Peter J's page

Hi there! I'm potentially interested in this too, if there is still room.

Is the submission tool for the next round open? I keep getting messages saying that the current round is closed.

Wow, I'm in! How did that happen?

Well, I'm a grad student studying biology. I'm also from MA, living in Boston. Hi James! Hi Tyler! What it's like to be free of grad school?

I've been playing RPGs since the days of the black box D&D set. My current projects are mostly indie games right now, but I have spent many a year in Pathfinder, back when it was just a world setting for 3.5. I do most of my gaming electronically nowadays, courtesy of my iPad.

Also, would someone please correct the spelling of my last name on the top 32 page? It's Johansen.

Will future adventures retail for less?

What's the mechanics like? This reminds me a little of Warhammer Fantasy 3rd ed.

Yeah, I have a retina MBP too, so I don't think I can go back. How's the typing on the Mini? I've got a Bluetooth keyboard, but I can type on my iPad's keyboard pretty quickly.

Has anyone out there got an iPad mini and tried to read a Paizo PDF, especially the bigger files? I currently have a 3rd gen iPad, and I love the Retina display. WHat I'm concerned about is readability and speed for rendering these large PDF files. I probably won't get an iPad mini until the next generation, but I would like to know how they perform.

Early in the game there is less numerical difference separating the classes, and it's possible to pick up a secondary role within the group, such as a ranger switching back and forth between ranged and melee, or a bard who flips between a rapier for damage or a whip for tripping. However, as monsters get tougher, characters need to develop a specialty to be able to hit higher ACs and CMDs. You need the extra bonuses from feats to be able to pull of the same moves. This isn't a bad thing per se, but it does narrow your options a little. By mid game the cleric probably isn't doing much melee anymore in favor of being a full-time caster, for example.

Which brings me to the bard. Someone who has been traditionally typecast as a jack of all trades doesn't really have a good niche. He may be a great skill-monkey, but that doesn't necessarily help in combat. How do you build your bard, either as a supporter or as a damage-dealer?

So, bards and whips aren't viable, huh?

Harrison Jones

Class: Bard(Archaeologist) 12
Race: Human
Ability Scores at lvl 12:
(Assume 20 pt. build)
Str: 10
Dex: 22 (+1 at level 8, +1 at level 12, +2 belt of Dexterity)
Con: 12
Int: 14 (+1 at level 4)
Wis: 10
Cha: 14

1: Weapon Finesse, Combat Expertise
3: Serpent Lash
4: Weapon Training rogue talent (gives Weapon Focus: Whip)
5: Improved Trip
7: Greater Serpent Lash
8: Combat Trick rogue talent (gives Whip Mastery)
9: Improved Whip Mastery
11: Greater Trip
12: Feat rogue talent (gives Greater Whip Mastery)

Arm him with a dueling +2 whip, and...

CMB Trip at lvl 12: BAB 9 + 4 magic weapon + 2 Heroism + 2 Improved Trip + 2 Greater Trip + 1 Weapon Focus + 6 Dex + 3 Archaeologist's Luck = 29

With Greater Serpent Lash, I can also reposition instead of trip, and if my trip succeeds, I get another one for free on any enemy within my 15 foot reach, which which counts as threatened. I also never drop my whip if my trip attempt fails.

As a secondary role, I have spells and lots of skills, especially Perception, Disable Device, and all the Knowledges.

The pdf version should come with the interactive maps so you can have certain markings not appear. There are buttons that toggle GM view and Player view.

Could you elaborate, please?

Is there a map book to go with this? The print version I saw at my FLGS had all the maps marked up with room numbers and GM notes, like a "goblins appear here" box on the map. If I wanted to use the maps in the book in an online game, would they have those same markups on them as well? If so, how do you get rid of them?

Hey Steve, is your e-mail okay? I just got a very strange e-mail message from you containing a suspicious-looking link.

There's been considerable rumors of an "iPad mini" in the works for a while too.

Two more questions:

Does our Cleric have Knowledge(religion), or our ranger have Knowledge(nature), and how much of each?

Is the GM okay with me taking the Enforcer feat at an unspecified point in the future? I've always considered this feat to be kind of cheesy.

And does Greater Whip Mastery allow you to use bonuses on the whip to give a bonus to your grapple check, as with other maneuvers made with the weapon?

From the SRD:

When you attempt to perform a combat maneuver, make an attack roll and add your CMB in place of your normal attack bonus. Add any bonuses you currently have on attack rolls due to spells, feats, and other effects. These bonuses must be applicable to the weapon or attack used to perform the maneuver.

Alright, here's the current plan. I took Whip Mastery before Enforcer because you need mastery to be able to deal damage to armored creatures with a whip.

1: Weapon Finesse
3: Lingering Performance
4: Weapon Training talent (gives Weapon Focus: Whip)
5: Whip Mastery
7: Enforcer
8: Combat Trick talent (gives Improved Whip Mastery)
9: Dazzling Display?
11: Greater Whip Mastery

I'm iffy on Dazzling Display, but I already have a good Intimidate skill, so why not. At level 12, I get an advanced rogue talent. Any suggestions?

The Weapon Finesse feat allows you to use Dexterity instead of Strength with you CMB when perform a combat maneuver with a finesse weapon. In this case, a whip. The Greater Whip Mastery feat allows you to grapple with a whip. Can you apply the Weapon Finesse feat to this situation as well? In the FAQ, it said that only disarm, trip, and sunder can be used with a finesse weapon, since there are no weapons that allow you to grapple.

Hey LG, would you consider the Lingering Performance feat to be too cheesy for me? Since I can start Archaeologist's Luck as a swift action, then stop it at the end of the round and let it linger for two more rounds, then start it again. It would functionally triple the amount of rounds per day I get of it.

Bear in mind that if you go with the Azata-blooded aasimar you are trading the +2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma for +2 Dex, +2 Charisma, and trading the +2 Perception, +2 Diplomacy for +2 Perform & +2 Diplomacy.

Though, you can further trade the +2 Perform, +2 Diplomacy for the Truespeaker which gives the +2 Linguistics, +2 Sense Motive, and 2 languages per linguistics rank.

I think the Azata-blooded bonuses are better for your particular build, but either could work well.

Oddly enough the archaeologist is a bard with no use for the Perform skill! Azata-blooded also exchanges daylight for glitter dust as a spell-like ability, which is just sick. It's kind of odd, aasimars having dark vision and the ability to cast daylight.

*reads up on aasimars*

Wow, that is sweet. Perception up the wazoo.

Let me think now...

1: Weapon Finesse
3: Lingering Peformance
4: Rogue Talent> Weapon Training: Whip
5: Whip Mastery
7: Improved Whip Mastery
8: Rogue Talent> Resiliency?

Hmm, then what?

I'm leery of taking the Enforcer build, just because I think it borders on cheese. Anyway, I have a rapier in my other hand so I can do my damage and threaten with that instead.

As nice as the Prehensile Whip trait is, Improved Whip Mastery gives you everything in that trait and then some, so I would only pick the Prehensile Whip trait if I was certain I wouldn't take the Whip Mastery chain.

Is the Aasimar PFS legal?

Could you elaborate on how the Scorpion Whip is better?

The archaeologist seems to satisfy my need to be a skill monkey with a dash of magic. He can disable traps like a rogue, but without the pain and heartbreak of trying to set up sneak attacks. He can cover both the roles of being a trapfinder while also having some controlling/buffing abilities with spells and the whip. He's support, not a damage monster So, here's the build I was thinking of:

Human bard 1

Str 10
Dex 16(+2 racial)
Con 12
Int 13
Wis 10
Cha 14

The attribute advances at level 4 and 8 will go into Charisma. Charisma will help more at higher levels. Dexterity pays off now.

For traits, I'm going with Gold Finger to make Disable Device a class skill, and Maestro of the Society to increase my daily rounds of archaeologist's luck from 6 to 9.

Two feats for being human: First is Lingering Performance to effectively triple my use of luck. The second is Weapon Finesse. My weapons of choice are rapier and whip. Finesse not only makes my attack bonuses with both to not suck, and they also allows me to use Dexterity instead of Strength when making trips and disarms with the whip.

For skills, I have eight picks, or a ninth if I'm willing to give up a hit point. These five I should take at every level:
Acrobatics
Spellcraft
Perception
Use Magic Device
Disable Device

Knowledges can be dipped into just for the +3 class skill bonus. Bardic Knowledge will give me a hefty bonus, and eventually I'll be able to take 10, so once I get my bonus up to +10, that should be enough for a knowledge skill.

Sleight of Hand is another choice for a one or two rank dip, as are some of the social skills.

As for future feats, I went with 13 Intelligence to open up Combat Expertise for the improved/greater trip and disarm chains, but I'm cool on them. The Whip Mastery chain is another possibility that offers some nice utility. I could also shift a bit more towards melee damage with Arcane Strike.

What do you think, sirs?

Okay, but the orc no longer has a weapon now. Assuming he doesn't have Improved Unarmed Strike, can he make that attack of opportunity on my ally when he goes for the dropped weapon?

I am 15' away from an orc, and wielding a whip. My ally is adjacent to the orc. Using my whip, I attempt to disarm the orc and succeed. I don't have Improved Disarm, but since I am out of the orc's reach, he can't make an attack of opportunity against me.

My ally goes next, and he wants to either pick up the orc's weapon or knock it away. The weapon is still in the orc's square. How does this work?

While there's nothing to stop you from holding a weapon in each hand, you need the two-weapon fighting feats to gain any extra attacks, right?

So, how about this situation. I have weapon A in my right hand and weapon B in my left. On my first turn, I attack with weapon A. On my next turn, I use weapon B instead. How does this work? If there is a penalty for attacking with an off-hand weapon, how do you switch them?

The roll20 room is up! Check your e-mail for the link.

It also looks like we'll be using Skype to chat with each other, so just a heads-up.

Thanks for the advice. As far as stats go, I may go with Agile Maneuvers so I don't have to worry about Strength. It's only a 15 point build, so I only have so much to go around.

Strength 10
Dexterity 14
Constitution 12
Intelligence 13
Wisdom 10
Charisma 14+2 human

Jaatu Bronzescale wrote:

Azaelas Fayth wrote:

They provoke AoO but if no one can hit you you are fine. Though the Fighter right next to you can get one.

Don't you Also need EWP(Whip)?

As far as I see this seems like a solid build.

Standard bards are proficient with Whip, unless their archetype alters their proficiencies.

Well would you look at that... I never seen that before...

@PeterJ: mind telling us more on your character plan?

My intent is to build a controller/supporter with a combination of spells and whip combat maneuvers. I went with the bard because I also want to be a Knowledge monkey as well. Which is why I'm against dipping into fighter.

The Whip Mastery chain also requires Weapon Focus (whip).

With the Whip Mastery feats in UC, I'm looking at a whip-using bard as a controller. He'll never be dealing massive amounts of damage, but that's what the fighter is for. How can you build a whip user as a bard?

Here are the feats of immediate interest:
Weapon focus (whip)
Whip Mastery Chain
Combat Expertise
Improved/Greater Trip
Improved/Greater Disarm

Also, how do trip and disarm work at range? Do they still provoke AoO even when you're 15 feet away?

If a party is stomping through an AP then the GM should modify it. AP's are not one size fits all, and a GM will still have to do some work on his end for many groups.

Right, but what about PFS, when the GM does not have the ability to modify the adventure to create a greater challenge, and you have the same problem I mentioned in the OP, veterans with heavily optimized characters at the same table with newbies?

Well, in a more general sense, should system mastery give an advantage?

There's a pretty big swing in power levels between characters who are well optimized versus those who are not. Right now there are hundreds of feats and pieces of gear in Pathfinder. Without any prior knowledge, how do you know which ones to take? If one choice is clearly superior than the rest, is it really a choice?

What I'm getting at is that system knowledge can give a huge advantage to the veretan player over the newcomer. Do you consider this fair? I just read a couple of threads in which four powergamers were stomping through printed adventures with no challenge. Obviously these materials were not tuned with highly optimized players in mind. This isn't a bad thing; if you want to play that way, go for it. But if you mix veterans who know how to optimize and new players who don't, is this a problem?

If anyone out there has ever run a Pathfinder version of E6, what kinds of extra feats did you houserule in? Restoration is pretty essential, and Stone to Flesh and Neutralize Poison are up there too. How about capstone feats, or expanded casting, hit points or skill points?

While this might not be helpful, my initial thought is: Why play a rogue if you remove sneak attack?

I'm trying to make the 3.5 generic classes in PF. I'm using the rogue as a template for the skill monkey.

The main reason that rogues seem to be poor choices of an archery build is that they can't effectively use their sneak attack. I'm trying my hand at making generic classes once more, and I'd like to give rogues a valid option to pursue this combat style. I've always considered rangers to have more in common with rogues than fighters. While the fighter is still the stronger one in battle, an archer rogue should be able to contribute.

Assuming you take the usual feats for archery that fighters or rangers would take, the rogue's shortcomings are that he has fewer feats and a weaker BAB. The BAB is the trade off for being a rogue and not a fighter, but hypothetically speaking, could you give up sneak attack in exchange for archery feats, and if so, how many and when?

Okay, let me rephrase my initial post.

What I want is more opportunities for me to shine. Not just the min-maxed combat jocks.

For what it's worth, my brother's monk ended up in a "secure area" where everyone had to check their weapons at the door and enter an antimagic field.

Guess who rocked the fight that broke out. ;)

Yeah, I was kind of counting on that sort of thing. :)

By the way, have you ever had a use for Stealth? I keep wanting to do sneaky things but I never get the chance, partially because I'm shackled to people in full plate. It seems like a lot of modules can just be powered through, and none require finesse.

Yeah, just a bit of frustration being vented bring teamed up with people that can do everything I can do, only much better, and a whole lot more.

It screwed up plans, not choices already made, unless you count rolling a monk in the first place.

But if I want a new class, I'm starting over from scratch, right?

I've been having an okay time playing my monk in PFS, but in the last few modules, I've been teaming up with maguses (magi), synthesists, and other heavily min-maxed characters who seem to be just so superior to me in pretty much everything. I know monks aren't a strong class, but it's getting to be not-fun. This along with the recent ruling on Flurry of Blows makes me not want to play this character any more. But he's already got 6 XP, and I really don't want to have to start again from scratch. Do I have any options here due to the rules changing on Flurry?

Okay, so how about this for a build then?

1. Dodge
1. Two weapon fighting
2. Finesse Rogue
3. Improved Initiative 
4. Weapon Training
5. Combat Reflexes
6. Combat Trick (?)
7. Improved Feint
8. Resiliency
9. Improved Two Weapon Fighting
10. Opportunist
11. Improved Two-Weapon Feint

I'm not sure what I would take as a Combat Trick though. I could also switch from human to half-elf and take Skill Focus in Bluff?

After reading through Rogue Eidolon's guide to Rogues, I'd like to know what my options are for a high Charisma and high social skills build, in addition to the High Dex/TWF feat chain. What tricks does a face have to make them more effective in combat?

I'm sure this has come up before, but I'd just like a quick clarification on this paragraph from page 19 of the PFS Guide:

"For the sake of simplicity, there is no difference between an arcane and divine scroll or wand in Pathfinder Society Organized play. Thus a bard and cleric may both use the same scroll of cure moderate wounds."

If I have a wand of mage armor, can a non-arcane caster use it? For example, a cleric doesn't have mage armor on his spell list. Does he still need to make a UMD skill roll?

I'd like to see Roll20 in action myself. I'll be happy to play a fighter type, or a barbarian, whichever is good for you.

I've been thinking about a campaign based on the plot of Might and Magic 7. The PCs have earned the title to a small castle and adjoining town that is currently in need of repair. After the goblin squatters inside are cleared out, they'll have to fix up their new home and rebuild the town while managing diplomatic threats from multiple sides as well as monsters in the countryside. Can the Kingmaker kingdom building rules handle this? I don't really intend for the PCs to expand beyond just the one town, but it could happen.

Where in Golarion could this work out? Someplace on the border of the wilds, fairly distant to major power centers, etc.

I've tried playing fighters before, and while they do great melee damage, they're kinda boring to play in practice. Stand there and swing, every turn. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but what do you do to make fighters exciting to play, beyond watching the big damage pop up?

Sorry, but I'm not willing to play in a game with a two-headed character. If you're allowing a Taddol, I'm out.

My evenings and late nights are pretty much open, I don't have any serious commitments except for mornings.

Alright, I'm interested. I'll be playing a half-orc monk, with the Sacred Mountain archetype.

A bastard of a bored Tian Xia minor noblewoman and an wandering orc who had turned from evil. The noblewoman fled to a mountain monastery when she couldn't hide her pregnancy anymore. He was raised in the monastery until his half-orc nature caused too much disruption for the monks living there, and now he's on his own, looking for challenges.

Str 18, Dex 14, Wis 14, Int 9, Con 14, Cha 7. (He looks very orcish)

Would you allow the Mizu Ki Hikari Rebel regional trait?

I'm interested. I'm in EST, but I can stay up pretty late to accommodate people on the west coat.