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From the PRD:

Once per day, a paladin can call out to the powers of good to aid her in her struggle against evil. As a swift action, the paladin chooses one target within sight to smite. If this target is evil, the paladin adds her Cha bonus (if any) to her attack rolls and adds her paladin level to all damage rolls made against the target of her smite.

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If I read this correctly, it seems that a paladin could make ranged smites with a bow or a javelin (which for instance is a thing that I'd LOVE wholeheartly).

What do you think about the matter?
Thanks! :)

Hi there!
two fast tule questions:

-I've just noticed that the paragraph about barbarians's change of alignment is missing. What does officially happen now to a barbarian that becomes LAWFUL? Is it up to the DM?

-Is there a table that contains every single animal on the bestiary suitable for becoming a druid's (or ranger's or paladin's etc) companion? It would be useful!

Thanks a lot!

Hi there!

So, Pathfinder has clarified the full round/standard/swift/immediate stuff. But there's an important issue: how many PF revised classes actually have powers and class features that ARE swift or immediate actions? Casters have, or MIGHT have (thanks to metamagic feats), but apparently there aren't (or there are FEW) CORE spells that require these types of actions, plenty of which appear in non core sources such as spell compendium and phb 2.

The matter is even worse for non caster dudes... Apart of the new barbarian rage abilities, many of which are actually swift/immediate actions, fighters and rogues have nothing. I strongly suggest the introduction of feats/abilities that hallow all classes to get advantage from these mechanics. Tome of battle is an example of what I'm stating. There's a whole range of maneuvers with very variable Initiating time, from immediate to full-round action.

If it's already implemented in the new spell/feat/class features system, don't mind this post.

Hi everyone!

I've always been a huge fan of chariot runs, flying firing ships and naval wars, so I was thinking about wether PF will include or not a clever system (or at least some advice) about vehicle combat, vehicle stats, vehicle weapon damage, etc.

Also a massive battles system would be great (vehicles or not). I've seen many DM who used swarm rules for the soldiers squads... In my opinion it's the right approach, but I'd be glad to see a bit of officiali ruling ;)

Thanks!

Hi. In the main thread I could write only one of these points. Here I'm writing the others too.

-Make easier to accomplish combat maneuvers. DC=10+CMB. Even a combatant without the relative feat should be able to try a maneuver. By now, he's simply hopeless...and so? attack, attack and still attack. BOOORING!
-Casters doesn't REALLY need the ability to cast into a grapple.
-Spellcraft to cast defensively...sigh... Ok, but at least the DC should be 10+spell level+CMB of threatening opponents.
-Vancian casting? I can live with it... but please make possible (even via feat or class ability, your decision) to exchange N levels of spells memorized in order to cast an higher level spell memorized and viceversa (similar to monte kook's arcana evolved magic system)
-Adjust damage spells, so they become a viable option in combat. Actually they aren't, especially with the many hit point boons...
-Every class should have at least 4 skill points per level. Skill points ARE AN INFINITE ROLEPLAYING SOURCE.
-Trapfinding should be a feat, like 3.5 Track
-There has to be a high level feat that grants pounce or similar ability. What's the point in having a zillion of attacks if you can't use them?
-Social skills should be totally functional against PCs. The party's rogue with Bluff +30 MUST REALLY be able to persuade the party's paladin about his innocence, even if the rogue's player never finds decent arguments. No stupid metagaming among players.
-Make possible for fighters to improve their will save...bravery isn't enough
-Assassins should cast their spells, now they're really ineffective assassins, at least in the archetypical magic world.
-Adjust schools, domains and bloodlines power level.

Thanks an good luck for your amazing work.

Hi!

I come with another suggestion. My experience with d20 and pathfinder have persuaded me that trapfinding should be a feat. I like the concept of classic as "generic templates" and I hate stereotypes. Should every rogue be a trapfinder? Even a rogue diplomat? a rogue that lives by pick-pocketing? a rogue assassin?

So, I'd be glad that every characters with ranks in the right skill could be able to find traps, like a character with the track feat and survival skill was able to find difficult tracks in 3.x

Anyway, I also think that trapfinding should be inserted in the rogue powers list/bonus feats.

Thanks.

Hi everybody.

I come with a suggestion (sor/wiz 3) :D

I'm glad about the skill consolidation, but I think there's still an important issue...

Everybody knows that a conflict in Pathfinder is solved trough combat. But it isn't always the case... At least it isn't always the case in the adventures I run as DM.

I often see players that would like to use their social abilities (such as diplomacy or bluff) against other players. The rules explicitely say that they can't, because players must be free to do what they want.

I disagree at all. Please make ALL skill checks work against pcs. It would be GREAT if the party's rogue could legally persuade the paladin that he actually isn't guilty of the city bank robbing.

In these cases, I always see bad metagaming tendences among my players, because many people aren't capable of distinguish between "what player knows" and "what character knows", and it sometimes happens that strong characters are able to push weak character's players'will.

In other words, I'd appreciate a mechanic of conflict resolution which combat isn't involved in and whose result everybody has to respect. In other words, for example, if the paladin manages to persuade the evil party's wizard with a CD 30 diplomacy check that he'd better not to kill his defeated enemies, the wizard should obey, at least for that scene. More in general, I'd appreciate social rules on wich DMs CAN'T applicate their fiat.

Personally, I try to respect existing social rules, but I've just seen too many bards (rogues, paladins, etc.) succeeding in DC 50 diplomacy checks thanks to their precious skill points, who later have been attacked by the enemy because "the DM judged so because diplomacy in subject to MY PERSONAL ABSOLUTE FIAT".

It would be a modern way to solve many practical problems! :)

Hy everybody.
I'm Mattia from Italy, I've played and DMed 3.x from its first days. The system is GREAT on its own, but your updates are definitely water in the desert for me.
I'd like to help you by writing all my ideas about it and my personal suggestions (no, I don't mean that broken CORE spell :D)

Point by point:

-Races are LOVELY. really. Now you should just complete the circle. You could for every race introduce examples of races variants (e.g. grey elves, drows) and their powers. then you could put in the feat chapter a list of decent racial feats for further exploration of their flavour. I've always screwed racial substitution levels, but racial feats are great!

-Classes: I LOVE them all! I suggest for every class to introduce one or two variants (unearthed arcana style), to make them more customizable. For example, rogue without sneak attack, paladin of an evil deity, battle sorcerer/wizards UA style, etc. please keep the enemy bonus for the rangere unaltered, or at least let him keep growing bonuses against all his enemies, like 3.5 system. You should also give all classes an epic progression (forget about it if you plan to rewrite epic levels rules, wich I greatly recommend...)

-CORE prestige classes. They should be rewritten, to reflect changes in the core classes. Please change arcane archer and dragon disciple to give them some caster levels, for example.

-Combat: Great ideas, your CMB is sweeeeet! But executing maneuvers is very hard. I suggest to reduce the difficult of checks to 10+target CMB. OR improve the feat bonus to +4, like it was in 3.5. I suggest also rules for class bonus to armor class and armor that give less AC bonus but also damage reduction to their wearer.

-You've fixed sneak attack. I suggest to fix also critical hits in the same fashion.

- skills: great job. Maybe fly isn't so useful...

-Feats: Uhm... I don't really like the new expertise and power attack. Please rethink them... experise is the worst. and deadly aim is a great idea, but it suffers of the same issues. Wether it's possible, you should make feats that scale with level, or at least that keep their power unaltered at every level (unless you plan to introduce retraining mechanics). Overland chop and cleave for example are jokes... Ah, please remove the "one combat feat for round" limit. Fighting classen don't need nerfing. ah, please make the "fighter dex based" a viable option also for damage (ex. "deadly aim" feat for dexterity-based melee warriors).

-You could also rethink feats useful for multiclass PC, such as practiced spellcaster, daring outlaw and similar. You could give for examples a TOBbish flavour to their class powers. ex a multiclass fighter/wizard caster level for purposes of spell effect only improves by 1 for 2 noncaster levels he has.

-Spells: great job with polimorph and others world-breaking spells. But you could do better. Please nerf some other divinations (a.k.a. no secrets for priests) and enchantment school, from the firs levels. With a careful use of charme person you could conquer the world...or become the world's richest PC...etc. Suggestion, dominate xxx etc are often worse than save or dies... save or die later and make some other pc die too!! ps. The 2nd level ability of magic domain is unuseful with the "0 level spells at will" feature.

-Check spells that give bonus to ability checks. (ex glibness, but also jump, etc :P). Skills are important, don't make skillful characters feel unuseful against casters...

-check damage spells: they're ridicolous at lower levels and enormous at higer ones... consider the impact of metamagic feats and of feats like "easy metamagic" and "arcane thesis"... BOAMMMM!

-I've read you won't KILL jack vance and his spell style, so I won't ask you to introduce spell points... But I use and really apreciate them. My players too!

-Please check magic objects and their cost. You're already doing it, it was mandatory... good job!

-Monsters: Great job with CR handling, but you know, they're grossly flawed... you should retink them and create a comparative table of CR an level adjustments of the various critters on MM. LEP +8 for vampires? Whaaaat? I'd love a section full of savage progressions for the most famous powerful races, such as half-dragons, drows, etc.

THE END! Thanks for your attention, you guys are great!