Min/Max Boards

Sorry guys... was out of town over the weekend, and busy as hell today.

I'm making a bard/warlord for a level 6 PF gestalt (E6) game, and wondering if there are any easy ways to get a reroll for initiative? I already have quite a good bonus, but I'd still like to ensure that if I happen to roll poorly it won't spell the end of me in a nasty fight...

As a second thing: I'd like to be able to use a reach weapon and a shield at the same time. (Or have reach... I guess I could use a wand of Enlarge Person, but that's another combat action required... It's E6, so Permanency is probably out of the question.) Solved this one! Iron Tortoise has the 3rd level Iron Tortoise Stance which increases your reach by 5' and lets you make another AoO per round! 

Edit2: It looks like pathfinder Uncanny Dodge actually just flat makes you immune to being flat-footed, which means that you can always take an immediate action. I have several awesome counters from the Iron Tortoise discipline so I should be OK even if I lose initiative.

Mindstealer Master


   
Brave words. I've heard them before, from thousands of species across thousands of worlds, since long before you were created.

 The Mindstealer Master is the ultimate monster spawning factory, assimilating psychic and genetic information from myriad creatures and recombining it in new ways, some of which may have never been seen before in any creature that has previously existed.

BECOMING A MINDSTEALER MASTER
The Mindstealer Master typically starts out as a Mindstealer Drone which encounters a Deepspawn and assimilates its abilities.

 ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Must have taken all levels of the Mindstealer Drone and Deepspawn monster classes.

Class Skills
 All skills are class skills for a Mindstealer Master.
Skills Points at Each  Level: 4 + int

Hit Dice: d8

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Spawn Drone, Absorb Drone, Delegated Power, Deceivingly Innocent Form, Telepathic Command
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Pre-programming, Expanded Archive
3rd	+2	+1	+1	+3	Advanced hardware, Sleeper Agent
4th	+3	+1	+1	+4	Universal Knowledge, Revive Drone
5th	+3	+1	+1	+4	Reprogram Drone, Universal Mastery
6th	+4	+2	+2	+5	Assimilate
7th	+5	+2	+2	+5	Resistance is Futile
8th	+6	+2	+2	+6	Adaptation
9th	+6	+3	+3	+6	Eternal Overlord

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: The Mindstealer Master does not gain any new proficiencies with armor, weapons, or shields.

Spawn Drone (Su): The Mindstealer Master may spawn Mindstealer Drones, which are 100% loyal to him (as thralls/believers of Thrallherd). This is a modified version of Spawn Child, from the Master's Deepspawn levels, and functions as that ability except as noted here. The Mindstealer Master (hereafter referred to as "the Master") may also use Early Birth to create these special Spawn Children more rapidly, but they will then die and decay as normal within 1d4 minutes if not Absorbed by the master before then.

At first level, the Master may only spawn Drones with a single level of Mindstealer Drone, and no other class levels. However, such drones may advance by gaining experience points (usually done by draining creatures of all their memories and assimilating them). The Master may control a number of drones at once equal to its own hit dice, but the advancement of the drones is limited. The master may only have one “full strength” drone with hit dice equal to the Master’s minus 2, one drone with the Master’s hit dice minus 3, and so on. Drones with only 1-3 levels of Mindstealer Drone and no other levels or hit dice only count as 1 hit die creatures for the purposes of these limitations. So the Master may control up to his hit dice of these at once. The Master's drones may not take levels of Mindstealer Master while they remain under his control. If they do, they become "free-willed" Masters of their own, and migrate to a new area so as to not compete with their Master's food source.

Any drones which gain enough hit dice (via class levels) to exceed the Master’s control limitations become uncontrolled. The Master may absorb other drones to regain control over a “renegade” drone (unless the renegade's has an equal or higher number of hit dice than it's master), but drones which have been uncontrolled for more than a week become “free-willed” and cannot be reclaimed by their Master. All Mindstealer Drones and Masters consider these renegades to be a threat to their race, and will spare no expense to exterminate them. However, if the renegade drone survives long enough to become a Mindstealer Master itself, then the others will accept it back into the "family".

These controlled minions replace the Favorite Child ability of Deepspawn, as the Favorite Child would just be too jealous of all of these Drones, and no doubt have to be put down after it started fighting with them.

Absorb Drone (Su): The Mindstealer Master can reabsorb living drones it has created to gain all of their stolen knowledge (including their Psychic Archive). The Mindstealer Master must absorb at least one drone per day or begin to “starve”, taking one point of intelligence drain per day which cannot be healed until it "feeds" by absorbing a drone. "Blank" drones which do not have any stolen memories do not provide any sustenance, and so are useless as "food" for the master, even if they were created with the Pre-programming ability. Absorbing a drone instantly cures all Intelligence drain the Master has suffered from starvation. Absorb Drone has a range of touch and requires a move action from the Master to use.

Delegated Power (Ex): For every Mindstealer Drone under its command which has more than three hit dice, the Mindstealer Master itself counts as one level lower for the purposes of which forms it can access with its Change Shape and Psychic Combine class features (from its Mindstealer Drone levels). For example, if a 3rd level Mindstealer Master (total character level 14) had absorbed the abilities of a 12th level psion, but currently had 3 Mindstealer Drones under its command with more than 3 hit dice, then it could no longer access any of the abilities of that psion via its Change Shape or Psychic Combine abilities. It could still impart them to its spawn via Pre-Programming or Advanced Hardware (see below), though.

Deceivingly Innocent Form (Ex): The Mindstealer Master receives Deceivingly Innocent Form as a bonus feat.

Telepathic Command (Su): The Master can communicate telepathically with any drones under its command if they are within 1 mile. Since this is a very limited form of telepathy, it does not allow the Master to qualify for feats or classes which require the Telepathy ability.

Pre-programming (Su): A Mindstealer Master of at least second level can create drones which already have knowledge of forms within their Psychic Archive, as if they’d absorbed them. These forms must be from the Master’s own Psychic Archive. In addition, the Master may imprint knowledge of class abilities from his psychic archive onto drones he creates. Drones created in this way may have class levels up to one less than the Master, but the first three levels must always be of Mindstealer Drone.

Expanded Archive (Ex): At second level, the Mindstealer Drone's Psychic Archive expands. It can now "remember" up to twice its total hit dice of creatures.

Advanced hardware (Su): Once a Mindstealer Master reaches level 3 of this class, it can create drones that are an actual monster hybrid of a form the Master has genetic knowledge of. The created spawn receives Monster Blooded and Monster Hybrid as bonus feats, and hit dice according to the creature chosen for these feats. The total hit dice of the spawn may not exceed the Master’s level -1, and the first three levels must always be of Mindstealer Drone. If the drone ever becomes free-willed (it's Master is destroyed, or exceeds his capacity of controlled drones), the Drone loses the bonus feats, and must choose two of its other feats to replace with them. This ability does not supercede the control limits of Create Spawn, or any other abilities of the Mindstealer Master.

Sleeper Agent (Su): Upon reaching 3rd level, not only does the Mindstealer Master gain the ability to shape the bodies of her drones as she wishes. She also may give them any memories she wants, including the memories of creatures she has within her Psychic Archive, creatures she has Assimilated (see Assimilate below), and she may also fabricate memories entirely from scratch, although in the latter case such creatures have inherently unstable minds and are prone to breakdowns (-4 to Will saves vs. any Mind Affecting abilities, once per week Will save vs. DC 15 or go permanently insane as the Insanity spell). She may program such creatures such that they do not even know that they are Drones, and may believe themselves to be the creature whose mind she has implanted within them. She may alter or implant memories into these minds as they are formed, and/or block off certain aspects of the mind and memories which will only be released at a certain time, or after witnessing a specific trigger. A frequent usage of this ability is to replace a creature with a Drone which thinks it is the original, and program it to then "remember" that it is a drone, and what its mission is (often assassination) once it has passed within some area of high security.

Universal Knowledge (Ex): The Mindstealer Master has by 4th level amassed an amazing depth and diversity of stolen memories and knowledge. When making any skill check, it may use 1/2 its HD (rounded up) in place of the number of ranks it has in any skill (even if that number is 0). In addition, it counts as being 'trained' in all skills that can only be used by someone with ranks in them.

Revive Drone (Su): The Master may revive a drone which has been dead for no more than one week and whose body is mostly intact. This ability has a range of touch and requires one hour of concentration. This otherwise works as Raise Dead, except the drone does not lose a level.

Reprogram Drone (Su): Starting at 5th level, the Mindstealer Master may use Psychic Reformation on any drones it controls as a standard action with no XP costs. This ability has a range of touch. It may only imprint the drones with abilities that it has knowledge of within its Genetic Knowledge (Deepspawn) or Psychic Archive (Mindstealer Drone) abilities, however, and the drone must meet any prerequisites needed for imprinted abilities.

Universal Mastery (Ex): At level 5 and up, the number of creatures the Mindstealer Master may remember via its Psychic Archive is unlimited.

Assimilate (Su): At 6th level, the Mindstealer Master has learned to infect and take over creatures, as well as consume and recreate them from scratch. Any creature hit by the Master's bite or tentacle attack must make a Fortitude save (DC 10+1/2 Master's hit dice + Master's Int modifier) or be infected with a supernatural disease which will slowly turn it into a Mindstealer Drone under the Master's control. There is no incubation time for this disease, and affected target takes 1d4 points of Charisma drain immediately and another 1d4 Charisma drain per hour. Each instance of Charisma drain after the first may be resisted with another Fortitude save (same DC), but this does not cure the creature of the infection, but merely slows its completion.

This infection is a powerful curse, not a natural disease, and such even works on creatures normally immune to diseases. Unlike normal diseases, this disease continues until the victim reaches Charisma 0 (and is converted into a Mindstealer Drone) or is cured as described below.

To cure the disease (and prevent Assimilation), the curse must first be broken with break enchantment or remove curse (requiring a DC 20 caster level check for either spell), and then the disease can be magically cured as any normal disease. This only works if the victim has not been Assimilated (drained of all charisma and turned into a Mindstealer Drone). Once a victim has been Assimilated, only a Wish or Miracle may convert them back to their previous forms. Even death and subsequent resurrection will not remove the curse once it has reached its conclusion. Additionally, if the target has been Assimilated and then Absorbed by the Mindstealer Master, the Master must first be destroyed before they can be brought back by any means short of direct deific intervention.

When the target's Charisma is drained to zero it is Assimilated. The Master chooses how many Mindstealer Drone levels to add to it, or how many of its levels to replace with Drone levels (up to 3). The target keeps any other current levels, and starts with knowledge of its previous form. If any of its levels are racial class levels, it gains Monster Blood and Monster Hybrid as bonus feats as with the Master's Advanced Hardware ability. If the Assimilated target has as many or more hit dice than the Master, then it is too powerful to be controlled, and instead lapses into a coma from which it can only be awakened from by consecutive casting of Remove Curse, Cure Disease, and Restoration (or other magic which can remove a curse, a disease, and restore the ability drain).

Resistance is Futile (Su): At 7th level, the Master has learned enough about creature physiology that it may modify the abilities it has stolen to bypass resistance and immunity. however, such modifications are complex, and hence only the Master itself or the most powerful drone it can create (master's HD-1) can benefit from this ability. When choosing one absorbed ability to use (via Change Shape or Psychic Combine), the Master or Drone may modify that ability to bypass 5 points of damage resistance per Mindstealer Master level. It may also affect creatures normally immune to the ability, but such creatures get a +5 to their saving throws against the ability and ignore half of the damage of the ability (which is not bypassed). If the ability does not do damage and does not normally allow a saving throw, the target has a 50% chance to ignore the ability each time it is subjected to it. The Drone or Master may only have one such immunity-bypassing ability at a time, but may change which ability Resistance is Futile applies to each time they select another absorbed ability to access via Change Shape or Psychic Combine.

Adaptation (Ex): The Master's knowledge of the myriad defensive and offensive abilities of creatures has advanced to the point that it may create new defenses against abilities it has been exposed to, even if no creatures which it has genetic or psychic knowledge of has such a resistance. The Master may grant itself or a drone it Spawns or Reprograms the ability to become partial immune to any ability that it has personally been affected by, or which any drone which it has previously reabsorbed has been affected by. While active, this partial immunity gives the Master or Drone a 50% chance of ignoring the effects of the ability each time it is affected by it.

Each Master or Drone may only have one such Adaptation at a time. The Master may change the ability its own Adaptation protects against as a Standard action, and may change the Adaptation of all Drones which are within range of its Telepathic Command as part of the same action, if it so wishes.

Eternal Overlord (Su): The Mindstealer Master has learned to leave a psychic imprint of itself within all the creatures it creates. If the Master is ever destroyed, this psychic seed will then germinate within one of them over 1d4 days, with the Master being reborn within the body of its offspring. The Master will then immediately reconfigure its new body to match its own one. This works as the Clone spell, except that all creatures created by the master count as clones.

I've been working on this guy, and thought I'd see if anyone has any further thoughts on him. I know it's probably more optimal to boost his Str and ditch the Guided Amulet of Mighty Fists, but I like the idea of using Wisdom for attack and damage. I'd like to use giant octopus form all the time, but haven't seen an easy way to give it air-breathing in PF.

Hitpoints: 52
Race: Half-elf (Water Child)
Classes: Druid (Storm-Cloud) 7
AL: Neutral Good
Ini: +5, Speed: 30 ft.
AC: [ooc=19]10+3dex+4armor+1luck+1defl[/ooc], Touch: 15, Flat-footed: 16
Fort: [ooc=+7]5base+2con[/ooc], Ref: [ooc=+5]2base+3dex[/ooc], Will: [ooc=+11]5base+6wis[/ooc]
Base Attack Bonus: +5
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 12, Wis [ooc=23]18base+2race+1lvl+2enh[/ooc], Cha 10

Feats: Improved Initiative (1), Skill Focus (Perception)(half-elf bonus), Combat Reflexes (3), Natural Spell (5), Wild Speech (7)

Traits: Elven Reflexes, Lessons of Faith

Racial Traits: Water Child (can always take 10 on swim, +4 racial bonus, Aquan as possible language)
Favored Class: Druid (elf, +1/3 natural AC when Wildshaped)

I'm finishing up an Oracle, but am not that familiar with Pathfinder yet. The character link is below. The character is mostly a caster (gained a bunch of sorcerer spells known through an archetype), a"know-it-all" for out of combat utility (+26 on all Int skills 6x/day), with a decent Str so he can melee when the threats don't merit casting. Suggestions on items would be appreciated.
http://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?t=274130

Things changed. Edited original post to reflect.

Here is a link to the character.

Well... the build has turned into something pretty different than first planned... I kept looking at the Share Spells ability, and what a shame it would be not to use it... Then I noticed that I needed Turn Undead to get into PrPaladin... So now it is Divine "Nature" Bard 9/Sacred Exorcist 1/PrPal 3 with Devoted Tracker. So basically a bardic uber-mount build...

The problem is I need Dispel Evil or Dismissal to enter Sacred Exorcist, and those are hard to get as a divine bard... I'd like to get them early enough to get Devoted Tracker in at 12th level, also. I think the only option is some item that grants knowledge, like a Knowstone, Drakehelm, Runestaff, etc, but since I'm a divine caster I'm not sure those will work well/at all.

I think we need to create a new line of sayings, styled after Jeff Foxworthy's "You might be a Redneck" jokes, but instead starting with "You might be an Optimizer..."

For example: You might be an optimizer if you have to use an excel spreadsheet to calculate your damage in a D&D game.

Anyone else having problems? Was there a scheduled maintenance or something? Or did it just go down unexpectedly?

Crystalize won't work on undead
Neither will Fuse Flesh
Control Body will, but only on things that are humanoid shaped
Most of the ones that require a Will save are Mind Affecting and/or Death effects, meaning immunity is fairly easy to get.

I'm not really that happy with any of these. I'm mostly looking for mid level effects, when some of the better arcane and divine ones come online.

This map management program/website might save you some time and effort in the long run.
http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13811.0