Corbynsonn's page

I think the biggest issue I have AA2 is the lost potential with weapon and armour modifications for mundane crafters.

As is it's already a laborious process for Master Smiths to get access to creating Magical equipment and the like and, when I first heard of the new mundane modifications, I thought that Craft (Xsmith) would finally have somewhere to shine.

Sure if you throw down a pair of feats you can, eventually, grant some modified equipment to the rest of your party and not just yourself and even then only temporarily. I'm curious why there wasn't the option to actually craft these modifications yourself, permanently, with the various Craft skills while the "Creative Xsmith" feats instead serving as ways to remove the drawbacks and add additional modifications, which admittedly Modification Mastery does temporarily.

Honestly it's just a bloody sad waste of potential and I hate trumpeting the "Martials don't get nice things" line of thought but this all just feels like a fun flavorful option let down by awful mechanics.

Beyond that the book seems fun, I like the different weapons and armours introduced as well as the new, and old, alchemical items.

Hey mate, if you're settled on the Rogue Crossbow build I'd suggest the following:

Go for an Unchained Rogue as opposed to Rogue, it's hands down better for what you need, with a more accessible Sneak Attack and Debilitating Injury. More importantly Unchained Rogues gain Rogues Edge which grants Skill Unlocks at Level 5/10/15 and 20.

The Stealth Skill Unlock at level 5 reduces your sniper penalty by 10 which, when combined with the Expert Sniper feat also reducing sniping penalties by 10, means you'll be sniping with no negatives by level 5. Taking Master Sniper as a Combat Trick at level 6 means you can fire a pair of bolts as a sniping check.

Beyond that concentrate on your Sneak Attacks with talents, look at grabbing Minor Magic / Major Magic for utility and stuff like Favored Terrain and Camouflage for a spot Stealth bonus'.

John Compton wrote:

You might appreciate Pathfinder Player Companion: Divine Anthology, which introduces the Medicine subdomain. That option allows one to vastly speed up the longer Heal checks, making options like treat deadly wounds a little more accessible.

Ah, that does help quite a bite there. Now if there was just a way to extract that from the cleric class/healing domain. Particularly for use of that god of pain and torture's trait or Rogues who took the healing skill trick.

It's not exactly mundane but Believer's Boon can give you the Medicine Subdomain's Blessed Surgery power once a day.

A Spiked Gauntlet is a Light Piercing weapon. Combo it up with the Shield Gauntlet Style from the Weapon Masters Handbook and punch people with style.

I feel like people are approaching this the wrong way.

As opposed to looking at the balance of the feat across the entire RPG line, Martial vs Caster and all that, the feat should be examined with an eye to internal balance within Martial classes alone.

Most people tend to agree that both Two-Handed builds and Two-Weapon builds trump Sword and Board builds and this feat removes the downsides of the former builds while replacing the benefits the latter build had over the other two.

The question then becomes do other feats in the book help push the Sword and Board build just as Unhindered Shield benefits the other two.

It was never the intent that Ironclad Reactions would negate an attack. It's a reaction, and a reaction to an event (however fast) occurs after the event.

It's a great way to boost mobility, and it can save you from a lot of anguish if a foe or group of foes have you in a bad spot, but it doesn't negate the attack, which we note must be successful for you to use the ability.

Sorry to ask Mr.Stephens but can you clarify the Spring-Heel Style interactions between requiring a Move action and Spring Attack/Shot On The Run. Is it an oversight or is it a way to allow users of the Style to gain benefits when not utilizing Spring Attack/Shot on the Run

I'm done for the evening.

-Skeld

Awsome as always Skeld.

Corbynsonn wrote:

Oh god Battle Scion has me all in the vapors.

The battle scion's "Once and Future Scion" power is indeed pretty cool. Hmm, I wonder who that other archetype with the "Skald of Twists and Turns" power could be based off? :D

Stop teasing damn you. :D

Still, book is a guarantee for me.

I love the book, mostly stuff like Weapon Tricks, the Divine Fighting Styles or the Advance Weapon Training options which provide numerous bonus' based on pretty normal character advancement.

However stuff like the "Arm Bind" weapon trick is absolutely amazing. One of the issues with maneuver's like Sunder/Trip/Disarm and the like is that unless the campaign is built in a specific way eventually all the feats put into the choices become worthless. For example moving from fighting mooks to fighting dragons.

Arm Bind provides Disarm with sustainable use across the entirety of a characters life, however it'd be nice to see similar things for the other maneuvers. Something like Sunder being able to target natural armor or weapons or Trip being able to target winged monsters for example. In summary, it'd be nice to see more Weapon Tricks for different weapons, maybe following on from the Smashing Style line and make it hammer exclusive.

Anyway great book, hoping the ideas are carried forwards.

I don't particularly like the way max skills ranks, hp and BaB are all so interlinked with levels.

That is to say that I dislike the idea that to have a, for example, Master Blacksmith or, perhaps more aptly, a Master Artist you need to have a higher leveled character, which in turn means that the aforementioned Blacksmith/Artist will have to be tougher, stronger and more accurate.

It's a cyclical aspect of the game I dislike.

Not surprised by the number of Scout and Enforcer builds.

The bomber build looks interesting but no I don't believe the splash damage gets sneak attack. I also question whether or not it can be applied to bombs at all.

Has anyone managed a decent ranged build?

As to Bombs, I've never seen them referred to as anything other than a Splash weapon so I'd be curious what causes you to question it? Honestly curious, perhaps I've missed something?

As to the Splash Damage w/SA. Well I've always gone on the following lines:

Throw Splash Weapon:
"A hit deals direct hit damage to the target, and splash damage to all creatures within 5 feet of the target. If the target is Large or larger, you choose one of its squares and the splash damage affects creatures within 5 feet of that square. Splash weapons cannot deal precision-based damage (such as the damage from the rogue's sneak attack class feature)."

Precise Splash Weapons (Ex):
"At 4th level, an underground chemist can deal sneak attack damage with splash weapons."

But I can see why there may be disagreements.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

In any case, a decent ranged build can be built around sniping now with the Dirty Tactics Toolbox:

I) Expert Sniper (Feat), requires 3 ranks in Stealth and reduces the negative modifier to sniping by 10 so it stacks with Stealthy Sniper (Rogue Advanced Talent), which sets the negative modifier to stealth at -10. It also stacks with Unchained Stealth via Rogues Edge so by level 5 you can happily Snipe every round with no negatives.

II) Master Sniper (Feat), requires 6 ranks in Stealth, Expert Sniper and Rapid Shot, let's you fire two shots at full BaB-2 as a full-round action before stealthing again. Since it's a Combat Feat you could always grab Expert Sniper and Rapid Shot from level 1-5, then at level 6 go for the Combat Trick and so, by level 6, you'll be firing a pair of SA Arrows at full BaB-2 for no penalty.

It's not the end to a build but those two feats, combined with Rogues Edge into Stealth, give you a good basis for a Sniping Ranged UnRogue.

As an aside, Expert Sniper/Rogues Edge (Stealth) with Stealthy Sniper into Master Sniper (Rogue Advanced Talent) will effectively give you a Full-Attack, followed by Stealth, for no penalty at all at level 11 at the earliest.

To that end, here's a small sample build:

Swashbuckler UnRogue 1-6
1: Point Blank Shot, Martial Training: Longbow, Feat
2: RT: Combat Trick (Deadly Aim)
3: Expert Sniper
4: RT: Snipers Eye
5: Rogues Edge (Free), Rapid Shot
6: RT: Combat Trick (Master Sniper)

As you can see, good few free feats and talents for you to mess around with, this is just a half-hours theory crafting.

Edit:/ Just noticed the UnRogue can't grab the Master Sniper Talent, so adjusted the above build to only take advantage of the new Dirty Tactics Feats.

And Meligaster was forced to flee with little but the clothes on his back (ruinously expensive no doubt) and a sack full of some of the Maskelyne's greatest treasures.

The poor boy.

You could swap out the Helpful Trait for the Fools for Friends Trait. It's a normal +1 as opposed to "Becoming +4".

Let's you roll as a OoDragon to grab the same +4 to AC/AB/Skill at level 2 with the benefit of continued stacking every 6 levels, though of course if you want to jump into Battle-Herald at level 5 I can see why you'd prefer OoLion.

Evening All, first time posting so let me know if I make a mistake.
The feat "Skald's Vigor" allows you to, while maintaining a raging song, gain:

"Fast healing equal to the Strength bonus your song provides, starting in the round after you begin the song."

Within the "Inspired Rage" raging song it states that:

"If an ally has her own rage class ability (such as barbarian's rage, bloodrager's bloodrage, or skald's inspired rage), she may use the Strength, Constitution, and Will saving throw bonuses, as well as AC penalties, based on her own ability and level instead of those from the skald (still suffering no fatigue afterward)."

From this can I infer that if the Skald possesses levels in another class that grants a rage class ability and utilizes the bonus' from that class while maintaining the "Inspired Rage" he/she will gain Fast Healing equal to the Str bonus from the class ability as opposed to the normal +2 Str bonus from the "Inspired Rage"

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Furthermore if the Skald also possessed a "Courageous" weapon which allows:
"Any morale bonus the wielder gains from any other source is increased by half the weapon's enhancement bonus (minimum 1)."

Would this in turn improve the Fast Healing being granted? For example would a 1/1 Skald/Barbarian with a "Courageous" weapon using "Inspired Rage" and opting to use "Rage's" modifiers have:

Fast Healing 2 (Inspired Rage)
Fast Healing 3 (Inspired Rage + Courageous)
Fast Healing 4 (Rage)
Fast Healing 6 (Rage + Courageous)

Thanks for any help.