Pathfinder General /pfg/

So am I missing something with figment familiars?
I wanted to use it thematically but mechanically it's ass.

What, you don't like a flexible +8 to a skill and never having to pay for a new familiar?

It looses a lot more then it gains, and +8 to a skill is pretty laughable since it still gets my skill ranks.

Does Pathfinder's fake Arabia/Egypt have Egyptian drow who live under pyramids and wear belly dancer clothing all the time?

>+8 to a skill is laughable

shit nigga, that +8 means that raven you got there will probably have better perception than YOU since it's on top of the skill ranks it poached off your retarded ass.

Am about to join a Gestalt PF game. Was considering goin Zen Archer monk on one side, Eldritch Archer with Kensai Cestus on the other. How viable is it?

I was looking at Soulbolt and the bladeskill to emulate a ranged weapon, would it work with Zen Archer or not really?

kill yourself animoo pedshit trash

Gifted Blade/Psychic Armory/War Soul.

Egyptian cats best cats

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Did anyone upload the preview for the new Akashic class yet? I am pretty happy with its direction so far. I think I counted 5 new veils that grant flight too.

What kind of roles or characters do you consider essential for any party?

Someone able to hold the wand of cure and ideally also able to remove stat damage and curses.
Someone able to do damage, ideally in melee.

Whoa whoa whoa, where's this from?

Hi /pfg/,
I'm going to be playing in my first pf game, and while I have the corebook, I'm very new to the system and 3.5 as a whole. I'd like to try and play a heavy armored Mage, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that. I've looked at Magus and don't really want to wait til 13 for it to come together and I'd like full casting anyway. So the question is how exactly do I go about this? Thanks in advance for the help /pfg/

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Take Armor Training feats and use mithril armor.

"All we found was blood, and death."

Get it right, user.

Or do the less stupid thing and just play a divine caster so you aren't fucking your own shit up with arcane spell failure.

An Occult Adventures Psychic doesn't require somatic components, so can wear heavy armor without incurring a casting penalty since psychic magic is not the same as arcane magic.

So just go full wiz/sorc and take light > medium armor and get mithril. Which is about level 10 or am I misunderstanding when you get feats?

So is there really no way to do arcane and armor without having to deal with spell failure?

Unless you take a class that covers for it.

Thats the preview doc for the Nexus class from the City of Seven Seraphs kickstarter. It will also star some cool Jolly content, like pix related, the PC race.

What I know of the Nexus so far is that it will launch with 50 veils (there are currently 75 veils out), The veils are divided into sets, but can be mixed around.

archivesofnethys.com/ArchetypeDisplay.aspx?FixedName=Bard Chelish Diva

Hope you enjoy being a bard without bardic knowledge?

Thank you all for the advice, I think instead I'll go cleric and get the heavy armor feat when I have the chance. Cheers!

By "mage" what are you hoping to do. Especially with the armor.

Is it just aesthetic? do you want to be wading into melee and hitting things with a weapon? Do you want to be blasting things with high damage spells? do you want to be casting more 'support' oriented spells?

Typically most mages get their AC *through* spells, or through things like bracers of deflection, because armor gives arcane spell failure penalties. Divine casters however don't suffer the same issues and depending on their domains can do some damage oriented casting. Warpriests in particular get rather offensive oriented spell kits, and can do armor + melee shenanigans.

Why do you *want* to do arcane + armor?

I was hoping to just be able to wear heavy armor AND have full arcane casting without ASF "ruining" that completely, while also not being useless in melee. The game will probably be a 2 person game, me and a friend, with the DM. I know my ignorance of PF is shining through, but I was think that (Fighter 1/Wizard 5/EK 10/Fighter 1/Wizard 3) Might not be a bad idea for this, if I nab some feats to reduce ASF and get mithril eventually. I'd like some holes poked in it if possible, cause again, I'm not really sure if I'm setting myself up to fail here.

It sounds like you're trying to do too many things. If its a two-person game ask your dm if you can gestalt (select two classes, at each level you gain the features of both, selecting the better of things like HD/BaB/Saves where applicable. When it comes to multiclassing you're allowed to trade off one of your 'base' classes, but not both).

I'm not sure what system you're coming from, but in pathfinder and 3.5, not even "melee" classes actually want to be in melee without some sort of crazy pounce setup or similar things. Damage racks up way too fast relative to HP, armor doesn't typically do shit to prevent against it. And spellcasting in threat range typically provokes AOO's.

I still have to ask, why the obsession with arcane spells? What exactly do you want your character to *do*? Are you trying to be a blaster?

Magus is probably the best option for what you want. Don't worry about not being able to equip full-plate at level 2.

Hell you can even just opt for something like hellknight signifier (full spellcasting progression from previous class, the swift action for AAT / AAM goes to a free action at level 5) and go for arcane armor training.

archivesofnethys.com/PrestigeClassesDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Hellknight Signifer

Take it to level 5, and spring for mithril hellknight fullplate. The check penalty will be 35% - 10% from mithral, then -5% from signifier training 1 (at level 3) and then -20% from arcane armor mastery (as immediate action). Total ASF = 0.

Pick a decent class to go with though, you're extremely unlikely to be able to do melee well and have full spellcasting without gestalt, if you can gestalt magus+wizard is good, trading off wizard for hellknight.

>I'm not sure what system you're coming from

The Dm, my friend and I are all coming from quite a bit of 5e. After the better part of 3 years, we're looking into other systems. Already tried a bit of Shadowrun and now moving into PF over 5e for the foreseeable future.

>but in pathfinder and 3.5, not even "melee" classes actually want to be in melee without some sort of crazy pounce setup or similar things. Damage racks up way too fast relative to HP, armor doesn't typically do shit to prevent against it. And spellcasting in threat range typically provokes AOO's.

Wasn't really aware of this, and I'm not sure how to address it either. Ultimately I think we'll all end up learning about how combat is pretty unforgiving before long.

>I still have to ask, why the obsession with arcane spells? What exactly do you want your character to *do*? Are you trying to be a blaster?

It's not even that I want to be a blaster, it's that I had a character idea in my head and I'd like to pursue that even though it's not ideal. I kinda wanted to do something in the vain or image of a thousand suns sorcerer from Wh40k. Obviously the fluff and powerbase aren't even remotely compatible but the heavy armored mage is appealing.

>Magus is probably the best option for what you want. Don't worry about not being able to equip full-plate at level 2.

Hell you can even just opt for something like hellknight signifier (full spellcasting progression from previous class, the swift action for AAT / AAM goes to a free action at level 5) and go for arcane armor training.

All that said I'm not really sure where the DM will lie when it comes to gestalt and classes like hellknight, so I figured it would be safe to stick to some relatively RAW ideas for now. I'll definitely ask him, but I think he'd like to keep it simple"ish" since we're all new. That said, thank you for the questions regardless.

Is going fighter/wizard/EK just an awful idea when there's these options then? I know EK doesn't get and help when it comes to ASF so I'll still be at like 5% penalty.

Hellknight Signifier is a prestige class with some lore ties to cheliax and being Judge Dredd about the law. If you're allowed to play it, it makes what you want to do easier.

Eldritch knight is shit. Core fighter is shit. Avoid both of them.

They may be shit, but I don't know why they're shit. Cause when I look at them both in the core book I don't know enough yet for me to say "Wow that looks like hot garbage". WHY is fighter and EK garbage?

Fighter is bad because you have to have a lot of know-how to make them effective in PF. EK isn't garbage so much as the minmaxers and optimization specialists don't like the idea of a full caster losing spells.

>thousand suns sorcerer from Wh40k.
Literally ask to play a Psychic Warrior if your GM is down with you playing Psionics. It's more balanced than anything Paizo shit out.

In terms of 1pp also look into Melee Occultist, they also fit the 40k sorcerer look pretty well. They even have a mechanic that lets them base all their shit around relics and such.

Honestly, the Occultist as a fucking Psychic class has stronger "arcane" flavor than any of the default arcane classes.

Fighters suck because of feat taxes and a lack of options. They are *only* good at combat. When faced with a problem like 'I need to get across this chasm or up a cliff" or "I need to get [person] to do [thing]" their only options are skillchecks and they get fuck-all for skillpoints. They're basically lacking class features. They need multiple attributes to do shit well (con, str, some dex and int)

Wizards however if they leave some spell slots unprepared and have the right feats can just do shit like cast fly, or air walk or charm person when they come across those challenges... and all they *really* need is a decent int score. (though con certainly helps).

Eldritch knight mixes fighter with arcane caster, and causes you to lose out on some of the few class features you may have actually gained, without improving shit you might actually want (like not succumbing to arcane spell failure).

Read a tier list: pastebin.com/5ekDL471

You'll come to realize that things like rogues, inquisitors, alchemists, bards, investigators etc etc etc all do basically the same thing (or can be archetyped to do the same things)... except rogues are the only ones on that list that doesn't have 6th level spellcasting, so they're losing quite a bit in exchange for nothing.

Welcome to fucked up flawed edition D&D, enjoy your stay.

>They are *only* good at combat.
And good is with quotation marks around it. A spellcaster can solve an encounter in a number of ways. A fighter has to try and beatstick things and maybe use the one gimmick that they've spent 7 feats on being 'competent' at.

>xcept rogues are the only ones on that list that doesn't have 6th level spellcasting
Eldritch Scoundral can get 6th casting iirc.

>. A spellcaster can solve an encounter in a number of ways.
This is also ignoring that literally every class in the game can be good at killing shit if they specialize into it. Some are better than others but most classes have one or two builds that can pretty much one round anything.

Yep. High level Fighters have to hit you with a billion attacks. A wizard can teleport in from an alternate dimension, turn invisible, fly up to you, render you immobile and then scream at you until you explode, capture your soul, force you into a new body of his own devising and then turn you into his obedient little fuckslave.

Not the guy you where replying to but I've never had a PF campaign go past level 12. So most of the time martials from what I have seen do really well. At what point does the power imbalance really kick in?

level 1

If you listen to Veeky Forums, instantly.

See this has not been my experience. Our soul bolt character has been lighting shit up the entire length of the Emerald Spire, while our cleric has done fuck all.

Veeky Forums is also infamous for not understanding the difference between theorycraft and actually playing games. Every time they say 'casters invalidate the other classes' they present anecdotal evidence just like yours. you can "prove" that it's "possible" using white room )(and totally player-biased) theorycrafting, but in reality, Veeky Forums doesn't actually know what it's like to try and play those wizards most of the time.

Soulbolt? Why not Gifted Blade/Psychic Armory/War Soul?

Figment Familiars are hands down amazing and if you can't see why you don't know how to charop.

New player wants to play "orc with the biggest weapon possible" I was originally trying to fix titan mauler.
I've never run 3pp but I was thinking of nudging him towards zwiehander sentinel. Any sugestions for feat paths for abusing/ having the most fun with?
(I am proably going to be building him until level 4, and make a handful of sugested progressions out until level 12 or so)

Show him the Oggr race in blood forge, they're Orcs with ogreblood and get Powerful build. Tell him to get his ass a butchering axe and go to town. Putting a warder in game were everyone one else isn't going to be a Path of War guy is asking for it.

Is there a way of getting alter self or disguise self as a tiefling that doesn't last minutes?

Hat of disguise

Forgot to say, the game doesn't have a magic market nor crafting feats are allowed so statistically speaking getting one of those is going to be hard

What are some staples of a Fake Arabia setting?

Typically, level 6 is when it tends to start tipping away from them. Again, mostly due to the options (and amounts of them) that casters can take advantage of. If your caster is just using damage spells or healing spells, they are probably doing extremely little in comparison to what they could be doing. Things like summoning in monsters, disabling whole groups, or turning foes into temporary (or even semi-permanent) allies. Negating ground-based foes by simply flying, and then mitigating ranged attacks. And then being able to answer non-combat questions as well through spells.
That said, they also can run out of spells, and picking spells properly can play heavily into this. There are ways to mitigate that however as well.

>Prepare Color Spray 2 to 3 times with bonus school spell slots
>Disable 75% of encounters about 75 to 80% of the time.
>Profit
>Not simple

I once did this in 3.5
Picked specialized focused conjurer, pick cloudy conjuration and spell focus, picked the spells recommended by "theorycrafters" like grease, web, color spray, glitterdust, etc
I owned the game, which btw was precon
Later in a different group I did the same
I owned the game, wasn't precon that time
Later in another different group did the same
I owned the game till the GM told me to please reroll because if he introduced monsters that could defeat me he would also obliterate the party

All of these groups were veterans and had their classes optimized. The thing is, is not as much as theorycraft as you think, that stuff works because it works RAW, you need an active GM trying to fuck you up or homeruling stuff to stop you

admittingly summon-spam is a real quick way to get the DM to hate you right quick since it bogs down the encounter.

>my GM is an idiot, the post

At least use plural, they were 3 different GMs.

Can someone help me with Fly spell?
So, if you get Fly speed you gain +8 to fly
Dude 60 fly speed and good maneuverability you get +4 to fly
Due to the spell you also get +1/2 your level to fly

Did I get this right?

You only get a +8 to fly checks if your fly speed is a racial thing, same as climb and swim speeds.

Unlike with swimming and climbing, gaining a fly speed does not grant any sort of bonus to fly-skill: It's just you can fly or you can't. I'm pretty sure the spell doesn't say anything about granting a bonus, either.

Does anyone know a good way/campaign to turn your average "kill anything that moves in this random dungeon" adventures into a darker/horror setting? Right now I feel the setting being too combat-centered and I want to challenge my players.

Make "kill anything that moves" not work.

I really don't know how. Throwing them op creatures won't necessary darken the mood.

Phase spiders or other things that hit and run, have creatures pull them into the aether, seperate them with a maze spell, have them find eachothers bodies even if they aren't dead, or their own.

I know the rules say that reach is determined by the size of the creature not the weapon, but when weilding 2 or 3 size catagories above normal would it be fair to add reach or a second threatened area?

>BEHOLD ALL MY ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE TO PROVE YOU WRONG!!!!
Isn't this the same thing you call out people who say they don't have this problem for?

There's a difference though, you claim such thing doesn't exist, even a single anecdotal evidence rebutts that.

You can't say all bikes have 2 and only 2 wheels and act like you're still right when someone shows you a bike with 3 or 4 wheels.

>Anecdotal evidence
You seem to kinda ignore that by rules they can do more than what martials do, or you also call rules anecdotal evidence?

But your anecdotal evidence that all bikes have 16 wheels and fly does prove that they exist?

No, I just said it happens, not that always happens, you might be mistaking me for a different user.

And it happens, god, even devs acknowledge that disparity exists, and depending who dev you ask they might even tell you that such disparity is actually intended. Dive in the blogs or even google fu, there're screencaps of this wonderful insight.

Truth be told such disparity is weird to find in games below 7th level, and taking into account most games don't survive beyond 11th level most people will never see why full casters are so strong (fuck, I even found groups who gave casters lots of goodies because "they have low HPs and BaB so giving them 1d8 HPs and twice they WPL is fair").

Sure, if you want your players to all be wielding oversized weapons for the chance at having reach.

Ok, I reached a point in where I dunno what feats to pick with my magus. I have WFinnese, Dervish Dance, Enforcer, Rimespell, Intensifyspell. I'm thinking of course in picking Spell penetration and GSpell penetration but maybe later now I think is too soon. Halp?

>Enforcer, Rimespell
You poor soul

Should every female character know how to dance?

Maximize spell is always good, it turns your low level debuffs into god level debuffs - if you have Close Spell Arcana.

I'm in 7th level and so far I didn't have a problem, I'm mostly a debuffer secondary martial (though I also throw a Shocking grasp here and there when needed), why every time someone I mention my char people tell me I should be sucking?

Absolutely.

Yes, and they should dress for it at all times.

Because Veeky Forums is stupidly obsessed with tier lists and supposed optimization.

Even so, I really want to know, maybe I not taking into account something, SR? I already said I will pick Spellpenetration, close range? well, I'm a magus. Or is it probably non-lethal damage? true I face undead before a couple of times, but in that case I use chill touch, sure that means I "wasted" rimespell feat, but so far didn't have many undead encounters to feel that way.

Most of your best debuffs already ignore SR and don't inflict direct damage is they work nonlethally as well as lethally (touch of Idiocy, touch of gracelessness, and ray of enfeeblement are incredibly useful debuffs the magus carries). maxmimizing those can end fights really quickly.

>touch of Idiocy
Not a magus spell, doesn't ignore SR
>touch of gracelessness
Same as above
Unless you meant to pick the arcana that gives you 1 or two lower wizard level spell, but still, they don't ignore SR

The issue is that the rime+enforcer+frostbite+cruel weapon combo can be easily walled by one or two common immunities on common immunities. Non-lethal damage doesn't work on many monster types, and plenty of creatures are resistant or immune to cold and often downright immune to mind-affecting effects, and unless the creature can be effected by all three, you might get screwed out of your primary debuff. /pfg/, like many online game communities seems to prefer the more tried and tested options, and not giving much room for the neat combos or rare corner cases.

But Shocking grasp still can face similar problems, resistance or right immunity to electricity, and even if you have elemental spell you prepare your spells, rarely you'll know what kind of monsters you'll face, that's why more generalist spells are always better.

And now you understand the magus autism we have grown here, and why there's like 5 magus homebrew attempts currently to try and solve that.

It's not so much "wow your build sucks shocking grasp does everything better" as much as Frostbite being nonlethal AND cold damage. It means it would be very easy to fuck you over super hard, much easier than shocking grasp's big wad of damage, where not getting through high SR or smashing into Electricity immunity are the only things that hard counter you. Which sucks, because Frostbite is really fucking cool.

To be honest though, there should be more general-use magus spells. That's the core of the issue, at least to me: there just aren't enough good workhorse spells, and the Elemental Spell metamagic is a fucking +1 adjustment instead of the +0 it should have been. Hell, a level 1 magus spell that's "deal 1d6+(1 damage/CL) energy damage of your choice" would be nice, with the "you can make a number of touch attacks equal to your caster level". Hell, why doesn't the Magus have PRODUCE FLAME on its spell list, even? It seems like a no brainer.

IMO, the crux of the magus issue is it's over-reliance on a far too narrow spell list. Gotta use those spell slots that should be giving you more narrative power through utility on just damage and defense, and limited means of damage and defense at that. The whole class operates to do surprisingly little.

Also it's woeful lack of attack bonuses.

It's got lots of issues depending on how you approach it, really. The lack of attack bonus is one of the more heinous offenses. I liked the one guy's thing where you had effectively "arcane strike but better" in place of trying to get damage from spell slots.
Arcanist casting would help too desu