Seeking Some Adventure Traps (Gestalt-Pathfinder, Recruiting)

[L Ezra]

Definitely interested in this one. Not really familiar with the system but happy to learn for the cause of traps and shenanigans.

[Angie]

So thanks to Background skills, I have both Craft Clothing and craft Jewelry. We are going to be the *finest* looking bunch in the land. I'm mostly done, I've just got a couple hundred silver to spend (silver as in the "Gold" of this world)

[nomadsoul]

So thanks to Background skills, I have both Craft Clothing and craft Jewelry. We are going to be the *finest* looking bunch in the land. I'm mostly done, I've just got a couple hundred silver to spend (silver as in the "Gold" of this world)

Yay!  Second member of the potential cast about to make an appearance ;D

[Angie]

Yay!  Second member of the potential cast about to make an appearance ;D

I could throw him in right now if you don't mind me coming with some extra cash on hand. Or maybe I'll tie up his wealth in some jewels...

[nomadsoul]

You may as well feel free to do so.  As long as the cash is spent by the time the game starts, 'tis well and good.

[Re Z L]

Are people used to building gestalt?  I'm not as familiar with PF classes as I am with 3.5 classes, so I was hoping for some advice on what would be good class combinations...

I don't know if they exist in Pathfinder, but I do know that in 3.5e there are variant Paladin rules to let you be other alignments...but I think that they are confined to the other corners of the alignment grid.

Does anyone have experience working with Arcanists?

Any suggestions to on what to pair with monk? Keri is normally in the monk class, but if we have trouble pairing that anything I’ll gladly take suggestions in general. I do like the idea of at least one person on the team  being focused on hand to hand combat.

And for anyone else finding Gestalt to be difficult, my advice is usually just to find two classes that complement one another in some way.  I would generally look at whatever the classes primary attribute is and go from there.  Some more esoteric things could work as well, as long as there's some stat overlap--you don't really want to spread yourself too thin.

Examples:

Monk can work well with a Wisdom based caster, or something that directly aids their combat ability.
A wizard (or other Intelligence based caster) can work well with classes that can make good use of a high intelligence, such as a Rogue for skill points, or an Alchemist for a different form of "casting".
Fighter can make a good default choice for almost any combination as it provides a well rounded boost to a lot of different things (full base attack, strong Fortitude save, lots of extra feats, and access to fighter specific feats).

Archetypes can also help to make that work a lot better as well.

Bad combinations would generally be things that double-up on the same benefit, most of these are covered by the hybrid classes (Arcanist, Brawler, Skald...) which usually do those specific combinations better than just gestalting them as they provide additional benefits.

I know that doesn't answer any specific questions, just thought I'd chime in to try and offer some advice  :)

Also here's a link to a place that has a handful of guides for every individual class, as well as a link to a gestalt guide (which I've added below as well for ease of finding):  http://zenithgames.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-comprehensive-pathfinder-guides.html

Gestalt guide:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/17Wv_-l25HMy3LORJ3JKSFjAf0P5Tjyhzdb6bT7oZviM/edit  (this may give you all some combo ideas as well)

[ReijiTabibito]

As I understand it, though, the concept of the campaign is such that playing a Lawful character might be a bit complicated...or was that just for LG characters?  (Which, if it does, how does one play a Monk?)

[nomadsoul]

Just LG.  A LN is under no compunction of avoid sneakiness - they are only required to have a specific way of life that they adhere to.  In some cases, this can be the law of the land, in other cases it can be a matter of acting honorably.  For some, its not a question of what they can do, but what they won't do (as in ever).  If you go the route of the latter two, you need to be able to define them and be expected to face them every so often.

[ReijiTabibito]

So noted.  Not that I would be playing a class that forces even a Lawful alignment, as I'm narrowing down on two options for my character.

Side note.  The Elf race has this as a racial trait:

Weapon Familiarity: Elves are proficient with longbows (including composite longbows), longswords, rapiers, and shortbows (including composite shortbows), and treat any weapon with the word “elven” in its name as a martial weapon.

Do Elves only get proficiency with Elven weapons if their class gets martial weapon proficiency?  Or am I reading that wrong?

[Angie]

Introducing: Neela, the Djinni Blooded!

NSFW Image

https://static.f-list.net/images/charimage/8476894.png

It's not entirely clear where Neela comes from, and as far as he knows, he just sprang into existence one day. He remembers some sort of family, or at least caretakers, but such memories only come from his very early years. As far as he knows, he's been on his own since he was a child. Scraping by as an orphan on the streets, as he grew older, he attracted rather captivating glances from onlookers. He soon promoted himself to street performer, and made a few coins-enough to actually have a room somewhere.

Beauty is a blessing and a curse sometimes, and it wasn't long before, having captivated a member of a rich family, said moneyed individual attempted to kidnap and enslave him. It was then that Neela discovered his magical abilities as he ended up blasting the man with a ray of electrical energy. The man was not killed, but he was wounded, and soon, the family was dead set against him, bribing the city guard to keep the walls of the city closed to him from the inside. It was a chase through the city, with Neela constantly a step ahead. His luck would have run out, though, were it not for a member of the Kirin Blades.

The Blade realized that a young man of Neela's talents would be a great help, and agreed to help smuggle Neela out of the city in exchange for Neela joining the Blades. At first he was reluctant, but with no other options, he agreed. One smuggle later, and Neela was out of danger-though, quite likely jumping into the fire. He's been training and honing his talents, both inborn and learned, for several years now, and with the Empire in turmoil, he is ready to prove that the trust placed in him is well placed.

That is, if he can stop being distracted by his own flights of fancy and his lusts. This is not as easy as it sounds, as he is already making flirtatious eyes at his fellow party members...

So noted.  Not that I would be playing a class that forces even a Lawful alignment, as I'm narrowing down on two options for my character.

Side note.  The Elf race has this as a racial trait:

Weapon Familiarity: Elves are proficient with longbows (including composite longbows), longswords, rapiers, and shortbows (including composite shortbows), and treat any weapon with the word “elven” in its name as a martial weapon.

Do Elves only get proficiency with Elven weapons if their class gets martial weapon proficiency?  Or am I reading that wrong?

You may be reading it wrong. There are a few "Exotic" weapons with Elven in the name, most notable the Elven Curved Blade. An Elf is proficient out the gate with longbows, longswords, rapiers, and shortbows. However, they treat weapons like the Elven Curved Blade as a Martial weapon instead of the Exotic it actually is, so an Elf Fighter which gets all Martial Weapons gets Curved Blades, while a Human fighter would have to burn a feat on it.

EDIT: You may actually be reading it right. In this instance, an Elf with a class that doesn't get all martials would have to take Martial Weapon Proficiency (insert Elven Weapon here), but that's like, the only difference.

[ReijiTabibito]

You may be reading it wrong. There are a few "Exotic" weapons with Elven in the name, most notable the Elven Curved Blade. An Elf is proficient out the gate with longbows, longswords, rapiers, and shortbows. However, they treat weapons like the Elven Curved Blade as a Martial weapon instead of the Exotic it actually is, so an Elf Fighter which gets all Martial Weapons gets Curved Blades, while a Human fighter would have to burn a feat on it.

Contrast Elf Fighter vs Elf Wizard.  Fighters get proficiency with martial weapons; Wizards do not.  So, even though our Elf Wizard would have this trait, he would not be proficient with the weapon in question?

(That is, at least, how I read it.)

[Angie]

Contrast Elf Fighter vs Elf Wizard.  Fighters get proficiency with martial weapons; Wizards do not.  So, even though our Elf Wizard would have this trait, he would not be proficient with the weapon in question?

(That is, at least, how I read it.)

Yeah, i went back and edited my original. In this case, the Wizard wouldn't be proficient with Elven Curved Blade, but could take Martial Weapon Proficiency if he really really wanted to swing a big curved sword around.

[Winds Of Lust]

And for anyone else finding Gestalt to be difficult, my advice is usually just to find two classes that complement one another in some way.  I would generally look at whatever the classes primary attribute is and go from there.  Some more esoteric things could work as well, as long as there's some stat overlap--you don't really want to spread yourself too thin.

Examples:

Monk can work well with a Wisdom based caster, or something that directly aids their combat ability.
A wizard (or other Intelligence based caster) can work well with classes that can make good use of a high intelligence, such as a Rogue for skill points, or an Alchemist for a different form of "casting".
Fighter can make a good default choice for almost any combination as it provides a well rounded boost to a lot of different things (full base attack, strong Fortitude save, lots of extra feats, and access to fighter specific feats).

Archetypes can also help to make that work a lot better as well.

Bad combinations would generally be things that double-up on the same benefit, most of these are covered by the hybrid classes (Arcanist, Brawler, Skald...) which usually do those specific combinations better than just gestalting them as they provide additional benefits.

thanks for the suggestion and reference material, I'll admit my pathfinder knowledge is rusty and never my strongest area of the system, to begin with, haha but I simply can't ignore the allure of traps!

Maybe if I expand upon the character idea I'm going for here, Still solidly thinking Dhampire for Keri, perhaps the bastard child of a minor noble family who got involved with a vampire in some way shape or form. Perhaps the Kerin blade were even the ones to deal with the problem, maybe the vamp was looking to puppet master this family into gaining greater control over the kingdom, who's to say. Regardless they deal with the problem and find out about this side product from the incident, MC. They decided that he could be a unique asset for the blade and take him to be trained like any other promising orphan. I'm thinking they will be good at infiltrating setting among the nobility, his breading and human appearance normally allowing him to blend in well, more often than not by posing as an attendant or representative of a given family. Someone who is very comfortable going into situations totally un-armed and un-armored thanks to their focus in hand to hand and vampiric heritage, allowing him to be a deadly threat or useful shield in places were sneaking in weapons would be an issue.

I was definitely thinking some kind of spellcasting, something that gives them access to abilities that really lean into that 'my mom or dad was a vampire and I got some of that mojo in me' flavor. Maybe druid? A wisdom castor that could give my boy some Alucard esq beast transformations eventually and some casting utility, though I'd probably RP it in a way where he mostly uses spells and powers that would suite a vamps skillset...or if that seems too silly/cumbersome we can just say he was trained as a druid as well lol

[indarkestknight]

While druid probably has better synergy with the ability scores monks emphasize, going to throw out that an undead bloodline blooodrager or sorcerer, or an oracle with the vampiric curse could similarly emphasize Keri’s heritage.

[Chulanowa]

thanks for the suggestion and reference material, I'll admit my pathfinder knowledge is rusty and never my strongest area of the system, to begin with, haha but I simply can't ignore the allure of traps!

Maybe if I expand upon the character idea I'm going for here, Still solidly thinking Dhampire for Keri, perhaps the bastard child of a minor noble family who got involved with a vampire in some way shape or form. Perhaps the Kerin blade were even the ones to deal with the problem, maybe the vamp was looking to puppet master this family into gaining greater control over the kingdom, who's to say. Regardless they deal with the problem and find out about this side product from the incident, MC. They decided that he could be a unique asset for the blade and take him to be trained like any other promising orphan. I'm thinking they will be good at infiltrating setting among the nobility, his breading and human appearance normally allowing him to blend in well, more often than not by posing as an attendant or representative of a given family. Someone who is very comfortable going into situations totally un-armed and un-armored thanks to their focus in hand to hand and vampiric heritage, allowing him to be a deadly threat or useful shield in places were sneaking in weapons would be an issue.

I was definitely thinking some kind of spellcasting, something that gives them access to abilities that really lean into that 'my mom or dad was a vampire and I got some of that mojo in me' flavor. Maybe druid? A wisdom castor that could give my boy some Alucard esq beast transformations eventually and some casting utility, though I'd probably RP it in a way where he mostly uses spells and powers that would suite a vamps skillset...or if that seems too silly/cumbersome we can just say he was trained as a druid as well lol

Kineticist could always be fun, if you want to go for that Avatar: the Last Airbender vibe. Doesn't play well with main-version Dhamphir though, because it's very CON dependent.

[indarkestknight]

A couple questions for the DM.

One, sorry if this was already asked and I missed this: what's the protocol if we're interested in an archetype like, say, Zen Archer, that isn't compatible with the unchained version of the base class?

Two, is the Omdura class on the table? It's from a Pathfinder book published by Paizo, but is fairly obscure as it is a book about a setting other than Golarion.

[Chulanowa]

Hi Chula, and thank you for the offer!  Feel free to present the character, though I'm more in favour of the reverse.  That said, if its an intruiging enough concept, I may seriously consider it.

Sadly, the lack of Halflings means she's just not viable (since I am presuming that you won't allow any hinky cheese like a small-race aasimar or the like  ;D)

But no worries, i have a bajillion characters always in my head! But they'll have to wait until after work.

[nomadsoul]

A couple questions for the DM.

One, sorry if this was already asked and I missed this: what's the protocol if we're interested in an archetype like, say, Zen Archer, that isn't compatible with the unchained version of the base class?

Two, is the Omdura class on the table? It's from a Pathfinder book published by Paizo, but is fairly obscure as it is a book about a setting other than Golarion.

Sorry for the delay.  Got a little bogged down with work!  So, first off, if there's an obvious way to exchange equivalent abilities with that of the archetype, then there shouldn't be too many problems and can proceed; otherwise, I would generally prefer to rule against it if it requires extensive modding.

Secondly, as far as I can see, the Omdura class is an official Pathfinder class (albeit, just made to fit the flavor of a particular setting), so that's a green light.

[Sessha]

Sorry for the delay.  Got a little bogged down with work!  So, first off, if there's an obvious way to exchange equivalent abilities with that of the archetype, then there shouldn't be too many problems and can proceed; otherwise, I would generally prefer to rule against it if it requires extensive modding.

Secondly, as far as I can see, the Omdura class is an official Pathfinder class (albeit, just made to fit the flavor of a particular setting), so that's a green light.

I need to keep this class in mind for later ideas and such. Though amusingly this would most likely have solved my original dilemma. Oh well live and learn I suppose. Now I'm going to with my second idea I had of a ranger/rogue or maybe Ranger/Fighter combo. If I go fighter instead of rogue I can get Weapon Spec. Which...oh my god can you image duel wielding chain hammers? I love it!

[Winds Of Lust]

https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2111702

okay I think I did this right, but before I go about writing up Keri's history and such figured I should post the CS for peer review

[Chulanowa]

I've just gotta figure out what combination of classes

this is

And I'll be set

[Winds Of Lust]

Hard not to see a bard when you see that hat...

[TwistedKitsune]

I've just gotta figure out what combination of classes

this is

And I'll be set

Well I think one of them looks like a vigilant. The other being something martial based since they have a sword?

I still have to finish off Skye's equipment and history but here is the sheet.

https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2111704

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

[Angie]

So many cuties for Neela to flirt with!

[TwistedKitsune]

I have just had the idea of maybe going Alchemist and seeing what kind of fun stuff Skye could create that might be useful.