Valeros

Dave_Vader's page

Organized Play Member. 50 posts. No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 6 Organized Play characters.


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2/5

Congratulations to all the new 5 star GMs.

Although I have to say, that 1-2 hours of prep time for a scenario seems pretty short to me. With printing, minis, reading, making sure you know all the rules of all the monsters etc, if I'm quick I can do it in 3-4 hours for a new scenario. 1-2 hours seems like lowballing it a lot.

2/5

Just wanted to add a little typo/omission. In the stat blocks for the Isgeri Outlaws the heavy steel shields are missing, even though they have a +2 shield bonus for their AC.

2/5

Welcome and congratulations!


No formatting and confusing description vs item with an effect that is completely useless. Useless it is I guess...


Tin Foil Yamakah wrote:
I am going to say this guy is up there among the leaders if not number one

WTF?????


Ever thought about a druid? Wildshape into a creature with grab and constrict (say an alraune), enjoy the bonuses to CMB due to size (plus wild shape), get some unsunderable items that improve your grapple skills (because your gear melds in wildshape), get a +4 to grapple thanks to the grab ability, get the powerful shape feat for an additional boost to CMB and watch your GM weep as you can grapple up to colossal creatures with CMB Boni that make every fighter cry to their mother at night.

Only "downside" is, that you would have to wait until level 6 when the first forms with grab ability (dire tiger, 5 attacks with pounce AND grab) become available.

I grappled a wendigo with CMD 47 with my wildshaped druid once (after dispelling his freedom of movement). The GM got so upset that the wendigo just left the fight. Fun times!

Oh and because you are a full caster, not only can you do all sorts of fun stuff with that, you also gain access to spells to buff yourself with even more CMB boni (see resinous skin).

To round that off, you also get an animal companion, that could also grapple an opponent.

Druids are VERY powerful grapplers, just not at lower levels.

Edit: Ok, so the spell, feat and form I proposed might not be available to you because of book restrictions. But many forms of wildshape get access to grab abilities, so the rest of what I wrote still stands.

2/5

Blog wrote:
Expanding Pathfinder Society's presence from 5 countries with an active PFS presence to 29 (including regions that had little or no prior Organized Play)

This means that you will have 29 possible countries and multiple destinations for couchsurfing ;). Your motivational skills and finding the right people to help the Society grow will be hard to replace. Thank you for your hard work and service, especially helping our hobby grow worldwide.


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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.

2/5

Congratulations to the two of you. I just want to point out, that that is 4 stars for Alex within a year. 100 Tables of Credit. Respect.

Great to see Pathfinder grow in Germany.


Your saves are too high, the Dragonbane Divination sticks give luck boni, which don't stack.

Also, as noted earlier, you can only have one polymorph spell active at a time.

I would like to know, how an quickened intensified empowered shocking grasp is level 3? You can ignore quickened with spell perfection, but empowered is still a +2 metamagic, leaving your spell at level 4, 5 with elemental. That also makes your intensified, maximised, empowered, dazing shocking grasp impossible, because that spell would be level 7.

Easy dirty tactics like sundering your items would of course easily kill your character (rip the kimono, smash your rapier, destroy your shield and then watch you weep). Preferably do that as you try to close the distance, using aoo with combat reflexes and subbing the attack with a sunder maneuver. Solar Angel with Improved Sunder will be especially good at this.

You would also have issues with anything immune to both acid and electricity (which is not part of the beastmass)

But to get to the point:
Strategy for the Pit Fiend: Round 1: Greater dispel magic on your resist fire (one of four is likely to get through, if more are sucessful you target mirror image), fly out of range. Then: Quickend Fireball and Meteor Swarm. Fly away from you to stay out of slumber hex range. The Fireball you save but still take half damage. Meteor Swarm hits you (good assumption with a ranged touch attack of +29) with the bludgeoning damage (I think it is unlikely that you have mirror image on all the time) for 8d6 and you save for the meteor swarm to take half damage. Here it becomes interesting because after 24d6 fire damage from meteor swarm and 10d6 from fireball (both saved for half) you have taken 25d6 damage from the meteor swarm and fireball (-20 for bludgeoing, still leaves us at an average of 87 damge). Alternatively (just saw you somehow have evasion? From where?): Use scorching rays and keep distance until you are under 150 hp. Then use power word stun, take away your weapon and beat the living crap out of you, considering your AC just dropped by 14 points and you are now at a very hittable 37. Alternate between hitting you and power word stun, as you are bound to keep being stunned longer and longer. The Pit Fiend Celebrates with the legions of hell as another challenger has been slayed. This even works with reflection, because the Balor can just keep spamming power word stun until you are out of arcane pool points.

The Solar Angel works the same way: Stays out of your sleep hex range, uses destruction (once as a spell, once with miracle) and horrid wilting (via wish) to deal you 30d6 damage (already halfed, which you can't evade due to them being fort saves). Use power word stun, smash your face in, then use power word kill.

This strategy could also work for the Balor, if he found some way to deal you more damage, than the fire storm (after dispelling resist energy) would do (which is 20d6 or assuming a save 10d6, which will not get you under the required 150 HP for power word stun and the Balor does not have unlimited spells of Firestorm available)

Your main problem here becomes the relatively low HP which leaves you vulnerable to spells like Power word stun. Considering the Pit Fiend can spam power word stun all day, as soon as you are stunned, it is game over for you. Main Problem for you here is that unlike the Zen Archer in the Beastmass post you referenced, you don't actually have an efficient way of dealing damage on the distance. Apart from hold monster, your sleep hex (which can be avoided by distance) and Feeblemind, you are just lacking the strongest spells in the game.

Also a favorite: As your CMD is just not high enough, disarm your character (where he will loose both shield and weapon) and enjoy the AOO while you pick up your items again. Or just enjoy the -8 AC.

All these monsters also have greater reach than you, which means that kiting tactics will be very effective against you.

Your character build is strong, but not nearly unkillable (the saves are too low and you don't have enough rerolls, the AC is not ridiculous enough) and it lacks instant death options like pounce or ranged attacks (for damage) or high DC high level spells (like imprisonment) which would make killing the monsters a cakewalk.

And don't even try against people who can choose their character builds. Said Zen-Archer might pierce you before you get close to him, a pouncing raptor with a cavalier on top will rip you to shreds before you know what hit you, a druid with animal companion will both transform into huge dragons and see if you can withstand the 7 attacks from each that they will pour out (with both over 200 hp and an AC over 53), a pouncing vivisectionist beastmorph alchemist will crippling strike you once and your strength is at 0 in addition to you being under 0 HP.

+40 to attack at level 20 is realistic and other chars can also reach over 50 AC without a problem. The issue then becomes, if you can deal more damage than them. And considering all it takes to deafeat your char, is resist energy electricity and acid, I am just not sure that that can be achieved. Your Reflection and Hexes are strong, but not uncounterable and you are still vulnerable to pure damage. Anything that can pour that out quickly will kill your char. Just don't take the bestiary as a reference, because a 20th level wizard will be scarier than any of the CR20 monsters in that book, if put into the hands of a capable GM ;)

The Magus is a burst class, but if you have to rely on reflection, it comes down to your arcane pool lasting longer than your opponents HP. And I just don't see that happening.


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James Jacobs wrote:


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.

I'm sure that would go to the more 'experimental' APs ;)

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


No the event descriptions aren't visible anymore. Don't know if that is a bug or a feature, but when you edit an event, you can still see the description it just doesn't get displayed.

I guess it has something to do with the website changes and the new layout of the events. But you are not the only one who has that problem ;)


I find it funny that endure elements came up, but no one has mentioned life bubble. It is a level 4 spell for druids, level 5 for the rest, which means from level 7 onwards you can generally say f+&* you to any environmental effect.

In a vacuum? No Problem.
Underwater? No Problem.
Cloudkill or any other harmful gas or vapour (any!)? No problem.

It basically invalidates any environmental effect, plus any magic fog you could possibly think of. Oh and it lasts 2 hours per level, so 14 hours as soon as you have access to it. Or just buff your entire party for 3 hours. My GM for RotRL added it to his list of banned spells, because there is no reason not to use it and nearly every adventuring day something comes up where you profit from its effects.

2/5

So after reading through this thread, I still haven't found clear and definitive answers to a lot of the questions, just a lot of "it was reported incorrectly, you have to go back and do it yourselves", which still isn't admitting that something went fundamentally wrong. Also, not everyone even knows, which sessions were played/GMed and probably not everyone has the time to double check their chronicles.

So for the sake of clarity, it would be helpful if someone could give some yes or no answers to the following questions:

Will the problematic scenarios (especially Blakros Matrimony, also sometimes Cyphermage dilemma and Midnight Mauler) be fixed automatically?

Will multi-level modules and sanctioned APs that were reported correctly (as in the proper level showed up before) go back to their correct reporting? Or do all multi-level modules and APs have to be re-reported manually?
For me it is about the Rise of the Runelords AP, where all levels used to show up correctly (and were therefore presumably reported correctly), and now they are not (I was playing)

Is it now possible that "evergreen" scenarios like The Confirmation and The Wounded Wisp can be applied to more than one GM Character without getting a reporting error that this scenario was run before?

I think that should cover it...

2/5

All the RotRL Sessions have been set to the default "Burnt Offerings", 6 times. All the other books have disappeared and instead show as Burnt Offerings.

So basically confirming what Auke Teeniga said.

Also, reporting for repeatable scenarios like The Confirmation has not been fixed, you can still not receive GM credit more than once for those (at least not in the system)

2/5

The only issue I have with only allowing it for 4-5 star GMs is, that these scenarios are unlikely to be offered at all tables at bigger conventions outside the US. At least in Germany we have more VOs (14) than 4-5 star GMs (3, all VOs). And we only have one 5-star GM at the moment, so he would have a hard time offering the chance of playing a kobold or an aspis agent to all players in the country. (And really, who doesn't want to play either of these ;D).
Also, i would really like to run both the exclusives :D

Now seeing that it is quite the accomplishment to get to that many tables run and it should be rewarded, I can understand if such a corner case does not really factor into the decision. But just thought I'd add my two cents.

2/5

Vielen Dank and thank you everyone! And yes Shane, the translator was correct ;)

I am hoping to grow Pathfinder Society here in Ludwigsburg and the first rounds have been well received, so i am hoping i can build on that. There just needs to be more PFS in Germany, i am hoping to help that situation :)


Ashiel wrote:
That said, if you have a bard in the party, those massive full-attacks they get are muuuuuuch nicer.

Or a conjuration wizard/summoner with a lillend Azata ;)

But yes at level 20 it is -5 to hit from BAB alone, let alone things like weapon focus, which are usually based on one weapon and hurt having natural attack versatility. Of course having mostly primary natural attacks mitigates this a bit, but you won't challenge a Barbarian or Fighter for to hit. In the damage compartment, you might have a chance due to more attacks, and +5 circumvents most DR, but that's not what druids are primarily doing and it depends on the opponents AC. So i agree defense > offense. (Being capable of grappling dragons and demons after their freedom of movement has been dispelled though is something that i cannot see a martial doing, and there is nothing quite as satisfying as grappling a Wendigo :D)

And back to topic: Quickdraw Shield? Had never heard of this before now, need to try. Finally a good use for Quick Draw :>


Ashiel wrote:


Mithral Celestial plate found on the SRD. If you're using core-only options, then replace it with mithral celestial armor (which is by default chainmail), though it's understood in PF that you can change the base armors of specific magical items (celestial plate is just a full-plate version of celestial armor).

Celestial armor has a higher Max-Dex making it perhaps more attractive to serious Dex-users (those who are going to have Dex-prime or Str/Dex hybrid instead of secondary), but the plate version is +7 Max Dex which is what you'll have if you started with a 14 Dex and never raised it except through inherents and enhancements), though a Fighter's armor training can allow you to go higher in plate while speccing Dex-prime.

Druids have the most impressive AC of all (exceedingly so if they dipped a level of monk) thanks to wild armor. A +5 wild tower shield and +5 wild dragonhide full plate) puts the druid at 33 AC naked, then you add deflection, natural, natural enhancement, then Dex. It's trivial for druids to hit AC in the low 60s, but they act more as tanks in the traditional sense at this level (their bite isn't really that bad, it's just peeling them open while dealing with their DoTs).

Thanks for clearing that up :)

And i agree with the druid. Having Barkskin, Seamantle and the natural armor bonus from wildshape simply rocks. And considering wild lets you ignore any Armor Check Penalties (as far as i remember also Dex limits) AC 60 is definitely reachable.

But i disagree, that the druid can only work as a tank at that level. High level gives you access to Shapechange, which gives you Form of the Dragon III, which is 6 attacks, plus breath weapon. That still gives you your 9 spell levels to use. And you can switch into any other form once per round as a free action. E.g. pounce as a dire tiger then switch to dragon. And if you use improved spell sharing your Animal Companion can be a dragon too.

But yes, druids can profit disproportionately from a wild shield, because they lose none of their attack capabilities while taking all the advantages. Cost is a +3 enchantment though...


rorek55 wrote:
If using mithril you get +3 max dex mod.

Still one short ;) Any other sources?


Ashiel wrote:

Also, actually, yeah +50% defense isn't really an unfair thing to claim for shields at high level. A shield will contribute far more to your defense than a 2 hander will to your offense in the long run, and since you can put things like energy resistances, fortification, and it accounts for 7 points worth of AC.

To put it into perspective, a top-tier martial will be pushing +50s with their primary attack routines against major foes (20 BAB, 10+ Str, 5 enhancement, 6+ class features, 6 morale, 1 ioun stone, etc). You need some serious AC to not get wrekked by major foes, and fortification gear is a good idea since most will auto-confirm crits. Shields go a long way towards warding off those attacks, especially iterative attacks.

Base = 10
Armor = +14
Natural = +5
Deflection = +5
Dexterity = +7-9
Insight = +1
Total = 42-44

A shield brings you to 49-51, which is enough to not get insta-gibbed from your opponent's iterative attacks (and also makes Power Attack less attractive). Against enemies who don't auto-confirm, it reduces your chance to be critically hit. It also means that if you fight defensively (+3 AC w/ranks in acrobatics) that you can severely punish someone not using a shield (their full-attacks are getting tanked, power attack is a bad idea, and their AC is 7 points lower than yours already so even with the -4 to hit you're at an advantage, or you'll just hit with all your iterative attacks as well, which can handily land you an extra 75 points of damage on your 2nd, 3rd, and 4th iteratives).

Just a simple question, but how do you get a +7-9 Dex Bonus while wearing a full plate? Armor Training would give you +5 tops, where are the other 2-4 coming from? What are you using to circumvent the maximum Dex to Armor limit of the full plate?


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Brom the Obxiously Awesome wrote:
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.


wraithstrike wrote:
Deighton Thrane wrote:

I'm finding lately that I'm enjoying most of the gish type classes. Most have enough moving parts to feel like you have options in combat and outside, without having so many options to cause analysis paralysis. That and I still like characters who wade into melee when they need to.

Also, I feel your pain with the homework of high option characters. I recently spent 2 evenings just preparing sheets for wild shaping and summoning for my druid so I wouldn't have to look everything up at the table.

It is only for the bestiary 1, but I have a link to these on the site with and without augment summoning.

Well I dont know if I ever posted the wildshape document or not, but the summoning one is online for summon nature's ally and summon monster.

edit: I also think Gauss made an excel sheet that does most of the math for you if you use wildshape.

Yes he did here

On a related note: I absolutely love playing a melee druid. Once you got your excel sheet set up for the forms you need, the work is limited and you end up just flat out owning in melee, while having a huge variety of long lasting buffs (I am looking at you life bubble), can have some healing capability and are probably the only class in the game that can properly use the spell Shapechange. Throw in an Animal Companion that can out damage some melee characters and your only problem becomes the time it takes to roll all of your attacks ;) But seriously, there is nothing quite like being able to run around as a huge dragon :) Except for running around as two huge dragons, thanks to using Shapechange on your AC with the improved spell sharing feat.


Wild Shape works AS Beast Shape I on Level 4 and on Level 8 as Beast Shape III, but does not allow you to transform into a small or medium magical beast.
For all magical beasts up to large as Beast Shape IV, you can access that with the level 9 spell Shapechange. Hope that helps.


dragonhunterq wrote:
Dave_Vader wrote:
Bloodrager can not multiclass with Barbarian. None of the Hybrid classes in the advanced class guide can take levels in any of their parent classes. So bloodrager/barbarian is not a possible combination...

That restriction was removed in the final published product.

But Mergy has the right of it, Bloodrage only counts the same as rage for limited purposes and rage powers aren't on that list.

Switching from rage to bloodrage or vice-versa involves ending the first with all the attendant penalties.

Thanks for clearing that up, I didn't notice that so far. I stand corrected.


Bloodrager can not multiclass with Barbarian. None of the Hybrid classes in the advanced class guide can take levels in any of their parent classes. So bloodrager/barbarian is not a possible combination...


Liz Courts wrote:
Dave_Vader wrote:
It's 'auf Wiedersehen' not 'auf Weidersehen'... sorry but that is just as writing see yuo ;)
Thanks!

Thank you! As a native speaker it is just something that catches the eye ;)


It's 'auf Wiedersehen' not 'auf Weidersehen'... sorry but that is just as writing see yuo ;)


My theory would be because of two-weapon fighting and multiple natural attacks. These would benefit over proportionately from furious focus, making it imbalanced. I think the intent was, to enable you to negate the penalty for one attack only, probably with the barbarian in mind.


I am by no means an expert, but after being close to desperation yesterday I stumbled upon the solution with INT and just thought I'd share what I found.

Quite the impressive project for a first time excel sheet!


A little off-topic, but concerning the ACP: Linky

There James Jacobs states, no ACP, no max Dex, but yes non proficiency. At least i have always gone after that ruling... But as i said, that really is nitpicking.

Just a hint concerning the floor function: using INT instead should work without a when/if construction. Whichever you prefer ;)

As i said, the CMD case is something special considering it just really applies for the powerful shape feat. But considering that it is a pretty useful wild shaping feat, in the long run someone else might experience the same ;)


First of all, sorry for making it sound so demanding. What i wanted to say was, that a little editing on my part would take care of the problem, in no way was i asking for open office support.

Great thanks to you for providing it anyways now it works like a charm!

Spoiler:

The problem with libre office was, that the implementation of the FLOOR function in libre office only works for positive numbers, with negative numbers it f$~!s up. Funnily enough, the implementation does not even work as described in the documentation, which is a major f%~! up on their part. For anyone trying to use libre office, do not use FLOOR. Use INT or something. ridiculous

Looks good on libre office, seems that the page layout works just as it should, with 4 statblocks per page.

I think this is an amazing job. By customising different "weapons" you can pretty much play around with whatever bonuses you get, be it power attack, aomf or traits etc. The customisability helps covering pretty much any case scenario i could come up with.

It helps a lot that you included pretty much all the polymorph spells, that way even Shapechange on higher levels is fun to play. The ability to add damage dice or special abilities like trip to the attacks makes it very clean cut.

It saves hours of work tracking your wild shapes and at least for me it let's me prepare more utility forms, seeing as the updating work later on is minimal.

The only thing (and this is minor) is that i couldn't customise the CMD. That would be interesting for the powerful shapes field. I just put it into the special section, which works just as well.

But seriously, i really appreciate your work. I will spread this around my gaming group for whoever wants to use polymorph spells. Once you enter your data, the updating really helps and saves a lot of time for tracking your wild shapes over different levels. Not much more one could ask for :)

Edit: only exporting your shapes into a new version might take some time. And wild armor has no armor check penalty, but that still gets included if wild armor is checked. But considering the sheet is just relevant for wild shape, i just omit it ;)


Ok i am sorry, but it is an issue with the FLOOR function in libre office. a little editing takes care of it. Thanks a ton!


Hey i just downloaded that sheet, thanks for all the work. Unfortunately i am having some issues. If i have a character with Dex 10, all the Dexterity related fields just show ### meaning no result when i try to use a form with negative modifiers such as large beast shape creature.

This seems to be a general problem, as the entire results page cannot deal with negative modifiers. Is that an issue you have observed as well or could it be because i am using open office?

Thanks for the info

2/5

I, like many others here, changed a character to Szcarni after Shadow Lodge shut down. I have always disliked the whole trading business overall and I gotta say that you guys have really managed to leave my char without a faction.
Disillusioned after the end the shadow lodge, he felt right at home with some distant cousin doing whatever was asked. Putting the whole business part up front takes something away from the Szcarni.

But this change now means you just got rid of the faction for crooks, scoundrels and mercenaries. I am not liking the way the faction evolution is done and even less how options are taken away to be streamlined. I hope there is something else coming. A headhunters faction would already be good. I could already think of some burned head that should be atop the list...

I understand that there are business decisions behind these changes. But with faction missions mostly gone from the game, you also have to consider that a faction is a way to tie your character into the organised campaign. I was already disturbed by shutting down the shadow lodge, but with the szcarni being turned into businessmen it seems to me that all factions are pretty much grand lodge with different flavour. There is grand lodge flavour royalty, grand lodge flavour devils, grand lodge flavour freedom, grand lodge flavour trade, grand lodge flavour sages, grand lodge flavour good. But an organisation like the shadow lodge, trying to improve the conditions for all pathfinder agents and challenging the rules of the decimvirate would provide an actual option rather than a new grand lodge flavour..

And in all honesty: What is up with the faction names?? Do they seem very, let's say adolescent only to me?


I am playing a combat druid (oread) in RotRL right now and can only say that up to this level, you will rock. Buffing options for the druid are great, barkskin for instance is awesome. Lower levels you will be squishy until you can afford a dragonhide full plate (grab the proficiency), but bark skin and a wand of mage armor help. Also use favoured class bonus for HP to alleviate some of the squishyness

What point buy are you on? I would definitely recommend Animal companion (cat or ROC) to always have a flanking buddy and an option would be the following feats:

1: Toughness
3: Power Attack
5: Natural Spell (which is the druid 5th level class feature)
7: Heavy Armor Proficiency (if you have 19300 gold for dragonhide wild full plate, otherwise get it later)
9: Planar Wild Shape (resistances, damage reduction and smite once per day?! F@## yeah!!!)
11: Powerful Shapes ( if you use grab constrict etc a lot)

Wild speech is a feat option for utility if you wanna speak wild shaped

Forms are: Deinonychus (medium) at 4, Dire Tiger (large) at 6 and you can basically stay with that and use airwalk whenever you have foes in the air. I am using an Alraune (available at 10) for 4 attacks with grab and constrict, but you give up the tigers pounce. Before you have air walk, air elemental form can help.

Hope that helps. But at low levels your animal companion is as strong as any other character in the group and your damage will match or likely even exceed the fighter\barbarian as soon as you can pounce. And that is not counting your companion.

Hope that helps ;-)

2/5

Sorry to spoil the party, but from a GM point of view I hate that decision. It's already hard enough to have an overview of all the archetypes etc., but basically allowing a new mechanic is just too much for me personally.
Because I can either believe whatever a player using this is saying as trying to understand the rules will not work with the limited time or have to read up on how to play yu-gi-oh in pathfinder beforehand. Neither of which sounds like a great option and both seem to increase stress and preparation time while most likely bogging the game down...
But from the comments I gather I am rather alone with that point of view...


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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?


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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...

2/5

This is an unfortunate situation, but i would try to talk to the GM from back then. If he didn't report his sessions, try asking the GM who to contact.

That of course implies that the GM from two years ago is still active, but it's worth a shot. Hey may also be able to point you into the right direction if he can't help.

If you're lucky he might even be back at GenCon to sign your chronicle.


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TGMaxMaxer wrote:

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...


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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.

2/5

If it wasn't for the shared GM prep, i would probably need twice the amount of time preparing a scenario.

If it is possible to do for people in their free time from openly available resources, why can't it be possible for Paizo to have an automatically generating Monster DB with the stat blocks printed at the end of the scenario.

Having to go through breaks in stat-blocks or having to flip through the pages to find the stat block from 10 pages back has made me forget or not see parts of a monsters morale, abilities or similar.

This should be made the standard. Because the easier it is on the GM, the more GM's there will be and the more people will play PFS.

+1!


I don't really understand why in this forum the arguments are always made on hyper specialised prestige class with a level in x cases on leevel 20 to prove a in this case very subjective point, if the fighter is boring to play.

I personally enjoy playing and building a fighter a lot and I can not say that I have heard people who play a fighter complain much.

Is the fighter simple? Yes. But I think that is the point. You go to your game you sit down and you know what to do. Plus you have the biggest equipment and feat flexibility of all classes. And you deal a significant amount of damage and can take some as well, making you a very viable frontline fighter.

And you can fricking do it all day long. No limits on spells, nor rage you are just constantly good. It's easy and it's fun.

Now why the fighter does not have perception as a class skill is beyond me, but then take a trait. Or skill focus.

There are several archetypes as well, that offer you even more options yet are still easy to understand.

And while most of the anti fighter people in this thread might have impeccable rules knowledge and perfectly sought out spell lists, fighters require less deep knowledge or preparation time.

I perfectly understand, that if your goal is to completely immerse yourself in your character and spend days preparing him\her, a fighter might not be the challenge you are looking for. But that does not make the fighter boring for everyone.


Bbauzh ap Aghauzh wrote:

What if:

Armor & Weapon Proficiencies = Zero. None. Zilch. Nada. (save em for an archetype).

They get an ability called:

Brawler's Scarring (EX): Due to the constant use of his hands, arms, legs, and forehead to violently pummel his enemies, the brawler gains scar tissue across its body. The scar tissue forms in such a way, that they can choose to do slashing or piercing damage instead of bludgeoning damage. Additionally they gain natural armor of 2.

At 3rd level, this scar tissue becomes hardened and can be enchanted like a weapon. At 7th level the scar tissue can also be enchanted like armor. The cost is he same to enchant a weapon or armor, but the brawler must be available for 8 hours a day for the enchanter to work their magic.

At 5th level, the scar tissue becomes so tough that they can avoid magical DR. Brawler's fists, however, are not considered magical weapons unless enchanted as above. At 9th level the brawler can avoid cold iron or silver DR, alignment based DR at 12th level, and adamantine DR at 17th level.

All for it. I already had a rant into a similar direction earlier, but you just get replies if you are one of the cool kids ;-)

I especially like the fluff and the ability to get more armor. For balancing options I think it might be necessary to increase the price over the normal weapon cost considering that you otherwise invalidate two weapon fighting when it comes to money needed to spend.

I also think that the unarmed strike issue is more pressing than the source of damage reduction but that might once again me...


What people seem to be forgetting is, that the brawler is supposed to be able to fight WITH ANY PART OF HIS BODY. If we solve the DR/enchantment problem for unarmed strike by using brass knuckles/cestus, that goes away. Because then we can once again just attack with whatever the brawler has in hand. I really do not get why we cannot just fix unarmed strike for this class. Would it really be the end of the world to have one character class that can actually compete when it comes to damage without the need for a frickin weapon?! *smh*


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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.

2/5

No the question was really how to apply credit, not about GM stars. All my confusion got cleared out by Sniggevert. But thank you for the clarification :)

2/5

Thank you for the quick and complete reply. Now i know how to properly apply credit :)

2/5

I am more confused now than i was before reading this thread...

I perfectly understand, that i cannot run an adventure with the same character twice for credit. Makes perfect sense. But from what i understood up until now, i can replay a scenario with a different character at any time for credit. Is that wrong?

So if i want to replay an adventure i have played with one of my higher level characters with a new character i just set up, is that not possible?

And furthermore, does the same thing apply to GM's? So let's say there is one adventure i really like (for instance Nightmarch of Kalkamedes) and i decide that i want more than one group to enjoy that, i can only apply the credit to one of my characters and that is the end of it?

And the final (OT) question: Do the replay options for GM stars get reset at the beginning of each season, or is it the number of GM stars in total forever?

The guide is just not very clear on the distinction of player and character.

I know adventures keep getting published, but i can see issues starting to crop up with your third or fourth character whenever you go onto a convention. Looking forward to the replies ;)


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