overchill42's page

I have a mad urge to combine a large shield and a cestus. Shield bashing is fun.

...Maybe I read too many comics.

My favorite TWF Fighter is a Brawler with a shield on one arm and a kuri or cestus on the other. Fat beats, and some control when you take the shield line of feats. Might be a hair trickier as a Ranger. Brawler is good for the bonuses close weapons get and the control effects, such as they are.

Also, cestus + shield = Captain America. Or USAgent, depending on alignment. I'm making stuff up now. I'll stop.

Trouble with that character is you get these kids chasing you, trying to steal your lucky charms.

I really can't guess how high we might get. We will level when the GM decides it's a good opportunity. The last couple campaigns we've tried kinda fizzled, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

Really, once I hit the pre-reqs I can take DD anytime I like. Sorc 10 is most likely worthwhile. We'll see how it shakes out.

Face-wise... I'm not too worried. The cavalier and the cleric are both good at that kind of thing. I expect most face stuff will rely more on being convincing than rolling well. Sage had occurred to me, promise. Just wanted something with some... I dunno, zazz.

Yes, I am dead-set against human. Paladin is out too. I know there is good synergy with both. I'm just not into it.

I really should get the CHA back up to 18 at least. I will be slinging saves around eventually. A 20 I can take or leave. Good point though, Ughbash.

16 14 14 12 13 10. Skills might be a little thin, but I can fill them out as we progress.

Yeah, I think I'm going to go with the Dragon Disciple. I'm a sucker for a decent guide.

I'd be curious to see how you set yours up, Submit. You must be... what? Sorc 3/Fighter 2/DD 3? What feats did you end up taking? How about spells?

I think I might need Burning Hands at this early stage. Swarms terrify me, and I'm probably going to be the only one who can deal with them. No big deal. I'll switch out Vanish. Can always tweak when I level up.

Noticed an inefficiency in my point buy, too. I should have a 14 in everything but WIS, and the floating +2 puts me to 16 CHA. SF can be one of Spellcraft, UMD, or Perception, since I have no real use for Eldritch Heritage.

Thanks for helping me think this through. Hope I don't blow it :)

Here's a thought: How does the DDs Dragon Bite interact with the Linnorm ray?

Hypothetical DD Aspirant
Half-Elf Sorceror 3
Draconic (Green) Bloodline
25 points
FCB into skills

STR 14
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 12
WIS 10
CHA 16

01 Eschew Materials*, SkF Spellcraft*, Dodge
03 Defensive Combat Training

Appraise (to build the hoard) 1
Bluff 1
Fly 3
Spellcraft 3
Know: History 1 (just... go with it)
Know Arcana 3

Cantrip: Mending, Detect Magic, Dancing Lights, Mage HAnd, Message
First: Mage Armor*, Vanish, Grease, Magic Missile

Further thoughts? I can see how these characters would be awesome in later levels, but I think I'm trying to force myself to be awesome now. Maybe I just need to bide my time through the early stages of the quadratic curve.

Any particular reason for Defensive Combat Training? Do you plan to get tripped or grabbed a lot? Did you mean Combat Casting instead?

It's mostly so I don't get tripped or grabbed a lot. I noticed CMD as a big gaping hole and paranoia made me fill it in. Combat casting might be a better choice though, given the relatively close ranges of my spells. I figured I would take stuff like that now, and then take the casting boosts later on when I have the spells to take advantage of it. SpF could probably wait a bit, for example.

Also: good point, Malignor.

I can see the value in Crossblood, I just hate giving up my precious spells known. They're... precious. So precious.

Okay, that would be funnier in person. How about something more concrete? Here's how I'm looking at building a Stormborn.

Half-Elf Sorceror 3
Stormborn Bloodline
25 points
FCB into skills

STR 10
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 14
WIS 10
CHA 18

01 Eschew Materials*, SkF Spellcraft*, SpF Evocation
03 Defensive Combat Training

Bluff 3
Fly 3
Spellcraft 3
Know: History 1 (just... go with it)
Know Arcana 2

Cantrip: Mending, Detect MAgic, Dancing Lights, MAge HAnd, Message
First: Shocking Grasp*, Vanish, Ear-piercing Scream, Grease

Blah blah derived stats blah. Wand of Mage Armor. Anyone know if casting with a cestus is legal? Was kinda in the plan, half-baked though it may be.

I'll level with you guys: this whole thing is me trying to drive myself out of the box. A human throwing rays around makes sense to me. Letting the enemy roll saves? Madness! The gish DD is something I need to wrap my head around too.

Never hurts to have a spare character in the back pocket, right?

Submit, thanks for reminding me about EH. Not sure how I blocked that out. Good option though.

I'll admit I haven't been watching the show, so grain of salt here...

Have you considered going the Shield Bash route? It gets pretty bananas later, when every bash doubles as a bull rush and you can trigger extra swings with Bashing Finish. Plus you'll have a bit of extra AC over other TWFers.

The Brawler archetype gives it a huge boost, but vanilla works fine too. I have a mad urge to try it with a Mobile fighter.

Main hand would be a spiked shield. Off-hand would be something light with a good crit range. I like the kukri or the cestus.

Just a thought. Don't know how closely you want to stick to the original character.

As good as the Illusionist no doubt is, I'm not sure I'm original enough to make it really pop. Might be a good exercise though.

So we've narrowed it down to Draconic and Stormborn. Cool. That helps a lot.

Draconic-wise, I like green and silver. So either acid or cold. The Linnorm variant has a certain draw, being a hint more defensive in application. It's probably going to end with me buffing more than blasting as I lower Charisma to build some physicality.

Stormborn would let me stack up electric DCs. Or let me skip Elemental Focus in favor of something else. Plus lightning is super-cool. The bloodline actually gives me most of the good lightning spells, letting me pick other stuff too.

Thanks for the help so far. Further input is appreciated.

That's... an unfortunately good point, Harley. I guess I kept operating on the assumption that Wildblooded were more bloodlines. Strictly RAW, this is false. Frick.

Let's take necromancy off the table and focus more on blowing stuff up. Stormborn was my original idea, but I somehow dissuaded myself. Would Tattooed be a good addition to the bloodline? I want to like it, but Thunderbolt is kinda cool.

Elemental Air has the element-switching thing, which helps. Starsoul/Void-touched add some debuffs, which never hurts. Stormborn gets a bunch of sweet spells.

How does Arial compare? Is the arcana too situational until I can make my own rain?

Hey, if it's your villain then just give it to them. It's not like players audit NPC character sheets, right?

Or a scroll plus decent UMD. Whatever works.

Okay forums, I need a deciding vote. I can't make up my mind and it's driving me nuts.

My friends and I are starting a campaign soon. The other guys have picked their roles. Party is as follows:

I would suggest using the +2/+2 skill feats and maybe some like Combat Casting and Eschew Materials. I would be leery of using combat feats, but that's just me.

More generally, give away fluffy or non-optimizable feats instead of something useful. Just a thought.

I was hoping for more request on this ^^ but its ok.

Hope you guys find it good even if it's a long read, I will appreciate feedback ^^

I'll take a look. Maybe it will give me some insight to the playtest I'm in. :)

overchill42 (at) gmail

I'm getting pretty close myself. Working out the finishing touches, doing my purchasing, and writing up character/background info. I'm not sure I have the right amount of gold though...(240 for a cleric? Can someone confirm that?)

As for your question, Overchill, I'd say go with whatever fits the character and you prefer. We'll manage one way or another I'm sure. I only really know the halberd well out of those and would say it is one of my favourites though.

You got your gold right.

And yeah, that was my gut reaction :). Just looking for second opinions.

Incidentally Tark, I was looking at some kind of ex-noble thing too. Crazy how that works.

How out-of-place would a bastard son of House Highwind be?

I think I've got my character mostly put together. When would you like us to start putting up what we have?

Question for the team: Since it looks like I might be frontline anchor for a few levels, should I bother with a reach weapon? I'm torn between a few polearms as main weapon. Halberd is the front runner, fauchard is EWP but would rock, guisarme has potential...

Any suggestions?

Did I misinterpret, or do we get five traits?

Two combat/magic/religion/social, two campaign, and one kingdom, right?

So far I have a LN Romandan Fighter with an eye toward the dragoon prestige class. Going to be a few levels bashing away with a halberd before getting super-awesome jumping powers.

Here's a question, Deiros: Can I use Cleave or Vital Strike as part of a Spring Attack? I've heard it interpreted both ways, and would like to know how you prefer it to work. How about the Jump ability?

Also, have the requirements for the dragoon changed since the other thread?

You are more than welcome to play one Gravefiller check scorpion sign I have already posted it for another player ^^

There is nothing wrong with taking the same sign if you still want it Gravefiller.

Sorry there Aleron forgot to mention were it was he! xD

No anti-hero options for this one ^^ sorry

So far we have:

Engineer/Paladin (TarkXT)
Red Mage (Gravefiller)
Blue Mage (ZenDragoon)
??????? (Aleron)
?????? (overchill)

I'm going with Fighter, no archetypes.

Also: 30 point-buy and 6 players? Yikes. Hope my character is up to snuff.

Didn't realize there was a dice roller built into the boards. Sweet deal. I just did it on my desk. I'll go ahead and re-roll for consistency.

Faith: 3d6 ⇒ (6, 3, 2) = 11
Brave: 3d6 ⇒ (4, 5, 5) = 14

If we are using Hero Points, would it be okay if I took the Anti-Hero option?

Thanks for clearing up the gold thing.

Yeah, Virgo is pretty good. Sounds a bit like me, actually, but I'm a Leo. Haha

HP and gold start at maximum you are all level 2 for this campaign.

Now when you say "maximum gold," does that mean maximum typical starting gold (e.g. 5d6 x10 -> 300), or the 1000 gold on the Wealth by Level chart?

Any guidelines or restrictions on traits? I remember seeing a rule somewhere that said two traits can be from the same category. Does that apply?

Though I hate to risk opening the debate, how do you prefer Vital Strike interacts with Spring Attack?

Okay dice, don't fail me now...

Faith: 4
Brave: 15

...Hm. All right then.

I'll use Virgo as a sign.

Are dragoons an actual organization in this setting? Is it a martial arts thing, like Dragon Kung-fu?

Just need to know how much it might figure in a backstory. I suppose it might vary by country too.

I'll admit, most of my FF knowledge comes from 10 and FFTA. Guess I should read up a bit.

Classes** spoiler omitted **...

Y'know... It might save you some document space to throw in a paragraph like "Unless otherwise noted, classes in Ikkoku are identical to the PF counterparts except in name." The make a table: one column "Golarion," the other column "Ikkoku". With the Caller, call it a Summoner* and leave a foot note saying "use the master summoner archetype." Same for the White Mage (Cleric*).

On the other hand, there might be more to the page than you have shown. Curse my reflexive proofreading.

I'm also a fan of the ZAM/Inquisitor idea, but I think the major issue is that you're going to have to slog through several levels of being okay at two things instead of fantastic at one. Or maybe you will be super at archery and add Wisdom to everything under the sun, but the two sides won't mesh right until later on.

Once the character hits level 10-12, it'll be a force. Up to that point, though, it won't feel as good as you may want it to. I first noticed this with the Mystic Theurge, and it's true to a certain extent in other combinations too. Either persevere or start at higher levels. Just... keep your expectations in check.

Just something to think about.

Well, unless something changed, I found three good ways into Dragoon. Now to see if I can decide before game time.

Fighter for the general kickassery, Barbarian for bursts of awesome, or Ranger for a more well-rounded approach. Gaaaah decisions.

overchill42 wrote:

I'd like to give this a shot. Mostly for the Dragoon. I... have kind of a weakness for dragoons. It's almost unsettling.

Super dibs called. For real. :)

Good to know it's a great Prestige class!

Well pick one of the campaigns so we can start sooner ^^ just need 2 more players minimum hopefully soon. If there is a lot of interest I will have to change the selection way of just get the first 4-6 players to be fair.

I thought I forgot something.

I'll vote for War of the Beast.

I'd like to give this a shot. Mostly for the Dragoon. I... have kind of a weakness for dragoons. It's almost unsettling.

Super dibs called. For real. :)

I actually helped a little bit with the NWoD Highlander. Ran a few one-on-one sessions too. It was a cool idea, but combat usually came down to "beef up initiative, remove defence, alpha strike." Maybe I'm jsut boring.

I always thought Highlander makes a great solo campaign idea, fitting with the series and movies. A party might be a fun one to explore though.

It seems to me that the only true mechanic necessary is Fast Healing and the vorpal death thing. The Buzz is a kind of sixth sense, so could easily fall under Perception checks. The Holy Ground rule is basically a GM Fiat disaster if it gets broken. I do like using the Quickening for level breakpoints though. That's cool.

Could even take it farther: use whatever progression the GM says, and gain double from taking a head. Or instantly go to "next level plus one point." Might be tough to keep levels even though. Hm... further reflection required.

This might be a bit of a nitpick, but...

How are are you a Heretic with the Heresy Inquisition?

The archetype is about being a heretic, and the inquisition is about rooting such evil out. It's... contradictory?

I know they mesh mechanically, but it seems like something of a stretch. If you can make it work and your GM agrees, then power to you. Just struck me as curious.

This has probably been covered before but I'm not in a mood to hunt around for a thread ATM.

What's the general view of allowing casters to select an alternate type of energy when learning a new spell? For example, a sorcerer has just achieved 6th level and, as her 3rd level spell she chooses fireball but instead of fire she'd prefer that it deal electrical damage instead; effectively making it a "lightning ball" spell. All other parameters of the spell (except perhaps setting combustible materials on fire) remain unchanged. Forever after she'll be limited to that version of the spell when casting, though she can freely use fireball scrolls, wands or even learn the fireball spell in the future by dedicating another spell known slot to it.

So how's about it? Is there a fundamental difference between the basic energy types: fire, cold, electricity, acid or sonic which should be considered before allowing such a change? Are they interchangeable?

It sounds to me like spell research. I think there is a process for developing spells somewhere in the magic chapter. There's no reason the sorceress can't sit down and figure out "okay, how do I throw a curveball instead of a slider?" with Know:Arcana or Spellcraft or both. Or just give it to her. I would, but I'm lenient like that.

Or bla bla it's unbalancing bla. Whatever. Lightning is way cooler than fire.

Flame Oracle has Cinder Dance, which raises base speed. This will only work if you are rebuilding, of course.

Monk might not be the way to go, since they lose a lot in heavy armor.

You may need to spring for boots of striding.

I've got to ask, though... why in the world would you multiclass like this? Are you trying to cherry-pick abilities? Because your basic stats like BAB and spells are probably getting screwed.

No disrespect intended, I just don't understand it.

I have a terrible suspicion I'm the uncreative one in most of the groups I play with.

Just about every name I use is pulled from pop culture somewhere. I can usually file some serial numbers off, but I always know where it came from. Jon Jones and Mick Loud come to mind immediately.

Backstories are a mishmash of archetypes and other characters at best. My current summoner Dexter Ward (Lovecraft joke) bears striking similarities to Jason Blood, including the demon he summons (whose name is another joke).

Arise again
in world of man
Arise O Demon
Gilli-gan!

...I just wanted to be called "Skipper." That's all.

When asked what Dexter looked like, I stuttered for about a minute, pointed to my unpainted mini, and never gave a real good answer.

Other names pulled from pop culture include Jon Jones (a wizard far too liberal with his fire spells), Deep Thought (a WoD mage in search of an answer), and Mick Loud (wandering swordsman and romantic).

It works okay, I guess. Most of the character's personality and story comes out in play anyhow. Partway through a game I'll hit upon an idea I think would kick ass and try to write it in with a shoehorn.

Strength is up there, since it is the attack stat. Constitution is also high, because the Cavalier is a melee class. Charisma makes a number of your class abilities work: Tactician, Banner, and some order-based stuff (IIRC). Dexterity and Wisdom are interchangeable, since they shore up weak saves. Dex might have an edge since it also does AC, Ride, and Initiative. As much as I love skill points, Intelligence gets the shaft by process of elimination.

Doesn't seem that complex. I suppose it might depend on how exactly you want to play though: canny tactician, gruff drill sergeant, knight in shining armour... all are going to move the stats around a bit.

I really like the Dragon and the Star. The others I could see using and have their own appeal, but Dragon and Star are the two I would actually play.

Dragon because I love teamwork, and the Star because it's the paladin with less baggage.

Just so I'm clear...

Does a character still need to purchase the masterwork armour/weapon itself, or is it included in the point cost?

For example, does a masterwork breastplate still cost 350 gp? Or a masterwork longsword 315? Or masterwork full plate, for that matter.

OP, there are 2 types of fighters in Pathfinder that are really a lot better than the rest.

The first is the TWF Shield Bash Fighter. This fighter has 3rd-highest Damage Per Round of the fighter builds (after TWF Kukri and Archer), and the highest AC in the game. It is a tough as hell build.

The second is the Mounted Archer. This build has the highest DPR in the game, and is almost impossible to hit.

The actual feat selections are pretty simply, so I won't enumerate them. But I highly recommend these two builds if you want to play a powerful straight fighter in PF.

-Cross

I'm trying to put together a TWF Basher for an upcoming game, but I'm a little stuck.

Is it better to use a heavy shield and light weapon, or light shield and one-handed weapon?

The light shield gives me a bigger main-hand hit, but less defence and bash damage. OTOH, the heavy shield gives me better defence and makes both hands about the same damage-wise (not great though).

It seems to me that the light shield might be better, especially once Shield Slam happens. Opinions?

I played two characters in Paradigm Concepts's 3.5 Living Arcanis campaign. Both were gishes, more or less.

My first one was an elven cleric. He started as a healbot, but one I hit level 6 I became proficient with a disgustingly good hammer (2d8 dmg, x3 crit, two hands). At that point, he moved into combat and general beatstickery. I tried casting debuffs and damage spells, but I hate letting enemies roll saves. Buffs became the order of the day. Never got past level 9 though. It was just starting to get fun, too.

My second character used one of the Arcanis-specific classes, called a Spellblade. They only had 4 spell levels and I could fit the whole list (legibly!) on a single page, but their basic abilities were like a cleric. Casting was done like a wizard. Spells were mostly buffs and damage, and just about every good buff spell was on there. They also had an ability to quicken spells for free after level 10 (times/day, of course).

That spellblade was a lot of fun. He became a swashbuckler with Jump, Tumble and Weapon Finesse, and he almost always won initiative (good Dex, Improved Init, and a feat that let him roll twice and take the one he liked). The last session I played him was great, as he hurled himself out a window after the bad guy, and *charged* him with a Shocking Grasp.