Reid Richter's page

Should have probably asked this before but you still retain your standard wild shape alongside naga shape? considering you get it at 4, seems like it replaces wildshape to prevent stacking with archetypes that alter wildshape.

Just made a thread for advice on a mauler and I wanted to ask if horn of the cryosphinx works on claws with feral combat training?

It appears to be the consensus that the true primitive should be banned for the same reason the feral child is banned, though this is not what I thought the thread would be heading into.

I always hate it when things get banned, more choice is better as long as it doesn't break the game or cause an unpleasant experience for anyone.

Though with heroes of the wild the talking to animals shtick has been put in a trait so thats a plus.

Building my next pfs character, Want to build a druid.

Looked at the saurian shaman first but naga aspirant looks very sweet.
I decided on Str 15, Dex 10, Con 15, Int 10, Wis 16 and Cha 7 before my racial adjustments. My first level feat will most likely be toughness to shore up my lackluster hp.

Later I plan dipping into monk with shaping focus and pick up dragon style, then pick up horn of the cryosphinx asap.

Thoughts on the build and any advice to fill the gaps?

Reid Richter wrote:

So would it be fair that so far there are no reasons to not include the feral child archetype? You are not allowed to make a character below the minimum age anyway.

And considering the...other things I have seen so far, its is quite puzzling.

No, I'd say that is completely unfair given the number of opinions expressing exactly the opposite in this thread.

I'll throw my hat in with them too: an illiterate shouldn't be in PFS, it does not make sense, and therefore True Primitive should be banned too.

While I am all for more inclusion into society play, I didn't think about petitioning to ban the true primitive instead.

It's a valid point though and I actually agree on it.

Though I never get happy from hearing the swing of the banhammer.

So would it be fair that so far there are no reasons to not include the feral child archetype? You are not allowed to make a character below the minimum age anyway.
And considering the...other things I have seen so far, its is quite puzzling.

Have recently taken interest in the black-blooded archetypes and I was wondering.
Black-blood is apparently damaging to drink or be in contact with unless your an abberation or undead.

Would a Dhampir, Giant leech or other bloodsucker take damage rather then heal if they would blooddrain a black-blooded character?

Reid Richter wrote:

Nefreet wrote:

Please tell me the title of this thread was intended...

Yes, Yes it was.

Woran, that would actually explain a lot, though it doesnt call for a child character, Tarzan for example is a feral child raised by primates.

I just read it back in the PRD, and it does not have an actual age requirement. But the way the entry is worded it is highly suggestive of one. (youth and child are used to describe the character, no other tems).

While some people would make a Tarzan like character, adult but naive to society, a lot of other people would make a character more akin to Mowgli.

I think its very fair to ban it on that grounds. Putting a child character in a lot of the situations that happen in scenarios (adult situations that a child should not be part of), is a can of worms best left closed.

A very valid point, however characters younger than the minimum age are banned in Society play period.

Please tell me the title of this thread was intended...

Yes, Yes it was.

Woran, that would actually explain a lot, though it doesnt call for a child character, Tarzan for example is a feral child raised by primates.

If there have already been discussions but not changed have been made, I guess there must be some specific reason that I cannot comprehend.

It is however disheartening to not receive a complete valid reply that cannot be awnsered with : true primitive.

Oh bother

Forgive me if I am beating a dead horse but I believe that the Feral Child druid archetype should be made legal alongside the true primitive barbarian.

While I understand that the whole raised by wolves origin can be disruptive at the table, I believe that this would be covered by the assumption that people do not play pathfinder society to be a disturbance at the table and that such players that want to achieve this already have found other ways to do so.

A Feral child also has oppertunities that a True primitive does not, due to being able learn how to read and write, the Feral child has acces to some interesting character development options, A feral child could be mellowed by companionship around the pathfinder society and thus be encouraged to be able to read and write.

A true primitive on the other had will not learn how to read and write under ANY circumstances, thereby stunting the whole reporting part of pathfinder society.

I firmly believe that a Feral child could bring interesting scenarios to the table without being disruptive as stated in my first argument:
'people do not play pathfinder society to be a disturbance at the table'

My apologies for the wall of text, Sincerely : Reid ' Richter' Harding

So the mauler can't use its combat form ability while merged?
No interaction in any way? Well thats dull.

Ah, the polymorph table does indeed have different stat increases.
The reason I thought this was how it worked was because the familiar becomes part of you, so if the familiar would do anything regarding to it's own body it would happen to you instead.

Would be rather weird for a halfling to suddenly have a medium-sized bulge sticking out of him.

No mention is made of any polymorph effect until it mentions beastshape.

I have never played 3.5 apart from some after highschool tomfoolery far before I even started pathfinder(didnt last more than 2 weeks).

But I do digress that after some digging realize that I was wrong about polymorph, it notes all the abilites that you can get in the spell description.

I just want to know how the maulers combat form works when fused with the witch.

And to clarify, I'm not saying Im getting higher stats from the merge, it's what happens AFTER that Im interested in.

Really? Nothing, I thought that this worked like all shapeshifting spells and abilities, like turning into a doppelganger giving you all exotic weapons and spell triggers.

I always liked the idea of two characters combining, this brings me to the mauler familliar and its possible interaction with a synergist witch.

While fused they count as a single being, so would all the class abilities of the familliar also apply?

Would this for example grant a small halfling fused with a mauler familliar the ability to increase to medium size? along with the size bonuses to strength?.
( from small to medium including level based bonus is +8 Str, -2 Dex, and +2 Con)

If so holy crap, if not food for thought.

Right so two-hande fighter is dead-on with this.
Thanks to all the people for helping out with the fluff, I'm off
to crunch.

Well, you don't have to want redemption to accept an offer to avoid rotting in prison: you just have to put up with the goody-two-shoes long enough to make it work. :-)

With the second option, though, you can make that work with any class. You could have had a profession/been any class before committing your crime, and now you're picking up where you left off. Or you could have been sold to someone who had class levels where you picked up some tricks, like working as a slave to a wizard or alchemist. You could even have been forced into a class by your master, like a gladiator slave. And having been a slave is a great backstory to let your inner rage build up and take some levels in barbarian.

If you want a divine caster class, it would be harder to pull off the character concept with the "divine servant" classes (cleric, warpriest, inquisitor), but ranger or druid could easily work (there's a whole conflict between druids and loggers in the Verderan forest, and Nirmathi rangers are guerillas/freedom fighters, either of which can land you in prison). Oracles can work with any background: one day you woke up cursed and casting. If you wanted to be an "accidental" criminal, Wrecker curse or Haunted curse are great ways to get into trouble without ill intent ("No, sheriff, I really don't know how that got in my backpack...").

Monk will be more difficult because of the lawful requirement, but the Marital Artist archetype lets you avoid that. Even still, it's possible. In a home game, I've got a completely anti-social, misanthropic, drow-blooded Zen Archer: she's only lawful because she knows that if she keeps her head down and follows the rules, she's less likely to get harassed and run out of town as an evil freak. Now, you won't be able to pull off the "all people are crap, and I don't trust any of them" attitude in PFS, but you could probably make the "I'm lawful because I don't want to get in trouble" bit work.

The slave background idea is a rather good one.

So for now it seems to sit on either a two-handed fighter or a armored hulk/invunerable rager barbarian.

Any more advice on class selection?

Reid Richter wrote:

Darn, to bad there is no lore match.

I still want to make this work so would a convicted criminal pathfinder fit best with dark archive, the exchange or the sovereign court?

All of them have a reason to send criminals, it's cheaper for the exchange and a sentence reduction of sort would make them loyal and cheap.

The Dark archive is into all sort of shenanigans so it wouldn't suprise me.

With the whole switch to the court from taldor as a whole, I can't really justify it anymore actuelly.

Any tips would be appreciated.

You can probably get some ideas from the Pathfinder Wiki.

The Season 6 faction mission for the Silver Crusade is all about redemption and helping veterans of the Fifth Mendevian Crusade. I've have been at several tables (on both sides of the screen) where Silver Crusade members persuade surrendered bandits to come join the Pathfinder Society and/or Silver Crusade as a more productive use of their skills.

You could very easily write a backstory of a criminal in a prison that was destroyed by a demon attack.* Rather than run, you bravely fought the demons. Any paladin, cleric, or warpriest of Sarenrae or Shelyn would recognize that you were still redeemable and could potentially take you under their wing and bring you back from Mendev when the crusade was over.

Another possibility:
You come from a culture that includes slavery as a punishment for crimes. A lawful-ish Liberty's Edge member freed a group of slaves and found out that you were enslaved as punishment for crimes. Not being willing to just turn a criminal loose on the world and not able to send you back to your home culture authorities (who will just sell you into slavery again), the Liberty's Edger brought you back to Absalom to join the Pathfinder Society where other faction members can keep an eye on you.

*I think there is at least one prison attacked by demons in a Season 5 scenario: the event is referenced in Scars of the...

While great suggestions, I don't want to play the character as very interested in redemption, he just does what he is told because he will get the most out of it( sentence reduction or otherwise, so the second option is actuelly a great idea.

Any ideas on what class would mesh very well with this?

EDIT : though I could also make him a freedom loving extremist cranked to eleven, who went as far as to tear down all vestiges of law because it prevented 'freedom' and that being the reason he's a pathfinder now, could even put him in the dark archives because liberty's edge are just to cowardly to go as far as is needed.

Darn, to bad there is no lore match.
I still want to make this work so would a convicted criminal pathfinder fit best with dark archive, the exchange or the sovereign court?

All of them have a reason to send criminals, it's cheaper for the exchange and a sentence reduction of sort would make them loyal and cheap.

The Dark archive is into all sort of shenanigans so it wouldn't suprise me.

With the whole switch to the court from taldor as a whole, I can't really justify it anymore actuelly.

Any tips would be appreciated.

So after a long marathon of dragon age : origins, I became fascinated with the legion of the dead.

I decided that I wanted to play as a penal legion warrior in Pfs, though I cant find any references for some sort of penal legion in golarion.

Anyone have tips or ideas about what organizations would use their trialed criminals as soldiers?

I'm already working on a build, but I rather not move forward with it unless I can justify the concept.

I'm building a battle oracle for Pfs, as a novelty I want to key most of my abilities off charisma, so far I have initiative, saving throws, Ac.

The problem I have however is that with my choices, my CMD is godawful, 3/4 Bab with low agility makes nearly every maneaver an auto-succes against me wich halts my combat ability.

Is there a way to efficiently boost my CMD without to much dipping?

I don't need stupid high, only high enough that they don't trip me with a 6 on the d20.

I might be able to get away with it if I use the dwarven double weapon, its a spear and hammer in one so its PART polearm.(thanks Dafydd)

I will keep tinkering , I got a week from now to decide on a build.

After a bit of searching, the flag could be used as a banner.
But it must be mounted on a pole or a polearm, so flagbearer is a no-go...

Anyone have a suggestion that grants the same or part of the benefit?

Looks better, but you know Flagbearer requires a free hand, right?

Quote:

Flagbearer

Prerequisites: Cha 15.

Benefit: As long as you hold your clan, house, or party’s flag, members of that allegiance within 30 feet who can see the flag (including yourself ) gain a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, and saving throws against fear and charm effects. You must hold the flag in one hand in order to grant this bonus. If the standard is taken by the enemy or destroyed, this bonus becomes a penalty, affecting all creatures that the bonus previously affected for 1 hour (or until you reclaim the lost flag).

Could always splash two levels of Alchemist and take the Extra Arm discovery. :p

Well that sucks, is there a way for me to hold an axe and the flag at the same flag, or use the flag as a cavelier banner?

Ok, updated build time.

New age retro axe-lord

Human Paladin 1
LG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +3

DEFENSE
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+5 armor, +2 Dex)
hp 12 (1d10+2)
Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +0
(+1 on saves vs fear,charm or compulsion)

OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee handaxe +5 (1d6+5)
Two-weapon fighting : +3 (1d6+5), +3 (1d6+3)
Ranged : +3 shortbow 1d6, 60ft range, 80 arrows
Special Attacks smite evil 1/day (+3 attack and AC, +1 damage)
Paladin Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st; concentration +3)
At will—detect evil

Str 16, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 7, Cha 16(14+2)
Base Atk +1; CMB +6; CMD 16
Feats : Flagbearer, Two-weapon fighting
Traits : zest for battle(adopted), eyes and ears of the city
Skills : Diplomacy +7, Perception +3, Know(religion)+4
Languages Common
SQ aura, code of conduct
Combat Gear : scale mail, 2 handaxes, shortbow, 80 arrows,

Thanks to tonyz for the double handaxe suggestion.
Dafydd : I originally wanted this guy to be a dwarf but I really don't want to be a Stonelord and I find the charisma penalty to be very hard to work around with PFS rules.

Anyway, any thoughts on the revised build?

Have you considered using a double weapon, like an Orc Double Axe? It's nice because you can switch very easily between two-handing one side of it and full attacking with both sides. You'd probably have to switch to Half-Orc, though that's not a bad thing for a character like this.

Also, I would recommend against dumping Int for PFS - there are a lot of skill-based challenges. I'd bring Str and Cha down to even values and bring up Int if I were you. Plus, as a Paladin, you really should have at least one social skill - preferably Diplomacy or Intimidate. (Remember that Half-Orcs can take the "Burning Assurance" racial trait to get a Diplomacy bonus instead of Intimidate, if you so choose.)

Going human helps me with my feat problems, I'm going to be be feat starved for a bit with TWF,

I can try and drop STR to a 16 but I want to keep CHA at 15 because that allows me to qualify for flagbearer at lvl 1, and thats a +1 morale bonus to attack and saves vs fear/charm/compulsion and a +2 on damage wich is really powerful for a feat and a trait this early on.

I will post an updated build later.

Been playing pathfinder society recently, but I've run into some bad times recently, specifically every scenario for about 4 weeks in a row containing ghouls and ghasts.

both of my PFS characters nearly met a end by coup-the-grace because of bad rolls and freaking ghasts so I'm making a backup character in advance.

I'm a big fan of the full BAB classes, as they get their time to shine in Pfs and after playing a bloodrager and brawler I'm thinking of doing paladin.

I'm also obsessed with making TWF work so what I have thusfar is a axe wielding blender paladin.

The Axe-lord

Human Paladin 1
LG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +4; Senses:Perception +3

DEFENSE
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+5 armor, +2 Dex)
hp 12 (1d10+2)
Fort +4, Ref +2, Will +1

OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee battleaxe +5 (1d8+5 x3),handaxe +5 (1d6+5)
TWF : Battleaxe +3 (1d8+5),Handaxe +3 (1d6+3)

Special Attacks :smite evil 1/day (+2 attack and AC, +1 damage)
Paladin Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st; concentration +3)
At will : detect evil

STATISTICS

Str 17, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 7, Wis 8, Cha 15
Base Atk +1; CMB +6; CMD 16
Feats : Two-weapon fighting, flagbearer
Traits : Adopted-Zest for battle, reactionairy
Skills : Perception +3
Languages : Common
Combat Gear : Scale mail, battleaxe, handaxe

Any remarks or advice for my build? Would love hear some responses as I'm going to test this character next week.

The story is that, I'm playing an abberant bloodrager who gained those powers through failed drow fleshwarping experiments.

Now he is the minimum age for a half-orc (14) and most of the time he speaks in broken english and tends to be very nice to people.
He however suffers from nightmares of these experiments, think needles,blood and other unsavory things.

If he runs into one of the drow that performed these experiments, he would obviously lose it but my question is : after the interrogation(if still alive) could my NG bloodrager vengefully mutilate the drow to death and remain good or neutral?

Name your actions that you immediatly regret, bonus points if the result is a TPK or at least close.

Ill start with : Me taking 20 on a door that didnt turn out to be locked and when we opened there were about 7 skeletons and a hobgoblin witch.
add severel sleeping hobgoblins that like bashing squishy things and you end up with ; an angry to-be arcane trickster, a near dead druid, a three times dead and raised ninja and a very sad brawler.

I did not get any loot that night.

While stabbing through concealment is nice, what im really looking for is a way to get fast progression SA without losing BAB.
Studied target +2/+2 is nice but 2d6 sneak attack is rather poor.

Thanks on cornugon smash though, completely missed that requirement.

Trying to round out a build for my brawler in PFS, I want to revolve around the cestus while using sneak-attack.

However the snakebite striker archetype gets rid of martial flexability wich is something I want to keep and snake feint seems...well...terrible.

So I'm thinking of multiclassing into slayer to get sneak attack while maintaining my full BAB. I'm doubting wether to go to slayer after level 5 or waiting untill level 8 for improved flurry.

Close combat mastery is a must, hitting for 2d6 using a cestus with a 17-20 crit is rather nice.(Monks robe is a great thing)

So far the build is going to be a Human.
Brawler 1. B:Improved Unarmed,Power Attack,HB:Cornugon Smash
2. B:Weapon focus ; Cestus
3. Improved Natural Attack : Unarmed Strike
4. /
5. B: Dazzling Display, Weapon Specialization: Cestus
Slayer 1. /
2. Combat Trick : Shatter Defenses, Toughness
3. 1d6 sneak attack
4. Talent : Trapfinding , Improved Critical
5. 2d6 sneak attack
6. Talent : Fast Stealth

Anyone have any advice on Not-missing with sneak-attack punching, or perhaps a greater progression sneak attack, while keeping my BAB from dropping to much?

Been fooling around in PFS for a while now, but Im trying to make my first serious character build.
I always loves the idea of punching things in an rpg don't know why, but I want to do a DEX based brawler.

But there arent any direct ways to get DEX to damage with unarmed of cestus without using an AOMF as far as I am aware.

The easiest way ive found is : weapon focus double-chicken sabre and weapon finesse at lvl 1 as a human,slashing grace at 2 then take martial versatility for monk weapons at 3.

This costs me at least 3 feats if there if theres a trait for proficiency, otherwise 4 feats and I need to wait a while to become effective.

Anyone have some suggestions to make the road to DEX-punches not suck?

Sooo the dream is down the drain...
At least monks kan slashing-grace a temple sword, maybe they will be less MAD now.

I use a metal klar wich is in the heavy blades group and get slashing grace with it.
But it counts as a light spiked shield, the spiked shield being in the close weapon group, does that mean I can use slashing grace with a klar and get the benefit of close-weapon mastery from brawler?

Or do my dreams of a Dex-based brawler go down the sink?

Reid Richter wrote:

Right, so my plan is gonna be: use brawling armor with unarmed strikes until I can get a +2 cestus and close weapon mastery, with a monks robe I can use my unarmed die from one level higher and still keep the 19/20 crit range, wich becomes 18/20 with improved critical.

Just a nitpick, Improved Critical (Cestus) makes them 17-20/x2. :)

The crit-fishing begins, though from what I understand theres no official answer to the cestus unarmed debacle, I will discuss it with my DM at the table and take any answer, though official errata to this would be handy.

Right, so my plan is gonna be: use brawling armor with unarmed strikes until I can get a +2 cestus and close weapon mastery, with a monks robe I can use my unarmed die from one level higher and still keep the 19/20 crit range, wich becomes 18/20 with improved critical.

though regarding the two weapon fighting, would anyone suggest a timing to dip with the brawler?

Kinda stuck between Moms,unarmed fighter or standard monk dips.
While I don't benefit from the extra improved unarmed strike, all of them do allow me to pick up dragon ferocity early

Though regarding standard monk, would I have the abilty to both flurry of blows and brawlers flurry? Or do they stack in some way?

Recently rolled into a PFS group with a brawler though im rather confused on how the cestus and brawling armor interact.

In the context of PFS, I have not found a clear answer myself, do you receive the bonus from the brawling armor ability when using cestus or gauntlets?

Likewise, can I take improved and greater two-weapon fighting feats after 2 levels of brawler? The description of Brawler's-flurry reads :
Brawler’s Flurry (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a brawler can
make a brawler’s f lurry as a full-attack action. When doing so,
a brawler has the Two-Weapon Fighting feat when attacking
with any combination of unarmed strikes, weapons from
the close fighter weapon group, or weapons with the “monk”
special feature.

The wording suggests that you count as if you have the feat.
while opinion on dealing with this in a homegame is nice, Im more interested on how this works in PFS.

Any clarification would be appreciated.