Soporific Lotus's page

I know you were not seeking build advice, but since this got moved to the advice forum!

Str: 10 +0
Dex: 17 +3 (15 base, +2 racial)
Con: 12 +1 (12 base)
Int: 15 +2 (15 base)
Wis: 12 +1 (12 base)
Cha: 12 +1 (12 base)

So that's how I would build this character. One point into Dex and Int at levels 4 and 8 (you choose which one first).

To me this guy is average strength, extremely nimble, very smart, above average health, common sense, will power and looks and is generally likeable.

For feats, Skill Focus Acrobatics and Dodge at 1st level. Grab a light crossbow or short bow and attack from range.

2nd: Finesse Rogue for Weapon Finesse.
3rd: Skill Focus Perception to cement your place as the trapfinder (or anything finder really).
4th: Trap Spotter, so you don't miss anything.
5th: Skill Focus: Stealth
6th: Weapon Training for Weapon Focus (whatever weapon you choose).
7th: Skill Focus: Disable Device
8th: Combat Trick for Mobility
9th: Spring Attack
10th: Skill Mastery

So at level 10 your base skills are:
Acrobatics +23, Bluff +14, Diplomacy +14, Disable Device +23, Disguise +14, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +16, Knowledge (local) +16, Perception +20, Sense Motive +14, Sleight of Hand +17, Stealth +23, Use Magic Device +14

I would put the favored class point into Hit Points, but if not you can get another skill. And of course skills can be swapped out for other ones. Probably Alertness at 11th for +4 to Perception and Sense Motive?

Anyway, this guys isn't the greatest in combat, but with his Acrobatics and eventually Spring Attack he can get to where he needs to be when it counts. Otherwise he should stay out of the way, try not to get hit and look for an opportunity to be useful.

This is not how I would build a bard but I thought I would make one in the form set out by Lord Twig and see how it turned out. Lord Twig took 12 skills. With versatile performance for oratory and acting and taking the favored class option for the skill point a human bard can match the rogue. Lord Twig did not use his favored class option so he could have an extra skill or hit point but instead of focusing on two knowledge skills a bard can put skill points into four knowledge skills every other level and actually come out ahead with lore master. We also have perform as an actual skill. Stats are pretty much the same but I reduced intellect to increase charisma. Lord Twig took skill focus four times so I also took skill focus four times for the same skills but I did take advantage of the human focused study trait to get an extra skill focus feat at 8th level. This left three feats which I used to focus on archery by taking precise shot and rapid shot instead of going for spring attack.

1 Point-blank shot, Skill Focus
3 Precise Shot
5 Rapid Shot
7 Skill Focus
8 Skill Focus (from focused study)
9 Skill Focus

Str 11
Dex 17 (+2 racial)
Con 12
Int 14
Wis 12
Cha 13

At 10th level if we had put a point into dexterity and charisma our skills are as follows:

Acrobatics +23
Disable Device +15
Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +10
Knowledge (Local) +10
Knowledge (Nature) +10
Knowledge (Planes) +10
Perception +20
Perform (Acting) +15 (Counts for bluff and disguise)
Perform (Oratory) +15 (Counts for sense motive and diplomacy)
Sleight of hand +17
Stealth +23
Use magic device +15

The bard is only behind in disable device and ahead on effective knowledge checks. If we take archeologist to gain trap finding, putting us at +20 disable device, we lose versatile performance and therefore two skills. We can always drop disguise and stealth both of which are easily replaced by magic such as invisibility. If we take archeologist we get two rogue talents so we could take trap spotter to match the rogue. We cannot take skill mastery because that is an advanced talent but we could take something such as canny observer which supplements trap spotter.

Is this bard better at everything than a rogue all the time? No, the bard will always be behind on disable device because it is not a class skill, even for the archeologist, but the bard has the advantage with knowledge skills so I think they are pretty even on skills even with the archeologist losing versatile performance. Magic is going to be much better than sneak attack, which Lord Twig’s rogue can not really use to full effect anyway. With magic I think the bard will consistently outperform the rogue. I realize some people do not want to play a bard because it does not fit their concept but I think it is pretty clear when you compare the two head on there is not much the rogue can do better than the bard.

That being said I think people should play whatever they enjoy.

From the PRD

On a direct hit, an alchemist's bomb inflicts 1d6 points of fire damage + additional damage equal to the alchemist's Intelligence modifier. The damage of an alchemist's bomb increases by 1d6 points at every odd-numbered alchemist level (this bonus damage is not multiplied on a critical hit or by using feats such as Vital Strike).

I do not believe this is the RAI but the RAW seems to be that a first level Alchemist would do a base of 1d6 damage plus another 1d6 from first level being an odd numbered level. Similar progressions such as the rogues sneak attack are worded differently and make it clear that at first level the damage is 1d6.

Does the ranger know the party is coming to the church? Is the church important to the ranger? Is the church in the middle of town or more by itself? Would they recognize the ranger’s animal companion? By putting a ranger in a building you are taking away some of the best options a ranger archer can use to keep the party out of melee range namely entangle, spike growth or plant growth. Alternately, if the church has been not used for a while and is overgrown the ranger could still use those spells.

Here is one idea that still uses the church but as a trap.

Have the ranger up a tree outside the church. The ranger’s animal companion is used to bait the party into the church. The animal companion easily escapes through a small hole. The ranger then shoots a flask of alchemist fire that has been placed in a window to start a fire with oil the ranger has spread in the church or the ranger could use a flaming arrow. The ranger then casts entangle, spike growth or plant growth to hinder escape from the church and shoots the party as they flee the burning church. With this approach you don’t want to use too high of a level ranger, maybe level 8.

There has been a lot of talk about what a low or high INT score represents. Particularly in regard to dumping INT to 7 many people feel that such a character would be extremely unintelligent and think that the IQ of such a character would be 70 or even lower. Is there a way to relate INT scores and IQ? To try to answer this question I took a 3D6 distribution, calculated the percentiles, looked at the IQ percentiles from the Wechsler and Stanford-Binet scales and assigned an IQ to each INT score. For example the 50th percentile for IQ is a 100 and the 50th percentile for a 3D6 distributed stat is 10 so an IQ of 100 roughly equals an INT of 10. An INT of 7 is the 16th percentile and the 16th percentile for IQ is an 85. Now an IQ of 85 is not that low and such a person would not be a drooling moron. My core assumption is that a 3D6 distribution for INT is representative of a population. I would be interested to hear other people’s ideas on how the spectrum of INT scores could be modeled.