Are there specific ones or even entire sections that you simply dispense with because you find them ponderous, convoluted, detrimental to flow, nonsensical, irritating or just effin' stupid? Do you rewrite, hand-wave, rule ad hoc, or ignore?
Please don't attack others' comments. Simply list those YOU dislike and why.
There's a nonsensical and absurd rule in PFS. Evil characters are supposedly not allowed, but a lot of players have evil characters, and most DM's ignore or even promote evil acts at the table.
The second absurd rule is that PvP is not allowed, so there is not much a character can do to stop a party member's homicidal or cruel behaviour
The same thing he can do in any other game; talk to the DM and player like adults. There is nothing you can do IC that will stop a player from being a jerk.
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** spoiler omitted **I recall one Society Scenario that seems to promote PvP in some ways.
** spoiler omitted **
The Cheliax faction mission is to find a soul gem, by the way.
And hey...Lawful rogues.What about a governmental spy?
Sounds like the rogues answer to the monks Martial Artist archetype. :)
** spoiler omitted **I recall one Society Scenario that seems to promote PvP in some ways.
** spoiler omitted **
Sounds like the rogues answer to the monks Martial Artist archetype. :)And hey...Lawful rogues.What about a governmental spy?
So your thoughts are that the game needs more pointless alignment restrictions, not less?
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So your thoughts are that the game needs more pointless alignment restrictions, not less?Sounds like the rogues answer to the monks Martial Artist archetype. :)And hey...Lawful rogues.What about a governmental spy?
Wow. It's like you can read my mind! Only you choose not to.
I'll save you some time: Alignment is broken and absurd. Alignment restrictions are, therefore, also broken and absurd.
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On another class-specific shenanigans, the monk doesn't get automatic proficiency with weapons with the Monk property.I asked this once and someone from Paizo (I don't remember who) said it was because granting Monks proficiency with all Monk weapons is a powerful option, sounds like power creep, and steps on the toes of other martials, like fighters.
My reaction: -_-
It is somewhat funny how any of the3 problematic classes stop any improvement in the others 2.
Fighters can not have more skill points because rogue.
Rogues and monk can not have more in combat usefulness because fighters.
meanwhile a ranger, paladin and barbarian fan have been slipping then powercreep in every book since core.
You might be on to something here.
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Got a few more:
- The whole Vital Strike idea: can't be combine with anything else... when upon a strict reading, it should.
Spring Attack? Should work
Charge? Should work
Manyshot? Should work
The feat's "idea" to make one attack that deals multiplied damage is ok, but come on, make it useful with other feats as well.
- Lack of one-handed reach weapon: We only have the whip so far... was expecting more one-handed reach weapons by now.
- You can fire a two-handed firearm with one hand, like a heavy crossbow: Absurd? Well, yeah, because your arm would possibly be ripped out of its socket with the recoil. Unnecessary? Nah... especially when you can have a gunslinger dual-wielding muskets, culverins, rifles, shotguns, even a musket axe/musket warhammer combo or 2 light machine guns :P. Even wanted Borderlands 2' gunzerker in your game? There you go XD! Think that's out of date? Then take a look at Numeria XD!
- The damage cap for falling damage: you can survive a fall from a great height. I could understand a racial trait for catfolks (no seriously, some cats have survived falls from 26 to 32 stories high, that's between 260 and 320 feet), but not from the rest. Yes, there's terminal velocity, but that's still enough to kill you be at level 1 or level 18.
- Dullahans being undead creatures: Yes, they kill others, but most of the time, they're classified as unseelie faes.
- The Magical Tail feat: For a kitsune player, it takes 8 feats to get the full benefits. Problem is, your class will suffer greatly from it, unless you're a fighter, which can be doable. Seriously, why not ONE feat that gets better as I level up?
The damage cap for falling damage: you can survive a fall from a great height. I could understand a racial trait for catfolks (no seriously, some cats have survived falls from 26 to 32 stories high, that's between 260 and 320 feet), but not from the rest. Yes, there's terminal velocity, but that's still enough to kill you be at level 1 or level 18.
Why's that? Level 18 characters are supposed to be nigh on comparable to mid-level deific servants, like high level Angels.
They should be able to survive a fall.
- The damage cap for falling damage: you can survive a fall from a great height. I could understand a racial trait for catfolks (no seriously, some cats have survived falls from 26 to 32 stories high, that's between 260 and 320 feet), but not from the rest. Yes, there's terminal velocity, but that's still enough to kill you be at level 1 or level 18.
Terminal velocity means higher level characters just wouldn't die from falling.
Consider that a headshot max crit from a pistol does 32 damage. The average damage of a fall is 70. That's more than double the damage blowing a hole in your head would do.
Normal people have about 6 health.
I'm sure this'll be a fun one.
Preparation casting. Time-consuming, major hassle, belongs to some of the game's brokenest classes. Speaking personally, I don't feel as bad when I just don't know the perfect spell for something as I do when it's sitting in my spellbook and I failed to prep it.
It's also completely contrary to any way I can imagine magic working. If you know a spell, you KNOW it. You don't forget it once you cast it.
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It's also completely contrary to any way I can imagine magic working. If you know a spell, you KNOW it. You don't forget it once you cast it.
Remove "memorize" and "forget" from your vocabulary, and you'll be a lot happier. They're holdovers from 1e that no longer appear in the rules.
Think of "preparing" a spell as casting all but a few key words and gestures in what is actually a long ritual spell. Completing those last few words and gestures ("casting") completes the spell.
It's also completely contrary to any way I can imagine magic working. If you know a spell, you KNOW it. You don't forget it once you cast it.Remove "memorize" and "forget" from your vocabulary, and you'll be a lot happier. They're holdovers from 1e that no longer appear in the rules.
Think of "preparing" a spell as casting all but a few key words and gestures in what is actually a long ritual spell. Completing those last few words and gestures ("casting") completes the spell.
Yeah, I struggled with that concept for a year or two as well. Once I got it into my head they were effectively pre-casting the spell in an undisturbed environment it clicked.
Me, I've always liked the idea of the Wizard preparing the spell by 'inscribing' runes that store the magic on their brains, and when they cast them, it's more like a specific mental 'switch' that unlocks the magic in the runes. The casting, however, erases the runes.
It's also completely contrary to any way I can imagine magic working. If you know a spell, you KNOW it. You don't forget it once you cast it.Remove "memorize" and "forget" from your vocabulary, and you'll be a lot happier. They're holdovers from 1e that no longer appear in the rules.
Think of "preparing" a spell as casting all but a few key words and gestures in what is actually a long ritual spell. Completing those last few words and gestures ("casting") completes the spell.
Still doesn't work for me. Just not how I see magic working.
I like to think of prepared casting as building up the energies and forming them into complex "stable" forms, like a sort of mental snowflakes, where the casting action breaks the stability of the spell, causing the energy to erupt into the material world.
I know there's quite a few people who dislike vancian magic thematically but are like "hey, at least it makes for a good game mechanic". I'm quite the reverse - I really like that the magic of D&D feels unique and isn't yet another mana system, but I think it's a really poor system mechanically due to balance issues etc that I think are largely inherent to vancian magic itself.
- The damage cap for falling damage: you can survive a fall from a great height. I could understand a racial trait for catfolks (no seriously, some cats have survived falls from 26 to 32 stories high, that's between 260 and 320 feet), but not from the rest. Yes, there's terminal velocity, but that's still enough to kill you be at level 1 or level 18.Terminal velocity means higher level characters just wouldn't die from falling.
Consider that a headshot max crit from a pistol does 32 damage. The average damage of a fall is 70. That's more than double the damage blowing a hole in your head would do.
Normal people have about 6 health.
Why's that? Level 18 characters are supposed to be nigh on comparable to mid-level deific servants, like high level Angels.
They should be able to survive a fall.
1) It should be 1d6 points of damage per 10 feet... without a cap. You fall from 300 feet, it should be 30d6; you fall from 500 feet, it should be 50d6; you fall from 1,000 feet, it should be 100d6.
2) As of right now, from a 200-foot fall, you can take between 20 and 120 points of damage, which, y'know, is rather ridiculous. You shouldn't survive a fall this high. Even with terminal velocity, the higher you fall, you harder you should it the ground and take damage.
Anyway... here's another rule that is rather absurd... and that I totally forgot last time:
- The Endless Ammunition enhancement can't be applied to firearms, slings, blowguns, atlatls, tube arrow shooters and other projectile weapons: it's pretty idiotic, because it basically tells players to pick bows and crossbows above all else.
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1) It should be 1d6 points of damage per 10 feet... without a cap. You fall from 300 feet, it should be 30d6; you fall from 500 feet, it should be 50d6; you fall from 1,000 feet, it should be 100d6.
2) As of right now, from a 200-foot fall, you can take between 20 and 120 points of damage, which, y'know, is rather ridiculous. You shouldn't survive a fall this high. Even with terminal velocity, the higher you fall, you harder you should it the ground and take damage.
Firstly, terminal velocity is a thing, and a meaningful one. And secondly...some people in real life have survived falling out of airplanes (ie: way more than 200 feet). So...not being dead on a minimum damage roll makes perfect sense to me.
i'd personally rather have a mana per hour system than a vancian spells per day system. with a handful of scaling spells that have no mana cost attached and no SR requirement.
i'm not saying Evokers should have fireball at will, but evokers should at least have an at will "Force Bullet" that deals the lower end of level appropriate force damage, targets touch AC, ignores spell resistance and lacks verbal or somatic components. the damage should generally be on par with alchemist bombs and well, be modified by feats, but not metamagic
another example, life oracles should have an at will "healing touch" on par with lay on hands, but standard action and without mercies, designed for healing viable amounts of HP in and out of combat. but that would require a drastic change of how healing scales
cantrips should be divorced from the spell system and work akin to warlock invocations, in fact, stuff like mage armor, resistance or light, should be cantrips, as should a variety of 2nd level or lower damage and healing spells. cantrips would be free, but some spells, would have mana costs from the mana per hour thing
i'd also like to see the introduction of rituals divorcing the spells further, if a spell has a powerful out of combat effect, an expensive material component and a long casting time, it should be a ritual
essentially, it would be a divorce of cantrips, spells, and rituals, plus spells would be categorized by spell type with fewer schools, such as merging evocation and a stripped down conjuration, turning divination and necromancy into rituals, merging abjuration and transmutation, and merging illusion and enchantment.
the replacement mage class i would like to see, is a mage flavored by their choices, with an open list of options, rather than letting the flavor dictate the mages options. able to build anything from a cleric to a sorcerer in one list of options and with a psionics inspired mechanic with a hint of 3.5 warlock and a dash of 4e.
One that came to mind is more of an item. The breastplate. How a single metal plate is considered medium armor with a +6 armor bonus just doesn't sit well with me. It's a single slab of metal that covers the torso. A chain shirt covers the torso as well. I just never liked the fact that a spanish conquistador's armor could be objectively better than a suit of chainmail.
One that came to mind is more of an item. The breastplate. How a single metal plate is considered medium armor with a +6 armor bonus just doesn't sit well with me. It's a single slab of metal that covers the torso. A chain shirt covers the torso as well. I just never liked the fact that a spanish conquistador's armor could be objectively better than a suit of chainmail.
A breastplate actually is better than a suit of chainmail. Any sort of chain armor is notorious for being vulnerable to thrusting or piercing weapons, like spears, rapiers, arrows, or just regular old longswords. Other types of armor weren't so vulnerable, be it scale male, breastplates, full-plate etc.
I have seen demonstrations of the difference between plate and chain. Chain was horrible against piercing or thrusting weapons, but survived better against a club or axe. I have seen an axe slice through plate armor and a hammer smash the crap out of it. Of course, I have seen an axe destroy chainmail armor as well. Which is why I feel the axe is a superior weapon to the sword.
The big difference is the breastplate leaves your extremeties bare, where chainmail does not. Which is why I have a problem with a chain shirt being overall better than studded leather, especially with the pathfinder description where a chain shirt just covers the torso (not even the arms).
- The damage cap for falling damage: you can survive a fall from a great height. I could understand a racial trait for catfolks (no seriously, some cats have survived falls from 26 to 32 stories high, that's between 260 and 320 feet), but not from the rest. Yes, there's terminal velocity, but that's still enough to kill you be at level 1 or level 18.Terminal velocity means higher level characters just wouldn't die from falling.
Consider that a headshot max crit from a pistol does 32 damage. The average damage of a fall is 70. That's more than double the damage blowing a hole in your head would do.
Normal people have about 6 health.
Why's that? Level 18 characters are supposed to be nigh on comparable to mid-level deific servants, like high level Angels.
They should be able to survive a fall.
1) It should be 1d6 points of damage per 10 feet... without a cap. You fall from 300 feet, it should be 30d6; you fall from 500 feet, it should be 50d6; you fall from 1,000 feet, it should be 100d6.
2) As of right now, from a 200-foot fall, you can take between 20 and 120 points of damage, which, y'know, is rather ridiculous. You shouldn't survive a fall this high. Even with terminal velocity, the higher you fall, you harder you should it the ground and take damage.
I asked you why it was ridiculous, exactly. At level 18 your party is fighting demons and nearly godlike creatures. They're almost demigods themselves.
Why should a fall be able to kill them?
Also, that's not how terminal velocity works. You don't "hit the ground harder" because you fall from a greater height. You fall FASTER since you have time to pick up speed, as gravity pulls you toward the ground, which causes more damage to you because it's a higher speed collision.
At terminal velocity, you're falling as fast as gravity is capable of pulling you. If you hit terminal velocity after falling 2000 feet, falling 2000 more won't do any more damage to you IRL either.
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Still doesn't work for me. Just not how I see magic working.
And that's perfectly fine. We're just trying to stamp out this 'wizards forgetting spells' meme because it is absolutely incorrect.
Casting spells is very much like baking pies. You can remember the recipe, but you're not eating any more pies unless you take the time to bake them.
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Still doesn't work for me. Just not how I see magic working.And that's perfectly fine. We're just trying to stamp out this 'wizards forgetting spells' meme because it is absolutely incorrect.
Casting spells is very much like baking pies. You can remember the recipe, but you're not eating any more pies unless you take the time to bake them.
That's the most delicious analogy I've heard in a while. Shame it couldn't have been made two days ago.
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Firstly, terminal velocity is a thing, and a meaningful one. And secondly...some people in real life have survived falling out of airplanes (ie: way more than 200 feet). So...not being dead on a minimum damage roll makes perfect sense to me.1) It should be 1d6 points of damage per 10 feet... without a cap. You fall from 300 feet, it should be 30d6; you fall from 500 feet, it should be 50d6; you fall from 1,000 feet, it should be 100d6.
2) As of right now, from a 200-foot fall, you can take between 20 and 120 points of damage, which, y'know, is rather ridiculous. You shouldn't survive a fall this high. Even with terminal velocity, the higher you fall, you harder you should it the ground and take damage.
Some people have interpreted the original fall in rules as 1d6 per 10 feet fallen cumulatively. IE falling 100 ft (reaching terminal velocity) is (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10) d6 = 55d6 damage.
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It's also completely contrary to any way I can imagine magic working. If you know a spell, you KNOW it. You don't forget it once you cast it.Remove "memorize" and "forget" from your vocabulary, and you'll be a lot happier. They're holdovers from 1e that no longer appear in the rules.
Think of "preparing" a spell as casting all but a few key words and gestures in what is actually a long ritual spell. Completing those last few words and gestures ("casting") completes the spell.
Funny how a super high INT and years of study still leave the wizard casting in super slow motion compared to the sorcerer, who does all that in six seconds flat.
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Sorcerers have their power handed to them. They don't need to train, they don't need to study, they don't need to spend 12 hours a day working at something.
So why the heck do they still only get 2 skill points per level? What are they doing with the rest of their time?
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Sorcerers have their power handed to them. They don't need to train, they don't need to study, they don't need to spend 12 hours a day working at something.
So why the heck do they still only get 2 skill points per level? What are they doing with the rest of their time?
This has always bugged me, too.
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Sorcerers have their power handed to them. They don't need to train, they don't need to study, they don't need to spend 12 hours a day working at something.
So why the heck do they still only get 2 skill points per level? What are they doing with the rest of their time?
Practicing in the Danger Room so they don't accidentally burn down the village :P
Funny how I was just watching Happy Gilmore again tonight.
Professional hits the ball.
Natural Talent Happy hits the ball 3 times as far.
Happy: "You know what's really pathetic... you've been playing golf your whole life..."
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I'm sure sorcerers spend that time learning to control their powers and come to terms with their strange nature.
Think of the early years of the X-Men. Many of them spent much of their time simply trying to SURVIVE.
Funny how a super high INT and years of study still leave the wizard casting in super slow motion compared to the sorcerer, who does all that in six seconds flat.
I imagine the sorcerer's "spells known" almost as being permanent spell templates that exist in his/her DNA, so all they need is the energy and they're good to go.
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Wizards cast their magic using purely their own faculties. So excuse us if we have don't have to rely on someone else doing something, to unlock our power.
Funny how a super high INT and years of study still leave the wizard casting in super slow motion compared to the sorcerer, who does all that in six seconds flat.
*cough* spellbooks and years of tutelage *cough cough*
Anyway, the truth is out. :P
*cough* Now where the hell is Bupu with my dead-lizard-cough-suppressant amulet?
Sorcerers have their power handed to them. They don't need to train, they don't need to study, they don't need to spend 12 hours a day working at something.
So why the heck do they still only get 2 skill points per level? What are they doing with the rest of their time?
Yes, they do have to practice. They have to hone their power. They learn spells from doing, not reading, like any other talent. They have to train their magic, while the nerds just RTFM.
An airline stewardess has survived a 33,000 foot fall.
That's a lucky person, but not the norm...
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Wizards cast their magic using purely their own faculties. So excuse us if we have don't have to rely on someone else doing something, to unlock our power.
Funny how a super high INT and years of study still leave the wizard casting in super slow motion compared to the sorcerer, who does all that in six seconds flat.*cough* spellbooks and years of tutelage *cough cough*
Anyway, the truth is out. :P
*cough* Now where the hell is Bupu with my dead-lizard-cough-suppressant amulet?
What's that? Oh, you mean the spellbook that the Wizard crafted himself using his own mind to manipulate and shape the arcane energies at his command into written form?
Hard work trumps natural talent, but you know what trumps hard work? Someone with natural talent that also puts in the hard work.
A sorcerer is just some guy living off the coat tails of his parents' sexual adventures. The Wizard is the guy who decides to take control of his own destiny, puts in the hard work, and with his own exemplary natural mental faculties, re-shapes the world to do his bidding.
The Sorcerer is like little Draco Malfoy, "When my father hears about this..." While the Wizard is Hermione Granger slapping his spoiled little ass and out-performing Draco in every magical field under the sun.