Search Posts
"Bloodline Arcana: Whenever you cast an evocation
The sorc in our group assumed this to mean that if there was no saving throw to be had, it counted as an automatic fail, and therefore this feature worked all the time. What say you, learned folk? :)
Just a quick question; On beasties like the Tarrasque, what exactly does the DR 15/Epic mean? Do the party need +6 or better weapons, or weapons that have abilities that add up to +6 or better? Or am I waaaay off :)
Do friendlies on the field provide cover to targets from ranged attacks? I only encountered this issue a couple of weeks ago and I can't find anything directly about it in the manual. I haven't even been using cover from npc's or pc's in general, though I'm about to start doing so, hence the request for a rule clarification :)
Does the "Protection from arrows" spell help against an alchemist's bombs? And does the extra damage from "Two-weapon rend" get added on to one of the weapons, or is is treated like an extra attack for the purposes of DR?
I've never really run it like this, but are ioun stones vulnerable to AOE things like fireballs and such? It doesn't say in the description that they aren't so I guess I can assume they would explode having only 10 hitpoints and 5 hardness.
Just a little curious about the description for the bombs in the advanced guide: It says that the alchemist puts some of his 'magical essence' into the concoction to make it work - does this mean that bombs count as magical, and are subject to spell resistance? Or is it just regular elemental damage? Oh, and does anyone think that they're a bit overpowered when they hit level 8, and can suddenly go from throwing 1 bomb a round to 4 bombs a round? (fast bomb ability, rapid shot + haste). The alchemist in my group suddenly turned into the most powerful character in the party ;)
During our friday night sessions, the players using a wizard or cleric class would often spend a long time at the start of the night just selecting their spells. This became an immense headache at higher level, so I've come up with these alternative rules to eliminate that impediment, and reduce bookkeeping. Basically, slightly less spells-per-day to cast, but they can cast anything they know in their spellbook. It doesn't clash with sorcerers, who get a lot more castings per day, with fewer choices. This is highly experimental, but we've had one session thus far using these rules and it seemed to work well (certainly the spellcaster was grateful for less bookkeeping!) The spells-per-day may seem a lot more limited, but with the flexibility you get, it seems like a fair trade. I seek your thoughts on this matter! Go to my site for details.
Hi all, big pathfinder fan here :D I've been running campaigns in my own world for a few years now, and designed a few custom classes to fill out areas that I felt were lacking. One of them has been thoroughly playtested by my avid group of players, but the other three, not so much. So, I was wondering if I could get some feedback from some of you chaps and chapettes :D You can find the classes on my site, here: http://www.aielundsaga.com/classes.html The spellblade (reworked 3.5 duskblade) is the one that's been played almost all the way through to level 20 (the player is at 16th now), but the other three have yet to be properly tested. So, if you've the time and inclination, have a look and see what you think. I'm mostly concerned about balance, being too strong/weak etc. Arr!
I saw it mentioned somewhere that a Ranger's favoured enemy damage bonus counts as precision damage, though I can't find this in the player's guide. Is this correct? And if so, whereabouts is it in the rules?
Just looking for some clarification on the flanking rules, concerning what constitutes threatening a square. If a defender is surrounded on opposite sides by attackers, but attacker No. 2 is fighting a different target that round, is he still threatening the defender if his actions and attention are elsewhere? Just seems to me a staggered peasant armed with a butter knife +1 could stand behind the defender and still provide the flanking bonus to another attacker opposite him even if the peasant spends the round buttering a slice of bread instead of paying any attention to the defender at all. And I also thought of the teamwork feats, seems to me both individuals would have to be actively engaged against the defender (using teamwork!) to get that bonus. So yeah please offer advice on this one, I get that the rules read that you threaten every square around you, just doesn't clearly stipulate that to threaten something you have to be doing something to that target or not. Erg, confused!
It's my understanding that Pathfinder underwent extensive playtesting before release, yes? I have to wonder if they even tried out the Paladin, because I have someone playing one in my campaign and whoever tweaked the paladin rules is *nuts*. Let me explain. I've got 4 players in my group, a fighter, rogue, draconic sorcerer (going for dragon disc.) and a paladin. They just got to level 7, but I'll speak of the lower level adventures they've had thus far. If the party encounters a group of neutral monsters, or mercenaries it's a nicely balanced party. No-one is too powerful or underpowered (nice job to the authors, seriously good balance here.) However, when the Big Bad guy at the end is evil (as villains so often are), the paladin does his smite evil and effectively gains 5 or more levels. He has 20 CHA (started with an 18, +2 for human), so that's +5 to hit, +5 AC, (lets say he's level 6 in this example) +6 damage to hit with no chance of any DR stopping it. I could live with all that, but the fact it stays on the target until it's dead (or the paladin decides to go have a nap) is insane. What was a nicely balanced adventure suddenly turns into "Paladin ruins it for everyone else by killing the climactic villain in 3 rounds FLAT". I go and put a CR 11 black dragon in, the party is all level 6. I'm pretty sure they can take it, but it'll probably be challenge.
Paladin does divine favour and makes his weapon +1, and then does smite evil - BOOM! Go get your shine box boy! +12 damage to every attack. He's using a greatsword so that's 2d6+22 damage altogether on every single hit, and god forbid he gets a critical hit. The others might as well go whoring and just throw the Paladin at every evil villain they encounter. And the real danger here is that to challenge the paladin, I have to put in a huge monster that would normally obliterate a ECL 6-7 party, so it renders everyone almost useless (at best) or fodder (at worst). DR that stymies other party members the paladin glides through. Every. Single. Time. It's not the CHA bonuses that are ruining the balance, it's the massive damage bonus (combine it with the bonded weapon feature and spells and we're talking retarded levels of damage). I mean, it's not like there's a decent protection spell or ability against it. Protection from good. That's about it. So here is my house rule: Smite evil works on 1 attack per use. The AC bonus lasts until the start of your next round, but otherwise Smite evil can only be used a number of times per day equal to half your paladin level (minimum 1). This may still be overpowered, but I'm going to try it out this friday night and see how it goes. Having seen the effectiveness of the paladin, I've resolved to play one in every campaign where evildoers lurk (unless this house rule is used). Anyone who doesn't needs their head checked :P Just imagine if he gets a holy sword and gets all that SR as well... Any other GM's having trouble with paladins mopping the floor with their carefully constructed campaigns? |
