My party and I are THIS close to finishing our first campaign together, spanning 2+years and many+ PCs. As the dust has settled, we've got a core group of 5 (including the DM) and on account of it being our first campaign completion AND being right around christmas time, I'm wondering if you fine folks have any traditional or good gift ideas to commemorate such an occassion.
I had considered something like a set of new dice for everyone, but I'd like something uniform for all of us, as part of the team aspect, and I feel like 6 sets of identical dice would be problematic.
Generally we mark occassions with booze, a bottle of something always being well recieved at the table, but just like most virigins, I want our first time to be special. A bottle is largely forgotten about once it's emptied, and I'd like something with a bit more staying power, that makes an impression. I'd like to keep the total ideally under $100 so matching leather jackets would be a bit over budget.
I assume some of you have been in similar situations, any ideas you feel like sharing?
Lets say your a hero, you've had quite the career and are level 14. You've infiltrated the BBEG's capital city and know that within the next two-weeks, you'll do battle and only one person will walk away.
While you're impressive and all, the BBEG is a legendary kingpin of power, he's like you, but stronger, faster, and more potent, and when you consider the odds, you find them not to really be in your favour.
That said, you're too proud to let nearly certain death stop you. You're prepared to die, but not ready to stop. Brave enough to do your duty, but not so stupid as to want to cut your life short.
You'd usually have Contingency: "When I cast Feather Fall, Dimension Door to the entrance of the castle" or somesuch, but here you're completely cut off from any "safe places" and home is a long way away. Assuming 7th level arcane spellcasting, and about 2 weeks with nothing but 50,000 gold, with no friendly cleric or church in sight,how would you ensure that death need not be the end?
I considered clone, but the lab and time requirements make it unfeasible for our hero behind enemy lines.
Simulacrum as a way to "continue the legacy" would allow for a less effective "you" that would be going nowhere in life.
Let's say we're God Wizards with some money to burn, lets say we loathe to use weapons, but understand occassionally, you may need a back-up to our reality-altering superiority. Of course, we shun sharp sticks and such, we need a weapon worthy of our station!
So, being a master of the arcane, what sort of enchantments would we put on our emergency superweapon? I'm thinking a Brilliant Energy, Impact, Mimetic, Negating weapon would do some hurt and be able to breach through some defenses while making the wielder a bit more likely to survive but can you think of anything else that we could enchant our fallback weapon with that annihilates those who dare threaten us?
I see Contingency gets a lot of love on the boards because it provides a great "last-line of defense" and flexibility when things go wrong.
For the pessimistic, necromantic caster, there's another use that I've been thinking of and I'm wondering if it's legit rules wise.
You're going into a fight very likely to end in your death, but not being a quitter, you don't want that to get in the way. Or maybe you're about to be lynched as the masses storm your cabin in the woods after words of your "experiments" on the farmer down the road has gotten out.
Could you cast Contingency, with the trigger being that when you die, Create Undead kicks in and you rise as a powerful undead, possibly with class levels?
I play a conjurer wizard who usually brings something big and smashy into the fight, with a cohort, and a hired goon. Running the three is easy enough, they stick to their roles and things go quickly. Adding in a summoned creature is fine too, but my biggest problem is that of space.
I'm referencing 12 pages worth of spell cards in a duo tang folder, three standard character sheets, and a bestiary but if there isn't a spare bestiary floating around, I'm referencing my phone, which I also use to look up rules, or special abilities, etc... I have the Masterwork Tools and Spellbook apps for quick reference, but the table is only so big and with my 3 sheets + a book +spell binder +swapping between the apps on my phone... Suffice to say this is a lot of paper being shuffled around and I'm finding while my builds are viable and optimal, my structure isn't.
What common tricks of the trade do you have to take up as little space as possible and streamline things? I've considered buying a tablet, and digitizing things, but I don't really feel like dropping $200 for a solution to a cluttered seat if there's a better, cheaper, way. Is a giant binder with division tabs per character, frequent summons, and spells unwieldy? Any help or input would be much obliged.
I'm playing a small sized wizard, emphasis on summoning, control, and the occassional buff. He's built around being able to live to see another day. He's generally behind the party with a cohort bodyguard and when worse comes to worse, he dimensional steps to safety.
Now I'm considering adding another layer of defense via making myself Tiny. I figure I'd have better AC, stealth, and fly, and the loss of reach or smaller damage dice doesn't particularly matter since I don't think I've made a melee attack ever.
Aside from friendly spells that have a touch component, can you think of any reason why I wouldn't want to become tiny? If you're staring down 3 murder hobos, will you notice/care about the sparrow buzzing around 30 feet behind them?
Ahoy friends and fellow magicians, I have a dilemma. I'm at level 11 with a wizard who predominantly focusses on battlefield control and summoning things to do damage. I believe my most used spell is probably summon monster, with my feat selections focussing on that (Augmented summoning, Conjuration school increasing length of summons,etc..., so with Summon Monster 5, I bring in a strong elemental to aid in combat and eat hits for about the whole length of combat.
If my party isn't cheering on the elemental, or it seems like over kill, I'll create some pits to trap enemies, lay down obscuring mist to cover our support pcs, etc...
Core group has a Magus and a fighter who deal most of the damage, with a rogue who occassionally swings by, so I drop buffs as well, Haste and Enlarge Person are favourites for the party.
Now with my 6th level spell selections, I'm torn between the following options, if you could offer up any advice as to ones that are traps, or sub-standard, I'd appreciate it.
1. Chain Lightning, Direct damage to multiple enemies, Reflex Saves which puts most of our giant foes in the "easy hit category" but usually we aren't facing 11 enemies at the same time, granted that sort of damage is just amazing. Then again, I'm not a primary damage dealer, but I feel like I should have a blast spell on hand when I need it.
2.Conjure Black Pudding: I love it, and it works with my summoning tactics. The fact that as it gets hit it multiplies, causing more area denial and damage, as well as soaking up more hits makes it something I'm really jazzed about, only problem is that it doesn't respond to direct commands, but if I plop it behind enemy lines, muahahahahahaha
3. Form of the Dragon I: Who DOESN'T want to then again, as a small caster, medium is still a size boost.
4.Permanent Image: Probably suboptimal,but I like the idea of being able to create a permanent image of myself gloating, or blowing up the BBEG as a way to commemorate our battle. Or casting it on our travel wagon so that the wagon seems super impressive and intimidating, etc... over all, it's just really varied in it's uses, though the novelty may not be worth the slot.
5.Planar Binding: Seems natural for a summoning based wizard, being able to bring 12 HD creatures into this realm, but I could say long-term maintenance being problematic.
6. Summon Monster VI: Been my bread and butter thus far, I feel like I should stick with it, plus Huge elementals are Fun!
7. Transformation: A nice ace up the sleeve if I'm ever seperated from the party, but then again, if I have a 6th level spell free, why would I do this when I could just pop a Huge Elemental between me and the bad guy. I'm predominantly liking this because of the looks on the party's faces when I become an archer, lol.
8.Vengeful Outrage: What better form of control than turning one enemy against the other? Will saves are low for the brutish foes we may face, and I like having spells that can target enemy weaknesses.
9. Wall of Iron: I'm not too sure how effective this would be for battle field control. I've used wall of stone a few times to prevent reinforcements from getting into the fight too soon, but it usually only buys us a round or two. I mean, a wall with an area of 55ft would be good cover, and with 2 inches of thickness, it could eat 60 points of damage, which would otherwise come at the party but is this on par with the other spells listed here?
So of those, I can choose upto 2, what are your thoughts and opinions?
I thought I recalled their being guidelines to common levels of attribute scores but I don't know where I saw it.
For example, your fighter has a total strength of +23 after mods and such, so how strong is he relative to other people? For STR it's easy to calculate carrying capacity and get a sense of an average person compared to someone with a 23 score, but intelligence and wisdom and such make it harder.
Think of a stereotypical know-it-all wizard, let's give him an INT of 25 after every bonus, is he literally the smartest man in the room or does he just think he is?
If you stroll into a town with a charisma score of 17 are you average charming, or the studliest stud in town?
Basically, is there context for attribute scores or are they just numbers?
Just a quick question about the best way to go about getting arcane utility via a cohort.
Our party is melee heavy and the group has an aversion to magic for some reason. We have a blaster magus who gleefully blasts and would scoff at doing anything else, but that's about it. We're running RotRL and I'm thinking that our lack of long-range communication, healing, escape routes and rapid travel is going to hurt us down the road.
Assuming an APL of 6 for a four person party (Blaster Magus, monk, archer fighter, and a Barbarian), what sort of cohort would you take at level 7 that provided arcane utility and magical convenience best?
Ideally, he would not be around all the time but be available when necessary (for example, he'll be guarding the horses and wagons while we're in the ruins, or riding in the carriage while we're traveling fast asleep when bandits attack) so as not to contribute to the "broken" perception of leadership and slow the turn order.
Essentially I want the magical swiss army knife that we have when necessary and gives us some healing, teleportation (or at least a faster form of travel than riding by horse for 4 weeks) and communication with "home base" while away on adventures with additional support services as needed.
I'm thinking wizard is a good bet as he has the best spell selection, but would a spontaneous caster be better to cover off those "Why didn't I think of x!" moments? That said, I've read witches and Oracles could be powerful contributors. I'm lost in the world of magic though. I'm also hoping this exercise will highlight to the magus that sometimes spells can be useful without involving a handful of D6s :S
I'm thinking my next character will be a Tetori Monk who'll run around grappling, pinning, and binding enemies to take them out of the fight. From there, he'll either CDG them, interrogate them, or keep them alive and deliver them to the authorities for a handsome reward.
His main weapons will of course be unarmed strikes, with some Bolas and a few daggers of various materials to get around DR. He'll also have various strands of ropes, and chains, manacles, etc... to secure his foes.
That said, carting prisoners around could be a pain, so I'm wondering what sort of equipment a bounty hunter would have to facilitate transporting his prisoners. Is there some sort of extradimensional storage option that allows you to store people? I know a handy haversack can sustain someone for 10ish minutes, and a portable hole has similar limitations. You'd think in a land of common magic, interdimensional travel/storage, and bounty hunters someone would've made something, but I can't think of one. Paizo products only, no 3pp ideally.
What else would he have? I'm thinking maybe some debuffing stuff like poisons, smokesticks, etc... all while keeping a really low profile so as to not draw lots of attention until it's time to tag his quarry.
I come to you today for a bit of input on how to help my oracle put more of a dent in combat.
I'm a level 6 Heaven's Oracle with the following stats:
Oracle, Heavens Mystery, Gnome:
STR: 14
DEX:15
CON:12
INT:14
WIS:13
CHA:20 (Racial bonus and my 4th level attribute point)
Due to the gnomishness and heaven's revelation that reduces hit dice for the effect of illusion spells, I'm fairly illusion focused but picked up the Interstellar void for a bit of a blast, with my spells consisting mostly of utility (detect magic, dispel, etc...) and buffing/debuffing.
That said, when we fight undead (pretty common in our campaign), my illusions are pretty useless and my 1/day blast (interstellar void) c+an't be used willy nilly. This means I'm usually resorting to poking baddies with a stick and doing 1d4+2 or 1d6+3 (depending on which weapon I use) with a +7 bonus. When we do fighting something my spells can effect, they seem to make the saves pretty easily (for example, an ettin with +5 will saves can beat my highest (lvl 3 currently) spell with a DC of 18.
I'm considering a multi-class with something that puts it's CHA to work on damage, maybe a blaster sorc, or going for a martial class to open up some weapon options, but not sure if that's such a good idea due to the low sorc level going against CR encounters for a lvl 7 party, I was thinking maybe a rogue dip for an extra D6 of SA and UMD as a class skill so I could use wands for blasting, but not sure how effective that would be either, what are your, the esteemed community's, views?
Hey guys, I've got a regular group in Kitchener who have 1 or two game sessions a week but I'm looking for another group to fill some more of my spare time with the joys of pathfinder. It can either be weekly, or even just a once a month sort of deal.
I've only been with the one group, so also looking to see how some other people play and whatnot, been going about 11 months so far so I'm not quite completely new or anything.
Any locals looking to start a group or such, please feel free to let me know :)
Hey guys, a friend will be starting up a council of thieves game soon, and since I'm thinking it'll be largely urban based, and since it's the direct opposite of my usual PCs, I'm thinking I want to build a Big Stupid Fighter who's "thing" is breaking through doors/walls and putting the hurt on baddies.
The rest of the party are all new and younger players, so I don't know what their builds will be like, so I'm thinking this can be the guy who bails us out when things go badly, but who sits back and lets them have most of the spotlight.
I'm liking the flavour of the guy who will kick through a wall before trying to knock on the door, and who will happily use the enemy as a battering ram, and of course one of those iconic moments where he grabs someone through a thin wall, as his way of making an entrance.
I'm not sure the best way to go about this though, obviously STR will be an important stat, but not sure if I should go Monk, Fighter, Barb, or even a Paladin.
The Monk would be the unarmed slugger who would be tossing baddies all over the place, but a fighter would have higher straight up damage and whatnot. A Barb would, of course, be able to break things real good, but I think a pally would have that "Righteous Fury" factor, and great survivability as he's throwing himself (literally) into unknown dangers.
So, thoughts on class/archetypes? I just can't decide.
Hey there ladies and gentlemen, my group is rebooting and going to start Rise of the Runelords soon, and so far a good chunk have made their PCs already, so I'm looking for a build to round out the party.
Elf Magus
Suli Monk- Unarmed
Cleric
Another Monk
Now, I don't know any specifics of the builds, they aren't optimized. I'm trying to think of where we need a bit better rounding out.
Does a party need a ranger and rogue? Will the Magus and Cleric have enough spell casting for viability?
I've been building fairly optimized martials for fun, but with the current build, I don't think another front liner is what we need, but we don't quite have a wrecking ball PC if you know what I mean.
Maybe Sorcerer (Arcane utility), or Switch hitter Ranger for ranged attacks and melee, or a ranged paladin, or a Greatsword wielding Rogue, or a Barbarian or a Bard? There's too many options! What do you think?
I'm posting today to ask for your two copper in regards to building a frontliner who can hold the line to prevent baddies from getting to our highly squishy party.
I'll start with the composition of the party and then list the ideas I have.
The Party:
1 Archer Ranger with a badger companion lvl. 5
1 Archer Fighter lvl.5
1 Wizard (Necromantic mostly)Lvl. 5
1 Armour Master fighter Lvl. 5
1 Sorcerer (Draconic)Lvl. 2
1 As of yet unknown member (my char's replacement
So let's assume the replacement is coming in around level 3, wants to be able to stand in the thick of the melee while preventing enemies from moving around him and can lay the hurt down on anyone who makes the mistake of approaching. I feel our Armour master is good for the job of taking hits, but without reach he can be bypassed.
I put together a sword and board fighter, mostly following Rogue Eidolons guide posted here. But I'm not sure if he's the best choice.
I haven't played as a fighter so I'm not sure if any archtypes sacrifice something really essential, would something like the Unbreakable or Phalanx fighter be better? Is fighter the wrong thing entirely and I should be looking at a druid or monk?
We roll for attribute scores so there's no reliable point buy.
TL:DR I'm looking for a melee frontliner who can threaten a wide range of space to protect my party's squishy people, preferably pretty optimized but he doesn't need to be highly min-maxed.
Hey everyone, I've landed into a smidge of a pickle, in that due to a series of narrative choices and our current homebrew story arch, I'm on the run. I may have been involved in a tavern bombing that killed 40+ people, set the town square aflame, and killed a kid's dog.
It's a low magic campaign, I'm a level 4 rogue who so far managed to get out of town, realize I was heading the wrong way, snuck back through town, and am now on the outskirts. We ended the session with me hearing the provincial guards asking around about where the Halfling (Me!) went.
I'm thinking of either returning to town to face the music and rely on my social skills to get out of it and playing the victim (Jeepers, I have no idea what's going on, what just happened? I'm so confused because of this random explosion which I know nothing about) or I can become the fugitive.
If I go the latter route, what are some good tricks to keep in mind for staying off the radar, if they try tracking me with magic, how can I defeat it. Should I hang around the area and link up with the rest of the party, or should I head somewhere like a safe house in our home town? Our DM is pretty flexible in handling our unexpected decisions, so I don't think there's any sort of railroading but he probably won't make life easy while it's unresolved. We've basically likened the situation to terrorist bombing, and I think we all know that terrorists aren't forgotten about when they skip town. Where do I go from here?
Hey everyone, in the event of my characters death, I'm wanting to have a back-up character built, and get some more exposure to character creation since I've only build one with lots of GM guidance. I have a general character concept but need some help figuring out the class that best suits it.
The Avenger:
My current character is a rogue from a mob family, I'm thinking if he dies, the family sends someone to find out who is responsible for the death, they send their enforcer who ends up finding the party and discovers their campaign. The enforcer decides their goal is important enough to pursue, and the family needs to maintain a presence in the town, so he settles in to the party and resumes expanding the family's influence in the region.
He's tough enough that he can handle dealing with thugs and criminals when things go badly, but social enough that he can get information from people without having to resort to violence.
He's basically the quintessential mafia lieutenant from an RP perspective. In game mechanics, if our rogue dies, we've lost our face, scout, and skill monkey. While we can cover the scouting with our summoner's eidolon, we're pretty weak in social skills (which our DM likes to use frequently). So I'd like him to have class skills in Diplomacy, Perception, Sense Motive and bluff. At the same time, if he hits you, you're going to notice. I'd like to avoid a magic user to simplify book keeping.
I'm thinking a Half-Orc Inquisitor but that's more magic/religion based, or maybe a lore warden, but he lacks the skills, I'm looking for a Soldier with social skills, but coming up blank. Any advice? Thanks in advance, I know you guys will come up with something great :)
Hey everyone, I'm here today to ask for a bit of help with a pickle I've found myself in. I'm a first time player and think I neutered my character.
During char creation for attributes we did the d6 rolling method and I had some pretty good rolls. I'm a rogue so I invested heavily in Dex (19), Char (17), Con (13) Wis (15) Int (10) and then used strength as a dump stat and gave it a 10.
As a halfling, I take a -2 to strength giving me a strength of 8 and modifier of -2.
I figured I'd overcome this by taking weapon finesse, getting to use my dex mod instead for attack rolls. At level 3, I took agile maneuvers to boost my CMB.
At our session last night, while calculating damage, someone pointed out I had made a mistake.
Turns out, I was adding my dex instead of strength on damage rolls, giving my sickle 1d4+4 instead of adding the +4 to my d20 attack roll.
It was an honest mistake, but looking at my options now, my -2 strength really hurts my damage output, 1d4 (common amongst simple small weapons)-2 means I'm NEVER going to hit over three damage unless I have sneak attack.
Now here come my calculated numbers that I think are accurate, if not, please let me know.
*Projectile Weapons:If the character has a penalty for low Strength, apply it to damage rolls when he uses a bow or a sling. - Does this apply to a crossbow and sling staff too or are they different?
Then to round out my stat equations to make sure they're right:
CMB = 2 + 4 -1
------------------
I feel like this -2 strength mod effectively neuters my combat options, making me rely on sneak attacks for anything above neglible damage, especially if the -2 penalty impacts the sling staff and crossbow. So short of leveling up my Str, or investing thousands of gold in attribute boosting items, is there a weapon/ feat that could fill this gap? Thanks for any help, sorry if it's a long post, I have a habit of rambling and have been up a few too many hours.
