The stupefied condition covers mental effects, imposing a conditional penalty on spell DCs as well as on Intelligence-, Wisdom-, and Charisma-based checks. It also requires you to attempt a special roll each time you cast a spell or else your spell is disrupted (meaning you lose the spell!).
I hope the failure results for Stunning Fist are cumulative, otherwise we could get into a situation where the monk uses Stunning Fist on a fighter to set up sneak attack for his rogue buddy, but the fighter critically fails. Then instead of being flat footed, he takes a penalty to spell casting that doesn't impede him at all?
My guess at Silent/Still is that they'll just replace the normal action for the other (so Silent makes your Verbal component an extra Somatic component). The benefit is being able to cast in silence, or cast while wearing armor or with your hands full, but no change to the number of actions required.
There's softballing and then there's douchebagging. I only give a 5% chance of night attack per night in ordinary 'dangerous wilderness.'
Extraordinarily dangerous wilderness (don't go into the tall grass!) Gets 1 out of 12 per night.
So you cut the standard by 2/3 to 3/4 and then treat the recommended encounter rate as douchebagging.
You softball, and thats fine, but you contribute to the ability of casters to have dominance over martials by doing so.
There are often specific suggestions for chance of an encounter in published APs, but the only real defined general information I can find is in Ultimate Campaign. It suggests that for a given day or hex of exploration, there's a 10% chance of encountering some form of hazard, or a 40% chance of encountering a monster encounter. It doesn't say that the monsters always strike at night, so assuming that all times of day are equally likely, that puts it at 13.3% chance of encountering a monster during an 8 hour period of rest (for a "standard" hex, some terrains modify this). The key takeaway here is that for a given day, random encounters aren't that likely, and even if you do need 8 hours of rest, and you get a random encounter some time in the middle, the expectation is that you wake up, deal with the problem, then go back to bed. According to the core rulebook's magic rules, this just adds 1 extra hour to the total rest time needed for a wizard to prepare their spells. The chances of another random encounter during that rest are likely small, so there shouldn't be much trouble.
And finally, if you're going to keep hammering your party with encounters every hour, you're not really having random encounters, but running an adventure that specifically is not allowing rest. That kind of play makes for a fun adventure from time to time, but that should impact all of your players by preventing them from replenishing daily resources as well as gaining fatigue from lack of sleep.
I think if your players are always grabbing this item to combat what looks like should be a rare problem, that points more at your GMing style than a problem with the core assumption. If it bothers you for your games, disallow the item (or increase the price) in your games.
Anecdotal Edit: When I played Reign of Winter, my elven wizard almost died one day because it was cold. He was caught without the proper clothing for cold weather, failed a string of saves and the party was forced to stop, make camp and devote effort to keep me alive. It was fun and a great story... for level 1. You can bet that as soon as I was able my wizard picked up the spells he needed to survive in that environment so he could laugh off a snowstorm later. For this example, if the GM just said "endure elements doesn't exist in this campaign because that invalidates the threat" how is that much different than saying "cold weather gear doesn't exist because it makes cold weather too easy" or "armor doesn't exist because then monsters aren't as big of a threat" or "alchemist fire and fireball and torches don't exist because otherwise trolls are too easy." Obviously, these sound absurd, but it's really the same issue. And if you want to make a game where the country is controlled by an evil troll empire and all forms of fire are illegal, then it would make sense for those things to be hard to come by, and it makes a cool story hook for searching them out.
You think a low level magic item that negates the need for food and water and allows you to sleep for 1/4 the normal amount of time contributes to caster vs. martial issues?
So do you also have problems with the create water cantrip? How about the sustaining spoon which can feed the whole party for just over half the cost of 4 rings? As for sleep, I'm pretty sure your barbarian and monk won't be very happy if they don't get their beauty rest, replenishing their rage and ki, not to mention slapping them with the fatigued condition for the day.
I think you're off base with the impact of this item, and what you really want is a low magic setting.
Im going to try not to be salty about this but when i brought that feat up people railed against it as just unbelievably feat heavy, and requiring at least 3 to be useable. On top of which its raise dead, which means you need the body, and missing bits dont come back etc etc.
That said, its probably too good of a feat, but i understand the balancing aspect, its forcing cha primary on a paladin, which makes their role as a martial combatant suffer, and they don't have the spell list to play as a caster. I disagree with the balancing aspect of it but its restricted practically if not by direct rules to a high level, alignment restricted class that all but requires you to commit (10 levels or lots of feats). Even then i kind of think its bad for the game, because as i pointed out when i was espousing it on the pf1 boards, the dynamic of adventures changes rapidly when you can simply raise that dead npc to get information and gratitude from them for a minor inconvenience (1 negative level).
Depending on your reading, a psychic with the Pain discipline may also qualify for the feat chain, as the Live On class feature explicitly grants you lay on hands and mercies as a paladin of lower level, and the Ultimate Mercy feat grants you an alternate way to consume the resource. Your GM may rule that the feat is bound by the restrictions that you can only use Lay on Hands on yourself, but I could see using the feat to experience the pain of someone else's death as fitting the theme.
In my own games, I find there's a good place in the middle for expensive death. If you return to town, you can get raise dead/whatever done for free, and clear away the negative
...
This is far FAR more GM control than simply a prohibitive gold cost
I wrote:
In general though, my players accept that it's a construct so we can all have fun playing the game without forcing someone to sit out during our limited play time.
Also, did you miss the part about the gold cost option still existing, there's just also a free option added on?
I'd like to see all material components be optional, expensive components. Something along the lines of 25-300gp for an additional effect.
Example time:
Cast fireball normally? Xd6 fire damage in an area.
Cast fireball while consuming Y alchemist fires? Xd6 fire damage in an area, and 1 target that fails its save catches on fire, taking 2d6 fire damage for Y rounds.
Cast disintegrate normally? LOTSd6 damage to a target.
Cast disintegrate while consuming a mithral mirror worth 500 gold? If the target hits, it bounces to a secondary target (new attack roll, new damage roll, targeting from the initial target's space). You can consume up to 3 mirrors, but each mirror takes an action to prepare prior to completing the spell.
Cast teleport normally? You and up to X willing targets appear at your chosen destination.
Cast teleport while consuming an hourglass filled with golden sand worth Yx1000 gold? You can cast teleport as a reaction, bringing up to Y willing targets.
Cast teleport while consuming an adamantine shackle worth 1000 gp? The target becomes touch and it can teleport a single unwilling target on a failed save. (crit save negates, save negates but staggers 1 round, crit fail also disables the target for 1 minute after arrival).
As for the discussion about raise dead/resurrection/true resurrection, I'm of the opinion that having your character die and not getting actions for a while is plenty "punishment" for failure. Having a high cost doesn't make the game more fun. You end up with one of three options:
It's too high for the party to pay, so the player has to make a new character
The cost is payable, but weakens the party and leads to more deaths
The cost is negligible, so why bother having it in the first place?
In my own games, I find there's a good place in the middle for expensive death. If you return to town, you can get raise dead/whatever done for free, and clear away the negative levels and other bad stuff but it
...
It depends on the campaign I'm running at the time. Often times, the free return to life magic isn't really free, but is the result of a rich patron that foots the bill to keep his heroes out fighting the bad guys. Other times, the magic is free, but is taxing and only a few people can do it, or only available specific large cities, so there's a limit on how many can be brought back within a certain time frame and large quantities of NPC death are often beyond total repair. Sometimes, resurrections really are unlimited, so the campaign can even be built around that (needing to recover the corpses of important people, old heroes, someone's dog, whatever).
The free version of resurrections don't become available to players though, so if they want to bring an NPC back to life, and the NPC controlling the free magic disagrees/isn't available/doesn't want to/is dead, the players are forced to make a choice about expending their resources to make a story decision.
In general though, my players accept that it's a construct so we can all have fun playing the game without forcing someone to sit out during our limited play time. It also fixes the problem of someone that spent 5 hours carefully writing their character's backstory and motivations doesn't have to scrap it just because I rolled a crit with a battleaxe in the first combat of the campaign. If the PC is dead, there's not really a choice between coming back to life or not playing the game.
I'd like to see all material components be optional, expensive components. Something along the lines of 25-300gp for an additional effect.
Example time:
Cast fireball normally? Xd6 fire damage in an area.
Cast fireball while consuming Y alchemist fires? Xd6 fire damage in an area, and 1 target that fails its save catches on fire, taking 2d6 fire damage for Y rounds.
Cast disintegrate normally? LOTSd6 damage to a target.
Cast disintegrate while consuming a mithral mirror worth 500 gold? If the target hits, it bounces to a secondary target (new attack roll, new damage roll, targeting from the initial target's space). You can consume up to 3 mirrors, but each mirror takes an action to prepare prior to completing the spell.
Cast teleport normally? You and up to X willing targets appear at your chosen destination.
Cast teleport while consuming an hourglass filled with golden sand worth Yx1000 gold? You can cast teleport as a reaction, bringing up to Y willing targets.
Cast teleport while consuming an adamantine shackle worth 1000 gp? The target becomes touch and it can teleport a single unwilling target on a failed save. (crit save negates, save negates but staggers 1 round, crit fail also disables the target for 1 minute after arrival).
Cast teleport while consuming a piece of the target's body that was removed within the last minute? The spell's range changes to unlimited, but on the same plane (per teleport's normal functionality), and the target must save or be teleported as in the adamantine shackle case.
As for the discussion about raise dead/resurrection/true resurrection, I'm of the opinion that having your character die and not getting actions for a while is plenty "punishment" for failure. Having a high cost doesn't make the game more fun. You end up with one of three options:
It's too high for the party to pay, so the player has to make a new character
The cost is payable, but weakens the party and leads to more deaths
The cost is negligible, so why bother having it in the first place?
In my own games, I find there's a good place in the middle for expensive death. If you return to town, you can get raise dead/whatever done for free, and clear away the negative levels and other bad stuff but it takes one or more days for the rituals. It's no fun watching other people play the game for hours while you mess around on your phone. This option is available except in remote wilderness settlements, but often returning to town without completing the current adventure has story penalties such as a villain escaping, or raising an army of undead, or whatever. If the party wishes to deal with death without fleeing to town, that's when they need to pay the big bucks (usually in the form of raise dead scrolls, which also make for desirable treasure).
This form of regaining life actually plays into my preferred material components described above, since you could have normal Raise Dead has a cast time of 8 hours, but with an expensive diamond, the cast time goes down to 2 or 3 actions.
9 times per day. Even though he doesn't receive it at first level, he still has the feat and is a monk. See Punishing Kick, Touch of Serenity, and Elemental Fist for similar examples. They each have a line about <insert archetype> receives the feat for free, then goes on to describe uses per day for a "monk". The normal syntax if it was limited to the archetype is to refer to the archetype name as the class.
However, do note that he never receives the standard monk's Stunning Fist class feature, so Stunning Fist will only ever inflict the stunned condition (though stunned is a pretty great condition).
The biggest piece of advice I can give for running a mythic game is to make sure to stretch your adventuring day. My players will often go a full level (or more) without an opportunity to rest, which is important because it means they occasionally run the risk of running out of their mythic power (and other resources). Spending 2 or 3 mythic power in a single round might be ok in high stakes boss fights, but that doesn't leave much for the other 8-15 fights they need to handle before they get a chance to replenish.
As a side note of that, the weak fights (the ones that are CR ~= APL, or even 1 lower), made up of several smaller enemies can become more important. A spell or mythic power used up there is one less available later on during the tougher fights. As the GM, you control the pace of the game, and the pace drives how important resource management is.
Bonus tip:
Try to occasionally add non-standard encounters. Having some encounters where the barbarian can just mow down high power targets is great, but giving an objective beyond just kill all the bad guys can make for fun fights and engage the whole table. As an example, I ran a module once where each round a device spawned a new enemy (with a stacking +1 to all rolls and AC). The party knew that the machine needed to be disabled, but didn't know that the supply of enemies was endless. They spent more than 10 rounds destroying the enemies before their "unhittable" paladin suddenly started getting hit, and they started missing. The whole combat dynamic suddenly shifted as they worked together to shut the thing down before they were overwhelmed. That type of encounter can be really fun and memorable when used sparingly, but remember not to overdo it or it becomes a drag.
I got my copy (downloaded it) and I'm reading it now. Well, scanning through it. The dragons are missing the simple template grafts for the metallics. Ah well. I guess it can't be perfect-o.
Anyway, I'm impressed with it so far. I might do a review.
Don't forget that the Alien Archive(s) will apparently be smaller annual books ;)
For the price I would of liked it to be a bit bigger. Regardless though it is a nice book and they do add new races and monsters with all the adventure path books so far so im fine with it. I just expected it to be a bit thicker for some reason lol.
Probably because it's half the size of Pathfinder's Bestiary (164 vs 328 pages).
I disagree with the design decision on monsters being fundamentally different from PCs, but that aside I do like the content in the book. There just isn't enough of it to justify a full price hard cover.
Unfortunately, this product line is probably going to get cut from my subscriptions soon since we need to tighten up the budget and this is looking to be lower value to dollar compared to APs.
The only feats supporting fighting with 2 weapons is multi-weapon fighting which only applies to operative weapons or small arms.
Otherwise, there is no mechanical benefit for holding 2 weapons of the same type, since there is no mechanism for two weapon fighting in starfinder (other than multi-weapon fighting).
Technically, there's also Fusillade which uses 4 small arms, but still, not the same thing as Two-Weapon Fighting from Pathfinder.
If you're feeling uncomfortable with the whole "ask a demon for help" thing, sun orchid elixir is a pretty good solution. It's quite expensive, and you'll need to keep drinking it if you want to stay young indefinitely, but it could do what you need.
Your GM could change the rules to allow each of you 2 actions each round, instead of the normal 1, so that 2 players fill out the expected 4 player's worth of actions.
Once you have determined the creature's role, it's time to add class levels. The first step of this process is to modify the creature's ability scores. Creatures with class levels receive +4, +4, +2, +2, +0, and –2 adjustments to their ability scores, assigned in a manner that enhances their class abilities. Creatures with NPC class levels do not receive adjustments to their ability scores.
DC = 10 + (1/2 Weapon Level) + Ability modifier used for your attack roll (typically STR or DEX) - any penalties applied to the attack (such as for full attack, shaken or range increment)
It's not exactly what you're looking for, but the lamia matriarch will get you close. Specifically, this ability:
Bestiary 2 wrote:
Spells A lamia matriarch casts spells as a 6th-level sorcerer, and can cast spells from the cleric list as well as those normally available to a sorcerer. Cleric spells are considered arcane spells for a lamia matriarch.
If the vendor sees it and can recognize it for what it is with a Kn. Religion she might be interested in buying it as is if perhaps she's a follower of Urgathoa? That could also put the graveknight in touch with some additional help, and both the graveknight and the merchant could become recurring villains.
For the sorceress, should be -1 hp and stable, rather than 0 hp (staggered).
For the barbarian, consider giving Ferocity and possibly Regeneration 1 while raging. This will allow him to continue fighting well into the negatives, but if he hasn't received substantial healing by the time he stops raging... dead dwarf.
For the gunslinger, what type of poisons? Consider a gp limit each day, limit 3-5 bullets/day, and any leftovers expire at the end of the day. Scale the gp limit with level (poisons normally range from ~50g to ~5000g per dose). Possibly split this into 2 abilities (#1 gives ability to have specialty poison bullets, #2 is X/day never miss, they can be combined as desired).
For rogue, as a full round action, attempt a bluff check to feint against a target they can see. If they succeed, they immediately teleport behind the target and make a melee attack (enemy denied their dexterity bonus as normal for a successful feint). If you like, the feint may automatically succeed against an unaware target (such as a lone guard on a wall in the middle of the night).
Here's an alternate option of Kazreh as a spiritualist instead of magus. He's very similar, just a slightly different feel and spell selection. I'm good with either one based on what's a better fit for the group. The features for this one are spell combat + ranged animate dead and manifesting a rhoka sword of crystallized blood on demand. The earlier version is more wizardy.
Spiritualist Kazreh:
Kazreh #2 CR 8
XP 4,800
Male urdefhan spiritualist (phantom blade) 7 (Pathfinder Player Companion: Psychic Anthology 4, Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2 276, Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures 72)
NE Medium outsider (native)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 120 ft.; Perception +15
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Defense
--------------------
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+3 armor, +2 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 94 (10 HD; 7d8+3d10+47)
Fort +12, Ref +7, Will +11
DR 5/good or silver; Immune death effects, disease, fear, level drain; Resist acid 10; SR 21
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee phantom rhoka sword +18/+13 (1d8+9/18-20) or
. . bite +10 (1d4+3)
Ranged composite longbow +10/+5 (1d8+4/×3)
Special Attacks blood drain (1 Con), spell combat, spellstrike, strength damage
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 3rd; concentration +5)
. . At will—feather fall
. . 3/day—align weapon, death knell (DC 14), ray of enfeeblement (DC 13)
Spiritualist Spell-Like Abilities (CL 7th; concentration +10)
. . At will—detect undead
. . 1/day—calm spirit[OA] (DC 14)
Spiritualist (Phantom Blade) Spells Known (CL 9th; concentration +12)
. . 3rd (2/day)—animate dead, force punch[UM] (DC 16)
. . 2nd (4/day)—ghoul touch (DC 15), inflict pain[OA] (DC 15), remove paralysis, stricken heart[ACG]
. . 1st (5/day)—chill touch (DC 14), discern next of kin[ACG] (DC 14), expeditious retreat, shield, touch of gracelessness[APG] (DC 14)
. . 0 (at will)—bleed (DC 13), detect magic, mending, open/close (DC 13), read magic, telekinetic projectile[OA]
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 24, Dex 14, Con 19, Int 12, Wis 17, Cha 14
Base Atk +8; CMB +15; CMD 27
Feats Iron Will, Power Attack, Reach Spell[APG], Spontaneous Metafocus[UM], Voracious Blade, Weapon Focus (rhoka sword)
Traits magical knack, wayang spell hunter
Skills Bluff +6, Climb +9, Intimidate +8, Knowledge (arcana) +8, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +8, Knowledge (engineering) +5, Knowledge (geography) +5, Knowledge (history) +5, Knowledge (local) +5, Knowledge (nature) +5, Knowledge (nobility) +5, Knowledge (planes) +8, Knowledge (religion) +7, Linguistics +5, Perception +15, Ride +4, Sense Motive +11, Spellcraft +8, Stealth +5, Survival +9, Swim +8, Use Magic Device +9
Languages Aklo, Goblin, Undercommon
SQ daemonic pact, etheric focus, phantom blade: alertness, phantom blade: ectoplasmic pool, phantom blade: phantom touch, phantom blade: quick manifest, phantom blade: reshape, phantom blade: telepathy, phantom blade: weapon of the mind, spirit of war
Other Gear studded leather, arrows (20), composite longbow (+4 Str), magus starting spellbook
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Special Abilities
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Blood Drain (1 Con) (Ex) Drain blood to inflict Con dam to foe grappled at end of your turn.
Daemonic Pact (DC 15) (Su) Urdefhans are infused with daemonic energy; as an immediate action, an urdefhan can attempt to allow this energy to consume its soul (50% chance of success per attempt). If it succeeds, the urdefhan dies and releases a 5-foot-radius burst of negative
Damage Reduction (5/good or silver) You have Damage Reduction against all except Good or Silver attacks.
Darkvision (120 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white only).
Energy Resistance, Acid (10) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Acid attacks.
Etheric Focus (Swift action) (Ex) Can center self more quickly.
Immunity to Death Effects You are immune to death effects.
Immunity to Disease You are immune to diseases.
Immunity to Fear (Ex) You are immune to all fear effects.
Immunity to Level Drain Immune to level drain
Phantom Blade: Alertness (Ex) Gain Alertness when wielding or harboring phantom weapon.
Phantom Blade: Ectoplasmic Pool (6/day) (Ex) Spend points to manifest/harbor weapon, att vs. touch AC 1 rd, or apply weapon powers for 1 min.
Phantom Blade: Phantom Touch (Ex) Constant ghost touch. Instead of breaking, weapon harbored in consciousness for 1 day.
Phantom Blade: Quick Manifest (Ex) Manifest phantom blade from consciousness as a swift action.
Phantom Blade: Reshape (Ex) Can choose new form for weapon when refreshing daily spells.
Phantom Blade: Telepathy (Su) The spiritualist can telepathically communicate with his phantom blade if it is worn or held.
Phantom Blade: Weapon of the Mind (Ex) 1 min store weapon in mind and gain unarmed strike enhance, full-rd to re-manifest blade.
Power Attack -3/+6 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Reach Spell You can cast a spell with a range of touch, close, or medium as one range category higher.
Spell Combat (Ex) Use a weapon with one hand at -2 and cast a spell with the other.
Spell Resistance (21) You have Spell Resistance.
Spellstrike (Su) Deliver touch spells as part of a melee attack.
Spirit of War (Ex) Gain several bonus feats, as though BAB were higher and full fighter levels.
Spontaneous Metafocus (Animate Dead) Apply metamagic to one spell and keep the standard casting time
Strength Damage (DC 15) (Su) An urdefhan's bite drains vitality, turning the skin and muscle around the wound transparent and causing 2 points of Strength damage unless the target succeeds on a DC 14 Fortitude save. The flesh remains transparent until the Strength damage is heal
Voracious Blade (4/day) You can channel your daemonic energies through the vile blade you wield.
And really not sure why I didn't think of this before, but I think I may restat Kazreh as a phantom blade spiritualist. Spiritualists get Animate Dead as a 3rd level spell...
Here's my first draft of Kazreh, an urdefhan magus.
Kazreh was the last remaining member of his cult following a run in with a doomed party of adventurers. While contemplating if he should return with news of his cult's failures, he felt a powerful malevolent presence calling out to him across the wastes. It felt similar to his people's daemonic patrons, and yet, somehow different. When he arrived, he was delighted to find that it was a powerful magical tower, and that it had powerful secrets to teach that he could use to inflict horrendous pain and destruction upon the living if he would serve loyally.
He was willing.
Kazreh:
Kazreh CR 10
XP 9,600
Male urdefhan magus 7 (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2 276, Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic 9)
NE Medium outsider (native)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 120 ft.; Perception +11
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Defense
--------------------
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+3 armor, +2 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 94 (10 HD; 7d8+3d10+47)
Fort +12, Ref +7, Will +9
DR 5/good or silver; Immune death effects, disease, fear, level drain; Resist acid 10; SR 21
--------------------
Offense
--------------------
Speed 30 ft.
Melee rhoka sword +13/+8 (1d8+13/18-20) or
. . bite +7 (1d4+6)
Ranged composite longbow +10/+5 (1d8+4/×3)
Special Attacks arcane pool (+2, 7 points), blood drain (1 Con), magus arcana (natural spell combat, spell blending [2 spells of lower level][UM]), spell combat, spell recall, spellstrike, strength damage
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 3rd; concentration +4)
. . At will—feather fall
. . 3/day—align weapon, death knell (DC 13), ray of enfeeblement (DC 12)
Magus Spells Prepared (CL 9th; concentration +13)
. . 3rd—force punch[UM] (DC 17), slow (DC 17)
. . 2nd—bladed dash, brow gasher[UC], frigid touch[UM] (2)
. . 1st—blade lash[ACG], blade tutor's spirit, burning disarm (DC 15), frostbite[UM], touch of combustion[ARG] (DC 15)
. . 0 (at will)—arcane mark, detect magic, open/close (DC 14), prestidigitation, read magic
--------------------
Statistics
--------------------
Str 24, Dex 14, Con 19, Int 18, Wis 13, Cha 12
Base Atk +8; CMB +12; CMD 27
Feats Cruelty, Iron Will, Power Attack, Siphoning Blade, Voracious Blade, Weapon Focus (rhoka sword)
Traits magical knack, reckless
Skills Acrobatics +10, Bluff +5, Climb +12, Intimidate +7, Knowledge (arcana) +14, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +14, Knowledge (planes) +14, Knowledge (religion) +14, Perception +11, Ride +7, Sense Motive +7, Spellcraft +14, Stealth +5, Survival +7, Swim +12, Use Magic Device +9
Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Goblin, Infernal, Undercommon
SQ daemonic pact, knowledge pool, medium armor
Other Gear studded leather, arrows (20), composite longbow (+4 Str), rhoka sword[UE], magus starting spellbook
--------------------
Special Abilities
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Arcane Pool +2 (7/day) (Su) Infuse own power into a held weapon, granting enhancement bonus or selected item powers.
Blood Drain (1 Con) (Ex) Drain blood to inflict Con dam to foe grappled at end of your turn.
Cruelty +2 morale bonus on atk/dmg rolls when you deal bleed, fear, pain, or reduce opponent below 0.
Daemonic Pact (DC 15) (Su) Urdefhans are infused with daemonic energy; as an immediate action, an urdefhan can attempt to allow this energy to consume its soul (50% chance of success per attempt). If it succeeds, the urdefhan dies and releases a 5-foot-radius burst of negative
Damage Reduction (5/good or silver) You have Damage Reduction against all except Good or Silver attacks.
Darkvision (120 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white only).
Energy Resistance, Acid (10) You have the specified Energy Resistance against Acid attacks.
Immunity to Death Effects You are immune to death effects.
Immunity to Disease You are immune to diseases.
Immunity to Fear (Ex) You are immune to all fear effects.
Immunity to Level Drain Immune to level drain
Knowledge Pool (Su) Spend Arcane Pool points to prepare a magus spell that is not in your spellbook for 1 day.
Medium Armor (Ex) Medium armor proficiency and no Arcane Failure chance in medium armor.
Natural Spell Combat (Bite) (Ex) You can use spell combat with selected attack, with +2 concentration bonus.
Power Attack -3/+6 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Siphoning Blade (4/day) When you use the Voracious Blade feat to deal Strength damage with your rhoka sword, you also drain the victim’s blood. The attack deals 1 point of bleed damage in addition to its normal damage, and you gain fast healing 2 for 3 rounds. You can use this ability only once against an individual creature in a 24-hour period.
Spell Combat (Ex) Use a weapon with one hand at -2 and cast a spell with the other.
Spell Recall (Su) Spend your Arcane Pool to recall spells you have already cast.
Spell Resistance (21) You have Spell Resistance.
Spellstrike (Su) Deliver touch spells as part of a melee attack.
Strength Damage (DC 15) (Su) An urdefhan's bite drains vitality, turning the skin and muscle around the wound transparent and causing 2 points of Strength damage unless the target succeeds on a DC 14 Fortitude save. The flesh remains transparent until the Strength damage is heal
Voracious Blade (4/day) When wielding a rhoka sword, you can channel your daemonic energies through the blade as a swift action, causing it to deal Strength damage as your bite attack. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum 1).
I think the tower is a fantastic and interesting idea. Perfectly scaleable to various power levels as the story flows, and great potential for a wide array of minions.
Buy a bag of holding and give it to the rogue. Then give all of the loot to the rogue for safe keeping. At the end of the adventuring day, the rogue splits it up and gives everyone their "fair" share. The rogue is the obvious choice because of her "mercantile connections."
So far, I have an idea for an evil mastermind goblin determined to wipe the plague of written words from the face of Golarion. Burning libraries, exploding arcane academies, that sort of thing. Possibly a magical ritual that causes a spreading curse that cause written words to be destroyed whenever they are read by someone with the curse.
If we want something a bit more serious, I'm still brainstorming delightfully convoluted evil plans that would be fun to pursue, and the nature of which would probably drive the character concept for the villain.
I'm just going to go the other way and say to pick up a level of Unchained Monk, Weapon Finesse, an amulet of mighty fists (possibly with agile) and call it a day. At level 12 (or sooner with a scroll) he can cast Transformation occasionally to mix it up in melee every once in a while to get a change in pace gameplay wise.
Now, he absolutely should do the things other people are saying about wands and scrolls and all the fun wizard stuff, but a one level dip won't kill him and he can occasionally change his play style a bit.
Note: If he wants monk punches to be a key part of his gameplay regularly, he'll need a bigger investment than what I've described.
Note 2: Karate chops > judo throws. Trying to succeed at combat maneuvers as mostly a wizard without extra extra help and specialization is just asking for disappointment. Hitting AC is much easier than beating a big creature's CMD. Also, maybe look at spells that can lower the enemy AC (or perhaps turn the wizard invisible or give some other advantage).
Oh dang. This looks like a cool game. If there's still time, I might try to put together a swashbuckler/vitalist or psion with the Bladed Brush feat that uses a glaive made of magical ice.
I'm partial to unchained monk with ascetic style for this type of build. You can gain the monk unarmed strike damage progression, and eventually do things like flying kicks (lunging strikes) with your fans.
Possibly take a 2 level dip into ninja to pick up poison use and Vanishing Trick for some spy tricks, if that appeals.
My first suggestion would be to do all of the work creating characters beforehand. Fully build and equip 5-7 characters to fit different themes before she arrives. When it comes time to play, give a rough description of each character's focus and abilities, and let her pick. After the game starts, if she's not having fun after a few combats, see if she'd like to swap to something else.
Knowing more about your sister would help as well. Does she like playing with complex rules systems? Does she want to just relax and toss some dice around? Does she have a preference to magic or mundane? Offense or support? I prefer to play wizards and greatly enjoy having many moving parts, but when I introduced my wife to the game, we found that she likes straight forward characters that hit things in the face with a weapon. She actually started with an archer to begin with, but eventually found that barbarian was her favorite since it was simpler and effective. Special Note: She almost gave up on the hobby until she played a truly amazing game of We Be Goblins Too, where the ridiculous antics of goblins had us all cracking up the whole night.
As for levels, I think somewhere in the 3-6 range is a good spot for getting enough flavorful abilities (and out of the 1 hit instant death zone), without getting too complex.
Suggestions for possible pregenerated characters based purely on complexity and ease of use for a newcomer:
1. Martials:
- Fighter (any level, built to use sword and shield, maybe TWF with shield bash?)
- Paladin (level 4 is probably a sweet spot, any weapon)
- Ranger (level 6, with a bow, pick about 40% of enemies are main favored enemy, 20% second, and a mix of the rest, level is important so don't have to deal with cover and shooting into melee rules)
- Barbarian (any level, big hammer or sword, good idea to have 2 character sheets, one raging and one nonraging to cut the amount of table math)
- Unchained Monk (I know you mentioned they don't exist, but mechanically the unchained monk is quite fun and easy to play, and level 5 gets very fun with flying kick)
2. Skills:
- Rogue (use unchained, and level 4, for adventure design, add multiple traps to highlight rogue skills, possibly opportunity for stealth)
- Bard (Level 4-5, pick easy spells and have enemies appropriate for their use, make sure there's something to do after inspire courage goes up like fight with a sword to prevent boredom, explain how to make knowledge checks to identify enemies)
3. Magic. For prepared casters, a list of prepared spells she can cross off as she casts helps. For spontaneous, check boxes for each level of spell. Helps highlight the difference:
- Wizard (level 5, evoker, with a couple utility spells and a handful of premade scrolls, give simple spell descriptions)
- Cleric (any level, Fire and Healing domains are great, balanced stats capable of wading into melee help give the flavor of the class well)
- Oracle/Sorcerer: (level 4 or 6, similar build to cleric/wizard, respectively)
- Druid: (level 4 or 6, include separate character sheet for wild shape with 1-3 animal options)
And with all that said, there are a number of publicly available pregenerated characters that are not bad available here at level 1, 4 and 7. The easiest to use characters are the fighter, rogue, cleric, sorcerer, paladin.
I would hope that interpreting the feat as a half-strength trait would let common sense kick in as being incorrect. Poor wording/development aside, the intent of the feat is to make it so that you treat the entry of "—" the first time it appears on your prestige class as "+1 level of existing spellcasting class."
It's pretty clear that's how it works the first time you take it. I think his questions is what happens when you select the feat more than once because it says (under Special) that increases "effective caster level" by 1.
-Skeld
It stacks.
That's fantastic and how I would have ruled it as a GM. Just wanted to draw attention to the wording so it could be addressed here instead of scattered across several heated forum debates.
I just got my copy and it seems to me that taking the Prestigious Spellcaster feat multiple times only increases your caster level, instead of giving you additional effective spellcasting levels. This might be a problem of poor wording (caster level vs. spellcaster leve vs. prestige class level vs. class level vs. character level D:), but as it is written now, it looks like subsequent uses of the feat are effectively a half strength Magical Knack.
Magic vestment should work to further enhance Armor of Bones from the Bones oracle. The ability actually conjures physical armor, it just has a limited duration, so permanent enhancement is not viable.
Also, if your goal is to boost your AC, don't forget to carry a shield.
From what I understand, the Test of the Starstone is supposedly different for each individual, possibly targeting their weaknesses and highlighting their strengths, but also potentially tailored to the type of deity that they would become if they are successful.
In order to answer this effectively, we'd need more information about the characters, in terms of mechanics, personality and goals. Are they all working together to find their way through? Is there any internal strife? What are the character's alignments?
To directly answer your question about traps, in the most general sense. Multiple traps stacked up, traps that make other traps or encounters worse, and traps in the middle of a standard combat are all good ways to make regular traps more interesting.
I'm a bit confused by the Invoker Witch. Are the various facets available to all patrons? Since patrons are generally a single word and a list of spells, there's not much guidance on what a given patron would grant.
What happens if you use the item to qualify for the prestige class and then in a few levels the item is dispelled/sundered/disjoined? Do you lose all of the levels you no longer qualify for?
Wyvern Style lets you Flurry with certain close range weapons and whips, makes your allies not provoke through movement against whoever you're Flurrying, and can take 5ft steps in the middle of their Flurry.
Isn't that a thing you can already do?
Core Rulebook, Combat, Full-attack wrote:
The only movement you can take during a full attack is a 5-foot step. You may take the step before, after, or between your attacks.
Core Rulebook, Monk wrote:
Flurry of Blows (Ex): Starting at 1st level, a monk can make a flurry of blows as a full-attack action.
Ah, my bad, missed a single very important number.
Wyvern Wing (the final feat) lets you take 2 5ft steps while flurrying.
