TheGreatXandini's page

Iron Priest is so sweet. The name sounds like Agent Steele made a buttbaby with Rob Halford. A very heavy metal one. I've got an Iron Priest 1/Witch Hunter 8 who has so far only touched one robot with the sheer profane 12d6 power of Nethys, but that only made it that much more sweeter.

WTF I HAVE technology guide but somehow did not see this! :D Sounds GREAT vs constructs, only issue is Paizo's love of undead. Seems like a great archetype in home-brew but a great way to cripple yourself in PFS.

TheGreatXandini wrote:

OK a lot of responses to respond to, Thanks for all the advice here. I will try to consolidate the main issues I am hearing. And yes this is PFS.

okay... so what your group needs is some help to get a better game going. Once you guys are on the PFS path things should get better and more fun for everyone, including your GM.

You know where you are, so write the Venture Officer in your area using your regular email.
Here is a list of Venture Officers (otherwise known as) Regional Coordinators

reference this thread (you can click on a post and copy the url in your browser into the email)

he can have you join a regular group that meets in your area, let you see some other GMs and play some games with experienced folks, you'll meet people that have played PFS for years to newbies, there might even be a GM 101 session...

Part of PFS is that there are many of us with various degrees of experience and we all Explore, Report, and Cooperate.

I play with several of these people and they are actually way harder on players than my current GM. They are where he gets his CDG ideas. One of the GMs in my area literally celebrates when he kills players. I have had one in a nearby area openly fudge dice against the player. I never had as tough a time in my 6 years experience in RPGs as I have in PFS. Not entirely sure I would be open to new GMs here.

New companion will be a skittergoat from battle of bloodmarch hill. giving it int so it can take dragon style. Getting amulet of mighty fists +1 for it with bane construct. Take that constructs!!!! lol

TheGreatXandini wrote:

pauljathome wrote:

As an aside, animal companions can't use weapons. Its specifically outlawed in PFS.

seems to say ape can use it, though it is not natural to them. I have given it linguistics so it can understand my exact commands. With that all added together it can make a shot even if it doesn't come naturally to it.

PFS specific FAQ specifically says otherwise.

You cannot give your animal weapon feats, and animals cannot use weapons. Regardless what their Intelligence is. Sorry, your gorilla cannot use a Bow. Even untrained.

well that faq is a lot clearer than previous ones I have seen. Thanks. I will have to go back to lending out my arrows to party members I guess.

As an aside, animal companions can't use weapons. Its specifically outlawed in PFS.

http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5lc1y?Monkey-See-Monkey-Do-An-FAQ-on-In telligent seems to say ape can use it, though it is not natural to them. I have given it linguistics so it can understand my exact commands. With that all added together it can make a shot even if it doesn't come naturally to it.

Oracles are specifically able to use variant channels.
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2ln8z?Can-a-Life-Oracle-with-Channeling-take

Life channels are being used for positive dazing undead mostly but my GM has said he is ok with me using them for neg dazing as well.

and in all other ways I have done my homework for this build.

The topic seems to be taking a turn for the rant-y and I feel like we are getting off track. I have my character pretty well made, That was the point of posting my build. The real question is are there tactics for 3-7 that I am missing? I have a feeling like there is something that changes at that point that is making it more difficult. I can see where maybe the GM is picking more interesting scenarios, but I would imagine after the first set of wipes we would catch a breath on some easier stuff. Is there something I am still missing about this level tier? I have taken to starting up a ultimate mercy pally for a lvl 5 res on demand. I'm not happy with it but it seems like the most sensible way to keep the group from falling apart.

OK a lot of responses to respond to, Thanks for all the advice here. I will try to consolidate the main issues I am hearing. And yes this is PFS.
1) My build- level 4 separatist cleric of horus (animal and travel domains)/1 life oracle with alternative channel daze.
Defensive stats: ac 27, 15 con and 5-8 on all saves.
Offensive stats: DC 19-20 daze 14x/day
Intelligent Ape pet with +7 to hit and 2d6+4 damage on his bow and feats for it. Grabbed durable adamantine arrows for him to deal with constructs (about the only thing I can't seem to daze)

2)Party Comp: Why pregens, because everyone else has died. As such we have been playing Rogues, Hunters, mages and swashbucklers a lot. Recently we only have had enough players show up that we have 2 newbies, me and a npc pregen. The community really dwindled after a first set of TPKs a few months ago. This more recent set of near TPKs has all but destroyed our group. I guess People just aren't interested in investing time into characters when they are going to get murdered.

3) Tactics: Yes we have been very careful as I cited in the first post. Searching every 5 feet and flanking and whatnot. I have been pretty much trying to tank for the party when not able to daze stun and have been very unsuccessful at maintaining the enemy's attention. Things like attacking defensively have been shown to really just waste a turn since you are unlikely to hit and won't get attacked. We have been consistently flanking where possible. Part of the issue is enemies just ganking us hard. Seems like every mindless zombie somehow has amazing hide check.

4) Maybe bad luck? I'm not sure I would call it luck anymore. The first few coup de graces in I would have said maybe but at this point any form of control on behalf of the enemy is pretty much a party killer.In one instance a 3 round stun killed half the party due to coups. The rest left trying to run for their lives. At any rate bad luck has played it's part I'm sure but it surely isn't only that.

5) GM: My GM is a self professed good guy GM and he has actually fudged a number of rolls openly in favor of our party. I'm not sure what the scenarios are calling for but he seems to let on that he is trying to be lenient. Though I do wonder at times about the idea that all intelligent creatures coup de grace during battle.

6) Specific issues: Constructs in general have just seemed really mean to our party. I know I am not good vs them so I have taken retraining to get a pet that can hit them with adamantine arrows. I would have never expected them to be such a HUGE issue but since we discovered that they are immune to channel energy they seem to be in EVERY scenario. Since my to hit is below abysmal, I try to just but a target and tank but as stated before they seem to just ignore anything that isn't hitting them. So I feel like there is little else I can do but flank and aid another. Usually flanking is better but sometimes that ac can help. Most of the party has ac in the 20-22 range and that doesn't seem to cut it vs these guys who regularly have hit in the 24-27 range and they seem to always hit for 12-20 damage. This last one took us 7 rounds of battle before we were even close to bringing it down. By that time 3 of our 4 party members were downed or dead. Last scenario played was storming the diamond gate, preceded by among the gods and silver mount collection.
Our original wipe was in mists of mwangi. So far I have lost 3 characters in the past year and currently have the highest level character anyone in our group has attained.

So i guess that is all the information you would need. I will be back on tomorrow for responses. :) Thanks for all the input. You guys are great.

So in the last 3 scenarios I have been witness to 10 player deaths. I am playing in the 3-7 bracket. In the last scenario we didn't make it past the second encounter. I am playing a Daze Cleric of Horus, the other party members are almost always pregens now because we can't keep people alive and it is nice to occasionally play something other than confirmation. In the last encounter we started checking for traps and magic every 5 feet and still got destroyed by a construct, granted it had dr 5 and fast healing. I am left wondering are we doing something wrong? This is the first time I have been able to get a character past level 4 without dying and I would like to keep him going. Any advice?

Tristan Windseeker wrote:

The Fox is correct; sneak attack would happen on the initial hit but not on subsequent damage.

An off-topic heads up: you actually can't sneak attack with Alchemist's Fire due to the Throw Splash Weapon rules:

Quote:

Splash weapons cannot deal precision-based damage (such as the damage from the rogue's sneak attack class feature).

Link

Good catch. Sorry about that. I was just trying to come up with examples that deal ongoing damage, and that was off the top of my head.

the exception would be for Underground Chemist

Does changing a spell's elemental damage type through a feat or feature also change it's descriptor? For instance would an acid spell that was made to do fire damage then have the fire descriptor?

Would one count the level the caster would cast it at including feats and features that reduce the effective metamagic level during the creation process?

I was wondering how Alchemist/Underground Chemist would work due to their overlapping abilities. Would my bombs be able to sneak attack at that point? I have heard that bombs cannot do precision damage but I think precise splash weapons (Ex) would overcome that issue right? Could I then also qualify for precision damage on bombs from other sources?

I was wondering how Alchemist/Underground Chemist would work due to their overlapping abilities. Would my bombs be able to sneak attack at that point? I have heard that bombs cannot do precision damage but I think precise splash weapons (Ex) would overcome that issue right? Could I then also qualify for precision damage on bombs from other sources?