Dave_Vader's page

As someone who studied that whole topic (environmental physics) it is easy to identify why people have a problem with the concept of climate change. The climate is a ridiculously complicated topic, but we can break it down into a few easy questions:

1. Do we emit lot's of gases and pollutants in the atmosphere? I think that is something most people would agree upon.

2. Can these gases trap more sunlight on the earth, therefore leading to heating? That requires a science degree, but it is still pretty straight forward in a laboratory, as CO2 absorbs sunlight in the infrared range and the so called atmospheric window.

3. What are the effects of this sunlight trapping and to how much heating (if any) will it lead? This is where it gets really complicated. Because anyone without a science degree, will want a number, but it's just not that easy. The true answer is, "we can't really say" and all that follows are estimates. But what we can say is, that an increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as we see it now is unprecedented. No one can perfectly predict the effects, all that you can see is a range. That range goes from devastating to pretty bad, to put it in easy terms. But because there is uncertainty in the predictions (such is the business of predicting complicated systems), does not mean that those predictions are all b~~&%*~*, it just means it's hard to pinpoint how bad it will be.

But instead of thinking about how we can get the best outcome possible, we instead argue about uncertaintys, which outside of science have a different meaning (as in "Im not sure") than inside of science (where they mean "this is the range that we expect for our result")

The question you need to ask yourself is always: What would be the cost/result if the predictions are true? And what would be the result if they aren't?

But I mean, it's not like anyone is arguing for abandoning technological progress. It's just about putting our current technology on the basis of renewable energies. What would be so bad of zero emission power plants all around? What would be the problem if energy would just be there (as in sunlight) and wouldn't need raw materials (coal, gas, oil etc)?

And then you come to the result, why anyone is arguing against climate change. Because if there is no coal, there is no one that can profit from selling it. You can't sell sunlight, you can't sell wind.
It's all about profits. But that, none of the climate sceptics would ever admit.

5) Eventually, I'm sure. Ignoring him hasn't been intentional, but I do tend to prefer to focus on either deities who are strongly tied in to AP themes or deities that I personally prefer.

So you are saying we should expect a 'drunken master' adventure path some time in the future? Or something like: The Ultimate Golarion Barcrawl AP - Fight and drink yourself through the most iconic bars and taverns in Golarion, while rescuing some people from oppression without realising it.

Would even go great with a player companion: Taverns of Golarion or Drinks of Golarion.

Avoron wrote:

Druid/Stalwart Defender

How does druid work for tanking?

Wild dragonhide heavy shield +1 (3 AC), wild dragonhide full plate +1 (10 AC), wild shape (huge air elemental for +3 dex AC and +4 natural arm or, total +7) and ring of protection (let's assume +2) and ioun stones or other stuff. Not to forget Barkskin as a spell that gives you +5 enhancement to natural arm or at level 12 for a mere level 2 spell slot.

Higher levels (outside of pfs) add Seamantle for +8 cover bonus.

That is 37 armor bonus (45 with seamantle) without considering stat dex boni, feats or too many absurd items like various ioun stones.

Very high level above 17 you have access to form of the dragon III via Shapechange for a + 10 natural armor bonus.

Not saying druid is the best, the wild shield and full plate are expensive, but the boni from wild shape and barkskin can make up for that. But it is doable exactly because of your access to spells and wildshape. Done it myself in RotRL and in the end was pretty much unhittable.

The question is, and this might have been asked before, why you don't just block all posts with telephone numbers? I mean all these posts have some keywords and numbers in common, it should be fairly easy to recognise and autoblock these accounts. If you guys record the IP, it might even be possible to block an entire IP range. Having to do this by hand always introduces a waiting period and relies on people to flag it by themselves. And i think most of those keywords and especially the phone numbers would make for a pretty strong blocking reason, without affecting pretty much anyone else.

Is there a reason you guys are not implementing this?

There is a feat for that is what she wrote.
1337speak proficiency and it is not free.

Throw anything makes your ranged weapons free. Be it a chair, a desk, a statue...

The range and damage are also balanced against common immunities/resistances.

Magic Missle: Medium range -no attack -force damage-SR (works on incorporeal
Ear Piercing Scream: close range -save for half/no condition -sonic damage -SR (very little resist for this)
Snowball: close range -save for no condition -elemental damage -No SR (very common resists)
Shocking Grasp: touch range -bonus to hit most enemies-elemental damage -SR (minor resists).

All pretty much equal with the cap of 5 dice, some will be better/worse based on the class/abilities of the character.

Where do you get that cold resistance is more common than electric? I myself have experienced more of the opposite playing a air elemental bloodline sorcerer.

Ear piercing scream gets a save for damage and has a lower damage progression and has SR. I think it shows more, that all these spells are more or less balanced against each other, whereas snowball takes the best out of the three of them.

It has range (MM/EPS), it has a d6/lvl damage progression (SG), it has no save for damage (SG/MM) and adds a condition (EPS). Additionally, no SR. Which really puts an already powerful spell over the top. What other spells that deal damage allow no SR? Your go to spells normally don't.

Which underlines my point from earlier. It gives you a combination of benefits from the other spells and then some, with what drawback exactly?
I mean for crying out loud, on levels 4-6 it is a better option than scorching ray, a level 2 spell. More damage on levels 5&6, plus status effect, plus no SR. How is a lvl 1 blasting spell beating a lvl 2 blasting spell in any way balanced?

This doesn't give you more options, as long as you have access to the required book, this is your only option. As a blasting sorcerer you HAVE to take this spell. Which in my opinion shows, that it is pretty horribly designed. Which is why an errata in any way (i would suggest spell progression to d6/2 lvl and SR), would keep game balance more intact...

I agree to it being unbalanced. Yes people scream colour spray, but colour spray is save or suck at lower levels and utterly useless once your enemies have more than 4 HD.

But when looking at low level damaging spells, we have to look at magic missile and shocking grasp.

The ranged option, magic missile, deals less damage due to the slower spell progression, no condition and spell resistance.

And shocking grasp, which i would compare it to, allows SR deals the same damage, no additional condition AND you have to go into melee.

I think if the spell was range touch, it might still be ok, because there is barely any caster who likes to go into melee. But range close makes it better than shocking grasp and the faster damage progression makes it better than magic missile. Yes i do need to hit, but seriously, touch AC is laughable.

I was quite stunned when a player pulled that spell out, and even more stunned it was PFS legal.
For me it exemplifies the problem with power creep. For anyone but a magus, there is no reason to use shocking grasp anymore. It doesn't provide more options, it just makes the exisiting options not as good. I think it is a horrible unbalanced spell.

I would like to add my 2 cents considering i have been looking for an unarmed build that can go up front and beat stuff up on a regular basis for quite some time, the Brawler seems to fit that need quite nicely on first glance.

D10 HD, full BAB and ability to overcome DR is a nice start. Especially the DR part reduces the need for an AoMF and still lets you deal damage on higher levels.

But on second glance the main prolem in comparison to normal TWF builds remains(and please this is not meant as a discussion about TWF, i think there has been enough of that, but i think this should at least be the benchmark here):

The flexibility, choice of materials and variety of critical hit ranges and multipliers is just not there. Plus to get any bonus to attack/damage, you once again need the AoMF which in return lowers your AC even more, even though you do not even have access to medium or heavy armor. Not to speak of enchantments.

Now the thing with TWF is that in order to deal significant damage you need to full attack considering Power Attack is just not an option. And you need a good attack bonus, because the penalty for TWF makes hitting that much harder, especially on the later iteratives. So in the best case you can move fast and especially have a high ini, so you at least get one or two full attacks in.

And i think here lies the most frustrating part of the Brawler. You do not get Masterwork transformation, you do not get weapon training, you cannot as cheaply enchant your unarmed strikes (AoMF) and also give up a slot doing so and you can not add any other enchantment. Of course the argument here is, well you get more damage dice but if you cannot hit whoever is in front of you it does not do you any good whatsoever. Especially considering that we are talking about a bonus damage of maybe 1 up until 12th level. Just to throw it out there, by that level with the two weapon warrior archetype you can be dual-wielding Falcatas like light weapons with 19-20/*3 crit!!!

Which brings me to the crit point. Not only are we talking obvious damage, we are also talking a whole row of feats which would be perfectly suited for use with Martial Maneuvers. But that would only fly if at least the crit range went up.

Now your solution to just let the Brawler use more weapons really goes against what i think should be the point of this class: A guy who pummels you with his fists/body.
More weapons just is like saying: We know unarmed strike sucks, we do not know how to fix it so here is some weapons so you can build a two weapon fighter just that he cannot use proper armor and is lacking in feats. If you have to, let cestus or brass knuckles be part of the flurry, but i think that is just a cheap fix, not a proper solution

Yes you do not need the Dex like you would for a two weapon fighter. But you also loose a lot of Armor and especially feats (like two weapon rend for instance).

And please, you have to change the required time for martial maneuvers to a swift action. As i just said, in order to deal damage two weapon fighting (or brawlers flurry) you need to full attack, which means you spend your first turn moving towards your enemy (for instance with a charge) to try and clobber him the next. If you can't move because you want to power up with martial maneuvers, well you might start dealing damage in round 3. And by that time your one move action might not be enough, so you might just end up full attacking in round 4...

Now i do have an idea how to fix this, and it might just fix unarmed strike for the brawler:
If the brawler has his body forged into a weapon, why not have some weird wizards/crazy alchemists that like to tinker wíth humans enchant his unarmed strike. Because you need to find such a special character, the cost is 100% more than with a normal weapon.

That way you are not unfair when it comes to pricing compared to fighting with two weapons, you still do not have the masterwork transformation or material choices (especially at lower levels) and you can still use your neck slot to boost your already low armor. It would fix the criticism most heard when it comes to amulet of mighty fists and offer the same benefit, at the same price just without the drawbacks.

You still take a lot of hits, but this would fit the brawler theme, where you have a guy who does not use weapons, why would he wear heavy armor? And you don't have to use the workaround of allowing weapons.

If you then put the crit range at 19-20, it might seem overpowered, but you have no class features enhancing your attack regularly, so the chance for your iteratives to hit is significantly lower.

This way the Brawler would do enough damage to compete, not do too much and really offer a different style of character, one that focuses on unarmed strikes and some martial maneuvers. If you leave the option for body enchantment as a class feature, it will really be unique and go into more being a class of his own.

Now i hope someone takes the time to read this, for all the others:

TL;DR

The shortcomings of unarmed strike compared to weapons could be fixed by allowing the Brawler to have his unarmed strike enchanted at twice the normal cost. If you add an expanded crit range and maybe martial maneuvers as a swift action, you end up with an unarmed build that can compete damage wise while offering unique flavor.