Name: Zachary Hawkins HP: 20 Fort: +4 (+6 vs Poison)
Class: Alchemist AC: 17 Refl: +6
Level: 3 Will: +1
Str: 9 CMB: +1
Dex: 16 CMD: +14
Con: 12
Int: 17 Melee: +1
Wis: 10 Ranged: +5
Cha: 12
**Feats**:
Magical Aptitude (1st level feat): Gives +2 on Spellcraft checks and UMD checks
Deft Hands (human bonus feat): Gives +2 on Disable Device and Sleight of Hand
Extra Discovery (3rd level feat):
Throw Anything (class feature): No attack penalty for improvised missile weapons
Brew Potion (class feature): Create potions of any formulae known at cost of 25gp x formula level x caster level
Swift Alchemy (class feature): Create alchemical items at double speed, poison a weapon as a move action
+2 on poison saves
Cannot accidentally poison self when poisoning a weapon
**Skills**:
Appraise +6
Craft (Alchemy) +6 to ID potion, +9 to make alchemical item
Disable Device +8
Knowledge (arcana) +6
Knowledge (Nature) +6
Sleight of Hand +8
Spellcraft +8
Use Magic Device +6
**Languages**:
English
French
Dutch
Danish
Latin
**Formulae**: (can prepare any formula in 1 minute using an unused unprepared slot)
1st level [4 per day]: bomber's eye, crafter's fortune, CLW, det. secret doors, disguise self, true strike, touch of the sea
**Discoveries**: Smoke Bomb, Stink Bomb
Prepares Dex Mutagen unless stated otherwise (+2 natural armour, +4 Dex, -2 Wis for 30 minutes)
Bomb, 6/day, 2d6+3 damage (+1d6 if critical), Splash 5' radius, Smoke or Stink 10' radius
I’ve factored a mail shirt into my AC. I haven’t crunched the numbers for the various skills I can use unskilled. I saw some flavour text about alchemists’ facility with poisons and Zach is skilled at applying it, but I’ve not seen anything yet about making it.
Making poison is a craft(alchemy) roll with a DC equal to the poison’s Fortitude save DC. Cost is half the buying price, same as magic items. Few of them are really worth it past the first few levels though, and the few that are cost a mint for a one use deal. Alchemical items are lots of cheap, gimmicky fun though.
WTH, I already sent **appleciders **a full sheet, but I’ll paste a copy here anyway, might give others an idea of what Harald can and can’t do :
Name : Harald Ragnarsson HP : 35 (41 when raging)
Class : Invulnerable Rager 2, Cleric 1 AC : 17 (15 when raging, 13 when raging and big)
Domains : Growth, Ferocity Traits : Courageous, Indomitable Faith
STR 18 (22) Fort : +7 (+9) Melee : +6 (+8)
DEX 12 Reflx : +1 Ranged : +3
CON 14 (18) Will : +5 (+7), +2 vs. Fear effects
INT 10
WIS 14 CMB +6 (+8)
CHA 8 CMD 17
**
Feats : **
Power Attack (may choose -1 on attack rolls for +2 on dmg, +3 with 2H weapons)
Furious Focus (ignores the Power Attack attack penalty on one attack/rnd if meleing with 2H)
Toughness (+1 HP/lvl)
Damage resistance 1/- (class feature)
Channel positive energy (1d6+1, 2/day)
**Rage :**
8 rnds of glorious fury/day
Lesser Beast Totem (when raging gain 2 Claw natural weapon attacks, d6 dmg each)
**Domain Powers :**
Growth : may Enlarge self as swift action 5 rnds/day
Ferocity : may add 1 to one dmg roll per rnd, 5 rnds/day, must declare before attack
**Skills :**
Perception +8
Survival +8
Profession(sailor) +7
Heal +6
Sense Motive +6
Knowledge(nature) +4
Swim +3
Climb +3
**Languages : **
Norwegian
Bad Italian
**Spells (typically) :**
0 - Detect Poison, Guidance, Light
1 - Enlarge Person, Divine Favour x2
numbers factor the chainmail.
TL;DR take up space, punch hard as hell, can’t take a punch back, REALLY can’t take a fireball. Or an errant bomb ;). May sometimes see shit.
Bookmarked. With an Alchemist Lab and taking 10 I can make anything that’s DC 20 or below (I can make DC 15 without the Lab); with crafter’s fortune as well I hit DC 25 on a take 10. It gets even better in a couple of levels when I can have +13 inherent plus the lab bonus plus the fortune.
And don’t worry Harald, my aim with bombs is pretty good.
Skills…I’ve read the skill section from that web site linked above like half a dozen times now, and I still can’t quite make heads or tails of it. How do you know how many levels you get? What effects do higher levels give you?
I’m glad you asked that, because I’ve just realized that you are supposed to get an extra skill rank (or hit point) every time you take a level in a “favoured class” (typically the one you started out with). So I need to work out what to do with another 3 ranks (they can’t go in any of the skills I presently have as you can’t have more ranks in a skill than you have levels, though you can - as I have - take a feat which gives bonus ranks to some of your skills).
Not necessarily. You have 3 options for each level you have in your favoured class :
+1 HP
+1 Skill Point
+1 Funky Shit. The funky shit depends on the specific race/class combo you’ve got going.
But don’t be silly, take the hit points
To answer John’s question : every level you get N skill points to spend. N depends on your character class + INT modifier. Skills are subdivided into two broad groups : your class’ skills, and other skills.
You seemed to want to be a Druid, so you get 4+IntMod skill points per levels, and you class skills (besides Trait and Feat fuckery) would be Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Fly (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (geography) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).
Class skills are worth X (where X is the number of skill points you’ve spent into them, X cannot be > your total level) + 3 + Attribute modifier. The attribute modifier depends on the skill - e.g. Acrobatics is modded by Dexterity, Perception is modded by Wisdom, and so on.
Class that aren’t your class skills are only worth X + modifier.
As for “what effect do higher level give you ?”, well, it really depends on the skill.
At the most basic level, every time you try something that isn’t routine you will be rolling a twenty-sided die, add your total skill bonus (skill levels + stat + magic items + any situational fuckery), and try to beat the difficulty the DM has set for the task you’re attempting. As a very general rule the simple difficulty level is 10. An average task is 15, a difficult task is usually 20, and so on. If you’re trying to roll against another character, then the difficulty threshold will usually be based either on one of their saves (Willpower, Fortitude or Reflex) or their Challenge Rating.
But in many (most ?) cases, you’ll get even *better *results for each full 5 point chunk you have on the nominal difficulty.
For example, say you encounter a wolf in the woods. You have a mere +6 total bonus in Knowledge(Nature) because you suck at druiding and roll a 10. A wolf is a CR 1 creature, so you’ve beaten the ID threshold by 5 (IDing monsters is a 10+CR task). That means that not only do you know that this dog ain’t just a dog, you also get to ask the DM 2 mechanics questions about it : one because you’ve succeeded your roll period, and another because you’ve beaten the threshold by 5. For example : “Does this beast have special attacks ?” and “Does this beast resist any type of damage ?”. Had you beaten it by 10, you’d have had a 3rd question, such as “what is this beast’s armour class ?”.
The same principle applies to pretty much every action : if you beat the target difficulty, you’ve Done It™! But if you really beat it, you’ve Done It with class.
TL;DR : don’t you sweat it, just spend your points however the fuck you wish or however seems to make sense. If you *really *want to be anally optimal about things, spend one point every level in each skill you want to be a crack at, plus a single point in the other class skills you don’t really care about. And that’s it.
I could, but I think three ranks in Profession (Merchant [Quacksalver]) is more to the point: although the gold income from actually practicing his supposed trade is not really here or there once you get much past 1st level, it’s in keeping and, after all, is there to deflect attention from the fact that he is actually dragging quite a lot of alchemical materials around with him. 'Sides, it’s a class skill so I get the extra +3 on it. (Can’t take Fly yet as I can’t, erm, fly.)
Zachary’s Medicine Show could be a perfectly good excuse for this rag-tag collection to be traipsing around together; there’s the man himself peddling his wares, someone to literally drum up customers, a heavy to discourage the crowd from getting too rowdy, I daresay the sorceror could keep the customers entertained while they were waiting their turn… But I have no aspirations to leadership this time out. Captain Charismatic over there indicates Johnny Bravo can take care of that.
Talks a good game. No, a great game. Probably looks like he should be on the front line. Really should not be on the front line. Should be somewhere to the rear of the tank.
I’m gonna have to bow out…I didn’t actually expect things to get rolling quite so soon, and my schedule isn’t going to permit me to have much time right now. So please give my spot to someone else, and I’ll just watch this time.
We have no tank and, for that matter, no master blaster either, though my bombs of one sort or another should help. The Sorcerer will be able to spam whatever attack spell he has quite a few times, but still only has 1st-level spells.
I’m tempted to rethink my feats, though - I’m wondering if I might get more use out of still more discoveries rather than the skill bonuses I’ve bought myself.
I’m still working on my character. Right now might STR is 10 and CON is 12 not a tank. I haven’t selected spells yet. The Brass Dragon is a fire type and seems to make sense for me. I’m open to suggestions. I’m envisioning a living weapon type character.
Yeah, I saw an interesting “combat support” idea that involves using a whip and net along with the dazzling display feat to provide bonuses to the actual warrior-types. Might re-tool my feats to that effect.
With all this support floating around (and a Viking berserker who on his own say-so can hand it out but not take it) the time is right for Miller to step in as someone who clanks around quite a lot.
Numbers wise I’m just about ready to go. Couple things though; even though I’m at level 3 I can only select 0 and 1st level spells? Also, specifically Mage Armor, is a class bonus spell (3rd)? Does that mean I get it free at level 3 (it’s a 1st level spell) or is it in addition to the 5 0-level and 3 1st-level spells I can use?
Either, the Pathguy website or the xls calculator has an error. They give two different results.
Spontaneous casters like sorcerers and bards progress more slowly than other spellcasters, and also know less total spells.
The tradeoff is that as a sorcerer you’ll be able to cast more total spells per day and don’t have to prepare them in advance.
The mage armor spell is basically a free spell on your “known spells” list that you draw from, added to your level one spell list. Casting it still counts towards your total “spells per day” limit.
