Drothmal's page

I would like to add my 2cp...

Having DMed for both a synthesist and a vanilla summoner, I found that although the regular summoner was indeed more powerful due to action economy, the synthesist was perceived (by me and other players) as more powerful: In my opinion, this difference between numbers on paper and perception comes from how the lack of weaknesses in the synthesist affects the DM when building encounters/challenges.

I'll give some examples (The synthesist was played levels 3-9)

-Through AC evoluitons + increasing DEX (increasing base + evolutions + spells/items) + mage armor + extra AC ('cause class), the syntyesist's AC was 6+ higher than the fighter, and that is not even counting when he had time to prepare for a fight and cast shield on himself. This disparity in AC for frontliners made it very difficult to choose appropriate challenges, since things that would hit the synthesist would hit the fighter with 8+ on the dice (which meant even iteratives hit), or you were left with enemies that could not hit the synthesist at all.

If this had been a normal summoner, I would feel less bad ignoring the pet, since at least I would still get to hit the caster.

- Through pounce + multiple attacks, the synthesist was getting full round attacks on round 1, while the fighter was running behind only getting one attack of (usually the combination of the 2 killed most non-boss enemies, so they had to move to the next enemy and once again only one of them got multiple attacks in. Like with the to hit, this made calibrating the enemies AC and HP very difficult.

I am aware that a normal summoner makes at least as much damage. But it was just the hopelessly outmatching of the fighter at fighting that made it feel so bad.

- Through skilled or evolution surge, the syntheisist could get +8 to any skill check. Combined with a high INT (thanks to placing STR and DEX at 8, which is low but not a super dump) and a more than decent set of class skills, he was at least as good of a skillmonkey as the rogue. And, since skilled allows to get +8 to diplomacy, guess who the party face was? I had to readjust all the diplomacy DCs or otherwise the whole adventure would have turned into "I ask the king for the key to the treasury. He agrees. I win"

In a normal summoner, you probably get as many skills, but it doesn't feel like you have an uber character that can do everything better than everyone, and the ridiculous +8 to skills doesn't come into play until later.

- Our cleric couldn't make it for a couple sessions. Guess who did not care at all, since they had crafted a wand of restore eidolon? Even after giving the rest of the party a wand of CLW, the synthesist only had to take care of himself, while the others had to share precious resources.

Before I am accused of being a bad DM (which I know I could do better)
- I was banishing the eidolon from time to time. But like it was pointed out before, there is a limited times you can do that without looking like you are just targeting one player (at which point I believe it was easier to just ask him to change classes)
- I was attacking them before they were prepared: The synthesists was actually one of the ones that handled this best, since he could still use summons and spells when the fighter didn't have an armor or the cleric his holy symbol.

I could go on (like how the synthesist can switch his immunity evolutiosn whenever a new level comes around, allowing the perfect counter to the elemental themed dungeon), but I think I have made my general point: For me, the problem with the synthesist is that it makes it very hard for the DM to make a balanced encounter where everyone has fun/feels risks, forcing either very easy encounters that will be completely overpowered by the synthesist, or very hard encounters that will make other characters feel useless.

Just wanted to thank you for a wonderful guide. I have been reading it and have some comments/suggestions

1) For the feats section, psionic body can be a very interesting choice as lvl 1 feat for a psionic race. Since they already get wild talent for free, if they use the psi warrior feat for another psionic feat (like psionic weapon), you are talking of +6HP at level one.

It is true that on the long run this feat might be slightly sub par with respect to toughness, but it adds more HP at the early levels when you need them most

2) I respectfully disagree with your assessment of the mind knight path (at least with respect to the weapons master path).

First of all, it is a 1 round manifesting time

"A spell that takes 1 round to cast is a full-round action. It comes into effect just before the beginning of your turn in the round after you began casting the spell. You then act normally after the spell is completed."

This means that you are completely at the mercy of your enemies for a full turn in which they can disrupt the power by forcing you to make a concentration check.

On top of that, the duration of call weaponry makes it very difficult to have your weapon out ahead of time before each battle. If you don't know that an enemy is behind the door and have time to manifest, you are constantly walking into fights without a weapon at hand (though ymmv, since I admit that my DMs have a preference for surprise attacks against PCs).

I guess if you take the mind knight path you can keep spamming the ability by expending your psionic focus... But if you ever want to use the augmented version (and not fall behind other PCs with their magical weapons), you'll have to spend the first round of every important battle summoning your weapon as a full round action.

On the other hand, metaphysical weapon is only a standard action and, as mentioned before, it can even be extended to hours/lvl (though I'm still a bit unclear if spending 5points on the power gets you +1 and hrs/lvl or +2 and hrs/lvl)

It is true that call weaponry adds versatility and that the mind knight path is probably the best, but I'm just not sure it compensates for the long manifesting time/short duration

3) As for weapon choices/equipment/builds section, I have been considering the idea of a reach weapon psiwar with combat reflexes. Expand for 10' reach, add 5 from weapon (add another 5 when you can go huge and another 5 from feat lunge at level 9). If enemy attacks, use all AoOs except one as damage, use last one to trip. In your turn, attack expending psionic weapon and use move to recover psionic focus.

I'll write more if I can think of any... Thanks again!

Hello!

I am currently playing a Sacred Shield paladin in a Kingmaker game and I have run into two questions that might need clarification

1) What type of action does it take to activate the Holy Shield ability?

Relevant text
"At 4th level, a sacred shield can channel her faith into her shield, protecting any nearby allies. All allies adjacent to the paladin gain a shield bonus equal to the sacred shield’s own shield bonus, including any increase from the shield’s enhancement bonus. This bonus does not stack with any existing shield bonuses. The paladin herself radiates light as a light spell while the shielding is active.

At 11th level, this protection expands to cover any allies within 10 feet and the radiance increases to the effects of a daylight spell.

At 20th level, any allies within 20 feet are protected. Using this ability consumes two uses of the sacred shield’s lay on hands ability, and the effects last for 3 rounds plus a number of rounds equal to her Charisma bonus (if any).

This ability replaces channel positive energy."

I can see an argument being made for being a standard action since it replaces channel positive energy, another standard. But I have to say that anything above a move action would make the ability rather sub par

2) What is the extra deflection bonus from Bastion of Good for a level 4 paladin?

Relevant text (emphasis mine)
"At 1st level, a sacred shield can call upon the powers of good to defend her and her allies against evil. This ability functions as smite evil, except that the paladin gains no benefit on attack or damage rolls against her target. Instead, any attacks the target makes against allies within 10 feet of the paladin deal half damage. Attacks against the paladin deal full damage, but the paladin gains a deflection bonus to her AC equal to her Charisma bonus (if any) against attacks made by the target of the smite. This bonus increases by +1 for every four paladin levels (to a maximum of +6 at 20th level). As with smite evil, if the paladin targets a creature that is not evil, her bastion of good ability is wasted with no effect. Feats, abilities, and the like that increase a paladin’s number of uses of smite evil per day increase a sacred shield’s uses of bastion of good per day.

This ability replaces smite evil."

I always thought that "by every four levels" meant that you have increases at levels 1,5,9,13,17.

But for the maximum to reach +6 at level 20, you must get increases at levels 1,4,8,12,16,20

Is the maximum incorrect or I am not understanding what every four levels means?

That being said if your familiar was feeding info to the enemy I would eat it.

You need to be more specific.

- Would you cook it?
- Would you add ketchup?
- Would you offer to share with the rest of the party?

If the answer is no to any of the above, it's inciting PvP

If it is yes to all, you are probably good

I just realized, if a thief steals a sword saint's sheath, he is suddenly unable to be as effective. "I was going to attack him with my deadly technique, but now that I lost my sheath, I cannot use my sword as effectively".

That's when you stab the rogue and use HIM as an "improvised" sheath ;)

Hello, these questions came up on the thread of Walter's Guide to the Magus. I thought they were important enough to put them here in the Rules section instead of the Advice section

If you find any of these questions interesting/not clear (like I do), please hit the FAQ button

1) Can a Black Blade be further enchanted over the +5 with normal magical weapon crafting rules?
(EDIT: like with icy, shock, speed, not +6)
2) Can a Bladebound choose to apply a weapon special property instead of normal weapon enhancement? Let's say for example by level 5: the chart says that the Blackblade has a +2 bonus, can it be a +1 spellstoring blackblade? Also, can a Black Blade be further enchanted over the +5 with normal magical weapon crafting rules?

3) A Magus uses Arcane Pool to make his weapon a +1 flaming katana: does he need then to spend a standard action to activate with a command word the flaming ability?

On a personal note, I think the answers are yes/no/no, but I saw good arguments for both sides

The one I really want to know the answer to is #1, for it makes a huge difference for the archetype in the long run...