bruce paulson's page

One off? So you mean, your party, there's the Dragon, awake and on top of a mountain of treasure, and---GO!?

Do you have any idea of kind of dragon? Age? Size? Situation? Anything like that?

Are you going to be able to talk about strategy with the party? Will there be any roleplay leading up to the encounter?

Scenario: We're a tight night group of 6 that have been friends for 20+ years. However, we're now spread out over a multi-state spread. We get together for events 2-3 ties a year but one is an annual guy's only week-long vacation (Fri to Fri) away from the stresses of the life and the families to hang out and game for the week. However, this year one of our group cant show up till day 3 and he'll be running the main game, so for day 1 and 2, two of the other guys are running connected 1-shots. The first will be a low-level (what we call a mudbeggery) game. Day two will be the same characters at level 10.

Effectively the premise is that when we were young adventurers we were protecting a town from a bugbear problem (day 1 mudbeggary). At the end of which we stumbled on an opening to a deeper cavern and stumbled on what appeared to be a small (well huge for us) abandoned dragon horde. We took it and proceeded to build up the town with it and built our own citadel. Now, years and bustling town later, the dragon has come back looking for it's horde.

That's pretty much all we know other than that the GM in question has a love of big bad monsters and it will effectively end up likely being a slug fest. My guess is it will likely be an Adult or even maybe Mature Adult if he really wants to make us sweat. What breed? No idea. He collects Monster Manuals (and to give a mental idea all Green cards in Magic) so it could be nearly anything but likely something obscure, rather than one of the common breeds.

There will likely be some roleplay and interaction with the dragon, but again knowing the GM, it will likely end in a slugfest. The situation of which I guess will be up to us. Do we defend our town with siege weapons? Do we try to go sneak up on it somewhere? Do we try to meet it on open ground away from the town? All that I am assuming will be part of the game so there is really no predicting.

It originally was simply stated: "Level 10 and you'll be facing a dragon."

EDIT: Early Firearms are allowed.

So we're doing a one-off session that will be a dragonslayer game and I'm looking for some optimization suggestions as I haven't played PF for a while.

* Level 10
* 20 Point Buy
* 62K gold for items

Most anything from d20PFSRD goes though I am clarifying whether the GM is allowing Firearms or not. Our group can be kind of weird on that topic.

There will be 4 players and we have a Paladin already, unsure on the other 2 slots still

My first idea was:

* Elf Wizard 10 with Archetypes: Exploiter and Pact Wizard (HH version) - using ranged Touch spells, area control spells (like Black Tentacles, Ice Storm, etc) and Spell Penetration feats (w/Elf is +6 total), Boosted CL/DC via Exploits, and Elements Patron w/Hellbound Curse

Other ideas I'm exploring to compare (if I want to go with something more simple than a wizard or if someone else wants the wizard slot) are Archers, though for bows I am not sure which of the following is better. I haven't had the chance to build them out and compare but my gut is saying the Inquisitor might be better.

* "Bard the Bowyer" - Human Mounted Archer Ranger with Archetypes: Dragon Hunter + possible Trophy Hunter or Divine Marksman?

* Archer Inquisitor with {edit: Ravener Hunter} & Sanctified Slayer Archetype

If guns are allowed, is the Black Powder Inquisitor a better option than say a Gunslinger?

Any thoughts, links to builds, tips, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

maybe if you did away with multiclassing per se but rather gave more feats (like 1 or even 2 per level) and opened up other classes traits as feats. so, rather than my fighter wasting a whole level on becoming a cleric for one level just so he can channel energy in combat, i burn a feat to buy just the channeling ability and everything else stays the same.

that way he is not quite as powerful as a pure fighter but he doesn't have to cough up a whole level of advancement to get there.

just a thought.

This, to a point. I do believe that if you are using a class system, you need to make some features of the class unique and only attainable to that class if it is a defining ability. The issue is defining what is a unique class function. Otherwise you are basically doing away with classes and making a Free-Form Classless system (not that I would object to that as I prefer it over classes) but Pathfinder is always going to be class based.

However, what I see them doing is more like Unchained.

Very interesting.

I already see people making spreadsheets for each of their weapons, and then guessing the target AC before deciding if they power attack or not! :D

Yeah, I really hope not. I am hoping the system math is more clear than that. It should be an ability that is obvious when to use or not.

I haven't read the entirety of the posts, but has it ever been considered to combine Book and Online Resources for a release?

The book would contain the basics like "Goblins" with maybe one or two common subtype stat blocks, but then include an online "monster modifier" tool that allows for quick modification to the base statblock?