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The force barrage spell states it targets "a creature you can see" and "hits automatically". Concealment states "While concealed, you can still be observed, but you're tougher to target. A creature that you're concealed from must succeed at a DC 5 flat check when targeting you with an attack, spell, or other effect. If the check fails, you aren't affected." So is force barrage subject to the flat check? If so, is it rolled for each shard, or does a target only roll once for the entire spell?
How is the bone spear spell supposed to work? The Target line says "One creature", but is that supposed to be one Thrall, or is the Target of the spell also the Target of a thrall's attack? Should the Target line read "One of your Thralls" perhaps? If we assume the former, that it's supposed to be a Thrall that's within the 10-foot range, then that means it's possible for the Necromancer to catch themselves in the path of the resulting line.
The Monastic Archer Stance feat says "When you select this feat, you become trained in the longbow, shortbow, and any simple and martial bows with the monk trait." Except there aren't any bows with the monk trait. Are there plans to include some later, or give a way to apply that trait?
Everyone seems to love to hate on the Chirurgeon alchemist. It's not just that the name is hard to spell and pronounce. Someone playing this particular version wants to be the go-to guy for healing, except they're handing them out ahead of time instead of doing it on the spot. Problem is, they don't hold a candle to a cleric's ability to heal. Initially they look just fine, and perhaps at higher levels it works out to be good enough, but there's a critical point -- between levels 2 and 5 -- where the Chirurgeon simply isn't doing well enough. For starters, the Elixir of Life. The 1st-level version heals 1d6 and gives a +1 bonus against diseases and poisons for ten minutes. It's an okay amount, only a little worse than a healing potion or a touch-based Heal spell. But for most characters, when they need some healing they're in bad shape, and getting out that elixir requires four actions -- stowing their weapon, getting out the elixir, drinking it, then readying their weapon again. By comparison, a cleric can simply cast a two-action Heal and give that person 1d8+8 hit points, at range. Or even just a one-action Heal for 1d8 by touch, if they're already adjacent, and still have most of their round to do other things. When a party has advanced to 3rd level, their hit points have doubled and their damage potential starts to scale up. But so have their opponents, so the amount of damage they're taking increases proportionately. And that 3rd-level alchemist is still handing out 1d6 healing elixirs. Only difference is he can maybe afford to give out a few extra. Now, a lot of classes get some sort of special ability at 3rd level, but alchemists don't. They just get the usual feats like everyone. Granted, they also get access to new formulas, but that assumes they have the time to make things. A Chirurgeon doesn't get anything extra, because by RAW they only have three formulas on their list -- antiplague, antitoxin, and healing elixirs. They can pick two of these to be signature, getting three doses per batch instead of two during their morning preparations... but the option to switch one out at every level is wasted on them. Especially once they hit 5th level and automatically get that benefit with healing elixirs. By RAW, they only have three formulas on their list, so they'll always have the same signature items. Now, I've played around with the numbers a bit, and come to the conclusion that, when compared to a cleric's ranged Heal spell, an alchemist's healing elixirs are about half as effective -- but a Chirurgeon can crank these suckers out in significant quantities. At 13th level, for instance, a cleric probably has four or five free castings of Heal, while a Chirurgeon can hand out twenty-seven elixirs and only use up half of his allotment of reagents. So half as much at a time, but over triple the amount overall. Anyway, back to the thread title. What needs to be fixed? First, the healing an elixir can give doesn't keep up with a party's needs for healing at middle-low levels (2-4). I suggest, at 3rd level, giving the alchemist the ability to add their Intelligence modifier to the random factor of any alchemical item they create -- the damage for bombs and poisons, the amount healed from elixirs. This gives them a needed boost at that level regardless of their research field, and isn't so much that it overshadows what they can do at higher level. This also balances out the effective loss of the healing elixirs' secondary benefit -- once a Chirurgeon reaches 7th level, they're going to be dumping antidote and antiplague into their allies' food, so the elixirs' save bonus is useless. Second, the Chirurgeon doesn't get very many options. Let them have any non-mutagen elixir on the list of alchemical creations they can choose as signature formulas. Third, expand on the base ability of the Chirurgeon, the ability to use a Craft check to Treat Wounds. Remove the need for medical supplies, assume they instead use alchemical means -- dumping strange powders into open wounds, asking the subject to drink something suspect, stuff like that. Let their Craft skill substitute for Medicine in all ways related to the Treat Wounds action, including meeting requirements for feats such as Battlefield Medicine, or using the higher DCs for the Treat Wounds action. Keep the requirement that they be trained in Medicine -- after all, they're not some hack who never even studied a medical journal. They just have... different methods.
The 2nd-round errata added a new feature for Alchemists, to make up for their low number of infused reagents at low level. Your research field adds a number of formulas to your formula book; these are your signature items. When using a batch of infused reagents to create your signature items using advanced alchemy, you create three items instead of two. Each time you gain a level, you can swap one of your signature items with another formula in your formula book. This new signature item must be on your research field’s list of possible signature items. The last sentence comes across just fine for all the research fields... except the Chirurgeon. Let's compare.
Now, the problem here is that the "list of possible signature items" isn't clearly defined. By RAW, it is only the 1st-level alchemical items of each field's specialty. Except for the much-maligned Chirurgeon, who only has three to pick from. And their Field Discovery at level 5 makes it so that one of those is permanently gaining the same benefit. So what's missing? Clarification. Does an Alchemist's list of potential signature formulas include all formulas of the class that matches their research field? In other words, can a Bomber pick any alchemical bombs as he advances, or is he limited to only the 1st-level list? Was a Chirurgeon supposed to be able to make any elixirs signature formulas, or is he limited to only the three he can pick from? On that subject, why isn't the Chirurgeon able to pick any other elixirs to start? Why don't they get a list to pick from for their Perpetual Infusion ability? Everyone else does, but they only get two.
There's something the rules regarding drugs and addiction that isn't coming across very clearly. To use an example, let's say that someone chokes down a pint of Dwarven Fire Ale. Now, according to the description, four things happen simultaneously:
In what order do you apply these? This is a case where the character's chances of becoming addicted are immediately dependent on whether or not you apply one (or both) of the other effects first.
In the first session of the campaign, my players' attention was drawn to the notice board in the Rusty Dragon.* A quick scan of the description in the Sandpoint appendix gave me no idea what sort of notices would be posted there. Does anyone have any suggestions? * One of my players has already started calling it the "Lusty Dragon" jokingly. I've told him the joke's been done, but I'm not stopping him. |
