If you want mechanics, then the freely available sites are there for that purpose. If you want world setting, adventures, and award-winning artwork, please check out the rest of the Pathfinder gaming materials available. (Of course we would love it you bought as much of our materials as your budget allows, because we like roofs over our heads and food on the table.)
Thanks! This is what I was looking for!
Anguish wrote:
The only thing I'd recommend... is think of the freely-available material as a compromise from a reasonable, compassionate industry. You wouldn't stand outside listening to street-performers all day without throwing money in their guitar-case simply because you can, right? Your moral compass should guide you to contribute when you can, where you can, and as much as makes sense, because you appreciate the artists. Don't not buy RPG stuff "because they were stupid enough to put it out free" (I am NOT saying you're saying that... just don't get tempted).
That's the question I'm interested in knowing the answer to. With the d20pfsrd site that has all the core books plus many expansions (Ultimate Magic, Unchained, Occult Adventures, etc.), why bother paying for the books that are there? Is there content in those books that are not OGL, and therefore not on the d20pfsrd?
I ask because I bought Ultimate Intrigue (it's not on d20pfsrd) and thought about possibly buying a few more, but I don't want to pay for what is freely available. Yes, I understand that buying freely available things helps support the creators (in this case Paizo or third-party publishers), but my money is limited and I'd like to have the most content to choose from for my games, so I'd rather buy things that are not freely available.
This is an honest question and I look forward to hearing honest answers. Thank you!
The Taddol race has the Superior Two-Weapon Fighting feat which says in part, "You do not take a penalty on attack rolls for fighting with two weapons."
Superior Two-Weapon Fighting:
Superior Two-Weapon Fighting
Each head can control a melee attack independently, eliminating penalties for attacking with a weapon in each hand.
Prerequisite: Taddol, Big Hands, Two-Weapon Fighting
Benefit: You do not take a penalty on attack rolls for fighting with two weapons.
Combined with the Titan Mauler's Jotungrip ability to wield a two-handed weapon in one hand...
Jotungrip (Ex):
At 2nd level, a titan mauler may choose to wield a two-handed melee weapon in one hand with a –2 penalty on attack rolls while doing so. The weapon must be appropriately sized for her, and it is treated as one-handed when determining the effect of Power Attack, Strength bonus to damage, and the like.
...and the Monstrous Physique talent that increases my size category by one...
Monstrous Physique (talent):
Monstrous Physique (Talent)
You are an unusually big specimen of your race.
Prerequisite: Con 13, Str 13, character level 1st
Benefit: Increase your size category by one, apply the size advancements for reach, armor class, and attack rolls; do not apply the remaining normal size advancements, such as Strength and Constitution increases.
...and the Abyssal Blood rage power that also increases my size by one while I rage...
Benefit(s): Once per day when the barbarian enters a rage, she can choose to grow one size category larger than her base size (as enlarge person, even if the barbarian isn't humanoid).
...and finally the Impact weapon property that treats my weapon damage as though it were one size larger...
Impact:
This special ability can only be placed on melee weapons that are not light weapons. An impact weapon delivers a potent kinetic jolt when it strikes, dealing damage as if the weapon were one size category larger. In addition, any bull rush combat maneuver the wielder attempts while wielding the weapon gains a bonus equal to the weapon's enhancement bonus; this includes all bull rush attempts, not only those in which a weapon is used, such as Bull Rush Strike, Shield Slam, or Unseat.
So, after I qualify for all the feats, abilities, rage power, etc., and can afford two Earth Breakers with the Impact property, this is what I get:
While raging, once per day, I will be Huge size (Monstrous Physique + Abyssal Blood) wielding two Huge Earth Breakers that do damage as though they were Gargantuan sized, and only be taking a -2 penalty to my attacks with each weapon (from the Jotungrip ability; the Superior Two-Weapon Fighting negates the two-weapon fighting penalties).
A Medium Earth Breaker does 2d6 damage. If my weapon progression is correct (as per the progression listed under the Improved Natural Attack feat, which is the only weapon progression that I can find that goes high enough), a Large Earth Breaker does 3d6 damage, a Huge Earth breaker does 4d6 damage, and a Gargantuan Earth Breaker does 6d6 damage.
It does work that way RAW because there is no ability an inquisitor can use called Greater Bane. Greater Bane is just what happens when an inquisitor who is considered level 12 or higher for the purpose of Bane uses their Bane class ability.
Your GM could houserule differently, however. Bane Baldric really only gives you an additional 5 rounds of use per day. Do a search on the messageboards here if you want to read all the arguments about the item.
Guided Hand, as it is written, prevents Inquisitors from taking the feat unless they dip into Cleric or Life Oracle.
How can the prerequisites for this feat be changed with house rules to allow Inquisitors to take it, while still maintaining whatever balance the developers originally intended?
Specifically, removing the Channel Energy class feature requirement entirely is fine as that is something that the classes get automatically anyhow. However, what would be an appropriate feat to replace the Channel Smite feat prerequisite, considering Channel Smite is one of those feats that people either like and make use of, or hate and never use. (Somewhat like Combat Expertise where some people find it useful while others think it's a waste of a feat and only get it because it's a requirement for more useful feats.)
Unless of course you know that your friends aren't going to use every cheap tricks in the book to disable/deny you as soon as combat start.
...
I mean maybe I'm overthinking it much and you are literally just going to have a slugfest in the gladiatorial combat but I'm just saying to be careful vs casters if you go full melee.
Honestly, I'm really not expecting much from them in the way of tactics and cheap tricks. I am, by and far, the most mechanically minded of the group. They're a great group, but they're not likely to put things together nearly as well as I can. (I know that sounds egotistical, but it's really not. It's just how they are versus how I am.)
As for getting to them, that's what the deeper darkness is for. I believe that I am pretty safe in assuming that no one will have a way of seeing through the magical darkness. Because of this, they will not be able to target me or the items I have cast the DD on. They will be limited to either casting daylight or an area burst greater dispel, and I am not sure what the likelihood is of anyone having one or both of those spells prepped for a combat like this. I will be prepared for the former by having dispel/greater dispel prepped (I should have mentioned that although I have not decided on the exact class of the Drow, I am pretty sure it will be a caster class) and I will be prepared for the latter by simply casting DD again. (Out of curiosity, can I cast DD on my hand? If so, then would a targeted dispel or area burst greater dispel be subject to any SR I have?)
My tactics are based on the theory that if they can't see me, they can't hit me. Melee and ranged characters will be swinging blindly and will face a 50% miss chance from total concealment. Casters will be casting their AOO spells blindly, and those are the only things I'm really worried about. Targeting the middle of the DD field won't work as I am planning on having multiple objects with DD on them and throwing them around, blanketing the arena in magical darkness. There will be no "middle". Again, I am making some assumptions here about the group that may or may not come back to bite me in the behind. I believe that I have a strong melee guy, but now I need a strong support guy for him.
I'll check out that Zen Archer later this evening when I have more time.
andreww wrote:
Standard gold for level 13 is 140k, where are you getting half a million from?
Perhaps this comes from my misinterpretation of the character wealth by level table. I figured those values were cumulative, so that at second level you get 1,000 gp, third level 3,000 gp more, fourth level 6,000 gp more, etc. Are those numbers supposed to represent overall total character wealth instead? It just seems to me that an overall wealth of 880k gp at 20th level is pretty low for the heroic characters that we're supposed to be. I've never been in a campaign where we've gotten much past 5th level though, so I don't know.
Ashe wrote:
I would go Synth Summoner, and a witch. Not sure what your barbarian's attack is but I bet it doesn't hit the Synth at AC 43 no buffs not magic items. So hitting 60 wouldn't be hard.
Synth Summoner was an option I was considering for the Drow, but I hadn't looked into the specifics of it yet.
I'm not too worried about AC at this point. It's the AOOs and my saves that I'm more worried about, for both characters.
My friends and I have decided to do a for-fun-only gladiatorial combat challenge. There will be no Role-Play. This is simply a way of building the biggest, baddest team and annihilate each other. The rules are relatively simple:
*No 3rd Party Materials
*Teams of 2 (one team per player)
*Character Level 13
*Any race with an RP of 15 or less
*Any class, any archetype
*20 point buy, no stat lower than 7 before racial bonuses
*Max HP per HD
There will be anywhere from 2 - 6 teams in the very large arena at once.Starting gold of 531,000gp (appropriate for a level 13 character). No single item can be more than 50% of this, but otherwise there are no restrictions on how items are bought. Team members cannot share gold or items; each character is responsible for outfitting themself.
***
So, with that in mind I decided early on that I wanted a Drow (haven't decided on class yet) who could cast deeper darkness at will (with the Drow Nobility feat chain) and use an elixir of darksight to see through the supernatural darkness. This is my base tactic. If my opponents can't see me, it'll be hard to hit me without using an AOO spell.
The other character I have decided on is an Orc Titan Mauler Barbarian 12 / Fighter 1 (using the elixir of darksight, of course). (Starting stats of 24, 14, 16, 5, 7, 5, after racial bonuses and a +2 str and +1 con increase from level progression). With the Titan Mauler I have decided to use Jason Nelson's "unofficial" rewrite of Massive Weapons, as it makes sense and more accurately describes what a Titan Mauler should be able to do:
Jason Nelson wrote:
Massive Weapons (Ex): At 3rd level, a titan mauler becomes skilled in the use of massive weapons looted from her titanic foes. This allows her to use weapons designed for creatures larger than her size, always treating them as two-handed weapons and applying a cumulative -2 penalty on attack rolls per size category of difference. The total attack roll penalty is reduced by 1, and this reduction increases by 1 for every three levels beyond 3rd (to a minimum of 0). This ability replaces trap sense.
I am also using giant-hide armor, storm giant. This allows me to do some pretty wicked things. While using the giant form II property of the armor, I can wield a colossal weapon without penalty. My weapon of choice is a Colossal Transformative Impact Keen Furious Greatsword +3. The impact ability makes my base weapon damage 12d6 (according to the progression listed under Improved Natural Attack, which is the only progression I could find).
Now, take all that and combine it with Improved Vital Strike, Furious Finish, and Deadly Finish, and I'm doing a minimum 216 damage, and that's just the weapon dice. Throw in all the other damage bonuses and the total damage is (an estimated) 261 damage (rage, giant form, belt of strength +6, manual of strength +4, power attack). My total raging HP will be (an estimated) 375 points. A caster on the other hand will have (an estimated) 117 HP (and that's giving them a generous +3 Con mod). It's enough to two-shot a hardened warrior like myself, and easily enough to one-shot a squishy caster (and most others in between). Deadly Finish just adds insult to injury.
Something about this seems way too good to be true. Granted, the whole point of this combat is to create an uber powerful team, but seriously, this is just disgusting.
The biggest downside to this build is going to be a disgustingly low will save, a very low reflex save, and a relatively low AC. The AC I'm not too worried about because of the deeper darkness. However, the low saves will put me in jeopardy of AOO spells.
Can anyone find any flaws in my calculations? Or advice in improving the damage? (Keep in mind that I haven't chosen all my items yet so these numbers are only rough estimates.)
The best use of titan mauler I've seen was my friend using Titan Mauler 2/Two-Weapon Warrior(Fighter) 11 to dual wield scythes at a -2/-2.
Mechanically optimized? Absolutely not. Coolest thing ever? Hell yes. His damage was so good even the party was scared of him.
If I am doing the math correctly, they should be swinging at -4/-4.
Jotungrip (Titan Mauler) allows you to wield a two-handed weapon in one hand with a -2 penalty to attack rolls. Improved Balance (Two-Weapon Warrior) allows you to treat a one-handed weapon in your off-hand "as if it were a light weapon with the normal light weapon penalties." The normal light weapon penalties, assuming you have the two-weapon fighting feat, are -2/-2. You then have to apply the penalty from Jotungrip, making the attacks -4/-4.
A homebrew campaign set in the world of Kythmor. The world is the size of the earth, so the adventures will actually only take place in a very small portion of it, but I am leaving the whole world open for possible future adventures. It is my hope to carry this campaign, or series of campaigns, into the highest levels.
This world is entirely of my own creation. This will also be my first PbP experience, so I'll be figuring things out as I go.
More to come soon as I get all the details worked out. The adventure will start sometime in January 2014.
