coolhandluq's page

I could have sworn at one point or another I remember seeing in a Paizo book art for a dervish dancer. Maybe not a scimitar but definitely a combat dancer. Before everyone says Ultimate Combat.. the elf swashbuckler wasn't what I was thinking. She was more of a veiled dancer with a whole bellydance/arab garb look.

You're probably thinking of Almah.

F. Castor wrote:

The Kensai gets the Canny Defense ability that the Duelist PrC class gets. If the abilities are identical, then it would mean that the Kensai adds 1 point of Intelligence bonus per Kensai class level to his Dexterity bonus to modify Armor Class, just like the Duelist does. That would mean that at 1st level the Kensai gets to add only +1 to AC from Intelligence.

Can someone who has this book comment on this?

Are the abilities similar or identical?

Identical. You definitely need Mage Armor early on.

Okay, so two big things I'd like to ask of the people who own this book:

1. Can you give me a brief summary of the magus archetypes? Especially "new" kensai.

2. Can I also get a summary of the unarmed fighter and unbreakable fighter archetypes, please?

Kensai:

Unarmored swordsman focusing on criticals, Perfect Strikes, and initiative (Iaijutsu). Has Canny Defense, a little more fighter added in than a normal magus, and less spells per day.

P.56 Magus Arcana section under Kensai archetype, it suggests two arcana for the Magus which do not appear to exist. These are 'deadly follow-up' and 'precise prowess'.

so my problem/question is this.

i have a player in my 2nd darkness adventure who is playing a magus (8lvl)

he is using a rapier(+1 keen) without counting arcane pool.

this pc can deal out loads of dmg using intensifyed schocking grasp, and unless i am mistaken the math is as follows.

he crits on a 15-20, using intensifyid schocking grasp that is 16d6 point of electricity dmg + 2d6+str+magic(flaming/frost)
adding up to somthing like 20d6+6 avr 76 point.

have i missed somthing?

even worse if he hade a spell storing weapon he would be dealing an extra 8d6 point of dmg that is about 100 points in total, enough to 1shot most enemys

Just ignoring any possible errors in math for the moment. So he uses a 2nd level spell slot, has burned some arcane pool points undoubtedly, succeeds on his concentration check for casting defensively, threatens a crit, confirms a crit and does some pretty fierce damage. Seems to me that it's a somewhat rare event. While a raging barbarian power attacking 2 handed may not do that much, they will do it more consistently.

Seems a good plan, and it is good to make use of the Swordlord's boon to fighting defensivley. As soon as that feature kicks in, you have no reason to not fight defensivley.

Am I missing something? I do not see where the Aldori Dueling Sword qualifies as a duelist weapon. Certainly the flavor makes sense, but I am not seeing how that works in RAW. You would still get the int to AC, the enhanced mobility, improved reaction, grace. As riposte needs a parry which requires the peircing weapon, it is out along with precise strike.

Another thought, with power attack and furious focus, one may see a bump up in their overall damage output. As you rely on taking attack penalties to live, negating an attack penalty for damage could be a nice thing.

Normal, the Aldori Dueling Mastery feat grants the ability for it to count as a piercing weapon for duelist. It was updated in the inner sea campaign setting (at least that's where I saw it first). Power attack and furious focus could be good but he's rather feat starved already. Not sure what to give up.

Disarm question: If I disarm my opponent using my sword one-handed, and my other hand is free, can I take the weapon as part of the disarm?

Lots of good advice here. Shisumo thanks for the tip on combat maneuvers, I didn't know that.

That looks pretty good Alorha. I didn't realize how insane you could make the AC. I also hadn't heard of threatening defender. Where does oslyuth guile come from?

Alorha I'm curious how you would build an aldori rogue/duelist for comparison sake? The idea would be too sacrifice as little combat capability as possible to gain some skills and fun rogue talents, while maintaining as much aldori flavor as possible. I suppose rogue/aldori swordlord/duelist could even work.

coolhandluq wrote:

The problem I have is that the aldori swordlord archetype in the inner sea primer seems weak. I have to take three feats (weapon finesse, agile maneuvers, and exotic weapon proficiency - aldori dueling sword) just to function almost as well as a base level longsword fighter. Once he takes those three feats he is leagues ahead.

Why do you need to have a high Dex (and thus Weapon Finesse and Agile Maneuvers) in order to use the archetype? It seems like it would work fine with a low Dex character -- possibly better, in fact, since you're losing out on Armor Training, so a high Dex would be wasted.

The whole point of the aldori dueling sword as far as I can tell is that with training you can finesse essentially a longsword, 2hand it finessed and still get the strength bonus, and it counts as piercing to meet duelist requirements. If you're not finessing you should just use a longsword as it is no different.

The whole flavor of the swordlord is a speedy swordsman.

Their speed and reflexes weave a net of impenetrable steel around them, from which they strike and harry their unfortunate opponents. This variant focuses on avoiding damage and disarming foes; swordlords prefer wearing light or no armor, trusting their skill with their blades for protection. The following benefits only apply when a swordlord is using an Aldori dueling sword and carrying nothing in his other hand.

The aldori dueling mastery feat requires weapon finesse as well.

TarkXT wrote:

Doesn't that feel like a typo or a mismatch from the wiki to the book that the archetype designed to wield this weapon is in fact not proficient in it automatically?

Your proficient with it, you get don't get to weapon finesse it unless you take the exotic weapon proficiency feat. It's one of those weapons.

And you also need weapon finesse, exotic weapon prof - aldori dueling sword, weapon focus: ADS, and quickdraw to get the Aldori Dueling Mastery feat.

I could use some help designing my character for Pathfinder. I'm pretty new to this. My character concept is a human aldori swordlord. He's intelligent, quick, at least minorly charismatic. The aldori swordlord concept seems to be a finesse fighter that can switch back and forth from one-handed to two-handed based on the situation. He does not use a shield. He also has a focus on disarm. He does not get armor training, is supposed to be in light although he could probably use medium for awhile. He would be starting at level 2, but will probably level 3 within a session or two. Background traits are set at sword scion and dangerously curious pretty much as I'm revising a character with an existing history. I'd like to be useful skillwise as either a scout or party face if possible. I understand that may be stretching it though. The point buy is 25.

For reference:
Fighter - Aldori Swordlord Archetype

The problem I have is that the aldori swordlord archetype in the inner sea primer seems weak. I have to take three feats (weapon finesse, agile maneuvers, and exotic weapon proficiency - aldori dueling sword) just to function almost as well as a base level longsword fighter. Once he takes those three feats he is leagues ahead.

DEXter does less damage (damage is off str not dex), has equivalent AC to a 2h weapon user (and even less damage compared to him), and less AC than a shield user. I'm not very optimistic. That 2h strength fighter could grab power attack, furious focus, and shield of swings and be immensely better than dexter. Same AC, same CMB and CMD, same attack bonus, and 1d10+6+3 damage instead of 1d8+2. The 2h user's minimum damage is the same as dexter's max. This doesn't even take into account skills. The only dex based class skill for warriors is ride. If the dex based swordlord gained some other functionality that made up for that it'd be ok. At best I'm looking at better AC eventually while the damage and attack bonus falls even farther behind. At that point he's just a lame monk?

As I said the original character concept I had was an intelligent, quick, charismatic aldori swordsman. Something akin to the old swordsage/sword saint/kensai type but with the charisma thrown in. I realize the charisma is probably pushing it though. If the aldori swordlord archetype doesn't work, I suppose I could build the swordlord off another class. Maybe if I used swashbuckler, 2h weapon ranger, or bard? Trading some combat capability for social or scout ability is not a big problem.

Hopefully I'm getting this wrong. I just want the character to work and mostly fit the concept. I don't need to be OP.