I'll be debuting this character, sitting at level 2 right now with GM credit, this Saturday, and I'm looking for any last tweaks to get him in tip-top shape:
Mr. Tickle
Half-Elf Bloodrager (Aberrant, Steelblooded)
17/14/14/10/10/12
FCB: +1 rage/day
Traits: Accelerated Drinker, Elven Reflexes
Alt Racial Traits: Dual-Minded
BR1: Power Attack, staggering strike, indomitable stance
BR2: armored swiftness
BR3: Combat Reflexes, blood sanctuary
BR4: +5' reach, +1 Str, Eschew Materials
BR5: Improved Bull Rush, armor training 1
BR6: retrain Combat Reflexes -> Greater Bull Rush, Bonus: Combat Reflexes
BR7: Quick Bull Rush, blood deflection
BR8: aberrant fortitude, +1 Con
BR9: Raging Throw, Iron Will, armor training 2
BR10:
BR11: Improved Initiative, greater rage
The schtick is to use Accelerated Drinker to get enlarge person and long arm off in the opening round, then get ready for AoOs. Weapon will be a Tepoztopilli for the reach, threat range, and two damage types. If I get both buffs off, I'll threaten in the 15'-25' range now, and 15'-30' when I hit level 4. Bull Rush will let me knock anyone who closes with me back into the gauntlet to provoke again. Anything else I should consider?
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You might want to consider the Bardiche. Piercing damage rarely comes up in DR so I think that the loss of fragile makes up for it. Unless masterwork items mitigate being fragile. Also, you need potions in hand at the start for Accelerated Drinker, so Quick Draw may be a good option if you have slots. If you spend a round drinking, you'll probably have an enemy move up to you, so you can't draw while moving.
Lastly, I'm not sure if you can retrain when you're planning to. Something about under level 2...? I'll check the Guide.
This sounds like a lot of fun. I'm fond of the idea, and looking forward to hearing about how it plays out.
My only suggestion off hand would be to pick up the Boarding Pike of Repelling from Skull & Shackles book 1 when you have a bit of disposable income. I doubt you'll need it at the lower levels, but it's a simple weapon, comparatively cheap and will add yet another 10' of reach, which should allow you to knock a few flying foes out of the air.
Indeed, masterwork weapons suffer no effects from the fragile quality.
As far as Quick Draw, if I'm expecting trouble, I can carry a potion in one hand and weapon in the other. If I combat breaks out unexpectedly, I can live without the enlarge for that fight, or draw and drink it in subsequent rounds, depending on the situation.
That boarding pike is... weird. If I understand it right, when activated (as a standard, so I'm giving up an attack), it threatens at only exactly 20 feet? I'm not sure how my other reach shenanigans would interact with it.
Indeed, masterwork weapons suffer no effects from the fragile quality.
As far as Quick Draw, if I'm expecting trouble, I can carry a potion in one hand and weapon in the other. If I combat breaks out unexpectedly, I can live without the enlarge for that fight, or draw and drink it in subsequent rounds, depending on the situation.
That boarding pike is... weird. If I understand it right, when activated (as a standard, so I'm giving up an attack), it threatens at only exactly 20 feet? I'm not sure how my other reach shenanigans would interact with it.
It is indeed a weird one, but still fairly useful. It is activated as a swift action, so you do not surrender any attacks. It also threatens at exactly 20 feet, so like a reach weapon you do not threaten anything between 5 and 15 feet away, but with your natural reach, you can extend beyond that the same way you would with any other weapon.
So if your natural reach allows you to use the Tepoztopilli to threaten 15'-30', when using the boarding pike you would threaten 25' to 40'.
Granted, as the extension only lasts a round, this uses your swift action every round. I generally think that delegates this to the role of a backup weapon, but it does make for a fun backup weapon at that.
Indeed, masterwork weapons suffer no effects from the fragile quality.
As far as Quick Draw, if I'm expecting trouble, I can carry a potion in one hand and weapon in the other. If I combat breaks out unexpectedly, I can live without the enlarge for that fight, or draw and drink it in subsequent rounds, depending on the situation.
That boarding pike is... weird. If I understand it right, when activated (as a standard, so I'm giving up an attack), it threatens at only exactly 20 feet? I'm not sure how my other reach shenanigans would interact with it.
It is indeed a weird one, but still fairly useful. It is activated as a swift action, so you do not surrender any attacks. It also threatens at exactly 20 feet, so like a reach weapon you do not threaten anything between 5 and 15 feet away, but with your natural reach, you can extend beyond that the same way you would with any other weapon.
So if your natural reach allows you to use the Tepoztopilli to threaten 15'-30', when using the boarding pike you would threaten 25' to 40'.
Granted, as the extension only lasts a round, this uses your swift action every round. I generally think that delegates this to the role of a backup weapon, but it does make for a fun backup weapon at that.
Ah, I missed the swift action. I definitely will consider that as a back-up.
Looks a lot like my Bloodrager.
I use Martial Flexibility for Ki Throw and Vicious Stomp. This build gives me threat a full 20' out and some interesting shenanigans all around. With the Wild Child archetype on the 1 Brawler level, I get an animal companion, which defaults to defending me as its primary action. At 5th (BR 4, Brawl 1), I'm going to get Boon Companion to get it to an acceptable power level for the rest of his PFS career.
The fun stuff comes in on the Blood Conduit archetype, though. Anything I trip or hit with an unarmed attack will be eating a Shocking Grasp as a swift action. Granted, I can't do that during an AoO, but I've got the option of doing this during my turn if it makes sense. Given that, with Ki Throw, I'm using unarmed trips to maneuver things around my threatened area, this becomes a rather humorous use of my own turn.
Hmm, I hadn't thought about a Brawler dip. Two levels for a bonus feat, IUS, and 4 uses of martial flexibility would be nice, but I'm not sure I want to take the hit on my spellcasting. I considered Blood Conduit, but I just don't think I get enough spells to justify that kind of investment.
A ring of vengeful blood magic will allow you to cast spells as AoOs without needing any archetype if that's what you want.
A ring of vengeful blood magic will allow you to cast spells as AoOs without needing any archetype if that's what you want.
I'll definitely add that to the shopping list, but I'm not sure what's going on with the price. It will quite possibly be errata'd before I get a chance to buy it.
The construction price? Yeah, that's weird. Errata for the ACG seems to be coming out especially slowly though.
I'm fairly certain that ring could also be used to buff your friends if they provoke AoOs from you. Not that a bloodrager has the spells available daily to be a party buffer on a regular basis, but the option is there to give your ally long arm or something.
The construction price? Yeah, that's weird. Errata for the ACG seems to be coming out especially slowly though.
I'm fairly certain that ring could also be used to buff your friends if they provoke AoOs from you. Not that a bloodrager has the spells available daily to be a party buffer on a regular basis, but the option is there to give your ally long arm or something.
I highly doubt many GMs would allow it to count allies as provoking. Besides, long arm is a personal spell. I'd probably use it more for chill touch to stagger enemies who are moving, so they don't get to attack when they get where they're going.
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A couple of rules issues I see.
1) Long arm is personal range so it can't be made into a potion. One you hit 4th level you can use your first standard action to cast it (or free when you enter bloodrage at 11).
2)
Large or larger creatures using reach weapons can strike up to double their natural reach but can’t strike at their natural reach or less.
So if you were under enlarge and long arm you would have a natural reach of 15' and therefore threaten at 20'-30' only. At 4th level when you get the abnormal reach ability that changes to a natural reach of 20' and you would threaten 25'-40'.
Hmm, I hadn't thought about a Brawler dip. Two levels for a bonus feat, IUS, and 4 uses of martial flexibility would be nice, but I'm not sure I want to take the hit on my spellcasting. I considered Blood Conduit, but I just don't think I get enough spells to justify that kind of investment.
Yeah, I don't plan on going above Brawler 1. I'm honestly not sure if I keep going with BR after 5 levels of it, either. I feel like I've got all the important goodies by that point. Maybe to BR 6 for the +1 all saves and bonus feat (Improved Initiative!), but the level 8 bloodline power is weak. I'm not impressed enough with the level 2 list to go to 7 if that's my only reason to go there.
I think I actually get more bang for the buck by picking up fighter levels after BR 5 or 6 when it comes to the AoO play. Unrestricted bonus feats are great. I might even go Lore Warden, which is particularly cheesetastic and gets me a spare bonus feat at level 2, essentially, which will let me qualify for Greater Trip.
I've got some time before I get to that point, so I'll be ruminating on it.
A couple of rules issues I see.
1) Long arm is personal range so it can't be made into a potion. One you hit 4th level you can use your first standard action to cast it (or free when you enter bloodrage at 11).
2)
Large or larger creatures using reach weapons can strike up to double their natural reach but can’t strike at their natural reach or less.So if you were under enlarge and long arm you would have a natural reach of 15' and therefore threaten at 20'-30' only. At 4th level when you get the abnormal reach ability that changes to a natural reach of 20' and you would threaten 25'-40'.
I planned on using a wand from a spring-loaded wrist sheath for long arm, and potion for enlarge person.
I know there's a thread on the interaction of all the reach stuff from ACG, with lots of FAQs and no answers, so I may be dealing with table variation. Would it be better to stick with a regular weapon, and save the reach weapon as a back-up? That would allow me to get a larger threat range with a nodachi for Staggering Strike, but 20' range seems so paltry...
The reach weapon + IUS combo is pretty essential for what you're trying to do. It keeps things from dancing outside your threat range. Personally, I dislike Long Arm because it creates a hole in your threatened space unless you get a very lenient GM who says you can elbow while wielding a 2h reach weapon.
Personally, I dislike Long Arm because it creates a hole in your threatened space unless you get a very lenient GM who says you can elbow while wielding a 2h reach weapon.
I'm not sure what you're saying here. How does it create a hole? Anything too close to threaten with a reach weapon I can threaten with normal weapons (or a Bull Rush). I'll surely keep a non-reach weapon as a backup for when I have to attack something closer (maybe wear a dwarven boulder helmet until I need my head slot).
Long Arm only extends your arms. If you're using a 2h reach weapon, this precludes your arms from any AoOs on the inside ring of your threaten range. Thus, if you're just using Long Arm, for example, you threaten 5' with unarmed/boulder helmet/whatever and 15' with the reach weapon, but 10' is a dead zone. This pattern continues through Enlarge and the Aberrant limb size increase, but I'm only showing baseline for simplicity.
Long Arm only extends your arms. If you're using a 2h reach weapon, this precludes your arms from any AoOs on the inside ring of your threaten range. Thus, if you're just using Long Arm, for example, you threaten 5' with unarmed/boulder helmet/whatever and 15' with the reach weapon, but 10' is a dead zone. This pattern continues through Enlarge and the Aberrant limb size increase, but I'm only showing baseline for simplicity.
Ah, I see. I guess it boils down to the GM's interpretation of all the reach stacking. Hmm...
For shenaniganny fun you could make this a fauchard tripper build. Use your aoos to trip any enemy that tries to close in.
