Phneri's page

All of these in the same game. Same session, because I did not come back to another.

Relatively high-level 3.5 campaign. I'm required to make a +2 LA race character because "nothing else is around." 10th level tanky cleric it is.

First combat, I roll a natural one on my second attack and out comes a fumble deck. No confirmation, nat 1 = something bad. Yes you still have to confirm crits. I wind up injuring a muscle and losing my mobility. I don't have a spell to fix it.

As a cleric.

Spot checks are called for. Other players look on in horror as I roll my high check (cleric). As it turns out this GM uses the roll as a modifier on a d100 table to see "what monster you get" from the perception check. At least three of these are rolled per session. You must fight your own monster.

Oh, and because I had rolled up a new character and used WBL I was the only martial character with a magic weapon. We had a fighter and a barbarian.

That about covers it.

High end game where our 20th level characters are attempting to hold off the tides of evil to allow the last mortal survivors to escape. Everyone else builds their crazy geared-up paladin/sorceror/etc.

I make a rogue. Who's taken a vow to never take a life.

As we're beginning our defense the great wyrm red dragon approaches, scoffing from a distance at the mortals who prepare for battle. I dimension door on top of his head (cloak of the mountebank) and begin explaining how badly things may go if he decides to attack us.

Of course things go as expected. I managed to distract the dragon by standing (with an acrobatics check in the low 50s and in full defense) on his head while the paladin gets into a flanking position on his flying steed.

Then I full attack him.

My rogue won't take a life, but he will defend himself. With his two +5 merciful light clubs. And the sap master feats. As I was dual-wielding and hit five of 6 times, I wound up rolling 115d6 + 100 nonlethal damage. Plus strength and enchantments.

And 10 points of strength damage.

As the rest of the party blinked at me I maneuvered the (now very unconscious) red dragon into the recovery position and left instructions with my hirelings to place him with the other refugees.

The DM then wound up considering the quite humbled dragon's potential shift in his life's outlook, and he became a recurring NPC.

Not a halfling, but in an old 3.5 game a tribe of kobolds was guarding the MaGuffin the party needed. The fighter was a bit of a bruiser and figured he could obtain leadership through a single combat challenge.

Out comes the leader and most powerful warrior in the village, the kobold barbarian.

After the requisite laughter and taunting the fight begins. Kobold wins initiative (dex bonus and imp. init, fighter had neither), rhino charges the fighter (he had that hide armor, because who needs AC?), and put him into a small crater with his monkey-gripped greatsword.

The party found a diplomatic approach to the kobolds instead.

Barbarian at 10th gets the ability to charge 80 feet (read, anywhere on the map in most fights) and full attack something. Add in greater trip and the Barbarian will likely 1-shot most bad guys.

Hard to end the fight with a spell if the giant horrible rage monster won initiative and murdered you.

That's the first thing that comes to mind. Every class had a challenge to overcome at the mid level. For casters that's defense. For martial that's maneuverability.

I swiped this from something but I'm more than happy to use it for my own purposes.

Big locked door to magic doodab/plot/etc. To the side of the door is a statue of a hooded, skeletal figure. One hand is outstretched to a game board, on which eleven discs sit. The inscription reads:

"Take one, two or three, but be left with none at the end. Fail and you shall come to great harm."

The players must take one, two or three discs. The magical effect makes one, two, or three vanish each time they select. The goal is to force the gatekeeper to take the last piece, otherwise the player is hit with a harm spell cast by a 20th level cleric.

Hey, hi!

So I've been gaming off an on for...ever, been out for over a decade, and been together with the best guy in the world for seven years. I guess I don't have a lot of strife or struggle. Kinda makes me boring.

I've been in groups that had no idea I was the gay in the village, groups that do, and groups that really had to rethink the dumb things that came out of their mouths around me. I've been pretty ok with that, mostly because I don't take myself that seriously.

I broke the 16 y/o gamer of an old group of the "that's so gay" habit by chiming in with "you're absolutely right! That is so me!" every time.

My current group is awesome; they've even let me experiment on them. For a grad school project (long story) I brought in a plant for one game and introduced the party to a whole host of uncomfortable stereotypes.

There was the kobold/human couple (lots of scales and salves were involved. Also balms)

The...detailed...classes on animal husbandry taking place in town

The cross-dressing queen ogre (that one was tough...I don't do queeny well).

And...yeah, I dunno?

I ran an arcane duelist bard in a party without an arcane spellcaster from 1 to 16 in a game. He was borderline broken most of the time.

Highish strength + power attack + arcane strike means you're going to be close to the fighter in damage output through the early and midgame, and that's with inspire courage buffing both of you.

Good hope or Heroism stacks with inspire and haste, and generally makes the party absurd.

Dance of 100/Dance of 1000 cuts buffs you to an insane degree for a protracted fight.

Mirror Image is available early-ish and means you can go toe to toe in most encounters as well as the fighter.

If you need long-term travel for the day phantom steed levels with the party and becomes insane at later levels.

Arcane bond = free weapon enchantment and the ability to use a heavy shield/sword and cast spells (or a two-handed weapon).

The early decision you need to make is whether you do offensive casting or buffing. With buffing you're not as concerned about save DCs and only ever need 16 charisma (starting with 14 is plenty). I think with a 20 point buy I did something like this:

18 str (10 + human bonus)
12 con
12 dex
11 int
10 wis
14 cha

First attribute point to int, rest to cha, and favored class to hit points every level + toughness (d8+3 isn't shabby, especially later when you mirror image gives you a great miss chance in a fight).

Early level combos?

Misfortune + whatever is read.

Open with web Follow up with summon swarm (spiders). Swarm goes om nom nom nom on webbed foes.

Defensive mid-level. Spite + vampiric touch.

Black tentacles + stinking cloud. Because you clearly haven't won the fight enough with black tentacles.

Moonstruck to the back row, Fear to the front. Watch what happens when they meet in the middle. Moonstruck is also loltastic if you have the retribution hex to drop in with it.

Magic Jar. Black tentacles centered on self. Leave body.

Beguiling gift the robes. That you just animated. :D

Beguiling gift the parchment. With symbol of insanity on it.

Unwilling shield + retribution hex on your attacker. He takes full damage, you take half. And you spited him with vampiric touch in round 1.

Also forced reincarnation + enervation means minus 3-7 to everything plus potential loss of major abilities. Glee!

couples notes on rage powers/focus:

Reckless Abandon is stupid good. You get an untyped bonus to attacks (stacks with everything) which means your charging iterative pounce attacks with a 2h weapon are going to hit that much more often. This is a very good thing. AC isn't your focus anyway. Penalties here aren't a big deal.

Rolling Dodge and Guarded Stance are ridiculous. AC bonuses for a character whose entire purpose (by your indication of good powers alone) is to rage and charge stuff to full attack (constantly taking a -4 to AC). Why is this even a mediocre choice? AC is for people who don't fly into a screaming blood frenzy and murder everything around them.

Natural weapon fighter suffers from the same problem as the multi-weapon fighter. It's a good option when something sunders your weapon, because you're taking the beast totem tree anyway. When you can hit multiple times for 1.5x str while power attacking 2 hits for 1x strength is a poor choice. Of limited use early on and quickly falls behind the 2h weapon pouncer of doom.

Maneuver feats and rage powers are pretty valuable for the barbarian, considering without much effort he can have an absurdly good CMB. The Barbarian can always have more strength + base attack than any other character. This is a good thing to make use of. Consider greater trip (replaces a melee attack, so can be part of an iterative) as part of the afore-mentioned pounce attack.

A pretty awesome barb build is to ditch dex in favor of strength, con, and 13 int, and build for combat expertise/improved trip/greater trip to stack with pounce. Mix in an oracle of flame level for 50 ft movement.

15 pt buy could look like this with a human (dump more stats as you like, take toughness early on and eat the 14 con if you don't want to go this far):

18 str (10 +2 racial)
16 con (10)
9 dex
10 wis
13 int
8 cha

combat expertise and power attack for your first feats.

You now have a skirmisher that can charge 100ft, trip an opponent, and hit him three times (AoO, iterative, bite attack rage power). Considering you're likely doing something obscene like weapon +20ish on a melee attack, that opponent will last about 2 rounds. Then you get to charge someone else.

Dex and AC are largely irrelevant for many barb builds, as you're making a dude who moves around a lot with DR and a ton of hit points. With support from the party and tactics you will likely never eat a full attack, and even if you might you have enough HP and DR to soak it before the bad guy dies.

You miss a couple interesting racial options with the half-orc, which give you access to scent (with enough wisdom), or the maneuvery glory of the spiked chain (with alternate weapon familiarity). A 2d4 weapon that lets you perform a huge number of maneuver attacks (add its bonus to the CMB for these) and is easy to carry around (for those DMs who question how you get the 9-foot guisarme into the dungeon or up the cliff face) isn't bad. Still not human good, but hey.

Different classes are different. Limiting the hexes/day when they're all already greatly limited by range and single target effectiveness (for a class whose general purpose is disabling multiple foes) is silly.

Moving on to the original question:

At lower levels your options aren't great. Using touch attacks to deliver healing hex isn't a terrible idea, but you remain squishy.

Some combinations are pretty handy v. undead, though. Web + summon spider swarm is a continual favorite of mine. If that doesn't work burning hands the web for a nice pile of damage and repeat.

Additionally, since your witch can potentially have one of the highest craft (alchemy) checks imaginable, making a pile of alchemist's fire and/or acid flasks can be really handy against undead (what with their notoriously great..touch AC?) and swarms.

At higher levels, black tentacles grapple-murders everything, undead or not. Lightning bolt is useful enough (my witch was the party artificer, so I had a wand of this to help deal with the mindless folks).

Retribution is a great mid-level hex for kind of everything that fights in melee.

Magic Jar is nice for those undead v. undead combats.

And when in doubt, summon something bigger than what you're fighting. Always fun :D

Now, incorporeal undead, that becomes trickier.

No, I understood what he's saying, I just think it's patently ridiculous.

If you have a party that can't do hit point damage to an object with an int of - that is set as a reasonable CR, there's a problem. Particularly when constructs are now vulnerable to crits and precision damage.

Blaming that problem on the GM when two to eight thinking adults sat down to create a group of adventurers that, you know, just might have to hit something big and tough really hard, is absurd.

Things don't cease to exist in my game just because they might point out a group's weakness. Adapt and overcome, run away, or die. Otherwise I might as well just chat with you about pie once a week and then level up your dude.

Here's some basics:

1: your melee wants to full attack something every round

2: your melee is functioning optimally if they have a single 5' square to worry about, or an arc in front of them (dependent on build, look into their feats).

3: your melee needs to generally let you do this at a distance, before they act, which makes initiative bonuses pretty good for a spellcaster.

For a single target, debuff the bad guy or buff your melee. You don't have to think too hard about this one, because a single creature is overwhelmingly favorable to the party in action economy. Get behind the fighter and let him eat the charge so he can full attack the monster. Hinder movement so the flank can stay in place. Perhaps make some sandwiches. The melee's got this unless the monster is of a significantly higher CR than the group.

Crowds are where you shine. Summon something mean-spirited and sick it on enemy casters (I like swarms for this. Om nom nom nom). Create difficult/impassible terrtain so the fighter doesn't eat multiple charges and can't get flanked while he murder stuff with full attacks. Use party buffs or debuffs/SoS spells to minimize enemy DPR machines (these tend to be fragile).

Spell selection is secondary to just having a purpose for your spells. entangle, summoned monsters, or a rolling ball of fire can all serve the same basic purpose in a pinch.

Be very familiar with your summon list and how abilities work. One of my favorite dirty caster tricks was destroying a flying spellcaster with a dire bat. Baddy was flying over molten tar to avoid direct melee engagements. Bat grapples baddy, overburderns him, and the two sink into the molten tar.

One dirty trick can turn an entire fight around.

I run a witch in one game, have a second where the party has encountered witch NPCs both in and out of combat.

Slumber Hex is not the issue.

I did a 4d6 drop 1 stat block and rolled a relatively ridiculous array, pumped int and keep 3fold aspect (old) running all day every day. My feats haven't been spent on beefing this, and I didn't make an elf, but still. Slumber Hex DC is 22 currently (I think).

In a typical combat, I'll use that hex maybe once. Because I could attempt to sleep someone, or I could drop a wasp swarm on the room and effect all the melee guys with a roving, weapon-immune 2d6/round that debuffs. Or throw black tentacles. Or confusion. Or summon monsters invisibly. All of these work for crowd control. Slumber removes one target from the fight, not three to five.

Also, I have to be within 30 feet of something to slumber it. If we're dealing with the hill giant or tentacled horror, I'm not going to willingly do that. Because I have AC 17 (dex penalty from being old and mage armor, along with a ring of protection), few options to significantly increase that (hey, if I go young, drop a potion of cat's grace and a potion of shield, because I can't actually CAST those, I can burn 3 rounds of actions to get AC 24 for 7...yay?), and about 50 hit points with three personal defensive spell options. Mage armor, invisbility, and blink. Levitate and flight are good, but situational and not saving me from the giant who enjoys smashing squishy things with thrown rocks. Our last BBEG fight I slumbered a minion, then got 1-shotted by the other after the BBEG dimension doored him behind us.

In a party v. 1 fight? I evil eye the bad guy instead of slumbering. Because he can save v. slumber and the -4 AC from evil eye pretty much guarantees the barbarian and rogue are going to do 100-odd points of damage. It's a more efficient option.

Slumber is absolutely powerful. It's also sometimes frustrating as it changes combat in unexpected ways (hey, that 11HD monster can go take a nap now..), but so do alchemy bombs and the eidolon. It's ok at very low levels, pretty great between 4th and 7th (so now), and quickly falls to a very situational role when the witch opens up a variety of spell options that don't involve putting himself within a charge of the bad guys (and if your barbarian GMPC doesn't care about AOO when going for the weakened target, why do the bad guys?) and relying on a "sleep or can't use that on this guy ever again" to stay alive.

I'm sure any response will be followed up with "no, this is about adjusting the ability, not discussing other issues," But if you have a series of characters who clearly have abilities the AP didn't anticipate or are just generally more powerful than expected and don't make adjustments to the AP accordingly, I don't think singling out one ability to nerf is going to solve the problem.

Looking back, I'm glad to see you did find a way to work it out in your game, but I don't think that denotes a mechanical problem with the ability in the way you're claiming.

if your guy is the head of a spy network who's convinced that he's the only hope for order in his kingdom, he's going to have escape route upon escape route. Upon escape route.

He's going to have doubles, false identities, hidden mechanical traps (that don't register on a detect magic), etc, etc. A go-to device would be his innocuous scepter of authority. Which is a magic staff (variety of effects can mask this) that casts teleport and a few other defensive/save or suck spells. If he has unlimited resources that should be easy enough.

His person should be booby-trapped at all times. Whether through spite (my favorite witch spell when combined with vampiric touch) or glyph of warding on his (glamored to look like normal clothing) armor.

Your spymaster should be FESTOONED with concealed weapons. All of them should be poisoned to a ridiculous degree.

Need some quick and dirty AOE effects? Flashbomb, Dust of dryness with 100 gallons of water (bonus points if you poisoned the water beforehand).

In short, gear-wise this dude should be freakin' batman.

Now, the guy's aware of the PCs, has met them, and should have (sleight of hand from him or a subordinate) acquired either hair, blood, or a possession of the PCs. Scrying. Always. ABS (Always Be Scrying). If he's learned that the PCs have information to use against him (and he SHOULD learn this), plan changes. I'd have him disclose his awareness of this powerful magic effect, and tell the king specifically it began to take hold after the PCs confronted the oracle (which will at the least make them responsible for inadvertently setting his off if not deliberately mind-controlling the kingdom).

He then tells the king (using his extremely high diplomacy check and trusted position) that after researching this he's found out that should the effect be dispelled, it will drive the population murderously insane. Thus ideally they need to capture the PCs and interrogate the proper method of ending the enchantment out of them, or kill them before their nefarious plot can be finished, and be left with an enchanted (but fortunately quite orderly and behaved) populace.

Voila, chancellor doesn't completely overplay his hand, PCs are BAFFLED at the welcome they receive, and they're without a single friend in the kingdom.

};^)>

My 9th level witch is the party artificer, diplomat, and battlefield controller.

In combat I use some nasty, creative debuff and spell combos (web + summon spider swarm was a hoot for at least 3 levels running). I've also used the slumber hex to drop some incredibly nasty save or sucks on BBEGs (most notably being the 6th level fighter we took on at PL 3 who would have mopped the floor with us but instead got stabbed in the eye while napping).

Most recently this took form in my character using blink to walk through a wall and drop black tentacles and a vomited wasp swarm on a group of bad men preparing to ambush us while the fighter murdered his way through a few foes (that I had evil-eyed down to incredibly ineffective attacks). I then used the healing hex (and a few pre-made potions) to top everyone off before the next fight.

Out of combat I've pulled off the DC 35-40 diplomacy/intimidate checks that have saved the day, done covert intelligence gathering (because threefold aspect is broken and amazing), and built a variety of half-price magical items (I took craft wondrous item, forge ring, craft staff, and the cauldron hex). As such the rogue has a ring of invisibility, the fighter has strength and constitution enhancements, and I have a few assorted oddities of enormous magical potential.

Oh, and being as my character's background is the traveling herbalist/healer/merchant, I'm also the reason the fighter (who insists on wearing a foul-smelling worg hide) and rogue (need I say more?) are actually allowed in anyplace respectable.

TL:DR; witch is a great debuffer, solid crowd-control/secondary healer, has a great spell selection for crafting, and has more than enough INT to be a good skill-monkey. Tends to run the way of the hemophiliac due to d6 hit die and a severe lack of protection spells, though.