InfernosReaper's page

Also, no one going to address how making consumables horrifically unreliable is going to affect the game world as a whole? At best, it's a market killer.

They already cut wand charges down considerably. Seems like enough nerfing to me.

I'm legitimately pissed off by how out of touch they seem to be on this, even though a lot of people have been pretty clear on why things are an issue. I honestly wasn't expecting to be this mad, but here I am. They get that people are mad about it, but they don't seem to get *why* so many people dislike resonance.

It's a shame it never occurred to them that maybe the problem is that those higher end cure spells aren't very good because of how much they lag behind damage output. It's legitimately the only instance I can think of where the benefits of spell level involve literally improving only 1 aspect of the spell category.
Instead, they're like "welp, gotta restrict people buying cheaper items."

I really shouldn't be surprised, though. The entire design process seems to be "well, Y isn't balanced against Z, because Y isn't as good. Let's make Z worse." If you want something that will compete with Pathfinder 1 or D&D 5th Ed, you're not going to get it by making a game that revolves around that mindset.

I would've designed the class with at-will shape shifting where you could pick up basic forms that would be somewhat lacking compared to the shapeshifting spells but include some sort of limited use buffs that could be used to boost the character's form & get it on par with normal shapeshifting spells.

I also wouldn't have natural attack option as it is. If the natural attack is going to deal less damaging than the monk's unarmed strike(even with improved natural attack for most characters), the character should at least be able to change the form of the attack. Give the class a few basic attacks(slam, sting & talons), which would be no more outlandish than unarmed strike with style feats that change damage types. From there, one could take talents to get some of the stronger natural attack options like bite, claw, or even some sort of ranged natural option(or at least tentacles with a reach option). Just the 1 type of natural attack is boring and hurts the flavor of the shapeshifting concept.

Eh, I don't have the actual product & the site I pulled the info used for the analysis left out a few key things & I only spent a few minutes looking over what I did see, so it lacks the necessary things to be a proper review

Facebook copy/paste, go!

So, the quick & dirty issues from what I'm seeing at a glance...

Spellcasting: mix of bard + spiritualist spells is thematically appropriate in concept but exceptionally strong. This really needs some balancing on it's own, like getting less spells per day &/or spells known. I prefer to keep the spellcasting stuff balanced with other spellcasting stuff when I can.

Some of the wording needs a bit of cleanup, don't know if that's from a bad transcription or in the original text. For example, Patronage says you get skill focus for 1 skill but then references getting a bonus to 2 skills. No idea which it is. For Constant Patronage, I assume this one is “even when it's not fully manifested” instead of what it says.

Wunderkind is some super-niche half of trait thing. That probably could've been expanded on or something. A trait is normally a +2 to class level for something when multi-classed, but this also adds an extra requirement. It'd be better if it were just a trait or something instead of a taking up class feature space.

Bonus spell: Not every spell is created equal & when it comes down to it, remove curse tends to come up way more often. Not sure what to do for this honestly. Perhaps have them improve to also grant Dispel Good/Evil at a later level &/or Protection from good/evil to be more competitive with each other.

Muse Performance's part that adjusts the rounds of performance per day based on the prodigy rolling a person check just seems a bit like a pointless chore more than something to be invested in as it has very negligible impact on the overall rounds.

Overall, the spellcasting is very powerful but the class itself is super-flavorful but also super-niche which gives it, at a glance, a few too many lackluster abilities. That said, there are certain abilities not actually listed in their entirety on the site. As a result, I sadly can't reliably rate overall mechanical power & overall quality

Okay, that's what I was figuring but ya know, can't ever be sure with these things. Thanks for the assist.

So, the descriptive text for massive weapons says you can use a large weapons 2-handed but the FAQ says that isn't the case.

[u]Massive Weapons (Ex)[/u]
At 3rd level, a titan mauler becomes skilled in the use of massive weapons looted from her titanic foes.

She can use two-handed weapons meant for creatures one size category larger, but the penalty for doing so is increased by 4. However, the attack roll penalty for using weapons too large for her size is reduced by 1, and this reduction increases by 1 for every three levels beyond 3rd (to a minimum of 0).

[u]Can a Medium titan mauler wield a Large two-handed weapon, such as a Large greatsword?[/u]

No. The "Inappropriately Sized Weapons" rule says (in summary) that a creature can't wield an inappropriately-sized weapon if the size difference would increase it one or more "steps" beyond "two-handed." None of the titan mauler's abilities say the character can break the "steps" part of the "Inappropriately Sized Weapons" rule, so the character still has to follow that rule.

So, which is right, the ability or the FAQ?

Like I said, there's a lot you can play with, but the majority of the more powerful/complex options aren't done yet(though some of the ones that are out are pretty cool). Even just the basic stuff has been pretty fun so far.

I would say more in favor of the project but I don't want to jinx this thing.

I'm a member on the backer forum, so I can kinda give you an idea what the system's got so far without giving away info I shouldn't(hopefully).

There are classes,though some of which can use some more testplay to work out some balance issues. There is a conversion page for using the existing core pathfinder classes, as well. Last I checked, there's nothing for non-core classes(such as Magus), but for the most part the core samples should get you an idea of how to do them up yourself.

Aside from some minor tweaks here and there that should be done, the core of magic system is basically playable. There are some more advanced options(that a GM can disallow) which touch upon the power of normal casters a bit(aka more powerful/specific effects). Some more are still being developed last I checked.

There are feats for improving or picking up casting ability, as well as rules for using metamagic feats with SoP. One or 2 feats are a tad debatable and likely being worked on.
Also, there are casting traditions for customizing how one uses magic, instead of being stuck with the traditional verbal/somatic with arbitrary components/focus items.

Item creation rules aren't around yet. I'd imagine it'd be the last thing done. There's also something else that's major that's not done, but I can't remember what it was.

All in all, it's got a bit to go, but has come a long way from what was first posted.

We probably shouldn't use Summoner as a basis for power comparison. It's like if someone made a wizard that specialized in summoning, gave it a beefed up animal companion, and then downgraded it's spellcasting & tried to supplement it with that summoning class feature that's basically worth a Sorcerer bloodline powerset.

Also, I think we really need some numbers clarification on that Beast that Births capstone. Exactly how many can you actually summon at once? If I'm literally only able to summon multiple things as if using a single casting of Summon Nature's Ally V, then I might as well never do it. The creatures won't be useful in most combats you'll be facing around that character level(unless you like hunting Goblins at lv 17+). You pretty much drop any or all of them with the average damage from a fireball.

So, please tell me it's not just the 1d3 Summon Nature's Ally 4 creatures or 1d4+1 even weaker creatures. The summoner can't do their summoning at will, but it can do better often enough to get him through the day, assuming he doesn't just spend the lower level spells for the same effect. Hell, it could actually summon stuff that might make it to 4 rounds instead of being easily killed in the first round or 2.

But it's okay cause the pdf's gonna need errata anyway so I might as well wait & hope the hard copy gets revised & stuffs before I get it, right?

Well, I can't order the hard copy cause of the 'shipping rates' issue. I guess I'll only get the PDF. I guess I did it to myself for not waiting, huh...

InfernosReaper wrote:

On a sidenote, I think I've got a variant for this class that utilizes spirit/pact-binding of the Binder/Occultist variety. Thematically, it runs of the premise of someone who makes deals with extraplanar beings won't limit themselves to just that if they know of other sources of power too. Thus they trade away a bit of their pact's power for the ability to make temporary pacts with other sorts of supernatural entities.

I just need to testplay it to see if it's mechanically solid(& make sure the added class features from the variant aren't too boring).

The Occultist book has several archetypes for nearly every core class that gives them binding ability; you might want to look at those for ideas and starting points.

Oh, I've got the idea & the build. Took certain aspects of a couple of variants/archetypes to it. I need to make sure what I did is actually balanced in play, not just in theory.

Back on the mythic bit. Any sort of unsupported 3rd party mysticism is greatly weakened in a mythic game. This is in addition to build themes that don't really go into the preset paradigms. There are a decent bit of 'universal' abilities but those are more of a "well, I've got nothing else to pick so I'll get these" for such characters which puts them a bit behind the guy who picked up mythic stuff that enhances his type of character.

Such things will be a headache for 3rd party developers.

On the blasts thing, they may need a boost with the Invoker(a pathfinder Warlock by Little Red Goblins. Overall, it's a decent class. Better than 3.5 warlock) being a thing that exists & the Spheres of Power(an alternative magic system that's being developed right now).

With pact abilities having cooldown & other sources that have at will damage effects with the same die progression, it would be best to just boost the damage dice of major abilities to 1 die per level.

On a sidenote, I think I've got a variant for this class that utilizes spirit/pact-binding of the Binder/Occultist variety. Thematically, it runs of the premise of someone who makes deals with extraplanar beings won't limit themselves to just that if they know of other sources of power too. Thus they trade away a bit of their pact's power for the ability to make temporary pacts with other sorts of supernatural entities.
I just need to testplay it to see if it's mechanically solid(& make sure the added class features from the variant aren't too boring).

More importantly, Mythic rules may end up becoming a mandatory add-on to classes to keep competitive with other pathfinder stuff. I recently was in game where the GM decided to add those rules. My though was 'well, good thing my guy's a mystically warrior type or I'd be kinda outta luck on this one since my 3rd party class has no support for this stuff'. So yeah, that sort of ruleset's gonna be a bit of a headache for developers in the near future.

Excellent enthusiasm. I'm not trying to dog you. I legitimately would like to see some expanded options for this baby that are decently balanced, so I offered up some observations.

That's part of why I'm working on a idea for combining this with the binder stuffs from Pactmagic Unbound. It's taking longer expect/desired, but ya know, needed. Now I've got the general thematic down, I've gotta hammer out the rough mechanics when I get the time.

The True Res & incorporeal bits are way too strong on the low end, even if it's a DC 30. I've seen saves get milked pretty bad before & a meta '1 hour of gameplay' rule bit is just weird...

The capstone's just way too much. It's a bit strong with the immunities, but the phylactery bit goes way too far.

So does that mean I should start trying to figure out how to make a variant for this to let it do some stuff from Pact Magic Unbound?

Thematically it could be neat. I'd just have to make sure it's not too much better than the class by itself & nowhere near as powerful as the 3.5 D&D Warlock using a feat to trade off invocations each day for specific vestige/spirit granted abilities(god that was so OP & fun from mid lvs on).

If I have time to come up with anything good, I'll shoot it to y'all's way.

Hey, that's just what happens when you have "broad X numbers" things. No offense there. Sneak attack has it cause it's limited to 2 specific condition options which means you have to optimize it for those, so it's very "let me do this same 1 or 2 things over & over again"

Opportunities Aplenty falls into a similar trap, except instead of "let me do the same thing over again" it's "well, one of the several ways this could happen is happening. let me lazily reap the benefits without really having to fight creatively"

I figure dropping a couple of conditions from the list would get it to where you still have to think to make it happen. Grapple & at least the 'ranged attacks' against a prone target could be excluded from a vaguely logical standpoint. Maybe staggered since you can still act & your only penalty is being limited to one action. I was tempted to suggest Dazzle but that's an underpowered drawback for what it's supposed to represent.

Ignoring all of my above ramblings. At the very least, there should be a clause for "if the target is suffering a condition but suffers no penalties from it"(such as a prone target with the Monkey Style feat(which when active negates all the penalties but not the benefits of being prone) then the condition does not count for meeting the requirements to use Opportunities Aplenty. Also just listing which conditions/situations that would let you use Opportunities would help save people some time & keep things clear.

An associate also suggests "no to any first tier effect, such as Shaken or Fatigued"

Oh, I'm familiar with Opportunities Aplenty. It's got way too many ways to make it's damage happen. It really needed to be somewhere between "nearly every listed condition + flanking" & "flat-footed & flanking." With that many conditions, especially the really easy ones to get, like shaken, it's not fighting smart to get'em, it's just "ugh... let me arbitrarily do this to get my damage going."

With *that* many conditions, it'll come up so much easier & often that you'd easily outpace normal sneak attack, even with a guy who specialized in getting that to happen. So, it kinda has the same problem of sneak attack. You're not really fighting smart, so much as arbitrarily doing something to up damage.
More importantly, it's boring. It doesn't really feel like you're fighting smart. Just like sneak attack, in that regard, I guess.

It needs something, but not that. Maybe if the conditions were more narrow then gradually expanded over time, maybe...

I'm very curious on this one for various reasons, but what makes me most hesitant is the "nod to Rite Publishing". Most of what Rite does is unbalanced junk, so praising something Rite did really hurts the review credibility a lot.

So, I'm very on the fence about investing in this one(& also Spheres of Power)

Oh? *looks at it* Yeah, it does. I might be reading it wrong, but I'm pretty sure you only have to take one of those throughout the class, though you can gain additional taboos via feats.

I see... I should probably be thinking of a good way to attach the errata to the print version for when I need to break out the physical book.

Maybe just split the HP between the original & the double? Or, does the double just have it's own HP count that equals the user's at the time this ability is activated?

Also, I'd let those conditions that he double got tagged with fade with the double. Saves on tedium.

I would write at 3 am, but that's just cause my work schedule.

Essentially, the ability makes duplicate of you that has all your capabilities, has the opposite alignment but is friendly/basically under the creator's control, shares hit points with the creator, the gear fades away after losing contact with the double, and the double uses the creator's own resources for abilities. Right? Effectively, it gives you an extra turn each round for 4 rounds... Ya would think this would be easy, but I'm at a loss for how to word it short, simple, & to the point(and only just now noticing the irony in that phrase)

Ah, okay, so the Split the Twins ability is now 1d4 rounds instead of 4. My GMs must never find out...

Alternatively, it could result is a 50/50.

Or those people destroying your stuff to obstruct your attempts to recover parts of an ancient artifact without trying to talk to you first aren't your enemies and actually trying to help you in your quest.

It's amazing how different 2 people can interpret the same thing.

I finally got the review revision up. Took a bit cause stuff kept coming up over here. My apologies.

Both my associate & I also seem to agree that the class as it is now is overall solid. So, thank you for your effort. I respect that.

Liked the change to the Chain Blast, it's different from what I would done & honestly better. Props there. Adjusting the levels on Chain & Cone work well too(again, probably better than my suggestions).

I'm still confused by the whole "has a listed duration but no effect in the ability applies to it" for Witch Step. That might confuse some people, but the ability's a bit more balanced now at least. Maybe a tad strong for some people's tastes.

Sadly, no adjustment to the hit die cap on Fear Feeder, but I'll try not to worry about it too much, since it is a low end ability.

Like the ability in this update, my statement on the Pact Tongue incantation remains unchanged, but ya know, minor complaint really.

Pumpkins to Carriages got a level boost. Excellent.

I like adjustments on Taint Reality.

Overall, pretty good effort. A lot of critical improvements. For good measure, I'm gonna try to run this by an associate of mine(the one who I usually get to look over the stuff I make) & see what he thinks. Though, I'm going to go ahead & update my review.

As someone who's been doing pact magic characters since Tome of Magic(aka, the only part of that book that was good instead of unplayable garbage), I can safely say, that the new stuff's solid enough, though one will find'emself looking forward to the next volume. It's rare for me to buy physical copies of books, but I did so on faith & don't regret it.

Also, behold an aberrant humanoid(& from a common-enough source to have to consider)
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/races/elan
But, yeah, just thought I'd ask on that to be sure. Some people I've played under have strange ideas of what "logic" is.

So, Dagon's favored ally is Aberrations but his favored enemies are aquatic and *any* humanoid.

So, if you're a humanoid aberration, making you both a favored ally & a favored enemy, what happens when you use the Dagon Knows ability?

I should've posted this sooner(my apologies). Here are *some* incantations & effect issues I see & why.

*Blast Effect*

Chained blast - In pathfinder, they improved the secondary damage to most chain spells to full damage instead of half. Considering the number of secondary targets is 1/4 what a normal chain spell would be, increasing the damage would help improve the balance a bit. The effect should also be "reflex half" instead of "reflex negates" to help improve its viability. Or, having to attack to hit each each target, & the first one that misses ends the effect. Either's a solid option.

Linear Eruption is great low end, but honestly should scale some later on. Since Traveling Ruin scales the range considerably(up to 500ft by lv 20), other ranged-based effects could stand to scale a bit too. So, I'm thinking start off 30 & ending at 120ft. There are a few good ways to scale that.

Tempestous Roar - a 30ft cone effect at the same level as a 20ft radiance isn't a solid option. A half the range of the line effect one(if it were to scale) would work. With that, this could be an effect that can be taken on the low end.

*Incantations*

Fear Feeder(grade 1 invocation) - Cause fear's hit dice cap makes it worthless quickly. It's a single target save negates thing, so it doesn't need an added weak point.

Pact Tongue(grade 1 invocation) - Honestly, it should grant the ability to speak that language as well, since it's limited to just 1 language. Sure, there's a zone of truth thing, but it doesn't really matter if you can't actually ask the target anything.

Clutch Entrails(grade 2 invocation) - 1/2 caster lv damage is way too low for having to maintain concentration & a fort negates, even with the sicken effect. Cool effect concept

Pumpkins to Carriages(grade 2 invocation) - A bit too low of a level for basically Major Creation(6th lv spell). If it started as minor than improved to major later, that would probably work.

Taint Reality(grade 3 invocation) - It gives an ability to boost mystic blast damage & a standard action difficult terrain effect, but the Incantation's duration is "concentration". Maintaining a concentration effect is a standard action, so ya can't do any of those other effects.

Witch Step(grade 2 invocation) - Has a listed duration for no apparent reason. Also, at-will full-range dimension door is too good for a lv 6 character. This should be a higher grade(probably 3) or have its range reduced(probably to 100ft+10ft/lv instead of 400ft+40ft/lv), especially factoring in the extra effect

I always hated the 3.5 spell points because it has the same problem as the psionics system, screwing over blaster types & no one else. When I get money to spare, I'll probably check out the genius guide one.

I hated recharge magic from 3.5 for its screwing over of enchanter types(who already hurt by having mostly save negates abilities)

As far as favorite alternate for Pathfinder, it's a tough call for me between Pact Magic & Psionics. In terms of material to work with, Psionics wins. There are several classes & the power augmenting system makes it to where classes that don't get 9th lv powers aren't screwed over on saves.

However, I've got to go with Pact Magic. Even though it's been toned down a good bit in the areas I liked, it's improved in areas it needed to. More importantly, you can change a large bit of your build configuration each day. So, if you get bored with one setup, you can change it without replacing the character.

I'll be sure to check on sat or sun for that update. I'm actually kinda committed to seeing this gemstone get a bit more cutting & some polish.

Oh, my mistake on the incantation saves thing. I guess I overlooked that cause I was too focused on the actual effects & overlooked it. I also kinda overlooked the whole "patron's reward" thing mentioned before. What does that do anyway?
I think it's safe to say I might suck at this whole "observation" thing.

A bit more work's needed on hammering out the incantations balance. When I get a chance, I'm gonna go over this new revision more thoroughly & offer up some proper discussion.

Personally, I don't mind the only brief histories for most of them. It takes a while to write materials & all.

Anywayz. Bought volume 1 both hard copy & PDF(a rare thing for me to do). It left me wanting. Definitely looking forward to volume 2.

Overall, I like the toning down the power in some areas & stepping it up in others. It brings a nice middle ground to Tome of Magic the Secrets of Pact Magic serieseseseses. Making pact magic variants for core classes was definitely a good way to integrate it.

I don't mind the limit of pact spirits known. I do, however, see some issues with not having clearly defined ways to research new spirits. I really hope this gets addressed in the 2nd book. It's kind of a big deal.

This is a table-top RPG, crap happens & you get spotted. Armor isn't the usual ninja style, because they're usually trying to blend in.

I do have a nice compromise I'm pulling from 3.5 though. Stat to AC in light or no armor. They'd have to get it a reasonable bit higher lv than the things in D&D that get it do(lv 2 for both Swordsage & Ranger with a certain variant). Just a thought...

If the system used a class defense setup, it wouldn't be as needed. Personally, I like the class defense system idea, since touch is so bloody hard to get up for most people, making a caster with mid-bab a death sentence for anyone who isn't a monk. And the idea of a lv 20 fighter not dodging any better than a lv 1, despite years of experience, is kinda sad.

1rst, speed's rounded down in to 5ft increments.

2nd, 20ft's your normal speed for a move action. So, you would have to go at 15ft for stealthing, which isn't too big of a hit.

3rd, I can see this working so long as you're just a bit shy of 2x your full speed while stealthing. In this case, that would be 2x 15ft, since you're being stealthy, or 30ft total possible distance.

4th, blah blah blah light steps blah blah broken blah blah blah

It's a simple matter of, in combat, Ninja can do everything Rogue can & then some nasty things that are better than Rogue's capabilities. In return, Ninja loses very little.

Evasion? I'll save up for a ring if I don't feel like a few dip levels in Monk(which are nice anyway). Trapsense? Yeah, doesn't really come up enough in comparison to what Ninja gets in it's place. Light Steps? Ninja just flat out gets that. Period. Capstone abilities? Ninja's is way better. No doubt.

Does any of this matter by this point? No, cause they've gathered all the intel they feel like on Ninja & aren't doing another playtest for it.

Technically, but only in name & ability list. The progression & purpose are the same(although Ninja's are a bit better by questionable design).