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)
