badashcs's page

The mistake was on the part of the GM for allowing this train wreck to occur in the first place. The composition of the group is key to an enjoyable and cooperative gaming session. If the player playing the necromancer was honest about his intentions to raise the dead there would have been no problem. The necromancer however memorized animate dead with the intent of using it and relying on in a social setting people will be complicit to not upsetting anyone. The cleric of pharasma played their role best they could given the bad situation.

Essentially the necromancer player sabotaged the gaming session by creating a disruptive character and acted in a deceitful manner to the GM and other players. An experienced GM would see this from a mile away and could have cautioned that if the necromancer behave in a manner that was evil in this good aligned group that his character would become an NPC at the point he betrayed his word in the pre-game.

Any time there is a character or player with strong beliefs there is a risk of turmoil related to it. That is why alignment in games exist. You want your party moving in the same direction with a similar belief system, unless the flavor of the campaign is to have internal party conflict.

I wouldn't recommend Words of Power for a fey bloodline sorceror and probably most casters, but Words of Power can work to your advantage for some builds. I ran a cross-blooded red dragon marid sorceror that was the primary damage dealer for a group, so maximizing the type of damage and area of effect was important. I think a magus is another opportunity if you are damage focused. A magus with words of power doesn't have to worry about not having melee touch attack spells, wasting an arcana, or using arcane mark (the Zorro build).

I think I would go with an elf with the following stat array:

STR 14
DEX 18
CON 12
INT 16
WIS 10
CHA 10 (can dump to 8 and bump STR to 15 then raise it to 16 at level 4)

1. Extra Arcana: Spellshield
1. Weapon Focus Katana (free with Kensai)
3. Arcane Strike

I'd also use a Katana which gives you the option of 1H or 2H (use 2H after you charge your weapon for a Spellstrike or use 2H for easy fights).

Make sure you take the spell Shield for a +4 AC. I also like Enlarge Person for the reach and upgrade to weapon damage.

For the first feat I'd go with Extra Arcana: Spellshield which will give you an immediate action to add your INT bonus to AC so with the above stat array you could have a 22 AC (DEX +4, Canny Defense +1, Shield spell +4, Spellshield +3. At level 3 your base AC will be 17.

I'd play the kensai like a rogue and avoid direct assaults. Use flanking to increase your chance to hit. With Enlarge Person you can avoid the bothersome AoO when casting. As you level up you can work on your offense but with the lack of armor limitation it will take you a few levels for Canny Defense to make your AC respectable. You will never be a frontline fighter.

I understand the build has a lack of strength, but the Kensai in my opinion has to think about defense first. To increase damage look at Arcane Strike feat and using your Arcana Pool to boost damage by +2 at third level. Use the Spellstrike class feature to deliver your spells.