davidernst11's page

I have a Tengu Ranger for Pathfinder Society. My concept is that he lived in a Tengu settlement that was commonly tormented by a local Tien village, so his Favored Enemy is Humans (he especially dislikes Human children). I took the Claws alternate racial trait to gain two claw attacks in addition to my bite attack so I could have three natural attacks per round. However, now I need to make a choice. I could do one of these four things

1: Stay straight Ranger. I would need to find a level 3 feat to take, which might be Combat Reflexes (to take advantage of my Wolf animal companion's trip attacks later down the line) or Improved Grapple.
2: Take a level of Fighter. This would give me the feats I would need to get me Feral Combat Training (Claws) and Boar Style. I love the idea of my character attacking someone, dealing bleed damage and flying away to wait for them to die.
3: Take two levels of Barbarian. I could take Extra Rage as my level 3 feat and Fiend Totem, Lesser to gain a Gore attack during Raging. Obviously, this could raise my damage potential quite a bit, but I would lose a level of my animal companion.
4: Take the two levels of Barbarian and the level of Fighter. I would be a natural attacking fiend, but would lose two levels of my animal companion, and three levels of all my Ranger, plus all the Feats that the build would require (Weapon Focus, Feral Weapon Training, Boar Style, Extra Rage)

Here is my idea for a feat tree, if I went straight Ranger:

1 Power Attack
2 Weapon Focus
3 Improved Grapple?
5 Boon Companion
6 Aspect of the Beast (Night Senses)
7 Tengu Wings
9 Tengu Raven Form
11 Quick Draw
11 Improved Vital Strike

My concern is that I feel like getting Favored Enemy bonuses and high level spells (such as Instant Enemy) is going to be more important than doing tons of damage. Another concern is that lots of natural attacks is only really a benefit at low levels. At higher levels, around 11 or so, it will nearly always be more effective to utilize a Two Handed Weapon, especially if I am hasted. If I take two levels of Barbarian and a level of Fighter just to enhance my natural attacks, I'm losing a lot of better balanced Ranger features at higher levels.

Which way should I go? I feel like I need to have a plan before I play him again.

davidernst11 wrote:

John-Andre wrote:

davidernst11 wrote:

By the way, a wizard with 20 intelligence should have 5 spells: 1 base, 1 for primary school, 2 for intelligence bonus, and one from the bonded item.

As an aside: It's kind of funny how people just assume you'll be playing a minmaxed character. What if the OP wanted a wizard with, oh, I dunno, average strength? Decent CON? Or wanted a familiar, and not the bonded item? Or worse yet, wanted to play a universalist?

I was going by what the original poster used as an example (20 int, bonded item). I was saying that in that scenario, you get 5 spells instead of 4.

If you had decent strength, you wouldn't be asking a question about what to do, as you won't be much worse than a fighter at hitting with attacks.

And Universalist wizards? Pssh, who would play one of those? ;)

Me. Every school has something that is worth keeping unto very high levels of play.

Though admittedly, my last mage was an abjurationist and dropped illusion and enchantment.

And it's always important to remember what you can do without a spell. There are a lot of combat options, uses for skills, and the like to be used without magic, or with nothing but cantrips.

I once used detect magic to find a shapeshifter who was pulling a, "which one is the real one" dilemma with another character. Transmutation has a certain aroma to it, after all.

I never regret not going Universalist with any wizard.

Let's say you take Necromancy and Illusion as opposition schools. However, you want to prepare a casting of Enervation. Cool. You just use up two of your spell slots. That's ok, you are getting an extra spell slot anyway from your favored school. You can choose one spell from each level from one of your opposition schools and still be on par with a Universalist. If you really want to prepare multiple castings of Enervation, you probably should have decided to be a Necromancer.

I just think in the end, even if you cast one spell on each level of one of your opposition schools, you still have the same number of castings as a Universalist.

Yes. Anything that affects attack rolls also affects CMB rolls.

If you were "aiding another" for a buddy's full attack, he would gain the +2 (or in your case +4) for all of the individual attacks, and thus any combat maneuvers would also benefit.

Aiding Another is awesome and is probably one of the most under-utilized attack options in the game.