Rakes can easily reach extremely high modifiers on their intimidate checks; 3d6 Sneak attack can be foregone for a free intimidate attempt with a +10 circumstance bonus, and 10d6 Sneak attack can be foregone for a free intimidate attempt with a +45 circumstance bonus.
Thugs can inflict the frightened condition at level 1 with Enforcer, but it lasts only 1 round, and subsequent attempts to intimidate are facing an ever-increasing DC. (+5 for every additional attempt)
The link above presents two builds; one Kensai Magus who focuses on the whip(main trick: Wand Wielder Arcana -> Spell combat with a Wand of True Strike and a Whip for Combat maneuvers)
and an Battle Oracle who does the same(Focuses on Dirty Trick + Grappleing with a Whip).
1st lvl:
You are a weak DEX-focused magus; use cantrips and spells to contribute.
4th lvl: You have a weak familiar; Dervish Dance allows you to deal some damage in melee.
8th lvl: You have an improved familiar(Nycar/Arbiter Inevitable for Regeneration; Silvanshee Agathion or Dweomercat Cub for pounce) buffed with Spirit's Gift; Spelldance allows you to gain a swift-action buff once per minute dancing.
12th lvl: You have Familiar Spellstrike and various Metamagicks(Intensified Shocking Grasps for 10d6 dmg; Rime Frostbites for debuffs)
16th: You have Spell Perfection(Shocking Grasp); you'll be using Empowered Intensified Shocking Grasps to deal 15d6 dmg with Spell Combat; you have Spellbreaker and Counterstrike to AoO mages.
20th: You have Teleport Tactician/Celestial Obedience(Arqueros), allowing you to AoO anyone who teleports/charges in the area you threaten.
You can replace feats with Evolved Familiar, if you want.
I'm thinking about how to create a familiar that can contribute as effective combatant, using options from Familiar Folio.
IMO, there are several ways to approach this:
1. Beastblade Magus:
Beastblade Magus
At 11th level, you get a free AoO every time your familiar delivers a touch spell.
Pre-buff your familiar with Frostbite, and go to town.
If you want an Improved Familiar, you need some way to qualify as arcane caster; SLAs no longer work because of a recent FAQ.
Improved familiars do not qualify for any familiar archetypes other than Sage, because they do not gain the *speak with animals* or *speak with master* abilities.
3. Bloodrager:
Bloodrager
Bloodragers have the option to trade their 1st-lvl bloodline power for a Bloodline Familiar.
Good Combat familiar options:
Draconic(Your familiar can sprout wings and fly)
Abyssal(Your familiar deals more damage with natural attacks)
Arcane(Your familiar gains more powerful buffs)
Destined(Your familiar delivers spells more easily)
You have several options:
1)ValetGoat familiar; use various Teamwork feats.
Amplified Rage only works if you adventure with/are a Skald or have some other easy way to allow your familiar to rage.
2)Use a Mauler familiar, together with the feat Mauler's Endurance to increase the HP of your familiar.
You may want an improved familiar with SLAs or Fast Healing/Regeneration instead; or the ability to use weapons.
Improved familiars do not qualify for any familiar archetypes other than Sage, because they do not gain the *speak with animals* or *speak with master* abilities.
Any advice/helpful comments/something crucial that I have missed?
Any useful magic items for familiars that allow them to fight/survive better?
1st: Cantrips, Bloodrage, Bloodline(Arcane), Bloodline Familiar(Goat), Fast Movement(+10'); Spirit's Gift
2nd: Uncanny Dodge
3rd: Blood Sanctuary; Celestial Servant
4th: Bloodcasting, Rage Powers(Energy Resistance(Sonic), Lesser Spirit Totem), +1 CHA; (Eschew Materials)
5th: Meta-Rage; Improved Familiar(Lightning Elemental)
6th: Bloodline feat(Rime Spell)
7th: DR 1/-; Toughness
8th: Bloodline Power(Greater Arcane Bloodrage), Bloodline Spell(Magic Missile), +1 CHA
9th: Bloodline feat(Intensify Spell); Power Attack
10th: DR 2/-
11th: Greater Bloodrage, Bloodline Spell(Invisibility); Dazing Assault
12th: Bloodline feat(Combat Reflexes), Rage Powers(Savage Dirty Trick, Come and Get Me), +1 CHA
13th: DR 3/-; Quicken Spell
14th: Bloodline Spell(Lightning Bolt), Indomitable Will
15th: Bloodline feat(Disruptive); Spell Perfection(Shocking Grasp)
16th: DR 4/-, Bloodline Power(True Arcane Bloodrage), +1 CHA
17th: Bloodline Spell(Dimension Door), Tireless Bloodrage; Celestial Obedience(Arqueros)
18th: Bloodline feat(Spellbreaker)
19th: DR 5/-; Teleport Tactician
20th: Bloodline power(Caster's bane), Mighty Bloodrage, +1 CHA
1st lvl:
You have 12 HP; your Goat familiar has 6 HP and DR 5/adamantine.
4th lvl: You have two rage powers, minor spellcasting(allowing you to buff your familiar) and a celestial goat as familiar.
8th lvl: You have a celestial lightning elemental as familiar who can deliver Rime Frostbites and bullrush/trip/disarm metal-wearing or -wielding enemies with ease.
12th lvl: You have Come and Get me, Dazing Assault and Combat Reflexes; your familiar can now deliver Intensified Shocking Grasps.
16th: You have Spell Perfection, allowing you to apply Metamagic more easily.
20th: You have Teleport Tactician/Celestial Obedience(Arqueros), allowing you to AoO anyone who teleports/charges in the area you threaten.
I am running a PbP campaign, and am looking for a suitable Moment of Ascension for a party of five 5th-level PCs.
My current plan:
I'm thinking of having the PC's encounter a very big(~30'x30'x30') BLACK CUBE, which appears to be made of polished Obsidian, upon further inspection, it is possible to *enter* the cube as if stepping through a Mirror enchanted with Mirror Hideaway.
This traps the party in a simple, 2-D tesseract dungeon as mentioned in the link above, with 6 rooms who have 4 exits each.
Each room has a secret number assigned to it.
To *solve* the dungeon and escape, the party needs to follow a certain sequence of rooms.
For example: 1-2-3-6-5-4 is the correct sequence, and it doesn't matter where you start.
So you could move 2-3-6-5-4-1 and solve the puzzle, or 6-5-4-1-2-3 and solve it, etc.
If you enter the next room in the sequence, a bell announces the next room's number.
If you enter the wrong room, breaking the sequence, a different bell announces the number of the room you are in right now, and an encounter is triggered.
Example encounters:
1 - 1 small elemental
2 - 2 crawling hands
3 - Three torches animate and attack(tiny animated objects with Additional movement: Fly, Burn(x2); they have the haunted, brittle, flammable and clunky flaws)
4 - Four skunks are summoned in the corners of the room and attack: 1 celestial, 1 entropic, 1 fiendish, 1 resolute
5 - a magic circle traps an imp. Said imp uses SLAs like suggestion to try and leave the circle, promising wealth and power...
6 - a Haunt with a fear effect who forces the PC's to flee into a different room if they fail their saves.
All these encounters are initially at CR 1, and may be triggered an infinite number of times.
Each time an encounter is triggered beyond the first time, the encounter becomes more difficult...
1 - Elemental gains the Advanced Template(repeat as often as necessary)
2 - Crawling hands gain the Giant template
3 - Save against Slow suffocation
4 - A new *wave* of summons appears after the first one; maximum number of *waves* is equal to the number of times you've triggered this encounter.
5 - A more powerful outsider is trapped in the circle.
6 - the Haunt's save DC increases by 1.
=============================================================
If the sequence is solved, a portal leads to the bossfight:
Serpentine Squeeze requires the Worship of Ydersius, who is chaotic evil. This is incompatible with worshipping Falayna, who is lawful good.
Concerning the damage from white hair:
Quote:
At 1st level, a white-haired witch gains the ability to use her hair as a weapon. This functions as a primary natural attack with a reach of 5 feet. The hair deals 1d4 points of damage (1d3 for a Small witch) plus the witch’s Intelligence modifier.
=> The hair is a primary natural attack. It uses STR for accuracy and 1.5 STR for damage; it deals 1d4 base damage and deals +INT damage because the ability says so.
The White-haired witch archetype has been decried as *trap* - it lures a 1/2 BAB class with poor HP into melee, it loses the very powerful Hex class feature...
But can a single-classed White-haired witch nonetheless become a decent grappler, given time?
Let's give it a try.
Human White-Haired Witch
15 PB:
18 STR 12 DEX 12 CON 14 INT 10 WIS 7 CHA(+2 racial to STR)
1st: Cantrips, Patron(Strength), Familiar(King Crab), White Hair(Swift Grapple); Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Grapple
2nd: White Hair(Swift Constrict), Patron spell(Divine Favor)
3rd: Celestial Obedience(Falayna)
4th: White Hair(10' reach, Swift trip), Patron spell(Bull's strength), +1 INT
5th: Rime Spell
6th: White Hair(Swift pull), Patron Spell(Greater Magic Weapon)
7th: Final Embrace
8th: White Hair(Reach 15', Strangle), Patron Spell(Divine Power), +1 INT
9th: Combat Reflexes
10th: Rogue Talent(Weapon Training(White Hair)), Patron Spell(Righteous Might)
11th: Quicken Spell
12th: White Hair(Reach 20'), Rogue Talent(Combat Training: Greater Grapple), +1 INT
13th: Sickening Spell
14th: Rogue Talent(Minor Magic-Prestidigitation), Patron Spell(Mass Bull's Strength)
15th: Spell Perfection(True Strike)
16th: White Hair(Reach 25'), Rogue Talent(Major Magic-Silent Image) Patron Spell(Giant Form I), +1 INT
17th: Improved Initiative
18th: Advanced Rogue Talent(Improved Evasion), Patron Spell(Giant Form II)
19th: Toughness
20th: White Hair(Reach 30'), Advanced Rogue Talent(Opportunist), Patron Spell(Shapechange) +1 INT
---------------------------------
1st-level: Attack with the hair:
+4, 1d4+8 damage(+ swift action grapple attempt at +6...)
Grapple CMB: +4 STR +2 Crab +2 feat = +8
4th-level: Hair has reach.
Attack(unbuffed) at +6, 1d4+8 dmg
Unbuffed Grapple CMB: +4 STR +2 Crab +2 feat +2 BAB +4 sacred = +14
8th-level: Hair has more reach and strangles anyone who is grappled; this means casters are pretty much doomed.
We have grab and constrict now, both trigger as free actions, from Final Embrace.
Unbuffed Grapple CMB: +4 STR +2 crab +2 feat +4 BAB +4 sacred +4 grab = +20
We can also use Rime Frost Bites to debuff.
12th-level: Hair has even more reach; we have Greater Grapple and can Quicken True Strike if necessary.
Unbuffed Grapple CMB: +4 STR +2 crab +5 feats +6 BAB +4 sacred +4 grab = +25
16th-level: Hair has ridiculous reach; We have Spell perfection and can spam quickened True strikes. We can use Sickening Rime Frostbites to debuff.
Unbuffed Grapple CMB: +4 STR +2 crab +5 feats +8 BAB +4 sacred +4 Grab = +27
20th-level: Hair has 30' reach; we have 9th-level casting.
Unbuffed Grapple CMB: +4 STR +2 crab +5 feats +10 BAB +4 sacred +4 Grab = +29
So, I made a game ad for a campaign based around the PC's being Dragonriders.
I'm looking for opinions and advice for this idea; naturally, the PCs will have flying mounts at the start and plenty of mobility and freedom; does anyone have good ideas for plot points I could include?
I have a very rough sketch planned, but am in need of little details.
Suggestions for villians, factions, the life on Hermea, or Tiamat's motives would be very appreciated.
Casters are extremely powerful in pathfinder - this is true.
They can bend reality via wish/miracle, resurrect the dead, cross planar borders, fool the senses, divine the future...
But this post is not about casters.
This is about a mundance PC(*mundane* being defined as "cannot cast spells, does not use UMD to emulate spellcasting) who wants to kill spellcasters as efficiently as possible.
1st level: We have base saves at +4/+2/+2; with a bunch of conditional modifiers...
+2 to Fort/Will if raging
+3 vs poison(Hardy+Glory of Old)
+5 vs spells(Steel Soul+Glory of Old)
+1 vs mind-affecting(Xenophobic; this doesn't apply to fear effects!)
------------------------------
4th level: We have SR 12, and base saves at +6/+3/+3; with a bunch of conditional modifiers...
+2 to Fort/Will if raging
+3 vs poison(Hardy+Glory of Old)
+8 vs spells(Steel Soul+Glory of Old+Superstitious)
+10 vs spells from allies(see above, +Blood Sanctuary)
+1 vs mind-affecting(Xenophobic; this doesn't apply to fear effects!)
We also have +2 to dmg vs spellcasters(Witchhunter) and +8 Initiative(+4 feat, +2 trait, +2 Dex)
-----------------------------
8th level: We have SR 17, and base saves at +8/+4/+4; with a bunch of conditional modifiers...
+2 to Fort/Will if raging
+3 vs poison(Hardy+Glory of Old)
+9 vs spells(Steel Soul+Glory of Old+Superstitious)
+11 vs spells from allies(see above, +Blood Sanctuary)
+1 vs mind-affecting(Xenophobic; this doesn't apply to fear effects!)
We also have +3 to dmg vs spellcasters(Witchhunter) and +8 Initiative(+4 feat, +2 trait, +2 Dex),
we use a 2-handed reach weapon with Combat Reflexes, Power Attack and Lunge; we have Displacement or Haste to augment the rage.
-----------------------------
12th level: We have SR 22, and base saves at +10/+6/+6; with a bunch of conditional modifiers...
+3 to Fort/Will if raging
+3 vs poison(Hardy+Glory of Old)
+10 vs spells(Steel Soul+Glory of Old+Superstitious)
+12 vs spells from allies(see above, +Blood Sanctuary)
+1 vs mind-affecting(Xenophobic; this doesn't apply to fear effects!)
We also have +4 to dmg vs spellcasters(Witchhunter) and +8 Initiative(+4 feat, +2 trait, +2 Dex),
we use a 2-handed reach weapon with Combat Reflexes, Power Attack and Lunge; we have Displacement or Haste to augment the rage; We have Spell Sunder, We have Come and Get Me, which allows us to counterstrike in melee
-----------------------------
16th level: We have SR 28, and base saves at +12/+7/+9; with a bunch of conditional modifiers...
+3 to Fort/Will if raging
+3 vs poison(Hardy+Glory of Old)
+11 vs spells(Steel Soul+Glory of Old+Superstitious)
+13 vs spells from allies(see above, +Blood Sanctuary)
+1 vs mind-affecting(Xenophobic; this doesn't apply to fear effects!)
+4 vs enchantment(Indomitable will)
We also have +5 to dmg vs spellcasters(Witchhunter) and +8 Initiative(+4 feat, +2 trait, +2 Dex),
we use a 2-handed reach weapon with Combat Reflexes, Power Attack and Lunge; we have Displacement/Haste and Beast Shape IV/Form of the Dragon I/Transformation to augment the rage; We have Spell Sunder, We have Come and Get Me, which allows us to counterstrike in melee; we have Dazing Assault, which turns melee attacks into potential disables; we have Teleport Tactician which allows us to AoO any casters that try to teleport away
----------------------------
20th level: We have SR 32, and base saves at +14/+8/+10; with a bunch of conditional modifiers...
+4 to Fort/Will if raging
+3 vs poison(Hardy+Glory of Old)
+12 vs spells(Steel Soul+Glory of Old+Superstitious)
+14 vs spells from allies(see above, +Blood Sanctuary)
+1 vs mind-affecting(Xenophobic; this doesn't apply to fear effects!)
+4 vs enchantment(Indomitable will)
We also have +6 to dmg vs spellcasters(Witchhunter) and +8 Initiative(+4 feat, +2 trait, +2 Dex),
we use a 2-handed reach weapon with Combat Reflexes, Power Attack and Lunge; we have Displacement/Haste and Beast Shape IV/Form of the Dragon I/Transformation to augment the rage; We have Spell Sunder, We have Come and Get Me, which allows us to counterstrike in melee; we have Dazing Assault, which turns melee attacks into potential disables; we have Teleport Tactician which allows us to AoO any casters that try to teleport away, we can AoO casters who cast defensively(Caster's bane), we can AoO anyone who charges us(Celestial Obedience - Arqueros)
The saves above are WITHOUT MAGIC ITEMS.
You can probably assume a +5 cloak of resistance, and improved ability scores, and other items that increase your defenses - a Rod of Dwarven might improves your racial bonus to saves by +1, for example.
-------------------------
I need advice concerning:
*Equipment, especially useful magic items; please refrain from suggesting wands/scrolls to be used via UMD.
You could play as Arcanist(Blade Adept) from 1-5; then pick up a level of Fighter at 6th, then advance as Eldritch Knight from 7th-16th, then continue as Blade Adept for the last 4 levels if you want to sacrifice 2 spellcasting levels for more BAB and HP; this puts you at 18th-level casting and BAB +15.
As pure Blade Adept, I'd do something like this...
Favored class bonus: +HP
1st: Arcane Reservoir, Cantrips, Consume Spells, Sword Bond(Dwarven Waraxe); Tribal Scars
2nd:
3rd: Sentient Sword(Dwarven Waraxe); Toughness
4th: +1 STR
5th: Exploit: Arcane Weapon; Extra Exploit(Spell Strike)
6th:
7th: Exploit: Metamagic Knowledge(Intensify Spell); Extra Exploit(Student of the Blade - WF(Dwarven Waraxe))
8th: +1 INT
1)Play a class with a bloodline, such as Bloodrager/Sorcerer/Magus with the Eldritch Scion archetype, and choose a Bloodline Familiar instead of the 1st-lvl Bloodline power.
2)Play a Bloodrager with the Aberrant Bloodline, and use the Aberrant Tumor feat to get a Tumor familiar(as the alchemist discovery)
3)Use Skill Focus(Knowledge: Any) and Eldritch Heritage(Arcane) to get the Arcane Bond(Familiar) class feature at your Character level -2(minimum 1)
4)Use Iron Will + Familiar Bond + Improved Familiar Bond to get a Familiar(Familiar Bond/Improved Familiar Bond are feats from the Familiar folio)
5)Play a class that naturally gets a familiar: Witch or Wizard.
In your case, I recommend Bloodrager1/Cavalier1/Skald X and the Bloodline familiar option.
I'm not quite sure, but since the Mauler Familiar Archetype replaces "speak with animals" and "speak with master", Improved Familiars do not qualify for the Mauler Archetype;
Improved Familiar feat wrote:
This feat allows you to acquire a powerful familiar, but only when you could normally acquire a new familiar.
Prerequisites: Ability to acquire a new familiar, compatible alignment, sufficiently high level (see below).
Benefit: When choosing a familiar, the creatures listed here are also available to you. You may choose a familiar with an alignment up to one step away on each alignment axis (lawful through chaotic, good through evil).
Improved familiars otherwise use the rules for regular familiars, with two exceptions: if the creature's type is something other than animal, its type does not change; and improved familiars do not gain the ability to speak with other creatures of their Kind (although many of them already have the ability to communicate).
In general, a character can consume a number of alcoholic beverages equal to 1 plus double his Constitution modifier before being sickened for 1 hour equal to the number of drinks above this maximum.
Well, since you are the GM, that changes a few things;
RAW, a Bolt Ace Gunslinger still gets the "Gunsmithing" feat at 1st level and a battered gun despite mainly using crossbows;
I'd exchange
*the proficiency with firearms for proficiency with all crossbows(including repeating heavy/light crossbows, hand crossbow, and the (Minotaur) Double Crossbow);
*The Gunsmith class feature(battered Gun & Gunsmithing bonus feat)
with Crossbow Training at 1st lvl; this works as Gunslingers in a Guns Everywhere setting, adapted to crossbows.
It also allows her to deal okay damage with a crossbow at lvl 1
The Bolt Ace Archetype seems to be the solution for people who want to play an effective archer without resorting to the ubiquitous bows and shun firearms because of setting reasons("no guns in my game") or because they don't like the misfire mechanic.
So...how does a Bolt Ace even work?
Human (Bolt Ace) Gunslinger
15 PB:
10 STR 18 DEX 12 CON 10 INT 14 WIS 10 CHA
Traits: Reactionary(+2 initiative), Indomitable Faith(+1 will save)
A whip deals no damage to any creature with an armor bonus of +1 or higher or a natural armor bonus of +3 or higher. The whip is treated as a melee weapon with 15-foot reach, though you don't threaten the area into which you can make an attack. In addition, unlike most other weapons with reach, you can use it against foes anywhere within your reach (including adjacent foes).
Using a whip provokes an attack of opportunity, just as if you had used a ranged weapon.
You can use the Weapon Finesse feat to apply your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier to attack rolls with a whip sized for you, even though it isn't a light weapon.
Weapon Features: finesse, reach, disarm, trip.
At first glance, this seems to be a highly impractical weapon. Nonetheless, I'm intrigued by its potential - mainly due to the fact that it provides excellent reach, even beyond that of ordinary reach weapons.
So, without further ado, I present two whip-wielding characters in the hope to somehow move this weapon from the realms of novelty to the realms of practical optimization.
1)Elf (Kensai) Magus
15 PB:
13 STR 16 DEX 10 CON 17 INT 10 WIS 8 CHA
Alternate racial traits: Arcane Focus(+2 racial to concentration checks to cast defensively; replaces weapon familiarity)
At 3rd level, with a Wand of True strike and a whip, you can safely disarm and trip opponents with a +18 bonus to the CMB check. The whip's reach will probably allow you to avoid provoking an AoO.
At 5th level, Tactical reposition allows you to reposition someone into a pit trap, or into acid/lava, or reposition them into another hazardous place.
At 7th level, you can use spell combat to disarm someone, then use the second attack with the whip to pick up a tiny(i.e. ~ medium dagger/shortsword sized) object and yoink it for yourself.
An excellent strategy to disarm something, then snatch it away!
At higher levels, you have many AoO attempts and many AoO triggers:
We get an AoO if...
Someone moves via 5-step: Pin Down
Someone charges and enters our threatened area: Arqueros
Someone moves normally inside our threatened area: Normal
Someone teleports within our threatened area: Teleport Tactician
Someone casts a spell defensively within our threatened area: Counterstrike(after the spell is cast)
Someone casts a spell within our threatened area: Normal
Someone bullrushes us: Arqueros
Reposition CMB:
1st: +20 with spell combat
3rd: +23 with mwk whip and spell combat
5th: +26 with tactical reposition, mwk whip and spell combat
10th:+40 with tactical reposition, +1 dueling whip(+4 with arcane pool) and spell combat
11th:+44 with greater reposition
18th:+57 with greater reposition, tactical reposition, +1 dueling whip(+5 with arcane pool) and spell combat
20th:+59
At 9th level, with Serpentine Tattoos, we can hit someone with a Whip(which is treated as performance weapon thanks to Performance Weapon mastery) and immediately inflict a (Greater) Dirty Trick with +22 CMB.
At 11th level, we can *hit* someone with a trip attempt with the whip, and immediately trigger a Greater Dirty trick in the same manner.
At 15th level, we can grapple with the whip via Greater Whip Mastery: Thanks to Greater Grapple, we can maintain the grapple as move action and use a standard action to cast spells.
Like the Whip magus above, a dueling whip can grant very large luck bonuses to Combat Maneuvers performed with the whip(i.e. Grapple, Trip, Disarm, Reposition, Sunder; Drag is specifically excluded).
1)Defenses:
I have Iron Will and traits dedicated to shore up saves; Sacred Tattoo + Fate's favored grants +2 luck to saves, and Spirit animal grants a +1 trait bonus to Will.
I'd love to add Shield Focus/Missile Shield/Ray Shield to improve my defenses, but a (two-handed) reach weapon is very useful to improve my effective range for whirlwind attack/combat reflexes.
A single vestigial arm(taken at 11th) or tentacle(...can tentacles wield shields? I'm not sure about that...) might help, but would also provide a very odd sight - I'd much rather have a four-armed or two-armed fighter than a three-armed one.
2)CMB:
This character wants to use the dirty trick combat maneuver all the time(as soon as he hits level 9, that is).
However, he is no Lore Warden - his CMB is very low; limited to BAB + STR + minor boosts from feats or his Maneuver training ability.
Any suggestions to improve his CMB?
3)Weapon of Choice:
Are there one-handed reach weapons that I missed?
Is it reasonable to take WF(Whip), Whip Mastery, Improved Whip mastery to gain a one-handed reach weapon?
What other options can you recommend for Weapon mastery?
Any unique magical weapons that work well with this character?
4)Feats:
I have 5 feats unassigned: 3 combat feats, and 2 regular feats.
So, I need a way to Channel energy, and either elemental domains or blessings.
...2x Channel dice as bonus to weapon damage for the next three attacks.
Weapon damage...
According to this FAQ, Rays count as weapons for the purpose of spells and effects that affect weapons.
So, rays are weapons. Energy Channel boosts damage of weapon attacks. A cleric of Gozreh takes the Air and Water Domains; this allows for Electricity or Cold bonus damage from Energy Channel.
At 1st level, we can take the trait Two-World Magic and pick Ray of Frost.
Suddenly, you put every Gunslinger to shame: As a swift+standard action, you can hit something at 25' with a ranged touch attack for 1d3+2d6 damage!
(and still retain two *charges* for future turns)
...at 7th level, you can cast Admonishing Ray and shoot two rays as a standard action.
By now, you have 4d6 channel energy, so you get 8d6 bonus damage per weapon attack from Energy channel.
...4d6+8d6 damage per ray, and two rays as standard action...24d6 damage total; average 84.
At level 7!
(and you still have one *charge* left for the next weapon attack)
At level 11, you get three rays with Admonishing ray, and deal 4d6+12d6 damage per ray, or 12d6 nonlethal +36d6 energy damage.
A swift action, a use of channel energy, a single feat, a standard action, and a 2nd-level spell:
48d6(average 168) damage, with three ranged touch attacks...
At level 20, you deal 4d6+20d6 damage per ray; you still have only three rays, so it's 72d6 damage total(average 252)
...did I miss something, or is suddenly every single cleric with an elemental domain now casually dealing large amounts of damage with extremely low investment?
