[Discussion] FFA discussion thread

[phaedrusxy]

I'm still not sure what affiliation to choose with my character. A spellcasting guild affiliation makes the most sense, I think. Unfortunately, he doesn't qualify for most of them, because he lacks the ability to cast spells (although he does have at least one SLA, if those could count)... I guess I could have him be aligned with the church or order of the dawn, or the delvers, or something like that, but what I'd really like is the Dreaming Apothecary (as one of their creations) or the PA. Unfortunately, he can't really sleep, nor cast spells.


EDIT by sirp: sorry to edit your post, phae, I just wanted to add the [Discussion] tag to the title.

[sirpercival]

I'm still not sure what affiliation to choose with my character. A spellcasting guild affiliation makes the most sense, I think. Unfortunately, he doesn't qualify for most of them, because he lacks the ability to cast spells (although he does have at least one SLA, if those could count)... I guess I could have him be aligned with the church or order of the dawn, or the delvers, or something like that, but what I'd really like is the Dreaming Apothecary (as one of their creations) or the PA. Unfortunately, he can't really sleep, nor cast spells.

Note that the Dreaming Apothecary does not require spellcasting (I know that's misleading, but it doesn't have a Requirement).  Your SLA counts so you don't have to worry about the -2.  You won't get very high in the affiliation without some sort of spellcasting/item creation, but you can belong.

[phaedrusxy]

I'm still not sure what affiliation to choose with my character. A spellcasting guild affiliation makes the most sense, I think. Unfortunately, he doesn't qualify for most of them, because he lacks the ability to cast spells (although he does have at least one SLA, if those could count)... I guess I could have him be aligned with the church or order of the dawn, or the delvers, or something like that, but what I'd really like is the Dreaming Apothecary (as one of their creations) or the PA. Unfortunately, he can't really sleep, nor cast spells.

Note that the Dreaming Apothecary does not require spellcasting (I know that's misleading, but it doesn't have a Requirement).  Your SLA counts so you don't have to worry about the -2.  You won't get very high in the affiliation without some sort of spellcasting/item creation, but you can belong.

Awesome. Perhaps they will have built in a way to contact him (or for him to contact them) via a meditative trance or something, since he doesn't actually sleep.

[Zionpopsickle]

It could also make sense for Abyss to be a member of the Dreaming Apothamothomacaries (that word is hard to spell) since he'll have a naturally high score via artificer.  Plus it will tie some some more of our characters together backstory wise, which we should probably do in the FFAS thread.

[phaedrusxy]

I've scrapped the Blood King idea.  I'm thinking about a Spellshaper (which is already approved).

I was just thinking of trading out my crusader level for a level of a spellshaping class on the drive home from work. Probably a Dragonfire Adept, choosing White Raven as my 2nd school. I'd lose out on the healing abilities of Devoted Spirit, though. And I'd have to take Martial Study for a Devoted Spirit strike to be able to get Thicket of Blades via Martial Stance. So I'm kind of setting feats on fire... What do you guys think?

[Zionpopsickle]

I've scrapped the Blood King idea.  I'm thinking about a Spellshaper (which is already approved).

I was just thinking of trading out my crusader level for a level of a spellshaping class on the drive home from work. Probably a Dragonfire Adept, choosing White Raven as my 2nd school. I'd lose out on the healing abilities of Devoted Spirit, though. And I'd have to take Martial Study for a Devoted Spirit strike to be able to get Thicket of Blades via Martial Stance. So I'm kind of setting feats on fire... What do you guys think?

I don't think that dragonfire adept is worth it given how much crusadery goodness you are gonna lose.  I think even warblade would be better given that you would at least have the option of yelling "Iron Heart Surge" and being too manly for status effects.

[phaedrusxy]

I've scrapped the Blood King idea.  I'm thinking about a Spellshaper (which is already approved).

I was just thinking of trading out my crusader level for a level of a spellshaping class on the drive home from work. Probably a Dragonfire Adept, choosing White Raven as my 2nd school. I'd lose out on the healing abilities of Devoted Spirit, though. And I'd have to take Martial Study for a Devoted Spirit strike to be able to get Thicket of Blades via Martial Stance. So I'm kind of setting feats on fire... What do you guys think?

I don't think that dragonfire adept is worth it given how much crusadery goodness you are gonna lose.  I think even warblade would be better given that you would at least have the option of yelling "Iron Heart Surge" and being too manly for status effects.

I mis-spoke. I meant Dragonheart Adept. I won't lose out on the things I really wanted from Crusader, which were Thicket of Blades and White Raven Tactics, but I'll add some awesome abilities like a stunning breath weapon that my teammates are immune to, for example.

[Zionpopsickle]

I meant dragonheart adept as well.  Given that you have feats to burn I guess it could be better.  I can give some heroics for various fighter feats to you as well so the loss of feats isn't that bad. 

Plus an 8 foot tall firebreathing robot is awesome.

[phaedrusxy]

I'm actually reconsidering... As awesome as it would be, it would also add a big dose of MAD to my character, as I'd have to pump Charisma (or some other mental ability) to increase his DCs on his breath weapon. Otherwise all the cool effects he can add via Formulae would never actually work...

Also... I'm already playing a firebreathing robot in another of SirPercival's games. So this might be too redundant.

Hmm... Damn... this is now a hard decision.

Edit: Here is the Dragonheart Adept version so far. I'm still leaning towards using this, despite the MAD.

[sirpercival]

Fine with me

[phaedrusxy]

Fine with me

I also added an ACF at level 4 which allows levels in Shield Guardian to stack with Spellshaping classes, instead of Martial Adept classes, and to replace the bonus fighter feat with one related to spellshaping.

I think my character is fully updated now. I chose Formulae which let him use Dispel Magic through his breath weapon, stun all affected by it (if they fail a will save), afflict those hit by it with a curse that makes them reroll and take the worse of all rolls, and one that allows him to turn invisible briefly. I picked up one that lets him Fly once per encounter for 3 rounds via an item.

I considered choosing the Formulae that would put everyone hit by his breath weapon to sleep for 3 rounds if they failed a save, but that seems kind of broken... and it also is Mind-Affecting, and so wouldn't work against undead, constructs, etc (unlike stunning, oddly).


Could I request OOC threads for each team so we can discuss specifics about building our characters to work together, etc?

[Garryl]

Undead and Constructs are immune to stunning by type, as are Elementals, Oozes, and Plants.

[phaedrusxy]

Undead and Constructs are immune to stunning by type, as are Elementals, Oozes, and Plants.

Ah... hmm... For some reason, I thought they weren't, as I'd remembered people jumping through all kinds of hoops to use that Born of the Three Thunders feat while ignoring the drawback. So all they had to do was be a necropolitan? Hmph. Seems too easy.

So the same groups of creatures would be immune to both, except dragons and elves would also be immune to the sleep. Hmm... I think sleep is probably the more optimal choice, then.

[Garryl]

Born of Three Thunders makes you dazed, not stunned (everyone you hit gets stunned, and not dazed). Daze is much more difficult to get around.

[Zionpopsickle]

Small problem with your build phaedrusxy; you don't actually meet the prereqs for any of the formulae you chose

Solution, just take shadows of the moon and drop the swift action invis for now which will be fine since shadows of the moon will always let you deal double damage with your breath.  Plus you need to take a level 1 shocking current (the spark one that dazes is pretty good) before you can take the second level.

Personally, I think that Searing Flame and Perfect freeze are more powerful than shocking current.  The smoke cloud based fire ones are really powerful with their % miss debuff and status effects tied to your breath, the totem power is good and the higher level formulas can deal some mean damage.  The freeze school has a ton of nice BFC.

Two bad you only get two circles with such strict restrictions because the nature circle would be awesome for you as well, with tons of damage, massive BFC and swift action, scaling mass animalistic power.

[phaedrusxy]

Small problem with your build phaedrusxy; you don't actually meet the prereqs for any of the formulae you chose

What? Why? His spellshaper level is 6, thanks to the Shield Guardian ACF I added that lets it stack for that. So when he takes DHA 1, he already has a spellshaper level of 5, qualifying him for 3rd level formulae. Or did I miss something?

Personally, I think that Searing Flame and Perfect freeze are more powerful than shocking current.  The smoke cloud based fire ones are really powerful with their % miss debuff and status effects tied to your breath, the totem power is good and the higher level formulas can deal some mean damage.  The freeze school has a ton of nice BFC.

Two bad you only get two circles with such strict restrictions because the nature circle would be awesome for you as well, with tons of damage, massive BFC and swift action, scaling mass animalistic power.

Yeah, I looked at the others, but I think I like Shocking Current better for my character, for thematic as well as mechanical reasons. I'll look at the others you mentioned again, though, to reconsider them.

[Zionpopsickle]

Prereqs are in the formula list themselves.  They are like maneuvers in that you need X formula to qualify.

[phaedrusxy]

Prereqs are in the formula list themselves.  They are like maneuvers in that you need X formula to qualify.

I see your point... I didn't have any without an "X Formulas known" prereq, did I?

I dropped the Shocking Current formula (now oddly I have 0 from that circle, even though it is my primary...), and replaced it with Inescapable Slumber (which DonQ will be nerfing somehow tonight).

[sirpercival]

OK, I split out this thread with all the char discussion for FFA.

[Zionpopsickle]

SDK you were talking about being of Red Lotus affiliation and I'd like to point out that that would be a bad idea with me and Soro both being PA members and both having good sense motive checks.  I think light step does allow you to qualify for PA (or at least SLAs should qualify you if they don't SirP... )

And Phae, I am still going to insist that Gold would be a better dragon choice since you get miss chance stacking, nausea and DPS out the wazoo (I can proc +damage abilities 7+ times per round rather easily).  But he's your dude and the stunning from blue dragon will be pretty awesome when you get there.