Ashenfall's page

James Jacobs wrote:

Coridan wrote:

I would think you guys are almost to the point where you could set up your own printer. Hell CatFancy magazine prints its own stuff.

We're not even CLOSE to the market saturation and resource levels that Cat Fancy has. I doubt Wizards of the Coast is close to that level of resources.

I had a job interview with them two years ago. They arent doing so well. Less than two dozen employees and their printer was one old dude running an equally old machine

That's because all the Lolcats with real moxy left, and are all now working at the Caturday Evening Scratching Post.

There never was an issue. I merely stated that sirocco struck me as being a little broken (for its level), and people started defending it. It's probably because they like taking advantage of it with their characters.

Broken compared to what?

I found myself using it twice, in a recent game, but found myself using creeping doom, finger of death, and heal more often, as circumstances dictated. DOODAD!

If you mean because of the exhaustion, note that the enemies don't become exhausted until the 2nd round, and that your allies could be affected by sirocco just as easily as the enemies. In my experience, the magus and sorcerer were finishing mopping up by round 2 or 3 in most combats, and having exhausted enemies was sort of pointless in our game.

But yes, sirocco is a situationally AWESOME spell.

I agree with most of you, you should get the language. If it game from an item, I would mark it accordingly, but beyond that, makes sense.

Thread-hijack: So for those of you that agree you get the bonus language, would a Wizard get a bonus 1st level spell for their spellbook?

For the reasons I stated in the above post, let me approach it from this angle:

Why wouldn't he?

If his Con goes up, he gets more Hp, and better Fort saves. If his Wis goes up, he gets better Wis skills and Will saves. With his Int going up, he gets better DCs for his spells.

So why not an extra spell? I think the real hangup that most people have, is the concept that a "sudden" skill increase means "poof - a new spell appears/language is learned/skill gained," etc.

However, from a mechanical and power-balance standpoint, there's no reason not to allow all retroactive gains. Conversely, to not allow them is to add confusion to the player.

For the nitpicky crowd that wants to have the spell/language/skill make sense, I would offer this: Who's to say that the character hasn't picked up smatterings of said spell/language/skill, and now that Int is increased, it all suddenly comes together with clarity?

Come up with any explanation that makes sense, but IMO, at least allow the retroactive gain, and make the "sense" come secondarily.

I interpret the retroactive int bonuses in light of the developers stated preference for not having to know what classes/boosts were taken at any given level. That is, the idea that if I create a 10th level character and compare it to a character created at 1st and played to 10th, I should see no mechanical difference other than equipment.

If retroactive INT doesn't grant languages, then that fails, and we have to keep track of what was spent when and where.

Exactly. Every other stat gives retroactive bonuses, so why not Int?

For anyone (even the RAW) to require a player to track what skills and languages were gained at what level is clunky, pointless, and un-fun.

It's certainly not as if adding retroactive skills and languages is unbalancing. It simply crosses that line that analyticals (read: most of us gamers) have, where we demand that things "make sense."

This really should be FAQ'd already, and if I have to summon an augmented elder worm to get it done, then someeone's getting eaten. Rawr.

James, I'm guessing you're referring to Kingmaker 6 of 6?

Looks pretty sweet.

Ashenfall wrote:

Joss, with Summer Glau having become an insanely beautiful young woman, how did you manage to ruin The Cape in only ten episodes?

I'm confused partly because Whedon didn't have anything to do with The Cape (so far as I know), and partly because that show was nothing *but* ruin from episode one. I hope Summer Glau tore her agent a new one for getting her that gig.

Bah, my bad. Tom Wheeler was the creator. Somehow, I had Joss Whedon in my mind as the creator.

Sorry, Joss - my bad, man.

I actually really dug that show. Then again, I could have just really dug looking at Summer Glau all growed up and sessified.

I bought PU because I felt like a tool just using the PFSRD. I figure if you want people to support a flavor you love, then you have to support them. Haven't used PU yet, but hopefully, I will be, soon.

For the same reason, I'll be picking up PE once it's finally compiled into one book.

Yar, the whole "using physical stats" thing is not a part of Dreamscarred's system, like it was in 3.x.

Cheapy, it used to be that egoists used Str as their manifester stat, Nomads used Dex, Shapers Con, etc. It was a bit ridiculous and only added fuel to the "psionics is OP" debate.

Kudos to J.S. for sticking with the mental stats.

EDIT: ninja'd :)

James, is there much currently written about the first world, and why the gnomes left? If not, will there be?

Joss, with Summer Glau having become an insanely beautiful young woman, how did you manage to ruin The Cape in only ten episodes?

I remember over 20 years ago, calling my buddy and asking him how to read a d4...

...Served my time in the military (the french one, does it count?)...

Seeing as how France has had a military for more centuries than I have fingers, I'd have to say yes.

My little sister has threatened to do that to my face if I didn't shave before. I tend to bust out the razor at that point.

But yeah, hair + really sticky stuff = PAIN!

You both have my sympathies.

Let her know that she'll receive a Nair head shampooing, if she ever thinks about making good on that threat.

Wuss. Wait till you trustingly let a female friend apply a waxing pad to the region just above your waist-line, telling you it's a form of heat-pack to deal with your strained back, rubbing it in .... then rips it off with great force, leaving you white and gasping for air on the ground as every male in the room winces and every female laughs long and loud.

2 months on, I still have a rectangular bald-patch on my back...

See, if only you could have acted like it didn't hurt, then stood up and looked at all the jaw-dropped women, and said "what?"

LazarX wrote:

Adamantine Dragon wrote:

Staves as currently designed are the last significant magic item that any caster of mine would even consider buying.

Which is pretty much the intended design...they're a capstone item for a master caster, not something for the novice.

The last noun I would verb is idiomatic English for "I would not verb noun if I had any alternative" Staffs are not a capstone. They're like Prone Shooter. You take Prone Shooter if you're an epic level 600 player and have literally run out of feats to take. You buy a staff if your GM is so Monty Hall that you've run out of more economical magic items to buy.

I have no idea what you said in the first part of that.

I agree with the last bit, though. I just "bought" a staff of evocation, when I hit 18th level, so that my druid could chuck out a chain lightning.

In retrospect, I think the gold might have been better spent on a metamagic rod.

AD, back to the topic, whether the 'no rest' think is a function of the modules' design, and/or the way the GM is running them, you might ask to bypass the 1 (re)charge/day rule.

I'm still standing by my position (and someone else summed it up with the fact that staves are rechargable) that they're priced correctly, due to the versatility they provide.

AD, you're making an argument against staves, based, in large part, on the style of y0ur particular GM.

Staves are fine, the way they're priced. You might just talk to your GM and ask for a break, or a bend in the rules to allow you to recharge more than one charge of the staff per day.

Chris Nehren wrote:

I find it amusing that this book (like other Pathfinder campaign setting books) says it's "suitable for play in any fantasy world" considering its focus. :)

Except you could, you can replace Golarion with Faerun with out to much trouble. Just ignore a few pages and use the planets and what not in Faerun's setting fairly easily.

I'm standing by the argument that spelljamming will never work in Faerun again, as there will no longer be a goddess of arcane magic, nor an arcane weave. In an absurdly Monty Python-esque series of sackings, there are no applicants remaining to fill the post, as they sure to be murdered within a cat's lifetime. So much for being an eternal deity...

Faerun really needs the soap opera cliffhanger, where it wakes up, everything is back to 137x DR, and it realizes that Ao never existed, and that WotC was just a bad dream.

But anyhoo, I'm really looking forward to this book. I love everything that Paizo has been doing with Pathfinder. My only chagrin is that this book is only 64 pages...

Pirates vs. Ninjas.

GO!

Doesn't plane shift require you to be familiar with the destination?

Perfect! That's exactly what he's using, as a matter of fact. Thanks for the info.

I'm in the camp that 1-20 is base, with 21+ being epic.

I'd love to see what Paizo can do to make epic play fun and balanced where it's predecessor wasn't.

Howver, I'd also love to know how you could run a current epic/mythic campaign and keep the monsters from getting stale. Is it just adding class levels to things, or using a lot of 3PP?

Ah ha - the one place I didn't think to look. Heh heh - thanks :)

Thanks, Adam, but can you point me to where the rules go over that? I looked at the sections describing staves, rods, and activation methods, and couldn't find where it's covered.

What about a Roman/Pict/Spanish analog?

My fighter is a falcata master, and I'd like to model him after the Ibizans who wielded falcatas.

But you know what?

Tonight I'm gonna party like it's 4999.

I found this thread, but I'm not sure what the OP means when he refers to metamagic mastery feats.

What I'm trying to determine, is if I could use a metamagic feat to bolster a spell I cast from a staff. If so, how do you treat the part about the metamagic'd spell taking up a higher spell slot?

Also, what if I hold a rod of maximize spell (greater) in one hand, and a staff of evocation in the other hand? Could I use the rod of maximize, and dish out a maximized chain lightning?

It says they do, right in the rogue description in the CRB:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/rogue

So yes, flanking rogues are bad juju for their opponents.

Edit: The attack being an AoO doesn't mean anything. Sneak attack still applies if it's conditions are met (which they are).

So I want to be a support character and I opted for the Domain/spells versus an animal companion, and chose fire since I want to back row.

I'm not entirely sold on it since I only get the +1 spell but the 7 uses of the mini d6 ranged touch attack help with that. (why oh why can't druids get a decent ranged weapon?)

we're starting at 1st level and I've been out of 3.5/Pathfinder for about a year so I'm a little rusty.

I'm not a huge MUST BE OPTIMIZED guy but i don't want to nerf myself either.
What do you all think?

As a guy who's currently playing a Ftr 1/Drd 17, who also took the fire domain, I can tell you that I like it.

For me, I like the fire resistance. I have yet to bother to use the fail d6+(9, for me) fire RTA. Not that I never would, but we started at 14th level, and I've had no call to use it.

Also, for this character, I envisioned him to be from the desert, and Arabic in ethnicity. Oded Fehr's (spelling?) character from the Mummy movies was somewhat of an inspiration.

As for optimization, I made him really strong on defense, and mobile, for aerial spellcasting. Air elemental is his usual form, and I have a 43 AC with a 120 (perfect) flying speed (and +14 to initiative). I can move to pretty much any point on the battlefield and cast, in the same round. I'm an emergency healer, and have saved other party members' lives a few times with heal. As for offensive casting, I didn't take any metamagic feats, but I do fairly well. I'd do better with some metamagic, but I wanted to be more utility than blaster. If I wanted a blaster, a divine caster isn't the best choice.

All of that being said, I'd recommend you read Treantmonk's guide to druids. He gives a great guide to a melee-oriented druid, and then a great guide to a caster druid, then a great guide to which druid spells you'll usually benefit the most from.

Let me go out on a limb here - this guy on this other site is fairly young, as gamers go?

Tsk tsk tsk. It's a shame that some people would stoop so low, as to try and steal the spotlight away from a hard-working woman, as all her energy is focused on bringing a new life into the world.

Shun, Paizo staff, SHUN!!! :P

At first, I figured they would. Then, a buddy announced that he wants to run a summoner on a campaign I'm going to be running, and asked me the subject question.

Now I'm not sure. I searched the forum, and only found one thread where this was discussed, with answers saying yes, and other answers saying no.

Do any of you guys know for sure, if there's any reason why augment summoning wouldn't benefit an eidolon, since the summoner's description says that they're treated as summoned creatures?

Ashenfall wrote:

Merisiel, assuming you met a benevolent, fun-loving awakened demilich chronomancer/bard, and he/she/it offered to take you on a tour through the history of Golarion, as well as it's future. What time periods would you want to travel to, and would it be to any specific areas?

I don't have to worry about that, since such a thing would not be allowed to exist in any world in which I am allowed to exist. Thanks to my benevolent dinosaur overlord.

So uh, I suppose the maximum possible speed in Golarion is 87 mph? :)

I can see shifting to credit unions, which banks hate. (Too bad, so sad.)

In the long-run, though, I keep wondering about various legislative ways to hold the banks accountable, and I keep coming up with bupkis.

James, in playtesting, did you guys ever come up with a formula/guideline for adjusting CR for parties that were above 15 point-buy? i.e., if we wanted to go with 20 or 25 point-buy, would the CRs drop by 1 and 2 respectively?

Merisiel, assuming you met a benevolent, fun-loving awakened demilich chronomancer/bard, and he/she/it offered to take you on a tour through the history of Golarion, as well as it's future. What time periods would you want to travel to, and would it be to any specific areas?

While I applaud the NY AG for filing suit, I have to wonder what the net effect of this will eventually be.

We saw at the end of 2008 that we were the ones who wound up paying for the banks' and Wall St's greed and ineptitude, while the CEOs got multi-million dollar bonuses.

So how do the banks wind up on the hook for 250 billion (or more) and us not pay for it?

Pathfinder Online... looks sweet.

I would really hope that they don't incorporate the need for tanking and healing, like WoW.

If they do, it'll probably see the PFO classes taking a significantly different form than what we have in the game.

cibet44 wrote:

As for a question: Do you feel that the PDF format of tabletop RPG books is the destined future for the majority of tabletop RPG material, an intermediate electronic form that will lead to something else in the very near future, or a platform that will eventually plateau or decline with respect to paper?

With iPads and the Kindle Fire and other tablets changing our options for viewing full-color content, I think that electronic formats WILL some day become pretty standard for all sorts of products. The tablets themselves still have a way to go before they're affordable and all that, but they're getting close.

But no, I don't think that paper/print products will go away entirely. What I do think is that print-on-demand stuff will become more and more affordable and available, with perhaps even affordable home-printers capable of printing and binding entire books at the press of a button.

FWIW, when I go to a buddy's house, taking my laptop with PDFs is the only way I want to game. Saves the risk of hernia. Also, at this point in my life, with just me working, and my wife staying home with our daughter, I can't afford the books, whereas I can afford the PDFs. (10 PDFs > 2 books)

However, there are many times, when I'm just chilling at home, that I'd love to kick back with a nice book, where I can turn the pages instead of scrolling around a window. Books simply have a nuance that electronic devices will never replace.

Now for the question: If making a planar campaign setting would be self-competitive, then would you consider the Distant Worlds line to be a separate campaign setting, or simply another facet of the PFCS?

1) James, why are the books "Bestiaries" and not "Beastiaries"?

2) Also, I'm pretty turned off by what they did with FR, and very very VERY turned off by 4e in general. Can you personally guarantee, on the soul of Cosmo's first-born baby... whatever... that Paizo will never pull the same shenanigans with Golarion and Pathfinder?

3) I absolutely love(d) Planescape. Is Paizo planning on something similar for Pathfinder?

Unless Ultimate Magic is 3rd party suddenly, then no, it's not. :)

Doh!

See, I started to say that it was 3rd party, and let that be it, but then I thought "you know, the guy who did the spreadsheet might have messed up."

Then again, there's always the "I could have misread," but I tend to not pay attention to such possibilities. :)

Pirate, I think you probably hit the nail on the head.

I seem to recall a post by (James Jacobs??) regarding the various summon lists, and the answer being similar; that they didn't want the spells to creep up in power, with the release of additional bestiaries.

Because its 3rd party and the editing could have been better is my guess.

At least my spreadsheet says its 3rd party.

I think you're reading too much into the RAW. Wild Speech basically allows you to become Aslan, when you wild shape into a lion, etc., etc.

As for usefulness, I didn't take it, and haven't seen much need for it. I'm either in elemental form, and do the "gutteral" elemental speech thing (fun at the table), or I'm RPing Scooby Doo. Fun times.

Male, 35, been playing off and on since I was... 13? I think?

Went into the Navy, but was discharged under "Entry-level medical separation" on my 23rd day of service. Enlarged spleen, of all stupid things.

I think I figured out the rub:

Evil clerics worship evil deities. Those evil deities have frickin' lasers on their frickin' foreheads, and are frickin' ill-tempered. Ain't no way that frickin' ill-tempered evil frickin' deities are letting a bunch of expendable henchmen tarnish their evil name by spreading the feel-good. BRING THE PAIN, BERK!!

Rawr. :P

I agree with davidvs. It reads to me that one hand/foot/bite/etc. receives the +3.

AD, for those campaigns, was the avg WBL not being used as a cap?

We use it in our campaign, and it's the reason that my Druid doesn't have any pearls yet. (prioritized other things higher).

Works for me, but 4d8 is one point less damage, on average.

I'm totally guessing, but 4d8?

From the Core Rulebook:

While in rage, a barbarian cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except Acrobatics, Fly, Intimidate, and Ride) or any ability that requires patience or concentration.

The bolded part is what would kill a barbarian/pyro from being able to activate weapon afire while in a rage. In order to manifest a power, or psi-like ability, you have to be able to concentrate.

That being said, I don't see any reason why weapon afire couldn't be manifested prior to the rage. Once weapon afire is manifested, it doesn't require concentration; only that the weapon continue to be held.

The pyrokineticist's abilities that could be activated prior to a rage, and continue to be used during the rage, are as follows:

- Fire Lash
- Hand Afire
- Weapon Afire
- Nimbus

Per RAW, you wouldn't be able to use conflagration, either, but your GM might make an exception for it, since it feels right for a barbarian. If I were GMing, I'd allow conflagration to be used, but it would end your rage. (My own personal call)

Also, I'm not sure about Firewalk. I can't remember if supernatural abilities require concentration, nor do I know if the requirement of spending 1 power point/round would constitute "concentration" either.