matthra's page

Forgive me for being new to this, but it seems like Con isn't as important in this system as it is in pathfinder. In pathfinder con could account for almost 50% of your Hp total, in star finder it's a much smaller percent. Combining Stamina and HP, At a 14 con it's 10% of your starting HP total, and 13% of your per level HP. Nothing boost HP so instant death is the same at a 20 con as 10. Resolve seem much more important for avoiding death, which would make Charisma a more important stat for solarion survival than Con.

How far you want to take charisma of course depends on what type of solarion you plan on being, I see two types of solarion, melee focused and save or suck. Save or suck solarion relies on powers like radiation, gravity hold, hypnotic glow, crush, time dilation, etc. They will want a good charisma, and will probably not bother with str and instead focus dex, grab long arms (for scatter guns and the like) and solar armor.

Melee focused go for a 14 or so in cha and dex, get a 16 in str, grab heavy armor, and of course a solar weapon. They can tank fairly well with powers like dark matter, reflection, glow of life, and do damage with powers like Plasma sheath, corona, solar acceleration.

Could always use the stars without number generator, It basically creates a wiki you can edit for planets, NPCs, Corporations, government types, and tech level. You can download and use it locally, or upload it to the cloud so your players can collaboratively help fill it out.

http://swn.emichron.com/

So I was looking into mystic theurge (yes I know it's a trap), and was wondering if Arcane Archivist revelation from the lore mystery would qualify for the arcane spell requirement. You'd need to be a 6th level oracle before it would work (spell level +1 slot used to cast), and a 1 level splash in an arcane class (probably sorc) so 8th level getting into the PRC.

It seems this would be a little less hard on spell progression (you' only loose a level of oracle progression), and would solve the MAD issue. For that spell level you'd be a 6th level sorc and 11th level oracle for spells. Magical knack could probably go into sorc since it would get the full benefit of two caster levels. Of course using sorc looses out on combined spells.

Maybe wizard instead, you'll never reach high level wizard spells so the int requirement is fairly light, and you can use your oracle slots to extend your arcane casting. what do you guys think?

125) My evil Plan to take over the world will not hinge on a single easily destructible item, I will have redundancies, if that is not possible, I will not leave said item out in the open or in the hands of an idol to indicate it's importance.

Agile is only melee weapons. This guy is gonna be a fine wizard until level 5 an then he will gimp him self by trying to be an archer. If your GM allow the dex to damage on ranged weapons then he may be sort of ok but the 3 he will be behind on bab and the lag of weapon training is gonna make his shoting feel like wasted actions more often than not.
I think.

My bad about agile, but even with just gravity bow and a weapon enchant it's still 3d6 twice a round, better than most second level spells, at probably a better to hit than the magus will have (+8/+8) without dipping into his arcane pool. Also no requirement to get into melee is a big plus, replace deadly aim with focused shot (you'll probably have both at level 7) and your damage is 2d6 (gravity long bow base) + 1d6 fire (from flaming enchant) + 3 (int Modifier) + 1 (enhancement) + 1 (PBS) or an average of 16 per hit. The nascent EK can do this for literally dozens of rounds per day, while still having other spells he can cast, such as haste which adds another attack, and amps his parties damage up.

Magus at that point is doing 1d6 (schimitar) + 1d6 (flaming) + 4 (dex from dervish dance) + 2 (enhancement) + 8d6 (assuming he super focuses on shocking grasp) or 40 points a round in a single attack at a -2 to hit from spell combat, call it a +9 to hit. That isn't a day and night difference, and the magus also invested 5 feats (weapon finesse, Dervish dance, spell focus Evocation, spell specialty evocation (shocking grasp), Metamagic: Intense spells), and a trait to get their. He can do this 5ish times a day, and then he's spent, less if he memorized anything but intense shocking grasps. If you assume three encounters per day, the magus gets to be cool about two rounds in every fight, But for those two rounds you are studly. The rest of the time the rogue is laughing at how much your damage sucks.

I have to call shenanigans. The Gish doesn't use a bow.

So the arcane archer is not a gish? Anyway it's easy enough to fix, switch to a dual talent human, add +2 to str and +2 int, switch first feat to toughness, then power attack at level 2, then weapon focus at level 3. Then arcane armor training at 6, with a mithril chain shirt.

The trick is if you use a SLA to get into Magus you loose the two levels of spell progression right off of the bat, so you get fireball at 7th level, same as the Magus. So the challenge is to build an EK the hard way (No SLA to get into the class), that is a competent fighter in addition to being a caster. This will have to be a straight caster with a splash of martial, since without a SLA you won't get into EK until 7th. So a sixth level character mixing martial and magical theme's that is more effective than a magus. Challenge accepted:

I'll do this two ways, the easy way and the amusing way.

Easy Way
Elven Wizard (Transmuter) 5/Fighter 1

Traits:

Str: 10
Dex: 18
Con: 13
Int: 16
Wis: 10
Cha: 8

Lv 1 Wizard (1)
Feat Point Blank Shot
Lv 2 Fighter (1)
Feat Precise shot
Lv 3 Wizard (2)
Feat Deadly Aim
Lv 4 Wizard (3)
+1 Con
Lv 5 Wizard (4)
Lv 6 Wizard (5)
Rapid shot

Pick up a +1 agile long bow, and with out even breaking a sweat your a better martial character than a magus, while being a spell level ahead. Without a buff round you have a 20 dex and a +3 bab (one point behind the magus), for a +8 to hit before magic and PBS so call it +10 or two for +8. With a buff round probably a rod quickened gravity bow and a normal flame arrow.

Getting late so I'll post the amusing option tomorrow, but a few hints: This caster has a x3 crit modifier on their spells, can enhance there weapons in a similar way to a magus, and uses a very unusual choice of class for the martial weapon proficiencies requirement.

It is true that the EK will be able to do those things. But his Great Balls of Fire will be later and smaller than the wizards. He cannot attack with powerattack and rain fireballs down maximised or not. he can throw one quickend fireball and with ,magic linage(fireball) he can quicken and maximise one pr round, not really usefull. Str 30somthing is nothing special, everybody that want to can get that in late game.
The magus can also take on exotic forms, cast fireballs.
I am not saying tha the EK sucks but it is stlly to undersell the magus and oversell the EK to make a point. The magus have plenty options beside shocking grasp and the EK does have...

With a single trait you loose no caster levels, so your fireballs are just the same size as a wizard of the same level, and you'll get them before the magus even with loosing two levels of spell progress. Also you mention the the EK can't do both at the same time, but that's not really a flaw compared to the Magus who is required to do both at the same time. If you don't want to get into melee because your afraid of a monsters full attack the EK can hang back and cast, got an enemy with a wicked SR, polymorph your self into something heinous and go mix it up.

What does the Magus do in those situations, same thing he does every time, runs in to use spell combat, eats the full attack, or deals with the SR. Even when they are preforming at their best, Magus is a melee combatant who can't dual wield or power attack effectively, and is a caster who is far behind in terms of spell progression. Magus is demonstrably worse than EK in every way but one, the first few levels. If you have any patience at all and want to gish, EK is still the way to do it.

With Magus you're stuck in singleton style, and focus almost all of your efforts on making shocking grasp awesome, the sad truth is that most magus builds are traps. EK on the other hand can fight in just about any style, and cast any kind of spells you want. Guns, bows, two handed weapons with power attack, reach weapons, hell and that's just the tame stuff. A properly built EK will end with 9th level spells and a +16 BAB.

EK also has the advantage of being able to combine really weird stuff into weirdly awesome combinations, want to be a triple threat hedge witch/fighter/EK who can spontaneously cast healing spells, want a shield with 0% arcane spell failure, want to add your guns enhancement modifier to your opponents save dcs? The Magus's spell list doesn't even have as many spells as the transmutation school.

As soon as you get into EK (lv 3 or 7) Magus starts falling behind fast, by the end levels when the EK is turning into a giant or a dragon, rocking a 30 something strength with power attack raining maximized empowered fireballs, the Magus is still stuck having to run into point blank range hoping he can crit with his shocking grasp spell strike. Magus is a terrible class for those who want to gish but have 0 patience. Hell I think the arcane duelist Bard archetype does a better job at being a gish in a can than Magus.

I didn't think the reload AoO is to big of a deal since I'll provoke AoO's for firing the sling when threatened anyway. If I had gone with the snap shot feats, it would have been an issue, since they would have gotten an AoO for me reloading on my AoO.

any thoughts on feats and such?

So I was thinking of making a more team friendly character for PFS, and it doesn't get much more team friendly than a bard. Halfling makes a pretty logical choice for bard, and war-slinger just seems like a pretty awesome alternate racial trait.

The problem is that ranged combat takes a fair amount of feats to be effective, so I'd probably have to take the two level fighter splash and Lore warden archetype seems a no brainer. The question is do you guys think the fighter splash will water the bard down too much? Here is an outline of the build I was thinking of so far:

Halfling
War Slinger alternate racial trait

Str: 12
Dex: 18
Con: 12
Int: 10
Wis: 8
Cha: 16

Traits: Helpful, Freed Slave

Lv 1: Bard (1) - Arcane Duelist Archetype
Feats: Point Blank Shot, Arcane Strike(AD)

Lv 2: Fighter (1) - Lore Warden Archetype
Feats: Precise Shot (F)

Lv 3: Fighter (2)
Feats: Rapid Shot, Weapon Finesse (F), Combat Expertise (LW)

Lv 4: Bard (2)
Feats: Combat Casting (AD)
Stat: +1 Dex

Lv 5: Bard (3)

Lv 6: Bard (4)
Feats: Deadly Aim

Lv 7: Bard (5)
Arcane Bond (Sling)

Lv 8: Bard (6)
Feat: Disruptive (AD)
Abil: Blade Thirst
Stat: +1 Dex

Lv 9: Bard (7)
Feat: Clustered shots

lv 10: Bard (8)

Lv 11: Bard (9)

Lv 12: Bard (10)
Feats: Spell Breaker (AD), Spell Song (not sure on this one)

Tactics: At range just fire off as many sling bullets as I can, stack static damage (arcane strike, deadly aim, strength buffs, point blank shot, etc.) to make up for having a d3 damage die. When forced into melee use a shield, Armor, Expertise, small size and high dex to make myself nearly unhittable, and aid another for +4 to hit on for the parties power attack melee guy. My melee damage will be rotten, but the ability nearly guarantee a solid hit from the parties barb makes me melee damage almost incidental. This is on top of all of the usual bard shenanigans.

Why a sling?: Normally slings suck so hard you can hear the wind whistling towards them. War slinger changes that, with reload as a free action, slings one advantage becomes really cool, being able to add any amount of strength damage per bullet. Get an enlarge person, great more damage, get a bulls strength, more damage still, no messing around with static composite ratings. 1d3+22(~ish) three times a round with hits being cumulative for penetrating DR is fairly respectable. Your still behind where a ranged focused fighter or ranger would be, but not by a huge amount.

What do you guys think?

Hexes depend on level for effectiveness, so if your planning on a dip or to prestige class they loose a lot of their luster. I'm putting together a guide on eldritch knight, and came up with the idea of the glam rocker, a fighter/white hair witch/eldritch knight combination. This build will have enough BAB to make grapple and trip viable (if not optimal), and when it could it would enlarge person, grapple (at reach), trip, use enlarged reach to beat helpless opponent like a Pinata with your great sword.

Dual talent Human (Str, Int)

Starting Stats
Str: 18
Dex: 14
Con: 12
Int: 16
Wis: 10
Cha: 8

Levels 1 Witch
Feat: Combat Expertise

Level 2 Fighter
Feat: Power attack

Levels 3 - 6 Witch
Feat: Improved Trip
Feat: Combat Reflexes
Ability +1 Int

Level 7 - 12 Eldritch Knight
Feat: Weapon Focus Great Sword (or whatever)
Feat: Greater Trip
Feat: Weapon Spec Great sword
Ability +1 int
Ability +1 int

A Wizard with the shape-change transmutation specialty can get comparable levels of strength to an Orc Sorc, but you won't be able to stack enhancement bonuses. You will also have the ability to enhance your natural attacks, which can get to pretty silly levels depending on the form your currently in, and allow you to bypass some DR. Multimorph is also awesome.

Hmm, maybe I bump arcane armor training to lv 6, because being able to wear leather isn't that great until I can get better than mage armor with 10% spell failure. That will push back focus and spec, but that's not a big deal since I'll have plenty of ways to get an extra +1/+2.

As for the hit bonus it's not great but it's not terrible, at level 3 it's a +5 (+3 dex +2 bab), and it goes to +6 (+4 dex + 2 bab) at level four which is a little behind a finesse rouge. Plus without power attack, he'll hit like a wet noodle (1d0+3). With power attack his damage is at least passable (1d10 + 6), and it can be inflated fairly easily via buffs (enlarge person, bulls strength, both of which are bonus spells for him).

As for using a SLA to get into EK early, I had heard that it was possible, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. It almost seems like cheating, I wanted to make this char to show that EK is alive and well in pathfinder, and that magus is no replacement for it. So I don't know if I want to violate the spirit of the PRC,

Hey Guys, here is an Eldritch knight build I was thinking of using in organized play. His main weapon is the amazing elven curve blade (full power attack with a finesse weapon), and he will begin his journey into gishdom at level 3.

I thought transmutation would be the easiest wizard spec for a Gish since nuking and save or suck builds are pretty feat intensive, and gishes need a lot of feats to be effective in melee. The single meta-magic feat grabbed is still spell, so I can have a spell or two ready that doesn't face arcane failure when I don't have a minor action for arcane armor training. Magical Knack lets him get caster level based feats on time despite loosing spell progression from fighter and eldritch knight, and warrior of old is just sweet icing on the initiative cake.

Later Feats are about what you would expect, focus and spec in the elven curve blade, critical focus for later crit feats, the only one I'm on the fence about is toughness, I wish I could take it earlier because of the low Con, but better late than never. So check it out and let me know what you guys think, thanks in advance.

Elf Wizard(Transmuter) 5/ Fighter 1/ Eldritch Knight 6
Favored class wizard

Starting stats (20 pt buy)
Str: 14 (+1)
Dex: 16 (+3)
Con: 10
Int: 18 (+4)
Wis: 10
Cha: 8 (-1)

Traits
Magical Knack
Warrior Of Old

Opposition Schools
Necromancy
Enchantment

Lv1 1 - Wizard (1)
Feat - Weapon Finess
lvl 2 - Wizard (2)
Lvl 3 - Fighter (1)
Feat - Power attack (F), Arcane Armor training
lvl 4 - Wizard (3)
Dex +1
Lvl 5 - Wizard (4)
Lvl 6 - Wizard (5)
Feat - Weapon Focus (Elven Curve Blade), Still Spell (W)
Lvl 7 - Eldritch Knight (1)
Feat - Arcane Armor Mastery (F)
Lvl 8 - Eldritch Knight (2)
Dex +1
Lvl 9 - Eldritch Knight (3)
Feat - Weapon Spec (Elven Curve Blade)
Lvl 10 - Eldritch Knight (4)
Lvl 11 - Eldritch Knight (5)
Feat - Toughness (F)
Lvl 12 - Eldritch Knight (6)
Int +1, Feat - Critical Focus