Hello everyone and thanks for reading in advance!
I just got my copy of The Inner Sea World Guide and was blown away at the amazing amount of time, devotion and talent put into this book. I love the excessive amount of information available in this book. Now I'm willing to say that Golarion has beat out Eberron as my favorite setting, and one of the many reasons why is the Red Mantis Assassins.
From the interesting and unorthodox fighting style to the ninja-like castle/temple headquarters and standardized uniform, everything about them makes me love those evil bastards more. I couldn't wait to play one in the next game my friend is running (he already o.k.ed it because he knows I've been wanting to prove that evil can be played at the gaming table if it's done properly, cooperatively, and with maturity). So naturally I threw around some ideas and put some builds together and was shocked . There were so many...problems. It started with one then led to more and more. Let me bullet point:
#1 The Sawtooth Saber- Casually reading through the weapons section, I spied The RMA's favored weapon and noticed that it weapon finesse no longer worked with it (which explained its removal as a prerequisite). In fact, the only time it was treated as light was for Two-weapon fighting. At first, I thought “Alright. Now people won't be power attack & piranha striking, but dex is still very much an assassin staple: stealth, light armor, mobility-style feats like... TWO-WEAPON FIGHTING! Wait, I need a minimum 15 dexterity (provided I don't want to continue the tree), but need strength for hit and damage, charisma for spells and prayer attack, AND constitution for three other class features. But thats...
#2 M.A.D.- Yes folks, my favorite class has become “Multiple Attribute Dependant”, just like the 3.5 paladin. I would love to know the reasoning behind this choice in particular. Never being one to fret when a challenge is set, I continued my build. Looks like two levels of ranger are necessary to free up some of the point buy, but that just doesn't feel right. Was my assassin going to be running around in medium armor? Even the Mantis form reinforced the dex dumping decision with +4 Str,-2 dex, and large size with a 1d6 natural attack (I would bullet point this but it's a minor adjustment... I just wouldn't use it until ninth level, maybe not then either) Crap, I was going to be the slowest assassin in the world. I would have such a hard time making a quick escape with the impedance placed on acrobatics , limited move speed, and penalties (both armor and lack of dex) to stealth, escape artist, ride, and disable device. And I didn't even know if the RMA could cast spells in medium armor. Let me check...
#3 Spell Failure- Turns out the RMA can't cast spells in any armor. The bard-like spellcasting was stripped, and with it the arcane spell failure avoidance. But at least I could still optimize my prayer attack.
#4 Prayer Attack- This is my favorite part about the RMA, their death attack. But from what I can gather is it doesn't work. Maybe it's just me, but how do I maintain concentration (Standard Action) to keep them fascinated on my turn and coup-de-grace (Full Round Action). I hope that at the very least that when concentration lapses, they're still fascinated until the end of your turn. But from what I've seen, that isn't the case. (at this point, I cried a little.)
So here I am, on the boards looking for answers. I would love to hear from what anyone has to say, but especially the reasons behind the decisions from the creators. So I cast my spell:
SUMMON STAFF IX
School Conjuration (Summoning) Level cleric/oracle 9,
sorcerer/wizard 9, summoner 6, witch 9
Casting Time 30 minutes...or less!
Components V, S, M ( a family size pizza and a six-pack
of an alcoholic beverage, worth at least $15.99 American)
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./ 2 levels)
Effect one summoned paizo staff member
Duration permanent, until material component is gone (discharged)
Saving Throw None or Will Negates (see text); Spell Resistance No
Calling on the mightiest powers know to be, you summon “The
Grand Designer” himself, James Jacobs. This spell functions as
summon staff I, except it's James Jacobs. The summoned staff
member appears wherever he wants (within range) and questions
why you didn't just post your problem on the boards. Regardless
of your answer, he proclaims “Well. I'm here now. What's the
problem?” and begins to ingest the material component.
Paizo staff members will not interfere with the encounter
in which the are summoned. They make no attacks, cast no spells,
and will likely refuse to “at least hold your weapon while you
use the little adventurers room”. You're the PC, that's your job.
However, when summoned in this manner, James Jacobs
has the power to errata one aspect of the Pathfinder(tm) rules
for a “provisional” 24 hours. This errata is a simple adjustment,
such as the number of hit points a creatures stat block says it
has or that wizards cast off of Intelligence. If this change
affects a creature, that creature gets a will save, but only in
the presence of any PC aware of their presence and only once.
This power does not function on house rules or against big bad
evil guys (bbegs), because where's the fun in that? As is, the
overwhelming power of James' errata pen affects all instances of
the altered rule in the campaign, which may cause some background
events to change (subject to the GM and whether or not the errata
is game destroying or just plain funny). After granting the
errata, James thanks the caster for the grub and returns to the
office, taking the leftovers with him.
After 24 hours, James returns and informs the PC's of the
necessity of the errataed rule, and reinstates the current
campaign ruleset. At this time, James may ask the caster for a
gold or two for the vending machine on his way back. Just give
it to him, he deserves it.
The casting time of this spell is entirely dependant on the
pizza delivery time.
… And hope I get my answer soon! Thank you all for reading my long winded post!
