Jedi Maester's page

I didn't see a thread on the Remaster Investigator, so I thought I'd make one! I know this wasn't one of the classes mentioned to get a significant overhaul, but I'm curious what everyone else is hoping to see for this class in the remaster.

My hope is to see the narrative scope of the class broadened. Compared to other classes, detective is incredibly narrow flavor to build a class around. I'd love to see the class branch into archetypes (not the mechanic) that have yet to really be covered. I'd love to see the addition of these methodologies: archaeologist and cryptologist. With this broadening, it would be neat to see Devise a Stratagem work in different ways for either method.

Archaeologist could have it behave more like an Indy Ploy that feels more improvisational. Something that is less Sherlock and predicting outcomes, but more like gambling.

During the Thaumaturge playtest, a few people wanted a character that uses intelligence to actually know about weaknesses. I think the cryptologist would be an excellent subclass to see that flavor realized. Their Stratagem could revolve identifying creatures and helping the party to exploit their weaknesses. A Thaumaturge that does spend all day in books but lacks that ability to create weaknesses. A very book accurate Van Helsing.

With the news that Sekmin are replacing the Drow, it seems the Darklands are in for quite the revamp. As it is my favorite area of Golarion, I'm curious what are everyone's hopes for the Darklands moving forward? What are the changes you want to see, and what are the things you hope stay the same (outside of the already confirmed changes).

My biggest hope is that the Darklands stay terrifying and dangerous. With Sekmin taking over, I'm not too worried about this. The idea of a place where society is completely evil and being good is a true minority makes the place unique to me. It's a chance to really roleplay being the light in the darkness, both literally and figuratively.

With Sekmin taking over the Drow territory, I hope to see their society really fleshed out. They already had very human motivations of power so I never considered them that mysterious. In fact, I think this is probably a good sign for anyone hoping for a Sekmin ancestry. However, we are losing the ancient society that's been sleeping for centuries waiting for their time to awaken. Sekmin could keep this, but as they now have a good power base, I wonder if this could be used with a new threat. Something much more alien and mysterious. Maybe that's what the Sekmin are containing in the ancient city?

Finally, I know the name will change, but whatever replaces Neothelids, I want more of it! Giant, incredibly powerful, psychic, occult worms please! Make them more Pathfinder original and flesh out the ancient war between them, the Alghollthus, and the Vault Builders!

Maybe this has already been talked about, but with the big errata coming I thought this would be a good time to bring up a minor thing I find weird with the current rules. I think it is odd that the the Expert and Master multiclass spell casting feats require master and legendary in their associated spell tradition skill.

Hear me out: a level 20 Wizard can be only trained in Arcane and cast level/rank 10 spells with legendary proficiency, but a 20th level rogue with a wizard dedication must have legendary Arcane to cast 8th level/rank spells at master proficiency. That hurts my verisimilitude a bit, not enough to keep me from enjoying the game, but it does feel awkward at times. And it is especially awkward to me when multiclassing into a dedication where the spell casting comes from an intuitive source, like the sorcerer. One of the big fantasies of sorcerer is that the power is my own, and I don't need to study to use it. But if I'm a rogue who takes a sorcerer dedication, I now need to be master or legendary in my spell casting tradition to get more power.

If this is a nesseacry part of the game balance, I guess it is fine as is. But I wanted to bring it up during this transition time because removing these prerequisites is a small change and maybe others feel the same?

If I was able to change it, I'd probably split the prepared and spontaneous casting into separate groups. The spontaneous casters would not have the prerequisite skill proficiencies of their casting traditions for their multiclass spellcasting feats. The prepared casters are about learning (wizard and witch need to learn spells with intelligence, clerics and druids need to learn about their deity or nature) and would require the skill proficiencies for the spellcasting feats. But these classes would have their associated skill automatically increase like the inventor and crafting as, again, they are about their knowledge in their respective fields.

That might be too complicated a change, but I thought it might be worth considering.

So here is a build I've always wanted to play, and I'm curious if/how it can work. And with Guns n Gears, I think this is its best chance. The idea is a Half-Orc bounty hunter who specializes in using crossbows like guns in a western. The style I'd like to use is dual wielding repeating hand crossbows to make as many ranged attacks as possible. I could see him sneaking up on a bounty, kicking down the door, using a round of shots to take out the henchmen, and then focusing on capturing the bounty alive.

My top two class picks are the ranger and gunslinger. The gunslinger seems obvious as it's built to use crossbows, but its abilities are more built around reloading often, which I won't be doing every turn. The ranger gets flurry to help with MAP and the thematic Hunt Prey to help with tracking down targets. But its crossbow feats are also more concerned with reloading every turn. Neither seem to have a way to really capitalize on using two ranged weapons.

What's the best way to see this idea realized? Is it worth it compared to other similar builds? We'll be using free archetypes, so they are an option too.

So I got to playtest the Thaumaturge in a very unique setting: modern England. As such I decided to see how much like Constantine I could build.

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Level 1 Thaumaturge
Human Changeling (Moon May)
Str 10 Dex 12 Con 12 Int 16 Wis 10 Cha 18
Implement: Wand
Class Feats: Esoteric Lore
Party: Time Traveler Summoner with a Dragon, A modern day Investigator

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So Changeling to get some innate magicness, and wand to focus more on ranged attacks. Because Constantine is an investigator of sorts, I maxed Cha and Int as much as I could.

The game started with a lot of RP, which was fun. I accidentally resurrected Morgan le Fey into modern England by stealing her wand. Good stuff. Esoteric Lore was really fun here, just randomly getting to know all kinds of things. I was glad to have pushed Int so high. At low level with high Int, I was trained in a good number of skills without worrying about skill increases. So I had lots of utility here, but I know that would be different at higher levels.

Combat started when she sent 6 zombies to retrieve Excalibur from the sorcerer. The summoner and investigator tanked while I stayed back with my wand. The wand implement was nice as basic saves meant I did damage every turn. However, as Esoteric Antithesis has no interaction outside of a weapon, and my Str and Dex are fairly low, I had no incentive to use it. Which was a shame, because that meant I also had no reason to use Find Flaws. So while I was doing consistent damage, it was fairly low (I rolled 1 for damage 3 times). It would be nice to combine the Wand with EA for at least some way to nova occasionally. Or add debuffs as others have suggested.

We almost lost the fight, mostly due to the investigator and me RPing a little too much, but squeaked a win. We probably won't get to play again before the playtest ends, so this is probably all I'll have to report.

So I previously threw out the idea of dropping Esoteric Antithesis because I didn't see how it could work with Charisma. After thinking about Mark's clarifications and how other's view the class, I think I understand it better now. It plays in the same themes as the bard. But where as the bard takes mundane performance and turns it into magic, the thaumaturge takes mundane items and makes them magical. That's how implements and Esoteric Antithesis fit together. Both are about taking something mundane and, through some form of narrative, giving it power. I could be wrong (again), but this is my attempt to help make that more the central theme.

Everything is still Cha based and we keep implements as that initial class choice. The first change is Find Flaws. If we are making stories, fact is irrelevant. There is no need to actually know anything about what we are fighting. We are making a story, which is only limited by player imagination. Find Flaws, which should be renamed to something more fitting, is just an action that requires no check, just like Hunt Prey and Devise a Stratagem. It should also be balanced similarly and not interfere with a creature's natural weaknesses. We are adding a new weakness that has nothing to do with the natural. They should stack just like they do for the HP and DaS examples.

The main function of our class is still Esoteric Antithesis. The only change I would make is to make the effect dependent on which implement you want to use and that the effect is based on Cha. This ties the implement much more close to the class. So a weapon implement would use something similar to the current version, with bonus to hit and damage based on Cha. But the lantern might give a debuff to the target of Find Flaws, with a save DC based on Cha. The Amulet could provide defensive bonuses against them. I think it would make sense to pick up new implements as you go, so you can switch which affect of Esoteric Antithesis you want at higher levels.

So going with this theme of mundane into magic, I think I would drop some of the class feats the deal more directly with using magic. I would switch the scroll feats into something where you pick a number of small knickknacks each day and grant a spell to them, based off their stories of course. Similar mechanic, but tied directly to the rest of the class. I don't see how the pact feats are of any more relation to this as any other class. I think they would be better off as dedication feats for archetypes that allow a character to become more indebted the more power they get. And I'm sure more changes could be made to other feats

Okay, that's my new take on the class. My previous one, of a guy who pretends to be magical by relying on Trick Magic Item is still worth a class, but it's not what I think people are looking for here (I think this class would be a natural fit for pacts). This also better separates the class from the Inquisitor, which I think deserves it's own class with a more divine bent.

I'm curious to see how people feel on this take. Hopefully better than the last one!

So this might be too outside the box. But I love the possibilities of this class and wanted to throw this out there.

Find Flaws and Esoteric Antithesis are amazing abilities, they are so good that I think everyone wants to use them on their preferred class. They would fit amazingly on an investigator, inquisitor, and even a ranger. And I think the reason people want to see the class with Int or Wis is to fulfill that idea, without even having to change the recall knowledge ability score. So my crazy idea is to drop these from the class.

Hear me out! I'm not incredibly familiar with the inspiration for this class (Dresden, Constantine, and the like), but I believe they operate similar to detectives. And the fun of a detective is figuring out something that is already there, not forcing a new thing to fit. If I want a class to force narrative cohesion on reality, it's definitely the bard. And even they keep their knowledge roles Int based, as Cha as they are.

So instead of forcing Cha here, what if we switch the focus of the class to anything magic adjacent where Cha makes sense. Without the above bonuses, the implements could become main combat tools. They start out magical, and gain abilities as they level up to stay on par. This could probably be a similar implementation(HA!) to the inventor innovations, but based off of magic and Cha. So the thaumaturge is able to unlock the hidden potential in the sword they picked up from a ruin. Or maybe even upgrade it themselves. I could even see a fun relationship here between an intelligent implement and the thaumaturge.

Cha was the Use Magic Device of first edition. Let's bring that back here. Give them the UMD version of Find Flaws: trained in all 4 magic tradition skills and uses Cha for all of them when using Trick Magic Item. This character may not be magical of themselves, but he knows how to play with any magical item he finds. This will help with using scrolls, wands, and any other knickknacks from all 4 traditions. The true dabbler. And maybe feats to increase proficiency when using these items, making this a main feature.

I think the Pacts are perfect for Cha. Using your Cha to gain favors of more powerful beings. Great flavor and mechanics. Someone else mentioned feats to boost racial spells. These are based on Cha and tying in ones limited natural magic makes perfect sense for this direction.

A version of finding flaws could remain, but toned down. Not the main part of the class. This would allow using Int as a secondary stat for a more party support role.

I doubt this will be a popular idea, but what does everyone else think?

It's probably too late for this discussion. But I figured I'd bring it up anyway in case it's useful. When the swashbuckler was announced, I was very skeptical because I worried it would step on the toes of the fighter or rogue. I think panache was the difference to me. It encouraged a different play style to the fighter or rogue, but maintained weapon versatility. I wish, instead of being built around guns, the gunslinger was built around a similar mechanic to panache. Similar in that it works with a variety of weapons, but encourages a different play style than either fighter or ranger (the two I feel gunslinger is the closest to).

I was expecting a new grit mechanic to do this. Something that would push the class to play differently with a variety of weapons. My immediate thought is the opposite of panache, so something that discourages showing off and encourages a reserved play style. Like, a bonus on damage any round where you draw your weapon. This follows the cinematic-ness of the quick draw with both guns and katanas.

I love the class feats. I just wonder if an overarching mechanic would help? Thoughts?

The default Magus from first edition was mix of fighter and wizard. In order to account for other combos, archetypes were required, like the Eldrtich Scion. This could be troublesome as archetypes were forced to play within the restrictions of the original class.

How would you design the new Magus to avoid this issue such that the class plays well with any spellcasting style now or future? What a about martial styles, like fighter or swashbuckler? Can the Magus be designed to handle any gish combo?

Or would it be better to have each combo be represented by a single class? Or use archetypes again?

As classes level, they get proficiency bonuses to their class equipment. But depending on the class, this makes little sense. For example, a wizard takes the armor proficiency generally feat to be trained in light armor. However, their level 13 defensive robes ability makes them expert only in unarmored. I'm curious why this design decision was made? Why not make it so that you become expert in any armor you're already trained in?

Is there a way to lower the reload on the hand crossbow to 0? I have this awesome picture in my head of a half-orc cowboy who uses a hand crossbow like a revolver to hit multiple enemies in a turn. Is this possible?

I was looking at the Crystal Tender archetype and I have a question. How does the Reciprocal Resonance ability from the archetype work with the Body of Earth ability from the Stone Spirit? The archetype and spirit seem intended to work together, but both grant DR/adamantine. Does it stack? I doubt it, but then the archetype ability feels like a waste.

Thank you.

I wanted to share something I've been thinking about on class feats. First, I'm super happy with the flexibility they provide. Letting me choose the abilities I want to better customize my character was a much needed change. It significantly lowers the need for many archetypes and a few hybrid classes that were necessary in the more rigid 1st Ed class structure.

However, I find it weird how class feats were executed. Certain things, like animal companions or wizard school powers, make sense. They are very specific to the class and are hard for more than a select few classes to accomplish. But some things are more universal, like two weapon fighting and metamagic. Because of this, certain feats need to be repeated word for word with each class that gets them. In fact, if you wanted to, instead of locating each feat under each class that gets it, you could consolidate space by listing all the feats together and listing each class with the level the feat becomes available.

Which might sound familiar: it's how spells were handled in 1st Ed. I love how spells are handled in 2nd Ed. There are four spells lists and you get one. When a new spell is created, you don't have to go through each class and see if it fits, just add it to the appropriate list. This way classes aren't "missing" spells that might make sense (I will never understand who decided witches didn't get the image spells.... Just why!?)

So I guess feats feel like they are a step behind. Characters can choose between them as they grow, much like spells, but with them listed for each individual class they can easily ruin a character idea someone had in mind. Much like I wanted to build an illusion based witch but struggled, dual wielding rogues are currently a common concept that are hard to implement. I'm sure rogues will eventually be given the necessary class feats, but it seems like a problem that will continue each time new classes and feats are introduced as the edition continues.

I wanted to mention it because the four spell lists are a great implementation to help as new options are added. It's pretty elegant. I don't see a reason why class feats couldn't be just as elegant.

I don't know if this question was asked already. I may have missed it, and if so, I apologize. But I'm really curious.

In most RPGs with hit points, people stop being a threat. I can surround my players with guards, but with their hit points, crossbow damage just stops being relevant.

Hit points are great for that long drown out fight with a dragon, but hurt role-playing in other ways.

Does Starfinder have a way to address this, so a child playing with a blaster is actually scary?

I love the flavor of this crystal tender archetype. The idea of a hermit that lives alone in the Darklands growing a crystal garden is super cool. But I have no idea how to build an effective one. I've never played a shaman before. Looking for some advice to help me out with this particular archetype. Thank you!

Crystal tender

Can a Sandman bard steal an above 6th level spell and then use a runestone of power to cast it?

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/r-z/runes tone-of-power/

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/bard/archetypes/paizo-bard-arc hetypes/sandman/

I've been wondering which of these would be better for building an enchantment focused magical thief.

Using wizard for spellcasting, a trickster gets a ton of utility spells thanks to being a prepared caster, which they can cast silently. However, the trickster has an emphasis on damage spells as apposed to enchantment. It feels like wasting class features not to focus on damage instead of control.

The sandman gets a boost to its DCs while casting at someone denied their Dex, which is very thematic. Charisma is also synergized between casting and skills.

So if you wanted to play an enchantment focused arcane thief. How would you build it? I'd be curious to hear your response even if it isn't one of these two.

If you were going to make a character with the feel of Boba Fett from Star Wars, would you use an Inquisitor, Ranger, or something else and why? This does not mean that technology is that advanced or the character is in the Star Wars universe. The character, because of flavor/mechanics, just feels like Boba Fett.

Hi everyone. I was wondering, if you were going to build an arcane duelist with the dimensional agility feat chain from UC, how would you do it? This seems to me to be at least an incredibly fun idea. Thanks for your responses!

Hi people of the messageboards!

I would like advice on building this character of mine. He is a pirate captain for our crew, with the rest of the party serving as various officers. I want to build a character who can lead his crew to fight the enemy. I like the idea of the arcane duelist bard for the buffs and combat ability. My question is how to make him fight effectively so that he isn't just talk.

I would like to focus on TWF with a rapier and dagger, along with a whip and pistol for support. This is the flavor I am looking for, with weapon finesse. Can this be combat effective? I would like to be mobile as well, but don’t know how to work that in with TWF.

The idea is to yell his battle cry (Inspire Courage), charge with the frontlines, and be able to survive with his reflexes and wits. Are there any suggestions to make this work?