Hello there, I am here to ask for some advice and critique of one of my most ambitious builds. I eventually want this PC to become a god. Not a god of war, death, or healing. Not a good God, nor a vile Demon, I want a Neutral God. The God of Cooking. One who prepares delicacies for God and Devil alike. Who will can cook a feast of fruit and boar for the angels, and one of souls and human flesh for demons. Someone who's only goal in cooking is for the food to be delicious to those eating it.
Now I can't start as some omnipotent cooking guru, but I am hoping to be such an exceptional chef that through renown and skill can be elevated by the gods themselves so that I can continue my work. Now that I have given enough flavor for this character, lets see if any seasoned players can help me cook up something good.
This is what I am thinking. Please offer whatever suggestions you can.
(this is not for PFS, but I would like to be able to use him there if possible in the future)
Race: Human
I was going to take half elf but realized that with the Focused Study alternative race trait that they get 3 feats for free rather than one.Plus more skill ranks.
Skill focus 1- Proffession Chef
Skill focus 2- Performance Cooking
Skill focus 3- Craft Alchemy
Traits:
Rough and Ready (+1 to attacks using weapons of your profession)
Mentored (+1 profession of your choice)
Class:
Investigator
Inspiration is what sealed the deal for me, with the proper talents, it will give me a d8 to my profession check without expending it. This lets me focus on what I want and still be an adequate skill monkey for the group. Alchemy goes hand and hand with cooking and lets me buff my party members, while studied strike makes it so I can do some damage when needed. I feel this lets me keep my idea solid while not being a drain on the party. I am effectively the rogue of the group just with tons of utility and a passion for good food.
I might possibly take a dip in cleric in order to pick up some useful cantrips(create water and purify food seem really helpful, plus guidance for a bit more cooking cheese.
Feats:
I am not sure:
Catch off Guard: Mandatory first level since I will be using Chef tools as weapons
Inexplicable Luck: cost a feat but can give me a +8 to a single roll.
Prodigy: gives me +2 to my craft alchemy and profession Chef.
Improvised Weapon Mastery: as soon as possible due to the epicness of frying pans.
Weapon:
Frying Pan from what I have read they do 1d6 (taken from http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/mastery/nPCGallery/tavern.html)
Eventually I would try to make it Mithral, and enchant it.
Stats: Not sure really, but I have thought about this in order to keep my skill monkey-ing up while being alright in combat.
Str-14
Dex-14
Con-12
Int-16 (with human bonus)
Wis-12
Cha-11
I am not exceptional at anything, and my min max sense is trying to tell me to get a grip but this lets me put a 1 in cha at 4 and be the ultimate generalist by adding a bit to everything. Would welcome any feedback.
So this is my current idea for the character, does anyone have any advice? Is this character going to be helpful enough to a party? I don't want to be dead weight, and am trying to use alchemy and skill monkey powers to cover my weakness from specializing as a cook. If you read this thanks, I look forward to any wisdom you guys may have.
You may have bitten off more than you can chew. :)
Looks good. I would try to avoid melee and throw things. lower your strength a bit for your DEX.
Also I found this here.
Great college game where we were to create characters who had accomplished something to make then worthy of godhood. We had the powerful warlord who had enslaved nations, the holy paladin who had slain archdevils, the thief who picked the lock to heaven's gate and
"I'm a good cook. No seriously I'm a really, REALLY good cook."
Not a great backstory but still and awesome campaign.
If you are taking Rough and Ready then you don't need Catch Off Guard, rarely if ever will an enemy be unarmed and Rough and Ready takes care of the usual Improvised Weapon penalties
"I have cooked meals so grand it has even garnered attention from gods themselves. They were so enamored by my meals they could not help but reward me by making me the chef of the gods as none other could satisfy their appetites as I have done! My creations have even satisfied the hunger of great demons that would devour the world itself!"
This, so much this. I am going to have to borrow that lol. Great find Goddity. Hmm lower the strength and throw things. I could just switch Catch Off Guard with Throw Anything. That sounds a lot safer, but a knife does 1d2 right? And I dont get to add str. So I would do 1d2 str that I would have to enchant with returning if I wanted to have it enchanted with other things (or have a lot of cheap enchants on multiples) instead of 1d6(eventually 1d8) + 2 (more with str enhancement) and I could enchant/have it be mithral on one single item to focus on.
I have not played anything this squishy before so I get what you are saying but unless I leave behind kitchen tools I am all but useless in combat. My question is is this going to be too ineffective to keep using kitchen utensils for combat(I cant believe i just typed that..) I am using a feat, and a trait, to make it adequate but I really want to hit people in the head with precise Frying Pan blows lol.
If you are taking Rough and Ready then you don't need Catch Off Guard, rarely if ever will an enemy be unarmed and Rough and Ready takes care of the usual Improvised Weapon penalties
I did not see that Rough and Ready takes away the penalties as well, thats nice. So would you say that it is not worth the trait or the feat slot. Because Catch off Guard lets me take improvised weapon mastery to increase it to a d8(at level 11 though and I doubt 1d2 extra damage is worth two feat)
This certainly has caught me off guard and frees up two feat slots, great stuff! Thanks
"I have cooked meals so grand it has even garnered attention from gods themselves. They were so enamored by my meals they could not help but reward me by making me the chef of the gods as none other could satisfy their appetites as I have done! My creations have even satisfied the hunger of great demons that would devour the world itself!"This, so much this. I am going to have to borrow that lol. Great find Goddity. Hmm lower the strength and throw things. I could just switch Catch Off Guard with Throw Anything. That sounds a lot safer, but a knife does 1d2 right? And I dont get to add str. So I would do 1d2 str that I would have to enchant with returning if I wanted to have it enchanted with other things (or have a lot of cheap enchants on multiples) instead of 1d6(eventually 1d8) + 2 (more with str enhancement) and I could enchant/have it be mithral on one single item to focus on.
I have not played anything this squishy before so I get what you are saying but unless I leave behind kitchen tools I am all but useless in combat. My question is is this going to be too ineffective to keep using kitchen utensils for combat(I cant believe i just typed that..) I am using a feat, and a trait, to make it adequate but I really want to hit people in the head with precise Frying Pan blows lol.
I always enjoyed the Humble Beginnings trait, which let you choose "Frying Pan" as an improvised weapon you count as an improvised club and take no penalties with AND count as having catch off guard with. There's one other trait that grants +2 to attack rolls with improvised weapons. If you want talk to your DM about having the Investigator's studied strike dice count as sneak attack for qualifying for the sap adept and sap master feats, and take bludgeoner. That way all your other abilities will make you an excellent, godly cook, and you can knock them entirely the f*^k out if they complain about your cooking. (cause then for every 1D6 'sneak attack' bonus damage you'd have you would instead do 2D6+2 nonlethal damage, and probably bonus damage if that frying pan is white hot before you do it.)
I always enjoyed the Humble Beginnings trait, which let you choose "Frying Pan" as an improvised weapon you count as an improvised club and take no penalties with AND count as having catch off guard with. There's one other trait that grants +2 to attack rolls with improvised weapons. If you want talk to your DM about having the Investigator's studied strike dice count as sneak attack for qualifying for the sap adept and sap master feats, and take bludgeoner. That way all your other abilities will make you an excellent, godly cook, and you can knock them entirely the f*^k out if they complain about your cooking. (cause then for every 1D6 'sneak attack' bonus damage...
Well that is interesting. So I have a question now. Is this 1d4 the definitive of how much damage a frying pan does? Everywhere I have looked it is 1d6, including the prd reference document I linked above. As you suggest I think it should work like a club(1d6) but the trait specifically says that all of the listed items deal 1d4. Does this trait depower the frying pan, or does it set the damage for it in terms of all instances it is used.
The monk of the empty hand, as well as the prd, plus the improvised weapon mastery all seems to point to light weapons do 1d4, one handed 1d6, two handed 1d8. I love the sap adept idea and it lets me be a whole lot more useful then I was going to be. Thanks for the ideas!
I always enjoyed the Humble Beginnings trait, which let you choose "Frying Pan" as an improvised weapon you count as an improvised club and take no penalties with AND count as having catch off guard with. There's one other trait that grants +2 to attack rolls with improvised weapons. If you want talk to your DM about having the Investigator's studied strike dice count as sneak attack for qualifying for the sap adept and sap master feats, and take bludgeoner. That way all your other abilities will make you an excellent, godly cook, and you can knock them entirely the f*^k out if they complain about your cooking. (cause then for every 1D6 'sneak attack' bonus damage...Well that is interesting. So I have a question now. Is this 1d4 the definitive of how much damage a frying pan does? Everywhere I have looked it is 1d6, including the prd reference document I linked above. As you suggest I think it should work like a club(1d6) but the trait specifically says that all of the listed items deal 1d4. Does this trait depower the frying pan, or does it set the damage for it in terms of all instances it is used.
The monk of the empty hand, as well as the prd, plus the improvised weapon mastery all seems to point to light weapons do 1d4, one handed 1d6, two handed 1d8. I love the sap adept idea and it lets me be a whole lot more useful then I was going to be. Thanks for the ideas!
I believe RAI the pan already has a damage dice assigned to it from other sources, so use those, I think the 1D4 applies to the boot or other options that are a lot less like other weapons.
For ideas, try ImpossiblyDeliciousFood where one example is:
The cookies baked by Piffany in Nodwick. Armies will halt their invasions and rebuild the towns they destroyed in return for them. The gods themselves will threaten holy wars to get some, and do anything you want for the recipe. Nodwick was able to use her brownies and punch as part of a scheme to convince a mercenary army to fight off an orc horde and rebuild every single town destroyed by said horde. (The mercenaries choose the cookies over the orc chieftain's offer of allowing them a portion of the loot and their pick of the women of the conquered territory for not trying to stop them.) Oh, and you know how Nodwick is a Chew Toy for whom even his hundreds of deaths is no escape from constant mistreatment at the hands of Artax and Yeagar, and whatever monsters they encounter? He's still a lucky bastard because when Piffany makes her cookies he gets to lick the bowl.
/cevah
For ideas, try ImpossiblyDeliciousFood where one example is:
The cookies baked by Piffany in Nodwick. Armies will halt their invasions and rebuild the towns they destroyed in return for them. The gods themselves will threaten holy wars to get some, and do anything you want for the recipe. Nodwick was able to use her brownies and punch as part of a scheme to convince a mercenary army to fight off an orc horde and rebuild every single town destroyed by said horde. (The mercenaries choose the cookies over the orc chieftain's offer of allowing them a portion of the loot and their pick of the women of the conquered territory for not trying to stop them.) Oh, and you know how Nodwick is a Chew Toy for whom even his hundreds of deaths is no escape from constant mistreatment at the hands of Artax and Yeagar, and whatever monsters they encounter? He's still a lucky bastard because when Piffany makes her cookies he gets to lick the bowl./cevah
I love this, and have spent way too much time reading it and everything it links to. Hopefully I can play this next weekend and I will see how well it pans out
I love this, and have spent way too much time reading it and everything it links to. Hopefully I can play this next weekend and I will see how well it pans outFor ideas, try ImpossiblyDeliciousFood where one example is:
The cookies baked by Piffany in Nodwick. Armies will halt their invasions and rebuild the towns they destroyed in return for them. The gods themselves will threaten holy wars to get some, and do anything you want for the recipe. Nodwick was able to use her brownies and punch as part of a scheme to convince a mercenary army to fight off an orc horde and rebuild every single town destroyed by said horde. (The mercenaries choose the cookies over the orc chieftain's offer of allowing them a portion of the loot and their pick of the women of the conquered territory for not trying to stop them.) Oh, and you know how Nodwick is a Chew Toy for whom even his hundreds of deaths is no escape from constant mistreatment at the hands of Artax and Yeagar, and whatever monsters they encounter? He's still a lucky bastard because when Piffany makes her cookies he gets to lick the bowl./cevah
The internet has plenty of food for thought.
/cevah
Are you open to 3PPs? If yes check out Adamant Entertainment's Cooking with Class and or LRG's Battle Chef.
Also check out the eastern movie Scorpion King. Maybe some monk levels are in order for some added kitchen Kung fu mysticism. There's even a monk archetype for using improvised weapons
Some Bard levels might also be a good fit for a culinary artist.
On the other hand making him a commoner 20/adamantine chef 5/synergistic chef 3 before ascending would be awesome.
...
Race: HumanI was going to take half elf but realized that with the Focused Study alternative race trait that they get 3 feats for free rather than one.Plus more skill ranks...
I realize that this guy is most likely already in play but you should take heart of the fields since that will give you half your level to a profession of your choice.