The Keymaster Build

The Keymaster

Keymaster Sheet:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3oQlB72acoIcjFjejFXbm5STzQ/view?usp=sharing

The Keymaster build

Here’s a super special build, and to be honest I’m not entirely sure Hero Lab has calculated everything quite right because the stats are insane and could probably be made better with more min maxing. 35 ac total of 131 HP. It’s nice but if you go down, you’re going to die, do not pass go, no stabilize check, you’re dead. So lets get started ZUUL MOTHERF*****

Class

Synthesis Summoner: Theres something special about being able to call forth the heavenly hosts and wear an outsider like so much of a suit of armor. Long story short here is that you get to fuse with your eidolon and pretty much, for the most part, stay that way. Substituting your phys attributes with theirs and your mental attributes onto theirs. So essentially this makes Str, Con, and Dex your dump stats. Note that this is only going to be the case 99% of the time. There are situations where you lose your eidolon and have to deal with being str con and dex 5 so keep that in the back of your mind.

Race

Half Elf: Pretty simple here, summoners are charisma based, you get extra evolution from half elves. Asimars make a good choice too with char and wis bonuses and DR for your eidolon.

Abilities

STR:-- Dump stat

DEX:-- Dump Stat

CON:--  Dump stat

INT: 14 More skills is not a bad thing

WIS: 16 For the will save bonus, also you could take a level of monk to boost ac/touch

CHA: 22 Main stat for summoners

Now depending on what you chose for your eidolon your str dex and con might differ but mine have come out to 26 STR, 19 DEX and 17 CON. So that Str26, DEX 19, CON 17, INT 14, WIS 16 and CHA 22. That’s a 79 point buy with str and dex at only 18 (max cap). I told you those stats were insane.

Overall it’s not entirely broken, and still has it’s weakpoints. But everything does in the game. That totally badass dragon? Meet Pistolero or Zen archer monk with energy bow. Oh that mind control socereror looks cool, too bad you just ran up on a monk. Basically there’s a lot of rock paper scissors and this one has two big gaping holes. The first it’s high armor, mostly natural. Very low touch AC, so spell casters will be slinging rays at you and you’ll need to watch out for gunslingers. Second big gaping hole is night. If I recall correctly you do have to unfuse to sleep so you are vulnerable in camp. This is why you take invisibility.

Skills

Perception: Perfect with your wis  bonus

Stealth: helps overcome disadvantages when you don’t have your eidolon

Diplomacy: Always good to have when you have 22 CHA

Fly:  You’ll want your eidolon to fly and this will help

Equipment

Standard Boiler plat equipment, ring of prot, amulet of nat, cloak of resistance…. No armor, and a super buffed greataxe, because you have 26 str and two handed weapons deal 1 ½ times str damage

Feats/Evolutions

Martial Weapon Proficiency: for the greataxe

Extra Evolution: For more evolution. Never a bad thing

Share healing: Eidolon only has so many hit points and you don’t want rely on your HP siphoning too much

Abilitiy increases: Con Str and dex all are good

Flight: never a bad decision, will get you out of pickles

Improved nat armor: 1 Evolution point +2 nat, good economy

Energy Immunity: yes that’s immunity not resistance

Strategy

Enter battle with caution. You’re eidolon can be dismissed, so be careful around spell casters. Other than that get in there and bash away when fused. If you lose your eidolon, greater invisibility and your summons will pick up the slack. Also remember to keep mage armor up, gives a nice boost to AC. 

P.S. if you got the reference to the name, you're awesome. Don't ever change.

character sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3oQlB72acoIeTFHbUM0TnNicnM/view?usp=sharing

My name is inego Montoya, you kill my father, prepare to die. … yes the next build in this series is here, the crit commander

Class

Swashbuckler: The swashbuckler has a few good class features and a Panache pool….It’s a small pool but it refills on a critical hit (and dropping opponents to 0), which is what makes the swashbuckler the perfect candidate for the crit commander build. In addition you get to spend that panache point pool on deeds. Lets take a look at some of the important deeds.

Dodging Panache: lets you as an immediate action, before the results are reveal, attempt to doge an attack by moving 5 feet. This gives you a bonus to ac equal to your charisma modifier. If it misses, you avoid further attacks assuming you have moved out of range.

Menacing Panache: attempt a demoralize check on a successful melee attack? Yes please.

Seems like I’m forgetting something…… oh right!

Precise strike: add your level to damage rolls….. yes you heard that right. Oh and you can double it by spending a panache point. Also you get the base damage bonus without spending panache

In addition there’s a few other bonuses you get while you have at least 1 point of panache, like weapon finess with your swashbuckler weapons and improved critical.

Race

Elf: What elf? Yes. In addition to being one of the core classes, meaning even PFS society chracters can run this build, the favored class bonus is nice, ¼ panache, and when you start out with a base of 3, an extra 2 panache is helpful. The dexterity bonus is nice too.

Abilities: 10 you won’t need it but you don’t want to be reduced to a cripple lying on the floor by a single str drain.

Dexterity: 20 you’ll be adding your bonus to damage hitting with it, just max it out.

Con: 11 Never a dump stat, but not a core of the build.

Int: 10 also not a dump stat

Wis: 10 Never a dump stat

Cha: 16 used for panache, attack, defense, this is your secondary stat.

Skills

Intimidate: Used in conjunction with menacing panache.

Bluff: useful for feinting. Lying, getting past guards, getting women into bed. Avenging your father.

Acrobatics: because you need to get where you need to be.

Equipment

Katana: 18-20 base crit range and one handed slashing weapon. (what swashbucklers use piercing weapons…. We’ll get to that)

Leather armor: good ac bonus for the buck

Buckler: same

Belt of incredible dex: adds to AC, damage, and Attack rolls….. enough said.

Feats

Exotic weapon proficiency, weapon focus, Slashing grace: turns slashing weapon to slashing piercing for class abilities and adds dex to damage…. Mmmmmmm +5…. Add weapon specialization and +1  weapon that’s +10 then add in your precise strike that’s +19 +29 on a crit or +38 on a crit with using a panache point….. +38…. With improved critical from class bonuses that’s 15-20 ….. welcome to the crit commander.

Strategy

With at least 30 ac most of which is touch, you are looking pretty good in defense even with only 11 con. You can add more and avoid attacks so get in there. Attack, demoralize and maybe occasionally feint when you need it. (remember you don’t have improved feint)  Use panache on crits to double that precise damage (it doesn’t automatically double), and jump out of the way of big nasty bosses. Attack away and don’t forget, you kill my father prepare to die (even though this build uses a katana, and not a rapier) 

The Iron Man Build

9^th Level Sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3oQlB72acoIQlh6d3JxS0RtRVE/view?usp=sharing

7^th level Sheet: Coming Soon

5^th Level Sheet: coming soon

So starting off my series on pathfinder builds is one of my favorites I call the Iron man build. At it’s core this build is the master of all trades. Not really but it gets as close as you can in pathfinder. So without further ado lets take alook at the classes.

Class

Alchemist (Mindchemist) : This is the builds primary class. At it’s heart beats the bomb thrower. This is where you spend most of your levels and energy. Yes spells are important but the main thing you get here is bombs and bomb damage.  So make sure you do everything you can to upp that bomb damage. You’ll want to take alchemist for levels 1-4 and 6+.

As for archetypes there are a lot of good ones for this build but I have chose Mindchemist because it fits the jack of all trades. With Mindchemist your knowledge checks give you a bonus of “yes”. Other good options are preservationist because summons are always useful as meatshields if nothing else. Or if you’re in a giving mood chirurgeon because too much healing is never a bad thing. In fact most of the archetypes of the alchemist get rid of poison use. Which while I thas it’s uses is … still fairly useless.

Gunslinger(Guntank): Gunslinger is the Iron man builds secret weapon. And the one level dip into it accomplishes several important goals.

1^st you are losing a level of alchemist and that can at certain levels mean a d6 less on your bombs. Sounds painful right? Well thanks to Explosive missile you replace that missing D6 with a D8 from your pistol. Not a bad trade off right? Well you get more because at higher levels you can enchant that gun to do more and more damage. So your base damage actually surpasses that of a single bomb from a pure alchemist. The catch? You lose the ability to make use of fast bombs But this build is about an all rounder and an alchemist throwing 2 bombs a turn quickly runs out of bombs.

2^nd is that guntank gives you heavy armor. Heavy armor on an arcane spell caster? Yes. This is one of the coolest things about the alchemist. They have no arcane spell failure. Oh and that mutagen of the mind chemist still gives you a Bonus to AC.

Now it’s possible to go overboard with AC but a lot of people overstate this. AC is very important. When you’re walking up to within 20 feet of that giant extraplanar tree or adult dragon you want to make sure you’re not going to get hit. A barbarian you ain’t and while  with this build you don’t have the worst health, you are going to feel the burn when that tree starts bashing you upside the head. Not to mention the grapple when he does hit you. But you’re not going to be hit because he needs a 17 to hit you.

Meanwhile, the 3^rd advantage, even though you only have a dex of 12 you are also still hitting against touch (guns and bombs both hit on touch). So yes you don’t have that extra +3-+4 you’d have by maxing out dex….  But you hit on touch. And not many creatures or opponents you run into will have anything less than 3-4 armor, nat or regular armor.

Race

Tiefling: Now you can decide what you want based on what is available, but I have chosen tiefling. Mainly because as a favored class bonus you can add +1/2 bomb damage Bomb diggity dog. Meaning your minimum bomb damage should be in 13-17 range depending on your level (3-5 D6’s 6 int 4-5 favored class bonus at a minimum.)

Abilities

Strength: 14 You’ll need it to carry all that gear

Dex: 12 you’ll want to match the max dex mod of your armor but obviously no more.

Con: 12 Repeat after me “I am still squishy”. Iron man is not afraid to get up close and personal but a front line fighter you ain’t You want to stay 10-20 feet back from the action.

Intelligence: 22 (20 without level bonuses) Int gives  you spells, spells per day, bomb damage, and knowledge checks (these are important)

Wisdom: 10 Standard minimum (you don’t want to be slinging bombs at your buddies when you get your mind scrambled.

Charisma: 5 Dump stat hard HARD

Important Spells

·        First Level Spells

o   Shield – you won’t be using shields. You get lots of lvl 1 spells and this lasts 1 minute per level. You want this.

o   Cure Light- Because you are still squishy.

o   Jump – see fly below.

o   True strike – for when you see monks. Or anything else with high touch.

·        Second Level Spells

o   Barkskin- 10 mins/ level? Yes. Just all the yes.

o   Cure moderate- Because you are still squishy

o   Invisibility- still helpful

o   Restoration, lesser- always helpful

o   Ablative barrier – Lesser form of damage resistance, important if you want your character to live against all odds.

·        Third level Spells

o   Herosim-  Multiple bonuses that last for an hour per level. Great spell.

o   Resinous skin- Straight up Damage Resistance Enough said.

o   Fly – you are wearing heavy armor, you might need to get out of some pits.

o   Protection from energy- you don’t have the best saves, so energy resistance helps.

o   Cure serious wounds- Because you are still squishy.

Skills

Knowledges- all of them, just all the knowledge, know all the things.

Feats

Point Blank shot – Prereq for precise

Precise shot – You’ll be assiting your buddies in CC

Extra bombs – More boomage

Discoveries

Explosive missile – Core of the build

Precise bombs – Allies get testy when you burn them in splash damage

Force bomb – because whats immune to force damage?

Equipment

Full Plate- for that bonus to AC

Pistol - +1 this, then add damage modifiers like flaming and corrosive, start with corrosive and frost

Headband of vast intellect-  Because why the hell would  you not want more damage to  your bombs

Crossbow

Strategy

Okay so now that we’ve gotten all that out of the way, lets talk strategy. What does this build do? First and foremost is the knowledge checks. They basically let you identify anything with a knowledge check of “yes” and plan accordingly. Does my foe have touch attacks? Yes, okay pull out the cross bow and back the hell up. Immune to fire? Okay force bomb time. Other than that it’s fairly straightforward, get within 20’, blast in the face with the gun/bomb combination laugh as the boss flails ineffectively against your 32 ac.