I just lost about half a page of text because I got logged out after pushing the preview button, so my first question will not be as detailed, I am sorry for that.
1. How does the magus dervish dance build work? Specifically how he uses spells with his blade, and how we prepares spell. Can he prepare the same spell, as long as he doesn't exceed his amount of spells/day ? I think I even read somewhere that the Magus (Dervish Dance build) can attack twice in one round at a low level (before level 6), how is that possible?
2. Why isn't there any offical stats for easter weapons, such as katana and wakashi? I was lucky to find some good suggestions here on Paizo forums, but still, shouldn't it be written somewhere?
3. How would you guys fix the "star trek fallacy"? Where most common races and people speak common? Half of my group are easter based classes and wish to speak their version of Japenese and if need to, they will speak broken English for the rest of the group. Unless the other players use one of their language slot for that particular language.
4. Is it possible to enchant cloth or just simple regular clothes?
One of the players in my campaign is a monk and wishes to have some better armor, via magic. You could say he is a bit jealous of the other who have enchanted both their armor and weapon. The group is about level 3.
5. Regarding range weapons, if I have understood it correctly, only thrown weapons and composite version of a bow deals damage + str modifier?
6. Is Deflect Arrows considered OP for a low level monk?
Thanks for the upcoming answers, pathfinder is a lot of fun, and the Paizo community seems great so far.
1. I've never played the class, but I believe it has to do with the ability of a magus to use his blade to deliver touch spells (as opposed to his hand). This allows him to strike with the sword and discharge the spell in one massive damage blast. Don't have much else beyond that.
2. Here are eastern weapons stats
3. Eh, usually doesn't come up because of headache. I have played in games where there was a communication issue though. Basically it was a lot of role playing with the GM occasionally intervening to say "You don't know that because you don't understand that language" or "make a linguistics check, nope sorry you don't get to understand his wild gestures".
4. Pretty sure you have to have armor to enchant and armor has to have some level of armor bonus and would count as light armor. There are bracers of armor, which give an armor bonus (does not stack with any other armor, including mage armor, and cannot be otherwise enchanted). Other option is getting amulets of Natural Armor, rings of Protection, or a friendly wizard with mage armor.
5. Correct. Normal bows and crossbows have no ability bonus to damage. Note: all bows suffer from strength penalties, so a Str 8 wizard shooting a short bow does 1d6-1 damage (or so the wizard with Str 8 in my group keeps saying).
6. No, why? I mean, sure, it is nice but it isn't game breaking because it hurts your party. Once the archers see they can't do much to you, they focus on the others, thus reducing the number of people between which damage can be spread. Also, you're a monk so you generally get into close combat faster than other classes and don't tend to stand around waiting to be pin-cushioned.
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1. How does the magus dervish dance build work? Specifically how he uses spells with his blade, and how we prepares spell. Can he prepare the same spell, as long as he doesn't exceed his amount of spells/day ? I think I even read somewhere that the Magus (Dervish Dance build) can attack twice in one round at a low level (before level 6), how is that possible?
A magus casts arcane spells drawn from the magus spell list. A magus must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time. You can find more details under the Spells class feature. You will also want to be familiar with the Magic chapter, and any magic-related sections of the Combat chapter.
Here is A guide to touch spells, spellstrike, and spell combat
Once you've read all that (the class you're interested in, both sections of the core rulebook, and the guide) I'd be happy to answer any specific questions you still have.
2. Why isn't there any offical stats for easter weapons, such as katana and wakashi?
Eastern Armor and Weapons can be found in the Eastern Armor and Weapons chapter of Ultimate Combat, under Mastering Combat.
3. How would you guys fix the "star trek fallacy"? Where most common races and people speak common?
On Golarion, Common is actually Taldane, and it's widely known. If your game is taking place somewhere besides Golarion, or if it's in a remote area of Golarion, it's reasonable for people to perhaps not speak that language.
4. Is it possible to enchant cloth or just simple regular clothes?
The Magic Vestment spell can target regular clothing.
There's also the Bracers of Armor, but they have some significant drawbacks, so be aware of how they stack and when they stop functioning.
If you'd like, you could rule that as long as he has masterwork clothing (+150gp cost) he could get it enchanted.
5. Regarding range weapons, if I have understood it correctly, only thrown weapons and composite version of a bow deals damage + str modifier?
Yes, unless an item, feat, or class ability specifies otherwise.
6. Is Deflect Arrows considered OP for a low level monk?
Deflect Arrows requires a Dexterity score of 13, and the Improved Unarmed Strike feat. Both should be easily attainable for even a 1st level monk.
1. Dervish dance allows you to add your dex to damage with a light melee weapon instead of str. A magus prepares spells just like any other prepared caster, looking through his spellbook for an hour at the start of each day. Yes you can prepare the same spell multiple times a day as long as you don't exceed your limits of spells per day. Any magus can basically attack twice in a round using their spellstrike ability.
2. There are stats for all official eastern weapons, they can be found in the ultimate combat book.
3. If it's a home game you can just give them the language for free. If for PFS, you will need to spend one of your languages known to learn it.
4. You mean to give an enhancement bonus to normal cloth? By RAW I don't think that is allowed. The monk already gains bonuses to his ac for not wearing armor. If he wants to increase his ac even more he should get a ring of protection or an amulet of natural armor.
5. Yes, that is correct.
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Mostly ninja'd, but here goes:
1) Magus prepares spells just like Wizards. They have a spellbook and each day, they have to pick which spells they want to prepare. They spells they want to prepare have to be in their spellbook, and they have to have their spellbook available when they prepare spells each day.
At 2nd level, Magus will have both Spell Combat and Spellstrike, which effectively allows them to attack twice on their turn during a full-round action when they're casting a touch spell. Spell Combat allows them to cast a spell and make an attack with a weapon in the same turn with a -2 penalty on attack rolls; Spellstrike allows them to delivery touch spells through their weapon. Since touch spells like Shocking Grasp allow the caster to make a free attack against the target during the same turn that the spell is cast, the Magus can use Spellstrike to cast Shocking Grasp through his weapon and make an attack roll with his weapon to delivery the spell, and Spell Combat allows him to make a regular attack with his weapon in the same turn. Both attacks take a -2 penalty on the attack roll.
If you take the Dervish Dance feat, you just get to use your DEX modifier instead of STR on attack and damage rolls as long as you are using a scimitar. (not any light melee weapon, it must be a scimitar.)
2) Stats for Eastern equipment is in Ultimate Combat. You can also find them on the PRD.
3) In the Inner Sea (where most of the Pathfinder material takes place), most people speak Common because...it's the common language. It would be like going to Europe, where a lot of people speak English but also speak their local language; in the Inner Sea, most people speak Common but also speak the language of their country, or race (Chelish in Cheliax, Elven for Elves, etc.) If most of your players are from the Dragon Empire, they will all likely speak Tien, as that is the "common" language in the East.
4) Bracers of Armor. Similar, custom items can be allowed, per the GMs discretion, which aren't bracers, such as a Vest of Armor, which would serve the same purpose.
5) Correct. Regular (non-composite) long/short bows and crossbows do not do extra damage based on STR.
6) I've never found it to be overpowered. There are lots of ways for a GM to get around it. It can only be used once per round (so if the party is fighting a group of archers, only the first one's arrow would be deflected), any smart NPC that is using a bow against a Monk will quickly figure out that he is ineffective and will change targets, and NPCs can rush up to the Monk instead to engage him in melee.
There are bracers of armor, which give an armor bonus (does not stack with any other armor, including mage armor, and cannot be otherwise enchanted)
Bracers of Armor can, in fact, be enchanted:
"Alternatively, bracers of armor can be enchanted with armor special abilities. See Table: Armor Special Qualities for a list of abilities. Special abilities usually count as Additional bonuses for determining the market value of an item, but do not improve AC. Bracers of armor cannot have a modified bonus (armor bonus plus armor special ability bonus equivalents) higher than +8. Bracers of armor must have at least a +1 armor bonus to grant an armor special ability. Bracers of armor cannot have any armor special abilities that add a flat gp amount to their cost."
So, you could have +1 Bracers of Armor Spell Resistance 13, which would cost 9000gp (equivalent of a +3 bonus.) You could not have +1 Shadow Bracers of Armor, since the Shadow ability costs a flat gp amount to add.
You guys are so nice to take the time to give me such good explanation.
I feel more confident GMing the next session. The last one was pure improvisation, and they still had lots of fun.
Thanks Maggiethecat for explaining Spell Combat and Spellstrike.
Also, thanks everyone for the link to eastern weapons, this page didn't appear to me through googling or searching D20 PSRD.
After re-reading the magus class, I know understand it fully, I just seemed to have gotten confused in the end because I am helping the whole group create their character, and me myself re-learning all the rules from 3.5-pathfinder.
Also, thanks for the suggestions to my deflect arrow problem.
And lastly, I forgot to mention that the campaign is set in my own made world, and I work with the world as I play it. Most players don't mind the language barrier, as most do speak common, however, for my samurai and monk friend, they speak broken English. But its a work in progress.
The players also seem to enjoy the fact that they contribute canon for my world (name of cities, leaders, history etc), I of course would never give them full power of the world.
Thanks again mates!
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1. How does the magus dervish dance build work? Specifically how he uses spells with his blade, and how we prepares spell. Can he prepare the same spell, as long as he doesn't exceed his amount of spells/day ? I think I even read somewhere that the Magus (Dervish Dance build) can attack twice in one round at a low level (before level 6), how is that possible?
Grick answered this one pretty well.
2. Why isn't there any offical stats for easter weapons, such as katana and wakashi? I was lucky to find some good suggestions here on Paizo forums, but still, shouldn't it be written somewhere?
See above poster. Also, I believe eastern weapons are in Ultimate Combat if you are looking for the actual source book.
3. How would you guys fix the "star trek fallacy"? Where most common races and people speak common? Half of my group are easter based classes and wish to speak their version of Japenese and if need to, they will speak broken English for the rest of the group. Unless the other players use one of their language slot for that particular language.
Common exists as a language that most societies understand, and use of that language helps, however if someone wishes to speak limited common and use a different primary language, that could present interesting roleplaying opportunities. Linguistics is a very powerful skill that some of your players may wish to take, because it gives you an extra language for every rank you put in it, and it allows you to make checks to understand writing or potentially speech from languages you do not speak.
Generally, most monsters in the various Bestiaries either do not speak a language, or they speak Common in some form in addition to their racial/regional language. Additionally, it's not bad practice for a party coming from similar backgrounds to share a language that others might not speak. It's a good way to share information between party members without allowing others to understand you.
4. Is it possible to enchant cloth or just simple regular clothes?
One of the players in my campaign is a monk and wishes to have some better armor, via magic. You could say he is a bit jealous of the other who have enchanted both their armor and weapon. The group is about level 3.
Bracers of Armor exist for characters that do not wear armor. They grant an armor bonus but otherwise do not count as armor. Also, Monks add their Wisdom to their AC in addition to their Dexterity, which helps to make up for the difference.
5. Regarding range weapons, if I have understood it correctly, only thrown weapons and composite version of a bow deals damage + str modifier?
Correct. Composite bows only add a specific amount of Strength modifier to damage, which is chosen at the time the weapon is created, so if you make a Composite Longbow (+3 Strength) then a character than has a +5 Strength modifier will still only add +3 to damage, and would need to have a new bow crafted if he wished to add more of his strength.
6. Is Deflect Arrows considered OP for a low level monk?
I don't understand this. Deflect Arrows is a perfectly viable option at the level it can be taken. If the character can take the option, it's not "OP" so to speak. That said, there is such a thing as min/maxing which can lead to characters well above the power curve. You should speak with your group about how you want to set the power level in your campaign, and put restrictions on how you do stats, how gear can be acquired, and about what classes/abilities/combos you would prefer not to see, and which ones are ok. Some groups like a no-holds-barred game where they can do whatever they want, and some groups like the challenge of restricted play. Figure that out with your group and plan accordingly, but remember, if you have several min-maxers, you might need to advance monsters to make them last in a fight, or go with constant higher challenge rating fights and use the slow XP track instead of medium.
#2 are they bunnies or peeps?
#2 are they bunnies or peeps?
Whaat?
Thanks Aldarionn, I didn't know that you have to buy a specific strength bonus to get to be able to use your total strength bonus (100gp for base composite longbow, 300gp for +3 str rating). Thanks for putting that to my attention.
I asked about deflect arrows, mostly because I wasn't able to figure a way for ranged attack monsters to be able to hit the monk, but some good suggestions have been added on this thread.
I usually allow X certain books,I don't allow the players trade racial traits from other books, I only accept certain archtypes, only if they fit my world. The fact that I was able to convince some of the players from going as a drow (they are a bit OP in my world, and have a huge empire compared to some of the other campaign settings) is a huge success in my book. (one of them was a huge Drizzt Do Urden fan and wanted to levitate).
I was a bit surprised how good the samurai was as a tank and dps dealer, but I will use his low will save against him (he didn't want to iron will either), though he does have resolve, but I will figure away.
The goal for my campaign to have fun, most of the party themself said they probably never learn all the rules, nor will they never buy any books. Though they seems interested enough to buy their own miniature and dice, and that they are invested enough to play this once/every other week. We played today because the samurai really wanted to see how his character was in action (he roleplayed really well aswell!).