Current discussions have identified that the damage of the rune smith may be too high and overshadows other single target damage dealers in the game. There wasn't much evidence provided so I wanted to provide some evaluation for consideration.
Conclusion Up Front: The rune smith can match the 2 round single target damage of the fighter, but in most circumstances the fighter is ahead. This level of performance requires risk vs. reward that balances it. There isn't a huge amount of fine tuning on damage needed. Realistically the limit should be placed on # of runes able to be stacked (no more than 3 will keep things in line with fighters, no more than 2 will push people to using diacritic runes more).
Assumptions:
1.) Runesmiths don't have any means to boost their effective damage from outside the class (true for all Save DC casters).
2.) PCs need to spend at least 1 move action to get into melee to execute these turn sequences. The fighter will use sudden charge.
3.) Time To Kill is being evaluated as 25% of a creatures HP. HP selected is the highest value of a moderate HP creature. Enemies with more HP are likely to have higher fortitude saves and possibly lower AC (favouring weapon martials anyways). Enemies with lower HP just lead to increased overkill damage that otherwise drops 'effective DPR'. Realistically, 25% is a reasonable handwaive as other PCs damage may come direct single target or AOE or indirect buff/debuffs.
4.) No Reactions are credited (this should drive the fighter DPR higher given the usefulness and availability of reactive strike in combats).
5.) No specific turn sequence for the runesmith is analyzed because there are 101 ways to end up at the same result of DPR which is driven by the number of runes an enemies saves against. This is limited to ~4 total over the course of 2 rounds, which requires two invokes as only 3 runes can stack damage at this point on a single enemy.
6.) Typical analysis uses High AC and Moderate Saves. However, both moderate AC and high saves will also be evaluated due to lake of save flexibility targeting and to show how relatively balanced the options are in the largest effective bands of expected play.
7.) Enemies are assumed to by CR=PL (the trends from #6 can show you how different options would fare against continued AC or saves drops/increases.
8.) A baseline 1D12 Great-sword Fighter using sudden charge/strike + Strike/exacting strike/certain strike has been used. A more optimized version has also been presented to show a range of expected DPR values from fighter builds. You can achieve similar levels of DPR with other martials like barbarian, dual slice rogues, etc. and I'll leave that statement otherwise unproven.
Analysis:
The runesmith can match the single target 2 round DPR of a fighter with 4 runes if saves are moderate (or lower), and AC is high. However, across a larger range of variables where saves are high or AC is moderate the fighter is typically ahead of even a 4 rune runesmith (baseline and optimized versions).
In both cases of the fighter and rune smith they are both blowing past the 25% hp of a PL=CR equivalent creature (i.e., 'your portion of a monster in a fight if it is equally distributed'). The 4 rune runesmith being just under a fighter means you can count on doing up to 50% of an enemies hit point pool in damage every 2 rounds with all 6 actions. Realistically that means that both PCs are wasting damage if they can't divert their attacks/runes to secondary enemies. I think the runesmith is fairly railroaded into placing 3 of its 4 runes on one enemy, meaning they are likely losing 25% of their damage to white room analysis issues (i.e., the enemy isn't even standing their alive anymore). Fighters with sudden charge can realistically recover at least a -5MAP Certain strike attack if enemies go down to their first action in round 2 (i.e., vs. a runesmith's first action being to invoke) OR an additional 0MAP strike if they die between rounds.
IMO that puts the fighter still ahead if this analysis was expanded to include more rounds, more enemies, and more PCs.
Risk Reward Balance:
- Runesmiths have less HP.
- Runesmiths do not have heavy armour.
- Runesmiths melee tracing triggers reactions (not a huge deal IMO but can force you into ranged mode for a small % of combats). This also puts them at higher risks around grabbing enemies, swallow whole enemies, etc. that can ruin their day.
- Runesmiths have no way to boost their damage (just like kineticists, but at least they get gate attenuators).
- Runesmiths do not currently have a means to target non-fortitude saves leading to decreased efficacy against a large subset of the bestiary.
- Runesmiths are limited in weapon damage (due to needing a freehand), which minimizes their plan B options.
- Many turn rotations lead to 3 runes being on one enemy. Its harder to redistribute runes if enemies die prior to invoking the runes leading to sensitivity to party tactical prowess. You can transpose runes with a L4 feat, but it comes at an action cost.
- Runesmith rune tracing doesn't have access to easy self driven buffs like 'flatfooted'. The number of ways to impose drained isn't plentiful, but it will benefit from frightened/sickened as well as anyone else.
Recommendations:
- I think it is fine to leave the runesmith's rune damage as it is. However, Paizo shouldn't add more damage runes. Personally I think having a 'elemental rune', a 'physical damage rune', and a 'defensive burst rune' would be better than endless repeats of damage x/y/z runes and create that hard limit that prevents getting 5 damage runes which would outpace a fighter/other martials. That opens up more runes for fun/utility option runes.
- If people still think that its too much damage, then limit it to two stacking (physical/elemental runes) and that would drive runesmiths to engage with more diacritic runes like expanding to become a less single target and more AOE damage class. If they did this I think the 10 minute cooldown on the 'retrace the rune' diacritic should be removed. As well, consider bringing expanding down to L1 and scaling its AOE burst size at L9/L17 (or the other levels you get runes if that changes).
Other:
Obviously this is not a comprehensive analysis and you can pull many levers to make any one side look better or worse. Hopefully though this will help steer the conversation.
Is a rune that is modified by a diacritic rune count as 1 rune or 2 for the purposes of feats like etch transpose (i.e., one action to move a rune). From the wording it sounds like the diacritic rune alters the base rune and makes a 'new rune' thus RAI/RAW I believe it counts as 1 single rune instance.
So setting aside whether this should have just been part of the class archetype, assuming it isn't. Does taking this feat add these to your divine spell list to prepare?
More specifically to use staves with true strike, haste, etc. on them does this actually qualify you as having them on your spell list?
It doesn't explicitly say so RAW probably not.
But RAI it feels like this should be possible (even if you can only prepare it within a narrow small subset of spell slots.
It feels like one of the few ways to actually get true strike onto a wide assortment of battle harbingers who really want it for bespell strikes and to support critting for the L12 reaction feat.
I think it was intended that the dragon domain replace the wyrmkin domain, but never explicitly stated. Can this be clarified in the player options under divine mysteries.
You have come to see the overlap between two deities’ teachings. Choose a second deity. You must meet their alignment requirements, and you are subject to their edicts and anathema. If you are a cloistered cleric, select one of that deity’s domains, gaining the benefits of the Expanded Domain Initiate feat with that domain. If you are a warpriest, you gain the favored weapon of that deity as a second favored weapon, and it gains the benefits of feats and abilities you have that affect your deity’s favored weapon, such as Deadly Simplicity. If you have a different doctrine than cloistered cleric or warpriest, either apply whichever of the above options is most appropriate for your doctrine, or, at the GM’s discretion, add a benefit from the second deity more closely tied to your doctrine.
PFS says to remove the bolded line.
Now that we have a third doctrine, can we get clarification on how this feat interacts with the battle harbinger. I would assume it is an alternate favoured weapon, but technically per the PFS ruling it doesn't work at all for battle harbingers.
I vaguely remember Paizo staff saying at one of the various remaster reveals that they were doing away with Barbarian Anathemas. Perhaps it wasn't as strong a statement as that, but what actually was put into PC2 is confusing and inconsistent design. My suggestion would be they revise out the animal and elemental anathemas that still linger post remaster.
Anathemas Removed:
- Dragon
- Giant
- Spirit
Anathemas Remaining:
- Animal: is very confusing. Pre-remaster you couldn't 'disrespect your animal' by harming something of that type (that makes sense flavour wise). Then tacked on the end is "oh and you can't use a weapon" with literally no basis. In Remaster they had the 'don't beat up your animal friends' removed but somehow they held onto the 'you can't use a weapon' restriction that makes no mechanical or flavour sense? I don't see why they would even want to use a weapon except as a back-up option for ranged anyways since the unarmed options are generally equivalent to or better than weapons and handwraps won't map runes to weapons. So why did we that need a hard coded rule to stop it? Seems like someone didn't get the design memo. Even the Barbarian+ team (pre-remaster) noticed the glaring gap and added a feat at L4 for that instinct to give them a ranged unarmed strike (I think it even let you use your rage with it as well without raging thrower). I'd suggest this gets dropped in the eventual errata for PC2 since it is vestigial baggage.
- Elemental: published with Rage of Elements seemed to also miss the memo by publishing a rage instinct with an anathema when they intended to remove that entry. This is the only instinct that actually has to 'respect' the things they mimic their rage after anymore.
- Superstition: weirdest treatment of them all. It took the entire anathema wording from pre-remaster and built it into the instinct ability as a basis for then giving it an anathema. Don't get me wrong the anathema now is actually functional for a PC, but its very inconsistent design. At least this anathema makes a sense from a flavour perspective given that its all written up as you being mistrustful of magic and hateful towards casters.
A recent reddit thread has identified that the pre-remaster champion blade ally feature has likely, by RAW been nerfed. The wording implies it is no longer a rune effect that adds to your effective rune count (i.e., weapon potency number + 1) but just adds a property rune which will be capped by the normal property rune count.
The primary recipients of this nerf are thrown weapon builds who can't dedicate 2+ class feats to have their favorite weapon actually return to their hand (despite already being mostly 1d6 and short range ranges and being a very normal 'class fantasy'). Instead they now must use use a thrower's bandolier for quick drawing 20 weapons per combat (which carries with it better weapon versatility).
Was this really the design intent? The bespoke list of runes isn't some great list. They are situational or unreliable at best unless you invest a L10 feat to get an entry level damage rune.
- fearsome (not super useful on a non fighter/gunslinger since its a crit effect)
- ghost touch (highly situational and replaceable by many feats/consumables)
- returning (a 55gp saving feature since it no longer stacks to enable thrown weapon builds who now are forced to use the thrower's bandolier/quick draw path for no real reason now)
- shifting (highly situational and really only controversial for staves of divination)
- vitalizing (campaign dependent)
Even the higher level feats pre-remaster didn't net you the upgraded flaming rune and are pretty weak for L10+ feats.
I never heard people complaining about the weak bespoke list of runes on a champion dedication up to now. IMO we didn't need this nerf. Paizo, please bring some sanity here and just errata this back to what it was pre-remaster.
I find that in general the concept of a tank needs a few solid items:
- Durability (lots of HP)
- Hard to hit (high AC but not so high that people ignore you because its impossible to hit)
- Soft Taunts (Incentives to hit you or penalties to hit others, but not removing agency)
- Hard Taunts (you must hit me, there are not other options)
- Damage Mitigation (you or for others)
- Ways to heal or heal over time (to keep you going/being unkillable)
- Good enough offensive capabilities to make 'ignoring you' too painful and to 'finish the fight' (i.e., avoid the 'wet noodle').
Right now the class is doing okay in these areas, but many could be improved:
- Durability -> D12 Hit Dice would be better.
- Hard to hit -> Accelerated AC progression balanced with bonuses to hit from taunt. However, the math is not centered a round this accelerated AC progression being prohibitively hard to hit (monsters hit champions all the time even on third strikes, so I'm not sure any bonus from taunt is needed.
- Soft Taunts (Taunt does this well, although as stated before the +2 is too punitive IMO).
- Hard Taunts (Obviously hampering sweeps is excellent at this, maybe even too strong because there is no save DC or action tax with a skill DC like escaping a grapple that probably could be used here; even if it was class DC + 2 to make it harder than normal?)
- Damage Mitigation (Not actually that great IMO. It would be better to be widely expansive and passive vs. attaching it to one specific type from armor specialization or questionable reactions. I think getting a scaling class feature that just gave you resistance to physical damage that can have elemental added would be better than the current implementation).
- Healing (effectively missing here, like lay on hands, wholeness of body, temp hp, fast healing, something is needed here at low levels to keep you up and healthy. Though this is something you can go out of class for).
- Offense (severely delayed progression and lack of in class features to improve DPR really make this class a wet noodle).
Okay so it sounds like an under-tuned 'tank' but what is the big deal? Well if people want to express concerns with the Commander leading to table conflict by the perception of others telling people what to do, I think we need to explore the issue with this class needlessly prolonging encounters (sucking the fun out of combat for the wider table) and ultimately actually putting the party at greater risk of harm (i.e., not achieving its purpose as a tank).
Premise 1: A combat that could have been completed in X rounds with a standard group of PCs is less fun than the same combat with a guardian that is completed in X + 1/2/3.../Y rounds.
Premise 2: A combat where enemies have more rounds to spend actions to harm the party because of a offensively weak tank PC (as opposed to a more offensive PC) is actually a more dangerous combat for the party because more spells, special abilities, recharge of breath weapons, etc. are allowed to take place (i.e., an offensively weak tank is counter productive to actually tanking).
General Solution: A proper tank needs to be offensively decisive so as to avoid actions to kill or time to kill becoming prolonged for the party.
Solution Examples::
- Proper martial progression for attacking needs to be applied so the class meets baseline martial DPR before any damage riders are applied (i.e., +2 to hit, rage, ranger edge, etc.). Being lower than that baseline makes you ignorable and more like a weak animal companion.
- Ferocious Vengeance as a threat technique removes agency from the player by only boosting damage to enemies that avoid hitting you. This needs to be inverted. Those creatures you taunt (who can hit and harm you better) are the ones you need the damage bonus against. That means you are offensively a great martial against a limited number of enemies at one time, exchanging your defense against them for offense against them. This is significantly better than the alternative where you may or may not get a damage boost based on what the GM does and puts you in the drivers seat/mitigates moments where you're a bad martial because you GM doesn't 'play ball'.
- The class needs a self damage for extra damage output optional feature. Think 'armor break' the feat, but just use your own hp and not a 1 time limited resource that then drops your AC.
If you look at some of the good tanks in the game they have a strong offensive capability (looking at you animal instinct barbarian with 1D12 reach antlers with AOO eventually, animal skin, and predator's pounce. Right now this class is under tuned significantly if you remove hampering sweeps. IMO it needs player agency to significantly improve its offense against specific enemies so you aren't stuck constantly flailing your wet noodle arms against monsters.
I'm wondering if there is any intention to include any full text boon information like is done for book sources in the PFS FAQ for any of the AP chronicle sheet ACP boon awards.
For example there are many resurrection feats available from the Season of Ghosts: To Bloom Below but the pre-boon text just says:
Season of Ghosts: To Bloom Below the Web–Once More, With Feeling
This character, as well as any resurrected characters, gain access to new feats. Must have played To Bloom Below the Web to download.
I'd love to apply my chronicle to a character that can actually use these specific feats, but I've been burnt before on things like when feats or specific items were excluded from the more specific full boon text.
So two questions:
1.) Does anyone have insight on that boon and whether the reincarnated ridiculer feat is on the list.
2.) Will the PFS FAQ be updated with those boons that allow access a subset list of items/feats/archetypes like was done for books like treasure vault.
Fire fascinates you. Your spells and alchemical items that deal fire damage gain a status bonus to damage equal to half the spell's level or one-quarter the item's level (minimum 1). You also gain a +1 status bonus to any persistent fire damage you deal.
Elemental Wisps (the familiar) says:
- Resonance (aura) 30 feet. Your wisp vibrates at a frequency attuned to their element, resonating with and empowering all effects sharing that trait. Creatures in the area gain a +1 status bonus to damage rolls for alchemical and magical effects with the same elemental trait as your wisp. If your wisp is a wood wisp, the status bonus also applies to damage rolls for effects with the plant trait.
Is this an indicator that the goblin burn-it feat will be revised during remaster to work with fire kineticist impulses?
There is a lot of really great community engagement, energy, thoughts, point outs of fixes. But we have cover designs and are ~6-7 months out from the first book. So can someone from Paizo let the community know if there are elements of the remaster editions that we can or cannot get involved in? Some questions:
1.) What books/content are set in stone? What elements, classes, etc. aren't?
2.) Will the community be engaged in a formal way to either playtest or to provide survey feedback on changes?
3.) Are the new threads/forum discussions about what should be changed being culled by Paizo Game Designers for these changes or is it only legacy Forums/Threads that may have driven any changes?
4.) If there are surveys or playtests will we get a post-engagement breakdown on the results and lessons learned?
Some management of expectations is needed here or you're going to end up with people who takeaway a negative impression of whether Paizo listens to its player base or not. Should we keep pumping energy and thoughts into ideas/suggestions or just sit back for the next 12 months as Paizo reveals the already pre-decided changes to the community.
So the newest impossible lands book has arrived. However, the PFS2e Additional resources page has restricted the L1 Kashrishi feat community knowledge. However, the android L1 feat nanite surge has the exact same text and was approved for use in PFS for years at this point. The android version even has 3-4 extra feats as a feat chain to make it more powerful. Is it possible to revise the character options to unrestrict the community knowledge feat?
So I frequently build up 1-4 PCs for each AP in the hopes that one day I get to play one lol. So, I was wondering if folks had an opinion on the Evil Champion/Tyrant Cause. I was thinking that having a LE PC alignment could be great for the campaign, but I was wondering if some GMs could weigh in on whether the evil/negative/mental damage will be a distinct disadvantage. I assume there will be lots of mindless undead, but I wonder if the 2nd book/3rd book or higher start taking a departure from endless fights with things immunity to mental damage.
Alternatively, is there a way to get rid of that mindless trait/mental resistance to make a fun intimidation build or is that just a fool's errand?
I asked this on the discord and didn't get a clear answer. If you were a spell scaled kobold can you select primal or imperial dragon types as part of the Dragon Disciple archetype? As a follow-up question, can a dragon scaled kobold select these as well even though the heritage is more prescriptive? The description of these dragons and associated energy/damage types are as follows:
Can a designer weigh in on the RAI/RAW of whether Thaumaturges can use Implement's Empowerment with a 1H+ weapon. There is an active debate on reddit where folks are arguing that even with the L1 Ammunition Thaumaturgy Feat that you can't do it. That would seem like an oversight to me, but feel free to weigh in.
My grasp on Golarion lore is not the best. Is there any culture in Golarion where the dueling spear from the grand bazaar might pop up, making it a valid choice for selecting unconventional weaponry?
Can a human with unconventional weaponry or other ancestry pick up an advanced weapons to use with the weapon inventor innovation class feature. I think the answer is no, but that would be a pretty lame/unfortunate answer.
Weapon Innovation
Your innovation is an impossible-looking weapon augmented by numerous unusual mechanisms. It begins with the same statistics as a level 0 common simple or martial weapon of your choice, or another level 0 simple or martial weapon to which you have access. You can instead use the statistics of a 1st-level common simple or martial weapon of your choice, or another 1st-level simple or martial weapon to which you have access, but you must pay the monetary Price for the weapon. An innovation weapon can have fundamental and property runes added to it in the same way as an ordinary weapon. Because of the unique features of your innovation, everyone except you is untrained in it, even if they would normally be trained (or better) in simple or martial weapons. If you use the Overdrive action, you can choose to change the additional damage from Overdrive to fire damage.
Unconventional Weaponry Or similar Ancestry Feats:
You've familiarized yourself with a particular weapon, potentially from another ancestry or culture. Choose an uncommon simple or martial weapon with a trait corresponding to an ancestry (such as dwarf, goblin, or orc) or that is common in another culture. You gain access to that weapon, and for the purpose of determining your proficiency, that weapon is a simple weapon.
If you are trained in all martial weapons, you can choose an uncommon advanced weapon with such a trait. You gain access to that weapon, and for the purpose of determining your proficiency, that weapon is a martial weapon.
Designed by conrasu warriors, this complex device resembles a crossbow and fires small wooden bullets known as taws. A system of blades within the launcher can rapidly reshape a taw as it's loaded, allowing the launcher to fire taws of different shapes, such as fléchettes.
So, it's like a crossbow but fires bullets? Sounds like a hybrid crossbow gun to me. So should this be a weapon the gunslinger can use at their proficiency level?
The new Ancestry Guide introduces a cool new weapon trait called 'Resonant'. It opens up a new free action ability called 'Conduct Energy' that has the following trigger requirement:
Requirements:Your last action or spell this turn had the acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic trait.
This weapon trait is limited to the Wish Blade/Wish Knife weapons, but can also be added to any weapon using the new 'Conducting Rune'. For a non resonant weapon that adds 1D8 extra damage of that energy type to hits until the start of your next turn.
So the question is: "How can a PC reliably trigger the Conduct Energy action"? Ideally, what one action focus spells, actions, etc. are available that carry one of those energy traits or what ways are there to imbue your normal actions with those traits? In particular, how can a martial class reliably get out 2 strikes a turn and trigger this condition without dropping MAP or relying on a very limited resource that provide a return on investment over just putting a flaming/shock/frost/thundering rune in as a Level 8 rune vs. level 7.
Some of the high level thoughts I have are:
1.) Alchemist Multiclass (some low level bombs to toss out of various energy types)
2.) Heaven's Thunder (Something you're likely to do every other round so fairly reliable, better if you have lots of AoOs or action economy savers like Flurry of Blows to maximize the round it active on)
3.) Monk Rain of Embers Stance/Fire Talon Strike - this means every turn you can trigger the extra fire damage, but are limited to a 1d4 weapon size. You could combine it with #2 for lots of fun for a fire/electric/sonic energy attack.
4.) Elemental Fist from monk class (ki strikes gain the trait of the element you pick).
5.) Suli Elemental Assault Feat Line - Starts out at once per day, but goes to 4 rounds once per hour by level 13 with two more feats.
6.) Smoking Sword / Storm Hammer - these L3 weapons have the fire/electricity traits but I'm not certain if that conveys the traits to the strikes or not?
7.) Weapon Property Runes - There appears to have been some text removed from the core rulebook on a reprint that implied those weapon runes give your weapons those traits so strikes with them would immediately enable the trigger. If that text was simply removed to save space and not intended to change that rule, I'd say it is better for thundering as sonic energy isn't typically resisted by a high number of creatures (also the critical hit effect doesn't already add persistent damage).
I'm sure I missed a few things, so feel free to drop your input here. I want to make the rune be worth it over the L8 flaming/shock/frost/etc. runes! I've not included some of the specific oracle/witch focus spells that martials can't get, but there are 1-2 one action focus spells out there.
Can a APG author please identify whether the intent of the Acrobatic Performance skill feat is to allow a Swashbuckler (Battle Dancer) to gain panache and/or use the leading dance swashbuckler feat with their acrobatics skill? It appears to me as if the intention is to allow it and the feat wording leads to logic conflicts (says in place of or don't say performance check to perform and only perform). I don't care what the end result is, but if it doesn't let you gain panache and/or use the feat then the battle dancer will become much worse for it as they have to invest in a much less used skill (i.e., performance vs. intimidation, diplomacy, or deception).
Personally, I love making face characters, so I wanted to hopefully see if anyone found some good items/feats to get your diplomacy bonus as high as possible so we can reliably make use of some of these:
- Oathkeeper Dwarf gets a +2 circumstance bonus to Diplomacy Checks when telling the truth (Probably need to take the voluntary flaw to get CHA up to a 10 or 14 total).
- Cloak of Repute, Diplomat's Badge - +1 Item bonus (+2 against certain creatures from the badge)
- Breastplate of Command (+2 or +3 Item Bonus with greater version)
- Messenger's Ring (+2 or +3 Item Bonus with the greater version)
So if you have a 'brutally' honest dwarf fighter who 'tells it like it is' when trying to insult others or inspire others to arms then to enter your marshal stance you'd be sitting at:
At level 5:
- +15 = +3 (CHA=16) +4 (Expert Diplomacy) +5 (Level), +2 (Circumstance from heritage) + 1 (item bonus) Vs. a DC20.
At Level 10:
- +24 = +4 (CHA=18) +6 (Master Diplomacy) +10 (Level), +2 (Circumstance from heritage) + 2 (item bonus) Vs. a DC27.
At Level 15:
- +31 = +4 (CHA=18) +8 (Master Diplomacy) +15 (Level), +2 (Circumstance from heritage) + 2 (item bonus) Vs. a DC34.
For Bon Mot and Evangelize these are against the creature's will save but they also stack (one is from the stupified condition and one is a circumstance penalty). So a 3 action turn could be Bon Mot, Evangelize, Demoralize just so you could hit way better chance of Frightened 1 or 2 on the demoralize.
But the swing from Diplomacy to Intimidate is great and with adopted ancestry maybe could trigger remorseless lash/agonizing rebuke from the hobgoblin. A fighter could really make use of the intimidating strike feat because they'll be running with that +1 status bonus reliably so your 'intimidate check' is now with a Item bonus from weapon runes, +1 status, possibly flatfooted, an extra +2 from weapon proficiency as a fighter at many levels, etc. Throw in terrified retreat and now you've got a target that could be fleeing for easy AoO's (perhaps you're using a flail or other weapon group and sometimes on crits you drop the creature to the floor). There is a lot of synergy.
Leshy PCs can take a L1 Ancestry feat to gain reach on a 2H weapon at the cost of one weapon die size and 1 action. With this in mind, I was wondering what people are thinking regarding what weapons/choices are fun/optimal. Here are the available options:
Since you're losing a die size you likely want to look at the 1d12 options. Personally, I really like Greatsword for versatile P/S. However there are also some cool options with the Bastard Sword and Dwarven Waraxe since they offer one or two handed options so you could choose a more flexible fight style based on the enemy (i.e., sword and board, or two hand, or two hand with reach).
For a fighter, there is also the question of what weapon group provides the best critical specialization and what other weapons are in the weapon group that may be of use. Personally that makes Axe/Hammer slightly in my opinion. Both groups provide a one handed throwing weapons (hatchet/Mambele/light hammer) to keep your +2 to hit with your weapon group. Overall, the hammer group has a better critical specialization (dropping an enemy prone with no save) vs. the axe group (possible damage to an adjacent enemy). However, I think a leshy fighter running around with reach axes 'felling his foes' and using swipe + the crit specialization could be a fun flavour. The only downside to Axes/hammers is they are hard limited to S or B weapon damage. On the other hand, swords (i.e., Greatsword/Bastard Sword/Polytool) offer a weapon group that has P/S/B damage but a worse crit specialization, and no throwing weapon.
Now that the PFS2e Team has sanctioned a chunk of materials (thank you!), I was thinking about new PCs. I really like the concept of the Remorseless Lash/Agonizing Rebuke hobgoblin (yes I'll wait for the achievement point system), but I'm having one hell of a time trying to parse it all together in a cohesive build. So let me know what you think of the outlines below.
IMO option 1 is gonna have a lot more flexibility/debuff capability as it can spare and action to demoralize since it uses a reach weapon, has AoOs, and the crit specialization on this drops the enemy prone (i.e., more AoO opportunity). In all of them, grabbing intimidating glare intimidating prowess (if STR based), etc. are all assumed in terms of skill feats. Intimidate will be bumped to Master at L7.
Are there any other ways that people have found to trigger Agonizing Rebuke? I know there are ways to keep enemies feared via dirge of doom (L12 on a MC), but maybe there is something I am missing.
It appears to me that the intent of PFS 2e chronicle sheets earning the gold at your PC level is to standardize Wealth By Level (WBL) for PFS 2e PC characters. This is an improvement over 1e PFS that earned you gold based on the tier the scenario was played at.
With that being said, I have a PC that currently has 3 quests completed and is 1 xp away from leveling up from Level 2 to Level 3. If I run the PC through a normal scenario and obtain all 10 treasure bundles does that give the PC:
1.) 4 XP, Full L2 Gold, 4 Days of Dayjob Check at L2 DC.
or
2.) (1 xp, 1/4 of Full L2 Gold, 1 Day of Dayjob Check at L2) + (3xp, 3/4 of Full L3 Gold, 3 Days of Dayjob Check at L3 with a +1 to your original DC check to verify success).
Ideally, it will be option 2, which appears aligned with the philosophy to standardize WBL and avoid PCs with surplus or shortages.
If it is option 1 it also makes quests far less enticing unless you can guarantee you can obtain 4 at a time. I'd hate to shelf a PC until I can get a forth quest.
Not sure if anyone else has done this, but I have my first 2e PFS game tomorrow, so I purchased the L2 PC or "Experienced Adventurer" playtest boon for 12 points. The boon says you can purchase it multiple times but the point cost doubles. However after one purchase it now shows as costing 48 points (i.e. 12 x 4 not 12 x 2). Previously, I was able to afford 2xL2 PCs and 1xL3 PC with some random leftover, but now I can't afford that second L2.
Can someone please investigate the error and are others seeing inaccurate incremental costs for this/other boons?
I haven't seen anyone identify this exact problem and I was wondering if this was done on purpose. The problem is that different full casters have wildly varying number of spell slots. I think some support needs to be provided to boost spells slots for many of the classes. Right now Wizard Universalist >> Wizard Specialist >> Sorcerer >> Cleric >> Druid/Bard. Outside of class feats, arcane casters can also boost spell slots with things like the ring of wizardry. Why is there such a big discrepancy? Is 2hp/level worth a slot/level? None of the previously more martial bard/cleric/druid actually get master weapon proficiency in armor/weapons. It just seems like a big oversight to me.
The only thing I can think of is that cleric/druid/sorcerer are meant to use more spell point focus spells per day and bards to use more powerful bard cantrips. But that doesn't seem fair for a wizard to be at x2 the number of slots/day. Throw in a staff/familiar/ring of wizardry/multiclass feat for an alternate focus spell and the wizard basically sails away into the sunset.
Given that spells are so under-powered in this edition, the only true balance is having more of them so you can cast more frequently.
20th Level Wizard (Universal + Bond Conservation + Superior Bond + L20 Feat for a L10 slot):
L1 - 8
L2 - 9
L3 - 7
L4 - 8
L5 - 6
L6 - 7
L7 - 5
L8 - 6
L9 - 4
L10 - 3
*NOTE to get these numbers requires a liberal use of bond conservation to downcast a L10 >> L8 > L6 >> L4 >> L2 (rinse and repeat for L9 to L1 and L8 to L2 and so on).
20th Level Wizard (Specialist + Bond Conservation + Superior Bond + L20 Feat for a L10 slot):
L1 - 4
L2 - 6
L3 - 4
L4 - 6
L5 - 4
L6 - 6
L7 - 4
L8 - 6
L9 - 4
L10 - 3
*Note - requires the same use of bond conservation above.
I recently found out about the hangover cleric concept and I was wondering what your take on this build is. The concept is that it will use the rulership variant channel via the Horus/Ra portfolios for the hangover bit. More than that, the level 1 light domain ability is a slightly smaller 20ft radius debuff to blind or apply dazzled (-1 attack) for rounds at a time. As such, I've built this guy to run around with decent DCs in both (as applicable to the entities) and in his non combat control rounds buff or further debuff targets with his spells. I just wanted to get your feedback on whether the light domain is worth it.
The alternative would it be to go evangelist archetype, human (for flagbearer/lingering performance at L1), drop WIS down to a 14 or 16 so I could buff my STR/DEX to avoid needing muleback chords. In that case Dispaster would also give the trickery/deception domains and would be better than Ra/Horus or getting into 30ft of baddies. I could also grab an ancient banner at L9 and really buff my flagbearer/performance abilities.
Cleric (Shoanti Shaman) X
Race
1 - Half-Elf
Alternate Racial Traits:
1 - Kindred Raised (+2 CHA and +2 WIS)
Traits
1 - Sacred Conduit (+1 Channel DC)
2 - Seeker (+1 perception and it is a class skill)
Diety
Ra or Horus
Stats (Level 1)
STR - 7
DEX - 12
CON - 12
INT - 10
WIS - 18 (+2 racial)
CHA - 18 (+2 racial)
Stats (Level 11)
STR - 7
DEX - 14 (+2 Belt)
CON - 14 (+2 Belt)
INT - 12 (+2 Headband)
WIS - 22 (+2 racial +2 Headband)
CHA - 20 (+2 racial +2 Headband))
Domains
Light - The first level domain ability gives me another 20ft area of affect control spell to cause blindness off of fort (good for casters).
Protection (through archetype Quah Spire Clan - allows me to dump strength and buy muleback cords to adjust since the domain gives me a scaling resistance bonus).
I wanted to theory craft a ranged/controller Solarian and don't have a lot of experience with the starfinder system math. I have a few questions and then a general feat/revelation outline below.
Questions
1. I was wondering how effective the DCs on this build would be (assuming a Starting 16 in DEX/CHA) in campaign and/or SFS. In particular if they are not high enough, should I focus more on passive graviton defense revelations over things like Crush/Flare and just drop the 'controller' aspect for a purely ranged character with good mobility/defense?.
2. I've tried to balance photon vs. graviton revelations to remain 'balanced' but is there merit in just going fully into either graviton or photon and remaining unbalanced. Specifically does the one round extra to become fully attuned become worse if I have 3 or more revelations of one type or will it always be 4 rounds. As well, if something last says it lasts for 1 round or until x mode end does that 1 round mean at the start of my next turn, top of the round, end of my next turn? Specifically will any round 1 activation while in a unbalanced build last or not last if I happen to hit the specified mode (e.g., graviton mode) at the beginning of round 2 because I wasn't attuned until 2 points were accumulated?
3. If I drop the 'controller' portion of the build and focused on ranged damage, is there more merit to a 1 level soldier dip (blitz or sharpshooter)? As I see it a +4 Initiative/+10 movement speed/2 Feats of Proficiency/2 feats of saves seems like a good idea. Would it be better to pick sharpshooter or do the weapon accessories make some of the cover bonuses not an issue?
4. If I have mobility/shot on the run, does this mesh with things like defy gravity/blazing orbit or do I need to take separate move actions outside of the feat to trigger those revelations?
5. Is there merit in picking up gravity boost/defying gravity or are these revelations generally easily obtainable with jet backs or the like?
6. Are the saves on a ranged solarian comparable to other PCs because of the Fast Fort/Will with dex patching up the slow ref save. Would you suggest earlier save improving feats?
7. What is an optimal race? I think WF/WP Longarms is required so humans stand out as fairly high in the food chain thanks to the bonus feat (skilled will also help). But if I do a L1 Soldier dip, they aren't really as necessary. But this puts my stat array at basically 16 dex/16 cha with a useless theme point. The build doesn't really need STR, so would it be better to grab a +DEX, +CHA, or +DEX/+CHA race? Top choices are:
- Halfing (has some nice bonuses to various skills as well as a +1 to all saves)
- Seprevoi (a l1 hybridized weapon fusion gets me WF to make up for the lost feat)
- Ryphorian (would mean a 16 DEX/14 CHA starting, but gets a +2 con/+2 wis)
- Feychild Gnome (delays WF longarm though)
- Ysoki (delays WF longarm though)
8. Out of Combat I plan on being a face so I will probably use sidereal for Bluff/Diplomacy (L3), Disguise/Intimidate (L11), Sense Motive/Culture (L11). Does that seem like reasonable choices?
9. I was thinking tempered pilgrim makes for a good theme because I get 2x the languages. With only 5 skill points (as a human) that covers Acrobatics, Bluff, Diplomacy, Perception, and Culture. Does it make sense to bump INT over WIS/CON at L5 so I can have a floating point to put into Intimidate or Disguise? Is there some magic Item I am overlooking that is essentially a babblefish translator that means I can avoid spending points in Culture for languages?
Actual Build Race: Human
Theme: Tempered Pilgrim
Stats:
For: S-D-Co-I-W-Ch
L01: 11-16-10-10-10-16
L05: 11-18-12-10-12-18
L10: 11-19-14-10-14-19
L15: 11-20-16-10-16-20
L20: 13-20-18-12-18-20
Personal Enhancements go to: DEX>CHA>CON=WIS=INT
Feats:
01 - Long Arm Proficiency
1R - WF: Longarms
03 - Versatile Specialization
05 - Enhanced Resistance (Kinetic)
07 - Mobility
09 - Shot on the Run
11 - Improved Initiative
13 - Penetrating Attack
15 - Great Fortitude
17 - Iron Will
19 - Extra Resolve
I really think the Magic Trick (Floating Disk) is a cool feat (source book: Distant Realms). I want to try and see if it is possible to make a Bull Rush build using the feat but I have relatively no experience with building combat maneuver builds and wanted some general input. My 'general thinking' for what I want was to combine the toppling metamagic feat so that when I do succeed at a bull rush I get the damage and a free trip attempt. I have been wanting to do a 'toppling' force build for a while, so I was tentatively thinking about a shaman and going whole hog into toppling spiritual weapon/floating disk/spiritual guardian feat to be laying down some fun battlefield control.
Keep in mind that any bull rushing that requires my feet to touch the ground won't generally work since I will in theory be riding this floating disk as allowed in the Magic Trick (Floating Disk) feat. Note the floating disk feat is probably going to be a L3 feat since it has no benefit prior to that.
I know a lore shaman could pick up the spell up via their lore hex. A cleric or class that gets the trade domain can also get it on their list as a L1 domain spell. Can you guys think of good class chassis/feat combos for bull rushing and then we can try to cross reference it some ways to get the spell for that class with scaling caster levels. I am okay with a dip or two as required.
So it isn't clear to me what the shifting property rune does on a weapon. The text states that:
With a moment of manipulation, you can shift this weapon into a different weapon with a similar form. When you activate this weapon, it takes the shape of another melee weapon that requires the same number of hands to wield. The weapon’s potency, any special material, and properties now apply to the weapon’s new shape. Any property runes that can’t apply to the new form are suppressed until the item takes a shape to which they can be applied
So my questions are as follows:
1.) For the purpose of feats or class features does a 'shifted' weapon still count as the original weapon (e.g., weapon group proficiency, deity damage die size bumps?)
2.) Does the weapon damage dice size change?
3.) Does the weapon damage type change to the new weapon type?
4.) Does the weapon now take on other abilities of the new weapon type (e.g., deadly, finesse, etc.)
5.) Do crit specialization effects change to the new weapon type?
6.) Is there any duration for the change(i.e., 1/day or is a shift otherwise permanent)?
7.) Does weapon bulk change?
8.) Does a 1 or 2 handed weapon allow it to shift into ANY weapon or only another 1 or 2 handed weapon?
The overall goal of these questions is to see what value this property rune has per the Paladin Blade Ally L3 class feature. It could be useful to have your magic Staff of Healing or Fire change between a Longbow or halberd while still letting you cast from it if you MC into Sorcerer, Bard, or something else.
I think the new multi-class system a sharp divergence from the traditional multi-classing that was in 1e. I personally don't prefer the change, but regardless I think there are some 'quality of life' changes that can be made to improve the 2e concept of multi-classing. Each problem statement is a reflection of my frustration in trying to build a multi-class character.
Problem Statement 1: There are not enough class feats to achieve the feeling that I truly am a hybrid class build. This is particularly magnified for classes without strong built in scaling class features. Alternatively people will feel this way if they fundamentally disagrees with what was identified by Paizo as iconic built-in class features vs. to be purchased with class feat features.
Solutions 1:
1.1 Provide a General Feat that allows the selection of a class feat. Set the per-requisite as "in at least one multi-class" and must be used to take a multi-class feat. This allows you a few extra and infrequent feats that can go towards multi-classing without having spend what feels like a lot of you main class feats.
1.2 Give every class more class feats. There appear to be, in general, 2-3 main chains of feats in many classes. It would be nice if everyone could really focus into two of them. That leaves multi-classers to focus into one from two classes. This suggestion removes the 'supply/demand' issue and enables more versatile single class characters and happier multi-class characters. This is a general suggestion that should at least be applied to the sorcerer who for some reason has less feats than any other class making it a non viable main class for multi-classing.
1.3 Remove the exit feat tax on archetypes. If a PC is only interested in the dedication feat or the dedication feat along with one class feat archetype, I don't think they should be penalized. Class feats are at a premium and the current 2e system has replaced many 'entry feat taxes' with 'exit feat taxes' which I think is against the primary design philosophy of the edition change.
Problem Statement 2: The multi-class archetype feats don't provide the class feature I want from my non-primary class. This includes scaling or entry level features (e.g., cleric channels to help group have more healing, rogue's finesse striker for dex to damage on other 'agile' martials like monks, or weapon proficiency increases). This also includes higher level abilities that simply aren't being made available (i.e., most class feats > level 1 or 2 or fighter feats > level 10).
Solutions 2:
2.1 Each multi-class archetype should provide a common feat to pick up a baked in class feature (L1/L3/L5/L7/L9... etc.). This should include some common things like the ability to channel, or a rogue to treat first round slow opponents as flat footed, etc.
2.2 Allow for higher level class feats to be taken in your archetyped class if they have taken a sufficient number of previous class feats. This is particularly important when multi-classing into the fighter who can, at best, get a 10th level feat at 20th level.
2.3 Make more of the combat feat chains (e.g., TWF, archery) and metamagic feats that are class independent available via general class feats instead of being gated behind particular martial classes. I want a TWF rogue, but that forces me to dip fighter for a minimum of 3 feats for Dedication at 2nd level (a useless feat to me), Double Strike at L4, and Twin Parry at L8 (4 level delay due to feat restrictions). It also means I can only get twin riposte at L20 and puts improved twin riposte, two weapon flurry, etc. completely outside of reach despite it clearly being my main fight style. This is true for metamagic feats which are no longer avialable to all casters and should be. Perhaps a compromise is to move these feats to a 2 level delay over the main classes like fighter or wizard so there is some early entry allowable by your 'showcase' martial/caster classes. This also remove the need people feel to multi-class just to get class locked feats (helping save on the feeling of wasted feats from problem statement 1).
Problem Statement 3: Spell casting multi-classes do not provide enough spells or quick enough spell level access to justify the losses from your main class. Metamagic from one class does not apply to other spell casting classes.
Solutions 3:
3.1 Give caster dips 2 spells per level they can cast. If you think that is too powerful reduce the highest level spell to only 1 spell. Remove the feats to add spells per level (it is a feat tax). Whether you like the change or not, spell casting has be severely nerfed in spells/day, spell mechanical benefits, and spell duration. It takes 5 feats of your 11 total to max out the delayed spell progression and get 2 spells/day on spell levels two lower than your highest level casting. This causes two problems. First it leaves you primary class really feat light and otherwise unable to invest into an archetype or another class. Second, many spells are useless if they aren't being cast at highest available spell level (polymorph spells, summon monster, healing spells, etc.). That leaves you having to cast mostly self buff spells which no longer have a duration long enough to last more than 1 fight. In the few play-tests I've done, it makes me feel under-powered, not versatile.
3.2 Make metamagic feats ambiguous to what spell list they will work for. If I have a reach or widen metamagic feat, from a divine class, I want to be able to use it in an arcane casting class as well. In 1e these feats were class independent. There are two solutions: move feats to a general pool like solution 2.3 or allow them to work across classes. Currently the RAW doesn't allow for either and it is really annoying.
The limit of 1 free action per trigger is too limiting. My prime example is the bard who have a number of interesting spell point abilities to modify their performances:
- Lingering Performance (extend duration of a performance to 2 or 3 rounds based on a hard DC perform check).
- Harmonize (make one performance a harmony that allows you to get off another performance in the round).
- Inspire Heroics (bump inspire courage bonus to +2 or +3 with a hard DC perform check).
But I can't make harmonize/lingering composition (keep the buff going and then use frightening tune to scare people). Or a lingering/inspired heroics composition (to increase your buff and extend it). It makes most of these composition abilities sort of mediocre expenditures of your spell points but the bard otherwise doesn't have alternate uses.
I would recommend giving the bard a built in class feature to allow multiple triggers on a free action or to relax the action economy restriction (probably around level 6). I am unsure of whether this is a big issue for other classes or not at this point.
The specific text from page 297 showing that you can't trigger more than one free action is below:
- Free actions are usually triggered by actions that you use, but many can trigger at the start or end of a turn. Unlike reactions, there’s no limit to how many free actions you can use. The exception is that you can use only 1 free action for a given trigger.
One of the first builds I thought about building was a summoning bard using the Polymath muse (i.e., summon monster added to your spells known). To help with this and anyone else who might test summoning I have pulled out and consolidated all of the Summon Monster (SM) and Summon Nature's Ally (SNA) statblocks from the play test bestiary into one excel file. The file is available via google docs here. The next step is obviously to evaluate what summons are worthwhile to even summon, but that can come later. Feel free to add any comments below.
Some comments and fixes for Paizo:
- Many of the bestiary names (especially snakes in SNA or demons/devils in SM) are different from the actual spell description name.
- The Level 6 SNA has missed all of the Major Elementals in the spell listing. Given that all of the other elemental are in both SNA and SM's listing I assume this is a typo. I have included it in the file anyways.
- The Smilodon is listed twice in SNA at two separate levels. I have sorted it to the level appropriate SNA level.
- It is obviously a playtest but there are no Azatas/Archons/Angels (i.e., the good alignment summons).
- The wording on the spell doesn't make it obvious as to whether the summon gets two actions on the round it is summoned or only on the rounds I concentrate. This should be clarified as I assume they get to act the round I summon.
- I am highly amused by the L1 animated broom's dust special ability.
- It isn't clear to me now, but is a 10th level summon of a 15th level creature under-powered? It seems like the spells may be under-powered in what they summon since there is no way to really augment the summons, get more summons to summon, or let them stay around past 0hp
I've wanted to build a sonic evoker for a while now, but it has always been nigh impossible to swap elemental types to sonic. With the release of the new Distant Realms Campaign Setting there is a teamwork feat available that allows an ally to change your elemental damage dealing spells to sonic sonic damage with a DC 10 perform (sing) check. The obvious build for this is a valet archetyped familiar who tries to sing with you and aid you're casting by changing damage subtypes. Here is the link to the feat description:
My question is whether I can add Concussive Spell as metamagic (i.e., prepare a concussive fireball with it, or use an arcane bloodline sorcerer to spontaneously add it) because it says the damage is sonic. It doesn't explicitly say the spell descriptor changes to [sonic] so I was unsure if this would work RAW or whether changing the damage in that way is synonymous with changing the descriptor.
My Googlefoo did not reveal any FAQ or answer to my questions:
1. Is there a list of specified feats that count as "Mounted Combat Feats" that the Sohei (monk archetype) can take.
2. If not is there a good basis for a Sohei to take the Horse Master feat?
Monk bonus feats allow them to bypass the pre-reqs for feats in their list of bonus feats. This is how some monks get Dragon Style or other such feats. The Sohei archetype states:
"Bonus Feats: A Sohei may select mounted combat feats as bonus feats. "
I was hoping to build a 1 Cavalier (Saurian Champion) - Monk (Sohei) X and use the first or second bonus feat to pickup Horse Master. The Saurian Champion archetype removes the ability to build a lancer, but saves you 1000gp for muleback cords, saves you a feat on undersized mount, and lets you romp around on a dino (very thematic). Otherwise I'm going to have to go Goliath druid or something (a more powerful choice I feel given that it is a full caster) but less of a mounted combat feat build.
To me, Horse Master is a mounted combat feat on the basis that it includes pre-reqs related to mounts, the ride skill, is listed as a combat feat, it relates to a mount/animal companion's ability to fight.
Before we begin, there are two Pact Wizards. One from HHH (Haunted Hero's Handbook) the other from FF (familiar folio). Only the "FF" archetype is PFS legal.
The premise of using the Pact Wizard (FF) archetype is so I can get the free improved familiar feat at level 7. This gives me access to the Lyrakien azata familiar, who can in turn use the Traveler’s Friend (Su) ability once per day to remove exhaustion or fatigue from my wizard. The wizard will 'acquire' this status by using the Acadamae Graduate feat to summon creatures as a standard action and likely failing his fortitude saves. The feat is described in the link below:
That gives me 1-3 failed standard action summons in the day without having to worry too much about the consequences until I can get my Fortitude save to a reasonable level.
As well, if I drop 7 ranks in UMD (off my headband), the Lyrakien azata familiar will have an effective UMD of 19 = 7 (ranks) + 5 (Charisma) + 2 (untyped - used wand previously) + 2(Competence from MSW Tool) + 3 Circumstance (Circlet of Persuasion). Thus he will auto complete any wand check at Level 7 and only have a 10% chance of misfire if he's never used the wand. The azata also has constant detect magic/evil to make up for my opposition school selections. Up until level 7 I'll use a greensting scorpion for +4 to Initiative, which will be replaced by improved initiative at L7 when my familiar 'grows up'.
For things to do outside of combat, I have made this PC hyper INT skill focused and swapped the important parts of Diplomacy and Bluff to INT (using Student of Philosophy). This way he can supply knowledge checks and face with ease.
In combat I plan on throwing out a summons, conjuration control spell (stinking cloud, create pit, web, glitterdust, grease, or black tentacles), or giving out buffs/protection (proc from evil, proc/energy resist, haste, etc.).
Is there anything I missed for this build? Would you think Opposition research or superior summoning would be more important at L9?
I feel defensively I have pretty bad:
1 - AC: ideally won't need to buff this since I'll be cowering behind things, but I plan on having 1xvanish and 1xmirror images for dire circumstances. The teleportation school also lets me get out of grapples or other nasty things.
2 - HP: FCB is going to HP at every level. I don't have room for toughness.
3 - Bad saves (improved with Fate's Favored/Lucky Horseshoe/Cloak of Resistance/Heroism). I think some of them will be orange/green depending on what is up on my PC.
Build Details:
Wizard (Pact Wizard (FF)) X
Race
1 - Samsaran (have a boon from GMing)
Racial Traits
1 - Shards of the Past (Diplomacy and Bluff, gives additional +2 to each so my wizard can be a face).
Traits
1 - Fates Favored (to combine with lucky horse shoe to boost saves)
2 - Student of Philosophy (Diplomacy/Bluff off Int)
3 - Resilient (+1 Fort, extra trait from chronicle)
Stats (Level 1) - 20pb
STR - 7
DEX - 14
CON - 12 (14 - 2 Racial)
INT - 20 (18 + 2 Racial)
WIS - 13 (11 + 2 Racial)
CHA - 7
Opposition Schools
1 - Enchantment (I really only miss heroism from this list).
2 - Divination (wand of heightened awareness, everything else isn't a big dieal).
3 - Necromancy (loss of false life hurts, but I'll hide at the back).
Feats (F)
1F - Elongated Cranium (Ovoid Compression) - +2 to INT Skills
1F(C) - Spell Focus (Conjuration)
1(X) - Familiar
3F - Deific Obedience (Irori) - +4 to all knowledge skills. Would have been worshiping Magdha if it wasn't for campaign clarifications.
5F - Augmented Summoning - buffs summons
5F(C) - Acadamae Graduate - Summons as a standard action (requires fort save or be fatigued, but my improved familiar can help with that).
7F(C) - Improved Familiar - Lyrakien azata
7F - Improved Initiative - to replace familiar bonus from improved familiar
9F - Superior Summoning or Opposition Research (Enchantment - to get heroism back)
10F(C) - Superior Summoning or Opposition Research (Enchantment - to get heroism back)
11F - Greater Spell Focus (Conjuration)
So I have this Samsaran boon burning a hole in my PFS pocket. I really like the idea of a shaman and the speaker for the past archetype. So I've decided to make a melee reach build, poaching a number of choice buff spells off the Paladin spell list. Skill ranks will all go to Bluff, Diplomacy, and Perception so he can act as a face out of combat.
Spells will primarily need to be used for self buffing including with a few extras at each spell level for a one off control spell, group buff, or condition removal. The battle spirit gives Magic Vestments so with 1-2 lesser rods of extend you can have all day Magic Vestments, Greater Magic Weapon, Barkskin, and Heroism up almost all day before getting into combat and save money on weapon/armour enchantments. The Temporal Celerity hex will ensure you go first most of the time, especially combined with heightened awareness. First round you can use a the time flicker ability to get a 20% miss chance to augment your lack of AC (especially useful in a surprise round). Fourth level spells give you divine power and holy sword to wreck face. At 8th level you get a swift action bane ability.
Do you guys have any other suggestions or build tips?
Shaman (Speaker for the Past, Witch Doctor) X
Race
1 - Samsaran
Alternate Racial Traits:
Mystic Past Life -
1 - Divine Favor (L1)
2 - Align Weapon (L2)
3 - Greater Magic Weapon (L3), this is early access as the shaman version is L4. This meets PFS rulesets as the cleric/oracle list has it at L3 so it drops down one level.
4 - Prayer (L3)
5 - Holy Sword (L4), the real spell we are using the samsaran to get. Its a core Paladin spell that gives you a +5 Holy weapon.
Stats (Level 1) - 20pt
STR - 14
DEX - 12
CON - 12
INT - 9 (7+2 Race)
WIS - 18 (16 + 2 Race)
CHA - 12
Spirits
1 - Life (Retrain at Level 4 to Battle)
Hexes/Revelations
2 - Life Link (Retrain at Level 4 with Spirit to Battle Master)
4 - Channel Energy (the reason you retrain things to remain qualifiedfor Channel Smite
4 - Temporal Celerity (Divination Wizard goodness)
6 - Time Flicker (Blur then blink to shore up mediocre AC)
8 - Counter Curse
8 - Enemies Bane
9 - Extra Hex - Flight or Familiar (since Overland Flight is available to you now)
11 -Extra Hex - Comprehend Languages (for facing)
12 - Time Hop
Feats (F)
1F - Channel Smite
3F - Guided Hand
5F - Phalanx Formation
7F -Power Attack
8CF - Weapon Specialization (Longspear)
9F - Extra Hex (Flight or Familiar - since Overland Flight is available to you now)
11F - Extra Hex (Tongues) or Lunge or Combat Reflexes or Improved Initiative
As the title of the thread suggests, is Dhalavei a PFS legal deity to worship? Dhalavei shows up in the Faith and Philosophies book under the Vudrani Pantheon. As well Dhalavei appears in the PFS sanctioned module "Cult of the Ebon Destroyers". Obviously as LE you would need to be LN for PFS to derive any mechanical benefit.
I was wondering what you guys think of this build idea (it is not PFS legal due to the feat taken at level 1). The main mechanical premise will be the use of Holy/Unholy Ice Weapon Spell (cold/water descriptor) + Divine Fighting Technique (Desna - CHA to attack/damage for starknife) + Startoss Style/Feat Chain (more damage and chain reaction of hits) + Winter Mystery (Freezing Spells revelation - Causes creatures to be 'slowed') + Shaman Waves Spirit Hex (Crashing Waves - Fort save or be knocked prone) + a rime metamagic rod in your hand (become entangled) to toss out a massive debuff starknife that ideally will bounce between multiple opponents causing them to get stuck in place.
Oracle (Spirit Guide) X
Race:
- Human
Racial Traits:
- Versatile human (+2 CHA/+2 DEX)
Traits:
1 - Extremely Fashionable (+1 to Dip./Bluff/Int, Bluff as Class Skill)
2 - Varisian Tattoo (Gives star-knife proficiency and other stuff)
Stats (Level 1)
STR - 9
DEX - 14 (12 + 2 Race)
CON - 14
WIS - 12
INT - 12
CHA - 18(16 + 2 Race)
Feats:
1 - Divine Fighting Technique (Desna) - CHA to Att./Dmg. with a star knife
3 - Weapon Focus (Starknife)
5 - Point Blank
7 - Startoss Style
9 - Startoss Comet
11 - Startoss Shower
Mystery:
1 - Winter (gives some good control spells over waves). You take 'Freezing Spells' at level 1 and Wintery Touch at Level 11 (so you get +1D6 cold damage on any weapon you use). Freezing spells causes anyone that fails a saving throw and takes cold damage from a spell to be debuffed as per the 'slow spell' for 1 round. This increases to 1D4 rounds at level 11. Normally a save is required to make this kick in, which is granted by the Crashing Waves hex from the shaman.
Spirits:
1 - Waves (gives the same spells as the water mystery so you should have most water/cold spells between the spirit/revelation (except snowball) on your spell list. You will grab the crashing wave's hex which allows you to up your CL for water descriptor spells as well as give a fort save or the opponent gets knocked prone. This save important as it allows the holy ice weapon spell to trigger the freezing spells revelation from your oracle mystery.
Curse:
1 - Covetous (adds UMD to class list) and is easy to do. Very little in the way of negatives like other curses.
Startoss style says you can't have a weapon or shield in hand (excluding a buckler) so you can carry a lesser meta-magic rod of rime when casting the spell. Thus, at level 11 with point-blank, but no buffs, you will be able to throw out a starknife that does:
This will carry with it a DC 22 Fort save for being knocked prone, being slowed for 1D4 rounds, and entangled for 2 rounds. As well this shot can go on to hit 2 more enemies potentially. The holy/unholy ice weapon spell from build level 5 onwards will have the returning feature so it'll return at the end of the turn back to your hand.
You can also have a adamantine star-knife that you progress as a backup for DRs or cold immune creatures along with a blink back belt. Of course you have full spell progression with nice ice/water spells added from your spirit/revelation (looking at you Holy Ice or an elemental rod of cold version of Geyser).
Pre flaming Caveat: My math is using a few antecdotal examples and is meant to be a back of the envelope estimation.
Maybe I missed it somewhere in the book. But it looks like we can sell items for 10% of full cost (5% if it is broken). But is it no longer to pick up your favourite weapon/armor and pay the differential to upgrade it?
Example: Say I love Freebooter armor. I buy Freebooter I (Level 2) armor for 750 credits. Can I upgrade for Freebooter Armor II (Level 6) for differential of (4720 - 750) = 3970 credits? Or do I have to actually pay (4720 - 75) = 4645 credits?
If we can't upgrade, aren't we experiencing a really high wealth decay of 90% of what was previously spent as we go up in level and really skew the WBL of the game away from PCs?
Just loosely looking at a two item families like the Freebooter Armor line or the Laser Rifle line it looks like there is a ~4-5 times price markup between item generations. By 10th level our WBL = 66,000 credits and assume only 50% went to weapons and armor (as suggested in the core rulebook). Then, assuming we've upgraded twice by level 10 we've lost 0.9[(33,000 / 4.5) + (33000/4.5^2) = 8066.77 credits or ~24.4% of our weapons/armor specific budget. Assuming the other 33,000 credits is also taking this hit because most items don't allow upgrades or factor in consumables cost vs. permanent modification costs that stick around, its reasonable to ballpark a similar decay rate across the other half of our wealth (i.e., 25-50%). Doesn't that seem fairly high?
It makes me feel like people are going to have level under-powered items constantly. But to the point where you are 6-8 levels behind to make sure you skip every other inter-generational wealth loss.
Now that the good ranged weapons (looking at you crossbows) don't take penalties for shooting from prone and we expect combats to have more ranged enemies (instead of one archer and five melee bad guys) I think an effective new strategy will be to execute 'The Magikarp' (i.e., floppy fish) combat tactic. The maneuver goes like this:
1. Move Action: Move into Line of Sight (Bonus points if it is behind low cover, like an overturned table).
2. Standard Action: Take your ranged attack (Bonus points if you hit).
3. Swift Action: Go prone. This gives you a +4AC against ranged or if you got behind low cover you should have complete cover and force the enemy to maneuver to even hit you.
You can keep doing this, in various Move/Standard/Swift action order of operations by continually jumping up and down behind cover or at least giving yourself a +4 AC against enemy ranged attacks. As well, now that we can downgrade a standard to a move/swift and a move to a swift action. A Ysoki with the racial Moxie ability or anyone with the feat Kip-up can use a swift action to stand up, shoot, and move behind a different piece of cover to really take away enemy action economy/Line of Sight.
The Pros: Full attacking has been nerfed and this tactic gives you an AC boost (+4 while prone vs. ranged or total cover) without really changing the action economy of the game that many people will use given the high KAC/EAC values. The tactic forces the opponent to close the distance to you instead of vice versa. Helps push the attacks towards visible tanks in the group who want to pull agro. I don't see, by RAW, anything that would reduce your reflex save so grenades and the like won't be any more effective than usual.
The Cons: Melee will ruin your day so if there are a lot of brutes on the field, don't do it. Also, nothing stops the GM from using this against you.
I love Guardians of the Galaxy, so I thought I try to build a rocket racoon/baby groot tag team named 'Sprocket and Baby Cute'. The level 1 dip, while not ideal for delaying mechanic class abilities, I think makes the character more rocket like because I want to carry and wield any weapon I find with maniacal joy. Also it makes my character a weapon generalist as I don't quite know what weapons are best, or how weapons scale and can be built upon so I think I'll end up using the enemies weapons against them. Does anyone see any glaring issues I might want to resolve? Hopefully when Herolab gets it's support in place I can check out the options a little better.
Soldier 1 - Mechanic X
Race
1 - Ysoki
Theme
1 - Mercenary (nets me an effective 10 STR + 2 levelling for carrying capacity at 6th level to offset my race's negatives)
Stats at Level 1
STR 9 (10 - 2 Race + 1 Theme)
DEX 16 (10 + 2 Race + 4 Points)
CON 12 (10 + 2 Points)
INT 16 (10 + 2 Race + 4 Points)
WIS 10
CHA 10
Stats at Level 10
STR 13 (10 - 2 Race + 1 Theme + 4 Levelling)
DEX 22 (10 + 2 Race + 4 Points + 2 Levelling + 4 Personal Upgrade)
CON 16 (10 + 2 Points + 2 Levelling)
INT 22 (10 + 2 Race + 4 Points + 2 Levelling + 4 Personal Upgrade)
WIS 16 (10 + 4 Levelling + 2 Personal Upgrade)
CHA 12 (10 + 2 Levelling)
Feats/Tech
1 Weapon Focus (Longarms)
3 Versatile Focus
3T Energy Shield
4C Weapon Specialization (Small Arms)
5 Versatile Weapon Specialization
5T Overcharge
7 Deadly Aim
7T Overclock
9 Skill Synergy or Iron Will
9T Boost Shield
11 Powered Armor Proficiency
11T Hyperclocking
13 Improved Overcharge
13T Skill Synergy or Iron Will or Improved Iron Will
Fighter Style:
1 - Sharpshooter (helps make me more accurate since move action goes to master controller instead of positioning to avoid cover).
Here is a build I put together for a Kinetic Knight. The main mechanical theme is to use the Shimmering Mirage 5th (10th) level Utility Talent with the Water Element defense to qualify for the moonlight stalker feat (+2 att./+2 dmg.). Otherwise it is a DEX focused build and uses the armored kilt to count the medium armor as heavy. The water defense, while not as good in some cases can be used to really buff that shield AC. By level 11 with minimal investment you should be able to get an AC in the mid 30s, have a 20% miss chance, have 25% or more miss chance against crits/sneak attacks, and be rocking a solid DR from your earth element.
The level 13 feats are split into two groupings, one is go fully into the moonlight stalker feat chain and utilize feints to help with AC. The other is what I expect most people would do instead if they didn't want to pursue feinting. Note that 1 trait, 1 alternate racial trait and the stats are aligned to help get some modifiers into the bluff/CHA based skills. If you don't want to feint, dump CHA, put INT back to 10 and use the Carefully Hidden Trait to buff your will save.
I think this makes for a character with great defenses who can really stand in the front and take some punishment. It also has a variety of nova potential or control potential using it's Kinetic Whip or other higher level infusions. It can get iteratives with the Kinetic Blade/Whip so it has some really nice scalable melee damage. I would endorse going the feinting route to balance the character by giving it some face ability outside of combat.
Let me know if you have any suggestions. I'm not sure what 3rd element would fit or whether Kinetic Invocation is any good for a non-feint build.
This is not PFS legal as it uses a Hobgoblin (good stat array) and uses the armored kilt + medium armor to qualify as wearing heavy armor. Otherwise others suggest going STR/CON instead of DEX/CON since you'll be in heavy armor anyways. If you go that route, I'd change races to a STR/CON race or use a dual talent human + Eyes of the Owl (if your GM lets that meet the moonlight stalker feat pre-requisite)
Stats L1
STR 12
DEX 18 (16 + 2 Race)
CON 18 (16 + 2 Race)
INT 8
WIS 12
CHA 8
Stats L11
STR 14 (12 + 2 EO)
DEX 26 (16 + 2 Race + 2 Ioun Stone + 2 Level + 4 EO)
CON 24 (16 + 2 Race + 4 Belt + 2 EO)
INT 10 (8 + 2 Headband)
WIS 14 (12 + 2 Headband)
CHA 10 (8 + 2 Headband)
Traits
1 Muscle of the Society (more carrying capacity)
2 Adopted (Carefully Hidden) or Extremely Fashionable (Bluff) [To help with Feinting]
Feats
1 Weapon Finesse
2C Medium/Heavy Armor Proficiency
2C Shield Proficiency
3 Toughness
5 Iron Will
7 Possessed Hand (+1 Att./+1 Dmg. for light weapon)
9 Blind Fight
11 Moonlight Stalker (+2 Att./+2 Dmg. If you have concealment - gained from Shimmering Mirage at L10)
13 (Kinetic Invocation or Combat Reflexes) or Moonlight Stalker Feint
15 Elemental Overload
17 (Piranha Strike or Kinetic Invocation or Combat Reflexes or Extra Wild Talent) or improved Feint
19 (Piranha Strike or Kinetic Invocation or Combat Reflexes or Extra Wild Talent) or Moonlight Stalker Master
Elements Water/Earth/Element X
1E Water
1B Kinetic Blast (Water Blast)
1I Pushing Infusion
1I Kinetic Blade (From Archetype)
2UT Elemental Whispers (Hedgehog - +2 Will Saves)
3I Blade Rush (From Archetype)
4ED Elemental Defense (Water) - Shield Bonus
4UT Kinetic Cover or Slick or Veil of Mists
5I Kinetic Whip (From Archetype)
5I Entangling Infusion
6UT Waterdancer
7B Kinetic Blast (Earth Blast), Composite Blast (Mud)
8UT Expanded Defense (Earth)
9I Blade Whirlwind (From Archetype)
10UT Shimmering Mirage (20% miss change from concealment)
11I Whip Hurricane (From Archetype)
11I Grappling Infusion
12UT Ride the Blast
13I Bowling Infusion
14UT Earth Glide
15B Element X?
16UT ?
17I ?
18UT ?
19I ?
20UT ?
I am considering a 2 level dip in Occultist to get full BAB from Trappings of the Warrior and a bonus to a stat via the transmutation school. Is it possible to take the Haunt Collector and retrain to get the Trappings of the Warrior panalopy?
Example:
Take Transmutation/School X at level 1
Take Abjuration at level 2 as and take a haunted implement.
Retrain School X to Trappings of the Warrior Panalopy.
I am going to start the Iron Gods campaign in the next week or so. I was wondering if you guys could give me some advice on whether this character would be viable.
This is a Harry Dresden/Waxillium Ladrian/Star Lord ranged gish mash-up . I would like him to be an intelligent magic gunslinger with a gruff factual irish/southern demeanour. Ideally he will be throwing out elemental shots through his gun. I thought this would be pretty fun given the theme of Iron Gods but I want to make sure I'm not going to be ineffective against constructs. Let me know if you have any advice, but try to avoid Iron Gods spoilers.
The alternative to running a ranged character is likely running a barbarian wielding a large sized weapon with an effortless lace.
Plan is to be a face (Dip/Bluff off INT from trait), and INT based skill roller out of combat. We are in campaign mode, so I am hoping my GM will give me Jolt as a Cantrip option for Spell Combat/Ranged Spell Strike. I will also try to convince him to let me buy an Effortless Lace and apply it to a musket so I can stack the musket master archetype for Gunslinger to increase damage, range, and most importantly get reload down to a free action (otherwise I can't use a musket to any effect with Spell Combat/Ranged Spell Strike). Are there any other ways to get a musket to a free action reload other than 3 levels of musket master? If not, I'll have to stick with a Pistol as my bonded weapon.
Possible Alternate Build Options:
1 - Stat spread change to get my DEX to start at 18. Not sure if it is worth it given that I'll be hitting against touch ac with everything.
Stats (at Level 1)
STR - 11
DEX - 18
CON - 10
INT - 18 (16 + 2 Racial)
WIS - 7
CHA - 7
If my GM will let me go musket master, then I can pick a better race like an Android for a better stat array as the class will net me Rapid Reload (Musket) for free.
2 - A level 4 dip into Spellslinger to net me the 3X spell critical, and ability cast through my gun at an increased level. It also nets me Abundant Ammunition and Fabricate Bullets as 1st level spells so I don't have to put so much WBL into making ammunition (especially adamantine bullets to go through constructs). My CL won't be behind thanks to Magical Knack, but my BAB will lag (iterative still come online as expected thanks to the +1 BAB from gunslinger).
3 - Weapon damage worries me. Do you think Deadly Aim, Arcane Strike, and enchanting my weapon to a +3 will help me be effective against constructs. At level 9 I can grab Clustered Shots, before that I have to craft adamantine bullets to go through hardness which may be pricey unless I get a reliable way to have abundant ammunition. Is there also a downside to focusing into one kind of weapon like my arcane bond or a musket (i.e., I won't be able to use tech I find)? Does it make sense to add the Breaking or Bane (Constructs) enchantment to my gun? Is there a way to go through hardness otherwise?
4 - Restack some of the points from STR/CON into CHA and take my first level as Swashbuckler (Musketeer), which nets me Weapon Finesse (albeit less grit since it will be CHA based). That could open up a trait to grab a trait to reduce the cost of metamagic on snowball.
Red Griffyn
