itazuranarisu's page

if you cross blood sorcerer dragon with shapchanger and pick the other's 3rd level ability, by te time you get form of the dragon (or cast it later) it would last for hours\level

Dang. That's pretty busted. I don't really want to give up the spells that crossblooded requires. Obviously I can see how much of advantage that change to the shapeshifting spells would be at later levels, but honestly I think it might be a bit much for the rest of the party to keep up if I can become a huge dragon for most of the day.

Fair point. Just wanted to be sure that was known. Also, interesting about shapechange. Don't know if my GM would let me change now, especially if I tell him it's so when I "turn into a boss battle" as Ive been putting it it would last for hours instead of minutes.

From how I'm reading Prestigious Spellcaster, it only makes up for one level of missed caster per time you take the feat. Maybe I'm reading that wrong?

Either way, thank you for the answer.

Relevant Text:

"The transition into a spellcasting prestige class is less difficult for you, and because of this, you gain 1 additional effective spellcaster level from your prestige class levels."

"You can select the Prestigious Spellcaster feat multiple times. Each time you select the Prestigious Spellcaster feat, your effective caster level increases by 1"

Which feats? That's not a book I have access to.

Alchemist sorcerer15 DD4 with eldritch heritage(abyssal) gives you

18 base +2 race +4 typeless DD +6 inherent abyssal +6 enhancement belt +10 size form of the dragon III +4 alchemical = 50, +20. Those people who got to 55+ added up the inherent bonuses from orc bloodline, abyssal bloodline and the manual, which RAW is illegal(multiple bonuses of the same type don't stack.
And as for you poor halfling, people who go DD usually want gishes, and with your base str score of nothing, you're gonna cap at 40 str, which, while is nothing to sneeze at, is still sub optimal.

Wow, gotcha. Thanks!

I'm definitely not looking for optimization, just a solid build. I don't even necessarily consider gunning for the highest possible strength optimal (though obviously I get that it would go a long way toward improved versatility and I'm glad to see what my options are).

That said, I'd still like to know if I should even be gunning for DD at all (and go the Dragon Mage path) or if I should just try to get the most out of being a sorc that eventually can turn into progressively more and more badass dragons.

Great guide. A few questions for those of you who have had more time with this build. Mostly for flavor, I made a halfling Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer who is obsessed with his Draconic lineage. Super high Charisma, started at level three, now level four. Since I am a halfling my STR is abysmal (an 8). Is it possible to still get a decent build of this with a low strength? Should I just go pure Sorcerer? Also, out of curiosity I saw posts early on talking about buffing to ridiculously high strength 55!?). Didn't see that in the guide. Can anyone elaborate on that? (Not looking to actually go THAT high because my GM's head would explode but if 55 is possible I imagine more reasonable buffs are even more so.

Thanks for any advice!

I'd suggest googling theremin. If it's not that try "sci fi instruments".

Ok, so don't get me wrong. All of that sound pretty good for the intimidate build, but I am kind of fixed on certain things. The character already exists and is a human. Also, at the very least I'm obligated to keep divine casting levels of some kind because I took 2 levels of cleric (which the DM is willing to let me change over to inquisitor). I guess basically the main things that I want are a reliable way to get sneak attack much of the time (that's what the Shatter Defenses is for .. and of course not available til level 9 but that's how it generally goes), a decent chance to avoid getting crushed for the time I'm spending in melee, and continue to serve my primary function as skill monkey.

Edit: Forgot to mention that the main reason I'm looking at AoO and trying to increase them is that it's a way to get extra attacks as a rogue who hurts for extra attacks unless there's someone around to cast haste.

Pretty sure with the way the Teamwork feats work for the Inquisitor Outflank would only give them attacks of opportunity whenever you score a critical hit but I could be misreading that.

OK so I didn't want to double post, but it seems I missed the window to be able to edit my original. I forgot to include that I'm planning on going Rogue 4/ Inquisitor 16.

That's not set quite in stone though I think the more levels in inquisitor the better for the sake of spells.

So a friend of mine is going to be converting an old 3.5 campaign we stopped into a Pathfinder campaign. I had been working toward Shadowbane Stalker as a Rogue Cleric of Olidammara. Now the build I'm looking at is a Unchained Rogue (Rake)/Inquisitor (Sanctified Slayer) using the Dazzling Display / Shatter Defenses path for sneak attack.

My plan is to use the Rake's Bravado's Blade along with the inquisitor bonus to Intimidate from Stern Gaze to leave many enemies shaken and then spend a lot of time getting sneak attack. The problem is making sure I get a lot of attacks. My plan was to get as many Attacks of Opportunity as possible. The best seeming way I could find to do this was to take the Snake Style feat path so that eventually there would be the chance of every missed melee attack from debuffed opponents would mean sneak attacks for me. However, I'm a little unhappy with the fact that these sneak attacks require me to use unarmed strike. Dunno if I am missing any other really easy ways to have enemies incur lots of AoO, but I'd be happy to hear what everyone thinks.

I'll post the build notes here too, for reference.

Str 11
Dex 18
Con 12
Int 18
Wis 15
Cha 11

Feats- Talents:
Human: IUS
Flaw: WF (Rapier)
1st: Ex Rog Talent(Min Mag:Ray of Frost)
Weapon Finesse(from unchained)
2nd: Major Magic (Shield)
4th: Ninja Trick (Style Master: Snake Style)
3rd: Dazzling Display
5th: Combat Reflexes
7th: Snake Sidewind
9th: Shatter Defenses
11th: Snake Fang
12th: Two-Weapon Fighting (Slayer: Ranger Combat Style)
13th: Improved Two Weapon Fighting

Beyond that my feats are up in the air. I've considered bookish rogue (mostly for flavor because I can imagine the character as conceived enjoying pawing through a "borrowed" spellbook and experimenting around with different spells in downtime with hilarious consequences. I'm not exactly looking to optimize, but I also want to every once in a while really shine in an encounter and I'm pretty sure building this the right way that should be possible.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and advice.

Cheers!

Bumped. Only about 4 and a half hours left!!

I'm pretty sure that this question is simply a matter of "Is the rogue invisible as per the invisibility spell or the greater invisibility spell?" If it's invisibility you get one attack before you're visible again at which point you are not catching your opponent flat footed. Greater invisibility keeps you invisible and therefore keeps your opponent flat footed.

It was a horrible miss in the editing process that made totem warrior useless forever. Then a single sentence appeared two books later that answered everything, allowing barbarians to receive all of the attacks while raging.

That must be in a different printing of the book than the one I have because I just checked and that helpful bit isn't even there in mine. Also, they state that but what does a totem archetype barbarian give up. Normally the archetypes get something in exchange for something else but since there is no such detail listed in the book, does anyone know what the archetype trades for the ability to take multiple totems?

I was also curious when looking at this archetype as to whether the replacement of versatile performance means you never get versatile performance of if it just means you don't get to pick one at level 2. Any ideas?

Thanks for the feedback!

1) I thought about only giving cold/nonlethal/whatever damage to the class, but then I've always been kind of peeved that anything with cold immunity is basically immune to your class's bonus damage. Kind of like having a wizard that can ONLY do fire damage.

2)Naming everything "Shadow xxx" was kind of just a ten-year old moment. I'm fine naming it Magus Arcana and Arcane Pool. Invocations are about all I'd maintain just because they would draw from an entirely separate pool of spells. Either that or qualify UA as counting for the purpose of feats is fine, thanks for catching that.

3) I might take out the "possession" clause, but as you said the intent is that he pulls something out of thin air and can do something with it. It disappearing and "possession" could just be a matter of him physically touching it and changing durations to only lasting a minute of he isn't. So in the case of a ladder he could climb up it and it would start to disappear as long as he isn't touching it anymore so allies can also use the same object, or enemies the weapon. I'll clarify, though it won't let me edit the post on these boards for some reason...

4) Would changing it to a shield bonus be better? Other spells and abilities add those fairly often, or even a straight armor bonus if that's still too much. Maybe decreasing the bonus to +2 would make it a bit more balanced? I like the idea of the character being able to encase himself in shadows, though it looks like I went overboard with the amount and type there. Thanks for catching that.

5) For Shadow's Embrace perhaps starting at 5th he gains 30ft DV and 5 Cold Resistance, then every 5 levels it increases? Maybe not 5th, but scaling like that with ability to see in magical darkness at 15th. Blind-Fight as a bonus feat could work too.

Thanks for the feedback, I'll look into it and try to see if I can't edit the OP; at any rate I unlocked the Umbra page (oops) and I'll update the text as soon as I can....

A thought as to point number 1 is that according to the tome of magic book and most other books the main things that shadow creatures get are electric and cold attacks so at the very least that would give the class two go to's rather than just cold.

I've got to say I've been playing a 3.5 campaign with a binder for 5 levels now and honestly I feel that while it's a fun class some of the abilities were not very well considered when it was created. It seems like they wanted to overcompensate often for the fact that they don't get the same versatility as say a wizard or a sorceror in things they have access to each day by doing things like giving them crazy attacks they can use every round (focalor's lightning being the most recent to come up in our campaign) that don't even so much as provoke attacks of opportunity and at least according to the text RAW would give the character the ability to use said abilities without giving any outward indication that they were doing so.

A good example is someone using the lightning ability focalor gets as an assassin. Walk into a bar. Sit down with a drink. Hit the person you're there to kill with lightning until they're able to get out .. follow (as if panicking and running with everyone else) and continue to strike them with lightning until they're crispy. The text says that none of their abilities require gestures, spoken words, or any other outward sign. Obviously they did this to allow them to be used during grapples or in the area of a silence spell without hindrance to make up again for the lack of versatility, but honestly I think they didn't put a lot of hard thought into how they phrased things.

And don't get me started on the vestige that allows you to use phantasmal killer every five rounds without a daily limit and with a save DC that is possibly higher than it would be if any spellcaster were casting it. I'd say the work necessary for the 3.5 class should be considered to tone certain things down before diversifying other abilities.

One last note the idea of giving a PC fast healing for any longer than a single combat has always struck me as a bad idea because it means much less of what would usually be the necessary camping and resting that marathoning encounters is normally restricted by.