jpinard
2670
What should I choose for my skill focus? Perception? One of the main skills I already boosted on the previous page? Or something else?
I was thinking of having spell focus be Evocation, and then maybe Conjuration for the second spell focus? Or should I be looking at one of the other options in the list like heighten or maximize spell?
@legowarrior makes solid points. I didn’t realize EK is so easy to get into now, for some reason I thought you needed multiple Fighter levels. That’s less bad. I’d still go Magus instead ;) But EK is probably less to grapple with rules-wise.
ShivaX
2672
Skill Focus into something you’re good at. Number bloat in Pathfinder is real and it’s hellish.
+5 in something past level 3 or 4 might as well be +0 most of the time. +30 in something will probably still fail.
I’d Skill Focus Persuasion (I’m assuming you’re a Half Elf or something that you have Skill Focus).
As far as feats, metamagic is useless until higher levels, it makes things cast at a higher level and you have level 1 spells until level 4. So it literally does nothing at all until level 4.
Spell Focus Evocation is usually a safe choice. You’ll probably be throwing fireballs around eventually.
Spell Focus is a must have if you’re going for certain builds. If you’re gonna cast a lot of Enchantments, you’ll need Spell Focus, but if you don’t know or are going to be all over the place, then it loses value. I still think Evocation is a safe choice because Fireball exists and no one doesn’t throw that around at some point.
Edit: I think Grease is Conjuration, so if you’re thinking about Conjuration that might be better, but the thing is very few later Conjuration spells have saves, so unless you’re making a summoner build, it’s usually kind of a waste.
The big save schools tend to be:
Evocation (fireballs, etc, though a lot of rays with no saves) Saves don’t really start until 3rd level spells
Transmuation: Disintegrate, Slow, Polymorphs, again 3rd level+ mostly
Enchantment: Basically everything requires a save. Failing a save is usually horrible.
Necromancy: Enchantment light until later levels where it just tends to kill things outright or do huge damage
Illusion: If you go illusion most offensive spells have saves, but a lot of illusion is buffs like Displacement and Blur, so saves don’t matter as much until you’re trying to Phantasmal Killer everything, which is Level 4+, but some low level stuff like Color Spray is saves so not a waste early
jpinard
2673
I love Fireballs, so I definitely want to do that. I think you should choose the second one for me since you know the game, and I’m a clueless idiot :)
That’s how it is in the PnP game, and I think the Call of the Wilderness Mod makes it a requirement. But, since all you need is Martial Weapons, in the PC games, all you need is that one feat.
ShivaX
2675
Well, I know some things, but I’d probably lean towards:
Spell Focus Evocation, Greater Spell Focus Evocation, Spell Penetration, Greater Spell Penetration and then see what spells I was using a lot or liked.
Also early on it’s almost always a REALLY good idea to get Precise Shot and Point Blank Shot as soon as humanly possible. You’ll have rays, which means “firing” into melee, which means -4 to hit without those two things and lots of missing. PBS and PS are actually objective #1 for anyone not in melee, almost without exception. Before you get to rays there will be a lot of casting cantrips and crossbow shooting… into melee.
jpinard
2676
Are those spells?
I almost forgot to ask, does my alignment matter much? I was thinking of going true neutral or Neutral Good. Also, does one of the suggested companions have really high perception so I don’t need to worry about it much? Or should I look at boosting it? I hate missing stuff.
ShivaX
2677
Feats.
Your Perception will likely never be high enough to matter much. Someone needs a high Perception, but probably not you. It’s not a class skill and you aren’t heavy into Wisdom so you’ll fail rolls. Having more than one person with it high is also good. You can toss points in it, but you’ll be more of a backup in case the person that is good at it fails by rolling a 2 or something.
TLDR: It can’t hurt, but you’ll also never be great at it.
jpinard
2678
Will I be seeing all these rolls I fail? LOL
jpinard
2680
Thanks again everyone. You’ve saved me a lot of wasted hours of wondering why stuff wasn’t working, and where I went wrong. I get to finally play now!
LOL, the fun part is the character creation though!
jpinard
2682
You’d think! But it stresses me out haha.
jpinard
2684
Should I be using any mods? I’ve read a lot of people are unhappy with how many companions are built out. Or should I stay default?
ShivaX
2685
Your call, but unless you’re playing on a high difficulty it should be fine, imo.
I’d stick with the default. I like Call of the Wilderness for the classes and feats it adds, but I reserve that for the dungeon crawl, not the campaign.
Besides, the Sorcerer will be plenty powerful with the companions you’ll get.
jpinard
2687
Is there a way to make the interface smaller? I’m missing some actions because it’s blocked by the interface elements at the bottom of the screen.
And for armor:
That arcane spell failure chance. Is that if I try and cast it, it increases my failure chance? or is that if arcane spells are cast against me?
Good news! Bards don’t incur any arcane spell failure as long as they wear light armor, but if Linzi was a sorcerer or Wizard, she’d be feeling the pinch in anything other than robes.
jpinard
2689
Wow thank you for this. I would have really gimped my other characters. I have a lot to learn :)
