Amanuensis RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8 |
shaventalz |
If you are not actively in a game, I doubt any of the spoilers will be meaningful to you. If you start playing an AP, don't reread those sections.
(Also, spoilers may actually increase your enjoyment of the story.)
1) Maybe for some people, but definitely not all. And untagged spoilers are, at the very least, extremely rude.
2) "Re"read? More like "don't read at all."3) I've still got spoilers floating around in my head for scenarios I haven't played yet that I ran into quite a while back on these boards. I shouldn't have to know which groups are going to be involved in APs I'm not yet in, because I may very well still remember the spoilers when they come up.
The Raven Black |
If you are not actively in a game, I doubt any of the spoilers will be meaningful to you. If you start playing an AP, don't reread those sections.
(Also, spoilers may actually increase your enjoyment of the story.)
I usually have excellent memory and I once suffered immensely playing an adventure I had read once before, hence the knee-jerk reaction :-(
BTW the study's announced result is faulty, as the article hints at the end : spoilers increase the enjoyment of the story, but this must be compared to the sum of the enjoyment of the unspoiled story plus the enjoyment of the spoiled story which is always greater than the latter one on its own ;-)
Rysky |
Since they talk about organizations that are specific to certain APs they're are spoiler tagged that way.
As for making them connect to your own setting I don't see them being that hard, aside from the Mantis, as there's not really anything Golarion specific that ties them to their things.
If someone is interested one I'd be happy to help or offer suggestions.
Urath DM |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Is there a reason why Paizo wouldn't use spoiler warnings for players (like many other RPGs do)?
There is a warning, though people skipping the Introduction won't see it.
In addition, several of the organizations presented in this book were first introduced in the context of Pathfinder Adventure Path campaigns. Care has been taken in the following pages to avoid too many spoilers for these Adventure Paths, but in all cases, the organization is presented with the assumption that the events of the Adventure Path in which it was introduced have already come to pass, and that the PCs of that Adventure Path were victorious.
TriOmegaZero |
To avoid spoilers for Hell's Rebels Page 39 should be avoided for part 1 of the AP only.Page 171 in the Silver Raven section for parts 1 to 4.
In the Silver Raven section pages 170 & 172 - 177 are OK. These pages have no spoilers I can spot but in fact have nice stuff that would fit well in a Hell's Rebels campaign.
Thanks for doing the legwork on that. I've already forgotten what little I skimmed from that section, but having the pages to avoid will help as well.
jedi8187 |
roysier |
** spoiler omitted **
Sub-Creator |
4 people marked this as a favorite. |
I usually have excellent memory and I once suffered immensely playing an adventure I had read once before, hence the knee-jerk reaction :-(
BTW the study's announced result is faulty, as the article hints at the end : spoilers increase the enjoyment of the story, but this must be compared to the sum of the enjoyment of the unspoiled story plus the enjoyment of the spoiled story which is always greater than the latter one on its own ;-)
I once played in an adventure for the 4th time with a group of players that had never played it before. When it was over, that fact was revealed and everyone was surprised to hear it. The point here is that just because you know something about a campaign (or specific adventure) doesn't mean it has to ruin the fun for you. Player knowledge doesn't equate to character knowledge. Yes, maybe a little something is spoiled for you, but other players will still be surprised, which can still make it fun for you!
Set |
4 people marked this as a favorite. |
I once played in an adventure for the 4th time with a group of players that had never played it before.
Most of us can re-watch movies like Star Wars or whatever, despite already knowing how they end, or watch shows based on books we've already read (like Harry Potter or Game of Thrones), or just watch shows where the ending is kind of obvious (yes, James Bond is going to survive, Gilligan's latest plan to get off the island is not going to work and Scully will not see the werewolf attacking Mulder and pooh-pooh the whole thing when he tells her about it later). The notion of 'spoilers' is relevant to movies like those of M. Night Shamalamadingdong, where a big twist at the end is about all they have going for them, but for the other 99% of entertainment out there, a shocking reveal is just one flavor element among many others, and not that big a deal.
Gratuitous spoilers for Titanic;
Dave2 |
For me I thought this was solid book. Would give a B+ or A-. I liked the archetypes and prestige classes being tied to the organizations. I had plenty of generic classes and archetypes from the Pathfinder books. I also like the fact that the prestige classes and archetypes are located in one place from various sources.
Dave2
Squiggit |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
About 3 to 4 years would feel appropriate. The reality check here is that groups can't keep up with the AP release schedule.
Yeah, groups can't always keep up with AP release schedules.
So if I haven't done an AP yet, I'm just not going to read a section in a book that's obviously going to be connected to an AP.
All of the hand-wringing about spoilers would make sense if this was just dumped on you out of the blue, but we're talking about a book that has a disclaimer about spoilers in the intro and chapter headings that name off the faction they're going to discuss. So you know exactly what you're getting when you go to that page.
I really don't like the idea of Paizo delaying potentially interesting content because someone has poor impulse control.
Rysky |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Why is Slave to Sin a Paladin spell? I'd have thought forcing someone to be overtaken by their sin is the last thing a Paladin should be doing.
It's more overloading than giving them a sin, as evidenced by the fact that it only affects Evil targets. You're just making them more of what they are and causing it to completely occupy for their mind for a short while.
Ventnor |
Paul Watson wrote:Why is Slave to Sin a Paladin spell? I'd have thought forcing someone to be overtaken by their sin is the last thing a Paladin should be doing.It's more overloading than giving them a sin, as evidenced by the fact that it only affects Evil targets. You're just making them more of what they are and causing it to completely occupy for their mind for a short while.
So a Paladin fights evil by specifically making someone more evil.
That's... interesting?
Rysky |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Rysky wrote:Paul Watson wrote:Why is Slave to Sin a Paladin spell? I'd have thought forcing someone to be overtaken by their sin is the last thing a Paladin should be doing.It's more overloading than giving them a sin, as evidenced by the fact that it only affects Evil targets. You're just making them more of what they are and causing it to completely occupy for their mind for a short while.So a Paladin fights evil by specifically making someone more evil.
That's... interesting?
You don't make someone more Evil, you make them obsessive compulsive about their main sin to the point that it's incredibly distracting.
Steve Geddes |
Can I flag the latest review by Frogsplosion? Because that review is a copy paste of a locked thread.
I don't think it's a great review, but I expect that thread was locked due to the replies to it rather than the OP (since the moderators didn't delete that).
QuidEst |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Rysky wrote:Paul Watson wrote:Why is Slave to Sin a Paladin spell? I'd have thought forcing someone to be overtaken by their sin is the last thing a Paladin should be doing.It's more overloading than giving them a sin, as evidenced by the fact that it only affects Evil targets. You're just making them more of what they are and causing it to completely occupy for their mind for a short while.So a Paladin fights evil by specifically making someone more evil.
That's... interesting?
- It's a demonstration of evil as weakness for moralizing paladins, and serves as an object lesson to guide others.
- It's poetic justice for bitter paladins and for fair lawful-leaning paladins. (Let the crime be the punishment is an expression of letting the punishment fit the crime.)- It's practical for pragmatic paladins, and just exploiting evil's weaknesses directly rather than arranging for those weaknesses to be distractions.
Paladins don't have to save evil people from themselves. This might not be a good spell for all Paladins, but plenty of styles of paladin will find it works for them.
Brian Darnell |
I think there is a typo in this spell. Instead of other magical spell effect, shouldn't it be other written spell effect?
ABSORB RUNE I
School abjuration; Level bard 4, cleric 4, magus 4, occultist 4, sorcerer/wizard 4
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (a white silk glove worth 25 gp)
Range touch
Target one spell effect
Duration instantaneous plus 1 minute/level (see text)
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
This spell allows you to lay your hand upon a magical glyph,
symbol, or other magical spell effect (referred to in this spell
description as a “rune”) and attempt to absorb the essence of
its effect. To absorb a rune, you must be aware of the rune’s
existence (but need not know the details of what it actually
does) and then succeed at a caster level check (DC = 10 + the
caster level of the spell affect being absorbed) as you touch the
rune in question. If you fail this caster level check, the magical
rune is not triggered unless you fail the roll by 5 or more.
If you succeed at the caster level check, the rune is removed
from the surface it was originally placed upon and duplicated
on the cloth of a silk glove worn on your hand. The rune
remains located on the glove’s palm in an inert state for up
to 1 minute per caster level. As a standard action taken at
any time during that duration, you can transfer the rune to
another surface similar to the one it was originally placed
upon, at which point the rune’s function either returns to
normal or dissipates harmlessly as if successfully dispelled
(your choice). If the spell’s duration expires before you
place the rune on a new surface, the absorbed rune
dissipates harmlessly.
Absorb rune I affects only runes whose effects
are equivalent to a spell of 3rd level or lower. An
attempt to use absorb rune I on a more powerful
effect automatically triggers the rune when you
touch it.
BigNorseWolf |
Re the new dusty rose prism:
with a +1 insight bonus to CMD as a resonance power, isn't the new resonance power effectively doing nothing because you have a +1 insight bonus from the stone anyway? Insight bonuses to AC add to CMD.
Miscellaneous Modifiers
A creature can also add any circumstance, deflection, dodge, insight, luck, morale, profane, and sacred bonuses to AC to its CMD. Any penalties to a creature’s AC also apply to its CMD. A flat-footed creature does not add its Dexterity bonus to its CMD.
Kalindlara Contributor |
Rysky |
Just read he Cyphermage chapter carefully. Was the Sigilus someone's attempt to beat the Brute for worst archetype ever? It doesn't get there, but it definitely shows signs of trying to be really bad for laughably small gains as a deliberate design philosophy.
How so?
It trades out Spellstrike to take less penalties for Spell Combat for one school which it can switch at any time, and the Armor abilities are nice.
Plausible Pseudonym |
Plausible Pseudonym wrote:Just read he Cyphermage chapter carefully. Was the Sigilus someone's attempt to beat the Brute for worst archetype ever? It doesn't get there, but it definitely shows signs of trying to be really bad for laughably small gains as a deliberate design philosophy.How so?
It trades out Spellstrike to take less penalties for Spell Combat for one school which it can switch at any time, and the Armor abilities are nice.
It's spell combat with +1 to hit with one school, -2 to hit with other schools, and you're locked out of two opposition schools. You need 10 minutes to switch your school. No one would use this ability if it were free, it's a tiny limited benefit for a huge loss in capability elsewhere. But to lose spellstrike? It's like you gave me a Honda Fit that gets 25% better mpg on one day of the week, doesn't run at all two days of the week, and burns twice as much gas on the other four days of the week, then charged me $60,000 for it.
The armor ability isn't aggressively bad, especially for a Dex build, but marginal energy resistance and small boosts to light armor AC are rarely going to be better than more optimized medium or heavy armor.
Kalindlara Contributor |
Kalindlara Contributor |
Rysky |
Okies, sorry if my response came off as confrontational, im just curious. Personal... viewings (instead of bias, since I've never played a Magi) I guess. Magi character's I've played with feel like Sorcerers rather than Wizards since they pick certain spells and just stick with those rather than focusing on versatility so the drawbacks of the Archetype didn't feel like that much of a drawback to me.
That and I'm still trying to understand all the differences between Spell Combat and Spellstrike too...
Kalindlara Contributor |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Basically, spell combat and spellstrike are the meat of the magus class. Anything that would trade out spellstrike has to be really impressive to justify it. Spell combat, even more so; it's hard to imagine what they could trade it for that would be worthwhile.
This is one of the major failings of the eldritch scion, an archetype which fills me with sadness to this day. You have to burn points just to function.
Damanta |
That and I'm still trying to understand all the differences between Spell Combat and Spellstrike too...
Spellstrike: cast touch spell and instead of free touch attack you get a free attack with your weapon with the spell as a rider (and the spell can crit on the same threat range as your weapon).
Spell combat: take a -2 to hit, to cast a spell and make all your melee attacks.
Benchak the Nightstalker Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8 |
Damanta |
So Spell Combat is Attack + Spell,
and Spellstrike is Attack + (Attack + Spell)?
Spellstrike is a standard action. Cast a touch spell and get a free whack with weapon instead of free touch.
Spell Combat is a full round action. Take -2 on your to hit rolls to make all your available melee attacks and cast a spell. Spell may be cast before or after your melee attacks, but not during if you have more than one melee attack.
Spellstrike is Spell + attack
Spell Combat is Attack + (Spell + attack if spell is a touch spell)
Edit: ninja'd, and cleaning up some errors.
Set |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Rivethun Geminate invoker actually makes situational stuff like Swarm Totems likely to see use!
Pick Swarm instead of beast totem as an all time power? No way.
Pick it temporarily when heading into a cave full of swarms? Super-useful!
I like Archetypes that allow for the sort of versatility a prepared caster gets, in being able to adopt different tactics day by day, or even encounter by encounter, and not being locked into a single 'build' that may not be as useful in any one specific encounter. It's hardly a 'quadratic wizard' deal, but still kind of cool, and makes a lot of situational content (like that swarm totem) available to someone who doesn't want to have it locked in as their only totem ever.
Plus the art for that AT is very cool. More Arcadians is always good.
BigNorseWolf |
Okies, sorry if my response came off as confrontational, im just curious. Personal... viewings (instead of bias, since I've never played a Magi) I guess. Magi character's I've played with feel like Sorcerers rather than Wizards since they pick certain spells and just stick with those rather than focusing on versatility so the drawbacks of the Archetype didn't feel like that much of a drawback to me.
That and I'm still trying to understand all the differences between Spell Combat and Spellstrike too...
Its not the difference so much as the interaction between the two. The interaction is kinda complicated, not spelled out, and sounds like a munchkins chant to asmodeous but... what it functionally is is magus flurry. The magus takes a -2 penalty to attack, casts a spell with thier left hand*, whacks with the sword in their right (because they cast the spell), and then whacks with the sword in their right again. The extra attack is pretty much what makes the magus class. Take out either of the parts and the whole thing falls apart. Being able to two weapon fight with one weapon is pretty potent even if all you're doing is using arcane mark to zorro your opponent twice.
I don't have the archetype to see if thats what it did, but if it did, yeah, thats going to be miles worse than any other magus archetype.
Davia D |
I like Archetypes that allow for the sort of versatility a prepared caster gets, in being able to adopt different tactics day by day, or even encounter by encounter, and not being locked into a single 'build' that may not be as useful in any one specific encounter. It's hardly a 'quadratic wizard' deal, but still kind of cool, and makes a lot of situational content (like that swarm totem) available to someone who doesn't want to have it locked in as their only totem ever.Plus the art for that AT is very cool. More Arcadians is always good.
Exactly, it may not be full 'a tool for every situation,' but it allows you to swap out at least one, eventually three, tools to adapt and have a specialty that's likely to come into play. And being three-power chains, even the weakest totem chains have some times I'd definitely want the top one in.
Artemis Moonstar |
I have yet to pick this up, but is there anything related to the Scrollmaster at all? I've been wanting to play that archetype for ages for a Read Or Die inspired kind of character, but I haven't been able to really bring it together in a way that the scroll/paper fighting isn't just some secondary gimmick that gets lost while having to do other stuff to be useful to the party.
Actually, is there anything else in the book for paper magic at all?