Smallfoot's page

Got a 4th level wizard, Exploiter Pact, and I got a cloak of Arachnida.

What Web spell combos can you guys think of? I'll be 5th level sometime in the near future, and wish to capatilize on the cloak.

If you've got opponents who are in the web and in effect grappled, you have a potential opportunity to hit them with a touch spell you wouldn't normally risk. Unfortunately you still only move at half speed, which puts your movement on par with someone who can make the saves. You're also unable to see through the webs any better than before.

Your Linguistics bonus is really impressive. Here I thought my Arcanist12 with a +21 was good! He's in a War for the Crown campaign, so I am with you on the kingdom-level intrigue.

Your ideas are sound, and if the GM is cool with it, should be great. But if it were me as GM, I'd look for more direct actions on your part. Forge military orders. Deceive the attacking kingdom into putting their forces in the wrong places, or at the wrong times. Planting multiple contradictory orders will add confusion, and at a minimum will slow down whatever the army is supposed to be doing. Make the attacking king think that his generals are plotting against him. Or more subtly, convince the generals that the king suspects them of disloyalty and they'd better get out quick.

If you're focused on the DDOS-type attack, you probably want to convince the populace of the other kingdom that their king and/or army are working against their interests. Send all the agricultural areas messages saying the army will henceforth be purchasing foodstuffs at 50% of previous rates (i.e. much less than it costs the farmers). Announce the upcoming War Tax that will be far more than anyone currently pays (bonus points if you can convince the nobility that it will hit them especially hard).

Key to this is not just what your character can create as a master forger; it's what kind of spy network you have in place in the other kingdom. Good luck!

Got about halfway through War for the Crown on Roll20. We're supposed to pick it up again if everyone can join. In person, our GM who'd gotten us through the first book of RotR 10th anniversary was frustrated trying to challenge a well-built party of six, so the new plan is to start Tyrant's Grasp next week.

Removing AoOs entirely changes things quite a bit. I'm surprised the group has a lot of problems with difficult terrain, since the biggest problem it introduces is taking away the 5-foot step. As others have pointed out, the characters who are going to benefit the most are those whose actions provoke AoOs - spell casters and ranged combat specialists, primarily.

With that, and Northern Spotted Owl's analysis, you might think about an Inquisitor archer. Six skill points/level, a decent set of spells, and really powerful combat. Depending on how much you like being a caster, Ranger and Slayer are also valid options.

Don't know that I'd bother with the magic missile. If you want to do damage, load the spells yourself.

A handy haversack loaded with scrolls will cover a lot of utilities. This is especially good for spells you need infrequently so you don't want to use the daily slot.

Look at metamagic rods, and at items that provide additional spells and/or spells known.

Grab some Dweomer's Essence for +5 to beat spell resistance. Expensive at 500gp, but it can make the difference between being useless and winning the encounter.

Either way it’s light armor, and you can’t use light singing steel armor to speed up your performance.

You only get that effect with medium or heavy singing steel armor. But singing steel lowers the category by one (heavy to medium, medium to light). So weirdly, it only works with armor that started off as heavy (like full plate).
<snip>

But singing steel doesn't actually change the category. See also the mithral rules.

We just gained our 11th level and now I'm thinking of dipping a level or two in another class

This is cause yesterday day I was render useless 2/3 way in to the fight with a White Dragon as it summoned a blizzard and I was unable to use my Archery

Sounds like you're saying you want to be able to overcome concealment, yes? If that's the case, you don't have to go all in on a class dip. Look at getting the Seeking enhancement on your bow. If you can't get that, Improved Precise Shot feat gets you past everything except total concealment.

For darkness and invisible foes, a relatively cheap fix is Lenses of Situational Sight.

There are a couple of other issues for archers you should be thinking about trying to fix. Point-Blank Master feat means you can fire without provoking AoOs. Snap Shot feat lets you threaten squares at 5' and Improved Snap Shot pushes that out five more.

But maybe you're trying for something else. Can you explain?

[outlines possible linnorm encounter]

You are an evil, evil man and I need to take GM lessons from you.

The Ravage Them deed is a huge upgrade. It should cost a grit point to deny AoOs.

UBarbarian - my impression is it’s a slight swap, fixes the Sudden Barbarian Death Syndrome issue, but is generally not a power change. UMonk - stronger, but not game-breaking. URogue - a stronger version of what’s generally thought to be the weakest class.

I'm looking ideas for a flavorful

Dirty trick that is also very competitive at doing it's job

Since you're starting at 10, you can jump right in as a Barbarian with the Savage Dirty Trick rage power. My PFS Barb10 is looking at a +19 CMB to land the Dirty Trick along with 9 points of damage and a DC24 Fort save to avoid an additional penalty condition. Drawbacks: Can be used only once per opponent per rage, doesn't qualify you for Greater Dirty Trick.

im playing in a friends campaign and we are all duel classed just hit level 15 and he allows third party feats

im looking for advice and critique on my build and would greatly appreciate if anyone wanted to rule check

The usual term for characters having two simultaneous classes that advance together is "gestalt". Slight chance you'll confuse people with 'duel classed'.

Before anyone goes into critique mode, what are you allowed to change at this point? Just the stuff you took at 15th level? I assume you added a level each of Gunslinger and Rogue.

By doing gestalt and accepting 3rd party feats your GM is already a bit outside the normal rules. What else should we know about? What ability do you have to obtain magic items?

Some alchemical weapons and reagents can be used as spell components to increase the DC of particular spells. The best example I can find is 10gp of silver as a material component for an illusion spell adds +1 to the DC of Will saves to disbelieve.

This seems so obvious I must have missed something, but an Inquisitor can cast Shield of Faith. Not as good as Shield, but easier to get.

A couple of things to compare to:

Using the Survival skill: "Predict the weather up to 24 hours in advance. For every 5 points by which your Survival check result exceeds 15, you can predict the weather for one additional day in advance." So the spell is equivalent to a Survival roll of 45.

The existing Fortune's Path spell. It's much broader, but only has a 50% chance of telling anything useful, and a 25% chance of "[A]ccurately predict a major event likely to happen in the next week. For example, you might foresee an enemy ambush, the discovery of sought-after information, or inclement weather causing significant travel delay (though this spell would not show you the event’s exact details)."

Most of the magic items I've looked at which deal with predicting the weather just add to your Survival roll.

For level of detail, make realistic adjustments. Precision goes down the farther out you go, and the broader the area you want to predict.

Material components: a small flame, a pinch of earth, and several drops of water.

Magus class is justly famous for being able to pump out absurd damage for a few rounds per day. You won't have great AC, but being able to buff with Vanish, Mirror Image, Greater Invisibility and others will more than make up for that (although at higher levels, True Seeing becomes common among opponents). You can also build a Magus for combat maneuvers, which you might find entertaining.

You might want to reconsider taking the hit point Favored Class Bonus. A d10 and 18 Con has you well above average already. If you don't want more skill points, ask your GM if you can use one of the other racial bonuses - 1/4 more panache or charmed life (seems more appropriate for a catfolk) would both be welcome.

One negative channeling option is Rulership variant channeling. A cleric who's built for it can flat incapacitate enemies. You've got to worship Horus or Ra and choose to channel negative energy (or archdevil Dispater, no choosing there). Then pump your CHA, pick the channeling feats and get to work dazing the crap out of opponents. Mindless opponents are a problem, of course, and you're not likely to knock out a BBEG with a high Will save. But you can often make their mooks and henchmen completely irrelevant.

....it'd be a nice major magic item (silent spell, 5% SR stackable with other sources and immunity to level drain). You could also I suppose adapt the rods and have the silent and/or quicken metmagics usable X times a day.

The usual question is "what is this worth?" Answer that and you can generally determine what level it should be available at in order to be roughly in balance with existing magic items. Unfortunately I don't have the custom item rules at hand so I'll leave that for someone else.

Silent spell doesn't remotely threaten to break the game, so an item that makes it available on demand is no big deal. Even cutting it back to 1/day or 3/day won't make it much less useful, since it's pretty rare that you need it.

I don't know the mechanics of magical resistance in D&D, so it's hard to say how to adapt it to Pathfinder. (Spell resistance is given as a target number in PF1ed. Any caster attempting to cast a spell against that target rolls a d20 and adds their caster level. Elf casters get a +2, the Spell Penetration feat gives +2, there are some other bonuses available.) Spell Resistance of 12 is only enough to give a 50/50 chance of resisting a first level caster. If this item gives an SR bonus in the 1-5 range, it's pretty harmless on its own. It stacks up nicely with the SR spell. I wouldn't be too concerned about it.

Edit: Forgot about the level drain. That's a big benefit of the 4th level spell Death Ward, a minute/level spell. So do you make this feature into something that has to be activated, with a specific short duration, or an always-on benefit with some other limit, like one negative level/day, or a fixed number of levels for the lifetime of the amulet? Either way could work.

Quicken Spell - whoa, that's a big one. It basically means casting twice in one round, and I shouldn't have to tell you how powerful that can be. On the other hand, it bumps the spell up *4* levels, so first your caster has to have 5th level spell slots at minimum (ignoring Quickened cantrips). Even at once per day, most casters would loooove to get hold of the item.

I'm not aware of premade backgrounds that are legit sandboxes. Doesn't mean they don't exist, but I just haven't come across them. You might be able to adapt a Pathfinder module to do what you're after. They've got a built-in plot, so are much more railroad than sandbox, but it's possible you could strip out some elements and rejigger for your own purposes. That would at least give you a setting and bunch of level-appropriate encounters. The modules are usually written for a single level, with some leeway, and are intended to level up the characters at the end. If you're feeling truly ambitious, get the first book of an Adventure Path. Much more material, written to take characters starting at 1st level up to L3 or 4.

I wouldn't do it. PF1 rewards specialization; trying to be effective at too many things usually means not being very good at anything. You already need INT for extracts, CHA for bombs, DEX for ranged attacks and AC, CON for hit points and WIS for Will saves. STR is your only dump stat.

I'm running an adventure where the characters are up against a cult seeking to awaken Bezravnis, a three tailed scorpion Kaiju. I've got a lot of NPCs set up but I'd like to use some monsters as well. I own all of the bestiaries so no issues there. What are some good monsters in the CR 14 to 20 range that would ally themselves with a cult of Bezravnis and would be good guardians of a mineshaft dungeon where he is buried. So the smaller the monster the better but I'd be fine with up to huge size.

Just cruisin' thru the aonprd.com monsters looking for your CR range and "desert" in the environment section:

Girtablilu. Human torso, scorpion body. The Divine Chieftain is a Desert Druid10 for a CR of 14, but she won't be alone, so you can scale the encounter about as high as you want. Although they're naturally Neutral, it totally makes sense for a tribe to get converted to the cult. They're Large.

Deathsnatcher. CR18, Medium.

Ossumental. CR12, Large. Use several.

Thanks so much for this work! It's nice to see new guides for the Core classes.

Since I've got a Saurian Shaman Druid2 in PFS, I picked up on this item under "What you lose" for the Saurian Shaman: "Druid level -2 for wild shape...but +2 for dinos..just take shaping focus."

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding something, but Shaping Focus is only for druid multiclass characters, right? So it does bring your Wild Shape up to your character level (max) but doesn't offset the quasi-penalty of the Shaman archetype.

Hi folks,

I have been out of the game for a while and we are playing a oneshot this evening.
I have some older chars but i would like your advice on the matter:

Pathfinder Society Adventure (in the Linnorm Kingdoms)
Level 7
3 players, a wizard and a plain fighter.
My char would be the third of the bunch.
<snip>

I realize you're not playing this as an organized play game, but I would point out that PFS rules for 1E require a minimum four PCs. When you have three players, you meet the requirement by running a pregen character as the 4th PC. At that, there are still changes to the scenario to lower the challenge rating for four PCs.

Your character build should ensure that your party covers the broad range of skills, has access to healing (especially condition removal) and can at least contribute well to combat. I'd talk to your GM about some kind of power boost even so. Whether a pregen as the fourth PC or some help for your characters, I think you will want more than three standard characters can bring to the table.

Is your GM/campaign relatively generous with money and magic? If so, I'd recommend getting Heightened Awareness as a wand. You'll probably burn through it pretty quickly, but using the +4 initiative will take away from the per-level advantage of casting it from a spell slot. If purchasing magic items is difficult due to money or availability, Craft Wondrous Item is probably the way to go for your feat.

Consider Summon Monster III for the spell. You've already invested two feats into summoning so you can make the most of it.

Archives of Nethys (aonprd.com) has an advanced search function for spells. If I were you I'd start with the Scrying sub-school spells. Not a terribly long list, even if you search all classes including Cleric.

I wanna make sure i'm not missing anything

Journeyman(Questioner)
11.Eidetic Recollection

Good news! You don't need to take this at 11, you get it for free at 5! "At 5th level, the questioner gains the eidetic recollection investigator talent as a bonus talent, ignoring its prerequisites. This ability replaces poison lore."

I've got 2 babau demons about to attack the party. 1 just cast darkness on its weapon, letting the party see the globe of darkness around it. Combat begins next game session. What are some good babau tactics?

Flanking, obviously. Although they don't have Spellcraft, they should be able to guess which PCs are buffed (especially obvious buffs like Mirror Image or Blur) and toss a Dispel Magic at them. They may also use their greater teleport ability to place themselves more favorably, such as dropping into the back ranks to jump on a caster or ranged attacker.

...I want something more, some interesting thing to happen to make it more than just kind of a meet-and-greet, but I also don't want it to be negative or conflicting in any way. The players have been through a lot of negative stuff in the game and I want them to have a chance to have a fun time together with each other and with the NPCs. I'm struggling to come up with anything though besides the general party\festival setting. The PCs are also lvl 13 at this point, so they are pretty powerful. Anyway, I'm looking for some fun, low stakes, RP stuff to do to kick off the next leg of the game.

For a low-stakes setting, a local celebration is fine. Make it a deal where the temples of various gods sponsor different activities, including friendly competitions. For example, the Abadarians would have a contest of lightning calculation or puzzle-solving. The Shelynites would sponsor almost any performing arts. And of course the Cayden Caileanites would hold the drinking contest(s). That should give you plenty of reasons for the PCs and NPCs to meet and mix. Think of the games of skill (maybe without the rigging) at a typical county fair, if you're familiar with that. If your city is big enough, have competitions between the various quarters or neighborhoods of the city - races on foot, races on horseback, feats of strength. Throw small rocks for accuracy and a big rock for distance. Target shooting with spears and bows. Lots of ways to have the players roll some dice without worrying about whether it's going to get a PC killed.

Last time I saw my nephews (11 and 9 yrs old), they expressed interest in playing a Pathfinder game, to see if they'd like it. So I agreed to DM a one-shot adventure for them at Christmas (3 days away). My nieces from my other brother found out, and now they want to play too (10 and 7 yrs old).

I'm planning on keeping everything PG-rated. I'm going to hand out pre-gen character sheets. The Grinch will be the end boss, and they'll fight some animated toy soldiers and a couple of goblin henchmen.

I've never played the game with children this young though. Anyone have advice on keeping their attention? Pitfalls to avoid?

One bit of advice I got from someone who designed a couple of RPGs for young kids: Focus your attention on the youngest. That’s the one who’ll have the hardest time remembering how the game works and are the most likely to disconnect. Encourage the other players to interact with them, too.

The belt grants strength and constitution. What else grants strength and constitution? Oh yes, rage, that's what. Your tiefling is going to go berserk now and again. And he'll definitely go berserk if anyone suggests he takes the belt off. Or insults his ancestry. Or his politics, religion, or taste in women.

Don't make him angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry.

Nice!

I'm a little tightly focused on doing right by the players here, so I think I'd play it this way: Each time the character might get angry, there's a small but increasing chance that he'll go into a rage. If it's not in combat, failures will start relatively small. At first he bellows and breaks things. Then he attacks bare-handed, doing nonlethal damage. Next he draws a weapon. By this point, he's got to make a will save to stop before he kills the person he thinks has offended him. He will absolutely attack anyone who tries to stop or disarm him, although again a will save before he kills someone is in order. He's also got a chance to go berserk in normal combat. When that happens, he's going to treat everyone in sight as an enemy. I might give him a will save after a successful attack on one of his allies. Hmm. If he saves, is he fatigued or exhausted?

Ryze Kuja wrote:

rorek55 wrote:

This is fairly inaccurate... you could have a 4 man group of clerics, call them the A-men, and all of them could be vastly different from another.

example-
negative energy channeling tank
"warrior" cleric that buffs themselves for martial combat
healer cleric focused on supporting and keeping the others up
summoner cleric focused on clotting the field with celestial creatures.

Sounds like a blast bud. Have fun with your 100% chance to have 4-6 hour combats on CR equivalent fights.

it seems to me, you haven't played much cleric. but out of curiosity, why do you think that the fights would last so long.

At a guess? Your cleric team is going to have a lot of actions due to the summoned critters but won't put out a lot of damage per round. The healer will keep the team going, but you're looking at fights of maybe 6-10 rounds instead of 3-5. And the rounds will take a while to resolve.

I've been looking at this thing from every angle i can think of i can't see what could lead someone to think its bannable.

It would require two changes to begin with. Since the archetype gives up Brew Potion, a PFS version would give up Extra Bombs. Then you have to replace or just drop Craft Construct. While the initial construct mount certainly doesn’t appear significantly better than an animal companion or a bonded mount, I guess I might be missing something. Yeah, not really seeing a problem here.

Making a level 5 half-orc primalist bloodrager. I've got the basics down for ability score with:

str: 20 mod +5
dex: 12 mod +1
con: 16 mod +3
int: 10 mod +0
wis: 8 mod -1
cha: 12 mod +1

I already sorted health (57 total), AC(15), CMD(21) and CMB(10).

weapon wise, I've got a masterwork greataxe(AD +11), composite bow(AD +15) and Switchblade(AD +10)

I need help with choosing bloodline and feats mainly.

Aiming to do as much damage as possible (either ranged or melee damage)

power attack to cleave to greater cleave or point-blank shot to precise shot to bull's eyeshot.

some other ideas for feats would benefit skills or crafting.

any ideas are appreciated. thanks

Whether you're going for ranged or melee depends on what role you want to play in the party. That being said, your problem for ranged attacks is getting a good to-hit bonus. Your to-hit for a bow will be 4 less than with a melee or thrown weapon. A good ranged build will look rather different from the usual melee build.

For melee, Cleave and Great Cleave really aren't that good. First, they don't apply at all when you're facing a single opponent. On the rare occasions you have more than two opponents, Great Cleave stops as soon as you miss one. If someone in your party can cast Haste, you'll be better off using a full attack than either Cleave feat. Consider Furious Focus to skip the Power Attack to-hit penalty for your first attack each round.

As far as bloodlines are concerned, Abyssal lets you enlarge when you rage, raising your greataxe damage to 3d6 and adding to your to-hit and damage bonuses as well. You also get claws, which help in case you get grappled or swallowed and can't use a two-handed weapon. Hard to beat if your focus is doing damage.

So it's kind of a cross between Arcane Eye and Questing Stone, with some enhancements. Ok.

What do you want the players to be able to accomplish? What do you want to prevent them from doing? Knowing what you're going to encounter makes a huge difference in whether an encounter is significant or trivial, so how will you adjust encounters if they don't spot the things you expect them to, or the reverse? Will the players be able to stack any kind of perception on top of what the Scout can do, such as adding a See Invisibility?

An adventure I am putting together for some friends. Would like some feedback about how it looks and suggestions for other class archetypes (Paizo Inc Only) ....

As members of the local thieves guild the following classes work best.
Fighters [Archetypes: Cad, Tactician]
Rogues [Archtypes: Chameleon, Counterfeit Mage, Heister, Phantom Thief, and Thug]

Just a quick look: Bard [Brazen Deceiver], Investigator [Conspirator, Mastermind], Slayer [Cleaner], Medium with a Trickster Spirit, Swashbuckler [Daring Infiltrator, Dashing Thief].

There are probably some others.

Tythus-By-The-Sea: Settlement (Level 3)

LN, Town

Tythus is situated on the coast of Andoran beside a river, near the border of Cheliax. Primarily a fishing town, it is situated on a minor trade route and over the years has developed a small but profitable port. A few miles inland are the Tythus Fields; the hub of the small farming portion of the community which is made up primarily of Halflings.

Government: Elected Council
Population: Human (70%), Halfling (23%), Dwarf (6%), Goblin (1%)
Languages: Common, Dwarf, Halfling

Religions: Abadar, Erastil, Pharasma
Prohibited Religions: Asmodeus
Threats & Problems: The River is known to be a breeding ground of River Drakes closer to its source and occasionally becomes a problem for those downstream. Unbeknownst to the majority of the town, The Bellflower Network operates in the town and regularly moves freed slaves from Cheliax through the town’s small port.

I think you've made a very nice starter location with plenty of opportunity for plot hooks. Just a minor suggestion: The Bellflower Network should be more of an 'open secret.' Practically everyone is aware that it exists and operates here, but they don't talk about it in public. The actual secrets are the identities of the Network members and supporters.

So, my party has just started the River into Darkness.

They have encountered two capoacinth rogues (lvl 2), which attacked them on the river during the storm. They knocked down the male one and threw him overboard, then slew his girlfriend and threw the corpse into the river too.
So, I decided to have the male gargoile survived. He retrieved the corpse and decided to avenge her death, following the party up the river.
This is going to be an encounter a few weeks later and I want to ramp up his toughness and add some drama. Maybe, take some levels in the new class and give him powerful gear or effects.
I have sketched a few ideas, but would be glad to hear some advice from more experienced GMs!

What's the party make-up? What classes, character level, equipment? How tough do you want the encounter to be? You may want to look at the standard gargoyle variants to see what kind of options are already there. For example, Kapoacinth Hunter is usually a Fighter2. A level of Fighter on top of the Rogue levels wouldn't be unreasonable. But you'll probably want him to have some allies to make the fight challenging.

If you're worried about using the character in PFS, well you just have to make sure the GM is on-board with how it works (I don't play PFS so I don't know how brewing the potions would actually play out).

Crafting feats aren't allowed in Organized Play. Druidic Herbalism doesn't have the "PFS legal" mark at aonprd.com, so I don't believe it's allowed either.

I wanted to play something to buff/heal/remove conditions from the party, but I don't want to play a full caster, they're broken and we already have a wizard.

Here's how I see your primary options:

Personally I'd lean toward the divine casters, probably the Oracle or Warpriest. The paladin does give you some access to divine spells, but it's very limited and they'll be busy focusing on combat.

I'm not up to speed on the Occult classes.

This is in the adventure path Curse of the Crimson Throne.

Assassin, Red Mantis
Male human fighter (two-weapon fighter) 2/red mantis assassin 5/rogue 3

Where does this NPC pop up? My copy of CoCT has a fighter3/rogue3/red mantis 3 and some Red Mantis associates at level 12+, but nothing quite as you detailed.

Note: We started the AP last night, so some of this is moot. Still, I appreciate the assistance.

The build looks solid. You might wish you had some Dex, but the only thing I could see switching would be the Wis, and it's a near-negligible difference. But: you have good Will saves and poor Reflex saves, most of your attacks will probably be ranged, and you have no AC bonuses. Dex is probably more important for you than Wis.

You're correct. I think I got too focused on the Wis skills and should have considered Dex more. Fortunately it's a small difference.

You will definitely be relying on social skills more than in some (maybe even most) APs, but there is also a good bit of combat and problem-solving. I'll second that purchasing additional spells could be useful for increasing your utility. If your party lacks a divine caster, you have the Cha to invest in Use Magic Device. But your spell list is comprehensive enough that you'll probably be able to use most of what you find/need. It is also almost always a strong choice for the party to pool together resources and get a Wand of Cure Light Wounds, but you might not have enough for that.

We do have an Inquisitor, and we plan to invest in the wand as soon as we can. And my available spell list just grew - thanks to an excellent roll I picked up a scroll with a handful of spells I didn't already have.

Pass for Human is an interesting feat. If you're using that for your backstory (the disgraced noble and all), that's all well and good. There are numerous chances to use Disguise if you want to. But half-elves are also treated reasonably well in Taldor, especially if they're nobles, so you don't *have* to hide the elven heritage.

I do like Adaptability and Keen Senses, but it sounds like Integrated and Wary fit your concept better. More social skills is a solid choice.

Yes, backstory reasons. And I wanted to shore up the social side because I wasn't sure if the other players would put much into the CHA-based areas.

Might I recommend the Armored Kilt, Haramaki, or Silken Ceremonial Armor, with +1 Armor bonus, no armor check penalty, and no arcane spell failure chance. You can use them without proficiency and suffer no penalties. It's not much, but it's something. Mage Armor would also be a good investment.

Got Mage Armor in the spellbook. Excellent reminder about the armor, thank you!

Even if you'll be relying on spells for combat, it always helps to have a weapon somewhere. A dagger is a good ubiquitous choices: easy to hide, and very handy in a pinch. A spiked gauntlet is also a great choice, since it doesn't need to be drawn and you count as threatening for attacks of opportunity and flanking. Although polite...

Yup! Grabbed a dagger for the initial kit.

avr, Neriathale, thanks. Excellent suggestions.

My group is trying War for the Crown adventure path on Roll20, and we're using 4d6-drop-lowest OR 15-point buy. I took the initial roll (17, 14, 12, 12, 11, 11) since it's equivalent to a 24 point buy and makes an excellent SAD chassis. I have made a disguised half-elf Arcanist with useful social skills. He's got the Human-raised alternate racial trait. What would you suggest to improve him? He's only got 70gp to start, so first equipment is pending a little more input from the GM.

Stavar Corbett
Male half-elf (human-raised) arcanist 1 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Class Guide 8)
NG Medium humanoid (elf, human)
Init +0; Senses low-light vision; Perception +1
--------------------
Defense
--------------------
AC 10, touch 10, flat-footed 10
hp 8 (1d6+2)
Fort +1, Ref +0, Will +3; +2 vs. enchantments
Immune sleep
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Special Attacks arcane reservoir (1/4), arcanist exploit (dimensional slide[ACG]), consume spells
Arcanist Spells Prepared (CL 1st; concentration +5)
1st (3/day)—hypnotism (DC 15), mount
0 (at will)—acid splash, light, prestidigitation, read magic
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 11, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 19, Wis 12, Cha 14
Base Atk +0; CMB +0; CMD 10
Feats Pass For Human[APG]
Traits disgraced noble, student of philosophy
Skills Bluff +8 (+10 to conceal your identity, +10 to lie (as a result of using Int instead of Cha)), Diplomacy +2 (+4 to persuade others but not to gather information (as a result of using Int instead of Cha)), Disguise +4 (+14 to disguise yourself as human (and ignore the penalty for different race while doing so)), Knowledge (arcana) +8, Knowledge (nobility) +8, Linguistics +8 (+10 to spot or produce forgeries), Sense Motive +2, Spellcraft +8; Racial Modifiers +1 Bluff, +1 Sense Motive
Languages Azlanti, Celestial, Common, Elven, Hallit, Kelish, Vudrani
SQ elf blood
Other Gear arcanist starting spellbook, 70 gp
--------------------
Special Abilities
--------------------
Arcane Reservoir +1 DC or CL (4/day) (Su) Pool of points fuel exploits, or can expend to add +1 CL or DC while cast spell.
Consume Spells (2/day) (Su) As a move action, expend a spell slot to add its spell levels to arcane reservoir.
Dimensional Slide (10 feet) (Su) Use 1 reservoir as part of move/withdraw, move to spot in sight for only 5 ft movement & no AoO.
Elf Blood Half-elves count as both elves and humans for any effect related to race.
Elven Immunities - Sleep You are immune to magic sleep effects.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in dim light, distinguishing color and detail.
Pass for Human +10 to Disguise yourself as a human. Can take 10 on this check in human areas.

Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at https://www.wolflair.com
Pathfinder® and associated marks and logos are trademarks of Paizo Inc.®, and are used under license.

As a 14th level arcanist, who also has access now to greater teleport and a group that knows how to get Absalom, I just was wondering, would there be a scroll of Gate that I would be able to buy...or should I just wait until we hit level 17 so I can summon it just for giggles and crap.

I mean against our enemies, not necessarily against the party...

Up to your GM. For standard Pathfinder, the chance of a 9th level scroll being available is pretty small. In locations that are Large Towns or larger, there are 1d4 to 3d4 Major Magic Items available for sale. For a given item there's a 10% chance that it's a scroll. Major Item scrolls are 4th-9th level, and the chance of a given Major scroll being 9th level is 5%. I haven't reviewed the rules to see how the spell type (divine or arcane) and actual spell are determined, but if it's a dice roll, there are a sizable number of 9th level wizard spells to choose from.

If the GM is using random rolls to determine if a Gate scroll is available, I wouldn't even bother to ask.

Now assuming you did get hold of the scroll, don't forget: "A creature with more HD than your caster level can't be controlled." Even if the GM generously allows the CL of the scroll to be the determining factor rather than your Arcanist's level, you probably still can't control a 20HD Balor.

So let's assume your party has gone to Absalom and have placed yourself where a Balor could do the most harm to your enemies. You Gate the demon in, and because you're smart, you've arranged to teleport out before he can act. The demon's first impulse is going to be finding and punishing the fool who dared inconvenience him. Assume for the moment you can't be followed. The Balor will realize this quickly. He'll also figure out where he is. I expect his reaction will be 1) making a quick mental note to have his underlings get to work on identifying and locating you in order to make the rest of your life miserable and brief, and 2) make a real mess of whatever area he's in, either by a Fire Storm or summoning a lower level demon to do the job, then 3) leave.

Race: Elf
level:6 witch

Str: 10
Dex: 12
Con: 14
Int: 19
Wis: 10
Cha: 14 (I would lower this and bring up Dex or even Con, but all the other players have this as dump stat. We need someone with social skills)

Feats: Extra Hex, Extra Hex, Accursed Hex

Hexes: Flight, Cackle, Evil Eye, Slumber, Water Lung, Prehensile Hair (love that the hair gives me 10 foot reach for touch attacks)

Patron: Deception

Skills: I don't know if breaking down all of them is that useful, but I put points in:
Diplomacy, Intimidate, Knowledge Arcana, Knowledge Nature, Perception, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device

Background skills:
Appraise, Craft Tattoo, Profession Fortune Teller, Profession Sailor, Linguistics.

I haven't decided on weapons and I am still going though spells. I think I like some of the touch attack spells to use with my hair like chill touch or touch of idiocy. I will take healing spells, but may mainly use wands. Not sure about the heal hex as an option too (not just to heal, we run into a lot of undead).

I'm playing my first witch in a Rise of the Runelords campaign, and have a very similar build (Half-elf, didn't boost CHA so I could load INT up to 19) but he's only up to 3rd level so far. It's good that you're planning the hair so you can do something in combat besides hexes. What do you plan to do about undead besides the Heal hex?

Don't worry much about weapons. You should almost never need to do physical combat. At worst you might provide a flank and a regular dagger will take care of that.

One other thing to consider: As an INT-based caster, you're a natural for crafting magic items. If your GM allows crafting, Craft Wondrous Item might be worth dropping one of the Extra Hexes.

Smallfoot wrote:

Just a word of caution: You've got a Large Great Axe and Vital Strike. That means 6d6+8 for a Vital Strike (29hp average). A normal critical hit will be 9d6+24 (55hp avg) and a Vital Strike critical of 12d6+24. All without adding Power Attack.

That Siphoned from the Living ability will keep these beasties in the fight longer than their base hp would imply. Do you really want them to heal 1d8 every time they hit with the great axe? Healing from the Channel could pretty much amount to pressing the reset button as far as their damage is concerned.

Most level 7 full casters with d6 health are going to probably only have 25-35 HP anyway. 7x3.5 = 24.5 without a Con bonus or Toughness. That thing is going to one shot them with a single Vital Strike.

It's worse than that. As a CR7 foe, this is supposed to be a tough but winnable fight for a 5th-level party. At 5th level, even the d10 full BAB types are going to be around 50hp. A critical hit could take out a PC on the first shot and kill them outright if they're already wounded. Also, I left off the d8 of negative energy damage, so increase all the average damage estimates by 4.5.

Just a word of caution: You've got a Large Great Axe and Vital Strike. That means 6d6+8 for a Vital Strike (29hp average). A normal critical hit will be 9d6+24 (55hp avg) and a Vital Strike critical of 12d6+24. All without adding Power Attack.

That Siphoned from the Living ability will keep these beasties in the fight longer than their base hp would imply. Do you really want them to heal 1d8 every time they hit with the great axe? Healing from the Channel could pretty much amount to pressing the reset button as far as their damage is concerned.

Level 8 barbarian, hoping to continue deep into later levels. How have other barbarians dealt with higher level play.

In the lower levels, been fairly easy dealing with all the enemies, but higher level play seems intimidating. Keeping my fortitude and will saves high.

How are you set for avoiding Sudden Barbarian Death Syndrome? Raging Vitality? Aegis of Recovery? Cleric with Reach Spell? Beyond that, you mostly need to make sure you've taken care of all the usual things for a melee specialist: Getting through DR, dealing with invisible or incorporeal enemies, having a range weapon, keeping a one-handed weapon for grapples or swallow attacks.

Inquisitors can be awesome archers, although they have little in the way of shareable buffs.