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My DM is concerned with the following text in Ultimate Equipment:
"* Add to enhancement bonus on Table 3–1: Armor and Shield
Pricing by Bonus to determine total price" It's an asterisk on every line of special abilities that have a gold piece cost rather than an enhancement bonus (+1, +2, etc.)

Her interpretation is that since the gold piece costs are itemized on the charts under various bonuses (for instance, Glamered is on the +2 bonus chart, but noted as 2700 gold pieces) that the total cost is 2700 plus a +2 bonus cost.

Now, I can see glamered adding to the total enhancement of a piece of armor (say, a +3 breastplate) for a total bonus of +5 for consideration of further improving the armor - but actually having a gold cost of 6,700 seems pretty ridiculous for the ability (4000 for +2 and the 2700 base cost).

I can't seem to find anywhere where it specifies one way or the other - the quote above is as close to an explanation as there is, and it's fairly clear that by that, her interpretation is correct.

So, I've been thinking about playing a pure tank, and I'd like some critique of this build as well as ideas on stats (20 pt buy)

1) Barbarian (Armored Hulk), Toughness
2) Cleric (Crusader) of Cayden for travel domain, Tower Shield Prof bonus feat. Also taking Earth alternate channel power.
3) Fighter (Unbreakable, Lore Warden) (asked for special dispensation to drop the will save from unbreakable at level 2 - both classes replace Bravery) - picking up endurance and die hard from unbreakable. Steel soul 3rd level feat.
4) Fighter - Combat expertise for free (no int pre-req) from Lore Warden. Shield Focus level 2 fighter feat
5-20 Barbarian, picking up Stalwart line, superstition rage line, etc.

Playing Rise of the Runelords

Concept is to take the dwarf traits of Glory of Old and Giant Killer, taking Rock stepper and the giant hatred alternate traits. Then, with the Earth channel, I can keep enemies from 5' stepping, while I can 5' to them.

By 8th level, I'll have Armored Hulk 5, granting another 10' of movement in heavy armor, for a total of 40'. Considering taking the pounce rage line, but without TWF, it's a bit silly. Being able to charge 80' as a dwarf is pretty sick as is.

Plate and tower shield for total turtle defense, Stalwart to add more DR in turtle mode, earth channel to provide some battlefield control (agile moves from travel will also allow me to negate the movement penalties if I want to charge as well).

All in all, it seems very dwarfy.

Thoughts?

I'm probably going to be playing a cleric in an upcoming Rise of the Runelord campaign, and it's been decided the group is going to be a band of dwarves as an homage to The Hobbit.

However, no one in the group is particularly happy with being slow, so they're all looking for various ways to over come it (most often by taking a level in barbarian).

I've decided, since the cleric hand has been shoved at me, to grab a deity with the travel domain. Sadly, all of the dwarven gods are homebodies, so I'm ranging into the humans and Abadar really has my attention.

Now, on to the really non-optimal part of this - I'm thinking of playing a battle-ish type cleric with secondary push into support. For that, I'm for sure, going to take up the tower shield and be the frumpy turtle that annoys the enemy by healing up the party.

I'm toying with going with the Crusader archetype, just for the free feats - which allows me to skip the Fighter levels that typically boost the military prowess. Grabbing tower shield at 1st, heavy armor at 5th and greater shield focus at 10th (regular shield focus along the way).

The other idea was to grab Tower shield prof as my 1st level feat and dipping into Unbreakable for endurance and diehard - two feats that, along with Toughness would really make this guy a very hard nut to crack.

Abadar is great, except for his divine weapon of choice. Caiden seems like another great choice - though I have a hard time wrapping my brain around rapier and tower shield... but I'm not expecting to be wading into combat too much (else, I'd just go classic Gorum and Greatsword, obviously)

So I guess my primary question is, has anyone played a tower shield wielding battle/support hybrid and what class/archetype options did you use, and what feats - bonus and level did you take?

Off the top of my head, I'd like Scribe Scroll, Steel Soul, Weapon Focus (Warhammer or d.waraxe for dwarven flavor) - but should I grab Elemental Channeling and go into Holy Vindicator? Should I grab Spell Focus: Conjuration / Augment Summoning and go the summoning route?

I'd read about taking 5 levels of Fighter - Tower Shield Spec for the bonuses, but eating 5 levels of spell casting seems really harsh.

Anyway, any advise would be appreciated. Trying to have a fun quirky character, but don't want to shoot myself in the foot and be completely unplayable.

Oh, as for the rest of the party, the only other person who has provided a character is a barbarian 2 / Two handed Fighter /x Which is the primary reason I didn't go full on battle cleric - I figured we'd need a tank and flank buddy for him.

My GM was gracious (maybe crazy) enough to let me use the ogre build example from the ARG. I had originally stated out a barbarian, but after one session of play, found it to be a bit... defenseless. So I'm switching to a fighter to start and would appreciate any advice.

Ok, specifics.
Attributes:
STR: 16 (+6) 22
Dex: 16 (-2) 14
Con: 17 (+2) 19
Int: 13 (-2) 11
Wis: 13
Chr: 12 (-2) 10

We are using the Vigor/Wounds alternate rules, hence the higher Con.

I've fallen in love with the dorn-dergar, so took EWP as my first feat. With the ogre's range and it being a ranged weapon, and a decent if not stellar dex, I picked Combat Reflexes as my fighter feat.

We're also playing Kingmaker - all the players are half-orcs, hobgoblins and me with my ogre... we're interested in seeing how we can make the River Kingdoms into an orc/monster haven.

Because it's Kingmaker, and outdoorsy types are king (no pun intended) I'm considering taking levels in Ranger, focusing on THF (grabbing Shield of Swings at R2 and Great Cleave at R6) Outside of that though, I'm a bit lost. I'm planning on grabbing Darting Viper at level 4 as F2 (so F1, R1, R2, F2 for levels)

Any thoughts on additional feats / progression? I'd like to get at least F3 for armor training 1 (and might as well go to F4 for spec?) Given the ranger feats are limited to medium armor, I figured being able to full speed in it would be advantageous.

So, any archetypes would need to reflect keeping AT1. I also want Great Cleave, but not Cleave (necessarily), so would like to keep R6 free feat (had considered Falconer, until I saw the loss).

So, anything else that would help?

I'm looking to do decent (not insane) DPR while being, if not a total tank, at least able to hold my own.

Thanks!

My friend and I are updating a pair of rogues we played in 3.5 for a pathfinder only (20 pt buy) game. Of note: the GM has stated we get full HPs every level, so Toughness and FCB Hit Point aren't AS important.

We'll be 4th level, but I stated out a full build.

Couple of unbreakable items of note
Race must be halfling
There must be at least 1 level of barbarian.

Here's what I'm currently thinking:
Barb (Invulnerable Rager)1/Rogue (Knife Master) 1/Barb 1/Rogue 3/Barb 2/Rogue 12
Str: (16-2)14, Dex: (15+2)17, Con: 14, Int: 12, Wis: 10, Chr: (7+2)9
Traits:
Reactionary, River Rat (+1 damage with daggers)
Feats:
1: Power Attack
3: TWF
4: Weapon finesse (finesse rogue)
5: Double slice
6: Weapon focus [dagger] (weapon training)
7: Imp. Init.
9: Imp TWF
11: Imp. crit (dagger)
13: Outflank
15: Greater TWF
16: TW: rend (bought with Feat talent)
17: Precise strike
19: TW: defense
20: Feint partner (bought with combat trick)

Rage Powers
3: Superstitious
8: Witch hunter

Talents (those not taken as feats)
10: Offensive Defense
12: Underhanded
14: Opportunist
18: Imp. Evasion

As a matched set, are there better options? I tried to find teamwork feats that would compliment the fighting style and maximize our damage output. The 8d8 sneak dice I thought offset the -2dx sneak loss from 4 levels of barbarian, but the added BAB and extra iterative attack (especially against mooks we can crunch like popcorn) made it net zero.

Also, I'm not sure the progression is optimal... feats and classes taken as listed...