MaxXimenez's page

Grenadier could add another INTx2 and a bit of damage (about 2d6) by using alchemical items combined with Hybridization Funnel.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with Gunslinger levels aside from maybe the first one. Your DEX won't be high enough and you won't be making enough attacks for it to out weigh the extra bomb damage and bombs/day you'd lose from 4 alchemist levels.

Would it be worth it to just burn 2 feats on EWP and Gunsmithing and buy myself a pair of reliable pistols, and keep the full alchemist level profession?

Basically, would you say that two feats to use guns are worth losing:
1 point of bomb damage (from the racial favored class option)
1 caster level
1 discovery

Gunslinger 5 / Mindchemist Alchemist 6

Use one pistol.
Kirin Style/Kirin Strike
Explosive Missile Discovery
Tiefling for maximum Dex/Int goodness
Student of Philosophy trait to use Int for Dip and Bluff, socially
Targeted Bomb Admixture
Conductive Pistol

Explosive Missile states that you load and fire the weapon as a standard action, therefore there is no reload action.

Drink a TBA extract. Fire your gun to hit touch deal 1d8+Bomb dice+Dex+Int x 6 as you channel an extra bomb through the bullet with the Conductive property.

Have amazing social skills from the Int trait and have every knowledge over +20 from the Mindchemist special ability.

Can you give me a level breakdown? Also, if I'm focused purely on damage, would Grenadier be better than Mindchemist?

I've been obsessed with gun-toting magic users. First, I saw the Spellslinger and I was all "yay!", then I realized it wasn't PFS legal. Then I saw the Myrmidarch Magus and also went "yay!" and I'm currently playing that guy, and while reloading hands might be awesome with him, I'm worried that the spell list for a magus just isn't for ranged combat.

So I've been thinking about a gun-toting alchemist, and the image in my head of a guy on the cutting edge of science using such a weapon does appeal to me. The biggest thing I'm worried about is reload times and feats, though: I know alchemists can get a third arm for reloads but that doesn't actually reduce reload speed, and I'd need to take EWP and Gunsmithing, and probably also Rapid Reload before the character becomes viable. On the plus side, I could probably use Explosive Missile to speed up some of my reloads.

Do you guys have any experience with a character with this concept? Any suggestions how to build him?

By your boons combined, I am Captain Suli!

But no, I really like this idea. Maybe I'll be able to make my Suli Bloodrager by... 2017.

If I recall correctly, The Confirmation is replay able unlimited times as a 1st level character and once as a 2nd level character. If I am wrong please someone let me know :)

Ah, I thought you were implying I've already done it once.

I've done some thinking, though, and it's probably best to let that guy take his gnome in, then. I've got other level 1 characters but I'd rather just focus on this one. Thank you for being understanding and I hope I did not take up your time!

Zalmoxis Dantalion wrote:

I might be interested. Level 2 Magus, is that permissible?

The confirmation is replayable once as a 2nd level character with only one PFS character so this would be your one replay. If that is what you wanna do, then join in on the game.

If not then I will take the second person that posted with their PFS character :)

I'm a bit confused- I've never done this session before. The GMs in my local PFS area have been on a year 0 mod kick.

I had my biweekly PFS game today. One paladin showed up and insisted on stabilizing all enemies not killed outright, even during combat.

I've never played a PFS game without a paladin, and twice I've been in a group with two paladins. By contrast, I've never seen someone playing a wizard.

Isn't there a "spellscarred mystery" for Oracles?

Well, according to the Pathfinder wiki:

"Until the death of Aroden in 4606 AR, the goddess Milani was simply one of dozens of saints within the Last Azlanti's faith. She was the beacon of hope to all those who fought against repressive regimes, giving courage to those who had little but their desire to live a free life. The death of her patron, combined with the tremendous upheaval and suffering that followed his death, gave her a focus and attracted many new followers."

So, that would imply (to me, anyway) that the influx of followers infused her with enough divine power to allow her ascent.

I was under the impression you needed more to become an actual god than just followers. Otherwise Razmir would be a real god.

Milani is often associated with Iomedae, who, like Cailean and Norgorber, did ascend to godhood via the starstone like Aroden. But AFAIK, nothing has ever explained how Milani became a god, and we do know it's possible to become a god without it such as in the case of Irori.

returning doesn't work that well really.. it comes back at the beginning of your next turn. So, after you throw it (once) someon could snag it, or if you are moved you'd lose it etc.

I imagine a blinkback belt would work with a chakram though.

What about the "called" weapon property? It returns to your hand as a swift action.

Yeah, ranged weapons come in 4 flavors: Longbow, guns, other exotics, and ass.

If I have the poopsmithing feat can I buy excretion for 10% of the listed price for the exotic ass, even in PFS games?

Any reason the alchemist couldn't, say, dip a level of Gunslinger and make his bullets carry the bombs?

No reason why he couldn't, I was just seeing if there were any cool tricks I could use without either burning a feat on exotic weapon proficiency or a level in another class. I may or may not be building this guy for PFS play and so I like to assume I'll be limited to 12 levels.

EDIT: What do you guys think about a chakram build? If I take feats that focus on throwing- due to my bombs- that'd work for the chakram, too. If I get a returning chakram, can I do a full-round attack with it? I've never used thrown weapons before.

I've been mentally-munchin' on a grenadier alchemist build over the last few days, trying to get a good mental picture of how I'd be playing him. Thing is, I'm not really a whole fan of the bow for this character- you'd think that a grenadier would put his free martial weapon prof in a longbow, but that seems to be something of a primitive weapon for such a science oriented character (and I already have a longbow-using character in my repertoire), got any suggestions for a ranged alchemist build who doesn't use longbows? I've been considering combining the heavy crossbow with the explosive missile discovery, which allows me to load and fire as a standard action, bypassing the heavy crossbow's reload time... but the whole reason to use a weapon is for when I'm out of bombs. Are there any cool, preferably martial, ranged weapons that I'm overlooking that'd synergize well with an alchemist?

So not only part-humans are OK, but non-humans as well? E.g. Dwarves, Elves, Hobgoblins, Tengu, etc?

If those are being brought into the experiment, then is there an intention to bring ALL demihumans in?
Or only certain races? It would seem strange to be random about such a thing.

I actually remember now that some Paizo dev said that the age statistics for Plane-Touched are Errata (adulthood at 60, which would put them longer lived than Dwarves), and I presume they are on par with Half-Elf/Half-Orcs (depending on the Planetouched type). Is that true? Very long lifespans was the thing that seemed most disruptive to a human-centric social/breeding experiment.

I remember reading that Mengkare did indeed invite small amounts of non-human races, but I imagine that they have to be the kind of races that can breed with a human which would preclude, hopefully, any oviparous creatures like Nagaji or Tengu, and since they would be invited there you couldn't really put Steaming Sea as your region of origin.

We've said on various occasions that Mengkare is cool with adding periodic dashes of non-human or part-human races to his experiment in order to bring out the best of humanity. Plus, given how many different races can breed with humans, combined with the long length of human history, I'd venture that *most* folks probably have a non-human somewhere in their family tree, it's just a question of how much and how far back. So "human" is kind of in the eye of the beholder.

In short: go for it!

Good enough for me!

Even if there is no problem with Sorceror bloodlines of outsider/other species,

1) AFAIK, there is no indication that those are actually 'viable' breeding sources of planetouched,
2) even if they were, we can assume that Mengkare's eugenics planning is able to ensure that no planetouched are born,
if only for their disruption of human society, i.e. Aasimar et al are very long lived, creating a new inter-generational dynamic.
This is a thousands of year old super-genius eugenecist you're talking about, being fully aware of each subject's lineage is par for course.

I don't have anything against planetouched characters, I play such characters,
but if you "like them as a general rule" then it sounds more like you're re-hashing a generic player tendency,
losing a chance to role-play something flowing from the Herman concept as such, which is described as eugenically pure human population, full stop.

Well that's why I was asking- I've got two character concepts depending on how Hermean society might view the character. I never make a character just based on skills, trust me: I've been jamming on this character for a month before even looking into the "crunch".

The thing is, I'm not sure if Mengkare's planning could take into account planetouched. That's why I asked here, hence me asking if there's some way of screening for it. And I wasn't sure how far back Mengkare's records go: sure, he may be a great eugenicist, but without available data, I don't know how far back he can go. Hell, maybe a chaotic outsider like an Azata would decide to f~&$ with Mengkare's planning and have a Hermean woman give birth to a musetouched?

I was thinking of a character who, if he was born some kind of planetouched, would've been kicked out of Hermea during his adolescence and holds a grudge against the nation. Maybe before his exile he managed to steal some plans, so agents of Mengkare might be sent into the wider world to track him down.

The other idea might be someone who's capable of hiding his planetouched ancestry (probably an Aasimar or Sylph), always worried on "passing" as human.

You seem to have as good a handle on Hermea as anyone, and there's not a lot of info out there on it, which means all your options are reasonable, and you should go with whichever one suits the character you want to play.

Now, personally, I'd say that while Mengkare would be fine with little touches of Outsider blood to improve his people (and thus wouldn't necessarily reject human applicants/candidates because of it), a full blown Aasimar or Tiefling has drifted too far from the root stock for his purposes and would get kicked out like anyone deemed unsuitable. An exception might be made for an Aasimar with the Scion of Humanity alternate racial trait, since that makes them a lot closer to human.

Ah, I was hoping there was more on it besides what I read in the Inner Sea Guide.

Do we know how Mengkare views bloodlines? The initial idea for the character was using the ACG's new Bloodrager class as a kind of genetically engineered super-soldier due to the nation's focus on eugenics, but I thought it'd be interestingly ironic if he was a clandestine non-human.

I've been jamming on a few character concepts for some backup characters I've been thinking about for PFS. I've really been interested in playing a character from Hermea recently, I just like the whole "Brave New World" thing they've got going on, but I also have a tendency to like "planetouched" (does Paizo actually use this term or do they have another catch-all?) races like Tieflings, Ifrits, etc. And I thought... such a character could be a really interesting concept, but I wanna make sure it jives with the lore.

Unlike, say, half-orcs or half-elves, these "planetouched" races don't literally need an outsider as one of their parents, and oftentimes it manifests as something from a while back in their family tree, but perhaps a little more recent than Sorceror bloodlines. Still, a planetouched child can be born to human parents, even theoretically "perfect" humans on Hermea, right?

How would Hermea's government or Mengkare react to the birth of such a being? I could see some irony in like, a human being invited to Hermea due to her apparent natural charisma only to find out that she had an angel somewhere in her ancestry and have her child pop out as an Aasimar. Would Hermea or Mengkare necessarily know about her ancestry, realistically, or be just as surprised as she is? Is there any way of screening for that?

And more importantly: how would they react to the birth of a "planetouched"? I know non-humans aren't exactly outlawed on Hermea, but the Grand Endeavor is about perfecting humanity. Arguably, these planetouched are "like humans but better" (especially for the more 'pretty' ones like Aasimar who have no negative skill mods), so would they be seen as a success of the Endeavor, or a threat to it? I like the idea of a character who's been kicked off Hermea due to manifesting outsider traits in his adolescence, but I could also see such traits being lauded back home.

What do you guys think?

Hm, here's a question. When I get my pepperbox gun, can I cast reloading hands on it to refill the entire weapon, or just a single barrel at a time? If the spell persists more than one round, does it attempt to reload the gun to capacity for each turn that it's in effect?

Because if so I pretty much have found a way around the cost of bullets for a non-gunslinger.

just buy some wrist mounted release systems so you can get a wand as a swift action like shield or true strike :-)

Are those PFS-legal?

the reason Dervish Dance is so important is that it alows for your DEX bonus to be added as damage

and if you use weapon finess it can only use dex for ATK

this is where you can boost dex to 22-26 and recive the 1.5 times DEX bonus as bonus damage when dual wielding it!

Prerequisites: Dexterity 13, Weapon Finesse, Perform (dance) 2 ranks, proficient with scimitar.

Benefit: When wielding a scimitar with one hand, you can use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on melee attack and damage rolls. You treat the scimitar as a one-handed piercing weapon for all feats and class abilities that require such a weapon (such as a duelist’s precise strike ability). The scimitar must be for a creature of your size. You cannot use this feat if you are carrying a weapon or shield in your off hand.

Thank you for pointing that out, I didn't realize it also gave me damage, I thought it just basically made a scimitar "finessable". Okay, I'm definitely gonna splurge for DD at level 3. For my first two levels I was planning to use a rapier with finesse.

And as a magus, I wasn't planning on using a shield or any off hand weapon, since I needed to keep that hand open for a spell, anyway.

The reason why I pumped int so high is because my archetype robs me of one spell per day compared to normal, so I figured I'd have int high in order to squeeze as many spells out of the guy as possible... but if you think it's not worth it, I'll definitely finagle him a bit.

So a while back I asked for some charop help trying to make a PFS compatible version of a spellslinger using a myrmidarch magus with a 1 level dip int gunslinger. The more I thought about it, however, the more I wondered if I couldn't just have a myrmidarch magus who uses a gun, and I think that might be better. As such, I've got a mostly concrete character planned out, but I could use a little help and advice optimizing him.

The race is tiefling, with 13 str, 18 dex, 14 con, 18 int, 7 wis and 5 cha, and the "prehensile tail" racial trait, and one of my traits adds +1 to will saves to accommodate for that poor wisdom. But this stat spread brings me to my first question: should I go for the dervish dance and scimitar usage, or just have my primary blade be a rapier? Are the benefits from 13 str worth using a feat to get a scimitar, whose only advantage over the rapier is being able to add strength and a half from two-handing it and the possibility of power attack down the road and it doing slashing damage? If not, should I dump my strength further, put the points somewhere else, rely on the rapier and maybe pick up pirahna strike for use with the rapier?

Next, the gun. I do not intend on using the gun that often, mostly to use its bullets with ranged spellstrike so my spells can attack touch AC instead of regular AC. I'd probably get a pepperbox gun- but here's another question I have, as I've heard conflicting answers. Can I use my tiefling's prehensile tail to retrieve the pistol as a swift action? Prehensile tail works with "small items", is a pistol "small"? I've also heard conflicting reports of whether or not I can turn a pepperbox using my tail- if I can, I may invest in TWF but if not, probably not. Since bullets and guns are prohibitively expensive as I'm not a gunslinger, obviously I'll wait a few levels before picking the gun up: depending on if I'm going to get Dervish Dance for the scimitar, I'd probably grab it at either 3 or 5. Should I pick up any other feats for the gun, like point blank shot or rapid reload? I don't intend on ever having to fire off more than 6 bullets per fight so I think I could just safely reload it out of combat.

I appreciate your insight on the matter, everyone!

Spellslinger is not PFS legal IIRC.

However, you can play a gunslinger 1/myrmidarch blackblde magus with a pistol-swordcane blackblade. That lets you have an unbreakable weapon that you can fire spells through at lvl 5.

EDIT: In fact, you can get proficiency with a Kensai Blackblade so you don't even need the gunslinger levels, but I like myrmidarch because then you can use your spells through it in both melee and ranged. Could a Tengu get it for free?

I've been considering that, but how does a character like that play? Is he significantly mechanically gimped?

6) Taking more levels of gunslinger makes the guns much more effective: musketmaster 3 gets you 'fast musket' and level 5 of any version gets you much more damage (add dex to damage).

The concept I had was that I'd really only be relying on the bullets at level one, and once I multiclass magus I'd be focusing on my spells and only using the gun as a way to get spells to attack touch DC.

7)Magical knack is good. Killer doesn't look useful to me.

Magical Knack and Magical Lineage are mutually exclusive, since they're both magical traits.

8) 5 charisma is lower than I'd be happy playing with; how revolting is your character? Will strangers simply attack on you on sight for being too horrible? Yes, I'm exaggerating but not by much. You won't need a stupidly high dex to be effective with a gun.

I was planning on taking a buncha tiefling racial traits- tail, skin, claws, feet, so he's pretty demonic looking. The idea behind the character was that he grew up in Quantium which is a very cosmopolitan city without much prejudice, and as a level one character he doesn't quite understand why everyone's revolted by his appearance since he never had trouble at home.

I think i would suggest a gunslinger(musketmaster)/wizard(forsigth diviner pehaps)instead 5/7hen you will have named bullet at level 12 and have that as a kind of capstone.

Problem with the other one is that you will be trick behind in magic with the magus(myrmidarch) only getting level 3 spells at level 7 and only the one you get from your int bonus. Even if ranged Spellstrike was a fantastic power, and dont think it is, you wouldent have the Spells to back it up. You need level 5 as a gunslinger to make the guns as good at they can be.
Musket Master will allow you to fire twice with rapid shot and dex to damage at level 5.
If you are an elf you will have bonus to Spell penetration, dex and int. Take the gunslinger levels first.
Str 10
Con 10
Dex 18
Int 18
Wis 10
Cha 8
After race modifiers.
Feats in order of apperance. Point blank shot, rapid shot, precise shot, deadly aim, and wizard from here. Pehaps Dodge mobility and deft shootist is still the best route from here i dont know.

If I was only relying on the guns as a low level weapon, and at later levels just using it as a delivery system for my spells, does the myrmidarch magus make more, or less sense? I don't care that much about adding dex to my guns' damage, but your suggested gunslinger/wizard build, is the gun anything more than just a backup weapon until level 12? Bear in mind PFS play caps at 12 so I wouldn't enjoy that bullet ability much.

Another thing I was considering is just playing magus for all 12 levels and get exotic weapon proficiency in a type of gun- if I only intend to use the gun as a delivery system for spells, the cost of firing it without the cost reduction of gunsmithing is a bit easier to swallow. Maybe make the magus both bladebound and a myrmidarch, and then have a sword cane pistol or dagger pistol bound to me, since a blade bound weapon cannot be destroyed and I can basically ignore misfiring. Ooh, and now that I think about it- does ranged spellstrike require ammunition in the ranged weapon at all, or do I "just" fire a spell out of the weapon? Perhaps that way I could use the gun to cast spells that attack touch AC without spending 11 gold per shot on a bullet and black powder.

I'm moderately familiar with D20 games, though moderately new to PF, but I was invited by a friend-of-a-friend to try out PFS this weekend. I popped into my university's game club to read some pathfinder books and saw the Spellslinger in Ultimate Combat and fell in love with the concept: I've always loved playing spellcasters and individuals who use guns in RPGs... only to find out it was illegal for PFS play. Poo. So I searched around and saw some suggestions that I do a multiclass Gunslinger/Magus, specifically a Myrmidarch, and I'd make his race a tiefling. First off, I need to ask if the concept is mechanically sound- following that, I have a few general questions

1) I was thinking of playing first level as a gunslinger and all others as a magus: do you guys agree?

2) What stats would you recommend? Right now I have 10str, 18dex, 12con, 18int, 12wis and 5cha, is that a good stat spread?

3) For traits, I was thinking of killer and magical lineage-shocking grasp, though I have been considering swapping magical lineage for magical knack (since I'm multiclassing)

4) I was considering grabbing the tiefling racial trait prehensile tail, which allows me to retrieve a small object as a swift action without using my hands. Is there any way I could use this trait to reduce my reload times with firearms? Barring that, do pistols count as small objects for the purposes of this feat? I just had a great idea of wearing a bandolier of pre-loaded pistols and swapping them out using my tail.

5) What gunslinger archetype should I pick- pistolero or musketeer? With only 1 level of gunslinger, I would only be able to fire a musket once every two rounds (musketeer reduces reloading the musket to a standard action from a full round action, so I still wouldn't be able to attack with it, correct?), so is the pistol much better? Could I use a pistol that doubles as a melee weapon (like sword cane pistol or dagger pistol) with spellstrike?

Thanks for your help: And for those who are worried I'm a munchkin, I can assure you I already have a developed backstory for this character concept.