Haughty Avenger

WolfRitter's page

17 posts (18 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 1 alias.



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So here's one of my problems with 2E. I don't like systems that make me feel trapped to one generic method of play for a given character class or type. I remember Paizo saying they would not be abandoning allowing to you to customize your character. With the playtest I don't see this as an true statement on their part at least from the current rules we have in front of us.

To give but one glaring example in PF2E Golarian is being baked into the core books, but herein lies a problem. Paladin's are supposed to be champions of their deity, I know Paizo says they want to look at removing the alignment limitation but traditionally these have been Lawful Good ones and most playtesters (and people in general because it's part of the cultural zeitgeist) are going to default to Lawful Good. But let's look at the three LG Deities presented: Erastil, Iomedae, and Torag. What are their favored weapons? For Torag it's a warhammer, for Iomedae a longsword, and for Erastil it's a longbow.

Champions of deities with ranged favored weapons can not comprehensively incorporate that weapon into their fighting style. This would be one thing if only the Divine Archer archetype could do that in PF1, but no, a Paladin built solely on the CRB could effectively wield a longbow as their weapon of choice without it significantly impacting the utility of their class abilities.

I don't like that because I've been playing D&D Pathfinder long enough that playing a stereotype as your only option gets boring real quick. It is, in fact, the reason why I was so absolutely disappointed in Starfinder after being so hyped about it, I was looking forward to basically playing a ranged Solarion, but that's basically impossible to pull off because of both the system and class design. And Starfinder had left me leery of PF2, because like Saga Edition was a test of rules later utilized in 4E (though better conceived in that case) I dreaded Starfinder was a prelude to PF2E; likewise, PF2E has left me disillusioned with Paizo's design philosophy as a whole because as is often the case I really regret that my concerns bear out. I hate being right.

If I wanted to play a system that favored streamlining over character options I'd just play 4E or 5E. And I get it, Paizo's not a cooperative, it has a legal obligation to maximize their investor's share values, which can't be done if all your consumers already bought your core products a decade ago and only buy a new copy when that one wears out. But I'd at least have thought, given how Paizo and Pathfinder became what they are, they'd be leery of treading down the same path Wizards did for the same reason. History may not repeat itself exactly, but it does often rhyme.


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So of the few and great responses I've gotten the main issue seems to be lack of system knowledge and a potential rebuild. I'm not really familiar with Barbarian all that much (I've been playing for 3.x/Pathfinder for 15yrs now but never played a Barbarian) but I'm going to check some optimization guides on it, Fighter's not that hard to optimize. Failing that are there any other classes you guys would suggest that are easier for the Barbarian to handle that would compliment the party? This would be the second time we did a rebuild for him; the first time he played a druid which I advised the GM to suggest something a little less complicated.

Kalindlara wrote:
As others have said, you're not even aggressively optimizing and you're still crushing it, as any paladin would do in WotR. Send your GM around and I'll see if I can't offer him some aid.

Will do, in conjunction with trying a rebuild.


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So my GM and I have run into a point of contention amongst each other. He's convinced I'm overpowered. So here's the basic stats I'm working off of with 4d6 drop the lowest (GM oversaw all player rolls):

Stats:
Paladin 9
Dual Path Guardian-Marshal 3
Str 18
Dex 14
Con 16
Int 14
Wis 16
Cha 20 (22 with Headband of Alluring Charisma)

We're in Wrath of the Righteous in book 3 and...

Wrath Spoilers:
I've gotten Armor of the Pious and Radiance and we're Demon's Heresy exploring the lands around Drezen.

This means at it's 1-2 encounters before an eight hour rest. I've been able to jack up my AC to 28 with Shield Focus, Amulet of Natural Armor +2, and Ring of Protection.

To give an idea of the rest of the party everyone is level 9 and all Tier 3 Mythics and they are:
Paladin of Iomedae (Myself)
Fighter (Champion)
Rogue-Sniper (Trickster)
Cleric of Sarenrae (Hierophant)
Gunslinger (Trickster)
Barbarian (Dual Path Champion-Guardian)

Now the GM is concerned that I'm outshining the rest of the party. Myself and the Rogue have worked out a 1-2 punch combo (I'm going to use damage averages) wherein I use Flames of Entanglement and Clarion Call in conjunction with Smite Evil and Vital Strike (Mythic). So I average 39 (4.5+6+9 multiplied by 2 since Smite doesn't count as precision damage per RAW) with this my rotation is Vital Smite (as I've come to call it) burning a mythic for Clarion Call to give everyone within 30ft my Smite and then burning another Mythic to use Amazing Initiative for another hit of 19.5 damage for a total of 58.5 (76.5 v Evil Dragons, Outsiders, and Undead)with an alpha strike. After that I burn a third Mythic Point to activate Decisive Strike which I typically give to the Rogue. The Flames of Entanglement flat-foot a target for at least one round even if they make it so the Rogue is doing 1d8(4.5)+6+9+5d6(17.5) for an average of 37 points of damage as well.

This typically sets the Rogue up for his rotation to sneak attack with glee. Especially since he has a Legendary Item Longbow which has two Scorching Rays prepared so his own Alpha consists of Scorching Ray+Sneak Attack due to flat-footed and Amazing Initiative for a second Sneak Attack and then Surprise Strike for a total of 8d6(28)+5d6 (17.5), 1d8(4.5)+6+5d6(17.5)+9, and 1d8(4.5)+6+5d6(17.5)+9 for a total average of 119.5. He complained (correctly) that against a Woundwyrm we did more than 200 points of damage between us.

We didn't intend this, this happened ad hoc (I literally didn't learn about Fires of Entanglement until last night and he'd forgotten about every spell he gave his bow until last night), we've been playing the campaign for almost a year now and the Rogue only began a couple months ago. Even our Gunslinger is getting in on the action as she gives up her damage to flat-foot enemies all the time.

Now my argument is that due to the specific situation we're in (again 1-2 encounters/in-game day) we can afford to burn Mythic Points and Smites like they're going out of style, but I know that in this campaign that's set to change soon. It's also 1-2 monsters per encounter erring towards 1. Both myself and the Rogue are of the opinion it's the way it is because we're paying more attention to how the rules work than most of the group.

His argument (which is fair) is that we only run into evil creatures in this campaign simply due to where it's set (not entirely true, since we fought some elementals and if it weren't for Divine Grace and my AC I'd have been totally useless as I was doing 2-9 points of damage per round. His biggest concern is how I outshine the Fighter and the Barbarian. The Barbarian I don't feel is a fair comparison because he's being played by an 11-year old who doesn't fully grasp the rules, for example in the Staunton Vhane fight he tried to imitate me by charging past the half-fiend minotaurs that I only made it past because of a high AC (26 at the time), he was running in at around 40hp an AC around 20-ish and unluckily got critted by both's AoO. The Fighter is having problems because of her will save, she's been mind controlled at least half a dozen times and locked down entirely due to insanity inducing effects even more, in the past three weeks we've had eight encounters and she's done 0 damage due to it; now I've mentioned to the GM that it's a matter of how the rest of the party spends their money when they have the chance, rather than buying a Cracked Amber Spindle Ioun Stone or a better Cloak of Resistance they're spending it on their weapons, which is a valid choice but does still leave their vulnerabilities unaddressed. Her average hit is 1d12(6.5)+11 and averaging 35 with a Vital Strike with the same Amazing Initiative and Champion's Strike options open to her, so she has a potential of 70 points with her own Alpha. Another thing she's not taking advantage of is her Shield Proficiencies, she's a two-handed Fighter but she could still use a buckler and hasn't taken that option.

That probably sums up my issue with being accused of being overpowered, yes, my character is especially suited to the campaign I'm in, but the other players have options available to them to utilize which they don't and myself and the Rogue do. Am I right? Wrong? Am I overpowered or am I just utilizing my options better? If you think I'm right, what can I do to convince my GM. If you think I'm wrong, please help me understand his argument better.