More cheese

The DM has given us a planar lucern hammer. Nice, but no-one can use it. I think I am going to have to take a level of fighter next level, and retrain my Heavy Armour Proficiency feat (which fighter gets as a class ability). Judgment Surge looks good. For the fighter bonus feat, I am thinking of that Orc feat that lets you add your Str bonus to intimidate. Pretty sure it’s legal. It’s correct for the character, and there are a few inquisitor spells and whatnot that work off intimidate. With that feat, Brus is as good at intimidate as a inquisitor with reasonable Cha. If I’m doing that, I should put some skills into linguistics. Undercommon, at least. We have a deep gnome in the party, so it works in-game. A problem is that Brus will get 1 (one!) skill point b/c fighter is not his favoured class.

Reatraining a feat normally takes 5 days of downtime. Perhaps an alternative in this campaign might be to retain it *during* level 4 – however long we are at that level for. Like – he’s working on an inquisitor judgment surgey thing because he *already* had heavy armour proficiency like a fighter – he was already halfway there. Arguably, that’s what’s happening now during level 3 … meh. Let’s see what Brett is cool with.

Oh BTW: I was quite wrong about only getting the 1½ str bonus on a natural primary weapon when not making a full-round attack. You get it unless you are making attacks with a different weapon. So, if a creature has a bite-claw-claw routine, the bite does not get the 1½. But that’s not the case with Brus.

Incidentally, I just realised. The lucerne hammer is a reach weapon. The toothy bite is not. So Brus threatens all squares up to 10′ – fun times for flankers and sneak attackers.

Cheese!

Ok. Let’s say we retcon Brus and give him the ‘toothy’ racial template. This replaces ‘orc ferocity’, which he has never used. He is also getting Brutal Grappler, Power Attack, and already has Brute (orc).

1. Humanoids do not have natural attacks from being humanoid.
2. Brus is a humanoid.
3. ∴ Brus does not have a natural attack from being humanoid.
4. Toothy racial template gives a half-orc a 1d4 primary natural attack
5. If a creature has a primary natural attack, and does not have any other natural attack, and is not using this attack as a secondary attack during a full-round-attack, then the attack gets 1½ strength bonus.
6. ∴ Brus’s “toothy” attack is at 1½ strength bonus. +6 attack/damage when he is not using it as a secondary attack in a full-round attack.
7. If power attack is used with a weapon that normally gets 1½ strength damage, then the damage from power attack is also 1½.
8. ∴ Brus’s “toothy” attack is at 1½ bonus from power attacking. -1 to hit, +3 damage.
9. Brus is a level 3 inquisitor.
10. A level 3 inquisitor can use teamwork feats as if his allies had them, even if they do not.
11. Brus has “Brutal Grappler” feat.
12. ∴ Brus can attack with a natural attack even when using the aid another action in a grapple. (the primary grappler cannot use the aid another action and do damage, he has to grapple)
13. When aiding another, if the action you are aiding provokes, then the aid attempt provokes.
14. Establishing a grappling provokes an AAO from the target of the grapple. Maintaining a grapple does not.
15. ∴ aiding another to maintain a grapple does not provoke.
16. A grappler cannot take AAOs.
17. ∴ even if aiding another to maintain a grapple did provoke, the creature being grappled couldn’t take that attack.

So. Smurf establishes a grapple. Brus stacks on – no AAO because the target is too busy dealing with Smurf. Brus makes an aid another vs AC 10. He’s power attacking (because Aid Another is an attack roll), so it’s at -1 for the power attack, +2 BAB, +4 str, for a total of +5 to hit AC 10. On a hit, he does damage and also gives Smurf +2 on his next maintain grapple on top of the +5 that he normally gets anyway (you get +5 to maintain a grapple on an already-grappled foe).

On a single bite with power attack, he gets 1d4+9. How far can we take this?

Judgment of Profane Destruction – +2 profane bonus.
Divine Favour – +1 luck bonus.
Wrath – +1 morale bonus.
Bard song – +1 competence bonus.

So 1d4+14. A crit threat makes this 1d4+16 from Brute trait, and a confirmed crit makes it 2d4+30 (because the trait bonus is not multiplied) – average 35. While assisting Smurf to do whatever he happens to be doing. At level 3. Off a bite in a grapple.

Mind you, all the stars have to be right for this to happen 🙂 . Wrath only applies to a single target, so it’s one round spent spellcasting instead of attacking, assuming you have divine favour already running. But my God is the Key and the Door, not to mention being The Watcher Behind The Gate.

BTW: I am nowhere near the power gamer that Dave is, or even Andrew. Fun times!

Brus Reckoner #3

Yay! Level 3! I grabbed Power Attack, of course! Free teamwork feat at level 3, but you need a BAB of +4 for Outflank, so Escape Route instead. If Andrew intends to do a fair bit of grappling, I may go Brutal Grappler instead – I’ll ask him on game night. Problem is, I would need Improved Grapple to make it worthwhile. Heal, Perception, Sense Motive, and a point in Intimidate. My dude has Cha as a dump stat and does not have the orc trait to use Str, but I grabbed Orc Brute instead – more thematic. Spells are Lend Judgment – three rounds now that we are level 3, so it starts to become useful – and I took a “one extra cantrip” as my racial favoured class bonus. I forget which one was the new one.

Brus Reckoner #3
Half-orc inquisitor of Yog-Sothoth 3 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player’s Guide 38)
N Medium humanoid (human, orc)
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +9

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Defense

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AC 17, touch 10, flat-footed 17 (+7 armor)
hp 32 (3d8+8)
Fort +5, Ref +1, Will +6
Defensive Abilities orc ferocity

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Offense

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Speed 40 ft. (30 ft. in armor)
Melee mwk falchion +7 (2d4+6/18-20)
Ranged composite shortbow +2 (1d6/×3)
Special Attacks judgment 1/day
Inquisitor Spell-Like Abilities (CL 3rd; concentration +6)
   At will—detect alignment
Inquisitor Spells Known (CL 3rd; concentration +6)
   1st (4/day)—divine favor, fallback strategy, lend judgment^UM (DC 14), wrath^APG
   0 (at will)—brand^APG (DC 13), create water, detect magic, guidance, read magic, resistance, virtue
   Domain Travel

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Statistics

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Str 18, Dex 11, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 16, Cha 7
Base Atk +2; CMB +6; CMD 16
Feats Armor Proficiency (heavy), Escape Route^UC, Power Attack
Traits armor expert, brute (orc)
Skills Climb +4, Heal +8, Intimidate +5, Knowledge (arcana) +3, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +3, Knowledge (planes) +3, Knowledge (religion) +3, Perception +9, Sense Motive +9, Stealth +0, Survival +7; Racial Modifiers +2 Intimidate
Languages Common, Orc
SQ agile feet (6/day), monster lore +3, orc blood, solo tactics, stern gaze +1, track +1
Other Gear mwk banded mail, arrows (20), composite shortbow, mwk falchion, backpack, bedroll, belt pouch, flint and steel, iron spike (2), piton (2), hemp rope (100 ft.), torch (10), iron unholy symbol, waterskin, 137 gp, 7 sp, 4 cp

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Special Abilities

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Agile Feet (6/day) (Su) For 1 rd, you ignore difficult terrain.
Armor Expert -1 Armor check penalty.
Brute (Orc) Whenever you score a critical threat, you add (but not multiply, in the case of a confirmed critical hit) an amount of damage equal to your weapon’s critical modifier.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Detect Alignment (At will) (Sp) Detect chaos, evil, good, or law at will.
Escape Route You do not provoke attacks of opportunity when moving through spaces adjacent to allies
Inquisitor Domain (Travel) Granted Powers: You are an explorer and find enlightenment in the simple joy of travel, be it by foot or conveyance or magic. Increase your base speed by 10 feet.
Judgment (1/day) (Su) Variable bonuses increase as the combat continues.
Monster Lore +3 (Ex) +3 to Knowledge checks when identifying the weaknessess of creatures.
Orc Blood Half-orcs count as both humans and orcs for any effect related to race.
Orc Ferocity (1/day) If brought below 0 Hp, can act as though disabled for 1 rd.
Power Attack -1/+2 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Solo Tactics (Ex) Count Teamwork feats as if your allies had the same ones.
Track +1 Add the listed bonus to survival checks made to track.

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