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1) Anyone running a system like P1 will be stronger in one part than another, lead with your strengths and ask the table if anything else is taking away from the overall vibe. 2) PC’s should win at harder challenges as they level up, combat is just part of that. How they win, what they are winning for, and the outcomes of their wins are in the control of the main story master. Maybe using all the power that they have amassed for further good (or evil) is the next challenge. 3) Don’t fight the power game with more power, but if you do, ask the table first how they feel about harder challenges with the possibility of ‘failing forward’ where their larger objective gets harder with each combat lost, but the rewards increase. Then plan the plot points accordingly.
So we went over to my new BFF's house and boy her dogs have funny wings and POWERFUL breath, but they were so cute we had to stop and play. It didn't seem like she was home, or the sounds of her puppies exploding didn't seem to be worth her time, but we decided to go in anyways and say hello. She kept a weird weird dancing bear that also went EXPLODE! but we kind of suspected that by now, so we cleaned house for a little while on the first floor wings, but thought it was rude to bust in through to doors to her throne room, so we decided to drop in from above! There was a really nice and shiny man who didn't seem like he would want to harm us, so we harmed the mean old man hiding nearby but he went POOF! and our shiny friend went POOF! and we went on through the house. It was probably rude not to keep knocking, but every other room it seemed like something was lurking in wait for us, so we snuck first and when we could, we lurked on them instead. In one room we did find a friend with a low will save who started to talk to us but his head went BOOM! the second he mentioned our friend's name, so we stopped talking to him. And using her name. We saw lots of strange friends including our Witch friend we spied on while she was spying on us months before, but she didn't want to talk, so she died. But I hope she comes back so we can talk some more. It's odd but a lot of friends I meet die and don't want to come back to life even when by the laws of magic they should. Then we went upstairs and met a lot of things that we couldn't look at, so I stopped using my eyes and started using my ears, but my companions didn't know how to do this yet, so I killed A LOT of things that kept attacking us. And a dragon, and more monsters, and more things that wanted to play die tag. Then we found the room with all of the books that made our friend crazy, or she went crazy making. Turns out you can make a world of your own imagination and hide there, which I find strange, cause you can always invite more friends over to play imagination, or go to their place and play imagination together, so that's what we did. I hope I can out imagine her, and I bet I can, but there's a chance her head could explode and that would be silly since she is the one we came to visit! Meanwhile, our control of the magic land surrounding her house/castle of horrors became complete, we sent word to our Friend Killing fleet to arrive at the new coordinates and wait in case we don't ever come out, then facilitated the liquidation of our kingdom's assets since she probably wants to play with our things, but that's not fair, so our toys are being sold to pay for an ever-war in case the Friend Killer fleet gets killed too. I really don't understand why people come up with these games, but like so many things in this Second World, they just go over my head. Maybe I should do the mail-in order for those Enlarge Person pills I keep getting told about. Oh well, just another day Gnome Anne could believe!
Hiyall! I'm looking for a deity for a disgruntled healer/fighter that wouldn't smite one of their own followers for calling all of the deities of all of the pantheons 'sky-wizards' or 'magical overlords' or 'specialized and stylized warriors of the highest level stuck in a small town setting'. Alignments flexible, but character is definitely jaded or naturally cynical.
Right there with you. This sheet has been in use for a long, long time and uses the rules as you see them written. It also provides nice visuals for town building as well as pages for sorting and optimizing future builds! (I too sort my ducks by age, height, weight, and serial number — and those not numbered are sent for DNA analysis then sub-sorted again!) just download and click around until it makes sense! (Or post I suppose, I’ll likely see it quickly.)
Btw, Totem Beast is a great feat to support the AnC here since it goes off of the companions HD. Benefit: Select one animal aspect from the list presented in the hunter class’s animal focus class feature. ... Your animal companion gains the benefits of the selected animal aspect, treating its Hit Dice as its effective hunter level for this ability.
"Ok, ok, journal time to catch up now that time has paused itself for a rest. Dmitri has feathers now -- normal -- has killed two more dragons now -- normal, but get this! He laughed at my last joke! I think my humor is finally starting to rub off on him unlike the ink that slipped in his tea last week. Oh, and King Charles has gotten better and better at stabbing things with his pointy stick, which is even now pointier and keen and can even go snicker-snack! And High Priest Talerrio has gotten over his diametrically opposed planar magic yips! Yay! "Our plan is also working. The thousands of entombed spirits screaming softly for all eternity are really not so bad once they know that you are there to listen -- and not even to solve their problems for them -- but simply know that their incorporeal essence of suffering is finally just being seen. Well, sensed. Well, seanced into a powerful ceremony that can rip apart the binding of planar fabric to the will of our friend who keeps trying to kill us! We'll see her soon tho. "I also asked myself something rather sad as well when we had a chance to catch up, whether this current quest for perfection was still any fun. I can say that it takes a logarithmic approach to tally my aura points anymore, but that feels less like the point. I've lifted hundreds of thousands out of poverty, fed millions of the poor and needy all over lands far and near, and set in motion on the fields of Casmaron an empire that will span the globe for thousands of years, but I kept making mistakes along the way. "I'm thinking of going back and doing it again one last time, but the people along the way seem to think things are great. At the last bored meeting, the executives told me that Sellazon's revenue will top 15bn by the end of the 4th quarter, but that's what they said last time the 4th quarter approached but they just keep laughing when I ask them when do we actually win this game?! Dmitri is on the bored now tho, so maybe he can take over. I'm losing aura just thinking about it. "Willow has also started to grow up, it was like it was yesterday before that cataclysmic event aged her a decade, but I miss being able to lift her up. I guess that's what magic and spellcrafting is for. I hope she doesn't mind that this whole 'saving the world' thing is for her, but for as much as I reflect on the various tomes of Perfection, I can't escape that its the imperfection of her soul being a shard of repurposed planar essence that makes her who she is. Such a sweet child. And also a really great pilot aboard the Tide. Who knew that a wunderkind changeling witch of unspeakable intelligence would possess such grace behind the wheel of a flying skiff. "Oh well, no time like the present to get things started again -- and no present like a little extra time!"
"We finally caught up with each other! Losing track of myself for just a spat isn't new, but a few millennia out of touch with yourself will put anyone on edge. At least I can say I aged gracefully! The other companions this time were as expected: the knight, the priest, the scoundrel, and me, but for some reason the trickster type was less cowardly and more a literal chicken. (It's pleasant I can still surprise myself!) The objective was the same, undo my meddling in the fabric of planar essence and the being of malice and ill which I brought forth can be reborn, etc. etc. etc. but you should see the needlework new me has mastered! Such fantastic clothes! "In this attempt we are using lunar alignments along the paths of the dark tapestry as they wind themselves through the Stolen Lands with my double stitch, not a cross hatch -- not novel as an approach to altering fate I must say -- but her skipping of the ninth stitch this time truly seems to hold promise as the anchoring thread buried deep within this world's moon will continuously rethread itself, ending inevitably at the beginning. "I can't tell them that this won't result in an instantaneous change, but rather, the gradual unwinding of each century from the last to when I began first this wretched endeavor. Welcome news seeing the crisis of AR 4720 is only half a decade away in their timeline! But like a vintner set to retire at the end of season with only a few winters left in them, they will never taste the fruit of their present labor. "And now I understand why past me didn't receive the letter I forgot to send. Intermediate me could have done us all a favor by stopping by with a reminder. Paradox be damned! But still, if they are ready to watch kingdom after kingdom stripped of power and grace, setting each stone back upon stone for century on end, these four will have done what an odd twenty four-fold have yet to accomplish, ending the constant suffering of the Stolen Lands -- not for once and last or temporarily as each king and queen has sought to do -- but for all of temporality. Here's hoping that Time and Tide still wait for Gnome Anne!"
Table Variation / Social Expectations is the name of the game when it comes to my use of these builds, but I also use boon companion with a class that doesn't have full AnC progression such that a GM who doesn't approve of the grouping logic doesn't allow the feat to apply. I think I have an earlier post somewhere...
GMA: If the target is a creature, you can also alter how the creature registers to arcane sight, making the creature appear to have or not have spellcasting or spell-like abilities, whether those abilities are arcane, divine, or psychic in nature, and the strength of the most powerful spell or spell-like ability they currently have available for use. Similarly, you can alter the way the target appears when viewed with greater detect magic, causing the last spell that he cast to seem to be any spell of your choice.
Letters next to your name saying you Piled it Higher and Deeper!
Aside from the practical demonstration of casting a high level spell, how would you determine that a wizard has mastered the conceptual framework of their craft and guarantee that the work is their own, with no outside help or input from notes or others of any kind? Lead lined walls? Telepathic silence? What is everything that is needed to give a secure exam to a wizard (spell level by spell level)?
Book V of Kingmaker ends with a airship fight against the BBEG, a dragon, linnorm, and giant! Just as these were settled, the machine built to control cross planar incursion overloads, piercing the reddened sky with a beam of pure light. We wake rested on the ship in a strange land. The plane itself seems to be railroading us, but with flight from an allied silver dragon and the resources of a grand coven, we are moving through the areas with blistering speed, hopefully quick enough to catch up with the BBEG unprepared. The question remains as to the destiny of the party’s changeling companion and adopted daughter of the party Medium, as it seems the companion’s presence is what brought the ship through the planar rift.
As far as I’ve read for world building, PF1 authors looked to deities as plot devices rather than statted beings. If your power levels are high enough, theirs are just automatically higher. But that was for RP purposes for 1-20 settings. What I want to know is if there is any GM guides or personal experiences having a lvl 18-20 party act as minor deities in a world full of 1-2 commoners.
I have few non-bards that have been in my lineup so far, that all, each time it goes, get replaced with a bard or bard-adjacent build by the time we play. The non-bards:
(I avoid names since the personality gets attached to them before I know if they fit the campaign.)
Just looking at different min/maxes. Mixing monk minus FoB has some fun effects sometimes. Looks like Style Shifter + Monk of Many styles gets the meanest trample/ overrun charge build: MoMS after Style Shifter wildshape at lvl 6 puts Bullette Charge Style on top of Tiger, then dipping Fighter for Heavy Armor proficency opens up the rest of the chain while giving a feat for Greater Overrun. If I got it right with charge through in there, lvl 10ish should look like:
But by then getting trample off of the huge Warcat or Rull means the pounce may not be as useful except when being medium or large has more advantages. And it stays in the theme of Tiger Style. Yay!
Oh it does grant Wildshape as a druid, so Beast Shape III is back in play. 8th level Style Shifter would have Panther Style and Panther Claws free with the option of picking up Panther Parry as a level feat. Wildshape at lvl 8 means the Warcat of Rull is an option, so the full round action would be Trample --> Retaliatory attack with x2 Wis to damage --> taking AoO --> trample damage. That is something to try to build off of. Edit: Tiger Style may end up taking the cake here with greater overrun.
It has some benefits, looking at the Style Shifter for the Panther wisdom to damage, but the limit to Beast Shape II means that it can't pull off trample at the same time, which would be truly epic. I should compare level dips against each other. Edit: Maybe it does, will double check the wording in the archetype.
Mostly because flurry doesn't play well with natural attacks as people have noted. Another option I was thinking was Sensei to get Wis to attacks with maneuvers and then natural attacks either by Feral Training or later through Weapon Shift with a monk weapon. One potential avenue for Man. Master is a pounce build that either starts with the extra maneuver as a trip so the attacks are potentially at +4 vs prone and ends with a grab off an attack, or a pounce that has the trip on a bite and ends with a bullrush so the enemy is prone and hopefully out of range at the start of its turn.
It went down in our Kingmaker campaign! Our lead city now rivals Absalom in size and culture and outpaces it in economic productivity in bringing online our mines on the moon (darn pupal Cthulhu tried to stop us). Seeing this, the GM literally dropped a Tarrasque out of the open sky onto our capital in the middle of a fight with a party-killer boss built and run by a second GM who had played with us before and was back in town for the day. We had to end the session before the final fight was resolved in airship to ship combat with the session boss on a linnorm and the BBEG on an ancient black dragon mount. The party rogue/beguiler did take down the black dragon mount with a stockpile of named bullets that our followers kept prepared every hour of every day for four in game years, slowing down the BBEG. But she will likely escape since our spy network leaked the secret that the city's air defenses are trained to kill her on sight, having lvl 12 Qinggong Sensei monks battlemind linking every crew member to every other crew member, making 1 nat 20 on one attack result in a nat 20 on every attack in that volley. We had to run the numbers on the Tarrasque after the session using the Tarrasque Army statistics, but there is an 83% chance that our 4 main armies (run by each of our 4 PCs) will take it down within 1d4 rounds, exceeding its regen if it remains within the city. But thankfully, for our citizens' sake, it grew wings and seems to be pursuing the party out of our capital and (I'm guessing) back into the plane it came from, which -- I'm all but certain -- is our final destination, seeing that the cracks in the sky are closing in around us each round of combat. 5 out of 5, would play again indefinitely.
To the point tho, easiest homebrew reskin I can think of would either be an infusion based Alchemist where the GM allows either off list extracts based on the monster foodstuff used or the bard archetype that serves tea, but maybe with different stipulations or effects on scale with masterpiece performances, also based off of the current plattes d’jour.
Mmmm. I’m right now imagining a bowl of reefclaw bouillabaisse or maybe cockatrice with a Chelaxian tarragon sauce — true demon’s blood in it, not that daemon substitute people are raving about. You know, I’m so rich from these monstrosities of gastronomy, my neighbors from Geb might even want to have me over for dinner sometime.
I’m sure other posters can answer the build questions better, but it seems like the rotating players may have combat on lock, so adding to their AoO’s would be good synergy, since even if you build to their level of damage output, it will only ever be one additional player who can take care of combat on their own, so be different if you like it. There is a feat just for bards that allows you to bluff and hide your spellcasting in social situations (not sure of the name), that could be a great option to prebuff before some types of encounters. Consider also abilities and spells that alter terrain or positioning since you can UMD them and they often have effects that can’t be saved against or bypassed. As you go into higher levels, countering spell with dispel magic is fun since the bonuses are caster level based and don’t require more than a feat or two and some items to maximize. Most players don’t choose it because you have to ready an action to cast, but RAW, when you ready that action, you can say ‘I ready to cast when enemy X acts’ and if that action is a spell, you can counter spell, and if not, you can cast any other spell you like.
If you like the character, keep it. It’s up to the GM to engage the whole table in combat if they have green lit gestalt builds that can take a powerful AoO that instakills an enemy. Off the top of my head I would ask for enemy tanks to engage every once in a while so they can survive getting into melee with the party. And then, yeah, buff the party and harass the enemy in encounters without these tanks.
Aha! One level in Mouser Swashbuckler may have been the solution all along -- when combined with Butterfly's Sting, it moves the limited value of this character's crit damage to another party member who can make the most of it! There are also a several places to drop in teamwork feats, but at the expense of being able to grant the feats to the party. 1 Mouser - Underfoot Assault, Swash. Finesse, Cautious Fighter
AC for Adjacent Allies = +3, attack penalty -2 5 uRogue - 2d6 sneak, Finesse Training (Waveblade), Desperate Swing (or Team)
AC for Adjacent Allies = +7, attack penalty -2, +4 confirm crits, auto crit damage goes to next ally to hit enemy 9 SFSS - DR 2, Resist 5 cold/electric, Cmbt. Refl., Bodyguard
AC for Adjacent Allies = +11, attack penalty -2, +8 confirm crits, auto crit damage goes to next ally to hit enemy 13 Lore W. - Crane Riposte (or Team), Iron Will (or Team)
Parry + Riposte, AC for Adjacent Allies = +11, attack penalty -2, +8 confirm crits, auto crit damage goes to next ally to hit enemy 17+ SFSS - Ki Pool, Channel Ki all of the above + unlimited Ki/Smites with enough Tea of Transference + Channel Ki (although the arsenic from the realgar in it is probably bad for your health)
Yojimbo Sanjuro uRogue Charlatan x / Cavalier 2 / Monk Farstrike 1 / Magus Spire Defender 1 / Fighter Dragoon 2 Reach Whirlwind Trip with Axebeak mount, I think there was room in there for Hunter to get Outflank/Pack Flanking, but items ended up giving those feats faster to both PC and mount so more rogue meant more sneak attack. Long Arm spell from Magus level was real nice. I think they are up to lvl 14 right now after I GM’d Feast of Dust.
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