Marmandy Jones's page

Is a level dip into Verminous Hunter and have a dead companion for permanent fast healing 1 and light fortification worth it?

No

No one single element is going to keep you alive, it's the package of high hp, DR, SR, and killing things faster than they kill you that is going to do it. And all of those are much more efficient to invest in that AC, at least in my opinion. Stalwart is a neat feat chain but it isn't necessarily required, it just happens to have a bit synergy with invulnerable rager and the things that it likes to do. What kind of build are you running, if I may ask?

Ask your DM if you can ignore some of the prereqs for dragon totem, it's a really cool chain of powers and I personally don't think the prereqs make sense balance or flavor-wise for what you're getting out of them. I think there is one trait that allows you to ignore one point worth of penalties for using combat expertise. I forget what it's called though.

AC is not a very good defense to try to invest in too much in the first place, as it simply gets outpaced at higher levels by attack bonuses. This is especially true as a barbarian who is going to take a hit to AC for raging, and many of their best rage powers further penalize AC. If you wanted to maximize your defense as a barbarian, you should look into the invulnerable rager archetype and the superstitious rage power chain. Barbarians are in a unique position to take advantage of two very powerful defenses, spell resistance and damage resistance.

The best is probably Oracle, specifically a Juju oracle but Bones can work pretty well too. Cleric's not a bad choice either, a bit boring but it gets the job done without much fuss. If you don't mind being evil and more martial focused, Anti-paladins make decent necromancers as well. The primary things you are looking for are the Animate Dead and Desecrate spells, which makes divine spellcasters slightly more suited to being dedicated necromancers. Keep in mind that raising dead is not a cheap business, and you will often be strapped not only for gold, but corpses as well.

If u want to brain storm some interesting ideas for a new character i dont ind helping out when it comes down to feats and stats and what not.

Well if a bard is a worthy candidate how about a synthesist summoner? It would fix the weak ability scores a kobold starts with and potentially make better use of arcane ambush given the ability to get a hilarious number of natural attacks.

Marmandy Jones wrote:

Ah well, that kills a fun idea...Maybe a bard? At least for them the charisma prereq of eldritch heritage wouldn't fundamentally cripple the class, though when I play bards I tend to be strapped for feats. The same problem goes for an arcane trickster, though I suppose I could just use the sorcerer levels to qualify for arcane trickster. Would I be able to apply sneak attack damage with my trap rune? Even if I can't I think the kobold bloodline supports arcane trickster quite well.

SA would not go off the rune because 1) it wont meat the requirement to perform a SA, 2) Arcane Trickster's cap ability only applies to spells. Sadly a lot of interesting ideas are killed by Da Rulez and effectiveness.

Oh well, the archaeologist bard idea looks really sound, especially with rogue tricks thrown in, though I'm a bit wary of a bard with no performance. Feels a bit selfish to roll a bard that way, but I guess he's still a team player as a skill slave. If someone rolls up a big stupid fighter then the bard would be ok, truly a suberb flank buddy with arcane ambush. I assume a robe of arcane heritage would boost the powers from eldritch heritage?

Ah well, that kills a fun idea...Maybe a bard? At least for them the charisma prereq of eldritch heritage wouldn't fundamentally cripple the class, though when I play bards I tend to be strapped for feats. The same problem goes for an arcane trickster, though I suppose I could just use the sorcerer levels to qualify for arcane trickster. Would I be able to apply sneak attack damage with my trap rune? Even if I can't I think the kobold bloodline supports arcane trickster quite well.

Marmandy Jones wrote:

Doh, I forgot about the eldritch heritage feats. Would I still have to be a kobold to access the bloodline via eldritch heritage (or using the racial heritage feat like you pointed out). I'm MOSTLY interested in the abilities that the bloodline offers, and among those namely trap rune and arcane ambush.

The fat reads as follows:

Select one sorcerer bloodline. You must have Skill focus in the class skill that bloodline grants to a sorcerer at 1st level (for example, Heal for the celestial bloodline). This bloodline cannot be a bloodline you already have. You gain the first-level bloodline power for the selected bloodline. For purposes of using that power, treat your sorcerer level as equal to your character level – 2, even if you have levels in sorcerer. You do not gain any of the other bloodline abilities.

No were does it say u have to meet any prereqs, such as race, of the bloodline to get the bloodline except the skill focus of said bloodline. So i would say u could do it since the feat plainly states all that u need to select a bloodline.

At the risk of my character concept becoming even more convoluted, I think I should stick with the kobold as my race, despite the horrendous ability modifiers. Though now I'm definitely entertaining the idea of utilizing the eldritch heritage feats with something like a rogue. How would arcane ambush interact with something that doesn't have spells? Where do alchemist extracts sit in that regard? are they spells or something else entirely? I think chucking bombs in addition to laying explosive traps about wouldn't harm my concept at all.

Doh, I forgot about the eldritch heritage feats. Would I still have to be a kobold to access the bloodline via eldritch heritage (or using the racial heritage feat like you pointed out). I'm MOSTLY interested in the abilities that the bloodline offers, and among those namely trap rune and arcane ambush.

So what exactly do u like from the bloodline because imo its very weak.

All of the powers are really neat, and I especially like the trap rune ability. The bonus feats are solid, the spell list is solid, the arcana can be ok if you act first (which isn't hard to accomplish with improved initiative and a decent dexterity) and to be perfectly honest, most of the other bloodlines seem really boring.

Hello everyone! This is my first ever post here on the paizo forums, though I've been browsing for quite some time. Basically my dilemma is that I really like the kobold sorcerer bloodline, but I can't decide on a way to accomplish what I want with it. I like the idea of a sneaky, scaly, sorcerous scoundrel who lays traps and hits people while they're down, but I feel like in order to play this bloodline to its fullest I need lots and lots of skill points.

I would like to use this character in place of a rogue as a skill monkey because I really dislike rogues and I really like the trap rune ability, so how can I amass piles of skill points as a sorcerer? The best solution I have can think of is to use the crossblooded archetype to get the Sage bloodline and make INT my main casting stat over CHA. Would the fact that the sage bloodline is a wildblooded variant interfere with this idea at all or am I clear? As an aside, I'm also quite interested in the draconic aspect feats that are available to kobolds, but are they worth it from a mechanical standpoint?