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Is a half-elf synthesist quadreped who just takes Fleet for all feats and limbs(legs) for all evolutions in the race? 40 base + 50 (10x Fleet) + 130 (26 base evolution pts) + 20 (5 evo pts from FCB Half Elf Summoner) = 240? Not nearly as efficient as taking Flight up the evolution chain since that gives 20ft per 1 pt rather than land speed 10ft per 2 pts. (just from memory here so correct my math please)
i've played various atheist characters (including clerics) since AD&D (home games mostly). I roleplay it as my character believes gods are just very high level magic users and/or powerful outsiders. So I still pick a patron or theme to have some coherence in picking domains and alignment. The feeling changes from worshiping a deity, to asking an older brother for a favor. I'd suggest looking through the various other classes that have "themes" e.g. Witch Patrons, Oracle Mysteries, Sorcerer bloodlines, etc., choosing one of them and picking domains based upon that.
I think they are both going to be very effective in combat. The last time I picked an archer ranger over a archer fighter, the decision really came down to: what else do I want to be able to do? Things like casting spells and having skill points to spare make all difference when it comes to between combat things. I find I get really bored when playing a fighter. Even if I have a great background story and roleplaying opportunities, I still struggle to be useful out of combat. The ranger also has more flexibility in combat, just due to things like spells and an animal companion, which in the end make him more effective. You probably won't notice the slight extra damage that a fighter may sometimes be able to beat a ranger on. But you will notice when you have to sit on your hands as a fighter because, for whatever reason, shooting a bow isn't the appropriate thing at the moment.
I'm playing a standard summoner in Rise of the Runelords (lvl 9 currently), and I'm having a blast. Several of my party members are pretty new to the game. And with a little optimization the eidolon is basically >50% of the dps (even though we have a 5-6 other players and I'm casting haste on the party most fights). The summoner handbook is really good. In actual play, I've found pounce to be too good to pass up. You can one shot pretty much any single mook creature (and some bigger things) on the battle field in the first round while everyone else is buffing and running around positioning themselves. So with that basis, I went with quadruped base form and always pick pounce as my first evo pt. For the 9 levels I've played, I've always been short on evolution pts., and was glad I took the advice of others to be a half elf and always choose 1/4th extra evolution pt at every level (extra evolution feat helps a little too). The second priority, after quadruped/pounce, is maximizing your natural attacks (if you aren't going the weapon route). Bite is free, and use arms/claws for 3 pts total (1 pt to add claws the first time to a set of feet) to get 2 primary attacks (repeat until you can't add 2 more attacks). And gore or tail/sting for 2 pts to fill out your last 1 attack up to the max (for when you have an even number of max attacks). Then if you have more points, add Str (ability increase) or Large if you >= 8th level. Add evolutions that effect all your attacks like energy dmg. Add rend. Add in a improved natural armor or two. I'm not a fan of rake due to the wording of the evolution that you have to grapple - depending on if your GM house-rules eidolon pounce/rake to be like monster pounce/rake and works after any charge. Work in flight when you can (and drop it when you get overland flight). Evolution surge (or lesser/greater) help you fill in the gaps for anything situational - skilled, scent/tremorsense/blindsense, energy resistance/immunity, etc. (on a side note, I think I've pissed off my GM a few times due to evolution surge making our party a little too prepared for almost anything...). The handbook seems to favor weapons (to bypass DR and save you evolution points), as well as reach. I haven't found I miss those things too much in RotR, but YMMV. It depends on how much DR you face (specifically cold iron is the main difficult one to overcome), and the average spread of foes on the battle mat. I like natural attacks due to the straight up +str and no negatives on subsequent hits. I would only go the reach route if I went with biped base form - FLYCHARGEPOUNCE solves most things. Feats - power attack, improved natural attack-claw, death from above. I also like Iron will (and improved), lunge, improved initiative, hammer the gap (once you get a bunch of attacks). I buff the eidolon with mage armor always and shield/barkskin/protection from evil as I can. I give him items like Amulet of mighty fists and belt of giant strength. At 9th level, I'm averaging 90 to 110 dmg per round against the foes we are fighting in RotR (attack routine: +16/+16/+16/+16/+16 1d8+10 +1d6 acid but usually power attacks). The eidolon usually runs around with 31 to 33 AC depending on if I get any pre-fight buff time (level 10 it'll be more like >35). The AC on my summoner is pretty shoddy so I usually self invis and toss around buffs and spells that don't break invis. The weak spot on the eidolon is the magic saves (specifically will is horrible on quadrupeds). Watch out for magic users. Luckily your eidolon is just a pet and isn't your character, so if it gets blinded/cursed/ability drained, you can dismiss and resummon later when your party has time to cure it. The summon monster SLAs are a pretty awesome fallback. The Synthesist gives up 2 turns per round (down to 1), skills, feats, etc to solve the weaknesses above and create a much more survivable character. So you have to weigh that when deciding between the two. I like having an expendable eidolon eating the bad guys face, while I'm running around hiding and staying out of harm's way, buffing the party.
I'm currently running a 5th level Half-elf Ranger (Infiltrator) full time archer with: Str: 16
Level 4 - +1 Dex
For levels 1 to 3, I pulled out the greatsword regularly until I got PBS, RS & PS. Now I just stand still and full attack at range with a +3 Str +1 Composite Longbow. The plan is to get a +2 wis headband at some point before I need level 3 spells. The only reason I knocked Int and Cha down so low, is that we have a skill monkey rogue (who is entirely focused on all his millions of skill points) and 3 party-faces that all compete to see who can get the highest cha and cha-skills (Sorc, Cleric, Oracle). I wouldn't recommend this build otherwise, but it works really well for our group, because our group needed some serious martial ability (our fighter is entirely defensively focused). This is not to imply that you need Cha for anything, but with 3 players jumping on every NPC to diplomacize them, I don't ever need/get to talk to anyone - lol. I don't feel the loss of Int or Cha at all. It just means I only raise 4 skills to max (Percep, Stealth, Survival, Kn(Nature)), with a single point in a couple others. For a normal group (or a group where you are unsure what will be needed), I would recommend one of the above stat allocations from Krispy or someone else depending on what you want. Just remember to keep your options open. Focus your abilities on exactly what you want to do. I wanted to be a freakin' cannon to the exclusion of all else, and it's worked out pretty well.
I understand about the bell-curve aspect of std dev. The curves are skewed a bit, but it should still give a number in the right ballpark. For a GM just trying to gauge power levels, 19 +/- 11 point buy is good enough. I probably shouldn't have given 4 places past the decimal, implying that it was actually accurate to that level. Here is the histogram of raw scores for 4d6 drop 1, with translation to point buy:
You can always substitute how you would handle below 7 scores to get your own interpretation. 18 to 22 are reasonable variations.
2d6+6 avg = 25.6667, std dev = 10.5926 So 2d6+6 is around Epic point purchase (with quite a bit of variance as usual for dice).
Just as a comparison of relative power and the variance of dice rolling: If you take, for example, 4d6drop1 and map that onto point purchase, you will get an average of around 18.9 points with a std dev of 11.3. Which means that ~68% (one standard deviation) of characters will fall somewhere between 7.6 pts and 30.2 pts. With the rest falling outside that. It depends on how you treat (the very real possibility of) scores between 3 and 6 for dice rolling. For the above calculation, I just continued the pattern downwards:
3d6drop0 avg = 3.3056, std dev = 10.7541
you'd get slightly different results for using a different mapping (or throwing out all scores below 7).
I've played a cleric a couple of times in Pathfinder (by no means am I an expert), but I can't think of one time that I've cast a cure spell. The Healing domain is incredibly weak - it makes weak spells suck slightly less. On the other hand, I find Channel positive energy to be incredibly valuable when you have 3 or more party members down in health for at least your average channel heal amount. I put shield other on the tank every day so that usually means 2 people are nearly even in HP dmg. Most rounds I spend casting battlefield control spells, buffs, debuffs, summon monster, or remove poison/disease/curse etc. And a wand of cure light wounds is my go-to for out-of-combat healing. Just my experience. --Zerothbase
Ya, it was somewhat intentional. James Cameron has forever ruined the word "Avatar" for me after having tried to talk about Avatar: The Last Airbender movie for weeks now and always having some random eavesdropper ask if I'm talking about the one with blue monkeys. Gaaahhhh!!
It's been touched upon lightly in this thread, but I just want to give my favorite base class idea: A cross among:
Sort of like Monk with spell like Ki abilities. It would just take a lot of modification to Monk to make this balanced/viable imo. I'd like something around the average of Sorcerer, Fighter and Monk in power/combat ability without the detriments and unevenness to multi-classing in the Pathfinder ruleset. A base class with a natural progression of un-armored, possibly un-armed combat and SLAs.
We trade who gets to be GM a bunch, and whoever is the current GM chooses whatever method they like based upon how powerful of a campaign they want to run. Our latest GM had a good idea that made everyone happy: Start with one 18, and roll 4d6 five times. It means everyone gets at least one high primary stat. If you roll well, you might play a MAD class, but everyone is free to choose whatever class they like. The key is really to balance everyone's fun level. Everyone having too high or too low stats will make it not fun. The players will have it too easy or too hard and the GM will have to work too hard to either throw reasonable challenges or keep the players alive, respectively. If you have a specific class/character you want to play (within reason) and your rolled stats just won't cut it, we always allow people to re-roll. Fun is the important thing.
we went halfway with the house-rule in our group. you still have to be lawful on paper, but that means you are following the laws of your order, not necessarily the laws of the land you are currently in. Thus you could choose the drunken-fist fighting style and be quite chaotic, but you are following your order. For example, the Kung Fu TV series with david carradine whose character was very lawful/disciplined, but always seemed to end up on the wrong side of the old-west "law".
Also, the Linguistics skill is ambiguously written enough that you might be able to convince your DM to just put a few points in that.
It doesn't say that each point has to be trained. But it does say that you get a new language for every point you put into it. Linguistics is "Trained Only" but so are all Knowledge skills. Just as an example:
As a starting character it is usually assumed that you learned any ranks you have in your in-class skills as part of your training to become level 1. I've never heard of a DM that won't allow you to put new skill points in a skill after you've trained your initial 1 point. I know its a gray area and stretching into rule lawyer bounds but its yet another case of Paizo not having very precise language on what they mean.
<tongue in cheek>
I ran a similar 3.5 campaign recently. There was a "real world" where the main quest was to take place, but to defeat the main BBEG, the players had to quest through a magic portal (think Stargate, but magic instead of Alien Tech). The portal would lead them to other worlds where they had to quest for some powerful magic items to help them defeat the BBEG in the main quest-line. In the other worlds they encountered: Ulysses (The Odyssey), Robin Hood, Alice in Wonderland, Clint Eastwood (from a Western), Darth Maul and many more characters from Movies and TV shows. Each world was separate and isolated but allowed me to explore different story ideas. Before I wrote the story for each world, I'd watch the movie(s) for that world (Yeah Netflix!). And then I'd modify the world so that the players wouldn't know what to expect. For example, Robin Hood was an evil thief who reveled in murder and violence. I changed the evil witch into a beautiful and good sorceress. The PCs accidentally offender her ended up fighting/defeating her, but this just added to the intrigue as they had to grip with the moral implications (and how to cover up their mistake). I pulled elements from the Disney version, Men in Tights, the version with Uma Thurman and the version with Kevin Costner (Robin Hoods on Wikipedia). I used leveled humanoids for most of my encounters. This allowed me to dynamically adjust the CR as the PCs leveled up (and adjust for any powergaming or new players). e.g. Robin Hood was a ranger & Friar Tuck was a cleric. The Cheshire cat was a Dire lion with Greater Invisibility at will. You probably want to get Herolab or PCGen to help with this sort of thing - I was doing it by hand which was slow as mud. The more modern worlds (Old West and Star Wars) presented a greater challenge, but I used the 3.5 DMG rules on guns and laser pistols and still incorporated magic and monsters. It sounds like you have a good start. Though, Sleeping Beauty alone may not be enough story line for more than 1 or 2 levels. So you then have to decide whether to merge multiple fairy tales into one world, or to isolate them somehow. Or expand the core storyline of Sleeping Beauty into a much bigger world. Sleeping beauty's dreams may allow you to isolate each fairy tale by having the PCs physically enter those dreams. They might have to defeat the demons in her nightmares to help her awaken. Perhaps she is dreaming the story of Cinderella, Snowwhite and many more. Perhaps Cinderella's evil step-sisters are level appropriate evil wizards (can't be sorcerers with that terrible charisma). Dream powers sounds like a cool idea - I like it. However, creating your own magic system can be very time intensive and difficult to keep it balanced. I recommend keeping it storyline only. For example, have a "cut scene" with dream powers being used, but I wouldn't recommend using it in combat against the PCs (or allowing them to make use of it). If you absolutely must use it in combat, have it only be able to simulate spells of appropriate CR from core (like an alternate form of magic). Just my thoughts. It sounds like you'll have a fun campaign regardless.
What is the range on Clairaudience-Clairvoyance? The range increment is 400 ft + 40 ft/level, but the description goes off talking about the locale being known to you and planes of existence. How can the locale not be known to if you are 440 to 1200 ft away? How can 440-1200 ft away be a completely different plane of existence? Please help.
I'm a fan of the madness domain. 1st level touch attack that scales all the way to 20 (+10 to skills, -10 to attack & saves = ouch). 8th level AOE confusion. And a good selection of spells that doesn't overlap with your normal spells.
don't forget Monk's Robe pg 528 - good for anyone unarmed, giving you 1d8 base dmg (+1 AC too) - for core only games. In the DPR olympics thread, I posted an unarmed fighter And based upon page 459 of the PFPRGCR, I'd say you should be able to use Full Plate and a Monk's Robe at the same time.
(Can you wear a monk's robe on top of full plate? I'd have to find some other way to get above 22 armor otherwise - if that's possible) Attack: +19/+19/+14/+14 1d8+11 (19-20/x2)
Power attack is an increase (barely) so he uses it. DPR: 47.80
note: I used Tejon's spreadsheet v2.02 for calculations.
Zeroth, that's a fighter with a +6 will save, c'mon Realized after I posted what you meant - the lack of a Cloak of Resistance +2. So you've obviously got some minimums in mind that you've arbitrarily setup and not shared with anyone. Can you please explain your math as to why a +8 is just fine, but a +6 deserves a "c'mon"? Is this the "DPR Olympics" or "Post an optimized character that can only be approved if it meets all the hidden guidelines that AMIB internally demands"? You've got guidelines like:
Magic items will be prioritized for doing damage without adversely affecting survivability. Which really mean nothing because there is a shifting scale between offense and defense. One person may think a +6 (with 1 reroll) is okay for a level 10 fighter, whereas another may demand the following for AC to be "survivable":
Apparently, you didn't notice the "stuff" blanks for feats? There is a lot of room for Iron Will or whatever you like to take it back up to the same (+8 will w/ a re-roll) as Falchion Fred. I was being lazy in not fully fleshing out an entire character. This is the DPR olympics, not build an entire character for people to copy. I put in all the relevant items for DPR - anyone can copy the rest from Falchion Fred as they like. My apologies about the stacking. I knew about certain buffs (like size increases) not stacking but I didn't realize it applied to all items as well. After reading pg 13 of the PFPHB I can see how it is generalized. Though that implies a lot of things don't stack that I previously thought did stack - such as why would 2 things that give +1 to attack stack then? So pretty much Elcurblian is stuck at 65.84 unless someone can find a cheaper way to get another +1/+1 out of the gold after giving back the Ioun stone.
If you are comparing fighter to barbarian, then I think it really comes down to if you like to have 11 extra feats (w/ some fighter only options) or 10 rage powers. The feat selection is large & diverse, and there are more than 11 really good ones that I can choose which will apply in pretty much every game session. I have a hard time coming up with 10 rage powers that I will use every game session (or ones that are as good as the 11 feats). For example compare the Raging Climber/Leaper/Swimmer group to pretty much any of the feat chains: Critical Focus, Power Attack/Cleave, Vital Strike, Dodge->Spring Attack, Mounted Combat, Point Blank Shot (Archery), Shield Proficiency, 2-weapon fighting, Weapon Focus. The benefits of a barbarian (Uncanny Dodge, Trap Sense and a few points of DR) are nice, but they don't really outweigh the fighter feats and weapon/armor training to me IMHO. I think I agree with Xum in general. Barbarians aren't completely horrible, but why are they limited in such odd ways? There apparently wasn't a cost-benefit analysis done to see that if you compare fighter to barbarian, you are giving up a lot to be a barbarian and not really gaining a lot. I would personally rather play a monk just for the interesting tricks they can perform rather than a barbarian. I will wait patiently for PHB2 with new rage powers before I ever play a barbarian.
I think this d20/3.5 book can help with rulings on touching yourself.
The last thing that they, or any other company, want is a commentator on Fox News holding up a copy of their product and talking about how it very specifically encourages cold blooded murder, kidnapping, arson, or regicide. Not to start a political debate, but from what I've seen of Fox News, they implicitly encourage "regicide". I could definitely see Glenn Beck reading passage from such a book. He would "just be asking questions", not specifically encouraging any of his listeners to actually follow his guidance. LOL (just to be clear - I don't like either left or right, this just seemed like a good time to pick on the right). Regardless, an evil campaign would be a very nice change of pace. I think my D&D/Pathfinder group would buy it in a heartbeat.
Attack: +25/+20 1d10+18 (15-20/x2) Power Attack: +22/+17 1d10+27 (15-20/x2)Power attack is an increase so he uses it. DPR: 71.66
Critical Focus is only worth 1.95 so probably better off with another feat. Edit: Though personally I'd rather have a +3 weapon and buy Boots of Speed and Amulet of Natural Armor +1 (for the same price). This would give you DPR 65.84 most of the time and DPR 108.36 for 10 rounds out of the day (as well as +1 AC all the time and another +1 AC for those 10 rounds), but this violates the thread no-consumables rule.
I'm not seeing that problem. Can you give me a specific situation where this happens? Just pulled a fresh copy. Falchion Fred: Power Attack 1, Critical Focus 1, Target AC 24, BAB 10, Str +6, Dex +2, Dice Average 5, Crit Threat 15, Crit Mult 2, Misc +attack 5, Misc +dmg 5. (the misc +5's are +2 for fighter weapon training and +3 falchion) Then either:
Perhaps I misunderstood how this is supposed to work? --zerothbase
Awesome tool. It makes archery so tempting to see these kind of numbers. One bug I've found - Weapon focus level 3 doesn't seem to be calculating properly. Thus, most of the characters in the "DPR Olympics" thread are not reproducible unless you put Weapon Focus level 2 and just add a straight +1 to misc attack. |
