Use the dex power attack one piranha strike
Use the dex power attack one piranha strike
Doesn't work with a Scimitar.
Yup. Pretty cheese, but RAW it's allowed.
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You'd probably have more pressing issues. Since your weapon and your clothes--even at lightest possible (mithral scimitar for 2lbs, peasant or monk clothes for 2lbs) puts you at 1/4 of your Light capacity.
As ruled, you can do it. As an actual thing to do, you might not live long enough to get those ranger levels. Hit the gym.
well being a halfling let's you effectively carry more. And there's a trait and muleback cords and the likes. It's very possible if you have some gold
well being a halfling let's you effectively carry more. And there's a trait and muleback cords and the likes. It's very possible if you have some gold
Not when your GM counts your gold as encumbrance.
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well being a halfling let's you effectively carry more. And there's a trait and muleback cords and the likes. It's very possible if you have some goldNot when your GM counts your gold as encumbrance.
If you're on Golarion and remotely near civilization, put it in a Bank. Otherwise, just hand it to a trusted party member.
it's not cheese, the whole point of Combat Styles is to skip feat prereqs.
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well being a halfling let's you effectively carry more. And there's a trait and muleback cords and the likes. It's very possible if you have some goldNot when your GM counts your gold as encumbrance.
I'm guessing, since the OP plays PFS, that that's not a concern.
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Just was asking for concept, seemed cheesey, I think there are rules for if you suffer strength drain then you can lose access to feats like Power Attack for the duration of your strength drain.
Was wondering how that interacts if you are able to receive the feat for free without actually having the requisite strength to begin with.
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Doesn't matter for you, you don't need to meet the prerequisites.
it's not cheese, the whole point of Combat Styles is to skip feat prereqs.It's...a little cheesy, come on. Power attack with a mighty 5 strength.
But yes doable. Good luck on this one, I played a witch with rolled stats and got a 5 strength and had t take hair to lift things. You should keep it honest when having to drag a companion out of a fight.
No more cheesy than taking the TWF style to bypass the dex requirement on a str build. No more cheesy than taking the Irorian Combat Style to boost unarmed strike damage.
The class feature specifically exists for the purpose you're using it for.
Take a horse Animal Companion to carry all your junk BTW
It works and I certainly wouldn't call it "cheesy" considering he's using the class feature exactly as intended...
That said, just his weapons and armor are likely to slow him down due to encunbrance, so that might be a big problem.
there are traits and items for that
Encumbrance is going to be your biggest issue. It will reduce your max Dex to AC, and as a Dex-based character, that's going to kill you.
In PFS, you won't have enough money to mitigate your encumbrance until your third scenario at least (even a mithril chain shirt will be too heavy for this character--you'll be better off with darkleaf cloth--you'll probably also need mithril weapons). You won't have enough fame for muleback cords until 2nd level and a handy haversack until 3rd. (The haversack won't help your encumbrance from clothing, weapons, and armor, so you'll still need muleback cords or a wand of Any Haul to increase your carrying capacity.)
The Muscle of the Society trait won't be a big help to this character, because the difference between 5 and 7 is only 7 pounds. Masterwork backpack will barely help, if at all, because it weighs 4 pounds in exchange for increasing your carrying capacity by...4 pounds. (Once your strength is over 10, each point of carrying capacity increase by at least 5 pounds. Below 10, it's either 3 or 4 pounds per point.)
Also, your Climb and Swim skills will be terrible: -3 for your strength in addition to any armor check/encumbrance penalties. You will never be able to take 10 to cross a simple ledge or swim in calm water. And those two skills are really the ones that will kill you if you miss the check.
All in all, you'd be investing most of your gold for your first three levels, your shoulders slot or several skill ranks in UMD, and at least one trait just to counter-act the 5 strength.
I wouldn't call that worth the trade off.
Edit: don't forget that small characters have 3/4 carrying capacity.
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Edit: don't forget that small characters have 3/4 carrying capacity.
This actually helps him.
his carry capacity goes from 16 to 10, but his armor and weapons weigh 1/2 and his clothes weigh 1/4, and his masterwork backpack weighs only 1 pound (1/2 lb if he makes it from darkleaf cloth)
so for 2 prestige he can have a pickpocket's outfit for less than 1/2 a lbs.
If you can commission a custom magic item, you could add a Muleback Cords effect to a Cloak of Resistance for 1500g (750g if it's a party member doing it). Until then he can put his stuff on a mule (literal or figurative).
Mithral chainshirt, scimitar, mw backpack, and darkleaf cloths works out to be ~8.75 lbs out of 12 lbs light load, at a cost of 2150 gp + 2 PP.
So he just needs to play up once or twice, and he can do it. Almost everything else he can put on a mule.
First, he can't choose to play up anymore. He has to be in a higher-tier party.
Second, I count at least 4 scenarios where this character will either be struggling under the weight or not have the gear he needs.
And that does not include any of the other gear he'll need, like rope, light source, potions, splash weapons, etc. Oh, and the mule.
I just don't think it's worth the tradeoff, unless you're going to do the "rebuild the character completely before scenario 4" trick.
If you are planning to do it, though, the best approach is probably the wand of Ant Haul and UMD. Sure, you'll burn through the wand by level 5, but 2 pp for 5 levels of usefulness is a pretty good deal.
again, use a hose as a pack muel
Horses are cheap, and how people actually carried stuff without magic.
Horses are cheap, and how people actually carried stuff without magic.
Horses won't help him to carry his armor, weapons and gear...
I suppose he could get that belt that greatly increases carrying capacity, but that means no attribute-boosting belt. Or at very least, a considerably more expensive one.
Horses are cheap, and how people actually carried stuff without magic.Horses won't help him to carry his armor, weapons and gear...
I suppose he could get that belt that greatly increases carrying capacity, but that means no attribute-boosting belt. Or at very least, a considerably more expensive one.
With 5 STR he has 12 lbs of carry weight within light load.
Leather armour and a scimitar is 7.5+2 = 9.5 pounds, giving him 2.5 pounds left over. He can carry scrolls and potions without any trouble. Everything else he gives to party members or puts on his horse.
If he carries a scroll or two of ant haul he can handle sudden increases in weight. He can handle a belt, headband and cloak of resistance without trouble (1.5 pounds total). He can buy muleback cords and swap them out for his cloak of resistance as necessary.
He certainly can't handle much, but it is perfectly viable. STR drain is more of a concern.
Just be prepared to be one shotted by a shadow.
What? You minmaxed and left a large weakness against a rather basic enemy. This isn't like the cha damage creatures (...whatever those are- my point exactly, people know and fear shadows by name; other stat damage dealers are mroe weird specialized things)
Sidenote:
Horses won't help him to carry his armor, weapons and gear...
I suppose he could get that belt that greatly increases carrying capacity, but that means no attribute-boosting belt. Or at very least, a considerably more expensive one.
With 5 STR he has 12 lbs of carry weight within light load.
Leather armour and a scimitar is 7.5+2 = 9.5 pounds, giving him 2.5 pounds left over. He can carry scrolls and potions without any trouble. Everything else he gives to party members or puts on his horse.
If he carries a scroll or two of ant haul he can handle sudden increases in weight. He can handle a belt, headband and cloak of resistance without trouble (1.5 pounds total). He can buy muleback cords and swap them out for his cloak of resistance as necessary.
He certainly can't handle much, but it is perfectly viable. STR drain is more of a concern.
...you forgot one basic thing. Pants. Clothing has weight.
One might say that you ignore that...but that is ignoring the purely to enable min maxing, which is not something the GM has to let you do.
So if you want to tell people that you are going around without clothes on (but still armed with a razor sharp weapon, mind you)...well, I am sure you know how well that works in real life.
Another side note- you are dropping a lot of AC with that approach. As a swashbuckler, the...you know...buckler... is a rather nice source of AC. The class is designed to allow things like nonTWF sword and board to thrive. Just an observation.
Horses won't help him to carry his armor, weapons and gear...
Carrying capacity will be fine, a ton of objects won't be on hand. Muscle of the Society gives your character a carrying capacity of 23lbs; if the character is small, that is a 2lbs Scimitar, a 0.5 lbs Cloak of Resistance, a 6.25 Mithral Agile Breastplate, and all other slots are filled with 0.5-2lbs items. Your equipment weight is fine
Now, what your horse/pony is carrying isn't on hand - we need to mitigate that.
If you are Halfling take the Shared Ownership feat. Combine it with Pack Tactics and you feel zero effects of your low carry weight whenever your mount is near. This will cost you a second two levels of Ranger though
...you forgot one basic thing. Pants. Clothing has weight.One might say that you ignore that...but that is ignoring the purely to enable min maxing, which is not something the GM has to let you do.
So if you want to tell people that you are going around without clothes on (but still armed with a razor sharp weapon, mind you)...well, I am sure you know how well that works in real life.
Another side note- you are dropping a lot of AC with that approach. As a swashbuckler, the...you know...buckler... is a rather nice source of AC. The class is designed to allow things like nonTWF sword and board to thrive. Just an observation.
Clothing has negligible weight, and the halfling has some weightage to spare, especially if he takes muscle of the society. STR 5 does require some build resources to compensate but it's hardly crippling.
Buckler is irrelevant. He stated from the beginning he is going a scimitar dervish dance build. With a DEX of 20 he is losing... what, 1 AC from a 3 base AC armour? Hardly a disaster.
More directed at the thread in general, but following from your observation, aren't the general implications above a little contradictory? If he's min-maxing, but his build isn't that powerful... what's the knee jerk reaction for, exactly?
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So I know ability score modifiers are considered separately if they are bonuses or penalties, and I was going to say the penalty still applied. But on closer reading Weapon Finesse states that you replace the modifier, not the bonus, and the only over riding text is that for ranged weapons the penalty applies (well bows and thrown).
So I guess this works? (For not-PFS I might house rule the penalty back in.)
Horses are cheap, and how people actually carried stuff without magic.Horses won't help him to carry his armor, weapons and gear...
I suppose he could get that belt that greatly increases carrying capacity, but that means no attribute-boosting belt. Or at very least, a considerably more expensive one.
With 5 STR he has 12 lbs of carry weight within light load.
Leather armour and a scimitar is 7.5+2 = 9.5 pounds, giving him 2.5 pounds left over. He can carry scrolls and potions without any trouble. Everything else he gives to party members or puts on his horse.
If he carries a scroll or two of ant haul he can handle sudden increases in weight. He can handle a belt, headband and cloak of resistance without trouble (1.5 pounds total). He can buy muleback cords and swap them out for his cloak of resistance as necessary.
He certainly can't handle much, but it is perfectly viable. STR drain is more of a concern.
What about his magical gear? Belts, boots, cloaks and headbands have weight. That's 4 lb right there (well... 2 lb since he's small). And we can't forget back up weapons and ranged weapons... Does he plan to be completely useless once he is disarmed or fights an airborne enemy? He better hope his mule is always really freaking close to him in combat... Spending 2 rounds running back and forth during a fight just so you can grab that extra dagger isn't exactly great tactics. And what of other miscellaneous gear such as masterwork tools and wayfinder? He can't afford to carry anything other than his most basic gear... If that!
Is it possible for this character to live with such abysmal Str score? Sure... But it won't be easy. And IMHO, it's a terrible idea unless the GM is willing to ignore encumbrance rules.
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If you have exactly one weapon with no back up weapons, no bludgeoning weapon, no ranged options, no holy water for haunts, no alchemist's fire or acid for swarms, no grappling hook or rope, etc., sure you will be fine. I personally could not run a character so ill equipped.
My bare-bones non-combat character gear always includes at least 1 spring-loaded wrist sheath (for a wand), sleeves of many garments (so I don't have to waste weight on clothing) and a traveler's anytool: that's 4 lbs, and none of that scales by size.
And there will be a lot of scenarios where you can't bring your pack animal, so anything that you want "at hand" you will have to carry.
As I said, it's doable, and it's much easier as higher levels. I wouldn't do it, but that's me. But I definitely think the OP should know all the pros and cons before making a decision.
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I have to say that taking Power Attack and ignoring prerequisites for it sounds very strange now that I think about it. While I would agree that per RAW you can take such feat, I am not too sure that you can use it. Usually, when a character receives Str, Dex or Con drain in any stats and such a reduce in statistics drops below Str, Dex or Con prerequisite of the feat, he becomes unable to use it. A barbarian with 8 Str can't use Power Attack for example. Does this mean that character who ignores prerequisites of a feat has it "always on" no matter what? I am curious about this really.
Adam
Alright guys, the OP has his answer, let's not drag out a thread talking about encumbrance when he doesn't even care about it.
I have to say that taking Power Attack and ignoring prerequisites for it sounds very strange now that I think about it. While I would agree that per RAW you can take such feat, I am not too sure that you can use it. Usually, when a character receives Str, Dex or Con drain in any stats and such a reduce in statistics drops below Str, Dex or Con prerequisite of the feat, he becomes unable to use it. A barbarian with 8 Str can't use Power Attack for example. Does this mean that character who ignores prerequisites of a feat has it "always on" no matter what? I am curious about this really.
Adam
"At 2nd level, a ranger must select one of two combat styles to pursue: archery or two-weapon combat. The ranger's expertise manifests in the form of bonus feats at 2nd, 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level. He can choose feats from his selected combat style, even if he does not have the normal prerequisites."
It's kinda the entire point of the Ranger Combat Style.
You can take feats even if you don't have the normal prerequisites.
If you couldn't use them after taking them what would be the point of the ability?
I would say it is a bit cheesy, since the Ranger Combat style you have to choose to get power attack as a bonus feat is 2-handed weapon, and you are definitely not doing that.
So I would be the Power Attack Ranger Dervish Dancing Swashbuckler in the cheesy, but legal category.
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But it does interest me in a cheese build ranger using a block of strong cheese and Refine Improvised Weapon.
Or a Monk of the Empty Hand using a cheese wheel. With Versatile Improvisation at third level you can cause the cheese to do slashing damage, giving a new meaning to "cut the cheese".