Clockwork Spy

Pahlok's page

Organized Play Member. 138 posts (263 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 12 Organized Play characters. 9 aliases.




Hello! I am working on a character for a home game, and am drawn to the idea of a crossbow user that fights using the Overwatch Style chain of feats. This brings me to the Crossbowman fighter, who at level 7 denies dexterity to the targets of readied actions with a crossbow.

This level of consistency for denying dexterity to AC every attack has me wondering if there are any useful effects besides Sneak Attack that I could build around or focus on.

For context, this character is for a continuation of a game that was paused years ago that we are picking back up with new/revised characters. We're building at level 10 with standard WBL, with no more than half our gold spent on a single item. My character is a Serpentfolk from a tribe that was befriended in one of the previous sessions.

I'm only married to the 7 levels of Crossbowman Fighter, so dipping classes for relevant effects is fine by me. However, since Overwatch Vortex requires +11 BAB, I'd like to stick to full BAB classes so that I can nab it as soon as we level up next.

Thanks in advance!


I intend to use a scatter firearm in PFS, but I am concerned about shooting my allies caught in the blast; both for their health as characters and for my health as a player who has to be on good terms with the players of those characters.

Other than careful positioning, what can I do to mitigate this damage and/or protect my allies?


"To the personage of ____________,

By request of the Council of the United Commerce, you have been summoned to Crasmere. Concerns regarding the recent unnatural seismic activity require professional investigation in order to restore peace to the capitol. Should you accept this summons, this letter will serve as express authority by the Council for your investigation, as well as a voucher for travel and living expenses. You will be awarded 3,000gp upon successfully uncovering the source of the tremors, and another 3,000gp should you be able to eliminate them yourself."

[There are a number of signatures as well as the official seal of the United Commerce Council]"

---

You have each accepted the summons request of the United Commerce Council and have been directed to convene and arrive via the three-day expressway from the Republic coaltown of Eddystone. The letter serves as your passport between the borders of the Republic and the United Commerce as well as your train ticket, and you board with no trouble.

Since your arrival was unexpected and the train had already sold all of its tickets, an additional two cars have been hastily added to the caboose, although this leaves them unconnected to the rest of the cars. Each car has an upper and lower private room, meaning that two of you will be required to double-up. You have been provided with three days worth of meals and a cooktop. The train's owner, while very apologetic, assured you that these were the best arrangements he could manage on such short notice.

---

It is currently the second night of your travel, and it's been a particularly uneventful ride. You've gotten plenty of time to get to know each other by now (although feel free to write an introduction if you wish). The train stopped not long ago for refueling, but has sinced resumed chugging forward.


Please use this thread for out-of-character discussion. You are welcome to change your characters up before we begin, so feel free to synergize with each other.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

On your way to investigate the mysterious rumblings beneath the industrial city of Crasmere, there seems to have been a disturbance on your train. A murder has occurred. Can you get to the bottom of it before you reach your destination? And what awaits you in Crasmere?

Hello, and welcome to the recruitment thread for Boneshaker, a steampunk/occult Pathfinder play-by-post game. This is a homebrew campaign that I've been working on off-and-on for a few months now. I had originally planned to run it with a few friends, but have since decided to run it publicly instead.

What You Know About the Setting
As a traditional steampunk setting, the world (simply called The Globe) shares the aesthetics of late-1800's/early-1900's Earth, and the steam-engine and steam-based technology have paved the way for rapid industrialism and technological advancement. However, The Globe is also home to magic and supernatural occurrences. Magic and machine combine to make a modern yet anachronistic fantasy setting. Not much of the world has been created yet in order to allow the journey and necessity of the plot to decide the landscape. There are no rails in this story other than the railroad itself!

What You Know About Yourselves
You each have slight renown regarding the supernatural, whether as investigators, thrillseekers, hunters, magic-wielders, or otherwise. Whether you work on your own or have worked together before, you have all been called upon to get to the root of the unknown tremors beneath the city of Crasmere. Feel free to keep your backgrounds light in order to develop them as we go along. Otherwise, if you have something specific in mind, the world is intentionally left open in order to inject personalization into every aspect of it.

Character Build Rules:

All Paizo Pathfinder content is available except for the following changes:
Summoners must be Unchained, no Synthesist or Master Summoners. No Protector familiars. No Sacred Geometry or Arithmancy feats. You may use the unerrata'd version of Slashing Grace. Change the Oracle FCB for Elves/Sylphs/Aasimars to +1/4 instead of +1/6. Fighters get the Combat Stamina feat for free, but only count the BAB from their fighter levels for their stamina pool. You will get 2 free Background Skill Points per level. We will be using Unchained Automatic Bonus Progression with half WBL progression. The Trap Finder campaign trait from Mummy's Mask may be taken as a regional trait. Deity restrictions are lifted on all material.

Additionally, all content from the 3rd party Pure Steam Campaign Setting is available.

You will need to build as follows:
-Level 2
-15 point-buy using the standard point-buy system, with no stat below 8 before racial modifiers.
-Any 15RP or less race, with a preference for core races
-500gp starting gold
-Max HD at level 1, half+1 for every level after that. (Example: A fighter with a +2 Con mod would have 12hp at level 1 and 20hp at level 2.)
-Two traits, no Drawbacks. You may take the Additional Traits feat for more traits.
Alignment: Non-evil is preferable, but there are evil characters that can work well in parties, so I'll leave it up to you to be mature.

Please include a character sheet/statblock and a brief (or extended, if you wish) description of your character's background, personality, party role, and future build plans.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I will be recruiting 4-5 players for this campaign. Players will be expected to post at least once a day unless notice is given. There is no specific deadline set for application. I will close applications once I feel I have a suitable number of applicants to choose from.

Thanks,
GM Boneshaker


So, my friend is running an evil campaign for us set in Galt where the party consists of convicts who will now be put to death for their various crimes, but manage to break free and are eventually hired as mercenaries by a few powers in Galt who want the chaotic mob rule to remain dominant. This is especially pertinent because the church of Abadar is vying for power in Galt in order to stabilize the nation.

I have a character concept (approval pending, but I have no doubts he'll love it) for a sort of inside man; a corrupt constable who is complicit with their escape and legal protection while in Galt. For his build, I want to do the Constable Cavalier archetype with the Order of the Penitent in order to make a character that excels at capturing and subduing enemies, something that will be important for questioning and torturing key NPCs we may encounter rather than killing them outright. I'm having trouble applying the order to an evil ideal, though.

Order of the Penitent wrote:

Not all knights begin their careers as nobles' children or as squires. Some start out as thieves, murderers, or cheats, and only after they see the suffering caused by their crimes do they dedicate themselves to honorable service. Cavaliers who follow this order seek to make up for the crimes they've committed in the past, and do whatever they can to restore their tainted honor.

Edicts: The cavalier must be merciful to wrongdoers and show unfettered fairness whenever he passes judgment. He must assume that only the most heinous monsters are irrevocably evil, and must deliver all foes capable of fair trial to the appropriate local law enforcers.

I could easily just ask him to waive or refluff the order, but I wanted to ask around and see what other people's thoughts were on executing this a litte more elegantly.


This is the OOC discussion thread for this campaign.


I've looked in all my books and scoured databases, but I can't seem to find a single deity that grants the Solitude subdomain. Does one exist?


Hello there. My vision is for an ongoing organized player-vs.-player arena where players can battle their characters against each other for the right to advance to the next level. This thread will be used for character applications and questions about the format as well as a sounding board for improving the format.

The premise is that players will be playing a virtual competitive arena game against each other, which will conveniently facilitate the impermanence of death and lack of need for sustenance or sleep within the arena.

For more details on how this will work and how you can participate, please view the Campaign Info tab.


Some players I know have discussed using the grappling rules in order to reposition their allies advantageously. For example, grappling your ally, then using Greater Grapple to maintain and move them adjacent to an enemy, then letting them go as a free action, allowing them to full attack. Is this allowed in PFS with player consent? Would you allow this at your table as a GM? Why or why not? It does seem a bit cheesy, but it also seems well within the rules, and it does use up a player's turn to do it.

1/5

Let's say I want Celestial Armor for my horse. Is this possible in PFS? How is the cost calculated? Will Celestial Armor automagically resize to fit my horse like magic items do, so it only needs to be purchased at the normal price, or do I need to parse out the base cost of the armor before magical enhancements and multiply it by the size/nonhumanoid modifiers?


Hey there, so I've got a level 11 PFS character who functions primarily on Ex abilities and feats. She's got wings to fly, 7 natural attacks, and grab and constrict. In an Antimagic Field, she'd lose one (maybe two) of these attacks, but otherwise remain fully functional. She'd be a caster boss's nightmare if only I could cast Antimagic Field on her. Sadly, neither of my two caster dips have this on their spell list, and hitting two DC 31 UMD checks (one to cast, one to imitate having a high enough casting stat) isn't possible for her. I'd love to turn her into an antimagic rocket of death.

I'm curious if there are any easier PFS legal ways to get this spell cast on her? It has a range of personal, which is what makes it tricky. The best I've been able to come up with is to have a wizard cast it onto his familiar and have the familiar stay on me.


Let's say I have a flying monster grappling a player in the air. It drops the player as a free action. As a result, the player moves out of its threatened area. Does my monster get an attack of opportunity?


If you constrict, do you get the damage from weapon enhancements (on an Amulet of Mighty Fists) such as Corrosive, Frost, Shock, etc.?

For example, let's say I have a Corrosive Amulet of Mighty Fists. I punch for Dice + Str + 1d6 Acid and succeed on a Grab. Do I also constrict for Dice + Str +1d6 Acid, or just Dice + Str?

Thanks.


Edit: This has been edited to reflect some changes.

Hello everyone, I'm gathering up some of my PFS credit into a level 5 character. My plan is for a sorcerer that can feint and deliver touch spells to debilitate my enemies. I'd like some advice on it, since I've never actually played a caster before. Here's what I've got.

Race: Human
STR: 7 DEX: 16 CON: 14 INT: 7 WIS: 7 CHA: 20
Classes: Monk (Maneuver Master) 1/Sorcerer (Aberrant) X

Feats
1: Improved Feint (From Maneuver Master Monk)
1: Weapon Finesse
1: Spell Focus (Transmutation)
3: Greater Spell Focus (Transmutation)
5: Empower Spell
7: Heighten Spell
7: Combat Casting (From Aberrant)
9: Spell Penetration
11: Greater Spell Penetration

Trait: Magical Knack
Trait: Wayang Spellhunter (Touch of Gracelessness)

I'm taking +1 HP FCB for the first three levels of sorcerer, then the Human Sorcerer FCB that adds a spell of 1 level lower than my highest to my spells known every level after.

As far as gear, I'll be wearing an enhanced Silken Ceremonial Armor as well as an enhanced Mithral Buckler, which both have 0% spell failure and -0 ACP. Also a Mask of Stony Demeanor.

One of my skill points per level will go into Bluff of course. The other one will probably go into UMD each level.

At level 5 my spell list looks like this

Level 0
Detect Magic, Read Magic, Touch of Fatigue, Light, Detect Poison, Disrupt Undead

Level 1
Enlarge Person, Touch of Gracelessness, Chill Touch, Shocking Grasp, Burning Hands

Level 2
Elemental Touch

Touch of Gracelessness (and Calcific Touch down the road) will be my big ticket items for foiling my foes so my allies can tear them down, especially once I can empower them.


Hello, I am recruiting two dedicated players to round off the party for the Jacob's Tower Megadungeon by Zenith Games. I have two players already who are close friends of mine that I play Pathfinder with online weekly. This game will happen every Thursday at 7PM EDT unless notice is given otherwise, and will run for 4 hours (more or less depending on how everyone is feeling). You will be expected to show up regularly and punctually. The game will be played on Roll20, and we will use Skype for voice chat.

Note: Please do not apply if you have read/played/GMed the Jacob's Tower Megadungeon before.

This is not your typical dungeoncrawl; Jacob's Tower will test not just your combat prowess, but your breadth and knowledge as well as critical thinking skills. Skills that usually fall to the wayside are just as important to have as typically common skills. There are options for all kinds of characters to uniquely shine, although well-rounded characters will have an easier time in general.

Here are the setting and build rules.

Setting Summary:
You are a fresh agent in the Pathfinder Society alongside three others of similar rank. The Society has discovered a way to gain entry to the pocket dimension containing the tower of an evil sorcerer of great renown, only known as Jacob. Unfortunately, some magic beyond understanding bars entry to anyone of renown and power. This is why you are being sent in on behalf of the Society. You are not the first group to be sent in, but since none have yet to return, the Society is sending you in as insurance and possibly backup. Your goal is as always; explore, report, and cooperate.

Build Rules:
*Level 1
*Max HD first level, half HD+1 every level after
*150gp starting gold
*20 point buy build
*Any 15RP or less races available, anything above is subject to approval on a case by case basis.
*All Paizo, no 3rd Party, no Psionics, no Master Summoner or Synthesist, no exceptions. Additional limits may be set as seen fit. Occult Playtest classes are allowed, but must be updated as the book updates.
*Two traits, no drawbacks. Campaign traits from other APs are allowed but are subject to approval.
*Any nonevil alignment
*There will not be downtime for crafting
*Please include a personality and backstory for your character, at least 1 paragraph each.

One of the already confirmed players is a ranged inquisitor with an animal companion that may or may not be acting as a party face as well (he's undecided as of yet). The other is playing a telekineticist that will be be able to disable devices and handle some combat as well as some out of combat healing.

If you have any questions, please ask.


Hello everyone! In response to a Kingmaker campaign I'm about to start GMing, I went looking for a spreadsheet to keep the kingdom in order. I didn't find any that I liked, so I took one that was close and worked it into something better. I figured I'd share it all with you and get some suggestions/corrections on anything I may have missed or can improve.

So, here it is: Kingmaker Kingdom Spreadsheet

To edit it, simply click File>Make a copy, and then access the copy from your own Google Drive. Yellow fields require you to enter data manually, green fields are filled automatically, and cyan fields have a dropdown.

Enjoy!


So I'm making a grappling Brawler in PFS and I know in the higher levels casters often have Freedom of Movement. What are some ways that I can counter Freedom of Movement without being a Tetori Monk?


1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

So, the wording of the Vivisectionist Alchemist archetype's sneak attack feature seems like it would interact beneficially with classes that don't grant full sneak attack progression. I could just be reading this wrong, so let me know if I'm missing something here.

Vivisectionist wrote:

Sneak Attack

At 1st level, a vivisectionist gains the sneak attack ability as a rogue of the same level. If a character already has sneak attack from another class, the levels from the classes that grant sneak attack stack to determine the effective rogue level for the sneak attack’s extra damage dice (so an alchemist 1/rogue 1 has a +1d6 sneak attack like a 2nd-level rogue, an alchemist 2/rogue 1 has a +2d6 sneak attack like a 3rd-level rogue, and so on).

This ability replaces bomb.

So, I'll take an easy example like the Snakebite Striker Brawler archetype.

If you have Vivisectionist 1/Snakebite Striker 2, would you have +2d6 Sneak Attack? Snakebite Striker is a class that grants sneak attack, but it stacks into Vivisectionist's Sneak Attack feature as rogue levels. So you would have an effective rogue level of 3, granting +2d6 sneak attack from Vivisectionist, despite not having that progression as a Snakebite Striker Brawler.

Am I reading this right? If so, this is a one level dip to get full sneak attack progression with classes that don't get full sneak attack normally on their own, such as the Slayer (though less effective).


Hey there, I'm building a PFS character that I've had on my mind for a while now, and I was looking for suggestions now that I've got all the parts I need. This build is for a halfling with the Mouser Swashbuckler archetype and the Kata Master and Master of Many Styles Monk archetypes who uses style feats to protect his allies and thwart his enemies.

-

Here's what I've got so far:

Stats after 20PB and racial adjustments: STR: 6 DEX: 20 CON: 12 INT: 7 WIS: 14 CHA: 14
(I'll need to pick up an Agile Amulet of Mighty Fists ASAP)

Feat Progression
Swashbuckler (Mouser) 1 / Monk (Master of Many Styles, Kata Master) 10
Lvl 1: Combat Reflexes
Lvl 2: Bonus: Archon Style
Lvl 3: Bodyguard, Bonus: Archon Diversion
Lvl 5: Monkey Style
Lvl 7: Dodge, Bonus: Monkey Shine
Lvl 9: Crane Style
Lvl 11: Crane Wing, Bonus: Archon Justice

There's a lot of synergy between the feats and features here, so if you have any questions about the build and how it works, please ask! I'd love some suggestions and opinions before I try to take this build off the ground.

Edit: Switched up a feat since I realised Crane Riposte would be pointless on this build.


Mouser Archetype wrote:

Underfoot Assault (Ex): At 1st level, if a foe whose size is larger than the mouser's is adjacent to her and misses her with a melee attack, the mouser can as an immediate action spend 1 panache point to move 5 feet into an area of the attacker's space. This movement does not count against the mouser's movement the next round, and it doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity. While the mouser is within a foe's space, she is considered to occupy her square within that foe's space.

While the mouser is within her foe's space, the foe takes a –4 penalty on all attack rolls and combat maneuver checks not made against the mouser, and all of the mouser's allies that are adjacent to both the foe and the mouser are considered to be flanking the foe. The mouser is considered to be flanking the foe whose space she is within if she is adjacent to an ally who is also adjacent to the foe. The mouser can move within her foe's space and leave the foe's space unhindered and without provoking attacks of opportunity, but if the foe attempts to move to a position where the mouser is no longer in its space, the movement provokes an attack of opportunity from the mouser. This deed replaces opportune parry and riposte.

Monkey Shine wrote:
While using Monkey Style, if you successfully deliver a Stunning Fist attempt, in addition to the normal effect of Stunning Fist, you can spend a free action to enter a square adjacent to you that is within your opponent’s space. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity. While you are in your opponent’s space, you gain a +4 dodge bonus to AC and a +4 bonus on melee attack rolls against that opponent. If otherwise unhindered, the opponent can move away from you, but if he does, he provokes an attack of opportunity from you even if his choice of movement does not normally do so.

Q1: Do you gain the benefits of both feats as long as long as you are in an opponents square, or does only the one that triggered your entry into their square work?

Q2: If both work, do you get two attacks of opportunity (assuming Combat Reflexes) when the opponent moves out?

I believe that the effects of both would work as long as you're in the opponent's square, regardless of how you got there, but I don't think it would trigger two attacks of opportunity since they're both triggered by the same action and are similar effects.

I'd like to see what everyone else has to say on it.


Simple question: Does the Dire Collar from the Advanced Class Guide work on any creature, or only creatures of the Animal type?


Probably been played around with before, but the ACG opens up some new possibilities, so I'll drop this here. It's unfinished, so I'm looking for advice, sugestions, and debate. It's mainly a theorybuild, or just the first 12 levels for PFS. The progression is on the second page.

The build.

Some things of questionable functionality:
Pummeling Style currently works with all attacks you can make in a full attack, regardless of if they're unarmed strikes, but that might change if/when it gets FAQ'd/Errata'd

Brawler qualifies as Monk for Horn of the Criosphinx's special line, and the special line for Monks for Horn of the Criosphinx doesn't specify that a Monk must use unarmed strikes to use it, just that his hands are empty. Thus, your natural attacks also benefit on a charge.

Later down the line once you start getting the TWF feats, you can use kicks in order to get full TWF attacks as well as all 5 natural weapon attacks. This is because natural weapon rules for combining them with manufactured weapons specify that you can use them as long as you don't use the same limb. So at level 17, you're looking at Kick/Kick/Kick/Kick/Kick/Kick/Kick/Claw/Claw/Bite/Wing/Wing. And I'll drop this link here too.

Sneak attack dice per attack roll is debatable on Pummeling Style.


So, I know it's been clarified that monks can TWF with unarmed strikes. But what if a monk wields a 2-handed weapon and wants to TWF with that weapon and unarmed strikes? Specifically, what if they want to make the first attack with the 2-handed weapon, and all subsequent attacks with unarmed strikes?

The reason I ask is that I am working on a build that dips monk and uses unarmed strikes to deliver extra sneak damage with Sap Master, but I want to use my first attack with a 7-branched-sword to make them flatfooted first for Sap Master to trigger on subsequent attacks.


I'm a RAW kind of guy, and so when I was reading the entry for Keen, an odd situation struck me.

Keen wrote:
This ability doubles the threat range of a weapon. Only piercing or slashing melee weapons can be keen. If you roll this special ability randomly for an inappropriate weapon, reroll. This benefit doesn't stack with any other effects that expand the threat range of a weapon (such as the keen edge spell or the Improved Critical feat).

For a weapon that does Bludgeoning or Piercing, such as the Cestus, it's obvious that you can at least apply the Keen ability. The question I have is whether or not that effect would still apply while doing Bludgeoning damage with the Cestus.

I understand that, by RAI, probably no. However, Keen doesn't say that it affects Piercing and Slashing damage, it says that it affects Piercing and Slashing weapons, which are two different things. The Cestus counts for this.

I know this seems nit-picky and ineffective, but it's important to me to know whether there is an official ruling on this. There's an awesome PFS character I'm planning out that wields Cestuses (Cesti?), and he could really benefit from the improved crit range, but it's important that he deals Bludgeoning damage with them, not Piercing.