Apologies if this has been asked before, I can't find anything in search.
Inquisitors get the JUDGEMENT ability. Shield Marshalls get the LEGAL JUDGEMENT ability. Feats that apply to the inquisitor's judgement also apply to the marshal's judgement, but the levels in the two do not stack.
So here's the question - is it the same ability or not? A multiclassed inquisitor/marshal clearly doesn't get to add levels together when calculating judgements/day or the bonuses from a judgement. He can also clearly activate the inquisitor's judgement in one encounter, and the legal judgement in the next.
But can he activate both the different judgements in a single encounter? I assume that if he does he can't stack the same bonuses - no fast healing 2 (1+1), but if one does a sacred bonus to attack and the other a competence bonus, then they would.
Am I totally out of line? I feel like it's legal unless there's been a FAQ or clarification somewhere that I missed, and otherwise it's cheesy at worst. It is worth noting that Inquisitor and Shield Marshal aren't necessarily a great combo, so it's not like it's gonna be super strong either.
Relevant text:
From the Shield Marshal's text of LEGAL JUDGEMENT:
Quote:
This ability can be used once per day, plus once for every three levels beyond 1st. It is equivalent to an inquisitor's judgment ability for the purpose of feats, magic items, or other game effects that affect the judgment ability; however, levels in the two classes do not stack.
I know that posting images and details from chronicle sheets and scenarios is generally considered poor form. However, I've been putting together an index of the scenarios by theme & location. e.g. all the scenarios set in Absolom, all the scenarios in the Tapestry, all the Lissalan cult stuff, all the Blackrose scenarios, etc. I'm most worried about marking scenarios linked to the Mendevian Crusade stuff, as there are boons connected to that, but still.
Would people want to see that, and would it be ok? Or are the spoilers problematic?
At the moment his schtick is to cast true strike and then use a maneuver to mess stuff up. Long term I'm intending to pick up Rime spell and the Close Range arcana, and probably combat maneuver feats and more whip feats.
3 levels of unchained rogue (waylayer) is looking attractive to me, but loosing out on those Magus will hurt. I'll delay 2nd level spells, more arcana, and a wider use of my pool points, but I can pick up 2d6 sneak attack, evasion, dex-to-damage, always going in a surprise round, and a rogue trick. In other words, it appears that I am trading magical flexibility for more damage and surprise round actions.
I am creating a stalker vigilante for PFS, but I'm struggling a bit with the vigilante's two identities. As fun as it seems, the strictures of PFS make it appear somewhat pointless. I don't think I've ever had a scenario where someone reacts to my character for any social reason other than my character's PFS membership. Maybe someone who reacted to a race/class, but that's not affected by the vigilante's abilities either.
So what I am wondering is whether or not I could (or should) have my character's social identity *not* be a pathfinder.
I think that the vigilante identity would be an exchange enforcer - a fairly standard pathfinder murderhobo. Perhaps more well known than most, but still the kind of thug that has given Pathfinders such a bad reputation in certain circles. But the social identity is just a merchant-explorer. Centered in Absolom, but unaffiliated with the society. He fronts for a few Scarzni families to find new markets and trade opportunities. Sometimes he'll do a favor for the Pathfinders, but he isn't a member. He has had a lot of success following various Pathfinder teams and exploiting the chaos they often leave behind, so he's well known to appear at various events alongside them.
For ease, his area of renown would probably just be the docks or some other trading district in Absolom.
I'm coming back to PFS after a few years away. Last time I played faction cards were a brand new thing and I was gonna have to scrap my plans to build a Magus with some Swashbuckler arcana.
Obviously I've grabbed the newest PFS guild guide and re-examine the additional resources, but is there anything worth taking special notice of?
At the moment, he has Str 8, Dex 22, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 7.
Feats include Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Deadly Aim, Precise Shot, and Clustered Shots.
The inquisitor levels let him use Wis for most of the social skills instead of Cha, so he has decent Diplomacy in addition to great perception, linguistics, acrobatics, and an ungodly stealth score. He also has a smattering of other sometimes-useful skills (like survival, a few knowledge skills, etc.)
He just hit level 8, and I'm uncertain where to go. I don't feel a need to continue with either Gunslinger or Inquisitor. I've got most of the major PFS-legal books, and I want to either find an effective multi-class or even a PRC.
Right now, I'm leaning towards either an Urban Barbarian or a Winding Path Renegade (brawler) for my remaining levels.
Urban Barbarian because boosting my Dex farther would be fun, and uncanny dodge and some of the defensive rage powers would be nice.
Winding Path Renegade is still a full BAB class, and by level 11 it would get, martial flexibility, some Monk abilities, and a larger range increment for my musket.
Both fit into my general backstory (rural Tien expat adventurer - think of the Japanese peasant musketeers and you've got a grasp on my inspiration.
Any thoughts from anyone? Any ideas I may have missed?
For example - An Urban barbarian gets an initiative of 10. Some other character gets an initiative of 11. Urban barbarian rages, giving a +4 to dex, which would have made his Initiative 12.
So, I realized that the ranged tactics Juggler archetype is legal for PFS, and I started playing around.
I ended up wanting to play a variation of the Rime-spell Dex magus, but as a TW-fighter. I know there may be some table variation on whether or not I can spell combat and Two-weapon fight (he has a hand free, the question is whether they're both compatible full-attack actions; lets ignore that for the moment, as I have agreement with my normal PFS GM, and I don't intend to take this guy elsewhere).
I'm considering replacing Improved Init or Toughness with Combat Reflexes. Also, isn't there a feet that allows you to make off-hand attacks during an AoO?
Say you've got a wizard/magus. Pretty much all of his magus spells are also wizard spells, and each side can also learn spells from the other's book. Can he cast out of the others book?
Would a wizard/magus need two spellbooks, or one? And could he scribe Invisibility into his book and prepare it to either class? (Assuming both could cast a second level spell, but you get my point).
So here's the rundown: We're using PFS rules, so no assassins, goblins, or synthesists. :) We're starting at level 2 and will be running through the dungeon.
The party is melee heavy, we've got a paladin, magus, bloodrager, and a brawler.
I have a suspicion that ranged characters may struggle with the tight structures of the dungeon, so I'm going to avoid a devoted archer/gunslinger.
I'm feeling inclined to go with a full caster.
At the moment, I'm vacilating between a Sylvan-blooded Sorcerer, or a Divine Strategist cleric with the feather domain.
But... I'm not sure if I really want to do a Sorcerer when Arcanists are on the table. A wizard is strongly tempting too - if only because he gets his spell levels before Arcanists and Sorcerers.
And clerics... clerics are great... when someone else plays them. I'm hoping that initiative shenanigans along with an animal companion will make things more interesting, but still. They've always seemed boring, especially at lower levels. Their domain tricks aren't much to write home about, and their entertaining spells are all higher level.
I'm tempted to run a partial caster - I feel like an Inquisitor's skills would be handy. And an alchemist looks like good healthy fun too. A hunter could be good, have some fun with low level ranger spells...
I've been playing a magus for a bit, so I don't think I want to run one of those again for a little while. But other than that, I'm kinda feeling like there's too much that I kinda want to play, but not enough that I'm dying to try.
Any thoughts? Anyone who's been in Emerald Spire have an idea about what could be good?
I'm curious about your creative process. My understanding is that in traditional publishing writers submit their manuscripts, editors return the manuscript with notes, writers adjust, and then a back and forth begins which hopefully results in finished, publishable material.
I get the vibe sometimes that Paizo's writers work very closely with the editors, and that the line between developers and editors can be very blurry.
I imagine that this helps with the creative process, as brainstorming, playtest, and multiple viewpoints are disproportionately necessary when developing rule-sets for games.
In my personal work I have noticed that content creators have a very difficult time editing their own work; this is especially true for technical material. I know what I'm saying, there clearly isn't any ambiguity. I've found that it often requires someone not intimately familiar with the thought processes of a particular creation to identify conceptual problems.
I can still find typos, grammatical mistakes, and spelling errors; but I am bad and recognizing when I'm just not making sense. I've yet to meet an author that was any better. The only ones I know who can even sort of manage are those who can afford to put away their manuscripts for long periods of time while working on something else - that way the material is fresh when they return, they aren't biased by their unspoken thoughts.
I suppose this sounds like assumptions married with criticism, especially with some of the more recent material feeling unusually full of unclear rules and ambiguities. But I've also noticed that scenarios and modules tend to be more clear (if more prone to outright errors). I wonder if the difference is that the scenarios and modules are often written by freelancers and people who don't work closely with editors.
I'm really just curious how Paizo handles their high level editing.
Forgive my lack of Google-fu if this has been covered before, but I have a question about pre-requisites and retraining.
Basic question: can pre-requisites gained at later levels be used to get a feat that was originally an earlier level feat. Is this the same both for the prestige-based retraining and for the free retrain after level 1 in PFS?
For example, imagine a level 1 swashbuckler with Skill Focus (Basket-weaving) as his level 1 feat. At level 2 he multiclasses to Kensei and picks up Weapon Focus as a bonus feat. Can he then retrain his level 1 feat to Slashing Grace? Can he pay 5 prestige and gold to do it, and can he do it as part of his free rebuild before he plays his level 2 character?
I have a level 5 PFS Gunslinger. He's a musketeer, Tengu, and his current feats are Point Blank, Rapid Shot, Precise Shot, and Weapon Focus. I was planning on moving into the Snapshot line for some Combat Reflexes entertainment.
He's got a maxed out Dex (, a good Wis, average Int and Con, and has dumped Cha and Str. Maxed skills are Stealth, Perception, Linguistics, Sense motive, and Knowledge (Local). And of course the mandatory dips in Craft (Alchemy).
I've just reached level 5, and seen the increase in damage that comes with Musket training. However, frankly, I'm getting bored with him. All he ever does is shoot things. He's good at it, and I don't want him to stop being good at it, but I'd like to broaden my options.
So I'm hunting for a multiclass I like. I haven't found any PRCs that I like for a gunslinger (though Grand Marshal would make me happy if it was legal), and there really aren't many Wis oriented classes that won't just be painful.
I keep coming back to 3 options: Warpriest, Sacred Hunter (the Inquisitor archetype), or Slayer.
Warpriest would be nice for the sake of some swift action self buffs. It would help a lot with my two worst saves, too. Other than that... not too much there. Oh, it would let me cast abundant ammunition on myself.
Slayer would let me keep full BAB, help with Fort, if not with Will, and the slayer talents, studied target, and eventually Sneak attack would keep my damage high.
Inquisitor would help my bad saves, it would offer spells that would leave me far more flexible, and I'd be happy to give up judgement and get an animal companion. Inquisitor would also be nice for some better skill options (I'd grab the Heresy Inquisition to get Bluff and Intimidate as Wisdom Skills, and probably use my two additional skill points there.
I'm worried though, about my eventual damage output as I level up. At levels 11-12 I'd still only have one additional iterative attack, and I'd lose out on the gunslinger deed that lets me pool my damage into a single shot.
Right now, I'm thinking I'd like to take 2 levels of Inquisitor, followed by Slayer. For the Inquisitor levels, Sanctified Slayer would have been great if they let class features stack; I'll probably go with Heretic instead (with the conversion inquisition) so that I can get Wis to Initiative, Stealth, Diplomacy, Bluff, and Intimidate.
The one ability I wish I could find an easier way to pick up is the 'always act in the surprise round' ability. Short of dipping another partial BAB class, I don't see it. There's a Slayer Archetype that'd do it, but that wouldn't come online until I was level 12.
So my players want us to start using the Critical Hit & Fumble cards.
Normally, you draw a card and it describes an effect based on the attack type. However, I've got two different players who regularly run Magi. Should I take the appropriate weapon effect for the crits they land, or the magic effect?
What it says on the tin. I know that the Urban Barbarian can take his rage bonus to Dex (instead of Str + Con), is there any way for a bloodrager to do this?
I know none of the archetypes open it up, is there a feat or something that I've missed that could accomplish the same?
A swashbuckler cannot Riposte while flat-footed, regardless of combat reflexes, as the attack requires an immediate action.
A swashbuckler with Combat reflexes can parry while flat-footed.
A swashbuckler without combat reflexes cannot parry while flat-footed. This is where I'm not certain. You're 'expending a use' of an AoO, not making one. But you arguably don't have any AoOs at all while flat-footed, thus cannot use any of zero.
There seems to be a consensus that things which affect AoO rolls also affect Parry & Riposte, but this still isn't clear in the text.
There are a number of effects and prerequisites that affect or require a specific class, rather than a class feature. Do those affect a hybrid class as well, or only the parent?
Best example I can think of is the Bloodrager:
If the Bloodrager can be considered a Sorcerer for the purposes of class-based effects, then an Undine with the Elemental (Water) bloodline would receive an effective +2 Charisma to Bloodrager spells and class features.
If the Bloodrager is not considered a sorcerer for the purposes of class-based effects, then a Bloodrager who goes into Dragon Disciple does not need to have the Draconic bloodline, and he would get the benefits of the sorcerer's Draconic bloodline as he advance levels.
I can see some precedent for this, either way. A bloodrager is not a sorcerer, clearly. They can even multiclass together now (though there is some limitation with regards to class abilities). Therefore, things that require or affect sorcerers would not interact with bloodragers in the same way.
On the other hand, the other type-based combinations that we have (races like Half-elf), the hybrid race counts as both sides for the purposes of requirements and affects.
So which is it? I tried to search, and the question came up a couple times in the playtest, but I couldn't find a clear answer.
This came up a few times early in the playtest that I never saw addressed.
Many races have a racial feature that gives them something along the lines of 'gain +2 charisma for sorcerer if you have the appropriate bloodline.' A few of them even get bonuses to divine casting if they have an appropriate domain.
Would an Ifrit bloodrager get an effective cha bonus to casting if he has takes the elemental fire bloodline? What about a warpriest with a fire blessing?
I can honestly see it going either way. To be clear, this playtest finally makes me a little excited to use my Ifrit boon in PFS. I think an Ifrit Bloodrager could be a lot of fun; for that matter I could probably make an Ifrit Warpriest work well with a bit of effort, too. I'm hoping for a clear answer; otherwise I'll probably just default the Ifrit into a Swashbuckler or Skald (neither of which would leave me particularly broken up).
I've gone and rescanned the old threads, but there's a lot of material; please forgive me if my google fu is weak and this really has been addressed.
Like my previous report, I'm running the swashbuckler alongside a party of pregen PCs through a PFS scenario. I choose the Penumbral Accords because it's a combat heavy scenario, and because it appears to be a popular scenario that many of us are familiar with.
Party includes Swashbuckler Sid, Kyra the Cleric, Ezren the Wizard, and Amiri the Barbarian.
On my last report, I ran with the rogue instead of the barbarian. I switched that out here, as there is little need here for a dedicated rogue character and because I wanted a standard-issue frontliner to compare with the swashbuckler. I considered whether to use the pregen barbarian or fighter, but seeing as the fighter has been (at best) a non-entity whenever I've seen him used, I chose the barbarian.
Abilities Str 8, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 8, Cha 16
[spoiler=Panache Notes:]With one panache: Add 4 damage, add +2 initiative, use swift action to demoralize after each hit.
Note: This puts him a bit over standard WBL for a level 4 character. I'm assuming that this PFS character has played up a bit.
I've also given the pregen Kyra an extra wand of Cure Light Wounds, as every PFS party I've ever played had a couple people who invested prestige into wands to manage out of combat healing.
Build Thoughts:
I designed this build to try and simply match up with the way it appears this class is meant to be played. Strictly speaking, there are more optimized builds (personally I want to play with a monk multiclass that takes advantage of Snake style unarmed attacks).
That being said, off the boards most of the people I play with use less esoteric builds, if not outright poor builds (a gunslinger at my table actually has two skill focus feats (sense motive and appraise), to give you an idea of what appears to be normal). There has been a great deal of feedback indicating that there is not (or is) sufficient support to justify actually leaving Dex and Cha high - Using standard high str and power attack builds may actually be more optimized.
I am not trying to decide whether or not those STR/power attack builds are better than what the class appears to ask for out of the box. Rather, I've attempted to build an out of the box swashbuckler and simply run it through a PFS scenario. Hopefully, he'll outperform the pregens (using the level 4 wizard, cleric, and barbarian pregens), hopefully he'll also feel relevant to the scenario.
Encounter 1: Play by Play:
Sid won initiative, and charged the skeleton. He missed on a 12 (total 23).
The skeleton full attacked back in his face, hitting with four out of five attacks (only one wing missed), and critting with a claw attack; total 30 damage to Sid.
Wizard hit the skelly with a magic missile for 6 damage.
Barbarian raged & charged, also missing, this time missing with a four.
Kyra cast Cure Moderate wounds and applied it to the skeleton, doing 15 damage.
Sid then Attempted Dirty trick to blind the skeleton. Stuck rocks or something in the eye sockets. I don't know, but it works. He rolled a 15 and managed it for one round. Sid then 5' stepped back.
Skeleton failed its perception check to find where Sid ended up, and so opted to full attack the cleric instead. Arguably the mindless undead should have milled around aimlessly chasing the Swashbuckler... but the GM said no. And so it full attacked at Kyra instead. This time it only landed three hits (thanks to miss chances), for a total 14 damage.
Wizard missed with the crossbow.
Amiri landed a hit for 17 damage, reduced to 12 after DR.
Kyra stepped back and channeled energy to do more damage - did 10 damage.
Sid missed again, this time rolling a 14.
Skeleton full attacked Kyra again, knocking her out.
Wizard plinked away, missed.
Kyra stabilized on her first try.
Amiri swung again, doing 16 damage and dropping the skeleton.
We wrapped up by feeding the cleric a couple of the wizards CLW potions, Kyra then used a wand of CLW to top us all off.
Encounter 1 Analysis:
This is a tough one. With an AC of 25, Sid needed a 16 to hit (incidentally, Amiri needed the same while raging). That being said, even on a hit, Sid was only doing 1d6+4 damage, or 1d6-1 after DR was accounted for. Arguably, he should have been using a morningstar to bypass DR, but to be frank, I'm not sure if he still gets his precision damage while doing bludgeoning damage. I've never been entirely clear on how that works - usually it doesn't matter, but some anti-munchkin types (just as annoying as the munchkins) could argue that you only do one or the other, and that you don't get the benefits of piercing damage while doing bludgeoning damage. But maybe I'm just being dumb; but hey, that fits with many players at my home table.
Kyra needed the same to hit, but did 2d8+5 effective damage after DR. She wasn't switching weapons because she obviously has an unhealthy attachment to that greatsword.
And, of course, Kyra the cleric was the star. Makes sense, this was a rough encounter for unprepared PCs, so that positive energy helped greatly.
As to the swashbuckler features in particular: not much to say. Demoralizing wasn't terribly helpful, and he didn't have much else here to do other than attack and do damage. I also wasted two points of panache trying to double damage but missing.
Encounter 2 Play by Play:
Sid won initiative again, charging in. He threatened a crit but failed to confirm; did 7 damage (2).
Amiri went next, also charging (no rage this time), and doing 14 damage(9).
Kyra Moved (couldn't charge with current geometry), and actually confirmed a crit, doing 16 damage (11).
Wizard remembered his wand of Magic missile and did 2 damage.
Golem did a breath attack, hitting everyone but Kyra. Wizard took 10 damage, Sid and Amiri both made their saves and took 5.
Sid attacked, critting (rolling 18 and 12) and doing 11 damage (6).
Amiri hit for another 11 points of damage (6).
Wizard threw down a scorching ray (that he probably should have used earlier), doing 19 damage (adjusted for fire vulnerability).
Kyra missed.
Golem died, blew up and did 16 damage to Amiri and Kyra, and 8 damage to Sid.
Kyra CLWed everyone back up to full.
Encounter 2 Analysis:
Much easier encounter, Sid still is lagging behind in damage, without strong options or alternates. Even if he had had the panache to double his precision damage on each attack, he still would have done less damage than Amiri.
Dirty trick probably would have been useful, but that was a feat-based option, not class based.
He didn't have enough panache banked to be able to rely on parry (nor a need for it if he had it), couldn't demoralize a golem, and wasn't much else to do.
Two of my friends agreed to help me run a low level playtest for the swashbuckler. We opted to play first steps: even though it has been effectively retired for PFS play, it's common enough that nearly every PFS player has experience with it, and we've played it enough that we felt ok with just skipping the text boxes and setup. In addition to the swashbuckler, we used the level one pregen Rogue, Wizard, and Cleric for the party.
I built the swashbuckler in a relatively vanilla fashion. Sort of. I did make him an Ifrit, as I have a racial boon that hasn't excited me much, and the Ifrit's stats would make a nice swashbuckler.
Weapons:
MWK Rapier: 1d6-1, +1 to hit, 18-20/x2
MWK Longbow: 1d8, +6 to hit, x3
Feats: Combat Reflexes (eventually want to take combat expertise, improved dirty trick, improved trip/disarm, and agile maneuvers).
I've got two GM credit chronicles handy that will go to the final character, so I had some gold to spend on masterwork weapons, armor, and skill tools.
First steps I:
First encounter: Dire rats.:
Dire rats aren't particularly tough, nontheless I stood behind my party members and plinked away with the longbow. I intend to do this until I reach level 2.
With my +10 initiative I went first. I hit a rat with my bow on an 11 and did 3 damage, failing to kill it. (It's worth noting here that I hit with my bow on a eight or higher, but do an average 4.5 damage per hit, meaning that on average it will take this swashbuckler an average 2 hits to kill it, meaning he needs a probabl 3 attacks total. If I had been using my rapier at this point I would need a 13 to hit and do an average 2.5 damage; despite still needing only two hits on average, I'm almost half as likely to land a hit).
After that, one of the rats hit the Cleric for 1 damage. The party members killed all three remaining rats before I could go again.
Finishing the encounter, the swashbuckler was able to take 10 and walk up to the crate, tying a rope around it so we could recover the goods.
Second encounter: Creepy Orphanage Lady:
As the only party member with any social skills worth mentioning, my swashbuckler took the lead here. I rolled a 4 on my initial gather information check, netting a total 13, not enough to learn anything basic. If I had rolled a 10, or indeed a 6 or higher I could have reached the middle information DC, and an 11 would have made the highest DC.
We made our cleric make a heal check for the alcholism reveal, failed that too. The rogue managed the perception check on the search (Auntie was distracted by the swashbuckler via diplomacy and bluff)(which he did quite well, despite only having an advantage of one point over her sense motive). Unfortunately, the NPC cleric failed to distract the lady, and failed to get the kids to open up to her. Kyra has not been having a good day.
In the end, it was technically a success because we had managed to find the stolen goods, even though we failed the other checks.
Third encounter: The stupid puzzle vault. :
The swashbuckler really didn't do anything at all. The rogue pretty much handled the various skill checks with very little difficulty. It's worth noting that he would have had a 50/50 chance of half damage to get the key out of the acid. We just broke the jar from range, and used a tool to bypass the viper.
Lets move on, we had played this one enough that there isn't much to tell here.
Fourth Encounter: That blasted annoying imp[\spoiler:
Ok... this one is almost always rough. We gave the silver dagger to the rogue, seeing as how his SA ability might make it of the most use.
As always, invisibility at this low of a level was an absolute nightmare to deal with.
After a great deal of slow grinding progress, we did manage to bring it down.
We had a brief argument/discussion about the Swashbuckler's Opportune Parry ability. At first glance, we thought it would be useable if the swashbuckler was flat-footed or if the attacker was invisible. However, we eventually decided the line 'as if making an attack of opportunity' meant that you could only parry if you could potentially make an AoO against the same target (thus concealment, flat-footedness, etc. negates)(however with combat reflexes, Parry works while flat footed, giving the swashbuckler a psuedo-uncanny dodge ability. Nice). I was also able to use the recovery deed a bit to avoid an attack.
Anyway, no one covered themselves with glory, as no one had a good way to deal with invisibility at this point. The low point, however, came when the swashbuckler failed his first two saves against the imp's poison sting, resulting in two dex damage (lucky it was only two). With a fort save at level one of only +1 I needed a 12 to meet the Imp's poison DC. Perhaps I should boost con farther, given the weak fort save. But I want the higher Int for combat expertise, and I've already dumped wis and str. It's rough. For the record, I rolled a 3, a 10, and a 17 on my fort saves; boosting my con to 14 wouldn't have actually changed anything.
[spoiler=Encounter 5: Alley Ambush]
That obscuring mist effectively kept me from using my longbow, so I sucked at combat here.
I got lucky, and managed two crits in a row against the halfling barbarian (one of which was a successful parry/riposte), putting him down despite my low damage output (did 9 damage on the first attack, 8 on the second, and he put himself down by attacking at 0 hp on the next round).
Meanwhile, our rogue and cleric tag teamed and took down the enemy rogue on the first round, allowing everyone to pile on the cleric.
Other than a few magic missiles, neither our wizard or their sorcerer did much. At least, they didn't do much until the sorcerer used her color spray, hitting me, the rogue, and the cleric. Rogue and cleric both made their saves. I, with my -1 will save, did not. To be fair, I rolled a two, so a better ability score or a stronger save probably wouldn't have made much difference.
Thoughts:
He was a blast to play in the social checks. Especially given the way PFS murder hobos tend to skimp on the social skills he is likely to get to maintain the lead with charisma skills.
In a fight he was lackluster. Of course, I need to remember that almost every class is lackluster at first level in the combat sense. At second level he aught to be better with weapon finesse, but his damage isn't going to start going up until his precision damage comes online. I'm not so sure that's a bad thing. Long term, I intend to start taking advantage of combat maneuvers - dirty trick fits nicely with the swashbuckler theme, making him into a supportive melee character rather than a primary DPR guy. And the parry/riposte was a blast - it's a great mechanic to play, especially as I got lucky enough to quickly refresh my Panache. He was surprisingly resilient in melee; recovery and parry were useful and fun ways to negate melee attacks.
The poor saves hurt. Sure, I rolled crappy, but failed saves resulted in ability damage to my most important score, and took me out of the final fight.
A few thoughts and complaints:
Recovery was more fun than it should have been. However, it appears that using recovery means that you cannot take a 5' step on that round. So basically what you are doing tactically is to make your step outside of your turn. At low levels this isn't so much as a problem, as a full attack isn't any different than a standard attack; later on this may become a tactical issue that prevents me from using recovery. I wonder if explicitly allowing 5' steps to be used later would be worthwhile.
I didn't have much trouble recovering my panache, but I was also lucky with my crits. Everything fun the swashbuckler could do - parry, riposte, recovery, and derping-do (sic) required panache; once it's out the swashbuckler would get really boring to play. That worries me - boring is way worse than weak; I like playing monks because they're interesting, I don't like fighters because they're boring.
And, of course, my saves were poor. But we'll have to see what happens. A lot of the builds I'm considering would go a long way to alleviating that (like a 1-2 level dip into monk).
A nature Oracle's bonded mount starts with an intelligence of 6. To be clear, that's a score playable by a PC and far beyond usual animals.
Clearly they can't talk, but how does that work with other mechanics? Can they be treated as an intelligent being, or do you still need to use handle animal and various tricks? Do they get additional 'languages' with all those extra intelligence points? Not skill points, at least until it gets 10 int.
I suppose it probably isn't any different than an animal with Int 3, but it still feels strange to treat something smarter than the party barbarian as an animal. Well, I can't actually think of a pathfinder race with an Int penalty, but you get my point. Question. Whatever.
So... apparently, so long as a character participates in a certain number of encounters during a scenario, they can receive fame/prestige/exp along with the rest of the party (assuming, I believe, that the party actually succeeds in the mission).
Also, a character can die and then spend Prestige points to get themselves resurrected after the scenario is over.
Imagine, then, if a character enters a scenario with 15 prestige points, completes all the encounters along with the party and is then killed outright in the final encounter. The party does manage to successfully complete the scenario with full rewards - our unlucky hero was the only casualty.
Can he receive that one prestige point post-mortem and then use all his prestige for a raise dead?
Excluding the 1-session special modules (i.e. We be Goblins), what modules take the least time?
Also, which modules have the least required RP? I'm not talking about places where RP could sidestep encounters or similar, but investigation type things where you have to solve social problems like that.
I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but my search-fu is weak, and other than average module length and a few similar, I'm wondering what people know.
Situation: A character is holding two one-handed or light weapons. He does not have Two Weapon Fighting.
In a normal round, he picks one of the two to do his fighting with depending on the situation (e.g. a cold iron rapier in one hand and a silver shortsword in the other). He also has combat reflexes and can make multiple AoOs in a round.
I know he can use either weapon, regardless of what was used during his turn (the AoO is separate from the full round or standard action, and penalties from those attacks (if any) don't apply).
But can he switch between weapons on separate AoOs? If creature A. casts a spell (provokes), then moves away (provoking again), afterwards creature B. also moves away (provoking), then can the PC use his cold iron weapon on his AoOs v. creature A and his silver weapon on creature B?
I'm thinking you can - but I feel like it may have been covered somewhere that I've missed.
Full disclosure, the weapon adept will also be a maneuver master, focusing on grappling and either dirty tricks or disarming.
Basic question is this: Would perfect strike make using one of it's weapons (probably either kama or nunchucks)better than the old temple sword standby?
I'd probably carry a few applicable weapons anyway as backup, but I want to know if It might be better off to apply weapon focus, money, etc. towards a perfect strike weapon, or whether I should rely on a temple sword.
I'm not too worried about feat selection - there are plenty of useful guides and it's not too difficult a problem. My real question is where I am probably best off putting the dips in my build. I've started with gunslinger at level 1 for the bit of extra HP that gives me. I've put Sohei in next because I figure that the extra AC and other benefits outweigh getting the damage output improvements that I get at gunslinger 3 and 5 (faster loading and dex to damage) a level earlier. I think I certainly want to wait on the rogue stuff until after that, too.
But do I? Would I maybe be better off starting out with rogue 2, taking the sohei level, and then plunging into gunslinger? Those early levels of gunslinger would certainly be easier with higher gp (for cartridges and magic weapons), but I'm not sure if I'd be all that effective until a much higher level, and thats not fun.
On the other hand, it's not like a normal rogue with feats directed at ranged fighting is terribly bad, either. I'm inclined to split up the monk level with the rogue levels just to soften the lost BAB.
I'm also considering just taking two levels of monk for evasion and a second bonus feat (I'd probably take deflect arrows and dodge, there isn't much else there that really suits a ranged character)(I don't think). But would that tenth level of gunslinger be a good exchange for sneak attack? If I'm dipping three levels then I feel certain that I want two levels of rogue and one of monk as the rogue talent options seem much better than the monk's bonus feats. I feel like if I take 2 levels of monk I'd be better off just going all the way to 4 for ki pool and the other goodies.
Thoughts? I'm in a place where I don't know my own mind and would appreciate some feedback. I wish I could combine zen archer and sohei - that would solve most of my issues; with a one level dip I prefer devoted guardian to a better ranged feat.
