poor Shardra

[ohako]

So, I played some Quests over the weekend using Shardra, the iconic shaman, and ::woof:: is she bad at level 1.

a) Str and Dex of 8
b) Monstrous Insight with only two Knowledge skills, and that boosts her attack from -1 to +1 in any case.
c) Her tuatara has (I think) a +13 Stealth modifier, and more in rocky terrain, but 1) There's no tuatara stat block, and 2) Sending your non-verbal familiar on a scouting mission is terrible anyway. Also Shardra's Stealth check is lousy.
d) Here are her 1st level spells: heightened awareness, obscuring mist, and identify. Someone took pity on her and gave her a scroll of cure light wounds.

So, I guess she's a guidance-bot, and if a GM is kind to the useful party members, a hit point dump.

Why was this made? What was the point of making a 1st-level pregen this subpar? Someone to give Harsk some company?

[The Fourth Horseman]

Either there's something we are missing, or the person who builds pre-gens doesn't like Dwarves.

I kid, I kid. But yeah, it does look like Shardra could use some help.

[WiseWolfOfYoitsu]

What's really odd is she reset her point buy at 7th level, to lose 1 STR and gain 2 DEX...

Level 1 Stats:
Str 8, Dex 8, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 17, Cha 14

Level 4 Stats:
Str 8, Dex 8, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 18, Cha 14
We see she gained a point in WIS here. No magic enhancements yet.

Level 7 Stats:
Str 7, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 20, Cha 16
Magic Item enhancements: Belt- Con+2, Headband- +2 Cha/Wis

[Jeff Merola]

WiseWolfOfYoitsu wrote:

What's really odd is she reset her point buy at 7th level, to lose 1 STR and gain 2 DEX...

Level 1 Stats:
Str 8, Dex 8, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 17, Cha 14

Level 4 Stats:
Str 8, Dex 8, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 18, Cha 14
We see she gained a point in WIS here. No magic enhancements yet.

Level 7 Stats:
Str 7, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 20, Cha 16
Magic Item enhancements: Belt- Con+2, Headband- +2 Cha/Wis

Only when you look at the stats themselves, though. Everything else is calculated with them at 8 and 8.

[ohako]

maybe there's a feat that requires 9 Dex?

[WiseWolfOfYoitsu]

Jeff Merola wrote:

Only when you look at the stats themselves, though. Everything else is calculated with them at 8 and 8.

Good catch, I wasn't even looking at the rest of it. I was just baffled by a double negative physical stat character...

[BigNorseWolf]

WiseWolfOfYoitsu wrote:

Jeff Merola wrote:

Only when you look at the stats themselves, though. Everything else is calculated with them at 8 and 8.

Good catch, I wasn't even looking at the rest of it. I was just baffled by a double negative physical stat character...

That makes a lot of sense, especially for a shaman which is MAD as heck. But if you're going to dump to a 9, there's no reason not to dump to an 8 and very little not to go for the 7. Go big or go home! 8 and 9 have the same stat mod

[Chess Pwn]

I feel she's really good, having better HP and armor than a witch and having hexes. Go and debuff all the enemies and then have channel energy to heal allies too.

[Mark Seifter]

Chess Pwn wrote:

I feel she's really good, having better HP and armor than a witch and having hexes. Go and debuff all the enemies and then have channel energy to heal allies too.

She's exceptionally useful at 4th and particularly 7th level.

However, they're talking about 1st level, and the fact of the matter is, the shaman is pretty much the only caster class that doesn't cast off the sorcerer/wizard spell list where your choice (locked in for a pregen) of "subclass thingy" (by which I mean spirit, patron, bloodline, etc) is the only feature you have at level 1. For instance, clerics have two domains and also channel, druids have a companion, witches have a hex they can choose out of a long list of options even if they have a not-so-great patron, etc. So if you don't pick a spirit that has a powerful first spirit power like life or one that focuses on bashing things like battle, 1st level is going to be really painful for any shaman. I've played a PFS heavens shaman and a home game Skull and Shackles waves shaman, and this has been the case for both of them (where by "this," I mean that they were both really weak at 1st level and then ramped up starting at 2nd level, with their true power revealing itself somewhere around 5th).

I initially pegged her with 7 Str and 10 Dex, so when it changed to 8 and 8 in development, that's why there's an artifact of 7/10 on the 7th level version

[WiseWolfOfYoitsu]

Thanks for the insight Mark. I've not played a Shaman myself, as I tend to stick with martial characters. I know it takes alot to balance the Pregens, and appreciate that they are there when needed. Makes our job as GMs much easier when a new player walks into your FLGS and wants to jump right in, but doesn't have anything to start with.

[Mark Seifter]

WiseWolfOfYoitsu wrote:

Thanks for the insight Mark. I've not played a Shaman myself, as I tend to stick with martial characters. I know it takes alot to balance the Pregens, and appreciate that they are there when needed. Makes our job as GMs much easier when a new player walks into your FLGS and wants to jump right in, but doesn't have anything to start with.

No problem! And I recently heard a story about a group of tactical players doing really well in Bonekeep with level 7 pregens (mostly my APG pregens), so I'm glad to know that I've done well for the most part in making them prepared for things such that a new player can grab one and possibly be a hero who's ready for the big bad situation in a scenario. Unfortunately, level 1 is a very strange level where some classes (like many of the martials and maybe a color spray happy sorcerer) are ridiculously good and some classes just usually aren't too good (Jirelle isn't great at 1 either, but she's pretty sweet at 4 and 7).

[WiseWolfOfYoitsu]

I heard of it from the GM as well.

[ohako]

hey, could we maybe have Shardra's level 1 familiar stats as a web enhancement? I want to glue a little note onto it telling future adventurers about my poor life choices, and that Stealth check certainly won't hurt.