Draco18s's page

Thought I'd drop their podcast video in here for those that aren't aware/don't follow the group.

I had quite a lot of time waiting on things to compile yesterday and built a tool to compare the probability of success and failure across classes and levels in PF2.

I'm nowhere near done, but if folks wanted to assist in data entry, that would be very helpful. If not, I'll get through it eventually; its a lot of looking at a monster entry in the bestiary, comparing to the monster design guidelines, finding the closest value (extreme, high, low, etc) and plugging them into a serialized Unity asset. Tedius, but I left details on the git readme.

>The Tool<

Can currently compare a first level fighter and first level wizard against level 0, level 1, and level 2 creatures (at least...against three of each that I tried to select for variability). Encounter difficulties (trivial, moderate, etc) also work, but are going to be largely identical (as they're a 4-level range bracket group and there's not a lot to pull from). "Unknown" is an even broader bracket (as in "Ah ha! A fight! I have no idea how difficult this will be"). Below those are "level -2" through "level +2." A grey bar indicates that the statistic was not tested (this is mainly true for the level 2 creatures, none of the ones I added data for had an ability that caused a saving throw). And it'll probably error out if there's literally zero monsters/hazards to compare with (because checking for divide-by-zero was not a priority).

Other comments are also appreciated. There's still several things I know I haven't accounted for (item bonuses are TODO), or additional informational display features I have that I haven't built yet, but I literally built it in one day in the free minutes between actual work. I plan on continuing to improve it over the rest of the week.

Step 1: bring a PC to 0 hp with 1 persistent damage.
Step 2: give them fast healing 1.

Start of the PC's turn: gain 1 hp, go from Dying 1 to Wounded 1.
End of the PC's turn: take 1 damage, go from Wounded 1 to Dying 2.

I don't think this was meant to work like this.

This isn't about the results being irrelevant, but rather the range in which Search is expected to search and that it does not live by those confines.

https://i.postimg.cc/t4X7N594/image.png

It says that it is searching ONLY within the society forums, yet the first result is not in a society board or sub-board, but rather in a completely different place.

You can brew a great deal of magic within your cauldron.

When you Craft potions that normally have a batch size of
four (like most potions), your batch size increases from four
to six.

Great, crafting potions costs 50% more up front in order to save an effective 2 days (crafting 12 potions requires 12+ days without the feat and 8+ with; 4 days divided by 2 sessions equals 2 days saved). A level 1 character only has 150 silver to start with, and if a witch spends 120 of it on raw materials she can craft six healing potions (but has to spend 60 days crafting).

That is functionally useless for a 1st level feat. What are my other options?

"Speak with your familiar (and other animals like it)"
"A different familiar"
"Counter spell"

Oh, those are just as useless.

Thanks, I hate it.

I got pointed at this bit of the Bestiary:

Tengus reproduce by laying eggs: the average tengu egg is about 11 inches in diameter and 16 inches tall and takes 4 months to hatch.

Yes, that's what it actually says.

Christ that's massive.

REALLY REALLY MASSIVE. Dear god, one would feed like twelve people if you made it into omelets.

Tengu aren't ravens, they're kiwi birds. I feel for their fragile bird pelvises.

;v;

I was trying to find this post of mine to reference elsewhere.

"Me, I remember some of the words in that post, I remember being really negative about the changes to the spell casting system. I think I even used the word detest although it might've been despise. I also said something about heightening and metamagic."

Search for 'detest' (no posts found at all)
Ah, it must have been... Search for 'despise' (no posts found at all)
Hmm, lets try some less specific terms.
Search for 'heightening' (thread not found)
Search for metamagic (thread not found)
Eesh. Lets go with the least generic search terms I've got.
Search for 'system' (thread not found)
Search for 'changes' (thread not found)

How did I find the post?

I looked in "posts you made that other people favorited." It was the 8th one.

Do potency runes deal magical damage? Nothing that I can see in the rules as written says that they do, except these two passages:

Some magic weapons and armor gain their enhancements

from potent eldritch runes etched into them. These runes
allow for in-depth customization of items.

Implies that runes magic items magical, but is not definitive.

Magical armor and weapons have the same Bulk and

general characteristics as the nonmagical version of the
same quality unless noted otherwise.

"Same characteristics unless otherwise noted."

The description of potency runes doesn't say that the weapon deals damage that is actually magical in nature (that is, bypassing nonmagical immunity):

A potency rune etched on a

weapon increases both the accuracy and the amount of
damage the weapon can deal.

And:

You can etch a weapon potency rune on a weapon

of the quality listed under the individual entry for the type of
rune. Runes of +2 weapon potency or stronger require the
weapon to already have the listed weaker rune, and etching the
new rune increases the existing potency rune to the new value.

A weapon potency rune grants two offensive benefits. The
weapon’s wielder gains an item bonus to attack rolls with the
weapon equal to the potency value. For instance, an expert
dagger with a +2 weapon potency rune would grant a +2 item
bonus to attack rolls with the dagger.

Second, on a successful attack roll, the weapon deals an
additional number of weapon damage dice equal to the potency
value. For example, a hit with the +2 dagger described above
would deal 3d4 damage instead of 1d4 damage.

Only that you gain a bonus to attack and that you roll more dice. There is no text that says that it is magical damage and no text that says that a rune applies its traits to the weapon its engraved on.

Compare to the Anarchic property rune:

A weapon with this rune deals 1d6 additional chaotic damage

against lawful targets

p370:

Quality Max Potency Max Properties

Standard None None
Expert +2 1
Master +4 2
Legendary +5 3

p397:

Type +3 magic weapon; Level 12; Price 2,000 gp

This expert weapon has a +3 weapon potency rune.

One of these is wrong.

Editing a post causes the forum to center everything.

It looks super weird.

https://s22.postimg.cc/k61466gv5/centered.png

Lets see here...

Divine Prayer Beads are a level 5 item (ignoring the Greater version) and the Staff of Healing is a level 3 item (ignoring all the higher level versions). Lets compare the two, shall we?

Cost:
Beads are 160gp (L5)
Staff is 60gp (L3) (1 point to the staff)

Access:
Beads: Uncommon
Staff: Common (1 point to the staff)

Resonance:
Beads are activated
Staff is invested (1 point to the staff)

Method of Use:
Beads are Held, 1 Hand
Staff is Held, 1 Hand (evenly matched)

Weaponization:
Beads are not a weapon
Staff is a Staff (1d4, 2 handed 1d8) (1 point to the staff)

Spells granted:
Beads grant Bless and Heal once a day each (0.5 for Bless)
Staff grants Heal and Stabilize (up to 3 casts between) (1 point to the staff: 3 heal is better than Heal+Bless)

Extras:
Beads adds 1 point of healing when casting divine spells
Staff adds +1 item bonus to healing (nil?)

Fine print:
The healing from the Beads only applies "whenever you cast a divine spell from your own spell slots (not a cantrip, an innate spell, a power, or any spell cast through other means) and you use the prayer beads as your holy symbol." Does not work with Channel Energy as it does not consume a spell slot (0.5 points for being "any divine spell")
The healing from the Staff applies..."any time you cast the heal" from slots, the staff, or Channel Energy (1 point to the staff)

Results
Beads: 1 point
Staff: 6 points

Why would I ever want the Beads? I mean sure, a free hit point every time I cast a spell, but even with a full compliment of spell slots, that works out to about 12 hit points (over a full day). I can get almost the same amount just buy getting a staff of healing and consuming a second charge on a Heal spell.

Now, if it was a worn item (eg necklace, bracelet, or had the Free Hand trait*) I could see the costs being worthwhile.

*I dare you to tell me I can't hold some prayer beads and a sword at the same time. I dare you

I spent all day yesterday working on this, adapting key design functionality that I liked in my PF1 sheet (which was, itself, heavily modified from a 3.5 sheet I found somewhere over a decade ago).

One of the things I really like about this sheet is that the ABCs of statgen are very clearly delineated. Once my group worked out "oh, you can treat it like a grid, only so many marks on any given line, only one mark in any cell" it was really easy to make sure you were doing it right and that translated into how I handled it on the excel sheet (with the position and fit of the area moving about constantly until it found its current home).

Layout should be very familiar to PF1 and 3.5 players with the stats at the top, along with other important values like HP, saves, and skills. Along with a large box for tracking multiple conditional modifiers.

The rest of the space on the first page being attacks (as well as armor and shield, though thinking about it, that could have gone on the second page). Page breaks carefully considered for acceptable break points when printed (and everything fits in a landscape view nicely).

Second page is then Action/Reactions, equipment, notes/buff effect tracking, and some spell information.

1st level spells and up, along with feats, money, and experience total fill the third page (exp can be tracked on the second sheet; date, description, and amount).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5sjd2nyn5lmsi4s/blank_pf2_sheet.xls?dl=0

Sheet is protected to prevent accidental formula corruption, but there is no password. I heavily customize my sheets for each character I play, tracking where every bonus comes from by plugging in the value next to the source and referencing the cell so I always know "where'd this +2 come from?" As such, I embedded these areas on every feat, note, and item line (the "amount" field almost never refers to a quantity for me: its always remaining charges, bonus to some other value, etc. with the cost handled manually).

There will likely be changes as I sit down and start building characters with it (for example, I don't have item quality "EML" checkboxes and have to use the free-int Enhancement field meant for magical enhancement or any way to track the 'free' items for building characters above level 1, but I'm not sure how to even address those with the space available at the moment), but I'm pretty happy with it so far.

In order to create a character I have to follow the ABCs of character creation. This should be easy!

Ancestry: well, but which one of these compliments the build I want to make?

Backgrounds: Uh, skip for now

Class! Ah here we go, what do I want to be?

Hmm...

Lets start by reading the class descriptions and looking at a handful of their powers ImeanFeats.

Two hours later

So, uh, I'm not sure what the difference between a sorcerer and a wizard is--when it comes down to play--beyond some flavor style. And Fighter and Ranger have a 30% Feat overlap.

*Scratches head*

Fox it, I'll build a fighter, those are easy!

Seven feats...
Complimenting seven different fighting styles...
THIRTY EIGHT different melee weapons...
TWENTY FOUR different weapon properties...

HOLY MOTHER OF GORUM WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO.

In order to make the most basic of choices about what weapon I want to use I have to compare 38 choices that offer a selection of 24 different keywords, all of which I have to understand before I can even begin to evaluate them.

And this is one class.

If I want to do a Cleradin I need to evaluate the gods (and still pick a weapon and armor).

If I want to do a Scorczard I need to evaluate the different bloodline/specializations and then pick spells.

If your goal was to streamline character generation you've failed miserably. You pigeon holed the classes more, making things less flexible for those folks that want to break the mold a little bit, but did nothing to fix the Analysis Paralysis when it comes to picking weapons.

Because of the way Fighter feats work (and Ranger) I actually have to pick a weapon before I can pick feats because what weapon I'm using will drive which feats are available to me (or vice versa: pick a style, then a weapon that matches it, but the weapon table does not easily allow a player to say "ok, I'm doing a TWF build, I need agile weapons, lets see...uh...Greatsword--wait, no that's versatile not agile--uh...Hatchet, Light Pick, Sap--but that's non-leathal only--uh...and Whips"). Only after that can I get around to doing my stats (will I be doing a STR build or a DEX build? Who knows!)

At least with Sorcerers and Wizards you can say "I'll pick spells later" and get back to doing attributes.

ABC?

More like CFAB (Class, Feats, Attributes, Background).

A player in my group brought up the question about whether or not the rules allow (or should or should not allow) leather breastplates.

Mechanically and RAW this seems to be legal as the Materials rules are pretty loose.

There seems to be a quirk in the rarely-used list command. Consider

• this
• list
• right
• here;

at no point in this post have I used a line break, but note that there's twice as much space after the list as before

Found that post in a super old thread about the list tag trying to see if this was reported already.

Regardless of what that post was saying at the time, the bullet points show up correctly.

Right?

Wrong:

There seems to be a quirk in the rarely-used list command. Consider

• this
• list
• right
• here;

at no point in this post have I used a line break, but note that there's twice as much space after the list as before

Whether or not the bullets show up depends entirely on the list items being next to your avatar. Once your post content has line-wrapped around below your avatar, no more bullets. It looks identical to line breaks:

There seems to be a quirk in the rarely-used list command. Consider

this
list
right
here;
at no point in this post have I used a line break, but note that there's twice as much space after the list as before

This is because the left-margin on the <li> element has ben zero-d out.

Additionally, nested lists don't function at all:

• Consider
• this
• list
• right
• here:[list]
• A
• B
• C
• D

When viewing the "multiple sub-fora" display and get 8 or so "recent posts" listed for each subforum, the "hide thread" button doesn't line up with the thread title.

https://s22.postimg.cc/w6vsg83k1/hide.png

This makes it very difficult to mute the correct thread.

Note: I could not find a most-appropriate sub-forum in which to post this.

The good:
- Enervation can't kill you.

The penalty can’t exceed your level, even if the

enervated value is greater. For example, if you become
enervated 4 and were level 3, you’d take only a –3 penalty.

In addition, you treat your level as though it were
lowered by your enervated value (to a minimum of 1st
level) when determining which spells you can cast and
which abilities you can use.

- Enervation reduces each day automatically (from rest) and/or by succeeding Fort save

The bad:
- The condition has the same name as the spell[/list]

The ugly:
- Various spells name Enervation (the condition) as being relevant, however:

• 1) Enervation (the spell) applies the condition for only 1 minute (compared to PF1's instantaneous effect with the negative levels lasting "a number of hours equal to your caster level"):
  
  Quote:

  Duration: 1 minute

  Enervated effects last for only the duration.

• 2) Other effects (namely, Raise Dead and Ressurection) apply the condition for one week with the qualifier statement "this condition can’t be removed or reduced by any means until the week has passed."
  
• 3) Restoration states that it can remove/reduce enervation (the condition) including permanent enervation, however no applications of enervation (the condition) are actually applicable.
  
• 4) The penalty to proficiency and the penalty to level interact oddly:
  • The proficiency penalty is "max your current level"
  • Your level reduction is "max your current level -1"
  • Proficiency is already a value based on your level (does this mean a 5th level character that is Trained in a skill and has Enervation 1 roll skills with '1d20+4' or '1d20+3'? Their level is reduced by 1—to 4—and takes a penalty on rolls equal to 1, Trained is '1d20 + your_level + modifiers')

So a kobold who's favored class is Summoner gets the benefit:

Summoner Add +1/4 to the summoner’s shield ally bonus (maximum +2).

Ok, that's not bad. Get the class feature at 4th, and by 12th you have a +4 to AC and saves.

Hold on a second, level 12, summoners get this:

Greater Shield Ally (Su)

At 12th level, whenever an ally is within reach of the summoner’s eidolon, the ally gains a +2 shield bonus to its Armor Class and a +2 circumstance bonus on its saving throws. If this ally is the summoner, these bonuses increase to +4. This bonus does not apply if the eidolon is grappled, helpless, paralyzed, stunned, or unconscious.

At 12 the bonus is +4 anyway! Seems a little lackluster...

The question is: does the kobold's favored class bonus then increase this to a +6? Secondly does it increase the bonus applied to other allies to +4?

I'm not entirely sure on a good subfora for this, and it's not Pathfinder, but the parallels are close enough that I figured I'd ask folks (generic fantasy, adventure design, etc). Particularly folks that like to write and GM their own adventures.

I'm working on a project where I've got very rudimentary adventures that get created and embarked upon by NPCs, used to flesh out a world-setting around what the player themselves will be doing. Mechanics are very simple, as it's an abstract system designed to be more interesting to look at than a random number. Sorta like Dwarf Fortress' history-gen, although that gets into inter-kingdom strife with rational behind it and I don't want to get into that sort of detail.

What I'm looking for is a list of "stuff" that happens on these little adventures. Setbacks, unexpected twists, travel tales. The sort of thing that'd show up in a random encounters table, although not monster based (monsters are certainly welcome, but I've got a balanced array (one of each damage type) already) as they just represent generic stand-ins, the highlights, the story the hero tells after he returns: "So there I was, slogging through the swamp when I ran across the ruins of some long forgotten temple..."

Should be singular events, although strings of related ones can be constructed (i.e. being attacked by pirates only happens while on a boat: Sailing -> Attacked by Pirates -> Sailing with Pirates -> Buried Treasure) and fairly skeletal, these things are pretty much just a couple of ability checks aided by gear/enchantments.

As an example of what I'm looking for:

"Hero gets ambushed by attackers"

Then I can flesh that out:

Ambush (aid(s): Danger Sense, Weapon, Armor)

Check: Strength
Fail: Hero takes damage
Success: Hero finds some treasure

I've got a fair few so far, but still only about 6 or 7 per broad category (Starting, Travel, Generic, Unexpected, Traps, Monsters; plus Goals of which I have 30+). Given that each adventure is made up of 1 starting, 1 goal, and about a dozen chosen from the other categories, that makes repeats quite frequent.

I've got another dozen or so I've jotted down the skeleton of, but haven't fleshed out yet, but I could really use a whole lot more, particularly events that could lead in multiple directions depending on the result (I can do up to 5, from critical failure to critical success; I used to build out a city: the "city" encounter just picks a result at random and that leads to a district, then to an actual encounter: a bar fight, a relaxing walk through the gardens, a visit to the local temple, etc).

I've looked at lists of "adventure hooks" but a lot of those end up being very off-the-wall and I'm looking for more cookie-cutter stuff, things that'll slot into any adventure at any point.

The rules are pretty clear on how the villain moves, but there are other monsters (giant gecko being one) that are not explicitly addressed. There are obviously a few ways to do it, but it's there an official method?

This isn't really a Pathfinder thing, more of a d20 thing, but as I managed to solve this recently I thought I'd share.

As we all know, x2 x2 = x3 and x3 x4 = x6 because xA xB = x(A + B - 1)

In completely unrelated sphere of my world I found I needed this equation to make some stat scaling non-exponential, but I had a problem.

Some of my numbers weren't integers. Not even all of them were greater than 1. Which introduced a complication: x1/2 x1/2 should not equal 0. Largely because x1/2 x1/2 x2 should be non-zero, but if you wrap the parentheses differently (xA xB) xC vs. xA (xB xC) you would get a different result (violating the associative property: the former would be x0 the latter would be x1).

So I had to come to another solution. One that had the properties I was looking for (sublinear scaling) and no zero or negative results from positive non-zero inputs.

Thus I have generalized the d20 multiplication is addition system:

Assume X and Y are positive real numbers and that X is >= Y (if Y > X, the Commutative Property applies).

If(X >= 1 && Y >= 1):
= X + Y - 1
If(X >= 1 && Y < 1):
= (XY - 1) / (2Y - 1)
If(X < 1 && Y < 1):
= 1 / (X + Y - 1)

This can actually be simplified if we generalize our inputs as x/X and y/Y.

x/X * y/Y => (xY + Xy - 1)/(2XY - 1)

However, it is important to maintain that one of x and X is equal to 1 and the same holds for y and Y. If we do not, then values that are closer and closer to 1 have smaller and smaller final values!

For example:

9/10 * 4 vs. 99/100 * 4:

9/10 * 4/1 = (9*1 + 4*10 - 1) / (2*10*1 - 1) = 48 / 19 ~= 2.526
99/100 * 4/1 = (99*1 + 4*100 - 1) / (2*100*1 - 1) = 498/199 = 2.502

Hold on a moment: 0.99*X less than 0.9*X?

As soon as you express these fractions as being 1/X instead (i.e. 1/1.1111 and 1/1.0101) the resulting values are:

x0.9 x4: 3.6363...
x0.99 x4: 3.960960...

Thus giving the desired result.

Forward:
This is mostly a collection of half-formed ideas that came about as the result of my dissatisfaction of the d20 magic system and forming out-of-the-box connections during REM sleep.

As such, this will be incomplete and merely "food for thought." If anyone does decide to take these ideas and make a viable, complete system out of it, they are free to do so, just make sure to give me the credit I deserve and let me know. Call it some variation on the MIT License; I'm too lazy to figure out which license actually applies to anything I do, as I'm pretty much an open source kind of guy.

Chapters 1-3 are why I dislike the rules that currently exist. Chapters 4-6 will approach a possible alternative.

Chapter 1: Prepared casting sucks.
I hate wizards. Specifically, I hate playing wizards. There are 900+ spells, 112 of which are 1st level. At the pinnacle of your career you can prepare and cast five of them per day. Except you won't be casting them at enemies 'cause they're just going to resist; good job wasting a turn.

Or how about "conditionally useful" spells? Ones that you need three of to handle whatever situation it is, buuut you need four different spells to handle edge-case scenarios. Yeah, you could prepare one of each, but then when Situation A comes up, you can really only protect yourself. Or the fighter. But not everybody. Even though it's a 10 min/level spell, so you can cast it before combat.

So out of combat, you get to figure out which scenario is most likely going to occur for the next four to six encounters, which one of them is most likely to fox the entire party, and then finally dig through eight different source books (or massive online resource) finding the One Spell that will make the encounter not suck. And in combat you get to cast that One Spell that murders things like twice and then you get to sit on the loot cart because anything you could throw is Just Not Powerful Enough, due to the save DC being below the critical threshold and the GM's generally-good dice rolls (I've had several people tell met to prepare spells assuming that the opposition always makes their saving throw).

Combine this with magic's Single and Only feat tree: Metamagic. Glorious Metamagic. (Almost: there is Spell Focus, but there's a pretty limited selection here)

Oh wait. There's downsides to unlimited power. And those downsides are worse than a knife between the ribs.

Quicken! Turn your least valuable spell into....an action you perform along side something else. For the cost of your most valuable spell. Seems like a fair trade to me! Cloudkill or Quickend Magic Missile? Cloudkill any day, every day, forever. The only reason I'd ever quicken anything is with a metamagic rod.

Elemental! Pick any element you want, just slightly higher spell slot! Of all the +1 metamagics this is the ONE that should be +0. Why? Chain Lightning and Chains of Fire (the same spell, even noted in the description) are the same level, but do different elemental type. Chains of Ice? Nah, +1. You don't even get anything cool for it. Oh, and the save DC is based off the original spell, not the spell slot you actually used, so hey, you're blowing a 6th level spell to cast a 5th level spell with 5th level spell damage, 5th level spell DCs....

Sorcerers literally get the better end of the stick when it comes to arcane spellcasting:
1) You do the paperwork once.
2) You can cast more per day.
3) As long as you know a spell you can cast it a lot.
4) And you avoid metamagic like the plague, because spont-casting a metamagic spell means its a full-round action. Even through a metamagic rod (hope you picked up quickdraw!). Wasn't the increased spell level sufficient?

Chapter 2: Resisting Spells
Saves are good. I like saves. They give me, as the player, a level of agency that even though I'm a dumb meatbag of a fighter I can still resist being mind-controlled. Not well, but having the chance is good.

On the other hand, I really really hate Spell Resistance. In my hands it's utter garbage, as in order to mildly inconvenience an enemy spellcaster I need to spend 25% of my wealth by level to do it. And with feats like Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration--which, lets face it, any Wizard will either have or not need--not to mention the occasional item or spell that says "You know what, I don't like spell resistance today" (*cough Dweomer's Essence, Sure Casting *cough*) you basically wasted a large pile of money.

On the other side of things, everything a player is going to go up against has a spell resistance that actually exceeds it's CR (by which I mean, in order for a PC to reach the same Spell Resistance they'd need to be slaughtering the creature by the dozens in terms of comparative difficulty). For example:
Demon, Glabrezu. Spell Resistance 24 on a CR 13 creature. This is a monster that the party is expected to be facing at level 13. Spell resistance 19 (the best you can get) is a +5 bonus, on top of the +1 for the armor being magical. Which costs *drum roll* 36,000 GP or 25% (almost 26%) of your total wealth at level 13. Oh and your AC is going to take quite a hit for that, too...

If we actually wanted to hit that Spell Resistance of 24, we'd need a +7 equivalent enchantment (+7.5, actually). Which, if we could get it, would cost 64,000 + the suit of armor itself, for a grand total of 45.7% of the character's total wealth at 13th.

Hope the 30% chance to ignore a spell was worth all that money. Meanwhile the wizard is beating against a 55% chance and hating his life as half his spells just simply fail with no effect.

Chapter 4: Simple Fixes
The first idea I had in a dream was simply swapping the values that are currently used: Saves become a fixed DC more closely resembling the Caster Level Check, Spell Resistance becomes a more fluid what does and does not work value.

First:
Save DC is Caster Level + Casting Stat + N where N is some fixed value (5? ) such that all spells of all spell levels are equally difficult to avoid. Now that level 17 wizard is actually dangerous when he lobs a fireball at the party. Even the rogue with Improved Evasion goes "oh shit." Similarly the PC wizard doesn't feel like he's being useless when forced to use a lower-level spell in order to save the higher level one for something later.

Second:
Spell Resistance becomes Globe of Invulnerability....More or less. Rather than a d20+Level vs. DC, instead particularly powerful and magic-resistant monsters just ignore spells below a certain spell level. Our Glabrezu from earlier? Yeah, give it "immunity to level 4 and lower" spells instead of a 50-50 shot against any given spell. Ah ha, now the wizard has to use those precious high level spells, there's a reason to use Chain Lightning instead of Fireball, even though before their damage and saves were equivalent, but the shape was different: Fireball? The Glabrezu just don't give a damn.

Third:
Metamagic. As a result of changes 1 and 2, altering spell level is actually beneficial with no changes. A quickened Magic Missile will hit that Glabrezu, while a regular one won't. Icing on the cake, you still have a standard action to hit it with Chain Lightning.

A couple of the level increase numbers should probably get shuffled around, like Elemental. This shouldn't change a spell's level at all. Fireball, Iceball, Acidball. They're all the same spell, same potency, but they have different elemental damages. It actually makes the wizard more flexible to be able to change from one damage type to another without sacrificing raw power. Given the change to Spell Resistance this also makes sense: Acidball should not overcome any more SR than Fireball does.

But in general, the increased spell level is actually beneficial and the downsides for being awesome are worth living with, rather than it being a case-by-case basis (Spell X is great Maximized, Spell Y is great Extended, Spell Z is great Quickened, but X and Y suck Quickened while Z can't be Extended and Maximized is pretty terrible).

Chapter 5: Alterations to the Classes
This is the point at which the changes are more drastic, less thought out, and more prone to requiring even wider reaching changes. But I wish to share these ideas and present them as they are, under the assumption that the entire spell list gets deleted and rebuilt under a new set of guidelines that take the following changes into account, as existing spells have a high probability of either breaking the game or not working at all.

Overview:
Wizards are now Sorcerers.
Sorcerers are now Computer Programmers.

Or less succinctly (wizards):
A wizard only needs to prepare newly learned spells. This is his bleeding edge, his ability to try new stuff out, figure out what works, go back, refine, scrap, and alter his toolset before he commits them to memory. Whereupon he can draw upon the spells he knows instantly with no effort as many times as he desires until running out of juice.

Mechanically, the highest spellslot available to the wizard is prepared as it always has been. Take a guess at what you need, if it works, great. If it was lackluster, pick something else. If you ended up not needing it, replace it tomorrow. Any other slots can also be prepared if the player so desires, but any unprepared slots of lower level are spontaneously cast as per what we current call a sorcerer from the shortlist of known spells. Once learned these cannot be changed (except via retraining), but ideally these spells will be the handful that the Wizard will be casting over and over three to six times a day. The optional preparation lets a wizard cast spells he hasn't memorized (flexible across the whole arcane spectrum) at the expense of minute-to-minute flexibility. Didn't prepare Endure Elements and you just took a trip Up North to the Frigid Wastes? Look up the spell, write it down, expend your 1st level slots, protect the party. Sure, you won't be able to cast Magic Missile, but you wouldn't have been able to under the old rules either. You've lost nothing except a pile of guessing and paperwork.

Or less succinctly (sorcerers):
Note: this is less well defined than I'd like, but it should get the idea across.
Sorcerers instead get to know Spell Template Pieces that they can then use to construct spells on the fly that conform to the exact needs of the moment. They will not be able to do everything, but they will be very flexible with what they can do.

It works like this: every spell is made up of several components that are replicated and seen in every other spell. What we're doing is breaking the spell list into these components and letting the sorcerer own a small collection that he can then rearrange in any way he likes.

Example:
Our sorcerer has picked Fire as his element of choice, focusing on doing Fire spells really really well and as such all of his spells will be doing Fire damage (except where no damage is dealt). He wants to be a little flexible with his targetting so he's picked up Ray, Sphere, and Line. He can hit one person, everyone, or a group. Add a handful more components like this, of which "actual damage" will be one vs. other effects like fatigue (gee, is it hot in here or just me?), haste (moving at the speed of fire, yo!), and so on.

Another sorcerer decides that you know what, he wants to be able to hurt everything, elemental resists be damned. He picks up Ray as his focus, then Fire, Cold, and Positive Energy as his elements. He's stuck only hitting a single target from range, but as long as he knows what kind of enemy it is, he's got a spell that bypasses resistance/immunities if not outright hitting a weakness.

Then there would be some rules regarding what the resulting spell's special effects, damage, and spell level would be, which would be easy and fast to figure out (think of it like a set of cards, picking one from each group and summing three or four numbers). E.g. Ray spells are Caster Level +0 and Damage *2 (Single Target). Sphere Spells are Level +2, Damage *1 (AOE). Line Spells are Level +1, Damage *1 (AOE). Touch would be Damage *2, Level -1. And so on. (Element wouldn't effect this, just the resulting damage type, except for some, like Force or Sonic, on account of either having special rules or being notoriously hard to resist).

In this manner the "metamagic feats" simply become an additional component piece the sorcerer can add to his spells. He doesn't need to prepare, he just decides that right now he really needs Extended Spell, so he adds that effect and takes the resulting downside. Which now, no longer needs to be the same for ever metamagic spell. Maybe Extend is *2 Duration with increased Casting Time but Empower increases the Spell Level by 1 and reduces the save DC by 2 (net increase in damage, on average).

Given that I was asleep when this idea came upon me, it's not fully fleshed out mechanically--just a vague notion of what could be--and I know that at least one video game has done something like this before, its just not one I ever played.

Chapter 6: New Spell Lists
Given the changes to sorcerers, the spell list as we know it would have to be scrapped and rebuilt, taking into account what a sorcerer can do and building those spells under a similar set of rules (if not the exact same) such that the Wizard can do broadly speaking, the same thing. The wizard can then pick '[Elemental] Ball' and decide what element it does and learn that spell. The sorcerer gets to swap bits in and out if they match the bits he knows, while the wizard can learn specific results, regardless of how different they are from each other.

Thus we end up with two classes that fill the same role but radically different to play within an encounter, rather than different bookkeeping. Each class is flexible in its own way and each has its own limitations that can be partially mitigated (if desired) at higher levels, as more feats and access to spells/components come into play.

Does Genius Avaricious stack with a Headband of Charisma?

Genius Avaricious' bonus is untyped, based on the spell description I'm reading. Is this correct?

(I mean, I really don't mind spending 3000gp every month* to maintain a CHA score of 28, especially as I'm sure the game I'm headed into likely won't last that long game-time)

*Caster level 13 + Arcane Concordance for Extended Spell results in a 26 day duration.

Anyone have any advice on how to use this?
Heart's Desire + Twisted Wish could really foul up an enemy's day. The problem is figuring out what, exactly, "twisting" a wish really entails.

I've also heavily invested in primarily Evocation/Fire spells (for obvious reasons) along with a number of utility spells (some of which are also fire based, like Tar Pit and Scorching Ash Form).

Notably the other players don't seem to understand the concept of "I wish that guy was on fire" given the previous campaign (5th level: mage's tattoo + [wish verbal component] + scorching ray = 8d6) even after numerous statements of "the only wish you need to ask for is, 'I wish that guy was on fire.'" At 13th level setting people on fire is so much better (Elemental Blast bloodline power hits for 21d6 with a DC equal to a 9th level spell cast by the character, Chains of Fire, Contagious Flame, Fire Snake, Wall of Fire, Detonate...Damnation Stride...).

But the only thing I can't...quite...get a finger on is Twisted Wish. There's little reason to twist my allies wishes and enemies are hard to predict.

I searched around to see if anyone had asked this question, and I can't find anything.

Why on earth would I want this in my hand over another blessing?

The amulet stays in my hand when I use it, blessings go back into my deck, which I will then redraw.

Blessings add a d10 to combat checks, amulet adds a d4.
Blessings can also help other people, amulet cannot.
Blessings can also explore again, amulet cannot.

Why, why, why would I want this card?

Personally I took it out already (the druid added it to his deck instead and I now have a staff of minor healing, two masterwork thieves tools, and a codex), but I thought I'd reach out and figure out what other people thought.

For the druid, it's amazing. He can reveal an animal AND the amulet, as he can't turn into a bear twice or use two blessings. But Sajan not only can use more than one blessing, they're recharged, not discarded.

Please someone explain this to me.

In a game my group was doing last night--I can't remember the names, but it's the demon bosslady with the goblins--we closed all but two locations and knew where the boss was (as she ran to 1 of 2 locations and then closed one of them).

We managed to manipulate the top of the deck and put the henchman on top, thus causing an immediate close (leaving only the boss left).

Then it was my turn, playing Sajan.

Blessing of Lamashtu.

Around the table it went.

Blessing Buried, Blessing Buried, Blessing Buried, Blessing Buried, Blessing Discarded, Blessing Discarded, Blessing Discarded, Crossbow.

12d10+1d4+1

Picture's not so great, but here's the result: http://s30.postimg.org/kquc8z86p/20140429_225422.jpg

The yellow d20 should be a d10 (we ran out). I rolled a total of 75, but didn't need to have rolled at all...

(The thing she summoned was shuffed off onto another character in the area so I didn't have to risk to increased thresholds)

Anyone else have stories of utter (dicepool) beatdown?