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Lavode de'Morcaine's page

179 posts. Alias of Kydeem de'Morcaine.


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cmlobue wrote:
cmlobue wrote:
Recruiting thread for #8-25 Unleashing the Untouchable (tier 12-15). Mostly first come first served, but a spot reserved for Giovanni Valdriano if desired. Hoping to start next Monday.
One player had to drop out, so there is another spot open here if anyone is interested.

Lavode is a sorcerer that has completed the Eyes of the Ten. I haven't updated his character sheet yet. But iirc that makes him level 14. If you need another arcane caster. I could probably have the sheet and avatar updated over the weekend.


Might be a few more spells than I expected that fit into this strategy.

Just from a quick scan based on word searches I've come up with the following for a level 10 caster:

Bard (no surprise that bard has a bunch of sonic attacks):
Ear-Piercing Scream
Distracting Cacophony
Distressing Tone
Piercing Shriek
Pilfering Hand
Sonic Scream
Sound Burst
Thundering Drums
Discordant Blast
Shout

Cleric/Oracle:
Dread Bolt
Pilfering Hand
Shatter
Sound Burst
Spiritual Weapon
Chain of Perdition
Glyph of Warding
Searing Light
Forceful Strike
Spiritual Ally

Druid:
Frostbite
Produce Flame
Snowball
Frigid Touch
Vengeful Comets
Blast Barrier
Rusting Grasp

Arcanist/Sorcerer/Wizard (yep, the biggest list):
Chill Touch
Corrosive Touch
Ear Piercing Scream
Magic Missile
Shocking Grasp
Snowball
Acid Arrow
Elemental Touch
Fiery Shuriken
Frigid Touch
Kinetic Reverberation
Pilfering Hand
Scorching Ray
Sonic Scream
Spectral Hand
Touch of Idiocy
Battering Blast
Blast Barrier
Chain of Perdition
Force Punch
Twilight Knife
Vampiric Touch
Calcific Touch
Enervation
Shout
Corrosive Consumption
Interposing Hand
Sonic Thrust
Telekinesis
Wall of Forceful
Wall of Sound

Any good ones that I missed?


Well, this has also been happening in PFS so I don't think it is just the GM intentionally shafting me. That has to be run as written. In home games, one of the GM's does use higher CR creatures but doesn't use some o f the highest abilities or use the highest powers. The other GM has to buff things because most of the group does try to optimize their characters pretty hard.


In the sense that he is always effective and can't be resisted not that he is necessarily supper sexy.

In both PFS and my home games, I have been finding that somewhere around level 9-11 most of the serious opponents are all but invulnerable to my casters. Now don't get me wrong, I don't have any problem buffing up the martial characters and letting them take most of the risks. But sometimes there are too many opponents, a second wave from behind, the martials have been incapacitated, etc… and I need my caster to start taking out the enemy bosses.

My primary caster (sorcerer) has a 24+ casting stat, spell focus, and greater spell penetration. However between super high saving throw bonuses (has to roll a 1-5 to fail on its worst save), energy resistances, hardness, high spell resistance, super high AC and HP, and various immunities most of my spells have been relatively useless. Not always, but often enough that I am finding it ircksome.
The most effective casters I have seen have been builds that concentrate almost everything on one trick. But then they are always using only one or two tactics all the time and that is incredibly boring. A fire spell with so much damage that even if they make the save and have resistance they are still hurt badly. Or everything to jack up the save of baleful polymorph that they then spam on every single encounter. Yeah that is lots of fun... Not.

So my next primary caster (probably an arcanist) I want to give much more careful thought to my offensive spells for future use at higher levels against these nearly invulnerable opponents.

Some of my thoughts are:
Concentrating on force and/or sonic for damaging spells since almost nothing has any bonus, resistance, or immunities to either of these.
Many ray attack spells like Acid Arrow don't allow a saving throw.
There are a small number of spells like Waves of Exhaustion that don't allow a saving throw.
Some more spells aren't affected by spell resistance.

What spells can you think of that fit these strategies?
Have you ever tried a build specializing in these types of spells?


Brad McDowell wrote:

Have you tinkered with Butterfly Sting yet?

Is the secondary martial willing to build around it?

I checked with him, he is not liking the idea of integrating builds to that extent.


Scott, I looked at your suggestions in the other thread Scott. I will admit, I'm not usually a big fan of multi-class conglomerates like those. Many look good on paper at their final level but in practice don't function very well especially at the lower levels when you are just starting to get a few of the eventual abilities.
On the other hand, those look like they should work better than some I've seen. I will give them some more thought.

Bloodrager seems pretty good. I'm not sure it is far enough from my normal gish concepts to really be getting out of my rut. But I usually concentrate on the caster side and that would be concentrating on the martial side.

Slayer and swashbuckler seem interesting. But I've only seen them used as the secondary martial character never as the primary martial damage dealer. Are they really ok in that role.

Thanks for some ideas guys. I will look over these concepts some more.


I like some of these ideas, but wanted to clarify a few points.

The group is hesitant to introduce 'Unchained' at this time. We have a tendency to let things ride for a year or so before using. That way other early adopters have pointed out most of the pitfalls.

I am supposed to be the group's primary martial damage dealer. I don't mind having some investment in maneuvers as long as I can still carry out my primary role.

I see a couple of suggestions for monk, but I've always heard that the monk (non-Unchained) does a poor job at being the primary martial damage dealer. Is that not true?

I will check your link SW.


Ok, some of us have gotten into kind of a rut with the types of characters we tend to run. So as a group, we have been talking about making very different characters than the ‘norm’ for us. There has been some intra-group bargaining. I think I am going to end up playing the martial damage machine (or hammer if you use those terms) for the group.

I have normally played straight casters or martial/casters (with the emphasis on the caster part). The only time in recent years that I played a martial, it was very big on the maneuvers more than the damage. Lots of trip, grapple, bull rush, etc… rather than actually doing the killing. My issue is most of the primary damage dealers seem boring to me. This is not an insult. Different people like different things, I get that. But I’ve watched them do the same thing combat after combat – level after level – for the whole campaign.
Barbarian - rage, charge, then full attack. Ok, yes the number of dice rolled and the damage total gets higher but it seems like the same activity from beginning to end. (At the very least, some of the barbarian rage powers give some weird effects for a bit of change through the career.)
Archer - full attack. Ok, more arrows but again that’s just more dice and math.
Ranger TWF – buff spell, then full attack. The buff spell changes from time to time, but seems a fairly minor change and basically the same to me.
Cavalier – charge. Ok, get some teamwork and other powers and the mount grows better over time. But it seems to be basically trying for the exact same tactic/action every single time if at all possible.
Gunslinger – ditto/repeat…

With all of these, the damage total gets higher. However at the same time the damage required gets higher. The total to hit gets higher. Yet the number required to hit gets higher. It seems like the identical thing except adding more dice from beginning to end. That’s why I’ve always liked (non-blaster) casters. Hey, now I can use pilfering hand. Wow, that hungry pit is awesome. Yep that communal protection from energy is coming in handy. Etc… It seems very different and new when I learn wildly different spell capabilities.

So I’m looking for some ideas. I want a primarily martial character. I want to use weapons (or I suppose natural attacks) to do large amounts of damage to the enemy. But I want the character capabilities to grow and change and to have options so I’m not just doing the same thing time after time. The only thing that was coming to mind was barbarian with some of the weirdest rage powers like body bludgeon. But I am obviously not an expert on martial characters, so I’m farming out for concepts.

What suggestions can you give me?


Thanks, I had almost forgotten about this. I will check it out after the holidays.


I have in the past used Pilfering Hand to snatch a powerful sword or bow to keep it from being used on me.

However this time, there are quite a few bows available. The problem is the archer's quiver full of human bane and elf bane arrows. I'm a half-elf and don't like those.

Is there any reason I can't use Pilfering Hand to steal the quiver instead of the bow?


I don't think kobolds, undead, or other monster should be allowed to enter the tourney based on the way it is described.

I like the halflings on dinos, but the spike stones would destroy them unless I also include a caster that can get rid of it.

I really like the team of paladins with shield other in place. I think I will go with that but make one of them a cleric for more spell might. Maybe lobbing stones with silence on them ahead of their advance to interfere with the casters. Maybe with some teamwork feats like shake it off and shield wall.

Yes others will have seen the archer so I will use a wind wall at least once.


Ok, a few of you asked for more details. I will give them in a spoiler.

Ruby Phoenix Tournament:

The arena is a 40' x 80' rectangle with Walls of Force for the boundaries.

The module doesn't say anything about pre-buffing that I can find. So for the qualification I let them have some unknown time to buff while being introduced. I rolled a d4 and they ended up with 3 rounds to buff before the door opened. For the first round I said the officiating clerics cast a bunch of targeted Dispel Magic to bring down any buffs prior to the start.
I was planning to change the amount of buffing allowed each time.

For the qualification bout there was a summoner, a sneaky monk, and 3 enlarged fighters with trip weapons. It took them a while to win due to the trips and summons, but they were never in any real danger.

The first fight was 5 monks level 9. 2 with meteor hammers to bring/keep the squishies up next to the monks. 2 with monk spades to do damage. 1 with a seven-branched sword to reduce defenses.

The second fight is written as happening on a cliff face with everyone wearing slippers of spider climbing. A fighter 9 with a nodichi and damage build. Plus 4 monks 9 to trip people to fall off the cliff.

The 3rd fight is written as fighting while standing on hot coals against 5 bard sound strikers 9 that trip with whips while supporting each other with spells and chants.

The 4th fights is written as in a swamp with leeches against a witch bloatmage with SoS spells. It doesn't give any assistants for him but it should still be a team of 5.

The 5th fight is bare arena against a ninja/alchemist acid bombs or vanishing for sneak attacks. With generic monk supporters.

The final is a higher level monk with standard monk supporters. Trip and damage builds.

I expected them to win the first fight pretty easily. But it was even easier than I expected and I don't see them having much trouble with any of the others written into the module.
Their AC, CMD, and saves are all pretty durn good. They really concentrated on that this campaign.

The druid opened with Spikes Stones filling most of the arena. Anyone close through 60' of spike stones will take 12d8 of damage unless they have a way to ignore avoid it. I had the monks use acrobatics to jump over most of it so they only took 1-3d8 based on where they moved and how they rolled to jump.
That 1 spell will hammer most of the written opponents and only 1 of them includes a caster to try and dispel it.


Douglas Muir 406 wrote:
ElterAgo wrote:


But I don't want to build NPC's specifically to fight the PC's.
Okay, fair enough. But I think it *would* be fair to have rival parties studying the PCs in combat and preparing accordingly. If someone's signature move is an empowered Fireball, the rivals would have Resistance to Fire up; if one PC is an archer, Deflect Arrows. And so forth. ...

Absolutely! That is exactly the kind of feel I am going for.

Douglas Muir 406 wrote:

...

If you don't feel like spending a couple of hours crafting your own parties ...

Not a problem, I enjoy creating characters. And I should have a fair amount of time between now and the 10th.

Douglas Muir 406 wrote:

...

I linked to my all-energy blaster monkey above ...
If evil antagonists are allowed, I have a couple of level 10-ish evil characters worked out in some detail as well. ...
But from 30,000 feet, I would say that lots of suck-or-sucks and mass debuffs are the way to go. Once the PCs are slowed, entangled, intimidated, grappled by black tentacles, and dazed, they'll be oh so much easier to deal with. ...

Yes, evil people can enter the tourney.

I liked your blaster. I think it is going on the list.

Prior to this, debuffs didn't work well since they rarely failed a save. Most debuffs have little to no effect if a save is successful. But I have been looking at the few that still have significant effects on a save like Icy Prison.


Dragonflyer1243 wrote:

...

A group of melee warriors protecting a summoner.

...

LOL, actually I did that for the finals at the local tourney to gain admittance to the Ruby Phoenix tourney.

All the rest of that is good ideas from all of you. I'm not sure if the undead or monsters would qualify as entrants. I will have to think about it.


I'm running the Ruby Phoenix Tournament.
Group just walked over the first combat. I need to challenge without a TPK or it will get boring.

The PC's:
1/2 Drow ranger 1 / gauntlet witch 9 - generalist, back-up melee, some buff and debuff spells, high AC and saves, likes web/drow theme spells
Gnome sorc 5 / dragon disciple 5 - fire blaster, decent AC and saves, usually starts with greater invis and flying
1/2 Orc paladin 10 - archer build from guide, high saves and damage
Human inquisitor 10 - very optimized tank, with buffs AC is in the 40's, saves are also very high, CMD is also pretty high, damage is only moderate, but very difficult to hurt.
Dwarf druid 10 - (new player, don't know well) primary caster, fire domain, opened fight with Spike Stones to fill almost entire arena, likes elemental shapes.

3 of the PC's are slightly above WBL on average, the others are new PC's right at WBL. But mostly standard big 6 purchases.

I don't want to completely invalidate the PC's. But they are up against intelligent trained competition that will research, observe what they do, and try to counter it.

In describing opposition teams I mentioned a group of halflings riding lizards and a 'nature' team of druids and rangers. But if there are better ideas, I can just say those lost in the early rounds.

Since they are caster heavy, I was considering a counter speller. But he could only counter 1 each round and they have 3 primary casters. With the Spike Stones (I think that will be common for him), anyone that closes will take huge damage from crossing that many squares. Any one that tries to stay back is likely to get mauled by 3 primary casters and an archer. Not entirely sure how to proceed and challenge without overpowering them.

I'm looking for help building teams and tactics to fight them. Ideas?


Feats I would recommend at this point are Divine Protection or Quick Channel.
Depending upon the campaign you might want Alignment Channel instead.

I don't think Energy Body is that tremendous unless you are also already doing the Life Link thing. Although being immune to crits as an elemental did save my life once.

Reach Spell or a Reach metamagic rod is also very useful.

I'm not sure what other advice to give. Most of the options I pick are negated by your blindness curse.


Ok, for a specific region in a campaign I'm developing I want it to be at least fairly common that the paranoid inhabitants are often casting spells during normal life activities. Either divination type spells to try and not be surprised and/or buff type spells to be prepared when attacked.

I've been told you can still tell a person is casting (and even tell what spell they are casting with a spellcraft check) when they use silent and still. That doesn't make much sense to me, but I'm told pretty much everyone agrees that is the way the rules read.

But I want people to be able to cast detect chaos, zone of truth, detect poison, seek thoughts, etc... during a conversation without others knowing they are doing it.

This is not a NPC only ability. I think PC's should also have the opportunity. Is there some what within the current rules that allows this to happen?


Only in math is not getting a negative the same as getting a positive.


Splendor wrote:

...

Quote:

Tongues

In times of stress or unease, you speak in tongues.

Effect
Pick one of the following languages: Abyssal, Aklo, Aquan, Auran, Celestial, Ignan, Infernal, or Terran.
Whenever you are in combat, you can only speak and understand the selected language. This does not interfere with spellcasting, but it does apply to spells that are language dependent. You gain the selected language as a bonus language.

...

Which actually makes this a pretty good offensive spell against wizards. ... if the enemy wizard can't speak in that language he can't cast any verbal spells (To cast a spell, you must be able to speak).

Nope.


This was some sort of wierd swamp water mummy with reach water attacks.

The GM said it would flee. I never read the AP myself.

The flute was some unique crazy powerful musical instrument created by the GM. He decided it worked like a staff using the operators caster level and stat modifier.


Actually pretty durn close. Except...

4) Paladin/bard uses a magic item flute that casts charm monster

5) Ranger slaps creature around while oracle talks to creature and paladin bard continues playing flute.

7) Creature fails save vs fear from surprise mummy attack and flees into the swamp.

And yes, it probably hates us now. But I think if we manage to rescue and return it's child, it will probably forgive us.


Oracle's Burden is an offensive debuff spell. Plus non-lethal annoyance attacks and really high DC charm monster.


My GM let me do this last session. But now we're not really sure if it should have worked.

Creature we are trying to talk to.
None of us speak the correct language.
Stupidly, none of us have replenished our supply of scrolls of Tongues or anything like that.
I cast Oracle's Burden so that it could only speak celestial and we could communicate.

Should this have worked?


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Rerednaw wrote:

...

Also more of a fun spell.
Beguiling Gift.

Me: "Hey Mr. Evil Fighter, why don't you try these Masterwork Manacle?"
MEF: *fails save* Why sure, let me put these on...HEY!"

I would think he was more likely to 'use it' by slapping the cuffs on you.


Thanx for the link. That is the clarification I was looking for.

If he wants to rule it as different for his games, I'm fine with that.* I just want him to be aware that it is a house rule not RAW.

* Actually, I'm more than fine with that. The next group we are starting will be very sneaky so I think I can assume we would get more benefit from it than any NPC's will. =)


Any other thoughts?

I can say I've seen it used many times in PFS. I don't think any of those GM's used a miss chance after Glitterdust.

But that doesn't necessarily mean they are doing it right either. We were all using Grease wrong for quite a long while.


Magus cast Glitterdust on invisible stalkers. They made the save (DC was pretty low).
GM said since it only outlines them and you can't really see them there is still the 50% miss chance of concealment.

Is that they way it is usually handled?

Yes, I know the GM can rule things differently in his home game. He didn't think he was ruling things differently. He thinks that is RAW. He may be correct. We just weren't sure.


Hero Forge sounds like what they were talking about.
Doesn't seem to quite be available for sale yet. One of the pages says late this summer. That will be great.


At the shop a while ago some guys were talking about a company that would make custom figurines for you.

You would send them some info about race, class, equipment, etc... (I don't know how much detail they can include) then they would mold a custom plastic figure based on the description.

Anyone know what the company is called or have a link to it?


I believe there are 1 or 2 each that are "Cleric only" or "Oracle only".

Oracles Burden is one. I don't remember the others.

They are listed that way in the books. I don't know what d20pfsrd does to identify them.


pennywit wrote:
I've never executed this combo, but I've always wanted to see it in action: Reckless Infatuation on one enemy, followed by Unadulterated Loathing on another.

I love this idea!


3 people marked this as a favorite.

01) Truestrike - Wand wielder trip & disarm also animal companion trip
02) Pilfering Hand - steal weapons, wands, staves, divine focus, component pouch, headband
03) Endure Elements - with Magic is life for +2 vs death for 24 hours also almost free for a day if you cast it just before daily preparations
04) Chain of Perdition - stop mounted attacks
05) Aqueous Orb
06) Bed of Iron - sleep in armor
07) Erase - in Rise of Rune Lords
08) Treasure Map - find the dragon's horde after it's dead
09) Share Memories & Teleport - to learn teleport site (I never thought of this use)
10) Mad Monkeys - (kept this since I see it suggested a lot, but rarely used)
11) Rain of Frogs - (never seen this one used)
12) Channel the Gift -
13) Heat Stroke -
14) Shrink Item - shrink locked doors or for big loot
15) Burning Disarm -
16) Embrace Destiny - save you natural 20 for later
17) Phantom Trap - slow down pursuit
18) Pugwampi's Grace -
19) Call the Void -
20) Summon or Vomit Swarm - locate invisible enemies (never thought of that use)
21) Foe Hammer - pound on the bad guys with the bad guys
22) Floating Disk - melee char ride into battle
23) Unseen Servant - to run off with disarmed weapons
24) Reduce Person - potion to improve touch AC
25) Spiritual Weapon w/ Toppling Spell and Disruptive Spell - distract casters
26) Air Bubble – low level underwater operations
27) Admonishing Ray – nonlethal force effect
28) Bestow Insight – make skill checks easier (human only)
29) Touch of Truthtelling – (not familiar with this one)
30) Liberating Command – grab is so common you would think more people would take this
31) Marid’s Mastery – debuff (undine only)
32) Silence – this is odd to me it’s a iconic, great, and useful spell that I almost never see anyone but me take
33) Grace – swift to not get AoO
34) Phantasmal Web – can be used within the party
35) Burst of Radiance – damage and a reflex glitterdust
36) Loathsome Veil – AoE nauseated
37) Lipstitch - stop bites and casters
38) Glibness - "these are not the droids you're looking for" esp with Pageant of the Peacock
39) Ill Omen - wand for familiar
40) Blood Transcription - evil but good
41) Brew Potion, Blood Money, Tattoo Potion, Transfer Tattoo, and Lesser Restoration - make spell tattoos without Inscribe Magical Tattoo
42) Fabricate - we've used this some, but maybe other groups have not
43) Blur - I used to see this a lot, but not recently
44) Compassionate Ally - fighter not fighting anymore


So far we have:
(Since the list is getting larger, I decided to drop the ones that are common. Let me know if you think I’m wrong.)

  • 01) Truestrike - Wand wielder trip & disarm also animal companion trip
  • 02) Pilfering Hand - steal weapons, wands, staves, divine focus, component pouch, headband
  • 03) Endure Elements - with Magic is life for +2 vs death for 24 hours also almost free for a day if you cast it just before daily preparations
  • 04) Chain of Perdition - stop mounted attacks
  • 05) Aqueous Orb
  • 06) Bed of Iron - sleep in armor
  • 07) Erase - in Rise of Rune Lords
  • 08) Treasure Map - find the dragon's horde after it's dead
  • 09) Share Memories & Teleport - to learn teleport site (I never thought of this use)
  • 10) Mad Monkeys - (kept this since I see it suggested a lot, but rarely used)
  • 11) Rain of Frogs - (never seen this one used)
  • 12) Channel the Gift -
  • 13) Heat Stroke -
  • 14) Shrink Item - shrink locked doors or for big loot
  • 15) Burning Disarm -
  • 16) Embrace Destiny - save you natural 20 for later
  • 17) Phantom Trap - slow down pursuit
  • 18) Pugwampi's Grace -
  • 19) Call the Void -
  • 20) Summon or Vomit Swarm - locate invisible enemies (never thought of that use)
  • 21) Foe Hammer - pound on the bad guys with the bad guys
  • 22) Floating Disk - melee char ride into battle
  • 23) Unseen Servant - to run off with disarmed weapons
  • 24) Reduce Person - potion to improve touch AC
  • 25) Spiritual Weapon w/ Toppling Spell and Disruptive Spell - distract casters
  • 26) Air Bubble – low level underwater operations
  • 27) Admonishing Ray – nonlethal force effect
  • 28) Bestow Insight – make skill checks easier (human only)
  • 29) Touch of Truthtelling – (not familiar with this one)
  • 30) Liberating Command – grab is so common you would think more people would take this
  • 31) Marid’s Mastery – debuff (undine only)
  • 32) Silence – this is odd to me it’s a iconic, great, and useful spell that I almost never see anyone but me take
  • 33) Grace – swift to not get AoO
  • 34) Phantasmal Web – can be used within the party
  • 35) Burst of Radiance – damage and a reflex glitterdust
  • 36) Loathsome Veil – AoE nauseated
  • 37) Lipstitch - stop bites and casters

Any more?


So far we have

  • 01) Truestrike - Wand wielder trip & disarm also animal companion trip
  • 02) Pilfering Hand - steal weapons, wands, staves, divine focus, component pouch
  • 03) Endure Elements - with Magic is life for +2 vs death for 24 hours also almost free for a day if you cast it just before daily preparations
  • 04) Chain of Perdition - stop mounted attacks
  • 05) Aqueous Orb
  • 06) Wall of Fire & Communal Resist Enenrgy - (not sure this counts as uncommon though)
  • 07) Bed of Iron - sleep in armor
  • 08) Erase - in Rise of Rune Lords
  • 09) Treasure Map - find the dragon's horde after it's dead
  • 10) Share Memories & Teleport - to learn teleport site (I never though of this use)
  • 11) Mad Monkeys - (not sure if this is rare since I see it suggested all the time)
  • 12) Rain of Frogs - (never seen this one used)
  • 13) Channel the Gift -
  • 14) Heat Stroke -
  • 15) Shrink Item - shrink locked doors or for big loot
  • 16) Burning Disarm -
  • 17) Blood Money - (not sure if this is rare since I see it suggested all the time)
  • 18) Embrace Destiny - save you natural 20 for later
  • 19) Phantom Trap - slow down pursuit
  • 20) Shadow Evoc/Conj - faking things is fun
  • 21) Pugwampi's Grace -
  • 22) Call the Void -
  • 23) Summon Swarm - locate invisible enemies (never thought of that use)
  • 24) Foe Hammer - pound on the bad guys with the bad guys
  • 25) Floating Disk - melee char ride into battle
  • 26) Unseen Servant - to run off with disarmed weapons
  • 27) Reduce Person - potion to improve touch AC
  • 28) Delay Poison - limited duration immunity until can deal with it
  • 29) Lesser Restoration - rage cycle barbarian
  • 30) Spiritual Weapon w/ Toppling Spell and Disruptive Spell - distract casters

Any more?


So far we have

  • 01) Truestrike - Wand wielder trip & disarm also animal companion trip
  • 02) Pilfering Hand - steal weapons, wands, staves, divine focus, component pouch
  • 03) Endure Elements - with Magic is life for +2 vs death for 24 hours also almost free for a day if you cast it just before daily preparations
  • 04) Chain of Perdition - stop mounted attacks
  • 05) Aqueous Orb
  • 06) Wall of Fire & Communal Resist Enenrgy - (not sure this counts as uncommon though)
  • 07) Bed of Iron - sleep in armor
  • 08) Erase - in Rise of Rune Lords
  • 09) Treasure Map - find the dragon's horde after it's dead
  • 10) Share Memories & Teleport - to learn teleport site (I never though of this use)
  • 11) Mad Monkeys - (not sure if this is rare since I see it suggested all the time)
  • 12) Rain of Frogs - (never seen this one used)
  • 13) Channel the Gift -
  • 14) Heat Stroke -
  • 15) Shrink Item - shrink locked doors or for big loot
  • 16) Burning Disarm -
  • 17) Blood Money - (not sure if this is rare since I see it suggested all the time)
  • 18) Embrace Destiny - save you natural 20 for later
  • 19) Phantom Trap - slow down pursuit
  • 20) Shadow Evoc/Conj - faking things is fun
  • 21) Pugwampi's Grace -

Any more?


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I'm looking for ideas to make some of my casters more unique. As part of that, I would like to make good use of spells that aren't seen very often.

I know a guy that used almost nothing except fireball, scorching ray, magic missile, and haste. With meta-magics to fill higher level slots. Of the umpteen bajillion spells in all the books, he pretty much only used those 4.
I have been using my casters as a demonstration of what else is possible. Since my characters have accomplished some things that completly surprised him, he is now starting to look at some of the other possibilities.

So I'm looking for some of the effective spells you have used that don't see much action by others. Even if it is only useful in a special niche build, I'd still like to know about. I'll start off with a few.

1) Truestrike
I think every beginner to the game looks at that and says 'Awesome!' But then they try to use it a few times and realize it is kinda meh. So no one ever uses it. So I spent a while trying to think of a way to make it work. I now have a magus(kensai) with a whip, the wand wielder arcana, and a wand of true strike. He can now trip or disarm virtually anything he encounters. People are amazed when I trip the spider or iron golem and disarm the APL+5 martial champion.

2) Pilfering Hand
My oracle absoluetly loves this spell. I almost never see anyone take this except the occasional arcane trickster, but I have quite literally saved our group with it many times.
Our flying archer got possessed. He got surprise and initiative almost killing 2 characters. Pilfering hand to steal his bow. Suddenly he is virtually no threat and we have plenty of time to figure out how to stop him without killing him.
Special BBEG with staff-like-wand and a special ability to use 2 wands every round. Lesser quicken rod and a regular cast of pilfering hand and he is suddenly almost no threat. His prepared spells were almost all defensive buffs already cast. The write-up relied on the wands for attack.
Took away divine focus from the negative channeler, took away the super mondo intelligent evil blade from the anti-paladin assassin, etc...

3) Endure Elements
Very few people ever take this unless they think they are going to the frozen poles or under a volcano. In which case it is probably such extreme temperature, it still doesn't help them. I have a character with the Magic Is Life Trait from worship of Nethys. So he virtually always has a +2 to save vs. death effects (which I expect to be very common in that AP). Plus getting all the wierd looks from wearing summer clothes in the middle of winter, is just a slight fun bonus.

4) Chain of Perdition
For a while we were encountering a lot of mounted opponents. The write-up had them built in such a way that they were really only dangerous because they were mounted.
A chain of perdition to either stop the mount or drag them off the mount (depending upon which I thought was more vulnerable to the spell). Suddenly, not such a tough encounter.

Any others you have found useful that people don't use too often?


Bob is a 12th level human life oracle built around blasting undead. Yes, that means he can heal very well when there are no undead around. But that is a side effect, not the focus. He absolutely loathes undead.

Magus, "Crap there's three of those vampire lords in there that the other vampires are afraid of. Let's pull back and try to isolate them."

Bob, "We can take them."

Magus, "You always say that!"

Bob, "I've always been right. We can take them."

Magus, "Stop saying that! We almost died the last 3 times you said that. Heck you went unconscious twice!"

Bob, "But we didn't die. We can take them."

Magus, "Stop it. Just stop it. What do you guys think?"

The others (while laughing), "Well Bob was technically right all the other times. We did win. We didn't quite die."

Bob, "We can take them."

We did take them.
Bob took 9 negative levels. Bob was drained 11 ability score points and was cursed. Bob had less 7 hit points left. But we won and none of us died. (Though Bob came pretty close yet again.)


trollbill wrote:

... Now my oldest is very petite, so when she sat down at the table with them, their first thought was, "Oh, God. We came all the way down from Chicago to play with a little girl?" She then introduced herself as the DM and the thoughts changed to, "Oh, Dear God! We came all the way down from Chicago to be DMed by a little girl?"

...
Interestingly enough, I think my daughter has run into more Ageist issues in OP (people not showing her respect because they thought of her as a kid) than she has sexist issues. Though I am sure she has had her share of those, as well.

I have to admit I am a bit guilty of that myself. Several times I've cringed and thought, Oh carp! Not another kid GM that doesn't even know the rules! I know I've never said anything and I've tried to not show anything in my actions or attitude. I've always 'played through' to see what happens. Sometimes it has been a pleasant surprise and sometimes it has met my low expectations.

I know it is the old curmudgeon in me along with my tendency to remember the bad rather than the good experiences. This one, I'm still working on fixing in my own head.


Thanks folks.


Ok, I’m seeing a lot of difference in how protection from evil is judged/ruled. From all the way to only useful in a few corner cases to way overpowered for a 1st level spell. I personally don’t really care what it is, just so I can count on it doing that. In one case I think it is sufficient protection but it gives virtually nothing. But if I use that definition, then the next time I have overlapped 3 protections needlessly.

Stops all compulsions
Stops compulsions from evil casters
Stops only things that actually take you over like dominate
Stops only things like dominate from evil outsiders
Stops only compulsions delivered by touch attack
Stops illusions that are affecting the mind (would have a will save)
Stops confusion since it takes away your ability to decide
Does not stop confusion since the caster can’t control the actions
Stops charm/suggestion because the caster now has some measure of control over you
Does not stop charm/suggestion since the caster doesn’t control your actions just adjusted your attitude a little bit
Etc…

I have heard all of these over the last couple of years at PFS and 2 home groups.

Can someone tell me if there is some definitive list or clear rule of what does or does not get blocked by Protection From Evil?

I’ve found several different argument threads that have no real decisions. But I’ve been told ‘It was decided’ but everyone seems to have a different idea of what was decided.


Mark Thomas 66 wrote:
To be fair, New Yorkers aren't the descendants of England's Phantom Zone.

They are the descendants of much, much worse unspeakable things...


TriOmegaZero wrote:
MattR1986 wrote:
P.s. cleaver hasn't done anything to deserve going into the yellow dingo wastebin azfaik.
Who said he deserved it?

Sometimes a person gets what they deserve.

Sometimes a person gets what they need.


Hmm... I do not know for sure. He doesn't give us the build details of the creatures. It is possible he is doing that. I will bring it up with him.


Our GM has been stacking templates so things have had multiple types of DR some of them as high as 20. So if I end up running a weapon guy next I want to be able to hurt the things I hit.


So if I want a single weapon that can hit and do full damage to most anything (long before I can afford a +5 weapon), it looks like I want a +1 adamantine weapon of ghost touch and buy a wand of versatile weapon and a wand of align weapon.


Yeah, for a couple of levels I will have to have a scroll/oil of magic weapon to get by DR/magic. But I rarely see DR/magic before I can afford a magic weapon.

But then again it might be another level before I can afford an adamantine magic weapon.

I didn't remember about those equivalents. I will look it up when I get home. I will have to point those out to my GM. I think he forgot about them also.


The spells that help to bypass DR are:

Align weapon (cleric only) – makes weapon chaotic, evil, good, or lawful only affect is to bypass one of those 4 DR types and can NOT be used on natural weapon or unarmed strikes.

Versatile weapon (brd, rngr, wiz) – makes weapon bludg, piercing, slashing, cold iron, or silver and only effect is to bypass one of those 5 DR types and CAN be used on a natural weapon or unarmed strike.

I thought there was one to hit incorporeal and/or ethereal creatures. But if there is I can’t find it. Maybe I was hallucinating again.

There is not one to pass adamantine DR. Correct?

There aren’t any other kinds of DR are there? (Well besides DR/magic and yes I will be carrying a magic weapon.)
Are there any other spells to bypass DR?

So if I want to be able to hit anything I should encounter. I should have an adamantine ghost touch weapon along with scrolls, wands, oils of align weapon and versatile weapon. (Plus of course, the knowledge skill to know which one I need.)

EDIT: Just remembered Bless Weapon which will hit evil incorporeal (are there any neutral or good incorporeal?) and also makes it good aligned. So maybe I just need adamantine not ghost touch.


They did not like the random effects of the spell scar mystery even though they don't seem like they would happen that often. So I think that is out for now.

Ok, so I thinking cross blooded sorcerer. With the Aberrant and Destined bloodlines. The 1st and 3rd abilities from destined and the 9th and 15th ability from aberrant
Human for some extra spells and skill points (the rest of the character should be odd enough to not get bored with vanilla human).
Str 7, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 20(18+2)

Spells Known Selection – Going for thematic or spells I’ve not seen used much. Haven’t narrowed down the selection or picked the order of learning yet. Will definitely have at least 1 defensive and 1 offensive spell of each level.


  • 0 - dancing lights, ghost sound, haunted fey aspect
  • 1 - air bubble, detect secret doors, ear piercing scream, memory lapse, polypurpose panacea, shock shield, stumble gap, touch of gracelessness, vanish
  • 2 - animal aspect, burning gaze, dust of twilight, glide, hideous laughter, mad hallucination, skin send, spectral hand (or may just buy a wand of this), spontaneous immolation, touch of idiocy, unnatural lust
  • 3 - ablative barrier, arcane sight, eruptive pustules, hostile levitation, mad monkeys, shifting sands, wind wall

Feats


  • 01 - skill focus, know (dungeoneering or nature) and bouncing spell
  • 03 - eldritch heritage (arcane familiar scorpion +4 init)
  • 05 - eldritch heritage (deep earth OR verdant)
  • 07 - piercing spell OR leadership (not sure what but some bizarre aberration cohort)
  • 09 - improved familiar (maybe homonuculous)
  • 11 - improved eldritch heritage (arcane)
  • 13 - improved eldritch heritage (deep earth OR verdant)

What do you think? Viable or a paste-eater?


Oh, I am definitely not going to do something that will take fun away from the others. Some groups would have no problem with a bunch of random results and some will hate it.
We just haven't really decided if it will do all that much. The more we read through it, the primal events really aren't likely to happen all that often. We may have few mock combats to see if it really makes much difference.

But if it is too intrusive, I need a back-up concept for some who has been afflicted by magic.


Been reading through it a couple of times.

If it is there, I am missing it. Do these primal events occur where the spell causing them originates or where the spell lands. That could change it from wondrous to horrific.


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