Dropping a note for folks that the Apparition's Possession ability of the sage practice has an error.
Instead of "Until the start of your next turn, you are immune to control effects and spells that attempt to influence your actions, such as charm or command, unless its spell rank is more than twice your level", it should say "Until the start of your next turn, you are immune to control effects and spells that attempt to influence your actions, such as charm or command, unless its spell rank is more than half your level."
In the spirit of previous 101 XX threads, I thought I'd start a 101 Gunslingers thread! I'd been thinking quite a bit about what concept I wanted to start with, and I've decided to go with my personal favorite DC comic character, Red Hood.
Build 1: Red Hood:
Ancestry: Human (Versatile)
Background: Revenant
Class: Gunslinger (Way of the Pistolero)
Primary Skills: Acrobatics, Intimidation
Secondary Skills: Deception, Stealth
Feats by level
1 Hit the Dirt!, Natural Ambition (Dual-Weapon Reload)
2 Quick Draw, Quick Coercion
3 Fleet
4 Paired Shots, Steady Balance
5 Clever Improviser
6 Pistolero's Challenge, Lasting Coercion
7 Toughness
8 Leap and Fire, Terrifying Resistance
9 Incredible Improvisation
10 Trick Shot, Cat Fall
11 Breath Control
12 Grit and Tenacity, Kip Up
13 Bounce Back
14 Two-Weapon Fusillade, Terrified Retreat
15 Prescient Planner
16 Hair Trigger, Scare to Death
17 Heroic Presence
18 Piercing Critical, Terrain Stalker (rubble)
19 True Perception
20 Slinger's Reflexes
Key Gear by Level Range
Some items are good at any level, so I only repeat equipment that gets a specific upgrade you need to acquire at the higher level ranges. For example, concealed holsters are always useful and stack with the benefit from the concealed weapon trait, but I only list them in the 1-5 block since you don't need new versions at higher levels.
12th-17th:+2 resilient leather armor, +3 greater/mighty striking dueling pistol, anklets of alacrity, dagger pistol, greater blazons of shared power, scope of truth, shrieking skull
Basic Tactics by Level Range
The tactics from lower level ranges are still viable at higher levels since feats are additive and this build doesn't require retraining, so I won't be repeating tactics from earlier levels in the higher level entries, just noting what new kinds of routines have opened up.
Round 2: Quick Draw (2nd pistol, Strike challenged and demoralized target), Dual-Weapon Reload, Pistolero's Challenge (assuming 1st target is dead by now, which they generally should be) - End turn with loaded weapons for Leap and Fire or Pistolero's Retort
Round 3: Trick Shot (grouped enemies or visible objective) + Dual-Weapon Reload (if AoE damage or objective manipulation is most useful) or Dual-Weapon Reload (if reaction was triggered) + Paired Shots
***
These combinations are going to keep expanding with possibilities as you go up, so the main trick from here on out is just watching how you're deploying your actions to stack the most damage on each target and try to end on a reload so you can use your reactions. You've got multiple defensive reactions to use with your Slinger's Reflexes capstone to stay up and fighting longer, and you might consider swapping out your coat/dagger pistol for an air repeater if you want a less potent option for your off-hand weapon that'll be a bit more reliable for Leap and Fire and Pistolero's Retort, trading the bigger punch for more Strikes.
With PaizoCon starting tomorrow we're loading up the teasers and hints at what's to come for products like Guns & Gears! We'll be talking a bit about this in the Ask the Experts panel on Sunday and I'll be taking a few questions in my AMA thread.
So to get the ball rolling - Yes, there will be cannons in Guns & Gears!
What other questions do you have or what kind of things are you curious about? If they're on my Secret List of Pre-approved Questions or seem like a good pick-up for Mike's Limited Discretionary Fund of Spoilers, tomorrow through Monday is your chance to get them answered! The juiciest ones are going to get answered on the Ask the Experts Panel, so if you want to be the first to know, tune in there if you can!
I set up a thread on Reddit for people to post and talk about their playtest characters, or you can just talk about them here! Either way, I thought it would be fun to have some centralized repositories for people to talk about the characters they're playing.
This thread is for posting playtest results and analyses. We'll be deleting any other posts from this thread so we can keep it as a repository to reference session reports and engage with the playtest together.
Apologies for this thread coming in a bit late, it's been a hectic morning! As we go into this playtest, I'm going to reiterate a request Mark made in the inventor thread:
"We've never really had two back-to-back books with playtests like this before and a lot is happening right now because of it. As a result, I need your help now more than ever to make sure I can keep up with all the great feedback you have. While the swashbuckler playtest I was able to read every post and follow every discussion here and even in some other places, for the summoner that wasn't the case. It was filled with gems of incredible feedback but buried in a few repetitive discussion topics. So I'd like to ask that we try to focus, like the inventor class itself, on new playtest experiences, analyses, reactions, and ideas, rather than get too distracted in lengthy debates with other playtesters or re-iterating a point we've already made in other threads. It can be very tempting to do so, but I guarantee you that I read and thoroughly digest playtest results and new analyses (if I can find them amidst the other posts) while I skip repeat posts, so if your intended audience is the designers, repeating your message is not helping your case. It might particularly seem challenging when a new playtester makes a point again that you've already seen before, perhaps in a new thread, to come back into that thread to reiterate your own opinion, and perhaps instead of doing so (in either support or disagreement), we can post a reply thanking the playtester and linking to the prior discussion in case they want to see some support or counterpoints there.
To help me find things, I'm also going to create a new thread for links to new playtest posts or analyses. If you see one, drop a link in that thread. I will be moderating out any post to that thread other than such links, so it can be a nice place for us all to check together to find something new."
This is also the place for special announcements to look out for, so watch this space. You can find the playtest assets and survey links here.
Looking forward to the next month as everyone gets to explore this new class and its accompanying mechanics together! Let's all have fun, respect each other's thoughts and opinions, and dig into playtesting this next round of options!
1) First update/clarification! Gunslinger Weapon Mastery should also grant access to the critical specialization effects of crossbows, not just firearms.
2) Sword and Pistol should say "melee weapon or unarmed attack" in the third sentence.
3) The benefits from Firearm Ace should last until the end of your next turn.
4) The Deception or Intimidation check made as part of Pistolero's Challenge is made against the target's Will DC
5) When maintaining your firearms to avoid misfire chances from having used them the previous day, you can clean and maintain multiple firearms during the one hour period (so a pistolero could maintain a pair of dueling pistols, a drifter could maintain a brace of hand cannons, etc.)
So, the monk is pretty much my favorite class for PF2 from Paizo, and one of the things I really like about it is how there are so many different interesting and unique possibilities for characters. Since I see lot of requests for monk builds, I figured I'd start this thread by sharing a build of my own and see if we can hit 101 unique builds!
Build 1: Mystic Archer (human monk):
Feats by level
1 Natural Ambition (Ki Strike), Monastic Archer Stance
2 Elemental Fist (Retrain to Stunning Fist with Expert EA Spellcasting), Cat Fall
3 Feather Step
4 Deflect Arrow, Oddity Identification
5 Clever Improviser
6 Eldritch Archer Dedication (Occult spell list), Quick Jump
7 Breath Control
8 Enchanting Arrow, Kip Up
9 Incredible Improvisation
10 Return Fire, Powerful Leap
11 Fleet
12 Stance Savant, Battle Medicine
13 Bounce Back
14 Seeker Arrow, Wall Jump
15 Toughness
16 Basic Eldritch Archer Spellcasting, Water Sprint
17 Heroic Presence
18 Expert Eldritch Archer Spellcasting, Disturbing Knowledge
19 Root Magic
20 Triangle Shot
Early on, your magic is coming from ki strike and elemental fist, allowing you to grab some magical damage boosts and elemental weakness targeting. I had hoped to squeeze in a couple more focus points on the build, but there was a lot of interesting stuff to choose from. You could probably use monk + eldritch archer and come up with a very different build that still matches the theme by swapping around a few build elements and making different priorities. I almost didn't grab Triangle Shot since it's not compatible with eldritch shot, but I figure it has a decent "mystical" element to it when combined with Stunning Fist and will help stretch out that feeling of being a magical archer since I didn't end up grabbing Master EA spellcasting. In a home game I might have also tried convincing the GM that EA spellcasting should allow me to take the Adapted Cantrip and Adaptive Adept ancestry feats, but I wanted to stick with a PFS-legal build.
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Yo!
So, the question about GMs receiving downtime for the Chronicle sheets the earn running scenarios has come up in a few places. We should have an update on the subject hitting the guide soon, but in the meantime I wanted to clarify for everyone that "YES" GM's do receive Downtime for every Chronicle sheet they earn, whether learning or playing.
It is very likely you will have a follow up question regarding the particulars of how to apply that Downtime, so I've pulled some of Linda's in-progress update text and pasted it in the spoiler below to assist with clarifying that as well.
Applying a Chronicle:
Assigning a Chronicle sheet means picking which character gets it. This is typically done when you enter your information on the reporting sheet for the event.
Applying a Chronicle sheet means filling out all of its information and modifying your character’s information accordingly. This typically happens at the same time you assign a Chronicle sheet, though there are some exceptions as explained below.
Applying Chronicle Sheets after the Session
There are two primary reasons that someone might apply a Chronicle sheet outside of the session. GMs are likely to apply their Chronicle sheets after the session, rather than filling everything out at the table. This is especially true if they are running multiple games in the same day, or if they do not have the character who is receiving credit for the scenario on hand. The second common situation that leads to Chronicle sheets being applied out of session concerns scenarios played with pregenerated characters. After playing a scenario with a pregenerated character, a player can wait to apply it until the character receiving credit for the scenario reaches an appropriate level.
In either case, Chronicle sheets that are applied later still grant Downtime. When resolving the effects of this Downtime, such as determining the bonus that the character has on checks to Earn Income and which items they can craft, use the level of the character at the time they apply the Chronicle sheet.
Example: Aubrey is a GM. Over the course of a convention, she runs four scenarios, and she assigns all four of them to the same character, Kyralos. Before any of these Chronicle sheets, Kyralos had just reached level 3. Aubrey applies Chronicle sheets to Kyralos one at a time. She wants to spend all of her Downtime to Earn Income, using her Scribing Lore. For the first three Chronicle sheets, Kyralos is level 3, and her bonus on Scribing Lore is +5. She doesn’t have any special boons or rewards that help her find better tasks, but she can always find tasks of up to her level -2, as described in the Downtime section of this guide. So Kyra finds three level 1 tasks and rolls three Scribing Lore checks against DC 15, the standard DC for a level 1 task on page 503 of the Core Rulebook. For her next Chronicle sheet, Kyralos is level 4. Aubrey levels up Kyralos to 4, which increases Kyralos’s bonus on Scribing Lore to +6, and allows her to always find level 2 tasks. Now Aubrey rolls one check at +6 against a DC of 16. While her chances of success are the same in this particular example, this level 2 task lets Kyra earn more money.
Do you have any questions about any of the projects I've worked on? Curious about what I do has a developer at Paizo or how I ended up here? Want recommendations on games I'm currently playing? Feel free to ask and I'm happy to answer!
Had a discussion come up in a game recently regarding the Stealth Synergy feat. Relevant text is-
"While you can see one or more allies who also have this feat, whenever you and your allies make a Stealth check, you all take the highest roll and add all your modifiers to Stealth", emphasis mine.
The question is, when it says that you all take the highest roll and add all "your" modifiers to Stealth, who does the "your" refer to? Does this simply let everyone affected use the best roll from the group and apply their individual modifiers, or are you also adding all the group's modifiers to the check as well? For example, say a goblin cavalier is using his tactician ability to share this with his allies, will they also add the goblin's +4 racial and +4 size bonuses to their rolls?
The way I'm parsing it is that "your" associates to the "you" used in the beginning of the feat text and the feat only allows you to share the highest roll, but my player is pointing out that the way the sentence is structured the "your" should be referring back to the "you all" after the comma, which would mean that you also stack all the group's various modifiers.
I've noticed a lot of hate for the vigilante lately and I'm wondering if it's because people just haven't actually read the class through. One of the most common refrains I hear is that the Vigilante just doesn't work unless you're in a city setting, but that's obviously not true if you take even a moment to look at the class. For example, the Social Grace talent does not rely on renown and gives you a +4 bonus on Appraise, Bluff, Craft, Diplomacy, Disguise, Handle Animal, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (any), Linguistics, Perform, Profession, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, or Survival, and you get to pick an additional one of those skills at 5th level and every 4 levels thereafter. That's an extremely useful class feature that isn't bound to renown at all. Other options like Many Guises and Everyman are also extremely useful and don't care about where you are.
Beyond that, the vigilante is no slouch in combat. Avenger vigilantes can easily end up with more feats and effective feats than a fighter within their respective combat styles. A Captain America vigilante can take Shield of Fury for Improved Shield Bash and Two-Weapon Fighting while also getting the ability to skip DEX prereqs on TWF feats, so that's 2+ feats, Signature Weapon for Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization, another two feats, and Cunning Feint for the benefits of Improved Feint, Greater Feint, and Two-Weapon Feint (without even needing to use an off-hand weapon if you need the accuracy boost) all at once. Combat Skill and Favored Maneuver can be used to fill in any holes in the build at the same exchange rate as the fighter, but the vigilante will get an extra +2 bonus on any maneuvers he picks up.
So when the vigilante can get 7 feats to the fighter's 4 and picks up extra riders unique to their class at the same time, all while having the rogue's skill list, 6+Int skills, and an extra track of skill and social abilities that don't force it to choose between spending resources on combat or non-combat abilities but instead allow it to have both, what's with this running meme that vigilantes are only good in certain types of campaigns?
Thought I'd spread the news about the City of Seven Seraphs Kickstarter from Lost Spheres Publishing going live.
The City of Seven Seraphs is a fully developed Planar Metropolis for the Pathfinder RPG available in full-color Hardcover and PDF. It includes contributions from an amazing team of artists including Colin McComb, Clinton Boomer, Savannah Broadway, Robert Brookes, Liz Courts, Robert N Emerson, Scott Gladstein, Sasha Hall, Ehn Jolly, Ron Lundeen, Jessica Redekop, David Ross, Michael Sayre,Todd Stewart, and George Loki Williams, with stretch goals from Wolfgang Baur of Kobold Press, Jason Sonia of Storm Bunny Studios, Jason Eric Nelson of Legendary Games, and Jeremy Smith of Dreamscarred Press.
Hello! We're looking for anyone who might be interested in running a live online game on Fridays, preferably at around 7:30 PM CST. If you'd be interested in running such a game, please respond in a post in this thread. We're also running this search on here on GitP. We have details on our playstyles, preferred materials, and other preferences below-
Game Systems we would like to use:
Pathfinder
What 'type' or variant of game will it be (i.e. "Shadow Chasers" or "Agents of Psi" for d20 Modern)? What is the setting for the game (eg. historic period, published or homebrewed campaign setting, alternate reality, modern world, etc.)?
Preference would be an adventure path or a story in a predefined setting so that everyone is on the same page. Players willing to suggest and provide adventure modules.
How many players do we have?
4 to 6 depending on availability.
When are players available?
Weekends, preferably Friday. Players live in areas ranging from the Eastern Coast to the Western Coast of the United States.
What's the gaming medium (OOTS, chat, e-mail etc.)?
Roll20 is preferred, though some have very light experience with MapTool. For Chat: the prefernce is Skype, we could migrate to a different system if necessary.
What is the player's experience with systems?
Open to and have experience with FATE, Shadowrun 5e, Pathfinder, and D&D 3.5
Preferably level 3 or higher. It doesn't need to be high level, but something beyond the very early levels would be nice.
What kinds of classes do we tend to pick? What are the classes that we tend to avoid?
Bards, Barbarians, divine casters, Sorcerers, and assorted gishy classes are all very common. Fighters, Paladins, Rogues, Summoners, Wizards are less commonly used
By what method should Players generate their attributes/ability scores and Hit Points?
Ability Score: Preference is 20 to 25 point buy
Hit Points: Max at first level. Generaly take either the dice average at levelup (d8 is 4.5) or roll for it.
Does we game use alignment? What are your restrictions, if so?
Alignment is used consistently but not in an heavy handed way. It informs characters but it does not define them.
Do we allow multi-classing, or have any particular rules in regards to it?
Nothing beyond standard game rules.
Are there any homebrewed or optional/variant rules that we typically use? If so, list and explain them, or provide relevant links to learn about these new rules.
The Leadership feat is banned
Are character backgrounds common? If so, how big? Are you looking for anything in particular (i.e. the backgrounds all ending up with the characters in the same city)?
Usually characters are pretty unique with the party occasionally having a few duos. Character backgrounds are occasionlly in depth but are usually a result of mechanics informing fluff rather than fluff informing mechanics.
What is general our playstyle (hack & slash, puzzle solving, roleplaying, etc.)?
We're either all playstyles or none of them. We're a little chaotic neutral. Unobtrusive but clear rails and goals are extremely helpful. Players can go into long, meandering, meaningless, tangents when left unchecked
What resources or books outside of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook would the players like access to?
What is available on the PRD, Akashic Mysteries, Path of War, Ultimate Psionics, Spheres of Might, Spheres of Power Inner Sea World Guide
So, Ultimate Intrigue has been out for a while now, and the vigilante is easily my favorite new addition to the game. I was wondering what kinds of vigilantes you all have been playing, and what adventures you've been playing them in. I'll get the ball rolling-
My current vigilante is "Firewing" a cuazaj (small, winged, reptilian humanoid from The Player's Guide to Skybourne) with the Uncanny Archer and Winged Terror archetypes from Vigilantes of Skybourne, as well as the Enigma specialization and the Light Daggers talent from the same book. We're currently playing through the Legendary Planet AP from Legendary Games, so we've mostly been fighting weird bio-cyborg aliens and other strange challenges. We also just got our first mythic tier, and I took the Path of the Stranger, from the Mythic Heroes Handbook. Firewing fights from range, mostly flinging his light daggers at opponents, reserving his bombs for fire-weak opponents or when allies are affected by mind-affecting effects, using his mythic path ability that allows the sound of his bombs to shake allies out of mind-affecting conditions.
I've got another vigilante I've played in a couple PFS scenarios, an elven Avenger vigilante with a curveblade who prefers to make sure that when he puts a threat down, it stays down. Because of his brutal methods, he wears a mask while traveling or expecting danger so he can continue to operate in his social identity (a scribe and purveyor of exotic goods) without consequence.
I've been spending a lot of time tinkering with the Vigilante lately, and I am now very much of the opinion that it's probably the best non-spellcasting class Paizo has released. You have Ex abilities that can counter spells, a super flexible chassis, combat talents that are potent and effective, social talents that draw from their own pool instead of competing with combat options, the ability to maintain two separate alignments, and the Stalker may very well be the only class I've seen that has non-magical AoE capabilities.
Has anyone else been playing a vigilante? What build(s) have you been using? What about the class appeals or does not appeal to you?
Hello! I mentioned this in the Arcforge thread, but while that project is getting sorted out with some publisher related issues, I'll be running a short playtest for Drop Dead Studio's Vigilantes of Skybourne!
Included in this release are the Luchador hybrid class, new vigilante archetypes, new vigilante racial archetypes for the Skybourne races, new prestige classes, new vigilante Specialties, new vigilante talents including Mutations that grant your vigilante sphere-based super-powers, new social talents, and Vigilante FCBs for the Skybourne races.
I think we'll be running the playtest for about a week, and there will be a couple updates with new materials that haven't been included in the document yet, as well as any feedback based changes that need to be made.
Soooo.... Have fun and let me know what you think! Feed back, whether grammatical, mechanical, interested, or unimpressed, is always welcome and appreciated.
So, with the compiled release of Akashic Mysteries dropping any day now, I wanted to celebrate by playing a weird akashic character in my Thursday game who I get to play just for fun, without worrying about keeping a playtest log.
I've decided to go with the feelkha (elephantfolk) gamla variant race and the Guru class, using the Sineater philosophy for unarmed combat, and fluffing all of his Gentle Touch attacks and Chakra Disruptions as wrestling moves.
Anyone have any suggestions for feats, items, etc. I should take that would help make that character an even better wrestler? And I don't mean like an Olympic wrestler, I mean like a WWE, over the top kind of showman, or maybe even a full blown luchador.
So, I received an e-mail informing me that Alluria Press is holding a massive sale on OBS/DrivethruRPG in an attempt to scrape together the funds necessary to continue producing new product. This was both saddening, and exciting, because Alluria is an amazing publisher with some of the highest quality of books I've seen from any publisher, and I don't like hearing that they're in trouble, but I can't deny that getting $20-$40 .pdfs for under $6 and some of their $5 racial supplements for $0.70 or less is an exciting proposition. I actually own their whole Cerulean Seas line in print (though my copy of Indigo Ice appears to have disappeared....), so I can't buy nearly as much from them as I would like, but I'd definitely encourage everyone to go pick something up.
I talk a bit about some of my favorite products, link to reviews, and provide direct product links for some of my favorite Alluria books on my blog, which you can find here.
Hello! Some time ago, James Raine, also known as FaxCelestis on this and other forums, started a project he dubbed "Tzocatl, The First Language". Drawing on themes from the Aztecs and other native American cultures, Tzocatl is a skill-based magic system evoking the power of names and the spoken word. Unfortunately, James was unable to finish this project, but I've stepped in to help see this project through to completion. Because James' original thread is somewhat dated and there have been more than a few changes to the materials (also because it's easier for me to update and incorporate feedback if I own the links in the OP) I'm starting a new thread to continue playtesting and receiving feedback so that Dreamscarred Press can see James project through to completion.
Here are the links to this exciting new(ish) project!
Hey everyone,
As someone who has had life kick them in the teeth on more than one occasion, I can tell you that things like unanticipated medical expenses and unemployment are two of the worst things to struggle with. My friend and fellow game designer Chris Bennett, lead designer of Path of War and other Dreamscarred projects, is struggling with both of those issues and more, and is in danger of losing the roof over his family's head just before Christmas. I would consider it a personal favor if anyone with a few dollars to spare could go to
his GoFundMe drive and help with this unfortunate situation.
In helping Chris with this rough situation, Dreamscarred Press has thrown their full support behind him, and those who chip in to support Chris will have the opportunity to see their charity rewarded, not just by that warm fuzzy feeling that comes from helping another human in need, but with free DSP merchandise and even custom designed game materials, as detailed on Chris' GoFundMe page. This includes stuff like your choice of DSP .pdfs or even print products (dependent on your donation), so if there was something from DSP you were already eyeballing, this is a way to go ahead and pick that up while helping a member of our community at the same time.
Welcome to Dreamscarred's latest project, Arcforge: Technology Expanded. You may have also heard me refer to this as "Psitech" in other threads. Arcforge: Technology Expanded includes some awesome new options for you to play with, including new archetypes with mechs you can pilot, new mechanics for weapons and firearms, cool technological weapons, and more.
There's still a lot of material that I'm polishing up for this playtest, but there's been a lot of demand from people who want to start playing with the goodies we've got lined up, so I'm rolling it out now, but there will be numerous updates coming out hot and fast, including around a dozen more archetypes, even more feats and cybertech enhancements, and a limited bestiary including things like a variety of mechs that anyone with the Psi-Core Upgrade feat can pilot, a psionic kaiju, and an AI with the powers of of a Cryptic!
Welcome to Dreamscarred's latest project, DSP's Expanded Technology Guide. You may have also heard me refer to this as "Psitech" in other threads. DSP's Expanded Technology Guide includes some awesome new options for you to play with, including new archetypes with mechs you can pilot, new mechanics for weapons and firearms, cool technological weapons, and more.
There's still a lot of material that I'm polishing up for this playtest, but there's been a lot of demand from people who want to start playing with the goodies we've got lined up, so I'm rolling it out now, but there will be numerous updates coming out hot and fast, including around a dozen more archetypes, even more feats and cybertech enhancements, and a limited bestiary including things like a variety of mechs that anyone with the Psi-Core Upgrade feat can pilot, a psionic kaiju, and an AI with the powers of of a Cryptic!
Is the cone from weapons with the scatter property increased by effects that improve the weapon's range increment?
For example, if I have a blunderbuss with the distance property or if I am the target of a longshot spell while wielding a blunderbuss or other weapon with the scatter property, do those effects increase the base range of the cone when firing pellets?
If I have a feat that allows me to take an immediate action under specific conditions, such as Coordinated Charge which allows me to charge as an immediate action when an ally charges, does my action occur before, after, or simultaneously with the triggering action?
Is there a general rule for this? I always assumed triggered immediate actions interrupted the triggering action and resolved first, like an attack of opportunity, but it doesn't appear to be clearly spelled out anywhere.
One of the things I see suggested a lot is using the Path of War classes and materials from Dreamscarred Press as a solution to martial/caster disparity, something I actually like, but which always felt like it had some issues - what if I don't want to play a Path of War class? What if I have one guy who wants to play a Fighter, and another who wants to play a Warder? Aren't they going to be imbalanced to each other since the Warder is designed as a Fighter fix?
So, I wrote up this little (completely unofficial) homebrew option, Spark of Battle, that provides rules and options for grafting the Path of War disciplines and combat system directly into your campaign world, making martial maneuvers universally available, but with diminishing returns for classes that have access to spellcasting, essentially creating a situation where the more magic you have, the less initiating will be available to you, to the point where classes like the wizard and sorcerer stop having access to maneuvers entirely as their more powerful spells come online.
The rules build off a combination of the initiating system in Path of War and the Stamina system first presented in Pathfinder Unchained, and have multiple options for implementation, including a more dynamic die roll based system that allows you to "spark" and learn a new maneuver in the heat of combat, and an experience based progression that allows you to learn maneuvers between levels, allowing you to spread the fun of leveling up and increasing in power out over the course of the entire level.
Hopefully this is something you all can have fun with!
Is there anyone from the forums, or from Paizo, or from the 3pp community who'll be at PAX Prime next week? I'll be there in a non-design related official capacity doing some interviews and reviewing various games and products (both tabletop and digital) for our website, but it'd be neat to see if there's anyone I might bump into.
So I was on a thread over on GitP where we were talking about making an orc Dirty Fighter, and a few things occurred to me, so now I'd like your help fleshing out the idea!
The idea is that you start with an orc or half-orc and take the Dirty Fighter archetype from the ARG and the Mutation Warrior archetype from the ACG (they both should stack). Mutation Warrior gives you flight, self-healing, and then probably greater and grand mutagen or greater and feral. Then, you VMC Barbarian so you can grab Rage (and eventually Superstition). You'll also need Combat Expertise, Improved Dirty Trick, Greater Dirty Trick, and Dirty Trick Master for debuffing. I figure you'll also need to spend your FCBs on skill points to round out the build.
How can I make it better? What feats would you add? Any big holes in the combo?
It occurred to me that I should really jump in and let the Paizo community know about the Third-Party Thursdays (3ppt for short) event I've been running.
Every Thursday, I'm running an event at our local game store featuring adventures and materials from some of the great third party publishers out there. Our last event featured classes from Rogue Genius Games' Adventurer's Handbook: Vol. 1 and Amora Games' Liber Influxus Communis. The adventurers got to run through the excellent Twin Crossings adventure from adventureaweek.com.
Our initial announcement can be found here and the recap of that evening can be found here. We had a great time, and Owen K.C. Stephens even provided me with a couple copies of the Adventurer's Handbook that I was happy to send home with a couple of the GMs who showed up to play so they could share the awesome materials they got to test out with their home groups!
Our next adventure will feature a variety of teamwork oriented pregens from Dreamscarred Press and Amora Games running The Midnight Mirror, a highly reviewed adventure from the 2011 winner of Paizo's RPG Superstar contest, Sam Zeitlin. Read more about it here, with weekly updates every Sunday and adventure recaps every Friday at somnambulant-gamer.com.
Slated for future events, we're already looking for an adventure that will best showcase Legendary Games' new book, Gothic Campaign Compendium (definitely looking for something with a great horror vibe), and I personally want to give more people a chance to play around with some of the excellent classes and mechanics from Drop Dead Studios' Spheres of Power.
If you happen to be a third-party publisher who'd like us to showcase your products at the event, please feel free to pop me a PM. I'm more than happy to feature classes, mechanics, or adventures from the great writers and designers out there who are still looking for a little extra exposure at both our live games and on our blog. My only request is that you provide me with a table copy of your .pdf or print product for easy reference (assuming I don't already have it).
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How many of the attack and damage rolls in a Pummeling Charge sequence are treated as charge attacks?
When you make the additional attack roll that all feed into your pummeling strike, how many, if any, of the attack rolls get the +2 bonus for charging, and how many of the damage rolls are affected by abilities like Spirited Charge or the cavalier Order if the Sword ability that adds the mounts damage to mounted charge attacks?
You can choose to take a –1 penalty on melee attack rolls and combat maneuver checks to gain a +1 dodge bonus to your Armor Class. When your base attack bonus reaches +4, and every +4 thereafter, the penalty increases by –1 and the dodge bonus increases by +1. You can only choose to use this feat when you declare that you are making an attack or a full-attack action with a melee weapon. The effects of this feat last until your next turn.
Where it says that it must be used with "an attack or full attack action" should it be read "an attack, or full attack action" or "an attack (action) or full attack action"?
My understanding had been that it could be activated whenever you made a melee attack, including an Attack of Opportunity, just like Power Attack, but I've discovered that there is a fairly prevalent understanding that it can only be used with an attack action (like Vital Strike) or full attack.
So, I'm sure Owen will end up posting an official thread on this somewhere, but I just wanted to pop in and announce that The Genius Guide to Bravery Feats is now available for purchase on DriveThruRPG.
Some of you may be familiar with the premise behind this product: I wanted to make the Bravery class feature of the Fighter something that really embodied the core of a character, rather than a crappy throw-away ability that gets immediately replaced by every archetype. The GGtBF introduces a series of feats that are scaled closer to true class features than your traditional feats, and they all build on each other and grow in effectiveness along with your Bravery class feature. These feats are themed around the idea that may not be the biggest guy or gal on the battlefield, but if you're the bravest you can make an impact like you are.
So when I first looked at this I was like "Blah blah blah, Slayer with Cavalier features" and it didn't really jump out as anything special. On a second read-through though, I feel like maybe this archetype is actually really solid.
His Tactician ability is different than the standard Cavalier's in that while it does give him a bonus Teamwork feat, it doesn't actually tie his Tactician ability to that feat. Vanguard's Tactician can share any teamwork feat he knows, and he gets to choose between learning additional Slayer Talents or gaining additional uses of this ability. Considering how narrowly focused the Slayer Talents are, that makes it seem like this could be a really good trade, and potentially leave you with a Slayer who can have almost twice as many uses of Tactician as a Cavalier.
While this never drops below a standard action to use, it's pretty nicely complimented by his Vanguard's Bond which lets him share 1/2 his Studied Target bonus with all of his allies for a number of rounds equal to his INT mod as a move action, and his other abilities which trade Track and Stalker for 1/2 his level to initiative and the ability to always act in the surprise round.
So an archetype that's incentivized to pump his INT gives up some skill bonuses and two talents for a big initiative boost, a better version of Tactician than a Cavalier gets, the ability to buff his allies (granted a fairly mediocre buff, though Lenses of the Predator's Gaze can keep it pretty relevant in the PFS levels), and the ability to always act in the surprise round, potentially extremely valuable for a team leader character.
I'm thinking the Vanguard may have just replaced the Ranger as my favorite guild leader type of character. Has anyone else taken a look at this archetype, or have any thoughts on it?
I've run across something in recent playtesting for classes I've been designing and I wanted to get the community's opinion on it.
A class I recently designed is a martial buffer (full BAB, medium armor, 2 good saves, 4+Int skills), who at level 2 can choose a specialty (Medic, Scout, Soldier, Artillerist) that allows her to cover a secondary role of healer, skill-monkey, tank, or controller (respectively). One of my local playtesters told me that he and his group were worried that this gave the class too much versatility and that you shouldn't be able to build an entire group out of one class with all of the roles covered. My initial response was that it's actually easier to list the core classes you can't build a group out of with every role covered than the ones that you can (my personal list would probably Fighter, Gunslinger, Rogue, Samurai, with the note that you can actually build a reasonable 4 man group from Rogues and possibly Gunslingers, you just wouldn't do it in a way where you have all 4 roles covered).
The thing is, this isn't the first time I've heard this. In other playtests I've seen this come up before from multiple parties, this idea that if one class can be built for any role it's too strong, even if you can't actually fill all of those roles in one build. What are everyone's thoughts on this? Do you think it's a selling point or a point of concern when a single class has the potential to fill any role in the game? How does that jive with the fact that there are already so many classes who can do so already?
Does the Oathbound Paladin's Oath Spells feature grant bonus spell slots, or just add spells to his class spell list?
Oath Spells:
Oath Spells: A paladin's oath influences what magic she can perform. An oathbound paladin adds one spell to the paladin spell list at each paladin spell level she can cast (including spell levels for which she would only gain spells per day if her Charisma were high enough to grant bonus spells of that level). Her oath determines what spell is added to the spell list. If the paladin has multiple oaths, the spells from each oath are added to her spell list.
If an oathbound paladin has more than one oath, she may prepare any one of her oath's spells in that slot (similar to a cleric choosing one of her two domain spells to prepare in a domain spell slot).
The initial paragraph makes it seem like they're just additional spells on their list, but the follow up paragraph refers to "that slot" and references that the ability works like cleric domain spells...
So, I gave up on actually assigning experience points a while back as a bit of an experiment. I was hoping to curb the "murder hobo" tendencies that were arising in some of our games along with a "we're going to need to kill this thing sooner or later anyways" outlook.
So I took away xp and replaced it with a milestone and completion chart for the adventure that allowed the party to gain levels by resolving major plot points or story arcs, and a separate tracker for side quests where they gained roughly a third of a level for each completed side quest. It's actually worked out very well, and I find the party is much more likely to explore solutions that involve diplomacy, intimidation, redirection, misdirection, etc. than thy ever did previously. I've also drastically reduced the number of unplanned NPC deaths which is a plus.
Has anyone else tried this? Did you have positive results? Or do you prefer using the experience point system, and if so, why?
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