Automatic Bonus Progression and Characters That Don't Want Weapons


Advice


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In light of the "where has the magic gone" thread I've been thinking about ABP. When I've used it in the past, it was generally with groups where everybody would appreciate having a magic weapon of some kind, so it more or less worked flawlessly.

What I'm wondering about is how to handle ABP for characters who don't want or use magic weapons to hurt people- unarmed monks, natural attack builds, kineticists, various casters, etc.

Obviously the wizard and the sorcerer don't really need a boost, so I'm not so worried about them, but if you let people attune to the equivalent of an Amulet of Mighty Fists that's a significant buff to monks/natural attackers (since the AoMF costs twice as much as a weapon with the same enhancement normally). For the Kineticist, they have the accuracy booster built into the class with the Elemental Overflow feature, but since it's a "one big attack" class with with a minimal crit threshold, giving them bonus accuracy and damage wouldn't be a big problem.

So I'm asking, does anybody have experience running an ABP game with one or more characters who had no interest in the magic weapon equivalent feature (or any other feature) and what did you do to modify it to make it work for those characters?


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You do realize that you can use the ABP bonus with unarmed strike?


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Mysterious Stranger wrote:
You do realize that you can use the ABP bonus with unarmed strike?

Is that in a FAQ? I can't find text to that effect in Unchained.


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You can attune yourself to a weapon. Unarmed Strikes are on the table of weapons. So... XD


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I should have specified that I was talking about monks. There is no need for a FAQ because it’s in the Core Rule book.

A monk's unarmed strike is treated as both a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.

Monks actually come out way ahead with the ABP rules. Vow of poverty went from a complete trap to a valid option. Take a vow of poverty and use your one item of value for a monks robe and you are pretty well set.


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Or get really sneaky and craft a bunch of extra effects into that one item. XD Complicated and somewhat expensive... but doable under the core rules.


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GM Rednal wrote:
You can attune yourself to a weapon. Unarmed Strikes are on the table of weapons. So... XD

I feel like this is going to lead back into the "can you enchant a gauntlet" question, since those are on the table of weapons too.

But I figure "you can attune your unarmed strike" is a valid solution.

So can you attune your kinetic blast or your claws? If you have claws, a bite, and a gore can you attune all of those at once or do you have to just pick one?


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I also allow it to apply to kinetic blasts since kineticist does have an accuracy boosting item.


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I believe anything you can normally enchant can be attuned. This includes anything an Amulet of Mighty Fists would affect. Natural Attacks can be attuned, but only one at a time (dual attacks, like claws, count as one). I think. XD


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Note sure about the kinetic blast. Natural weapons should be able to be attuned, but probably each type is going to be separate. At least that is the way Hero Makes seems to work. I know that hero make is not an actual rules authority, but they are right more than they are wrong.

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Personally I just have Natural attacks attune at the rate of off-hand weapons. They rely on Magic Fang for a while, but Natural attacks are strong enough I haven't seen a problem with it.


Milo v3 wrote:
I also allow it to apply to kinetic blasts since kineticist does have an accuracy boosting item.

What accuracy boosting item is this? I'm unfamiliar with it.


Cuenta wrote:
What accuracy boosting item is this? I'm unfamiliar with it.

Seems I've confused it with the item that increases kinetic blast damage. Weird, I was sure there was a rod which increased it's accuracy.


I just let any attack be attuned.
That means a monk's unarmed strike can be attuned (specific attack style. So let's say that their kick attack gets the maximum +5), and a specific kinetic blast can be attuned. (So let's say their Magma blast can be +5 and their other ones aren't.)

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