Yggdra's page

Hello, I had a quick question.

If an enemy is under the effect of a Court Bard's Satire performance, and they confirm a crit, does the penalty apply multiple times (twice for x2 weapon, thrice for x3, etc)?

Yggdra wrote:

I'm crazy-excited about this. However, I find the blatant lack of Mafdet in this list sorely disappointing.

I'd say it's because of the Maftets, but they've certainly split hairs with spellings before.

Oh, poo. I guess you have a point, there. I can totally see a Mafdet cleric, though, slaying enemies of the king (or whomever liege lord they serve), cutting out their heart and sending it back to them. Travel, Law, Nobility type domains. /sigh Oh well. :)

(I wonder about the Advanced Classes like the Skald and the Swashbuckler. Gives me some hope they'll change some words there in the finalization..)

My apologies for the double-post.

No... like the rigidity of Egyptian life, the pantheon was set there to help the people. Set, once the god handling the outside world, turned evil after a big invasion attempt, as I understand it.

Set was actually just a god of change. Chaos is just the force of change. Where there is change, that is chaos. Destruction is the beginning of the cycle of life, etc. Set actually works toward maintaining the balance of Ma'at and upon sunrise, slays the demon A-pep. (That's why the sunrise has red, it was supposed to be the serpent's blood)

Yeah, like Sissyl said, there just aren't a lot of evil entities in the various incarnations of the Egyptian pantheon. Even Set, in some interpretations, isn't necessarily evil, it's pretty much just Apep (and some smaller weaker entities that would probably "just" be Demigods in Pathfinder). The Egyptian gods existed in their culture mostly to teach and oversee orderly conduct, the ancient Egyptians didn't have as much in the way of sweeping drama plays involving light vs. dark, good vs. evil, and that sort of thing.

I think Block Knight's got it pretty right here. Just wanted to add that A-pep wasn't a god, though. Was seen as a demon "of sorts". It is un-creation, the exact opposite of Ma'at. It doesn't destroy, it negates. And it was FAR from a god.

I'm crazy-excited about this. However, I find the blatant lack of Mafdet in this list sorely disappointing.

Can we stop getting stuck with ugly yellow polyhedrons? Ugh... Let's think of some color combinations that don't involve dice being yellow.

Congrats, Mike - You've more than earned it.

Aww... No Shattered Star dice?

I don't like this at all, and you caught me on a "terrible, awful, no-good, very bad day." Let's break this down in order... Hmm..

If you want to go the Traditional Bard route, your main job is to support and buff the party. Playing Bardarian Smash isn't ideal with a vanilla/Archetypeless bard. There are some Archetypes for being a combat-oriented bard, and if you want to be a support melee-combat character, try Cleric! Focusing on learning languages? Play a Gnome with the alternative Racial traits of Gift of Tongues (APG) and Traveller Gnome (APG). Learn 2 languages per Linguistics rank and add +1 to the DC of your language-dependent spells (and playing a bard, that's a good portion of them.)

Even combat-oriented characters don't need to force an 18 STR at level 1. There's a huge trade-off for bumping it up that high, and a traditional bard can't afford to do that.

So, you want to play a half-elf melee bard?

Half-Elf Bard (Dawnflower Dervish Archetype)
Racial:
-Ability score: +2 Dex
-Skill Focus: Intimidate

Str 10
Dex 17 (Add 4th level bonus here)
Con 14
Int 13
Wis 10
Cha 14
Dawnflower Dervish is Dex-based, and quite fun. You'll be in combat, buffing yourself with Battle Dance or allies with your Bardic Performance. You don't NEED high Cha, since you probably won't be playing past 12th. You're not a primary caster, which means you won't be casting Grease, Hideous Laughter, or anything that will require a save form an enemy, so you can afford a lower Cha.

Favored Class: HP preferred, +1 Extra Performance isn't bad, you're a Bard and aren't starving for Skill Points
Deity: Sarenrae (required for Dawnflower Dervish)
Weapon: Scimitar (required to make Dawnflower Dervish work)
Skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Linguistics, Perform(Dance), Spellcraft, Use Magic Device, Escape Artist/Stealth*(or whatever else you want)

Let's talk feats. Arcane Strike sucks. It's not going to qualify you for anything good, and it's not worth taking as a feat because it REALLY doesn't do much. Blech. A lot of the feat chains here really don't pay off well unless you're a Fighter with their insane amount of feats. You won't reach the end of any "good" chains until 9th level, really..
So, if you want to go for a chain, go up the Shatter Defenses chain. But! We can't start the chain at 1st level, so let's take ANTAGONIZE! It's good for you because it will bring your enemies closer and you can use your move action to start your Dervish Dance instead of moving closer or charging. At 3rd take Weapon Focus, 5th take Dazzling Display. You can't take Shatter Defenses until 9th, but it's a good feat to try for eventually.

Suggested Traits, in no particular order:
-Maestro of the Society - for those extra rounds of performance! Or, put a Favored Class bonus in this.
-Flame of the Dawnflower - Who doesn't like fire?
-Reactionary - Yay initiative
-Dominator (Balkzen) - Unsure if society-allowed, kinda cheesy and un-fluffy but +2 Intimidate is fun and useful
*-Desert Shadow - Take Stealth instead of Escape Artist for this, not my first choice

Basically, Antagonize enemy, start up Battle Dance, and swing away. Very straightforward.
This is how I'd achieve what you're going for. I play mostly supportive bards, so I tend to go for the Control Bard route (spellcasting-focused, high DCs, etc) but this looks like a nice blend of both worlds, as long as you're wanting to buff the party and not disable the enemy - unless it's with your scimitar! :)
Most importantly, HAVE FUN!

I'm currently playing an Evangelist Cleric of Calistria. (GM allowed me to take Hidden Priest for fluff) For my cleric, I figured might as well take an Alt Channel ability, since you're already behind for heal ya might as well take half dice for healing and do something better, like Protection Variant for +AC. I'm a terrible forum poster, so this is what I'm playing:

Aasimar Evangelist
Starting stats:
Str: 14
Dex: 10
Con: 14
Int: 10
Wis: 16 (Racial)
Cha: 16 (Racial)

Domain: Really up to you, I took Deception because of fluff reasons.

Alternative Channel: Protection: Heal—Creatures gain a channel bonus to Armor Class until the end of your next turn. Harm—Creatures gain a channel penalty to Armor Class until the end of your next turn.

Feats:
1- Improved Initiative - Go first.
3- Selective Channel (You gain the Channel ability as Evangelist at this level)
5- Quick Channel - You'll need 5 ranks in Knowledge (Religion)
7- Reach Spell

Traits:
Reactionary - Go first.
Your choice - Birthmark is good. I took Dangerously Curious for the UMD as a class skill, but that plays heavily into my fluff.

Weapons: Scorpion whips, deal lethal damage, really not necessary for the character other than having the favored weapon on your person.

Armor: The usual.

Remember, you don't drop spells for heals, so you'll probably need to invest in a wand or scrolls, or at least warn your party you're "not that kind of cleric." I love the Evangelist spontaneous casting spells:
1st -command
2nd -enthrall
3rd -tongues
4th -suggestion
5th -greater command
6th -geas/quest
7th -mass suggestion
8th -sympathy
9th -demand

I went for a supportive build with my Evangelist, to be able to pump out buffs faster instead of being up in the fray trying to trip things. Later in the game, things have more (or no) legs - you're not fighting petty thieves and bandits, you're fighting giant worms and things with multiple legs. Focusing on whip mastery, in my opinion, is a waste.

Oh, it seems to be a bug in Hero Lab. xD I place too much trust in that thing...!

But, thank you for clearing that up, for future reference. Hahah! I thought that it shouldn't matter, though? If you gain Heavy but lose its prerequisite, then you shouldn't be able to use Heavy UNTIL you get Medium, back via feat or whatever. You have the feat, but don't qualify for it, I guess is what I'm tryin' to say? It shouldn't become illegal to combine two archetypes interacting this way, whatever they may be.. I'd just be a lenient DM.

Oh well! :)

Is it possible to take both Evangelist and Hidden Priest archetypes? Hidden priest gives clerics Armor Proficiency (Heavy), while Armor Proficiency (Medium) is lost with Evangelist.

I'm not concerned about the legality of wearing Heavy armor, since Medium Armor Proficiency is lost and thus makes Heavy illegal. Whatever, I'll wear light armor. I wonder if they "officially" modify the same level and interfere with one another.

Can you take both of these archetypes together?

And do they have separate rounds-per-day pools?

"A bard cannot have more than one bardic performance in effect at one time."

This implies that from one source, two bardic performances cannot both be in effect- regardless of whom the targets are. As this was published in the Core book, obviously it must not have had in mind the Court Bard

EDIT: let alone someone attempting to stack it with an Evangelist.

The difference between them is that one is named "Sermonic" and one is named "Bardic". Since two Bardic Performances cannot simultaneously be in effect, I am on the side of the fence that they do stack with one another. Otherwise, why not have the Evangelist "gain the Bardic Performance feature" and limit the performances allowed from there? There is no reason to call it something different.

I see where Mort is coming from, though. "Sermonic Performance: Bardic Performance: Inspire +1" is still "Bardic Performance: Inspire +1" and- if considered that way- should not stack.

The problem is, you're multiclassing for this, and sacrificing a LOT to not have them overlap for a couple rounds. Two separate, non-stacking spellcasting classes and all of the fun sacrifices that comes with multiclassing, AND a feat spent, on top of losing spontaneous healing is plenty in my book to allow a player to swing the board in the party's favor twice as much. It wouldn't get very much out of hand, considering it takes them twice as long to get their Inspire AND Satire bonus increases.