The Grumbly School of Tactics

[grumblyarcher]

So I have been listening to the older episodes and more than a few things have occurred to me. I figured I'd concentrate all of my sundry bits of advice and observations in one place so that it is easier to reference or ignore. It will also not clog up the various episode threads.

General

• Not Being the Best (Skill Points)

    My very, very first character died because he failed to jump over a five foot tile and was promptly decapitated by a scythe trap that scored a critical hit on him and dealt 8d4+24 damage to a forth level caster. My second character was nearly crushed under a train because he botched a few climb checks to scale the side of a boxcar. My third character identified a teleportation hub even when the resident magic specialist was scratching their head in confusion.

    The moral of these stories is that tossing a few skill ranks about can be a good thing. You do not have to put the maximum number of ranks in only a few skills. Putting one or two ranks in several skills can mean the difference between falling off a train car and successful feats of moderate daring. A lot of classes have skills like Climb or Ride as class skills and even putting a single skill rank into them can make a significant difference should the need arise. Sure you might not go swimming every session but if you do end up in the drink, you will be glad you spent a single rank on swim and now sport a respectable +8 as opposed to +4.

    Another thing to keep in mind are the difficulty of average skill checks. Keeping an eye on the DCs of skill checks and planning accordingly based on class features, magic items, and which base stats you will be improving over time will provide you with a nice little economy of skill points. It is perfectly respectable to be 'good enough' at many skills. A lot of the less risky skills only require a light investment of skill ranks to max out their practical effectiveness. Survival, for instance, for a character that is not trying to specialize in tracking only really requires a +14 bonus before many of the basic mechanical benefits are practically assured outside of a natural 1. You will reliably be able to forage, gain bonuses against inclement weather, avoid natural hazards, and even predict the weather while likely being able to provide some of these for one or two other characters as well. You won't be reading tracks on asphalt but you will be reducing the strain of travel considerably.


EPISODE 11

• Hamid's Claws (Contributing in Combat):

    Sorcerers are squishy, have half BAB, and most of their class features are not the best thing to use in close combat. Outside of some specific builds, choosing to get into melee combat is not a good choice for full casters. Dragon Disciple, the prestige class I assume Bryn is aiming for, will help with this but is still a long way off. So why do I think Hamid's claws are actually really useful? Well, one of my suggestions for all characters in combat is that they carry some sort of weapon. Having a weapon drawn means that your character threatens an area and thus can be a flanking partner even if they hit like a curtain in the wind. Hamid's claws qualify for this and do not tie up any actions with drawing or sheathing or interfere with his spell casting.

    Being armed also means that Hamid can use the Aid Another action in combat. As long as he is adjacent to the same enemy as an ally, he can use a standard action to aid his ally. It requires an attack roll against an AC of 10. If he succeeds, he does not do any damage but does manage to essentially interfere with the enemy. Mechanically, this means Hamid can choose to give his ally a +2 bonus to the ally's next attack roll against that enemy or the ally's AC against the enemy's next attack against them. 

    Thus, if Hamid is positioned right, he can end up giving one of the heavier hitters a net +4 bonus to attack an enemy. That +4 is nothing to sneeze at, especially at lower levels and could definitely mean the difference between Hamid getting gutted by an enemy or that enemy being gutted by Sasha or Bertie.


Episode 21

• Swarms and You (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bugs)

    Swarms come in many different types and present varying degrees of difficulty when dealing with them. However, the are generally a step up from your average mook. A few swarms can be harmed with physical attacks but that is generally not a good tactic in my opinion. This is because of one of their more vicious abilities, their capacity for inflicting damage without an attack roll or saving throw. Standing next to it and swinging is not recommended if other options are available. My tips are to stay mobile and pack area of effect spells or a splash weapon like Alchemist's Fire. Such weapons and effects deal 1.5x damage to swarms. Staying out of their reach and torching them is the way to go if you can. Running is another legitimate option. Swarms can and will tear an unprepared and overly aggressive party apart.

    Also, keep Alex away from any material containing stat blocks for a swarm of fine or diminutive size golems. If you fail, Poseidon help us all.

[theoverlord]

Doesn't sasha also get her sneak attack bonus if Hamid is threatening squares. Which would also allow sasha to use sneak attack on the particular enemy

[Brave Sir Robin]

I am not aiming for dragon disciple. I intend to remain useless in melee.

[theoverlord]

Interesting.
These are ideas for what i think that your prestige classes might be:
Halfling Oppurtunist: Gives sneak attack, bonuses from aid another and benefits to checks on initial checks with people
Tattooed Mystic: gains a familiar, gains magical abilities from your own tattoos, gain excess magical abilities
Noble Scion: Gain extra gold and abilities depending on where from, gain additional NPC's to aid yourself

This does depend on whether you survive that long, but these would be my ideas for prestige classes for you.

[Brave Sir Robin]

I am actually intending just to remain in sorcerer. I don't want to take any hits to my spell-casting levels and I want my bloodline powers. One of my favourite things about pathfinder (over D&D 3.5) is that you really don't have to aim for a prestige class - the core classes are comparable (though often a little less cool).

I am guessing I won't survive long enough though. I am so squishy.

[Brave Sir Robin]

Nov 10, 2015 10:09:38 GMT grumblyarcher said:

    The moral of these stories is that tossing a few skill ranks about can be a good thing. You do not have to put the maximum number of ranks in only a few skills. Putting one or two ranks in several skills can mean the difference between falling off a train car and successful feats of moderate daring. A lot of classes have skills like Climb or Ride as class skills and even putting a single skill rank into them can make a significant difference should the need arise. Sure you might not go swimming every session but if you do end up in the drink, you will be glad you spent a single rank on swim and now sport a respectable +8 as opposed to +4

I totally agree with this, but I also know I will miss my skills if I let them atrophy.

[Alex Newall]

You always know about missing skill ranks. It is the cry of all sorcerers everywhere, which is quickly silenced bneath a massive explosion of some kind. In all setiousness though, Grumbly does raise good points. What I would warn with swarms is that they are frequently underestimated at your peril and you would do well to be cautious of them at all times. Now if only I can find a swarm of golems, immune to magic and resistant to splash damage...

[grumblyarcher]

Nov 12, 2015 10:02:08 GMT Alex Newall said:

Now if only I can find a swarm of golems, immune to magic and resistant to splash damage...

Whoa there, Satan.


The skill rank policy is one I adopted after building my smart fighter and when I was working on a swashbuckler. The Swashbuckler ability Derring-do is nice but somewhat useless unless you have a level of basic competence with a wide range of strength and dexterity based skills. Similarly, having a bunch of abilities that exploit weaknesses gained from knowledge checks requires a wide range of knowledges to be useful in most situations. Keeping an eye on the DCs of skill checks and planning accordingly based on class features, magic items, and which base stats you will be improving over time will provide you with a nice little economy of skill points.

Still kind of sucks for fighters, clerics, sorcerers, summoners, magi, paladins, witches, wizards, arcanists, warpriests, and psychics with their 2+int skill ranks a level. A few of them do have archetypes that mitigate that somewhat, bringing them up to 4+int, or encourage high intelligence scores but this is the reason I like the background skills variant rule so much. It allows at least some room for flavor with even the dumbest beat-stick fighter.

[theoverlord]

May have just read the page for swarm stats. That was an incredibly bad idea, Poseidon, Lord of scurvy, help us all

[Alex Newall]

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA,

[grumblyarcher]

By the by, I purchased an electronic copy of the latest Pathfinder release. If anyone wants a look message me and I'll send you a link to my google drive.