Hello all!
As my first post, I was hoping to get some suggestions on my Cavalier.
I would like to make him an effective Cavalier without the aid of a mount, thus the Standard Bearer.
I'm not exactly sure what all I need to post.. so here's what I think is the relevant info.:
Str: 18 (20 w/belt of giant strength)
Dex: 16
Con: 12
Int: 12
Wis: 10
Cha: 12
Feats:
(Human) Power Attack
(1st) Cleave
(3rd) Finishing Cleave
(5th) Antagonize
(Bonus) Mounted Combat
(7th) Leadership
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I have a budget of 33,000.
As far as equipment I have.:
Belt of Giant Strength (+2), Folding Plate, Ring of Protection (+1), Amulet of Natural Armor (+1), & Cloak of Resistance (+1).
Falchion (+1) Keen.
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Right now he's walking around with an AC of 23 and an HP of 53. Is that appropriate for an 8th level character?
I'm extremely new to Pathfinder so I'm not used to "optimizing" a character.
I like flavor over numbers, anyhow, but I'd still like to get an idea of what better options I might have.
Thank you for your time!
Looking at it, the Folding Plate and the Amulet will take up the same Slot when the FP is deactivated. That may/may not be a problem for you and/or your DM.
Also with your Dex, you might consider taking a lessor Armor. An Agile Breastplate (APG) would only reduce your AC by 1, but drop your Armor Check Penalty by a bunch (net 0 penalty on Climb and Jump skills as opposed to the FP's -5), and also allow you to afford +3 Armor (as opposed to the FP's +1).
Depending on your alignment, +2 ABP Armor (so the same AC as FP +1) you could add Champion (Good)/Dastardly (Evil) (APG) which would add to your Challenge Ability. That would add +2 AC against your Challenged Opponents.
And for expense, FP - 12,650gp ; ABP +3 - 9,550gp ; so you'd save 3,000gp as well. That's enough for your Cloak to be +2, or to acquire a Bag of Holding or a Handy Haversack.
If you're not looking at Mounted Combat for your theme, and are worried about sleeping outside of Armor, Endurance lets you sleep in Medium Armor (which the Breastplate is) without penalty.
If having Full Plate is important to you, what are you long range thoughts for your character. Your Dex is fairly high, and with it not helping your AC to its full extent, switching it with your Con (So you still get the +1 AC the FP allows for) might be something to consider.
Hope this helps, or at least leads to some thoughts.
AC 23 is low for an 8th level character IMO, but maybe if you have someone else in your party who can cast a defensive spell or two on you (like, oh, your cohort...), all will be well. 53 hp is a teensy bit low for a frontline type -- at this level a foe with a crit can inflict that much damage in one hit -- but not unbearably so.
Do consider what you will do against targets that don't engage in melee. (Antagonize works, but it chiefly antagonizes the GM in my experience.)
ZugZug: I went ahead and switched the Con and Dex stats, and I am very comfortable with this change! It helped boost my HP up to 69, which I'm happy about. I thought about switching armors, but I really like the instant on/off accessibility of the Folding Plate.
I'm a bit bummed about the Brooch/Amulet conflict and it makes me worry about getting into the thick of things.
Tonyz: As far as HP and AC go, what would you recommend? I liked Mounted Combat, because I feel I will, at times, get into conflicts atop my horse.. but.. I can survive better without it, for now, huh? If I took something like Toughness? It'd give me another 8 HP, which would put me at 77.. is that more respectable for a level 8 character?
Sorry if my thoughts seemed haphazard, I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions!
69 HP should work fine. I'm not a big fan of Toughness at higher levels -- better to take something that increases AC and prevents you being hit at all. A single missed hit is a lot more than 10 or 20 HP at this level.
If you're riding into combat at all, then Mounted Combat is necessary IMO. Stopping one round a blow on your mount helps A LOT.
If you're going to drop a feat, I'd drop Finishing Cleave. How often are you going to drop someone and have someone else next to them to hit? Dodge would boost the AC, but Iron Will might make you more survivable.
Tonyz: I thought that I could try and group two near me with Antagonize to take advantage of cleaving finish.
I suppose that might work, but first you might not have two opponents, second you might not drop one opponent, and third there are a lot of other things you could do with your feat slot.
It's a cool idea, but it seems to me it might not come up often enough to work well for you. Still, experiment and see what happens.
Alrighty so the first thing I want to ask is what order are you planning on taking?
Knight Errant.
Thank you for taking your time to help me.