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You could always lie to them about what alignment they are. Tell them they are what they THINK they are, not what they actually are. That way there is an extra layer in your story that might even be resolved by the caracters realising what they have become, since the DM is not a hurdle. The game flows smoother, grows deeper and allows you to laugh maniacally (on the inside) as you let them dig deeper or try to redeem themselves, or whatever story you have planned for them.
I admit to being a bit biased since we avoid using alignments and their restrictions, but you could simply not tell them anything about alignment shift and play out the consequences. That is unless there are specific spells or effects you are using that target or use alignment. Act mysterious and don't actually specify anything about it, but have consequences that may even seem unfair ie. "Why is everyone hunting us, we are the good guys!" Plus a world with easily accessible magic and witch hunts is a morally grey. Both sides have fair points as to why the other side is evil and they are good. So yeah, don't make your players stick to an alignment and impose penalties for violating it, just roll with it and show them that actions have consequences.
Also, little known fact, shouting "WHEEEEEEEE" actually doubles the divine grace bonus in such situations. When falling down a pit yelling "Oh SHIIIIII*thud*" gives you a second saving throw. True story.
He will ascend! Until he's out of reach of the spell. And then fall again. And then ascend again.....
How about a classic Cavalier/Inquisitor team? Between challenge and bane they can have a really good damage output. Moreover, they both get bonus teamwork feats they can share with each other allowing for a wide range of tactics, the final one of which would be coordinated charge. When one of them charges the other one can as well. Combined with the cavalier's ability to execute a free bull rush manoeuvre with each charge and push the enemy back allowing another charge, you have velociraptor attacks, constantly criss crossing the enemy for massive damage.
Most fun thing for me has to be when DMing a futuristic campaign using the Pathfinder rules for simplicity's sake. One of the players was fighting an enemy in the air and he ended up in a building with the enemy on the outside. He decided it would be a cool idea to shoot the glass and jump through it, but it was shatter-proof so he brained himself on it. The bad guy escaped, they got desperate and a few sessions later it had escalated to the point where they blew up a skyscraper which was the workplace of another party member and started and intergalactic war. Personal funnest moment is the fight with Xanesha in Rise of the Runelords. The party cleric was charmed and I failed to dispel it. This was followed by the rogue hitting her with a drow poison bolt. She rolled a one. The barbarian tries to coup de grace her but the cleric stops him without fighting him and uses alternative channelling - self perfection to allow her to ignore one temporary condition since he failed to heal her with a heal check of 1 and a vial of antitoxin. She still uses her one round awake to jump of the building and my wizard flies after her. On the rooftop the party is trying to subdue the cleric which is turning his attitude from friendly to indifferent and then the rogue sneak attacks him into hostile. The barbarian is grappling to try to contain the situation while the rogue is trying to run away from the now enraged cleric. Did I mention the rogue is a dhampir who hides what he is and the cleric is of Iomedae? Because earlier in the session the rogue was healed by channel negative energy from the enemy while the cleric had status on him. Meanwhile, I have managed to web Xanesha on the side of the building and have a limp lash around her neck reducing her saves enough to fly up close and personal and coup de grace with my little dagger that I carry for cutting ropes and food. As far as boos fights go, we and the DM were thoroughly disappointed since THERE WAS NO FIGHT! However, the entire fight was so weird that it's so memorable.
williamoak, interesting build. Not quite what I'm going for fluff-wise but it definitely sounds awesome, a lot of interesting synergies. I will keep it in mind for any future high powered campaigns. Can't wait to see the finished version.
Thanks for the replies everyone, they have given me a lot more options to work with. Staggering Critical at 9th lvl is illegal Good catch, thanks. Also the general consensus seems to be that for survivability I need to focus a bit more on lay on hands instead of maximising damage. Move staggering critical to level 13, metallic wings to level 15 and take greater mercy at level 9. If I go for a polearm I won't take the wing feats as they have a range of 5ft, but then I can lower my strength and charisma a bit to boost dex and int with combat reflexes. Alternatively attack with the polearm and actually move ft towards the enemy at the end of my turn with a 5ft step, finishing the full attack and threatening them with wings but that is even more feat intensive. I'll make a couple of characters and see which sounds the coolest.
Could you buy a permanent shrink item boulder to use as a weapon? Granted it's 7500 per rock (I think diamonds are genuinely cheaper) but then with a single word the rock becomes a 2 ton boulder, or half a house or some such. This has the advantage of it being not any rock, but YOUR rock. Now how to get around the limitation of only the original caster being able to do that...
Trip and attacks of opportunity. I actually like the idea, it's different than what I usually play. Can give up the wings for demoralise abilities like cornugon smash thus reducing saves for the casters to go to town. Dip polearm fighter to be able to threaten adjacent squares, reduce strength and charisma to 16 and raise int and dex. Something like that?
I should also say that I am not 100% gung ho about the class, so other class suggestions that would fulfil the same role are welcome. My only condition is that it has to have nice fluff to it.
So a friend is running a campaign (Savage Tide for those interested) that we have managed to break over our knee with a shattering crunch. Our party consisted of a battlefield control conjuration specialist wizard (me), a debuffer cleric, a wild shape focused green faith acolyte druid, a paladin and a bard. At level 6 me and the druid cowboyed up and took on the sargasso mother of all. She died in two turns thanks to some lantern archons, a double charge from the druid and the companion and a massive boulder (love shrink item) dropped on the thing from 180ft. On top of that, the monster had a bit over 300hp and DR/10- to make it harder. The problem we had is that there was no party cohesion mostly due to how optimised our characters were. As a result, we have agreed that we died in a shipwreck and can start with some more "character" characters....and everyone is either ranged or a spellcaster. As a result of this, and the fact that there's apparently demons in the campaign, I'm going for a paladin so we can have someone in the front. In order for the math to check out and me to be able to survive under that much fire while still returning damage, I need more than the regulation number of attacks. Being aasimar with metallic wings is both flavourful and gives me two extra attacks, at the cost of three fairly useless feats. I have also toyed with the idea of dipping synthesist, calling the eidolon a celestial spirit and growing multiple wings. Desperately need help here if I am to survive more than a couple of turns in combat while keeping ALL enemies at bay. And so I turn to you. Current Stats:
AC 21 with full plate
Melee attacks w/ haste and power attack
Feats
As you can see, I am wasting 4 feats for two extra attacks and pushing feats needed for battlefield mobility to really late levels. I am almost entirely certain this will not be hold up at high levels and I'll either die or fail at keeping the enemies away from the party. Any ideas, obscure magic items or interesting dips to improve damage output and survivability?
I am personally partial to the Worm that Walks. Full spellcaster, odd immunities and is really awkward to fight. I have also found that awkward encounters tend to be harder and more memorable than just a monster with lots of hit points and damage. Flying, teleporting, fast moving enemies with strange special abilities and immunities are good fun. Antipaladin mounted on drake doing flyby attack maybe?
I would also probably argue that attacking an enemy like that gives you the advantage of higher ground.
Remember, if you double a double, you get a triple in PF. Huh, totally did not know that. Thanks! And yes, it is horribly impractical and situational. Nice to know that it might work once in a campaign though.
I've been toying with the idea of playing a lancer paladin in a campaign for a while now. Discussing it today with a fried who favours the druid we came up with an idea to make a single boss-killing ubercharge once a day (or more at level 20). So, is our idea legal and practical, or utter nonsense and we should be ashamed of inflicting it to the world? Prerequisites:
NOTE: It is assumed the paladin is using a one handed weapon for the purposes of this exercise, NOT a lance, or even a two handed weapon as it is just a thought exercise at the moment, not an optimisation. It assumed that the animal companion and the paladin do about +30 damage (absurdly low, but keeping the numbers small) Combat proceeds as follows: Round 1
Round 2
Total attacks: 12
Should this be possible, the damage output would realistically be even higher as the first attack from both mount and rider gets double smite damage, power attack, holding the weapon two handed and having good attributes could push each attach to at least +40. Could it be enhanced by a cavalier's spirited charge? Would you be able to use a lance for double damage of the charge attack (effectively making it x4) dropping the lance and quick drawing a non-reach weapon? Suggestion? Ideas? |
