j b 200's page

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What games are you playing right now? What's the general plot for the game that you are currently playing and PC levels (if you're running one at all).

On more of a design note: are there any plans to have an AP on another continent like southern Garund, Azlant or Casmaron, or even a Campaign setting book to expand on previously unrevealed regions?

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Kaas are a little too good for martial classes. Str and Con plus Natural armor pretty much makes them the best race for Fighers/Barb/Pals/Monks, heck even for Clerics,Rogues and Bards they're a good choice. You should try to avoid making a race too tilted toward physical vs. magical classes.

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Also, how do the players know that the sorcerer can't cast it? How can they know the NPC's level? It's not like you showed them his stat block. Just say he has a quickened metamagic rod.

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At a minimum +4 str, maybe +6. DR 20/-. +2 to Con probably as well. Hold Breath ability (for flying in space). Fly speed of 100 at least, probably the same for land, and the sprint monster ability. +10 to perception. Burning Gaze as an at-will Sp.

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It's because they just don't have room in 6 books to get all the way to 20th level.

They won't do the longer APs you suggest because they want to have a new AP starting often enough that people don't get too bored and wonder off, if you will.

For instance, Skull & Shackles or Jade Regent aren't necessarily for everyone, but if pirates isn't your thing that's ok, just wait 6 months and there'll be a new one out. Wrath of the Righteous is going to be a full 1-20 AP, because with Mythic you can fighter stronger stuff and level up a bit faster than a Core only AP.

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Is the Displacer Beast WotC property?

Yes

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I actually really appreciate retraining rules (at least the idea, got to see how it actually works before final approval), I think of a PC who has a defined history, but finds himself in an unusual situation.
One example from a game I'm in now is our Wizard is an Evoker, but we found that the main enemy of the campaign has some insane SR, pretty much killing his whole character concept. Wouldn't you expect him to pour significant resources into actually being an effective spellcaster so he can you know, save the world or something?

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richard develyn wrote:

Thank you once again.

One further question regarding alignment - I notice that certain classes with an alignment pre-requisite are quite specific about what happens should you change alignment. In others, e.g. Crimson Assassin, nothing is said.

What is the default effect of changing to an incompatible alignment w.r.t. classes that have an alignment pre-requisite?

Richard

If by "Crimson Assassin" you mean "Red Mantis Assassin," you're right. You pretty much only need to be lawful evil to take class levels in this prestige class. If you stop being lawful evil, you can no longer gain levels in the class, but you retain full use of all your red mantis prestige class abilities up to that point, even if you become chaotic good. (In fact, I did this entirely on purpose, because I've got a story about this exact thing happening brewing in my brain that, some day, I hope to present to James Sutter and get to write up as a novel for the Pathfinder Tales line.)

The default effect of changing to an incompatible alignment is that you can't progress further in that class, but you get to keep what you've earned so far.

As a huge fan of the Pathfinder Tales line, I have to say I'm pretty excited about a JJ Tales book. Do you think you would write it, or just do a story outline and then get a more established novel writer to fill it in. Also, are there any plans to increase the release rate for PFT? I know writing a novel takes some time, but I can't get enough of them.

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So I have a question on who gets an SR check for Plague Carrier.

Range touch

Target creature touched
Duration 1 hour/level
Saving Throw Fortitude negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes
The target's natural attacks carry filth fever (DC 10 + 1/2 of the creature's Hit Dice + creature's Con modifier)

If I cast Plague Carrier on myself, and then attack a creature that has SR, does the creature get an SR check to not contract Filth Fever

OR

Is the SR check only for the target, i.e. the carrier of the plague, and any creature I attack with natural attacks does not get an SR check, just a fort save v disease.

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John Kretzer wrote:

So what would be the books over all topic that included psychic magic?

An unrevealed topic that I'm not ready to speak more about yet.

Is it just me or does this strongly imply that Paizo is planning a psionics book?

On an unrelated note: do you expect to do any books expanding on the material from Distant Worlds, maybe even a AP that travels to Castrovel or Eox?

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what is Gilgeam’s glass strike?

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clustered shot specifically says "ranged weapon attacks" so you probably can't use that feat specifically with it. It's also not a ray so you may not be able to use feats like weapon focus or even point blank shot with it.

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If it was restricted to only others it would say "only other ifrits." Since it doesn't say that, you should be able to cast it on yourself.

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You also have to take into account that by level 10, your total damage is already maxed, with diminishing returns as you level up. A spellcaster or martial character will increase their DPR as they level where Weird Words goes down (increased chance to save, more likely to have DR etc.).

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Azten wrote:

Strangely enough, since the damage is slashing, piercing, or bludgeoning, damage reduction MIGHT apply against the damage.

That's an excellent point. Add to that the fact that its also got a Fortitude save for half (I'm guessing DC 10+ 1/2 character level + CHA mod?) and its not quite as overwhelmingly powerful as it might look on the surface if usable against a single target...

...and of course, becomes even more underwhelming if not.

JJ has already weighed in on this issue here

2) Yes, the sounds do bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, and are thus subject to normal damage reduction.

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I would also like this book

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j b 200 wrote:

Alex Mack wrote:

Thug is widely considered one of the best Rogue archetypes due to it's debuff ability and paired with the Enforcer feat it can be outright broken as any hit that deals at least 3 points on nonlethal damage will send your opponent running if you wish to do so. You give it a red rating. Maybe you should reconsider...

Maybe red is a little harsh. But no higher than yellow. I agree that the debuffing is pretty nice, but none of it helps you sneak attack. Since pretty much the entire guide is about maximizing your sneak attack opportunities, it still doesn't rise above a yellow.

Ahhhhh! So if you're using the rogue for something non-sneak attack, look for advice elsewhere? [I sense a wince. I can sympathize. I feel the same way about non-singing Bards - Archeologist]

I actually really like the Archeologist (which is as much a non-SA Rogue as non-singing Bard). Really the only reason to play a rogue over a fighter or ranger or bard is sneak attack. It's also an optimization guide, and the optimal Rogue will try to be sneak attacking as much as possible to maximize their Damage output. Nothing here should discourage you from playing a flavorful character that is a dynamic and interesting person in their own right.

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As far as I know j b the rules allow early access spells. It comes down to GM discretion but RAW allows it. Because I'm not just bumping down the level. I am taking the lower version of the spell from a different caster.

You can't add a spell if it is already there. Haste is Haste, just because a summoner can cast it at level 4 instead of level 5 doesn't change the spell, it just changes the level that class gains access to it.

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Can you put a link to this discussion thread in the guide? that way it's easier to find this thread if you have a question or suggestion.

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shield, protection from evil

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1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

You can't take spells already on the Wizard spell list (like Haste or Maze) for early entry with the Samsaran racial trait.

You can add spells from another spellcasting class to the spell list of your current spellcasting class.

You can't "add spells...to [your] spell list" if they are already on your spell list. You can only use this to gain access to spells not on the wizard list already.

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Thug is widely considered one of the best Rogue archetypes due to it's debuff ability and paired with the Enforcer feat it can be outright broken as any hit that deals at least 3 points on nonlethal damage will send your opponent running if you wish to do so. You give it a red rating. Maybe you should reconsider...

Maybe red is a little harsh. But no higher than yellow. I agree that the debuffing is pretty nice, but none of it helps you sneak attack. Since pretty much the entire guide is about maximizing your sneak attack opportunities, it still doesn't rise above a yellow.

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The reason it says land speed is to distinguish it from other forms of movement. I.e. Merfolk Monk does not add fast movement to their swim speed, or a Strix to their fly speed, or a Catfolk's climb speed, but only their land speed.

Your speed when using the Swim or Climb skill is separate from a swim speed, therefore yes the Monk's Fast Movement does increase their speed when using the swim or climb skill, but not if they are using a swim or climb speed.

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j b 200 wrote:

yeah, I could seriously see this built into future APs. It really seems tailored to it.

Golarion in general has a lot of cool plots running through it. We're picking up a ton of those with Pathfinder Player Companion: Quests & Campaigns.

Half of that book is going to be new story feats and tying existing ones to the campaign setting. So if you dig these, check that out for even more!

Damn it! Why do you make me wait so long! Please take my money NOW!!

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Can I get an admin to add the link to my Rogue guide to the first post.

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I like the idea of character background generators. Admittedly, a powergamer will use any excuse to powergame (Pathfinder means pumping combat, in a more RP heavy system it just means pumping social stats). But, just because a tool can be abused doesn't mean that everyone will abuse it. I expect I would use the background generator to build a background and then build an interesting PC around it, not the other way around. Some players will always select the strongest option, and some players will play an evoker wizard with 9 con and hangups about blasting.

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yeah, I could seriously see this built into future APs. It really seems tailored to it.

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I'd second Serpent Skull if you're willing to look at an AP you don't own yet. A rival group would really help to drive the slow portions of that AP (in books 2 and 3).

especially since the whole plot is centered around staying ahead of the competition (or catching up as the case may be).

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Second Darkness also has some significant undead components in book 3 and some minor points in books 2 & 4.

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with that last one... sorc(1)/cleric(8) with MK for sorc it'd be caster level sorc(3) and cleric(8)?

The example has MK on cleric, but yes you are correct that if MK was on sorcerer it would be cleric 8 sorcerer 3

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I can see arguments in both directions. Reading back over some previous posts on the matter, and re-reading all the relevant abilities, from an RAW perspective Magical Knack probably would not increase your bloodline powers.

From a table rule perspective, I would probably allow your alterations to your caster level in a particular class to equate to sorcerer levels in this instance - but that would be a house rule, not RAW (or probably even RAI).

Caster level and Class level are completely independent from one another. 2 examples:

1) A Ranger or Paladin has a class level of 5 but a caster level of only 2.

2) A better argument is if you look at prestige classes. Dragon Disciple and Arcane Archer both increase your caster level but not your class level, therefore a Sorcerer 8/Arcane Archer 5 has a Caster level of 11, but their bloodline powers are at class level 8.

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I don't think magical knack increases your bloodline power. MK increases your caster level, but the bloodline power is based on your sorcerer level, not the same thing.

You can see it in the different language for Magical Knack and the Favored Class option. One says "caster level" and the other says "effective sorcerer level."

For your spells your caster level is 2 from sorcerer and 1 from magical knack and rogue HD = 3. For your bloodline power, your effective sorcerer level is 2 (sorcerer)+ 1.5 (3 levels of favored class)= 3 (rounding down) so your damage is 1d6+1.

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chances are if it's not on one of those lists, then it is a one class only spell, so it doesn't need to be updated.

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You can keep it simple and refer to them as 5th circle/order/etc, which is what I'd prefer.

Alternatively you could do something like in Skyrim, where spells are classified as Novice/Apprentice/Adept/Expert/Master, adding such that there are nine descriptors, or assigning a couple of levels per tier.

0-1: Novice
2-3: Apprentice
4-5: Adept
6-7: Expert
8-9: Master

(Alternatively just call cantrips as they are, shift everything down one level so Master refers to just 9th lvl spells).

I would suggest instead

Cantrips
Apprentice- 1
Novice-2
Intermediate-3
Adept-4
Exceptional-5
Expert-6
Master-7
Archmage-8
Universalist-9

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Hey JB, good job. With all the recent Rogue-hate on the boards, the update was needed.

I'm surprised that you haven't rated the Rogue Talent - Ki Pool from UC. It allows you take Ki-fueled ninja tricks, like Vanish!

cheers

The main page is the original guide by Rogue Eidolon, the additions are mostly in the subpages, the links are in the text.

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Great Job

Thank you!!
Uh....is there a section on variants/prestige classes/multiclassing???
I'm looking at Investigator (and not liking it much...)

"Users are like children, they always want something. They're nice to have but they always want something" old computer programmer adage

Not yet, but it's definitely on my radar. I need to finish up the equipment section first.

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j b 200 wrote:

Lamontius wrote:

Why not combine the sections into one guide, using a color/font for your writing and one for RE's?

Especially when I got to the Rogue Talents discussion, it became hard to give everything a good look by looking at RE's talent list, then opening up your expanded list in a seperate window, THEN having to open up yet another item to get to the ninja tricks in your Ninja Guide.

Also, it'd be great if the non-ki ninja tricks were marked in some way, to separate them for the rogues who are just looking to grab one, rather than also take ki pool.

EDIT: And nice work, man!

The main reason I decided to have the new sections in sub-pages is because I wanted to try and maintain the integrity of the original guide as much as possible. Additionally, putting everything on one page can start to get very long and more difficult to find specific sections (for example see my massive 1 page ninja guide).

Yeah, I get you on that, but even just on that particular section of talents/tricks it got a little awkward having to compare and contrast through three different open windows/documents.

At the least, hitting up a mark on the ki/non-ki tricks would be great, for rogues, so they can scan the list at a glance and decide whether or not ki-pool is something they want.

Added a list of the non-ki tricks so that they are easier to find.

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Clerics of Iomedae can select 2 domains from the following list of domains offered by Iomedae: Glory, Good, Law, Sun, War
as an added option, if you GM allows use of the Advance Players Guide(APG), you may instead select a subdomain associated with one of the domain offered by your deity. The list of total subdomains offered by Iomedae is: Archon, Day, Heroism, Honor, Light, Tactics

You can't select both a domain and it's subdomain as your 2 domains. For example, You cannot select Glory as one domain and then Heroism as a second, because heroism is a subdomain for Glory. Selecting Glory and Archon is an acceptable selection, as is Glory and Good, or Heroism and Archon.

So to clearify, you can select from the following list of domains:
Glory(or Heroism or Honor subdomains), Good (or Archon), Law (no subdomains offered), Sun (or Day or Light), War (or Tactics).

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You only get two domains total. You can choose from the list for Iomeadae. What is your Wisdom, because that determines the total number of bonus spells you have. Also are you level 1?

A level 1 Cleric gets 4 zero-level spells per day. You receive one 1st level spell for being level 1. This spell you prepare once per day and can be any spell on the Cleric spell list. A cleric knows the entire Cleric spell list.You also get one additional first level spell, but this spell must be one of the first level spells from your two domains.
Ex: If you have the Law and Sun domains, at level 1 you have two 1st level spells per day, the first can be selected from the complete Cleric spell list for 1st level spells. The second must be either protection from chaos or endure elements, as these are the two first level spells per day.

Additionally you receive a number of bonus spells per day dependent upon your Wis Modifier. Look at Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells, that will tell you how many bonus spells you receive for each spell level. An 18 Wis will mean one additional 1st level spell per day at level 1. You only get the bonus spells if you can cast that level of spell already. i.e. at level 1 you do not get any 2nd level bonus spells because you cannot cast 2nd level spells, but at level 3 you do gain those bonus spells as you can now cast 2nd level spells.

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Ventnor wrote:

Out of curiosity, how optimal is a Dex-based brute rogue, using a weapon like a Spiked Chain or an Elven Curved Blade?

I wouldn't recommend it unless your GM allows agile weapons.

Also--great job on the update jb!

Thank you.

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Out of curiosity, how optimal is a Dex-based brute rogue, using a weapon like a Spiked Chain or an Elven Curved Blade?

I could see it being done. I have actually considered that myself, if only because Furious Focus a) makes Power Attack usable for 3/4 BAB classes and b) requires a THW. It also opens up Cleave and Surprise Follow Through as viable options. The only drawback is that you lose the bonus 1-1/2 Str damage. Be careful that your Str isn't completely dumped since it is needed as a pre-req for many of the more "Brutish" feats.

I would say that a Finesse-Brute should have a 20 point buy that looks something like this(assuming +2 in Dex):
Str 13, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 9, Wis 14, Cha 8.

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Pig #1 wrote:

Demodands are built-up as one of the most powerful and evil outsider races in the game, and they have the stats to show it. The lowest CR demodand is the tarry, who is said to be merely a foot soldier by demodand standards but weighs in at CR 13. Since armies of demodands are heavily implied to be a thing... what is stopping them from conquering the material plane? Especially if one factors in the Thanatotic Titans.

Just to clarify, I would like people to brainstorm creative world-building reasons that demodands aren't able to wreck everything.

Demodands are:

1) Not overwhelmingly huge in number, and

2) Kept pretty busy as is with their current tasks.

That all said, there's countless worlds on the material plane. I suspect some of those worlds HAVE been conquered by the demodands. That certainly sounds like a cool theme for one of the universes's planets or solar systems.

Leave it up to James Jacobs to take a perfectly orderly and civil discussion on the finer points of inter-planer politics and turn it into a massive nergasm super fawesome campaign ideas. I CAN HAZ NOW!!

sarcasm

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Why not combine the sections into one guide, using a color/font for your writing and one for RE's?

Especially when I got to the Rogue Talents discussion, it became hard to give everything a good look by looking at RE's talent list, then opening up your expanded list in a seperate window, THEN having to open up yet another item to get to the ninja tricks in your Ninja Guide.

Also, it'd be great if the non-ki ninja tricks were marked in some way, to separate them for the rogues who are just looking to grab one, rather than also take ki pool.

EDIT: And nice work, man!

The main reason I decided to have the new sections in sub-pages is because I wanted to try and maintain the integrity of the original guide as much as possible. Additionally, putting everything on one page can start to get very long and more difficult to find specific sections (for example see my massive 1 page ninja guide).

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bump

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Dekalinder wrote:

Even if you have no clerics, you can always save the corpse and make a run for the nearest big city and trowh 6k to some church get him back. Pooling 6k for the entire party should be feasible without bankroupcy starting by level 4-5 (depending on the number of players).

Pooling 6k means you're about 5k short for a resurrection spell.

It requires a 10,000gp diamond for the material component, and I highly doubt the church will front the cost of that themselves. The cost of a spellcaster's services is caster level x spell level x 10gp. Minimum caster level is 13 and the spell level is 7. 13x7x10 = 910gp. Minimum cost for the spell is 10,910gp.

Maybe he meant raise dead.

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If my group have any game that has limited access to treasure (not just APs) we usually allow a new character but the DM will limit their new treasure. In my game I was running last year I had a period where we had a revolving door of players and PCs, having 1 or more new PCs each week. I just asked the existing PCs to calculate their wealth and then tell the new player to purchase accordingly. Conversely if you feel it's unfair for a new PC to have hand picked treasure instead of piecemeal from the loot, just tell the PC what their equipment is, or give them a smaller list to choose from. Can be a little more work for you, but it's likely fairer for the other players.

As far as looting comrades. Our group, no matter who is DMing, has a strict no looting of PCs policy, for obvious reasons. If a PC dies in our games we can take only McGuffins or "party loot" i.e. we gave him our scroll of raise dead because he's the only one who can use it not because it now belongs to him, or he's carrying the bag of holding with all the loot in it, but it's not "his" bag of holding, it's the party's.

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Just completed an update of Rogue Eidolon's old Rogue guide. Most of the new sections are in sub-pages.

Guide can be found Here

and discussion thread is Here

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Since Rogue Eidolon's guide is the only one out there for the rogue and it hasn't been updated since the CRB came out, I decided to do an update.

I included the original guide (because why reinvent the wheel), but added new sections for new rules from the APG, ARC, UC, and UM. I plan on adding more on the equipment section, but I haven't quite gotten there yet. Any comments are welcome, but please try to keep them constructive.

Guide is HERE

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As for my preferred system, I'm actually rather fond of Aberrant. The system certainly has a number of issues, and the setting is pretty difficult to untangle from the system, if you want to use it for something else, but I keep coming back to it. Something about it really appeals to me (and I also really like the setting, so I don't have a problem with how much it influences the system).

+1 for Aberrant. I really like the flexibility of the system. It really lets you do just about anything you wanted.

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Truthfully, It's probably just an oversight on my part. Crosswind is right though, you do lose all performance progression and 3 caster levels and they lack good imbued spells.