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So, I've been working on a particular Spiritualist build for a while, and I'm hoping to get a bit of advice on it.

Currently it's level 1, but I wanted to look at the future levels before I go past the point of no return for rebuilding.

The goal of the build is to have the Spiritualist and Phantom as flanking buddies, working together to take down opponents. The Phantom has some fun shenanigans with Intimidate, trying to slow down opponents in order to effectively deal with other opponents. In addition, the Phantom can be used to deliver a few different touch spells in incorporeal form, though the DC on them is probably pretty bad.

Mostly, I'm looking to focus the build a bit more and try to make it a bit more effective in combat.

The current statblocks are as follows:
Francis (Spiritualist 6)
Lawful Neutral Medium Humanoid (elf, human)
Init +5; Senses: Low-light vision; Perception +12

Defense

AC 15; Touch 11; Flat-Footed 14; (+1 Dex, +4 Armor)
HP 39 (6d8+6)
Fort +7; Ref +4; Will +10
Defensive Abilities n/a; Immune sleep; Resist none;

Offense

Speed 30 ft.
Space 5 ft; Reach 5 ft
Melee +1 Elven Curve Blade +8, 1d10+4, (18-20/x2)
PA +1 Elven Curve Blade +8, 1d10+10, (18-20/x2)
Ranged N/A
Special Attacks N/A
Spell-like Ability (CL 6)
Detect Undead (at will)
Spells Known (CL 6)
2nd (4/day, spontaneous only)— Ghoul Touch (DC 16), Invisibility, False Life, Touch of Idiocy (DC 16)
1st (5/day, spontaneous only)— Remove Fear, Shield, Touch of Gracelessness (DC 15), Doom
0 (at will, spontaneous only)— Detect Magic, Guidance, Stabilize, Mage Hand, Telekinetic Projectile, Detect Psychic Significance

Statistics

Str 16, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 18, Cha 8
Base Atk +4; CMB +7; CMD 18 (18 vs. trip)
Traits: Seeker (+1 Perception, Perception is a Class Skill), Courageous (+2 vs. fear)
Feats: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Elven Curve Blade), Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Furious Focus
Skills: Perception +12, 3*6; Racial Modifiers: +2 Perception, +2 on saves against enchantment spells
Languages: Common, Elven
SQ: Etheric Tether, Phantom, Shared Consciousness (1 use), Bonded Senses (Standard Action, free to end), Bonded Manifestation (Swift Action, 9 rds/day, either +4 shield bonus or concealment vs. ranged), Spiritual Interference (Ectoplasmic: +2 shield when within reach of phantom, +2 circumstance on saves, Incorporeal: +2 circumstance vs mind-affecting when within 30 ft.), Phantom Recall (1/day), Deliver Touch Spells (30 ft.)
Combat Gear: +1 Elven Curve Blade, +1 Studded Leather, Cloak of Resistance +1
Other Gear: Wand of Cure Light Wounds (50 charges), Wand of Mage Armor (50 charges), Wayfinder (free), Handy Haversack, 4 Acid Flasks, 4 Alchemist’s Fire, 4 Antitoxin, Bedroll, Bell, 2 Caltrops, 9 Candles, 4 sq yds. Canvas, 1 map/scroll case, Chain (10 ft.), 5 Chalk, Dagger, Everburning Torch, Fishhook, Flint and Steel, Grappling hook, Hammer, 4 Holy Water (flask), 1 oz. Ink (vial), Inkpen, Javelin, Manacles (medium), Manacles (small), Small steel mirror, Clay mug, 4 1-pint flasks of oil, 1 sheet of paper, 1 sheet of parchment, 4 pitons, 1 Potion (cure light wounds), 1 Potion (endure elements), 7 days trail rations, 50 ft., silk rope, 4 empty sacks, 1 sewing needle, 1 signal whistle, 4 smokestick, 4 sunrod, 4 tanglefoot bag, 4 thunderstone, 10 tindertwig, 4 torches, 1 empty vial, 1 waterskin, 760 gp, X-4 Prestige

---

Karen (Anger Phantom 6, Ectoplasmic)
Lawful Neutral Medium Outsider (native)
Init (Runs on Francis’ Initiative as per DM); Senses Darkvision 60 ft; Perception +9

Defense

AC 17; Touch 11; Flat-Footed 16; (+6 Natural Armor, +1 Dex)
HP 47 (5d10+10)
Fort +6; Ref +2; Will +4
Defensive Abilities ; DR 5/magic; Immune ; Resist ; SR

Offense

Speed 30 ft.
Space 5 ft; Reach 5 ft
Melee 2 slams +8, (3d6+3, 20/x2, bludgeoning, magic)
PA 2 slams +6, (3d6+7, 20/x2, bludgeoning, magic)
Ranged N/A
Spell-Like Abilities
3/day - Command (DC 11?)

Statistics

Str 16, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 15
Base Atk +5; CMB +8; CMD 19 (19 vs. trip)
Feats: Power Attack (-2, +4), Bludgeoner, Enforcer, Improved Natural Attack
Skills: Intimidate +18, Survival +9, Linguistics -1, Perception +9, Fly +4, Sense Motive +5;
Languages: Common, Elven, Ancient Thassilonian
SQ: Deliver Touch Spells (30 ft.), Devotion (+4 vs enchantments)
Combat Gear ghost touch Amulet of Mighty Fists, Maiden’s Helm
Other Gear Masterwork Tool (Intimidate)

---

Karen (Anger Phantom 6, Incorporeal)
Lawful Neutral Medium Outsider (native, incorporeal)
Init (Runs on Francis’ Initiative as per DM); Senses Darkvision 60 ft; Perception +9

Defense

AC 19; Touch 19; Flat-Footed 16; (+1 Dex, +6 Deflection, +2 Dodge)
HP 47 (5d10+10)
Fort +6; Ref +2; Will +4
Defensive Abilities incorporeal; DR N/A; Immune none; Resist none; SR none

Offense

Speed 30 ft.
Space 5 ft; Reach 5 ft
Melee 2 slams +6, (3d6+3, 20/x2, bludgeoning, magic)
PA 2 slams +4, (3d6+7, 20/x2, bludgeoning, magic)
Deliver Touch Spell +6 (spell)
Ranged N/A
Spell-Like Abilities
3/day - Command (DC 11)

Statistics

Str -, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 15
Base Atk +5; CMB +6; CMD 16 (16 vs. trip)
Feats: Power Attack (-2, +4), Bludgeoner, Enforcer, Improved Natural Attack
Skills: Intimidate +11, Survival +9, Linguistics -1, Perception +9, Fly +4, Sense Motive +5;
Languages: Common, Elven, Ancient Thassilonian
SQ: Deliver Touch Spells (30 ft.), Devotion (+4 vs enchantments)
Combat Gear ghost touch Amulet of Mighty Fists
Other Gear

So... in the Alchemy Manual Player Companion there is the ability to add abilities to your Homunculus familiar. I believe those are legal (from checking the Additional Resources), and I wanted to ask what the necessary qualification was. Did you need to pay a NPC to make these improvements or do you need to have the feat yourself? If that's even legal?

I'm not sure, and I'd like to have some clarity on how this should be done.

So, I've got a rare opportunity to play a dragon character. Naturally, I do want to ensure this character functions (though it would be a bit difficult to screw up). While I don't have the exact numbers, the 'race' that my compatriots and I have been given grants a significant hp and save bonus, an at will SLA (in my case Soften Earth and Stone), and a massive racial stat bonus. (+4 STR, -2 DEX, +2 all others, extra 3 to distribute as wished), and rolled stats: 4d6 drop the lowest. (which I seem to have lost)

I therefore decided that I wanted to play an illusionist who would not utilize all of these abilities, because it would feel a bit easy unless the DM pumped opponenets to meet us.

Specifically, I've decided on building a Wizard/Veiled Illusionist build in order to help mitigate the impact of dragons, and allow myself to function within cities decently without getting them to think that we've come to burn the place down, as the campaign takes place a while after a massive dragon-y destroying war which ruined a bunch of the planet and ended up killing the three current dragon gods (though others ascended to take their place).

So... any recommendations for build ideas? Useful tactics that I could use to take over the world that are suitably manipulative and dragon-y?

EDIT: Found the base stats. 16, 15, 14, 11, 10, 10

So, I've got a faction I'm developing for my homebrew, based around a sort of assimilating force that's attempting to devour the world.

Therefore, I'm building a template to how assimilated creatures are changed, listed in the spoiler below.

So, a Level 9 Cleric who's built a few assistants, spending 18k on constructs thus far.

I'm mostly just looking for extra gear to help.

I've currently decided on:
Belt of Con +2
Construct Channel Brick (to help heal the constructs)
Handy Haversack+mundane gear (3815 gp's worth)
Headband of Wis +2
Wand of Cure Light Wounds

I still have 14,435 gp left to spend, and I want to get a couple other good things. I have the Artifice and Protection Domains, if that makes a difference.

So I've begun plans to build a Kobold Artifice Cleric, who plans to build himself some allies, whether to help clean up mooks or aid in information-gathering or be fighters on their own.

The only trouble is figuring out what to build and/or what is actually effective for their cost.

I was thinking of building some Clockwork stuff, but what are other people's suggestions?

EDIT: In addition, for the character himself, he's limited to the core line of rules.

Zallama Inish is a character I want to actually play.

It's a Gnome Eldritch Knight, with the following advancement:

Swashbuckler (Inspired Blade) 1/Wizard (Scryer) 1/Eldritch Knight 10/Hellknight Signifier 8.

I'm of course taking Magical Knack to regain caster levels, but I'm not sure what feats to end up taking. I'm planning on using Still Spell to mitigate some Spell Failure, using a Buckler and Rapier. The only problem is I don't know what feats to take.

I'm starting at level 8 with standard WBL, and the following ability scores: (baseline)

STR: 9, DEX: 16, CON: 12, INT: 16, WIS: 10, CHA: 11

So what do you think I can do with this?

As the title says, what is the usual CR of a gestalt character? I'm not sure how you would calculate that.

So, this is something that's been bugging me and many other players. The question is twofold:

"Does a Bloodrager have to take the Draconic Bloodline to qualify for Dragon Disciple?"

and

"Is a Bloodrager's Bloodline advanced by Dragon Disciple?"

Hopefully this can get answered quickly.

So, this is the newest version of the GREAT STRENGTH BUILD, which has the goal of gaining the highest possible Strength. While this doesn't necessarily have to be usable, and in fact will probably not be optimal, this build is for the fun of having your DM look at you and raise an eyebrow at your massive ability score.

Now, without further ado, the current build. (This assumes that Dragon Disciple advances Bloodrager Bloodlines).

Aasimar (Angelkin) Crossblooded Abyssal Draconic Bloodrager 16/Ragechemist Alchemist 2/Dragon Disciple 4 (You must also become a Werewolf for the full bonuses)

This ends up giving you the following:

Base 20
+6 Racial (from rolling on the Blood of Angels random table)
+5 Level (from leveling)
+6 Inherent (From either the Abyssal or Orc bloodline, gained from Eldritch Heritage)
+6 Alchemical (From Ragechemist Mutagen)
+6 Enhancement (From Belt of Giant Strength)
+15 Morale (Abyssal Bloodline 20, augmented by a +4 Furious Courageous Weapon)
+2 Profane (from either Demonic Obedience (Angazhan) or a Succubus Profane Gift)
+10 or +8 (from Form of the Dragon III or II respectively, II being gained from Crossblooded)
+6 Untyped (from Dragon Disciple and Demonic Obedience (Jezelda).

This gives you a fully buffed Strength Score of 80, not assuming any 1 round buffs like Moment of Greatness. With Moment of Greatness, a Blood Resorvoir's secondary function being used, and sacrificing an Enhance Form (Body) wordspell, you can boost this further to reach 101 Strength! (for one round).

So, does anyone have any other ideas to boost this further?

Don't let the title scare you off :P

All this is is taking the progression from the recommended wealth for NPCs, and changing it into percentages. One question I do have about this data is how this applies to actual PC wealth? Do you find that this fits the standard PC wealth curve or is it drastically off?

But first, to the data: (you can see the excel sheet on Googledocs here: NPC wealth table

The percentages are reproduced here in spoilers.

Highest: 51% at Level 7
Average: 36%
Lowest: 19% at Level 1

Highest: 50% at Level 1
Average: 33%
Lowest: 25% at Level 21(Heroic)

Highest: 29% at Level 19
Average: 16% (This does not ignore that it recommends 0 for the first 7 levels
Lowest: 0% at Level 1-7

Highest: 15% at Level 1
Average: 10%
Lowest: 6% at Level 4

Highest: 26% at Level 2
Average: 6%
Lowest: 1% at Level 15, 16, 21

---

So, any comments or thoughts on this?

So, this is an attempt to make a workable build with a massive strength score. To do this, I plan to take a combination of Improved Eldritch Heritage (Orc/Abyssal for +6 inherent) and Dragon Disciple (+4 untyped), to get a base strength score of 40. (starting 19+6 enhancement+6 inherent+ 4 untyped+5 level)

So the main problem with the build at the moment is that I don't have a good way to apply this strength. I plan to be grabbing a casting class to eventually get Form of the Dragon III and various other Polymorph spells, unfortunately those only last minutes/level. So what do you guys recommend for me to do for otherwise?

The current build is planned to be Ranger 2/Sorcerer or Wizard(?) 14/Dragon Disciple 4.

Ranger 2 is to take Aspect of the Beast for permanent claws, however that causes me to lose access to 9th-level spells unless I go Wizard, and I'd prefer to go Sorc for Charisma synergy.

Any ideas to make this worthwhile?

EDIT: More details:

Ability Scores: 25 point buy, starting level 6

STR: 20(+2 racial, +1 level), DEX 12, CON 12, INT 12, WIS 11, CHA 14.
Race: Human, with Skill Focus replacing the standard bonus feat.

So I need a way to fill out the final two levels of my gestalt character, which is as follows:

Primal Host 20 (a 3rd-party class, suffice it to say that it gives me several natural attacks and some other miscellaneous bonuses)
Thug Rogue 3 (for Brutal Beating and extended shaken length)
Knight of the Sepulchur Antipaladin 15 (for immunity to fatigue and defensive abilities, in addition to Smite Good and Cruelties)

As is evidenced by the Antipaladin levels, this is an evil character, current LE, though he'll shift over to CE by the time he starts Antipaladin.

So basically, what would be the best 2 level dip for a natural attack focused Intimidate build?

Dot of the Watching Eye

Discussion Thread for everything you guys may need to discuss.

Remember, the eye is watching.

Rappan Athuk? Bah! No one gets out of that place alive!”

Rappan Athuk, a dungeon of legend.
Rappan Athuk, a stronghold of evil.
Rappan Athuk, Dungeon of Graves.

This is your formal invitation to join an expedition into the wilds, to seek treasure, glory, and whatever else you desire. In the service of a king, your have been tasked with exploring the area around the mystical complex, and perhaps even delving deep within to discover what is actually down there.

A megadungeon that has existed for centuries, Rappan Athuk has had a long time to become crowded with various creatures and individuals, filling the many floors of the dungeon to the brim with everything from trolls, to an evil cult, a plague, and everything inbetween. So what do you say? Care to join the expedition and defy the party-crushing dungeon that is Rappan Athuk? Or do you seek safer grounds to explore in, ones with much less risk of death, or fates much worse than that?

Will you delve into the heart of evil?

---

This is going to be a long-running Pathfinder campaign, run by me. I’m already running this megadungeon for one other party, and I can say that this world is something to behold. Mystery, intrigue, fey, druids, undead. You can find all this, and more!

But first, a few ground rules for both character creation and party cohesion.
-Characters will be built at 1st Level with a 20 point buy. PCs begin with max starting wealth. This campaign is expected to reach 20th level. (eventually).
-Characters are preferred to be some form of Good or Neutral alignment. Evil alignments are allowed only if:
a) The rest of the party agrees to allow it.
b) You convince me.
c) You will not seek to overly disrupt for "the evuls."
-4-6 PCs will be selected for this campaign, depending on the amount of applicants and my preferences.
-You’ll be starting at an inn in Zelkor’s Ferry, a hamlet within the wilds surrounding Rappan Athuk. I highly recommend pre-planning backstories to some degree, as you all have been part of the same party since accepting the contract.
-The campaign will be hosted via the site Roll20, a virtual tabletop. It'll use the pdf maps and such to ensure accuracy to the dungeon, rather than my horrendous drawings. I'll be using drawings, and will be enforcing movement rules during combat. Out of combat it will be done via marking cleared rooms and such.
-Any other questions, direct to the GM.

One other warning, Rappan Athuk cares not for “level-appropriate encounters”. The PCs can run into encounters that they have extremely low chances of winning. Traps can be lethal, with at least one responsible for multiple TPKs over the years.

Second warning, Rappan Athuk is not guaranteed to be winnable. The final encounter is one that is legendary, claimed to be unwinnable by many. However, should you succeed, you can be catapulted into glory for defeating this incredible encounter.

How do you guys run a Succubus' Energy Drain? Should it just be realized after the first, with a failed Will save on the Suggestion effect making it unable to be told to the rest of the party?

So, I've been running Rappan Athuk, and have found that (at least some) of the encounters throw the PCs against large groups of enemies, (an example being a nest of spiders that ended up being 17 versus 6.)

I was wondering if other GMs had experience working with these kinds of encounters, and whether adjusting them so that they functioned as a Troop would work better, due to less time needed for me to resolve the enemies' turn? Or are there other ideas that can help with running these?

EDIT: Is there anything else to run large groups of enemies quickly?

So, I've been requested by one of my players to try designing a 1-20 Angel Class, in an attempt to create a cool class that is also fairly balanced.

I think what I want to do is start with a Cleric basis, that way the 9-level spells are preserved. Spell-like abilities would be heavily limited, akin to domains... Probably going to remove the DR and potentially decrease the Fly speed?

Items that can be pulled out of the Cleric design: Channel Energy, spontaneous casting, Domains.

Would a scaling flight speed that comes online about the time that Fly becomes available be good?

Domains could be edited somewhat to grant some abilities that are Angel-iconic, with the same availability? Granting some spells as Spell-likes?

Spontaneous casting: Not sure how to replace this or what to replace it with. Potentially also in the cost of Flight?

So, I'm having trouble designing a cleric that can perform archery decently well and also be a decent healer.

The build has to start at 5th level, and it can be most any race.

So, I'm planning to be running Rappan Athuk with my group soon, with one twist.

Every time they die they will reincarnate into one of a set of preselected races. These will all be monster races, or ones that are generally rejected by society.

Now, here's the question: Which races should I pick?

So far I'm thinking: Goblin, Hobgoblin, Kobold, Gillmen, Grippli, Orc(?), and any others that you guys suggest.

Any ideas?

Do they get those slots and spells, or not?

EDIT: This is from the Prestige Class type of advancement, not Cleric.

Channel Hellfire

At 2nd level, a diabolist can alter spells that deal energy damage to instead deal hellfire damage. She can do this as a free action a number of times per day equal to her Charisma modifier (minimum 1). Spells altered to use hellfire gain the lawful and evil descriptors.

---

So, 2nd level Diabolist gets this lovely power. Does this help mitigate weaknesses of Sorcerer builds that focus on blasting? You don't even lose out on your spell progression, about the only thing missing is that your bloodlines get slowed down.

Any ideas on how good this is? (and if it's resisted?)

EDIT: Found context for what Hellfire damage is: Hellfire Trap

Possibly good? You end up halving your damage against Fire-immune foes (assuming you're using something like Fireball), but you can keep advancing it?

Do you have to spend one use of Dimension Door if you make multiple teleports during the Full-Attack Action?

EDIT: Replace one use with additional uses.

So, one thing that I'm puzzled at is what kind of targets should melee try to reach. What's a good target for AC, to hit, damage, at each level?

So, I'm planning on starting up a sandbox campaign soon, and I'm wondering about how other GMs have handled making these. What do you start with? How do you decide what to make?

Mostly I'm just fishing for ideas here. I'm borrowing heavily from the Kingmaker ideas, but I want to completely homebrew this adventure rather than just take the hexmap from another book, and since I really want to tailor this to the PCs and create an adventure they'll like.

My current ideas involve the following:

So, the political system I think would end up being similar to Skyrim's methinks. Multiple smaller Kings, each in a coalition that elects a High King from among their people. The PCs are adventurers that have been tasked with taking a new area back from the wilds that surround the empire that the Kings control. Whether or not they end up being part of this empire once they've begun their kingdom is up to them.

However, the area is not very hospitable to them. Although once inhabited by people, the area was overrun in a bloody conflict, resulting in the destruction of the kingdom that was once there. The expedition then, also has a second purpose, which is to discover more of the details about what destroyed that kingdom.

Some hardy folk will have set up isolated camps, perhaps one or two that are on the eastern side of the kingdom. Very small, these areas are constantly harassed by the monsters that lie within, and have become some sort of bulwark against the creatures that lie within. Perhaps the first real quests could be trying to clear out these areas, and allowing the party to create a "base" within these bulwarks so that they can return and report their findings.

As to what destroyed the kingdom, I'm still unsure about that. I'm not wanting to bring in something extraplanar that much, so perhaps some sort of Lich or some evil spellcaster?

The actual environment I'm not sure about how large it will be, (that's something I could use some help figuring out). This will be more on the northwest, and perhaps will border northern seas. At some point this campaign could stretch into the more arctic reaches, but the main settlements will be in a semi-temperate zone (almost like the middle of Canada environment maybe?), which makes it somewhat difficult. If I make it the more northern kingdom, then I can also try to keep outside politics to a minimum, as the main kingdom will serve as a bulwark between the party and the south. (Perhaps later on that could become relevant, but not initially).

In either case, any other cool ideas that I could steal borrow and make it more awesome :)

So, I'm just looking for a review of this creature that I'm designing as for how threatening you'd consider it.

He's supposed to be a fairly effective switch-hitter, using both martial and magic to deal damage. As well, he'll also use Metamagic'd Scorching Ray to deal even more damage from range, or when he can't full-attack.

EDIT: As well, he has a single Mythic Tier, which he's using for Mythic Weapon Finesse.

Quite simply, I'm wondering how much experience people have had with this archetype. It does seem like it could take up a lot of time, and also would cut into the combat section of the Broodmaster.

You do get two Eidolons by default, but how effective are they as you go up in level? You do get more at certain breakpoints, but how do that work out?

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCombat/variants/armorAsDamageRed uction.html

What's the general idea for these rules? I'd like to hear what people have done with this system, and just some general experience with the system in comparison to the normal AC system.

(I'm using this in conjunction with the Wounds and Vigor system, so that should be taken into account to some degree)

So I'm thinking about crafting a homebrew campaign for Dark Souls, with the following stipulations.

No Magic beyond 4th-level, and using one of Dark Lincoln's houserules to eliminate a lot of the true magic items.

No crafting feats, or Leadership.

Starting level is I dunno...

I'm mostly looking for advice of how to create the various bosses mostly. I could potentially look for analogues in the Bestiary, or I could try homebrewing some of my own...

Well, here goes nothing.

I'm wanting to make a Kobold character. Doesn't matter what, as long as it's on the d20pfsrd.

I'm wanting to lean away from magic as well, more wanting to try and play a Kobold that wants to be seen as a great warrior, despite his small size and lack of strength. Ambitious? I want to see how well we can do with him.

First: 22 point buy, starting at Level 6 with full WBL

Second: Must be Melee-oriented. (I will go archer if no other choice... but no spells)

So, what's the real effectiveness of this class?

Extra money is the first thing that comes to mind. The second is specializing into the party face, as a weaker Fighter type that has more money.

You get Leadership for free, and you also get a more effective Cohort at 7th level that has to take NPC classes.

Overall, two main followers, one of which has to take NPC classes and is two levels below you. As well, it could be an effective Skill-focused build, and 3 bonus feats from a specific list.

You don't have to actually spend money to pay for lifestyle and such after 4th level...

You loose three points of BaB, but the additional Will can help counterbalance your saves.

It seems to be an excellent party face though.

I'm a new DM, trying to craft a new boss-type character that will provide a challenge to my group of seven PCs...

The main trouble is trying to determine how tough to actually make the boss tough without making him a party-destroyer.

My main concept was more or less a boss that focused on parries and using some spell-like abilities to improve that. I'm still interested in how the NPC rules work for boss enemies, and that would be what I'm wanting to make.