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My party and I are playing in the Iron Gods adventure path. No spoilers on that please, btw.
We got a letter from a local blacksmith that, for retrieving the body of his daughter's betrothed, he would forge us all masterwork items for free.
I'm the person with the most experience building characters. Which feels kind of odd, because I'm usually the thespian of the group. My character is a monk and the rest of the party is a skald, a sorcerer and an investigator.
The skald has approached my monk character to help him pick a good weapon. The person playing the skald is used to playing 5E and the amount of choice is kind of overwhelming him. I promised to help him out.
Right now, I'm definitely the most effective party member, as long as I have mage armor cast upon me. If the party sets me up, I destroy the encounters. Either that or I go down on the first strike. Oh, the curse of the low levels, right?
So I'm with a conundrum. The skald has a chain of coats, a warhammer and a buckler. I have weapons, but I use them very situationally. The skald trusts in my character's ability to advise him. So we're going to optimize a bit.
Additionally, I posed him this question; "do you want to last one round longer to fight enemies off of your sorcerer brother or do you want to kill more enemies before you hypothetically go down?" He said he wants to last one more round.
What masterwork armor or weapon should I recommend him first? And should I give him a second masterwork item instead of taking one myself?
When I say "let him give you a masterwork cylinder rifle, sell it for 3150, and buy gear for both of you", that's not actually helpful, right?
More seriously, by second level, you should have a masterwork weapon and armor, anyway.
To make the best decision, we would need to know a bit more about both your characters, but really, in two or three more levels, you should get your first magic weapon and armor, so you probably don't need to fret it too much.
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To make the best decision, we would need to know a bit more about both your characters, but really, in two or three more levels, you should get your first magic weapon and armor, so you probably don't need to fret it too much.
We'll have to survive to even get there. This is a pretty lethal AP and our characters are pretty low on coin, so we need to make this serious consideration. Because we don't have masterwork equipment yet, we're getting our asses handed to us, which is why I'm looking for some help with this.
What do you need to know exactly? What is it going to depend on? The skald has a strength that's I believe about 14 and my monk have a strength of 18.
The thing is, masterwork equipment doesn't change much. Mwk armor/shield does just about nothing in combat (only lowers the armor check penalty, which is irrelevant in most combats), whie mwk weapons provide a mere +1 on attack rolls, something nice but not exactly a game-changer.
When in doubt, round out your characters. The Skald should really be wearing a breastplate unless his dex mod is higher than +3 (which is why I asked about the characters). Otherwise, this is basically +2 AC he could have for free.
First, what level are you? Still first level?
Second, what weapon does the Investigator use? A longspear might be better, as the reach allows a bonus attack against anyone approaching them or passing by closely. Warhammer is OK a weapon for a Skald, (although longsword or gandasa would be mechanically better unless the blunt damage is beneficial in that campaign), as is the buckler.
Third, are you using core Monk or the unchained version? In any way, you should be using a weapon unless you have already invested feats into unarmed. Temple sword for cMonk, unMonk should use double-chained kama/kusarigama for reach, or sansetsukon/seven-branched sword if you have some issues with reach weapons.
I kinda presume the Sorcerer is using inefficient spells, but there's really nothing to do until he reaches the next level. Plus, I'm not sure what enemies you're facing. I hear Iron Gods is heavy on constructs, so the usual powerhouses Sleep and Color Spray would lose value, although I can't say if that's true for early levels.
A lot depends on your Skald's fighting style.
It seems like they are thinking of more defense than offense, which sounds like my PFS Skald who uses a one hand weapon and shield right now. It's not the most optimized for damage output, but does okay, and I use Arcane Strike to add a bit of damage for the cost of a swift action most rounds.
If he wants to keep that play style, I'd suggest, as gold allows:
-Masterwork Breastplate or Agile Breastplate. (350 or 550 gold)
-Darkwood Shield (About 257 gold)
This is masterwork Wooden heavy shield with 0 ACP, and half the weight of a normal wooden shield, it's a Core Rulebook so should not bother any GM even at lowest levels.
-Masterwork Weapon (300 gold + the base weapon cost)
What specific weapon they chose is a matter of personal preference/ character style. I'd stick with a Martial weapon over a simple one as they generally preform better. There's been a lot of back and forth on the forums about best weapons, and the rough consensus I've seen is the higher the crit range, the more damage they'll do overall (so an 18-20/x2 --> 19-20/x2 --> 20/ x3)
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First, what level are you? Still first level?
Oh, sorry, I thought I had posted this already. We're second level.
Second, what weapon does the Investigator use? A longspear might be better, as the reach allows a bonus attack against anyone approaching them or passing by closely.
The investigator has been using their sword-cane thus far. The investigator has been using his skills mostly and he's not been getting a lot of hits in combat, unfortunately. I'll leave that to the player to think about.
Third, are you using core Monk or the unchained version? In any way, you should be using a weapon unless you have already invested feats into unarmed.
I play unchained scaled fist monk with dragon style and weapon focus (unarmed). I do have a double-chained kama as a backup, but we've been fighting in a lot of caves, so most of the time, I don't even have the opportunity to use it.
I kinda presume the Sorcerer is using inefficient spells, but there's really nothing to do until he reaches the next level. Plus, I'm not sure what enemies you're facing.
We have faced a couple constructs, but not many. The enemies have run the gamot, really. When we face constructs, though, electricity-based attacks have been pretty good.
A lot depends on your Skald's fighting style.
It seems like they are thinking of more defense than offense, which sounds like my PFS Skald who uses a one hand weapon and shield right now. It's not the most optimized for damage output, but does okay, and I use Arcane Strike to add a bit of damage for the cost of a swift action most rounds.
If he wants to keep that play style, I'd suggest, as gold allows:
-Masterwork Breastplate or Agile Breastplate. (350 or 550 gold)
-Darkwood Shield (About 257 gold)
This is masterwork Wooden heavy shield with 0 ACP, and half the weight of a normal wooden shield, it's a Core Rulebook so should not bother any GM even at lowest levels.-Masterwork Weapon (300 gold + the base weapon cost)
What specific weapon they chose is a matter of personal preference/ character style. I'd stick with a Martial weapon over a simple one as they generally preform better. There's been a lot of back and forth on the forums about best weapons, and the rough consensus I've seen is the higher the crit range, the more damage they'll do overall (so an 18-20/x2 --> 19-20/x2 --> 20/ x3)
Alright, those are solid recommendations, thank you. That narrows things down a bit.
I play unchained scaled fist monk with dragon style and weapon focus (unarmed). I do have a double-chained kama as a backup, but we've been fighting in a lot of caves, so most of the time, I don't even have the opportunity to use it.
Ah, good. You'll want to get handwraps soon, then. With adamantine inlays ASAP, I'd say.
-Masterwork Breastplate or Agile Breastplate. (350 or 550 gold)
-Darkwood Shield (About 257 gold)
-Masterwork Weapon (300 gold + the base weapon cost)
Approved. The shield could potentially also be a quickdraw shield.
rough consensus I've seen is the higher the crit range, the more damage they'll do overall
Mathematically, a 19-20/x2 and a 20/x3 weapon do the exact same average damage. In practise, some of the damage of an x3 crit (or, worse, even x4 crit) will be overkill (more damage than the target has HP remaining), and thus wasted. Hence my suggestion of longsword.Presuming every potential crit is a hit - if you need an 19 to hit, a 17-20 weapon obviously looses value. (The gandasa has half a point of average damage more (5 vs. 4.5).)
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In the event that your Skald wants a fighting style that's strong on defense then any polearm seems the obvious choice. A STR14 reach screen provides far more defense, on average, than a shield. AC is one worse but the option to trip or whack foes during GM movement is worth a lot more than 1 AC and usually provides far more defensive value. Also stronger offense than any 1 handed weapon.