Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Nobody expects the Inquisitionator

I saw this build mentioned on a forum, and it sounded interesting.  Going to take a crack at it E6 style. I'm going to cheat just slightly with a +2 weapon because it's more amusing. Also going with a belt of giant strength to partially compensate for no shield or second weapon. I guess we can call this guy well equipped. Also, I'm calling a greatsword his deity-favored weapon, and could adjust the chosen domain as necessary.

Class: Inquisitor 6
Domain: Magic

Str: 20 (17 +1 level +2 human) [13]
Dex: 13 [3]
Con: 13 [3]
Int: 13 [3]
Wis: 14 [5]
Cha: 8 [-2]

Gear: +1 corrosive large greatsword, fullplate +1, belt of giant strength +2, deflection +1

Abilities: Magic domain (throw a large greatsword like a boss), inquisitor judgments (generally +2 sacred bonus on attack rolls), solo tactics for teamwork feats, bane, tons of not-immediately-combat-related-but-still-interesting things.

H1: Heavy Armor Proficiency
L1: Weapon Focus: Greatsword
L3: Power Attack
I3: Precise Strike
L5: Furious Focus
I6: Outflank
E7: Cleave

Spells:
1st: CLW, Divine Favor, Shield of Faith, Protection from Evil
2nd: Cure mod, Invisibility, Hold Person, Resist Energy?

Active buffs for attack line purposes: Divine Favor, Shield of Faith.

Hit:
6 str
4 BAB
1 weapon enhancement
1 weapon focus
2 luck (divine favor)
2 sacred (justice inquisition)
-2 size adjustment
= +14

Optional hit:
2 sacred (bane)
4 flanking

Damage:
9 str
6 power attack
1 enhancement
2 luck
= +18

Optional damage:
+1d6 on flank
+2d6 bane

Normal attack:  +14 [4d6+18]
Bane attack:  +16 [6d6+18]
Flanking attack: +18 [5d6+18]
Bane + flank:  +20 [7d6+18]

AC:
10 base
9 armor
1 armor enhancement
1 dex
3 deflection
= 24

Notes on attacks:  Having only the one attack opens up doors for stuff like the cleave chain, which won't interrupt a full attack action here because there's no second attack to sacrifice.  It also makes spring attack viable (however gimped at 20 base speed), hence the 13 dex to qualify.  Also, 13 int to qualify further for whirlwind attack.  A potential "epic" level feat would be Vital Strike (req. +6 BAB) as that would make the 3d6 base damage of the large greatsword 6d6, so we'd be starting normal attacks at 7d6 and going up to 10d6.

Notes on defense:  Shield of Swings is a quick addition for emergency shield bonus (and I'm not sure whether halving the damage output as written applies only to the base weapon damage or the whole damage output), and this qualifies for dodge eventually.  Some kind of natural armor amulet would probably be high on the list of priorities.  Combat Expertise is part of the Whirlwind Attack chain, and there's clearly +hit to spare here for that dodge bonus.

Why the Magic domain?  Because the mental image of chucking a large 2-handed weapon 30' for basically fireball damage +18 is highly amusing.  More thematically appropriate domains would be War (grant someone else +3 hit for 1 round) and Strength (grant someone else +3 hit for 1 round) or its Ferocity subdomain (+3 damage on an individual attack 5 times a day, which would bring the combat lines to +21 damage in most cases).

I also like that this character isn't totally gimped in terms of non-combat utility.  He has a lot of Inqisitor flavor stuff (discern lies, monster lore, track, detect alignment, healing and other spells) and decent skill ranks (6 + int).  I might decide to flesh this out more with skills and traits later.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Another (bad) bard

Bored at work, taking another shot at a bard build.

Class: Bard 6 (Arcane Duelist)
Race: Halfling!

Str: 8 (10-2 race) [0]
Dex:  20 (17 +1 level +2 race) [13]
Con: 12 [2]
Int: 14 [5]
Wis: 10 [10]
Cha: 16 (14 +2 race)  [5]

L1: Weapon Proficiency: Scimitar
B1: Arcane Strike
L3: Weapon Finesse
B2: Combat Casting
L5: Dervish Dance
B6: Disruptive
E7: Combat Expertise or Reflexes?

Hit (using bladethirst for keen):
5 dex
4 BAB
2 cat's grace
1 weapon enhancement
1 size
= +13

Damage (using bladethirst for keen):
5 dex
2 cat's grace
2 arcane strike
1 weapon enhancement
= +10

AC: 24ish?  (10 base, 4 studded leather +1, 5 dex, 3 heavy shield +1, 1 size, 1 deflection, possibly more on combat expertise)

+13 [1d4+10] = .40(12.5) + .30(.70(25) + .30(12.5)) = 11.375 DPR (erk)

Hit (using inspire courage): +15
Damage: +12

+15 [1d4+12] = .65(14.5) + .15(.80(29) + .20(14.5)) = 13.34 DPR (still erk)

It's almost not worth drilling down into arcane duelist at this level, since inspire courage is better than the available weapon enhancements (even feating for crit boosts since you can't get the weapon burst stuff in E6) and no matter how much you build for melee combat you'll never match the other classes, and you're gimping your non-combat utility to get there.  You can't even get piranha strike since scimitars aren't light, and swapping out for a light weapon (while opening up a feat [and technically normal weapon proficiency feats don't seem to exist in the Pathfinder SRD, so the whole premise is on shaky ground to begin with]) loses you the +5 dex bonus to damage, so you can't break even.

Maybe it works better with ranged weapons, or some kind of combat maneuver build (whips?).  I may work up a standard bard just to see how it looks.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Shoehorning in a prestige class

I commented the other day that archetypes make a fantastic replacement for prestige classes in terms of mechanical diversification.  So now I've spent most of the morning thinking about whether prestige classes can even work in an E6 environment, given that at best you're looking at precisely one prestige level, and the mechanical/flavor essence of the class typically doesn't emerge until you're midway through its progression.

I've also been meaning to toy around with a decent-charisma rogue build.  I'll take aim at both birds here, though I don't think this is a playable character in our current campaign, given that the prestige class is necessarily evil and built around an exotic weapon, which seems silly.

Class: Rogue 5 (scout archetype) / Red Mantis Assassin 1
Race: Human

Str: 12 [2]
Dex: 20 (17 + 1 level + 2 human) [13]
Con: 12 [2]
Int: 14 [5]
Wis: 8 [-2]
Cha: 14 [5]

H1: Alertness
L1: Exotic Weapon Prof (Sawtooth Sabre)
L3: Two Weapon Fighting
L5:  Weapon Focus (Sawtooth Sabre)
E7:  Weapon Finesse
Bonus:  Weapon Specialization (Sawtooth Sabre) (from prestige class)
Bonus:  Dodge
RP1:  Offensive Defense (+4 dodge AC bonus for one round after dealing sneak attack damage)
RP2:  Combat Trick (bonus combat feat)

Abilities:  Sneak attack +4d6, Trap Sense +1, Scout's Charge, Evasion, Trapfinding, first level spells
Equipment: Studded Leather +1, Deflection +1, 2x Sawtooth Sabres +1

To hit:
3 BAB
5 dex
1 Weapon Focus
1 weapon enhancement
-2 two weapon fighting
= +8

Damage:
1 strength
1 weapon enhancement
2 weapon spec
= +4

AC:
10 base
5 dex
3 armor
1 armor enhancement
1 deflection
1 dodge
= AC 21

Normal Attack:
+8 [1d8+4]
+8 [1d8+4]
AC 21

Flanking Attack:
+10 [1d8 + 4d6 + 4]
+10 [1d8 + 4d6 + 4]
AC 25 (assuming a hit) or 21

Charge Attack: 
+10 [1d8 + 4d6 + 4]
AC 23 (assuming a hit) or 19

This build is focused on getting into flanking position and using 4d6 sneak attack dice to do the bulk of his damage, plus boosting his AC for survivability from the rogue trick.  Mobility is probably the next feat to take at E8.  If flanking isn't possible, the scout archetype allows him to get one sneak attack on a charge, which helps his poor hit value and still potentially puts him ahead of base in terms of AC.  And if neither flanking nor charge is possible, he has first level illusion/transmutation spells (two to cast, don't know how many known - that chart is missing from the SRD), so:

Color Spray: Stun targets for one round, which denies them dex, which opens up sneak attack
Vanish:  Invisibility for 1 round, which would set up a next-round sneak attack (unless the one round ticks off at the start of the next round instead of the end?  Only having one caster level makes this tough.)

Either way, it's a more involved melee style that requires mobility and adaptabiltity rather than standing still and hacking away, it replaces some of the stealthy/skillsy stuff we lost when we killed our previous rogue, and its primary weakness (requiring lots of feats to establish) is mitigated by the E6 format where feats should come easily.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Another ranger concept

I've been mentally juggling the concepts of natural attack and unarmed strike characters for a couple of days, and I'd like to see how one or two builds look on paper.

Name: Three Primary Natural Attack Moon
Class: Ranger 4 (Shapeshifter)/ Barbarian 2
Race: Half-Orc with Toothy alternative trait

Str:  18 (15 [7] +1 level + 2 racial)
Dex:  16 [10]
Con:  14 [5]
Int:  10 [0]
Wis: 14 [5]
Cha: 8 [-2]


L1: Power Attack
R2: Improved Natural Weapon (claws)
L3: Weapon Focus (claw)
L5:  Aspect of the Beast (as a backup for when we're out of rage rounds)
E7:  Dodge

How this build works:  Raging with the lesser beast totem rage trait gives him two claws as primary attacks, and a bite as a third primary, which all occur at the highest BAB without dipping into TWF feat chains.  The +4 strength from Shifter's Blessing and +4 from raging should provide ample hit and damage bonuses, while high dex helps mitigate the AC loss from raging.  I've also squeezed in a decent wisdom score for rangery skill bonuses (and spell DC for Hunter's Howl, his one spell).  I had to take Aspect of the Beast for backup claws, since we only get eight rage rounds with this build.  I also took dodge for general defensive help, plus it opens various dex-based feat chains down the line.

Bonus class features: Uncanny dodge, endurance, hunter's bond (party bonus), track, wild empathy, fast movement (negated by Shifter's Blessing)
Rage trait: Lesser Beast Totem
Combat Style: Natural Weapon
Favored Enemy: Evil Outsiders or Humans, haven't decided which fits thematically
Equipment: Breastplate +1, Amulet of Mighty Fists +1 (could swap to +1d6 something), +1 deflection item

To hit:
+4 str
+2 str enhancement (shifter's blessing)
+2 str morale (rage)
+6 BAB
+1 weapon focus
+1 enhancement
-2 power attack
= +14

Damage:
+4 str
+2 str enhancement (shifter's blessing)

+2 str morale (rage)
+1 enhancement
+4 power attack
= +13

Normal attack block:
+14 [1d8+13]
+14 [1d8+13]
+13 [1d4+12]

Versus favored enemy (via Hunter's Howl or otherwise):
+16 [1d8+15]
+16 [1d8+15]
+15 [1d4+14]

AC:
10 base
6 armor
1 armor enhancement
3 dex
1 deflection
1 dodge
-2 rage
= 20 AC

Not bad.  Going full ranger instead brings some things to the table (but removes others).  He'd lose the rage bonus (-2 hit and damage, +2 AC) and a weapon size category, 10 speed, and uncanny dodge, but he'd get an extra feat, a second favored enemy and an enhanced first one, the opportunity for a more robust animal companion, and one more 1st level spell slot.  Given that he's not exactly hurting for damage output, it could be a worthwhile tradeoff.

This operates under the assumption that an Amulet of Mighty Fists, with a +1 enhancement, transmits that bonus to natural attacks to qualify as magical for DR purposes.  If not a feat (6th level ranger bonus?) could be expended for Eldritch Claws.

I'm thinking full ranger might be the way to go, now that I'm writing through this.  The loss of rage can be replaced by the improved favored enemy bonus in many cases, plus then I don't have to fucking deal with tracking rage rounds, fatigue penalties, or stepping on Ryan's barbarian toes.  New attack block looks something like:

Normal:
+12 [1d6+11]
+12 [1d6+11]
+11 [1d4+10]

Main favored enemy:
+16 [1d6+15]
+16 [1d6+15]

+15 [1d6+14]

Secondary favored/Hunter's Howl (assuming I'm reading it correctly that it caps at +2 and doesn't scale with normal main favored enemy bonuses):
+14 [1d6+13]

+14 [1d6+13]

+13 [1d6+12]

Plus then the party bond could transmit a +2/+2 (or +1 depending on target) stacking bonus against favored enemies for everyone else for two rounds, easily maintained with move actions.  AC bumped up to 22.  Plus all the ranger flavor stuff.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Sword & Board City Ranger Demon Hunter Vampirate

The vampirate thing is made up (or it is until Ryan GNCs).  If parts of this entry seem disjointed, it's because this is getting a severe edit after I consulted the Pathfinder boards and learned some things about the nuances of shield bashing, and specifically how the Shield Master feat is seriously broken, and how (if the SRD is accurate) letting a 6th level ranger have access to it is mindboggling.

Broken feature #1:  "You do not suffer any penalties on attack rolls made with a shield while you are wielding another weapon."  I originally took this to mean the feat eliminates the armor penalty to OH attacks made with a shield.  What it actually does is that plus eliminating two weapon fighting penalties during shield bash attacks (edited to remove OMGCAPS when I realized the penalty still applies to the MH attack).
Broken feature #2:  "Add your shield’s enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls made with the shield as if it were a weapon enhancement bonus."  Point 2a) This means you can save money by not enchaning shield spikes separately as a weapon.  Point 2b) Or it means you can double-up on enchantments, overloading the spikes with offensive stuff and leaving the shield enchantment as a straight +whatever.  At E6 levels it won't make a huge difference, since I'm loosely guessing equipment caps are at +2, which means the most benefit this could translate to is using +2 on the shield and +1 +flaming (or whatever element you want) on the spikes, making it a sum total +2 +flaming on attacks.  But that's still a free +1 to hit.
Str:  18 (16+2 human) [10]
Dex:  18 (17+1 level) [13]
Con:  12 [2]
Int:  10 [0]
Wis:  12 [2]
Cha: 8 [-2]

Not necessarily thrilled with building all these low-int low-cha combat characters, but I guess I'll have earned it after Norben.  At least I avoided making that charisma a 7.  As a melee character the strength is important, but I also needed at least a 17 dex to make the prerequisite for improved two weapon fighting, and if you're at 17 you might as well use that extra point to make it an 18.  I'd have liked to go higher on the wisdom, but I guess that'll be for a stat item down the road.

Class: Ranger
Race: Human
Archetype: Urban Ranger
Combat Style: Sword & Shield
H1: Two Weapon Fighting (-2/-2 for MH/OH attacks, just using as a pre-req)
L1:  Shield Focus (+1 shield AC)
R2: Improved Shield Bash (Retain shield AC while using shield as weapon)
L3:  Weapon Focus: Long Sword
L5:  Weapon Focus: Light spiked shield
R6:  Shield Master (No armor penalty on attack rolls w/ shield, add shield enhancement bonus to attack/damage)
E7:  Improved Two Weapon Fighting (Extra OH attack)

The L5 selection is just to make the math easy for now.  There's a ton of dex-linked and shield-linked feats to take in addition to general ones, beyond the usual strength-based combat feats.  Power Attack, Double Slice, Dodge, Shield Slam, etc.

Favored Enemy: Outsider (Evil) +4, Humanoid (Human) +2
Favored Terrain: Urban

Equipment: +1 Longsword, +1 spiked light shield, +1 Brigandine armor (the SRD suggests this may not appear in actual PF source books, so I'll have to check on that), +1 deflection item

To hit:
6 BAB
4 STR
+1 enhancement
+1 weapon focus
= +12

Damage:
4 str
1 enhancement
= +5 (3)

+10 [1d8+5]
+12 [1d4+3]
+5 [1d8+5]
+7 [1d4+3]

AC:
10 base
5 armor
1 armor enhancement
4 dex
1 shield
1 feat-shield
1 shield enhancement
1 deflection
= 24

Friday, May 13, 2011

They Can't Help Themselves

Everything that needs to be said about the ugly breed of hyper-partisan conservative is neatly summarized in three sentences by one of their own.  Link here, but I'll also copy/paste so you don't have to sully your browser by clicking through to The Corner.  On the subject of Bin Laden's porn stash:

"It might be interesting to know what specific kind of material bin Laden enjoyed. High-ranking Nazis had certain unusual proclivities, and it would be interesting to see if there are any parallels. Not that there’s anything wrong with that."  -Mark Krikorian

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Another Druid

I've been thinking about establishing a backup character for our D&D campaign, considering Chris's generally nobody's-safe DM style.  At this point, if any character is going to die, it's highly unlikely to be Norben thanks to his now extremely high AC, fortitude defense, and healing abilities.  However, it can often take me a number of hours to work up another character (and weeks or months to establish a roleplay personality), so I've decided to start a bit early and get some ideas down on paper.  Unlike the earlier DPR-focused characters, I'm not necessarily going for a damage-maximization build.  At this point, my decision tree looks something like:

1) Make a list of classes not already represented in the party
2) Cross off classes that only seem to support roles already filled by existing PCs
3) Pick a class that looks fun to play
4) Use the archetype system to give him an interesting or unexpected system quirk
5) Build a character history and motivations out of his class/quirk combination

For in medias res character generation I think it makes sense to start at mechanics and then flesh out the story, both for group strategy/synergy and for the fact that I have no idea where or when in the plot this character would be inserted, so some flexibility (or ambiguity) is necessary.

Option 1:  BAER

Str: 20 (17 + 1 level + 2 human) [13]
Dex: 14 [5]
Con: 14 [5]
Int: 11 [1]
Wis: 14 (may end up putting the human bonus here, still working out details) [5]
Cha: 7 [-4] {13+5+5+1+5-4 = 25}

Seems twinkish, granted, but this guy's designed to be kind of a front line tank, so the physical stats seemed necessary, plus wisdom for spellcasting purposes, so I needed a heavy dump stat.  A solitary druid seems as likely a candidate as any for low charisma, and he'd fight right in with the rest of the party on that front.

Class: Druid
Race: Human
Archetype: Bear Shaman

The twist of Bear Shamaning is that you get your Wild Shape as a level +2 ability when shifting into bear forms, which qualifies you for Beast Shape III, meaning huge animals instead of just large.  This gives you some extra strength bonus while remaining AC neutral versus large size (+2 natural, -1 dex, -1 size), and also bumps up your natural weapon size, which combined with improved natural weapon is conceptually awesome, though perhaps not so much in practice.

You also get a hybrid bear aspect form, like augmented humanoid, that grants you one of a list of special abilities when you decide to use it, and is nice for the times you're in human/casting form.  And you summon bears more easily/efficiently.  More bears is never a bad thing.

We already know from previous experiments that druids have poor AC in E6 since armor bonuses are impossible, but Bear Shaman offers the opportunity to forego the animal companion in leiu of picking a cleric domain w/ domain spells.  One of the bear options is Protection (subdomain: Defense), which gives you Shield as a first level domain spell.  Let's see if this works out.  For assumption's sake, let's say he has the same +1 deflection bonus everyone else in the game has.

Huge dire bear form AC:
10 base
2 dex (cat's grace)
6 natural armor
3 natural armor enhancement (barkskin)
4 shield (shield)
1 deflection
-2 size
= 24 AC, which isn't necessarily poor, though it does require three buffs.  I'll stat out the rest (omitting buffs) and see how this looks.  Assuming for the sake of argument he comes into the game after next.

Feats:
H1: Power Attack
L1: Weapon Focus (claw)
L3: Weapon focus (bite)
L5: Improved Natural Attack (claw)
L7: Improved Natural Attack (bite)

To hit:
4 BAB
8 str
1 weapon focus
-2 size
= +11

Damage:
+9 [2d8+10]
+9 [2d6+10]
+9 [2d6+10]

This can't compare to the DPR druid because this assumes no combat buffs and doesn't really account for equipment.  GMF is +1 hit, Bull's Strength is +2, and +12 to hit feels more comfortable.  Plus an amulet of mighty fists would be very handy for adding another 1d6 to each damage roll.  However, I'm just establishing kind of a weak baseline right now.

There's also the issue of size affecting reach.  None of the animal-type bears in the vanilla SRD are huge, only large, so I just assumed a size increase and used standard tables to adjust (Size in combat, and universal monster roles).  However, the Embers bear linked from the Dire Bear page is technically an animal type, is huge, and has 10ft reach for being huge.  I have no idea if this is unique to the creature or a general size rule.  10ft reach would be interesting.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

A rare case where TMI may actually be not enough I.

You know it's not good news when you receive an e-mail from your child's day care facility with a note to "please see attached" and the attachment is "herpes.doc".