Besides going the Magus route, and buying/building a weapon able to unleash spells through crafting, is there a means by which a wizard can cast spells through a weapon?
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Hey guys, a friend of mine showed this to me, and though I love the idea behind it, I know it's not really worth taking, but I like the whole shooting arrows from the sky and being allied to a gryphon. What are your guys thoughts on this?
I'm not understanding how someone could optimize something like this.
You use a one-handed weapon to deal damage, and it's the only weapon you use. I mean, I could understand if you combound it with a dex-based magus, but even then, that's wasting feats. Would someone mind explaining how this feat could be useful?
My level 5 Paladin was from the great green forests of Shadowdale, in the world of Fae'run. He's been through one of the Zhent invasions, defended the Dales for a time, was sucked into Ravenloft to fight a giant cursed flame effigy and a few werewolves, came back out and found the zhents had taken back the dales, but was sucked into Ravenloft yet again to fight an undead lord and his minions. And then, to finish it off, was chucked back out into Shadowdale where the zhents have been precariously mopped out. The end result? I don't know. He's witnessed a goddess' wrath upon an entire city, a corpse prior to cremation reawaken into undeath, was comrade to a horse that almost betrayed him to a lord he did not even know the name of, and is not quite sure where home is anymore. Ten years of time he was forced to skip, so though his comrades are still around, they do not remember him nor his name. A wizard once blessed him with permanent Comprehend Languages, but after understanding everything that was ever spoken to him, he wants the spell gone, for some secrets are best left hidden. Yet, the wizard is no where to be found. This is one of my first characters and even though he's only level 5 and has been around for 6+ years, he means quite a bit to me. With that being said, I'm writing his background and all that he has experienced as a measure of how much I, as a player of d20 games, have changed over the years. There is still one piece of my character's story, though, that I'm trying to hammer out, and I'm not sure if my idea is too cliche, so that's why I'm running it by you guys. The focal point of my character is a shield he found on his most recent adventure, and though the shield is a mighty bit overpowered, it's really the only magical thing on him. (seriously, the only other magical item he had was a +2 greatsword and that broke on his first run through Ravenloft...uh...when he was level 3). Shield of Tactics
My paladin obtained it after he last returned to Shadowdale, and I wish for there to be a story behind it. With that being said, the idea I have for it is rather wonky, and I'd like your guys' thoughts on it. The shield is a relic from an unknown order that transcends the multiverses. Using its own magic to transport him to other realms, the shield tested the paladin to measure his sense of character, and afterwards, has found him worthy. Since then, my paladin has been serving as a protector of those the shield wishes he serve. On top of that, the shield has a soul within it and has since been a mentor to him while my paladin processes the good and evil that he has witnessed over the two decades of his life. Lore, my paladin, was originally from 3.5, so I'll also be converting him to Pathfinder. He may or may not be seen wandering the Inner Sea, but I'd very much like to prepare him for an event such as that, hence why I'm looking to you guys' on advice for the above generic background. In advance, I thank you guys for your help in this, and I look forward to future discussions.
How does one build one? What race would you guys go with? What feats would you choose? How would you optimize this? Edit: Yes, I know it's not PFS legal, but this is outside of PFS, and I'm kinda thinking about designing one, just not sure where to start, because there's a lot you can do with it.
So, my very first character in the DnD scene was a cleric that I'd made 6 years ago, and seeing as he might be used in the next couple months, I'd like to convert him over. The problem is, none of the feats he has are translatable to pathfinder, and even if they were, my DM (with newfound experience) has banned all 3.5 feats. Also, the feats from before don't apply anymore because pathfinder doesn't have them. So, here's what I've got. Human Cleric 6
Str 15
The above stats are unmodified by the race rules, so they're pretty much straight from the rolling block. And yes, those are the rolls I made 6 years ago, minus the constitution roll. My character died 5 times, hence why his Con is so low. Chalk it up to people in my group doing stupid stuff, and I'd have to sacrifice myself to fix what they had done. I learned a little late about that, and since then, they've learned how to keep themselves alive. In any case, I can't switch the rolls around, but I have access to all pathfinder feats, skills, archetypes and such. Oh, and yes, I can use other archetypes. Think of this as creating a level 6 cleric right off the bat. Any ideas of what I can do with this? This is what I currently see that he can't do.
That leaves
I very much don't want to do healbot, and support got really annoying what with my friends not really knowing how to utilize something like stoneskin, so I'm giving up on that. The problem I see with a caster cleric is their inability to cast offensive spells with multiple elements. I can go with elemental domains, but that hampers my capabilities as a cleric. I could go with a buff cleric, but again, my allies don't know how to utilize what I can give, so, what are your guys' thoughts?
Drow
Str 13
Feats:
ARTs:
Questions:
The above race and classes are the ones I've chosen. Please, no banter about how much rogues suck. I don't care. Let's all keep this productive. Thank you in advance.
I have access to all PF books, no 3rd edition books, and I'd prefer to stick to the core races. I'm aiming for something none of my friends have done before, which is a rogue-esq mage. I know it's not optimal going the multiclass-into-Arcane Trickster Route, but I'll go with it if it's the only real route for such a thing. To more define the character I'm envisioning, here's a bit about him:
Any tips? Edit: I'd like to focus upon sorcerer or wizard builds. Other classes like the magus, bard, and witch are...okay, but I'd prefer the first two more so. If the wizard can be done, that'd be even better.
Zen Archer or Divine Hunter?
Has someone out there compiled a list of offensive spells without saving throws? Edit: Arcane spells! Sorry...arcane spells
So...um...my friends and I did a personality test a while back, and turns out this upcoming campaign, we're all making characters based off of who we are in the test. The problem is...I'm a loaner. Like, I spend time with other people online doing stuff, and sure, I work with others at work and associate with people at local events, but beyond all of that reasoning, the test said I'm a loner, which brings me to the question of, how does one design a loner in pathfinder? I can understand how Paladins would be the biggest of them all, but, really, any of the classes could be designed as such. Now, here's the kicker. The campaign I'm playing in involves us later on being the leader of some faction, country, nation, or something, and I'm not sure how a loner could lead a country. I mean, I know someone somewhere in history was a loner, but I've never heard of such a person, and I don't quite know what to do. Right now, all I'd like is a general skeleton theme to work with, like, he had tons of siblings, but much rather preferred studying in his room or whatever. As a result, he became a wizard of sorts. But that's just a small example. What ideas can you guys think of?
Is it possible to be a human bard, and have the catfolk FCB? Is there a way to be one race but use a FCB from a different race?
Level 1 Human Crossblooded Sorcerer (Fey+?) Str 13
Feats (if dm allows):
Feats (if dm doesn't allow):
Traits:
Questions:
For combat, I will be fully reliant on spellcasting. I don't want to use a lance or other weapon since spells are generally more powerful than weapon damage, and I'm not really aiming for a gish here. If anything, I'll be controlling the battle while on top of the mount. This is in reference to this thread.
Okay, this is not a bash thread. I don't care about opinions or biased outlooks on your favorite class. I want to know the pros and cons of a sorcerer, and the pros and cons of an oracle. Facts compared to facts. Anyone willing to contribute? (Thank you in advance)
Lately, we've all been seeing the topic of paladin throughout the forum, and although, I may not be an expert, there are a couple ways that I do know one can be lawful good. - Donate to orders/communities/societies that are Lawful Good
Now, here's what I'm working with. My group tends to be more neutral and chaotic, whereas I'm one of the few lawful's in the group by nature. In fact, the only alignments I play are Neutral Good and Lawful Good. I know, I know, there's no flavor in my characters. That's what everyone else says. I simply don't like playing douchebag-esq characters, nor do I like being evil. It's just who I am, and they have all accepted that. On the other hand, the campaigns that I often play in are no where near black and white, so when it comes to making good vs. evil decisions, often times I have to spend half an hour arguing with the group about it because I genuinely want to help people, but I feel as if I've been stuck in a corner. Adding on to that are the friends that I play with who prefer gray in everything they do. I love black and white. I love knowing that my helping people makes the world a better place. But when the game reflects the aspect of real life where people lie, cheat, backstab, and take advantage of your assistance to better their own agenda, it gets rather rough. I'm not saying all of the games I've played in have been like that, nor am I saying the world is a horrible place. In fact, the last campaign I was in involved a giant black phylactory in the sky, and I had the pleasure of killing as many evil things as I possibly wanted. At the same time, though, the people we were serving ended up being evil, the elves turned out to be an ego driven race with a superiority complex that enslaved lycanthropes for half a millenia, and one of our characters made a deal with an evil guy involving a gift if the character set the evil dude free. Thankfully, I wasn't playing a paladin at the time. One way of lessening the challenge of being a paladin that my dm has done is allow for paladins to be of different alignments. For example, if you want to be a do-gooder and wish to worship Sarenrae, you can be Chaotic Good, and so long as you follow her dogma and the LG protocol, you're fine. At the same time, that kind of ruins the pleasure I get from being a paladin because, rather than being a knight in shining armor as one might invision one would be from mythology, instead, I'm a knight who serves everyone but fights against the very laws that set his morality in place. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if a paladin is held to a code of conduct, that's a law, and if a Chaotic Good Paladin holds himself to a law, that's against his nature, so neither can be possible. It all just seems backwards to me, but hey, the dm says it works, and I don't like arguing. With all of that being said, I'm battling with myself over playing a paladin, my favorite class, with the friends I've known for 7+ years because I don't want to ruin their experience, but at the same time, I wish I could play without repercussions. If I played a paladin every game, I'd lose my powers within half an hour because I'd be letting everyone do things that a LG would not originally let them do. Either that, or I'd have to leave the group because my way of playing d20 games doesn't mix well with the people I play with. What are your guys' thoughts? Is there something I'm doing wrong? Any and all advice is welcomed.
Seize the Initiative (Su): Whenever you and your allies roll for initiative, you can grant one ally within 30 feet the ability to roll twice and take either result. This decision is made before results are revealed. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier. Because of the wording, does this mean you cannot apply this to yourself?
So, I've got the idea of the character out as a Demon-Spawn Tiefling Archaeologist with claws and bite, and I've been looking for ways to full-attack during a charge, but so far, I've only found barbarians and summoners to do that. Is there any means by which a bard can pounce?
Okay, Farg down there showed me the Demon-Spawn, Adopted (Half-Orc) into Toothy combo, and I got a bit curious. If I go cleric or paladin, get the channel smite feat, and utilize negative energy, do I designate all three attacks as smiting and use three costs of channeling, or do the rules say I choose smite for my attacks and it costs one? I'm super curious about this...
I'm working on a melee bard build, and I'm not sure how to go about it. I like the Archaeologist archetype, and would very much like to work with it, but I'm not sure how to optimize it beyond taking Arcane Strike and Fate's Favored. So far, I've narrowed down the race options I have to the following: Half-Elf: Add 1 to the half-elf's total number of bardic performance rounds per day.
The reason why I listed the favored class bonuses is because I'm conflicted. On one side, I would have endless AL with an exotic weapon proficiency in greatsword or something, while in the other hand, I could have an increased AL bonus sooner, along with truespeaker and other various racial traits. What are your guys' thoughts? My stats are: 10, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18 (not a point buy. these were rolled.)
Odd question: Weapon Finesse replaces str with dex when applied to swinging weapons. Is there a way to replace str with dex for damage besides using the grace enhancement on weapons?
I recently started dming, and I'm finding a pattern that keeps repeating itself. I look at what my group did during our last session, create the dungeons and events and whatnot, and then, when we get to the actual game, everything changes. They go down one road for a bit, and then take an immediate left turn. And then, when I improvise because I wasn't prepared for their actions, and I do it decently, they go a completely different direction, and then I have to improvise again. The reason why I have options for quests and stuff in my games is because too often I find video games railroading people into one story line and it ends up being rather tedious, or straight boring. As a result of my style of gameplay, though, I'm unable to keep up with my players as they change everything that I'd planned for. Here's an example: The group enters a town, finds a taskboard with three missions on it, and go after one of them. They go out, finish the quest, and somehow find a big baddy they were supposed to take on three levels later (or 7 sessions later), go after him, and kill him. Now, I have to create a chain of events that came about because of their slaughtering the demi-bbeg. On the flip side, a friend of mine with dm experience came to me the other day and told me that I should stick to railroading for a bit. Every ounce of me sees that as just giving me, and that I should just keep trying, so, naturally, I'm conflicted. What are your thoughts?
Here's the situation: Summoner Charger build with a Eidolon that can fly.
The question is: Can the two charge during their ride-by/flyby attacks and continue their movement afterwards, or does their move stop at the creature struck? The reason why I ask this is because charging is a full-round action, and you can't really move, use a standard as your charge attack, and continue the move after...right? I'm kinda confused on how the above feats synergize with charging.
I saw this and was curious how one would go about optimizing Waterstrike. Like the title says, this is not for PFS. I'm just wondering what you guys would do with this.
I was talking with a friend of mine about animal companions, and somewhere along the line, the conversation took a look at diminutive and tiny animals as possible friends in crime. They'ed be cool for the simple cuteness and awesomeness of it, like, who wouldn't want a hamster as a pet? Or hedgehogs. 20th level druid comes around with a hedgehog that kicks royal butt, haha. But here's the problem. When you first get them, they're tiny...or diminutive. They have no health, contribute nothing to combat, and are generally weak in every sense of the word. So, I'm asking what you guys would do to bring a creature whose CR is lower than 1, up to par. Any ideas are completely welcome. :D
I keep reading about how natural attacks and unarmed strikes can be made magical and that bypasses damage reduction, but I don't understand how. For example, +3 weapon enhancements bypass cold iron and silver. +5 bypasses alignment based stuff. The thing I don't see, though, is the +x variable for natural magical attacks and unarmed strikes. How do magic natural and unarmed attacks bypass damage reduction, and if they do, which types of DR do they bypass? DR/Magic seems like the only one it's applicable to, and if so, that means the barbarian pouncing build, and pretty much everything else out there dependent on magic attacks becomes a rather weak strategy. On top of that, how do magic natural attacks bypass stuff like silver, adamantine, piercing, and everything else?
I know someone somewhere saw this and wanted to optimize into the feat, so, I'm asking you guys for what you've found as far as pushing this feat further. So far, I've got:
Suggestions? (Thank you in advance)
Here's the situation: Ever since I started playing d20 style games (about six years ago), I've played characters from level 1 to around 7. Never have any of my friends stuck to a campaign long enough for me to level up to 8 or higher, and it's rather frustrating. I like caster type classes, especially the wizard, but the problems I keep running into is my characters are lack luster. At low levels, who does battle control? The Grappling Monk
I've thought of character concepts that theoretically work, but when I use them, my group blows them out of the water by utilizing a strategy that essentially makes my character useless. For example, I once made a level 6 gish for a pf-converted ravenloft game out of the oracle class. One of my friends got a ranger, talked with the dm so he could sacrifice all of his starting gold for an enchanted quiver of unlimited +3 arrows. At that point, any attempt I made was pitiful because my other friends bought him a basic mighty composite longbow, and his damage output skyrocketed. So, here's what I'm asking: What goes through your guys' heads during character creation? What process do you all utilize to make a functioning character from level 1 to level 20, and how do you make it so that that character contributes a lot to the group through its specialty? Do you capitalize on the flaws of Pathfinder, or is there an actual thought process you guys go through in order to make characters that are both fun and fulfilling?
I'm not understanding why people play gestalt characters. Is it to fill a gap in the group's defenses, to add a new flavor, or what? All I've seen for years is that they are overpowered, monstrosities of mayhem and cheesy min/maxawedginess. In fact, the most powerful character one of my DMs had three years worth of trouble with was a cleric/wizard who took advantage of the opportunity. Now, I'm hearing about sysnthesist/clerics who use the DMM feat chain from 3.5 Why...are we doing this?
May I get your guys' thoughts on this one? I'd like to use her in one of my personal campaigns, but would like your opinions on her before I implement her. Converted her to the forum. Look below for her info.
Here is... Reach: You use a reach weapon to strike opponents 10 feet away, but you can't use it against an adjacent foe. Now, here is...
So, my question is, with a reach weapon, you can swing at creatures ten feet away from you, but by the rules above, a creature that moves into a space adjacent to you wouldn't give you an AoO because you can't swing at him, or does he? This is in response to the Reach Guide I read a few days ago. Any clarification on this would be awesome. Thank you in advance
I really like the idea of wielding two handed weapons in one hand. Yes, I know that mechanically, the minuses make min/maxing this a bit hard (like a lot), but I ran across the bard archaeologist archetype, and saw a bit of synergy. But first things first, I need some clarification. Rage starts as a free action, and Archaeologist’s Luck starts as a swift action, so, can you activate them in the same round? I just want to make sure of this because there might be some rule I don't know about that you guys might.
I'd like to DM in the near future, and what with the Christmas season giving me a good amount of time to plan (since everyone else is busy with god knows what), I see this as a great opportunity to get myself situated. The problem is, I'm kinda overwhelmed. See, the group is going to start somewhere in Aglarond (Faerun) and there's a couple (or seven) events currently going on at the same time. 1) In between Aglarond and Thay is a marsh with undead and stuffs in it. The undead experiments from Thay usually get lost or wander off and go through the marsh to attack Aglarond, but the Aglarondian patrols have it well taken care of...that is unless a necromancer finds a way to create unrottable undead. 2) Elves in the middle of a forest two thousand years ago created a demiplane because half elves were taking over their forest. They went up to the demiplane, (fast forward to now) and now creatures from outer space are killing them and taking over their demiplane. 3) Aglarond is right next to a gigantimoose lake...that has pirates...nuf said. 4) The cities to the west are full of humans which dont much like half-elves, so human haters (of the radical kind) might be prone to action. And the list goes on. I'm a new DM, and I'm just not sure where to start. I can create a bunch of base quests, but there's SO much going on, it's crazy. Oh, and the last (and favorite of this whole story) bit is that the Simbul has recently passed away (think insane sorcerer/wizard who was the mate to Elminster), so Aglarond currently has no queen...nor king. So, yeah. Not sure where to start. Any ideas?
I've been playing a cleric for a little over 5 years now, and I believe I've lost my patience. A good majority of the time I play with my group, everyone goes wizard, rogue, fighter, or anything except for cleric. The person stuck healing is usually me, unless I harp on someone enough to the point where they make a character so I can do my own thing. Well, everyone in my group thinks of clerics as healbots, and I'm sick of it. Additionally, if no one wants to be a cleric, no one gets heals, and I end up getting pissed because no one knows simple strategies for mitigating damage. This last adventure we did involved a battle cleric that I'd built for beating the crap out of things, and I dare say, he's done quite a fine job. When he can't do the job, he buffs someone else so they do their job even better. But when someone gets reduced to 7 health out of 71 and gets pissed at me because I'm not healing them, my question back to them is always, "what did you do wrong to get into this situation?" Tonight, someone got the nerve to say, "We all think you're a worthless cleric because you can't keep anyone alive." Bare in mind, I've been healing 7 out of the 12 campaigns we've run into, and I've pulled stuff literally out of no where to keep them alive. I love being the go to guy that everyone knows can heal and heal well, but looking at the Pathfinder Cleric and the options a cleric has for combat, I realized really quickly that a cleric that isn't a bandaid is a heck of a lot more useful than one who is. How do I prove to my group that a battle cleric is more useful than a bandaid?
Before I say anything, thank you MasterOfTheDarkTriad, DragonchessPlayer, and Dustyboy for planting the idea in my head. The following build has the goal of achieving as many attacks per round as possible while dealing masses amounts of damage. The group already has a party buffer, but no one sees the usefulness of Enlarge Person, so that's why I took one level in cleric for the domain. Race: Kasatha (has four arms) Base Stats are as follows (dm rolled them out)
Titan Mauler 2/Crusader of Growth (Cleric Archetype) 1/Fighter for the rest of it 1 - Multiweapon Fighting
Estimated Weapons: 4 +1 Falchions Penalties first:
Bonuses second:
Result:
Damage per swing (assuming Double Slice is in there): 2d6+18 per successful hit Any thoughts? 
As soon as I saw the feat Cloud Gazer, which applies to Sylph characters, I was thinking of a Master Summoner build utilizing it. The problem I'm having is Obscuring Mist isn't one of the spells on the Summoner spell list, so, I was wondering if you guys knew of a means of gaining Obscuring Mist and related spells through feats, traits, or something.
This thread is a continuation of the following:
------------------------------------------- The vision I have is of a dwarf who feels the gods aren't gods but actually lower beings who attained great power through others giving it to them, or by taking it away from those who already had it. This power they have is used unwisely, and therefore, my dwarf wishes to kill them so that he might re-establish a proper pantheon of higher beings to rule the planes. So far, two builds have my interest.
#2 - Dwarven Cleric of Madness
Now, seeing as both builds are quite powerful in their own respects, I'd like to see if we could combine them. The Madness domain directly correlates to the ability scores of this character (14, 14, 15, 16, 17, 17), so that leaves the feats open for the summoning strategy. The before mentioned scores for the abilities are just numbers and can be placed anywhere, so feel free on changing, mixing, and matching them as you see fit. Here is what I have to work with: All pathfinder content (no dnd 3.5 conversions) and 2 traits
As in my previous thread, I will accept all constructive criticism, ideas, suggestions, and anything relevant to my goal: creating a lawful evil dwarf bent on killing gods. Anything that does not fall under the above mentioned criteria of helpfulness will be ignored. Thank you all for your help thus far, and I look forward to working with you all. Let the brainstorming begin.
So, here's the deal. I'm trying to build an evil character, and since I've been playing nothing but Lawful Goods and Neutral Goods for the past six years, I don't quite know how to make one. Thus far, I've been able to think of Lawful Evil for the alignment, and I don't want him worshiping any deities. Rather, this character is kind of a perversion of my own beliefs. He hates all higher beings, believes that they have the ability to make choices just as humans, elves, and the rest of the midget folk out there do, too (yes, dwarves, you're included), and have failed to help earth bound peoples, so he plans on wiping them out. Anywho, I was thinking a Lawful Evil cleric for this one just because I don't like being a band-aid, and when people look at me and think "Sweet! We have a healer!" they're quickly going to realize the monstrosity that I am. I'd love to go with a save-or-die build, but, again, most save or die spells for clerics are will based (please, oh please prove me wrong and show me how this could be viable). I was thinking about necromancer, but that's so damned tedious, and a higher level cleric in the party could easily get rid of them (by mistake). Lastly, I was thinking about a summoning cleric. Not summoner. I'm looking at you Dark Tapestry Domain and the sexy beast you are...well, at least you make stuff happen once a day. That's pretty cool. When it comes to the race, I'm okay with going human, but I would prefer something else for a change. Mechanically, if my character can become immortal by his own powers growing, then, sure, I'll go human, but otherwise, long-lived races are my priorities. So, we end up with:
The numbers for my stats are as follows and they can be placed anywhere.
STR: 14
Again, they can be switched around to whatever needs being changed or whatever feels preferable for the above two builds. Thank you in advance for your assistance, and anything falling under the "not-constructive-criticism" category will be ignored, although, any suggestions/ideas/productive-comments are welcome. :)
~Before I say anything else, I am new to Pathfinder, but I've been playing D&D for some time now. I am familiar with how spells work, how combat works, dice rolling, sunder, trip, stun, wish spells (and why not to wish), etc.~ Here's the situation. I've played cleric in every MMORPG, RPG, board game, and RP forum. I like playing clerics because of what they can do. They can summon, buff, holy smite, debuff, and go in with a giant hammer of their deity that has a big "YOU JUST GOT PWNED!" decal on the side of it. I like knowing I'm needed. It's what I do for a living anyways (no, seriously, I work at a hospital.) Although, for the past five years that I've been playing with my friends, I've been relied on to heal them, and there's SO MUCH MORE TO A CLERIC THAN BEING A BAND-AID! So, here is where I come to you guys. I need help building the most powerful none-healer cleric I possibly can, so that I can prove to my friends that we don't absolutely have to have a designated healer every time we go into battle. I have access to all books, except 3rd party script. My group worships Sarenrae, although, I don't have to stick to her if I don't want to (I don't want to. I hate worshiping deities. They pinhole me into things I don't want to do. My last cleric worshiped two gods and was stuck as an emissary between two faiths. Do you know how much that sucked? A lot.) My roll for stats are as follows. 10
The character will be starting level 3.
Any ideas, tips, concepts, productive comments will be graciously received and welcomed. Thank you in advance. |