Character Submission Thread

perrinmiller · Nov 24, 2011

jkason said:
I can't get the money to work out for me. I thought at first it was because you were exempting gear of 1 gp or lower for the wealth level, but it still doesn't work on my end. I see you with 272.15 gold remaining if I just add everything + wealth/apartment. If I exempt purchases that are individually 1 gp or less (and if you're doing that, I think listing nothing or an asterisk for the cost would probably clarify that), I still only get 293.18 remaining.

I didn't touch your treasure total for now, since I wasn't sure if it was just an oversight in not updating the remaining gold or if I'm missing something.

I was not taking any of those items for free with the cost of living. I figure that's a recent development. But I did go back and add 10 more charges to her CLW wand and zeroed out the Trail Rations, since it is unlikely those are purchased before her apartment.

I have income at 17340gp
I ran a calculator over the expenses twice and got the same number: 124.95 gp remaining. (It was 273.95 before my last two changes)

Last time the Charm?
Cythera

jkason · Nov 24, 2011

I get the same totals this time. Sorry for all the hassle, but Cythera now has her second approval

perrinmiller · Nov 25, 2011

Thanks.

There is a reason two Judges are required, it takes that many eyes to ensure everything is right. If I had done a better job, there would have been less mistakes to catch.

jbear · Dec 6, 2011

Submitting Maui for approval: Maui (jbear1979) - Living Pathfinder RPG Wiki

I would like to understand how Animal Companions are judged to work by most DM members of LPF, especially judges before anything is finalised.

Question 1) In battle how would my animal companion behave if I fail a Hnadle Animal check to have it attack an enemy?

Question 2) I have increased Maui's AComp's Intelligence to 4 via Eye for Talent alternative human racial feature to make up for Maui's very low CHarisma (and hence very poor ability to Handle Animal). Does that mean I can control my animal comp with similar freedom as a summoner controls its Eidolon? We are comraddes in arms and work together as a trained fighting team, the cheetah making intelligent decisions in a fight and responding in an intelligent manner to my actions/words?

This is a fairly big inversion (IMO) in order to make the AComp non-useless at low levels, so I'd like to know that it will achieve the desired effect before Maui and Taniwha are set in stone.

I'm open, to any suggestions [MENTION=93930]Systole[/MENTION] tips, advice, clarifications, opinions, crititcism

Cheers!
J

jkason · Dec 6, 2011

Haven't looked at any stats yet, but throwing my two cents in on these:

jbear said:
Question 1) In battle how would my animal companion behave if I fail a Hnadle Animal check to have it attack an enemy?

In general, I'd go simple: if you fail your check, the animal doesn't do anything (your cat flops to the ground and begins grooming or stares at you blankly as you fail to use a hand signal it recognizes), or if it's in immediate physical danger, I might have it double move to flee the danger.

Question 2) I have increased Maui's AComp's Intelligence to 4 via Eye for Talent alternative human racial feature to make up for Maui's very low CHarisma (and hence very poor ability to Handle Animal). Does that mean I can control my animal comp with similar freedom as a summoner controls its Eidolon?

It's my understanding that once an animal companion gains a 3 or higher intelligence, you aren't Handling it any more. You're talking to it. From the srd: "Any creature capable of understanding speech has a score of at least 3." I suppose someone might contend you have to spend one of his skill points on Linguistics so the cheetah knows Common, but personally I think burning your bonus feat on the Int bump seems like plenty of tax to pay.

Satin Knights · Dec 6, 2011

Paizo's Blog states that you have to use handle animal no matter how intelligent it is. I hate the ruling. At the time it came out, I had an ape with 3 Int and Share Language cast upon it daily. It could read sign posts, but still was limited to the tricks listed in the book of which Flank is not one.

jkason · Dec 6, 2011

That ... hurts my head. I suppose this is Paizo's version of the upper INT limit in 3.5 (if I remember rightly, you couldn't boost an animal companion above 2 in 3.5 because then it wasn't a creature of the Animal type and instantly stopped being an animal companion), but it just seems ... arbitrary. And muddy, really. INT free opens up all skills and feats, but still chains the creature's ability to function to a single skill roll on the druid's part? Weird.

I'm all for making a proposal to change this for LPF if we need to, myself.

jbear · Dec 6, 2011

Groan* It seems like the animal companion druid suffers from MADness having to rely on CHArisma to Handle its AComp. It needs the class feature to change it to Wisdom (which doesn't seem illogical).

I see why I see so many Summoner characters in the Inn and very few Druids ...

I know my vote counts for naught but if it did count I'd vote for this issue to be looked at

jbear · Dec 7, 2011

Anyone have thoughts on this? Maui is about to go on an adventure so I'd love to finalise him and have him approved.

How about for now I adjust Maui's Strength down and CON down and bump his CHA for now up to 10 so I don't receive a penalty to Handle Animal. I would have replaced a trait to boost handle Animal but there seems to only be Pioneer which is off limits...

With that done I'll leave Taniwha's INT at 4 and assume he understands me when I speak to him. How many tricks does an animal with 4 INT know?

I'll say that Maui is finalised but hold the right to change him around if the circumstances change if a ruling is made.

Does that sound alright?

Anyone have any spare time to check Maui over for approval? I'm bound to have made mistakes.

Thanks to anyone who can. I imagine this is a busy time for all what with Xmas sneaking up and fast!

2 People have this to say about it: http://www.enworld.org/forum/pathfi...14820-how-handle-druids-animal-companion.html

Edit: Actually perhaps it isn't as big of an issue as I thought. Its only DC 10 to Handle an Animal. I thought the training DCs were the scores needed to Handle it for those tricks (eg DC 20 to attack). Even with 7 CHA MAui only needs a 4 or better to handle Taniwha, a more than acceptable chance of failure which I'm sure will lead to much amusement (but not too often).

I've decided not to mess with his INT for now as I'm unclear as to the effect that will have. I can always raise his INT to 3 at lvl 4 once this has been clarified. For now I'll just put a +2 in Strength to help out Taniwha's trip attack (because CMB is what I roll for Trip attack right? And that is with STR even with Weapon Finesse, right?)

Sorry for all the hassle and [MENTION=6666968]Satin Knights[/MENTION] thanks for the adjustments you have been making to Maui

Satin Knights · Dec 7, 2011

I hate double stat dump characters as a personal pet peeve. It seems rather obvious that a cat or dog would ignore a dumb, cruel master unless the master is the only source of good food or the master has beaten it in the last hour. If Maui was a barbarian, I would expect those stats. But, a druid has to be able to sweet talk his animal friend. So, I would suggest going with the plan to mellow the stats out. Right now you have to roll a 4 to get it to do the tricks it does know, and 19 to follow other orders.

It is possible to stay with your current stats. Taking Skill Focus (Handle Animal) instead of Toughness would give you a +9 or automatic success for DC 10 to perform trained tricks. It would only be other orders that Taniwha would belligerently ignore you about. But then, a cat normally would ignore you.

Optimization wise, putting Taniwha's +2 in Dex, and keeping him small at 4th level is more useful than Int or Str. Stack Precise Strike and an +0 amulet of mighty fists of shock and he starts to hit very often with ok damage. When Taniwha reaches 4th level, you can raise his Int then. You will have access to the second level Share Language spell then. At that time, you can speak to him with him fully understanding you. And that spell is a 24 hour buff to Taniwha's vocabulary.

Reviewing other pieces:
A) Nature sense gives a +2 to survival which you had on perception. Moved and fixed.

Maui is WAITING on design decisions