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I place figures on the map to represent the encounters that *could* have happened at other tiers! Plus other decoys. Spoiler: Nothing scares a low level table of players like when you place the Gargantuan T-Rex on the map with the determination and conviction that it belongs there ^_~
Only the Scenarios that are Tier 1 or Modules that are Tier 1-2. So stuff like First Steps, Master of the Fallen Fortress, We Be Goblins, etc. Scenarios that can be played by first level characters such as a Tier 1-5 cannot be replayed since they are Subtier 1-2 & Subtier 4-5, and the replay rules do not say "Subtier" they say "Tier"
As a Player: The biggest threat to our characters when we ran through it was the Chaos Beast - 4/5 of the party wound up as puddles of goo before we could return to civilization for a Remove Curse. During the scenario, for ease of play, the GM ruled to only have us save for stability once between encounters otherwise we would have been bogged down by rolls of minutia. Only the party sorcerer didn't get infected, so he could escort our puddles to get help. Not sure if any other players considered this, but our group escorted Besai to the Manor's front gates and told him to wait for us down the road and away from the dangerous house. I was unaware the Perception DC was so high! 0_0 My character saw the empty book stand, thought the Aspis Consortium had beat us to the book due to our saving Besai, so I threw the podium in a fit of rage... which revealed the secret hiding spot.
I know we've moved on in seasons, but I've just gotten to take a look at running this series of scenarios, and I've noticed a few problems that require some creativity on the part of the GM and should be addressed in case of another revision: Spoiler: In Act 1, the tier 6-7 encounter is missing its animal companion, & the Act 5 druids say to refer back to these stats... even though they don't exist - my solution: use tier 1-2 companion stats.
Kafar is said to require a "remove poison" spell to recover, even though that spell does not exist. The equivalent would be Neutralize Poison but it is a level 4 spell that no in-tier character would have. Normally not a problem, but Cheliax needs to secure Kafar's safe release - my solution: require the 10hp of healing for all tiers, but either allow a Heal Check to replace the spell or require a Delay Poison spell as it is a level 2 spell accessible to characters 3-7
I just can't imagine Wes with a goatee :-P On a serious note, good job is an understatement - Dungeon and Dragon were the first magazines I actully cared enough for to buy subscriptions; they are also partly responsible for my trans-genre gaming (magic to L5R to DnD to tomb raider ccg, etc). You truly have done amazing work and have spawned creativity in people across the globe ^.^
Thanks for all the responses! Chill Touch (and spells like it) are a special case when it comes to touch spells - the reason for asking about them is that even though you can make 1 touch/lv, holding the charge still only lasts 1min, so to keep up w/ the spell you would need to discharge the touch multiple times per round(remembering that casting another spell causes loss of the touch spell) When you have a touch spell in hand, you are considered armed, therefore you threaten within your reach, and can deliver the touch spell with an AO. So thinking about touch spells like weapons begins to make sense, but read below: @Grick: thank you so much for that James Jacobs link, it clears up a lot. As a summary for everyone, I could not make "touch attacks" via TWF or a high BAB... so multiple touches/rnd with Spectral Hand are straight out. However it does not say anything about delivering the touch spell via an Unarmed Strike. Which raises the question of a spellcaster taking Improved Unarmed Strike after his BAB is high enough, or level-dipping into monk and Chill Touch + Flurry ^_^
Two-Weapon Fighting Description Touch Spells in Combat:
Many spells have a range of touch. To use these spells, you cast the spell and then touch the subject. In the same round that you cast the spell, you may also touch (or attempt to touch) as a free action. You may take your move before casting the spell, after touching the target, or between casting the spell and touching the target. You can automatically touch one friend or use the spell on yourself, but to touch an opponent, you must succeed on an attack roll.
Touch Attacks: Touching an opponent with a touch spell is considered to be an armed attack and therefore does not provoke attacks of opportunity. The act of casting a spell, however, does provoke an attack of opportunity. Touch attacks come in two types: melee touch attacks and ranged touch attacks. You can score critical hits with either type of attack as long as the spell deals damage. Your opponent's AC against a touch attack does not include any armor bonus, shield bonus, or natural armor bonus. His size modifier, Dexterity modifier, and deflection bonus (if any) all apply normally. Holding the Charge: If you don't discharge the spell in the round when you cast the spell, you can hold the charge indefinitely. You can continue to make touch attacks round after round. If you touch anything or anyone while holding a charge, even unintentionally, the spell discharges. If you cast another spell, the touch spell dissipates. You can touch one friend as a standard action or up to six friends as a full-round action. Alternatively, you may make a normal unarmed attack (or an attack with a natural weapon) while holding a charge. In this case, you aren't considered armed and you provoke attacks of opportunity as normal for the attack. If your unarmed attack or natural weapon attack normally doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity, neither does this attack. If the attack hits, you deal normal damage for your unarmed attack or natural weapon and the spell discharges. If the attack misses, you are still holding the charge. Spectral Hand delivers a touch spell just as if it were you, but with a +2 bonus, and while holding a charge you are considered armed, and Two-Weapon Fighting allows you to take a -2 penalty to attack with 2 light weapons such as a melee touch attack... So with a touch spell that gives you multiple touches, such as Chill Touch, could you use the Two Weapon Fighting Feat + Spectral Hand to deliver two doses of the spell as a full-round action from 30' away?
It would be easier if the trait said "+1 to the hit points cured" as that is the phrasing in cure light wounds. To me, by intent and RAI, these shouldn't work together... but by RAW is where this gets very fuzzy. I'd be interested in hearing a PFS ruling too,
The Fire abilities would stack, effectively getting you to 90' land speed as a human. But two sources of burrow 30' just overlap b/c they don't bear a clause to let them increase. Also always remember that "base speed" is the equivalent of "land speed" so you couldn't stack Marid & Fire to gain a swim of 60'. You cannot select a different element and take Elemental Bloodline stuff with Eldritch Heritage, as the type of Elemental bloodline you have has already been chosen and you'd be doubling up on class features you already had. Plus, the Genie Bloodlines kind make up for this.
I'm wondering how this trait and spell interact: Trait:
Faithful Feedback: Whenever you cast a spell belonging to the healing subschool on someone of your religion, increase the hit points healed by +1. Spell:
Does this mean that the fast healing gets the +1, or the spell overall heals +1 hp as if it continued for another round, or are they completely incompatible?
I was wondering if you can combine Fighting Defensively (or Combat Expertise) with taking the Aid Another action? Aid Another is listed as a special attack that takes a standard action to perform, BUT it involves an attack roll and is listed under special attacks right next to Charge (which, silly as it sounds, I know you can combine with FD/CE)
In situations like this, when the characters know an encounter is coming either by seeing the orcs on top of the ridge, or hearing the insects on the other side of the door, but the encountering monsters also know the PCs are arriving soon either by early warning bells, spotting them, hunting them, or scent & a successful perception, I usually open the combat in surprise round: even if everyone is getting to act, their choice of actions is restricted to very combat maneuvers such as casting bless, getting into formation, bracing for a charge, etc. It also means that by the time true combat happens, everyone has technically taken a turn and is thus not flat-footed.
So far, this is the best answer... although it doesn't resolve the conflict in my mind. By RAW, yes a Paladin is immune to demoralization from Intimidate by being immune to fear effect and not immune to saves v fear, but almost nothing else against fear applies - and that confounds and perturbs me.
So I've found several discussions revolving around if Intimidate can stack, which I already knew it didn't, and one question about if a Paladin's Aura of Courage makes them immune to Intimidate used to demoralize in combat. My main question though is whether or not Intimidate is a fear effect? If it is, then would any bonuses you have against fear (such as the feat Focused Discipline or the spell Bless) apply to the DC of your opponent's Intimidate check? If the answer is yes all around, then shouldn't the Intimidate skill be errata-ed to state that bonus to fear need to be added to the DC?
Here's my take on the situation, after discussing with a PFS DM when I wanted to do an Undead Lord: 1) the ritual requires a corpse, and as corpses are NOT listed as equipment, you will not be able to "purchase" one ever 2) you can animate a corpse during an encounter, but keep in mind that it takes 8 hours, and you aren't always given that amount of time 3) your corpse companion COULD POSSIBLY persist between encounters but it will require the DM signing off on it at the end of the session, allowing different DMs to interpret the rules as they see fit 4) as undead are a prevalent enemy in PFS, your companion could most likely take a lot of friendly fire from the cleric channeling positive to harm undead 5) the second most numerous enemy are humanoids, and turning them into a skeleton or zombie results in the loss of ALL their class levels, making the companion a 1-2 HD creature again 6) you MUST ALWAYS run archetypes and alternate features by the DM prior to the game beginning, and the DM for that session has the right to veto your character being used for the session and you must use another or be assigned to a different table (making it a good idea to level your undead lord parallel with another character) I decided to go with something else just for sake of ease. If you go for it, might I recommend the Osiran Faction, as they believe the undead to be their ancestors walking in the world once again. ^_^
And THAT is the true legacy of AM BARBARIAN, no caster may ever claim to be at the top of the power tier, without the spirit of AM BARBARIAN "dream sundering" his way into reality just to kick his butt ^_^
I just took this to be a crucible where as a community we take the raw ore that was AM BARBARIAN's conception and forge it into a juggernaut that is the bane of all casters' existence by lobbing tactic after tactic at it and watching the build learn and adapt ^_^
From the perspective of AM BARBARIAN being a PC: Trinam will come to your house and punch you and you will deserve it because you are a bad person.I made a slight alteration to your above post, but am otherwise in agreement. Oh, well in THAT case, AM BARBARIAN will mow down any regular, sane, logically-built caster with little effort or strain ^_^ I did always wonder why the ratio of casters in a party doesn't match the ratio of casters in the world... and now I know it's because of guys like AM BARBARIAN; thinning out the mage population for their own good :-D
To be completely fair in these scenarios, many people have been assuming a DM v Player perspective, with either the DM (and by extension the BBEG) is either AM BARBARIAN or its attempted counter. From the perspective of AM BARBARIAN being an NPC: the terrain choice is his, and the MOST any player might know before hand is some rumors about wizards and other spell casters mysteriously disappearing, and possibly finding their naked sundered corpses scattered about the planes. It is here, when the caster has a generic load-out, that no caster can single-handedly stop AM BARBARIAN, and would be lucky to escape with their lives. From the perspective of AM BARBARIAN being a PC: the terrain choice may still be his, but the other circumstances of the encounter belong to the mage (provided they're investigating the mysterious caster disappearances, and divination has lead them here). Here it becomes unreasonable to have a specialized build for removing AM BARBARIAN, but perfectly logical to switch out spells & items, depending on how long the caster has observed AM BARBARIAN. The perspective left out is that of a PvP situation, which is how the discussions are folding out. AM BARBARIAN and the caster are able to watch each other level, and see each others' tactics until one day some one pisses the other off and rather than settle it then and there they BOTH decide to go off and plot each others' destruction.
Yeah, I was actually surprised that build hadn't come up yet. To be fair though, I changed the tides on AM BARB so that I was chacing him. There's usually only one way to win a game of cat and mouse, and that's NOT to be the mouse! But lets give that scene the AM BARB advantage and say he's hunting me and my gang of simulacrums. The only change to my build would be switching the 1 oracle level from Time Mystery to Wind Mystery for the same long sight cheese. Still, to be fair to the fanboys, it is hella expensive to pull it off! ^_^
Lotta talk while I slept ^_^ here's some more thoughts: Binding at a lower level may be too much cheese for my taste. And in reality the tactic can be pulled off at a level lower than 20. You need access to Binding (lv 8), but a staff with Binding will reduce it to a standard action instead of resorting to wish. The tactic does involve prior knowledge of AMBARB and his tactics, but hey, he's a Diviner/Oracle... I think combat intellegence is a given ^_~ Also, I stated that the character is hunting him down "to put an end to his mage-slaying" I think a few Dominate Persons would be the best to bounce off of Spell Turning as I'd be dominating myself, and there's a slim chance of it actually getting through for a save and a nat 1 (though I doubt it). I always thought spell turning would let friendly spells through, so I'd want to make it a hostile spell at least for flavor's sake. Metamorphosis is the best option as it removes some grey areas involving spell sunder. At the same time, Binding without an escape clause (which lowers the useless DC) is permanent till Disjunctioned or AMF'd; theres no clause about breaking the jar but if we want to split hairs, lets make it out of adamantium :-P I will also agree that almost no one would actually build this character EXCEPT to take down AM BARBARIAN. The build isn't very throughough either, as I haven't laid out abilities or full loot purchasing... I just saw a counter tactic. I still believe Trinam's build here is AMAZING ^.^
A freaking awesome build. I think it was brought up to have Simulacrums waste Magic Missiles into him first to eat-up Spell Turning.
Might like this feat too if you stick to diviner:
Benefit: Whenever you are adjacent to an ally who also has this feat, you may act in the surprise round as long as your ally would normally be able to act in the surprise round. If you would normally be denied the ability to act in the surprise round, your initiative is equal to your initiative roll or the roll of your ally –1, whichever is lower. If both you and your ally would be able to act in the surprise round without the aid of this feat, you may take both a standard and a move action (or a full-round action) during the surprise round.Ups what you can do a bit more in the surprise round. Also a good one. Just realized that Greater Spell Focus isn't needed... and I've been ignoring Teamwork feats b/c I was soloing... but Teamwork feats + Simulacrums = AMAZING ^_^ I've gotta re-read those!
Have a sim hit him with magic missile first, or bounce a buff off of him.A freaking awesome build. Ooo, I like: add in extra simulacrums just for that ^_^
I think it's excellent what you've built ^_^ but note that nothing is without flaw. With that said, the following character build seeks out AM BARBARIAN to stop his reign of mage-slaying! Elf Diviner 19/Oracle 1
Feats: Spell Focus* & Greater Spell Focus (enchantment), Spell Specialization (Binding & Dominate Person*), Spell Perfection (Binding), Spell Penetration & Greater Spell Penetration, Extend Spell, Piercing Spell*, Heighten Spell, Scribe Scroll*, Improved Initiative*, Skill Focus (perception)*, Alertness* Spells of Note: Wish (univ 9), Simulacrum (illus 7), Binding (ench 8), Dominate Person (ench 5), Teleport (conj 5), Time Stop (trans 9) Permanencied Spells: Telepathic Bonds between Simulacrums, See Invisibility on self and Simulacrums Items for self: Bead of Kharma (strand of prayer beads, Ioun Stone of +1 caster level 7 Simulacrums of self: Diviner 9/Oracle 1 with the "*" feats. Strategy:
Binding -> caster level 19, +1 trait, +2 spell specialization, +2 spell perfection, +1 ioun stone, +4 bead of kharma, +24 aided casting [(cl 12/3)x6 aids] = caster level 53 (twice the HD of AM BARBARIAN so no save allowed) Aid from Simulacrums -> caster level 9, +1 trait, +2 spell specialization = caster level 12 Spell Penetration -> caster level 53, +2 spell penetration, +2 greater spell penetration, +4 spell perfection, +2 elf = 1d20+stat+63 (I think I beat any amount of SR) And thus AM BARBARIAN is now trapped in a jewel! ^_^ |
