Tanuki

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Just out of curiosity, I was wondering what archetypes you guys think were either cool concepts that fell flat in execution or need to be updated to make them more relevant with newer official content.

I think for me, the White-Haired Witch is one such archetype. My very first time looking through the witch's hexes, I saw Prehensile Hair and thought, "I'd love to have this be permanent..." And lo, from on high came the White-Haired Witch... except it has a number of problems that make it a lackluster archetype. Since their attacks still rely on Strength/Dexterity and their 1/2 BAB progression to hit, but require Intellect to deal damage and make successful grapples, it makes them somewhat MAD, and they completely lose out on hexes, many of which would prove useful to allow them to hit more competently. Personally, I'd have given them a bonus to their attack rolls on their hair attack equal to 1/2 their Witch levels (giving them pseudo 3/4 BAB with such attacks), and perhaps allowed them to take a limited selection of hexes as well as rogue talents at 10th level or higher, and maybe even give their hair a 10 ft. reach out the gate and have it gain an extra 5 ft every 5 levels.

Anyone else have some archetypes they would like to use if it was just better mechanically?


I've been working on an exciter spiritualist build with some intention on making heavy use of the lashes granted to them by the spiritualist's bonded manifestation ability. After taking a closer look, though, I'm beginning to doubt my original plans will work out, meaning I'll need to rework a few things. Before I do though, I'm gonna need some clarifications, because so far the wording for the abilities seems incredibly vague. For reference, here's the text of the ectoplasmic variant of the ability, with the section I'm concerned with bolded:

Ectoplasmic Bonded Manifestation wrote:
When a spiritualist uses this ability and chooses ectoplasmic form, she gains an ectoplasmic shield that protects her without restricting her movement or actions. She gains a +4 shield bonus to Armor Class; this bonus applies to incorporeal touch attacks. The ectoplasmic shield has no armor check penalty or arcane spell failure chance. At 8th level, the spiritualist also sprouts a pair of ectoplasmic tendrils from her body. Once per round as either a swift or a standard action (spiritualist’s choice), the spiritualist can use one or both tendrils to attack creatures within her melee reach (using the attack bonus and damage dice of her ectoplasmic manifested phantom) or to manipulate objects. She can even use that action to have one tendril make an attack and the other manipulate an object, as long as that object can be manipulated with one hand. At 13th level, the phantom’s ectoplasm clings to the spiritualist like a suit of armor. This grants the spiritualist a +6 armor bonus to AC without imposing an armor check penalty, an arcane spell failure chance, or any reduction in speed. At 18th level, the spiritualist can take a full-round action to attack all creatures within her melee reach with her tendrils (using the attack bonus and damage dice of her ectoplasmic manifested phantom). When she does, she rolls the attack roll twice, takes the better of the two results, and uses that as her attack roll result against all creatures within her melee reach. If the better attack roll threatens a critical hit, the spiritualist chooses one target that she hit to confirm the critical hit against. The other attacks that hit are considered normal hits rather than critical threats.

1 - If I choose to have both tendrils attack, is that effectively one strike or two I'm allowed to make?

2 - Am I allowed to make my tendril strikes with Vital Strike?

3 - Can I use the tendril strikes for anything aside from the swift or standard attack issued by the ability (such as using a tendril to strike with the Hurtful feat)?

4 - If the phantom has Improved Natural Attack (slam) do my tendrils still use the normal damage or the damage after it's augmented by the feat?

5 - How about my attack rolls if the phantom possesses feats such as Weapon Focus? And do I add my Str/Dex bonus or theirs?


So I recently was checking out the Exciter archetype and thought it'd be an interesting thing to try out. I do have a few questions first, though:

1 - If I take the Magical Lineage trait, can I select a spell I don't yet know so I can take advantage of it with a higher-level spell? If not, can I use it with a 0th level spell? As worded it seems like no, unless it can cause a spell to count as -1st level, which I doubt.

2 - Does Furious Spell allow me to cast a spell that normally has a thought component during my rapture? If so that makes it a far superior choice to Intuitive Spell (which was what I was originally going to go for).

3 - Would the effects of enlarge person (usable as a Sp via the Fractured Mind archetype), the Improved Natural Attack (tendril) feat, and the Anger phantom's Powerful Strike (gained during a rapture via the Excitation ability) stack to effectively increase my tendrils' damage to five steps above normal for a phantom of that spiritualist level, or would enlarge person and Powerful Strike not stack? As I'm reading it they all should stack since Powerful Strike doesn't actually make you change your size. So essentially, if I use enlarge person before a fight and spend my rapture in excitation and with bonded manifestation active, then by 8th level (not counting any other classes I dip into) I should be dealing 3d8 with my tendrils, which advances to 4d6 at 9th, 4d8 at 13th, and 6d6 at 17th.

4 - I can see a case for this being reduced some if I can't take Improved Natural Attack (tendril), either because my tendrils aren't permanent or because the class description doesn't specifically call them natural weapons. Could I potentially circumvent this by having the phantom take Improved Natural Attack (slam), or do the phantom's feats only function while they're fully manifested? I'm expecting this to be a no (which is fine since it means no need to track feats on the phantom at all), but might as well ask while I'm here.

5 - Further question: can I treat the ability to use Powerful Strike as having Power Attack for the purpose of selecting feats, or do I need to have permanent access to Power Attack (making it essentially a feat tax for feats that would require it)?

6 - If I took three levels of monk, would their Fast Movement stack with the Excitier's? Exciter's Fast Movement only calls out the barbarian's Fast Movement as not stacking. I plan on taking one level of Scaled Fist UC monk, but this could put more weight into the viability of taking three levels instead. Similarly, would this stack with Fast Movement from a bloodrager or a Winding Path Renegade brawler?

7 - Not entirely completely related but this will help determine the importance I'm putting on some skills. Suppose I charge in with Power Attack active, hit my foe, and my free Intimidate from Cornugon Smash and successfully demoralize my foe. Can I use Vital Strike as the swift-action melee attack granted by Hurtful in that case?


So yeah, I've mostly kept this project close to the vest pending its release, but here it is~ It's currently available on RPGNow, and I'll link any other sites when I can.

In any case, this thread's going to be here for anyone to ask questions regarding the book's contents, and I'll try and give the best answers I'm capable of. Here's hoping you guys enjoy the book!


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So, as usual, I've gotten an idea - which is never a good thing, anyway - for a build centered on using a hand cannon (similar to Momo or Ursula of the Breath of Fire series). Of course the main problem here is that these weapons in PF have a penalty to attack rolls, knock you prone if they aren't mounted/you aren't supported, and take a full-round action to reload. I can't do much about the attack roll penalty, but I can handle the other problems. I will note that none of this is PFS legal (considering culverins and double hackbuts themselves aren't PFS legal, as far as I'm aware) but otherwise I'm doing my best to stick to non-3pp content and not consider house rules with the build.

Firstly, I'd need at least 3 levels of Musket Master (Gunslinger). Musket Master allows me to drop the action to reload from full-round to standard (by treating my 2H firearms as 1H for the purpose of reloading). From there, Rapid Reload drops it to a move action, and using alchemical cartridges drops it to free, allowing me to make full-attacks with my double hackbut.

Next I need to deal with getting knocked prone. This means 1 level of Master of Many Styles (Monk) with Monkey Style. This allows me to stand as a swift action without provoking and removes the AC penalty for being prone. I can still fire firearms while prone, and as I understand it dropping prone is a free action, so this means I should be able to quick-stand after firing, or just drop to the ground if there's some way an enemy can do something to me while I'm prone. I could take Unarmed Fighter instead, since both are functionally identical for a 1 level dip, but the Unchained monk works with Master of Many Styles and has full BAB progression, meaning the only difference between a 1 level dip here and in Unarmed Fighter is that this dip gives me an extra +2 Ref save.

From here, though, I have a number of options:

- I could continue to build levels as a Musket Master. This allows me to pick up Dex to damage and makes repeated misfires a little less risky. I could combine this with Siege Gunner to make my culverin hit a larger area, but I'm losing two bonus feats for feats that are effectively useless for this build.
- Trench Fighter is another option for Dex to damage, and is fairly easy for me to multi-archetype with other fighter archetypes since it only replaces Armor Training.
- If I take Weapon Master (Fighter), I get to reroll those misfires a few times per day due to Reliable Strike.
- Two-Handed Fighter is far from ideal, but interestingly doesn't mention the weapon needing to be melee for some of its abilities, allowing me to add 2x Str to my weapon's damage with Overhead Chop despite it being a firearm.
- Baseline ranger with the Archery, Crossbow, or Faithul (Erastil) combat style picks up several useful feats, as well as some magic to aid him.
- Skirmisher (ranger) doesn't have magic, but does get access to some interesting tricks.
- Sniper/Stygian Slayer (stalker) gets sneak attack, invisibility, and easier use of spell completion items, as well as studied target.

Honestly, it's a bit of a tie for me between Trench Fighter, baseline ranger, or Sniper/Stygian Slayer. I'm leaning Trench Fighter for the advanced weapon training options and bonus feats, though.

As for race, I'm looking at either a human or a tiefling. Human is pretty obvious: bonus feat. For the tiefling, it'd be for the oversized limbs variant ability, which would allow me to use a Large double hackbut for a devastating 6d6 damage or a Large culverin for 3d8.

So, for the build.

Musket Master 3, Master of Many Styles 1, Trench Fighter 16:
--1st--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 1
BAB: +1
F/R/W: +2/+2/+0
Grit
Gunsmith
Deeds: Deadeye, Quick Clear, Steady Aim
Feat: Rapid Reload (musket)
Feat: Gunsmithing
Feat: Point-Blank Shot
Feat: Rapid Reload (double hackbut)

--2nd--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 2
BAB: +2
F/R/W: +3/+3/+0
Nimble +1

--3rd--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3
BAB: +3
F/R/W: +3/+3/+1
Deeds: Fast Musket, Gunslinger's Initiative, Pistol Whip
Feat: Precise Shot

As noted above, these first three levels are to allow me to get a faster reload time on my weapon. By not combining with Siege Gunner, I can focus on single-target damage.

--4th--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3, Unchained Monk (Master of Many Styles) 1
BAB: +4
F/R/W: +5/+5/+1
Fuse Style
Feat: Improved Unarmed Strike
Feat: Stunning Fist
Feat: Monkey Style

This is only here for Monkey Style. Otherwise there'd be far too many prerequisites to make it worthwhile.

--5th--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3, Unchained Monk (Master of Many Styles) 1, Fighter (Trench Fighter) 1
BAB: +5
F/R/W: +7/+5/+1
Feat: Rapid Reload (culverin)
Feat: Quick Draw

Ultimately, if I'm going with a double hackbut, I think the bonus feats from the fighter class will give me the most bang for my buck, so to speak.

--6th--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3, Unchained Monk (Master of Many Styles) 1, Fighter (Trench Fighter) 2
BAB: +6
F/R/W: +8/+5/+1
Bravery +1
Feat: Vital Strike

Vital Strike means that Rapid Reload isn't 100% necessary for this build, but having free reloads is still very nice; otherwise whenever I make a Vital Strike I would need to choose between moving and reloading. Vital Strike's also a bit better since this means I only have one chance per attack routine to misfire rather than four. It does sacrifice some damage though, since Vital Strike's extra damage isn't multiplied on crit, and I'm losing an attack by not taking Rapid Shot, but the damage is more reliable.

--7th--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3, Unchained Monk (Master of Many Styles) 1, Fighter (Trench Fighter) 3
BAB: +7
F/R/W: +8/+6/+2
Trench Warfare (double hackbut)
Feat: Weapon Focus (double hackbut)

--8th--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3, Unchained Monk (Master of Many Styles) 1, Fighter (Trench Fighter) 4
BAB: +8
F/R/W: +9/+6/+2
Feat: Deadly Aim

--9th--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3, Unchained Monk (Master of Many Styles) 1, Fighter (Trench Fighter) 5
BAB: +9
F/R/W: +9/+6/+2
Weapon Training (firearms) +1
Feat: Burrowing Shot

--10th--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3, Unchained Monk (Master of Many Styles) 1, Fighter (Trench Fighter) 6
BAB: +10
F/R/W: +10/+7/+3
Bravery +2
Feat: Weapon Specialization (double hackbut)

--11th--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3, Unchained Monk (Master of Many Styles) 1, Fighter (Trench Fighter) 7
BAB: +11
F/R/W: +10/+7/+3
Trench Warfare (culverin)
Feat: Improved Vital Strike

--12th--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3, Unchained Monk (Master of Many Styles) 1, Fighter (Trench Fighter) 8
BAB: +12
F/R/W: +11/+7/+3
Feat: Bullseye Shot

--13th--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3, Unchained Monk (Master of Many Styles) 1, Fighter (Trench Fighter) 9
BAB: +13
F/R/W: +11/+8/+4
Weapon Training (firearms) +2
Advanced Weapon Training: Armed Bravery
Feat: Advanced Weapon Training > Weapon Specialist (Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization)

--14th--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3, Unchained Monk (Master of Many Styles) 1, Fighter (Trench Fighter) 10
BAB: +14
F/R/W: +12/+8/+4
Bravery +3
Feat: Reckless Aim

--15th--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3, Unchained Monk (Master of Many Styles) 1, Fighter (Trench Fighter) 11
BAB: +15
F/R/W: +12/+8/+4
Trench Warefare (musket)
Feat: Greater Weapon Focus (double hackbut)

--16th--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3, Unchained Monk (Master of Many Styles) 1, Fighter (Trench Fighter) 12
BAB: +16
F/R/W: +13/+9/+5
Feat: Greater Vital Strike

--17th--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3, Unchained Monk (Master of Many Styles) 1, Fighter (Trench Fighter) 13
BAB: +17
F/R/W: +13/+9/+5
Weapon Training (firearms) +3
Advanced Weapon Training: Trained Initiative
Feat: Devastating Strike

--18th--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3, Unchained Monk (Master of Many Styles) 1, Fighter (Trench Fighter) 14
BAB: +18
F/R/W: +14/+9/+5
Bravery +4
Feat: Target of Opportunity

--19th--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3, Unchained Monk (Master of Many Styles) 1, Fighter (Trench Fighter) 15
BAB: +19
F/R/W: +14/+10/+6
Trench Warfare (rifle)
Feat: Grand Duchy Familiarity

--20th--
Gunslinger (Musket Master) 3, Unchained Monk (Master of Many Styles) 1, Fighter (Trench Fighter) 16
BAB: +20
F/R/W: +15/+10/+6
Feat: Greater Weapon Specialization (double hackbut)

For a tiefling variant of this, I'll have to move Rapid Reload (double hackbut) to 5th and skip Rapid Reload (culverin), as well as maybe taking Rapid Reload for the Weapon Specialist advanced weapon training instead of Weapon Specialization. If allowed to take both a variant ability and a variant heritage, this takes Asura-spawn with oversized limbs; it'd still be worth taking the baseline if I can't do a variant heritage, but if I'd be required to take the Fiendish Heritage feat or I'm not allowed to choose oversized limbs, I'd likely just stick to human.


So while I was working on a card caster magus build, I began wondering exactly how far I could possibly throw my javelin before incurring penalties to my attack rolls. However I'm not entirely sure what of these effects stack:

Range Modifiers
- Javelin base range: 30 ft.
- Strong Arm, Supple Wrist trait: While it doesn't buff my range on a full-attack, I don't need it to since card casters won't be able to make as much use out of spell combat (though I could feasibly use a javelin as a melee weapon with a nonproficiency penalty). Since I'm intending to be able to move anyway, I'm going to count this as +10 ft. range.
- Longshot spell: For 1 minute per magus level, I'll have another +10 ft. range on any ranged weapon.
- Distance weapon quality: Doubles my javelin's range. What's better still is I can just pop this onto any javelin at 5th.
- Spear-thrower: Doubles my javelin's range increment. It means I'll need to take Rapid Reload if I'm to utilize it in combat simultaneously to the SASW trait, though. Fun fact: since Deadly Dealer lets you treat cards as darts, this means you can load cards into a spear-thrower too (which could be useful for full-attacks).

Assuming these all stack, this should give my javelin an effective range increment of 200 feet ((30+10+10)*2*2) or 140 feet (30*2*2+10+10) depending on the order these effects are applied. Now as for how far I can actually throw it:

Attack penalty mitigation
- Wasteland Hunter trait: -2 to the penalty I suffer from throwing beyond my range increment. This effectively doubles how far I can throw my javelin before I incur penalties. If I can find any race that provides some benefit to javelins' range I'd take this via Adopted, but human is an appealing enough race anyway due to the bonus feat so there's that.
- Distance Thrower: Same as above, but it applies to all thrown weapons.
- Far Shot: Halves my range increment penalty, thus making the above penalty reductions twice as effective.

This should mean my penalties are reduced by 4 total, and because the penalty is -1 per increment, that gives me a total of five increments I can throw before taking penalties, assuming Wasteland Hunter and Distance Thrower stack, so that's a full range of either 1000 feet or 700 feet, depending upon how the range increment is calculated. And I can go twice this far for a penalty of no more than -5.

Does all this check out? Or are there any stacking issues that'll reduce this? I also have a couple of miscellaneous questions to add to this:

- If I have multiple javelins and cast returning weapon, I could only affect a single javelin with the spell per casting, correct?
- Would I be able to treat a javelin as my chosen weapon for the purpose of the kensai archetype? Or does this specifically refer to the martial/exotic weapon I choose to be proficient with as a kensai (of which javelins aren't an option, since they are simple weapons)?
- If I chose to go card caster/myrmidarch instead, could I select advanced weapon training options for them at 12th and 18th levels, or would this be limited to the Advanced Weapon Training feat?
- A card caster wouldn't qualify for Extra Arcana until 6th level (since that's when they first are able to select a magus arcana), correct? Or 9th for a card caster/myrmidarch?


I had a few ideas for a magus built on a sharding weapon, but I wanted to make sure I clarified a few things in regards to its interactions. As I understand it, so long as the weapon is melee, I should be able to deliver touch attacks via spellstrike with the thrown shard, since that's being used "in place of a melee attack," so I should be in the clear there. I'd likely be going either falchion or scimitar here to take advantage of their threat range. However, I'm also considering going with card caster so he can use this effect with thrown weapons instead. In any case, here's the questions:

1 - It states that I pick up a 10 foot range on the weapon. On a weapon that already has a range increment, does this mean the sharding quality can only be used with it within 10 feet regardless of actual range, or does it actually add 10 feet to that range (so, for example, a sharding light hammer would have a range of 30 feet for its shards)?

2 - Since it can only be used in place of melee attacks, does that mean it'd be useless for weapons that aren't used with melee attacks (such as stingchucks)?

3 - Let's say I choose a chakram for this purpose. Would I still incur the penalties (-1 attack and DC 15 Ref to avoid cutting self) if I'm invoking the sharding quality on it? Or the -4 nonproficiency penalty if I use a sharding javelin?

4 - Suppose I also have the distance quality on the weapon. If sharding increases a thrown weapon's effective range by 10 feet (as opposed to allowing shards to only have a range of 10 feet regardless; see question 1), does this increased range get added before or after the doubling of the range from distance? Essentially, if I possess a distance sharding javelin, would its shards have an effective range increment of 10, 20, 70, or 80 feet?


Just a question regarding the Elemental Ascetic's elemental flurry that I'm not 100% clear on. The ability states that I make a flurry of blows as the monk class feature. Does this mean I count as having the flurry of blows class feature, and therefor could select Pummeling Style or Jabbing Style as a 1st level feat, or would I have to wait until the kineticist has +6 BAB or a class feature specifically named "brawler's flurry" or "flurry of blows" (meaning either 9th level or multiclassing)?


So I made a few races for a friend's campaign that he agreed to let me share here. Kind of a novice at the whole custom races thing and I stuck to the ARG for point totals so please be mindful of that. I did loosen the restrictions on myself a little by letting myself use stuff normally attributed to monstrous races, however. Anyway.

Have you ever wanted to play a shark person, but didn't want to be a skinwalker? Maybe you'd like to waltz around as a terrestrial dolphin? Be a FRIGGIN BLUE WHALE ON LEGS?

...what do you mean, no!? Too flippin' bad, you're gonna be a landshark and/or land-born cetacean and like it!

Quote:

Selachian (RP 13)

Using magic, few and rare practitioners have found ways to imbue a mind and body similar to their own in other species. Sharks were chosen for their intimidating strength and bloodlust, but the genetic mixing required to provide fish with limbs that would function on land dulled this down to a degree. They have had difficulty integrating into society due to their imposing appearances, but several pockets of selachians still thrive today.

- Standard Racial Traits -

Ability Scores - Sharks' bodies are ill adapted to life on land and their visages are often intimidating if not terrifying to non-sharks, but those who get to know one will find them surprisingly hardy and intelligent. Selachians receive a +2 racial bonus to their Constitution and Intelligence, and a -2 penalty to their Charisma and a -4 penalty to their Dexterity. (-2 RP)

Type - Selachians are humanoids with the aquatic and selachian subtypes.

Medium - Selachians are of Medium size, and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Base Speed - Selachians have a base move speed of 20 feet and a swim speed of 30 feet. This swim speed grants +8 racial bonus to Swim checks as normal for creatures with a swim speed. (-1 RP, 2 RP)

Languages - Selachians begin play speaking Common and Sharktongue. Those with high Intelligence scores may also choose from the following languages: Aquan, Ceta, Goblin, Grippli, Necril, and Undercommon.

- Defense Racial Traits -

Illusion Resistance - Selachians are typically realists. They gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against illusion spells or effects. (1 RP)

- Standard Racial Traits -

Fearful Visage - Selachians get a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate checks. (2 RP)

- Magical Racial Traits -

Detect Blood - The ability to sniff out blood is still ingrained in selachians' genes from their feral ancestors. Selachians are constantly under the effect of blood scent, as the spell, except they cannot detect creatures that do not have blood or are immune to bleed damage (such as undead, constructs, plants, or oozes). (4 RP)

- Offense Racial Traits -

Bite - Selachians' large jaws and gnarly teeth give them a powerful bite. They gain a natural bite attack, dealing 1d4 damage. This is a primary attack, or a secondary attack if the selachian is wielding manufactured weapons. (2 RP)

- Other Racial Traits -

Amphibious - Selachians are amphibious and can breath both air and water. (2 RP)

- Alternate Racial Traits -

Charming Smile - Some selachians' make up for their grisly looks with charming personalities. These selachians receive no penalty to their Charisma score. This trait replaces fearful visage and bite, and alters their ability score adjustments.

Nurse Shark - Going against the stereotypes attached to their species, some selachians become medical professionals. These selachians get a +2 racial bonus to Heal checks and treat Heal as a class skill. This trait replaces illusion resistance and bite.

Goblin Shark - A few rare selachians have the ability to extend their jaws forward in an unsettling manner. They receive Skill Focus (Intimidate) and Improved Natural Weapon (Bite) as bonus feats. This trait replaces illusion resistance and detect blood, and requires the bite racial trait.

Landshark - Despite only being recently introduced to the world compared to other races, a small handful of selachians have adapted incredibly well to life on land at the cost of their instinctive affinity for water. These selachians receive no penalty to their Dexterity score and have a base move speed of 30 feet. This trait replaces swim speed, illusion resistance and amphibious, and alters their ability score adjustments.

Blood Frenzy - While sharks are generally known for their affinity for blood, some selachians are especially susceptible to the scent of it. These sharks are treated as if they had the orc subtype when determining the effects of spells and abilities with the word "blood" in the name, including the selachian's detect blood ability, and count as orcs for the purpose of qualifying for feats. This trait replaces illusion resistance and amphibious.

Quote:

Ceta (RP 12)

This race is composed of three subraces: whalefolk, dolphinfolk, and orcafolk, amongst which orcafolk are the most common by far. Though more comfortable on islands, beaches, and large lakes where they typically build their settlements, they aren't an entirely unusual sight even inland, though it's incredibly rare to find them in more arid climates.

- Standard Racial Traits -

Ability Scores - Ceta are inquisitive and friendly by nature, but too curious for their own good, receiving a +2 racial bonus to Charisma and a -2 penalty to Wisdom. They also receive a bonus to a physical ability score based on their subrace, as detailed below.

Type - Ceta are humanoids with the aquatic and ceta subtypes.

Size - Ceta are generally of Medium size, and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Base Speed - Ceta have a base move speed of 30 feet and a swim speed of 30 feet. This swim speed grants +8 racial bonus to Swim checks as normal for creatures with a swim speed. (2 RP)

Languages - Ceta begin play speaking Ceta and Common. Those with high Intelligence may also choose from the following languages: Aquan, Catfolk, Dwarf, Gnomish, Sharktongue, and Undercommon.

- Standard Racial Traits -

Extra Bonus Feat - Ceta may select one extra feat at 1st level. (4 RP)

- Other Racial Traits -

Hold Breath - Ceta can hold their breath for a number of rounds equal to four times their Constitution score before risking drowning or suffocating. (2 RP)

- Whalefolk Racial Traits -

Ability Scores - Due to their bulk, whalefolk receive a +2 racial bonus to their Constitution score in addition to the ability score adjustments granted to all ceta.

Giant's Bearing - Descended from the great whales, whalefolk are much larger than other ceta, and in fact many other sentient races. They are Large in size rather than Medium, and they gain a +2 size bonus to Strength and a -2 penalty to Dexterity. Large races take a -1 penalty to their AC, a -1 penalty on attack rolls, a +1 bonus on combat maneuver checks and to their CMD, and a -4 penalty on Stealth checks. Whalefolk have a base move seed of 20 feet rather than 30. (7 RP, -1 RP)

- Dolphinfolk Racial Traits -

Ability Scores - Dolphinfolk tend to be more acrobatic than others of their kin, receiving a +2 racial bonus to their Dexterity score in addition to the ability score adjustments granted to all ceta.

Curiosity - Dolphinfolk are naturally inquisitive about the world around them. They gain a +4 bonus on Diplomacy checks to gather information, and Knowledge (History) and Knowledge (Local) are always class skills for them. If they choose a class that has either of these skills as class skills, they receive a +2 racial bonus on those skills instead. (4 RP)

Powerful Swimmer - Dolphinfolk receive a +10 foot bonus to their swim speed. (1 RP)

Water Sense - Dolphinfolk can sense vibrations in water, granting them blindsense 30 feet against creatures that are touching the same body of water. (1 RP)

- Orcafolk Racial Traits -

Ability Scores - Orcafolk tend to be more muscular than dolphinfolk and whalefolk, and receive a +2 racial bonus to their Strength score in addition to the ability score adjustments granted to all ceta.

Hardy - Orcafolk gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison, spells, and spell-like abilities. (3 RP)

Integrated - Orcafolk gain a +1 bonus on Bluff, Disguise, and Knowledge (Local) checks. (1 RP)

Silent Hunter - Orcafolk reduce the penalty for using Stealth while moving by 5 and can make Stealth checks while running at a -20 penalty (this number includes the penalty reduction from this trait). (2 RP)

- Alternate Racial Traits -

Water Child - Some ceta choose to focus on their powerful swimming skills rather than branching out into other talents. They can always take 10 while swimming, and receive a +4 racial bonus to Swim checks even if they've lost a natural swim speed. This trait replaces extra bonus feat.

Enormous - The largest amongst whalefolk are able to effortlessly reach great distances. They gain the giant subtype, their reach increases by 5 feet, and they gain a +1 racial bonus to their natural armor. This trait replaces swim speed, and requires the giant's bearing racial trait.

White Whale - A few whalefolk prefer to make use of their ancestral weapons and use their bulk against their enemies. They are always proficient with harpoons and nets. They also gain a +2 bonus on combat maneuver checks made to bull rush or overrun an opponent as long as both the whalefolk and their opponent are standing on the ground. This racial trait replaces swim speed, and requires the giant's bearing racial trait.

Sonic Screech - Some magically-inclined dolphinfolk can use their voice as a weapon. Once per day, they can cast ear-piercing scream as a spell-like ability with CL 1. If they have ear-piercing scream on one of their class's spell lists, they may use that class's CL instead for this ability (for example, a 5th level witch dolphinfolk could use this ability at CL 5). This trait replaces powerful swimmer and water sense.

Gregarious - Dolphinfolk will sometimes rely on smooth talking and natural charisma to get by in life. When they successfully use Diplomacy to win over an individual, that creature takes a -2 penalty on any attempts to resist any of the dolphinfolk's Charisma-based skills for the next 24 hours. The trait replaces water sense.

Deepsight - Some orcafolk have exceptional skill at locating things in the inky depths of the ocean. They can see in the dark up to 120 feet while underwater, but do not gain this benefit out of the water. This trait replaces silent hunter.

Iceborn - Orcafolk originated in the frozen north, and some remain there to this day. These orcafolk gain a +4 racial bonus on Stealth checks and may move through natural difficult terrain at normal speed while in cold terrain (though magically altered terrain affects them normally). In addition, these orcafolk are treated as 1 level higher when casting spells with the cold descriptor or using powers of the water domain, bloodline powers of the water elemental bloodline, water elemental wild talents, and revelations of the oracle's waves and winter mysteries. This trait replaces hardy.


So I'm trying to get a progenitor built to work, since I really like the idea of riding a massive robotic magical centaur beast into battle, but I ran into problems when I realized there may be a few snags to my plans. A few deal with what can affect the progenitor's servitor, but since that's dealing with 3pp I'll skip that part of the problem for now.

1. wrote:

What my biggest concern is at present is, can a tauric base form eidolon take the pounce evolution? I understand that the pounce evolution states it's for "quadruped base form", but there's a couple snags there:

- These evolutions' limitations were written before the avian and tauric base forms were introduced. As such, I'm not sure if they would have been errata'd to accommodate the new base forms.

- From my understanding, an animal companion or familiar can take the pounce evolution so long as they are quadrupedal animals and you've taken the appropriate "evolved" feats. So if it's enough to just have four legs for anything else that could gain an evolution, why would it not be enough to have four legs if it's an eidolon?

- Conversely, if a tauric eidolon can't have it because it must specifically have the quadruped eidolon base form, then would that not bar animal companions and familiars from having it completely, since they aren't quadruped eidolons?

The only argument I can think of that has any logic would be "it must have at least 4 legs and no arms to pounce," and quite frankly that makes no sense to me either.

So, is there an official ruling or errata for this?

2. wrote:
This is one I'm not super-concerned with, but it's still something I want to consider when picking my summoner's spells. Due to the share spells ability, you could cast enlarge person on an eidolon and affect it, despite enlarge person normally requiring the target to be humanoid, right? Would enlarge person, then, be able to affect an eidolon that has taken the large evolution, or advanced it to huge, thereby becoming huge or gargantuan? Since the large evolution is an Ex ability, it's hard to argue that it's a magical ability, but one could say that it was gained via the summoner's magical abilities, and therefore enlarge person can't stack with it.
3. wrote:
Assuming tauric eidolons can take pounce, and I have it with natural jouster (so it can use a lance as if it were mounted), as well as adding in one extra instance of arms and two instances of claws on top of the original (so it has four clawed hands and two clawed feet, with one of its claw attacks given up for its lance, but also gaining an extra claw swipe at -5 attack via multiattack). Would it be possible to have him hit three times with the lance (once at full BAB, once at -5, once at -10) plus six claw attacks (five times at -5, once at -10) on his pounce, or would he only be allowed to hit one time with his lance? Or at all?
4. wrote:

Say we've got my pouncing eidolon through whatever means, and I'm using it as a mount. If I have the eidolon itself do a charge attack while my summoner is riding, can the summoner use vital strike feats for her own attack since it's not technically her charging, or would the normal rules of not being able to vital strike on a charge carry over to her?

And on a similar note, how would this interact with her lance's double damage property?

I guess I'm basically trying to see if vital strike and lances' charging damage increase could ever occur simultaneously. If not, that's not really a big deal, since it just gives the summoner two more feat slots to play with.


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So I wanted to make a progenitor, since I like the concept of using a magical robot beast for battle, but some of the things regarding the servitor are muddy due to its becoming a construct. As such, I had a few questions:

- Can the servitor's Intelligence score be increased at 5th/10th/15th level with the eidolon's ability score increases, or does it sit solidly at 1 no matter what?

- There's a few conflicting rules between eidolons and constructs: skills (eidolons get 4 per HD, constructs get 2 per HD) and saving throws (eidolons get two good and one bad based on their base forms, constructs get all bad) are the two differences that concern me the most. Do I use the eidolon or construct rules for these?

- I would presume that all other traits of being a construct are also included (such as its various immunities, not needing to eat, breathe, or sleep, and inability to be raised from death or healed naturally)?

- Eidolons' share spells allows them to be affected by spells that normally wouldn't affect creatures of their type. Does the effect carry over to servitors (allowing me to cast spells on it that wouldn't normally work on a construct, such as enlarge person), or is it specific to eidolons of the outsider type? I think it's already clarified that effects that wouldn't work on a construct (such as the barkskin or magic fang spells) wouldn't work on a servitor, however.

- I would assume that if the large evolution (or its enhanced variant) is applied, the normal bonus to Constitution is completely ignored, correct? Or would I be able to use that bonus for something?

-----

I also need a little clarification on a couple more general aspects of summoner eidolons:

- Would a tauric eidolon qualify for quadrupedal-only evolutions (such as pounce)? Or any eidolon with at least two pairs of legs, for that matter?

- Similarly, would a tauric eidolon have reach similar to a bipedal creature (since it has the torso of one), or qualify for anything specific to biped eidolons?

- Does the max attacks refer to total types of attacks, or just attack in total (for example, would an eidolon with two claw attacks count as having two attacks or one for the purpose of max attacks)?

- If max attacks is total individual attacks and not total type of natural attacks, does that bar one from taking, say, a third instance of claws if they have 5 max attacks, even if they have enough limbs to do so? Or would such a creature be able to take it, but unable to make more than five attacks with its claws in a turn?

- How exactly does the slam evolution work? Is it replacing two claws with one slam, or giving the eidolon a single slam attack per pair of limbs, or is the eidolon gaining one slam per limb in the pair?

- If my eidolon gains the simple weapon proficiency feat, then learns the weapon training talent, will it gain proficiency with martial weapons, or would the evolution be wasted?

- Similarly, would the effects of the improve damage evolution and improved natural attack feat stack if chosen for the same natural weapon (i.e. if I chose both for claws on a medium creature, the claws' damage increases two steps, from 1d4 to 1d8)?

- Could I cast enlarge person on a huge eidolon to make it gargantuan, since the large evolution is an extraordinary ability, or would it be considered a magical effect, and thus not stack with enlarge person?


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So seeing this thread about racial archetypes for geniekin kinda inspired me to do this. I feel like it might be a tiny bit OP, but the balance shouldn't be too difficult to tweak.

Genie Kineticist

The source of kineticists' powers has been a mystery since the first of them manifested their abilities. It has been rumored that some are granted the blessings of beings from another plane, some may have been infused with their power upon crossing a weak point connecting the material plane to the elemental planes, some may simply have the power in their blood. There has been speculation that in some regions these powers have even manifested artificially, or been granted by true dragons. In the genie kineticist's case, the cause of one's power is still a mystery, but can be much more easily linked to the power of, predictably enough, genie-kin. These beings are closely linked to the elemental planes, so kinetic powers are a natural fit for them.

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Requirements

The genie kineticist must be one of the following races:

Ifrit, Oread, Suli, Sylph, Undine

Suli may only qualify for this archetype if they have the energy strike racial feature. For all genie kineticist class features, they treat themselves as a race corresponding to the energy type chosen for energy strike (oread for acid, undine for cold, sylph for electricity, ifrit for fire).

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Native Element

Genie kinesticists are connected strongly by their bloodline to their signature element. When a genie kineticist chooses their elemental focus, they must choose one that corresponds to their race's element (fire for ifrit, earth for oread, air for sylph, water for undine).

In addition, at 1st level, the genie elementalist gains the elemental strike and elemental fist feats as bonus feats. They do not need to meet the requirements for these feats. However, they may only use the elemental fist feat with an energy type corresponding to an element they have chosen as their native or expanded element (pyrokineticists may use fire, geokineticists may use acid, hydrokineticists may use cold, and aerokineticists may use electricity).

A genie kineticist may use their Constitution in place of their Wisdom for any feat for which elemental fist as a prerequisite, and may use a kinetic blast with elemental strike.

This ability replaces elemental focus and the basic utility and infusion wild talents learned at 1st level.

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Elemental Lifeblood

Because geniekin utilize their own elemental energies to access their powers, it is more dangerous to do so. Damage taken from accepting burn is lethal rather than nonlethal. Damage incurred from burn cannot be prevented or reduced in any way, and the genie kineticist's hit points cannot be healed above their maximum hit points less the amount of damage incurred by burn. However, genie kineticists who have accepted burn may ignore or alter nonlethal damage. This works in all other ways like and counts as the burn class feature.

This alters burn.

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Kinetic Magic

A genie kineticist may choose to learn spells linked to their elemental powers as spell-like abilities. In place of a utility talent, they may choose to learn a single spell from the elemental arcane school (as the wizard class feature) matching their race: ifrit choose spells from the fire school, oread choose from the earth school, sylph choose from the air school, and undine choose from the water school. In addition, a genie kineticist may choose to learn elemental mastery or draconic reservoir. They must be able to learn wild talents of the same level as the spell. Spells learned this way for which you may choose the descriptor may only be used for elements you have access to.

Any ability learned in this way uses the genie kineticist's class level as their caster level and uses the rules for a wild talent to determine its DC. To use any spell learned this way, the genie kineticist must accept 1 burn for every three spell levels (minimum 0).

This alters utility talents.

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Elemental Loyalty

A genie kineticist's abilities are so in tune with their native elemental plane that they have difficulty branching out, but are able to use their native element with more proficiency than other kineticists. At 7th level, a genie kineticist must choose their primary element as their expanded element, gaining any additional kinetic blast talents as normal, and they get a +1 bonus to the DCs of wild talents of their native element. They gain their native element's basic utility wild talent as a bonus wild talent, but do not otherwise gain a bonus wild talent from taking the expanded element.

This alters the 7th level expanded element.

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Geniekin Empowerment

Starting at 9th level, a genie kineticist may qualify for a style feat associated with their native element without meeting its prerequisites; ifrit qualify for efreeti style, oread qualify for shaitan style, sylph qualify for djinni style, and undine qualify for marid style. They also qualify for any feat for which elemental fist is a requirement, ignoring the requirements of the improved unarmed strike feat and Wisdom, and treats their BAB as equal to their genie kineticist level for the purpose of meeting the prerequisites. They may take these feats as bonus feats in place of learning the maximize, quicken, and twice metakinesis, but otherwise these feats must be learned as normal.

In addition, these feats may be used with a kinetic blast associated with its element as if the kinetic blast was an unarmed strike. Doing so requires the user to accept 1 burn as part of the cost of the blast, plus 1 additional burn for every 2 damage dice the blast deals. This counts as using both a substance and form infusion, and the cost may be reduced by infusion specialization. Metakinesis may not be applied to these feats.

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Wishful Thinking

At 16th level, a genie kineticist may use limited wish (as the spell) as a spell-like ability once per day by accepting 3 points of burn, treating their caster level as their genie kineticist level -4. For the purpose of duplicating spells, treat any element among earth, air, water, and fire that you do not have access to as an opposition school.

In addition, at 20th level, a genie kineticist may use wish (as the spell) as a spell-like ability once per week by accepting 5 points of burn, treating their caster level as their genie kineticist level -4 and treating elements they do not have access to as if they were opposition schools for the purpose of duplicating spells.

This replaces composite specialization and omnikinesis.

Quote:

FAQ although at this point no questions have been asked, much less on a frequent basis

- How exactly does the genie kineticist's burn work? Let's assume you have a 12th level genie kineticist with 100 hit points, and she accepts 1 point of burn. A baseline kineticist would incur 12 points of nonlethal damage. A genie kineticist, however, takes 12 points of lethal damage, and like all burn damage, you cannot reduce or prevent that damage through any means. Assuming this is her only burn, she can only be healed to a maximum of 88 hit points (which is her maximum of 100 minus the 12 from burn). If she takes a second point of burn, this is reduced to 66 hit points she can be healed up to. This damage is only healed when she has a full night's rest, at which point she can be healed back up to 100 hit points.

- Can I have a suli geokineticist learn flaming sphere in place of a utility talent if she's chosen fire for her 15th level expanded element? No. A suli geokineticist counts as an oread for the purposes of all class abilities, so she would only qualify to learn spells from the wizard's earth school. However, if she was to learn elemental aura, she could choose to use it as either acid or fire.

- How much burn do spells cost? It's one burn per three spell levels. That means cantrips and 1st-2nd level spells cost 0 burn, 3rd-5th level spells cost 1 burn, 6th-8th level spells cost 2 burn, and 9th level spells cost 3 burn.

- What happens when a suli chooses to learn elemental mastery? Since using a utility talent is still a kineticist class ability, they would be treated as the race matching their native element rather than as a suli. So, for example, a geokineticist suli would use elemental mastery as if she was an oread, only being able to grant herself the oread boon but also having the same duration as an oread rather than a suli's reduced duration.

- Would my sylph genie kineticist automatically get djinni style at 9th level? No. You only qualify for it without needing to meet its requirements. You would need to either take it as your 9th level feat or replace the maximize metakinesis to get it as a bonus feat (or you could take it later by replacing the quicken or twice metakinesis or by taking it as a feat at any later odd level, assuming nothing interferes with normal feat progression).

- If I'm using marid spirit, since I use my class level as my BAB, does that mean that at 15th level I'd get cold resistance 15 from it? No. Your BAB is only treated as equal to your class level for the purpose of qualifying for this feat. A 15th level genie kineticist (assuming no levels in another class) would have BAB +11, and thus would gain cold resistance 11. Similarly, the ice created by it would have 33 hit points and a break DC of 26, where a full BAB class or monk would give it 45 hit points and a break DC of 30.

- How exactly would something like shaitan earthblast work if I use it with a kinetic blast? You would be able to use the damage from earth blast and any blast for which earth is a requirement (such as metal, sandstorm, or mud) with shaitan earthblast in place of that of an unarmed strike. As such a geokineticist at 15th level would be dealing 8d6+8+Con of a type of their choice rather than their unarmed damage by using it with earth blast, or 16d8+16+Con of bludgeoning if they used it with mud blast (in addition to the damage added from elemental fist). However, in addition to the two uses of elemental fist she expends, she also needs to add 4 burn if it's used with earth blast, or 8 if it's used with a composite blast. Infusion specialization would reduce this, though, bringing the earth blast variant down to 0 burn, but requiring a total of 6 burn to use it with a composite.

- Can I use limited wish to have a geokineticist duplicate the sirocco spell? Normally, no. Since sirocco is in the air school (as per the wizard's arcane school class feature), it is limited to aerokineticists. If your geokineticist picked up air as her 15th level expanded element, however, then you'd be able to. You would be able to duplicate it with wish, however, regardless of whether you can use air, or you could duplicate any 5th level and under wizard spell or any 4th level and under spell at all.

- Shouldn't the geniekin empowerment class feature say it replaces maximize/quicken/twice metakinesis? No, because it doesn't necessarily do so. Granted, I don't believe there's any archetypes that could combine with this, but in the event there are, on that alters metakinesis could be taken with this archetype so long as the kineticist doesn't replace any of the metakinesis that the second archetype alters or replaces. Kinetic magic actually falls in the same category since one doesn't necessarily have to replace any of their utility talents with spells, so if your DM was to allow it you might be able to take an archetype that alters utility talents so long as you don't make use of kinetic magic.


I find the idea of liquid blades incredibly cool. They'd make for great assassination weapons (easy to dispose of, and the fact that the blade evaporates into nothing means you'd have to know it's a liquid blade flask to realize it's a potential murder weapon), and the fact that they can have poisons added in as part of the process of making them means removing the step of applying poison to them during a battle (unless I have spare poison and I want to). I'm pretty sure it'd be more convenient to use a traditional ranged weapon to deliver poisons, but I love the image of someone just yanking a flask from his bandolier, uncorking it, and whipping the liquid out into a gnarly crystalline blade. And if he fails to deliver the poison in a blade, he can just toss it aside and draw a new one. AESTHETIC.

That being said, there's a few questions I have regarding them...

1 - Can one add enhancement bonuses to a liquid blade via craft magic arms and armor? It seems like having them unable to take weapon qualities would be one of the worse disadvantages to using them in lieu of traditional weaponry.

2 - How exactly do liquid blades interact with the quick draw feat? It allows weapons to be drawn as a free action (assuming they aren't hidden), but also states alchemical items can't be. A liquid blade is both, though. Which rule takes precedence here?

3 - I wanted to use this with a grippli, since they can have the ability to create their own poisons via the toxic skin racial trait. However, grippli poison goes inert after one hour. Does this mean if I use it to create a liquid blade, I need to use that blade within the hour, or does that duration only begin when I pop the blade open?

4 - Emptying the contents of a liquid blade tube is a move action. Would this be considered drawing it, or would this be its own action? Either way this kind of goes hand in hand with my second question (since this means it could be as little as a free action to use, or as much as two move actions).

5 - How would the swift poison and lasting poison rogue talents interact with adding a poison to a liquid blade? I don't mean adding it after it's been "unsheathed" but rather the act of mixing the poison into the liquid, which according to the liquid blade rules is a full-round action. My assumption is that, since it's a rule specific to liquid blades, that'd make it a full-round action still for swift poison, but since lasting poison states that it reduces full-round application of poison via the talent to a standard action, I'm again not sure which rule takes precedence.

6 - Speaking of lasting poison, would that even be usable with the liquid blade's special poison application?

7 - Lastly, this one's not so much about liquid blades as it is about lasting poison itself: the description states that the poison has a reduced effect and saves against the poison get a +2 circumstance bonus. What precisely is the "reduced effect" mentioned? Is that referring to the bonus to saves against it, or is it a different effect, and if the latter, what is that effect (if not something the DM is meant to decide)?

8 - I noticed as I was grabbing the links for this that there's a second version of lasting poison specific to unchained rogue. Can a slayer take this version of the talent, or would they be limited to the core rogue version?


I've been mulling over this build for days now, and I think I've finally got it pretty solid. However, I would like to see if there's anything I could do to streamline it a little more. Note: I realize that because I'm providing my familiar with a weapon, this isn't a PFS compliant build; I'm fine with this, since it's something I'd likely use for a more casual game. The intent was to have him and the familiar be charge buddies who hide away in the brush before suddenly dashing in to overwhelm the enemy. It went through a few phases, from a natural attack focus to a witch level dip, finally developing into this.

Eldritch Guardian/Mutation Fighter:
Race: Kobold

Str 17 (-4, mod 1)
Dex 17 (+2, mod 4)
Con 15 (-2, mod 2)
Int 13 (mod 1)
Wis 12 (mod 1)
Cha 8 (mod -1)

Gliding Wings
Armor
Darkvision
Light Sensitivity

Trait: Enduring Mutagen [Magic]
Trait: Adopted [Social] (Hot Headed [Racial])
Trait: Highlander [Region]
Drawback: Nervous

While I could keep the crafty racial feature and have stealth be a class skill that way, I kind of prefer gliding wings. The original intent was to use it to allow him the powerful wings feat without taking the draconic aspect line of feats, Other than that I keep the defaults. One of the biggest problems with this build was that it would not work without at least 17 strength, or else I wouldn't be able to pick up dragon style, and while its benefits could be replaced with magic items, I'd rather go for something I can guarantee myself.

Regarding the traits, enduring mutagen means more time affected by mutagen (and less need to refresh it), hot headed increases damage while charging, and highlander returns stealth to him as a class skill while providing a bonus to it.

--1st--
Fighter (Eldritch Guardian/Mutation Warrior) 1
BAB: +1
F/R/W: +2/+0/+0
Familiar: Wallaby (Mauler)
Feat: Weapon Finesse

I kinda have to take weapon finesse for him. He's a kobold, and kobolds' strength is garbage. Thankfully I don't need to apply it if I don't want to, and the same extends to my wallaby, who will be utilizing her battle form when she gets access to it to be more of a strength-based combatant, which works well with her mauler archetype. I have her skill focus (acrobatics) feat retraining as stealthy to beef up her stealth a little; I could go with skill focus instead, but meh, it's only a one or two point difference.

--2nd--
Fighter 2
BAB: +2
F/R/W: +3/+0/+0
Share Training
Steel Will 1

Share training is at the core of this build; since familiars cannot take feats outside of retraining, my wallaby is going to rely on being able to use my kobold's. Steel will is alright... not the best thing ever, but it's literally bravery with the added benefit of working on mind-affecting effects.

--3rd--
Fighter 3
BAB: +3
F/R/W: +3/+1/+1
Mutagen
Feat: Tail Terror

Here's where we gain our ability to use weapons and mutagen. I could easily swap between strength mutagen for better damage or dexterity mutagen for better accuracy; either is a viable choice. Tail terror grants the kobold and his familiar the ability to perform tail swipes, but more importantly, grants them access to tail attachments. Nearly any weapon can be deadly in a fighter's hands (or on his tail as the case may be) and tail attachments are no exception. I'm shooting for razored tails for the both of them.

--4th--
Fighter 4
Ability Score Bonus: Str
BAB: +4
F/R/W: +4/+1/+1
Bonus Feat: Kobold Ambusher

Unfortunately I need to waste some of my ability score increases on strength to meet dragon style's prerequisite. However, kobold ambusher is wonderful, letting us halve the stealth check to stay hidden while charging, and is the feat that gave me this idea to begin with.

--5th--
Fighter 5
BAB: +5
F/R/W: +4/+1/+1
Weapon Training: Kobold Tail Attachment
Feat: Filthy Weapons

What's nice about kobold tail attachments is that they are counted as their own weapon group, and since I'm focusing on them, I pretty much only need weapon training for them. Filthy weapons is something that's more of a neat bonus than anything else; with it I could dirty up the blades at the start of a day for a chance to inflict filth fever, possibly even causing it to have a 1-round onset on a critical (which is what lead me to want to focus on crits later on).

--6th--
Fighter 6
BAB: +6/+1
F/R/W: +5/+2/+2
Steel Will 2
Bonus Feat: Improved Unarmed Strike

IUS is purely feat tax. I did entertain the idea that the wallaby's kick could count as an unarmed strike, but I'd err on it not.

--7th--
Fighter 7
BAB: +7/+2
F/R/W: +5/+2/+2
Mutagen Discovery: Wings
Feat: Evolved Familiar (Pounce)

Originally, when this was going to be a natural attack build, I'd planned to use feral mutagen, but there's really not much reason to when my kobold will only be using them with a full attack action. Adding a pounce to my wallaby will let her use that tail for a full attack when she charges (although I'd need to bank on her being considered quadrupedal; otherwise I'd need to pick a goat or pig instead, which is fine).

--8th--
Fighter 8
Ability Score Bonus: Str
BAB: +8/+3
F/R/W: +6/+2/+2
Bonus Feat: Dragon Style

Finally, with the kobold's strength score being increased to 15, he's able to use dragon style, ignoring difficult terrain and allies in his path when charging as well as getting a tidy buff to saves against sleep, paralysis, and stuns. I'd originally considered charging stag style, but trading the ability to use the familiar's pounce as well as having to take an extra two tax feats just to be able to turn mid-charge seems a steep cost if I'm not just going fully into the style.

--9th--
Fighter 9
BAB: +9/+4
F/R/W: +6/+3/+3
Weapon Training: Fighter's Tactics
Feat: Distracting Charge

The fighter's tactics advanced weapon training is going to make for some very interesting synergies coming up. At this point I need some teamwork feats, but unlike IUS before, I can hardly call distracting charge a feat tax. Any ally could charge at an enemy, and if I go in for an attack, it'll have an improved attack roll. Since the familiar gains use of the kobold's combat feats, she can trigger this for herself when the kobold charges in and vice versa.

--10th--
Fighter 10
BAB: +10/+5
F/R/W: +7/+3/+3
Steel Will 3
Bonus Feat: Precise Strike

Where the previous feat added attack rolls, this one adds extra damage. It relies on flanking, but since I've got two characters cooperating, getting that flanking bonus shouldn't be too difficult.

--11th--
Fighter 11
BAB: +11/+6/+1
F/R/W: +7/+3/+3
Mutagen Discovery: Infuse Mutagen
Feat: Coordinated Charge

Coordinated charge is the star of the build. With it, any time anyone in the group charges, the kobold and wallaby each get to charge as an immediate action. This essentially allows the wallaby two full attacks in one round, while the kobold gets an extra move and standard attack himself. Infuse mutagen also will let me keep a supply of mutagens of both strength and dexterity varieties to switch stats on the fly. This gives the kobold some incentive to trigger charge chains when another ally doesn't do so; his familiar can benefit more from both of the other teamwork feats, since her attacks and damage rolls don't benefit from the kobold's weapon training.

--12th--
Fighter 12
Ability Score Bonus: Dex
BAB: +12/+7/+2
F/R/W: +8/+4/+4
Bonus Feat: Weapon Focus (Kobold Tail Attachment)

While technically a tax feat, at least this is useful, and will actually increase the familiar's attack rolls as well. Also, we can finally increase the right stat for our kobold.

--13th--
Fighter 13
BAB: +13/+8/+3
F/R/W: +8/+4/+4
Weapon Training: Trained Grace
Feat: Advanced Weapon Training (Focused Weapon (Kobold Tail Attachment))

This actually showcases a neat little exploit I ran into. Since the advanced weapon training feat is a combat feat, it allows me to take an advanced weapon training ability and allow my familiar to use it as well. As such, I'm able to grab focused weapon for kobold tail attachments, and both my familiar and kobold will get some much higher damage per hit. There could be an issue, however, of exactly how this affects the familiar: it'll either duplicate the effect it has on the kobold, or it'll just flat-out give the familiar the advanced weapon training ability (in which case it'd be useless, since she has no fighter levels). Trained grace will beef up the kobold's damage even further, since he'll be using weapon finesse on his attachment. At this point, I've nabbed all the "essential" feats, so the rest will be used to define his late-game play.

--14th--
Fighter 14
BAB: +14/+9/+4
F/R/W: +9/+4/+4
Steel Will 4
Bonus Feat: Critical Focus

Yay, more tax feats! :|

--15th--
Fighter 15
BAB: +15/+10/+5
F/R/W: +9/+5/+5
Mutagen Discovery: Greater Mutagen
Feat: Stealthy

It's pretty late to be grabbing extra bonuses to stealth, and quite honestly this could be swapped out if I find myself with high enough stealth to pass most of the checks I'm taking. Greater mutagen, however, is the main thing gained this level, increasing my overall stat gain from the mutagen.

--16th--
Fighter 16
Ability Score Bonus: Dex
BAB: +16/+11/+6/+1
F/R/W: +10/+5/+5
Bonus Feat: Blades Above and Below

This feat should make it easier for me to flank targets, so long as my familiar is in battle mode (making her a medium creature while the kobold is small).

--17th--
Fighter 17
BAB: +17/+12/+7/+2
F/R/W: +10/+5/+5
Weapon Training: Weapon Mastery (Devastating Assault)
Feat: Tiring Critical

Now we're beginning to really exploit that higher crit range on the razored tail attachment (which, at this point, should be very simple to get with the keen quality, and hopefully thundering as well). This is still a feat tax, but it'll serve on the way to the next one. Devastating assault is going to help with this even more, allowing my kobold to not only get critical hits a little more easily, but to tack on an extra condition on top of the regular ones added to his criticals.

--18th--
Fighter 18
BAB: +18/+13/+8/+3
F/R/W: +11/+6/+6
Steel Will 5
Bonus Feat: Exhausting Critical

And this is why we took tiring critical.

--19th--
Fighter 19
BAB: +19/+14/+9/+4
F/R/W: +11/+6/+6
Mutagen Discovery: Grand Mutagen
Feat: Blinding Critical

Although devastating assault could already cause blindness, it's a nice option if I've already applied some conditions to the same enemy via devastating assault. Blindness and exhaustion stack pretty well for the purpose of lowering the chances of an enemy being able to hit, thanks to exhaustion lowering both strength and dexterity.

--20th--
Fighter 19
Ability Score Bonus: Dex
BAB: +10/+15/+10/+5
F/R/W: +12/+6/+6
Weapon Mastery (Kobold Tail Attachments)
Bonus Feat: Critical Mastery

It's not like we have many options for weapon mastery here. While it makes critical focus redundant, it does mean we're guaranteed to crit hard against anything within threat range, and critical mastery will allow those crits to both blind and exhaust those hit (along with any effect chosen for devastating assault if that's used, instant filth fever if my weapon's still dirtied up, plus anything my weapon normally would do via weapon qualities).

Familiar:
Species: Wallaby

Str 12 (mod 1)
Dex 14 (mod 2)
Con 11 (mod 0)
Int 6 (mod -2)
Wis 9 (mod -1)
Cha 4 (mod -3)

Low-light Vision
Scent
Kick +2
Master: +3 Acrobatics

BAB: Same as master (default: +0)
F/R/W: Same as master (default: +2/+4/-1)

--1st/2nd--
Mauler 1/2
Natural Armor +1
Str 12
Alertness
Improved Evasion
Share Spells
Empathetic Link
Feat: Stealthy (retrained from Skill Focus (Acrobatics))

--3rd/4th--
Mauler 3/4
Natural Armor +2
Str 13
Battle Form

--5th/6th--
Mauler 5/6
Natural Armor +3
Str 14
Bond Forged in Blood

--7th/8th--
Mauler 7/8
Natural Armor +4
Str 15

--9th/10th--
Mauler 9/10
Natural Armor +5
Str 16

--11th/12th--
Mauler 11/12
Natural Armor +6
Str 17
Damage Reduction

--13th/14th--
Mauler 13/14
Natural Armor +7
Str 18
Scry on Familiar

--15th/16th--
Mauler 15/16
Natural Armor +8
Str 19

--17th/18th--
Mauler 17/18
Natural Armor +9
Str 20

--19th/20th--
Mauler 19/20
Natural Armor +10
Str 21

Not really a lot of variety to be had here; the only things I actually choose are her species and her feat, should retraining be allowed. As mentioned above, I may end up needing to replace her with a goat or pig if she's deemed bipedal rather than quadrupedal. I just ended up going with stealthy for the feat to match her master's focus on stealth, although it's not really necessary.

Aside from advice on refining the build, I could use a little help on equipment too. I have a few rough ideas (I already know I want both kobold and wallaby with a keen thundering adamantine razored kobold tail attachment, and I'd like to shoot for rhino hide barding for the wallaby if at all possible), but nothing definite.


I'm slowly... SLOWLY... getting an idea I had for a character refined, but I wanted to ask a few questions pertaining to his build that'll help me nail down some more specifics.

1 - Let's say I have a plague patron familiar on a beast-bonded witch, an it's capable of using weapons (such as, for example, a monkey using a knife via simple weapon proficiency). Since it can inflict filth fever once per day with a natural attack, it qualifies for the infectious weapons feat (which can be granted to it via the beast-bonded class feature transfer feats), which reads:

Infectious Weapons wrote:
Benefit: Creatures damaged by your ranged and melee weapon attacks have a chance to contract disease, as though they were damaged with your disease-spreading natural weapon.

It makes no mention of expending the actual ability it's rooted from, should the ability have a certain number of uses per day. Does this mean I could have my familiar freely spreading disease to everything its (literally) grubby weapon can poke?

2 - I'm trying to exploit charging as much as possible, and since this character is a kobold, I plan to utilize kobold ambusher (which allows me to take -10 penalty to stealth rolls to stay hidden when charging or running rather than -20, and gives me no stealth penalty to move normally while hidden). As such I want my stealth pretty dang high so I can more easily utilize this feat. This brings me to a question of possible conflicting bonuses. If I take both skill focus (stealth) (which gives me +3/+6 to stealth) an stealthy (which gives me +2/+4 to stealth and escape artist), will both bonuses stack thanks to being untyped? Or, since both are similar bonuses that are both granted by feats with very similar wording, would the skill focus bonus just override the bonus from stealthy?

3 - From my understanding, a witch's familiar is a patron familiar when it's picked. But what about if you take witch levels on a character who has levels in a different class that grants familiars, such as wizard or shaman? Will the original familiar just gain the blessing of the patron and be granted its patron ability, or would you have to completely replace the familiar with a brand new one granted specifically by your patron? (I realize this is more of a GM call since it effectively just alters the PC's story - and potentially eats some of their time and GP - but I'm mostly curious what the RAW answer would be here).

4 - Similar to above: if a game begins at a higher level than 1st, would the PC above be able to, say, take a bloodline familiar as a bloodrager at 1st, take a witch level for his 2nd level, and just start off with a patron bloodline familiar? Or would he have to negate 400 gp from his starting wealth to compensate for replacing his familiar at 2nd (again, curious of the RAW answer, since this seems to again be largely a GM call).


So I was playing around with some ideas and one that I got was having an Eldritch Guardian/Mutation Warrior, with the intent on having my goat familiar imbibing my mutagen. Under normal circumstances this wouldn't work; my goat is obviously not an alchemist, so he's not going to benefit from drinking a mutagen. However, it got me thinking: is it possible to have a non-humanoid companion (such as an eidolon, familiar, or animal companion) treated as having a class for some purpose, such as the above example of allowing it to imbibe mutagens?


I was browsing through some archetypes and came across the far hand adept archetype for the magus. Seems cool enough; use mage hand to fight with your melee weapon from a distance rather than have to get excessively close. However, I'm a little confused on how precisely it all works. Especially spellstriking with the weapon.

I can see how spell combat could potentially work; your weapon is at the target, you cast a spell and your weapon does the attacking. It's spellstrike that confuses me. Spellstrike typically requires a touch-range spell (such as arcane mark or shocking grasp) to work. Thing is, you're not touching your weapon at this time, so it seems like the charge stays in your hands, and can't be delivered via a weapon you have no physical contact with. Does this work as an exception to that (i.e. I could cast shocking grasp and have my sword deliver the charge despite being quite a distance away from me), or would I have to do some weird fenangling to get it to work (such as casting the touch spell on one turn, using mage hand to levitate my weapon and the spell charge within it on the next, then finally being able to deliver the spell on the third)?

Also of note is that it makes no mention of natural weapons not being allowed. I think in most cases it's reasonable to assume you're not going to be levitating parts of yourself over, but what about the case of prosthetic arms for unarmed strikes, claws, or slams? Dentures floated over to make a bite? A white-haired witch's hair, should her hair be naturally long enough? Or did I miss something that either prevents such things as acting as natural weapons, or something in the archetype's text that bans natural weapons?


So, I've taken some interest in the horimyo wizard archetype, and was wondering what I could potentially do to work out an archer variant?

Firstly, yes, I realize this guy's gonna have crap BAB. I'm fine with that, since I could cast true strike to help beef up my attack rolls with my weapon. I plan the school to be transmutation (enhancement), with necromancy and either enchantment or illusion as my opposition schools, which means I'll be able to buff my Dex with the physical enhancement ability, which should stack with the stat buff from bonded tattoo (since that, as worded, actually raises the stat the same way as one gains stats per level, rather than providing a bonus to it). Obviously I'll need to start with a decent amount of Int, though, so I can access later-level magic and have enough spell slots to cast it...

Anyway, there's a few angles I'm thinking I could go with this.

- 6 levels of magus - eldritch archer. This allows me to take a bow as a bonded weapon and use my magus arcana to get broad study so I can use ranged spellstrike with my wizard spells. One spell I'm curious about in this regard is arrow eruption, as it'd seem like I could essentially use it to fire double-damage arrows so long as I've killed an enemy with an arrow on my last turn.

- 4-6 levels of ranger - divine marksman. This would give me bullseye shot far earlier than my BAB would normally allow, provide me with some bonus feats that could prove useful, and provide me with a favored enemy bonus that applies partially to all my attack and damage rolls.

- 5 levels of gunslinger - techslinger. Since my Dex mod is going to be rather high, that'll add a decent amount of damage to my attacks with high-tech firearms. Also, since firearms are based on touch AC, I can focus my casting on beefing up damage moreso than attack rolls. However, this means I'd lose any use from spells like arrow eruption or gravity bow, and since most of the tech firearms deal typed energy damage there's always the risk of encountering enemies immune to or highly resistant against said damage. Not to mention the cost.

I don't want to start working on a build just yet, I want to see some opinions on what I can do to put the horimyo to good use with a weapon.


A friend of mine gave me a challenge last night: build a character based around using a scythe, however I think best. So here's the build I came up with. Note that unless your DM is a little looser on racial requirements for feats, this will only work for a human. I went with a catfolk myself, since I'd personally loosen the reigns on such requirements unless it's a matter of physiology, but that's just me. That and I like the idea of being able to call this guy a critty cat.

----------

Critty Cat Scythe build:
Race: Catfolk

Trait: Bestial Wrath [Religion]
Trait: Swordlord's Page [Region]
Trait: Called [Faith]
Drawback: Anxious

Racial Traits: Cat's Luck, Natural Hunter, Sprinter, Low-Light Vision

Str: 18
Dex: 17 (+2)
Con: 14
Int: 13
Wis: 12 (-2)
Cha: 10 (+2)

--1st--
Brawler's Cunning
Martial Training
Mutagen
Unarmed Strike
Feat: Improved Unarmed Strike
Feat: Weapon Focus (scythe)

--2nd--
Brawler's Flurry: Two-Weapon Fighting
Bonus Feat: Weapon Focus (nine-ring broadsword or seven-branch sword)

So if he's supposed to be a scythe-user, why would he need weapon focus for either of these weapons? You'll see in a bit. For now, if you really need to flurry you'll need to do it barefisted or with one of these two weapons.

--3rd--
Maneuver Training: Trip
Feat: Ascetic Style (nine-ring broadsword or seven-branch sword)

I figure tripping is the most useful combat maneuver you could do during a flurry, since success means the opponent loses AC against the rest of your attacks.

--4th--
Ability Score Increase: Str
Beastform: Low-Light Vision, Movement +10
Knockout: 1

--5th--
Brawler's Strike: Magic
Close Weapon Mastery
Feat: Ascetic Form (nine-ring broadsword or seven-branch sword)
Bonus Feat: Martial Versatility (Ascetic Form)

And this is why the second weapon focus and ascetic style went to a weapon we have no plans on using in the long run. Once we take martial versatility (ascetic form), that means ascetic form applies to all weapons in the weapon group it's a part of. Both of these weapons are in both the monk group and the heavy blades group, so while it has the more predictable effect of allowing ascetic form to apply to all monk weapons, it also allows it to apply to all heavy blades. This allows the scythe to be used with brawler's flurry, to take on our unarmed strike damage, and to be used with knockout and awesome blow. Note however that this is only going to apply to ascetic form; we aren't going to benefit from any feats we take that only apply to unarmed strikes, nor will spells that only affect our unarmed strikes do anything with our scythes; our scythe only function with the class features that handle unarmed strikes like how the seven-branched sword or nine-ringed broadsword would.

Going this route actually opens a lot of options for brawlers. Wanna flurry with claws? Take weapon focus, ascetic style, and ascetic form with unarmed strikes. Wanna flurry with a war razor? Pick those feats with a butterfly sword. Flurry with a meteor hammer? Take the feat with a nunchaku. If you weapon of choice isn't already part of the monk group, chances are the group it's a part of also includes a weapon that is, so you should be able to do this with nearly anything besides bows, crossbows, firearms, and seige engines.

It should be noted, though, that it won't be as useful for a lot of other classes since this takes four feats to accomplish, so if you don't have access to that many bonus feats, this route may not be the best idea then. Also it'd need to be a class that makes heavy use of abilities with unarmed strike-based class features (such as an esoteric magus, a ninja with unarmed combat mastery, or an order of the hammer cavalier).

--6th--
Mutagen: +2

--7th--
Maneuver Training: Grapple
Feat: Focused Attack

And now the reason I specifically wanted a class with a flurry. Since it's used as a full-round attack, it's subject to focused attack's bonus. By 20th level, this guy is adding +6 to his crit range. It's not going to be that good right now, but considering scythes begin with a base crit multiplier of X4, that's going to be a heck of a bonus to your average damage output when you absolutely must kill something immediately.

--8th--
Ability Score Increase: Str
Brawler's Flurry: Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
Bonus Feat: Weapon Specialization (scythe)

--9th--
Beastmorph: Darkvision 30, Climb Speed 15
Brawler's Strike: Cold Iron, Silver
Feat: Critical Focus

--10th--
Knockout: 2
Mutagen: Spontaneous Healing

--11th--
Maneuver Training: Sunder
Mutagen: +3
Feat: Impaling Critical (scythe)
Bonus Feat: Greater Weapon Focus (scythe)

And now we have an even better reason to fish for those crits. Impaling is just adding that extra chunk of damage to a critical hit as well as a little control over the enemy.

--12th--
Ability Score Increase: Str
Brawler's Strike: Alignment
Mutagen: Greater Mutagen

--13th--
Beastform: Scent 30, Movement +15
Feat: Improved Critical (scythe)

Technically, this would be a trash feat, since we could always just grab a keen scythe instead, but it's a requirement for the following:

--14th--
Bonus Feat: Superior Critical (scythe)

This feat is just beautiful for anything that has a high crit multiplier. Since it's 4x on a scythe, that means our criticals don't just deal 4x our unarmed damage dice now, but also tack on another 4d10.

--15th--
Brawler's Flurry: Greater Two-Weapon Fighting
Maneuver Training: Bull Rush
Feat: Savage Critical

Ahem. Make that 5d10, if we roll a natural 20. And this is on top of the extra damage our scythe is going to deal as we pull it out of the foe's body.

--16th--
Ability Score Increase: Str
Awesome Blow
Knockout: 3
Mutagen: +4

--17th--
Brawler's Strike: Adamantine
Feat: Penetrating Strike
Bonus Feat: Improved Impaling Critical (scythe)

Did I say extra damage? I meant extra bleed damage. Penetrating strike is probably unnecessary since we can already break through DR/piercing, slashing, magic, cold iron, silver, and now adamantine, but at this point we're just grabbing icing talents. It's honestly more for a full flurry than a focused attack.

--18th--
Beastmorph: Climb 30, Movement +20

--19th--
Maneuver Training: Dirty Trick
Feat: Greater Penetrating Strike

--20th--
Ability Score Increase: Str
Improved Awesome Blow
Bonus Feat: Modify Mutagen

Modify mutagen makes a decent capstone, I think. It's not much, but it's nice to actually be able to choose your penalties as well as your bonuses when you take a mutagen.

----------

Again, since this is ignoring the human prerequisite on martial versatility, the build may be restricted to humans on a more by-the-books DM, but beyond that, I feel like this build should work as intended. A few more thoughts:

Spoiler:
- The bonus feat for a human would likely be used on the second weapon focus, with several of the other feats shifted up earlier, but it may require one to grab exotic weapon proficiency for your chosen weapon.

- Regardless of the above, the only way to use a weapon to flurry before 5th with this is if your chosen weapon is one you could already flurry with. In these cases you may still wish to take the ascetic style and ascetic form feats, if only so you can get the unarmed damage and ability to use them with awesome strike.

- Since you can completely skip all four feats for unarmed strikes, if you choose to use those for this build, you'll likely wish to grab some other style feats. Boar, jabbing, pummeling, kitsune, snake, and tiger are all awesome styles that I think could fit well with this.

- The crit feat, obviously, doesn't need to be impaling, especially if you choose a weapon that can't do piercing.

- You may be able to take another critical feat and critical mastery in place of the penetrating strike feats. There's plenty of good ones out there.

- Aside from scythes, weapons that would work especially well with this are ones that either have a 4x crit multiplier (light picks, heavy picks, pickaxes, tri-bladed katar, gnome hooked hammers, tetsubo, and mattocks) or ones that have 18-20 crit range (kukri, cutlasses, rapiers, scimitars, falchions, estocs, rhokas, elven curve blades, fauchards, nodachi, wakizashi, katana, urumi, and crystal chakrams). This certainly isn't a limiter though, and you can just use whatever fits your character flavorwise.


I've been trying to refine this build, and I'm not entirely happy with the feats as they are, and I'd like a little help in this regard. He's being used with a homebrew race, and the DM is allowing me the use of 3rd and 3.5 feats (which I've linked in the instances where they've been taken).

Trait: Two-World Magic (Create Water)
Trait: Diver
Trait: Bastard
Drawback: Burned

Strength - 14 (2 mod)
Dexterity - 14 (2 mod)
Constitution - 14 (2 mod)
Intellect - 17 (3 mod)
Wisdom - 11 (+2) (1 mod)
Charisma - 12 (+2) (2 mod)

--1st--
Witch (White Haired Witch) 1
Witch Spells (CL 1) - 3|1
Familiar: King Crab
Patron: Water
White Hair
Feat: Improved Unarmed Strike

Early on will probably be the hardest going. He's going to have to act as a base level caster at this point.

--2nd--
Witch 1, Magus (Hexcrafter) 1
Arcane Pool: 1+Int
Witch Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Arcane Pool
Spell Combat

--3rd--
Witch 1, Magus 2
Arcane Pool: 1+Int
Witch Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 2): 4|2
Spellstrike
Feat: Improved Grapple

This is the point where he's going to start acting more like a physical combatant. His planned strategy is to first cast chill touch with spell combat, then deliver it via spellstrike with his hair attack (which should be viable as he's using it as part of spellstrike, not as part of spell combat). The hair makes a grapple attempt, and if successful, he'll reposition the target into an adjacent square - preferably in such a way that he and an ally are flanking it - and deliver the rest of his spell combat attacks. At this point, although he's severely lacking in spell slots, he's able to do this via the brand and arcane mark spells, essentially giving him a bonus attack per turn.

--4th--
Witch 1, Magus 3
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 1+Int
Witch Spells (CL 1): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 3): 4|3
Magus Arcana: Accursed Strike

This is the first debatable decision. Accursed strike will be useful, certainly, once I have the ability to cast bestow curse, and there's a pretty wide variety of curse spells in the witch's spell list that I won't ever get to with my magus levels. However, arcane accuracy may end up a better choice due to my low BAB.

--5th--
Witch 1, Magus 4
Arcane Pool: 2+Int
Witch Spells (CL 5): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 4): 4|3/1
Magus Hex: Evil Eye
Feat: Practiced Spellcaster (Witch)

This one's also slightly iffy, but since I'm relying more on witch spells later on, I need to make my witch caster levels higher. If there's a feat that'll allow me to increase my effective witch level for the purpose of class features by no less than three, however, I'd gladly trade this feat out for it. I have serious doubts there's anything like that available though, even in third party feats.

--6th--
Witch 1, Magus 5
Arcane Pool: 2+Int
Witch Spells (CL 5): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 5): 4|4/2
Feat: Craft Wondrous Item

I feel like this is going to be necessary. I need to buff my strength and intellect, and grabbing wondrous items as early as I can is the best way to do this.

--7th--
Witch 1, Magus 6
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Witch Spells (CL 5): 3|1
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
Magus Arcana: Broad Study (Witch)
Feat: Enlarge Supernatural Ability

Broad study is absolutely, 100% vital to this build, as I plan on delivering chill touches and curses via spellstrike fueled by my witch caster level. The third party feat is also essential, but if such a feat as I was describing by the fifth level thing exists, I can swap this for something else.

--8th--
Witch 2, Magus 6
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Witch Spells (CL 6): 4|2
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3

--9th--
Witch 3, Magus 6
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Witch Spells (CL 7): 4|2/1
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
Feat: Extra Arcana (Malice)

Malice is one of my biggest damage-dealers besides my magic. It's basically like having a small sneak attack, except it's not precision damage.

--10th--
Witch 4, Magus 6
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Witch Spells (CL 8): 4|3/2
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3

--11th--
Witch 5, Magus 6
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Witch Spells (CL 9): 4|3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
Feat: Greater Grapple

This I think is the last of the "essential" feats. This will allow me to keep an enemy locked down while simultaneously fighting a second enemy or casting spells to more quickly take down the one I'm grappling. Or, it could allow me two checks so I can grapple an enemy and then pin it.

--12th--
Witch 5, Magus 6, Eldtritch Knight 1
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Diverse Training: Fighter 1, Witch 6, Magus 7
Witch Spells (CL 10): 4|3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
Feat: Power Attack

--13th--
Witch 5, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 2
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Diverse Training: Fighter 2, Witch 7, Magus 8
Witch Spells (CL 11) - 4|4/3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 6) - 5|4/3
Feat: Cornugon Smash

--14th--
Witch 5, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 3
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Diverse Training: Fighter 3, Witch 8, Magus 9
Witch Spells (CL 12): 4|4/3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3

--15th--
Witch 5, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 4
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Diverse Training: Fighter 4, Witch 9, Magus 10
Witch Spells (CL 13): 4|4/4/3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
Feat: Sickening Grasp

This feat is nothing but fluff. :P I can easily swap it out.

--16th--
Witch 5, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 4
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Diverse Training: Fighter 5, Witch 10, Magus 11
Witch Spells (CL 14): 4|4/4/3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
Feat: Hurtful

This one, along with cornugon smash and power attack before it, have a chance to give me an extra attack as a swift action. While that's all well and good, that's three feats, one of which lowers my already low attack rolls.

--17th--
Witch 5, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 6
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Diverse Training: Fighter 6, Witch 11, Magus 12
Witch Spells (CL 15): 4|4/4/4/3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
Feat: Split Hex

--18th--
Witch 5, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 7
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Diverse Training: Fighter 7, Witch 12, Magus 13
Witch Spells (CL 16): 4|4/4/4/3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3

--19th--
Witch 5, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 8
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Diverse Training: Fighter 8, Witch 13, Magus 14
Witch Spells (CL 17): 4|4/4/4/4/3/2/1
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
Feat: Wave of Mutilation

--20th--
Witch 5, Magus 6, Eldritch Knight 9
Ability Score Increase: Int
Arcane Pool: 3+Int
Diverse Training: Fighter 9, Witch 14, Magus 15
Witch Spells (CL 18): 4|4/4/4/4/3/3/2
Magus Spells (CL 6): 5|4/3
Feat: Body Shield

----------

So, I'm looking at a few potential options to replace some of the less essential stuff above. As mentioned, if there's a feat or two I could grab that would increase my effective witch level by at least three, that would be amazing, as it'd give my white hair an extra five feet of range and cap it out as far as the abilities I'm granted with it. However, I have a feeling nothing like that exists, so... yeah. Current things I'm looking at include:

Magus Arcana: Arcane Accuracy - With my BAB being fairly low to begin with and just middling later on, I could use the boost to my attack rolls.

Magus Arcana: Enduring Arcana - This means not having to use as many points from my arcane pool during an extended fight. However, since it's only going to improve the bonus to no more than six minutes, it may not be worth it.

Magus Arcana: Pool Strike - Better than using brand for spell combat. It's also nice that I can choose the energy type I'm going for. Not sure how I feel about it just being 3d6 though.

Magus Arcana: Damage Shield - DR6/- until the end of the round as an immediate action? Not too shabby. It could keep me alive in the early game if the DM throws a lot of foes with multiple weak attacks my way.

Magus Arcana: Familiar - As it is now my familiar only gets 6 Int and +3 natural armor. This would give him 11 Int and +6 natural armor, as well as allow him to speak with other crabby patties and nab him some spell resist. But then chance are he's still going to be spending most of his time in a cage in my character's backpack or stuffed into his hair.

Magus Arcana: Close Range - This would add on ray of frost and disrupt undead as cantrips I can spellstrike with, along with a couple of regular spells like enervation and ray of enfeeblement. It may not really be enough to make it worth it, though.

Rapid Grappler - A third grapple means I could feasibly grapple, pin, and tie up my enemy all in the space of a single round.

Kraken Style - Extra damage plus a bit of a bonus to grapple, always nice.

Magus archetype: Primagus - I can tack this onto my hexcrater archetype to give me spontaneous casting and allow me to spell combat with a 2H weapon (which would be fantastic, as it'd allow me the use of a falchion). However, my magus magic would then be cha based, and because I have no spellbook, I wouldn't be able to teach my familiar anything I've written down in my spellbook that's a common spell between the witch and magus lists.


I wanted to try making a magic-minded set of style feats, since the majority of them seem to deal with unarmed combat or specific weapons. This is split into a branching set of styles, one more geared toward full casters (such as wizards or witches), the other designed to work with martial/caster hybrids (such as warpriests or magi).

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Warmage Style (Combat, Style)

You've become adept at using close-range magic, allowing you to better control magical charges held in your hands.

Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +1, access to 2nd level spells and a spell with a range of touch

Benefit: When you are holding a charge from a spell with a range of touch, it only discharges whenever you intend for it to do so. In addition, at 6th character level, treat bonuses to the target's AC granted by a force effect as being 1 less, and an additional 1 less for every 6 character levels beyond this (to a maximum of 3 points of armor bonus ignored), but only when making a touch attack.

Normal: Without this feat, if you are holding a charge from a touch spell, it discharges automatically if you touch anyone or anything, even unintentionally. Normally touch attacks cannot ignore armor bonuses to AC granted by force effects such as mage armor or bracers of armor.

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Warmage Bolt (Combat)

Your control over charges of magic improves drastically.

Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +3, warmage style, access to 3rd level spells and a spell with a range of touch

Benefit: While you are holding a charge from a spell with a range of touch, as a standard action, you may unleash the charge as if it were a ranged touch spell with a range of close. You may not perform this action as part of delivering a touch spell. If the spell would normally allow you to hold multiple charges (such as chill touch) you expend only one charge in this way per turn.

If you have this feat, you do not qualify for warmage retainer, even if you meet its prerequisites.

Normal: Spells with a range of touch may only be delivered with a melee touch attack.

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Warmage Rush (Combat)

You've discovered the secrets to rapid application of touch attacks, allowing you to deliver multiple charges in one casting.

Prerequisite(s): Base attack bonus +6, warmage style, warmage bolt, access to 5th level spells and a spell with a range of touch

Benefit: When using melee touch attacks to deliver spells with a range of touch, treat your effective BAB as equal to your character level. When casting a spell with a range of touch and a casting time of a standard action or less, you may extend it to a full-round action to deliver an additional free melee touch attack at a -5 penalty to your attack roll. If you can use 6th level spells, you may deliver a third free touch attack at a -10 penalty, and if you can use 9th level spell you may deliver a fourth free touch attack at a -15 penalty. When under the effects of haste, you may deliver one more free touch attack without penalty.

Normal: When casting a spell with a range of touch, you receive only one free melee touch attack to deliver the spell.

Special: Because this is extending a spell to a full-round action, it cannot be used with the magus's spell combat class feature, an eldritch knight's critical spell class feature, or any other effect that allows a spell to be cast faster than a full-round action except for the quicken metamagic. It can, however, be used with spellstrike or similar effects.

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Warmage Retainer (Combat)

You've learned to control your ability to hold magic charges, even maintaining multiple charges at once.

Prerequisite(s): Base attack bonus +4, warmage style, access to 3rd level spells and a spell with a range of touch

Benefit: When may cast spells while holding a charge, but the limb holding the charge may not be used to provide somatic components without first dispelling the charge. If the spell is the same as the charge(s) you're holding, you may add the charges it grants to those already held. In addition, whenever you cast a spell with a range of touch, you get additional charges of that spell equal to the highest level of spell you can cast minus twice the spell's level (minimum 0).

If you have this feat, you do not qualify for warmage bolt, even if you meet its prerequisites.

Normal: Spells with a range of touch only provide one charge unless otherwise stated, and a held charge is dispelled whenever the holder casts a spell.

Example: A 10th level magus casts shocking grasp, a 1st level spell. Because she can access 4th level spells, she is able to deliver shocking grasp two additional times. If she holds the charges and casts shocking grasp again in the next turn, instead of losing those charges, the charges from the second casting of shocking grasp are added to the remaining ones, giving her a total of six held charges.

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Warmage Duality

You've achieved a mastery of touch magic that allows you to hold charges of multiple spells simultaneously.

Prerequisite(s): Base attack bonus +8, warmage style, warmage retainer, access to 6th level spells and two spells with a range of touch

Benefit: While holding a charge, you may hold a charge from a different spell in your off-hand. If you cast another spell while holding two different charges, the charges are dispelled, despite the effects of warmage style. You may transfer charges held in your off-hand to your main hand, but doing so dispells any charges remaining in your main hand. You may still cast spells without somatic components, but if you try to hold a third type of charge, even with a free appendage, both of your current held charges are dispelled. When applying charges held this way, treat it as if you were wielding two weapons, applying penalties as appropriate to your melee touch attacks.

Special: Characters with more than two limbs are still subject to the above. They may not hold a third charge regardless of how many limbs they have, and they cannot cast spells with somatic components without dispelling their held charges even if their free limbs are capable of providing somatic components.


Alrighty, so I somehow got it into my head to make a mutagenic mauler who uses a kusarigama as his main weapon, utilizing the ascetic style line of feats to beef up its damage. I noted that the last feat in the line, ascetic strike (the very feat that gives the kusarigama its monk dice) also replaces still mind as a prerequisite for monastic legacy. I think you know where this is going, right? So, I figured it'd be a good idea to ask some questions here...

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1.) I originally got excited that monastic legacy was going to beef up my kusarigama even more, but when I got a closer look at ascetic strike, I started wondering whether or not it'd work. Ascetic strike states that my chosen weapon deals the unarmed damage die of a monk four levels under my character level. Monastic legacy adds half my non-monk levels to my effective monk level to determine the dice, and since the is a feat that has improved unarmed strike, I would think ascetic style would apply it to my chosen weapon as well. So, do the levels from monastic legacy stack onto the effective monk level from ascetic strike? If so that means one's chosen weapon should deal damage like a monk with a level of:

(character level - 4) + (non-monk levels / 2)

So for example if I'm monk 2/fighter 6 wielding a quarterstaff with these feats, each end of it would deal damage like a (8-4)+(6/2)=7th level monk. If not, then the weapon itself deals as much as an 8-4=4th level monk, while my actual unarmed strikes damage like a 2+(6/2)=5th level monk.

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2.) The other thing that factors in here is how monastic legacy interacts with the brawler's martial training class feature. For the purposes of feats, a brawler is considered both a fighter of his brawler level and a monk of his brawler level. I'm seeing three ways this can be interpreted:

- Monastic legacy considers his levels to simultaneously be fighter and monk. Because all of them are technically monk levels, they don't qualify for the added levels, therefore his unarmed strikes are treated as being his effective monk level, making this a waste of a feat for anything that has a monk's unarmed damage built into its class unless it's taken some monk or brawler levels.

- Monastic legacy considers his levels to be fighter levels and monk levels, but counts them separately. Because he has N levels of non-monk (i.e. fighter) and N levels of monk, he gets unarmed strike damage of a monk 1.5 times his brawler level (N+N/2=N+0.5N=1.5N).

- Monastic legacy not only considers him both an Nth level monk and an Nth level fighter, but also an Nth level brawler. Since he has N levels in two non-monk classes as far as this feat is concerned (N in brawler, and N in fighter because of martial training), he considers his unarmed strike damage as if he was a monk twice his brawler level (N+2N/2=N+N=2N).

Which of these interpretations would be the right one? Assuming the second or third to be true, and assuming monastic legacy does in fact affect the damage dealt by the weapon chosen for ascetic style, would that mean my kusarigama would be capable of dealing damage like an unarmed strike from an monk four levels less than one and a half or two times my brawler level?

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3.) Assuming either the second or third interpretation of monastic legacy's interaction with the brawler class is true, that means monk damage dice will be increasing well beyond an effective level of 20. I've been assuming that beyond the 2d10 a monk or brawler has at 20th level, it advances along the same scale as is listed in the page for enlarge person. However, it's been argued to me that, because the chart for unarmed damage stops at 2d10 and scales differently than the regular damage increment scale (which doesn't include 2d10), it wouldn't increase at all past that. Which seems goony to me, considering there's a specific ruling for how to advance 2d10. As I see it, a 20th-23rd monk deals 2d10, then 24th-27th is 4d6, 28th-31st is 4d8, 32nd-35th is 6d6, 36th-39th is 6d8, and 40th is 8d6. Would that be accurate, or is there special scaling for monk unarmed damage beyond 20th level that I'm unaware of?


So I've been playing a lot with different builds recently, and took a quick look at monastic legacy as an option. Since it requires the still mind feat, it should only be available to monks and monk archetypes that keep it... right?

Well, maybe not. I have a theory I'd like to try out, but it relies on monk dice stacking on top of one another. This idea involves trying to get monastic legacy onto a brawler. Here's how the feats I'd need to take would progress:

1st - Weapon Focus (or Weapon Proficiency for martial/exotic)
2nd - Ascetic Style (or Weapon Focus for martial/exotic)
3rd - Ascetic Style for martial/exotic
5th - Ascetic Form
7th - Ascetic Strike
8th - Monastic Legacy

While ascetic strike may well be redundant with some of the weapons you choose, it can apply to most martial or exotic ones, as well as hanbo if you've chosen that. However, the real reason to use it is the second boon it grants: it treats you as if you had still mind for the purpose of qualifying for feats. What makes this important is that monastic legacy requires still mind, so you'd usually need at least.

Now, if my theory is right, this means his unarmed damage should emulate a monk 1 and 1/2 times his actual brawler class level. As per the martial training class feature, he counts as both a monk and a fighter for the purpose of feats' effects, so he should be able to add half his level in non-monk classes (such as, say, fighter) to his monk class levels to determine his unarmed damage. I think it's safe to assume, based on the chart provided in the entry for the enlarge person spell, that the next die jump is to 4d6 (since that's what 2d10 advances to), then to 4d8, then finally to 6d6. So there we go, we're dealing 6d6 with our unarmed strikes and 4d8 with strikes from our chosen monk weapon as well as all close weapons. There's also the possibility I could count both fighter AND brawler levels, in which case his unarmed strikes are effectively hitting like a 40th level monk, and his chosen and close weapons as a 36th monk once he hits 20 (for reference, that means his damage die goes up every other level instead of every level). This would mean a 20th level brawler might instead be doing 8d8 with unarmed strikes and 8d6 with his weapons...

You could also consider a monk variant multiclass for this. In these cases, the damage is going to be pretty similar to above, except unarmed strikes wouldn't reach 6d6 until 20th. With VMC Monk though, you'll more than likely want to use a class that gets bonus feats such as a fighter; otherwise you'll eat through all your feats in order to get this added damage.

Another way to do this is to apply it to any class that gets a monk's damage dice through an archetype. The bloody-knuckled rowdy bloodrager is one example I found, and is in fact an incredible example since he can gain style feats as bonus feats at the cost of his unarmed strike damage lagging behind two levels like VMC monk's would. Other options would be esoteric magus, sacred fist warpriest, Iroran paladin, any cavalier under the order of the hammer, or any ninja with unarmed combat mastery as a ninja trick. Sacred fist, esoteric, and OotH cavalier both get the same dice as a monk 1.5 times their level this way, but that effective level is reduced by 4 for the ninja and the Iroran paladin only gets half its levels in monk dice naturally, meaning doing this series of feats will just bring him in line with other monks. Also, since magus and ninja use average BAB progression, they'll need to take the feats later on.

As far as prestige classes, brother of the seal follows average BAB progression and requires at least monk 1, while champion of Irori has full BAB but requires monk 4 and paladin 1. Honestly not the best options IMO.

So beyond this, it is possible we could use both of the above options - an archetype that grants monk dice AND the monk VMC. However, something I'm unsure of is if the damage dice granted by a class will stack with the monk VMC's dice, or if we just use whichever is higher? Assuming they stack, using something such as a sacred fist warpriest would grant us an additional effective 18 levels of monk dice on top of the 30 we have, capping us out at 8d6 with our unarmed strikes. I'm also unsure if we can VMC monk with a brawler, but if this is allowed, our 20th level unarmed strike damage is up to 16d8.

So, here's the big questions that'll help determine what happens here:

1.) When monastic legacy is used for a brawler, will his levels in brawler count seperately from his levels of fighter granted from martial training?

2.) Can a brawler take the monk class as a secondary variant multiclass?

3.) If any class with a monk's damage dice in any capacity uses the monk class as a secondary variant multiclass, will the dice granted by the main class stack with the secondary monk class, or will one just overlap the other?


"Enough with the kineticist archetypes Onyx!" I hear you scream. "You've become mad with your obsession with this class!"

And to you I softly whisper, "Screw you I do what I want."

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Compositionist

While most kineticists focus their efforts on learning to control one element and only advance to others later on, the compositionist was blessed from the beginning with the power to wield two elements with equal proficiency, whether because she was chosen as a tool of the elementals to gain a foothold on one another's planes, or fated to become a mediator between the two planes her powers are drawn from, or even simply from being born near a rare spot of power where two elemental anomalies converge. Forsaking the chance to develop her skill with other elemental forces, the compositionist's goal is to blend the power of her elements together seamlessly, no matter how unlikely the combination.

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Elemental Duality

At 1st level, the compositionist chooses two elements to act as her primary elements. These elements cannot be the same. The simple blasts associated with them must create a composite blast, and that blast cannot be one used to alter a simple blast (such as aetheric boost). Instead of those granted by her primary elements, she gains Knowledge (nature) and Knowledge (dungeoneering) as class skills, and gains both of her elements' basic utility talents as bonus wild talents.

She also gains a composite blast associated with both of her elements. This kinetic blast costs 0 burn, but deals damage as a simple blast.

This replaces the elemental focus class feature and alters the kinetic blast class feature and the kineticist's class skills.

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Divided Focus

Attempting to master two elements simultaneously dampens the compositionist's ability to focus on one or the other. Her kineticist level is treated as -2 (minimum 1) for the purpose of qualifying for wild talents. She also cannot fully master how to use metakinesis.

This alters the wild talents class feature and replaces the metakinetic master class feature.

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Entwined Defenses

At 2nd level, the compositionist gains both of her elements' defense wild talents. Only one of these may be active at once; she may switch which one is active as a standard action. If she switches her active defense talent, the burn applied to her previous defense talent benefits the current one instead.

At 10th level, she can have both elemental defense talents active simultaneously, but only one can benefit from burn being accepted to improve it. She may switch which defense talent benefits from the burn that has been spent on it as a standard action.

The compositionist may not take the expanded defense utility wild talent.

This alters the elemental defense class feature and replaces the utility talents gained at 2nd and 10th levels.

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Composite Focus

At 7th level, the compositionist may use her composite blast either as a simple blast or a composite blast; she may accept its normal burn cost and allow it to deal damage as normal. In addition, she may apply any infusions to it that could be applied to its prerequisite simple blasts, regardless of if they could normally be used with the composite blast.

The replaces the expanded element class feature learned at 7th level.

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Composite Mastery

At 15th level, the compositionist chooses one of the following bonuses.

- She gains one bonus wild talent from each of her primary elements; this may be an infusion or a utility wild talent, and she may choose a universal wild talent instead of one specifically for her element. She also gains a +2 bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, caster level, and DC for her wild talents.

- She may learn the simple blasts from which her composite blast is composed. If she does so, the damage dice of her simple blasts increase to d10s, but this bonus does not apply when she uses her composite blast as a simple blast. In addition, her composite blast's damage dice advance to d8s when it is used as normal.

This replaces the expanded element class feature learned at 15th level.

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Two-Plane Scion

At 20th level, the compositionist has incredible control over both of her elements. She chooses one of the following benefits:

- She can push her composite blast to its limits. By accepting 2 burn she can increase its damage dice by one additional step (2d6>2d8>2d10>2d12>2d20). This can be done as an immediate action and may be done as many times as she wishes, but this burn cannot be reduced in any way and cannot exceed the maximum amount of burn she may take in one turn. She may not apply infusion wild talents to a kinetic blast modified in this way.

- She has learned to fuse her elements completely within her body, fully activating the defense each grants her. Whenever she accepts burn with one of her defense wild talents, treat the other as if she'd accepted the same amount of burn with it. Three times per day, as a swift action, she may activate the additional effects of one of her defense talents as if she'd accepted burn on a wild talent of its element without having to do so.

- She becomes an expert at the blending of unlikely combinations of effects. When using her composite blast she may apply two substance infusions to it in addition to one form infusion. If both substance infusions require the same kind of save, the target rolls its save once and applies the result to both.

This ability replaces the omnikinesis class feature and the utility talent learned at 20th.

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Note: Because of the nature of this archetype, neither aether nor void can be used with it. If using the Kineticists of Porphyra book, it also cannot be used with the time or sound elements, but can be used with the light element.


Metafusionist

The metafusionist is a kineticist who is also a student of the arcane arts. Rather than using constant practice to alter the way their powers manifest, they delve into ancient tomes of mystical knowledge, learning to bend their powers in the same way wizards bend their magic spells.

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Study of the Elements (Su)

By researching the elements extensively, the metafusionist has learned how to push their abilities beyond what their bodies could normally handle. A metafusionist can use his Intelligence modifier instead of his Constitution modifier to determine the DCs of Constitution-based wild talents, the duration of wild talents with a Constitution-based duration, and his bonus on concentration checks for wild talents, and uses it in place of his Constitution modifier to determine kinetic blast damage.

He adds Knowledge (Arcane) and Spellcraft to his list of kineticist class skills.

This ability alters the kineticist's class skills and the key ability scores of wild talents.

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Frail Body, Brilliant Mind (Ex)

The metafusionist's constant study has lead to him neglecting his body's condition and leaves him little time to train in other abilities, but he knows how to more efficiently channel the energies in his body. His hit die is reduced to a d6, and he receives 2+Int skill points per level. He can accept a total amount of burn per day equal to 3 plus his Intelligence modifier, and this limit increases by one at 6th level and for every five kineticist levels thereafter.

This ability alters the kineticist's hit dice, skill ranks per level, and the burn kineticist class feature.

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Metafusion (Su)

The metafusionist can bend an shape the elements in ways that many kineticists can only wish they could. At 1st level, the metafusionist picks a metamagic feat for which he qualifies as a bonus feat, using half his kineticist level as his effective caster level for the purpose of qualifying for such feats. He gains an additional bonus metamagic feat at 5th level and every four kineticist levels thereafter.

When using a kinetic blast the metafusionist may apply one metamagic feat to it that he knows, treating his blast as an evocation spell with the same descriptors as the blast. To do so requires him to accept an amount of burn equal to the increase in spell level the metamagic would have applied to a spell (for example, applying toppling spell to a force blast would require him to accept 1 additional burn). Burn accepted this way cannot be reduced by infusion specialization, but can be reduced by using gather power or internal buffer.

The metafusionist cannot learn echoing spell, empower spell, reach spell, maximize spell, or quicken spell. If a metamagic feat requires the above, the requirement is replaced by the twice metakinesis, empower metakinesis, extended range infusion wild talent, maximize metakinesis, and quicken metakinesis, respectively.

This replaces the infusion wild talents learned at 1st, 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th levels.

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Metafusion Master (Su)

The metafusionist has vast knowledge of metamagic that he can use to more easily apply metakinesis. At 19th level he reduces the cost of all types of metakinesis by 1 burn (to a minimum of 0).

This ability replaces the metakinetic master kineticist class feature.

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True Metafusion Master (Su)

At 20th level, a metafusionist has become so adjusted to the use of metamagic that his kinetic blasts he innately melds it into them. He chooses one metamagic feat he know that would increase a spell's level by no more than 1. That metamagic always is applied to his kinetic blasts for no additional burn, and does not count toward the normal limit of one metamagic per kinetic blast.

This ability replaces the omnikinesis kineticist class feature.


I was thinking about how kineticist multiclassing could work well. While a lot of classes' variant multiclassing rules don't jibe, several do, and it made me wonder, what if kineticist was the secondary instead of primary class for this purpose? Here's what I've come up with:

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Attuned Element - At 1st level you may choose your character's attuned element. This functions as the elemental focus and burn class features, except as follows: you do not gain a basic utility wild talent as a bonus talent, and you can only take an amount of burn equal to your Con modifier per day. Calculate the amount of burn you may spend per round as a kineticist of your character level, and the determine the amount of damage your kinetic blast deals as a kineticist of your character level -4 (minimum 1), and kinetic blast talents cost 1 burn more than they normally would. You also may not learn the Extra Wild Talent feat.

Wild Talent - At 3rd level, you may choose to learn either an infusion wild talent or a utility wild talent, using your character level -4 to determine what talents you qualify for (minumum 1). You may use this to learn your element's basic utility talent (for example, if you chose Void for attuned element, you may use this to learn basic chaokinesis). You gain an additional wild talent this way at 7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th levels, but may only learn utility wild talents this way at 3rd, 11th, and 19th levels.

Defensive Talent - At 7th level, you learn your element's defense wild talent. Use your character level -6 as your kineticist level to determine its effects. You also gain the 1st infusion specialization class feature.

Gather Power - At 11th level you gain the gather power class feature.

Expand Knowledge - At 15th level, you may choose a second element or expand your knowledge of your original element. This functions as the expand element class feature, except you do not gain a bonus wild talent if you choose the same element and do not qualify for you second element's wild talents if you choose a different element. You gain a second simple kinetic blast and any composite blasts as normal. You also gain the 2nd infusion specialization class feature.

Supercharge - At 19th level you gain the supercharge class feature.

There's a lot of limitations here that'll hold back a VMC kinetic blast quite a bit. Since your blasts burn you now, it makes little sense to use them outside of emergency situations where you really need to get some damage off in a pinch against an enemy at range or perhaps if you run out of spell slots and still haven't quite taken the enemy down and need something better than a poke with a dagger to do it. While the damage does scale, it does so slower, giving you a 5d6 simple or a 10d6 composite by 20th that grows fairly slowly (doing 1d6 until you hit 6th then only gaining a damage die every 4 additional levels). You do get a free simple blast by 11th, but only by using gather power, and you won't have access to free composite blasts until 19th (and even then, only using supercharged gather power's full-round charge). Being limited to your Con mod for total burn per day also means you're likely not going to use this for much more than an extra damage option unless you already have a lot of Con, which few classes besides the kineticist use as a primary stat.

However, I'm sure there's tons of things one could do to break this. What would be a good way to balance this out, if it proves too OP?


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I was incredibly excited to see Wood and Void added into the Kineticist element list. A friend of mine and I have some long-standing OCs that these respective elements would have been incredible for. Only thing is Wood turned out a bit lackluster compared to what I'd hoped. So I figure, you know what, can I do any better? Let's find out, eh?

Light
Kineticists who focus on the element of light are called photokineticists. They can bend and shape light to their will to create illusions, dispel darkness, and create searing beams.

Class Skills:

Photokineticists have a strong sense of the location of the sun, moon, and stars in the sky in relation to their current location, and are more adept at fooling others into seeing things as what they are not. They gain Disguise and Knowledge (Geography) as class skills.

Kinetic Blast Talents:

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Light Blast

Element(s) light; Type simple blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 0;
Blast Type: energy; Damage light

You fire a shimmering beam of light at the foe.

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Sun Blast

Element(s) light, fire; Type composite blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 2;
Prerequisite(s) light blast, fire blast
Blast Type: energy; Damage half light, half fire

You form a globe of blistering solar energy that you then launch at an enemy.

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Lunatic Blast

Element(s) light, void; Type composite blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 2;
Prerequisite(s) light blast, negative blast
Blast Type: energy; Damage half light, half negative energy

You conjure power from the moon, creating a crescent-shaped blast of light that you fling toward the foe.

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Laser Blast

Element(s) light, air; Type composite blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 2;
Prerequisite(s) light blast, electric blast
Blast Type: energy; Damage half light, half electric

You create a penetrating beam of light that you fire at an enemy.

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Stellar Blast

Element(s) light, aether; Type composite blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 2;
Prerequisite(s) light blast, telekinetic blast
Blast Type: varies (see text); Damage varies (see text)

Star-shaped points of light form at your fingertips. You may fire these immediately, in which case your stellar blast deals damage as a simple energy blast, and using half as light damage and half as force damage. You may instead use this blast as part of a telekinetic blast and treat the points of light as if they were unattended objects with 0 Hardness, 1 HP, and no other special qualities, and the points of light dissipate immediately after being used for the telekinetic blast even if the attack misses. If this is used as part of a telekinetic blast, you may not apply a form infusion to the telekinetic blast.

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Illusory Blast

Element(s) light; Type composite blast (Sp); Level -; Burn 2;
Prerequisite(s) primary element (light), expanded element (light)
Blast Type: energy; Damage light

You consolidate light into phantasmal shapes that surround and attack the foe.

Defense Wild Talents:

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Blinking Form

Element light; Type defense; Level -; Burn 0

Your body emits an eerie glow that acts as a shell to protect you from ill effects. You receive a +1 enhancement bonus to Will saves, which increases by 1 for every 6 Kineticist levels beyond 2nd. You may accept 1 point of burn to increase this bonus by an additional 1, up to as much as your Kineticist levels would naturally grant, until the next time your burn is removed. This bonus stacks with the bonus from the emptiness defense wild talent. Whenever you accept burn while using a light wild talent, you may apply half this bonus to your Fort and Ref saves for 1 round.

You can dismiss or restore this affect as an immediate action.

Infusion Wild Talents - New:

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Ray Infusion

Element(s) aether, air, fire, light, or water; Type form infusion; Level 1; Burn 1
Associated Blasts blue flame, cold, electric, fire, force, illusory, laser, light, lunatic, stellar, sun
Saving Throw none

Your kinetic blast takes the shape of a straight beam, and is treated as a ray as well as a kinetic blast for the purpose of feats (such as weapon focus (ray)) and any other effects that would affect rays (so, for example, your blasts would not incur the normal miss chance against enemies affected by enveloping winds whom haven't accepted burn on an air talent that round).

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Positive Energy Infusion

Element(s) aether, light, or water; Type substance infusion; Level 4; Burn 3
Prerequisites kinetic healer
Associated Blasts water, force, light, sun
Saving Throw none

Your infused blast is charged with positive energy. If it hits a target that would be healed by positive energy, that target is healed by 1/4 the amount of damage the blast would have normally caused. If the target is undead (or would otherwise be damaged by positive energy) the blast deals damage as normal.

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Mirror Trap Infusion

Element(s) light; Type form infusion; Level 6; Burn 4
Associated Blasts illusory, laser, lunatic, light, stellar, sun
Saving Throw none

Your blast manifests as a mirror image of yourself (as the silent image spell) that persists for 1 minute. If a creature enters within 30 feet of the image, the image automatically and instantly transforms into the infused blast and attacks that creature, dealing half that blast's damage; this effect can be canceled as an instant action if the creature is within your line of sight. The image dissipates as soon as it is triggered, and will also dissipate if you are further than 120 feet from it, it is successfully dispelled, or you use another mirror trap infused blast.

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Shimmering Infusion

Element(s) light; Type substance infusion; Level 6; Burn 4
Associated Blasts illusory, laser, lunatic, light, stellar, sun
Saving Throw Will negates

Your infused blast creates a dazzling display. Those within 20 feet of the target (or are within the area if the blast takes the shape of a line, cone, or area of effect) must make a Will save, and if they fail, become fascinated for 1 round. This does not affect creatures that take damage from this blast, nor does it affect creatures that cannot see or are immune to illusion effects.

Infusion Wild Talents - Altered:

- Brilliant Infusion: Now associated with all light blasts and considered light element.
- Chain: Now associated with laser blast. Each successive hit from laser blast reduces its damage by 2d6 rather than 1d6.
- Cloud: Now associated with illusory and light blasts and considered light element.
- Explosion: Now associated with sun blast.
- Flash Infusion: Now associated with all light blasts and considered light element.
- Pure-Flame Infusion: Now associated with sun blast.
- Torrent: Now associated with laser, light, and stellar blasts and considered light element.

Utility Wild Talents - New:

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Basic Photokinesis

Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 1; Burn 0

You can create floating lights, as the dancing lights spell, except they last for 1 hour, cannot be made permanent, and the ability is close range. The range of this ability becomes medium if you posses the extended range infusion wild talent, or far if you possess the extreme range infusion wild talent.

You may also create minor glamours as a form of disguise or to trick enemies. This grants the target creature a +2 bonus to Disguise checks and a +1 dodge bonus to AC against ranged attacks (but not against ranged touch attacks such as rays or against especially large projectiles like ballista bolts). This bonus lasts 1 hour or until Basic Photokinesis is used again, whichever comes first.

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Imaginary Friends

Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 4; Burn 2

This functions as the shadow conjuration spell, except that it may only mimic summon monster III.

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Imaginary Friends, Greater

Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 9; Burn 4

This functions as the greater shadow conjuration spell, except that it may only mimic summon monster VI.

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Lightshaper

Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 3; Burn -

When you use a light blast, light wild talent, or composite blast that include light that require a Reflex save, your target must make a Will save as well and use the lesser result against it.

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Glowing Form

Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 6; Burn 1
Prerequisite(s) Blinking Form

The illusions surrounding you glow brightly until the next time your burn is removed. This creates bright light around you to a radius of 10 feet, and increases the level of light two stages up to 20 feet away and one stage up to 40 feet away. This otherwise functions as shimmering mirage.

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Brighteyes

Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 2; Burn -

Functions as eyes of the void.

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Brighteyes, Greater

Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 5; Burn -
Prerequisite(s) Brighteyes

Functions as greater eyes of the void.

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Light Step

Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 2; Burn -

You can walk across beams of light as if they were solid surfaces. The beam must be visibly brighter than the surrounding area and in a shape that could feasibly be walked upon were it truly solid. If the light vanishes, you fall as if a solid object you were walking on had simply blinked out of existence.

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Light Disc

Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 5; Burn 1
Prerequisite(s) Light Step

You can create a disc of light upon which you may stand that can be ridden into the air. As a move action, you may have the disc move in any direction, including vertical, at you normal walk speed. You may also accept an additional 1 burn to move the disc as a swift action instead.

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Gemini Image

Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 9; Burn 0

This functions as the psychic image spell, except it may only be used for a number of rounds equal to your Con modifier per day, and you may extend that by an additional round by accepting 1 burn.

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Dawning Light

Element light; Type utility (Sp); Level 9; Burn 2

You create a brilliant orb of light in the sky as bright as the sun, illuminating the surroundings within a mile radius as if it were daytime, regardless of the actual time of day. You must concentrate to maintain this effect, or you may accept an additional 1 burn to maintain it for 10 minutes without the need to concentrate. Once the duration ends, the affected area will slowly return to the appropriate level of light for the time of day over the course of 1 minute.

Utility Wild Talents - Altered:

- Kinetic Cover: Add light element.
- Kinetic Healer: Add light element.
- Veil of Mists: Add light element.


Alright. Firstly, let me start by saying that I understand White Haired Witch is a kind of garbage archetype. However, I primarily want it due to the flavor aspect, so unless there's a viable alternative that'll allow my character to fight with his hair, please don't tell me not to use it. Also for flavor reasons, he uses Water as his patron and a king crab familiar, and will not use any spells with the fire descriptor. Also, sadly, gestalt isn't an option, or else that's what I'd be using. That being said...

What I'm looking to do is allow my character to use his hair as his main weapon via some multiclassing. While WHW is the inspiration, I'm okay if he has more levels in other classes. What I'm thinking of doing is Witch (White-Haired Witch) 8, Magus (Kensai) 9, Brawler (Strangler) 3. This should hit a few milestones for each. With his Witch levels he'll have a 15 foot reach with his hair and he can use Witch spells up to 4th level (such as Inflict Serious Wounds and Greater Infernal Healing) and patron spells up to Control Water. The Magus levels bring him two Magus Arcana, a bonus feat, Spellstrike, and a number of useful abilities via his archetype (though they depend on him being able to take on his hair as his favored weapon). The levels in Brawler are just enough to allow him to do 2d6 sneak damage with his Strangle ability and pick up Maneuver Training.

The idea behind this is to treat him as mostly support. He can use Spellstrike with Broad Focus. Since Touch of Fatigue is a cantrip, he'd be able to use an attack to fatigue an enemy, and many of the Inflict spells could be used with Spellstrike for additional damage. I could also take Close Range to allow him to Spellstrike with Ray of Frost, Sickening, Enfeeblement, or Exhaustion as well for versatility's sake. Alternately, I could go Natural Spell Combat instead to let him strike with his hair after casting something to enhance his damage or attack. Improved Unarmed Strike, Weapon Finesse, Improved Grapple, and Greater Grapple are all pretty much necessary, and I may choose to go for Rapid Grappler, Improved Natural Attack, and/or Sleeper Hold. Kraken Style and its related feats are tempting, but probably won't be much use since it gives me an extra ability score to worry about (Wisdom). Arcane Strike is tempting, as well are Feral Combat Training and Bleeding Attack, Nightmare Fist, or Pinning Rend.


2 people marked this as FAQ candidate.

I was reading up on this class, and I quite like the concept behind it. However, I'll admit that I'm slightly confused about a couple of things, and hopefully I can get those cleared up here.

1 - The text for ectoplasmic lash doesn't seem to mention what weapon type these are considered, if anything. Does that mean I can't take feats such as weapon focus with them, or is there some subcategory that they'd apply under (such as whips), or would I simply be able to take weapon focus for ectoplasmic lashes?

2 - At 12th and 16th levels the lashes gain the ectoplasmatist's choice amongst vicious, returning, cruel, menacing, cunning, mimetic, and keen special abilities, as if having had a particular emotional focus's version of spirit-bound blade cast on them. However, some of these only apply to certain weapons. Chief amongst this is the Dedication emotional focus, which provides returning. The problem is all forms of the lash are melee weapons that, as per the description, are more or less anchored to the wielder. Does this mean picking that emotional focus is pointless? Or can one actually throw their ectoplasmic lashes?


So back in the thread I started to get some kineticist questions answered, I was theorizing a kineticist/bloodrager hybrid build, but found that it depends somewhat on one's interpretation of the mad magic ability; it allows a bloodrager to use spells during a rage, but it doesn't specifically state that spell-like abilities are included in that. So I figured why not see about making a hybrid of barbarian and kineticist?

<<Kinetic Rager>>

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-Elemental Might (Ex)-

A kinetic rager uses his Strength modifier instead of his Constitution modifier to determine his damage with wild talents, the DCs of Constitution-based wild talents, the duration of wild talents with a Constitution-based duration, his bonus on concentration checks for wild talents, and the other Constitution-based effects of all his wild talents.

He adds Survival to his list of kineticist class skills.

The ability alter's the kineticist's class skills and the key ability score of wild talents.

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-Kinetic Weapon (Su)-

At 1st level, instead of choosing an infusion wild talent, the kinetic rager gains the kinetic weapon infusion wild talent. This functions as kinetic blade except as follows: it has a burn cost of 0, and the kinetic blast is treated as if the kinetic rager is wielding it while attacking. The kinetic rager must choose a weapon type at 1st level, and his kinetic weapon always is treated as this type of weapon for the purpose of feats and abilities. This applies even if a different weapon type is used with telekinetic blast. The kinetic rager must choose a simple light or one-handed weapon type for this purpose.

(Includes: battle aspergillum, brass knife, brass knuckles, cestus, club, dagger, heavy mace, hook hand, kunai, light mace, mere club, morningstar, punching dagger, shortspear, sickle, spiked gauntlet, wooden stake)

If the kinetic rager would take the kinetic whip wild talent, kinetic weapon is instead upgraded to function like it rather than kinetic blade, and the kinetic rager must choose a weapon with reach to replace the original weapon choice. Otherwise it functions the same. Even if the weapon type chosen this way would normally be considered two-handed, the kinetic rager wields it in one hand unless it is a telekinetic blast modifying an object held in two hands. It is not, however, considered one-handed for the purpose of feats and abilities unless the weapon chosen is actually a one-handed weapon type.

(Includes: bardiche, bec de corbin, bill, boarding gaff, boarding pike, crook, dwarven longaxe, dwarven longhammer, elven branched spear, fauchard, flailpole, flying blade, glaive, glaive-guisarme, guisarme, horsechopper, lance, longspear, lucerne hammer, mancatcher, orc skull ram, ranseur, ripsaw glaive, whip)

Weapons formed via kinetic weapon and those used for a telekinetic blast with this infusion do not interfere with gather power, despite being considered as being wielded.

The kinetic rager may not take any form infusions except for kinetic whip. He may take any substance infusions he qualifies for as normal for the infusions class feature, but only gains them at 5th level and every four levels afterward.

This modifies the kinetic blast and infusion class features.

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-Kinetic Rage (Ex)-

A kinetic rager can call upon inner reserves of strength and ferocity, granting him additional combat prowess. Starting at 3rd level, a kinetic rager can rage for a number of rounds per day equal to 4 + his Constitution modifier by accepting 1 point of burn, plus an additional point of burn at the start of each turn that he remains in rage. At each level after 3rd, he can rage for 2 additional rounds. Temporary increases to Constitution, such as those gained from rage and spells like bear's endurance, do not increase the total number of rounds that a kinetic rager can rage per day. A kinetic rager can enter rage as a free action. The total number of rounds of rage per day is renewed after resting for 8 hours, although these hours do not need to be consecutive.

While in rage, a kinetic rager is constantly aglow with elemental energy which may cause him to crackle with electricity, grow rocky plates over his skin, or some other thematic visible effect. This effect can be temporarily suppressed during a round in which he uses the moment of clarity rage power. He gains a +4 morale bonus to his Strength and Constitution, as well as a +2 morale bonus on Will saves. In addition, he takes a –2 penalty to Armor Class. The increase to Constitution grants the kinetic rager 2 hit points per Hit Dice, but these disappear when the rage ends and are not lost first like temporary hit points. While in rage, a kinetic rager cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except Acrobatics, Fly, Intimidate, and Ride) or any ability that requires patience or concentration except for his kinetic blast ability and infusion wild talents.

A kinetic rager can end his rage as a free action and is fatigued after rage for a number of rounds equal to 2 times the number of rounds spent in the rage. A kinetic rager cannot enter a new rage while fatigued or exhausted but can otherwise enter rage multiple times during a single encounter or combat. If a kinetic rager falls unconscious, his rage immediately ends, placing him in peril of death.

The kinetic rager's kinetic rage is treated as a barbarian's rage class feature for the purpose of qualifying for feats.

This ability replaces elemental overflow.

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-Narrowed Versatility-

A kinetic rager limits his ability to branch out and explore other elements. He must choose his primary element as his expanded element at 7th level.

This ability modifies expanded element.

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-Rage Powers (Ex)-

As a kinetic rager gains levels, he learns to use his rage in new ways. Starting at 7th level, a kinetic rager gains a rage power. He gains another rage power for every four levels of kinetic rager attained after 7th level. A kinetic rager gains the benefits of rage powers only while raging, and some of these powers require the kinetic rager to take an action first. Unless otherwise noted, a kinetic rager cannot select an individual power more than once. Treat his effective barbarian level as his kineticist level - 6 for the purpose of determining the prerequisite level for his rage powers.

Any kinetic rager who meets the powers’ prerequisites can select and use rage powers. Totem rage powers grant powers related to a theme. A kinetic rager cannot select from more than one group of totem rage powers; for example, a kinetic rager who selects a beast totem rage power cannot later choose to gain any of the dragon totem rage powers (any rage power with “dragon totem” in its title).

This ability replaces the infusions learned at 7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th levels.

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-Charged Rage (Su)-

The kinetic rager's gather power can be used to reduce the burn spent while raging. When used as a move action, he removes the initial burn cost of going into rage on the same turn, and when used as a full-round action he removes the initial burn cost of going into rage next turn and can maintain that rage without taking burn for one additional turn.

When the kinetic rager gains the supercharge ability, he may use gather power as a move action to remove the initial cost of going into rage on the same turn and maintain it for one additional turn without taking burn, or he may use it as a full-round action to remove the initial cost of going into rage on the next turn, and may maintain that rage without taking burn for an additonal two turns. However, supercharge no longer increases the burn reduction from using gather power for kinetic blasts.

This ability modifies gather power and supercharge.

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-Omnirage (Su)-

At 20th level, a kinetic rager has perfected his ability to control the elements while enraged. The morale bonus while in rage increases to +6 to Strength and Constitution and +3 to Will saves, he gains 3 HP per hit die, and he no longer becomes fatigued at the end of a rage. Additionally, while in rage, when he would accept burn, he may instead reduce the total rounds of rage remaining by one to reduce that burn by one point.

This ability replaces omnikinesis.


I wanted to try my hand at making a custom archetype, and figured I'd try giving the Cavalier a new type of mount. I seriously doubt this is balanced well in any shape or form, and there's probably too much convoluted math involved, but it's at least a start, right? With some balancing, I think this could be an interesting alternative to use in modern, post-apocalyptic, or high-tech campaigns. Introducing the:

<<Steel Rider>>

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--Weapon and Armor Proficiency--

The Steel Rider loses the ability to use heavy armor and shields, but gains the ability to use all firearms.

This modifies the Cavalier's normal weapon and armor proficiency.

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--Steel Horse (Ex)--

Rather than gain the use of an animal mount, the Steel Rider uses a motorcycle. It is treated as one size category larger than the Steel Rider himself and has a Hardness of 10, 30 Hit Points, and a +1 natural armor bonus to its AC modifier, and does not receive a penalty to its AC from being an inanimate object or from having Dex of 0 so long as it is being ridden. If the motorcycle is left unattended, it follows the same rules as any other inanimate object. Others with the Steel Horse class feature may ride another Steel Rider's motorcycle, but take a -5 penalty to all Ride checks involving it unless they gain ownership of it and gain a Cavalier level while it is in their possession; this penalty may be circumvented in certain circumstances where the Steel Rider already has a bond with the motorcycle's previous rider (such as inheriting it from a fallen friend, or being given it by a family member who crafted it specifically for their use). It cannot gain feats the same as a traditional mount can, but can be modified as the Steel Rider sees fit whenever he gains the Bike Mod class feature (see below). It is always considered to have a riding saddle, but does not benefit from Horse Master, nor from the bonus to Ride provided by Animal Affinity.

As with other Cavalier mounts, the Steel Rider does not suffer Ride penalties when using his own motorcycle, and the GM may allow him to have a similar mechanical mount at their discretion. He may have a single passenger riding behind him outside of battle, but they take the same penalty as any other person riding a mount they are unskilled with.

Like other Cavaliers, a Steel Rider forms an emotional bond with his motorcycle; if it is destroyed beyond repair or he critically fails an attempt to repair it, he must spend a week in mourning before he can purchase or build a new motorcycle, and if the previous motorcycle had any Bike Mods applied to it, he must spend a full day to replace a single one of those previous Bike Mods. The cost to replace a motorcycle averages at 9000 GP plus an additional 3000 GP for each modification the previous motorcycle had, but this cost, as with most other costs associated with the motorcycle, may be changed based on the time period and rarity of technology within the campaign by the DM.

While riding a motorcycle, the Steel Rider may travel as quickly as 1 mile per minute. However, he must be able to do so without distractions. If he is distracted from his riding while traveling faster than 960 feet per minute, he must check concentration (d20 + Cavalier level / 2 + Ride / 2, with DC of 10 + (ft/min - 960) / 176, rounded up); failing this check will result in the Steel Rider crashing and the motorcycle suffering damage equal to ((ft/min - 960) / 176, rounded up), ignoring Hardness and AC, while he and any passengers riding with him as well as all items in their possession take an equal amount of damage, but may take Hardness and AC into account for these. Stopping the motorcycle while traveling faster than 960 feet per minute requires at least enough space ahead of it that it could travel another round (ft/min / 10) or the Steel Rider must make the same concentration check.

Motorcycles require fuel to run. The DM may modify fuel prices based on location and availability, as well as the rarity of modern technology in the campaign, but the average price is approximately 100 GP per unit of gasoline. The motorcycle begins play with its tank full and a capacity of 80 units, and loses 1 unit per hour while being ridden.

This replaces the Mount class feature.

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--Mechanic (Ex)--

The Steel Rider is experienced with tinkering with vehicles, as well as taking care of minor wounds he sustains in that effort. He loses Handle Animal as a class skill, but gains Heal and Knowledge (Engineering) as class skills. Any effect that would ordinarily require a Handle Animal check involving his mount instead uses Knowledge (Engineering).

Additionally, starting from 4th level, he may choose once per day to either use his Heal skill instead of Craft to repair a vehicle or add half his Cavalier level as a skill bonus to a Craft check to repair a vehicle. He must choose to use this ability before performing the check. At 8th level he may use this ability once more per day, and an additional time per day for every 4 Cavalier levels after that.

This alters the Cavalier's class skills and replaces his Order's Challenge bonus.

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--Expert Rider (Ex)--

At 4th level, the Steel Rider becomes more accustomed to automobiles. He receives a bonus equal to half his Cavalier level when using Knowledge (Engineering) on vehicles of all types, or a bonus equal to his Cavalier level when using Knowledge (Engineering) on his own motorcycle.

This replaces the Expert Trainer class feature.

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--Bike Mod (Ex)--

At 1st level, the Steel Rider may take some time off to add a special modification to his motorcycle in the form of special feats from the list below that only the motorcycle may take. He begins play with this first modification already in place. At 4th level, he may spend one full day and the cost of appropriate materals to add one additional modification to his bike for a maximum of two modifications, and this limit increases by one for every 3 levels beyond 4th, for a total of seven maximum modifications at 19th level.

The modifications he can add to his motorcycle are:

  • Mithril Plating: The Steel Rider adds mithril plating to the chassis of his mount. This increases its Hardness to 15, and if the motorcycle has any Additional Plating modifications, he may add d3 - 1 HP per instance, or spend an additional day reinforcing the plating to instead add 2 HP per instance of the Additional Plating modification.

  • Additional Plating: The Steel Rider adds scrap metal to the chassis of his mount. This increases its HP by d6. Increase this to d8 if the motorcycle has Mithril Plating, or d10 if it has Adamantium Plating. The Steel Rider may have the metal reshaped or do so himself if he has the appropriate skills to do so to maximize this; reshaping the metal plating himself takes an additional day's work. This modification may be taken multiple times.

  • Chassis Spikes: The Steel Rider adds spines to the body of his motorcycle. Any time it takes an attack from an unarmed strike, natural weapon, or melee weapon that does not have reach, the attacker and their weapon each take 1d6 damage. If hit by a melee weapon with reach, only the weapon takes the damage. This modification may be taken up to three times.

  • Improved Fuel Tank: The Steel Rider replaces the bike's previous fuel tank, increasing the maximum fuel capacity by 20 units. He may fill the new tank with the fuel from the previous tank, but in doing so he loses 5 + d10 units of fuel. This modification may be taken multiple times.

  • Ride or Die (Ex): The Steel Rider can charge at enemies with his motorcycle at great speeds. Add +1 to damage rolls multiplied by ((ft/min - 960) / 176, rounded down, minimum 1). Requires Cavalier's Charge.

  • Exhaust Blast (Sp): The Steel Rider may blow a cloud of exhaust fumes from the back of his motorcycle, as if using Stinking Cloud with a CL equal to his Cavalier level / 3 (minimum CL 1). This may be done up to three times per day.

  • Sidearm (Ex): The Steel Rider mounts a machine gun to his motorcycle. Treat this as a firearm with a range of 30 feet, dealing 1d8 damage, and critical multiplier of x2. This must be loaded with ammunition as any firearm, and costs the Steel Rider an additional 5000 GP to apply (though this cost may be adjusted by the DM depending on the technology level and rarity of firearms in the campaign). The Steel Rider may attack with this weapon as part of his normal attack as if he was wielding it so long as he is riding the motorcycle, but he is never otherwise considered to be holding or wielding it. This weapon may be treated as the mount's natural weapon for the purpose of Order abilities. It may be damaged or broken as a normal firearm; in such case the Steel Rider may replace it for an additional 5000 GP (or whatever price the DM has decided to charge for the initial application) without needing to take this modification again.

  • Side Knives (Ex): The Steel Rider adds blades to the sides of his motorcycle. If he fails to hit with a Charge maneuver while riding it, enemies must make an additional Reflex save or else take 1d8 slashing damage which also takes the Iron descriptor. If the motorcycle has the Mithril Plating modification, this damage additionally has the Mithril descriptor, and if it has the Adamantium Plating modification the damage has the Adamantium descriptor. This additional damage is affected by Supreme Charge, but is unaffected by Cavalier's Charge, Mighty Charge, and any feats the Steel Rider has taken.

At 10th level, the Steel Rider adds the following to the list of modifications he may take:

  • Adamantium Plating: The Steel Rider replaces the plating on the chassis of his motorcycle with adamantium. This increases the Hardness of the motorcycle to 20, and if the motorcycle has any Additional Plating modifications, he may add d3 - 1 HP per instance, or spend an additional day reinforcing the plating to instead add 2 HP per instance of the Additional Plating modification. You may take this modification multiple times, but rather than further changing the motorcycle's Hardness or further increasing its HP, each additional modification adds DR 2/adamantium. Requires Mithril Plating.

  • Hybrid Motor: The Steel Rider replaces the motor with one that can be charged electrically. It begins with 0 charges, but may be attached to any electrical source for 24 hours for one charge, for a maximum of seven charges. It loses a unit of charge for every 12 hours the motorcycle is being ridden. So long as it has at least 1 charge, the motorcycle expends fuel at 1 unit per two hours instead of 1 unit per hour.

  • Flaming Exhaust (Sp): The Steel Rider can shoot a blast of flames from his motorcycle's exhaust, as if using Dragon's Breath with a CL equal to his Cavalier level / 3 (minimum CL 1). This must be treated as if he'd used the scale of a gold, red, or brass dragon as the material component. This may be done once per day. Requires Exhaust Blast.

  • Secondary Sidearm (Ex): The Steel Rider adds a second machine gun to his motorcycle with the same specifications as in the Sidearm modification. When using these to attack, the Steel Rider is treated as if he was dual-wielding these weapons and takes all the bonuses and penalties for doing so. Requires Sidearm.

  • Sidecar: The Steel Rider connects a retractable sidecar to his motorcycle, allowing it to hold one additional passenger. This modification may be taken twice.

At 19th level, the Steel Rider may add the following to the list of modifications he may take:

  • Blaze of Glory (Ex): The Steel Rider dismounts his motorcycle and sends it speeding in a straight line. Each time it strikes a creature or object along this path, they must make a Reflex check with DC of 15 + his Cavalier level, and if they fail, they take 6d6 bludgeoning damage with the Iron descriptor, which additionally has the Mithril descriptor if the motorcycle has the Mithril Plating modification and the Adamantium descriptor if it has the Adamantium Plating modification. If they are equal size to the motorcycle or smaller and receive any damage, must make an additional Fort save against the same DC. Failing the Fort check will result in the target being pushed back into the next creature or object in line. At the first successful Fort save, or upon hitting a solid object (such as a wall or tree) or a creature or object larger than it, the motorcycle explodes, dealing an additional 6d6 fire damage to everything in a 10 foot radius. Anything in the motorcycle's path that succeeds its Reflex save will dodge, negating any damage and preventing it from being pushed forward. If the motorcycle falls from a height of more than 30 feet before exploding, it will explode when it lands; otherwise it will continue on its path. Using this ability destroys the motorcycle beyond repair, but the Steel Rider may shorten his period of mourning its loss to one full day, after which he can craft or buy a new motorcycle as if he'd gone through the full week of mourning. Requires Ride or Die and either Chassis Spikes or Side Knives.

  • Perpetual Energy Tank: The Steel Rider replaces his fuel tank with a perpetual energy motor, bypassing the need for fuel. The motorcycle may be ridden for any length of time without expending fuel or charges. However, the motorcycle must now get a full-night's rest or else it suffers fatigue and begins to drain charges from the hybrid engine. Requires Improved Fuel Tank and Hybrid Motor.

  • Incendiary Exhaust (Sp): The Steel Rider can shoot a cloud of white-hot smog from the exhaust pipe, as if using the Incendiary Cloud spell with a CL equal to his Cavalier level / 3. However, you cannot concentrate to make the cloud move, and it does not dissipate when it moves out of your range. This may be done once per day. Requires Exhaust Blast.

Whenever the Steel Rider adds a modification, he may also replace one previous modification; this takes an additional day of work to remove the old modification before any time and money spent to place the new one, but provides him with scrap metal he can use as material for the new modification (although it holds no other value). He may not replace any modification added at 1st, 4th, or 7th levels with ones that only become available at 10th level and up, and can't replace any modification with one that only becomes available at 19th level. He also cannot replace a modification if it's a requirement for another modification that's already in place.

This replaces the Challenge and Demanding Challenge class features.


I've become rather enamored with the Kineticist class recently, and got it into my head to make an Overwhelming Soul. I'd like to have this guy possibly act as the party face, as well as be something of a mobility expert in and out of battle by using Ride the Blast with his Air and Electric Blasts and form infusions that change those blasts' range and trajectory. However, there's a few things I kinda need clarification on to settle on what precisely I'd like to do with him, and if and how my ideas might end up working. Also, forgive me if I miss out on something basic, I'm still fairly new to this.

1 - One of the first things that drew me in was the combination of Electric Blast + Chain + Ride the Blast + Air's Reach, both as a means of transporting long distances in areas with larger numbers of enemies and possibly as a means to apply Magnetic Infusion to multiple enemies. It seems safe to assume that the initial range is 60 feet, but does Air's Reach also extend to each chained hit, such that my guy will be able to bound between targets 60 feet away from one another, or will each of my targets need to be within 30 feet of the last as the ability text states? Also, could I target, say, an inanimate object within my blast's range as part of the chain?

2 - I noticed several wild talents have a duration of "until the next time your burn is removed" such as Jagged Flesh or Aerial Evasion. Normally these abilities couldn't be used by an Overwhelming Soul since they cost 1 burn, but via Mental Prowess, one could reduce the burn cost to 0 and allow themselves to use it. What does this mean for the effect's duration? Does the effect never trigger since the burn that would have caused it never occurred? Would the effect become permanent since there's no burn to remove, thus no burn is ever removed? Or is it assumed that, since burn is removed from most Kineticists after a full night's rest, that the effect in question would just be removed after a night's rest too?

3 - Since an Overwhelming Soul can't intentionally accept burn, does that make Metakinesis useless unless they choose the Empower effect for Metakinesis Mastery to drop that cost from 1 to 0? And does that mean Omnikinesis is completely useless since both of its potential effects require the player to accept burn, or would they still be able to activate blasts they don't know via Omnikinesis with Mental Prowess, since the added burn is stated to be an addition to the blast's burn cost?

4 - How exactly does Ride the Blast interact with Mobile Blast? Woul I only be able to ride it to its first location? Would I stay inside it for its entire duration? Or would I move with it every time I make it move, but otherwise stand outside of it while it's not moving? (Also keep in mind that this is going to be a permanent ball of whatever, since and an Overwhelming Soul I won't even be able to use it unless its burn cost has been reduced to 0 anyway.)

5 - Can I use Ride the Blast to fire myself straight up? Or in any non-horizontal direction, for that matter, so long as my ending point is within line of sight?