WhiteTiger's page

From Paizo's own:

"The Most Important Rule
The rules presented are here to help you breathe life into your characters and the world they explore. While they are designed to make your game easy and exciting, you might find that some of them do not suit the style of play that your gaming group enjoys. Remember that these rules are yours. You can change them to fit your needs. Most Game Masters have a number of “house rules” that they use in their games. The Game Master and players should always discuss any rules changes to make sure that everyone understands how the game will be played. Although the Game Master is the final arbiter of the rules, the Pathfinder RPG is a shared experience, and all of the players should contribute their thoughts when the rules are in doubt."

I'm definitely with PSY850 for houseruling in mid campaign especially when it comes to new material which oh by the way comes out every month. so I instituted a rule of when a campaign starts you can only use existing material and can never use anything new that comes out during the campaign.

It's not the GM's job to know how every feat and archetype work in every single circumstance and it's not the player's job to act like a CO-GM.
A GM in my book only needs to know the basics of the core rulebook and a desire to tell a great story.. the rest is just so much noise.

I have 2 hopes.

1.) That the arcanist will be able to do the immediate action out-of-turn counter-spelling as in the prior playtest by making a check and spending pool points. This has the potential of really shutting down enemy spell-casters.

2). The Shaman continues to improve as the hexes were kind of weak but the 2nd playtest definitely showed that the shaman has great promise.

I wouldn't mind seeing a cleric/paladin class with a way to add in stigmata. Although I didn't really care for the mechanics of it. Stigmata offers lots of storytelling and roleplay opportunities but not so-much game mechanics to back up your character but here's to hoping.

I wonder if the warpriest will be where you get 1 domain, 6th level casting, mid-bab progression and half the number of smites with a few extras for flavor. If so this is ok but here's to hoping that either within that class you can add things like from the holy vindicator and the class count as a paladin for feat prerequisites and be able to take oaths. IF all or most of this happens then it'll probably be ok.

I already have something close to this already in my group that I am testing.

Josh Shrader wrote:

Appoligies if I Missed it, but would someone be so kind as to Post the Requirements for the HellKnight Signifer?

Lawful alignment, medium armor proficiency, either Warrior Priest or Arcane Armor Training, Intimidate 2 ranks, Knowledge (planes) 5 ranks, Spellcraft 5 ranks.

Which, interestingly, kinda puts the screws to magus builds. Gotta waste a feat on AAT, which you entirely do not need...

how many spell caster levels does it give ???

Will there any additional rules for Artifacts?

New artifacts?

Creation rules?

I'm ex-military and I have studied wing chun.

I am really excited about this one but June is a while away.

I hope for some min to high level racial feats for wings, better spell powers, energy resistances, auras, constent spell efects like protection from evil or speak with animals, fast healing, etc.

Absolutely. If memory serves, the old Races of Faerun book had some feats for Aasimar's. I think it was like celestial bloodline and then some others. One gave you the ability to fire a single searing light although it burned out your light spell-like ability for the rest of the day.

Any chance of a Colossal Xotani from Legacy of fire???

I would pay some serious cash for one of those...

Curious... Is this in the Tian Xia Region ?

yeah.. I'm in the "Sandhills" area of South Carolina. only it's not that hilly but very sandy. only 100+ in the summer time probably why I look like a genie. I don't that crappy type of weather.. used to live in Boston/southern Nh/southern maine areas. don't miss that either. I would never move back and I don't think I'll ever move to Seattle. I'll take my chances with the Tornadoes and occasional visits of the Tropical Storm & hurricane.

Downloaded and started perusing the book. I did jump ahead to the Kitsune bonus feats, there are 3 of them, but doesn't look like you can take any more than once so it seems you can get up to 4 tails right now.

Can I get 9 tails and then become indestructible ?

How they handle Magic is pretty make-or-break IMO. Every 3Eer hates high level spells ruining near every story a DM can come up with, every 3Eer also hates 4E "powers" as the dumbed-down solution. How to offer a simpler magic system to attract newcomers, retaining enough flavor for 3E grognards, AND making high levels playable... solve that and I think they will be on to something that PF lacks. Modularity may be a big part of the answer.

I totally agree with this. I've played both systems and neither really do it for me. 4e is either damage with short term side effect or no damage with a slightly nastier, slightly longer lasting side effect and little else. all of the 3.X systems including PF have too many "save or it's over type spells". If a GM wanted a long climactic battle, your not going to get it in PF.. you get in 4e but then every battle generally is because Damage output is nearly perfectly scaled against your level vs. the level of the monsters which makes one wonder why play a higher level game... with all of the additional powers... it just slows everything down.

Armed and unarmed combat can be handled with not a lot of issues. It's how do you match up Magic against armed/un-armed combat? In 4e, it's weapon damage with side effect as opposed to energy type damage with side effect but magic needs to be so much more and rituals just seemed to be extremely weak sauce.

Somehow.. someway.. I think 4e & PF need to have a meeting of the minds. This is just a small joke. I'm not suggesting a meeting between Paizo & WOTC.. more like .. is there a way to take the best of the modern systems and make a new system that is even better than what exists now?

Steerpike7 wrote:

WhiteTiger wrote:

I'd like to see classes completely gone.

I think classless systems are interesting and can be a lot of fun. I think classes are so fundamental to what people consider to be a core property of D&D that they'll never move away from it.

One of the reasons I play D&D is because of the class system. When I want to play a game that is classless, I have a huge book on the bottom of my bookshelf called HERO system. It does classless really well. I need D&D to be what D&D is. Keep the sacred cows in D&D. When I want a break from them, if I want a break from them I have a bunch of systems I can use.

I don't need the D&D system to be like any other. Warts and all. Some people hate vancian magic. Well if it bothers them so much go play a spell point system.

I hear what you are saying and yes I will admit that I have gotten a bit tired of vancian casting and I prefer spell points. I'll look at Hero 5th edition when I have time... In the meantime... I may continue work on my own system. I'm not super big on keeping sacred cows. never understood that concept but I try to keep an open mind. Essentially, I'm looking for a way to "fully" make my own character concept with fluff and real powers that fully convey my desires. I don't need nor want someone else to tell me what I can or can't do. Since I haven't read Hero 5th .. I'll reserve judgement but I didn't think it was designed for fantasy roleplay... I thought it was more Sci-fi.

Oh well, until I achieve my ultimate goal.. I will continue to plod away on my own and play Pathfinder until something else catches my eye. It's currently the best dog with the least amount of fleas.

I'd like to see classes completely gone.

I'd like to see a point-based system to be able to buy into each branch of relevance (weapon combat, hand-to-hand combat, skills, spellcasting, special powers, etc). Buy the size of your hit die and have the option down the road to increase it even if it cost more.

Each new level gives you additional points to spend and you don't have to spend all of your points for that level. You can bank them for something big down the road.

not sure about spell levels. I haven't yet figured out to get rid of that yet so it may stay in some form...

no more endless lists of pigeon-holed classes and prestige classes.

It should be more like a buffet and build you character however which way floats your boat.

The announcement came sooner than I thought which lends credence to the idea that in fact WOTC's fortunes have fallen off the proverbial cliff. Announcing a massive playtest in advance is a smart move and one could argue it might be their only move. WOTC's current product list and the previous years cancellation announcement is almost prima facie evidence that 4e sales have dropped to a near trickle and there is no reason to hold the development in secret since sales are below acceptable numbers so if people aren't buying then you are not losing anything and the big announcement has a tendency to spark interest which WOTC is in desperate of right now.

I'm a sucker for playtesting just about anything. I fondly remember downloading Pathfinder Alpha & Beta pdf's. I have signed up to test 5e. I'm always looking for ideas to add, subtract, modifiy or enhance my games and more ideas is generally a good thing.

The announcement to me speaks volumes in that they essentially admit by default that 4e was NOT the "majority's" cup of tea and we desperately need to do something to re-spark interest. I do give any company a certain amount of respect when they come out and say "oops, we made a mistake" and we are going to try and fix it.

My wallet is begging for a break.

Will there be feats that help merge 2 classes together?

example: I'm playing a Ninja/Monk with monastic legacy in the Jade Regent Campaign. Are there any other feats coming out that could be used to bump up certain abilities?

Soullos wrote:

I wonder why it got delayed?

Changes to printing schedule is my guess. We use the same printer for all our books, and if we hit them with something unexpected, like a reprint or an extra product... or if some OTHER company does the same, then their print schedules change. Sometimes for the good, sometimes not. Delays in customs and delays to the boat's travel across the ocean can mess with things too... I'm constantly paranoid about having one of those boats sink halfway across the Pacific...

may perhaps to relieve to the paranoia... ye` should look fer another printer closer to home...

I'd like to add just a tad bit more to a prior post. I know a lot of people probably wouldn't want an entirely turn-based rpg but I still can't see any reason why a company couldn't write an MMO then when a character goes into "combat mode" that the game engine shifts into turn-based combat and then shifts out when finished... I think it sticks to what Pathfinder is and does best.

man... I really the old gold box games.. (pool of radiance, secret of the silver blades,,etc).. brings back memories.

The games of today are just of bunch of sugary - button mashing nonsense.

If it was more like the Temple of elemental evil game and less like a MMO, that would be awesome, I really like turned base RPG style over MMO.

I have to agree with bigkilla. I'm way more interested in a turned base RPG than an MMO.

I thought there was a feat that allowed to gain additional uses for a spell-like ability if you had one. I can't seem to find it. Any help would be appreciated. thanks

any idea as to when it will the pdf will be available for subscribers.
I can't remember when I got the one for vol 2.

Djinni = Immune to Acid? personally I thought it would electricity.

Djinni bloodline sorcerer get resistance to electricity.

Is there errata for this?

I think someone made a mistake.

Half Djinni

Type
Outsider (native) 2 RP

Size Medium 0 RP

Base Speed
Normal 0 RP

Ability Score Modifiers
Flexible (+2 Dex, +2 Cha) 2 RP

Languages
Standard array 1 RP

Other Racial Abilities
Advanced Strength 4 RP
Advanced Dexterity 4 RP
Advanced Wisdom 4 RP
Advanced Intelligence 4 RP
Elemental Affinity 1 RP
Elemental resistance (Acid) 1 RP
Improved Elemental Resistance 1 RP
Darkvision 60 ft. 0 RP
Fly 50 Average 8 RP
Natural Armor 2 RP
Quick Reactions 2 RP
Invisibility 1/day 2 RP
Create Food & Water 1/day 2 RP

Total RP: 40 RP

Analysis: This is a pretty cool write-up and gives some comparable feel of a Djinni but it’s not even close to other comparable races at this cost.
Example: The Half-Janni in the Qadira companion book is vastly superior to this race and is theoretically cheaper. The Half-Janni is rated as a +2 CR. This would be a +3 CR.

You could make it even more direct:

Your racial cost is subtracted from your point buy when you start.

For example, with point buy 30:

Play a 10 point race, you get 20 points for your point buy.
Play a 13 point race, you get 17 points for your point buy.

And so on.

Down to a minimum of 10... I assume?

This might have possibilities.

Ahh.. yess.. the good ol` Unearthed Arcana rules.. I remember them well.

Very few of my players ever used them. I can only remember 1 that used it and that was because I used various methods of making the cost cheaper. They had charts for giants and dragons and such with Minor / Intermediate and Major bloodlines. Each level effectively costing you a cumulative +1 LA. It was a good idea with bad costs and poor implementation.

This beta playtest eliminates and clarifies quite a bit and is already better than that old book. I'm hoping that further expansion into the spell-like abilities that actually do damage will be forthcoming.

Question.. Am I to understand that 0-level spell costs the same as a 1st?
(i.e. 1 rp for a 1/day zero or 1st level spell-like ability ?)

I use 25 point buy.

If I ever run this campaign.. I plan on flushing the relationship rules down the proverbial toilet. It's too sideliney and slows the game down plus too many will want to vie for Ameiko's affections.

What?? who wouldn't want to score with the future Empress of Minkai.
DUH!!!

Most of the NPC's are history as well including the caravan rules.. again ... it adds more mechanics than I want to deal with.

If you need to cross the north pole.. Think Iditarod.

The only one of relevance is Ameiko and she's only there because she has to be and I want the PC's to be as important as I can make them and I want to run as streamlined a game as I can.

just my opinion though...

(sends Gunslinger over to have a conversation with Mike)

Tchk.. tchk.. ok.. hand over that coffee mug and no one gets hurt! :)

What can I say? I like coffee and I like Pathfinder.

Serious though.. congrats...

By the way... I don't suppose Paizo will sell coffee mugs? I can't seem to find any.

quick note to Paizo.

I love the new layout.

Great job!

Keep up the Good work.

End-of-line!

Happler wrote:

From what I read, that is RAW legal.

I, personally, might be temped to allow a saving throw to allow one to dive out of the way, but per RAW, that vampire is going to eat some damage until it can move.

by actual RAW, they would only take damage when moving into it(no effect on them from casting it in their space). and wouldn't take any more damage, even if they move out and move back in, "a creature cannot benefit or suffer more than once from a single casting of this spell."

actually it says.. "Creatures can move into the square containing the pillar, but if an undead creature moves into the pillar it takes 1d6 points of damage per caster level (maximum 10d6)."

It sounds to me like creatures could move into the square.. meaning that the pillar isn't solid. the rest of the statement shows what happens if an undead walks into the pillar but it never says that the undead must walk into it in order to take damage.

I'm hoping for something official from one of the authors here. I'm in the carrion crown campaign and I hope to have an official answer soon because at this point, I am mostly going to argue that my reading of this spell is accurate. The GM may shoot me down but I will probably still make the argument.

Thanks.. this is a very good discussion.

I was wondering if it's possible to target a 5-foot square that has someone in it say.. (A vampire). Is that perfectly legal and would the vampire immediately take damage from it? Pillar of life does not provide a save nor does it allow spell resistance according to what I've read.

Can someone confirm this?

Figs from Serpent's Skull (mostly snake-men / lizard-men / Yuan-ti types)

Figs from Jade Regent (anything with Oriental flavor will do)

Oh and is it possible to build Huge or Gargantuan Ships for ship to ship
combat (i.e. Pirates) ???

oh and Legacy of Fire.. must have figs from there.. Genies and Xotani are a must.

just a thought or 2.

It'll be interesting to read to see if a mini-campaign could be developed using the 3-part society scenario plus the tournament module and anything else that someone might be able to add to it. I'll have to get this stuff when it becomes available and see If I can do some sort of Tian-Xia mini-campaign.

So when do they become available ?

So module starts at 14th level and ends on ... 16th level???

If true.. that's awesome. Now I'm worried how powerful the Five storms and the Jade Regent.

the Haunted Jester wrote:

Years ago Dragon Magazine had an issue where you could play Dragons as PC's. Leveling would increase your HD, powers, spell-casting, etc...By the end of the 20 level progression the player was a young adult dragon, I believe. I loved it a lot and even got to use it a couple of times. Does Paizo have any intentions to possibly include this idea in the ARG

The focus of the book is races that are basically humanoid in shape (biped, two arms, two legs, one head) and 0 racial HD. There are no plans to include details on more "monstrous" creature types in this book.

Though there may be rules for creating your own scaly, winged, clawed, bitey 0HD race that you could describe as semi-quadrupedal, and call a dragon or dragonkin or whatever you wanted to call it.

so no rules of any kind for building a playable race above 0HD ???

wow.. Big frown on that action.

this might not be a great choice.. but if you can and/or are willing to use alternative races. maybe you can try using an Ifrit from Bestiary 2.

although you probably need the bonus feat for humans but it was a thought.

Half-Giants... "**** you" <- spoken in the tone of Khan - Star Trek 2.

Actually, the ninja doesn't need a true focus like other classes. The ninja tricks can satisfy this, but it's the little unchangables like ki and sneak attack that will get argued. If the whole class was more constructible than I wouldn't have a problem with it.

Paladins get smite. Rangers get favored enemy/terrain. Monks have a bunch of truly unique abilities and rogues get sneak attack. It's hard to justify a whole class that's just a rogue with ki while archetypes exist. Couldn't ninja just be a series of archetypes for most of the classes? Plus, they should have an assassinate ability instead of sneak attack. Not like the assassins death attack, but more like the cavaliers original challenge ability, with bonus dice.

Does anyone else support the idea of allowing a ninja to choose either Wis or Cha for a ki stat?

I also support that idea.. Hexcaliber. Personally, I'd like to see the Main ninja be wis-based with a few archetypes thrown like say a seductress type (i.e. Kunoichi). now granted that is just a female ninja but you get the idea. Essentially I'd like to wisdom be the primary stat but have the option of using Cha under an archetype.

Okey-doke. Not play-tested, but first impressions nonetheless:

BAB: medium - that's fine
Saves: Fort and Reflex saves should be swapped
Skill Ranks are fine.

Weapon and Armour Proficiency is fine.

Spells is fine in how it is presented.

Spellstrike needs more info. Does a spell cast involve a melee attack, or does the spell need to be cast and then attacked with next round. The latter option is frankly stupid.

Spell Combat looks very cool. The penalties seem adequate but I would hope there are feats that lessen these.

Magus Arcana depends on what is chosen:
Arcane Accuracy is bog standard, and useful in certain circs, but I would like it to last longer.
Broad Study is good, and has the right prereqs.
Concentrate is worth it for Spell Combat, but limited in uses.
Critical Strike seems overly complex and that it is based on a touch attack after a successful melee attack is confusing. The prereqs are ok.
Dispelling Strike is perfect.
Empowered Magic is also perfect.
Familiar is fine.
Hasted Assault is fine, but it would be nice to divide duration between allies.
Maneuver Mastery is fine.
Maximised Magic is fine.
Quickened Magic is fine.
Reflection is perfect.
Silent Magic is fine.
Spell Shield needs to last longer, like Arcane Accuracy.
Still Magic is fine.

Arcane Weapon is perfect.

Bonus feats is fine.

Medium Armour is perfect.

Improved Spell Combat is perfect. It remediates the question I had above.

Fighter Training is fine.

Heavy Armour is perfect.

Greater Spell Combat is perfect.

Counterstrike is fine, but I'd like an attempt (however unlikely) to disrupt that spell.

Weapon Bond is perfect.

True Magus is perfect.

I do not have time to go through the spell list, and I see that others have already made a start so I shall leave it to them.

I am mostly in agreement with Dazylar with a couple of exceptions.

I'm not sure that I understand the reasoning behind yet another specific spell list. I would have thought that there would have been someway to "point-gauge" a character's power level simply by not allowing certain levels of spells and not have to go through yet another lengthy exercise of trying minutely tweek a new base-class with
a special nerfed spell list. It also doesn't appear to make any sense to give him a spellbook and then tell the poor guy/gal... "Oh sorry, you can't learn that." if you are determined to do that. I would suggest switching the magus over to a spontaneous caster and give him/her less spell slots. Hey, look at it this way, If you get rid of the spell list then you just freed up a page for the book. I see that as a win-win scenario.

I like the "fighter training" but it seems to be extremely late in levels. Might I suggest we call it "split training" or something else and put it right at 1st level.

what I am going to suggest is expensive but Necromancer games put out a boxed called "City of Brass" about 3 years ago. It has 3.5 stats for a Half-efreeti or just use the efreeti bloodline from d20srd.org and just make it cheaper.

Any chance we will see Half-Giants ??? please...

In regard to the +2 Natural armor bonus to AC for the War Kilt of Sarenrae, I have 2 possible questions.

1. Is the bonus an enhancement bonus or is it some other kind of bonus?

2. Does the bonus stack with anything else?
Example: Amulet of Natural amor +1.

Monte cook did do a different aligment setup. He used a sliding 1 - 10 scale. I thought it was in Book of experimental might. although it might have been divine might. I can't remember so I'll have to go through my collection once again and hunt that chart down.

If you had a 3 rating on the evil side of the scale then you would only take half damage from a holy weapon but if you were say.. a 6 then you would take full damage and if you were a 10 then you would take double damage. I thought that was a great idea, something to consider adding to your game.

Gorbacz wrote:

...am I right that Aeons are the paragon NN race ?

Yes.

What are Aeons, again? paragon NN race?? you lost me.

I'm gonna need some serious drillbits to pin that bad boy together along with some industrial strength adhesives.

Awesome... but with a release date of April. Argh! I don't know If I can wait that long.