ShadowcatX's page

Classes that give animal companions generally stack with one another for the purpose of a single animal companion.

Ie. Cavalier (with mount) stacks with the ranger's effective druid level for purposes of determining the cavalier's mount (assuming the ranger takes the pet as his option). This is in place of him actually gaining a pet as a ranger, however, not in addition to.

Oh, creativity? Is that the same type of creativity that gives the fighter skill points and out of combat class features? A class meant for melee shouldn't have a rough time in melee and have to "think outside the box" to function. That's highly dependent on the DM and game. Also, anyone can pick up any weapon and go into a town. A wizard walking into town with a greatsword on his back is perfectly possible. A vivisectionist wearing full plate might not be as viable. Its also about the character, not the class. I'm not going to tell someone who plays a barbarian their a ragaholic' from a tribe who can't read, or a ninja he has to wear black PJs or he can't play a ninja.

Also not a fan of weapon familiarity. It defines the culture, not the race. Its also completely useless if you don't want to use the weapon or if you already have proficiency. It also has nothing to do with the class. I'd rather not have to waste a trait or feat to get something I already should have had in the first place.

Look, you asked people's opinions on your idea. My opinion is it is a bad idea to give some of the more powerful classes in the game yet more power, and specifically power that steps on the toes of the less powerful classes.

If you don't want people to give you their opinion, don't ask for it. If you want to be praised as a genius, stay far away from the internet.

And on an aside, should people be able to gain spell casting by "just practicing with it"? It is obviously a learned skill, no different than the proper handling of weapons.

I want to stress this isnt about game advantage. It is about the way our characters, in particular the clergy, worship their gods. I know the rules dont say you have to wield your deity's favored weapon. But as a representative of god, spreading his word and teachings, you wouldn't want to use anything else. You would use "the Rod and Staff" that the almighty uses. And that is the conundrum I face. I dont see how, in this case the scimitar, is a practical fit for all priests of a deity.

You saying that often does not make it true. And this obviously is about gaining a mechanical advantage.

If you don't see your cleric of Serenae using a scimitar, that's fine, spend a feat to get a different weapon or use a simple weapon. Don't like that option and want to change the rules so you don't have to spend a feat? That's a mechanical advantage.

Do what you want in your home games, that's your prerogative. But don't come here and try and lie to us.

It isn't that no one knows how to get the most out of animate dead economically, it is just that short of building a character around it entirely your options are pretty much "use your undead efficiently" or "use blood price" (or whatever that 1st level spell that lets you skip material components is.

And since using undead efficiently isn't that easy in a setting where you can't keep undead from game to game (and thus can't ensure you have good undead). . .

ShadowcatX wrote:

Rynjin wrote:

What did you do against anyone that had a decent Will save? Or even that didn't roll a 1, for that matter.

Given that slumber's DC scales with level, that it can be modified by feats and racial abilities, it isn't too hard to make a "decent" will save pretty meaningless. I'm pretty sure DC 19 (maybe 20) is doable at first level, that's dropping casting focused dwarven clerics half the time.

It's doable at 1st level, yes, but it doesn't scale THAT well into the higher levels. If you've got a DC 19 at first level, by 10th level it's still only about 25-26 (given you get Int enhancing items and/or something like Ability Focus).

By that point you have similar abilities that can do even worse to the enemy.

The Witch is a debuffer. That's what she does, and she does it well. But debuffing has quite a limit to it, in that good saves and immunities will screw them over more than any other kind of caster.

Its DC scales every bit as nicely as spells. And a DC 26 is still very difficult for anything that isn't specifically focused on will saves to make. (Your average wizard, for example, is only going to have +10 or so. That's 75% chance of failure. Fighters and rogues even less.

What did you do against anyone that had a decent Will save? Or even that didn't roll a 1, for that matter.

Given that slumber's DC scales with level, that it can be modified by feats and racial abilities, it isn't too hard to make a "decent" will save pretty meaningless. I'm pretty sure DC 19 (maybe 20) is doable at first level, that's dropping casting focused dwarven clerics half the time.

No more so than any other full caster. Welcome to the world of magic.

If the melee inquisitor / vivisectionist is having a tough time in melee, good, they're meant to. Those classes require a bit more creativity to make work as a melee combatant than just picking the best martial weapon and going to town like you would a fighter or barbarian.

But seriously, half-orcs can gain falchion as a weapon choice, elves get long swords, half-elves can have their choice of exotic weapons, and humans can use their bonus feat to get any weapon they want. Where's the awkwardness?

I'd probably go with dipping the cavalier archetype that grants power attack and another bonus feat at first level.

And for most games you would need to be small, but kingmaker isn't most games. Enjoy having a medium sized mounted character when you can.

And no, a battle cleric can do fine without high charisma but realize you won't be healing as much as most clerics (instead, you'll actively be preventing the party from taking damage by killing foes). And no, everyone does not need charisma.

I've always been a big fan of Darksun. And would love to get a copy of your houserules. (E-mail address is my user name with @aol.com)

A second choice would be the steampunk game.

Oracles, Inquisitors, Clerics, Bards, and Alchemists are already more powerful than the fighter. Why would you want to make them more so?

If anything I think I'd make a rule, let classes with all simple weapons take a martial weapon as a trait, and a class with all martial weapons take an exotic weapon as a trait.

The Sorcerer 7 / Eldritch Knight 2 would have 4th level spells. When you get +1 level of casting you advance everything casting related, except prepared casters don't gain their 2 automatic spells per level. (According to RAW at least, most DMs let them have their 2 spells.)

The epic level magus would not gain access to the spells from the sorcerer / wizard list but would instead use his higher level slots to memorize spells from his own class list with metamagic built in.

IMO: You can only ever spell strike with a weapon and a rod isn't actually a weapon. I'd personally just say the spell goes through the rod and into the weapon.

If you summon a monster with a summon monster spell, and that monster has shadow conjuration, is that monster prohibited from using shadow conjuration to mimic a summoning spell?

This is pretty cool.

One suggestion though, copying and pasting this into the product discussion will make it easier for people who buy (or even just look at) the product to find. :)

I agree, I would love some support for real world settings (like Egypt, Persia, India, etc.)

One thing I think would be great would be location / culture pdfs based around the real world. For example, a pdf about egypt, including real world information but also including information like what classes would likely be common (both paizo classes and 3rd pp classes). (For example, IIRC Pharohs were believed to be gods, so demigod classes would be acceptable for them, a significant portion of the religion was based around the dead and so necromancers would be more common, etc.) Basically a spring board for anyone who wanted to run a game with that theme. If you really wanted to go crazy with it, you could include crunch that support that theme.

Inspired by the comments here.

The free Precise Shot from Divine Hunter is nice but you may regret giving up Aura of Courage just to get it as Shared Precision is nearly useless.

You're probably right, I should probably go with Oath of Vengeance.

@Haskul: Warrior of Holy Light is an idea I'll look more into. Unfortunately divine hunter and oath of vengeance (the one for more smites) aren't compatible. But I don't see a need for musketmaster when I'm not going to be using a musket, I have access to advanced firearms so I'm using a revolver.

@Vehas: Pistolero and mysterious stranger archetypes aren't compatable with one another. I also don't need to worry about a double barreled pistol, I'm getting a revolver.

IIRC there were copyright issues so he had to take them down.

No, sorry, that was just me not paying close enough attention. Definitely meant gunslinger.

Armor is fine. At the top end I expect to wear Celestial armor. It'll cap off my dex bonus to AC a bit, but it won't hinder my attack or anything.

Okay. . . I appreciate y'all trying to help. . .

1) Holy Gun sucks in that it gives up smite evil. Compare it to a gunslinger 1 / Paladin 19 and the multi-class wins out every time.

2) Guns are everywhere gives gunslingers gun training at level 1 so even if holy gun was good (which it isn't) I'd still be multiclassing with 1 level of gunslinger.

3) Mysterious Stranger doesn't work with what I'm doing because I get gun training at level 1, which mysterious stranger doesn't get. (If not for the guns are everywhere aspect, this would be good advice.)

Does anyone have any good advice?

593. Because the Math teacher in this town sucks.

594. Because your DM instituted the optional training rules and no one in this town can train you.

595. Because your DM instituted the optional training rules and all the low level adventurers want you to train them.

If 3rd party material is allowed, perhaps psionics would be a way to go about it. 1 Level of Fighter and the rest in psion and you can blast in full plate to your heart's delight, no penalties, tricks, or special equipment required.

In a sense that is worse then. When I first looked at the Mythic playtest one of the things I didn’t like about it is you didn’t feel ‘Mythic’. Sure, there were some really nice abilities, but there wasn’t any (or very little of) those uber abilities that made you feel on your way to standing among the best on different planes.

I'd suggest you go back to the mythic play test and draw up a character with 20 character levels and 10 mythic tiers. Now have your friends draw up characters of the same class with 0 mythic tiers. Play those characters side by side for a while and tell me you're not "among the best on different planes."

Come on guys, Pathfinder is a game for humans, by humans. We're required to read and interpret what we read just a tiny bit. It isn't that hard really.

So I'm thinking about playing a Gunfighter / Paladin build in a pbp game and I was wondering if I could get some help on a build. The game features "guns are everywhere" so I'll have gun training at my first level of gunfighter. I was thinking something like:

Halfling Gunfighter 1 / Paladin (divine hunter) 19

Str 8
Dex 18
Con 12
Int 14
Wis 8
Chr 18

I'd rather have the skill points than a single extra point of grit. I was planning to go gunslinger to start to grab some good skills, and then finish it off with paladin. I really need help with my feats:

Feats:
Point Blank Shot, Precise shot (bonus), Rapid Shot, Deadly Aim

Those will get me to level 5. I'm not much interested in the paladin's casting so I'm not interested in using feats to expand on it.

I know two weapon fighting with firearms is usually a bad idea due to them being 1 handed weapons rather than light weapons so I was thinking about going with a revolver and a light shield or a buckler (I don't recall if the light shield lets me have an open hand for reloading).

Will I need rapid reload? Will I need clustered shots? Has something happened to make 2wf better since I last checked? Any other suggestions?

I'm a fan of everything sans the summoner.

Responding to the original topic because the thread is TL;DR.

IMO: People don't know what hardship truly is any more. Which isn't to say that people don't have it hard these days, plenty of people do, but compare having it hard in this day and time, when "having it hard" can mean working an 8 - 5 job then coming home to an air conditioned house and only getting to watch basic tv to when having it hard meant working from sun up to sun down in the hopes that nature didn't turn against you and leave you to die despite your efforts. (Basically, people back in the day were too exhausted to get worked up easily.)

Furthermore, a lot of people have a chip on their shoulder. They think the world owes them something, and really, a lot of American culture feeds into that idea. Welfare for example. Personally, that type of thinking baffles and offends me, but it is there.

That said, finally, there really are some things worth getting worked up and offended about. I've recently started discovering how SMI people are treated in my state, and it offends me. (And now that I mention that, I think it is time for a letter to my congress people to let them know how I feel.)

ShadowcatX, I appreciate the support and I totally respect your right to have you own opinions. I *would* like to encourage everyone to stay polite on threads about my games.

My apologies. Certain types of people get under my skin. I'll bow out, especially since it isn't like you needed my help anyways.

Jesper, something like a city or a town you design, isn't likely to be picked up and used by other 3rd party publishes for several reasons. Several of them have their own settings / mini settings that they use, while others just don't do setting based material at all. Beyond that, if they did want to do a city or a town it'd be better for them to make their own as that way they'd be more intimately familiar with it and that would give us a better product. (And I seriously doubt any of our 3pp are going to have a difficult time coming up with an interesting local if that is what they wish to do.)

More often you see bleed through between 3pp when they use one another's mechanics. Like how some 3pp books use Dream Scarred Press's psionics. Or how Rite has published books supporting the other 3pp base classes.

Dale, if this release doesn't do as well as you like I'd suggest going to kickstarter with the idea of a book for WoP.

Whoa, easy there Shadowcat. I think Question was just questioning in a querying manner, rather than asking quite questionable questions questing for trouble. Rather than quashing his queries, or quailing at his quips, or quizzing him on his queer quirks, or quitting in a pique, we should quest to quell this disqcomfort lest we look like quacking ducks.

First, asking "Is a death mage able to make knowledge: religion rolls untrained with regards to undead, because they don't get it as a class skill?" is a decent query. Saying "That's stupid, you shouldn't put skill points into non-class skills, that's not optimal." isn't a good query.

Second, I don't really care about his opinion of me or my reply. Someone who refuses to spend skill points because it isn't optimal isn't someone I'd ever want to play with or receive his input on anything to do with one of my games.

I'd probably drop a bit of strength just to get a bit of constitution, but over all it seems like a fairly decent group and a solid build to support them.

Owen, I'm pleased with the design as well. (I'm pleased with most everything you've designed to be honest.) But you can't please all the people all the time.

Question, if you're so good at design, prove it. Do your own design work, make your own company, and sell your own products. Let the world see how much better you are than everyone else.

And as a side note, if you build a character and are so concerned with min-maxing that you're unwilling to put skill points in skills simply because they aren't class skills, well then I don't think I want any of your products.

ShadowcatX wrote:

Because I prefer imaging science fiction to imaging a religion.

Quote:

You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.

Speaking of religions, you could steal an RPG game and rebrand it as your own.

If you're trying to make a dig at Paizo, I don't appreciate it. Beyond that, I seriously doubt anyone has gotten rich off the RPG business. (And there's no need to add the word game after RPG, just as there's no need to add the word number after PIN.)

Because I prefer imaging science fiction to imaging a religion.

You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.

Yea, that's true. But it's generally not a good idea to put points into non-class skills (barring perception). I think it makes more sense if the ability lets you make knowledge checks as if you were trained though.

And it's probably something you should get at level 1, it's a bit weird that you got 4 levels knowing absolutely nothing about undead and then BAM you know stuff.

Its generally a good idea to put skill points where you want skill points, rather they are class skills or not.

The death mage's ability works just fine the way it is and is very flavorful. If you want to re-write the class, the home brew forum is just a little below this one.

Interesting. I'd like to hear more about it as well.

Ya, I've got to say I don't care for the change either. Casters are strong enough.

So it is the end of the week, any news?

Just because a thread is old doesn't mean it cannot be replied to.

No, but it does mean that it probably shouldn't be replied to. DUH!

And just because he is a developer doesn't mean he is Dictator.

No, he isn't. He does, however, know more about the rules than you do.

The game can be ruled by whoever the GM is. If a GM wants to rule differently, it's his game, his prerogative.

Really? I did not know that. I'm sure no one here knew that. Thank you for sharing such a valuable insight. . .

Wow, guys, did you know a DM can over rule stuff? Man, that like should be in the book or something. . .

Honestly, pulling anything out of Fistful of Denarii is probably a mistake, you're better to just build from the ground up. Pulling it from Super Genius Games on the other hand is a much better idea so I'll second using the Enforcer feat tree.

As to pupsocket's comments, I don't really think I'd worry about the fact that classes like rogue and monk are getting a buff, and every feat that takes away from a caster's selection of casting focused feats I'm pretty okay with.

Maybe it is just me, but none of the Urban Dressing: Shrines downloads are acting as links for me, they're just text sitting there teasingly.

Houserules are fine, but this is not the correct subforum for them.

Agreed.

And it amuses me that people think that magic that rips space apart and puts it back together is more difficult than healing a human eye.

I'm a fan boy of psionics myself, and really they're pretty balanced against magic. (And I'll point out that wizards can nova just as well as psionicists, thank you meta magic rods.) And that diviners are perfectly capable of casting disintegrate.

The big advantage psionics have over casting is that psionic powers scale better than most spells. Ie. A psionicist at level 20 might have 20+ powers all of which are approaching 9th level in power (if not effect), where as a sorcerer will have significantly fewer good options (but be able to use those options more frequently).

You have so many specifications for what you want, why don't you just invent it whole cloth? No by the book monster is going to have 500 hp anywhere close to CR 14, the Tarrasque for example, at CR 25, only has 525 hit points. As to armor class, 10th level melee character is easily looking at 20 or so bonus to hit, that means your AC would have to be 35 or better to only get hit 1/3rd to 1/4th the time, which is the top end of the CR 15 - 16 category as far as I can tell.

I find it amusing the point buy side is polite, while the dice rolling side has to bring in insults and accusations of being afraid, could it be that like so many bullies, they are attempting to project their own insecurities onto others? Food for thought.

Again, I will ask, would you, as someone who prefers dice rolling, be okay with 3d6, in order, after you choose your class, while other people were getting a 25 point point buy?

Deleted indeed. It is also worth noting that the reviews he said got removed from drive thru are still there, including Megans.