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Organized Play Member. 21 posts. No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 2 Organized Play characters.


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I understand where you're all coming from, but none of you have addressed my fundamental problem with the system:

The way this is laid out at higher levels I'm encountering many situations where an item relevant for my character is simply not available as an item I am being given. Besides a set of Master tools for Medicine there's no other 7th level Item that really appeals to my monk of that level. This means I have to choose an even lower level item than I should be getting there. This trend continues downwards when trying to pick out different things my character would actually want. This feels bad. It makes me feel that I am starting at a lower wealth than other classes that have better choices in these situations.

If they had cool meaningful choices for every class at every level of these choices I wouldn't be complaining.

To address the idea of option Paralysis:
You're still selecting a ton of items from a giant list. Now you're just deciding based on a different arbitrary number attached to the item (Level instead of price)

As for Doktor Weasel's complaint about spending all your money on one item:
My original proposal of limiting the price of any given object already solves this idea.


Zwordsman wrote:

Now. I have no clue what and why is where in all that...

but I do know they set things up for reasons.

Sure, but especially for that reason we must assume everything they have given to us is part of the test and something they desire our feedback on. And during character building being forced to choose a lower level option in most of my slots that say I should/could be getting a higher level item doesn't feel good in the least.

As I said: I haven't actually played it yet, and maybe the math somehow works out and these lists of leveled items somehow balances everyone in the party. Maybe Monks somehow become broken if they got to choose level appropriate items for all of their slots? I'm not sure about that off-hand, but it also seems like such an arcane thing for them to have already tested for internally that I don't think that's very probable. Warmagon's reaction I think spoke to why they did it this way. "It's faster/easier." But, that doesn't mean better.


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Faster doesn't mean better. If I cared only about speed I would play a video game that totals it all for me. Basic subtraction does not daunt me. And even if they align with those guides I would argue those guides are oddly limiting and weird too for the same reasons.


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PREFACE EDIT: I have not yet played many of these parts, the concerns listed here are from a theoretical/gamefeel standpoint.

The starting equipment guides for parts 2-6 seem.. off. I think I get what they intended to do by making it based primarily off a handful of different level items, but considering some items of the same level vary wildly in price -and- some item levels just don't provide very meaningful item choices depending on your class... I'm looking at part 4 for a monk and I can't find any great 7th level item choices. Bracers of armor (What I would hope would be my second best item after my handwraps) Have a weird gap where they leap up in item level so I either have to make them my singular 8th level item or underutilize one of my 5th level item slots.
and most of the level 7 items seem to be unique armor or weapons
I think it would make alot more sense to just give a gold total and restrict the max amount we could spend on a single item.


Agreed. Style Savant is a feat tax in the truest sense of the word and Master of Many styles comes like... 10 levels too late.


So many great points here. Though, I'm not bothered by Monks wanting to seek out Bracers of Armor in the same way I'm not bothered by a fighter going after magical armor.


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Monks have a strangely low amount of signature skills and skills trained with only the arcane casters having less signature skills than them, and no one having less trained skills than them. (I know wizard/alchemist technically have less, but their primary stats are int so they never actually will unless someone is making a very poor monk.)

For what was once a class that gave above average skills/level and one that focuses on perfecting themselves it's an extremely odd choice to me.

Off-hand, the most glaring thing that I can't fathom is why they don't have Medicine as a signature skill. Eastern Medicine has always been used along with martial artists as a strong trope in movies and literature. Even in as realistic a setting as the original Karate kid, Mr. Miyagi used strange healing techniques to make his student battle ready again. It also plays into their desire for wisdom.

But, that's not the only skill they're missing. Much of their abilities play into the idea of being a ninja, so why wouldn't they have stealth? Their class description even notes how some monks will take up a craft and seek perfection within it, so why not craft as well?

As it stands, they've taken a martial class that previously had great defensive abilities, and could function as a light skill monkey and transformed it into a class with unfortunate low-level AC, and few skills.


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As a monk I had the same problem!

I had a lower AC than our fighter and didn't even have a reactionary method to defend myself by raising a shield. I was one of only 2 characters to drop to zero, and was the person to drop to zero the most.


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Responding to more or less give a thumbs up in agreement with the general sentiment of this post.


So... I'm making a Swarm monger PC and while it's questionable whether I'll ever even get to 12th level I'm really curious about how this works. It says it works like Swarm Skin except you can't split into more than one contiguous swarm, and you don't leave things behind, being able to reform as normal for wildshape. I have a few of questions here:

1) What can I turn into? I have to remain a contiguous swarm so does that mean I can only choose 1 option and only get 1 swarm out of the deal? In which case the best I could be is one group of army ants. Or, does it mean I get to split myself up into a bunch of swarms, but they have to remain adjacent to one another?

2)What are my stats? It's not a polymorph spell so I don't have that easy rules reference of "it only changes your ability scores exactly how it says it does." Do my swarms all have my stats? Do I gain the normal stats of the swarms? In that case do I become intelligenceless??

3) It says my gear morphs into me, but does that imply I retain static bonuses like I do with my other wildshape options? If I do does it apply to all of my contiguous swarms, or just one?

EDIT Bonus Question:How does my hp total work for everything involved both before during and after the transformation?

If anyone has seen anything that clears this up I would be grateful.


Sorry no that's just flavor text reading the benefit's line it says:

Benefit: You take no penalty on attack rolls for using a lethal bludgeoning weapon to deal nonlethal damage.

That is the mechanical benefit. it makes it much easier to knock someone out with blunt weapons by negating that -4 penalty, but that is all.


Lady-J wrote:
Klorox wrote:
hamper player creativity, my foot, if they can't play with a little strictures, they have no creativity to begin with... I grant that gods from non LG alignments might like their paladin equivalents, but real paladins still are LG and nothing else, and if they can't catch that monkish discipline translates as a lawful alignment and barbaric lack of same as non L, I'm not sure they even get the use of alignment (which, it can be argued, is an institution of dubious value, but if we're discussing alignment restrictions, we're not discussing doing away with alignments altogether).
but it really doesn't, real paladins aren't lawful good, discipline doesn't come from being lawful and neither does anger mean chaotic

... What?? Since when are real paladins not LG? Of courese they are.. and yes lawful means disciplene and chaotic means undisciplned.. that's what they've always meant because that's what the alignment restrictions and leanings have always said. If you want to make alignment mean different things in your campaign that's fine, but as they come yes that's what they mean.


Claxon wrote:


Word count is usually very important when publishing these books to get everything to fit on one page. So if they had intended for it to function exactly like a punching dagger why use a (slightly) longer phrase.

To be fair I didn't expect it to 'function as' a punching dagger, as adding all the feats and abilities you can take to improve your attack bonus with both a specific weapon and with improvised weapons in general would add up to be fairly ridiculous.

I thought it purely dealt damage as a punch dagger. aka only effects that apply to specifically damage would apply.


Fair... Hehe and at this point perhaps I should just bow to what seems to be the common wisdom. I asked elsewhere about this, and people responded in similar manners, but I thought I would post here as I thought the wording was both vague yet specific enough to warrant some further attention. Thanks for your inputs.


The thing is it says it deals damage AS a punching dagger not damage equivalent to a punching dagger, like a punching dagger, or similar to a punching dagger. That sort of wording implies a deeper function to me, but maybe I am just reading too much into it.

Edit: I just feel like in most other ruling cases when things are said to function AS this other thing, then it's treated like that in all other applicable contexts.


Is... this just a stupid question, or is this something that genuinely no one has touched on before to the point that no one feels comfortable weighing in on?


Perhaps I should elaborate and provide the specific example rather than a general wording.

In the new Adventurer's Armory 2 There's an item for Stiletto Boots:

The most ostentatious and impractical of
footwear, the tall heel attached to these boots
adds several inches to your height. This type of
boot is popular among Chelish nobles, though
the trend has recently caught on among some
members of Taldan courts. You can use the heel
of a stiletto boot as an improvised weapon,
dealing damage as a punching dagger.

Again it doesn't say it's treated like a punching dagger for all respects, but it specifically calls out damage, so would weapon specialization effect it? What about the knifemaster rogue archetype?


Let us say an item named Y's description contains the text "When used as an improvised weapon Y deals damage as X." X being a specific weapon.

If you had feats/class abilities that modified/improved the damage you dealt with Weapon X would those modifications apply to instances of Y being used in such a manner?


What do you mean a pioneer wouldn't have a use for a warhorse? The trait specifically calls out venturing into dangerous lands why would you want a horse that would bolt wildly at the first sign of trouble?


dragonhunterq wrote:
step 2 of adding class levels wrote:
If the creature possesses class features (such as spellcasting or sneak attack) for the class that is being added, these abilities stack.
The class abilities should stack.

Ah cool. See I read that and thought they should, but I wasn't sure y'know? Thank you for clearing that up! :)


Ok weird title, I know. But I was bored and am ashamedly too happy with it to change it :P.

I'm designing a cohort for a 16th level character and want to use a Dapsara angel with class levels. I like the idea of my cohort being a party buffer and advancing it's Bardic performance abilities, but I feel like if I I simply take levels in bard to advance it I would run into two main problems:

1)While taking bard would make the effective level for it's bardic performance 5+the X levels it gains, it's spell-casting would still only be that of a level X bard which when taken in comparison to party level would be almost useless.

and

2)I'm already going to be using summon spells on my main character and I don't want to complicate turn order -even more- by making my cohort also have a whole spell list that I would have to keep track of and etc etc.

So my question is this: would the Exemplar brawler stack with the inherent monster's bardic performance abilities for purposes of determining it's inspire courage performance bonuses?