Dallimar's page

After downloading this I can see where the publisher was going with it, but I don't think it was well thought out. The class abilities break down into "apertures", which are your basic portals (think dimension door, but more limited), scitech, which give different bonuses to things like speed, jump checks, etc, and "cores".

The aperture ability can only be used a limited number of times per day, and with a very limited range, and some of the advanced options later get confusing. A lot of polish and work needs to go into making them clearer to understand. The portals themselves are, IMHO, ridiculously over powered. While stealth is not a class skill for this class, a little work would mean that the Aperturist would be able to get the entire party past any dungeon or encounter without ever being seen. 1) Make a portal at the door to the dungeon. 2) Sneak past everything to your goal. 3) Make another portal. 4) Profit.

The scitech seems like an interesting set of abilities, but is all over the place in terms of utility and effectiveness. One give a 10 foot speed boost and makes sure all jumps have a running start while another give a permanent bonus to Charisma, which this class has little to no need for to begin with. This section needs to be tightened up.

At 3rd level the Aperturist gains a "core power", with the chance to pick another at 9th and 15th. These powers grow in strength as the class goes up in level and have durations measured in hours. While you can only activate the ability a limited number of times per day, it's not clear whether the different options stack or if the Aperturist can only have one active at a time.

I think the concept would be fun for Iron Gods, but this one won't see any play at my table as is.

Well Jeremy, thank you for all the awesome work that you all at Dreamscarred Press put into Ultimate Psionics. I've been a fan of psionics since getting my hands on the rules for 2nd Ed, and I think these are the best I've seen released. The next trick is getting my DM to let me play a Psion (he's not familiar with psionics and doesn't want to let me play them till he's spun up).

Looking forward to seeing how any mythic stuff comes up, and I know you'll do just as great a job with them as you did with the core rules.

MMCJawa wrote:

Would you really need new paths, or just new mythic feats/path abilities?

It seems like you could do a lot with the existing paths, you just need new options within them for psionics

My thoughts from the Mythic Psionics discussion at the Dreamscarred forums:

"There is an "arcane magic" mythic path. Applicable for wizards, sorcerers, and to an extent the other arcane casters.

There is also a "divine magic" mythic path. Applicable for the cleric, druid, and to an extent the other divine casters.

Why would a "psionic power" mythic path not fit in that same theme?"

It's unlikely we'll add more than 1 (perhaps 2) new path, and then would add psionic options for the Guardian, Trickster, Marshal, and and Champion. Psionic options for the Archmage and Hierophant just don't make sense.

Plus mythic psionic feats, mythic psionic powers, etc.

I know I'm late to this little party, and I don't usually engage in forum necromancy, but I just finished going over Ultimate Psionics and am super excited to hear more about anything Mythic. The idea of mythic manifesters makes my mouth water. Any chance we'll get to see this before the fall?

Thank you all for the feedback. I ran the third game for this group last Friday, without making any changes to the adventure at all so that I could see what kind of extremes I'd be looking at here, and noted that the encounters were cake for the party. For example:

I played the NPC exactly as written, and did the same for the encounter with the crusaders in the street. In both cases it was over so fast that the groups barbarian didn't even get to take part in the latter example, and only got one swing in the sooner.

I think, after having seen both directions I can go with it I have found a middle ground that will make sure that the party is 100% involved, and is 100% invested.

I'll be taking the advice on numbers over levels and will be keeping an eye on the group to see if there is anything that I need to adjust on the fly if I have to.

I'll be back with more in the future, I'm sure, and thank you all again for the input.

Last Friday my group took on part 2 of The Worldwound Incursion. As I am running a party of six I wanted to keep them challenged and continue to provide them with enough experience and treasure to make up for the increased party size. I think I may have over done it...

By the end of this section of the adventure the players were pretty frustrated, and I think they felt like I was out to get them. How can I strike that right balance between hard and fun without it becoming Mega Man levels of difficult. Do I increase the numbers, but play the bad guys as a little dumber, play up the intelligence/cunning of their foes, but leave the numbers alone, or should I be doing something completely different.

I want this to be fun for my group, and so I'm asking for their feedback, but I don't think they want to hurt my feelings either, knowing that I put a lot of work into the adventure for them. What say you forum goers?

I noticed that the NPCs have been a big pain for me so far.

I basically ran it "as is" and I only had to change some things to account for the number of players in the party. All I had to do was change the flavor of the creatures they were facing to make them fit. For example;

Sometimes it's the little things that make me smile. Useless little bits of information that have no bearing on the story being told, or that have any impact on the game at all. Today, thanks to a finger being a little to itching on the mouse scroll wheel, I found out something new.

In The Worldwound Incursion (Adventure Path #73), on page 71, number 16, the name Kenabres appears at the end of the second line. Flicking the scroll wheel shows the name of the city in exactly the same spot on page 72.

This piece of totally useless trivia has been brought to you by the Society of People With To Much Time On Their Hands.

What are some things that you've noticed in your games that were totally pointless, but made you smile?

I'd give the character a liquid metal replacement with the Transformative weapon property. One minute it's a hand, the next it's a +1 mithral dagger. That could lead to some awesome titles from terrified villians.

Perception is the best skill in the game, cuz it helps you spot the invisable stalker sneeaking up behind you while you are on watch...

Perception is the best skill in the game, cuz it helps you spot the good loot before your fellows...

Perception is the best skill in the game, cuz it helps you hear the wispering of the mad king through the closed door...

and in an almost infinite number of other situations

At at high enough levels it lets you hear the whispering of a mad god through the cracks of reality. Always whispering, like it's talking just to you, and it never stops, not even to let you sleep... >.>

Or is that just me...

After a forum search I haven't seen this in here anywhere yet, and I haven't seen it on the PRD, but I would love to see the Naagloshii in a future Beastiary. A skinwalker that feeds off of your fear and can even force a victim to become so afraid it kills them.

Ooh, I like that. Mythic Rejuvenation. Still, I get the feeling that you're trying to get my player to run The Doctor for Wrath of the Righteous. :P Haha.

A few games ago we had a character that was pulled out of stasis, so we're looking to avoid that, but the player wants to use an Aasimar, and he said he doesn't know where his divine blood comes from.

I like Tangent's idea of the divine spark. I've always been partial to the idea that, even if a god can die, the divine spark never fails. Maybe that flicker of divinity has been reincarnating in different people since the death of Aroden and has been awaiting a significantly heroic event to ignite. It also retains a shadow of the dead god's memories, so he'll have Aroden visit him in his dreams.

Thanks for the input and thoughts everyone. I'll have to mull it over. I'll probably go with Allaren's idea for the ability for now. I'm thinking that, for the purposes of our home game, this character will ascend to take Aroden's place as the god of humanity.

So, a little background. One of the players in my group wants to play a paladin of Arodan, gaining his power through faith in the teaching of the dead god rather than from a deity itself, but he may be taking the Touched by Divinity trait and, for our home game, I think it would be a great turn to have him be the son of Arodan (I'll be working up to a campaign later that involves this as the central theme).

I went through the Mythic Origins section on Godlings and I'm trying to come up with something that would work to reflect the teachings of Arodan, but I'm left scratching my head. Any ideas what direction I should go, or tips as to what the ability for this should look like would be a huge help.

Played a Swashbuckler Skull and Shackles. I loved this class at level 6 (I should see it in action at level 7 in a few weeks).

The skills worked out wonderfully, and with Signature Deed for Derring-Do I was able to use it every time I made an acrobatics roll, which I was taking a lot of advantage of to do things life balancing on the rail on the edge of the ship, or to tumble between enemies to get to a better position.

Due to some role-playing that had been going on I was caught without any of my gear but a Ring of Protection and my +1 Agile Rapier. After taking half my health in damage from a fireball I was attacked by the Big Bad of the encounter who, without any of my equipment, only had to hit a 16 to get me. If it hadn't been for Parry I'd have been rolling up a new character.

Here are my thoughts on what the class was like, laid out as best I can:

Opportune Parry: This was useful, but we had to house rule the costs after the first combat. I could make a parry as long as I had a point of panache and spent the opportunity attack. It otherwise functioned as normal.

Repost: When I used this it made the encounter. It helps that it was a critical hit but the chance to completely shift the tide of battle with this class ability was awesome.

Recovery: I used it once to see how it would play out and never used it again. The +2 to AC was alright, and we had enough space that I didn't provoke the opportunity attack, but in a tighter battlefield I would rather turn to Opportune Parry and see how it plays out. At least then I'm only getting attacked by one opponent.

Menacing Swordplay: Unfortunately this didn't come up, entirely because I forgot that it was there. *facepalm* Next time I'll be making better use of it.

Precise Strike: This was awesome. I get that it is really the source for the Swashbuckler's damage, and so it has to be pretty good, but I was getting a ton of extra damage from it by spending panache. The two-hander barb made a hit for 41, I followed up with two hits for 38. Her's was a crit, mine were not. It helps that I was given the okay for the agile weapon, so my dex was a factor, but otherwise I attribute my damage output entirely to this.

Swashbuckler Initiative: Free bonus to my initiative. 'Nough said.

Bravery: Never came up.

Swashbuckler Finesse: It freed me up a feat, and my GM cleared it to qualify for anything that uses Weapon Finesse as a prerequisite.

Nimble: As I was stuck in the rather compromising situation of having no protective gear other than my Ring of Protection, the dodge bonus offered by this helped me out on two different occasions. Thank goodness for dodge bonuses.

I admit that the dice were rolling in my favor on game night, and I rolled about five crits during the curse of the game, but I feel like the class is really well done. A few tweaks to the mechanics and I think that this will be a repeat class for me many times in the future. There's just something about the agile, precision fighter that has always drawn me in.

I'll post up more thoughts as they happen, but till then thank you for the awesome playtest, and thank you all for the feedback. It's been great to watch it all come together.

Played a Swashbuckler this weekend for Skull and Shackles. I loved this class at level 6 (I should see it in action at level 7 in a few weeks).

The skills worked out wonderfully, and with Signature Deed for Derring-Do I was able to use it every time I made an acrobatics roll, which I was taking a lot of advantage of to do things life balancing on the rail on the edge of the ship, or to tumble between enemies to get to a better position.

Due to some role-playing that had been going on I was caught without any of my gear but a Ring of Protection and my +1 Agile Rapier. After taking half my health in damage from a fireball I was attacked by the Big Bad of the encounter who, without any of my equipment, only had to hit a 16 to get me. If it hadn't been for Parry I'd have been rolling up a new character.

Here are my thoughts on what the class was like, laid out as best I can:

Opportune Parry: This was useful, but we had to house rule the costs after the first combat. I could make a parry as long as I had a point of panache and spent the opportunity attack. It otherwise functioned as normal.

Repost: When I used this it made the encounter. It helps that it was a critical hit but the chance to completely shift the tide of battle with this class ability was awesome.

Recovery: I used it once to see how it would play out and never used it again. The +2 to AC was alright, and we had enough space that I didn't provoke the opportunity attack, but in a tighter battlefield I would rather turn to Opportune Parry and see how it plays out. At least then I'm only getting attacked by one opponent.

Menacing Swordplay: Unfortunately this didn't come up, entirely because I forgot that it was there. *facepalm* Next time I'll be making better use of it.

Precise Strike: This was awesome. I get that it is really the source for the Swashbuckler's damage, and so it has to be pretty good, but I was getting a ton of extra damage from it by spending panache. The two-hander barb made a hit for 41, I followed up with two hits for 38. Her's was a crit, mine were not. It helps that I was given the okay for the agile weapon, so my dex was a factor, but otherwise I attribute my damage output entirely to this.

Swashbuckler Initiative: Free bonus to my initiative. 'Nough said.

Bravery: Never came up.

Swashbuckler Finesse: It freed me up a feat, and my GM cleared it to qualify for anything that uses Weapon Finesse as a prerequisite.

Nimble: As I was stuck in the rather compromising situation of having no protective gear other than my Ring of Protection, the dodge bonus offered by this helped me out on two different occasions. Thank goodness for dodge bonuses.

I admit that the dice were rolling in my favor on game night, and I rolled about five crits during the curse of the game, but I feel like the class is really well done. A few tweaks to the mechanics and I think that this will be a repeat class for me many times in the future. There's just something about the agile, precision fighter that has always drawn me in.

I'll post up more thoughts as they happen, but till then thank you for the awesome playtest, and thank you all for the feedback. It's been great to watch it all come together.

Whenever I pop into this forum I check Jason's update first, that way i can keep up to date on everything that is being updated. Just wanted to say, thanks for seeing everything that we're talking about and working with it Jason. It's good to see bucklers and such be viable with the class features and to have the chance to use some of the content that is already published for the playtest.

Pros:

Fighter with Sneak Attack and more skills
Favored Target is like Weapon Training, only adds to skills as well and you start with it.
Potential dip for many martial classes.
Cons:
Low hp.
Many talents are bonus combat feats. Remove them and just keep the Bonus Combat feat talent.
Trapfinding would have made this a viable replacement class for rogue.

I think this is in the wrong forum.

I've noticed that a lot of people have mentioned desiring more movement related abilities and I agree. Having something that lets me use my acrobatics skill to move around the battle above simply avoiding AoO's. There's just something about swinging from a rope or chandelier, or a sword fight on the railing of a crumbling balcony, that gets me every time.

Something else I was thinking about is the Gunslinger's Daring Deed optional rule. What if the Swashbuckler had something similar like if they did something especially cinematic they were restored a point of panache.

Moving on, I agree that the parry and riposte are too costly on panache. Changing parry to only require that you have a point of panache in your pool keeps the ability viable while still costing you the AoO. Also, like Neo2151 said, it should happen after the opponents attack roll.

I don't have more than a hobbyist's experience making rules, so I'm afraid that I don't have much to offer as far as potential mechanics goes, but I know you're all working hard on that, and thank you for a class that is, for the most part, super awesome.

Does Precise Strike apply to all attacks made, Or just a single strike?

The way I read it, it applies to all your attacks, unless you want to beef it up by spending panache, which costs you a swift action.

Dallimar wrote:

What is the point of Swift Feint? It seems out of place with the swashbuckler as written. I know it was a cut and paste from the gunslinger, but there is nothing (till level 15) that requires me to make a touch attack and, as has been pointed out, there is no sneak attack damage.

The way I read it, it's there to let the rest of the party slaughter the target, taking one for the team. I feint, now the 2WF Rogue doesn't need to flank, the Alchemist and ray shooting Wizard/Sorcerer auto hit, the Barbarian and Fighter hit with their last iterative, etc.

Thanks. I suppose that was the "what about me" mentality creeping in. I'll have the chance to playtest it soon, so I'll keep that in mind and give it a shot once I can.

What is the point of Swift Feint? It seems out of place with the swashbuckler as written. I know it was a cut and paste from the gunslinger, but there is nothing (till level 15) that requires me to make a touch attack and, as has been pointed out, there is no sneak attack damage.

Everything else is looking great, and after looking everything over I've put together a swashbuckler for Skull and Shackles this weekend. I'm excited to play this and get some game time in for more input, but we are getting ready to hit level 7 soon, so I'm just trying to get some clarification on that particular deed.

A few things. First, thank you guys for a great product. I've used this in a few different one-shot games and in my current campaign. Second, I know I may be a bit late on the bandwagon, but I'd pay for HL files in a heartbeat. Third, I noticed that the file, according to the posts here, was last updated in may to include the archetypes. My downloads is still showing the last update having been in February, so I was just wondering if I'm missing an update option somewhere on the page or if I should just hold up and wait a little longer for it to show up there. I'd be happy either way.

-Cheers

You're all awesome!

I think something has Gone Wrong than. I get the .zip file, but the only thing in it is the PDF.

I read the posts on this and had to download it. No regrets there, since this is the best take I've seen on the spell-less ranger. I'm going to be writing one up for my next game and can't wait to play it. One question though, I've got the PDF, but I have no idea where to find the hero lab file. Any help finding it?

I'm no good with the hero lab editor, but it would be awesome to be able to use it with that. Great class, and well written. 10/10, would play. :)

I'm pretty sure Raise Thread is a 7th level spell. Sulaco is just that good.

I'm looking at finally convincing my DM to let me play a gunslinger (I'm in love with the flavor of the class), but I don't think D-B pistols will be something he green-lights. In all likelihood I'll be using a musket. Any advice for a prospective sniper?

I'll have to check out that issue of Kobold, and if Jason says it's good with Pathfinder that's pretty good for me.

I'm a fan of the Factotum in general, and would love to see a rework of the class for Pathfinder. I'll have to break out the book tonight and take a look, and I'll get back to you tomorrow with my thoughts, but off hand I think that changing the inspiration pool to a daily resource sounds pretty balanced. I think some play testing will be in order shortly.