Hello everyone.
I am looking for advice on a character to play for an upcoming pirate adventure.
A little background first, I started playing Pathfinder a couple of years ago and we've been playing one campaign that whole time. I love rogues so I created one.
Well, long story not so long, I hate my character now. She just didn't level on par with other characters. A lot of that had to do with early on, I was new to Pathfinder and didn't realize a lot of things that would have helped me better plan. I was a new player playing (what I was told) is a weak class.
With some help from the GM (he's been very helpful BTW), I tried to compensate for weaknesses by multiclassing and we also ended up being mythic. It helped, but she still lags behind the other PCs and she's not very good in a fight. Many times I can't even hope to hit enemies unless I roll a 20. She does poor damage (compared to the other PCs) and has few hitpoints. Her only saving grace is that she's good in role playing situations and has a high Charisma. But that suffers from my own lack of being very verbally articulate. What good is a 19 Charisma if the player herself can't think of the smooth words to say when the GM asks, "So what do you say to them?"
I just want our current campaign to end quickly (or for my character to die... of course, other PCs would just resurrect her). I mainly stick it out because I like the group I am playing with and they are having fun. But I am secretly hoping it all ends soon.
We also played a side adventure for a while where I ran a witch. I liked her a lot better, and that's saying something because I don't usually enjoy playing spell casters. I really liked the hexes.
Back to the main topic. We have a pirate campaign coming up (Skull and Shackles) and I am eager to start anew with a fresh and better planned character. I still like the idea of rogues, but I don't think I want to play another one. I am considering a fighter or ranger. I may also consider a bard, but our GM is banning all full spell casters and I want to leave the bard option open to the players who really enjoy spell casting.
Any advice for building a character (heck, any advice on what kind of character to play)? I want to play something that scales well (unlike my rogue). I found a pirate cavalier archetype last week (of course now I can't find it online anymore) that sounded interesting. I want to get ideas soon so I can start planning out a new character and how she will level. I don't want to make the same mistake I did before with my rogue.
Any help to start me off on the right foot so I have my sealegs when we start the new campaign would be very helpful. Thanks!
For Skull and Shackles I'd highly recommend a bard or a rogue (unchained better than not) as it's an unusual adventure with a lot of encounters that depend on skill checks and a lot of social interaction.
Profession (sailor) and social skills are very important and you will find to be a very useful member of the party if you have some ranks on them.
Water related stuff is also great. Having ways to get a swim speed and water breathing is also very useful.
Begin and end every sentence with a "Y'arr!"
Say "a vast" and "matey" a lot.
Parrots are a must, if you don't have a Parrot, kill someone else and take theirs.
You can never have enough rum.
I actually meant to include a monkey on that.
Good catch!
I've been considering a bard too. I think a Sea singer. I talked to the guy who usually likes to play spell casters and he said it might be nice to play a swordsman of some sort, so that leaves bard as a possibility.
As a bonus at level 2 Sea singer gets a parrot or monkey familiar.
Sea Singers are great, also Mesmerists make fun swords people.
Thanks. I will have to look into Mesmerists too.
I was running a Half-orc Barbarian (Sea Reaver)2/Cavalier (Daring Champion) X for a home game. Maxed Intimidate and Charisma, caroused regularly. Gave myself a new title every time we did something worthwhile (or not.) Was a home game, and I think we maybe stepped foot a ship once? Still one of the most fun characters I've had in a while. When I get home to find his sheet, I'll share the list of titles I accrued.
Slayer is an option. It is intentionally made to be a bit of a mix of rogue and ranger.
As in it has full BAB and style feats, as well as a little sneak attack.
Slayer is a nice, simple, generally useful class. Its attack booster is more general than favored enemy (it is just a 'spend an action' thing, rather than based on type), and it can even add to most social skills at level 7. So you can use it out of battle too for good effect.
It is frankly a bit hard to mess up a slayer. As long as you understand the barest basics (like 'str based 2 handers are easy for beginners'), then you can make something workable and at least somewhat effective.
Now, for a 'pirate-y' style. How about going TWF, but using a cutlass and a spiked gauntlet/cestus? Gauntlets allow you to use the hand to hold a weapon, so you can 2 hand when needed, or do TWF when you can full attack. Since rangers/slayers can do STR based TWF, you can take advantage of that with this style.
If you enjoyed playing a Witch because you liked the hexes, might I suggest the Heavens Spirit Shaman? We had one of those in the Skull and Shackles game and she was great. Shaman's a little less squishy than the Witch, but still gets hexes, and wandering spirit makes you one of the more versatile prepared casters.
We rolled that AP with a heavens shaman, a sea singer bard, a grenadier Alchemist, and an Aberrant Bloodrager. I was the bloodrager, and I'm not sure I'd recommend it because "I threaten an absurd amount of space" was kind of overpowered in close quarters combat like "on ships."
The bard player had a somewhat exhaustive knowledge of sea shanties, which was a mixed blessing.
I think the most important thing to do is discuss what kind of Pirates you want to be I've had friends play the AP and leave because their group (best friends and family mind you) went straight evil and burned everything.
My group decided the opposite. They were pirates for profit. If that meant letting someone live for ransom or potential gain later they would do so.
Pirate games need a tone right away or you'll quickly find yourself at odds.
As for characters, I would love to play a pirate game as a Tengu Kraken Caller druid.
Worship the pirate goddess Besmata and take on the aspects of the Kraken? Get a half dozen natural attacks? Level 9 casting for buffs?
Incredible fun.
Plus, you get to make all the "crow's nest" jokes! (and yes, I know the Tengu are more ravens, but play along.)
I am currently navigating the Shackles and I have that little voice in my head telling me that I am one of the most beloved characters of... someone. The voice also tells me that I have already finished the first half of my journeys, but I don't want to believe it. I am having so much fun that I refuse to stop sailing!!
By the way, the voice also says that I am an Undine Watersinger Bard 9. I suppose it means that I am worth nine people. Cool!
Hey, thanks again. There are a lot of good ideas, but I have to stress that there no "full casters" allowed. We can't play wizards, clerics, druids, witches, sorcerer etc.
We can play half casters and I think was is allowed is bard, magus, inquisitor, and alchemist. I am leaning towards a bard of some sort. I think, maybe, if I made my current character a bard, I would have liked her more (she seems to lean that way with skills, diplomacy, and such).
One rule of our group is no evil characters. So we will most likely be neutral (or possibly even good... but I think our group will end up mostly neutral). So that sets part of the theme.
Firearms are in the mix too. I know nothing about firearm rules, I will need to look into it.
Races are limited too. Aside from the core races the GM will allow Tiefling, tengu, goblin, orc, dhampir, goblin, and hobgoblin.
Stabbyface is glads you list goblins twice.
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Firearms are good for a class or archetype which specialises in them and no one else. Don't worry about them unless you want to play a gunslinger or something.
Of the half casters you listed a bard is the simplest, partly because even when they can't usefully attack they can buff those who can. This makes optimising them less important. An inquisitor can also do skills & diplomacy but you might want to take an archetype which simplifies them a bit - maybe sanctified slayer or sacred huntsmaster.
Stabbyface is glads you list goblins twice.
One can never have too many goblins.
Firearms are good for a class or archetype which specialises in them and no one else. Don't worry about them unless you want to play a gunslinger or something.
Of the half casters you listed a bard is the simplest, partly because even when they can't usefully attack they can buff those who can. This makes optimising them less important. An inquisitor can also do skills & diplomacy but you might want to take an archetype which simplifies them a bit - maybe sanctified slayer or sacred huntsmaster.
Thanks! (And thanks to everyone else too).
I am going to go with the bard. I'll be honest, I really like playing "support" type characters and buffing (the spells and hexes I picked for my witch were ones that helped the group for the most part).
Plus, I hate optimizing. Mostly because I am not good at it. I tend to like to build characters that are interesting to me. So not having to worry so much about optimizing is a plus.
While I am favoring the Sea Singer, I will look into other archetypes too. One of the guys wants to play a Viking stye, barbarian raider. So I wonder if a Viking style skald would work too. Buccaneer might work too. Songhealer might be useful too since, with the GM's rules, there aren't many healer types possible.
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I have played through all of Skull and Shackles as a Sea Singer bard (All hail the Hurricane King!), and while my GM didn't limit full casters, I was the only arcane caster my crew had. Bard is massively useful, Sea Singer especially if your GM will let you take a Tidepool Dragon improved familiar.
However, you did say that you weren't the most verbally articulate person and had some problems with Charisma based skills as a rogue. If you play a bard, you will most likely end up as a the Captain of a ship, which involves a LOT of talking. If your party also includes a swashbuckler, gunslinger, or Paladin (in Skulls and Shackles not likely), then you can avoid it, but otherwise the bard is the go-to face character. Skull and Shackles has a LOT of talking, so if you don't want to have to come up with what your characters says to people, then it may not be the best choice.
I have played through all of Skull and Shackles as a Sea Singer bard (All hail the Hurricane King!), and while my GM didn't limit full casters, I was the only arcane caster my crew had. Bard is massively useful, Sea Singer especially if your GM will let you take a Tidepool Dragon improved familiar.
However, you did say that you weren't the most verbally articulate person and had some problems with Charisma based skills as a rogue. If you play a bard, you will most likely end up as a the Captain of a ship, which involves a LOT of talking. If your party also includes a swashbuckler, gunslinger, or Paladin (in Skulls and Shackles not likely), then you can avoid it, but otherwise the bard is the go-to face character. Skull and Shackles has a LOT of talking, so if you don't want to have to come up with what your characters says to people, then it may not be the best choice.
Thanks again. That's good to know. Currently my character is not only the party face, but also the duchess of our little kingdom. It's a job I don't care for anymore after doing it for the past two years in our current campaign, but with my skills and charisma score, it's the one place where my character can shine.
I'll see what others are building before I make a final decision. There is one guy in our group who loves spell casters and is pretty witty himself, he'd play a great bard.
The problem with my group is no one wants to be the party face! When I rolled my witch that I liked, her charisma was 8 and they still expected me to be the party face (I purposely made her charisma the lowest score so I didn't have to be the face again). It took them a while to realize that having the witch talk for them wasn't working out (I even RPed her as brash and arrogant).
I suppose an option completely different from the bard idea that I would like to play would be to play some kind of fighter or better yet, barbarian of some sort. It might be interesting playing the "meat shield" for a change.
I have played through all of Skull and Shackles as a Sea Singer bard (All hail the Hurricane King!), and while my GM didn't limit full casters, I was the only arcane caster my crew had. Bard is massively useful, Sea Singer especially if your GM will let you take a Tidepool Dragon improved familiar.
However, you did say that you weren't the most verbally articulate person and had some problems with Charisma based skills as a rogue. If you play a bard, you will most likely end up as a the Captain of a ship, which involves a LOT of talking. If your party also includes a swashbuckler, gunslinger, or Paladin (in Skulls and Shackles not likely), then you can avoid it, but otherwise the bard is the go-to face character. Skull and Shackles has a LOT of talking, so if you don't want to have to come up with what your characters says to people, then it may not be the best choice.
Thanks again. That's good to know. Currently my character is not only the party face, but also the duchess of our little kingdom. It's a job I don't care for anymore after doing it for the past two years in our current campaign, but with my skills and charisma score, it's the one place where my character can shine.
I'll see what others are building before I make a final decision. There is one guy in our group who loves spell casters and is pretty witty himself, he'd play a great bard.
The problem with my group is no one wants to be the party face! When I rolled my witch that I liked, her charisma was 8 and they still expected me to be the party face (I purposely made her charisma the lowest score so I didn't have to be the face again). It took them a while to realize that having the witch talk for them wasn't working out (I even RPed her as brash and arrogant).
I suppose an option completely different from the bard idea that I would like to play would be to play some kind of fighter or better yet, barbarian of some sort. It might be interesting playing the "meat shield" for a change.
I had to be the party face with my witch, and even though I had a high charisma and some ranks in social skills, it cannot be compared to a real social character.
In Skull and Shackles, somebody has to be the party face, as there are a lot of issues that can be solved by social skills, but if you're tired of being relegated to that role, my best advice is to encourage other players to take it.In this adventure, the party face is a very important role, and a enjoyable one if you like a lot of roleplaying.
Even if you are not the most social skilled person in your group it doesn't mean that your character cannot be the party face, you can always get some out of game advice from other players on what to say, or let other players make their interventions in conversations even though you are the one who is rolling the dice.
Of course, if you don't want to, you don't have to be forced by other players to take that role in the group.
My best advice is not to go for a class with few skill points, as skills are so relevant in this AP.
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A bit of a further out suggestion: Why not a kineticist? A telekineticist would let you cover many of the same bases as a rogue (stealth, disable device, and such), while having some very versatile abilities with telekinesis.
Alternatively, a hydrokineticist is another good choice. Get that swim speed and underwater breathing.
An aerokineticist can also get breathing underwater, but no swim speed.
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Skull and Shackles is GREAT for a social character, so if you are tired of being the party face try by all means to get another character into that role. That player will surely love his role and maybe he will want to repeat it in another game.
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Our group had an air kineticist and my god was he effective.
One thing you could do to avoid the face roll is to take a wisdom based class, like a ranger or something, and pump your Profession Sailor up. Then whenever someone wants you to do diplomatic stuff, tell them you're just here to pilot the ship.
I mean, you can have both high Charisma skills and a profession sailor at insane levels, but don't tell the rest of your party that.
Play a half orc inquisitor, and dump CHA, and take the conversion Inquisition. Take improved monster lore as you first level feat and take the half orc favored class bonus. This will allow you to be able to excel in dealing with people, but still avoid the party face roll. You are good at getting what you want, but your methods will mean it is better having someone else be the face. You play the bad cop and let the other person be the god cop. Max out intimidate and you will be the scariest person on the planet.
You will have a lot of skills with some of them being absurdly high. A single point in the relevant knowledge skill and you will be able to identify monsters better than a bard. As I said your intimidate will be the highest in the game. Your sense motive will make it difficult to get anything past you.
Your judgements and spells will allow you to boost your combat ability quite high. Latter when you get bane it will be even higher. Solo tactics will also help here. Precise Strike for example gives you a minor sneak attack. You also get good fortitude and will saves and latter get Stalwart.
You spell list is pretty good. It has a lot of combat boosts, and utility spells. Not much in the way of direct combat spells so it does not step on the toes of someone wanting to be more of a caster.
I would suggest Cayden Cailean as a deity.
I have had a lot of fun as a ninja on a ship. :-)
I second the unchained rogue or bard.
I would add a hexcrafter magus. You get the hexes you like, you are a 6 level caster, and you are melee.
/cevah
Sacred Fist Warpriest of Hei-Feng, wielding a 9-ring broadsword, using Guided Hand. What better pirate than a sword-flurrying devotee of a raven-deity of chaos, destruction, seas and storms, who wields a deadly exotic sword and possesses enormous chaotic wisdom?
Edit: out of curiosity, would a full-caster multiclassing thing be permitted? Because you can do endless cool voodoo-themed or element-themed warrior-pirate stuff with multiclassing full casters. Leyline Guardian Witch and Eldritch Knight for a voodoo-sword pirate, for example.