Disregard this. He accepts salt shakers. Don't ask me why, he just does.What is the best way to bribe you?I have never really been properly bribed before, but if someone were to bribe me, my guess is that I am probably most easily bribed with large amounts of money in nonsequential bills; price would really depend on the bribe. Money aside, I know food bribes are pretty common. If you want to send those, keep in mind not to send me meat.
You well know that it's actually because of saline purge from Magical Marketplace! :p
I never said I didn't know why. I just said don't ask me :)
David, it was part of the job posting. To replace Sean's Vegan-Fu on the design team, they needed someone who was at least vegetarian.
Oh, why are you vegetarian?
Didn't much like the idea of meat, didn't much like the taste. And a few other things. Met myself somewhere in the middle of those two. Why do you eat meat? Taste I imagine?
Because it's the best source of one of the five tastes :)
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Honestly, because I have raised chickens, and they all have it coming.
Were you being henpecked or were they just too cocky?
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Awesome! Good luck. And you owe it to yourself (and your ill-fated team going into the tomb) to make sure you check out the new evolutions by then!Yeah, going to be putting one of those through the Tomb of Horrors in a month or so. Wish me luck. =)Well, that's the advantage of having freelancers of all stripes. Each has great talents in different areas, and in some cases, that talent is for cool off-the-wall ideas. I know I could be accused of having some pretty off-the-wall ideas myself. Pretty much everything I did for Paizo is still NDA, but look at my 3pp stuff—a barbarian archetype tied to fey masquerades and the evershifting nature of the fey, potentially allowing for viable skill-monkey, debuff, utility, or bag-of-tricks contingency builds seems like not the first thing one would think of!Do any classes/spells/items start out as things you just happen to bring to a table when you play on your own? As in, not a formal design process in the early stages, just something someone came up with and you thought should be fleshed out.
Looking at the Advanced Class Guide's spell list gave me a couple instances of "... who would think of that?" I.E. Curse of Burning Sleep...
Yeah I was looking over them last night. I'm torn between building my own masks from scratch or taking the pre-built ones...
That said Tane Mask is definitely on her to-get list. Jabberwocky!
Do you think the weapon damage dice FAQ post has the single largest collection of FAQ requests in a single post on Paizo?
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Awesome! Good luck. And you owe it to yourself (and your ill-fated team going into the tomb) to make sure you check out the new evolutions by then!Yeah, going to be putting one of those through the Tomb of Horrors in a month or so. Wish me luck. =)Well, that's the advantage of having freelancers of all stripes. Each has great talents in different areas, and in some cases, that talent is for cool off-the-wall ideas. I know I could be accused of having some pretty off-the-wall ideas myself. Pretty much everything I did for Paizo is still NDA, but look at my 3pp stuff—a barbarian archetype tied to fey masquerades and the evershifting nature of the fey, potentially allowing for viable skill-monkey, debuff, utility, or bag-of-tricks contingency builds seems like not the first thing one would think of!Do any classes/spells/items start out as things you just happen to bring to a table when you play on your own? As in, not a formal design process in the early stages, just something someone came up with and you thought should be fleshed out.
Looking at the Advanced Class Guide's spell list gave me a couple instances of "... who would think of that?" I.E. Curse of Burning Sleep...
Yeah I was looking over them last night. I'm torn between building my own masks from scratch or taking the pre-built ones...
That said Tane Mask is definitely on her to-get list. Jabberwocky!
Since my own instinct as a customizer is usually to build my own stuff, but I knew a lot of people wanted to have some prebuilt masks to save time, my goal with those was to make masks that were cool enough that if they were prebuilt, I would be tempted to use them. Since I also built them anyway, though, it might be cheating.
Do you think the weapon damage dice FAQ post has the single largest collection of FAQ requests in a single post on Paizo?
I think it does, certainly of those that haven't been marked as answered. I know there's a strong will to answer that one with priority over most other FAQs, so hopefully we'll have that one soon enough (playtest first though).
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You probably saw this question flounder in the rules forum, but I'm recognizing Paizo seems unmotivated to officially answer questions there:
An investigator has a deep understanding and appreciation for poisons. At 2nd level, he cannot accidentally poison himself when applying poison to a weapon. If the investigator spends 1 minute physically examining the poison, he can attempt a Knowledge (nature) check to identify any natural poison or Knowledge (arcana) check to identify any magical poison (DC = the poison's saving throw DC). Lastly, once a poison is identified, he can spend 1 minute and attempt a Craft (alchemy) check (DC = the poison's saving throw DC) to neutralize 1 dose of the poison. Success renders the dose harmless. The investigator has no chance of accidentally poisoning himself when examining or attempting to neutralize a poison.Is there anything in this text that specifically prevents this from being used on someone who has been poisoned? Ostensibly, it would seem the ability allows an Investigator to create an antidote once he knows what type of poison she's dealing with.
With a minute requirement, it's not like this is going to be super effective against fast acting poisons in combat. Plus, I'm having a hard time seeing how this ability is of much use otherwise. How often do poison traps/weapons need to be neutralized after they've been discovered?
Thanks in advance.
It looks like poison lore only works on doses of poison, which are the discrete entities found before poisoning a target, rather than on poisonous creatures or poisoned creatures. That said, there is definitely design space for this ability to be expanded in a talent. I think this would be most useful in something like, say, removing a contact poison from a useful item.
As to official answers—the main trouble there is that it requires a meeting of minds that is structurally difficult to arrange. Unofficial answers like my thread are fine, but they don't count as official pronouncements for things like PFS.
It looks like poison lore only works on doses of poison, which are the discrete entities found before poisoning a target, rather than on poisonous creatures or poisoned creatures.Is that what is officially meant when talking about about a dose, that's it's a reference to the state of the poison and not the amount?
I read that as indicating the amount/quantity of poison that can be neutralized per minute of successful crafting. Every time one is bitten, you are injected with "1'" dose of poison. When you are hit with a poisoned weapon, you are affected by "1" dose. If a creature is bitten three times, and fails three saves, they have three doses of poison in them. Contrast that with he spell Neutralize poison which affects all poison, regardless of amount.
I think this would be most useful in something like, say, removing a contact poison from a useful item.I've yet to see this come up in any game, PFS or non-PFS. I'm really hoping that this ability was aimed at something more than a situation I've never seen.
To put this as question, if the Investigator is crating an antidote, why couldn't that be administered?
I see what you're getting at, but I have confirmed with the original author that the idea of a dose as being poison that isn't in the creature yet is also as intended.
Okay, that's what I wanted to know. Thank you very much.
Regarding Contact Poisons, I found this in Ultimate Equipment:
Applying Poison
One dose of poison smeared on a weapon or some other object affects just a single target. A poisoned weapon or object retains its poison until the weapon scores a hit or the object is touched (unless the poison is wiped off before a target comes in contact with it).I would be grateful for examples of how the original author envisioned Poison Lore's ability to neutralize poison would be useful.
EDIT: Or if anyone can think of specific non-trivial examples of how to use this ability, that would be appreciated as well.
Yeah it seems pretty niche, I agree. I can think of several legitimate uses, but most would be better solved by the spell purify food and water. The cool part of that ability compared to normal poison use is definitely the ability to ID the poison.
"Hmm, the poison residue is...vishkanya poison. Constable, how many vishkanyas live in this town?"
Hi Mark,
How are you today?
Doing great! Super pumped about the occult classes and can't wait for you guys to see them. How about you Justin?
Yeah it seems pretty niche, I agree. I can think of several legitimate uses, but most would be better solved by the spell purify food and water. The cool part of that ability compared to normal poison use is definitely the ability to ID the poison.Yes, the ID part is excellent, but has this collateral effect of precluding others from IDing poisons by using K. Nature, which I think was usually allowed.
1. Are there any rules for general IDing of poisons if you don't have Poison Lore?
2. I would welcome examples of even the "niche" uses since Investigators don't have purify food and water.
3 Why aren't spells capitalized? Names of spells aren't considered the titles of the spells like the names of songs?
Thanks again.
"Hmm, the poison residue is...vishkanya poison. Constable, how many vishkanyas live in this town?"If this were a PFS scenario...
"None, why do you ask?"
1) I haven't seen any hard and fast ones. I usually allowed it with Craft (alchemy) in home games, but the DC was much trickier than the usually-low DC for the investigator. I'm OK with having both in home games and the investigator gets the choice of skills and the easier DC.
2)
Villager: "Quinn, the Chelish have poisoned the town well with a deadly toxin."
Quinn: "Let me see...Oh, this is a nasty one. And it looks like around 500 doses too. I won't be getting any sleep tonight, but by tomorrow, I think I can produce enough antidote to neutralize it. In the meantime, you'll have to bring in water from elsewhere".
3) They're italicized instead by convention, although those with proper nouns in them like Aroden do usual have the proper noun capitailized.
@PFS—Let's be real, it would be more like "Just one. Brother Broderick Edward Gunnerson from the until-recently abandoned monastery of Cayden. His name is so long, we just call him BBEG for short."
I see what you're getting at, but I have confirmed with the original author that the idea of a dose as being poison that isn't in the creature yet is also as intended.Wait...is it still a "dose" if it's mixed in with food or water? Seems like the answer is no.
I believe it is a dose both in the bottle and when applied, but not once someone has made or failed the saving throw against it.
EDIT: Oh, I just remembered another good way to identify poison—the check you get from detect poison.
You'd need at least some of it on hand to physically examine, is my take.
Hope my interpretations have helped out!
p. 30: Under the Alchemy class feature, Alchemists can explicitly use spell-trigger but not spell-completion items for formulas on their list. Investigator contains no such note, and thus cannot do this. Is this difference intentional?
Hey Mark, what is your opinion on this?
p. 30: Under the Alchemy class feature, Alchemists can explicitly use spell-trigger but not spell-completion items for formulas on their list. Investigator contains no such note, and thus cannot do this. Is this difference intentional?Hey Mark, what is your opinion on this?
I think it's probably an oversight. I would let them use spell trigger items in my home games.
Double Slice allows you to deal 1x your strength modifier damage when making off-hand attacks.
How does Double Slice work if the character is using an agile or a slashing grace weapon and so uses dexterity in place of strength?
So far, what was (or is being) the most fun thing to design/co-design for Pathfinder? And what was (or is being) the most difficult? :)
oohh you know what, what was your top 25 favorite 3pp products(that you didnt work on)?
Double Slice allows you to deal 1x your strength modifier damage when making off-hand attacks.
How does Double Slice work if the character is using an agile or a slashing grace weapon and so uses dexterity in place of strength?
It looks like it only works on Strength, but the wording that causes this to be true is usually something I would houserule to just work in my home games. However, in this case, I'd be careful about using it with Dex, as that would allow a Dex TWFer to significantly outdamage a Str TWFer (since Str TWFer will have to split up Str and Dex to get Double Slice, even a ranger can't promptly get all the TWF feats and Double Slice with Combat Style) while also being better at Dexy stuff. It may still turn out to work out in your games, since I know we've talked about the particulars of your games earlier in the thread. In the end, each GM should make the calls that are best for their home game.
As an aside comment—one of my personal design principles is that if there's something that's in a zone where it varies by campaign whether it's problematic, it's probably a better idea for the official rules to be more conservative, since it's much easier and friendlier in a push-and-pull group dynamic for a GM to strengthen a player's options or give the players more options than it is to weaken them or take them away. I'm blessed with a group of players that, for the most part, like to work with me to weaken PC options that seem unbalancing out of a mixture of mostly interest in exciting tense gameplay but slightly fear of what would happen if I gave those same options to NPCs.
So far, what was (or is being) the most fun thing to design/co-design for Pathfinder? And what was (or is being) the most difficult? :)
I really like my occult classes and a few subsystems for Unchained. I'm afraid I can't really name anything specific except that one of the two classes is the kineticist (already announced).
The most difficult thing by far is creating abilities and subsystems that go against the established mold in a way that is fun for everyone at the table. Just to pick a random example, one thing I like doing that is challenging is designing options that allow a mid-to-high-level martial character to be mobile while still doing something truly substantial, but without creating the potential for a frustrating peekaboo character from the other side, where it can't be fought by any other martial and can only be defeated by a caster readying an action to disable and pin it down. That sort of thing might be an interesting encounter for a one-off NPC (like a quickling or something), but once it happens enough, everyone will start to be frustrated (heck, even just one fight with a quickling or Spring Attack incorporeal that never leaves the walls can be frustrating).
oohh you know what, what was your top 25 favorite 3pp products(that you didnt work on)?
I generally like 3pp products that I can insert directly in my games. Usually that means they have giant charts of possibilities (like the Tome of Adventure Design by Frog God as well as others) or are something like a Legendary Games plug-in for an Adventure Path I was already planning to run or play.
Otherwise, I'm a bit of a hard sell for 3pp because I sit at a combination of low disposable income, strong improv skills being my best GMing skill (my weakness is props), and being pretty good at designing my own material (even before being hired here, I still had the skills to be hired, if that makes sense). I confess that even when I receive product for free (such as from being a freelancer for a 3pp that gives complimentary copies of all products to its freelancers), I haven't had time to read everything I got for free unless it sings to me (it's hard to describe exactly what sings to me since it isn't a genre, but fey and some planar stuff often do).
That said, I've always been a fan of 3pp endeavors, and I do find the time to read most if not all of endzeitgeist's reviews, even if I don't buy them, so I can recommend them to other people when I think they would like them (for instance, I made sure to familiarize myself with all the 3pp products at our booth at Gencon and try to sell them to customers who expressed interest in related topics).
Sorry if that didn't come out to a Top 25 list. I could try to make a list of ones I've read, or that I've used, but from Endzeitgeist's reviews, I can already tell that there are a bunch I haven't read out there purely because I'm not a good target audience for most 3pp product (heck, my Paizo subscriptions before the design job were only the RPG and AP. I bought everything else on sale with store credit I received from the FLGS). That said, I do think it's clever of companies like Frog Gog and Legendary to come up with products that I would buy, since I may be one of the hardest potential customers (not counting those who refuse to use 3pp stuff as a potential customer) to influence to a purchase.
Did some searching and couldn't find anyone who asked this question directly, maybe because the answer is obvious?
If you enchant an Amulet of Mighty Fists with three weapon qualities, is that tantamount to them having a +3 bonus for DR or do you actually have to make it a +3?
Also, if you give it a weapon quality instead of a +1 bonus, are natural attacks still considered magical for DR?
Thanks.
As always, these are just my personal interpretations:
Just like for a weapon, you need a flat +3 enhancement bonus on the amulet to bypass DR as silver or cold iron (and so on for +4 and +5).
For an amulet of mighty fists without a flat enhancement bonus, you don't bypass DR/magic. That's also how I ran several playtests back as a fan for the ACG, and everyone seemed to agree with it at the time.
That seems an odd interpretation because AMOF is using Greater Magic Fang, which states in the spell:
This bonus does not allow a natural weapon or unarmed strike to bypass damage reduction aside from magic.So it would seem any use of AMOF is considered a magic attack, which makes sense when you think about it. The attack is benefiting from magic.
You are probably correct about the first question as the item description seems to differentiate between "enhancement bonus" and "melee weapon special ability."
Greater magic fang provides an enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls, and DR says:
Some monsters are vulnerable to magic weapons. Any weapon with at least a +1 magical enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls overcomes the damage reduction of these monsters.
Items that use a particular spell do not always follow the same rules as the spell. For instance, if the amulet used the exact same rules as greater magic fang, it could never bypass other types of damage reduction aside from magic, even if it was +5 or holy. That said, you could always cast greater magic fang in addition to having a menacing or holy amulet with no enhancement bonus and get the best of both worlds.
It looks like it only works on Strength, but the wording that causes this to be true is usually something I would houserule to just work in my home games. However, in this case, I'd be careful about using it with Dex, as that would allow a Dex TWFer to significantly outdamage a Str TWFer (since Str TWFer will have to split up Str and Dex to get Double Slice, even a ranger can't promptly get all the TWF feats and Double Slice with Combat Style) while also being better at Dexy stuff. It may still turn out to work out in your games, since I know we've talked about the particulars of your games earlier in the thread. In the end, each GM should make the calls that are best for their home game. (...)Double Slice allows you to deal 1x your strength modifier damage when making off-hand attacks.
How does Double Slice work if the character is using an agile or a slashing grace weapon and so uses dexterity in place of strength?
After reading your post I'm actually inclined to let Double Slice only work off of strength - as you say the dex user will generally put out better numbers while TWFing, but it requires two feats the strength user can skip (weapon finesse & Slashing Grace). Allowing strength users two TWF feats (double slice and Two-Weapon Rend) that boost their DPR and are unavailable to characters who go straight dexterity means that characters who split their stats are more competitive.
Thanks for the reply! Even when we disagree on something you give me a great deal to think about. :)
It looks like it only works on Strength, but the wording that causes this to be true is usually something I would houserule to just work in my home games. However, in this case, I'd be careful about using it with Dex, as that would allow a Dex TWFer to significantly outdamage a Str TWFer (since Str TWFer will have to split up Str and Dex to get Double Slice, even a ranger can't promptly get all the TWF feats and Double Slice with Combat Style) while also being better at Dexy stuff. It may still turn out to work out in your games, since I know we've talked about the particulars of your games earlier in the thread. In the end, each GM should make the calls that are best for their home game. (...)Double Slice allows you to deal 1x your strength modifier damage when making off-hand attacks.
How does Double Slice work if the character is using an agile or a slashing grace weapon and so uses dexterity in place of strength?
After reading your post I'm actually inclined to let Double Slice only work off of strength - as you say the dex user will generally put out better numbers while TWFing, but it requires two feats the strength user can skip (weapon finesse & Slashing Grace). Allowing strength users two TWF feats (double slice and Two-Weapon Rend) that boost their DPR and are unavailable to characters who go straight dexterity means that characters who split their stats are more competitive.
Thanks for the reply! Even when we disagree on something you give me a great deal to think about. :)
No problem! With a game as dependent on group dynamic as ours, it's impossible to come up with a single answer that everyone can agree on because in many situations, both sides of an argument are correct from a huge sample size of their own experience, and it's actually true that they each shouldn't let the other side convince them to change because it would hurt their game (even as each tries to explain this to the other person, thinking it will help the other person's game). But I do always strive to give thoughtful analysis and to look deeply into stress points, considering groups with widely different playstyles as best as I can model them.
Did some searching and couldn't find anyone who asked this question directly, maybe because the answer is obvious?
If you enchant an Amulet of Mighty Fists with three weapon qualities, is that tantamount to them having a +3 bonus for DR or do you actually have to make it a +3?
Also, if you give it a weapon quality instead of a +1 bonus, are natural attacks still considered magical for DR?
Thanks.
As always, these are just my personal interpretations:
Just like for a weapon, you need a flat +3 enhancement bonus on the amulet to bypass DR as silver or cold iron (and so on for +4 and +5).
For an amulet of mighty fists without a flat enhancement bonus, you don't bypass DR/magic. That's also how I ran several playtests back as a fan for the ACG, and everyone seemed to agree with it at the time.
Would the DR/Epic change in Mythic Adventurers change this at all? In which a weapon with +x equivalent abilities counts as +x for the purpose of overcoming DR/Epic. So a +1 flaming burst giant bane weapon would count as +6 vs giants, +2 from flaming burst, +1 from Bane, +2 from the increased enhancement from Bane, and +1 from static enhancement.
If it only applies to DR/Epic, that'd be one thing, but if it applies to DR in general, that's a bit more of a problem.
Did some searching and couldn't find anyone who asked this question directly, maybe because the answer is obvious?
If you enchant an Amulet of Mighty Fists with three weapon qualities, is that tantamount to them having a +3 bonus for DR or do you actually have to make it a +3?
Also, if you give it a weapon quality instead of a +1 bonus, are natural attacks still considered magical for DR?
Thanks.
As always, these are just my personal interpretations:
Just like for a weapon, you need a flat +3 enhancement bonus on the amulet to bypass DR as silver or cold iron (and so on for +4 and +5).
For an amulet of mighty fists without a flat enhancement bonus, you don't bypass DR/magic. That's also how I ran several playtests back as a fan for the ACG, and everyone seemed to agree with it at the time.
Would the DR/Epic change in Mythic Adventurers change this at all? In which a weapon with +x equivalent abilities counts as +x for the purpose of overcoming DR/Epic. So a +1 flaming burst giant bane weapon would count as +6 vs giants, +2 from flaming burst, +1 from Bane, +2 from the increased enhancement from Bane, and +1 from static enhancement.
If it only applies to DR/Epic, that'd be one thing, but if it applies to DR in general, that's a bit more of a problem.
I think that only applies to DR/Epic.
Also, though not directly relevant to your question, personally I'm not a fan of that change (for many of the same reasons as others have expressed on the forums), and I haven't applied it when I use Mythic in my games.
No problem! With a game as dependent on group dynamic as ours, it's impossible to come up with a single answer that everyone can agree on because in many situations, both sides of an argument are correct from a huge sample size of their own experience, and it's actually true that they each shouldn't let the other side convince them to change because it would hurt their game (even as each tries to explain this to the other person, thinking it will help the other person's game). But I do always strive to give thoughtful analysis and to look deeply into stress points, considering groups with widely different playstyles as best as I can model them.
Though I don't entirely agree with it I have a lot of sympathy for the argument that dex-to-damage makes strength superfluous, since damage is really all strength has going for it once encumbrance stops being an issue.
Ultimately I think breaking up the monopoly strength has on melee combat is still a good thing. Since strength is no longer the "alpha stat" for melee combat there's now tons of space available for creating more cool feats with a high strength requirement, like Two-Handed thrower. Some feats focusing on strength melee/throwing switch hitter options for example. I can't help think making strength less binary and a more interesting stat can benefit the game greatly. :)
No problem! With a game as dependent on group dynamic as ours, it's impossible to come up with a single answer that everyone can agree on because in many situations, both sides of an argument are correct from a huge sample size of their own experience, and it's actually true that they each shouldn't let the other side convince them to change because it would hurt their game (even as each tries to explain this to the other person, thinking it will help the other person's game). But I do always strive to give thoughtful analysis and to look deeply into stress points, considering groups with widely different playstyles as best as I can model them.Though I don't entirely agree with it I have a lot of sympathy for the argument that dex-to-damage makes strength superfluous, since damage is really all strength has going for it once encumbrance stops being an issue.
Ultimately I think breaking up the monopoly strength has on melee combat is still a good thing. Since strength is no longer the "alpha stat" for melee combat there's now tons of space available for creating more cool feats with a high strength requirement, like Two-Handed thrower. Some feats focusing on strength melee/throwing switch hitter options for example. I can't help think making strength less binary and a more interesting stat can benefit the game greatly. :)
There's a lot of interesting what-ifs for the way abilities scores could be retooled. For instance, just spitballing whatever pops to my head first, but if the Constitution score was removed due to having no skills tied to it, and then Dexterity did accuracy for all weapons by default (in addition to all it currently does), and Strength did damage, Fort saves, and hit points, then I don't think anyone would blink an eye if there was a "Deadly Grace" feat to let Dex handle damage and another "Unavoidable Might" feat to let Strength handle accuracy.
There's a lot of interesting what-ifs for the way abilities scores could be retooled. For instance, just spitballing whatever pops to my head first, but if the Constitution score was removed due to having no skills tied to it, and then Dexterity did accuracy for all weapons by default (in addition to all it currently does), and Strength did damage, Fort saves, and hit points, then I don't think anyone would blink an eye if there was a "Deadly Grace" feat to let Dex handle damage and another "Unavoidable Might" feat to let Strength handle accuracy.
I love this idea! At the risk of completely derailing the entire thread, is this something you considered doing for Pathfinder Unchained? Next to vancian casting the six ability scores are probably the most sacred cow around...
There's a lot of interesting what-ifs for the way abilities scores could be retooled. For instance, just spitballing whatever pops to my head first, but if the Constitution score was removed due to having no skills tied to it, and then Dexterity did accuracy for all weapons by default (in addition to all it currently does), and Strength did damage, Fort saves, and hit points, then I don't think anyone would blink an eye if there was a "Deadly Grace" feat to let Dex handle damage and another "Unavoidable Might" feat to let Strength handle accuracy.I love this idea! At the risk of completely derailing the entire thread, is this something you considered doing for Pathfinder Unchained? Next to vancian casting the six ability scores are probably the most sacred cow around...
To be completely honest, if it was currently in Unchained, I would never be able to post it here. However, it's one of many many tinkerings that have come into my head at some point or another. If you try a 5-stat system like that and it makes things more awesome, let me know!