Great creativity focusing on avoiding huge parts of the Lich's portfolio, though... a few more levels might throw the fight in your favor. I admire your moxy approaching a Lich single-handedly at level 4... well played.
Looking it over I think when you change into a birdy you lose the construct traits which causes the whole build to fall apart. The polymorph rules state you lose all extraordinary and supernatural abilities tied to your original form. Construct Traits are definitely tied to your original form.
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That's an interesting take. What features of your creature type do you think you're at risk of losing during polymorph?
I don't think polymorph effects impact type or type based benefits. A construct isn't going to suddenly gain a constitution score or need to start eating anymore than it's going to become a real boy and become subject to negative energy damage.
The lich would have trouble with the initial grapple needing a 16, but yeah once the pin is locked in the birdy is in trouble.
Size bonuses are inverted for CMD though, so that +2 bonus turns into a -2 penalty. It's when you first become grappled that things start looking bad as the Lich gets an effective +7 to their grapple checks after that. I guess if they have some twine (or cobweb?) they can tie you up and start casting Scorching Ray, otherwise it would need to keep doing 1d3 damage checks or throw you out of the room.
I'm also not sure the ring turns you into a real raven rather than a magical beast using a ravens statistics, you don't gain the creatures type, you just use forms permitted by the spell.
If it helps convince you, the Songbird of Doom build applies just a +4 bonus. A spellcaster that uses Beast Shape IV to turn into a dog would still only get a +2 dex bonus. The scaling is weird like that.
The wall of ice doesn't do damage if you do the hemisphere trap.
I think the room might be small enough for the Lich to either split the room in two with the ice plane, or they can retreat to a corner and box themselves in. And then you'd have to choose between losing the Shield spell duration or taking the damage.
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Regarding polymorph and creature type benefits... I'll throw my hat in the "types are unaffected" corner.
Since the substance of your body actually changes when using a polymorph spell I think you do gain the type. Otherwise a character using elemental body to change into an elemental would remain flesh and blood. So when the Wyrwood changes into a song bird they are no longer made of wood, they are made of flesh and blood. If they did not how are they able to fly? Wood does not have the same weight and flexibility of flesh and feathers.
Even if you don’t gain the type the reason you gain the construct traits is because you are made out of wood. When you change into a song bird you are no longer made out of wood, you are flesh and blood. Why would you lose darkvision and not construct traits?
You do remain flesh and blood when casting elemental body. Notice that elemental body 3 is when you gain crit immunity, not elemental body 1.
The point is that Construct Traits are physical abilities tied to your form. Even if you don’t gain immunity to critical hits with elemental body 1, you do with elemental body 3.
The real question is why you would retain construct traits , but not darkvision or lowlight vision?
The point is that Construct Traits are physical abilities tied to your form. Even if you don’t gain immunity to critical hits with elemental body 1, you do with elemental body 3.
The real question is why you would retain construct traits , but not darkvision or lowlight vision?
The specifics are left up to the DM. I'd have them lose things that depend on physical features like eyes, ears, mouth, nose, etc. I wouldn't change their basic mechanism for life, grant them a soul, make them delicious, and so on and so forth.
If a DM said they didn't lose anything granted by their creature type, I wouldn't complain. If a DM said it granted the new creature type I'd have to reevaluate much of the early access game. Potions of undead anatomy and a wand of alchemical allocation would be pretty important low level adventuring tools. It'd be a cool change, but really complicated.
@Lelomenia
Disregarding the Initiative coin toss, relying on the Talisman will probably just result in a double knockout. As the paralysis is permanent you'd starve to death or get killed by another dungeon inhabitant when the 3 round effect wears off. If you can afford the feat I think Snake Style would be worth it here.
Also, you can use your 2d6 Bite attack instead of the 1d4 Unarmed Strike to deal damage as both deal bludgeoning.
Does destroying a lich's phylactery automatically kill it? Or do you still have to kill it seperately? If it's the first, I would find the phylactery and shatter it before the lich can get to me.Not exactly sure on the answer to this.
The Phylactery of Jadis-Vel whispers in your ear, teaching you how to become a Lich. When you complete the ritual, Jadis-Vel returns to unlife as a Lich in your body... but she needs to build a new phylactery to become immortal, again.
So, it appears a Lich is capable of making a new phylactery...
since it's been brought up previously as justification for a ruling; in Pathfinder Kingmaker, one of the tooltips notes that a lich can only be permanently destroyed once its phylactery is as well, but destroying the phylactery does not destroy the lich, it is only an necessary step to doing so
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Paladin 3 / Urban Blood Conduit Bloodrager 1
Ability Scores, 20 PB:
18 Str, 12 Dex, 13 Con, 10 Int, 6 Wis, 17+1 Cha
4th in Cha
Alternate Racial Traits:
Wildfire Heart
Mostly Human
Character Traits:
Bred for War (+1 to CMB)
Hermean Paragon (+2 Initiative)
Feats and Levels
Holy Guide Paladin 3
1 Improved Initiative, Smite Evil
2 Lay on Hands, Divine Grace
3 Celestial Obedience (Falayna), Aura of Courage, Favored Terrain +2
Bloodrager 1
4 Improved Grapple (B), Bloodline Familiar (King Crab, Valet), Controlled Bloodrage
Gear
Bag of Holding I (2,500)
Cracked Opalescent White Pyramid (1,500)
Armbands of the Brawler (500)
MWK Crook (301)
Wand of Bouncy Body (750)
lv 4 wealth: 449/6000
Combat statistics (Raging)
Initiative:
4 (Wildfire Heart) +4 (Feat) +2 (Favored Terrain) +2 (Trait) +1 (Dex)
= +13
Grapple CMB:
+6 (Str) +4 (BAB) +4 (Cha) +4 (Falayna) +2 (Feat) +2 (Familiar) +2 (Bouncy Body) +1 (Trait) +1 (Weapon) +1 (Armbands of the Brawler)
= +27
CMD:
10 +6 (Str) +4 (BAB) +4 (Cha) +4 (Falayna) +1 (Dex)
= 29
***
For this build we're using a Crook. One of the more weird exotic weapons that's described as a "common herder's tool". Apparently it requires exotic proficiency to draw out the hidden potential of a wooden pole worth 1 gp.
But it does let us grapple at range with reach, and unlike the Mancatcher or weapons with the Grapple property you're not limited to just the grapple/move actions when maintaining. So it would be possible to pin with a Crook. Not what we're going for at the moment but something worth remembering.
Our royal familiar warns us that this looks suspiciously like a boss room. We use our wand of Bouncy Body to raise our spirits.
First round:
+13 vs +2 Initiative gives us a 91% chance of going first. We're able to grapple anything within 40 ft, where I'm assuming the Lich will be. We smite, we rage, we move, and we grapple. Unless we roll a natural 1 it's done. The fear aura has no effect on someone too foolish to fear the CR 12 creature so we ignore it.
It does affect our familiar though, but our familiar loathes violence so it keeps it eyes shut and won't have to make the saving throw.
While grappled (at range), the Lich can't reach us with the Paralyzing Touch so it can either cast a spell or attempt a grapple check to escape. Casting spells requires a concentration check of 37+spell level, which is impossible for anything but cantrips. But the Lich doesn't know that so it will most likely waste the first round.
Second round:
Our familiar drops an opened Bag of Holding on the ground, and readies an action to (open its eyes and) use its Open/Close SLA on it. We go for a maintain grapple check to move the Lich into the bag. This gives the Lich a free escape attempt with a +4 bonus, which still only succeeds on a natural 20. When the Lich falls in, the readied action goes off and that's it.
All in all, there's a 78% chance that everything goes as it should and the Lich is defeated by a lv 4 character.
I don't think the crook lets you grapple at range, it just lets you ignore the negatives for grappling without 2 hands free, and you can't close your eyes and ignore fear auras, crab would be panicked but all that means is he drops what he's holding and runs, which is probably fine.
It does sound funny.
The trade initiative teamwork feat could be better than imp initiative since you already have the valet familiar to make it work.
and you can't close your eyes and ignore fear auras,
That's the dumb part, it's actually 100% true!
Creatures of less than 5 HD in a 60-foot radius that look at a lich must succeed on a Will save or become frightened.
Regarding grapple at range, I do think that's how the Crook is meant to work since you stop threatening the enemy if you pull them adjacent and the description says "creature you threaten".
I could use a Mancatcher which explicitly is a grapple made with a reach weapon, but that's another 5% chance of failure since it needs a touch attack before the grapple check.
Oh cool, I assumed it worked like every other fear aura entry but it's not at all. Fear instead of panic, and only when you look at them isn't that hard to get around. Well spotted. I wonder if you can use gaze aversion options to get around it.
The crook I'm not so sure about. It doesn't say it changes anything else about the grapple other than avoiding the -4 penalty so you would need to move them adjacent to you as normal even if it clearly allowed grappling at range. Even TK grapple seems to zip people through the air to land adjacent to you without houseruling otherwise. The mancatcher also lacks any specific way to avoid moving them next to you. As written it would be up to the player to figure out how to threaten with his hands full of reach weapon through kicks, bites, and so on. I prefer your version, but I'm not sure it's correct.
That's pretty close though, he has a very narrow chance of winning if you keep reach with the weapon and he loses initiative. If you keep reach with reach weapons when grappling, does that apply to natural weapons with reach? That would open up a leshy warden "green man" grappler as a viable option.
I prefer your version, but I'm not sure it's correct.
Strict RAW I'm wrong, but there's a bunch of circumstantial evidence that points towards the conclusion I'm adhering to.
1) We do not have to be adjacent to the creature to continue the grapple. If we go with the normal grapple rules, there is actually no way for this scenario to happen unless the enemy isn't actually pulled adjacent. Even the move option specifically states adjacent squares.
2) This sentence clarifies that you're actually using the weapon's reach so having a creature adjacent with a Mancatcher would break the grapple.
I think the intent is that the enemy is stuck in the original square that you grappled them in, and that you were actually supposed to be able to move while grappling them.
If you keep reach with reach weapons when grappling, does that apply to natural weapons with reach? That would open up a leshy warden "green man" grappler as a viable option.
Well, normal grapple checks still follow the normal grapple rules. And there's a difference between having reach and using a "reach weapons". But I do think you could grapple with vines and not have adjacent enemies if you used Weapon Shift with a reach weapon.