DrSwordopolis's page

wizard are too weak,noone want to play wizard in my party

I can't blame 'em. I wouldn't mind playing a martial in 2E, but I'd hate to play a caster.

Anyone have a grand solution?

I suspect I'm in the minority, but get rid of +1/level entirely. If everything's supposed to be a coin flip, just own it and turn this into a d2 based system. Otherwise, use fractional BAB and saves and allow for the narrative possibility of a 20th level wizard who isn't also an expert tracker, healer, debater, and lockpick.

The transformation also attempts to counteract toxins in the food or water.

Is "attempting to counteract toxins" a reference to a defined mechanic, or just filler while you're still working on the mechanics of the spell?

So, is our general consensus "A lot of cool flavor and awesome archetypes but the Shifter class sucks"?

Cool flavor, meh archetypes, and extremely limited versatility for no reason I can discern. Be prepared to see cookie cutter shifter builds based on Shifter's Edge, agile AoMF, and wildshaping into a dire tiger.

It is, however, playable, and certainly not worse than any other tier 4 class.

I'm rolling with depressed, but pleased that they're trying to address their editorial shortcomings.

Someone do the math and figure out how laughably little power this is and how expensive this makes the average US electric bill in Starfinder credits.

A charge in Starfinder is apparently about 0.27kw/hr, or ~2.46cents, if you're buying power in the Seattle metro area. My car's battery apparently has ~222 charges, and a supercharger recharges at ~300 charges/hour.

A charge is also equivalent to 72 AA batteries.

(All calculations based on a human expending 40kcal per 10 minutes of walking, which equates to one charge. Math may be suspect. The charge system is obviously a game system abstraction and nobody on the design team actually intends for physics to be seriously considered.)

Oddly because of the composition of my playtest group, we had three physics PhDs playing it, so I got to take some really nitty gritty physics comments back to the main Star Council like "The solarian's black hole ability should...<insert some sort of catastrophic event> whenever he used it."

Starfinder Physics Unchained: Spring 2019!

Piggybacking onto this - will poison be a workable combat strategy in Starfinder?

In Pathfinder it's almost impossible to make a decent poison build due to the expense and super-low DCs of poisons. Will we see an operative who uses a self-poisoning blade that needs reloads every 10 strikes, or a soldier with a gas grenade attack?

There's also the serial killer vigilante archetype, which is pretty good.

Surprised to see David Weber's Honorverse in there, given the sci-fantasy focus, but that just leads me to even more anticipation of reading the naval combat section.

If I cast subjective reality on the sun does that mean it becomes night time, but only for me?

If you're close enough to cast Subjective Reality on the Sun, you have bigger problems than night time.

Both of those revelations seem mechanically terrible. I'm really confused by the choice to show them off.

Yeah, especially after the balanced and interesting powers presented for the Operative, Mechanic, and Soldier.

Concerning, but we don't have the whole picture yet, so I'll remain optimistic. Worst case, they're the new rogues*, and you just avoid playing them if at all possible.

*in an "objectively terrible" sense, not a "stealthy, sneak-attacky" sense.

Wait, Gravity as hard sci fi? *Shudder* No. The Martian was harder sci fi - the big whoopsie there was that Martian atmospheric pressure couldn't generate the winds seen at the beginning of the story.

Gravity was about as hard sci fi as Aliens.

Personally, I'm hoping they hit a sweet spot somewhere between Babylon 5 and Firefly. Loose enough to tell a variety of stories, but sane enough that "wizard did it" isn't the best explanation for everything.

FTL comms and travel exist in Pathfinder, so that, at least, shouldn't be an issue.

I AM the GM.

Ask yourself? =)

But seriously, this is a choice you get to make. Personally, I've never made a player appraise anything common - appraise is for rare and interesting occasions, not determining the market value of a dagger.

Edit - In the campaigns I run, I typically set up a Google Doc to track party inventory, leaving an entry at the bottom that says "===move items below here if you want GM to convert them to gold===", it seems to work well.

As others have said, pre-vetting of additional resources would be great.

* A more relaxed crafting system. Arbitrary crafting is a terrible idea, but being able to say, upgrade from a Ring of Hacking, Lesser, to a Ring of Hacking, Greater, would be nice. So would the ability to do off-slot item variants at double the price, or combine two items at a cost of 100% of the cheaper item and 150% of the more expensive one.

* A system for crewing a spaceship with your fellow Starfinders. I have no idea how the rules are going to work in Starfinder, but a vanity or entire subsystem based on customizing your personal ship could be really fun and provide a lot of character customization. At the very least, a system of vanities (10 prestige for a basic ship, 5 prestige for a stealth module, 5 prestige for teleporters, etc...) would be great.

* Re-balance the fame/prestige system, or do away with fame altogether. The way it works in PFS at present is for your first couple of levels, you're restricted from getting anything fancy, which for spell casters typically means you're just sitting on your money, maybe buying a pearl of power, until you hit the fame requirement for a +2 headband/+2 belt. After you hit level 4 or so, the fame limitations increase so much faster than your income that they become meaningless almost immediately.

* If there are scroll/potion/wand analogues, allow purchases at variable caster level. Otherwise you end up with shenanigans like buying a riffle scroll of resist energy, communal - not because you want to be able to cast a resist energy silently for all your friends, but because that's the only way to get a caster level 7 resist energy scroll.

* Related to that, get rid of the "purchasable items" on chronicle sheets, unless they're unique.

* If a boon grants +1 on diplomacy checks with the Mi-go tribe of Arsenius VI, ensure that it will be relevant in a future scenario in either the current season or the one following.

* (I know people will disagree, but a personal wish) Get rid of "once used, cross this boon off your chronicle sheet" type boons that grant a minor bonus. Ever finish a role playing game with ten thousand mana/health potions in your backpack at the end that you save "just in case"? Yeah. Look at your chronicle sheets for a character that's reached retirement age and tell me how many one-time-use +1 bonus on saving throws against devils/may add 2 to handle animal checks vs bees type boons you have. Either make them permanent or don't grant them at all.

* Allow GMs to make day job roles, if day jobs are a thing.

* If starting traits are a thing, allow retraining of them

What's great is messing up in front of John Compton. He won't say a word unless it's really bad, but his eyes get REALLY big. ;-)

I'll never forget his expression when a GM misremembered and described Lissala as the Thassilonian goddess of friendship and kindness. =)

Sorry Thelemic, but I believe commune would allow me to mess with your head as the nature of questions function the same as twisting a wish. Like for example if you needed to find the big bad who was hiding in a city and you decided to use a Guess Who? style of reductive questioning I would have conflicting answers that were 'true'.

<Snip>
You're basically saying "With this fishing rod I will catch anything!" as you cast into Red Herring lake.

You're basically saying "Divination spells don't work in my game" as your players try to use them. Why not just say it outright?

Also, why not allow the functioning of divination spells in your game?

For 10 gold, there's an easy fix.

Something that every adventurer should have around his or her neck anyway, on the off chance of medusa/basilisk/etc...

Now, if you're a chained rogue, or doing precision damage, it can tank your ability to kill said caster, but otherwise the miss chance doesn't hurt too badly, and a +8 bonus to saves makes even low-will-save classes a hard target for color spray.

DrSwordopolis wrote:

On a lighter note, what happens when you have an Unseen Amulet of Mighty Fists?

** spoiler omitted **

Well it obviously makes you invisible and your cloths, since you can say they are your scabbard/sheath.

I prefer the image of your "fists, knees, elbows, and forehead" disappearing. Although that'd probably come with a free intimidate check. "THEY CALL ME TORSO BOY!"

I've done Kingmaker solo as an Arcanist (Occultist) and Giantslayer as an Enchantment-specced Wizard (giants have terrible will saves). The hardest part is levels 1-4, after that it's easy going.

Suspect you could solo an AP with any 9-level caster and most of the 6-level casters. Soloing with a 4-level caster or as a martial would be an interesting challenge.

Is "Ready for Anything" the victim of a missing comma, or does the feat really have four prerequisite feats?

Might be a good candidate for the PFS "clarifications" document.

Also seems a bit week for a level 2/3 spell that has a material component.

Considering it's duplicating an item for 1GP, with a duration of instantaneous, I don't think it's too bad, especially if you use something (False Focus) to get around the already small materials cost. Infinite tanglefoot bags, holy water, bottled sunlight, acid flasks, etc... I actually consider the spell to be pretty broken. Clearly something got borked in editing, especially since, as you pointed out, it uses the higher of the original DC or the spell's DC. You could make some pretty terrifying tanglefoot bags that way.

Nope, ability drain simply lowers the affected stat. Each stat has special text to explain what happens when your stat hits 0. Con's the only one that kills you. (Mental stats hitting 0 means you get to roll for insanity, if you're using those rules.)

A character with a Strength score of 0 is too weak to move in any way and is unconscious. Some creatures (such as incorporeal creatures) do not possess a Strength score and have no modifier at all to Strength-based skills or checks.

The adventure in this book ran a bit long, so we essentially have an additional 6 or so pages of adventure content and only one support article. It's not something we do often, but in this case, the adventure simply needed that extra space to do what it needed to do.

Speaking for myself, I honestly don't mind more content at the expense of additional support articles. The support articles are usually great, of course, but I'm just as happy to have additional adventure content.

(Are individual archetype names taboo here?)

Archetypes:

Huh, Four-Leaf Clover made it in - wasn't expecting that.

Thank you, Paizo PFS team, for disallowing rod of giant summoning.

Naid was a powerful arcanist, capable of summoning powerful allies with the snap of a finger. Now he's somehow not quite pretty enough to fuel his summons with his latent spellpower more than once.

Will probably rebuild him into a Brown Fur Transmuter. I was one of the ones in the camp of "the arcanist should have a reason to have charisma", but the implementation of it baffles me.

As an InfoSec guy, thanks for rolling this out. I'm not actually too concerned about someone putting in the work to launch a cryptographic attack against Paizo connections, but it's good to see that you guys follow best practices.

New AP is Hell's Vengeance, Paizo's first evil campaign!

Edit: Annnd no other detais. More in a panel tomorrow.

Quite. Soulbound doll would be the quintessential example, but there're also some more advanced "soulbound" creatures. I like the Soulbound Shell.

Looking forward to the July clarification. The issue has come up several times in our local play group. (Especially with Duplicate Familiar and Soulswitch - my arcanist's preferred method of never actually being in danger ever.)

Aside from that, I have nothing to add other than an even better title. "Possession is nine tenths of the RAW."

... I'll see myself out.

There's a nixie (aquatic fey) in Kingmaker, book 2, who has ranks in Profession: Basketweaving.

I'm not 100% sure, but isn't there a normally terrible feat or ability or something that lets you knock the air out of someone and make the spend a load of their rounds of breath by hitting them?

I may be thinking of some 3.5 material. IDK.

Yep. Breathtaker, from People of the River.

It's still terrible, even with Kraken Style. Less terrible, admittedly, but you're still looking at 4 or 5 rounds of grappling before getting to con checks.

Correct, there is no such feat. It's a common houserule, so talk to your GM about it.

If you're doing PFS, you're out of luck. =(

Well, what's the alternative to being willing to kill off new characters? Fudging the dice so you never kill characters? <snip> Saying, "There's a new player here, so the enemy isn't going to use the powerful attack that's her only chance of survival.

For a brand new player? Yes. You make sure they have a good time and help grow the hobby that we both (presumably) enjoy. Sure, neg channel a couple of times and drop the first level character to the negatives, but after that you can switch to dropping Blindness/Deafness or other nasty spells on the more experienced players. Stomping newbies who don't know any better is a great way to turn them away from Pathfinder.

Their second character? Sure, go lethal on 'em. =)

True Strike and Shield come to mind.

Wall of text

1) Paragraphs.

2) The summoner spell list is one of the shining class features (and a reason why I ban summoners), haste at level 4 is silly, and there are a number of other great spells that you get early access to. That said, summoners don't begin to approach the number of spells per day an Arcanist, let alone a Wizard or Sorcerer have. As long as you're just buffing the eidolon, that's not a big issue, but it definitely means summoners have less flexibility and staying power (in the spells department).

The summoner's edilon could EASILY kill a wizard of the same level unless that wizard gets VERY lucky up until about mid levels.

Well, it's an initiative check to see if the wizard gets color spray off first, at low levels, but I agree; early on the summoner beats the pants of the wizard in staying power. At level 5, that starts to change.

He can most always summon at least something moderately useful and buff the heck out of that AND the rest of the party.

4) A wizard can do precisely the same thing, with spell slots to spare. An occultist arcanist can even do the min/level summons trick.

Of course, UMD's a class skill for the Arcanist, so there's always that route.

Up to the GM, of course, but bear in mind that the Bestiary's example for a creature rare enough to be 15 + CR is the Tarrasque. For dinosaurs, I'd go with 10 + CR.

Evil characters, played by mature players, (usually) works just fine in home games. In an organized play environment? Not so much.

I would dearly like to see John Compton's draft of a "Mature Player" boon, though.

I believe it to be an immutable law of the Internet that whenever someone offers editing assistance, there is inevitably a hidden grammar, spelling, or similar error in the offer.

That said, I'd be happy to assist as well - amusing as it may be to read about swim checks to break down the door, the constant minor issues are a routine (albeit minor) annoyance when reading or running a scenario. Of course, I understand the reluctance of The Powers That Be to allow random GMs on the boards to see content while it's still being developed. I'd expect if "volunteer proofreaders" are ever allowed, they'd probably come from the venture officer ranks. Which is a shame, because as an innate grammar nazi, I go through scenarios with a red pen anyway after they get released.

An idea - next month, when the next set of PFS scenarios come out, why don't we start a thread to find all the various errors, both typographic and mechanical, in the scenarios? That way we can actually test and see if there's any value that an extra set of eyes can add to the document. If nothing else, we can provide unofficial errata to the scenario and throw it up on the PFS prep board as patch notes.

Easily. The scaling AC bonus, and the fact that you qualify for Combat Expertise regardless of intelligence helps keep up with the heavy armor types, and the amount of situational feats you can grab really helps out when withstanding specific attacks.

Being attacked by ranged? Deflect Arrow. (Or Missile Shield/Ray Shield, if you're going the Captain America route. Or all three, since they stack.)
Need a general AC bump? Dodge + Defensive Weapon Training
Need to pin down a caster? Disruptive + Step Up (+ Spellbreaker, + Teleport tactician...)

Hell, if you're not doing PFS, Pummeling Charge lets you retain battlefield mobility to move between threats to your squishies while still doing impressive damage.

*looks at flash card for threatened squares*

Huh. Official confirmation that reach weapons threaten the second diagonal. Nifty.

It is for PFS. I am a sloth sin wizard with the academy graduate feat and will likely be summoning a lot.

If by "sloth sin wizard", you mean "Thassilonian Wizard" from Inner Sea Magic, that is not legal for PFS. At least as far as I can tell.

And if it is now legal, I know what my next character is.

There's a boon in a certain Season 4 scenario that makes it legal.

The problem I have with the whole "gotcha" mechanic, is that sure, I as a player can stop and inform the GM that we take 20 everywhere, search for traps, detect magic, detect poison, detect evil, etc..., open every door, search every trap, excavate the entire graveyard, etc...

But I don't, because it bogs the game down and detracts from the narrative flow. If every trap needs to be set off in order to get the gold, then at the end of the scenario, you can always (well, usually) go back and send summoned monsters/dispel magics/hapless rogues at the traps, pop 'em, and then proceed with the aforementioned taking 20 and Detect Everything. Or the GM/Scenario Writer could just not try to "get" the players and save that time for roleplay, puzzles, or more interesting combat.

If we're going to put gold conditionally on a skill check, then howabout a trap the treasure chest that rewards the rogue for putting the ranks in Disable Device, or adjust gold based on how well you Diplomacy/Intimidate the merchant, or how many Azlanti relics you identify with Knowledge: History?

I dunno, I just consider it part of the social contract of PFS for the GM to assume the players are seasoned tomb robbers Pathfinders and to establish an SOP. Just a quick "I assume you guys are taking 20 to search the room/complex and sweeping with Detect Magic?" speeds up play remarkably.

One thing I spotted whilst reading the new Advanced Class Guide is the Elixir of Sex Shift. 2,250gp, flips your gender, or, if you're a species that has multiple genders, allows you to pick which one you want to be. I'm happy we now have a mechanism to transition that isn't considered a curse effect.

No one really knows if it's overpowered or not yet. More data is needed to get a good answer.

Agreed, but I don't think there's a lot of doubt that it will wind up in close proximity to the Wizard/Sorcerer, especially since it was significantly buffed from the playtest version.

I really like the class, love the flavor, and have enjoyed playing my PFS arcanist thus far, but in my experiences thus far it's solidly in the Wizard power range, and with the aforementioned archetype, even has a lot to do at low levels.

DrSwordopolis wrote:

I'm neither James Jacobs nor have I read the Tech Guide (shipment pending, grrr) but I suspect the "Techslinger" archetype is going to be your best bet.

Sounds like a plan... though the Pistolero is the archetype recommended in the PG. We'll see.

My shipment shipped!

I suspect pistolero is recommended because it's part of the core line. I could see an argument made for pistolero, but Techslinger lets you add dex to damage to advanced tech weapons. There're couple of other really cool class features you're going to want if you plan on using advanced tech.

Nothing about the archetype helps you craft (aside from being able to pick up technologist as a bonus feat), but there are feats for that (including for scavenging from existing tech).