Dean Kimes's page

Goblin Squad Member. 15 posts (122 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 1 alias.



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We generally roleplay first, then roll. Usually the players in our group are pretty good about not making up some eloquent speech when the character has a lousy social skill, and a couple of the players aren't generally able to do justice when they play a character with a really high social skill.

This has resulted in a few hilarious exchanges, like the time a fairly capable rogue named Lambert was trying to bluff his way through a city watch at a gate after curfew. He came up with a really good story, and then rolled the dreaded one. This prompted him to add, "so what do you think guys? Can I pass by now already? I'm really going to be late and miss my chance to break into Pasketti's Jewelry Emporium if you don't help me out."

The entire table busted out laughing and the poor unlucky rogue is still lamented to this day whenever a 1 comes up in a social roll as everyone calls it "Pulling a Lambert".


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There are two that really irk me:

1. The 5 foot step withdraw to cast. Wizard with a fighter on you, no worries just 5 ft step back and waste him with a spell... over and over again. Cheesy.

2. DR X/Magic. After 5th level this is pretty much a totally worthless ability regardless of the DR value. The plus to overcome the DR should scale with the value, i.e. +1 overcomes DR 5, +2 overcomes DR 10 (or +1 lowers it to DR 5, etc.


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Kirth Gersen wrote:

1. Casting in Combat.

(a). You can cast a quickened spell, and a normal spell -- both of which require you to pull stuff out of a pouch, wave your hands in secret signs, and recite the Gettysburg Address in pig Latin -- while tumbling across the battlefield at full speed. Meanwhile, if Fred the Fighter moves, he loses all but one of his attacks. WTF?!?!?!

(b). At low levels, it's hard to cast spells while people are swinging sticks at you. Good. But at high levels, it's a joke and you auto-succeed -- regardless of whether the people attacking you are mooks or world-class slayers. In other words, you automatically get better at casting while under attack, but the people attacking you somehow never get better at disrupting your casting. WTF?!?!?!

I think casting defensively should be DC 10 + the CMB of the person threatening you.

Yeah, I think most spells probably need to cost a move action plus a standard action to better balance with full attacks.


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If you want a more mechanical answer, it takes 2000 lbs of force to turn the anvil. Str 20 (lowest str that can get a DC 25 check alone), maximum lift, times 5 since only "pushing" it.


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As an AC boost, its horrifically poorly scaled. Every 4 levels it gives you an extra +1 AC, whoop-de-do, even a wizard gets twice that much increase in to hit every 4 levels, and most everyone else, including a power attacking fighter get 3 times the to hit boost that you get in AC boost...plus you take a -1 to hit to boot. Yuck!

Maybe if it was -1 to hit and +2 to AC per stacking, at least then it would keep pace with the wizard trying to smack you with a sword...

Better AC option: Dodge for +1 AC with no to hit penalty, and Crane Style for +4 AC (with 3 ranks of Acrobatics) and -2 to hit. Total of +5 AC for -2 to hit...so much better than Combat Expertise.

Sigh, guess there is no hope for my hate to end. sigh.


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It's the difference between role playing and roll playing. A role player doesn't care if he is sub-optimal, he expects the story to be catered to the characters in the story, not some theoretical optimal party of characters.

As a DM I always try to put situations into the game that make it apparent that while mathematically it might be better to be geared towards a single specialized set of abilities, in life you are much more likely to need to be more well rounded because there will be situations where your best abilities may be completely useless.


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http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2k2i5?Why-are-weapon-energy-effects-command-wor d#20

Jacobs specifically states that the effect stays on until you turn it off, not until you turn on something completely different.


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My problem with limiting it is that the example given is that a monk can always make his or her full attacks regardless of how many of her limbs etc. is impaired/unavailable. If that is true, how can it not be all the attacks with any of the monks many weapons...I always thought of it as monk hits you with numchuks, swaps them to other hand and hits you with that hand, rinse repeat...it fits the genre of the kung fooey classic imo.


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I don't see why this is such an issue, nobody complains that the rapid fire sequence allows using a single weapon to make multiple attacks when the two weapon fighter cannot. I just don't see it as that big of an issue, certainly not enough to justify the complexity of tracking what a monk can do when he has which body parts unavailable and how many attacks he is limited to at that point.


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I'm especially interested in knowing how racial traits transfer.

Are all/no Racial Traits of the old form lost?

Are all/no Racial Traits of the new form gained?

Since speed is a Racial Trait for core races it would seem that trait is lost/gained, but what about others?


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I made an attempt at converting the Dawnflower Dervish from Wayfinder #1 (which I highly recommend) from 3.5 to PFrpg.

I made changes similar to what was done to Barbarian's Rage ability, etc.

Let me know what you think.

Dawnflower Dervish of Sarenrae

By Lissa “SunshineGrrrl” Guillet
Converted to PFRG by Dean “Arkadwyn” Kimes
Art by Crystal “Immora” Frasier

The Dawnflower Dervish sect of the Church of Sarenrae is a group of combat-oriented clerics working towards the destruction of evil. They wander the world to bring Sarenrae’s light to its darkest corners.

The first of the Dawnflower Dervishes were desert nomads who spread the faith of Sarenrae through their beautiful sword dances. Eventually other priests saw not only the beauty, but also the martial prowess that these dances conferred in combat. They shared this with the head church, which gave the Dawnflower Dervishes official sanction and status.

A Dawnflower Dervish of Sarenrae uses dance as a beautiful but deadly martial art. As the Dawnflower Dervish dances, she channels a fragment of her patron goddess. In this way, a devout dervish becomes a burning whirlwind of divine justice.
Hit Die: d8.

Requirements
To qualify to become a Dawnflower Dervish, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria:

Base Attack Bonus: +4

Skills: Perform (Dance) 3 ranks, Tumble 3 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 5 ranks.

Feats: Combat Expertise, Dodge, Mobility, Weapon Focus (Scimitar).

Deity: Sarenrae.

Special: Ability to Channel Positive Energy.

Class Skills
The Dawnflower Dervish’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Acrobatics (Dex), Escape Artist (Dex), Perception (Wis), and Perform (Cha).

Skill Points at Each Level
4 + Int modifer.

Class Features
All of the following are class features for the Dawnflower Dervish prestige class:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Dawnflower Dervishes gain no proficiencies with any armor or weapons.

Channel Energy (Su): A Dawnflower Dervish of Sarenrae adds her levels in this class for all abilities related to turning undead.

Flashing Scimitars (Ex): A Dawnflower Dervish learns to move with the grace of fire. She may treat scimitars as light weapons.
AC Bonus (Ex): A Dawnflower Dervish gains a +1 bonus to armor class. This bonus to AC applies even to touch attacks or when she is flat-footed. She loses this bonus whenever she is helpless or immobile, wearing medium or heavy armor, carrying a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load. This bonus increases to +2 at 5th level and +3 at 9th.

Dawnflower Dance (Ex): Once per encounter, a dervish can use a swift action to enter an ecstatic Dawnflower dance. She must be wielding a scimitar, and her other hand must hold a scimitar or be empty.
In this state, the Dawnflower Dervish adds half her class level (minimum of +1) to all scimitar attack and damage rolls. In addition the Dawnflower Dervish can move up to her normal speed and still make a full attack (instead of a single attack). When making this full attack, the Dawnflower Dervish must move at least 5’ between attacks and may use the Acrobatics skill as normal to avoid attacks of opportunity when making these moves.

While dancing, the Dawnflower Dervish cannot cast spells (except as described under domain dance) or activate magic items that require a command word, a spell trigger (such as a wand), or a spell completion (such as a scroll) to function. She also cannot use skills that require concentration or require her to be still, such as Stealth.

She can use bardic performances that utilize Perform (dance) or Peform (singing).

Starting at 1st level, a Dawnflower Dervish can use this ability a number of rounds per day equal to 4 + her Charisma modifier. At each level after 1st, she can dance for 2 additional rounds. Temporary increases to Charisma, such as those gained from spells like Eagle’s Splendor, do not increase the number of rounds that a dervish can use this ability per day.

A Dawnflower Dervish can end her dance as a free action and is fatigued for the remainder of the encounter. A Dawnflower Dervish cannot begin a dance while fatigued or exhausted and cannot dance while under the effects of Rage or Frenzy.

Dance Power (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, a Dawnflower Dervish may choose a Dance Power that reflects one of Sarenrae’s domains. One Dance Power is automatically activated when beginning a dance, and only one Dance Power can be in effect in any given round. The Dawnflower Dervish can change the power currently in effect as a swift action.

Fire (Su): The dervish’s scimitar(s) ignites with fire, gaining the flaming weapon quality.

Glory (Su): Golden runes appear along the scimitar(s) blade. It deals an extra 1d6 points of damage to evil outsiders.

Good (Su): The dervish’s scimitar(s) glows with golden light, radiating a magic circle against evil.

Healing (Su): The scimitar(s) loses its luster. The dervish may choose to deal nonlethal damage with the weapon without penalty.

Sun (Su): The dervish’s scimitar(s) trails sunlight, which inflicts an extra 1d6 points of damage to undead.

Fast Movement (Ex): At 2nd level, a Dawnflower Dervish gains a 5-feet enhancement bonus to her speed. This bonus increases to 10-feet at 5th level and to 15-feet at 8th. A Dawnflower Dervish loses this bonus if wearing medium or heavy armor, using a shield, or under a medium or heavy load.

Spells per Day: At each level (except 1st, 5th, and 9th), the Dawnflower Dervish gains new spells per day and spells known as if she had also gained a level in any one divine spellcasting class she belonged to previously. She does not gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If a character had more than one divine spellcasting class before she became a Dawnflower Dervish, she must decide to which class this level increase applies.

Dance Mastery (Ex): At 3rd level, a Dawnflower Dervish may take 10 on Acrobatics or Perform (dance) at any time, even when distracted or under stress.

Spring Attack: At 6th level, a Dawnflower Dervish gains the Spring Attack feat, even if she does not meet the prerequisites.

Elaborate parry (Ex): At 7th level, a Dawnflower Dervish gains an extra +4 bonus to Armor Class when she fights defensively or takes the total defense action.

Tireless Dance (Ex): At 9th level, a Dawnflower Dervish is no longer fatigued after a Dawnflower dance.

Dawnflower Blossom (Su): At 10th level, while performing a Dawnflower dance, a Dawnflower Dervish is affected by all of the Dance Powers she knows for the duration of the dance. While these effects are active, a Dawnflower Dervish radiates Daylight as the spell, except that it dispels spells with the Darkness descriptor of 6th level or lower.

Additionally, once per dance, a Dawnflower Dervish may expend a use of the Channel Energy ability to double her normal number of attacks. While under this effect the dervish may make up to two attacks between moves. This ability does not multiply additional attacks granted by effects such as the Haste spell or the Speed magic weapon property.

Level BAB Fort
Save Ref
Save Will
Save AC
Bonus Special Spell Progression
1st +0 +0 +2 +2 +1 Dawnflower Dance, Flashing Scimitars, Channel Energy -
2nd +1 +0 +3 +3 +1 Dance Power, Fast Movement +5 ft +1 level existing divine class
3rd +2 +1 +3 +3 +1 Dance Mastery +1 level existing divine class
4th +3 +1 +4 +4 +1 Dance Power +1 level existing divine class
5th +3 +1 +4 +4 +2 Fast Movement +10 ft -
6th +4 +2 +5 +5 +2 Spring Attack +1 level existing divine class
7th +5 +2 +5 +5 +2 Elaborate Parry +1 level existing divine class
8th +6 +2 +6 +6 +2 Dance Power, Fast Movement +15 ft +1 level existing divine class
9th +6 +3 +6 +6 +3 Tireless Dance -
10th +7 +3 +7 +7 +3 Dawnflower Blossom +1 level existing divine class