gmachamer's page

So after playing again last night and out damaging every other player, I feel like maybe I need to point out that I am NOT trying to necessarily go for the strongest build, but more trying to find the rage powers that fit together thematically. I guess if I choose a totem to build around they already kind of do that for me.

I'm more interested in Utility/defensiveness than pure offensive capabilities. I might regret that in a few levels with the wizard and sorcerer start getting stronger, but with the other fullish BAB characters at the table having to be told over and over again what to add to their D20 to hit roll.. I'm not expecting their characters to soak up or deal that much damage... so I want to be as adaptable as possible to help out where needed.

I'm currently playing a level 3 Feral hunter and trying to plan out my character. I want to add some flavor to my character without gimping him or doing anything that doesn't make sense.

My current plan is to hit level 4 hunter to gain wild shape. Then I'm going to switch to Invulnerable Rager for 3 levels to gain fast movement, 1 DR, endure elements, and of course full BAB and HP. Then switch back to hunter until level 6, 7 or 8? not sure which. 6 gives me wild shape large and tiny, 7 I get another spell level, 8 animal focus gets better. After that switch back to Barb.

I took the trait fiend blood and have slight horns.. so I'm thinking about picking up Fiend totem to give me a gore attack.. more for flavor than anything else. Also was giving World serpent totem a look.

I've never played a barbarian so I really don't know much about rage powers and what is actually good. I was hoping somebody could tell me I'm being stupid, or give me the thumbs up with some additional build ideas?

I'm not against staying hunter, but thought picking up some more BAB and extra hit points would be nice since I don't think the feral hunter really does much after level 8.

Stats are 18,12,14,12,14,8

That is why you can talk to them about picking up some teamwork feats. Sometimes you would be surprised that people might actually want to play a group game together and play as part of a team.

Sure, that is a good point and worth pursuing with them during the next session. SO, besides teamwork feats, any other feats that might be worth looking into.

I think you mean Precise Strike. Vital Strike is something completely different.

ahh, that does make more sense, but like I replied, Feral hunter so no companion or free teamwork feats.

If they are new you can pick a more flavorful Animal companion...instead of the optimizer damage dealers like the tiger/Lion ext.

There are a few teamwork feats I personally think a group of new players will like. Escape Route, Shake it Off and Vital Strike.

Escape ROute will help them overcome bad positioning. Having the ability to move and not provoke can help them escape from bad engages.

Shake it Off will help boost the entire group's collective saves. This helps because a lot of new players like to stack on top of each other or stay very close to one another while walking into rooms. This will help them make better saves versus AoE spells and area control spells.

Vital strike will help anyone who swings a weapon out. It is added to each attack. This also is typical on a hunter anyways.

I'm a Feral Hunter, so I don't get teamwork feats for free and don't have an animal companion. Plus, most if not all of those feats require both players to have them, so they would not be very useful for other party members unless they also picked up these feats, with I'm sure isn't going to happen.

Yes, I know that Feral hunter and OP does not go together, but half the group I'm playing with are pretty new to D&D in general and don't put together overly powerful characters. Throw in the fact that the DM is much more concerned with Role playing than rolling dice, I want to make a character that is both fun to play and isn't the only one doing damage in combat.

I'm looking for some ideas on character progression/feats that I can pick up that would be helpful to the party instead of combat feats or teamwork feats (which I don't get for free being feral.)

Also because I want to fit my character concept, I'm ruling out dipping in other classes to add utility.

I'm choosing spells that are more utility or fit with my concept of my hunter than spells that buff me.

So feats that add utility or flavor..

Concept wise: Fiendish blood and frontier trained traits to explain my profession trapping, feral hunter class, survival and knowledge skills, precise shot instead of overflank.

Thanks for any advice on flavorful feats or spells..

gmachamer wrote:

Lady-J wrote:

see if you can talk to your gm into letting you trade your sla for the +2 wisdom on the chart. would have suggested the +2 to cha originally but you only have 8 in cha and +2 wont get you the 15 cha needed for improved eldritch heritage abyssal for the eventual +6 str boost

If there is a book that allows that, I might be able to talk him into it, but I doubt it.

its in the book Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of Fiends the original book needed a feat to do it but then aasimar came out and didn't need a feat so they removed the need for the feat for teiflings as it would be unfair for teiflings to need to have a feat but no feat needed for aasimar especially when aasimar can get a +2 to any of their stats were as teiflings can only get a +2 to their mental stats

Ahh, I see what you are talking about. I'll ask him before the game tomorrow.

Replace 'mostly' with 'arguably' then :). And I'll counter with 2d8 vs 2d6 with lead blades - which it is not unreasonable to expect to have up when it matters most..

I like it. Not much different in damage on it's own, but even if I only get lead blades up every now and then, I think it would be worth it. Plus I gain Brace and an additional damage type... which of course does next to nothing for me.. but I digress.

see if you can talk to your gm into letting you trade your sla for the +2 wisdom on the chart. would have suggested the +2 to cha originally but you only have 8 in cha and +2 wont get you the 15 cha needed for improved eldritch heritage abyssal for the eventual +6 str boost

If there is a book that allows that, I might be able to talk him into it, but I doubt it.

gmachamer wrote:

I'm thinking I should probably change the Belt of Physical might to Dex and Con and NOT strength. Reasoning being that I basically get 12 uses a day of my animal focus as a swift action. I can use one of those to up my strength and keep the Dex all the time. After all, the dex bonus is much more likely to be useful before I have time to use a swift action than the str would. (Initiative and reflex save)

I'd agree with this. STR is only necessary when fighting, while saves/AC/Skills are usefull all the time, same as CON.

I'm guessing you would go STR Focus + Mouse for Improved Evasion. Those are your best choices imo. Unless you go Snake for +4 on AoO.

EDIT = you're missing Combat Expertise. Pack Flanking requires it, I'm guessing best choice is replacing Precise Strike in place of Combat Expertise.

Yes I'm going STR + either mouse or snake, just depends on how things are looking.

I had combat expertise and then removed it as I was reviewing the build. I had not replaced it with a new feat yet, so I don't have to drop any that were listed. -Thanks

I'm thinking I should probably change the Belt of Physical might to Dex and Con and NOT strength. Reasoning being that I basically get 12 uses a day of my animal focus as a swift action. I can use one of those to up my strength and keep the Dex all the time. After all, the dex bonus is much more likely to be useful before I have time to use a swift action than the str would. (Initiative and reflex save)

If you are looking for a feat, I would recommend Planar Focus from the monster summoners handbook. Requires animal focus and 5 ranks in knowledge planes.

Essentially, it adds more options to your animal focus list. Notables are: swim speed 30' and water breathing, burrow = base land speed, at will levitate, added fire damage to natural and melee attacks, retributive frost damage, and some alignment based options.

Edit: celestial plate is not made of mithral. The FAQ/rules working you are talking about applies to mithral only.

I looked at planar focus and desided against it. Thanks though.

No, no, keep your casting ability. You're on the right track with using greater magic fang there & getting interesting abilities on the amulet. Also it's useful for other buffing - especially if you get either the improved spell sharing teamwork feat or the improved share spells regular feat. Either works for you.

Similarly, see if there's a cleric or similar willing to cast greater magic weapon on your falchion too so you can drop the bonus to +1 keen (while getting the effect of +3 keen), possibly getting a pearl of power if they're resistant to the idea.

An awful lot of high CR monsters can fly or are huge or are otherwise going to be hard to trip. Or they have a spell-like ability to teleport away. Your tactic's going to work some of the time, but other times ... not. I guess your hunter and companion can still hit enemies without tripping them.

Thank you. I'll look at the spell sharing you mentioned. Not sure if I can consistently get a magic weapon cast on me, but I'll look into it.

I'm joining a group for a pathfinder campaign and starting with a level 12 hunter. I was hoping I could get a critique on my build and planned play style.

Here are the major things/items/stats. Obviously not listing everything.

Teifling Omni-spawn
Str:20 +4 = 24
Dex:14
Con:14 +4 = 18
Int:13
Wis:16
Cha:8

Animal focus of +4 Dex or +4 against AOO as needed.

Belt of physical Might (Str/Con +4)
Celestial Plate
+2 keen Falchion (Crit 15-20) (+18/+13 2d4+12 damage)
Feats:
Toughness
Outflank +4 Flank bonus + AOO on Crit
Armor of the pit
Combat Reflexes
Escape Route
Pack flanking
Paired Opportunists
Power attack
Precise Strike
Totem Beast
-broken wing gambit or Coordinate reposition or Lunge?

Wolf Companion with around 32 Str and 30+AC
Animal focus:
Bear +4 con
Bull +4 Str (from Totem Beast Feat)
Tiger +4 Dex

+2 Amulet mighty fist (perhaps change this to effects and use greater magic fang and stack?)
Mithril barding + 1

This gives him 1d8 + 1d6 + 18 damage with his bite + trip. Maybe give him Improved natural attack to increase base damage.

My plan is to keep a flank on an enemy, trip and crit to generate AOO and hopefully end up with extra attacks every round.

anyone see any MAJOR flaws in this, or something that I really messed up on or missed out on?

Only thing to note is that the party does not appear to have a wizard or Sorcerer, but is pretty heavy on divine casting.

I didn't see a way to sacrifice any of my casting ability for other abilities, but if there was a way, that would be nice.

Dennis da Ogre wrote:

Aaron Whitley wrote:

I've actually been looking at switching to Linux (specifically an Ubuntu machine through Dell). Does anyone have any experience with the Dell machines that use Ubuntu?

Your best bet for trying out Linux is to take your existing system and download a live CD... Ubuntu's install disk works but there are other ones out there. It will boot right into a workable Linux system and you can try it out and see if you like it.

Can this be done within the framework of an existing OS (like OSX) or would it require a clean computer?

I just made the switch a few months ago. What I found to be the easiest for me was to take one of my extra hard drives I had laying around (or buy a new one) and make it the master drive. Then install ubuntu on it from a live CD. Now when my computer starts it gives me a boot list. By default it goes to ubuntu. But if I come across something that just doesn't work outside of windows, I can boot into windows instead.

Best part is when I'm in Linux, I still have access to all my files from my windows disk.