The Invincible Lord Rook's page

Sorry guys! I was out for a day or two for my birthday.

My concern is that I'm still not quite sure what I'm supposed to be building (and with gold totals constantly getting shuffled around, need to deal with buying and crunching a whole lot more items). I also feel like everyone had sort of a very different idea of what was supposed to be happening in this game.

Err, Davin, you've got to pick NG, LG, or CG for the purpose of how spells affect you, even if it's not a code of behavior.

Permanent Telepathic Bond only requires a level 13 wizard (or in Rook's case, a level 13 wizard scroll+UMD). It's pretty affordable, and useful for most high-level parties.

As for "a thin layer of lead"—it doesn't cover his eyes, and it doesn't "block" true seeing, just makes it hard to see that he's a mummy (since his "true form" is just "a guy covered in lead". Technically, True Seeing doesn't see through clothing anyway, so that may have been unnecessary on my part.

I never said omniscience. Lord Rook's pretty par for the course for a level 20 lore oracle. And I thought we were originally using 3.5 epic for inspiration?

Fair enough. The +30 to Perception was from the Eternal Potion discovery; I mostly wanted him to be someone really good at seeing things from far away. I can probably toss it or reflavor some of the perception bonuses into only for seeing things at a distance, not telling who's disguised, etc. (Though we're high enough level for half the party to have true seeing, which is why Lord Rook took precautions against it).

One of the problems with a game at this level is—25, with mythic and gestalt, we're basically gods. Minor gods, sure, but the same things that threaten or stymy a normal party aren't going to apply, and scenarios are bound to play out differently.

...Lord Rook doesn't even have the highest knowledge. But knowledge checks only have the ability to cover things you can conceivably learn. Yeah, with time, he can probably find a bit of info on every rich/powerful/important game-player in all of Golarion (as can, say, a Legend Lore spell from a 10th-level bard, which anyone at this point can trivially hire), but if you name some random peasant in Varisia, he'll never be able to find that guy's family tree.

Basically, everyone: assume diminishing returns on skills. I was using the D20 epic level guide as a guide for this—a Perception check of 80, for instance, can overcome a failed will save against a mundane illusion spell, and a Perception check of 60 lets you detect the presence of magic (but not it's aura). With an Acrobatics check of DC 90, you can balance on water in a magic-free zone, while Acrobatics DC 120 is the poor man's Cloud Walk—but other than that, there's not much difference between 30 and 130 Acrobatics.

Yeah, that's fair. I just tried to go with "badass" and maybe the numbers turned out wacky. Wasn't even originally expecting cohorts to be fully statted out but I got carried away.

Uncanny dodge is an Ex, not an Su, but I guess it doesn't hurt to list it.

I didn't add wis to BAB; I added it to the attack line.

Also, I primarily took Noble Scion because he *is* the scion of a noble family (and one that is very into being careful/wary). If it's a power thing I can change it.

The sentence before is "In this system, adding bonus-equivalent special abilities to items costs significantly less because you are paying only for the special ability, not for a base enhancement bonus (see the table below)."

I've read "significantly less" as the key words there—under your proposed way of interpreting this, adding bonus-equivalent abilities costs only a tiny fraction less.

1) "born into higher age category" e.g. "can be venerable, despite being undead, since he was created from a venerable half-elf." It's a -6/-6/-6/+3/+3/+3

2) Unchained Monk. I should have made this more clear. Four iteratives plus Unchained Flurry.

3) Boneless Leather provides a CMD bonus, not an AC bonus. It might be confusing because they're right next to each other.

4) Uncanny Dodge: never caught flat-footed. Since he doesn't sleep, and has constant freedom of movement, I'm not sure when he'd ever be flat-footed. Doctor Janus has the same set of effects.

5) Cha to initiative is from the Noble Scion feat; Wis to initiative is from Inquisitor. Tactics Inquisition also adds his Wisdom bonus to all nearby allies' initiatives.

6) Wisdom to attacks comes from a Guided weapon. If you don't like guided weapons, I can do this through Mythic Guided Hand or a Soulknife dip instead, but that feels like more work.

7) Under Equipment, it's a 66k expenditure.

8) Inquisitor Monster Lore. It's only +Wisdom to identify monsters, which should be noted in the skills section.

9) I am paying for all three. I figure he'll want to cast more than three quickened spells/day, but most of them will be lower level ones.

10) +Cha to Fort from being Undead, +Cha to Ref from being a lore oracle. Should be +Wis to Will, that was a typo but the numbers were correct.

11) Also a typo. The second was a bonus feat from a class I got rid of. Thanks!

12) Must have missed that, thanks.

13) Hmm. I assume a 1.2 million gp estate generates about 10x that much money per day. If it's a problem, I can get rid of it, since he spends most of his time in a Mage's Private Sanctum.

In his meditation chamber, Lord Rook gathers the appropriate books, casts a Whispering Lore spell, and takes what time he can to try and remember any mention of a powerful entity named "VG."

Knowledge (planes): 20 + 30 + 4 + 20 = 74
Knowledge (religion): 40 + 20 + 20 = 80
Knowledge (local): 30 + 20 + 20 = 70
Knowledge (arcana): 30 + 20 + 20 = 70
Knowledge (nobility): 40 + 20 + 20 = 80

Oh. Then it seems a bit powerful, hmm.

Also, the point of the carriage is to look cool, not be useful. And my cohort has a LOT of crafted wealth to spare.

Intelligent Ring of Telekinesis is alright—gaming the system would be if you gave it 20 in every mental stat and let it use its own telekinesis power.

* * *

Meanwhile, check out this sweet ride I found.

I'm giving my cohort an arbitrary amount of alchemist's fire and holy water, since I figure my estate can produce that faster than he uses it.

I think the big thing with intelligent items is just to keep them on scale with existing pre-written ones, and not try to game the system.

* * *

Also, I'm working on my cohort but mostly done; I just need to assign him skills and story.

While DM's will frequently borrow some aspects (like monsters) from other genre's to what degree are you comfortable with potentially dealing with a multiverse? (like finding yourselves in France, 1916)

No, that's preposterous. 1916 France is DEFINITELY not part of the Pathfinder universe.

...you're thinking of 1918 Russia. o.O

Hmmm... looks like Solars can take human form for a long time in a row, or something like a Draconal Agathion could also take a similar role while effectively acting like a human. (If the "deity avatar" thing doesn't make sense).

Well, is he like... the actual avatar of one of the Empyreal lords, who enjoys food so much he's taken human form to appreciate it better? Because that might actually be a decent explanation, etc.

@Belgraen: Remember that your cohort is probably themselves teetering on the edge of mythicdom. For instance, my cohort is level 23, and will gain mythic ranks pretty soon; he's not just an Alchemist/doctor, he's the best damn Alchemist/doctor on half a continent.

If your cohort is a cook, he's not just a simple cook; he's also got magical knowledge and combat prowess exceeding that of most divine heralds and approaching that of one of the weaker Empyreal Lords.

I think Belgraen's right on this one. Wild Arcana, from being mythic, lets him craft a scroll of any Wizard spell.

However, I don't think he's paying the *scroll crafting* costs.

How flurry of blows works:

"Starting at 1st level, a monk can make a flurry of blows as a full-attack action. When doing so, he may make one additional attack, taking a –2 penalty on all of his attack rolls"

"At 8th level, the monk can make two additional attacks when he uses flurry of blows"

So your is BAB is +19/+14/+9/+4. When you flurry, you count your Monk levels as full BAB, giving you a "flurry BAB" of +20/+15/+10/+5.

Then flurry lets you make an extra attack, at BABs of +18/+18/+13/+8/+3. If you have Haste, it becomes +18/+18/+18/+13/+8/+3. That's it.

I think so, yeah.

* * *

But Trap the Soul can keep a dead person from going to Hell, and is pretty easy to cast. Actually transferring that soul into a full control of an object, especially when something's fighting you on it, is more difficult.

My suggestion there would be to treat it as a mythic item you can gradually add powers to (at crafting cost if you have the feat for it, otherwise at full cost, but with no chance of failure), through a sufficient quantity of Wish spells, perhaps with a maximum of one wish/day or one wish/week. (At higher mythic tiers, you can make it auto-intelligent for mythic reasons without paying a cost there).

The Invincible Lord Rook wrote:

Belgraen: What if it's a repository for her soul, but in a protected plane where she can't really talk/interact with the world? That way it can gain sentience later, slowly.

That's a good idea. I can have her stored in a gem via a binding effect. Then when the time is right ill combine that gem into an item.

And now I am reminded of DoomedHero's Tarrasque > Trap the Soul > Magic Bullet story. Oh gosh.

Yeah... it's a pseudo-feint (Distracting Shot, a special Bolt Ace deed that's severely underrated).

In other news, I'm having way too much fun with my alchemist/bolt ace cohort (though I see him generally not showing up at the same time as my main character, and also his saves are terrible). Here are some highlights:

-Can AoE heal up to 400 damage per character in a single round, FROM 600 FEET AWAY
-Bombs (or regular splash weapons like alchemist's fire) negate invisibility/concealment for all allies for a round
-Pinning fire can literally pin down enemies, up to 9x/round (requires a standard action to clear, auto-succeeds on every hit)
-Can feint with a crossbow (in a way that auto-succeeds and allows all allies to treat them as flat-footed), against up to 9 enemies/round, FROM 1,600 FEET AWAY

Definitely the best chirurgeon ever.

Belgraen: What if it's a repository for her soul, but in a protected plane where she can't really talk/interact with the world? That way it can gain sentience later, slowly.

I mean, you can net it out by taking Iron Will with the extra legendary gifts, right? Sorcerers don't tend to use a ton of feats.

EDIT: Belgraen, don't forget to add your +9 Wis and +11 Dex to AC. Also, your staff is still far, far more powerful than a staff of the magi, probably major artifact levels (20 charges that restore each day?)

Crossblooded Bloodrager is more comparable to Crossblooded Sorcerer, except its Will penalty is -4 on a class that already has a bad will save (because a Bloodrager's bloodline powers are arguably better).

Dual-cursed oracles are kinda cheese, but they also lose class skills and some spells which makes them almost impossible to stack with other good archetypes. But if you're going for certain PrCs, some curses can be a strict advantage.

Most bloodline arcana (the good ones, at least), are worth about 1-2 feats in terms of power. Again, absolutely a boon, but a much smaller one at level 20 with bonus feats.

Nor I psionic. My cohort is a Chirurgeon Alchemist/Far Strike Monk on one side, and TBD on the other side (either Bolt Ace Gunslinger, Card Caster Magus, or Shield Champion Brawler, though I'm having trouble picking which)

Reason: The archetype doesn't actually give much in the way of straight benefits. It just allows you choices as you level.

Eheheh. It gives you *insane* benefits, at least at low levels. Since most bloodlines have less than half their powers/bonus spells as useful ones, you're effectively doubling these. By this level, it doesn't matter much, since Pages of Spell Knowledge and Arcane Heritage feats are a more powerful option.

(There's a reason why Crossblooded Bloodragers up the will penalty from -2 to -4, and it's because Bloodragers take the effects to an even greater extreme. But it matters more for reflexive min-maxers like myself, probably).

Feats should definitely go up by more than +1 cost each time but unsure what would be fair. Want to make getting several appealing but not make it really easy to get a crap ton of extras.

How about doubling? First extra feat is 2 gifts, second is 4, third is 8, fourth is 16, unlikely anyone will get more than that.

* * *

And I anticipate my cohort being mostly a character who handles things when my main character *doesn't* want to be around. But either I make him a potion thrower (with harrow cards, daggers, or thrown shields as a main weapon) or he's a crossbow guy who uses fun potion-launcher crossbows to heal/buff allies while also firing arrows at people with his other hand.

I'm still not a fan of Psionic Critical (with your crit rate, it increases damage by an average of less than 1 point per hit). If you want to fit with the theme of "accurate, psionically-augmented critical strikes," you could consider replacing Psionic Critical with Critical Mastery, then use your last feat to grab something like Blinding Critical or Staggering Critical.

If you want to throw a few extra feats into it (or we get extra feats with gifts), consider getting both + Critical Mastery and maybe Stunning Critical.

Staggering Critical means every time you score a critical hit, an enemy is *guaranteed* staggered for at least one round even if they save (plus one round on additional saves). With TWF+Haste, you're critting at least once almost every round, and thus whoever you're fight is incapable of making full attacks to retaliate (and when added to dazing assault against standard mooks, there's multiple save-or-suck effects piled on). Casters can't 5' step out of your reach and teleport either, because staggered.

Blinding Critical, on the other hand, is just murderous when it succeeds, but doesn't have as good an effect if they make the save (Staggering or its upgrade, Stunning Critical, work well even against enemies that can always make a DC 33 fort save).

Basically, either of those feats mean the only things that can retaliate against you are undead, constructs, oozes and the tarrasque—they're pretty much the best two "assassin feats" I can think of

Hmm. Can't decide whether to make my cohort focused on throwing, or crossbows (it's a pretty cosmetic decision, tbh, but one option has him as a master of throwing things and the other he uses bows to launch all his healing potions).

Keep in mind that some feats can be crafted, typically for around 20k gold.

PF specifically tries to avoid this, though.

I mean we do have tons of feats this level, but fair enough, I'm fine either way.

@DT: You don't need Agile Maneuvers unless you want to Grapple/Dirty Trick (since you can use Finesse for Trip, Disarm, and Reposition)

The Inquisitors are trucking Bane for a limited number of rounds per day. If anyone's playing a rager (I'm not sure if anyone is), that's another way past DR/Epic. It's hard enough to overcome that we can't all do it automatically, but it's also usually pretty minor on the creatures who have it.

Yeah, might be a good idea to not let us get past +5 (which is still good for overcoming DR/alignment).

Do our cohorts follow auto-bonus progression for a 20th-level character, or just use the 500k for regular gear? (And are we keeping cohorts gestalt?)

Yeah. Making 2-5 cost extra gifts, combined with 1, might be fun. Currently Bane and Furious are our only methods for getting past DR/Epic (I don't know how easy we *want* it to be to get past DR/Epic)

I mean my character is a paranoid old man who probably thinks Iomedae is incompetent. But I'm not too worried about party balance or roles at this level.

@fnord: Yeah, Kryzbyn's right on this one, I'm wrong. Stats cap at 20 (but I don't know if that was before or after racials)

I am liking the ridiculously-high wisdom party.

Multiple swifts per turn come from the almighty Borrowed Time spell.

Seriously though...I don't want to play a guy the other members have to carry or help out, especially if he's less than competent at his envisioned role.

I'm really at a loss here. I no longer wish to play DT.

Dude, what? The only help you need from other characters is cross-planar travel, which only half of us can do anyway. The fact that you can See in Darkness makes you a better target for Deeper Darkness than anyone else in the party. You've also got the best save-or-die attack (Decerebrate), and being immune to spells, while it doesn't effect whether you're the first to kill mages, does mean you're the most resistant to magical attacks.

(The mage killer is someone who can KILL mages, not survive their attacks. Whether or not you can be offensive there, you're still the most defensive at surviving spells, which goes a really long way in magic-filled environments).

Also, if we fight spellcasters, Rook's gotta Silence *somebody*. If he picks himself, that means having to rely on silent spell rods; but if he picks you, everyone wins, because you can use powers while silenced.

(And if you're worried about power, we can always give tips—Psionic Critical, for instance, could be replaced by something like Dazing Assault to let you stun-lock a whole team of wizards in a single full attack)

It's not a criticism—just a semantic disagreement on what he's best at (and surprised that you didn't take any powers/items based around antimagic, though the party can buff you there if it matters—but with See in Darkness, darkness spells are really good). Absorbing blade uses psychic strike, not focus, so I don't think deep focus is involved.

And generally a mage hunter character is one who the mage can't just run away from—because chances are any spellcaster is faster than any non-spellcaster, if you don't grab or slow them.

I thought it was 18 *after* racials, but I might be completely wrong. Some of us are also using age categories to get our bonuses.

You didn't read it very well then.

His blade skills allow him to ignore or reflect up to 9th level spells.

Once per round, and only if he spends a move action preparing it. So it's useless against quickened spells (though Dual Imbue helps with that, and I totally missed it).

His "knife to the soul" ability lets him deal up to -9 to a casters primary stat.

If you can guess their primary stat, the no-save bit is nice. Having to activate psychic strike as a move action and then actually reach them makes it much harder (unless you can execute a ranged psychic strike?

(And why not just buy a standard Ring of Freedom, since I believe that's the typical slot?)

The things I see holding you back as a mage-killer are low initiative, low speed (for an anti-mage, and the lack of constant flight definitely hurts), no dispel powers, no way to create silence, no way to create darkness (especially with See in Darkness), no permanencied see auras/invisible, and no paralysis/grappling skill.

Luckily, now that I think about it, if you stand next to Lord Rook, he can double your initiative, then hit you with Silence and Deeper Darkness shurikens to turn you into a roving field of wizards-be-sad.

Meh...World's edge mountains are huge. Plenty of room.

But if it's a problem, I can move it.

Naaaah. I'll take the north half, you take the south half.

Er... DT, you've got plenty of melee ability, but none of it seems geared in any way towards fighting mages.

EDIT: Oh, and there's a different monastery in the World's End Mountains home to a bunch of Lord Rook's sons.

@Davin: Your Mythic Tier seems higher than the rest of ours? (Also, if you aren't sure what to do with all your feats, you've got a deadly smite, but Guided Hand would turn all your attacks that accurate)

An Endless Ammunition bow could fire imaginary arrows, while Major Creation lets you create weapons out of nothing that last for two days at a time (four days with metamagic). Refine Improvised Weapon is also pretty fun.

There's no reason you'd necessarily want to create your own weapons out of nothing, but it's an option. (And if you dip into soulknife, Focused Offense *potentially* lets you use +Wis for both hit and damage for all weapons, including bows)

@Belgraen: your profile starts "thunderbeard wrote:"

Also, if you're not sure what to do with the fighter levels, maybe soulknife? (since 3.5 leShay can manifest swords with their minds; though I'm assuming the pathfinder implementation would be a bit different because mythc isn't the same thing)

Nah I was talking to the two psychic warriors. I just jump to all the planes whenever, though Sendings help with coordinating things (as well as the fact that there are 11 people in my permanent telepathic bond)

I guess? The psicrown can only restore a max of ML/3 PP per day, though, and with Psychoport/Greater Psychoport you're looking at 9 to 15 PP, so it runs out fast.

I meant as a Psychic Warrior 20 he can easily grab feats that let him teleport, whereas teleporting items would cost hundreds of thousands of gold and be a little sketchy (since the SRD specifically says "be careful what spells you make into items" and there's been little other custom items).

Also, TCG, you're a Teleporter Wizard. Of *course* you can teleport.

Er... Just get Expanded Knowledge and then either Astral Caravan or Psychoport. Take it a second time and take Planar Travel (unless you want to be 100% focused on the Material plane). Now you can plane shift and teleport like the rest of us.

That's an issue of concentration. SLAs are silent and still, but do provoke AoOs. Quickened spells DO NOT provoke (also, defensive casting).

And you need to be pretty focused on counterspells to pull it off.