Aldaron79's page

Aldaron79 wrote:

And a 1 action Warped Terrain won't probably be of use much if ever.

I don't see how you can make that judgement.

A hallway, forcing movement through a more favorable terrain, forcing the use of stride over step by proxy of limiting an opponents movements via surroundings.

I mean it's a Focus Point spell, so you'd probably want to spend for the higher action versions, but it depends heavily on what you managed to do alongside that 1 action cast as well (such as another battlefield control spell).

But statements like "my 1 action spell that limits actions of my opponents" and "won't probably be of use much if ever" shouldn't be used in the same sentence.

Regardless of the placement, the duration is 1 minute, so it is not like it doesn't hold value for more than the turn it is cast (so your team can use that terrain to its advantage).

What higher actions? You got 2, warped terrain or Invisibility Cloak. The second one won't see use during combat.

And most people that commented here said that they haven't use it much if at all.

TheGoofyGE3K wrote:

All this talk of the wizard's third action... sustaining a previously cast spell sounds like a good idea

I mean, so is movement via Stride or Step.

In reality, its not hard to fill that third action slot. There just seems to be an ideological divide where its felt that Wizards, in particular, need to be able to fill that with a "Wizard" specific action.

But not with a Wizard Focus spell, because they aren't good enough- though its not a power thing because people don't want more power... or something... but Wizard focus spells are definitely bad because reasons...

Well... they really aren't that good as third action since many costs more than one and others are very situational so you can't count that you'll use them in most fights.

For example my future illusionist could cast the 1 action version of Warped Terrain (5 feet burst) but not Invisibility cloak since it costs 2 actions. And a 1 action Warped Terrain won't probably be of use much if ever.
Call of the grave is 2 actions. Charming Words only works if someone is attacking you (and has a 30 feet range). Diviner's Sight seems extremely restrictive with the 1 round duration and you're just as likely to roll badly.
Force Bold and Hand of the Apprentice are cool.
Physical Boost seems out of combat only. Protection Ward is better than nothing but not that great anyway you the wizard probably won't be that close to help.
Some of the 4 level focus are great but mostly as situational help and not as something you'll cast every fight (like Energy Absorption).

Haven't played a wizard yet and nobody in our group played one yet even after most of the other classes. Wizards just lack some coolness in my opinion.
Still I'm going to play an Illusionist next (our campaign is pretty lethal so I always have another char ready), we're level 12 now so I'll have access to the really powerful stuff but what I would like is just flavorful things.
For example my 4lvl Illusionist in 5e can cast the cantrip Minor Illusion at will making both image and sound, something that no one but the illusionist can do. I almost never use it in combet but it's really cool, flavorful and I don't think game breaking. Even a 12lvl pf2 Illusionist can't do that, no even using a 1 lvl slot or a focus point (I can't wait to get Illusory Reality!).
And speaking of focus, wizard focus powers seem meh. I don't think I'll ever use the Illusionist 1st power and the other one is barely better than 2nd level invisibility. It's not worth a feat tbh.
I think that's the kind of things some players are asking for. Not world shaking powers but cool, unique stuff.
The new Illusionist feat for example is great, I wish they did something like that for every specialization.
The thesis seem ok, although substitution is probably way better than the others. I wish the metamagic one would let me take conceal spell. As it is you can only get widen or reach.

I don't think the masters of recall knowledge argument holds water. Wizards can max 3 skills, mine has Arcana, Deception and Crafting. He has other skills but he's only trained and he's no better than other characters except for arcana.

And another thing that I realized while making my character is how expensive spells are to get. It doesn't seem to at first but it adds up. For my 12lvl wizard it got to almost half of my wealth while other casters don't spend anything for their spells and that's without rolling for the learn a spell activity. That's gold that I could've use for wands, scrolls or other items.

I'm not a fan. If your character doesn't know how to swim at level 1 and never bothered to learn then he shouldn't know how to swim EVER. That's regardless of the level approrpriate DC for his current level. He just sucks at that and that's ok. I don't like that everyone has to be good at everything just because they're high level.
If you look at the tables at 20th level everyone should be able to succeed at every ordinary task listed there at high dificulty without much problems.

Launch a new one to make them a bit better. They suck now.

If you compare them with goblins at least they get Darkvision. Halflings get nothing at all. Humans also got nothing. I was expecting a free feat or something.

I too understand the move, but it also brings up questions as to why its human based and not elf or orc based. In past editions and other game settings, they are almost always their own unique race with their own lore and qualities.

It's Jarring

And all the abilities of the human is... nothing. They get nothing. Other races at least get darkvision.

What kind of action is using Warp Perception? The texts doesn't say anything about it.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/cryptic/archetypes/dream scarred-press/distorter

Warp Perception (Su)

A 4th level distorter has learned to alter the way creatures perceive distances by manipulating the visual patterns. The distorter can cause up to her Intelligence modifier in creatures to incorrectly calculate the distance between the affected creature and the cryptic unless each creature makes a successful Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 cryptic class level + the cryptic’s Intelligence modifier). For a number of rounds equal to the cryptic’s Intelligence modifier, each square of movement any of the affected creatures take toward the cryptic counts as two squares of movement, regardless of the mode of movement (flight, swim, etc) or if the creature is corporeal or incorporeal. In addition, any ranged attacks made at the cryptic by the affected creatures that only work within a certain range (such as a ranged sneak attack or Point-Blank Shot) count the distance between the creature and the cryptic as double. This does not affect the range increment of the attack, only if the distance of the attack qualifies.

This ability replaces the insight normally gained at 4th level.

I think you're asking for something incredibly specific. I'm going to tell you right now I'm not intending to build anything in this book that fits that build concept due to it not only not fitting the flavor of soulknife but also changing its stat from Wisdom to Charisma. That said, I'd suggest you look at Path of War. A Steelfist commando warlord with focus in Gale and Wind. They get a good skill set and 4+Int skills, not shabby (Alternately do a Hidden Blade rogue, either or). Multiclass eldritch scion card caster staff magus. You'd be straight up Charisma. Then go Bladecaster to finish out. You'll have maneuvers and magic to buff yourself and can fight like a devil with staff, fist, and maneuver thrown cards.

You can't stack Card caster and eldritch scion since both modify the Arcane Pool feature. :( Multiclassing and Bladecaster mostly doesn't work ethier because you need every level of magus to be able to enhance the cards with the arcane pool.

So, you want to cherry pick the points you want, trade away the things you don't want it no real cost to you, so you have everything you want with no real tangible drawback.

I am trying to help, mostly help you see what you want isn't really logistically feasible and not be significantly better than every other option.

If I wanted to play an overpowered character I would play a full caster an be done with it. I didn't ask for help with a build because I already checked and it's not feasible. Every single build is horrible in combat and/or with little skills and super MAD. It's just not possible.

I ask for help building an archetype (like the card magus but, better) or a feat like deadly dealer. You don't have to help me, I won't complain, just leave me alone.

And every trade I suggested has it's drawbacks. Everything I already pointed out is used in an archetype. Hell, it's a guy throwing cards that do the same damage and range as DARTS and you're accussing me of cherry picking to make something overpowered.

And it's completely feasible, you just don't want to see it. I don't mind making sacrificies to achieve it. Reducing the hit dice from 10 to 8 or the bab de medium. There're tons of things that could let you build that concept. I mean, it's not that hard. It's just a psionic thrower. In regard to the soulknife you already make sacrifices when you tie your mindblade/bolt to a weapon/card to be able to use it.

Play a Harrow Card Magus if you wannna be Gambit. You can even make your cards explode gloriously.

Not even close to the concept. No charisma, no Roguish skills or Skill Points and way worse than any other magus Build.

The same could be said about any and all concepts. Why have a base class when you can just create whatever floats your boat?

Balance.

Archtypes fill a certain niche in class creation (and the majority of them are less powerful than the plain class). Just as PrC's do, regardless of how the Paizo team feels about them (and how they have really limited what they do). Most concepts can be done using one or the other, but some concepts fall between. And those concepts are generally ones that tend to be sticky balance ones.

Many people don't care for class based creation due to the limits it places on concepts that can be created. But the other side of it is, balance. Because if you just cherry pick whatever you want, it no longer is balanced. They did a point buy based class creation back in 2e, guess what... Just about everything anyone made with it was unbalanced. They made a point buy race creation in PFRPG, guess what, races were overpowered for the points they were made with in comparison to the base races.

As for a Gambit character, you should really probably be looking at the PoW stuff if you don't like soulbolt. It would probably fit your desires better just because of the mechanics used.

Honestly any time you find yourself looking to make something "new" you should really be asking yourself what is necessary for the concept, what is the core you really want for it. Because just about everything you could want to make is possible without creating something out of scratch. Just because something could be made or done, doesn't mean it is necessarily a good idea to do it.

PS. 3PP make things so you will buy them, it doesn't make it necessary for the game or even useful. It just provides options. And that is why, unfortunately, many people stay away from 3PP material. Using a 3PP decision to justify a redundant archtype because you don't like how it could be done with the existing rule set is a poor argument in a discussion.

PoW would never work because you need to be able to use regular cards as weapons. That means enhancing them and nothing in PoW could help you with that. While the soulknife has that already built into the class.

Balance doesn't have anything to do with it. It shouldn't be so hard to balance a roguish character focused on throwing and then make some feat to throw cards like deadly dealer.

Cutthroats archetype Covert Training already gives you more skill points in exchange for medium armor and shield proficiency. This could be combined with Augment Blade archetype abilities since it already works on normal weapons.

Two things are left. First, I would need some feat, or feature, like Deadly Dealer to use the cards as weapons and be able to augment them. Let's call it psionic dealer.

The other thing would be to change soulknifes use of wis to cha. It should present a balance problem since cha is less usefull than wis.

If you don't want to help it's fine, just run along and go bother someone else.

Aldaron79 wrote:

Great work! More soulknife options are always welcome!

I don't know if any of you guys can help me with this but I have to ask. I wanted to play a gambit style character (charming, roguish, card throwing). Some googling provided two possible builds:
The magus card caster archetype and the bard archetype. The first suffer several problems, few skill points, wrong class skills and wrong casting stat (Int). The second needs many feats to make it work. Worse, both are pretty weak in combat (especially the later).

So I was thinking about making an archetype to make it work and using psionics seem like a natural fit. It could be a mixture of several Soulknife archetypes like Cutthroat, Soul Bolt and the new augmented blade.

What do you think?

Honestly, doesn't seem to be necessary? You could get the soulbolt to effectively do it with a little refluffing of what it looks like.

Soulknife has a solid combat chasis as is, all that the "Gambit" character needs is a way to do ranged (which is what soulbolt does). And just about all the "tricks" you see Gambit do are available via blade skills or enhancements to the soulbolt. Explosive/repositioning, explosive/damaging, not taking AoO for using it, etc.

For more skills, multiclass a little. It already has 4+ skills.

Necessary? It depends on what you want. Why did ErrantX bother with the Argumented Knife, you could just fluff it. Why create the brutality blade? Just multiclass with barbarian!

And I never really liked the soubolt. It just a patch until you get to the soul archer. Plus you cripple yourself multiclassing to classes that won't help you much and it doesn't have CHA sinergy of any kind (You need Wis instead, and dex, and con and cha and still won't have enough skill points!).

Great work! More soulknife options are always welcome!

I don't know if any of you guys can help me with this but I have to ask. I wanted to play a gambit style character (charming, roguish, card throwing). Some googling provided two possible builds:
The magus card caster archetype and the bard archetype. The first suffer several problems, few skill points, wrong class skills and wrong casting stat (Int). The second needs many feats to make it work. Worse, both are pretty weak in combat (especially the later).

So I was thinking about making an archetype to make it work and using psionics seem like a natural fit. It could be a mixture of several Soulknife archetypes like Cutthroat, Soul Bolt and the new augmented blade.

What do you think?