Betatrack's page

Right underneath Flurry of Blows is the feature Graceful Expertise, which give monks Expert proficiency in unarmored defense. And the apparent default proficiency of characters other than monk is untrained since it isn't listed in their proficiencies so presumably you'd calculate your armor as having untrained proficiency.

You can use it with stance feats, just not Crane Style. Only Crane style says you must attack with Crane Wing. All the other monk style say you can use the stance specific attack.

Noticed some odd things with Fighter. The 6th level class feat Exotic Weapon Training gives you trained proficiency with a single exotic weapon but the Fighters class proficiencies say their trained in all exotic weapons, making that feat mostly redundant.

Both Weapon Specialization at level 13 and Weapon Legend at level 19 say you gain access to the critical specialization effects of all weapon groups. Only thing I can figure here is that at level 13 it only applies to simple and martial given the ordering of that paragraph.

I'm curious, it's been forever since I read through the Mythic playtest document. How much did they change from that to the final printing? I know amazing initiative changed dramatically, did anything else?

It seems like your forgetting that the CR system, while great and very useful, has always been broken when you start adding things on top of existing creatures. By your own admission CRs get wonky when you start adding templates onto creatures. Well mythic is just another type of template, and you should treat it like that. Namely, that the CR adjustments as written are flawed and as a GM you need to account for that just like you would if you put 2-4 templates onto a normal creature. It's not a good thing that it's flawed like this, but it's nothing unique to the Mythic rules and you shouldn't treat it that way.

Also, it seems you're forgetting how over the top Hercules actually was. Hercules didn't fight roving gangs of 4-6 goblin raiders, he fought entire goblin warbands on the march. So yeah, if you throw a fight at a mythic party the way you'd throw one at a non-mythic party of course it's going to be trivial. Even at level 1/mythic 1 throw armies at the players, with mythic as written they can take that and that's kind of the point. The only real way non-mythic enemies, even CR appropriate ones, are going to hurt mythic players is through attrition. (I'd also suggest playing on the slow exp track so they don't level up crazy fast)

In the description for the Acrobatics skill it states that "Creatures with a base land speed above 30 feet receive a +4 racial bonus on Acrobatics checks made to jump for every 10 feet of their speed above 30 feet"

Do Monks, Barbarians, and people with the feat Fleet benefit from this?

They're Space Marines.

Think about it:

• They zealously follow a strict religious code.
• They're known for distinctive armor that's unique to each order.
• Each order has unique skills they use to accomplish a particular duty within their code.
• There's a distinction between normal fighters and casters.
• And they operate autonomously from the government that created them but are still loyal to it.

I'd think the +5 DC would prevent a lot of early level crafting normally because you'd be missing other prereqs so the you'd easily add 15-20 or more. But with enhancement bonuses the only real limiter to early crafting is cost. Your house rule sounds like about what I'd use for situations like this.

It's recently come to my attention that ignoring requirements on magic crafting applies to the level requirement for enhancement bonuses as well. Am I reading the rules right in thinking that I could attempt to craft a +5 weapon at level 6 and only add +5 to the DC for ignoring the levelx3 requirement for enhancement bonuses?

I was referring to the use of Furious Focus with Vital Strike, not Cleave. If a character is dead set on using the Vital Strike feats Furious Focus is amazingly helpful because it's effectively a straight damage increase at the cost of a feat.

Greater Called Shot says

Whenever you make an attack, you can choose to replace that attack with a called shot. You can make multiple called shots in a single round. Each additional called shot after the first made in the same round takes a –5 penalty. In addition, a called shot that deals half the creature’s hit points of damage (minimum 40) is a debilitating blow.

With this feat is it possible to make a called shot using Vital Strike, or does it only work on normal attacks?

Note that the feat basically becomes useless at level 6+ as soon as you get that extra attack. Most people train it out after that point.

==Aelryinth

Unless yours is a character that uses the Vital Strike feat chain. =P

Wait, Ultimate Equipment? But... But... My money! ;_;

Necromancer wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

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Let me tell you all a secret about the Barrett fight: there's gas/explosive canisters lining the corners of the room. You can beat him in ten seconds flat if you EMP grenade him immediately and then run to your back right, throw the two gas canisters into Barrett, then run along the wall to your right and grab the explosive barrels. All the barrels can be picked up and tossed by people without the strength upgrade.

Betatrack wrote:

Sometimes delaying the inevitable is plenty. If the Eidolon ends in negatives and is unconscious then it's likely that the enemies hitting it will move on to other targets that can still pose an active threat to them (unless they have it out for the eidolon at which point nothing would save it) leaving you able to heal it after battle or just distract whoever is attacking it.

I have yet to meet a DM who hasn't taken the opportunity to coup de grace a scrub/disposable character if given half a chance. The DM has used a coup de grace on my buddy's eidolon at least 2 times when it has fallen below 0.

When asked why the DM stated the following reasons:
1. It is a disposable character and you lose nothing by letting me kill him.

2. It is awesome to be able to coup de grace characters, even disposable ones.

3. It lets the party have a chance to take attacks of opportunity against the main bad guy, which is awesome.

4. It takes one of the biggest damage dealers out of combat for the day.

5. I know you won't use Life Link if I can deal more than 40 points of damage.

Had Life Link worked as intended, this wouldn't have even been an issue.

Essentially if the enemies pick new targets, that is because the DM is choosing not to metagame, or he is choosing to metagame. Depending on how you look at it.

The GM I play with has never coup de graced anything in games I've been in because (both out of game meta and in game) the enemies have better things to do with their actions than finish off an opponent who's already out of the fight. Even me and the other players never finish off downed enemies because we know they aren't going to be contributing to the combat anymore and we'll have ample time to finish them off afterwards.

And anyway those are great meta reasons to coup de grace an eidolon, but not so great in game, and I believe the GM shouldn't metagame any more than players should. Why would the enemy continue beating on an unconscious opponent instead of going after the other people attacking him (there are exceptions to that of course, but in general)? And the summoner does lose something if his eidolon is killed, he can't summon it again until the next day, leaving him with significantly less power than normal (obviously, this isn't a permanent loss and you'd expect it to happen occasionally, but that's not the same as losing nothing).

Alizor wrote:

Cartigan wrote:

All I know is that level 1 characters are going to be hard pressed to fight an Advanced Giant Monkey. The thing has like 18 AC.

However it's still almost (it only gets a +2 bonus from advanced) as susceptible to color spray, sleep, etc. Also note that while it's damage goes up significantly (it goes to 1d4), it's attack bonus decreases significantly to +0. I'd call a stirge (only AC 16, but a fair amount of special abilities) to be a fairly equal CR to this advanced giant monkey.

To echo earlier people you should count a +2 CR as two "steps" along the CR chart, which would move it from 1/4 to 1/2.

It's to-hit stays even - it decreases by 1 for going from Tiny to Small, but increases 1 for adding a cumulative +2 to Dex. Which reminds me, I calculated armor wrong. It's AC is 19 I removed the +2 for being Tiny instead of reducing it to being +1 for being Small. Good luck fighting the angry monkey that you have ~35% chance to hit. Hope the spellcasters have blasty spells.

If you have spellcasters. =P

I believe his point is that, as written, and with no other factors in play, all it does is prevent the eidolon from going below (-Con) hp.

If the damage is coming in small amounts (less than (Con) each time), then the eidolon will already be unconscious. Thus, the Summoner is bleeding hp, but the eidolon is still not contributing to the fight. Thus, using Life Link can be viewed as merely delaying the inevitable.

Life Link normally only keeps a conscious eidolon fighting, if the damage is greater than (Con), allowing the Summoner to absorb the damage. However, does the Summoner really want to be taking hits like that, given his d8 Hit Die and light armor?

Its usefulness is very much variable, dependent on whether the Eidolon has the Diehard feat. If that is the case, then it can continue to act in the negative hit points, and thus, sacrificing a few hp to keep it from going over (-Con) is much less of a gamble, since it can attempt to retreat to safety, drink its own cure potions, or just bash the enemy that was pestering it.

Sometimes delaying the inevitable is plenty. If the Eidolon ends in negatives and is unconscious then it's likely that the enemies hitting it will move on to other targets that can still pose an active threat to them (unless they have it out for the eidolon at which point nothing would save it) leaving you able to heal it after battle or just distract whoever is attacking it.

I'm 90% sure that adding +2 to the CR of a 1/4 creature results in a 1/2 CR (1/4 -> 1/3 -> 1/2).

I think this also applies when calculating XP for encounters. For example, if you have 4 creatures, that increases the CR by +4. In the case of CR 1/4 kobolds, that would be CR 2 (1/4 -> 1/3 -> 1/2 -> 1 -> 2)

I'm confused by this paragraph:
"Determining the final CR for a creature with class levels requires careful consideration. While adding a class level to a monster that stacks with its existing abilities and role generally adds 1 to its CR for each level taken, adding classes that do not stack is more complicated.

Table: Monsters with Class Levels gives general guidelines regarding which core classes add directly to a monster's abilities based on its role. Classes that are marked “key” generally add 1 to a creature's CR for each level added. Classes marked with a “—” increase a creature's CR by 1 for every 2 class levels added until the number of levels added are equal to (or exceed) the creature's original CR, at which point they are treated as “key” levels (adding 1 to the creature's CR for each level added). Creatures that fall into multiple roles treat a class as key if either of its roles treat the class as key. Note that levels in NPC classes are never considered key."

For example mites are CR 1/4, and have a "combat" role. If I add 4 levels of sorcerer, what is the CR?

That paragraph tries to explain why adding levels of certain classes to monsters would result in a different CR adjustment than others. To wit, adding a lvl of wizard (a non key class marked with a "-" on the table on page 297 of the bestiary) on to a Stone Giant wouldn't add nearly as much power to it as a lvl in fighter (a key class marked as such on said table) would.

EDIT: And I agree with Cartigan on how the CR adjustment works. It's telling you to add whole numbers to the CR, not increase it by steps. The fractional CR scale mentioned earlier is for specific cases like a creature being adjusted to below CR1 since you can't have CR0 or below. Since going up doesn't have that problem you just add the adjustment to the original CR, effectively treating the fractional CR as zero for the final CR.

Could someone explain to me how Life Link is useless? I don't get where you're coming from with that sentiment.

Unlike a normal summoner, a synthesist's eidolon is not a seperate creature and is essentially treated as an augment to the synthesist himself and as such has no -CON score to go to for the purposes of life link.

Unless I'm mistaken, you'd need the same amount of black powder for a Huge firearm as you would for a Medium one. Just went back through the firearm section and didn't see anything about larger sized firearms taking more powder.

Slaunyeh wrote:

Ah alright, that explains it. If it's not from PF it's hardly 'every cleric'. But sounds useful.

Considering that it's Society legal, it should be a pretty popular choice for clerics, druids and oracles.

Diego Rossi wrote:

I read that as a far cry from "open to everyone".

Would you also argue that only characters from Qadira can take Dervish Dance?

Just because something isn't exclusive to one faction/deity/whatever doesn't mean it's common everywhere. The campaign setting doesn't care about minmaxing or game balance, it cares about what makes sense for characters from a given region. So no, I don't expect to see to many dervishs outside of Qadira or characters from Qadira.

Orisons:

Quote:

Orisons: Clerics can prepare a number of orisons, or 0-level spells, each day, as noted on Table: Cleric under “Spells per Day.” These spells are cast like any other spell, but they are not expended when cast and may be used again.

Are you really trying to argue that cantrips and orisons aren't "true" spells?

If I read that correctly, he's just pointing out how people get buthurt over silly things and complain endlessly about them.

I like the idea of this trait, but I'd limit it to a pistol because a Gunslinger with this trait could get two muskets off the bat and that just seems silly to me. As a feat I could totally see it giving you a choice of weapon similar to the class feature.

It's technically already possible with the Ancestral weapon trait (which gives a masterwork version, and they gain a +1 bonus to attack on top of that).

Would this trait give only proficiency with this single weapon (like the above trait), or would it give proficiency in that weapon type, or all guns?
Considering the current alternative, it seems like such a trait should give something more than just a starting junk weapon.

I believe you mean Heirloom Weapon (Adventurers Armory). That trait doesn't give you the weapon for free. It gives you proficiency with that specific weapon, gives you a +1 trait bonus to attack with it, and lets you purchase a masterwork version of it at normal price at character creation. You'd still run into the issue that guns are too expensive for level 1 characters.

JRutterbush wrote:

Well, I just used it in our Wednesday game, popping a locked set of double-doors open in an abandoned library. We don't have a Rogue in the group, so my shooting the door open saved us several rounds, if not longer, in breaking the door down, which let us take on the Drow inside without giving them a ton of time to prepare.

So yeah, awesome AND useful.

No adamantine weapons wielded by power-attackers in the party? That's our usual lockpick if we don't have a rogue :).

In one campaign I was in after we hit a trap in an old shack we decided that sense we had no rogue we'd bypass the doors entirely and cut through the relatively thin wooden walls.

Betatrack wrote:

That "Master Gunsmith" feat you're proposing sounds exactly like Master Craftsman except worse. Why not just take Master Craftsman?

Sounds like he means more like the Wizard bonded item ability. You get Master Gunsmith, and you are treated as having the feats to enchant your weapon, etc.

Master Craftsman takes at least two feats to start enchanting something: the original feat to open up qualifying, and then the craft arms and armor feat. This means you'd need to be at least 7th level before you can start enchanting for one, and it takes up two of your precious feats to pull this off.

Master Gunsmith would let you enchant your weapon however you wanted, with only the one feat needed.

That's right, I keep forgetting that Master Craftsman only gives access to the feats and not the feats themselves.

ShadowWolfie wrote:

Yes, 3+wis would be the perfect amount.

Problem with a current mechanic is, the amateur gunslinger give 1 grit, and most gunslingers will probably have 1 grit.

Exactly, so give the gunslinger class 3+wis. That way Gunslingers will always have more than one.

Really, a more accurate way to put that is Rapid Reload makes one-handed a move action and alchemical cartridges make it a free action. As Borthos mentioned earlier Rapid Reload specifically reduces it to a move action, not by one step.

Pepperbox revolvers were notorious for a specific type of misfire where all the barrels would end up going off.

As such I'm going to use a house rule that if you roll a natural 1 with a pepperbox you roll another d20 -- if it's a natural 20 then you get to fire all barrels at the target at a -5 penalty (like a free deadshot) but you are dazed until the start of your next turn.

That reminds me entirely of this, and I like that.

-They need more grit - Either more base grit (+1/2 class level) or more ways of getting grit. My lvl 8 had 1 grit point to work with and couldn't do much with it. I also think that the Lucky Gun magic weapon special ability shouldn't require the wielder to have weapon focus for that gun in order to receive the extra grip point from it.

I've been wondering why they can't have 3+Wis like Monk has for Ki.

Mad Beetle wrote:

Dilvias wrote:

Gun Fighting should work like Weapon Expertise from the Samurai, in that the gunslinger levels stacks with fighter levels "for the purposes of meeting the prerequisite for feats that specifically select his chosen weapon, such as Weapon Specialization".

I thought, that as an fighter archtype, this would be redundant? I mean, a gunslinger is a fighter, and therefore can choose fighter feats.

The gunslinger is a Base Class now.

And I'm against allowing other classes access to fighter feats, no matter if they are Gunslingers, Magi or Samurai.

Even though it loses fighter feats I'm glad Gunslinger is it's own class now. In round 1 it was an alternate class in name only, having basically nothing in common with a base fighter outside of BAB and HD.

Rapid reload reduces 1-handed firearms to a move action. Advanced firearms are a move action to reload normally without the feat. Alchemical cartridges reduce the reload time by one step. Metal cartridges are a form of alchemical cartridge so revolvers with rapid reload is a free action to reload since revolvers have to use cartridges and not loose powder and bullets.

+1

How does it not work with advanced guns? The only thing the feat cares about is whether it's one-handed or two-handed, early or advanced isn't mentioned and all firearms regardless of type are either one-handed or two-handed.

That "Master Gunsmith" feat you're proposing sounds exactly like Master Craftsman except worse. Why not just take Master Craftsman?

Is it any more confusing than an feat that specifically calls out one-handed or two-handed melee weapons without specifying martial or exotic? If it's because the updated Rapid Reload is printed right above the basic firearms in the playtest document and not near the other ones I could understand that confusing a newbie, but I can't see the wording confusing someone as written.

Actually it does since advanced firearms still fall under one-handed and two-handed. The feat doesn't mention a difference between early and advanced firearms.

mdt wrote:

Pendagast wrote:

some of the obscure things wizards are just supposed 'have' is ridiculous too.

Plus we don't know what makes gun powder in golarion, could be kobold blood and the hair off your back.

If you're gonna go that route, there's nothing that says it isn't powdered dragon testicles. That would, at the very least, explain the cost of powder. :)

powdered dragon testicles launching gold pieces is about right.

Now that we have the exact formula for shot and ball, all we need to know is how to find it on the trail.

What, you don't keep a supply of powdered dragon testicle on you at all times? It's very useful.

Change Pistol whip to "as long as 1 grit remains" and give the option of spending grit to knock people prone, as suggested in a other threads.

Betatrack wrote:

Because it's kind of hard to use a musket that's as large as you are.

So you're saying that you can't use weapons that are bigger then you are now?

Not as easily no. Oh wait, they have rules for that already.

Stephen said that the gun prices in the playtest document likely aren't final.

Because it's kind of hard to use a musket that's as large as you are.

Betatrack wrote:

That's more a problem with Perception rules than anything else.

No, it's saying if someone is almost the length of three football fields away, you can't see them effectively.

Which is crap, it's entirely possible to see someone a mile or more away. It would be hard to hit them sure, but unless they're trying to hide it's not hard to see someone ~900 feet away.

That's more a problem with Perception rules than anything else.

Betatrack wrote:

And how does that stop it from being a status effect?

Because it is a universal effect. It effects everyone.

If I turn off the lights in my room, I'm not blind. It's just now dark in my room.

And by being in a dark room you can't see as well, therefor affecting your status. We seem to have different definitions of what a status effect is.

And how does that stop it from being a status effect?

An environmental effect that has an effect on your characters abilities (such as granting concealment a la cloud spells or blinding you a la darkness) are still status effects.

>_< Seems I'm blind right now.

Borthos Brewhammer wrote:

ciretose wrote:

80 feet with a rifle.

You want level 7. Ok

BAB 7 + 4 from dex for +11 before I add any enhancements or weapon focus, and assuming...

Rapid Reload DOES NOT let you reload as a free action. Makes a rifle reload a Standard

Rapid Reload + Lightning Reload does.

I don't see Lightning Reload anywhere in the new document.