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Main issue here is that someone can't seem to realize that he is 100% unable to sneak up on a caster since he cannot detect a caster until he is within 120 ft(and even within 120 ft, arcane sight vs. mind blank is debatable). A caster can easily detect him from further away and act in any of several ways he sees fit. Summon minions from outside detected range, switch to greater invisibility while still undetected and commence taking away barbarian flight from an undetectable range, make barbarian a friend from an undetectable range.

Also this supposed 800 ft has never been substantiated. He can only surprise round charge 80 ft at most. (not that the barbarian can detect from that far away anyway. thus max distance no matter what is 120ft.)

With a synthesist minion(haven't seen one statted yet so unsure) he claims 800 ft or so. But is likely full of something since once again a partial charge can only go up to your mounts movement. not double.

And yes a synthesist minion would be just as good for a caster as for a barbie. It provides high speed movement as a mount and also adds an extra enemy detector for the caster. Since both the barbie and the caster could have synthesist henchmen, they both have the same movement and the same detection abilities. But sadly, the caster is mindblanked and invisible so the caster will see the barbarian 200 ft sooner on average.

And still unless he claims he is mind blanked? Not sure how, he has no umd, he has a synthesist henchmen who cannot cast mind blank. So even invisibility is useless for him. Caster will detect first...

I repeat, he cannot find a caster before a caster finds him. Period. Thus there does not exist a surprise round charge against a caster. and after that surprise round, barbie quickly loses all his methods of attack. his flight will go, he will become surrounded by summoned enemies, the wizard will remain outside his range of detection, and have a multitude of options.

Also note that spell turning will not turn greater dispel when it is used as a 20 ft burst around barbie and his mount. you can be area dispelled from 300 ft away.


Why does casty not use Magic Aura spell to hide magic auras of gear?

It's a 1st level spell that lasts 1 day per level.


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I'm just trying to imagine that has to fly around invisibly and mind blanked in constant fear for his life.

Honestly if I were that casty I'd be reassesing my life considering that it might have been simpler to locate off-plane where a wizard can freely frolic in meadows without suddenly being splattered into a fine mist by barbarians that crash like thunder and go to technical school.

Honestly though the real victim here is the synthesists being reduced to pack animals.

Please.

Think of the synthesists.


TarkXT wrote:

I'm just trying to imagine that has to fly around invisibly and mind blanked in constant fear for his life.

Honestly if I were that casty I'd be reassesing my life considering that it might have been simpler to locate off-plane where a wizard can freely frolic in meadows without suddenly being splattered into a fine mist by barbarians that crash like thunder and go to technical school.

I do not think that using 3 spells to be nigh undetectable is equivalent to living in constant fear. Its just being prepared. Like wearing a seat belt. Takes little effort and prevents death in case of car crash. Car crashes do not occupy casty's mind all the time though. Just a possible consequence of driving so fast. You gotta cut off a lot of people to get to lvl 20 so fast.

Quote:


Honestly though the real victim here is the synthesists being reduced to pack animals.

Please.

Think of the synthesists.

I agree, it is the synthesist that are the unfortunate ones. What this thread really really emphasizes is that the true best character is a synthesist with a synthesist mount henchman...

__
/__\
// \\

I attempted and failed to make a text drawing of a quadruped on a quadruped mount. My apologies...

or a synthesist with a barbarian henchman who gives him rage and tons of powers. Tack that onto your 20 gauntlet attacks that are pumped by multiple amulets of might fists(some slot-less)...


thepuregamer wrote:
TarkXT wrote:

I'm just trying to imagine that has to fly around invisibly and mind blanked in constant fear for his life.

Honestly if I were that casty I'd be reassesing my life considering that it might have been simpler to locate off-plane where a wizard can freely frolic in meadows without suddenly being splattered into a fine mist by barbarians that crash like thunder and go to technical school.

I do not think that using 3 spells to be nigh undetectable is equivalent to living in constant fear. Its just being prepared. Like wearing a seat belt. Takes little effort and prevents death in case of car crash. Car crashes do not occupy casty's mind all the time though. Just a possible consequence of driving so fast. You gotta cut off a lot of people to get to lvl 20 so fast.

Thing is car crashes are fairly common. Getting stabbed in in an alleyway is fairly common but funny thing is a wizard at that level could simply bludgeon the offending ruffian with his fists so that's hardly a threat. Rival wizards maybe?

That's a funny thought all powerful wizards are nigh undetectable out of "precaution" of a level 20 encounter coming from 300 yards away.


TarkXT wrote:


That's a funny thought all powerful wizards are nigh undetectable out of "precaution" of a level 20 encounter coming from 300 yards away.

Hey its the same thing I said in a wizard vs cleric thread. I was of the opinion that there would be no actual fight because they would never find each other...

People were like
"I think wizards would win. cause they have a better spell list."
or
"I think clerics would win because they used to ransack tokyo alot in the 80s!!"

I am more like
"How do they find each other. They both have mind blank, invisibility, and flight. A lvl 20 cleric doesn't even know lvl 20 wizards exist. Wizards are like chupacabras! They only exist in mexico..."

Also it makes a ton of sense that powerful wizards would be preparing for surprise lvl 20 encounters. You gotta kill a ton of people to get to lvl 20. Very few people do it through roleplaying experience. You gotta be undetectable most of the time so that the circle of hatred isn't completed with your own corpse. And it helps that a 20k ring and 1 8th lvl spell and 1 5th lvl spell a day get it done. Pretty cheap in my opinion and now somebody has to get within 120 ft of a target that spends a good portion of his travel high in the sky. subconsciously I must have meant wizards for weed when I wrote the previous sentence.


AM BARBARIAN wrote:

AM FINE IF THAT AM HOW CASTY WANT PLAY IT... BUT CASTY AM RELYING ON HOUSERULES TO WIN.

PER RAW, BARBARIAN QUITE CERTAINLY STILL WINNER.

Everything you say and do is correct.

I am sold...it definitely seems that in this *very particular* set of circumstances, AM BARBARIAN would squash a Casty 99.9% of the time.
Would every barbarian win every fight against every casty ever? No.

But when the Casty arguments boil down to 1. 'nuh-uh, no you couldn't' (repeated indefinitely); or 'yeah well...I could run away', AM BARBARIAN has won.

And this is from a guy who's *never once* played a pure melee character in over 20 years of gaming.

PS...Could Casty have his own AM BARBARIAN cohort with his own synthesist mount? His noble sacrifice could give Casty the break he needs to rain death on AM BARBARIAN (?)

Scarab Sages Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games

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thepuregamer wrote:
Main issue here is that someone can't seem to realize that he is 100% unable to sneak up on a caster since he cannot detect a caster until he is within 120 ft(and even within 120 ft, arcane sight vs. mind blank is debatable). A caster can easily detect him from further away and act in any of several ways he sees fit. Summon minions from outside detected range, switch to greater invisibility while still undetected and commence taking away barbarian flight from an undetectable range, make barbarian a friend from an undetectable range.

I have followed the AM threads before with amusement but rarely post in them, but in a fit of whimsy I allowed myself to write the following reply...

I believe you stated you didn't read the other 21-page thread, but one thing that was established early on is that both AM BARBARIAN and BATTY BAT had rings of spell turning. Now, the rings don't function continuously, but on command 3/day, each use lasting 130 minutes. So, presumably the two of them fly around on mage-killing patrol for 6-1/2 hours per day, continuously under the effects of spell turning for 9 levels. This complicates your tactical situation considerably, because while you may auto-ID the visible side effect of arcane sight, there is no obvious visible sign of ST; therefore, unless you're within 120' for your own permanent AS, you won't be getting the "strong abjuration" aura, and even if you do you won't know it's ST unless you cast greater arcane sight (can't be made permanent, only 1 min/lvl), so you won't know he has ST.

1. In your initial reply to the thread, you stated you'd use stacked enervation/quickened enervation to destroy AM. That's your chosen tactic, as soon as he gets close, assuming you are correct and there is no way he can get to you before you can zap him. Unfortunately, you end up wasting your round because of his scarab, which an absorb 6 rounds of that tactic, assuming you hit his touch AC every time.

1a. Alternatively, he could use his ST to reflect the enervation back on you rather than absorbing it.

2. You also stated you would use all spells silent and stilled... which means you routinely go around with no 8th or 9th level spells, except for your daylong buffs like mind blank, moment of P, and o-flight. It also means you can't quicken enervation, because QSS enervation would be 10th level.

3. S/S spells are not undetectable. They have no components but still have their normal visual signature. AM does not need to violate the rules at that point to "ready a partial charge" (which you can't do in PF). He has BATTY BAT ready a single MOVE as soon as it sees a visible effect, while AM readies a spell sunder for when BATTY moves next to the source of the attack. The ready-move-attack happens after your spell appears but before you move away.

4. Back to spell turning. You have later said you wouldn't use enervation, though you have no way of knowing that AM has a scarab. Instead, you said you would dispel his mount.

You have no way of knowing for sure his mount isn't exactly what it appears to be and that there is any point to dispelling it. If you get within 120, AS can tell you there is a strong transmutation aura, but that could be any number of buffs. From 300 feet away, you have no idea that it is not exactly what it looks like, nor that there are any magical auras present at all.

So, your opening salvo against a dude on a bat/dragon is going to be area-dispel GDM? Really? If you think it's a high-level opponent, you wouldn't rather dispel FIVE high-level spells instead of one? If you think it's a low-level foe, why bother dispelling?

Quickened dispel is dangerous for you, since you automatically dispel any spell you cast (no option, it just happens), so having that reflected is bad news. GDM is little safer for targeted dispel if it gets turned, since you can choose whether or not to auto-dispel your own spells. Still, even if you choose not to auto-dispel them, you DO have to roll for it, and it's a 50/50 chance to dispel five of your own highest-level spells (probably something like mind blank, contingency, overland flight, and two of your permanencies... oops... and on the off chance some of your good spells make it, your item-cast spells like ring of invisibility (CL 3rd) are DEFINITELY getting dispelled.

But let's just say you're a clever wizard and you say "chances are it's a polymorphed something, AND they almost certainly have spell turning, so let's area dispel." It's still not automatic. A good chance, probably. Could be as high as 80/20 (vs. 15th-level PAO caster), at least 50/50, if AM had a 20th-level caster do the PAO.

Now if AM were smart, and we know HIM IS, whomever he paid to do a PAO (if going that route vs. the synthesist), he would make sure they had the Tenacious Transmutation feat from the APG, which not only increases the dispel DC by +2, it also delays the effect of any dispel by 1 round. Doesn't sound like much, unless that is the round AM charges you... :)

Of course, AM might just have a actual dragon cohort instead (it has already been established he could have a large dragon by 20th level, with a fly speed of 200) which moots the whole enterprise and which would mean that your area-dispel to get rid of his presumed PAO wouldn't do a thing to impede his flying.

The point is that the dispel is based on a rather huge metagame assumption that the mount you see is anything other than what it appears, which is impossible to determine at the range you want to dispel it, much less the surety that area dispel is the best way to go. If you guess wrong and go targeted dispel on the mount or on AM, it ends badly for you. If you guess wrong and go area dispel on the mount and AM, you don't get spell-turned, and the dispel does nothing to his flight capabilities.

Even if you guess right and area dispel them when it IS a PAO'ed mount, you may not get a lot of mileage out of the dispel, since it has a fair chance of doing nothing, or not dispelling an effect that is relevant to what you want to do.

The danger is that by leading off with dispel after auto-winning initiative and prespotting AM, as you insist that you must, there is a pretty substantial chance that your initial move leaves you more wide open to his attack and does little to interfere with his LANCE AM DRILL THAT PIERCE THE SKY ability.

5. Same thing about spell turning is true for any would-be overkill targeted spell aimed at BATTY or AM, at least for your initial round.

6. You are being a bit overly free with which quickened spells you're using. You can't be using quickened true strike and quickened enervation in the same round, so either it's one enervation per round at +33 or it's two at +13. Only one quickened spell per round, which is itself a swift action, which means you can't take any other swift actions on your turn (you never know, it could be important). Your MoP can affect one attack, so you could get off two at +33 in round one.

6a. Of course, enervation doesn't work on AM anyway, but unlike in Order of the Stick, negative levels do NOT have any obvious outward side effect in PF (unless you house rule that they do), so you DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW THEY AREN'T WORKING. You know he's not dying and he keeps yelling bloody murder, but that's it. It could just be the empty boasts of a foe who doesn't know he's about to die. Unless you have some means of determining the number of negative levels he has (which you don't, as there is no spell that provides that information), you might well keep peppering him and assuming that sooner or later he's gonna run out of levels and drop dead.

7. So, assuming you are correct and you spot AM first, recognize him immediately for the death-dealing mage-killing reality-rending spell-sundering terror that he is (rather than just some overmuscled goob out for a ride on his dragon/bat/whatever it is), and gain surprise and/or initiative (a roll to which MoP cannot be applied).

Your leadoff punch, as you have stated it, is either readying a flurry of enervations on AM, a long-distance dispel on the mount, a long-distance quickened dispel on the mount or batty, or a targeted mind-affecting neutralizer spell (which can't be a reach euphoric tranquility, because all of your spells are silent and stilled and that would make it 11th level)... any or all of which are either negated by defenses AM and BATTY have that you have no way of detecting or are quite possibly reflected back on YOU.

By the end of the surprise round and round 1, you have effectively done nothing to harm BATTY or AM, have probably hurt or debuffed yourself, and now it is AM's turn to go in round 1, with a full round of actions for himself and BATTY.

Bear in mind, this is assuming automatic wins in every category that you insist will be an automatic win for you. This is assuming AM is wrong, cannot spot you, mount cannot spot you, is totally surprised AND loses initiative, so you get a standard action plus your first full turn before he does anything.

Even when you win, you lose.

Now if you notice him, realize it's DEFCON1 and flee or time stop up to get allies, you can (summons yes, gate no), but none of those things are any kind of auto-win for you either.

(BTW, I believe you had the idea about scrying out of a time stop. It can't be done. The spell's effect is a magical sensor, sure, but it is a spell with a target. You cannot target creatures other than yourself with spells during a time stop. The argument that "Effect: a magical sensor" means it's not actually targeting a creature makes the same amount of sense as saying that "Effect: ray" means it's not actually targeting a creature. If that was not your argument but someone else's, my apologies for imputing it to you.)


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Step by step guide to killing AM BARBARIAN
1. Be a 20th level Alchemist with the Greater Alchemical Simulacrum, Doppleganger Simulacrum, Explosive Bomb, Tanglefoot bomb and philosopher's stone discoveries. Alternate Energy Type Discoveries are good too.

2. Be minding your own business when AM BARBARIAN mistakes you for a casty and kills you.

3. Thank your lucky stars you were using a Doppleganger Simulacrum at the time, and plot revenge

4. Wait a 1 year or so, you don't want to rush this. Make 12 Philosopher's stones minus expenses garners you around 500,000 gold.

5. Make about 40 10th level copies of yourself using Greater Alchemical Simulacrum. You want to make sure that AM BARBARIAN knows who killed him.

6. Buy or make 40 Eyes of the Eagle, Boots of Speed, and Capes of the Mountebank, Masterwork Crossbows and 120 or so doses of Purple worm poison

7. Scry on the man of questionable heritage and or patronage using your shiny new crystal ball to find out where he is.

8. Use Delayed Consumption to give all your copies True Strike as an Immediate Action. With a duration of 20 days, this should be easy enough.

9. Scry, Pre-Buff and Swarm. (Bomber's eye, Reduce Person, Heroism, Cat's Grace, Mutagen (dex), Maybe Admixture for fun)

10. Surprise round/Movement round: 40 Readied poisoned true strike Tanglefoot Bomb crossbow bolts fire at AM BARBARIAN. Due to no stat block, I am going to assume that 12 hit. This forces a +40 fort save, which shouldn't be impossible for the guy, but needing 2 consecutive saves and not getting his superstition bonus due to the fact that it is mundane makes it rough. Also needs to not roll a 1 in twelve rolls of the d20, or be entangled and unable to charge. If Barbarian gets lucky with rolls or wins initiative, assume 1-5 dead simulacrum.

11. Have Simulacrum out of poison haste-full attack bomb. Repeat as desired. Switch energy type if there is a lack of success. Assume loss of 3 to 5 simulacrum per round.

12. If Barbarian dies, show up in person and teabag corpse. If ole AB does not die, return to step 4 and double all numerical values.

13. Go out and try to convince people you are a caster.


Jason,
Don't quote me and then attribute a ton of points to me that were not said by me.

1. thepuregamer did not mention enervation + quickened enervation as a possible response. And if I did, well that was stupid because obviously spell turning is common at this lvl. But I am pretty sure I didn't.
2. I also definitely did not mention casting silent and still. Another dude.
3. Not me.
4. yeah area dispel around him and his mount is a smart idea because it does a dispel on each of them and they each likely have something worth stripping off. Magical flight is a heavy possibility on a mounted martial character. So an area dispel from a safe distance outside his detectable range remains a very good idea. Since it will also not bounce back in your face. Note that reach spell feat comes in handy again because it can upgrade your greater dispel range from medium to long. You can snipe him from very far away. Doing it this way leaves you perfectly safe from counter attack because once you pinpoint him, you can bring yourself to your maximum spell range(even a non silent stilled spell cannot be seen when cast from 1200 ft away) and take off his buffs. A reach greater dispel is just a 7th lvl spell.

Also you mention a cohort mount. That is something I have already talked about in this thread. Having to use leadership to close a major weakness is just further proof of how big your weakness is. I am sure that the barbarian plus several other guys could kill a caster. High lvl parties do this all the time. The caster is called a bbeg.
5-6. more enervation stuff.
7-rest. also not me.

I already clarified why the caster will always spot the barbie first. The dc to spot the caster will always be atleast 20 points higher(mind blank + invisibility assure this). Count the fact that the barbarian who does not have access to mind blank is spot-able even if he picks up invisibility( see invisibility is based off of your range of vision unlike arcane sight). So spotting him is basically just the dc to notice a visible creature(0 + 1/10ft distance from you). As where the dc of barbie's perception check to see you is d20+20 invisibility+20ranks+ misc. Do you see the average 50pt difference.

This is usually where AM BARBARIAN pops in and shouts "BLINDSENSE!!!" (that bat's blindsense is only 40 ft. and longer blindsense's creatures still max out at 120ft... not helping at the range the caster is noticing him)

but I suspect that is just because he is in the mode of roleplaying an idiot. Like Stephen Colbert who is also a funny guy. Thus we cannot hold that against him.

You see this right?

He can follow the barbarian around always perfectly concealed and he can prep as much as he wants. Barbarians have really s~+!ty ac(I would know his ac if he had a build but alas no build yet). Casters can pump out a bunch of minions that are just summons who can tag his ac(once again I cannot completely confirm this because he has no build which makes it easy for him to claim invincibility).

Other important point. How is AM BARBARIAN, a notorious casty killer getting anyone to cast permanent arcane sight on him or PaO or any other spell for that matter. I am guessing its with threats.


thepuregamer wrote:
Having to use leadership to close a major weakness is just further proof of how big your weakness is.

I have to ask... Why is it? Is usage of quicken or persistant spell proof of how weak a wizard is? Are you only "allowed" to use bad feats or "prove" that you're weak?


stringburka wrote:
thepuregamer wrote:
Having to use leadership to close a major weakness is just further proof of how big your weakness is.
I have to ask... Why is it? Is usage of quicken or persistant spell proof of how weak a wizard is? Are you only "allowed" to use bad feats or "prove" that you're weak?

Its also related to the fact that anyone can pretty much equally benefit from leadership. There is no actual net change in circumstances. Which is why introducing leadership into a build or balance competition is silly and pointless.

Any high mobility/high perception sensor henchman that barbie comes up with is just as useful for a caster. In fact if the barbie weren't wasting his leadership feat on a mount, he could get a full caster to buff him/support him more across the board. This would be an improvement for him since he already cannot sneak up on the caster(which was the original purpose of grabbing leadership). Pathetic in its failure.


thepuregamer wrote:
stringburka wrote:
thepuregamer wrote:
Having to use leadership to close a major weakness is just further proof of how big your weakness is.
I have to ask... Why is it? Is usage of quicken or persistant spell proof of how weak a wizard is? Are you only "allowed" to use bad feats or "prove" that you're weak?
Its also related to the fact that anyone can pretty much equally benefit from leadership. There is no actual net change in circumstances. Which is why introducing leadership into a build or balance competition is silly and pointless.

Everyone does not, and not from the same cohorts. Even if you can make an anti-AM wizard that has this cohort, most casty's won't; they'll have some other kind of cohort. And wizards, if they have familiars, have a harder time attracting a high-level cohort (and if they always fly around invisible, they'll hardly be of "great renown" either). Most wizards will probably have other cohorts, and if asked what cohort you would have BEFORE AM presented his batty-bat, or even appeared on the scene (say, if you're going for a high-level adventure) you'd probably say something completely different than a synthesist/oracle half-elf with maxed perception. That is the very essence of the shroedingers wizard - not stating beforehand what the wizard is capable of, thus being able to _afterwards_ analyze the martial's tactics and capabilities and building a wizard that matches it.

Most wizard's won't have that cohort, and most wizard's won't be diviner. Due to this, the very majority of wizards will get ragelancepounced to oblivion - quite far from your claim that "he is 100% unable to sneak up on a caster" and "he cannot find a caster before a caster finds him". Yes, there might be this single wizard in the world that just happens to be a perfect match for his powers, but even at this point, about a hundred wizards have stated a tactic that would lead to ragelancepounce-death. That is proof enough that he IS able to find casters, because those casters have been found.

Saying everyone benefits equally from cohorts is like saying everyone benefits equally from improved initiative. While it gives the same bonus, some can do a lot more with the bonus than others.


stringburka wrote:


Everyone does not, and not from the same cohorts. Even if you can make an anti-AM wizard that has this cohort, most casty's won't; they'll have some other kind of cohort. And wizards, if they have familiars, have a harder time attracting a high-level cohort (and if they always fly around invisible, they'll hardly be of "great renown" either). Most wizards will probably have other cohorts, and if asked what cohort you would have BEFORE AM presented his batty-bat, or even appeared on the scene (say, if you're going for a high-level adventure) you'd probably say something completely different than a synthesist/oracle half-elf with maxed perception. That is the very essence of the shroedingers wizard - not stating beforehand what the wizard is capable of, thus being able to _afterwards_ analyze the martial's tactics and capabilities and building a wizard that matches it.

cut the bs. A high sense minion is not a terribly unlikely minion. And the minion doesn't exist to kill AM. Its AM's minion anyway. The minion serves the same purpose for him that it would serve for anybody. Increasing chances of getting a surprise round and increasing mobility. That hardly targets anybody.

Also, the wizard is more likely to be able to attract a synthesist minion considering synthesists are casters and the barbie's personal quest is to kill casters. That is a bigger contradiction than anything you claimed. I have not in any way created a can do anything for any situation caster. My argument doesn't change from point to point.

I have only listed things that cost the caster little or no resources.

Quote:


Most wizard's won't have that cohort

This is why the leadership point is silly. If you want AM BARBARIAN plus a cohort to fight an enemy without a cohort than you are stacking your competition. I would hope that 2 characters would have a good chance of taking 1 down. Which means anything you claim after that is meaningless except as a joke. Which is what this is.

Quote:


, and most wizard's won't be diviner. Due to this, the very majority of wizards will get ragelancepounced to oblivion - quite far from your claim that "he is 100% unable to sneak up on a caster" and "he cannot find a caster before a caster finds him". Yes, there might be this single wizard in the world that just happens to be a perfect match for his powers, but even at this point, about a hundred wizards have stated a tactic that would lead to ragelancepounce-death. That is proof enough that he IS able to find...

the wizards do not have to be diviners. They are undetectable and his surprise round pounce range is half anyway and his range of detection is even lower. look at my claim. This is not a single wizard. This is a 20k investment that any wizard can afford and makes the chances of the anyone sneaking up on him incredibly low. the average 50 point difference in the dc of their required perception checks to see each other should have been a hint for you.


thepuregamer wrote:
Quote:


Most wizard's won't have that cohort
This is why the leadership point is silly. If you want AM BARBARIAN plus a cohort to fight an enemy without a cohort than you are stacking your competition.

You don't see the difference between "most wizard's wont have _that_ cohort" and "most wizards won't have _a_ cohort"?

Again:

Quote:
about a hundred wizards have stated a tactic that would lead to ragelancepounce-death. That is proof enough that he IS able to find casters, because those casters have been found.


stringburka wrote:
thepuregamer wrote:
Quote:


Most wizard's won't have that cohort
This is why the leadership point is silly. If you want AM BARBARIAN plus a cohort to fight an enemy without a cohort than you are stacking your competition.

You don't see the difference between "most wizard's wont have _that_ cohort" and "most wizards won't have _a_ cohort"?

Again:

Quote:
about a hundred wizards have stated a tactic that would lead to ragelancepounce-death. That is proof enough that he IS able to find casters, because those casters have been found.

My bad, I read it too quick and misread.

I have trouble believing you have any proof considering that AM BARBARIAN supposedly doesn't have a build yet. So that is really nothing. But I think the main mistake that people make is trying to play the wizard like a non-caster. There is no need for instantly attacking the barbarian. You can observe him many hundred feat before he can observe you. Take your time there is no rush. To attack and kill somebody the second they appear in front of you is not the way of a caster. Why spot an enemy and instantly send 2 enervations there way. Investigate them from safety because you can and when you feel like it, take him down using his weaknesses while exposing none of your own.

So a caster would definitely attack with minions since ac is the barbarians weakest trait. I won't get more specific than that though because I only went far enough into a wizard build to show that a wizard with minimal investment can't be found by the barbarian. I have been listed reasons why that isn't true yet. 120ft arcane sight and 40ft blindsense will not do the trick as the wizard is detecting him from further away than that. Especially if we are counting the wizards familiar and a cohort.

If you want to mention a counter point, counter the 50 point difference in the difficulty of spotting the barbarian vs the wizard. This is all that really matters. If you can't counter this, then there is no RAGELANCEPOUNCE and certainly no RAGELANCEPOUNCE-DEATH


thepuregamer wrote:
But I think the main mistake that people make is trying to play the wizard like a non-caster.

If just one in fifty people can play a wizard "the right way", I'd say it's a class that's useless in 98% of circumstances. We've had some pretty heavy caster names trying tactics against it and failing, but if you think they're all "doing it wrong" then maybe it's just a class that is so extremely hard to play only you on the whole boards know how to do it right?

Not trying to be snarky, but that's the only way I can read your comment on this.

And what 50 points in difference are you talking about? Also, what's your stealth modifier? If you're going to move after you cast, it's important to know how silently you move.


Trinam wrote:
+2 INT ioun stone with a scroll. He used it once, shoved it in a backpack, and forgot about it.

AM GOOD TACTIC. AM ADVISING FRIEND JUST LAST WEEKEND HOW GOOD UMD AM IN INT ITEM.

ShadowcatX wrote:
To each their own. I'm personally glad martials got nice things for once, and I'm thoroughly casty.

AM AGREE ON BOTH COUNTS. AM GM IN OTHER LIFE, AM GLAD KID GLOVES AM ABLE TO COME OFF AT WIDER LEVELRANGE. AM ALSO HAPPY WHEN PLAYERS AM SURPRISING WITH INGENUITY. AM MUCH MORE FREQUENT FROM MARSHUL PCS IF OPTIONS AM EXISTING BEYOND "AM FULLATTACK AGAIN FOR DAMAGING."

Trinam wrote:
Didn't know castys ever took catch off guard. Maybe one's an alchemist? I guess you could throw goalposts. :P

AM TAKE CATCH OFFGUARD AS NOTED ABOVE. HOWEVER, AM NEEDING POLYMORF FOR ADEQUATE STRENGTH, AS CATCH OFFGUARD AM WORK ONLY FOR MELEE GOALPOST. AM NOT CARING ABOUT SILLY ALCHY CASTY, EVEN IF RANGED VERSION OF FEAT AM FREE AND MUTAGEN AM BETTER THAN POLYMORF FOR RAISE STRENGTH.

On second thought, after Oterisk's 3327-reminiscent strategy, I'm going to hazard coming out of my hole and donning my pointy hat again. Fairly sure I'm below AM BARBARIAN's threat radar. For now.


Sorry to butt in, I took a look at this post only because a friend of mine wanted to play a Barbarian, didn't find a build for him whatsoever.

I read some of the arguments that have been going here (about the whole Barbarian vs Wizard thing). And i do have one simple question to ask though, wouldn't a contigency spell on self (Ray of Exhaustion), and a contigency spell on familiar (Ray of Exhaustion), pretty much havoc both the barbarian and his mount?.

The familiar fatigues the Mount (No charge, No Rage, No Run)
The Wizard fatigues the Barbarian (No Charge, No Rage, No Run).

I can't understand why you assume the Barbarian goes first either, I mean, A non-abjurer wizard has around... +20 Init, an Abujerer goes at +30, and autorolls 20 (50 Init), how does a Barbarian beat that init?

Finally, even if the barbarian and his mount do somehow charge through without setting the triggers for the contigency spell, a Readied Action to Shift 50Ft. Away (To either Right or Left as response to a closing charger), make the charge end? (as there is no longer a target directly towards the charger)


Gio wrote:


I read some of the arguments that have been going here (about the whole Barbarian vs Wizard thing). And i do have one simple question to ask though, wouldn't a contigency spell on self (Ray of Exhaustion), and a contigency spell on familiar (Ray of Exhaustion), pretty much havoc both the barbarian and his mount?.

Contingency needs to be used with a spell that affects your own person.

So using Ray of Exhaustion, you would just hand yourself on a platter to AM.


What about making a 20th level Clone Master with Contingency in place to teleport his body back to his Operations Area where he keeps his back ups when he dies? AM attacks, kills him, his clone activates, body with all his nifty gear teleports back to base, he gathers himself up, and is now in his own personal headquarters with all his nifty gear, and whatever else he's got in there, and knows exactly what AM and BATTY BAT look like for Divination spells.

Not really a build per say, but just an idea, make a character to which death is only a minor inconvenience.


Build: any caster of any race that doesn't intend on being on the surface. I really like the AM build for how lovely the mechanics can work out, but it requires a LOT of open space around said wizard to be effective. I'll try my hand at theorycrafting a Caster for this once a build for AM gets put up. I refuse to believe that any build is invincible, Although this build is rather close to it. I have a feeling that shaping the battlefield would be the way to go.


I don't see how he is getting a dire bat also. It's not on the list of cohorts or animal companions.

A ring of spell turning was mentioned, but that wouldn't affect the mount. Dead mount is a falling and the splattered Barbarian.


So no one liked the idea of sending AM to the Astral Plane and letting the gith deal with him? :(


Skyth wrote:

I don't see how he is getting a dire bat also. It's not on the list of cohorts or animal companions.

A ring of spell turning was mentioned, but that wouldn't affect the mount. Dead mount is a falling and the splattered Barbarian.

Polymorph Any Object: Horse to Dire Bat. Presumably at a young enough age it can be completely used to being a bat.

The Bat has it's own ring of ST.


Skyth wrote:

I don't see how he is getting a dire bat also. It's not on the list of cohorts or animal companions.

A ring of spell turning was mentioned, but that wouldn't affect the mount. Dead mount is a falling and the splattered Barbarian.

He doesn't have a dire bat. He has a synthesist that the barbarian THINKS is a bat. And the synthesist/bat wears a ring of spell turning.


Well, it really seems like he's playing schroedinger's barbarian here...Without a build posted, it can't be judged. Especially when he's had other people cast all these spells for him...When he goes around killing casters as soon as he notices them.


Actually, the only thing I've seen him change between builds was BATTY BAT becoming a Synthesist. Everything else has stated over and over again.


Azten wrote:
So no one liked the idea of sending AM to the Astral Plane and letting the gith deal with him? :(

Well, you are trying to get him into a portable hole or a bag of holding right? Well he smashes anyone who talks to him for more than 50 seconds, and forcing him in there would be like putting a cat in its cat box. Only instead of a few scratches on your hand, you would be getting RAGELANCEPOUNCE instead.

IOW, The theory is sound, but I don't know if anyone has the stones to try it.


Oterisk wrote:
IOW, The theory is sound, but I don't know if anyone has the stones to try it.

Actually, the bag of holding entry states that if a portable hole is placed inside than everyone within 10ft gets sucked into the Astral Plane. No save.

I'd do it just to watch him make the gith cry! ;)


Azten wrote:
Oterisk wrote:
IOW, The theory is sound, but I don't know if anyone has the stones to try it.

Actually, the bag of holding entry states that if a portable hole is placed inside than everyone within 10ft gets sucked into the Astral Plane. No save.

I'd do it just to watch him make the gith cry! ;)

Well that isn't so bad, except one has to get within 10' of the guy.

Oh, and I don't think gith are in the Paizo Universe. Might be intellectual property of the WOTC. Can't say for sure, but I think that since AM isn't using other publishers, we shouldn't either.


thepuregamer wrote:


__
/__\
// \\

I attempted and failed to make a text drawing of a quadruped on a quadruped mount. My apologies...

Here you go


Oterisk wrote:
Oh, and I don't think gith are in the Paizo Universe.

3.5 Compatibility.


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Azten wrote:
Oterisk wrote:
IOW, The theory is sound, but I don't know if anyone has the stones to try it.

Actually, the bag of holding entry states that if a portable hole is placed inside than everyone within 10ft gets sucked into the Astral Plane. No save.

I'd do it just to watch him make the gith cry! ;)

\

Well then you may need a few of These

Liberty's Edge

Brambleman wrote:
thepuregamer wrote:


__
/__\
// \\

I attempted and failed to make a text drawing of a quadruped on a quadruped mount. My apologies...

Here you go

I'm afraid that's AM DRUID.


Brambleman wrote:
Azten wrote:
Oterisk wrote:
IOW, The theory is sound, but I don't know if anyone has the stones to try it.

Actually, the bag of holding entry states that if a portable hole is placed inside than everyone within 10ft gets sucked into the Astral Plane. No save.

I'd do it just to watch him make the gith cry! ;)

\

Well then you may need a few of These

Now I want one. Looks cheaper than my version...


"Fueled by the infinite back and forth and complete and total break down of causality the Caster Martial Disparity God watches with its many eyes as the pitiful creatures that once may have threatened it an eternity ago now fuel it. Settling it's inconceivable form in the heart of a light and life sucking black hole the Caster Martial Disparity god allows the mortals to continue feeding before it will be strong enough to shatter this universe leaving nothing behind but the egg of it's new form. The cycle of eternity continues and it is at the center of the wheel."


Where's an Eldritch version of AM when you need one?


thepuregamer wrote:

Jason,

Don't quote me and then attribute a ton of points to me that were not said by me.

Agreed. This is a dick move and was done to me yesterday. This sort of thing also happened in the "can you use two weapons without two weapon fighting" threads. These forums are not an us vs. them situation. I wish people would stop making this out to be some kind of contest between those who support AM and those who don't. It's an exercise in sillyness. And you won't get a cookie for being on the "right" side.

And Jason, do not attribute things I said to other people. Assuming those people think I'm an idiot, they will now think that you called them an idiot when they weren't even the idiots.

P.S. Out of curiosity, is AM using "rage cycling" as the cool kids call it to spell sunder more than once in this fight? And is this something he can do multiple times in a full attack? If he can do it more than once in a round, does this expend more than one round of rage in a single round of play?


Just so we have things straight. Please correct me if I miss somethign or am wrong.

puregamerwizard:
Effects Going:
Arcane Sight
Invisibility (How are you getting this hours a day again?)
Mindblank
Overland Flight

AM Barbarian:
Arcane Sight
Has "bat" which may or may not be a Dragon, Synthesist or Advanced Fiendish Dire Bat.
Ring of Spell Turning on both


TarkXT wrote:

Invisibility (How are you getting this hours a day again?)

Ring of Invisibility works for this. (notably, you must speak every three minutes to renew it though)

Liberty's Edge

I'm sure Jason meant no offense, there are a lot of people throwing out ideas here and its easy to get one confused with another.


ShadowcatX wrote:
I'm sure Jason meant no offense, there are a lot of people throwing out ideas here and its easy to get one confused with another.

That's the feeling I'm getting there are tons of people trying to get a shot in and people quoting and adding to those people etc. etc.


2 people marked this as FAQ candidate.
ShadowcatX wrote:
I'm sure Jason meant no offense, there are a lot of people throwing out ideas here and its easy to get one confused with another.

I'm sure he didn't mean offense either. But if you're going to craft a novel of a post for the sole purpose of telling somebody how wrong they are, you should get it right whom you are speaking to. He jumbled together random snippets of posts from several people.

I disagree with several rules things he said too, but I'm not going to push through replying to all of it. The one point I'll make since my take seems to be so unpopular is regarding scrying during time stop. Jason said it doesn't work because ray spells say effect:ray instead of specifying a target. A ray is an attack which is explicitly spelled out in time stop as not being allowed. Scrying is not an attack, doesn't break the invulnerability clause, and does not have a target. RAW, this is how it works. If somebody doesn't like it, make a new thread and FAQ it. Just remember, applying a "this is obviously how its supposed to work even though it doesn't say so" style logic in a thread debating the intricacies of AM's build is itself not logical ;)

p.s. please don't actually FAQ it. Greater scrying is the only spell I can think of where this could possibly matter and why the heck would you ever use it in a time stop? Only if you are crazy.

Dark Archive

Jason Nelson wrote:
ShadowcatX wrote:
Mathwei ap Niall wrote:

Yeah, this is one of the MANY reasons I feel Ultimate combat was the worst book that Paizo has ever put out. Every craptastic, overpowered build I've seen (or built myslef) hinges around something poorly written from that book.

To each their own. I'm personally glad martials got nice things for once, and I'm thoroughly casty.

+1

I can't speak for the developers at Paizo central, but as the author of the barbarian sections in the APG and UC (though a bit of the APG stuff was already written as samples of what they wanted) I can assure you it was wholly intentional in those sections and others to give martial characters countermeasures to things casters normally assumed as auto-wins. It's the same reason I argued for the point of giving wall of force hardness and hit points in Pathfinder rather than being immune to everything a fighter could do in 3.5 and before.

Casters have lots of ways to say IN YER FACE to martials; is it so wrong for martials to have at least a couple of ways to say IN YER FACE to casters?

Put another way, if it's craptastic, unbalanced, and overpowered for a martial character to be able to BREAK a prismatic sphere, does that not suggest that it must also be craptastic, unbalanced, and overpowered for a caster character to be able to MAKE a prismatic sphere? Things that make you go hmmmm...

It's not like every martial character can automatically counter everything any caster can do. Far from it. I'm a caster fan, but I'm also a meat-and-potatoes fan, and for my part is was completely on purpose to try to give out some Nice Things (TM) to a variety of martial classes. Casters get plenty of Nice Things; don't begrudge them to other classes.

That's my two cents anyway.

As A dedicated Martial player (I'm just not a fan of the casty type) I purchased this book specifically for shiny's for my preferred playstyle. HOWEVER if you will read my original comment my issue was with
Quote:
something poorly written from that book

.

Every build that has been posted since that book has come out that makes the boards go WHOA is built around one of the 5 or so feats that are wildly vague and inexact on how it's designed to work. All of these supposedly OP builds could have easily been resolved with a bit more proofreading before release.


If scrying didn't have a target, why does it allow a will save for the person you're scrying on?


drumlord wrote:
P.S. Out of curiosity, is AM using "rage cycling" as the cool kids call it to spell sunder more than once in this fight? And is this something he can do multiple times in a full attack? If he can do it more than once in a round, does this expend more than one round of rage in a single round of play?

Going down the line the answers are: Yes, It's a free action to go in or out so probably, and the books are unclear and technically a 'round' didn't get gone through so it's up to the GM whether or not it does but I'm guessing 'yes.'


Trinam wrote:
If scrying didn't have a target, why does it allow a will save for the person you're scrying on?

Cause it's magic, duh. It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to prove that he's right.


Azten wrote:
Actually, the only thing I've seen him change between builds was BATTY BAT becoming a Synthesist. Everything else has stated over and over again.

This, basically. And this was solely because I forgot Leadership could be used to take mounts. So then I had to figure out what the best mount to use through leadership was. And I found a way to do that while reinforcing the fact that AM cannot tell if it is a dire bat, dragon, or some kind of MLP:FIM pony.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Caster-Martial Disparity God wrote:
"Fueled by the infinite back and forth and complete and total break down of causality the Caster Martial Disparity God watches with its many eyes as the pitiful creatures that once may have threatened it an eternity ago now fuel it. Settling it's inconceivable form in the heart of a light and life sucking black hole the Caster Martial Disparity god allows the mortals to continue feeding before it will be strong enough to shatter this universe leaving nothing behind but the egg of it's new form. The cycle of eternity continues and it is at the center of the wheel."

CLEARLY, IF GOD AM ARISING WHEN STARS ARE RIGHT, PROPER ANSWER AM TO SUNDER STARS.

BARBARIAN BE RIGHT BACK.

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