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A bard would bring your group to new levels of combat excellence. Good hope and inspire courage will add +2 each to hit and damage. Adding a bard was the most powerful thing my group ever did.

You were gonna use favored class bonuses (boni?) for skills? That seems like a bad idea with a d6 hit die.

OK. I'm pretty sure my DM would be cool with a non-deity devoted cleric, so I could probably skip Separatist. That said, we have a group of 2 melees (dwarf Fighter [axe/shield], aasimar Paladin [usually 2-handing]), 2 archers (halfling Bard, half-elf Ranger) and I'll be coming back in with my Sorcerer (Buffing>Debuffing>Control>Blasting, in that order).
What are people's opinions on a good second domain to benefit this party? I'm pretty sure most things would be reasonable for a Cleric of Arcane Magic, alignments excluded, because neutral.

My only qualm with Theologian is that I don't think the Magic domain is that good. I'm mostly taking it for the power from the Arcane subdomain. The spells aren't great, IMO, so getting to prepare them in non-domain slots is a bit of a loss. The way I'm looking at it, I might as well get a second domain out of the whole thing.

Nice find!
Unfortunately, I wouldn't want Scalykind without Dragon subdomain. I'm not trying to have a cohort with an animal companion. Also, our campaign is set in Varisia (RotRL) and it would be rather odd to find a worshipper of Nalinivati just hanging around.

I think Nethys particularly fits with the RP aspects of my Sorcerer, who has shifted from NG to True Neutral. That being said, I'm open to other ideas as well, the only caveat being that the cohort must not be of evil alignment (Paladin in the party, and I want positive channeling).

Hey y'all,

I'm coming in to a campaign to replace the group's previous spellcasters. I'm replacing an Oracle, who had a Wizard cohort. I'm coming in with a Sorcerer (Bronze Draconic) and a Cleric cohort. That should keep the Arcane/Divine balance of our group mostly intact.

The cleric is going to be responsible for support, healing, and assorted divine capabilities, while staying largely removed from combat. My sorcerer is Neutral, so I'm really liking the idea of a Cleric of Nethys, with Magic (Arcane) as one of his two domains. I don't care too much for the other domains available to Nethys (Rune, Knowledge, Protection, Destruction). This has made me look toward Separatist. The Cleric will be 11th level, meaning he will have access to the 8th level domain powers of whatever second domain is chosen.

I've ruled out some of the more popular, power domains (Travel, Trickery, Animal, Nobility, Charm) as I felt they wouldn't make sense for Nethys. This has left me largely looking at a few:

Anyone have any suggestions, domains I missed, experience playing a similar build?

Are you using your favored class bonus to get additional spell known? Because it doesn't seem that way. That will definitely allow you to pick up missing pieces. Also, definitely grab Intensify Spell somewhere around 7 or 9, to extend Burning Hands value.

For Stone Giants, I prefer a level of Barbarian over giving them the Advanced Template. It's a lower AC, although it does grant medium armor proficiency, which should counteract that. If you give them Toughness for their feat, they will be up by about 80 HP over a standard Stone Giant.

You'll never go faster than 600 mph. You travel 1 mile per round, regardless of the check result. That's 10 miles per minute, which is 600 mph.

This thread has really started floundering. The whole thing has gone to the dogs.

I would drop the strength a bit, just to get a 12 CHA, you could probably even afford to drop some of that CON. I also wouldn't bother with Spell Resistance. You're going to find that +2 to most saves will be better than that low SR.

STR 14 (5)
DEX 10 (0)
CON 13+2 (3)
INT 0 (0)
WIS 14+2 (5)
CHA 15-2 (7)

Level Up increases would go to CHA and then CON, and then WIS after that, in order to cast spells of an appropriate level.

I won't critique other aspects of this build, but you should use shuriken instead of javelins, since you can flurry with them. You avoid needing Quick Draw, and you get more attacks, at a higher bonus.

One of every spell for removing a prismatic wall.
Gust of wind
Passwall
Disintegrate
Magic missile
Daylight
Cone of cold

We had a fun dose of irony in the first book:

Pretty much what it says. I thought I recalled seeing a monster that cast as an Inquisitor. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble finding anything.

Anyone know what I'm thinking of? I'm pretty sure it came out of one of the standard bestiaries.

Dwarven superstitious barbarians, everyone.

Please tell me this is a Warhammer Dwarf Slayer reference!

nosig wrote:

Ashe wrote:

Everything seems fine except your BAB. It is only a +4 everything else seems fine. Good luck with it.

Ouch! missed that. +3 from Rogue and +1 from Fighter! thanks!

That changes your deadly aim to -1/+2 too

That leaves Deadly Aim right where it was at -2/+4

I would recommend asking this in the Rise of the Runelords Forum. It's further down the main page, under Adventure Paths. I flagged this post, to see if a mod can move it for you.

That being said, not to be too spoilery, but most enemies are evil, so Paladins are always a solid pick. Rangers can be good with the appropriate favored enemies. Ask you DM for suggestions about which types to choose. Also, read over the Player Guide. Having healing available will probably be useful. So a Cleric or Oracle becomes pretty handy. There are a good quantity of knowledge checks, with particular emphasis on History, Arcana, and Local. A Wizard or Bard makes a really nice arcane choice. This is a fairly Bard-friendly campaign, as there are some NPCs who could make for fun interaction for a Bard.

I've been messing around with the Spellbinder archetype lately, and I'm kind of enjoying it. I decided to work up a spell guide for the class. I'm gonna keep working on it, but for now I've got 1st-3rd level from the CRB all rated for their viability as Spellbonds.

Feel free to give any input or advice on the boards or as a comment on the document.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TFNtAr5OK7fZG7U1FPhhgkw3DSCjlFPuN9QmOeD RF1E/edit?usp=sharing

In this particular case, I'd think of a penalty as merely being a negative bonus to the ability score. Therefore, if it became permanent, your dex score would be permanently adjusted down by two points, potentially losing access to ranged feats, TWF feats, and potentially, Dodge.

An Oread Empyreal Sorcerer might be fun. Take spells with gem materials, etc.

Also, this spell:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/d/diamond-spray

Since Improved Precise Shot is so far off, consider seeing if you can purchase a few Seeking arrows. They should only cost 160gp per arrow, and can be used when you really need to score hits against covered/concealed foes. Pair that with the (utterly essential) Efficient Quiver and some select bane arrows, if they are available.

Could you just age down the Blue Dragon?

Name of PC: Volrath
Race/Class/Level: Half-Orc, Oracle (Metal) 9, Paladin 2
Adventure: Fortress of the Stone Giants (Stones Over Sandpoint)
Catalyst: A Vengeful Druid
Story:

I like to think of INT as matching up with IQ tests. It's not the best way, but it works. IQ tests are based around a normal distribution with an average score of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. I would say that an INT of 14 is similar to a 130 IQ, which is smarter than roughly 97.5% of the population. This means that 16 and above intelligence implies genius level IQ, which seems reasonable.

In current rules, there are not, though a rager using a +4 Furious weapon would actually have +6. Ask your DM if he will allow higher level crafters to make +6 weapons, but make sure they are not easily available.

Probably don't recommend that a brand new player create a Bard Archaeologist/ Zen Archer Monk.

The best character types for beginners are fighters, rangers (starting from 1, they eventually gain spells), wizards, and maybe vanilla monks.

Definitely don't get caught up in archetypes and other things. Try to just use the Core Rulebook for starters.

Actual enhancement bonus. That's the only thing that applies when determining DR bypassing. A +1 Keen, Flaming Burst sword does not bypass DR/silver

I get your argument. This is one of those low CR creatures that can become a big issue in greater numbers. That's true of more than a few enemies.

Ghouls (or Ghasts) can be a nightmare in greater quantities, as a couple bad saves can leave a whole party paralyzed.

Shadows can slaughter very high level parties en masse.

It comes down to a DM's discretion as to whether or not to include high amounts of these sorts of monsters.

To gain access to alternate heritages for Aasimar in Hero Lab, you need to purchase the companion pack that includes "Blood of Angels". This gives you the aasimar alternates.

The schools/sins correlations are a canonical Paizo development dating back to the first stand-alone adventure path, Rise of the Runelords. No spoilers, but the idea of each sin matching each school comes from the ancient Thassalonian Empire. They didn't consider Divination to be a distinct school, which is why you don't see it listed.

Greed is about wanting more, therefore transmuting yourself in order to have it. Pride is about wanting people to believe you are better than them, ergo illusion.

You should consider the liches to be Thassalonian Specialists, if they are wizards. A Thassalonian Specialists gets 2 arcane school slots per level, which must be used on the same spell. As a downside, they cannot ever prepare spells from specific opposition schools. These spells are treated as not even being on their list.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/wizard/arcane-schools/paizo--- arcane-schools/classic-arcane-schools/thassilonian-specialist

Furious focus only works when two handing a weapon, so that first swing is gonna be a fair bit lower. DC 30 or less isn't all that bad on his abilities, since a Great Wyrm Red Dragon has a DC 33 Breath Weapon. I think the save DCs should be Con-based, though that might make them completely terrifying. Either way, 17th level PCs should have a minimum of +11 to their bad saves (+5 class, +5 Cloak, +1 Luckstone), ability scores and other buffs not considered.

The potions are available to give him some increased AC in order to provide a reasonable challenge. That said, replacing the good hope (which doesn't add to AC) with heroism would change very little, and dropping the Shield of Faith to +3 would be more reasonable.
He has appropriate time to buff, the reasons don't matter. He is aiding in an attack on the town the PCs are defending. They expect an attack from outside the walls, however, he will be arriving elsewhere through burrowing.
As a heroic level 12 NPC, he should have 21K of gear. He actually has 18K, since the amulet is only 4K, not 16K.
Part of the reasoning behind raising the Roc's Int is to allow it to receive more complex commands.

That being said, should I switch Fast Stealth for Finesse Rogue, and use the leopard for wild shape, since that has pounce, while merely being a medium creature?

Thanks for the input.

So this guy was in our campaign earlier as a Druid 4/ Rogue 1. He escaped the PCs and is now returning. His main tactic is to flank with his AC in order to get as many sneak attacks as possible. At this point I'm thinking he will favor Dire Tiger form. I'll be happy to hear any input. His base stats at level 5 were 8, 16, 14, 8, 16, 11. So unfortunately, he can't get a very high strength value, and I'm stuck with Brew Potion, Combat Casting, and Dodge. He has a lot of temporary buffs active, because he will be preparing for his fight with the PCs.

I'm getting ready to run the Battle of Sandpoint next week, and wanted suggestions on how to increase the difficulty. I have a few plans that I've come up with. I want to know what I should and shouldn't use. Keep in mind that my players will be level 11 thanks to some extra sidequesting, etc, that I brought into the game earlier.

The stone giants attacking the northern gate will remain vanilla, since they don't really do much at all.

I intend to give the advanced template to all the Dire Bears at the bridge, and their handlers will be Fighter 1s, with Longspears.

Longtooth will know Shield in place of Ray of Enfeeblement, offering him a more impressive 33 AC.

I want to give Teraktinus a 3rd level of Ranger or a level of Fighter, not sure which. His two bodyguards will most likely remain vanilla stone giants.

The other 2 groups of giants will each have a barbarian 1 as a leader, replacing one of the vanilla stone giants.

Meanwhile, I plan to have a stone giant bard (drummer) and archer waiting on the eastern bank of the river between the two bridges. The bard will supply Inspire Courage to the whole raiding party, while the Archer will harry the town's defenders with volleys from his longbow with the distance enchantment (range increment of 220 ft.). This coupled with Far Shot should allow him to attack from a safe-ish distance.

The last idea I had was for an old friend to arrive in Sandpoint. My PCs captured Gogmurt (and killed Tangletooth) outside of Thistletop and then lost him when he wild shaped out of his bindings. I am considering having him return, working with the giants. He would burrow into the glassworks and start trouble on the other side of town, partway into the raid. I have him statted up as a Druid 9/ Rogue 3 with a Roc companion. Plotwise, he met up with Teraktinus in the mountains northeast of Sandpoint (where he acquired his new animal) and agreed to aid him in attacking Sandpoint. He has a particular vendetta for the "longshanks" that killed his beloved pet and then committed wholesale slaughter of his tribe. He will not leave town, regardless of the morale of the giant invaders.

What do y'all think? How did this encounter go for your game? Are there any things I should change/ leave out?

Thanks

Deadly Aim requires Dex 13, no Str requirement. Str is still good on an archer, and 14 is a good place to be.

As a PC race, the Kasatha should have a level adjustment. It's considered a CR+2 race for NPC purposes. 4 arms and large is something I probably wouldn't let my players use.

The PCs had a controller/debuffer sorcerer for a while (my character), but we switched up DMs and so the party is currently quite martial. The Oracle is 2 levels behind on full casting, but ultimately has stellar saves, and some more useful martial capability thanks to his paladin dip.

I thought Magical Lineage and Wayang Spellhunter didn't stack.

The enemies getting prebuffing will be offset by the fact that the party will probably have some buffs up, since I will have the vampire's wolves harry them shortly before the assault. (Possibly with an additional dire wolf or two.)

I'm not looking for a TPK, just something that gets them out of the mindset that they can take on anything. I think ideally, a kill or two would probably illustrate that point.

RotRL spoiler:

1) Your PCs are levels 10/10/10/10 and a level 8 cohort. The NPC party is 9/9/9/8. Unless you carefully optimize the enemy party, or give them some advantage of terrain, I suspect your PCs will rip through them pretty readily.

2) Here's a general observation: in combat, GMs have the strategic edge, but PCs have the tactical edge. What does that mean? Well, you can set up the combat -- the enemies, the terrain. But once it actually starts, it's your single brain against four of theirs, and they'll almost always come up with unexpected tactics and surprises for you.

Doug M.

I realize that the PCs are a higher level, that's part of the reason for spending a good portion of the evil party's wealth on temporary buffs. Most of our PCs are operating with a buffed +24 to hit on first attacks. With buffs, most of the evil party has ACs in the low/mid 30s. The ranger and monk can shrug off a ranged attack each round, and the monk also has crane wing. The Vampire Antipaladin can reach AC 40 against his smite targets, and he'll be large, swinging a nodachi for 2d8+31 vs smite targets.

The Ranger and Antipaladin have over 110 Hp each, while the Martial Artist only has 90, but is capable of blocking attacks every round. Do these guys sound capable of hanging with PCs that are a level higher, or should I add a level to each of them?

Side Question: Does a Human-Bane weapon affect half-elves and half-orcs?

I'm currently DMing a Rise of the Runelords campaign and so far my party has had a pretty easy time tearing through most combats. We are almost done the third book at this point. I'm planning to ambush the party with an evil party while they travel before the fourth book.

I was curious if any DMs had much experience with throwing a rival party against your PCs. I also will gladly take opinions about how to combat them.

The PCs:

My current planned evil party: (I'm planning on running them at a level below the PCs)

I think this party is pretty strong against my PCs. I have a few concerns about giving the PCs a pile of gear (since each evil character has 10.5K in wealth). To handle that, and to increase the challenge, I have given the evil party a lot of scrolls/potions that they will use to prebuff. These potions include relevant stat-boosters (bull's strength, etc), barkskins (+4), and shields of faith (also +4). Since they are scrying the PCs, they should be able to give themselves time for these prebuffs.

I'm not sure if these buffs are inappropriate or not. Given the fact that my PCs hit buffed numbers around +20 or greater to hit, I'm inclined to make the evil party a bit more durable.

I know this is a lot of things to discuss, but feel free to critique or offer suggestions for any of it, especially if you've ever done stuff like this against your own PCs.

Thanks

I would think that an extra 2 dex, and advanced firearm availability could get messy quick. That's 4 advanced pistols with a racial bonus to dex, as soon as the character can afford all those guns, it's a monster, esp. with deadly aim or similar abilities.

I would add a few things to tangent's list

1: Grease, Enlarge Person

2: Glitterdust, Invisibility (great duration for scouting, Vanish is better in combat)

3: Haste (if you have 2+ weapon characters in your party, it outclasses all blasts), Slow, Stinking Cloud

4: Enervation, Confusion, Dim. Door

Don't forget that as a pit fiend, he has access to the Wish spell once per year. He could remove all his negative levels or any number of other things.

Consider the Rakshara bloodline from sorcerer. Also remember eldritch heritage, which should be quite accessible if you're rolling up a social character with decent CHA.

Remember that when converting gp to pp that platinum actually weighs less than gold. By that I mean 5000 gp in platinum weighs even less than one tenth of 5000 gp in gold. You can also have an equal value of silver and it would only weigh 5 not 10 times as much ( because silver is about half the mass of gold per mole). And an equal value in copper coins would only weigh 25 not 100 times as much because copper is about a quarter the mass of gold per mole.

*there is probably not that big of a difference in platinum to gold for most cases. There is only about a one gram difference per mole between the them.

** that one three oz gold coin would weigh approximately 9.5 g which would be about .05 moles of gold.

*** the above assume equal moles of the various metals in each respective coin

5000gp in platinum weighs 1/10th as much as 5000gp in gold, because platinum is valued at 500gp/lb. Moles don't factor here. You dont exchange 10 moles of gold for 1 mole of platinum.

Depending upon your entry level, 2 ranks of Paladin makes a Metal/Battle Oracle an extremely powerful character. If you want that route, you may want to make wisdom your low stat, just so you can have a few skill points.

Currently, Nualia is a Fighter 2/Cleric 4. I'm thinking she might be nicely redone as an Inquisitor (Preacher) 6 with the Anger Inquisition. It drops her base attack bonus by 1, but adds some pretty cool things, while still leaving 2nd level spells as an option.

This will be for my friend's game, which may have 5 or 6 players, almost definitely 3rd level when they fight her.

Any thoughts, suggestions, etc.?

Polymorphing Sage/Orc crossblooded Sorcerer. Hit things hard with natural weapons.

Two faceless stalkers on top of the tower would definitely add to the challenge of Rogue-Xanesha. Remember that they have reach, and everyone of those foes has sneak attacks. Given enough prep time, she might have cast invisibility on them too.