Alan Spadoni's page

What is Murderous Mist and "haboob"? That doesn't sound Core to me. :lol:

They're not core. They're from Spell Compendium & Sandstorm (iirc). Murderous mist is like cloudkill, except it's reflex save or blinded, with a small amount of damage attached (2d6). Haboob is a nifty stationary cloud of sand that does a small amount of untyped damage (max 5d4), no save, and provides concealment.

I recently played a Human Druid from about 10th to 13th level, with a rhinocerous (later a smilodon, from Frostburn) animal companion. I abused elemental shape, spending most of my time as a large/huge earth elemental. I'd occasionally shape into an air elemental as well, for flight, scouting capabilities, and the Dex boost for ranged/ranged touch attacks. On the spell side, I'd buff the crap out of myself & my companion. Hide from animals got a lot of use, as did SNA and cloud spells, like murderous mist, ice storm and haboob.

Overall, the druid is still as ridiculously powerful as it was in 3.5. I like the changes to wildshape, but I can get into elemental shapes earlier now, which makes them more useful. There doesn't seem to be much of a point to wildshaping into an animal once you get medium+ elementals.

I took a quick look a couple minutes ago, and have some feedback:

Arcane Archer - This class still has the same problem it always had -- I can replicate a major ability chain for this class by buying and enhancing a magic bow, buying magic arrows, or the Magic Weapon/Align Weapon spells. This makes this class next to useless, especially since you really need to take more than 1 level in an arcane casting class to make the Imbue Arrow ability useful, which means you could cast (Improved) Magic Weapon anyway. Also, Arrow of Death really needs to have the same DC progression as the Assassin's Death Attack. A DC 20 at level 17+ isn't going to hit anything worth using the arrow on. I also don't see a need to keep this class as Elf/Half-Elf only.

Arcane Trickster - I like these changes a lot. I wonder if Surprise Spells isn't slightly too powerful though, especially on multi-target spells.

Assassin - While I agree this class shouldn't have spells, I really don't think the loss of spells is offset by the addition of Hidden Weapons and Silent Death, both of which are very situational/NPC-type abilities. This class needed a power boost in the first place, and now needs an even larger one. I also think Neutral characters should be able to take levels in this.

Dragon Disciple - I like this class, though I think it shouldn't be limited to only Draconic bloodlines. I would suggest a [Bloodline] Disciple, with changes to the granted abilities based on the bloodline type. I'm probably going to work on this as a houserule.

Duelist - I like this class, too, but I don't think Precise Strike should be limited to only living creatures with discernible anatomies, especially since Rogues no longer have the same limitation. Precision damage should apply the same for all classes. (As an aside, my group has a houserule that requires a Perception or Knowledge check to discern a possible weakpoint in a previously non-precision-able creature. I think this works rather well, if balancing issues were a concern.) I also don't think Duelists should be limited to Precise Strikes on their main hand attacks only. Again, I think precision damage needs to be kept consistent, and the Duelist really needs the extra damage to even attempt to keep up with the normally far superior two-handed weapon/power attack fighter (especially when DR comes into play). I think the flavor of the Duelist works very well with two weapons as well, and it'd be a shame to make that off-hand weapon essentially useless.

Eldritch Knight - This is pretty solid. Looks like any characters going the full 10 levels in this class will be taking a Falchion with Improved Critical or Keen.

Loremaster - I like the changes, and I like the flavor, but the bonus options to attack rolls, AC, hit points, and skill points seem pretty weak compared to bonus spells, +2 to saves, and a free feat (Toughness basically negates the need for the +3 hp alone). I understand that technically, the feat is harder to get than the other options, but most characters won't have that hard of a time meeting the requirements once they're able to take levels in the PrC. Also, why are +1 bonuses to attack rolls and AC "harder" to get than +2 bonuses to saves?

Mystic Theurge - This PrC is still a trap, but it's a lot better than before.

Pathfinder Chronicler - This class needs a lot of work. At this point, I can't see a use for this besides an NPC. Deep Pockets is practically useless besides for flavor, Epic Tales is confusingly worded and doesn't seem very useful, and the Barbarian-summoning abilities are practically useless by the time you get them. Everything else is ok -- I really like Live to Tell the Tale, and Improved Aid could be very useful in the right situation.

Shadowdancer - Like the Assassin, this class needs more. Perhaps base the Shadow Companion's abilities on the Druid's Animal Companion? It'd count as a level-4 companion, and I'd suggest creating a higher-level Shadowdancer class feature (or a new feat) that counts the characters non-Shadowdancer levels in some fashion (perhaps [levels/2?]) towards this progression.

Overall, I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed in this, especially after how good the Beta PFRPG was.