So, come next level (9th) I have the option of picking up one of the following abilities, by spending a feat. I'm pretty sure I'd like to do so, but I'm not sure which is best.
1) - 50% chance to ignore critical & sneak attack damage.
2) - DR 2/-
3) - SR 22 (scaling with level) [Note: game has been pretty intense. We've faced CR 12 and 18 casters already and we were only at lv. 7 at the time.]
So, I'm curious. If you had to choose one out of those three which would you choose and why?
Note: If it helps, I'm sort of a front line melee type with magic abilities on the side and our only real mage is focusing more on battlefield control and summoning rather than buffing, most of the time at least.
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What is the feat called? At these high levels, DR 2/- is next to worthless imo. Best case your getting ~ 15-20 HP on monsters that hit a lot but do little damage.
If it isn't 1/day for 50% chance to ignore sneak attack/crit damage, that might win in my mind. That said, a frontliner wants to be able to ignore spells every once in a while. 22 scaling is not bad at all, but against bosses it falls short.
How are your saves? I would go for the scaling SR any day of the week, but if you have really great saves you might not need it.
The 50% chance to ignore crit/sneak is the same as the Moderate Fortification ability, right? A static SR 15 magic armor ability has the same enhancement bonus (+3), with an additional 2 SR per enhancement bonus. SR 21 would then be a +6 enhancement bonus (not that you can even get it that high, it caps at 19). But your SR would also scale. That's an extra 10k gold per level, since the price of SR is 10k/SR over 12.
This should allow you to estimate the difference in value between those two abilities.
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Btw, can you actually take SR 22 (+1/level) at level 9? The normal scaling SR is 11+level, while this ability seems to be 13+level.
I'm just assuming there isn't anything odd with the SR scaling since you haven't mentioned it.
3) - SR 22 (scaling with level) [Note: game has been pretty intense. We've faced CR 12 and 18 casters already and we were only at lv. 7 at the time.]
I'm confused - are you saying that your 7th level characters were fighting a 13th level and an 19th level full caster? I don't see any way that could be anything other than the GM having rocks fall on your head unless it's purely a story mechanic. An SR of 22 isn't going to help at all against a 19th level caster. Heck, it isn't going to be particularly good against a 13th level caster because at that level you'll have enough spells to have a few floating around which aren't subject to SR.
When adding defenses what you want to do is to look at your weak spot and strengthen those. Improving a good defense is less valuable than shoring up a weakness.
The first two abilities are designed to lessen the damage you take. I would say that the first one is more valuable than the second because as you level up the damage increases a lot. Unless the campaign involves fighting tons of low level opponents the damage reduction will not make that big of a difference. Critical hits at high level can be brutal so having a chance to negate those will be more valuable. Now on the other hand you expect to be surrounded by lots of enemies doing minimal damage the DR would be better.
The spell resistance can be a double edged sword. It can also prevent you from receiving healing when you are down. You mention that the only mage does not really use buff spells. The question is do you have other casters in the group that provide healing. If not then this is probably a good choice.
I'm confused - are you saying that your 7th level characters were fighting a 13th level and an 19th level full caster? I don't see any way that could be anything other than the GM having rocks fall on your head unless it's purely a story mechanic. An SR of 22 isn't going to help at all against a 19th level caster. Heck, it isn't going to be particularly good against a 13th level caster because at that level you'll have enough spells to have a few floating around which aren't subject to SR.3) - SR 22 (scaling with level) [Note: game has been pretty intense. We've faced CR 12 and 18 casters already and we were only at lv. 7 at the time.]
I will say, both of those were BBEG (granted that was one immediately after the other in the same session) and apparently the CR18 mage had very low hp (about 60 or so) because he was old, and decided to monologue (giving us our opening) so we had our chance. Even if he did summon an elder air elemental, and use earthquake on us. So, the DM gives us our chances. That said, I think he feels the need to, since he's let us have some extra power. Either way, we'll likely eventually get wiped if things keep escalating encounter wise haha.
I have a cohort that will soon have the ability to mimic alchemiSt extracts to a small degree (same class as me) as well as have access to supernatural healing like channeling if I go that way. Otherwise, healing is sparse. Likely only infernal healing from our mage.
The 50% is static all day and always on, no activation needed, no charges. The SR is indeed 13+ class level, but only gets that way through use of a feat mixed with a class choice at lv.9.
Either way, looks like the DR is a poor option, so I'll take that off of the table of my mind. We face small minions, but they do far more than 2 damage on average from my experience thus far.
Saves are decent, a fairly strong will and ok fort and refl.
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I would take the 50% chance to ignore the critical or sneak attack.
Lowering your SR is difficult mid fight to receive a much needed Cure or Heal spell. Also negating a Critical could mean life or death for a front line character. It also saves on healing resources to not take double, triple, or quadruple damage.
The 50% chance to avoid crits and SAs is really, really good. Pick that one, is my advice. It guards equally well against the odd natural 20 crit from some big beastie that'd slap you with a 40 STR x4 crit, or the quintuple scimitar lawnmower monster who has 11 feats dedicated to critting. It's basically a moderate fortification enhancement on your person, instead of a given defensive item. It leaves you with extra room to pimp your armor with other goodies.
Hope it helps.
-Nearyn
I'm going to agree on the fortification ability. To add to what everyone is saying, if you're really dealing with baddies at that level, that SR isn't going to do anything to them.
Looks heavily in favor of the fortification ability I'll probably go that way then. Which is cool, because a couple levels later (11 I think) I can get it up to the abilities maximum of 75% which may come in handy.
Thanks everyone!
The DR is too little to matter.
Spell resistance while it might sound good to make up for poor saves, more often causes trouble. Every full caster worth their salt will have saves that do not have to go against spell resistance. And, in order for you to receive buff spells you will need to spend a standard action to lower your spell resistance to get the spell. Beyond that, if the problem is your encountering higher level spell casters SR 22 just wont be strong enough.
With spell pen and greater spell pen they have a +4 + caster level to over come your SR. You are 9th level SR 22 (even if it scales at 1/level) has a 50% chance of being overcome by a caster level 8 person. A caster a few levels above you with spell pen is going to overcome your SR most of the time.
Go with the ability to negate critical hits and sneak attack, you'll get the most mileage out of it.
So, come next level (9th) I have the option of picking up one of the following abilities, by spending a feat. I'm pretty sure I'd like to do so, but I'm not sure which is best.
1) - 50% chance to ignore critical & sneak attack damage.
2) - DR 2/-
3) - SR 22 (scaling with level) [Note: game has been pretty intense. We've faced CR 12 and 18 casters already and we were only at lv. 7 at the time.]
So, I'm curious. If you had to choose one out of those three which would you choose and why?
Note: If it helps, I'm sort of a front line melee type with magic abilities on the side and our only real mage is focusing more on battlefield control and summoning rather than buffing, most of the time at least.
SR is a trap since it works against friendly spells also. Now if your GM will houserule it to only work against enemy spells that is different. You can drop it, but it takes a standard action to do so.
The chances of being critted is low. DR 2 is not much if it does not scale.
I would take a normal feat over all of these unless SR is the modified version that I suggested.
However if you are intent on choosing one of these, then I would say go with the crit feat, if DR does not go up with level.