Adalram appears on Vel's shoulder, then flaps over to Weltmann's desk and peers at the book, then at the Magister, with his orange eyes. "Who's the third?" the bird croaks. "We stopped one -- with the gift of the snake," Vel explains. "But with this witch, she probably had a spare in mind. Any ideas?"
Kia Rubarka wrote:
"'It' is a 'he,'" croaks the white raven in quite understandable Common, "and can take care of himself well enough, thank you." Adalram then tilts his head toward Arianwyn, "Good morning, Idiot." Vel remains quiet and collected through this exchange, if a trifle smug.
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Merely curious, but will we see an update for them like we did the Gunslinger? Because they both need one, each for different reasons. On a side note, I do like the update for the Gunslinger. Without going too in depth (wrong forum) I like the advanced firearms sidebar and how that players now just can't find a gunslinger and kill him for his gun and get 1,000gp immediately at level 1. Again, I haven't yet been able to test the new version, but it looks better.
Playtest results for Samurai (I won’t bother posting the build for the first Samurai player...see reason below) Human Samurai 3/Fighter 5
Order: Lion
Feats: Dodge, Double Slice, Improved Initiative, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Mobility, Quick Draw, Two-Weapon Defense, Two-Weapon Fighting Human Samurai 8
Order: Dragon
Feats: Manyshot, Mounted Combat, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Weapon Focus (longbow) Human Samurai 8
Order: Lion
Feats: Alertness, Combat Expertise, Cleave, Power Attack, Quick Draw, Weapon Focus (Katana) Pros:
-The Resolves were good as well. My players both chose Determined; none of them were sure why Resolute was an option, but I can see the benefit of it myself. -The Samurai was on par with the fighter in our party in terms of damage output. -For the level of the test, Banner wasn’t that powerful, but certainly at higher levels, it can be useful to have. -It was good that the Samurai didn’t need to be Lawful by default. That went over rather well with my table. Although, one player did call BS on that. Wasn't sure if that was a typo or not. Cons:
-We all do agree that the Samurai should have something in addition to Fortitude as a good save. Either Reflex or Will; preferably Will because of the mental training and discipline of the Samurai. -Not sure why the base Samurai does not have Acrobatics as a class skill; it was suggested at the table to add it. About half way through, I had to stop the playtest with the player that volunteered to play the first Samurai, because he kept trying intentionally to get his horse killed. At that point, I said I need someone else to play a Samurai for me to test it. Thankfully, someone else did step up but only took three levels of Samurai and the rest as Fighter. I had to ask him if he would *not* do that, but he insisted because he wanted to be a Master of Dual-Wielding since it was not part of the class normally. I asked if anyone was *willing* to play the Samurai as is, mount, archery and all. I did have one player that (thankfully) stepped up and played the Samurai as was. The Mounted Archery ability felt clunky to him when he used it in combat. Granted, he said he wasn’t accustomed to fighting on horseback to begin with, however. He could see practical use for it in combat, but said he would have to play more mounted combat characters to fully grade it better. I actually ran an option after the first two successful playthroughs. I gave them the option for either the mount or the bonded item. My third player took the bonded item instead of the mount, which actually worked pretty well for the Samurai. I personally wasn’t crazy about it at first, but I must admit, it worked good for the Samurai. I’d consider using it as an alternative to the mount feature. Although all my players were excited at the addition of the Samurai, they were disappointed to hear that the Samurai was mounted. My players have never liked mounts of any type; I don't know why, but the two paladin players I’ve had both chose bonded weapon and I had someone consider the Cavalier, until he saw that it was a mounted class. Would you mind please consider making the mount optional? You could give them the Paladin’s bonded item ability, which makes the Samurai more desirable at my table. Now....as for the Gunslinger: Human Gunslinger 8 Str 11
Feats: Dodge, Extra Grit x2, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Reload (firearm), Secret Stash Pros:
-Targeting was used a lot by my Gunslinger player. He liked making them become confused or forcing them to drop their weapon. Cons:
-The Gunslinger doesn’t do quite as much damage over the long run. Compared to a fighter of the same level, the fighter is doing more damage. Granted, the Gunslinger can add his Dex modifier to damage rolls, but to be on par with the fighter, something needs to be corrected with the damage output. I was wrong when it came to the Gunslinger; it does need some improvement. I’m not sure how I feel exactly about the misfire function of firearms. On one hand, our table has never been fans of the random mishap chart. However, I also can argue that the style these guns are modeled after would have such a flaw in them and it makes sense. So, in the end, I’m neutral at best when it comes to that. I’d reconsider giving the gunslinger either two guns or a musket; only having one or the other would work instead. Giving the Gunslinger the Fighter’s weapon training for guns was good. Although, unless there’s more guns offered in Ultimate Combat (which I’m sure there will be), we’re not sure of the point of Weapon Training for Guns alone. 11 gp/shot? That’s a bit expensive and that needs to be fixed. Deft Shootist Deed is a nice way to fire at point blank range. However, I’d make it an ability at level 9 or 10 perhaps. Secret stash is good for it you’re running low on bullets and powder and can’t or don’t want to engage in melee combat. But again...11 gp/shot? Ouch...
I feel like a complete moron for asking this, but are the archetypes from the APG only available at "level 1"? Let me explain a bit more. I have a player who is a level five rogue. She now wants to branch to a Ranger and is looking at an alternate Archetype for the Ranger. My question simply is this - can she take it? I know the RAW suggests that she can, but I just want to make sure before I give her the green light. |