BLT's page

How do you get two WWA in one round? You mentioned making your WWA and then taking a 5ft step and doing it again. How is this possible?

Armored Hulk (Barbarian) 1. Dump the rest into two handed fighter with a full blade and take the alternate fighter weapon training to boost crit damage and be able to enchant your own blade with bane.

Take Wizard school as your first Arcane exploit, Focus Abjuration. Your choice of opposition schools is up to you but enchantment and Conjuration are needed so do not choose one of them. Take spell focus abjuration, spell focus conjuration, augment summoning, spell penetration, and heighten spell (quicken spell at higher levels is also a good option). Other exploits should include spell tinker and (IMO) the bloodline exploit celestial blooded. Items to get throughout your adventures should be a Ring of Archons, arch mage robes, Staff of Abjuration (or a staff of the master crafted for abjuration would be best). Banishment spells are of the abjuration school. Abjuration also includes spells liek repulsion and globe of invulnerability which can make you imune to some of the effects of demon's spell like abilities and/or the spell casters who summoned them, as well as making sure pesky melee attackers cannot approach you. It also includes dispell magic and remove curse (no-brainer against evil outsiders). Utilize planar binding to summon Archons for difficult encounters (divination would also be useful to foresee potential dangers ahead)
Note: banishment type spells do not allow a save, you only have to bypass spell resistance. Which you can do with spell penetration and items, as well as your arcane reservoir. Favored spell (dismissal) is another good feat if you want to dip in cleric or paladin for some possible mystic theurge play.

There is a prestige class for Sword lord..so that is when I would say you would take the full title imo.

As long as I can build an Eldridge Knight or Magus type character I will be extremely happy.

Is there a way to get the PDF onto my kindle? I thought there was a way to view any PDF on a kindle but I can't find it in the user manual.

So I have been waiting for the tech demo release for Kickstarters and it's been a couple of weeks since they said they were just compiling video for it but I still have not heard anything about it. Is it out already? If it is where was the link?

I am very excited to learn about how you plan the combat. However I am a little concerned.

It seems that limiting the action bars by only 2 full bars (20 slots total) give certain classes an unapealing feel. I refer of course to wizards and clerics (and magus if/when it ever becomes available). The advantage to having a class like this is that u can have a TON of spell options. Not just in what YOU can cast but also in scrolls/wands/staves/etc. If I am to read this correctly classes that are based on being an ability Swiss army knife are going to need to be redone to make them at least fun and comparable to the original. I do understand that certain clases have alot and there will need to be some trimming but I feel that limiting the action bar like this may not be a good way to do it.

Customer Driven Iterative Development

Interactive Development Play or Trial by Goblins

was trying to think of a way to turn Goblin into an acronym describing what it will be but I couldn't get past the first 2 words and the last 2.

One thing I would like to add about the name section of this blog. If you are going to limit our in game names to the extent that we cannot use 'immersion breaking names" then you should allow us a "real ID", or an ID that our friends can easily recognize us as, even if we are playing a different character. Example, I have been using the gamer tag 'BLT" for several years now, and many of my friends, both in real life and within a game world, identify me as "BLT". Id like a system that makes it so I can keep this tag, unlike WOW's real ID which shows your email address or your real life name. Perhaps have the tag appear next to your name, but only for players in the same company. That way people within your own game community know you as your own chosen gamer name, but the rest of the world knows u simply as Kar'Iliel, Tiefling Magus master of twin disciplines.

I would like to see a magic system in PFO that utilizes the words of power system in UM. A system like this would employ different UIs depending on if u were spontaneous or prepared. Prepared caster would just prepare their spells using an easy to understand "point buy" system for spell construct and their UI would be the traditional action bar layout. A spontaneous caster would have 3 separate drop down action bars. Since their spells known is more limited than prepared casters u wouldn't have to worry as much about UI clutter, it would be even better since the number of spells a sorcerer can have is fairly high, but if you have those spells broken down into parts that u mix together on the fly then you would need less action bar space. Their bar would have an Target box, that would have the target words, hot keyed to the number pad on your keyboard(changeable of course). You would have your effect words on another layer underneath this box(or bar) that would drop down once you selected your target. Then you would have your meta bar drop down, giving u the option to add a meta word that u know to the spell. An example being that you have selected your enemy, you wish to cast an effect similar to scorching ray. You press the "1" key (single target touch attack), your effect word bar drops down and u press "1" again(your basic fire damage effect), your meta word bar drops down and u press "0" (no selection). Using this would give a "combo" feel to casting and make players more involved in what their character is doing. While prepared casters will get the sense of really having to build their spell book.

Cast times would be representative of the actual table top layout. Standard action spells would be 3 seconds (half of a full round in the tabletop) full round casts would naturally be 6 seconds. For spontaneous casters this would divide each "on the fly" word into a global CD of 1 second for target words, and 1-5 seconds for effect words. There would also be a timer after u use a word. Lets say 3 seconds, that would allow u to 'hold" a word and move for a few seconds before stopping and finishing the next word. Adding meta words will add additional cast time based on the effect.

As for cool down time I think having certain words be on CDs relative to their level, after a certain number of those spells have been cast. Maybe 10 seconds per spell level after x number of spells of that level have been cast(based on caster level). In this way a caster could maintain fluid casting, assuming they aren't being attacked, without spamming meteor swarm, or covering the battlefield with charmed slaves. The CD could be adjusted based on cast time, or it's utility. So fireball might be 3 seconds, but an effect similar to bestow curse may only be on a 1 second global cool down,depending on what effects were tied to bestow curse.
Example:
Elric, a level 6 sorcerer, casts his first word "burst" and selects his target area. He then is forced to move back to avoid the area spell of an enemy caster and he can hold his target for up to 3 seconds before the spell is canceled. He stops to add his effect word, "Force blast" he does not have the option to add a meta word because he cannot adjust a spell higher than 3rd level. The spell goes off in the selected location creating a fireball effect, using force damage instead.(5d4 force damage, ref for half).

Yes this would be complicated, but I think it would be fun and make casters a more appealing choice to players who like a more active play style.

I love the bladebound magus. I have a concept of a 1 rogue/5 bladebound magus/1 assassin/ then alternate between magus and master spy. No scimitar, classic assassin/duelist shortsword. he takes magical knack trait to improve his low level touch spells and uses alot of necromancy rays to lower stats to make his enemies more helpless. his sword is kind of evil...ok really evil. As part of his story his father gave him the sword in his will after failing an assassination job. my character then balances his desire to kill the deserving to better the world, and the swords desire to control the world through violence and manipulation.

I want stealth to be a combination of the both. high stealth abilities wouldn't be a guaranteed save, if someone fires an arrow into the bush you are hiding in you should be hit, and you cant do that with a target based system. Part of stealth should be knowing what to do, not hitting a button and automatically doing everything.

I see no place in a high-risk game for a mechanic that can be exploited by cheaters.

I'd like to see a system were u can both target AND attack without targeting. And as for cheating to see stealth I haven't seen many cases where that has happened, at least not to me personally(not that it doesn't happen). But as mentioned an all player based skill stealth would make all classes equally viable at sneak attacks (literal sneak attacks not the rogue mechanic). I think stealth should be verry slightly player based. So no stealth in the open unless your enemy has his back to you, must be behind cover of some type, etc.

As for detection I think having a perception skill that is broken into 2 parts in game but not in character would be best. So you only put points into perception, but when your character actually makes this check the game makes 2 rolls, one for sight, one for sound. If u can hear someone sneaking then maybe an icon with a direction arrow shows up. Upon making a manual perception (search) check you have a higher chance to detect the person. I also think that there should be 2 perception skills. Passive Perception (passive check to detect things), and Active Perception (search). Both would have slightly different modifiers based on conditions like weather you can hear someone, if they are using an invisibility spell(or similar effect), and weather someone in your group can see/hear that person.
Greater invisibility shouldn't be allowed for obvious reasons and regular invisibility should only grant a bonus to your stealth skill.

Dodger 90210 wrote:

Reading your post is just painful. Please, for the love of those whom you want to help you... learn how to spell and punctuate. You're not texting your tween friends here.

I really hope you don't mean me! (I don't believe so, but please do let me know!) I do attempt to use proper punctuation, over-all, regardless of my use of very silly colloquialisms (or "slang", as the young ones call it nowadays). Please let me know if the affected aesthetic offends your sensibilities!

I think he meant me. I don't usually add apostrophes when I'm lazily typing, or capitalize my "I's".

I suppose my frustration is more on the DM then with the rule. He seems to be under the impression that a lawful evil assassin will just be killing off the party and causing havoc. Or the players feel i might betray them, and that is not how i would play an adventuring assassin. My character wouldn't take many kill contracts at all, mostly infiltration and that sort of thing. he would act as more of an unseen diplomat behind the curtains Using poisons to incapacitate, not kill, his death attack to paralyze and not murder. Think more of a Burn Notice type figure, killing only when it is unavoidable. Even in home campaigns i get weird looks at playing an Assassin, when our "mercenary" fighter gets to mug people, intimidate them for more money, and kills indiscriminately if a random NPC hurts his feelings by telling him that hes a bad person. Apparently the fighter is Chaotic Neutral, and my above example is an unforgivable evil that must be washed from Golarion.

Ok so its 7am, havnt slept in over 24 hours, am bored, and have one nagging question.

WHY DO ASSASSINS NEED TO BE EVIL? ok if ur a hired killer doing it cuz ur good at it and u like gold, fine, ur evil. But what about assassins that kill for a just cause? Assassins that have a purpose other than murder? Why cant i make a lawful good assassin and only use the death attack to paralyze and he takes a vow of non violence? It irritates me because i want to make an assassin for PFS...but no evil so that idea kinda gets blown up. And even if u ARE a killer for hire slaying people for cold hard cash why is it that players look at u funny if ur assassin character saves a child or pets a kitten? does being evil mean that i automaticaly hate puppies and eat babies? As a cold kilelr i only do ONE evil act, murder(presumably) and even then maybe ur character only takes contracts to kill people who harm others. its just, an annoyance when i tell the gm, "i wana play a rogue-1/bard(dervish)-5/assassin-1/master spy-x, and he tells me, "u cant be evil"...

the Rogue. Makes a fantastic villain. Unfortunately the rogue suffers from 2 major problems. First off is their place in lore and fantasy stories in the first place. They are often quirky thieves or bold faced liars, comedic relief, fluf characters in a book. Even the Rougish main character/hero/main villain is more of a fighter/assassin/duelist. The second problem the rogue faces is role filling. Ok its a scout, well so is the ranger, and the monke, and the wizard (cuz they can do anything). They are the striker, fighter, archer, does it already. Trapfinder!!!!!...rangers, alchemists have dissable device, and arcane caster can get rid of magic. The rogue was made to fill the unwanted roles that other players have to sacrifice to do. Rangers want to be snipers, mages want to cause explosions, fighters want to swing their big sword. The rogue fils the roles no one wants to do, all the little "avoidable garbage" that makes the game more "realistic" or gritty is done by the rogue. He is the grunt, the fall guy, the cleaner, and the nose wiper

I really dont see a problem with what u did. And i dont understand what the complaint other people in this post are making. U are providing a service, at cost to ur character (loss of feats). u are charging almost half what the item costs, taking only a small portion of that money for ur income. As a wizard im guessing u spend it on some of the more expensive spell components (mithril daggers for the wreath of blades spell for example). U dont have to be the crafter, u dont have to offer that service. When i am playing a game and a player spends feats on crafting, i feel compelled to give him extra for the effort. its still less money that im paying, and he gets a benefit from taking a feat tax that he may have lost by not having another feat or multiple feats. U guys want to talk about the players doing stuff to help the group well i think part of that should be helping the crafter.

@BLT, one important thing to keep in mind is that Ryan has a lot of experience seeing how players work around problems in the game (such as not being able to see someone who is stealthed). If GW chooses not to implement Stealth, it won't be because they don't see the value in Stealth, it's because they don't want to put honest players at a disadvantage. If the only way to implement Stealth cost-effectively also means that players who were willing to cheat would have an unfair advantage, then that's a very good reason not to implement it.

I guess i can understand that...but im a sucker for rogues and a stealthless rogue, for me, would ruin it for me. I love stealth and even though that is only one aspect of one type of character, it is for me a fairly important ability. Even if it is made more limited i would rather have the option then none at all.

honestly if u want a lethal archer, then i would go pure fighter. if u need a trapfinder...take 1 level of rogue. the only way that sneak attack works reliably in range is if u can geet invisible and if u have the goggles in the APG that alow SA at any range. If u want a more rougish/stealthy/acrobatic then try the zen archer archetype for monks.

Marou_ wrote:

There are multiple problems with that. If I wanted to grief someone I would throw my invisible low level character into their aoe's wherein they would die in 1 hit and assign the bounties (multiple) to my high level character.

I've been playing PvP games a long time.

There are multiple assumptions being made there.

1. Invisibility/stealth even existing in the game. This has not been confirmed and is very shakey on the possibility of at all.

2. AOEs being strong and lethal enough to one shot anyone. (we have no idea the power of a high level spell, nor the HP difference between a low and high level character).

3. Whether or not there will be warnings or the ability to use aoe's in high security areas. In eve there are aoe abilities, and in general they are used extremely sparingly only in cordinated plans, and virtually NEVER in high sec space.

Considering the dev's plan on making certain it is imposible to kill in a way to be criminal flagged by accident without a pop-up warning you. I would say it is safe to say that they will likely have a pop-up warning you if you try to cast an AoE spell in law enforced territory if it is in any way possible for someone you didn't intend to hit to wander into the blast. Thus limiting the likelyhood of aoes being used in lawful territory to begin with.

Quote:

If friendly fire is impossible, in what way will mages be "nerfed" to compensate?

Words like nerf and buff, are completely irelevent here... we know for a fact that the game is overall not mechanically matching P&P pathfinder, the rules and mechanics are being written from scratch. It is more or less certain that ballance is more or less being written from the ground up. Nerfing and buffing, both involve starting from a known and raising or lowering, neither term is even remotely applicable until the game has actually been created.

I think asuming that there will be stealth mechanics is pretty fair. Since stealth is one of the core archetypes in the rpg world, not alowing stealth would turn off far too many players to the game. Also stealth would be a necessary ability, or at least very helpful, in initiating an ambush. And ambushing traveling players is something that they have said would be possible.

OK here is my ideas on master spy.

6 levels of inquisitor(or bard) then 1 level of assassin, then master spy. the 1 level gets u death attack faster, and ur levels of Master spy and assassin stack for the d/c(retroactive too so u dont need 8th level master spy) and poison use is icing on the cake imo. Also the levels of inquisitor give u a couple of nice abilities as well as access to the inquisitor spell list which has quite a few "spy" spells on their. As long as u have no qualms of "evil" (i dissagree with the restriction on Assassin quite passionately) then u should be fine. I guess u could always start "evil" then maybe change later as the game progresses, as long as u are within 1 step of ur deity. Could also go bard for some nice spells as well, and i think there are a couple of nice archetypes to play with as a bard spy.

Nipin wrote:

JMD031 wrote:

psionichamster wrote:

Re: lantern archons. You're a wizard. What do you care about alignment? Are there outsiders or clerics who have ethical dilemmas with forcing good outsiders to fight.

Metamagic rods are your friend. If you can stomach the investment, staff like wand (discovery from APG or UM) means very useful, cheap wands for mid to high level play.

Alignment matters when it comes to summoning. It specifically states somewhere that if you are good or evil you can only summon monsters of that alignment.

I forgot about the discoveries...now I have to check those out.

I have never seen a restriction based on alignment in either spell descriptions, the summoning magic section, or class descriptions. I would ask for a reference on this restriction.

From the PRD:

Summon Monster I wrote:

When you use a summoning spell to summon a creature with an alignment or elemental subtype, it is a spell of that type. Creatures on Table 10–1 marked with an “*” are summoned with the celestial template, if you are good, and the fiendish template, if you are evil. If you are neutral, you may choose which template to apply to the creature. Creatures marked with an “*” always have an alignment that matches yours, regardless of their usual alignment. Summoning these creatures makes the summoning spell's type match your alignment.

It could be that my DM is taking it a bit too literally because as I'm reading that now it doesn't say what he thinks it says.

b4 pathfinder there were alignment restrictions to summoning. in pathfinder u can summon anything as any alignment but i think u cant make them do anything thats against their nature.

Ok here is my 2 cents.

instead of looking at humans as the standard lets look at elves as the standard. lets also say that elves might have more stages to their life than our species. were we have infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, maybe elves have multiple "mini" steps along the way. Maybe they mature to adolescence at the normal rate but then between adolescence and phisical adult hood theres a middle step in which their maturity finishes developing. So an elf coould be physicaly mature at 20, but then have the mind set of a 15 yr old for a few more years. then factor in the social age of maturity difference. elves are probably as adult aas they will ever be at like 20 but have the same restlessness as human young adults do. So to an elf that person is still a kid, restless, young, brash.

on the other hand humans only live to be like 100 (optomisticly). So in humans the young restlessness suits their social and biological structures. they are an adult at 20 because they dont have the luxury of babying people till their 100 cuz they dont live that long and things need to get done.

now to cover the learning curve. once again lets use elves as the standard. The learn "slower" because they CAN...they have forever to learn things, there is no hurry. humans are born with and live with a constant sense of urgency knowing they only have 80ish years to acomplish anything. Realisticly only 50 healthy years. So their need to advance faster makes them restless and strive harder than the longer lived races.

thejeff wrote:

TriOmegaZero wrote:

How does a race who remain children for a hundred years survive compared to races that mature quicker?

That is the question, isn't it?

Part of the answer may be that they don't. Elves are usually portrayed in fantasy as a race in decline, making way for the younger races. In Golarion, the height of elven civilization was before the rise of humanity.

Yep, but their decline would be fast if it was driven by a near-complete inability to replenish losses. Which is a decent 3rd Age of Middle Earth feel, for those of us who have bothered to read the primary foundation for our avowed hobby ;)...the Elves get involved in the wars of men at GREAT cost, not just personal cost, but essentially sealing the fate of their race in Middle Earth.

Since they are ultimately just on vacation in Middle Earth anyway, that's not as sad as it seems.

Drow dont seem to folow the same reproductive patern that other elves do. it doesnt really say this in any "rule" book that i could find but i think the way drow/elves breed is more social behavior than it is biology. Drow, are always killing each other off. That creates a social need AND a biological need to keep the species going. Elves on the surface live relatively peacefuly so ther is no social need for faster breeding.

The key to a successful spontaneous MT lies in 3.X material. If your GM allows it, I can show you how I went about making my sorcerer / oracle / mystic theurge.

My Dm is alowing Most of the material in 3.5, including much of the 3rd party material. I would just have to run ur idea by him to make sure its one of the allowable rules.

Ah i didnt know the 2 talents didnt stack, but ur right.

Looks pretty solid IMO. Really i dont think u can go wrong as a ninja >.< and shadow dancer fits soo well with the concept. my only concern is, what weapon are u gona use? I dont see 2WF and since u have a high dex ud either need ranged attack (not optimal for SA) or a single light weapon. Something else to concider is the SD gets Rogue Talents. U can use a rogue talent to get a ninja trick, but i dont think ur levels of SD and ninja stack to determine weather or not u get improved ninja tricks (which u could use to get the rogue advanced talent, Crippling strike, that drains 2 strgh when u SA, stackable with pressure points?)

This is TCG from above. Check out this character profile. He may not be "optimized," but he's pretty badass if I do say so myself.

How did u get teh Arcane discovery truename? u need wizard level 11 u only have wizard 3 (theurge should not add to ur wiz level for anything other than spells).

Ty for all ur ideas. So far the eldritch heritage feat chain with oracle idea sounds the best. I could do witch, however the reason why i was trying to go spontaneous mechanically and for story was because i was going to be a words of power caster. And, as lame as it sounds, having to prepare every word combination as a prepared caster would be just too much book keeping lol. of course even as a spontaneous caster i would have some word combinatons written down for quick reference to everyday use, but i also feel that sorc/oracle have the most to gain from words of power.

One more question. my character was going to be a Kyton spawn Teifling, as an abyssal sorcerrer bloodline that kind of breaks the RP in terms of devil blood with demon blood sorc. But my thought is that:

1. Kytons are not technicaly devils.
2. Kytons in the lore sound more chaotic and "demonish" then calculating and "devilish". preferring brutality over corruption.

i ran this by my GM and he doesnt really care (but i do). what are all ur thoughts?

This may deserve its own post and I apologize if it isn't relevant, but along the lines of aging do the rules ever state how a tiefling or Asimar ages? they are outsiders which I'm not sure have a "life span". So do they age to adulthood at normal rates then wander around until they are killed? As an outsider their body and soul are one unit not separate, but as a "native" they can still be resurrected by normal means. Does this suggest they have a soul and body separate and can therefore age normaly?

I would recommend going rogue/witch (or if ud prefer some other spell casting class), then Splash in arcane trickster to get the ranged rogue skills stuff, and then go master spy for more rogueish supernatural infiltrator/assassin style abilities. maybe even take ONE level of assasin since ur levels of Master spy and assassin stack to determine ur death attack, and its retroactive on the master spy. This is obviously alot of splashing but most of the spells u got as an assassin in 3.5 were not verry high level spells, so only taking a few levels to get 3rd or 4th level for invis/charm/CC style spells would be easy to get without going too far. IMO the whole reason for arcane trickster is for flavor, the only thing i personaly have fun with is being able to pick pocket at range.

Also if u are going to mix spells with rogue i recomend grabing a familiar and getting ur character to the point were u can benifit from the familiar with wands feat/skill combo. that way u and ur familiar are like a team of magical rogues, which can get pretty interesting.

I have an idea for a Mystic theurge but I cant figure out how I would implement it without sacrificing too much. The story is he's gona be a tiefling abyssal sorcerer who is taken in by an artifact hunting wizard. The wizard works for demons who are using him to search for artifacts that allow them to wreak havoc in the material plane. During their artifact hunt my character's master is killed and my character gets touched by old magic granting him a curse and great power(the oracle) he then spends the game balancing the knowledge he receives from his mystery and the power that calls to him from his heritage. He was going to be a Words of Power caster and the story of the character fits well into my GMs campaign story and I really want to find a way to make it work mechanically. The biggest problem I run into is the caster level vs character level. Theurge's pre-reqs need 2nd level spells for both. As a prepared caster that means 3 levels of each class then theurge, 7th level character 3rd level spells. That is pretty harsh but workable. The spontaneous caster have to be 4/4 so theurge at 9th character level with 3rd level spells. I'm really trying to find a way to offset the hit I take to spell levels but i haven't been able to find anything, especialy since i wont be gaining blood line powers or additional benefits from my mystery.

The problem i have with hardcore penalties on greifers is that there will inevitably be players who find themselves on a slippery slope even if they arent greifing. Example being character A is harassing character B in a non combat, no social way (creep stealing or some other such annoyance) player B retaliates to remove said player from his area by killing him, now he is a criminal. If the cool down on being a criminal is too long that player might find that he has to keep killing lawful players to survive. He wasnt intentionally being a jerk he just lost his temper with an annoying player. now he finds himself unable to go into towns for a month or however long it is, and players keep chasing him down.

Well so far if i understand correctly what they said their plan was,U dont gain a "level" in ur archetype until u have leveld ur skills as a prerequisite for that archetype. having said that i want to see options were u can get abilities from the other archetypes like the sniper rogue from Advance Players guide or the Spellslinger from Ultimate Combat.

Well im hoping for a sorcerer/cleric, or sorcerrer/oracle mystic theurge type character. So far i know in the core rules there isnt reall a way to make a good MT with spontaneous casters but i hope that changes for PFO. Bloodline would have to be abyssal or infernal and he would be a summoner/buffer who sommons demons and devils to do his bidding.