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I'm starting a CotCT game and one of my PCs is blind. I can deal with this for the most part, but how do I deal with Zellara contacting him? I can't just say "you read the back of the card."

would personally like to see the skill points more closely mirror the BAB to Hit Die comparison (with the exeception of the barbarian). Just as there are now three tiers in BAB and Hit Die, make it three tiers in skill points...4,6,8. That still keeps the rogue head and shoulders above the rest.

-Weylin Stormcrowe

Yes. That appears to be the best solution.

I agree that too much of it is merely heated arguing, but I think a majority of what I've seen is constructive.

I didn't think I'd ever see the day that linguists became overpowered, but I have.

4. Flavorful things gone: People who dabble in dark pacts can't turn into demons, metal mages can't become golems, and necromancers can't become undead beasts. Not cool.

Yes they can (theoretically). Just not via polymorph.

I as well like it, though i think the distinction between class and cross class might become a little insignificant at upper levels (which means I will have a lot more people cross classing use magic device) however I'm not saying thats a bad thing either. Though at first level many of my group use the extra skill points to gain little bits of knowledge. 4 skill points didn't mean +4 to one, it means 4 knowledges I can attempt fully (which with 5 people groups someone might make a DC 20 even if its 1 rank across the entire group) However for Linguistics being 1 rank equals 1 language with little class / cross class distinction (for the speak languages portion) I know a fighter in my current group who is going to be learning lots of languages.

I think the cross-class penalties diminishing makes sense. If you put your mind to something for a long time, you can master it nearly as well as someone whose primary focus (class) relates directly, though it will be harder at first.

Not adding skill points to skill is effectively making it worse; when you're dealing with trying to better a skill other than that one. I would have been very happy with the hybrid system that was being hashed out; right now I'm going to stick with Alpha 1.1 skill system. Basically with skill ranks, everyone ends up have 1 to 2 skills (the rogue will have more) that are maxed, and they're laughable at everything else.

but the hybrid system effectively gives a maximum to your skill ranks. Once you've got so many ranks (I think it was 5), you're forced to switch to another skill.

I don't follow. Could you explain what you mean? It's the end of a long day for me.

If you use the greater customization ability by adding to more skills, those extra skills can't be increased evenly later when you don't get the x4 multiplier.

Well, here's the problem with not multiplying skill point at first level! With 2 + INT x4, you had enough to personalise a fighter or a wizard. With just 2 + INT, not so much.

But if you spread them out, most of your skills are going to be poor later, when you get fewer points.

It has to be the printer friendly version, though.

I like that AR2 has a new forum. With the last forum, I showed up a bit late and found it too overwhelming to work with. This makes it much easier to keep track of the trends of what people like and dislike, what's a typo, what's broken and so on. I think this will let me be much more active in discussion on this release than on the first one.

Yeah. It's much weaker. Perhaps it should become first level.

I don't understand why you'd want that. This way taking cross-class skills is not completely useless.

I think he was concerned that the class/cross-class distinction had become pointless.

add if ya take a class skill it add an extra +3 to it.

Indeed. So a wizard with 18 INT could gain +9 to a skill in one level. Totally worth the relatively tiny loss in other skills.

The cross-class limitation is just that you have +3 on class skills with ranks. Therefore, cross-class skills are weaker without ridiculous math and half-ranks.

David Jackson 60 wrote:

Well, you could probably change the fluff and just have it give you the ability to fly with the same stats I suppose.

A constant ability that cannot be dispelled that saves you a spell slot certainly has some benefits.

Constant Supernatural ability not even Extraordinary so it can be targeted in game like AMF.

Good point. Aside from the practical issue, wings that don't function in antimagic just don't make since.

With regard to the bonus feats, when you get a lot of them for free at first level, it can add up.

EDIT: I didn't even notice the lack of the cantrip class feature until just now. That needs to be added.

The barbarian doesn't have a Weapon and Armor Proficiency block.

It says at the start "all of the barbarian's normal class features, plus the following"

That said, I think it's a bit confusing. They should just be listed.

Indeed. A mile should work well.

I think the intent is to prevent mid-adventure recharge.

That said, any spell of equal or higher level would work. It gives essentially the same limit, and fits from a flavor point of view -- it's the same amount of magic as the staff uses.

I don't disagree with it as a concept, but how does it lessen the book work?

Indeed. The sorcerer goes from a good concept to a good class. About time.

I agree that 2 is probably too low of a minimum. Wizards won't suffer much, since they have a high INT, but clerics and fighters, who often take INT as a dump stat are really weak here.

Also, there's too much of an "all or nothing" feel. Only rogues and barbarians get more than 2.

I know that the crew behind Pathfinder is working very hard to please everybody, but I don't feel the new system comes even close to compromising between the two sides of the skill debate. yes, it cuts down on the first level math headache, but it still isn't player friendly.

I want to be able to pick up new skills without my old skills suffering. There is no way to do that using ranks. If my wizard skulks through dungeons all the time, I should be able to get a little stealth without getting worse at my spellcraft skills.

I disagree.

If you want to add a skill at a higher level, you can just not add a point to each of the other skills you're taking. Your character will gain a pretty decent bonus to stealth, and lose only one point from the other skills -- at higher levels, that can get pretty insignificant.

Also, you don't get worse at the other skills; you just don't get better.

Indeed. I've always thought sorcerers were cool in concept, now they can be equal in power as well.

Celestial and Draconic Wings are basically useless at L15. Plenty of spells in game that provide flight and don't mutate the PC physically into a monster. Really think wings should be something else with more utility in game.

1: The Celestial wings are at level 9.

2: These abilities let you learn a different spell instead. You only get so many, after all.
3: I think the physical changes are a bonus. The character looks a lot cooler.

I believe it's fluff, like the alignment restriction.

I agree, though, that it's too restrictive. Perhaps if the designers don't want to remove it completely, certain classes should be listed as exceptions?

As stated in the PDF, this spell can be a game-breaker. It could possibly even allow characters to skip large portions of adventures or campaigns. How can this be fixed without rendering it useless?

My suggestion would be to make it work only if the destination is within a set distance. I'm not sure exactly how far, but perhaps it could vary with level.

I think the new skill system seems to get the best of both worlds. Keeps ranks, but makes the math easier. I like it.

Devilkiller wrote:

I hope the new SRD will be freely available to the general public. Being able to browse through the rules in html makes it much easier to look things up.

That is certainly not true. By WotC employees own words.

The SRD will only list the material that is allowed to be referenced by third party publishers. For example, a part of the SRD might look like "Races, pages 14 to 27 of the PHB."

And then, third party publishers aren't allowed to even reprint that material. They can only refer to it in their work.

That's a pity. Pretty much the only thing that could have convinced me to buy the 4e rulebooks was seeing the rules on the SRD and liking them.

So does the "gaining rage points with levels" thing mean that you can't recover your rage points until you level up? If so, it sounds like it could be underpowered, depending on how many rage points per level you get. I like the concept, though.

Happy birthday!

I came onto the scene later than every one and now I can't get my hands on the all of the physical magazines with the AoW adventure path in them! I - Would - Love - A - Harcover Edition. PLEASE. The Spawn of Kyuss are one my top three favorate types of undead and I love the concept of Kyuss.

All of them are currently available from the Paizo store except one, and the last one is available as a PDF.

My initial reaction was shock and anger. After I calmed down, I decided that it was possible that it would be a great system, bringing many improvements to the game. Then I saw some previews and realized that there actually weren't any improvements at all. In fact, it was getting a lot worse.