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I’m considering a character to play in PFS-legal Emerald Spire. I’d like y’all’s opinions on this…
Halfling ‘Warslinger’
Str: 12, Dex: 18, Con: 12, Int: 14, Wis: 12, Cha: 9
Traits: Fate’s Favored, Wild Shadow
1- Ranger (Divine Marksman) 1 – feat: Point Blank Shot, Bullseye Shot; favored enemy: evil outsiders
2- Alchemist (Inspired Alchemist/Grenadier) 1
3- Ranger (Divine Marksman) 2 – feat: Precise Shot, Rapid Shot
4- Ranger (Divine Marksman) 3 – feat: Endurance, favored terrain: Urban (or Underground?)
5- Alchemist (Inspired Alchemist/Grenadier) 2 – feat: Extra Discovery (investigator talent – rogue talent: Terrain Mastery x2); favored terrain (alchemist): Underground (2nd), Water (3rd), Mountain (4th), Forest (5th)
6- Ranger (Divine Marksman) 4 – Hunter’s Bond: Companions
7- Horizon Walker 1 – feat: Extra Discovery (investigator talent – rogue talent: Terrain Mastery x2); favored terrain: Ethereal Plane (6th), favored terrain (alchemist): Cold (7th), Plains (8th)
8- Horizon Walker 2 – favored terrain: Shadow Plane (9th); terrain mastery: Urban (or Underground?)
9- Horizon Walker 3 – feat: Extra Discovery (investigator talent – rogue talent: Terrain Mastery x2); favored terrain (alchemist): Swamp (10th), Desert (11th); terrain dominance: Urban (or Underground?)
10- Horizon Walker 4 – favored terrain: Jungle (12th); terrain mastery: Underground
11- Horizon Walker 5 – feat: Extra Discovery (investigator talent – rogue talent: Terrain Mastery x2); favored terrain: Plane of Air (13th), favored terrain (alchemist): Astral Plane (14th), Plane of Fire (15th)
Magical Items of Note: Boots of Friendly Terrain
Party Role at low levels (1-4): typical ranged combatant, with some decent scouting and sneaking ability (with the new Wild Shadow trait, it’s like a poor man’s hide in plain sight). Bullseye Shot will offset the penalty for not having precise shot for the first couple of levels. He’s not doing a lot of damage, but his attacks hit pretty well. With some extracts via Alchemy, it gives him a bit of versatility and options (like true strike or monkey fish). If he runs into DR, he can pull out a few bombs or alchemical items for the combat. At 4th level, I’m still unsure if Urban or Underground is better suited to the Emerald Spire – it’s a structure, so you would think Urban...but how much of it is underground?
Party Role at mid levels (5-8): His skills dramatically ramp up at this point. The key here is the Inspired Alchemist – when they can take a discovery, they can take two investigator talents in its place, which allows him to take the rogue talent Terrain Mastery. By spending his feats on Extra Discovery, he can pick up a lot of terrains. You can only USE the newer favored terrain while being affected by the inspiring cognatogen – although that doesn’t matter as much here, since just having the favored terrain still raises the bonuses to the only one that matters – Urban. Just at 5th level, his bonuses in the tower from terrain mastery are already at +12 with the low-cost Boots of Friendly Terrain. By 8th level, +20. He’s still not doing a lot of damage, though...which will hurt during this period (DR much more frequent). Still, with a magic sling and some different type of ammunition, I may be able to mitigate that.
Party Role at high levels (9-11+): Although I can keep playing the spire past 11th, I’ve only planned out that far ahead, since standard retirement in PFS is at 12th. At this tier, his combat contribution suddenly swings into overdrive. This is due to a few factors. One, due to Terrain Dominance, he can now add +24 to hit and damage to all his attacks vs humanoids (urban races). Two, due to his 4th level of Divine Marksman, he gets +12 to hit and damage against everything ELSE. Three, using his Companion Bond, he can give everyone else in the party +12/+12 to hit/damage vs a single humanoid foe (or +6/+6 vs something non-humanoid). By 11th level, it’s up to +32 (and +16 and +8 respectively).
I could change the PC a bit – make him a human for the bonus feat, leave him with a bow, then retrain out 3 feats at 9th level (Point Blank, Precise, and his human bonus) into 6 more terrain masteries. That’s the better combat option…but I also like the idea of all this damage output being done by flinging pebbles into the bad guy’s forehead.
So...thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? I haven’t gone into magical items too much, and I’m not sold on the build (still debating internally). Still, I liked the idea of a Horizon Walker, when we’ll know for most of this adventure what the terrain is going to be.
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This doesn't work post errata.
Terrain Mastery (Ex): A rogue with this talent gains a favored terrain as the ranger ability of the same name, though the favored terrain ability does not increase with her level as the ranger's ability does. A rogue can take this ability multiple times, each time applying it to a new terrain.
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This doesn't work post errata.
Terrain Mastery (Ex): A rogue with this talent gains a favored terrain as the ranger ability of the same name, though the favored terrain ability does not increase with her level as the ranger's ability does. A rogue can take this ability multiple times, each time applying it to a new terrain.
I understand that the later iterations of favored terrain will not increase themselves (the ones picked up from the alchemist/investigator/rogue talent). I'm only concerned with increasing the one terrain that matters - the first one picked up in ranger. Hence, why I'm thinking of playing this in Emerald Spire...since the terrain is mostly similar (aside from the odd planar travel).
Reading the blurb on the module, though, I'm thinking Underground would be more appropriate than urban.
A couple notes from someone who has GM'd the entire dungeon:
Underground is most appropriate. Most levels are urban, but not all. All levels are underground after the first.
As Imbicatus mentioned, the loophole is closed for Favored Terrain so the rogue talent is worthless. That said, you can still get plenty of mileage out of a more standard build of Horizon Walker with a modest Favored Terrain bonus.
You will not get much mileage out of FE: Evil Outsider...at all. Your best choice is Construct. There is a construct on virtually every floor.
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No, the talent doesn't increase any favored terrains. You'll only have +2 favored terrain bonus, not the +24. The horizon walker exploit has been closed.
I've looked over all three favored terrain abilities again...and I now think you're right. The key is, the language on terrain mastery says, "THE favored terrain ability does not increase..." rather than, " THIS favored terrain ability does not increase..." It must be retroactively covering all favored terrains - even ones gained via ranger or horizon walker (i.e. Ignore the language about the ranger favored terrain increasing in levels later on, at least when taking terrain mastery). Obviously, they'll still increase when taking the levels of horizon walker...but dramatically changed things.
Thanks for the input!