Making a Rokea / Sharkfolk for PFS

[Sam Defoe]

What is a Rokea exactly? Well I am just going off of the (classic) World of Darkness book for them here.. but its a term used to describe a Were-Shark.

The race I will be going with is: Human

I am not sure at the moment what the stat array would look like. It will very much need STR/DEX as I don't have access to medium armors. Along with a 13-14 wisdom score as the highest level spells I will be able to cast is 3rd Level.

I have a rough outline of what I want out of the concept in terms of class/archetype combinations which is: Barbarian (Sea Reaver) + Druid (Shark Shaman) with a single level splash of Fighter (Unbreakable) to pick up Diehard and Endurance in one go.

Level Progression
1st: Barbarian (Sea Reaver)
2nd: Barbarian (Sea Reaver)
3rd: Druid (Shark Shaman)
4th: Druid (Shark Shaman)
5th: Fighter (Unbreakable)
6th: Druid (Shark Shaman)
7th: Druid (Shark Shaman)
8th: Barbarian (Sea Reaver)
9th: Druid (Shark Shaman)
10th: Druid (Shark Shaman)
11th: Barbarian (Sea Reaver)
12th: Barbarian (Sea Reaver)

The main drawback of Sea Reaver is:
I can only use Light Armor. I do not gain proficiency with Medium Armor.

As for Domain or Animal Companion.. its safe to say I will be going with Domain as although it maybe cool to have a shark as an animal companion, its simply impracticle unless in the right campaign *cough*skulls&shackles*cough* *cough*.

So for domain I plan on taking one of the only four available (Animal/Death/Water/War), I will be going with the Water Domain, specifically the Oceans Subdomain as it fits more thematically.

I feel that the feat called Splintering Weapon fits splendidly on theme and a good thing to pick up at first level.

Splinter Weapon (General Feat) wrote:

Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +1, proficient with weapon, weapon made of primitive material.

Benefit: Whenever you use a melee or thrown weapon with the fragile weapon feature or similar quality and hit an opponent, you can give your weapon the broken condition to deal that opponent 1d4 points of bleed damage.

Plus lets consider the pricing for a moment. For one of these "primitive weapons", the price of say a Bone Kukri or a Obsidian Kukri is 4 gold as opposed to 8 gold as both make whatever weapon made from such materials cost 50% less than its "modern" counterpart.

Speaking of weapons, I am having trouble pegging down what main weapon I want to use. It will probably be made from Bronze or Elysian Bronze as I wouldn't be a fan of my weapon rusting.

What are the most important things that Sea Reaver as an archetype offer that is important for theme than other archetypes could?

Spoiler:

#1) Marine Terror (Ex): "A sea reaver can hold her breath for a number of rounds equal to four times her Constitution score. In addition, a sea reaver can move normally though squares of standing water or bog that is 1 foot deep. It does not cost her extra movement to traverse these terrains. Lastly, a sea reaver ignores the normal cover bonus to AC when attacking creatures that are partially immersed in water.

This ability replaces fast movement."

#2) Eyes of the Storm (Ex): "At 2nd level, a sea reaver ignores any concealment provided by fog, rain, sleet, mist, wind, or other weather effects that is less than total concealment, and any penalties weather applies on Perception checks are halved.

This ability replaces uncanny dodge."

#3) Sure-Footed (Ex): "At 5th level, a sea reaver takes no penalties when moving across slick surfaces, whether natural or magical (e.g., grease, ice storm, and sleet storm). She is not at risk of falling, is not denied her Dexterity bonus when moving across such areas, and does not treat them as difficult terrain.

This ability replaces improved uncanny dodge."

What are the most important things that Shark Shaman as an archetype offer that is important for theme than other archetypes could?

Spoiler:

#1) Totem Transformation (Su): "At 2nd level, a shark shaman may adopt an aspect of the shark while retaining her normal form. This ability functions as the dragon shaman’s totem transformation ability, but the druid may select from the following bonuses:

movement (can breathe water, swim speed 30 feet)
senses (scent 30 feet, scent 90 feet in water)
natural weapons (bite 1d6 for a Medium shaman), or shark skin (+2 natural armor, creatures grappling the shaman take 1 point of slashing damage per round of grapple)

While using totem transformation, the shark shaman may speak normally and can cast speak with animals (fish only) at will."

#2) Wild Shape: "At 6th level, a shark shaman’s wild shape ability functions at her druid level –2. If she takes on the form of a shark, she instead uses her druid level +2."

What are the most important things that Water/Oceans as a Domain offer that is important for theme than other archetypes could?

Spoiler:

#1) Surge (Su): "As a standard action, you can cause a mighty wave to appear that pushes or pulls a single creature. Make a combat maneuver check against the target, using your cleric level + your Wisdom modifier as your CMB. If successful, you may pull or push the creature as if using the bull rush or drag combat maneuver. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier."

#2) Cold Resistance (Ex): "At 6th level, you gain resist cold 10. This resistance increases to 20 at 12th level. At 20th level, you gain immunity to cold."

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I would very much appreciate and welcome the feedback that I can get.

[Sam Defoe]

I'm contemplating if getting a Bonus Feat as a human is more worth it than an extra flexible +2 to an ability stat on character gen.

I came up with some rough stat arrays. That aren't really set in stone depending on the version.

Bonus feat version:
STR 15/ DEX 16/ CON 14/ INT 10/ WIS 13/ CHA 10
[4th STR (16), 8th WIS (14), 12th DEX (17)]

Extra stat version:
STR 16/ DEX 16/ CON 14/ INT 12/ WIS 13/ CHA 10
[4th DEX (17), 8th DEX (18), 12th WIS (14)]

I'm honestly not a fan of over "cannibalizing" stats in order to min-max.

[Nargemn]

There's a skinwalker variant that is a called were-shark kin, and is quite literally descended from were-sharks. For more flavor info on them, you could pick up the book Blood of the Moon, which is where they're detailed, in addition to the other skinwalkers.

[Sam Defoe]

I noticed that, was sad I couldn't use Seascarred aka Wereshark. Although technically legal in PFS, I cannot make a Skinwalker as I don't have the chronicle sheet to make one.

[Sam Defoe]

Traits: Survivalist, Savant (Perform: Sing)

Last week I played a pregen and I haven't applied the chronicle sheet yet so I will apply it to this character.

Starting gold: 650
Starting Prestige: 2

Armor: Masterwork bronze chainshirt. (250g)
Weapon: Masterwork bronze ranseur. (310g)
Extra purchases: Bone kukri (10). (40g)
PP purchase: Wayfinder (2pp)

Remaining gold: 50g

[Sam Defoe]

Nobody honestly has any advice for me aside from one helpful person? Man this bites. I was actually hoping to get feedback, some advice to optimize. Guess my walls of text are too intimidating.

[Blind Kobold]

How about dodge and mobility as you don't have medium armor?
Also how about Quick Draw so you can grab one of your bone knives quickly?

[kestral287]

Generally speaking, it helps if you have an actual question. Just throwing out "tell me everything" doesn't tend to get many bites. Give the thread some sense of actual direction.

[Blind Kobold]

kestral287 wrote:

Generally speaking, it helps if you have an actual question. Just throwing out "tell me everything" doesn't tend to get many bites. Give the thread some sense of actual direction.

The sense of direction comes from the title. Sam Defoe is trying to basically make a legal wereshark and stated she can't use the Skinwalker varient because the chronicle sheet to play that race is not available to her. This has heart and a solid theme.

It can make a person's efforts feel fruitless if silence is mostly what they are greeted with when they posted in the advice thread and the only new posts within their thread was mostly theirs as they slowly built the character with mostly their own effort.

[kestral287]

The title (and the OP) provides a theme. The theme is there: he's grabbed a bunch of shark-related stuff; probably all of it in the game that he can unless we look to equipment.

But that doesn't provide a point of conversation. All that says is "look at this thing I did". A post mentions "advice to optimize".

Okay. Are we talking two-handing? Natural weapons? Dual-wielding? Throwing? The feat chains for each of those will vary, and each fits the build. Two-handing is the Barbarian Standard and mechanically the strongest choice. Natural Weapons are the Druid go-to but Shark Shaman makes that hard-- still, should we be assuming Bite will be on the table via Shaman, or no? Throwing is a solid way to take advantage of Splintering Weapon. TWF is also a way to take advantage of Splintering. However, since bleed damage doesn't normally stack (though it's interesting that Splintering is missing that line), a build dedicated to taking advantage of Splintering will quickly run into issues.

What kind of combat role are we talking? Do you want to front-line, or do you want to run a support and spoiler role? Surge and Splintering Weapon both tend toward a combination Hammer/Anvil, but making use of either one of those viable will be difficult. Splintering doesn't scale well and Surge's CMB will be absolutely miserable-- it could be made to work but that would lead to altering levels.

I will say: do not put your level 12 stat gain into making a stat an odd number, as one of the arrays suggests doing. Either drop Cha a bit (since when are sharks social butterflies?) in order to support getting a few more points or go with the second spread. But even then: why the Dex emphasis? It doesn't really make sense.

[Sam Defoe]

Well the dex emphasis is because I don't get medium armor as a barbarian. If I didn't put a dex emphasis I would have a 16 or lower AC, going into a rage reduces my AC to 14.

Two-handed, I plan on using the ranseur which is a two-handed martial weapon with reach and disarm as qualities.

I was thinking of a skirmisher character that does hit and run tactics due to the armor restriction. Like maybe spring attack and extra AOOs feat?

I was not really a fan of the choice of domanins and subdomains I could get and I wanted to stay on theme. Some subdomains like Feathers or Fur really didn't fit the character concept at all.

I am looking for feats to fill levels 3/5/7/9/11. I am also contemplating what rage powers to use.

As for charisma of 10, I just wanted to give this character a nice little quirk. A very ruthless killer (against npcs) who is also fairly good at singing.

I appreciate your feedback kestral287 and Blind Kobold's feedback as well.

[kestral287]

If armor is an actual problem, since you're going Unbreakable Fighter anyway just shuffle that one forward to level two. Wear whatever armor you like.

[blackbloodtroll]

I thought there was a Skinwalker Race Boon.

[Blind Kobold]

blackbloodtroll wrote:

I thought there was a Skinwalker Race Boon.

To my knowledge, there is a chronicle sheet for Skinwalkers. However the poster, Sam Defoe, does not have one. If I had to hazard a guess, a chronicle sheet for Skinwalkers would be hard to come by like other chronicle sheets for specific and limited races.

[blackbloodtroll]

I was just curious.

If the OP has any Boons, he could go to the Boon trading thread, and get one.

Maybe.

[Sam Defoe]

Kestral287, You bring up a good point. I did overlook the fact that I am taking a level in fighter.

@blackbloodtroll: I do not have the Skinwalker boon nor do I have any boons to use or give as trade... aside from a chronicle sheet from PFS after playing a 1-3 adventure.

[blackbloodtroll]

Hmm. Nagaji, with the Adopted/Tusked trait could work.

[Drogos]

As a note, the Druid prohibition on metal armor will remain. You will want to use Padded, Leather or Hide Armor (which is what I'd recommend because Rhino Hide is a thing).

If you're set on using a reach weapon, why not use some reach tactics? You'll want Combat Reflexes, Power Attack and Lunge (I'd recommend moving some levels around to qualify for that ASAP). Ideally, you'd rage, charge and Lunge in the first round of combat, then they would close, which would provoke AoOs. If they are still alive after that, you'll want to re-position (EDIT: This can be accomplished with the Overrun maneuver) to get a similar set up on the next opponent. What this means is that AC is not your best defense, your positioning and HP are your defense.

I have a final suggestion, I'm not certain I would choose to multiclass with Druid. I'd likely use Oracle of Waves and pick up levels in Rage Prophet, but I'm a bit biased as that is my -1 in PFS. Strength Surge can make maneuvers well worth it, and with Rage Cycling, you'll be able to do that as much as you want.

EDIT: If you choose to go this route, I'd think Improved and Greater Overrun would make very solid choices of feats.

[blackbloodtroll]

Leather Lamellar gives the same bonus as Hide, and is Light armor.

You can also go with Horn Lamellar, which will give you a +5 Armor Bonus.

[Sam Defoe]

Hmm horn lamellar does sound like a good idea if I am going to be using medium armor. As I did kind of forget about wildshaping as it doesn't really pop up until 8th level in the progression I have set up.

I also should consider Power Attack/Lunge/Combat Reflexes as I am going to be using a reach weapon that can disarm.