paladin777's page

Lets say you are playing a character that uses two shields and took bashing finish. Would you get a free bash attack from one shield whenever you scored a critical hit with the other?

So I've decided to go with the second option, bit I'm wondering if I should put my 4th level ability bump into strength like it says. With this I would take double slice at 7th level and ITWF at 9 with a bump to dex at lvl 8.

Or I could put my 4th level bump into dex and take ITWF at 7th, double slice at 9th and bump strength at 8rh?

The GM interpretation of shield master is that it negates the -2 for TWF. (Or -4 if using heavy). As far as using one heavy shield, I think the rule of cool wins against that. The character is to use the shields out in front of him and box with them. As far as shield slam goes, I'll get there but we have only fought a couple of humans since the start of the campaign (lvl 1) and we spend most of our time in the jungle so there's no walls to knock people into. My GM also doesn't allow you to take feats unless you can meat the requirements 'naked', meaning no belt of dex for ITWF. I'm also kinda leaning towards option 2, I'm just a little Leary of having less damage right now. My party is used to (and quite frankly needed) my falchion power attacker of death and I don't want to disappoint.

Ok, so I'm in this campaign where my human ranger got dominated and separated from the party a while ago (an axe and spiked shield dual wielder) and we just found him again. Now I need to level him up to our level (6) and I'm allowed to tweak him if I would like.

What I'd like to do is make him a double light spiked shield boxer and I've got a few ideas as to how to make him tick.

Stipulations:
20pt buy for ability scores (preferably 14 wis and 12 int if it can be done)

Human ranger

uses two light quickdraw spiked shields with quickdraw for easy transferring from ranged

16000 Starting gold

Official pathfinder material (namely core, advanced guides, and ultimate books)

I need to be the party tank and damage dealer as no one else can reliably fill those roles with current characters.

not a stipulation, but all the options will be using a belt of giant strength +2, and will be taking power attack when able.

So, here are the options that I've been thinking about

Option one:
str 15 (+2 human, +1 level)
dex 14
con 14
int 12
wis 14
cha 7

feats: TWF, improved shield bashs, quick draw, endurance, double slice, boon companion, ITWF

taking the TWF combat style and just using improved shield bash, nothing special.
pros- high str and damage with both melee and ranged, skills are good :)
cons- no shield mastery until level 11 meaning expensive offensive enchantments, lower defense due to lower dex than other builds, less accurate ranged attacks.

Option two:
taking the dual talent human trait
str 15 (+2 human, +1 level)
dex 14 (+2 human)
con 14
int 12
wis 14
cha 7

feats: TWF, Improved shield bash, endurance, quick draw, boon companion, shield master

Taking the shield fighter combat style which requires high dex for the TWF feats. ITWF will be taken at level 9
Pros- high damage cap, high defenses, High dex for all things that apply, Shield master is awesome, highest accuracy
Cons- lose out on skill points, lowest damage to start, ITWF is 3 levels away.

Option three:
str 14 (+2 human)
dex 15 (+1 level)
con 14
int 12
wis 14
cha 7

Feats: TWF, improved shield bash, quick draw, endurance, Double slice, boon companion, shield master
also using shield fighter combat style. ITWF will be taken at level 9 again.
Pros- Decent off-hand damage now, High dex and all things that apply, shield master is awesome, skills are good, bonus feat is good
Cons- Lowest damage cap, ITWF is 3 levels away.

I've weighed these options pretty carefully and I don't know which one to pick. HELP!

This is true and the original intention of the the 1.0 version of this character. I just don't really want to play the shield and weapon build anymore and want to see if you guys think that the above build is viable.

On a side note, as a personal preference, I don't like using strange items to make my builds viable, and as someone who studies historical arms and armor (including their use), the idea of a non-magical quick draw shield is actually quite laughable.

I've got 2 issues with that.

1: the shield basher has a 'been there done that' feel to it for me. Just a personal thing

2: If I go with the shield ranger style, then Improved TWF goes out the window permanently unless I want to drop my str in favor of dex which I'm not willing to do.

2A: does quick draw allow you to pull out a shield as a move* action?

edit: free

I'm making a 6th level ranger that needs to be the party tank. I know that this build isn't completely optimized, I just want to know about the viablility because it seems pretty fun to play. It's also based on the Huntsman from 'Snow White and the Huntsman' because he was a total Bad@$$.

First some background information.

I started this campaign at first level with a ranger with the intention of using a handaxe and large spiked shield with TWF. (this worked because I was human and took TWF and Improved shield bash first level).

Once we got to 3rd level we fought against a yuan-ti spellcaster of some sort and got dominated-killed the party cleric and an NPC and made the rest of the party run away. After that I made a fighter as a replacement.

My fighter will often (though not always) do about as much damage as the rest of the party combined. He attacks with a +1 falchion at +13 for 2d4+10 w/o power attacking (+11 for 2d4+16 with PA) and also has a 22 ac with +1 full plate, and dodge.

The rest of the party is a half-elf witch (good backup and support role), and gnome rogue (has a hard time being useful often, but is getting better), a half orc cleric (does pretty well as support as well), and a Gnome Alchemist (the other heavy hitter of the party).

Fast forward to now... We just encountered my old character and killed the yuan-ti that dominated him. (It was well known that if we encounter him again I would go back to him) Now I would like to make him at least nearly as potent as the fighter without being one dimensional and still being fun to play.

Anyway, this is getting lengthy. On to the build that still needs to be a decent party tank. (20 point buy and I'm not gimping on wisdom as I've been dominated thrice in this campaign despite my 6th level fighter having a +12 to the will save!)

Nelson, Ranger 6

Str 18 (20 enh)
dex 14
con 14
int 12
wis 14
cha 7

Feats:
1 Iron will
1 Quick draw (necessary for this build, you'll see why later)
2 TWF
3 endurance (the ranger bonus)
3 power attack or double slice. I'll take the other at 7th
5 boon companion
6 ITWF

Magic Equipment:
+1 breastplate
+1 battle axe (battle axe for asthetics, plus the witch likes putting things to sleep. Coup de Grace FTW :D)
+1 ring of protection
+1 amulet of nat armor
Belt giant strength +2
Mighty MWK composite longbow str +5
lots of mundane daggers
cloak of resistance +1
maybe a handy haversack, I always carry everything and the kitchen sink full of mundane tools.

AC is a small cat should make a dandy flanking buddy (comparable enough to the wolf and more fitting with the environment we've been in, so I've made up my mind on this one)

FE +4 monstrous humanoid, +2 magical beasts. We've faced a ton of these so far.

This makes a ranger with a 21 AC (vs the 22 of the fighter), +12 to hit before any TWF or PA penalties on the axe with 1d8+ 6 damage before PA, 1d8 +8 when two-handing so I know it's losing out against the fighter a little bit but I'm OK with this.

On to play style:
at the beginning of combat draw bow with quick draw and let loose until enemies are close enough for distance to be closed. If I need to close, draw only the battle axe and two hand it for the two-hand bonus. Next round draw a dagger and start hammering with TWF full attack using axe first. If I kill the enemy and there isn't any others adjacent (this is fairly common in this campaign), then throw daggers as desired. Next turn use TWF full attack if possible, if not, close and two-hand swing axe and draw daggers next round.