Pathfinder Newbe

[evyldead]

Hey guys. So one of my friends is starting a Pathfinder game. And I would like to know a really powerful Pathdfinder build. Level 15 And I get to start with like 500k gold to spend on major items. I think 500k gold on other items like armor and wepons. I get one artifact or one made. and yea. Would liek to know a good build.

[Larkas]

Good build... For what? What would you like to play? What kind of character? It's kinda hard to judge what's a "good build" in a vacuum.

Anyways, are you sure you guys want to start playing at 15? It's kinda hard to learn a system with so many variables already in place.

[Renen]

Come back when your spelling doesnt make my eyes bleed

[AvatarVecna]

Hey guys. So one of my friends is starting a Pathfinder game. And I would like to know a really powerful Pathdfinder build. Level 15 And I get to start with like 500k gold to spend on major items. I think 500k gold on other items like armor and wepons. I get one artifact or one made. and yea. Would liek to know a good build.

Really power build? You need to be a bit more specific: what do you generally want to do? Cast arcane spells? Buff people? Shoot people? Skill Monkey stuff? What?

[Yanisa]

I don't often go high power, but this sounds like a job for:

Half-Elf - 2 Oracle/3 sorcerer/10 Mystic Theurge

At level 15 we are looking at a Character with 12 Oracle and 13 Sorcerer levels. Good enough to cast level 6th spells at both sides. Add in Paragon Surge and the fact you are a spell level behind on wizards/clerics is not a problem, as you can cast every spell of 6th level or lower, at your finger tips. With a Rod of Quicken you can swift action cast paragon surge for when you really need a spell... You do lack class features beyond casting a lot of spells. And the build doesn't really grow past level 15 , because there isn't a second archetype I know that does both divine and arcane.

Also I am way too slow to stat such a build completely, it would take me days. So just throwing an idea out here.

[FabulousFizban]

level 15? Ronin Samurai with a vorpal sword. They can take 20 on an attack roll once per day. Instant Kill. Save it for the boss fights. Take stuff to increase your confirmation roll and up the fort save.

[AvatarVecna]

Ultimate melee:
-Alchemist/Barbarian/Master Chymist
-Fighter (choose an archetype for your preferred fighting style)
-Rogue dual-wielding

Ultimate ranged:
-Gunslinger dual-wielding pistols
-Zen Archery Monk
-Fighter (choose an archetype for your preferred fighting style)

Ultimate Caster
-Any Full caster class
-Mystic Theurge, as already suggested
-Summoner (it's not a full caster, getting only 6 spell levels, but it's naturally OP)

[AvatarVecna]

level 15? Ronin Samurai with a vorpal sword. They can take 20 on an attack roll once per day. Instant Kill. Save it for the boss fights. Take stuff to increase your confirmation roll and up the fort save.

If you were to go the route of vorpal weaponry, there's better ways. Let's see how to break it...

Human Fighter (Weapon Master) 15
Attributes: base 20 points
Str: 20 (17 base, 3 level)
Dex: 19 (17 base, 2 race)
Con: 12 (12 base)
Int: 7 (7 base)
Wis: 10 (10 base)
Cha: 7 (7 base)
Skills: irrelevant
Feats
-Lvl 1: Toughness
-Human: EWP (Katana)
-Fighter 1: Weapon Focus (Katana)
-Fighter 2: Two-Weapon Fighting
-Lvl 3: Double Slice
-Fighter 4: Weapon Specialization (Katana)
-Lvl 5: Improved Initiative
-Fighter 6: Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
-Lvl 7: Power Attack
-Fighter 8: Greater Weapon Focus (Katana)
-Lvl 9: Improved Critical (Katana)
-Fighter 10: Critical Focus
-Lvl 11: Greater Two-Weapon Fighting
-Fighter 12: Greater Weapon Specialization (Katana)
-Lvl 13: Two-Weapon Rend
-Fighter 14: Surge of Success
-Lvl 15: Defiant Luck
Items (192000 gp out of 240000 gp)
-(2) +1 Vorpal Katana
-Belt of Giant Strength +6
-Boots of Speed
-Most other items are irrelevant (for these purposes)

Offensively, this build gets 7 attacks at +25/+25/+25/+20/+20/+15/+15; damage is 1d10+14. Critical threat on 15-20, and confirming criticals is at +4 to the confirmation roll; 2d10+28 on a confirmed critical. Unless the enemy is immune to being beheaded, they get their head chopped off, with no save. Regardless, they take the damage. It doesn't matter if losing their head kills them, but still. If a foe isn't vulnerable to being beheaded, you can use power attack and 7 attacks to kill them quickly. If you've a haste-happy caster in the party, the boots are less than necessary, especially at this level.
This build also has room to advance: at 16th level, you get another attack; at 20th level, you auto-confirm all crits and can't be disarmed of your weapon. You still get plenty of feats, and there's not anything left that's necessary for the basic concept.

For the record, this build has a 30% chance of getting a critical threat per attack. That means that, while hasted, they have roughly a 92% chance of getting 1 critical threat in a round, and a 99.95% chance of getting a critical threat in three rounds.
Whenever they get a critical threat, they get a +4 to their attack roll to confirm.
On a critical, they behead their foe; most creatures are vulnerable to this (although if your campaign tend to feature a lot of exceptions, this might not be the best path to take).

That's pretty powerful, if you ask me. And it uses virtually nothing but options available in the core books, so it's probably not completely optimized by any stretch of the imagination. I'm sure there's ways to break it even further, but this is pretty good already.

As a side note, I've always found it interesting how, mechanically, the vorpal enchantment works best for weapons with large crit threat ranges, and yet the weapons most commonly associated with beheadings (a big axe or a scythe) have huge crit multipliers but only crit on a 20. A vorpal scythe is full of flavor but is quite un-optimized. Weird, isn't it?

[BWR]

As a side note, I've always found it interesting how, mechanically, the vorpal enchantment works best for weapons with large crit threat ranges, and yet the weapons most commonly associated with beheadings (a big axe or a scythe) have huge crit multipliers but only crit on a 20. A vorpal scythe is full of flavor but is quite un-optimized. Weird, isn't it?

Vorpal requires a natural 20 followed by a confirmation to behead something.

[Slithery D]

Yeah, not sure where you got the idea that all criticals decapitate. That would be pretty crazy.

[GreenZ]

level 15? Ronin Samurai with a vorpal sword. They can take 20 on an attack roll once per day. Instant Kill. Save it for the boss fights. Take stuff to increase your confirmation roll and up the fort save.

If you go this build, you NEED a wand of Bladed Dash (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/b/bladed-dash). Rule of Cool demands it. :smallcool:

Also, Sword Saint (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/alternate-classes/samurai/archetypes/paizo---samurai-archetypes/sword-saint) would be a good fit along this idea. A situational damage increase (if you cannot full attack) that can also Deafen and Shaken groups of enemies and a 1/2 level bonus on Critical Confirmation (which you want with Vorpal.) in place of your Mount and Banner abilities that are passive and boring.

[NightbringerGGZ]

Read one of the Wizard guides or handbooks. Build a level 15 Wizard.

[AvatarVecna]

I guess i misread the original rules and haven't bothered checking ever since. My mistake.
I still insist that a dual-wielder has better chances of activating it than a non-dual-wielder, even if they have a 1/day auto 20.

[AvatarVecna]

Read one of the Wizard guides or handbooks. Build a level 15 Wizard.

This.
I'd like to point out that it doesn't need to be a wizard; any full caster will be more than sufficiently powerful, assuming you don't build/play them stupidly.

[Slithery D]

I guess i misread the original rules and haven't bothered checking ever since. My mistake.
I still insist that a dual-wielder has better chances of activating it than a non-dual-wielder, even if they have a 1/day auto 20.

That I agree with, maximizing attacks is good. If you manage 7 attacks in a round you've got a 30% chance for one or more to be a natural 20.

[AvatarVecna]

That I agree with, maximizing attacks is good. If you manage 7 attacks in a round you've got a 30% chance for one or more to be a natural 20.

And even if you're not getting a beheading on every crit, this build has dependable and high damage, and constant crits are always good. It's a solid fighter that beheads enemies often enough to be awesome, assuming the right opponents are faced.