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I currently have a level 3 Cleric of Iomedae among my PFS characters. I finally got to play him at a table game, after one PBP and 5 GM credits. While I was generally rolling VERY well that night, I think he played about like I had hoped.
He's currently equipped with Full Plate and a Darkwood Shield (counts as heavy wooden with no AC penalty).
I want to enchant his weapon first, but I will soon be able to do that and afford to consider armor and shield enhancements.
Is it wise to buy a mithral shield instead before enchanting it? Does metal generally provide a mechanical advantage?
And with respect to armor, would it be wise to plan on going to mithral full plate wehn I can afford it? The lower AC penalty seems like it could be worth it. With 12 DEX it would not free up any more dex to improve AC.
The reason I'm asking is that I don't want to spend money enchanting stuff I'm only going to sell later. As PFS has very specific rules regarding WPL and spedning limits, I put this here hoping for PFS-specific persepctives. Thanks!
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I currently have a level 3 Cleric of Iomedae among my PFS characters. I finally got to play him at a table game, after one PBP and 5 GM credits. While I was generally rolling VERY well that night, I think he played about like I had hoped.
He's currently equipped with Full Plate and a Darkwood Shield (counts as heavy wooden with no AC penalty).
I want to enchant his weapon first, but I will soon be able to do that and afford to consider armor and shield enhancements.
Is it wise to buy a mithral shield instead before enchanting it? Does metal generally provide a mechanical advantage?
And with respect to armor, would it be wise to plan on going to mithral full plate wehn I can afford it? The lower AC penalty seems like it could be worth it. With 12 DEX it would not free up any more dex to improve AC.
The reason I'm asking is that I don't want to spend money enchanting stuff I'm only going to sell later. As PFS has very specific rules regarding WPL and spedning limits, I put this here hoping for PFS-specific persepctives. Thanks!
Hello, fellow cleric of Iomedae here. :)
Enchanting your weapon to +1 is not a priority. Up until about 7th level, I was carrying a masterwork longsword and prepping a slot or two of magic weapon to use if I needed to bypass DR/magic. It's a long time before +1 to damage is worth 2,000gp.
Regarding your shield material: as far as I'm aware, there's not much mechanical advantage to a metal shield over a wooden one unless you roll a natural 1 on your save against a fireball or similar effect.
Regarding armor material: Getting mithral full plate adds a whopping 9,000gp to the price. The benefit (for a 12 DEX guy) is effectively a +3 to STR- and DEX-based skills. Look at those skills. Will a +3 make a difference for you? If it's the difference between "kinda chancey" and "pretty reliable", then maybe consider it. If it's the difference between "need a 19 to accomplish anything" and "need a 16 to accomplish anything", that's a waste of nine grand.
Think of it this way: what if you "replaced" those skills with consumables? Potions of fly (or prepping air walk eventually), potions of air bubble/touch of the sea, etc... How much would those cost to keep available? More than 9,000gp over the course of your career? Because if not, then there's not much point in that 9k expenditure.
I don't know the details of your build, but I have a very strong suspicion that you do NOT want to get mithral full plate.
Venture-Captain, Germany—Hamburg
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Regarding your shield material: as far as I'm aware, there's not much mechanical advantage to a metal shield over a wooden one unless you roll a natural 1 on your save against a fireball or similar effect.
Yep, that's about it. There are some spells that specifically have different effects on metal and wood. But as long as you don't encounter such spells, your shield's material is just for flavor and results in a minor weight difference.
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Thanks for the ideas! My character can be found here if you feel inclined to check it out.
I'm looking primarily at Climb and Swim. They're both at -3 now, so I can never succeed at a greater than 17 DC (Acrobatics is at -4). It seems like I mostly won't need better than that, but I hate to be a drag on the party. At 750 GP or 2 PP potions of fly become very affordable after level 5 or 6, but not so much now.
As to buffs, I'd be interested in your experience there Thomas. I was able to pre-buff me and our party paladin prior to the final fight because the paladin used detect evil through a curtain and found some auras. If I'm burning three rounds to get out Bless, Bull's Strength, and Magic weapon (or even two w/o MW) I may not have much to do in the encounter.
Do you find yourself able to pre-buff very often?
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Thanks for the ideas! My character can be found here if you feel inclined to check it out.
Feel free to click my name to see how I'm looking at 9th level (though it's a bit less thorough than yours).
I'm looking primarily at Climb and Swim. They're both at -3 now, so I can never succeed at a greater than 17 DC (Acrobatics is at -4). It seems like I mostly won't need better than that, but I hate to be a drag on the party. At 750 GP or 2 PP potions of fly become very affordable after level 5 or 6, but not so much now.
A potion of touch of the sea is 50gp and will give you an actual swim speed, making swim a non-issue.
If you don't like the price of a potion of fly, try a potion of spider climb to tide you over. At 300gp, it's far more affordable for your level.As to buffs, I'd be interested in your experience there Thomas. I was able to pre-buff me and our party paladin prior to the final fight because the paladin used detect evil through a curtain and found some auras. If I'm burning three rounds to get out Bless, Bull's Strength, and Magic weapon (or even two w/o MW) I may not have much to do in the encounter.
Do you find yourself able to pre-buff very often?
At very low levels, I didn't do a lot of buffing. When you're fighting groups of Warrior1 thugs, just having a positive STR mod and a decent AC will usually win the fight. If things look tougher, you always have the option of throwing up that bull's strength (also useful as a pre-buff if you expect trouble on the other side of the door).
As a rule of thumb, I try not to cast more than one buff during combat. At 1-3, it was bless or nothing. At 3-5ish, it was bull's strength or nothing.
Now, once you hit 6th, the bonus on divine favor goes up to +2, making it the same effect as bull's strength (well, if you fight one-handed), but stacking with a STR belt and only taking a 1st-level slot. It only lasts 1min instead of 1min/level, but that'll still get you through most fights when cast on round 1.
Also, I took the Heroism subdomain of Glory, getting me heroism as a domain spell when I hit 5th. That spell is amazing. At 10min/level, it's a great "at the dungeon entrance" buff. At 8th level, I gained the ability to put up heroism in a 30ft radius as a swift action, so between the two it's now extremely rare for me to not have that running during a fight, but I still don't have to spend a precious turn on it.
My M.O of late has been thus:
Carry a +1 longsword as my main weapon.
Have heroism running, either pre-cast or activated as a swift-action aura. That's +2 (morale) to hit and on saves and skills.
On round 1, if I don't have some other spell that needs casting RIGHT NOW, I cast divine favor. Being now 9th level and having Fate's Favored and Divine Warrior, that's +4 to hit and +5 damage.
Starting round 2, I attack with my longsword at +17/+12 for 1d8+10, or if I use Power Attack, it's +15/+10 for 1d8+14. That's one-handed, while maintaining an un-buffed AC of 31 (or probably 32 after I go shopping).
Something that was recently suggested to me was to get a cold iron longsword and use greater magic weapon on it for 9 hours at a time. If I do that, increase all those numbers by +1.
In short, I usually have pretty decent combat stats (though less damage than Captain Greatsword, but them's the breaks) with only one round of in-combat buffing.
Hope that helps!
