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Hi folks! I have a character planned out for an upcoming game. Normally I don't care too much about optimization and focus more on flavor however this one legitimately has me a bit stumped. The idea itself is quite unique and as such is not exactly "super powerful." So I'm asking you, the genius residents of the advice forum to help me toughen him up a bit (if he needs it). I've done alot of my homework already and as such have what I believe is a very good foundation. This character is going to be played in the WotR AP, so no spoilers.

Certain things are non negotiable, character must be a dwarven wizard (any type!) that becomes a rift warden, and must be a "slugger" with high survivability. Must take Inscribe Magical Tattoo as 5th level feat. Minimal to none offensive casting. 25 point buy, everything else is fair game. My current build is below:

25 Point Buy

Str - 17
Dex - 12
Con - 17
Int - 15
Wis - 9
Cha - 8

Race: Dwarf
Class Transmuter 5/Riftwarden 2
Banned: Evocation, Necromancy
1st - Steel Soul
1st - Scribe Scroll (might try to convince DM to let me take SF like in PFS)
3rd - Spell Penetration
5th - Spell Focus Abjuration
5th - Inscribe Magical Tattoo
7th - Arcane Strike (really not great, but the mythic version is good)

At level 1 this makes my saves respectable vs Spells/SLAs and Poisons, it also give me a +5 to hit, and a decent amount of damage. Comparable to almost any 1st level fighter. As I get higher levels I plan on offsetting the loss of BAB with buff spells (bulls strength gives me early enhancements to hit and damage, heroism, haste, false life, blur, mirror image, shield, mage armor, enlarge person, reduce person) Lots of really good buff spells to suit my needs.

This character will be starting at level 1, so keep that in mind. He needs to be survivable and effective from level 1 all the way up. The adventure path is based on fighting demons, as such he's built with that in mind. Swift actions after level 5 are pretty much spent on counterspelling till about level 12ish, hence why arcane strike isn't great (although the mythic is!)

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!

So we're going to be starting the WoR AP right away and I'm playing a Dwarven Wizard, transmuter. His spells will ONLY be used for buffing and counterspelling. As such, starting at 6th level, I plan to do as much counter summoning/teleporting as I possibly can. However, the uniqueness of the class has me pondering the rules, so I'm looking for a couple quick answers!

1 - Counter Summons, the level 1 rift warden ability gives them the ability to counter summon monster spells as if using the quicken metamagic feat. This text is very unclear as to what type of action your using. The ability begins by telling you to "ready an action" which RAW takes your standard action to do, it then continues on to tell you that this makes the spell a "swift action." My question is, which is it? Is it I ready a standard IE - attack on approach, and in addition I get to cast a quickened counterspell should the need arise? Or do I just ready the swift and use my turn as normal? Or do I lose my standard and my swift? The last obviously making the least sense

A Riftwarden can ready an action to use a summon monster spell or spelllike ability as a counterspell, even though the casting time for a summon monster spell is 1 full round. When used this way, the summon monster spell is treated as though quickened to a swift action via the Quicken Spell metamagic feat, though its spell level is not increased, and it can be used only to counterspell. When used to counterspell, a summon monster spell can counter any conjuration (summoning) spell or spell-like ability of its level or lower, including an outsider’s summon ability.

At 4th level, a Riftwarden can ready an action to counterspell a teleportation effect that allows a creature to enter or exit an area within 30 feet of her. She can use Spellcraft to identify a teleportation effect immediately as creatures arrive and can counter the teleportation effect with an identical spell or with any Riftwarden conjuration spell of at least 1 spell level higher, returning teleporting creatures to their point of origin.

3 - Improved counterport, Is there some reason this ability doesn't function off of "relevant ability of the spellcasting class she selected" like every other class feature? It seems oddly specific that it is the only ability utilizing charisma, when even the channeling ability (normally a CHA based ability) uses core casting stat. Just a possible FAQ/Typo question :D

Anyways if you can help with any of these it would be greatly appreciated. I know my DM and play group would love to have these answered prior to me showing up with my awesome dwarven goodness :D

So, after using our healthy search function I have been unable to locate a definitive answer on this. I would like to craft an intelligent item. As far as I can tell, they aren't that expensive. However, there is no explanation behind caster level of spells intelligent items can cast at. Lets say I want to craft a weapon that can cast Mage Armor as a 20th level caster (Increasing the duration to 20 hours).

According to the intelligent item rules, It would cost 1200 gp to cast a 1st level spell 3 times per day.

300 Masterwork cost
2000 +1 enhancement cost
500 base cost for intelligent item
200 to increase casting stat to 11
1200 to cast Mage Armor 3/day

Total Cost - 4200

This however states that the spell is cast at the caster level of the item. How to determine this is unexplained. Numerous people have stated you use the minimum caster level required to create the item. For items such as bracers of armor, ring of prot, etc. this makes sense. However if I'm using a weapon, shield or armor this tends to get a little hazy. Minimum caster level to craft a +1 Magic Sword would be caster level 3rd (5th for the feat, but crafted at 3rd). If I make this a +2 sword at a later time, does this improve the caster level of the weapon to 6th?

In addition to this since a +5 enhancement bonus on a weapon is the maximum, does this mean it is impossible to make an intelligent weapon cast at anything above 15th level?

As well along these lines is there anyway to improve the caster level without improving the enhancement bonus of the weapon. For example a +1 sword that can cast 20th level mage armor.

Thanks in advance, I apologize if this was already gone over, but unfortunately search failed me, and thusly I need you, the great community, to come to my aid.

EDIT - By my calculation to apply a Command Word enhancement to it would cost 7200 gp. This would allow me to use my own action to cast a 1st level spell as a 20th level caster, once per day. If I did it this way would this allow the intelligent item to cast all it's spells at 20th level? In addition, would the magic item be able to use it's own actions to active the command word, as it does get it's own actions per round?

As well if I added an additional command word enhancement to this item like invisibility would I be forced to pay the cost as though it was added by a 20th level creator, even if I only needed it to cast at say 6th level? By my count casting it at 20th level would increase the cost to 14400 whereas adding it at 6th level caster would only make it about 1/3rd of that. Thanks as well for my random edits!

So, I'm planning on playing a maneuver based fighter for a Shattered Star campaign. I'm looking for a way to optimize this character for combat, while still maintaining decent flavor. Rules are 15 point buy, any pathfinder books, build must be useful from level 1-13.

What I have so far -

Half Elf Lore Warden Fighter 1

Feats -
1st - Ancestral Arms (Flying Talon), Combat Reflexes, Weapon Finesse
2nd - Combat Expertise, Weapon Focus (Flying Talon)
3rd - Improved Disarm
4th - Weapon Specialization (Flying Talon)
5th - Improved Trip
6th - Greater Trip
7th - Greater Disarm

As far as I know Flying Talon is the only 1 handed weapon that is finesseable, has reach, and can trip/disarm. This allows me to use a masterwork Klar/buckler or light shield with no penalty. Suggestions?

Welcome to the first round of a new game I like to refer to as Pimp my Kobold. Most people generally agree that kobolds are the weakest monster race. With that said, lets make some kobolds that really shine in terms of optimization. Requirements - 20 point buy, build must be at least level 7, must maintain a kobold theme (even if it's obscure). I'd like to start it off with:

Galadeus, The Cursed Thorn

Chatoic Neutral Rogue (Poisoner 7)

Stats: Str 10, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 7
HP: 66
Initiative: 10
AC: 24, Touch 15, Flat Footed, 20
Saves: Fort +5, Ref +10, Will +6
Feats: Improved Initiative, Shadow Strike, Toughness, Iron Will
Traits: Reactionary, Indomitable Faith
Abilities: Darkvision 60ft, Gliding Wings, Light Sensitivity, Sneak Attack 4d6, Poison Use, Evasion, Master Poisoner, Uncanny Dodge, Rogue Talents - Finesse Rogue, Ninja Trick - Pressure Point, Swift Poison
Important Skills - Craft (Alchemy) 14, Stealth 18, Acrobatics 14, UMD 8

Attack:Rapier +11 1d4+5 (+4d6 sneak attack, +1 Str or Dex Damage, + Poison) 18-20/x2

Longbow +11 1d6+2 (+4d6 Sneak Attack, +1 Str or Dex damage, +poison) 20/x3

Equiptment: +1 Agile Rapier , +1 Mithral Chain Shirt, Assorted Arrows (Silver, Adamantine, Cold Iron), +1 Buckler, +1 Composite +1 Str Longbow, Ring of Prot +1, Cloak of Resistance +1, Wand CLW, Random Adventuring Gear, Assorted Poisons (Deathblade, Wolfsbane, Dark Reaver), Wand of Invis 5 charges

Basically Galadeus wants to start off comabt invis, opening up with a big sneak attack, preferably with a heavy hitting con poison. Against enemies with low strength, he may shoot for a str hitting poison in order to encumber them past the point of usefulness. Galadeus will forgo his move action in favor of swift poisoning usually, especially if he believes he can maintain an advantage by staying in combat.

Galadeus is covered in the black scales of his tribe. He was revered at birth due to the wings protruding from his back. The other members of the tribe thought him more closely related to their god, Nebulu, a black dragon who nests in their swamp. As such Galadeus had a fairly easy life, that was until one day a band of adventurers came and slew Nebulu. Galadeus watched as the adventurers dispatched of his god with ease. After the battle, Galadeus approached them, and asked that he be taught their ways in order for him to grow strong and smart enough to lead his tribe. The alchemist member of the band, Kedral, took in Galadeus and showed him how to extract and make poisons. This became a passion of Galadeus, and eventually, he left the adventurers to pave his own way in the world.

Hello readers! As with all my work I shall begin with an introduction. I am Leland Grier, initiate member of the Pathfinder Grand Lodge of Absalom, pathfinder and scribe. The society sends me to assist particularly noteworthy pathfinders in there endeavors. I'm there to make sure that the amazing tales of these spectacular individuals are recorded! Some have a gift for the craft, others a gift for the sword, and others are true beacons of the gods, its these rare qualities that the society needs documented! So, its with the blessing of the Grand Lodge that I now present you with their tales, and know that it is because of these fine folk that Golarion is a safer place of being.

So, with that out of the way, the character I have planned is this! I want this character to be exactly as the description states, an author! So far, the concept I've come up with has him as an Aasimar Bard, working his way to becoming a pathfinder chronicler. The goal would be to be a SUPPORT hero. Although I'm new to PFS, I'm very experienced with Pathfinder in general. I'd like this character to be able to play with brand new players and be able to make them feel like the celebrities. With all that said, I'd like to optimize a character to make others feel optimized. Any help from my fellow forumites would be greatly appreciated!

The things I'm taking into account are, ability to make others feel tough in combat (buffing/debuffing). Being able to progress the story in ways newer players might not notice (knowledge checks, party face stuffs). Functionality as a party member (always useful, regardless of the situation/party make up). Lastly try to keep to the Bard 5/Pathfinder Chronicler 7 build, unless of course you can give me a good reason to go a different route, while maintaining flavor.

We started the skull and shackles campaign last night and so far its awesome. We just completed the fight with the 3 crabs after the 3 ghasts and have found ourselves on the island. My one question is does this get tough? So far we've handled this pretty easily so far, even going so far as to attack each other during some combats (were all evil and our motivations differ creating inter party conflict).

Our group consists of:

Gillman Barbarian 1/Oracle 1, going rage prophet. 15 str/16 dex/15 cha, interesting build

Aasimar Bard 2. Our captain

Tiefling (kyton) Rogue 2, will be going arcane trickster.

Dhampir Cleric 2, channels negative, didn't take selective channeling and is a total nutcase. Has gotten into physical conflict with the barbarian mid combat due to being hit by negative channels. Our negative channeler also survived a fast keelhauling, while failing every save. Channeling himself every round.

As you can see, our party is not stacked. All of our characters are well optimized for what we plan to do, but by no means did we take overpowered stereotypical builds. All of us are 25 point buy, and we allow no non pathfinder books, and no house rules.

The toughest fight we've had so far was with Plugg, scourge and co. We fought them without the help of any of the NPCS that are supposed to help you (we hate NPC's slowing down combat), and we failed to influence more than half the crew. It was still barely a challenge (our bard was dropped to negatives, but by the time that happened we had already clearly won). We also chose to initiate this fight the second the wormwood was out of sight. Meaning we engaged them all, at the same time, with no surprise rounds, during the middle of pluggs "things are going to be worse around here." speech.

Will skull and shackles pose a significant challenge for us or will we continue to trounce everything? I'd like to add, please no spoilers, just wanna know if we have some nerve rattling deaths coming our way.

Hello all, I've been trolling these boards asking questions about builds for a number of days now. I finally found one I want to play and just need help finalizing the numbers.

I would like to play an Inquisitor who specializes in using a gun. This will be for the paizo upcoming Skull and Shackles adventure path. His gun choice will be pistols if it matters.

The fluff of the character is - An inquisitor of Asmodeus who considers himself a paladin of Asmodeus. His goal is to track down spellcasters in particular binders and conjurers who are summoning and or controlling devils. His alignment will be Lawful Evil, and this will fit in fine with the group. However, he tends to lean more toward Lawful Neutral than evil, but him trying to free bound devils is pretty inherently evil.

Feel free to use both traits and any and all feats up to level 12. Please don't build a character that becomes good at the end of the AP, I need something constantly decent. He will be stylized after the gunslinger from Stephens king's The Gunslinger of the dark tower series. Leather trenchcoat and Cowboy hat included.

Thanks for any and all help.

So basically this challenge is this, to create a character who effectively only casts 1 spell, his entire career. I'm talking someone who just uses multiple different types of metamagic to pump this spell up into several higher spell slots, utilising and abusing metamagic to its fulled. The way I see it, the best candidates for this would be either - Magic Missile, Burning Hands, or Shocking Grasp. Either these or if focused on ability removal than touch of graclessness or ray of enfeeblement. Please post how effective it is at these 3 level intervals: Level 1, Level 5, Level 10.

I'll start it off with

Mr. Magic Missile.

Human Sorcerer 10, Arcane Bloodline
Traits: Magic Lineage (Magic Missile),Wangang Spellhunter (Magic Missile)
Feats:
1st - Spontaneous Metafocus, Empower spell
3rd - Toppling Spells
5th - Maximize Spell
6th (Sorcerer Bonus) - Combat Casting
7th - Quicken Spell
9th - Piercing Spell

1st
Empowered Magic Missile 3+(bonus spells) per day
1d4+1d2+1 = 7 Max(5 Avg)

5th
Empowered Toppling Magic Missiles 6+(bonus spells) per day
3d4+3d2+3 = 25 Max(15 Avg) + Free Trip Attempt
Empowered Maximized Toppling Magic Missiles 3+(bonus spells) per day
16+6+3 = 25 + Free Trip

10th
Empowered Toppling Maximized Quickened Piercing Magic Missiles 8+(bonus spells)
20+10+5 = 35 + Free Trip + Swift Action - CL+5 Higher vs SR

Also at this level you could have any combination of quickened + Empowered or Maximized + Empowered, 2 allow for nearly 30 other castings of the spells. Every 3rd level+slot can be used for quicken. Essentially every round your looking at casting 2 magic missiles, both maximized and empowered for an average damage of around 70 per round. Lots of times per day. Obviously one shield spell shuts all these missiles down but you have lots of spare castings to toss up a dispell magic to get rid of that :P

So lets continue with the challenge, optimize what we can I think the magic missile can be improved upon with a wizard, but don't have time to approach it. GL and happy optimizing.

Hi, so I've lurked around these boards for quite some time and myself and my gaming group have come to the general census that stalwart defender is underpowered unless you really optimize a build around it. Recently I came across a very over-powered feat - Antagonize. I've read several posts about this feat and I agree it is generally a ridiculous feat especially when used against casters and in conjunction with intimidate.

My idea was this - To utilize Antagonize in conjunction with the Stalwart Defender prestige in order to do what the class was meant to - Tank. The goal would be to goad both casters and melee bosses into closing with you, even when it wouldn't be in their best interest. I believe that using this feat in this manner, it could make the prestige class more useful, as well as keeping the Antagonize feat from becoming overly cheesy.

Any opinions on this would be useful, as well, I wouldn't mind if someone could come up with a Stalwart Defender build, preferably a Dwarf. Again the emphasis is on tank ability, which means either DPR or stickiness in order to keep the monsters on you.

Preface: LONG POST AHEAD!

So I'm playing in a campaign where my Level 7 Mystic Theurge unfortunately just turned into a future BGG (Big Good? Guy). Now the party has shifted from good, to evil, this all began with the welcome of a new barbarian and our paladin falling from grace. Our group constantly has inter party conflict and we all enjoy it that way. With that said I need help in building a viable Asmodean judge. Every character in our games needs to be able to hold their own should his views conflict with the others, as well he should be flavorful and interesting.

I had 2 ideas so far the first was going Cleric 7/Holy Vindicator taking feats like Negative Energy Affinity and Improved/extra channel in order to be a negative energy channeling powerhouse as well as a good melee buffer/beater. The main problem with this build is that when I take my first level of Holy Vindicator I'm going to switch into heavy armor and throw away my mace infavor of a hammer. From a RP perspective this shift is kind of lame.

The second idea I had was 1 Fighter/6 Cleric focusing on just being an up and close Law-Bringer (Emphasis on the bringer).

The build requirements are that the character must be level 7 (plans for future levels are fine as well). He must be Lawful Evil and worship asmodeus. As well his weapon should be a warhammer (judge). Stats are 25 point buy. Some other things which would be interesting if possible would be potential to bind evil outsiders later, as well as some sort of communication skill (diplomacy, bluff, intimidate, power attack :P)

We just finished the second book on the Carrion Crown adventure path and are about the begin the third. Which means we are probably going to be fighting lots of undead/cultists/shapechangers (judging by the loot we got from the second book). Thanks in advance, anything you can add would be great