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Based on that, Trickster makes Martials and Casters really good in different ways. Really any class type works because there are tricks for everyone, but it takes planning and knowledge of exactly what you want your build to do, and what gear you need or is available in the entire game. Thus requiring a bit more powergaming/theorycrafting than other paths.
Martials benefits from the secondary defensive/offensive layer mythic tricks:
Athletics 1 = A per round dispel of one negative condition of any type + 15 to DC of that condition. Useful for everyone when you get like 35-45+ Athletics. (not working right now I believe)
Athletics 2 = A secondary save defensive layer based on athletics skill when you fail a save, but with a +25 to DC of that check. Useful when you have 45-55+ base Athletics. If you get this to 55ish + it functionally replaces saving throws and can only be lowered via ability drains or spells that target athletics directly (that get stripped by Athletics 1).
Athletics 3 = An easy way to get full BAB progression. Get 25 Athletics + level 20 and you get 20/15/10/5 BAB regardless of class. Really for martial spellcasters builds with low structural BAB.
Mobility 2 = You give Acrobatics a counter AoO functionality (attack of opportunity) when you successfully avoid a AoO. Again like Sotanaht, very situation and useless to most.
Mobility 3 = A secondary AC defensive layer. Basically like Athletics 2 but for AC instead when it fails to prevent a hit. High enough Mobility + high AC means you can't be hit. Also and like athletics, your mobility skill doesn't care about being flatfooted, touch attacks or debuffs save for stat drains or spells that specifically lower mobility.
Perceptions 2 = Special feat access to you and party members. All Martial party members will be looking at Improved Improved line. I honestly find it hard to work this in on most companions, but is definitely worthwhile on MC build around crits or a Merc.
For Casters they have a lot of goodies too and tend to synergize with tricks that help the whole team. In addition to a spellbook that screams illusion/confuration/enchantment caster, these tricks help a lot too:
Perception 2 = Again special feat access. All your casters will be looking at one Metamagic being "Completely Normal Spell." This thing is bonkers in the amount of utility and weird synergies it allows just because you can lower spells a level. Level one spells can become cantrips (infinite cast). You can move all spells down a level without losing DC for a lot of extra spell space (especially since your level 1 spells can be cantrips). With arcane bloodline's arcane arcana, moving a spell down a level increases DC. You can heighten spells to max level without using level 9 spell slots. Lastly, you can skip some spells in certain spell lines all together a lot easier (like Summon Monster VI and VIII and just use a lowered VII and XI in their place).
UMD 1 and 2 combo = Improved and unlimited wand use by the MC (UMD 1 adds mythic level to wand caster level and UMD 2 ignores charge use and is supposed to allow you to use any equipment). Basically similar to the advantages of Completely Normal Spell, but depends on the Wand's buffed power. There are some pretty powerful wands out there to begin with that will allow you to cast certain high level spells like you're a Warlock from 3.5 DnD lol. By the end of Act 2 you already have a wand mirror images, cure serious wounds wand and a wand of teleport (can't remember the name). Go crazy with the casts with these two tricks. This is also good for any Magus cause again, unlimited wand use. :p
UMD 3: Free Wizard spellbook with full progression based on character level. Even with my 20 (Edit: + 4, :p ) CHA sorcerer build for example, this synerizes well if I take it because I already boosted INT to 17+1 for another skilled trick by dumping STR (which went back up to 11 from 5 from Abyssal Bloodline lol). The extra full spellbook already synergizes well with Trickster, which really benefits from multiple spellbooks to begin with.
The other tricks tend to work for everyone. Most notably World ranks, which with world 3 allows you to take feats without reqs. Some notable things I did: Got rid of a lot of useless/wasted feat reqs/class dips for Crane Style or Shatter Defenses on my party members (including pets that had no good way of getting these). You can also use it to pick up Fast learner (human racial feat) on MCs with low skillpoints to get another trained up to 20 for other tricks. Or get other racial feaths that add to DCs etc.
Persuasion 2 is actually useful as an enemy initiative killer and enemy add disabler. If you get persuasion high enough and it works on a boss not immune to intimidate/paralysis, the fight is already over. The DC of 30 in the description seems to be a typo and doesn't mean anything. People have tested it and that's not the way the calculation works, nor does it in PnP or Kingmaker. If the demoralize DC was a flat DC of 30 then Persuasion skill wouldn't be needed at all and high level bosses would all get demoralized at the same rate as low level mobs. Even in Kingmaker, I was able to demoralize/fear the Lantern King with an intimidate Valerie Tank with thug level.
Unfortunately, the Persuasion rank 1 which all other ranks are based on is buggy. It has a targeting issue and effects allies for some reason sometimes randomly. Its a good thing Persuasion 3 doesn't work yet or we would have a lot of puzzled gamers wondering why their party died instantly at the start of a fight. Well maybe that would have been a good thing, because then Trickster would get some actual bugfix love. :)
Yeah, the skill unlocks are only for Tricksters. It's kind of like... their main thing.
And I was a fan of the Arcana one too. And Trickery. Casting Dispel Magic with trickery checks was good. Then getting Trickery 3 and insta-killing people with Trickery was fun. XD
Thanks for the rundown. While I havent played this yet, from what I've read on mobility when you have ac/defense good enough to not be hit on aoo, you can effectively just disengage at will from enemies and spam your own aoo counters. People have mentioned running around the encounter like a madman spamming attacks, sounds pretty trickster-ish
https://www.neoseeker.com/pathfinder-wrath-of-the-righteous/builds/Main_Character#Baked_Trickster_.28Vivisectionist.29
There are also two other Trickster builds on that site:
https://www.neoseeker.com/pathfinder-wrath-of-the-righteous/builds/Main_Character#Instinctual_Trickster_.28Barbarian.29
https://www.neoseeker.com/pathfinder-wrath-of-the-righteous/builds/Main_Character#Get_Metal_.28Sword_Saint.29
And here is another very promising Vital Strike Build for Two Handed Fighter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im93DfMNeGQ - author kindly links build spreadsheets in his movie descriptions, highly recommend his channel - very creative core viable builds
In general, Trickster is THE mythic path for melee chars due to Perception 2 that unlocks Improved Crit chain (your companions can take those feats as well + your casters can benefit greatly from metamagic: completely normal spell).
My Mutation Warrior Trickster went as following:
Motherless Tielfing (for extra natural Attack, extra Strength and Wis), background Oblate, Martial Disciple (for freebie Improved Unarmed Strike Feat).
Stat distribution:
Str 18
Dex 14
Con 12
Int 12
Wis 17
Cha 7
I did high Wis mostly for will saves and Peception (i like it to be decent on MC) but it would work even better with Oblate, Acolyte background that allows you to use Wisdom for Persuasion checks and, more importantly, for Traditional Monk dip (better saves + Wis to AC). The reason I didn't want to dip was that it would cost me fighter lvl 20 Weapon Mastery (crit autoconfirmation, +1 to crit multiplier).
Feats go like this:
1)Dodge + Crane Style
2)Weapon Focus: Scythe
3)Dazzling Display (feat tax for Shatter Defenses)
4)Combat Reflexes (extra AoOs)
5)Outflank
6)Crane Wing
7)Power Attack (switched it off until later part of the game)
8)Crane Riposte
9)Improved Critical: Scythe
10)Combat Expertise
11)Trip
12)Fury's Fall
13)Greater Trip (needed +2 Int item for that)
14)Seize the Moment
15)Weapon Specialization: Scythe
16)Greater Weapon Specialization: Scythe
17)Blind Fight
18)Improved Improved Critical
19)Improved Improved Improved Critical
20)Improved Improved Improved Critical Improved
Stat points from leveling (+4 to Str, + 1 To Wis),
Mutagen Discoveries:
7) Feral Mutagen
11) Feral Wings
15) Greater Mutagen
19)Grand Mutagen
Weapon Training:
5)Heavy Blades
9)Natural Attacks, Heavy Blades
13)Armed Bravery, Heavy Blades
17)Trained Initiative, Heavy Blades
Weapon mastery in Scythe.
Skills: Athletics, Mobility, Perception, 1 point in each of remaining skills, the rest in Persuasion (with Acolyte background would just max Persuasion)
Mythic Levels:
1)Close to the Abyss, Unrelenting Assault
2)Destiny Beyond Birth
3)Ever Ready, Perception 1
4)Improved Critical:Mythic, Nature 1, Perception 2
5)Brutality Incarnate, Athletics 1
6)Mythic Trip, Mobility 1, Nature 2
7)Archmage Armor, Arcana 1, Nature 3
8)Mythic Weapon Spec, UMD 1, Athletics 2
9)Leading Strike, Mobility 2, Stealth 1
10)Mythic Power Attack, Athletics 3, Persuasion 1
Party Composition:
Seelah: Paladin 1/Dirge Bard 15, Dragon Disciple 4 (took DD at levels 9-13) - party-wide Shatter Defenses Enabler
Woljiff: Eldricht Scoundrell 4/ Vivisectionist 16 (Shield and Mage Armor provider, built towards as many AoO's as possible. Benefits greatly from trips and other party members crits)
Lann: Zen Archer 3/Sacred Hunstmaster 17 with Bully Dog companion (second tripper). Domain buffs, divine buffs and ranged crits provider.
Arueshalae: Espionage Expert 20 crit for AoO's and Magic Fang for the frontline provider.
Daeran: Oracle 20 buffer, healer, later game necro nuker and Shatter enabler. Motivates party via Enforced Vigor.
You would still need spell pen feats, school feats, point blank & precise at bare minimum. And then taking first improve crit requires 8 BAB. For casters that means level 16 - too late for full crit chain.
The BAB could be an issue, so it's probably best to pick a caster class that has 3/4 BAB, or Prestige into EK.
The ray build is actually interesting problem to solve, will look into that.
That's exactly right. I meant useless to most as in backline spellcasters and tank-focused martials that don't want to disengage much. Probably the wrong word to use, but many players may not feel too compelled to exploit this via micro managing. But for an off-tank or DPS focused martial? Yeah that's a lot of extra AoEs just by provoking them on yourself just by moving around lol.
I guess even a tank wouldn't have to move too far so it would work there too. Its not as if you have to break break engagement by moving 20 feet away. Just moving in a circle or something would do. The problem for tanks (and casters) again is whether they can actually hit with their AoOs. :)
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While i'm here I might as well expand on the Trickster spellbook too:
The most important spell for everyone is Trick Fate which lasts 3 rounds. It's basically like turning Toy Box's always roll 20 cheat. A spellcaster can't hit a boss with an important ray? No problem. Use trick fate and you will just auto confirm hits for 3 rounds. Spell resistance a problem? Trick Fate won't auto confirm bypass, but a 20 roll + caster level + spell penetration feats will pretty much assure your spell(s) will bypass. Very good for save or suck/die spells where your DC is OP, but spell resist is your number one enemy.
With Abundant casting mythic feats and Completely Normal Spell metamagic, you can get a lot of Trick Fate casts.
Of course for martials, casting this on them can be devastating for any boss. Not only is it true strike on steroids, but it will protect them from a lot of things the boss throws at them via 20 rolls on saves.
Ray of Halberds hits like a truck with anyone. Rain of Halberds I believe can sneak attack like ray because it rolls as an attack roll for each enemy in the area of effect. Both ignore spell resistance.
Like other non-merging spellbooks, its a great source for buffing spells. Especially when combined with greater enduring spells and Completely Normal metamagic. The spellbook also includes some nice 1 minute per level buffs and has Feeblemind/Mind Fog in there for disabling casters and debuffing will saves.
Some possible partially hidden gems in the book:
For full/part time Illusionists there's Hallucinogenic Cloud, a confusion cloud spell that ignores spell resistance (Very few mind control spells ignore spell resitance period. or have long term area of effect. Definitely not both at the same time). Pretty cool except you need to protect your party from it, since Life Bubble doesn't work and I couldn't use selective spell on the cloud. Regardless, if placed correctly and you have high enough DCs+Debuffs, this is a great spell for spellcasters specializing in illusion/enchantment to confuse enemies when high spell resistance is an issue.
Trickster summons. Not bad not great and seem to have some dual functionality. I'm not sure how useful they are. Greasly Bear obvious is a grease spell combined with a nature summon. Beer Elementals are Earth elementals combined with Water Elementals functionality when I looked at their stats briefly in toy Box. Later I read somewhere that crusade Beer Elemental confuse on hit, so maybe the spell versions do to? I can't test this right now unfortunately. I'm betting the DCs will be subpar though if they do. :/ The summons would likely require a specialized enchanter/illusionist to lower the save of enemies enough for them to function properly. Still a physical version of water elemental as an alternative to animate skells may be nice. (Edit: Beer Elementals are water elementals, but with Punch-Drunk on hit, which has a DC of 12-22 vs. fort to nauseate based on elemental size).
Spec into a weapon with 18-20 crit. Get your weapon focus and your improved crit by BAB 8.
At mythic rank 4 get improved mythic trick: perception 2. You don't need to actually level the perception skill to get the benefits.
Some other posters wrote walls of text that might make you go "do I really need to do all this exactly". Most of a melee trickster is pretty flexible but the two really important things are: Get your weapon spec online, rush perception rank 2.
Same for Mobility 3. A tank character is going to have in the neighborhood of 90-100 AC, and just "tough" melee is going to hover around 70. You probably aren't going to get anywhere near that with the skills.
Persuasion is based on ranks. When I say "flat" I'm not quite being accurate. It's flat as in at any given level, it will not change no matter how you buff or equip your character, ever. "ranks" are the points you assign to the skill when you level up, to a maximum of 1 rank per character level. "flat 30 DC" is at character level 20, assuming you put the maximum number of points into persuasion. I have tested it and that's exactly how it works; or rather doesn't work because only the weakest trash enemies ever fail a DC30 or less save. For the most part it simply doesn't work, which is consistent with many reports believing the ability to be bugged/broken/nonfunctional.
The point I was trying to make on my "wall of text" with crit is that no, you don't really need all this. Crit ranges greater than 17-20 are mostly useless. Improved Improved critical is something that looks good on paper, but turns out to not be very useful in practice. The reason is that you have to beat enemy AC first, and enemy AC is so bloated that you almost never beat it with low-medium dice rolls.
Improved Improved Improved critical Improved is actually pretty decent though. That's the one that adds +1 to the damage multiplier. So when you do finally beat the AC and crit, you do a lot more damage. It's just unfortunate that there are 3 levels of mostly useless feats as prerequisites (basic improved critical is easily replaced with Keen, and the two trickster versions aren't good)