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Ok I haven't played Pathfinder in a couple of years, and I never was really a Rules-Fu guy anyway.
But I am trying to make a woodsy, stealthy mounted mage.
Was looking at the Bloodrager archetype, and something puzzles me.
Here is the class feature I have a question about:
"Blood Bond (Su)
At 9th level, the bloodrider and his feral mount gain a closer bond that allows the bloodrider to augment his mount based on his bloodline. While the bloodrider is bloodraging and on his feral mount, he grants the mount all the immunities and resistances he gains from bloodline powers. Furthermore, whenever the bloodrager is affected by a spell or spell-like ability with the range of personal while on the feral mount, the feral mount also gains the benefit of that spell."
Now take the Fey bloodline powers:
"Confusing Critical (Su)
At 1st level, fey power courses through your attacks. Each time you confirm a critical hit, the target must succeed at a Will saving throw or be confused for 1 round. The DC of this save is equal to 10 + 1/2 your bloodrager level + your Constitution modifier. This is a mind-affecting compulsion effect.
Leaping Charger (Su)
At 4th level, you are able to leap over overgrowth and similar impediments with ease while charging. When you charge, you ignore difficult terrain (but not other creatures). You can move through it at normal speed, and it does not impede your charge.
Blurring Movement (Su)
At 8th level, you become a blur of motion when you move. As long as you move at least 10 feet, you gain the effects of blur for 1 round.
Quickling Bloodrage (Sp)
At 12th level, while bloodraging you’re treated as if you are under the effects of haste.
One with Nature (Su)
At 16th level, creatures of the animal or plant types don’t attack you unless compelled to do so by magic or you attack them first. Three times per day, you can transport yourself from one tree to another tree, as tree stride with half the transport range. Moving from one tree to another in this manner is a move action. You gain these abilities even while not bloodraging."
This archetype's Blood Bond feature doesn't state the mount gets the same bloodline powers. As I read this, the Fey feature of ignoring difficult terrain just would never apply.
Additionally there are a couple of Fey features that are spell like (Blur and Haste), but the range block for both of those have actual distances, not a range of "personal."
So, not only would my mount not get any str or other boosts from rage, not get any of the unique things like ignoring difficult terrain, but also wouldn't get the benefit of the spell like things such as Blur and Haste.
That seems totally useless to me. The mount will be more durable I guess, but definitely not worth taking this archetype.
I guess you could go Primalist archetype, but I'm not certain how Greater Ferocious Mount works with bloodline powers.
Seems like a cool idea, but the whole thing doesn't seem like works very well. Or at all honestly. What the heck were they thinking with the Bloodrider? If the mount shares all your bloodrage features it's one thing. But as written it seems totally useless.
Okay, I really haven't played any D&D/Pathfinder for close to two years, but I may be playing a game in a week or so.
I quit buying books even before that, so I am limiting myself to what is in the d20PFSRD thing.
Anyway I want to play something like a Sorcerer/Ranger(or a Cavalier Archetype/Barbarian?).
You know like one or two levels to accumulate some outdoorsy skills and abilities. And I actually want to use a mount (so Sylvan Sorcerer archetype?).
Okay, I know this concept is in no way optimal for anything, but I had this idea for a mounted wilderness scout/messenger guy, who relied a lot on spells.
One of my big things would be to be really stealthy (you know the guy you pick to go 50 miles into Mordor to see what's going on kind of thing). But I really can't see any good way to do that with an Animal Companion. I really want to be mounted, but I think I want to sneak more. Dunno maybe go for Phantom Steed?
As for combat kinds of things, I had some notion of doing things like casting Web between trees (will be forest/mountain terrain for outdoors stuff), and maybe casting an illusion of a honking big spider. Okay that is more like a trick/ambush thing, but you get the idea.
Anyway I realized I had a lot of questions about how things worked. If I want to share spells like Spider Climb, Jump, Expeditious Retreat, Fly, Tree Stride I still have to train or somehow convince my mount to go along with this?
And if anyone has any ideas about tactics and gear I'd appreciate it. Think we will start at 3rd level, maybe go to 10 or 12.
Was thinking Human, Half-Orc, or Half-Elf for race. Might be open to Halfling or Dwarf, but not my first pick.
Really want to avoid single classing, so definitely want something with a few levels in an outdoors class with weapon proficiencies.
Was actually thinking maybe Survivalist Rogue or something? I could use wands and spells to cast ray spells, but I won't have enough rogue levels for it to really matter. Plus I was really thinking to be the guy who cast a Pit Spell or Wall of Stone at the right time.
Kind of attached to the mount/Sylvan Sorcerer thing, but was also thinking that a Shadow Sorcerer archetype or even one of the Oracles might work better (if I did Oracle probably wouldn't multiclass).
Wow, I didn't expect to write this much stuff, but if anyone has any ideas I'd love some feedback. This really is more of a roleplay kind of thing than optimized, but was hoping to find some things that might make it interesting.
I was tinkering a little trying to come up with something the Warpriest Sacred Weapon feature would be good for.
Then I started to think about builds I have seen that used the Vital Strike line. I know there is a druid build where you turn into some kind of hippo. And I think I've seen something with some kind of ooze.
It's pretty clear you want a big base damage on your weapon.
But what kinds of things has it been used with, aside from shape change trickery?
And if someone has an angle on using these feats with a Warpriest I'd love to hear it.
Aside from how good they are, this is my take on things based upon what people put in threads, here and on other boards. Once again, this is just my impression of the ones that have been played the most, based on campaign journal threads and whatnot:
1) Rise of the Runelords
2) Kingmaker
3) Skull and Shackles (4 is close though)
4) Curse of the Crimson Throne
Whatever their merits, it just seems to me that after their arc is finished in the Pathfinder magazine, most adventure paths just fall to the wayside.
I still see new campaign threads launched for these four on a regular basis though.
Anyone got a different take on things? Just saying for whatever reason these four seem to stand the test of time as far as popularity goes.
Saw this in a thread, so it is not my idea, but it seems cool (literally), and I can't see anything wrong with it.
First the Waves Oracle gets a very nice revelation:
"Freezing Spells (Su): Whenever a creature fails a saving throw and takes cold damage from one of your spells, it is slowed (as the slow spell) for 1 round. Spells that do not allow a save do not slow creatures. At 11th level, the duration increases to 1d4 rounds."
Of course there are very few spells from the Cleric/Oracle list that do cold damage (though the Oracle of Waves does get Wall of Ice from his bonus spells).
But in a thread I read someone mentioned the possibility of taking a single Elemental Sorcerer level for the bloodline arcana. This reads:
"Bloodline Arcana: Whenever you cast a spell that deals energy damage, you can change the type of damage to match the type of your bloodline. This also changes the spell's type to match the type of your bloodline."
Okay the thread indicated that virtually any damage you can pump out (well energy damage) can be changed to cold.
This would include negative energy damage from inflict, as well as the holy and fire damage from flamestrike.
I can't really see anything that stops it just based on the wording. Being able to change a Mass Inflict Wounds spell changed to cold makes this a really interesting revelation.
Anyone got any thoughts?
Well it doesn't have to be a halfling, and eventually I'm sure there is a way to get a large size cheetah...
But the Cheetah has this feature:
"Sprint (Ex)
Once per hour, a cheetah can move at 10 times its normal speed (500 feet) when it makes a charge."
So does that mean that once an hour the rider can also participate in this charge?
Maybe not ultimate cosmic power but still pretty interesting. Particularly if the 30' move you get from Horseshoes of Speed also gets the times 10 to movement.
I get the mental image of a wizard somewhere in the afterlife saying "I never saw him coming. I just turned around and BOOM!"
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Has anyone tinkered with this? It is a pretty interesting idea, but it is mechanically awful, so much so I wonder why they did it the way they did. It is a pretty common and pretty valid argument to say the best White Haired Witch is a normal witch or a hexcrafter magus with the prehensile hair hex.
So far what I have come up with is to have caster level be the bab with attacks and maneuvers made with the hair, along with int being the bonus for attack and damage with it.
I'd also adjust the base reach of the hair to be 10 feet at level 1, meaning it would top out at 35 feet of reach if you ever made 20. I would add any blurb from the prehensile hair hex about the hair being usable as an extra hand to the archetype.
Also I never understood why the grapple attempts were changed from free to swift actions. Even though the hair can attack as if it were large for maneuver attempts, that is still not saying much. You really have to have a little more than that to make maneuvers practical as you level up.
What really gets me is what to do with the Rogue talents instead of hexes. That addition really makes no sense, so does anyone have an ideas? The hair is pretty good if my changes go in, but by no means would it be an even trade for full hex potential.
I'm asking this because I am thinking about making a synthesist summoner character who will as closely as possible emulate being or becoming a noble salamander.
But what puzzles me are the exact dimensions of one.
Okay, assuming you started at level 1 as a medium size serpentine form, you get reach with the bite attack. So what does this mean? Your body is roughly 10 feet long? I really intend to see if I can mod this thing such to have a form like the salamander or a Yuan-Ti Abomination, with no bite attack.
But what would the actual physical length be?
Then you get to the point where you can take the large evolution which reads:
"An eidolon grows in size, becoming Large. The eidolon gains a +8 bonus to Strength, a +4 bonus to Constitution, and a +2 bonus to its natural armor. It takes a –2 penalty to its Dexterity. This size change also gives the creature a –1 size penalty to its AC and on attack rolls, a +1 bonus to its CMB and CMD, a –2 penalty on Fly skill checks, and a –4 penalty on Stealth skill checks. If the eidolon has the biped base form, it also gains 10-foot reach. Any reach evolutions the eidolon possesses are added to this total. The eidolon must be Medium to take this evolution. The summoner must be at least 8th level before selecting this evolution.
If 6 additional evolution points are spent, the eidolon instead becomes Huge. The eidolon gains a +16 bonus to Strength, a +8 bonus to Constitution, and a +5 bonus to its natural armor. It takes a –4 penalty to its Dexterity. This size change also give the creature a –2 size penalty to its AC and attack rolls, a +2 bonus to its CMB and CMD, 10-foot reach, a –4 penalty on Fly skill checks, and a –8 penalty on Stealth skill checks. If the eidolon has the biped base form, its reach increases to 15 feet (10 feet for all other base forms). Any reach evolutions the eidolon possesses are added to this total. These bonuses and penalties replace, and do not stack with, those gained from becoming Large. The summoner must be at least 13th level before selecting this option.
The ability increase evolution costs twice as much (4 evolution points) when adding to the Strength or Constitution scores of a Large or Huge eidolon."
This is kind of wonky. You get some of the benefits of being large, but you don't get reach unless you have a bipedal form.
So .... what would be the physical dimensions of a large, serpentine eidolon? And more specifically, what kind of spaces could it fit into, like passages and such?
Really I would be better off taking the bipedal form, adding a tail, and pretending I didn't have legs. But by RAW, I would never have a constrict attack, because you need to have a serpentine form for that.
But can anyone tell me the dimensions of this thing? What is a large serpentine eidolon? Something roughly human size in width, and 15 feet long? What are we talking about here?
I am putting this here, instead of advice, because I am looking for pretty specific advice about this setting.
Okay, I am thinking about making a cleric of Nethys, with the domains Knowledge, and Protection.
I don't really have much of a background other than the character would be Garundi, and from Nex. There really isn't any kind of plot hook other than the character is a seeker of knowledge, and wants to found a library one day.
So what exactly is known? This character would have been trained or raised (or something) in a Temple devoted to Nethys. Despite the focus on magic, I would expect these guys to go in for learning as well.
Now would an educated (no university, what you would expect someone to pick up in a temple of a god of knowledge) person know that there was ever an Azlant or any of the backstory about that place we as players know?
I'm kind of thinking that anything concrete wouldn't go back further than Nex's founding itself. Things like the long history of Osirion would be known, but Technocratic Leagues, Old Mage Jatembi's and the like are the thing of legends. The Great Darkness after the Starfall might be some kind of disputed legend, scoffed at as superstition. No one really knows much about the history or geography of Avistan other than a vague knowledge that Cheliax is up there somewhere, and oh yeah there is this Andoran place, right?
I'm pretty sure that Aroden and Absalom would be pretty common knowledge, just from the location, and trade routes. Taldor, Qadira, would be places that are known, but pretty much nothing north of that.
So just how much backstory would you expect someone to know that was reasonably well informed?
I was looking up something about sorcerers on the d20pfsrd, and saw there was a new bloodline, the Impossible bloodline (apparently from a new book, Champions of Balance).
This is the third level bloodline power from the Impossible bloodline.
"Spontaneous Generation: At 3rd level, you gain Craft Wondrous Item as a bonus feat. In addition, when you craft a magic item (except a potion, a spell-trigger item, or a spell-completion item), you may ignore one spell prerequisite without increasing the creation DC. You can ignore an additional spell prerequisite at 9th, 15th, and 20th levels."
Now at first glance, it looks useful for a certain kind of non-caster. One that gets a lot of feats, and can afford to sink three into getting the power from this heritage.
It would allow you to craft a number of items at cost, and level some of the effective wealth disparity with casters that can make their own stuff. Plus you wouldn't be so dependent on casters.
But ... I kind of think I am missing some possibilities here. Just seems like it has more possibilities than first glance brings to mind.
I think it is a cool archetype, and I can think of a lot of out of combat uses, and roleplaying things to do with the hair.
But it sure looks like a bad idea to play one, at least as far as being effective in encounters.
The loss of the Hexes is a pretty bad thing.
But I have other concerns.
1) With the poor bab, the Witch is never going to be any good at combat maneuvers. Sure you can pull some off in the early going, and probably always grapple arcane casters. Enlarge Person will keep it relevant for another couple of levels (I think you get "bigger hair" but I'm not certain.
So what then?
2) What can you possibly do with the rogue talents? They just don't seem to synch with this class.
3) I was hoping to use the hair as a kind of third arm. You know hold a mirror around corners, send it under a door to unlock it, feel around the bottom of a stream or something like that.
But I am uncertain as to whether the hair has any sense of touch.
4) Is the White Haired Witch even as good with the hair as a normal Witch with the Prehensile Hair hex? Since I understand you can never wield a weapon with the hair, I kind of don't care about any differences using it as a weapon.
Reading the text of the Prehensile Hair Hex, it spells out you can use it as a hand. Strangely the text on the White Haired Witch doesn't say you can do this.
Other than the reach, and the limited number of minutes a day you can use Prehensile Hair, the normal Witch seems like a better Master of Hair than the archetype designed around it.
So any ideas? I'm not trying to make some super build, just come up with something useful a White Haired Witch can do, that a normal witch can't.
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"Word of Recall
School conjuration (teleportation); Level cleric/oracle 6, druid 8
CASTING
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V
EFFECT
Range unlimited
Target you and touched objects or other willing creatures
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none or Will negates (harmless, object); Spell Resistance no or yes (harmless, object)
DESCRIPTION
Word of recall teleports you instantly back to your sanctuary when the word is uttered. You must designate the sanctuary when you prepare the spell, and it must be a very familiar place. The actual point of arrival is a designated area no larger than 10 feet by 10 feet. You can be transported any distance within a plane but cannot travel between planes. You can transport, in addition to yourself, any objects you carry, as long as their weight doesn't exceed your maximum load. You may also bring one additional willing Medium or smaller creature (carrying gear or objects up to its maximum load) or its equivalent per three caster levels. A Large creature counts as two Medium creatures, a Huge creature counts as two Large creatures, and so forth. All creatures to be transported must be in contact with one another, and at least one of those creatures must be in contact with you. Exceeding this limit causes the spell to fail."
"You must designate the sanctuary when you prepare the spell, and it must be a very familiar place."
So if I am an Oracle, and take this spell, what exactly does this mean?
I'm kind of getting the urge to roll up a sort of generic fighter focusing on the greataxe.
I guess he won't be so vanilla because I was thinking of the Unbreakable archetype.
But looking at this, while he certainly does well against magic, he really loses out on damage. Weapon Training and the glove of class equalization really are big losses. If you somehow made it to 20th level you leave +6 to hit/+6 damage on the table.
Obviously an Unbreakable fighter will do very well in some situations, but from actual play do you think the tradeoff is worth it? I mean the guy will be nowhere near the offensive threat other archetypes or the straight fighter is.
Also I think a barbarian can do anything this archetype can do as far as resisting magic, probably better practically. And he would be a heck of a lot more of an offensive threat to boot.
They don't make sense.
Look anytime you have any kind of thread like this, people come out of the woodwork claiming to be all knowing, like they have a Doctorate in Naval History and Classic Ship Design. In reality they have a little general knowledge and a google browser window open.
That said, I was reading the Isles of the Shackles book, and found 4 pirates who base themselves out of Yelligo's Wharf on Dahak's Tooth.
Now when you are getting the pirate fleet started you have to get the ships from somewhere.
According to Isles of the Shackles these pirates have these ships:
1) Armored Sloop
2) Barkentine (not defined in Pirate Guide as nearly as I can tell, from Google it appears roughly equivalent to a Brigantine)
3) Brig, short for Brigantine I guess.
4) Sloop of War
I didn't exhaustively google, but as nearly as I can tell:
An Armored Sloop is something like the Monitor from the Civil War. What the heck is an "Armored Sloop" in this kind of fantasy world? I have no problem with animated skeletons crewing something, but don't tell me it has Iron Plate on the sides.
A Sloop of War is a pretty big ship. For instance the USS Constitution was a three master and was considered a Sloop-of-War, at least by Wikipedia.
The ships were intended to be all 30 to 50 feet long with one or two masts as nearly as I can tell. Instead it's like the writers of this thing just threw out ship names willy nilly because it sounded nautical.
I'm not asking for a doctoral thesis on what each one of these ships is exactly, with a history of the term. A lot of this naval jargon seems to have different names for similar designs.
But I do think they need a picture of each one, and there are a ton of public domain pictures for anything they want to include. This picture needs to be is meant by the word Sloop for example.
And they need to think about what these nautical words actually mean. I'd like to know what the author of this book meant by Armored Sloop and Sloop of War.
By the way the only reason I'm writing this is because I didn't have a decent mental picture of what these ships were. I mean when you are shopping for your pirate fleet, that's the kind of thing you want to know.
If I understand this correctly, if you take an archetype that drops Trapfinding you can't disarm magical traps, correct?
I don't think it would be a very powerful character, but I have an idea kicking around for a "magical" rogue.
This guy wouldn't dip any classes, but here is what I was thinking about doing:
Human or Half-Elf, or maybe even Aasimar or Tielfling.
Skill Focus Nature
Eldritch Heritage: Fey (Lauging Touch)
Improved Eldritch Heritage: Fey (Fleeting Glance)
Talents:
Minor Magic (Prestigitation? Mage Hand?)
Major Magic (Vanish? True Strike? Maybe Chill Touch?)
Dispelling Strike
Familiar (not sure what to get)
Possibly Improved Familiar (same thing, what to get).
Skill to max is definitely Use Magic Device. Probably Stealth and Perception as well.
Right now I have 3, possibly 4 (if I take Improved Familiar) feats spoken for. If I go human I think I will take the trait that turns your racial bonus feat into 3 skill focuses (Nature, UMD, and Perception?)
I am kind of leaning to taking True Strike as the Major Magic spell, because sometimes I absolutely want an attack to hit. Vanish seems really useful too though.
This is a possible character I might play in a game starting at level 1, no idea if this campaign will last or not.
I'm game for any ideas, but I think it will be necessary to keep trapfinding, and most of the archetypes seem to drop it.
I kind of wanted to play a pirate type and use a Boarding Pike (I don't think I will have the feats for 2 weapon fighting) even though I wanted to take the feats for the Fey Heritage. The two powers seem useful for a rogue. I was thinking about wearing a Cestus or Brass Knuckles for a close weapon.
I'm not totally set on Fey, if something better is an idea, but this is something I think I'd like to try.
The stat buy will probably be 15 or 20 points. The character will definitely be rogue all the way.
Any ideas on how to allocate stats would be appreciated.
I am particularly interested in tactics I might use, and feats I could use to support these. I'd like to take the feats I mentioned as soon as possible, so I don't have a lot to work with.
Some things I've thought of so far are a wand of Freezing Ray, and one of Chill Touch for making touch attacks with sneak. I think even if the wand has a low caster level, I should still get some multiple touch attacks with it.
I know this isn't going to be a horribly optimized character, but if anyone has any ideas for something that wouldn't be too bad, well you have my thanks.
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Okay, for whatever reason I don't know much about this thing. I've seen it used before in earlier editions, but not very often.
So let me get to my questions.
The spell says:
"This spell makes the duration of certain other spells permanent. You first cast the desired spell and then follow it with the permanency spell.
Depending on the spell, you must be of a minimum caster level and must expend a specific gp value of diamond dust as a material component.
You can make the following spells permanent in regard to yourself. You cannot cast these spells on other creatures. This application of permanency can be dispelled only by a caster of higher level than you were when you cast the spell."
Then it follows with the list of spells that this applies to: Arcane sight, Comprehend Languages, Darkvision, Detect magic, Read magic, See invisibility, and Tongues.
What exactly does this mean? I have a general idea, but this is confusing wording I think.
I can caste Permanency on myself.
Am I also required to cast the spell I want to make permanent? If so can I use a scroll or something, or do I have to use my very own spell slot?
Can someone else cast the spell on me, and I make that permanent on myself?
Can you use a scroll of Permanency, even if you have to cast the spell totally on your own?
Could a Rogue get a scroll of darvision, and a scroll of permanency and put darkvision on himself?
Say I cast Permanency on myself at 12th level; now if I cast darvision on myself, no problem. I can only have that effect dispelled by a 13th level caster, right? What if I use a scroll to cast darkvision on myself, and the scroll has a lower caster level. Is it the Permanency portion that is the part with the level check?
Then there is this:
"Spells cast on other targets are vulnerable to dispel magic as normal. The GM may allow other spells to be made permanent."
Okay, say I want to make Greater Magic Fang permanent on a monk or something. Do I have to cast the Greater Magic Fang? Can it come from someone else?
From the wording it seems like if I make GMF permanent on someone else, the effect can dispelled normally. Meaning that it might take a 13th level caster to dispel the effect on myself, but a caster of lower than 12th level would have a chance to dispel it on the monk.
If anyone can shed some light on this spell, I'd appreciate it.
What do you do with this?
Basically you become an outsider at 20th level, and get energy resistance as a revelation you must take at 1st level.
But the kicker is that:
"Bonus Spells
These bonus spells replace the oracle’s mystery bonus spells at these levels: endure elements (2nd), elemental speech (4th), tongues (6th), planar adaptation (8th), plane shift (10th), mass planar adaptation (12th), shadow walk (14th), etherealness (16th), gate (18th)."
I'm not sure if you get one or two at a lower level, but every one of these but Shadow Walk is on the Cleric/Oracle list already.
They recommend the dark tapestry, flame, heavens, stone, waves, wind mysteries with this archetype.
I think you could probably make Planar workable with something like the Life Oracle, but the ones they recommend would be... curious at best with that spell list.
Anyone got any ideas on this thing?
I'm used to thinking that you can take Tattooed Sorcerer with all the bloodlines and archetypes.
But reading a thread here, I just happened to think and go back and read more closely.
"Familiar Tattoo (Su)
A tattooed sorcerer gains a familiar as an arcane bond, as a wizard equal to her sorcerer level. Her sorcerer levels stack with any wizard or witch levels she possesses when determining the powers of her familiar—this ability does not allow her to have both a familiar and a bonded item.
Unlike most familiars, her familiar can transform itself into a tattoo that she carries in her flesh. Transforming into a tattoo or back to normal familiar form is a move action for her familiar. In tattoo form, the familiar looks like a stylized version of itself, but does not count as a creature separate from the tattooed sorcerer. In tattoo form it continues to grant its special familiar ability, but otherwise has no abilities and can take no actions except to transform from tattoo into creature. A familiar tattoo cannot be erased or dispelled.
This ability replaces her 1st-level bloodline power."
And for Sylvan:
"Animal Companion (Ex): At 1st level, you gain an animal companion. Your effective druid level for this ability is equal to your sorcerer level – 3 (minimum 1st).
This bloodline power counts as your bloodline arcana and also replaces laughing touch."
I'd tend to think it does in one way since Tattooed Sorcerer doesn't have a conflict with the arcana portion. But I'm not sure since I usually go with what I think is cool instead of parsing sentences.
I just think it would be kind of neat to have a snake tattoo like Kurt Russell in Escape from New York. Or a T-Rex.
Won't the guy who's got me on the rack ready to torture me be surprised when I say "Say hello to my little friend!"
It was in the original books of course, but it seems like they are playing it up and exaggerating things in the movie trailers.
Okay, let's set the stage:
(Bear in mind this has not a thing to do with Martian gravity, only duplicating the effects.)
I'm estimating he jumps at least 50 feet horizontally and 30 or 40 feet vertically in some of those shots.
It appears from a read of the jump rules (under acrobatics)
"The base DC to make a jump is equal to the distance to be crossed (if horizontal) or four times the height to be reached (if vertical). These DCs double if you do not have at least 10 feet of space to get a running start."
He usually appears to get a running start in the previews, so we'll ignore that.
Let's also ignore the horizontal portion (I think it is subsumed by the "vertical" portion as near as I can gather) and assume John Carter needs to be able to make a 40 leap.
"4 feet 16 dc"
"Greater than 4 feet +4 (dc) per foot"
Okay, let's ignore the height of the jumper for a moment.
If I have read this correctly, then we have a dc of 16 to get to 4 feet.
To get the other 36 feet you need 36*4 = 144.
For a total dc of 160.
Let's say you are a 20th level something. You get 20 skill ranks for level 20, 3 for it being trained (I'm sure there is some trait somewhere that will give acrobatics as a class skill).
That is 23. 30 for Jump spell (we have a 9th caster level jump spell somehow for our purposes).
Acrobatic gives us +4 if we have 10 ranks, good.
Skill focus gives +6 if we have 10 ranks, another good.
We have a total of 23 + 30 + 4 + 6 = 63 for an acrobatics check.
Now we add our dex (hmmmm I didn't think I would miss this being strength). What is a good dex if you focus on it (which most fighters, the class I would think John Carter would be) would have? 20 maybe?
+5 for dex.
Total of 68.
So how can my John Carter wannabe make those kinds of leaps?
And yes, being able to do this is in total accordance with my view of a 20th level fighter.
Anyone got any ideas?
Assuming a 10 on our skill check, we get a value of 78. Round it up to 80, just cause. That mean our prospective John Carter can reasonably hope to jump onto a (80 - 16)/4 + 4 foot tall surface, or 16 + 4 = 20 foot tall surface.
Now in the real world this would be outstanding, incredibly mind boggling even. But in my personal fantasy world I want a little more, you know? I want to leap onto a cackling wizard hovering 40 feet in the air.
So how do I get there?
I have the itch to try one, and I'm curious as to what someone else might come up with.
So far I was thinking:
1) One Man Archery Corp - He has a bunch of little men with bows. I know they could use wands. I like the name OMAC, maybe it could be "One Man Arcane Corp."
2) A crazy Fagan type guy who has his own team of expert pickpockets.
I think the archetype is pretty weak, but anyone have any ideas? I really can't think of too much to do with this one.
Okay these are the relevant features of the Divine Hunter Archetype:
1) Precise Shot
A divine hunter gains Precise Shot as a bonus feat at 1st level, even if she doesn’t meet the prerequisites.
This ability replaces her Heavy Armor Proficiency.
- At best this saves you a feat. Maybe two if you for some reason plan on never wearing heavy armor. I think I'd pick up Heavy Armor Proficiency even if I did take this archetype. The saving a feat thing comes up since you can drop taking Point Blank Shot. BUT since Point Blank Shot is a prerequisite for Rapid Shot you will take Point Blank anyway.
2) Shared Precision (Su)
At 3rd level, when a divine hunter hits a creature with a ranged attack, she grants her allies within 10 feet of her the benefit of the Precise Shot feat against that target until the start of her next turn. Her allies must remain within 10 feet of her, and must be able both to see and hear the divine hunter to gain this benefit.
This ability replaces aura of courage.
- Okay. I guess. But how common is it to have more than one archer in a party? At least dedicated to it. I'd rather have the aura of courage. It's more useful, and as I read it a Divine Hunter is not immune to fear without it.
3) Divine Bond (Su)
At 5th level, a divine hunter forms a bond with her deity. This functions as the paladin’s divine bond ability, except the bond must always take the form of a ranged or throwing weapon (excluding ammunition). In addition to the listed abilities, a divine hunter can add the distance, returning, or seeking special abilities to her weapon, but she cannot add the defending or disruption special abilities. Special abilities added to throwing weapons function normally when the weapon is used in melee.
This ability replaces the standard paladin’s divine bond.
- Does this do anything the regular Divine Bond class feature doesn't do?
4) Distant Mercy (Sp)
At 6th level, a divine hunter can expend two uses of her lay on hand ability to use her lay on hands ability on a target within 5 feet per paladin level. Distant mercy has no effect on creatures harmed by positive energy, such as undead.
This ability replaces the paladin’s 6th-level mercy.
- At best this saves you a feat, since you could take the Word of Healing feat. Eventually the range on Distant Mercy will be greater than than Word of Healing. Also the Word of Healing feat only gives half healing power on a distant heal, while Distant Mercy does full, but takes two uses. If you are in a situation where you need this I'm not sure efficiency is your prime concern. I think I'd rather have a mercy.
5) Aura of Care (Su)
At 8th level, a divine hunter and her allies gain a preternatural awareness of each other’s position in battle. She and any allies within 10 feet of her no longer provide cover against each other’s ranged attacks unless they wish to. Allies who cannot move or otherwise take actions still provide cover, as do flat-footed allies. The divine hunter and her allies must be able to see or hear each other to use this ability.
This ability replaces aura of resolve.
- Once again how common is it to have more than one archer in a party? I'd think eventually an archer is going to take Improved Precise Shot since they aren't skimping on dex. The Aura of Resolve just seems way more useful.
6) Hunter’s Blessing (Su)
At 11th level, a divine hunter can expend a use of her smite evil ability as a swift action to grant herself and all allies within 10 feet the Deadly Aim, Precise Shot, and Improved Precise Shot feats, even if they lack the prerequisites. The effects last for 1 minute. Evil creatures gain no benefit from this ability.
This ability replaces aura of justice.
- Once again how common are other archers? In most situations the normal Smite Evil is going to be more useful to your companions. You might say it is a way to get the benefit of these feats for the Paladin, but what archer would ever not take them?
7) Righteous Hunter (Su)
At 14th level, a divine hunter’s ranged weapons are treated as good-aligned for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction. Any ranged attacks made by an ally within 10 feet of her are likewise treated as good-aligned for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
This ability functions only while the divine hunter is conscious.
This ability replaces aura of righteousness.
If you use a Smite Evil you don't need this one at all. Probably you'd have an enchantment on your weapon that would cover it regardless. And once again how common are other archers?
This archetype just looks useless to me. I'm not even sure it makes a better archer than a normal paladin, and is much worse in other ways.
The only thing I can think of is it might be good for someone who leads a company of archers, but that would be more of an npc thing than a player thing the way most games play out.
If this argument is old news just ignore this post. I just kind of wonder what the reasoning was behind this archetype. Flavor I guess, but they could have done it a little better I think.
I'm looking for feedback and ideas from anyone who has played one.
I'd like to go into it from Rogue.
But as everyone knows the Rogue has problems, and the Shadowdancer isn't really considered to be that good. If anyone uses this Prestige Class at all, it seems to be a 1 (Hide in Plain Sight) or 2 level dip (Evasion, Darkvision, Uncanny Dodge).
Anyone got actual experience? Tactics? Equipment? Builds? Something they are actually good at?
Excellent!
I hope she gets what's coming to her.
I had the kid pegged as an oracle. Now I don't know. Guess we'll find out one way or another next week.
I was reading the Arazni thread and they were discussing her story.
She was a minor deity, yet lost a battle to Tar Baphon, who wasn't a deity.
Later her corpse was taken by Geb and she became what she was now.
I ask this, because what I've read about Nex, it almost seemed to me like he was toying with Geb.
Just reading between the lines (or maybe it is projection) it almost seems like Geb is still hung up about Nex. Still wary after all these years.
I'm not sure who would have had the edge if Tar Baphon and Nex would have clashed. But it took divine interference to defeat him the first time.
So what exactly is the take on Nex? From what has been presented it seems like he was at least as formidable as Tar Baphon.
I recently got the chance to read about Outsea in the River Kingdoms.
I like the idea, but this has to be the stupidest backstory I've ever heard.
What makes it even dumber is that the mermen DECIDED to follow them, instead of laughing their gills off.
Apparently geography (and strategy) isn't exactly a strong point with the undersea races.
You can read about it here:
Outsea
What makes it even more freaky is that the original plan was to attack Korvosa.
And after they make their truce of convenience I'd think most of them would have tried to find someway back to the sea instead of staying in that location.
Naturally they all wind up in the River Kingdoms.
Another thing that gets me, is I've read somewhere fresh water is bad for Sahuagin. But is it the same for mermen?
They could have done a lot better on the backstory. Even "A wizard did it," would make a lot more sense.
Obviously there are many possible combats, from the big boss mob, to an army of mooks besieging a fort.
But on average how many rounds are in your combats?
Pathfinder doesn't run any faster than 3.x did as far as I can tell.
Since 2000 or when I started 3.x it seems to me most combats are pretty much over by 4 or 5 rounds.
Usually you know how everything is going to play out by round 2 or 3.
Occasionally I've seen combats go as high as 8 or 9 rounds but it is out of the ordinary.
I'm thinking about rolling up an oracle.
This character is going to select the positive energy option, so as to get the cure wounds rather than the inflict.
But is there another angle on it? I can't really see ever committing to a touch attack with a save for that amount of damage.
The Mass Inflicts seem like they may be a little more useful though.
If you pick the inflict option it seems like a horrible way to nerf your character, since you aren't going to get much use out of the touch spells, and they are going to pretty much have to take some healing spells anyway (it's a rule).
But what has been the actual experience with playing an oracle and these spells?
Is it as bad as I think if you choose to inflict rather than cure? How useful are the inflict spells? Is there any reason to take a single inflict spell that isn't mass? I think I might take one or two of the mass ones eventually.
I've never used this skill. I'm sure there has been a time or two where someone went to a plague ridden village as a first level character and used it, but I'm not sure I personally have ever seen anyone use this skill.
I can't remember offhand seeing anyone who has put a single point in it since 3.x came out.
Maybe they did, and it never came up, or I just don't remember seeing anyone use it.
What's your experience?
First from the PRD:
"A bonded object can be used once per day to cast any one spell that the wizard has in his spellbook and is capable of casting, even if the spell is not prepared. This spell is treated like any other spell cast by the wizard, including casting time, duration, and other effects dependent on the wizard's level. This spell cannot be modified by metamagic feats or other abilities. The bonded object cannot be used to cast spells from the wizard's opposition schools (see arcane school)."
Ok, if I understand this you don't have to open the spellbook to use this.
If for some reason you left your spellbook back at your secret lair, you can still cast any spell in it once per day.
But if someone destroys your spellbook you can't use your bonded object to cast that one spell a day?
What about if someone steals your spellbook, but it still exists? Is it still "your" spellbook?
It seems reasonable that any spells you know with spell mastery could be used with the arcane bond if you had no spellbook, but the RAW seems to say no.
Have I got this right?
Several of the mysteries for oracles let you summon various armors.
Most of them are very similar, but only last 1 hour per oracle level.
My question is can you cast magic vestment on those armors?
I tend to think yes, but want to know if someone knows differently.
Well sure he has to every how many hours his con score is, but other than that why bother? There doesn't seem to be an upside to doing so.
"Breath Mastery: At 1st level, the internal alchemist can control his breath and the flow of vital energy within his body. Without preparation, he can hold his breath for a number of minutes equal to his Constitution score (after this, he must begin making Constitution checks or risk suffocation); by spending a full-round action preparing himself, he can increase this duration to 1 hour per point of Constitution. The alchemist can survive twice as long as normal without food or water before he starts to take penalties. He can put himself into a state of suspended animation as a move action, and is then unconscious and appears completely dead; he awakens at a preset time or in response to a condition set by him when he enters this state.
This ability replaces Throw Anything."
If you don't bother to breathe you are constantly immune to things like inhaled poisons and whatnot. Plus you never have to spend a full time action before you get ready to go diving.
Probably not a big deal in play, but still seems kind of goofy.
Just scratching my head on this one. Does anyone have the slightest idea what you are supposed to do with this archetype?
Obviously you could say use siege engines, but that just doesn't come up that much. They get a class ability at 10th level that lets them operate a siege engine solo. If I were on the walls of a city or fortification I'd be happy to see a mage wasting his time on a siege engine as opposed to what else he could be doing.
Am I missing something? Shrink objects on a siege engine? What?
If I were a wizard dead set on using a siege engine solo, I'd just cast possess object on it.
What am I missing? This doesn't seem like a class even an npc would take. I can't think of anything I'd ever use it for. Even if I were dm'ing and sieging a city or something.
2 people marked this as FAQ candidate.
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If you are an orc sorcerer, and take advantage of the orc racial feature (+1 damage/2 levels), how exactly is it implemented?
Fireball and the other area spells are pretty easy to figure.
But what about scorching ray? Say you are a 12th level sorcerer and get 3 rays with scorching ray. You aim two at one target, and one at another.
The orc feature would give +6 for fire damage. But is it applied to both rays at the first target, and also to the single ray at the other target?
The second question I have about this is in regards to acid arrow. If you have one of the arcana that let's you change energy damage to flame damage, and make it a "burning arrow," does the orc racial damage occur every round? Or just the first round?
The evokers intense spell feature specifically says it only applies once per spell, but there is nothing like this listed for the racial feature (kind of goofy, since the intense spell feature favors area effect spells).
So has anything been put out officially on this? I tend to think the damage should apply to the individual ray not on a single ray, and that the damage recurs every round.
I was toying with some sorcerer builds and something struck me.
Take the heighten spell, Dazing Spell, and Spell Perfection (Magic Missile).
Use heighten to make it a spell of the highest level you can cast. For the sake of argument let's say you are level 20 and can cast 9th level spells.
Spell perfection let's you use one metamagic feat on a particular spell, without using a higher level slot.
Dazing spell forces you to make a save or be dazed for a period of time equal to the original level of the spell (I don't think that matters, but I could be wrong.)
So if I read this right, I can heighten magic missile to 9th level, using spell perfection to ignore the need to use a 9th level spot.
Then I use a 4th level slot cast that spell using the dazing spell feat.
So I can make one target make 5 dc 19+charisma mod+whatever saves or be dazed for 9 rounds? Or 5 targets (you can mix and match if you want 3 to one, 1 to two others etc.) make a single save at the same dc as above?
That is legal right?
Okay, I'm a skeptic about Pathfinder fixing what I perceive as flaws in 3e, but let that slide. But I do have a way to make adventure preparation easier, and some other ideas for how to generate "goodwill."
Totally embrace the computer.
Everyone has probably seen Jamis Buck's NPC generator. I think he has a town generator too. And a treasure generator. Other people have worked on things like random dungeon generators.
Basically I think you guys need to put a slew of generators up on your site. A slew. And I think you need to have more generators than is typically the case.
Take an NPC villain generator.
There should be multiple selections, like BBEG, or henchman. Race, CR desired. Background that is randomly generated for me, or that I can ignore and make myself. Magic items, that sort of thing.
Let's say I need an encounter. The party is going to New Freetown, a coastal city. I want an encounter appropriate for them, one not too hard.
I pick a challenge rating, and one is generated for me. I have other options for treasure, or I can ignore them, whatever works.
Say I want to have a sea hag. Maybe the sea hag needs some compatriots to make the encounter a reasonable effort for my party. I manually select a sea hag, and the program takes care of adding some henchmen.
There need to be a bunch of options on the thing. I have in mind a page or so of toggle boxes and drop down menus. Something like a dropdown that says "Give me," a selection of 1 to whatever, then another box where I could input (via completion) "sea hag," or select it via dropdown.
I want treasure generators. I want something that will generate me a two or three chamber secret complex for my not so innocent temple of a thief god. I want random city generators. Random country generators, that randomly generate everything, or let me pick size, and or population, high magic or no, theocracy or magocracy or aristocracy.
You can go far, far beyond what I wrote and you should. You guys are game designers. You live for making random tables.
Mine the 1e dmg. And I mean mine it. If you can have inbred ogre hillbillies, the wandering strumpet table is no reach.
Now the output should be something like a pdf I could print up. Or save on a computer. Or export into OpenRPG or Maptool. A little more on that in a bit.
Okay, I've put this out there. Now let's talk about what you need to make it happen.
First, you have an uncommon resource available to you because of the nature of your clientele. An uncommon amount of computer knowledge. And that is shared by your staff. I suspect some of you have worked as programmers or system admins or the like.
Also the people that post on this board, some of them are invariably going to be very capable at this sort of thing.
You or your clients, or someone you know can advise you as to the feasibility of what I propose. I'd be kind of surprised in a way if you didn't already employ someone who knew this stuff already.
It's been a while, but I bet I could whip up a darn good generator in a couple of months. And that is with finding tables, and re-familiarizing myself with an appropriate language for coding this.
Now this may seem like a daunting challenge. Or not. I think it is eminently doable.
For instance:
1) You guys are in Seattle right? Lots of programmers there. Lots of unemployed programmers everywhere actually, including some that post here I'm sure. You don't even need to hire them permanently, just employ a couple on a project. Programmers do project work all the time. You will have no trouble finding programmers who are knowledgeable about d&d, trust me.
2) I actually think I would put a 6-month period on this project. Probably use 3 or 4 guys (or gals). Might have one stick around afterwards on the basis of general usefulness. Though with all the unemployed coders out there, they would be happy to just do occasional maintenance work later. And you are monitoring things as they go along, to make sure the code is well documented and understandable right?
Some general things:
1) I suggest you use Python.
2) Go with the Penguin, go with freedom and open source.
3) You can find people out there, who have already come a long way to what I describe if you go that way.
4) Output should be something that someone could print up, or even write some details down on a piece of paper. Don't require them to have a computer or have dm genie or anything. Unless they want to, then you should make it easy for them to use.
5) As for your bandwidth costs, ehhh I don't know. You will have rubberneckers (like me) that use it for fun. Better find someone who has a better idea of how to project this cost.
Now in closing:
1) Your web site isn't the best I've ever seen. You guys need to go through it and make it easier to use. At least it is not totally borked like WOTC's is. And if you don't believe me, conduct a poll as to how good your customers think this site is as far as being able to find something intuitively and quickly.
2) In addition, totally embrace OpenRPG and Maptool. Make it possible for your output to easily be used with these tools. Have some "pogs" or whatever maptool calls them made up so people can easily use them with these apps, as a freeby because you care, and want to create goodwill.
3) You can pretty much duplicate what I can gather of the DDI, you just won't be making money off of it, other than creating loyal customers and being useful.
4) Put up a forum with a searchable scheduler for online, PBEM, and real life games. You want people to play your games, so you want to make it as easy as you can for them.
Okay, that is all I have to say. Other people can add to these ideas, or modify them as appropriate. I think if you look around though, most of these ideas have already been implemented, and you can probably find a free version of them somewhere.
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