd like to take dual path for my mythic feat.

Stats we suggested to me as follows with a 15 point buy:
STR 16 DEX 12 CON 13 INT 10 WIS 12 CHA 16 (+1 ability)

the group is not optimized, fun and roleplay is a higher priority.

With this in mind I thought starting out as Bard, 4 levels of Paladin and then 1 level of life Oracle and then 3 more of Oracle later on and switching back to Paladin to end my career or life whichever comes first.

Feats:
1st Fey foundling (arcane strike from arcane duelist bard)
2nd quickdraw
3rd ?? maybe greater mercy
4th boon companion
5th huntmaster

traits: Inner beauty and maybe the touched by awfulness campaign trait

Gold: 4000g for weapons, 4000g for armour and protective devices, 4000g for magic items, 2400g for potions, scrolls, wands and 1600g on ordinary gear and coin.

I have never started out this high level, or bought anything beyond standard gear except sleeves of many garments. It looks like a quickdraw shield is a good place to start and a longsword to fight with 2 handed.

Thank you again!

Hi my character is still only a level 2 natural weapon path ranger.
Its been a while since I looked at her and found i had to change something due to being illegal in PFS that i didn't know at the time.

I need opinions on something, a barbarians fiend totem for the gore attack while raging would it still be a primary weapon when fighting with 2 claw attacks?

or bloodragers abyssal bloodline ability to enlarge yourself as a tiefling.

which looks better/ I'll get more use out of? I'm considering a 1-2 level dip.

argh i didn't even notice that bloodragers didn't get spells till level 4. It was late at night thank you for pointing that out.

what do you think of 3 levels of skald and 2 of paladin? i'm strongly leaning towards 5 levels of skald once i compared bloodrager and skald with the amount of spells i'm losing out on.

Ah i thought i had to keep the class, cool. I looked up gunslinger guides and they said about being melee/slinger for a close quarters combat kinda style and I wanted to give that a shot.

Since its better to multiclass a melee character than spellcaster and I want her to play like a modern spy/ shield agent or police detective with hand to hand combat and a gun.

I've played a natural weapon ranger and its a lot of fun so i thought this would be similar.

Does having a spell like ability qualify for arcane strike?

I'll just have her singing to herself and out loud some rock songs, and cracking wise jokes. happy to drop the bard.

Laurela Oakensong wrote:

I have a question regarding summoning monsters, If my alignment is NG and my deity is LG then I can only summon Lantern Archons and there more improved brethren and no Azatas

due to there alignment subtypes being opposed to my LG patron? What alignment is opposed to NG? I know I can't summon anything with the evil subtype or evil spell descriptor.

I'm looking at sacred summons as a possibility after boon companion.

You can summon azata's. Lawful can't summon chaos. Evil can't summon good. But LG can summon NG, NG, NN; and NG can summon everything not evil.

In the CRB it says clerics can't cast spells opposed to his/her alignment which is NG and his/her deities which is LG. Azatas have a CG subtype so the spell is CG and then I could not cast it.

Not a huge loss I guess, everywhere I've looked people seem to be of the opinion that archons are pretty good disco balls to have on the battlefield.

Evangelist only loses 1 level of spellcasting, I'll get to duplicate my animal companion and get a couple more class skills and skill points. Lots of archer fun to be had.

I have a question regarding summoning monsters, If my alignment is NG and my deity is LG then I can only summon Lantern Archons and there more improved brethren and no Azatas
due to there alignment subtypes being opposed to my LG patron? What alignment is opposed to NG? I know I can't summon anything with the evil subtype or evil spell descriptor.

I'm looking at sacred summons as a possibility after boon companion.

So eventually I will be a Kitsune Lotus Geisha Bard/Metal Oracle/Mystic Theurge.

MIght be a disaster, but there it is. There's a Shelyn specific feat that let's you combine your Bard and Oracle levels for the purposes of Bardic Performance. Lots of Enchantment spells, and finesse fighting with fans and sai.

The inspiration, of course, is this.

Whatever you end up doing, my advice is to pick some things you want to be good at, then just focus on doing that. Don't multiclass just for the sake of multiclassing, but if you have a combo you like, go for it.

That looks like fun, I have always just tried to play a concept rather than optimizing anything in the past. I just happened to luck out and not be useless in 2nd and 3rd edition D&D.

Those are good words to remember, I do try to do too much. I hope you enjoy your Kitsune! ^_^

Well Pathfinder Society max level is 12 and I've even now went so far as reducing charisma to 14 and pumping wisdom and dex 1 more point. I'll put my ability bonuses into them for +hit/dmg and more grit.

I'll save the performance for big bad evil things, this makes me giggle because I can see fun playing her in Fox form most of the time and slightly unhinged.

1st level Bard Acane Duelist comedy perform Feat: weapon finesse, arcane strike
2nd level Pistolero Gunslinger gains Pistol profeciency
3rd level Unarmed fighter Feats: Improved unarmed strike, Dragon style, Rapid reload
4th level Unarmed fighter Feats: weapon focus pistol
5th level Monk of Many style Feats: Dragon ferocity, Two weapon fighting
6th level Monk of Many style gain evasion Feats: Monkey style
7th level Pistolero Gunslinger Feat : Gunslinger
8th level Pistolero Gunslinger
9th level Pistolero Gunslinger Feats: Rapid shot, Point blank shot

I’ll take defensive strategist religion trait since I don't mind worship of Torag an it can be a fun reason to explain why her fur is black/silver from gunpowder, for the second trait do you think magical knack or reactionary?

Skills probably stick with Acrobatics, bluff, Intimidate, Perception, Sense motive, and Stealth. I think i have to put 1 point in craft Alchemy.

Going Kitsune (who get a Dex bonus) and dipping Oracle to use Cha for AC is a bad combination in general. Your Dex will be close enough that it'll never net you enough Dex to be worthwhile.

As for what to do in combat...I'm actually a big fan of going archer, especially on a race with a Dex bonus. It's simple to play, and while it'll eat some Feats, that's the only resource it costs.

I've done a lot of thinking and I'm not comfortable being a party face type character (bad anxiety being focus of attention) is not my cup of tea. So completely changing my character concept as she really wasn't fun.

I assume i'm stuck with the first level of bard so instead melee focus and dropping lotus geisha archtype. I am not sure if Arcane duelist would be better but i think it is for wanting to take 5 levels of pistolero gunslinger and dip into unarmed fighter or monk for unarmed strike/a cestus.

Something kind of like

1st level Arcane duelist that sings (shoot to thrill <3 ac dc) weapon finesse for feat
2nd level unarmed fighter not sure which style feat, dragon or crane I've seen presented as solid options.
3rd level Pistolero gunslinger rapid reload feat

Any build ideas would be greatly appreciated.

stats as follows:
str 10 dex 16 con 12 int 10 wis 14 cha 16

I know the cha is still high and i prolly could drop it to 14 but i want as many rounds of performance as possible. we don't typically have any support characters at the table so i'll also be buying a wand of clw.
I'm going the intimidate/bluff route rather than diplomacy. I'd like to dual wield pistols but I'm not 100% how that is achieved. RP as a black widow type with tonys charming personality. its easier to be a smartass.

Hi this is Oterisk, thanks for reading and promoting my guide. It's always nice to meet a person who likes the Dragon Disciple as much as I do.

PFS is a fun system, but the problem is that you cap out at level 12 (mostly). Most of the advice in my guide helps you get the most bang for your buck in a AP. At most you'll only get 4-7 levels in DD before you hang up your adventuring shoes and go lay down on all your treasure.

The only trouble with the four way dip is that your secondary resources run you way too thin. For instance, 20 minutes of Mutagen is nice, but it's not something you can count on. Rage is good too, but for only so many rounds per day, so you can't add it all up and you'll almost never be at peak performance. Most Modules have enough combat in them that you will likely run out unless you take precautions.

So the Keep It Simple rule is a good one. The raging alchemist is good in theory, but not really in practice. The only double dips I recommend with confidence are the Snakebite Strangler/Thug Rogue for 2d6 sneak with a 2 level investment (also good for arcane trickster) or the Unarmed Fighter/MoMS for intense Style action with 3 levels of investment. Otherwise it's best to go with one of the inevitable classes and one other for a specific boon.

If you want to be balanced as a caster, think of it like this. With one a one level dip before DD, you won't get a second level spell until character level 9. Wizards have 5 levels by then. You aren't a caster at that point, your a fighter with a neat trick or two. If you want to be balanced, take maybe 5 levels of Skald and go right into DD after. You'd get spell Kenning, which helps your versatility right through the endgame, and you get 3rd level spells by level 8, which isn't too bad. Dedicated sorcerers have 4th level by then, and you still can cast in armor. I'd recommending investing mostly into a reach weapon, and use your claws sparingly, for when they get in close, or you get grappled or some such thing....

its been a while and I've changed some ideas and gain a little bit of experience when it comes to making characters. at least how to avoid the major mistakes.

Still going for a beast Nagaji dragon disciple with a couple buffs up her sleeve how does the following look?

2 levels of slayer for natural claws
2 levels of bloodrager
1 level of monk (of many styles)

I can tell you i want to take the dragon style feats. but other than that i don't know how to make her well.. not be terrible.

I have a question/observation about the trait diabolical dabbler.

None of the creatures summoned by natures ally have the option to get the fiendish or celestial template. Looks useless for us First Worlders.

*edited* okay i reread and saw the lines i missed, you would focus on casting actual spells of summon monster? whats the feat you have at 7th level?

what do you think of the religion trait Shaper of Reality, from inner sea gods?

Requirement(s) any of the Eldest
You can mimic the Eldest’s ability to reshape the world. Once per day, you can cast either a conjuration spell or a transmutation spell at +1 caster level.

So what two feats do you think i should start with at level 2? I have point blank as a freebie. So far its just been suggested what
creature to summon but since my summons are full round and lasting 1 round/level I don't know how to make that work.
I've been summoning with my LG cleric without any helpful feats and its fun so far at level 5 but this just leaves me ... clueless.

Hello Laurela. I have just started a thread here called "First World Summoner- Overlooked?".

It is about how the First World Summoner may be more powerful than has been realised. You sound like you want a character with a particular flavour, so we are not exactly trying for the same thing. However, the thread could well contain something you can use, especially if you are not indifferent to the effectiveness of your character.

Hi there =) I'm happy to look at the thread and see whats being discussed.

I do just want her to be the best she can be, and I have only met one person at PFS that plays a summoner but its very vanilla.

There is a nice religion trait:
[PFS Legal] Shaper of Reality
Source Inner Sea Gods pg. 222
Requirement(s) worship any of the Eldest
You can mimic the Eldest’s ability to reshape the world. Once per day, you can cast either a conjuration spell or a transmutation spell at +1 caster level.

Laurela Oakensong wrote:

Oh i forget to mention that we are starting out at level 2. In the group we have a nature oracle, halfling wizard, ranged drow paladin, human sorcerer, half orc barbarian and human inquisitor.

How difficult is it to get a luck bonus?

It usually takes rather specific options.

The half orc is probably safe, if they took the tattooed alt trait. The oracle and inquisitor can each get by with the divine favor spell (which is a rather nice spell to have around anyway).

So the problem comes down to your paladin (who has divine favor too...but probably not enough spell slots to spare), wizard, and sorcerer. Considering the fact that they are all part of the back line, they might be able to avoid friendly fire fairly well.

Also, anyone can grab a luck stone, or a jingasa of the fortunate soldier. Those both do the job...although they are obviously far to pricy for your wallets right now.

So i'll be starting off being able to cast is 30 ft away which doesn't sound so bad.

I'm going to make sure to pick up undercommon and sylvan so i can communicate with all of my summons.

I'm not sure what you mean by:

Also, depending on the spell choices, the wizard and sorcerer might only notice the problem with their own defense- when you sling Save of Suck spells around, the unluck only helps you. Buffs also work fairly well. Summoning sucks for everyone but you though- only animals are just naturally immune to the unluck (out of the common options). Note- all these facts also apply to you- you can just go around buffing and SoSing.

I don't need to be ranged, it sounds like a bad idea if i take the vision curse. I have war fans for flavour and fun.
I read a guide that suggests whip and dazzling display, they also suggested a net to be more controller and
flank buddy but I'm thinking my str will be too low to be effective.

I don't know what to do in combat other than spells and performance.

Laurela Oakensong wrote:

I realized I can take one level of oracle and extra revelation feat for lore keeper and sidestep secret.

You could. It's probably not worth it as a casting focused Bard though. A melee Bard maybe...

Laurela Oakensong wrote:

As a bard do i need to put a skill point in perform to be able to do my bardic performance? I assume i need to starting at level 1.

You do not need to do this for Bardic Performance to work. That said, you probably want to do it, because it helps enable Versatile Performance at 2nd level, which is awesome.

If the 1 level of Oracle is going to happen i would redo my stats as follows:

str 10 dex 15 con 14 int 10 wis 10 cha 18

does that look like it would work well?
Being a geisha I thought that she should be in clothing and not armor to make roleplay sense.
She will have perform oratory and dance for versatile performance. this looks better to use a shortbow in combat. I spent a lot of time hiding around the corner or behind things since I only have a 12 ac.

I was able to play this character today and found that my DCs are pretty good so far that I agree against dipping into sorcerer.

I've heard of someone doing the opposite being a sorcerer and dipping bard for the undead enchantments. Oh that'd be fun for a nagaji dragon disciple I'm working on.

I realized I can take one level of oracle and extra revelation feat for lore keeper and sidestep secret.

As a bard do i need to put a skill point in perform to be able to do my bardic performance? I assume i need to starting at level 1.

First world summoners get eidolons which are very bad at melee. The eidolons do get Use Magic Device as a class skill & can boost it further with the Skilled evolution; they can be useful wandslingers if you've got the gold.

Also they can be summoned at the same time as your summon nature's ally SLA is active, unlike a normal summoner's eidolom/Summon Monster SLA. Pugwampi gremlins might make the sad save DCs of wands viable as well as boosting the effectiveness of your summoner's battlefield control spells.

For stat priorities Cha > Con = Int (you'll need some skill points as a face) > Dex > Wis > Str. IMO.

If you've been underground so far the game's been going for a bit, are you creating the character at above 1st level?

Oh i forget to mention that we are starting out at level 2. In the group we have a nature oracle, halfling wizard, ranged drow paladin, human sorcerer, half orc barbarian and human inquisitor.

How difficult is it to get a luck bonus?

I'm playing a home game of Rappan Athuk and got to create a custom race I have a Fey/Elf with -2 str +2 dex +2 cha 40 feet base speed medium
Displacement sp 1/day, point blank shot, +1 DCs enchantment spells/sla
Perception and Stealth are always class skills, elven weapon familiarity,
elven immunities. We get an extra feat for a back story. Stats are going to be rolled but what priority should i give to them?

She is a Fey from the first world reborn on Golarion that worships a Fey Demigod Magdh. The middle child of a set of triplets, she is a defender
and supporter. Representive of the mother aspect of the triple goddess.
I'd like her to be a party face and the Eidolon either a centaur (deer body and elven upper body) or biped. So far we've been underground in dungeons.

I would like her to be a controller and support character, unicorns later on fill my heart with awesome ^_^ and its going to be fun with the wee little gremlins causing typical fey mischief.

okay i didn't know about wands, potions etc. thank you =) i'm trying to get the most out of fly that i can since all the guides say archers pew pewing death from above is the way to go.

I haven't looked up what i can retrain, i'm going to ask our venture captain for help when i show up early.
I am inexperienced with the game, i have made a 2nd character and am working on a 3rd to get a kitsune played.

Versatile Performance saves you many skill points.

Usually, a single point is all you need, for many skills.

The Pageant of the Peacock Masterpiece, turns your ranks in Bluff, into every intelligence based skill.

Don't forget, many spells negate the need for many skill checks.

Example: No need to max out Stealth, when you have Invisibility.

If you really need to dip, which I advise against, then you should consider Lore Oracle.

Sidestep Secret will negate your need for high Dexterity, and Lore Keeper will negate your need for high Intelligence.

In the end, those 2 extra skill points are not worth it, as you can do much more with the ranks you have.

Much, much, more.

I accidentally deleted my post and most of the info i had developing this character. frustrating =(

revised stats: 10 str 15 dex 14 con 12 int 10 wis 17 cha
i can always put my ability bonuses into cha and dex.. my favored class i'll take the hp.

Would it be a bad career move to dip a level of sorcerer for the feys arcana of +2 dcs of compulsion
and also take the 3 levels of Oracle with Lore mystery? Clouded eyes seems to be the easiest curse
to live with. If i did how would you arrange the stats differently?

what should she have for weapons? I like fighting fans and butterfly swords but ranged has been
suggested and she does have access to shortbows. I'm worried about low str being a weight carrying problem.

If i want to keep her in clothing for RP reasons most of the time how can i make that work?

Its been a while since i had a question but i just hit level 5 with my cleric and am retraining a few things for this weekend:
the trait dangerously curious and am looking for ideas, possibly magical lineage: metamagic extend fly spell. From my understanding that will work on wands of fly, and i don't need UMD since i now get fly as a domain spell.

I'm retraining my favored class bonus from +1/2 domain powers per level to skill points. For my 5th level feat i'm taking deific obedience to get into the evangalist prestige class.

Sadly my tiger is still only level 2 and i haven't trained any tricks.

Do you think taking handle animal as a class skill would be better than putting a lot of points into the skill? I will have 5 points after retraining but it still doesn't seem like much.

I was indeed thinking that more skill ranks would = better at said skills to make up for bad rolls. I'm used to playing skill starved characters that look at wizards and rangers jealously with there insanely high checks.

So i should not put any skill points in diplomacy or sense motive if I'm taking oratory for versatile performance? That means i will miss out on 4 points in those skills for the first 3 scenarios which looks like a lot.

If i swap my int and con, what favored class bonus should i take? hp or skill point?

would dipping 1 level sorcerer be worth it for the fey bloodlines +2 for compulsion dc vs 2 feats? I have always looked at feats in a cherished way and the arcane heritage looks like a waste.

You seem to have conflicting goals with your character. You state that you want to be a spellcaster and focus on skills, but then you start talking about dipping fighter and rogue. You don't need to dip rogue to be good at skills. Ultimately, you need to pick what you want to do and build for it; trying to do too much with your feats will hurt you in the long run.

Going bard and focusing on Magical Tails and bardic performance isn't a bad idea; the bard will benefit from having extra spell-like abilities if your goal is to be a casting-focused character. With that said, focusing heavily on Magical Tail is a very hard investment for a bard to make, especially a casting-focused bard. This would be a pretty good reason to take the lotus geisha as a kitsune; free Spell Focus feats is great.

In short, pick a few things that you want to be good at; don't try to be good at "all the things."

I've had a difficult time making this character, first these were stats i was going to use for a sorcerer and thought they'd work for a bard. I have no experience with either of these classes other than reading a lot of guides.

I thought that the few spells i could cast i wanted to rock at so left the cha at 18. I don't want to be a bump on a log in combat but ranged looks so feat dependent. Only being able to cast 2 spells a day really seems to suck =(

few is 3, so my few is social skills, bardic performance, enchantment/compulsion. I thought lore warden would be a great way to nab some extra feats for arcane heritage fey for the +2 compulsion etc and still get some BAB and hp. I thought maybe put my ability points into str or dex.

Why the rogue? Once you bard you pretty much have all the rogue you need.

The Kitsune trickster would give:

At 1st level, a trickster relies on her intellect as much as her personality. She adds her Intelligence modifier on Bluff, Diplomacy, Disguise, and Sense Motive checks.

This ability replaces trapfinding.

More social skills. it was the only reason i put 14 into Int. 1 level would work.

I'm looking forward to creating a fun party face kitsune, casting enchantment spells and being a skill monkey of sorts out of combat. I'm worried about how to handle combat and being spread too thin.
I found a build out of date for a Lotus Geisha Bard, a 2 level dip into lore warden fighter and another dip into Rogue with the kitsune racial archetype for 1-3 levels. I assume the rest of the levels would be back with the bard.

the 20 point buy I had in mind:
str 9 dex 14 con 12 int 14 wis 10 cha 18

perhaps wielding a whip and buckler to keep the weight down. If you are familiar with star trek think lwaxana troi: bubbly and flirty, honest and charming and very assertive. her lust for life over flows and she never kills.

skills: acrobatics, diplomacy, stealth, umd, perform oratory, sense motive, perception and spellcraft.

Channel some positivity and jump on the multiclass bandwagon! ^_^
What feats perhaps would add to the fun? some ideas are: realistic likeness, a couple magical tails and swift kitsune shapeshifter appear wonderfully fun. Improved initiative, arcane strike, discordant voice, lingering performance, spell focus enchantment, persistant or heighten spell.

for spells charm person and hideous laughter perhaps.

Quick Study is also a very good exploit. Sometimes you just won't have the right spell prepared & this lets you change that. Familiar seems less appropriate; the crone is quite solitary.

A trick I saw mentioned recently is to share personal-only spells by casting Marionette Possession first. Only works when you have time in advance to buff, but it looks fun.

Re the mother goddess, besides fertility motherhood is about taking care of people, with dashes of personal strength, power over others and lust. Hopefully one of those will help your inspiration.

I'm getting the impression I should read the wizards guides for help on spell feats, at this point I sadly know very little like if they apply to only one spell or all of them etc. For a crash course can you recommend anything?

Quick Study is also a very good exploit. Sometimes you just won't have the right spell prepared & this lets you change that. Familiar seems less appropriate; the crone is quite solitary.

A trick I saw mentioned recently is to share personal-only spells by casting Marionette Possession first. Only works when you have time in advance to buff, but it looks fun.

Re the mother goddess, besides fertility motherhood is about taking care of people, with dashes of personal strength, power over others and lust. Hopefully one of those will help your inspiration.

I had only looked as far as 2nd level for necromancy spells but marionette possession looks like a lot of fun. for the buffing you mentioned you'd cast the possession, cast the buffs then end the spell?

I am completely new to arcane spell casters in paper games but have played them in pc games. I have always avoided metamagic feats because they are confusing. I've been copy pasting spell and feat selection from guides and hoping it works out for me *chuckles*

Thank you for input on my mother goddess =)

Hello all, I'm designing my 2nd character for Rapan Athuk and its themed with Magdh the first world Eldest. Three characters all sisters representing the triple goddess from Celtic mythology. In the coming weeks I'll build the middle sister the 'mother' whom I'm stuck so far on concept other than fertility.

Nightshade will be a created Fey humanoid that counts as fey and elf. A +2 dex, cha and -2 str. stats wont be rolled till playtime starts but priorities are Int>Dex>Cha>Con>Wis>Str so far. She has the Elf weapon familiarity, point blank shot as a static bonus feat and GM is giving us a bonus feat for back stories. She has a +10 bonus speed and +1 DC to enchantment spells and SLA.

She represents the crone and arcane knowledge. I want to play her similar to the succubus Bo from Lost Girl. When her reservoir is low she will be 'hungry' and want to consume life to feed.

for exploits the best options look like: school understanding (elemental -void) reveal weakness, dimensional slide, potent magic, familiar, item crafting and lepidstadt shifter.

Greater exploits perhaps greater metamagic knowledge and redirect spell.

What feats, traits, spell selection for necromancy school and in general? I saw clever word play, magical lineage and transmuter suggested. I had found a partial guide on the class but any insights would be appreciated.

LoneKnave wrote:

Sorcerer is perfectly fine for an Eldritch Knight/Arcane Archer build.

The lack of armor is nowhere near as debilitating as you'd think at first glance, especially if you work around it a bit.

I would suggest taking the early entry into eldritch knight until you meet the arcane archer requirements and then going back into eldritch knight after level four in the AA prestige to preserve caster levels.

You ought to take magical knack as well.

With this set up you could do some pretty cool stuff, like confusion arrows and other aoe's like cloud spells. Pretty fun sounding to me :)

Exactly what I am going to try and accomplish.

I was 3 hp from death last session and didn't buy any armor because i thought arcane casting penalty was too big a risk. there was a large room with the barbarian running around and the rest of us bottled up in the hallway. I don't know how to be tactical.

Our group has made it through 2 sessions, the first i had no armor and it didn't impact greatly mostly due to luck. With the 2nd sessions encounter however i fared much worse and now have studded leather.

I am playing a level of paladin and sorcerer with arcane bloodline. At next level I'll take one additional level of paladin and after that the EK journey starts leading to AA.

Stats are rolled as follows:
Str 13
Dex 18
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 9
Cha 16

I have the following feats: Weapon finesse, point blank shot, precise shot and rapid shot.

My bloodline arcana is arcane bond = a MW Longbow. I also carry an Elven cure blade.

Spells are: prestidigitation, dancing lights, haunted fey aspect, ghost sounds
colour spray, grease (later taking abundant ammo and gravity bow)

Our group doesn't really have a damage soaker, closest would be an half-orc barbarian. The rest of the members include a nature Oracle, archer paladin (aside from myself), alchemist, wizard, and sorcerer.

Is there specific armor or items that would be helpful? Can i use a wand of CLW at this time? advice on tactics, where to put ability points or items that give ability score bonuses etc.

Laurela is a young, warm smiling helpful fey with a mischievous streak. I roleplay her low int and wisdom as a childlike sense of right and wrong and expressing awe and wonder at the world. She commits a lot of social faux pas but largely its overlooked due to her innocence. Only in battle does she become serious when she puts her game face on.

I could have worded it better, when I say through the weapon its because I think the weapon is casting the spell while I'm holding it.

Ie: You are suddenly in melee while holding the bow and could use it to cast displacement on yourself defensively.

Agreed in the bloodline description it says: Once per day, your bonded item allows you to cast any one of your spells known. I do think SLAs could be learnable in the sorcerers case as follows:

forgive me for not being good at formatting etc.

A sorcerer's selection of spells is extremely limited. A sorcerer begins play knowing four 0-level spells and two 1st-level spells of her choice. At each new sorcerer level, she gains one or more new spells, as indicated on Table: Sorcerer Spells Known. (Unlike spells per day, the number of spells a sorcerer knows is not affected by her Charisma score; the numbers on Table: Sorcerer Spells Known are fixed.) These new spells can be common spells chosen from the sorcerer/wizard spell list, or they can be unusual spells that the sorcerer has gained some understanding of through study.

the last sentence seems like it could work. (oh and I do realize displacement is on the sorcerer list so eventually I could do this, It was my first thought of an example)

I'm creating a sorcerer with arcane bloodline and taking a bonded longbow. This is a created race that has a spell like ability (displacement).

1/ Can I cast displacement through my Longbow? my interpretation is: most likely since SLAs count as spells for prestige class prereqs.

2/ If you know a SLA should you be able to cast it as a regular spell/add it to spells known once you reach the level requirement to cast the spell? Especially for spontaneous casters since its innate.

The first question is my most important, second is more food for thought.

The correct answer would likely be none of the above given the way the skalds class features function.

Eldritch knight is not a good prestige to progress spellcasters with 2/3 spell progression because their spells are of incidental value. By that I mean that classes like the bard thrive through special abilities almost exclusively. In the above cases of multiclassing, you are trading away their special abilities (the steak in this metaphorical meal) for their spells( the parsley garnish). Does that make any sense? Trying to explain these things can be convoluted.

Okay I understand what you are saying. The problem is I am committed to a Charisma based spell caster, and I don't know much about the spell lists or progression and have a few options. I can't find any guides to making a good Arcane Archer, just optimized ones that say take wizard/melee or sorcerer /melee.

Actually I call the build I'm trying to do Eldritch Archer.

Yeah, if you intend to use a custom race that is fluffed as a fey race, then loosing some of the racial bonuses to acquire a third level illusion spell like ability would make sense.

It would allow your character to head into eldritch knight without having as many sorcerer levels up front, and make your character concept come alive a little earlier on.

Just an fyi, as you stated that your new to the game system, eldritch knight characters tend to work out better if you build them as casters first and melee second. This may simply have to do with the inherent advantages of being a near full caster though.

I have anxiety over decisions, that said with all the options which sounds like the easiest route of these examples of multiclassing:

Paladin 2/Skald 1
Paladin 1/ Skald 1
Cavalier 2/Skald 1
Cavalier 1/Paladin 1/Skald 1

Divine hunter paladin, Daring champion cavalier.
I like the saves bonus, lay on hands, smite from paladin but hope my GM wont make me have a diety. The Champion sounds more nature oriented with order of the Beast giving weapon finesse and animal empathy.

This question about Spell Warriors and Rage Powers has recently been answered here.

Okay good to know! Thank you.

I was of the thought that the rage powers were unusable and replaced by the weapon song. I see your concern and will check with my GM.

Well i was taking the 2 levels of paladin for bonus to saves and the free feat divine hunter gives you at first level.
Skald just looked like fun, was charisma caster which i could still change my mind on like sorcerer.

I could just take 1 level paladin and 1 level arcane caster then EK till +6 BAB for Arcane Archer. I forgot that was a prereq.

EDIT: Looked into Cavaliers Daring Champion archtype and maybe 1 level of that with 1 level divine hunter paladin then an arcane caster level before taking EK.

I might not understand the Rage powers you are asking about. highly likely. I figured if i just took one level i wouldn't have to learn too much about the other class abilities.

I planned on just 2 level of Paladin, 1 Skald, then 1 Eldritch knight, 3 in Arcane Archer and then its up in the air. most likely back into Eldritch knight.

Quick question, how does the Spell Warrior actually grant rage powers to allies (and himself)?

He loses Inspired rage and so none of his ragepowers work. So what up with that? He even keeps the rage powers and has recommended powers to boot.

If you value STR second to DEX, I think you are better off with grabbing a two handed weapon instead of weapon finesse (especially if you don't dip Dawnflover dervish, since then you'll need at least 2 feats to get a DEX fighting style going).

Far as i can tell I get bardic performance via the Weapon Song that replaces the Inspired rage. So i get to sing and leap across the battlefield to grant enhancement bonuses to weapons of allies within 60 ft.

Some of the guides mention needing a 13 for most feat prerequisites in archer and melee combat. I am mostly going to be an Archer with a Longbow, have a Elven curve blade for backup and be able to cast spells for buffs and Arcane Archer fun.

Pretty sure I need 3 stats with a min 13 score (Str/Dex/Cha. I do want to be a Dex based fighter.