Vexanon Ur'Zahl's page

Hey all, so the title basically sums it up. I have a character created and while I have a vague idea of how they act, I'm having a hell of a time fleshing out the details. Here's where I'm at.

Race: Fetchling

Class: Inquisitor (-2 WIS is counter-productive, I know, but I went with this for other reasons)

Gender: Male

Fighting style: 2H-melee with Cestus backup and a composite shortbow.

Current Level: 1

A little background: The setting is a custom world made by our GM. He created and wrote up details for a number of nations, but left others blank for the players to work with. We could create nations and populate them and have our characters come from them. He had created a nation with a largely eastern (Japanese/Chinese cultural influences) theme. Originally I wanted to play a Ninja but wanted a Fetchling (his nation being primarily Human) so I created a Fetchling Enclave that grew into it's own nation, taking much influence from the eastern nation as they were the closest neighbor. Eventually I scrapped the ninja for the inquisitor, but didn't want to change the nation I had created or the racial make-up for the sake of mechanical effectiveness. My stats are decent (14 avg for each ability, even after racial bonuses) and my skill focus is on stealth.

The nation the character hails from is very secretive and works with a lot of clandestine orders. One such is where my character comes from. Rather than a religious zeal, he is powered by shadow (darkness domain) and his conviction lies in the loyalty to the nation. His order seeks out enemies of the nation all across the world and strikes them down, using stealth, deception, and other under-handed tactics.

Alignment: LE. How this plays out: He understands and respects the laws of each country he goes to, as long as his mission is un-hindered by them. However all bets are off when it comes to his target, from lightly bending the rules to outright breaking them. Nothing is too severe as long as it means his target dies.

This is a lot of text, I realize, but if you've kept reading so far I appreciate your patience. Based on all of this info one would think I could easily come up with a personality, but I just can't think of one that fits.

Lvl 1 means he's fairly young (when the campaign starts he'll be on his first actual hunt) he's not against working with others, and can even be a valuable ally as long as his companions aren't suspects, but I just don't know how he'd come across in general situations. Any suggestions or examples of how he could act would be great!

I know that some GM's keep copies of the PC's character sheets with them and when a relevant perception check comes up they roll some D20's and if someone would notice the GM tells them. This avoids the issue of the players KNOWING something is up because you asked them to roll a perception check. I couldn't say how it is for other players, but I feel like playing as if your character doesn't know something that you the player knows for sure is a complete pain in the behind.

Furthermore, if you want to throw in some more flavor, you could "decide" if a PC would even notice something. Example:

Party of 4 (barbarian, cleric, ranger, sorc) have just cleared out a room. It was a mighty encounter, with a lot of mooks and a couple bigger guys as well. The barbarian and sorcerer are dividing up the loot, the cleric is healing up the party, while the ranger is standing around. You could give the ranger (and maybe one other PC) the perception check to see if they happen to notice anything. If they don't "automatically" then it's up to the players. If one of them says, "I examine the room for hidden whatevers" you can give them another, and go from there. This gives the game a more organic feel, where sometimes there are things they notice, and sometimes there aren't, without letting the players know they missed anything.

64. While out shopping at a magic items shop a PC comes across a lovely amulet. Speaking with the shop owner reveals it to be an amulet of (insert useful thing to that PC here) and the owner decides to sell it at a third of the price because they "have a good feeling about you." Just as things seem like they're too good to be true a legion of guards storms the place and arrest all of the shop workers while snatching all of the wares and shoving them into bags. A man who is clearly in charge of the operation personally takes the amulet and eyes it carefully. If the PC inquires as to what's going on the captain reveals that all of the magic items were created using blood sacrifices and are now evidence in their pending trial.

At this point the PC can decide whether or not to try to talk the captain into giving them the amulet anyway. What's one missing piece of evidence?

Most people would probably say up to 5th for your gunslinger to get the dex to damage. With inquisitor you get the spells, the judgements, and if you stick with it long enough the ability to add the Bane quality to your musket (against...say....Humans, for example?) for a fun +2 hit/damage and a +2d6 damage. If you don't want your rifle to misfire then the minimum for gunslinger is 13th, so weigh that option as you will.

Another option could be 5 Gunslinger/5 Inquisitor (nets you Bane, 2 judgements 2/day, and solo tactics) then go fighter for the feats and weapon training, if you took tactician you could continue to get teamwork bonus feats (though your weapon training would lag behind a little) for the solo tactics but that's more about how your party works.

Back in an old 3.5 game, I was playing a Curst (sorta undead who goes mildly insane at random moments) fighter in a pirate setting. I was with a were-shark kensai and we were on our way to the main hub city. While camping we are attacked by a group of bandits who we quickly dispatch but let one escape so we can track him to their hideout.

Upon reaching the hideout we clear out all of the bandits and investiage the area, it was a small but well furnished cave with a strange set of runes forming the shape of a doorway. We manage to determine through taking some 20's that it's a magic doorway that responds to a specific person or group.

At this point my fighter flips his crazy switch and decides it must work for the bandits so the following exchange occurs.

Me: I pick up one of the corpses.

DM: Um...ok?

Me: I huck it at the wall with the runes around it.

DM: Wait...you throw the corpse?

Me: Yeah.

DM: Ok, make a STR check.

Me: *rolls a nat 20*

DM and my Were-shark Partner: o_O

DM: ....well nothing magical happens, but the bandit corpse splats against the wall and makes a bloody mess.

Me: (in character) well....guess that didn't work.

WS: What the hell was that?

Me: I thought the bandits could go through!

WS: Even the DEAD ones?

Me: Obviously!

Later on we met a character with strange runes embedded in their head. They weren't related to the door we had found, but that didn't stop my guy from trying when he had the chance.

So this isn't from PF per say, but from 3.5 D&D.

Party is a LN Cleric of Kalemvor, myself a LN Monk, a CN Ranger, and a CN Bard/Rogue.

We were looking into a yuan-ti cult of Asmodeus that was terrorizing a nearby village. At this point we're all around lvl 10 and have gained some fame/notoriety in the area for our deeds. We learn that the cult is aware of the presence of heroes who may try to thwart them, so they put out a bounty on us. From this information we hatch a grand scheme.

The ranger and bard (the two lesser known of our group, the monk and cleric pulled off some crazy stuff in our adventures) disguise themselves and bind the cleric's and mine hands with rope and march us into the old watchtower where the cult is, claiming they want half the bounty for half the adventuring party.

We are brought straight to the cult leader, a Yuan-Ti Abomination, who looks us over and laughs at our miserable situation. The ranger and bard/rogue have positioned themselves for the ambush, when the DM looks at me and as the abomination, says,

"So you 'brave' do-gooders, have you any last words?"

At this point in time I had recently acquired the Fiery Ki Fist feat (give up 1 or 2 stunning fist uses to set my hands on fire for X rounds) So I ignite my hands and burn the ropes. Readying to fight, I say:

"Just two.....roll initiative."

It was horribly out of character but the table lost it for a good ten minutes.

The animal companion idea is cool and I could see it for another character, but in the campaign I'm gonna be in we have a cavalier who's gonna have a lion as his mount and he'd probably be a bit slighted if I waltzed in riding a tiger or something similar xD

I love how versatile the inquisitor seems to be though, they can do quite a bunch of different things in order to accommodate various playstyles.

I was looking at some of the teamwork feats and that 1d6 for flanking feat looks mighty nice.

Holy crap Judgement Surge is ridiculous! Definitely have to take that, excellent suggestion! Power attack and furious focus are must-haves for sure. I'm reading through the guide you suggested as well and it has a lot of useful information. Thanks!

The character comes from an eastern area, and I'm being allowed to have free proficiency with one martial weapon from the area, so I'm thinking either Naginata (unless reach is a no-no for him) or a Katana (two handed of course).

Anyhow. I'm glad that A) The melee inquisitor is a viable option and B) I already got some kickarse advice on it. Thanks a lot!

So I see a lot on here about making ranged Inquisitors due to being proficient with the best ranged weapon in the game, but if I reeeeeaaaaally wanted to make a melee focused one, what would be a solid way to go with it? I have a campaign coming up and would like to play as one.

I was thinking a standard two-handed build, since they're less feat intensive than say TWF, but I don't know much about divine spell-casting so I feel like I'm definitely missing something on feats.

What are some examples of standard melee inquisitor builds you have tried before? Are there any specifics I should know? Any gear or spells or feats I should specifically look at?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated :)

I was always of the opinion that Charisma in a large way affected the presence of your character. This is why you have very VERY ugly monsters with high CHA. They're not attractive or even socially graceful, they're just so repulsive that it's almost awe-inspiring.

In that regard a very low CHA would equate to basically having no presence whatsoever. When you leave a room with your party (four people total) the people in the room comment on the three people and....wait was there another one?

Gnomezrule made some extremely good points as well. Your low CHA could be RPed as just having no understanding (or regard for) social graces or taboo. Take other people's food at the table. Take care of bodily functions wherever and whenever you want/need to. Rest of the party seriously discussing the next course of action? You're picking your nose.

You could even combine this with how perceptive you are. At that same conversation where you're picking your nose someone shouts at you for not paying attention and suddenly you can recount the entire plan, although your delivery should be awkward ;)

Just some more food for thought. But please no feet eating at the table!!! D:<

Ok cool, this clears up quite a bit. Thanks a lot!

So, I've searched the Rules forums and scoured the PRD glossary on both Critical hits and damage reduction, and cannot find any information to clarify how the two interact. So I'm posting these questions here to see if anyone knows for sure.

Does a critical hit negate damage reduction?

If not, when is the DR applied? Before the multiplier is resolved or afterward?

Let's assume for sake of argument that a critical hit confirms but fails to overcome DR anyway (for one reason or another). Could critical feats still be applied?

My group has never really had an idea on how this works, so any advice would be great! Thanks much! :)

I took a look at that, and I really liked the stuff he gets. If my GM is ok with me taking a 3rd class I'll probably go for Grand Marshal. Kind of like a third promotion :P

I hadn't really thought about deadly aim, since I'm going with a ranged touch attack anyway (will be in range for it most of the time) that's a pretty good idea. I took dodge because I plan to be the more upfront leader type, and felt like I needed the AC. I may get rid of it for deadly aim however.

The main reason I'd like to multiclass has been stated by soupturtle. I like a lot of the gunslinger's stuff, but I'd like to have more utility and at lvl 5 I have most of what I want out of the gunslinger. That said, there's nothing stopping me from taking more levels in gunslinger later on. Targeting could be pretty nice for helping my teammates.

Ok, so I just looked at the freebooter ranger. That is AWESOME. I'll run that by my GM to see if we could create a land-based variant. That bane ability is sick.

Is it possible for inquisitors to be devoted to a cause or ideal as opposed to a specific deity? My gaming group tends to be a bit more lax on religion (not for any particular reason, now that I think about it)

Although honestly I don't think my GM would let me go inquisitor. He's largely of the mindset that if you can't explain why/how your character would take a multiclass path based on what's happened so far you can't take it. To be honest I agree with the idea. But on the other hand I believe we need some divine spellcasting.

For the sake of argument let's say that there aren't defined "deities" in this gameworld and I was pretty much free to take whatever domain I wanted. If I switched to Inquisitor, which domain do you think would fit the role I'd like best? Being combat savvy enough to fight in the front while also assisting teammates.

I was looking at inquisitor, and they seem to have a much more religious spin than even the cleric or paladin, which is a shame because I really liked their abilities. If there's an aspect of their RP that I'm missing I'd love to be wrong about it!

A paladin would be interesting (I've RPed them before and had a lot of fun) But I've never done a CG character before and really would like to try it with this guy so unfortunately that's out.

A ranger I think I could work into the theme so I'll look at their stats and see if there are any archetypes that would be fun.

I've always wanted to play a bard, but I always imagine a bard as the type to hang back (both in and out of combat) and be dashing in their own way, as opposed to the leader of the group. Maybe that's just my own bias, though.

So far it's seeming like a fighter of some sort or a cavalier is the way to go. Which isn't a bad thing, I just wanted to make sure I was taking the right path.

I tried looking up Dawnflower dervish and all I found was a dawn dervish that was focused on dancing and using good ol' scimitars. Seems neat but unless your idea was a different archetype it's not quite what I'm envisioning.

I was looking at the Tactician fighter Archetype. Seems like he gets some of the fun things a cavalier gets without the need for a mount (or the focus on one). Maybe that's the way to go?

So a while back I worked with some of the fine gents here to come up with a viable multiclass option for my character in a upcoming campaign. However I've looked around at different posts and found that the standard for gunslingers in general seems to be to go 5 levels then go to something else.

Originally I was going to go Cavalier/Possibly Luring Cavalier. And I still really like the option, but I wanted to run my character concept by here and see if anyone had a better suggestion.

So here's where I sit for right now

Lvl 5 Gunslinger (Pistolero)

STR - 14
DEX - 20 (17 +2(Human Racial) +1(Lvl 4))
CON - 14
INT - 13
WIS - 13
CHA - 15

Feats
Point Blank Shot
Precise Shot
Dodge
Rapid Reload
Weapon Focus (Pistol)

HP = 53

AC = 20 (10+5(DEX)+1(Dodge)+1(Nimble)+3(Armor))

Attack Options
Pistol (Within 30ft.) - +12 hit. 1d8+6 Dmg. +2d6 for one grit point.

Longsword - +7 hit. 1d8+2 Dmg.

Armor - Studded Leather

Starting gold hasn't been decided yet for items so armor and magic items subject to change/be added.

I've seen Inquisitor, Fighter, Ranger, and others suggested as good paths to go from here. I'll lay down my character's background and maybe some kind soul here could give me the next logical step?

This character comes from a noble family, the kingdom they live in has a special military group of particularly skilled ranged combatants. Our campaign revolves around each player being part of this task force. My character has been training with firearms (mainly pistols) his whole life and is up for a promotion (next level takes a new class) and will be promoted to the captain (leader) of the party. So I'm looking for a class that would let me help my team mates out in combat, be sort of the face of the party (a rogue-ish type may be better suited but I'm still the "leader") and be able to charge the front line if need be, so possibly some switch hitting.

Any thoughts? Or was cavalier my best option?

According to the PRD Ultimate Magic, Vow of Poverty gives 1 ki point per level, and Celibacy gives 1 point per 5 levels.

If you're looking for more to do with your Ki points, Qinggong Monk, also found in Ultimate Magic, gives you all sorts of abilities to use your Ki for.

Master of Many Styles, found in Ultimate Combat, gives up Flurry for the ability to fuse styles together and use different style feats at the same time. While this wouldn't make up for the items you don't get from poverty, it opens your monk up to a whole array of options. Furthermore, the Qinggong Monk Archetype can technically work with any other Monk archetype so you could take both, thereby gaining a bunch of special abilities (Qinggong) and different fun things to do in melee (MoMS).

There are plenty of guides on here for what Style Feats are the best to take if you're unsure of that, and you can take Qinggong abilities that best compliment how you want to fight.

Hope this helps! :D

I liked seeing the numbers there, but it would appear that Holy only deals the extra damage to evil creatures. The two I plan to fight (only really using this character for the dueling) are both some form of neutral I believe.

For the same price though, (+2), I could have like flaming and frost. That's 2d6 per hit every time. Also wouldn't a crit double the damage of the katana so it'd be 14d6(1d6 Frost, 1d6 Flame, 8d6 Vital Strike, 2d6 normal, 2d6 extra crit damage)?

Guns would be interesting, but I think would ultimately not fit the feel of a rough and tumble fighter so much.

@Grizzly: I looked at the stuff you suggested. I love the pauldrons and the ring, and the bracers seem really cool, I like the extra damage and the flavor of the item.

All crit/sneak attack negation is unnecessary for me however, as being a lvl 20 Armor Master makes me immune to crits and SA while wearing my armor.

Any other suggestions for weapons? Was thinking maybe some sort of one handed piercing weapon to go with how he fights (hunkered down in a massive suit of armor with large shield at the front).

Hey guys, so a couple friends and I are making lvl 20 martial front line combatants to duel each other (started out as a challenge and now it's just for fun) and we're going for optimization. The two people I'm going up against have a lot to do with Crits (One of them auto-confirms all rolls above 14 as critical hits) So I made an Armor Master (lvl 20 Crit Negation, awwww yeah) and am planning on just shrugging off attacks.

My issue with this is I'm giving up so much damage and hit potential for the awesome survivability. I'm running a Human, so pretty basic in terms of racial bonuses. Right now he's got adamantine full-plate, a heavy steel shield and a katana (taking the feat to wield one-handed). I plan to go the Vital strike route so I can stack extra damage on the one hit (both will have decent to ridiculous AC so I'd rather hit once and make it count).

I'd love some suggestions on further equipping my fighter. I'd like a focus on straight up defense and making that one hit HURT. (Looking at Impact right now). I chose the Katana but am not dead set on it, so that can be a different weapon.

Here's the stipulations:

150k gp to work with (-15k for adamantine armor)
Only items/enchantments that exist in the Pathfinder PRD (Base, Advanced, Ultimate Equipment).

Would LOVE something to enlarge myself with, I feel like that would stack with the impact enchantment.

Thanks for reading and any input you provide!

So I recently read about the Brawler archetype and upon looking further into them I decided one would be very fun to play as that sort of gruff veteran who talks a lot of smack and backs it up with really powerful smack(s).

On that note I want to make a 10th level Brawler, but I don't know what race to take, and what sort of feats would be best. I want to get up to Shield Master on that feat chain, and would like to get Stand Still early so he becomes very good at keeping enemies near him. Outside of that (if there are any left) I'm open to feat suggestions.

Core Concept is a Brawler in Full-Plate with a Light Steel Spiked Shield (Bashing and a decent enchantment bonus on it) who wields a Scizore on the other hand and has two brass (adamantine and cold iron) knuckles he can slip on if he doesn't have time to equip the scizore, or if he gets disarmed or whatever.

Any ideas? :)

So I'm gonna guess this doesn't apply, but I wanted to make sure.

Stand Still says if an opponent provokes an attack of opportunity due to movement you can make a combat maneuver instead to stop their movement.

Prone condition says that someone who is prone can stand up as a move-equivalent action that provokes an attack of opportunity.

So is it possible to use Stand Still on a prone target that tries to stand up? I imagine this could be extremely obnoxious for a tripped target if true.

Thoughts?

Solid advice there. I like the mounted feats you listed. Definitely some good synergy there. Thanks for all the help! :)

Ok so I have made a decision based on the advice I got from everyone. I imagine I can't get away with making my rolls without the DM nearby so this is just an example (although the rolls were pretty good lol)

Human

Lvl 5 Gunslinger (Pistolero) Next level will Multiclass to Luring Cavalier

STR - 14
DEX - 20 (17 +2(Human Racial) +1(Lvl 4))
CON - 14
INT - 13
WIS - 13
CHA - 15

Feats
Point Blank Shot
Precise Shot
Dodge
Rapid Reload
Weapon Focus (Pistol)

HP = 53

AC = 20 (10+5(DEX)+1(Dodge)+1(Nimble)+3(Armor))

Attack Options
Pistol (Within 30ft.) - +12 hit. 1d8+6 Dmg. +2d6 for one grit point.

Longsword - +7 hit. 1d8+2 Dmg.

Armor - Studded Leather

Not sure how much gold we'll have to start with so I may have better armor or some magic items.

Gonna focus on Bluff/SoH/Perception/Ride for skills with this class.

Anyhow, does this seem like a decent setup for combat? I know it's just a 5th lvl Gunslinger and is pretty standard but I want to make sure he'd be effective.

So the nice thing about mounted and ranged combat is that you can take your full attacks while while your mount moves without any feats. As long as he's not running full out there isn't even a penalty. You'll want to take either Order of the Sword or Order of the Land (from Kngihts of the Inner Sea). Order of the Sword gives you a bonus to any attack as long as you're mounted, and Order fo the Land gives you a bonus to ranged attacks. Order of the Land might be just a smidge more useful if your comapaign is going to involve multiple locations or situations where it's hard to bring a mount, but I don't know if you'll actually have access to it since it isn't from a hardcover. You also lose out a bit on the last ability from the order since the +2 to maneuvers on a charge references the Mighty Charge ability, which you give up when you take Luring Cavalier.

To be honest, given the awesome improvements you get in action economy, I'm actually a bigger fan of going standard cavalier for ranged characters, especially ones getting bonuses to their ranged combat style from multi-classing. You give up very little since your mount can bring you within range to make your ranged attacks and then dance you safely clear, and you keep the option of being able to switch-hit in a situation where lighting, enemy spells (like Wind Wall), cover, and other circumstances make ranged combat impractical. Order of the Sword is perfect for this.

I hadn't rethought the orders since I considered using a mount. Order of the Sword sounds perfect in that case. The only reason I'm leaning more towards the Luring Cavalier is the idea of charging (melee weapons or not) doesn't sound appealing for the character I want to make, whereas confounding enemies and later on forcing them to move towards me can give me and my team mates some interesting tactical advantages.

I think at this point I'd like to make a Pistolero/Luring Cavalier that has one pistol and then like a rapier or long sword on the side that they can switch to if needed. I could take a couple feats to balance his melee out but otherwise he'd ride around shooting enemies and buffing his teammates. What do you think?

Ok so I'm getting a better picture for what I want to do, but I can't decide if I should go with a musket or two pistols. I like both for their own reasons the musket having much more range while the pistols have more damage potential (5th level pistolero can deal 2d6 extra damage per shot). The Luring Cavalier's Careful Aim feature seems to let me extend the range of any firearm/ranged weapon including the Touch AC targeting.

In that case, I could use a pistol at up to 60 ft. with no penalty or 40 ft. at no penalty and targeting the touch AC of the enemy.

The musket in this case would have 120 ft. no penalty or 80 ft. Touch AC.

Would it be more effective to have two pistols and just do ride by shots or would the TWF feats be too numerous to get along with the ranged combat feats? If I decided on only one firearm would one pistol be better than one musket? I originally wanted a sort of long range support guy but one that rides through combat popping people with a pistol sounds fun too.

I think I see what you mean. Having a mount would allow me better battlefield control and the mobility keeps me from being hit. I'll have to check with the DM to see if there'd be issues with having a mount.

It'd be nice if I could somehow get the Skirmish damage from 3.5 in that case. As far as I know there is not a Pathfinder equivalent, but then again I'm fairly new to Pathfinder.

In that regard, what kind of mounted combat feats (if any) would go well with a ranged character?

That's the purpose of the Luring Cavalier archetype. You gain "far challenge".

I see that the far challenge replaces the standard challenge, but does that mean that the order's effect on the challenge applies to the ranged variant or that it doesn't apply at all because it's not a standard challenge?

So this is my first actual post here, but I've read many of the guides here on various topics and found them extremely helpful!

More to the topic, I have a Pathfinder game coming up that's focused on a group of adventurers who are all part of a special military task force. Each of us has to be ranged, and so far our party consists of a Wizard Spellslinger and a Barbarian Hurler.

I was looking around for various builds for a Musket user and I found a build recommended on here for a Gunslinger (Musket Master) 5/Cavalier (Luring, Musketeer) the rest. I liked the idea a lot, but I have some questions.

What race would work really well with this? I'm leaning Human, but am open to other ideas. The campaign uses the Pathfinder PRD, so anything from the Advanced Races would be ok. I would like this character to be the "leader/face" of the group, so something that would really work to that.

Another question I have is about the orders. Many of them rely on melee attacks, threatening enemies (melee) or being attacked. Obviously this doesn't really work with ranged characters so much. Have any of you modified any of the orders to make them work? Or have you made your own? My DM is pretty open to working stuff out so I'd love some suggestions on that.

Lastly, if I wanted him to be a sort of Sniper without relying on Sneak Attacks, how should I build him? We're not going for Optimization, but something that would be fun and effective would be great!

Any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated! :)