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lesbian baphomet
Nov 30, 2011

B.B. Rodriguez posted:

Buying a 17 in STR and tanking your CHA/WIS will set you up pretty good if you are a dwarf. Just know that you can end up with a 5 in CHA with penalties. If you are cool with that, you can mix/max to all hell. Use your +1 from 4th level in STR and you should have decent-ish survivability and killyness.

On damage, that's +6 regular, +10 w/Power attack. +9/13 in a Rage. Add in any enhancement and other feat bonuses and you can be minimum damaging for 19-20 each attack.

Just my two cents.

Plus at level 7 you should have enough money to buy both a Belt of +2 STR and the Ioun Stone of +2 STR for a total strength bonus of +6 before Rage.

With rage, that's +12 damage. +18 with power attack, and +19 with a +1 weapon, before you ever roll. You'd probably also have enough cash to get another enchantment on the axe, and Keen would probably be a good choice, making your raging power attack strikes 2d8+19 with 19-20x3 crit, at +12 to hit (7 BAB + 1 Weapon + 8 STR - 2 oversized - 2 PA). I've never been good at doing super-optimal stuff, but that looks pretty drat good to me.

As for stats, I'd recommend aiming for 8 INT and either 6 or 8 CHA, whichever you feel comfortable with. Try to keep WIS at or above 10 so you don't take negatives to your will saves. Having at least +1 DEX is good, but CON is probably going to be your most important secondary stat as a tanky hard-hitting barbarian.

lesbian baphomet fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Jun 20, 2012

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Morbleu
Jun 13, 2006

MoonwalkInvincible posted:

Plus at level 7 you should have enough money to buy both a Belt of +2 STR and the Ioun Stone of +2 STR for a total strength bonus of +6 before Rage.

With rage, that's +12 damage. +18 with power attack, and +19 with a +1 weapon, before you ever roll. You'd probably also have enough cash to get another enchantment on the axe, and Keen would probably be a good choice, making your raging power attack strikes 2d8+19 with 19-20x3 crit, at +12 to hit (7 BAB + 1 Weapon + 8 STR - 2 oversized - 2 PA). I've never been good at doing super-optimal stuff, but that looks pretty drat good to me.

As for stats, I'd recommend aiming for 8 INT and either 6 or 8 CHA, whichever you feel comfortable with. Try to keep WIS at or above 10 so you don't take negatives to your will saves. Having at least +1 DEX is good, but CON is probably going to be your most important secondary stat as a tanky hard-hitting barbarian.

What do you think of:

16 str (+2 from 4 and 8 level up, +2 from belt, +2 from Ioun stone, total:22, for a +6 bonus at level 8)
12 dex
14 con (+2 dwarf bonus, for a 16 total)
8 int
10 wis (+2 from dwarf bonus, 12 total)
10 cha (-2 from dwarf penalty, 8 total).

Additionally should I go for the extra rage round per level or a skill point?

EDIT: just put the totals in

Morbleu fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Jun 20, 2012

B.B. Rodriguez
Aug 8, 2005

Bender: "I was God once." God: "Yes, I saw. You were doing well until everyone died."

Nigulus Rex posted:

Hm...so if I decided to tank my charisma/wis (which I suppose I could do), I'd end up with 17 str (this is all base before bonuses and minuses), 8 wis, 7 cha, but what kind of values are you advocating for dex/int/con? I assume regular int, but dex and con could go either way.

EDIT: 5 in a stat feels kind of meh, not to mention that in Slumbering Tsar, having that low of a perception ability is likely to leave me dead very quickly.

Well, lowering Wis to 8 automatically gets bumped to 10 from the Dwarf racial, so you're good there. Taking CHA down to 7 means you now have 6 extra points to distribute. So you have 21pts. 17 STR is I think 14(?) points and 12 Dex is 2pts leaving 5 for 14 CON which gets a +2 from Dwarf racial anyway. Leaving you with 18STR, 12DEX, 16CON, 10INT, 10WIS, and 5CHA.

Tactical Bonnet
Nov 5, 2005

You'd be distressed too if some pile of bones just told you your favorite hat was stupid.

Nigulus Rex posted:

Myself and my friends are gearing up to start the Slumbering Tsar campaign. The issue is that the one guy in our group who has never played insists on playing an arcane archer, the other guy is a rogue (stabby), and the third is a generic cleric.

This leaves me kind of suckered into playing the melee/tank type and I wanted your input on what I should make. It's a 15 point buy, and considering that ST is supposed to be exceptionally harsh on the PCs, I was told by the DM (since I'm the most experienced PC in the group) to go ahead and "optimize" though I'm not sure how much I can do so with a 15 point buy.

My first thought was to try a half orc paladin (2h falchion), using intimidate and the eldritch bloodline feats along with smite for damage (since I assume ST by it's nature will have a lot of 'evil' things).

I've heard there are some "builds" of barbarian that can just wreck house but I haven't been able to figure anything out with the feats and skills that are apparent to me as particularly powerful.

We also start at level 7. Any input is apppreciated.

Have you considered Magus? It's not quite as resilient as a barbarian, but can easily out-damage one as well as offer some additional magical utility or damage. A lot of people consider it to be rather overpowered, but as long as you don't focus exclusively on combat while making your build you could end up with a very well rounded and capable 7th level damage dealer/battlefield controller.

Just make sure you take the feats that increases concentration, and the arcana that lets you reroll a failed check at an additional +4, you can also, as a "full attack," hit an enemy with your weapon of choice(I recommend bastard sword for the 1/2 hand option so you can get 1.5str when not casting in a round, it is "no action" to let go of the handle with one hand), then 5-foot step away and cast your spell without provoking an AoO.

If you want to just "wreck house" load up shocking grasps and enjoy doing weapon damage+5d6. If you crit(bastard sword is 19-20x2), it doubles the damage dice from the spell, too. I played a magus briefly in a pathfinder game and decided to reroll because I over-optimized and felt like a huge jerk.

Tactical Bonnet fucked around with this message at 22:28 on Jun 20, 2012

Morbleu
Jun 13, 2006

Tactical Bonnet posted:

Have you considered Magus? It's not quite as resilient as a barbarian, but can easily out-damage one as well as offer some additional magical utility or damage. A lot of people consider it to be rather overpowered, but as long as you don't focus exclusively on combat while making your build you could end up with a very well rounded and capable 7th level damage dealer/battlefield controller.

Just make sure you take the feats that increases concentration, and the arcana that lets you reroll a failed check at an additional +4, you can also, as a "full attack," hit an enemy with your weapon of choice(I recommend bastard sword for the 1/2 hand option so you can get 1.5str when not casting in a round, it is "no action" to let go of the handle with one hand), then 5-foot step away and cast your spell without provoking an AoO.

If you want to just "wreck house" load up shocking grasps and enjoy doing weapon damage+5d6. If you crit(bastard sword is 19-20x2), it doubles the damage dice from the spell, too. I played a magus briefly in a pathfinder game and decided to reroll because I over-optimized and felt like a huge jerk.

Funny you mention that. I have a bladebound kensai magus I rolled up to use if(correction: when) my first character dies. I didn't want to start with him though.

Tactical Bonnet
Nov 5, 2005

You'd be distressed too if some pile of bones just told you your favorite hat was stupid.
Then you know how silly a melee character casting color spray over the crowd before swinging a lightning sword into the bodies is...

I'd probably go for skill points. Barbarians have a crippling low SP/level and at level 7 with 16 con you can rage for 19 rounds a day without any bonus rounds. Most combats in pathfinder are 3-4 rounds and you can game the rage rounds so you don't waste them on rounds where you have to move more than 40 feet and thus won't be attacking.

Meepo
Jul 30, 2004

Nigulus Rex posted:

I'll have to look into it. Though superstitious is a barbarian achetype and not a trait, right?

It's both an archetype as well as a rage power. The archetype is decent, especially if you're playing a race that doesn't give darkvision normally. Personally, I like Invulnerable Rager better.

Danhenge
Dec 16, 2005

MoonwalkInvincible posted:

Plus at level 7 you should have enough money to buy both a Belt of +2 STR and the Ioun Stone of +2 STR for a total strength bonus of +6 before Rage.

The Ioun stone and the belt are both enhancement bonuses bud

Fudge Handsome
Jan 29, 2011

Shall we do it?

Danhenge posted:

The Ioun stone and the belt are both enhancement bonuses bud

And bonuses of the same type do not stack. Except dodge bonuses, but those are special.

lesbian baphomet
Nov 30, 2011

Danhenge posted:

The Ioun stone and the belt are both enhancement bonuses bud

Whoops, you're right. Some of the +stat Ioun Stones say specifically that they stack with themselves/other sources (like the one that gives +Con), but I just checked and it turns out the +Str stone is not one of those.

So that doesn't quite work, it turns out. Though at 7th level you should still be able to afford the Belt of Strength +4, which works just as well for that build.


e: Well that's strange. The srd has completely different price listings and descriptions for Ioun Stones than on paizo's prd. The PRD never mentions flawed or cracked stones, has the listed price of every +stat stone as 8,000, and doesn't say anything about stacking, so where the gently caress did the SRD pull that stuff from?

lesbian baphomet fucked around with this message at 03:54 on Jun 21, 2012

veekie
Dec 25, 2007

Dice of Chaos

MoonwalkInvincible posted:

Well that's strange. The srd has completely different price listings and descriptions for Ioun Stones than on paizo's prd. The PRD never mentions flawed or cracked stones, has the listed price of every +stat stone as 8,000, and doesn't say anything about stacking, so where the gently caress did the SRD pull that stuff from?

One of the Pathfinder Chronicles book I believe, they were to expand the uses of Wayfinders.

EDIT: Ah yes, Seeker of Secrets was the book.

veekie fucked around with this message at 06:03 on Jun 21, 2012

the_steve
Nov 9, 2005

We're always hiring!

I've got a dumb question, it may have already been answered, but I can't seem to find it anywhere.
I'm helping my friend roll a Dervish Dancer, and I'm trying to figure out the Battle Dance.

Does it replace Bardic Performance? Does she still get Countersong/Fascinate/Distraction?
Does she get the self-only Inspire Courage/Greatness/Heroics all at once? Or only Courage, with the other 2 coming at the appropriate levels?

I can't find any errata anywhere on it, so I'm not sure if it doesn't exist yet or if I'm overlooking it or what.

veekie
Dec 25, 2007

Dice of Chaos

quote:

Dervish dancers gain the inspire courage, inspire greatness, and inspire heroics bardic performance types as battle dances, but these only provide benefit to the dervish dancer himself.
It looks like the three performance types are individual dances, which should come at the usual levels(except altered to be self-only). Any performances not explicitly replaced would still be available.

Swags
Dec 9, 2006
Nerds, quick question. Bought the first book of the Skull and Shackles adventure path because, well, gently caress yeah, pirates! However, I feel like other books and maps would be useful. Am I missing any in this list?

Pirates of the Inner Sea
GameMastery flip mat pirate ship
Player's guide to skull and shackles

I basically want everything that is going to add to the adventure. Don't care about the price.

Morbleu
Jun 13, 2006

MoonwalkInvincible posted:

I'd recommend going Dwarf, pumping your Strength up as much as you're willing to within the 15 point buy, and wielding an oversized (Large category, you get a -2 to hit and makes one-handed weapons two-handed) Dwarven Waraxe, so your base weapon damage will be 2d8+(1.5*STR).

Why does the damage for the axe come out to 2d8 instead of 1d8?

100 degrees Calcium
Jan 23, 2011



This is a bit of a long shot, since it seems the general preference is for the full Adventure Paths, but I was wondering if anyone had played or run Feast of Ravenmoor. If so, how was it? Anything that stood out as particularly troublesome or especially awesome? I'm thinking of running it for a new group of level 3 characters, just to get the campaign started.

lesbian baphomet
Nov 30, 2011

Nigulus Rex posted:

Why does the damage for the axe come out to 2d8 instead of 1d8?

1d10 made one size category larger becomes 2d8.

Meepo
Jul 30, 2004

Evil Sagan posted:

This is a bit of a long shot, since it seems the general preference is for the full Adventure Paths, but I was wondering if anyone had played or run Feast of Ravenmoor. If so, how was it? Anything that stood out as particularly troublesome or especially awesome? I'm thinking of running it for a new group of level 3 characters, just to get the campaign started.

I played it, and really enjoyed the setting. We found it rather easy, though the fight with the aranea was frustratingly long due to its annoying buff spells. The final fight was pretty hard, too, especially once you finally manage to kill the guy and the weird fly demon thing comes out.

Spincut
Jan 14, 2008

Oh! OSHA gonna make you serve time!
'Cause you an occupational hazard tonight.
What is a good adventure to run for people completely new to Pathfinder? My group has been running 4e for a while now, but we're getting a little bit bored with it and looking for something different. I would probably be DMing and have only the lightest of experience with 3.5e, everyone else would be going in pretty much blind.

Any tips for people new to the system as well?

B.B. Rodriguez
Aug 8, 2005

Bender: "I was God once." God: "Yes, I saw. You were doing well until everyone died."

Buy the beginner box. Then download some modules/Adventure Paths.

Inverse Icarus
Dec 4, 2003

I run SyncRPG, and produce original, digital content for the Pathfinder RPG, designed from the ground up to be played online.
One of my online groups is wrapping up Rise of the Runelords this summer after a hilariously long adventure path. This group has played the same game for literally four years. It's been plagued by surprise layoffs, child births, at least six moves, and trips to Tunisia to study the ruins of ancient Carthage. The DM has assured us that we only have 4-6 sessions left, "depending on how quick we move." One of the players has really been wearing on us, he always takes too long to make decisions in combat and generally just slow at everything. We're not inviting him back next time, but the DM wants to finish out the campaign with him. His estimates are always optimistic, so I'm guessing we're 8 meetings out. We average 3 sessions a month when no one is under some horrible circumstance so we're still 2-3 months from finishing.

Sorry, that was a bit of ranting about the pace of the campaign. Anyway, I've already checked out of my current Monk, and I'm looking into what I could do for my next character.

We're going to start one of the other adventure paths at level 1, in a group of four. When we started our current campaign, I volunteered to be the "bandaid box" next time around. Poor Sarah has had to deal with my monk and the party's barbarian begging for healing for four years. And somehow the poor girl can't hit with a Searing Light to save her life. No idea how she's missed so many ranged touch attacks, but she's had a lot of fun summoning monsters and channeling negative for crazy damage.

So I'm looking to play a healer, but I'd also like to have some real fun with it. I'm trying to come up with some options.

I want to write off Clerics because I've played one before (albiet in my last game of 3.5, and never in PF).

Similarly, I'm playing a Druid in another group, so I'm skipping them too.

I played a witch in another group, but she died at 3rd level. We had a healer, so I focused more on debuffing enemies (blindness/deafness, ray of enfeeblement, evil eye, slumber, etc). Got her rear end handed to her by some evil clerics. I guess I could try again and be more Glenda-like. I did like the hexes, they were fun, and a healer who can fly and/or turn invisible (with the right patron) sounds good to me.

Oracles look rad as hell, I really love the Battle and Flames mysteries. Life seems over the top, you couldn't really ask for more ways to heal people, but the other mysteries give you a ton of other options when nobody needs a heal.

I've always wanted to play a buff-based Bard, but I'm not sure I could get by as the primary healer without a bunch of wands or scrolls.

An Alchemist? They have Cure spells on their lists, but have the same spell progression as Bards. You get Brew Potion, though, which could make up for that a bit. None of the Discoveries really lend themselves to healing, but some are pretty neat, like growing a third arm to swing a second wand, or being able to heal 5 HP as a free action that auto-activates if I fall unconscious. Infusion is interesting, essentially lets me make any of my spells a potion that works at my caster level for free. Plus, bombs are just fun.

Inquisitor? Again, would definitely need wands or scrolls. Judgements seem weak to me, but I've only looked them over a few times. I like the class from a first pass, but I wouldn't really consider it for a healing role.


I'm just doing a stream of consciousness thing here. I'd appreciate any input you guys have, especially since I've never really played with any of the non-CRB classes other than a Witch.

LightWarden
Mar 18, 2007

Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!
Well, the golden rule of healing is to never heal in battle. Unless it's a serious emergency, any actions you spend in battle to heal can probably be better used to end the fight through save-or-lose spells or just plain attacking instead of just prolonging the fight by resetting the party member's HP bar. Similarly, if you want to make sure your party members survive longer, use your spell slots for buffs instead of healing. Cure spells aren't really worth the slot when prepared, since at most you're going to be undoing maybe one attack's worth of damage with your action, while just casting something like Barkskin, Magic Vestment, Shield of Faith, Resist Energy, or Displacement on a party member can prevent several attacks and scales much better at higher levels- Cure spells scale horribly compared to HP and damage counts, and your spells are all capped for the amount you can heal, meaning it takes more of your precious spell slots to heal to full with Cure spells when you could be casting a really good low-level buff instead with that same slot. At higher levels, keep a Heal or two for emergencies, but it's usually better just to take a short break for five minutes and pass around the wands of cure light wounds until everyone has been mostly topped off (they're the most cost effective, 750 gp for 50 charges of 5.5 average HP healed per charge, or half that if you craft it), resting/restocking as needed. It sucks to keep dropping the funds, but that's 3e for you. Though if you do well enough with your long-term buffs and juggling your adventuring day, you shouldn't take too much damage.

The best healer is thus any class with offensive and defensive buff spells that let your party kill faster and survive more fights, and with access to either cure spells or Use Magic Device in order to heal up after battle.

Morbleu
Jun 13, 2006
Anyone have any suggestions on dwarf barb rage powers and feats?

For feats, I can't really think of what to grab other than power attack/cleave/imp cleave. Maybe deepsense to double darkvision to 120 ft, or ironguts for more non combat stuff?

Hell, I don't know.

For rage powers, I'm also just as lost. I was thinking imp damage reduction 3 times once I can take it at 8 to stack on top of the invulnerable rager archetype.

Any input is appreciated.

grah
Jul 26, 2007
brainsss
One of the better and more interesting healers I've seen is a Shield Paladin. You get plenty of Channels and Lay on Hands to raise people's HP, can use wands of CLW or whathaveyou, and can prevent the squishier members of the party from taking damage in the first place, absorbing it instead. Which means you can then Swift Action heal yourself of that damage later on. It's a careful balancing act not to kill yourself but a party that keeps good formation around a Shield Paladin is basically immortal. For a little while.

Meepo
Jul 30, 2004

Nigulus Rex posted:

Anyone have any suggestions on dwarf barb rage powers and feats?

For feats, I can't really think of what to grab other than power attack/cleave/imp cleave. Maybe deepsense to double darkvision to 120 ft, or ironguts for more non combat stuff?

Hell, I don't know.

For rage powers, I'm also just as lost. I was thinking imp damage reduction 3 times once I can take it at 8 to stack on top of the invulnerable rager archetype.

Any input is appreciated.

I wouldn't bother with cleave or improved cleave, unless you think your DM is going to throw lots of swarms of weak creatures at you. Since cleave is a standard action now, you have to give up your iterative attacks in order to do it. If you have to move and won't get iterative attacks, it's probably better to go for Vital Strike.

As far as rage powers, taking the beast totem line is usually a good way to go, since that gives you pounce at level 10. Pick up reckless abandon, come and get me, and maybe something fun like knockback or knockdown and strength surge. Good for what ails you will give you another save versus a whole host of negative effects if you take a swig of booze, and it fits well with a dwarf.


I'd go something like:

1) Power Attack
2) Lesser Beast Totem
3) Raging Vitality
4) Reckless Abandon
5) Extra Rage Power: Knockback
6) Beast Totem
7) Vital Strike
8) Good For What Ails You
9) Improved Crit
10) Greater Beast Totem
11) Extra Rage Power: Strength Surge
12) Come and Get Me


There aren't any powers that require higher than level 12, so at this point you could really just take fighter levels for extra feats.

Meepo fucked around with this message at 07:55 on Jun 23, 2012

Magic Rabbit Hat
Nov 4, 2006

Just follow along if you don't wanna get neutered.

Inverse Icarus posted:

New Healer stuff.

If you're interested in playing an Oracle, you might want to look into the Bones or Juju Mysteries. Bones gives you access to a number of powerful Necromancy school spells, while Juju allows you to make some incredibly powerful Undead creatures.

Alternatively you can check out the Heavens Revelation that reduces your opponent's effective Hit Dice by your Charisma modifier whenever you hit them with an Illusion[Pattern] spell. For example, at 5th level with +5 Charisma bonus, you'll be hitting anything at that CR with the full force of your Colour Spray.

It falls off as you level up, but you'd be surprised how effective a Fascinate effect can be when it hits an entire patrol of enemies.

Magic Rabbit Hat fucked around with this message at 09:01 on Jun 23, 2012

Swags
Dec 9, 2006
Here's a thing, that is actually somewhat spoilery regarding Skull and Shackles, so I'll try not to be too bad about that.

I'm going to be DMing this soon. Everyone's excited to play it, but one of my players plays a wizard. Worse, he plays the wizard the way optimizers tell you to. As in, let's have all of my point buy in INT, then racial stats, then take skill focus enchantment, and then just make everything hostile to us our friends. All of them. This is basically every wizard/cleric/psion he plays. They are ALL THIS GUY. Even in other systems, because even in Mutants and Masterminds or the Hero system, no one really has high mental defenses.

Mister Plugg, the main 'antagonist' of the first book is a 5th level fighter. With a will save of +1. By the time the PCs fight him, they'll be 2nd or 3rd level, so my caster's DCs are going to be around 17 or 18 for his spells. He will basically end the fight. Hell, with him charming everyone on board constantly, I don't even know how the game will be challenging since they're supposed to try to win the pirates to their sides. The other antagonists for the first book are either Will +0 or Will -1. Basically fodder for an enchanter.

I loving -loathe- this when I'm running, and honestly when I'm playing I don't play casters that do this because it isn't fun, it's just balls out boring. "The ogre charges!" "And now he loves me." "...yey."

Basically, we've got a rogue, we've got a gunslinger, and we've likely got a corsair that all want to fight when there's fighting to be done. And I'm really worried this guy is going to just end every combat before it even starts.

RPZip
Feb 6, 2009

WORDS IN THE HEART
CANNOT BE TAKEN
The obvious answer is to talk to the player. You can talk him down and try to convince him to play characters that don't completely break the system, or you can switch to a system that's less effortlessly broken, but honestly just talk to the guy. He might be receptive to it, especially if you get some passive support from the other players. Don't be confrontational or make him feel like he's being ganged up on, but do get across that you think it'll break the module/make your time as a DM much harder/force you to try countermeasures/arms race/whatever.

As a second option you could rebuild most (or all) of the encounters to give them outs against mental magic and high Will saves, but that kind of defeats most of the purpose behind using a prebuilt module.

WAFFLEHOUND
Apr 26, 2007
Oh my God, Drunken Brute Barbarian/Scout Rogue is just the most fun thing in the world to play.

Take all the Step Up feats, drink every round as a move action, rogue trick to reposition yourself around enemies making it impossible to withdraw against you and simple to get into flank. Then just rage and beat the everloving poo poo out of anyone with sneak attack dice flying left and right.

Also sneak attack on charge, just for shits and giggles.

Lunatic Pathos
May 16, 2004

I shouldn't tell you this but you're the only one I can trust...
Are they stuck on a ship with this antagonist? What happens in 3 hours when the spell wears off and the guy is pissed that he's been manipulated and orders the crew to bind and gag the wizard and throw him overboard and to ignore orders to rescind the order? He can't charm the whole gang and if you fight the rest of the crew, you're "threatening" the captain/other crew.

Morbleu
Jun 13, 2006

Meepo posted:

I wouldn't bother with cleave or improved cleave, unless you think your DM is going to throw lots of swarms of weak creatures at you. Since cleave is a standard action now, you have to give up your iterative attacks in order to do it. If you have to move and won't get iterative attacks, it's probably better to go for Vital Strike.

As far as rage powers, taking the beast totem line is usually a good way to go, since that gives you pounce at level 10. Pick up reckless abandon, come and get me, and maybe something fun like knockback or knockdown and strength surge. Good for what ails you will give you another save versus a whole host of negative effects if you take a swig of booze, and it fits well with a dwarf.


I'd go something like:

1) Power Attack
2) Lesser Beast Totem
3) Raging Vitality
4) Reckless Abandon
5) Extra Rage Power: Knockback
6) Beast Totem
7) Vital Strike
8) Good For What Ails You
9) Improved Crit
10) Greater Beast Totem
11) Extra Rage Power: Strength Surge
12) Come and Get Me


There aren't any powers that require higher than level 12, so at this point you could really just take fighter levels for extra feats.

Thanks for the input. Are the extra feats really worth switching into fighter levels after 12 barb?

LightWarden
Mar 18, 2007

Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!

Swags posted:

Here's a thing, that is actually somewhat spoilery regarding Skull and Shackles, so I'll try not to be too bad about that.

I'm going to be DMing this soon. Everyone's excited to play it, but one of my players plays a wizard. Worse, he plays the wizard the way optimizers tell you to. As in, let's have all of my point buy in INT, then racial stats, then take skill focus enchantment, and then just make everything hostile to us our friends. All of them. This is basically every wizard/cleric/psion he plays. They are ALL THIS GUY. Even in other systems, because even in Mutants and Masterminds or the Hero system, no one really has high mental defenses.

Mister Plugg, the main 'antagonist' of the first book is a 5th level fighter. With a will save of +1. By the time the PCs fight him, they'll be 2nd or 3rd level, so my caster's DCs are going to be around 17 or 18 for his spells. He will basically end the fight. Hell, with him charming everyone on board constantly, I don't even know how the game will be challenging since they're supposed to try to win the pirates to their sides. The other antagonists for the first book are either Will +0 or Will -1. Basically fodder for an enchanter.

I loving -loathe- this when I'm running, and honestly when I'm playing I don't play casters that do this because it isn't fun, it's just balls out boring. "The ogre charges!" "And now he loves me." "...yey."

Basically, we've got a rogue, we've got a gunslinger, and we've likely got a corsair that all want to fight when there's fighting to be done. And I'm really worried this guy is going to just end every combat before it even starts.


Well, if you're worried about mind control Protection from Good/Evil blocks charms and compulsions. If the wizard doesn't have any other types of spells prepared it's a lovely way to completely shut a player out of a fight, but that's 3e for you. Optimization is a one-up game of unmovable objects and irresistible forces.

Talk to the player or play a different system, because otherwise you're looking at a caster supremacy arms race.

LightWarden fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Jun 23, 2012

Morbleu
Jun 13, 2006

LightWarden posted:

Well, if you're worried about mind control Protection from Good/Evil blocks charms and compulsions. If the wizard doesn't have any other types of spells prepared it's a lovely way to completely shut a player out of a fight, but that's 3e for you. Optimization is a one-up game of unmovable objects and irresistible forces.

Talk to the player or play a different system, because otherwise you're looking at a caster supremacy arms race.

Well, my group is me (barb), a rogue, an arcane archer (who is literally retarded), and a cleric (also retarded). So I suspect the "caster supremacy arms race" will not be happening until my barb dies and I decide to roll a sorc/wiz.

Inverse Icarus
Dec 4, 2003

I run SyncRPG, and produce original, digital content for the Pathfinder RPG, designed from the ground up to be played online.

Magic Rabbit Hat posted:

If you're interested in playing an Oracle, you might want to look into the Bones or Juju Mysteries. Bones gives you access to a number of powerful Necromancy school spells, while Juju allows you to make some incredibly powerful Undead creatures.

Alternatively you can check out the Heavens Revelation that reduces your opponent's effective Hit Dice by your Charisma modifier whenever you hit them with an Illusion[Pattern] spell. For example, at 5th level with +5 Charisma bonus, you'll be hitting anything at that CR with the full force of your Colour Spray.

It falls off as you level up, but you'd be surprised how effective a Fascinate effect can be when it hits an entire patrol of enemies.

I was going to ask you why the undead created by Juju were so great. Is it because they have maximum hitpoints for their HD? Bones seems neat because the skeletons/zombies created get your Oracle level for their HD... Looks intersting, I'll have to spend some more time here.

What about Oracle curses? Any input?

LightWarden
Mar 18, 2007

Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!

Nigulus Rex posted:

Well, my group is me (barb), a rogue, an arcane archer (who is literally retarded), and a cleric (also retarded). So I suspect the "caster supremacy arms race" will not be happening until my barb dies and I decide to roll a sorc/wiz.

Sorry about that, I was talking to Swags regarding the wizard problem. Should probably have thrown a quote block in there. Will probably go do so.

Magic Rabbit Hat
Nov 4, 2006

Just follow along if you don't wanna get neutered.

Inverse Icarus posted:

I was going to ask you why the undead created by Juju were so great. Is it because they have maximum hitpoints for their HD? Bones seems neat because the skeletons/zombies created get your Oracle level for their HD... Looks intersting, I'll have to spend some more time here.

What about Oracle curses? Any input?
I actually misread the Create Undead rules and didn't realize that Bones Oracles could make Juju Zombies as well, but I wrote up a big thing about why Juju Zombies are so amazing, so here you go;

Juju Zombies get, over and above regular Zombies, +3 Natural Armor bonus above the base creature's NA bonus, Channel Resistance +4, DR 5/Magic and Slashing (or DR 10/Magic and Slashing if it has 11HD), an extra oversized Slam attack (deals damage dice one degree above it's current size), +4 str, +2 Dex, Improved Initiative and Toughness, and most importantly, they aren't perma-Staggered. As a bonus, it also keeps any Hit Dice derived from levels, so reanimating a dead enemy Barbarian lets him keep his D12s and class abilities.

Now, all that being said, I'd probably still take Bones if I wanted to be a Necromancer type, just because you get a very long list of good abilities and bonus spells.

As for Oracle curses, it depends on your campaign. Haunted is the old Powergaming standby since the downsides can be reduced with a Handy Haversack. Deafness is good, Blindness is fun for casting Oracle's Burden on people. Most of the Curses just come down to what's interesting for you and how you can have fun with it.

Inverse Icarus
Dec 4, 2003

I run SyncRPG, and produce original, digital content for the Pathfinder RPG, designed from the ground up to be played online.
Unrelated to all my Oracle stuff: Is there a magic item that gives a significant bonus to saves against fear? My cohort in this game is constantly terrified of dragons and mummies and poo poo.

lesbian baphomet
Nov 30, 2011

The only one I saw was the Torc of Lionheart Fury in the APG Wonderous Items list. It also gives some Barbarian bonus stuff, though, so if you're only using it for the +2 morale bonus against fear, it's going to be kind of overpriced.

There's also always just a Cloak of Resistance, which gives bonuses to all saves for a fairly reasonable price. And it's no item, but Bless also happens to give +1 to save against fear.

Stool Sample
Nov 8, 2006

EVERYONE Poops!?

Lipstick Apathy
My group just completed Feast of Ravenmoore(sp?) today, and almost had a TPK at the endboss. I ended up casting 'cause fear' on it, and scared it off (I think the GM felt bad for us) :psyduck:

I think the evil-dude's channel spell is what really messed us up, but we were having crap rolls all night. He ran off away from his followers after exhausting all his other spells, and then proceeded to gently caress our poo poo up repeatedly. It took us like a goddamned hour just to get him incapacitated, THEN the big bug showed up and we just about cried. Ugh.

Anyways, anyone else going to Paizocon? It wasn't until I ordered a Ruby Phoenix t-poo poo (free do-over, WOO!) that I found out they were based in my city, and I have a day off that weekend. I'm pretty excited. :allears:

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Your Gay Uncle
Feb 16, 2012

by Fluffdaddy
Can anyone give me a quick round up on getting a new familiar with a witch? All I could find was how to replace a lost or dead familiar, but I just want to trade my familiar with a new one. If I do replace it, what happens to the old one? Does it still have all my spells, or does it just become a regular hegehog?

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