Duncan Clyborne's page

Wizards aren't aiming for getting Pathfinder people back.

They want the 1E/2E people back. Observe:

Monster statblocks fit into three lines of text? Check
PC charsheets fit on one page... Check
...and there are no skills there to speak of? Check
Playtest adventure by Gary Gygax? Check
No dragonborn warlocks in sight? Check
"GM is the law" stated explicitly? Check
Minis? Grid? What are those? Check

5E is a love letter to Old School crowd with some 3E/4E innovations thrown in. WotC is going after all those folks who play OSRIC/C&C/S&W/T&T/X&Y and have no strong brand holding them. Smart move, but is it enough to satisfy the Corporate Overbeast?

Just let her use weapon finesse with the staff she will still be behind dual wielding short swords by only having a threat range of 20.

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MIST ASSASSIN, CR 7

XP 3,200; NE Medium humanoid (elf)
half-elf ninja 5 / oracle 3
Init +3; Senses low-light vision; Perception +10
DEFENSE
AC 18 or 19, touch 13, flat-footed 15 or 16 (+5 armor, +1 shield, +3 Dex)
hp 55 (8d8+16)
Fort +3, Ref +8, Will +4; +2 vs. enchantment
Immune magical sleep; Defensive Abilities fluid form (-4 critical confirmation)
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee +1 flying blade +5 (1d12+1, x3, plus poison), +9 with attacks of opportunity; or spiked gauntlet +1 (1d4+1)
Ranged flurry of stars +7/+7/+7 (1d2+1); or shuriken +9 (1d2+1)
Special Attacks poison use, sneak attack +3d6
Oracle Spells (CL 3rd)
1st-level (4/day) – cure light wounds (1d8+3), inflict light wounds (1d8+3 negative energy, DC 13), obscuring mist, shield of faith, touch of the sea
cantrips – bleed (DC 12), detect magic, light, mending, resistance
STATISTICS
Str 13, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 14
Base Attack +5; CMB +6; CMD 19 (23 vs. bull rush, drag, grapple, reposition, trip)
Feats Combat Reflexes, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (flying blade), Improved Initiative, Point-Blank Shot, Weapon Focus (shuriken)
Skills Acrobatics +11, Bluff +7, Escape Artist +8, Perception +10, Sense Motive +5, Sleight of Hand +8, Stealth +11, Swim +9
Languages Common, Elven
SQ ancestral weapon, deaf, keen senses, ki pool (4/day), multitalented (ninja, oracle), mystery (waves), ninja tricks (flurry of stars, shadow clones), no trace +1, oracle’s curse (deaf), revelations (fluid form, water sight), uncanny dodge
Gear +1 chain shirt, +1 flying blade, masterwork buckler, spell component pouch, spiked gauntlet, tanglefoot bag (3)

I can't help but feel your looking for excuses to ignore her.

It's you're, not your.

And I bring that up to emphasise how important language is for me. It's not just the stupid internet lingo with LOL and boon and 1337, it's people not giving a crap about the difference between you're and your (or its/it's, or the infamous plural apostrophe, or the theirs, and so on).

I really care about that stuff. You can convince yourself I use it as a mere excuse if it makes you feel better about yourself, but that's not how it is.

I mean, don't get me wrong, i don't agree with her, but that is based on(after an admittedly breif read) the fact that she doesn't seem to be arguing that we should have a more realistic potrail of woman(and for that matter men), but that all images with a sexual element are some how bad, and that she is supported by a fairly large crowd of people with a sex negative agenda. Compared to that, using netspeak to amusing effect in her writing just doesn't factor into it.

Well, good for you. Me, I can have several reasons to dismiss people.

First of all (as I said above, which you would have read if you had bothered, which you apparently hadn't in your witch hunt), I don't think she's looking at a better portrayal of women as more than mere sex objects, she's just looking for an excuse to call people pigs.

And then, on top of it, I also dismiss her as trivial because she can't write properly.

See? Layers upon layers of disapproval.

When you focus on it, it makes it look a little like your just looking for an excuse to ignore her because she is a woman or you don't want to think about the argument itself.

So you're a pretend psychologist as well? Well, Dr Fraud, I need no excuse to ignore her. It's not because she's a woman, it's because she's a shrew, spitting poison whenever she screams.

I'm all for equal treatment of both genders, I'm all for women being more than just easy on the eye.

But that shrew doesn't want equal treatment, or women to be treated as equals. She wants to call man failpigs or something. She makes the proper feminist fighters for equality look bad.

And actually, there is a problem. Many gaming companies, both table top and software, are as she puts it, full of gender fail(and even more full of sexuality and race fail).

No, they're not. Because there is no such thing as "gender fail".

If I have a problem with this thread, and go make me a sandwichs, it is the attack in paizo, who frankly are amongst the good guys on this issue. Compared to wizards and blizzard, paizo are the dalhi laama.

Actually, that's the bigger problem. And if you really think there is a problem with chauvinism and racism in the game industry, you should realise that attacking everyone instead of those who are the real culprits undermines the whole argument. People will dismiss you if you overgeneralise, and in the process, many will dismiss the whole issue.

And while paizo isn't perfect, they really could go further with body type variety and present more art where females who happen to be wearing armour, don't have chest windows.

I haven't followed this with Argus Eyes, so maybe I've overlooked lots of ample cleavages, but is this really a problem with the dress armours?

Hell even their writing could to better with gender issues

Really? Again, I might not be looking for issues with the fine-toothed comb. Can you give me examples of sub-par writing in that area?

As such I consider the tone of the messages wrong. We should be congratulating paizo, and offering them encouragement to do better, not wailing and gnashing our teeth as though they are regularly using topless booth babes who occationally have big old make out sessions with one another to get the us lower brain rules males in to buy stuff.

On that, we are in agreement. Honey working a lot better on people than vinegar and all. Starting off with a huge insult doesn't really endear yourself to people. Put them on the defensive and they will defend themselves.

And that's why miss internet there fails. Or not. She's only a failure if her plan is to make people better. I don't think she's trying to do that at all.

Anyway, I think we mostly agree that Paizo is doing an awesome job. Maybe not perfect, but being perfect is impossible, anyway.

Sincere questions:

If you're a fan of 4e, why are you hoping for those mechanics to make their way into Pathfinder? Why aren't you just enjoying 4e?

Because, as is usually the case, it isn't as simple as being or not being a "fan" of 4E. There are aspects of both systems, and their associated ecosystems, that I enjoy. As it happens, on the whole I prefer Pathfinder, but I believe some of 4E's mechanics to be superior, and would like to see them incorporated.

Really not loving the ubiquitous "sneetchery" around the whole thing, though. :(

By the way I hope it is a very very long time before there is a new edition of pathfinder. anther 5 or 6 years -- at least.

I'd buy a Pathfinder 2E (or D&D 5E) tomorrow, if for no other reason than I'm fascinated by the design choices. Of course, that isn't to say I'd necessarily like what I found. I'm just a system junkie (which is odd, given that I hate rules bloat). What can I say? I'm a sucker for a clean, flexible core system.

I think a feat that forces you to make a melee attack against an opponent (even if you're a spellcaster) is a valid feat if there's also a feat that forces you to cast a spell at an opponent (even if you're not a spellcaster)....