For the Prestige Paladin:
bonus feats kick in at 5th level while the mercy ability is gained at 4th level, so you may consider listing the mercy ability first.
For the 7th level mercy should you also gain the option of fatigued increased to exhausted?
For the monastic crusader, under you lay on hands description is seems to imply you can gain channeled energy even if your original class does not grant it, but the monastic crusader description seems to contradict this.
Under divine weapon when you are talking about the properties you can gain, you reference armor properties rather than weapon properties.
Under symbol of divinity it returned to referencing how many times per day you can call the spirit, but you seemed to have gone away from that route for the divine armor and weapon. Was that intentional?
Under the suite of life greater aura of life ability you say with access to all six auras but there are only 5.
Under the marshal's suite superior aura the soothing performance example does not seem to show up in the current bard document.
Finally should the save DC in debilitating touch reference your prestige paladin level rather than your divine caster level?
To continue for cleric
Under the thievery domain, can they gain any skill focus as a bonus feat?
For the time domain, is the variant channeling a swift action, and is there a cap on how high a level spell you can create (it appears it adds one to the spell level due to the metamagic effect, though it is unclear if it is starting with the first extension or further extensions).
I noticed you do not have a void domain, would you consider it something to add?
For the domain feats:
Under animal devotion (serpent's strike) would you want to say injects poison dealing, rather than deals...
For the chaos devotion did you want it to last till your next round rather than next action (since it is a swift action you next action could be very soon). I would also consider rewording the darkness domain umbral shroud to next round also.
Under the umbral shroud you require a darkness domain spell to be available to cast but not all the people qualifying have access to the darkness domain (the shadow bloodline for instance). The same thing is true for charnel miasma.
Also a lot of your domain feats add spells to your "cleric" spell list, but not all the classes taking these feats are clerics.
Also some of the feats allow you to exchange one, two, or three channeling attempts into extra usage, have you considered consolidating these all to be consistent (such as making them all require two channeling attempts to exchange for another use).
For fragile construct do multiple touches stack at lowering hardness or damage resistance?
The shaitan bloodline should likely get access to the earth devotion (same goes for the efreet and the fire devotion and the marid and the water devotion).
For the combat medic when you say cast healing spells to you mean spells of the necromancy (healing) school or just cure spells?
Under your unspeakable cults some of them gain favored terrain abilities, should they stack with other instances of the favored terrain?
For Cyth-vsug the demonic health should grant a bonus against sickness effects also I would suspect.
Under Grazzt the spell betrayal effect is gained at 4th level I suspect.
For Kostchtchie your rage example should likely be 4th not 3rd since you gain the ability at 4th level.
In the cleric document
I was comparing the archivist and the cleric, and the archivist seems to be giving up quite a bit. Had you considered giving archivists something like and sorcerer/battle sorcerer difference (more spells per day) and/or more channeling uses per day since they have access to more variant channeling abilities?
For the archery domain puissant archery still references the ranger archery combat style list you removed.
In the domains you still reference cleric levels, you could change them to cleric/archivist levels (or class levels since some other classes like monk and druid can gain access to some domains also).
For the destruction domain change the skill focus to craft: construction.
In the forge domain you grant a 4th and 8th level ability but no first level ability.
In the fury domain your variant channeling ability is used as a swift action correct?
For the luck domain exemplar of luck, did you want them to gain evasion and improved evasion? (rather than uncanny dodge or would you throw that in also?)
For the rune domain you reference craft: carving but in the bard and wizard document runes fall under the knowledge linguistics skill. Also under blast rune, runes are now discovered by the spellcraft skill rather than the perception skill.
Kirth for the monk
Your temple weapon can be any weapon you and the DM agree on correct?
For the monk sutras did you really want both attribute development and the advanced sutra advanced conditioning? It would appear they would stack but they are so similar in design it seems a little weird.
For the enlightened fist and sacred fist options should the arcane and divine class levels add to your monk level for the purposes of your ki attack ability? (If they cannot then the improved ki attack advanced sutra would need to address the level caps discussed in the ki attack section, are the level caps character level or monk level and are they waived if you take the improved ki attack advanced sutra?)
Improved Ki attack references ki strike at the end of the first paragraph (in the middle of the section) and it should likely say ki attack.
Greater timeless step has the "you must already have the timeless step sutra" clause twice (in the begining and the end).
Do you want the monks mind blank advanced sutra to match the ranger indomitable mind ability (able to benefit from harmless spells but be a legal target for divination spells)?
Can the sacred fist deliver divine touch attack spells as ki strike powers like the enlightened fist can?
Is it intentional that the monks mettle sutra also grants immunity to fear? It may be better to break it into a separate sutra or at least make it a scaling ability.
You still list life bond in your type of bonds table, but it seems you merged it with the domain bond. This also comes up because there are some some life bond references in the druid feats, likely they should change to channel energy.
Looking over the Animal initiation may want to update some of the bonus feats (like greater wrestling maneuvers).
Finally, for the spirit shaman the description seems like only they can use the dispell chaos/law/evil/good spell to end possessions, is there a reason you did not just errata the spell for all the classes with access to it.
Baphomet in the cleric document in missing his first level granted spell and the spell level number progression is funky (1st 2nd .... 15th 17th).
Cyth-vsug is missing the 11th level granted spell and creeping doom should likely be 13th not 7th.
For rogue's slippery mind ability, do they need the iron will feat before the greater iron will portion of the ability kicks in or can they wave the prereq?
Also under silver, pandemonic, you may want to reword the begining section so say something like "including penetrating damage reduction and the addition to Craft DCs. They can penetrate damage reduction as if chaotically-aligned"
Also the Hurricane wind strength in the table likely should be 75-174 (rather than 75-154)
I looked over a few of the documents. I am not able to be as detailed with feedback right now but I can point out some issues.
For skills you rolled drive, administration, and linguistics into knowledges and professions but you still list them separately in the class right ups. Since they now count in the profession and knowledge (all) category you do not need to list them separately anymore.
For the feats you still list Bones mystery (in the spells, feats, and cleric feats document), this also is the same for the mercy mystery in the cleric feats description (should be the life mystery)
Was not adding a sorcerer and battle sorcerer archetype for the paladin intentional, they would seem to have good synergy.
You seemed to have removed first blood but it is still listed in some of the feats in the feats document and a lot in the equipment document.
For some of the mysteries you gain greater spell focus at 11th level and in others 9th, is it intentional that they are different?
A lot of the mysteries revelations still refer the cleric, wizard, and oracle level which I think are cut and paste errors.
In the incarnate "planar body" it should be "a" planar adaption spell not “an”.
The life and oracular mysteries do not seem to be on par with the others, I don't know if you would want to flesh them out more (life could get some undead fighting powers, for the oracular mystery I like some of the void powers from the dragon empires player guide).
For the rogue swarm dodger description, I am a little confused with the improved evasion power since you seem to be able to already avoid damage with the regular evasion ability.
The 3rd day of rogue's luck happens at 17th level rather than 16th level in the table, which does not match the description.
For rogue, advanced combat talents and advanced skill talents do not match their descriptions.
Sabotage item could be clarified, the table makes it seem each task is a separate attempt but the descriptions allows for one attempt with different effects depending on how much you beat the DC by.
For ranger did you consider giving things like snow vision, dust vision, and mist vision rather than cold resistance, heat resistance, and sea sickness immunity? I guess I like rangers to be able to guide through snow storms, sand storms, and thick fog rather than rolling around naked in the snow or running through the Sahara desert in full plate mail with cold and heat resistance.
For the small sword is there a reason you get finesse with the simple proficiency but not with martial and exotic?
For the Archon martial path in sorcerer, you refer to "greater" sudden metamagic (quicken), how is that different than sudden metamagic?
Also if you take the sudden metamagic feat and choose the sudden spell how often would you be able to use it (I would assume it defaults to the +1 category (3 x a day) but a + 0 level metamagic feat is not addressed).
It is hard to believe that these are almost done. With my daughter being born a couple weeks ago it will likely be some time after April 1st when I get to read these updated documents, but it will be really nice to have the "final" rule set.
I am glad a few others came on board to do some proof reading also, it is nice to see and shows how inspiring this rules rewrite is.
Sorry, I was refering to the sentence: You gain a like bonus to your CMB (CMD) for defending against these maneuvers as well.
For a "fighter bonus feat", I was hoping to rephrase it to state "a character with fighter levels that has selected this feat". It is hard to remember if one took the feat with their bonus feat, before or after they multiclassed, etc.
Finally, were you able to look over the edits to the sorcerer and wizard at the bottom of page 5. I figure you did but you did not post anything.
Under the chaotic mind feat: you reference the zen warrior fighter talent that I believe was removed.
Under favored terrain: you state that it does not scale as a druid’s does, could you just say it does not scale instead?
Under the oath feat: you reference the multiple oaths feat in the last sentence, I believe it was removed.
For the resistance feat: Was it intentional to make it only for full BAB classes? Keying it off BAB rather than character level seems to make that the case.
Under the storm lashed feat change profession (sailor) to profession (sailing)
Under Familiar shadowform: is the feat still necessary since one now has the incorporeal familiar choice.
Under Urgent Shield: how long does the shield last once summoned?
Under Spell Mastery: remove the reference to read magic.
Under Spell Perfection: Change enlarge spell to reach spell.
Under Split Slot: Change references of Arcanum to feat.
Under Dodge, critical: I believe that improved uncanny dodge has been subsumed by the uncanny dodge feat.
Under feint, improved: you reference tricky maneuvers in the special section, did you decide to keep them as a maneuver choice?
Under the giant slayer feat: it should probably provide feat bonuses rather than racial bonus to attacks.
Under mounted combat: Change the ride skill references in the second paragraph of the benefit section to handle animal skill checks.
Under the bull rush, improved: Under the benefit section near the end of the 1st paragraph did you mean CMD rather than CMB? This also happens under the improved overrun feat.
Under the Critical, improved feat: delete the reference to a fighter bonus feat.
Under impaling attack feat: change the prereq reference of improved wrestling maneuvers to improved grapple.
Under power throw: The +11 and +16 abilities seem to be the same.
Under Distracting Lure: The prereq armor specialization should be Heavy Armor Optimization I believe.
Under redirection: Change the save reference of “half your monk level” to “half your character level”, also under synergy change improved forcing maneuvers to improved bull rush.
Under insightful strike: The BAB progression seems off, I think that abilities progression may be out of order (the +16 ability should maybe be the +6 ability?).
Under Severing strike: Change references to stroke of precision to severing strike.
Under demonic obedience: what is the benefit of the resistance gained equal to?
For the light shield you state that a shield enhancement bonus does not work for a shield bash attack, do you want to make a clause to that effect under the heavy shield also?
For you weapons table, the kestros was not added. Also do you want to create a separate entry for spiked shield and armor or just default to the normal pathfinder rules.
For the garrote, cord, garrote, wire, whip, and net: change references of improved wrestling maneuvers to improved grapple
The flails and whips description should come before hammers and picks to stay alphabetical.
I feel a little better about the intuition addition now, though I still would like to see how play testing treats it (and the work it causes will be huge I fear). Also I think the Bleed out option in endurance did not make it to the document posted online since I did not see it under endurance in my print out.
Having divination spells target intuition is good.
Also even with the toning down of the perception skill I still would count it as a benefit under wisdom. Back in 2nd edition I used an old dragon magazine suggestion to make 5% x your wisdom = perception, ever since that time perception had always been a core ability score for all my characters in 1st and 2nd edition.
I have been thinking about the 4 saves change and came up with a few questions/observations:
I looked over the spells and discovered how few spells actually are charm spells, most of the save or suck spells are compulsions. That being said dividing up charm spells to intuition and compulsion spells to will create three saves (Fort, Will, and Intuition) rather than two that are able to knock a player out of the combat with one roll (save or suck). This would seem to weaken the non-spell casting classes more. Allowing spell casters a new weakness to exploit seems to only strengthen them, especially the casters that are able to change out their entire complement of spells each day to vary their offensive options (i.e. the wizard and cleric).
I was also wondering how often making an intuition save would really matter. Yes against charm spells it is key, but I could only find 8 spells designated as charm spells (5 of which are the spells with charm in their name) when I looked through the list of spells I use (Core spells and select others), and honestly if I had to choose to defend myself against compulsion spells (most of the save or suck spells) or illusions and charm spells, intuition would be the minor save to focus on.
Change you begin play with 4 zero level spells to 3.
The Blast metamagic ability is gained at 4th level and so it probably should come before the rapid metamagic ability that is gained at 5th level.
Under aberrant form: you gain 100% immunity to crits and sneak attack under the unusual anatomy ability, gaining it under aberrant form is redundant.
Under Bloatmage: change the bonus feat enlarge spell to widen spell; under the eldritch blast’s great blast ability I believe the description in the parentheses after fell nausea is redundant; under bloat one should gain bloat once a day at 9th level rather than 8th, and at the end of description of bloat change “begins” to “begin”.
Under celestial: change the bonus feat defend ally to shared shield.
Under dreamspun: change the bonus feat improved tricky maneuvers to improved feint.
Under elemental, earth: change the bonus feat improved and greater forcing maneuvers to something like improved bull rush and improved overrun.
Under the Fey bloodlines: interestingly the fleeting glance ability is a (Sp) or (Su) ability depending on the bloodline, should they be consistent?
Under the Djinn eldritch blast greater blast ability, do you want it to reach hurricane wind force at 19th level?
Under Hag: you state they can gain ogres and hill giants as followers both under the bonus feats and the bloodline arcana.
Under Incantatrix: what do they gain damage reduction to?
Under Maestro: did you want to give them the bonus feat disguise spell rather than the spellsong feat?
Under the sevenfold veil: Should the bonus feat arcane shield be urgent shield instead?
Under the shadow bloodline: change the bonus feat improved tricky maneuvers to improved feint.
Under the spell thief: change the bonus feats improved and greater tricky maneuvers to improved feint and ?? (uncanny dodge is a possibility)?
Under stormborn: change the bonus feat enlarge spell to widen spell, also since the bestiary 2 gives stats for lightning elementals would you like to allow this bloodline to summon lightning elementals rather than air elementals?
Under Verdant: do you still allow the steal maneuver (under the tanglevine ability).
Wizard
You give them the bonus skill spellcraft and it also appears on the wizard class skills, is that correct?
Under the runic wizard ability did you want them to gain a competence bonus to linguistics rather than spellcraft?
For the abjurer protective ward ability: I think the “for one round” comment after the deflection bonus to AC is an error since you state it lasts for a number of rounds equal to your intelligence bonus earlier in the paragraph. Under mental backlash you should gain this ability at 12th level rather than 7th level.
Under the evoker’s counterfire ability: you state they gain this ability at 4th level twice.
Under the elemental fire master specialist ability change the enlarge spell feat to widen spell.
Under the witch hex aura of desecration, do you want the increase to the negative energy and turn resistance DC to scale?
Under the witch hex water lung, do you want it to be 1 hour/level rather than 1 minute, it seems really short otherwise.
Thanks,
Also creating four saves is... much more complicated. Very interesting choice, let me know how it works.
I looked over the Adventure paths and would like to see the following in the bestiary 4:
Nosferatu
Rukh
Miengu
Ankou
Bog strider
Peluda
Blodewedd
Shadowgarm
Azi
Drekavac
vrykolakas
Nihiloi
aspidochelone
selkie
qallupilluk
saumen kar
stygira
angazhani
vilkacis
were bat
boruta
inkanyamba
tikoloshe
obambo
impundulu
mokele-mbembe
camulatz
biloko
tuyewra
pterosaur
zomok
There are minor differences between the druid and ranger wild empathy, did you want to combine them?
In the Ranger lore section the table is missing the outlaw ranger choice.
The Ascetic hunter still references the monk’s stunning fist ability which I believe was removed.
For the favored enemy adaptation, you changed a lot of the racial feats for the civilized humanoids, you may want to update the feats allowed (an state which race they are linked to).
For the giants and monstrous humanoids throw anything was updated to catch off guard I think.
For the ordained hunter and ranger mage, did you want to state “minimum zero” after the ranger level -3 when determining caster level?
Runecaster refers to bard level rather than ranger level.
Under combat styles there were a few feats/abilities I could not find: Pinpoint targeting, Great throw, Sleeper lock, decisive strike, versatile student of war, devastating critical, shared shield, vigilant defender, and greater power attack.
For bonus feats, I believe that channel smite is now channeling strike correct?
For the Fire and Winter domain’s 20th level ability, I believe that the Enlarge spell feat is now the Reach spell feat.
For the Protection domain, I could not find the defend ally feat, what did it change to?
Under the sun domain: the granted powers heading seemed to be deleted, unsure it if was something I did or if it was on your copy also.
Under the Thievery domain, did you want to treat sixth sense the same way you treated it with the Halfling paragon?
I did not see power over shadow in the feats section anymore, did you just want to grant the 20th level travel domain the shadow walking skill with 20 ranks?
Under Animal Devotion’s special heading, change references to turn or rebuke undead to channel energy and channeling uses.
Do you want to allow sorcerers with the shadow bloodline access to the umbral shroud feat?
Fire devotion under special, change the reference to rebuke uses to channeling uses.
Under merciful healer, do you want the removal of poison and disease to be automatic, or will it just grant the recipient an extra save against the effect that does not harm them if they fail?
For the Knowledge devotions I believe that the Student of War and Battle leader feats have been combined into the skills section, also the dread secret feat is now automatic in the dark knowledge domain.
For the Druid, second to last paragraph in detect spirits erase the “turn to”.
Wild empathy: Can you attract elementals with your leadership feat? At 18th level do magical beasts with an intelligence score less than 3 need to make a will save to attack you?
Hierophant under the animal shaman is misspelled.
Arcane Hierophant: under spell theurgy delete “number of” before druid caster level.
Under ascetic druid under martial artist, I assume their unarmed attacks damage progress like the monks correct?
Sorcerer: I noticed that the table 1 Spells known for the sorcerer (1st level spells) does not match the favored soul’s progression.
Favored soul
Under spells, in the second paragraph favored souls should gain 3 rather than 4 0 level spells and one rather than two 1st level spells of their choice. Also the references to table two in the second paragraph should reference table 1. Finally you do not mention them gaining bonus mystery spells, would you like to add a reference to that fact?
Under divine mystery second paragraph, change the reference to table 2 to table 1.
Under Aspirancy, change divine reflexes to you gain lighting reflexes as a bonus feat for your favored soul class.
Under Athar delete the reference to xp cost under the steal spell like ability revelation.
Under the battle mystery, delete the reference to great bull rush under maneuver mastery.
Under the Cult mystery Madness revelation, delete the reference to using your charisma modifier for Will saves rather than wisdom.
Under the Flames mystery change the cinder dance revelation to granting the surefooted feat rather than acrobatic steps. Under the energy penetration revelation delete reference to the greater spell penetration feat. For heat death, do you want to place a limit to how often this ability can be used a day? Do you want to have the searing flames mystery grain searing evocation as a bonus feat instead, except that spells modified by this feat to not take extra time to cast or a higher level spell slot? For the Elemental focus do you want to remove all the water spells, or still give them a choice of what element to remove from their spell list?
Under the frost mystery: Under the energy penetration revelation delete reference to the greater spell penetration feat (this also should be done in a few other mysteries also). Do you want to turn flash freeze, numbing cold, and piercing cold into flash frost, numbing cold, and piercing cold evocation bonus feats instead? Ice magic should likely require you to remove all the [fire] descriptor spells from your spell list. Finally for the final revelation you should gain improved great fortitude correct?
For the life mystery, did you really only want to grant 1 + the char modifier channeling times a day for the channel revelation?
For the mercy mystery, did you want to combine the combat healer revelation with the battle mystery revelation of the same name, only allowing a mercy favored soul to select it at 1st level instead?
For the Nature mystery: the natural divination revelation can state “as the juju mystery of the same name” since they appear to be the same. For wild speech the wild empathy ability could be as a druid of equal level as your favored soul level.
For the Stone mystery change the 20th level’s reference to the extend spell to the reach spell, do this also for the Wind mystery.
For the water mystery the storm revelation and the frost mystery winter storm revelation are the same, you could combine them.
Fighter: some of the knightly order chanllenge give a morale bonus to attack should this stack with the normal morale bonus to attack the challenge fighter talent grants? The riposte talent's special section still refers to greater weapon maneuvers. Under the banner ability the table's attack bonus and the description's attack bonus does not seem to match.
For the steal ki sutra, did you want to limit it in some way such as stating you can only steal the ki of an individual creature once a day (so monks do not keep striking friends and hostages for non-lethal damage to recover spells after each combat).
for the healing hand sutra, did you mean all cure spells rather than just cure light wounds?
Hive totem: Under hive toxicity add “At 8th level” at the beginning of the paragraph
The Wolf totem: There are only 5 feats available, was that intentional?
Under the rage powers: In the rage powers table ferocious tenacity should be deleted, it is under greater rage powers instead. The storm bred, powerful blow, penetrating attacks, protective spirits, and quick reflexes are not in alphabetical order in the table.
Under the blood in the water description: the “you’re” is a cut and paste error I think, change to “if”.
Under the improved rage powers table: Ground breaker is subsumed by the earth breaker power, it should likely be deleted.
Under might rage powers: Luck of the Norns and Heroic rage are extremely similar, one could keep them separate but would you like to combine them?
Also does the Chaotic rage power overlap or stack with the barbarians normal DR?
Under Primal rage powers: Delete the Skin turning III power, it is found under the mighty rage powers, also under the primal fortification power change one of the references of greater fortification to mighty fortification.
Under the Appendix A heading, change the totem bonus feats to happen at 3rd and 7th (rather than 2nd and 5th) and the special abilities to happen 4th and 8th level (rather than 3rd and 6th).
Under the Bear totem: I do not see increased vigor in the feats document, and the bear totem's powerful build should not stack with the giant's stance feat not rage power (I would assume).
Under the Bull and Elephant totem: I do not see headless charge in the feats document, what was it changed to?
Under the frog totem: the bonus feat disruptive, is it the same as the fighter talent of the same name?
Under the hawk totem: What was rapid shot changed to? I do not see it in the feats document.
For high elves: the search check example of (1d20 + INT bonus + rogue level), I thought that searching for secret and concealed doors fell under the disable device skill that anyone could take.
For human, paragon: the table gives them a bonus feat at 2nd level but in the description it states they gain a bonus feat at 2nd and 4th level.
Under gnomes attribute modifiers: the food gnome reference is inaccurate, to think of a race this small as anything more than a snack or possibly and appetizer is wrong (I think you wanted to say forest gnome instead).
Under the gnome magical linguist feat: you still reference read magic but I believe you rolled that spell into your skills section.
Under Halfling Paragons: did you want to change the burglary ability they gain to the sixth sense feat?
Under Orc: is their type changed to monstrous humanoid in your world? It appears that way but I know in pathfinder they are of the humanoid type.
Under fetchlings: I believe you combined hide in plain sight into the stealth skill, also I find the wording for the number of times each spell like ability is usable confusing (each spell like ability could gain quite a few usages a day).
Under the feytouched wild empathy ability: what druid level does it function at?
Under hagspawn: the green widow skill synergy should likely be deceitful rather than deceptive.
Under lycanthrope: Under the savagery ability I could not find some of the feats. Bear – improved wrestling maneuvers (likely improved grapple now), two weapon rend (likely two weapon strike now) and vigilant defender (unknown what it is now); boar – Banzai charge (unknown what it is now), Improved and greater forcing maneuvers (likely improved overrun and bull rush now); rat – Improved tricky maneuvers (unknown, maybe sixth sense or weapon finesse special); wolf – combat advantage (unknown) and improved wrestling maneuvers (likely improved grapple now).
Finally the Vampire entry is missing the listing on a few abilities and I would recommend clarifying the damage reduction progression.
In the races document: the human paragon states they get a bonus feat at 2nd and 4th level, but this is not reflected in the table above (and I suspect that the 4th level feat was turned into ignore condition).
Wizard familiars: For delivering touch spells, the table states they gain it at 2nd level, but the descriptive text states 3rd level.
Sorcerers: Your eldritch blast for the ogre magi and orc do not match the 12th and 16th level progression of your other bloodlines.
I looked over the introduction section this week. Few things I noticed.
Spoiler:
For comeliness, were you planning to incorporate some of the other races you created on the table, such as the centaur, plane touched, etc.
The social class attribute seems... complicated for little benefit. I think a nod to 1st edition is nice, but other than starting gold what game effect does it grant? I am assuming the starting social class attribute is based upon the characters parents rather than their personal abilities and political clout/skills anyways correct?
Under the battle fatigue section you may want to update the "Note:" section, fighters now gain the stalwart ability and paladins can gain "auras" to suppress the fatigued and exhausted conditions.
Under forcing maneuvers, "check" description: you still refer to the improved forcing maneuver feat.
The clever positioning description section refers to its self as a feat rather than a maneuver.
Did you eliminate Tricky maneuvers? I did not see an improved tricky maneuvers feat anymore. If you did you can just place the interrupt action later under the "preemptive action section" and refer to "three" rather than "four" types in the types of maneuvers section description.
In the nonstandard maneuvers section you still refer to improved forcing maneuvers.
Under your elaborate defense table did you just want to eliminate the +1 through +10 section since it is an advanced fighter talent that cannot be gained till 11th level? That way the table matches the fighter section table exactly.
In the casting spells in combat section, I was a little unclear about the “wind and rain or sleet” wording. I assume both wind and rain or wind and sleet must be present, but how much wind? Extreme winds are okay unless there is how much rain. Wind and snow does not require a check?
For casting spells on another plane, did you want to just make it to require a Knowledge (the planes) check rather than also allowing a spellcraft check to substitute for the knowledge (the planes) check. Also will wizards have their standard action spells change to one full round when casting on another plane (if they make their knowledge (the planes) check when they prepare spells).
Question on the skills section.
Do you want to include the casting of spells on other planes in the Knowledge (the planes) skill description? This also applies for spell craft skill and counterspelling. I noticed that you did not give any description for identifying spells in the spell craft skill description.
Finally, in the endurance skill the “run, in combat” frequency given in the table does not match the text description. Also the ignore exhaustion DC in the table is 35 but the text states it as DC 30.
Question on the wizard's bonded object (staff):
Under Staff fighting it states your staff gains an enhancement bonus equal to 1/2 the number of charges in your staff (which can be fully charged to 10 charges). I admit that I am not familiar with the crafting rules but at 6th level I would assume that it is not possible to create a staff with 10 charges (+5 enhancement bonus) correct?
Unflinching in not listed in the skill talents table.
The strafe bomb description is a little confusing, I think you wanted to say "You designate one creature in the line to be the target of the bomb and make your attack roll against that creature; all other squares in the line take splash damage."
Was it intentional not to give rogues zero level spell slots, I know rangers (and I think monks) get them?
Skills:
For forgeries in the Craft: Fine Art description, appraise was taken over by the Knowledge (Lore) skill, should that skill be what opposes the forgery?
In the Profession sailing description the table states a DC of 25 and 30 for tropical storms and hurricanes respectively, but the text description states them as 30 and 40 respectively. Which do you prefer?
Question, it appears that you allowed rangers and monks to have zero level spells (for monks it appears under the ki powers known and for rangers it is listed under spells per day), but for the monk there is no listing stating they can used their 0 level ki powers an unlimited (or limited) time per day.
Finished reading over the feats document. I have a few questions/observations:
Should the serenity prereq be a Wis of 13 rather than a Cha of 13? It would make more sense.
For skill focus your example should be updated since you updated how the feat works.
For evocation, piercing did you want the damage you can convert to increase with level, a 10 point maximum seems really low at higher levels.
In the prereqs for the thanatopic spell your Knowledge (religion) should be changed to Knowledge (the planes).
The mounted combat and staredown feats still reference the ride skill and intimidate rather than demoralize, not a big deal but you may want to consider rewording them.
Finally is there a reason practiced bloodline gives a +5 bonus to effective sorcerer level. Most all the other practiced feats give a +4 instead.
I was able to go through the Skill document. Overall I have to say I really like the changes. I did catch a few things that may require some clarification.
Question on using Spellcraft to heighten a spell. In your skill document it states the DC is 25 + the spell level, while in the feats document under arcane feats, metamagic it states it is DC 20 + the spell level, which is right?
Under special in the athletics section you still have a reference to the lizard familiar giving a +3 on climb checks, should that be removed?
Under the Disable Device skill do you want to leave in the “Trap DC + 10” for the delay trap activation, +10 only in the box could lead to some ambiguity.
For the Endurance skill, what do you think about creating an Endure Elements and Altitude Affinity section for the skill?
For the Endurance skill, under the die hard description, did you decide to not go with the –Con for death and leave it at -10 hit points for dying?
Under the Handle Animal skill you refer to a ride check under “guide with knees”, did you want to remove the word ride?
Under the Spellcraft skill you still have a few references to Use Magical Device, one under Emulate alignment, one under Emulate ability score, and one under the special section.
Under the Spellcraft skill at the end of the special section you still have the specialist wizards gaining a bonus and penalty to learn spells within their school and of their opposition school, did you want to delete that section?
Finally there are still a couple references to disguise checks in the Perform (Acting) skill. They are in the Special section.
As always, time permitting, I will let you know if I see anything else.
Thanks Kirth, I think going with the new "opportune strike" option will help to improve the ambush talents for rogues and let you cut down some on the word count in the rogue document.
I am sure Kirth can add quite a few other things here but I can summarize a few nice things that rogues gain in Kirthfinder.
One is skill excellence which turns them into full casters being able to use their skill ranks to cast some (very nice and high level) spells.
They are given enough free feats to help them be effective in combat (weapon finesse and improved feint).
Sixth sense and evasion are an upgrade.
Finally the talents are much better (especially the advanced talents). I especially like dexterous fortitude and dexterous will allowing them to use their reflex save in place of their fortitude or will save once a round. There are talents which allow them to make their sneak attack more effective (like a talent granting low light or darkvision). Also if you take a look most of the rogue options in the APG are changed to talents allowing you to mix and match (like enforcer or scout's charge).
Finally, the full spell casters have been toned down a little, which makes the rogue (and other non full casters) get beefed up a little by default. Kirth did an extensive rewrite and without checking out the other classes, feats, and even the new and improved skills one cannot make a full assessment of the changes.
I received your email Kirth, and though I have only read through the prestige paladin and the rogue, both look really good (and I was interested to see you went with a d4 for hit dice for the wizard but keep the sorcerer hit dice at d6, I will be curious to see how that works out).
The only error I noticed on the prestige paladin is that the prerequisite is still knowledge (religion) instead of knowledge (the planes). Otherwise I was really happy to see that you have expanded the class beyond just fighter/bard or fighter/cleric.
The rogue is even more impressive now and I am a fan of how you incorporated the alchemist class in. The only errors/clarifications I noticed for rogue were
“another” is missing the “o” in the first paragraph of the skill focus section
maligned performance in the skill excellence section (under perform acting) is missing the ranks 14.
In the first paragraph after talents would your rather say “into 3 types” rather than just “into types”.
The enforcer talent references an intimidate check, would you want to say a bluff check to browbeat instead?
Ninjitsu training references stunning fist, did you decide to keep it in your monk and feats documents?
Ledge walker references climb checks, did you want to say acrobatic checks to climb instead?
Kirth, now that my wife is done with her schooling I do not have the same amount of free time I used to, but I would love to check out the new documents when you get a chance to send them out.
email:
haus48@hotmail.com. Also I have been trying to edit all the core spells, most all the spells you list as additional spells in your documents from various WotC and 3PP sources, and a few additional ones I liked to match them to your house rules (a few school changes, changing names of skills, etc). It is slow going (around 200 pages even at 8 font double columned) but when I get it looking pretty good I will send them over to TOZ. When the document comes feel free to take a look or edit anything around in the spells document as you would like.
Not really an expert on the alchemist but I know recently that there have been a lot of posters on these boards saying the alchemist killed the rogue and took his stuff (mainly looking at the vivisectionist giving up his bomb ability to gain sneak attack and rogue talents).
Why not merge the alchemist into the rogue class you created? Use the vivisectionist from ultimate magic as a guide or add a phrase to the sneak attack section that you can use a bomb to give you one attack a round where you gain your sneak attack bonus, close to how bombs work now and reminiscent of some of the other old 3.5 optimization board builds that used rogue throwing exploits. Alchemists are already poison masters, so that fits the rogue archetype. Skill mastery and skill excellence can get focused into alchemy which makes the extracts skill based spells like for the rogue, only since they are so focused they can gain their spell casting ability earlier (and lets them go all the way up to 9th level spells for extracts). Not sure what to do with mutagens though, maybe have it scale and replace the evasion, uncanny dodge, and improved uncanny dodge choices for upgrades.
I think it is something that could work but I would have to think about it some more. Also it plays to my master plan of convincing you that rogues need two good saves rather than just one (just like the alchemist). Of course once you start thinking about merging the two classes there are all kinds of ways you could rewrite the alchemist, the rogue, or both.
On to the specific points
1. I agree, bombs should be unlimited.
2. I agree, take a look at the alchemist at d20pfsrd.com for some more archetypes if you have not already.
3. Mutagenic form makes sense and works more like the reserve feats
4. The reanimator archetype from ultimate magic incorporates animate dead along with create undead and create greater undead so there is a precedent for this.
Leadership is a tradition from way back in the 1st edition days (henchmen and hirelings) so it would make sense to put it in the base core book, same with the magic missile spell and some higher level illusion spells that really do not fit in their balance range well.
What I use for my (very rough) balance guide is what is allowed in pathfinder organized play (leadership is not allowed). My perspective of the game is that it is shared social entertainment and anything that gives a player consistent extra "time to shine" time in relation to the other characters is unbalanced. Same thing goes with things that weaken them so much they really cannot contribute.
I think that Paizo did a great job editing their core rulebook. Reading the original poster's comments though makes me think he is more complaining about "clarity of the writing" rather than what I would consider straight editing, so I think his thread title may be a little confusing. "Clearer passages" is more of a writing style thing and is more difficult to edit (or even have two people agree on).
Overall I am very happy with Paizo's editing (except the APG sadly, certain contributors may benefit from reading SKR's essay about grammar and spell checking on that one).
One thing you can try is making certain spells specialist wizard specific. Good candidates would be the summon monster chain of spells, the image chain of spells, the polymorph chain of spells, etc. Then you allow universalist wizards (and sorcerers) access to these spells giving them an extra benefit.
This is similar to the old 2nd edition opposition schools but allows more flexibility on what to take away. It is also a strong downside to being a specialist. Take for example a possible list of specialist specific 1st level spells from the core rules: mage armor, alarm, hold portal, grease, mount, summon monster I, true strike, hypnotism, magic missile, color spray, magic aura, silent image, ray of enfeeblement, enlarge/reduce person. You can still obviously make a great wizard without these spells (if they are not in your specialty) and have access to a little bit of every school, but you do give up some flexibility and therefore power.
I also think more cleric spells should be domain specific (but I would still allow favored souls to pick the broad list). Most of the problem people have with the general casters is that they can do everything (Tier 1 classes since spell lists get expanded constantly). By specializing spells more you get away from this problem. It is a bad idea if you are trying to sell your rules for a profit, but for house rules it actually makes a lot of sense.
I suspect that to start they will be dividing up a lot of the information on Tian Xia over quite a few books. I know with the next adventure path they will likely have relevant articles showing up. The ninja and the samurai will be showing up in ultimate combat. The next Bestiary will likely expand on their love of real world mythology collecting not just Arabian and Russian info but also hopefully some Asian and Indian monsters as well.
I know that Mr Mona stated that if we want more Tian Xia stuff we need to buy the teasers they will start putting out come August, though he said even if we do not they will likely do a hard cover compilation that will combine, edit, and expand all the stuff they will be putting out in the next year or so (but I would think that would be about two years away from now at the earliest).
Honestly they have a very rich and exciting world with so many stories to develop (not to mention their planar information and other planets) that I am looking forward to getting the crunch books out of the way this summer and then having them spend more time focusing on the fluff they do so well.
Now that ultimate magic is starting to make its way onto the d20pfsdr I took a look so see what may be useful for the inquisitor in your house rules. There were also quite a few editing issues I missed the first time through so here we go.
Inquisitor suggestions:
For spells 1st ear piercing scream, forbid action, interrogation, lend judgment, 2nd acute senses, disguise other, distressing tone, surmount affliction, 3rd countless eyes, 4th greater interrogation and mass daze, 5th greater forbid action and greater lend judgment, finally maybe for 7th level overwhelming presence. for edits greater approbations should start at 11th not 12th and judgments no longer increase as the rounds go by which still shows up in a few of your entries. I would also suggest some possible edits from ultimate magic:
Grasp of Honesty (Su): Any creature you are grappling or pinning is affected by zone of truth (will negates). Outside of combat, you may use this ability by touching a target with both hands. You can use this ability a number of rounds per day equal to your inquisitor level. These rounds do not need to be consecutive. The effect ends if you stop grappling, pinning or touching the target.
Keen Senses (Ex): You gain darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, and scent.
Misdirection (Sp): Each day when you prepare spells, you may choose an alignment. You detect as that alignment as if you had used misdirection on a creature with that alignment (this does not change any divination results about you other than your alignment) and you can add your class level on saving throws against abilities that detect lies or reveal or force the truth such as detect lies and zone of truth . Also, if your misdirection grants you the proper alignment, you can cast spells of an alignment opposed to you or your deity (ignoring the restriction in the Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells class ability).
Add a Ninjitsu Training like effect from the monk: Your inquisitor level stacks with your rogue level for determining the effects of level-dependent rogue talents, and you can freely select rogue talents in place of approbations, or advanced rogue talents in place of greater approbations.
Add your rogue level to your inquisitor level for purposes of determining the effects of level-dependent approbations, your judgments, and you can add half your inquisitor level to your rogue level for determining sneak attacks.
This approbation supersedes the Ascetic Rogue feat from Complete Adventurer. This would let you drop sneak attack and rogue talent as choices. (On a side note I just noticed your monk document did not list if the sutras were (Ex), (Sp), or (Su) on the original document.)
Share Judgment (Su): Chose one of your judgments you currently have active, all allies within 10 feet also gain the benefits of this judgment.
Warning (Ex): When you are aware that an ally within your line of sight would be attacked by a melee or ranged weapon you can call out a warning which grants a +1 Aid another bonus to their AC as a free action once per round. This bonus improves by +1 per 5 levels in inquisitor you possess (so +2 at 1st, +3 at 6th, etc.). The ally must be able to hear you and must not be helpless for this ability to have any effect.
Merge the zealous feats to something like: Zealous (Su): You are immune to fear and, if you are 8th level or higher, to compulsion effects. This approbation replicates the Black Flame Zealot prestige class feature of the same name, from Complete Divine.
For greater approbations:
Extend Judgment Aura (Su): You must have share judgment to select this approbation. Your aura for one of your active judgments extends out to 30 feet. At 18th level one of your active judgment’s aura can either extend out to 60 feet for one judgment or, if you have share multiple judgments, you can have the aura of two active judgments extend out for 30 feet.
Improved Cunning Initiative (Ex): You add your Wisdom modifier as an insight bonus to initiative checks (to a maximum of +1 per class level) to all allies within 30 feet, you must have cunning initiative to select this greater approbation.
Would you want merciless purity to scale?
Share Multiple Judgments (Su): Chose two of your judgments you currently have active, all allies within 10 feet share these judgments with you.
Stare of Oblivion (Sp): You can use feeblemind as a gaze attack against one creature (will negates) within 60 feet. This effect lasts 1d4 rounds, You can use this ability once a day at 12th level, twice a day at 16th level, and 3 times a day at 20th level.
Obviously these are rough and need some editing/playtesting. For the other classes I am not seeing a huge amount that ultimate magic will add, but I need to look through them more. Most likely the witch/wizard will be the other class to benefit the most (since it is written for the pathfinder rule set after all).
Helaman, I wish the tables were better also but these message boards do not do tables well. They do give the players and you guidelines to what to give out as non treasure perks during downtime though.
Ralantar, I would recommend a magical medieval society: western europe by expeditious retreat press, in fact all of their magical society books are great. It really goes into the medieval society showing how it worked, though it does not bother to go into monthly incomes for anyone but rulers since the feudal and guild systems taxed everyone excessively and that is pretty much why no one was able to afford anything by the nobles. To be honest my world does not really fit the standard fantasy medieval type world you are imagining. For me secondary professions like being a sheep herder is hard, since if you can cast spells or take down an entire army single handedly why would you live in the shire where no one could pay you for your services? By day I am a lowly carpenter, but in my side job I summon efreets and djinn and call earthquakes to level entire mountain ranges. Spells and magic throw off assumptions greatly.
Ralantar, sounds like you are more a fan of a continuous vs episodic play style where downtime has little effect on a player's character sheet. There is nothing wrong with that and in fact is by far the most popular play style here on these boards.
For episodic play look at what Paizo tried with the armageddon echo or howl of the carrion king. In the armageddon echo they advanced the AP a level and expected the DM to fill in the blanks to let the characters gain more XP and treasure to level them up while in howl of the carrion king they told players at the end one year passes gain one of the following benefits: 3000 gp, +1 to permanent bonus to a skill check, one free magic item, etc for free. In kingmaker they intermixed sim city like rules in between the adventures letting the characters gain XP, gold, and magic items for just sitting around and "building a kingdom" during downtime.
In response to your "how are PCs going to fall behind the wealth per level guidelines if they are not leveling??" that is a tricky question. I would image that if most people took six months off without working their wealth would be much less than it was when they had a job. One can rule that during downtime a player gains exactly as much as they spend, but personally that seems too unrealistic to me to use.
Favor// Renown requirement// Minimum time// Fame cost
*Blessing (grants a heroic bonus)
Luck (+1 action point)//Heroic 2//-//40
Protection (+1 to AC and saves) (lasts entire session)//Heroic 4//-//60
Rage (lasts entire session) (+1 to attack and +2 to damage rolls)//Heroic 6//-//80
Victory (+4 to confirm a critical) (lasts entire session)//Heroic 8//-//100
*Decree
Holiday// Conquest/Politic 2// Day// 40
Instate minor law// Conquest/Politic 4// Week// 60
Suspend minor law// Conquest/Politic 6// Week// 80
Instate major law// Conquest/Politic 8// Week// 100
Suspend major law// Conquest/Politic 10// Week// 120
*Deliver message or small item secretly without incident
Neighboring (50 miles)// Any 1//-//40
Regional (within 500 miles)//Any 3//-//40
Remote (over 500 miles)//Any 5//Day//80
*Detention - Imprison 1 NPC without trial
For 1 day// Conquest/Politic 4//-//20+ CR*10
For 1 week// Conquest/Politic 6//-//40 + CR*10
For 1 month//Conquest/Politic 8//-//60 + CR*10
Indefinitely// Conquest/Politic 10//-//100 + CR*10
Per additional 5 characters detained//+1 (max of 10)//-//+20
*Diversion – Arrange spectacle:
Minor (observers suffer a -2 penalty with perception checks for 1 minute//Any 2//-//10
Moderate (observers suffer a -4 to perception checks for 2d6 minutes)//Any 4//-//20
Major (observers suffer a -10 penalty with perception checks for 4d6 minutes)//Any 6//Day//40
*Event - Draw people to a gathering
Small (local protest/private event 10-100 attendees)// Politic 2//-//20
Medium (speech or ceremony/city-wide event 100-500 attendees)// Politic 4//day//40
Large (holiday or festival/region wide 500-2000 attendees)// Politic 6//day//60
Massive (kings coronation/national event 2000-10,000 attendees)// Politic 8//week//80
*Feat training - Character receives 1 temporary feat for the adventure
Basic (Great fortitude, Iron will, Lightning reflexes, Skill focus (any))//Any 3//Start of session//40
Advanced (Improved Great fortitude, Improved Iron will, Improved lightning reflex)//Any 5/Start of session//80
Expert (Any character would legally qualify for)//Any 7//Start of session//120
*Harassment - Abuse 1 NPC (lasts entire session)
Emotional abuse (target suffers -2 penalty to will saves)// Conquest/Criminal/Heroic 3//Day//60
Mental abuse (target suffers -2 penalty to reflex saves)// Conquest/Criminal/Heroic 3//Day//60
Physical abuse (target suffers -2 penalty to fortitude saves)// Conquest/Criminal/Heroic 3//Day//60
*Invitation - Party gains access to restricted area
Private (pivotal stadium game, guard tower, audience with influential citizen)// Heroic/Politic 1//-//20 (60 in hostile area)
Privileged (noble’s ball, city court, audience with local lord)// Heroic/Politic 3//Day//40 (80 in hostile area)
Elite (kings coronation, royal dungeon, see the emperor)// Heroic/Politic 5//Day//80 (120 in hostile area)
*Language training - Character gains one language till the next session//Any 1//week or start of seesion//10
*Pardon - Escape punishment for one crime
Minor crime//Any4//-//60
Major crime//Any8//Day//100
*Reconnaissance - Party gains info about a character or location
Cursory (public information 1 key detail)// Conquest/Criminal 2//Day/20
Detailed (private information 2 key details)// Conquest/Criminal 4//Day//60
Exhaustive (guarded information, 3 key details)// Conquest/Criminal 6//week//80
Meticulous (secret information, 4 key details)// Conquest/Criminal 8//week//100
*Rumor - Character shifts public disposition toward 1 character
Calm campaign (+2 on social checks)// Criminal/Political 2//Day/40
Earnest campaign (+4 on social checks)// Criminal/Political 4//Day//60
Impassioned campaign (+6 on social checks)// Criminal/Political 6//Week//80
Zealous campaign (+8 on social checks)// Criminal/Political 8//Week//120
Target is a group//-//-//+40
*Safe Haven - Party gains food and shelter for a day
Common// Criminal/Heroic 2//-//20
Fancy// Criminal/Heroic 4//-//20
Luxurious// Criminal/Heroic 6//-//20
Extravagant// Criminal/Heroic 8//-//20
*Safe Passage - Party safely transported to a destination
Neighboring (within 50 miles 1 day travel)//Any2//-//20
Regional (within 500 miles, 1 day per 50 miles traveled)//Any 4//Day//40
Remote (over 500 miles, 1 day per 50 miles of travel)//Any 6//Week//80
*Spell casting - Character benefits from 1 successfully cast spell
Any 1 spell allowed by the DM// Any equal to spell level//Day//20 x spell level + must pay gp cost of spell
*Support - Hiring an NPC for a skill check//Any 2//Day//20 per 1 CR over characters HD
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