Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
"Pages 411: The text for the wounded condition was changed for consistency, but became consistent with the wrong piece of text. This would lead to much deadlier encounters! The following changes should ensure that death and dying works the way we intended. In the Recovery Checks degrees of success, remove all instances of "(plus your wounded condition, if any)"; that's both in the failure and critical failure entries.
From Player Core Day 1 Errata, problem solved.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
If that could somehow happen: they'd be swallowed, and now a smaller size. It would not otherwise alter their circumstances in any way. Shrinking is not blocked by there being 'not enough space' for reasons that are fairly obvious.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Kelseus wrote:
It's actually super important to note - Player Core only covers the CRB and APG. The Ancestry Guide and Lost Omens are not covered by it, and all the missing feats are from Ancestry Guide or Lost Omens. I'd expect errata just changing the missing feats to Nephilim instead of Aasimar, and adding the celestial lineage requirement to them. If no errata, then that's what should be done. Same for Tiefling.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Also: It is still mechanically and tactically bad to go after a downed character instead of going after active threats and potential healers, regardless of if the enemy also goes to dying or not. The only way a downed creature becomes a threat again is if they get healed, so going after and threatening the healer (or the rest of their group if there is no clear healer) with Reactive Strikes, Grabs, etc. is more efficient and more effective than going for a double tap. This is especially true for creatures who have high damage effects or death effects, as they know that if a creature gets healed they can eventually wear them down by downing them again easily enough. Figuring out ways to get around those problems is fun, repeatedly attacking downed characters is both non-interactive and immersion-breaking (because it's a bad idea for any creature except the most mindless or vicious). RE: Afflictions timing, the rules are (still) under Duration, which is on page 426 of Player Core. It's a general rule that applies to all durations from all effects, so afflictions do not need to have theirs spelled out separately.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Bluemagetim wrote: Or if the boss had a wounding weapon!! oh man that will be a nightmare. Nope, you still have a full round. Persistent damage (still) only applies at the end of a creature's turn, and the PC's turn is moved to before the boss when they go down, which gives a full round for allies to heal them and/or help stop the bleed.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Ravingdork wrote: It'd be nice if we knew when poison triggered in the turn, so that we could better gauge the lethality of it in light of the new rules. We do, it's in the rules for persistent damage and the rules for Afflictions (and the standard convention for Durations). If persistent poison damage: You take it at the end of each of your own turns (along with making the DC 15 Flat Check). If an affliction: If you fail your save, you suffer stage 1 at the end of Onset time (if there is no Onset, it happens immediately when you fail). From there, each stage has an Interval, and you save when that interval ends. The convention for effects with durations lasting a number of rounds is that they decrease by 1 at the start of the creature's turn that created the effect, so '1 round' means 'at the start of the creature who inflicted the effect's turn' (or on that spot in the initiative order if said creature is dead). Repeat until Stage 0, Max Duration is reached, or dead. If you are exposed to the same poison again and fail the save again, the stage immediately goes up by 1 (2 for crit fail), but it doesn't 'refresh' the max duration. https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=351
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Revised wording from Player Core specifies that the spell cast on Spellstrike Ammo must be a 1-2 action spell, to clarify this - you are using the Cast a Spell action, using 2 actions regardless of whether it's a 1 or 2 action spell, and activating the ammo with it. There shouldn't be any issue with casting a 1 or 2 action heal into Spellstrike Ammo (don't forget they do the same damage to undead, the bonus on 2 action is only for healing). They'll need to fire it before the end of their turn, or the ammo will deactivate. Essentially two scenarios: Arrow: 2 action Cast A Spell to activate (Heal), Strike the undead (reload 0 means drawing the arrow is free), on hit they take damage as normal and save against Heal. Bolt/Bullet/Other Things with Reload 1+: Make sure ammo is loaded before start of turn, or use Risky Reload later on. Cast a Spell to activate, Strike to fire on the undead, on hit they take damage as normal and save against Heal.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Revised wording in Player Core: "Most animals panic in battle unless specifically trained otherwise." I would presume that the combat spell Summon Animals summons combat trained animals. As for everything else - 'if you can communicate with it' is kind of ambiguous phrasing. Notably, it doesn't use the phrasing 'if it can understand the language you are speaking', and the minion trait notes "if not otherwise specified, you issue a verbal command as a single action with the auditory and concentrate traits". Notably, this action does not have the Linguistic trait - meaning it does not require language to be understood to have an effect. I think it should be taken to mean 'if it is deafened/otherwise unable to hear you', given nothing else in rules supports the idea of intelligible communication being necessary.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Gortle wrote:
In most cases it's a bad idea to waste actions on double-tapping a target that is not an active threat, from a mechanical perspective. On a crit, the stabilized creature would be dropped to Dying 2, and they'd have to spend at least another action to finish them. Even if the target was Wounded 1, they'd still go to Dying 3, and require another hit to finish off. Keep in mind that there is the actual healer nearby actively healing the entire party, and it'd be much more efficient and effective to take them down to 0 HP than to double tap one creature. Arguments can be made in the case of things like mindless creatures, starving beasts, or creatures who benefit from double tapping (via spell or getting a new ally), but those are exceptional circumstances that should be treated accordingly - Stabilizing a creature who's adjacent to a Wight is one case where it may be better to let the creature die naturally as opposed to stabilizing them, but that should only be even considered if you're totally out of healing options.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Mathmuse wrote:
This is an area where the totality of the Dying rules are important: whenever you drop to 0 HP, your initiative is moved to directly before the turn you go down. This ‘delays your turn’ so you never have to make a recovery check right after falling, and your allies have a full round to heal you. [In the circumstance you go down to a Reactive Strike or Persistent Damage or the like on your own turn, they still have a full round] Here's an example: Initiative Order Baddie
The fight has been going on a bit. The Baddie lands a critical hit on the Wizard, dropping him to 0 HP. The Wizard goes to Dying 2 (downed by a crit), and the initiative order becomes: Wizard
The cleric heals the Wizard, bringing him to Wounded 1. Initiatives do not change. The Bad Mage hits the area with a Fireball, and the Wizard is unlucky enough to critically fail the reflex save. The Wizard drops to Dying 3 (Dying 2+Wounded 1), and initiative becomes: Baddie
The barbarian takes down the Bad Mage, and back to top of round. If the cleric did not heal the wizard, the wizard would be Dead. Now, the Cleric has another chance to heal the Wizard (assuming the Baddie does not ignore the threat of the fighter or barbarian slaying them to make a spiteful double tap) his turn moving to after the Cleric's.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
By rules it doesn’t stack unless it is explicitly said to, or increase terrain difficulty unless explicitly said to - like how getting darkvision from both ancestry and heritage doesn’t give greater darkvision (but getting low-lighf and a feat that gives low-light usually does stack to dv due to feat wording). You could possibly rule it as also being uneven ground for that character, since they can’t see to navigate around what is causing the terrain to be difficult - but tbh being blinded is punishing already.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
I don't view it as a problem that you can't take Bastion at level 2 unless you are a class that already has shield block. It's similar to how you can't take Medic at level 2 unless you either spend a feat on Battle Medicine or have it in your background, you can't take Marshal without both martial weapons and diplomacy or intimidation, etc. Some dedications should be too much of a leap to take straight away - this is also the reason for multiclass dedications having stat requirements.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Other spells explicitly do confer the properties of flung metals nowadays, see Needle Darts: https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=1375 Given that they explicitly do impart any special properties, and TK Proj has its wording indicating that 'no properties' are inherited, it's clear that if you want to use precious metal magic attacks, use Metal Darts. (Thread's old and necroed, but I figure that this is a good cap.)
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Ravingdork wrote:
By way of example, the rules for the Dying condition: https://2e.aonprd.com/Conditions.aspx?ID=11Nothing in those rules says you should add wounded when you gain dying, because those rules are elsewhere in the book. The sidebar has a reminder, but that is not part of the condition’s rules text. The argument you are using here is equivalent to ‘the rules for dying as a whole and the rules for the dying condition differ, so we cannot say for certain which is correct.’ The answer is that they don’t differ and both are correct, because the rule is printed in a different location. This is almost certainly an issue of organization, not one of interpretation. If I were to speculate: during the editing process, somebody saw 'gain or increase', and thought it was confusing language to have two different words that mean the same thing, so they cut it to 'gain'. That is purely a guess. (To make things clear as well, I am not arguing out of anger, or saying that this is absolutely a better rule - I am saying it is reasonable to view this as having been the rule all along, and I struggle to find a reason why 'specific beats general, but not if the specific only appears in one spot because then it might be an error' is the interpretation we want to go with.)
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
ElementalofCuteness wrote:
(This is already the case, it’s covered by the rules of the Composition trait itself: https://2e.aonprd.com/Traits.aspx?ID=31 )
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
So the big issue is that it's a status bonus. Even if it applied to some impulses, it would not apply to their 2 action blast, which also uses a status bonus to add their con to damage. It WOULD apply to persistent burn from a later Junction, though. I was doing a bunch of math comparing it to other burn it options, and it's not really straightforwardly comparable. Average damages won't tell the whole story. I don't think it's 'broken' per se if you want to allow it, but there's definitely reasons why you may not want to establish precedent that impulses 'count as spells'.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Bluemagetim wrote: Also the playtest language ive heard about that clearly would mean to increase by the wounded value did not make it to the final version. So it may as well also not have been the intention. https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=374 "If you take damage while you already have the dying condition, increase your dying condition value by 1, or by 2 if the damage came from an attacker’s critical hit or your own critical failure. If you have the wounded condition, remember to add the value of your wounded condition to your dying value." CRB, the original. Pg 459. Never errata'd in 4 releases. Keep in mind that the dying rules not being errata'd has been used in this thread as evidence that the rules were clearly always intended to be that way. Another quote: "Wounded Any time you gain the dying condition or increase it for any reason, add your wounded value to the amount you gain or increase your dying value. The wounded condition ends if you receive HP from Treat Wounds, or if you're restored to full HP and rest for 10 minutes." GM Screen, released alongside the CRB. Remains on the Archive of Nethys GM Screen under Death and Dying, and in printed GM screens. Both the original and Advanced GM screens contain this reminder, as far as I am aware.
Yes, this rule has always existed. There was ambiguity before because there was no reminder text. Reminder text was added, and people are calling that a change.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Mathmuse wrote:
So this isn't quite correct. No matter how high your Dying value gets, if Dying is removed by any means other than spending hero points, your wounded increases by 1. It doesn't go to the value Dying was at, or anything like that - it is explicitly designed to counteract 'yo-yo' healing that plagues games like 5e, where there is no reason to heal until somebody goes down - Wounded encourages more proactive healing, to prevent going down to start. Essentially, if a character goes down to a crit, they go to dying 2. They take damage when they are inside the splash radius of a bomb, dying 3. The cleric casts heal on them, all dying cleared, Wounded 1. Remember, wounded can be cured entirely in two ways: 1) Treat Wounds
The latter, notably, can be done without anyone in the group having any medical skill, using only healing magic and consumables.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Pixel Popper wrote:
It doesn't, because it is purely referencing the general rule for wounded. IE, something you should do anyway, this is just a reminder text. To think of this another way, let's think about the spell Stabilize. 'The target loses the dying condition, though it remains unconscious at 0 Hit Points.' We already know when you lose dying, you increase wounded value - but maybe the designers want to make sure that's communicated in the spell. In that case, 'The target loses the dying condition, though it remains unconscious at 0 Hit Points (increase their Wounded condition by 1).'
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Pixel Popper wrote:
You are arguing that reminder text for a general rule is not rules text. Reminder text is quite frequently put in parens. Unless you mean to suggest that the hidden condition doesn't allow you to sneak away here, because it's in a paren: https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=45 Wow, steal has double parenthesis! How confusing it is: https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=68 Ugh, too many parenthesis! None of these are rules!: https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=28 We can ignore the income table, only parenthesis points to it: https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=23 How am I supposed to interpret all this? I should give a means of activating a magic effect? If only parenthetical reminders mattered!: https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=24
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Like, this isn't hard unless people have had some collective misunderstanding on a catastrophic level. Here is how it was generally understood to work before: When a character is dropped to 0 HP by lethal damage, they go to Dying 1 (dying 2 if they were downed by a critical hit or critical failure), then add their Wounded value if it exists. For a character who has no wounded, they are at dying 1 or 2. For a character with Wounded 2, they are at dying 3 or 4 (dead without diehard). When a creature succeeds a recovery roll, decrease dying by 1. On a critical success, decrease dying by 2. When a creature fails a recovery roll, they increase dying by 1. When they critically fail, they increase dying by 2. When a creature has the dying condition removed by any means other than spending all their hero points (including succeeding at recovery checks), their wounded value is increased by 1. Do we all agree that is how the majority of people have been playing, and what the rule was commonly understood to be? Like, if your wounded somehow increased while you were still dying, (which I don't believe is possible, but for the sake of argument) you would not increase your dying value, because it has already been added. It's a one-and-done. Your wounded value is not 'constantly being added to your dying value', and it isn't added together with your 'base dying value' to create a new variable, that requires expressly adding additional rules and complications not present in the text. This is the single alteration: When a creature who is already dying increases their dying value, for any reason, they add wounded again. In other words: A creature who is wounded 1 drops to a normal hit. They go to dying 1, then add wounded, putting them at dying 2. Their initiative is moved to before the creature that knocked them to 0, to give every ally a turn to help them before they have to make a recovery check. They are not healed. They make a recovery check on their turn, it is a failure. They add 1 to their dying value for Dying 3, then add their wounded value again for Dying 4. If they don't have Diehard (or that one orc feat), they are dead. They could alternatively spend all their hero points on failing that recovery check to go to 0 HP and stable, wounded 1 still. Reading it any other way requires absolutely torturing words, contradicting both the old CRB and Gm Screen, contradicting the way the rules generally function, and contradicting Player Core.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Ravingdork wrote:
As I mentioned, the current wording is in the original CRB, and has never been errata'd. It is on page 459. You may check. Attempting to argue in increasingly tortured ways about how this really isn't the rule makes no sense when a) you can always not run it that way, and b) there is almost no effect on actual real world gameplay as compared to before.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Ched Greyfell wrote:
Then you are not reading correctly. When it says 'add wounded to your dying value' when you go down, it has always been accepted to work like this: Go to dying 1 (or 2 if crit), then add wounded value to that to arrive at Dying 2/3/4/whatever. The wording has not changed.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Nothing about how this is written contradicts the rules as originally written, and it clarifies some places where wording was weird before - the original CRB does, in fact, note to add your wounded value to your dying value when you fail a recovery check or take damage, it just does so in a different place. The official GM screen for PF2e also includes the same reminder as is in Player Core, and that was out years ago. Here is the wording on the GM screen (released alongside the original CRB): "Any time you gain the dying condition or increase it for any reason, add your wounded value to the amount you gain or increase your dying value. The wounded condition ends if you receive HP from Treat Wounds, or if you're restored to full HP and rest for 10 minutes." Here is from CRB page 459 (is the original CRB that people argue has had its rules changed in Player Core): "If you take damage while you already have the dying condition, increase your dying condition value by 1, or by 2 if the damage came from an attacker's critical hit or your own critical failure. If you have the wounded condition, remember to add the value of your wounded condition to your dying value." It is not a change or a contradiction, it is a clarification of rules that already existed, but almost nobody was running. Functionally speaking, this doesn't actually change much. 1) The value of the Diehard general feat is greatly increased. Being wounded 2 and dropping to a crit has always been lethal, but now being wounded 1 puts you in range of a single failed recovery check to death. Diehard expands this to 2 checks, except if you went down to a crit or crit fail your recovery. 2) The value of in-combat healing is increased, getting allies up before they need to make a recovery check even once becomes more paramount (and this is always possible due to how initiative is moved for a creature who goes to 0 HP). 3) Strategies that ignore an ally on the ground become less valuable, as it is more likely for them to die with one blown recovery check. 4) Holding hero points becomes more valuable - as does the tactic of spending them immediately on going down to prevent being Wounded! 5) GMs who play with a lot of targeting downed creatures remain exactly as lethal as before in most cases. There is maybe one edge case where this makes a creature die faster, if they drop to dying 2 with wounded 1, and succeed on a recovery check, then get attacked and crit - that will kill if you add wounded, not if you don't. It's identical otherwise. From the perspective of Paizo devs, I can only imagine that has been mostly the equivalent of updating a readme, and getting a bafflingly furious userbase reaction that they have changed critical parts of the program.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Player Core Pg 333., Gouging Claw is missing the Cantrip trait. GM Core Pg 225, the rules for transferring runes include the line 'It takes 1 day (instead of the 4 days usually needed to Craft)', it no longer takes 4 days to Craft.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Ravingdork wrote:
a) Your friends sure have some interesting opinions! It might pay for you to learn more about what they believe on a variety of topics about the welfare of other human beings, to make sure they are people who are actually going to be good friends. Sometimes you think you know people, and can count on them for anything, then they start posting about how your class of people is inherently worse than theirs (except you, of course! You're "one of the good ones"!) b) Online works pretty well.
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I have been looking a bit on Spheres of Magic, and I definately think I will replace vancian magic with spheres the next time I run pathfinder. So now I feel like writing down some random thoughts about the system and a theoretical setting using the system. I have seen some observations that Conjuration is overpowered, but when I look at it I get the feeling it has been nerfed quite a bit since those opinions were formed. I mean, yes the extra actions from a Companion (or two, or three) is very powerful, but my impression is that spending three feats to get an animal companion is cheaper than buying up a companion of similar power. I also miss a way to get a number of summons with the limitation that you can only summon one of them at a time, this allowing you to get (form) talents cheaper on your 2nd, 3rd and so on companions. Sort of like an array in mutants and masterminds. Destruction seems a bit costly on the magic points, but I imagine an Elementalist with a nice Staff and some metamagic feats won't be that much behind a cross-blooded blockbuster wizard when it comes to pure damage when going all out. Ouch, I am getting thoughts of 3 spells per turn, and probably your whole magic pool burned together with your enemies. In general though, the system opens up a lot more concepts when it comes to mages. And the only concept that is really shut down is the GOD spellcaster who specializes in doing everything better than everyone else. So a vast improvement on all fronts. For the most part, Advanced Talents look completely fine as well. Conjuration gets Planar Binding/Ally, which is probably by far the most broken ability on the list. But at least it is broken in a way that is relatively easy to deal with as a GM. Death also has a bunch of really powerful Advanced Talents, the "broken" divinations all seem to be locked behind high levels and a significant talent tax of weaker divinations. I really love the "your spells now affect a 2 mile radius talents", Midnight + Hungry Darkness is a real BBEG combo. I would probably also allow rituals and ritual scrolls of the old vanican spells. I would generally allow PCs to learn rituals of 3rd level or lower at the "suggested" cost of 4 times the "market price" of a scroll. The assumption would be that if a PC is willing to pay the feat + wealth to buy a ritual, then that ritual would be in high enough demand for someone to first research it, and then for other spellcasters to pay to learn it. This means cheap scrolls cannot exist, though they can be crafted by a character who has first mastered the ritual. Spells such as Invisibility, Fly, Glitterdust, and so on would be useful to get scrolls of if nobody in the party selected the correct sphere. Ritual Spells of 4th level or higher would be very rare, as the research is getting costly at that point and I prefer settings where NPCs above 10th level are few and far between. I would still allow Alchemists and their extracts. In fact, I think I would make alchemist guilds a common and powerful political force. I might force the alchemists to pay the "ritual cost" for their extracts? This would come with a change so that they can refresh extracts that did not get consumed last day, in order to not waste the alchemist's wealth. The costs are really quite modest, it is paying 4 times the cost of a scroll which is the costly part for ritual casters. I think Rangers and Paladins should use the Armorist progression for spheres instead of the one suggested under archetypes. Bard, Inquisitor, and Hunter could use their normal sphere archetypes. I don't really know about the magus, with how sphere casting works it feels too much like a 2 level dip bait. As for the fullcasters, I would rather just use the default sphere classes with whatever traditions are needed to get the desired flavor. Other paizo classes would be the Barbarian (as the martial who got nice things), the Slayer (for players who only wish to select a target and full attack), and probably the Investigator as a 2nd alchemy user. I really want to use Akashic Mysteries and Path of War, and I really think Akashic Mysteries fit in a strange and mysterious way. It must be that it is a really balanced and versatile system, that is unlikely to steal anyone's thunder. Path of War on the other hand... while I am of the opinion that the Harbinger and the rest of the expanded material is completely fine in a normal pathfinder game. With spheres I think a Harbinger who used a trait or tradition to grab Hourglass or another solid control discipline would completely blow a sphere caster out of the water when it comes to debuff/control roles. As for Warlord and Warder, I believe it has been shown that at levels 1-10 they are likely to make the barbarian feel small in his pants when it comes to damage. At least until the errata for Blade and Fury arrives. I might just limit Path of War to the Myrmidon Fighter (who is still really badass, but still strictly weaker than a warlord) and the Hidden Blade rogue (who is still a rogue, probably an unchained rogue). Psionics would not be allowed on grounds of being to close to the vanican casting I just managed to get rid of. I would have to make the change to Sphere Crafting of magic items. I think I would limit scrolls to ritual scrolls, and potions would be monopolized by alchemists. This would nerf the Vizier slightly, but I would also give the Vizier the honor of being the only class who can craft items without having to know the correct sphere. That should be enough to make up for it. Apart from that, I think the Vizier needs to treat charges as spell points, since charges doesn't really seem to be a thing anymore, at least for the most part. Forge Ring would probably need to have its prerequisite reduced to 3rd level as most of the key magic items have been moved to that crafting feat (which I actually approve of).
I personally think that many of pathfinder's combat feats are split into feat chains of unneeded length and complexity. While a general improvement of combat feats won't fix the martial/caster discrepancy it will help martial characters who usually get a lot of bonus feats have more and better options in combat. While I prefer feats that open up new options such as Improved Trip or Cornugon Smash, feats that give numerical bonuses such as Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization, and feats that modify numerical bonuses such as Power Attack and Combat Expertise still have their place. Numerical bonuses help players create characters who have the "best" attack bonus and damage bonus, they are also easy feats to take if you for some reason don't want to expand your options. I was wondering if I could get feedback on if this would be a reasonable set of combat feats. If something is overpowered/underpowered or if there are any important options that I am missing. Note that I have removed fighter level requirements as having fighter only feats and then letting lots of classes "count" as having fighter levels is a horrible way to balance classes. maneuver feats:
Combat Expertise
Prerequisite: Int 13 Benefit: You take only a –2 penalty on attack rolls for fighting defensively. While fighting defensively or using the total defense action, you gain an additional +1 dodge bonus to your Armor Class. Combat Reflexes
Improved Unarmed Strike
Power Attack
Reckless Abandon
Karmic Strike
Improved Bull Rush
Counter Step
Quick Bull Rush
Mighty Throw
Improved Dirty Trick
Quick Dirty Trick
Dirty Trick Master
Improved Disarm
Improved Feint
Improved Grapple
Chokehold
Rapid Grappler
Snoutgrip
Improved Overrun
Improved Sunder
Improved Trip
Fury's Fall
Stand Still
Pin Down
agile and two-weapon fighting:
Weapon Finesse
Prerequisite: Dex 13 Benefit: With a light weapon, or a weapon with the finesse ability made for a creature of your size category, you may use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on attack rolls. You may also uses your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier to determine your CMB. If you carry a shield, its armor check penalty applies to your attack rolls. In addition, if you have a negative strength modifier, then your strength penalty still applies to your CMB. Deadly Agility
Parry and Riposte
Two-Weapon Fighting
Two-Weapon Defense
Double Slice
Equal Opportunity
Two-Weapon Rend
Two-Weapon Feint
Weapon Focus
Greater Weapon Focus
Weapon Specialization
Greater Weapon Specialization
Critical Focus
Improved Critical
archery:
Deadly Aim
Prerequisite: Dex 13, Base Attack Bonus +1 Benefit: You can choose to take a –1 penalty on all ranged attack rolls to gain a +2 bonus on all ranged damage rolls. When your base attack bonus reaches +4, and every +4 thereafter, the penalty increases by –1 and the bonus to damage increases by +2. You must choose to use this feat before making an attack roll and its effects last until your next turn. The bonus damage does not apply to touch attacks or effects that do not deal hit point damage. Far Shot
Point Blank Shot
Precise Shot
Improved Precise Shot
Rapid Shot
Manyshot
Snap Shot
Improved Snap Shot
shield:
Improved Shield Bash
Prerequisite: Shield Proficiency Benefit: When you perform a shield bash, you may still apply the shield's shield bonus to your AC. Shield Slam
Shield Master
Bashing Finish
Shield Focus
Greater Shield Focus
Shield Block
mounted combat:
Mounted Combat
Prerequisite: Ride 1 rank Benefit: Once per round when your mount is hit in combat, you may attempt a Ride check (as an immediate action) to negate the hit. The hit is negated if your Ride check result is greater than the opponent's attack roll. Ride-By Attack
Spirited Charge
Mounted Shield
Wheeling Charge
Mounted Archery
Trample
Unseat
Mounted Skirmisher
more combat feats:
Blind Fight
Benefit: In melee, every time you miss because of concealment (see Combat), you can reroll your miss chance percentile roll one time to see if you actually hit. In addition, an invisible attacker gets no advantages related to hitting you in melee. That is, you don't lose your Dexterity bonus to Armor Class, and the attacker doesn't get the usual +2 bonus for being invisible. The invisible attacker's bonuses do still apply for ranged attacks, however. Finally, you do not need to make Acrobatics skill checks to move at full speed while blinded. Improved Blind Fight
Disruptive
Spellbreaker
Teleport Tactician
Deflect Arrows
Deflect Rays
Lunge
Cleave
Great Cleave
Lightning Attack
Whirlwind Attack
Quick Draw
Wave Strike
Step Up
Step Up and Strike
Mirrored Pursuit
Pushing Assault
Dazing Assault
Vital Strike
Deadly Strike
Intimidating Prowess
Cornugon Smash
Dreadful Carnage
Enforcer
Hurtful
Cruel Strike
Shatter Defenses
Deadly Stroke
Penetrating Strike
Greater Penetrating Strike
Dodge
Wind Stance
Spring Attack
Defensive Combat Training
Catch off Guard
Throw Anything
Improvised Weapon Mastery
Dimensional Agility
Dimensional Dervish
Dimensional Maneuvers
Stunning Fist
Medusa's Wrath
Monkey Grip
Combat Patrol
Bodyguard
In Harms Way
Bastard Sword Training
Spear Mastery
Whip Mastery
Some of these feats are copies or variations of feats found elsewhere, such as in 3.5, Pathfinder material, or Dreamscarred Press material.
A pathfinder game might be starting up near me soon. The GM said that 3rd party content would be accepted, so I figured this would be my chance to test out some Path of War goodness. With the Myrmidon archetype I figured I could build a plain soldier, who is actually quite badass. The characters also use Lore Warden and Martial Master, and the idea is to be a "generalist" fighter who favors polearms because polearms are superior weapons. From what I heard, the characters are supposed to start naked at 6th level. So I have built two different 6th level fighters to fit into either a more lawful or evil aligned group, or a more good or chaotic aligned group. Celix Quaran:
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Celix Quaran --------------------- Male Human Fighter [Myrmidon, Lore Warden, Martial Master] 6 LE Medium humanoid (human) Age 24; Height: 6 ft. 1 in.; Weight: 190 lbs.; Hair: Dark-Blonde; Skin: Fair Deity: Asmodeus; Languages: Common, Dwarf, Elvish Init +4; Perception +11 --------------------- Defense --------------------- AC 12, Touch 12, Flat-Footed 10 (+2 Dex) Hp 49/49 (6d10 + 12) Fort +6, Ref +4, Will +5 (+2 vs. Fear and Compulsion) --------------------- Offense --------------------- Speed 30 ft. Unarmed Strike +10/+5 (1d3+4, 20/x2)
Grit (2/2): +2 Initiative and Will vs. Fear and Compulsion (requires 1 grit in pool)
Martial Flexibility (6/6): Move Action, gain a feat for 1 minute. Stance: Black Seraph Glare (+4 Profane to Intimidate, Free Action Demoralize vs.
Maneuvers Readeid (IL 6th)
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At his 15th birthday he was drafted into a peasant army to fight some war.
After the war was over and the peasant army got disbanded, Celix figured
Celix doesn't really have any grand goal. But he is willing to fight any fight
S'Allerie Gothan:
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S'Allerie "Allie" Gothan --------------------- Female Human Fighter [Myrmidon, Lore Warden, Martial Master] 6 CG Medium humanoid (human) Age 24; Height 5 ft. 4 in.; Weight 130 lbs.; Hair: Dark-Blonde; Skin: Fair Deity: Desna; Languages: Common, Dwarf, Elvish, Giant, Goblin, Undercommon Init +4/+8; Perception +11 --------------------- Defense --------------------- AC 12/14, Touch 12/14, Flat-Footed 10/12 (+2 Dex/+2 Insight) Hp 49/49 (6d10+12) Fort +6, Ref +4/+6, Will +5 (+2 vs. Fear and Compulsion) --------------------- Offense --------------------- Speed 30 ft. Unarmed Strike +10/+5 (1d3+4, 20/x2)
Grit (2/2): +2 Initiative and Will vs. Fear and Compulsion (requires 1 grit in pool)
Martial Flexibility (6/6): Move Action, gain a combat feat for 1 minute. Stance: Silver Crane Waltz (+4 Init, +2 Reflex, +2 AC; Insight bonuses) Maneuvers Readied (IL 6th)
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At her 15th birthday, Allie was drafted into a peasant army, handed a spear
After the war was over and the peasant army got disbanded, Allie realized
At one point she worked for some time with a real soldier of virtue. Allie
If her comerades wish to commit an act of evil, she will advise against it,
If Allie were to travel with someone who continuosly perform acts of evil,
Are there any hidden feats I should look up because I want to grab them using Martial Flexibility? Is Lore Warden effective enough even if I ignore Know thy Enemy? Anything else I should look out for/change or any other comments?
In my opinion, these archetypes represent a major power creep compared to the core ranger. The goal is to allow the user to still feel he plays a classic pathfinder ranger, except he has Path of War goodness buffing him up to the same power level as the Warder, Warlord, Inquisitor, Bard, Magus, Alchemist and so on. The first two archetypes are making trades that too my eyes are very close to what Dreamscarred Press deems acceptable for an archetype. I also tried to compare the full initiator version of the ranger with the Warlord, as that is the class from Path of War that is closest to a ranger (Medium Armor, full Base Atk Bonus, d10 HD). This is in many ways a 1st outcast, written in a single evening of inspiration, so feedback about if I am on the right track or made a major oversight is very much welcome. Martial Ranger:
-------------------- Martial Ranger -------------------- Instead of attuning to nature, gaining the ability to cast spells. The martial ranger hones his skills with blade and bow, becoming a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Maneuvers: A martial ranger begins his career with knowledge of three martial maneuvers. The disciplines available to him are Primal Fury, Scarlet Throne, Solar Wind, and Thrashing Dragon. Once he knows a maneuver, he must ready it before he can use it (see Maneuvers Readied below). A maneuver usable by a martial ranger is considered an extraordinary ability unless otherwise noted in its description. His maneuvers are not affected by spell resistance and do not provoke attacks of opportunity when he initiates one. He learns additional maneuvers at higher levels, as shown on the table below. The martial ranger must meet a maneuver's prerequisite to learn it. Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even numbered martial ranger level after that, he can choose to learn a new maneuver in place of one he already knows. In effect, the martial ranger loses the old maneuver in exchange for the new one. The martial ranger need not replace the old maneuver with a new maneuver of the same level. He can choose a new maneuver of any level he likes, as long as he observes his restriction on the highest-level maneuvers he knows. The martial ranger can swap only a single maneuver at any given level, and each martial ranger level is counted as a full initiator level. This replaces the spellcasting class feature. Maneuvers Readied: A martial ranger can ready all three of his starting maneuvers, but as he advances in level and learns more maneuvers, he must choose which maneuvers to ready. He readies maneuvers by performing weapon drills for 10 minutes. The maneuvers he chooses remain readied until he decides to repeat this again and change them. Martial rangers do not need to sleep or be well rested to ready their maneuvers; any time he spends 10 minutes performing weapon drills, he can change his readied maneuvers. He begins an encounter with all readied maneuvers unexpended, regardless of how many times he may have already used them since he chose them. When the martial ranger
Martial rangers may recover their maneuvers in one of two ways. The he may spend a standard action to recover a single maneuver of his choice. He can also spend a full-round action to adjust his fighting style slightly, recovering his Wisdom modifier in expended maneuvers (min of 2). When spending a full-round action to recover maneuvers, he can also select one target within line of sight that is not a favored enemy, and treat that target as a favored enemy until the end of his next turn. Stances Known: Martial rangers begin play with knowledge of one 1st level stance from any discipline open to them. At the indicated levels (see table below), the martial ranger selects an additional new stance. Unlike maneuvers, stances are not expended and he does not have to ready them. All stances he knows are available to him at all times, and he can change the stance he is currently using as a swift action. A stance is an extraordinary ability unles otherwise stated in the stance
Table:
Level---Known---Readied---Stance---Max Level 1---------3---------3-----------1----------1 2---------4---------3-----------1----------1 3---------5---------3-----------1----------1 4---------5---------4-----------2----------2 5---------6---------4-----------2----------2 6---------6---------4-----------2----------2 7---------7---------4-----------2----------3 8---------7---------4-----------2----------3 9---------8---------4-----------2----------4 10--------8---------5-----------3----------4 11--------9---------5-----------3----------5 12--------9---------5-----------3----------5 13--------10--------5-----------3----------6 14--------10--------5-----------3----------6 15--------11--------6-----------4----------6 16--------11--------6-----------4----------6 17--------12--------6-----------4----------6 18--------12--------6-----------4----------6 19--------13--------6-----------4----------6 20--------13--------7-----------4----------6 Lirya's Comment:
It is already established that with Gifted Blade vs. War Soul that 4 levels of spellcasting = 6 levels of initiation. Ranger spellcasting is quite good, with solid buffs, utility spells, and battle field control spells at every level. Path of War is about giving maritals nice things, so lets start giving!
The intention of this archetype is to be the default way to add Path of War goodness to the Ranger.
Path of the Ranger:
-------------------- Path of the Ranger -------------------- Path of the Ranger is a path rangers can take to improve upon their personal fighting prowess. Maneuvers: A ranger with this path may select a single discipline and gain its associated skill as a class skill (if he does not have it already). He gains limited initiating with that discipline as shown on the table below. Once he knows a maneuver, the ranger must ready it before he can use it (see Maneuvers Readied, below). A maneuver usable by an initiator is considered an extraordinary ability unless otherwise noted in its description. His maneuvers are not affected by spell resistance, and he does not provoke attacks of opportunity when he initiates one. He learns additional maneuvers at higher levels, as shown below. The initiator must meet a maneuver's prerequisite to learn it. Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even numbered ranger level after that, he can choose to learn a new maneuver in place of one he already knows. In effect, the initiator loses the old maneuver in exchange for the new one. The initiator need not replace the old maneuver with a maneuver of the same level. He can choose a new maneuver of any level he likes, as long as he observes his restriction on the highest-level maneuvers he knows. The initiator can swap only a single maneuver at any given level. An initiator's primary initiator attribute is Wisdom, and each ranger level is counted as a full initiator level. This ability replaces Wild Empathy and Hunter's Bond. Maneuvers Readied: The ranger can ready 1 of his 2 starting maneuvers. He readies his maneuvers by performing weapon drills for 10 minutes. The maneuvers he chooses remain readied until he decides to repeat this again and change them. The ranger do not need to sleep or be well rested to ready his maneuvers; any time he spends 10 minutes in meditation, he can change his readied maneuvers. He begins an encounter
The ranger may only recover his maneuvers in one way, by spending a standard action to recover one expended maneuver. Stances Known: The ranger begins play with knowledge of one 1st level stance from the discipline open to him. At the indicated levels (see table), the discipline selects an additional new stance. Unlike maneuvers, stances are not expended and he does not have to ready them. All stances he knows are available to him at all times, and he can change the stance he is currently using as a swift action. A stance is an extraordinary ability unless otherwise stated in the stance description. Unlike with maneuvers, the ranger cannot learn a new stance at higher levels in place of one he already knows.
Table:
Level---Known---Readied---Stance---Max Level 1---------2---------1-----------1----------1 2---------3---------1-----------1----------1 3---------3---------2-----------1----------1 4---------4---------2-----------1----------2 5---------4---------2-----------1----------2 6---------4---------3-----------1----------2 7---------5---------3-----------2----------3 8---------5---------3-----------2----------3 9---------6---------4-----------2----------4 10--------6---------4-----------2----------4 11--------7---------4-----------3----------5 12--------7---------5-----------3----------5 13--------8---------5-----------3----------6 14--------8---------5-----------4----------6 15--------9---------5-----------4----------6 16--------9---------6-----------4----------6 17--------10--------6-----------4----------6 18--------10--------6-----------4----------6 19--------11--------6-----------4----------6 20--------11--------7-----------4----------6 Lirya's Comment:
This ranger is trading Wild Empathy (using Diplomacy with free training on Animals) and his Animal Companion for the equivalent of the version 1.2 beta version of a Warpath nerfed into not granting the bonus abilities improving it at 1st, 4th, 10th and 16th level and without the special full-round action recovery mechanic. Wild Empathy + Animal Companion is about equal to the features granted by the Animal Domain. Animal Domain is rated as Orange (highly situational and not terribly useful but won’t break you for selecting it) by the cleric guide and Green by the Inquisitor guide (This is a recommended option. It is quite helpful in empowering your character). As a Ranger is a martial class, and thus on the list of classes it is ok to buff a bit using Path of War material, I do not feel bad about giving him a deal that is very close to the one Dreamscarred Press
wishes to give Inquisitors, and Slightly better than the one they intend to give Clerics. The intention of this archetype is to give Rangers a taste of Path of War that technically stacks with the archetype above. The result of what you get if you combine them is called Seeker and written below.
Seeker:
-------------------- Seeker -------------------- Seeker is short for seeker of the lost arts, they are rangers specialized in gathering and developing obscure fighting techniques from all over the world as well as from the worlds beyond. Maneuvers: A seeker begins his career with knowledge of six martial maneuvers. The disciplines available to him are Primal Fury, Scarlet Throne, Solar Wind, Thrashing Dragon and one additional discipline of his choice. The seeker gains the associated skill of the additional discipline he chooses (if he does not already have it). Once he knows a maneuver, he must ready it before he can use it (see Maneuvers Readied, below). A maneuver usable by seekers is considered
Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even numbered seeker level after that, he can choose to learn a new maneuver in place of one he already knows. In effect, the seeker loses the old maneuver in exchange for the new one. He can choose a new maneuver of any level he likes, as long as he observes his restriction on the highest-level maneuvers he knows. The seeker need not replace the old maneuver with a maneuver of the same level. The seeker can swap only a single maneuver at any given level. A seeker's initiation modifier is Wisdom. This ability replaces Wild Empathy, Hunter's Bond, and Spellcasting. Maneuvers Readied: A seeker can ready four of his six starting maneuvers, but as he advances in level and learns more maneuvers, he must choose which maneuvers to ready. He readies his maneuvers by going through weapon drills for 10 minutes. The maneuvers he chooses remain readied until he decides to repeat this again and change them. Seekers do not need to sleep or rest for any long period of time to ready their maneuvers, any time he spends 10 minutes in practice, he can change
Seekers may recover their maneuvers in one of two ways. The seeker may either spend a standard action to recover a single maneuver of his choice. He can also spend a full-round action to adjust his fighting style slightly, recovering his Wisdom modifier in expended maneuvers (min of 2). When spending a full-round action to recover maneuvers, he can also select one target within line of sight that is not a favored enemy, and treat that target as a favored enemy until the end of his next turn. Stances: Seekers begin play with knowledge of one stance from any discipline open to him. At the indicated levels (see table below), the seeker selects an additional new stance. Unlike maneuvers, stances are not expended and he does not have to ready them. All stances he knows are available to him at all times, and he can change the stance he is currently using as a swift action. A stance is an extraordinary ability unless otherwise stated in the stance description. Unlike with maneuvers, the seeker cannot learn a new stance at higher levels in place of one he already knows.
Table:
Level---Known---Readied---Stance---Max Level 1---------6---------4-----------1----------1 2---------7---------5-----------2----------1 3---------8---------5-----------2----------2 4---------8---------5-----------2----------2 5---------9---------6-----------3----------3 6---------9---------6-----------3----------3 7---------10--------6-----------3----------4 8---------10--------7-----------4----------4 9---------11--------7-----------4----------5 10--------11--------7-----------4----------5 11--------12--------8-----------5----------6 12--------12--------8-----------5----------6 13--------13--------8-----------5----------7 14--------13--------9-----------5----------7 15--------14--------9-----------6----------8 16--------14--------9-----------6----------8 17--------15--------10----------6----------9 18--------16--------10----------6----------9 19--------17--------10----------7----------9 20--------18--------11----------7----------9 Lirya's Comment:
Let us compare this Seeker to a Warlord.
Seeker
Warlord
This seems equal enough to me. Someone who wants to play a leader of men will likely choose the Warlord, while someone who wants to play a scout, hunter, or elite soldier is likely to choose the Seeker. I did not choose to compare this to a Stalker, as I dislike the rogue chassis it is built upon. I consider it a bad class, except it has maneuvers and an easy time stacking Broken Blade and Thrashing Dragon for impressive numbers (using TWF with unarmed strikes and dex to hit/dmg). This archetype turns the ranger into a full initiator. I believe this to be a big power-up, so do not expect it to be balanced for use alongside the weaker martials such as the Fighter or the Rogue unless those classes are heavily optimized.
Lirya |