Thumper - Hoop Investigator5 Occultist1 Fighter2

Yes, you read that right - Thumper is a Hoop. Hop into the obscure RPG wayback machine, and you will see Hoops as a powerful villain race in Gamma World. Their ability to turn metal into rubber made them feared. Being a 8' anthropomorphic rabbit with opposable thumbs certainly didn't hurt in the "feared" category.

So since the GM and I are both Gamma World fans, making a playable race based on Hoops seemed like a great idea. Obviously rubber is not something you encounter a lot in Pathfinder, so that was the first thing to change. We made it an always on Detect Magic trait. This was to show case the original idea of the Hoop as a race that sought after and venerated ancient technology. Replace "ancient technology" with "magical artifacts" and you get the idea. Added Jump as a trait, removed the 2+ meter height.

To me, the idea of an investigator, Indiana Jones-type character who actively seeks out artifacts, made sense. I like the skills and the skill points for the Investigator class, and I really like Inspiration dice. So I went with that for 4 levels. Maybe it was the  build, maybe it was how I played it, but the limitations of the Investigator class seemed to outweigh the benefits. Taking time to buff, slow spell (extract) progression combined with having to take an extra ability to use those spells (extracts) on others, seemed to make my character not even very good at a support role. I knew striker or even Rogue abilities would be slow to evolve. When it became painfully obvious that we needed a healer in our party, I took a level in a Conjuring/Transmutation Occultist.

The Occultist level dip provided much more flexibility in support, not the least of which was the ability to buff others with Bane. Giving your swing-for-the-fences melee party member 10 rounds of an extra 2d6 worth of damage, plus a +2/+2 to hit/damage, is amazing. Using healing magic items without UMD was also a draw. While that need for addition healing was satisfied, we still didn't have much in the way of distance support, so at 6th level I dipped into Fighter specializing in archery.

Now we had some range support, and the Bane was also helpful on my bow. A second level in Fighter seemed in order. I took Precise Shot at 7th on top of Point Blank Shot at 6th, so firing into melee was a lot more effective. What we did not have, still, was reliable healing. I spoke with my GM about that. He agreed to let me re-specify my character to incorporate some healing.

Here is what I did:

• I traded the Artifact Hunter feat for Healer's Hands and took Signature Skill (Heal) and Precise Shot as Fighter2 at level 7.
• I retrained my skill points in Appraise, Ride, Climb, Diplomacy for points in Heal and Knowledge Planes, bringing each to 6.
• Six (6) times a day (total number of Healer's Hands usage = Knowledge Planes ranks) I can take a full round action to attempt a DC 20 Heal Check. Using the Unchained Heal skill, if successful I will heal the character's HD x 2 and 2 points from each ability score damage. This is applied one person at a time, not a channel. If I hit a DC30, the character being healed get an addition number of HP equal to my Knowledge Planes ranks.
• Combining this with a Vest of Surgery (+2 heal circumstance), Healer's Gloves (+5 heal competence), and an Amulet of Wisdom +2, turned my heal check into a +17 (3 class skill, 6 ranks, 1 WIS, 2 vest, 5 gloves). Tack on the Investigator Talent of Expanded Inspiration and my Heal rolls received an additional d6.

At 8th level, I went back to Investigator (Investigator 5, Occultist 1, Fighter 2), mostly for the skill points. My Heal roll is now +19 and I can use Healer's Hands 8 times a day (+2 skills points to Heal and Knowledge Planes).

Likely progression, levels 9-12:\

All Investigator levels

9th Level - Investigator 6, Occultist 1, Fighter 2

• Feat: Weapon Focus (longbow)
• Heal and Knowledge Planes 1 rank each, +20 heal, Healer's Hands 9/day
• Spells - 2nd and 1st
• +1 Inspiration
• Studied Strike 2d6

10th Level - Investigator 7, Occultist 1, Fighter 2

• Investigator Talent - Amazing Inspiration
• Heal and Knowledge Planes 1 rank each, +21 Heal, Healer's Hands 10/day
• Spells - 3rd and 2nd

11th Level - Investigator 8, Occultist 1, Fighter 2

• Feat: Ranged Focus
• Heal and Knowledge Planes 1 rank each, +22 Heal, Healer's Hands 11/day
• +1 Inspiration
• Spells - 3rd and 2nd
• Studied Strike 3d6

12th Level - Investigator 9, Occultist 1, Fighter 2

• Investigator Talent - Quick Study
• Heal and Knowledge Planes 1 rank each, +23 heal, Healer's Hands 12/day
• Spells - 3rd and 2nd
• Ability Score Bonus - +1 INT (+1 skill point/level, +1 Mental Focus, +1 Inspiration), +1 STR (+1/+1 hit/Damage, +1 CMB), or +1 WIS (+1 Will, +1 Heal)

 

Flack - Human Gunslinger (Buccaneer) 4

So, we are trying to reboot Skull and Shackles. Same players, all new characters. Since we are pirates, I decided to go really outside of my comfort zone and try out guns in Pathfinder.

It's an interesting build. I am not very good at min-max anyway, but when you really need a lot of skills, some things have to suffer. STR and WIS both are not dump stats in the classic term, but they are both 10. I miss STR because I can't carry anything more than what is barely required. The Buccaneer build uses CHA instead of WIS for grit, and I am already missing the Will save bonus - slowed, then two color sprays, all failed will saves, all on the heels of my very first attack roll with my pistol being a 1 (broken condition). Based on that display of awsesomeness, it was hard to see why the party made me captain.

To some extent I can balance the 10 STR with Weapon Finesse, but I may have to dip into Rogue to get a sneak attack bonus to damage. My skills choices - heavy social skills (the CHA really helps here) and feats to make climb and swim work without the STR bonus - are what sold the party on the decision to make me captain.

Our first priority is getting the ship "squibbed" - made to not look like a ship that was stolen and being sought after. You don't sink a ship unless you absolutely have to - they are too valuable. It's going to cost a lot, and take about two weeks, so now we are working social skills to evaluate our crew. All of them are holdovers from the Wormwood, and not all of them have attitudes of Indifferent or better towards us. So we are working on them. 

I worked on Fishguts, the drunk cook from the Wormwood. Now that he is removed from the half-orc Grok (his squeeze on the Wormwood), he is getting off the booze, and he's a lot more likeable. Of course, one of our first characters was assigned as cook's assistant, and his rolls were god-awful, so we joked that his cooking had also improved because his prior assistant was gone. Fishguts is going to stay with the crew.

Our Rogue (Pirate) took up with a different crewman (Conchabar) and negotiated with him to stay on the ship as well. The Bard (Sea Singer) went into the village and got us three new recruits.

Then we thought it would be sociable to go and play Nine Pin with some of the folks in the village. Instead we played fight off the Water Naga, and badly. Well, I did not do very well (see above incompetence). Finally we lured the thing on shore, all the while trying to save the life of one of the villagers. She had been trying to get a keg of beer out of the cove when the water naga attacked. The naga hit us with Slow, then took some bites out of the poor villager. It also hit us with a couple of Color Sprays and some kind of tail shock wave that made us all prone. If not for the Cleric using channel, the villager would have died for sure.

We managed to get the villager and the water naga on shore, when things went very south for the naga. The bard hit it with Mortal Terror. It failed the first save, making it shaken, and then the rogue scored a critical hit. The naga failed the next saving throw, sending its condition from shaken to frightened. It ran away after that, which was good for us.

We didn't play Nine Pin (the interest seemed to disappear after the attack). But the person squibbing the boat gave us 500 for helping out the villagers.

My total contributions to the fight were:

• Failed save against Slow (the WIS bonus would not have helped)
• Draw pistol (slowed)
• Natural 1 shooting at the naga, pistol gets broken condition (slowed)
• Move to help get the villager out of the water (slowed)
• Failed save agaist Color Spray (the WIS bonus would not have helped) (slowed, stunned, and blind - drop pistol)
• Failed save against Color Spray (the WIS bonus would not have helped) (slowed, reset counter for stunned and blind)
• Tail shock wave attack beats CMD (prone, slowed, blind, and stunned)

RIP Dicky Moe

Welp, we fucked up and got TPK'd. Totally misread the clues, and totally created players (most of the party) based on combat. We are going to try again with new 3rd level characters and pick up in book 2.

Dicky Moe - Ranger Freebooter Level 2 PF1

 Why a Ranger? And why a Freebooter?

In this case, for the archetype. We are playing the Skull and Shackles adventure path in PF1, and the Freebooter archetype seemed to fit what I wanted - a front line battlefield control character. The freebooter replaces the favored enemy class feature with Freebooter's Bane, which offers flexibility and can be shared with your allies ("get the one with the patch" nets all allies within 30' +1 to hit and damage (untyped) on the guy with the patch). An archer ranger on a boat seemed like a lot of feats when I had other ideas for what I wanted to do on a boat. Deck skirmishes ship-to-ship don't leave a lot of room for bows and arrows. Besides, I would have played a fighter (archer) for the insane number of archery feats I'd need to shoot into deck combat rather than a ranger (archer).

Why Dicky Moe?

Tom & Jerry, of course.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8p4my9

Yes, I KNOW that Dicky Moe is the whale. But my ranger has a peg leg. And we got shanghaied. So...

What's next?

We are 2nd level so far. I can see myself dipping into rogue (pirate archetype) for the sneak attack damage and the free Sea Legs feat. At 4th level as a ranger, Freebooter's bond trades a move action for an additional +2 (untyped) to flanking attack rolls for all allies within 30' when Dicky initiates it.

Svijezdana - Cartomance Witch Level 9 - Pathfinder 1 ed.

 Why a Witch?

Hexes. It really boils down to that. Reusable buffs, and reusable save or suck. Some limit once a person/being per 24 hours, some are not, and some can be extended with cackle. It may take me a while to provide a buff or debuff, and the cackle takes a move action away, but granting and extending Fortune or Misfortune can make or break an encounter. And so far, from experience, granting and extending Protective Luck has kept the party from suffering critical hits, and that is beyond measure. Using Slumber to then perform a coup de grace is also barrels of laughs.

Personally, I have a glitch when it comes to casting save or suck spells. I don't hate them - much of 1st Ed DnD was save or suck. I hate when mine are saved against - I feel like I wasted a round and a spell, of which I have seemingly so few to choose from for the day. Hexes let me try over and over again, no limit on use just on targets. I can live with that. I would rather cast a spell that has some kind of effect, even half damage, than have one that just fizzles. It happens, I know, it is supposed to happen, but I take it way too personally for a game where I am supposed to be relaxing and having a good time. So I hesitate.

Witch spells are good, but if you want offense their list is limited. This limit also hampers crafting, as many highly sought-after items require spells that are not on the witch list. (The smattering of heal spells offsets this limitation a bit - everyone needs potions of healing and the Cauldron hex readily provides access to creating them). Support, as I see it, seems to be where witches really shine. Battlefield control, AoE, and, of course, buffing.

Why a Cartomancer?

This is a three part answer.

For starters, I have a real life interest in tarot decks and divination (rank novice in both, tbh), and this goes back to 1st Ed DnD - the Deck of Many Things. The DMG offered options to let the characters actually draw from the deck. To do this, standard playing cards were used as an example. So were tarot cards. I purchased my first deck in the 80s as a teenager. Now I own a Deck of Many Things as well. Playing Curse of Strahd in later years introduced me to the Tarokka deck, which I also own. Acquiring and playing a witch using Harrow cards seemed a natural extension of my interest.

Secondly, my group just finished an adventure path that featured Harrow readings (Curse of the Crimson Throne). The idea of granting the party usable buffs to rolls, as the Harrow readings did in Throne, was very appealing (third level Harrowing, sixth level Greater Harrowing).

Lastly, Witches in Pathfinder seem to be focused on their familiars. There is not an arcane bond option - they all have a familiar. I hail from playing a lot of 1st and 2nd Ed DnD, and familiars were not a focal point of any arcane caster. I don't remember anyone in any of my groups having one, and they still are not as popular as bonded object seems to be, based on my experiences so far. Managing a familiar was more than I wanted to take on. As long as I take care of my Harrow deck, it's hard to damage it as a familiar. Using the cards to attack (as a dart using Deadly Dealer) or to give range to a touch spell (touch attack) seemed like a new and potentially amusing way to modify a caster. The Harrow deck also functions as it it had the returning weapon ability - no lost or destroyed cards. Interestingly enough, I have not used either ability yet, and I am 9th level. I enjoy my hexes too much.

Why Svijezdana?

A nice lady helped me out when registering for a hotel room for a conference, and that was her name. Seemed like an awesome name for a witch, so I made her from Ustalav and a cartomancer, stereotypical or not, and that was that.

What makes Svijezdana tick?

Power, spell, and hex acquisition. She has gained a few spells from the use of Blood Transcription, will readily boost her power with Death Knell, and spends her money on scrolls like a Magic player on cards. She is officially Chaotic Neutral, but she walks the line between neutral and evil like a drunk in clown shoes. Her party helps her acquire what she wants, so they are safe - she is fiercely loyal to them. She also enjoys casting Infernal Healing on the druid's animal companion.