GM: "You see one of the Skymages land on the main plaza with his large big black dragon and storm inside."
Player: "Sweet, I hop up and give it the spurs"
GM: "It eats you"
Is what should have happened.
Instead, other characters who knew a bit more about dragons held him back. Spoilsports.
And then there was this, happening inside a mind flayer fortress
GM: "You enter the room. It's about 3m on a side, and it contains nothing but table in the middle of the room with a bottle on top of it. The bottle is filled with a weird liquid."
Dwarf: "I bet it's wine. I walk up to the table and oneshot the bottle.
GM:
GM:
GM:
GM: "That's mind flayer wine. They drink it. They can drink it. It's not madly dangerous for them. For humanoids, one drop can drop you into a month-long coma. Please make an ass-full of saving throws"
And more:
GM: "You finally get the bars off the window, you put your head out of the window and look down. And down. About 70m down, you see the deep, cold ocean."
Player: "I jump! Freedom, here I come!"
GM: "Alright, it actually takes a while for you to reach the water, which receives you with all the gentleness of concrete, but that's okay, you can't swim, anyway."
Player: "Hey look, my character can actually climb!"
The whole table: "...."
Even more:
GM: "Alarmed by the considerable noise, you manage to get off the road and hide in the shrubbery. Not too early, just as you get into hiding, a minotaur army rounds the corner. You guess about 100 minotaur soldiers, some of them are probably elite warriors judging from their better gear, while others wear shamans' ceremonial garb."
Paladin: "Those are evildoers, I may not let them pass! I walk onto the road and tell them to stop in the name of the King."
To his credit, they took him somewhat seriously: They didn't just march right over him, but actually attacked him and transformed him into a fine red mist with minotaur-sized weapons and the shamans' flame strikes.
If I can build an effective blaster with with an intense amount of investment...and can build a summoning, save or die, buffing/debuffing, battlefield controlling, god-wizard with little to no investment...than it stands to reason that I should be able to do both at once with the same character, shouldn't it?
Your argument has a gap in the logic. Let's see if I can make that gap clear with an analogy.
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Bob decides to make a fighter. He talks to his GM and says that he wants to fight with a sword that is clenched between the cheeks of his posterior, then he will turn around and swing his rear end around cutting up everything with his "butt-blade".
The GM points out that if we stick to the rules, swinging around your bottom as an attack would be "secondary" giving a number of penalties, and the GM says that if Bob swings his butt-blade, he won't be doing any other attacks that round. Bob's not worried, if he takes enough of the right feats (weapon specializations, focuses, etc) he can make the butt blade a poor, but ultimately viable weapon.
Bob goes on the message boards with the topic, "Why all fighters should attack with a sword clenched in their butt cheeks."
Posters on the message boards point out (rightly) that weapons that fighters use in their hands are mechanically better than swinging a sword that is clenched between your fighter's rear cheeks.
Bob points out that his fighter could still carry a weapon in his hands, and use it instead of using his butt-blade whenever he wanted! He points out that as a fighter who specializes in blades, his fighter will be just as effective using the sword in his hands as other fighters who use weapons in their hands all the time.
Bob proudly proclaims "CHECKMATE MESSAGEBOARDS!"
yeah...Bob's fighter may be able to use the sword in his hands, but he continually chooses to use the one clenched in his posterior instead. THAT is the real problem.
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The problem with Blaster wizards isn't that they can't use better spells. As you point out, they can.
The problem with Blaster wizards is that they don't use better spells. 80-90% of the time they blast, there is something better they could have done, but they didn't, because they blasted instead.
If you are going to specialize in something, it better be something you do most of the time. If you specialize in blasting, then you are probably blasting a lot. That's why the blasting wizard falls behind the wizard who doesn't blast. The feats are an additional problem, not the original big problem.
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The OTHER problem with your logic (which I have no analogy for), is your assumption that because the feat requirements for a versatile wizard are few, that a Wizard who takes a bunch of blasting feats is just as good as any other wizard when not blasting.
This is an error. Just because "god" wizards aren't feat starved, doesn't mean they aren't getting anything out of those feats. Improved Initiative, Toughness, Improved Fortitude, Improved Familiar...etc. These feats are providing value and power for the non blast-centered wizard. There is a lot of flexibility true, but a wizard who throws all his feats into blasting will be worse than other wizards when blasting isn't occurring, no matter what choices they made.
Quit being a wimp; simply tell him to use dice that aren't clear, and no spindown d20s. Your "workarounds" involve counter-cheating and generally just making his life hard. Just be honest; it works more than you think.
In ANY case... one of the greatest powers a GM has is the ability to change things in their game as they run things. Don't like a monster we chose? There's a lot of options for you for replacements.
We pick the monsters we pick because they're the ones we like and the ones we think make the most sense for the encounter. We won't come to your house and confiscate your game materials if you change them.
Unless you take out any dinosaurs or froghemoths. Do that and it's ON!
Projecting opinion as theory is pretty useless, especially when it comes to product quality. Further, some might find it crass and classless to continue on about why someone lost their job in a public forum. I think this thread has long outlived any usefulness, if it ever had any to begin with
As the message board generally turns into a b%+*% sessions, I want to do another thank you thread, but this time be more specific.
Thank you Ross and Liz for putting up with all of us and trying to keep the threads under control.
Thank you James Jacobs for being excited enough about the world you created to do basically a daily question and answer session on all the minutia we can throw at you about Golarion.
Thank you Sean, Jason, and Stephen for putting up with us in the play tests and answering all our rules minutia.
And thank you everyone else at Paizo for keeping 3.5 alive and vibrant.
We appreciate it, even if we are sometimes jackasses on here.
Or, does the distinction made between 1 round casting time and full-round action casting time suggest otherwise?
metamagic spells:
Sorcerers and Bards: Sorcerers and bards choose spells as they cast them. They can choose when they cast their spells whether to apply their metamagic feats to improve them. As with other spellcasters, the improved spell uses up a higher-level spell slot. Because the sorcerer or bard has not prepared the spell in a metamagic form in advance, he must apply the metamagic feat on the spot. Therefore, such a character must also take more time to cast a metamagic spell (one enhanced by a metamagic feat) than he does to cast a regular spell. If the spell's normal casting time is a standard action, casting a metamagic version is a full-round action for a sorcerer or bard. (This isn't the same as a 1-round casting time.) The only exception is for spells modified by the Quicken Spell metamagic feat, which can be cast as normal using the feat.
For a spell with a longer casting time, it takes an extra full-round action to cast the spell.
Spontaneous Casting and Metamagic Feats: A cleric spontaneously casting a cure or inflict spell, or a druid spontaneously casting a summon nature's ally spell, can cast a metamagic version of it instead. Extra time is also required in this case. Casting a standard action metamagic spell spontaneously is a full-round action, and a spell with a longer casting time takes an extra full-round action to cast. The only exception is for spells modified by the Quicken Spell feat, which can be cast as a swift action.
1. Bardic abilities no longer based on Perform skill other than Countersong and Distraction.
2. Many Shot and Rapid Shot can now be used together.
3. Spiked chain no longer has reach.
4. Anything that improves attack rolls improves CMB, including weapon feats if using weapon for the special attack.
5. Paladin double of smite against some creatures is on first attack only.
6. Sneak attack and critical damage applies to many additional creatures, including undead and constructs.
7. Magic item creation no longer uses XP.
8. Characters can draw a weapon during a charge, but can only charge a single move distance.
9. Magic item creation vastly changed.
10. Dodge applies to all opponents, not just one specified opponent.
11. Improved Trip and Improved Disarm split into a feat tree (Improved and Greater)
12. Grapple works differently.
13. Weapon enhancement bonus (the plus portion, not the cost equivalent) overcomes various DR at different DR than just magic
14. Elves sleep, but are still immune to magical sleep.
15. Concentration is no longer a skill. New mechanic makes it tougher for multi-classed characters.
16. Many save-or-die and save-or-suck spells have re-saves or more limited effects.
17. Cantrips are at-will.
18. Indentification of magic items changed significantly (see detect magic, identify, and Spellcraft)
19. Power Attack, Cleave, and Greater Cleave all different.
20. Clerics don’t get heavy armor proficiency, get proficiency with deities favored weapon, and need a feat to turn undead.
21. Fighters can retrain bonus feats.
22. Scrolls take a standard action, but longer if the spell contained has a longer casting time. (This may have been added in D&D add-on material as well, such as Rules Compendium).
23. Feats at every odd level instead of 1, 3, 6, 9, etc.
Always like this, but frequently misplayed or subject to oversight
1. Inspire courage is free action to continue once having started.
2. Animal companions can be dismissed at will and replaced with 24 hours; note that new companion requires training other than bonus feats.
3. Ranged attacks suffer from cover from objects, enemies, or allies. Allies often overlooked. Applies to reach weapons as well.
4. Weapons and armor must have +1 enhancement prior to gaining additional enchantments.
5. Readying an action is a standard action. One can move first, and then ready. The readied action itself can be a standard, move, free, or swift action. (Note: could not explicitly be swift in SRD 3.5; swift was not in the SRD.) Can include 5’ step as part of the readied action if no other movement in either the readied action or prior to the readied action during regular turn.
6. Lesser Restoration is a three round casting time. Usually, this means it isn’t used during combat. Potion of lesser restoration is good for in combat, tho.
7. Immunity to cold/fire gives vulnerability to opposite.
8. Elementals are immune to flanking and critical hits.
9. Enlarge person has a 1 round casting time.
10. Sneak attack and other precision damage applies to every attack in a round, not just once per round.
11. Characters who use the run action lose Dex bonus to AC, and thus are subject to sneak attack.
12. Dimensional anchor has no saving throw, just spell resistance.
13. Spells can crit if they have an attack roll.
14. Creatures can often overcome the DR that is needed to hit them (magic, epic, etc.)
15. Characters and creatures can charge a single move distance as a standard action if limited to a single action, such as during a surprise round. This doesn’t mean you can opt to only charge as a standard action if you have a full round of actions available.
16. Coup de grace can be performed against a creature with total concealment, such as invisibility, by using two full round actions.
17. Ride-by Attack is still a mess.
18. Empower spell only applies to the rolled portion of the effect.
19. Harm….does what?
20. Rules for tying up a character are in Grapple section.
21. Summon spells have 1 round casting times, even from wands.
22. Grease can be used to disarm.
23. Fear effects stack or escalate; characters can become more fearful.
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