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For a Magus starting at level 6 with 16k gold, would it better for them to be an elf or a tiefling? Ability score wise I like the tiefling more since Charisma seems to be more readily a dump stat than Constitution, but Elves can have an extra arcana at this point (In my head, 2 CON=Toughness=1 feat=1 Arcana?) so it comes down to the racial traits of the two. The one I am building now has 22 in DEX and INT, and is a Kensai with Dervish Dance, so that is a +12 to AC, next level a +12 to initiative, and the magus arcana I picked out let me add the INT to Attack rolls or even more into AC.
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Dec 30, 2014 00:10
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From the prd:prd posted:When adding new levels of an existing class or adding levels of a new class (see Multiclassing, below), make sure to take the following steps in order. First, select your new class level. You must be able to qualify for this level before any of the following adjustments are made. Second, apply any ability score increases due to gaining a level. Third, integrate all of the level's class abilities and then roll for additional hit points. Finally, add new skills and feats. For more information on when you gain new feats and ability score increases, see Table: Character Advancement and Level-Dependent Bonuses. e: If you take an odd level in Rogue and are not yet trained in acrobatics, you can put a skill point into acrobatics and immediately take Extra Rogue Talent: Acrobatic Stunt as your feat. But if you take an even level in Rogue, you need to choose your Rogue Talent class feature before you assign skill points, so if you're not trained in acrobatics yet you can't take Acrobatic Stunt this level. Thanks, Pathfinder. Lottery of Babylon fucked around with this message at 00:26 on Dec 30, 2014 |
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Dec 30, 2014 00:14
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Gensuki posted:For a Magus starting at level 6 with 16k gold, would it better for them to be an elf or a tiefling? Ability score wise I like the tiefling more since Charisma seems to be more readily a dump stat than Constitution, but Elves can have an extra arcana at this point (In my head, 2 CON=Toughness=1 feat=1 Arcana?) so it comes down to the racial traits of the two. Tiefling is pretty great. It comes with being an Outsider, which means automatic immunity to all the "____ person" spells, and cold and fire resistance will both be constantly useful until the end of time. As a non-sorcerer (unless you're taking Eldritch Heritage, assuming your DM rules that that counts for the ability) there's basically no reason not to swap Fiendish Sorcery for Prehensile Tail and be able to ready potions, etc as a swift action. There's also a giant list of minor abilities your DM may let you swap the relatively useless darkness 1/day for. Comparatively, with Elf the biggest benefits you get are +2 Perception, +2 against spell resistance, and getting all "elven" weapons as martial, though I think the only really noticeable one of those is the elven curve blade (d10 damage, two handed, can be used with Weapon Finesse, +2 to CMD), which isn't all that eye-catching. Roadie fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Dec 30, 2014 |
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Dec 30, 2014 00:20
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Sorry for the super n00b questions but I am having trouble tracking this mechanic down:pathfinder ogc posted:Drowning The question is: what is a Constitution check? I thought it might be a typo and they meant "Fortitude check" since that is derived in part by your Constitution score, but the paragraphs preceding this talk about the Fortitude check so clearly I'm missing something here. I find no reference to Constitution checks other than that you have to make them, but now what they actually are. I can only assume it means "Roll your Constitution or less on a 20 sided die" but that is a wild rear end guess.
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Jan 6, 2015 18:48
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A "DC# X check" means "roll a d20 and add X to it, then compare it to the DC, if equal or higher you succeed". It doesn't matter whether X is an ability score, a skill, initiative, or anything else.
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Jan 6, 2015 18:53
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Zurai posted:A "DC# X check" means "roll a d20 and add X to it, then compare it to the DC, if equal or higher you succeed". It doesn't matter whether X is an ability score, a skill, initiative, or anything else. Except when it's an ability check, in which case you add your ability modifier and not ability score. Note: there is literally no reason for ability scores to not have been replaced with modifiers in Pathfinder, they just didn't want to scare grogs.
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Jan 6, 2015 19:03
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Roadie posted:Except when it's an ability check, in which case you add your ability modifier and not ability score. Yeah, mea culpa. I just automatically use the modifier for everything and forget that new players don't know to do that. So yeah, for ability checks (and everything else involving ability scores except ability damage) you use the ability modifier.
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Jan 6, 2015 19:06
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Zurai posted:Yeah, mea culpa. I just automatically use the modifier for everything and forget that new players don't know to do that. Which makes it different from the Fortitude check because that adds your class bonus as well, right? So I'm a Level 1 Monk with a CON of 15 who is drowning, I would have to make a Constitution check by rolling a D20 and adding a 2 as indicated in this chart: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/basics-ability-scores/ability-scores I wouldn't add my Class bonus of +2 as indicated in this chart, which is used to build the Fortitude saving throw (Base class save for level + abiilty modifier + magic modifier + misc modifier + temp modifier): http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/monk Makes sense. Thanks !
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Jan 6, 2015 19:15
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Gensuki posted:For a Magus starting at level 6 with 16k gold, would it better for them to be an elf or a tiefling? Ability score wise I like the tiefling more since Charisma seems to be more readily a dump stat than Constitution, but Elves can have an extra arcana at this point (In my head, 2 CON=Toughness=1 feat=1 Arcana?) so it comes down to the racial traits of the two. I'm in a similar boat actually, only I've somehow determined that I want to make a Bladebound Kensai with a bound dueling sword, which is statistically inferior compared to the scimitar (worse crit range), but hey gotta have some flavour. Also note that enlarge person won't work on you for that sexy increased reach.
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Jan 6, 2015 20:24
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Baudin posted:I'm in a similar boat actually, only I've somehow determined that I want to make a Bladebound Kensai with a bound dueling sword, which is statistically inferior compared to the scimitar (worse crit range), but hey gotta have some flavour. Also note that enlarge person won't work on you for that sexy increased reach. Good thing Long Arm is a spell now! And since you're Dervishing, most of the other benefits of Enlarge aren't actually benefits.
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Jan 7, 2015 00:36
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I forgot about that spell! Which is awkward since we recently came into possession of a bracers of longarm. This is the same campaign as my ridiculous(ly bad) Sleuth/Mysterious Stranger/Picaroon which died awfully to a giant's crit. Apparently walking into his reach to shoot him in the face on the same turn the fighter got feared out of the room was a bad idea. Good thing I like making new characters, and the GM is ok with me rerolling. e: I can't seem to find anything in the bladebound description that states the weapon has to be sized appropriately. If I was into slightly more cheese I'd run an oversized limbs tiefling for that pitiful .5 or so damage per hit. Baudin fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Jan 7, 2015 |
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Jan 7, 2015 00:49
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Eh, weapon size isn't cheesy until you have to make your weapon out of mithral to avoid it weighing several tons. Though vaguely related - does vital strike apply on an AoO? Titan mauler barbarian (houseruled to actually work) is my favourite archetype, and I was wondering if I could combine it with Come And Get Me + vital strike to bisect anyone who dares attack me?
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Jan 7, 2015 16:08
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Ambi posted:Though vaguely related - does vital strike apply on an AoO? No. It's only usable when you use the attack action. You also can't combine it with charging, Spring Attack or anything else that would make it actually useful.
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Jan 7, 2015 16:31
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Goddamnit. So the only thing it is actually useful for is doing almost-normal damage on the first round? (assuming you don't charge because who wants to double-move or get attack bonuses?) for only the cost of 3 feats because fighters need something to spend their bonus feats on, right?  Edit: wait, not even anywhere near normal damage, since damage relies heavily on static modifiers and it only adds those once. Fucks sake.
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Jan 7, 2015 16:45
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Vital Strike is only useful for Mythic Vital Strike. If you're not playing Mythic, yeah, it's a trap feat/chain.
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Jan 7, 2015 16:51
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Ambi posted:Goddamnit. So the only thing it is actually useful for is doing almost-normal damage on the first round? (assuming you don't charge because who wants to double-move or get attack bonuses?) for only the cost of 3 feats because fighters need something to spend their bonus feats on, right? Ambi posted:Edit: wait, not even anywhere near normal damage, since damage relies heavily on static modifiers and it only adds those once. Fucks sake. Mythic Vital Strike gets to add modifiers, but still can't actually combine with anything else. 
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Jan 7, 2015 16:52
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Roadie posted:Mythic Vital Strike gets to add modifiers, but still can't actually combine with anything else. Yeah, but at least at that point, it has a purpose; it's a damage boost against high-AC targets and increases mobility for characters that can't get Pounce. It's not great or anything, but at least it isn't an offensively awful trap.
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Jan 7, 2015 16:54
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Speaking of mythic: are the adventure path and splat books worth it or are they a waste of time? We're about halfway through Rise of the Runelords and I think the rest of the party (and especially the GM) really appreciate the writing and background to the story presented so I'll likely get another adventure path once we're finished (in about 9 months or so). In a similar vein does anyone have a recommendation of a good adventure path to play around with? Lets not get into balance too much though - the GM (and myself as well when I was running it to start) has vastly increased the difficulty to no avail, not withstanding my tragic death last week.
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Jan 7, 2015 17:06
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Quite frankly, IMO the adventure paths are basically the only reason to play Pathfinder. They're basically the gold standard of prewritten modules. There are gripes to be made about the tuning (they're mostly too easy, even without an optimized party. If anyone has a clue... Forget it), but nothing any half decent GM can't solve with a little bit of planning.
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Jan 7, 2015 17:21
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Most of the adventure paths are hilariously under-difficulty, being designed for a 4-person party of unoptimised 15-point buy characters. If you mean the mythic adventure path, it is even more so under-par for difficulty, but the story seems reasonably fun from reading through it. And the main thinking point of mythic is that it tends to act like rocket fuel to balance. Martials get fun things, and pseudo-pounce, though that plus an extra attack falls a bit short whenever all casters get a no-limits the quickened spell for the exact same cost. I liked the mythic splatbooks, they seemed good reading for an epic-fantasy type campaign.
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Jan 7, 2015 17:24
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I tried to find it, but how does multiclassing work with BAB? I'm going Ninja with 1 level in Monk, what would my BAB be at level 2? Would it still be 0? Goal is a fun Ninja/Wayang who does non-lethal fwiw.
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Jan 7, 2015 17:42
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sugar free jazz posted:I tried to find it, but how does multiclassing work with BAB? I'm going Ninja with 1 level in Monk, what would my BAB be at level 2? Would it still be 0? You just add the BAB of the classes together. In your example, the BAB would still be 0.
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Jan 7, 2015 17:54
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CaptainPsyko posted:Quite frankly, IMO the adventure paths are basically the only reason to play Pathfinder. They're basically the gold standard of prewritten modules. There are gripes to be made about the tuning (they're mostly too easy, even without an optimized party. If anyone has a clue... Forget it), but nothing any half decent GM can't solve with a little bit of planning. Any in particular that you would recommend? I've seen a portion of Kingmaker and Serpent's Skull
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Jan 7, 2015 17:57
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Curse of the Crimson Throne is near universally adored on the Paizo boards, and my group finished it up about two years ago. Go with that one. Reign of Winter started awesome, but our DM's interest in it petered out, so we never got to finish it. From what I gather, it was also very good.
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Jan 7, 2015 18:30
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Snorb posted:Curse of the Crimson Throne is near universally adored on the Paizo boards, and my group finished it up about two years ago. Go with that one. Apparently it's out of print, any recommendations on where to pick it up?
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Jan 7, 2015 18:32
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sugar free jazz posted:I tried to find it, but how does multiclassing work with BAB? I'm going Ninja with 1 level in Monk, what would my BAB be at level 2? Would it still be 0? Still +0, unless you can find a GM who'd use the fractional BAB rules from 3.5 D&D's Unearthed Arcana, so your two levels in a 3/4 BAB class add together to give you BAB +1.5, rounding down to +1. One of the reasons multiclassing doesn't really work that great.
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Jan 7, 2015 19:49
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Snorb posted:Curse of the Crimson Throne is near universally adored on the Paizo boards, and my group finished it up about two years ago. Go with that one. My DM says Reign of Winter turns into a corridor - very little chance for exploration or investigation. He speaks quite highly of the first half of Carrion Crown - book 1's mix of dungeon and town exploration works well, and the emphasis on ability damage instead of HP damage makes things bit less lethal at low levels. Book 2 has players investigating with a tight time limit. Unfortunately, it's rather construct-heavy, which can be annoying in combat. I can't say much about book 3 because I think we accidentally skipped a lot of it. Book 4 is best skipped, since it's Cthulhu, feels really out of place and is far too high-stakes for the middle of an adventure path. Book 5 and 6 has a fair amount of dungeons and monsters, but the investigation and plot is sparser.
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Jan 7, 2015 20:37
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Roadie posted:No. It's only usable when you use the attack action. You also can't combine it with charging, Spring Attack or anything else that would make it actually useful. We houseruled it to work during charges and it's not half bad for melee-types who can't pounce to start combat off with. Close the distance, hit a little harder than you normally could. There are certainly better options out there but it's not the worst thing in the world.
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Jan 7, 2015 22:27
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Thanks yall. It's really silly that BAB progression isn't just additive rounding down but if I gave a poo poo I'd be Human and not Wayang so whateva.
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Jan 7, 2015 22:29
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sugar free jazz posted:Thanks yall. It's really silly that BAB progression isn't just additive rounding down but if I gave a poo poo I'd be Human and not Wayang so whateva. BAB is just additive, in that you add up the BAB from each of your classes. They don't "stack" or "accumulate" in any way that would involve fractions, you just look at what a level 3 Ninja has and add it to what a level 2 Fighter has and blam.
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Jan 7, 2015 22:43
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So i've read through a few of the adventures and I find that it seems to start really well and then by book 5 and 6 its just degraded into a giant dungeon crawl or lists of encounters in an area with virtually no plot involved beyond getting to the end. Do the authors just not have much of an idea what you should be doing narratively beyond level 15 or so? Are there any which have a more interesting finish that grinding through walls of enemies that largely pose no threat?
kingcom fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Jan 7, 2015 |
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Jan 7, 2015 23:32
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kingcom posted:So i've read through a few of the adventures and I find that it seems to start really well and then by book 5 and 6 its just degraded into a giant dungeon crawl or lists of encounters in an area with virtually no plot involved beyond getting to the end. Do the authors just not have much of an idea what you should be doing narratively beyond level 15 or so? No-one in the history of D&D has ever had much idea what the hell to do with high level D&D PCs.
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Jan 7, 2015 23:33
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Mummy's Mask is probably the highest density of dungeons I've seen to the point where I got dungeon fatigue just skimming it. It sort of comes with the territory since it's all about mummies and tomb-raiding and all that crap, but seriously- books 4 and 6 are pretty much a single dungeon each, book 3 is the trip to book 4's dungeon and book 5 is a series of dungeons that prepare you to go into book 6's dungeon.
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Jan 7, 2015 23:48
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Inverse Icarus posted:We houseruled it to work during charges and it's not half bad for melee-types who can't pounce to start combat off with. Close the distance, hit a little harder than you normally could.
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Jan 7, 2015 23:49
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Baudin posted:Apparently it's out of print, any recommendations on where to pick it up? I think you can get the PDF's from Paizo. That said, Curse of the Crimson Throne, while good, has the baggage of being originally made for 3.5 and not having been converted the way that Runelords was. It's more prepwork to GM as a result, but it's also less dependent upon piles of splatbooks, so YMMV as to whether you're fond of that. As for other recommendations: Reign of Winter is one that I like a lot because it cleverly dodges any dependency upon the motivations of your PC's by slapping a Geas on them early on in book one. Yes, it's a tad railroady, but the adventure doesn't really railroad the PC's too much beyond that. They're more or less free to do their own thing and explore the various places they end up, and pursue their own objectives, but if they get too off course, you have an easy chain to yank to pull them back into the plot. It also has the advantage of presenting some pretty wildly varied geography through it's dimension hopping and... kingcom posted:So i've read through a few of the adventures and I find that it seems to start really well and then by book 5 and 6 its just degraded into a giant dungeon crawl or lists of encounters in an area with virtually no plot involved beyond getting to the end. Do the authors just not have much of an idea what you should be doing narratively beyond level 15 or so? Are there any which have a more interesting finish that grinding through walls of enemies that largely pose no threat? Reign of Winter uses it's dimension hopping to throw high level PC's up against Russian soldiers and tanks in WWI. While they still don't pose any challenge without the DM doing some tuning, it does provide a lot of opportunity for shenanigans and hilarity. As for other AP's that are notable: Kingmaker is widely beloved because it's super-freeform and open ended, but the downside is that eventually it devolves into kingdom management at a level that just isn't really satisfying as a regular tabletop game. Wrath of the Righteous, I haven't really played, but if you're intrigued by mythic rules, it's The Mythic AP, specifically designed to work with those rules. It's probably the single most railroady of the AP's in terms of having very strong expectations about player alignments and motivations; You Are Crusaders and You Have Joined The Army To Kill A Whole Lot of Demons Goddamnit. That rubs some groups the wrong way. Skulls and Shackles has a lot of the advantages of Kingmaker, but with fewer of the downsides. If you want to use the AP as more of a jumping off point to build towards a mid-high level sandbox (while still having a few ready made dungeons and objectives waiting for your PC's), it's pretty great. And who doesn't love pirates!? Jade Regent picks up where Runelords left off to some extent, but everything I'd stay away unless you're really dead set on resolving Sandpoints unfinished business; it's pretty clearly below the standards of the others from the portions I've read.
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Jan 7, 2015 23:51
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Wrath of the Righteous is hard as hell to balance but they keep the story going strong throughout, except maybe book 3. e: book 3, rather. it does focus on the PCs back stories though, and ties their campaign traits into the world (The Heirophant one is a doozy, let me tell you) Eox fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Jan 7, 2015 |
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Jan 7, 2015 23:55
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Both Kingmaker and Skull & Shackles have problems where their final antagonists are just sort of... there. Kingmaker's has been kind of behind the scenes but still "who the gently caress is this guy?" is a pretty common response; but Skull & Shackles is so bad in that the people who were built up as both your antagonist and the person behind that person are both dealt with by the end of the first half of book 6, leaving the final boss someone your PCs go after because he's ~kind of a dick~, I guess (and has nice stuff). He's also probably the most mechanically underwhelming final boss they've done because he's a noncaster with a mediocre flavor PrC. Seriously, no Devil Pirate Harrigan?
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Jan 8, 2015 00:05
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CaptainPsyko posted:Wrath of the Righteous, I haven't really played, but if you're intrigued by mythic rules, it's The Mythic AP, specifically designed to work with those rules. It's probably the single most railroady of the AP's in terms of having very strong expectations about player alignments and motivations; You Are Crusaders and You Have Joined The Army To Kill A Whole Lot of Demons Goddamnit. That rubs some groups the wrong way. Considering at least two of the other players had extreme suspicions that I was forming an opposing faction within the group since I rolled an "evil" character (who was actively helping the party due to hating the BBEG more) this seems like a good place to go next. I've played the most RPGs out of the group so I'm a bit more eager to bend or break generic Tolkien tropes, although everyone else has very prominent murder hobo traits, including the wives/gfs.
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Jan 8, 2015 00:05
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kingcom posted:So i've read through a few of the adventures and I find that it seems to start really well and then by book 5 and 6 its just degraded into a giant dungeon crawl or lists of encounters in an area with virtually no plot involved beyond getting to the end. Do the authors just not have much of an idea what you should be doing narratively beyond level 15 or so? Are there any which have a more interesting finish that grinding through walls of enemies that largely pose no threat? Any reasonable D&D campaign at levels 15+ would absolutely require careful and extensive thought and pacing by the GM, varying house rules or bonus stuff to even out the party, and hooks dealing with PC histories and subplots, none of which properly fits in the AP format. The whole "lasts from 1-20" aspect of the APs is the weakest part, they should cut it down to three books, end at level 12, and then double the total number of paths from working at the same pace.
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Jan 8, 2015 01:03
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At 15+ they just need a setting to rampage around in.
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Jan 8, 2015 01:05
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