Himokl's page

I really enjoyed the convention, and great work on the end of all the organizers, and GM's. Virtually everyone I talked to agreed that the quality of GM'ing, mustering, and playing this year was higher in years passed, and that is great!

I also felt quite cold in the Sagamore in the morning slots. That is easily remedied though for next year by remembering to pack a hoodie or something.

In regards to the 1 AM end time for events, I felt that it was needed from the point of view of a GM and I imagine from the point of view of the HQ volunteers. A player has the ability to schedule their events themselves, and allow adequate time for them to get whatever it is they need to do done. Tier 1 and 2 volunteers find themselves in the Sagamore for 30-40 hours or so over the course of the convention (and that's just in volunteering!). That's a lot of time, and doesn't allow us much time to do anything else. If the breaks were any shorter than they were, I wouldn't have volunteered to attend the convention as a GM. I felt it was the bare minimum time needed to prepare for the next slot, and get any personal things you needed to get done handled.

In regards to mustering, I think it would have been helpful to stick a large number on each of the iconics around the room. (I assume there wasn't one, but not 100% sure since I didn't actually play any PFS at the convention.) I heard HQ volunteers explain to people a number of times which iconic they needed to go to along with a description of the iconic. This seems VERY confusing, since I wasn't sure exactly what they were talking about on at least one occasion when the Iconic in question was new and I was unfamiliar with their name. From the POV of a new player, not knowing any of these characters, I imagine finding where you are suppose to be was quite arduous.

I also agree with the above posters that the Weston while close, did seem like the least accommodating out of the attached hotels. I spent a little time in each of the others, and they all seemed to have a nicer space. The whole elevator key-card thing was also quite annoying. Especially on the first few days of the convention when many of our key-cards would only allow us to access the floor our room was actually on + 1,2, and 3. Luckily it seemed they had that sorted out after many complaints by Friday afternoon sometime. (My key-card would get me anywhere I wanted to go, but after escorting a venture captain around the building for ten minutes so that we could get to different rooms with our friends/fellow GM's in them, it became clear how much of an issue this was.)

Looking forward to next years convention, and thank you so much guys for organizing an amazing event!

Submitted an application to fill in for cancellations after a friend filled me in on the need. I never know far enough in advance if I can make GenCon or not. Glad that he lit a fire under me once he realized I'd be free to volunteer to fill in. Excited to maybe be able to attend for once! (Convention four of the summer if a spot is free XD)

Wow, those are some pretty sweet tiefling traits.
Thanks for the post.

Can one maintain a bardic masterpiece and a bardic performance such as inspire courage at the same time?

I thought that bardic masterpieces were bardic performances due to the line "masterpieces, unusual applications of the bardic performance ability requiring special training." I've been told that wasn't the case though, and that James Jacobs confirmed it in the ask James Jacobs thread, which I checked and is accurate.

So by a strictly RAW standpoint (PFS) can I maintain a bardic masterpiece and a bardic performance at the same time?

Literally anything played by someone that likes to optimize characters. (This coming from someone who likes to optimize characters before I get flamed for this.)

Congrats to everyone!
Any plans to post a list of the top 100 by public vote this year? That would be awesome.

Reminds me of claptrap in borderlands.

It's clear that Paizo just loves people to be gaming,regardless of system. I'm sure they'd be thrilled if everyone played Pathfinder but if people are going to have fun with other systems,as I'm sure their emplyees and executives do, why not make some money off it too?

So does the necklace give you temporary hit points and preserve corpses? If not, I think it is a knockoff.

The price of darkness holds no compassion for our mortal souls, but the Iron Lord does. In his vast city of Dis, all the wonders of the multiverse are collected. You could partake in such unfathomable power and pleasure and be guarded by The First King's power and in such by the Prince of Darkness himself. Just sign on the dotted line, and your soul will be protected by the powers of hell for eternity and everything your free spirit ever desires will be yours from this point forward.

- Signifier Verlin Mephistopheles Brin, Order of the Nail, High Evangelist of Dispater, 4714 AR.

Paizo is printing hardcover adventure paths again. Curse of the Crimson Throne Anniversary Edition confirmed!

Mindchemists are an Intelligence based class with an archetype to increase intelligence. They have the most skill points out of any class in the game. Pageant of the Peacock just invalidated there build 1/5th of its bonuses for virtually free. I tell a joke and presto I know the secrets to life, the universe and everything.

The combined information of every intellectual, craftsmen or tradesperson on Galorian can be out done by one guy telling apparently the best joke ever told all while swaying his hips. No need for universities, we have twerking comedians.

Right until you turn one of your performances say Perform (Oratory) into an INT based skill with the trait Clever wordplay (And take versatile performance with it)and then use Perform (Comedy) to emulate bluff and intimidate with Versatile Performance. Which then uses bluff to emulate all the INT based skills, including UMD since you also took the pragmatic activator trait.

So now you are making Perform (Comedy) checks for Perform (Oratory), Diplomacy, Bluff, Senese Motive, Intimidate, Appraise, Craft (Alchemy), Craft (Armor), Craft (Baskets), Craft (Books), Craft (Bows), Craft (Calligraphy), Craft (Carpentry), Craft (Cloth), Craft (Clothing), Craft (Glass), Craft (Jewelry), Craft (Leahter), Craft (Locks), Craft (Paintings), Craft (Pottery), Craft (Sculpture), Craft (Ships), Craft (Shoes), Craft (Stonemasonry), Craft (Traps), Craft (Weapons), Craft (Not listed in the CRB), Knowledge (Arcana),Knowledge (Dungeoneering),Knowledge (Engineering),Knowledge (Geography),Knowledge (History),Knowledge (Local),Knowledge (Nature),Knowledge (Nobility),Knowledge (Planes),Knowledge (Religion),Linguistics, Spellcraft,UMD and Intelligence Ability checks.

So you are using 1 skill for 41 skills (Not counting crafts not listed in the CRB) and intelligence checks for the low low cost of 1 second level spell slot, 2 traits, and 2 class features that are suppose to net you 1 extra skill each.

That my friends is the best joke ever told.

I see my advice was heeded to simply make you write all of these. Muhaha.

Can we just have Mark write all the stuff for the blog post from now on?

I'm going to second the Evangelist Archetype Cleric as the best buffer in the game along with Life Oracle as the best healer.

I don't see how reliably hitting targets comes into play here, they have the same BAB during a full attack action.

While I agree that the brawler will be better at combat maneuvers on a non full attack, the lose of ki has cut down the number of maneuvers you can make on a full attack by 1 which basically balances out any gains the brawler had. The DPR while likely higher, won't be drastically so. No where near enough to warrant having a substantially lower will save (Bad will and doesn't need wisdom), and the lose of basically all of the monk's mobility and defenses. A locked down/kited/debuffed or dead brawler isn't going to do anyone much good.

I don't believe the brawler completely replaces the monk in any sense. In fact, I think the brawler is mechanically irrelevant. A base monk, let alone one with archetypes does pretty much everything a brawler does, plus a bunch of other things.

The complete list of a brawler's abilities are as follows:
Light Armor
d10 HD
4+ INT skills
Full BAB
G/G/B Saves
Unarmed Strike/Unarmed Damage
Martial Maneuvers
Bonus feat x7
Brawler's Flurry
Maneuver Training
AC Bonus
Brawler Strike (Magic,cold iron, silver, alignment, adamantine)
Knockout
Awesome Blow.

Monk Equivelent's:
Light Armor Prof. ---> Monk's can't wear light armor, but they can get mage armor cast on them or enchant a shirt with enchantment bonuses to AC and still apply their wisdom bonus to AC. I believe this nets you more AC than light Armor Prof. does and than some.

D10 ----> d8 brawler has an advantage here.

Skill points and class skills are largely the same.

Full BAB ---> Monk's have this while making a flurry, when moving on a monk it is probably best to make a single combat maneuver which they also have a full BAB for via monk combat maneuvers. So the main benefit of full bab here is just to qualify for feats.

G/G/B Saves ----> Monk's have G/G/G which is strictly better.

Unarmed Strike/Damage ----> Monk's have the same ability.

Martial Maneuvers ----> Monk does not have an equivelant.

Bonus Feats x7 -----> Monk has 6 bonus feats so the brawler nets 1.

Brawler's Flurry ----> Flurry of blows does this already.

Maneuver Training -----> Monk does not have this.

AC Bonus ----> Monk's have this but at a higher value.

Brawler Strike ----> Monk has this via Ki Strike except that he can't get good/evil aligned weapons. (Most monk's at this level will have holy amulet of mighty fists to deal with that, and add damage)

Knockout ---> Similar to Quivering Palm

Awesome Blow ---> 20th level ability so I am calling this even with Perfect Body since it largely won't get play time.

So to recap,Brawlers gain the following abiltiies that monk doesn't have something equivalant to:

Martial Maneuvers
1 HP a level on average.
Maneuver Training
One bonus feat
Brawler Strike (Good or Evil)

That is it folks. Sounds pretty good, until you look at what abilities the monk has that the brawler doesn't have as follows:

Good will saves (Makes up for d10 imo)
Ki Pool and abilities (Makes up for maneuver training easily)
Stunning Fist (Fixes that bonus feat problem)

Now the rest of this stuff the monk has to simply make up for the brawlers full BAB (which as I pointed out earlier is only useful for getting feats sooner), and anything that I may have missed. That list is as follows:

Evasion
Fast Movement + 60 feet
Still Mind
Slow fall any distance
High Jump
Purity of Body
Wholeness of Body
Improved Evasion
Diamond Body
Abundant Step
Diamond Soul
Timeless body
Tongue of the sun and moon
Empty body

So in conclusion, even just base monk (not including archetypes) is straight up more optimal than the brawler. (Which is saying something)

If I missed anything that is redeeming for the brawler please ask yourself one question before going on about how awesome it is. Is it better than the bolded list of abilities above that gives the monk almost all of its survivability (even if minimal)? I would be surprised, but I would be interested in criticisms to my analysis.

Everyone seems so disinterested in the Warpriest from reading this thread. I on the other hand couldn't be more excited for such a class. Probably because it is right down my alley, I love the holy warrior type classes in role playing games (Having a paladin and an Inquisitor of Gorum in PFS above 12th level for example). My favorite of the classes introduced in pathfinder thus far is certainly the inquisitor. I have played 3 of them to high levels, and consistently had a blast. I always felt irked that I had to tailor my race/religion choice to get a decent martial weapon and eat heavy armor profiecency as a feat. This class looks like it will be giving me that all built in, of course with changes to other aspects of the class. Will certainly be the first thing I look to on Tuesday, and am really excited to dig into the classes mechanics next weekend in depth.

My order of interest in the new classes is as follows:
Warpriest
Bloodrager
Hunter
Slayer
Arcanist
Investigator
Swashbuckler
Skald
Shaman
Brawler

I mostly play divine characters in PFS and recently bought Chronicles of the Righteous and really like one of the Emphyreal lords presented in the book. I was wondering if it was possible to switch deities on a Cleric, Paladin or Inquisitor inside PFS rules? I realize I would need to use the retraining rules to switch my domain if it were to change, but I have no idea how to just switch the base deity. Any insights?

Alright. Second thread about my Eidolon. Say I take the grab evolution for claws.

"An eidolon becomes adept at grappling foes, gaining the grab ability. Pick bite, claw, pincers, slam, tail slap, or tentacle attacks. Whenever the eidolon makes a successful attack of the selected type, it can attempt a free combat maneuver check. If successful, the eidolon grapples the target. This ability only works on creatures of a size one category smaller than the eidolon or smaller. Eidolons with this evolution receive a +4 bonus on CMB checks made to grapple."

Let's say my large eidolon is adjacent to 5 medium creatures. I make a full attack action. Sword/Sword/Sword/Bite/Claw/Claw/Claw/Claw at 9th level. I drop the first guy with my sword and bite attacks. Can I then make a claw attack against guy two, initiate my free grapple check, gaining the grappled condition, and applying it to him. I then am free to use my 3 remaining claws on that guy or any creature within reach as far as I can tell. Can I then use 1 claw per adjacent guy making free grapple checks on all of them. Effectively grappling up to a maximum of four creatures? I know I couldn't maintain all the grapples on my next turn, but it seems a good way to just shut down a bunch of guys for a round while they try to break out.