lol_Datboi's page

Question: I noticed on archives of nethys they are not legal for pfs, but in additional resources under ultimate equipment, it says all rings are.

Could someone please correct me on this?

Furthermore, what is the official ruling on a non wizard owning and having a spell book and putting any spells into it as of pfs ruling? Please excuse if this is answered elsewhere as I'm new to posting

Thank you!

I'm doing a melee mystic, currently at lvl 6 and it's great fun!

Sarcesian, Mystic(pherenic adept)6
STR 16
DEX 13 (15 with mk1)
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 16 (20 WITH mk2)
CHA 12

Feats: (1)Improved unarmed strike, (3)Mystic strike (5)Extended telepathy

Magic Items of note: ring of fangs, psychic booster

I play up the whole creepy pasta thing and run him like slenderman, biting the crap out of everything with a 10ft reach. Casting command to lure ppl close and getting an attack of opportunity has been real fun, along with 120ft. telepathy to have fun with people's heads coupled with stealth, makes for a great time!

The extended telepathy allows me to make a mysticism check to speak a language to others telepathically, so out of combat, with high diplomacy and disguise, its really effective.

7th lvl I'll be taking enhanced resistance(kintetic) with a subdermal implant Dr mod to bring it to dr/7 and the bite attack will be +8 1d6+16. Lvl 9 with be weapon focus: unarmed strike for +2 more hit.
Edit: Mystic path is Mind breaker for intimi and bluff, plus subdual dmg on but more important to apply debuffs. Pherenic adept has 'Arcane Sight' for emotion effects, like fear, which I have blindsense for... He can smell your fear as a boogyman, stealthily around and toying with npcs heads, then bite it off! Squirming entrails necrograph for extra rp fun

Primary importance of stealth tactics.
Best - worst
1. Cover/concealment with bluff to continue stealth or gain unnoticed condition for hidding. Costs no resources.

2. Smokesticks/smoke pellets. Giving myself concealment on the fly for above tactics. Costs a bit of resources, a feat (shadow striker) and action economy.

3. Uzilizing shadows for concealment. More difficult to use due to visual limitations, but still possible at the cost of more expensive resources. (potions/scrolls)

4. Hellcat stealth. -10 to stealth, must be compensated with magic items and feats. Starting to impact build choices.

5. Vanishing trick. Costs limited resource and affects build choices. Can be totally trumped by see invis

Omg robe of needles, how did I not know about this before!?

So here us the new question. Burn 2-3 feats on weapon focus/slashing grace/versatile striker and use money to augment my combat options with wondrous items

Or

Use magic items to buy +1 agile Waka and a a +1 menacing waka, use my feats for ki mastery/extra ki/twf.

I went the opposite direction with my ninja. I hardly ever use stealth and don't have Vanishing Trick. Instead, she focuses on feinting and is an "in your face ninja." So I don't know if I have any good suggestions for help using stealth, other than it seems like you're taking the right feats, and boost your stealth as much as you can so you can overcome that -10 penalty from Hellcat Stealth. Creatures will often have Darkvision, so you'll be taking that penalty a lot, even when there are technically shadows around.

Your damage output comes from sneak attacks, so when you run into something like an elemental, you need a backup plan. Getting Agile as suggested above is almost a requirement, as it's the main way to boost your damage so that you can overcome DR. You didn't say what fighting style you use, but you don't have the feats for TWF, so I'll assume 1 weapon. You could, then, work toward Slashing Grace instead of Agile. Eighth level trick: Weapon Training for Weapon Focus. 9th level feat Slashing Grace. That would let you actually invest in different material weapons instead of having to power through everything with your Agile weapon. Once you have Weapon Focus, you can also use Forgotten Trick to pick up Combat Trick: Weapon Versatility, which is a way to have your Agile wakizashi (or whatever) deal bludgeoning.

The combination of Forgotten Trick and Combat Trick is your friend. It's basically Martial Flexibility for the ninja. As soon as you can afford a Ring of Ki Mastery. That will bring the cost of Forgotten Trick down to 1 Ki. Using it to pick up Combat Trick lets you get a feat to boost damage when you can't sneak attack. Either Dedicated Adversary (flat +2hit +2damage against an enemy you can identify) or Piranha Strike (power attack for light weapons, but without x1 1/2 two-handing) are the best options for a quick boost.

You can actually use it to pick up Shadow Strike when you need it as well, so if you wanted you could retrain that. It all depends on how often you're using it, and...

I don't usually play with light conditions, but I do have umd for scrolls of dark vision when needed. 750gp or 2pp can make a scroll of darkvision with 4 castings on it btw.

For stealthily around, I primarily use two tactics: using cover to gain concealment and using smokesticks/smoke pellets with shadow strike. The latter has been my bread and butter for a while, hiding in smoke.

If I start my turn in cover, it allows me to stealth assuming I break line of sight, and end my turn in cover I can continue to sneak around, unless I'm wrong. Then there comes smoke to provide concealment allowing stealth, and eventually, hellcat stealth for just broad day light hiding.

Forgotten trick is more amazing than I gave it credit for, since a know that power of martial flexibility so that's now something I'm going to build for, ty for that tip.

Slashing grace will be what I go after next, since I retrained conceal scent for weapon focus. It was either that or wall climber for multiple dimension combat, keeping my bacon safe from melee and versatility in scouting options, not to mention skipping a lot of ground based traps.

I figured the best way to stay alive at higher levels is to not get busted, hence all the focus on stealth.

So far, I've used it to get into position or to feed information to a group; less more so for combat. Being able to nova with twf and ki spent on a weakened target seems like my end game here.

To date, I've yet to be hit by anything, with superior tactics n picking and choosing my fights has lead to success.

Anyone else played high stealth characters at higher level?

Hide in plain sight isn't as valuable as i'd like it to be, simply because of Hellcat stealth and ninja trick vanish.

But i'm wondering how to stand up to higher CR encounters with all of a focus on stealth?

So i'm hidden, great, now what?

As far as conceal scent goes, have you considered deodorant? No, really. 30 gp for an hour-long effect is better than a feat spent most times. Not sure how PFS handles retraining but I understand it's an option.

I had considered spending gold in place of abilities I could just have "on" all the time, but inorder to be functional and keep pace with the party, I cant be burning up gold left and right or slowing anyone else down at the table while they wait for me to -insert item needing used-, does that make sense?

For the past week now, I've been able to casually keep up with groups, between sleeves of many garments and disguise checks to blend with NPC's durning social events, to just sticking to cover while we march through a dungeon, to popping smoke in combat to block lines of sight at the first sign of danger. My whole play style is to appear and act when its appropriate, and kind of be a literal "shadow" when not. I could care less if the party gets busted because they are clanking around, as long as enemies arn't aware of me... then I get my hands dirty.

So far it's been swell, I'm just concerned for higher levels if it will still work #gulp

So here's the scoop.

Trying out the ninja class for the first time and decided to be a master of stealth (or at least to the best of it's abilities), and take all the feats that make the stealth skill, actually relevant.

This is a first, as playing a character with a 10 STR seems....really... odd... Anyways, lets get into it.

---
Human Ninja

STR 10
DEX 18 (Racial +2 applied)
CON 14
INT 8
WIS 12
CHA 14

Traits- Reactionary, Indomitable Faith

Feat Progression:

H Weapon Finesse
1 Conceal Scent
2 nin. trick : Vanish
3 Shadow Striker
4 nin. trick : Rogue Trick : Dampen Presence
5 S.F. Stealth
6 nin. trick : Forgotten Trick
7 Hellcat Stealth

skills: acro, bluff, escape artist, climb, disguise, disable device, perception, sleight of hand, stealth, UMD, and survival (with a few of them as one point wonders).

This character is for society play, currently at level 3 from this posts date and typical tactics now include smokesticks/smoke pellets with flashpowder (with the rare chance I need to burn ki for defensive invisibility) and tanglefoot bags to troll my enemies into oblivion, with flanks with allies for sneak attack opportunities,a couple doses of drow poison I got from a chronicle, some shurikens and blow gun etc. etc. etc.

Now, my concern is, with all this stealth and planning for it, how long can this character live off of alchemical items and being a troll in upper levels?

The goal is to stay pure ninja, mind you and I still wanna take advantage of the pure stealth feats, but will someone with some ninja experience suggest some ideas I could consider for upper tier play? All the way from dealing with elementals, to dealing damage to your experience playing a DEX based character (eww). In a vain attempt to stay relevent with the rest of my fellow pathfinders.

Thanks!

(p.s. I forgot to mention my first investment was into Muleback Cords)