Astrolabe's page

Mimics! The chairs that give free hugs!

Also - Wow! So many votes for Kobolds!

I saw it coming from the beginning, but I guess I should be blessed that some people play the game for the role playing and character development aspects and not ROLL playing.

Anyway, here's my party: level 5 paladin, level 4 barb (invulnerable rager alternate)/1 rogue(thug alternate), level 5 monk, and (here's the problem child) 3 wizard (transmuter)/2 rogue.

So, the paladin is decent, 18 str/20 cha base, he holds his own with a falchion and healing and whatnot. Check.

The barb is a power attacking/sneak attacking machine so far. No problems there.

The monk has provided a lot for the group, no problem.

And our little future arcane trickster... well, his feats are such: combat expertise, improved feint, improved sunder, power attack. He spends most of his time throwing telekinetic fists (the transmuter power) or trying to feint/sneak attack with his longsword.

I'm worried that he's going to fall behind even further in combat. Now, he's great out of combat, with his 20 intelligence and insane skills (the guy has one point in EVERY knowledge skill, giving him a +9 skill check in each) as well as speaking 12 languages. So, he'll probably feel involved and all, but whenever combat breaks, he's kinda not so useful yet.

I don't really know what I'm asking here... but just to maybe see if you've run into any player like this before. His whole thing is he wants to get an adamantium swordbreaker dagger and sunder weapons and then start sneak attacking. I figured straight rogue or rogue fighter would be better at that... but then he went wizard.

Will he become more viable when he gets TWF and the Arcane trickster class? Because right now, the paladin and barbarian far outclass his damage with their big two-handers, and the monk fairly outdamages him with a better attack roll and flurry of blows.

Frozen, are you certain that this character wants to be useful in combat? I love playing a facesmashing Barbarian from time to time, but when I play a Bard, I play them for the out-of-combat appeal. I may be a huge minority here, but I even enjoy being terrible in combat sometimes, because it enhances the immersion / realistic fantasy appeal(I'm playing Iolas on purpose! You're playing Hercules! Let me goof off in combat and get the puzzles done, you smash things!). A Wizard / Rogue has a lot of appeal in this regard. Since he isn't & won't be combat viable for a while, maybe present him with some fun roleplaying opportunities?

If he is designing the character to be viable in combat late-campaign, from my personal experience he will fall short (2-4 sneak attack dice is vastly inferior to a 2H or dual-wield combatant, & losing caster levels is going to make his Wizard vastly inferior to pure Wizards). On the upside, as the only arcane caster in the group, even a diluted caster is better than a non-caster past level 9 or so.

If you're really worried about it - figure out what evocation spells he has & throw enemies his way that have vulnerabilities that align with his elemental damage.

True strike is balanced by the fact that you have to give up a round casting the spell (essentially doing nothing) before you can make the attack.

Allowing a spell that let's you "true strike" an ally messes with the balance that is the action economy.

I'd say it is broken or near broken at almost any level.

+1

Let's not forget that True Strike lets you auto-steal a weapon. Look at the rules for unarmed disarm attempts. You make the attempt at a -4 penalty (CMB vs CMD), but modifiers apply to CMB (meaning you will get True Strike's +20 modifier), and on a successful attempt you steal your opponent's weapon.

A medium BAB class with +20 & -4 is +16. That's relative auto-success. Letting your entire party benefit from this spell in 1 action takes the weapons away from every enemy -1 in a 5v5 confrontation. Thus, the part I most worry about is the fact that this becomes a no save Mass Disarm (only worse, because your characters take the weapons, so the enemies can't pick them back up).

Yeah mine still smells like new book, too!

But frankly, I'm more impressed by the fact that 90% of that book is still relevant. Unlike other game systems I will not stoop to condemn... I just want to say that MY favorite part about the RPG is that the books I bought so long ago are still relevant / correct! Keep that errata not coming, Paizo!

But I usually allow druids to transform into young/giant versions of animals (i.e. with the young or giant simple templates added).

Oh wow, this never even occurred to me ^^ Thanks for the idea KaeYoss! They ought to include a note on this somewhere near the wildshape rules, at least via the optimization links on the SRD. I know several fellow druid lovers have voiced the same complaint, and this solves or problem rather elegantly! Boo at dinosaurs yay at giant bears!

Okay so just to be honest I'm the new guy in this equation, anyhoo, I just joined a group who has been gaming for a few years, several people have had to move and so when I asked if I could step into one of the vacant slots they said yes immediately.

Now comes the problem, I am getting screwed by the rest of the party in a sort of haze the new guy way and i can't do anything about it. I'm a healer and I tend to have everyone leaning on me to survive only to be dropped in the last round. Then they will leave me stable but unconscious while they loot everything, this last time the GM laid out cleric specific items for the loot and when we made it to town the loot was sold and I got 10 gold while everyone else got 20000 that's right 20000!

Out of character I was pissed and I said something, they all just go that that is just something their character would do and I was lucky I was getting anything at all (same from GM).

I'm tried talking to them out of character but that doesn't work, I'm thinking of withholding healing, something which would go against my character's core, and probably result in a TPK but What else can I do?

I think that sounds cool. I like when people play in character, even when it can be a headache sometimes. What alignment is your cleric? Unless you're Lawful Good, just wait until they need a Restoration spell or something similar. Use leverage! Never forget that you're their lifeline!

Here's an idea I am using in my games now. I like traits, and I think they have a place as more than just background. After all, 'background' is 'everything that has happened before' and that includes adventuring career. So rather than starting with one or two, I start PCs with one and then allow them to add one after each significant 'chapter' in the adventure (like each module in an adventure path). This represents personal and background development, much like ordinary experience gains, but can be used to add flavour or other hooks to the character. Players are encouraged to select for flavour rather than effect.

Dabbler,

That's an awesome idea. I'm always impressed by how creative the community is, I'll be running this by my DM if you don't mind :D

Ogre sheet is the best in my opinion. Feature rich excel file and fantastic response by the author. APG work is still in progress, so don't expect that yet.

Hey awesome Lorekeeper, I'll recommend this to my group! Thanks :D

Has anyone heard what any of the new animal companions are gonna be? Also, has paizo given any indication that there will be new huge animals? Elephant / dinosaurs is kind of restricting : /

Magister is my favorite.

And Warlock has the same problem as Magus - it has been used for another class in Pathfinder (albeit by another 3pp). And in 3.5.

The -4 attack penalty on the melee attack when using Spell Combat(ex) feels too heavy considering that BAB is already medium. Something akin to TWF (-2/-2) feels right.

I have to disagree. Making a full-round attack + casting a spell is MUCH stronger than TWF. The spell combat'ing magus doesn't have to cast a touch spell, he can cast ANY spell. And if you build a character well, concentration checks are very easy. In essence, the full-round attack is icing on the cake, not the main attraction.

If we let the cleric make a full-round attack AND cast a spell in the same round, do you think that it would be on par with a TWF ranger's full-attack? (hint: the cleric's turn is already better, and he can't make FRA's while casting.)

Also, to those of you who claim that the AC buff from touch to normal makes Spellstrike (Su) unappealing, don't forget that this caster has a medium BAB, as opposed to the wizard / sorcerer low BAB, so you're already at an advantage. Plus you're striking with a magic weapon and getting potential bonuses from weapon focus, so your chance to hit becomes higher than it would have been with a touch attack against a number of creatures. And if this class is anything like the duskblade, it's not about accuracy. It's about critting a touch spell on a roll of 15 with a keen scimitar and exploding all over a creature's face (spells with an attack roll can crit).

Critical Strike - needs memorization / preparation elaboration. As it's written, it sounds like I don't need to have a spell prepared to cast it with this ability.

Hastened Assault - the duration needs elaboration. A number or rounds equal to the sacrificed spell level? A number of minutes equal to the sacrificed spell level? I infer #1, but it's not 100% clear.

Fighter Training - I'd like to see this a bit earlier, but that's just my opinion. It would make the class more flexible. Most of the fighter feats require a minimum number of fighter levels, so their power is already checked. And having the option of these from level 2-6 on would let you be more of a fighter and less of a caster, by virtue of feat selection. Saving this until level 10 means that you have to be more of a caster. <3 choices.

Overall very nice, a vast improvement and Paizo'ification of the duskblade :D

P.S. I second the above notion that the class is inundated with swift actions, but I don't think that's necessarily bad. Every other class is inundated with standard actions. The bard has to choose between a ton of equally appealing choices every turn. Why not let the magus choose between as many swift actions? Maybe that's his thing...

Yes.

Their damage is trash, but they are still terrific at combat maneuvers. And they can be ungodly good if you jack up Charisma and Dexterity, take agile maneuvers, 2 levels of paladin and 1 level of cavalier.

It only takes 2 rounds to make someone / something helpless.

I like level 1. Imho, you don't actually become better at anything as you gain levels, because the world's numbers scale with your own. You simply become more specialized, because you only retain the capacity for success in areas that you invested in. It also means that you need to immerse yourself in the fantasy world in order to solve problems because you can't just cast Wish. Realistic versatility and problem solving make the game way more fun to me.

To answer your question: Yes, the inquisitor works. He works very well.

Dependency on multiple stats is not a problem with the inquisitor, it's a problem with D&D.

Any class that relies on 3 or more stats is at a major disadvantage with a 15 or even 20 point point-buy system. The ranger is similar to the inquisitor in the sense that he is severely impaired without a ton of points to spend (especially archers) - he needs Str for damage, Dex to hit, Con to survive, Int for knowledge skills, Wis for spells and Cha to handle animals.

Aragorn the ranger would be far too expensive for a 20 point point-buy system. So would Van Richten the inquisitor. If you're stuck with 15 points, you're simply better off as a rogue or a wizard : p

At least Paizo made some headway and cut down on the paladin's MADness.

You should also be happy that you get 6 + Int skill points per level. Only the rogue gets more, and only the bard and ranger get that many. Generally, the weaker the class, the more skill points it gets - and the inquisitor is not as weak as the rogue.

I'm just looking to see if having alignment provides anything other than

a) class conduct
b) alignment based magic

I think that alignment based conduct is often more important than class based conduct.

There are no rules on how to behave as a wizard. Take, for example, the necromancer and the enchanter. The player will come up with his own set of rules regarding how to behave as a LE wizard versus a CG wizard. Adhering to stereotypes, the necromancer would be LE and the enchanter would be NG. But the player could be a NG necromancer or LE enchanter. A NG necromancer who raised the dead for pleasant ordeals like tea parties or positive ends like the construction of a public library would be really fun to play, but that wouldn't be possible if alignment were imposed on classes by default.

Maybe I'm just ignorant, but I haven't seen alignment cause any headaches. It's pretty straightforward.

P.S. Malcolm Reynold is Lawful.

"Lawful characters tell the truth, keep their word, respect authority, honor tradition, and judge those who fall short of their duties... Law implies honor, trustworthiness, obedience to authority, and reliability. On the downside, lawfulness can include closed-mindedness, reactionary adherence to tradition, self-righteousness, and a lack of adaptability."

Mal's #1 priority is respecting his own authority. Watch the show. There is a 98.6% chance that, if he said that cherry coke was better, and I said that vanilla coke was better, he would punch me. 24/7 member size contest. He also respects the tradition of space as an open frontier, is willing to tell the truth (even when it makes people hate him), judges crew members when they fail to perform their duties, fulfills his contracts in the face of danger and exhibits reactionary adherence to the resistance, as well as closed mindedness, self righteousness and a general lack of adaptability.

"Chaotic characters follow their consciences, resent being told what to do, favor new ideas over tradition, and do what they promise if they feel like it... Chaos implies freedom, adaptability, and flexibility. On the downside, chaos can include recklessness, resentment toward legitimate authority, arbitrary actions, and irresponsibility. Those who promote chaotic behavior say that only unfettered personal freedom allows people to express themselves fully and lets society benefit from the potential that its individuals have within them."

He does follow his conscience (the medicine episode), and he resents being told what to do, but only insofar as it usurps his own authority. He hates new ideas, he does what he promises a vast majority of the time (holding others to that same standard), he is neither adaptable nor flexible, he is never irresponsible, he would claim that he did not resent "legitimate" authority, and that last line is about as far from Serenity as you can get.