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 Recent posts by
Kirth Gersen:
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This just in:
Cleave is now an attack of opportunity, but the upshot is that Great Cleave is no longer needed, and can be eliminated from the list of feats -- Cleave + Combat Reflexes = Great Cleave. Likewise for Follow-Through and Improved Follow-Through.
Why? Well, several reasons, actually:
This reduces the length of the combat feat chains, which is almost never a bad thing.
As Jess pointed out a while ago, Combat Reflexes sort of loses a lot of its value without a battlemat and miniatures. This change will help "re-value" Combat Reflexes.
I have aesthetic distaste for a mechanic that basically says, "This is an extra immediate attack that's identical to an AoO, but isn't one." That just bugs me.
Treating Cleave and Follow-Through as AoO applies a hard limit to the number of attacks you can make with them in conjunction with Supreme Cleave, so you can't Cleave + 5-ft. step down a row of enemies miles long in a single round.
I plan to include a feat or fighter talent that provides bonuses against targets of your AoO. In addition, Sneak Attack of Opportunity and trading every 4th level fighter bonus feat for sneak attack magnifies the usefulness of all your AoO, and this way Cleave can get in on the action, too. I like when higher-level feats/abilities can be applied to multiple lower-level ones.
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Moff Rimmer wrote:
There's the statement -- "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach."
Part of me loved teaching. Part of me felt that it was far too much like being an underpaid baby-sitter.
I was a good teacher. I'm making about three times what I would had I stuck with teaching.
That's almost exactly my own story as well. After seven years, an assistant principal finally asked my what made me think I was hired to actually teach the kids anything. So I asked for babysitting pay instead: $3/hour per kid. With that being refused as well, I filed my resignation. I'm now proving the "can't vs. do" statement to be absurdly wrong. I'm excelling at doing, am far less stressed out as a whole, I get vastly more respect from the general public, and I can now start to save towards a house, kids, retirement, etc... as Moff said, it's amazing what you can do when you triple your salary.
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I allow a 3rd option: "Eidetic Memory," which essentially provides Spell Mastery for all of your spells (i.e., your spellbooks are kept in your brain).
Alternatively, for those with familiars, at higher levels, familiars can concentrate for you for spells requiring ongoing concentration.
For bonded items, I allow standard ones and also variant school-specific ones (e.g., evocation bonded item doesn't give you a free spell, but it doubles your school damage bonus).
The standard bonded items are still in the majority, because that free spell is so awesome, but the choice isn't quite so clear-cut as it is in the Pathfinder core rules.
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Garydee wrote:
You're absolutely correct. The Republican party has moved left the last few years, not right. There's a misconception out there (due to the wonderful mainstream press) that "right-wing extremists" have taken over the party, which is simply not true.
Fiscally, they seem to have allowed themselves to drift pretty far left because now their primary focus is on social conservatism instead, or so it seems to me. Then again, I'm a non-Christian who believes in tight fiscal discipline, which certainly colors my views on the matter, as Orthos noted:
Orthos wrote:
I registered independent because the Republicans had moved too far left for me. Of course we're obviously looking for different things... you're looking for Bush I, I'm looking Reagan.
Insightful post, this. The way I personally looked at it, selling arms to our enemies to finance drug dealers overseas while massively stepping up the domestic war on drugs was not a good model. But pay as you go for the budget, and need-basis-only surgical use of military force overseas? That I like! I'd prefer to force the government to be careful with money, rather than to allow big business and government both unchecked reign to do as they please.
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It drives me up the wall that "really?" is the immediate response all of my co-workers give to any statement.
Them: "How was your weekend?"
Me: "Good -- we went and saw Inglorious Basterds at the Alamo."
Them: "Did you really?"
Me: "Why would I lie about that?"
Once or twice is one thing, but any statement at all gets that response:
Them: "What's the project number?"
Me: "25009709."
Them: "Really?"
Them: "What's the weather like this weekend?"
Me: "They say it'll be partly cloudy."
Them: "Really?"
Me: "No, I'm lying again, as usual. It's supposed to be 500 degrees below zero with a 100% chance of tsunamis."
Them: "Really? What's that about the tsunami?"
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Okay, with the Knowldge Devotion feat rescued, it seemed like a logical next step to use that as the first "rung" in a Dark Knowledge-like feat chain. The archivist is reborn! (Except you can be a cleric-archivist, a bard-archivist, or a wizard-archivist, for example). Tell me what you think!
NOTE: These feats are for personal use only. No copyright challenge or infringement of any kind is intended.
KNOWLEDGE DEVOTION (DOMAIN)
You can use your knowledge to exploit your foes' weaknesses and overcome their strengths.
Prerequisite: Knowledge (lore), Knowledge (the planes), Profession (mining), Spellcraft, Streetwise, and/or Survival 1 rank.
Benefit: Whenever you fight a creature, as a move action you can attempt a DC 15 skill check based on its type (as summarized in the table below), provided that you have at least one rank in the appropriate Knowledge skill.
Creature Types (Skill)
Animals, plants, magical beasts, vermin, fey (Survival)
Constructs (Spellcraft)
Dragons, giants, monstrous humanoids (Knowledge: lore)
Elementals, outsiders, undead (Knowledge: the planes)
Humanoids, civilized (Streetwise)
Aberrations, oozes, uncivilized humanoids (Profession: mining)
If this check is successful, you receive a +1 insight bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls against that creature type for the remainder of the combat. The bonus increases by +1 for every 10 points by which your check succeeds (e.g., a DC 35 check grants a +3 bonus).
You can make only one Knowledge check per creature type per combat. If you fight creatures of multiple types during the same combat, you can make one Knowledge check per type, thereby possibly gaining different bonuses against different opponents.
Example: Sheraviel faces a black dragon, a vampire, and a beholder. She has the Knowledge Devotion feat and ranks in both Knowledge (lore) and Knowledge (religion). During the first round of the battle, she makes a Knowledge (lore) check with results of 26, granting herself a +2 insight bonus to attacks and damage against the dragon. The next round, she rolls a Knowledge (religion) check and scores a 20, granting herself a +1 bonus against the vampire as well. Since she possess no ranks in Profession (mining), she has no chance to gain a bonus against the beholder (an aberration).
Later, a half-dragon enters the fray. Sheraviel cannot make another check against it since she has already checked for the dragon type this combat, but she can apply the +2 insight bonus to her attack rolls and damage rolls against the half-dragon as well. This benefit is an extraordinary ability.
Special: A wizard can take any feat in the Knowledge Devotion feat chain in place of a standard arcane bonus feat at 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, and/or 20th levels. A bard can select Knowledge Devotion feats in place of bard talents.
A cleric with the Knowledge domain can relace the standard Knowledge domain abilities at 1st and 8th levels with the Knowledge Devotion and Foreknowledge feats, respectively. He or she can also give up the powers of his other domain in order to gain the Archivist and Dread Secret feats as bonus feats at 1st and 8th levels, respectively.
Source: Complete Champion.
ARCHIVIST
Prerequisites: Knowledge (lore), Knowledge (the planes), Profession (mining), Spellcraft, Streetwise, and/or Survival 1 rank; Knowledge Devotion.
Benefit: Your Knowledge Devotion bonuses apply to all allies within 30 ft. who can see and hear you. You can confer these bonuses a number of rounds per day equal to your highest skill bonus in any of the relevant skills (see above). For example, if Jazeel had Int 17 and 10 ranks Knowledge (lore) as a class skill, plus the Skill Focus (Knowledge: lore) feat, his total skill bonus would be +22, and he could confer insight bonuses using the Archivist feat for 22 rounds per day (divisible as he sees fit).
Source: This feat supercedes the Archivist’s “dark knowledge” class feature, from Heroes of Horror.
FOREKNOWLEDGE
Prerequisites: Knowledge (lore), Knowledge (the planes), Profession (mining), Spellcraft, Streetwise, and/or Survival 5 ranks; Knowledge Devotion.
Benefit: Your Knowledge Devotion insight bonuses apply to AC and saving throws against affected creatures, as well as to attacks and damage.
Special: If you have the Archivist feat, your allies also receive the benefits of this feat.
Source: This feat supercedes the Archivist’s “puissance” and “foreknowledge” dark knowledge class features, from Heroes of Horror.
DREAD SECRET
Prerequisites: Knowledge (lore), Knowledge (the planes), Profession (mining), Spellcraft, Streetwise, and/or Survival 11 ranks; Knowledge Devotion.
Benefit: As a standard action, you can pronounce a dread secret against a single creature within 30 ft. against which you would normally gain Knowledge Devotion bonuses. If you succeed at a relevant DC 15 skill check (see Knowledge Devotion), the target creature is dazzled 1 round (no save). If your check meets DC 25, the target creature is dazed instead of dazzled; if you meet DC 35, the target creature is stunned 1 round (if the target is immune to being stunned but not immune to being dazed, such as most undead, then the archivist can choose to daze the target instead of stunning it).
Source: This feat supercedes the Archivist’s “puissance” and “foreknowledge” dark knowledge class features, from Heroes of Horror.
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Snorter wrote:
By making some of those solutions require multiple, simultaneous actions, you train teamwork ("I can reach the trigger, but I need you to hold back the crushers!"). And it stops it being a boring die roll, or a solo session, where the others go raid the fridge.
YES! But do the trap rules (as written), for example, support these kinds of options? Nope. The DM is stuck, as always, standing on his head manipulating reality in order to keep everyone active. Personally, I got tired of that after a while, and started thinking that some rules changes up front would be a help.
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I can't speak for everyone, but I find that having rules that are as far out of whack as they are sort of interferes with fun after a while. So I'm coming from a direction of, "I keep needing to modify game play so far from the rules in order for it to run smoothly, that it would be easier for me to just makes rules corrections up front and be done with it." Like, everyone will be happily role-playing, and then some threat or hazard pops up that requires some sort of die roll to resolve. It would be nice if, for the sake of simplicity, something like this was the case:
the rogue had a 4 in 6 chance of dealing with a trap and everyone else 1 or 2 in 6;
the wizard had a 4 in 6 chance of winning a magical duel and everyone else 1 or 2 in 6;
the cleric had a 4 in 6 chance of laying the ghost to rest and everyone else 1 or 2 in 6; and
the fighter had a 4 in 6 chance of defeating the giant and everyone else 1 or 2 in 6.
Instead, when it comes down to rolling, we find that an intelligently-played wizard has a 5 in 6 chance, for ALL of them. The fighter has maybe a 1 in 6 for his best challenge (fighting) and 0 in 6 for everything else.
Again, these aren't hard and fast analytical results, just approximations to give the gist of how extreme the problem can seem for some people like myself.
----
SO WHY WORRY? Well, it seems to me that, with a minimal amount of work, the problems could be easily solved, and then we could all go back to playing. VV's posts, while sometimes a bit snippety in tone, have already provided me with at least one useful idea for my homebrew campaign. Kyrt has given me quite a number of useful suggestions. I'm hoping that the suggestions I've provided have in turn helped others. For people who see no need to tweak things, no sweat, just move on and leave us to the discussion. On the flip side, to declare that no one is allowed to question the perfection of the system makes no sense to me. Is it your hope that Paizo will ban all rules-related threads? We'll still question it, but just won't be able to get each other's feedback here. Why deny us that?
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OK, so I'm driving into work today, listening to the classic rock station, but at this hour in the morning they have some syndicated nitwits instead of, you know, music. And these guys told me some things I never knew. Within the space of 15 minutes, I learned that:
Barack Hussein Obama caused the recession so that he could offer stimulus packages which would create a "bubble" that will soon burst so that we'll all be plummeted into another great depression, whereupon he can declare himself the Fuhrer;
Barack Hussein Obama, by not shutting down the government after the Ft. Hood shooting, has proven once and for all that he hates Amercia and hates all our men and women in uniform, and that he's a Muslim terrorist sympathizer;
Barack Hussein Obama has publically declared that he is the Risen Christ, and that all men shall be judged in his sight. (This obviously proves that he is the Antichrist.)
Barack Hussein Obama is a liar! He lies!
I got to work and turned it off just when they were, I think, going to try and make a case for Obama having engineered the Iraq war himself, in order to kill our brave troops. The thing is, there was no attempt at humor; these "facts" were presented as if they were actual news, that any "reasonably informed American" should already be aware of.
Now, I understand that this is a morning radio show, and I shouldn't expect journalism or anything. But at what point does "entertainment" leave off, and "idiocy" begin? (Or am I a stupid liberal shill for not necessarily believing every word of this stuff?)
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OKAY! Back by popular demand: the Knowledge Devotion feat, with the following adjustments:
Each skill check is a move action.
Bonus by DC is +1 for DC 15, +2 for DC 25, +3 for DC 35, etc. (no maximum, except by total skill bonus).
Bonus is specifically listed as an insight bonus, so it doesn't stack with Dark Knowledge feats (which will also be retained in a slightly modified form).
Applicable skills, by creature type, are as follows:
Knowledge (lore): Dragons, giants, monstrous humanoids;
Knowledge (planes): Elementals, outsiders, undead
Profession (mining): Aberrations, oozes, humanoids (uncivilized -- orcs, goblins, gnolls, etc.)
Spellcraft: Constructs
Streetwise: Civilized humanoids (humans, elves, etc.)
Survival: Animals, fey, plants, vermin.
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The Eldritch Mr. Shiny wrote:
I gotta say it's REALLY EXPENSIVE.
Especially when you work in an office with like 300 people, roughly all of whom except you have a large litter of kids, and all of whom assume that it goes without saying that every other employee is obligated to buy popcorn, girl scout cookies, etc. from each and every one of those kids... I've had people actually stop me in the parking lot and demand an explanation as to why I didn't buy $60 worth of disgusting caramel-coated popcorn from them on behalf of their daughter that day (This is the same person from whom I bought $20 worth of girl scout cookies I didn't want, on behalf of one of the other daughters, by the way). You'd think they'd at least sell something I'd want to eat, like maybe jerky or cashews...
P.S. Absolutely none of that venting is directed at you, CJ. You had the decency to ask, in a separate thread no less, rather than interrupt other threads to demand. Thank you!
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DM_Blake wrote:
Sure, they're safer... but... The archer has to spend a two feats just so he can attack anyone he wants with no penalty. Nobody else has to do that.
The archer has to spend two feats, just so he can attack a monster that his allies are in melee with, and still remain immune to any counterattack if that monster is a troll, an ooze, a rust monster, a displacer beast, or 75% of the other things that adventurers fight on a day-to-day basis. No one else has to do that, except the melee guys who need to spend 3 feats, not two, on Dodge, Mobility, and Spring Attack -- which leaves them with only 1 attack, not iteratives and Multishot and the like.
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