Overclockworked's page

Greetings Homebrewers,

My GM is running a Sigil campaign and we've decided to homebrew a Gith ancestry for it. We have a rough draft of the basic ancestry outline, but figured it'd be wise to crowdsource some of the ancestry feats.

However, critique on the chassis is also welcome.

• 8 hit Points
  
• Medium
  
• 25-ft
  
• Boosts: Int, Free, Flaw-Cha
  
• Languages: Common, Gith
  
• Stable Lifespan: Time always flows at a 1:1 rate for your body, regardless of the plane you're on. You do not suffer the effects of aging when entering and leaving the Astral Plane or similar dimensions. Additionally, you have a +2 bonus on any saving throw that would age you.
  
• Connected Mind: The Gith can telepathically communicate with other creatures within 20-ft. This ability is one way unless that creature also has this ability.

So we have a basic chassis with a mostly lore-ability in Stable Lifespan so Gith don't get messed up while plane swapping. Connected Mind is their main ancestry boon, which fluff-wise symbolizes the connection to the Queen.

The lore is in flux, but it seems like we're leaning toward Githyanki having an active psychic connection to their Queen, and the Githzerai a latent one. So the -yanki have more communal/connected flavor whereas -zerai are of course isolationist mentally and literally. This is roughly the explanation behind the Cha flaw as well.

Heritage
The first possibly controversial bit is that we're considering shifting an ability boost to a heritage. We concur that all Gith should have Int so they can be proficient psychics and magi. However, the class-fantasies associated with the -yanks and -zerai are quite different, and we couldn't agree on a universal second boost.

Githzerai get +Wis and Mage Hand as a cantrip.
Githyanki get +Dex and Mind Link 1/day

Ancestry Feats
There are some obvious feats for Gith that we've already brainstormed. First off, proficiency with the Silver Longswords, which we've made "Gith Curve Blades" because Magus is Strength/Dex. Though I think its possible to switch this prof with Mind Link and make that a feat.

We also have your typical Gith psionic abilities as a feat line: Jump, Feather Fall, and a telekinetic line for better mage hand and/or a smattering of spells.

However, that's about it! I'd love to hear any feedback or ideas people have for Gith. While we're using Gith lore as a springboard, any fresh takes are more than welcome.

Overclockworked wrote:

Replicate is also rad, shame there's no way to make it attack. But I can see how that'd get out of hand quickly

Shadow Illusion can get you the focus spell Shadow Illusion - which lets you create a shadow creature that can attack.

Well then its here, its all here. I'm shocked but its totally doable.

Bless 2e

Ankou Shadow + Trip, or combat maneuvers more generally. I haven't seen a lot of discussion around this archetype so I'm curious what people think of it (I did see it in IluzryMage's recent guide).

Disclaimer: I am running a lvl 4 Cleric (Travel/Luck) // Ankou Shadow gestalt that's built around being a reach cleric ala Brewer's guide. But I'll put a spoiler at the end with those details since becoming a one man phalanx is the interesting part here.
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Thoughts about the Ankou Shadow
- Shadows seem to threaten with whatever weapon you're wielding, and can take AoOs post-5. You can make trip attacks with weapon AoOs, so thusly, shadows should be able to trip.

- Mandatory basic feats. Combat Reflexes. Improved & Greater Trip. Surprise Maneuver seems really good post-9. Not as good as on rogue, but Slayer gets full BAB to even it out.

- Post-5 you can have your shadows flank and swift action aid another a single enemy, which can get you a minimum +4. The shadows don't utilize flanking/aid another feats, but I think buffs worded as "when you (i.e. the slayer) flank, X occurs" should work.

- This actually seems insanely strong because you can permanently turn on your sneak attacks when soloing enemies.

- You share movement with shadows, and they provoke AoOs, but with a reach weapon this isn't as big a deal. If you can't position them safely, then just leave them behind you as you run a circle around your enemy or a line across the battlefield. Acrobatics seems mandatory for this reason, I think.

- Getting shadows up is a full round, but you can leave them up forever, and hopefully, the person actually hitting will draw more aggro than the flanking/aiding shadows. Evasion is a mandatory talent at level 10. How strong the shadows are depends entirely on how much you piss off your GM.

- Slayer Talents really suck, just over 20% of them are Samaran only. This is doubly true for Ankou's Shadows who don't get Studied Target. You'll most likely want Slow Reactions, and then nothing but Ranger Combat Style and Rogue Talents.

- Ascension Games has a gross polearm combat style slayers can take. Opens up Cleaving Finish, Whirlwind, and Pin Down without the feat prereqs.

- Alternate build (or late game retraining), go down the Kitsune line and become a one-man phalanx of dirty tricks.

- Forest Warden gives your flanking bonus an additional +2, and gets you +2d6 sneak attack dice (which also adds to Surprise Maneuver). This should actually net you +1 in most circumstances since you lost 3 BAB, but that depends on how often your GM hits your shadows. But you also get a ton of other goodies even if your shadows go down.

- It might be wise to spec into dirty tricks post-10 to deal with the issues of late game trip builds. You have to get the Dueling (FG) property on your weapon, but that seems worth it to transition all your buffs to dirty trick.
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I'm not sure you need to start hacking rules to make Pathfinder combat more interesting or rewarding. A lot of it comes down to combat design.

1. Always use multiple enemy types, even if its just dudes with multiple weapon types (archers, melee, mages). This adds a "prioritization puzzle" to your combat, which is good.

2. Always use more than 1 creature, even in BBEG fights. You want to start the fight with roughly even action economy, or overwhelming action economy that can be quickly cut down to par (i.e. low CR mooks)

3. Use more interesting battlefields. Cover, obscurement, hazards, and the like will obviously make a more interesting battlefield than a blank room.

4. Alternate goals. Someone already mentioned this but if the PCs need to accomplish something other than "beat down the evil dude", you add another layer to the aforementioned "prioritization puzzle". Pull the levers, solve the puzzle, save the baby, all while under fire!

5. Move more. I think the biggest issue "rules wise" with Pathfinder is how static it can make combat. Once you get into full attacking position you're disincentivized from moving or even repositioning due to AoOs. Giving your enemies more movement abilities that let them engage and disengage will let you explore more of the battlefield. If you lean really heavily on this, you may want to give your PCs some fun movement items as well so they can keep up.

6. Regarding boss fights specifically, you just cram 2-3 monsters in one body and call it good. One body, but it gets +X pools of hit points that act as boss stages, and +1 action per pool alive. Purge any conditions or debuffs on phase switch. This is called the Paragon System by the Angry GM, its largely system neutral and its worked better than 5e's legendary actions.
Paragon Stuff

Can't speak for unchained classes. Just getting back into Pathfinder, but I've heard very good things about them.

So I'm having trouble with the high level cleric spell list with regards to my buffing cleric?

Where are all the buffs? There's the paladin aura and holy aura and that's basically it at high levels, both of which are round/level. Where are my huge, aoe, min/hour per level buffs? Where are my one man juggernaut buffs?

The cleric spell list from 6+ becomes a bad touch cleric's wet dream, it seems like the writers just assumed everyone wanted to cast 8 versions of "kill you". But my character doesn't cast harmful magic and I'm rapidly running out of support for my build.

Then you have the symbols clogging up the list with even more NPC spells. And crap that shouldn't be a high level spell like making a POND with Oasis.

What's good are the world shaping spells that are super open ended, but then you're basically wizard-by-grace-of-god.

It feels like the buffing archetype got totally dumped in the end game in order to make bad touch/wizard clerics? The spell list feels like swiss cheese, some levels I have 10 golden spells I really want and other levels its totally barren.

None of this is helped by railroading in our current game making the great open ended cleric spells useless. Control Weather and Scrying are utterly curtailed because they have too much potential to change the game's course.

Alright now tear into me and tell me how great the cleric's list is and how I'm a spoiled full caster. Don't get me wrong I love playing my cleric, I'm just kind of struggling with the high level list and what to prepare.

EDIT: I should clarify that I'm using a Candle of Invocation to prepare some higher level spells is why round/level doesn't work so well for me.