Spell Combat: ◈◈ (Two-Action Activity)
Your training as Magus has taught you to wield steel and spell in a synergistic manner. Cast a targeted Spell with a Somatic Component and Strike. The Strike takes a -2 circumstance penalty to hit unless you strike the target of your spell.
Improved Spell Combat: ◈◈ (Two-Action Activity)
Your training as Magus has taught you to wield steel and spell in a synergistic manner. Cast a targeted Spell with a Somatic Component and Strike. The Strike takes a -1 circumstance penalty to hit unless you strike the target of your spell. If you strike the target of your spell, you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to hit.
Greater Spell Combat: ◈◈ (Two-Action Activity)
Your training as Magus has taught you to wield steel and spell in a synergistic manner. Cast a targeted Spell with a Somatic Component and Strike. If you strike the target of your spell, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to hit.
Spellstrike will likely be modeled after Spellstrike Ammunition; you can "charge" a weapon with a spell in 10 minutes / 1 minute / 3 actions / 1 action
at trained/expert/master/legendary casting proficiency; and the spell naturally uses your spellcasting DC instead of a fixed value.
Arcane Strike will be a Flourish Strike that uses Spell Attack instead of Weapon Proficiency and adds +1/+2/+3/+4 damage depending on your arcane spellcasting proficiency
Critical Clarity will recover 1 Focus upon a Weapon Crit.
Spell Recall will allow you to expend Focus to recover a spent "Spellstrike" spell to your weapon.
True Magus will increase spellcasting to legendary and allow you to treat your weapon as Staff of the Magi, except it can be any Weapon.
Recently, I've read a nice thread that introduced me to the idea of "Reverse Gating", e.g. the ability of a sufficiently skilled character to "automatically" succeed at low-difficulty challenges.
And it seems to be an quite lovely idea.
Similarly, the Assurance feat (intended to replace the "Take 10/20" mechanics from PF1?) may attempt to do this.
How about we simply remove Assurance and graft this "Reverse Gating" mechanic into the UTEML-system itself?
While the success-percentages are just guesstimates and can be ignored entirely, the "no chance" and "success" entries are the essence of this proposal.
IMO, an expert shouldn't need to roll for trivial tasks, a master shouldn't roll for low tasks, and someone legendary shouldn't roll for hard tasks.
Pathfinder 1E had both Retraining rules as well as Martial Flexibility and the Paragon surge spell.
Pathfinder 2E fighters have two lovely class features:
Combat Flexibility(gain a 8th-level or lower fighter feat for 1 day 1/day) and Improved Flexibility(gain a 14th-level or lower fighter feat for 1 day 1/day)
These two class features are amazing inasmuch as they offer the fighter some daily flexibility in his abilities - he can, in a fashion similar to a prepared spellcaster, suit his abilities to the situation he expects: If he is hunting a dragon, he might focus on archery, if he expects to face invisible foes, he might train blind-fighting...
Since this very useful mechanic also allows the fighter to "test" certain fighting styles and evaluate the usefulness of feats, the idea of granting such "Flexibility" Class features to all NON-SPELLCASTERS might help with the evaluation of the class feats.
Some quick examples:
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Alchemist Class abilities:
The alchemist is a tinker, a crafter, a scientist mixing reagents and measuring results.
01 Infused Reagents, Advanced Alchemy, Quick Alchemy, Research Field
03 Potent Alchemy (Alchemical Items use your Class DC)
05 Focused Research
07 Experimental Alchemy(1 flexible class feat 4th level or lower)
09 Double Brew
11 Very Experimental Alchemy (1 flexible class feat 8th level or lower)
13 Advanced Research
15 Extremely Experimental Alchemy(1 flexible class feat 12th level or
lower)
17 Alchemical Alacrity
19 Thesis
Infused Reagents, Advanced Alchemy, Quick Alchemy (As normal per Rules update 1.6; but save space in the class table for Advanced Alchemy by simply writing the "level limit" of Quick Alchemy/Advanced Alchemy in the basic ability descriptions.
Potent Alchemy: (Hard-Bake "Powerful Alchemy" as passive into the class and remove the limit to "quickly" crafted items.
An Alchemist learns to craft in quantity and quickly at 1st level, now he can craft with more quality as well.)
Research Field / Focused Research / Advanced Research:
Research Field
A) Bomber:
As normal per Rules update 1.6
B) Chiurgeon:
Your field of research specializes in healing others with
alchemy. You start with the formulas for two additional 1stlevel
antidotes, antitoxins, or elixirs of life in your formula
book.
Whenever you attempt a Medicine check, you can also attempt a Crafting check and choose the better result.
C) Mutagenist:
As normal per Rules update 1.6
D) Poisoner:
As normal per Rules update 1.6
Focused Research:
A) Bomber: Expert bomb proficiency (As normal per Rules update 1.6)
B) Chiurgeon: You can use crafting to remove / reattach limbs (mimicking Regenerate) with an operation that takes 1 hour.
C) Mutagenist: Gain Temp HP=Class level when drinking a Mutagen you crafted.
D) Poisoner: Crafted Poisons use Class DC; Poison Resistance = 1/2 Level, +2 to saves vs poison.
Advanced Research:
A) Bomber: Master bomb proficiency (As normal per Rules update 1.6)
B) Chiurgeon: Elixirs of Life you craft are always maximized.
C) Mutagenist: Gain immunity to crits as long as you are morphed by a mutagen.
D) Poisoner: Your poisons ignore poison resistance, but not immunity.
Thesis:
During daily preparations, you can grant 1 ally an Alchemist Multiclass archetype feat for 1 day. The ally must qualify for the feat.
Double Brew, Alchemical Alacrity
As normal per Rules update 1.6
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Similarly, I'd love to grant the other non-spellcasting classes
(Barbarian, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue) similar flexibility.
I'm thinking of the astral plane as VR-MMORPG for a bunch of azlanti citizens who have managed to create a -comparatively simple- occult ritual that creates an effect similar to Lesser Astral Projection.
Some *founders* of this project - Golarion is boring, let's explore the Astral plane and create our own world there! - decided against terraforming the moon and used Aether Architect to create an ever-expanding city, further improving it with Illusory Walls & Permanent images.
While the Astral Plane writeup does have some clues what challenges the Astral plane can provide - shulsagas, astral leviathans, planar travelers, the river of dead souls traveling towards judgement with various outsiders defending or hunting them...
How would you envision a large(10.000-50.000) group of [wizards and/or members of a highly advanced magical culture] who treat the astral plane as "gaming" environment without permadeath act there?
Because the Familiar is constantly invisible, and can fly, it can surprise the party easily. Its CMB / CL for Telekinetic Maneuver scales with the fighter's BAB and feats, and it has at least 700ft range and can basically instantly telekinetically pin someone in the surprise round while staying invisible and far away.
I know "See invisibility" exists, but this particular tactic seems extremely effective...
Does it work like this by the rules, and if it does, what tactics can you recommend against it?
The party is at lvl 5, a Whip Magus, a Geokineticist, a Slayer and a Cleric(Evangelist) of Abadar with the Leadership Subdomain.
Hi everyone; I've recently tinkered around with a Snare Setter rogue build, and tried to figure out how long the Ranger Traps created via the feat Learn Ranger Trap last...
Learn Ranger Trap
You learn how to create one kind of ranger trap.
Prerequisites: Survival 5 ranks.
Benefit: Select one ranger trap. You may use this trap a number of times per day equal to your Wisdom bonus (minimum 1). The DC for your trap is equal to 10 + 1/2 your character’s level + your Wisdom bonus, and it lasts 1 day per two character levels.
If you are not a ranger, you can only set extraordinary traps with this feat; like all extraordinary ranger traps, this decreases the trap DC by 2.
Special: A ranger may use ranger traps a number of times per day equal to 1/2 his ranger level plus his Wisdom bonus.
Now, a Snare Setter Rogue is treated as ranger thanks to his Trapper class feature; therefore, he can set supernatural traps with this feat. (Anyone else could use Improved Learn Ranger Trap to unlock the ability to use Supernatural Traps with this feat)
Since the feat explicitly sets the duration of these traps to 1 day per two character levels and makes no distinction between extraordinary and supernatural traps created by this feat, it looks like you can set Supernatural ranger traps that last for days instead of mere hours.
Did I misread something or miss an Errata/FAQ somewhere about this?
If not, this is an excellent way to expand the Snare Setters arsenal!
Combat maneuvers are attack rolls, so you must roll for concealment and take any other penalties that would normally apply to an attack roll.
2) An attack that is performed in melee that can benefit from flanking is a melee attack.
3) If you accept 1) and 2), it follows that Combat maneuvers performed in melee are melee attacks.
4) If you accept 3), it follows that a Combat maneuver performed in melee is a valid replacement target for Quick Dirty Trick.
Remember the options provided by Weapon Trick?
One of these is Strike and Seize:
Additional Prerequisite(s): Improved Disarm, base attack bonus +6
As a standard action, you can make a single attack with your weapon and attempt to perform a disarm combat maneuver with your free hand, taking no penalties for two-weapon fighting.
Since the disarm combat maneuver is a melee attack* performed at your highest BAB, you can replace the disarm with a Quick Dirty Trick.
*See 3)
So, as a standard action, you can perform a single weapon attack and a Dirty Trick.
Enter the Barbarian, who adds two things to the build:
a) The Untamed Rager archetype from Dirty Tactics Toolbox grants us Improved and Greater Dirty Trick as bonus feats
b) The Savage Dirty Trick rage power; now we can replace a melee attack with a (Savage) Dirty Trick.
This means, if we use the Strike and Seize trick, we can replace both the disarm maneuver and the weapon attack with a Quick Dirty Trick and a Savage Dirty Trick, respectively.
Finally, the build!
Anne Faire, the Human (Untamed Rager) Barbarian 6
Stats(15-Pointbuy):
18 STR
12 DEX
14 CON
10 INT
12 WIS
7 CHA
Alternate Racial traits: Heart of the Fields(Profession(Gladiator)) - replaces Skilled
RETRAIN Power Attack for Quick Dirty Trick at lvl 6, and enjoy your ability to inflict two Greater Dirty Tricks as standard action; in addition to the extra damage and additional penalty from Savage Dirty Trick.
BUT what happens if (some of) the Core assumptions are wrong?
If 1) is wrong: Combat maneuvers are not ATTACKS, they are merely 'attack rolls', which are very similar to attacks.
BUT this means that Combat maneuvers do not break Invisibility or Sanctuary, i.e. you can go Invisible and happily sunder the armor of your enemies without becoming visible.
I doubt that this is intended, therefore, I think 1) is correct.
If 2) is wrong: Combat maneuvers performed in melee are not melee attacks, they are merely 'attacks' in melee; compare the difference between an 'attack' and an 'attack action'.
While this interpretation is possible, this would have the consequence that flanking no longer applies a bonus to Combat maneuvers:
Quote:
When making a melee attack, you get a +2 flanking bonus if your opponent is threatened by another enemy character or creature on its opposite border or opposite corner.
Furthermore, the Dirty Fighting feat is written from a perspective that Combat maneuvers benefit from flanking: Either Combat maneuvers ARE melee attacks, or Dirty fighting doesn't work, as flanking never grants a +2 bonus to attack rolls in the first place for Combat maneuvers.
====================
If, however, both 1) and 2) are true, then 3) follows, and 4) follows from 3); this means the build presented above works.
Enjoy playing Barbarians, the best martial class designed by Paizo!
So you rage, charge, bite, grab, trigger raging grappler(bite dmg again!).
On your opponents turn, you can use Strength surge to increase CMD so the bugger doesn't break/escape your grapple.
On your second turn, you maintain the grapple as move action(automatic dmg because you grapple with a bite, inflict prone on your opponent with raging grappler); choosing to PIN him.
You have +5 from maintaining, so +26 CMB to pin...
Then, use a standard action to CdG him.
With what? Improved Lockjaw says you can't use your bite!
Well, you still have your Unarmed Strike, which counts as light weapon, iirc.
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The second option would be a Hunter with a grapple-focused companion. The companion grapples and pins, and the Hunter uses Throat slicer to CdG.
Is it possible for a Kineticist to use Two-Weapon Fighting with the Kinetic Blade AND the Kinetic Whip form infusions?
A kineticist with the feats TWF and Improved Unarmed Strike declares a full-attack and decides he wants to use TWF.
Now, as part of this full-attack action, he activates the Kinetic Blade form infusion ONCE - this creates a kinetic blade, and he uses it in his "main hand".
Then, as part of the same full-attack action, he activates the Kinetic Whip form infusion ONCE - this creates a kinetic whip, and he uses it in his "off hand".
He proceeds to use his fire blade/whip that target touch AC to overcome the to-hit penalties of TWF and deal large amounts of damage.
1) Is the scenario above possible, according to the rules?
2) Is the scenario above INTENDED by the designer of the Kineticist?
We get six rage powers total, at 3/6/9/12/15/18th lvl.
So... what are good combinations?
Elemental Blood(Air): Three Rage powers for minor bonus dmg, some Electricity Resistance, and 60' Flight.
Elemental Totem(Fire): Three Rage powers for minor bonuses vs fireball, counter damage if you are hurt via crit, and the ability to veil yourself in choking smoke akin to Pyrotechnics that doesn't affect you.
The last element breaks LoS and may allow you to act effectively against spellcasters.
So, a random high-level skald starts his raging song, buffs some random NPC chumps with it, they start to smoke and fly, concealing the skald in their midst... instant raid force?
Concerning that idea...what exactly *is* the effective range of bardic performances?
"The target must be able to hear/see the bard".
Some performances have set limits, i.e. 30ft or 60ft, but many do not.
...does the range of the performance depend on the perception skill of the listener?
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Does anyone have experience with skalds and can offer some advice for useful rage powers for a skald to buff his allies if he doesn't need to worry about duration; and can someone enlighten me what the effective range of a bard's or skald's performance actually is?
Is there magic to make your performance louder, to extend this range?
After reading a few "fighters cannot compete with Spellcasters" threads, I've attempted to think of a Fighter concept that can reasonably do its job - contribute effectively in combat by serving as threat that cannot be ignored, dealing damage and disabling single and multiple targets quickly and reliably.
Here's what I have so far; any advice on how to improve it?
1st-3rd level: He is a half-orc with Sacred Tattoo and Fate's Favored to shore up his saves; he has a two-handed reach weapon and Power Attack to hit things; he has combat reflexes, and uses a spiked gauntlet to threaten close.
4th level: Whirlwind Attack(with reach) becomes an option. Spring attack becomes an option.
5th level: Combat Reflexes is back...
6th level: A lunging whirlwind attack with a reach weapon can simulate a fireball.
7th level: We can fly!
9th level: Speedy Tricks allows us to replace ANY ATTACK with a (Greater) Dirty Trick. Now that lunging whirlwind attack becomes a whirlwind of dirty tricks; now the Fighter can blind multiple targets at once with a full-attack action.
11th level: Dirty Trick master allows to escalate the dirty trick penalties...nausea and daze are ones that can completely disable an enemy.
13th level: Each Dirty trick inflicts two conditions, and each requires a seperate standard action to remove.
16th level: Celestial Obedience: Arqueros gives us something similar to Unexpected strike, with two differences: We can only AoO opponents that enter our threatened area with a charge; but we can do so all day long. Luckily, enemies with pounce are quite common, so we'll probably face quite a few charging targets.
(Naturally, the AoO will be used for a Speedy Double Greater Dirty Trick)
We also have Teleport Tactician, allowing us to AoO a variety of monsters and spellcasters that use greater teleport or similar means of transportation.
17th-20th level:
I ran out of good ideas here. I took feats that seemed useful(Shield of Swings is free AC if we replace an attack with a dirty trick attempt; Barroom Brawler offers some minor flexibility, Improved Initiative might be useful, and Combat Patrol might be useful - I have no idea, I've never seen it in action).
Problems:
Defenses(Saving throws; AC; resistances/Immunities) -> I hope decent equipment can take care of that.
Assume a Level 7 Paladin with the Holy Tactician Archetype.
Combat is engaged, he has some party members who are armed with ranged weapons.
During a Surprise round, the other party members delay after the Paladin, who uses his standard action to activate Battlefield Presence, granting the feat "Target of Opportunity" to the others.
Now, assuming both the Paladin and Party Members are armed with Bows, could the following happen?
1)Party gains surprise round, other party members delay after paladin
2)Paladin uses battlefield presence-> everyone benefits from "Target of Opportunity"
3a)Someone else shoots an enemy.
3b)Since everyone now has "Target of Opportunity, the Paladin can shoot the enemy as immediate action.
3c)Since the Paladin Shot the Target of Opportunity, the guy who shot the enemy first can now use an immediate action to shoot him again.
4)Any remaining party members can now shoot, but since noone has immediate actions left, no further benefits this round.
And please don't suggest "Just play a normal cleric". The whole character's concept is based around a knowledge-focused, skilled and cloistered guy, and I'll just deal with the mechanical weakness of Diminished Spellcasting.
