Sambo's page

I'm building a character for level 7 and I want it to be ranged. I want it to be fun to play and also powerful in terms of damage output. I don't want to be using tons of magic, but some buff or utility spells are fine. So apart from Rapid Shot, Precise Shot, Deadly Aim and so on, what are the best feats/races/classes that I should choose in order to do this? If you already have some fun builds at around this level, feel free to post the link.

Sambo wrote:

If you have any builds you think are more powerful than this at around the same level, if you have any recommendations to improve this, or if you might have noticed something i didn't that makes this build not work the way it should, just post your suggestions.

When you bill a build as "overpowered" and then get the key mechanics (potentially) wrong, don't be surprised when people follow your directions and point it out. Sorry, Sambo. :P

And instead of saying "lots of GMs don't allow gunslingers because gunslingers are overpowered", try saying "lots of GMs don't allow gunslingers". Don't bring controversy into an unrelated issue. If you do, don't expect people to ignore it. This is the internet, and we have time to read carefully.

I apologize for any confusion, I probably should have labeled the post differently. I was hoping to see overpowered builds rather than try to defend my rough draft example. Also, no one has pointed out something i did wrong yet. The Two Handed Thrower feat working with the lesser hurling is the only one that is left to interpretation, and i'm pretty sure it would work in any home game.

This thread didn't go as I had thought it would. I posted what appeared to be a fun build with decent damage. I just wanted to see some cool builds with more damage than it or maybe some suggestions to improve this. Instead, it got ripped to shreds, some people told me I was trying too hard to build a gunslinger that isn't a gunslinger, and then the conversation switched to wizards being overpowered. If you're going to provide some builds or suggestions, then go ahead. If not, please keep all irrelevant arguments/conversations out.

Jodokai wrote:

CWheezy wrote:

Sambo wrote:

At level 2 he one-shot-killed a cr 11 enemy

Maximum gunslinger damage at level 2 is

4d12 + 4 pb + 8 DA, so 60 damage. Did that gm not know what cr means, I think there are zero cr 11 monsters with 60 hp lol. Its not really any more than a fighter using s scythe, the 4x crit mod sometimes kills things above your pay grade.

The most broken classes are from core :^). Wizard, cleric, druid. Tbh it sounds like your group isn't far into pathfinder optimization

Is a fighter with a scythe using touch AC with range? If you don't know the problems gunslingers cause, I'm not sure his group is the one behind.

Gunslingers are just Fighters who attack touch AC. All they do is damage.

In optimization terms, damage is one of the weakest things in the game. Often necessary, yes, but if it's all your character can do, your character is weak.

Gunslingers use crossbows that attack touch AC and sometimes explode. Whoop de doo. Their damage can be impressive, but without (now defunct) shenanigans like TWFing with double barreled pistols and getting 4x the attacks they would normally have they actually deal about the same damage or even LESS than a similarly optimized Archer character when you do the math.

As for OHKOing a CR 11 enemy, unless the guy was like a 10 Con Wizard or something, that's not even possible. And even then that guy has around 50 hp (12th level) and False Life or something could even potentially save him.

The average HP for CR 11 is 145. Unless you play a game that involves super double mega ultra crits of doom, the guy is physically incapable of one-shotting a CR 11 enemy. He's not even capable of dealing the 73 damage required to trigger the Massive Damage optional rule.

I'm not sure exactly how it went because i heard it passed on by 2 people, but i think he had a double barreled shotgun or pistol or something, and got a crit. It may have been one turn, instead of one shot. Either way, it's still ridiculous.

Sambo wrote:

Well, we're level 7, so maybe a 4-6 expected bonus to reflex? some outliers here and there. I think it should work pretty well ranged. I don't plan on doing a lot of melee since the ranged attacks are better. That last part on the weight of the rock. . .yeah. . .800lbs. So I can throw it 150ft with decent accuracy, but I can only stumble around with it. . .seems legit. I guess i'll be needing a bag of holding.

Bag of Holding involves a move action to pull something out from it.

I checked out your build. Seemed pretty good, but i didn't see where you got the proficiency with rocks. They're improvised weapons, right? I'm probably missing it, but still great build. I didn't consider going more fighter than barb, i guess that would help since i'm feeling feat-deprived with this.

Sambo wrote:

Well, we're level 7, so maybe a 4-6 expected bonus to reflex? some outliers here and there. I think it should work pretty well ranged. I don't plan on doing a lot of melee since the ranged attacks are better. That last part on the weight of the rock. . .yeah. . .800lbs. So I can throw it 150ft with decent accuracy, but I can only stumble around with it. . .seems legit. I guess i'll be needing a bag of holding.

Bag of Holding involves a move action to pull something out from it.

Can't Quick Draw something out of it?

Sambo wrote:

Qaianna wrote:

Sambo wrote:

CWheezy wrote:

They aren't touch attacks dude, lol. The feats you mentioned don't interact.

also well built barbarians have excellent will saves, only beat by paladins and sine monks. Not sure why you think they are usually bad.

I laughed pretty hard at gunslingers being known overpowered.

Actually, they are touch attacks. Read the lesser hurling rage power.

Doesn't that grant a save? And ... um ... how big are those rocks? (I know, nothing you want to ask a raging orc, but still ... )

Oh yeah, forgot to mention the save. It's DC 21 reflex at this level ( 10 + 1/2 barb's level + str modifier). The rocks are small sized, so about 3ft in diameter.

DC 21 raging reflex save ... I'll need others to tell me how well that works in practice.

I don't think you can get 2d6 damage on a melee rock at that point, if it's Small. And I'm not sure how many of these 3' rocks you can carry around.

3' diameter is about 45cm. Volume of a 45cm-radius ball is 45 cubed times pi times 4/3, so about 381,704 cc.

Water is 1 g/cc, so a 3' ball of water is about 381,704 grams, or 382kg or thereabouts. Rocks are known for being ... denser.

Oof.

Well, we're level 7, so maybe a 4-6 expected bonus to reflex? some outliers here and there. I think it should work pretty well ranged. I don't plan on doing a lot of melee since the ranged attacks are better. That last part on the weight of the rock. . .yeah. . .800lbs. So I can throw it 150ft with decent accuracy, but I can only stumble around with it. . .seems legit. I guess i'll be needing a bag of holding.

Edit: 800lbs if that was water, so more than that.

Sambo wrote:

CWheezy wrote:

They aren't touch attacks dude, lol. The feats you mentioned don't interact.

also well built barbarians have excellent will saves, only beat by paladins and sine monks. Not sure why you think they are usually bad.

I laughed pretty hard at gunslingers being known overpowered.

Actually, they are touch attacks. Read the lesser hurling rage power.

Doesn't that grant a save? And ... um ... how big are those rocks? (I know, nothing you want to ask a raging orc, but still ... )

Oh yeah, forgot to mention the save. It's DC 21 reflex at this level ( 10 + 1/2 barb's level + str modifier). The rocks are small sized, so about 3ft in diameter.

They aren't touch attacks dude, lol. The feats you mentioned don't interact.

also well built barbarians have excellent will saves, only beat by paladins and sine monks. Not sure why you think they are usually bad.

I laughed pretty hard at gunslingers being known overpowered.

Actually, they are touch attacks. Read the lesser hurling rage power.

They aren't touch attacks dude, lol. The feats you mentioned don't interact.

also well built barbarians have excellent will saves, only beat by paladins and sine monks. Not sure why you think they are usually bad.

I laughed pretty hard at gunslingers being known overpowered.

My GM's friend was a gunslinger once. His GM was mad because he was killing the enemies too easily, so he sent the gunslinger to his "death". At level 2 he one-shot-killed a cr 11 enemy

Yeah just go gunslinger more attacks same to hit chance

Gunslinger's just a powercreep class. Also, my GM probably wouldn't allow gunslingers because they're known to be overpowered. And i think it's cool to be super strong and throw rocks the size of children at people.

Erm, pretty much ANY build trumps this as far as damage goes. By level 7 your average no frills melee Barbarian is dealing 2d6+17 easily...WITHOUT needing to spend more Feats than Power Attack, and without dumping all his other stats into the dirt to achieve his 24 Str as a Human, and without needing to put a bunch of Rage Powers into being able to chuck rocks, and with being able to overcome DR/Magic and other DRs down the line.

This build is a lot of effort for little benefit.

I don't know if you saw this part: they are touch attacks. 2d6+13 3 times per round hitting at a 95% chance, literally. . . at level 7. Maybe i should have bolded that part. It seems kinda hidden in the mediocre stats. The ranged raging attacks are what makes this build good.

I recently quit being a paladin in one of my games because it was not my playstyle, I was probably going to lose my abilities soon anyway. So, I did some research, made a few rough draft characters, and finally I stumbled across something beautiful:

Fred Flintstone (not roleplaying him, he just uses rocks)
Orc
Barbarian 5, Fighter 2
CN

AC 16, Touch 12, Flat 14 (chain shirt)
HP 84
Fort + 11, Ref + 4, Will + 0

Speed: 40
Melee, raging: Rock +16/+11 (2d6+13/13) gore + 11 (1d8+4)
Melee, not raging: rock + 14/9 (1d8+10/10)
Ranged, raging (preferred style,it is a touch attack): Rock + 14/14/9 (2d6+13/13/13)
Ranged, not raging(not touch attack): Rock + 12/12/7

Range of rocks: 30ft increments

Str: 25 (18 starting, 4 racial, 1 level, 2 enhancement, an extra +4 when raging)
Dex: 14
Con: 16
Int: 8
Wis: 7
Cha: 5

CMB 14, CMD 26, BAB 7
Feats: Catch off Guard, Two-Handed Thrower, Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Quick Draw, Throw Anything

Rage Powers: lesser hurling, lesser fiend totem
Barb Archetype: Hurler (+10ft range on thrown weapons)

Equipment: Chain Shirt, lesser belt of hurling, bag of rocks

The feats work perfectly to give me more attacks with the lesser hurling rage power. The lesser hurling rage power says I can throw a small sized rock as a touch attack with two hands as a full-round action, however the Two-Handed Thrower feat says i can throw any two-handed weapon as a standard action, and make all my possible attacks with Quick Draw. I got Throw Anything and Catch off Guard so i can use rocks as ranged weapons and melee weapons. The belt allows me to add my strength to attack rolls with thrown weapons and gives me +10ft range.

For being level 7, i think this build's offense is amazing. It's AC and Will are garbage, but they usually are for barbarians anyway.

If you have any builds you think are more powerful than this at around the same level, if you have any recommendations to improve this, or if you might have noticed something i didn't that makes this build not work the way it should, just post your suggestions.

My questions still need to be answered. Can i use Final Embrace on more than one claw attack per round? And can i use Final Embrace on more than one type of natural attack per round?

It's examples just like this why Final Embrace was recently errata'd. It is incredibly powerful.

Your GM is allowed (and encouraged) to set a reasonable limit on free actions.

Could you provide me with a link to the errata. I'd like to see what they changed.

EDIT: I found the errata, but it doesn't change anything in my case.

Shawn H wrote:

Johnny_Devo wrote:

Clearly this shouldn't work with a double-chained kama.

We're talking about an unchained monk here.

lol yeah I see the irony with it =P

That is a Coincidence, not Irony.

If it were, say, a weapon called the "Monk's Sword", but not only was the Monk not proficient, but could not Flurry with it, then that would be ironic.

You used incorrect capitalization, Mr. Grammar Nazi.

I've tried to research it on other forums, but i haven't found much on the topic. Here's my situation:

I'm playing a nagaji paladin 4/ sorcerer 1/ dragon disciple 1. I got the final embrace feat (even though nagajis don't qualify for the feat, my GM said they were close enough to the other races to qualify), which gives me grab and constrict. So, after I attack with a natural attack (sorcerer claws) I can attempt a grapple as a free action. If i succeed, i do constrict damage. So far, i've been rolling to see if i hit with any of my claw attacks and then doing the grapple after my attacks; BUT i found out that releasing a grapple is a free action. So what i'm thinking is: I could attack, grapple, constrict, release, attack, grapple, constrict, and an optional release with my 2 claws. This seems really powerful and it just doesn't seem like it could be possible.

So here are my questions:

1. Does final embrace only apply to one attack per round? If it doesn't:
1.b. Does it apply to other natural attacks in one round, such as the bite i will get at dragon disciple level 2.
2. Can you use an infinite amount of free actions per round?

Yes, which I why I said put your high Cha to work and see if you can't even the playing field. You could easily have a what, +11 Diplomacy by now?

And if it doesn't work, and you lose...call it a learning experience. Your Paladin learned not to commit himself to a fight he can't win and can't back out of.

There's not even a guarantee your Smite would work regardless. Given that these ogres haven't Raped you, killed you, cooked you, and eaten you (not necessarily in that order) yet, they're obviously not the norm for ogres. He could very well be Chaotic Neutral or something.

I numbered my responses according to the sections of your response:

1. I have a +8 diplomacy; decent, but not amazing. +11 would require me to not have dumped my intelligence so that i would have more skill ranks AND max out my diplomacy using the still small amount of skills ranks i would have had.

2. This cannot possibly be called a learning experience. Maybe for the GM, because he is a new GM and didn't go by a book, but not for me. There is no way around this, I'm the only competent 1 v 1 fighter in my group even without my abilities. The two other melee combatants in the group are the hunter and the rogue. The hunter is largely dependent on his Roc in combat and the rogue needs to sneak attack.

3. The ogre I will be fighting IS evil. I detected evil on him. The GM made the ogre society evil, for the most part, but they act more like a normal society, in general. I think it does help that the ogres are saving their appetites for the big chunky dwarves during tomorrow's feast, though.

Sambo wrote:

Rynjin wrote:

Sambo wrote:

maouse wrote:

How about you just beat them up? Take your lumps. Regen lost appendages if you lose? Enjoy that tasty Ogre Thumb if you win...

As for the detection - if they are specifically casting "detect magic" on the pit, while you fight: anything that doesn't say (EX) next to it has a magical aura. Both (SP) and (SU) are magical effects (and thus can be detected). Smite Evil (SU) glows like the sun to a "Detect magic" my friend... As does Lay On Hands (SU)...

I can't just go all out on this ogre, as i stated in my description of the situation in a reply.

You didn't say anything there about having a handicap that doesn't let you go all out, though. Why can't you go all out? The only restriction is "deal nonlethal" and "no magic".

Other than that, you're free to beat the s&@& out of him.

Hell, maybe ask nicely (roll Diplomacy) to see if the Ogre Clerics would let you use your Weapon Bond to get the Merciful property on your gauntlets to make it fair. Seems a harmless enough use of magic there.

My handicap is that there are about 2 thousand hungry ogres in the next room and a few hundred ogres in the same room we will be in. If i go all out and use magic, I will certainly die.

I didn't say you had to use magic.

You were asked "Why not just take your lumps and beat up the ogre"?

To which you replied "I can't go all out".

Which isn't an answer to the question. Just fight the guy.

Ok, i don't want to sound rude, but you didn't listen to me at all. I'm fighting an ogre that has above average stats and possibly a brawler level. So, he's either CR 4 or 5 and I'm fighting him alone. I'm level 4 and at a disadvantage already because I can't use any of my paladin combat bonuses. I NEED to beat this guy somehow. Also, I don't have weapon bond yet. That would also be magic, anyway.

I've never heard of the phrase "take your lumps". I figured it just meant "toughen up" or "just deal with it" or something like that.

I'm starting to wonder if you're right about the ogres not caring that I'm cheating. Maybe what they meant by "no magic" is no turning invisible, flying around, and summoning elementals to make the other guy fight. Maybe a little healing and some extra dmg and AC would be fine.

And for those of you who keep talking about how I will fall from cheating: There is absolutely no way we are going to get this dwarf unless I cheat. If I lose the fight, the dwarf will be cooked by the clerics and eaten by the guy I will fight in the Great Maw Feast. Many other dwarves will be eaten, but we can't save them being level 4 characters. I'm cheating for the greater good and I'm pretty sure my GM is fine with me doing it, but I might get caught. The GM told me that I might be able to convince a cleric to enlarge me so it's more of a "fair fight" in their perspective.

This is not a thread asking whether or not I will fall. It's a thread asking if these types of magic are detectable.

Sambo wrote:

maouse wrote:

How about you just beat them up? Take your lumps. Regen lost appendages if you lose? Enjoy that tasty Ogre Thumb if you win...

As for the detection - if they are specifically casting "detect magic" on the pit, while you fight: anything that doesn't say (EX) next to it has a magical aura. Both (SP) and (SU) are magical effects (and thus can be detected). Smite Evil (SU) glows like the sun to a "Detect magic" my friend... As does Lay On Hands (SU)...

I can't just go all out on this ogre, as i stated in my description of the situation in a reply.

You didn't say anything there about having a handicap that doesn't let you go all out, though. Why can't you go all out? The only restriction is "deal nonlethal" and "no magic".

Other than that, you're free to beat the s&@& out of him.

Hell, maybe ask nicely (roll Diplomacy) to see if the Ogre Clerics would let you use your Weapon Bond to get the Merciful property on your gauntlets to make it fair. Seems a harmless enough use of magic there.

My handicap is that there are about 2 thousand hungry ogres in the next room and a few hundred ogres in the same room we will be in. If i go all out and use magic, I will certainly die.

How about you just beat them up? Take your lumps. Regen lost appendages if you lose? Enjoy that tasty Ogre Thumb if you win...

As for the detection - if they are specifically casting "detect magic" on the pit, while you fight: anything that doesn't say (EX) next to it has a magical aura. Both (SP) and (SU) are magical effects (and thus can be detected). Smite Evil (SU) glows like the sun to a "Detect magic" my friend... As does Lay On Hands (SU)...

I can't just go all out on this ogre, as i stated in my description of the situation in a reply.

While healing bruises may be less obvious than healing open wounds, it's still pretty obvious. Particularly when you're the center of attention. Particularly when you're being constantly scrutinized for cheating.

You make a fair point. I'm pretty sure the perception of ogres would be low, though. I checked the average Wis of an ogre cleric and it's 12. I don't think my sleight of hand/stealth roll would be too high, but neither would the ogre's perceptions.

Milo v3 wrote:

maouse wrote:

So let me get this right: Your PALADIN is planning on CHEATING in a fight to win? ... ok then... ( Step away from Lawful five feet... lol... lawful evil is still lawful, right? )

Cheating isn't evil, it's chaotic. Cheating once wouldn't be anywhere near close enough for a paladin to change alignments.

I wasn't saying it was evil. I was stating that there is a Lawful Evil alignment that is still LAWFUL, and that a Lawful Good Pali continually breaking the laws of a land simply to "get to the evil quicker" would step one towards "not caring about law" towards NG... and thus, not be a goodie two shoes law abiding goodie goodie. Yes, there is a wide line between lawful good and lawful stupid, I know, and as this player has stated, he is not necessarily a classic Paladin, which is fine. I was joking anyway. A good example of a Paladin who isn't a goodie two shoes would be a "Enlightened Paladin" archetype that barely even has to be LG in their actions to qualify as "keeping the code"... which they write themselves.

Ok, i never said i wasn't the classic Pali. In fact, I act like a classic Pali in pretty much every situation I am in, including this one. I'm not going to follow the laws built by a society consisting only of chaotic evil creatures. I described the situation in a reply. I didn't think it mattered in the OP and, honestly, it doesn't.

Sambo wrote:

Not really the best races for role-playing purposes

BWAHAHAHAAAAA. Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

Anyway, to answer your question. I'm not sure whether Smite Evil would show up on detect magic, but the target of the smite can tell that they are being smited, because the Warding armor enchantment seems to suggest so. Also, observers might notice the paladin's injuries vanishing every time he taps himself with a hand, even if the clerics don't detect any magic.

That's a pretty difficult situation your GM put you in. Best of luck.

And to other posters, the OP is asking about whether or not his paladin should fall, he's just asking about the rules on detect magic vs supernatural abilities. Don't turn this into one of those paladin threads, please.

Well, to be fair, the damage would be nonlethal, since it is a "friendly fight". So, maybe people wouldn't notice the damage being healed because there aren't any huge wounds on my body.

Detect Magic notes that "detect(s) magical auras" but only give rules for magic items and spells. There is no discernible way to determine the aura of anything other than magic items and spells. Thus, it may say there is a magic aura (though this is dubious, and heavily subject to fiat), but there is no way to determine what it is.

Incidentally, do you have magic aura available? That would entirely cover all your problems.

I do not have access to magic aura, and i don't think it would help anyway since i'm not an object, or at least i don't think creatures count as objects. And besides, I would need a level 64 caster to cast the spell on me. (5lbs per level, i weigh 320 pounds)

I don't think the rest of the party matters, but just in case you want to know: we have an elf rogue (disguised as an orc during our time in the city), a human Hunter with a Roc companion, a Vishkanya sorcerer (i don't know how to spell it, it's a snake person), some kind of fox-person race oracle, and a nagaji paladin (me). Not really the best races for role-playing purposes, but they are optimized! They really can't do anything during or before the fight. We will be fighting right before the Great Maw Feast, so about two thousand hungry ogres will be in the building all crammed together in the room next to the pit fight. If anyone tries anything funny, we all die.

EDIT: I forgot to also note that there will be a few hundred ogres in the room of the pit fight watching. That includes the ogre clerics.

It really does not matter because if you attempt to use either ability you are breaking the rules of the fight. Cheating in a friendly fight is not really an honorable thing to do. Probably not enough to cause you to fall, but if I were the GM your abilities would fail as a warning.

Ok, i guess i have to give the background anyway. My character doesn't care about the local laws or even those of the country. It is an orc/goblin/ogre country that we entered just to find an important dwarf prisoner being held by the ogres. My deity certainly does not care about being honorable to ogres. My deity is Iomedae, god of glory, sun, truth maybe, and some other irrelevant things. The paladins of this god send crusades on "innocent" evil races, monsters, and other groups. I have a phylactery of faithfulness, so as long as I contemplate something I can't really fall. Keep in mind that only evil acts and breaking the code of conduct make a paladin fall, not breaking laws(I have to say, most of the time breaking the code of conduct would mean breaking the law, but not in this particular case). The only reasons I am concerned with the rules of this fight are: 1. We could fail to get the dwarf. 2. I could lose an important finger, like a thumb or something!

In the campaign I am playing right now, I am a 4th level paladin. It is a very, very, very long story so I won't go into the details of how this happened, but I was chosen by my party to fight an ogre in a pit fight. It is a friendly naked pit fight: no armor, no weapons, not even any clothing at all; loser loses an ear or a finger, chosen and consumed by the winner. Magic is not allowed and ogre clerics will be detecting it everywhere.

We figured I had the best chance of winning due to my smite and lay on hands, but I'm not sure if I would be able to use them. Smite is magic, but is it detectable? My GM said it would probably leave scorch marks or something, so even if it's not detectable people would notice. I argued that it didn't do energy damage, so it wouldn't leave any kind of energy damage marks, only bleeding and bruises.

That lead me to another question: Smite Evil is a magic ability, but does it do magic damage and/or do "magical effects"?

Lay on Hands is definitely magic, and it may be detectable. It's a swift action, it requires somatic components (need one free hand), probably requires verbal components, and it is noticeable healing. If you could somehow find a way for me to be safe using Lay on Hands, I would love that because it would give me a ton of extra health, but I won't be disappointed nor surprised if i can't use it. I could argue against mundane ways of detecting the use of Lay on Hands by me just finding a way to touch my body without people noticing, such as putting my hand over my cheek after i just got punched in the face.

We left off the session the in-game day before the fight, so it's still debatable whether i can use Smite Evil or not. If I can't, I will certainly lose due to the 29 Str of the ogre and possibly a brawler level the GM will give him.

Recap of my questions:

1. Is Smite Evil detectable by Detect Magic?

2. Does Smite Evil leave any strange markings or create any visual effects such as light that would cause people to realize I am using magic?

3. Is Lay on Hands detectable by Detect Magic?

Remembering that it is tiny, you may have to check strength and weight to use a staff. It can definitely use your UMD ranks and ts Cha to use a wand. An imp familiar makes a great buffer.

Assuming you have a consular imp, it can use telepathy to be a fantastic translator. I don't think there is any rules support to learn different languages than you. It is using your skill ranks, not gaining its own ranks as you level.

I just looked it up, the imp's light load is 16.5 lbs. The staff of evocation, which is the one I am using, is 5 lbs.

I started a level 11 wizard and I chose the Imp from the list of Improved Familiars. I was wondering about the Inevitable Arbiter for the near-invincibility that is regeneration(chaotic)(the serious downside is that when it is unconscious it can't fly and it weighs like 60 lbs, which is too much for 8 str wizard to carry around) and the cacao daemon for its resistances, but I finally decided on the imp because it seemed useful in and out of combat. An at-will invisibility flying creature with DR, SR, and fast healing to deliver touch spells for me? yes please! It was the best for roleplaying as well because I am a tiefling. It also has all my skill ranks, which means I get 2 tries on knowledges, spellcraft, etc., and can speak(both verbally and telepathically), but above all: it has hands! This seems like a pretty useful creature, but it is really limited by its 40 health.

This leads me to these 2 questions:

1. Since it has hands, can it use a staff? If I invest enough points into UMD, it could have a decent chance of succeeding.

2. Can it learn different languages than me if I invest in Linguistics? It was our rogue's job to learn a lot of languages, but she will be leaving to college. If it could learn different languages, then I would get 2 languages per rank. It would also be an amazing translator because it can tell me everything through telepathy!

I've heard that sorcerers are better casters than wizards, but from what I've seen it's almost the opposite in every way possible. Wizards get access to higher level spells earlier than sorcerers (this really hurts sorcerers at low levels, a 3rd level sorcerer can still only cast 1st level spells), wizards can get more spells by paying a very small amount of gold, the Int stat is much more useful than Cha in my opinion, and due to that the wizard will almost always have better skills than the sorcerer. A high intelligence is super important for spellcraft and knowledges, especially at low levels. The extra known spells for a wizard also makes him better at making magical items than a sorcerer. The only thing I've seen that makes a sorcerer better in any way is the extra damage on certain energy spells from the draconic bloodline, but in order to really make that ability useful, you need to pick a lot of damaging spells...which aren't as useful as types of spells like buff, debuff, summon, or battlefield control. Is there any reason to pick sorcerer over wizard?

Separate question: My brother is GMing a campaign and he wanted to create a group of enemies that would mimic the party (in class choice as well as personality of each player) that would consistently be causing conflicts for the party. The enemies would probably be exactly the same level, so how would a GM keep one party from completely killing off the other after one fight? He wants to do it at around 5th to 10th level, so super high level magic is out.

One alternative is to be a Sacred Servant of a god with the Travel domain. Your base speed will increase by 10, and you'll have Longstrider in a bonus domain spell slot. That's 40 speed in full plate. Your divine bond will boost your spellcasting or healing.

That sounds interesting, but I think I want to focus more on damage output than healing. The horse would have 50ft speed and allow me to do three times damage on a charge. We have an oracle that helps with the healing.

I just started a new character and I chose paladin. Right now, it's a level 2 Nagaji (mostly for the +2 str and cha, but the +1 nat armor is good, too). My GM said Sulis is too overpowered with the resistances. The stats are:

19 str
14 dex
14 con
5 int
7 wis
18 cha

23 HP
21 AC

I plan on getting enlarged so my dex will fit nicely in full plate. I will put the 4th level ability increase in str, i might put 8th and 12th in cha.

I am having a difficult time deciding between the weapon bond and the animal bond. If I choose the animal bond, I will pick the Shining Knight archetype. I want the animal bond because it seems more fun than the boring sword and board fighter I had in another campaign (also because I want to avoid the painful 20ft movement speed I am experiencing right now), but I don't know what mounted combat feats I should take other than spirited charge. Are there any low cost magical items (10k gp or less) that compliment a mounted paladin? Also, what mount options are there for a large paladin? Would I have to apply the giant template to a horse?