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In a campaign i'm currently in a large portion of the party has monstrous cohorts. Being one of the few people who didn't grab leadership (even though i'm one of the few with a charisma focus), i finally decided to grab it, and during a side adventure I gained a cohort who was a Vampire Succubus.

While thats pretty good our party is level 16 right now, and kind of a bunch of horrible overpowered monsters ourselves.

The GM's rules for this is a little custom but as it can be a level 14 cohort the number of class levels i can give it is 14-CR(9).

So i can give it 5 levels of my choice. The DM would prefer i kept within the theme of it making it a "Charismatic Warrior type" as the NPC is the type to like to fight. Its put me in a bit of a situation for this one as all the other cohorts in the party are either support....or cowards so they have pretty good ways of not really participating directly in the heat of combat.

So this thing is going to be really durable as its an undead with a 31 charisma, so its going to have a really good HP pool.
Otherwise its stats are 19, 21, 10, 20, 16, 31 (str, dex, con, int, wis, cha).

So the problem comes in here, I know the best option would be to make it some sort of support option, but to acheive this "charismatic warrior" type i would have to make it more combat oriented than support, so i need to make these 5 levels count.

The problem is I'm a multiclassesed monstrosity of a sorcerer/dragon disciple/ect.. who has a +32 to hit and a 55 AC....and i'm about lower-middle in terms of to-hit (though the highest ac by about 2 points) compared to the rest of the party.

So i have to figure out how to make this cohort actually participate in combat and still be able to actually hit anything.

So here's a few things I've figured out so far:
1. It's going to to have some durability, but it would probably be best in the back row.
2. It has spell-likes and thats probably the most spellcasting it'll want to do as its not going to be able to reach beyond level 2 spells.
3. It would probably be best against touch AC, but the GM currently doesn't have guns in our setting so that reduces the possibilities.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, as i'm at a bit of a loss how to really optimize on this one.

I was curious how sneak attack specifically worked with class abilities that modify it.

For example the sniper archetype for slayer if the target is "completely unaware" you ignore the 30ft range restriction on your sneak attack.

So two questions.

1. If i dip for that, then put the rest of the levels in rogue/ninja/ect.. to gain sneak attack would those also benefit from this ability? I ask as i know the sources stack, but i wasn't certain if it still specified sources (aka only dice from slayer would interact with it). I assumed it would work as it doesn't specify, but I wanted to be certain.

2. Not entirely related to the original question, but is "completely unaware" only if you attack them before the spot you, or does the sniping rule/being invisible/ect... allow you to stay within that condition after the first attack. Or are they aware of your presence at that point, just not your location?

I've been looking at doing some sort of firearm build around basically making 1 bit attack. Maybe it won't kill things immediately but it will definitely do some damage.
We're using early firearms meaning for touch AC attacks its only first range increment meaning most attacks are at 30-40ft.

The main idea was to use an investigator. I know there's slayer, rogue, ect.. type archetypes called sniper but i'm not a huge fan of sneak attack especially with ranged weapons. Investigator has the advantage of studied combat effectively letting them get a to-hit that by the end basically has you on par with a fighter with their weapon training bonus (just without that 4th iterative) and their studied strike is like sneak attack, but you can only do it once, but the advantage is that it isn't conditional like sneak attack, nor negated by fortification.

I'm a bit stuck on whats the best way to build it.

Right now these are the options i'm looking at.

1. Steel Hound Investigator for 20 levels to maximize on studied strike. Using a musket. Using Kirin style with combat stamina to get Int on all my damage. Then either vital strike and/or Impressive Grit for dead shot int mod times per day.

2. Sleuth investigator and from 3, 5, or 7 levels of gunslinger (musket master). 3 is the minimum to get free action reloading for 2h firearms with academical cartridges, and might as well just so there's no downtime for reloading. 5th to get dex to damage, which seems really good as i'll be dex/int heavy meaning kirin style + this with stamina would have me adding int and dex to every attack. And finally 7th gets me dead shot for real, which is just a slightly better vital strike, but i'll have a grit and luck pool to pull from that i can regen rather than having daily limits on (though my wis/cha won't be super high even if i'm at the minimum its 2 points, and bare minimum impressive grit will let me get the equivalent of signature deed with it without needing to be gunslinger 11).

I'm a bit torn because the 2nd option loses me anywhere from 2d6, to 3d6, 4d6 dice. The bonus to hit isn't as big as you're getting full BAB levels.

Regardless in both it'll require ranged study so i'm not limited to a melee weapon for studied strike, but otherwise the big thing between builds is maximizing damage, and if dead shot is worth it.

I'm attempting to build a 10th level healer character for a campaign.

The issue i'm running in to is trying to find a way to do it and not end up being bored, because 100% healer is not only unnecessary but leaves you with little to do. So far I've thought of a few ideas but i'm not sure on their viability.

First idea was a Kitsune Spirit Guide oracle with the Life Mystery. Picking up Wrecking Mysticism curse so i can just grab all of the magical tail feats and focus into enchantment spells.
The pro is between the life mystery and the life spirit i can basically have 2 channel pools to work from so i don't really need to focus spell resources on healing, also i basically can just put everything into charisma for casting/channeling, with an 16 alone in a stat you can basically have 8 channels a day, and every ability modifier point basically boosts the pool by 2 every time.
The issue i see with that is the character immediately has to sit in a corner twiddling it's thumbs if anything is immune or can beat the saving throws.

2nd idea was Cleric or Oracle for 7 levels into Holy Vindicator. It seemed like an idea to approach a healer while also opening up a melee option.
The problem there is trying to strike a balance between melee ability stats, the casting stat, and channel. If you go oracle all of the fun stuff around channel smite becomes massively situational, and if you go cleric your channel uses and save DC and you need wisdom for casting, but at least versatile channeling opens up. I know a healer really should save healing till after combat so i probably don't need a ton of channel uses but you still need to strike a balance to ensure you don't run out too soon either.

Any suggestions would help, though I will say now i don't want to play the commonly suggested Oradin build, not to mention i don't want to play paladin due to alignment restrictions/codes and all.

Just to check to ensure i'm interpreting this right.

The Whirling dervish archetype has Dervish Finesse, which alters swashbuckler finesse. It basically says you can scimitar as a 1h piercing weapon for the purposes of swashbuckler finesse and other class/feats but you only receive this benefit if you aren't using a weapon or shield in your offhand.
This otherwise leaves swashbuckler finesse alone to work as it normally does right?

I'm wondering for a couple reasons.

1. If finesse works normally i could still use a rapier and a buckler with this archetype and basically ignore the scimitar piece, as it doesn't seem to suggest I HAVE to use a scimitar.
2. The way this is worded it seems like once you get the 4th level ability called dervish dance, which counts as dervish dance, but more importantly it just says anything you use with swashbuckler finesse works uses dex instead of str for damage. The way its worded you could basically pick up any light/1h piercing weapon and gain the benefits of weapon finesse and use dex modifier on damage rolls.

I am currently looking at a build using a buckler, and I also wanted to confirm for a future build idea because it seems like outside of breaking precise strike one could in theory have a TWF build with this that could get dex to damage with both weapons. The other benefit is it seems to have some advantage over inspired blade where for a dex to damage build it saves you a feat in that feat tax chain, but it doesn't lock you down to a singular weapon.

With the release of the Divine Anthology along with the Divine Fighting Technique of "Densa's shooting star" which allows for CHA to Hit and Damage when attacking with a starknife. The advanced prerequisites for the upgraded ability doesn't really seem useful as the base ability allows for melee or ranged, but the final ability is a full round single attack that can deal 1-4 hits of damage.

As such i was thinking about how to utilize this in a interesting build and was looking for ideas.

So far the main ways i see to capitalize on this:
1. A level dip into oracle with the lore mystery can replace dex with cha for AC and reflex allowing to make dex effectively a dump stat.
2. It has caster stat synergy with Oracle, Bard, Eldritch Scion Magus, Sorcerer, and Paladin.
3. One could get AC bonus with the Scaled Fist monk archetype, though dex can't be a dump stat then as it won't stack with lore oracle.
4. There technically is nothing against using a large or huge for a 1h or 2h variant on the starknife.

The main build ideas I've had are.
1. Eldritch Scion Magus for melee.
2. Arcane Duelist bard for melee.
3. Slayer with a 1 level dip into lore oracle for either melee or ranged TWF build.
4. Swashbuckler/Daring Champion to maximize on Panache.

Any interesting ideas anyone might have would be helpful as I'm uncertain how to fully maximize on this as most ideas i have for this run into problems meeting certain requirements when trying to add anything interesting like feint/two weapon feint.

Hey so i'm attempting to put together a character for a campaign and i'm trying to get something that does a good mixture of "smashy" and "magic" that isn't a bloodrager (nothing against it, but its so much of a go-to for me that i need to play something else).

The characters are starting at 4th level and this is what i have so far:

I assumed the only way to do this would be pure magus from 1-20 but the alternative i've seen was this:

I would like to get some thoughts/critiques on this or possibly a better way to do this. But so far on either build i don't really have any feats/traits outside of weapon focus and intensified spell, and intensified spell can wait because it won't be very useful until around 5th/6th level.

For both i'd also thought of removing hexcrafter to get spell recall back but i'm not sure how useful it is considering the main drawback of deep marshal is a weaker arcane pool.

So I've been reading through the corruptions and i'm curious if they're even viable for a PC to use without a GM using the Useful Corruption rules.

I've been looking over each of these and the Gift/Stain system seems interesting risk reward sort of system of giving you benefits with slowly increasing penalties. I realize these are supposed to be bad, but i'm curious how viable it would even be to play a character over several levels to obtain more manifestations?

The will save is already a bit high at a minimum of 16, meaning you'll need a decent wisdom score. So if you started at level 1 (like the book tries to suggest) and you're a cleric you might have a +6 will save, putting you at a 50/50 chance of making the saves to avoid progression. As many of these are compulsions to occur once a week or so is this even remotely sustainable? The Corruption stages seem to have no reversal system so its basically a 3 strike will save system. This was the optimistic will save as well, if the fighter gets it and assuming he just has a +0 wisdom bonus he could have a +0 will save. So now its a 25% or lower chance to make the save.

I understand there should be this ever-looming issue, but it seems like its really easy to succumb to the corruption and lose your character if you're not playing a high-wis + good will save class. But i would assume the Stains would continue to grant more and more penalties as you progress. My main concern from this is if your party is in a campaign with any travel/downtime. You could be on a boat and fall to your corruption while traveling from point A to point B. (Lich being the odd one out because its a fort save, and you can end up either constantly making saves or never making saves but many of the manifestations are working against you as you keep accruing con penalties while the DC keeps raising.)

I was curious what people's thoughts on the system were and if there's a way to work these into a character for a campaign at all.

We are looking for additional players for a upcoming campaign.

Our DM is looking to do a generally Lovecraftian themed campaign starting at level 14. This does not mean it will be combat light.
Right now we have only 3 party members right now and are looking for one or two more to help fill out the group balance a bit more.

About the group:
We meet every Saturday or Sunday around 3 PM central time. (Right now these are open days for current group members and is negotiable for what specific day we want to meet on).

We use the maptools program for for map/tokens. We know about roll20 and simply don't use it because maptools has a few features/customization options that have made it easier for us to utilize for certain elements such as flying enemies.
We also use mumble for voice communication during gameplay.

As for the group itself we are a fairly laid back group, we don't take this as extremely serious and have a tenancy to get off topic for short periods of time.

We don't use any custom/3rd party rulesets and try to generally go with general consensus/paizo rulings, DM rulings only really entering in when no other rulings/consensus exist, so don't expect many house rules.

Our DM is somewhat inexperienced and as such the woirld/setting is not of their own creation, the basis was one I created and utlized in a campaign that since has been utilized in spinoff campaigns by other members of the group, the "Lovecraftian" theme is of their own idea though.

Right now the party only consists of 2 made characters and one that is still pending from our third member.
we have a Half-Elf Crossblooded Dragon Disciple and a Spirit Guide Oracle/Barbarian Dwarf.

I wanted to check on something.

The boots say you move 50ft and deal 6d6 damage as per the lightning bolt spell. It mentions no saving throw but references "as per the lightning bolt spell" which has one. Saving throws are generally not calculated on caster level so I was curious if this was a "no save" situation or if it had a default save of 13 (because saves are generally 10 + spell level + casting stat modifier(which for an item would be 0))

I was curious as most items call out saves.

I am making a character for a campaign that is level 14.

In most campaigns I end up making a hard to hit melee character and i'm a mixture of bored with it and unsure how to build something a bit different.

We rolled for stats and i got 17,16,13,11,9,8 so i have a lot of room to work with here.

I was thinking magus or something else but i'm finding it difficult to make a character because either a class isn't very shield friendly or else i'm looking at just doing crane style or something similar all over again.

I've been looking at magus either with mindblade (dip 1 fighter to get heavy armor because psychic spells have no spell failure (though nasty concentration checks) or a regular magus as heavy armor is an available feat anyways. I looked at kensei but the archetype while sounding cool on paper seems to fall short.

In all 3 cases generally the AC with +5 armor and the staple ring/amulet combo only seem to just barely break 30+ AC and i had a fighter around the same level was nearing 50 with all the stuff collected by then (though enchanted tower shield + shield focus/greater shield focus was almost 11 points of AC alone).

I'm open to suggestions for something that can fit the role of something durable as many times my group tends to be very squishy and if my character isn't contributing via something like blundering defense or tripping of some sort to try and help keep stuff off the party, when the party has to make a tactical retreat having something that can be a somewhat durable meatshield while the group takes a round or 2 to regroup i've found is incredibly invaluable to a party.

So i'm looking into making an oracle but i'm trying to figure out some finer points of it.

So right now I'm looking at making an Oracle with the Life mystery and the Wrecking Mysticism curse, so I'll also need to be a Kitsune for it.

The general idea is to pick up some healing via the life mystery and ignore the mystery spells as they're already available on the oracle spell list and instead get magical tail via the curse to get all the 2/day SLA.

The plan then was to either keep with oracle or go into Arcane savant later (as it doesn't need you to be an arcane caster) and grab some arcane spells later on and possibly buff the UMD skill as I imagine to expand my spell capabilities and grabbing UMD for scrolls.

This campaign the character is being made for is also starting at 8th level.

So i guess my two questions are:

1. Does this seem like a viable build? It seemed like a neat way to get access to stuff not normally available to the class and a way for magical tail to be a real option without eating all my feats.

2. What kind of weapon should I use? 3/4 BAB class so options are available, and oddly enough Kitsune's FCB is reducing the penalty by 1 for any weapon, meaning by level 4 I can wield whatever weapon I want that I chose for the bonus.

As kitsune takes a str penalty but gets a dex bonus I was thinking either bow/crossbow/or a Elven Branched Spear(for a finessable reach weapon). I thought about firearm but that seems like a bad idea unless I dip into gunslinger to make it not terrible (and take an archetype that allows for a charisma based grit pool).

Does Spell combat, specifically "Ranged Spell Combat" from the Eldritch Archer archetype count as a "Full-Attack action"

I ask as it works for stuff like haste. But I wasn't certain for stuff like Rapid Shot and Manyshot both say.
"When making a full-attack action with a ranged weapon,"

So i was curious if these where valid options or if Spell Combat would disallow the use of these feats while being utilized.

So the DM of a upcoming campaign has made the observation of a potential issue.

So if i duel wielded pistols using empty quiver style and used used the two weapon fighting feat we have a conflict of penalties.

Empty quiver considers it a light mace: TWF says it at a -2 penalty.
One Handed Pistols are at a -4.

Empty quiver style says you can swap between attacks, so how would this work.

If i do a melee attack is it at a -2 until i do a ranged attack? Always at a -4? or is it a -2 while melee and -4 while ranged?

So I just found out this archetype exists and that Paizo has finally made a functional ranged magus with spell combat rather than a weird switch-hitter.

So the main question I have now is there any benefit to mixing it with Spellslinger.

I was looking at it and trying to weigh the Pros and Cons of it.

PRO:
1. Ability to cast Cone/Line spells through the gun before level 16
2. Add Enhancement Bonus to Atk or DC of Spell
3. Stuff cast through gun is at X3 Crit
4. Get firearm proficiency
5. If a foe is beyond the range increment of the firearm a arcane gun attack would allow a touch attack at greater range than normal at the cost of a little bit of weapon damage.
6. Spellstrike even at 16 never allows Cone/Line spells in a AOE format meaning spells like Lightning bolt nor matter what would only hit 1 foe.

CONS:
1. Not using spellstrike in any scenario cuts out weapon damage
2. Eventually Focusing Spellstrike invalidates benefits of the 1st in non-aoe scenarios.
3. No real support for the gun so either a gunslinger dip or amateur gunslinger just to get quick clear would be needed.
4. Losing a caster level (get trait to fix that)
5. Losing BAB & Spell level progression
6. Using a firearm is feat intensive, if we go amateur gunslinger thats 1, rapid reload is 2.
6. One handed firearms are the limit as 2h would require a 3 level dip into musket master and at that point we're 2 CL down with magical knack and instead of losing 1 6th level spell for the dip we'd go down to having only 1 6th level spell.

So i've been looking at the "Order of the Eastern Star" order for the cavalier, and i've noticed how focused the class is around fighting defensively and combat expertise.

So i have a build idea for a Daring Champion Cavalier with the Order of the Eastern star as a halfling and I thought i'd get a few critiques.

We're starting at level 8 in this campaign as well.

Class: Cavalier
Archetype: Daring Champion
Order: Order of the eastern star

Starting gold: 24,750 (before anything is bought; DM chose 75% of 8th level wealth)
Armor: +1 Mithral Kikko Armor
Shield: +1 Mithral Buckler
Weapon: +1 Longsword
Belt: Incredible Dex +2

Feats:
1.Weapon Focus(longsword)
3.Slashing Grace(longsword)
5. Cautious Fighter
6. Power Attack?
7. Chain Challenge?

Not 100% certain what to do for the 6th level bonus feat at 7th level feat.

So at 8th level with the basic equipment so far (which i haven't used all my gold yet so i may change stuff). I chose craft armor and pumped it to 10 so i could make the mithral kikko/buckler by just taking 10 and always succeeding the DC 20 craft check for the masterwork item so i can at least get/make those at 1/3 cost.

So right now assuming i put 18 into Dex as its basically my everything stat. Add in +2 from being halfling and another +2 from the headband.

So 6 dex + 6 Armor + 2 shield + 1 size + 2 from nimble fighter.
Thats about 27 AC. Fighting defensively with 3 acrobatics and cautious fighter will boost it to 32 (35 for total defense).

Add 3 extra to the target of the challenge as the order gives a +1 insight bonus that increases for every 4 levels against the target. (so we're looking at 30, 35, or 37 depending on nothing/defensive/total)

I'm also debating on using halfling luck or adaptable luck as i'll have fair saves (once again bonus vs challenge because of order), as fort is strong for cavalier and reflex will be high because of all the dex.

So assuming i have a 22 dex between score + racial + belt i'll be around a +17 to hit at 8th level (8 + 6 + size(1) + enhancement(1) + weapon focus(1)) I'll also have a 2nd attack of 12.

Slashing grace will also grant me dex to damage. So small longsword would be 1d6+enhancment(1)+dex(6) and then precise strike will add +8. From there if its my challenge we're looking at another +8 damage.

So no challenge: 1d6+15
With challenge: 1d6+23

So right now i'm not sure what to do feat-wise/trait-wise.

I was going to go for crane style but Order of the Eastern star negates the -4 penalty for fighting defensively for the 1st attack each round kind of like furious focus for power attacks. So while i would be able to reduce the penalty to -2 for the remaining attacks it felt like too many feats as Dodge was just 1 more AC on top of a fairly decent number and improved unarmed strike is just a dead-weight feat just to meet the prerequisites.

Power attack i considered as while my other attacks will be taking a -4 the main attack is going to be going strong at +17, meaning a power attack is just -3 atk for +6 damage. making the damage look closer to +14 to hit and +21 damage no challenge and with challenge +29. Which if i went the power attack route it seemed like it would be in my best interest just to do vital strikes as i'd basically doom my 2nd attack to be at a +5 (+12 -4 for defensive and -3 for power attack).

Chain challenge seems like a good feat as my 7th level feat because i'll be able to challenge 3/day and spreading around the defense boost +damage each time i down something seems good (not to mention if i down something i get panache back so i can also boost precise strike by spending a point and get another +8 where needed).

So i guess any assistance with this to help fill in the gaps on this or correct any issues as I feel like i have a decent concept here i just need to figure out what to do with a few pieces of it.

So I haven't seen any mention recently, outside of a minor mention from people regarding the Ninja after unchained, but I was wondering if anyone may have heard of or is interested in future updates to the alternate classes?

The Ninja, Samurai, and Antipaladin seem to have fallen to the wayside while other classes see new content and updates in the form of new features or archetypes.

Antipaladin I somewhat understand as its a very campaign-specific character to exist (either evil campaigns or a character who can hide his evil-ness in an attempt to convert the entire party to the dark side).

Ninja used to be the combat focused rogue, but now unchained rogue does ninja better than ninja by losing the ki-pool but gaining weapon finesse, dex to damage, and even the skill unlock feat, not only that but the unchained rogue I assume in an attempt to not completely invalidate the ninja doesn't allow the ki-pool trick, but still allows ninja tricks meaning if someone wanted a monk dip could still work.

Finally Samurai, which seems the most different from the base class has only a single archetype which simply seems to remove the mounted aspect for a very meh extra damage opener attack. Which it seems like the base for something interesting, mixing the cavalier with some extra archery stuff as well as some exotic weapon proficiency.

Overall the classes are supposed to be too different to be archetypes but in some cases they're worse than archetypes (at least if ninja was an archetype it would gain a lot of the new rogue stuff).
That and last i heard the alternative classes without DM approval don't qualify for the base class archetypes.

It might be just me but it feels like the classes would be better converted to archetypes or given some new archetypes to play around with.

I was curious how useful shield of swings is before gaining iterative attacks.

Is it possible to make a full-attack action without having more than a single attack?
I'm curious as shield of swings is available at relatively low level but without haste it doesn't seem possible to utilize the feat unless its possible to chose to take a full-attack with a single attack.

So i'm trying out a couple of ideas and decided to seek some advice for this.

I have two potential build ideas, though one kind of hinges on my interpretation of the rules for one. Its a non-PFS campaign but just about every official material released is good for this build (no 3rd party or 3.5 stuff).

Any advice/suggestions for this will be helpful as I've brainstormed on the general ideas but i'm not sure how viable it would be.

So question.

In one of the new inner sea books they added a monster feat called "Powerful Wings" it basically says "gain 2 wing attacks". One of my players is interested in it but is a Sylph with the racial feat granting them a fly speed.

So the ultimate question, do they gain the natural attacks in this feat with this if you don't have wings already?
I know with natural weapons you generally need a corresponding limb and the sylph fly ability is basically wingless flying, but meets the fly speed requirement.

I was almost certain this won't actually give them the attacks due to the lack of wings, but I thought i'd check.

So i'm making a character for an upcoming campaign. We're starting at level 7.

While looking around i noticed a new oracle cursed called Hunger which grants me a 1d6 bite attack that gains grab against smaller creatures, becomes 1d8 then finally gives blood drain for 1d2 con damage when grappling an opponent.

The only true downside is you're sickened until you deal damage with it and its a secondary natural weapon so unless it's my sole natural weapon i'm taking a -5 on the attack.

So i thought to focus a character around natural weapons.

So far this is what i have:
Race: Changeling
Get 2 claw attacks (qualifying me for multiattack).
Oracle Favored class bonus (+1/2 oracle level for curse progression making minimum oracle level to cap out a curse 6, and just get bonuses earlier. But mainly making multiclassing a more viable option).

Mystery: Lunar
Gain a gore attack temporarily
get an animal companion
get charisma to AC instead of dex freeing up a stat and letting me focus all Str and Cha.
And finally touch of the moon allowing me to empower spell my cure spells for 2 spell slots but makes it all temp HP, but it lets me either buff myself/my party/or my animal companion before running into the fray.

So i'm looking at minimum 6 oracle levels potentially more.

I'm looking into the animal companion and training it for being a mount (chose wolf). Boon companion obviously allows some multiclass leway but otherwise i'll want to stack my levels with other animal companion classes if i don't do all oracle (or oracle to 15/16 and boon companion the rest).

Finally biggest part i'm looking at is dipping 1 level into mammoth rider to make the wolf a Huge creature. (Getting a ring of spell knowledge and give it carry companion so i can take it in dungeons with me!).

So I'm not super attached to the oracle spells so i don't care as much about reaching max spell-casting level, i'm more in this for the natural weapons and the companion.

So end of the day the build would be like so:
Oracle X(6,15,16, or 19)
Mammoth Rider 1
????? X

So otherwise i'm somewhat stuck on what to do as natural weapon builds are somewhat tricky so i'm trying to figure out how to maximize on them as best as possible. I've looked at various classes/archetypes but i'm honestly at a loss here how to build this long term.

Also any other ways to gain natural attacks outside of bite/claws/gore would be helpful.

(Also my DM gave us all weapon focus as a bonus feat so i used that on the bite attack and then took the changling's mother's gift to give the claws +1 atk/dmg so basically have the equivalent of it on both weapons)

I've been tossing around a few ideas within my group as well as others about a highly survivable character who doesn't wear armor.

This is the basic idea so far:
1. Original Style Monk with Master of Many styles + Monk of the iron mountain. Take it to level 2.
2. Unchained Rogue for 4 or even more levels.
3. ???
4. Profit.

The basic idea is:
Monk: Wisdom to AC - Makes 2 stats count to armor, makes headband a new source of AC.
Monk: Iron mountain gives toughness and +1 natural armor
Monk: Master of many styles allows 2 free style feats without needing any prerequisites outside of the main feat as well as mixing 2 styles.
-Crane style for fighting defensively at -1 penalty for +4 dodge bonus (assuming i have the ranks in acrobatics for that bonus to it as well).
-Snapping turtle style for a +2 shield bonus (that applies to touch with a later feat.
Rogue: with 11 intellect i can get major magic, granting me 1 spell of my choice as a spell like ability from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. So for a little intellect investment i'll chose mage armor.
Rogue: weapon finesse + dex to damage allowing me to ignore strength.

this character would obviously take a bit of time for this all to fully come together but I imagine playing around swapping between monk/rogue trying to get bonus feats to align up right.

But it would basically be:
+1 natural + 2 shield + 4 dodge + 4 armor + dex + wis

So assuming they're always fighting defensively before we calculate in dex/wisdom we'd be sitting at a 22 AC.

More if we get the dodge feat involved and possibly even improved natural armor it could be even higher.

I contemplated getting free-hand or some other fighter archetype involved after the rogue levels to help alleviate the feat intensity of this build but not certain.

So i guess i was curious if this seems like a solid plan, maybe some different feats, classes, or maybe even get some prestige classes involved. I've just looked rogue/monk so far just because rogue let me get the finesse as well as mage armor with relative ease without needing to do any spellcaster dips.

I didn't see anything regarding this specifically but i thought i'd check.

Am I to assume as unlike every other arcane class that calls out arcane spell failure chance, as we didn't call it out in the warlock spell section do they ignore it?

I'm curious as right now outside of a few pieces the warlock piece feels like a magus without spell combat and spellstrike. But instantly starting off with no armor penalties seems somewhat interesting as you could be instantly battlemage with a feat to get heavy armor, and poke everyone to death with your super melee touch attacks.

I'm looking to get some assistance to achieving a "interesting encounter" my party is kind of different with a bit many players, as a result building an encounter is somewhat difficult outside of just throwing many strong things at them.

I've been using a guide for a XP-buy system to help keep the encounters at least on the more "worrysome" side so they can't just charge in at everything.

The problem is their odd party makeup.
The party is all 9th level.

Here's the list of players/how they're playing:

If you read the player list sorry for the long descriptions but i thought it would be helpful to understand this group and how odd these composition/builds are.

My problem is trying to throw a good/different encounter at them.

They each have weaknesses but the issue is trying to throw a varied encounter at them because oddly enough they kinda have all the bases covered outside of the fact that right now they have almost no sustainability. That said while they have a lot of bases covered its not hard to cripple 1 and watch the whole thing fall apart.

I almost can't throw a spellcaster at them right now because the two tanky players easily fold under it and the rest of them aren't durable enough to take on much if the tanks go down, in addition to the limited sustain of the party.
But they better handle melee encounters (sometimes the enemies flat out need 18s/19s or even only 20s to hit the fighter).

So short version is due to the weird party composition its hard to throw varied fights at them because what has been a properly balanced encounter for other groups/parties is a bit less predictable what they can handle and what will just outright destroy them.

So i was thoroughly dissuaded from Mystic Theurge so i'm looking into a backup plan.

I'm wanting to play a Gunslinger with spells who does more gun with spells added on.

I looked into Spellslinger and was somewhat interested in the class but I was somewhat dissinterested in being 100% caster without doing much with the gun.

Myrmadarch looked interesting for a few reasons.
1. Ranged Spellstrike (kinda like Arcane gun but lets me full round multi-ray spells later).
2. Can use black blade archetype and technically get a unbreakable weapon by taking Pistol dagger (as its a double weapon and the dagger portion qualifies it).

The only downside is spell combat does work unless i do melee combat with the dagger (assumedly as a last resort).

So recommendations, on how to build this?

So, firstly, I know its not the best of classes but i'll preface this with 3 points as to why i'm interesting in playing it.

1. Lower combat higher RP campaign (so i shall be the best Swiss army knife of stupid). Combat will still occur but not enough for me to be the most optimal.
2. We're starting at level 7. (number one problem I've seen with this build is it slows progression and makes the already annoying low-level more annoying, but level 7 has to be close if not right on the edge of the promised land of mystic theurge prestige class.
3. Redmages are cool.

So this is the rough concept i have so far let me know how i can improve upon this.

So my group has been looking into these innate bonuses and the one thing we're not certain about is the table regarding adding the bonuses to items.

So for example if someone bought a mask of stony demeanor which is 500gp does this mean for +4000 you can add +2 to one score.
Or does this mean it needs to minimum cost 4k to put a +2 to one score on it as the range is 4k -9k

Second example if you bought a crown of heaven which is 150k does this mean you can't put +2 to one score for 4k more
or is this only valid to add +6 to all 3 for 144,000 because its at the highest tier.

The unchained book doesn't really specify too heavily what these price ranges mean to the user based on how much they need to spend.

One of the theories in the group was you treat it a bit like enchanting a weapon, such as if you allow someone to boost an existing magic item from +1 to +2 you'd only pay 6000 rather than 8000 as 2000 was already sunk into it.
While this would make sense the starting price range suggests otherwise.

Hey,

So my group is attempting to figure out a specific piece on this.

For the Arms and Armor we're trying to figure out how this works.

So if you have a Keen Longsword how does this count for the total item's enchantment?

So It gets Keen as well as the +1 Enhacement bonus to Attack/Damage

Buuut, does this make it count as +2 against the +10 total bonus or just +1?

Also If its only +1 does it still cap at +5 bonus to Attack/Damage as current or what?

Hi.

So I've been looking at the Sword-Saint samurai archetype for some time. but have had a hard time putting together a solid build around it as generally the feature in itself seems pretty underwhelming and i see myself trying to multi class whenever looking at it and i'm not sure how badly this would weaken the archetype by doing so as well.

So right now the basic concept build is
2 lvl Monk(Master of many styles)Crane Style + 2 free Crane Riposte/Crane Wing
1 lvl Swashbuckler (Swashbuckler Finesee + Weapon Focus(Katana))
X lvls Sword-Saint Samurai (Eventually getting slashing grace for full dex to dmg katana).

(based on starting level i'd probably move levels to at least make sure i have slashing grace +swashbuckler finesse under my belt first)

So basic concept here. Lots of fighting defensively, all Dex/Wis for maximum AC capabilities while Dex handles both Attack/Damage for the katana.

The issue here is Sword-saint feels like a bit of a tack-on ability. Once per challenge i can full or standard action do 1 attack with +1d6 or maximum with this build 9d6 extra damage which is a bit, but i have an issue justifying it due to sneak attack able to work on all hits and vital strike hitting harder up front with no restriction on number of times used.

So i'm wondering if there's any way to improve upon iajutsu strike and its very limited nature or if i'm better putting the levels into fighter/barbarian/anything else (heck with the wisdom focus even inquisitor is tempting).

Side note: I did see some ideas for builds around using it for flavor reasons like a black blade magus or samurai or anything that doesn't draw his sword until he finds a worthy foe. The general issue is you're stuck using the scabbard or something else in the meantime weakening yourself.

Overall I like the flavor/idea behind iajutsu strike but for a once per challenge ability it feels massively under powered (at least if it could be used more than once it would rival sneak attack with just the annoyance of sheathing the blade), and overall each time i look into it I get the sense that I should maybe get a different class feature (heck now with unchained barbarian even a dex build could benefit).

Something recently came up in my group and I'd check on how this would go regarding a ruling.

A character wants to get a slashing cape and enchant it with defending, the plan is to then simply constantly use the cape for a +1 to +5 to AC (depending on how much he enchants it for).

The item states that it can be used as a weapon and enchanted as such but what concerns me is how the defending enchantment states its for a weapon you "wield" which i'm not sure if you're considered wielding a slashing cape when its equipped or if it doesn't count the rest of the time.

I'm half tempted to say yes just due to the overall cost they'll be dumping into this thing (which is fairly minor buffs and loses them a cloak of resistance) but I try to keep with general rulings so I thought i'd check as I haven't seen anything regarding this.

Other quick question is they're also talking about throwing "impact" on it which technically its not labeled as a light weapon so I'd assume its good for that, but thats another odd thing

Alright so one of my players are looking into making this character in my campaign and I've decided to go ahead and let them do it. We're starting at level 5.

The issue is trying to figure out a good way to build this as there seems to be a few hurdles to fully adapt this.

So for starters we've agreed the character would be Lawful Evil as Anderson always strikes us as a character who made himself a tool to be used for good but he himself enjoyed killing in any form but was very close to the law and what he's ordered to do.

I bring this piece up as this immediately nukes the paladin. As anderson was known as "The Paladin" it almost makes sense but paladins need to be lawful good and anti paladins need to be chaotic evil so both are out.

This lead to us first examining the weapon of choice which is the Bayonet. Bayonets are a two handed weapon by category but it assumes its attached to a crossbow or firearm causing it to be categorized as such. As the actual item isn't that large we decided to utilize the rules and make it a light improvised weapon.

So for style of the character making it a two weapon fighter with improvised weapons would've been a pain feat-wise so this is where the first split in choice comes.

Monk of the Empty Hand or Brawler seems to be the best option for this as brawlers can use bayonets as they're in the close weapon group in their flurry and Empty Hand can use improvised weapons. The big split here is Monk gets Wis to AC and can't wear armor, and brawler can wear light armor and their weapons will scale in Die size.

So right away we're assuming because its light we'll use Weapon Finesse and Catch off guard for the 1st 2 feats so we're just using Dex.

The issue is of course Anderson is a holy man and is a regenerator. So 2nd class we decided to multiclass into is Inquisitor. This will give judgement allowing some bonuses to damage and fast healing.

So this effectively locks in the Wisdom stat.

So end of the day we roll for stats so this can go either way but right now it looks like it'll be Dex and Wisdom mainly with Str as a tertiary stat for damage.

So the big question is if Monk or Brawler would be better for this and if maybe there's a better way to accomplish this while still maintaining the overall flavor.

If a character has levels in monk and is master of many styles so flurry of blows isn't a thing. If i were to wield a weapon in 1h how would two weapon fighting rules apply to this.

It says "There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a monk striking unarmed."

So I'm wondering would I be able to attack with a manufactured weapon and do a unarmed strike without penalty, only penalty to the main hand, or just can't be done?

So if anyone has information on how this can work it would be appreciated.

I haven't been able to find anything that specifically answers this so i thought I would check on the rule clarification of the following.

If a Magus took a 2 level dip into a Titan Mauler barbarian to pick up Jotugrup would you be able to use spell combat with a two handed weapon.

The weapon must be appropriately sized for her, and it is treated as one-handed when determining the effect of Power Attack, Strength bonus to damage, and the like.

The "and the like." part is very vague and I wasn't certain if this text means "and damage stuff" or if that means "This weapon is a one handed weapon for all rule purposes".

So I thought I would check on the exact details of this to see if my two handed slashing weapon would count as a one handed slashing weapon for the purposes of spell combat.

I've been looking into playing a White-Haired witch but from what i can see overall the Archetype somewhat hinders the overall class if you want to focus into it. As such I've been looking into simply adding White-Haired witch to other classes as a multiclass of 2 levels so i can get the base feature and the constrict ability.

One of the ideas I've been looking into but I wasn't sure about the viability of was making the character a Magus(Kensei) as I had been interested in that class/archetype as well.

The general idea of the character is to use the hair to grapple enemies and keep them in place while I either cast from a safe distance from the target or melee them or simply grapple one and constrict every round (while the grapple stays of course) while attacking another.

I was looking at Kensei specifically as I will need to stay out of armor for the most part to still have use of the witch spells that I'll have access to as well as just capitalizing on the intelligence bonuses.

I also was interested in going bladebound with the Magus but i don't see a way i can quite do this as it seems if I went with this there would be 0 way for me to take witch as the familiar thing is right out the window and I don't quite see a way to get rid of the familiar. (if i could it would still allow it to get the blade to level 18 at least allowing it the +5 bonus though depriving it of life-drinker)

So any advice on the overall idea, rule limitations i'm not seeing, or ideas in general for this would be helpful.