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Here, have some memes
1 person marked this as a favorite.

So, starting a new campaign, I'm running a couple of friends, and one was having difficulty choosing a character for whatever reasons. So after trying to be helpful, the dark humor side of my brain starts working, and... well, see for yourself.

Character is made, things move forward, so no harm in sharing the memes!
Any non-bard way to get insipre courage and Good Hope?

Question is the topic.

For inspire courage, I know about the evangelist cleric archetype, and the sensei monk archetype. But, are there any other ways?

For the Good Hope spell, I know about the samsaran racial trait, but don't know any others. (Magic items don't count here - I'm looking for a way to get it onto the spell list of other characters.)

So, does anyone know a way to help get either of these without being a bard?

EDIT: Gonna clarify here that what I'm kinda/sorta looking for are competence bonuses to attack and damage greater than the +1 variety (or even damage bonuses of the +1 variety that aren't tied to elf weapons), and morale bonuses to damage. I just don't recall seeing those anywhere but inspire courage and Good Hope, respectively. Bonus points for the poster that can also point me in the direction of constant insight bonuses to the same, or to AC greater than the Ioun stone.
Shirt of Immolation + Wild Shape / polymorph?

So this seems like it'd be a cute combo for shifting into creatures with grab, but I can't decide if it works or not. Same thing for a Crown of Conquest. Somewhat related for Deliquescent Gloves.

The relevant polymorph rules:

Spoiler:
When you cast a polymorph spell that changes you into a creature of the animal, dragon, elemental, magical beast, plant, or vermin type, all of your gear melds into your body. Items that provide constant bonuses and do not need to be activated continue to function while melded in this way (with the exception of armor and shield bonuses, which cease to function). Items that require activation cannot be used while you maintain that form.

Shirt of Immolation:

Spoiler:
Whenever the wearer is grappling (whether on the offense or defense), this shirt automatically bursts into flame, dealing 1d6+10 points of fire damage every round to anyone grappling the wearer. The flames do not harm the wearer and last one round (though it continues to burn if the wearer is still grappling after one round). The shirt burns for a maximum of 10 rounds per day. These rounds do not need to be consecutive.

Crown of Conquest:

Spoiler:
This crown of steel and gold projects an aura of menacing power. The wearer gains a +4 competence bonus on Intimidate checks, and whenever he confirms a critical hit, the crown creates a prayer effect centered on the crown's wearer (caster level 5th).

Deliquescent Gloves:

Spoiler:
These heavy leather gloves ripple and flows at the wearer's command, reshaping to fit any hand, claw, tentacle, or alien limb. The wearer's melee touch attacks with that hand deal 1d6 points of acid damage. If the wearer uses that hand to wield a weapon or make an attack with an unarmed strike or natural weapon, that attack gains the corrosive weapon special ability.

So since the druid isn't activating them, do they play nicely with wild shape? Or, does the fact that they trigger on their own somehow block them from working, since they aren't providing constant bonuses? Or is their ability to trigger the "constant bonus" that they provide?

I'm personally leaning toward "those all work fine", but I'm not 100% certain, and am curious about other people's possible interpretations. Anyone have any input?
Feint vs. Sense Motive bonus... which bonus?

Question is the title. If using Sense Motive to defend vs. a feint attempt, which bonus / bonuses count toward the DC?

The rules for feint:

Spoiler:
Feinting is a standard action. To feint, make a Bluff skill check. The DC of this check is equal to 10 + your opponent's base attack bonus + your opponent's Wisdom modifier. If your opponent is trained in Sense Motive, the DC is instead equal to 10 + your opponent's Sense Motive bonus, if higher.

So, it is only actual ranks in spent in Sense Motive?
Would feats such as Skill Focus or Alertness help?
How about trait bonuses (suspicious) or racial bonuses (aasimar with truespeaker)?
What about magical items, like an Ioun stone or luck stone?
Lastly, how about temporary buffs, such as heroism?

My search-fu turned up nothing... well, it turned up TONS of other feint questions, but not this one. Any help is appreciated!
Please help me to determine magus DPR!

So, I've been on a kick lately figuring out the DPR for a lot of our characters, and one class has stumped me: the magus. It's all fun and games until spellstrike enters the mix.

I could make my life easier and just use a non-spellstrike spell, but everyone knows that's not how to achieve maximum theoretical DPR. That needs Intensified shocking grasps and a nice high-threat weapon.

I've been using the expanded damage formula taken from the DPR Summer Olympics thread, which can be found here.

Spoiler:
h(d+s)+ft(cd+cb+r)

h = Chance to hit, expressed as a percentage. This doesn't exceed .95 (unless you autohit for whatever reason) and never goes below .05.
d = Normal damage. This is any damage that happens any time you hit.
s = Damage which isn't multiplied on a crit. "s" stands for sneak attack, but this includes elemental/alignment properties on weapons, manyshot damage, and so on.
t = Chance to roll a threat. This is the threat range of your weapon or your chance to hit, whichever is lower.
f = This is your chance to confirm a threat. Most of the time, this is equal to h. If you have Critical Focus, it's (h+.2) or .95, whichever is higher. If you auto-confirm crits, as with a level 20 fighter or Bless Weapon, this is 1.
c = This is the number of bonus multiples you get from a crit. A 2x crit weapon is 1, a 3x crit weapon is 2, etc.
b = This is elemental burst damage, such as from fiery burst weapons and thundering. Such enhancements self-multiply based on your crit multiplier; if they don't, then they're added to r and not b.
r = This is fixed bonus damage dealt on a crit. No such abilities exist in PF core, to my knowledge.

Using that formula, I can easily calculate his expected weapon-based DPR, which includes counting the additional attack from spellstrike. What that formula doesn't seem to let me do is add the shocking grasp in there. It can only hit once, after all, and is delivered on any of the attacks... the formula just doesn't isn't cutting it for me.

So, I'd be awesomely appreciative if someone could walk me through the math on how to figure out the DPR of the following magus:

Spoiler:
BAB +12/+7/+2, STR 26 (+8), +5 keen speed scimitar (after arcane pool), Power Attack (-4/+8), Weapon Focus {+1/+0)
Spell combat + Intensified shocking grasp (35 average damage) through spellstrike, grants one extra full-BAB attack.

+22/+22/+22/+17/+12 for 1d6+21, 15-20 crit range for 2d6+42
The first successful hit discharges the shocking grasp.

Assume he's fighting AC 27.

For simplicity, assume no other buffs or feats.

It's quite possible that there's some ridiculously easy way to do this that I'm just overlooking. So, if that's the case and the above is answered easily, then I have a second question:

Using the same magus, how easy would it be to factor the potential DPR gain of a Quickened Intensified shocking grasp prior to the full attack pattern, and what is that gain?

Thanks in advance for any help!
A fighter archetype - the Double-Weapon Master

Hey all. I'm in the process of converting over to the PFRPG system (from a 2nd edition base...), and one of our characters has basically always used a two-bladed sword. So, looking through fighter archetypes, the two-weapon warrior is supposed to be good enough for these guys, but I wanted something a little more unique. So, I create, and thus I present, the double-weapon master.

The archetype borrows a couple of abilities from the TWF archetype (since they are somewhat similar), and borrows and modifies a couple of THF archetype abilities, but I think that its primary abilities are unique enough to differentiate it from either of those two archetypes.

Double-Weapon Master
Warriors skilled in the use of double weapons realize that there’s far more to using them than simply flailing around with the dangerous ends toward the enemy. With both hands always on the weapon, these warriors can use their control of these versatile weapons to strike at their foes with great precision and lethality.
Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Ex): At 1st level, the double-weapon master gains proficiency in a single double weapon of his choice, per the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat. This ability replaces Tower Shield Proficiency.
Fine Control (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a double-weapon master counts his Dexterity score as two points higher for the purpose of qualifying for the Two-Weapon Fighting feat or any feat that has Two-Weapon Fighting as a prerequisite. This ability replaces bravery.
Focused Strike (Ex): At 3rd level, when a double-weapon master wields one end of a double weapon two-handed, he treats the weapon as one size larger for the purposes of damage dice. This ability replaces armor training 1.
Weapon Training (Ex): At 5th level, a double-weapon master gains a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls with double weapons. The bonus increases by +1 for every four levels beyond 5th. This ability replaces weapon training 1.
Doublestrike (Ex): At 7th level, when a double-weapon master makes a single attack (with the attack action or a charge), he may make an attack with both ends of his double weapon. The normal penalties for attacking with two weapons apply. This ability replaces armor training 2.
Off-hand Strike (Ex): At 9th level, when a double-weapon master wields one end of a double weapon two-handed, he may also make a single off-hand attack with the other end of his double weapon. When using this ability, the double weapon does not count as a light weapon for the purposes of two-weapon fighting. The double-weapon master must have the Two-Weapon Fighting feat to use this ability. This ability replaces weapon training 2.
Equal Opportunity (Ex): At 11th level, when a double-weapon master makes an attack of opportunity, he may attack once with both ends of his double weapon. The normal penalties for attacking with two weapons apply. This ability replaces armor training 3.
Improved Off-hand Strike (Ex): At 13th level, when a double-weapon master wields one end of a double weapon two-handed and uses the off-hand strike ability, he may make a second off-hand attack with the other end of his double weapon, albeit with a -5 penalty. The double-weapon master must have the Improved Two-Weapon Fighting feat to use this ability. This ability replaces weapon training 3.
Power Attack Master (Ex): At 15th level, when using Power Attack while wielding one end of a double weapon two-handed, the bonus damage from Power Attack is doubled (+100%) instead of increased by half (+50%). If using Power Attack while wielding a double weapon using two-weapon fighting (including the off-hand strike ability), the bonus damage from Power Attack is not halved for his off-hand attacks. This ability replaces armor training 4.
Greater Off-hand Strike (Ex): At 17th level, when a double-weapon master wields one end of a double weapon two-handed and uses the off-hand strike ability, he may make a third off-hand attack with the other end of his double weapon, albeit with a -10 penalty. The double-weapon master must have the Greater Two-Weapon Fighting feat to use this ability. This ability replaces weapon training 4.
Weapon Mastery (Ex): A double-weapon master must choose a double weapon.

My take on the archetype abilities:

Spoiler:
In general, I wanted to add perks and abilities that make using a double weapon more interesting, and more powerful, without simply adding static bonuses here and there.

The EWP replaces a useless (to him) proficiency with one that the archetype needs to actually work.

Fine Control reduces the MAD a little. I wanted something to help out the TWF style in general, but didn't want to go with "+ to hit" (or reducing TWF penalties even further), as that's basically the same as the TWF archetype.

Focused Strike is one of the big reasons I made the archetype. I feel that double weapons are a bit too "TWF ME!", and not enough "more versatile large weapon". I was going to house rule this ability by default, but then decided to just put it here in this archetype. This is kind of like the Overhand Chop and Backswing abilities of the THF archetype, but increase dice over raw Strength mod, which I prefer.

Calling the Weapon Training by that name, instead of getting creative with the naming convention, allows the infamous gloves of dueling to apply correctly. Huzzah.

Double Strike & Equal Opportunity are straight from the TWF archetype, and fit here too. This version of Double Strike is actually superior to the TWF version, since this one works on a charge as well (just like overhand chop).

Off-hand Strike and improvements are my methods of keeping a TWF feel for the archetype without going for attack bonuses (or penalty reductions). The balancing act here is, your double weapon doesn't count as light when doing this. Besides, I've seen enough examples on these forums of the wonderful "greatsword + armor spikes" cheese that... yeah, at least these abilities make an attempt at balance!

Power Attack Master was modified from the THF archetype, with a nice added bonus to make it even more valuable for this archetype.

The breakdown of his options, assuming we're talking about a human with a two-bladed sword:

Spoiler:
At 3rd level, the warrior can effectively swap between using a greatsword or two “light longswords” on a turn-by-turn basis without Quick Draw and a pile of weapon and / or weapon cord shenanigans.

At 7th level, with a standard attack or charge, the warrior can choose to make a greatsword attack or two “light longsword” attacks.

At 9th level, assuming he has TWF and ITWF, when using full attack, the warrior now has three options: swing twice with a greatsword; swing four times with “light longswords”, all at -2, or swing twice with a greatsword and once with a longsword, all at -4.

At 11th level, assuming he gets GTWF, when using full attack, he has three options: swing three times with a greatsword; swing six times with “light longswords”, all at -2; or swing three times with a greatsword and once with a longsword, all at -4.

At 13th level, when using full attack, he has three options: swing three times with a greatsword; swing six times with “light longswords”, all at -2; or swing three times with a greatsword and twice with a longsword, all at -4.

At 15th level, assuming he has Power Attack, when using full attack, he has three options: swing three times with a greatsword (1:4); swing six times with “light longswords” (all 1:2), all at -2; or swing three times with a greatsword (1:4) and twice with a longsword (1:2), all at -4.

At 16th level, when using full attack, he has three options: swing four times with a greatsword; swing seven times with “light longswords”, all at -2; or swing four times with a greatsword and twice with a longsword, all at -4.

At 17th level, when using full attack, he has three options: swing four times with a greatsword; swing seven times with “light longswords”, all at -2; or swing four times with a greatsword and three times with a longsword, all at -4.

Math testing notes:

Spoiler:
I did a bunch of DPR calculations at various levels, using the calculations from the DPR Olympics thread. I wasn't using a point-buy system for the sample character's abilities (we always roll), but I did use the WBL to figure out what kind of magic they'd be sporting.

I did the testing with a 9th, 13th, and 17th level fighter versus a CR-approprite AC, since those are the levels that increase the effective THF + TWF that the archetype gives. In every test except the 17th level one, a pure TWF option was superior, damage-wise, to other options. Granted, I only factored stuff like Str mods (which were somewhat generous), magic weapons, and weapon training - they had no Weapon Focus or Spec, and no magical items other than the weapon that added to hit or damage.

Maybe it's just me, but while TWF in general is more feat-heavy (if one considers three or four combat feats for fighters heavy... I can see the Dex requirements hurting point-buy characters too), it's damage seems... brutally high, compared to THF options. That said, the archetype's abilities didn't seem to break the damage race wide open.

Now, I"m no Treatmonk or A Man in Black, so I'm not sure how they went about calculating the value of +1 to hit, +1 to damage, and the like for their various builds. For all I know, what I left out does break the archetype wide open...

I spoilered the above commentary so this post wouldn't be a gigantic wall of text... I figured it'd be easier on the eyes.

So, any opinions and critiques on this are more than welcome... (I guess that's why I posted it, right?) Is it too weak, too powerful, and why? Like it, dislike it, ambivalent? Is there wording that is confusing or exploitable? Is it even worth the digital storage space that it takes up? Inquiring minds (at least mine) would like to know.

Thanks for reading!
Help me make my NPCs deadly! (with random questions)

Hey all. So, my group and I are finally switching over to Pathfinder from... 2nd edition (really, a massively hybridized 2nd / 3rd rule set). Yep, it's like that. We never changed to 3.0/3.5 as a base rule set, and 4th is a sad joke. But that's neither here nor there.

So, we're keeping the action in the same world (pre-Spellplague Forgotten Realms, for the curious), which means that a lot of our old PCs (who are now NPCs) would need to be converted over. I have no clue on how to build a character designed to smash face, so I'm turning to you vets to possibly give me a bit of assistance.

I realize that not all of the characters below are fully optimized for true-maximum DPR (probably none of them are), but if I could get some basic feat layouts, archetype ideas, or the like for the following characters, that'd be great.

* A 20th level half-giant fighter, archery specialist, that dual wields as backup.
* A 20th level human fighter wielding a two-bladed sword.
* A 20th level human necromancer tweaked as hard as possible for high save DCs (specifically for one specific 3rd-level necromancy school, negative energy damage dealing spell).
* A 17th level dwarf cleric that dual-wields dwarven waraxes, and has the bonus feat progression and feat access of a fighter.
* A 17th level elf magus that has the bonus feat progression and feat access of a fighter instead of a magus. Dex-focused and / or mobility focused, if possible.

There's quite a few more, but those should give me a few ideas on how to tweak the rest of them. Feel free and use any feats, equipment, etc. from anything Pathfinder that isn't campaign-world-specific (i.e., no Inner Sea Guide), although if campaign-specific feats would drastically improve a build, please don't hesitate to note them. Most 3.0/3.5 stuff is probably fair game too.

Also, I've got a few random rules questions.

1- Do the damage dice from multiple weapon enchantments all stack up (i.e., a flaming bane sword)?

2- Does a paladin with 20 Charisma gain anything from that 5th-level spell slot that his Charisma could theoretically add?

3- If a sorcerer (or other spontaneous caster) creates an all-new, personalized spell, does it count toward their usual limit of spells known?

4- Would a natural werebear character gain human racial adjustments, or only the lycanthrope stuff out of the Bestiary?

There's plenty more, but for a first post, that's enough :P Thanks in advance!