Jesse Vindiola's page

A Shortsword, however, is surely more effective in slashing than a dagger. (Which is mainly meant for piercing, anyways.)

I've never seen this rule stuck to in a tabletop game, DM's always let people slash with them anyways.

Also, in every D&D video game, even if the damage for the sword is piercing, the animation is always slashing.

I agree it's silly, why not make it so it can slash too? It's not like it's a rapier, with no real weight.

The reason power attack changed was because characters were generating spread sheets to calculate the optimal power attack level.

Ideally. You should not be able to see the value of your attack roll. Thus preventing you from determining exactly what the target AC is. Alternatively you could have the GM have the roll randomly for defensive AC (d20 + Standard AC - 10) where the GM only tells you if you hit or not (and does not reveal the target AC).

But being able to calculate the absolute best attack patter within seconds is a bit much.

I've seen those spreadsheets, and I really do not think that the sort of people who make and use those sort of things should be the target audience of a game.

People will always exist who try to 'break' or tweak a system. A system will never be perfect, and there will always be exploits like this. Changing the system will just mean new exploits. The percentage of the population who does that sort of thing, I'd like to hope, is relatively low.

Nunchaku, Kama, and Siangham are really not necessary considering they have identical stats to pre-existing simple weapons.

Kama is Japanese for Sickle, one of my big beefs with how WOTC handled things, toss it, Monks can use a sickle as a monk weapon anyways.

Nunchaku is roughly a light flail only with two handles, same damage, roughly the same weight...Monks can use a Light Flail as a simple weapon and a monk weapon now...no need for this. Nunchaku would just be a stylistically built light flail.

Siangham is basically a dagger, monks can use daggers as a monk weapon...why do we have a Siangham? (What /is/ a Siangham?)

I purposefully like the idea of Shuriken either being available to all classes, or eliminated in favor for throwing daggers and darts. Shuriken are really just differently made short range throwing knives.

This doesn't strike me as a big deal. Evasion is generally considered to be superior to Mettle, however.

The more options, the better, I always say.

Honestly, Rangers could use a lot more love. How about more figthing styles other than Two-Weapon or Archery? Two-Handed? Maybe Mounted?

Either way, the more powers that have either/or attached to them the better.

Also, one could always add a new 'weapon' or two that is basically just an enhancement to a monk's unarmed attacks.

Iron Rings about the wrists, a-la Wuxia?

Gauntlets?

Punching Daggers? (Actually make them useful...)

Or introduce some feats that represent a Monk's body hardening, DR before 20th level, adamantine hands, etc?

These are just random ideas, not nearly as focused as the weapon idea.

I started This Thread here, separately from the main thread because it was branching off a bit, but because the discussion went back to weapons...

Maybe the key to making the Monk feel /right/ and work better with other classes, have more 'oomph' is to focus on his/her weapons.

This is a copy-paste of an article I found on Shaolin Monks and weapons:

Shaolin monks train in martial arts for several hours every day, perfecting the art of hand-to-hand and weapons combat.

In addition to the use of these weapons virtually any common, everyday object can be used by a Shaolin monk.

Most of the weapons that they use are off of the simple weapons list. Shortsword can easily be used to represent the Jian in a pinch, or or the Dao, one is light and long, and one is broad and short.

War Fan would be nice, as would taking the spiked chain, reducing it's damage, and making it a lighter weapon. That's definately a monk weapon.

I think the Iconics that you'd usually see this sort of character using in a Wuxia film, though, are:

Jian (Rapier-like, Light Sword)
Dao (Short, curved Broad Sword)
Mace
Staff
Spear
Seven Ring Staff
Tiger-Hooks

Maybe the path to making the monk feel right lies in focusing more on his/her weapons.

I agree, fine tuning power attack has always been something I enjoyed.

Will it be -1 to hit for +2, or -4 for +8 against a mammoth foe with DR?!

Personally...I'd be happy if Pathfinder was like 3.75 D&D rather than 4E. I just do not like what I see about 4E so-far, and while I like SOME of the ideas they have, like consolidated skill lists, and always on attack powers, no spell failure, and all the race write-ups, there's enough other stuff I hate that I'd want to keep playing a game like 3.5 where I can Dual Wield and Trip people no matter what my class is.

I'd be all for more than one perform skill being used for Bardic Performances. Dance of the seven veils would be neat.

Why NOT have hot dancing bards who fascinate or stun or suggest on their audiences?

SIDESTEP CHARGE [COMBAT]

Prerequisites: Combat Reflexes
Benefit: You may use this feat when an opponent uses a charge action to attack or bull rush you. Before the opponent makes its attack roll, you may roll a 20-sided die as a defense roll. The result of the defense roll takes the place of your base 10 added to your Armor Class. If the opponent's attack misses, you gain an attack of opportunity against the opponent. This attack of opportunity ignores the opponent's Dexterity bonus to Armor Class if any.

Personally I'd probably make this so that if an enemy charges you and misses their attack you get an immediate attack of opportunity against them and they lose their Dex mod to AC. Allow it to work on Bull Rushes too...it's a feat that will only work in very narrow situations, but is fairly good.

I just can't see Bard ever being the killer class in the game.

Personally, I think any boost to the Bard is a good thing.

SirUrza wrote:

With fewer skills and a huge limit on how many skill points you can spend, I don't see the need for more skill points.

If you want your character to be really skilled in something, there are plenty of feats to spare that you can take Skill Focus and the related +2/+2 feat.

That's not the point at all. The idea of giving more skill points is to have points in a larger number of different skills, not more points in one. Skill Focus and the pathetic +2/+2 feats do nothing to help with that.

Totally agree, it seems like a bad solution to just spread your Skill Points thin then spend Feats for Skill Focus in order to give them all a +2. It doesn't add up right, and it requires extra effort...while 2 extra skill points is built into the classes, and seems to make most people happy about class balance and capabilities.

I always felt the list of 'Monk Weapons' was somewhat silly and redundant. It may be done for game balance but the way I see it the game balance achieved is minimal at best.

The thing is, most 'Monk Weapons' are just Asian versions of pre-existing simple weapons.

Kama=Sickle
Nunchaku=Light Flail
Siangham=Arrow/Dagger (Honestly, really, what is a Siangham but a Dagger that can be used for special Monk Attacks?)

How about instead of going through this extra redundancy, just let the Monk use Simple weapons, then they'd actually be able to use Spears, weapons that actual Shaolin and Wudan Monks (The main inspiration for this class) train with.

It may seem imbalanced but I've seen a Shaolin Monk 'Flurry Of Blows' with a spear in a demonstration before, and it'd get rid of the necessity to have a bunch of extra exotic weapons that are nearly identical to previously existing weapons.

If letting Monks use all Simple Weapons is too unbalancing to game mechanics, then perhaps a more moderate proposal is to list Sickle, Light Flail, Dagger, and the Spears as Monk weapons which can be used to perform Special Monk Attacks and Flurry Of Blows.

I always felt the list of 'Monk Weapons' was somewhat silly and redundant. It may be done for game balance but the way I see it the game balance achieved is minimal at best.

The thing is, most 'Monk Weapons' are just Asian versions of pre-existing simple weapons.

Kama=Sickle
Nunchaku=Light Flail
Siangham=Arrow/Dagger (Honestly, really, what is a Siangham but a Dagger that can be used for special Monk Attacks?)

How about instead of going through this extra redundancy, just let the Monk use Simple weapons, then they'd actually be able to use Spears, weapons that actual Shaolin and Wudan Monks (The main inspiration for this class) train with.

It may seem imbalanced but I've seen a Shaolin Monk 'Flurry Of Blows' with a spear in a demonstration before, and it'd get rid of the necessity to have a bunch of extra exotic weapons that are nearly identical to previously existing weapons.

Personally, that's what I enjoyed most about Star Wars D20 Revised vs 3.5 when they were both out side by side. The classes in Star Wars have a few more class skills, and they all roughly have from 4-10 skills instead of 2-8. It made it so Soldiers felt a bit more rounded, etc.

Personally I feel that 2 extra skill points per class would make me feel...satisfied with just about every class having enough skills to be useful in multiple enough situations and fulfill my idea for a character.

A Fighter with 4 Skills can be adequately Athletic, Ride a Horse, and know something about Heraldry. As a Human, they can perhaps also be Intimidating, and with an Int Bonus, pick up a trade or craft.

That's not really an unreasonable expectation for a Man-At-Arms to have.

Same with Wizards, I'd no longer feel crippled, and I'm sure that considering the tweaking already needed to adapt adventures to Pathfinder adding an extra check for the party here or there wouldn't be that crazy.

Deadly Aim
You can make exceptionally deadly ranged attacks by
pinpointing a target’s weak spot, at the expense of making
the attack less likely to succeed.
Prerequisite: Dex 13, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: Add an amount equal to your Dexterity
modifier (or your base attack bonus, whichever is lower)
to your ranged damage rolls for one round (in addition to
the normal damage modifier from a high Strength score,
if applicable). Subtract the same amount from your ranged
attack rolls for 1 round.

This feat seems to be intended to be similar to Power Attack but apply ranged attacks. However, the name seems like a misnomer as 'Deadly Aim' would theoretically be an attack that's so accurate it's deadly, this is an attack that's less accurate but does more damage.

It's probably too late in development, but wouldn't it be a more reasonable idea to call it 'Power Draw'? Considering it does damage at the expense of accuracy? You could say you draw the string on your bow so taut that it becomes shaky and hard to aim, but does much more damage.

It could also be Str OR Dex OR Base Attack Bonus...

Ideas?