Ever had a build that looked terrible. Everyone was sure that it would be a failure just by glancing at the sheet.
The low and behold, a star is born! No one expected, but it did great.
Once long ago in the days of 3.0 was created a half-ogre warrior/adept. (I decided he was just too stupid to be a fighter or cleric.) The numbers looked terrible, but he always seemed to survive (in a high mortality rate campaign) and contribute. He was one of the most successful characters in that campaign.
What about you?
|
Melee Sorcerer focusing on touch spells with the Aberrant bloodline.
I focused on High CON, Reach on touch spells + longspear, and miss chances to keep me alive in the low levels with some polymorph thrown in at higher levels.
I normally don't play casters, but that one worked out well, even though I could have died a few times.
Ever had a build that looked terrible. Everyone was sure that it would be a failure just by glancing at the sheet.
The low and behold, a star is born! No one expected, but it did great.Once long ago in the days of 3.0 was created a half-ogre warrior/adept. (I decided he was just too stupid to be a fighter or cleric.) The numbers looked terrible, but he always seemed to survive (in a high mortality rate campaign) and contribute. He was one of the most successful characters in that campaign.
What about you?
I played a character in PFS that refused to take more than two levels in any class. She ended up focusing on natural attacks and grappling while using dexterity as her primary stat. The character developed into a Lamashtan monster hunter who used a devastating grab and constrict combo with upwards of eight attacks a round, if I managed to buff ahead of time. She's now level 15, and becoming something of a monster in her own right. Everything I did with the character was wrong, though. She has a vital stat at 5, I never bought armor, and her stat balance just screams that I tried to do too much. Somehow, despite all odds, she has done fantastic, and has always been a joy to play.
|
|
I played a character in PFS that refused to take more than two levels in any class. She ended up focusing on natural attacks and grappling while using dexterity as her primary stat. The character developed into a Lamashtan monster hunter who used a devastating grab and constrict combo with upwards of eight attacks a round, if I managed to buff ahead of time. She's now level 15, and becoming something of a monster in her own right. Everything I did with the character was wrong, though. She has a vital stat at 5, I never bought armor, and her stat balance just screams that I tried to do too much. Somehow, despite all odds, she has done fantastic, and has always been a joy to play.
If you don't mind, you you post the character? It sounds fascinating.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
If you don't mind, you you post the character? It sounds fascinating.
I played a character in PFS that refused to take more than two levels in any class. She ended up focusing on natural attacks and grappling while using dexterity as her primary stat. The character developed into a Lamashtan monster hunter who used a devastating grab and constrict combo with upwards of eight attacks a round, if I managed to buff ahead of time. She's now level 15, and becoming something of a monster in her own right. Everything I did with the character was wrong, though. She has a vital stat at 5, I never bought armor, and her stat balance just screams that I tried to do too much. Somehow, despite all odds, she has done fantastic, and has always been a joy to play.
I only have it on paper at the moment, and that is at home, but I can give the basic run down, sure.
If I'm recalling correctly, her current stat totals are:
Str 13, Dex 24, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 14, Cha 5
Her last level isn't set in stone yet, so I haven't finished leveling her up to that point. It's alright, though. I will likely not get a game at that level for a while.
A standard full attack goes something like this, all of which use dexterity to both hit and damage:
Claw X2 (tiefling racial trait)
Bite (secondary attack from tusked race trait. Obtained though adopted)
White-Hair (from witch)
Gore x2 (first from lesser fiendish totem, second from helm of the mammoth lords)
Hoof x2 (wand of monstrous extremities, insanely expensive wand.)
Spellcombat+spellstrike for an extra attack. Often, I'll just use arcane mark so I can tap them with something
Flurry of Maneuvers for an extra grapple check.
Due to the final embrace feat, all natural attacks have both grab and constrict, so if I succeed on the grapple attempt, I can deal damage again. Granted, that doesn't work on larger enemies. So she is far more effective on medium sized opponents.
She uses a Furyborn + Agile Amulet of Mighty Fists and the Hammer the Gap feat, so every landed blow against an enemy increases my chance to hit by +1 and my damage by +2. DR is a problem at first, but after a few landed blows, She'll quickly build to +5 enhancement bonus and break through all but DR/-.
If there is an emergency, I can activate her tentacle cloak for an extra two attacks. She can activate all of her own required buffs, and carries a lot of wands and scrolls for the party.
Most other martials at her level laugh at her BaB, and she doesn't have a terrific amount of hit points. She is still moderately difficult to hit, but she'll drop like a sack of potatoes when she is hit. Her saves are decent, though. She's got loads of tactical options, and I've never felt like I wasn't contributing to a fight.
She's four feet tall and looks like the sort of mottled blue-green something you'd scrape off of the underside of a doormat in Mississippi. I usually play her as the sort of person who believes the world should be more monstrous, and she'll she'll regularly offer to scar up party members in a horribly flawed attempt to be nice to them. She largely wants to hunt the monsters that are failing to spread spread mayhem properly. Although her opinion on how to spread mayhem properly changes from day to day, so this rarely conflicts with missions. Even so, she recognizes that she's a bad judge of when to kill regular folks and will hand the burden of that decision off onto the most charismatic member of the party.
I have so much fun playing this character. At the same time, I am astonished that she hasn't died yet.
|
Honestly while writing the Alchemist guide, I had no idea how good an archery alchemist would be. Like it's intense how much synergy there is between the class and the longbow with alchemical arrows, the Explosive Mystery discovery, and tons of other things. It's slowly become my preferred alchemist design.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Bard X/ Paladin 3.
I was just a melee damage with a reach weapon but I wound up also being the party's tank and very survivable, thanks to self Lay on Hands (despite being a pittance), Smite's AC bonus, and amazing saves
|
Honestly while writing the Alchemist guide, I had no idea how good an archery alchemist would be. Like it's intense how much synergy there is between the class and the longbow with alchemical arrows, the Explosive Mystery discovery, and tons of other things. It's slowly become my preferred alchemist design.
I'm on this path, but I'm afraid to miss out on fast bombs.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Honestly while writing the Alchemist guide, I had no idea how good an archery alchemist would be. Like it's intense how much synergy there is between the class and the longbow with alchemical arrows, the Explosive Mystery discovery, and tons of other things. It's slowly become my preferred alchemist design.I'm on this path, but I'm afraid to miss out on fast bombs.
Fast Bombs is more and more feeling to me like a trap, although it's almost more because of the BEAUTIFUL debuffing power of bombs. The fact that there's not discovery to mix bombs debuffing effects is just criminal.
When one imagines fast bombing, it's generally done with Rapid Shot, which is putting out 3+ bombs a round, 4 with Haste (easily applicable by this level), and assuming 16 int (even 18 isn't great), we're picking up 3 bonus bombs from level, giving us 6-7 bombs a day. With Fast Bombs, those are gone in two rounds. TWO ROUNDS! That's...not great. Not to mention you're generally not getting the best value of debuffing throwing that many if you're keeping your DCs high, especially since that damage potential is generally fatal. If you want to do a lot of damage, it's fine, but Bombs depressingly aren't the best way to do damage unless you're fine with burning out of them quickly.
Explosive Missile with touch attack arrows (Tangleshot/Dye) can prove SO much more useful, or regular arrows if you're confident in hitting the target (Smoke/Raining), since you're able to pile on more damage or debuffs at the same time. Also the range increase you get is astounding, changing engagements from 20 ft away to 100+ ft. The biggest hurdle this style has is if someone takes Deflect Arrows, and trust me, your GM will LEARN to use this if you run this kind of character.
I'm slowly becoming less enamored with Fast Bombs due to this reason, as well as only sticking with 1 debuff bomb style (aside from Madness, which stacks and sets up nice SOD effects).
Explosive Missile may not do the most damage, but it's one of the best debuffers (ESPECIALLY WITH GRENADIER+HYBRIDIZATION FUNNEL!) this side of a hex focused Witch.
Seriously, the Kallen Telos build is a monster:
Female Tiefling Grenadier 5
CN Medium Outsider (Native)
Init +5; Senses Perception +10, Darkvision 60 ft
AC 20, touch 13, flat-footed 17 (+5 armor, +3 Dex, +1 Shield, +1 Natural)
HP 32 (5d8+10)
Fort +6, Ref +8, Will +5
Speed 30 ft.
Melee Mwk Morningstar +6 (1d8+3)
Ranged +1 Adaptive Longbow +5/+5 (1d8+6) or Bomb +8 (3d6+5) or Explosive Missile +7 (1d8+6 plus 3d6+5)
Special Attacks Bomb 9/day (3d6), mutagen (+4 Str, –2 Int, +2 natural armor, 50 minutes), Explosive Missile, Alchemical Weapon
Alchemist Extracts Prepared (CL 5nd)
1st-Targeted Bomb Admixture x2, Cure Light Wounds, True Strike, Anticipate Peril
2nd-Alter Self, Bull's Strength/Cat's Grace
Str 14, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 19, Wis 12, Cha 5
Base Atk +3; CMB +5; CMD 19
Feats Point Blank Shot, Throw Anything(B), MWP: Longbow(B), Rapid Shot, Deadly Aim
Traits Second Chance, Pragmatic Activator, Reactionary
Drawback Headstrong
Alternative Racial Traits Prehensile Tail, Scaled Skin (Fire)
Favored Class Bonus HP
Skills Craft (Alchemy) +17, Disable Device +11, Knowledge (Arcana) +12, Perception +9, Sleight of Hand +11, Spellcraft +10, Stealth +10, Use Magic Device +12
Discoveries Infusion, Precise Bomb (B), Explosive Missile
Gear +1 Mithril Chain Shirt, Mwk Buckler, +1 Adaptive Composite Longbow, Mwk Morningstar, +1 Cape of Free Will, Hybridization Funnel, Handy Haversack, Raining Arrows x10, 800 GP
I suppose it matters what you want to do, but the debuff Alchemist is such a good option, it's become my default of what the class should be capable of.
It's rolled stats at a home game, but a switch-hitter Android Sorcerer with the Nanite Bloodline was going well before the game died. Used high-dex and high-con to offset the typical melee-issues, Cha as the highest of course. Used some transmutations to buff myself, a couple control to debilitate baddies, a few blasts for range, and just used the bloodline's poison to put an end to problematic types.
Game died before I managed to think about building into that Dimensional Dervish to get in, get a posioned hit, and get the hell out.
Dot
|
Cadigan, my drunken master of the sacred mountain style monk.....
He was my first pfs character and I hadn't role played in years when I made him. He used the bodyguard feat chain (and helpful) to aid likes ac. He used archon style to push it up higher against dangerous targets and provide extra damage in the form of aoo's for the group. When bodyguard wasn't good enough he used archon diversion to redirect attacks to himself and then negated the hits with crane wing (the useful/usable version).
His ac was pretty high and this was important because allies gain in +6 ac as an aoo would render them safe from all but magic in many cases. So enemies would target my monk and couldn't hit him or allies so they moved on to combat maneuevers- but being a monk of the sacred mountain, as Kong as he started and ended his turn in the same space, he couldn't be moved. This negated a lot of vulnerabilities. He used a longspear for GM's who house ruled that he had to threaten. Enlarge person on him made GM's groan. When things got dire, everyone magically found themselves running to his side to heal, shoot, etc. Toughness and an 18-20 con also made him reealy hard to kill through damage. He had all the drinking feats and stuff, so when he drank he'd tank his reflex save pretty hard but boost his will and fort, get temporary hit points, etc. He was as nightmare with unlimited ki. Couldn't hurt a fly, though. Poor bab and low strength.