| rayous brightblade |
Using my GM credit I decided to make an 8th level swashbuckler for tonight's pathfinder society game. Using 7 certs I ended up with 28,205 for my gold, which is almost 5,000 under the expected wealth per level, but that only hurt a little. I decided to make a fun character instead of trying to make an optimized character to see what the average player might build. Here is the character:
Halfling Swashbuckler level 8
Str 10
Dex 21
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 10
Cha 18
HP 68 Fort 6 Ref 12 Will 4 (+4 to will saves vs fear)
AC 25, Touch 18, Flat 18
Skills:
Acrobatics 16
Bluff 10
Climb 5
Diplomacy 10
Escape artist 16
Intimidate 15
Sense Motive 8
Swim 6
Class Abilities:
Panache 4
Deeds- Derring-do, Opportune Parry, Riposte, Recovery, Menacing Swordplay, Precise Strike, Swashbuckler Initiative, pommel Swipe, Swift feint, Targetted Strike.
Bravery (+2)
Swashbuckler's Finesse
Nimble (+2)
Swashbuckler's weapon training (+1)
Racial Abilities:
Low Blow
Fearless
Halfling Luck
Fleet of Foot
Small
Traits: Anatomist and Fortified Drinker
Feats:
Weapon Focus Rapier
Combat Reflexes
Weapon Specialization Rapier
Butterfly's Sting Extra Grit (see below)
Endurance
Drunken Brawler
Magic Equipment
Belt dex +2, Headband Cha +2, Sleves of Many Garments, Tankard of the Drunken Hero, Handy Haversack, Mithral Chain Shirt +1, Buckler +1, Rapier +2, Wand of Cure light wounds(PP purchase), Wand of Pick your Poison (PP purchase), potion of cure light wounds.
The other characters at the table were Alistor (Mindchemist 9), Engram (cleric 3, wizard 3, mystic theurge 3), Vendarr (witch 9), Baraton (sorcerer 9), Othinnson (fighter 8). We were playing fortune's blight, a first year scenario.
We were told to go get a piece of a sword from a hag and bring it to a nearby village named seven arches. Alistor created some extracts to hand out (I got a false life extract and a heroism extract). We got to the area where the witch should be and found a woman chained up who asked for help. She told us the hag was keeping her here for a sacrifice and with failed sense motives all around (i rolled a nat 1 myself) we freed her and grabbed the sword shard.
We set up camp for the night with 3 watches. Alistor and Engram in watch one as they had lowlight, then Ronaldo and Vendarr so we had 1 darkvision and Baraton and Othinnson last so they had a darkvision person. During 2nd watch, a ghost jumped out of the shard screaming that she would kill all of us. Initiative began. My 26 initiative still placed me in second as Engram Stood up and cast bless on the party.
I attacked the ghost twice for two hits but as it is immune to crits i did only 6 and 8 which was halved to a total of 7. I decided to pommel strike and hit for 9 more damage for a total of 11 damage my turn. I could not even attempt to trip it as the ghost is immune. (we decided that the pommel strike did not get the precise damage as it was a blunt weapon, but it still got modified by the feats we had applied to that weapon. The modifiers on this ability really need to be clarified).
Barraton stands up, 5ft steps away, and casts mage armor on himself.
The Ghost uses its corrupting touch on Vendarr and deals 42 damage to him, which he does not half as he failed his save.
Vendarr decides to hit it with his wand of cure light which does 2 damage after the ghost makes its save.
Othinnson stands up, is saved by a natural 1 on the opp attack and then strikes for 24 points of damage (12 after halving)
Alistor pulls out an extract and drinks it, avoiding an aoo by virtue of Othinnson already having provoked this round.
The woman we are escorting back to town stands up, revealing herself to be a green hag as she attacks Engram for 4 damage. Engram makes the save to negate the 2 strength damage.
Engram then channels for 9 in order to give Vendarr a slight chance of not going to negative bloodied next turn.
I shift over to the green hag, and hit bash. Hit for 9 damage but fail to knock prone. I then full attack and roll a 5 and a 12 which both miss. The Hag's ac is 28 so my second attack would have hit if Engram threatened but he doesn't and in this cramped campsite there is no one else I could flank with.
Barraton- Magic Missile vs ghost, makes sr, 11 damage
Ghost- Corrupting gaze- I roll a 17 (23 total) and save so only 12 damage and no cha damage.
Vendarr- Sleep hex on hag. Hag saves
Othinnson- Full attack on ghost, 61 points of damage total which is rounded down to 30.
Allistor- Stands up and takes an aoo hit for 29 damage. Steps back and uses a force bomb vs the ghost. 27 force damage...apparently that extract he took was focus bomb.
Green Hag- Full attack against me. First attack was a nat 20 but did not confirm, the second I parried. I failed my save so -2 str and 7 damage.
Engram- Cast defensive for Force punch. Rolled nat 1.
Me- I Full attack. Hit for 15 damage, second attack crits. I choose to do regular damage (14) and give Butterfly's Sting to next melee attack. +1 panache.
Barraton- MM, fails sr.
Ghost- 5ft step, touch alchemist for 31 dam. He is unconcious.
Vendarr- Evil eye vs hag. Hag saves. Cackle.
Othinnson- 5ft step and Cleave. Ghost hit first for 13(6). Hag hit and crit for 35 damage.
Allistor- Fast heal activates. Heals 5 which brings him to 0. Plays dead.
Hag- Attacks Othinnson, Rolls low, 2 misses. (I'm not sure if Othinnson's ac should have been this high as he wears heavy armor and was sleeping at the time. He may have Endurance). 5ft steps away from Ronaldo
Engram- 5 ft stem, casts defensively (yes, this campsite really was that small), punches the ghost which gets past the sr for 14 force damage. Ghost dies.
Me- I 5ft step and full attack. First attack rolled an 8 for 27 which misses, second is a nat 1. Pommel strike hits again, 9 damage, bad roll for trip.
Barraton- MM hag, 15 damage, hag is dead.
After this fight I realize that I miss read Butterfly's Sting. I thought it required combat reflexes but it requires combat expertise. The GM lets me change it to extra grit. I did notice that this feat can get exploited however. You get a point of panache back when you confirm a crit, "and the next ally automatically confirms the hit as a critical", which means if you have multiple attacks you can refill your panache by continuing to pass the crit's benefit to the next melee attack.
This fight would have been much better for Ronaldo if it was not so cramped and we had our buffs. The heroism in particular would have been useful. I could not do much damage against the ghost but I would have been the perfect person to tank it. It attacks touch, has only 1 attack, and I am pretty sure my +15 could parry its +9 touch attack most of the time.
2 days later we make it to town and meet with the venture captain there. We give him the shard and he starts to do what seems to be a legend lore sort of thing. We examine the sword as he does it (I am making comparisons to my sword at the time). After a bit the sword reforges itself and then possesses the venture captain. I get a 19 initiative.
Engram- Casts Chain of Perdition. It attempts a trip and we find out that Engram needs a nat 20 as the 10th level fighter's CMD is amazing.
Vendarr- Evil eye. The Captain fails. -2 to saves.
The Captain 5 foot steps and full attacks me. I parry as I can make opportunity attacks while flat footed (thank you combat reflexes), succeed, riposte for 16, parry the next attack, succeed, riposte for 14. I have not gone yet and have still done 30 damage.
My turn comes, I 5 ft step to make way for the fighter and then use targeted strike and disarm the venture captain. I have 1 panache left.
Othinsson's turn comes, he drinks his heroism extract, pulls his urgosh, and 5ft steps to adjacency.
Barraton casts mage armor on himself.
Engram casts Haste. The chain does not make the 20 needed to trip.
Vendarr- Sleep hex, captain is unconscious. We tie him up and encounter is over.
I can not wait for signature deed as parry is amazingly fun. The one problem though is that I had to interupt the gm so that I could tell him I am attempting to parry. The GM rolled all of his attacks at the same time so it was a bit difficult. Parry might work better if you could do it after you knew the result of the roll as some gms do not want to wait to tell you the results.
Apparently to stop the curse we had to go kill a harpy. Since the fight with the venture captain ended so quickly I did not have a chance to refill some panache. I hoped that I would be able to vs the harpies.
We buffed up and went out to their lair. It was an old abandoned temple of Aroden. The harpies were waiting in ambush and got a surprise round. 2 shot arrows at Ottingsson, 1 hitting for 6 damage, and the last one casts entangle on the group.
From this point on sadly I am useless. Not because of the entangle...I save that easily enough and I even save vs the harpy song. However the harpies are staying in the air and the theurge casts his one fly on the fighter. If targeted strike was attack instead of melee attack I could have knocked one out of the sky with a dagger, but instead I did 11 points with a thrown dagger then they all died by fireballs and bombs. We start to go up the stairs to the tower but the flying wizard decides to look in through the windows which starts the 4th combat in which the harpy leader ignores the black tentacles which fill the room she was in. I can not do anything to her as I can not get to her and she dies as I try to find a way to at least get a throwing angle to her.
The curse of martial melee classes, flying creatures, defeats me. If I had the appropriate wealth by level perhaps I would have had some potions of fly to solve this issue. I do not think that it was an issue with the class, as a fighter without fly has the same exact problem.
Overall I liked the swashbuckler. I was surprised that I only rolled a 15+ on an attack once the whole game but I still did alright despite not regaining panache. It did suck that I had to keep that last one to try and be effective but that is resource management for you. I did notice that menacing swordplay does not say you have to hit them with a melee attack, only a 1 handed melee weapon, so you can intimidate after hitting with a thrown dagger, which is cool.
| stuart haffenden |
You got a +2 weapon but didn't have a fly pot or 5...shame on you! I see this all the time, it's the sundry items that make the difference imo but players keep on ignoring them.
Great playtest however!
| Rogue Eidolon |
This was PFS, right? I recommend this PFS blog for suggestions against flying. There are plenty of ways even just for some prestige that you can afford to deal with flying enemies.