Hey, guys, I'm seriously considering answering Heathy's call for a new redshirt, er, fresh blood, I mean, a new character for the game, yeah, that's it.
(I'm second to reply, actually.) If you are cool with me coming on board, do you have any requests/suggestions of a new character? It seems like a melee-type might be welcome, but you know the style of your team more than I do - I haven't tried to catch up on the thread at all.
Having played a druid as the primary healer, I know that kind of restricted my options...
I'll look at the 'tough cleric' - maybe of Gorum.
To summarize from the other discussion, I like the look of the kensai (thanks Mothman) and the dervish dancer (bard archetype).
Right now, I'm working up a Gnomish Cleric of Irori to see how he shapes up. Healing and Knowledge domains. Not exactly the tough cleric I thought I was going to work on, but he should work as a backstop for, say, a rogue's sneak attack.
Heh (from previous page) Yeah, I was all kinds of excited when I joined the 21st century and was gifted with an iphone. :)
Now,. well, with cruddy eyesight and fingers that just do NOT want to fit the stoopid digital keypad,... yeah, I'll stick to posting whenever I can get to my pc! ;P
AinvarG- Welcome aboard?! Yeah, druids not the best front lines healer, but Elgan has the feat that lets him swap out spells for heals just like the cleric, so he's not half bad. :) He's not the most powerful in the group, but as I've never QUITE managed to play a PC all the way to 14, I am constantly surprised by what he can do! :)
But as Heathy has said before, play what you want! (I think I'm going to ask Heath if he'll let me take the next feat to let Elgan channel,...) :)
That would be sweet.
I have to admit weighing the three characters, the magus kensai and the bard dervish dancer both appeal to me more than the cleric at the moment. Which is interesting because I realize that they are both less-than half-casters with more emphasis on their fighting capabilities.
The cleric is easy to throw together in PCGen. I lack the datasets currently to use it for the other two, so I will generate them by hand for comparison.
Talk to y'all later!
I just looked at the kensai/magus.....
I don't have Ultimate Magic; on my to do list eventually to get, but I have ultimate combat;
as a big Musashi fan,.....I could definitely do something with/to a magus kensai......
and I could see some wandering duelist (not saying that's the route you wanna take necessarily, but.....) falling in with an odd band of wandering foreign barbarians.
I'm leaning that way. The current build shaping up in my head is an elven kensai whose weapon of choice is an elven curved blade. It might end up being a human and the blade may change, but I love the idea of a huge blade light enough to finesse...
That's cool.....
Yeah; it looks like it is two handed.
found the magus arcana on d20pfsrd.com;.....
it's 3pp;.....allows a magus to inscribe a rune on his two handed weapon which will allow him to do his spells with one hand.....
Yeah, it's two-handed. I don't know the magus class well -- this will be my first attempt at one -- so I wasn't aware of that issue.
Maybe I'll use the bastard sword instead and make the character human. The free proficiency would be the exotic prof for the bastard sword so I can wield it one-handed when I need to.
I still like that arcana, I'll have to think about it.
I think I have my weapon. The katana is similar to the bastard sword (exotic prof allows one-handed use), it has a wider crit range, and it feels right for the environment.
Since I'm not planning on a level of samurai, I'm wondering if this (or my original weapon, anyway) could be an inheritance from a samurai ancestor. I know there have been special rules about ancestral weapons (I don't know if they are Pathfinder rules), but I'm not planning on taking advantage of any of those basically because I don't know them -- if they are available and someone has a recommendation, I'll consider them, too.
So I'm looking at a Human Magus (Kensai) - I haven't looked at the Eldritch Knight closely to see if it's worth it, but a level of Fighter would enable me to qualify...
I love building new characters. That would be my bumper sticker of choice, I think.
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I don’t see any reason you couldn’t be a kensai and a “samurai” (station rather than character class). Miyamoto Musashi and Hattori Hanzo were both samurai and kensai. I reckon Kyuzo from Seven Samurai would probably be a kensai too (and few of the samurai from Seven Samurai would have levels in the Samurai class from Pathfinder – most of them are Fighters or other classes I reckon).
Keep in mind that taking a level of fighter and any levels of Eldritch Knight will take two levels off your effective caster level, which is already reduced from typical magus as a kensai. It’s not necessarily a problem, just worth keeping in mind.
You could prolly have an ancestral sword for teh fluff's.
Halftime superbowl.....don't want to risk seeing Madonna's teats.
You could prolly have an ancestral sword for teh fluff's.
Halftime superbowl.....don't want to risk seeing Madonna's teats.
Giants won.....closest superbowl I ever seen.
Keep in mind that taking a level of fighter and any levels of Eldritch Knight will take two levels off your effective caster level, which is already reduced from typical magus as a kensai. It’s not necessarily a problem, just worth keeping in mind.
Yeah, and I really don't think it would be worth it, just thinking out loud.
I have just started a magus (spellblade) in another thread. (Not even run a test combat yet, but read a few threads) ;)
I would recommend taking any weapon you can finesse, AND that has a larger crit range. My reading indicates that (besides 'nuking' with your powerful spells,) your consistent dmg comes from getting an extra attack while spellstriking, and the extra Crit dmg you get from using your power points to add Keen to your weapon.
Hmm, so the katana would not be on your list because it is not a finesse weapon.
Is the finesse recommendation because you are also recommending a high Dex rather than Str? That seems only right, looking at the class as a whole, but I hadn't asked that question.
Oooo - what if 'grandpa's katana' is a black blade? That is, what if the character is a bladebound kensai?
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I can see Rags’ point with a finesse weapon, cutting Str out of the equation and concentrating on dex is certainly a good strategy, but I don’t think its essential. Neither is a high crit range (though that is probably more important than a finesse weapon).
I play a black blade magus in another pbp, I think it is a very cool archetype, and at 3rd level he already seems a very effective character. I broke Rags’ excellent guidelines on finesse weapons and high crit range, my guy uses a bastard sword, but its still pretty good. A katana would only be better I think.
However, one of the real selling points of the black blade is that you get a pretty powerful magic weapon at fairly low levels; that advantage is reduced when you’re making a character starting at 14th level, when you can afford to buy as good (or better) a magical weapon anyway. Although if you have the black blade you can use all that cash for other cool gear.
Do the two archetypes (bladebound and kensai) stack? I haven’t checked.
Not sure,....have to do some research.
Haha this is what happens when I go away from the boards for the weekend. I was also thinking about a magus! But I am very happy to rethink, given how far AinvarG has gotten.
Couple of resources I found, a guide and it's associated discussion. Typical treantmonk-style guide with color codes for various options. Doesn't include the archetypes from UC, so won't tell you about the kensai.
My thoughts were:
Blackblade - very cool sword, extra work to roleplay intelligent weapon
Kensai - most 'eastern' feel of the archetypes. Perfect samurai/swordmaster feel if you take the katana, plus still strong spellcaster.
I will have a think: interested in fighter, monk, or cleric (though don't want to do anything similar to Alinya from heathy's Carrion Crown).
heh heh.....right on....
Haha this is what happens when I go away from the boards for the weekend. I was also thinking about a magus! But I am very happy to rethink, given how far AinvarG has gotten.
Couple of resources I found, a guide and it's associated discussion. Typical treantmonk-style guide with color codes for various options. Doesn't include the archetypes from UC, so won't tell you about the kensai.
My thoughts were:
Blackblade - very cool sword, extra work to roleplay intelligent weapon
Kensai - most 'eastern' feel of the archetypes. Perfect samurai/swordmaster feel if you take the katana, plus still strong spellcaster.I will have a think: interested in fighter, monk, or cleric (though don't want to do anything similar to Alinya from heathy's Carrion Crown).
Oh, no! That's what I was trying to avoid when I was talking cleric - I didn't want to step on your toes! I was hoping two magus (magi?) could coexist and you would not have to change your plans...
The bladebound and kensai do stack. I saw several folks talking about the combination and checked the pfsrd; it appears to work.
Regarding the lesser impact of the black blade at 14th, that's a good point, but it seems so natural for (1) someone so fixated on a blade to become so because the blade is something unusual or (2) a black blade to be attracted to someone so fixated on that type of blade. A chicken or egg thing, you know.
Another idea I considered was an oracle, perhaps of battle... Did I mention I like building characters?
I don't have any problem with two magi.....
My "Wa" for the background scenario is kinda vaguely defined; so having fun kinda figuring out how to plan to adapt it to the characters.
OH yeah, I totally went Dex build for my magus, although I did NOT go the 'Dervish' route. But for either build, I think that using a larger crit-range weapon is essential for keeping his average (non-nuke) dmg output up higher.
(If you read the guide, Dervish build is good because it makes your scimitar finesse-able, AND adds your dex bonus to DMG as well as hit)
(Heathy is cool with tweaking feats and such, and not letting them get out of hand. You could probably tweak the 'Dervish' feat to be a katana feat instead.)
I am thinking of trying a str build (In my copious spare time-= HAH!) just to see the differences up close.
My build centers around spells and magus abilities that let you use multiple/dancing weapons at one time. :)
I reckon two magi could indeed co-exist... tell you what I'll dump Ionori-san out of herolab and you can have a look. As it goes, I also love making characters and will probably make a lvl 14 monk anyway just for fun. Thinking about a barbarian anti-mage dood aswell! Hope you're not in a hurry for a quick decision, as I've got major i-want-every-character-lust!
IONORI CR 13
Male Elf Magus (Kensai) 14
LG Medium Humanoid (Elf)
Init +12; Senses Low-Light Vision; Perception +2
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DEFENSE
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AC 33, touch 21, flat-footed 24. . (+6 armor, +4 shield, +8 Dex, +2 natural, +2 deflection, +1 dodge)
hp 115 (14d8+28)
Fort +14, Ref +11, Will +12
Defensive Abilities Canny Defense +4; Immune sleep; Resist Elven Immunities
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OFFENSE
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Spd 30 ft.
Melee +1 Katana +18/+13 (1d8+6/18-20/x2) and
. . +2 Keen Katana +19/+14 (1d8+7/15-20/x2) and
. . Unarmed Strike +15/+10 (1d3+5/20/x2)
Special Attacks Spellstrike
Magus (Kensai) Spells Known (CL 14, 15 melee touch, 14 ranged touch):
5 (1/day) Interposing Hand
4 (4/day) Invisibility, Greater (DC 18), Dimension Door, Dimension Door, Dragon's Breath (DC 18)
3 (4/day) Haste (DC 17), Fly (DC 17), Force Hook Charge, Force Hook Charge
2 (9/day) Shatter (DC 16), Mirror Image (DC 16), Mirror Image (DC 16), Shocking Grasp, Inten, Shocking Grasp, Inten, Shocking Grasp, Inten, Shocking Grasp, Inten, Elemental Touch (DC 16), Frigid Touch
1 (5/day) True Strike (DC 15), Frostbite, Shield (DC 15), Shield (DC 15), Vanish (DC 15)
0 (at will) Open/Close (DC 14), Ghost Sound (DC 14), Detect Magic, Arcane Mark
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STATISTICS
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Str 18/20, Dex 16/18, Con 12/14, Int 16/18, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Atk +10; CMB +15 (+21 Disarming); CMD 36 (42 vs. Disarm)
Feats Combat Expertise +/-3, Craft Magic Arms & Armor, Dodge, Elven Weapon Proficiencies, Greater Weapon Focus: Katana, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Intensified Spell, Lunge, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus: Katana
Skills Appraise +18, Climb +9, Craft (Weapons) +18, Fly +21, Knowledge (Arcana) +17, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +17, Knowledge (Planes) +17, Perception +2, Ride +8, Spellcraft +21, Swim +9
Languages Aelic, Celestial, Common, Draconic, Elven, Sylvan
SQ Arcane Pool (+4) (11/day) (Su), Chosen Weapon: Katana, Critical Perfection +4 (Ex), Elven Magic, Ghost Blade (Su), Greater Spell Combat (Ex), Iaijutsu (Ex), Iaijutsu Focus +4 (Ex), Perfect Strike (Ex), Superior Reflexes (Ex), Wand Wielder (Su)
Combat Gear +1 Katana, +2 Keen Katana; Other Gear Amulet of Natural Armor +2, Anvil, Blacksmith, Artisan's tools, masterwork: Craft (Weapons), Belt of Physical Perfection, +2, Boots of Speed (10 rounds/day), Bracers of Armor, +6, Cloak of Arachnida, Cloak of Resistance, +3, Handy Haversack (empty), Headband of Vast Intelligence, +2: Appraise, Ring of Protection, +2, Ring of Wizardry II, Wand of Shield, Wand of True Strike
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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Arcane Pool (+4) (11/day) (Su) Infuse own power into a held weapon, granting enhancement bonus or selected item powers.
Canny Defense +4 (Ex) +INT bonus to AC (max Duelist level).
Chosen Weapon: Katana Kensai abilities only function when wielding a weapon of this type.
Combat Expertise +/-3 Bonus to AC in exchange for an equal penalty to attack.
Critical Perfection +4 (Ex) Bonus to confirm threat & qualify early for critical feats with chosen weapon.
Elven Immunities +2 save bonus vs Enchantments.
Elven Immunities - Sleep You are immune to Sleep effects.
Elven Magic +2 racial bonus on caster checks to overcome spell resistance. +2 to spellcraft checks to determine the properties of a magic item.
Ghost Blade (Su) Add brilliant energy and ghost touch special ability to arcane pool options.
Greater Spell Combat (Ex) Use a weapon with one hand at -2 and cast a spell with the other.
Iaijutsu (Ex) May draw chosen weapon and make attacks of opportunity when flat footed.
Iaijutsu Focus +4 (Ex) Always act in surprise round, gain bonus to dam vs flat footed foes.
Improved Disarm Disarm at +2, without an attack of opportunity.
Intensified Spell You can cast a spell that can exceed its normal damage die cap by 5 (if you have the caster level to reach beyond that cap).
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Lunge -2 to AC for +5' reach
Perfect Strike (Ex) Use 1 arcane pool to maximize weapon dam, or 2 for +1 to crit multiplier.
Spellstrike (Su) Deliver touch spells as part of a melee attack.
Superior Reflexes (Ex) Extra attacks of opportunity equal to Int mod (min 1). Combat reflexes stacks.
Vital Strike Standard action: x2 weapon damage dice.
Wand Wielder (Su) The magus can activate a wand or staff in place of casting a spell when using spell combat.
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Yep, backup weapon in the handy haversack. Has to be at least +1 for the magus weapon improvement doohicky to work. There's probably a button I can press in herolab to make it not appear in the offense section...
Worth noting that the +2 keen katana will, for most fights, be a +5 keen something katana, or maybe a +4 keen something something katana, depending on what the fight calls for.
Yep Mothman, on re-reading you are completely right. Don't know where I got that impression from. Thanks.
Oh, couple of things on Ionori-san while I remember.
- I added 2 spells per character level to his spellbook (assumed gains from adventuring)
- He's got about 170k gp worth of magical equipment, a bit below WBL guideline. Haven't bothered with mundane equipment yet
- I took a couple of crafting feats (arms and armor, and rings) mostly because I like the idea of a samurai forging his own blade. If the party already has a crafter I could swap them out for more optimised feats.
I'm still gonna make that monk. And the barbarian :)
HIM RIGHT! YOU NO MAKE BARBARAN! ONLY ONE BARBARAN! AM GITTIK! ME KILL YOU BARBARAN! YOU BARBARAN SUCK BALL!
I wonder what Gittik's up to these days?
I didn't realize Will was making a katana-wielding kensai, too. We'd be like twins or something.
I think I'll take a closer look at my bard dervish. He/she could bring some additional healing to the party, too.
And I have a gnomish cleric already in the queue, too, but I'm not sure I want to put him to work.
Well, that was just my first go! I've since been reading the staff-magus archetype and it looks really good. So I would be very happy for you to make a katana-wielding kensai, and I will make a staff-of-abjuration-wielding spell-focused magus. They'll be pretty different and very cool :)
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Will! Top 16! Huzzah!
Well done mate.
+1. Kudos and good luck on the next round!
Congrats on top 16, Will!
Seriously, I'm good with the highly-mobile dervish, too. I'll work on both. You answered the call first, I feel like you should get first dibs on the character you want.