Sir Poley's Blog, page 69

Hi, I was just looking through Milo's character sheet when I noticed that he seems to have *all* of his spell slots reserved for Uncanny Forethought, rather than just 4 (his Int modifier); is this an oversight, or am I misunderstanding the rules for Uncann

I forgot about that restriction. The reason he had them reserved for Uncanny Forethought was due to lacking his proper spellbook, so he didn’t really have a lot to prepare. I’ll look over it and tweak it.

Thanks!

Hi, I was just looking through Milo's character sheet when I noticed that he seems to have *all* of his spell slots reserved for Uncanny Forethought, rather than just 4 (his Int modifier); is this an oversight, or am I misunderstanding the rules for Uncann

I forgot about that restriction. The reason he had them reserved for Uncanny Forethought was due to lacking his proper spellbook, so he didn’t really have a lot to prepare. I’ll look over it and tweak it.

Thanks!

Hi, I was just looking through Milo's character sheet when I noticed that he seems to have *all* of his spell slots reserved for Uncanny Forethought, rather than just 4 (his Int modifier); is this an oversight, or am I misunderstanding the rules for Uncann

I forgot about that restriction. The reason he had them reserved for Uncanny Forethought was due to lacking his proper spellbook, so he didn’t really have a lot to prepare. I’ll look over it and tweak it.

Thanks!

Hi, I was just looking through Milo's character sheet when I noticed that he seems to have *all* of his spell slots reserved for Uncanny Forethought, rather than just 4 (his Int modifier); is this an oversight, or am I misunderstanding the rules for Uncann

I forgot about that restriction. The reason he had them reserved for Uncanny Forethought was due to lacking his proper spellbook, so he didn’t really have a lot to prepare. I’ll look over it and tweak it.

Thanks!

Got any decent tips for pathfinder monk? I may have made some poor choices on generation

The first tip is not to play a pathfinder monk. That was your poor choice on generation.

(I’m mostly joking. Play whatever makes you happy, but know that you’re going to be fighting an uphill battle). I’ve never really been that good at Monks, but I can point you to a really handy guide that might help.  Also, I’m much less fluent with Pathfinder than with D&D, especially when you get out of core.

I have a couple of tips, though, that might help a little:

Even if you’re fighting unarmed, keep some weapons on you in the various special materials. You’re going to have a hard time fighting anything with DR with your bare fists, so that’s when you break out the cold iron and silver kamas or what have you.
If you have problems hitting, you should consider using weapons instead of your fists. It’s much cheaper to get masterwork/enchanted weaponry at all levels than an Amulet of Mighty Fists. Your damage will probably be lower at later levels than with your bare fists, however.
Carry shurikens as a backup. They’re a ranged weapon that you can flurry, and are useful when you find yourself inconveniently out of reach of an enemy so you don’t need to move and make a standard attack. Remember that even if you’re using a two-handed weapon (like a quarterstaff) you don’t need to hold it in both hands unless you attack with it that turn. You can pass your staff to your left hand and draw/throw shurikens with your right. Shurikens do lame base damage—but you can add your strength to each.
Remember that you can unarmed strike with your head, elbows, and feet. This means you can hold weapons or other things that you don’t really intend to use and still flurry with headbutts. For example, this can be useful to carry, say, a weapon of Defending in your hands that you use, essentially, as a shield.
High strength is critical. Far more important that Con, Wis, or Dex. You’re making a lot of attacks every round with very low base damage and very low accuracy, and the best way by far to make up for both of those flaws is with strength.
Keep an eye out for circumstantial bonuses. You’re not a rogue, but flanking is still extremely important: +2 to hit with all of your many attacks can make a big difference.
Play as a Dwarf (+2con/wis) or Human (+2str). You need all the ability score increases you can get.
Normally I recommend people take the skill point bonus from favoured class, but in the case of Monks, you really need to put your all into combat just to keep up. Get the hit points; your AC will suck and you’ll need them.
If you’re playing with non-core rules, take Zen Archer. It’s probably the best ranged-combat base class in the game. This will give you a place to shine (ranged combat) instead of falling behind in melee combat. Ranged flurrying is great—you almost never have to move, and every time you move, you can’t flurry. Also, you replace Dex with Wis at level three, thus greatly avoiding MAD for attacks.

For being a good player, it's also probably worth highlighting "my guy syndrome" and the same page tool.

I’m not sure what the same page tool you mean is, but here’s an excellent post explaining the “My Guy Syndrome” for anyone who doesn’t know.

Basically, the idea is that you give your own character agency that overrides your own, in a way that is detrimental to gameplay. The example given is that a player has his character blow up the enemy starship because it’s “what his guy would do” instead of allowing the Jedi to go in and have a kickass lightsaber battle.

But you’re completely right. I’m making a note to myself to cover it when I write my post on Tact. Thanks for the assist!

Speaking of Rainbow Servant, I noticed Milo tends to reference Wish regarding bringing back the dead as a wizard. But that prestige class will open up everything from Revivify to True Resurrection once he maxes it out (and the only reason to take Rainbow S

Yeah, definitely. Most of the time when he’s talking about Limited Wish, it was before he went into Rainbow Servant. Also, he won’t get those powers until level 15, which is 1 level later than when he’d get Limited Wish.

Still, his thinking that way—that Limited Wish/Wish are his go-to ways to bring back the dead—are representative of his strong self-identity as a Wizard over all else. If and when those powers become available, he’ll use his more effective/efficient Divine spells instead.

Speaking of Rainbow Servant, I noticed Milo tends to reference Wish regarding bringing back the dead as a wizard. But that prestige class will open up everything from Revivify to True Resurrection once he maxes it out (and the only reason to take Rainbow S

Yeah, definitely. Most of the time when he’s talking about Limited Wish, it was before he went into Rainbow Servant. Also, he won’t get those powers until level 15, which is 1 level later than when he’d get Limited Wish.

Still, his thinking that way—that Limited Wish/Wish are his go-to ways to bring back the dead—are representative of his strong self-identity as a Wizard over all else. If and when those powers become available, he’ll use his more effective/efficient Divine spells instead.

Did I miss something on Milo's sheet? His attack bonus for his masterwork quarterstaff is +5. How did you come up with that number?

Incorrectly, I believe.Or through deep munchkinry that I’ve since forgotten about. Consider it fixed.

Chapter 9 Released!

I just posted Harry Potter and the Save-or-Die: Chapter 9: The Fourth Mistake on fanfiction.net. You can find it here.

Enjoy!

P.S. I updated Milo’s character sheet [finally] for the end of the chapter (very minor spoilers if you look at the sheet first). You can find it here.