IconoclasticScream's page

I got an itch lately to dig out my d20 Star Wars stuff to run a few games, and I've discovered to my horror that the folder I had all the errata, web enhancements, and the conversion guides to the Revised Edition for Dark Side Sourcebook, New Jedi Order Sourcebook, and Starships of the Galaxy has vanished. The web enhancements I'm not worried about, but if anyone has the errata and/or the conversion guides for those books and could get them to me I'd sure appreciate it.

Goes without saying...

lol It makes me sad to think of the acres of forest that became copies of this book.

It seems as if the CoC Anniversary book has sent my next package's shipping cost from the usual thirteen bucks and change to over forty-five dollars. I know the CoC book isn't due to you guys before that late july shipment goes out, but just in case it arrives earlier than expected will there be time to split the shipment into the anniversary book and the July stuff? Seems like shipping would be half of what it is now with two packages going out.

Anyone know of a bit piece on a figure that could be removed and reshaped (if necessary) with only a modicum of effort that would pass for a nice starknife?

(I'd love if Reaper did a sprue of weapons and gear specific to the setting, like a klar, an earth breaker, or a sawtooth sabre.)

That's going to look nice sitting next to the 20th Anniversary edition. :)

Rogue possibly needed, at any rate. The party is debating whether or not they need the fifth in the party; I thought I'd put out feelers just in case. The current PCs are fifth level, and include a gnome sorcerer, human cleric of Desna, human ranger, and elf fighter.

SBPers, here's where we're going to chronicle our Kingmaker campaign. Character biographies must be posted by midnight on April 26th. I'll post a roster of PCs once everyone lets me know who and what they're playing.

I'm coming up with nothing searching for this... I need a figure (28-32mm) that will work as a male Varisian. In combat he wears studded leather and a wields a morningstar, but otherwise he's in his traditional "gypsy" garb.

You'd think after years I'd have this figured out...

Are these going to roll over and ship with the first monthly subscription order that comes up as they arrive in the warehouse, or are they going to delay this upcoming February order until they get in from Poland? I'm inclined to believe the former, but if it's the latter can the orders just sort of drift around in the aether until the dice are in stock? I really detest my inner-geek being so obvious, but if after a year-and-a-half I don't soon see where on the Tourondel Kassen lies I'm going to scream. :)

Under optimal conditions, how many weeks/months in game time would it take to construct the Pathfinder lodge from the Flip-Mat?

I haven't visited my comic shop in three weeks. In a minute I'm going to shower and head over to it. The delay has been knowing that when I arrive three institutions end for me.

I've been collecting Batman monthly since issue 400, Detective Comics since issue 568.

I began getting all of the Superman titles when John Byrne rebooted the series after Man of Steel.

I've bought Wonder Woman regularly since the 1987 when George Perez began the second volume after Legends.

Today, I'm dropping them all.

I couldn't be more bored by J. Michael Straczynski's story in Superman. If he were the first person to ever conceive a story where Superman connects to the normal people, I'd still dislike this storyline, with Superman fighting aliens in the suburbs, and ignoring an old man who's about to have a stroke. But this isn't even the hundredth time the idea that Superman is disconnected from the mundane folks has come up, just in the time I've been following his adventures.

Wonder Woman, again, Straczynski finding new ways to induce yawning. I'm so utterly disconnected to this Elseworlds tale that from month to month I can't not only recall what happened in the previous issue, I'm not even sure I bought it. If my soul were on the line right now, and eternal immolation in the deepest BBQ pit of hell the price of failure, I couldn't tell you what this storyline is about. Other than Wonder Woman trying to restore a status quo that everyone knows will be back at the end of the narrative.

I can't even get started on the Batman titles. Other than to mention that in December there are almost twenty monthly titles shipping that involve characters who operate out of Gotham. If I wanted to deal with that sort of crossover potential I'd have never dropped the X-Men titles three different times now.

Action Comics I'm keeping, at least until the story with Luthor ends. I'm really enjoying that one. After that it might have to be chucked, too.

DC is putting out a lot of great stuff in titles like Doom Patrol, Booster Gold, Power Girl, and the new Freedom Fighters book. Smaller print-run titles that every month I expect to find out are being canceled. But I think I'm going to champion those now, rather than the flagships that can easily be run into the ground without fear of cancellation.

Hi. Try to bear with me while I prattle on for a moment or two...

For those of you who don't know me, I'm a special education teacher at a high school in the South Bronx. I also run my school's Sci-Fi club. For the last five years I've been using RPGs with the kids to further develop their math, critical reading, writing, and social skills. So far its worked great, but I have no data to prove this.

I've written a proposal that's now part of a competition at We Are Teachers, a site for teachers to share their best practices and vie for grants. Working with a group of four tenth-graders (one student has mild learning disabilities, and another is diagnosed with Asperger syndrome), I'm going to begin a 4E campaign. The students will write backgrounds for their characters, keep journals, and all the while I'll be working with their other teachers to track their growth in relationship to their peers.

The grant will allow me to purchase the new red box starter set for each student, as well as their Players Handbooks.

If you can help me out with your vote- and if you could help by spreading the word about this- you can follow this link to my proposal.

Thanks for taking the time to read this (and hopefully for voting on my proposal!).

CR 2
XP 600
NE Medium monstrous humanoid (aquatic)
Init +0; Senses Darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +12
Defense
AC 16 (+6 natural) or 18 (+6 natural, +2 heavy wooden shield), touch 10, flat-footed 16 or 18
hp 19 (3d10+3)
Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +5
Defensive Abilities slippery; Immune paralysis, poison; Resist electricity 10
Weaknesses light blindness
Offense
Spd 20 ft., swim 50 ft.
Melee Shortspear +4 (1d6+1) and bite -1 (1d4+1)
Special Attacks Lightning bolt, pincher staff
Statistics
Str 13, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 8
Base Atk +3; CMB +4; CMD 14
Feats Greater Fortitude, Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Craft or Knowledge (any one) +7, Escape Artist +14, Perception +12, Stealth +6, Swim +15; Racial Modifiers +8 Escape Artist, +4 Perception, +8 Swim
Languages Aquan, Scaly Fish Man, Undercommon
SQ Adhesive, amphibious, keen sight
ecology
Environment Temperate aquatic
Organization Patrol (2-4 plus one 3rd level whip), squad (6-11 plus 1 or 2 3rd-level whips, 1 or 2 4th-level monitors, and 1 8th-level fighter), band (20-50 plus 100% noncombatants plus 2 3rd-level whips, 2 8th-level fighters, and 1 10th-level fighter), or tribe (40-400 plus 1 3rd-level whip per 20 adults, 1 4th-level monitor, 4 8th-level fighters, 1 10th-level whips, and 2 10th level fighters)
Treasure NPC gear (shortspear, other treasure)
Special Abilities
Adhesive (Ex): Scaly Fish Men use their own body oil and other materials to give their shields a finish almost like flypaper, holding fast any creatures or items touching them. Anyone who makes an unsuccessful melee attack against a Scaly Fish Man must succeed at a Reflex save (DC 14), or the attacker's weapon sticks to the shield and is yanked out of the wielder's grip. A Scaly Fish Man requires 1 hour and special materials 20 gp to coat a shield with adhesive. The adhesive stays good for up to three days or until it catches someone or something (in which case the shield can trap no additional items, since the adhesive is used up). Creatures using natural weapons are automatically grappled if they get stuck. Pulling a stuck weapon or limb from a shield requires a DC 20 Strength check.
Keen Sight (Ex): Scaly Fish Men have keen sight thanks to their two independently focusing eyes. Their eyesight is so extraordinary it can spot a moving item or creature, even if it is invisible or ethereal. Only by remaining perfectly motionless can such objects or creatures avoid detection.
Lightning Bolt (Su): Two or more Scaly Fish Men clerics (known as whips) operating together can generate a stroke of lightning every 1d4 rounds. The whips must join hands to launch the bolt but need merely be within 30 feet of one another while it builds. The lightning bolt deals 1d6 points of electricty per whipe, but a successful Reflex save (DC 13 + number of whips) halves this.
Pincher Staff: Many Scaly Fish Men fighters and all whips above 7th level carry this Large exotic weapon. A pincer staff deals 1d10 points of bludgeoning damage, threatens a critical hit on a 20, and deals double damage on a critical hit. It has a 10-foot reach and cannot be used against an adjacent opponent. A wielder that hits an opponent of at least Small but no larger than Large size attempts to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If the wielder gets a hold, the staff grabs the opponent and deals 1d10 points of damage each round the hold is maintained.
Slippery (Ex): All Scaly Fish Men secrete an oily film that makes them difficult to grapple or snare. Webs, magic or otherwise, don't affect Scaly Fish Men, and they usually can wriggle free from most other forms of confinement.

CR 4
XP 1,200
N Large aberration
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; scent; Perception +9
Defense
AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+3 Dex, + 6 natural, -1 size)
hp 42 (5d8+10)
Fort +6, Ref +5, Will +6
Offense
Spd 30 ft., climb 15 ft.
Melee 8 tentacles +5 (paralysis) an bite +0 (1d8+1)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks paralysis (2d4 rounds, DC 18)
Statistics
Str 16, Dex 17, Con 18, Int 1, Wis 15, Cha 6
Base Atk +3; CMB +7; CMD 20 (can’t be tripped)
Feats Ability Focus (Paralysis), Combat Reflexes, Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Climb +15, Perception +9, Survival +8; Racial Modifiers +8 Climb
Ecology
Environment Underground
Organization Solitary, pair, or cluster (3-5)
Treasure none
Special Abilities
Paralysis (EX) It’s primary attack is the eight tentacles that line its maw. These attacks deal no damage, but the sticky substance the tentacles secrete acts as a paralyzing agent. Anyone hit by a tentacle must make a DC 18 Fortitude check or be paralyzed for 2d4 rounds. The save DC is Constitution based.

Keep your endless, pointless debates over nerfed this and broken that- this is possibly the least important rules question ever asked: Should crystal ooze require a DC 20 Perception check to spot them rather than the DC 15 listed in the Bestiary under the Grey Ooze entry (p. 166)? Kinda makes sense they'd be a bit more difficult to notice in water, and it matches the DCs in 3.5 (from the Monster Manual and Tome of Horror Revised).

p. 134 Sniper alternate Rogue feature "Accuracy": "At 1st level, a sniper halves all range increment penalties when making ranged attacks with a bow or crossbow."

p. 124 Far Shot: "You only suffer a –1 penalty per full range increment between you and your target when using a ranged weapon."

p. 144 Range: "Any attack at more than this distance is penalized for range. Beyond this range, the attack takes a cumulative –2 penalty for each full range increment (or fraction thereof) of distance to the target. For example, a dagger (with a range of 10 feet) thrown at a target that is 25 feet away would incur a –4 penalty."

Example: A composite longbow has a range of 110 feet. At 115, the archer takes a -2 penalty. Accuracy reduces that in half to -1, and Far Shot knocks the -1 penalty to 0(?).

So should these two abilities, for lack of a better term, stack? Because it looks like a Sniper with Far Shot could shoot an arrow from a composite bow up to 1,100 feet away without a penalty for distance. Or should Accuracy be seen, essentially, as a bonus Far Shot feat, because, despite the dissimilar wording, they're both doing the same thing?

A year into the series, the current DP is easily my favorite ongoing series put out by DC. Giffen take on the characters is dead-on, and the love he's showing for all of Doom Patrol's weird history is apparent on every page.

Is there a simple template out there somewhere that would do nothing more than slap some wings and a flying speed on to a creature? I could swear I've seen something like that before, but I'm drawing a blank as to where it was.

Paizo is the best!

This guy is slightly too big to be a 3E/Pathfinder worg, but much too small to be a proper dire wolf.

Does anyone know if these are closer to Small or Medium sized figs, or could they go either way?

I just noticed that order #1471479 was combined with #1459929, which is the order that'll ship out some time next week with the APG, etc. Only thing that's a head-scratcher is that there's no date listed for #1459929 being placed, and I never got an email on it. I'm guessing that means it's just in a queue waiting to be processed or something, but I thought I'd ask in case there was some sort of glitch.

I always worry I'm the only one having these issues... Hopefully I'm not; everything else seems to be working fine.

1) I just downloaded the updated Adventurer's Armory file. When I try to move past the front cover it locks up Previews and I have to force quit. I've downloaded the file three times with the same result.

2) I wasn't too concerned about it, but I'll throw this in- When I try to do searches on the single file Heart of the Jungle PDF or the Master of the Fallen Fortress PDF, Preview crashes. I can scroll through those without a problem.

If it matters, I'm using OS 10.6.4.

I've created a map on Dundjinni that I need printed up for a game this Saturday, but thanks to the program's hatred of printing on a Mac I absolutely cannot get it to print, or export as a PDF, bpm, or jpg. From what I've read in the DJ forums, however, a PC shouldn't have these problems. So I'm hoping someone out there could get the dja file from me, make a pdf (or jpg or bmp) of it, and send the new file back my way. I'll include my email under the cut; just drop me a line if you can help out. Thanks in advance!

I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about this version of Gamma World. Even though D&D 4E isn't my "thing" so much, I think the system is going to lend itself perfectly to the GW setting. For those of you who weren't lucky enough to play Gamma World in its goofy early days, you don't know what fun is until you've been an Omega-level mutant potted bonsai tree.

Any chance of seeing a mini of the tatzlwyrm soon, either as a paper mini or preferably from Reaper? I've used displacer serpents from the Giants of Legend line before, but those were ersatz at best. Besides being handy to have one or two around for Kingmaker, I think as arguably the first Pathfinder monster they deserve to be immortalized.

I just looked at what's due out in May, and at the moment it appears to be only PF #33. June, however, has, is looking so big that I'm worried my USP guy is going to need a spotter to help him lift the stuff out of his truck. Is it looking like those release dates are firm? I know in the past sometimes things shift around a bit. My only thing is that the USP shipping charge is better than 50% the cost of the AP, so if nothing else is coming out in May I might risk the USPS for that one shipment.

Can I get this order held to be sent out with my next subscription shipment?

Still no sight of this order. I think it's just a few days overdue now, but at what point do we worry that my worst fears are again realized and the feckless thugs at my local post office have once more caused a package heading my way to vanish?

Normally I've got my subscription set up to ship things as the APs arrive, but it looks like that's going to hold up a ton of stuff until November. Normally I wouldn't care, but I'd like to get the Bestiary much sooner rather than later.

1) If I do a monthly shipment for October, is there a set date during the month the items will ship, or do all the items for the month ship when the last items anticipated for that month arrive?

2) Just so I'm clear, if I have items ship individually, each single book will be sent through UPS in its own package, even if they arrive in the same shipment you guys receive? Or if books A & B arrive at the warehouse together, those two books would be sent to me together?

3) As with the PFRPG Core Rulebook, I plan on getting two copies of the Bestiary. But as with the Core book, I was hoping to grab the second Bestiary if/when a second printing is made that would incorporate any errata. Would a second printing like that be far down the road? If so, would my best option be to not muck around with my shipments at all, and just place a separate order for a copy of the Bestiary that would ship as soon as it arrives in the warehouse?

I just finished running a session that ended in a battle between the PCs and a shadow. The party's barbarian was tagged twice by it, for a total STR damage of -6. The barbarian was raging at the time, but I think that PC would still have the -6 applied to his normal STR score. The player grudgingly agreed that made sense. As it was right at the end of the session, however, I promised I'd look into it before we meet again.

Can anyone think of a reason to not take that total from his normal STR? I want to be fair to the player (he's running a first level character, he's the party's tank, and there's still much of this crypt to explore), so if there's a loophole I've missed I'd be more than happy to change how I'm going to rule this.

I've got about a hundred proof-of-purchases from Reaper miniatures and paint triads. I'm never going to trade them in for anything. If you'd want to use them for something, they're yours. Just leave an email address I can get in contact with you at, and the next time I hit the post office I'll send them.

and once again I am devastated by revisiting a childhood joy only to find as an adult I understand what cowflop it really is. Even as a kid I knew the book was just advertising a toy line, and compared to Crisis on Infinite Earths, which I was also reading more-or-less concurrently, it couldn't hold a candle. But the ineptitude of Jim Shooter as a writer is so shockingly apparent I'm surprised the collection didn't grow a fist and punch me in the brain.

1) Every sentence in the story that isn't a question ends in an ellipsis or an exclamation point. Every single sentence. For twelve damn issues (and the last is double-sized). Who edited the book, Yosemite Sam and Sam Kinison?

2) How short did Shooter expect the reader's attention span to be that he needed to recap every issue the events that led to the heroes and villains being on Battleworld?

3) The only thing uglier than Shooter's misogynist attitude is the racism that oozes like poison from every line of dialogue given to Iron Man (this is when Stark had been boozing a little too much and Rhodey wore the armor).

4) The final battle between the heroes and the rejected Pokemon in the final issue might be the biggest waste of pages in comic book history before John Byrne wrote the Genesis miniseries for DC in 1997.

And yet I still love the book. I'll probably die of a nostalgia overdose one day.

I swear this is true. I updated my laptop to Snow Leopard yesterday. Everything so far has worked fine (thank God), but there's one tiny little problem when I try viewing Pathfinder PDFs. In every case that I've found (looking at random material from the AP, Chronicles, Companion, and Module lines) the "a"s in all of the section headings have vanished (for instance, in the chapter on tieflings in _Bastards of Erebus_, on page 61 there's now a heading that reads "H lf-Fiends nd Tieflings". Do I really care about a few missing vowels? No. But I thought I should point out a possible compatibility problem with something in OS X 6 before a bigger issue arises.

Sen Kennedy dead at 77

I need one, maybe two players for what I hope will be an on-going, long term campaign, set on Golarion using the Pathfinder RPG rules. Characters are starting at first level and we'll be using the slow advancement XP table.

To save a lot of time, let me tell you what the non-negotiables are:

1) I'm hoping to find experienced gamers, namely those around my age (mid-thirties) and who have gamed long enough to have played D&D before third edition. The reason I'm looking for gamers who will serve as great examples of what happens at the gaming table is because...

2) The two players I already have are newbies. They're two eighteen-year-olds I've taught for their entire high school careers. They asked as their graduation presents for me to keep gaming with them, and to raise the bar above what we were able to do with the limitations of playing at school as students/teacher. So I'm trying to make the best game for them I can.

3) I need people who love to role play.

4) It would be nice if you know the rules and you're familiar with the Pathfinder setting, but if you're prone to arguing rules or spending endless amounts of time finding the perfect build to max out your numbers this isn't the game for you.

5) Also, if you're a nut or a freak, things won't work out. I plan on running the games out of my apartment, where I live with my girlfriend and my cats, and none of us need or want someone creepy lurking around.

6) Yes, cats. So if you have allergies, be ready to pop a Zyrtec (I do once a day).

7) Yes, the Bronx. All the way up near Riverdale. I'm convenient to the 1 and the 4. But I'm running the game up here. I hate lugging hundreds of pounds of books on the subway, and there's no way I'm taking minis I've worked on for hours out of the apartment.

8) All PCs must be a Good alignment and must be races/classes found in the PFRPG. So far the party will include a human ranger and a half-orc barbarian.

God, I've made a list of expectations for my game. Can you tell I'm getting ready to switch into teacher mode in two weeks?

Oh! That reminds me of the last thing...

9) In theory I'd like to play every third Saturday, from about noon into the evening. However, I easily begin to drown in work as the school year moves on (this year I have even less time to plan at school than normal, and now I have the added responsibility of developing experimental science classes for students who need a little extra help along the way (which means, on top of all the other things I'm doing I'm also going to be teaching myself physics and chemistry in the next ten months (as an English major who's gone out of his way to avoid any and all math classes I'm not looking forward to this)). This is all to say that things might derail here and there, but I'm really hoping they won't and we can stick to that schedule.

Anyone else having trouble opening their Everflame PDF? If I try to open it using Preview everything on the computer goes nutty. It seems as if the computer is trying to create the little preview icon and can't for some reason. What results is that the PDF opens at a crawl, slowing down everything to the point that I often have to force quit both Preview and Firefox. If I try to open the PDF using the "Open Recent", which doesn't create a preview icon, however, it opens without a problem. This is the only file I have this problem with (and I've had the same problem with both the original and the corrected version of the PDF). Any ideas?

It's possible I'm the last person on earth to know about these two companies, but I stumbled across both recently and their figures are breathtaking. I can't wait to get through the two dozen Reaper and Crocodile figures I've sworn to do first so that I can start painting the minis from Freebooter and Wyrd I've purchased.

Wyrd Miniatures

Freebooter Miniatures

Just wondering if anyone has this set. If so, could you tell me if the spider and bug would be roughly Small or Medium compared to a 28 mm human figure?

RE: Issue #1

O. M. G.

I think it's safe to say the wait has been worth it. There are few people in comics today who can do "epic" like Geoff Johns.

This book is going to be unbearably cool. Bated breath for the Bag of Holding chapter.

The pics of my finished figure are here.

It hasn't been a good day, constantly remembering where I was three years ago today as Katrina swept into my city. And I know I'm not alone in this among the people who post to the Paizo boards.

To all of you out there who were affected by Katrina- or any of these other damn storms- I just wanted to send you my best. That's all.

I haven't been following the Rann/Thanagar Holy War story, but I noticed on DC's website the solicitation for last week's Hawkman Special, written by Jim Starlin (who, in general, is a fine writer (the man created Thanos, so he must be doing something right)).

Anyway, the blurb for the Special read "Hawkman finds himself face to face with a force of unspeakable evil: Synnar. The things Hawkman will learn in the course of their confrontation may lead him to question his very existence!".

Okay, so I admit that in glossing over it I misread it (or maybe yesterday in the comic shop I just couldn't remember it correctly). Rather than Synnar I thought it would feature Onimar Synn (from the "Return of Hawkman" story in _JSA_ a few years back). I figured if Synn was going to go up against Hawkman that alone was worth the price of admission, but I wanted to see what this big reveal was.

I'm so sorry I did.

Am I the only person who remembers the nightmare it took almost twenty years to fix regarding who Hawkman is? That for years no one was allowed to use the Hawkman character because of the continuity quagmire the character had become?

And now, with one comic book, what David Goyer and Geoff Jones had neatly fixed, Starlin seems to have nuked.

As excited as I’ve been with everything else to do with Pathfinder RPG, the change in the way cleric domains are presented is just killing me. I’ve been waiting with each update in the rules for a return to the old domains, but with the release of the Beta and essentially no change in presentation I wanted to write this.

Being a cleric now kind of… well, sucks. To some degree that’s a visceral, subjective reaction, not unlike being jealous of a sibling at Christmas because they got better presents than you did. Clerics lost spells they can use per day from 3.X to Pathfinder (something that I never understood the need for, short of making a neat row of “4”s for 20th level clerics), although that happened to a lot of casting classes. Most classes got an improvement to hit dice- clerics didn’t (and they probably didn’t really need it). Other classes got all kinds of neat new or augmented abilities- new barbarian rage powers, rangers have favored terrain, sorcerers have bloodlines, etc.

What did clerics get?

When domains were changed, clerics got the shaft.

Domains are supposed to show a special connection between the priest and their deity. And it’s not that they don’t as presented in Pathfinder RPG, it’s that they seemed to show that connection a bit better in 3.X. And in the process of changing how that connection manifests, the cleric lost a lot of special abilities.

I’m going to look at the Plant domain to demonstrate my point. It’s a completely random domain, picked only because that’s what I opened my Player’s Handbook to just now.

So my cleric follows Erastil, and belongs to a church that serves a farming community. The cleric takes the Plant domain. Now, in 3.X, that gives my cleric two special qualities right out the gate. Because Erastil is lord over flora, my cleric has the power to share in that dominance of plant life, and can rebuke or command plant creature. More importantly, the cleric has learned about nature through his training, and this is reflected by adding Knowledge (nature) to his skill list. With Pathfinder Plant domain, that same cleric who serves the farming community does not learn about nature, does not show that immediate command over the plant kingdom. What he learns is to harden his fists for combat.

Right away I’m thinking, “Why does his special ability have to be combat oriented?”. This reminds me of the X-Men books, in that every mutation (except for poor Doug Ramsey) gives an offensive or defensive bonus in combat.*

At first level my cleric can cast Entangle one extra time per day. Again, this shows that special tie he has to the plant kingdom through his god. With Pathfinder, I get the same connection, but now I have to wait until second level.

At third level in 3.X he gets Barksin. He has to wait until fourth level for that in Pathfinder.

With 3.X, at fifth level he can cast Plant Growth, and seventh level he can cast Command Plants. He can never do either of these in Pathfinder. This is another time that the old domains worked so well. They allowed clerics to cast spells that were normally outside of their own spell lists, in this case a druid spell. There were other cases where the spell came from the arcane spell list, or were special spells unique to one deity. Those might not be gone now, but they are fewer and further between than they used to be. And that’s sad, because a lot of flavor is lost in that.

At eighth level, with the Pathfinder build, he gets the Bramble Armor special ability; something he wouldn’t get with 3.X. It’s a neat ability. But it takes eight levels for there to be an advantage in the new domain system over the old. It’s also the last time that happens.

Ninth level he gets Wall of Thorns with 3.X. He doesn’t get it in Pathfinder until twelfth.

The Pathfinder cleric never gets to use Repel Wood or Control Plants (they’re druid spells), but the 3.X cleric can at eleventh and fifteenth levels, respectively.

Maybe the worst hit to the cleric of Erastil is saved for last. With a 3.X build he’s able to cast ninth level spells at seventeenth level. At that point he can manifest Erastil’s divine power of plant life to cast Shambler, summoning shambling mounds to aid him. With Pathfinder he has to wait until twentieth level to do the same thing. And that seems rather anticlimactic- hitting the pinnacle of your class, and your reward is that you can conjure up the Parliament of Trees to perform guard duty. If first and eighth levels are so special, why shouldn’t the cleric gain something unique at twentieth? Why just a spell that other classes could cast three levels earlier?

I guess what this all leads to is my asking “Was the old domain system broken?”. If the change was made to just give more for the cleric to look forward to as he gained levels, I’d say that overall the change has failed. Access to spells that the cleric normally couldn’t cast shouldn’t be considered a throw-away ability. From that perspective, the cleric class has very few of those dead levels that Pathfinder set out to eliminate.

Of course, not everyone may see it the same way, so the suggested fix is to integrate the old and the new domain systems. Keep the domains as presented in the SRD (or OGL, or whatever) with the one twist that the cleric can cast each domain spell once per day (and it cannot be used for Automatic Casting), and add new abilities at a small number of set levels- first, eighth, and twentieth seem fine.

*Yeah, yeah, Grant Morrison’s run on X-Men, blah blah. Humor me.