Doggan's page

If you could please cancel the Player Companion Subscription line for me. There's just way too many books coming out over the next few months that I'm going to have to be picky about which line to drop, and this one has to get the axe. Thanks.

I'm all for arrays, but make them equal. Alternatively, just have your players do point buy, but set a cap and a minimum on stats. If you don't want min-maxers, tell people they can't drop below 9 or 8, and they can only buy up to 16.

The 4 different people in my group that DM all used to use various fumble rules. It was sort of okay for a while, although it could get very annoying very quickly. And then I started playing a TWF Ranger and actually got him up to a high level. It just felt really stupid that even though I had so many levels of training, I still had a 5% chance every attack to do something horrendously stupid like throw my weapon or hit my nearest friend. After that, I immediately went back to the rules by the book, and I've been pushing all the other DMs in my group to do the same.

Some of the fumble rules I've seen have been absolutely absurd, like permanent ability damage or loss of limbs. I could see maybe if you have a player who's trying to do something really crazy, like jump off of a 100 foot cliff trying to impale something at the bottom with a sword, but for every day normal fighting book rules are best. There's really no reason to punish the players any more than normal play can.

Alchemist, Druid, Fighter, Inquisitor, Oracle, Ranger. No particular order, but those are generally what I enjoy most. For Druid and Ranger, I generally try to go for the Animal Companions, although I had a great time once rolling a Druid with a domain and playing out a nature scholar.

I'd like to see NPC Codex 2 with all the APG/UM/UC classes. After that, I'd love to see another setting hardcover. I know the player companion Faith books were released, but I'd really like to see something more complete that actually has the structure of each deities church and the like.

Also, this may just be me and would probably fit better in the Campaign Setting line, but I'd love a huge book of city/town maps. I don't have the patience to make my own, but hate not having a city map to show my players. I usually end up borrowing maps from APs or random setting books.

I'm firmly in the realm of Cash Shop should only be cosmetic items, or account related items (ie: Character slots and the like). Anything that has any real effect on gameplay should really just be kept to being earned through gameplay.

Any sort of item that can be part of the in game market should remain as an in game collected/crafted item. Otherwise you risk negating the entire idea behind a player built economy.

I believe Bestiary 4 is after Mythic. Not sure beyond that.

Doggan wrote:

I'm not really seeing the need for an FAQ here. Both Crane Wing and Deflect Arrows never mention miss. You can deflect attacks that would hit you, causing them to do no damage. It never states anywhere that it turns them into a miss. As a matter of fact, to be able to deflect them, they have to have not missed to begin with.

Correction, in order to be deflected, the attack has to have met the AC requirement. This "would normally be a hit," as Crane Style points out, but it is not a hit because it is deflected.

Since it is not a hit it is a miss. Now, if you need to see a place where a deflected attack is specifically called out as a miss, refer to the links to Wind Wall and Wind of Vengeance that I have provided above.

So a deflected attack is a miss, just like an attack avoided be concealment is a miss (thus, the use of terms like 50% miss chance0

Meeting AC requirement = hit.

Look, I understand the fact that you're trying to rules lawyer this stuff into however you want it to work for whatever reason, but in this case all it takes is a little careful reading.

Wind of Vengeance states that things are deflected and miss.
Windwall states that things are deflected and miss.
Deflect Arrows states that arrows are deflected and do no damage.
Crane Wing states deflected attacks do no damage.

Notice how different the wording is? Two of them specifically state that the attacks miss. The other two say NOTHING about miss. Just that they do no damage.

Doing no damage is not missing.

The only rule attached to Deflect is the Deflection Bonus to AC that certain things give. Anything beyond that is fluff text. Fluff text is not RAW.

I'm not really seeing the need for an FAQ here. Both Crane Wing and Deflect Arrows never mention miss. You can deflect attacks that would hit you, causing them to do no damage. It never states anywhere that it turns them into a miss. As a matter of fact, to be able to deflect them, they have to have not missed to begin with.

The concept seems a bit awkward to me. Why would a failed mage be so good at any spells? Maybe give them a super limited spell list, only able to cast 0 level spells up to level 4, and from 4-20 use the progression that Ranger/Paladin get?

Cleric needs some more love. Question how? Perhaps a free channeling feat.

Clerics are perfectly fine as is. A top tier class. They need no love.

Barbarian got Rage Powers and lost illiteracy (not that it's a huge bonus but still). Paladin got an improved Lay on Hands, Mercies, Channel Positive Energy, extra uses of smite at lower levels, an improved Divine bond, more Auras, more spells per day, and access to spells at lower levels. I don't think extra feats for either class was really needed.

I still enjoyed Ultima Online's system more than anything else. You own a house/have friends with a house/have a guild with a house? Well then you can set up a vendor there to sell your items. You set the cost, and the vendor at that point basically becomes an NPC vendor. People can come to and browse the items on any given vendor. It let to a bit of hunting, and having to really dig deep for the best price on something.

This also led to certain things like vendor malls. Well placed houses that saw a lot of foot traffic where you'd essentially pay the owner a monthly fee and be able to place your vendor in his house. You had to travel there to deliver the goods to the vendor, and collect the money. There was no centralized list. No collected data. What you could see on any given vendor was what you could see. There was also no level 1 alt issue which pops up with auction houses in different locations.

Ace-of-Spades wrote:

Vereor Nox wrote:

ooh yea contract bidding sounds really good. It would be nice to apply and send messages and things too, so rather then a auction that keeps going lower, you get say 3 bids, 1 is from someone whos at say 2k another at 1k, or another for 1.5k with more experience then the 1k bid, and possibly offers some sort of guarantee to sweeten the deal and you decide to take the 1.5k bid. I really love the idea of a bidding contract.

Or perhaps he has higher reputation? Maybe even implementing reputation earned by fulfilling crafting contracts?

Oh yes, I would like to see that, like a upfront value on contracts and then a penalty. Like say I will pay you 2k for 200 Ore in say 3 days. you take the contract and I will give you 1K upfront, after completion you recieve the other 1k and 500 rep. or something, if you fail, you owe me 1k or 1.5k and lose 500 rep. Or something along those lines.

I think the system you're shooting for there sounds a bit overcomplicated and way too prone to outside game influences. Someone loses power, or internet for a couple of days, and they face the threat of taking both a rep and money penalty. Seems wrong.

They're probably including Alertness from the familiar.

Doggan wrote:

KainPen wrote:

nut for cleave tree to work they can be no space inbetween targets they have to basicly be lined up for you and use spend 4 feats to emulate wirlwind and your can't not miss. roll a 1 in that at all and your attacks are done. it is way to situational and you end up -4 to AC.

Bolded section is a houserule, so not truly relevant to the discussion.

Cleave ends if you miss. That's not a house rule.

My mistake, I misread that and thought he was saying you miss on everything with a Whirlwind attack if any of them are a 1. Reading over again I see he meant Cleave. Apologies.

nut for cleave tree to work they can be no space inbetween targets they have to basicly be lined up for you and use spend 4 feats to emulate wirlwind and your can't not miss. roll a 1 in that at all and your attacks are done. it is way to situational and you end up -4 to AC.

Bolded section is a houserule, so not truly relevant to the discussion.

Everyone contributes. Doesn't matter if you GM or host. We're a big group of friends so there's no issues as far as everyone occasionally bringing something. If someone has to skip a week or can't afford something a certain week, then everyone else picks up the slack knowing it'll be reciprocated in the future.

10) Isger. It sounds weird, but I really like this place. There are a lot of places you can...

I can totally get behind this statement. It has a great recent history to build from with the goblin wars. There's not a whole lot in terms of specifics for the cities so you'll have to do a bit of city building if you're running anything in the country, but there's plenty of other things to build from.

I'm running my current campaign in Isger, and haven't regretted it one bit since I've started.

Thanks Sara Marie! Just got the new email showing the updated items to be shipped. Much appreciated.

Just got my confirmation for Ultimate Campaign, but it said nothing about my other subscriptions which should also be coming from the Campaign Setting line. I even looking at my subscription page and there's nothing on there about Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Chronicle of the Righteous and Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Fey Revisited. Maybe this is because when I originally subscribed, I was set to start with Castles of the Inner Sea, and then it got pushed back?

Either way, I'd like to get my subscription copies of both books due to be released this month.

There's nothing in RAW that says you cannot add onto Specific Armor or Weapons.

There was a time that I enjoyed the crit fumble rules. But then I started doing some higher level test battles after a bad night for my players where the crit fumbles really screwed them. I've since come to learn how much crit fumbles really punish players, and hardly have any effect on most enemies that are only around for a single battle anyways.

It makes no sense to me that as a physical combat oriented character gains level and actually becomes better at what he does, he ends up with a HIGHER chance to fumble. Iterative attacks should be a bonus for leveling up, not another possibility to throw your sword away, and hit your buddy with a poorly aimed swing.

Talk to your DM. Have all of the players who don't agree with the rule talk to him. If it's not something he's willing to change, maybe it's time to start someone on the DM path.

I enjoy all of the added classes, with a couple exceptions here and there. I'm not a fan of the summoner. The fact that the eidolon is no better than a summoned monster in most cases (I've seen it used as a trap springer far too many times, and there's no mechanical repercussion for treating your eidolon like garbage) tends to annoy me.

The Ninja I don't mind, I just find I always have to houserule the vanishing trick into a standard action to make it work.

Alchemist, Cavalier, Inquisitor, Oracle, Witch, Gunslinger and Samurai are all okay in my book. I use Golarion for my setting with only early firearms, so they all fit and nothing is really overpowered. In terms of power creep, the Core book full casters are still more powerful than basically anything else, and can still often end encounters with a spell or two. I see the additional books as adding some nice options so things don't get so stale.

Doggan wrote:

Just popped on for a minute. That's a whole mess of channels there.

Dogan,

Just look for a Dropship with names + PFO tag.

You can create the name + tag for yourself, in the Bookmark options.

Yeah I found the channels. It's just been a while since I've been in a TS server that huge.

Also, just popped onto the server you had listed Bluddwolf. There was someone sitting in a Dropship channel afk saying that PFO people should go to PFO fan. Is that where everyone is now migrating?

Just popped on for a minute. That's a whole mess of channels there.

I'm not talking about bulk orders, really. The only reason why I brought up the example I did is because those titles are going out in the span of a very short time, and it got me wondering about the situation. They're using 2 carrots for the AP line already (30% off cover and the 15% elsewhere). Why not dangle a little bit of carrot elsewhere?

I don't know if this is the proper forum for this sort of thing, but it's the best place I can really think to put it. So, I'm really curious about the Pathfinder Advantage program that's attached to the Adventure Path series. By subscribing to APs, people can get 15% off of all Paizo products. Seems cool. But I don't really like the APs. Not for their content, I think they're great. But I really like running my own adventures and coming up with my own stories for people to play through within the world of Golarion.

So as a constant DM, I subscribe to the RPG line, the Campaign Setting line, and the Companion line. Seeing the recent post about the next few months worth of Companion and Setting lines being really heavy, it made me do some math. I'm going to be paying $211.89 over the months of May, June and July for the 3 lines I subscribe to. Those who Subscribe to the AP line will end up paying 193.12 for the entire year. So as a subscriber, I'm paying more in 3 months than AP subs do in a year. Why am I not also getting access to that wonderful 15% discount? What is it about the Adventure Paths alone that makes them special?

There's plenty of threads on these forums that have gone over the math of crit range vs crit multiplier. A 19-20x2 and 20x3 are basically the same same thing. Don't look at the damage die as a gauge for how much damage a weapon will be doing. Most damage will be coming from other sources, like Str, weapon enchant, feats, class features and so on.

Nodachi would probably be best explained in a pirate campaign. Your captain saw some different form of ship, with strange banners and markings. In the looting, you found that odd weapon and learned how to use it.

As far as which weapon, I guess that depends on what you want to do. Do you want reach? Something to support combat maneuvers? Do you want to go crit fishing? Whichever one of those has your strongest yes can really direct your answer as to which weapon to use.

Xaratherus wrote:

It would probably have a chance to break, but a low one.

RAW, falling causes 1d6 damage per 10 feet that the item falls. Dropping it at your feet would at best be something like 1d4 potential damage (or possibly 1d3), but before I would even deal that I would probably (and this would be a DM ruling, not RAW) roll percentiles to determine if the bottle even landed on something or in such a way that it might break.

As for alchemist bombs, Doggan is correct; the description of that class ability states that such a bomb is actually two (or more) substances mixed together in the same turn the alchemist throws the bomb; in most cases you'd be looking at the character falling unconscious before they actually mixed the bomb up (for instance, from bleed damage, which occurs at the beginning of a round).

In tonight's PFS game that made me think of this, a druid character was throwing a pellet grenade. A dragon made an AoO against the character because of the ranged attacked and dropped them. If it had been an Alchemist with a bomb it would have been mixed before the ranged attack was made.

Tam

You're in a really iffy realm of rules there, in that there are none that really cover it. "Drawing the components of, creating, and throwing a bomb requires a standard action that provokes an attack of opportunity." As soon as you being drawing those components, the AoO would happen. If the Alchemist takes damage and drops from it, did he manage to actually make the bomb viable? I think it's really up for a GM call in that case.

Alchemist fire you could make a cause for breaking on drop. Only has 1 HP and a hardness of 1. Alchemist Bombs don't become destructive until activated, and are only active in the round they're created.

Weapon Cord. Drop as a Free Action, Cast, recover your weapon as a Swift Action. As far as pre-prestige levels... Fighter and Rogue are both good choices.

I love the Dark Folk. I often put them in direct contention with the Drow, and use them as a (slightly) more welcome merchant/trading partner with select surface villages and towns.

I'd say this is probably a good FAQ candidate.

Doggan, you must be communicating who is your enemy somehow. Otherwise a summoned creature will attack anyone. It simply does not make sense otherwise.

- Gauss

In that case, explain to me how you're communicating with creatures who can't understand you at all? Or are you saying you have to use handle animal on magical creatures, elementals, and other creatures that generally aren't controlled by the skill? And that you're using Push on every creature, since they're not actually trained in those tricks?

Or maybe the fact that it's magical has something to do with it, and it knows who your enemies are.

BTW, it is interesting that SKR also believes you can direct summoned creatures to attack.

SKR

- Gauss

You can direct them. You just have to have a way to communicate to do so. Otherwise they're on a bit of auto-pilot, and it attacks your enemies to the best of it's abilities without your say-so.

Doggan, I mispoke slightly. Without indicating 'in general' who to attack the summoned creature cannot possibly know who the enemies are. There must be SOME level of communication there.

CRB p352 Summon Monster wrote:

It attacks your opponents to the best of its ability. If you can communicate with the creature, you can direct it not to attack, to attack particular enemies, or to perform other actions.

Now, who is defined as opponents? Until you indicate it..nobody.

Wizard finishes summoning a Dire Boar.
Wizard has yet to indicate who the opponents are.
Dire Boar waits (delays) for that indication.
Wizard casts Haste.
Wizard indicates who the opponents are.
Dire Boar attacks the opponents.

Better?:)

- Gauss

Interesting, but not better at all. Now you're trying to communicate who your enemies are to a creature that you cannot communicate with. You either know who your enemies around you are, or you don't. And it will either attack them without your direction, or it will attack no one (because you have no idea that enemies are around you).

Doggan wrote:

didn't forget the comma. The way it's written, the creature DOES act immediately when it's summoned. Let's break it down, because I think you're getting confused by the comma.

My quote is copy/pasted straight from the PRD. The SRD matches. The comma is supposed to be there.

And yes, the presence or absence of punctuation can radically alter the meaning of a sentence. In this case, it controls how the word immediately is applied.

I didn't forget the comma as in I didn't forget the fact that the comma is part of the spell. I know exactly how it's worded, and in some cases punctuation can change the way things work. I'm sorry, but in this case you're wrong.

"...immediately, on your turn." is not the same as "....immediately when you choose to have it act, on your turn."

You're adding meaning onto the spell without having any written word to support it.

I see no problem with summoning a creature, casting haste, then having the creature attack.

Wizard finishes summoning a Dire Boar.
Wizard has yet to indicate who the Dire Boar is to attack.
Dire Boar waits (delays) for orders.
Wizard casts Haste.
Wizard directs Dire Boar to attack an enemy.
Dire Boar attacks the enemy.

- Gauss

Doesn't work that way. Wizard doesn't have to direct the summoned creature, and can only direct it against specific enemies if it can communicate with it.

You forgot the comma when you cited the rule. It makes a world of difference. As written Summon Monster specifies that summoned creature acts in the current turn, but not when. Without the comma it would be specifying precisely when the action took place, "immediately upon being summoned."

I didn't forget the comma. The way it's written, the creature DOES act immediately when it's summoned. Let's break it down, because I think you're getting confused by the comma.

On your turn: It appears where you designate AND acts immediately.

So both of those things happen. If you chose when the creature was able to act, it would say so. The "on your turn" bit is to remove any confusion of when the creature acts, since technically 1 round casting spell finishes just before your initiative count.

A spell that takes 1 round to cast is a full-round action. It comes into effect just before the beginning of your turn in the round after you began casting the spell. You then act normally after the spell is completed.

Further, even looking at this rule right here, it kind of answers the argument. The series of events goes like this:

Round 1; Init 15: You start casting Summon Monster 1
Round 1; Init 14-0: Other people act, do stuff
Round 2; Init 14.9/15: You finish casting the spell (which you HAVE to do before you act normally) which involves choosing the spot you designate for the creature to pop into existence. And then IMMEDIATELY (like the spell says) when that creature pops up, it acts.
Round 2; Init 15: Now you can act normally since you've finished the spell.

Still trying to figure out why they made the Mindchemist suffer Ability Damage where the Ragechemist does not. And the Ragechemist can get up to +10 to dam at level 3 where the Mind can only get +6

Maybe you should take a longer look at the Ragechemist. The Ragechemist can suffer a stacking -2 to both Will saves and Intelligence. Will saves are the Alchemists weak save to begin with, and for a Str based Alchemist, they're too MAD to invest much into Wisdom for a half decent save. Further, if the Ragechemist loses enough Intelligence by getting hit, he can end up helpless and CDG bait.

I'd much rather take the minor ability damage to Str after a fight than have an incredibly weak will save and the chance to become helpless in the middle of one.

When the summoned creature acts is undefined, other than on the summoner's initiative. The summoner could choose to act before or after the summoned monsters.

Actually, the wording is immediately on the summoner's turn. So the summoner may be able to go at the same time as the summon, or after. But not before.

Maybe because Cognatogen, with it's wonderful +4 Alchemical (bonus that you get nowhere else) bonus, which you can then stack on-top of something like Fox's Cunning, basically acts as a supercharger for your Bombs. +2 damage and +2 to the bomb's save DCs. A -2 Str penalty is painful, but for a bomber (who I see as the main user of a Cognatogen anyways) that Str damage won't hurt too much.

The way I see it, you wouldn't be able to do this. You didn't have Haste as any sort of readied action for when the summoned creature appears, and the summoned creature has already begun its full attack by the time you manage to get your standard action to cast off.

That's the way I've always run it in my games. So everything would count after that first round, but not for the first round.

I stream sometimes, but I canceled my Netflix account recently. Just like cable, it's filled with massive amounts of worthless junk, and there's not nearly enough new programming to subscribe for more than a month at a time before letting it lapse for 6 months.

Why wouldn't you be able to? If you can craft Specific Items using the Magic Item Creation feats, then you should be able to turn your bonded item into a Specific Item.

A wizard can add additional magic abilities to his bonded object as if he has the required Item Creation Feats and if he meets the level prerequisites of the feat. For example, a wizard with a bonded dagger must be at least 5th level to add magic abilities to the dagger (see Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat).

Seems like the only requirement is having the appropriate level to match up with the level requirement of whichever Item Creation Feat would be relevant to the item you're magicing. You can use Item Creation feats to craft Specific Weapons. As a Wizard, you can add magic to your Bonded Item as if you had Item Creation feats. So I'd say that yes, Bonded Items can indeed be turned into Specific Magic Weapons.

By Specific Weapon do you mean the named magic weapons and whatnot? If so, I don't see why not.

From the Bonded Item rules under the Wizard:

A wizard can designate an existing magic item as his bonded item. This functions in the same way as replacing a lost or destroyed item except that the new magic item retains its abilities while gaining the benefits and drawbacks of becoming a bonded item.

I think a Specific Weapon would count under the existing magic item thing in that quote.

Class vs Class is nearly impossible to balance. Things like Wizard, Cleric and Druid will always be the top of the totem pole power wise. The Rogue will almost always be on the bottom. That's not to say that they can't be useful in other ways. Rogue can often be useful in more non-combat scenarios (because of skills, for example) than many other classes.

Now adding that to your earlier question: The removal of multi-classing will not fix class balance. The most powerful classes (the full casters) are generally the ones who least decide to take level dips into other classes, except for a few very specific builds.

Back to my actual question, please.

You posted a lot more than your actual question. If you'd like comments on only your question next time, then post only a question. Don't bring comments about fun, book keeping or anything else into it.

But to directly answer your question and nothing else: There will be no advantage or disadvantage for any given class by removing multi-classing. Each class is built with 20 levels in mind, so each class will advance as intended. The only time any sort of advantage comes into play is when you compare class vs class.

I enjoy optimizing in a couple of different ways. When playing, I like optimizing within the concept I've created for my character. I don't go too crazy with it, but if I play an Evoker, I'm going to take feats and the like that help him evoke.

On the other hand, I also very much enjoy coming up with as much crazy optimized stuff as I can when not planning to use that character for a game. I look at it sort of like a puzzle to see how far I can take it and make something that's fairly game-breaking.