Lord Rahl08's page

Do you have anywhere that you are getting these STL files? I too have been wanting to 3D print bosses for this AP and, while I haven't done a ton of searching, I haven't found much outside of the WizKids miniatures.

So has this been answered to the best of anyone's knowledge? Or if anyone has had one played in a game they ran which way did they interpret it and how did it go?

So I have seen several people say that Mark's perspective is off because Skull's & Shackles is a low AC adventure, at least for the first two books. I went through and compared the AC, both touch and regular, of the first two books of Skull's and of Iron Gods. For book one Iron Gods comes out to be about 1 point of AC higher the Skull's for both touch and regular. For the second books Skull's is 1 higher on AC but 1 lower on touch.

These numbers don't take into account that in book 1 of Skull's there are no creatures with elemental resistances or DR. In Iron Gods there are 5 resistances, 14 immunities, and 15 instances of DR. This would definitely have an impact of the kineticist's effectiveness.

Above all I hope that Burn stays what it is. If there are any changes let them only be a slight reduction in damage for burn.

As it is now Burn offers a new and exciting subsystem for pushing and actually offers REAL risk for reward. The current problem with burn is NOT the damage or risk level, it's that the reward level is not high enough.

Please don't cave to a majority whining on this one, burn is the most interesting thing about the Kineticist. Yes, it's more interesting than all day blasting.

I agree, I love the idea of burn. It's way more interesting than a simple pool of points that refill everyday. I also agree that there should be way more bang for your buck. Not only do we lose a daily resource, the maximum number of points we can spend a day, but we also take damage for it. Given that they drive one of our main mechanics we have fewer of them than most classes and that blade is double edged. Burn is fun, just maybe needs a tweek.

I feel that we are at a stall at the moment. More actual game play information will keep rolling in but for the most part these posts are rehashing statements and questions from earlier in the forum. Whether you agree or disagree some of the most common points are:

*Increase in accuracy, either through a full BAB or a class specific method that does not require reducing maximum hit points.
*Increase in skill points and the skills offered, through the base class and element specific skills.
*Increase in hit die size to help offset the expenditure of burn.
*That burns is overly harsh and either needs to be reworked, several different methods have been presented through the pages, or converted to a point system similar to arcana points.
*More utility, both inside and outside of combat.
*Increase in actual damage output.
*A way to overcome energy resistances, immunities, and DR outside of one infusion limited to one energy type.
*A touch and non-touch blast version for each energy type.

More play testing will continue to hone what is there and narrow down what changes need to take places and how they will be implemented. But for the moment, with the class presented as it is, I think we have identified a list of concerns. I have absolute faith that Mark is reading everything posted and is truly taking what we say into consideration. I know you are working on getting some of the changes created and that there are things, like feats, items, and archetypes, that we know nothing about. I think if we could see some of the changes we could continue to give constructive feedback without going in circles. Mark has said that part of the reason this class will not deal as much damage as a fighter archer is because the kineticist will be balanced with utility abilities. I think we can all say from the comments that as it stands the community does not feel that way. I know there will be more to come, but we need to see more of that balance so that the class does not look like simply a sub-par blaster.

This all comes from a place of love, obviously this class has the weight of a community behind it. We are all excited to see what this will become and we want to be a part of it. This class has captured so many imaginations as to what it can do and who it can be.

tl;dr The forum has become circular, pointing out the same things. We need to information so that we can move forward in the testing.

Lord Rahl08 wrote:

Yeah, you can put substance infusions on them but then you're really stacking up the burn for one blast. I'd be okay with a little less damage from the blast but did a little more than just damage.

Agreed. It would also help make the composite blasts feel a little more epic if they had lasting effects...

Blizzard Blast could mimic the affects of Ice Storm?

Magma Blast makes the affected area damaging to stand in?

Mud Blast could entangle/slow targeted enemies?

Sandstorm Blast could blind affected enemies?

I also think the composite blasts would be a bit more interesting if they were all, or at least mostly, fireball-style AoE's.

Those are indeed the kind of effects I would love to see. It would give you some of the utility that a wizard has in the ability to shape the battlefield.

Ice Blast could leave behind a quickly deteriorating Wall of Ice, all jagged from the force.

Steam Blast could overheat them, making a FORT save or be fatigued for rounds.

Thunderstorm Blast could temporary blindness/deafness.

There are so many possibilities for these blasts to be just more than damage. The flavor would be there, I don't think balance would be off, and it would make the blasts from the different elements more interesting than just damage type.

Yeah, you can put substance infusions on them but then you're really stacking up the burn for one blast. I'd be okay with a little less damage from the blast but did a little more than just damage.

One thing that I would really like to see is composite blasts doing more than damage. Status effects, terrain modification, something other than just here's some more damage of both types of elements.

DrakeRoberts wrote:

Mark Seifter wrote:

DrakeRoberts, the missing word has been added as an official update. Thank you very much!

You're very welcome. It took me a while to read this through, but I'm really excited about it.

A note to point out to the "burn is harsh" people (and it may be, we'll need to see), are the infusion specializations, and of course the move action blast-charging. That means for your favorite form/substance blast at level 5 you can ignore up to 2 burn. Since the Level 4 (read minimum level 6 kineticist) infusions (need to change that word!) generally cost 2 burn, you can add one for free. By level 16 (when you can get the level 9 infusions), you have had 4 specializations.

Yes. I carefully worked on that math to make sure you can always be doing something amazing and cool without spending burn (and you can do something big, but it'll cost ya). And very few of the general talents cost burn except for extra effects, like extending them. Here's a neat trick from our playtest hydrokineticist: Consider using slick a lot and only paying the burn when it sticks. Like when you get a foe to drop an important weapon or trip several enemies successfully.

I apologize if this has been answered already, but 30 pages is a lot to sift through at the moment. If I'm reading this correctly you can decide to spend the burn after you determine how effective it is? You use slick, everyone rolls their saves and then if you effect enough creatures you decide to make it last longer. Correct me if I'm wrong but normally you have to pay all expenditures for an ability when you use it. If this carries then you can use your blast, then after you roll to hit then you can add infusions.

I am an avid supporter of pets. I always play pet classes in MMOs and druids are my favorite in PnP. And I can say that with druid one of my favorite spells is awaken. It doesn't guarantee that whatever you awaken will follow you but they will like you to a degree. That aside every time I have worked towards a minion army there have always been easy balances other than capping how many I can have. With the army of undead that is being thrown around in the thread it would be paladins and clerics. I think it would be AMAZING for there to be player created content like that. Imagine that the necro, in addition to doing everything necessary to raise and maintain this undead army, also has to keep their activities a secret from the world at large. You can't honestly say that if word of an amassing undead army got out that a group of LG clerics and paladins would arise to go hunt it down and stop it before it got out of hand. There are/will always be player created counters for other players. If someone is creating a humanoid army maybe the bankers start bribing some of them to abandon the cause. If it's an animal army then other rangers and druids would step in and charm/entice some of them away. I think if they leave things like they are the players can police themselves. Like Probitas said I can't see players wandering around with armies as other players will most likely stop them, if for no other reason than their own amusement.

One thing that can be considered when talking about the expenditure of funds with melee vs ranged is armor degradation. If GW is going to incorporate item wear into the game then the melee classes will have to be paying more money to keep their armor repair than the ranged classes who, assuming they are being played intelligently, will not be taking as many hits. With that in mind if melee weapons cost less to upkeep due to the fact that they don't have to pay for each shot it could easily be balanced by armor repair. How much more do you think it would cost to repair full plate after being beaten on by a sword for an extended fight than to repair leather armor after being shot twice while the archer stood at a distance. And I don't think it would be bad if GW used whetstones as mentioned by others, but it wouldn't necessarily apply a buff but prevent a debuff as the sword becomes blunt.

And with monks and unarmed combat being mentioned one could ask what the cost penalty for that class would be. For that one only has to look at what kind of items a monk would reasonably want. Most items that would benefit a monk, or any fighter going unarmed for that matter, in combat are magical in nature and very costly. The balance for them is that they get no benefits for items without a much more costly expenditure. These are merely my thoughts on the subject.

From what I've read on these forums we should be able to both make our own settlements and make a living as a craftsman. To what extent we will be able to manage those cities is still a mystery. I would imagine that craftsmen would be a resource most adventurers would need in order to make something of the rare materials they find. I doubt every city will have a legendary blacksmith or leather worker.

That then begs the question, will a single person be able to create and maintain a city/fortification on their own or will it require a guild to create. Either way that would be something of immense interest. The ability for a person or group of persons to create a city that would be open to the world is very interesting. That also would open possibilities for PvP of players attacking other players cities.

This to me is some of the most exciting news that I have seen all year. This for me would most certainly trump any other game out there for me assuming that it is done well and sticks true to the Pathfinder World. I would love to see the world around me grow as new players were allowed in and the content expanded, but I fear that space will be difficult to come by as I think the spots will be gobbled up as quickly as they appear. I for one can say, if I do not get an initial spot I will not be offended but will continue to frequent the site in hopes of a spot opening up. A question comes to mind though, you mentioned that you have an expectancy of people dropping out throughout the course of the month. Will those spots become available to new players as people drop out or perhaps in future months. And if so, how will you determine that someone has actually dropped out as opposed to taking a break from the game?

I don't think I saw it asked anywhere else in this discussion so I wanted to ask if there were going to be information to be given to players based on knowledge checks. I know that it is something that I always ponder over when my players roll their dice.