Lynxden's page

Was curious about receiving an update on this order. Order was made back on October 31st, and though I was charged for it same day, it has sat as a pending order for the month and a half since, with no updates about it. This company has alot of good will from me from treating me well for the last decade, but my patience is starting to wear thin. Please let me know what to expect for this order going forward, since it's been a month since it was estimated to ship out by your system. Thank you

You can manage something akin to him, but he's impossible to build per spec using the Pathfinder system. If you open the build to 3rd party material, you can get alot closer using the Spheres of Might system and taking the Conscript class which is basically just a Full BAB utility knife class. The build gets even easier if you go Gestalt.

Point being, that using the core system, the best you can do is emulate one aspect of the character. You can either go all on melee, or all in on the detective stuff, or try and split the difference and end up with a pale imitation of either. My suggestion would be to find one aspect you want to focus on and aim for that. Maybe supplement with magic items to get closer, but understand that this system will never be able to manage it.

Sorry.

Still nothing from the staff about this? It's been a week and I still can't order anything. Moreover, I get the same error if I try to alter my cart in any fashion, such as by emptying it to re-add them and try to fix the issue that way. Nothing I can think of is working. If I continue not to hear anything from the company, I'll simply move on and order from a different source.

That would be a big fat nope. Still getting the same error when attempting through Incognito Chrome, and Firefox.

Have you tried using a different browser or incognito mode with your current browser?

That frequently seems to solve this problem.

I have not. I will give that a shot. Thank you.

Still having this issue. Is there any chance this will be resolved any time soon? I've been trying to purchase these items since Monday April 20th, and I keep getting the same error every time. I've never had this issue before now.

Still having this issue when I try to place an order.

Was trying to place an order for a few books and the system keeps kicking back anytime I attempt to proceed to the shipping segment of checkout. It will allow me to go to my cart, and to proceed to checkout, but as soon as I try to move over to shipping, it boots me with a statement of the URL that was requested either doesn't exist or I have been denied access. Not sure if this is a temporary issue the site is having, but figured I would at least notify you about it.

We run almost exclusively with gestalt games at our table, since we have a max of three players at any time. We do gold as 1.5x the max gold of your highest class. Gives enough that you can get all necessary gear for both classes, and still get a masterwork toolkit for whatever you primary role will be.

The Spheres system from Drop Dead Studios. It allows for such wild a creative ideas to be built, and does wonders for closing the caster/martial disparity. It has been an overwhelmingly great addition to our table.

We have several House Rules in use at our table, many of which came about from only having two or three players at a time.

-Players get max HP at first level, adding their Con score instead of modifier. This buffers early survivability.
-Many of our feats have been overhauled to provide scaling bonuses and remove feat taxes. Combat feats scale with BAB, others scale with level.
-Advantage/Disadvantage from 5e.
-Characters gain skill ranks from either Int or Wis, chosen at character creation.
-We use a skill check system where if a Skill DC can be met be taking ten and adding their modifier, they automatically succeed. This has streamlined alot of things, and adds some drama to when a skill check actually matters.

There are many others, but these are the ones off the top of my head. There are also quite a few that have been garnered from a variety of sources over the years.

These kinds of things can be tricky. The main issue is going to be action economy. 2 people are just never going to manage as much as 4 people. Being a higher level would help, certainly, but i think the bigger issue is that pregenned adventures assume a party with a variety of roles filled. I've gotten around this by using Gestalt rules so you can fill multiple roles with fewer people. If you don't want to do that (especially avoid if the players are new to the system), then I would advise looking into the various Hybrid classes (Investigator and Slayer are personal favorites). Bump them to 3rd level, and give it a go. adjust as needed from there.

The higher level will give them a bunch more health so they won't die as easy. Be careful with how much gold you give them, though, because a plethora of magic items will destroy anything designed to not have them involved yet.

I'm actually fondest of Gestalt for the express reason that it lets you take classes that are really interesting thematically, but weak mechanically, and shore them up and make them viable. Fighter//Anything is a favorite because it adds utility and depth, and still makes good combat ability.

Lynxden wrote:

Almost all of the games at my table are gestalt. We only have 4 people total, so we use it to cover our bases and add spice to our characters. I have a UC Monk//Investigator who has been a real treat to use, and I'm going to be playing a real oddball. Combo of Spheres of Might and Spheres of Power archetypes on a archaeologist bard and the investigator class. Real unique powerhouse and all the versatility I could ever want.

Damn!!! And i thought my necromancer idea wad OP lol sounds awesome. For my monk/swashbukler idea i was going to use an archetype from Legendary games, and make him an iajutsu adept and then take scaled fist for the monk, so all i really need for stats is dex and cha. But the fun doesn't stop there... if i ever get to play this guy i want to give this guy a negative con and wis. Make him naive and and weak as all hell (want to give him asthma) to make him interesting.

That could be quite fun. I always love character with weird quirks or hampering bits. I played an Investigator a while back who had a leg injury that had been healed improperly with magic and wasn't "reversible". So he had a leg brace and moved at 20', or 25' with a cane. Enchanted the brace to store items, and the cane become a sword cane that acted as a sheath for any sword I placed in it.

Almost all of the games at my table are gestalt. We only have 4 people total, so we use it to cover our bases and add spice to our characters. I have a UC Monk//Investigator who has been a real treat to use, and I'm going to be playing a real oddball. Combo of Spheres of Might and Spheres of Power archetypes on a archaeologist bard and the investigator class. Real unique powerhouse and all the versatility I could ever want.

Out of curiosity, why does everyone seem so focused on building with a full BAB class? I understand the base idea behind it (I almost always run some kind of Melee combatant), just not the seeming overwhelming focus from everyone.

Some more advice:

Good choice with half-elf and lingering performance/extra performance rounds. Remember that you can have two favored classes as a half elf. I am not sure how your group deals with that in a gestalt setting, but getting +1/6 extra Slayer talent is pretty good too.

Point buy is 15 for typical adventure paths, but I assume that will be higher for your group. If not, I'd recommend: Str 12, Dex 17, Con 12, Int 9, Wis 12, Cha 13. Pump (in order) Dex, Cha, Int, Dex, Dex (or whatever, it's your character).

Either take lingering performance at 1st level (and use ranged weapons) and get "finesse Rogue" as your 2nd Level Slayer Talent. Or, take weapon finesse at 1st and save lingering performance till 3rd Level. Pick up Fate's Favored as a trait to boost your luck bonus. Maybe trade away your adaptability racial (skill focus) for Dual Minded to boost your will save.

As far as ranger fighting styles, I think the Underhanded is a good choice (From ultimate intrigue). Let's you fake an Int of 13 and of having combat expertise for feats the require it. Absent a flanking buddy, you could use the maneuver to blind someone and get your sneak attacks in.

Also, as a side note. Archaeologist bards get access to the Bomber Rogue Talent but normally don't get sneak attack to go along with it (required to deal damage). This combination of gestalt might make really good use of it, but you would need to prioritize intelligence. Hard to do, but might be interesting.

Our point buy standard for our games is gratuitously high, since we rarely have more than 3 players ever, so I'm not worried about stats so much. I hadn't seen the Underhanded Ranger style. That is really cool and very helpful. Thanks a bunch!!

The Bard has good reflex and will saves, but needs some help with fortitude saves and BAB. Even the Archeologist luck scales too slow to make up for 3/4 BAB.

Slayer is an excellent choice. Full BAB, good fort saves, ranger combat style feats, sneak attack, slayer talents... all a good match for the flavor of the Archaeologist Bard.

A double vote for Slayer def means I need to give it some careful consideration. I'll do some digging into it and see what I can do.

I can't help with the 3rd party content but using a Slayer as your Gestalt combination might give you a good niche to slip into. The ranger fighting style options with Slayer talents will let you specialize quickly in one fighting style, or let you move into a good position as a switch hitter.

I'll have to look into that a bit. I was considering the Investigator because of Inspiration, but the Slayer would do a much better job of shoring up his shortcomings.

I'm going to be playing in Hell's Rebels soon, and thought a Bard would be alot of fun. I'm going Archaeologist with it because we only have a party of 3, so I won't be doing much buffing since at least one other player will be going pure caster. I'm also going to be ditching the standard spell casting of the class in favor of Spheres of Power, because it matches my play style alot better.

I'm hoping for advice on the stuff I should look into to make the most of him. I'm going Half-Elf for the favoured class bonus of extra performance rounds, and lingering performance is a must. Past that, there doesn't seem to be much there. I tried looking through other posts, but alot of them are 5+ years old, and a substantial amount of material has been published since then.

On the other side of the Gestalt, I'm looking heavily at Investigator to really hammer the Swiss-Army-Knife feel, though I'm open to suggestions if you have any.

Thanks ahead of time,

Lynxnest

the Quickling template appears in the Advanced Bestiary. I can't tell if that's 3rd party.

i'd still like to see a level by level breakdown of your Flash build with feats/classes

As someone who owns that particular book, yes, it's third party. Specifically, Green Ronin Publishing. There's the original, which was published for 3.0/3.5 way back when, and they made an updated version for Pathfinder rules, including some new templates fitting the new creatures the system introduced.

People have mentioned that before for other characters. What is it?

So Drop Dead Studios created the wonderful Spheres system for use with Pathfinder. It does a fairly remarkable job at closing the Caster/Martial gap and gives users more options for how they want their character to develop. Spheres of Power is their magic system, Might is for Martial characters. Each Sphere represents a given area of expertise (magic has stuff like Destruction, Enhancement, Fate, Weather, etc.), and you invest in each Sphere to gain additional abilities within that realm of options. As an example; If you go into Destruction, you gain a blast ability that deals 1D6/2 caster levels. You can then add stuff, like elemental damage, changing the shape of the blast (a la 305 warlocks), and so on.

Might did alot of the same for Martials, giving options for dual-wielding, using traps, alchemy, and more to great effect. The biggest appeal is that it's so versatile. You can make a viable Whip user, or a genuine Sniper. Or in your case, The closest thing to Barry Allen that the system can allow (within reason)

Small bit of necromancy here, but have you looked at Spheres of Might? Athletics Sphere gives you running at 5x speed in up to medium armor and with a medium load. Take one of the legendary talents, and you can increase that to 10x speed when running. Combine that with the Flash Step legendary talent (kinda anime-esque in nature, but fitting given the name) and your character essentially teleports to his destination. The idea being that they moved so quickly that the eye couldn't track it. You can only cover distance as normal for actual movement, but the effect is pretty cool and carries some bonuses.

The main problem with double spheres of might is eventually you just run into too many options and don't need anymore talents. Magical talents can at least be spent on Summons. I feel like the Runeslinger/Conscript would be better if you want to go full martial.

That being said, I feel like a buffer/support class, most likely bard, with the Incanter just spamming out summons and the bard talents focusing on buffs/healing would be crazy.

I get that. I tend to shy away from summons because of how much they can slow things down. I'm also not fond of reminding one of the other players at my table that they are a thing, because he loves playing them in the style of Diablo 2 Necromancer and having as many as possible. Really causes a traffic jam when his turn alone would take 30 minutes. Plus I do crazy Prince of Persia stuff with my characters, so having the extra to dump into the Athletics Sphere works for me lol

I have recently become obsessed with Spheres of Might. I spend a great deal of my time as a melee oriented character, so anything that buffed that up was always appealing. My most recent experiment with this was a Coiled Blade Fighter//Conscript.

Coiled blade is an Archetype for fighter that trades out fairly little and gives you 20 sphere talents over 20 levels. Combine that with the 30(+) you can get from Conscript, and it makes for an impressive machine. Several of the spheres grant you "ranks" in a given skill equal to your HD, which really helps with the low skill ranks. Very versatile and utilitarian.

I'm especially fond of combining Investigator with just about anything else. My last one was combined with Slayer. Action economy wasn't great, but I had tons of options at my disposal both in and out of combat. Great fun.

I think the bonus to two different skills may be a bit much. Granting the bonus to heal is interesting, and I like the idea of the Fighter being able to patch themselves up some.

Is there a specific reason you chose Knowledge (local)? I understand that it is a useful skill, i just don't see how it is pertinent to a fighter's role, or how/why most fighters would have said skill.

Adding more skill points is generally par for the course with improving the class, so you're on the right track there. I don't think they have a real need for escape artist as a class skill, though.

I would give Endurance at level 2 instead of 4. Rangers get it early on, and fighter should too if they're going to get it, especially since most of them will be wearing medium armor to begin with anyway.

Fear Immunity is good, but I might consider replacing it with something that scales the way Bravery does. Not sure what, but Bravery adds some kind of additional fluff to the mechanics, which the fighter is lacking anyway.

The evasion for fortitude at 12th level is a cool idea, and I like it.

Overall, you're on the right track with alot of this stuff, and I like it alot. Coming from someone who favours the Fighter class and has been playing it for over a decade. In the end, if you want more versatility, you're better off jumping into a different class instead of trying to build up the Fighter. Slayer is solid, well-rounded, and has massive utility.

We just add Constitution score to total health at first level instead of constitution mod. It can buff health quite a bit, but that's kinda the idea. My wife starting playing with us because of that rule, since her first ever character was killed via critical by a rat. Poisoned her against the game for years.

Not sure if it's something you want to use, but I thought I'd add in what works with my table.

Out of curiosity, have you considered a Gestalt character? It would shore up weaknesses for the character, and allow more variety in situation approach. It's something my table does alot since we're a fairly small group (2-3 players, plus DM).

Masterwork Shurikens with Returning or Called enchantments would do nicely as well. Enchant them individually with Frost, Bane, Flaming, Ghost Touch, etc. for bonus points.

Dust of Disappearance would also be a shoe-in for vanishing acts.

Consider the feats Hellcat Stealth, Ledge Walker, Fast Stealth, and Hellcat Pounce as well.

I'm rather disappointed with myself for not thinking of the "batarangs" sooner. Thank you for reminding me

Shard gel or caltrop beads can create caltrops which is handy.

Deodorizing agent beats scent. Adhesive strips are basically duct tape. Impact foam, liquid traction, silence dust, a stagnant fog sack, static wool, tracking powder and a tunnel creeper are some other alchemical tools worth looking at.

That is quite an extensive list, and I shall be looking into all of those. Thank you very much!

Just wear his spell component pouch on his belt.

Not a spellcaster. Melee build. Hence looking for gadgets instead of just combing through spells. Sorry, should have specified that.

I know there are several threads/arguments about the best way to build Batman (I've been through most of these threads). I'm not looking for advice on that. I'm looking for ideas or inspiration or direct pieces that could be "found" on a Pathfinder version of the Dark Knight's utility belt.

What we have thus far:

He wears a coat whose pockets are Handy Haversacks and is enchanted with Glide.
His belt has slots for holding spell beads and other such small tools.
Has a hand-crossbow that confers the Handy Grapnel enchantment.
Mask has See in Darkness, will eventually upgrade to a Goz Mask.
Carries vials of Gravelly Tonic to change his voice when needed.

Will eventually have Gloves of Reconnaissance, and some item that will carry the Force Hook Charge spell.

I'm hoping that others have heard of and/or used/seen other items that could help with this endeavor. Thank you in advance for any help, And I'll do my best to respond to any posts promptly, though i have work all week and hours are wildly indeterminate.

THANKS AGAIN. Lynx

We have a gestalt campaign coming up where one of the players wanted to do the Batman thing. We decided on focusing on the "batman" aspect, forgoing the bruce wayne side of the character, since they really are two different characters anyway. He went Investigator//Ranger. Using the alchemy and a bunch of magic devices for his 'tech' stuff. We all see Batman as the guy who uses every tool at his disposal to get the job done.

That said, definitely not a wizard. Too much melee prowess. He's going with unarmed strikes and "dual-wielding" to emulate the punchyness. Lots of toys to enhance various things, and enchanted items and spell-effect items to emulate batman's gear. It seems to work really well and the player is happy with the outcome.

If your DM will allow it, there is a racial trait in the Advanced Race Guide (race creation section) called Master Tinker. It's a 1rp trait, and it allows you to be proficient in the use of any weapon personally crafted by you. Maybe they'll let you trade something else for it from the regular list of racial traits. I think this would be the biggest boon for a Frank West style character.

I think it sounds pretty solid. Jade is a fairly tough stone, in that it handles stresses quite well and is fairly durable. Some of the most prominent uses of Jade as a weapon material were in axes and hammers.

Of the two primary types of Jade (Jadeite and Nephrite), Jadeite is the tougher, with a average Mohs Hardness of about .5 more. Jadeite is the one that has a more sugary look to it, versus the waxy appearance of Nephrite.

I think in terms of cost, it will be highly dependent on how common the DM deems the material to be, with higher quality Jadeite affording it a premium above average. Maybe the higher quality stuff would love the fragile quality or something to justify it's price. Figure about 10gp per pound for the basic stuff, and then 25gp per pound plus masterwork cost for the good stuff.

Hope this helps some.

In my homebrew setting, Orcs, Hobgoblins, and Goblins are standard races. They work together in an alliance of sorts, each filling different roles. My goblins are more like those in Styx; Shards of Darkness. Orcs pull heavily from Warcraft in build (9 feet tall and built like an Abrams tank).

My players responded really well to what is normally an "enemy" now being a core ally (lots of background/world fluff involving the alliance between them and the other races).

We've been playing around with ALOT of mechanical stuff at my table (building our own system using PF and D&D as a launch platform). Our solution to this was to give players two options;

1) You make all of your attacks at your highest bonus, but you can't move that turn (essentially taking the time to accurately aim each attack instead of just swinging).

2) You still get all our attacks, but at your regular bonuses, AND you can move up to half your base land speed. Attacks can take place at any time around this movement (before, during, after). You can still incur AoO this way as per normal, and they be can avoided with acrobatics checks, per normal.

This has worked out really well for us and caused some more thought and planning going into combat. There are ways for this to be abused, but that can be said of any system. The fault for breaking it intentionally lies with the players who do it.

So I'm going to be playing a rogue in an upcoming urban intrigue campaign and I'm trying to come up with some weapons to defend myself with. My character is going to be the face of the party, and he is built to be a con-man, so fighting isn't going to be his forte. The DM is known for enjoying surprise combat instances that are exceptionally difficult to escape or avoid, however, so I need to compensate for that.

I'm trying to build a collection of options that I can use for the character, so his different personas all have their own tools (making it harder to connect them to one another).

Thus far; I have a necklace made of braided leather that is extra long that I can use as a garrote if needed, and a few rings that are made of steel instead of silver that are being treated as "brass knuckles". His "nobleman" persona will also carry a sword-cane, as befits him.

I was wondering if anybody else had fun ideas for these kinds of covert weapons that I might be able to make use of. Thank you in advance for any and all input.

I could see this being a prestige class and still fitting the lore. You just take other classes for your "training period" until you can take the trial. Doesn't need full progression to fit with lore. I agree that it is very powerful, but there is no other way to match the inspiration it's drawn from.

We have several that we use at our table, but the most significant one has been a ruling on beginning health. At 1st level, you add your constitution score to your hit die instead of your modifier. This has resulted in people trying out spellcasters who were previously only martial types, because they weren't afraid of "dying by critical via rat" at 1st level (actually happened, and poisoned that player against casters for years).

When going through and adding items to my cart, they are listed as being on sale, but when I go into my cart, the listed sale price isn't loading up.

Sorcerer//overwhelming soul kineticist: SAD full arcane caster that can blast all day while sorcerer can focus on utility and support spells for her known. Larger HD, all good saves, etc.

Ooh. That's a very fun one

So other than ALOT of Slayer vs Fighter arguments, any other fun combos?

I'm a personal lover of Magus/Fighter. D10 HD, full BAB, Good will save and access to awesome spells, plus as many feats as you want.

I'm quite fond of that combo as well. One of my players (15+ years of D&D experience) is working a conversion for the Magus to a more stealth focused build and that is turning out to be fun too. It'll be interesting to see what that final result is like, and how it will pair with other classes if he chose to use it in a Gestalt game.

I have a few more combos for Path of War:

Warlord//Bard - Charismatic melee support machine, especially with Golden Lion. Battle Prowess does not stack with Inspire Courage, so you could go with Bannerman or Vanguard Commander archetypes for Warlord.

Harbinger//Wizard - Be even scarier with Monstrous Physique, etc. Int-based full caster with (eventually) INT to damage and 1/2 INT to hit. What the hell, you could even pick up INT to CMB/CMD as well through the Wizard discovery.

Gunslinger//Warder (Hawkguard) - Ranged Warder with Dex-to-Damage and hitting Touch AC.

So the lesson I am learning here is that I need to start paying much closer attention to the player supplements that get released

Fighter/URogue gives tons of skills, good saves, solid combat ability and a bit of debuffing potential. Eldirtch Guardian added for extra flanking fun.

Kineticist/Brawler, for use with kinetic fist.

UMonk/Cave Druid. Shapeshift into a carniverous crystal ooze and flurry with a 7d8 18-20 weapon.

Goliath Druid/Titan Fighter for the biggest reach (weapon) possible.

Oracle (Battle)/Sorcerer (psychic). Two sets of full casting loaded with fun buffs, on top of proficiency with heavy armor and martial weapons. Add Noble Scion (War) for extra fun with initiative.

I've always loved the Fighter//Rogue combo. Gives the character a quintessential "Action Hero" vibe.

That Druid//Fighter looks to be the poster child for "Go Big or Go Home", which is pretty awesome too.

Lots of fun and unique ideas. Thanks for sharing!

Oracle/Sorcerer

Hard to go wrong with a SAD Arcane/Divine caster

Vivisectionist Sneak Attack does stack with other sources, though I don't know how it would work coming from the other side of Gestalt. The Alchemist's class features trump anything you could get from Assassin, and you don't even need to be evil to do it.

Investigator is another very good choice. Study the target extra hard for even more bonuses to hit and damage. Slayer's study bonus is untyped and Investigator's is an insight bonus.

It stacks in the essence of multi-classing. So if you took levels of Rogue, and levels of Vivisetionist, they would stack to create your total. IE; A Rogue(2)/Alchemist(1) would have 2d6 of sneak attack, just like a 3rd level rogue. A Gestalt Rogue//Alchemist would still only have 2d6 of sneak attack.

Slayer is basically the Assassin Prestige Class as a Base Class. Don't know why you need both.

Maybe instead of Alchemist, use Investigator?

That could work quite well. Covers alot of the rogue abilities that the Slayer misses out on.