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No love for Ninjas/Rogues on the boards? Could really use some input for which to choose...

Turn 1: Rogue takes a running leap to swing off the back of the ship, Acrobatics DC 15 to clear the railing/get enough distance for the swing. (Move) Failure means the PC trips on the rail and falls into the sea.

Rogue then needs to aim for the window. I'd rule this a Climb check with a DC of 20. Take 10 isn't possible (because swinging wildly through the air counts as "stress or distractions". Failure means the PC loses his grip and falls into the sea. Success means he smashes through the window. Deal 1d6 slashing damage to the PC, and they make a DC 15 Acrobatics check to land on his feet.

Turn 2: Magus gets a perception Check DC is 0 (base DC 0, -10 equivalent to "sounds of battle", +10 magus is asleep."). If he passes the check he is awake, roll initiative. If he fails, he is still sleeping. Rogue can coup de grace.

This is simultaneously the most awesome and stupid plan I've ever seen.

This sounds how I’m probably going to do it.

Why doesn't the rogue just stealth through the front door, and gut the magus in his sleep? IT seems like it would be quieter, and therefore more likely to succeed.

I already thought that myself. However, as I alluded to earlier, I think this is a wee bit of meta-gaming on the Pirates part since he knows about the Magus’s blade and assumes (whether or not it’s true) that the blade will wake him up if he fails even one stealth check.

I'm leery of in-party attempts to kill, but it's definitely a Pirate sort of thing to happen. In the best of possible worlds, the attempt to kill would fail, but still give the magus a good wake-up call that badly sharing treasure with pirates is an unhealthy habit. Maybe the combat gets interrupted after two rounds, by a mutual (horrible) enemy that the entire party needs to fight off together. Maybe the boat suddenly bumps into a giant squid or something, knocking both combatants off their feet, and making them go "What was THAT?!"

I’m planning something just like that… Unless the Pirate completely kills the Magus the first round. Or the Magus kills him in the second. Regardless, it is okay for in game story reasons that they fight so I don’t have a problem with it, and death is always a risk when fighting, even if it’s only for two rounds. I mean either one could crit…

~EDIT~

But really, for that matter, the other guy shouldn't have been allowed to rob from him anyway. Its what really lead to this happening in the first place. But- thats your campaign.. if it works for you all and you all are having fun, then keep up the fun :) I'm afraid though that unless you really have some mature players there that the house of cards is about to fall. No one likes being one-shotted with no chance of even rolling init, much less by some other player.

Firstly the Magus didn't really rob him, the pirates been pilfering more than his share of the loot the whole time, save for a pearl of power that he failed his appraisal on. It's more of a han solo-esque deal: when you get me to the death star and help me save the princess I'll pay you more money then you can imagine thing. Only it turned out the "princess was in another castle", so to speak, so he hasn't gotten paid yet, and has been instead offered more money for continued service when he feels he should be paid now.

I'm not worried about this actually. Not that my players are overtly mature, the pirate certainly isn't, but the Magus's player is my brother and the charater is sorta being groomed to become the BBEG at the end of the campaign so it's more of player ran NPC. Also, all the players were told at character creation that PvP would occur in game so everyone should be prepared for what may come.

One of my players, a "pirate" twf rogue/fighter is preparing to mutiny and attack another player in his cabin by swining down through his window and attacking the other player in his sleep. The other player, a bladebound kensai Magus, stiffed him some pay, promising to pay him later and the pirates decided to cut out the middle man and get his cash.

Now mechancically, I'm at a loss how to handle this encounter. The pirate wants to make this a sudden attack to catch him off guard and kill him with his sneak attack damage, but the real question is it even possible to get this all in a single turn?

I mean it's a move at least to swing down to his window from a higher level and probably a climb check. Then there is the potential damage that could result from swinging through a window. Then there is the fact that he should have to make an acrobatics check or something to mantain his balance and "stick the landing". Then he's gotta at least have a standard left to attack all before the Magus/Blackblade gets a perception to wake up(Cause he can smoke him if he's up and about).

So my question is, do you think that this all can be accomplished in a single turn? Or is there some variation of a charge or other special action that accomplishes this much more simply?

Also I think it's worth mentioning that both players were aware that pvp could occur in this game, so no worries on that end. And don't ask me why he won't simply just sneak in lol.

And if your GM doesn't agree, I would talk to them about burning a feat for Natural Spell(waiving the pre-reqs) or some homebrew equivalent.

MerrikCale wrote:

nothing?

There are loads they're just being stealthy.

It's that Vanishing Trick lol.

Okay so here is the abbreviated version of my npc build and I can't remember if I rolled or point bought. It's nothing fancy and the point of it is to spend the remainder of it's feats on the Extra Ki to offset the additional cost of Ki for the Forgotten Trick. So basically, they're a jack of all tricks Ninja who eventually has enough Ki to do whatever the F they want.

There is also the alternative of just picking up rogue talents too, since you basically have every basic ninja trick at this point.

I personally don't, except for really hectic battles(usually BBEGs). It takes, for me, too damn long to clean off the last map and draw out the grid for every single encounter when I can just discribe the area and proximity of enemies to the player in feet, since that's where abilities are at most of the time.

Granted it's occasionally caused problems, with a single player in specific, but I attribute that more to individual players not listening as all but once every other player at the table will usually back me up.

I can't disagree that a map will make things clear, but most of the time it's more of a bother than it's worth. As a rule of thumb, if I have more than double the party in enemies, I should probably draw it out.

I have always played human in games I actually play in. They're the easiest for me to get my head wrapped around without comming off as pretentious(or at least that's my own perception anyways lol). And yeah, the feat and skills really make a difference; especially for non-fighter builds where "free" feats are a rarity and classes where your FC bonus is going to HP.

That said I really like the other races more as a GM. From my own perspective, humans are mostly boring and I feel that the other races and how I depict their behavior shapes my world better. If I'm having an Elf talk down to a human party member that means something, for the character and the world. If it's a human it doesn't carry the same weight(unless their royalty or something).

I think you've got the majority of them.
I wish that there weren't so many restrictions of the Tree Singer's shape change though, I REALLY like the flavor of the class but I can't help but feel that completely trading away animals & elementals for getting access to plant form I 4 levels ealier, yet everything else stays the same... Really hurts it.

That is what we are doing in my current campaign. Lizardfolk monk (Master of Many Styles) where his claws will progress as per a monk's unarmed strike progression. As I don't get FoB this will avoid being a level 10 monk only doing 2 x 1d4+ str with his claws.

Wouldn't the claws damage scale with the Monk's level if you took Feral Combat Training? "While using the selected natural weapon, you can apply the effects of feats that have Improved Unarmed Strike as a prerequisite, as well as effects that augment an unarmed strike."

Since the the monk's damage buff augements his unarmed damage, so would it the natural attack damage. In conjunction with other feats that could be really cool. Granted, you'd be doing less overall but it wouldn't lag behind too badly.

And sorry for the necromancy :P

Go for it! Would love to see another's take on it.

Okay, well then I should go and do it. Now as a forewarning I’m more of a fan of Wolverine being a total BAMF in his own right, his racial abilities being supplements. I’m also a fan of the Frank Miller years of Wolvie history, where his powers were not so over the top so keep that in mind.

Has anyone tried making a Wolverine "Lupine" species block with the ARG? I could see someone making a Wolverine species with the fast healing, scent, superior con, berserk mode & natural claws availible to his ilk. And of course, their lifespan would be naturally long(though they would come to adulthood relatively early).

I think the Weapon X template, the part where they train him and give him actual the adamantium with that. Of course, that would also lower his healing factor though(since it stunts their healing, but makes them harder to kill). If no one has anything I'll do it tomorrow.

Hey all, was looking for any feats/class features/archetypes that allow you to either prevent dying, take less damage while in negatives, or increase the effective con score of a player for reaching death.

So far all I can find besides diehard and orcish ferocity is is
Ferocious Tenacity and Fight On

Samurai is pretty much designed just for this with their resolve feature, not to mention as they level up their challenge it takes care of that too. And of course there is Last Stand, but I tend not to count level 20's. All in all I think you're looking for a Samurai.

Has any had experience of running - or even encountered - an intelligent item/weapon as a villain?

This is an idea I'm toying with, possibly even making it a recurring villain.

It could doubltess overwhelm a owner/wielder in order to further pursue its own schemes and exploit their powers and abilities too.

Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated.

I'm trying something similar too in my game. One of my players, my brother, is playing an Machiavellian Magus, whose Black Blade is slowly driving him towards taking over the world. I've discussed it with the player, and he plans to slowly transition from LN to LE, eventually turning on the party as he ascends to BBEG status and the blade gains more and more control.

Gonn wrote:

Thanks a bunch for all of your help guys. :)

I've been contemplating the saves issue and I think that it might be this way for balance reasons. After all, you can't have great defenses, attack and still be able to cast spells.

Isn't that what Monks have ;)

Someone talking well about monks instead of bashing them? I think I may shed a tear.

It's definitely a balance thing, cause if you notice their Shielded Meld(and greater) is guarenteed as long as the fusion lasts, so if they had 2 great saves and then atop of it got a constant bonus to saves and AC... Well that would be powerful, arguably too much so.

That said I share sympathy with your plight op, I've been trying to make a synthesist vampire and I'm not sure just how a lot of it works.

Does it's Natural Armor stack with the synthesist's, it says it "gains the eidolon’s armor and natural armor bonuses". I've assumed it simply takes the higher, as would any character with 2 AC modifiers that don't stack, but that doesn't sound right either.

"The synthesist also gains access to the eidolon’s special abilities and the eidolon’s evolutions." What if I purchased a Ability Increase (Ex) for charisma? Do those transfer to the Synthesist since, he gains them? That doesn't quite make sense since he's supposed to use the eidolon's physical scores but not the mental.

And lastly, assuming you get to 16, when you split forms does that mean that the eidolon shares your feats and skill or does it have it's own? And if it is, "treated as a "normal eidolon of the summoner’s class level" then shouldn't we pick those for the eidolon's progression since those should be fixed? Or do we get to decide what it has when split?

All in all I love the flavor of the Synthesist; but it needs a great deal of clarification imo. Of course I'm new here so maybe I'm just missing something.

I was going to say if you simply don't like those features, cause frankly I don't like them very much either, I recommend you check out the Sword Saint. Its the only Samurai Archtype we have and the efficiency till level 10 sorta sucks; but at the same time it's got a lot of flavor and gets rid of some of the more useless features for the Samurai like mounted archery. It's not great, but a step in the right direction imo.

Edit: I'd also recommend a look at the Kensai Magus archtype. When combined with a Bladebound archtype, I think you get a lot of what you're looking for. Take a look.

As NPC, Extra Ki is probably better: an NPC sees a lot less play than a PC, so you want him to have the right tool at the right time while at the same time not running out of gas when you need him to (Vanishing tricks or extra attacks)

If you build him with a lot of tricks, it's very likely that you'll have to go out of your way for the NPC to use them all as to not have wasted your time making the build

As a PC, the answer is a bit more difficult. I would say the answer depends on player style (You get bored if you repeat the same thing? Go extra tricks. You like to go nova and completely steal the show for only one fight? Go extra Ki), on DM style and on party composition.

I've never played a ninja (though I want to), but I've used one as boss: You can never have enough ki, period. I'd assume that as a player, I'd feel the same way, so I'd go for extra Ki

I think you're right; after reading what you wrote I decided to build up two versions of the character up to level 9 just to see which is "better"(since I have a lot of time to waste right now and I consider this a learning experience) and the extra Ki feats & Forgotten trick seems way more versatile and has way more "nova" potential. Thanks for the input!

Hello everyone,

I've just started running a Pathfinder game after running a Star Wars Saga game for a number of years and frankly I'm not quite as familiar with this system so I would like some input on the build one of the first major NPC's my party will encounter.

So the character is a dex based TWF Human ninja after consulting the ninja guide and comming to the conclusion that's more or less what I want them to be but I've hit a snag with the feats. I don't want to go too deeply into TWF(Basically just grabbing only TWF for the extra sneak attack) so I'm left with a lot of extra ones. One build I'm considering is getting extra tricks(through the extra rouge talent feat) and thus giving them a lot more utility and a lot more ninja flavor. OR I can have them take Forgotten Trick to essentially give them access to ALL the basic tricks; and stock up on Extra Ki feats to offset the additional cost.

So I was curious, which of these would generally be considered better as an Antagonist and/or as an Ally? Or hell, just to play?