I believe someone has at least converted the first adventure.. check the forum for Age of Worms, it's on the site here somewhere.
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Steam Giant Those are awesome starting points. I totally forgot about Thassilon.. that's a pretty good inspiration, too. Minus the connection to the seven deadly sins. Thanks for that. The setting is still up in the air, sort of. I'm working on it. I know the feeling I want to evoke is similar to reading through and playing an Eberron module..stealing the plans for the mech suit would be an entire story arc for me that I'd love to GM. Then maybe gathering materials to make a prototype, and finally using them in some fashion in the final stages. (for me, some of the most fun. I'm not big on sandbox type GM-ing, but I love good stories.) I'm leaning towards having a Karrnath type nation...with undead (both intelligent and non) more integrated into society than in Eberron, more like Geb, but more cosmopolitan. Definitely ruled by a lich, or I might just borrow Arazni, she's a really great villain with an awesome backstory. I'd get to use one of my favorite 3.5 PrCs here, the Bone Knight. For a conjuration / summoning type of nation...I'm thinking of a place where not only is human slavery condoned, but there are demons and celestials alike held in thrall by powerful wizards, backed by devils and infernal cultists. I really strongly would base it on Cheliax, and include some form of Hellknight order. Enchantment, would be a place devoted to a god / goddess like Apollo or Sune...A place of breathtaking beauty (I'm picturing Qualinost from the old Dragonlance novels) but full of intrigue, and with laws concerning attractiveness and appearance... Then there's the Germany type nation, which is on the cutting edge of technology and is the aggressor in whatever conflict is going on, even if it's not full scale war...fully evil, with a bent towards purifying bloodlines... this place will be full of sorcerers with some bloodline (suggestions?), and the results of the genetic research and breeding programs have brought the people of this nation to a Chosen - Inspired level... in fact the Inspired from Eberron might be the perfect model here. I'm really just brainstorming, you've got my imagination working now...thanks!! keep it coming my way!!
You will probably be better off with a system built with these things in mind. Maybe.. but I want to use Pathfinder, it's what I know, and it's grown a whole lot. I'd use 5th edition but it's still in its infancy, PF has a wealth of rules and crunch, and Golarion itself suggests to me that Paizo believes PF can handle any type of game, and I'd tend to agree. Again, these things aren't going to be commonplace, I'm going for a slightly more advanced "The Germans are working on secret weapons and we need to develop our own!!" kind of feel from WW2. They're out there but they aren't mass produced, but they definitely impact battles.
I guess a cross between the Iron Man suit and the Avatar mechs. Definitely more of a vehicle than a suit of armor... no flight capability, that would be for a different specialized vehicle, Eberron style airships beefed up (again more like the Highwind from Final Fantasy 7, and the air force from FF 4). Since I want to have a few nations with a strong affiliation with a particular kind of magic, what suggestions would you give for a spell like ability for different vehicles from different nations to have? I'm definitely thinking nothing is going to shoot conventional bullets (except for regular firearms, but the only ones even semi mass produced will be the gunslinger kind, not modern weaponry. Swords and bows will still be the majority of equipment for armies) I'll take another look at the vehicle rules and the tech guide powered armor and see what I can dredge from those. This is my inner sci-fi geek coming out, too. Jedi are definitely an inspiration in mixing science and magic.
The Tech Guide has a suit of power armor, I believe. Is that more-or-less you thought process when you say 'battlesuit' or do you mean something else? That's a very loose phase. Yeah, that's a start I guess, I know it was vague.. sorry about that. My thought process is more along the lines of Magitek armor from Final Fantasy 6. A blend of magic and technology, more like a mech warrior kind of thing that might not be out of place in a slightly more advanced Eberron type setting...these things would be the cutting edge of technology and wouldn't necessarily rule the battlefield or be ubiquitous, but would be regarded as elite, expensive pieces of machinery requiring a skilled pilot with special abilities. They wouldn't be like on Golarion, relics of an alien civilization, though alien tech might have been involved somewhere at their inception. Does that help clear it up some?
I can only point out other resources. ** spoiler omitted ** I have that AP!! I only skimmed over that installment though, definitely going back to check it out. I'm thinking one of my nations will be based in part on WW2 Germany... they're going to have the quickest tanks, and a national devotion and obsession with bloodlines. There's going to be a lot of a particular kind of sorcerer, maybe they'll interface with the tanks in some way?
I've kind of been wanting to get into some world building...been very inspired reading the Iron Gods AP, the Tech guide, and all my old Eberron books, along with lots of World War 2 histories and alternate histories (Robert Conroy (1945 and Himmler's War), Harry Turtledove (Worldwar series), Wolfenstein : The New Order, The Man in the High Castle) , and Final Fantasy 6's Magitek armor. I'm also very intrigued by things in Golarion (especially Nidal and Cheliax, the Hellknight orders and the Starstone). So, enough background, I want to start with designing some very cool "mech" type equipments, both for PCs to use, and for them to battle. How would you build a battlesuit and a panzer tank using the Tech Guide, and incorporating Eberron style innovations (wand sheaths, etc.) I know this is kind of non-specific, but I'm hoping some ideas present themselves. How would you give each one a "flavor"? I'm thinking of having nations that focus on a different type of arcane magic (There's definitely going to be a more necromancy - focused Karrnath / Geb type nation, and a summoning - focused Cheliax type ) Can anyone point me to other resources that might help me focus on nailing these down? How do you think these things would look?
I've started working on the Gunslinger, but I'm not sure if it's better to go with two pistols and Two-Weapon Fighting, or just lug a rifle and some heavy gear. I've built him with the rifles in mind first.
Dax, the Techslinger:
Name : Dax Race : Human AL : CN Trait - Vagabond (Disable Device)
Str -11 Dex - 18 Con - 12 Wis - 14 Int - 12 Cha - 10 1 - Gunslinger (Techslinger) - Gunsmithing, Precise Shot, Point-Blank Shot
That's as far as I've taken it thus far. I intentionally avoided Weapon Focus, I don't want to lock myself into a weapon then find something better and different down the campaign path. I'm also operating under the assumption that at some point there will be access to different kinds of labs for crafting. I'm pretty sure Rapid Reload's not really worth it when using batteries. Especially after access to Signature Deed (Covet Charge).
Orc Barbarian 1/ Fighter (Cyber-Soldier). Originally a member of a tribe far from Numeria, he was captured by low templar during a skirmish and sold to slavers from Nisroch, where he eventually was given over to the tender cares of the kyton who live beneath Numeria. After months of experimentation, they eventually tired of him, and allowed him to escape, but unbeknownst to him, with a tracker chip embedded under his skin..and only after taking an arm during a particularly horrific test of orc physiology. This one armed-orc wandered blindly, before stumbling into one of the other two party members I have envisioned, who saw the missing arm as an opportunity to begin constructing a perfect weapon...which is all this Orc wants to be now. He now wants to perfect his body with metal and return to the kyton vaults to unleash his vengeance... Human (support class of some kind / party face / arcane spellcaster) - A former member of the Technic League, he was raised in Starfall and his talent was apparent from an early age. He was sent (along with his brother) to live and train under a senior Technic League member, his uncle, to harness his ability . Rare amongst members of that organization, his uncle was mostly interested in plumbing the depths of the wondrous technology found in and around the Silver Mount, and wanted merely to study...until the day he ran across a cybernetics lab that was unknown even to the League..he feared if he revealed its existence, the League would appropriate it (a justified fear) so he kept it hidden...until the day his nephew returned from afield with a certain one-armed orc with a League-allied kyton tracking chip under its skin...the vengeance of the League was swift and terrible. His kindly uncle was dismembered, only the head was saved and incorporated into a horrid undead robot monstrosity (for those of you who have read Terry Brooks' novel Antrax, you know what I'm thinking of here.)..both as an experiment, and as a lesson to those who would withold secrets from the League... ...and Human Gunslinger (Techslinger) - the face's brother, a carefree "black sheep" who was sent away mostly so the family would have one less mouth to feed, times are hard in Starfall after all. Having always had uncanny accuracy with the old family crossbow, he took naturally to the guns of a traveling merchant from Alkenstar who happened through Starfall. He was so good, in fact, that in exchange for demonstrating the merchant's wares (more accessible than the jealously guarded weapons of the Technic League), he was given an old, valueless, beat-up weapon to have for his own when the merchant departed (or was forced from by the League) Starfall for more lucrative markets..always the outsider, he adopts an "I don't care" attitude regarding the opinions of others, yet he resents the approval given his brother by his late uncle due to his arcane talent...likely to put himself at risk to prove himself in a fight, he wants to fight the League both for the murder of his uncle, and to tweak an elitist society of which he can't be a part... So there are a number of side plots available for this party, finding a cybernetics lab will be key later on, as will the acquisition of whatever tech weaponry the Gunslinger focuses on. Fighting the kytons, I have no clue if that factors in to the AP at all, but if it does, that's going to be awesome as well... and adding the undead uncle as a later challenge (think an iron golem that can cast spells) will be a powerful moment for them all. I'm likely to be running this AP as the GM, and if the players want to play this party (I think they'll jump at the chance), I'm going to give the orc a cybernetic arm for free.
So, I'm completely hooked on the Iron Gods theme. I'm more than likely going to be running the campaign, but sometimes my group wants me (being the most experienced with the PF rules in the group..not saying much though, you all know MUCH more than I ) to create the characters. If they don't like them.. I intend to use something along these lines as a rival group. There are three players, so we're using a 20 point buy. Party concept (if for PCs) - basically, a disgruntled Technic League member leaves, for whatever reasons (lack of advancement, moral differences..whatever) along with his two friends...if the party is NPC, I'll simply just leave them as part of the League. Character 1 - the party leader, and face, the League member. I'm not sure what class to make him. If he's a PC, I was thinking of Shaman. A really good support class that might have a reason to split from the League. Arcanist works too.. or an Oracle with the Metal mystery? I really don't know. Something that flows with having skill with tech..maybe the charisma Magus? Probably Human. Character 2 - an Orc Barbarian 1 / Fighter (Cyber-Soldier). He was captured by unscrupulous Lastwall crusaders and found himself sold to the kytons underneath Numeria, where he was experimented on and lost an arm..they eventually lost interest in him, and he was set free to wander, where he met the first character..whose mentor in the Technic League saw an opportunity and outfitted him with a cybernetic arm. (I'm giving that enhancement for free) Character 3 - a Gunslinger (Techslinger) Human, the face's no-cares-in-the-world brother who was just a hanger-on in the League due to his brother's successes, but who has a bit of talent of his own, though not having any arcane skill, he is treated with a bit of a stigma..a fact which he secretly resents, and tries to prove himself at every turn, while effecting an "I don't care" attitude. Anything jump out at you as to the first character, what he should be? Both in terms of party gameplay (needs to be the face) and in terms of storyline, to fit with the other two? Any feats I should be taking for the other two?
I feel like Thor would be an aasimar (angel-blooded), like ecw1701 says. Actually that build looks pretty legitimate to me. Oracle and Rage Prophet just fit Thor to me.
I don't see throwing one or two levels of fighter onto a cleric as being a big deal. You're still getting your 9th level spells, and you get two bonus feats, the proficiencies ... overall, it's not a bad deal, IMHO. This is a valid option, especially if there is a weapon proficiency you want, as well. This also comes with a d10 hit dice and a bonus feat(Improved Initiative anyone?). Take Magical Knack as a trait and you won't really even notice. If you take the fighter level at first you'll get 10 hp, which is quite nice.
Okay, stats advice, I would swap your Wis and Cha (unless you want an above average Cha for RP reasons) because +1 to your Will save is going to be more useful than bonuses to face skills, in general. Everything else looks good. For a weapon, I would very strongly suggest something with an 18-20 crit range. Scimitar is the usual choice, I prefer katana. You can use either in two hands to benefit from high strength and Power Attack. The bastard sword will work fine, though. The reason for this is that your spellstrike spells use your weapon's crit range, which is a huge deal when you're going nova with shocking grasp. Yeah, I know you don't want to do it all day but there will be times you want to do it for dramatic damaging effect. But all told, Bastard Sword will work fine. As to the Dragon Disciple, I'm not sure how good it would be with the Magus. Every DD build I've ever made was a Sorcerer / Monk or Barbarian hybrid. Generally, Magus is a class you want to stick with for your whole career. I would recommend the Abyssal bloodline as an alternate ; the eventual +6 Str bonus you get from that is just awesome. There are also wings, too, it's totally win. Plus, you're a tiefling... it fits right? For feats I strongly recommend Power Attack, Arcane Strike, and Weapon Focus. Since you're a spontaneous caster, metamagic gets a bit dicey, but obviously Quicken Spell is going to be worth it eventually. Intensified Spell is good for shocking grasp and fireball. Big Game Hunter is also a solid feat to take eventually. About level 9. For your arcana, Arcane Accuracy, Empowered Magic, and Maximized Magic are awesome, as is Spell Blending, which will greatly bump up your versatility letting you pick up spells outside of the magus list. Well, I hope this has helped some. Post a possible build and we can go through it and refine it!
One piece of advice I could give, is if you have a schedule, to play at the same time in the same place every week / month or however often you plan to play. Make certain that your players have this time set aside for your games. This will save you a LOT of stress playing text-tag with everyone to see if they can make it or whatever. The previous posters' advice is also quite good... hopefully your foray into GM'ing goes smoothly!
Goblins do have a tendency to get squished by adventurers, it's true. And my thoughts on the Undead Lord archetype are the same as ever, you simply give up too much to get a weak companion and a free feat. Necromancer types really get going at about level 5-7, when they can start creating their own skeletons and zombies without any assistance from the GM throwing them in their way. Basically when they can cast Animate Dead is when they start to really shine. I think the build XMorsX posted would be just fine, in any case, the character will be useful as a ranged combatant before level 5 and will continue to be so even later. So getting the Onyx for Animate Dead and the silver dust for Desecrate could be an issue, but I think it can be worked around. Charm Person can make anyone like you long enough to go to the store and buy you some stuff and bring it back to your band skulking in the shadows. Theft is an option, and if threemilechild allows , Profession (miner) could be useful in searching for silver and onyx.
Well, for a half-witted post, this is surely full of good advice. Especially point number 1.
If you're trying to do your descriptions "on the fly" it can be very challenging. I found it helpful to write on index cards beforehand a description of an area the PCs were going to enter, because I do much better when I have a bit of time to plan out what I'm going to say mentally, and that spares me the stress of having to think spontaneously. Sure, you'll still have to do it, but it won't be as stressful if it's only one in a while.
Following this up, Selective Channel is a good feat at low levels, but at higher levels you're probably not going to offensively channel much, and you can probably retrain it into Improved Initiative. The staff of Command Undead is indeed important if you don't get the wonky Law (Inevitable) domain, and it's not that expensive as magic items go. And you're not going to have many other "must-have" items, just make sure you have good armor because you're going to get focused at some point..and if you die, your minions run amok. The feat build xmorsx posted is solid. Archery makes a very good secondary focus for a necromancer cleric.
***************** HI THERE ****************** Without using 3.5 or 3rd party stuff, I would say the Cleric is the best all around option. The Bones Oracle is really good for a low point-buy character since you only need Charisma, but you're a level behind on spell progression compared to a cleric. Be careful with the Juju Oracle. It was reprinted in Faiths and Philosophies without any of its undead-related abilities. If you can take Leadership, take it with another character that can control undead, to double up. For Archetype, I'd say none. There's an Undead Master archetype, but it's really not that great in my opinion. You trade a lot of versatility for a weak undead minion and free Command Undead. Feats, there aren't many besides Command Undead that you absolutely need. And even that can wait depending on the campaign. I'm in Kingmaker and almost level 4 and haven't run into a single undead monster yet. But you definitely want it by level 5, when you get access to your bread-and-butter spell, Animate Dead. Selective Channeling is useful when you're using your channel negative energy offensively at low levels (not recommended at higher levels though) so take that early if you can retrain out of it later on. Improved Channel, you won't really need for skeletons and zombies, but if you're going to be attempting to control intelligent undead, it's a must-have. Improved Initiative is a great feat for any character with a secondary buffing focus like any good necromancer has. You're also going to want the spell Command Undead. That spell is only available to a cleric through the Law(Inevitable) domain (which is kind of crazy), but you can make a fairly cheap magic staff that casts it. Just make sure you invest in the Use Magic Device skill, and that you remember to put a level 1 spell actually on your spell list into the staff, so you can recharge it as needed. Inflict Light Wounds is a good choice for healing your army. Race, really doesn't matter all that much. Just depends on what you want from your character outside of being a master of the undead. Half-Orc and Elf give you weapon proficiencies that are somewhat useful. The Dhampir does indeed have good negative energy interactions. Aasimar buffs both Wis and Cha and is a solid choice. As always, the bonus Human feat and flexible stat bonus cannot be ignored either. If you're going to be attempting to control intelligent undead (not recommended), do not take any race with a Charisma penalty. You'll regret it if you do.
What you need is an investment in these characters as people. Write up a back story for them, where they're from, their family, childhood, significant events that drove them to become adventurers, etc. If you know your DM is doing a certain story, tie your characters TO that story in their background somehow, it will make your DM happy as well as make things come more alive for both of you. Accents are great, to differentiate between talking in character and out of character, but asking yourself "what would my character do?" before taking an in-game action is probably the best way to start. Once you have answered that question, then ask yourself "And why would he do it?" and you start fleshing out a character's personality. Referring to your character by name will help too. Instead of saying "I will attack the orc." Saying "Havendred attacks the orc." will automatically bring to mind an image of your character attacking the orc. That's another small step in making the character become more than just numbers on paper for you. I know that since I've started taking these steps with my Cleric, my enjoyment has doubled at least. I wrote up a two paragraph back story for him, tied it to the campaign we're running, and gave him some quirks and some future hooks and unresolved issues the DM can choose to work into his campaign if he wants (most DMs love doing that kind of thing if it's not terribly distracting from the main story). He woke up after being the slave of a trio of nereids for months along with his friend / mentor, surrounded by bodies of goblins and his friend along with the nereids. And he cannot remember anything from those three months. And now my DM has that story to work with and tie into the campaign if he chooses, and I have a greater sense of who the personality is I'm portraying, why he feels and acts the way he does, and what his goals are. Once you start doing that you might just find yourself growing attached to these collections of numbers on paper and wanting to see how their stories turn out.
I think if you found the right kind of playing group, you would be just fine. By this I mean a group that is more action driven and less so story driven, that tends to play one-shots instead of campaigns. Otherwise, if you need to stick with this group, then you're just going to have to suck it up and fight it. Is it GAMES you switch out, or just characters? If it's just characters you can always try to find characters that do more than one thing well. If it's games, well, I'm not sure what to tell you, lol. Focus on your characters, it sounds like you have a ton of creative energy. Focus on their personalities, their backgrounds, make them come alive, and you will become more invested and interested in them. I wish you luck in your efforts!
If you're going to do that, play an aasimar Oracle of Life instead, and take the aasimar alternate favored class bonus to improve your channeling. With a 15 point buy, it's important to not be MAD and as a channeling cleric you will be. Oracle conveniently requires you only pump your Charisma. So that's a HUGE plus.
Well, the OP didn't say one way or another if changing his race was an option. And I think he could get results that are just fine by sticking with his current race, as long as he focuses on critting with Shocking Grasp and Frostbite. But certainly if he wants to full-on optimize, yeah, the gnome race won't cut it in that arena. I was just stating that there are options for him to pursue even if he wants or has to stay a gnome. No, you can spend arcane pool points on the keen property, it's just that getting your black blade enchanted via mundane means is what I'm pretty sure isn't allowed, since it "enchants" itself as it levels up and if you're allowed to enchant it with Craft Magic Arms and Armor, it ends up far outpacing WBL. There was quite the debate on it some weeks ago. I'd just be leery of always relying on the arcane pool as a bladebound magus, since your pool is limited as-is by that archetype, and the character's INT of 15 isn't amazing and won't overcome that limitation all on its own. That's why I suggested investing the feat in Improved Critical once he meets the prerequisites for it.
I think gnome can be an okay choice for a magus. The alternate favored class bonus is pretty unique in the weapon abilities you can add to your weapon. Yeah, it's small, and yeah it has a penalty to strength but just because it may be a "red" choice in somebody's guide for an optimized magus doesn't mean a gnome can't succeed as one. That said, if you don't really care about the race, and you're allowed to change it, Elves or Humans make the best Magi from a game mechanics standpoint. I think with the character you've created you really REALLY need to rely on critical hits. Magical Lineage (Shocking Grasp) is probably the best thing you could do, but you're level 3 so I don't know if you've picked traits yet. After that you're going to want Intensified Spell at about level 7 or 9, and things like the Empowered Magic and Maximized Magic arcanas. Those will certainly help your "nova" damage. Absolutely take Improved Critical for your weapon at the first opportunity. Normally I would suggest just enchanting it with the keen property, but I'm fairly certain black blades cannot be further enchanted. Also, does your GM just hate you having a sentient weapon, or something? Something is going on there, because A Ninja is right, by rule, the black blade's alignment matches its wielder's. Are you chaotic evil?
You might want to take a look at Trapper Ranger and Freebooter Ranger These two archetypes can be combined to make a very good rogue type, with no AC or spells to monkey around with. That could be what you're looking for? That said, your class sounds a bit underpowered. So it'll be fine. Ranger spells and AC are what puts the class in its powerful state, without those it's just a worse fighter. So yeah it's fine.
I'm not sure how to rate this, but if I did I'd easily give it 1.5 out of 5. Like some of the other Pathfinder Tales novels, it peters out about halfway through. The characters become stale, and things just get really weird at the end. There are a LOT of times where they're talking about how each other smells. Okay we get it. Adventurers need baths. Can we read about something else, please? I picked it up because it was Ed Greenwood, and I like his work in the Realms, but after this, I'm not going to buy anything else with his name on it without a solid recommendation. I don't really even care about the "low level" feel of it, Eberron novels feel low level and I love them. It was more or less character development, a lame dungeon crawl, and an even lamer villain that did this novel in for me. I'm surprised I finished it. Another thing that might or might not be a conscious decision on the part of Paizo, some of these novels feel like they need more room. I know Nightglass felt that way (a book with an amazing first half and a "what the heck??" second half). I think that it would have been a very good trilogy. Golarion needs some recognizable, iconic characters from novels (and I admit I haven't read anything with Jarian and Radovan yet, maybe they will fulfill my want in that regard) that GMs will delight in dropping into their games at some point or another. I know that when I was a teenager and I dropped Drizzt into my Forgotten Realms campaign once as a contact point for my players, it was definitely a memorable occasion. I'd like to see Golarion have characters as beloved as any from the Realms.. I felt like this book was Ed's chance to create such, but did not quite deliver.
Why would a NG character swindle people into believing she was a god? Thats kinda evil. Your damning people into following a false god. Well, if it's a knowing deception, sure. But if the character BELIEVES he's a benevolent god, then he could very well be NG. If he's later faced with the truth and continues the deception, that might be when he starts down the road to corruption. Or he might actually be a godling on the Material Plane for any number of reasons... I don't know the game.
Well, the thing about the Bane Blade arcana is it's flexible. The weapon enchant locks you in to the type. So I can see it being useful..Ghost Blade is situationally useful. I wouldn't think anyone wants Brilliant 100% of the time, which is the great thing about having these as arcana. They're there when you need them and you use something else when they're not needed.
So is channel rage usable once per day or 3+CHA modifier times per day? The ability entry contradicts itself. That's a very strong archetype there. d10 hit dice? Full casting and full rage progression? Man I wish I could play one of those. I'd say your party will be just fine.
I would highly recommend Toughness as an early feat as well. Small HD and only a +1 CON modifier mean that you won't be able to take many solid blows, sure, your high DEX will avoid a lot of that, but one good smash and you're really hurt. Maybe even one shot. Toughness can maybe avoid that for you..
I must agree with the above posters, then. Life Oracle is your best healer, and doesn't need WIS to boot. Also, just because you already have a full paladin doesn't mean you can't have a second. The Holy Gun or Hospitaler archetypes play differently from a normal paladin.
It's a good enough thing to do in Carrion Crown, but from an optimization standpoint a pure Paladin will be more effective, and the angel-blooded Aasimar heritage to go with it. If you're insistent on multi classing this way then yes, three levels of Paladin are where you want to be.
Are you going with aasimar? Or Drow? I must not have seen what race you decided on. I'm pretty sure the Oracle curse will apply Silent Spell to ALL your spells, not just your Oracle ones. I'm guessing you'll be taking a bonded item with your Arcane heritage? I think the only metamagic I'd want would be Quicken. Obviously you'll want Magical Knack for one of your classes, and I always recommend seeing if your GM will let you use the rules from Inner Sea Magic to let you join a spellcasting college. For a fee (300gp four times a year I think) and having to pass some skill checks, you'll advance your caster level by +1 in one class and by +3 in another. This INCLUDES spell access. It's pretty freaking awesome, but your GM might not want to use that source.
If you guys really both are bored, why not try playing each other's characters for a session or two?
If it's just about the RP possibilities for you, go for it. But you're likely going to feel sort of lacking in combat situations, with an anemic BaB and poor spellcasting and an animal companion that is severely underpowered. Ultimately, it sounds like an interesting character to play, even if you're going to take the long road to get there. If your group doesn't mind carrying you in combat, I say, if you like it, play it by all means!!
If I ever play Skull and Shackles... best pirate ship ever.
Hi.. I'd direct you to check out Brewer's guide to Undeath as far as that goes. Basically for combat purposes you want high STR and DEX, special attacks such as pounce or rake translate I believe too. For the most part you want to always make bloody skeletons in a desecrated area, because bloody skeletons regenerate unless destroyed by holy power. They protect your investment... unless the creature is very high HD, or it flies, then you want fast zombies. Normal zombies are pointless, because being constantly staggered is awful. I'd start with some bloody ogre skeletons. Humans aren't worth bothering with in general. The griffons and wyverns would make good fast zombies (especially for a mount).
It's too bad Crossblooded and Wildblooded won't stack by RAW. But if your GM will allow them to, make your sorcerer bloodline crossblooded Draconic / Arcane (Sage). IF (and only if) you can do that, you can dump CHA. It also depends on what flavor of dragon disciple you wish to be. If you want to be the traditional melee monster, and you can use Crossblooded / Wildblooded, I'd arrange my scores like this : STR 15 DEX 14 CON 12 INT 16 WIS 8 CHA 8 with bonuses going to STR or INT as appropriate (though the DD PrC takes care of both scores nicely) If you can't crossblood / wildblood into the Sage bloodline, then I'd consider arranging like this : STR 14 DEX 11 CON 12 INT 10 WIS 8 CHA 16 Obviously the first array will take better advantage of your racial modifiers plus the DD modifiers, so try to talk your GM into that. Alternately you could go Bard, but that's probably going to wind up with much the same array as the second set. In any case, have fun with it!
You can still have a decent WIS with a good CHA (along with other good scores) if you play an aasimar. And a 20 pt buy makes all kinds of things viable. My Aasimar for instance started with STR 11 DEX 14 CON 12 WIS 16 INT 12 CHA 16. If I could have it back though I'd go down to 14 CHA and up WIS to 17. So I'm pretty well set up for archery as a back up plan without sacrificing my skills for being party face or my caster progression.Gravewalker witch and Bones Oracle are both very good minionmancers as well. But ultimately I think Cleric is the best, best spell progression with 3/4 BAB, but Oracles are far less MAD. And Witches have more skill points, so it all depends on what you want to play. The OP seemed pretty set on a Cleric though. Watch out for the Juju Oracle though. It was reprinted in Faiths and Philosophies and there were zero undead related abilities printed in it, a change from a previous printing of that mystery.
It's not really that MAD. And there will definitely be times you're bored of just pointing at things going "maul that for me". Like I said before, this type of character really doesn't NEED a lot of CHA. Even the two Agent of the Grave CHA based abilities don't really justify pumping the crazy into your CHA score. The only two ways that score should be (optimized in my opinion at least) over 14 are if you're an Oracle, or if you're full on channeling focused (which isn't terrible even if it's not OPTIMAL per se). I think the "better" path for a necromancer is focusing on buffs, and debuffs perhaps as well. Just remember that if you're dumping your physical stats landing the melee touch attacks required for some debuffs might be significantly more difficult. Also, this could expose a weak CON score if you wind up bad touching into a melee. If you want to focus on Negative Channeling, that's definitely a thing as well. As for races, I can see all of them being flavorful and interesting for this kind of character. Humans can be motivated by well, anything, a Dhampir could be yearning to be just like his or her vampiric sire, and playing an Aasimar anti-hero is always interesting. Also, if you go with the channeling focus, Aasimar get access to the Channel Force line of feats which let you pull or push anything affected by your damaging channels. Something to think on at least.
Also, I'd like to direct your attention Here for a lot of good tips I used when I made my minionmancer. He's only level 4 at the moment and without an undead retinue thus far, but there are definitely two dead owlbears that will soon be joining the group..
If you're looking to optimize, Aasimar is a very good race for any cleric. I've found that 14-16 Cha is plenty for this type of character, because you don't really need that many uses of your channel energy, and bloody skeletons (which is what you want to be making) won't resist it that much anyways. You're really going to want a back up plan to having minions. It's not that feat-intensive of a path, so you can make a competent archer if you have the bow proficiency from another source. Or you could go with a STR backup plan and wade in with a scythe. In that case I'd prioritize STR > CON > WIS > CHA > DEX > INT. Or in other words, for an aasimar with a 20 pt buy : STR 16 CON 14 WIS 16 DEX 10 CHA 14 INT 8 For a Dex build I might go Human and use an extra feat on MWP : longbow and go STR 10 DEX 16 CON 12 WIS 16 CHA 14 INT 8
A group that really tries to play their characters.. -wistful look- In any case..I would suggest first of all talking to the paladin's player out of character about this and how you want it to resolve. If it's not causing actual "enjoying the game" issues for anyone it could be a fun thing to try to work through. Are you bored with the ranger? It sounds like you're kind of just looking for an excuse to play something else at this point. Make sure your DM is okay with that and won't passively aggressively take it out on a replacement. 1 - This is what you and the paladin player need to discuss out of character. What will be the most interesting and fun for both of you? 2 - not particularly. It's just gravy, honestly anything you replace it with in this group would be fine. an arcane caster might even be better. 3 - Well, how you choose one is based on a few things. If you enjoyed the conflict with the paladin you can pick something sort of the same.. if you want more harmony you can pick something more morally in tune with the rest of the party. Conflict like that CAN be fun in a party if everyone is on board with it, or it can be a source of annoyance. You know the people you're playing with better than I do. From an optimization standpoint, replacing it with a full arcane sorcerer would round out the party pretty well.
Honestly if they're built with the idea that they are only three, it should be fine. If the cleric has some kind of melee capability and a decent CON score that's probably good enough. All three characters are capable of casting summon monster which they should do. The cleric can even take sacred summons. At later levels it will be much less of an issue once they start getting access to mass crowd control spells, it might be you who has the problem keeping up with them. Witch's slumber hex will probably help them survive the early levels (and will be seriously annoying for you). Spells like grease and color spray from the sorcerer will also provide survivability, and at this level a cleric's channel energy is actually pretty relevant. Later on not so much but by then your trio of full casters will be powerhouses anyways. If you're worried about survival, I don't remember off the top of my head but one adjustment I'd make is swapping out anything an enemy has with an X4 crit modifier for something less brutal. In short, I don't think you really need to adjust anything for them, so long as they're careful early on.
Hurling it into a magic-dead zone (or dimension) will presumably prevent it from functioning until it's brought back out. (Why do I suddenly picture a lonely valley in the Mana Wastes chock-full of random objects - statuettes, gems, brooches, cups, rings... Woe to the first guy who drags them all out to hold a yard sale with.) I got 99 problems... and a lich ain't one? Or a lich is all 99, in the case of the yard sale of doom. [QUOTE-"Volkard Abendroth"] My Phylactery is a perfectly innocent 5 year old girl, held in stasis. Quite the quandary for the last paladin that kicked in my door. That's when your resident rogue says "Hey Paladin, over there!! ORC!!!" then ... - coup de gras -. Then celebrates that he actually finally hit something. It's funny, I tried that in a really old Ultima game for NES, walking around and fighting townspeople. More TPKs to a random little girl than to any other monster in that game besides the King (who nintendo power told us had 9999999999 hp or something that would take us all day to kill)
And, what did he do, since he wasn't polite enogh to tell us, other than a blind link to a YouTube video, which is considered well outside the bounds of internet civility?It was an argument from authority (Jim Butcher said it, so it must be true). Basically a thinly-veiled edition war pot shot. To be fair, though, from what I saw at Dragon Con this year there was a LOT of Paizo support, and very little WotC support. I could just have missed it, but I'm pretty sure I combed that place pretty thoroughly. I was kind of hoping to actually try out 4th edition...but I was thrilled to see all the PFS rooms. My friend from Texas who was there with me (and is a 4e player) was very impressed with the Paizo support, and with the panel we went to with Keith Baker and Jason Bulmahn. Baker for one sounded a bit soured on WotC, though he's too nice a guy to actually throw them under the bus.
I'd have to agree with Krodjin here. Once you figure out where you want to play, pick up the player companion and campaign setting books for that area. Some of the other books like Lost Empires really give you a sense of Golarion's history, and cover more than one region. Cities of Golarion is another one in that mold. For more character options, I really like Inner Sea Magic (which also has a who's who of spellcasters in the Inner Sea, very nice) and Paths of Prestige, which offers some very flavorful Golarion-centric prestige classes from different regions.
Make sure the GM of this game is in the "Weird Words can be concentrated onto one target" school of thought. The language in UM is very ambiguous about whether or not each word must target a separate creature, and there is controversy around it. I'm not sure if it was ever addressed in a FAQ. If the GM rules that each word must target a separate target, well, the archetype kind of loses most of its appeal.
Yeah, a Heavens Oracle would be pretty cool. Or you could totally surprise everyone with a Battle Oracle, haha. But I like your concept of the Heavens. I honestly would love the mystic theurge idea for you if you were starting at a higher level, AND if your GM pre-approved you joining a spellcasting guild, from the supplement Inner Sea Magic. Basically you pay 300 gp every so often (4x a year I think?) and make a few checks, and you get +1 caster level in one class, and +3 in another. And that comes with spell access. Also the trait magical knack gives +1 caster level too, so if you could have all of those things, Mystic Theurge could be pretty awesome for you. It's a LOT of book keeping though with all those spells..and it's pretty much your only class feature, so it can get boring. the Witch is certainly a great class, but it's VERY easy to "break" and make a GM very annoyed with you. I'm talking about the Slumber hex and the Ice Tomb hex. Both of these tend to just break entire encounters. Diving straight into Pathfinder with all of its attendant options can be really overwhelming coming from where you're coming from. A bit of indecisiveness is expected :) I truly think you'll be happy with an Oracle though. Depending on the sorcerer build, another blaster could be useful, so the Flame oracle wouldn't be out of place whatsoever. Just be aware that Fire is the most common resistance and immunity for creatures to have in Pathfinder (if you commit yourself to this route, a level of >>>> THIS <<<< is wholly appropriate to switch your elemental properties a few times a day. And any type of oracle is going to be a competent healer... Life Oracles from what I've heard absolutely win the "best healer in Pathfinder" competition, though. if your husband builds his alchemist with the Infusion discovery, he'll be able to pass out healing spells in advance to other people, so, yes, they sort of can heal.
Discordant Voice will make this party squeal with glee too. |