scthomas's page

Afternoon,

I'm looking to play a Maneuver Master archtype Monk ( Ultimate Combat ). The question I have is that at 6th level and on I will be able to take Greater [Maneuver] feats as Bonus Feat. The archtype states that these feats are added to the list. An additional detail for the bonus feats are "A monk need not have any of the prerequisites normally required for these feats to select them.".

My questions are:
1) Can I selected a Greater feat, example being Dirty Trick.
2) and since I do not possess the Improved feat, will I take an AoO when using the maneuver.

scthomas wrote:

Another though is if the player can get a Homunulous from the Ebberon setting that helps him craft. Put that guy in a portable hole or bag of holding and he can work on it while you adventure. At night, the character gets everything out and helps the little guy with the 'big ticket' things like the needed spellcasting/spellcraft.

I actually gave my players a magic tower for such things. Not the one from the book (the adamantine one), but something somewhat similar made from stone. They then had the opportunity to put anything in it and pop it out at night. So, full day traveling, pop out the tower, shut the doors, cook on the stove while the crafters used the crafting room for 4 hours (gaining full credit due to the crafting room).

Now just imagine if the PC's took Leadership and nabbed a Warforged Artificier that was content on crafting....

Get a rearch weapon, use power attack for decent damage and stay behind the meleers, bringing channeling to bear from the safety of their backs. Not that supernatural effects cause an AAO, but there's very little need to put points into dexterity or worry about a high AC score when the other characters are your armor.

Coming from a CRPG background in group raiding there is an old theory called 'Hybrid theory'. It basically states that whatever your buffs added to damage should be counted as yours. Same with all other effects.

Now I am on a rather big Witch kick at the moment and the reason is the above theory. Life Oracle and Healing Cleric will pump out more RAW HP healing but look at the debuffs from the Witch.

Apply Evil Eye. -2 up to 8th level then it is -4.
You reduce their Attack Roll by that.

Misfortune.
They roll two d20s on the attack rolls, pick the lowest.

Ward
Increase the saves and AC of your tank.

These are all included with having cure spells prepared for when the hits do come and the Healing hexes as well.

You take all of this together and I believe a witch can have a potentially greater net effect in damage prevention that the cleric and life Oracle can do in HP cleanup. This isn't all that the witch brings but a few of the big ones. Slumber acts as a big combat control, Retribution at 10 is a big party damage boost, ect.

-=-=-=-

OK, so thinking non-witch what I would also do is look at picking up levels in Crusader from ToB at a few strategic levels to pick up the Devoted Spirit healing strikes. With the stances and strikes you can pump out some healing without spending spells.

Also to optimize, look at having a on-use continuous wondrous item of Spectral Handmade so you don't have to worry about getting splated in melee.

Another though is if the player can get a Homunulous from the Ebberon setting that helps him craft. Put that guy in a portable hole or bag of holding and he can work on it while you adventure. At night, the character gets everything out and helps the little guy with the 'big ticket' things like the needed spellcasting/spellcraft.

Running standard characters in a solo campaign is tough (combat-wise); recently, I was reminded about gestalt characters (from Unearthed Arcana) which are now a must for any solo games I'm running. Here's my experience running Council of Thieves solo with an unconventional character and a lot of improvisation: Thread link

I've always been a big fan of Gestalt's outside of a 4+man party. Unearthed Arcana really does hit it well on the wording, it doesn't really empower the characters alot more it just gives them more choices.

I was going to run a campaign with my wife and it was a gestalt setup, she decided to go with weird diversity ( Oracle/Rogue ) while the NPC I crafted were all going to be thematic ( Alchemist/Artificier, Monk/Swordsage, and old Kobold Summoner/Witch ).

A favorite quote from a friend of mine is that all the players are Heroes and hense should do heroic things. Their plans and goals should be beyond mundane otherwise after 3rd level you could just retire and live a pretty nice life.

For idea's of how to impliment gestalt. In my story something happened to the mutli-verse and multiple alternate realities collapsed and merged. The character was sitting at a table with friends and saw the world "degauss" like an old CRT monitor and she saw all of the alternate heroic options of what she had become. When they all merged in her brain she fought off the insanity of it all and took away from it two of the sets of learning.

scthomas wrote:

...My prev ramblings...

The biped is the best just all around slugger, the higher strength is really nice.

The Quad is obviously the most mobile and the only form that can pounce which is really nice (but not always amazing).

The serpent form is probably the weakest but you can make a pretty gnarly grappler with it.

I'd need to stat out a Biped weapon user, I could see that outpacing the Quad possibly but the STR differance is only a few points. I guess these arguments also really depend on the DM that you have and how they setup encounters. I'm in a modified Worlds Largest Dungeon campaign right now, so I see pounce as pretty sexy and can't imagine not picking it up. Quad allows for the mount option. :)

Hey all.

So after a rather "WOW" moment with a Chuul and our 4th level party my DM has relised that we are far from smart when it comes to running away from things that could freakin kill us.

Anywho he has asked us to all make backup characters (Not a good sign right?) and I am looking at the summoner as I like "Pet" classes.

has anyone made a summoner handbook? all the choices are a tad overwhelming.

I'm thinking perhaps something mounted.

At first I was thinking of doing the Eidolon as the main character and do the actual summoner as its charge to protect. (Odd i know) however the 7 Int kinda killed that.

Anyway any help would be great, thanks.

After looking through the Eidolon when someone decided to play it in our group.

The only thing I can really say for a fact is that Quad form is by far the best idea unless you layout some very specific build that you don't ever plan on needing Pounce. for a 1pt evoloution, it is a must.

For efficiency, it looks like loading up on Claw attacks is the best idea since they are Primary weapons and the feats and other evolutions apply to ALL of the attacks of that type.

Getting one Reach attack is probably the best idea so you have more AoO threats.

I'll chime in with my 4.

Tank - Crusader.
*possibly mutliclass warblade at a few tactical levels to add in damage threats and have clutch abilities when the Crusader mechanic fails you. I have a concept for a Warblade tank that picks up critical Devoted Spirit abilities but haven't been able to play to prove it.
*If pure Crusader, best to mutli class a few levels into cleric for Ruby Knight Vindicator. This will give you enough of the cleric power to be a good buffer/spot healer outside of the Devoted Spirit maneuvers.

Healer - Witch.
*Sucks not having the extra bursty healing that cleric have but Hexes offset it IMO. I'd probably say Undead domain or Wisdom.

Magic Swissarmy Knife - Wizard.
*Just to damnedably handy when they pick up all of those unique spells.

The-4th-Wheel - Something with Trapfindings and Disable Device.
*Really anything that can dip for it is fine. Artificier from Ebberon is really nice in this scenario as he brings all the crafting the group will need. Nice to not have to hope that a city has your toys.

This setup also gives you ALOT of undead creation/summon options for extra meatshields. If I had to pick another 4th-Wheel option I might pick summoner for extra party damage.

scthomas wrote:

LINK

Thanks for finding that, odd that I didn't see that thread when trying to use the search function. :/ Tagged his response for FAQ so that newbie witches don't have to ask the question again. ^_^

1.) Thanks, brain just read over the SU/EX details at the beginning of the text.

2.) So there is no company response to this, the book was release in July right? Side question: is this delay/inaction indicative of Paizo?

I apologize for any snarkiness in the above, our group runs 98% on RAW and only patches things that the DM feels is out of whack. When there is a RAW question we look to the company to clarify since they created the product and know the intentions.

3.) Sounding like DM choice on that once since no official company response.

4.) Interesting thoughts about the spell creation, off to the advise forum for more chats on proper use and balance assuming the DM will allow it.

'ello,

My Crusader got gacked and such I'm in the market for a new character. With a new player coming in I have decided to pick up a Witch but I have a few questions before we hit the table.

1. What are hexes classified as?

In the APG I see no mention that they are Supernatural or Exraordinary or that they can/cannot function in a Anti-Magic field. On PG 66 the first fluff text sentance states "Witches learn a number of magic tricks" but it isn't very good detail.

2. Can my Witch use Evil Eye on a target multiple times for the differant negative effects?

The negative effects don't have a type. When looking in Core under the Magic chapter the differant options for determining if things did not really match the Evil Eye scenario.

3. What is the range of the Ward hex?

4. Can a Witch create her own spells like a Wizard?

I know that it was always a DM choice on the spells. I don't have my Core on me, I don't know if it is still legal for Wizards to do it.

might have follow-up questions based on the answers to the above. Thanks to all.

memorax wrote:

First off I know how some on this board dislike the book. So to avoid any confusion this thread is about:

Using stuff from BO9S with Pathfinder. How would you incorporate it and how would you convert it.

NOT a thread where you tell me how you hate the book, or how broken it is or how you would not allow it at your table or anything negative about hsort of something that I may need to be careful about ion terms of game mechanics. I really do no want this thread to turn into a fight betwwen the pro and con factions who dilike and like the book. Ignore the above and you will be reported to the mods.

So enlighten me on how to use the book.

Convert Hit Dice. d6, d8, d10.

No increase to abilities...their maneuvers etc, make them equal to Pathfinder characters.

Remove any save or die abilities.

Pardon the slight necro on this post but I am curious why you say remove any save or die effects? Without going through every power i'm pretty sure there are only a few save or die effects, which are mostly in the Shadow Hand. Tiger Claw might have one or two at higher level. Swordsages are the only ones of the core 3 that can select Shadow Hand. ( for intellectual honesty, yes you can get a few maneuvers or stances from feats and magical items. )