John Spalding's page

Apparently manxome is a word that means "A creature that inspires cool templates". Consider both of those stolen, guys. :p

I don't know what you intend to apply it to, but have fun. Let me know how it turns out.

A manxome creature has extended its life through the consideration of paradoxes, puzzling koans, and non-sense poetry. Its primal strangeness

Creating a Manxome creature

“Manxome” is an inherited or acquired template that can be added to any living, corporeal creature with an Intelligence score of 4 or more. A manxome creature retains the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

CR: +2

Defensive Abilities The creature gains damage reduction 10/lawful.

Special Abilities: A manxome creature gains the following special abilities:

Ageless (Ex): A manxome creature does not age and is immune to any effect which causes a creature to age.

Bewildering Aura (Su): When a manxome creature is under the effects of any mind-affecting effect, a manxome creature may activate his aura of bewilderment as an immediate action. Every creature in a 30 foot radius must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 manxome's creatures HD + manxome creature’s Cha modifier) or be affected by the mind-affecting effect which triggered the aura. The aura ends whenever the triggering effect ends. A manxome creature can only have a single bewildering aura at a time.

Paradox Armor (Su): A manxome creature gains a +5 dodge bonus to AC. However, if a manxone creature has full concealment against an attacker, that attacker ignores the manxome's creature's dodge and natural armor bonuses.

Transcend Divination (Su): A manxome creature is immune to any divination effect. The creature targeting a manxome creature with any divination must succeed at a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 manxome's creatures HD + manxome creature’s Cha modifier) or be affected by insanity.

Word of Puzzlement (Su): As a full round action, a manxome creature can utter a word of puzzlement. All creatures who hear this effect must succeed at a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 manxome's creatures HD + manxome creature’s Cha modifier) or lose their ability to communicate in any language. This causes 50% spell-failure for spellcasters. This is a mind-affecting effect.

Skills: A manxome creature instantly fades from memory which grants it a +20 racial bonus to stealth and permits it to hide in plain sight.

Matthew Downie wrote:

A lot of items are better than feats. A Cloak of Resistance +2 gives you the equivalent of 3 feats (Iron Will, etc) for 4000gp.

And these items are of equal value to every class in the game, so there is no issue of balance.

That clearly isn't true for all items which replicate a feat:

Keen and Improved Critical have the same effect.
Dervish Dance and Agile have similar effects.

I say people FAQ this and hope for a Dev comment.

Just beat him down over time. He either stands and trades with your or he hops in and out. The latter is slower, but the end result is the same. If you mitigate his damage at all it is easy. For example, stoneskin and basically ignore most of his damage.

You can magic missile if your concern is hitting touch AC or saves.
The paladin can almost assuredly hit with smite.

The cleric/inquisitor can almost assuredly turn off the monk's AC with dispel magic. I.e. he has like 22 AC max before items (10 base +2 monk bonus + 5 wisdom +5 dex). The rest comes from gear and consumables. He probably lacks enough cash to kit himself out in permanent gear. So, some of his AC probably comes from consumables. Dispel that and knock his AC down considerably. When his AC becomes more manageable, say 25, the paladin and inquisitor will murder him.

Our local VC (and others) have said that only 4 star GMs and VCs may run the retirement arc. I cannot find any reference to this rule and have been told it used to be a rule but has since been abrogated.

Additionally, we are tentatively planning on cycling GM duties. Is there a good reason not to?

Rather than problematic as in "overpowered", I'd like to see problematic as in "anticlimactic" spells removed.

Personally, my least favourite spells (that my group and I have an unspoken agreement to avoid using most of the time) are pretty much all divination spells. I'd remove most of the entire bloody school if I could.

1) Coming up with prophetic auguries and such on the fly is annoying.

2) Most of the spells exist purely to ruin suspense or allow a group to side-step the majority of the plot to skip to the end.

3) Scry and die. 'Nuff said.

4) The school as a whole is boring. There's no flashy effects or fun combat tools. It's literally just a whole kit dedicated to avoiding the fun parts of the game, i.e. dangerous encounters.

I feel the exact opposite way. I love when players want prophetic auguries and cryptic rhymes. I feel like divinations are the easiest way to let players into a story element that would otherwise be hard to convey.

Boon:

Small: You are unusually small for your kind. Regardless of race, you are now a small creature and gain a +1 size bonus to your AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty to their Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks.

This is a sweet boon.

Previous years seem to limit the special to 1-11. With the increased focus and availability of 12+ play, will the special at PaizoCon allow lvl 12+ characters to play, or should those of us with high level characters chill at 11.2?

Our local group doesn't want to run the retirement arc if doing so will cause us to get shut out of this year's metaplot. Especially if it means we

Options:

There are a number of wind spells to use against archers. Fickle winds being the best option.

As to being charged, that sounds like a party formation problem. Keep in the middle and keep some space between PCs and it makes charging tough.

The teleport thing doesn't sound so bad because you should only be eating one or two attacks per round. It is usually a standard action. So on your turn, eat the AoO and get out of mellee range. If it comes after you again, repeat. Basically, avoid taking a full attack action and you should fare better.

I would think about equipment options to remedy the low hp issue and maybe look at fireshield, cloak of dreams, or similar magic to make hitting you less attractive.

John, I don't think you're going to see someone giving out the boons from the scenarios ... but yes there is a very cool one ... Play and see :)

This was a fun scenario from a player perspective... though a word of caution, I really don't recommend playing up unless you have a well balanced group of almost all tier appropriate ... 5 slightly underpowered with the healer being level 5 was a tricky one at the end.

I was actually asking to see if I should run that over another mod. The interesting boons in season are a big part of the fun so far. Mostly as the group considers the moral quandaries and wonders what effects their choices will have down the line.

I would be wary of splitting it at the +1 level mostly because the +1 mw enhancement bonus to hit gets absorbed in a magic weapon.

Thus the +2/+0 would have exactly that, a +1/+1 player gets that, but the one you describe as +0/+2 actually gets +1/+2. Because 1/+2 is strictly better than +1/+1, you are getting something for nothing.

At higher levels you have to start making DR decisions- how do you determine if it overcomes silver/cold iron/alignment DR? is it the max of the two, the minimum, or the average.

Also, how does a spell like magic weapon interact with the spell?

I don't oppose the idea, but you do have to answer some questions if you go forward with that.

Are there cool boons off this adventure? I have seen a ton of cool season 4 boons thus far but mostly at 7-11.

Charisma can be especially useful in Kingmaker. We had a sorceress and oracle of life in our group, and that worked out well for us.

+1 on Kingmaker being conducive to crafting magic items.

To an extent, you have the ability to use any primary score to help the group. But if you want to be King (or queen or whatever) Charisma is the way to go.

But more generally, if you want to be king, think about the kind of kingdom you want and go from there:

My group had a haven for fey, forest creatures, and chelaxian slave runaways. But if you wanted a darker feel, you could be a bones oracle or necromancer and make it a place for undead, etc.

KIngmaker is a sandbox, so really the themes you bring to the table really make the game.

I don't think this is going to work out. Bards are skill based characters and dumping Wisdom, Dexterity hurts your skill numbers. 18 Strength is too much. 10 Dexterity is too little.

The other thing I will caution you about in PFS is that Bards are expected to Inspire Courage. If you can't do that, then you may face issues with acceptance. This is more of an issue in a smaller gaming circle.

PFS is a great place to try things out and people can get overly worked up. If you want to play a bruiser bard, do it, and ignore those who complain about your build.

Also, frankly, bards have tons of ways to do their skills and some good skill options are not dex or wis based like knowledge and social skills which, to me, are the central bard skill strength (or can be).

The dawn dervish is a solid build, albeit pretty terrible at 1-2. At 3 it starts getting good pretty quickly.

Yes, John.

The confusing bit is the reference to applying it as you would to a pregen. There is not to my knowledge any rule permitting one to play a pregen above level 7. Moreover, the rule above specifically limits playing a pregen to the 1-9 tiers.

For "home group mode", do pretty much whatever you like; as long as you play the listed bit, you get PFS credit as if you played a module with a pregen.

For "society mode", play the listed bit like a regular PFS-sanctioned module in order to get credit normally. Any other parts are not part of a PFS-sanctioned module and don't give credit.

If played as part of a normal campaign, can one apply the chronicle sheet to an existing non-level-one PFS character?

Double thread necro. Check the prd. http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/

Paladins no longer get double smite damage on every attack against evil undead, dragons etc. Just on the first attack:

If the target of smite evil is an outsider with the evil subtype, an evil-aligned dragon, or an undead creature, the bonus to damage on the first successful attack increases to 2 points of damage per level the paladin possesses.

Maybe beginner box with E6?

I do not mean to be rude or dismissive, but this is pretty close to the beginner box.

Druids are solid at every level but, in my view, never the best DPR at any level. At low level, animal companions are very strong. At mid levels wildshape is very powerful and some animal companions are very good. At high level, they are full casters.

That said, a number of builds have very strong damage across every level - 2hand paladins, archery fighters, 2hand barbarians, etc.

The beauty of the druid is really flexibility. Their spell list covers many bases. They have good skills and plenty of skill points. They are extraordinarily mobile. They have good mellee options.

That said, money is tough for low and mid level druids. Amulets of mighty fists are expensive. Wild is expensive. By mid level you really want both. A wild shield, armor, and +2 amulet of mighty fists costs 32 is more gear than a 9th level character gets.

For the less money, a barbarian gets +4 str, +4 armor and a +3 weapon. That's a net of 2 more to hit and 4 more to damage.

Druids also have a much worse time with DR. They have fewer ways to beat it; and compared to a 2hander, they have more attacks for less damage which is unfavorable.

They also, frequently cannot take their best forms because it doesn't fit in the room/hallway. The same applies to some animal companions.

I have an odd character idea.

John Spalding wrote:

Are there punishments for people who confuse m dash, n dash, and the hyphen?

Laws, yes. In my Freelancer Advice and Punishments document there's an entire section on using those correctly.

Each new job is an exercise in making Word do as I wish. Setting defaults to a certain kind of dash. Now, making WestlawNext citations conform to source formating.

The only thing I cannot get to work is keeping footnotes on one page. The new Word sucks at this. No combination will keep my header, keep my footer, keep the line numbers, keep paragraphs together, and not spread footnotes over three pages. I have begun to add carriage returns manually. Grr.

Are there punishments for people who confuse m dash, n dash, and the hyphen? In my editing days we even had the badge of illiteracy for people who used the word irregardless (courtesy of Bryan Garner).

I have found the best way to do this is to make stripped down pregens. Make 4 characters who are mechanically easy to play. In my mind, there are a few things that help:

1) Avoid abilities you switch on and off (point blank shot,rage, power attack).
2) Give spell casters fewer, easier spells
3) Cut the sheets down to show only info they need
4) Sometimes complicated characters (i.e. multiple archetypes and non-core feats) are simpler than an easy core class.

My faves:
1) Fighter with a 2 handed weapon whose feats are power attack and furious focus (the latter means that power attack is always on at low level and gets rid of the toggle).

2) Primal Bloodline sorcerer with spell focus evocation

3) Oracle - Lame Curse, Battle Mystery, Skill at Arms Revelation

I think the real offender in terms of archer DPR is their ability to overcome DR. Most of the time, archers scale because they have lots of attacks and 2 good ways to beat DR, cheap arrows and Clustered Shots. Giving monsters back their DR helps a ton.

I always consider banning Clustered Shots.

As stated above, make them track arrows (though I only make people track special arrows).

Limit metagame knowledge of DR.

Other tricks:

If the archer has a normal composite bow and not a bow with the new fleixble composite enchantment, any strength penalty gives them penalties.

Bows are really easy to sunder, and sundering isn't as nasty as it was in 3.5.

Rogue would add skills and sneak attack, as would ninja.

As far as a ship adventure, my question is how do encounters work with ships? For example, although a ship to ship encounter I can work out, or a boarding scenario I can work out, how about ship vs monster? Say a giant squid attacks the ship or a dire crocodile attacks a barge? Do the creatures expose themselves enough to be attacked by characters with swords and bows or does the creature more likely stay in the water and such attacks are usless, therefore relying on the ships capabilities to defend itself like a cannon or something?

For something normal sized (Huge or smaller) I would treat it as normal combat.

For something huge and epic, I would treat it as a series of encounters/requirements.

I.e. The squid has grabbed the ship and is pulling it under. Then make a table for various things:

1) The ship goes down in five rounds if not enough was done. Each round it makes 4 attacks.
2) Tentacles have a 20 AC and 20 hp. Each one killed reduces the number of attacks.
3) The body of the squid has AC 18 and 150 hp. Killing it is a success.
4) Hitting the squid in the eye AC 25 delays the sinking by a round as the squid is stunned by pain.

For ship rules take a look at the FREE skull and shackles player's guide. There are ships there to use as "NPCs"

For underwater rules, the CRB has a lot. It has movement rules (under swim IIRC) and combat modifiers.

Have his backstory be a cover story. It provides the hooks and facts for your needs and doesn't limit him. e could either have assumed that person's identity or have been pretending o be him all along.

I had the captain take a PC's leg. It could work here.

So far, I don't think I've used Knowledge (local) as much as I'd like, but that might just be the GM noticing my 20+ rolls and just telling us stuff.

Pretty much this or your roll history first and either suffices.

I am not a lawyer, but:

At the state level, the extent of the privilege varies depending on the law of the applicable jurisdiction.

This isn't a Federal case though, .... but they'd have to get the state to turn over jurisdiction on the murders, which probably won't happen.

The feds have independent sovereignty and may prosecute even if the state does. Double jeopardy doesn't apply under dual sovereignty.

A quick look at the Colorado cases and statute makes it appear that the CO statute is broad and, absent waiver, is enforced.

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/co-supreme-court/1377927.html

Level 10 Build:

Vivisectionist / Beastmorph

You can get pounce whenever your mutagen is active. Not too shabby. You have sneak attack. With the right feats you can extend it a long time and without the intervention of allies.

Feats:
WF Claws, Dazzling Display, Shattered Defenses, Enforcer, Blundegoner, Power Attack

Mutagen: Feral, etc

You generate your own sneak attacks.

Round 1:
Bite is first. If you hit it, roll to demoralize. Your attack is non-lethal but gets sneak attack (if you qualify) and no penalties due to bludegoner. If either claw hits, shattered defenses activates and extnds into the next round.

Round 2+

As long as they remain shaken, any claw hit extends the flat footed condition. If they cease to be shaken (because you suck at intimidate) another bludgeoning bite gives a free action to demoralize.

At level 13 you use Delayed Consumption to turn into something with many attacks and make this even more effective (and give yourself a stacking str and con boost). Calikang from the Inner Sea Guide is particularly nice for its 6 arms.

Please cancel sub after skull and shackles 6.

I will disagree with your analysis, for a couple of reasons:
1) The weapon affects a target every time they're hit. That means that even if the target has a high will save, they will fail eventually. (Even the mightiest heirophant priest can still fumble a will save.) Being able to take only standard or move actions sucks in high level combat. (Solution: Once a target saves, they can't be affected for more than 24 hours?)

I don't think it is worthless, just not great. It would not be my first 32k gp purchase.

2) The ones that are affected worst by this weapon are exactly the targets this weapon is meant for: fighters with iterative attacks. Good luck being useful when you're stuck with one attack per round in almost every fight.

I understand it is meant for them, I just think the people it is meant to work against are the least likely to be affected. In general, more iterative attacks requires more HD which increase will saves (directly and through wealth/feats). In general, casters have good will saves.

I think a play-test might be helpful either way.

Consider 3 fighters

All have Iron will, weapon focus, weapon, spec, gwf, power attack, furious focus, weapon training 2, 20 str

So attack routine of 10 bab +2 feats + 2 WT - 3 PA +5 str = +16/+11
Damage is 2d6 + 9 pa + 7 str+2 wt = 25 average.

+3 sword is +19/+11 for 28 damage
+1 holy is +17/+12 for 32 damage
+1 slow is +17/+12 for 26 damage

With AC 24, 130 hp, will Save +8, it takes the first two 3.7 rounds to kill it (I ignored crits because I am lazy).

The slow weapon will average 2 rounds of slow over a 4.7 round fight (it takes longer).

If the average creature does about half normal damage while slowed, it is a wash. I think that is a pretty close estimation.

Using the same numbers, if it was a +3 enchantment, the straight enchantment would kill the monster a round and a half faster. So the enchantment is only a wash if the creature is 1/4th effective when slowed. I don't think slow is that debilitating.

No, no it's not at all like the dustburst pellet. First of, the dustburst pellet gives a full turn for the target to move away (only needs 5ft) and secondly it's for one of the worst ranged weapons in the game.

"follows the target for 1d6 rounds before dispersing."

I think a close analogue is the dustburst pellet. Like the posited weapon, it afflicts a pretty crappy condition on a single target (blinded and sickened). It costs 192 gold. 50 would be 9200, so a weapon doing the same thing would be 9200. That puts it somewhere in the neighborhood of a +1 enhancement bonus (the bullet also is +1). I would call it +2 and be done with it.

Comparing it to other enchantments... Disruption is close in theme and effect and +2, but I think disruption is pretty expensive at +2. (I would pick holy or keen or spell storing over disruption every time). I think most people would pick holy over the slow. That means it is pretty firmly in line with the other +2 options.

My analysis goes like this - slow really hurts 1) casters who want to move away, and 2) people with iterative attacks or multiple attacks. Casters tend to have decent will saves as do creatures with multiple attacks (lower HD animals being an obvious exception).

At +2 it is moved out of the zone where it is clearly overpowered (low level) and ok where it is likely to show up, mid level.

At lvl 5 Contagion can create plagues.
At 11, Move Earth can turn river courses to cause flooding
At 13+ control weather can be nasty.

Mage bullets is pretty vague. In particular 1) it works on just one barrel at a time, 2) it persists until time runs out or used again on that barrel.

If one has a pepper box (6 barrels), it seems one can one blow 6 2nd level spells to mage barrel the whole gun. Then you can make each barrel spells storing and crank out a ton of spells in a round.

Rapid shot + haste + 3 attacks from BAB (say you go EK) is 5 shots in a round.

Crossblood sorc for +2 damage per dice. Magical lineage (scorching ray).

So 5 spells * 3 rays per spell * 4d6 = 60d6 + 120 all times 1.5. Total is around 500 damage.

Am I missing something?

A few pieces of advice:

1) Take sacred summons as your next feat. You can pop a summon on the first round and have something to do during each round other than heal. It makes it more fun.

2) Look at what you cast when. Buffing before fights often reduces the need for healing during fights. Defensive buffs can be better at mitigating damage than an equivalent heal would cure. Offensive buffs can end fight sooner limiting how much damage accrues.

In particular look for long term buffs (greater magic weapon, magic vestment, communal resist energy, shield of faith on big fights maybe).

3) Force the party to split wand costs and top off between fights so you need emergency healing less often.

4) Sometimes it is a party issue. Some classes have sucky defenses and suck up damage (e.g. most barbarians). There is not much you can do about this.

Other classes need to use their own resources to defend themselves (e.g. arcane casters). Have a talk with them to do this stuff. Not dying is everyone's job.

Everyone needs to devote resources to getting good defensive gear. Help people be cognizant of how they spend money.

5) Some people are BOTH fragile and useless. If the character being downed does not mater to how the fight turns out, do not spend *actions* healing them. Be gracious, don't let them die, but if they stabilize and are not dying, that is good enough. Heal them after a fight too, just to be nice.

This is usually always the same guy, who always makes a useless character in the name of pure roleplay or someone who has a grand plan for a character that will be effective someday, but not now.

Mine is effectively complete. I may make some tweaks, but done for the most part.

I think you are reading it correctly. You do not get +8 str. You do not get the AC penalty for being large.

You just get the size bonus to CMB and treated as bigger for the relevant special attacks (many of which can only be used on particular size opponents).

Decided on a Paladin/Weapon Master. Mostly a defensive healing build, but also puts out pretty decent damage.

I am thinking cleric or oracle, leaning towards Oracle. I can definitely cover healing.

2d6 + 6 ⇒ (1, 5) + 6 = 12
2d6 + 6 ⇒ (3, 5) + 6 = 14
2d6 + 6 ⇒ (1, 2) + 6 = 9
2d6 + 6 ⇒ (3, 4) + 6 = 13
2d6 + 6 ⇒ (6, 5) + 6 = 17
2d6 + 6 ⇒ (6, 3) + 6 = 15

I think it would have been nice if the old iconics were made that way. I.e. simple effective builds with minimal finnickt stuff. With noobies, I stat their characters out that way.

I usually do: Life Oracles, Primal or Draconic Sorcerers, 2H Fighters, and Paladins. All are very simple before level 6 or so. After that, you can start to figure stuff out.

A very simple character can be made, it takes the help of someone with system mastery.

Use preparation to your advantage. Most critical will be tactics.

Goals 1) Avoid taking full attacks, 2) Divide and Conquer. 3) Have an escape plan or doomsday effect.

Remember at this level you make the terrain. E.g mix illusionary and real walls/floor to your benefit. Remember lvl 19 wizards are smart and attack weak points.

Fiendish heritage rolls
1d100 ⇒ 74
1d100 ⇒ 29
1d100 ⇒ 85

Those old 3.5 rules require you to take levels in "mind flayer" not just the 1 LA.