Athel's page

I love the changes to staves to make them more available at low levels, and expand your ability to recharge them when you invest each day. It will be really interesting to test out Resonance on the whole at my table!

I take back what I said last time -- Quinn and the Red Raven NEED to team up now!

This feels like such a Galt-appropriate origin, and definitely makes the Red Raven more sympathetic than the Unreliable Narrator of the last Meet the Iconics made him out to be. He's a character I'm excited to see more of in the campaign setting -- maybe something special in the Pathfinder Comics line, hmm? :)

It occurred to me that while Raven and Quinn may both be citizens of Galt, they would definitely not get along. And now I'm starting to wonder if they're some art of that sneaked into the book. We'll found out in one month.

Mark Seifter was happy to share some fluff for Esoteric Dragons in the Bestiary 5 discussion thread!

Astral Dragon: It is said that when these dragons reach a venerable age, instead of dying they give a deep exhale and dissipate into the Astral winds, creating hurricanes of thought.

Dream Dragon: They observe the dreams of others, and pilfer information and the strange artifacts left behind by dreamscapes. Subtle of mind and whimsical of philosophy, they can be frustrating conversationalists, as they skip through ideas like daydream.

Etheric Dragon: Silent hunters that dwell in the remote reaches of the Ethereal Plane, these dragons eat both the living and the undead. Etheric dragons rarely speak, and many other dragons consider them dull, if not stupid. They are neither. Their priorities are just confined to the necessities of existence within their harsh, uncompromising environs. Unlike many true dragons, even their hoards are secondary. While they collect and amass treasure, if that treasure threatens their survival, etheric dragons abandon their hoards and start gathering anew.

Occult Dragon: Unlike most dragons, occult dragons, hoarders of occult lore and items, prefer to conduct their daily activities in humanoid form. They dwell in large urban centers, often mixing in with their humanoid neighbors as they search for esoteric secrets and psychically charged artifacts. In times of great need, they revert to their true form, either to gain some bit of occult treasure, or to protect the communities they call home.

And just as a little exercise, I decided to create some expanded fluff for each species to inspire ways to use them in an adventure:

Athel wrote:

Very nice! This inspires me with some ideas for introducing players to my own campaign settings. Inner Sea Races seems like it will be a great book for fangs of the Golarion setting.

Especially serpentfolk, from the sounds of things. :P

My typo immortalized before I could fix it!! KALINDLARAAAAA!!

That's quite good, and it's close to what I was thinking when I first saw your question, before looking down to seeing your solution. However, it gives very slightly too much discount for the longer gathers. Perhaps a mild adjustment is in order:

Quote:

Gather Power (Su): If she has both hands free (or all prehensile appendages free, for unusual kineticists, a kineticist can gather energy or elemental matter as a simple action. [...] Gathering power in this way allows the kineticist to reduce the total burn cost of the next blast wild talent she uses that round by 1 point. After using this ability, she can also use gather power as an advanced (3-act) action starting on the same turn. If she does so, she extends the duration of the reduction to her next turn and increases the reduction by 2 (to a total of 3). This reduction can't reduce the burn cost below 0.

Quote:

Supercharge (Su): At 11th level, the first time the kineticist gathers power as a simple action, she can reduce the total burn cost of a single wild talent by 2 points instead of 1. If she also takes the complex action, it reduces the burn cost by 3, for a total of 5.

Fantastic! Thanks for the response and the insight.

Five kineticist elements...
Five kineticist archetypes...
I'm not sure if I should talk my players down from an all-kineticist party -- or to build a campaign specifically for it!

Really glad to hear the playtest helped expand the utility elements and archetypes for the book. It's what they process it meant to do, and makes me really hopeful for the vigilante. Thumbs up for community cooperation to make better design!

Excellent work putting this together, Kobold. Now we have one mega-resource with which to binge on divisive debate. It's like the Netflix of Arguments.

(In seriousness, the distinction between "Creative" and "Argumentative" threads is incredibly convenient when you actually want to participate in a discussion.)

The psychic detective uses the psychic spell list (6th level or lower) plus a handful of other spells (eleven total) that are added to that, rather than the alchemist spell list.

Thanks for the info, Luthorne, and everyone else for sharing these delicious crunchy morsels as teasers for the book.

I like the description of the mesmerist as an "anti-bard", which was a theme I got from the playtest version -- and it's a nice little wink to Meligaster's origins.

I'm most glad to hear that mesmerist tricks are effectively 24-hour now. Setting up tricks properly could save your party from a night-ambush TPK. Awesome cooperation techniques to make the guy invading your mind your best friend.

I love it. A flavorful story, an unconventional and interesting character, and a great way to bring the spritualist's mechanical side to life (coincidentally, pretty close to the spiritualist I drafted up during the OA playtest).

Ps-psychic combuhhh...psychic combat.....

Psychic combat!?

I'm throwing my money at the screen but nothing's happening!

I'll throw this in -- I'm currently thinking of letting the monk's AC Bonus add a (for now untyped) bonus to their Will saves as well.

It won't kick in until LV4 (so no dipping in for it, which it seems Paizo's fear was), but combined with a monk's expected Wisdom bonus, I think it could be a solid and scaling solution without changing too many class features.

I kinda wish the occultist had some sort of abilities that were tied to intelligent items. Maybe they add an intelligence to an implement to increase its power, but now you have to convince the item to cooperate.

Maybe a bonus in opposed ego checks.

Oooh, an archetype focused on a single implement that evolves similar to a magus' black blade.

Got it! Cancel all my appointments!

It's unfortunate to see that a thread that began with an innocent intent like "Brainstorm ideas for home-tweaks to a class" can turn into another argument between different design viewpoints.

There isn't any victory in this debate, no prize to be won at the end of it. All it seems to do is cause vitriol among the community.

I wish we could agree to set aside our own opinions in order to help a fellow fan.

I have been thinking about the idea of training (like re-training) but instead of swapping feats (a non-associated mechanic) they can empower a feat.

For example: empowering the Mobility feat +6 to AC (+50%), or empowering the Improved Sunder feat +3 CMB (+50%).

With the martial fatigue system planned for Pathfinder Unchained, you may be getting a rules system pretty close to this. Slap it onto fighters at first level in your home games.

As for some new ideas:

Offer Sense Motive to use on monster checks, saving you from pouring ranks into different Knowledge skills.

Add Heal to his skill list (especially if you use the expanded rules to use Heal for interrogation and torture).