Still More Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting

I've said it before and I'll say it again; Pathfinder is a really dense game as far as rules go, so it's only natural for players to miss a few here and there. This is the fourth installment of a series covering often-overlooked, obscure, or mis-remembered rules, and the previous installments are:

- Playing By The Book: Some Pathfinder Rules That Players Keep Forgetting
- MORE Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting
- Even MORE Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting
- Still More Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting
- 5 More Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting

Some of these rules might not be new to you, particularly if you're the sort of player who reads the entire rule book cover-to-cover. If you're just a casual player, though, hopefully these rules will help you bring your A game to the table.

Let's get started with this latest installment, shall we?

#1: Powerful Magic Weapons Ignore Damage Reduction

Damage reduction is the bane of low-to-mid-level combat characters. If you don't deal the right kind of damage, or your weapon is made from the wrong kind of material then you're going to find even your mightiest blows reduced to little more than cuts and bruises. DR doesn't represent as big a threat at higher levels though; mostly because particularly powerful magic weapons ignore it.

They also deal bonus damage to non-magical rocks!

According to the chart on page 562 of the Core Rulebook a weapon that has an enhancement of at least +3 overcomes cold iron/silver damage reduction. A +4 overcomes DR that would require an adamantine weapon, and a +5 or higher overcomes alignment-based DR. It should be noted that if a creature has a flat damage reduction (as you get from wearing adamantine armor or being a high-level barbarian) there is no weapon powerful enough to overcome it. You're just going to have to hit them really, really hard.

#2: Cover And Concealment Are Different Things

Cover and concealment are the bread and butter of tactical combat. Whether you're tossing down a smokestick so the wizard can't pinpoint you with a blast, or you're crouching behind a low wall to avoid being shot at by archers you are taking away at least some of the enemy's ability to do you harm. While a lot of tables don't bother with them, cover and concealment can be the life or death of characters.

Also, they're very different mechanics.

Pictured: Concealment

Let's start with concealment. If you're making a ranged attack and there's anything blocking your line of sight between a corner of your square and a corner of the target's square then the target has concealment. If a target is in a square completely enveloped by a condition that grants concealment (like a smokestick) then you have a 20% miss chance. If you have line of effect to an opponent but not line of sight then the opponent has total concealment (a 50% miss chance). You can't take attacks of opportunity, or even attack the opponent; you can only attack the square and hope for the best. These conditions don't stack; so if you're attacking in a cloud of smoke in pitch blackness then the defender only gets the one 50% miss chance.

Now on to cover!

Cover is an actual, physical barrier between you and an enemy. This includes door frames, walls, and even other people! If there is any sort of barrier you can hide behind it grants you a +4 to your armor class and a +2 on reflex saves. If more than half of you is sticking out of the cover then you reduce the bonus by half to a +2 to your armor class and a +1 to reflex saves. Improved cover, such as crouching behind an arrow slit, typically grants double the bonus (+8 and +4 respectively). If a target has total cover, meaning it's completely hidden behind a wall or other obstacle then you can't attack it.

You can have cover and concealment, and in fact it's a great idea to get both if you can! The details on these states of being are listed in the Core Rulebook 195-197.

#3: Armor Check Penalty Is Hell On The Non-Proficient

Most adventurers are familiar with the armor check penalty rules; your armor makes it harder for you to perform strength and dexterity-based actions based on how cumbersome it is. It's frustrating, but combat characters have been dealing with it for years.

If you're not proficient with an armor though that check can get heinous in a big hurry.

"Guys... guys?" Wizard's Last Words

If you are using armor you're not proficient with then you take a penalty because you just aren't trained to deal with the armor, but according to page 150 of the Core Rulebook the armor check penalty for armor you're not proficient with also applies to your attacks. This penalty stacks with any non-proficiency you take for wielding a shield you're not trained with as well.

This is the reason you never see wizards putting on plate armor without at least a level or two of fighter.

#4: You Can Direct Attacks of Opportunity Against Potions

Everyone knows that drinking a potion provokes an attack of opportunity (which is one reason the Drunken Brute barbarian variant is great, as it allows you to ignore this rule). If an enemy is drinking down a game-changing spell though a single attack might not make the difference... unless you direct the attack at the potion.

And hope it doesn't blow up in your face.

According to page 478 in the Core Rulebook you may choose to take your attack of opportunity against a potion when an enemy provokes you by trying to quaff it while threatened. If you manage to destroy the container then the target can't drink the potion, since your attack of opportunity happened before the target could pour even a little of the magical elixir into his mouth.

#5: Clerics Can Seriously Ruin A Vampire's Day

We've all seen classic Dracula movies where the count is shown a crucifix and he recoils in atavistic dread. We've also been in games where the villain is a vampire, and the party is overmatched, outgunned, and needs to pull out every trick they know in order to carry the day. If you're in a party like this then be really glad you've got a cleric or a paladin on hand (though a religious fighter will do, in a pinch).

Assuming you're all out of gummy Type-O treats, that is.

If you are fighting a vampire (which is any creature with the vampire template according to the Bestiary) then you can keep it at bay by using a standard action to present a holy symbol. The vampire has to stay 5 feet away from the person presenting the symbol, and cannot touch or make melee attacks against the target. After 1 round has gone by the vampire can attempt to overcome this repulsion by making a DC 25 Will save. At that point you'll get more use out of a good gorget than you will a holy symbol, but it's still a good idea to keep something sacred on hand if you're worried you'll be set upon by undead bloodsuckers.

What's Next...

That's all for this installment of overlooked and mis-remembered rules, but I'm sure there will be another installment. If you'd like to help support Improved Initiative then stop by my Patreon page and consider becoming a patron today! If you want to be sure that you don't miss any of my updates then either plug your email into the box on your right, or follow me on Facebook and Tumblr!

Vietnamese Barber Uses Japanese Swords to Deliver Razor-Sharp Hairstyles

Have you ever wondered what happens to adventurers when they decide to stop raiding temples and locating lost gold? After spending years honing their instincts and learning to wield deadly weapons what do they do when there are no more creatures left to slay or monsters left to hunt?

They probably do something goddamn fabulous. Something like this!

Pictured: Two Weapon Rend in action.

That picture is not a joke; it's a shot of stylist Nguyen Hoang Hung doing what he does best. This hairdresser, who works in the Thanh Ke district in Da Nang according to this source, has tossed aside shears and scissors in favor of sculpting his client's manes with more epic tools. What he did before becoming a samurai stylist is not certain, but there has been a noted dearth of dragons in Vietnam for many years. Just saying.

If you want to see this man in action check out the video below. Would you be brave enough to let him sharpen up your look?

As always thanks for stopping by Improved Initiative, and if you'd like to help support the blog stop by my Patreon account and become a patron today! If you want to make sure you don't miss any of my updates then submit your email to the box on the right, or follow me on Facebook and Tumblr!

Making Your Own Fate (Or Why It's A Bad Idea For Chaotic Good Characters To Rear Black Dragons)

This week's Table Talk entry comes to us from the game of Benjamin Colecliffe. Some of you might have seen similar instances of trying to do the right thing that spiraled out of control into massive threats to the peace, life, and limb of the local community. If you have I'm sure you'll identify with this week's tale...

We Make Our Own Fate

Some heroes kill dragons. Many more die trying and failing to kill dragons. And then there’s this guy, who died trying to thwart the draconic menace that he’d created.

That escalated quickly.

Our hero for this story is Roran, a barbarian from the far south. We’re playing Hoard of the Dragon Queen and have just finished looting a cave complex with several dragon eggs inside, which we promptly stole. My character has headed north to report our success and hand over some documents we acquired, while Roran has created a cart to lug the dragon eggs back to Greenest. He gets there and decides to hide the eggs until we’re ready by burying them, at which point one of them hatches.

So Roran has a baby evil dragon on his hands, and he has an idea. He takes it off the road a way and begins trying to raise it. Firstly, it’s obviously hungry so he heads off into town to get some food for it. The town has been raided, its livestock rustled, and Roran had killed off all of the town’s hunters (long story), so there wasn’t any meat for sale. Opting for a second best choice, Roran gets a pack horse, leads it back to the dragon, and kills the horse for the dragon to eat. Now the baby dragon isn’t happy with this, as it wants live prey. So Roran goes back to town and buys some puppies. With big eyes that look up at him with nothing but love and devotion, so happy to meet someone new and kind. They lick him and nuzzle him.

The baby dragon is a Black Dragon, the outright most sadistic type of dragon out there. Roran goes off and gives the dragon the puppies to eat. It’s a drawn out process, but eventually the dragon is finished with the poor puppies and puts them out of their misery. I would like it noted at this point that Roran’s alignment is supposed to be Chaotic Good.

You might want to get your alignment checked.

Next the dragon demands a drink, which Roran supplies. Now it wants a hoard, so Roran gives it all his ready cash. Finally it wants a lair, so Roran heads out to find it a suitable home. Throughout all this, Roran’s player is convinced that he’s got this dragon wrapped around his little finger.

So he takes the dragon to its new lair at the bend of the local river and it likes it. So exhausted, Roran goes back to Greenest and heads to the nearest inn. The next day he gets up, does some chores around town, picks up some more puppies and heads out to the dragon’s lair. The dragon wants more loot, and Roran’s picked up a lead on some bandits in town. So the pair go out to kill bandits and take their stuff. This doesn’t go as well as it could due to the action economy being somewhat against Roran and the dragon not being interested in putting its life on the line for him, and eventually he goes down. Now while it would have been funny for the hero to die in service of an evil dragon our tale doesn’t end there. See the bandits keep him alive in order to sell him off as a slave or the like, and that night the dragon returns, curbstomps the remaining bandits, and frees him. Why? Well, Roran’s been a good slave for the dragon so far and it doesn’t want to lose such a valuable asset just yet. So Roran is sent back to town to recover and gets a message from up north saying “Shit just got real, come up north ASAP.” He recovers from his beating and heads out to tell the dragon where he’s going. The dragon is nowhere to be seen, so he waits for a few hours until it returns with a group of kobolds in tow.

It’s at this point that Roran begins to realize that he might be slightly in over his head. He tells the dragon that he’s heading north to follow up a lead on some treasure for its hoard, and the dragon lets him go with the promise of a horrible death should he betray it.

Roran regroups with the rest of the party and lays it out bare, omitting the parts about puppy killing. This is a problem, as the plot at this point is running on a timetable and we can’t afford to backtrack several days to deal with the dragon problem he’s created. So Roran decides to head back and deal with it himself, while I go off and inform the local paladin of what’s happened. Roran heads south to Greenest, picks up the one guy the guard can spare to act as backup, and goes back to the dragon’s cave. By this point the dragon has a tribe of 20 kobolds along with drakes and assorted cultists at its disposal, and is a significant threat to the region. Roran goes in and gets into a disagreement with the cultists guarding the lair, which he then escalates into a fight. The guard he brought along with him flat out flees because he’s not getting paid enough for this, and Roran suffers a rather nasty end getting mobbed by the dragon’s servants and breathed on by the dragon itself. We haven’t yet found out what happened to the region, but it’s fairly obvious that the locals are in more danger after we left than when we arrived!

In conclusion: Sometimes you create your own villain by accident. Other times, you really have to work at it. You can read the full story of our party’s misadventures right here!

Not All Adventures Scale So Well!

If you would like to read more bad decisions from the Table Talk archive then click right here! If you have a story of your own that you'd like to share with the Internet at large then by all means contact me using the contact form on this page and I'll be more than happy to give you some time in the spotlight.

If you want to support Improved Initiative then stop by my Patreon page and consider becoming a patron today! Also to make sure you get all of my updates follow me on Facebook and Tumblr as well!

Daffy Duck Shows You How To Be An EPIC Wizard!

Fantasy roleplaying games have steadily wormed their way into common culture over several decades. From movies and novels to television shows and video games fantasy RPGs have left indelible marks everywhere, and on practically everything.

If you needed further proof of this fact, here is Daffy Duck as an epic level wizard.

This clip is taken from the 17th episode of this particular run on Merrie Melodies, a show which has never been shy about paying homage to pop culture. If you are from a younger generation you might not remember the starts of the silver screen like Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre showing up in every other cartoon, but you might remember similar celebrity cameos in Tiny Tunes.

We've come that far. Daffy being an epic wizard on a mind quest is something that the writers and animators never even considered the audience wouldn't get. In short my fellow culture warriors, we have won.

Mostly with the aid of a Daffy wizard.

If you'd like to help support Improved Initiative then stop by my Patreon page and become a patron today! If you want to make sure you don't miss any of my updates then plug your email address into that box on your right, or follow me on Facebook and Tumblr!

A Guide To Swearing In Your Fantasy RPG

You know how in fantasy novels from the 80s and 90s authors would make up curse words for that particular setting, allowing them to bring across that characters were vulgar without putting words in their books that would keep them out of younger readers' hands? Have you ever been wrist deep in RP about to say "shit" and wished you had an alternative that felt more organic for your world? Or perhaps something you could say that wouldn't get you in trouble if the younger players either at the table or in the house started repeating it?

Well here are some ways you can do just that, and surprise the hell out of everyone else with your thundering creativity.

Method #1: Invoke The Divine

Aside from our favorite four-letter friends one of the most common swears you've probably heard is the name Jesus Christ. While it might not offend anyone but the truly religious (taking the savior's name in vain and all that), the idea of invoking divine powers is one of the oldest forms of swearing. Given that most fantasy RPGs have their own pantheon you've got all of the ammunition you need.

Asmodeus worshipers get the best swear words.

You can invoke the name of your character's god(s), or just the regional divinities where he or she grew up. You can also invoke aspects of the divine, referring to divine tools or areas of influence. An example is the word gadzooks, which we sort of associate with Saturday-morning-cartoons and Shakespeare plays. The term is a shortened word that means god's hooks. That's some serious-sounding-shit, and not to be invoked lightly. Especially if you happen to be a follower of a god of pain, agony, and torture like Zon-Kuthon.

This kind of logic extends to all gods and their accouterments. Followers of Cayden Cailean might use a phrase like busted cup to refer to bad luck coming their way (insinuating that the god's trusty tankard had been smashed, and the ale of victory spilled forever). Those who worship the nature god Gozreh might invoke the more damaging elements of nature with phrases like thunder and flood or beasts and blood. Even those who pray to Desna the goddess of dreams might say something like dark dreams or sleepless nights when something goes wrong.

Method #2: Stream-of-Nonsense Swearing

Popularized by characters like Yosemite Sam the stream of nonsense might sound like little more than gobbledy-gook at first, but it actually has a long and storied tradition. Phrases like by the double-barreled jumping jimminity are more likely to produce laughter than fright, but the formula is easy enough to apply if you want to alter the words for something a little more serious.

By the nocked arrows of the 52 fletchers, what do you want?

Whether these phrases refer to actual things and people, or they're just made up combinations of words is up to you as the player. The formula tends to start out with by the as most good swearing does, and then moves onto words that come in pairs. Alliteration is good if you can manage it, and it will make the phrases easier to remember.

The interesting part comes when you want to work something into your character's life that makes these phrases make sense. Do they swear by weapons because warriors hold those close (by the bastard blades of the seven sons), or do they instead invoke features of their geography (by the burning hills of Hartford), or of their ancestors (by the gray bearded chin of Harold the Mad). You can get pretty creative with these, but you should save them for special occasions when possible if you want them to have a bigger impact.

Method #3: Swearing By Body Parts (And Other Things)

Holy... ugh...

This is the type of swearing we're all most familiar with, though we aren't really all that creative with it. After all a four-letter word for copulation is our big swear word, and the runner-up is another four-letter word for excrement.

We can do better than that.

Look at the proud British tradition of swearing. Bollocks might not seem like a very insulting word, but try grabbing your crotch while you sneer derisively at someone and see just how quickly it escalates. The same goes for the word bloody; it probably sounds quaint to American ears but if you change the phrase and add to it something like blood and ashes has a certain vehemence that's got a lovely ring to it. You can swear by anything that's important to your character or the culture he or she comes from. Virgin's teats, devil's hands, or even something like child o' mine might represent things that a culture values, or which it finds troublesome.

In short there's a whole slew of great ways to swear-without-swearing at your table. For some more great information on old-timey cussing and where our modern profanity comes from check out this article on the subject.

If you'd like to help support Improved Initiative then stop by my Patreon page and become a patron today! Also to make sure you don't miss a single update you should follow me on Facebook and Tumblr!

Make Your Own, Custom Minis at Hero Forge!

There are few feelings as nice as digging through your miniatures and finding that one figure that is exactly what you want for your character. It has the right cloak, the right pose, the right race, and even the right weapon! Sometimes though your character is so wonky, strange, or otherwise hard-to-conceptualize that you're sure the only way you could get the right mini for it would be to get a custom made one.

That's where Hero Forge comes into the picture.

Korvosa, here we come!

The screen shot above is a design for the tiefling I'm currently running amok with in the adventure path Curse of the Crimson Throne and with the exception of his tail and goatee I was able to make a figure that accurately captured both his look and his attitude in minutes at Hero Forge. For those who've never tried to find a mini for a fairly exotic race, the ease with which I located this made me extremely happy.

The site gives you more options than just fantasy though. Whether you're playing a modern game or an Old Western, a Sci-Fi shoot-em-up or even a combination of these archetypes Hero Forge has all of the different options you need to create really unique minis. From hair and expression to pose, gear, and even their smirks, you should check out what you can do at Hero Forge to make your next 1-20 level character a real experience.

If you'd like to help support Improved Initiative then stop by my Patreon and become a patron today! All it takes is $1 a month to keep the content coming. Also if you'd like to make sure you get all of my updates plug your email into the form on the right, or follow me on Facebook and Tumblr!

A Pathfinder Build For A Dirty Trick Master

Anyone who's ever been in a fight, or even participated in sport combat knows that winning a fight is about more than who's the biggest of the strongest. It's often about technique, experience, and being able to predict your opponent and take advantage of the weaknesses you see. Some people, especially those who've come out ahead because they don't fight fair, are aware that a momentary advantage can be the difference between walking away from a brawl and leaving your blood on the pavement along with your dignity.

For those who want to duplicate this kind of experience in Pathfinder you should invest in a character skilled at using combat maneuvers against her enemies. More accurately you should invest in a character that specializes in the dirty trick maneuver.

Sign didn't say nuthin' about your eyes, though. Ain't much a fight if you can't see.

How The Dirty Trick Combat Maneuver Works

Before we get too in depth on mechanics I know that not a lot of players use combat maneuvers. Most players forget these maneuvers even exist until a monster uses one on the party, and for a brief instant in time players see how devastating a properly placed grapple, bull rush, or trip can really be. So here's a quick refresher on how dirty trick works.

Outlined in the Advanced Player's Guide a dirty trick maneuver can only be done in melee. It is a standard action where you roll a D20 and add your combat maneuver bonus to the roll. This provokes an attack of opportunity (unless you have the improved dirty trick feat), and if you are hit by the enemy then you add the damage you took as a negative to your attempt. If you beat the enemy's combat maneuver defense then you have succeeded, and may apply the blinded, dazzled, deafened, shaken, or sickened condition to the target for 1 round. For every 5 that you beat the target's CMD by the condition lasts for an additional round. The target can remove the condition as a move action, though.

So what does this look like? Well say that you wanted to blind your opponent; maybe you gouged him in the eyes with your thumb, or tossed your ale in his face. If you wanted to entangle your enemy maybe you undid his belt, or yanked on his armor lacings so they were out of true. If you wanted to deafen an opponent you might clap his ears, and if you wanted to sicken him you might kick him in the crotch.

Why Use Dirty Trick?

I'll tell you why; because there are lots of ways to win a fight. One of them is to debuff your enemy into next week.

Son, I'm afraid if you get up it's going to provoke an attack of opportunity.

If you're fighting a spellcaster and you manage to deafen her then that's a 20% miscast chance on any spells that aren't cast with the metamagic feat Silent Spell, and it's still serious negatives to notice anyone sneaking up on her. Add blinded to that and she can't target anyone specifically unless she has another means of sight. If you're fighting a swashbuckler or a rogue who depends on dexterity then leaving them entangled will reduce their dex by a -4 and any attacks by an additional -2. The list goes on and on, but if you combine the temporary status effects of dirty trick with other combat maneuvers like trip or disarm then you've got a character who doesn't need to be the best to win; he simply makes those he's fighting do so at an extreme disadvantage.

The Classes

Getting the best build for a dirty trick master isn't easy. But you're going to want to start off with at least one level of the Maneuver Master archetype (Ultimate Combat 58). This does mean you need to have a lawful character (and if you're trying to square "lawful" with "fights using dirty tricks" then you simply need to include something in the monk's credo to the effect of "there is a time for honor, and that time is not when my life and the lives of others are at stake"), and it means you won't be wearing any armor, so you're going to have to get creative. What the Maneuver Master gives you in addition to the unarmed damage, monk saves, AC bonus, and monk bonus feat (which can include any improved feat, so improved dirty trick is yours for the asking at level one) is something called flurry of maneuvers.

What makes this ability so special is that during any full-attack action a Maneuver Master may perform a bonus combat maneuver, regardless of whether or not it would replace an attack or require a standard action all its own to use. For this bonus maneuver the monk replaces his base attack bonus with his monk level for the purpose of calculating his combat maneuver bonus, but all combat maneuvers attempted in that round suffer a -2 penalty.

So say that you came out of the gate as a level 1 Maneuver Master with improved dirty trick as your bonus feat. You could also take combat expertise as your 1st level feat and improved trip if you were a human and had a bonus feat. With that build up you could take your full attack action, trip the enemy, and then kick him while he's down in order to make him sickened. You take a -2 to both combat maneuvers (which is canceled out by the +2 you get from the two improved feats), and you've got a pretty solid shot at putting at least one opponent in a pretty compromised position.

But wait, there's more!

While you can keep taking levels of Maneuver Master (because we know that monks are strongest when they're kept pure), you could also multiclass and start taking levels of the fighter archetype Cad (Ultimate Combat 45).

In addition to a full BAB and bonus feats, Cad gives your character a lot of bonuses and extra opportunities to get your dirty tricks in. While these fighters don't get access to medium armor, heavy armor, or tower shields, they do gain dirty maneuvers which provides a +1 bonus to disarm, steal, and dirty trick CMB and CMD at level 2, and every 4 levels thereafter. The cad also gets catch off-guard as a bonus feat, and gains the ability payback, which grants him an increased bonus to hit and damage any enemy that has attacked him since his last turn. There's a slew of other useful abilities, but one that's going to come in very handy is the level 7 ability deadly surprise, which allows you to attempt a dirty trick as an immediate action if you hit an opponent denied its dexterity bonus to AC with a melee weapon or unarmed strike.

The setup I would recommend is 1 level of Maneuver Master and 11 levels of Cad, though there are certainly other, legitimate ways to achieve good results.

Feats

The level recommendation isn't random, and though it might work for Pathfinder Society that isn't exactly the reason I assigned a 12-level build. The reason will be obvious when you examine the feat list below. This list works for any sort of build, and does not assume that a character is playing a human or include fighter bonus feats. Combat maneuvers other than dirty trick can be swapped out to fit your preferred play style.

- Level 1: Combat Expertise (Core Rulebook 119): Take negatives to your attack to gain bonuses to AC.

- Monk Bonus Feat: Improved Dirty Trick (Advanced Player's Guide): Gain a +2 to CMB and CMD for dirty trick maneuvers. Do not provoke AOO when performing a dirty trick.

- Level 3: Improved Trip (Core Rulebook 128): Gain +2 to CMB and CMD for trip maneuvers. Do not provoke an AOO when performing a trip.

- Level 5: Dodge (Core Rule Book 122): Gain +1 dodge bonus to AC.

- Level 7: Quick Dirty Trick (Ultimate Combat 114): May replace a melee attack with a dirty trick maneuver.

- Level 9: Greater Dirty Trick (Advanced Player's Guide): Gain an additional +2 to CMB and CMD for dirty trick maneuvers. The penalty now lasts for 1d4 rounds +1 round for every 5 by which you beat the target's CMD. Removing the penalties now requires a standard action.

- Level 11 (or whatever level you meet the prerequisites at): Dirty Trick Master (Bastards of Golarion 25): Cause the condition affected by any dirty trick maneuver to worsen. Dazzled becomes dazed, entangled becomes pinned, shaken becomes frightened, sickened becomes nauseated. This worsened condition replaces the initial one, and may be removed with a standard action.

*It's also a good idea to supplement your dirty trick with Gauntlets of the Skilled Maneuver (Ultimate Equipment), which provide a +2 to a single combat maneuver. The same bonus can be granted to trip or disarm attempts by simply using a weapon with one of those qualities.

The Goal

Once your character has Dirty Trick Master (a feat that I wrote for Bastards of Golarion, if I'm to toot my own horn) you are a threat to any enemy you can touch in melee. With your high BAB from Fighter and Quick Dirty Trick you can perform several dirty trick maneuvers, and to top it off you still get your bonus maneuver from Maneuver Master. You can pull a dirty trick on anyone you catch flat-footed or that you flank (or who is pinned, as per the increased condition), and even if an enemy does remove the condition you put on him it still takes a standard action; that's a round that enemy had their options significantly limited. And if you have more than one dirty trick effect that's been stacked on, it takes more than one action to remove them.

The Weaknesses

While every character build has something it's really good at, it will also have something that it's really bad at. While the dirty fighter we've outlined here is great for debuffing enemies in ways that will not give them a saving throw against the attack, the build does have some weaknesses. This character will have a very low AC (unless you toss the monk level and use bonus feats to get heavier armor or replace the monk level with another class, which is an option), and he will have issues with opponents that are very large, who remain out or melee range, or who are invisible/incorporeal. While this character will not have the biggest damage output in the party, those bonus feats can also be used to increase how hard he's going to hit once he's stacked status conditions onto the bad guy.

The key with the Dirty Trick Master (just like any other build) is to recognize what your weaknesses are and to have something else you can fall back on when your big gun doesn't work. Are you fighting enemies that are large sized and have multiple legs? Why not throw a tanglefoot bag at them to keep them tied up for a couple of rounds, and then either shoot from a distance or stick and move (assuming you invest in mobility and spring attack)? What do you do if an enemy is immune to being blinded or sickened? Well entangle and pin them instead, or ask if their enhanced senses are hearing based and deafen them. What if you want to avoid getting splattered all over the battle field? Well try using smoke sticks to give yourself concealment, or invest in a cloak of displacement.

Whatever your weakness is, you need to prepare for it so there are no fights where you're just sitting there doing nothing but pissing and moaning that your special trick won't work. Even if you're not single-handedly reducing the big bad into a buffoon who's got spit in his eye, his pants around his ankles, and a solid shot in the gut to knock the wind out of him, you can still do something to help out the rest of the party.

If you're looking for something to do with all those bonus feats then you might want to check out The Bullyboy and my Ultimate Aid Another builds. Remember that it's your character so make it into whatever you want!

If you'd like to help support Improved Initiative then stop by my Patreon page and become a patron today! If you want to make sure you don't miss any of my updates then plug your email address into the form on your right, or follow me on Facebook and Tumblr to stay in the loop.