Isabelle Lee's page

I figure I should at least point you in the direction of these. ^_^

Hmm. By the wording I wrote, it does seem so. I don't recall that I actually intended for it to be so... this was the second product I ever contributed to, and I was still getting the hang of the subtleties of the wording (to say nothing of the power level).

Nevertheless, looking at it, I'd say that's how it works. Besides, Pulurans tend to be a northernish sort, and it makes sense that their best and brightest might pick up more general shamanic secrets in their delvings. ^_^

Midnightoker wrote:

I kinda hope paizo does some iconic spellcaster spells. Maybe they have already and I missed it, but I found it gave a sense that magic was more “alive” since it was still being perfected (since most of the casters were still around in the setting).

There are a few here and there. Aram Zey's Focus and Trap Ward, Serren's Armor Lock and Swift Girding, and Kreighton's Perusal were in 1e.

Also Deivon's parry. ^_^

Indeed. I originally intended to expand it to include protean-kin ganzi, since it seemed a shame to leave them out of all the tail mischief... but the final version is even more inclusive. ^_^

Yes to all of those. ^_^

Since this seems to be a callback, I wonder how old you have to be to remember the D&D and AD&D times where elves could be fighter/wizards ^^

About my age, as it turns out. ^_^

(Though you'll need something even spicier than Ancient Elf to go fighter/mage/thief.)

I'm glad some folks out there find the Ancient Elf heritage to their liking. ^_^

I'm very glad you found it so enjoyable and useful! ^_^

Shield Wall is the bonus feat granted by the tactician class feature, if I recall correctly. ^_^

What an interesting thread. ^_^

The BotD entries do indeed require use of Fiendish Obedience, as the higher-level boons are pushed in power level beyond the assumptions of Deific Obedience. ^_^

Wanted: Some of the feat types in the splat books could have been so much more, like the team work feats in the Evil and Anti-hero books.

Personally, I'm hoping to expand on some of those abandoned subsystems in my own time. ^_^

All The Stars In the Sky is interesting, for a non-capstone thing in the book. Would be nice if non-ninja classes that use shuriken could take it too though.

The ninja class is in a tricky place. It was the kinda-sorta "fixed" rogue... until the unchained rogue stole its lunch money and pushed it into a locker* in front of the class it had a crush on**. As such, one of my goals for the ninja content was to give them some unique stuff to reinforce both their niche as "mystic" rogue-types and major elements of their thematic brand - including, of course, shuriken.

That said, it's worth noting that any class with access to the full list of rogue master talents can select Master Trick*** (Ultimate Combat 71), which would presumably allow them to select All The Stars In the Sky. Might not be useful for whichever class you have in mind, of course, but maybe it is! ^_^

*But using Dexterity!
**Kineticist, the sassy new exchange student with the air of mystery.
***Niche protection was not the ninja's strongest suit.

I only designed the first of the Wilding Strike feats - the rest were the developers expanding on my work. So I can't speak precisely to the motives. ^_^

My best guess is niche protection... trying to give other characters the option while leaving the unarmed classes as the best option. That's just speculation, though.

I'm really glad people are enjoying the Wilding feats. This sort of character was really the inspiration for them. ^_^

That part was actually added in development to make up for removed text, after things were out of my hands... so I'm afraid I can't help you there. My apologies. ^_^

I have my book and those traits are very nice.

They are called exemplar traits and you can only hove one of them, but having an exemplar trait allows you to have multiple traits of the same type as the exemplar. The catagories for the exemplar traits are combat, region, magic, faith, and social.

the boosts come for every other 2 you have in the same type. also having an exemplar trait lets you pick the feat for additional traits more than once. however the power of an exemplar trait is not to be taken lightly. since it counts as 2 normal traits when you first pick it. so make sure you can handle it.

A slight correction on this: each of them counts differently. Curator of Mystic Secrets and Traveler of a Hundred Lands scale with every trait of their type, rather than every two.

If your campaign permits drawbacks, this is a way to start benefiting from those scaling benefits immediately. Plus whatever those other traits offer, of course. ^_^

I'd mention my sections, but I'm waiting for people to start talking about them. ^_^

Was reminded of something I've been thinking about off and on for a long time: a Magus archetype designed for 2H weapons. This would essentially amount to trading out spell combat for something that doesn't need an empty hand to do.

makes a note

watches and waits

Spell combat might have been a bad example given the way 2e's action economy works.

The larger point though was just that one of the strengths of PF1's partial casters is the way they created class features and unique spells to blend together martial and magical components to some degree, Spell Combat was just an example of that.

And my worry is that with battlemages being built around multiclassing instead we'll see a bit of a backslide toward 3.5 design philosophy where being a gish is just bolting spells onto your fighter or bolting attack bonuses onto your wizard with not a lot of meaningful interconnectivity between the two and I hope Paizo looks at that when designing feats to support these systems.

It seems to me that an easy (if potentially very wordcount-heavy) first step is making multiclass feats with multiple class prerequisites. So multiclass feats with both fighter and wizard as prerequisite, sort of thing. Then you can design tightly-focused benefits to build off the two classes' specific strengths.

makes a note

Wow... it's been a full year already?

It was absolutely intended to apply rage powers via inspired devotion. I'm not sure what happened to the relevant text.

The Dreamthief description, it is mentioned you at least get the free ability/feat the phantom has all the time, BUT (emphasis mine):

d20pfsrd wrote:

"She gains the abilities granted by that emotional focus (with the exception of the focus determining her good saving throws—she retains the typical rogue saves). For each of the two skills associated with that emotional focus, a dreamthief gains ranks in that skill equal to her *rogue* level; this does not allow her ranks in these skills to exceed her Hit Dice."

Effectively this means:

you {spend your total HD - Rogue levels} in the skill, to get an effective total of max ranks (and if you spend max ranks with "real Skillpoints" anyway, the bonus DT ranks are ignored),
not:
you take 1 level rogue dip to get max ranks w.o. spending other skill points in that skill (like using a headband of intellect +2 to get a skill you didn't have before)

To summarise, if you only dip one level of DT, you only get the one level's worth of ranks...

This is correct. ^_^

I think all there is in Planar Adventures is the Hag racial trait for daughters of Moon Hags (It's in the Moon Hag write-up). I don't think there is a section for alternative ability increases or an awakened hag heritage, or indeed a name for them (since "Moon May" is already reserved for the daughters of night hags).

I've been internally referring to them as luna mays, for the record, though the rest of the mechanical details will have to wait for my own distribution method to go live. ^_^

The moon daughter changeling racial trait can be found on page 242, at the end of the moon hag entry. ^_^

A warrior poet/rogue can sneak attack more easily thanks to kitsune's mystique. ^_^

takes notes

Isabelle Lee wrote:

In official first-party material? Yes, probably, barring a surprise in the last couple of books.

That said, not every writer is planning to abandon Pathfinder First Edition immediately (or at all).

I Google'd but I can't seem to find your Patreon for Pathfinder stuff. :)

I'm working on it. ^_^

I think calling one "ersatz" to her face would be a very poor decision. ^_^

I believe the intention with Archon Diversion is that it's not usable with two-handed weapons or traditional two weapon fighting.

It's only usable when you:
1) Have a one handed weapon in one hand and nothing in the other or
2) Have a weapon in one hand and a shield in the other. You can use the shield to TWF or purely for defense.

This is accurate to the spirit of my revisions. ^_^

To me, it's clearly intended to be for sword and board users.

Note that the original Blood of Angels version was unarmed only (I added the shield parts for Planar Adventures).

I set out to make the lawful styles more monk-accessible/monk-focused (I can't remember the final version of Devil Style very well at the moment, but I think it's more the latter) by design or redesign.

In official first-party material? Yes, probably, barring a surprise in the last couple of books.

That said, not every writer is planning to abandon Pathfinder First Edition immediately (or at all). ^_^

If you need humanoid monsters that can be slain guilt-free, put bandit clothes on them and/or have them doing evil things.

If you need there to exist an entire race of humanoid monsters that is always evil, may I remind you (much as they were hoping you'd forget) that drow are still a thing? :P

It's worth noting that drow are also not always evil, even as far back as Second Darkness. They possess free will and self-determination, and are no more "innately evil" than any other elf, or at worst, a tiefling or changeling. See Adventurer's Guide for more discussion on the redemption of drow. ^_^

So let's see here...

So, is there a reason that Shroud of Water at level 4 doesn't seem to boost me when I'm wearing a magic shield and armor, or is that a Hero Lab bug?

Hero Lab error. Per the text, you're "increasing" the relevant enhancement bonus, not adding a new one. I recommend using a Hero Lab spell adjustment to add the effects of magic vestment to your character with the new total enhancement bonus.

Also, does Shroud of Water need me to spend burn to power it, or does it only care about my current burn, like Elemental Overflow? And finally, how long does the boost to AC last? I assume it is until the burn is removed?

You must spend burn to increase the effects (though this is an excellent way to fuel your elemental overflow!) Much like the regular shroud of water effect, it lasts until your burn is removed.

Sorry if this has been answered before, a search failed to help me with this specific area!

Always happy to help! ^_^

The ability uses the cavalier's Diplomacy modifier, just as it appears in the Skills section of the character sheet. This overrides the equation normally used to determine a druid or ranger's wild empathy modifier, similarly to how a bard's versatile performance ability overrides other skill modifiers as appropriate.

The "effective druid level" portion was added in development, if I recall correctly, so I'm not sure exactly what it's meant to do. You'll have to inquire with them for that. ^_^

That said, the armour being battered only makes it so all creatures other than you are not proficient with that set of armour. Just like Gunslingers who get a battered firearm at first level, the point is to give you access to an otherwise very expensive item that is critical to the class/archetype

This is exactly correct. ^_^

As am I. A lot of my plans are kind of riding on this. ^_^

Cavall has the right of it. ^_^

I feel like the intention is to work with advanced weapon training. Otherwise why have it alter the ability instead of replace it?

I assume that its altering so that a player can still benefit from Weapon Training feats and items (Gloves of Dueling).

These are both true. Unfortunately, for various reasons, the final version couldn't be made to work perfectly with advanced weapon training.

I highly encourage players in home groups to discuss the weapon group situation with the GM, as houserules are a good solution to the restrictions of official publication. ^_^

I can't remember why it's not on the Kinetic Invocation list. Hmm.

On an off-topic note, I quite like this new avatar. ^_^

if they wanted jewelry damaged (and there's lots of magical jewelry to damage) then they would have said so

I think it's worth noting that the majority of the relevant text is from the 3.5 Monster Manual or even earlier, making it older than some PFS players I know. Speculating about intent is difficult when dealing with material so old, especially since 3rd Edition hadn't yet completely removed the Dungeon Master's role as arbiter and rules interpreter. On top of that, it certainly wasn't written with the existence of Paizo-specific organizational and sorting methods in mind.

In addition, let me assure you, wordcount is a harsher mistress than you think. And it's easy as an author to just assume your audience is on the same page as you when it comes to this stuff... and even if you do include it, your editor or developer may make that assumption and trim the relevant text from your material.

Speaking from an authorial perspective, if I were writing a creature with such capabilities... back when I was just starting out, I probably would have just assumed that GMs would see that it affects clothing and armor and is fully effective against metal, and inherently understand that it affects jewelry as well. (I'm not claiming intent in this case, though. I didn't write it.) Having more experience with these forums... I absolutely would specify whether it did or not. Assuming it even occurred to me that it would come up. ^_^

I'm always excited for kytons. And it'll be lovely to have a female kyton, especially one based on the wonderful Bestiary art. ^_^

I'm not sure why Tumultuous Spell doesn't have the appropriate text to match the rest. I'm pretty sure it was in my version... I think the feat lost a chunk of text, though, so maybe that part accidentally got deleted with it.

And some potent boons, I should think. Being able to entomb foes and raise them as powerful ghouls or draw on the accumulated lore of all those who have ever died (though available only to the highest of priests) is nothing to scoff at. ^_^

Depending on what you consider "valid content"... not entirely unfeasible. ^_^

I only mentioned the components to make it entirely clear, and because the existing example at the time (the reliquarian) did so. Wordcount can be a pretty major factor in these as well, but I'll admit that I didn't think to specify about material components. It was my fourth assignment, and I wasn't yet completely aware of the rigor with which the forum dissects text.

In any case, they need material components just as much as any other arcane spellcaster. The verbal/somatic components text is just a reminder, not an exhaustive list.

Hopefully this helps. ^_^

I mean, if you're planning to use a particular weapon, then a penalty on other weapons isn't really a problem. Getting a dwarven long hammer on a non-dwarf, or elven curved blade on a non elf, or (*shudder*) butchering axe on a non-half-orc is pretty good. Certainly not the worst boon I've seen.

No need to tremble, friend; butchering axes aren't included in orc weapon familiarity. ^_^

Dancer’s Grace and Graceful Strike both seem fine. Both scale with level instead of just granting something big to a dip.

This was the intention - I've seen how dippable swashbuckler can be, and wanted to make sure the archetype served either purpose. ^_^

Dancer’s Grace is a more restricted version of Canny Defense, that’s CHA based instead of INT. There are plenty of other dips that would grant full CHA to AC instead of just a +1.

Indeed. In addition, the warrior poet specifically grants a Charisma modifier to AC, and doesn't stack with easy dips like scaled fist as a result.

Graceful Strike is more or less what the compromise for dex to hit but not to damage has become. It’s the same calculation as Lethal Grace for Vigilante, and I think that same formula shows up in at least one other archetype somewhere.

This was indeed the idea. The other one you may be thinking of is the fighter's advanced weapon training option Trained Grace (I think?), which doubles the fighter's weapon training bonus to damage when using Dex to hit and Str to damage.

Graceful Warrior: does this allow Slashing Grace with a katana? The last sentence of Graceful Warrior casts doubt on it.

Remember that Slashing Grace always works with a katana, so the last part of graceful warrior doesn't apply. Doing so generally results in katana attacks getting Str to hit and Dex to damage. This ability will fill in the other half, allowing Dex to hit and damage. However, the same is true of almost any swashbuckler dip. (And those come with opportune parry and riposte!)

The last sentence of graceful warrior does, however, ensure that the warrior poet can't be combined with (for example) three levels of unchained rogue to get Dex x1.5 to damage with katanas, naginatas, or glaives. Having seen the issues with Bladed Brush, I did my darnedest to make sure it was as combo-proof as possible. ^_^