Friend of mine wants to be a better scout. That was not originally a major part of his build. However, so far in this campaign we have been fairly hampered by insufficient capability to scout. Many of the opponents have had fairly high to very high perceptions and stealth.
Since the opposition has had high stealth, the group doesn't see them until too late. So close range ambushes have been very common.
Since they have high perception, they often see him when he tries to scout ahead. He can't survive tripping the ambush by himself.
GM also uses an old 3.5 book that has lots of wierd high DC traps in it.
He has not yet picked his 7th level feat, talent, or formula. He will consider retraining, but that isn't his first choice. He only has 4788 gold at the moment. But will get more and could possibly borrow from other PC's.
He is interested in any advice, but is primarily looking for feats and relatively cheap magic items that can increase his stealth, perception, and disable device. Mostly worried about stealth.
His build is here:
Male catfolk investigator (empiricist) 7 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Class Guide 30, 100, Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3 47)
N Medium humanoid (catfolk)
Init +3; Senses low-light vision; Perception +21
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Defense
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AC 20, touch 13, flat-footed 17 (+7 armor, +3 Dex)
hp 56 (7d8+21)
Fort +7, Ref +10, Will +9 (+2 save vs. illusion and disbelievable effects)
Defensive Abilities trap sense +2; Resist unfailing logic
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee +1 dagger +6 (1d4+1/19-20) or
. . +1 rapier +6 (1d6+2/18-20)
Special Attacks studied combat (+3, 4 rounds), studied strike +2d6
Investigator (Empiricist) Extracts Prepared (CL 7th; concentration +11)
. . 3rd—displacement, heroism
. . 2nd—fire breath[APG] (DC 16), fire breath[APG] (DC 16), invisibility, invisibility
. . 1st—disguise self, expeditious retreat, long arm[ACG], monkey fish[ACG], reduce person (DC 15)
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Statistics
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Str 12, Dex 17, Con 16, Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 10
Base Atk +5; CMB +6; CMD 19
Feats - Custom Feat -, Two-weapon Fighting, Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +11, Craft (alchemy) +14 (+21 to create alchemical items), Diplomacy +9 (+13 to gather information (You can use your Intelligence Modifier instead of Charisma)), Disable Device +23, Disguise +4, Escape Artist +12, Heal +6, Knowledge (arcana) +8, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +13, Knowledge (engineering) +13, Knowledge (geography) +9, Knowledge (history) +10, Knowledge (local) +13, Knowledge (nature) +13, Knowledge (nobility) +9, Knowledge (planes) +9, Knowledge (religion) +8, Linguistics +8, Perception +21, Profession (sailor) +6, Sense Motive +8, Spellcraft +8, Stealth +14, Survival +5, Use Magic Device +8; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception, +2 Stealth, +2 Survival
Languages Aklo, Catfolk, Common, Elven, Gnome, Halfling, Sylvan
SQ alchemy (alchemy crafting +7), cat's luck, ceaseless observation, inspiration (7/day), investigator talents (expanded inspiration[ACG], trap spotter), keen recollection, sprinter, trapfinding +3
Other Gear +1 mithral breastplate, +1 dagger, +1 rapier, belt of mighty constitution +2, boots of elvenkind, eyes of the eagle, gloves of reconnaissance[UE], goggles of minute seeing, ring of resistance +2, investigator starting formula book, magic +1 thieve's tools, masterwork thieves' tools, 478 pp, 8 gp
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Special Abilities
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Alchemy +7 (Su) +7 to Craft (Alchemy) to create alchemical items, can Id potions by touch.
Cat's Luck (1/day) (Ex) Can roll 2d20 for a Reflex save and take better result.
Ceaseless Observation (Ex) Use INT instead of CHA for gather information (+4)
Expanded Inspiration (Ex) Free Inspiration on Diplomacy, Heal, Perception, Profession, Sense Motive (if trained).
Inspiration (+1d6, 7/day) (Ex) Use 1 point, +1d6 to trained skill or ability check. Use 2 points, to add to attack or save.
Keen Recollection At 3rd level, an investigator can attempt all Knowledge skill checks untrained.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in dim light, distinguishing color and detail.
Sprinter (Ex) +10 ft to speed when charge, run, or withdraw.
Studied Combat (+3, 4 rounds) (Ex) As a move action, study foe to gain bonus to att & dam for duration or until use studied strike.
Studied Strike +2d6 (Ex) As a free action on a melee hit, end studied combat vs. foe to add precision dam.
Trap Sense +2 (Ex) +2 bonus on reflex saves and AC against traps.
Trap Spotter (Ex) Whenever you come within 10' of a trap, the GM secretly rolls for you to find it.
Trapfinding +3 Gain a bonus to find or disable traps, including magical ones.
Unfailing Logic +2 (Ex) +2 save vs. illusion and disbelievable effects
Race modified
Lost sprinter
Gained scent
Gained +2 to disable device
His perception is pretty good. If he he is consistently failing to spot enemies with those numbers it probably means that the GM is determined to have ambushes, and upping perception higher would just be a red queen's race.
Personally, I don't think scouting ahead of a group (more than a move away anyway) is a very viable tactic as it is a rare character who can survive (even to run) a challenge for a full party when things screw up, which can happen no matter how good your numbers are. I'd keep the party together.
One thing that can mitigate an ambush is the lookout teamwork feat, if you all are waiting on your 7th level feats that could be a viable option. Dipping to act in the surprise round is not a bad option either, a 1 level dip into diviner wizard wouldn't hurt to badly for other progression (and a familiar for alertness).
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His perception is pretty good. If he he is consistently failing to spot enemies with those numbers it probably means that the GM is determined to have ambushes, and upping perception higher would just be a red queen's race.
Agreed: If a 'take 10' of 31 (33 with Heroism) PLUS a free 1d6 inspiration isn't enough to avoid being surprised at level 7 (at least most of the time), then this is a race you just aren't going to win...
Sorry, probably didn't explain well enough.
If we stay together and he is at the back of the group, he sees them but not soon enough to give us a reasonable warning.
If he is only 1 move ahead of the group, he can just run back to the group yelling ambush (because he has to assume they saw him). So maybe no surprise round, but also no time to avoid, prep, or learn anything about the opposition.
If he is far enough ahead of the group to sneak up on the enemy without them hearing the rest of the group, at least one of them will usually will roll well enough to see him. Then he has tripped the ambush by himself.
What he is wanting to do is actually scout. Sneak forward find out there are around half a dozen opponents. Looks like a necromancer on a nightmare with a skeletal champion, and several bloody ogre skeletons. Then we could choose to avoid or actually make plans and prep for the fight.
I've seen characters with a +30 to stealth at approx our level, but I never really looked at the build to see how they did it. I do remember them mentioning several stacking cheap magic items that all gave small bonuses to stealth. The opposition usually could never beat their stealth score. Even the leaders usually had to roll a 19 or 20. Made it a much more viable tactic.
He needs to find 2 things:
1) A better way to conceal his presence, like invisibility combined with stealth.
2) Better senses, if he could gain tremorsense or lifesense or something like that which automatically told you if something was there it would help.
And the alternative option is finding some method to project your consciousness so that even you trip an ambush they only defeat a meaningless shell.
I don't have answers for how to mechanically do that right now, but those are the things you should focus on.
Trying to raise your stealth or perception modifiers will probably only result in the GM saying "Yeah, they totally rolled that well".
An invisibility extract will give him a +20 to stealth while moving, +40 when stationary. If someone else can cast silence on him, that will further increase his stealth chance.
If things are still spotting him at that point, your DM wants you to be ambushed.
I observe that your scout has Eyes of the Eagle, to provide +5 Perception. But not a Cloak of Elvenkind to provide a +5 competence bonus to Stealth. As the character has no Cloak, you can spend 2,500 GP to acquire one.
If the GM is determined to ambush you all the time, then the +5 won't help much... the character might be better off spending 4,000 to just get a +2 Cloak of Resistance to buff his saving throws.
Can anyone in your group get a familiar or animal companion of a common avian type? Or even a trained bird (animal handling required)? Send it forward instead; if the ambushers are actually shooting every crow/hawk/sparrow they see they are going to run out of ammo pretty quick, and be surrounded by mounds of dead birds. (Maybe a one level dip into a compatible class with a familiar?)
I want to correct a mistaken impression I am seeing.
Our GM isn’t fudging dice to kill us. He usually rolls in the open. He isn’t going to just say, oh it rolled a 19 again no matter what the die shows. He isn’t like that. He is well open to good plans and effective tactics by the PC’s. (I will admit however, he does like to build challenging encounters and sometimes they are accidentally more challenging than he expected.)
Also, he has intelligent enemies behave intelligently. If the guards hear our group including Sir-Clanks-Alot clomping down the hall. (Our cleric especially has iirc a -6 penalty to stealth.) They might climb onto the ceiling over the door, drink a potion of resist fire, cast haste, submerge in the water, etc… It makes sense and that is what intelligent enemies should be doing. I have no problem with this kind of thing.
I do the same thing when I am the GM.
When the encounters have 8+ creatures with pretty decent perception (often a couple have really good perception), they need to roll 2 or 3 times while he (and the rest of our group) is approaching, that is going to lead to perceptions in the high 20’s or low 30’s in around 2 out of 3 encounters. He needs to get his stealth significantly higher for take 10 to be fairly reliably safe.
I did have some time to look through the items a little bit and found the following.
Mundane Robe
Catburglar Boots probably better for scouting than Boots of Elvenkind
Ioun Gauntlet and rhomboid Ioun Stone
Stalkers Mask
Cloak of Elvenkind
Stonemist Cloak
Elixer of Hiding
Shadow enhancement on armor
I observe that your scout has Eyes of the Eagle, to provide +5 Perception. But not a Cloak of Elvenkind to provide a +5 competence bonus to Stealth. As the character has no Cloak, you can spend 2,500 GP to acquire one. ...
Most of our magic so far has been spoils of combat. Just now getting to places where we can sell and buy for choice gear. On the plus side, we are well above wealth by level. On the minus side, our gear isn't ideal.
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Can anyone in your group get a familiar or animal companion of a common avian type? Or even a trained bird (animal handling required)? Send it forward instead; if the ambushers are actually shooting every crow/hawk/sparrow they see they are going to run out of ammo pretty quick, and be surrounded by mounds of dead birds. (Maybe a one level dip into a compatible class with a familiar?)
Well. My character rides I giant wasp. Not exactly inconspicuous. The magus could get a familiar. But if he did it would be a mauler to help him fight. I don't know that a trained normal bird could actually tell us very much.
He doesn't like to multiclass, but I will suggest a 1 level dip into wizard to get a familiar. With boon companion, it could be a pretty decent scout.
A Silence spell goes a long way to stop Sir-Clanks-a-Lot from giving you all away, but it's a 2nd level Clerical spell. Which means it's hard to keep going all the time. And a bird in a dungeon is going to stick out as badly as a bat in the daylight. Hmmm.
An invisibility extract will give him a +20 to stealth while moving, +40 when stationary. If someone else can cast silence on him, that will further increase his stealth chance.
If things are still spotting him at that point, your DM wants you to be ambushed.
Invisibility doesn't actually last long enough for scouting unless you already know there is someone just ahead. Though he has used some potions of invisibility we found, when we were aware there was something up ahead.
Plus a wierd quirk of the rules, invisibility can actually be a hindrance. With a DC 20 perception, you can tell there is something invisible in the area even if you can't see it. And even if your perception was not high enough to detect it without invisibility.
So if mister sneaky has a stealth of 37 with invisibility it is a 57.
Guard rolls a perception of 23 he knows there is an invisible something in the area. So the guard is more aware there is something going on than if mister sneaky did not have invisibility.
Ha! I was just thinking a slug familiar would probably be gross. But I doubt it would put anyone on alert even if they did see it.