Dungeons and Dragons Megathread

RecklessPrudence · Oct 22, 2017

(Pathfinder)

I'm still looking at my Fighter's progression, and I've got a version that I think is the final one, I'm pretty happy with the 1-10 progression, it's the 11-20 I'm still not sure about. But it's quite possible that something in my 11-20 would do much better in the 1-10, so I'm open to help on that. Here's what the current version looks like:

Lvl1: Power attack, Furious Focus
Lvl2: Ancestral Weapon Mastery
Lvl3: Skill Focus(Perception), Armour Training 1
Lvl4: Barroom Brawler, Con +1
Lvl5: FAWT: Warrior Spirit, Weapon Training: Axes
Lvl6: FAAT: Adaptable Training(Acrobatics)
Lvl7: Cunning, Armour Training 2
Lvl8: Additional Traits(Family Trade[Sense Motive], Civilised[Knowledge{Local}]), Str +1
Lvl9: FAAT: Armoured Juggernaut, AWT: Armed Bravery
Lvl10: Quick Draw
Lvl11: Steel soul, Armour Training 3
Lvl12: FAAT: Armour Specialisation(Full Plate), Str +1
Lvl13: Combat Reflexes, AWT: Abundant Tactics
Lvl14: Cut From the Air
Lvl15: Greater Weapon Focus, Armour Training 4
Lvl16: Shield Focus, Str +1
Lvl17: Unhindering Shield, AWT: Fighter's Reflexes
Lvl18: Smash From the Air
Lvl19: Weapon Specialisation, Armour Mastery
Lvl20: Greater Weapon Specialisation, Str +1, Weapon Mastery

Thanks for the help!

TiaC · Oct 22, 2017

So I was just looking over DSP's Vitalist and I found a nice combo. At 11th level, a Vitalist with the Soulthief method gets this ability: "any time a soulthief manifests a power or psi-like ability that deals hit point damage, it heals him for 50% of the damage dealt. If the power does hit point damage to multiple targets, the soulthief only heals 50% of the damage to the target dealt the highest damage."

Now, buy a Surge Crystal. This gives you a unimpressive wildsurge, but it also lets you use surge augments. Psionics Augmented: Wilders has the power Sympathetic Drain. This power allows you to up to half your max health to do that much damage to any target within close range. If you wildsurged while manifesting, the damage is doubled. It allows SR, and while there is a save, it doesn't reduce the damage, just prevents a 1-round sicken rider. Put these together, and you can spend 3PP to deal damage equal to your max health to any target within close range with no save. It's cheap enough that you can easily quicken it as well. Best of all, this costs so little that you still have the amazing buffing and healing abilities of any other Vitalist.

For advanced mode, take the Sadist archetype and Unwilling Participant to add enemies to your collective and get temp PP for killing them. You might also be able to take Altered Life from Bloodforge to calculate HP based on Wisdom.

RecklessPrudence · Oct 22, 2017

(Pathfinder)

Which would you guys say is better - making a shield out of Mithral for a total ACP of 0 once everything's counted in, even in Full Plate, or making it out of Living Steel so that if I'm fighting someone with a metal weapon and they roll a nat 1, they break their own weapon?

Havock · Oct 22, 2017

RecklessPrudence said:
(Pathfinder)

Which would you guys say is better - making a shield out of Mithral for a total ACP of 0 once everything's counted in, even in Full Plate, or making it out of Living Steel so that if I'm fighting someone with a metal weapon and they roll a nat 1, they break their own weapon?

Mithral is the go-to choice, so go for odd: Living metal

The Narrator · Oct 22, 2017

RecklessPrudence said:
(Pathfinder)

Which would you guys say is better - making a shield out of Mithral for a total ACP of 0 once everything's counted in, even in Full Plate, or making it out of Living Steel so that if I'm fighting someone with a metal weapon and they roll a nat 1, they break their own weapon?

My personal taste would be to go for the Mithral, whose benefit would apply all the time, over the Living Steel, whose benefit would only apply if the GM rolls a particular result. Low ACP is always a good thing, in my opinion: I've always preferred my fighters to have good mobility and be able to do cool stunts instead of lumbering slowly around the battlefield. Also kind of feel like the Living Steel might be kind of a pain for the GM. And a melee-based BBEG will probably be able to make the DC 20 Fortitude to keep their weapon from breaking anyway check anyway (plus you'd be breaking the loot

).

That's just my personal taste, however.

RecklessPrudence · Oct 22, 2017

Havock said:
Mithral is the go-to choice, so go for odd: Living metal

Good point! Always a good idea to go a little oddball, it's not a competitive game after all, we're here to have fun! As long as you're contributing to the party's goals, who cares if you're not 'perfectly optimised' like some sorta bloody combat automaton!

The Narrator said:
My personal taste would be to go for the Mithral, whose benefit would apply all the time, over the Living Steel, whose benefit would only apply if the GM rolls a particular result. Low ACP is always a good thing, in my opinion: I've always preferred my fighters to have good mobility and be able to do cool stunts instead of lumbering slowly around the battlefield. Also kind of feel like the Living Steel might be kind of a pain for the GM. And a melee-based BBEG will probably be able to make the DC 20 Fortitude to keep their weapon from breaking anyway check anyway

Hm, all good points, and I do find the idea of this heavily armed and armoured dwarf combat-rolling all over the place and backflipping over flanker's heads - plus, making the DM hate your equipment never turns out well, but I think I might go with the Living St-

The Narrator said:
(plus you'd be breaking the loot ).

-NOT THE LOOT!!!

I'm sorry, Living Steel, but you'll have to be passed over in favour of Mithral, yet again...

RecklessPrudence · Oct 22, 2017

Edited my progression advice request post up there a bit, based on advice elsewhere. Help from here would still be great!

The Narrator · Oct 22, 2017

RecklessPrudence said:
Edited my progression advice request post up there a bit, based on advice elsewhere. Help from here would still be great!

I was a bit surprised at how long you waited to take Combat Reflexes, given that you have (IIRC) a reach weapon and thus will actually get to make Attacks of Opportunity decently often, but if you've got a lot of feats that you want to take first, I can completely understand why.

There's some feats on your list that I'm not familiar with, so I'd have to look them up to give any meaningful advice.

Chloe Sullivan · Oct 22, 2017

Has anyone seen the pathfinder book bundle on Humble Bundle? Is it worth getting?

TiaC said:
So I was just looking over DSP's Vitalist and I found a nice combo. At 11th level, a Vitalist with the Soulthief method gets this ability: "any time a soulthief manifests a power or psi-like ability that deals hit point damage, it heals him for 50% of the damage dealt. If the power does hit point damage to multiple targets, the soulthief only heals 50% of the damage to the target dealt the highest damage."

Now, buy a Surge Crystal. This gives you a unimpressive wildsurge, but it also lets you use surge augments. Psionics Augmented: Wilders has the power Sympathetic Drain. This power allows you to up to half your max health to do that much damage to any target within close range. If you wildsurged while manifesting, the damage is doubled. It allows SR, and while there is a save, it doesn't reduce the damage, just prevents a 1-round sicken rider. Put these together, and you can spend 3PP to deal damage equal to your max health to any target within close range with no save. It's cheap enough that you can easily quicken it as well. Best of all, this costs so little that you still have the amazing buffing and healing abilities of any other Vitalist.

For advanced mode, take the Sadist archetype and Unwilling Participant to add enemies to your collective and get temp PP for killing them. You might also be able to take Altered Life from Bloodforge to calculate HP based on Wisdom.

Niiiice.

The Imperator said:
[Pathfinder]

Major Mind Swap. This beautiful spell puts your mind/soul into another body. It can only be undone with wish/miracle, although I assume you get a save to not have your mind dragged back. It's down side is that you have to be the same type of creature as the one you switch into.

Until I found this beautiful spell.

Instant Enemy. A Ranger may designate any creature as counting as his favored enemy, "for all purposes". Meaning you get a scroll of that, for your creature type, and cast it. Now the target counts as your creature type, and you jump in. Major Mind Swap is instantaneous, so even when Instant Enemy ends you'll still be in the new body, but with your old type.

Ever wanted to be a Humanoid Balor? An Outsider Giant? The combinations are endless!!

The remaining downside is that it's only a Psychic 9th level spell... Except the Necronomicon, which is view-able in universe at the only Nethys university on Golarion (until 4717AR, at least), has it has a 9th level Wizard spell!

My wizard in the Skull and Shackles game I'm in, paid like 30k gold to view the university's special collection. Out of character I knew it was there, in character my character was looking for deep, hidden lore on mythos stuff to combat the post-campaign mythos arc in Skull and Shackles. Imagine my character's delight upon finding and reading the NEcronomicon, and grabbing a couple of neat spells too!!!

What are some cool monsters to do this too? You keep all abilities that don't have to be activated, nor can you cast Spell-like abilities (although constant ones are not activated, so you should keep those). Save DC would be 29, will save.

something will a really mean gaze attack

The Imperator · Oct 22, 2017

Chloe Sullivan said:
Has anyone seen the pathfinder book bundle on Humble Bundle? Is it worth getting?

Niiiice.

something will a really mean gaze attack

Can't activate a gaze attack, it's have to be a continuous one. That's the difficulty of choosing something. I really want something with some permanent aura on it, because that's always on.

The bundle is fine, lots of comics and modules, and quite a few older campaign setting guides. Worth it for lore, but really light on crunch, with just like 2 of the main rule books (Core and DMG afaik)

Chloe Sullivan · Oct 22, 2017

The Imperator said:
Can't activate a gaze attack, it's have to be a continuous one. That's the difficulty of choosing something. I really want something with some permanent aura on it, because that's always on.

Uhm, did PF make it so you have to activate gaze attacks? Because by default, they are always on unless specified otherwise in the 3.5 rules....

And the DSP-written gaze attack i have been using is worded the same as the 3.5 rules

Valkur · Oct 22, 2017

Hi all. I'm interested in building a Blade Singer Drow that follows Elistreaee (aka the Good Goddess of Drow and only one). I know SCAG has a defined class for it under the Wizards but I don't know any specifics. Can someone help me please?

EDIT: I'm asking about 5e and Sword Coast Adventurers guide (also known as SCAG) I beleive.

The Imperator · Oct 22, 2017

Chloe Sullivan said:
Uhm, did PF make it so you have to activate gaze attacks? Because by default, they are always on unless specified otherwise in the 3.5 rules....

And the DSP-written gaze attack i have been using is worded the same as the 3.5 rules

Hmmm, let me check, I thought they were activated but I might be wrong. I just learned I was reading Mage Hand wrong for years, so I might be wrong.

Chloe Sullivan · Oct 22, 2017

Lord Hater said:
Hi all. I'm interested in building a Blade Singer Drow that follows Elistreaee (aka the Good Goddess of Drow and only one). I know SCAG has a defined class for it under the Wizards but I don't know any specifics. Can someone help me please?

uhm, dude...

friendly neigborhood mods said:
REMEMBER TO SAY WHICH EDITION YOU'RE ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT
THIS HELPS AVOID CONFUSION AND ARGUMENTS.

Valkur · Oct 22, 2017

It's 5e. Sorry in my mind the latest editions are the ones always used. I'm mostly a PC gamer of 'video' games you see and very peasant-like to traditional table tops.

Chloe Sullivan · Oct 22, 2017

The Imperator said:
Hmmm, let me check, I thought they were activated but I might be wrong. I just learned I was reading Mage Hand wrong for years, so I might be wrong.

I suggested gaze attacks because to be honest i can't recall many auras (as racial rather than class abilities) that were all that good....

Always on action advantage would be beast though. Is double initiative something you can get using your trick?

The Imperator · Oct 22, 2017

You're right, gazes are automatic. Yep, gonna grab something with a gaze, probably.

The Imperator · Oct 22, 2017

Chloe Sullivan said:
I suggested gaze attacks because to be honest i can't recall many auras (as racial rather than class abilities) that were all that good....

Always on action advantage would be beast though. Is double initiative something you can get using your trick?

Not that I know of, double initiative in Pathfinder tends to be mythic stuff AFAIK, so it won't be kept if you mind swap, since you won't have the monster's mythic ranks. And even if they were kept, the GM would 100% shoot that down. Double turns on a wizard is unbelievably broke, and mine focuses on save or suck and full round action stuff, so two turns per everyone else's turn would be too good for balance.

But yeah, constant spells are mediocre, because if they get dispelled you can't turn them back on, but constant Su can't be dispelled so you won't need to bother with turning it back on.

Some constant ex stuff, like racial bonuses to skills or saves would be awesome too. Looking for immunities is also on my list of things to grab.

My character will lose his racial bonus to will saves... That's a large hit, hmmm, decisions decisions.

erlking · Oct 22, 2017

Lord Hater said:
Hi all. I'm interested in building a Blade Singer Drow that follows Elistreaee (aka the Good Goddess of Drow and only one). I know SCAG has a defined class for it under the Wizards but I don't know any specifics. Can someone help me please?

EDIT: I'm asking about 5e and Sword Coast Adventurers guide (also known as SCAG) I beleive.

Similar to a normal wizard, you'll want high Int as soon as possible. Due to Sunlight Sensitivity you should have a few good save spells to avoid disadvantage. High dex and a rapier for melee and your ac, which along with bladeisjg and the shield spell can get very high. Otherwise it works as a standard wizard real well.

If your willing to do some reskinning, the Bardic College of Swords (from UA) works very well as a bladesinger as well, and will work of the Charisma boost drow get.

Valkur · Oct 22, 2017

erlking said:
Similar to a normal wizard, you'll want high Int as soon as possible. Due to Sunlight Sensitivity you should have a few good save spells to avoid disadvantage. High dex and a rapier for melee and your ac, which along with bladeisjg and the shield spell can get very high. Otherwise it works as a standard wizard real well.

If your willing to do some reskinning, the Bardic College of Swords (from UA) works very well as a bladesinger as well, and will work of the Charisma boost drow get.

Sword Coast - Wizard - Bladesinger | Forged Destiny | Obsidian Portal

Just out of curiosity can someone confirm that this is the same Bladesinger from the Sword Coast Advent. Guide book? I want to think so since it says Sword Coast and it looks like a legit site and I know those are the pictures from seeing a Scribd of SCAG.

Also thanks for the tips. Any idea on how to make it viable for melee damage? I really like the idea of going in and out of combat and using some spells to control enemy movement while my allies prepare there own stuff. Sounds a bit assasin like but it's totally what Drow like to do if possibe in my mind.

To be honest I wish I had more info on how to build one. Do I just use wizards stats for lvl 1 if you wanted to make one straight?

shepsquared · Oct 22, 2017

Lord Hater said:
Sword Coast - Wizard - Bladesinger | Forged Destiny | Obsidian Portal

Just out of curiosity can someone confirm that this is the same Bladesinger from the Sword Coast Advent. Guide book? I want to think so since it says Sword Coast and it looks like a legit site and I know those are the pictures from seeing a Scribd of SCAG.

Also thanks for the tips. Any idea on how to make it viable for melee damage? I really like the idea of going in and out of combat and using some spells to control enemy movement while my allies prepare there own stuff. Sounds a bit assasin like but it's totally what Drow like to do if possibe in my mind.

Looks like the dude literally copy/pasted it out of a scanned pdf. As a Bladesiner you'll want either Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade, if not both - they're cantrips that include a weapon attack as part of their effect. Keep in mind that while you're pretty awesome with bladesong up, without it you'll need to be a lot more cautious. And even with Bladesong you still only have d6 hit die.
You definitely want Shield for when you get caught out and should consider spells like Misty Step so you can move around the battlefield safely. A close range AoE or two will be very useful and Magic Weapon might be worth it (do wizard even get it now? I can't remember)

Beyond that, remember you're more like a rogue than a fighter. Don't try and tank.

Drachyench · Oct 22, 2017

Lord Hater said:
It's 5e. Sorry in my mind the latest editions are the ones always used. I'm mostly a PC gamer of 'video' games you see and very peasant-like to traditional table tops.

SCAG does, indeed, have a Bladesinger. It offers... I want to say Light Armor proficiency and proficiency in either Martial Weapons (as a category) or a martial weapon (specifically). 2nd level unlocks Bladesinging, 6th level 2nd Attack, 10th level the ability to burn Spell Slots as a reaction for damage reduction, and... 14th, I think, allows you to add your Int bonus to damage rolls on melee attacks or something. Possibly only while blade singing.

For tips on how to build them? You're going to run a Dexterity build. Full stop: You need Dex for armor class, badly (even if you don't intend to get stuck in, your AC caps out at 18 + Shield when not Bladesinging and... I think 23 + Shield when Bladesinging: Everything less than Dex 20 diminishing this cap). Constitution should try to aim for at least 14, preferably 16, since you're going to need the boost over a 1d6 hit die. I'd lean slightly towards boosting Intelligence at the beginning to at least 18, and then work from there towards either Dexterity 20 (if you find you like the Bladesinging more fun than Spellslinging) or Int 20 (if you like it more as a fun side option, since you can only do it twice / day).

Havock · Oct 22, 2017

Doesn't a shield count as a weapon, not armor (albeit one that grants AC)?

Living steel weapons are neat though, self repair, yo!

Valkur · Oct 22, 2017

Drachyench said:
SCAG does, indeed, have a Bladesinger. It offers... I want to say Light Armor proficiency and proficiency in either Martial Weapons (as a category) or a martial weapon (specifically). 2nd level unlocks Bladesinging, 6th level 2nd Attack, 10th level the ability to burn Spell Slots as a reaction for damage reduction, and... 14th, I think, allows you to add your Int bonus to damage rolls on melee attacks or something. Possibly only while blade singing.

For tips on how to build them? You're going to run a Dexterity build. Full stop: You need Dex for armor class, badly (even if you don't intend to get stuck in, your AC caps out at 18 + Shield when not Bladesinging and... I think 23 + Shield when Bladesinging: Everything less than Dex 20 diminishing this cap). Constitution should try to aim for at least 14, preferably 16, since you're going to need the boost over a 1d6 hit die. I'd lean slightly towards boosting Intelligence at the beginning to at least 18, and then work from there towards either Dexterity 20 (if you find you like the Bladesinging more fun than Spellslinging) or Int 20 (if you like it more as a fun side option, since you can only do it twice / day).

I just rolled for some stats and got two 16's that I put in Dex and Int. 14 in Con.

Drachyench said:
SCAG does, indeed, have a Bladesinger. It offers... I want to say Light Armor proficiency and proficiency in either Martial Weapons (as a category) or a martial weapon (specifically). 2nd level unlocks Bladesinging, 6th level 2nd Attack, 10th level the ability to burn Spell Slots as a reaction for damage reduction, and... 14th, I think, allows you to add your Int bonus to damage rolls on melee attacks or something. Possibly only while blade singing.

For tips on how to build them? You're going to run a Dexterity build. Full stop: You need Dex for armor class, badly (even if you don't intend to get stuck in, your AC caps out at 18 + Shield when not Bladesinging and... I think 23 + Shield when Bladesinging: Everything less than Dex 20 diminishing this cap). Constitution should try to aim for at least 14, preferably 16, since you're going to need the boost over a 1d6 hit die. I'd lean slightly towards boosting Intelligence at the beginning to at least 18, and then work from there towards either Dexterity 20 (if you find you like the Bladesinging more fun than Spellslinging) or Int 20 (if you like it more as a fun side option, since you can only do it twice / day).

What is starting HP with a Bladesinger class? 1d6 + Con?

Drachyench · Oct 22, 2017

Lord Hater said:
I just rolled for some stats and got two 16's that I put in Dex and Int. 14 in Con.

What is starting HP with a Bladesinger class? 1d6 + Con?

Starting HP is 6+Con Modifier, with every level thereafter offering 4+Con Modifier. It's not *terrible* if you have at least Con 14 (which you do), but it does mean you're rather fragile without the expense of a Feat or magical protection.

Dungeons and Dragons Megathread

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