ChazzAtron5000's page

Subject says it, here's the wording that makes it questionable (paraphrasing for brevity):

Trick Attack
As a full action you can move then make an attack...

Deadly Aim
When you take the attack or full attack action...

It might be mincing words, but Deadly Aim specifies when it can be used in such a way that though one could reason by RAI Deadly Aim can be used in conjunction with Trick Attack, RAW doesn't support it.

Another example: As Deadly Aim in Starfinder doesn't discriminate between ranged and melee weapons as it did in Pathfinder; RAI could suggest that Deadly Aim works with the Charge action.

Charge
A full action that allows you to move up to double your speed and make a melee attack at the end of the movement.

However, RAW for Deadly Aim specifies only the attack or full attack actions - both Trick Attack and Charge are special full actions of their own.

While I can see it argued either way, I do believe it requires clarification since Starfinder is new, the intention of the rules is still more in flux. It could be a purposeful thing, or merely an oversight in wording as seen in the FAQ so far (ie, a Mechanic's Custom Rig acting as a MK1 comms device but the Equipment section having different comms device distinctions).

I ran this AP a few years back. The answers have been fairly well covered, but I will say a few things.

The month or however long your characters spend as pressganged crewmembers is there to instill hate for Harrigan and his crew. This isn't one of the APs that expects you to be good - you're pirates (or will be). The idea, like emphasized above, is to mutiny - such a thing in these circumstances means killing those you can't have join you. There are several NPCs aboard that will help - if you can convince them that life under your leadership will be better. That whole first month is more of an rp exercise, much different from the average beginning of an adventure. Trying to mutiny without support would mean certain death, so you have to work at it.

As to loot, that requires a mutiny, with a lot of support. They're not about to let you pressganged swabs to walk around armed unless there's going to be combat imminent, so there are plans to be made. Plus, you can't just light everything on fire - you need the ship. The idea in this AP is that you start with nothing and have to earn everything the hard way.

I like clerics thematically. However, I don't think they benefited from the change between 3.5 and Pathfinder. As more and more classes and options become available, that has become more apparent to me (also, wizard I believe suffers a from similar issues, but that's a different story).

Firstly, let's look at what is generally expected of a cleric and how well they perform in those rolls. But before that, let me make a statement - in combat healing is for chumps. I you aren't casting (or whatever) something that will either heal a bunch (like a heal spell) or fix an issue that could be life or death (remove paralysis for example, depending on the situation). While some may argue this is incorrect, the best "healing" involves quickly decimating your enemies and patching up afterwards - healing in combat slows that down. I've seen this time and time again in the APs I've been a part of, either as a player or a DM. Someone with the ability to use a wand of CLW, even if by UMD, gets the job done. I won't discount other healer builds, specifically the oradin, but we're focused on the cleric here.

With that being said, when we think of cleric (or at least when my group thinks about cleric), we harken back to the glory days, like in 3.0 when they were indestructible monsters. Spells were a bit more powerful then, and clerics could use that, combined with domains, items, and later on feats centered on turning their turn undead power into something useful to smash face. There's a certain expectation of that now, but cleric as it stands can't do that anymore.

The issue is twofold - firstly, while most core classes were boosted and continue to be boosted in Pathfinder, cleric has been left behind (and it's not the only class - see wizard, and even rogue despite the "unchained" variant). Secondly, with the general toning down of magic and apparent increased focus on martial combat makes maximizing a cleric problematic.

Clerics used to be able to, and quite well, mix the martial and spellcasting options of the class. Nowadays, trying to accomplish that is a foolhardy task. Your stats will be spread too thin, and you have to spend far too long buffing in a vain attempt to be the equal of a martial character, and your spells suffer from not having a maximized spellcasting stat. These issues present themselves even if you do focus on one aspect over the other - a martial focused cleric spends too much time buffing, and a spellcasting focused cleric... well, the cleric spell list is decent, but you have to be creative. In my opinion, the spellcasting focused cleric is the way to go. If you want to play a martial cleric, play a paladin or a warpriest. Warpriest was definitely the final nail in the coffin for a martial cleric. The first was taking away heavy armor proficiency.

But I haven't even talked about healing! So Pathfinder gives us channeling, which at first I was like wow, free healing! I can use spells on other things and not heal! Well, maybe. First off, it's based off charisma - the biggest failure of the ability. The second biggest, needing a feat to not heal everyone in range. Suddenly, paladins become better at channeling since they typically have higher charismas, it just costs a bit more for them. Warpriest? They get to use their wisdom... why not cleric?!? In any case, in combat healing kills action economy - you should be trying to out damage your opponents, killing them faster - not trying to out heal their ability to damage. That's a losing battle, because healing is limited, swinging an axe is not.

To continue to the next point about healing - your choice of channeling/spontaneously casting healing magic is alignment based. This means evil clerics are horrible healers. Why? Is that really necessary? Look at oracle (another class that seriously makes the cleric look like only a slightly better option than adept) which gets to choose. Just choose, no alignment involved.

Other things about cleric just make it a joke. It's bad enough with things mentioned above, but let's talk about the theme of the class. Tell me, does 2 skill points a level sound right? It's generally accepted that clerics go through some form of training - seminary school if you will. That means study, yet they get less skill points than an oracle, who just sort of gets their power. Though wizards may also fall into this category, they at least have a high intelligence score to compensate for it (not that it makes it right by any means). Clerics already have an issue with stats being spread too thin, and intelligence is easily the stat of least importance. Really, 4 skill points per level would be fair. That way, they could have things like spellcraft and knowledge (religion) at levels that are meaningful, with a few points to spare for other things depending on the individual. Like, how does a cleric proselytize without skills? I mean, you could focus on like one aspect with 2 skill points per level, but that's lame.

Then there are the issues I have with prepared spellcasters vs spontaneous casters. That may be a bit more of a personal issue, but I do believe that prepared casters just lack the magical endurance you need for having more than one fight in a day. I don't like the idea of "oh, I cast that spell so that was the only one today, sorry guys", especially when it fails somehow. No amount of foreknowledge and preparing the perfect spells for a situation will beat spamming good, general use spells. Burst of Radiance is a good example of a nice, spammable cleric spell.

All of this makes me sad. I like what clerics represent, and what they could be. You want to know why no one wants to play the cleric? It's because the class needs an overhaul. You want to know why nobody wants to play a healer, as I suspect that's the real question? Because unless you're an oradin and have the action economy to fight while healing, you're better off dropping the monsters and healing when it's over.

#incombathealingisforchumps

Name: Kasiem

Race: Suli
Class/Level: Spellscarred Oracle 9
Adventure: Mummy's Mask Book 3
Location: Chisisek's Tomb
Catalyst: Jamirah (though the was only the end)

** spoiler omitted **...

As said Oread Druid, I have a few comments...

I think the biggest issue was having one player run 3 PCs (until the aforementioned deceased Oracle showed up). The second biggest issue was because there were 2 players missing (who happen to be the most tactically sound players), the rest of the clowns decided it would be a great idea to go all Scooby Doo on the tomb.

So it was lousy internet that almost got us killed. I'm still fairly bitter about it. My Druid may have to show the clowns the power of the Behemoth Hippo Druid.

Well, Ustalav is full of humans, so they are incredibly racist with their bonus feat and skill points.

Actually it's one of those horror themed "we hate people that aren't from these parts, they're obviously causing all of our problems", and the locals happen to be human. I fully expect lynch mobs for non humans that even remotely come close to putting a toe over the line.

with a +5 reflex save/improved evasion and a 19 ac, that may be difficult lol.

right now other than only having 4 hp it's a pretty combat effective spider. it could probably take my witch.

yeah, lest I send my witch's familiar after you

"Attack them Pungo! They're roleplaying!"

...and silly typos is what i get for typing a post on my lunch break

@ Griar I was wondering what deity the paladin you worship. Your choice will work decently for my anti-religious witch, since followers of Erastil tend to be more about leading by example than proselytizing.

Hope you don't have arachnophobia, because my familiar might not understand that ;)

A link to my character, she's ready to go.

Svetlana Kalashnikov

Patron - I'm not sure of at the moment. Unfortunately they're kinda meaningless beyond the spells they provide; there's no actual fluff counterpart to them. Back during playtest it defined the witches familiar, now it's just a name with 1 free spell per level.

Hexes - I plan to spend a feat or two or ten on the Extra Hex feat. I'll probably take cauldron (and thus have alchemy be my "day job"), evil eye, slumber, cackle... the typical list of goodies. I don't know much about the AP past that it's "horror movie themed" so I have to be prepared to work around undead. Some hexes are fine, others won't work. Same with spells. I see the witch as a support debuffer, with (hopefully) lots of tricks to figure out difficult combats/situations. With a paladin in the group I'm not so worried about damage dealing.

Also planning on taking improved familiar (a must for a witch in my opinion). I'll be planning my alignment off of that, since most require a one or two step alignment difference. I noticed "any" listed under the alignment guidelines, but with a paladin I'll play nice. There's a pretty decent one for good characters - the Lyrakien. Not as good as an imp being all invisible UMDing wands all over the place, but close lol.

Also being chaotic helps me with the background, of recent the witch has had to move from town to town as a snake oil salesman, selling "vitality potions" (nothing more than the Pathfinder equivalent of an energy drink).

I have a human witch lined up; my regular group was going to play CC a while back but stuff happened. I have both fluff and crunch; just need to tweak it. Planning on taking a spider familiar, reskinned as a camel spider. Because nothing says fear quite like one of those crawling on your face.

True. I've been using a spiked gauntlet for cutting my way out. I was just fishing for others that may have asked the same question and possibly found a more official ruling. Judging by the effects of the Barbed Vest, that could be used to support the idea that at least for being under the effects of Swallow Whole that armor spikes could do something similar. I wouldn't agree with it damaging anything that touches you, but certainly for Swallow Whole. Thanks

and before I forget, using the normal grapple rules to make a CMB vs either of the previous mentioned creatures CMD is pretty much an utter impossibility. I look at it this way - if I'm going to spend half my time in the belly of the beast, the least I can do is deal 1d6 damage from being prepared lol.

I can understand a humanoid creature being able to avoid the spikes, but what about something different? I am playing a paladin in the Savage Tide ap, and I keep getting gobbled up or grappled by huge snakes. How would a snake, or a t-rex that just gobbled me up avoid getting damaged by the spikes? Logically, there isn't much of a chance for a gargantuan sized snake or a t-rex's gizzard to avoid getting poked by the sharp metal spikes I want to attach to my armor. Is there something in the rules that can support this, or is it up to DM ruling?

Xzaral,

Wow. That was brutal. 76 points of damage... unbelievable.

Still, the little bugger probably had it coming. :)

But seriously, glad to hear you're having a good time. Congratulate your player. I've been watching several pbp games and had numberous play reports and he's the first PC death I've heard about.

He may literally be, in all the world, the first to die along the "Way of the Wicked".

He's a pioneer!

Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games

Ah, my poor halfling. None of my rogues ever survive. I played one in Council of Thieves and was demolished to about -24 hp by a skeleton triceratops. When my rogues die, they go all out lol.

Still, successfully implicating Edderly in the staged murder suicide of the Mott family with the use of the love letters (some forged) is worth the spectacular death. That and hiding next to Mrs. Mott's corpse lol.

Next up, Human Bones Oracle, sort of a voodoo version of Xykon from OotS. Now, how will I hide my undead horde :)

I played my first game in 1995, and i was Fyre, the minotaur fighter. my dm let me use the Dragonlance rules for minotaurs, and it was a little overpowered. I had both a 20 str and con, giving me a distinct advantage throughout the 12 levels i played the character. In 2ed rules, it meant that i had "stone giant" strength, with a +3 to hit and a +8 to damage. I also had an insane amount of hit points, and regenerated 1 hp every 6 rnds from the con. One of my earliest adventures pitted me against a blue dragon, in which i not only survived, but left a sword in its gut and broke its leg with a tree i pulled out of the ground. That and i was allowed to use a 2h sword in one hand and a shield in the other. for me, he defines the word tank in d&d

There is a feat in the Eberron book, i think its called precise swing, that is awesome for a spiked chain wielder. It negates anything but total cover for all of your melee attacks, including the cover provided by bodies in the way of the weapons reach. That combined with a high dex and combat reflexes, allows for a lot of attacks.