[PF] Statting out Followers

[Daftendirekt]

Okay, so here's the scenario. Next Monday we're doing a oneshot. We all start at 7th level, 20 point buy, standard WBL. We all take Leadership as our 7th level feat, and our Leadership scores will be 10 + our CHA mod. Pathfinder only, please don't suggest any 3.5 stuff. There are going to be 4 or 5 of us. I have no idea what anybody else is planning.

So, naturally, I'm making a bard as my main character so I can buff the **** out of all my followers. So far I've got for feats:

1 - Lingering Song
3 - Harmonic Spell (maybe?)
5 - ???
7 - Leadership

6 str, 14 dex, 14 con, 12 int, 8 wis, 20 cha (+2 from headband making it 22). The 22 CHA gives me a leadership score of 16. That means I get a 5th level cohort (that whole your level - 2 thing), 25 1st level followers, 2 2nd level, and 1 3rd level.

I don't know how we're generating ability scores for the cohorts and followers yet, I'll let you know when I do. I was planning on having all my 1st level followers just be mounted archers a la Genghis Khan's horde: humans fighters with Mounted Combat, Mounted Archery, a composite shortbow/longbow, light armor, and a light warhorse.

However, I'm not sure what I should make my cohort, or my 2 2nd level and 1 3rd level followers. I was thinking maybe a wizard for my cohort so he can buff and crowd control.

Let me know what you think, playground! Feat and spell suggestions for my bard also welcome!

[doko239]

Teamwork feats. Lots of them.

[Daftendirekt]

Teamwork feats. Lots of them.

Well, as the most of my small army will be 1st level human fighters, they only have 1 free feat (Human + 1st level + 1st level fighter; 2 feats taken by Mounted Combat and Mounted Archery). That may be tough. Also, have any teamwork feats in particular to recommend?

[doko239]

Escape Route (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCombat/ultimateCombatFeats.html#escape-route), Shake It Off (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCombat/ultimateCombatFeats.html#shake-it-off), and Tandem Trip (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCombat/ultimateCombatFeats.html#tandem-trip) are all very nice, and can all be taken by a 1st level mook.

Hell, take Escape Route and Tandem Trip on all of them, and you have a swarming army of tripmonkeys!

Edit: of course, if you plan on them being purely ranged, then this won't work. Cavalry Formation (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCombat/ultimateCombatFeats.html#cavalry-formation) might be useful, but its uses are very limited for mounted archers unless you're in tight quarters.

[Bhaakon]

A Ranger Freebooter's bane stacks with your inspire courage, and every +1 counts for a pack of level 1's.

A paladin with a tactician archetype can share teamwork feats like a cavalier. It also gets a funky kind of shared smiting that can be deadly with large groups like this.

I'd consider both of them for your second level followers. You'll probably want casters for the 5 and 3.

[Kurgan]

Well, as the most of my small army will be 1st level human fighters, they only have 1 free feat (Human + 1st level + 1st level fighter; 2 feats taken by Mounted Combat and Mounted Archery). That may be tough. Also, have any teamwork feats in particular to recommend?

It doesn't help you too much, but there is the Dragoon alternate class feature setup for fighter in Ultimate Combat. For level 1, you lose the bonus feat and tower shield proficiency, but gain mounted combat and skill focus ride.

Aside from that, I cannot help too much, not familiar enough with the system.

[doko239]

Holy Tactician is a great choice actually.

Try Human Holy Tactician 3/Bard 4 with the following feats:

Bard 1: Point-Blank Shot, Lingering Song
Bard 3: Harmonic Spell
Bard 4/Holy Tactician 1: Spellsong
Bard 4/Holy Tactician 3: Target of Opportunity, Leadership


Target of Opportunity reads:

Target of Opportunity (Combat, Teamwork)

You and your allies pelt your enemies with a deadly barrage of missiles.

Prerequisites: Point-Blank Shot, base attack bonus +6.

Benefit: When an ally who also has this feat makes a ranged attack and hits an opponent within 30 feet of you, you can spend an immediate action to make a single ranged attack against that opponent. Your ranged weapon must be in hand, loaded, and ready to be fired or thrown for you to make the ranged attack.

For all your 1st level mooks, give them:

Mounted Combat, Mounted Archery, Rapid Shot

And then use Battlefield Presence to share Target of Opportunity with your mooks.

Now each of your mooks gets to make 2 attacks per round with Rapid Shot, and whenever any of them hits a target, ALL of them get to spend an immediate action to make an attack on that target!

Edit: nevermind rapid shot, forgot about the prerequisite. Take Point-Blank Shot instead.

[doko239]

For your 5th level follower, I'd suggest a Master Summoner from Ultimate Magic.

Summoners get Haste as a 2nd level spell. Give him a Wand of Haste and let him go to town on your army.

He'll also be able to cast Summon Monster III as a spell-like ability 5+Cha times per day, for minute/level duration, with no limit on concurrent summons; this will give you a massive number of meatshields to occupy the enemy force while your buffed archers start murdering them.

For the 3rd level follower, another Holy Tactician 3 with the Lookout feat will ensure your entire force is always ready to fight.

Edit: Nevermind the 2nd Holy Tactician, just replace Spellsong from the main build with Lookout, and swap to Target of Opportunity when combat starts.

Make the 3rd level guy a Cleric 2/Oracle of Life 1 with the Channel Energy revelation and high Cha. 6 + 2xCha channel bursts/day should keep your army nice and vertical.

Edit again: wow, I messed up here :smallbiggrin:

Ok, 2 2nd-level minions.

IMO, both level 2s should be Cleric 1/Oracle of Life 1 to get massive AOE healing. Can give both of them selective channel. Equip each with a wand of Mass Cat's Grace for more buffage.

This frees up the 3rd level guy to do something else... maybe make him another Tactician after all, and give him some other awesome teamwork feat. Shake it Off, maybe?

[grarrrg]

Cavalier 1/Bard 4/Battle Herald 1/Low Templar 1

Gendarme (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/cavalier/archetypes/paizo---cavalier-archetypes/gendarme) OR Emissary (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/cavalier/archetypes/paizo---cavalier-archetypes/emissary) Cavalier gets you the Challenge ability, and, regardless of Gendarme/Emissary, you get Mounted Combat as a bonus feat.

Bard 4, obvious reasons, choice of archetype is up to you.

Battle Herald (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/a-b/battle-herald) 1, gets Improved Leadership:

A battle herald with the Leadership feat adds her inspiring command bonus to her leadership score.
Your Leadership score is now 17, giving you Five more 1st level, One more 2nd level and One 4th level follower.

Low Templar (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/i-m/low-templar) gets 'Flag of Convenience' at first level, which, amongst other things, gives them the following ability:

A low templar never suffers a penalty to his Leadership score for moving around frequently, aloofness, cruelty, or the loss of prior cohorts or followers, and can replace lost followers in half the normal amount of time.
You said it's a one-shot, so there may not be time to replace followers anyway. In that case you don't need Mounted Combat and can look at other Cavalier archetypes. Also, you can either add another level of Battle Herald or Bard (Cav 1/Bard 5/BH 1 has 5 Bab, Cav 1/Bard 4/BH 2 has 6 Bab).

[doko239]

Cavalier 1/Bard 4/Battle Herald 1/Low Templar 1

I dunno, I think giving Target of Opportunity to 25 archers continuously and making sure they can all act in the surprise round is more of a force multiplier than adding a couple more and a 4th level guy to the mix.

[grarrrg]

Cavalier 1/Bard 4/Battle Herald 1/Low Templar 1I dunno, I think giving Target of Opportunity to 25 archers continuously and making sure they can all act in the surprise round is more of a force multiplier than adding a couple more and a 4th level guy to the mix.

That's fine. We're flexible.
Cavalier 1/Bard 2/Paladin (Holy Tactician) 3/Battle Herald 1
(Battle Herald only needs Challenge & Inspire Courage, both available at level 1 of respective classes, skill points may be a slight issue though)

Best of both builds.
And yes, you lose a lot of Performance rounds this way, but that's OK, because A: We can take the Extra Performance feat for an extra 6 rounds, and B: we can just make our new level 4 Follower a Bard and call it even. :smallsmile:

[Invader]

Have 25 1st lvl druids and have them summon 25 wolves every round!

[doko239]

Have 25 1st lvl druids and have them summon 25 wolves every round!

If you're gonna do that, make it 25 1st level Master Summoners. More summons, for longer duration.

Edit: Come to think of it, 25 1st level Master Summoners, all Human, with Skill Focus (Necromancy) and Skeletal Summoning, would be able to summon up a horde of 175 skeletons over the course of 7 rounds, for a duration of 1 minute each. Add Inspire Courage etc. to that and that's one HELL of a beatdown.

[doko239]

That's fine. We're flexible.
Cavalier 1/Bard 2/Paladin (Holy Tactician) 3/Battle Herald 1
(Battle Herald only needs Challenge & Inspire Courage, both available at level 1 of respective classes, skill points may be a slight issue though)

Best of both builds.
And yes, you lose a lot of Performance rounds this way, but that's OK, because A: We can take the Extra Performance feat for an extra 6 rounds, and B: we can just make our new level 4 Follower a Bard and call it even. :smallsmile:

Not as many rounds as it seems; between Bard and Battle Herald, you'd get 10 + 2x Cha rounds per day; in our case, 22 rounds. That should be plenty.

For the Bard levels, stock Bard is best. None of the archetypes give anything useful here, and too many lose Inspire Courage.

If you can afford it, a Lord's Banner of Swiftness (APG, 10000 gp) will be incredibly valuable if you have to actually go anywhere.