I have a character concept for the Wrath of The Righteous adventure path: a dwarven druid named Jiminy "Jim" Mountainborn (Jimminy? Jymny? Hmm...). I'll be role playing him as a friendly, folksy old bumpkin with a pocket full of pipe tobacco and a well-worn straw hat. I want him to have a decent Charisma score to represent his friendly, Southern mannerisms and hospitable attitude. I'll have a wealth of Arkansan idioms on hand for every conceivable situation, and I'll be voicing him with an exaggerated Southern accent (I'm an Arkansas native, so it won't be hard). He has a badger animal companion named Henry, although Henry won't be "real" until Jim's 1st druid level.
Jim met Henry while tending to his moonshine stills at his mountain cabin. Henry followed him home, and they've been inseparable ever since. I plan on making Henry a dire badger at the appropriate level, then just making him bigger and bigger using the Bestiary advancement rules.
If asked about his huge and steadily-growing dire badger, Jiminy insists that it's completely normal, and Henry is "a home-grown 'mater, fed on nuthin' but moonshine and love".
To simulate our rise from mundanity to adventuring, each PC starts with a single level in an NPC class. The GM assures us that this will be purely an "extra level", and won't affect the CR of encounters down the line. Mine is expert, which I've used to grant access to a couple of skills that the druid class doesn't offer.
This is where it gets tricky. I want him to use a musket in true mountain-man style, since before adventuring he hunted bears and lived in a mountain cabin, carefully grooming his beard. How can I do this, but not make him ineffectual in combat? Is there a decent non-gunslinger build for 2-handed firearms?
Here's what I have so-far:
Jiminy
NG Male Dwarf Expert 1
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Abilities (20-point buy):
STR 13 DEX 14 CON 14
INT 10 WIS 16 CHA 12
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Feat: ?
Skill List [any 10, thanks to expert class; Bluff; Diplomacy; Jump; Knowledge (Dungeoneering, Nature); Sense Motive; Stealth; Survival; Linguistics; Perception]
Expert gives access to Diplomacy and Sense Motive, which are great for my character concept of a friendly old mountain dwarf with a lot of good advice. The rest are appropriate for someone living in the mountains, if slightly redundant for a druid.
I've considered taking a single level of gunslinger for the Gunsmith bonus feat and the free rifle. I'd LOVE to have 5 levels (for the +DEX to gun damage), but I don't want to take that much away from druid. I'll have to construct my own rifle later to keep up with my BaB (along with Rapid Reload).
We'll be giving the new mythic rules for a whirl, too. Should be fun.
oh gods.... um... no?
Your feat pretty much *has* to be Exotic Proficiency (firearms), which means you'll be starting the game without Rapid Reload.
So it will take you a full round action to reload after one shot. After you pick up rapid reload it will "only" take you a standard action, although you could mitigate that by using paper cartridges all the time, and then it would only take you a move action, which is still not great but at least you can attack every round.
Get a Beneficial Bandoleer if it is allowed at the absolute earliest possible time. This will let you reload one barrel as a swift action. It is 1,000 gold.
Beyond that there is the difficulty of acquiring a firearm in the first place without being a gunslinger. A musket is 5,000 gp, which means that if you saved every last penny, you'd have to be 4th level before you even got to buy your weapon. More likely you'd be 5th level by the time you had enough money for a musket.
I'm not sure why your WIS score is so high, it seems like your DEX should definitely be higher, and you don't need a WIS score at all unless you're going gunslinger. Even then, a 14 would easily suffice.
I can see no reason for you to take Druid. Why not take Ranger instead? You still get animal companion, and feat paths will be very useful to you.
1 level of gunslinger (musket master) would improve this character so much it's not even funny. You'd get gunsmith, a free gun, fist level deeds, and quicker reload times. Would highly recommend it if you want to be effective in combat. I don't believe you can skip out here. Or if you do, you'll have a very difficult time until about 6 or 7th level.
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As a GM I've always liked the idea of either starting out with some NPC levels or when characters retire giving out an NPC level or two (since just because a fighter retires doesn't mean he still doesn't learn). I think it makes them way more interesting. I can totally see a Dwarf as a Mountain man.
I'm not sure why your WIS score is so high, it seems like your DEX should definitely be higher, and you don't need a WIS score at all unless you're going gunslinger. Even then, a 14 would easily suffice.
My WIS score is high because druid.
I can see no reason for you to take Druid.
Druid is my core character concept. I would sooner dispense with the notion of using a gun than change him from druid. Your argument definitely confirms my suspicions about gun use: it simply isn't a good combat option for him.
Why would a gm want to start with an npc level
"To simulate our rise from mundanity to adventuring."
really an Arkansan mountain man
Really. An Arkansan mountain man. :)
hopefully has some kind of alternate introduction to the AP planned
He certainly does. He assures us that the NPC level is just extra hit points.
As a GM I've always liked the idea of either starting out with some NPC levels or when characters retire giving out an NPC level or two (since just because a fighter retires doesn't mean he still doesn't learn). I think it makes them way more interesting. I can totally see a Dwarf as a Mountain man.
Thanks!
I guess I'll steer away from guns for this mountain man, folks. Thanks for the advice awp832, Rod Millard and Illeist.