I have a problem to understand how this feat works.
I'm playing a half-orc hunter with a companion.
Hunter tactics allows me to give my teamwork feats to my companion :
Hunter Tactics (Ex): At 3rd level, the hunter automatically grants her teamwork feats to her animal companion. The companion doesn't need to meet the prerequisites of these teamwork feats.
And i took Horde Charge as my lvl 3 teamwork feat :
Horde Charge (Teamwork) (advanced race guide)
When you charge with an ally, you are more deadly.
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +1, half-orc or orc.
Benefit: When charging during the same round as an ally with this feat, you gain a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls in addition to the normal bonus for charging. If you can make multiple attacks on a charge, this bonus only applies to the first attack.
So my question is :
If i am first to charge and my companion second, do i get benefit from horde charge feat ? Or do i always have to be second to charge to get it ?
The hunter is a good 5th or 6th character, someone you won't pick in your team unless you have all other jobs already filled.
This class have two main problems : he uses weapons but have 3/4 BAB, he casts spells but his DC is too low and he get spells too late for their levels.
With 3/4 BAB, using weapons is not a good idea, except if you can buff yourself. Cleric and bard spell lists are full of buffs to increase to hit chances of the caster, druid spell lists doesn't. The hunter have no way to increase his to hit chances. He's ok against low AC opponents but as soon as you meet opponents with high AC, the hunter becomes less useful in fight, and he can't rely on his spells to do damage.
druid spell list contains lot of utility spells, some defensive buffs and damage. It doesn't contain a lot of offensive buff to increase to hit chances (only cat's grace and aspect of the wolf and both overwrite animal focus limiting this class feature).
Damage spells need a high DC to not be resisted, but with 6/9 spellcasting, this class doesn't really work as spell blaster.
Utility spells are nice in combat and outside combat, best part of the spellcasting of this class.
animal companion :
main feature of the hunter is the pet, but this one is the same as druid one, or the one of a ranger using boon companion. If the hunter's pet dies, hunter lose more than half of his class features for 24h. And actually, the pet of the hunter can't survive 2 rounds of fighting is opponent is hitting the pet, the pet survability should be increased to be more on par with an eidolon.
precise companion :
we found this class feature useless, if other member(s) of the group go to melee, you have to take precise shot, if noone else goes to melee, the animal companion will not survive and you won't need precise companion.
animal focus :
duration is too low, if you use this feature to increase your skills, it doesn't last long enough to help : want to climb a wall or a mountain ? want to swim in the sea ? want to scout the dungeon cloaked by stealth ? forget animal focus, it doesn't last long enough.
This ability really need another type of bonus to not see this ability ruined by the few buff druid spell list contains, or by magical items.
We like the idea of this ability, but actually we found it not as effective as it could be : bonus too low, wrong bonus type, duration too low for the skills bonus. It can help but it's really situational. The hunter doesn't have a lot of class abilities, each one should count and not became obsolete once you get a magic item or when you cast a spell. Yes you can switch to another bonus but the higher level you become, the more magic items become powerful and overwrite this ability, same for spells.
woodland stride :
we always wonder why a ranger, a druid and now a hunter who spent all their life in desert, who never put a feet in a forest, have this ability. We would have prefered something like :
"choose one terrain from the ranger favored terrain list, when you are in this terrain, ignore difficult terrain".
dead levels :
hunter was the only class in this playtest that got 2 levels with nothing new or upgraded (level 4 and lvl 10).
We liked the idea of this class, the feeling, but there is something missing : a better pet (able to survive more than 2 rounds), an ability to increase his to hit chances or the DC of his spells. Actually, we see no reason to take a hunter over an archer druid (who got the same pet, better spellcasting, same to hit chances, better versatility with more spells, higher lvl spells and wildshape) or a ranger with boon companion (better to hit chances, spells with utility and buffs offensive and defensive, better hps, less spellcasting but more versatility).
Slayer:
We found no real problem with this class (maybe open all rogue and ninja talents to slayer), the player had so much fun playtesting this class that he wants to switch his character in our adventure path for a slayer.
Warpriest:
We found only two problems with the warpriest : sacred weapon damage and blessings.
Sacred weapon damage is nice if you use a light or one handed weapon. If you use a two-hand weapon, it's useless : for example, the greatsword got nothing from this ability up to level 20 while a dagger will see its damage upgraded from level 1.
In our playtest, we stopped at lvl 12 and player took elven curved blade. With a weapon using 1d10 damage, he never had an upgrade and he would have to wait for lvl 15.
If you have a class ability, you should be able to use it when you get it, not 20 levels later.
Actually, this ability says : do not use two-handed weapons if you play a warpriest.
Blessings
why do they exist ? Why do not just give warpriest access to domains and subdomains instead ?
Some blessings offer something new compare to domains, but mostly they are fas way below in utility, versatility and power.
small problem : healing with fervor.
In all the playtest, the player never used fervor to heal, the amount healed is too low to be useful : for example at 11, warpriest got 4d6 (average 14), not even half the damage done in one hit by monsters and npcs at this level. Maybe if fervor adds warpriest level, or be like lay of hands : 1d6 per two levels.
The player had lot of fun playing this class, and it proved far more useful than first version.
Nice class except blessings.
Bloodrager:
The player wanted to make a bloodrager resilient to spells so he took dwarf, steel soul, the bloodline destined and feats to resist spells and this worked well (against spells he add +10 to REF and WILL saving throws, and +8 to FOR saving throws).
Blood Sanctuary :
"due to the power of his blood, a bloodrager can stand confidently amid the effects of spells cast by himself or his allies."
A flat +2 bonus doesn't work to help the bloodrager to stand confidently amid the effects of spells. In our test, this ability never helped, either the DC is too high to succeed, or the bloodrager had high enough saves to ignore the +2 bonus.
Area effect spells target mostly either will or reflex. For the few which target fortitude, bloodrager already have Fort as good save + high Con. For the ones which target Will, bloodrage/greater bloodrage/mighty bloodrage give a bonus to help to resist. But for the one which target Ref, the bloodrager have nothing and a flat +2 is not enough.
This ability could be change for good Ref save and evasion or get a bonus scaling with level.
Bloodlines :
As previous version, bloodlines are not balanced, some are strong or versatile, while other are weak (yes fey bloodline, we re talking about you).
Spell list :
This spell list is full of damage spells but this class is not designed for damage spells, really low DC, no way to bypass SR and got access to spells too late.
One way to help could be to have more spells without save and with touch or range touch attack roll.
Lot of nice utility spells mostly useful in combat mainly and not a lot of them useful outside combat (and bloodrager got them late).
With low DC, this class needs more utility/buffs spells.
This class is nice, fun but looks like too much like the barbarian. Uncanny dodge, improved uncanny dodge, DR could be removed and replace for something else (maybe evasion, improved evasion).
The main problem of this class in our test was the spell list. The spell list should be changed for more utility/buff spells and less damage spells.
We would have prefered to not have a specific spell list and instead have to choose our spells in 2 or 3 schools from wizard/sorcerer. This would have open more flexibility when creating bloodragers and two bloodragers would be totally differents (different bloodline, different spell list).
preamble :
For one week, none of us read this forum to not be influenced by what other people can post.
We played this playtest as a mini adventure path with scenarios at level 3, 5, 7, 9 and 12.
Characters were created as level 3 PCs, we choose 2 bloodragers, one warpriest and one skald for the test.
lvl 3 scenario:
PCs are living in a small group of houses, that you can hardly call a village, not far from a big town. This village is full of foresters and their family. For several days, a group of bandits decided to attack all merchants moving through the forest and cut the road between the town and PCs' village. Many supplies are running out, so the PCs decided to investigate and put a stop to the activity of this group of bandits.
After several days of search in the forest, they found one group of bandits. After a fight against enemies hidden in trees or behind bushes, they interrogated prisoners. They learned that this group is just part of a bigger group living in a cave. They walked there and eliminated the bandits in this dungeon of 4 rooms. They found evidences that this group is lead by someone hidden in the ghost market and that this bandits orders are to cut commercial roads to the nearby town and make city guard patrols run out of town as often as possible, but no fight against city guards.
PCs decided to go to town to learn more about this ghost market and the leader.
lvl 5 scenario:
Once in town, PCs decided to be separated in two groups to learn informations : one went to the city guard, showed the evidence found in the cave, other group investigated in town, talked to people to understand how works underground market in this town (maybe ghost market is just the name of the underground market in this town).
They both learned that the ghost market is really the name of the underground market and even found someone ready to show them entrance to the market for a "fair" price.
Once inside the ghost market, they investigated to find the boss of the bandits, missed some social interactions with NPCs and fought several fights they could have avoided but they found the location of the boss. they fought him and his minions.
Once captured, he explained he's working for 3 merchants who want to make a coup and take power. While the PCs are bringing him to the city guard, they walked near the river which runs in middle of the town. The boss jumped in water and disappeared under water. As no PCs took ranks in swim, they watched him swim, cursed against themselves and decided to investigate the 3 merchants case.
lvl 7 scenario:
The PCs decided to visit the houses of the merchants, where they work and to follow the merchants for one week. They began by following the merchants and found nothing, then they visited the storehouses (6 small dungeons of 3 rooms with no real dangers) and found nothing. So they decided to visit the 3 houses in the same night to prevent warning between the merchants.
They visited the first house (dungeon of 10 rooms, full of traps), this house is just a decoy for enemies of the merchant. They found the real house (dungeon of 4 rooms) but no evidence or information.
Second house (dungeon of 8 rooms) was a piece of cake, no real guards but still no evidence of information.
Third house was harder (dungeon of 6 rooms). This merchant have human guards and undead ones with a necromancer wizard as chief of security. The necromancer, once captured, explained that he didn't know anything about this coup, but that his employer talked about something big in two days when the night falls. PCs went to bed, they decided to explain all this to the city guard in the afternoon.
lvl 9 scenario:
After sleeping, the PCs walked in the streets to the city guard building when they heared shouts and cry. They ran and found a troll, 3 city guards dead and people injured. They attacked the troll. After the fight, they learned that around 20 trolls are free in the city and destroying everything, killing people as if under rage. The PCs ran through the whole city, fighting trolls all day long and most part of the night. In the morning, they decided to investigate this attack on the city and begant to collect informations about spellcasters with enough power to charm trolls. They found that outside the necromancer they already fought, only 3 spellcasters are powerful enough to be responsibles of this attack, but none is strong enough to have done this alone.
After research, they found where this spellcasters are hidden (dungeon of 6 rooms), fought them and discovered that this spellcasters used the trolls as a decoy to prevent city guard to act while they tried a coup against the noble leading the city. The spellcasters wanted to prevent the noble to join church of asmodeus, to sacrifice innocents and to open a portal to Hells.
lvl 12 scenario:
With this knowledge, and the information learned from the necromancer, the PCs went to rest to get their spells back and attacked the noble castle to stop opening of the portal before the night. The final battle was a big battle royal with the PCs, the noble and his guards, clerics of asmodeus and devils who entered this plane through the portal, and the merchants and their payed assassins. Every group fought all other groups and fights went to all rooms of the castle.
At the end of the fight, PCs had closed the portal, killed the noble, the clerics of asmodeus, put under arrest one merchant (others were dead), created an office of mayor and ran away of this corrupted city to go back to their village and back to their family and peaceful life.
Nice class but which caster level is a bloodrager ? As this class seems to work like paladin and ranger, we ruled its caster level to be bloodrager level - 3. We haven't found if bloodragers can cast spells out of bloodrage, so we ruled they can.
Bloodlines are good, except some are weaker than others. Fey bloodline is clearly under-powered with other bloodlines (check lvl 8 ability and arcane bloodline lvl 4 ability as an example). Bloodlines should be revamped to be around same power.
Bloodragers should be able to forget some spells and learn new ones maybe every 3 or 4 levels after 4th.
Bloodragers have a problem with their spells : not enough out of combat ones, while combat ones are not that great to use. If bloodragers could have something like spellstrike from magus, or something like blessing of rune (spell-storing weapon) from warpriest usable 3 + cha bonus per day, it would resolve their problem.
Bloodragers don't really need DR, uncanny dodge, improved uncanny dodge, they have spells way better than this abilities. We think they should be traded for blessing of rune (spell-storing weapon) from warpriest.
Warpriest
Hum ... warpriest seems like a cleric under anti-steroids : traded spells for feats, channel energy is too weak to heal people and to damage undeads, lvl 10 blessings need more diversity (our warpriest took erastil and all lvl 10 blessings are the same : battle companion; animal, good, law, plant got the same one).
If warpriest are losing spells, channel energy and got domain-like blessings but with less diversity, they should get full BAB for the favored weapon of their god and/or spontaneous casting in addition of the feats.
Other than that, the class seems to do its job, weaker than a cleric, but still works. If the class go to print like that, no one in our group will play it and will play a crusader cleric instead.
Skald
Nice archetype for the bard, but not that great as a new class. We still are trying to find what this class brings that a bard doesn't.
Skald need a new list of weapons usable, the one they have actually feels too much like bard and not enough like barbarian (a skald with a rapier or a whip ??? please no).
Giving rage powers to other people is nice but choice is limited, new rage powers usable by skald could be useful.
How works raging song with bloodrage ?
Other abilities of skald work nicely.
This playtest took 5 evenings and we stopped our test at 12, so we can't talk about high levels and capstone. sorry.
Hello,
i ordered The Shackled City Adventure Path Hardcover Book —Non-Mint.
I received the box yesterday and found the book inside, but i wasn't able to find the booklet with the maps of dungeons or the 8-panels map of Cauldron.
Is it normal ? If no, how can i get them ?
After Age of Worms being a "low wealth adventure path", i hope this AP will be more "normal wealth adventure path".
In our group we were playing AoW in FR and being 10th level and getting wealth of a 5th level character is awful when you have to deal with NPCs outside AP.
Sunder weapons or shields of foes is a no-way tactic as we don't find so often magic items, and our foes spend time trying to sunder ours.
