Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder
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Actually, we started at Lvl 13. But, yeah. It's an all evil drow party. Most of us opted for Neutral Evil.
The party is:
Alivorah Azrinae - bard/demonic initiate (James Jacobs)
Ylvirixna Azrinae - sorcerer (Rob McCreary)
Cardinal Rackutio Azrinae - summoner (Josh Frost)
Verandia Vonnarc - cleric (Jodi, Sean's GF)
Phyxafein Barriduis - inquisitor/assassin (me, Timitius)
That should be a spell that only hot chicks in red leather outfits with pain sticks can cast.
HELL YEAH!!!
Too bad you NEED a Cleric (or Oracle) to get that, as it's not on other spell lists.Or a handy bard with a +30 Use Magic Device and a scroll fetish...
Exactamundo.
You mean, like breath of life?
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/breathOfLife.html#breath-of-life
Well, that helps, but since it explicitly excludes death effects and since it only works on creatures with hit points in the range -10 through -Constitution score (a pretty narrow window, even non-existant, for some characters), it would not really help in most circumstances I'm talking about.
@gbonehead: I think you're reading it slightly wrong. Notice the order the spell is explained in:
No restrictions on target other than for the resurrection effect they must have "died within 1 round" along with the death effect restriction raise dead/resurrection also have. (BoL should probably also have the Undead restriction those have)
This part is referencing "the healed creature", i.e. the creature has already received the healing.
The conditional "if...then" clauses are referring to the target's status AFTER the spell's healing has been applied, not a restriction on what creatures you can cast the spell on as you suggest ("since it only works on creatures with HPs in the range -10 through -CON score"). The resurrection effect clearly only can work on creatures who are DEAD, which by definition is below -CON score.
It could probably be stated a bit more clearly/succintly by just saying the spell brings you back to life IF the new HP total after healing is above (-CON Score), and that if the total is below 0 you are automatically Stabilized. (instead of having an entire second sentence to say you remain dead if your negative HP total is greater than your CON score)
That's another thing, the spell's wording of "If the healed creature's HP total is at a negative amount less than its CON score, it comes back to life" and "If the creature's HP total is at a negative amount equal to or greater than its CON score, the creature remains dead" is potentially pretty confusing - saying "above negative CON score" and "below zero HPs" might be more clear, since "greater than" and "less than" have established mathematical meanings the direct opposite of how they're being used here, where "negative HPs" are themselves being treated as positive units of measurement.
Hmmm.... I see no Red Box Games figures...... This is a shame that MUST be corrected! ;)
@gbonehead: I think you're reading it slightly wrong. ...
You're absolutely right, I was applying the limitation *before* the healing (and had a 3.5 moment thinking that -10 was the cap) ... so it's not quite so limiting.
Still not quite as useful as revivify (especially if the character bought it due to a death effect), but with maximize you're looking at up to +65 hp, so as long as the character's above -80 or so they're probably good.
Not quite sure why they chose to nerf revivify so badly - it was also level 5 but was equivalent to a no-Con loss, no level loss, no spell loss raise dead.
I got it: Breath of Life should have been Cure Mortal Wounds.
(if it were to be a 'cure' spell, BoL is a great name by itself)
Breath of Life is better than Revivify in that it doesn't need diamond dust and it can easily restore the character to positive HPs allowing them to get back into the fight on their next turn, which Revivify cannot possibly do. On the whole I prefer BoL, the temporary negative level only lasts 1 day (negative levels have less effect in PRPG than in 3.5 anyways), plus you can cast it as often as needed (especially Oracles) whilst Revivify's diamond dust means you have to decide how many times you want to cast it whenever you stock up on exotic components. Further, if you have multiple characters who can cast it (via UMD if necessary), there's nothing stopping you from casting it twice on the same target if extra healing is needed: As long as 1 round hasn't passed, the healing should still work.
Creative Director
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I got it: Breath of Life should have been Cure Mortal Wounds.
(if it were to be a 'cure' spell, BoL is a great name by itself)
Actually, it was originally called "cure deadly wounds," since calling it "cure mortal wounds" could be interpreted as a spell that cures wounds suffered by mortals. Also, as cure deadly wounds, its abbreviation of CDW doesn't overlap with the abbreviation of other cure spells (CLW, CMW, CSW, and CCW).
Since the spell's so handy, I figured that calling it cure deadly wounds would be a great way to let clerics have access to it all the time. Doing so would help give clerics a better than ever chance to rush in and save a slain companion, since if it isn't a cure spell, a cleric has to prepare it.
The spell got changed to "breath of life" because of a concern that allowing it to be called cure deadly wounds made it TOO easy to save a dead person from dying. Unfortunately, I feel that change basically just turned the spell into a "spell tax" for clerics, since it's such an important spell to have handy. In my home games, I'll continue to let clerics spontaneously cast it, in any event; it's worked fine that way for my homebrew games for the last several years, so I don't think it unbalances much...
Further, if you have multiple characters who can cast it (via UMD if necessary), there's nothing stopping you from casting it twice on the same target if extra healing is needed: As long as 1 round hasn't passed, the healing should still work.
I was thinking about exactly that, but didn't want to clog up my post with other stuff too. It would depend on a DM interpreting the spell such that multiple castings' hit points would stack. I think it would be a cruel DM who would not allow it to stack, but it is a reasonable interpretation of the RAW - if the first spell is not sufficient to bring you back, then it fails, thus a second one would have the same effect. Not how *I* would do it, but I tend to be a very player-friendly DM.
Hadn't really considered the material component aspect of it; I don't tend to pay any attention to components - as a DM I require all high-level casters to take the Ignore Material Components feat so that we don't have to do that kind of bookkeeping.
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Creative Director
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Further, if you have multiple characters who can cast it (via UMD if necessary), there's nothing stopping you from casting it twice on the same target if extra healing is needed: As long as 1 round hasn't passed, the healing should still work.I was thinking about exactly that, but didn't want to clog up my post with other stuff too. It would depend on a DM interpreting the spell such that multiple castings' hit points would stack. I think it would be a cruel DM who would not allow it to stack, but it is a reasonable interpretation of the RAW - if the first spell is not sufficient to bring you back, then it fails, thus a second one would have the same effect. Not how *I* would do it, but I tend to be a very player-friendly DM.
Hadn't really considered the material component aspect of it; I don't tend to pay any attention to components - as a DM I require all high-level casters to take the Ignore Material Components feat so that we don't have to do that kind of bookkeeping.
Multiple castings of breath of life can absolutely work to bring someone back to life if one casting wasn't enough to bring their hit points back up to the "alive" zone of negative Constitution... as long as a round hasn't passed since death occured.
Yup, Sean has said in a thread somewhere that if breath of life is an option you should keep and eye of your negative health.
Minis are going to be the death of me, I know it.
I better bring an extra suitcase to Origins this year :)
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where are those dinosaur minis from? I am looking for a stegosaurus mini along with other dinosaur ones and those are exactly the size I want.
If anyone knows what they are so I can get them, I would be very grateful.
I am trying to modify a mini into a stegosaurus and it is going about as well as my contract devil for CoCT. grrrrrrr......
Awesome game this looks to me. Rock on with the gaming!
BTW: does mr blue dragon get playtime?
The dinosaur "minis" are from the Dinos Toob by Safari Limited. You probably can find them in toy stores, craft stores (like Michaels), and big stores like Target.
Josh used his blue dragon in our first session to represent a summoned roc.
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Thanks Sean!! You have completely solved my dinosaur mini problems. I ordered two toobs of them today. This is going to be sweet.
Are you having fun behind the screen? I enjoy high level games because they let the players really fly and I get to let loose as a GM.
The blue dragon as a roc does work. I forgot they were actually THAT big. Wow.
Thanks for the heads up, Russ. I can see those animal toobs being useful too.
"Why are we fighting the druids again?"
"because the GM purchased an animal toob."
"Oh. Wait a tic, he also got a sealife one."
"Yep. Yes he did."
"!*&> I hate putting ranks in swim. I just got
this full plate too." ;)