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That opening for the blog was pretty much a word-for-word replication for how I was feeling as I watched the parade that morning (minus the blog writing). I read it to my wife and she laughed, saying that was exactly my reaction. I'm very glad I was not disappointed by the parade turning into complete crap.
Skald is the Bardbarian. Which makes it the best class ever 11/10. Thock looks at the pitiful and little +2 to Str & Con and laughs. That is nothing compared to a full rage + inspire courage. A little barbarian + lots of bard + some Dragon Disciple is the only true Bardbarian. Paizo... Nice try at making a Bardbarian. (I love the rest of the book though, it rocks!!)
So here's my question... maintaining a grapple is a standard action. With Greater Grapple you can do it as a move action. And the rage power above says you can make a single attack as part of the action she uses to maintain the grapple (a move action). Does that mean you can still get another attack on top of that with the standard action you have left over? And it says "Whenever the barbarian hits using the pinned opponent as a weapon, she deals damage to her target normally and the grappled opponent used as a bludgeon also takes the same damage"... so both opponents would take damage for that extra attack right? Thinking of even more craziness... vital strike is used as an attack action, a special kind of standard action. So could you maintain the grapple (and hit once) with the move action, and then perform a vital strike? I'm sure I'm wrong in some area, let's see who's first to point out where my thinking is incorrect.
After thinking about it more I think Hope and Chemlak are doing it the way it was intended. That basically gives it the same damage as a "full attack action" gives, without giving it a ridiculous amount of damage that the total number of dice would be. And like Mojorat said, it keeps it more consistent regardless of what weapon you're using (2d4 vs 1d8). After talking to my GM about it, this is the new way we're going to be using it in the campaign. Hope that works for you too. But either way, I wish the language was a little easier to understand for this feat.
In the Mythic game I'm in, the GM and myself have looked at this feat and decided it to be by the total number of dice... so x9 in your example. It does say "by the number of weapon damage dice you roll for that feat." To us that means look at how many dice you pick up and roll to do the Vital Strike attack, that's the number you multiply it times. That being said I think your GM is (understandably) worried about you doing so much damage to a single foe. Unless he throws a bunch of fodder in your way to slow you down, you could easily drop a single boss with lots of HP in one round.. in one hit by yourself even. I'd be worried about allowing it in a game I GM'd. So maybe try to come to a middle ground with him. Maybe it uses your total dice you roll but you only get to multiple your strength modifier (and not adding the magical bonus of your weapon and from any spells)? After having put it into practice a few sessions we found it's incredibly powerful, but the (small) trade-off is you only get one attack and can't attack multiple foes within your reach if you dropped the one that only had 10 hp left. Most PC's with multiple attacks will be able to clean up and not waste all that extra damage. That being said.... being able to do hundreds of points of damage in one attack is pretty frickin' sweet and is hard not to resist.
If they're coming to attack you in your lair.... Make a tunnel that goes straight down (stone shape? there's gotta be some spell), with a big pool of lava sitting at the bottom of it. Make sure you know they're coming, some alarm spell or something. But make an antimagic field near the bottom of the tunnel. If they're flying from the use of any kind of spell, it'll go off and they'll plop down into the lava. You're waiting at the edge of the lava pool to say "hello" to them.
If you take the Eldritch Heritage feat at level 17, how are you able to cast level 9 spells? Sorcerers don't get them until level 18, so if you chose it a level earlier wouldn't you have to pick level 8 and lower spells? I'm asking because I never saw the feat before and now I'm considering it on my oracle in the same campaign.
I agree with StreamOfTheSky. The only time it Might be worth it would be lower levels during the times there are many enemies clustered together and you have to move anyways to get a good shot off. But intentionally doing a vital strike shot with plans to get this spell off the next round? There are so many things that can go wrong with it. Enemies can run away depending on their morale of how the fight is going, they can move more than 30 feet than the corpse, your allies could drop several more of the enemies making the attack less worth-while. And once you get improved precise shot? I think you'd always be better off standing still and getting off a full attack. The whole "shooting once for the first round to set up this spell" versus 2 full attacks is what hurts it. And that's not taking into account using Clustered Shots with a full-attack versus enemies with DR. Using this feat and spell you're going against full DR.
I was a Lost fanatic. Lost was all about mysteries... seeing something totally bizarre (polar bears on a deserted tropical island) and eventually figuring out why they're there. And at some point all the random bizarre things connected as there were multiple "ah ha" moments. It was also very character focused, lots of personal backstories (which could mean having a few very individualized and unforgettable NPC's. Maybe even having some of them be pivotal to something very big and bizarre happening in the world?) So it's probably some combination of those two things that he loves about the show, it'd just be a way of incorporating those elements into your campaign. (unless I'm totally off base and he likes Lost for some other random reason) Just some ideas to get you thinking.
Going off what Lumiere said... knowing what kind of games/video games/books he likes would steer you in the right direction. More story-based rpg ones? (you do more describing details, have ncp's interact with him more) Straight up action?(very little talking, jump right into the action, cool fights, even cooler loot) Off the wall ones like Monkey Island or Munchkin? (ham up the NPC's and monsters, make it fun) Stealthy ones? (let him sneak around a ton, steal something as the goal) Like you're already doing with feats and spells, make combat simpler (they did that in Beginner Box also). Reinforce the idea that he can do whatever he wants, just think of something (swinging on rope to kick the ogre) and you'll figure out what he needs to roll to see if it works or not. But don't get too bogged down with looking up rules/making sure everything's perfect. Just go with your gut instinct if you know pathfinder rules well enough (sounds like you do). And when all else fails toss a bunch of goblins his way and have a fun time roleplaying them as evil little monsters who are hilarious and loveable. (I also highly encourage doing for voices for all the NPC's)
Ok I've read through this topic a bit but not all of it... apologies in advance if this has been covered by someone. For the people who are arguing that a CLW (or Infernal Healing) wand should not be mandatory... what do you do when there is no cleric/oracle in the group? Of all the PFS games I've played we've only had a "healer" in the group maybe 20% of the time. Otherwise what do you do when the best healing you have in the group is a level 4 ranger? I don't know about all of you, but having a CLW wand allows a lot more classes to patch you up between fights when you don't have someone with multiple channels or healing spells. And no I would never expect that level 4 ranger to heal anyone in combat except for life-and-death situations. That's the point where everyone takes care of themselves the best they can and play more conservatively (which entails having a few CLW wands and healing potions bought with PP).
Amen. Some of you think/worry way too much about the 'proper group arrangement'. I've leveled my BardBarian all the way up to level 10 in PFS with only having an actual "healer" a handful of times in the group (And no, my guy would only use a CLW wand inbetween fights for healing). And by healer I meant someone who would heal during fights. Myself and ranger wife would only spot heal with wands between the fights. And we did great... it just takes playing a little slower and being a lot smarter, especially with what you buy (that paizo blog post a month ago was spectacular). And yes, it did pain me everytime I had to step out of the fight to cure serious stat damage or drink a CSW potion... took a little longer, but hey, I never died. Thock
Perception in Pathfinder can be both for examining things up close (checking a door for traps) and scanning the environment (just as she was doing). Those actions actually used to have separate skills in Dungeons & Dragons 3 and 3.5(the game Pathfinder is based off of), but they just combined them for Pathfinder. The game is all about doing things in as much (or as little) detail as you want.. going fast or going slow, whichever suits you best. So you absolutely handled it correctly by saying she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary of the room. If she wants to check out every room like that, keep doing what you're doing... sounds like you'll be able to think of slightly different details if there's nothing truly remarkable. Glad you found the Beginner Box, welcome to Pathfinder!! |
