I just want to say that I'm very grateful that you guys are doing this. This is exactly the kind of stuff I want Paizo to do now that a bunch of stuff is released and out there; tune that stuff to perfection. I'd buy a book full of updates like this, but that might just be me.
At a quick glance, this looks great and I think it's a big improvement to how stealth is currently described.
[sarcasm]Yeah, because fighters should only be two-handed weapon wielding meat grinders.[/sarcasm]
We are playing Kingmaker. A fighter in the group has 31 AC. At level 5. He constantly misses with his longsword, but i need a 20 with most monsters just to hit him. And he did it completely legally. He can hold a choke point for hours, as long as there are no spellcasters and no touch attacks. God forbid if he started usgin defensive fighting and CE.
To all people who dump int with fighters and then can't take CE: Serves you right for minmaxing.
I believe that the int 13 requirement is there solely to piss off minmaxers. And i love it for that.
And what hurdles are there in place for minmaxing wizards? The most powerful class in the game?
Would you be okay with Combat Casting having a strength requirement of 13, and be the prerequisite for half the metamagic feats?
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Weird Words (Su): At 6th level, a sound striker can start a performance as a standard action, lashing out with 1 potent sound per bard level (maximum 10), each sound affecting one target within 30 feet. These are ranged touch attacks. Each weird word deals 1d8 points of damage plus the bard’s Charisma bonus (Fortitude half ), and the bard chooses whether it deals bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage for each word. This performance replaces suggestion.
A couple of questions:
1) Even though each word can only affect 1 creature, couldn't you have all of them target a single creature? That is, make a maximum 10 words strike against a single target? Or do all of them have to affect separate targets (please don't be the case!)?
2) Can this performance be maintained, or is it just a standard action, 1 round deal?
I really hope question 1) works as I hope it does, playing as a damage dealing bard sounds really appealing.
I don't think I'm the only one that would like Weapon Finesse to disappear as a feat and just be automatically applicable if you have more Dex than Str when making a melee attack with light or finesse weapons.
I don't think there should be no such mechanical restriction at all.
That said, there's nothing stopping you from playing a really archetypical paladin with a lot of principles exactly like that one. No ranged weapons, no flanking, no attacking an unarmed opponent, no attacking an opponent by surprise, no retreating from battle, and so forth. I'd love to play as a really stubborn paladin, myself!
This isn't stubborn.
This is overdoing it.
Nonsense like that gave the paladin class a bad name.
People's minds being stuck in the last millennium, thinking that a paladin character MUST annoy the rest of the party.
The last paladin I saw played that way died when he ran into the midst of a quartet of assassins. Smack in the middle, basically begging them to pump 8 sawtooth sabres' worth of sneak attacks into him.
A certain Abadan cleric... "failed to reach" him in time to take him back from the dead. He was very "heartbroken" to lose this jerk who was more a liability to the party and its goals than an asset.
New-age riffraff, is what these paladins today are. With their "tactics" and their "viable fighting styles". There used to be few paladins back in the old days because the vast majority died believing in their principles, no matter how outnumbered they were or how hopeless their battles were. And they died wielding a g%*+*+n longsword and shield. They didn't compromise. The few that survived became legends. They gave the title of paladin a certain prestige.
Nowadays, one in every ten adventurers is a bow-wielding, long-haired, free-spirited paladin that thinks the code is only a guideline. Disgraceful, I tell you.
Spoiler:
This is all tongue in cheek, please don't turn this into a serious debate
You don't have to be as excessive, but just remember that they players are fighting the kobolds on THEIR turf. The kobolds should be prepared with traps (especially ones with pressure plates that only go off for creatures heavier than the kobolds), narrow tunnels and tactics to counter larger creatures.
Now that single classed characters are more viable than ever, we hardly ever see multi-classed characters any more. Giving up the higher level goodies and abilities that scale with levels are just too good to pass up. Maybe that's a good thing, because god knows we don't want things to become like late 3.5 where taking a whole slew of classes and prestige classes was the key to success.
However, if Paizo does things carefully, we could see a whole new world of original character concepts come to life. I loved the "Ascetic" feats the Complete books from 3.5 brought us, which allowed monk unarmed damage and another class's ability to scale alongside each other as you took levels from both classes. I'd love to see something in that vein again and I'm sure other people would too.
A problem a lot of people have within the Pathfinder ruleset is making a suitable combat encounter with only one enemy facing the party, a boss or a miniboss if you will. Since combat is very fast in this game, either the creature or the party are quickly killed which often leads to an anti-climax after a long buildup. This can most often be remedied by adding in a few henchmen, but that isn't always appropriate. Below you can find my attempt at a simple solution to give monsters more options and longetivity without overpowering them.
Boss (Monster Template)
Spoiler:
CR: +1 for every 5 HD the creature possesses.
Special:
- The creature's hit points are equal to its full HD + Constitution modifier instead of the average + Constitution modifier.
- The creature gains another standard action per round. This standard action cannot be used as a move action.
- Treat all of the creature's saving throws as good.
The biggest boost is the additional standard action per round. This allows the creature to make more actions per round to keep up with the action economy of the party. Being able to drink a potion without having to give up one of your attacks or being able to cast two spells in one round is a godsend. Despite that, the creature's spells or attacks don't get any more powerful. It also allows the creature to use actions it normally wouldn't have time for, such as bull rushes and overruns. If that wasn't enough, the creature also gains additional hit points and better saving throws, giving it more longetivity.
As an example, you could slap the template onto a basic Minotaur who's usually CR 4. His HP would rise from 45 to 72, his fortitude save would increase by +3 and he'd gain another standard action. His CR would rise to an appropriate 6. All of this without adding to his attack bonus or damage.
And that's that. I'd love to get some feedback on this since it's still WIP but this is the general gist of what I'd like to accomplish. I still have some worries about spellcasters at higher levels and would love to hear suggestions on how to treat them differently. Perhaps give them an additional +1 CR?
The Advanced Player's Guide has a subschool for Conjuration called Teleportation which allows you to shift a number of feet once per round as a swift action for 3 + INT modifier a day. The best you could do is to take 5-6 levels of wizard and 1 level of fighter and then go Eldritch Knight. It will allow you to teleport 10-15 feet per round and still make full-attacks. Your base attack will suffer, but you should be able to compensate by getting easily into flanking positions.
Assuming you'd have about 18 intelligence at level 10, you could have a base attack of +7/+2 and be able to shift 7 times a day.
An alternative would be to play a cleric with the travel domain. At level 8 you get the ability to teleport 10 ft per cleric level per day as a move action, which doesn't need to be used all at once. You'd only be able to make standard actions to attack though, so I'd recommend getting some feats like Vital Strike (or Channel Smite if you're evil).
I can see it come in handy for characters that benefit from another elemental type, such as sorcerers with the draconic bloodline.
If you really want to be a master of switching between various elements, check out the admixture subschool of evocation. It's awesome, and about time that evocation specialists got some love.
If you don't want to be a master brewer and want to focus on combat, there's either the martial route which focuses on mutagens, or the ranged blaster route which focuses on the bombs.
I've only really tried the bomb thrower. Dexterity and intelligence are obviously your most important stats for one of those. Precise bombs and fast bombs are the most important discoveries, and for feats you should consider going for Point Blank Shot to begin with, and weapon focus (bomb) somewhere along the way (I also seem to remember seeing a splash weapon mastery feat on the SRD, so if you can use that that's a good option to. Use the mutagen to beef up your dexterity and bomb away!
Yes, this is yet another attempt at making a gish base class, sorry ;_; . It is based loosely on the Duskblade and is meant to play out like an arcane counterpart to the paladin, with a heavier emphasis on spellcasting. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome and I don't see any glaring problems with it, but I guess that's why post things here :)
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Spellknights are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light armor, medium armor and shields (except tower shields). A spellknight can cast spellknight spells while wearing light or medium armor and using a shield without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. Like any other arcane spellcaster, a spellknight wearing heavy armor incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the spell in question has a somatic component. A multiclass spellknight still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from other classes.
Spells: A spellknight casts arcane spells from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. Hhe can cast any spell she knows without preparing it ahead of time. To learn or cast a spell, a spellknight must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a spellknight's spell is 10 + the spell level + the spellknight's Charisma modifier.
A spellknight's selection of spells is extremely limited. A spellknight begins play knowing four 0-level spells of his choice. At each new sorcerer level, she gains one or more new spells, as indicated on Table: Spellknight Spells Known. (Unlike spells per day, the number of spells a spellknight knows is not affected by her Charisma score; the numbers on Table: Spellknight Spells Known are fixed.) These new spells can be common spells chosen from the sorcerer/wizard spell list, or they can be unusual spells that the spellknight has gained some understanding of through study.
A spellknight can cast any spell he knows at any time, assuming he has not yet used up his spells per day for that spell level.
Cantrips: Spellknights learn a number of cantrips, or 0-level spells, as noted on Table: Spellknight Spells Known under “Spells Known.” These spells are cast like any other spell, but they do not consume any slots and may be used again.
Arcane strike: A spellknight gets arcane strike as a bonus feat at first level.
Arcane Bond (Su): At 1st level, you gain an arcane bond, as a wizard equal to your spellknight level. Your spellknight levels stack with any wizard levels you possess when determining the powers of your familiar or bonded object. This ability does not allow you to have both a familiar and a bonded item.
Combat casting: A spellknight gets combat casting as a bonus feat at second level.
Mystic shroud (Su): At 3rd level, the spellknight gets a +2 bonus on all saving throws made against spells or spell-like abilities. Every four levels thereafter (7th, 11th, 15th, 19th) this bonus increases by +1.
Spellstrike (Su): Beginning at 4th level, you may as a standard action make an attack at your full attack bonus and cast any spell you know. Casting a spell in this manner does not cause an attack of opportunity. The spell must have a casting time of 1 standard action or less. If the spell used has a target other than the caster, the target of the spell must be the creature attacked. If the attack misses and the target is an enemy, the spell fails and is used up. Otherwise it is cast as normal, even if the attack misses. If the spell used is a touch attack, the touch attack roll is automatically made if your attack hits. If the spell used has an area of effect, it is centered on the target of the spellstrike. Any spell used in conjunction with spellstrike counts as used for the spellknight‘s spells per day.
Bonus Feat: At 5th level, and at every five levels thereafter, a spellknight gains a bonus feat in addition to those gained from normal advancement. These bonus feats must be selected from those listed as combat feats or metamagic feats.
Spell power (Su): At 6th level, the spellknight gets a +1 bonus to the DC of his spells when used in conjunction with spellstrike and a +1 bonus to overcome any spell resistance the target might have. Every three levels thereafter (9th, 12th, 15th, 18th) this bonus increases by +1.
Efficient metamagic (Su): At 8th level the spellknight can apply metamagic feats to his spells without increasing their casting time. In addition, the level adjustment required for using metamagic feats is decreased by 1. For example, an empowered spell usually takes up a spellslot two levels higher than the usual spell level. Efficient metamagic reduces that to a spellslot one level higher than the usual spell level.
Intense spellstrike (Su): At 13th level, whenever the spellknight casts an evocation spell that deals hit point damage, he adds 1/2 his spellknight level to the damage. This bonus only applies once to a spell, not once per missile or ray, and cannot be split between multiple missiles or rays. This damage is of the same type as the spell.
Arcane aura (Su): At 14th level, each ally within 10 feet of the spellknight gains half the benefits of mystic shroud and spell power (rounded down).
Shape spellstrike (Su): At 16th level, whenever the spellknight uses a spell with an area of effect in conjunction with spellstrike, he may choose to exclude himself from the area of effect.
High arcana (Sp): At 17th level, the spellknight may choose one spell of seventh level or lower from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. He may from then on cast that spell once per day as a spell-like ability. This ability can be used in conjunction with spellstrike.
Arcane champion (Su): At 20th level, the spellknight‘s bond with the mystic arts peaks. He gains damage reduction 10/magic. In addition, he is forevermore treated as an outsider rather than as a humanoid (or whatever the spellknight's creature type was) for the purpose of spells and magical effects. Unlike other outsiders, the spellknight can still be brought back from the dead as if he were a member of his previous creature type.
So yeah, there it is. Like I said earlier, it has some things in common with the duskblade, but I never really liked that class too much so I fixed what I didn't like about it.
While I liked powers for martial classes in 4e (heresy!), I didn't like how they were limited to specific classes. When Pathfinder came around with feats like cleave and vital strike, I was very glad to see some options to use when full attacks aren't an option. I wasn't glad to see some of the steep prerequisites for abilities such as shatter defenses and whirlwind attack, so below are some are some easily accessible feats that I've been fiddling with. Most of these are based on existing stuff with some modifications.
Feedback is more than welcome.
Below are a couple of feats I've been fiddling with and I'd love to hear some feedback.
Impact
You know how to smash your foe into an obstacle.
Prerequisites: Str 15
Benefit: If you force an opponent to move into a wall or solid object when using a bull rush, you can use the momentum to crush him against it dealing damage equal to 1d4 per square pushed + your strength bonus.
Benefit: As a standard action, you can make a single attack at your full base attack bonus as well as one iterative attack. If you are fighting with two weapons, you can make an iterative attack with each, provided you have the feats to do so. When you use this feat, you take a -2 penalty to your Armor Class until your next turn. Abilities that require you to take a fullround action such as rapid shot cannot be used in conjunction with this ability.
Improved Skirmish
Prerequisites: Skirmish, Dex 17, base attack bonus +11
Benefit: This ability functions like Skirmish, except you can make two iterative attacks with a single weapon, or two iterative attacks with each weapon if you are fighting with two weapons, provided you have the feats to do so. The penalty to armor class remains at -2.
With great precicion, you make an attack that bypasses the defenses of your foe.
Prerequisites: Dex 15, base attack bonus +6
Benefit:As a standard action, you can make a single attack at your full base attack bonus against a single enemy. If the attack hits, the enemy is treated as flat-footed (for purposes of sneak attack) and you add your dexterity modifier as precicion damage.
When the APG comes out, the following classes will focus upon a single element when it comes to spellcasting:
- Clerics and Druids with elemental domains
- Oracles (4/6 Foci deal with elements)
- Sorcerers with the elemental bloodline
I'm personally a huge fan of playing characters that focus on a single element as I think it's very stylish and I'm a sucker for stylish characters. However, focusing your spellcasting on a single element has its flaws, namely resistances and immunities, but this is something you should expect when choosing such a specialized class concept.
What I'd like to see is something to beef up the elemental spellcasting of these characters to compensate for the resistances and immunities. The easiest way to do so would be to put in a few feats but how they should be implemented is another story. I have a couple of ideas listed below, but I would love to hear opinions or ideas from you guys on the matter. Blasting for live!
Elemental Focus
Choose one type of element: acid, electric, fire or ice. You add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against spells with the subtype of your chosen element.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new element.
Greater Elemental Focus
Choose one type of element: acid, electric, fire or ice. Add +1 per each die of damage you deal with a spell from the subtype of this element.
Prerequisites: Elemental Focus in the selected element.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new element.
