[OOC] The Hanging Herald Tavern

[ColdBones]

Hm, it looks like Dekor is going to have to soak up some damage. I'll have to find some heavy armour that will let him keep his dex bonus once we run into a little more money I suppose.

[davide15]

Yeah, it seems like Dekor and Apex are the primary damage sinks. I'm planning on being a bit of a flanking buddy for what it's worth, I might drop to light armor for the added mobility (though it might not be until we have a bit more money and I can grab some Mithril Breastplate goodness)

[ColdBones]

Hopefully with all the dual attacks floating around we can make quick work of most enemies.

[Geldar]

Thinking about taking Alethea the TWF route.

Wondering if I should hold off on the two weapon fighting feat until level 3 though, just because of other feats I maybe should take first (Toughness to be less squishy, weapon focus so I can hit something, weapon finesse/Finesse Rogue so I can hit something). I feel like I'd "need" both those attack-bonus feats to off-set the two-weapon penalties, and I wouldn't want to regret having not taken Toughness.

Any thoughts?

[killswitch423]

Your first couple of levels shouldn't be too combat heavy.

[2nd Chance]

Originally Posted by davide15

So I saw a few things I had questions about, but probably the only important one is that you still have 1 more point to spend on Maia's ability scores (you have only used 27 of the allocated 28. I suppose there is no rule that you have to use every point, but I guess I don't see why you wouldn't.

Personally if it were me I would dump the hell out of Wis for Maia (give her an 8 there) and put the 3 resulting points into Cha. I mean, will is her strong save anyway, so she can afford the penalty, and Apex runs with a super high Perception so he can just radar stuff back to her, and all of us for that matter. The bump to DCs is probably worth it, but that is just or perhaps imnshoimho.

edit: Also, I guess I should mention one nitpicky thing I noticed. Since Apex does not have multiattack, one of his attacks is secondary. Presumably his bite. So that runs at a +0 to hit and a +1 to damage not +5 and +3 respectively.

Regarding ability point distribution, I didn't assign them efficiently. Thanks for noticing that; I'm fixing it now. As for Apex's attacks, all of an eidolon's attacks are considered primary unless specifically noted in the evolution's description. He gets the full attack bonus for both claws and bite, as described in both the Eidolon Base Forms and Evolutions sections of the SRD.

[davide15]

Originally Posted by Geldar

Thinking about taking Alethea the TWF route.

Wondering if I should hold off on the two weapon fighting feat until level 3 though, just because of other feats I maybe should take first (Toughness to be less squishy, weapon focus so I can hit something, weapon finesse/Finesse Rogue so I can hit something). I feel like I'd "need" both those attack-bonus feats to off-set the two-weapon penalties, and I wouldn't want to regret having not taken Toughness.

Any thoughts?

Here are my thoughts on feat selection for a rogue. You don't need toughness, you're not supposed to be taking all that much damage. If you are then our tanks have failed or we are in serious trouble. That being said, toughness is a good feat on everyone and a few extra HP won't be terrible. Still feats are very scarce and that might be better used elsewhere.

Never get weapon focus unless it is specifically for prerequisite purposes for something awesome. It's a wasted feat. Only effects 1 weapon, and as a rogue you can't even go up the dubious weapon focus/weapon specialization chain.

Weapon finesse is awesome for the high dex melee rogue. Particularly the one without strength, since most of that rogue's damage is coming from SA dice. It effects all light weapons and a slew of other interesting options, allows you to dump str completely (since that isn't where your damage is coming from anyway) and still have a high attack bonus. Take if you think the bonus to hit outweighs the value of a feat.

Two-weapon fighting is the way to go for a melee rogue. Extra attacks mean extra damage in a way that is not true of other classes. Move into a flanking position and start making double full attacks every round at the -2 penalty. That's what they call sick nasty. At higher levels a rogue can be pumping out 4-6 attacks per round with all of that sweet sweet sneak attack damage in play if they are flanking.

Anyway, that is just a few thoughts off the top of my head. You should remember that the feats will kind of determine the type of character you are making, both from a mechanical, but also a role-playing perspective. In my own case if I was really minmaxing Mazgurg I would go with combat reflexes as my level 1 feat since in the later game I am going to have access to many teamwork feats which will give me an edge when trying for AoOs. However, I wanted Mazgurg to be undeniably scary, so I put a bunch of intimidation options onto him so he could bat an eyelid and people would fall on their faces begging for mercy.

Think about what you want your character to be inspite of what I just said I almost always try to get away from the mechanics aspectoutside of the mechanics. A ranged specialist? A tough chick? A two-weapon savant. An ultra stealthy assassin? etc. Try and find feats that build to that vision. The mechanics guide the characters in game role playing values.

Edit:

Originally Posted by 2nd Chance

Regarding ability point distribution, I didn't assign them efficiently. Thanks for noticing that; I'm fixing it now. As for Apex's attacks, all of an eidolon's attacks are considered primary unless specifically noted in the evolution's description. He gets the full attack bonus for both claws and bite, as described in both the Eidolon Base Forms and Evolutions sections of the SRD.

Yeah, that's my bad on the eidolon attacks thing. I am still not super familiar with the summoner/eidolon rules.

As for the abilities efficiency, I must admit that Summoner has a lot of room to play with. Basically it is a One ability dependent (pronounced WAD)OAD class. All you need is Charisma and Constitution and you're golden. Now that leads to a pretty basic build, but since that is the way you are going anyways, I would just go all the way there, dump Str and Wis completely. Pump Cha and Con and just go to town (maybe not less than an 8 in Wis, you need some kind of Will Save after all).

[Sparkie]

With the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday (US) I was wondering where we'll all be and if there will be any scheduling conflicts. I'll have access to internet all four days of the extended weekend and posting shouldn't be a problem. How's everyone else looking?

[killswitch423]

Should be more or less normal this week for me with the exception of Thursday, of course.

[davide15]

I'm going to add friday to the days I will probably be a non-factor. I am likely going to be recovering from a tryptophan coma and a serious hangover.

[Geldar]

@davide15, you're a sage sir (or at least, you really brought-it with the rogue insight). Thanks so much, that helps.

I'll be sporadic next weekend (Thurs-Sun). Mrs. Geldar and I will traveling out of town, then I'll be on my semi-monthly music rotation at church; but I can probably log-on and at least do "quality-over-quantity" posts at some hours. However's best for everyone involved, I can do my best to keep up.

[ColdBones]

I already had Canadian Thanksgiving, so its just a normal weekend for me. I'll be around.

[killswitch423]

2nd, do you think you'd be able to post me a pic of Apex? I like to use a lot of visual aids and it would also be handy in making tokens should I find the time to start doing fully illustrated combat maps again.

Also, Sparkie, I'd ask the same for Rego. I will use a temporary one in the meantime; who knows maybe you'll like whatever one I find, heh.

[2nd Chance]

I get to work Thanksgiving ... and I'm salary so I don't get overtime. Yay.

As for Apex, let me rummage for something. It's kind of a moot point though since, by his nature, he's going to change appearance drastically as Maia levels.

EDIT: K, how's this?

[Sparkie]

Not a real good pic, I know. Sorry. I had trouble finding an image as I envisioned.