Pyralissa's page

Inspire Courage with Perform: Oratory.

Oh wow. For some reason I could have sworn Paladin Channel was level minus 3. I've skimmed the ability multiple times while looking at Paladin stuff. I could have sworn I read it. And now I looked again just now, incredulous, and I've been wrong all this time... maybe I got that from looking at Hospitaler and then just generalized the -3 part of it.

A lot of classes have the option to gain channel energy but typically gain it at a reduced level, as you expected. In fact, because Paladins generally have more reasons to increase charisma, they are very often a stronger channeler then clerics (although usually with a reduced pool of available channels). The Sacred Servant can even use their Divine Bond to pump the channeling power even further, putting their individual channels well beyond what almost any typical cleric build would have.

It's an unappreciated feature of the Paladin, it's often more economical to use the two uses of Lay on Hands to recover after a fight or to spend the round to recover everyone's health after a large AOE (especially the favored tactic of all DMs of lighting off a fireball during an ambush).

I was discussing this feat with my friends and it occured to me that the reroll may be intended to only apply to fear effects even though RAW it clearly should apply to all saving throws. The feat is mimicing the effect of Mythic Bless which seems really, really strong for a fifth level feat. Or am I just letting the forum-led Paizo-hates-martials-bias get to me?

It seems to be a very complicated class, thus analysis is tricky, but people seem to be coming around.

For solo play or small parties or below 10th it will prove one of the best.

Yup. A lot of front loaded power in the class. Eventually the BAB scaling and lack of syngery with the high level druid spell list will weaken the class considerably. But as mentioned above, the Hunter will probably fall behind the power curve around the same time as the true martials anyways.

The AcP having unlimited uses of skirmisher tricks is really, really powerful. Enough so that I doubt that was the intention. It's worth noting that while many animals don't have a positive wisdom score, some (notably wolves) do and would have multiple uses a day of those abilities should they follow the math presented in the skirmisher archetype.

Pyralissa wrote:

The animal companion gaining Skirmisher tricks is potentially powerful (especially depending based on who's wisdom modifier it's based upon) but I still think that the 5th and 6th level spells aren't going to interact well with how most people are going to approach the class.

I could be wrong, but it doesn't look like WIS is an issue. The pet appears to learn Skirmisher tricks as Handle Animal tricks, so no daily limit.

Well that would be something wouldn't it.

Except a lot of the skirmisher tricks are based on enchancing the action economy of an animal companion, but the companion is actually learning the tricks so how does that apply? You'd think an aspect of a class that duplicate the mechanic an entire archetype is based around would be more prominently displayed and would have enough language to clarify how such an addition is suppposed to work when those abilities are applied to the companion instead of the PC.

I suspect the Hunter is a very strong class through the first ten levels but that 2/3 BAB and lack of a truly tailored spell list is going to hurt when the Ranger spells start running out.

The animal companion gaining Skirmisher tricks is potentially powerful (especially depending based on who's wisdom modifier it's based upon) but I still think that the 5th and 6th level spells aren't going to interact well with how most people are going to approach the class.

Agile & Keen are perfectly good abilities to put on a Dagger. But you're still going to have trouble hitting a static damage of +15, especially with your off-hand. Crit fishing for damage is just way better on a STR build with Full BAB (a TWF Rogue is probably better off not using Power Attack or Piranha Strike; two great ways to boost your static damage).

Fair points, well explained. I agree, for a generalist guide it's likely beter to drill down on daggers.

Kukuris have better scaling with enchatments (agile and keen on a pair of weapons is expensive but it's a very potent combination), open up crit-fishing builds (Outflank and Butterfly Sting is a scary combo) and at least half-elves can gain proficiency without a cross-class dip (and access to the Moonlight Stalker line). It's the build I used on my most recent rogue and it performed well. I still kept a brace of daggers on hand for throwing attacks.

River Rat is good but it doesn't scale and I'd rather use my traits to patch up will saves. It's certainly very viable to take River Rat, ignore critical abilities altogether and just focus on delivery sneak attacks through movement and concealment. The raw advantage of the straight-dagger build is it arrives sooner due to not having to buy keen enchants or critical feats (although Outflank is great even for non-crit builds). Both are going to invest in largerly the same collection of feats and both aren't really going to come online until you hit level 10 and gain Skill Mastery (any rogue's single best ability).

Those are near ideal Rogue stats. Pretty good for an archery Ranger or Paladin as well.

I'm not a huge fan of Weapon Focus, especially for a martial who's fully invested in his primary attribute. But Weapon Specalization is the reason to play a Fighter, so I can't disagree with taking those feats first.

And you wont even notice the negative charisma, and if you can be convinced I'd even take it to a seven. I've found that by moving to a point buy system and actually accepting negative stats that those tend to be the most memorable aspects of a character (nobody really caares that a Wizard was really smart but they'll remember that he was an unfriendly scrooge with a constant scrowl across his face). It can be a big part of how you approach the character and can bring a lot to the roleplaying at a board.

Combat Exertise requires 13 intelligence, and in the build provided you take the feat before you meet that requirement (it appears you attempt to meet the requirement the level after you take Combat Expertise).

Other then that, the build is sound. I'm not a huge fan of Spring Attack in general but pairing it up with Improved Trip makes it a lot more attractive. Maybe instead of the Shatter Defenses line you could instead explore Combat Patrol, that seems very in line with the kind of skirmisher-build you are aiming for and syngerizes well with any reach weapon.

Quick Draw.

Smite Evil works on any weapon you wield, so abuse it. Get an efficient quiver and then fill it with cheap utility magical weapons like a reach weapon of choice, an adaptive longbow, and falcions of various materials or even enchantments (bane). If your GM allows you to full-attack every round against endless waves of smite-eligible targets then you can take skill focus (craft[pottery]) for all it matters, you'll be blowing up everything regardless.

I'm not a fan of Weapon Focus in general, and it's an especially underwhelming option for a class that is feat starved and has a hit bonus through smite.