Hi all!
A friend of mine is soon going to start his serpent skull campaign. First of all: Please no spoilers beyond what's in the player's guide!
After that's out of the way, the player's guide states that fighters should avoid heavy armor, because heat (maybe also cold?), swimming and climbing would make it pretty hard for those kind of characters.
Now I would really like to play a heavily armored fighter. I have a ranger as an alternative build, but I would really like to play the fighter class. It's been quite a while that I have done that, and even longer that I have used heavy armor. So I would like to get some ideas on how it could be done anyway. Conditions:
- Level 1
- 20 point buy
- Only core rule book and APG. I might be able to get permission for a single Pathfinder feat in UM or UC, but I would like to avoid that. 3.5/3rd party material is not possible.
- max wealth at level 1
- if possible I would like to avoid multiclassing or prestige classing
- it's likely to encounter disease and poison
- survivability and flexibility comes first, then damage output potential
Thanks in advance! :-)
Well, it probably depends on how precise your DM is. Our party is level eight, in the third chapter of the adventure path. We have a player who I'm pretty sure wears heavy armor, but we've never had to roll any saves for heat, so that's not especially relevant. There are a few instances of water encounters, which heavy armor will obviously hinder you on. We've had to roll lots of saves for disease and poison, sure, but as a fighter I don't think you'll have a huge problem with that.
Go ahead, with the caveat that your DM may be a lot more of a stickler for the heat rules than mine seems to be. And even then, it's only a few levels before the party should be able to pick up an easy way to get Endure Elements every morning. If you really anticipate it being a problem, you might cave in and take Endurance. (But you very probably don't have to.)
I will say make sure somebody in the party maxes Heal, though. If nobody does, find a trait and make it you. You won't regret it.
Well there are two problems with heavy armor in the jungle in this AP. First is sleeping in heavy armor... it's nearly impossible so if you get attacked at night you will be w/o your armor. I suggest buying some chain-mail "pajamas" to sleep in. Second is that the weather is very hot and humid, you will have to roll endurance checks and with heavy armor that makes it a bit harder in the hottest part of the day especially if are marching through a jungle and hacking your way through it. See if your GM will be a stickler for the weather and endurance checks and plan accordingly.
I'm a player in a Serpents Skull AP, we are trekking through jungle and I don't think it's a spoiler to say I've dealt with heat, bugs, water and terrain.
Take the endurance feat at a minimum.
Thanks everyone! I thought so - endurance is practically set for me at level 1. My DM will be very strict on heat rules, so much he already told me. So what can I do besides taking that feat, what race would you suggest, how would you try to improve disease/poison resistance etc?
One other player is going to be a witch, looks like a party of 3 with possibly 1 npc.
Well the first thing that comes to my mind is the heat exhaustion you would be facing. This is easily countered with Endure elements. If you took UMD and got yourself a wand then you would be set for a long time. Alternatively maybe your wizard, sorcerer, cleric, what have you would be willing to cast it on you every day.
Swim/climb checks is the other thing that you will struggle with but spells can easily fix those problems (again UMD with appropriate wands is a solution). Alternatively you can just tough it out and counterbalance the penalties with skill points and if you can spare the feat Athletic isnt a bad decision for the campaign. There are some other ways around it, for example if you have someone with a good climb skill and some rope they could pull you up. You could also help yourself maintain boyancy by just having some driftwood to float on. Perhaps the simplest option is to just remove your armor when you have to use those skills
To counteract skill penalties the Armor expert trait will help. Assuming you get some traits
Something to also keep in mind is you probably wont have access to heavy armor till after the first part of the adventure and if memory serves thats when those skills really count.
Well the first thing that comes to my mind is the heat exhaustion you would be facing. This is easily countered with Endure elements. If you took UMD and got yourself a wand then you would be set for a long time. Alternatively maybe your wizard, sorcerer, cleric, what have you would be willing to cast it on you every day.
Swim/climb checks is the other thing that you will struggle with but spells can easily fix those problems (again UMD with appropriate wands is a solution). Alternatively you can just tough it out and counterbalance the penalties with skill points and if you can spare the feat Athletic isnt a bad decision for the campaign. There are some other ways around it, for example if you have someone with a good climb skill and some rope they could pull you up. You could also help yourself maintain boyancy by just having some driftwood to float on. Perhaps the simplest option is to just remove your armor when you have to use those skills
To counteract skill penalties the Armor expert trait will help. Assuming you get some traits
Something to also keep in mind is you probably wont have access to heavy armor till after the first part of the adventure and if memory serves thats when those skills really count.
Two traits are allowed, and I am thinking of taking rich parents to get heavy armor early on. UMD will be a bit tough - I don't have so many skills, and failing on activating a wand (apart from paying for one first) seems difficult :-/
Thanks though, please keep the ideas coming :-)
So what can I do besides taking that feat, what race would you suggest, how would you try to improve disease/poison resistance etc?
Get those saves up any way you can, the jungle is a dangerous place! Cloak of Resistance, Great Fortitude and lots of water to replace what your sweating out.
Yep, you'll need Rich Parents to get that armor. that's verging on spoilerish, but you need to know that to build your character design.
Spend points in survival, and improve your fortitude save through feats in addition to to endurance. A three feat investment will give you a high fort save, that you can re-roll and endurance. For four you could boost you survival skill substantially.
Savest way is if you talk to the player of the cleric, druid, wizard (whatever you have) and see if he's willing to cast an Endure Elements on you each day.
At low levels that's quite a bit of his daily resources there, but it keeps the frontline guy standing, so its one well spend mostly.
Once you can afford a wand and get your hands on one (maybe the GM is nice and adds a partially used one to loot at some point) just give it to one of those people, so they can cast it on you. Don't need UMD if its on your spelllist.
Having a high fortitude save (and probably a high constitution as well) poison and disease probably wont be as much of an issue to you unless you get bad rolls.
However if youre still really worried about it being a dwarf would help for the poison. Plus that +2 to con isnt bad either
Halflings with their +1 on all saves could help for both and they get the +2 to acrobatics and climb checks. If speed concerns you then you could start with a riding dog to essentially negate the problem. Problem is their ability score adjustments often dont fit that well for fighters
Half elves can also counter one of the heavy armor skill penalties since they get skill focus to start. You also get +2 to a stat of your choice which is nice
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Staying within your guidelines here is a possible build for levels 1-11. The idea here is a fighter that uses his enemies tools againts them. You wear heavy armor and use a shield keeping your other hand free. By level 3, he can disarm his opponent and either kill them with their own weapon or bash them to death with his shield. At level 6 you are disarming, striking them with their own weapon, and then bashing them away from you to avoid a full-round attack with a free bull rush. At level 11, that shield enhancement bonus you've been pouring gold into now gives you a bonus to attack and damage. In addition, you're capitalizing on the Dex bonus to armor training and moving around at 30ft. speed in full-plate.
Human Fighter, 20 BP
Traits: Defender of the Society (If DM allows)or Reactionary, Strong in the Faith
Str: 16 (+2 race)
Dex: 14
Con: 14
Int: 14
Wis: 12
Cha: 8
Put ability points into Dex 4 and 8, then Str the rest. Favored class to hp. Alternatively switch Str and Dex scores however I'm worried that it might get boring not being super effective at combat.
Skills:
You will have 5 per level so stack up on all the physical skills you're worried about.
Feats:
1: Combat Expertise, Shield Focus
2: Improved Disarm
3: Improved Shield Bash
4: Iron Will
5: Two-Weapon Fighting
6: Shield Slam
7: Greater Disarm
8: Greater Shield Focus
9: Improved Iron Will
10: Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
11: Shield Master
Weapon Training: Choose weapons your GM is most likely to throw at you
Gear:
At level 1: Breastplate, Heavy Steel Shield, Longsword
Eventually purchase full plate and wear that for the rest of the game. By level 5 you should be using a spiked light shield to avoid heavy two-weapon fighting costs.
Priority should be shield bonus > armor bonus/amulets and rings > stat boosting > save bonus
shield bonus: Put all into enhancement bonus
armor bonus/amulets and rings: Put all into enhancements bonus, get mithril if you're worried about skills. Choose the most cost effective option i.e. once armor upgrade becomes more expensive than a ring of protection then buy the ring of protection.
stat boosting: Put all into Str
saves: cloaks of resistance.
Thanks for the suggestions :-)
@kaisc: Only APG and CRB are allowed, so those traits are not possible. Apart from that it looks nice - different direction that I would probably have gone. I'll keep that in mind.
I am considering dwarf, particularly because a) I have never played one b) the poison bonus is nice.
@Lex Talinis: Do you really think investing that much into fortitude and rather little in will and combat is necessary? Or just for the first level, then go further afterwards?
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I know, ranger would probably be much easier, but for some reason I would like to go with the fighter here :-P
Let's assume you were a dwarf for the time being (since you are considering it.), endurance is an absolute, after that I would take great fortitude, since you stated you wanted to focus on survivability and durability before combat and damage. I would absolutely pump ranks into survival for several levels - Once you can pass a 15 dc with high success then it becomes less important. So from level 2 to 4 I would consider how things are playing out before investing in improved great fortitude or skill focus survival. If you have a hard time making the check, then the skill focus might be more important. It just depends on how it plays out.
Ultimately, you have to sacrifice feats to give you a shot at mitigating the heavy armor, if you heat stroke out, your useless in combat. We had a fighter in this campaign who ignored all the warnings, and failed the saving throw just before walking into an ambush. He died in that combat. Furthermore, if you DM is making this realistic, there will be fortitude saves a lot to resist poisons and diseases just from tromping throught the jungle.
Good idea with the Dwarf for the poison bonuses...the name of the AP hints at dealing with poison.
Have you ever thought of the 7th level prestige class Stalwart Defender from the AGP?
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/s-z/stalwart-d efender
It might be worth looking into for the kind of character you want to be and I think it's a pretty nifty concept.
Good idea with the Dwarf for the poison bonuses...the name of the AP hints at dealing with poison.
Have you ever thought of the 7th level prestige class Stalwart Defender from the AGP?
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/s-z/stalwart-d efenderIt might be worth looking into for the kind of character you want to be and I think it's a pretty nifty concept.
I know the class quite well, but I find it rather unfitting for this kind of adventure. It is not easy to make good use of, particularly the fatigue mechanic is bad if I already have enough sources of exhaustion to worry about :-P
I would rather be looking at PrC that reduce my ACP and heat/poison problematic :-/
I like the fighter class, so there needs to be a really good reason to leave it. And I first have to survive for several levels to actually get there anyway :-D
But thanks for the idea :-)
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Our oracle of level 12 just got killed by being on the receiving end of 99 points of acid damage. That's how far into campaign we are. Hope I can be of some help to you.
Anyhow, here's some basic advice from someone who spent a lot of time playing the first two parts:
Initially, I'd avoid making any assumptions about equipment. Suffice it to say that the campaign start is going to include a lot of wilderness adventure and in the jungle all bets about equipment are off. Yes, it's worth the while to have the Rich Parents trait, but as someone suggested earlier, if you have a hardass GM, you might a) lose the armor early on and you definitely have to b) make some Fort saves for heat. I'd get hot weather clothing and some kind of armour you can sleep in, myself. Exhaustion is a big thing for anyone without endure elements.
And for those lucky magic types there are rivers to cross, tide pools to wade and waves to conquer. Not to mention, this is one of the best campaigns to have high poison saves or outright immunity(yay for alchemist), or high disease saves or immunity(yay for monk and paladin) so it's not a win-win situation for eggheads either. Get antidotes, healing kits, that kind of thing. My character spent weeks rolling Heal and crafting antiplagues, because half the party had malaria, dengue fever or bootsoup. Yeah, ti's that kind of campaign.
I'd also suggest taking Blind-Fight or having some other way to tackle concealment. And difficult terrain as well! There will be leaf cover, thick jungle, that sort of thing. Many of these things can be solved with magic later on, but unless you get a a dedicated survivalist/support caster, like a druid, a transmuter wizard, an alchemist(with infusion) or a bard (Feather Step, such a great spell), it's better to go in prepared. There will be some pretty nasty fights with opponents who are either en masse or don't have to care about concealment or difficult terrain.
Later on the jungle will eventually subside, but there will still plenty of ways for the environment to ruin your day. Poisoned air, insect swarms, local - often huge - fauna, etc. We recently had to make a Reflex save to avoid a falling gargantuan corpse of a spider, for example. Traps are freaking nasty too. Then there's a smorgasboard of spellcasters, monsters with all kinds of freaky slas and things man was not supposed to witness. Think Kingmaker, but in Africaland. I imagine unbreakable fighters, monks or a save-heavy ranger would be right at home. Our natural weapon monstrosity certainly is.
All in all, this campaign is the kind of thing where parties with panache and flexibility will excel. One trick ponies, unless that trick is healing and remedial casting(see: cleric), are kindly asked to pick up some of the slack because not being able to do anything to that botfly swarm/sarcosuchus/flyer/mindless opponent/construct was kinda disheartening and listen oh gods I can hear the drums and they are worse than the banjos and... Well you, get the idea.
Considering everything I read I tend more and more to scrap the idea with the heavy armor after all :-/
Here is an attempt with a human fighter and agile breastplate
FIGHTY PLATY CR 1/2
Male Human Fighter 1
NG Medium Humanoid (Human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +2
--------------------
DEFENSE
--------------------
AC 20, touch 12, flat-footed 18. . (+6 armor, +2 shield, +2 Dex)
hp 12 (1d10+2)
Fort +6, Ref +2, Will +1
--------------------
OFFENSE
--------------------
Spd 20 ft.
Melee Heavy Shield Bash +4 (1d4+3/20/x2) and
. . Flail +4 (1d8+3/20/x2) and
. . Glaive-Guisarme +4 (1d10+4/20/x3) and
. . Unarmed Strike +4 (1d3+3/20/x2)
Ranged Longbow, Comp. (Str +3) +3 (1d8/20/x3)
--------------------
STATISTICS
--------------------
Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 8
Base Atk +1; CMB +4; CMD 16 (17 vs. Grapple17 vs. Trip)
Feats Combat Expertise +/-1, Endurance, Great Fortitude
Traits Armor Expert, Rich Parents
Skills Acrobatics -1, Climb +4, Craft (Armor) +4, Craft (Weapons) +4, Escape Artist -1, Fly -1, Perception +2, Ride -1, Stealth -1, Survival +5, Swim +4
Languages Common, Elven, Giant
SQ Heart of the Wilderness +0
Combat Gear Flail, Glaive-Guisarme, Longbow, Comp. (Str +3), Masterwork Agile Breastplate, Masterwork Shield, Heavy Steel; Other Gear Artisan's tools, masterwork: Craft (Armor), Artisan's tools, masterwork: Craft (Weapons)
--------------------
SPECIAL ABILITIES
--------------------
Armor Expert -1 Armor check penalty.
Combat Expertise +/-1 Bonus to AC in exchange for an equal penalty to attack.
Endurance +4 to a variety of skill checks. Sleep in L/M armor with no fatigue.
Heart of the Wilderness +0 +5 on CON checks to stabilize, +1/2 level to negative HP level for death, +1/2 level Survival.
Gold left: 150
Next levels I thought I go for
2 improved trip
3 iron will
4 power attack
5 ...
Dwarf would be similar feat choices, though I would probably push back the combat expertise, maybe scrap that entire tree and focus more on AC or the power attack line with bull rush maneuvers etc.
Our oracle of level 12 just got killed by being on the receiving end of 99 points of acid damage. That's how far into campaign we are. Hope I can be of some help to you.
Anyhow, here's some basic advice from someone who spent a lot of time playing the first two parts:
Initially, I'd avoid making any assumptions about equipment. Suffice it to say that the campaign start is going to include a lot of wilderness adventure and in the jungle all bets about equipment are off. Yes, it's worth the while to have the Rich Parents trait, but as someone suggested earlier, if you have a hardass GM, you might a) lose the armor early on and you definitely have to b) make some Fort saves for heat. I'd get hot weather clothing and some kind of armour you can sleep in, myself. Exhaustion is a big thing for anyone without endure elements.
And for those lucky magic types there are rivers to cross, tide pools to wade and waves to conquer. Not to mention, this is one of the best campaigns to have high poison saves or outright immunity(yay for alchemist), or high disease saves or immunity(yay for monk and paladin) so it's not a win-win situation for eggheads either. Get antidotes, healing kits, that kind of thing. My character spent weeks rolling Heal and crafting antiplagues, because half the party had malaria, dengue fever or bootsoup. Yeah, ti's that kind of campaign.
I'd also suggest taking Blind-Fight or having some other way to tackle concealment. And difficult terrain as well! There will be leaf cover, thick jungle, that sort of thing. Many of these things can be solved with magic later on, but unless you get a a dedicated survivalist/support caster, like a druid, a transmuter wizard, an alchemist(with infusion) or a bard (Feather Step, such a great spell), it's better to go in prepared. There will be some pretty nasty fights with opponents who are either en masse or don't have to care about concealment or difficult terrain.
Later on the jungle will eventually subside, but there will still plenty of ways...
Thanks for your advice, I try not to look at it took closely though - don't want to know too much about it in advance ;-P
Anyway, seems like going the armored route is really not a good idea.
So my alternatives are:
A) Switch hitting ranger (without animal companion, don't like that). For this I already have a build.
B) Paladin. Difficult with my DM, possibly.
C) Monk, either Zen Archer or another interesting APG variant of it.
D) Going for a character focused on channeling, e.g. some fighter/cleric 1/holy vindicator. Maybe not the most effective build, but it seems interesting :-)
E) Samurai.
F) Other ideas?
I have played bards for a long time, and am currently playing an alchemist and a cleric in other campaigns. So I would like to go for something less magical and more martial, preferably full BAB since I will likely be the only truly martial character in the group.
What do you think? :-)
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Methinks your fighter is fine. Definititely looks like a build that would survive and someone you might have fun playing. Do it!
I guess I overstated some of the risks involved. Don't worry too much about not making saves and such. Those things won't kill you(always), but might make it more difficult. For the record, we have a halfling serpentine sorcerer in the party, who regularly gets ganged or grappled and almost always makes it out almost unscathed. We wonder how he makes it sometimes. Being a fighter with 14 con should do it, since luck and preparation will always figure into any an equation of a successful adventurer. You already got the worst covered with Endurance and such.
I'd suggest to go with what sounds the most fun. The reason I gave those class ideas wasn't to try to advice you on class selection, but that this campaign was one where survivors would have a field day. As long as someone can alleviate some of the pains of the jungle, you'll be fine.
That said, a ranger is a life-saver. They almost always are. :D Favored terrains, the ability to use healing wands, lots of skills, etc. A high int fighter is not bad either and being good with a wide variety of weapons due to weapon training is going to be a strong ability.
Level 3 Invulnerable Rager Barbarian gets immunity to heat conditions
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Level 3 Invulnerable Rager Barbarian gets immunity to heat conditions.
Great suggestion. You can give a hearty barbaric laugh at the GM's if he tries to pull heat conditions on you. This would probably be the best choice.
Assuming your DM lets you play the Samurai I think that could be plausible as well. They are one of my favorite classes and have many underestimated abilities.
You can remove those nasty fatigue conditions for one hour with one point of resolve, essentially roll twice on all save or die type spells and abilities (you must be Ronin to gain this at second level), and assuming you pick the sword saint archetype will be a boss slayer.
Level 3 Invulnerable Rager Barbarian gets immunity to heat conditions.Great suggestion. You can give a hearty barbaric laugh at the GM's if he tries to pull heat conditions on you. This would probably be the best choice.
Assuming your DM lets you play the Samurai I think that could be plausible as well. They are one of my favorite classes and have many underestimated abilities.
You can remove those nasty fatigue conditions for one hour with one point of resolve, essentially roll twice on all save or die type spells and abilities (you must be Ronin to gain this at second level), and assuming you pick the sword saint archetype will be a boss slayer.
Thanks for the suggestions :-)
Barbarian actually is the one class that I really do not like. The whole rage thing is not my thing.
Samurai: I did not really think when I wrote that down. Its not in APG so I would require permission for that :-/
So I am looking at ranger again. I saw a pretty cool archetype which I would maybe considering asking permission for: Warden in UC. It gets various skill check bonuses (swim, climb, acrobatics etc.) and is aimed at the wilderness. Seems like it would be a very good fit, or what would you think?
RANGY WARDEN PLATY 1 CR 1/2
Male Human Ranger (Warden) 1
NG Medium Humanoid (Human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +5
--------------------
DEFENSE
--------------------
AC 12, touch 12, flat-footed 10. . (+2 Dex)
hp 12 (1d10+2)
Fort +6, Ref +4, Will +1
--------------------
OFFENSE
--------------------
Spd 30 ft.
Melee Unarmed Strike +4 (1d3+3/20/x2)
Ranger (Warden) Spells Known (CL 0, 4 melee touch, 3 ranged touch):
--------------------
STATISTICS
--------------------
Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 9
Base Atk +1; CMB +4; CMD 16
Feats Great Fortitude, Nimble Moves
Skills Climb +7, Heal +5, Knowledge (Geography) +5, Knowledge (Nature) +5, Perception +5, Stealth +6, Survival +5, Swim +7
Languages Common, Giant
SQ Heart of the Wilderness +0, Master of Terrain (Ex), Terrains: Jungle (+2 bonus) (Ex), Track +1, Wild Empathy +0 (Ex)
--------------------
SPECIAL ABILITIES
--------------------
Heart of the Wilderness +0 +5 on CON checks to stabilize, +1/2 level to negative HP level for death, +1/2 level Survival.
Master of Terrain (Ex) At 1st level, a warden selects his first favored terrain. He gains another one at 3rd level, and then every five levels thereafter (for a maximum of five favored terrains at 18th level). This ability replaces the ranger's first favored enemy ability.
Nimble Moves Move through 5' of difficult terrain/round as if it was normal terrain.
Terrains: Jungle (+2 bonus) (Ex) +2 to rolls vs Jungle.
Track +1 +1 to survival checks to track.
Wild Empathy +0 (Ex) Improve the attitude of an animal, as if using Diplomacy.
RANGY WARDEN PLATY 12 CR 11
Male Human Ranger (Warden) 12
NG Medium Humanoid (Human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +17
--------------------
DEFENSE
--------------------
AC 12, touch 12, flat-footed 10. . (+2 Dex)
hp 100 (12d10+24)
Fort +12, Ref +10, Will +8
Defensive Abilities Evasion
--------------------
OFFENSE
--------------------
Spd 30 ft.
Melee Unarmed Strike +16/+11/+6 (1d3+4/20/x2)
Ranger (Warden) Spells Known (CL 9, 16 melee touch, 14 ranged touch):
--------------------
STATISTICS
--------------------
Str 18, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 9
Base Atk +12; CMB +16; CMD 28
Feats Blind-Fight, Endurance, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Lunge, Nimble Moves, Power Attack -4/+8, Quick Draw
Skills Climb +19, Handle Animal +5, Heal +17, Intimidate +5, Knowledge (Geography) +15, Knowledge (Nature) +15, Perception +17, Ride +6, Spellcraft +5, Stealth +15, Survival +23, Swim +15
Languages Common, Giant
SQ Able Explorer (Ex), Camouflage (Ex), Heart of the Wilderness +6, Live in Comfort (Ex), Master of Terrain (Ex), Quarry, Swift Tracker (Ex), Terrain Bond (Ex), Terrains: Jungle (+4 bonus) (Ex), Terrains: Swamp (+4 bonus) (Ex), Terrains: Urban (+2 bonus) (Ex), Track +6, Wild Empathy +11 (Ex), Woodland Stride (Ex)
--------------------
SPECIAL ABILITIES
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Able Explorer (Ex) At 5th level, when making an Acrobatics, Climb, Fly, Ride, or Swim check in any of his favored terrains, a warden can make two skill checks and take the higher. This ability replaces the ranger's second, third, and fourth favored enemies.
Blind-Fight Re-roll misses because of concealment, other benefits.
Camouflage (Ex) Can use the Stealth skill in favored terrain, even without cover/concealment.
Endurance +4 to a variety of skill checks. Sleep in L/M armor with no fatigue.
Evasion (Ex) If you succeed at a Reflex save for half damage, you take none instead.
Heart of the Wilderness +6 +5 on CON checks to stabilize, +1/2 level to negative HP level for death, +1/2 level Survival.
Live in Comfort (Ex) At 2nd level, a warden is truly at home within his favored terrains. He knows all the signs of the wilderness. He rarely gets lost. He can easily live off the land in comfort, and can provide for companions. The warden can take 10 on any Survival che
Lunge -2 to AC for +5' reach
Master of Terrain (Ex) At 1st level, a warden selects his first favored terrain. He gains another one at 3rd level, and then every five levels thereafter (for a maximum of five favored terrains at 18th level). This ability replaces the ranger's first favored enemy ability.
Nimble Moves Move through 5' of difficult terrain/round as if it was normal terrain.
Power Attack -4/+8 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Quarry +2 to hit and other bonuses against your designated quarry.
Quick Draw Draw a weapon as a free action. Throw at full rate of attacks.
Swift Tracker (Ex) Tracking penalties when moving at normal speed or faster are reduced.
Terrain Bond (Ex) At 4th level, a warden forms a bond with the land itself, enabling him to direct others in such terrain. When in his favored terrain, the warden grants all allies within line of sight and that can hear him a +2 bonus on initiative checks and Percepti
Terrains: Jungle (+4 bonus) (Ex) +4 to rolls vs Jungle.
Terrains: Swamp (+4 bonus) (Ex) +4 to rolls vs Swamp.
Terrains: Urban (+2 bonus) (Ex) +2 to rolls vs Urban.
Track +6 +6 to survival checks to track.
Wild Empathy +11 (Ex) Improve the attitude of an animal, as if using Diplomacy.
Woodland Stride (Ex) Move through undergrowth at normal speed.
Both without equipment, I would aim for medium armor, possibly get heavy armor proficiency later and wear mithral full plate.
Alternatively, I am considering the guide and/or the spirit ranger.
Hm, just to be clear on it: I checked the heat dangers rules again.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/environment.html#heat-dangers
As far as I see there is no difference between wearing any kind of armor, say whether you are wearing leather armor or full plate, with respect to heat strokes? Or am I overlooking something here?
Hm, just to be clear on it: I checked the heat dangers rules again.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/environment.html#heat-dangersAs far as I see there is no difference between wearing any kind of armor, say whether you are wearing leather armor or full plate, with respect to heat strokes? Or am I overlooking something here?
"Characters wearing heavy clothing or armor of any sort take a –4 penalty on their saves."
It sounds silly, but rules wise, wearing a full plate, and wearing an armored skirt, both give you the same penalty :O
Hm, just to be clear on it: I checked the heat dangers rules again.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/environment.html#heat-dangersAs far as I see there is no difference between wearing any kind of armor, say whether you are wearing leather armor or full plate, with respect to heat strokes? Or am I overlooking something here?
"Characters wearing heavy clothing or armor of any sort take a –4 penalty on their saves."
It sounds silly, but rules wise, wearing a full plate, and wearing an armored skirt, both give you the same penalty :O
Yeah, thanks. I just wanted to be sure. So full-plate only makes a difference for swimming and such...
Still going with ranger or monk or something like that, probably. I'll check with the DM to get some more ideas.I wonder though: When I wear hot weather clothes and armor, do I get Fortitude +2 (clothes) -4 (armor) -> only a -2 to saves?
Like "Oh yeah, you know, I wear full plate, but my jungle vest beneath it is *really good* for air circulation so it does not really matter? ;-P
Rule-wise that also seems to be the case, just checking to be sure...
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heres a different prespective I went with a human fighter and crossed into rogue at 4th once we got somewhere we needed to get to.
Male Human Kelshite follower of Sarenrae
Fighter 3 (TS Specalist archtype), Rogue 1
NG Medium Humanoid (Human)
Init +6; Senses Perception +1
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DEFENSE
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AC 27, touch 16, flat-footed 22. . (+7 armor, +5 shield, +4 Dex, +1 Dodge)
hp 38 (11+11+11+5)
Fort +4, Ref +8, Will +2
Armor : Masterwork Breastplate, Masterwork Towershield, Dex, Dodge, Armored Kilt
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OFFENSE
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Spd 20 ft.
Melee Carved Elven Blade +6(d10+3, 18-20 x2) Masterwork
. . Scimitar +10(1d6+3, 18-20 x2) Masterwork
. . Rapier +10 (1d10+4/20/x3) Masterwork
. . Garrote +6 (1d6+3, 20 x2)
. . Aldori Dueling Sword +6 (d8 +3, 19-20 x2
. . Sword Breaking Dagger +10 (d4+3, 20 x2)
Ranged Longbow, Comp.+10 (1d8+2, 20 x3) Masterwork
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STATISTICS
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Str 14, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 10
Base Atk +4; CMB +6; CMD 21 (22 vs. Grapple & Disarm)
Traits Get the Package through, Rich Parents (+1100 g)
Feats
Human - Weapon Finease
Level 1 -Combat Reflexes
Fighter 1 - Pared Oppurtunist
Fighter 2 - Shield Focus
Level 3 -Saving Shield
Figther 3 - Dodge
Skills
Acrobatics +5, Climb +6, Craft (Armor) +5, Craft (Weapons) +6, Craft (Bowyer) +5, Disable Device +12 Escape Artist +5, Fly +5, Knowledge (engineering) +5, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +5 Perception +1,Profession (Teamster) +5, Ride +9, Stealth +9 (w/o armor or TS), Survival +1, Swim +5, Use Magic Device +4
Languages Common, Elven, Draconic
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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At 2nd level, a tower shield specialist can use his shield to screen himself from burst spells and effects, gaining a +1 bonus on Reflex saves against them while employing a tower shield.
At 3rd level, a tower shield specialist gains armor training as normal, but while he employs a tower shield, the armor penalty is reduced by 3 and the maximum Dexterity bonus allowed by his armor increases by 2. The benefit increases every four levels thereafter as per standard armor training; if the tower shield specialist is not employing a tower shield, the benefits to armor training revert to the normal bonuses.
Weapon Finease - you may use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on attack rolls. (for Rapier, Scimitar, Elven blade, dueling sword, and other light weapons)
Combat Reflexes - 5 attacks of oppurtunity per round, even if flat footed.
Pared Oppurtunist - Whenever you are adjacent to an ally who also has this feat, you receive a +4 circumstance bonus on attacks of opportunity against creatures that you both threaten. Enemies that provoke attacks of opportunity from your ally also provoke attacks of opportunity from you so long as you threaten them (even if the situation or an ability would normally deny you the attack of opportunity). This does not allow you to take more than one attack of opportunity against a creature for a given action.
Shield Focus -Increase the AC bonus granted by any shield you are using by 1
Saving Shield - Whenever an adjacent ally is the target of an attack, you can, as an immediate action, grant that adjacent ally a +2 shield bonus to AC. You must be wielding a light shield, heavy shield, or tower shield to use this feat.
Dodge -You gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC. A condition that makes you lose your Dex bonus to AC also makes you lose the benefits of this feat.
I know its not the Heavy armor tank you were looking for. But compaired to my party with the next highest person having a 20 ac, also in a breastplate, that extra 7 armor class is HUGE. I don't deal much damage, infact 3 kills in 4 levels, But I am the tank for 6 other PC's. That saving shield feat has saved our inquisitor and cleric more then anything else has from slipping into near death.
I did make a couple mistakes like trying to swim underwater carrying a tower shield (-10 swim check, thank goodness i rolled a 20..) or climb some rocks doing the same. But all in all its been rather a good run since Febuary. I have had 4 near death experiences (dipping into the Negative Con and bleeding out from vary lucky hits)
His backstory was he is a younger son from a vary wealthy family of horse breeders, he was actually apprentanced out to the local Temple of Sarenrae where he spent his time fixing and crafting the arms and armor of the Dervishes and Paladins of the Order. He was sent to get the package of a Masterwork Tower Shield through to a family friend in exchange for a couple seasons of breeding with their prize stallion.
Hes been alot of fun, this is the first Adventure path ive done as a PC. I have DMed the Kingmaker series a couple of times, once for a party and once for myself for fun.
Hope that this ramble helps you out a little bit, even if not.. it just shows that SS chain is amazingly fun for at least the 1st book so far, we start book 2 tomarrow night.
Edit typeo's and below
Also at 1st level our DM allowed us to craft our own weapons and armor if we had the skill for it. So thats how i affored all that Masterwork stuff off the bat. As to make a Masterwork Item yourself only requires 1/3 the price in materials. So if you think about it that 1100 bonus gold off the bat was huge as well 100g for the masterwork portion of the armor and shield, 100g each weapon. it all adds up.
Getting around heat.
Endure Elements lasts all day and lets you ignore heat. A level 4 ranger can cast it. You can buy it on a Ring for 500 gp. Combine with a Ring of Sustenance, and you can pretty much ignore things like eating, drinking, and the weather.
A level 2 Paladin can have Fire Resist 1 and Cold Resist 1 with his favored class bonus. This renders him immune to all standard weather conditions, which only accumulate damage by the hour (and he's immune by the round). He also gets immunity to disease and fear.
One level in Chevalier makes you immune to poison, and fear, and gets you a 1/day smite.
Rangers pick up Endurance as a free feat. Helps with those saves and sleeping in armor.
==Aelryinth
Unbreakable Fighter Archetype gets both Endurance and Die Hard at first level in place of the first level fighter feat. Pretty awesome, IMO.