Summoner

baahk36's page

* Pathfinder Society GM. 22 posts. No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 20 Organized Play characters.



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Gozreh has pretty much all my favorite domains. None are necessarily the absolute best but all can be used effectively if you get creative. I also like that they give you options for warpriest or cloistered builds.

Travel-lends itself to either build and lets you get where you need to be when you need to be there. The advanced domain lets you circumvent challenges that might otherwise require a spell slot to get around.

Air-The basic power is just ok but the fact that it has a range of 500 feet certainly makes it interesting. The advanced domain though is great. It makes those times you have to move into a questionable location a lot less risky. Again great for cloistered or warpriest.

Nature-probably better for the warpriest as their more likely to be in a position for the basic domain power to matter. The advanced power is nice just to get your party up and running faster.

Water-at first glance seems lackluster, and is definitely more useful for cloistered clerics. But the basic power is great to use on your allies who can choose to critically fail allowing you to move them in or out of combat as the situation may demand. The advanced power is situational, but as many times as enemies like to throw fire at parties makes it a fun trick to have in your back pocket. Not to mention the number of times I've played adventures where something was hurting down, especially now that create water isn't a cantrip anymore.


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Goblin scoundrel rogue. They specialize in "monster" law filing counter suits for wrongful injury on the behalf of the families of all the monstrous humanoid races that thoughtless adventurers killed without proof or due process. Not above using his rogue skills to plant a little evidence to win his cases.

Make him a razortooth goblin for that winning smile.


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I make them all the time. I'm pretty sure if someone looked at most of my PF1 characters they'd think I was a totally new player. But I've only ever had one character die out of the two dozen plus I've played in either APs or PFS. And I think most people would say they didn't regret having those characters at the table with them.

It is entirely possible to make a non-"optimal" character that is fun to play but who can still meaningfully contribute at the table.

That being said, when you create a character in a system like pathfinder, you should be aware that the math of the system plays a big part in how your character performs. When you are building a character I feel it behooves a player to acknowledge the role the math will affect things at the table. Role playing games contain within them a social contract, sometimes spoken sometimes not, that when we sit at the table we're all there to work together to have a good time playing the game we love.

If a player shows up with a character they built for fun but that is mechanically unsound no matter how fun the character is when the rubber meets the road it can cause problems not only with the player's enjoyment but with the enjoyment of the other players at the table. For example if someone brings an elf sorcerer to the table who put all their stat increases into STR and WIS because they want their character to be strong and insightful but they have done nothing to address the fact that they have 8 CON and terrible AC that character is going to become a liability at some point and the other characters then have to pick up the slack which isn't a fun position to be in.

I don't feel anyone should feel compelled to subscribe to the "one true build" mentality. The difference between a 16 and 18 in a stat to allow for different choices at character creation is not going to spell the ruination of all things for a character.

As long as a player recognizes the consequences of their choices then play whatever ancestry/background/class combo you want. But I feel like it's the responsibility of every player to develop a good grasp of system mechanics so the choices they make are informed choices. It's when we let the mechanics drive every choice we make that it becomes a problem.

So all the math coversations are good in my opinion. Just don't feel bound by them.


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I enjoy the fact that I can go into each class and find something I want to make a character around. Back in first edition I wouldn't have touched half the classes in the core rulebook with a ten foot pole. Now I have more ideas than I do opportunities to play them.


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Dwarven angelic sorcerer. Spirit link, angelic halo, shield other. Take toughness and mountain stoutness. Basically become an HP battery for the front liner. Pair with a shield focused champion for even more damage mitigation and laugh as monsters try to eat through the resulting mess.


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I agree that the 3+modifier needs to be put back. Taking it away makes the class too MAD, forcing you to either build a fighting cleric or healer cleric. As it stands, you either need to forsake channeling in order to have decent combat stats or boost charisma so you can have channels. Before at least you could have some channels to help the party.

Saying that this is because of the treat wounds mechanic doesn't hold up. Personally I hate the treat wounds mechanic. It feels way too gimmicky to me and I think is even sillier than wands of CLW were in 1st edition. That aside, the place I want my channels isn't outside of combat. It's during the fight. The divine spell list isn't robust enough to make the class meaningful enough without channels. If clerics without high charisma are then having to then dedicate some of those spell slots to heal spells to make up for the lack of channels then clerics are in a very bad place.


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In the preview before the playtest was released, it was said that halflings would have boosts to Dex, Cha, and a free boost. In the playtest doc though they are listed as getting boosts to Dex and Wis and a free boost.

Does anyone know if this was a misprint or a deliberate change?


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I can understand the question. Where I play I've got people that want to play their character no matter how "bad" it is and I've got people that want to min/max their way to victory and scoff as their level 2 character defeats the final boss before anyone else in the party even has a chance to act. The two groups often come into conflict. Either because the ones playing their pet character die because the min/maxxers don't care about CR and get into situations the less optimized characters can't handle or because the min/maxxers don't enjoy having to carry the pet character players. Sometimes the tables work out that the two groups don't play together and everyone is happy. What it really highlights is the weakness in the PFS system. But it's a problem with no easy solution.

My thought is that outside of PFS where you can't totally control who you play with, it's important to talk with the the other players about what they want to get out of the game. Finding a common ground from which to come at character creation can go a long way toward smoothing out this issue.

At the end of the day you're playing this game to have fun. What that fun means is going to vary from person to person. One of the best things you can do is to be upfront about what that fun means to you. Most groups and DMs I've played with over the years have been willing to work with me to let me have the fun I'm seeking. And a really good player will try to do the same for others. Let the guy that wants to be the crazy DPS guy have his moment and then hopefully he'll extend the same courtesy to you to let you have your role playing scene where not a single dice gets rolled but a good story gets told. In my experience cooperation between players is far more important than cooperation between characters to the success of this game.