Norman $mith's page

Hello all. I'm relatively new to PFS, and I have plenty of ideas for characters using the legal sources for PFS, but sometimes there are interactions that are somewhat unclear. An example is the combination of the Startoss Style feats and the Ricochet Toss feat (all in Weapon Master's Handbook), and how they work together. The freelancer who designed the Startoss chain says he intended the thrown weapon to return after all bounces are resolved, but a very strict reading of Ricochet Toss suggests it has to return after the first attack is resolved (since each 'bounce' requires a separate attack roll).

In cases like this, am I better off designing characters who completely avoid these kinds of potential problems, or would it probably be fine to go with it and simply expect table variations?

As we know the planet is 'missing', but I'm curious what kind of developments have been made for the classes. I imagine for tech we'll just see what we saw in the tech guide on steroids, but imagine the breakthroughs in arcane, divine, and especially psychic magic in the years since Pathfinder. Gunslingers will have advanced weaponry, I imagine alchemists have been developing pharmaceuticals, etc. What do you guys think we'll see?

Hi, this is going to be wordy, and I apologize.

--The Pitch--
So I'm trying to make one of my first PFS characters for a con next month. The con uses warhorn, almost none of the games had a skill monkey signed up, and I'd wanted to try the Psychic Detective Investigator archetype anyway. Race is up for grabs, but I'm leaning towards human.

The first three levels of investigator do not focus on combat. That said, I've heard that contributing to combat is absolutely necessary, so I'm here to seek advice on just how to do that.

--The Rules--
You'll have to play around my player quirks, though. The class and archetype are non-negotiable, and I greatly dislike class dips, even when they are optimal (though if you make a great case you can twist my arm). I am aware of swashigator and maneuver master monk, for example, but want to avoid relying on them if possible.

My character's concept is very important to me, and I didn't see him swinging large weapons around like a brute, meaning I'd like to avoid power attack if possible. I see him as more of a combination of lucky and clever, improvising his way through battle supplemented by his psychic abilities. I'll be trying to make creative use of mundane items, (powder to find invis, marbles, etc) for example.

I'll have access to spells like color spray and ill omen early on, but I'm limited to the spells per day of a bard. There are flavour/skill monkey feats I'd like to take, such as Deific Obedience (Irori), and Orator. Will my spells be enough of a contribution to combat to pursue these kinds of feats early on, or should I focus more on fighting? If I do spec more for battle, do I actually need to be dealing damage, or is battlefield control an acceptable contribution? I thought dirty tricks were a very appropriate option for this concept, but for the first few levels (when it matters most), they're not considered to be very good, and I won't have access to studied combat until 4th to up my chance of landing them.

I also considered an unarmed build (Irori is my god, after all) with snake/kirin style for defense/support, potentially with a reach weapon. My problem was that it was feat intensive, and I was unsure how the rules work when it comes to threatening with reach and unarmed strikes in society play. I don't want to be -that- guy, bringing sketchy characters to the table.

--Where you come in--
Thanks for sticking with me. My question is, what options do I have given the many confines I've put on myself? Bonus points for ideas with lots of flavour. My book list for reference (I can only make use of what I have, though fantastic ideas I'd be willing to acquire books for):
APG
ACG
OA
OO
OR
UC
ISG
WMH

So with the release of the Weapon Masters Handbook, I am beyond excited for what these feats allow fighters to do, but I'm struggling somewhat with the implementation. For the feats (Cut from the Air and Smash from the air), you need power attack, but a high dexterity will also behoove you so that you can take advantage of the feat multiple times in a round. I'm also enamoured with the Spellcut feat and the advanced weapon talent Weapon Sacrifice. I've played with the idea of dps with 2 handed to abuse power attack, a reach weapon AoO build to make use of combat reflexes, and a shield to make it more of a tank/control fighter. The stat spread required, splitting so much between Strength and Dex, is also problematic. So what interesting feat/archetype/weapon combinations have you guys come up with to make use of these new feats and abilities?

Warning: Back story below. If you want to skip to how you can help, jump on down to the second paragraph.
So the deal is I want to make a lawful neutral summoner who's lived his life as a cog in the machine and is tired of witnessing corruption and being unable to do anything about it legally. He has always been obsessed with Axis, which he sees as the model that mortals should strive for, and after many years of research uncovers the method of creating an Inevitable, as the Axiomites. He believes that as long as this Inevitable continues to follow him in his crusade, he is serving something greater than mortal law. His jurisdiction is everywhere he can manage to keep the peace out of sheer fear of his retribution. Modelling himself after his creation, he will not rest, unfalteringly rooting out criminals and anarchists wherever they hide and bringing them to absolute justice.

I am building a Human Unchained Summoner with the Unwavering Conduit Archtype, and choosing Inevitable as my eidolon's subtype. I imagine most of you optimizers are shaking your heads right now, as Unwavering Conduit causes all kinds of problems regarding evolutions and Inevitable is generally considered the worst subtype. However, the reason I included the back story is because I'm doing this for flavour, not crunch, so I'm not budging on any of the above.

However, I don't want to completely waste space at the table either, so what I'm asking for is what I can do well with the above components. Should I build to wade into combat alongside my eidolon or focus more on ranged support? I've already taken Spell Focus (Conjuration) and Augment Summoning, and as I understand Unwavering Conduit allows me a more fixed number of monsters when I summon below max level.

What about other feats/traits/spells/tactics? I was considering something like the Law Enforcer Trait if my GM will allow me to take it, but again that's more for flavour than anything. What I need from you guys are options so good for this build that I should be willing to sacrifice for the crunch. Thanks in advance!

So I've been running a homebrew solo campaign for my fiance (I just created a few npcs she could recruit along the way to form her party) and now she wants to do the same for me. But she's a lot newer to the rules than I am and wants to use something prewritten as a base. We were thinking of going with an adventure path so she wouldn't run out of material, and we were looking at Second Darkness because she likes Drow until we realized it was 3.5 as conversion is pretty much out of the question for her.

So with all that out of the way, I wanted to ask you guys which path (or even module combo) would be the best blend of fun and simplicity for a new DM? (Preferably one of the newer releases because the older ones are out of print, though we're not adverse to using PDFs if need be.) Thanks in advance!