Eloiwyn's page

Sorry, but I'm still confused about non-warpriest retraining. The statement above is "if a class, prestige class or class feature-dependent ability score is altered, the character qualifies for a rebuild, maintaining the same equipment. That means a character's class choices, feats, skill ranks, spells known, et cetera can change." The commas here are a little confusing... is this meant to refer only in the case of changes in relevant ability scores, or does it apply to other class changes as well?

Specifically... can other playtest characters add archetypes and change to feats that were not available until the book came out? You've said that the warpriest can... while most classes did not have such big changes as the warpriest's ability score, there WERE alterations to the other classes. It already seemed unfair that playtesters were being denied the chance to add all the juicy new stuff.. even more unfair if the warpriest can freely add archetypes and changes feats but others can't!

We ran one playtest with a 5th-level Hunter, and the Hunter stole the show. She was built with 17str, 14dex, 14con, 10int, 14wis, 10cha; mithril breastplate and Tribal Scars feat for 35-ft speed; the Andoran Captain's Blade trait for Acrobatics; scythe for main weapon; a tiger companion; and the precise strike teamwork feat. With the Hunter and tiger both being fairly speedy and acrobatic, they easily got into flank with one another, and once they were there they just ripped things to shreds.

There definitely needs to be more teamwork feats to chose from... too many of them are designed for adjacent fighting rather than flank-buddy fighting. We had fun with the flavor of the scythe... made the Hunter a cloaked Death figure and the tiger more of a black puma... but I do think it makes sense to widen the weapon choices, and of course being able to wear metal armor but not metal shields is just silly. All in all though it was a fun class, and I think well worth giving up the wildshape.

We ran two playtest that included a swashbuckler... one at 4th level, one at 7th level. At 4th level, the swashbuckler was a bit mediocre. Some of that was because we had an entire party of hard-hitting melee characters, so the swashbuckler's panache was quickly used up and all the other hitters made it hard to get a killing blow in. At 7th level the swashbuckler was really great... he was critting all over the place and easily replenished his panache.

We haven't played one up from 1st level, so haven't had direct experience with the pain of no finesse until 2nd, but I can see that it would be annoying. However, I understand the wish to avoid easy dips, and it's not much different from the pain non-human or non-fighter archers have to go through waiting for precise shot, or the pain of a 1st-level wizard who is instantly out of spells. I think the class is still quite workable even if finesse is kept at 2nd. I did like one person's suggestion of giving the swashbuckler combat expertise... the flavor of the class is well-suited for fancy trip/disarm maneuvers, but with the need for charisma it really can't afford a 13 Int. It would be nice for the class to get the feat as a bonus somewhere along the line... or perhaps be able to qualify for the feat using charisma instead of intelligence.

I didn't see any problem with the weapon limitation... but then, we like rapiers. I also didn't see any need to change the precise strike (other than to make it effective on anything that can be critted). The 7th level version was doing PLENTY of damage! Not as much as a raging/power-attacking/two-handed weapon Barbarian... but that's not the role I see for this class. When I was first looking at the class, I was mentally comparing it to a rogue rather than to a fighter. It has the rogue's light armor, restricted weapons, and emphasis on skills... but gets full BAB and d10hp, and doesn't have to get into flank to get its extra damage. It loses the trap finding... but isn't squishy. We quite enjoyed it.

Someone also brought up the relative scarcity of trapfinding. This is true... but you can always take the trait that makes disable device a class skill, and train up your wizard or witch or arcanist with it. Their int bonus goes a long ways towards compensating for the lack of level bonus. And of course alchemists can also do that without the need for the trait. Despite my comparison of swashbuckler to rogue, I don't think the swashbuckler needs trapfinding added to it.

So, is the Pathfinder Society Field Guide being removed from the game, or only from the core assumption? If it's being removed from the game, what needs to be done with the characters who have spent prestige points on vanities, or used other materials from that resource?

I recently got a Pathfinder Society card at a con, and now when I go to activate it, I realize that I had already signed up for a number. So now I have a character registered to the first number, but (hopefully) the one mod that character played reported to the second (unactivated) number. Suggestions?

Maybe I should have put this in the "Dumb Question" thread, I'm excited about trying Pathfinder Society but know precious little about the Pathfinder setting.

So... what deities (and therefore domains) do we have to choose from? The PFS guide basically says to just use the Player's Handbook-- so are we using PH Greyhawk gods???

--Eloiwyn

I see where you only have the PH to choose from for race and class, but it doesn't actually mention access to DMG prestige classes... is it safe to assume they will be available? It makes quite a bit of difference on character build even at level 1...

--Eloiwyn

Newbie Pathfinder questions...

1.) This book is just setting info, but not the new "3.75" rules modifications?

2.) How much overlap is there between this book and the Gazeteer? If you have this book, is there any benefit to having the Gazeteer as well?

I usually judge some at DragonCon, and the judge recruitment emails did have Pathfinder listed, so I assume they're going to try to run some Pathfinder there...

I'd be interested in offering to judge some Pathfinder at DragonCon, but have only recently discovered its existence and am not sure what I'd need to know to run it. I understand that for 2008, the Pathfinder adventures will still be using standard OGL 3.5 rules, so that much is easy. Is there background material on the setting available somewhere to get familiar with? Sourcebooks with expanded options for feats/prestige classes and such?

I've only just discovered the whole Pathfinder RPG thing, so forgive me if this has already been discussed...

Is the cost of crafting a magic item still half of its market price, or has the money cost gone up to off-set the lack of xp cost?

Is anything yet known about how magic item crafting will be dealt with in the Pathfinder Society system?