Heymitch's page

I was fiddling around with a bit of theory crafting in the past week or so, and I've been focused on Necromancy as of late. Here's what I came up with:

Start with a Half-Elf Oracle, and choose to spontaneously cast Inflict spells. Take the Ancient Lorekeeper and Black-Blooded Oracle archetypes.
Pick a Mystery that works for you (I went with Lunar).

Ancient Lorekeeper replaces your bonus spells with spells of your choice from the Sorcerer/Wizard list (although you cast them as one level higher). Now, your character doesn't channel, but he does spontaneously cast Inflict spells, which he can use to heal himself thanks to the Black-Blooded Oracle archetype.

You can pick up some additional Necromancy spells from Ancient Lorekeeper, such as Touch of Fatigue, Chill Touch, Spectral Hand, Vampiric Touch, and Enervation. Spectral Hand lets you deliver touch spells from Medium range (without a Rod of Reach, but by all means pick one of those up as a backup). Now you're delivering Chill Touch, Vampiric Touch, Inflict Spells, Bestow Curse, and Poison from more than 100 feet away.

Black-Blooded Oracle gives access to Dark Resilience, which allows for a limited number of re-rolls of failed saves vs. poison, paralyzation, disease, death effects, energy drain, and ability drain, all with a +4 circumstance bonus. It can also grant Darkvision, if you like. It also grants us cold resistance, and eventual immunity.

Lunar Mystery gives us access to Prophetic Armor (Cha to AC and Reflex saves, instead of Dex). We'll probably want to pick up the Noble Scion of War feat at first level, to give us Cha to Initiative, too.

Other nice revelations include Primal Companion, which is really fun for a necromancer. Now when our critter dies, we can keep him around as a Bloody Skeleton, and then go get a new one.

Once we get access to Mass Inflict spells, the revelation Touch of the Moon is awesome, adding a confusion effect with a scaling DC against anyone damaged by our Inflict spells.

I basically love necromantic characters, but I'm not a fan of walking into the midst of a bunch of brutish bad guys with a Death/Undead Cleric and channeling for damage (mainly because I hate it when a dozen or so not-quite-dead guys decide to return the favor). This build lets me play something that has more of a Sorcerer feel to it while getting access to the cleric list, and I get to display the bravery that comes from being safely out of reach.

Also, as a Half-Elf, it gets a leg up on the Eldritch Heritage feat chain, and it get's a FCB of Extra Spells Known.

Anyone have any other Oracle concepts that make use of Ancient Lorekeeper?

From the Samsaran section of the Advanced Race Guide:

Spirit Memories (Su): Once per day, you call upon the unfulfilled desires and goals of your past lives and project their frustration and despair through your eyes at a target. This is a gaze attack affecting one creature. The target

must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your oracle level + your
Charisma modifier) or be sickened and staggered for 1
round. This is a mind-affecting compulsion effect. You
can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 +
your Charisma modifier. You must take this revelation at
1st, 3rd, or 7th level.

Which is correct? Once per day? Or 3 + Cha mod times per day?

I was just wondering if anyone else has encountered a large number of broken minis in the Shattered Star set?

I had very good luck with Heroes & Monsters and Rise of the Runelords, getting only one broken mini in each series (with 3 to 4 cases of each).

With 2 cases of Shattered Star, I wound up with 15 broken figs:

2x busted Iron Golems, one missing an arm, one missing his head...
Hill Giant ripped off it's base...
Dullahan missing an arm...
2x Night Hags missing arms...
Shriezyk with busted legs...
Mite On Spider with a busted spider leg...
Koriah Azmeren missing an arm...
Medium Fire Elemental snapped in half...
Lem, Halfling Bard snapped off his base...
4x Portioques snapped off their bases.

I'm waiting for my next game day (Friday) to open my 2 Huge Blue Dragons (they shipped a bit later than the cases), but I hear an ominous sound of tiny pieces rattling inside the package, so I think something may be broken off there as well.

I'm not sure if they've gone with different plastics, but the figures seem much more fragile than the previous sets.

Also, does anyone have any idea how long it generally takes WizKids to add a new set to their replacement product page?

Does a Doppelganger's Change Shape ability, which is supposed to work like alter self, grant a +2 size bonus to Strength when disguised as a Human (or any other Medium humanoid creature)?

I've long thought that Metamagic Rods were a little too good, particularly since they don't increase the level of the spell slot required to cast with them.

I was talking earlier today with my GM, and we came up with this...

What if Metamagic Rods allow you to cast a spell (3 times per day) as though you possessed the appropriate Metamagic Feat, but they increased the level of the spell.

If you already possess that same Metamagic Feat, then they allow you to cast a spell (3 times per day) without increasing the spell level (in essence, working like they do now).

Anyone have any thoughts about this?

Seems like another element needs to be in place for prepared casters, though...

My group doesn't play adventure paths or modules, and we don't use monsters straight out of the bestiaries.

My GM optimizes the bad guys similarly to the way the players optimize their characters (which, frankly, is how I like it).

One thing that's come up in our latest campaign is the use of a jungle setting called the Verdant Shore, with lots and lots of poisonous critters.

Under Pathfinder, the neutralize poison spell requires the caster to make a caster level check against the DC of the poison.

The problem is that it's fairly easy to pump up the save DC on a monster's poison (add racial HD, increase Con score, Ability Focus). If you're a fan of templates, it gets even worse.

It's not very easy to increase your effective caster level, though. That means there's plenty of instances where neutralize poison just doesn't work. For example, we have a 9th level Oracle who can cast neutralize poison, and we're encountering poisons with a DC 26 Fort save. She basically has a 20% chance of successfully countering the poison. It's usually just as effective to take three rounds to cast Lesser Restoration on the victim to give him a couple of ability points back, and hope the poison doesn't kill him.

It gets worse with items like potions, wands, and scrolls that have minimum caster level. At CL 7, a wand would only have a 10% chance of eliminating the poison. Frankly, the victim is reasonably likely to simply die while you're repeatedly casting neutralize poison on him.

I realize that encounters that take creatures straight out of the Bestiaries, or used published adventures, are unlikely to see this happen as much, however...

Even a real-world poison like hemlock has a DC 18 Fort save. A minimum CL caster or item would have a 50% chance of neutralizing the effect of the poison. Unless, of course, the victim ingested several doses (yet another way to increase poison DC), in which case it could be significantly less.

In our game, we've actually gone back to the 3.5 version of neutralize poison. Our GM especially doesn't want items like wands, scrolls, and potions to be useless.

Anyone else encounter problems with the changes to the way poisons work?

I know that there have been some complaints about Paizo’s editing of their rulebooks lately. It seems as though people’s reactions to these posts have been mixed, with some posters agreeing that it is a major problem, and some arguing that other posters were overreacting. I wanted to tell my story, and explain the heartbreak that Paizo’s editing errors have caused me, in the hope that it will speed the whole healing process for me.

I was reading through Ultimate Combat when I discovered a misused semicolon. I can vividly remember the first moment I saw it (I won’t insult anyone on these boards by pointing out where it was, but trust me, it was glaringly obvious). After the tightness in my chest subsided, and I was able to use a paper bag to return my breathing to normal, I realized that the shock of it all had been enough to burst a blood vessel in my right eye. I still sometimes wake up screaming, and I can’t bring myself to eat pie, because it sounds too much like Paizo.

Now, I imagine that things are pretty hectic over at the Paizo offices right about now. Everyone is probably running around in a panic, especially since I dropped this bombshell about the semicolon. Bob the Intern (you know, that quiet, recently hired guy with a love of Japanese culture) has probably just grabbed a knife from the associate lounge and committed seppuku to escape the shame of it all.

At least one of you Paizo guys (I’m betting Mona) has probably just come up with a plan to blame the whole editing mess on poor Bob. “Let’s just say that Bob was in charge of all semicolons. Who’s to say otherwise? What’s the matter? Too soon?”

I think it goes without saying that the errant semicolon not only makes Ultimate Combat completely unusable, but it taints the entire Pathfinder line. If you think it through, I think that you’ll realize that there was only one rational thing I could do in response to the semicolon.

I bought a large chipper shredder and fed all of my Pathfinder books into it (including the Adventure Paths, Companions, Campaign Setting, and Modules). This resulted in piles of Pathfinder mulch that I was able to collect into a number of large Ziploc bags. I contacted the Russian Space Agency, and I paid a sizable sum to have the resulting mulch rocketed into the sun. What else could I have possibly done?

I’m not going to cancel any of my Pathfinder subscriptions. I think that would send the wrong message. I will continue to feed new titles into that chipper shredder as soon as they arrive on my doorstep and, of course, have them rocketed into the sun.

By the way, if there are errors in this post, please understand that English is not my first language. I was raised by coyotes (not the people smuggling kind, the furry ones).

I want to thank the users of these message boards for letting me vent my hurt. I tried talking to my dad about it, but he just howled and licked his testicles.

I highly recommend this product, and all off the map products by Christopher West. These maps really are superb.

Also, he's just announced a Kickstarter project for Mass Transit III (a new 22x34 double-sided poster map) and Surveillance Station (a tile set for building remote outposts).

I don't know Mr. West personally. I just like his maps. A lot.

The link to his Kickstarter project is here.

Nick Logue has been promising that any customer that wanted a refund for pre-orders of Razor Coast or Ebon Shroud (or any of his other promised, but non-existent titles) would get their money back.

I'm calling him out.

I contacted Nick by e-mail at loguen@essex.ac.uk multiple times since March 6th to obtain a refund for Ebon Shroud. There's been no refund, or even any acknowledgment from him that he was working on the problem (for nearly three weeks). I have made 4 separate follow-up attempts to contact him about this matter.

Here's what Nick had to say in another thread on this board on March 7th:

Those concerned about refunds - just email me at loguen@essex.ac.uk and I'll process those for you as quickly as possible - I'm slowly slogging my way through them all, but its a load of looking up order histories so its taking longer than I would have liked. Sorry for the delays on the repays! Shoot me an email and I will sort you all out! No refund left behind!

Nick

As a result of Nick's lack of response, I'd decided to also ask for a refund on Razor Coast (I e-mailed him on 3/22). It's only been three days but, of course, there has also been no response.

I understand that that there's a lot involved in producing a quality gaming product. I can understand how, even with the best of intentions, some products would just never materialize.

However, Nick accepted money for these non-existent products. Also, the work involved in issuing a refund would seem to be a lot less daunting than publishing one of these titles.

I can accept an endless stream of excuses as to why a product couldn't be completed, but why can't a refund be completed? Just how much slogging and looking up order histories is really involved? I was able to find all of the relevant e-mails from Sinister Adventures from 08/30/09 with about 6 seconds of "slogging" on my part. I even quoted the body of those e-mails in my messages to Nick.

So, Nick, where's my money?

On page 297 of the bestiary it states that "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".

If you add class levels to a creature that also has a template applied, for example Half-Fiend, are these attribute adjustments intended to stack with the ability score adjustments they receive from the template?

Are attribute adjustments from multiple templates intended to stack as well?

It seems as though they do, which would also seem to produce extremely powerful versions of monsters without necessarily raising their CRs significantly enough.

For example...

Bugbear [CR 2]
Str 16, Dex 13, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 9
HD 3d8+3 HP 16
AC 17 (+2 armor, +1 Dex, +3 natural, +1 shield)
Base Atk +2 Melee morningstar +5 (1d8+3)

Half-Fiend Bugbear [CR 3]
Str 20, Dex 17, Con 17, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 11
HD 3d8+9 HP 22
AC 20 (+2 armor, +3 Dex, +4 natural, +1 shield)
Base Atk +2 Melee morningstar +7 (1d8+5)

Half-Fiend Bugbear Fighter 1 [CR 4]
Str 24, Dex 19, Con 21, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 9
HD 3d8+1d10+20 HP 39
AC 20 (+2 armor, +4 Dex, +4 natural, no shield)
Base Atk +3 Melee heavy flail +10 (1d10+10)

Advanced Half-Fiend Bugbear Fighter 1 [CR 5]
Str 28, Dex 23, Con 25, Int 16, Wis 18, Cha 13
HD 3d8+1d10+28 HP 47
AC 24 (+2 armor, +6 Dex, +6 natural, no shield)
Base Atk +3 Melee heavy flail +12 (1d10+13)

When you factor in Immune poison, Resist acid 10, cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10, SR 16, DR 5/magic, special attacks, and a Fly speed, is that really a CR 5 monster? I'm pretty sure he could kick a Hill Giant's butt (at CR 7).

Granted, the Half-Fiend template is powerful (and always was in 3.5, too), but it still seems that stacking templates on creatures gets a little too good.

Of course, the Hill Giant has reach, so we should probably make him a Giant Advanced Half-Fiend Bugbear Fighter 1...oh, and he should invest in a mithril breastplate, now that his Dex is only 21...

Giant Advanced Half-Fiend Bugbear Fighter 1 [CR 6]
Str 32, Dex 21, Con 29, Int 16, Wis 18, Cha 13
HD 3d8+1d10+36 HP 55
AC 29 (+6 armor, +5 Dex, +9 natural, -1 size, no shield)
Base Atk +3 Melee large heavy flail +13 (2d8+17)
Size Large Space/Reach 10 feet

Don't get me wrong. I really like what Pathfinder did with simple templates, especially the quick rules/rebuild rules. I just wonder if they're too cheap an increase to the creature's CR (although now it's easy to build a Kobold who'll clean up in a bar fight, and who doesn't want that)?

Anyone?

Hi,

I just noticed that my 2 copies of the Bestiary are going to be in my sidecart until sometime in November. Is it too late to break out my non-subscription copy and ship it by itself UPS Ground?

Thanks in advance!
Mitch G

If I had known when I placed my orders for the Core Rules that the 30 bucks or so that I was paying for 2-day shipping would (by Paizo's own shipping policies) offer no benefit whatsoever, I would surely not have bothered.

Apparently, the less you pay for shipping, the sooner your copy ships. So people are already starting to get their copies, while neither of the copies I ordered have shipped yet, and the one with 2-day shipping hasn't even had a notice that it is due to ship any time soon. That's freaking ridiculous!

I'm not someone who posts to the boards my annoyance with some minor change or lack of minor change in the announced ruleset, but this whole situation is one that merits a rant from me.

I've subscribed to every service Paizo offers, partly for the pdf files, but mostly to show my support for the company. I could get all of these things much cheaper (and with free shipping) through Amazon or some other online source, but my subscriptions help support the company. So, where does Paizo get off cavalierly wasting my money to no benefit. Why did they even offer expedited shipping on this book, if the extra expense only meant your books would be shipped later than everyone else?

I'm thoroughly disgusted.