MadScientistWorking's page

Due to the recent gunslinger thread, I'd really like an errata or feat that makes Item Activation count as an 'Interact to Reload' action. I feel like it would really up the utility of using guns and crossbows when you can for example use Running Reload to step out of AoA before you use a Life Shot.

Yeah that would be nice. Not essential but nice.

Is there any "attack of opportunity" type effect for ranged/thrown weapons of any kind? I don't think there's any. And since ranged options tend to be more limited than melee ones, and since there's a bit of a "bow supremacy" for ranged weapons, there's a way to solve it all at once...

Yes you can get it as early as level 1.

Benjamin Tait wrote:

So those of you who got the new book, what Silver Raven adjacent NPCs are in this lovely book?

Silver Raven Spoilers

Uhhh.... You didn't hear about that?

Leon Aquilla wrote:

NECR0G1ANT wrote:

Paizo said they weren't publishing anything related to slavery. How does the book treat Cheliax, Okeno, Andoran, etc?

With all the grace and subtlety of Rise of Skywalker saying "Somehow Palpatine has returned".

Quote:

When the ruling Pactmasters of Katapesh declared an
end to slavery in 4722, it caught most of the world by
surprise—but the Firebrands were prepared. - p. 118

Yeah, I'll bet they were surprised. Because it was an act of writer fiat that abolished it rather than flowing organically from events in the country.

So much for the "we're just not gonna mention it going forward" line we were told. I'm really glad I bought a used copy of Dark Markets before this company memory-holed it.

So... where were you when the LOWG mentioned four years ago that Katapesh was struggling to find local buyers for slaves? Or the year after that, when LO: Legends set up that the Shahiyan of Qadira was leading an abolitionist movement in the region's largest empire? How about last fall, when the Travel Guide already told us Katapesh had outlawed slavery?

This stuff is only coming out of left field if you aren't reading 2e books.

I mean the funniest thing about the whole thing is that it wasn't even foreshadowed. Leon Aquilla is whining about Paizo not doing what he wanted them to do despite they actually did exactly what he did in this very case.

Omg... Erin. I know this is going to sound weird but the Impossible Cake has brought so much happiness to me.

Borg

Well there's your problem. Mork Borg is a different game. This is Pathfinder.

The comparison was about the logic behind the change and not the change itself. If you said "everyone wants more options, so we created a new variant that lets you do that, this variant doesn't stack with the flaw for benefit variant" no one would have complained. But that is not what they did.

I mean Ravingdork is complaining about changes to a mechanic that is so weirdly convoluted that it doesn't make much sense when you think about it.

You too can open up a dead persons chest reviving them with an 8 intelligence so **waves hands** obviously doesn't really work at all.

Sorry about the delay. I've been a bit preoccupied today and dealing with GMing a convention. I will hopefully create a post tomorrow when I have spare time. Sorry for the issue.

MadScientistWorking wrote:

graystone wrote:

MadScientistWorking wrote:

Squiggit wrote:

Three of the four alchemical research methods are about items that you either attack with or use to enhance attacks, but Superior Optimizers still act shocked and appalled that some people actually want to play that way instead of leaning into the one hyperspecific playstyle that almost barely kind of nearly makes the class good enough that they're busy being so clever and smug about.

The outraged pearl clutching every time someone brings up trying to play Alchemists The Wrong Way really sells it.

Uhhh... No. Mutagenist and Chirugeon are not combat based. Mutagenist can be combat based but it's not solely meant to be.

Between Bestial Mutagen, Bestial Mutagen, Energy Mutagen, Ichthyosis Mutagen, Juggernaut Mutagen, Quicksilver Mutagen, War Blood Mutagen and Stone Body Mutagen having clear combat applications I'd say Mutagenist are solidly combat based. As such, I agree with Squiggit.

Get back to me with a list that isnt composed of things that you'd have to ask your GM permission to get.

Your DM requires asking for bestial, drakenheart, juggernaut or quicksilver mutagens? There are only 12 mutagens total[7 with combat applications] and and 7 common ones [4 with combat applications]. I don't see how moving it to just common ones matter in the least as in either list the majoring have uses in combat making the objecting pretty moot IMO.

I mean you posted rare and uncommon mutagens including an item that needs errata and no self respecting GM would allow without house rules.

MadScientistWorking wrote:

Squiggit wrote:

Three of the four alchemical research methods are about items that you either attack with or use to enhance attacks, but Superior Optimizers still act shocked and appalled that some people actually want to play that way instead of leaning into the one hyperspecific playstyle that almost barely kind of nearly makes the class good enough that they're busy being so clever and smug about.

The outraged pearl clutching every time someone brings up trying to play Alchemists The Wrong Way really sells it.

Uhhh... No. Mutagenist and Chirugeon are not combat based. Mutagenist can be combat based but it's not solely meant to be.

Between Bestial Mutagen, Bestial Mutagen, Energy Mutagen, Ichthyosis Mutagen, Juggernaut Mutagen, Quicksilver Mutagen, War Blood Mutagen and Stone Body Mutagen having clear combat applications I'd say Mutagenist are solidly combat based. As such, I agree with Squiggit.

Get back to me with a list that isnt composed of things that you'd have to ask your GM permission to get.

Three of the four alchemical research methods are about items that you either attack with or use to enhance attacks, but Superior Optimizers still act shocked and appalled that some people actually want to play that way instead of leaning into the one hyperspecific playstyle that almost barely kind of nearly makes the class good enough that they're busy being so clever and smug about.

The outraged pearl clutching every time someone brings up trying to play Alchemists The Wrong Way really sells it.

Uhhh... No. Mutagenist and Chirugeon are not combat based. Mutagenist can be combat based but it's not solely meant to be.

Uhhh.... It just dawned on me that the Chirugeon change came a bit weirdly. So what happens is a Chirugeon trained in crafting and not medicine takes medic dedication which can boost medicine to expert? Usually, it doesn't matter because you have to be trained in medicine to get access to the archetype but now we have a case where you can't.

Kasoh wrote:

MadScientistWorking wrote:

Also, recent writing about Cheliax seems to imply it's one stiff kick from falling over.

God, I wish.

Yeah, it's rather the opposite. The state is still a Great Power, if not as strong relatively as it has been, but the regime is stronger internally than it has ever been. Its erstwhile enemies were armed insurrectionists with a serious chance at taking power; its current enemies are either frivolous showboats or else reduced to meaningless intrigue. The regime is so secure that it is able to stage-manage and defang what should have been a social revolution.

Actually, its current enemy had Abrigail Thrune II capitulate and try and help them to stave off repercussions from angering them. :D

keftiu wrote:

There's also some mention of the Hellknight Order of the Scourge partnering with the Firebrands to undermine House Thrune, in a very uneasy alliance against their mutual foe.

That the Chelish Firebrands were tailing the Order of the Scourge and had given up any sort of campaign for political freedom or the democratic republic, or indeed any pretense of independent thought or activity, was already in the Campaign Setting book and Legends, and anyone who expected better than this rank Menshevism from them in the first place was a fool.

More interesting is what's going to become of the Bellflower Network now that its raison d'etre no longer exists but other forms of bonded labor abound that the Firebrands are doing nothing whatsoever about. Transition to Narodism? Transition to trade unionism/economism? Agitation in the army for mutiny or defeatism?

What do you mean? The Bellflower Network helped uncover the true heir to Cheliax while freeing political prisoners? They are not exactly a single minded organization.

Also, recent writing about Cheliax seems to imply it's one stiff kick from falling over.

Do you really want to argue that someone being raised by a different culture makes them abberations because they don't follow your moral standard? Because oh boy does that open a whole can of worm that probably isn't fit for this forum.

That's not even considering the Deriven never called anyone an abberation in that post; He just said we need contemporary context not modern context. It's you who is calling your grandparents abberations because they don't follow your same moral standard. So you are using hyperbole to try and argue against a point that was never made in the first place.

No. Im saying that if you are old enough to influence my morality and sense of right and wrong you are in modern times. My grandparents didn't grow up in a different time. My grandparents grew up in modern times. Mother Teresea grew up in modern times.

It wasn't that different back then.

Freehold DM wrote:

Jared Walter 356 wrote:

S.L.Acker wrote:

Jared Walter 356 wrote:

Teresa is clearly good, as she sacrificed for the benefit of others.

To quote the woman herself:

"I think it is very beautiful for the poor to accept their lot, to share it with the passion of Christ. I think the world is being much helped by the suffering of the poor people."

There's also the issue of unwished for baptisms:

"Sisters were to ask each person in danger of death if he wanted a 'ticket to heaven'. An affirmative reply was to mean consent to baptism. The sister was then to pretend that she was just cooling the patient's head with a wet cloth, while in fact she was baptising him, saying quietly the necessary words. Secrecy was important so that it would not come to be known that Mother Teresa's sisters were baptising Hindus and Muslims."

I don't know that we can call her good in any meaningful sense of the word.

And neither of these quotes is relevant to her alignment.

She was known to be less than good.

Not really. She was attacked by atheists that wanted to argue she was "less than good" based on their worldview which contradicted hers. With little regard for her background or upbringing.

I'm not going to argue it on here. I will say I think it is intellectually dishonest to try to morally judge others raised in a different time with different values they did not create and were subject to due to the socialization of a different time.

I've read the attacks by Atheists such as Christopher Hitchens and other liberal thinkers that encourage their followers to tear down figures of the past on the basis modern moral philosophizing. I think it is an intellectually dishonest practice removing the context of time and place which should always be considered when viewing a person.

And I'll leave it there.

By your insane criteria my grandparents were some distant aberrations who didn't know the difference between right and wrong which is wrong.

Did I accidentally write the exact opposite of what I intended? I'd like to see an AI bot make those goofy mistakes......

I guess if you're really struggling with basic ideas for games, this might be useful, but the hard part, especially when it comes to published work, is fleshing it out

I just come up with the first thing that comes to mind. That's why I don't think a robot would ever do a human being justice. I'll base an adventure off a fever dream I had involving a Jimmy Buffet song and thaumcraft. How the hell is an AI ever going to make those connections? I don't even know how I made those connections.

MadScientistWorking wrote:

I kind of feel sorry for you all thinking this wont ever be more than cheap novelty trick.

That's not what I am saying at all.

I am saying that it won't completely replace skilled labor.

I'm also pointing out that this new thing isn't really all that new. I studied AI and machine learning in college over a decade ago. It wasn't even all that new then. The syntactically correct English is a cute touch though. It is also an improvement over what I saw 10 years ago as far as detecting silly things that people would feed to it as input.

For my own job: Code generators have existed for longer than I have been a software engineer. Linter programs have existed for longer than I have been alive. I use such tools on a daily basis. But computers still can't create software.

That is all that I am saying.

Ok. I apologize. You had some pretty well thought out observations.

I kind of feel sorry for you all thinking this wont ever be more than cheap novelty trick.

Hi Im going to get the character made since this is an AP blob.

Full indeed, but with that much interest screw it: I can run two tables.

So with the below showing interest so far:

Eddie 'Bo' Letus lv 2
Jinglemane lv 2
Qitarah lv 1
Slipp lv 2
Ms. Blooddrive lv 1?
miteke lv 2
Betel Capella lv 2
SuperZero
MadScientistWorking
Frozen Frost

We have at least one solidly low-tier table, possibly a second (depending on what characters those last three have).

Still potentially spots for up to two more. Once know SZ, MSW, and FF's levels can get a tbale split and game links set up.

I will be level 3.

So something I noticed about Root to Life that is nice compared to stabilize. It works with undead and doesn't have the positive trait. Its worth noting especially with undead PCs.

Dean Desiring Dedicated Do-ers to Safeguard Students Surveying a Society Stronghold!

I'm looking to run a table of PFS 3-18 "Dacilane Academy's Delightful Disaster" (a level 1-4 scenario). Two spots already reserved, but looking for a few more good Pathfinders who may be interested!

Yes please

Hey everyone, I'm so sorry. I wound up being really sick, like "we have to send you somewhere else because we don't have the tools to diagnose you" sick, and so was not in a state to play games. I'm doing much better but also have finals starting today (lucky me) so I'm going to try and get caught up as soon as I can.

Also, I forgot to add. I hope you feel better.

Though I don't think the the Rangers started getting robots (in 1980) until after Gundam (1979) you're right that they did have them before GoLion (1981). The game changer was a series that came out in 1978 about some guy in a spider-costume. You've probably never heard of him.

You are right. I forgot the first few series didn't have them.

Y'all are too young if you hear "mechs" and think Power Rangers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rPSLQxMT8w

Power Rangers predates that show by a good five years.... Hell it weirdly even predates Gundam.

MadScientistWorking wrote:

Slight correction but Wayangs aren't Japanese but Indonesian.

I described them as Javanese; Java is an island in Indonesia.

Don't mind me. Need more coffee. Read that completely wrong. Sorry.

Slight correction but Wayangs aren't Japanese but Indonesian.

keftiu wrote:

This might be a moot point with Rage of Elements on the horizon, but there's been some contradictory canon on if the other Good Elemental Lords are free, or if it's just Ranginori who is out (thanks to the Pathfinder Society's aid). Those other three divinities are really cool; I'd love to know if they're actually "in play" or not.

Yeah, that's going to be sorting itself out shortly...

Didn't you say that when Gods and Magic came out????? How long do you plan this stuff in advance???

Also technically lore wise they are free but not known what they are up to. In fact Mark Seifter pointed out that a Paladin archetype he wrote in 1e hinted at the water deity escaping.

Considering that Paizo's footprint at GenCon2022 was much smaller this doesn't surprise me. I do not see this as a decision that a healthy company makes.

Why is being pragmatic over Covid less plausible than that?

Richard Lowe wrote:

emky wrote:

Odd. Paizo was already (from my perspective) at the top-end of PDF pricing for books, especially when buying a hard copy doesn't include the PDF gratis like basically everywhere else. This was the single biggest thing that kept me from adopting PF1 until the last couple years of its life.

As opposed to who? PDF Rulebooks for D&D on Beyond are $30-50, Critical Roles Tal'Dorei setting is $25, Call of Cthulhu is $23-$28, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is $30, Blades in the Dark is $20-30, etc.

Paizos pdfs are consistently some of the cheapest in the ttrpg industry.

Shadowrun is usually $20. Free League is $10 for adventures and $15-25 for rule/setting books. DSA is $17.50 per book. There are a ton of places that charge less for pdfs than Paizo.

Im not sure using a product line that at one point DIDNT PAY ITS FREELANCERS is as big of an own.

PossibleCabbage wrote:

This is a thing that's in the new version of Kingmaker, but not previous versions of Kingmaker?

I believe so, yes. It's been, perhaps, implied in previous editions, though. Hard to keep track of what we've planned for characters behind the scenes for decades but never actually said "out loud" in print...

The part that confused me that I must have interpreted subtext as text namely because its one of my favorite parts of the setting so I remember all the details.

Not sure it was mentioned in the one panel I did, but (Kingmaker spoiler to follow)...

** spoiler omitted **

??????? Now I'm really confused.

The answer is that if people are telling you no and are being jerks then leave. Life is too short to be arguing with people who refuse to engage with the cooperative aspect in role playing. Especially in a community where people can be far more welcoming. Anyone trying to engage in arguments about canon should be shot out of a cannon because it should be mutable for the table. I consider the setting like a soup base. You add in as a table the meat, vegetables, noodles and season to taste.

Also, assuming there arent two people asking about fat elves why do you want confirmation by lore so badly?

Claxon wrote:

We also don't know exactly how much of Azlant's advanced stuff was magically bolstered versus purely "technologically" driven.

For the purposes of talking about the overall effect on the setting, I don't think it necessarily matters what the split is. Magically-driven industrialization is still industrialization (and still beyond the scope of the stories Paizo wants to tell).

TBH the lack of magical industrialization probably stands out even more, since there are arguments for why technology hasn't proliferated, but magic being ubiquitous is part of the setting.

What are you talking about???? Paizo already did an AP featuring magically driven industrialization being a driving factor of the antagonist.

Technically there was an industrial revolution in Golarion so if it can happen once it can probably happen again. Now mind you that one looked absolutely nothing like ours but hey you had airplanes, public transportation, and other pieces of powerful technology.

This looks pretty interesting. You almost had me playing this in organized play until I saw this can't be played in PFS2 mode. So, I can't use my Pf2 organized play characters - It's campaign mode only. How disappointing. Another intersecting looking product I will skip.

These adventurers are ridiculously poorly suited for Organized Play in non-campaign mode. One adventure is designed around something that is against the rules in Organized Play. Another has a content warning. And a third breaks encounter balance in a way that would drain player resources in a way akin to bonekeep.

I understand why you are upset but in this case this was the best compromise.

Stop complaining and listen to my poem I wrote while slowly going insane:

You know what the biggest hindrance to the dark archive is?

The overflow archives

Something fishy is always occurring there

Though some say that Zarta made a big splash dealing with the issue

But she always remained coy when pressed about what exactly happened

Despite a flood of questions, the only other witness would only go on to say members of the archive outfoxed the perpetrator.

Though he did also mention that the PUNishment fit the crime.

What does this have to do with anything? Nothing I just wanted to torture you all. Bye....

HERE is an anchor post with additional things about this campaign (Check out "House Rules" - these are also in the Campaign Headers).

Limited to two (2) Uncommon options or one Rare and one Uncommon (=2) options. The rest of your character selections must be Common.

Im only planning on taking the ifrit heritage so Ill be fine. Sorry about that I forgot that this edition has rarity and should have asked first. If you want I'll change it as its not an essential part of the character.

Also, my wealth by level was for a level 11 character not a 12. Its easy enough to fix.

Fang

Here is my character named Fang. She is an ifrit monk who is a reformed criminal that actively tried to stop her former organization from sabotaging the tournament. Unfortunately, she was captured before she could participate.

Personality: She has a bit of a chip on her shoulder after being captured and is out to prove her abilities in the tournament. Normally, she's pretty pragmatic and tactical but when she encounters someone who she thinks is cheating she flies into a fury.

Yeah, gonna agree with keftiu here. So what if I can't truly, properly understand the intricacies of the perspective of my bearkin elf aerokineticist? It's cool as hell. Also, one need not understand a perspective to respect it, fantastical or not.

On the "only one Chewbacca" idea, I've long since embraced that my PCs are cool and exceptional, so we're more "Mos Eisley cantina." And for that, we need even more ancestries, because how my friends and I play the game is just as good as a stodgy humanocentric group.

My girlfriend compares me to kirby all the time. I'm pretty sure playing a pixie would come second nature to me.

So I have a basic gist of a character premise who was trying to undermine some people who were trying to sabotage the tournament and was captured before she was able to intervene. Im thinking either monk or rogue in terms of class. I'll post the build later today.

Is there anything in terms of party composition missing?

Hi is it too late to apply? I think I have a concept I would like to try for a wilderness survival campaign.

Those scenarios from YEARS ago were sanctioned then.

Big difference.

Not exactly. In one case you can excise the problematic elements from the scenarios. Miss Feathers is a paragraph that could easily be replaced if you are aware of the issue.

Blood Lords on the other hand involves you interacting in a part setting that is so structurally dependent on questionable and horror situations that you wouldn't have an AP if you were to try and fix it.

EDIT:
Also yes you are right. It is completely unfair to compare what Paizo did a decade ago to now. The people involved were completely different and sensibilities change.

However, I could pick up Extinction Curse and run it in a public setting for PFS credit and we could, if the group wanted, play murderclowns through it all, and it would be just as problematic.

But that's technically covered by existing rules as something not to do?

aobst128 wrote:

Bummer for drifters that can't benefit from flanking with their suggested point-blank gameplay. Stab and blast is good enough already I suppose.

The difficulty with their errata here is that they said it was "ambiguous". No it wasn't. It was clear. Just not what they wanted.

I find it difficult to deal with incorrect information like this in a polite manner.

It was definitely ambigious because if you thought about it other game mechanics weren't designed around that concept applying to ranged attacks.

aobst128 wrote:

Nice. The flavor is a bit different from how I saw the playtests pseudo magical abilities though. From the look of this description, it's just knowledge. It's missing how that knowledge is utilized I think. Otherwise this reads like an int class.

I sort of have to agree (unless the class was changed to use Intelligence or Wisdom in the interim, but that feels like a big enough change that Paizo would let us know at PaizoCon), though hopefully the Iconic Encounter will showcase the Charisma part of the class better.

Isn't the charisma part more appropriate because you aren't necessarily using knowledge persay but warping reality in a way using your brute force of personality.

Hi I would like to join too.

Player Name: MadScientistWorking
Character Name: Aurora
SFS #: 59724-704
Level: 2
Class: TBD Today
Faction: Acquisitives
Boon: Give me a second. I need to download it.

I am extremely pleased to hear about the Treasury since the system as a whole has been sorely lacking a pretty fair number of things to date with a TON of the books published so far focusing far more on set dressing, flavor, and lore versus actually putting things out that can.... you know, be used by players during a game rather than working to write interesting fiction about the world they play in.

Its more an issue with you that you cant think lore cant be used by players.

Temperans wrote:

Arachnofiend wrote:

Temperans wrote:

In any case the complaint against PF1 was never that you didn't have choices or that everything feels the same. It was always, "this is too broken compared to an unoptimized build". The complaint was that there was too much variety in power.

Might wanna take off those rose-tinted glasses and get back to full attacking every round

Jokes on you I am into vital striking and feint builds.

You spend your move action to feint and your standard action to make one VS attack while the person next to you is firing a volley of arrows or swinging a greatsword multiple times?

That would explain a lot.

Actually a minmaxed feint build could theoretically create an infinite amount of attacks...

Yoshua wrote:

Keiftu is no troll, and trying to project that on them is not cool. They asked a very valid question, and got an answer. Saying it is derailing the thread is what is going to wind up derailing the thread. Could have just not commented, and now there is a back and forth.

OR...

Keftiu could have courteously started a new thread instead of threadcrapping here.

and Congrats to Jim. Always good to see folks from the TSR days.

Nah.... You actually have former Paizo employees stating that the only way to ever get the executives to enact any change is to do exactly what keiftu is doing.