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Putting the finishing touches on a brand-new Kensai Magus and I am really concerned with having a high AC because the last character's lifespan was a single round.
15 point buy, Human. Currently I'm at 18 Dex, and wearing a Haramaki with an Armored Kilt. All of my level 1 feats are taken. I'm at 17 AC now, and moving at a 20 ft. speed because the Armored Kilt makes the armor Medium.
Is there anything else I can do to bring it up another point? I think I've exhausted my options - sadly, getting to 20 Dex with 15 points wrecks my other stats in tragic ways not conducive to playing a spellcaster, so that's not an option either.
I also kind of want my one spell per day to be used for shocking grasp... but I'm contemplating going with shield just to be sure I survive the first battle (I deal plenty of damage even without magic, which is nice). Oh, how I wish Magi got mage armor.
Am I missing any affordable options, traits, other abilities I could go for for higher AC at level 1? Once I'm level 2 or higher, I'll be a lot less worried about dying to a single shot.
You could always go for flanking and fight defensively (-4 attack reduced to -2 for flanking and gain +2 to AC).
17 AC isn't actually that bad for a 1st level melee character in the grand scheme of things.
Shield spell may be better. You don't get spellstrike until next level, so you wouldn't be able to channel that shocking grasp through your weapon anyhow.
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As soon as you can afford it, get a wand of Mage Armor. If you can't get it going with UMD, ask a sorcerer or wizard to help you.
I agree with Dark Netwerk about taking Shield.
I assume you have Dodge which means you could get AC 23, without armor, assuming you used both Mage Armor and Shield.
I had a Kensai in PFS but went back to a regular Magus at level 2. Until I did, I always carried around a couple of potions of Mage Armor. The main downside was getting my buffs up at the right time.
If you would like some general advice on your build, you should post your Ability Scores, Traits and Feats.
Umm, kensai aren't proficient in any armor. And take arcane spell failure chance. So first things first. Ditch that armor. Or at least remove the kilt. Since haramaki doesn't have a spell failure chance or ACP penalty you can wear that without detriment, but the kilt makes you take the ACP to your attack rolls and you incur spell failure chance.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A kensai is proficient in simple weapons and in a single martial or exotic melee weapon of his choice. A kensai is not proficient with armor or shields and suffers normal arcane spell failure chance when casting magus spells while armored.
Recognize that kensai are completely reliant on Dex to AC and Int to AC, but the int to AC part scale with kensai level. So at low levels, and without magical buffs you will have a terrible AC. There isn't really much that can be done about it.
Canny Defense (Ex): At 1st level, when a kensai is wielding his chosen weapon, he gains the canny defense ability. This is identical to the duelist prestige class ability of the same name (Core Rulebook 382), save that his chosen weapon may be of any type.
Canny Defense (Ex): When wearing light or no armor and not using a shield, a duelist adds 1 point of Intelligence bonus (if any) per duelist class level as a dodge bonus to her Armor Class while wielding a melee weapon. If a duelist is caught flat-footed or otherwise denied her Dexterity bonus, she also loses this bonus.
So basically, you're AC at level 1 as a kensai is your dex modifier + your int modifier. And that's all you get. You can get bonus from equipment later, and as you gain levels your int bonus to AC will become better and better. But at level 1 you just have to tough it out.
Play him as a wizard (that is, not getting into melee) until you can afford a wand of shield. Then use that as your first-round buff in any fight.
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How did you die in one round? Was it by tanking Con?
Nope. Natural 20 from the first attack of the game. Kills level 1 wizards every time.
I do not like rocket tag. I never play level 1's, and this is why.
But wearing the now medium armor setup the OP mentioned he can't add his INT bonus to AC for the +1 Dodge bonus as level 1.
Aah, good catch, I hadn't realized that. Kilt's out.
Ugh! Down to 16 AC. I came to this thread to increase my armor class, not decrease it, guys! :P
Play him as a wizard (that is, not getting into melee) until you can afford a wand of shield. Then use that as your first-round buff in any fight.
Let's look at my spells prepared, shall we?
Acid Splash, Daze, Shield.
I'm not much of a wizard - Kensai are warriors with some spells, not wizards with a sword. I do, however, attack at +7 and deal 1d8+5 damage, so that's a lot more useful.
17 AC isn't actually that bad for a 1st level melee character in the grand scheme of things.
I know it's not bad, but I'm insanely paranoid this guy's going to drop in one shot too. If I lose one more PC in the first round, I'm making a Synthesist. >_>
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I'm finishing the build today, so it's changing a bit, but I've finally got his stats in a more presentable format.
Swordlord
?? Magus (Kensai) 1
Medium Humanoid (Human)
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AC 16 [Touch 15, Flat-Footed 11] (+4 Dex, +1 Int, +1 Armor)
hp 10
Fort +0, Ref +4, Will +2
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Speed: 30 ft.
Melee: Dueling Sword +6 (1d8+4, 19-20/x2)
Ranged: Simple Weapons Only (TBD)
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Abilities: Str 7, Dex 18, Con 13, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 7
Base Attack +0; CMB -2; CMD 12
Feats: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Dueling Sword), Weapon Focus (Dueling Sword), Weapon Finesse, Slashing Grace (Dueling Sword)
Traits: Sword Scion (Dueling Sword), Defensive Strategist
Trained Skills:
Untrained Skills:
Alternate Racial Traits: Heart of the Wilderness
Languages: Common, Sylvan,
Possessions: Dueling sword, haramaki, oil of mage armor, mule, magus's kit, riding kit, spellbook, explorer's outfit
Money: 51 gp
Nope. Natural 20 from the first attack of the game. Kills level 1 wizards every time.
I do not like rocket tag. I never play level 1's, and this is why.
Honestly Morphling this isn't something to get so worked up about. You just got particularly unlucky that you were crit at low level. But the same thing would happen with pretty much anyone at low level, regardless of AC (in the event of Natural 20 with confirmed crit). Let's look at the numbers, for even some unoptimized characters.
Let's look at a fighter with a longsword. We will be not generous, and say only a strength of 14. A longsword deals 1d8 damage. For our fighter it deals 1d8+2 from strength. Not including power attack or any other feat bonus, and on a critical hit, that is 2d8+4 damage. For an average of 13 damage.
Unless you are a barbarian or start with a con of 18 (for a +4 to hp) you're pretty much likely to be at least knocked unconscious in a single attack. Now, if we talk about 18 starting strength and power attack with a greastsword....4d6+8(strength)+6(power attack) on a critical hit for 28 average damage. That's enough to kill pretty much anybody in a single hit.
All your noticing is that combat is very swingy at low levels. That isn't really what we would normally consider rocket tag, just a problem that exists within the rules at low levels (as damage doesn't really increase the next few levels).
Well, a natural 20 will hit you no matter how good your AC is.
Even a wizard being critically hit is unlikely to actually die at level 1. Assuming a con of at least 12 and putting you FCB in HP, you can take 20 points of damage before you are dead. While that is possible with a crit from a low CR enemy, it is pretty unlikely and most enemies you face at that level can't do it at all.
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Well, a natural 20 will hit you no matter how good your AC is.
Even a wizard being critically hit is unlikely to actually die at level 1. Assuming a con of at least 12 and putting you FCB in HP, you can take 20 points of damage before you are dead. While that is possible with a crit from a low CR enemy, it is pretty unlikely and most enemies you face at that level can't do it at all.
If the wizard had 3 more AC, the crit wouldn't have confirmed, and he would have been fine. I'm not anticipating two 20s in a row. If that happens, I can just quit because I know the dice gods truly, wholly have it out for me.
I guess it's impossible to do any more to help my AC, and learning that is what I was after. *sigh* Time to bite the bullet and hope the dice stop being so impossibly unlucky... the whole experience just put a really foul taste in my mouth. I spent weeks developing this beautiful character and he's dead in one round. Made me want to quit the game entirely. All that work for nothing.
I'm just determined not to allow that to happen again if I can do anything to protect myself against it.
How did you spend weeks making a level 1 character? I can see spending some time to write up an interesting backstory, but weeks seem excessive. Did you wrote a novel for them?
Or even that you spent some time make an 20th level build for that character, but honestly making a level 1 character can be done in about an hour depending on the level of complexity you want for backstory.
*I'm not counting extra time for making a build all the way to 20th level since you can always use that build later. It's more theoretical than anything else.
If you liked a character that much, just erase the name, come up with a new one and play it again. Easy at level 1.
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How did you spend weeks making a level 1 character? I can see spending some time to write up an interesting backstory, but weeks seem excessive. Did you wrote a novel for them?
Or even that you spent some time make an 20th level build for that character, but honestly making a level 1 character can be done in about an hour depending on the level of complexity you want for backstory.
Just because I can crunch out a flavorless statblock in fifteen minutes doesn't mean I don't want to do roleplay. It's Play-By-Post so there was lots of roleplay and build-up before the game even got going, and I had lots and lots of time to develop his personality even in my own head.
If you liked a character that much, just erase the name, come up with a new one and play it again. Easy at level 1.
It wasn't his build I cared about, it was his story and his personality. It would have destroyed my enjoyment of the character to just "make a clone of him" or something.
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Kensai get free Weapon Proficiency and Weapon Focus with a single Martial or Exotic weapon at level 1, and humans get a bonus feat at level 1.
The Kensai archetype gives up a LOT of the magical power of the Magus, but compensates for it with some pretty nice abilities - including the power to automatically deal max damage when you hit, and to increase the critical multiplier.
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Ah well, nothing you can do about bad luck I guess.
Standard first level monsters. Goblins have +2 to hit, orcs have +5. So 16 AC at first level is decent.
I make a lot of unarmored characters, I always invest some ranks in UMD and get a mage armor wand. Or if there's another character in your group that can cast it, give them the wand. Also, consider pushing back one of the offensive feats you took til 3rd level so you can start with dodge.
]Just because I can crunch out a flavorless statblock in fifteen minutes doesn't mean I don't want to do roleplay. It's Play-By-Post so there was lots of roleplay and build-up before the game even got going, and I had lots and lots of time to develop his personality even in my own head.
I didn't say you didn't want to roleplay...it's just 1st level characters don't have much experience. There's only so much you can say a character did. Don't get me wrong, I'll take a couple hours to make a backstory for a character, but I just find a full week worth of time to be....a lot.
Unless you mean a hour or so each night for a week, which is a little more reasonable.
Either way, I feel my last point really got muddled here. Which was, I sympathize with your loss of a character. It sucks. But it's more a problem of bad luck in this case than poor AC or anything else.
You'll get 'em next time.
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The OP probably didn't make this thread so people could criticize the amount of time she put into building a character. It's not really going to solve the problem by saying 'you're doing it wrong, just churn out characters faster so you don't feel bad when they die.'
No one is saying that. No one is suggesting that. I made a post about how much time he put into his character's back story because I just find it difficult to believe. I don't think he's lying, I just can't comprehend spending weeks writing a 1st level characters back story. It was more surprise than anything. It wasn't really a criticism. More just curiosity.
Anyways, I tried to get back on track with my last post. Sorry if it felt like criticism Morphling, not my intention. It was honestly just genuine interest.
Dude, you don't need help in this, you seem to know very well on how to maximize the Kensai's AC, don't expect any magic formula.
PD: Your GM seems to be a douche.
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Anyways, I tried to get back on track with my last post. Sorry if it felt like criticism Morphling, not my intention. It was honestly just genuine interest.
It's hard to tell on the internet, without context or voice inflection. And also I'm overly sensitive on this issue right now. :) No harm done.
Dude, you don't need help in this, you seem to know very well on how to maximize the Kensai's AC, don't expect any magic formula.
I was hoping there'd be something I'd missed. Ah well. I shall go forth knowing I didn't screw up or miss an option.
You could always wear some studded leather (or chain shirt if you take the armor expert trait) for a level or two. This will give you a +3 ac with a -1 to attack rolls. You would also have a 15% spell failure, but since you are likely only casting one spell a day, it's not a huge deal. When your AC catches up, take off the armor, or get mithril chain and live with a 10% spell failure.