Ercinee

Jank Falcon's page

Organized Play Member. 81 posts. No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 1 Organized Play character.




With all the new ranged touch attacks going around, it has become clear that our sorcerer is lacking in many situations where the wizard's HotA doesn't seem to have much of a problem.

Firing into a melee incurs a -4 penalty. For the most part, our arcane spell casters have averaged a 14 in dex, but base attack bonus remains forever on the low side. This means that even though these attacks bypass armor and shield bonuses, they still miss most of the time.

Having to get point blank shot and precise shot is fine for fighting classes, but seems a bit harsh for spellcasters just to be able to cast into melee without a negative modifier, especially given that the bonuses from point blank shot don't apply to spells/spell like abilities (at least it's not clear that they do so).

I would like to introduce a simply new feat:

Ranged Touch Precision

(no prerequisite)

Benefit: You may make ranged touch attacks into a melee without incurring the normal -4 penalty.


During our last two play test sessions we took a good hard look at the Channel positive energy class ability. The PC's cleric has Selective Channeling. There has been a major battle in which the PC's group fought another group of NPC's of comparable level and number (Level 1, 5 characters each) with a cleric that did not have this feat. Last session, the PC's fought a group of NPC's armed with a cleric, also without selective channeling, of which two of the NPC's were two levels higher (3rd) including the cleric himself.

Both ended the same:

Group with cleric that has the Selective channeling feat: Win

Group with cleric without selective channeling: Pwned

The enemy cleric was simply not willing to heal his enemies just to heal his companions. At one point I had to find the exact right square to place him in just to heal one of his guys without healing any of his enemies.

In a word, I see very little reason why a first level cleric would not choose Selective Channeling right out of the gate. The tactical advantage offered by it trumps just about every other feat the cleric might get. The only possible exception being an evil cleric who only runs around with undead companions.

Should we make Selective Channeling just a part of the Channel positive energy class ability?


After Months of trying to get my team focused on the beta, we have finally arrived at a point where I have 3 players that are willing to go through this process with me. Hurrah!

Unfortunately, I have not invested in any books on the Pathfinder campaign setting yet. I was really too busy getting the new rules down and a solid campaign story worked out to really spend anytime learning about a new setting, and I didn't want to corrupt the beta with settings I happen to be well versed in (realms, ebberon) so I have my first home brew setting going. The most important aspect of this as it relates to game play is the religions. For simplicity sake, I have created nine churches, each dedicated to an alignment. These institutions are the source of divine power, as wherever there are many gathered in the name of a particular set of ideals, clerics and paladins may begin to gain power.

The only house rule I use is that the DC for saving throws against spells are always equal to one-half the caster level (round down) plus ability modifier. This provides a blanket DC for all spells a caster might cast without having to spend any energy figuring DC's for individual spells. Any feats or other spells that modify DC (spell focus) function normally.

Character Creation:
We used the "high fantasy" 20 point buy system. I was very pleased with this. There was some minor grumbling from the players because they don't get to roll the dice, fudge the dice rolls, and assign 3 18's a couple of 16's and a 14. I also used the same system to calculate ability scores for many of the NPC's the players would be adventuring with, and battling against.

I have heard that one of the goals of the system was to make generating NPC's much easier for DM's. I am happy to say that my experience has confirmed this. The alteration to the skills has cut a lot of the time spent figuring skills for NPC's, and the new "cross class" skill system has made for more colorful characters. With the PDF, I can just copy and paste class abilities and even spells on to a word document and print it off, and not have to resort to the book during play.

One thing that I noticed right off the bat is that my players were willing to "sell down" some of their stats and take huge hits in some departments in order eek out a few extra points for their high scores. This isn't something I've done a whole lot of with NPC's. After 3 sessions, they are starting to feel the pain of their sacrifice. I'm wondering if they would have done it differently if they had it to do over again...

The 3 characters:

Jackson Stormsurge: Half elf Fighter 1
Stats: Str 18 Dex 16 Con 14 Int 9 Wis 10 Cha 7
Feats: Weapon Focus: longsword, Toughness

With the max HP's at first level, the toughness feat, and putting his favored class bonus into an extra point, Jackson ended up with a whopping 17 HP's at first level! However, his choices have left him with only one rank in skills in which to work with. He chose Stealth, and dumped his Skill focus feat from being a half-elf into that skill. This has generated a character that is excellent in a fight, and not bad in situations requiring a bit of discretion, and pretty much useless in every other situation. The number of times I have asked for a diplomacy or intimidate check in situations where he was trying to be convincing one way or another has left him out in the cold as far as getting his way.

Strabo Sparklebright (snicker) Gnome Bard 1
Stats: Str 6 Dex 14 Con 12 Int 14 Wis 14 Cha 17
Feats: Agile Maneuvers

Strabo said she wanted to be good at disarming people. I sort of scratched my head and let her know gently that it wasn't going to be easy. With her low strength, size modifier, and zero base attack bonus, it was a lot to ask for at first level. I recommended she use a whip, as bards are proficient in it, and to take the agile maneuvers feat. Unfortunately, this has only given her a disarming CMB of +3. For three game sessions now she has tried relentlessly to relieve her antagonists of their weapons, and has not succeeded even one time! I feel for her. She really is going to have to put every ounce of her character into this ability as she progresses. At 5th level, after having picked up combat expertise at third, and improved disarm at 5th, she will finally have a half decent disarming CMB of +9. Whether or not this will improve things for her as she faces 5th level challenges still remains to be seen.

Soveliss Nialo Elf Universalist Wizard 1
Stats: Str 7 Dex 14 Con 10 Int 18 Wis 14 Cha 12
Feats: spell focus: evocation

This character has not much to complain about, and has not much to write home about. With his two spells, which are always mage armor and magic missile, he relies heavily on hand of the apprentice. He has his arcane bond with his staff (as a weapon). This has given him a masterwork weapon to fight with. With an intelligence bonus of +4, and the enhancement bonus from the staff, he has a +5 to hit with the "hand".

After reading some threads on this board, including a couple by Jason, I went ahead and did away with the bonus damage from HotA. Through out our sessions I have watched very closely how this ability (with the damage nerfed) stacks up against the NPC sorcerer's first level ability (elemental cold bloodline). The sorcerer doesn't have anywhere near as good attack bonus (dex mod +2), but the fact that he must make only a ranged touch attack tends to make up for it mostly.

However, there are a few situations where HotA is vastly superior. There have been many occasions where the sorcerer has had to worry about firing into melee (-4 penalty), and sometimes cover as well when the fighter is in his way (another -4). The Wizard fears none of these things. HotA simply strikes targets in range.

The other NPC besides the sorcerer is a first level cleric. She has the selective channeling feat and spends most of her time keeping her companions in the hit points. I'll have a more detailed analysis of this in the appropriate "feat and skill" playtest forum.

Without going into a more long, drawn out play by play report I will simply make known various observations about the beta in my playtests sessions thus far:

Spellcasters: The "staying power" of the beta spellcasters has been something i've only dreamed about for years. In past 3.5 campaigns, I've experimented with various alternate rules systems from the unearthed arcana to try and address the problem of what my group has come to call "the 15 minutes of butt kickin'" scenario.

These methods have never really solved the problem. Some have created more complications and/or went to the opposite end of the extreme (recharge Magic). Some have improved things but not to the point of satisfaction, and dirupted the overall flow of spellcasters (spell points).

Now, we have a system where the casters can almost always do something, even if relatively minor. I am finding that my players are a lot less likely to rest after one measly fight, and tend to save their spells for when they really need them. The arcane bond ability of the wizard to pull any spell out once per day, instead of resting just to memorize that one spell just to get through one particular problem, has been invaluable.

The Clerics Positive energy burst has freed her up quite a bit for using her spells for other things besides healing (bless, for instance). This has made for a longer adventuring day and I feel as though my first level PC's can finally begin to take themselves more seriously for the first time in my gaming history.

Spells: The new Identify mechanics are quite satisfactory. The old system of requiring a 100 GP pearl for identifying items had my PC's spending vast amounts of gold acquiring pearls...to the point where we often wondered where all these freakin pearls were coming from! At the same time, the fact that the caster has to roll to see if he is successful, and has the potential to fail, creates a bit of mystery. I've taken to creating an ability that can be added to any magic item for the cost of extra gold called "confounding", which increases the DC to identify the item by 5, 10 or 20 respectively. This has given me the ability to keep some items mysterious, where the PC might discover some of the items abilities through experimentation, but not all of them. I can now have an item's powers on the back burner where the PC may someday discover all the attributes of the item, just "not right now" or "ever".

I'm still not quite sold on unlimited cantrips. Unlimited detect magics empower first level PC's to go room by room, scanning each with a detect magic, and spotting hidden magic items without actually having to search for them. This also allows them to do a quick scan of each door, instantly spotting magical traps without a search check. I have hidden some items behind or within lead sheeting, which renders the detect magic useless, but the PC's just move on. This has created a situation where if the item is hidden in the room, it is automatically found. If it is hidden within lead, it is never found. Hmmmmmm.

Also, if a hidden character has even one magic item on them, they are discovered in two rounds. This caused one of my PC's to wonder why he bothered acquiring the stealth at all.

Unlimited acid splashes has become the bane of existence for locked doors and chests. Rogues just aren't so special anymore. This might be a good thing, or not.

Some of these are fine. I have no problem with unlimited stabilize or light, for instance.

Thats all for now...


Pre-req: Character level 1

You have trained to defend yourself in ways that others of your class have not, although this means you tend to fall short in areas where others are well versed.

Benefit: You may take any good save your class has and switch it with a poor save, ie; a fighter can choose to have a good save for Will or Reflex instead of Fortitude. He/She will then have a poor save for Fortitude.

Only first level characters can take this feat.


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You have learned techniques that enable you to use leverage to throw opponents you are grappling with to the ground.

Prerequisites: Improved Grapple, Improved Trip, Base Attack Bonus +4

Benefit: If you succeed in using a standard action and a CMB check to break a grapple, you can knock your opponent prone and place them in any unoccupied square adjacent to you. You deal damage to your opponent equal to your unarmed strike, but adding only half your strength bonus to the damage roll. You may only throw an opponent who is one size category larger than you or smaller.