Could always go Urban Bloodrager... Slashing Grace... dex-Rage nonsense. Makes the penalty to Strength a little less annoying.
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Disclaimer: This certainly is not for everyone... To answer your question, I used the Natural Attack combat style for some claws. And I used Deific/Diverse Obedience for a bite attack, as I find it just freaking sad that the Vampire template does not provide one with one. Like WTF? I have a Grippli Vampire using Dandy Ranger VMC Sorcerer. I wanted it Charisma-based, because Undead use Charisma. I used Grippli because their FCB grants them a swim speed, and having a swim speed eliminates certain weaknesses associated with being a Vampire. I had to VMC Sorcerer for the Arcane Bloodline's New Arcana Bloodline Power to get Animate Dead as a spell known... which arrives just in time to finish strong with all five levels of Agent of the Grave. We end up with:
As a 20HD Vampire, one of the eternal Undead, it makes sense to hate entire nations... or at least that is how I managed to make use of the Dandy Ranger's Favored Nation nonsense. You could make use of such a feature in something like Kingmaker, but overall it is much less awesome than Favorer Enemy. Figured being a Vampire would have to make up for it a little bit... it doesn't, but as a background NPC he does alright for himself. He is not meant to be the big bad end guy of a campaign, rather exists as a side quest if the party ever chooses to investigate or get involved. Count Timrek le Gorf menaces alleyways, and other urban environments under the cover of darkness. He uses his Agile Tongue to deliver something like Ghoul Touch to an unsuspecting target from a safe distance, then pitter-patters down the down the wall to feast on his paralyzed victim's blood.
The closest thing to a Charisma-based Rogue is a Charisma-based Rogue. There are a bunch of archetypes with Charisma-based DC's... and a few archrtypes designed for Bluff/Intimidate builds. Desna's Shooting Star is a pretty obvious choice, me-thinks. If you want spellcasting, then Bard or Mesmerist is probably your best bet.
I love first level play. I love GM'ing first level players. Everything matters. Everyone pays attention. There is no random buzzing of insects as part of the description for scenery... it must be Stirge... or worse, a swarm... every word is heard, and received with maximum suspicion. It's awesome when everyone sucks. Nobody has fancy toys. Good. Clean. Fun.
You want one level of Warrior Poet Samurai for the Flourish called Kitsune's Mystique... which gives you both Improved Feint and the ability to feint someone as part of a move action. From this single level dip, you also get Weapon Finesse, and can use it with Katanas and Glaives and Naginatas. Then three levels of Snakebite Striker for Snake Feint. Online by level 4, full BAB up to this point, and both classes are D10 hit dice... +5/+3/+1 base saves.
Leadership + Choral Support
That's just it, though... MOST horror movies feature a monster hunting and killing level 1 commoners. Jason, Freddy, Hannibal, Mike... they all pick on commoners and kids. They aren't tough by PF1 standards. A lot of these guys could be handled quite easily by a low level party... Jason is pretty much a Troll with a machete... Mike is a Troll with a kitchen knife... Hannibal is just a freaking dude with a scalpel... Freddy is literally the only one that requires anything special to engage, a Will save to disbelieve his BS... even Freddy is just a skinny, weak, little man once you get your hands on him... claws are nothing new to no one in PF1, we can easily deal with his stupid spirit fingers. Carrie is cool AF... there is no Will save to simply disbelieve her nightmare, as hell literally follows her... the danger is real whether you believe it, or not. The only way to beat her is plug your controller into port 2. Something like the Predator is a decent choice, as they travel all over everywhere just to kill stuff. They look for things that might provide a challenge, in a continuous effort to improve their tactics. Your average Predator would probably still be a pretty low level PF1 monster, though. Predators really, really hate Xenomorphs, and a single Predator can be expected to take on more than one Xenomorph... a Hive Warrior is CR5, so a Predator is probably CR6 or CR7. Even that seems pretty high considering Danny Glover kills one.
Without levels in Titan Fighter or Titan Mauler, how is this small-sized character using a medium-sized Greatsword? Normally, you cannot use larger two-handed weapons... using a larger weapon increases the effort it takes to use it.. and thus light increases to one-handed, and one-handed increase to two-handed... there is nowhere for a two-handed weapon to increase, so it simply is no allowed without specific class features or abilities that give you that exact ability.
Well, I tried. Lol.
Good catch. The idea, as a whole, is even dumber than I first thought. I think the rat stack can pull it off in one round... but that's four different characters working as one to be completely useless together.
If a medium-sized, four-armed character was equipped with four Tower Shields, and took four standard actions to plant a shield on each edge of their square... yes, they would have total cover from every direction. It is, the absolute worst possible use of a character... ever. It takes four rounds to set up, and completely removes the character from the encounter... they become nothing more thab a pillar or a tree... they aren't a threat, and can be completely ignored. Not only is the fight probably over by the time they set their 4th shield, but they cannot make any attacks... what is the point? Yay, you survived, but everyone else in your party died because you are worthless and did not help them, at all. Go for it. Lol.
If you wanted to weaponize your friendly little butterfly [Familiar], then the Venom Siphoner Witch could do it... since the butterfly lacks the required natural attacks, it would get to spit poison as a ranged touch attack. Lol. Other than that, Witches have the Summon Monster spells on their list... you could even grab something like the Aurora Patron for spells like Color Spray. If you happen to be Chaotic Good, then you can trade your butterfly in for a Lyrakien with Improved Familiar at level 7. This aforementioned Lyrakien would still have the ability to spit poison, since it also lacks the appropriate natural attacks.
"The MONARCH!"
Found it! Mestama's 2nd Sentinel boon, called Widow's Cruelty, is the one that changes you into a female. I really like the idea of the Vigilante exploring different genders with their different identities. I am probably going to use that for an NPC. Aren't all Changelings female? Maybe not all of them want to be, or identity as, female...
Neat. I'm not trans or anything, but I think it's cool for you to incorporate it into your games. Alchemy seems like a perfect fit for replacing hormones. What happens to the character in the game? Other than changing gender on the character sheet, and the physical description on how the character now looks... is there any mechanical benefit or drawback associated with transitioning midgame? Does a character suffer negative side effects if they are kept from their HRT? I'm curious how you have incorporated such things into Pathfinder's ruleset and mechanics. If I am not mistaken, there is a boon available through Deific Obedience that transforms the person into a female if they aren't one already... I can't remember which deity it is, though.
I would not do that. Any of it. Rangers get access to Instant Enemy at, what, level 11? Now you drop that sweet +6/+6 on anyone you come across. Get different types of arrows to help with DR. Take the Clustered Shots feat.
It does not matter why the DM banned hybrid classes... people ban dumb $#!+ all the time, so who cares... the parameters have been set. You either play or you don't... it's your choice. Either way, cry me a river, build a bridge, and get TF over it. Like, holy freaking h3ll, man. Sorry for the rant, but the topic has nothing to do with hybrid classes... at all. In fact, they are actually banned from the campaign, and might as well be banned from the conversation... as they [hybrid classes] are irrelevant, and any discussion about them is nothing but a distraction from actually helping the OP. So, honestly, who gives a $#!+ as to why they are banned? If you want to play in this campaign, pick a non-hybrid class, and try make the character you wanted... right? That's why we are here, right? My vote/advice is to look at the Inquisitor class.
Feral Gnasher is an archetype for Goblins...
"... sad necromancer noises..." This made me laugh until I stopped.
Aasimar with Heavenly Radiance rips open their shirt, buttons flying, to expose a Superman "S"... the "S" is for SUNBEAM... and a 60' line of sunshine blasts out.
Yeah, I was thinking Inquisitor, also...
What is it about the Warpriest that we are trying to emulate with a Paladin?
Looks like I erased the stuff that didn't apply to my character when I copied the description into her notes. My bad.
There have been several decent builds posted on here about ways to abuse alcohol, but the tea specifically only works on Bardic Performance, Channel Energy, and spells 2 or more levels lower than highest level of spell you can cast. I have a Arcane Healer-Geisha Bard that is VMC Monk... she uses the aforementioned Tea of Transference and the Ki Channel feat to have near endless Bardic Performance, Channel Energy, Ki, and spells of, or lower than, 4th-level... so she is always scribing scrolls to pay for tea. Lol. I like the Tea of Transference + Ki Channel combination because Ki Channel regains multiple Ki per Channel, and you can always use the tea to transfer one Ki into another Channel for several more Ki... you always end up with extra Ki for more tea. Think about what an Evangelist Cleric VMC Monk could do with that tea and Ki Channel. Or, another way to use this trick would be as a Tengu Shigenjo Oracle with any of Mysteries that have access to Channel Energy... take Ki Channel at level 7. Between said feat and our favorite tea beverage, you should be pretty set for Channel, Ki, and spells of, or lower than, 7th-level... try find a good way to abuse the $#!+ out of the Shigenjo's Ki Magic.
Craft Wondrous Item, so you can craft your own toys... like an Orange Prism ioun stone to add +1 to your CL... and a Corset of Dire Witchcraft... and a headband of... you get the point.
Witch Knife... for an Elements Patron blaster this great. Spell Focus/Greater Spell Focus for Evocation also covers pretty much, if not all, your Patron Spells. That's a +3 to the DC's of all your Patron Spells. Legit AF.
Bolt Ace makes any crossbow a composite crossbow... or at least gains a bonus on damage rolls equal to her Dexterity modifier with that crossbow. Granted, Bolt Ace did not exist at the time this thread was started. Lol.
Poisons are so expensive, and often ineffective, that they are very seldom used... so the spell is of very limited importance, regardless of what it can and cannot actually detect. Finding a hidden Rogue with a poisoned blade is a corner case, but that same Rogue probably could have been found with Detect Magic, as well. Detect Poison might alert you to the giant spider lurking in the darkness... but you're in a freaking cave covered in spiderwebs, you shouldn't need a stupid spell to tell you there are spiders. Lol.
Any area effect spell with an instantaneous duration can become an evil spell with the Apocalyptic Spell metamagics... Drow have an alternative racial feature, called Champion of Darkness, that adds +2 to the DC's of evil spells. And the Maleficium damnation feat adds +1 to the DC's of evil spells (+2 if you have three damnation feats).
Kata Master gets Derring-Do, Dodging Panache, and Menacing Swordplay by the time they get the ability to trade Ki and Panache... it was especially useful for Variel, who gave up Derring-Do and Dodging Panache for the Vengeful Heart deed of renown.
Variel, my master of all things Panache, had levels in Inspired Blade Swashbuckler, Kata Master-MoMS Monk, Hooded Champion Ranger, and Kensai Magus... he could use Panache with his Rapier, unarmed strikes, and his bow. Variel could trade Ki and Panache, as well as Arcane Pool and Ki. He was alright. Stopped playing him after he went levels 10-11 without taking any damage. It was boring being invincible.
So switch Archeologist Bard in place of Sleuth... as the Archeologist Bard is NOT a really terrible archetype. I only mentioned Sleuth on the condition that you are allowed to combine it with Steel Hound... which you're not legally allowed to do, at all. Sleuth is a really terrible archetype, so bending the rules to allow it to stack with Steel Hound is pretty reasonable. The fact that both archetypes modify the same thing for Deeds makes it a perfect combination if you just stack all those together at that level. It's literally that simple. But still illegal. Sleuth sucks. It really is THAT bad. Even mixed with Steel Hound, it STILL sucks. Again, the only reason I even mentioned it was to get Grit and Luck together in a single go. If you don't stack the two archetypes and get both pools together, then it's not worth considering... at all... ever. I even have one, and I use him as an NPC because he's not very impressive... his name is Maverick, and he has a gambling problem. Anyways, his build looks something like this:
Investigator 1-4 (for studied combat)
1. Point Blank Shot
At 13:
What are the swallow whole builds?! The first one I mentioned is a level 13 Drider Gingerbread Witch. Driders are large-sized so she can eat more. Lol. Running with the whole grotesque spider theme, the second build I mentioned is a Trox Barbarian 7/Evangelist 6... Mazmezz's 2nd Evangelist boon makes "your lower half swells into a bloated spider’s body, complete with eight spindly legs and dripping spinnerets. You become one size category larger, but your reach and the size of weapons you wield do not change..." now my large-sized Trox Barbarian becomes Huge... so he can eat more. Lol. Imagine a dark and twisted nightmare version of Candyland with everything covered in spiderwebs...
Investigator, if you bend the rules a little bit to stack the Sleuth and Steel Hound archetypes. They both replace Swift Alchemy, but they both are replacing it with Deeds... two from Sleuth, and only one from Steel Hound... a Gunslinger gets three Deeds at level 3, so let the two archetypes stack [giving the Investigator three Deeds at level 4 in place of Swift Alchemy]. Anyways, you get Luck from Sleuth, and Amateur Gunslinger/Grit from Steel Hound... a level of Picaroon Swashbuckler gets you Panache, and some other fun stuff.
I have a small ZAM that I am relatively happy with... I used a trait to get Bluff as a class skill, and took Bewildering Koan at level 5. You could easily pull off using a Gnome as a small Human, and play off dumbfounding your enemies with childish BS instead of having them ponder the mysteries of the universe, or whatever.
What level are you entering the prestige class? To avoid losing two BAB in a row, I would take an even number of Sorcerer levels before entering. Level 6 is probably the perfect place to jump out of Sorcerer, since the archetype abilities gained at 7 & 9 are relatively useless to you once you enter the prestige class. Your saves go up, and you get your 3rd-level spells, too. Given the prerequisites, level 6 is the earliest one could enter the prestige class anyways... so waiting until level 7 can't be THAT bad. Half-Orc with the Sacred Tattoos alternative racial feature would be quite thematic if you were to choose the Orc Bloodline...
Human Fighter 6 Why level 6? Because it's where we can get Manyshot... 1. Point Blank Shot
Full attack is 4 arrows... Between Weapon Focus and Weapon Training, the penalty from Rapid Shot has been washed away... Deadly Aim is a -2, but is adding +4 damages to each arrow... that's +7 damages to each arrow with Weapon Specialization and Weapon Training...
You can pull a Jar Jar and play a Grippli Bard (Court Fool) type. Take Agile Tongue and steal apples from the bowl in the middle of the table when you're around a Jedi-type. Aether Kineticists make for pretty decent "Jedi-type" cartoonish characters...
Outside of flanking, and not being immediately attacked, what is the goal? There are abilities like Rogue Talents that allow enemies to count as allies for flanking and stuff, so the mechanics are not unheard of. Are you going to go back and infiltrate the enemy organization? Are you going to try command the enemy by pretending to be their captain?
Harley Quinn. Titan Fighter with a large Earthbreaker.
Get in my belly! I have two Swallow Whole builds... a Gingerbread Witch, and a Tyrant Totem Barbarian.
You should use your Hexes for utility/versatility... As a blaster, you have offense. A lot of your feats are probably dedicated to this, so grab Hexes that have nothing to do with your enemies... you already know what you're doing with your enemies, you're blasting them into oblivion... that's what blasters do. Maybe some healing? Or that beautiful Protective Luck/Soothsayer combo? Cauldron/Brew Potion? Verdant Familiar?
Lacking medium armor proficiency is not a big deal... there are traits that reduce your ACP by 1... this means you can wear Mithral Breastplate without proficiency. Also, getting Diplomacy to key off Intelligence only takes a trait, no homebrew feat required.
Wow. I must be doing something wrong. Lol. My level 11 Halfling Invoker is "only" at, like, 14D6 for her Fireballs. Granted, she is built for/with Magic Trick/Selective Spell... more for flavor than any mechanical benefit. But still, a higher Caster Level and less dice. Things that make you say, hmm...
Slayer... what you want is the Slayer. You can be as social a Slayer as you want... there are traits to trade Charisma to Intelligence for skills... the rest is completely roleplaying. The Vangaurd Slayer gets the Cavalier's Tactician ability, so they can hand out teamwork feats to the party... if you want that leader of the pack vibe. There IS a swashy that uses Intelligence... Inspired Blade... but you're stuck using a Rapier (if that matters).
At level 10, an Invoker can have Bridge and Curiosity active at the same time... that's a -5 to their Damage Reduction and Spell Resistance, as well as a +2 to the DC's of your spells. If you have Curiosity activated, Spell Focus/Greater Spell Focus, and Witch Knife... your Fireball DC is 18+Int... Winning!
Between those two... Winter. For a blaster-type Witch, I would go Invoker with the Elements Patron... with Bridge reducing Spell Resistance, and Curiosity increasing DC's... Spell Focus/Greater Spell Focus for Evocation... and Witch Knife to raise the DC's of all your Patron Spells... yeah, it gets kinda out of control by level 11. Personally, I like the Halfling FCB to raise the CL of your Patron Spells, and you could even grab this as an Aasimar via Scion of Humanity/Racial Heritage.
Back to the Blade Adept Arcanist... as it really is [probably] the best chassis for this topic... they gain proficiency with their Black Blade within the martial weapons catagory. Races that treat racial weapons as martial, or straight provide extra weapon proficiencies, really shine here. Like, a Dwarf with a Black Battleaxe, and a decent FCB for Arcane Barrier/Weapon. Elves using Black Thornblades. Lashvine Leshies with Black Scorpion Whips. Having access to the Arcane Accuracy Magus Arcana as an Exploit immediately puts the Blade Adept a step above most other options, me-thinks.
Wyrwood Witches could make use of Hex Strike and Magical Heart... not at the same time, sadly, as both require swift actions, but still... your BAB is going to suck regardless, and your unarmed strike damage likely will not increase without shenanigans. However, your unarmed strikes can deliver Hexes, or give you temp HP when imbued with Arcane Strike... this means they also deal the extra damage associated with Arcane Strike, which is kind of like scaling damage dice but not really. I suppose this Wyrwood Witch could VMC Monk for increased unarmed strike damages, and some extra drfense. That corset doesn't count as armor, so the Monk stuff should still work. Not, at all, optimal... but it might work in a setting that doesn't require optimization... a slightly less lethal campaign... our Wyrwood Witch boxer could probably do alright.
Tree-Born Gathlain don't have the normal Con penalty, so just you just get the +2 Dex and +2 Cha... that's right, no Strength penalty even though you're Small (+1 AC, +1 attack)... and you can fly. Gathlain already have +1 natural armor, and can get scaling DR/cold iron via an alternative racial feature. Arcanists, Sorcerers, and Witches all have simple weapon proficiency, allowing a very basic reach build with a Longspear... having no Strength penalty helps here. Combat Reflexes isn't gated behind BAB, so you're "set" from level 1. Using reach and flight should increase your survivability, somewhat making up for your overwhelming lack of options when it comes to armor. Speaking of armor... good old Sunsilk Ceremonial Armor is probably as good as it gets. No ACP or ASF chance, and provides DR2/bludgeoning. It doesn't beat Mage Armor until it's enchanted to +3 (or higher), but it's also always on/doesn't cost a spell slot... and it can be enchanted as armor with special armor effects. Combined with a Mithral Buckler, and you're about as armored up as a squishy mage can get. Special note goes to that corset for Witches, adding a +4 armor bonus. Gathlain FCB for Witches allows you to steal Druid spells, for what that's worth... |