Op-fu Challenge: Tweak my Warpriest

[Kane0]

Hello all!

I've been given a nice opportunity by my DM to tweak some details about my character pretty far into our campaign. We are coming up to the end of the adventure and I'd like some advice on tweaks I can make to my dude before the finale.

Stats and specifics:
Human Warpriest 13 (True Neutral)

Str: 18 (22)
Dex: 13
Con: 14 (16)
Int: 12
Wis: 16 (20)
Cha 10

Feats:
Warpriest: Blessing: Strength
Warpriest: Focus Weapon: Dagger
Human Feat: Power Attack
Level 1: Imp Initiative
Level 3: Shield Focus
Level 3 Bonus: Dodge
Level 5: Blind Fight (Changeable)
Level 6: Vital Strike
Level 7: Combat Casting (Changeable)
Level 9: Greater Weapon Focus (Dagger)
Level 9 Bonus: Weapon Specialisation (Dagger)
Level 11: Missile Shield
Level 12: Penetrating Strike
Level 13: Greater Weapon Specialisation (Dagger)

Abilities:
Sacred Weapon +3 (Usually used for +2 and Shock, but i've taken to +3 squeeze out all my bonuses to hit)
Sacred Armor +3 (Usually the full +3 for a total of 40 AC)
Ferver 3d6 (Usually to swift action cast, occasionally to heal during fights)
Strength Blessing (+6 to hit)
Darkness Blessing (goes largely unused)

Equipment:
+1 Holy Keen Mithril Dagger
+2 Heavy Shield
+5 Comfortable Full Plate
Cloak of Protection +5
Amulet of Natural Armor +3
Ring of Protection +2
Ring of Feather Fall
Belt of Str +4
Gloves of Con +2
Headband of Wis +4
Boots of Striding and Springing
Handy haversack
Pearl of Power I
Jingasa of the Fortunate Soldier

All this equipment can be sold/changed with a big shopping opportunity coming up shortly and I have about 50k gold to spend on top of that, maybe more.

Spells Commonly Prepared:
Breath of Life
Death Ward
Freedom of Movement
Divine Power
Dispel Magic
Prayer
Protection from Energy
Burst of Radiance
Bless
Protection from Evil

Notable problems i'm having:
- Attack bonus and damage
- AC and HP

Can anyone suggest some small tweaks to optimize me a bit more?
I figure a Str belt and better shield is pretty much the way to go unless someone can point out something out of the ordinary worth buying. Undead bane for my dagger would also be very good.
Likewise I'm thinking swapping out combat casting for something else, even toughness would get more use.
Spells are easy to swap out, we have a cleric but anything I can do to take the expenditure off her is good (especially self buffs I can swift cast using fervor)
If there is a way to get more swift actions in a round I would love to hear it too.

[Long_shanks]

Feats:
Warpriest: Blessing: Strength
Warpriest: Focus Weapon: Dagger
Human Feat: Power Attack
Level 1: Imp Initiative
Level 3: Shield Focus
Level 3 Bonus: Dodge
Level 5: Blind Fight (Changeable)
Level 6: Vital Strike
Level 7: Combat Casting (Changeable)
Level 9: Greater Weapon Focus (Dagger)
Level 9 Bonus: Weapon Specialisation (Dagger)
Level 11: Missile Shield
Level 12: Penetrating Strike
Level 13: Greater Weapon Specialisation (Dagger)



I'm not a warpriest expert, but I personally would change a lot of those. Shield focus and dodge are basically +1 AC. With your high AC + spells to buff it, you don't really need them. You would lose the prereq to missile shield though. Question then would be have you really used that ability in combat? If yes, then carry on. Same goes for both weapon spec. I presume your damage is already really decent; those feat could be used for more versatility than just a numerical bonus. And, as you pointed out, blind fight and combat casting are ripe to be changed as well.

So, what could we change those feats with then? Glad you asked. You're human, so critical versatility comes to mind. You need critical focus to set it up, but it gives you the ability to choose the critical feat for which you meet the prereq with a one hour training. Tiring critical, deafening critical, BLINDING critical... You name it!
To go with that, you could change your focus weapon to a kukri in order to maximize your threat range.
Quicken blessing: use your blessings as a swift action. Yes please.
Expanded knowledge: more spell knowns is always great.

That what I can say on top from my head without acces to my books. Hope it helps!

EDIT: as far items go, you can never go wrong with a bane baldric. Free bane effect for 5 rounds a day; it's a bargain too at 10k. Boots of haste (12k) would save you the casting of a spell. Also, one of my personal favorites: deathwatch eyes. Gives you deathwatch, plain and simple. That means you can see if your allies need some help, but it also means you can immediately identify is a creature is alive, undead or a construct (for the low, low price of 2k)

[exelsisxax]

Daggers are light weapons, power attack is hot garbage on light weapons.

Tweak: drop power attack for something good. If you went finesse you could get piranha strike, which is basically power attack that doesn't suck on light weapons.

Or, much more useful, don't use a dagger if you have any other option. Warpriests can get exotic weapon proficiency for free through favored weapons, and exotic weapons are always better - many of them have higher crit multipliers or crit ranges (or both) along with weapon properties. If you don't have access to a good exotic, cutlass, rapiers, and scimitars all have better crit rates.

[Long_shanks]

Daggers are light weapons, power attack is hot garbage on light weapons.

Tweak: drop power attack for something good. If you went finesse you could get piranha strike, which is basically power attack that doesn't suck on light weapons.



I fail to see what the difference is between power attack with a light weapon and pirhana strike. Both are -1 attack/+2 damage per 4 BAB, and piranha strike has a useless prereq for Kane0. Sure, PA is better with a two-handed weapon, but pirhana strike is in no way better on a str build with a light weapon.

[Jurai]

I'd upgrade to a rapier or shortsword, depending on your needs.

[Kane0]

I'm not a warpriest expert, but I personally would change a lot of those. Shield focus and dodge are basically +1 AC. With your high AC + spells to buff it, you don't really need them. You would lose the prereq to missile shield though. Question then would be have you really used that ability in combat? If yes, then carry on. Same goes for both weapon spec. I presume your damage is already really decent; those feat could be used for more versatility than just a numerical bonus. And, as you pointed out, blind fight and combat casting are ripe to be changed as well.

So, what could we change those feats with then? Glad you asked. You're human, so critical versatility comes to mind. You need critical focus to set it up, but it gives you the ability to choose the critical feat for which you meet the prereq with a one hour training. Tiring critical, deafening critical, BLINDING critical... You name it!
To go with that, you could change your focus weapon to a kukri in order to maximize your threat range.
Quicken blessing: use your blessings as a swift action. Yes please.
Expanded knowledge: more spell knowns is always great.

That what I can say on top from my head without acces to my books. Hope it helps!

EDIT: as far items go, you can never go wrong with a bane baldric. Free bane effect for 5 rounds a day; it's a bargain too at 10k. Boots of haste (12k) would save you the casting of a spell. Also, one of my personal favorites: deathwatch eyes. Gives you deathwatch, plain and simple. That means you can see if your allies need some help, but it also means you can immediately identify is a creature is alive, undead or a construct (for the low, low price of 2k)

I took those specifically for the AC, and it seems 40 is just shy of what I'm looking for. The other frontliner of the party is an Investigator 12/Swashbuckler 1 (i think) and enjoys an AC of 47, the closer I can get to that the better.
Missile shield has not come up yet, and i'm not certain it will but its one the DM hasn't OKd I swap out so I have it for better or worse now.
My damage is 1d10 + 2d6 (Holy) + 17 on a normal hit at full power attack, which can be upped with +3 worth of magic enhancements from sacred weapon. The swashbuckler usually sits at about 4-6 more attack and damage than me.
I won't be able to change my weapon, it's the deities preferred weapon.
All my Blessings are swift anyways, I actually often have more options than swift actions to go around. A bane Baldric would just add to the list.
Boots of haste are definitely on my list of to-get.


Daggers are light weapons, power attack is hot garbage on light weapons.

Tweak: drop power attack for something good. If you went finesse you could get piranha strike, which is basically power attack that doesn't suck on light weapons.

Or, much more useful, don't use a dagger if you have any other option. Warpriests can get exotic weapon proficiency for free through favored weapons, and exotic weapons are always better - many of them have higher crit multipliers or crit ranges (or both) along with weapon properties. If you don't have access to a good exotic, cutlass, rapiers, and scimitars all have better crit rates.
Its the same as any other weapon that isn't heavy/two handed, besides can't swap around my deities favored weapon.


I fail to see what the difference is between power attack with a light weapon and pirhana strike. Both are -1 attack/+2 damage per 4 BAB, and piranha strike has a useless prereq for Kane0. Sure, PA is better with a two-handed weapon, but pirhana strike is in no way better on a str build with a light weapon.
Yeah pretty much.


I'd upgrade to a rapier or shortsword, depending on your needs.
As above, locked into daggers. Which isn't all that bad, Warpriest means I deal a d10 when using them.


The thing I just can't wrap my head around is that the Investigator enjoys a higher to-hit, more damage per hit, more AC and higher HP than me, while ALSO having fantastic skills and saves. I know that I'm not badly built but i'm about 10-20% behind him in raw combat numbers and the DM adjusts to compete with him, so I (and by extension the party) appear to be struggling.
I'll probably swap combat casting for toughness and call it a day.

[exelsisxax]

You are NOT locked into daggers. Focus weapon and sacred weapon:

At 1st level, a warpriest receives Weapon Focus as a bonus feat (he can choose any weapon, not just his deity's favored weapon).
In addition to the favored weapon of his deity, the warpriest can designate a weapon as a sacred weapon by selecting that weapon with the Weapon Focus feat

If your god doesn't have a bitchin' weapon like a katana, rhoka, estoc, or falacta, you can still get a scimitar or rapier which are unconditionally superior to daggers. This also lets you double your PA damage bonus if you feel like 2-handing for a round.

[Long_shanks]

I took those specifically for the AC, and it seems 40 is just shy of what I'm looking for. The other frontliner of the party is an Investigator 12/Swashbuckler 1 (i think) and enjoys an AC of 47, the closer I can get to that the better.
Missile shield has not come up yet, and i'm not certain it will but its one the DM hasn't OKd I swap out so I have it for better or worse now.
My damage is 1d10 + 2d6 (Holy) + 17 on a normal hit at full power attack, which can be upped with +3 worth of magic enhancements from sacred weapon. The swashbuckler usually sits at about 4-6 more attack and damage than me.
I won't be able to change my weapon, it's the deities preferred weapon.
All my Blessings are swift anyways, I actually often have more options than swift actions to go around. A bane Baldric would just add to the list.
Boots of haste are definitely on my list of to-get.

Do you get hit often at 40 AC? It seems pretty high for level 13 (the swashbuckler's 47 is ridiculous). As for damage, righteous might and/or divine power should always be up in combat. Actually, divine power nets you an extra attack that doesn't stack with haste, so the boots may not even be necessary (well, the movement is still nice). Righteous might is especially potent with the scaling damage of sacred weapon (1d10 becomes 2d8). With both up, you are looking at 2d8+2d6+23 per attack, with a +6 bonus to hit, a net +1 to AC, DR 5/good or evil and an extra attack when full attacking.

[Kane0]

AC = 10 + 1 dex, + 14 from full plate +4 from shield +2 from feats +2 from Ring, +3 from Amulet, +1 from jingasa (we're using the old luck version). I can boost it by another 3 using Sacred Armor.
I don't get targeted all that much which annoys me, but when I do i usually get hit either because its a touch attack or their to-hit is about +30 or so. I don't know what's happening with the swashbuckler but I'm sure there's a miscalculation or incorrect stacking involved somewhere. I think the extra AC comes from extracts but I do know he has a suit of celestial armor.

The boots of speed would be good for when we dont have haste going and i'd rather use my swift for something other than divine power (which happens a lot).

[CasualViking]

What's your deity?

[Pex]

Since you're not a full BAB class the Power Attack penalty hurts more. The various ways you have to increase your attack modifier of course help, but they are compensating rather than boosting. Find room for the Furious Focus feat. That removes the penalty to hit on your first attack of the round, especially when you only get one attack because you moved or will move and you'll be using Vital Strike anyway.

[Sayt]

Pathfinder's Bestiary calls for a CR13 creature to have a To hit roll of 22, so with an AC of 40, they're only hitting you on 18s, which is pretty damn good. Giving up shield focus and dodge mean that they only hit on 16s, still excellent, so you're not losing that much by dropping them for better feats.

Also, furious focus requires you to be wielding a two-handed weapon, or two handed weapon in one hand, so a dagger doesn't work for FF.

That said, as Exel said, you can have any weapon as your sacred weapon. If you want to keep it a light weapon, I'd go with Kukri instead of dagger. If you wanted something one-handed, Rapier or Scimitar. Twohanded, well Falchion, Greataxe or greatsword.

[exelsisxax]

AC = 10 + 1 dex, + 14 from full plate +4 from shield +2 from feats +2 from Ring, +3 from Amulet, +1 from jingasa (we're using the old luck version). I can boost it by another 3 using Sacred Armor.
I don't get targeted all that much which annoys me, but when I do i usually get hit either because its a touch attack or their to-hit is about +30 or so. I don't know what's happening with the swashbuckler but I'm sure there's a miscalculation or incorrect stacking involved somewhere. I think the extra AC comes from extracts but I do know he has a suit of celestial armor.

The boots of speed would be good for when we dont have haste going and i'd rather use my swift for something other than divine power (which happens a lot).

I agree, the investigator is probably wrong about his AC somewhere. I'm very confident about this, because it looks like you are as well. 14 armor bonus from full plate requires +5 fullplate, which is the highest enhancement bonus you can have. Sacred armor can't give you any more AC. If you got a list of his bonuses to AC he probably adds multiple luck bonuses or something like that. You're ahead of the curve as a high-AC class using a shield. He's a MAD light-armor user that might be able to use the worst shield there is. 47 AC should be "i used every possible AC boosting extract at once!" at that level, permanent AC should be lower than yours.

[Kane0]

Oh, well I guess that means more energy resistance and fortification for me, unless I cam convince DM to let it apply to shields.
Also we will level up next session for sure so I can prompt the DM to collect and check charsheets which would be great.