PFS Bonekeep Revenge Team (Build Advice?)

[Tsutsuku]

Without using any specific spoilers, myself and two of my friends tried to play Bonekeep about a year ago. We were completely unprepared for the difficulty level and nearly got TPK'd in our third encounter before fleeing the dungeon with one player permadead. Now that we have a bit more experience with the game and PFS in general (and all earned a replay), we're going back for revenge.

I'm trying to help design a 3 person party that can destroy Bonekeep as hard as it destroyed us before. Maximum level is 7 for the first two modules and 9 for the third, so that's the level I want to optimize for.

One of my friends has already decided on his build - looks something like this:
HUMAN BRAWLER 1/PALADIN 6 (Divine Guardian/Sacred Shield)
STR 14, DEX 13, CON 14, INT 7, WIS 10, CHA 20 (not including magic items)
Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike (brawler free), Shield Focus (1), Combat Expertise (1), Archon Style (3), Archon Diversion (5), Missile Shield (archetype free), Bodyguard/In Harm's Way (archetype free conditional)

The general idea is that through his archetypes he can grant massive bonuses to our AC and his Archon Style can divert attacks that would hit one of us onto him and his stupid-high AC, plus he can pick up combat maneuvers with Martial Flexibility if he wants to. The downside is he doesn't do much damage, so my other friend and I need to find a way to deal enough to make up for it. I was thinking that using Paired Opportunists would work well with Archon Style, but it would require both of us to have melee-viable characters so we wouldn't have any full casting.

Advice?

[Just a Mort]

Eh, I say revenge all this...waste of time. If you really want to do it, get more people on it. Seriously. With 3 people, I don't think you can cover enough ground to do a successful bonekeep run. Even if you did, you would probably run out of resources as its not a 5 fight per scenario like PFS.

Bonekeep monsters cheat a lot, and you'll want to cover all possible bases in combat. CC, support, Melee, Range and any others you can think off. Its not so much about AC or AOOs, its also a lot about tactics, knowing when to fall back.

In a 3 player party if you have 2 melees, something will be lacking and bonekeep will pick that up, and hand your @ss to you.

Ill tell you I definitely preferred bringing my cleric in then using a kyra pregen. Customized gear, which was pretty important later. Bonekeep is not meant for pregens. Period.

[Faelyn]

Battle oracle. Full casting with good spell list, good armor/weapon proficiency, and the ability to be a melee beast.

[Ulfen Death Squad]

With only 3 players and a pregen trying to complete Bonekeep 1 in 4 hours or less, I really do not think a "Nananananana, you can't hit me" build is going to help as much as other builds would. If this wasn't timed, you could work around the build but in boxing terms, fights have to be more 4 round KO and move on fights and not 15 round slug fests.

Another thing that can help with time, have things already planned out so that when it is your turn, you do A if the creature is alive or B if it isn't and the math for every type of attack or skill or attack and damage is already listed like I will for my paladin (normal att/damage, if I power attack, power attack with smite evil, or anything else).

[andreww]

You have 5 hours to complete the scenario. You need characters with strong defences who also have strong offence or control. I wold suggest some combination of cleric, druid, oracle, paladin or barbarian with at least one primary arcane caster. One of them should be able to detect traps, you may also want someone to have disable.

I would strongly advise bringing a lot of scrolls and potions. You want to have ways to remove most of the common conditions. You will need plenty of healing out of combat depending on the strength of your control.

I ran this today for a group of 5 who completed 6 rooms at high tier. They had tried a 7th and had to run shortly before time was called.

[Tsutsuku]

Erm, let me clarify that we aren't intending to run as 3 + a pregen, its just that its only the 3 of us planning out characters specifically for this and we will recruit one or two more people for when we run it.

In terms of detecting/disabling traps, we were planning on using a wand of pony-down-the-hallway (aka SM1) to do that. I also think that wands would work for out of combat healing, fully planning to walk in loaded up with consumables for contingency plans.
-Several wands of CLW
-Wand of SM1 or SNA1 depending on spell lists
-Scrolls/Potions of Delay Disease, Delay Poison, Remove Fear, Resist Energy, Remove Paralysis, Lesser and normal Restoration, Fly, Protection from Arrows, Calm Emotions, See Invisibility + Glitterdust/Faerie Fire, as not covered by group spellcasters
-Remove Curse, Dispel Magic known by at least 1 character
-Something to deal with swarms

Am I missing anything consumable-wise?

[Zedorland]

A two hander smiting level 7 paladin will have great saves, solid AC from heavy armour and smite, and deal some serious damage to most of the biggest threats in the dungeon. With only 3 real members, your biggest issue will be action economy. I doubt you will have the luxury of having a pure support role in one of those three slots (though an NPC LEM is quite nice, and an NPC Sorcerer casting haste all the time is also great.)

I played through a Core Pregen Only bonekeep 1 run at level 4. We had 2 paladins (me being one of them) and between smite, lay on hands, divine grace and heavy armour, I was tanky enough to get in the front lines and dealing enough damage to make my actions count.
It’s worth applying this logic to the rest of the party too. Everyone is going to need to pull their weight in every encounter. Animal companions are great for breaking action economy, and level 7 means improved familiars are alos an option for casters. Summoning spells too, though they can slow you down in how long each turn takes, so use only if familiar with their use already.

Generic advice for any hard dungeon: Be ready for different kinds of damage reduction (metals, damage types, alignment). Have a good ranged option on everyone. Make sure you have your saves covered. Have ways to deal with elemental damage and negative conditions (Poisoned, confused, diseased, blinded, deafened etc). Have a way to not get hugged (grappled) to death. Have a way to deal with environmental concerns (Falling, climbing, flying, swimming). Potions and scrolls are your friend.

Good Luck!

[Just a Mort]

My Bonekeep 1 party(we managed to complete Bonekeep 1 - low Tier):
Evangelist Cleric (me) - animal domain (Big Cat animal companion)
Wizard (Blaster)
Fighter (archer/switch hitter)
Arcane trickster (sorc/rogue)
Gunslinger
Cleric Pregen

This was one of the few times I was glad for extra heal backup, as I couldn't spontaneously drop heals.

See invis can be scrolled but glitterdust should be on someone's spell list, otherwise each pop will only last 3 rounds. Faerie fire is nice, but probably requires UMD as its druid only, which in a chancy situation, and in bone keep it may not a good idea to see if your dice favor you.
Reach rod for buffs and heals from a distance. I'd recommend cleric over oracle in these because clerics can use reach rods as standard action, as opposed to oracle full-round action. Also the variety of spells you can prepare is greater.

[Tsutsuku]

I do have an unchained summoner that's grandfathered into PFS. She has UMD at +19 and a quadruped familiar, is a half-elf, and still has haste as a level 2 spell. Should I use her?

[Just a Mort]

Read the following:

Link

Since this is bonekeep, read for your character level +2 steps. I.e if you're level 3, read for until level 7, if you're level 5, read everything - with regard to what to prepare for.

Then make sure the following bases are covered:
1) Melee - durable and does good damage. Does not need to be a PC, animal companions and eids, if sufficiently powerful, are fine.
2) Ranged
3) Support - protective buffs. Usually a divine caster, useful if they can buff/heal from range. Best carry all those condition removal scrolls.
4) CC - arcane casty traditionally
5) Someone to ID monsters so you know how to beat them
6) Ways to deal with swarms (swarmbane claps, arcane caster does it etc. - no, if you're doing it all by alch flasks, you're going to take too long)
7) Trap disabler

Actually that would work for all PFS scenarios. Except you'd need a face for some of them.

I still think the whole idea of Bonekeep is silly though. If you asked me to join a BK party, I'd decline. I'm too old for that kind of sh*t.

['Sani]

You will want scrolls of Death Ward or a caster able to cast it, as a place called BONEkeep probably has undead, death spells, death effects, or negative energy.

Also as a personal resource I like to have a way to clear air, after in another dungeon I faced a dretch, who summoned a dretch, who summoned a dretch, and they all have stinking cloud. Cleansing auras, wind spells, something to get rid of cloud effects.

On general principle any Pathfinder should have a clear spindle ioun stone in a wayfinder.

[andreww]

'Sani wrote:

Also as a personal resource I like to have a way to clear air, after in another dungeon I faced a dretch, who summoned a dretch, who summoned a dretch, and they all have stinking cloud. Cleansing auras, wind spells, something to get rid of cloud effects

This shouldn't be possible. Summoned creatures cannot use summoning abilities.

['Sani]

andreww wrote:

'Sani wrote:

Also as a personal resource I like to have a way to clear air, after in another dungeon I faced a dretch, who summoned a dretch, who summoned a dretch, and they all have stinking cloud. Cleansing auras, wind spells, something to get rid of cloud effects

This shouldn't be possible. Summoned creatures cannot use summoning abilities.

Wish I'd known that at the time!

[Matt2VK]

Restoration, restoration, and more restoration. Someone, somewhere will fail a save. Probably more then one person and if unlucky, multiple times.

Actually, having one or two potions/scrolls of lesser (normal) Restoration on any PFS character can save your character grief down the road.

[Fomsie]

andreww wrote:

'Sani wrote:

Also as a personal resource I like to have a way to clear air, after in another dungeon I faced a dretch, who summoned a dretch, who summoned a dretch, and they all have stinking cloud. Cleansing auras, wind spells, something to get rid of cloud effects

This shouldn't be possible. Summoned creatures cannot use summoning abilities.

In this particular case there were actually several Dretches in a room already (not summoned creatures), and their tactics called for each of them to use their summon ability to attempt to call forth an additional Dretch... the mass of them all began using their stinking clouds.