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I'm about to start the Giantslayer Adventure Path and was thinking about running a Wizard.
I could really do with some advice as I've pretty much been GM'ing for about 4 years and am a little out of touch with character generation.
Our GM has given us a 20 point build to start with.
I like to have fun with my characters, they're generally Chaotic Good with a dash of madness and bravado, with delusions of grandeur thrown in for good measure.
Any tips would be much appreciated.
Regards
Prux
I'm just finishing up book 3 as a player. Honestly.... Run a universal school wizard. Anything that requires a reflex save or a ranged touch attack is a good idea - most critters we've fought so far suck for reflex saves and touch AC.
At the end of the day, it is pretty tough to do a Wizard wrong.
You can screw up playing them, taking the wrong spells that day and casting stuff poorly (one my players for a while seemed to be functioning as a battlefield controller for the other side) but building them wrong is pretty hard.
I happen to think Divination or Conjuration (Teleport) are the best schools, but once again, vast cosmic power is vast cosmic power and you are going to have that regardless.
I would probably avoid spells with Fortitude saves. I'm assuming there are a lot of giants, they usually have that dread combo of Good Fortitude saves and high Constitution scores.
As mentioned earlier, spells targeting Reflex saves and Touch AC are probably the way to go. Giants have tons of hit points, too, so evocation blasts are just going to whittle them down, not blast them out of existence.
Do you know what the rest of the party will be?
Also, I've not played that AP, so I don't know what's in it.
just started playing this ap. i went with exploiter wizard, which as some fellow posters have mentioned is close to a universal school wizard. i feel that i will be a swiss army knife style caster...ready for anything.i was able to take potent magic, quick study, and got my familiar back(scorpion) to gain imp. initiative and awareness. later down the line i think dim. slide and metamagic feats will be taken. traits are a nice boost with transmuter, harrow chosen (human), master illusionist...making transmutation, illusion, and divination spells slightly better with no opposed schools.
I'm playing a wizard in this one. Dwarven conjuration specialist. My planned feat tree through 15th is: [1st] Spell Focus (conjuration), [3rd] Augment Summoning, [5th, B] Heighten Spell, [5th] Spell Penetration, [7th] Spell Focus (evocation), [9th] Preferred Spell (fireball), [10th, B] Maximize Spell, [11th] Greater Spell Focus (evocation), [13th] Greater Spell Penetration, [15th, B] Quicken Spell, [15th] Spell Perfection (fireball).
And I took a trait that lets my wizard get a +1 to attack & AC for his creatures if they have the earth subtype or the burrow movement type.
He's a lot of fun, and pretty much owns stuff. His fireball DCs and also for his heightened conjuration spells are pretty high. And at level 15, the DCs for his fireball will be outrageous, due to Spell Perfection. I like to use spells, though, that don't count on the enemy not resisting them. Like hasting the party. Solid Fog. That sort of thing. And lots of magma elementals. He keeps heightened glitterdust prepared, and if it's not resisted, the rogue goes to town with sneak attacks.
The party make up is stock standard Wizard, Cleric, Fighter and Rogue.
Nice. Very balanced, so you'll all be able to play off of each other.
Gonna feel bad for the rogue, but yeah. Giants are generally weak against reflex and will based saves. Charm person, Grease, Glitterdust, all those sorta things will rain on their parade. Heck, don;t even grease the ground, grease their weapons. Giant without a weapon isn't defenseless, but he hurts a lot less.
Otherwise pick up defenses that don;t care about AC. Giants accuracy is above average due to their high strength scores, so miss chances from Mirror Image, Invisibility, Displacement etc are extra effective. Flying also can help if you're in spaces tall enough where they can;t touch the ceiling.
But yeah. Giants overall are not very complicated or difficult enemies except for people stuck playing patty-cake with them like a fighter or rogue. Conjuration wizard is probably a good choice since you can dimension door away from their reach if you get cornered. Alternatively Diviner is good.
There's not too much reason to take Universalist. Most of the penalties aren't hard to circumvent, and the benefits are pretty low.
Remember, most giants also have ranged attacks, such as boulders or javelins. And different types have different resistances and immunities to different energy types.
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I'd honestly recommend a Elf Evoker with the Admixture school, which allows you to change the element damage from one kind to another. This means you can really nail Frost and Fire giants to the proverbial wall. Do not have Enchantment as an opposition school; giants have crappy Will saves.
Second, since giants can hit really hard, try to max out your AC with item creation feats (Wondrous Item, Arms & Armor), and upping your hp. The former of course also helps out the party. You can maximize your time by grabbing a Ring of Sustenance, which allows you to sleep for only 2 hours, giving lots of extra time for crafting.
Quick tip: Have everyone take Stealth Synergy at 3rd level. The reason why will become painfully obvious in The Hill Giant's Pledge (2nd adventure) and also later on.
Ask the player of the Rogue to contact me personally. I have a Rogue build that maximizes sneak attack damage.
What races are the other PC's? I recommend Orc for the Fighter, Aasimar for the Cleric, and Goblin for the Rogue. If you take an Elf with darkvision, all of the PC's will be able to see in the dark, which means you will likely get a bonus from the DM on Stealth rolls since nobody is carrying a source of light.
Gonna feel bad for the rogue, but yeah.
Why? Rogues can do perfectly murderous amounts of sneak attack damage when properly kitted with feats, and they can use Stealth and Acrobatics to get close to giants with reach.
As long as he's playing an Unchained Rogue he'll be fine. Also you could suggest to your Fighter that Rangers are really useful in this campaign. ;)
As long as he's playing an Unchained Rogue he'll be fine. Also you could suggest to your Fighter that Rangers are really useful in this campaign. ;)
True. But if you think about it, so are Fighters. All you need do is take Acrobatics as a class skill via character trait. The Fighter's armor skills kick in, reducing the armor check penalty.
Suddenly the humble Fighter can use Acrobatics to get past a giant's reach, and set up the Rogue for a sneak attack by flanking (plus he's doing it in full plate).
Can you move AND do full defense or fighting defensively? That, combined with Mobility might allow you to make the giant waste his AoO instead of not provoking it at all. Not many giants have Combat Reflexes, do they?
I'm pretty sure moving and fighting defensively is fine according to the rules. I dunno about full defense, would have to check the core book again.
You cannot use Acrobatics to move past foes if your speed is reduced due to carrying a medium or heavy load or wearing medium or heavy armor.
full plate won't work....get a reach weapon
Can you move AND do full defense or fighting defensively? That, combined with Mobility might allow you to make the giant waste his AoO instead of not provoking it at all. Not many giants have Combat Reflexes, do they?
Rangers are great in this AP not just because of acrobatics.
There is a LOT of wilderness involved. They'll get a lot of use for survival, tracking, stealth, speak with animals and other nature spells like animal messenger, etc.But the main reason is because the campaing is called GIANTslayer, and Rangers get a class feature called "Favored enemy". Pick Orc at first level, then Giant, then Dragon. You'll not be dissapointed. We have a full ranger, and a druid with ranger dip for the feat that allow full favored enemy, and it's murder.
Right now we get +8 to hit and damage to giants (including the spell that adds +2), wich are 3/4 of our enemies.
You cannot use Acrobatics to move past foes if your speed is reduced due to carrying a medium or heavy load or wearing medium or heavy armor.
full plate won't work....get a reach weapon
It can if you are wearing mithril, or at least I think it can in my games.
Also, a Fighter 3's speed is not reduced by Medium armour, and a Fighter 7's speed is not reduced by Heavy armour. Therefore Acrobatics is a valid skill use for Fighters who have not given up Armour Training 1 and 2.
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I'd honestly recommend a Elf Evoker with the Admixture school, which allows you to change the element damage from one kind to another. This means you can really nail Frost and Fire giants to the proverbial wall. Do not have Enchantment as an opposition school; giants have crappy Will saves.
Second, since giants can hit really hard, try to max out your AC with item creation feats (Wondrous Item, Arms & Armor), and upping your hp. The former of course also helps out the party. You can maximize your time by grabbing a Ring of Sustenance, which allows you to sleep for only 2 hours, giving lots of extra time for crafting.
Quick tip: Have everyone take Stealth Synergy at 3rd level. The reason why will become painfully obvious in The Hill Giant's Pledge (2nd adventure) and also later on.
Ask the player of the Rogue to contact me personally. I have a Rogue build that maximizes sneak attack damage.
What races are the other PC's? I recommend Orc for the Fighter, Aasimar for the Cleric, and Goblin for the Rogue. If you take an Elf with darkvision, all of the PC's will be able to see in the dark, which means you will likely get a bonus from the DM on Stealth rolls since nobody is carrying a source of light.
Great advice on 'Stealth Synergy' we're going to look into that. Also, my mate that is running the rogue is going to contact you.
Regards
Prux
The short answer is an enchanter for Giantslayer. I've Ben GMing this campaign and they are about to finish the 5th book. Giants are humanoid, humaniods are affected by even the most basic enchantment spells. Bungle, hideous laughter, charm person. I hate that enchanter more than I can express in words!
