I'm currently running Age of Ashes (the PCs just arrived in Cypress Hill and are enjoying themselves A LOT, they don't have much sympathy for slavers), and I'm having a lot of fun.
The only problem I have with it is... the adventure is set in Isger and yet we have nothing on Isger proper, and also nothing like a gazetteer of Elidir (the place where PCs are likely to go). I'm currently preparing for a side-quest concerning Hedvend VI's Throne Contract, and I really can't find anything useful on the capital of Isger anywhere (even the Inner Sea Guide has just a very small paragraph).
How can I find some more information on Elidir? Really, my only gripe with AoA is not having a guide to the nation where the AP is set. :D
Unfortunately, I can't afford it anymore.
Could you cancel my Adventure Path Subscription as soon as the current AP (Skulls and Shackles) has ended? :(
Thank you in advance.
J
I recently purchased the ToH bundle and I already downloaded the PDF. The problem is, I had an economic downfall and cannot afford to buy the hardcover. Would it be possible to convert my purchase in just the pdf? Would it be a problem?
Thank you in advance.
I'm one of the translators for the Italian edition of Pathfinder.
While translating the Player's Guide, I found two adjectives concerning the people of Brevoy: one is "Brevan" (seldom used, only in the Player's Guide and the Brevoy primer), the other is "Brevic" (much more common, even in other works).
Which one's correct? Are they both referring to people and object coming from Brevoy?
I'd like to have an official answer, if possible... :-)
J
sorry to bother, but I have to cancel my fresh PFRPG subscription. The shipping costs are just too high. I'll buy the PDF and get the printed version at my local LGS.
I hope it's possible to merge order #1183077 (PFRPG poster) and #1072432 (PFRPG and Bestiary preorder), so that I'll receive the poster and the RPG at the same time.
Also, is it possibile to separate the PFRPG book from the Bestiary? I'd like to receive the RPG as soon as possible. ^_^
Thanks for your time.
J
I'm so sorry to bother you again... Can you merge also order #1183151 with order #1072432 and #1183077? I feel so stupid sometimes... -_-
I know I'm terribly late on this topic, but... While playing I met the biggest turndown of channel energy: the saving throw.
The party was fighting against the seven spawn of Kyuss in the basement of Blackwall Keep, during Age of Worms, and I realized that the cleric and the paladin could cover, with their channel positive energy ability, could well cover the whole room they were fighting inside.
...
This meant SEVEN saving throws every round, and keeping tabs on which spawn was shaken, which one were panicked... and regularly forgetting which one was suffering what.
Can we "go back a step", and remove the saving throw, or find another way to adjudicate the effects of the channel energy ability? I don't mean I want to go back to the nearly useless 3.5 turn undead ("sacred" feats had to be created to make turning useful...), but... take the image of Kyra in Gods and Magic: epic, wonderful, cool. But for a for a PFRPG DM, that channel energy would be something of a nightmare... so many saving throws... >_<
EDIT: Disclaimer. I know, "use something to remember the status of the enemies"... "God, what would you do with more enemies"... "Just seven? I managed to run through a fight with 30 18th-level wizards and had no problems remembering their buffs"...
Honestly, I don't play RPGs for combat, the thought of combats that last 3-4 hours bore me to snore and I beleive many DMs and players are with me on this. I'm not a combat-oriented DM, and that's one of the reasons I don't like 4E. Make combat simple, guys. ;-)
My copy of Gods & Magic seems to have a slight problem, since the central section is literally falling apart.
Sorry to bother you, but I was hoping to get a replacement.
Thank you.
I'm in need of clarification about the Master Crafter feat (a feat I find really interesting, I must say), and I have a comment to make.
The clarification: does it mean a fighter with Craft (wood bunnies)* will be able to create magic carpets (provided he has access to the required scrolls), or must the type of item created be strictly limited to his Craft/Profession?
The comment: wouldn't the "non creation" Profession skills create a problem? I talk about skills like Profession (gambler) or Profession (sailor), not aimed at creating items. Shouldn't this feat be limited to Craft skills (needed to create objects)?
Thanks in advance.
J
*(yes, a player in my first campaign had this skill. Yes, it's rather sad, yes, I was naive, yes, he was a jerk -_-)
I'm in need of a clarification about the Master Crafter feat (a feat I find really interesting, I must say), and I have a comment to make.
The clarification: does it mean a fighter with Craft (wood bunnies)* will be able to create magic carpets (provided he has access to the magic items containing the required spells), or must the type of item created be strictly limited to his Craft/Profession?
The comment: is it possible that the "non creation" Profession skills create a problem? I talk about skills like Profession (gambler) or Profession (sailor), not aimed at creating items. Shouldn't this feat be limited to Craft skills (needed to create objects)?
Thanks in advance.
J
*Yes, a player in my first campaign had this skill. Yes, it's rather sad. Yes, I was naive. Ys, he was just being a jerk. -_-
This evening I've been converting an NPC I created for a 3.5 campaign set in Greyhawk using the rules of Nephandum.
The NPC was an elf illusionist 7/master of the absurd 7 (a Nephandum PrC based on empowering figments). In the conversion, I decided to ditch the PrC, since some of its powers were similar to those ofm the illusionist specialist. The NPC became thus a 14th level illusionist.
During the creation, I realized something that made things quite difficult: the wizard has too many powers, and creating one really is time consuming, even more so than in 3.5...
I mean, it took about 30 minutes, not counting spells (prepared and spellbook) and feats (I had already decided both when I first created the NPC). The most time consuming thing was deciding the extra spells obtained at 2nd, 4th, 6th and so on level... Really, the creation seemed neverending.
Anyone else felt the same? Am I exaggerating (mind you, it could be :-D)?
This evening I've been converting an NPC I created for a 3.5 campaign set in Greyhawk using the rules of Nephandum.
The NPC was an elf illusionist 7/master of the absurd 7 (a Nephandum PrC based on empowering figments). In the conversion, I decided to ditch the PrC, since some of its powers were similar to those ofm the illusionist specialist. The NPC became thus a 14th level illusionist.
During the creation, I realized something that made things quite difficult: the wizard has too many powers, and creating one really is time consuming, even more so than in 3.5...
I mean, it took about 30 minutes, not counting spells (prepared and spellbook) and feats (I had already decided both when I first created the NPC). The most time consuming thing was deciding the extra spells obtained at 2nd, 4th, 6th and so on level... Really, the creation seemed neverending.
All right... The PCs have cleared D0 without much problems.
The adventure helped us understanding a bit something about grappling and CMB (BMC in Italian :-D).
Spoiler:
The most interesting thing that happened was during the battle with Greypelt. They were fighting inside the room with the dwarves' bunks. As soon as Greypelt appeared (he sneaked around the party and took the cleric flat-footed), he tripped him after biting, thus blocking the way for the sorcerer and the paladin.
The paladin tried to find a way around, went in the corridor and found herself against a kobold rogue she dispatched in three rounds by smiting evil. The cleric chose to enter grapple with the worg, inflicting damage with his armor's gauntlet while the sorcerer was busy heavenly firing it. Essentially, the worg was killed by punching it on the nose, and finished by a critical smite evil.
Sunday, they began Crown of the Kobold King, and... Well... The adventure is a true killer.
They expended all of their Channel Energy and smite evil, while the sorcerer is almost out of spells...
Spoiler:
BTW, I had to remove the fast healing quality from the forge spurned, otherwise, the adventure would have ended with a TPK...
I recently translated in Italian the Diamond Lake Campaign Backdrop for my players.
Since I'll be narrating their campaign on an italian RPG messageboard, I'd like to attach the document (it contains translated text and some images) to the first post.
Can I do so? Or do I violate the copyright by distibuting it to a larger audience?
I just received my first Pathfinder subscription (#10), and went to "My Subscriptions" to check on the freshly-added subscription to Pathfinder Chronicles... And I noticed something strange.
Near to the Pathfinder logo was:
My Subscriptions wrote:
Ongoing Subscription
Most recent volume:
Volume #10 shipped 07/02/08 via USPS Package Service (estimated 9 to 36 business days in transit)
Next volume:
Volume #12 will be the next volume to ship
No number 11 in my subscription?
Thanks in advance for the answer. :-)
Wow. I used "subscription" seven times in this post. :-D
Here's the comments regarding the playtest I conducted with four players, set in Ravenloft and using the Alpha 3 rules and the Gazetter I (published by Arthaus).
The setting: the domain of Forlorn, in the current year (758 BC).
The level: the players started at 1st level. They were all humans.
Rules: Pathfinder Alpha 3 (racial hit points), some setting specific feats, OGL spells only.
The story took the PCs from 1st to 8th level, and started in the village of Forfarmax (see Gaz I, page 82)
The PCs:
Sean MacFarn (human male paladin 8, LG): Self-styled last descendant of the MacFarn clan, he became a holy warrior of Brigantia (goddess od animals, nature and protection), and a dedicated exterminator of goblyns plaguing the land of Forlorn. He is bethrothed to Rhianna.
NOTE: Since in Ravenloft there's no way of determine a person alignement, Sean travels with Rhianna with no problems.
Rhianna ApMorten (human female sorcerer 8, NE): Scion of the ApMorten clan, effectively rulers of Forfarmax, she seemed to be born dead, but a jolt of electricity her mother Lionna (an accomplished wizard herself) unwillingly released brought her back to life. Rhianna has a knack for necromancy, has failed a Powers Check, and yhe Undead bloodline. She is terribly attached to her community, madly in love with Sean and has a strong bond to her other comrades, but is otherwise a very dangerous person. She wants to gather more power for her family, so to win back the land of Forlorn.
Ross MacFarn (human male barbarian 4/fighter 4 CG): Cousin to Sean and childhood friend of Rhianna, Ross is the best fighter in Forfarmax, a true berserker. He's good to his friends as he is bad to goblyns and zombie wolves. He's extremely protective of Rhianna, and enjoys fighting with Sean. He's not fond of Colin.
Colin MacDermac (human male rogue 4/ranger 4 N): Colin is a wilderness fighter, a merciless slayer of goblyns (he still has a scar on his face caused by goblyn feeding). He is silent, cruel and swift. A typical man from Forlorn. His goal is to slay the solleyder, the half-real/half-imagined entity leading the goblyns. He fell in love with Sean, but the paladin doesn’t suspect it.
The PCs have gone up in levels really quickly (unfortunately, I haven't used XP for a very long time, nor I did this time, so I can't say if the different progression work...), with an average of 1 level per two session. I tried to have at least an encounter per session. They started from brief skirmishes with goblyns and zombie wolf, to end with a confontation with an undead treant under an ancient burrowing mound. The encounter ended with Rhianna controlling the massive undead tree, and bringing it back near Forfarmax to be studied by her family (thanks in good measure to the fact that all the other PCs were unconscious and stable). There was no healer, but they managed to survive thanks to Sean and his lay on hand and, later, to a CMW wand used by Rhianna with her Use Magic Device skill.
The mini-campaign (played in May) was balanced between non-hostile encounters and combat.
My comments: I really enjoyed the game. No, really. :-D
General comments by the players:
They were happy to have a character who was useful without prestige classes and violent multiclassing (the rogue and the barbarian later told me the multiclassed out of habit, since they felt less useful than the single classed PCs).
They really liked the CMB, but were not too fond of using one Combat Feat per round.
The “feat every two level” is something they really enjoyed.
The improved skill rank and the skill consolidation (though Perception and Stealth was something I already used for a year and a half of game…) was something well loved, though they felt they had less choices ant first level (having 10 points instead of 40 was something the rogue didn’t really liked), but he adapted with no problems. Seeing the cross-class skills gone made us throw a party, waste us out with beer and wine, the start again the next day.
In general, the reaction was enthusiastic. Mainly because the classes became interesting to be played fully from 1st to 20th level.
Specific comments Paladin
Really enjoyed the lay on hands multiple uses, but feels the amount cured is quite ridiculous. At 8th level he healed 8 hp… Really not useful. Maybe twice his HD was better?
He felt that “aura of good” shoud REALLY mean something aside from the reaction to detect evil.
He was really taken by the new auras of the paladin. Really. He was a little sad when I told him we’d have stopped at 8th level.
Sorcerer
LOVED the “at-will” cantrips, LOVED the bloodlines (she felt the bloodlines finally justified the sorcerer levels beyond the 5th (the one where you usually took your PrC). The 1st level power is something she really felt is useful at low levels, and less at highest levels, but good to have around anyway (“better than starting throwing bolts”, she said).
In all, she really enjoyed the PC.
Barbarian/fighter
The barbarian became an enthusiastic Cleave-user. :-D
As I said, his main grievance was multiclassing, since it precluded some cool barbarian rage abilities.
Didn’t feel at all annoyed by the rage points, rather he loved them. When I told him some people on the boards found them hard and felt like accounting, his response was “You take a piece of scrap paper, write your rage points total and subtract the number used. If you find this hard, maybe you should take elementary school from the beginning”. ^_^
Liked the 4 levels of fighter too, and said that “the class has finally a reason to exist beyond 2nd level and has became more than a quicker way to fulfill prerequisites for prestige classes”.
So, I’ll say he liked it too.
Rogue/ranger
As the barbarian did, she didn’t feel the need to multiclass, but did so out of habit.
She liked being able to sneak attack more kind of creatures, and the broader choice of feats for the ranger combat style. She also added love for the favored terrain, but pointed out that, in a limited campaign as was the one we played in, her PC became quite unstoppable, since ALL of Forlorn is made by hills.
Conclusion
Well… No 4E for us, it seems. Keep up the good work! :-)
Hi to all and compliments to all Paizo people for their efforts.
Yesterday, while reading the Alpha Release, I noticed something that annoyed me a bit: the Necromancer specialist's powers.
I mean... Controlling undead. Again? Will "necromancer" ALWAYS mean "black-robed skinny asocial guy with undead coterie who will never be able to mingle with other human beings" (hey, I checked on my encyclopedia. I just quote the definition :-D).
IMC, one of my players is playing a good-aligned necromancer who's never animated a corpse. On the contrary, he LOATHES undead creatures. As it is, the power from his chosen specialization would be quite... Useless, since it focuses just on one side of a rather vast school.
I think a necromancer is not just an idiot running around in graveyards animating undead just for fun. A necromancer is a specialist, like an enchanter or an evoker.
The school of Necromancy is MORE than its stereotype. Many necromancy spells let a caster end a fight easily, or without resorting to lethal options (ray of enfeeblement, scare, waves of exaustion...). Other spells are extremely useful in FIGHTING undead (from the humble disrupt undead to halt undead, and let's not forget undeath to death).
Other powers are good IMHO (they are "general necromancy"...) but I feel that, in emphasizing the "undead controller" side, the necromancer will never get rid of the "black robed asocial" stereotype. ;-)
What I say is that you're doing a great job: let's avoid class stereotypes. :-)
Just my thoughts no the matter. Feel free to ignore them. ;-)
I recently played Carnival of Tears with my players inside my Age of Worms campaign (Hollow can be fitted perfectly into Diamond Lake) and my players, taking the risk of dividing the party, managed to stop almost all of the butchering attractions.
They defeated the rider, freed Tessa and gained Namdrin's help... But after all, they witnessed the couple fall apart. What do you think they did? They started talking with both Namdrin and Tessa.
While the bard spoke with the shadowdancer at a table of the Feral Dog, in front of a cold beer, the paladin counseled Tessa, insisting on her past goodness and the strong of the feeling between her and Namdrin.
They managed to make the two talk to each other (thanks to a calm emotions too) in Allustan's garden, and though the two broke their relation, it happened in rather friendly way. There was a bit of crying, there were hugs and kisses... Namdrin left Tessa in Diamond Lake as a friend, while the girl decided to stay for a while in the chapel of Heironeous, helping with the chores.
The same happened with Crown of the KK. In the ending, we see most of the rescued children growing into big, big problems... Not in my campaign.
For example: they befriended Mikra's father, and he contacted them as soon as the boy started "acting strange". Thanks to their intervention, the boy was placed under Allustan's tutelage, along with Savram. They managed to avoid Kimi's mother attentions and the paladin reminded her of the duty of faithfulness to her husband. The same paladin grew into an example for Jurin (IMC he's Balabar Smenk's son), who decided to reject his father and join the church of Heironeous. Shortly before Carnival of Tears, the PCs managed to save Holin's sister from the brothel, and she and the boy were sent to Hommlet (one of the PC's hometown), where the boy could recover from his experience thanks to the newly-built hospital of Pelor (built by one of the player's old PC :-D).
Why did I say all of this? To show that true victories are not achieved just hacking your way through enemies... And to thank the good people at PAIZO for such an excellent occasion for good roleplay!
I placed an order a month ago (order number 704872); all of its items are labeled as "shipped" (I received the second email on February the 8), but I have not received the shipment yet.
I live in Italy. What's the time needed for a shipment to reach Europe?
When it comes to sudden curveballs of the 'but I want to explore over here' variety, it's good to have modular pieces you can throw in, but don't be afraid to be honest with your PCs. It's OK to say 'if you guys want to explore the abandoned village over there, I'll need some time to prepare it'; good players would rather have a fleshed out adventure next session than a barebones improvised one now.
That said, if you keep things modular, it gets easy to splice things in. Have a bandit lord you wanted them to face? Looks like he took over that abandoned village when they weren't looking! If you have rough descriptions of the nearby places and keep a few sidequest hooks ready that you can add, improvising becomes much easier.
I find non balanced parties more entertaining. It's fun to try to overcome your weaknesses in creative ways. Give it a try. You might enjoy it. And if you don't, every group needs one or two sessions they've sworn to never speak of.
This! Why not try a game where you're all martial? The beauty of tabletop RPGs is that the GM can customize the game to your party. Your DM is presumably not a robot that will simply leave you stuck because you don't have the spell necessary to unlock the door to the next room. You'll simply have to get inventive to deal with all the arcane s%&~ he throws at you. Issues like lack of healing can be worked around, either through frequent rests, liberal potion supplies, or even hiring an NPC cleric.
Or, failing that, you'll keep dying until the party balances out, and may the best martial win.
Arcane Strike is good, but remember that both it and the Transmutation (Shapechanger) ability to grow a natural weapon use up your swift action.
If you want a really spicy build, Wizard/Abyssal or Draconic Bloodrager/Eldritch Knight lets you take the Blooded Arcane Strike feat to both grow claws and auto-arcane strike whenever you bloodrage. So for ~8 rounds per day, you could cast Beast Shape II to transform into a Giant Octopus, enter a Bloodrage for +4 strength, use your swift action to grow a gore attack, then attack with an Arcane Strike'd Bite/Claw/Claw/Gore/Tentacle/Tentacle/Tentacle/Tentacle/Tentacle/Tentacle/T entacle/Tentacle whammy. Bam!
I'd be very worried about running out of resources with a party like that. A lone cleric would need to rely on his magic to be able to handle melee combat singlehandedly; if you run out of spells for both characters, you're pretty boned. You're also going to be very low on skills.
One arcane and one divine is a nice combination, but I would swap out one or the other for something with a little more martial prowess and versatility. Perhaps the Cleric for a Paladin, Warpriest or Inquisitor, or the wizard for a Magus, Alchemist, or Investigator.
If you want two full casters, consider an Oracle. The Battle and Metal mysteries give you access to martial weapons and heavy armor, as well as several other survivability boosting revelations. Nature gives you an animal companion and some handy wilderness survival skills. Either way, Charisma as a casting stat and two extra skill ranks per level makes you a much better party face.
Oh, and beware your saving throws! If you both get knocked out by one nasty spell, it's an easy TPK.
Be a Qinggong Drunken Master, get your Con up to 18, take the Fast Drinker feat, and start turning alcohol into an unlimited supply of Scorching Ray, Dragon's Breath, Spit Venom, or flurry of blows.
Okay, so your DPS isn't all that great, but nobody expects the Blaster Monk!
(Adding someone whose primary gig is to get drunk and spit fire/acid/etc. may or may not make your adventures very, very interesting.)
Haha, as long as you're enjoying it, it's fine. Hmm... Beast Eye definitely seems like it should work, as should the hex Hag's Eye. (Although, Arcane Eye says "it sees exactly as you would see if you were there," so maybe not.) Since Remove Blindness doesn't require a CL check or anything, a scroll of it should be perfectly effective. Both of those take a standard action (at least), so hopefully your GM considers that a sufficient nerf that he won't start crippling you another way.
You also might consider prepping more area-of-effect spells like Cloudkill, Confusion, Waves of Fatigue, or Black Tentacles; summon spells like Summon Monster V; or buffs like Heroism or Death Ward. With a bit of support from your party and familiar, all of them should be reasonably effective even while blind.
Hi Xuru, congrats on making your first character. I would also put in a recommendation for a strength-based ninja or rogue. To build an effective two-weapon-fighting build, your character needs:
A big attack bonus, so you can hit even with penalties from TWF
A big source of static damage that is applied to each hit
A high AC or large amount of HP so you can stand still and trade hits with foes on the front lines
Unfortunately, ninjas and rogues typically only have the second item there, in the form of sneak attack; even then, you won't always have sneak attack, and some enemies are immune to it. Compare to what you need to be effective as a two-handed weapon user:
High strength
Power attack
It frees up a lot of feats and ninja talents, too. Your Dex won't be quite as high, but honestly you won't really miss a +1 or +2 on your skills that much compared to being MUCH more effective in combat. (You get a lot more bang for your buck when you use Ki to get an extra attack, and for your first 7 levels you're just as effective whether you get a standard action or a full attack, compared to TWF where you NEED full attacks or your feats are useless.)
Oh yeah, and if you go Ninja, Vanishing Trick is really, really, really good. Smoking/Choke bomb is a lot of fun, too. Remember that you can still find and disable most traps with nothing but Perception and Disable Device.
The Image line of spells is often used to quite comedic effect. We once had to cover up our murder of an innkeeper quite rapidly, so we shoved the body under the bed, crouched in the corner, and used Silent Image to make a clean new rug, bedsheets, and an illusory wastepaper basket & lamp to cover myself (a gnome) and our rogue (an elf). The sheriff poked his head in... then kept moving. ;D
Oh, and Telekinetic Charge is a fun one, too. Just make sure there isn't a cliff beneath the flying target you're flinging your barbarian at...
I was definitely thinking more along the lines of Zelda from Hyrule Warriors, but a Smash build or a Tetra style build would be more than welcome...Also a Sheik...err so many choices, but priority is:
1. Hyrule Warriors
2. As Sheik
3. As Tetra
Hyrule Warriors Zelda certainly feels like a Magus, most likely with the Arcane Accuracy and Devoted Blade arcana. Sheik feels like Ninja or perhaps Slayer, and Tetra is definitely Swashbuckler.
She definitely hurls a few fireballs in Smash. I would probably go Elvish Wizard, and use the elvish proficiency with longbow to do some damage in the early levels. Alternately, Zen Archer -> Sorcerer (wis-based archetype) -> Arcane Archer works well too for a bigger archery focus.
Hmm... I wouldn't worry about balance too much, as it's usually easy enough to cover whatever skills you need with proper tinkering. What seems to be key here is minimizing complexity - you want your family to be focused on learning the system as a whole, not puzzling over how stuff like Spell Combat works.
To that end, I would suggest using the following classes if possible, as they tend towards lower complexity.
In my experience, these are the easiest classes to simply pick up and play. None of them require tracking spells known, like Wizard, Witch, or Alchemist; none of them rely heavily on an animal companion or other cohort, like Druid, Hunter, or Summoner; and none require system mastery like Brawler or Magus.
Good luck! We'll be able to help you better once you talk to your family and get a sense of what they want to play.
Hey all you shamans out there! Tired of scrambling through the PFSRD on your phone trying to figure out what you want your wandering hex to be? Print this out and worry no more!
The Seer's Catalog is a printable compilation of all the shaman's spirits and hexes. While some of the spirit animals, true spirit abilities, and manifestations had to be excluded for page length reasons, this has everything you need to leverage Wandering Spirit to the utmost.
I've got one for the Shaman: The Seer's Catalog. It's a list of all the spirits, including spirit spells, spirit hexes, and regular and greater spirit abilities. Should be handy for anyone who wants to get good use out of Wandering Spirit. Printable!
Also includes a list of the feats available to Shamans that boost hexes, the list of standard Shaman hexes, and links to/names of the standard Witch hexes. Had to cut out some of the Spirit Animal abilities and whatnot to save space, though.
Redward, out of curiosity, what do you do with Evolved Summoned Monster? One of the guys in my group told our Wizard he should take it, but then no one saw an application for it that was worth a feat.
Anything you need! It lets you pick a new evolution every time you cast Summon Monster. That means Climb or Swim for dealing with non-flat encounters, Scent for invisible foes, Resistance for things with energy attacks, Push for shoving things into hazards (great if you like Create Pit!)... the list goes on.
Plus, if you take it twice, you can pick any TWO 1-point evolutions, which opens up things like giving an Ankylosaurus Claws and Pounce for massive damage, or Push and Reach for keeping things away from you, or even just Mount so you can officially ride a dinosaur into combat.
Bonus points for making ridiculous things, like Lantern Archons with tentacles.
Fey Blood is good if you can create difficult terrain; your team can charge, but the enemy can't. Infernal is an easy way to get flaming weapons for everyone, plus resistance to fire and poison (both of which are fairly common) at level 6.
Alternately, swift foot makes everyone a little faster. Renewed Vitality and Renewed Life let your team shrug off ability damage and negative levels, respectively. And grabbing Bestial Climber or Bestial Swimmer could be extremely useful in certain campaigns.
I see the flavor coming across nicely with a Synthesist Summoner. You could fluff your eidolon as various suits of armor, and using Lesser Evolution Surge you could change its abilities at will. Add evolutions like Improved Natural Armor, Flight, and Energy Immunity, and combined with your spellcasting, you could be a pretty kickass warrior.
Archer inquisitor is a very viable choice here - with dex to damage you should be amazing. The skills and Detect spells are awesome for this party, too. If you have a Bard you should be free to dump charisma and focus on being the party radar, tracker, and DPS turret, plus divine caster.
Human
Str 16 (14+2)
Dex 10
Con 14
Int 8
Wis 10
Cha 15
lvl 4 boost goes to Cha, all other boosts to Str.
Feats: Power Attack and Fey Foundling.
Pick up the heaviest armor you can, and two hand a big weapon.
For multiclassing, generally the answer is no. Usually it is not worth the delayed progression to your key abilities. However, if you find yourself in the role of main healer, it may be worth it to take a 1-4 level dip into Oracle (Life Mystery). The key here is the Life Link Revelation, which basically gives 1 ally per oracle level fast healing 5, by transfering 5 damage a round to you, which you can then heal as a swift action with lay on hands.
This is very solid advice! This will give you a durable paladin that's pretty potent in any melee battle. I have some other suggestions that are a little more specialized, but you might find pretty fun.
Halfling or Gnome, Mounted Paladin - Grab a lance and poke things with it for maximum damage. Minimum strength 14. Halflings and gnomes are better because they can ride medium-sized mounts, and because come on, it's hilarious.
Hospitaler Archetype - trade some smites per day for a supply of channels distinct from your Lay on Hands, plus a healing aura at 11th. Good if you're doing lots of healing but don't want to multiclass.
Dragon Paladin - become the dragon of justice by going Paladin 4/Sorcerer 1/Dragon Disciple X. Much worse at healing, and you'll have to be wary of spell failure %, but you get strength boosts and sorcerer spells which is pretty dandy.
The Silly Avenger - As Revaar's suggestion, but go Half Elf with Ancestral Arms and grab the silliest weapon you can think of. Smite your foes with a Gnomish Battle Ladder or a harpoon or something.
Good luck! Please don't just be lawful stupid mcburlyguy unless that's actually the character you want to play - there are many, many ways to RP a Paladin, even with the same stats and feats. Check to see if your GM will let you be the paladin of a chaotic god like Cayden Cailean, or a neutral one like Gozreh - though even between the paladins of Erastil, Sarenrae, and Iomedae there would be big differences.
Well, that is 500gp a pop... The thing is, though, blasting is best done on a crowd, and I find it's pretty rare that you fight A WHOLE BUNCH of dudes with Spell Resistance. Usually it's just the one dragon or something, and you're often better off buffing your friends anyway because the enemy's saves are monstrously high.
As soon as I saw the elemental bloodline can get you a constant (while raging) 60 foot flight speed, I was hooked.
Now I want to make a Halfling bloodrager that wears Mistmail, can electrify his attacks, and has Flyby Attack, so that by 9th level he can literally just be a stormcloud that flies down to smack/zap people.
Hey all. In case you missed it, ACG graced us with this amazing feat:
Evolved Summon Monster:
Evolved Summoned Monster
The creatures you summon have evolved to have even
greater abilities.
Prerequisites: Augmented Summoning, Spell Focus
(conjuration), ability to cast summon monster I.
Benefit: Each time you cast a summon monster spell, you
can select a 1-point evolution from those available to a
summoner’s eidolon. Your summoned creature gains
this evolution. The summoned creature must conform
to any limitations of the evolution. (For instance, only a
creature with a reach of 10 feet or more can have the pull
evolution.) Evolutions that grant additional attacks or
enhance existing attacks can be applied only to Medium
or larger summoned creatures.
If you summon more than one creature with a single
spell, only one creature gains this evolution.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Each
time you do, select an additional 1–point evolution for one
of your summoned creatures. If you summon more than
one creature, you can choose to apply all the evolutions to
a single summoned creature, or split them between the
creatures summoned.
Just for reference, here are all the things you can now trick your favorite summoned critter out with (one evolution per feat!):
Basic Magic
Bite
Claws
Climb
Gills
Hooves
Improved Damage
Improved Natural Armor
Low Light Vision
Magic Attacks
Mount
Pincers
Pounce
Pull
Push
Reach
Resistance
Scent
Skilled
Slam
Sting
Swim
Tail
Tail Slap
Tentacle
Unnatural Aura
Wing Buffet
So what are you going to be summoning in the near future?
PS: I can hear Treantmonk's mind exploding from here. :p
Remember that the Arcanist has archetypes that open up a full bloodline or a full arcane school at the cost of a couple exploits, which each open up a huge host of potential builds. Plus, you can also take the exploit that grants you a minimal school/bloodline ability to mix and match! No more Wizard 19/Crossblooded Sorcerer 1, no sir.
I think the tricky thing about the Arcanist is that from a flavor perspective it's so close to wizard and sorcerer, so unlike many of the other new classes there aren't a lot of new ideas that immediately spring to mind. Still, I'm really looking forward to playing one! I love versatility, and with the Arcanist's spellcasting mechanism and the Quick Study exploit, you can have access to all of your spells in all of your slots at all times. Heck yeah!
DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:
You should be a Sharkanist! It's part Shaman, Part Arcanist part SHARK!
Just take the polymorph-boosting archetype, cast Fly, and cast Beast Shape: Shark! Turn your teammates into sharks too for a SHARKNADO ATTACK! Why isn't everyone playing an Arcanist yet?!
I would go with Toughness and Scribe Scroll. Melee druids tend to have low AC until they can afford Wild armor, and with a d8 hit die you need all the HP you can get if you're a front-liner. Scribe Scroll is really, really nice to have as a prepared caster with access to TONS of utility spells; when I was playing my druid, it allowed me to use my spell slots on buffs and whatnot while still having emergency Fog Clouds and Stone Calls when I needed them. (and Speak with Animals, and Delay Poison, and Spider Climb, and Gust of Wind, and...)
Oh, and fyi, Weapon Focus has a +1 BAB requirement, so you can't grab it at 1st level.
Yeah, if you look on the animal companion list, they have little superscript numbers that indicate which ACs are available to various classes.
For an Archer ranger, you probably want a nice sturdy companion that can keep enemies off your back in combat. The Wolf trip is typically nice, but since prone foes are actually harder to hit with ranged attacks, I'd probably stay away from it in this case.
If you're OK with a large companion, I would go Camel - they have a huge Con, a no-save sickening touch attack, and being able to move and full attack at range is pretty darn sweet.
If it's indoors and large companions won't fit, Badger could actually be a nice fit. The starting strength isn't super great but he can Rage as a Barbarian and has burrow, climb, and scent, plus a nice high Con so he won't go down quick.
Summoner has always struck me as one of the most open-ended classes in Pathfinder - it essentially gives you a blank canvas when it comes to making your eidolon.
We've all seen plenty of variations on the pouncing animal, the dragon wannabe, and the hulking bodyguard. What eidolons have you seen or imagined that don't look like anything you might find in the bestiary?
Bonus points if the summoner's flavor meshes well, and if the pair manage to be both interesting and effective.
Paladins of freedom do not follow a strict code, other than to say that they always seek to uphold the tenets of liberty and goodness wherever they travel. They resist tyranny and oppression, lead others in fighting unjust rulership, and ignore laws which limit the free and fair choices of intelligent beings. A paladin of freedom adheres to the philosophy of "That which is knowingly consented to by all involved, is just." Most leaders, good or otherwise, consider paladins of freedom anarchists to be sought out and either kept away from others by way of imprisonment, or in more evil societies, simply destroyed as soon as they are discovered. In most organized societies paladins of freedom must operate quietly as to not arouse the attention of the most powerful around them.
A paladin of freedom who fails to uphold these tenets, or who causes, by actions or inaction, sentient creatures to lose their liberty or freedom, or who willfully commits evil acts, loses access to all supernatural and spell-like class features, as well as the spell casting ability. Further, she may not gain further levels as a paladin (of freedom, or otherwise). She regains her abilities and advancement potential if she properly atones for her violations as determined by the GM.
(emphasis mine)
Coming in charging the wyvern to drop it to unconscious is one thing - if you believe wyverns are duplicitous and waiting for a chance to attack, rendering it helpless is a perfectly legitimate route of action. But Coup De Grace after his friends stabilized him? There are ONLY two reasons I could think of that would justify that:
He knew beyond a reasonable doubt the wyvern was irredeemably evil.
He had a strong reason to believe they were about to be ambushed and the wyvern could be freed to do evil, and there was no time to talk to it.
Otherwise, that counts pretty clearly as "denying a sentient creature of liberty." His friends clearly thought it could be taught and reasoned with, but before even hearing their arguments he killed the wyvern in a blood rage. That's an act befitting a Barbarian, NOT a Paladin.
Again, the key thing to look at here is not that he attacked while his friends were negotiating, but that he killed a helpless creature that possibly could have been reasoned with. Without an extremely compelling reason otherwise, I would say he falls; "It attacked us" is NOT good enough in this scenario.
I think this guy would do better as an assistant to the BBEG than as the BBEG himself. The issue is action economy - sure, the boss can use up all his actions to shut down 1 or even 2 of the party's casters, but then the rest of the party will just kill off his minions and then kill him. You're better off making Mr. Dispel the second-in-command, and let him lock down the casters (even if not quite as effectively as the BBEG would - but that's fine, you don't want them to totally suck). This forces the melee types to choose between killing the boss without magic support, or targeting the anticaster and thus maybe letting the BBEG run up to and murder the casters.
Note that the above is also a common thematic scenario: kings almost always have wizards around to protect them from magic/scry on their enemies, and sorcerous cultists have a habit of summoning demons more powerful than themselves. Variants on those two scenarios are limitless.
Also, be very careful with this type of thing - if you've ever played Magic, you should know why blue counterspell decks are reviled by most casual players. Wizards did a study - apparently, it's more fun to play a creature and have it blown up than have the casting countered in the first place, even if the end outcome is the same.
Blasters can certainly be competent damage dealers - when it comes to dealing with large amounts of mooks, there's no one that can beat them. (As long as you don't run out of spells!) But here's the main issue, I think: for most martials, dealing damage is what they do. If you're a barbarian, chances are you want to run up and smash things for massive damage. With a blaster caster, they'll go down in half the time, but still be at full damage-dealing capacity for that time; with a battlefield control caster, they'll be partially disabled or singled out while you wallop them. Both are legitimate ways of dealing with enemies; however, if I'm playing a fighter, I like to fight! I'd just as soon not have the combat be over in 2 rounds, AND have to focus more on defense since the enemies are dealing relatively more damage.
Another thing to consider is that it's a caster's responsibility to make sure your teammates can successfully deal damage to tricky enemies. If they're invisible, you need to cast Glitterdust or Invisibility Purge; until you do, your teammates are effectively helpless. If they're flying, and your archer can't take care of it, it's up to you to Dispel their flight magic or Air Walk your teammates. True, you could simply blast the enemy... but then your team is just sitting around twiddling their thumbs, and if you go down before the foe is dead they could be in serious trouble.
TL,DR: Blasting is fine, but there are many things only casters can do. Don't neglect those responsibilities in order to blast!
PS: Remember also that bosses usually come with high saves and sometimes spell resistance to boot. Make sure you keep Enervate or something similar in your back pocket, or cast some good buffs so the martials can take care of it. These will be far more helpful than ineffectually pew-pewing at the boss while it slaughters your frontliners.
Oh yeah, if you're using Permanency it's dandy. Protip, though, don't do it if it would bring your Str down to 6 or less - we had a halfling shuriken-based ninja that I permanently shrunk in a high-level game, and he got one-shot KOd by Waves of Exhaustion. And then since he was invisible and tiny we couldn't find him until after the combat ended. : /
I would also highly recommend a permanent See Invisibility. It doesn't come up often, but when an invisible foe pops up you really don't want to have to waste a turn casting it. Your party needs that Glitterdust NOW!
If I was to go Battle/Metal Oracle what weapon would you guys recommend focusing on?
First off, you definitely want to wield your weapon two-handed - sword and board gives up a lot of offense for a little defense. Greatswords are the best early on, but as your static bonuses start to eclipse the damage from your dice, you'd be best off with an 18-20 crit weapon, of which the Falchion has the best damage dice. Improved Critical or the Keen enchantment then gives you a 15-20 weapon - you'll get a critical threat on almost a third of your attacks!
That being said, there are plenty of other interesting weapons out there, particularly if you go Half-Elf to pick up a free exotic weapon proficiency.
-Reach weapons like the Lucerne Hammer or Bardiche are excellent for controlling the battlefield, particularly with Enlarge Person from the Battle mystery. (And combined with Combat Reflexes.)
-If you're considering adding tripping to your repertoire (likely via the battle revelation), you may want a Guisarme or Halberd - being able to trip people with an AoO before they get to you is very, very nice. You don't need a weapon with the Trip property to trip things, but occasionally dropping your weapon by accident is not a good thing.
-There are also some just plain awesome weapons like the Ripsaw Glaive. You really can't beat chopping zombies in half with what amounts to a chainsaw on a stick.
Remember, in the end being happy with your character is the most important thing - if running into combat with a Gnomish Battle Ladder is more fun to you than critting things left and right with a falchion, then go for it!
Unless you're specifically making a save-or-lose character (which I would go Witch for), I would go for a high average ability mod - spread the love out. I would do either:
I think the Invulnerable Rager is perfect. In fact, here's what I would do: grab a reach weapon and Combat Reflexes. The sword & board fighter will probably take Shield Slam, so you should convince him to take Greater Bull Rush. Then whenever he slams someone, you get a free attack of opportunity!
In fact... if you convince the Sorcerer to buff you with Enlarge Person (maybe buy him a wand of it), and then grab the Toppling Spell metamagic, things could get almost comedically awesome. Just wear some armor spikes or something and you can get free attacks on anyone within 20 feet of you that stands up. (Any poor guy that gets knocked down in front of the Rogue or Fighter will probably take two attacks of opportunity at +4 each. Ouch.)
The fighter goes a long way to help out your front line, but he can really only affect the enemies right next to him. I think having a Barbarian that can take center stage and make a giant Ring of Pain for any mooks that try to approach the casters would help a lot more than having another ranged DPR character. Plus, with your sky-high Strength mod and 2-handed power attacking, you can expect to easily put out 1.5x the damage of the fighter, and be much better at making non-full round attacks.
PS: Later, you can grab Come and Get Me, which incidentally goes great with Invulnerable Rager.
PPS: Hella ninja'd. Oh, and I wouldn't do vivisectionist - your Rogue might get jealous. :p
See, and that's where Superior Summoning is really good. There's nothing like a herd of Lantern Archons pinging them and curing you guys to annoy the bejeezus out of an opponent. Hell, summon enough and you can get them to Voltron it up. If your DM ever loosens up on source material, you may want to look at the Sacred Summons feat.
BTW, make sure you grab a weapon cord, so you can drop your sword to cast and pick it up as a swift action.
Take medium armor, pick up a shield & scimitar. At low levels you'll have enough AC and HP to be a front-liner - you can whack low-AC mooks and Aid Another/flank with your pals on tougher things. You'll also have enough strength to make touch attacks pretty well without the need for Weapon Finesse. As a human with 12 int, you'll be able to keep 3 or 4 skills maxed and afford ranks in a few others; your Cha and skills make you a passable diplomat if you so choose. I wouldn't bother with Power Attack - leave the damage-dealing to the muscleheads, and focus on hitting enemies and supporting allies.
As you level up, you can step towards the back and focus on casting and summoning. By high levels, your high-powered, multiple-creature summons will fill up the battlefield, and your Persistent debuffs will take out tough enemies. You will be the backbone of the party - whether they need more muscle, protection/restoration from nasty enemy abilities, a utility spell to achieve a key objective, or the elimination of a key target via magic, you'll be able to help. That's the beauty of the Cleric - they are one of the best generalists in the game, and a godsend (literally) for a small party.
If you pick up Augment Summoning, it's worth it to get Superior Summoning. It sucks bigtime to try to summon multiple things off of a lower list... and get 1. With Superior Summoning, you can get up to 4 in one go! And let me tell you, my wizard's favorite combination of spells at high levels was SMVIII for multiple Tyrannosaurs, Animal Growth one, and quickened Haste. Good times.
If you're going Dervish Dance, you really, really don't need Strength - especially since your dex will probably be high enough to warrant light armor. (You can give your bedroll and whatnot to the strong guys to carry, too.) I would use this stat array:
STR 8
DEX 16
CON 12
INT 10
WIS 18 (with racial bonus)
CHA 10
If you think you're going to be attacking more often than you'll be casting spells with saves, you can put the racial bonus into Dex instead; depends on your party.
Remember that with the domain spells, you DON'T get to spam them - if they're not on your list, you get at most the one domain slot; you can't prepare them in regular slots.
As for feats - well, you'll need Weapon Finesse and Dervish Dance. Some other favorites:
Improved Initiative - very nice for getting stuff like Communal Resist Energy off before the party splits up
Scribe Scroll - very nice for a Cleric; you can prepare scrolls of stuff like Delay Poison, and keep your spell slots for offense.
Skill Focus: Conjuration, Augment Summoning, Superior Summoning - excellent if your front line needs help. Beware, though, summoning involves a lot of paperwork and arithmetic.
Toughness - extra HP are always good.
Craft Wondrous Items/Craft Magic Arms & Armor - your party will love you forever.
I wouldn't worry about Selective Channel or Combat Casting - the former has a stiff Cha requirement (and you shouldn't really be channeling in combat anyway), and for any case in which you'd use the latter, you'll probably want to be attacking instead.
Traits - Reactionary for +2 initiative is always good. You can use the other to shore up a poor save if you want.
Hey all! If you were going to be playing a character solely at level 1 - that is, just playing him at level 1 for 1 or 2 sessions - what would you play? What are some fun builds that are effective right at level 1?
15 point buy, no stats below a 9 before racial bonuses, average starting GP according to class.
My first thought is a Don Quixote-style Cavalier...
It might help if you told us more about the background/personality of your character. Still, in a vacuum, here are some ideas in keeping with Dave Justus' limitations.
1. The Hula Hole-Maker - a hula hoop, rimmed with spikes. As you hula, it loads a spike in one motion from a quiver on your belt, picks up speed as it swings around you, and lets go to hit an enemy. This also means that your firing routine is literally hip thrusting.
2. The Organ Grinder - a music box with attached crank. Each full rotation brings back and then releases an internal mechanism, loading and firing your choice of projectile. (Perhaps vinyl records, or little jingle bells.)
Of course, simply reskinning it as a crossbow, slingshot, sling, shotgun, etc. is possible as well, but as long as you're in a fantasy setting you might as well have a totally ridiculous weapon.
You can be a decent party face rogue and reasonable skill monkey off a 14 Cha.
Then build to taste. Knifemastsr is quite good, but I'm a fan of the hard hitting STR Rogue with a two hander. Face skills and facebreaking skills.
I'll second this. Focus your stats and feats on combat - skill ranks, class skill bonuses, and items are plenty for social skills. Also consider that in a 6-man group - particularly with two other high-Cha classes - you're best off focusing on one or two skills. Unless you're a caster trying to boost your casting stat into the stratosphere, skill ranks are usually the deciding factor at higher levels.
If one of those is Intimidate, you'd be a fool not to take the Thug archetype - it's one of the very, very few ways to make the Intimidate skill actually worthwhile in combat. A thug build with high-Str, Power Attack, and Cornugon Smash would be pretty effective in AND out of combat.
Also, having played a Rogue as my first character, I think high-Str is the way to go. You don't need Dex as much as you think. Str builds get much higher damage with much less effort, and are almost as good at stealth and whatnot.
Suggested point buy:
Str 18 (+2 racial bonus from whatever race)
Dex 14
Con 12
Int 10
Wis 10
Cha 13, boost at 4th if you want
PS: If you don't need trapfinding and don't want an archetype like Thug that replaces it, I'd go ninja instead of rogue. Invisibility is just too, too good for a sneak-attack based class.
EDIT: As for interesting builds, I've always wanted to try building around Butterfly Sting. Just remember that no matter how big your crit range, you need to actually confirm it, and that the other guy needs to hit the same enemy again immediately. Still... feeding crits to a Barbarian with a x4 weapon is definitely devastating. Alternately, perhaps a Dazzling Display build?
The BBEG turned out to be faking it and isn't actually evil. The BBEG was hired by a PC's mother to fake villany so the PC would get off their duff and do something with their life. Every bit of evil the PCs have countered that were supposedly part of his plan were just evil items the BBEG found out were going to happen and took credit for. There was no actual evil plan.
Hah! That's hilarious. How did the final reveal go?
Although, I could totally envision a final showdown of the PCs against the mother (read in the voice of Archer): "Mother, why did you turn yourself into a demon?" "Because you always... wanted to be... a hero..." *dies* "Motherrrrrr!"
No, no, you've got it backwards - it's the WEAPONS that become pointless.
/rimshot
EDIT: When it comes to rust monsters, I think the threat of a rust monster is what's important. Ideally, they should panic a bit and have to reassess their strategy - not actually have their gear destroyed. A barbarian that would charge headlong into a den of devils would hesitate if the path was guarded by rust monsters... which means the party can either find a long-range way to deal with the monsters, or take [insert alternate perilous path of DM's choice].
Of course, the PCs may be able to turn that to their advantage. Bandits giving you trouble? Minor Image a few rust monsters heading their way...
Well, it's pretty much like throwing a Rust Monster at the party - something you do every once in a while just to keep them on their toes. Nothing will send a party into berserker mode like "those guys are trying to BREAK OUR STUFF!"
Use it sparingly, of course. A good time is when the party would be scared for another reason BESIDES "I'm going to have to spend GP to repair this/buy a new one." Case in point: Everybody just bought fancy new silver weapons to use against the vampire lord? Yeah, guess who taught his undead minions how to sunder.
Personally, I'd recommend a (insert weird race) Qinggong Monk.
Ah, but here's the thing about the Qinggong: you need a decent degree of system mastery/play experience in order to tell which abilities are worth keeping, which SLAs are worth spending Ki on, etc.
Marthkus wrote:
1) Barbar's limited rounds of rage kind of sucks.
2) No heavy armor is another downside. (even with a feat you give up fast movement).
3) Superstition is a double edge sword and can get you killed if you aren't careful.
4) With how con rage works it behooves you to invest in diehard.
Ofcourse the trade-off is ridiculous with non core sources, but those are by no means a beginner builds that's more of "The opt boards wrote my character for me".
I wouldn't worry too much about 1 and 2. After the first few levels, you should have more than enough rounds of Rage per day... and of course, if you have a really long adventuring day, you can just keep your rage stored up for tough situations. Barbarians have enough hit points that they generally don't need heavy armor. And you don't have to pick Superstition as a rage power. Diehard is really, really good for Barbarians, but you can also just take Raging Vitality and be fine.
OP, here's why I would pick Barbarian if I were you: simply put, it's really, really hard to make an ineffective Barbarian. Just give yourself a high Strength and a high Con and take the feats Power Attack and Raging Vitality... and then you can do anything you want. Take feats and rage powers you find interesting and fun and just have a good time raging and beating the ever-loving sh*t out of any monsters foolish enough to stand in your way.
Unless you're playing a pretty high-powered campaign, you should be beefy enough to go toe-to-toe with most monsters. There's a tendency in Pathfinder for people to boost their AC as high as possible with armor, shields, etc... and then find monsters ignoring the tin-can fighter/paladin they can't scratch in order to rip a few hunks out of the lightly-armored Rogue or Wizard. Well, Barbarians don't have that problem - if the monster bites a chunk out of you, you just bite a bigger chunk back out of it. Repeat until one of you (read: the monster) dies. This makes for some pretty visceral, high-octane combat.
Barbarian is also pretty low-upkeep. You don't have to remember what bonuses you have against which creatures or which feats apply to which weapons - just keep one separate character sheet with your raging stats and a rage counter, and that's all the bookkeeping you'll have to do.
You also have a decent number of skill ranks to play around with, and remember that you can use your 2 traits to make almost any skill a class skill, which gives you great freedom in character creation. If you wanted, you could make your Barbarian a proper English gentleman with the World Traveler trait and a decent charisma to make him an excellent diplomat... who goes into a crazed bloodlust murder spree whenever anyone insults the queen. Anything goes!
Remember that a level of Dervish of Dawn Bard gets you free Dervish Dance, a nice self buff, and a little bit of extra utility - access to wands of Silent Image and Cure Light Wounds, etc.
Most efficient use? Get Improved Share Spells and cast it on both of you!
Really, it depends on how you use your actions. Casting it on yourself will do more damage if you then proceed to attack every turn; but if you think you'll be casting spells or summoning more than once or twice, you're better off casting it on your companion.
There are some witch-specific magic items in d20pfsrd. Let's just say you might look nice with a corset and a blouse.
PS: That Pearls of Power ruling is whack. For the money you're sinking into those you deserve the spell back. And it says right there in the description "The spell is then prepared again, just as if it had not been cast."
I think Bard or Lore Warden Fighter is your best bet. Bards are, IIRC, the only class that gets whip proficiency for free, but the BAB and feat requirements for whips are so severe that you're practically forced to go fighter if you want to use a whip AND have stuff like Power Attack or Improved Trip/Improved Disarm. Here are the whip feats you'll be wanting:
Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Whip)
Remember: half elves can get this for free.
EDIT: Also note that Inquisitors or Clerics of Calistria, CN goddess of lust and vengeance, get proficiency with the Whip.
Weapon Focus (Whip)
Whip Mastery (Combat)
Your superior expertise with this weapon does not provoke attacks of opportunity from your enemies.
Prerequisite: Weapon Focus (whip), base attack bonus +2.
Benefit: You no longer provoke attacks of opportunity when attacking with a whip. You can deal lethal damage with a whip, although you can still deal nonlethal damage when you want. Further, you can deal damage with a whip despite a creature’s armor bonus or natural armor bonus.
Improved Whip Mastery (Combat)
You are able to entangle opponents with the coils of your whip.
Prerequisite: Weapon Focus (whip), Whip Mastery, base attack bonus +5.
Benefit: While wielding a whip, you threaten the area of your natural reach plus 5 feet. You can also use a whip to grasp an unattended Small or Tiny object within your whip’s reach and pull that object into your square. To do so, you must hit AC 10 with a melee touch attack. Further, you can use the whip to grasp onto an object within your whip’s reach, using 5 feet of your whip as if it were a grappling hook, allowing you to use the rest of your whip to swing on like a rope. As a free action, you can release the object your whip is grasping, but you cannot use the whip to attack while the whip is grasping an object.
Greater Whip Mastery (Combat)
You can use a whip to make combat maneuvers with ease.
Benefit: You are so quick with your whip that you never drop it due to a failed disarm or trip combat maneuver attempt. Further, you gain the ability to grapple using your whip. To do so, use the normal grapple rules with the following changes. [omitted]
