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The best way to think about the difference between these two is that Eldritch Scoundrel is a Rogue who has Wizard abilities, while an Arcane Trickster is a Wizard who has Rogue abilities.

Eldritch Scoundrel works best with two-handed finessable weapons like the Estoc, Elven Curve Blade, or Elven Branched Spear. Because you need a free hand to cast spells you can't dual-wield, but two-handed weapons work just fine. By utilizing the Vanishing Trick ninja trick (which you can use by sacrificing a 1st level spell) you can have swift action invisibility available, creating for a really nice tricky rogue attacker. I really like the Eldritch Scoundrel, but the one thing I'd caution is that it's really slow to get rolling and at 1st and 2nd level it feels like a weak Wizard.

Arcane Trickster is a Wizard first. By using the Accomplished Sneak Attacker feat you can qualify with only 1 level of Rogue, maximizing your Wizard levels. You can then focus your character around delivering sneak attacks with ray spells. This approach generally doesn't do well with weapons, and if you do want to go the melee combat route then you'll want to focus on the polymorph spells and use natural attacks and not daggers.


Yeah, I read through book 2 and wasn't particularly inspired by it, and then when book 3 failed to captivate me I just completely lost interest in this project. I don't like leaving projects unfinished and I've often felt this was a loose end that I wanted to clean up (which is why I randomly checked in on this thread today, wondering if anyone ever posted anything here).

I don't know how much I can contribute at this point in time, as I've got a lot of things going on. The process of converting Hellknight Hill to PF1E was rather tedious. A lot of time searching the pages of the book for skill checks, double-checking treasure and XP rewards, and very little on the interesting stuff like converting tactics based on the actual abilities the PF1 versions of the characters would have.

I don't actually use Facebook. I'm a bit of a social media hermit. I am active on Discord, however.


I'm running Strange Aeons right now. I may not be actively posting on these forums much anymore, but I'm still playing and GM'ing Pathfinder 1st edition.

No clue what our next campaign will be (we're in book 5 so the end is starting to loom) but another Paizo AP is definitely a possibility.


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I'm actually playing an Enchanter Wizard in a game right now. Yeah, sometimes your Enchantment spells won't work. So what? You're a Wizard, you can easily prepare a variety of spells while still having Enchantment at your fingertips for when it does work. When Enchantment does work, it does more than just win combats; it can completely change the course of the narrative.


What level range are you playing? There are some multiclass builds that may not work at higher levels but will work nicely at low levels and vice-versa.

If you're looking for something that will play well from 1st level while consistently maintaining a 2:1 ratio, this is a variation of build I've been playing around with recently that would meet that criteria:

Traits: Magical Knack (Sorcerer), Reactionary
1 - Paladin - Cunning
2 - Scaled Fist Unchained Monk
3 - Paladin - Spell Focus (Evocation)
4 - Sorcerer (Draconic Bloodline; take Blood Havoc bloodline mutation)
5 - Sorcerer - (Favored Prestige Class: Dragon Disciple)
6 - Dragon Disciple
7 - Dragon Disciple - Power Attack, Prestigious Spellcaster (Dragon Disciple)
8 - Dragon Disciple
9 - Dragon Disciple - Empower Spell
10 - Dragon Disciple - Improved Initiative
11 - Dragon Disciple - Prestigious Spellcaster (Dragon Disciple)
12 - Dragon Disciple
13 - Dragon Disciple - Quickened Spell, Intensified Spell
14 - Eldritch Knight - Improved Critical
15 - Eldritch Knight - Spell Perfection (your pick)
16 - Eldritch Knight
17 - Eldritch Knight - Dazing Spell
18 - Eldritch Knight - (your pick)
19 - Eldritch Knight - (your pick)
20 - Eldritch Knight

Final levels: Paladin 2 / Scaled Fist 1 / Sorcerer 2 / Dragon Disciple 8 / Eldritch Knight 7

Ideally you want a race that gives a Str/Cha ability score bonus (Angelkin Aasimar, Sunsoul Ifrit or Nagaji would work well), but going Human is worth consideration since the build is very starved for feats and skill points alike.

This gives you +17 base attack bonus and access to 8th level spells at 20th level. With a versatile spell selection you will have a wide range of modes; you will be a melee powerhouse, a potent party buffer, can have powerful utility options, and will have respectable blasting power at a range. Dragon Disciple boosts your Str and Con for good melee presence, Paladin adds Cha to all saves, Scaled Fist adds Cha to AC, and you're almost completely D10 and D12 hit dice for good hit point totals. The only place this build suffers is that it's bad at skills, as Intelligence is a dump stat and most of your classes offer only 2 skill points per level, plus you need to max Spellcraft to meet feat prerequisites. That's why the Cunning feat is taken at first level.


Cuup wrote:
It got me wondering, though - would this change make the final encounter TOO difficult?

To be quite honest, the encounter is pretty much unwinnable as written unless the GM plays the Whispering Tyrant like a complete idiot who doesn't actually use his mythic power (which, to be fair, probably is the intent). The party is taken by surprise without prebuffs active, gets paralyzed for 1d4 rounds with no save, and the Whispering Tyrant can unload 200-400 DPR with his area of effect spells that bypass resistances and immunities if he goes full mythic nova. There's a very good chance the Whispering Tyrant can TPK the party before anyone even gets to act.

I actually don't think the stronger daemon makes much of a difference; any party powerful enough to have a shot of beating the Whispering Tyrant is strong enough that a CR 20 daemon is little more than a faceless mook that can be safely ignored.


GenocidingGemini wrote:
also isnt there a wand for the "repair/make whole" spell or whatever. and wouldnt that just fix a gun? i just wait till Out of combat and go about casting it to fix it.

Those spells have a 10 minute casting time, so they're not useful in time-sensitive situations. They're also very pricey, since you'll need to buy wands with higher-than-normal caster level, since you need to meet the caster level of the item you're trying to repair.

GenocidingGemini wrote:

im handicapping myself in this way because i know how OP guns are. so it make it less OP i dont wanna have all the "Bells and whistles" to make them great, they are just the flavor/attack option, its not "my entire class" nor do i want it to become that

, i jusxt want it as another more powerful option. and then i can fall back onto a bow when it inevitably Misfires.. and if i need to ill just get magic items for them or the same magic items most ranged users get.

Guns in and of themselves are not OP. Quite the opposite, they're actually a very weak weapon type based on their own intrinsic properties. It's the "bells and whistles" from those archetypes that make guns worth using in the first place.

GenocidingGemini wrote:

also this is the sheet. itll probably be easier to have you all just look at it then trying to think through what im saying.

https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2213795

i will say i only have 10 int. and was gunna get a headband to get+ to int , cause as it stands i cant cast spells as a spellslinger. and ill have literally NO elixers. and literally NO magus spells.
so i either have to suck it up and be ok with having literally no spells. or just be a gun chemist and shoot grenades.

You have 14 strength; a composite longbow is going to be your optimal ranged weapon in most circumstances. If you really have your heart set on it, just be aware that this is a case of style over substance. Even after investing feats and class levels, you'll probably still be better with a longbow than with a gun.

10 intelligence is a complete deal-breaker for Gun Chemist. The Alchemical Ordinance will only be usable once per day and it will only deal an extra 1d6 damage, which averages 3.5 damage. Meanwhile because of your +2 strength bonus a composite longbow gets +2 damage on every attack passively and it doesn't take any actions to reload and can't misfire.


There's a difference between being able to do something, and being good at that thing. This archetype falls very squarely in the realm of being able to use improvised weapons, but not actually being good with them. For all the class features this archetype provides, a shovel is still no better than a non-masterwork spear. That's fine at 1st level, but you will very quickly fall behind expectations. Even if you do allow for magical enhancement of these improvised weapons, it doesn't really solve the problem. If you have to seek out a weapon crafter to enhance your shovel... at that point you're putting so much effort into it that the weapon isn't really improvised anymore and is now just a cosmetic change to a spear.

To solve the problem with improvised weapons, you will need to make sure they track along the expected power curve of magical weapons while still satisfying the idea that they are improvised; that the fighter can just pick up random objects to use as weapons and shields and use them effectively. However, it will also need to come with appropriate downsides to compensate for the fact that this saves a substantial amount of gold investment on equipment. I would suggest looking at the Gloomblade to get an idea of what the balancing point is for a Fighter that gets such free enhancements.


GenocidingGemini wrote:
because i just want access to guns

That's kinda what the Gunslinger does. Access to guns in a one level dip, no strings attached.

GenocidingGemini wrote:
Also i dont want gunslinger its meh to me and i want something cooler then just "gunslinger", gunslinger doesnt give me anything to synergize with from my hunter class. nor does it give me magic.

The point of a one-level dip in Gunslinger is that it saves you from feat investment. With pretty much any other approach to firearms you will have to take the Amateur Gunslinger feat for the Quick Clear deed, otherwise you have no good way of fixing misfires in a timely fashion. Having your primary weapon out of commission until the next bit of downtime is just untenable.

The synergy Gunslinger offers is that it frees up an extra feat when compared with the alternatives, and since feats are totally customizable that means you can tweak it to synergize with whatever you want to do. If you don't want to do it, though, there's nothing wrong with something like Gun Chemist instead.

GenocidingGemini wrote:
i also kind of wanted spells, but if trhe schools dont matter aif im only taking 1 level then what 4 should i keep that will be the most useful to me?

Since you only get 2 spell slots tops, chances are you aren't going to be using more than 4 spells on a regular basis anyways. At that point you may as well just select your spells, and chances are it'll only be 4 schools anyways. Go to the wizard spell list and pick out 4 or 5 good spells, and then oppose the unused schools.

A good selection might be Silent Image, Expeditious Construction, Protection from Evil, and Expeditious Retreat. That gives you some utility to create cover for yourself, a spell that can grant a second saving throw to allies in an emergency, and a spell to get out of trouble quickly.

GenocidingGemini wrote:
i know that casting spells from Magical wands/.scrolls are also gunna be harder for me id assume as well right?

You will be able to cast any 1st level Wizard spell from wands or scrolls without penalty. Only 2nd level or higher spells will be a problem. You take no penalty when using wands or scrolls that happen to be of your opposition school.


With the character you're contemplating you would only ever take 1 level of Spellslinger so your wizard opposition schools don't matter. You've already got another spellcasting class (one with an animal companion for that matter) and the Spellslinger class features work with any spell slots, not just Wizard spell slots.

Investing more than one level of Spellslinger would be a mistake, and your opposition schools really don't matter if you're only taking one level of Wizard. You'll probably get more use out of wands and scrolls than you will out of your own spell slots.

GenocidingGemini wrote:
Second question. What are all the gun archetypes in the game? i need to gain access to any early firearm and gunsmithing to upkeep the gun and synergize with Primal Comp. Hunter.

There are way too many to list, but probably the best option for such a character is a one-level dip in Gunslinger.

GenocidingGemini wrote:
3rd question. would it just be better to Triple multi class? just take Gunslinger base and then Eldritch archer magus?

Gunslinger 1 / Eldritch Archer X and Spellslinger 1 / Eldritch Archer X are very strong builds. The problem is you really have to take them from 1st level. Since you've already got quite a few levels invested in Hunter, you're way too far behind the curve and will never catch up to competency (all the while your Hunter features are falling further behind).

Michael Talley 759 wrote:
Detect Magic and Read Magic become first level spells for a Spellslinger, and get's worse if you have to use two spell slots for first level to Detect Magic

You'll only ever be casting those spells from wands, since they're really no good in 1st level slots anyways. Divination is a fine opposition choice for a Spellslinger.


Cellion wrote:
RE: Upstream discussion about AWT and AAT: AWT and AAT are really kludgy. They 'solve' the skill problem but kick in a third of the way through a typical 1E fighter's life, and even then take until a higher level before you're on par with other martials. They enable some neat fighting styles like finesse one-handing, but again they take too long to do so. Any potential Fighter revamp should really remove these and integrate better combat style support and better skill support into the class chassis.

I feel that if his skill problems are addressed, the Fighter is okay at low levels, and AAT and AWT are starting to come into play when he does need that major boost.


avr wrote:
Skill unlocks mostly never come up. There's about three that might, starting with intimidate because it has a combat use. Not wanting to tread on toes made them mostly a waste of paper.

To be fair, Skill Unlocks are roughly on par with typical feats in that regard. Most feats aren't particularly good either, or are only ever taken in very specific kinds of campaigns or on very specific kinds of builds. Skill unlocks aren't much different; there are a couple gems, a bunch of situational options, and most of them are just filler that you would never taken on a PC but a GM might slap on an NPC.


Dale McCoy Jr wrote:

I noticed a bit of discussion on the fighter class on how it needs to change. I would like to know specifically what you would like to see.

Vote in the poll and leave a comment at the link.

It's interesting how there's little agreement here. Personally I'd have put up a slate something like this:

Fighters need
[ ] More skill points per level and/or more class skills
[ ] Better saving throws and/or Bravery applies to all will saves
[ ] Advanced Weapon Training / Advanced Armor Training formally included in the base class
[ ] Stamina system (or something similar) included in the base class
[ ] More unique options for combat feats and/or advanced weapon/armor training
[ ] Better / cheaper magical items for martial characters
[ ] Better options to specialize in multiple combat styles
[ ] More class features in general


SilvercatMoonpaw" wrote:
Even easier would be to divorce "place you can see" from "oh, and you can throw your vision anywhere" aka scry. That way all Big Bads have to do to keep you from just popping into their throne rooms is to make sure there are no sight-lines inside.

This would be a possible nerf, although the one thing that gives me pause is that it probably wouldn't help on its own. The problem is that short range teleportation effects such as Dimension Door usually don't require line of sight or having seen your destination at any point in the past. You just need to be able to specify the direction and distance you want to travel. So long as you can use Teleport to get into Dimension Door range and there are no other protections then you're still in.


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gnoams wrote:
and the exact verbiage is far less important than the intent.

Now this is where I would disagree, because you don't have a direct link into the author's mind. You cannot know their intention was unless you had the opportunity to speak with them, you can only take a guess at it. The specific verbiage they have chosen for their rules text is how they expressed those intentions, so it's a very high bar to convince me that the specific verbiage is not what the author intended. If the rules work and don't have any obvious contradictions, then that is the intent.

gnoams wrote:
Some GMs seem to think that the way to challenge players is to nerf their abilities, or say they don't work because reasons. To me this is how you aggravate players, not how you challenge them.

I'd agree, you don't go about nerfing your PC's with rulings. That just breeds resentment. It should be reserved for cases where something is really truly game-breaking.


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Something that is impossible in the real-world isn't necessarily magical in the Pathfinder world. Many (Ex) abilities are quite impossible by realistic standards, but are still non-magical in game terms. Don't overthink it, this is quite literally a fantasy.


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Matthew Downie wrote:
to make it harder to teleport past the adventure or defeat the enemy boss in one round.

Counter-intuitively I think the solution to that problem is actually a spellcasting buff. I feel that once you're in the level 10+ range you should be able to trivialize overland travel through the material plane, and the current version of Teleport is about right for this purpose. Teleportation is a useful narrative device for when the scope of the adventure starts to broaden and you don't want your heroes wasting weeks or months traveling from point A to point B, and I wouldn't want it any weaker than it is. If you know where you're going, you should be able to pop over there.

The problem is the lack of level-appropriate countermeasures when it comes to using teleportation to infiltrate a villain's stronghold. If you were to buff some niche defensive spells to include anti-teleportation utility (just off the top of my head, Cursed Terrain would work perfectly in this context) that would put a stop to this kind of behavior. If anti-teleportation magic was a dime a dozen such that even a mid-level NPC underling Wizard could ward a fortress it would be foolhardy to teleport directly into a high-level villain's domain.


I think there's a lot of potential for a Pathfinder 1.5, but whether that potential can actually be translated into reality is a tough question. You can get some general agreement from different people on broad strokes of things that could stand to change, but if you start asking about specifics you'll get wildly divergent opinions on whether or how things should change. It would be an incredible challenge to create something that straddles that line.

This thread is itself testament to that. You can see a lot of people with ideas, but little agreement on them. I could throw in my two cents on firearms, and it would just be another discordant voice with a different idea of what direction they should go in (I feel fairly strongly that they shouldn't have any special advantage against armor)

If someone wanted to do this seriously as a project, I think the best way would be to start small; focus on an anthology of the best Pathfinder 1st edition content, and making minimal changes that have broad consensus. For instance, for the Fighter you might give it a second strong save, 4+int skill points, and include Advanced Weapon Training and Advanced Armor Training directly in the class.


The thing that makes necromancy and animating the dead so powerful is that it requires basically no investment from your character build, just the gold cost to animate the minions. If you're going the divine path you will need to know the Animate Dead spell, the Desecrate spell, and the Remove Paralysis spell. If you're going the arcane path you will need to know the Animate Dead spell, the Command Undead spell, and the Haste spell. That's really all there is to it. Find a good corpse and animate it.

With Gravewalker banned in PFS there are really no stand-out archetypes anyways. Cleric, Wizard, and Sorcerer stand out as the best options. Cleric gets Animate Dead earlier than the others and gets Desecrate, Wizard gets Command Undead and Animate Dead reasonably early, and Sorcerer has the unique property of being the only charisma-based caster to get the Command Undead spell which allows him to take control of intelligent undead.


Senko wrote:

Set 1

1) Immunity to poison
2) Immunity to fear
3) immunity to compulsion spells
4) +2 morale bonus to attack/damage
5) +2 sacred bonus to attack and damage against magic beasts and animals
6) +1 morale bonus to AC and saving throws
7) +1 sacred bonus vs undead and outsiders
8) +5 bonus to knowledge nature
9) +3 bonus to all knowledge and lore checks

Probably only worth +1 CR. THe bonuses it gives are small and have potential stacking issues, and the main gains are the immunities. It's very comparable to some of the weaker +1 CR undead templates.

Senko wrote:

Set 2

1) +16 SR
2) +2 bonus to perception and intimidate checks
3) +1 AC vs animals and magical beasts
4) Transmutation of mind, body and soul (potion) +2 inherent to all stats
5) Once per day if killed in the first world or a location connected to it ressurect with 1/2 hp.

A flat 16 SR is hard to rate. It's completely useless for a 20th level character since any relevant foe will auto-succeed the check, but at the same time low-level foes will struggle to break through it. I would recommend changing it to level + 10 SR.

If you make that change, I think +1 CR is appropriate.


Firebug wrote:
What were they using Evolved Summon Monster for? I must have missed it, as I took the 5 attacks to be Bite/Claw/Claw/Rake/Rake on pounce, so base-line Dire Tiger

Rake cannot be used as part of a pounce, since you must begin your turn grappling the opponent to do it. In order to get five attacks on the pounce you'd need evolved summons for extra natural attacks.

Firebug wrote:
Except that those 10 Summon Monster uses should be compared to how many max level spells the Wizard has. And goes to Summon Monster 6 when the Wizard also gets 6th level spells. Sure Wizard 6th spells are pretty awesome, but as a Summon focused Conjurer, its likely at least a few Summon Monster 6... which the Summoner gets a boat-load of.

The key advantage of a Summon-focused Wizard over a (non-master) Summoner with respects to summoning is the ability to bring out more than one casting at a time and flood the battlefield, or at very least follow-up with complementary spells. You aren't going to be fighting 10 encounters per day most of the time, so the Summoner is bottlenecked in terms of his ability to actually use all those castings. A well-played Wizard will be able to ration his resources across an adventuring day and can throttle up to full nova at any time if necessary.


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Artofregicide wrote:
I wasn't a huge fan of Strange Aeons book 4
Neriathale wrote:
Book 4 is the most traditional-feeling of the AP, which makes it a bit of a come-down.

I think the issue with book 4 is that it's literally in the shadow of an incredible chapter. In and of itself it's fine, as good as books 5 and 6.

I think the biggest issue with book 4 is that in principle it's a free-form horror investigation but it was implemented as a railroad. This creates a problem because the PC's have enough information at the outset of this adventure to deduce any of the three cities as possible avenues of investigation. Since the cities are meant to be tackled in a specific order this means that the moment the PC's skip any section of the AP they will have no reason to return to it. A clever party could potentially skip almost the entire book.


Artofregicide wrote:
Do they though? Sure, the 9th level casters and munchkin builds really start to really come into their own, but against your average martial?

Yes, they definitely do. While eidolons will keep pace with martials for damage output at an average optimization level, defensively they fall behind with fewer hit points, lower saves, and lower AC. Magical gear also starts to become a serious issue at about this level, as any slot your eidolon is using is one your summmoner cannot. This is most noteworthy on magical belts and cloaks.

The Summoner also starts to really feel his slower spell progression at this point. A 10th level summoner with 24 charisma gets 20 spells per day total compared to a 10th wizard with 26 intelligence having 30 per day. Even with his 10 uses of Summon Monster V his staying power is only equivalent to the Wizard. Give it one more level and the Wizard is decisively ahead.

ZᴇɴN wrote:
Well, once the summoner hits 13, 1d3+1 augmented aerial dire tigers pouncing at you for 5 attacks at +22 for die+10+2d6 electricity + free grapple will be difficult for MOST things to deal with. With 40ft perfect flight and 133hp each.

Evolved Summoned Monster only works on one summoned creature per casting, so if you're doing multi-summons like this most of them are still stuck on 3 natural attacks. The rest of it works, though; Augmented Summon, Versatile Summon, and Superior Summons is a really great combo and well worth expending 4 feats.

Melkiador wrote:
It's amazing how people get worked up about the eidolon, when these kinds of things exist.

Yup, and there were no changes to the Summon Monster SLA in Unchained Summoner either so it works just fine for him. I still think beatstick eidolons are just fine, but you absolutely can play with a non-combat utility eidolon and use the SLA for combat instead.


Supernatural default to a standard action if no other action is specified. Speaking is explicitly a free action. The effect applies any time you speak (which is a free action) and requires no independent activation. If it did work the way you suggest it would be listed as a spell-like ability rather than supernatural.


Strange Aeons and War for the Crown both come to mind.

Strange Aeons book 3 is easily the best book in the entire AP and probably one of the best books Paizo has put out period. The only place I would fault it is that the plot hook is pretty easy to miss. Book 4 is solid, although it is a bit of a "your princess is in another castle" run-around and

For War for the Crown, book 4 is actually a major climax and depending on your group may be more satisfying than the one in book 6. The lull in War for the Crown actually happens in book 5, which is weird filler.


LordKailas is correct. This is not a spell-like ability, but just something you can do; there is no need to activate Feral Speech and no duration limit.


The thing about the Summoner is that he's extraordinarily powerful at low levels, but drops off rapidly at higher levels. At 1st level there's no other class with anywhere near his staying power. 3+Cha castings of SM1 alone gives easily half a dozen combat encounters worth of resources, and that's after his eidolon is downed for the day and he's got regular spell slots on top of that. Fighters are out of hit points, Clerics are out of channels, and Wizards are out of spell slots long before the Summoner is even close to being tapped.

The Summoner drops off at higher levels, however. While 3+Cha castings of Summon monster at the highest level-appropriate spell level is still amazing, other classes catch up in terms of the total amount of resources they can bring to bear over the coarse of an adventuring day. Casters will have a plethora of extra spell slots, hit points become relatively inexpensive to replenish with consumables so Fighters just don't stop, and as a 3/4 BAB class with no combat class features the Summoner himself ceases to be a relevant combatant.

However, perhaps the most insidious weakness of the Summoner at higher levels is magical equipment. He has equipment slot interference with his eidolon. If his eidolon is wearing a magical cloak then the Summoner can't benefit from one and vice-versa. This has massive implications for the "big six", and means the Summoner and Eidolon are much squishier than they should be.

In terms of Summoner vs Unchained Summoner, the Unchained Summoner is essentially intended as a nerf to the Summoner. Many of the spells on its spell list had unreasonable level discounts (ie, Haste as a 2nd level spell) and some evolutions needed higher prerequisites to keep them out of low-level play (Pounce). However, I feel they went overboard and pruned out virtually all discounted spells from the Summoner's list, even ones that were incredibly justified (ie, Planar Binding spell line) or were more flavor options that would rarely if ever be taken by PC's anyways (ie, Binding). In addition they didn't take the chance to buff underpowered evolutions like the breath weapon while simultaneously reducing the evolution point budget so you couldn't afford to take flavorful options as easily. Overall I feel it was a huge missed opportunity.

Lady Asharah wrote:
Not once you're past level 5 or so, at least not in the groups I play with. If a combat lasts longer than 5 or so rounds, something is going really wrong

5 minute duration is long enough for a summoned monster to survive more than one combat encounter. It also allows you to more confidently pre-cast it when you suspect combat is imminent, something a Wizard cannot necessarily due since the spell times out so quickly. This also greatly widens its applications for non-combat utility purposes. You can summon a monster with abilities to help you navigate a dungeon and actually have it last long enough to remain relevant the whole way through.


I'm going to have to disagree with you guys on vital strike and damage potential. Its vital strike averages 33.5 damage, which is pretty close to guidelines for one turn worth of damage for a CR 7 monster. The feat allows it to get that damage off with a standard, which is very nice for it and gives it something comparable to pounce in terms of its overall DPR potential when moving. It's a strong ability, but not unreasonable for its CR. It's less dangerous than pouncing monsters like Lions or Tigers. As far as critical hits go, that's just the reality of high critical multipliers and is true for any monster or NPC with such weapons. Swapping out the weapons is ideal if you'd prefer not to live dangerously, but this particular risk factor is just part of the game system and not inherently a balance issue.

If there's an issue here it's more a matter of encounter design. High-damage / low durability monsters that don't need to be adjacent to full-attack are inherently volatile, and in some respects are similar to monsters with save-or-lose SLA's (of which there are several nasty CR 7 ones, I might add). They can swing combat quite substantially when they get good rolls. When designing an encounter you don't want to create a situation where a high initiative roll and a good damage roll can start a snowball, so this monster is dangerous to use as a solo-encounter. Glass cannon monsters are a legitimately useful tool in a GM's kit if used correctly. That high damage can be critical to giving the feeling of immediate danger to individual PC's even when the encounter itself is statistically safe to the party as a whole. I find glass cannons particularly useful as mooks against higher-level PC's, as their high damage output means it's riskier to ignore them, while that lower HP total makes them easier to clean up.


Vohk is correct; Channel Power explicitly states it doesn't work on magical immunity.


Outright magic immunity is one of the precious few defenses against mythic spells. The golem is unaffected by Mythic Fireball.


Ryze Kuja wrote:
I agree with Dasrak, tone down Baleful Scream, a lot. I think on a successful save, they should just take half damage with no additional shaken/cower effect.

1 round of shaken is pretty tame, and is reasonable on a successful save. With that said you could definitely tone it down further than what I suggested, and removing the shaken would definitely be the next step if you want to do that. There's a lot of subjectivity with abilities, and you can aim for different levels of power.

Ryze Kuja wrote:
Also, having 10 DR on a CR7 creature is pretty high. Reduce that to 5 DR/magic.

Remember that DR 10/magic and silver means you need either a magic or silver weapon to bypass it. At this level range the vast majority of physical attacks will be magical, so it's not nearly as powerful a defense as it looks and mostly protects against unbuffed animal companions and summoned monsters.


The closest you can get is by taking a 2 level dip in Ninja or Teisatsu Vigilante and using Extra Ninja Trick to select tricks that duplicate the effect of monk ki powers. This is probably not worthwhile.


Minigiant wrote:
It will be cool to then have them come across one of his former masters, and the last known heir to the estate in Amaretos

Do keep in mind that Amaretos died about 800 years ago, and actually was responsible for a major historical event in Golarion when he

Spoilers:

was the one who stole Arazni's remains from Lastwall and delivered them to Geb to be reanimated as a lich.


The first thing that comes to my attention is the Necrotic Knight's relatively low hit points and high damage; this is a bit of a glass cannon monster. This isn't necessarily a problem, but you should be mindful of running too many of these in a single encounter since they're desperately weak to area of effect damage and can potentially be overwhelming with a few lucky rolls.

In terms of abilities, baleful scream is much too powerful. It deals too much damage for an area of effect ability that has a secondary effect and doesn't have friendly fire concerns. The secondary effect of panic is also very powerful, almost on par with a 4th level spell, and as such is too strong for something that also deals damage. Inflicting the cowering condition (even for a single round) on a successful save is completely inappropriate. I would say drop the damage to 5d6, reduce the panic to frightened, and reduce cowering to shaken.

Other than that it looks fine and is within reason for a CR 7 monster.


That's a very balanced party as it stands; you could do pretty much whatever you want. You've nixed Cleric (which is a very solid class for someone new to the system), and I presume that also applies to Cleric-like classes such as the Oracle, but that still leaves a huge number of class options. A couple of other options that come to mind:

Fighter: very solid class if you want to play as a peerless warrior. Using the Advanced Weapon Training options can be help address the Fighter's natural inflexibility; Warrior Spirit and Item Mastery feats can give you unusual abilities, Armed Bravery helps your otherwise weak saving throws, and Versatile Training greatly expands your skill repertoire.

Wizard: classic for a reason and a great complement to the Sorcerer. The ability to change spell preparation from one day to the next is great to allow you to try out different spells. Wizards are also one of the easiest classes in the game to build for. Max intelligence, pick a school to specialize in, and don't oppose conjuration or transmutation. Follow those three rules and you will have a good wizard build and the rest is just figuring out the best way to use your spells.

Alchemist: extremely versatile class that can do a whole bunch of different things. High explosives, alchemical concoctions, mutations, and a wide variety of unique ways to build the class. There are so many different ways to build and play the alchemist.


Noble families don't play a prominent role in this campaign. While many of the NPC's in book 3 are presumably nobles, the AP doesn't give enough information to say anything about their family or lineage. There are only two noble families that get any background at all:

Malderra:

The Malderra family was part of the Shining Crusade. They were steadfast in their opposition to sealing away the Whispering Tyrant, believing that the time was ripe to eliminate him once and for all. In the generations since they developed a rather toxic outlook that the other crusaders were cowards who left this problem for future generations to deal with, while simultaneously failing to make preparations against the Whispering Tyrant's return.

Ceto Malderra is the highest-ranking knight of Ozem in Lastwall during the festival that the PC's arrive in. She's also corrupt and narcissistic to the extreme. She has spent years embezzling money ostensibly as a contingency fund to fight against the Whispering Tyrant should he return, but is also consumed with amassing adulation for herself and her accomplishments. When the PC's arrive bearing warning of the Whispering Tyrant's imminent return she believes they are trying to sabotage her honored place at the festival, and after their warnings prove true she lashes out at them for having brought this doom to Lastwall... even as she intends to abscond from the city in its hour of greatest need with as much gold as possible.

Barronmor:

The Barronmor's were also a prominent family from the Shining Crusade. Claidius Barronmor is notorious for having authorized the attempt to infiltrate Geb and begin a second crusade. All he succeeded in doing was condemning the infiltrating agents - including his grandson, Amaretos - to undeath. Amaretos Barronmor appears as an antagonist in book 4. There are no living members of the Barronmor family featured in this campaign.


Sounds like you want to play as a Sorcerer or a Kineticist. Most feats that boost spell damage or improve metamagic only apply to a single spell, meaning blasters usually need to pick one spell as their main specialization to get it up to good levels of damage. Sorcerers, however, have access to a number of options that can boost all their damaging spells making them far more flexible as blasters. The big one are bloodline arcanas (Orc, Primal Elemental, and Solar stand out. Draconic is also an option) as well as the Blood Havoc bloodline mutation. Combine this with a selection of metamagic feats and you'll have a competent blaster. As a human you have access to a favored class bonus that increases your number of spells known, allowing you to have a broad selection of battlefield control, support, and utility in addition to your blasting.

Kineticists play by their own rules and it's an apples to oranges comparison with a blasting sorcerer. In general a kineticist is going to have more staying power throughout the day, whereas the Sorcerer is going to hit a lot harder when he brings out the big spell slots and will still be able to keep pace with a kineticist using his mid-range slots. However, as mentioned it's really apples to oranges and they'll play in a very distinct manner.

I'm not a huge fan of crossblooded. The one-level dip crossblooded builds have lost a lot of their luster since the arrival of bloodline mutations, which only work for Sorcerer spells and thus are useless to dip builds. They already had a severe tradeoff due to the lost caster level, and being locked out of bloodline mutations means I feel you're usually better off just going single-class Sorcerer with one bloodline unless you really have your heart set on Wizard or Arcanist. Single-class crossblooded still has a niche of being the single biggest damage blaster on the block, but it's well past the point of diminishing returns and not worth the serious loss on flexibility from reduced spells known.


You are correct. Also you qualify for the Extra Arcanist Exploit feat, which is a very solid feat choice for an Exploiter.


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Although it's currently on hold, I have started a conversion of Age of Ages to 1E. Book 1 is fully converted and book 2 has been sitting on the backburner for the past few months. I do plan on finishing the project eventually, but right now I've got too many other things going on and it's not something I'll half-ass.


FreezingWolf wrote:

Just asking to make sure I understand correctly.

Someone takes the battle mystery and gets skill at arms revelation. If the class didnt have armor proficiencies before, after taking it, he would be proficient with only heavy armor, right?

That is correct. Skill at Arms does not provide medium or light proficiency, and there is no universal rule that would grant them to you because you have heavy proficiency.


J. A. wrote:
Roderic's Cove seems to have spurred a wide range of opinions, and I've heard it referred to as a disappointment or worse. Some of the more detailed reviews point out what they feel are serious lapses in design and quality. Any thoughts on that one way or the other?

The biggest problem with Roderic's Cove is that it doesn't fit with the rest of the AP in style or substance. Roderic's Cove is very much about building a more personal connection with this small town as the party becomes its heroes, and is designed as an open sandbox where the party has to figure things out for themselves with successive hints from different areas eventually pointing them to where they need to go to handle the big problems. The rest of the AP is a very tightly choreographed railroad and kinda feels like a boss rush as the PC's rapidly move from one locale to another to defeat the new threat of the day. Moreover, as soon the PC's get a new designated quest-giver the old one drops off the face of the earth and they never even return to that city again. After all the emphasis on building connections for the PC's with the people of Roderic's Cove, the fact that the locale is abandoned and never returned to just throws away the main strengths of book 1. I seriously feel the AP works best if you treat each book as a vignette with a completely different party due to how fragmented it is.

The other issue is that Roderic's Cove is a sandbox where the PC's an do things in virtually any order. As a result a lot of it is left to GM discretion. I don't think that works for every GM, and you really do need to go in with the mindset that this is a sandbox adventure and the GM needs to adapt to what actually happens within that.

Neriathale wrote:
I could pull together a low level Creepy Varisia’ campaign from modules - Murder’s Mark, Feat of Ravenmoor, and Hook Street in that order. Maybe throwing Carrion Hill in as well, though technically that’s in Ustlav.

Murder's Mark->Ravenmoor->Carrion Hill->Hook Street looks great as a mini-campaign. The PC level-up schedule lines up perfectly, they share a common theme, and with very slight modification you could make the antagonists in Ravenmoor and Carrion Hill part of the same cult as Hook Street.


Four come to mind for me immediately: House on Hook Street, Ire of the Storm, Feast of Ravenmoor, and Secret of Roderic's Cove. All for different reasons.

House on Hook street is just different and unique, and really just oozes flavor from every corner. Ire of the Storm is a perfect exploration-based AP nails the feeling of exploring an untamed wilderness. Feast of Ravenmoor is a lovely low-level adventure that has just the right amount of mystery and investigation before getting into the action. Secrets of Roderic's Cove is technically book 1 of an adventure path, but its plot is entirely self-contained and requires virtually no modification to run as a stand-alone, and is a phenomenally good 1st level sandbox where you're dumped into a small town and have to become its heroes.


J. A. wrote:
How exactly does the module fail in its execution?

I read it a year ago so I'm probably forgetting some of the details, but this is what really sticks out in my mind:

Spoiler:

The PC's arrive in the underground city after the antagonists have already won. They're in full control of the city, to the extent that they feel confident sending death squads to murder citizens they don't like and have imprisoned its former governing council. Moreover, many of the citizenry actually support the cult and would have nothing against outing the PC's. None of the NPC's supporting the party are anywhere near powerful enough to provide any significant resistance to the cult. While all the encounters are level-appropriate in isolation, it completely breaks suspension of disbelief that this cult is at all a reasonable adversary for the PC's to defeat with the virtually non-existent support they get. The only reason it works is because the PC's magically (GM magic, not in-universe magic) get "safe places" to rest and none of the NPC wizards in the cult ever bother to scry on them. The antagonists just sit in their fortress, doing nothing while the world apparently exists in stasis waiting for the PC's to raid them one room at a time until they defeat the cult.


J. A. wrote:
Speaking of Cradle of Night, how is it as a module overall?

It's pretty disappointing and I can't recommend it. The backstory and concept are all great, which makes the complete failure in execution all the more disappointing. Really not up to Paizo's usual standards.


JD Niemand wrote:
How did these NPCs inherit them under male-only primogeniture?

It's never explicitly stated anywhere. The most common interpretation is that the law had already been loosened to allow women to inherit land and titles in some circumstances, but the office of Grand Prince remained fully closed off.


Melkiador wrote:
The door part of dimension door is a bit of an unwritten rule. The text doesn’t mention a door. But it’s in the name and some old official artwork.

Moreover it just takes us back to the problem of whether the invisibility spell extends to the manifestation (be it a "door" or otherwise). There's no rules text to go on so such debates just go in circles.


There aren't very many enemies in this campaign that actually use energy damage, so your particular choice of energy resistance probably won't come into play very often. I will say that spell resistance is pretty common so be mindful of that if you want to do blasting, given that Dragon Disciple might not have maxed out caster level to begin with.


It doesn't exist. The Forsaken are Paizo's original content and were introduced as part of the backstory of the Cradle of the Night adventure. Nothing further has been released about them since, so all there is to go on is the backmatter of Cradle of the Night.


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Melkiador wrote:
The manifestation of fireball is both from the caster and where it lands. It's not unreasonable to assume that teleport spells would also have an emanation at both points of the teleport. But without spellcraft, you'd just know that some magic thing happened in a place. You'd need a successful spellcraft check to know which magic thing happened there.

The key point here is invisibility; while the FAQ did establish that there are emanations, it doesn't address how they interact with other effects like invisibility. To this day there is no resolution on whether an invisibility spell makes your spell emanations invisible as well. Expect table variations on that one.


Edit I read that as items that shouldn't exist lol

Dust of Sneezing and Choking. 3d6 constitution damage if you fail your save, stunned for 5d4 rounds if you pass your save. Heads you lose, tails I win. Horrific stuff that is so gamebreaking that it can never be allowed to exist under any circumstance.

Also poorly worded, since as written the stun effect doesn't occur on a failed save, meaning intentionally failing your save and hoping for a low roll on the Con damage is actually preferable in most circumstances to avoid the devastating 5d4 rounds of stun.

I would have liked to have seen more double-edged cursed items that offer powerful benefits at a steep cost. They're tricky to write, since you don't want there to be tricky ways to avoid the curse, but it's a flavorful angle for magical items that is under-explored.

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