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Bruh. That will save is not only gonna get you killed, A powerful charm spell could end up killing your party. You need a charm of fate: http://aonprd.com/MagicWondrousDisplay.aspx?FinalName=Charm%20of%20Fate And just a cape of free will:
Though the cloak of resistance with greater bonuses scales better.
I want to recreate the map of Phaedra with the intention of making it appear to have more buildings and slightly less like a cul-de-sac. I'm trying to paint the picture that when they open the tavern door (or wherever they start) after that first encounter, that S%&t has already hit the fan. Like hundreds of hobgoblins and bugbears, are already rolling around siege machines, tearing people in half, and trapping villagers in nets and fetters. More than half of the town is only accessible by putting themselves into the fray of open war and certain death. It doesn't make sense for any group in a town that is under siege by hundreds of troops to say "well let's do the loop around the only road in town". It makes sense for them to say "holy crap, lets skulk out the back through these alleyways and try to help any people we can on the way. Am I railroading them by putting all 4 of the target buildings along the sensible path towards the bridge? Do you think the AP was designed for them to never really hit all 4 buildings in the first place?
Thanks guys. I was more just checking to see if any other GMs had written in their own side plots, or saw any story opportunities to create something. I'm not looking to replace a whole book, or change the type of AP it is. I really like the idea of very limited shopping opportunities in Ironfang. I want them to be scrounging and scrambling for their lives. Like, I totally want to see 5 level 3 PCs be ecstatic when they stumble across a loot haul of 23 rations, 40 gold pieces, a couple shovels, and nice tent. But even to me, 6 books of straight dungeon crawling can get tiresome out of repetition monotony. So just speckling in some intense and meaningful role-play based agendas, every once in a while can make a world of difference. maybe i'll just have to like... read the AP before I start getting overly creative
Hey Everyone. So my group and I recently took a blind vote for which AP i was going to run for them next, and Ironfang Invasion was the winner. I am in the process of editing the players guide and the associated source-books on nirmathas etc. before submitting it to them for character conceptualization. I know my players get overly curious and will find it difficult to abstain from knowing as much as they can, so I really like to keep them in the dark about just about everything. I also only just started reading book one, but cannot contain my curiosity. I've heard that this AP has alot of heavy hitting straight forward warlike combat and scenarios, but what I'm wondering if there are any large adventures or elements that require a little more tact and/or roleplaying. Has anybody found ways to include some sort of espionage/infiltration/corruption/sabotage in this AP, even if customized? I know that's something my players would get a kick out of as a break from the militia/wartime role. Perhaps infiltrating Molthune government/war council under the guise as foreign trade ambassadors in order to uncover more of the truth or simply to stick it to Molthune? Open to suggestions and real experiences -Thanks
Thank you everyone, I narrowed it down to 8 choices, and after a blind vote with my group, Ironfang Invasion was the winner!
Curse of the Crimson Throne - It's dark, it's heavy on the role play, it's handily compiled in a super nice hardcover. Is this an older campaign? I know ROTRL was released with a new edition that cleans up some of the discrepancies and updates between 3.5 and pathfinder. Do you happen to know if this one is similar?
I have a group of friends that is currently running through ROTRL (i am a player), but I am looking to purchase and start reading our next AP, which I am going to GM. Me: So I currently run a homebrew / custom built world in another game that we play in via Roll20, but I've realized that i just don't have the time to really really flesh out the campaign the way I'd want it to be. This game tends to be a very casual, watered down story, goofball fest, which is all fun and good but I'd like to really nail down a pre-written adventure. I'd like to make it feel dark/heavy, with invested emotions, and just make it feel tangible. I want to encourage the players to think and react as characters as much as possible, as opposed to players trying to beat a game. Players: These guys are gamers, they know the mechanics, and they try to use them to WIN. It doesn't mean that they'll totally abandon their character's background and personality, but I'd almost wish that they'd play as if in front of an audience who was watching for the story, as I feel that results in the most rewarding type of experience (collective storytelling). We also drink when we play... all of us... and quite a bit, and this is not gonna change nor do I really want it to change. The drinking makes all of us as players a bit more reactionary, and single tracked minded, but it also makes us lose nerves and inhibitions and we start to act and speak in character more, as well as just have fun as buddies. What I'm looking for is an AP with a great story. One that makes sense of things as the books proceed. I have no problems with tweaking things here and there, adding interesting NPC's to point them in the right direction if needed, and re-balancing encounters to cater to the level of difficulty needed. I also like to weave their personal background stories into the plot as well, for added investment. What I'd like to stray from is APs, that have lots of sandbox elements (Kingmaker), as I just don't have the time and resources to manage something like that. And one who's story seems to jump around all over the place, especially in the early levels. In playing the first few books of ROTRL, most of us were so confused about how one thing related to another that we eventually just went with it. I'd also like to avoid something that feels like one great dungeon crawl. I enjoy playing monsters and stuff, but I don't want it to be 95% combat all the time. I'm open to suggestions, but please, at least give a small statement supporting your choice. -Thanks
Dodge is probably best, as it too is a prerequisite for a whole slew of feats. I'd lean toward improved natural armor vs shield focus, unless the shield is specifically part of your build. as you've already pointed out, Natural Armor is always there, especially if you decide to maybe ditch the shield entirely later on down the road.
Of all the scary things that lurk in the sewer, nothing is scarier then the possibility of drowning in muck. Perhaps give subtle clues that it has been raining pretty heavily before they even go down inside. All the sudden flash flooding, leads to full flushed sewer pipes. Even if it's only a few moments of having to hold their breath, you could force the party to have to act in panic mode without actually being in combat. You could apply several conditions too (darkness, squeezing, sickened, etc.) that make simple actions much more difficult. Imagine filthy water rushing through the pipes, submerging the party. The water and the flotsam within makes it really difficult to swim towards the diverging pipes, and it could be so filthy as to the sickened condition. Maybe the wizard casts light to try and see through the murky water, the fighter has to try to bash a grate open for them to escape, all while trying to hold their breath. Even if the deluge of water only lasts for a couple rounds before alleviating, it could really scare the pants off the group with the illusion of a non-combat TPK.
I never really make any changes when it comes to hand-waiving rolls, or allowing actions to defy the physical or magical boundaries of a character, despite how "cool" the PC thinks it would be to snowboard on the skull of a yeti then triple backflip into a fireball power- attack yada yada. For example: "I wanna dropkick a tree, and knock it over onto the troll that is attacking my ally!!! Here, I wouldn't just say "No you can't" but I might elaborate that "while there are many small shrubs and saplings, there aren't really any trees in the area large enough to accomplish this purpose", or better yet I'll explain that "there is one really large dead tree, 50 feet away, and it looks like if the base of the tree takes close to X damage it might collapse in a specific direction effecting X many squares and doing roughly X damage.
This way, it not only allows the player's idea to shine, even if just by being possible, but it will also encourage the whole party to work together at damaging the tree and luring the troll to the right location if they wish. I really encourage my players to know their characters and know the rules of the game. I don't encourage them to try to supersede the rules. But what I really really like is when they interact with their environment to accomplish something as a team. I will however enact the "Rule of Story". If a decision or dice roll or something were to happen to cause a major disruption in the plot or spoil a great surprise for my players... then it simple just does not work.
So there seems to be a couple of threads about having multiple familiars, multiple familiar feats, and stacking levels, but I haven't seemed to have found any simple and conclusive ruling on such things. I just want to kind of get the RAI approach as opposed to breaking down the semantics of everything. I'm looking into building a character with a primary focus on a Mauler Familiar. What I want to know is, how do multiple familiar abilities, features, and feats work together. Or if it was intended for them not to be allowed to be combined. If I'm taking an abyssal bloodline familiar for my Crossblooded Bloodrager, then I take the aberrant tumor feat, and then I take the Wasp familiar feat, and then dip 2 levels of Eldritch Gaurdian for a familiar and combat feat sharing, or a shaman level with the stone spirit.... Does that mean that these abilities all combine into one familiar? Does it grant 5 weak familiars with their own specific abilities? Were these applications intended to be exclusive from one another? again... I'm not trying to break the game by abusing the semantics of RAW, I'm just looking for the reasonable opinion of experienced players/GMs or a developer ruling. (for those interested) The character concept is a super duper nice guy (halfling) who is naive, wholesome, and friendly but happens to be infected with a parasitic (alien/tumor) familiar. This creature is the real brains of the operation who sends its puppet host into an aberrant bloodrage when it detaches and enlarges.
I too am not sensing why you feel that spell kenning is dead weight. Just keep a small list (10) or bigger if you like of either incredibly powerful spells at each level that the bard does not have access to, or simply incredibly versatile utility spells. Sure it takes a some extra work knowing expanded spell lists, but this is essentially the Mnemonic Vestment. A 5000 gp item often considered one that can make sorcerers even more powerful than wizards.
Also with quickened spells of course.
Hey, quick question on Riving Strike: if I understand correctly, effects that last one round resolve before the character's following initiative. So Riving Strike wouldn't be useful for a single character (barring a quickened spell cast on the same turn or something), and would really only come up as something of a teamwork effect (one character uses Riving Strike, another character capitalizes on it before the first character's next turn). Am I interpreting that correctly? This works with combat reflexes though. Arcane Strike is activated on your turn and lasts until your next turn begins, which includes all other opponent's turns before yours starts again. Riving Strike is activated on a hit, which can be provoked on the opponent's turn. This would then start the riving strike's penalties which do not end until the provoking creature's next turn. Of course this will all depend on the GM's tactical usage, but sometimes getting the GM to abandon an action that they would have otherwise done is the real win here. Synergies with all the other AoO effects (Longarm, enlarge person etc.) and can even set up a familiar that can use wands (if you invest in high level spell wands which most people do not.
Part of your problem is you chose a terrible race. The stat buffs are all well and good, but it takes you 6 seconds to move ten feet.if you all-out run, you cover slightly less ground than any of your companions on a leisurely stroll. That severely cuts down on your maneuverability, and a reach AoO machine isn't really effective when most of your opponents equal or exceed your reach. You fell into the trap that playing for flavor means making a character as incapable of contributing as possible. Where did your mermaid even come from? Why did it choose to adventure on land? He has his own story that fits well to our party with a particular attachment to another PC, and my movement isn't really any issue. I took the strong tail alternate trait and have an affordable wand of longstrider which I use before every possible dungeon crawl/ encounter. I'm moving 30 feet. The idea was to center myself as a tanky, reachy, all around caster, who can use his smite ability to half the damage of all allies within the 10 foot aura. The problem is, when my AC does shoot up to 29, the monster's 3 attacks were 34, 36, and 29... to that I'm like "what's the point of even having armor in the first place?" I can't hit or trip on a natural 19, and even the slow stupid ogres are rolling 18-24 on their will and reflex saves to pass my spell DCs. I'm not super familiar with paizo's APs, but again, I just feel like they were generated so that you could essentially find success on virtually any character concept, not just optimized ones.
Thanks Dave. I went with 3 levels for the fear immunity. Mostly because fear effects would be a disruptor of my psychic casting, I could care less about the mercy, or my lay on hands in general for that matter. I'm definitely open to dumping it, but I think the BAB hit would hurt with my whole attacks of opportunity thing. I'm really wanted to get some battlefield control, debuffs, and even some blast spells, but I didn't really want to be a total buff support character. Like i plan to add haste to my flexible spellbook, but I don't want to be casting it every combat.
So I'm playing in a Rise of the runelords game as a character who decided to go with a merfolk sorcerer (5) paladin (3). I wanted to build this character for flavor and concept first and then performance secondary, with an emphasis at being a balanced and able to cover major flaws. I love casters, and loved the idea that I could go spontaneous caster and work with a Mnemonic Vestment x2 and a small spellbook for 2 unknown spells per day to try and at least cover a little bit of the utility that a wizard would provide since our party is Ranger, Fighter, Gunslinger, Oracle/Swashbuckler and myself. However, I did not want to make a super fragile character and wanted the concept of him being a big, hardy, and of course incredibly lovable charming merfolk to stand out. So i went 3 levels in paladin to get that Charisma save bonus, once per day smite, immunity to fear, armor and weapon proficiency and all that jazz. 20 point buy and as a merfolk, so my stats are really solid and my limited movement speed is the least of my concerns, but I still feel like I'm suffering from being a jack of all trades and a master of none... We just did the whole Fort Rannick thing for those of you who are familiar and I felt like i was just a healbot that couldn't heal and a tank with no armor and an incompetent sorcerer. Some specifics: I went with the Seeker sorcerer archtype with the Psychic Bloodline that allows me to wear armor, carry a Bardiche reach weapon and just stand in the fray getting off AOO here and there while spending my turns casting spells, and I went with the Sacred Shield paladin archetype for a team friendly defensive smite that allows me to reduce damage to all allies and split remaining damage with my familiar. Str:14 Dex:15 Con:15 Int:14 Wis:9 Cha:20 with some stat gear.
I get it that the Encounters might need to be buffed because of the 5th player, but our combats essentially are.. everybody gets bashed and and wastes actions until our fighter rolls a crit or our gunslinger chips away at touch AC. So before I actually go and discuss this with my GM (whose initial response to my "you gotta be kidding me" was "you shouldn't have made a bad character", I'd like to see what my other options are, just to make sure that I'm really giving everything a thorough mechanics approach. We are probably going to level up to 9th next session, and I'm open to suggestions on magic items, feats, even retraining feats, spells, etc. I just feel like these adventure paths were designed so that you didn't have to build a totally optimized character to have a little success.
With only 5 at a time, the party dynamic can shift drastically. But it appears that Ranger and Paladin are as far as it goes for divine powers, and at level 4 its effectively non-existent. Here is my suggestions in order. 1) Cleric: the reason? because you got to pick last lol. In all seriousness, the party will lack healing potential, the ability to cure ability damage at lower to mid range levels, and full access to a massive divine spell list. 2) Oracle: The sorcerer equivalent for divine magic. 3) Inquisitor/warpriest: Also divine casters, but typically somewhat selfish ones. Lost of self buffs and cool combat based judgments. Can be either ranged or melee focused builds. 4) Skald: I put this here simply on the case that sometimes you'll have more than 4 people show up. Group buffs effects get stronger and stronger with more party members. 5) Debuff witch: Cause landing spells and making enemies fail saves is fun.
From what he has said they don't use point buy so the only change he can make to follow this instruction would be to make his str 5 and his cha 20... This still doesn't change the fact that his character isn't actually an issue. The beauty of the game is that the players and the GM can literally do whatever they want to do, as long as they can all compromise and come to an agreement. 75% of the "Is my GM right or wrong" issues are mostly because either side would rather be asses and try to best each other with numbers, RAW vs RAI, or advocacy from forum support instead of just talking it out and be willing to concede a little bit for a smoother and less stressful experience. Don't try to beat the game... try to have fun and tell a good story with your friends. Doing slightly less damage, doesn't make your character any less of a high flying ass kicking monk.
Has your paladin ever done anything that was of at least questionable morale in your game? It could be that his god had decided to inflict upon him a curse as a reminder of their pact. The spells and powers can just be explained via divine gifts, story-wise they really need not be differentiated from paladin spells. If not, then maybe get together with your paladin player to come up with a small short side-plot during the next session. Here their character can either do something wrong to obtain the curse or be cursed by a totally different (evil-aligned) divine force. Yes, the Oracle level grants the abilities, but how they were manifested in the story is up to you guys. It would also give your player a chance to contribute a bit to the story to surprise the other players.
Just take some of that 20 Strength and put it into that 5 Charisma, and call it a day. Quick and simple. It doesn't put any more of a burden on yourself and allows you to basically use all the same abilities you already have and will slightly lessen your ability to hit and inflict damage. It doesn't create a more difficult burden for you, and slightly will lessen the burden of the GM, which is essentially all that he's asking for.
Ok so I'm currently in the process of deciding on a pc in which I can take into my first pathfinder game ever. I am fairly confident with rules and mechanics, having played a few one shots in the last few months and having read a great deal on here. I have decided on a class - the cavalier - but can't decide on a character to go with it. My only idea so far has been a human peasant that took his fathers work horse and pitchfork in order to seek riches and escape life on their farm. However i don't actually like this concept that much, and am trying to think up something a bit more interesting and exciting! If anyone could give me a couple concepts that would be fantastic! Thanks for your time! Mechanical advice: go small sized or just ditch the mounted class entirely and go for ranger or something. It is more of a pain in the ass dealing with where and where not you can bring a large mount. Not to mention worrying about finding security for it before you go cave crawling. As an newer player, the idea of mounts and companions were really cool to me. As an experienced player, I wan't nothing to do with them lol.. too much work. Story Suggestion: I love your openness, and loose concept approach. I've found that it's much better to only give a very light concept in a backstory. Let the GM twist and shape the rest of it as your character grows. How about this for a starter. You are a simple halfling farmer. Loving husband and father of two. One day you kiss your family goodbye as you head out for a fairly routine 2 day journey into the city castle to sell your carrots. Maybe you're riding on a pig or a dog that's pulling a cart of carrots or beets or whatever. Once you've sold your harvest to the city, the local (corrupt) financial officer asks you to have a seat at a bar/table while he goes to get you an official document for receipt of sale (because of course you always get a receipt ahaha). Little do you know that he is part of this elaborate evil scheme (that somehow ties into the main plot as per your GM) and in in charge of exchanging ransom letters to some sort of heroic paladin like figure who is also sitting down nearby you. The Kicker: He accidentally swaps your receipt with the hero's ransom note. "If you ever want to see your loved ones again, you'll bring the crystal/money to this (sketchy location) at some time.. yadda yadda". So without needing to check the letter right there in broad daylight, you head off and so does the paladin. Only to open the letter a couple hours later. Now you think your family has been kidnapped while you've been gone. You are too overcome with a sense of duty and love for your wifey and kiddies to even question... "wait, who would want to kidnap, the family of a carrot farmer". You ride back into town, but you can't find the financial officer, so you open the letter again, and a look of determination crosses your face. You trade in or sharpen your carrot paring knife, purchase a pot lid for a shield and a pony saddle for the pig, and off you ride to the ominous location. It'll be up to your GM on how humorous or dark he wants to take this plot line. But it demonstrates motivation, even if totally misguided.
Like, are you opposed to how they readily engage in combats or are they killing NPCs out of frustration in navigating the mystery of the story, or even worse... just because they can. The game is oriented to have a decent amount of combat action and adventure, but it also is supposed to be able to tell a compelling story with character depth. Just because there is magic and creatures and evil in the world, doesn't mean there aren't morale, logical, and legal restrictions. It's why I'm really really careful letting my players pick evil characters as a GM. My honest opinion is that you're GM probably needs to take a little bit more responsibility in balancing the requests of all his players and start orchestrating realistic consequences for PC actions. Why even play a table-top RPG like pathfinder if you're just going to play it like a video game... just go play a video game. Some of these consequences might be: (Force the PC's into an excruciatingly difficult combat, where several die, and hammer home the point that there is always a bigger fish, and sometimes a little subtlety goes a long way, cut off a divine caster from their powers for consistently crossing moral boundaries). My very favorite one, was where a Neutral character killed someone in cold blood in public in a city. Even though the victim was indeed evil, nobody knew that, so the authorities arrested him and put him on trial (with the rest of us as his representing attorneys). It was an incredibly fun session... even though he was sentenced to die by hanging, which then led us to finding out a way to fake his death and rescue him. I would probably share this sentiment with him. Your family should be willing to be flexible with your desires. Sorry I don't have a mechanical solution, I just know that it's always a better playing experience when you keep an open mind, and it seems like your family might just need to hear this.
So I'm not really into playing classes with animals companions. Mostly because I don't enjoy having to control two characters at a time. But I am now looking into a level 8 Halfling Bard character concept that involves being mounted. I was thinking of just dipping 1 level into cavalier, but I looked at the very limited mount options and then the stats for them are pretty bad as well. Then I was thinking that maybe I'd just buy a normal mount. After further inspection it seems to me that the combat trained animals, as far as their bestiary entries go, are vastly superior than their animal companion counterparts. And they are cheap too. 75 gp for a combat trained Bison with a 27 STR!? Anybody can chime in or share their experiences. What am I missing? Advantages or disadvantages of both? It should be noted that I do not intend to go more that 2 level Cavalier if any.
No helpful feat suggestions here, and in fact this is probably a very mechanically poor decision. But... the grief and unwillingness to let go, might direct your character into taking levels of spiritualist. The revenant spirit of your teenage daughter beginning to manifest as a battle phantom. Sounds bad ass to me. As a GM I would certainly even give a buff to the phantom ability 1) to make it viable and 2) because that's great story telling.
The Alchemist is by far may favorite class, so I love any opportunity to discuss them. I haven't played with mythic rules, and I've never played a plague-bringer, but here are my 2 cents on alchemists stuff. It seems like you have a strong concept and are not going for super optimized which is always a good thing and much more rewarding. Does your GM allow accelerated drinker to apply to extracts as well as potions? (since it really should) both thematically and since the alchemist already struggles with action economy. Has your GM banned Full Pouch? I see that they have not done so with Alchemical Allocation... which they will learn to regret (be prepared for them to do away with it). But if not, and you plan to heavily utilize AA, then invest in a 2nd level boro bead 4000 gp. To allow yourself another daily use of AA and thus another free use of a CL 18 potion. Can the plague-bringer use their weapon infect on a bomb? I couldn't find any specifics on this, though to be fair I didn't look very thoroughly. There is also a ridiculously cheap item for 12 gp called a bumbchucker that increases the bomb range by 10 feet. Still within point blank range, though depending on your GM this may interfere with your riding/bomb loading ability I've never really liked firebug, as at mid/later levels you should really have no trouble hitting touch AC anyways as touch AC doesn't really scale like regular AC. Maybe look into Pragmatic activator, to make your wand versatility really vast. Your potion of Barskin looks a bit off price (in your favor) I have 1200 gp for CL 12. You have a hybridization funnel, invest some of that gold in a bunch of Alchemical items, especially if you're planning on using full pouch. Don't just get weapons either, grab some cool utility items like weapon blanch and tunnel creeper. Holy water bombs also are great undead/outsider splash nukes too. With a haversack, you probably could afford to splurge on the 200 gp full alchemist lab to get that extra +1 to craft alchemy. The portable lab was designed to be carried by non-magic/dimensional bags, but the full sized one should fit. I also don't love the tanglefoot bombs because they don't lead to anything else downstream, there are other bomb discovers that count as prerequisites for much more powerful bombs. You're also going to need some sort of default weapon, for when you eventually run out of bombs and splash weapons: perhaps a shortbow, or crossbow or even a lance of some sorts (though proficiency might prove difficult to obtain). I think if your ride check is high enough you should be able to easily pass checks that allow you to move on your mount while reloading a cross-bow, and still fire in one round. Also consider Improved initiative, being at the top of the order for a bomber can be amazing, catching the enemy while they are still clustered can be devastating. The mummification discovery line is also really really neat, and might thematically fit with a crypt creeping plague slinging rodent.
Honestly don't give them an NPC... I've always felt that is kinda lame. Depends on what point buy they are at. In my RotRL game we played halfway through before we realized it was supposed to be a 15 point buy... we were at 20. My DM was constantly enhancing encounters to keep up. Even when we all agreed to bump down to 15, we were still whuppin ass. That 1 or 2 ability points aren't that important compared to a well build character and a strategically effective and experienced party. If you want to do something fun, draw up a cinematic scenario as how the Healer met his fate (death or departure). Then allow some of his "spirit" to pass onto his allies in the form of his channel positive energy ability, or access to his cure spells. Let them all divvy up his channels or heal spells among themselves. The problem with the current party is that they won't be able to heal each other up in the fray of battle so giving them a little boost to help them out in desperation could be cool, but the paladin can always carry a cure wand and use it in downtime. See how it works out, and adjust accordingly. But If a character dies or leaves, as a GM I always like to have them leave some sort or thematic imprint on the game. It makes for a more compelling story.
The explosive fist idea is pretty cool, but I'm still trying to figure out how it works mechanically first let alone trying to figure out how to make it more versatile. The action economy and splash weapon nature of bombs seems to indicate no. Wouldn't you also be like... blowing yourself up, unless you are rolling with directed bombs?
I agree, a brawler/fighter or brawler/barbarian multi-class could be interesting. You could Brawlers Flurry by tripping or grappling an opponent and then bash them a couple times with your hammer. You'd have to pick a weapon from the "close weapon group" and see if your GM will just allow you to skin it, though there are plenty of clubs and bludgeoning style weapons in that croup which should be fine. Brawler gives great bonuses to some specific CMB rolls as well as allowing you to swap combat feats in and out. hahaha though I'd like to point out the thematic flaw in logic of a 4' dwarf reaching opponents' heads to throw them to the ground. More likely biting an ankle.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure Shield brace was designed to provide extra AC, not allow a two handed weapon be wielded in one hand. Otherwise it might specify that you are now only applying 1x strength mod to damage as opposed to 1.5x. The Pathfinder Society house rules for shield brace have you use the polearm as a 1H weapon which supports your position. avr, could you explain to me what PFS house rules are?
I agree with Dave here. The most milage you'll get out of the Improved familiar is with its "safe" utilities such as using wands or going invisible and scouting, especially since an improved familiar cannot take on the mauler archetype. I don't know enough as to recommend replacement feats. Can you not summon small elementals with Summon Monster II?
I second the alchemist here. Grenadier that specializes in the different types of bomb elemental damage. The ability to make and hand out longer lasting extracts like barkskin to the rest of the party is nice. And a one time heavy investment in a high CL potion + alchemical allocation extracts will make you all extra nasty.
Without reading through the rest of the posts. Concealment and %miss chances. Even if the enemy has a +20 attack roll and hits touch AC, a 50% chance to hit is always a 50% chance to hit no matter how strong the enemy is. And gang up on the caster first, by 11th level they are the most powerful and adaptable member of the enemy party. Other than that, your GM might just be wanting to see you guys be a little creative. Assess the battlefield for anything you can use to your advantage that also makes for cool theatrical stuff. As a GM I always love it when my paladin nails a strength check to topple over a watch tower so that it crushes a monster. And other than that it might just be too difficult of an encounter.
The most impressive or at least most effective combos usually stem from multiple spellcasters holding their action until they are back to back.
If you already have sacred tatoo, and you're looking to optimize, swap out the +1 save from your trait and grab the fate's favored trait. Then watch all of your luck bonuses increase by 1. That stone of good luck just doubled in effectiveness, as well as sacred tattoo, and spells such as Divine Favor and Power. If your DM permits custom items, you can also find ways to buy or craft items that grant "luck bonuses" to just about everything. Will saves specifically will benefit more from a cape of free will rather than a cloak of resistance, though it is not as cost efficient. The sacred shield paladin archetype's smite ability is called bastion of good, which grants a deflection bonus=CHA mod and halves damage done to nearby allies. Not as good as smite, but if you have high Charisma, then it can basically make you un-hitable
You could just tell him, to be any class that he wants. Just don't read optimization guides and invest in his Charisma instead of dumping it while building his character. Grab a few social traits at character creation, and then just invest ranks in the appropriate skills. There probably is no better class than the bard, but the Inquisitor, alchemist, investigator, and rogue classes all can be quite adept skill monkeys. None are full casters either.
Gimp Circus. --There needs to be a happy middle ground between Gimp Circus and Cheesemeister 9000. Sure: the dex-9 rogue is funny to watch being played, but excruciating to play yourself if that's not what you're interested in. I guess we just have a very different interpretation on what the game is all about. Luckily for me, the people I play with are into honest communication about what they want to experience, and I as a DM have the power to change the game however to ensure the most enjoyment possible. Some of my favorite characters have been my worst ones. Though I'm not sure what P6 is, but am happy to learn more about it.
I've found that some of the easiest ways to balance min-maxing is to eliminate potential for it right off the bat. If you know you have strategically sound players who enjoy finding out how to best compliment their party and find success in combat scenarios, don't punish them or forbid them from doing that. Just make it more difficult. After all, in reality, why wouldn't a hero wish to best prepare themselves to keep their allies alive and well. If your players are knowledgeable and strategic, lower the point buy or dice rolling mechanic used for determining ability scores. (if it is 20 point buy, then reduce it to 15-18). Or have them pick classes first, then roll for each and every score without flexibility. One of the greatest characters that I have seen was a Rogue who rolled a 9 on dexterity and the player role-played that he was beginning to develop serious symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Or you could reduce the acceptable range for allocating points. (nothing less than 9 and nothing greater than 16). This may balance some characters and make them less specialized. Most importantly though, you should have a quick but honest sit down before you begin the campaign. Let them know that you want them to be happy players and have the ability to build and work however they want (within acceptable measures), but YOU also deserve to enjoy yourself as a GM. It is so often stated that it is the GM's job to keep the game fun and stimulating for their players. This is true, but the players also have a responsibility to grant the GM flexibility, discretion, and to just be agreeable understanding, Typically it isn't the number crunching, and combat operations that get a GM excited. It is the weaving of narrative, unveiling of plot, spontaneous player creativity, unpredictable moments of triumph, and also utter defeats. A good GM doesn't want to see their players fail, he wants to see how they react to adversity. I never truly understood the full satisfaction as a player until I also started to GM. This game is not meant to be blazed through like a video game. Following a strategy guide, powering your way through thousands of enemies with unlimited lives and acquiring piles of stat boosting treasures. As a player, when you welcome challenge, embrace your failures, and evolve your character's "character", then you will find thorough enjoyment.
I love the Psychic Bloodline. It allows you to wear heavy armor if you wish to multi-class to gain proficiency/or spend the feats doing so. A 3 level Paladin dip will grant you all armor and martial proficiency, boosted Charisma saves, and immunity to fear. Fear is a common descriptor known to interrupt psychic casting. But the Psychic Bloodline essentially does away with your worry for arcane failure chance. Perhaps choosing a Paladin archetype to swap out smite, since you probably won't be in melee combat all that much anyways. Though it's not really an optimized blasting build.
I echo the Paladin/Sorcerer Mix. If you take the psychic Bloodline, then you don't suffer arcane failure chances and qualify for heavy armor too. Mix that with Eldritch Heritage for the Arcana bloodline and eventually get yourself an Azata improved familiar that can buff you with wands. 3 levels of paladin will boost all your saves, and make you immune to fear which is a very large descriptor of effects that no longer hinder emotion components that effect psychic casters.
I can see the appeal of something like this, especially during low levels of play, but the fragility of something like this depends on your players. Even as a feat, this can be very powerful. If you have inexperienced or somewhat lazy players, this can create incentive to get more familiar and comfortable with their spell list. That being said, this can be totally abused by experienced players and power-gamers. If you're aiming to encourage your prepared spell-casters to try to implement a greater variation of their spells, maybe try adding a magic item like the Mnemonic Vestment. I like the rule, especially when the intention is to have the caster keep pace with martial brutes in the early game, though I would probably do away this by level 6.
I second David knott 242's reply. The Mnemonic Vestment is a stupidly useful item. Especially if your GM allows for customized or upgraded versions of magic items. As a 7th level sorcerer, I invested a hefty 10,000 gp in a twice per day vestment and another couple hundred gp in a spellbook. All my useful combat spells are my "known spells", but my fancy new spellbook full of utility, buffing, role-play based, and even some more combat spells has basically turned my sorcerer into a spontaneous casting wizard. Sure it is only once/twice per day, but you have just severely reduced the single greatest downside of being any caster (not knowing or preparing a specific spell). Now you can basically cast anything at any time. Once my party gets back to Magnimar I plan on dumping more gold into it to get it up to 3x per day. Another thing I might suggest is taking advantage of your UMD skill which is most likely already very high. Simple wants of great spells from other classes can be really, really fun to use. Especially if you have access to a familiar via Eldritch Heritage + Arcane Bloodline to fetch them for you (and eventually use them for you). Grabbing a cheap wand of Ill Omen (caster level 1), for your Improved Familiar to use, really sets up a nice combo for you to ensure the landing of your situational save or suck spell granted from your Mnemonic Vestment.
So I'm a GM in a home-brew campaign. I really thought that, because it was a home-brew, that I would be able to adjust and balance the game (combat wise) as I saw fit. I encourage my players to balance their own characters, but... they have a little power-gameyness to them, which I don't disagree with. Why make a weak character when you can make a really strong one, that still has all the role-play potential, right? The party is handling CR encounters above their level at a steady rate, to which I applaud them, but my problem is that I feel like my spell-casters are feeling inadequate, which I don't want. I always read that spell-casters easily trump martial brutes, but I am seeing the exact opposite. Even with some minor but specific boons to spell casting abilities. At level 6 my wizard and cleric have limited spells with DCs of 15, 16, 17 etc. But my Fighter and slayer have unlimited and multiple attacks that are hitting at +13/+8 and doing stupid amounts of damage that is devouring my DR/5 magic. I'm not super worried about creating challenging threat to the whole party as I am having my casters feel like they are seriously contributing in combat. I can always knock the casters unconscious and dying, but i'd like for them to be the party's savior sometimes. What enemies, spells, or elements of combat would you suggest that I apply.
If you need to build a fortress, wands of things like Wall of Stone, Transmute Mud to Rock, Stone Shape, etc could come in really handy. Unfortunately, two of those spells are above level 4 and not eligible for wands. But I just looked into Soften Earth & Stone on the druid's list and that seems fairly wild.
So I have a 7th level sorcerer/paladin who can basically smash any UMD check needed to activate a wand, and I wanted to check out what spells from other classes seem to very effective for wand use. It is a bit easier to search for good buff spells via search filters by using "minute or hour" for duration keywords, but searching through all the spells of all the lists for possible debuffs, crowd controls, and damaging blasts is a daunting task. Clearly examples like magic missile, cure light wounds, true strike, shield, etc. usually pop up in these discussions, but I'm looking for those rare and interesting beauties. Not exactly spells that I'm going to try and squeeze 50 charges out of an maximize use value. Just cool and effective spells that I can't already cast innately as a sorcerer. Enervation comes to mind as a WIzard list example, but I'm looking for others.
1 bonus points if it is a non-healing / non-buff spell
Wonderstell: Thanks buddy, you are the man
You're in no clear guideline territory. Here there be dragons. Haha, yeah I figured that. What would your suggestions be though? Would you think that the relative price for a +1 bonus to all attacks would be greater or less than the listed +1 bonuses to AC or around the same? 2000? 2500? 3000? Looking for proposals if there is no hard ruling.
Hey all. I apologize if this question has already been addressed somewhere, but I can't seem to find a response for it. The table for applying bonuses and spell effects to magically crafted wondrous items seems to be pretty clear cut and often times quite accurate with already published magic items. What I haven't been able to find is a table for the costs of adding (Attack roll bonuses) of different types (Luck, insight, sacred, etc.). Note: That this is NOT a magical weapon enhancement bonus! An example of such an item being the Cloak of Good Fortune https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/c-d/cloa k-of-good-fortune/ When my friends and I play together and want to implement something new or powerful we often implement the (If you've done your research and support it with some sort of logical findings or enough backing that it makes sense then it is allowed). What i'm looking to do is create something like this cloak that does not have the commune spell-like ability. But i can't seem to find the bonus to attack rolls anywhere. Using both the compare magic item cost nor the table method seems to make sense for this Cloak of Good Fortune. The spell cost appears to be the following if i'm doing it correctly. Commune = 5th level spell x only 1 question = Caster Level 1 and its a command word casting = 1800, and once per day = 1/5. So (5)x(1)x(1800)x(1/5) = 1800 gold + the multiple ability cost of + 50% = 2700. This would leave the +1 luck bonus to attack rolls costing 9,800 gold by itself!!! Which is a ton, compared to a Cracked Pale Green Ioun Stone costing only 4000 gold offering a very similar bonus and also has a potential resonance feature and is a slotless, so that bonus would actually compared somewhere closer to 2000 gold. However I can't see an attack roll bonus of any type being less than than the magical AC bonuses. What I would suggest as a point on middle ground is somewhere between the Ioun Stone cost of 2000 and the Cloak Cost of 9,800. If I were a GM I'd rule that the Attack Roll bonuses are = to double the AC or maybe just an extra 1000 gold to the AC bonus of it's respective AC type since increased bonuses get squared anyways. Anyways, If there is an actual source out there, then I will happily accept that, but I just wanted to get some REASONABLE feedback and see what the rest of the Pathfinder community might suggest. I am not looking for the cheapest way to min/max a character and do not want to break the challenge rating of the adventure. I'm just looking for a healthy compromise that will allow a character to create magic items of their own choice. -Thanks
Thanks Dave What would your thoughts be on like a glass flask of contact poison or any other liquid that ins't specifically registered as an alchemical splash weapon? Obviously no Intelligence bonus to damage, probably no splash radius either, but is that a ranged touch attack? Would that count as "Contact"? Would it benefit from feats like Throw Anything or Splash Weapon Mastery or traits like Firebug? For example: In our rise of the runelords campaign, my tiefling who has fire resistance 5, grabbed some molten glass from the Glassworks and threw it at a goblin 10 feet away. What is he technically using? Sorry If i'm over complicating things, I just wanna reach a decent reasonable ruling so we don't have to keep breaking down mechanics like this in game, every-time my character throw's something.
So you'd say that the item's text should specifically include the term "damage" to qualify as a splash weapon? i.e. holy water cites: 2d4 damage (+4 from alchemist) to target and 1 damage (+4 from alchemist) to all enemies in splash radius. however, water of maddening "while phrasing, it is stored in a glass flask, and a character touched by the water gets affected" but doesn't necessarily refer to "splash radius" or "damage". So therefore it is not a splash weapon??
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