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Hey - someone on a different thread mentioned that there is a session which lets you purchase a bracelet of natural armor or some such. Does anyone know what session that is? (assuming it exists)
I have a buddy who plays a nat attack rogue - and the amulet of mighty fists (required for his build) will in the long term nerf his AC since it will prevent him from getting an amulet of natural armor. It'd be cool if he could get an alternate version. (it's not like his rogue is gonna be OP with it :P)
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The season 0 scenarios were written based on 3.5 rules, so they had gear on the chronicle sheet that doesn't exist in Pathfinder.
So, like I said in the other thread, I'm pretty sure that poster was referring to an item that doesn't exist.
Also, campaign leadership does not encourage the practice of picking scenarios based off of loot on chronicle sheets, so we're not actually allowed to give you that information.
EDIT: Ah, when you take 5 minutes to write a post I guess you inevitably get ninja'd. haha
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If this is a long term problem, you might want to consider carrying some potions of barkskin. Or at least hanging out with a druid.
If this is a long term problem, you might want to consider carrying some potions of barkskin. Or at least hanging out with a druid.
Hanging out with a druid also gets you access to greater magic fang, which solves the problem from the other end.
Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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Also, keep in mind that long term, we are talking about a "nerf" of about 3 AC, at a time when he is already going to be ~5 (armor) AC behind the party as a whole (no heavy armor) and probably at least 10 (armor and shield) AC behind the party tank.
Meanwhile the monster's Attacks are going to be scaling to keep up with the shield tank / monk / whatever's AC.
So getting a +3 natural armor bonus is likely to mean the difference between the big monsters only missing on a 1, or only missing on a 1...
:)
There are bracers of armor, though. Those can boost your AC nicely as long as you're willing to wear no other armor.
Bracers of armor cost the same per point of AC as magic armor does. Since rogues usually wear light armor, he's much better off getting, for instance, a +3 chain shirt or +3 leather armor than bracers of armor +3 and a few hundred spare gold.
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The former is ~+4 AC, and the latter is +2AC.
Blur is not ~4 AC. Miss chance math is weird sometimes, but basically miss chances are better if your AC is low, but the higher your AC the better you are getting more AC instead.
If your opponent has to roll a 11 to hit you (so they hit 50% of the time), then blur is equal to 2 points of AC. Either your opponent has to now roll 13 instead, hitting 40% of the time, or they still have to roll the 11, but avoid a 20% miss chance if they hit. 1 in 5 miss chance out of 50% of hitting AC means 40% actually causing damage.
The only time Blur equals 4 points of AC is if your opponent only misses on a natural 1.
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Expanding on what Ross just said, if your opponent needs a 16+ to hit you (25% chance) then blur is worth exactly +1 AC.
To hit your character, your opponent needs to roll 16 or higher on the d20 AND roll 21 or higher on the d%. Multiply the probabilities:
(0.25)(0.80) = 0.20.
This is the same probability as rolling 17 or higher on a d20.
However, if he needs a natural 20 to hit you, then blur decreases the chance to hit from 5% to 4% (and decreases the chance of a crit from 0.25% to 0.16%), whereas no amount of armor increase will help you (not even from a crit).
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The former is ~+4 AC, and the latter is +2AC.Blur is not ~4 AC. Miss chance math is weird sometimes, but basically miss chances are better if your AC is low, but the higher your AC the better you are getting more AC instead.
If your opponent has to roll a 11 to hit you (so they hit 50% of the time), then blur is equal to 2 points of AC. Either your opponent has to now roll 13 instead, hitting 40% of the time, or they still have to roll the 11, but avoid a 20% miss chance if they hit. 1 in 5 miss chance out of 50% of hitting AC means 40% actually causing damage.
The only time Blur equals 4 points of AC is if your opponent only misses on a natural 1.
Huh, hadn't thought of that before, thanks for the tip.
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A couple more things to think about with blur is if your opponent has the Blind Fight feat (for melee) or a Seeking weapon (for ranged).
Blind fight reduces the effective miss chance, since he would have to roll in the miss range twice on each attack for it to miss.
Seeking negates concealment entirely, so blur is a waste of time against an opponent whose ranged weapon or ammo is Seeking...
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16
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I do wish there were more alternative location items on certs. Since there are items that are "compulsory for most character types, it makes a large number of items problematic. There are a lot of interesting items that are seldom if ever taken, simply due to sharing a slot with an item that everyone "has to have".
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16
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That would be the "christmas tree effect" and yes, between the must have nature of the items and the ridiculously overpriced "cool" items its a big problem.
I like cool and thematic items. It's probably why the bad guys beat me up so much... I don't buy a lot of the items everyone else buy, just because everyone else has them. It's fun to be different sometimes...but the raw numbers of that strategy are terrible.
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Use the amulet for mighty fists. The amulet gets through damage reductions at +3, and AC is easier to increase than attack and damage.
I agree - I was just wondering if there were an alt slot he could take. Frankly - this issue is why every well built unarmed monk is required to take Quiggong - so that they can use ki points to cast barkskin on themselves. (and it goes up past +2 since they count their monk level as spellcasting level)
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Use the amulet for mighty fists. The amulet gets through damage reductions at +3, and AC is easier to increase than attack and damage.I agree - I was just wondering if there were an alt slot he could take. Frankly - this issue is why every well built unarmed monk is required to take Quiggong - so that they can use ki points to cast barkskin on themselves. (and it goes up past +2 since they count their monk level as spellcasting level)
The alternate slot for the Amulet of Mighty Fists is the body slot and the Bodywrap of Mighty Strikes. Unfortunately, the Bodywrap is sub-optimal when compared to the amulet. It's cheaper, starting at 3,000, but it only effects a number of attacks each round equal to your number of iteratives. So it never quite works fully with flurry of blows. It always lags 1 or 2 attacks behind. Also, you have to buy a +1 before you can put another enhancement on it, so it's a 9,000 minimum to get Agile or something else. Those enhancements also only work on a limited number of attacks. And here's the best part, they created an alternate slot item for Monks, then put it in the same slot as the other must have Monk item, the Monk's Robes.
I've built a Monk going with all the sub-optimal options. Bodywrap for bonus to hit, a certain neck slot boon item instead of the Monk's Robes for increased unarmed strike damage and fast move. Belt of Con and Str, Snakeskin Tunic to get a Dex boost. Cloak of the Hedge Wizard (To get the ability to cast Shield 1/day plus a few other spells) instead of Cloak of Resistance The build is fun, but it's been tough to keep him effective. And he's a Snake Fang build that just hit (EDIT:9th level, not 4th, so he's completed the Snake Style chain), so he can potentially get 10 attacks around (4 flurry, 1 haste, 1 Ki, 4 AoO), but only gets the magic +1 on two of those.
I pretty much had to stack every other bonus I could find. Barkskin through Qinggong. Mage Armor from a wand if there's a friendly arcane caster or potions if there aren't. Potions of Magic Fang for when he really needs the plus on all of his attacks. Ioun stone for a plus to hit. Need to pick up a Jingasa.
It's really tough to keep pace without an Amulet of Mighty Fists.
On the plus side, with the boon item he's doing 2D6+13 on an unarmed strike without Enlarge Person or Strong Jaw and moving at a speed of 70. So there's that.
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The only real reasons for the bodywrap is:
1. At high level you already have the amulet of mighty fists +3 & the bodywrap +2 is considerably cheaper to add agile/shocking etc, even if for only a few of your attacks. Even in this case - more for natural attack characters than monks. (if you have 2claws/bite and BAB+6 it's for the bulk of your attacks)
2. Your primary attack is with a weapon, but you also have a bite attack etc. In that case, since you only have 1 nat attack anyway - you're better off with the bodywrap both because it's cheaper & takes up a less awesome slot. And again - you probably won't bother with even +1 until your weapon is at least +2.
3. You're a manuver based monk, either grapple or otherwise. (made a support monk who was a solid grappler - but was focused on dirty tricks - quite amusing and surprisingly effective) In this case you don't get flurry anyway - so it's just as good as an amulet of mighty fists except maybe for AOOs.
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this issue is why every well built unarmed monk is required to take Quiggong - so that they can use ki points to cast barkskin on themselves.
Well, the entire point of Quiggong and why it can stack with any archetype is entirely so you can swap out some of the less than stellar abilities for better ones: a stealth buff to monks.
You don't get to be both at the same time.
Unless you use a weapon.
