Pounce's page

Rogue Dedication seems most useful to me, given that Heavy Armour only really improves AC by 1 at the cost of your movement speed, and it'd cost you a class feat to make it relevant later down the line.

By comparison, a Maestro Bard can potentially extend their Dirge of Doom through Lingering Performance, thus avoiding paying the action economy cost. You can also get some action enhancers through Rogue, such as (the somewhat unreliable) Nimble Dodge (you'd need Basic Trickery to qualify for Dread Striker anyway), Skirmish Strike at level 12, as well as the potential for Master Reflex saves at level 12 too, thus helping with your squishiness.
Adding to all this, you have access to Heroism, which can provide a long lasting boost in important battles, meaning that you would comparatively end up hitting someone at -3 AC (-1 Status, -2 Flat-footed) with anywhere from a +1 to +3 Status bonus to attack and damage.

Given that critical hits are more likely, it is a pity that most Bard weapons offer a redundant critical specialization. I'd probably use a Rapier most of the time due to Deadly, but using a Light Mace might also be fun for the forced movement.

Meirril wrote:

So, is there something that backs up Diego's claim?

CRB wrote:

An animal companion’s abilities are determined by

the druid’s level and its animal racial traits.

What are the animal racial traits of a magical beast?

So you magical beast AC (barring class and archetypes specific exceptions) has no AC, size, attacks, speed ..... useful.

By that same logic, an animal companion ceases to be an animal companion once you give it +1 INT at level 4, since no creature with an Intelligence score of 3 or higher can be an animal according to the Bestiary.

Yet, somehow the CRB also contains provisions that an animal companion with an Intelligence of 3 or higher can select any feat they are physically capable of using, or put skill points in any skill they want, without language claiming that it ceases to be an animal companion. The fact that there is a feat that also transforms your animal companion into a magical beast makes it seem pretty clear to me that there is plenty of leeway in the rules for this exact scenario.

Feed them some Blood of Baphomet. One of the side effects from getting the Man-Eating template is that the animal's BAB is equal to its hit dice.

(Now you just need to deal with having a CE animal companion. Good luck not having it eat you.)

Warpriests are the only full casters that do not get legendary proficiency in their spellcasting tradition.
Summoning does not rely on spell DCs in order to work.

Thus, Warpriests shouldn't be any worse than any other full casters at summoning. Normally, Clerics would not have access to low-level summoning spells outside of some very specific circumstances (Tupaliq Carver for Summon Construct), but with the release of Gods and Magic, there are quite a few options that provide access to different summoning spells.

Gendowyn (N, CG, CN, CE) - Summon Fey
Any of the Evil Elemental Lords (N, LE, NE, CE) - Summon Elemental (Air / Earth / Fire / Water only)
Chamidu (NG, N, NE) / Baphomet (CE, NE) - Summon Animal
Halcamora (LG, NG, N) / Xamen-Dor (NE, CE) - Summon Plant or Fungus
Shizuru (LG, NG, LN) - Summon Dragon
Nyarthotep (CE, NE) - Summon Entity

Any thoughts on specific synergistic combos that could work well?

I'd argue that Bards make the best gishes in PF2 when multiclassed with Rogue. Rogue nets you some important things, namely access to Dread Striker (which is great combined with Dirge of Doom) as well as action-economy enhancing feats like Skirmish Strike, allowing you to get more out of your actions. Combine this with buffs like Heroism from the Bard chassis, as well as using Lingering Performance to ensure that you won't have to use too many actions to sustain your performances, and you're good to go.

Champion 1 / Cleric 1
Your faith in your deity is represented in an extremely unusual way that some might call heretical. When you select this feat, you should detail the fundamental tenets of your splinter faith, though it shouldn’t affect the deity’s edicts or anathema. Choose four domains. These domains must be chosen from among your deity’s domains, your deity’s alternate domains, and up to one domain that isn’t on either list and isn’t anathematic to your deity. Any domain spell you cast from a domain that isn’t on either of your deity’s lists is always heightened to 1 level lower than usual for a focus spell. For the purpose of abilities that depend on your deity’s domains, the four domains you chose are your deity’s domains, and any of your deity’s domains you didn’t choose are now among your deity’s alternate domains.
Special Unless you take this feat at 1st level, changing the way you relate to your deity requires retraining, as described in the Changing Faith section below. If you take this feat and previously benefited from any effect that requires a domain your splinter faith doesn’t include, such as a domain spell from Domain Initiate, you lose that effect.

So, am I right in understanding that only humans can be part of a Splinter Faith from first level, due to Natural Ambition?

You can Cast a Spell from a staff only if you have that spell on your spell list, are able to cast spells of the appropriate level, and expend a number of charges from the staff equal to the spell’s level.

How does this work with innate spells, or specifically say, a Runescarred character with a staff of Divination, and having True Strike as one of their Spell Runes. Would they be able to use a staff?

Paradozen wrote:

Champion, Hellknight, and Hellknight Signifer dedications get you to expert with a feat.

The Knight Reclaimant archetype also has a feat that gives you expert in heavy armor.

Which feat is that? I can't seem to find anything indicating that, but maybe I'm missing something obvious.

My thought is to combine it with either Champion or Monk, but probably Champion due to the charisma synergies.

Why? The proficiency of innate spells is equal to the highest spellcasting proficiency your character has. Champions are trained with divine spells, which progresses to expert at 9th level, and master at 17th. Compare that to an MC caster that gets expert at 12th, and master at 18th. Then add in that you get 4th, 5th, and 6th level spells 2 levels earlier - in other words, it seems like the quickest way of making a martial gish, of sorts. (Sure, you miss out on 7th and 8th level spells, but those only show up from level 18 onwards...)

Champion can also get a free weapon rune, so combine that with the living rune feat for all the free stuff :)

My personal thought is to make a Runescarred Champion that emphasises charisma, and takes most of the innate spell-granting tattoo feats from the recently released Inner Sea Character Guide, and maybe even the Irriseni Ice-Witch feat at level 13 for that extra 1/day Wall of Ice. Since you'll still be quite behind on what you can do with your spells, I figure that the best usage is to focus on flexible spells - in other words, illusions like Illusory Object and Illusory Creature. Shrink Item is also noteworthy, seeing as it lasts for 24 hours, but indefinitely if it is kept somewhere it can't expand. In other words, shrink everything, pack it tightly, bring it with you - and hide it behind your illusions.

Champion is also neat because it gives you access to some rather amazing focus spells, depending on what deity you worship. Sarenrae is pretty amazing for Dazzling Flash, but Shelyn is also pretty baller with Splash of Art. Regardless, there is plenty of customisation available - but I personally suspect that this is likely to be one of the quickest "gishes" to get online.

Channel is a monster amount of healing. 1+CHA is a good spot for that power. It was 3+ in the playtest and it was so much as to dwarf the amount of healing you could get from any two other sources combined.

The "infinite healing" you are claiming isn't actually infinite. Focus comes back at the max rate of 1 point per 10 minutes, and 6 hp isn't that much. Yes, that's 864 over the course of one day, but you need to sleep too. That drops it down to 576. But you're probably not able to actually use the power every 10 minutes. Lets cut that down to once every 30 on average because you're doing other things too. 192 hp.

192 is probably enough to fully heal a 10th level fighter one and a half times.

Lets look at Channel. Er, Divine Font.

For 2 actions at 10th level you can heal one person for 5d8+40 or about 62hp. That's almost eleven uses of Lay on Hands (110 minutes!)

How many does the cleric get every day? Well, if they're not completely antisocial, 3-4 (a 14 or 16 CHA). 186 or 248 healing every day.

What if they go 3-action? 5d8 * targets. We'll assume a party of 4 and that we only get 3 people's worth of full healing each time (someone wasn't hurt, they were out of range, otherwise didn't get full benefit), average 67hp. Gosh, that's actually better than the 2 action version!

Um, Lay on Hands scales too (6 HP for every level it is heightened). At 9th level, it'll restore 30 HP per use.

I'll vote for a Stonesinger bard. You buff and debuff amazingly - and it stacks with Dirge Bard, if you want to do some fear stacking. No sudden death syndrome either!

Could make it some sort of a Synergist Witch, they get to merge with their familiars and take on their aspects.

It only has one free trick, but if you check the Handle Animal rules, an animal can learn 3 tricks per point in intelligence. So, a typical animal with 2 INT would be able to learn 6 tricks, in addition to the free one it gets from being an animal companion. It's not unreasonable to assume that your starting animal companion has already been trained.

It might be worth checking out this guide, incidentally - it talks a lot about how to deal with Animal Companions.

Yep, you've got it. You get it at level 4, however, and without retraining Boon Companion comes online at level 5, so we're talking three-four levels with no companion, where it is likely to make the most impact.

The only thing that I am aware of is the Pact Servant trait. It allows you to treat Asmodeus as if his alignment is Lawful Neutral for the purposes of your own alignment, and as such, you can be a Lawful Good cleric of Asmodeus.

The trait does nothing to change the rules about spells with alignment descriptors, so you are still unable to cast spells with the [Chaos] and [Good] descriptors, and since you have a good alignment, you can't cast spells with the [Evil] descriptor. Normally not a big deal, but it locks you out of a lot of niches when it comes to summoning.

In regards of improving the kinetic blast, one thing you could potentially do is to get a Chuspiki improved familiar, and pick up Interweave Composite Blast. PFS has a ruling that the familiar doesn't progress the kinetic blast, but according to RAW I'm pretty sure it would increase by 1d6 every other level, so when you can pick it up, you're looking at double the damage output if you choose a blast that has a composite with air (so, pretty much any energy blast).

...of course, you could always just get a Chuspiki as an improved familiar and not be a Havocker, and have it use the super-cantrip without taking up any of your actions.

Pounce wrote:

I mean, they can arguably get one hex, since the archetype itself doesn't explicitly alter / change out your patron (it alters your familiar and takes all your hexes), that should mean that you can take a unique patron. Whether you can then take Extra Hex afterwards to make up for it is... gray.

Might be worth a shot, though.

Quote:

A havocker’s patron grants her the ability to devastate her foes with a specific element. At 1st level, rather than selecting a standard patron and gaining patron spells, the witch selects a specific kineticist element, which represents the shadowy forces from which she gains her familiar and class powers. The havocker gains the elemental focus and kinetic blast class features with the associated element, using her witch level as her effective kineticist level. If the havocker takes levels in another class that grants an elemental focus, the elemental focuses must be the same type, even if that means that the elemental focus of one of the classes must change. Subject to GM discretion, the havocker can change her former elemental focus to make them conform.

You still have the patron class feature, but you can't select a unique patron that way, thus no hexes.

I know that's what it says, but the text underneath it doesn't impose any restrictions, rather it says

This ability alters the witch’s familiar and replaces the witch’s 1st-level hex.

Where do you then draw the line? The text doesn't really seem to match the crunch.

I mean, they can arguably get one hex, since the archetype itself doesn't explicitly alter / change out your patron (it alters your familiar and takes all your hexes), that should mean that you can take a unique patron. Whether you can then take Extra Hex afterwards to make up for it is... gray.

Might be worth a shot, though.

Maybe this would be worth looking into? It has a specific effect on bonded animals, but you could maybe modify it further for a temporary effect, if nothing else.

After re-reading the Kinetic Invocation feat, and realising that Expeditious Excavation is one of the no-burn options on the list, it has kind of stuck in my head that it would be pretty cool to make a Kineticist that could essentially build a town by himself if he wanted to, at as low of a level as possible.

I'm mostly wondering what can be done without magic items, so I'm ignoring things like a Lyre of Building - got any suggestions?

Random questions about wild talents:
> Kinetic Cover - is there any way to make it more, well... more? It seems incredibly fragile, and not like it would be of any use when constructing a building.
> Shift Earth or Stone Sculptor? Shift Earth seems like it covers a lot more ground per casting, but Stone Sculptor allows for more fine control, it seems, plus it doesn't have a really annoying prerequisite.
> Water secondary or Aether secondary? Water seems like it could be fun with Kinetic Invocation, using Silent Image to juxtapose images of building plans on top of the construction site, not too unlike what it would look like when you're trying to place a building in a video game. Aether, on the other hand, would give access to Telekinetic Haul, which would be extremely useful for moving construction materials. (I know Aether Architect is really neat, but it's not exactly low level)

Also, you probably don't have the Aether subtype, so you're getting the +1 competence bonus from the Wysp (which won't stack with things like a bard's inspire courage), and the bonus to aid another won't apply to you.

Might make the choice easier on your end.

Xaimum Mafire that Smoke Wizard subschool wrote:

Smokesight (Su): You can see normally through natural fog and smoke, as well as any fog and smoke that you (but not others) magically create. A number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence bonus, you can touch another creature as a standard action to grant it this vision for 1 hour.

Plus Pyrotechnics. Then,

Xaimum Mafire wrote:

you can smoke/fog up the battlefield, give your Rogue Smokesight, and give him free Sneak Attacks for an hour.

To achieve a similar effect, I was thinking Flame Dancer Bard .

Flame Dancer wrote:

Song of the Fiery Gaze (Su): At 3rd level, a fire dancer can allow allies to see through... fire, fog, and smoke without penalty as long as the light is sufficient to allow him to see normally

and just getting an Eversmoking Bottle .

Eversmoking Bottle wrote:

The amount of smoke is great if the stopper is pulled out, pouring from the bottle and totally obscuring vision across a 50-foot spread in 1 round.

The Bardic Performance doesn't last as long, but you hit all your allies with a single action. Also, I'm not suggesting a Mystic Theurge Bard, so your suggestion is more on-topic, but I thought it would be interesting to compare ideas.

Ashen Path is also a thing, and is widely accessible from level 3 onwards. Otherwise twenty thumbs up.

Pyrotechnics turns a fire into a burst of blinding fireworks or a thick cloud of choking smoke, depending on your choice. The spell uses one fire source, which is immediately extinguished. A fire so large that it exceeds a 20-foot cube is only partly extinguished. Magical fires are not extinguished, although a fire-based creature used as a source takes 1 point of damage per caster level.

What constitutes a fire-based creature for this purpose? I figure a fire elemental would be okay, but.. does this extend to anyone with the [fire] subtype?

That said, you could always take the Mantle of Moonlight revelation and be immune to your own curse, RAW.

It's not really relevant to the question at hand (to which the answer by the rules, yeah, you still need some other way of doing that), but it is kind of funny.

nicholas storm wrote:

Really thinking my next character is going to be a sorcerer with the unicorn bloodline. Bonus spells are healing spells (including heal at level 6). Your bloodline arcana gives light healing every time you cast a spell.

There are some bloodlines I'm not comfortable with because of the parental implications. Unicorn is one of them.

Justify it by saying that "It was at truly great cost that I got that first level of sorcerer, but that is a sacrifice I was willing to make. So sure, my blood does carry power, but it's not exactly all my blood..."

A Shabti Nature / Lunar Oracle (or Human/Half-Elf/Half-Orc) with Planar Heritage (Shabti) can grab psychic spells off-list, and so can cast Enlarge Person come level 4.

Shared Training could then do some work come level 6, for TW feat sharing.

Racial bonuses specifically do stack, though.

A necro, but that being said: I'm pretty sure a Monster Tactician with this teamwork feat would be a monster to behold.

Temperans wrote:

Lets see a 18 Con (15 point buy, no severe dumping, & con belt) lv6 Kineticist has a max (after calculating empowered) of: 4d6 + 4 + 9 (3 Con + 1 Con belt + 1 Size bonus to Con) + 6 (overflow + Fire's Fury) + 6 (Deadly Aim). Or, 4d6+25 with +7 to hit (given Dex 14).

An archer fighter using 18 Dex and 14 Str has a max of: 1d8 + 2 (composite) + 1 (enchantment) + 1 (Weapon Training) + 4 (Deadly Aim) + 2 (W. Specialization). Or, 1d8+10 with +11/+6 to hit; +8/+8/+4 with rapid shot.

So its 4d6+25 spending 3 feats and 1 standard action vs 1d8+10*2 spending 4 feats and 1 full action vs 1d8+10*4 spending 6 feats and 1 full action.

Right. So what you're showing here is that the kinny's nova damage, which he can keep up a total of four rounds per day only, is about half of what the fighter deals at will. And common party buffs (such as bard song, haste, or prayer) benefit the fighter more. That doesn't look so good for the kinny...

Doesn't gather power allow you to reduce the burn cost of metakinesis? If so, the aforementioned empowered fire blast should be 0 burn at level 6 + gather power. Not exactly a nova situation - but not particularily impressive damage either.

(Also, pardon me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the fire kineticist be dealing (3d6 (Base) + 2 (1/2 Con) + 4 (Elemental Overflow) +2 (Fire's Fury))x1.5 = (3d6+8)x1.5 ≈ 29-ish fire damage on average?
After all, Deadly Aim doesn't apply to touch attacks, and energy blasts target touch.)

Apocalyptic Spell is a quite neat metamagic feat for combining battlefield control and blasting - let alone the fact that Apocalyptic Metamagic Rods is a thing as well. I'm a fan!

The recommendation mainly comes from the playerbase, as rise of the runelords leaves you going up against a LOT of wizards, which also means wizard-friendly spellbooks for loot.

^ Green Faith Marshal gets a druid domain and its associated spells.

The Archives of Nethys lists the statistics for a Gorthek animal companion here.

If you don't want to overwhelm them, and want some consistency, you could probably use the statistics of a level 7 Gorthek bonded mount, since it will be large by then, and would likely be something like this (trying to be as faithful to the original Gorthek as possible):

Gorthek AnC:
N Large animal
Init +0; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +9

Defense
AC 20, touch 9, flat-footed 20 (+0 Dex, +11 natural, –1 size)
hp 60 (6d8+30)
Fort +11, Ref +5, Will +2 (+6 vs. enchantment spells / effects)
Special Defenses: Evasion

Offense
Speed 40 ft.
Melee gore +11 (2d6+16)
Space 10 ft., Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks: Powerful charge (gore, 4d6+16)

Statistics
Ability Scores: Str 26, Dex 11, Con 18, Int 6, Wis 10, Cha 5;
Base Atk +4; CMB +13; CMD 23 (27 vs. trip)
Feats: Great Fortitude, Power Attack, Toughness
Skills: Perception +9

Thomas Seitz wrote:

How is that useless? There's PLENTY of things that give flight to fighters. :p ;)

Clearly it's just supposed to be something that only works once you get to 9th level and can afford a Carpet of Flying. Leave it to a Fighter archetype to not be able to do the things it's advertised to do without outside help...

In my opinion, a self-sufficient flying Fighter is probably done the easiest through the Mutation Warrior archetype - Wings is one of the discoveries available to you. That said, the Mutation Warrior and the Aerial Assaulter don't stack with each other, as both replace Armour Mastery.

Pounce wrote:

Two thoughts:

Jistkan Artificer + Peg Leg trait = fully functional Edward Elric. Full Metal Alchemist ahooooooy!

Shared Training looks really, really, really good.

Throw in a level of Brawler (Constructed Pugilist) and Deific Obedience for Brigh and you'll be more machine than man.

Ooh, that is a beautiful Brawler archetype if I've ever seen one.

Interestingly enough, the Jistkan Artificer actually gets to penetrate DR / Magic etc when in an antimagic field, since the ability that gives it a faux enhancement bonus has the (Ex) prefix. Take that, dragons!

Two thoughts:

Jistkan Artificer + Peg Leg trait = fully functional Edward Elric. Full Metal Alchemist ahooooooy!

Shared Training looks really, really, really good.

Aww. Okay, thanks!

The Arial Bloodline arcane states that whenever you are "outdoors during any form of precipitation, your effective caster level is increased by 2."

The Saltspray Ring states that it creates mist that "is exceedingly wet", and that "creatures that must remain wet or suffer a negative effect or condition have that requirement satisfied by the ring’s effect."

As precipitation is (meteorologically speaking) pretty much just falling condensed water, the wet mist created by the ring seems like it would satisfy the conditions of the bloodline arcana to me. Does it work that way, though? Any thoughts?

Automatic Bonus Progression, or ABP for short, is an alternate rules option from Pathfinder Unchained that is intended to mitigate the gear dependency that is baked into the game. This reliance on magical equipment is sometimes also called the "Christmas Tree Effect", simply based off of how many magical items a character ends up wearing.

Isn't a part of the Awaken Nature Oracle loop to cast Miracle -> Contingency, for a simple "When Intelligence has been drained to <3, cast Awaken" contingency? Simple and self-contained.

To me it seems like they should stack. One adds a set numerical bonus, another adds a second ability score modifier. Seems fine to me.

Alright. I was mainly curious due to how I don't really have a say in which undead end up under my control until level 6, but fair enough, any undead minions at low levels = likely more undead minions than most people will have at low levels. Thanks!

Alright - noted, but other than that? There isn't any sort of feat that lets you add HD to undead under your control, or that allows them to progress in any way?

So I've just had the privilege of starting playing a Gravewalker Witch in Hell's Vengeance, and the second encounter we have is against an advanced ectoplasmic human, that promptly failed its will save against Bonethrall and is now under my character's permanent control.

...Yeah, I can't believe that I'm that lucky either. I figured I'd pick up a crummy skeleton, at some point.

It did however get me thinking - is there a way of advancing your necromantic minions in the game, at all? Any help would be appreciated.

Rather, if you want a +1 trait bonus on attack & damage rolls against anyone, pick Strength of Submission and have somebody cast Sow Thought on you for 10 gp. ;)

The funny thing is that Command Undead is in some ways arguably stronger than Control Undead, given that it offers no save for mindless undead and lasts for days, rather than minutes.

But yeah, it seems like there's been a mixup.

True, I'd just like to have Perform as a class skill for the NPC and maybe a few Bard abilities to go along with it.

Class Skills: An ocean’s echo adds Bluff, Intimidate, Knowledge (nature), and Perform to her list of class skills.

If you want Versatile Performance, the Whimsy Mystery offers this ability - granted, it is for Perform (Comedy), but seeing as you are creating an NPC, you could easily just say that it applies for Perform (Dance) instead:

Versatile Comedy (Ex): The powers of whimsy infuse your comedy with the ability to awe and befuddle. You can use your total Perform (comedy) bonus in place of your Bluff and Intimidate bonuses.

Finally, there is also the Songbound Oracle curse, which gives you some other bardic abilities (Countersong being probably the most notable one) but it makes it so that you must always, constantly sing loudly whenever you speak, so it seems to run really contrary to your desire of having a mute oracle, haha.

What specific bardic abilities is it that you're looking for?

Ocean's Echo could suit what you're looking for. Incidentally, based off your other thread, look up the Mute Musician if you want a bard that can't really speak, as there is no official finished "quiet" curse. The closest you'll probably get is Deaf (free Silent Spell, no need to speak when casting), or if you want a very incomplete one, you might consider looking into the first book of Jade Regent, iirc.

I'm calling it - the Goblins will be lifted from their age-long curse as in Return of the Runelords, Xanderghul himself will come down to Golarion, reclaiming his throne as an enlightened goblin-philosopher king, ushering in a new age of prosperity for the humanoids in PF with the clearly largest brain-to-body ratio in the game.

Just you wait!

Ravingdork wrote:

I didn't realize how powerful standard action summoning was until the low-level summoner in our party summoned a flock of eagles, each with 5 attacks (he had a feat to get them extra natural attacks). Not having to move into flanking with the enemy, they shredded the enemy in round one with their smiting full attacks. Then in round 2, they all full attacked again before the summoner summoned another batch of eagles which also immediately full-attacked!

It was something like 10-20 attacks in round 2, at low levels, and the enemy couldn't even move due to all the eagles everywhere! It totally made the rest of us look like the freaking BMX Bandit running with Angel Summoner. Just terrible.

I was absolutely flabbergasted when I found out that this was the one thing that didn't get fixed with the Unchained Summoner.

Anything is broken when you play it wrong. The Unchained Summoner can only have one SLA Summon Monster running at any given time. If he had a feat to get an extra attack, it brings them up to 4 attacks, with, frankly, pretty low accuracy, since the eagle's smite won't add to attack rolls. And as for a "flock" of eagles, he typically gets 1 at levels 1 and 2, between 1 and 3 at levels 3-4, and at 5 and up between 2-5 eagles. At 7 HP maximum, they won't last long.

While you are entirely correct about the fact that he can only have one SLA running at the time, nothing stops a Summoner from summoning something, have them do their full attacks, then the next round have the pre-existing summoned creatures attack, before you use your SLA again (causing the earlier summons to vanish), getting essentially two sets of full attacks in a round. Having played a monster tactician who only used this as a last resort, let me tell you, it is brutal.

Relevant rules snippet:

A summoner cannot have more than one summon monster or gate spell active in this way at one time. If this ability is used again, any existing summon monster or gate from this spell-like ability immediately ends.