Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Admixture Blaster (Wizard Build)

Note: This build assumes that a Sorcerer can be both Tattooed and Crossblooded.  There is extensive debate on this, so ask your GM.  If only one is allowed, then choose Varisian Tattoo and damage drops slightly.

Updated April 20th, 2016
  
Admixture Blaster
Human Sorcerer 1 (Gold Dragon/Orc Bloodline;Tattooed/Crossblooded) / Admixture Wizard 19
Boom!

Okay, so you are playing a wizard so you can blow things up. That's fine, I get it. This guy should do the trick. It's hard for a wizard to do more damage than this. You are going to be rocking encounters like no other. You are dipping one level into Sorcerer to get some cool bloodline bonuses, and then it's straight wizard all the way. The best part is, even though you are specializing, you can deal damage with a variety of energy types, thanks to your admixture specialization.

Tattooed Sorcerer allows you to get Varisian Tattoo for free! It also allows you to specialize in specific spells (fireball).

As your opposition schools, choose Necromancy and Abjuration, unless you feel strongly otherwise.


Feats

Take the sorcerer level at level 6, after you have gotten fireball.

1:   Spell Focus - Evocation, Greater Spell Focus - Evocation, Scribe Scroll (Wizard), Arcane Bond: Familiar: Greensting Scorpion for +4 Init.
2:
3:   Spell Specialization: Fireball
4:
5:   Additional Traits: Metamagic Master & Magical Lineage (Fireball), Bonus Feat: Metamagic Empower Spell
6:   Tattooed Sorcerer: Varisian Tattoo: Evocation
7:   Metamagic Maximize Spell
8: 
9:   Spell Penetration
10:
11:  Greater Spell Specialization: Fireball, Bonus feat: Metamagic Intensified Spell
12:
13:  Selective Spell
14:
15:  Spell Perfection
16:  Bonus Feat: Dazing Spell
17:  Greater Spell Penetration
18:
19:  Improved Initiative
20:

Attributes

Intelligence > Constitution > Wisdom/Dexterity > Charisma/Strength. Make sure, however, that Charisma is at least 11, such that you can cast your level 1 sorcerer spells. They will be useful, don't ignore them.

15 Point Buy
Str: 7
Dex: 12
Con: 12
Int: 19 (17+2)
Wis: 10
Cha: 12

20 Point Buy
Str: 7
Dex: 12
Con: 14
Int: 20 (18+2)
Wis: 8
Cha: 12

25 Point Buy
Str: 7
Dex: 14
Con: 14
Int: 20 (18+2)
Wis: 10
Cha: 12


Skills

Spellcraft, use Magic Device, Perception, and Fly are all must have. Besides that, it's your call, though you might as well pump the skills related to intelligence, given your modifier


Traits

Adopted -> Grounded: for +1 on Reflex and a +2 to some Acrobatics checks
Reactionary: +2 to initiative


Familiar

If you tend to forget about your familiar and are just looking for a nice bonus, try out the Greensting Scorpion. +4 to initiative checks is nothing to sneeze at. Otherwise, just have fun with it!


Spells

Sorcerer Spells: These should be utility spells that you can cast on the fly.

Level 0:
Detect Magic
Mage Hand
Prestidigitation

Level 1:
Shield (because it is an abjuration spell, and thus the wizard part of you doesn't like it)


Wizard:
Level 0: Take your pick.

Level 1:
Burning Hands - Now we have some fire damage. Not great, but it will do for now.
Comprehend Languages - Useful
Hydraulic Push - Got a Cliff?
Charm Person - Always useful
Mage Armor - Just in Case
Summon Monster I - There are plenty of creative uses for this.
Detect Charm/ See Alignment - Any number of these detective work spells are useful.

Level 2:
Scorching Ray:
Create Pit
Summon Monster II
Blood Transcription (if you think it will be useful)

Level 3:
Fireball - Here it is, your bread and butter. Specialize, all that good stuff, this one will last you a while.
Fly - Just cuz it's great
Hydraulic Torrent - If you like moving people around, here is a good one.
Haste - A great buff! Something else to do besides shooting fireballs!

Level 4:
Black Tentacles
Charm Monster - Because it's always nice to have a giant on your side

Level 5:
Fire Snake, All the way

Level 6:
Hellfire - It's a little unclear what half fire, half unholy power means in terms of your buffs. Best case scenario, your buffs activated and it still deals half damage against fire immune creatures.

Items

Rod of Maximize, Lesser (14,000).
Rod of Quicken Spell, Lesser (35,000p). At higher levels, grab a few handfuls of these. Get your first one at around 11th level, then just keep grabbing them.
Headband of Intelligence +X.


How it all works in Tandem: The Ultimate Fireball

1st Level: Spell Focus Evocation and Greater Spell Focus Evocation increase the DC by +1 each, for +2 total.

1st Level: Evocation School gives you +1/2 wizard level to damage (not enhanced by Empower or anything else)

1st Level: Admixture School allows you to change your damage type from fire to any other energy type.

3rd Level: Spell Specialization increases the CL of fireball by +2.

5th Level: Metamagic Master and Magical Lineage combine to allow you to use up a spell slot 2 lower than you normally would when applying metamagic to fireball, down to a minimum of 3rd level. That means you can empower for free.

6th Level: The Gold Dragon Bloodline allows you to deal an additional 1 damage on fire attacks for each die rolled. The Orc Bloodline allows you to deal an additional 1 damage for each die rolled. Together, that's +2 damage for every die rolled.

6th Level: Varisian Tattoo increases the CL of fireball by +1.

9th Level: Spell penetration gives you a +2 bonus to overcome SR.

11th Level: Greater Spell Specialization allows you to cast fireball spontaneously.

13th Level: Spell Perfection allows you to ignore the slot increase of a metamagic feat such as Maximize.

17th Level: Spell penetration gives you a +2 bonus to overcome SR.

Metamagic

5th Level: Empower Spell increases damage of Fireball effects by +50% (+2 slot)

7th Level: Maximize Spells allows you to treat all of those d6's as straight 6's (+3 slot)

11th Level: Intensified Spell raises the roof on Fireball to a maximum of 15d6 (+1 slot)

16th Level: Dazing Spell causes creatures who fail their saves to become dazed.


What he Looks like...


Level 12:  20 point buy, Rod of Quicken Spell Lesser, Headband of Vast Intelligence +4. Let's cast a fireball. We have at least two 6th level slots, three 5th level slots, four 4th level slots and five 3rd level slots.
We don't need to prepare fireball, because we can spontaneously cast it due to the Greater Spell Specialization feat.
We can have it deal any energy damage we choose.
Our CL is 14 for fireball (11 Wizard Levels, +2 from Spell Specialization + 1 from Varisian Tattoo).
Without any Metamagic, this is 10d6 (fireball) + 20 (Sorcerer bonuses) + 5 (Evocation Spell School) = 60 average damage with a DC of 22 (10 + 3 from Spell Level + 8 from 26 Intelligence + 2 from Spell Focuse & Greater). 3rd level spell slot
Our DC is 23.
With Intensified, this is 13d6 + 24 + 5 = Average 74.5.  3rd level slot with traits.
With Empowered, this is (10d6 + 20)x 1.5 + 5 = Average 87. 3rd level slot with traits
With Intensified and Empowered, this is (13d6 + 24)x 1.5 + 5 = average 109.25.  4th level slot with Traits.
With Intensified and Maximized, this is 78 + 24 + 5 = average 107. 5th Level slot with traits (strictly worse than Intensified/Empowered).
With Maximized and Empowered, this is (60 + 24)x1.5 + 5 = average 131. 6th Level slot with Traits.
We can quicken this spell up to three times per day with out metamagic rod, lesser.  An example day looks like this:
Round 1: Quickened Maximized Empowered (131) then Maximized Empowered (131): 261 damage, two level 6 spell slots.
Rounds 2 & 3: Quickened Intensified Empowered (109) then Intensified Empowered (109): 218 damage, two level 4 slots.
Rounds 4, 5 & 6: Intensified Empowered (109): 109 Damage. Level 4 Slot
Rounds 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11: Empowered (87): 87 Damage, Level 3 slot.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

AM BARBARIAN (Barbarian Build)

AM BARBARIAN
Human Barbarian (Mounted Fury/Superstitious)
"ragelancepounce"

Alright, lets try and make some sense of this build.  AM BARBARIAN is a legendary build from the Paizo forums that relies on RAGELANCEPOUNCE to do stupid amounts of damage.  Unfortunately, all AM BARBARIAN threads wind up in the multi-thousand post territory and all over the place.  Also, most AM BARBARIAN builds rely on Leadership to gain a flying synthesist mount... we're not going to do that.  Today, AM Barbarian isn't going to rely on any frequently banned feats, he's not going to use any magic items, and he's going to ride a horse.

NOTE:  In an FAQ, Paizo clarified that you only get double damage on the first attack of a charge pounce.  This weakens the build, but it's still an overall very powerful option.  Below is presented the version before the FAQ.

Feats

 1:   Mounted Combat, Ride By Attack
 2:   Lesser Beast Totem
 3:   Spirited Charge
 4:   Superstition
 5:   Power Attack
 6:   Beast Totem
 7:   Furious Focus
 8:   Clear Mind
 9:   Boon Companion
10:  Greater Beast Totem
11:  Weapon Focus: Lance
12:  Ferocious Mount
13:  Wheeling Charge
14:  Greater Ferocious Mount
15:  Improved Initiative
16:  Witch Hunter
17:  Iron Will
18:  Spell Sunder
19:  Improved Iron Will
20:  Powerful Blow


Attributes

AM BARBARIAN needs high strength to deal damage, and dex and con to stay alive. Wisdom helps with will saves, but shouldn't go through the roof.  Charisma and Inteligence are dump stats.

Str>Con>Dex>Wis>Int>Cha.

Point Buy 15
STR:19 (17+2)
DEX: 14
CON: 14
INT: 7
WIS:11
CHA: 7

Point Buy 20
STR:20 (18+2)
DEX: 14
CON: 14
INT: 7
WIS:11
CHA: 7

Point Buy 25
STR:20 (18+2)
DEX: 14
CON: 16
INT: 7
WIS:11
CHA: 7

Attribute advancement:  Strength all the way.


Skills

Max Ride and Perception. Then, you got one skill point left over!


Horsey

We've got to have something to ride, so give him light armor proficiency, dodge, heavy armor proficiency, toughness, and mobility.

How to Play

Charge on horseback!  They die.  At level 10 we get pounce and they really die, allowing us to get full attacks on charges.


Traits

Reactionary: +2 to initiative.  Everybody loves initiative.
Carefully Hidden: +1 to Will saves (and a minor additional bonus)


What He Looks Like Each Level
(assuming no magic gear, 20pt buy).
 For each of these, we are going to assuming charging, raging, mounted and power attack

Level 1: Attacks at +10, dealing 2d8+20 damage.  Of course, you need to be able to afford a horse, armor, and a lance.  AC 14/8/12, Saves 6/2/3.  17 Hit Points, 3 skills

Level 4: Attacks at +13 for 3d8+30.  AC 14/8/12, Saves: 8/3/2, with a +3 on each of those to resist spells.  53 Hit points, 12 skills.

Level 8: Attacks at +18 for 3d8+61 Damage.  AC 17/8/15, Saves 10/4/5 with a +4 to resist spells.  101 Hit points, 24 skills.  The horse kicks too.

Level 12: And now we have pounce.  Attacks at +24/+15/+10 for 3d8+75 (x3) and +14/+14 for d8+8 (x3).  AC 18/8/16, Saves 13/6/8 with +5 to resist spells.  HP: 161,  36 skills.  The horse, up to effective druid level 12, bites too.  (Against AC27, DPR:161)

Level 16:  Attacks at +29/+19/+14/+9, dealing 3d8+90 (x3) and +18/+18 for d8+10.  AC 19/8/17 Saves 15/7/9, with +6 against spells.  HP: 213, 48 skills.  The horse now pounces too.

Level 20: With Powerful Blow and the new ability to Rage Cycle, we attack at +34/+23/+18/+13, doing 3d8+120 on the first and 3d8+102 on all others, as well as +22/+22 for d8+11.  AC 20/8/18, Saves 18/8/13, with +7 against spells. 285 HP, 80 skills.


Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Teddy Rosy (Fighter Build)

Teddy Rosy
Human Fighter (Two Handed Fighter Archetype)
Speak softly and carry a big stick

Teddy Rosey is all about hitting people hard.  He wields a falchion for the crit and damage, and dons O-yoroi for the AC.  Gets some sundering and critical action later on, but, for the most part, is just a crazy damage dealer.

Feats

 1:   Power Attack, Weapon Focus: Falchion, Furious Focus
 2:   Cleave
 3:   Dodge
 4:   Weapon Specialization
 5:   Toughness
 6:   Vital Strike
 7:   Combat Reflexes
 8:   Improved Critical (Retrain Cleave to Lunge)
 9:   Critical Focus: Falchion
10:  Greater Weapon Focus: Falchion
11:  Improved Sunder
12:  Greater Weapon Specialization: Falchion
13:  Sundering Strike
14:  Staggering Critical
15:  Blinding Critical
16:  Critical Mastery
17:  Stunning Critical
18:  Improved Initiative
19:  Iron Will
20:  Sickening Critical


Attributes

Teddy Rosy needs high strength to deal damage, and dex and con to stay alive. Wisdom helps with will saves, but shouldn't go through the roof.  Charisma and Inteligence are dump stats.

Str>Con>Dex>Wis>Int>Cha.

Point Buy 15
STR:19 (17+2)
DEX: 14
CON: 14
INT: 7
WIS:11
CHA: 7

Point Buy 20
STR:20 (18+2)
DEX: 14
CON: 14
INT: 7
WIS:11
CHA: 7

Point Buy 25
STR:20 (18+2)
DEX: 14
CON: 16
INT: 7
WIS:11
CHA: 7

Attribute advancement:  Strength all the way.


Skills

To put it lightly, skills are not the Teddy's specialty.  He will have a low intelligence score, and his 2 skills a level for being a fighter isn't really helping.  With 7 intelligence you get 2 skills.  Perception anybody?


How to Play

Get up to people and smack them.  Use Vital Strike or Cleave when you can't power attack.  Even better, lunge to get full round attacks.  At level 14 and above you get critical stuff, which is always fun.


Traits

Reactionary: +2 to initiative.  Everybody loves initiative.
Carefully Hidden: +1 to Will saves (and a minor additional bonus)


What He Looks Like Each Level
(assuming no magic gear, 20pt buy)

Level 1: Attacking at +7 (18-20/x2) for d24+10 damage.  13 Hit Points, AC 20/12/18.  Saves: 4/2/1 and 2 skill points.

Level 4: Attacking at +10 (18-20/x2) for 2d4+18 damage.  Can cleave 40 Hit Points, AC 21/13/18.  Saves: 6/3/2, 8 skill points.  

Level 8: Attacking at +16/+9, dealing 2d4+21 on the first iteration and 2d4+24 on the second (15-20/x2).  Can make a single attack for +16 for 4d4+24 (15-20/x2).  Can lunge.  84 Hit Points, AC 21/13/18. Saves: 8/4/3, 16 skill points.

Level 12: Attacking at +22/+13/+8, dealing 2d4+27 on the first and 2d4+30 on the second and third (15-20/x2).   Can make a single attack for +22 dealing 4d4+30 (15-20/x2).  124 hit points, AC 21/13/18.  Saves 10/6/5, 24 skill points.  (DPR against average AC is 54.  Hits DPR 42 with a single hit.)

Level 16:  Attacking at +28/+18/+13/+8, dealing 2d4+37 on the first and 2d4+41 on all others.  Can make a single attack for +28 dealing 4d4+44  Can lunge.  Stagger, blind and sunder on every crit.  164 Hit Points, AC 21/13/8.  Saves 12/7/6.  32 skill points.

Level 20:  Attacking at +33/+22/+17/+12, dealing 2d4+42 on the first and 2d4+46 on al others.  Can make a single attack for +33, dealing 4d4+45.  Or Can make a single attack for 28 for 4d4+45 and an automatic critical threat.  (Keep a scythe on hand for +26, 2d6+45 and an automatic critical threat for 8d6+180 damage).  On every crit can Stun, Blind and sunder, and can sicken on a different crit.  Sunders at a +28. AC 21/13/18.  Saves: +14/+8/+9.  40 skill points.