Been trying to build a spellcasting based druid, for I haven't tried one before, and our current campaign needs one (high wis for perception and survival). The concept of being able to fly while denying enemies' access to air sounds interesting enough for me. So Sky Druid and Storm Druid caught my eyes, both with the ability to be "unaffected by natural and magical wind effects."
The question is, what kind of "wind effect" does it prevent? Is it just the wind effects from environment rules (penalty to attack, fly, being blown away etc), or any effects caused by natural and magical wind (let's say the knock down, fatigue and fire damage effect of Sirocco)? Perhaps some middle ground between them sounds more reasonable.
Should I discuss the ruling with my GM or is there is a definite answer to this question?
Been trying to build a blaster sorcerer lately, for a Kingmaker campaign. I decided to take elemental bloodline so that I can convert the damage type when needed. So which of the spell and elemental convert type combination is more practical overall?
Obviously, a result can be concluded from here that a combination between Electricity and one of the other three types suffers the least from multiple resistance.
Acid+Electricity is the safest bet here, when considering elemental types. However, between these two elements, the only specialized spell I can think of is Lightning Bolt, which is far from great when considering blasting.
Taking spells into consideration,then fire comes in to sight. We got burning hands, scorching ray, fireball, and fire snake, all decent options throughout our career. The downside is, obviously, a slighter chance to avoid resistance/immunity, especially when facing outsiders.
Cold is also a good option, due to the none-save effect of rime spell. Haven't built a character based on cold though, so I'll skip the part of detailed analysis here.
So did I miss out any option? Spells, feats etc. I'm quite determined to take non_Crossblooded sorcerer though, due to character concept.
1st: You activate performance, lasting until your next turn.
2nd: On your next turn, decide if you are going to continue the performance, spending the requisite amount of rounds of Bardic Performance necessary for that performance. Repeat this step as many times as desired.
3rd: When you choose to not continue your performance, Lingering Performance counts that round as round 1 of 2 for the 'lingering' effect unless you start a new performance.
1 Round of activated performance will effectively last for 3 rounds with Lingering Performance.
Thx about the clarification, I thought ending the performance was a decision to make, and it turns out it's deciding not to maintain.
Say if a bard with Lingering Performance starts her turn, begins a bardic Performance(typically Inspire Courage), and stops the performance instantly. The effect lasts for two whole rounds, ending at the beginning of the turn after her next turn. The action above costs one round of bardic performance. No question here.
But what happens if she decides to hold on the performance till her next turn, ending it as soon as that turn begins? It will last for the two more rounds, effectively lasting 3, but does that cost one round of performance or two? That makes the difference of whether you can double or triple your effective bardic performance rounds.
First time trying to build a bard here, so I wonder how you(r dm) would rule about that.
So what about a second "focused spell", one that doesn't target will save and bypass SR? Aqueous Orb seems to be the approach. Targeting reflex, the weakest save on high level games, 2d6 non-lethal damage makes dazing spell available. Ignores SR, and with ur full control of the orb, selective becomes unnecessary. Combine it with dazing spell and its only weakness, unable to affect creatures larger than large, is rendered unimportant.
Well, for one, Shadow Conjuration allows spell resistance even if the mimicked spell is SR:No. "In addition, any effect created by shadow conjuration allows spell resistance, even if the spell it is simulating does not."
Another suggestion, as you may have missed Shadow Enchantment from the Occult books. True, it'll be double will saves usually, but it doesn't have to be hostile enchantments and you just have your allies willingly fail their saves.
No I didn't miss out that spell. The only issue with buffing through shadow magic is that there's no need to boost its DC or optimize about metamagicing to make it useful. Thus a solid option as it is, little can this build offer about the buffing side till you get the free quickening.
As for the Aqueous Orb, what I meant was to cast it as a 3rd level conjuration spell on its own,instead of mimicking its effect. Honestly, conjuration spells are so powerful and flexible on the battlefield control side, ignoring SR only gets more powerful as the PC levels up.
Meirril wrote:
My main caution is that in a high level campaign a disturbingly large amount of high CR creatures have True Seeing as a constant ability. Depending on the campaign's nature your illusions may be against 'immune' opponents 80% of the time. Especially if you are warring against devils or demons.
And that makes the "second approach" even more important.
Thanks for the replies. As far as I'm concerned, improving "trueness" is an effective approach, but if it doesn't hit 80% or higher, targeting a shadow magic on high-will-save or illusion-immune foes is still a bad move.That said, combining Shadowcaster, Solid shadows,and two charges of Crook of Cidhureen will easily hit 100% "trueness" on shadow conjuration and evocation. As for the greater ones and shades, the metamagic feat and class feature can easily accomplish a 100%.
These are a lot of investments though. Especially when taking Shadowcaster means giving up arcane bond, 2 bonus feats for merely some bonus spells and a dark vision and 20% trueness. These are nothing to sneer at, but will definitely slow down the build.
So what about a second "focused spell", one that doesn't target will save and bypass SR? Aqueous Orb seems to be the approach. Targeting reflex, the weakest save on high level games, 2d6 non-lethal damage makes dazing spell available. Ignores SR, and with ur full control of the orb, selective becomes unnecessary. Combine it with dazing spell and its only weakness, unable to affect creatures larger than large, is rendered unimportant. Take Wayang Spellhunter on this spell and Yuelral's Blessing discovery, and you should be good to go. Maybe a bit too good that makes me wonder why not focus on conjuration instead.
The shadow conjuration/evocation spell has its uses even without investing resources on it. The standard action casting time makes spells that require a long casting time makes spells like Contingent Action and Contingent Scroll viable in battle. And avoiding expensive materials makes spells like Draconic Ally a serious bargain.So what about investing some feats/class features on those spells to make them even better substitutes than most spells they mimic? Here is a build test I've come up with.
shadow magic build:
Race:Elf(grab Illustrious Urbanite for Spell focus_illusion and keep elven magic)
Class:Wizard(Pact wizard(shadow Patron covers almost all the spells you need——to cast Spontaneously)+ Exploiter Wizard(mainly to grab some bonus feats to get spell perfection on lv15,and the flexibile bonus on DC or CL is also welcomed.)
Looks like a pretty damned powerful build by far. Use ur argumented illusions to distract ur foes until u hit lv7(or 8 if you would rather get the spell from Patron for free) when shadow conjuration comes into play.At lv9, u get a persistent shadow conjuration at spell level 5. When you get lv15, you can cast a spell level 7 persistent+quicken+dazing shadow conjuration(-2 spell level from trait and class feature. A free quicken from spell perfection), at an extra 4 DC and 10 caster level against magic resistance. And when u get ur epic lv9 spells, nothing feels better than countering a timestop of a badass wizard, more importantly, you can roll twice and add ur int mod to that cl check.
Something feels odd about this: no matter how high the dc hits, when it comes to the control side of this spell, you are always casting a spell targeting will save and being affected by magic resistance. As a result, with all those resources invested,you are doing no better——or even a bit worse than a enchanting wizard casting confusion. You didn't get the Flexibility you were wishing for, on combat side.
Any advice on improving this build? What about focusing on the free quicken of a chosen spell and let other spells do the "control" work?
(I suppose one could argue that a character would temporarily lose the feat's prerequisite if if they completely depleted their arcane spells for the day, but I'm not gonna be the one to do so.)
No, I suppose not.But if he's no longer qualified as an arcane spell caster(due to negative levels etc), then the feat will be disabled.
You create an invisible magical sensor that sends you visual information. You can create the arcane eye at any point you can see, but it can then travel outside your line of sight without hindrance. An arcane eye travels at 30 feet per round (300 feet per minute) if viewing an area ahead as a human would (primarily looking at the floor) or 10 feet per round (100 feet per minute) if examining the ceiling and walls as well as the floor ahead. It sees exactly as you would see if you were there.
The eye can travel in any direction as long as the spell lasts. Solid barriers block its passage, but it can pass through a hole or space as small as 1 inch in diameter. The eye can’t enter another plane of existence, even through a gate or similar magical portal.
You must concentrate to use an arcane eye. If you do not concentrate, the eye is inert until you again concentrate.
Yes it is invisible, but how much is its stealth bonus? Can it be noticed with a perception check? If so, how high should it be? Or does being invisible mean that the Arcane Eye can only be noticed via magical means(detect magic, see invisibility, etc)？
It's the Hex Channeler, for no doubt.
At Lv1, you exchange a Hex for a channel ability, Not a bad deal. But after that, your channel dice doesn't grow unless you keep giving up your hexs. So you end up either giving up a Hex for a 1d6 channel(Unless you choose Variant Channeling, provided it's avaiable) , or all your Hexs for a standard progressing channel. Can't find a reason to take that archetype.
I've decided to build a healbot Oracle, thus the Life Mystery is a goto option. However, the other Revelations except Channel in that Mystery are kind of useless, so I browsed the archetypes and found the warsighted Oracle.
So the problem here is, are there enough available combat feats for a spellcasting-focused Oracle to have the reason to take the archetype?
Actually that makes it better, since sneak attack is the same damage type as the weapon used and if the weapon is a cure spell that does positive energy damage like a cure spell your aoo cure light wounds now heals 1d8+x+sneak attack. Take that cure light wounds right to the kidney you reckless son of a B***h you.
This looks kinda fun, but I'm afraid it won't work the way you think. When applied to a positive-energy based creature, the clw heals it for 1d8+x instead of damaging it.Though when cast on a negative-based creature(ie, undead), it does deal 1d8+x positive energy dmg.
Besides,
In the unchained rogue class feature wrote:
This additional damage is precision damage and is not multiplied on a critical hit.
Thou the CRB rogue doesn't include this line, meaning that sneak attack does deal the same damage of your weapon dmg. So you can... probably use weaponwand to sneak attack undead targets dealing positive energy sneak attack, provided you have a decent UMD. Situational but still useful.
BTW, all these ideas reminds me of some interesting strategies when magus combines this spell in spell combat.
Second thing, no. It is up to the GM how much of a player's defense he can intentionally drop, but if the attacker rolls a 1 it always misses.
In core rule book P180 wrote:
Sometimes a combatant in a melee lets her guard down or takes a reckless action. In this case, combatants near her can take advantage of her lapse in defense to attack her for free. These free attacks are called attacks of opportunity.
Seems the attacker of AOO doesn't need to be an enemy. Thou I might be exploiting the rule loophole. Besides, you don't have to roll an attack dice to see if it's a N1 when clwing your ally, yes?
So the question here is whether you can auto-hit an ally with a somewhat friendly attack action just like a common friendly spell, when what you do is not casting one.
Let's say when a cleric decides to purchase a Spell storing weapon and conveys a cure serious wounds with an attack of opportunity(dealing nonlethal damage) to one of his allies moving across him, is that counted as an auto-hit? Or he casts a Weaponwand on a cure light wounds wand, and full-round attacks his teammate(still dealing nonlethal), does he auto-hit on every attack?
Yay! --You have a dedicated blaster in your party who never runs out of those spells. Which means that now you never need to memorize Fireball ever again.
In light of this, you're going to hole up for a few weeks (i.e, Retraining) in front of your books and switch your specialization around (taking Evocation as your forbidden school) and some of your feats as well.
When you return from your tower (don't forget to shower and trim those nails!), you're a God Wizard who doesn't mess around.
Emmm, that's an interesting point you've made. I should really consider retraining my Exploiter Wizard to a dedicated diviner to provide my unity functions. Becides, I can stop messing around with my relatively weak blasting spells while someome enjoys his abundant fireballs.
Still, Evocation is a poor school to take as forbidden even without its blasting part, especially in later levels.
So how do the Paladin and the Bloodrager keep from stepping on each other's toes? I figure those classes are as similar (Str and Cha oriented full BAB, d10, 4 level casting classes) as the Arcanist and the Wizard.
I mean, with a Wizard and arcanist with 22 Int, you have 8-10 skill ranks/level, which is a lot but there are 14 different Intelligence based skills, both of you are going to want spellcraft, and there are some non-Intelligence skills (perception?) you're going to want to max.
So if you want to divide up stuff so you both have your niches, nobody's toes are going to get stepped on.
Well, they have somehow different roles in battle. The bloodrager fights just like a barbarian clearing out lesser enemies while the paladin maxs out her cha tanking the boss and dealing some decent dmg with her smite.
But spliting up knowledge skills would probably do just fine. Or we can just have one spellbook take 10 while the other tries a better result. Though in this line-up, a bard might probably serve the team better than another wizard-like class. Think I'll just ask the guys before making the decision.
Here's how the story goes. Some friends and I have been playing an Adventure Path module for about half a year. We have a Bloodrager, a Cleric, a Rogue, a Paladin, and a Wizard(which I play as). Recently we welcomed in a new member(who's also a new player in trpg), and he decided to play as a Arcanist. We helped him build a blaster Arcanist. One does the damage while the other does the crowd control should do just fine, we think.
And then I realized we do pretty much the same thing when out of battle. When a wizard spell is needed out of combat, we have two selectives to copy that spell in his/her spellbook. When a int-based skill check is triggered, we are accustomed to ask the Wizard when the Arcanist can do just as well.Thus, I'm currently worried that the similar awkward situations might happen more frequently in the predictable future. Knowing this, I decided it's time to swap my character, but our DM, who wishes no one leaves the team, doesn't like it.
So are my worries unnecessary, or are there some solutions to this matter other than changing my character? Your opinions would be of great help to me.
The stargazer prestige class gives you a witch hex on level 1 and 9, with lots of other good stuff like priest domain,familiar,2 initiate bonus & no flat footed before your turn. Though the bonus hexes scale only with stargazer level(provided you're not a witch), so it's bit of hard to find a good hex as a wizard(N)+stargazer(3).
