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What are the best ways for my Polearm Master fighter to protect himself against spells? (without multi-classing please)
He just seems to fail against every spell thrown at him, even fortitude-based ones, which are by far the best saves he's got. He's always expected to be in the front line so he gets a lot of attention from spellcasters and spends most of the time debilitated or unconscious. How can I minimize the effects of spells cast against him, both damaging and debilitating? I want to get him to the point where he can fairly reliably shrug off any magic that comes his way, though I understand that might be a stretch.
His Saves, using rolled ability scores:
Fortitude: 13 (14 con + belt of physical might +4)
Reflex: 5 (13 Dex)
Will: 3 (9 Wis)
Currently 14th level, with no helpful magic items except the belt, but we've just liberated a lot of gold from pirates and we're probably just one session away from gaining another feat.why EVERY fighter i see tank wisdom ?
i played a half elf (race trait +2 will and another +2 enchantments) .
with wisdom 14 (+2) and a trait (+1).
took iron will )+2) and gained a decent will save....base of lvl, +2 cloak only . base+9 (+11 vs enchantments) isnt bad
This is exactly what my fighter did. I also can use wand of protection from evil and a few other tricks.
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An out of the box option is have someone in your party cast dominate person on you. Now if you get charmed or controlled theses rules take over.
Multiple Mental Control Effects
Sometimes magical effects that establish mental control render each other irrelevant, such as spells that remove the subject’s ability to act. Mental controls that don’t remove the recipient’s ability to act usually do not interfere with each other. If a creature is under the mental control of two or more creatures, it tends to obey each to the best of its ability, and to the extent of the control each effect allows. If the controlled creature receives conflicting orders simultaneously, the competing controllers must make opposed Charisma checks to determine which one the creature obeys.
I have a sorcerer that does it to fighters and barbarian regularly.
A skillfully-worded geas would also work, if your fighter is trusting enough.
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Your GM sounds like the problem. First, never, EVER roll stats. I've never seen that work out well; there's always the one guy who doesn't roll under a 16 and the other guy who doesn't roll over a 12.
Second, it sounds like he or she is not providing you the items you need to be successful.
I like rolling stats.
That's cool, I assume you've had better experiences with it than I have.
There are and our group uses them and we have a blast with our non sucky stats.There are no balanced stat rolling generation methods. You only roll stats once, whereas you roll dice that are modified by these stats (attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, etc) many times.Your GM sounds like the problem. First, never, EVER roll stats. I've never seen that work out well; there's always the one guy who doesn't roll under a 16 and the other guy who doesn't roll over a 12. Second, it sounds like he or she is not providing you the items you need to be successful.You just need to not have bad stat rolling generation methods.
"You just need Pantone 448C unicorns." ... "But there are no Pantone 448C unicorns." ... "Yes there are, and they're a blast!"
~ ~ ~
If " balanced stat rolling generation" actually existed, it would be indistinguishable from point-buy. To the extent that two identical builds from different players add up to a different number of points, they are not relatively balanced.
If both rolled characters give their players fun, then it is balanced.
/cevah
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Saying that point buys are fair is like saying that giving the Rock and a horse jokey the same diet is fair. Int based casters can get away with a single stat monks 3 or more stats. Who looks better on 15 point buy, 20 point buy, 25 point buy? Until you get to super generous rolling methods or point buys none are fair.
Very generous rolling methods have fairly low variation. A high likelihood of rolling 14-16 but leave getting an 18 as a rare occurrence. This means they actually give a higher beifit to MAD classes and allow wizards to have fairly balanced stat blocks leaving the 20 starting stat after facials reasonably rare.
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Balanced in the sense of you wont cripple your self for choosing to roll not in the sense of every one is equal. There are difference types of balance in any given game system.
o_0
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
Your GM sounds like the problem. First, never, EVER roll stats. I've never seen that work out well; there's always the one guy who doesn't roll under a 16 and the other guy who doesn't roll over a 12.
About describes one of my current campaigns.
Fortunately I was the one with hot dice when the DM made us roll. All high mental stats on a wizard, plus good STR and DEX.
Unfortunately, my lowest roll was on CON. Had to burn my first stat increase to bump it up to barely acceptable.
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Stuff I saidIsn't this a case of the tail wagging the dog? In a point buy system you know what you get coming in. If you chose to play a class that needs several stats to be high that is an informed choice by the player, not a punishment.
I did not say that the information was unavailable to the player. The question is, 'is that the appropriate definition of fair?'. The adoption of design elements is a choice made by gms and players. A gm could say this is a game will be all low-will humanoids that game would be more suited to enhancement based characters. One definition of fair says 'you know what you are getting into so play a class that is good, bad or go home. The other version of fair is the gm designs a game that allows each player to experience the types of fun they want. The latter sounds better to me and is I believe more in line with the GM Guide.
Despite the best-laid plans and most intricate plots, if the game isn’t fun and engaging, it isn’t worth the effort. It’s the Game Master’s job to do whatever’s necessary to keep the players’ energy and interest up...
Your fundamental job as Game Master is to provide
entertainment, challenge, and above all, balance.
With a random dice roll, you really could have a party with the Rock and a horse jockey in it. As in you can have someone that is 100% superior to another party member that doesn't stand out in any way. How is that fair? Or is your 'generous' rolling method so generous that such a situation isn't possible? At that point, is it even rolling?
I have looked at the distribution of several ability-score rolled methods the point I was making is when you choose the correct method, you can create very high probabilities good intermediate scores while leaving 18s reasonable rare. You are looking for a slat left distribution or a narrow normal distribution around 14-16
There are also hybrid options roll stats more 3 points from on score to and others that also work well but still produce a distribution. The point of rolling is that normal or near-normal distribution produce different sets of scores that point buys.
These methods provide probabilistically likely outcomes that balance a common complaint of many gms and players that classes stat dependences makes some classes more viable than others.
And if you don't roll the stats needed for your 'ideal' Monk/Warpriest/Gunslinger/swashbuckler/slayer/magus build what do you do? Roll it up again until you get something good enough? How is that not cheating? At the very least, its disappointing for everyone aware of the situation. If you are 'stuck' with a point buy system at least you'd know what you can and can't do and no amount of remaking the character is going to mysteriously change your base stats.
Again I can only recommend that you look at the distribution of some of these methods and see how rare the situation is. But, if I use your own rhetorical definition of fair the players knew the possibility going into the game, they did not have to play that class, they can change classes than it is still fair.
Finally, because dice rolling is a question of likelihood let's think about it this way. I want to play a monk. The generous rolling method gives me ~50% chance of a 14-16 on any score, but only 6.2% chance of and 18. This will create classes with many mid-level scores nearly every player will get one 16 to add a racial bonus to and decent but not guaranteed the chance of getting an 18 (to get to a final score of 20).
Distributions cannot be achieved by point buy methods. That is the major difference between the two. The only way to limit a point buy is by a hard caps, which players may also feel as unfair. I see house rules on forums all the time saying no 20s and no dumping below blank so this is a concern for some people.
Manipulating distribution and using probabilities is a way to address 2 common complaints that people have MADness and min-maxing. Though there is some randomness the effects of this can be minimized with some understanding of distributions.
TLDR: Fair is subjective. Distributions are more complex to understand but can be made very predictable. It is mathematically true that you can use these on average to help overcome madness and balance classes. Rolling is a tool with applications and can be employed as such.
*disclaimer I use point buys in all my games because it gives players a greater sense of agency in the design of their characters, I wrote this because It seems that people don't know what the benefits of rolling and seem to not know that they can be tuned for a very high likely hood of success.
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Finally, because dice rolling is a question of likelihood let's think about it this way. [...] Distributions cannot be achieved by point buy methods.
Talking about likelihood and distributions makes sense over many instances of rolls. However stats are rolled literally once and their results apply to the whole duration of a game, which can last years. Talking about likelihood and probabilities makes no sense in such contexts, as it doesn't make sense to give characters disparities (player 1 rolls an equivalent PB of 32, player 2 rolls a PB 13) for no in-game reason and even before the actual game has even started.
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You don't roll once you roll 6 or 7 times and are rolling pools of dice. So probability does matter. Probability and distribution also matter immensely when you are talking about 'generous methods' as the 13 point buy is a virtual impossibility or a strict impossibility depending on the method. If you roll 6 ones seven times the GM will have to make an decission about rerolling. I'm happy to admit that is a drawback of a method that has the beifts I have out lined. Until it comes up I would not worry about it. The hypothetical horrible set of rolls is acceptionally rare with some methods. There is also a contingent of people for whom the randomness is an inherent and fun part of the game. I guess technically that's everybody but each person has different thresholds.
I play with dorks if I said you can reroll in the lower quartile or outside the 95% confidence interval I think they would be fine with it.
Pick a generous method, with high left slant and see how rare the situation you are describing comes up. Point buys are great but favor some characters over others rolling can address common issues that many players and gms have in pathfinder but in rare instances may involve gm fiat. Both methods have drawbacks. I'm happy knowing the strengths, weaknesses and limitations of each and use the appropriate tool to address players concerns.
Many gm say you can take average +1 hp. Some say you have to roll, other let you pick. These are all viable and used in fun games. It's not unreasonable to have a situation where you let people pick or as if you roll below X you can opt into a point buy. I don't think both have streets and weaknesses is as radical a position as it seems to be.
Point buys are great but favor some characters over others
A fighter could have 18s in every stat, and he'll still be Tier 5 while a wizard with one 14 and five 10s remains Tier 1.
And we've hit the "tier" phase of the thread. Hopefully OP has the advice they wanted.
And we've hit the "tier" phase of the thread. Hopefully OP has the advice they wanted.
The OP hasn't replied in this thread for almost 2 weeks ;-)