Flame dancer - capability to see through fog effects.
6b gets you weapon focus already. Though I assume you are going half elf for longbow proficiency? Otherwise you get prof with shortbow as a bard.
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What about just a dragon blooded bloodrager?
See, I've had it ruled that I (The super grappler) wouldn't be able to initiate a grapple on the Ogre, only assist Sam in breaking free, providing a mere +2 bonus. I like your version better, but it would be nice if it was more clear. If I pin the Ogre, then the pinned condition doesn't allow for the Ogre to maintain his grapple - only attempt to break free or speak. Thus, at what point does the Ogre lose his grapple? Is it just released on the Ogre's turn? If Sam has an action before then, is it an automatically successful action to get released? Or did he get released at the moment the Ogre became grappled and thus he can act normally on his turn? As I look a bit more at the grappled/pinned conditions, I do see that "Grappled creatures cannot move." Except when using a maintained grapple action to move. But that only refers to yourself and your target creature... not the creature your target also has grappled who cannot move and thus acts like an anchor? I would also hesitate on Sam being limited to staying grappled or breaking free completely because of the negative conditions that arise from being grappled. I would propose in that case that if Sam succeeds his check but wants to remain in the grapple, he provides a +2 to my checks/CMD and isn't subjected to the grapple being maintained by the Ogre rules. Being able to release the grapple as a free action and have a better chance for success next round (no +5 to the Ogre's grapple checks) can be very helpful.
Dot as this is a question I have wondered in the past. I will also FAQ Volkard's post. Edit I more specifically wondered, when I was running a grapple focused character, if I could grapple a creature that was grappling someone else. My DM ran it that the creature was essentially immune to my attempts to grapple it because the rules didn't support such an action. Volkard's Scenario: So, keeping with Volkard's example, Ogre has Sam grappled. I am standing next to the Ogre and I initiate a grapple routine involving greater and rapid grapple. Can I grapple the Ogre that is already in a grapple with Sam? If yes, what happens if I move or pin the Ogre using my greater grapple?
For a rule that many people ignore or don't remember: potions of Fly don't mean your paladin can effortlessly charge the flying demon. You have to make Fly skill checks (which suffers from ACP) to do almost anything - rising rapidly, turning, flying slowly, hovering in place so you can full attack... And to top that off - you can't put points into the fly skill until you have a natural means of flight or a magical means that you have available every day. You cannot take ranks in this skill without a natural means of flight or gliding. Creatures can also take ranks in Fly if they possess a reliable means of flying every day (either through a spell or other special ability).
First off, I am a teacher, so talking in front of others is not a problem at all. I would also say I have a positive Cha modifier, nothing crazy, but not a negative. Maybe a 12? And I have a better memory than most of the people I play with because I am younger and haven't smoked/drank/fought my brain cells away yet. But, I have had a lot of problems in the past trying to talk through social encounters for a variety of game-related reasons. One campaign I joined late, so myself and my character both didn't know some background info that was brought up. I would have hoped that the characters in game brought my character up to speed during the many days/nights of travelling but we didn't take the time out of game to bring me up to speed. Since we only got to play once a month or so, sometimes there were things that I forgot simply because a year had past in real life compared to the 2 weeks in game. So I felt very dumb being like, "Umm, hmm, who now? Oh! The queen of the country I have lived in my whole life that I just met yesterday? I totally remember her name..." This plus a GM that expected us to act out our diplomacy roles made me really not want to be the party face. The last big hold-up for me is that I don't know Golarian that well. There is a lot of lore already created and I don't like making things up when there is already an established culture. Medieval Paris is different from Medieval Barcelona and significantly different to Japan during that same time period. Part of that stems from having a GM that just kind of assumed we knew rather than explicitly setting the scene. Or he would talk in mechanics himself, "You reach the city of Bridgeway (I can't even remember the name of a 'real' town because they weren't memorable to me), it is a large city with around 12,000 people living in it. You see caravans of people entering and exiting from a large gate. What do you do?"
This was me for the longest time... Despite having knowledge, our party didn't know much about what we were fighting. Hit it til it dies works for pretty much all creatures luckily.
Ultimately I think this comes down to what do you view the "Role" of a tank as being? So let me add some more the the couple of definitions we have floating around. Is it: 1) One who runs up and gets in the middle of a fight and distracts enemies while other party members are primary damage dealers? Typically this can involve dealing damage yourself and in my experience is the typical way people "tank" in TTRPGs. It amounts to - person willing to take damage / willing to deal with status effects. 2) Disruptive to the point where enemy can't ignore you (ala MOBAs such as LoL). These tanks "might" have a "taunt" ability but typically provide so much crowd control that it is hard / impossible to ignore them. In order to survive, they build for health and damage resistance. They also allow your damage dealers to focus their fire on a designated enemy (typically their glass cannon damage dealers) and then supports clean up efforts after primary dangers are eliminated. Typically their damage potential is negligible but still adds up while the enemy is unable to act. 3) MMO PvE tanks who use "taunt" skills to acquire the wrath of enemies who proceed to dumbly beat on the health and damage reduction stick. Fights are won based on who dies first, the tank or the monster as non-tanky characters fold like a wet napkin if targeted. 4) MMO PvP tanks (usually taunt mechanics are disabled in PvP in my experience) build similarly to a MOBA tank where they sacrifice some damage for survivability. They then get in the face of enemies in an effort to get people to fight the thing that is in front of them first. Smarter players ignore them if they don't pack disruption abilities. This is how I personally view a "tank" 5) Mobile, hard-to-kill, artillery (ala an Abrams M1A2). While slow moving compared to other vehicles, these machines can pack a punch in enemy defenses. As such, they get targeted by the enemy so pack on some armor to protect them. I personally view this as a spell-casting focused cleric (or oracle) that spends a feat on Heavy armor and maybe some others on saves. Depending on your party, almost all classes can be built for the specific purpose of a tank that you have. Reach clerics/warpriests mixed with bad touch provide great disruption, especially if improved trips or dirty tricks are involved. Paladins can be very disruptive but more importantly have great AC, Saves, and Self-heals. Barbarians make for great hard-hitting, hard-to-kill front-line tanks.
It pains me how many times people have referenced the Disney movie Hercules when talking about him.
Medieval peasants actually had a surprising amount of leisure time. Yes, during planting and harvesting season they worked extremely hard. But during the off-seasons, they had a lot of time to sit and talk and tell stories while they mended equipment / clothes / etc. They also had a ton of holy days (holidays) throughout the year. Look up a list of saint's days some time, a church could and frequently did call those days a day of rest and celebration.
I would recommend incorporating some form of grappling into the build. Concentration checks to cast spells while grappled is extremely difficult.
I feel like a common caster expense that gets forgotten on these forums are metamagics rods, various wands that people claim their casters have on hand, and the cost of enough various spells to become batman. Simply writing a spell into your spellbook (assuming you found a scroll in a dungeon or looted a book off another wizard you killed) costs 10 X SL^2. Add to that the cost of borrowing a spellbook to copy from (if you can find a wizard willing to part with their book for a few hours...) And if you can't find someone to copy from, you have to buy a scroll which costs more. Sure, the 10 lvl 1, 10 lvl 2, and 10 lvl 3 spells (2100gp) does not match the 8k of a +2 weapon. But add on 3k for a lesser metamagic rod and you start getting close. 35k for a lesser quickened metamagic rod, something I see be used frequently on this forum (though never in actual play), is worth the equivalent of a +4 weapon. Other posters have made excellent points about how martials lose out in WBL and for the most part I agree. Heck, I agree with the overall point that martials need more gold in order to function compared to casters. I just also feel like some things get ignored in this particular conversation.
I would also second the vanguard slayer. It is important to point out that ratstacks count as flanking so you can get sneak attacks without poor positioning issues. Maybe a bard, a slayer, a sanctified slayer inquisitor, and an eldritch scoundrel? Enjoy teamwork feats such as lookout, paired opportunist, outflank, precise strike, and shield wall.
Train it to hold a hat for coins during your performances. Create illusions of it battling with other tiny monsters and get people to place bets. Telepathically communicate with him to have him win or fake a loss depending on which would yield the better financial results. Steal group BDF's meat off their plate at dinner.
FTFY ;)
There are a lot of good ideas here. I think some of them really depend on how descriptive of a GM you have. For example, with a STR check, seeing that the hinge on the door is starting to buckle when you try to break it would give a sense of how close your STR check came without necessarily needing a roll. It may even prompt another try or cause a player to give up when they see the door isn't budging at all. I like the generally taking 10 for skills such as perception / stealth unless the players have an active reason for not taking 10. I will admit to doing something different as a result of knowing a roll failed. Particularly with survival checks, I have followed the city cleric who never went out of town over the forest-raised ranger on a survival check in the woods before. Though, having a GM that describes that ranger as having a moment of confusion as he feels lost among the trees while the cleric receives a divine vision from their god would make a significant roleplaying difference. Ultimately, it all comes down to trust. If I trust my GM to be fair and tell a good descriptive story, then I don't mind leaving some of my rolls in their hands. But if I feel my GM tends to miss things (even simply from forgetting a rule), or likes to screw their players (generally just walk away from these tables), or even if I just don't know that GM because of PFS / new table, then I tend to want more control over the successes and failures of my character.
The cleric in my group (Aasimar with feats for flight + travel and Liberation Domains) would use ethereal jaunt to quickly scout out a place as we hung out at an entrance / other safe location. Then, once we found where we were going, we would buff up and dimension door to the target. This was at high level sure. But before that there were times that we could obviously see a big room at the top of a tower / other obvious location and decided to start our adventure there at lower levels, no scouting necessary... Where the boss just happened to be... It helped that we also had a witch with dimension dooring capabilities.
Metamagic rods for casters. Silent, Dazing, Persistent, and Quickened come to mind.
Plant Domain gives the spell Entangle. Otherwise, Rime Spell Metamagic + a cold damage spell? Didn't see any of those though in my quick glance at the cleric spell list. I likely missed some though.
Also dex damage its piercing (i think ever) and some creatures get rd from that. Also to crash things str is the key Light Hammer, Gladius, Butterfly Sword... a bunch of others.
Generally speaking I have not experienced it as a player. But I think that is because the people I have played with have been mature and worked well as a team. Also, most groups I have played with have disbanded before reaching high lvls. BUT! I have seen it to some extent. In a Carrion Crown campaign I was in (The only campaign I have been in that has made it to post lvl 10) the cleric and witch in the group were by far the most effective members, with a Paladin coming in behind them (Yes... a paladin in an evil undead heavy campaign was not the most effective member). This really showed at times we were able to use scry and fry tactics. Other players (myself included with my decently optimized archetyped monk) were still able to have fun and take part in the narrative, but I will admit we relied upon our spellcasters. There have also been many moments lately as I have been DMing for a group of new players that picked martial classes where I have thought to myself, "Boy this would be easier if they had X casting class." At least they are developing their creative problem solving ;)
I had the stereotypical klepto rogue once. Even went so far as to pickpocket the money from an obnoxious noble we were hired to guard as our first session. Like... DM gave us all kinds of back story, we get off the boat at the starting town and before we walk all the way down the ramp I rolled sleight of hand and stealth to pickpocket the guy. 5 minutes into the campaign and I made like 1000 gold that was supposed to pay for food, lodging, and our reward for safely delivering the noble. It really messed our DM up when the group abandoned the obnoxious noble because, as a bunch of mercenaries, we weren't interested in guarding someone who didn't have money to pay us. He considered stealing form the party - but luckily I was mature enough to know that was a bad idea... plus members of the group spotted me when I lifted the money from the noble so I wasn't confident that I could get away with stealing from those party members.
Bathrooms, Sparring / Training Area, Loot / Illicit Trade Goods Storage Area
There used to be a free app for android phones (I don't know about iPhones) called Pathfinder OGL that had at least most of the spells listed. It made it easy to create a list of spells known / desired and provided the description of the spells with a quick tap. It might help your player to create a short list of the spells they use. Otherwise I would suggest creating a word document that they can print out so they aren't flipping through various rulebooks to find the description of specific spells whenever they need to remember the details.
Darksol, are you arguing that only 1 out of the 4 blades on an enchanted starknife is actually enchanted? Does that mean someone not using this ability has to roll a 1d4 to see if their enchanted blade is the one that hits the target? I'm not trying to put words in your mouth here - but this is how I am understanding what you have written so I am seeking to clarify this point. I did a quick search for "bonus damage" in the PRD and it didn't come up with a specific definition. So I won't say for sure that the flaming property gives bonus damage - though I feel like it would be defined as that. I did come up with a specific quote regarding bane. Greater Bane (Su): At 12th level, whenever an inquisitor uses her bane ability, the amount of bonus damage dealt by the weapon against creatures of the selected type increases to 4d6. Bolded by me. The inclusion of the phrase bonus damage suggests that the 2d6, or 4d6 in the case of greater bane, would be included with each strike of the starknife per the "as do other damage bonuses" part of the feat.
I'm not seeing on either version the ability to ignore the int 13 for stuff that needs combat expertise.For a reach build I would recommend the fighter dip in Lore Warden. A few additional skill points + the ability to bypass the 13 Int requirement for combat expertise = easier access to improved trip / disarm. You do give up heavy armor, but with a decent dex to get more AoOs anyway this becomes less of a factor. Well, guess that goes to show I shouldn't rely on my memory. Good catch guys.
Warpriests are great. I think the biggest thing you are undervaluing there is the swift action buffs. But! I would fully support a 1 lvl dip into fighter and the rest cleric. The domains you commented on are great, though I would also recommend the liberation or travel domains. Freedom of Movement is extremely helpful at getting to the right spot and not being grappled. For a reach build I would recommend the fighter dip in Lore Warden. A few additional skill points + the ability to bypass the 13 Int requirement for combat expertise = easier access to improved trip / disarm. You do give up heavy armor, but with a decent dex to get more AoOs anyway this becomes less of a factor.
I feel like you have already come up with an answer (I didn't fully read all of the later comments though so I could be mistaken) but I wanted to point out some faulty logic here. You mention that the effect of a spell is based on the caster instead of the familiar in a few spots. This would cause the mirror images in this example to look like the caster instead of the familiar - rendering this spell ineffective. This would suggest that other spells work similarly in that the "you" is the person receiving the spell. So mirror image would create replicas of the familiar instead of the caster. Similarly, with beast speak, the familiar would be able to talk as it normally would - meaning that the familiar would still only speak in the languages it knows. But if you polymorphed your familiar into something else and then cast beast speak, the familiar would then be able to speak as its original form.
Derklord's basic barbarian outline would really be the easiest / best route for you. Basically the AM BARBARIAN build. I also third the point about cleric/wizard being a tough role. Mystic Theurges are awesome, but have a very tough first 7-9 levels. But if he is determined to do it, more power to him! Evil or Good, all clerics have access to the greatly important remove status effect spells that can cripple a party who does not bring access to those spells. If you really want TWF, go with Ranger. Lvl 1 go Power Attack and Weapon Focus (your free one). 2nd lvl on, start following the ranger combat style feats for TWF. You get them without the pre-reqs at lvls 2, 6, 10, etc, so you don't need much Dex and can focus on str for dishing out damage.
Ok, a few things for you. First off some questions: 1) How experienced with Pathfinder are you? It seems that you are fairly new, so I will limit my advice to some more simple suggestions and avoid more complex optimization. 2) How experienced are the people you are playing with? We don't want to completely leave them in the dust either ;) 3) What books are allowed or prohibited? I will assume all Paizo books that are on the PRD - I don't have access to the D20PFSRD at work, so I won't use some of the newer options in there. 4) Anything else we should know about the campaign you are playing in? Typical fantasy? Homebrew or published campaign? Race limitations? Rolled stats or point buy? Etc 5) How much work are you willing to put in? Reading guides / figuring out game mechanics (grapple can be confusing at best) / etc. Now on to my advice. 1) It looks like your team needs some heals. I would suggest looking into building a cleric, oracle, or Warpriest (Best option for you IMO) that is very combat oriented. Look up builds for a "reach cleric." Basic idea is that you have medium Wisdom, good strength, decent dex/con/charisma, low intelligence. Grab a reach weapon (longspear is the typical go-to), stand at the front lines and use attacks of opportunity as your primary damage dealing technique and spend your actual turn getting into position / buffing. 2) If that looks too complex, then my next suggestion of Lore-Warden fighter will also be complex. This guy sacrifices a bit of damage and defense in order to have more skills (read - ability to do things other than kill people) and control the battlefield using combat manuevers such as trip and disarm. 3) A bit more simple - play as a 2H ranger with archery as your combat style for the free feats. This allows you to switch-hit - start with a bow and when things get close pull out your 2-handed weapon and go to town. 2H fighting really only needs Power attack, which you can pick up at lvl 1 and be happy for the rest of your adventure. 4) Alternatively, play as a two-weapon fighting Ranger and use your sword and shield combo. This is a bit more complex as you need to delve into the twf rules. But it is not nearly as complex as combat manuevers. 5) Finally, the easiest option is to go unchained barbarian with a big two-handed sword. Use power attack, and choose feats / rage powers that sound interesting to you. There are some optimal choices, but a barbarian with a big weapon is pretty simple to do big damage with a Viking theme. 6) Some key feats for your consideration: Power Attack, Furious Focus, Combat Reflexes, Selective Channel (for the cleric concept), Weapon Focus
Also remember that any dodge or deflection or other special types apply to your CMD too. It seems to be a rule that many aren't aware of. Well I'll be! I was in that category of people who didn't realize that handy piece of info! Just went and double-checked the PRD and it is in there clear as day. Monsters had enough issues escaping my monk's grapple before, but they should have never been able to escape!
If I were to GM that event, I would give it to the character for a period of time - probably 1-2 days after the character fails a will save but is not confused. Then, the mutation will adapt and the character will take on some other disadvantage.
I would second the Slayer as a better starter rogue character. Pick up the trapfinding talent at lvl 2 and you are setup pretty naturally to replace a rogue. That being said, I feel like the unchained rogue isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. You are still squishy and don't want the attention of any enemies, let alone the big bad ones. But many of the big drawbacks to playing a core rogue got addressed. Do some research on how to get opponents flat-footed / denied dex and plan accordingly. Otherwise, work with teammates to get flanking - just try to make sure your meat shield (whatever big dumb fighter friend you have) ends up on the side of the monster closer to all the monster's buddies and you end up on the side closest to your team. Accept that you won't be as effective in combat as most of your team - but you can help set them up for success with stuff like debilitating injury. Also know, that you will be very helpful in out-of-combat situations. Yes, a wizard will be able to solve many of these problems as well - but in my experience most people build / plan around combat and wizard spells frequently are focused around dealing with enemies rather than social/terrain obstacles. Playing a rogue allows for / promotes creative play. On that note - also do a thorough reading of ultimate equipment to find mundane tools to do creative things, it is always fun to whip out an ear trumpet for example!
I played with someone who used the iaijutsu strike. Early on it was ok... he would move up to the enemy, get smacked, use his cool ability and if it hit, most things died. But he also missed sometimes and resulted in wasting 2 rounds doing nothing... After level 6 though, it really begins to fall off and it was only mediocre at best anyway. Maybe it would work better if he had a secondary weapon he charged in with and then dropped to do his iaijutsu strike in that second round? Otherwise, playing a frontliner can be done in SO many different ways. Staying focused on a Feudal Japanese theme here are some I would be excited to play in Jade Regent: Sohei Monk, Kensai Magus, Unbreakable Fighter with focus on Stalwart featline for DR (roleplay as a Samurai), a Katana focused Samurai (I wouldn't dip into barb personally but it wouldn't be bad either), Sacred Fist Warpriest, a few others. If I were to stick with your thoughts of a fallen samurai though, I would stick with a straight samurai. Possibly start off as a Ronin, but work with your GM on finding a way back into an order such as Dragon (Working with a team), Sword (Become devoted to certain special sword [unless another character already claimed it]), or even Cockatrice (Inner darkness comes from trying to restrain your pride. Accepting your pride and pushing yourself to ever greatness allows you to advance). I just don't know if I could quite roleplay the idea of being a Ronin while also trying to be a part of a group that is traveling back to the region I was outcast from. I could roleplay someone who was outcast but then finds inspiration to return home and renew his honor. The build would be very basic 2H fighter build with the couple of additional benefits from being a Samurai rather than a fighter.
where is this errata, I can't find it in a faq-acg. Arcane Deed (Ex): When a magus takes this arcana, he can pick any one deed from the swashbuckler's deeds class feature, as long as that deed can be used by a swashbuckler of his magus level. The magus can use that deed by using points from his arcane pool as the panache points required for that deed. Even if he gains a panache pool through another means, the magus is not considered to have at least 1 point in his panache pool for the purpose of deeds selected with arcane deed, and his effective swashbuckler level for determining such a deed's effect is 0. A magus can take this arcana multiple times, each time gaining a new deed. The magus must have flamboyant arcana (see below) to select this arcana. Bolded by me for emphasis. The placement in the paragraph does seem a little odd. It makes it seem like it is connected to the panache pool. But even if it is only for deeds that require you to have 1 point in your pool - this would be one of those situations. So it seems like precise strike doesn't work on 2 accounts: 1 = No points in pool so no precise strikes, 2 = Count as Swash lvl 0, so you add +0 precise damage on each attack.
build snip This build looks pretty good overall. A few things though: Why not wait for brawler / take levels in brawler earlier for IUS in order to qualify for improved grapple? Dirty Fighting seems like a wasted feat to me. You will also want greater grapple sooner rather than later if possible. It really helps with action economy. Other ideas / suggestions: When I first read your post about being a wrecking ball I was picturing a cleave build with maybe some sunder or bullrush attached. Basically a build to run into a fight, hit the enemies and send them all flying. Dwarf opens up some good cleave options that can really increase how many targets you hit with a standard action - particularly with a reach weapon like the Dorn. I will also second the "Kool-aid man" feat. Douglass pointed out.
Just to make sure, since you say you are a newbie. Are you also adding your dex modifier or a masterwork/magic weapon? It can get tough to track all of the modifiers. Otherwise, Cavall has the pure BAB attack sequence, just add your dex and any other modifiers to that. Note, you can also add in deadly aim to increase damage at the cost of lower accuracy.
Like in Star Trek, there are no toilets in Pathfinder. Well... There was this mimic once that looked like one. Naturally we had a plumber IRL in the party, so he had to go and use it. His character wears a prosthetic to fill out his posterior these days.
Interesting, though with 1 more feat you can have 60% miss chance with Moonlight Stalker Master. I never got to run him, he was my backup character in case my monk died but we managed to finish the campaign without anymore deaths.
I built a 2H ninja a while ago that could be adapted to fit in a lvl dip of fighter. Though, I would hate to delay invisible blade a lvl :/ He would wield a 2H Mace, dealing nonlethal dmg whenever possible. Grask, Half-Orc Ninja lvl 1 (fighter): Bludgeoner, Blind-Fight
Not Optimal, but gets to use two feat chains I have pretty much never seen anyone use before.
I'm running that AP right now too! Been fun so far. Taking a look at the Paladin code for Abadar and I think I can see a few things that work well with the Hell's Rebels campaign. Note - I am not suggesting they act like a paladin, just pulling some ideas of what Abadar would support. 1) Rooting out Corruption - There's lots of corruption going on in Kintargo. 2) Make opportunities for others to use, but they are responsible for doing so. - This sounds like what he has already been trying to do. In terms of the AP, based on the description in the player's guide he could spin it to where he sees that the current political system is poor for business. People are dying, thugs are roaming the streets enforcing proclamations, etc.
@Scott I mostly agree with what you are saying, but here are a few questions that pop up as I read it: 1) A pinned character can "attack" his grappler. But can he attack any squares around him? I think no. 2) I accept that the pinned character threatens his grappler because of point 1. However, I question whether he could flank since per the rules you quoted, in order to flank someone you must have an ally that threatens on the opposite corner or side. As the two grappled characters are in the same square (except for in cases where one is large or bigger and the other is medium sized) I don't know if I would rule that they are on the opposite side. Threatening, yes... flanking, probably not. 3) I think I know this one but... The combat section previously linked says if the grappled person succeeds at escaping the grapple, then they can take over the grapple. Pinned doesn't expressly say this so I wonder if they can still take over the grapple? I would think yes they could, but leads to my next question. 4) If pinned and I escape a grapple, does this put us back into the "grappled" condition? Or do I become the grappler and he becomes pinned? I would assume it becomes grappler and grappled rather than grappler and pinned.
Hello Everyone, I recently bought the pdf for the Hell's Rebels Adventure Path. This is my first time GMing an Adventure Path. I wanted to print out parts of the book so I could make notes in preparation of running it for my group. But! I am having trouble with the visibility in some sections. Essentially, the pdf has a cool looking design that adds a little bit of color to the edges of the page. However, when I print it, it comes out as a deep blue for 1/4 of the page on the bottom and while possible, it is extremely difficult to read the black lettering on the dark blue background. Has anyone else had a similar problem? Any solutions to the problem? I was going to print out the player's guide for all my players, but now I really don't want to waste ink on something that is more readable if they just hop online... I can run the adventure path off of a laptop, but I really don't want to as I feel like it is clunky and gets in the way of how I like to run things + I won't be able to write notes on the pages as I prep / the players alter things.
Let's see if I can enter this contortion of different rules readings. A point that I think you missed in your summary Bane Wraith is the concept that sneak attack damage can not be dealt twice on a single roll. I would urge N N 959 and Rediculon to look into sneak attacks dealing damage in regard to spells. I believe an issue has come up before (I don't remember the ruling off the top of my head) that people wanted to apply sneak attack damage multiple times when using direct target spells ala scorching ray. IIRC the idea was that multiple rays should each receive the full effects of dealing sneak attack damage but the ruling ended up being that the spell could only take effect once -> only 1 target got the sneak attack damage. This would support the idea that: 1 "attack" roll to maintain the grapple = 1 application of sneak attack damage. That being said, I can see both sides of the argument. Ultimately, I would houserule it as the simple solution Bane Wraith suggested towards the beginning.
I have given up a full attack before to make a grapple on a caster. I felt that I would not be able to bring them down with a full-attack that round, but I could likely disable their ability to cast spells by getting ahold of them a forcing a gnarly concentration check. I think a good way of looking at this is considering what a Barbarian gives up in order to take the 3 rage powers that allow him to pounce. I am not terribly familiar with Barbarians yet to know what the "next best thing" would be, but I'm sure there are some on the forums who do. Typically though, full-martials want to full-attack as much as possible, especially when they have haste going on or they are a chained monk who needs to flurry.
Normally, I would say wizard is great for that first level of a martial focused arcane archer. But your terrible makes that a bad idea. With what you have, I would consider a bard to obtain first level arcane spellcasting. The spells are more buff focused and you can cast in light armor.
I think that is how I linkify something... You will also gain spells known from your bloodline as if you were a full sorcerer. Though, you may be unable to use some of them if you can't cast spells of a high enough level.
This Synthesist Summoner started with a Medium sized bipedal eidolon and a habit of casting Create Pit using a focus of a gold drillbit that he wears as a necklace. As he leveled, he spent as many evolutions as possible to create an ever larger eidolon, surpassing even Colossal. He later multiclassed into Bard in order to Inspire Courage through Speechcraft after getting the rest of his party to multiclass into Synthesist Summoner as well. Bingo!
This looks like fun! Another that comes from video games (probably easy): A group of six mercenaries.
I was a little confused when I read through your post the first time. Let me make sure I am reading correctly. You want to, on YOUR turn, start a cleave attack with a trip maneuver and then proceed to continue tripping creatures until you miss. All the while, you are making attacks of opportunity for successful trip attempts as a result of Greater Trip. Considering that An attack of opportunity “interrupts” the normal flow of actions in the round. If an attack of opportunity is provoked, immediately resolve the attack of opportunity, then continue with the next character's turn (or complete the current turn, if the attack of opportunity was provoked in the midst of a character's turn). *emphasis mine I think your strategy is legal. You would be concluding the AoO immediately, then continuing with the rest of your turn similar to if someone with multiple attacks trips 1 person on their first attack, makes an AoO on them, then trips someone else with their second attack. This actually sounds like an awesome way to initiate a fight. Damage and prone condition to everyone!
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