M. Laakso's page

My latest character idea for PFS is a kitsune (unchained) rogue. I've never actually played a rogue, but judging by what I've read online, a major weakness of the class is its lack of access to magic. So I thought, "Hey, kitsune get a bonus to charisma, so why not add in some magic?" My first thought was to take some levels in sorcerer for some fun enchantments or buffs, but would it even be worth it to set back my rogue class features and BAB? I've heard that multiclassing isn't as good in Pathfinder as it was in 3.5, but I've been wanting to try it.

Well, I've got another PFS build idea in my head. This time it's for a kitsune flying blade swashbuckler. The only problem is that I'm shoehorned into using either a dagger or a starknife. Both have d4 as their damage die, so it comes down to whether I want a wider crit range and lower price (dagger) or a larger crit multiplier and longer range (starknife). Thoughts?

So I've got a half-elf hexcrafter magus in PFS who hit 5th level recently, so I can use scrolls of 3rd-level wizard spells that are also on the magus list without a caster level check. I've heard a lot about the crazy things the Paragon Surge spell can do, but I can't seem to find anything especially useful for my build aside from grabbing Extra Hex -> Tongues to speak any language I need. Thoughts?

I'm currently building a tiefling fighter/duelist. However, according to page 153 of the CRB, armor costs more for non-humanoid creatures. Since tieflings are outsiders rather than humanoids, does that mean I have to double the base price for any armor I buy for a tiefling character?

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Greetings. For the past few months I've been working on a guide for playing a paladin as an archer. It's not the most popular build out there, but it is one that's viable and fun to play. I've always liked the class guides that get posted here, so I thought I'd write my own. Feedback is appreciated.

I enjoy throwing builds together in Hero Lab just to see what they look like. Lately I've been trying to prove to myself that a Weapon Finesse-based monk can be viable. My reasoning is that it makes you less MAD since Strength can be left at 10 and improves your defenses. However, I'm concerned that I may have focused too much on defense at the expense of offense. Below is what the build looks like at sixth level.

Explanations:

• Tengu was chosen because you get bonuses in your two most important stats (namely Dexterity and Wisdom). Also, I already have a bunch of humans in PFS and wanted to try the other races.
  
• The kama serves as the primary weapon for the first few levels, since it helps get through DR and provides a bonus on attack rolls. Once you can afford an Agile AoMF, unarmed strikes will start to take precedence. After picking up Improved Trip at 6th level, however, the kama can be used for trip maneuvers (adding DEX to CMB).
  
• Disable Device was picked up as a class skill to have something to do out of combat.
  
• Who doesn't love knowing lots of languages? Tengu learn two languages with every rank in Linguistics, so I put some ranks in it. Whether it will still be useful with Charisma as a dump stat is anyone's guess.
  
• I don't have any in the statblock here, but 50 gold gets you a potion of magic fang (+1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls with unarmed strikes for one minute) if a temporary bonus is desired.

I'm pretty close to hitting seventh level on my inquisitor, so a friend and I were discussing what gear I should buy. I was thinking about bringing up my pathetic AC (19 before buffs or shield), but he's suggesting I save up for a Bane Baldric, since it would (supposedly) give me Greater Bane early. I know James Jacobs explicitly said it doesn't work that way, but a lot of people on the forums seem to disagree. I'd like to know for sure how that item works before I spend 10,000 gold on it.

I'm not sure how to handle something a player wanted to do in my PFS game yesterday. Without spoiling too much, a fight broke out in a cramped room, so one player grabbed an NPC's hand and ran out the door with her. I wasn't sure if he could do all of that in one turn, but I let it slide because it didn't seem like a big deal. How would that have worked? I'm guessing it would be a standard action to grab her hand and a move action to leave with her.

Two nights ago I played My Enemy's Enemy. Around an hour after we started (but before the first combat), a sixth player who had apparently reserved a spot at the table showed up and joined us as a second-level monk. As you may know, the tier for this scenario is 3-7. Even though it had no impact on me personally, I objected to letting him play because his character's level was too low. This led to a heated argument between myself and another player at the table about whether it was actually against the rules (and if so, whether the GM can override it). Eventually the player in question agreed to run a fourth-level pregen and the game resumed.

While there didn't seem to be any hard feelings after the fact, the aforementioned other player told me that he felt I was focusing too much on the letter of the law while ignoring the spirit. If this were a home game I wouldn't be as opposed to bending the rules (since the ultimate goal is to make sure everyone has fun), but in an organized setting like PFS I can't help but feel that the rules are there for a reason and should be followed to the letter. Am I in the right here, or do I need to calm down?

Last night I ran Assault on the Kingdom of the Impossible. It went fairly well, but the last encounter gave me some trouble. For those who aren't familiar with the scenario, the players have the option of convincing the boss (a druid) to turn himself in to the Society rather than fighting. Though they succeeded in winning him over, the fighter in the group (whose alignment was NG as I recall) insisted on killing the boss's animal companion anyway. I thought this was pointless and potentially evil since the boss had already surrendered, so I talked him out of it.

Another problem arose when the lone Qadira faction member had to work out a deal with the boss. The notes for this faction mission say that the player must give a good roleplaying reason for the boss to comply, but the player simply threatened to kill him. I again objected for similar reasons. He relented and went for a more diplomatic approach.

I'm still a fairly new GM, so I want to ask if I handled the situation appropriately. Was I railroading too much by not letting the players do as they please? Should I have just started the fight and made the party face the consequences? If I had let the fighter kill the animal companion, would that warrant an alignment infraction? The players all seemed happy when I ended the scenario and handed out chronicle sheets, but I don't feel too good about my actions as a GM.