Ricard the Daring's page

Hi

So we're playing through Wrath of the Righteous at the moment, and one of the themes(admittedly one we've not been too focused on) is redemption. We've already come across

who we've been working on fully redeeming, but now we've come across another interesting chance. Through what was supposed to be a simple random combat, my half-orc barbarian has a shadow demon trapped within his shadow. Now, he's not able to actually move about, or use any of his abilities, though he's been trying to mislead the party, and keep them awake etc. We're working on trying to find a way to release him, but while we're working on that, I'd really like to find a way to redeem him, and have him eventually join us as an ally. This is the only campaign where the DM's allowed Leadership and, assuming we can redeem him, he's said he'll allow me to take the leadership feat, and have him join as my cohort. Does anyone have any ideas on how to begin redeeming a demon?

Thanks in advance

While I'll agree that the alignment change is bull, as is alignment in general, I'm quite confused here. When the paladin channeled positive, they'd have had to decide whether they were healing living, or harming undead, so the half-undead wouldn't have been harmed unless the paladin was specifically trying to, which itself would have been an evil act, if the DM's going that route.

Eldritch heritage doesn't give you the actual bloodline, it just gives you the bloodline power. The power increases as you level up, with the claws increasing in damage, getting elemental damage etc 2 levels lower than normal, but for the 3rd, 9th and 15th level powers you'll have to take improved/greater eldritch heritage. And yes, it is unfortunately impossible to get the 20th level bloodline power. Even if you did get a 20th level feat, there's no feat that gives you the 20th level power. Hope I've cleared things up for you.

@ Ricard the Daring - Don't be so dismissive of the work players put into their character. Your work isn't any more important and GMs that believe otherwise are literally the problem.

I'm not being dismissive, I'm simply saying that the GM has a right to restrict the options available to players. It's no more work for a player to build a character with the knowledge that, for example, the GM doesn't wish to have any Tengu or gunslingers within the campaign. All that does is give you two less options to pick from, you still have plenty to make a character with. I also notice you didn't fully read my post before dismissing my opinion. Literally first sentence I point out that I'm a player who's never GMed before. I'm just saying that I agree with the stance that GMs are fully entitled to restrict class and race options, provided it's not taken overboards. Banning a race/class or two is perfectly OK. If it got to the point where the only options were humans, and you had to player a fighter/rogue/wizard or cleric, that's taking it too far, but the examples that have been given so far don't seem unreasonable.

As a player who has never GMed before, I'm surprised at the level of player entitlement here. The GM is taking time to not only run, but also plan and prepare each and every session, and they have every right to restrict options, be it magic items, race, or class. Obviously no one wants to be told they've got to play a particular race/class/role, but enforcing restrictions, or banning certain classes or races because they don't fit with their vision of a setting is well within their right. I've had my DM ban gunslingers, for example, not because they're powerful, but because they don't like the idea of guns being widespread in golarion. At the same time, they've said they'd allow it in certain campaigns and adventures where it better fits. Again, although player choice is important, the DM is the final judge.

It's good in theory, but in practice probably not so much. Players moan at things as small as negative levels. Something that could permanently change a players character wouldn't go down well with the majority of players.

Eat the horse, animate the skeleton.

Not really got a full munchkin build, but just wanted to point out that elemental enchantments don't require an activation every round, so you can have 4 different ones active at the same time.

I got to do this in PFS the other day. I dominated the high-level ranger in a mostly lower-level party, and he gets a look of abject horror on his face and looks at the rest of the table.

"I am so, so, sorry."

I've had it happen a couple times in campaigns, one led to the death of my character, the other could well have been a party wipe, as I was one of two optimizers in a group of 6, and to top it off I was playing a synthesist summoner. Luckily, party member had dispel magic or break enchantment or something like that.

I agree with Kydeem on dominate. It can be a bad spell to use if only because a lot of players can't handle it well, and purposefully misinterpret commands or the like. If you're told to kill a member of your party, you should be trying to do so with the same effort you'd try to kill any other enemy.

Best thing to do would be to get a wand of abundant ammunition, so you don't go through ammunition. It's minutes/level, so even if you only get a 1st level wand, a single use should last you the combat.

Shuriken break if they hit their target, so returning would be a bit pointless.

Ah, dominate. It's been used against my group quite a few times, and it's not something that's really caused any issues, even with it leading to the death of one of my characters, and the near death of a few others. Loss of agency can be annoying, but it's led to what I consider some of my best roleplaying, which I considered especially good considering I tend to focus on mechanics over RP.

If you've tried talking to him about it, and you've tried talking to the DM about it, you've only really got a few options. You could leave the party, which obviously isn't a preferable choice, kill his character, which may mean he creates a new character specifically to kill the party, or whenever he tries to instigate pvp, ignore him, pretend he's doing nothing.

No. At second level it'd be 1d6+1. It'd go up to 1d6+2 at 4th, 1d6+3 at 6th and so on, up until the maximum as described in the spell or ability description.

Old Gumphrey wrote:

Why are there so many spells that can kill fun?

Turning people to stone, polymorphing them into toads, disintegrating or killing with a single word. Those are iconic high-fantasy spells; you kinda expect them to exist in a game like PF.

It's only a little later, when they get used against the PCs, that you realize that while they look neat on paper, they have some problems in practice.

Although I'd agree those are all annoying spells, and should be used sparingly, the only spell of those that I'd say should be avoided if possible is disintegrate because it's so difficult to revive them. Even that you can survive a failed throw if you have decent hitpoints at high level.

Rynjin wrote:

It's not really a matter of losing, it's a matter of HOW you lost.

In my experience, it's a mixture of both. Regardless of how legitimate a strategy may be, if the person on the receiving end feels that it's "cheap" in any way, shape, or form, they'll throw the same tantrum. Invisible wizard casting summons? You're being cheap and that's not fair. Rogues with Improved Invisibility flanking? Cheap and unfair. Fighting a dragon who flies around and only closes when it can use its breath weapon? Cheap and unfair. Having an archer NPC retreat after every shot rather than standing still and letting the player close? Cheap and unfair.

Those are all examples of situations where I've seen players complain and throw fits. Nothing about them is out of the ordinary for a game like D&D/Pathfinder, and nothing about them is truly cheap or unfair. But it doesn't stop players from complaining because they lost to that strategy.

Granted, SoD and SoS spells are a bit different, but it's the same general idea. It doesn't matter how justified the tactic actually is, people will still complain.

The thing is that almost every single one of those tactics can be beaten strategically using good tactics and planning. "Rolling above a nat 1" isn't really a strategy for survival.

The wand doesn't start with any charges of anything. The idea is that it can be enchanted using craft wand. The masterwork weapons can be used as weapons, but if you're not wielding them for whatever reason, you have to make a concentration check whenever you cast a spell. Rings are easier to keep on you, and more difficult to sunder/steal, so are usually a bit safer for a wizard going for arcane bond.

Ricard the Daring wrote:

Deaths happen, and new characters can be made, but having a character that you've been playing for weeks, months, maybe years, die because of a single bad roll just feels wrong.

Personally I find having a long lived character in a setting where you can't really die because of GM friendliness to be unremarkable. Having a character live through a meat grinder campaign on the other hand...

Personally I run a pretty lethal campaign, death is possible at every session. But I run it fair, I don't break outside of the CR system, I don't give NPC/monsters wealth outside of the guidelines (and when I do I up their CR as appropriate). But I also don't hold back on save or dies, massive damage packets, permanent (as much as you can when you can heal anything with magic) disabilities ect. The players who manage to get their characters to end of campaign without dying at least 1 can be counted on one hand. Death isn't permanent. Heck with Breath of Life being thrown around its barely an in combat issue. Its about as effective as daze is at level 1.

I mostly agree with you there. Having a character survive solely because the DM doesn't want to kill you does feel really off. I'd much rather the DM not specifically try to keep players alive. At the same time, as I mentioned, the reason I don't like save or die spells isn't because they kill players, it's because they all come down to a single roll. You can make a character with saving throws through the roof, but they'll still eventually get that 1. For things that just kill the player, that's fine, as you mentioned you can get resurrected pretty easily, but there are spells where resurrection can be problematic, like if a character is disintegrated, or something similiar to that.

As a player, I'm hesitant to say that there are spells that a GM should never use, although there are a fair few that really shouldn't be used lightly. SoD spells come under this category. Deaths happen, and new characters can be made, but having a character that you've been playing for weeks, months, maybe years, die because of a single bad roll just feels wrong.

Other than SoD spells, I'd say spells that can permanently cripple a player, like mage's disjunction should be used sparingly. My DM's only thrown that at us once, and that was part of an adventure path he was running.

Other than those though, spells are fair game. Thing like bestow curse are annoying, but can be removed easily enough, same with paralysis and blindness/deafness.

Freedom of movement, to protect against any grapple/hold attempts. Something to protect against dominate. Something like a horn of fog to cover your escape.

Been looking into building an impervious rager, and was thinking of taking the improved damage reduction rage power a couple times if/when I reach that level.

Long story short, not 100% on how the rage power interacts with the class ability. I know it increases the damage reduction by 1/-, but is that then doubled for the non-lethal, or is it applied to that seperately.

For example, would a 10th level invulnerable rager with improved damage reduction twice have DR 7/- and DR 14 against non-lethal, or DR 7/- and DR 12 against non-lethal?

At the end of the day, it depends on whether the house rule was introduced before the campaign began or during it. If you spent half your WBL on a +X sword so that you can overcome damage reduction, and then the DM says that doesn't work, that's a bit of a dick move, unless he allows you to swap out some of the flat enhancement for other abilities, like making it a +1 flame burst shock burst instead of +5. I'm fine with house rules, but if a house rule is introduced part way through a campaign that nerfs a character I've built in a particular way, I'd at least like a chance to change up a couple things. Ask him if you can do this.

Eldritch heritage, improved eldritch heritage, greater eldritch heritage. Seriously, the last 4 or 5 characters I've created have used these. Although they use a fair few feats, they give good abilities to cover weaknesses or strengthen already strong points. Give a barbarian orc bloodline tree and enjoy 6 extra strength and the ability to grow large and get an extra 6 from growing large.

Snip

I don't mind different choices leading to similar outcomes, as long as there's at least some kind of difference being made as a result of player action. One of the great things about games is that you get to choose what you do, rather than have everything dictated for you, otherwise the players can feel like they're not in control of their own character's actions.

If there's an obvious hook, and it's a case of we need to take it or we can't proceed, that's fair enough, adventure paths are built on those, but when I get told I can go down three different paths, and all lead to the same place with very little difference, it's kinda annoying.

Rite Publishing wrote:

What the Mysterious Stranger said.

You need the illusion of choice not actual choices.

If I found out my GM was doing this, I'd leave the group. Loudly.

Agreed. As much as I dislike railroading, I'd much rather the DM be truthful about it, rather than giving us false choices. As a player, I prefer my choices to actually have an effect on the campaign, however small that may be. If I want to go to pub A rather than pub B, I'd rather the cloaked guy with a shady mission for us not be waiting in both pubs.

Not had crane wing come up in any of the games I've been in, but it didn't seem overpowered before the nerf. Most enemies you come up against have multiple attacks anyways, and most combats you'll be fighting multiple enemies. Don't really get why it was nerfed. Out of interest though, how are you multiclassing monk/barbarian? I though monks have to be lawful and barbarians have to be non-lawful.

This goes really well with eldritch heritage: arcane and improved familiar, so you can have an imp familiar as well as an imp companion. Plus, the fact that they get shape change means that you can have a raven on each shoulder, blurting out infernal at passerby's.

Probably not exactly what you're looking for, but at one point in a module I was in a while ago, the party was poisoned and all had to make rather high DC fortitude checks to avoid being knocked out. Every single member of the party made the checks, to the point where we had to all roll again just so the campaign could continue.

That's probably a good reason for me to not play paladins, I'm not real good at playing LG characters. If I had a character in that situation, I'd kill the baby. And yeah, I agree it'd be bad form to put a player into that sort of situation, but I don't GM, thankfully.

Because Razmir is all powerful, all knowing, and those who join in worship of him know riches and power they could never imagine?

In all seriousness, the prestige class is pretty decent, and I like the idea of playing a sorcerer sent out by the church of Razmir to act as a public face, giving the church good publicity. Some sort of LN character who goes out and does good, like donating holy water, and undercutting the churches of those lesser gods etc.

Here. Sorcerer archetype from inner sea magic.

If I was the paladin, I'd try for diplomacy, but failing that, I'd slay that angel where it stands. It's for the greater good, and greater good should come before all else.

If I was the GM, I'd rather enjoy watching the paladin struggle to deal with it, assuming he's of the "I can't fight them because we are both good" mindset, which is probably why I don't GM.

Why be a priest? Why, to spread the glory of Razmir of course. As far as scrolls/tattoos go, raise dead etc, and restoration are definites. And a CL20 divine scroll is something I hadn't considered.
As good as pathfinder savant is, it requires a crafting feat, and the campaigns I'm in don't often have enough down time to craft and, as fictionfan pointed out, you lose a caster level. Also, I'd be missing out on bloodline powers and spells for my main bloodline. Speaking of which, any suggestions for good bloodlines to take? Rakshasa seems good considering the increased DC for spellcraft checks against you, and the ability to trick opponents into think you'd cast something else. Disintegrate diguised as a prestidigitation, just to show them how powerful magic granted by Razmir is.

Just seen the false priest sorcerer and I've been trying to think of spells and items to make use of false focus and false channel.
Something like gloves of storing and spring loaded wrist sheaths so you can have wands on hand, with spell tattoos on the back of the wrists for extra spells.

I decided to try a sample build, human, with the rakshasa bloodline, and eldritch heritaging into arcane bloodline for the familiar, which can be replaced with a rakshasa familiar through improved familiar. Trying to go for flavor over optimization for this one. Any other ideas for feats / magic items?

Opalescent white pyramid ioun stone in a wayfinder will give you weapon focus in the weapon that the ioun stone is keyed to, which should work.

The AC isn't that low, most of it will be coming from armour anyways. Still, cruel looks like it'd be fun if I take the helm of fearsome mien so I have intimidating glare. That way I can intimidate as a move action, and then attack as a standard action, give them -4 to attack etc, and then full round attack until the intimidate wears off, and repeat, assuming they're still standing.

Ah, awesome. Yeah, figured the prismatic armour would be pretty handy, can keep it on the save bonus for most of the time, and then switch it out if I need the other resistances. It's a pity it doesn't have some sort of prismatic effect on enemies that hit you, though I suppose that would be a bit too powerful.

Ooh, awesome. I can see that being very helpful if that's the case.

Cord of stubborn resolve is always good for barbarians.
Torc isn't too helpful due to already having fear immunity.
Helm actually looks really helpful, 5000gp for an extra rage power, and one which improves something I'll be putting a lot in to is pretty damn good.
Going to be going full plate, but hamatula hide does look really good. Taken a proper look at the fiend totem powers, and the first two look really good. Not so sure about the greater one though.
Headband of havoc looks decent, but none of the rage powers I have so far scale with the barbarian level.

Hadn't looked at furious before. Definitely looks like it'll be good to use for him. Courageous looks good as well, though unfortunately the bonus to fear saves will be a bit redundant when I pick up fearless. On a side note, does the enhancement bonus from furious count towards the overall enhancement bonus when calculating the bonuses for courageous?

I agree with you on the armour enchants being a bit disappointing. I had looked at demon armour, and figured that'd fit flavour wise, but the evil requirement's a bit annoying. Just seen determination, which could keep me alive during combat. Prismatic plate looks good as well, though it's rather pricey. Still, +3 full plate with some useful protections. Could keep it violet for most of the time, to give me a +8 to my will save against mind affecting effects, then switch out as needed.

I don't think my DM'd mind me taking monster feats that I qualify for, the only issue I can see is that I'm not 100% sure that eldritch heritage gives you a caster level. If it did, that's something that could definitely help give me an extra boost or so when I need it.

Right, a lot of good suggestions there, so I'll address them in order.

As good as the bloodrager class looks, I've got my mind set on barbarian. Mainly for the titan mauler archetype, but also because of the rage powers.

Although my normal dm allows traits, using campaigns trait from other campaigns isn't allowed, so that's an unfortunate no.

Cornugon smash looks like a decent feat. I'll have high cha and maxed intimidate, plus the bonus from half-orc, so that'll likely take a feat slot.

I've looked over the superstition rage power and it's ilk, and although they are powerful, I'll likely be giving them a miss.

Ooh, strength surge looks really good. If I can find an alternative method of rage cycling earlier on, I may very well take it.

Lunge is something I completely forgot about when planning him out, gonna use the 9th level feat slot for that, fits perfectly.

As good as come and get me is, my dex won't be massively high(in fact, I'm thinking of dropping dex to 12 to put some points into wisdom). If I had a higher dex, I'd likely take CaGM and combat reflexes.

Sorry to shoot down so many of your suggestions like that. :(

On a side note, what sort of weapon/armor enchantments do you think would work for him? I'll likely be putting impacting on the weapon, and possibly keen to make better use of the high strength. In terms of armor enchantments, I'm drawing a blank.

I seem to remember seeing a comment somewhere by one of the developers that they'd intended for the class to be able to wield large and larger two handed weapons, but the actual released version of the ability just reduces the penalty, but doesn't allow for the use of larger two handers, which is kind of gutting.

Ah, ok. If I can find it I'll give it a look see. Anyone else have any other suggestions? Main issue I have now is with getting him a claw attack for his offhand. The only way I can find without taking beast totem or changing race is the demon talon, which grants me a demonic claw that uses a damage dice one size higher than me, and doesn't otherwise affect the character. Not sure whether that'd be possible though.

I've chosen half-orc because of the darkvision, which I feel is worth losing a feat at first level for, the bonus to intimidate is just a bonus.
I don't mind waiting for power attack, as the damage should be pretty good anyways, and it'll be less effective than for a normal barbarian due to using the sword one-handed. One of the main reasons I've taken is it because it can be used with the hurler rage powers, to add my strength to the damage dealt by the attack. Speaking of which, does anyone know if the two handed thrower feat works with hurler if I also took quickdraw? I wouldn't have thought it would, but the thought of being able to make multiple ranged attacks with large boulders is something that makes me chuckle.

In regards to the bloodrager, it's not something I've had a look at, but I'm planning on making this a purely martial character. Must ask though, what sort of casting progression/rage power amount does it get?

First post here. I've been thinking about building a titan mauler barbarian for the next campaign I'm able to get in to, and was thinking of nightmare from soul calibur as a sort of base inspiration. I've got a basic idea down, but was hoping to get some advice. I know not all of the choices I've made are completely optimal, but I'm hoping he'll be quite useful to the party regardless. I've got him built up to 17th level, as that's the point the previous campaigns I've been in have ended at.

Nightmare

Half-Orc Titan Mauler Barbarian 17

Stats:

Str - 16 (14 +2 racial)
Dex - 14
Con - 14
Int - 12
Wis - 10
Cha - 17 (13 + 4 from levels)

Feats:

1 - Skill focus(Survival)
3 - Eldritch Heritage(Orc)
5 - Heavy Armour Proficiency
7 - Power Attack
9 - Not sure
11 - Improved Eldritch Heritage(Orc) (Strength of the beast)
13 - Improved Eldritch Heritage(Orc) (Fearless)
15 - Not sure
17 - Greater Eldritch Heritage

Rage Powers:

2 - Spirit Totem, Lesser
4 - Hurling, Lesser
6 - Spirit Totem
8 - Hurling
10 - Spirit Totem, Greater
12 - Hurling, Greater
14 - Not sure
16 - Not sure

Weapon will be a greatsword, likely try and get impact on it, with the armour being full plate. I've not looked too much into items for him, but I know I want to get a Belt of Hurling, Greater, to increase the hurled item's range increment, and allow me to apply strength to the attack roll instead of dex.

By 17th level, while raging and with the orc bloodline power "Power of Giants" active, I'll be rocking 34 strength (extra +6 from rage, +6 from Strength of the beast, and +6 from power of giants, so hitting and damaging shouldn't be too much of an issue.

There are feats at 9 and 15, as well as rage powers at 15 and 16 that need choosing. I've trying to find a way to give him a claw attack on his offhand without taking beast totem, so to fit the nightmare theme. On top of this, any items people can think of that might fit would be great.

Anyways, does anyone have an advice on anything I could do to improve this character?