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View Full Version : Player Help Thinking of trying a new character, but...



Diachronos
2014-07-17, 12:31 AM
A bit of background for the campaign: All of our characters are from different parts of the world (maybe even different worlds), who were somehow selected and brought to a region reminiscent of feudal Japan. There's a prophecy of sorts in the empire where a group of people "come from Heaven" (actually an ancient abandoned fortress/city inside a mountain, with the mountain being known throughout the empire as "Heaven") to overthrow the "Deathless Emperor," and we're the latest group of people who are supposedly these prophesied heroes.

My current character is 11th level, primarily a Mindchemist (10) with a dip in Gunslinger (1). Me and the party's halfling Mysterious Stranger/Rogue managed to piece together how to make revolvers with a little help from one of the resistance leaders (the halfling is still trying to work out how to make a rifle), and we each have one that we made over the course of a month.
The DM institutes something he calls the "funky rule" for each player, which is basically a house rule you select for your character. Races and classes (but not Archetypes) outside of the Core Rulebook are considered funky rules, but you can also pick something else, like a "funky item" (something that grows in power with your character), choosing your stats instead of rolling them (also gives you the +1 ability score boost every even level instead of every 4 levels), a special ability (like regeneration), etc. With the setting he's allowing certain non-standard races without them being funky rules, though.

At the moment 4 out of the 10-ish party members are the primary damage-dealers:

A Ranger, who takes around 5 shots per round between full-attack and feats. His funky rule was a bow that grows in power, and he can trade in its enhancement bonus to add enchantments pretty much whenever he wants, so a lot of times it ends up with Bane and other damage enchants. Most likely our top DPS
A Tengu Swordmaster/Fighter (gestalt is his funky), who has about half a dozen different swords with strong damage enchants, usually destroys something in only a couple rounds
A Kitsune Oracle (funky class) with the Ancestor mystery, he usually uses his buffs and revelations to turn himself into a pretty effective melee fighter
Me (Alchemist class is funky rule), with the revolver and Explosive Missile discovery I'm rolling 1d8 + bomb damage (which is 5d6 + 7 due to a +4 Headband of Intelligence; goes up to 5d6 + 9 when I actually remember to use a Cognatogen) off of a (base) +11 hit chance against touch AC within 100ft.


The main problem I'm running into right now is that, for some reason, I'm just losing interest in the Mindchemist. I don't know why, to be perfectly honest. It may be because shooting explosive bullets is pretty much all I do each session, or because the bombs are practically the only class feature I have a reason to use; potions take WAY too long to make, and on the rare occasion where I'd actually have a reason to use my extracts our Oracle jumps in to heal the damage since he's got plenty of spells to spare (usually the only spell he casts in a fight is Bull's Strength on himself). Or it could be something completely different that I haven't figured out.

So right now I'm rolling up a Wizard (my first prepared spellcaster, so that's going to be fun to learn on the fly), with a custom-built fairy race as my funky rule. The problem I'm running into is... what the hell do I do with my Mindchemist? I don't want to kill her off, and I'd like to have the option to go back to her if the fairy wizard doesn't turn out, but how do I justify having her leave the party when we just teleported to another city to take down its leader? Would she just find something else to draw her attention away? Does she decide to leave the group to help the refugees of the town we recently freed from occupation by the Deathless Emperor's forces?
I'm also unsure of what to do with her magic items. Some of them, like her Goggles of Minute Seeing, don't seem to be of much use to the rest of the party, but I'd really like to be able to pass on some of them to the fairy; she'd really benefit from the +4 Intelligence headband and +3 Ring of Protection, and she might also get some use out of the Ring of Elemental Command (Earth) and Hand of Glory that the Mindchemist has. I'd also like for the party to hang onto the Horn of Blasting we picked up (currently in my character's hands) in case they need it.

I'm not sure of what to do in this situation. Any advice? If it helps, the Mindchemist's alignment is Chaotic Good.

Diachronos
2014-07-18, 01:32 AM
Tips on playing the Wizard would also be greatly appreciated. It's my first time playing one, and I'm not looking to min-max or anything like that so please don't leave comments saying things like "a properly-played wizard always chooses this feat/spell/item/skills" or whatever. Mainly what I'm stumped on is an efficient way to do my spell list when I prepare it each day, other than writing everything out every single in-game day.

Here's my current setup (Note that this is just a preliminary setup, still waiting for a chance to run the race by the DM):

Type: Fey (low-light vision)
Size: Tiny (-2 Str, +2 Dex)
Ability modifiers: +4 Int, -2 Con, -2 Wis
Languages: Common, Sylvan; can take Draconic, Elven, Dwarven, Auran, Infernal, Abyssal
Speed: 20ft, fly 40ft (poor)
Special Abilities:

(Sp) Faerie Fire at will
Fey Damage Resistance (DR 5/cold iron)
Arcane Focus (+2 on checks to cast defensively)



Wizard 1 (School Specialization: Evocation - Admixture; Opposition Schools: Necromancy, Transmutation)
Str: 10
Dex: 20
Con: 12
Int: 22
Wis: 14
Cha: 12

HP: 7
AC: 17 (10 + 5 Dex + 2 size), touch 17, flat-footed 12
Fort: +1
Ref: +5
Will: +4
Skills: Craft (alchemy) 10, Fly 9, Knowledge (arcana/dungeoneering/nature/plains/religion) 10, Perception 3, Spellcraft 10
Feats: Scribe Scroll, (haven't decided on the level 1 feat)

Since I'm likely going to shoot up a few levels after the first encounter with this character, I'm considering taking a couple levels in Mindchemist to get the cognatogens and the bombs as a backup source of damage (plus Perfect Recall's boost to Knowledge skills); the downsides would be a delay in spell access and the fact that, since I wouldn't have access to my alchemist's level 2 extracts, I can't just pop a lesser restoration extract to counteract the Str damage from the cognatogen.

IIzak
2014-07-18, 03:11 PM
For your current character, maybe they had some other call to duty that they have to take care of. Maybe they realized something else about themselves that they just have a difference of opinion with the party. I'd talk to your DM about allowing your character to come in a bit closer to the current party level? You're more of a liability at level 1 for the rest of the party so that actually makes it harder to integrate you without metagaming, and as a bonus to you, you should have a bit more gold to throw around during character creation to get you some of those items you want. There really isn't a good way to pass on new items to another character, unless you were doing something like have them both in the same scene and have your old character give items to your new character (Which seems a little unfair/cheesy to me).

As for managing your prepared spell list, keep a physical spellbook. Thats what I do. What you do is, get a stack of notecards, write down each of the spells in your spellbook, what they do, where they are. As a wizard you only have spells in your spellbook to prepare, so when you're preparing stuff, just look through your notecards and be like, "Okay I want this, this and this..." and pull those spells out of the stack, and put the rest away (Even better if you have an actual little book that can hold all your cards). then when you use a spell, turn it over in your stack of prepared spells, so that way, you know that you used it, but if you have some way of getting it back, (i.e. pearl of power), then you still have it in the pile and just need to flip it back over again. Its a bit of work, but it helps me and I hope it helps you too.

Diachronos
2014-07-18, 04:09 PM
The starting level isn't much of an issue, seeing as the party's about to go into a boss fight and the last time we had a new member they started at 1 and jumped to 8 after a single fight.

I like the notecard idea, that's probably what I'll do.

sideswipe
2014-07-19, 04:48 AM
transmutation is a very bad school to ban. i would ban enchantment. most of the enchantment spells are ineffective to about 1 in 5 enemies at high levels. and the rest of the enemies may have a high will save even if you can effect them.

plus. polymorph :smallbiggrin:

evocation is an ok school to specialise in, conjuration is better, but still not the worst choice. evocation has a few very nice utility spells. like floating disc. etc.

jiriku
2014-07-19, 06:58 AM
Perhaps she concocts and drinks a funky potion and it... misfires. Now she's someone else. Permanently. Conveniently, the someone else is a wizard.

Diachronos
2014-07-19, 08:03 AM
Perhaps she concocts and drinks a funky potion and it... misfires. Now she's someone else. Permanently. Conveniently, the someone else is a wizard.

That's actually something that could realistically happen. When the DM was rolling up things for our backgrounds, I ended up with a cursed potion vial...

The fairy is going on the back burner for now, I'm going to see if I can get some more interesting use out of Rita before I set her aside. But I'll keep these things in mind if I ever do end up swapping characters.