I am playing a solo campaign and need to be practically immortal to survive my gm. I am starting at level 5 and can use anything from pathfinder, as well as some 3.5 stuff if I asked first. I need to be pretty unstopable as he seems hellbent on sending cr encounters based on a party of level fives against my single guy. He has killed a diplomacer bard, and a necro cleric pretty much with one combat each, and I could really use your fine people help.
I can also pick on of the following
Turtle Clan- +5 to swim, +2 untyped bonus bow atks
Monk Clan- pick an element, one bonus spell of that element a spell level
Horse Clan-never fall off mount, gains 4 rounds of rage, or if you have rage rage for 4 more rounds than normal
Raven Clan- Bonus to linguistics, free once a day CLW CL/ class level
Bat Clan- +5 to stealth and bluff, vanish spell once per day
Boar Clan- +1 to melee atks, and weapon proficiency feat
Ram Clan- +1 AC, all knowledge checks are class skills and you get a plus one.
Wolf Clan- Get a magical tatoo every 4 levels
|
My best suggestion is any class with animal companion. Top pick is Hunter, Druid, or Ranger. This is the character I'm using to solo giant slayer.
(20Point buy)
Human: Hunter
Str 17 all level bonus points
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 14
Cha 8
Traits:(1 Giant slayer campaign trait)
Weathered Emissary: +1 Linguistics, and survival. Linguistics as a class skill.
Race Trait: Eye for Talent
Skill Ranks: 7 per level.
Feet:
1: Improved Initiative
3: Power Attack
5: Torchbearer (I chose unchained rogue. To handle high level traps that don't do hit point damage.)
7: Improved Spell Sharing
9: Escape Routs
11: Improved Critical Great Sword, or other two handed weapon.
Team Work Feet:
2: Out Flank
3: Look Out
6: Ferocious Loyalty
9: Stick Together
12: Over Whelm
Animal Companion: I picked bear. 1 I don't like dinos. 2 I wanted something combat effective starting at level 1. Starting Str 15 +2 Eye for Talent +2 Animal Focus = 19. With the lower Dex mithral breast plat. Is what I'm look to get for him after level 4.
1: Light Armor
2: Power Attack
5: Medium Armor
8: Improved Over Run
10: Charge Through
Know how to love and you know you'll stay alive?
If you're trying to solo modules, you have to give up on the mindset that says that all things being equal, you will win an encounter against mooks. You have to assume that every fight will kill you if you make even one mistake. Because they will.
Class advice: reincarnated druid is hilarious for this. I don't think I'd call it "good" though. Keep in mind the first time you die, the GM will have the enemies loot and/or eat you, so you get to start your new life with less gear than a level 1.
Casters without backup are too squishy, and too vulnerable to a single failed save, or a grapple check. Even though synthesists get a rep as "zomg teh borkeden!", it's not the ideal solo class. You're still one (admittedly not too shabby) Will save away from being a sleeping dude with 8 str, 8 con, and gear that probably doesn't fit you any more.
Straight melee classes don't have enough versatility, and you can't squeeze 4 PCs of asskicking into a one PC can. Sorry dude.
What could work? Master Summoner. As long as you can flood the field with dudes while staying out of sight, you win! Make sure to be true neutral, since Protection from X spells suck. A regular Summoner isn't bad either, but your 1 eidolon, while sturdier than an individual Summon Monster casting, and sometimes more damaging, isn't going to be able to outperform 4 or 5 casts. Druid (reincarnated or otherwise) is a decent choice, since you get a nice buffable pet, and you're still a full caster.
Mindset matters as much as build does. Here's a few tips:
-Consumables are super important. You're getting a full party worth of treasure, spend it to get a full party's worth of spell access. Similarly, consider investing in UMD.
-Stealth. Either the skill, or invisibility, or other nondetection methods. As you level up, get really, really familiar with what defeats tremorsense, blindsense, and blindsight. If the enemy can't see you, they can't kill you. Either sneak past fights, or figure out what you're fighting, then take 5 minutes to think about the best way to kill those things.
-Knowledge skills help too. Unless you're a dirty metagamer, which in a solo game, you kinda might want to be.
-Always have an escape route. Both a means for exiting combat, and a means back to safety. Always be one round away from casting invis, dimension door, teleport, or something better. Always have a way through physical obstacles standing between you and safety, as soon as it's economically feasible.
-Don't be greedy. If you take down even one monster, you probably weaken the encounter (some GMs may let them reinforce, or something, depending on the type of foe) and get tasty xp (if your GM only hands out xp per encounter instead of per kill in a solo game, and he's running you against full party encounters, he is a sadist).
-Rerolls are golden. Any death effect has a 5% chance of killing you even if your save is +9000. A reroll reduces it to a 0.25% chance. That's a lot better.
-Be able to deal with things through magic items, class abilities, or other stuff. Things includes, but is not limited to: failing saves, being flatfooted, being critted, being nauseated, stunned, prone, staggered, and other really bad conditions, being grappled, being underwater (both breathing and moving), being in an area of Silence, being in an anti-magic field (tricky, yes?), and being dead. Yes, you can deal with being dead.
Pathfinder is soloable, but you have to treat it way, way differently than a party. If the DM is cruel, you will die, probably repeatedly. If the DM is tough but fair, you'll spend your early levels whiteknuckling the game, and then eventually getting awesome enough to be mostly confident in your combat prowess.
I was going to suggest clone master, but you are not yet high enough level for that to work.
I will third the suggestion of reincarnated druid.
Yes, your gear could suck after a death, but just plan for that. Only take a little bit of your wealth with you in the form of consumables like scrolls and potions. Hide the rest for next time.
Consider the permanency spell. Some GM's will rule that sticks with you, some will not.
.
.
Master summoner. You spend almost all your time hidden and/or in stealth. Eidolon super sneaky scout. Summoned monsters from invisibility for fighting. If you are out of summons, then sneak away to come back tomorrow. You will be pushing the '15 minute adventuring day' envelope. But I don't see many other choices.
Similar method of play with a saurian summoning druid.
.
.
Your not quite at the level where you can make a real go of animating your own undead mooks to do the fighting for you, but it is something to consider if you do manage to gain a few levels.
At 5th level the verminous hunter gets swarm stride meaning he can stand in a vermin swarm without being damaged or distracted.
So he can summon a swarm on himself. Whoever goes into melee gets eaten while battling the hunter.
As you only have one attack you don't care if you need to spend your move action concentrating on the spell.
In addition your pet can have fast healing meaning it will be at full hp for every fight without needing resources.
You can have it for 5 min/day meaning passive healing of 50hp/day.
Edit: Give the pc augment summoning to increase the swarm's hp and save DCs.
|
At 5th level the verminous hunter gets swarm stride meaning he can stand in a vermin swarm without being damaged or distracted.
So he can summon a swarm on himself. Whoever goes into melee gets eaten while battling the hunter.
As you only have one attack you don't care if you need to spend your move action concentrating on the spell.In addition your pet can have fast healing meaning it will be at full hp for every fight without needing resources.
You can have it for 5 min/day meaning passive healing of 50hp/day.Edit: Give the pc augment summoning to increase the swarm's hp and save DCs.
And be a half orc with Ferocious Summons for even more Swarm HP. Swarms are not impacted by being staggered at -HP since they don't take standard actions.
To each their own. I'd rather not play at all than touch the master summoner with a 10ft pole.
Then it's a very good thing that you're not the one trying to solo an AP. To each their own indeed.
I'd still rather stay out of melee myself than hope that a swarm succeeds in locking down/killing anything that comes in to hit me. Also, ranged is a thing.
|
Some great advice so far. Said you could get some 3.5 stuff also. Consider the Book of 9 Swords, you can reuse that books " blade magic" maneuvers, like spells every encounter so you can use em without losing a resource for the next fight, helps with staying power. Instead of the classes in Bo9S, you could also take a feat or magic item to get a maneuver once a fight. Another 3.5 book that helps with staying power is Magic of Incarnum. You can shift essentia each round on what soul melds you want to power up but don't actually lose the essentia.