Erikkerik's page
173 posts. No reviews. No lists. No wishlists.
|
So as we all know, nearly all the spells have been hit by several nerf bats, but they are certainly not now equally bad, and I would like to start a discussion on spells that actually are good in their current form and that have surprised you in a positive way in or out of play, or found to be staples.
I will start with Illusionary object (level 1): Like all "true" illusion spells, they are DM dpendant, but this spell is actually buffed a great deal from previous 1.st level illusion spells. DM may still ignore your illusions or always respond them with a seak action even if the NPCs have no reason to believe it is an illusion, but if you have a DM that actually likes to work with you on illusions, this spell is very strong. It has a huge area and range and the things you can create with it are endless 40 foot long and 20 feet high walls dripping with animated acid, illusionary boats and even small ships, houses, huge boulders, etc. The hightened options are also good.
Illusionary creature (level 1) is another contender, I think. The dmg. options are lol, but A 20 foot dragon might be enough to scare an entire village away, you can create an avatar of someone god and even impersante with it, etc.
Last, I will mention summon monster 1 (Animated broom). SOme dmg, more hp than other options, save for a slow effect. This could be a stable for lvl 1-2 wizards, I think.
So I've seen a lot of debate on specialist vs. universalist wizard, but I've not seen much discussion on the different specializations. THe obvious reason for that is that the specializations are so underwhelming, but certainly I don't think they are all equally underwhelming.
The 2 obvious standout options, I think, are conjurer and illusionist. Both have good spells you can cast of pretty much every level, and both have powers I think are more usefull than the rest. Augment summoning is minor but obviously benefecial because summoning is (it seems to me and so I've heard) pretty good at least until the higher levels. But how much do you find that small bonus actually matters in play?
The illusionist warped terrain also seems like something I would actually use noe and then over a cantrip, unlike most of the other school powers. The 10 ft. of movement penalty could ideally, say in hallway situations, take away an attack from a full group of monsters or NPC, for example. And in addition, with a DM that likes to play along with illusions, the on demand illusionary terrain can have other benefits: THe description say hazardeous terrain, so you cun certainly create spikes, trapps, broken glass or other stuff that may scare monsters and NPCs from even entering the area. Illusionist also seems to have a very good lvl 8 feat. You can cast a good 2nd level spell 6 extra times per day and even extend the duration, when you get 6th level spells it turns into a stable 4th level spell.
I have not yet had a chance to play properly, but soon will, and I will go with one of those 2 choices. I am looking in particular for feedback from players who have played those 2 specialisations, but certainly also from anyone who have tried others out.
I'm legal a bit confused when it comes to magus' and the use of wands through spellcombat and spell strike, especially together wieth the tiefling tail trait.
First of all, there is an arcana that lets you use spell combat with wands, so obviously it is not normally legal to do so. Unless wand wielder only opens up for the use of wands with spells that aren't on the magus list.
Why is this, is it because 1)
1) Activating a wand (with a spell from the magus list) does not count as casting a spell.
or
2) The wand wielder arcana removes the restriction of needing a free hand hand to do spell combat, you can now do it when you are holding a wand in your hand and activating that wand also.
3) Both of the above.
If option 1 or 3, magus will not be able to use wands (say of shocking grasp) with spell combat, even with the wand wielder. Both require you cast a spell from the magus spell list.
If it's only 2, a tiefling prehensilie tail would allow the use wands through spell combat even without wand wielder.
So what is right? Does activating a wand with a spell from the magus spell list count as casting a spell from the magus spell list or not?
I'm surprised this item haven't received more attention. I did a search on it and found nothing. Is it just me, or is this weapon a huge boost to any trip focused build at later levels?
Link: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-weapons/specific-magic-weapons/dr agoncatch-guisarme
5 people marked this as FAQ candidate.
|
Reading the spell descriptrion I can't really put my mind around what this spell does and does not do. The descritption is very specific in some cases, like grappling, magical effects and under water, but I'm confused cause there is a lot of things it is not specific about.
Most importantly - does it ignore difficult terrain? all kinds? It seems weird the spell would spell out spell out under water movement but not mention difficult terrain. Maybe it's taken for granted?
Will it protect me from slipping on ice? Would it make me automatically succeed on an acrobatic check to stay on foot? What about balancing on a narrow ledge?
What about wind? Say I'm flying or wind walking through a storm or a heavy tornado.
For reference:
"This spell enables you or a creature you touch to move and attack normally for the duration of the spell, even under the influence of magic that usually impedes movement, such as paralysis, solid fog, slow, and web. All combat maneuver checks made to grapple the target automatically fail. The subject automatically succeeds on any combat maneuver checks and Escape Artist checks made to escape a grapple or a pin.
The spell also allows the subject to move and attack normally while underwater, even with slashing weapons such as axes and swords or with bludgeoning weapons such as flails, hammers, and maces, provided that the weapon is wielded in the hand rather than hurled. The freedom of movement spell does not, however, grant water breathing."
I'm playing a battle oracle in rotrl and just dinged lvl 12. In like 15 years of gaming I've never had a divine caster this high. I'm melee focused with reach weapon, but also have augment summoning.
My current considerations are:
Summon monster 6. If I don't pick this up first it will be my 2nd choice. Maybe the optimal pick, but I already have summon monster 5, full round casting time bugs me, and other choices on the list are very appealing
Animate objects. Seems like a standard action summon. Seems very fun. Also seems like a lot of work?
Wind walk. Seems very strong! But the group already have communal airwalk covered with another oracle. Maybe he will alsowant to pick up this and retrain airwalk.
Dustform. This seems very good to me, offering a good set of benefits. I spend a lot of time enlarged and sometimes size is a problem. maybe not good forfirst pick.Any firsthand experience with this spell?
Note: I don't consider heal cause the oracle of healing in the group get that for free.
Please also feel free to make other suggestions. Anti life shell?
So my Oracle have learned animate dead and used it for the first time last night to animate a stone giant. For some reason, this is the first time (at least in a long, long time, since ad&d or such) that this spell have been used in our group, and I have some questions:
First of all, I'm unsure how the HD-based material component and HD limit on what you can creater shold work in practice. My character obviously can't know what the HD of monsters are, so all he can do is guess and try. If I try to animate something above my hd limit, does the spell still use up the material component? My DM ruled that it did, and I agree that it seems reasonable within the rules, but it also seems very impractible. What if I try to animate something that is within my HD limit, but my gem isn't valuable enough? What if its to big? Yesterday I ended up first using a 500 gp get to try to animate the (12 hd) giant as a bloody skeleton, then another 500 gp gem to animate him as a zombie. In total I, thus, ended up using 1000gp to animate a zombie that could have been made with a gem worth 300 gp. Is this how it should work RAW?
I'm also a bit confused when it comes to applying the tempalte:
It should be noted that the giant also had 6 class levels as a ranger (we assumed, btw, that these levels didn't count as HD since he looses them as a zombie, it didn't really matter now since I used a gem that could create a 20 hd creature, but for future reference, were we right in this assumption?). In the rules of the template it states that "A zombie retains all the natural weapons, manufactured weapon attacks, and weapon proficiencies of the base creature. It also gains a slam attack that deals damage based on the zombie's size, but as if it were one size category larger than its actual size (see Natural Attacks)." What, exactly is ment by "base creature" here? Would that be the entry in the monster manual, or the actual monster I animated, IE: Would it keep all martial profencies (that it had since it used to be a ranger) or does it only get to keep the great club profiency (from the bestiary)?
And what about the ability to throw stones? I'm not sure if that should count as "natural weapons, manufactured weapon attacks, and weapon proficiencies of the base creature" or "extraordinary special qualities that improve its melee or ranged attacks." (that it gets to keep) or "special attacks" that is looses.
So we are running a certain adventure path where a certain enemey can deal some crazy wisdom damage with touch attacks.
The enemy in question can reduce everyone in our group to uncounscious with 2 touch attakcs, and last night when we encountered her along with her friend we all ended up unconscious and we will start the next session trapped. Our group is kinda dumbfounden as to how we should be able to deal with this. We have lesser restoration available, but it's not effective in combat. We don't know what will happen next, but I was wondering if there are any spells, items or abilities we have missed that will make us able to deal with ability damage better. Our group consist of a battle oracle, life oracle, arcane duelist/dragon diciple bard, two handed fighter and an archer ranger. Please don't give away spoilers or information we shouldn't know about in the adventure path, I'm just looking for advice on anything our characters could pull together to be able to deal with the ability damage better.
1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.
|
"Creatures that leave the area and come back are not protected."
This line in the description of these spells are annoying me. How do you hanlde it? It seems very limiting because of how initiative is handled. Reading it, it seems that If my oracle casts this, and once a fight starts I win initiavie and charge ahead of my party, everyone in the party will loose the protection, even if the fighter would charge together with me on the next initiative count and in real time we would be charging together. If I'd delay, the fighter would charge first and loose the protection. I don't think there is anyway for actions to be happening simultaniouly while on initiative count? Also I don't really understand why this limitation is necessary, cause you obviously can enter the area and recieve the protection if you haven't left it earlier ("Creatures in the area, or who later enter the area, receive only one attempt to suppress effects that are controlling them."). Or am I reading this wrong somehow?
Title sais it all, really. We usually just play homebrewed campaigns and stories, but have been talking of trying one of the adventure paths out. We like a good mix of roleplaying and combat.
Tell us what to pick and WHY.
Thank you.
8 people marked this as FAQ candidate. Staff response: no reply required.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
|
So, according to the rules for the beastrider:
At 1st level, a beast rider forms a bond with a strong, loyal companion that permits him to ride it as a mount. This mount functions as a druid's animal companion, using the beast rider’s level as his effective druid level. The animal chosen as a mount must be large enough to carry the beast rider (Medium or Large for a Small character; Large or Huge for a Medium character)
All fine and well, one would suppose, but on the list of mounts a cavalier can pick at 4th level there is, if I'm not mistaken, not a single one that is large until 7th level, which would mean that the beastrider can neither ride them or at all pick them.
Something is obviously very wrong in the design here. Have there been any official or semiofficial statements on this?
6 people marked this as FAQ candidate.
|
So my 8th level withc will pick up improved familiar next level and I have finally landed on the fairy dragon. It's intelligence in the bestiary is 16, but according to the rules for familiars it should be 9. So is my fairy dragon a very stupid one of its kind or am I missing something? RAW it really seems its intelligence should be 9, but it doesnt feal right.
Also: the fairy dragon is a 3rd level sorc. Should it always come with the spells in the bestiary or could it come with others?
I guess both of these are GMs call, but hearing some opinions (and perhaps some har rules if available) would be nice.
Thanks.
Ok, so with sleetstorm, it is a DC10 acrobatics to move at half speed, and then, unless you have blindsense or something, not being able to see halves that movement to 1/4 unless you make another DC 10 acrobatic check. If you fail either of the acrobatics checks you can't move.
With ashstorm you move at half speed, and then you have to make a DC10 acrobatics check not to have your movement reduced to 1/4. If you fail the check you can't move.
Do I get this right?
Some aspects of the rules from difficult terrain aren't clear to me. Picture the following sceneario. A dungueon 1 foot wide and 100 fett long, an ogre is 60 feets away from the charcters, I cast grease in the middle of the ogre and the PCs, 20 feeet away from the ogre, ogre charges; what would happen when the ogre reaches the difficult terrain? Would he just stop?
And what if, in i a similar scenario, the ogre ded a run action, would he stop and loose his entire turn?
Ok so I want to build a fighter that focuses not primarily on doing the damage but on 1)Controlling the battlefield, 2) defending and helping his friends.
I'm pretty determined on making it a fighter, not a bard or palading etc., and I would like to play a dwarf (realize it's not optimized).
So what options do I have?
The 3 archetypes I'm looking at is the Phalanx soldier, polearm master and tactician.
For weapons I'm pretty bent on polearms, allowing for reach, braces and trips.
I'm also considering the shield, but looking for ways that I can utilize it to protect my friends. I seem to remember a feat that let you give your shileds ac bonus to an adjacent ally, but I can't seem to find it. Does it exist or is there any other ways I can use a shield or my abilites to protect my friends? Are they effecient?
Feats: I'm thinking of combat expertise, improved and greater trip, maybe the grapple feats, bull rush maybe, maybe more of the manouvers, spring attack maybe.
Now one problem the build I'm considering requires a lot of abilities: int has to be 13, dex should be high, str have to be high ofc, and we will most likely use the 15 point buy, so I realize it probably will be to difficult to pull together with a dwarf, but that's not to important cause I have a good concept for a human as well.
So anyone can help me utilize the potential in the builds I am considering, or even better, have other ideas on how I can fulfill my goals (possibly one that is better suited for a dwarf)?
|