Nazrelle's page

You still gain proficiency from a feat, not from your class, even if you obtained that feat from your class.

Where is the difference?

Hey there!

So at level 3 a class grants the Feat Weapon Specialisation "...for each weapon type with which this class grants you proficiency..."

So for example by choosing an Operative as your character class you would be proficient with basic melee weapons, small arms and sniper rifles from the start.

It's obvious you get the Weapon Specialization feats for these prof. types, because the class granted the proficiency.
It's also obvious, that by spending a feat (lvl 1, 3, 5 gained via progression of my character level) on new weapon prof. won't give me the free Specialization.

But: Now as a level 2 Operative my character has the class feature "Operative exploit". It gives me the option to select "Combat Trick", which could be used to take Longarm Proficiency. Now my class granted me access to a new weapon proficiency and at level 3 should also give me the appropriate Weapon Specialization, shouldn't it?

What do you say?
Greetings, Nazrelle.

It could be ITWF.
The problem I see is, it would not even be possible to use (improved) Vital Strike with Dual Strike. So maybe they forget a part about how Dual Strike works with Vital Strike.

Otherwise, you can think about it as instead of making a bigger strike with one weapon, you'll do a normal strike, just two times with two weapons. 'Cause you'll add two times your static damage, it should still be more, that one Improved Vital Strike - not in every case, though.

Hello there!
For my Kingmaker group I will not allow leadership as a feat. Instead the players will receive cohorts via roleplaying (followers also, but that's not important).

I'd like to create all kinds of NPCs and introduce them via different approaches. If my players show interest in their background, personality etc. they will stay near and the players get the chance to win them as a cohort.

Did some of you went for the same?
What are your selfmade NPCs, what is/was special about them and where or under what cicumstances did the players met/will meet them the first time?
I'd really like to hear about your ideas!

Yes, I counted the range advantage to accuracy.

Let's not forget, that my player has a juggler-ish kind of character in mind. So I bet he thinks about acrobatic, maybe sleight of hand and that alike.
That's where a fighter with a low amount skill points (and class skills) also suffers compared to the swackbuckler.
Also if he imagines a charismatic character, swashbuckler would also be a bit better.

And to be honest, I'm the kind of GM, that thinks about Weapon Training being a Fighter thingy. I wouldn't allow similiar things counted as that, when they don't say so or have the same name - not 'cause I'm a jerk, I just think so it is intended that way and it would steal away the expertise of fighters somehow.

I thought "Swashbuckler Weapon Training" does not count as Weapon Training class feature. Also Gloves of Dueling are something that does not work on Swashbuckler, or?

That would change some of the numbers on level 10. Probably won't have Gloves of Dueling at level 10, though.

Then don't forget, that 17-20 crits seems to come often, but the precision damage won't get doubled.

Still it seems they are really close - and that good, so my players has some choices.

What is the reason you think swashbuckler is the better knife thrower? Damage and accuracy?

Did you calculate with the advanced weapon training stuff for the fighter?

Warpriest brings the spellcasting problem again. Probably nothing my player would prefer.
Swashbuckler/Flying Blade seems solid. A good alternative for the Fighter.

The feat you ment is Far Shot.
And yes, the combination of Deific Obedience/Far Shot/ Distance Thrower will give a good range without penalties.

true, but he's sneak attack has a range of 30 anyway. so more often than not he'll most likely be running into melee, especially if he's a scout as well. charging in for the sneak attack. and if he does want to throw the dagger within that 30 feet, at the end of the day he's only losing 3 damage, it may seem like a big deal early levels but later on when he's rolling 5d6 its not such a big deal. also, since you're the Gm you could always give out a magic item to give him dex to damage on ranged attacks with a knife.

Actually, it will be easy to obtain those enchantments. He also only needs one later, 'cause of ricochet toss.

I'd also say, the Agile enchantment should give DEX to damage with thrown daggers:

Dagger meets the requirements. It's a finessable melee weapon. In the effect text, nothing tells you about it only applies on melee damage rolls, while still telling about other restrictions.

It's maybe useless for the Rogue's melee attacks, 'cause he allready gets his DEX mod there, but for a +1 he can give it to his throw attacks, too - fair deal.

I think Knife Master Scout is the best knife build. I'd say the only downside I can see for a new player is that it requires a bit of tactical thinking. you're not a fighter or a barbarian who can jump into melee and just take the punishment. maybe if you allow the unchained rogue which gets dex to damage at third level, then your PC could put the 10 in strength and stick a 14 in Con. that could help him out a little.

but yeah, if you want a knife fighter build, I'd definitely go with the knife master rogue.

Like I wrote, the UC Rogue is an option (so allowed ofc). The problem I see with the Rogue is, that the DEX damage only applies in meele.

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I totally forgot about Deific Obedience here. That's a good reason to stick with daggers. Not sure if it fits his concept.

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What do you guys think about a starknife instead of dagger? It has not the support like River Rat/Deific Obedience (except I'm missing something) but has double the range increment.

Hey there!
I'm starting a campaign soon as a GM. Except for one player, all PCs were built.

The one who's left has a "knife"-fighting character in mind, who uses these knives in meele and as throwing weapons. He imagines this char as a kind of juggler, but the juggler archetype of the bard isn't the way he wants the character (he doesn't like spellcasting and the group also has a bard).

The creation rules are the following:
- Stat array 16,14,14,12,12,10
- No multiclassing allowed
- Every PC gets one variant multiclass for free
- Only base races
- No occult stuff allowed
- starting at level 3
- bonus progression and background skills are used
- characters get two extra skill points (not per level) and two extra class skills

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I only have two concepts in mind (which both uses daggers):

1) A weapon master fighter that just focuses on the mastery of the dagger via flat-bonuses and a high amount of feats.
Feat-choices would be startoss featchain, ricochet toss, advanced weapon training (trained grace/throw) and the typical feats you'd expect.

2) A Unchained Rogue (Knife Master/Scout) that gets DEX to dmg for meele attacks and can sneak easier with charges/movement later.
Further, feats I have in mind here are Opening Volley and Charging Hurler. Ricochet toss and startoss style are things to aim for, but will be in reach later. Obviously this char has much more utility.

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As a GM I want to support his concept, so I'd like your advice. Especially on how to get advantages out of "switchhitting" with the same weapon.

Thank you in advance!

I also think it depends on your players. I had/have groups, where players strictly dont play some classes, when they have a lower point buy or play classes, that are better with high point buy, if you give them that.
So their choices are optimized anyhow, regardless of the Point Buy.

What I tend to do the last campaigns I gm'd, is giving my players a stat array worth 24 points:

16,14,14,12,12,10

Swapping out the 10 for a 7 there makes a really good 20 point array. Most of the time, I did not want my players to dumb stats hard, so I just changed it to the upper array. It's like a 20 point buy without a dumb stat.

So ask yourself, how your players behave with character building. If they have an easy time with your adventure path, it's mostly 'cause these paths are not hard in general.

You can also compare 15 to 25 point buy in these ways:

These 10 point will raise their defense, offense or utility. For some classes, increasing one stat gives two, sometimes even three of these raises.
If my players would raise their utility (like not dumping stats, get more skills point etc.) I actually have a better time as a GM. Most of my players wouldn't, so I came to use the array above.

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#Edit:

Here's a specific case:

Imagine there is Fighter with 15 points to spend. Let's say he takes this array:

STR 16
DEX 12
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 12
CHA 7

Now you give that character 10 more points:

There are players that'd go like this:

STR 18
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 12
CHA 7

They now increased their offense and defense. Some might tend to raise WIS instead of DEX, but that are details.

Then there are players having another thought process:
"Wow, 10 more point, now I can get even more skill points and I don't have to dump my CHA. Getting 13 INT also let me take Combat Expertise, which I'd like."

STR 16
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 13
WIS 12
CHA 10

This character now has the same amount of defense but mostly utility.

Of course there a racial adjustments and stuff. If your whole group will take the first approach, you will notice that in some encounters. Though, it won't wreck the whole adventure path.

To be fair, that's what Archetypes are for. There are enough, that should fit his ideas.

I mean, medium/heavy/shield profs are feats, but don't just give him bonus feats for that. Especially at level 1!

In the end you may see your player picks lvl 1 Fighter, saying thanks for the three bonus feats and multiclasses in a class, that give them the profs anyway.

Let him choose an archetype, that gives him something in return. If he doesn't want to, let him play in light armor. Using no heavy armor spares some money and he does not suffer armor check penalties that high and a speed reduction in the earlier levels.

I have something homebrew, what I GM'd myself:
(There was some story before and after around dragons - my party were kind of dragonslayers, all started with the Beginner's Box adventure.)

The party came in contact with Skinwalker (Scaleheart/Werecrocodile-kin). These are from a tribe in swampy terrain (near Sandpoint in my case). Their chieftain is a natural Werecrocodile and cooperated with a green and black dragon (this was actually the one from the Beginner's Box - it escaped). The dragons hide in a cave near the tribe, which is only accessable via diving (both dragons have no problems swimming/diving).
Most member of the tribe weren't happy with that alliance. The party faked getting caught by member contacted them. They were given chances to escape their cages and they straight went for the dragons.
After they killed them, they had to flee from the unfriendly half of the tribe including the Chieftain.

They had a social encounter at the start with the tribemembers. After they got enough infos and made up their plan, they faked to get caught.

Then a underwater encounter vs. some crocodiles followed. The underwater stuff being the hard part, not the crocos.

After that, they faced the two dragons. I don't like single boss encounters, so I made two dragons. Both had a monk level with deflect arrow, if I remember correctly. Fighting in their cave, gave them some mobility with their flyspeed, but not that it caused problems for the players.

The chapter ended with a Chase encounter. Had some different stuff here from saves to skillchecks and so on.

For this they were only level 5, but it's easy to build for higher levels I think.

I'm not completely familiar with the Weapon Master's Handbook.
But how can you get Ricochet Toss for a Warpriest without Multiclassing or getting the mentioned Archetype?
It says you need Weapon Training.

My approach would be a Lore Warden Fighter.
Hitting something hard with a two-handed weapon is always nice.

You'll have all the knowledge skills as class skills and even some extra points to spend for them. Combat Maneuvers are also a strength of yours.

Since you are a Fighter, you will have enough feats to get yourself Variant Multiclassing for Bard and Deific Obedience for Irori. Both will boost your knowledge.

Getting Clever Wordplay trait for the Versatile Performance is also a nice trick.

Know thy Enemy class feature enables you to do something with all your knowledge.

Using a weapon as main source of damage always opens up the Bane enchantment - here Undead Bane of course!

captain yesterday wrote:

It's from video games, essentially just walking around, killing s!$~ for the experience points without advancing the story. Thus ensuring when (or if) they do advance the story it is as easy as possible.

I knew about that, but once he said he was removing XP I was wondering how the grinding would take place so I thought he had a different definition.

That would have been my first attempt to prevent grinding, but I wasn't really happy with that.

And yes, I know my players. That's the problem. They are kinda new to PnP and they often do things they learned in exactly the kind of games, where grinding takes place.
So I think at some point it will come up and I want to make clear it's useless/not intented etc., but the way I'll do this shouldn't be "clumsy". I want them to understand in an ingame way.

But your ideas were great. Helped me a lot so far and maybe I'm still too panicked without reason.

With "too slow" I ment the grinding part, not discovering every hex.
So if they "discover" a tile a third time, maybe some bandits did a few things at the trading post. That's the punishment.

When I'm talking about consequences, I mean preparation for example. Intelligent enemies once encountered will be ready for a second time, maybe with some bear traps hidden or scouts in their (adjacent) hexes.

But the "damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation" is at hand. That's what I want to prevent. Just not via railroading or too much out-of-character comments.

Don't punish them for being slow. If you're purposefully intimidating them (which causes them to go slow), you shouldn't then punish them for going slow.

Once the party is ready for a challenge have a round about way of reintroducing the formerly too powerful enemy. The party can encounter henchmen who they capture, or find a note from the BBEG that leads them back to the formerly too powerful enemy. The players should remember the last encounter, but will hopefully recognize that they've grown since then.

It's not that I plan on intimadating them, it's that I fear they will get intimidated.

Punishing PCs for being too slow is an intention I have.

Well, I'll maybe try a combination of story-based levelups and XP gain. When they don't know, that they are getting XP, they probably won't focus on getting more by grinding.

But let's talk more in detail. Imagine the following situation occurs:
They are getting somewhere they should not be on their level. I won't let them die for it, but I'll show them, that it's dangerous. So let's assume they escape and get to safety somehow (and that's a generous assumption, 'cause it may be too late, if they recognize the danger).
How can they know when it's best to return? (without me directly saying it to the players - not to the characters)
Also, I plan with having them bear the consequences, so they get intimidated even more.

Any scenarios like this you had in your group so far? Or some general advices?

It's from video games, essentially just walking around, killing s&&& for the experience points without advancing the story. Thus ensuring when (or if) they do advance the story it is as easy as possible.

Exactly that.

So I want to start a Kingmaker campaign soon. Generally I'm not a fan of giving XP, so normaly I just have player level-ups as the story goes on.

In Kingmaker though, I want that open world feeling and I fear my players will metagame a bit and start "grinding" before doing quests.

My first thought was to have a set level for each book. I have no problem adapting encounters. So I would just let them start at lvl 4 for example. After they finish the first book, they are level 8 for the second and so on.

What are your thoughts about it? Do you have other ideas/approaches?

When you mean smashing undead's faces by saying "slayer", getting high STR and 2H-weapon always works. To get some extra damage here you can take Channel Smite as a feat and usual stuff like Power Attack and Furious Focus.

Those builds do not need much feats, so Variant Multiclassing is possible. Flavourwise you could take Ranger here with the Favoured Enemy Class Feature at level 7 and pair this with an Undead Bane weapon enchant.

If you don't mean the cleric as a class, more as a concept, then you should look into Inquisitor Class. They offer better things I'd say (when it's not about channeling undeads to death).

You will be good at saves, what normally a rogue isn't.

Hardy Racial trait is very strong and you can pair it with Glory of Old and with Steel Soul.

With your CON and WIS bonus you will be kinda great vs. spells.

When you are not interested in CHA at all and have high enough point buy/rolls, then your STR/DEX/INT won't suffer.

When you want your rogue to have good social stuff, you can always get a level of the inquisitor class (or cleric). There are inquisitions out there like this: Conversion Inquisition.

@Edit: The dip won't hurt at all. When you decide to be one level cleric you can get a 2nd domain, too. Travel Domains nets you 10 ft. movementspeed. Casting Orisons is also a nice bonus.

Nazrelle wrote:

Is it, that you really want to channel energy through your weapon?

Or dou you just want to martial option besides your casting?

If it's the second one, you would have two alternatives:

There is the Guided weapon enchant. Undoubtedly it is extremely powerful and some GM don't allow it.

GMs don't allow it not because it's powerful, but because it's not Pathfinder material. It's 3.5.

That's a point, too.

(Grammar checked your post a little, and I'm sorry. I failed my will save to resist the little red squiggly lines.)

Not sure, what you want to tell me. English isn't my native language.

Is it, that you really want to channel energy through your weapon?
Or dou you just want to martial option besides your casting?

If it's the second one, you would have two alternatives:

There is the Guided weapon enchant. Undoubtedly it is extremely powerful and some GM don't allow it.

The other way is for Longbows only. You take the Deific Obedience Feat worshipping Erastil. At level 6 you start to pick the Evangelist Prestige Class. You loose one effective level of your Cleric stuff, your saves will be a bit worse, but you get some other stuff like more skill points/class skills and a bit AC.
The tradeoff here is, that you reach the Deific Obedience Boons earlier. At Evangelist 9 you'll have the last one, which gives you your WIS to hit and damage with longbows, when you are at a max range of 30 ft.

Both concept won't provide you the martial option in the early game, that for sure. But worshipping Erastil can give an animal companion, which can do the martial work. Also having a bit of STR and DEX won't be wasted with the Evangelist path, 'cause the WIS bonus is in addition.

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Otherwise the flurry option mentioned above is great.
With a bit of STR and some static damage you will also be fine.

Feats that give you more Channels per day and increase it's DC are a good start. There is also a trait, that increases the DC, if I remember correctly.

Nazrelle wrote:

Also there is the Agile Weapon enchantment. Sawtooth Sabres, a dip into Swashbuckler and Slashing Grace also works.
Then straight fighters with the new advanced weapon training can get enough flat damage on TWF-builds with DEX to hit and STR to damage.

Just tell us, what you want to achieve with your character.

Nope, slashing grace is for one weapon only. Rouge is only one non-item way to get dex to damage for twf.

Snap, didn't noticed, that Slashing Grace got an errata. Well yeah, then you wont have that option anymore.

Then the best option would be Slayer I think.
You also should not underestimate a straight Fighter with the following:

Paired with the flat bonuses from (Greater) Weapon Spezialisation and a fair STR modifier you are still doing a great amount of damage. Also your to hit is probably the highest as Fighter, so even the lowest attacks can hit.
Like mentioned above, the Mutation Warrior can boost his stats even more.

I probably should have specified, this is a TWF build. It's not meant to be a Rogue. I just dipped because it was the only way to get Dex to damage which helps with the MAD.

Not the only way.

But: There are enough ways to make TWF work, even without DEX to damage. The easiest way is to just play a Slayer, get DEX to 15 for some feats and take the TWF stuff via Ranger Combat styles. Let STR be your highest stat.
You have full BAB, high skill point, sneak attack and even flat bonus to hit/damage.

Also there is the Agile Weapon enchantment. Sawtooth Sabres, a dip into Swashbuckler and Slashing Grace also works.
Then straight fighters with the new advanced weapon training can get enough flat damage on TWF-builds with DEX to hit and STR to damage.

Just tell us, what you want to achieve with your character.

I'll beat the guy to the punch and say that "Kirin style is a trap"

Because of the way it works.
1st round you use a swift to go into Kirin style.
2nd round you use a swift to identify the creature.
3rd round you use a swift to get damage.

If the target dies repeat round 2.

You can't "convert" your Move action to a swift action to do this faster.

it's probably better for you to trade all those feats for extra bombs if you're worried about having something to do in combat.

Never realized that you can't convert move into swift :/

Probably has been a house rule for us then.
That allowed it would be okay. First round Inspire Courage, Kirin Style and analyse. Second round bomb and Kirin Strike.

It has also been said that typeless bonuses from a stat are considered same source and do not stack by the devs (ruled because of charisma-stacking builds).

So unless those Int bonuses are typed and all different, no stacking them.

I know about that rule, but had in mind, that Kirin Strike damage is insight... but well it's not - only the bonus to knowledge was.

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Any other ideas for a knowledge focused dude, where his knowledge would be an aspect for his fighting style?
I mean there is always the option for Wizard into Loremaster...

Maybe Empiricist Investigator could be an option? Possibly going into Evangelist. Not sure about his combat potential, though.

So I have this idea about a character with super high knowledge skills.
There isn't a must for having max ranks in every one of them, but still being able to roll for them with a high result.

My next goal for that character is, that he should be quite okay in combat.
You could always be a full caster with high knowledge - like Wizard into Loremaster - and your full caster progression will do the trick. But I decided that to be boring this time.

An obvious attempt for high knowledge skills is the Mindchemist, who can buff INT with cognaton and also apply his INT-mod one additional time to all knowledge skills.
Having max INT isn't even bad with the bomb class feature.

So I started thinking about the concept. At first, what can raise your skills more:
- Breadth of Experience (so we gonna take an Elf)
- Variant Multiclassing Bard (mainly for bardic knowledge of course, but Inspire Courage is nice to have, so is Versatile Performance used with INT via Clever Wordplay Trait)
- Deific Obedience Irori (classic way to improve Knowledge skills)

Kirin Style will improve your Knowledge checks to identify monsters and stuff, while Kirin Strike will give you INT to damage for a swift action.
What you can do now is: Use move as a swift action and identify monster, then throw a bomb and use Kirin Strike. You now have triple INT-mod on your Bomb, which should hurt.
When you are out of bombs, Improved Unarmed Strikes with an Agile Amulet of Mighty Fists + Kirin Strike can still do the job. Meanwhile Inspire Courage also works great with that concept.

Being short on feat is the real problem here. So it will get online kinda late.

Any ideas to improve the knowledge checks any futher, making the char even better in combat, getting a few feats faster than normal or having some flavour advices?
Thanks for the input!

Hello there!
Sometimes, as a GM, you think about giving the PCs a litte boon.
I did that with extra starting gold, better point buy, (static) bonus feats/traits and so on.

Now, that there is Variant Multiclassing, what do you think about giving it away for free (so they don't loose the feats on Lvl 3, 7, 11, 15, 19).
Do I miss any consequences? I'm aware, that I won't let the players take this class as a regular multiclass.

To be honest, I don't feel like the Variant Multiclass options are balanced against each other.

Any experiences made with that way of a boon or Variant Multiclasses in general?

Thanks for your replies!

I'd say, there are plently of options, when you are thinking about a spellcaster.

Because you did not give any specification, I will go with something I just had in my mind combined with your statement, that you like martials in generel.

The class here is Inquisitor, who picks Irori as his deity. This will get him Improved Unarmed Strike.
Then you take magical lineage for Spiritual Weapon and you learn the Toppling Spell Metamagic feat.
You now have a force fist fisting your enemies with the chance of tripping them.

You have high WIS, so you will take the Wolf Style feat chain with your goal to get at least Wolf Trip. Now, when your spirit fist succesfully fisttrips, you can make the victim land next to you.

And here is the point, where you need to find ways to make a use of that:
For example you can position yourself next to your meeles and let them fullattack instead of charging/moving to the target.
Or you just buy yourself a Guided Amulet of mighty Fists and full attack them, maybe also taking Vicious Stomp for extra attacks.

You will be mainly a support/battlefield control caster with a martial fluff. Still Guided and Judgement will make you a good martial in addition.

I'm aware of this FAQ.
In this case I was sure, it would stack:

That's an untyped bonus, but it says, that it will be added to the DEX bonus.

Here is my DEX modifier to AC, but it's just calculated via CHA.

Also the FAQ specifically says "on the same roll twice". AC isn't a roll.

EDIT: A level of swashbuckler would be nice. Gives a fair amount of points with high CHA and won't hurt my BAB. Otherwise the feat is a good option, too.

Hello!

Looking at the Enlightened Paladin archetype and it getting CHA to AC, I was wondering, if we can max it out from here.

What would make such a character solid, while making as many things as possible scaling with CHA?

One level Oracle of Nature/Lore comes to mind, to even more CHA to AC.
Noble Scion of War gives us Initiative with CHA and Paladin itself lets us put CHA to saves.

Any further ideas/advices for feats, class dips etc.?

Hey there!
Maybe some of you know the River into Darkness module.

I added this to my campaign, but my six players are Lvl 9 by now. So I allready rebuild the Ekujae tribe.

Now I'm looking for the tribe most powerful Elves or more specific, how they could be built. Let's call those Elite Encounters (EE).

EEs should be very challenging for six Lvl 9 PCs and also fit the theme of a (primitive) Elven tribe.

I'm interested in your ideas! Please no Occult stuff :D

Greetings!

My approch would be starting with Human for extra skill points and the Focused Study racial trait. So you get a boost on your desired skills (Diplomacy and Knowl. Nobility - later maybe Intimidate).

If I imagine she's throwing stuff at people, I'd like her strong anyhow. Maybe a dumbstat here in STR won't let her throw tables. So I would focus on STR and CHA, followed by INT and WIS depending how fast you want her to become enraged.

By taking a level in Oracle with Lore Mystery, the Side Step Secret allows you to dump DEX. Initiative via CHA is also no problem with the Noble Scion of War feat.
She also gets all Knowledge Skills as Class Skills and can possible take the Lorekeeper Revelation for CHA on Knowledge stuff via Extra Revelation feat.

Wearing a Belt of mighty Hurling will also make you a good thrower and Intimidating Prowess also makes you a very good intimidater with STR and CHA high.

Well, and Diplomacy is easily taken as Class Skill via trait.

Build a pure blooded noble lady, one who daily face etiquette and fellows of upper classes and throws terrifying tantrums.

Rules:
- Must be barbarian
- Must gain either Diplomacy or Knowledge (Nobility) as class skills from trait or architype, preferred having both skills.
- Improvised or throwing weapons are preferred, seconded by unarmed combat or natural weapons.

Some questions:

What exactly means "Must be barbarian? Every level, at least one class level, etc.?
Why barbarian? Do you imagine a gentle lady being calm most of the time, but who's b!tching out sometimes, slapping people in the face - with furniture?

You mean throwing weapons or throwing improved weapons?

What level she has to be? (minimum, maximum)

I have a know-very-much-cohort via leadership with one of my characters.
Liked to give him Tireless Logic trait.

Most of the time I play "Hollow's Last Hope" to introduce players or just let them have a funny one-shot.
I played it many times now and always varied the encounters.

The last time, was the funniest. There I let my players have Lvl 3 Chars with 1 NPC/2 Class levels and 15 Point Buy. They could do combat, but had many Ranks and Feats fitting their profession/role in their living place.

It were:
Geopold Doughmaker - Dwarven Fighter 2/Expert 1 - a miner
Humphrey Ewington - Human Rogue 2/Aristocrat 1 - a merchant
Ser Quentin Everbrave Human Cleric 2/Warrior 1 - a really old priest/ex-knight
Diggle Dutydoodle - Halfling Ranger 2/Adept 1 - a vermin exterminator

If you like to build an adventure from scratch just do something simple.
Let the players have a straight-forward task.
For that they have to do a fighting encounter with minions they easily slay, a skill challenge, so that they can continue their way. After that you let them have an encounter a bit harder: fewer minions, more elites and in the end a last encounter with a boss indroducing a new mechanic, for example magic.

Tell me, if you need more precise suggestions.
Also, if you build the characters by yourself and handle them to your players, you can design the one-shot around these characters. So everyone has his/her special moment.

Thanks for the replies so far!

Where possible, make the item ability not an item ability. A wolf who gets two attacks of opportunity for one provocation doesn't need to be wearing a fortuitous amulet of mighty fists - it could be a rabid / blight-touched / possessed / holy / mutant wolf.

Thats the point for me. Most of the time, my players won't even know that they wear items. Maybe a player starts metagaming and knows, that the 2nd AoO was from Fortuitous.

In the end, I'm making the encounter harder. Atm I just increase the CR like if they have better wealth by level, but I'm not sure, if that's fair enough.

At first: Yes I change the CR appropriate to the wealth the mosters have.

I also don't like the look of a computer game. Items I'm talking about are passive. Like in the Lizardfolk example, they are hurling spears more effective via STR. The PCs find the spears, not the belt.

In this case, my wolves have class levels and use the wealth as if they were a character with these class levels.
The idea is to not just make wolves bigger, make zombie-wolves or dire stuff. Make them interesting with some well choses class levels and use magical item effects with synergy and flavour.

By the way, what are the costs of tattoos then?

Hey there!

How do you handle the following:
You as GM built an encounter involving foes, that want a certain effect on themselves, that is provided by a magical item. They have a wealth and such, so I buy that item for them.
Is it okay, that you ignore they would be dropping it, so your group won't get items over and over again?

My group is always at wealth per level and often finds consumables, that push them above wealth per level all together.

For example I wanted Lizardfolk tribal Warriors to have a "Belt of Mighty Hurling"-effect, or wolves to have fortuitous on an Amulet of Mighty fists.

Greetings!

Yes, each is designed for a special purpose. Often my PCs won't have straight combat encounters.

With thas design, I give them cheap option to be good in stealth or social stuff for example. Even the Brute has some non-combat things to do.
Playing as four PCs, every Heritage will be used I guess.

Sometimes player focus so much on combat, that they suck in other things, which will be important for that campaign. Giving them qualities in those things for free, is a fair compromise.

Still, if you have different approaches, I'd like to hear about them :D

Greetings.

They are slightly too good for my taste. Tone them down a bit. Some examples:

- Add a -2 racial Stat penalty to a single ability score in all heritages.
- Frenzy should provide +2 morale bonus to Str/Con and -2 to AC.
- Immunity to neg. drain is brutally unfair. Change it to last for 1 minute as 1/day activation, then it's okay.
- Too many level 1 Spell-Like Abilities per day. Remove few and add some cantrips.

I suggest comparing these heritages with core races to get a better picture of how to build a balanced PC race.

Adam

Maybe I expressed myself not good enough.

And yes, I forgot, that there's a -2 AC penalty for Frenzy.

Hey there!
For my player I built three enhanced Dhampir Subraces. These should be decendants of more powerful vampires and so are probably better than common races or normal Dhampirs.
So I'm interested in your opinion how balanced they are compared to each other.

--------That's what all of them have:--------

--------Then they chose one out of three Heritages:--------

These "races" are created with 20 Race Points.

Thanks in advance and greetings!
Naz

Ye kinda, the problem here is "fire". You can never fire a throwing weapon I guess...

But thats the part about the definition I ment. This lets me asking myself, if Rapid Shot can be uses with Thrown Weapons in general.

What I ment:
"To use rapid shot you have to make more than one ranged attack."
This would forbid you to use Rapid shot with less than 2 attacks. But for example. A level one fighter with Rapid Shot can attack 2 times with a bow as a full-attack. He only need one ranged attack, not more than one ranged attack to make use of Rapid Shot.

And even then, Rapid shot says, "when making a full-attack with a ranged weapon", not "making a ranged attack".

It says "throw or shoot", and yes thrown weapons are ranged weapon, so when a dagger is thrown it is a thrown/ranged weapon.

To use rapid shot you have to make more than one ranged attack.

Thats the problem I wanted to point at.

At this point, I was looking for a rule, that says, that a dagger is a ranged weapon.

The part with rapid shot, that you have to make more than one ranged attack is strickly wrong, if you ask me.

Hey there!
I have a question about the definition of weapons.
In the rules, there is a table, where all weapons are listed. You can't find Daggers under "Ranged Weapons", but you can make range attacks with them.

The Combat Rules are saying: "If you shoot or throw a ranged weapon at a target engaged in melee with a friendly character, you take a –4 penalty on your attack roll."

Is a Dagger a range weapon? If not, throwing into meele on that given situation won't let you suffer a -4 penalty, will it?

The other question relies on daggers being ranged weapons:
If you are using the Rapid Shot, could you, if your BAB is 6, make two meele attacks with a dagger and then make a 5ft. step away and throw an additional time (with all attacks at -2 of course)? What the definition of "fire an additional time"?

Thanks for your help!
Greets, Naz.

Well, which level will you start?
I just started a campaign at level 8 and build a Blaster Cleric. He's not that great in comparision to other optimized Blasters, but he does his job and brings tons of utitily with him.
He is even tanky, so he maybe can fill both roles you asked for.

The key for a blaster cleric is the theologian archetype with a domain, that grant you fireball (the best is Ash domain imo).
You get Intesified and Focused spell for free with Fireball and Spell Specialisation Chain lets you cast it a higher level and spontanously like Cure/Inflict.
Wayang Spell Hunter/Magical Lineage cheese and you are ready to go with an Empowered Fireball.

Get a metamagic Rod Selective and Elemental (something other than fire). Your high Wisdom will be also good with other save or suck spells and you have the usual stuff like Blessing of Fervor, Wall of Stone etc. and also your Domain Powers a kinda good. Well placed Wall of Ash can turn the tide.

Then grab a shield and good armor, and your AC also does not suck. Reflex Save will be your weakness I guess, but you can heal if needed.