Chess Pwn's page

Thanks! I knew I had seen it, but like you, thought it was a post, didn't think to check the FAQs.

If my character is Dark Archive and I play a pregen, can I do a faction mission still?

I know the season 9 guide says that the pregen counts as the faction of the character it's being applied to, does that hold true for faction cards?

Found an error in one of the feat entries in the guide:

Your guide, Feats section wrote:

{. . .}

Quicken Spell* - Since you have several ways to cast spells as a swift action already (e.g. spell storing weapon or the Hasted Assault arcana), you probably want to do so without having to use a slot four levels higher. At level 15 and up, this is a good combo with Spell Perfection.
{. . .}

Your description of Hasted Assault makes it sound like you can use it to cast faster.

Hasted Assault wrote:

Prerequisite: Magus 9

Benefit: The magus can expend 1 point from his arcane pool as a swift action to move more quickly. This functions as haste, but only targets the magus and lasts for a number of rounds equal to the magus’s Intelligence bonus.

This is good but doesn't help you cast faster, and actually can't be used in the same round with Swift Action casting (they both use your Swift Action).

I believe that's an example of a spell you can cast as a swift action already via arcana. You don't need to quicken since you can already haste as a swift action.

The default rule for SLA are things granted by race, and thus go off of total hit die for calculations. Class based SLA don't want to go off of total HD, but just the class levels of the class granting the SLA.

The other thing to do is look at the wording the FAQ uses, it makes it more clear what they actually meant. Word space in books is a difficult thing to work around sometimes.

Like if you feel that's the rules then run with it. You do have enough support for the idea that it can hold if you're the GM, it just runs counter to the general trend of the game, thus why the other view is prefered and used by many.

Just an idea, but it'd be really nice if you shared the link(s) to the new stuff when you post here. But thanks for compiling this stuff together and staying on top of it. That's awesome.

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Guide updated for Elemental Master's Handbook with the Windstep Master! HERE!

Psychodermist occultist

"At 1st level, a psychodermist learns how to siphon power from pieces of creatures he has slain."

There is a damage comparison archer thread Arsenal Champion was first, inquisitor second, fighter third.

I would look up that thread.

here is the numbers and some posts before are the builds for the comparison. This was done at lv10 rather than 20, so obviously some stuff can change with that but this should give a decent baseline.

Yes, it makes lots of sense. Still expansive as all hells. I don't understand how a Rogue can keep up in damage with any other class even more now.

And thus why it is viewed as such a bad classes comparatively to all others. And why core is worse than unchained cause at least the unchained got some buffs to help it a little in this.

So as my Dex bonus does not conflict with my armor penalty, the best first buy would be a Masterwork Rapier which later should be pushed to a +1 Rapier?

Yes.

Specialist because here's the reason.

At lv2 you have 2 spells if universal and 3 spells if specialist. But if you need to prepare 1 spell on your bad schools then you still have 2 spells, same as the universalist. So the universalist is only a better choice if you're often preparing lots of spells from every school so that you're always missing out on spells slots by having opposed schools. (Note I think it's impossible to achieve that condition)

The base wizard is really good, if not very familiar with the wizard it's the option I'd say to go with.

If it alters the eidolon then it's a no go.
though there might get exceptions like this, "The shaitan binder archetype can be applied to an unchained summoner; however, the summoner must select elemental (earth) for his eidolon's subtype." Since it's not altering the base form but making you take a specific option.

EDIT:
here is where it says it.

"The unchained summoner qualifies for all existing summoner archetypes, save those that modify the eidolon's type or base form."

Just a note: I believe he means the Disciple of the Pike archetype from Monster Hunter's Handbook. A rather neat archetype that I've been looking into making a character for myself. I love spears and polearms.

Yes, that is correct, my mistake on the name.

If it's something that is REQUIRED for them to succeed to move the plot forward then it's not a challenge but story and should be treated as such.

If it's something that they ARE ALLOWED TO FAIL then it can be a challenge and they can fail and miss out on something.

Players will get upset or lazy if you make something REQUIRED and place it behind something they can fail, cause when they fail they find out that you give them the info anyways and thus they can stop caring about being good at stuff. (make a DC 20 diplomacy check, I got a 5, well they tell you anyways) leads to (you need to get past the dragon, I'm going to sneak, but you have a -10 to stealth, yeah but the GM wants us to get by unnoticed so he'll have us succeed if we try)

Now having a game with lots of story moments where you accomplish stuff for plot is fine and great, though something to inform your players about. But having story moments that you pretend aren't story moments will lead to problems.

Yup, PFS put a limitation on how old ones apply to the new summoner, but the "official" rule is that all can apply somehow.

The issue you're running into is your setup is what's forcing the game feel. You're "requiring" the players to succeed a certain way, your story requires it, and there's no way for them to fail. So YES, if it's story, then there's no reason to make checks or having it take time other than to say it happens, it's story time party.

But the real issue is, you shouldn't have a story for the players to go through, but a world, tell the players they need to get into the castle, and don't have a set plan how they do it.

Options are climb the wall, bluff/diplomacy a guard to let them in for some reason, disguise that you're a worker at the castle, sneak into the castle, etc.

now skill checks matter, does their plan work or not? OOPS, the fighter was too clanky and got the party caught, but hey, then when you tried disguises everything worked okay and now you're in. No story mode needed.

So if the point is making it a challenge to get into don't have a set plan and force success, this is meant to be an important part that they have to overcome. If the point is that they get into it no problem and the challenge is in the castle then storymode the way in and get to the important parts.

Order of the pike is a pretty good one for replacing the mount, makes your weapon choices limited, but you get weapon training and personal bonuses for charging.

So weapon finesse says, "If you carry a shield, its armor check penalty applies to your attack rolls."
My question is, if you're non-proficient with a shield that you also take it's ACP as a penalty to attack rolls. Does this double up and stack or does it only apply once?

Oh, lunge is a really nice feat, I like it on my melee guys, also helps with reach issues as now you can attack 10ft and getting large can attack 15.

Wands of enlarge or longarm are helpful too and don't need UMD cause of the bloodrager dip.

You want the glory, you hype up your contributions and downplay the parties, Maybe trying placing dibs on the most of the stuff to use/hold onto during the adventure, you tell the venture captain at the end that you should get a little extra for your work, maybe have something like profession get extra from the Venture captions or perform get extra from the Venture captains. Sure mechanically you're not getting extra, but you're trying to, and that's the important bit.

There's not any. Domains are one of the class features that currently can't be increased outside of cleric levels except by a few prestige classes.

Yup, the FAQ says that if two archetypes ADD different skills to skill list they are not compatible.

The effective spell level for these spell-like abilities is equal to the highest-level spell that a character of that class could normally cast at the level the ability is gained.

It's going off of this and using the logic that the ability is gained the level the requirements are met, but that you can't use it unless you choose it for your focus power.

Also bringing in the logic that the DEVs have said to use that stuff in pathfinder should be the same regardless of order. A ranger 2 fighter 2 is the same regardless of the order of taking the levels. So choosing the power at the earliest possible or latest possible shouldn't give different results for the same ability.

Granted this isn't going to be spelled out so clearly since this seems to be the first time this issue has come up. But unless the DEVs have changed their minds about having abilities be the same regardless of when you acquire them their answer will be use the level that it's opened up as an option.

As a GM this makes sense and should probably be followed unless you want to change it, and as a player you should follow this cause the GM won't care since it's the less exploitable option and if he does care he will likely be persuaded by this argument.

Since in PFS shield brace reduces your damage to that of a one-handed weapon it just makes it so you're sword and boarding, which it seems is what you're not wanting since you went two handed this entire time.

reach is the only maybe hinderer that you probably should be able to deal with, so do you get access to the grace spell? Cast that as a swift to not provoke and then get into position and then rage and hit things. Though provoking and healing works well too.

I've played through Eyes, what I'll say is that you should be quite fine with what you have as is. So if you want to get better go for it, but you'll do your job well enough as is.

So Thugsalot.

the traits are magical knack and fate's favored.
Fate's favored increases luck bonuses by 1, so divine favor is +2 at lv1, then at lv6 it upgrades to +2 so with the feat it's +3.
Magical knack makes it so you only need 4 levels of WP to eventually reach cl6 for divine favor to add +3.

Rage-cycling ISN'T getting extra rounds of rage, rage-cycling is going into rage multiple times in 1 fight to be able to use the once-per-rage powers more than once a fight.

The scarred does this by raging on their turn, turning it off on end of turn and being fatigued for 1 round instead of 2 which ends at the start of their next turn. Thus letting the rage again and use the once-per-rage powers.

Also the occultist can have rage and lead blades, by getting the rage domain via reliquarian. The divine hunter hunter as well by getting the rage domain too.

For stuff that you can choose at any level, the "Spell level" is set at the level the ability earliest achievable.

So for Quickness power, that is opened up at lv5, that's the level you use, regardless of if you pick it up as your last focus power.

So for the energy ray example, since that doesn't have a minimum level requirement it's a "1st level spell". Since the power requires only 1 level of occultist and at that level you only have 1st level spells.

This way it follows the principle that things are the same regardless of the order of getting there.

a thing to note is that you don't need the tripping one to get the good pounce one

Titan Mauler barb at lv2 can dual wield greatswords.
Anyone with the exotic weapon proficiency can dual wield bastard swords.

2d6 -> 3d6 -> 4d6 ~ 14 at -6 to hit
1d10 -> 2d8 -> 3d8 ~13.5 at -4 to hit

That means at lv4 you're looking at +6/+6 to hit for 3d8+7 damage when raging after lead blades and enlarge goes down, DPR 22.55. AC at lv4 for enemies is like 17, so you need an 11 or better to hit. With power attack too you're at +4 to hit for ~24.5 damage, DPR 21.56.

A normal barb at lv4 with power attack and greatsword is at +8 for 4d6+16 damage when raging after lead blades and enlarge goes down, DPR 19.8. Only needing a 9 or better.

At lv 8 adding in str belt and +1 weapons

2WF is looking at +12/+12/+7 for 3d8+9 DPR 38.36
1W is looking at +13/+8 for 4d6+22 DPR 41.58

So on a full attack it'll be just a little weaker than using 1 weapon, but if you can't full attack it's a lot weaker. If you're going to try for this you'll want to look for as many attack bonuses as you can to get that accuracy better, as that'll let you outpace the one weapon build.

I'm still failing to see what your issue is. What is it that you need to accomplish? Were you planning on taking many levels of lore warden? Does the new lore warden not cover your needs and if not why? Why would there be a need for total retraining once the new Lore warden becomes the only lore warden? It's just very unclear to me what you issue actually is and what you're actually trying to accomplish.

Not that I know of.

Would an evangelist cleric that gets inspire courage do the trick?
Questioner investigator?

Nah, following CR being outmanned means you're fighting stuff that has no threat to you.

An NPC of equal level is CR-1, but two of them are CR+1. Fighting 4 of them is a quite high CR fight and that's just to reach an equal count fight if the players only have 4 people. Getting 6 enemies for a 6 man party to fight would be even higher CR. So like a lv7 party of 6 would be fighting like 6 lv2 characters to have the CR end up right.

that's why standard encounters won't have that many enemies to fight at once usually.

Right, but the monk and probably any other class that matches the definition has no bonus to CMB and also wouldn't be having a lv2 bonus feat.

Like maybe he thinks that since he doesn't own the new material he can't use it and is looking for alternatives. I don't know, that's why I'm asking.

Just note for archives that if it's newly legalized material they might not have updated the books with the Glyph yet. So like the adventurer's guide is mostly legal, but archives may say all of it is not legal cause they haven't updated yet.

What's wrong with just using the updated lore warden? It gives you all knowledge and 4 skills with full bab.

Sure that gets you to a pretty good spot. Let's see here though

that allows for 2 fights a day at that level, and uses up a ton of spells to get you to that spot, and if a fight is over a half-hour apart then you need to drop more spells.
Also 2 full rounds of buffing at the start of a fight before you're good. Again, that means you're doing nothing till round 3 when you can finally start helping, and that's the point when the fight has usually been decided already. And DR 10 really cripples you since you don't have a way to bypass any DR types.

I'm struggling to understand why you're suddenly wanting to take this character that's seems to clearly have not been a melee guy, and suddenly try to make him okay at melee.

lv10 vs CR 10

Level EDV To Hit AC
10 65 22 33
32.5 17 28
21.45 13 24

You currently have +7/+2 for 1d8+1 that's EDV of 4.3 with AC 23
That means you need to somehow gain 17 EDV and 1 AC to reach the ORANGE rating for the benchpressing by the numbers mark.

trading your 8 armor bonus for 8 wisdom bonus does little to help. Getting bracers of armor +2 for 4,000 gets your AC up a tiny bit over the 3,000 it costs to upgrade your armor or your shield.

Even getting wisdom to attacks that puts your accuracy at only a +14/+9 for your to hit, but still only doing 1d8+1. Since the enemy has ~130 HP your max damage of like 10 is basically meaningless.

Even spending 1 round for divine favor, another for transformation, and another for righteous might with the magic sword that gets you to +20/+15 for 1d8+9 which is EDV of 25.45. So after 3 rounds of buffs and using up 3 spells you can reach the lowest tier of contribution on round 4, which is hardly enough to be worth the effort doing so.

If there was a quick fix for the "melee gap" then the real melee people would be taking that option a lot of the time and thus there'd no longer be a way to bridge the gap. Personal buffs spells that you mentioned are the bridge for a combat cleric to be a top tier damage member, but for you they are making you go from garbage tier to bad tier.

Can a sohei flurry with a shield?

Okay, so Darkleaf Cloth, Leather Lamellar for a medium human costs 810.
For a medium animal you double that price to 1620.
For making it large that's another x2 for 3240.

So let's say that at lv8 they have a +20 to attack when doing 1 attack.
Then if doing a full attack with TWF his attack would be +18/+18/+13.

Which is just your normal full attack of +20/+15 and then applying the TWF -2 and the extra attack at full bab.

So here's my help.

What's the point of the character?
If the point is to be casting offensive spells, which it seems like you are with the spell penetration feats, then the monk is not helping with that.

Was the point supposed to be a melee guy? If so, your stats are awful for it and you must have had real trouble getting here, and the monk dip won't really be helping with this. Sure getting wis to attack may help you hit, but your AC won't be that great and you'll be doing like no damage.

If the point is to buff, then maybe? Are there no better spells you have/get than what inspire courage would be doing?

the familiar by default would have the same RANKS in UMD as you do, so it uses it's own charisma and stuff, but the ranks are what you put into it.

Good hope works great with most barbs and bloodragers. Only the superstitious chained barbs don't get AS much use from it, but still get plenty that they'd enjoy it.

Reduce animal lasts hours per cast, so it's a good way to shrink a companion if it's large. So the issue would be is large too big for my small option. If large is fine sized, then having default huge and use shrink when needed seems better than large with limited growth.

Any update or word on the search functionality of the scenario's played page? If I type in something it's always returning no results.

It needs to make the UMD check. To not make a UMD check he'd need to have it's own spells.

BigNorseWolf wrote:

claudekennilol wrote:

Here's the crux of it.

Lore wardens lost a feat. It's not just that "lore wardens are a finely oiled machine" that other people above have been saying. It's simply that characters are now losing a feat. Effectively, we've been told "push your feat progression back 1 or 2 levels". Now there's a choice involved. For my lore warden, it means that the feat I was looking forward to getting for my level 11 "capstone" no longer exists in my character's playable future.

This is exactly the sort of thing people describing characters as a machine or a watch mean when we make the comparison. You popped that gear out now nothing else will make the whole thing work except that exact gear.

The problem with comparing machinery to a character build is that very often if one gear pops out and destroys the machine its probably just a poorly built and running machine.

right, cause if you remove the one gear that connects the hand to the rest or the watch it was a poorly made watch. If I remove the radiator cap from a car and it overheats it was a poorly built car. Remove the one gear that links the steering wheel to the tires and now you can't steer, but that's just a poorly built car.

Most things made don't have backup systems that are otherwise redundant unless they anticipate likely need of a backup system.

If a character class grants a spell-like ability that is not based on an actual spell, the ability's effective spell level is equal to the highest-level class spell the character can cast, and is cast at the class level the ability is granted.

So this is worded a little funny, but it's saying that the caster level of the SLA is the class level that granted the ability.

FAQ
The class grants quickness at lv5, if you choose or are able to take it that level doesn't matter, the class granted access to it at lv5, thus it'd count as a 2nd level spell.

Mark's thoughts

yeah, the "big 6" for a rogue is the listed items. Yes a rogue can benefit from a headband, but the "big 6" only factor in getting the 1 headband/belt for your main stat.

nope, it's not modifying the spell. It's just like how maximized wouldn't do anything to the flame blade. The spell creates the blade, what you do after that isn't the spell anymore.

no, you're not hitting orc B, you need to hit to discharge a held spell.
no, see above.

Unless otherwise noted, the DC for any saving throw against a focus power equals 10 + 1/2 the occultist’s level + the occultist’s Intelligence modifier.

CL of a SLA granted by a class are always full class level of the class granting the SLA. So the level you pick it up doesn't matter.

Now it's effective spell level (which spell slot it would use) I would say is based on the level the class grants access to the SLA, regardless of when you pick up the SLA. So energy ray since you can pick it up at first would be a 1st level spell. Fly being available at lv7 is a 3rd level spell, even if you don't pick it up till lv 15. So the level you pick it up doesn't matter.

This follows the principle of pathfinder that the results should be the same regardless of the order of the path to get there.

So if there was a shield of some sort that blocked all SU on the enemy, energy ray still works fine, as the actual ray is a SLA. Having focus powers is a SU for the Occultist, using them is what is listed. So having your SU turned off stops energy ray because you no longer have focus powers.