|
I am a cleric in full plate, and as such cannot consistently arrive at downed party members to breath of life them in time. I have also had occasional problems getting to high places and lament my lack of climbing prowess. I was considering buying the Boots of Speed, but the 12,000 gp price tag forced me to consider other options. Also, it occupies the same item slot as the Spider Climb footwear.
Then I remembered the combat-trained riding gecko. Mechanically speaking, it's basically a horse with constant effect Spider Climb as an Extraordinary ability (it can even hang from ceilings if memory serves). Best of all, it's a mere 400 gp. Even if it dies every mission until I hit level 12 and I buy a new one each time, that's only 8000 gp (I'm a 5.1 LVL character).
The problem is that this character dumped CHA to 7, and neither Ride nor Handle Animal are class skills for me. I only plan on riding my gecko for the purposes of getting to downed teammates for Breath of Life (use my move action to mount, then cast as the gecko uses its move action to get me to my party member) or for reaching high places. I will likely be allowing party members to do the same with him on occasion. Do I require Ride or Handle Animal for these things? If so, how might I reasonably get the requisite skill/s to appropriate total modifiers?
Also, name suggestions for the gecko? I'm thinking Eddie Lizzard or Mr. Sticky.
Action: Varies. Handling an animal is a move action, while “pushing” an animal is a full-round action. (A druid or ranger can handle an animal companion as a free action or push it as a move action.) For tasks with specific time frames noted above, you must spend half this time (at the rate of 3 hours per day per animal being handled) working toward completion of the task before you attempt the Handle Animal check. If the check fails, your attempt to teach, rear, or train the animal fails and you need not complete the teaching, rearing, or training time. If the check succeeds, you must invest the remainder of the time to complete the teaching, rearing, or training. If the time is interrupted or the task is not followed through to completion, the attempt to teach, rear, or train the animal automatically fails.
Unfortunately, unless you have an animal companion or mount of something similar that reduces the action economy for the handle animal action to a free action, it makes using a mount in a combat situation not viable.
So it wont really help you very much to have the gecko because you will have to move to the gecko, move action to mount, move action to get it to do something, and standard action to cast a spell. It's not something that can be done in a single round.
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Handle Animal isn't the skill he needs. It's Ride.
Action: Varies. Mounting or dismounting normally is a move action. Other checks are a move action, a free action, or no action at all, as noted above.
Many Ride checks are "not an action".
If you begin the round mounted, you can guide your mount with your knees ("not an action"), and still have your full round left to cast/move yourself.
If you begin the round adjacent to your mount, you can spend your move action to mount it, guide it with your knees so you're adjacent to your downed comrade, and still cast your spell.
The only restriction when riding a mount in this way is making a full attack, which can even be mitigated later on by a feat.
|
|
Handle Animal isn't the skill he needs. It's Ride.
Action: Varies. Mounting or dismounting normally is a move action. Other checks are a move action, a free action, or no action at all, as noted above.Many Ride checks are "not an action".
If you begin the round mounted, you can guide your mount with your knees ("not an action"), and still have your full round left to cast/move yourself.
If you begin the round adjacent to your mount, you can spend your move action to mount it, guide it with your knees so you're adjacent to your downed comrade, and still cast your spell.
The only restriction when riding a mount in this way is making a full attack, which can even be mitigated later on by a feat.
Ride is usable untrained, is it not? Hypothetically, I would still have my standard even if I mounted for my move and rode him to teammates or up a wall I think. I'm not sure I'd even ever need to roll Ride so long as nothing actually hits the gecko while I'm mounted (I will need to be careful not to incur an AoO if I'm off to Breath of Life someone).
This Cleric NEVER full attacks (I'm a caster cleric) so as long as I get to touch someone I'm okay.
Sooo.... I don't need any skill ranks?
|
|
Sooo.... I don't need any skill ranks?NEED? No.
But I'd look at the Ride check DCs before you go any further.
I just did. Luckily for me, 5 is the highest DC I see myself ever attempting. Unfortunately for me, I am taking a -5 penalty from my +1 Full Plate and I only have 12 Dex. This means I need to roll a 9 or higher without ranks just to cast while moving or stay in the saddle should I get hit.
Next level I can put 5 ranks into Ride, so I basically need some item to give me a +3 enhancement to Ride in order to auto-succeed. The military saddle helps me stay in the saddle, but casting while moving is the key check I need to be able to make consistently.
I don't think a 'Masterwork Military Saddle' would be available (essentially as a MW skill kit) in society play, or I would take the +2 and spend a level needing to roll a 2 or higher and put the last rank in at lvl 7. As it is, the only item I see that helps is the Horsemaster's saddle, which is another 12k item.
(Though if I ever make a mount-based character, you better believe I'm getting some teamwork feats and that saddle)
When I'm high level I may invest in something to allow me to fast mount consistently, but that's a long ways away.
EDIT: Nevermind, I can afford an Equestrian Belt which grants a +4 bonus to all Ride checks while in Heavy Armor.
|
EDIT: Nevermind, I can afford an Equestrian Belt which grants a +4 bonus to all Ride checks while in Heavy Armor.
Forget about the bonus to checks. It lets you automatically do all of those things you're wanting to pull off, as a free action. The only Ride uses you have to roll while wearing that belt for are Cover, Soft Fall, and Leap.
Handle Animal isn't the skill he needs. It's Ride.
Action: Varies. Mounting or dismounting normally is a move action. Other checks are a move action, a free action, or no action at all, as noted above.Many Ride checks are "not an action".
If you begin the round mounted, you can guide your mount with your knees ("not an action"), and still have your full round left to cast/move yourself.
If you begin the round adjacent to your mount, you can spend your move action to mount it, guide it with your knees so you're adjacent to your downed comrade, and still cast your spell.
The only restriction when riding a mount in this way is making a full attack, which can even be mitigated later on by a feat.
That's a good point, and I don't know why I forgot about that
|
Make sure you are monitoring the carrying capacity of your mount. A riding Gecko is strong, but not incredibly strong.
Carrying Capacity Table
A combat trained riding gecko will have a 17 Str, which gives it a carrying capacity of 258lbs for a light load, 519lbs for medium load, and 780lbs for heavy.
That looks like a lot, but when you consider 50lbs for Full Plate and around 200lbs for an average-sized PC, you're pretty close to the light load limit.
I don't know for sure how much a PC would weigh that would be strong enough to carry heavy armor, gear, and other junk around all day, but 200 seems like it would probably be close to the lower limit.
It's something to consider anyway.
I like Eddie Lizzard for the name.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So, Let me share with you a life lesson from Gormheir the bard, he whose feet never touch ground.
Once you hit 6th level, incidental damage from area effects will kill your gecko not once per game, but *many times* per game. Traps, fireballs, cone spells, channeling clerics, etc will all wipe the gecko. If you are close enough to the front to heal, the gecko is dead.
None of this even takes into consideration smart enemies who have learned the first lesson of fighting cavalry; "First Kill the Horses"
(Since 6th level, Gormheir has switched to slippers of spider climb. And he wasn't even a front line fighter.)
|
|
I am a cleric in full plate, and as such cannot consistently arrive at downed party members to breath of life them in time.
.....(I'm a 5.1 LVL character).
Hold on a minute... how are you using Breath of Life as a level 5 Cleric?
There are serious action economy issues with scrolls, and you won't be able to prepare it for 4 more levels (well, 3.2 levels).
I was about to recommend a Rod of Reach Spell.
|
|
Really?
I mean, it's about as much as a stat belt. I think by level 5 my bard had a rainy day fund of 5K gp in case he needed a raise dead, and this could save you the cost of two raise dead spells for about half the cost.
I guess it depends what else he has, but yeah, I can't think of anything else he could be using. (Actually, a mount would fix the action economy problem of scrolls by giving him a move and a standard while his mount moves him to the target.)
|
|
Really?
I mean, it's about as much as a stat belt. I think by level 5 my bard had a rainy day fund of 5K gp in case he needed a raise dead, and this could save you the cost of two raise dead spells for about half the cost.
I guess it depends what else he has, but yeah, I can't think of anything else he could be using. (Actually, a mount would fix the action economy problem of scrolls by giving him a move and a standard while his mount moves him to the target.)
I should have been more specific. I think it's a huge percentage of a PCs wealth to be spent on a consumable item.
You're right that the mount helps the action economy.
One of my friends plays a Cleric that walks around with a scroll of BoL in his hand when we're in particularly dangerous fights. It's a little silly, but it works.
|
|
I'm not casting BoL yet, I just wanted something in preparation for when I can cast it. This came to mind.
I will probably have a scroll of it in a wrist sheathe soon though. Edit: Yeah, the extend rod makes a lot of sense to me. I'll likely get it soonish.
Good thinking.
If you're playing in PFS, expect to be overruled on the 'scroll in a spring-loaded wrist sheath' thing. A lot of GMs don't allow it.Rod of Reach Spell is pretty pricey. 11,000gp for the 'up to 6th level' one.
My Cleric took the Magical Lineage: BoL trait and is juuuust about to 9th level. Exciting!