Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
I've been having some difficulty wrapping my head around the Exemplar class and coming up with character concepts for it. There's a lot of moving parts, as it were. Can anyone please share a few examples of interesting builds using the base class?
It's my hope that a list of cohesive builds might allow me to better grasp some of the things the class is capable of doing.
Any and all help is most appreciated.
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Meet Orgut, an elderly alchemist (by trade) in a remote village in Golarion.
While on his morning trip to the nearby mountain to harvest components to resupply his humble shop, he spotted a flower he had never seen before. Almost magically captivating his attention, Orgut became entranced with the beautiful, vibrant, blood-red petals.
He quickly unsheathed his dagger and harvested it, putting it in his materials satchel, and rushed back home to study it.
Sitting crouched over the workbench, cutting the flower into pieces, he didn't have time to react as the flower disintegrated into dust which, almost as if it had a will of its own, swirled into the air and flew in his mouth.
When he woke up, his bones weren't aching any more, in fact it was the opposite. His body fully rejuvenated had regained its youthful spring and vigor. Inside him rested a spark of life that he had never felt before, obeying his thoughts. As his perception widened, he found that as he had partake the divine essence of the flower, he shared this connection with the other items that had bathed into this essence as well, the knife that cut it, the sheath that was smeared with the juices when he put the knife in, and the satchel that carried it home. Each of the three items ready to host the spark the same way as he was right now.
Orgut is a human Exemplar with Alchemist dedication that really likes if the table has FA but can still function without (albeit with some concessions).
His ikons are the horn of plenty (satchel), his throwing knife Gleaming Blade, and his shadow sheath.
He puts his advanced alchemy creations in the satchel alongside the couple of potions he can make. Mostly healing and temporary hp items to keep himself and his team healthy, although he may have a couple of quicksilvers and camouflage dyes for himself. After level 8 he'll also have a couple of Potions of Quickness.
Being old and someone that used to care for a whole village he has seen his fair share of beloved people dying, often being unable to help them. Now that he's stronger, he feels that the weight of the world falls to his shoulders to carry to shield those weaker than him. So his first Epithet will be Mournful, inflicting Dazed to enemies to help protect his allies.
Usually he likes to have his spark go back and forth from his sheath to his blade, switching to the satchel when he needs to heal/support.
He's comfortable in both melee and ranged, melee being easier to apply off guard but ranged often saving actions moving or being safer.
He'll start with Twin Star and Holy at 1st level. Alchemist Dedication at 2 and Hurl at the horizon if FA to give himself a bit more range. 4th level he'll pick Advanced Alchemy and Red-Gold mortality if FA. Level 6 he'll pick Binding Serpent and if FA an alchemist feat so that if FA is active he can cheese and get a ton of extra Advanced Alchemy charges with the FA at 8. At level 8 he'll pick a 4th (body) ikon to make himself a bit more sturdy and be able to pick up flying at level 10.
Between those, he'll realise that all life comes from the earth and the soil, like the flower he found, so he'll pick Born of the Bones of Earth for his Epithet, making his criticals rooting foes and giving him an extra damage type.
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P.s. If the GM rules that you cannot have both Sheath and the weapon in the Sheath as Ikons (which tbf I'm not sure if it's intended) the build still works fine BUT needs Returning rune to work, lowering your damage a bit if you stick with Gleaming (better Trans effect, effectively both Dual Thrower and Dual Slice in one), or by keeping the Sheath, so you both free the rune slot and you don't need the Twin Star feat, but I'd probably would want to fit Dual weapon warrior for the build, so that one does require FA.
You can have in that case the red blood flower blooming in a wreath of flowers that adorns your head and use the Victor's wreath as the substitute Ikon to offer more support to the party.
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Khorbuk the Deft is a concept specifically for the Triumph of the Tusk AP.
Khorbuk is an orc from the Storm-Screamers of Rull tribe in Belkzen (Badlands Scout background). Born different, with darker skin and small patches of rocky scales (dragonblood heritage, adamantine dragon), Khorbuk was being trained as a scout when the Godsrain occurred. As the red droplets fell, skeletons of the dead rose from the ground and attacked the trainers and other trainees. Khorbuk fought well for his inexperience, but even his ability to spit out rocks (Breath of the Dragon ancestry feat) couldn't save him and the rest of the group. As one of the skeleton warriors slashed open Khorbuk's ribcage before he could block it with his klar, Khorbuk stumbled back and dropped his weapon. On one knee, Khorbuk looked up and saw a gleaming silver droplet falling nearby. Desperate, he stumbled over and caught it before it hit the ground. As the power flooded him, his wound closed with shocking speed and he noticed the nearby rocks were actually shattered pieces of a petrified forest. Grabbing a crooked branch of petrified wood, Khorbuk hurled himself back into the fray, throwing the branch to shatter skulls or beating the remaining skeletons to broken bits; also discovering he could channel the power of lightning into his blows, as if he embodied the storms.
Ikons: Mirrored Aegis (klar), Scar of the Survivor, Shadow Sheath (holding a cruuk of petrified wood)
Feats (3rd level): Energized Spark (electricity), Hurl at the Horizon
Additional epithets: Peerless Under Heaven, The Last Ruler (planning to lean into Intimidation for Demoralize even before this epithet)
Planned progression: Steel on Steel; Reactive Strike; Additional Ikon (one other weapon ikon; probably one found as treasure in the AP); Journey of the Sky Chariot ("storm-rider"); Warped by Rage; Complete the Hero's Journey (probably); Strike Rivers, Seize Winds; Seven-Colored Cosmic Bridge (possibly using lightning/thunder instead of rainbow effects); Reach for Immortality
I've been toying with an Arcadian Gunsmith who didcovered a damaged Stargun that repaired itself due to the Godsrain. Use an Air Repeater with twin stars, and you have 12 shots before you need to reload, and if you taking sniping duo dedication, you end up with a decent number of damage boosts to help your d6 damage die. Gaze sharp as steel for a keen eye is on theme, and then your third ikon can be whatever fits your personal theme.
Squark wrote: I've been toying with an Arcadian Gunsmith who didcovered a damaged Stargun that repaired itself due to the Godsrain. Use an Air Repeater with twin stars, and you have 12 shots before you need to reload, and if you taking sniping duo dedication, you end up with a decent number of damage boosts to help your d6 damage die. Gaze sharp as steel for a keen eye is on theme, and then your third ikon can be whatever fits your personal theme. Pretty sure twin stars has a melee weapon requirement.
Xenocrat wrote: Squark wrote: I've been toying with an Arcadian Gunsmith who didcovered a damaged Stargun that repaired itself due to the Godsrain. Use an Air Repeater with twin stars, and you have 12 shots before you need to reload, and if you taking sniping duo dedication, you end up with a decent number of damage boosts to help your d6 damage die. Gaze sharp as steel for a keen eye is on theme, and then your third ikon can be whatever fits your personal theme. Pretty sure twin stars has a melee weapon requirement. 1h, but not melee.
Anyways, one thing I'm toying with as a concept:
Sprite Exemplar with Starshot and Gaze Sharp as Steel and the Deft epithet. Because you're tiny, almost all enemies take a -2 to save against Giant-Felling Comet, which deals your weapon damage in a 5' burst within 60'. Deft means you get a free-action reload before or after any time you Spark Transcendence, so you can alternate between rounds doing Strike+ (Reload) Comet and A Moment Unending (Reload)+Strike+Reload.
Comet being save-based means no MAP, A Moment Unending adds precision damage to your next hit before the end of your next turn. This attack pattern means you get two strikes to connect with that bonus damage, plus both strikes are done while Starshot is your active ikon, so you get +1 splash/die bonus damage. Of course, having to move would interrupt this, but...
As a bonus, Gaze Sharp as Steel gives +2 AC against ranged attacks, and is active half the time when it's not your turn. And it's +1 Perception for your initiative.
I dunno what third ikon I'd take with this, but it's a neat little build.
That does bring up a question, though; if you duplicate a 1H ranged weapon, is that ranged weapon loaded?
Perpdepog wrote: That does bring up a question, though; if you duplicate a 1H ranged weapon, is that ranged weapon loaded? Depends I guess.
If you're using Twin Star, I see no reason the copy to not be loaded if the original one is since it's an exact copy.
That said, once you fire it it's no longer loaded.
And shadow sheath is only for thrown weapons. Even if there's a throwing combination weapon (too bored to check) that fits the criteria, I'd say that the "limited use stuff apply normally" clause does extend to them being loaded or not.
Baby Sprocket the Deft Restless as the Tide:
Tiny animal with a tail (racoon in this case) is an awakened half-orc monstrosity that is sooo...CUTE with that barricade buster firing at his hip. Mechanically this lil'guy is primarily firing off big explosive grenade launchers explosions from the effect of starshot and starshot's transcendence. His extra-dimensional horn of plenty provides him with a tentacle potion (L6+) that lets his tail grab and hold onto things for 8 hours per day (other tail creatures will be sooo jealous!). Since he is so quick of hand he can transcend to draw a clip (early in combat or always be holding it), transcend to pull out a spent clip, and transcend to reload that clip into the weapon (i.e., getting a repeating weapon down to reload 0 with careful turn planning or at worse case a reload 1 every ~4ish rounds). To mitigate the highly limited range of his weapon when he transcends he can also take 5 foot steps (from L7 epithet) or to provide whole team strategic repositioning (from his sandals transcendence). As a tiny animal most enemies will have a -2 penalty to their save against his starshot AOE transcendence.
Example of a Reload 0 Combat:
Turn 1:
Transcend Sandals and give party an opportunity to reposition at the top of combat, use deft to pull out clip, move spark to starshot and strike twice. Option 2 and 3 might give you a 1 action warden spell (e.g., gravity weapon), hunt prey (for hunted shot), or stance (point blank stance).
Turn 2:
Strike once + 2 Action transcendence from starshot, take your free step, move spark to Gaze or sandals.
Turn 3:
Transcend to move/reposition again and get the damage bonus, strike twice
Turn 4:
Strike once, transcend star-shot (at the end of that pull and drop clip onto the ground with deft).
Turn 5:
Transcend sandals (free action to load clip from tail that was pulled in round 1 or 2), fire twice.
Build
Ancestry: Awakened Animal (Tiny PC)
Heritage: Dromarr (Half-Orc)
Ikons: Starshot, Horn of Plenty, Gaze as Sharp as Steel or Thousand League Sandals
Epiphets:
L3 - Deft
L7 - Restless as the Tide
Ancestry Feats:
L1 - Orc Weapon Familiarity (YASS Barricade Buster!)
L5 - Late Awakener (Land Animal)
Class Feats:
L1 - w/e
L2 - Option 1 - Alchemist - Dedication for Quicksilver Mutagen's +1 attack bonus
L2 - Option 2 - Archer - Dedication (for Point Blank Shot at L4)
L2 - Option 3 - Ranger (for hunt prey for hunted shot/far shot)
L4 - Option 1 - Advanced Alchemy (add this to the L5 spider shifting collar for QS all day with no actions.
L4 - Option 2 - Fighter/Archer - Point Blank Shot
L4 - Option 3 - Ranger - Hunted Shot
L6 - Option 1 - Basic Concoction - Alchemical Familiar (1 extra VV and AA items) or Improvided Admixture (if you could get a familiar from somewhere else).
L6 - Option 2 - w/e
L6 - Option 3 - Ranger - Gravity Weapon OR Exemplar - Flow of War (free move once per combat to get yourself in the right range)
L8 - Extra Ikon (Wreath or Gaze Sharp as Steel)
L8 - Option 1 - Alchemist - Efficient Alchemy (6+int AA items now + familiar options)
L8 - Option 2 - Archer - Parting Shot or Running Reload
L8 - Option 3 - Ranger - Far Shot (though animal feature for a flying warden spell could also be good).
Some other ways of achieving this are with a retrieval belt (you probably don't need to actually reload more than once a combat). That way you don't have to be going after all these tail features, but you're still sort of stuck with awakened animal since its the only ancestry that can versatile heritage into dromarr at L1 and still be tiny (sprite/poppet need to spend their heritages) instead of waiting until L5 (adopted ancestry at L3 and taking the orc weapon familiarity at L5). You might be able to also get away with no tail if you have a permissive GM and use the Extendable Tail item (like a tail prosthetic that the tentacle potion imbues with your spirit). I'd let it work,but explicitly requires a 'If your GM thinks..." rule clause to work so YMMV.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
The more builds I see, the more I think that this is an advanced class not intended for new players.
If a new player wants to make an Exemplar, they should be fine just taking a melee weapon ikon and then whatever sounds cool, imo.
Another idea I put together:
Gleaming Blade
Mirrored Aegis
Scar of the Survivor
1-Anything except Mortal Defiance. Probably Energized Spark.
2-Champion Dedication (Justice)
4-Free
6-Champion's Reaction
This is a straightforward tank build. Gleaming Blade gives you a strong offense option, Mirrored Aegis hands out long-lasting AC bonuses to the party (the aura's nice, but after you buff the frontline you can stop switching to it entirely which is neat), and Scar lets you self heal liberally. Take Radiant at 3 to cover healing your allies, and optionally Lay on Hands at 4. (The 30' cone is also an option, and it can even be applied to your shield ikon so you can do offensive Transcendence every round. It can even be taken twice and applied to a weapon too, allowing you to fire a respectable damage cone every turn if you want). And of course Retributive Strike is one of the best reactions in the game, heavily punishing enemies for attacking anyone else. Not that attacking you will do much either.
You've got scaling heavy armor prof from Champion Dedication so you'll have high AC, healing for days (Bonus points - take Dancer in the Seasons at 7 and you gain temp HP every time you Spark as well, and Healer of the World at 17 gives out 10 temp HP to the entire party every turn basically).
Victor's Wreath would be an alternative to Scar of the Survivor as well, once you've thrown up some AC bonuses on the party you can start switching to it after your offensive moves to buff attack rolls too.
Shadow Sheathe Build:
Assuming you can't pick shadow sheath 'as a weapon ikon' since its the weapon's holster (probably not RAI IMO). Then I think we should have TWO weapon ikons.
Ikons
Shadow Sheathe
Star Shot
Gaze as Sharp as Steel
Epithets
L3 - The Cunning
Class Feats
L1 - Twin Stars (selecting the Star Shot weapon ikon)
L2 - Hurl at the Horizon (selecting the Star Shot weapon Ikon)
L4 - Through the Needle's Eye (selecting the Star Shot Weapon Ikon)
Select your favourite 1H thrown finesse weapon (say Tamchal Chakram). It can be a ranged weapon for the Starshot, a 1H weapon for the twin stars, a thrown weapon of light bulk for the shadow sheath, and a ranged weapon for the Through the Needles Eye. Other good options are throwing knives (I'm going to assume humble strikes works here and it doesn't 'shrink weapon damage dice mid flight'), Chakrams (1D8, but no finesse for melee), Boomerang (60ft range trade for 1D6 weapon damage dice), or starknive (the poor man's tamchal Chakram).
Great.
Twinning Stars RAW doesn't require spark in it to keep the weapons split (only items with immanence and transcendence effects require active spark in it-> so just spark it and split it before combat and always have 2 out. You'll need to anyways to put the twin weapon ikon into your sheath after 1 minute).
Now you have a variety of fun options:
Passively walk around with your Gaze as Sharp Steel loaded with your spark. That gives you a good AC boost and perception boost for entering into combat.
Round 1:
- Transcend (giving a damage boost to your thrown weapons)
- Move spark to shadow sheath
- Create a Diversion to get flatfooted.
- Strike/Strike
Round 2:
- Strike/Strike/Strike (transcend when you miss to maintain MAP)
- Move spark to starshot
- Create a Diversion to get Flatfooted against another enemy
Round 3:
- Spark Transcendence (either using starshot which has no MAP or Through the Needle's Eye to potentially blind an enemy for off-guard and since it includes a strike will trigger twin)
- Move spark to Shadow Sheath
- Strike
Round 4:
- Same as Round 2.
L8 extra ikon feat is probably worth it for horn of plenty for utility or wreath for save protection. The L6 feat for once per combat haste can get you to the right spot/location to avoid having to make a key move mid combat.
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Red Griffyn wrote: Shadow Sheathe Build:
Assuming you can't pick shadow sheath 'as a weapon ikon' since its the weapon's holster (probably not RAI IMO). Then I think we should have TWO weapon ikons.
Sorry, but that's not RAW (it doesn't even get to RAI). The Shadow Sheath ikon description on page 45-46 explicitly states that Shadow Sheath is a weapon ikon, not a body ikon or worn ikon.
If you want a Shadow Sheath to hold another weapon ikon, you have to wait until 8th level and take the Additional Ikon feat...
Dragonchess Player wrote: Red Griffyn wrote: Shadow Sheathe Build:
Assuming you can't pick shadow sheath 'as a weapon ikon' since its the weapon's holster (probably not RAI IMO). Then I think we should have TWO weapon ikons.
Sorry, but that's not RAW (it doesn't even get to RAI). The Shadow Sheath ikon description on page 45-46 explicitly states that Shadow Sheath is a weapon ikon, not a body ikon or worn ikon.
If you want a Shadow Sheath to hold another weapon ikon, you have to wait until 8th level and take the Additional Ikon feat... There isn't any language forcing you to take a body, worn, and weapon ikon. You could take 3 weapon ikons if you wanted to (not a great idea though). Here is the actual language:
Quote: Within your soul is a tiny spark of divine power that belongs not to a deity, but is something you’ve claimed all your own. You can focus this divine power through special items known as ikons. Ikons are items or bodily features intrinsically linked to you—sacred vessels forged from your divinity that are capable of conducting its power. Select three ikons from the list on pages 43–47. By placing your divine spark into one of your ikons, you empower that ikon to accomplish deeds beyond what it could in mortal hands. Each ikon has both a passive immanence effect and an active transcendence effect. Both of these effects require your divine spark to be in the item. You can place your spark into an ikon by using the Shift Immanence action. Quote: As an exemplar, you select three ikons at first level. Typically, you will want to ensure at least one of your ikons is a weapon. Body ikons accentuate a physical trait of your body and so can’t be stolen, disarmed, dispelled, or otherwise taken away. Weapon and worn ikons are tied to items of power. When you select one, you gain a non- magical, level-0 item of your choice that matches its usage entry. Providence ensures you come across these items;
you might be traveling along a path to find a spear in a tree that only you can dislodge, or you might awaken holding a gleaming sash you saw in your dreams. Your ikons can be etched with runes, upgraded, or otherwise modified as normal for items of their type. A body or worn ikon can have runes etched on it to apply to your unarmed attacks as though it were handwraps of mighty blows, though only one of your ikons can have these runes and no ikon can have both these and armor or weapon runes.
So RAW you pick 3, any 3 and it even says you should pick a weapon ikon (i.e., implying that you could select 2 or 3 worn or 2 or 3 body ikons and no weapon ikons). Even if you're going to argue that only one ikon can have weapon runes, it doesn't matter because its the one you twin and put in the sheath (not the sheath itself).
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Can't anything be an ikon? Like you could pick up a blade of glass and it becomes your ikon. Ergo, why couldn't a sheath be a weapon ikon?
Ravingdork wrote: Can't anything be an ikon? Like you could pick up a blade of glass and it becomes your ikon. Ergo, why couldn't a sheath be a weapon ikon? Well, it has to match the requirements of the ikon type. Shadow Sheathe is a weapon ikon that is specifically empowering the sheathe for the weapon. It allows you to draw transient copies from thin air, effectively giving you a variation of Returning for free.
However, I don't know that the copying is intended to extend to letting you store a second weapon ikon in the sheathe to copy. Or rather, that it's not clear to me that the copies would count as your ikon.
Stick a chakram in there (1d8, 20' range increment) and you've got a pretty strong ranged attack going. Even better at 10 since Mated Birds In Paired Flight forces off guard so Shadow Sheathe increases to 3/die spirit damage for that pair of attacks. (I've also seen it pointed out that for Tiny or Large PCs, a Trident is light bulk, making it another d8 option for this ikon)
Now, Hurl at the Horizon is almost certainly intended to work with Shadow Sheathe (increasing the range by 10), but... technically as written the sheathe is the ikon, not the weapon inside, so it can't?
My build above is only relevant if people want to be sticklers since the sheath 'weapon ikon' isn't actually the weapon. I think RAI it would be that it + the weapon in it count as the 'ikon', in which case you don't need to waste a second ikon on the 'weapon' being inserted.
As for whether a second weapon ikon could be put into the sheath. Why not. The sheath says:
Quote: You can spend 1 minute to load a weapon meeting the shadow sheath’s
usage requirements into the sheath, which is hidden somewhere on your person. As long as the shadow sheath is on your person, you can Interact to draw an exact copy of the weapon from thin air. These copies retain the runes and abilities of the hidden weapon, though if you use any limited-use abilities (such as talismans or Activations with a frequency limit), they count against the weapon’s normal usages.
I'd say being an Ikon is an ability of the hidden weapon and is retained. There is no real bounds on that wording other than what abilities could ever be obtained by a weapon. If it was a thaumaturge 'weapon implement' or inventor weapon invention I'd also let the copies count as instances of those class features (i.e., weapon abilities).
Lockdown exemplar. Maximize reach via weapon, Compliant Gold, and Warped by Rage to have a large to huge area for your Reactive Strike, and on turns when your weapon doesn't have your spark you can Combat Grab someone to hold them and prepare them for the beat down next round when your shift to the weapon.
If you need to bring people into your vast reach or help save actions to maneuver into position the Brave helps, and Bones of the Earth lets your crits immobilize on most battlefields plus you can spam your transcends to create difficult terrain around you. If you're Huge from Warped by Rage you made a BIG donut of difficult terrain.
Once per hour you an pop off Raise Island to move everyone around and create a raised pillar that causes significant terrain issues for everyone. If you have transcended Warped by Rage when you do this your island is the size of a Gargantuan creature. King of the Mountain!
FEATS/EPITHET
2: Wrestler Dedication
3: Brave epithet
4: Combat Grab
6: Reactive Strike
7: Born of the Bones of the Earth
8: Raise Island
12: Compliant Gold
14: Warped By Rage
IKONS:
Weapon: Something one handed with reach, there's a few out there, most melee weapon ikons have one or more that qualify.
Fetching Bangles: Make it hard for people to go around you or run away from you. If you're Huge from Warped by Rage you're blocking a 35' wide front that they have to either save to move past you or tumble through you. If they do, transcend to try to yoink them back.
There's an alternate version where you take Mauler dedication and Slamdown for turns where your weapon ikon doesn't have the spark. You get access to all two hand weapon crit specs, and if you go Peerless Under Heaven you get a griveous rune on top of that. That's a lot of potential control (move them, knock them prone, or both) if you select the right weapon, and both more damage and more weapon choices for your ikon.
Ravingdork wrote: The more builds I see, the more I think that this is an advanced class not intended for new players. Yes, exactly. Neither class in WoI is really a new player class, which is good IMO. Not every class needs to be, and Exemplar is Rare on top of that. As a GM, I'd steer a new player away from a Rare class, though if they really wanted to try it, I'd let them.
Ravingdork wrote: The more builds I see, the more I think that this is an advanced class not intended for new players. That's generally the case with classes outside the Core rulebooks. Kineticist was the only class consciously designed to be newbie approachable, and even that has a degree of option paralysis in character creation.
Infinite weapon ikon transcendence cycling back and forth every round with only one weapon purchased/maintained and no action tax.
1) Select a knife/throwing knife/light hammer/hatchet/other. We want something that is agile, thrown, and L bulk. If you want full switch hitting accuracy you need a knife with finesse, otherwise you'll lag on one or the other.
2) Shadow Sheathe as one weapon ikon, second weapon ikon can be Gleaming Blade (knife group), Barrow's Edge (any S/P), Mortal Harvest (hatchet), or Titan's Breaker (light hammer/hatchet).
3) Load melee weapon ikon in the Shadow Sheathe.
4) Cunning epithet at 3rd to get free feint when you transcend your weapon ikon to get bonus off guard damage on Shadow Sheathe in addition to the usual off guard benefits.
Combat routine:
1) Start in Shadow Sheathe for free draw of your weapon, strike until you miss, transcend. (Feint or Cause a Diversion). Free action draw of weapon before spark transfers, so you're now holding a copy with full abilities of your other weapon ikon.
2) Transcend or strike (and if hit) transcend with your 1h weapon ikon as appropriate. You can safely throw your strike with a transcended Gleaming Blade or Titan's Breaker, because the spark automatically shifts back to Sheathe and you get a free draw, but if you throw a Barrow's Edge and miss, you can't transcend and you have to spend an action to redraw. Don't do that.
If you're focused on a melee/strength build, get Twin Stars for the bonus damage on regular strikes, especially in Shadow Sheathe. But you can't continuously throw them both for the extra damage pre-Mated Birds in Paired Flight because the second one will go "poof" and not be a free redraw. Even Mated Birds has some restrictions because it will only apply to one of your ikons unless you select the feat more than once.
Investigator MC seems strong on ranged builds, especially bows and especially Unfailing Bow.
Knowing your roll with Unfailing Bow's transcend option means knowing if you have a crit plus guaranteed hit on one target, two guaranteed hits on one target, and in rare cases two guaranteed crits on one target.
Starshot with a terrible Devise roll and no secondary target can still transcend for a reflex save against primary target and not strike at all. You can also skill strategem a demoralize to debuff them first.
Shadow Sheathe with a marginal die result for critting or hitting against regular AC can strike someone other than their Devise target, then if they miss transcend to attack their Devise target with the guaranteed off guard.
Athletic Strategist (with Skybearer's belt for +1 circumstance to athletics attack actions) and Person of Interst are the obvious low level feats if you want one of those in addition to the dedication and devise a strategem.
Brughs is an orc of a certain age who all his life only cared about taking care of his farm, without a wife or children due to his temperament and bad mood. Brughs has always been a loner. Until the day he saw two gigantic forms fighting in the sky! Brughs didn't pay much attention and became particularly irritated when he was bathed in a red rain! Cursing, the old Orc went to sleep. The next day Brughs felt strange but went to work. At one point, he reached into his grain bag, worn and worn, and found a bottle, drank from it, and felt better. But he hadn't put anything in it! Curious, he looked again, and there was the damn bottle, and again, and again! It must have been his imagination... when he went to work in the field, Brughs felt something different in his pitchfork, and when he used it, it simply tore a tear in the earth! Something really was very strange! Going to the leaders and shamans of the community, Brughs discovered that he had received divine powers! Obviously the old Orc hated the idea, but now he had responsibilities to his people, and his leader made a summons, cursing and swearing, Brughs went. Let's hope he doesn't meet any bunch of idiots...
So, this will be my character in Triumph Of The Tusk, he was born from an image I saw on the internet of an orc with a pitchfork, although Brughs will use a scythe. His Ikons will be: Horn of Plenty, his old grain bag, where he also keeps his drinks; Victor's Wreath, his worn-out farmer's hat, but which gives him an air of authority and inspiration; and finally Noble Branch, his trusted scythe at work. As for feats, I really don't know if I chose the ideal ones, but I picked Energized Spark Void and Vow of Mortal Defiance, since we'll be using FA, I picked Herbalist because I'm always the group's healer, the idea is to be the front line and have some healing for myself and the rest of the group. Suggestions are welcome!
I've been curious about the Herbalist or Alchemist dedication to go with Horn of Plenty. I think there's some potential variance on how useful that works by campaign (basically, how many combats per day are you getting into, how much downtime can you throw at making more potions, etc), but it's an ikon that seems to have real potential. Throwing some utility potions into it wouldn't be a bad idea either (Eagle-Eye elixir to counter concealment, etc), just buying those just in case.
Since it can make both potions and elixirs of life the healing it gives should scale well, it's mostly just the limited stock at lower levels I'm concerned about, and Herbalist would solve that nicely with more freebies.
It's probably stronger with the pre-remaster archetypes, since you can make significantly more potions/day with those?
LordeAlvenaharr wrote: I picked Energized Spark Void
Void is generally a bad idea in any AP, since they all have a healthy number of undead, and this AP is set in an area that borders a hostile nation of undead who frequently invade, so the numbers might be higher.
Almost nothing is weak to void, it does very little for you that your base spirit damage doesn't do.
For Energized Spark, Fire is probably the one I'd recommend most there. Spirit damage is basically never resisted, you just run into constructs being immune. But constructs tend to just have hardness instead of resists, so any damage type except spirit will work. And Fire has the most creatures that are weak to it.
Xenocrat wrote: LordeAlvenaharr wrote: I picked Energized Spark Void
Void is generally a bad idea in any AP, since they all have a healthy number of undead, and this AP is set in an area that borders a hostile nation of undead who frequently invade, so the numbers might be higher.
Almost nothing is weak to void, it does very little for you that your base spirit damage doesn't do. Thanks, I'll follow our friend's advice in the next post and switch to fire then, other than that, what do you think of my build, are the ikons good choices?
Dubious Scholar wrote: For Energized Spark, Fire is probably the one I'd recommend most there. Spirit damage is basically never resisted, you just run into constructs being immune. But constructs tend to just have hardness instead of resists, so any damage type except spirit will work. And Fire has the most creatures that are weak to it. Thanks, I'll switch to fire then.
I think Horn of Plenty works best if the party is contributing elixirs/potions for you to distribute with efficient action economy, and it’s a better choice as an additional ikon at 8 when it also starts creating two things a day and potions of quickness come on line for freebies.
Xenocrat wrote: I think Horn of Plenty works best if the party is contributing elixirs/potions for you to distribute with efficient action economy, and it’s a better choice as an additional ikon at 8 when it also starts creating two things a day and potions of quickness come on line for freebies. Oh thanks, I'll look into that then.
Had another fun thought. Shadow Sheathe and Mirrored Aegis, taking Proud at 3. The last ikon can be whatever.
The goal here is to hand out +1 AC/reflex saves to your allies with the Aegis, while using Proud on the scariest opponent to give them -1 to their rolls against your allies. A constant +2 AC effectively to your party (while being a +0 AC net for you).
Shadow Sheathe is the easiest way to be able to consistently attack in this setup since you only have one free hand.
The eye or sandals for the last ikon are probably what I'd do here - +2 ranged AC and precision damage on your attacks, or the ability to have the whole party reposition if something isn't playing along.
I don't know what you could do with it but there is one bomb that is not a consumable and thus could go into your shadow sheath. The wonderfully mediocre Silver Orb.
It was probably meant to have the consumable trait. But lets pretend it doesn't and have some fun.
This needs one of the smoke cloud gazer ancestry feats to generate concealment at range. Then you combo it with the alchemist archetype for L7 camouflage dye to generate flatfooted at range. You probably need deft to free hand draw from the sheath since I don't think it will give you a damage bonus on the bomb since it lacks weapon damage dice (so it is virtually a wasted ikon). That goes nicely with a 1H+ bow with star shot and then perhaps something like Gaze As Sharp as Steel with a nice 1 action transcendence to get you back to your star shot bow.
It might be weird on a class that really benefits from concealment (sniper gunslinger, rogue?). But again feels like a real sub-optimal way to get infinite concealment bombs. Maybe it'd be better on a bomber alchemist since the bomb DC would be your class DC.
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I'm still a little confused. How are you guys comboing things when you can only have a single ikon's effects active at a time?
Ravingdork wrote: I'm still a little confused. How are you guys comboing things when you can only have a single ikon's effects active at a time? It basically works like a chain of actions rather than having everything active at once.
Cycle through the Ikons depending on the situation and what you need to accomplish every round.
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Just because it needs to be done I feel:
Sun Wukong.
You're an awakened monkey with a bo staff Noble Branch Ikon, your golden headband is your Victor's Wreath Ikon, and your Cloud Stepping Boots are your Thousand league sandals Ikon.
You've picked Only the Worthy for your staff Ikon to represent how heavy it is (for everyone else) allowing you to pin enemies beneath it, and Compliant Gold to represent how you can alter its length at will (giving you even more reach in the process).
You've picked Journey of the Sky Chariot and you put it in your headband, for flavour, you have it spawn a cloud beneath your feet when activated to represent how you Fly with it.
Example rounds would be something like like:
Spark in your weapon, Stride, Strike, Transcend to your Sandals→
Trip, Worthy, Transcend to your weapon taking everyone away→
Hopefully enemy wasted at least an extra action to break Worthy, negating his whole turn. The weapon is now back on your hand, starting the cycle again.
Alternatively, you can Transcend back to your Wreath after you pin the enemy under your staff so now everyone can dogpile upon the prone target with extra attack bonuses from wreath to ensure the enemy dies. If no ally needs to remove a condition, you can Transcend to get Fly Speed instead too get out of your Wreath and into the weapon.
With 15ft reach you should probably snatch Reactive Strike with your feats as well.
If you need AoE you have Compliant Gold, which can also be used as a Transcend when you miss with your Strike instead of Noble Branch Transcend (which requires a Hit).
shroudb wrote: Ravingdork wrote: I'm still a little confused. How are you guys comboing things when you can only have a single ikon's effects active at a time? It basically works like a chain of actions rather than having everything active at once.
Cycle through the Ikons depending on the situation and what you need to accomplish every round. Some ikons also have effects even while they're not active (Shadow Sheathe), or the effect persists for a duration after transcending (Mirrored Aegis).
shroudb wrote: Just because it needs to be done I feel:
Sun Wukong.
You're an awakened monkey with a bo staff Noble Branch Ikon, your golden headband is your Victor's Wreath Ikon, and your Cloud Stepping Boots are your Thousand league sandals Ikon.
You've picked Only the Worthy for your staff Ikon to represent how heavy it is (for everyone else) allowing you to pin enemies beneath it, and Compliant Gold to represent how you can alter its length at will (giving you even more reach in the process).
You've picked Journey of the Sky Chariot and you put it in your headband, for flavour, you have it spawn a cloud beneath your feet when activated to represent how you Fly with it.
Example rounds would be something like like:
Spark in your weapon, Stride, Strike, Transcend to your Sandals→
Trip, Worthy, Transcend to your weapon taking everyone away→
Hopefully enemy wasted at least an extra action to break Worthy, negating his whole turn. The weapon is now back on your hand, starting the cycle again.
Alternatively, you can Transcend back to your Wreath after you pin the enemy under your staff so now everyone can dogpile upon the prone target with extra attack bonuses from wreath to ensure the enemy dies. If no ally needs to remove a condition, you can Transcend to get Fly Speed instead too get out of your Wreath and into the weapon.
With 15ft reach you should probably snatch Reactive Strike with your feats as well.
If you need AoE you have Compliant Gold, which can also be used as a Transcend when you miss with your Strike instead of Noble Branch Transcend (which requires a Hit).
Sun Wukong is a Yaoguai in both Pathfinder and the original stories. His heritage is probably Born of Elements, seeing as he was born from a stone egg that itself came from a giant boulder.
Otherwise that's an excellent execution of the character concept.
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