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Heya all
After receiving a boon that unlocked Thassilonion Specialist I decided to embrace the dark side and make a Runelord of Gluttony (Undead school specialist to be exact). For flavor, I thought about making a bloatmage. It fits don't you think? I'm wondering if it is worth it. Also, does Bloatmage Initiate and Varisian Tattoo (I do have a lot of "canvas to work with") stack?
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The feats stack. The bonuses they grant are untyped.
I contemplated a Dhampir Thassilonian Necromancer Cruoromancer Bloatmage for the longest time, but ended up changing my mind. Necromancers get no love in PFS, and I didn't want to start any arguments at the table should I decide to animate some corpses.
Perhaps you'll have better luck. Necromancy often ends up being a hot topic.
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You can't take subschools on Thassilonian Specialists.Heya all
After receiving a boon that unlocked Thassilonion Specialist I decided to embrace the dark side and make a Runelord of Gluttony (Undead school specialist to be exact). For flavor, I thought about making a bloatmage. It fits don't you think? I'm wondering if it is worth it. Also, does Bloatmage Initiate and Varisian Tattoo (I do have a lot of "canvas to work with") stack?
You can. Thassilonian Specialist simple defines your Specialized schools further. If the subschool is a part of your school, it is perfectly legal to take. Your just defining it even more narrowly.
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Not according to this.You can. Thassilonian Specialist simple defines your Specialized schools further. If the subschool is a part of your school, it is perfectly legal to take. Your just defining it even more narrowly.You can't take subschools on Thassilonian Specialists.Heya all
After receiving a boon that unlocked Thassilonion Specialist I decided to embrace the dark side and make a Runelord of Gluttony (Undead school specialist to be exact). For flavor, I thought about making a bloatmage. It fits don't you think? I'm wondering if it is worth it. Also, does Bloatmage Initiate and Varisian Tattoo (I do have a lot of "canvas to work with") stack?
That FAQ right there is a SUPER important FAQ. Thank you for linking it!
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Thanks all
I too missed that faq. Nothing is set yet, as I have yet to hit level 2. I will be playing crypt of the everflame soon and hitting level 2, though. I'm going to be up front whenever I sit down at a table. If I had the boon that unlocked Dhampir I might have gone with a Cruoromancer they seem perfect. As it is I'm probably going to make an aasimar bloatmage for early entry at level 2.
edit: That is unless there is a faq that contradicts the Faq about SLAs meeting the requirements for presitge classes and feats.
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Sadly I died before I was able to get boon but my Fire Elementalist Rahotep is a level 3 bloatmage (currently level 11).
tbh, Ive only used my bloat 3 times since I got it and I have been lucky and never got sick or gone nuts and started fireballing party members.
I picked it because
A) It fitted my concept. My character is from Rahadoum and is a Maltheist. Use of 'blood magic' seemed to get around the crux of relying for a supreme being to give you extra magic powers
B) I never touch prestige classes that do not have every level spell progression. Being a Wizard, there is no point sacrificing your main class feature for some powers that normally dont do much
C) It fitted the story which was the character in Thassilon trying to learn some magic that could help out with the bad Curse on the Ruby Prince. Then the bugger went and cured himself.
From a roleplaying angle, Sure .. you are gonna get characters going the fat joke route. Probably players too.
Still I havnt regretted going Bloatmage because its just such an interesting concept.
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I play the Aasimar Bloatmage early entry, with the alternate Scion of Humanity. He's a Taldoran noble (with the vanity for a title no less) and Thassilonian Specialist: Transmutation, Varisian Tattoo, and Transmuter of Korada trait... I am one level away from the concept being complete.... I will be the non-evil version of Baron Harkonnen, the Flying Fatman himself! (I need Overland Flight to really seal the deal.)
I've had SO much fun with him. Yes, he ends up with a lot of spells... but I spend 90% of my time making everyone else /fabulous/ with buffs, and the other 10% pretending that I can melee/tank/etc via Polymorphs when we lack any meat. Not quite so good at that...
I will say the 'no free spells' on leveling gets a bit expensive, but eh. It's all about the fun :)
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I play the Aasimar Bloatmage early entry, with the alternate Scion of Humanity. He's a Taldoran noble (with the vanity for a title no less) and Thassilonian Specialist: Transmutation, Varisian Tattoo, and Transmuter of Korada trait... I am one level away from the concept being complete.... I will be the non-evil version of Baron Harkonnen, the Flying Fatman himself! (I need Overland Flight to really seal the deal.)
I've had SO much fun with him. Yes, he ends up with a lot of spells... but I spend 90% of my time making everyone else /fabulous/ with buffs, and the other 10% pretending that I can melee/tank/etc via Polymorphs when we lack any meat. Not quite so good at that...
I will say the 'no free spells' on leveling gets a bit expensive, but eh. It's all about the fun :)
I was really tempted to do something like this myself. Then the Paths of Prestige came out and I went with Maasgamban Arcanist instead. It was definitely a close call. I don't know of any other Prestige classes I'd go with for wizard. For Trasmuter and Evocation, Bloat Mage looks to be awesome.
Maybe for my fourth mage I might make one finally. :D|
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I suppose you learn something new every day.
*makes note to retroactively pay for spells next time he plays his Bloatmage*
Good thing he's only level 2.
Very easy to miss, especially since the 3.5 FAQ had the opposite answer.
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I suppose you learn something new every day.
*makes note to retroactively pay for spells next time he plays his Bloatmage*
Good thing he's only level 2.
Nod.. as far as I'm concerned.. its' the ONLY drawback to my Transmuter/Maagambian Arcanist.. and till the last level I had Cipher Mage/Script to cut my costs.
Then they would never get new spells almost. Scrolls of Spell Knowledge are much more expensive than scribing. I suspect it was a balancing and/or prestige nerfing decision for wizards.
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I have 13 characters.
My Bloatmage is the first and only one with a Prestige Class, and none of my home game characters have ever had one, either.
I suppose that's why I've missed that little detail this whole time.
(but why do spontaneous casters get new spells, while prepared casters don't?)
Hmm.. I got like 17 and I only got 1 current character with a PRC (Maagambian Aracnist) and 1 more lined up (my cleric who is going Envoy of Balance)
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I agree.
It dosnt help when Paizo keeps publishing Prestige classes for evil characters when 90 percent Id say of games are neutral/good aligned in nature and do allow for evil characters.
I too only have 1 character with a prestige class, and thats mainly because I can rarely see one that fits what I envision the particular character to be.
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I decided "Not to Bloatmage"
Played around with the feat, but before I completed the crypt of the everflame and I realize that Necromancy doesn't "Fit" my playstyle. I'm more of a blaster instead of a pet person.
Going to rebuild into a tiefling arcane trickster. Maybe someone can answer this...can I change factions with the level 1 rebuild? If so do I just contact my VC to change stuff? If not I can RP the reason for the regional trait. "Yes, I'm from Taldor but there are just too many
Before 2nd level, you can change your faction as much as you want. At that point, Fame transfers freely. I believe you lose access to faction specific boons and prestige awards, (and presumably faction specific traits.)
Past that point, it normally would cost 3x your character level Prestige to change your faction (p. 18 of the PF Guide.) As mentioned, it's been announced that there will be a free faction change, but the exact details haven't been announced.
Also, Bloatmages. Bloatmages are fat.
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Not according to this.That FAQ right there is a SUPER important FAQ. Thank you for linking it!
I don't see a FAQ, I see a message board post. If they want people to be able to find it, it needs to be in the FAQ. Especially for PFS where "message board posts are rules" but no one can ever seem to find them when asked.
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Actually, while there wasn't a place when that blog was posted, there's a category for it now, with the Golarion Rules FAQ.The problem is that the FAQ only pertains to hardcover books, and the Thassilonian Specialist is from Inner Sea Magic.
That blog is as close as we're going to get to an FAQ, and should probably be considered as "official" as it can get.
I... don't know why I never realized that.
Well, it appears we have something else to create an FAQ request about.
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I will say again I hate the policy of message boards being an official rules source. It irritates me to no end. It is simply not fair to the players or GMs to have to scour all over the posts constantly for fear of missing a ruling.
Rulings should be centralized, and ideally become 'official' on a regular schedule. At the very least, I would like to see official message board rulings reposted to a central dedicated rules blog as they are made, and make THAT the official source rather than the boards. On a set schedule incorporate those into a master rulings document.
I say that as someone who used to be the rules admin for a national living campaign, and had to maintain such a rules document.
There was a collected rulings thread, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside.
It also feels like there is an awful lot of seperate FAQs out there. I am regularly hearing folks say they had never heard of this or that FAQ. It just seems from an outside perspective to be a bit disorganized.
-j
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I hate the policy of message boards being an official rules source.
Jason, the opposite is actually the case.
Messageboard posts on subjects made by the design and development team are not "official rulings" on the games. Clarifications in FAQ posts and errata are official rulings.
This serves a couple of purposes.
First, it allows the design and development team to interact with fans, and have rules discussions with fans, in an exploratory, argumentative (and I mean that in a construct sense) and even sometimes a playful manner without the fear of taking such comments out of context. This is good for everyone.
Second, it does not force anyone playing the game to participate in or wade through message board threads (some of which can be a thousand or more posts long) in order to find official rulings. Many of us enjoy doing such things, but not everyone, and it should not be seen as a requirement for playing Pathfinder.
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I only referred to James' post because, at the time, there was no Golarion FAQ to reference. Now there is, and I think (one of) his posts should be added to that FAQ.
I also created this thread a while back in an attempt to alleviate the frustration that you and I feel over this issue: Designer quotes you'd like to see in the FAQ