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11 people marked this as FAQ candidate.

In a nutshell: The spell was changed from 3.X from an Area spell to a Target spell. The last line of text seems to override the normal targeting process, making it act more like an Area spell.

PRD:
School necromancy [death, sonic]; Level sorcerer/wizard 9

Casting Time 1 standard action

Components V

Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)

Target one living creature/level within a 40-ft.-radius spread

Duration instantaneous

Saving Throw Fortitude negates; Spell Resistance yes

When you cast this spell, you emit a terrible, soul-chilling scream that possibly kills creatures that hear it (except for yourself). The spell affects up to one creature per caster level, inflicting 10 points of damage per caster level. Creatures closest to the point of origin are affected first.

My question is this: What did that change actually do to make the spell different, if at all? Should we treat the spell as a Targeted spell (caster selects targets) or does the spell select it's own targets based on distance from the point of origin?

Feel free to post your own opinions, especially if you're on the Pazio staff. Would love to hear from someone with inside knowledge.

If not, hopefully we can get enough FAQ clicks to get a developer response.


Okay, so my friends and I decided to switch from 3.5 to PF. The Magus class caught my eye and I decided I might give it a go; now I'm a little overwhelmed. Let me give you guys the things I've chosen and can't change before I get ahead of myself.

Level 1 Elf Magus (Hexcrafter & Staff Magus Archetypes) Stats were rolled as follows:
Str: 18
Dex: 13 (After Racial)
Con: 16 (After Racial)
Int: 20 (After Racial)
Wis: 11
Cha: 10

Traits I choose were Get the Cargo Through (Regional) and Rich Parents (Social) to max starting wealth at 1200 GP which were well spent. Besides Cantrips on my spell list, I've selected Color Spray, Enlarge Person, Illusion of Calm, Jury Rig, Obscuring Mist, Shield, Shocking Grasp, and True Strike. Feat at first level was Combat Expertise. All of these things are set in stone, cannot change them.

From here onwards I've got no idea what to do. My feat selection is a bit daunting, even more once I realized I could potentially take the Extra Arcana feat to take an additional Hex if I wanted to.

Additional information you may find helpful: My party consists of myself, a Bard, a Cleric of Serena, a Qigong Monk, and a Poisoner Rogue. I've been sharing the role of frontliner with the Monk and sharing the arcane caster role with the Bard. The Cleric is really just a band-aid and the Rogue isn't much more than a distraction with a little bit of damage so far. None of us are trying to powergame, be munchkins, or whatever you want to call it, but myself and the Bard are both proficient with the d20 system. The Cleric and the Rogue aren't strangers to d20, but in no way optimizers. The Monk falls in the same boat, but I think he's read some optimization threads for Qigong Monk because I don't believe he'd come up with the Vow of Silence/Vow of Poverty/Elemental Fist combo he's running on his own. Also, we're currently in Skulls & Shackles Book 1 (Smuggler's Shiv), but I think the GM plans on taking us into a more custom setting once we get off the island.

Anyways, hopefully I can get some enlightened responses and possibly even some good build suggestions. Thanks for your time.


So, I've seen a LOT of threads requesting clarification on different Magus abilities and in each thread there are multiple interpretations to each request. The more I read these threads, the more it seems like Magus just isn't worth playing. Trying to understand exactly how the class functions is really frustrating me to the point where I'm close to asking my GM if I can roll a simple BDF. No confusion there, just roll to hit and pump AC and Str. Easy peasy.

It may be worth mentioning that while I'm new to PF, I'm not new to d20 games. Magus is one of the hardest classes to understand that I've run across in the 10+ years I've been playing d20, and I've played Jedi in the SWd20 system.

What do you think? I'm not looking for answers to Magus FAQs, just trying to gauge how the community feels about their mechanics in general.


Hello, and thanks for stopping in. I appreciate any suggestions or feedback about my build ideas.

I should mention I'm not a complete newbie, I've been playing 3.X for years. Making the switch to PF, the Magus caught my eye. So now I've got a level one Hexcrafter/Staff Magus about to go up to level two. I'm slightly intrigued by the Dragon Disciple PrC to augment my martial side, but I'd have to dip Sage Sorcerer if I'm reading all this right.

That's where I start to get lost. Should I level Sorc until DD goes active, or just a one level dip for spontaneous casting? Is this viable at all? I've heard people protest that pure class builds are better off for their capstone abilities, is this true with Magus?

If it helps, the character is an elf with
18 Str, 16 Con, 20 Int, 13 Dex, 11 Wis, 10 Cha after racial mods. Stats were rolled, mine were skewed, I didn't complain. Traits were used to maximise starting gold and get a masterwork quarterstaff and chain shirt.

Let me know what you really think. Thanks again.

Edit: Jeff, if you're reading this... I I'm not a power gamer, I just hate having useless abilities because of uneducated choices. Regret is a... well, you know.