GeorgeTheFool's page

So the trait reads: "You’ve come to appreciate the balanced approach taken by sovereign dragons. Once per day, before attempting a saving throw against a spell ability originating from another creature, you can invoke the determination of those dragons. You take 10 on the saving throw (treat the d20 die result as if it were a 10)."

Link: http://aonprd.com/TraitDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Balanced%20Determination

I've confirmed the write up is the same on the d20pfsrd as well as in the source book (Legacy of Dragons).

My question is what is a "spell ability"? It's not a term I've seen before and I did some digging and got nothing.

Possible Interpretations:
-Maybe it's a typo and is to say "spell or ability"
-Maybe spell ability just means spell or SLA
-Maybe the type was not including, like, resulting in it just being relevant vs SLA's
-Something else?

What do you good folks think? Thanks for reading

Alright folks, let's look at the bane of two weapon fighting builds (not DR this time), that offhand damage.

Power Attack

Piranha Strike

Double Slice

The key line of these are as follows

From PA & PS: This bonus to damage is halved (-50%) if you are making an attack with an off-hand weapon

From Double Slice: Add your Strength bonus to damage rolls made with your off-hand weapon.

Now as we know, RAW it works as it says it does. However, my complaint and contention is that since double slice gives you full Strength to your damage for offhand attacks, your power attack damage should also be increased to match that multiplier, both for the sake of consistency, and so TWF builds don't get shafted. To me, it looks to be an egregious oversight.

The way it is currently, double slice is a bit of a trap feat, and if you're a fighter, you just take weapon specialization. From a brief look at numbers, double slice is equally as good (before EDV calculations) as than weapon spec once you have Str mod of 7, as then double slice ups your offhand damage from Str from +3 to +7

So for the GM's out there, do you allow double slice to bump up the power attack/piranha strike damage as well? I usually do, as it makes calculations easier and I'm arguably too giving.

Thanks for reading folks

So the mediator trait is a very interesting one, and it appeals to many an enchantment sorceror, wizard, and also the bread and butter of mesmerists. That said, there's occasional talk of what spells count as acceptable for the trait bonus for the spell DC.

This comment laid things out pretty nicely, but it looks to have been forgotten in the wind.

Trait in Question: Mediator (Champions of Purity) : You receive a +1 trait bonus to the DC of any charm or compulsion effect that does not provide ongoing control and results in peaceful acts, such as calm emotions, sleep, or a suggestion to lay down arms.

So the crux of its usage is two-fold.

1. Does not provide ongoing control.

This portion reasonably kicks spells such as charm XYZ and dominate XYZ spells.

2. Results in peaceful acts.

This calls into question what a peaceful act is.

Peaceful on an individual basis, much like how many of these sorts of spells are cast, varies based upon the individual's perspective.

It can reasonably argued that a state of inaction is more peaceful than say smacking some goblin with a billy club. It can also be argued that a target laughing maniacally on the ground is more peaceful than that same fellow shooting your ally with a crossbow

Finally, we come to the example spells provided: "such as calm emotions, sleep, or a suggestion to lay down arms."

Calm emotions denies the use of morale bonuses, prevents barbarians from raging, etc. It is a denial of specified actions, and this denial is then considered a peaceful act. With this in mind, an easy argument for spells such as hideous laughter and daze, which both deny actions, to be considered peaceful spells.

Sleep denies actions and even makes the targets helpless, which is an even larger than denial of actions than either hideous laughter or daze, or even hold XYZ for that matter. Sleep also has a longer duration than the sum of these spells' durations combined (for a given caster level).

Suggestion is follows a similar train of thought (see what I did there?) as spells like sow thought, modify memory, etc. None of these grant ongoing control, and all of them can be used to bring forth peaceful acts.

To conclude, I'd appreciate it if we could get some dialogue and some quality consensus going on this fun trait.

Disclosure: I'm biased and want to use this on enchantment sorcerors and mesmerists.