The Eldritch Scoundrel Rogue. Magical tricksters will never not be fun.
The Drunken Master Monk. A dizzying flurry of blows that leaves everyone, even the monk, off balance is a great visual.
The Construct Rider Alchemist. I mean, come on. Who doesn't want to ride a metal dragon that breathes explosives?
The Thundercaller Bard. Stunning enemies with empowered cries of STOP BEING AN A~%%!*$ has been one of my more entertaining gaming experiences.
The Arrowsong Minstrel Bard. This is the only archetype that really caught a Robin Hood vibe in my opinion. Using a Tuned Bowstring to have my bow sing a song of battle is also just cool.
So, kind of an odd question. Water Dancer Monks from Ultimate Wilderness get this ability:
Nereid's Grace:
Nereid’s Grace (Su): When unarmored and unencumbered, a water dancer adds 1 point of Charisma bonus per monk level to his Armor Class as a dodge bonus. If he is caught flat-footed or otherwise denied his Dexterity bonus, he also loses this bonus. He uses his Charisma score instead of his Wisdom score to determine the size of his ki pool and the DC and effects of monk class features. This replaces the bonus feat the monk normally gains at 1st level.
The odd thing is that neither this ability nor any other the Water Dancer gets replaces AC Bonus. Nereid's Grace makes it so you use your Charisma instead of your Wisdom to determine the effects of Monk class features, like AC Bonus. Nereid's Grace's bonus to AC is a dodge bonus while AC Bonus is a direct addition to AC. Here's the relevant FAQ about ability score stacking:
Do ability modifiers from the same ability stack? For instance, can you add the same ability bonus on the same roll twice using two different effects that each add that same ability modifier?:
No. An ability bonus, such as "Strength bonus", is considered to be the same source for the purpose of bonuses from the same source not stacking. However, you can still add, for instance “a deflection bonus equal to your Charisma modifier” and your Charisma modifier. For this purpose, however, the paladin's untyped "bonus equal to her Charisma bonus (if any) on all saving throws" from divine grace is considered to be the same as "Charisma bonus (if any)", and the same would be true for any other untyped "bonus equal to her [ability score] bonus" constructions.
I got linked to this recently in a debate on reddit about whether or not geokineticists can fling rocks enchanted by Magic Stone. It seems somewhat abusable to allow Kineticists to throw magical or hazardous elements about without language similar to the telekineticist's blast. Is this ruling still effective? Should my aquakineticist start carrying around tanks of a water/acid solution?
Overwatch Vortex lets you ready 4 ranged attacks as a full-round action. Hindering Shot is an equipment trick that lets you ready to shoot an enemy just as an ally targets them with a save and, if you hit an do damage, gives them a -4 penalty to the save. Could you ready 4 attacks for when your wizard casts a spell and give the enemy a -16 to their save?
On one of the Iron Gods chronicle sheets you can obtain a Skillslot cybernetic enhancement. Skillslots let you use skillchips to provide bonuses to skills. I don't see that there's any way to obtain skillchips however, there are none on the chronicle sheets and technological gear is illegal to buy otherwise. Is this item just useless?
Benefit: You may make a Bluff check to make observers believe that an object in your possession is actually a different object entirely. The DC for the check is 20 for items of a similar size, shape, and color (such as a glaive and a quarterstaff). Items of a different shape, size, or color raise the DC by 5 for each dissimilar aspect, or more if the dissimilarity is extreme. This deception lasts 1 minute; if the item is still in view, the observers may recognize their error unless you make another bluff check.
Thinking about taking this trait. Aside from the mentioned "pretend my weapon is just a walking stick" trick some others I've thought of are-
*Flash a paper with writing on it and say it's a writ of inspection
*Bluff your eating contest medal is a sheriff's badge
*Pretend your stick is a mighty Rod of Fire Belching and intimidate a bunch of goblins with it
Anyone have any other fun ideas to do with this trait?
Total Defense is a dodge bonus, so without Uncanny Dodge you won't get it while flat-footed. The purpose would be to keep wary while moving slowly so that even while unaware of an opponent you would get a large bonus to AC from total defense. Moving slowly isn't too big of a deal when you're already moving slowly behind a scout who's looking for traps.
If you have an ability like Uncanny Dodge can you use the Total Defense action constantly to get a constant +4-6 to AC while out of combat? Is there any reason not to do this?
Hi everyone. Back now, and I'm now catching up while also working on Unchained. I'm mostly caught up to everything except the main kineticist thread. Just one thing—I was really leaning to have it not provoke with specific language, but I wanted some playtest data to back me up. Then I found out that since it isn't it's own action, it actually automatically doesn't provoke without specific wording. Hooray! So thanks to everyone who provided playtest data supporting that it shouldn't provoke. My gut was right, and despite the lack of a necessity of specific language, I think it's worth adding anyway. For now, you guys can carry on having it not provoke. Expect that to make it into Jason's OP in the kineticist thread some day soon.
Incorrect, it states it doesn't provoke additional attacks of opportunity. Using kinetic blast (in melee range) however, does provoke an AoO, whether or not you change the shape of the blast into a blade/hammer/whatever as it is a spell-like ability.
What attack of opportunity is that line preventing from happening if not the one from casting a spell-like ability in melee range? Do regular melee attacks provoke now? No, Kinetic Blades don't provoke additional attacks of opportunity than the action triggering them would normally, which is either an attack, charge, or full attack. It's not an action to create them.
The best melee dip for a kineticist is Urban Bloodrager with the feat Expanded Metakinesis: Furious Spell. You get twice you blast level in damage from Furious Spell to counteract your reduced damage from not being full kineticist and you get either more accuracy or more damage or both depending on where you place your stat bonuses while Urban Bloodraging. Plus you get either a 1st level bloodline power (the 1st level of celestial is nice, your melee attacks become good aligned and you deal +1d6 damage to evil creatures) or you can grab a bloodline familiar or you can go Id Rager and get a Skill Focus and a Spiritualist's Phantom's first level emotion power (Dedication is great for this, you get Iron Will for free and get increased to hit if they hit you first).
The Id Rager gets the emotion focus abilities of a Phantom and only those abilities.
Anger:
Anger
...
Skills: The phantom gains a number of ranks in Intimidate and Survival equal to its number of Hit Dice. While confined in the spiritualist's consciousness, the phantom grants the spiritualist Skill Focus in each of these skills.
Good Saves: Fortitude and Will.
Strength Focus: The phantom gains a +2 bonus to Strength and a –2 penalty to Dexterity. Instead of the phantom gaining a bonus to Dexterity as the spiritualist gains levels, an anger-focused phantom gains a bonus to Strength instead.
Powerful Strike (Ex)...
Does an Id Rager gain Skill Ranks or Strength Focus or does it only get Powerful Strike etc?
I'm looking into making a kineticist using both Dervish Dance and Two Weapon Fighting. If I make my first attack with my kinetic blade then drop it before making my off-hand attack will I get Dex to damage from Dervish Dance?
I believe it's completely asinine that any amount of non-lethal can cancel these options out. A trolls claws can't take you down but a pack of preschoolers can?
Even more wackily, while they are on their last legs giving a ferocious/diehard creature a light smack to the noggin is far more effective at polishing them off than stabbing them .
Which if you're playing the Three Stooges is fine, but anything else is absolutely absurd.
Some recurring incompetent goblin NPCs that kept getting inexplicably hired in random professions in PFS would be amazing.
When you take nonlethal damage, keep a running total of how much you've accumulated. Do not deduct the nonlethal damage number from your current hit points. It is not "real" damage. Instead, when your nonlethal damage equals your current hit points, you're staggered (see below), and when it exceeds your current hit points, you fall unconscious.
Ferocity:
A creature with ferocity remains conscious and can continue fighting even if its hit point total is below 0. The creature is still staggered and loses 1 hit point each round. A creature with ferocity still dies when its hit point total reaches a negative amount equal to its Constitution score.
Ferocity doesn't make allowances for nonlethal damage. Specifically it allows you to be active when your hit points are in the negatives. If you have 1 nonlethal damage that's greater than a negative number. Ferocity doesn't make you immune to unconsciousness, just the specific trigger of falling below 0 hit points.
The new book that just came out has a feat that lets you pick one of 5-6 metamagic feats to become a usable metakinesis with a cost of 1 burn. The choices are piercing, ghost touch, the rage one, do non-lethal and I think 1 more.
Devastating infusion may be a SU ability but your attack, the kinetic blast, is a SLA and requires concentration unless you get the metakinesis feat that lets you use it in a rage. And then it's costing you 1 burn per round to use in a full attack.
What metakinesis lets you use kinetic blast while raging?
The form infusion is a SU ability, like most of the form infusions. It's still modifying the basic blast which is still SLA.
And dude, the new print went out two days ago. If you're necroing a thread be sure to say that there's been a rule change and now the new rule is X. Because the way you did it seems like you're correcting someone for being wrong, but they were right at the time.
Sorry, I don't mean to come off as correcting him. This is only my opinion.
Conductive always only worked once per round, it just used to be usable more with multiple conductive weapons. I guess you could've used a ton of money and Quick Draw to full attack with conductive weapons but I wasn't thinking about that when I posted.
Form infusions aren't supernatural abilities they're modifications to the SLA kinetic blast. A lot of the utility powers are supernatural abilities though. Devastating Infusion is a supernatural ability that acts like kinetic blast in the same way that the Celestial Totem rage power is a supernatural ability that acts like Invisibility Purge. I would argue that you could use either utility powers that are supernatural abilities or Devastating Infusion while raging.
Yeah, I had an old build idea for a kineticist/barbarian myself, in the hopes I could make a case for certain abilities functioning without concentration. Didn't pan out, unfortunately. One of the big reasons being that kineticists don't usually appreciate multiclassing unless you're using VMC or gestalt rules, since the kinetic blast scales with class level.
The only way I can think of that a raging character might be able to access a kinetic blast is if he's using a conductive weapon. It'd be easiest to make a case for a ranged weapon since kinetic blast is a ranged ability by default, but you might be able to sneak a kinetic blade, kinetic whip, or devastating infusion onto a greatsword (or you could use it with kinetic fist, but no). The problem there is that you're making a conscious decision to activate the conductive ability, which could easily be considered concentrating. Also, I would assume that even if this is allowed, you would need to spend twice as much burn as if you'd just straight-up used the blast on its own. Also, since the melee blasts must be made as part of another action anyway, if they're allowed with conductive melee weapons it'll get rather muddy. Would each hit of your full attack have a kinetic blade tagging along, or would you only hit once with the kinetic blade tagged with your sword and the rest of the attacks are made with just the blade or the sword only? What if you use a thrown weapon with flurry of blasts or devastating flurry? If your DM does allow it, you might wanna be sure they can answer those questions before you start.
And again, that's if they allow it at all.
As Lem said though, a lot of the passive talents - including the defense talents - as well as things that stay on "until you next recover burn" such as kinetic form or thorn body should stay up through a rage (although you likely couldn't activate them mid-rage).
Conductive only works once per round max and can only be used with touch attacks. You can use your kinetic blast in whatever form infinitely it just costs burn whenever you do, so you could use it twice, accepting double burn, and channel it. You can technically conduct a flurry of blasts (but not a devastating flurry as you can't use devastating infusion with touch attacks) but because you can only use conductive once per round your flurry will only hit one target.
Additionally I think you might be able to activate an elemental annihilator's devastating infusion while in a rage, it's a supernatural ability rather than a spell like.
The guide to pathfinder traits is wonderful but it's a bit outdated at this point. Is there a guide to traits out there that's been updated more recently?
The Truth in Wine feat lets you increase the next divination spell you cast by +1 CL or +2 CL if you're addicted to alcohol if you drink some fine liquor 1 minute beforehand. The feat's PFS legal but I'm not sure if being an addict is.
2-Familiars have either your skill ranks or their base skill ranks in each individual skill, whichever is better, and do not gain skill ranks per HD. They always use their ability scores no matter what.
3-The DC for his special abilities based on HD improve such as for his breath weapon
4-This I'm actually not sure about. I'd imagine that there's a rule somewhere that says it either goes off the table or it takes its base whichever is higher but I can't find it right now.
5-He'll get the natural armor bonus no matter what
6-Improved Familiars don't qualify for most archetypes because they lose Speak with Animals of their Kind. Improved Familiars can still be School Familiars, Sage Familiars, Emissaries, Bloodline Familiars, or Patron Familiars.
Just want to confirm this is the case. If you take the Spirit Dancer or a similar archetype that replaces Spirit Surge it means you lose most of the benefit of the Marshall spirit type since it requires you to use a class feature you don't have right?
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (a single grape)
EFFECT
Range 10 ft.
Target 1 cu. ft./2 levels of liquid (see text)
Duration 10 minutes/level
Saving Throw Will negates (object); Spell Resistance yes (object)
DESCRIPTION
This spell turns nonmagic liquids—including spoiled, rotten, diseased, poisonous, or otherwise contaminated drinks, tears, seawater, and similar fluids—into mead or wine of average quality. This spell does not prevent subsequent natural decay or spoilage.
Unholy water and similar liquids of significance are spoiled by tears to wine, but the spell has no effect on creatures of any type or on magic potions.
Creatures that drink the mead or wine created by this spell become sharp-witted and clear-minded, gaining a +2 enhancement bonus on all Intelligence- and Wisdom-based skill checks. This increases to a +5 bonus at caster level 9th, and to +10 (the maximum) at caster level 15th.
Does the duration indicate how long the liquid stays alcohol, how long the bonuses last, or both?
A rogue most certainly can sneak attack someone that is unaware of their presence. That denies them their dex , the sneak attack goes off.
Here's unaware.
Unaware Combatants:
Combatants who are unaware at the start of battle don't get to act in the surprise round. Unaware combatants are flat-footed because they have not acted yet, so they lose any Dexterity bonus to AC.
Here's another condition that works similarly.
Invisibility:
Invisible creatures are visually undetectable. An invisible creature gains a +2 bonus on attack rolls against sighted opponents, and ignores its opponents' Dexterity bonuses to AC (if any). See the invisibility special ability.
Uncanny Dodge lets the creature keep its dodge bonus to AC against the invisible creature, but it doesn't let it cancel out invisibility. Uncanny Dodge lets the creature keeps its dodge bonus to AC against the creature it's unaware of, but it doesn't let it cancel out the unawareness. Hidden Strike works against creatures that are unaware and doesn't care about flat-footedness.
Its sneak attack with d8's if you're surprising someone and d4's if you're flanking. If there's something more complicated than that in the tea leaves they need to point it out.
Ok, pointed out.
Hidden Strike wrote:
A stalker gains an ability called hidden strike, which allows him to deal an extra 1d8 points of precision damage on melee attacks (or ranged attacks from within 30 feet) against foes who are unaware of his presence, who consider him an ally, or who are made flat-footed by startling appearance. This extra damage increases by 1d8 at 3rd level and every 2 vigilante levels thereafter. A stalker vigilante can also deal hidden strike damage to a target that he is flanking or that is denied its Dexterity bonus to AC, but in these cases, the damage dice are reduced to d4s. A stalker can deal hidden strike damage against targets with concealment (but not total concealment).
Sneak Attack wrote:
The rogue's attack deals extra damage anytime her target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not), or when the rogue flanks her target.
You'll notice the portions in italics are more or less the same while the portions in bold are conditions under which a Vigilante can Hidden Strike when a Rogue can't Sneak Attack.
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BigNorseWolf wrote:
No. The entire point of uncanny dodge is to avoid that sort of thing.
Can we try to forget for a second that Uncanny Dodge has historically been used to prevent sneak attacks? Hidden Strike isn't sneak attack. It doesn't benefit from Sniper Goggles and isn't stopped by Jingasa of the Fortunate Soldier. It doesn't qualify you for Prestige classes. It's a different ability that happens to work similarly to sneak attack. If they wanted it to be sneak attack they would have made it sneak attack with adjustments like they did with Knife Master. If they want to have Hidden Strike act in all ways like sneak attack they need to release a FAQ that says so, until then by RAW it doesn't.
Moreover if they wanted Uncanny Dodge to prevent sneak attacks in all situations forever they would have said that. Instead they were very specific about in which ways Uncanny Dodge prevents sneak attacks. It stops you from being flat-footed and later stops you from being flanked. It doesn't say it prevents sneak attacks if you can get them another way like say the Strangler feat. Since Vigilantes can get their Hidden Strikes under different conditions than flat-footed or flanking they get it. It's not stopped by Uncanny Dodge anymore than it's stopped by All-Around Vision even though that ability stops sneak attacks under certain conditions as well.
I see what you are saying, but they are not the same thing. Being caught unaware is losing your dexterity bonus to AC and not acting yet in a surprise round is flat-footed. Those two things are synonymous in all ways except the conditions that caused them. Uncanny Dodge protects against both.
The problem is the ability actually says that one thing happens when the enemy is unaware and a different thing happens when the enemy is flat-footed, so the designers definitely don't treat them as synonymous.
Hidden Strike:
A stalker gains an ability called hidden strike, which allows him to deal an extra 1d8 points of precision damage on melee attacks (or ranged attacks from within 30 feet) against foes who are unaware of his presence, who consider him an ally, or who are made flat-footed by startling appearance. This extra damage increases by 1d8 at 3rd level and every 2 vigilante levels thereafter. A stalker vigilante can also deal hidden strike damage to a target that he is flanking or that is denied its Dexterity bonus to AC, but in these cases, the damage dice are reduced to d4s. A stalker can deal hidden strike damage against targets with concealment (but not total concealment).
darth_borehd wrote:
Really, what is the difference between hiding in the shadows and then attacking, or having a (2nd level) Invisibility spell on you and then attacking? Both are the same in that the target did not see you until you attacked. Uncanny Dodge protects against both of those situations because they are essentially the same thing.
Ultimate Intrigue cleared this up with the new states of awareness rules. Short answer is that you're right there's no difference between those two things but there's a higher level condition called unaware that exists during surprise rounds when the enemy didn't know you existed in the first place.
pg. 188 Ultimate Intrigue
Unaware:
On one end of the spectrum, a sneaking creature can succeed at Stealth well enough that the other creature isn’t even aware that the creature is present. This state allows the sneaking creature to use abilities such as the vigilante’s startling appearance. The Stealth skill description in the Core Rulebook says that perceiving creatures that fail to beat a sneaking character’s Stealth check result are not aware of the sneaking character, but that is different from being totally unaware. This is also true of a creature that has previously been made aware of the creature’s presence or location (see below) but is currently unable to observe the sneaking creature. In those cases, the sneaking creature can’t use abilities such as startling presence.
Aware of Presence:
The next state is when the perceiving creature is aware of the sneaking creature’s presence, though not of anything beyond that. This is the state that happens when an invisible creature attacks someone and then successfully uses Stealth so the perceiving creature doesn’t know where the attacker moved, or when a sniper succeeds at her Stealth check to snipe. A perceiving creature that becomes aware of a hidden creature’s presence will still be aware of its presence at least until the danger of the situation continues, if not longer (though memory-altering magic can change this).
So say you're readying an action to counter a spell or something and some guy moves through your threatened area can you take the AoO and still counter the spell? How about take an immediate action like cast Stone Shield?
RAI I think that Uncanny Dodge should work against the unaware condition, RAW, it don't seem to work.
Whether or not it's RAI that uncanny dodge is supposed to protect against hidden strike I think unawareness is actually written to avoid people thinking Uncanny Dodge protects against it.
Core Rulebook 178 wrote:
Combatants who are unaware at the start of battle don't get to act in the surprise round. Unaware combatants are flat-footed because they have not acted yet, so they lose any Dexterity bonus to AC.
Unawareness doesn't even cause the flat-footed condition, not having acted yet does. If Uncanny Dodgers are immune to the unaware condition it means they're immune to being surprised.
It would be odd for Uncanny Dodge to mention "unawareness" specifically since it was only recently defined.
Unaware is defined on page 178 of the Core Rulebook so it's about 5 years old now.
Paulicus wrote:
A rogue attacking an unaware target (I.e. a failed perception check) would still get sneak attack. They could also get sneak attack if they attack a supposed "ally," though it would probably require a bluff check.
Both of these work for the same reason: they effectively make the target flat-footed.
Except that's not what the ability says and you're adding non-existent stipulations.
Hidden strike is definitely a new thing it also applies against targets with concealment. So yes Pathfinder did change that.
Yeah, Unchained Rogue Sneak Attack can also be used against someone with concealment. It still doesn't work if they have total concealment, AKA Invisibility.
Yes, that's true. They've been trying to revamp the rogue in a couple of ways.
Hidden strike isn't sneak attack. Hidden strike applies in all ways that sneak attack does dealing d4s of damage. It also applies in two ways that sneak attack doesn't. It applies when the target considers the vigilante a friend and when the target is unaware of the striker. In these cases it does d8s of damage. In addition to all this and to solidify that Hidden strike is definitely a new thing it also applies against targets with concealment. So yes Pathfinder did change that.
For me, it is the first line of uncanny dodge that makes the difference.
Quote:
a rogue can react to danger before her senses would normally allow her to do so
Since they can react before thier senses do, then they are not truly unaware. The hard part is that is can be argued either way. Hopefully paizo will help clarify it.
I think you're extracting a lot from the ability summary. Uncanny Dodge specifies exactly how "rogues can react to danger before their senses allow her to do so", they aren't considered flat-footed before they act in combat or even before they're aware combat has begun. Their dodge is uncanny because they're dodging attacks they were unaware of. However they certainly can be unaware, which is a game term defined under determining surprise not an arbitrary phrase. Uncanny Dodge mentions nothing about surprise or awareness, it only mentions flat-footedness and the ability to add Dex to AC. Because hidden strike only cares about awareness and not flat-footedness it can be used on rogues who don't know a threat exists even though they still get dex to AC.
Combatants who are unaware at the start of battle don't get to act in the surprise round. Unaware combatants are flat-footed because they have not acted yet, so they lose any Dexterity bonus to AC.
So even though Uncanny Dodge stops you from being flat-footed during the surprise round it doesn't stop you from being unaware entirely, otherwise anyone with Uncanny Dodge would be able to act in the surprise round.
Essentially does unaware count as being a different thing than just flat-footed?
Uncanny Dodge:
Starting at 4th level, a rogue can react to danger before her senses would normally allow her to do so. She cannot be caught flat-footed, nor does she lose her Dex bonus to AC if the attacker is invisible. She still loses her Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. A rogue with this ability can still lose her Dexterity bonus to AC if an opponent successfully uses the feint action (see Combat) against her.
Hidden Strike:
A stalker gains an ability called hidden strike, which allows him to deal an extra 1d8 points of precision damage on melee attacks (or ranged attacks from within 30 feet) against foes who are unaware of his presence, who consider him an ally, or who are made flat-footed by startling appearance. This extra damage increases by 1d8 at 3rd level and every 2 vigilante levels thereafter. A stalker vigilante can also deal hidden strike damage to a target that he is flanking or that is denied its Dexterity bonus to AC, but in these cases, the damage dice are reduced to d4s. A stalker can deal hidden strike damage against targets with concealment (but not total concealment).
I think this works. Mage Armor is a force effect that surrounds a creature. Blink shifts you back and forth between the material and ethereal plane. Ethereal creatures are affected normally by force effects. So a mount affected by mage armor should be tangible and therefore ridable by a blinking creature correct?
You don't get Seamless Guise and... that's it right? Since you can use vigilante abilities while in social form now it seems like playing as a secret identityless super hero a la the Fantastic Four is pretty optimal.
If I were so inclined could I as a sufficiently small creature (say a gnome) become incorporeal, go inside the body of a sufficiently large creature (call it a great wyrm dragon) and recorporate? It struck me that in the face of lots of teeth, claws and natural armor it might be beneficial to destroy a creature from its stomach rather than allow it to chew first. The mechanism of incorporeality I was thinking of was a suit of Mosswater Stained Leather so anyone could use the tactic. I just wonder if it's legal.
