PDA

View Full Version : [PF] Suggestions for a Poisoner character?



RndmNumGen
2012-07-17, 10:20 AM
I've been working on a character concept for a while now, which is an assassin-type guy who uses Abundant Ammunition to secure a reliable supply of poisoned ammunition. Right now I'm looking at Bard[Detective] 1/Ninja 1/Bard1/Ninja X, allowing me to grab AA as a Spell so I don't need to UMD it as well as Detective giving me Trapfinding back.

For feats, I was considering picking up Weapon Finesse(for when I can't use poisoned shuriken) as well as Two-Weapon Fighting(useful both for throwing attacks and melee attacks, unlike Rapid Shot). Unfortunately, I can't find anything in PF that boosts Poisons directly, unlike 3.5's Poison Expert.

For Ninja tricks, I was planning on grabbing Flurry of Stars and Deadly Range, and maybe Pressure Points as well.

The big thing is while I want the focus to be on poisoning, I would at least like to be semi-effective against opponents who can't be poisoned, such as constructs or undead.

doko239
2012-07-17, 02:56 PM
For melee and vs undead/constructs, I'd recommend using Brass Knuckles from APG. Lethal damage on unarmed strikes, treated as armed, and light weapons, plus they scale with your unarmed damage so you can take the Unarmed Combat Mastery trick if you like. I'd also recommend picking up a Golembane Scarab.

There's some Alchemist discoveries that modify poisons:

Concentrate poison: The alchemist can combine two doses of the same poison to increase their effects. This requires two doses of the poison and 1 minute of concentration. When completed, the alchemist has one dose of poison. The poison's frequency is extended by 50% and the save DC increases by +2. This poison must be used within 1 hour of its creation or it is ruined.

Sticky poison: Any poison the alchemist creates is sticky—when the alchemist applies it to a weapon, the weapon remains poisoned for a number of strikes equal to the alchemist's Intelligence modifier. An alchemist must be at least 6th level before selecting this discovery.

Poison Conversion: By spending 1 minute, the alchemist can convert 1 dose of poison from its current type (contact, ingested, inhaled, or injury) to another type. For example, the alchemist can convert a dose of Small centipede poison (an injury poison) to an inhaled poison. This process requires an alchemy lab. An alchemist must be at least 6th level before selecting this discovery.

Edit: If you went with Vivisectionist archetype for Alchemist levels, you wouldn't lose out on sneak attack progression either.

RndmNumGen
2012-07-17, 09:33 PM
For melee and vs undead/constructs, I'd recommend using Brass Knuckles from APG. Lethal damage on unarmed strikes, treated as armed, and light weapons, plus they scale with your unarmed damage so you can take the Unarmed Combat Mastery trick if you like. I'd also recommend picking up a Golembane Scarab.

There's some Alchemist discoveries that modify poisons:

Concentrate poison: The alchemist can combine two doses of the same poison to increase their effects. This requires two doses of the poison and 1 minute of concentration. When completed, the alchemist has one dose of poison. The poison's frequency is extended by 50% and the save DC increases by +2. This poison must be used within 1 hour of its creation or it is ruined.

Sticky poison: Any poison the alchemist creates is sticky—when the alchemist applies it to a weapon, the weapon remains poisoned for a number of strikes equal to the alchemist's Intelligence modifier. An alchemist must be at least 6th level before selecting this discovery.

Poison Conversion: By spending 1 minute, the alchemist can convert 1 dose of poison from its current type (contact, ingested, inhaled, or injury) to another type. For example, the alchemist can convert a dose of Small centipede poison (an injury poison) to an inhaled poison. This process requires an alchemy lab. An alchemist must be at least 6th level before selecting this discovery.

Edit: If you went with Vivisectionist archetype for Alchemist levels, you wouldn't lose out on sneak attack progression either.

Unfortunately Concentrate and Sticky won't help, due to the time limits(the plan is to poison the ammunition long before battle). Posion Conversion could work, but it's not worth 6 levels of Alchemist(I would rather get the Ki from Ninja)

Tokuhara
2012-07-17, 09:44 PM
My 2c:

Start with Knifemaster Rogue 2 for a rogue talent, d8's when using knives, and then go Vivisectionist Alchemist and focus on poisoning. Use your mutagen to buff scores you need in melee and go to town with d8 sneak attacks.

Larpus
2012-07-18, 03:14 PM
Also, do note that Sticky Poison has no time limit (it's strikes), meaning that a random commoner might die from stabbing himself with the dagger you sold to the blacksmith 13 levels ago.

Considering that you'll be using shurikens, the benefit will be apparent (consistently cutting your costs with poisons to 1/Int), other benefits include Poison Use and Swift Poisoning for free, meaning that you can actually apply poison mid-battle and other discoveries, some of which can help your build.

From the top of my head, it's worth mentioning Feral Mutagen, which gives you 3 natural weapons (1d8 bite and two 1d6 claws), which are considered light weapons so Weapon Finesse and you'll have 3 full BAB attacks on a full-attack and Wings, which will allow you to get out of harms way for mins/Alchemist levels per day for free.

There's also spellcasting, which is buff-based and does have Invisibility on the list.