Kamai's page

Is that actually a downside with an unintended upside? Not sure whether to vote for it because it's brilliant or laugh at it because it was very unintended.

This is exactly how [redacted] should have worked in the first place. Awe...that cost makes me cry.

Also, why have thrown weapons with all of these awesome items?

And I think the poor guy sent in his notes instead of his item.

I found my item. Noticed that I missed a clarification that I swear I put into the final draft.

The items price isn't twice it's cost... WHY IS THIS HAPPENING SO MUCH?

Because no weapon, armor, or shield should actually be exactly twice it's cost. The cost of the masterwork item should not be halved.

On topic, though, I found a lovely artifact. I think the author put a decent amount of work into it too, sadly.

I didn't finish up this item even though I liked where it was going because the person giving me advice told me it was probably too niche, which I'm sure was part of the problem my attempt last year ran into.

Edit: I also wanted to try to write up a words of power staff, but there just wasn't enough material for me to write something coherent.

Imagine the drummers that keep an army marching in an organized way and send communications across the army. With some tweaking, that could be a bard.
Imagine the duelist that's always distracting the enemies with quips and generally drowning them out. That could be a bard.
Imagine the know-it all professor that makes you want to hear more about obscure cultures (and know exactly what to do about what you're facing right now). That could be a bard.
Imagine the musician with a haunting melody that makes you forget your limits and your worries. That could be a bard.

Yes, as you fight, you have something that focuses your allies to the task on hand, whether it's a change in tempo from the drums, well-timed jokes, or even relevant knowledge. When they cast, the tempo/topic changes again, and while Wizards/Sorcerers use smaller, precise movements to map their spells somatic components, the bard brings his whole body into the movements, whether it's air conducting the song, miming the illusion that's coming into shape, running fancy show off tricks with the drumsticks and exaggerated hand drumming (think when rock/metal drummers are showing off), or even pantomiming slapstick comedy at the poor helpless sap.

Or he could just be that weird bawdy song singer/breakdancer. Whatever's going to make it fun for you.

I've seen you several times now, and I think I still don't understand your brilliant idea.

Kamai wrote:

Blind but not blind, or borderline cursed item?

I'm seeing a lot of this "cursed" item hate (cursed in this context apparently meaning an item that has drawbacks) and I never noticed it in the past. The statement above goes so far as to make it seem like the two things mentioned are equal infractions, which is weird to me because one of them (blind but not blind) is explicitly in Sean's list of don'ts and the other one (cursed) isn't in that list at all. What gives? Did I miss a memo?

Honestly, the second one seemed like it's drawback was very nearly as bad as it's benefit was good, for absolutely no reason.

I hate you for making up bonus types.

Please make an attempt to know the rules you are interacting with. Formatting Damage Reduction is not that hard.

You're an item that should exist in some form. You're also an item that probably shouldn't have been entered.

Blind but not blind, or borderline cursed item?

I could buy your item, or I could buy more wands of the spell you used than I could ever use. Hmm...

Saying screw you to multiple character classes should cost a bit more than that. Shouldn't be an item whatsoever, but if it has to be...

Cool imagery, but you don't seem to do anything practical.

FYI: Adding a menu of options to cram several different items in 1 entry doesn't really make the item's idea any more interesting.

If you're going to price something over 200,000 gp, please at least make sure it's actually worth that much (even though it really should be an artifact).

Read the description. "Oh dear god this is going to be such a cool item". Read the effect. Literally feel the item fall flat on its face.

Nope, that's a cursed item. Please read the rules carefully and try again next year.

Hilarious item. Probably not seeing light of the top 32, but I'd love for a DM to ok it in a game.

Hmm, you know what's a great idea? Let's look at the old competitions, or the magic item section, file off a description, add our own, then call it our item. That's Superstar material, right? Right?

Filigree 1, voter's sanity 0.

Not too far in, the item that spends more time on it's backstory over what it does.

Edit: Also 2 things that aren't wondrous items now. They don't even use Craft Wondrous Item.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with a 6th (if that person ever comes back), the one I'm messing with is:
Sight: The user of the scale can cast Darkvision, Communal 1/day. Anyone under the effect of this spell can also see through fog, clouds, and smoke as if they weren't there, even from magical sources.

I've got one that I'm nearly happy with, but I'm hoping that others aren't going to give this a try.

Thanks for thinning out the items some.

Squares made me go crazy when starting to DM 4e, so I decided to run with hexes, and it just made more sense. Houses were as weird as any non-squares outdoor things were, and I just used the same rule (if it takes up most of the hex, it's taken up).

I have a thought that gets around the multiple misfire/multiple critical nonsense. Instead of rolling multiple attacks to represent the iterative attacks, how about being able to apply more damage (up to the number of iterative attacks) by beating the AC by multiples of 5. For example, a 11th level gunslinger rolling 28 vs AC 22 would be treated as getting 2 attacks through, while that same gunslinger then rolling a 38 vs AC 22 would get 3 (by having 3 attacks and beating the AC by 10 or more. This would make criticals devastating (since 1 roll governs all criticals), and it feels to the player like making a single shot.

I'm not sure how balanced this feat would be, but maybe this would get the point across:

Trained Hedge Wizard (General)
Prerequisites: Int 11, Spontaneous Arcane Casting, Skill focus (Spellcraft) or Skill Focus (Knowledge Arcana)
You may use one of your spell slots to cast a spell out of a spellbook that was made by another caster. You must still made any Spellcraft checks necessary to understand the spellbook, and a Spellcraft check as if you were attempting to prepare out of an enemy's spellbook. If you fail this Spellcraft check, you must still take the time to cast the spell, and you lose the spell slot. A spell cast this way is now has a 1 round casting time if it was less than that. Otherwise, the casting time is doubled. This spell cannot be modified by metamagic feats. To cast a spell in this way, your Intelligence must be equal to 10+spell level.

Basically, you've learned how to channel your casting out of a spellbook, but not how to make your own. It takes more time, and you need to have the spellbook in hand to even try it. It lets sorcerers have access to utility spells, and not much else due to the longer casting time. Note that it's one round casting, so no spell takes effect until the beginning of the next round.

Halfling Racial Traits

+2 Dexterity, +2 Carisma, -2 Strength: Halflings are acrobatic and open minded, but physically weak.
Small: Halflings are a small race and recieve a +1 bonus to AC and attack rolls, a + 4 bonus to Stealth checks, and a -1 penalty to their Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense.
Normal Speed: Base Speed for a Halfling is 30 feet.
Bold: Halflings get a +2 bonus to saving throws against Fear.
Languages: Halflings begin play speaking Common and halfling. Halflings with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, and Gnome.

Hmm, this halfling seems a bit off compared to PF's Halfling and 4.0's Halfling.

Well, being able to use metamagic opens up metamagic rods, which could be a real option at high levels.

Again, what would the metamagic rods do? You could get extend (since the alchemist ability only works on potions, not infusions), Empower, and Maximize that would at all help. All of them, even in rods, are of limited use, and by just blanket allowing metamagic feats, interactions with non-core feats might become wonky. Now that I think about it though, something like rapid spell could make for an interesting discovery (1 minute to make infusion to 1 full round action).

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Alchemical Missile: When the alchemist creates a bomb, he can use two of his bombs and any single arrow, bolt or bullet to create an Alchemical missile. An Alchemical missile deals it's standard damage as well as the bomb's damage on a successful attack. On a miss it deals it's splash damage centered on the missed target. Alchemical missiles are treated exactly as an alchemist's bomb except they are no longer a thrown weapon, and do not require a standard action to fire.
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Remember that the standard bomb's restriction is that is must be fired on the same turn that it was made or else the bomb becomes inert. I don't think it's really necessary to make it use 2 bombs because of this fact. Otherwise, this seems really interesting.

Kamai wrote:

3.5's solution to this question was that the summoned monster was only allowed a standard action on the turn that a standard action summon was performed. Otherwise, you could do everything that was listed.

I'm sorry.. where was this?

A rapid summon monster in 3.5 had a full round action available as far as I recall,

James

I'm sorry, I remember this from the conjurer Wizard variant which allowed for standard action summons.

At first level, Alchemists gain the Brew Potion feat for free. An Alchemist can brew potions of any formulae he knows (up to 3rd level), using his alchemist level as his caster level.

My question is if the wording of this ability means that the Alchemist is allowed to make a potion of a personal spell (like True Strike)?

3.5's solution to this question was that the summoned monster was only allowed a standard action on the turn that a standard action summon was performed. Otherwise, you could do everything that was listed.

Mob combat (Combat)

Description: You have learned to fight well, even while you are surrounded. This fighting style uses multiple opponent's attacks to get in the way of each other and protect yourself.

Prerequsite: Dex 13
When at least 2 enemies threaten you, you gain a +1 dodge bonus to AC.

Improved Mob combat (Combat)
Prerequsite: Dex 13, Dodge, Mob Combat, BAB +4
Enemies gain no attack bonus for flanking you. Any other benefits that are gained from flanking (like sneak attack) are still received.

Entangling Combat (Combat)
Prerequsite: Dex 15, Improved Mob Combat, Combat Reflexes, BAB +8
All enemies that threaten you grant cover. If an enemy misses you, you may redirect that attack at another one of your enemies as a Attack of Opportunity.

The idea behind this sequence of feats is inspired by the movie style combats where the hero occasionally dodges attacks by having swords of surrounding enemies clang above his head and dodging attacks in a way where the enemies impale each other. I'm not sure about the names, and Entangling combat might be a bit OP, but I'd like your thoughts.

The dragon disciple you list can actually get 42str (+2 size from a relatively cheap permanent enlarge person). A druid as a Huge Earth Elemental or Huge plant creature can also get 42 str indefinitely. On the other hand, I don't see a way in PF core to boost a casting stat anymore.

Unfortunately, it seems that the poor Gnome is in a lot of trouble, especially if he/she didn't prepare Dispel Magic. The two weaknesses of True Seeing are that it can be Dispeled, and that it has expensive components, thus not many will be prepared, hopefully. If you don't have dispel, an Illusion(pattern), like color spray might be helpful to have. I don't think being able to see it as an illusion will help with the clashing colors from the spell. It's unfortunate that the only other Illusion(pattern) are Hypnotic Pattern and spells like that, which are useless in the given situation. Blinding the enemy is your next best bet, because then you can use illusions that fool other senses besides sight.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/monsterAdvancement.html This gives the general bonuses for changing the creature to any other size. These bonuses are to be ignored if you are becoming large by a spell or starting with a large race, instead referring to the spell or knowing that the adjustments are already taken into account in the race. Large (tall) also gives a 10ft space and 10ft reach. Usually, the size increase is taken into account with the spell or race that allows you to be large, and the only 3.5 guideline is that large gave +1 CR, and that by Pathfinder's using Monsters as PCs, it would act as a +1 LA only if you got large by a method other than a preset race, spell, or item. I hope this helps. If you give how you are getting large, it would make things easier.

At the very least summon monster is a full round cast so the summoner has to make a caster level check to see if he loses the spell or not when he gets toasted by the flame breath.

But the caster didn't actually take any damage from the fire breath on the round that he cast Summon Monster (17 fire damage - 30 fire resist) so he shouldn't have to make the caster level check.

Darn it all, my post got wiped, and I forgot to copy it. I can't repost it, but I reran it with the frost giant winning initiative, and with the same conditions as before, the frost giant never rolled under a 10 for attacks, and the eidolon had 2hp left at the end. This time, I'm going to try with a young red dragon (CR 10). Same starting distance as before, and the summoner is taking a more active role. Let's assume now that the dragon gets the surprise round and prep time(which is not a given with +11 stealth vs a potential +13 perception)

Human summoner 11
Str 8(-2)
Dex 14(5)
Con 14(5)
Int 14(5)
Wis 12(2)
Cha 16[20](10)

HP 76

AC 16 (+2 Dex, +4 chain shirt) FF 14 Touch 12

Saves
Fort +3 +2 =5
Ref +3 +2 =5
Will +7 +1 =8
Feats
Spell Focus (conjuration)
Weapon Finesse
Augment Summoning
Scribe Scroll
Nimble Moves
Toughness
Skill Focus(UMD)

Melee attack +10 with rapier 1d6-1 damage

Skills
Handle Animal 11 5 3=19
Use Magic Device 11 5 3 6=25
Know(Planes) 11 2 3=16
Spellcraft 11 2 3 = 16
Linguistics 11 2 3 = 16

Spells
0th [6]
Open/Close
Detect Magic
Guidance
Resistance
Mending
Mage Hand
1st [6]
Summon Monster I
Protection from Law
Mage Armor
Grease
Enlarge Person
2nd [5]
Summon Monster II
Invisibility
Haste
Summon Swarm
Resist energy
3rd [4]
Summon Monster IV
Stoneskin
Greater Invisibility
Dispel Magic
4th [3]
Summon Monster V
Baleful Polymorph
Mass Bull's Strength

Above is the summoner that I put together (again with no non-mundane gear except enough materials for 1 casting of stoneskin)

Round 0:
Dragon casts shield (AC is now 26)
Dragon casts true strike (first attack is now at +37)

Round 1 [Suprise round]:
Dragon charges eidolon, and does a power attacked bite with IVS
34+4=38 vs 27 21+10+9 39 damage
Eidolon has 66hp left

Round 2 [Main round]
Dragon 5ft steps up (Making the fly check even on a 1 to fly less than half speed)
Then, it drops the breath weapon on the group. Recharge in 5 rounds
3+11=14 vs DC 22 40 damage 26 hp left
7+18=25 vs DC 22 20 damage 56 hp left

Summoner uses haste on the eidolon and himself, and then moves 60 ft away.

The eidolon will chance using power attack, seeing already how dangerous this thing is.
21+10=31 vs 24 hit 11+19+9+3=42 damage
21+5=26 hit 14+19+9+4=46 damage
19+1=miss
19+18=37 hit 3+6+3+3=15 damage
Dragon has 8hp left
Fort save 11+2 vs DC 24 fail 2 strength damage leaving it with 23 strength.

At this point, it seems that it would make the most sense for the dragon to retreat (400 ft withdraw action), but I'll try to finish this out.

Round 3
Dragon has the choice to close into melee immediately, and possibly finish off the eidolon, or to try to chase the summoner, which would leave it open to a charge with no effect (since it has to take a 5ft step or a withdraw action to not take an AoO). However, it will back off for now to try to get the flame breath back, since that was it's original plan, and it can't get more than 1 attack in the situation that it is in.

The summoner takes the lapse in action to cast invisibility on himself, and get back with the eidolon.

The eidolon can't pursue it (because even if it had a fly speed, 200 fly speed is very hard to keep up with, so it hangs back in a defensive position.

Fort save 11+17=28 vs 24 save successful

Rounds 4-6
At this point, the dragon may have had a chance to maul the summoner, but since he had to retreat, then the summoner went invisible, he lost the summoner. He's also trying hard to stay out of wand of magic missile range, because of how beat up he is.
Summoner uses Resist energy fire on both the eidolon and the summoner, resisting 30 fire damage each.
At round 6, the summoner is summoning 1d3 (3) large air elementals.

Round 7
The dragon is ready to go again, and it closes in range to 40 ft away, and does another fire breath (recharge in 2 rounds)

3+7=10 fail 38-30=8 18hp left
7+17=24 success 17-30=0

The air elementals go in effect, and have flanking.
16+7=23 vs26 fail
16+3=19 fail
16+4=20 fail
16+10=26 success 2+6=8 damage dragon is staggered
14+10=24 fail
14+3=17 fail

The dragon is still out of the reach of the eidolon, so the eidolon does nothing.

Round 8:
At this point, the dragon cries. If he moves more than 5ft, he takes an AoO. There may be a path that does not intersect in the 4 creatures reach. He knows where the summoner is, but can't do anything to the summoner.

The dragon may have been played a little suboptimally. The point is that a level 11 character took out a CR 10 while having no gear and the CR 10 creature getting prep time and a surprise round. The resources that were used were 4 2nd level spell slots, 1 SM spell-like, and the Hit Point damage. This may be a problem.

I decided to put together a summoner, and the first reaction that I saw was that the eidolon was rather broken, so I decided to do a little test of the creature. Neither the eidolon nor the summoner has any items, and it is assumed that the summoner is staying within the prerequisite 80 of the eidolon invisible.

The setup is that the summoner and the eidolon is starting 150 ft away from the frost giant, and the frost giant is up a gentle hill that covers the last 50 ft (treated as difficult terrain). The frost giant also has an ample supply of rocks.

Other assumptions: Huge evolution actually gives 15ft reach, as well as it's other listed effects.

Eidolon
10d10+50
105hp
Base form Biped

Str 36
Dex 10
Con 21
Int 7
Wis 10
Cha 11
Free Evolutions
Claws (1d4, arms)
Limbs (arms)
Limbs (legs)
Natural Armor +2(base) +2(Large) +3(Huge) +4(INA)
+8(11th summoner)
AC 27 FF 27 Touch 8
Base speed 30ft

Saves
Fort +7 +5 = 12
Ref +3 +0 = 3
Will +7 +0 = 7

+23 Bite 3d6+19 damage + 1d6 electricity damage
and 1d4 Str 1/rnd for 4 rounds or 1 successful save Fort DC 22
+21 2 Claws 1d8+6 damage+ 1d6 electricity damage

Feats (5)
Improved Natural Attack (Bite)
Ability Focus(Eidolon poison)
Power Attack
Cleave
Great Cleave

Evolution Pool = 15
Large(3)
Huge(4)
Bite(2) (1.5 str)
Poison[Bite](2)
Improved Natural Armor(2)
Energy Attacks(electricity) 2

Test 1: Eidolon wins initiative.
Round 1
Eidolon moves 60 ft towards the frost giant [90 ft away from giant, 40 ft away from hill]
Frost giant throws a rock at the eidolon (natural 20, 9+1 does not confirm) 16 damage, eidolon has 89hp left

Round 2
Eidolon double moves to close, nets 50 ft [40 ft away from giant, 10 ft up the hill]
Frost giant chucks another rock (9+5=14 miss), then draws his greataxe.

Round 3
Eidolon charges, ends 5 ft outside of the frost giant's reach, and attacks (25+18=42 vs AC 21) 32 total damage (2 of which is electricity)
101 hp remaining Fort save 14+16=30 vs DC 22, is not poisoned)
Frost Giant 5ft steps toward the eidolon, then full attacks with the greataxe
18+3=21 vs 25 fail
13+10=23 vs 25 fail

Round 4
Eidolon full attacks
23+3=26 vs 21 28 damage (2 electricity) 73hp and 14+9= 23 vs DC 22 not poisoned
21+11=32 9 damage (2 electricity)
21+17=38 18 damage(6 electricity) 46hp on the frost giant

Frost Giant full attacks
18+5=23 vs 27 fail
13+18=31 vs 27 23 damage 65hp remaining

Round 5
Eidolon continues to attack
23+7=30 32 damage (3 electricity) 14hp and 14+4 =18 vs 22 for 4 str damage
21+5=26 15 damage (1 electricity) -1 hp

In the end, the eidolon still has more than half of his health, and the summoner used 1 second level spell (invisibility). I also don't think that the build was not the most optimal. I don't suspect that having the frost giant win initiative would have made as much of a difference, and both sides power attacking would have ended even worse for the giant. I'd hate to think of what would happen if the summoner and eidolon were properly equipped.

Is a eidolon supposed to be able to take the Improved Damage evolution and Improved Natural Attack for the same attack?

I like these abilities...i would change this.

make multishaper require 4 pp, and up astral blade to follow the standard of 3+ability mod per day.
As for the final power im not too sure of at the moment, but this does give me a good launching point to continue adding more powers to the other disciplines.

I thought that since it gave a longer usage than all of the other powers, that it should have more limited uses, but 3+int should be fine.

Multishaper(Su): When you use the astral construct power, you have these additional augments: For every 4 power points that you spend, you may create 1 additional astral construct. All constructs created in this way must have the same capabilities.

I went with 2pps to make it mirror summon monster's ability to get multiple lower level summons (1d3 for 1 level lower, 1d4+1 for 2 levels lower).

I'll see what I can come up with for the 8th level ability.

I'd like to take a shot at finishing up a shaper:
Metacreativity
Class Skill: Use Magic Device (Cha)
Bonus Powers: Astral Construct (3rd), Psionic Repair Damage (5th), Ectoplasmic Cocoon (7th), Quintessence (9th), Hail of Crystals (11th), Fabricate, Greater Psionic (13th), Ectoplasmic Cocoon, Mass (15t), Astral Seed (17th), True Creation (19th).
Discipline Psionics:
Multishaper(Su): When you use the astral construct power, you have these additional augments: For every 2 power points that you spend, you may create 1 additional astral construct. All constructs created in this way must have the same capabilities.
Discipline Powers:
Astral Blade(Psi-like): As a standard action, you may create a simple light or 1-handed weapon in your hand or in the hand of 1 person that you touch. Alternatively, you may create 10 pieces of ammunition. The weapon created by this power lasts for 1 minute, and gives you (but not other wielders) proficiency in that specific weapon. This weapon gains a +1 enhancement bonus per 3 psion levels. These enhancement bonuses can be replaced for weapon special abilities. Also, you can use a +1 bonus to instead create 2 identical weapons, or to create a 2-handed weapon. You can also use a +1 bonus to create a martial weapon, or a +2 bonus to create an exotic weapon. This ability can be used intelligence modifier times per day.
Construct Armor(Psi-like): At 8th level, you can bind the force of the astral plane to act as armor for yourself for a number of rounds per day equal to your level as a standard action. These rounds do not need to be consecutive. Treat this as an astral construct manifested with 7 power points on yourself. While wearing this armor, you gain 4+your Cha modifier as an armor bonus to your AC, and can use any forms of movement and attacks that the astral construct has. These attacks use your BAB, but use your construct's strength. You also gain any resistances that the construct has. The construct armor can be attacked without needing a sunder attempt, and it is the size that you are, no matter what size it would otherwise be. At 16th level, you may instead treat this as a construct manifested with 13 power points.

I'm not sure this is balanced, but I hope it's an interesting first attempt.

I don't know, it would seem to me that since it's not a spell-like ability, that you can't deliver it in an unarmed strike. Being able to turn it into a melee attack seems to only apply to spells and spell-likes.

Hmm, something that I was considering for trapfinding is that classes with trapfinding make 2 rolls and take the better on searching for traps and disabling them, while any other class can attempt to find traps at any DC. How do you think that would work out?

Ok thanks for all the help again! but i have another question=(

ok i don't know how Template races work in pathfinder=( the half fey for example as i understand i take a level of the race and get no adition to my ac base saves etc but i get special abilities instead, and can i take it at level 1 or not becasue i don't know how that would work

thanks for any help!

Attaching a template is still like 3.5, take a base race, add on any of the abilities that the template gives, then the total LA replaces levels that you can take. If you have an LA of 0, you can take it at first level, otherwise, without a cooperative DM, you can't take the template at level 1, and instead can only go on a starting character whose level is at least LA+1.

The fiend folio LA+2 half-fey is also available on Crystal Keep.

There are numerous places that mention "precision-based damage" (Vital Strike feat, Devastating Blow feat, splash weapons), but it's never defined in the Beta rules (other than saying "precision-based damage, like sneak attack" in some places).

Please make it more clear what qualifies as "precision-based damage". Is an insight bonus to damage "precision-based"?

From what I understand, precision-based damage would be like sneak attack, Precise strike (the duelist ability), sudden strike, and the such. Basically, if a 3.5 construct would be immune to that extra damage (other than the fact crits are not precision-based), it's precision damage. An insight bonus to damage usually isn't precision based.