Fatman Feedbag's page

Hi There,

Regrettably, I need to cancel all of my subscriptions.

Thanks,

Fatman

You know... after like 3rd level I really can't see my druid ever casting these spells. What good is a 4 hit die mob in a fight between 7th+ level PCs and 7-10th level bad guys?

Anyone got a good name for a human male druid?

This has to be the cheapest map tool out there that doesn't suck:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=8065

My group was talking about the mechanics of the barbarian and the fighter the other day. The talking points were basically that the fighter should be able to outlast the barbarian, but the barbarian was the higher damage-dealer. Since I’m always focused on game balance (meaning that given two melee classes like this, if both are to be appealing to play, then one’s strengths & weaknesses should be complimented by those of the other), I took a look at the stats to see if that was really the case.

Here are the results:

Attack
Damage
AC
HP
Fighter Data
Barbarian Data

How I made these graphs:
For attack bonus I am including:

• weapon focus
  
• greater weapon focus
  
• weapon specialization
  
• greater weapon specialization
  
• weapon training
  
• barbarian rage
  

For the AC I am including:

• 10 + breastplate for the barbarian (highest armor possible while raging)
  
• 10 + full plate for the fighter
  
• armor training
  
• heavy shield
  
• shield focus
  
• greater shield focus
  
• barbarian rage
  
• max dexterity modifier
  

Notes:
- In all cases, the barbarian is considered to be raging.
- To tease out the core differences between the two classes, I didn’t include any bonuses that would be applied equally to both classes such as magical bonuses for armor and weapons and items, or strength modifiers.
- Dexterity does have a significant difference in the AC between the two classes, so I included the maximum dex that would be allowed to the class.
- I would have liked to include a rage power in there somewhere, but there just aren’t any that I could include in this kind of comparison.

So, what do we find out?

• The barbarian has a +2/+2 melee advantage over the fighter until level 5.
  
• After ~10 level the fighter has a better attack and damage bonus.
  
• The fighter always has a major advantage in AC over the barbarian.
  
• The barbarian always has a slight advantage in HP over the fighter.
  
• After 5th level, the fighter is superior to the barbarian in all ways.
  
• When survivability is considered, the damage output of the fighter is dramatically higher.
  
• The idea that the barbarian is a DPS class is false.
  

So, after all that, here’s my question: why include two similar melee-only classes where one is so markedly superior (mechanically) to the other?

I'm thinking about getting it but wanted to ask what you guys think first. It looks pretty good for the price but I'm kinda on the fence.
Here's the link.

If I had a product line that I was selling through on RPG Now & RPG Drive Through etc.. how would I go about selling it through Paizo as well?

With the way DCs work, the Summoner being basically 2 spell levels behind pretty much makes this class non-competitive in combat, spell wise. It's not really what I expected from a Summoner class - maybe that's not a bad thing - but it doesn't really fit thematically or mechanically with what I would want from a Summoner class either. It's more like an "I've got a weird monstrous pet" class.

I would have voted for dropping the ability to cast any of the standard spells and replacing them entirely with a host of Summoner-only summoning spells that are more level appropriate than the woefully underpowered monster summoning spells. Check out the summoning spells posted on the pathfinder database as an example.

How Should Paizo Do It Differently?

I was just reading through this excellent thread here and after a while I started to think about what is going to happen when Paizo comes to the inevitable point where they have to produce a Pathfinder 2nd Edition. It would have to incorporate system changes but, as we have seen, if these system changes are too dramatic they tend to split the community.

What advice would you give to Paizo about how to evolve the product line without fracturing/isolating the community?

The Text:

Channel Smite (Combat)
You can channel your divine energy through a melee
weapon you wield.
Prerequisite: Channel energy class feature.
Benefit: Before you make a melee attack roll, you can
choose to spend one use of your channel energy ability
as a swift action. If you channel positive energy and you
hit an undead creature, that creature takes an amount
of additional damage equal to the damage dealt by your
channel positive energy ability. If you channel negative
energy and you hit a living creature, that creature takes an
amount of additional damage equal to the damage dealt by
your channel negative energy ability. Your target can make
a Will save, as normal, to halve this additional damage.
If your attack misses, the channel energy ability is still
expended with no effect.

The Difference:
- Only effects 1 undead creature instead of every undead creature in a 30' radius.
- Chance to fail outright if you miss your melee attack where there was no chance before.
- You have to spend a feat to get this ... disadvantage?

The Question:
Enlighten me. Why/when would you ever use this?

I just posted a set of spells that define a new summoning system over here:

http://pathfinderdb.com/

:-)

Hello!

It looks like I have these two pre-order products waiting to be shipped together but that won't do! Can I have them each shipped immediately when they become available?

Thanks in advance,

-- Fatman

... a Pathfinder Charter Superscriber
... a Pathfinder Charter Subscriber
... everyone else?

Also, how many (and what) subscriptions are there? I count 4 total: modules, chronicles, adventure paths, and companion. Am I missing any?

Hi there,

I need to cancel my Pathfinder Modules subscription on this account please.

Never fear! I have another account with you where my other subscriptions are and once this cancellation is completed I'll subscribe again on it.

Thanks!

I'm sure this has been addressed before but I can't understand the reasoning behind the Conjuration specialist bonus being an armor bonus. It reads:

Specialist Bonus: You gain a +2 armor bonus to your Armor
Class. This bonus increases by +1 for every 5 caster levels you
possess, to a maximum of +6 at 20th level.

This means that it isn't until the wizard is at 10th level before his bonus just equals the 1st level mage armor spell - and until that time it doesn't stack with it because they are both armor bonuses. So it doesn't really make sense to even have it really.

Shouldn't this be a natural armor bonus instead?

I love the idea behind the new cleve feat in Pathfinder. It reads:

Cleave (Combat)
You can strike two adjacent foes with a single swing.
Prerequisites: Str 13, Power Attack, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: As a full-round action, make a single melee attack
against a foe within reach. If you hit, you deal damage
normally and can make an additional attack (at the same
bonus) against a foe that is adjacent to the first and also
within reach. Both of these attacks are made at your highest
attack bonus. You can only make one additional attack
per round with this feat.

But it seems like this would be a great place to make a differentiation between one-handed weapons and two-handed weapons. I propose that the feat should work the old way for one-handed weapons and this new way for two-handed weapons - i.e. one-handed weapons would require you to drop the first foe in order to get the attack on the second while a two-handed weapon functions as above.

Thoughts?

All the talk of being a career DM found over on this thread got me to thinking about what qualities “good” DM’s have that make them “good”. For me, a “good” DM is/has:

1) A real sense of fairness to the spirit of the rules when they are less than clear and doesn’t get caught up in the technicalities of the language or missing information.

2) A storyteller who brings the NPCs alive, paints the landscapes and locations in your mind, and “plays the world” with you.

3) Doesn’t railroad the PCs through his story, but instead lets the players create their own story through the world he/she brings to life.

What are some qualities that you think make a DM “good”?