VikingIrishman's page

Early morning first thought stuff.

Debug menus and console commands mostly get used to get cash, max stats, and activate God modes.

On the cash front, Noble Scion has a mechanic for getting money at every level. Or maybe just the "You get to pretend you spent X amount of gold on minor inconveniences" ability. Actually, Noble Scion in general is a decent template for weird grab-bags of abilities.

For maxing stats, you've got a start with the inherent bonuses.

As far as God mode, that's just not feasible. Maybe a limited use Rage-style ability that reduces damage and spell-slot use?

Calling up the object ID of monsters is cool. Just modify Bardic Knowledge.

"A CLASSNAME adds their class level to all Knowledge skill checks to identify creatures and may make these skill checks untrained."

Probably should have a suite of movement related abilities. Toggle Collision to Fly, Frame Clipping to Dimension Door, Multiply Speed for Haste, etc. Maybe these can be "Rage Powers" to use in "God Mode Rage".

I'll think on it more as I wake up.

Hey, sorry. I didn't realize it had been so long. I hate to say it, but I think I'm gonna need to drop out. Things are a lot busier lately and I don't think I have the time to devote to PBPs. Sorry. =/

I am absolutely down for this. It's been a good long while since I've played a class above 5th level. I'll get something worked up.

That sounds amazing. I'm in.

Hey, sorry for the inactivity the past couple days. Things have been...hectic. I'll try my best to post tonight.

Nope, let's get underway. ^_^

I've got a decent skeleton for your game, btw. I just need to put enough meat on the bones for it to look like a passable thing.

I have a question for you Mowque - I've not ever used the ABP system before, but reading up on it, it essentially gives you a Magic Weapon or Armour by attuning yourself to it. So, anything I'm not attuned to, can I still purchase as normal?

So say I've attuned myself to a Composite Longbow (I have), can I still buy say a +1 Shocking Dagger from my wealth?

I'm trying to work out if I can attune myself to one thing and buy something else that's been magically enhanced outside of attunement.

Also, as the ABP only makes it possible to have a +5 weapon (usual is +10 with the extra +5 for enhancement bonuses only), if I bought a +1 weapon and attuned myself to it, could I essentially use my own Attunement to give a weapon already at +1, any of the +1 costing properties, so +1 Shocking again for example? I'm not 100% certain on how it works.

Relevant info is found in these lines:

Items that only grant bonuses to AC, saving throws, and ability scores don't exist in this variant, and wish and similar spells never grant inherent bonuses to ability scores. Magic weapons and armor do exist, but grant only special abilities, not enhancement bonuses.

And

In this system, magic weapons, armor, and shields never have enhancement bonuses of their own; those bonuses are granted only through attunement. Any weapon, armor, or shield special abilities on attuned items count against a character's enhancement bonus from attunement. To determine an attuned magic item's enhancement bonus, subtract the cost of its special ability from the enhancement bonus granted by attunement. (This applies only to special abilities whose cost is equivalent to an enhancement bonus, not to those that cost a flat amount of gold pieces.) For example, if a character with a +3 enhancement bonus from weapon attunement wields a keen scimitar, she subtracts 1 point of her enhancement bonus (for the cost of keen), leaving her with a +2 keen scimitar. If a character doesn't have enough of an enhancement bonus to afford the special ability (such as a 4th-level character with a vorpal longsword), she can still use the weapon's power on its own, but the weapon gains no enhancement bonus.

In this system, adding bonus-equivalent special abilities to items costs significantly less because you are paying only for the special ability, not for a base enhancement bonus (see the table below). To determine the price of specific weapons and armor, remove the flat enhancement bonus and reduce the item's cost by the amount listed on the table below. For example, a flame tongue is normally worth 20,715 gp, but under this system, it would lose its +1 enhancement bonus and its price would be reduced to 18,715 gp. Specific weapons and armor can be attuned; they then grant the character's enhancement bonuses from weapon attunement and armor attunement as normal.

I'm down to play, and I'm good with whatever role the party needs (though I tend to lean toward Expert). I've been wanting to take a shot at Monster of the Week for a long time and my Impulse Drive game dried up.

Montblanc "Monty" Terathan Jeggare

Monty's life had always been one of ease; the Jeggare family was immensely wealthy and well-respected. He was, however, a third son. His parents got "the heir and the spare" and so Monty was left mostly to his own devices, neither in line to inherit the family fortune or the responsibility of keeping up the museum. So it was that Monty took to wandering. Exploring the world offered him an opportunity to be worth something beyond his name. Delving ancient ruins, he frequently came up with relics that were fit to be displayed in his family's museum and became something of the family's pet archaeologist.

It was during one of these expeditions that Monty first came to know Connac Aevell, famed adventurer of the Band of the Black Banner. Their goals aligned briefly and they worked together to accomplish them. Afterward, they drank deep into the night and went their separate ways.

Years passed, and Monty and Connac happened into each other with seemingly increased frequency. Wherever Monty got word of an interesting artifact, there also was Connac smiling his wry smile, always two steps ahead. It became something of a game, the two friendly rivals, then friends, then lovers.

But Monty's happiness was to be short-lived. A dagger in his side, Connac drew his last breath, imploring Monty to "get the Band back together". Requests from lovers and dying wishes are hard enough to deny, but when combined forge a request that could rival any geas. Monty knew what he must do. If only he knew where to begin.

Bit of a vocabulary gripe. On Page 9, for Enduring Stoicism, I'm afraid "nonplussed" doesn't mean what you think it means.

Nonplus

verb (used with object), nonplussed or nonplused, nonplussing or nonplusing.
1.
to render utterly perplexed; puzzle completely.
noun
2.
a state of utter perplexity.

Any time. I'll be keeping an eye out for any updates you might post. ^_^

Okay, I gathered my thoughts on each of the manias. It's a bit long, but they're the things I noticed while looking them over.

Overall, though, this is shaping up to be one of my favorite casting classes.

This is a really well developed concept. I haven't delved too deeply into each of the manias (there's a ton of information there), but I didn't notice anything too off-putting during my first read-through.

My first instinct for Rave (clearly a Rage variant ^_^) was to base it off of Wisdom (being that I see Wisdom as the mental counterpart to Constitution) to represent how long you can mentally withstand subsuming yourself in a single emotion, but I understand how that might make things feel a bit more MAD than you'd like.

I'll comb over the manias and get back to you with any notes I might have, but this is looking excellent already.

Just a couple quick write-ups of what I've got so far. I'm apprehensive about the +2 on Lost a Loved One, but it's situational enough that I think +1 would be too little.

Lost a Loved One
You've lost someone that meant the world to you. As a result, you fight harder to keep the people that are still with you safe.

Effect: If one of your allies should fall unconscious from hit point damage, you get a +2 trait bonus on attack rolls and skill checks as long as you are no farther than 10 feet away from your fallen ally.

Faithless
You used to be a person whose faith meant a great deal to you. Whatever happened in your past, you've lost the faith you once had. Be it faith in your fellow man, faith in the gods, or faith in an ideal, you now rely only on yourself and your own experiences.

Effect: You gain a +1 trait bonus on saves against enchantment and illusion spells and effects.

Those are fantastic. Thank you.

Anyone else have any other suggestions?

So, I'm working on a handful of traits to represent loss for a campaign I'm working on. The campaign centers on an organization that helps people. Similar to an Adventurer's Guild, but with a more noble aim? At any rate, in order to join the Brotherhood, you must pass a one question interview. Here's what I have written:

"You may know why we call ourselves the Crimson Brotherhood? It is because every one of us had bled. Every one of us has lost something that cannot be replaced. We all understand what loss feels like and we all have a desire to help others who may not be as well equipped to deal with loss as we are. That desire to help others is key. At this point, there is no war to fight. No figurehead to unite against. Our foe is the world we live in. Misery and despair surround us on all fronts, but we must attempt to beat it back, not only for the sake of those incapable of fighting for themselves, but for the sake of our own souls. So tell me, if you still truly wish to join the Brotherhood, what is it that you have lost? What is it that drives your desire to help others?"

So far, the answers I've gotten for loss have been fairly generic. A mother, a brother, a father, and a dog. I feel like these could all be summed up as a single "Lost a Loved One" trait.

What I am at a loss for, amusingly, is a good cross-section of losses to build traits off of. Realistically, I only need about half a dozen or so. Any ideas?

What else does he want besides healing? Hexcrafter can also get Slumber, Flight, and other stuff.

Sorry, I left out words. It's been a long day. I meant to ask what, aside from the mentioned hexes, does Hexcrafter grant in the arena of healing? The 1/day effect of the hexes are a bit off-putting for him.

I do agree that the changes you've made to the spell list aren't really sufficient to give the Red Mage feel. Probably the best thing to do would be to take the time to go through and hand pick an entirely new spell list. It'd be a good bit of work, but it'd let you get the feel a lot closer.

Again, I'm not understanding what's vital for the "feel" of a Red Mage. There isn't much to the Red Mage in Final Fantasy -- it's just a mage that can fight and has a variety of spells. That's not novel in Pathfinder. The Red Mage typically uses rapiers, has light armor, and has a magic list consists of blasts, defense buffs, disables, and heal spells. If he plays a rapier-wielding Dex-based hexcrafter magus, that would cover all the bases. The magus spell list consists of blasts and defensive buff. The hexcrafter can get decent healing abilities and some of the best disables in the game.

What, aside from the Healing/Major Healing Hexes, does Magus get from the Hexcrafter archetype? Or were those what you meant?

First of all, you need to realize the burst potential that comes from this ability. Full round action to cast two touch spells and deliver them through your blade? At level 4? At the very least move this to 6 and I would recommend moving it to level 11. At that point you may as well just quicken stuff.

I recommend making the chain spell ability allow you to use the quicken metamagic feat for only like 3 levels more or like 1 level less per 2 points you spend from your arcane pool.

Oh yeah, I'm fully aware of the burst potential. The main problem with Quicken for Magus is that you'll only ever be able to Quicken 2nd level spells or lower. Sure, doubled Scorching Ray is decent, but I'd rather just cast Chain Lightning.

What if Chainspell treated the Magus as half of his caster level for the purposes of spell effects and what level of spell he can Chainspell? That limits the ability to 4th level spells as a 20th level Magus and treats you as a 10th level caster for each of those spells. The most damage you're getting out of that is a 20d8 doubled Detonate, which is still probably a worse option than Chain Lightning.

It's kind of broken. Being able to cast multiple spells in a round is incredibly powerful. It's one of the reasons Quicken Spell is a +4 metamagic feat and why it's one of the most powerful feats in the game. And this archetype allows you to do it at 4th level. Heck, even in Final Fantasy, Dual Casting is a high level ability

Because of Quicken Spell, you don't really need to make up a new doublecasting ability. There mechanically really isn't much to the Red Mage other than being a job that can fight, cast offensive spells, and cast support spells. The rest of it is style. Many classes in PF do that. An arcane duelist bard would work or a hexcrafter magus or a white mage arcanist eldritch knight.

What in particular is the player looking for?

Mechanically, the only class he's really interested in for it is Magus. Bard has too many knowledge and performance based abilities, he wants to hit the feel from level 1 so he's not keen on multiclassing and PrCs. Hexcrafter is cool, but doesn't quite hit the mark for healing and support abilities that he wants. All of this led to me trying to work out a custom archetype for him.

Chainspell was actually inspired by the Red Mage's 1 hour ability from Final Fantasy 11 (http://ffxiclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Chainspell) and roughly based on the Mystic Theurge's Spell Synthesis ability. Spell Synthesis is a standard action (or whatever action both spells are, most are standard) that can be used once per day as a capstone ability of a prestige class. A hell of an ability to be giving out at 4th level, but I was hoping having to dedicate a full round would help offset that a bit. Do you think it would be more appropriate to put a hard limit on the number of times per day the ability can be used rather than fueling it with arcane points? Or should I rework the ability as something entirely different?

May want to add a clause to Chain Spell limiting the casting time off valid spells. I don't know offhand what potential abuses there are on the Magus spell list, but as written you could cast two spells with a minute cast time in a mere full round action.

Ah, yes. Thanks. ^_^

I wouldn't allow your highest level spell for the chain at all then, if you're worried about it being a problem.

Try "at least one spell level lower than the highest spell you can cast, and the other spell must be of at least two spell levels lower than the highest level spell you can cast" Now you have to decide between a 5th level spell, or spending arcane points and a longer cast time to cast a 4th and 3rd level spell in one turn.

That's a good idea. I'll have to do some number crunching to see how it stacks up comparing 1 6th, 2 5th, and 1 5th and 1 4th, but the "one level lower than your highest level spell" clause seems promising.

You should probably make it such that the "second spell" of chain spell must be at least 1 level lower than the higher of the two. To prevent him from using two of his highest spell slots at one time (which would end most encounters in a single blast, though probably only once or twice per day).

Mmm, yeah. Doubling up on 20d6 Chain Lightning spells at 20th level would be a hell of a lot of outgoing damage. Restricting spell level isn't going to change much though. It's the difference between 40d6 and 35d6. I mean, I play with reasonable people, but maybe I should use the combined spell level of the two spells for the Arcane Pool cost?

Cha is usually the worst (read: least liked) of the three mental stats to be a key score, so remember that he is giving up having a high INT.

If he's doing that, he definitely doesn't need to be penalized on his number of arcane pool points, make that CHA based too so he doesn't have to be MAD (using two different mental key scores on a front line combat player is PAINFUL).

Thank you! I'd meant to include a catchall ability to shift everything from Int to Cha, but I forgot.

I can see armor proficiency for evasion, but doesn't he gain armor proficiencies at level 1? He doesn't get the benefit for those abilities he's giving up until way later. I could be wrong, not looking at magus right atm.

Medium Armor Proficieny and Heavy Armor Proficiency come at 7 and 13, respectively. At level 1, the Magus can cast in Light Armor without penalty, which this archetype keeps.

You might consider what happens if he gets attacked during a chain spell. Presumably he would lose both spells if he fails the concentration check. Considering the high cost of Quicken, and the fact that even then it doesn't let you use a second spell, this is a reasonable risk factor to make the ability less powerful.

That is a very good point.

One of my players is looking for more solid Final Fantasy style Red Mage vibe than the Magus currently provides. I did a quick pass to get an archetype in the right area. What I'm looking for are thoughts, questions, and concerns from those of you more well-versed in the awkward intricacies of Pathfinder.

Oh yeah, was thinking of gestalting to Barbarian.

How's this look?

Submitting for your acceptance.

I'm very much down. I've run WotW before, but I've been itching to PLAY. I'm very good at separating player knowledge and character knowledge, and I tend to heavily modify stuff anyway, so what I remember from more than a year ago likely won't be anything terribly useful anyway.

I'm also a compulsive character creator, so I'm flexible on what roles I can fill.

I'm all in for playing if we find a GM.

I'd like to make a Half-Orc Witch with the Scarred Witch Doctor archetype if at all possible. I know the archetype is specifically an Orc archetype, not a Half-Orc one, so I'm asking right out.

Thanks much, guys! ^_^

There are a lot of real world analogs for places in Golarion. Minkai is Japan, Ustalav is Romania, the Mwangi Expanse is the Congo, etc.

I've looked around a bit and I wasn't able to find an Australia analog. Sargava has a lot in common with Australia, historically speaking. Alkenstar has a lot in common with Australia, geographically speaking. Am I missing it, or does it not exist?

Firstly, apologies for being away for so long. It seems I have some new material to sift through to update the guide.

Secondly, stuart, You can certainly get some use out of the Elements patron, but the bonus spells are so far outside the wheelhouse of the Witch that it's almost pointless. Witches are primarily debuff specialists, and their spell list reflects that.

Of the 22 9th level spells they get, 6 are Necromancy, 7 are Conjuration, 5 are Enchantment, 1 is Divination, 2 are Abjuration, and 1 is Transmutation. Evocation is nowhere to be seen.

It's a similar state for all other spell levels, with the witch only getting a handful of damage dealing spells, usually dealing cold or sonic damage, with some electricity tossed in.

Witches are designed for a primary purpose, and my guide is written through the filter of that purpose. I mean, you could make a fighter and max out Charisma and Use Magic Device, but it certainly wouldn't be optimal.

Don't get me wrong, Elements is full of great spells and it's flavorful as hell, but as far as furthering a witch's primary agenda, it's red.

How exactly does Butterfly' Sting interact with the various Strike feats (Bull Rush Strike, Disarming Strike, Repositioning Strike, Sundering Strike, or Tripping Strike)?

The feats clearly state "If your confirmation roll exceeds your opponent’s CMD, [effect]", but in this case, there was no confirmation roll on the attack that triggers the feat. Do you simply use the attack roll? Do you use the confirmation roll of person who passed the crit with Butterfly's Sting? Something else even less intuitive?

Alright! The guide's been updated with the stuff from Champions of Purity. Maybe it won't be another six months before witches get some more love.

New Witch hexes in the Champions Of Purity book!

Exciting! I'll have to see to that if/when they get put up on d20pfsrd.com. Thanks for the heads up. ^_^

My group is a 6 player group who is probably going to reach Balentyne in the next session. As I'll have to give the players more experience due to a larger number of players, do you have any suggestions to power up the encounter at Balentyne? Here are some ideas I thought of:

1. Double the number of troops. 200 instead of 100. This can be easily done by adding double the number of troops in any encounter.

2. As I have mapped out the inn, I don't see the need of doubling the number of dwarves as 20 dwarves would easily use up a good deal of the inn's capacity. Instead to give some extra XP, I've upgraded one of the dwarves to be a level 4 fighter (Basically the 2nd in command).

3. For the Tacticus encounter I might add an apprentice wizard to add some extra danger for the PC's (Probably using an NPC out of the NPC codex).

Would this be enough to give players enough experience to keep level with advancement in the adventure path?

That's a lot of work for a much simpler solution; use the "Fast" experience track.

Adventure paths are built with 4 players in mind. If it takes 3,600,000 XP for one character to reach level 20 on the "Medium" advancement track, that means a 1-20 campaign needs to provide 14,400,000 XP for an entire party to hit 20. Coincidentally, 14,400,000 divided by 6 gives you 2,400,000 XP per player, which is exactly enough to hit 20 on the "Fast" track. ^_^ (this formula does not hold true for the "Slow" XP track)

That said, if you're wanting to add stuff in for a greater challenge, go ahead.

First off, thanks so much for this guide, I've been using it a ton to help a friend out with her witch character, it's been all sorts of useful.

Couple clarifications:

Not sure if anybody else commented this already, and completely honestly it's pretty unimportant, but coven is actually a bit worse than you stated.

Your statement was "If you have another Witch in the party (or, I guess, a Hag) this one can be kind of useful, but largely a waste of a Hex."

Now, some of those spell-like abilities seem pretty awesome to me, but I'm not very good about that so I'll trust your judgment on that.

But more importantly, covens actually require 3 hags, not just too. And the witch's coven specifically states that it needs to have at least 1 actual hag per coven. So really the statement is closer to "If you have another Witch and a hag in the party (or, I guess, 2 Hags)..." not a big thing at all, but the scenarios in which one could utilize the coven hex are ultra specific.

Also, question: how does scar interact with cackling? If I am correct and it increases the range to up to a mile, I could see this having a more than decent use for those witches with the fortune hex, for instance.

As far as I know, they don't interact at all. The Scar hex states that "The witch can use her hexes on the scarred target at a range of up to 1 mile", but the Cackle hex isn't a targeted hex so, in my mind, you can't use it on something. You just use it and affect things within range. That said, the concept of hearing some crazy person giggling madly from a mile away is awesome witchy territory. I think this decision would be something that lies more in the hands of the GM, since it isn't clearly delineated in the book.

Oh come on boss, the time before this wasn't even a suicide bombing.

Our Lady All The High Queen Astral I survived that without a scratch on her. The puddings on the other hand...

EDIT: Come to think of it, why am I the one doing all the suicide bombings? Isn't it Max's turn next?

Don't forget about when I played the Mognificent Kupo Khan and burned a full Necklace of Fireballs Type VII on top of that gazebo.

That's crazy. I never would have seen that kind of destruction coming. I can only hope it's not a recurring process.

You know, it made me realize how frighteningly often suicide bombings happen in our group. I think we average one per campaign. If we got our one out of the system early, I'll be pleased.

So, we just finished Book One tonight (this morning). Our six person party was down to five because of a player being out of town. They'd already spent a couple weeks in Aldencross stirring up trouble and making money (it's a trade town, why not?). The big move was deciding to crash the play. They infiltrated the watchtower under cover of invisibility and, not being ones for subtlety, kicked in the door to the great hall, let loose two Stone Rains (which dealt enough damage to drop everything that wasn't named) then pop more invisibility and high tail it out of there. They spent one day regrouping in the woods then went back in to finish the job. They walked straight into an ambush consisting of Barnabus, Havelyn, Donnagon, Barhold, Tacitus, his ice golem, and the surviving 28 guardsmen. A well placed Stone Rain ended most of the guardsmen and a Cloudkill took the rest. The alchemist, cleric, and gunslinger waded into combat while the two wizards vanished and slipped to the edges of the courtyard. Things started to look grim for our band of brigands (especially after Havelyn joined the fray) when it came to the gunslinger's turn.

This deserves it's own paragraph. The gunslinger, madwoman that she was, dropped every ounce of gunpowder she had on her (well over 700 doses, because she was, as previously mentioned, a madwoman) and struck her flint and steel straight into it. The resulting 35d6 explosion took out everything except for the paladin (who promptly went from untouched to 2 hp)and the two wizards (who were safely out of range). And then the ice golem exploded, finishing off the paladin.

One round resulted in over 1000 damage being dealt. Sure, half the party has to roll new characters, but what a hell of a way to end a book. This is what I get for gaming with AM BARBARIAN.

Guys all I wanted to do was see this hit 100 posts. I feel like a proud papa, if that papa's progeny were a thread that was this good.

But...what if the succubus grappled the doll?

Can the doll take 10, since it really isn't alive?

The doll, being an inanimate object, cannot resist the grapple. What happens next is dependent on the size, shape, and composition of the doll.

I'm not comfortable with being grappled there!

Show me on the doll where the succubus grappled you...

I built a shrine to this thread because of this thread.

I think for the first time ever I actually wanted to understand the grapple rules because of it instead of getting halfway down that weird chart and going oh my god this is so hard I'm just going to buy a greatsword instead.

Heh.

For what it's worth, if I were the GM I'd rule that the Succubus gets to drain levels even as the "victim" of a grapple. An "act of passion" is so vague that anyone with an imagination can envision a use for every body part that isn't held down. The Pinned condition does a fair shake at holding things down (BDSM aside ~_^), so I'd rule the poor Succubus is in an unfavorable position to level drain here, unless the pinner feels extra naughty.

So yeah, in my opinion, Grappled = Drained, Pinned = Not drained, but still sexy.

Sisyphus firing an arrow infused with Athena's power from Greece to Italy to help his ally in combat. Admittedly on a global scale it's not *that* large of a distance, but as far as I'm aware it's still way beyond anything we can do in Pathfinder.

Considering that the shortest straight line between Greece and Italy is somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 miles, that makes over 400000 feet, bare minimum. Way, WAY, WAY beyond anything we can do in Pathfinder.

As I am in love with archers, I want to see this. ^_^

Stone familiar didn't make your equipment list? Seriously?!?

Simple, yet inexplicable, over sight. Thanks for pointing it out.

Put in a quick blurb about the Winter Witch PrC. Pretty cool stuff.

Will this guide be updated to include a reference to the Winter Witch prestige class, for which the Winter Witch archetype is a prerequisite?

Prestige classes are generally outside the scope of something like this, but I'll take a look at it.

I find that the versatility that can be gained through Bracers of Armor generally helps to compensate for their lack of actual defensive usefulness, especially with some of the new armor enhancements in UE.

The Arrow Master's Bracers are nice, but I like the Vambraces of Defense. Personal preference thing.

That said, I did make an effort to stress that equipment selection is a subjective thing, so take what you will from that.

EDIT: Scratch that first comment. I just now actually looked at the silken ceremonial armor and realized that it has no max Dex and no ACP. Guide will be amended.

Guide updated with stuff from Ultimate Equipment.