I am contemplating a champion of Irori, and I am feeling that Soulforger would be a pretty nice implementation of the "divine ki" idea that monks have, within this context. But could it even be applied to fists? Hilarity re: throwing fists with Bounding Weapon aside, it seems you cannot apply soulforging to handwraps. Do people see solutions?
It occurs to me that we may be asking the wrong question. What we *should* be asking is how to make the Blue Raja. One of these days, that Fork specialisation is going to pay off, I tell you!
Illusionist? As long as everyone else believes it... A heavens oracle with Awesome Display can go a long way, I think.
For #1, I would suggest installing Baldur's Gate again and inviting Boo into your party. He comes with an endearingly stupid ranger, although we know, of course, who really is in charge.
Calistria. Most of them are problably of a NPC class (adepts, commoners, experts, possibly aristocrats for the more luxurious ones). From the PC classes, the most fitting are cleric, bard and rogue. There is also a prestige class Enchanting Courtesan. Worth pointing out that, according to the lore, it's specifically the Chaotic Good branch of the church of Calistria that supports the temple prostitutes (or is supported by them, of course).
Haven't you heard? There's only three allowed party roles: bruiser, mage and healer. Anything else is dangerously subversive and not enough akin to the computer games our target audience supposedly love over actual roleplay. Love it or loathe it, but PF2 has set out it's stall to see whether they can do D&D 4th edition better than WotC.
True - but I confess that I am much less concerned about what's easy for game developers and rather more interested in a game that's actually fun to play and lets me build the character concepts I want. I'm with you. By and large, that's why I prefer systems that are class- and level-less. Balance becomes a discussion between player and storyteller, so it's mostly unsuitable for the typical players attracted to D&D style adventures, especially in organised play, but it's far more engaging for people who want to represent the mental image they have of their characters, especially (in most level-less systems) with regard to non-combat focused PCs. Since Paizo's traditional customer base seem to appreciate character build flexibility, PF has always had an open door policy towards muticlassing, so this particular itch could be scratched. Since PF2 is, in many ways, going back to basics by necessity, it will feel rigid for a good long while: players have become used to "flexibility creep" from all the splat books that PF1 has published, and those won't be here for a while. But for PF2 to be a success, it needs to force us to wait for the new splat to arrive, so for the time being, we'll do with a more rigid, less flexible system. C'est la vie.
My gosh. That rules survey took forever. Great questions though. Not sure I agree. Many of the questions came down to asking me whether I preferred cats to be green or purple, frankly. That is, when they weren't leading, of course. I'm not sure who composed the survey, but they need remedial training.
How about this one for a radical idea? Have using consumables cost xp! Not to craft them, mind you, but to consume. I bet that solves the problem right away, especially if you scale the cost with character level. Granted, that may unduly punish frontliners, so perhaps some finagling needs to take place, but moving the cost away from gold, I feel, is the crux here.
I disagree. ANYTHING should be an appropriate option for a PC. (Maybe with level adjustment.)I'm of the opinion that any ancestry which can literally only be a single alignment is inappropriate. Like Pathfinder canonically has more non-CE Succubi than non-CE Drow. To a lesser degree, you had the same thing happening with Minotaurs in the *Dragonlance* setting. Makes me wonder whether that is why that option was available under the future ancestries query.
Why would the storyteller allow you to? It's not like it's remotely realistic to quit an endeavour after you've not even reached lunch. I'm not sure about you, but the people I play with would refuse such a ploy as being an immersion-killer, and so would GMs, much of the time. If the rules seemingly force you towards wholly unrealistic behaviour, the rules need to change, or creative solutions need to be brought to bear, assuming that the storyteller was using appropriate challenges, of course.
The OP's post is irrelevant, frankly. It has nothing at all to do with the playtest (which they havenot participated in, by their own words!), but it's a genre discussion, and one with faulty premises at that. I suggest you take it to another forum, where it may have more merit.
We definitely want feedback on whether people think there's not enough setting info, or too much, or just enough. Setting aside a chapter (like we did in the Starfinder Core Rulebook) is possible, but adding a LOT more would be difficult, as we can't let this become a 600-page book. Personally, I *love* detailed cultural info for my characters - but much of that can wait until there's books for the appropriate regions, ethnicities and/or political entities. In the meantime, it would be good to have 4 lines or so for each ethnicity - and please add ethnicities for non-human races, too, where they are widely-enough represented in the world. For instance, the Snow Elves are not common enough to warrant a section, but at least mentioning Kyonin and the Five Kings Mountains would be good. Having said that, I would personally remove the Tian from the core book entirely. Reducing a third of the world to a oneliner about generic fantasy Asians is a massive disservice, and also opens the door uncomfortably for (accidental) racism. For the Vudrani, a mention that a kaleidoscope of subcultures exists elsewhere in the world will suffice, I suspect, since they *do* form a presence in the Inner Sea region to a much greater extend than the Tian.
I fully support self-healing/recovery if it's non-combat. It's not really fun to be blowing your limited resources out of combat. If they introduce such a thing, healers will still be super necessary for fighting the bbeg, or for any fight where people are rolling poorly/the GM is rolling well. And if they do actually gave them some reasonable buffs, then they definitely won't want to be forced to decide between using their resources on those (fun) vs saving them to use out of combat (not really fun but necessary when there are no alternatives).I would like to see options for self-healing or recovery, something like the short rest mechanic would be great. Especially when Battle Medic takes such a high check to be effective, and only functions once a day. Thing is, for many of us, those things *are* fun! As a dedicated healer, it feels awesome to know you carried the day. In fact, I wish more fights were attritional, rather than rocket tag.
Actually, I feel like the current system really discourages fumble house rules for attack rollsHere is a thought to reduce the impact of four degrees of success. What if we remove the bonus damage on crits and replace it with the critical specialization effects. That way we could have a wider range of bonuses without breaking the damage math.Or drop critical hits/fumbles, completely. From RPG history, not the most solid of bedrock to build a game on. I miss the days of Arduin and Rolemaster Classic. Sure, rules were generally needlessly complicated, but at least you knew to laugh about stuff, and keep trucking.
I would like to see options for self-healing or recovery, something like the short rest mechanic would be great. Especially when Battle Medic takes such a high check to be effective, and only functions once a day. Goodness, I hope this will never happen! As one of seemingly many healer fans (both in RPGs and MMOs), we do *not* want more self-healing, as it will convince people healers are pointless. Instead, can't we please get more pro-active abilities? Temp hits points (and significant amounts per action, please - at least as much as current heals of the same level), reaction-based AC or DR buffs, more support for Shield Other type playstyles, and so forth. Please? Some different offensive-support tactics would be good, too. Maybe some ranged debuffs that target TAC, rather than saving throws?
Our group filled out surveys, and found the experience .... ok. There was danger, but it wasn't excessive, and we didn't run out of resources (although it was very close). This was due to two circumstances: 1. Our barbarian rolled a natural 20 *three* times. She probably did two-thirds of the damage in the party, as a result. 2. We focused heavily on conflict-avoidance, being close to paranoid in searching for traps, clues and other ways to avoid actually engaging enemies. We never fought quasits, centipedes, etc, if there was a way to avoid it. We also intimidated the group of goblins in their HQ by presenting them with the head of their boss that we had decapitated. They gave up - another potential TPK avoided. The reason for this somewhat extreme approach is that we, as a group, felt incompetent to be heroic in the usual manner. We are committed to the playtest as a matter of grace to our GM and a promise we made, but there's zero chance we would stick with it, were this a chance encounter. It's just not fun enough.
Note, please, that three of us have extensive PF1 experience, and two others a little. It didn't appeal more (or less) to the experienced PF players than to the others.
Another reason for reduced main stats is when those main stats are non-saves and people are defensive, or when they plan on dual classing. For instance, my main character in the playtest is a frontline bard (dual classing fighter based on STR). That's two non-save stats to focus on. As a result, I started with a 14 in my main stat, a 16 in my other main stat, and prayed for the best. This would have applied to, essentially, all casters but Cleric and Druid. We had a second character with a similar problem - a halfling druid. You might think that halfling, being a +wis race, is a good fit, but this was a shapeshifter, so needed STR, which was a penalised score.
I suspect that, if designers do not change it, people ignore it by playing D&D 5th.
There's also an elephant in the room: spells auto-scale, but martials need to spend their class feats to scale, which gives more room to casters for conceptual development, rather than running to keep up with the tide.
Ursula LeGuin's "The Left Hand of Darkness" is also a good read, and thought-provoking. Note, please, that the author in her later life regretted she used several cop-out elements in the book, rather than truly addressing the gender-identity questions at the core of the narrative. It's still a ground-breaking moment in fiction literature.
So much this. It feels like the book was written by an accountant with a bad case of bleeching. I don't mind crunch (heck, I like Rolemaster, and that's rather notorious for it), but the way things are written is actively discouraging the reader to become invested. As it stands, you need to be willing to play the game in spire of the system - and that means that it will not appeal to new players. And the existing PF1 players will, too often, find that this is not the game they know and love, and likewise drift away - or stick with that they already own. All in all, it seems not the way to go if you want to sell new product, especially with D&D 5th being very well received. Note, please, that this post is purely speaking about presentation, with no opinions offered on the rules.
Look at it this way: they likely compared it with Wildshape from the druid, which lasts minutes at best (unless you pay a level 10 feat). Given how iconic that is, as a class feature, they didn't want to be responsible for the ennui of an entire class by making familiars too fancy. Mind you, I find familiars still eminently worthwhile myself.
The problem with that approach is that by defining the ability as a class power, no one but members of that class can use it. That's how you end up in a game where no one dares to sit down, because it's undefined what kind of action (if any) getting back to your feat is. KISS - keep it simple, stupid. Let's get rid of pointless bloat that only limits people. Giving people three abilities per level but making each of them terribly narrow is just bad design.
I think it's a bit early to compare the combat efficacy of spells versus martial powers, but at the very least, it would be nice to give martial starting skills on par with the casters! There's no excuse for a barbarian to have less skills than (for instance) a cleric or druid, in my opinion.
I'm baffled that martials have so few skills. Bards having 7, versus Clerics 5, sounds about right, but Barbarian 3 in comparison? barbarians are rugged survivors, thematically, and should have wilderness skills. As it stands, their signature skills do not support this at all, and with only 3 trained skills (plus Int), there's not a lot of room for them, either. The same goes for Fighter, although they probably should have slightly different additional Signatures. Barbarian Proposal: * Increase trained skills at level 1 for barbarian to 5.
Fighter Proposal: * Increase trained skills at level 1 for Fighter to 4.
Probably a wizard.
CLW isn't healing - it's just hit point restoring. Healing is a package that includes (Lesser) Restoration, Cure Disease, Remove Curse and several other such spells. The Paladin mercies really help, but to make those do the job you need a boatload of Lay on Hands available per day.
I have talked to people that have ended subscriptions and quit over this kind of stuff in the past. A game store I even frequent is quite fed up with them. It feels like they may be killing their own game by doing these things without checking if the people who will actually be buying and playing with it actually like it. Agreed. Errata like this is the best advertisement for D&D 5th edition I have seen in a long time. Certainly better than anything the makers of 5th Edition itself have come up with.
This isn't really the best place to ask such things, since forums tend to attract the extremes of opinions. Check with a variety of local gaming groups and what those players expect, and you'll have a much better feel for it, I suspect.
Level 10 human aristocrat with the Leadership feat. Your minion takes Leadership, too. And his, and so forth. Once you've occupied all the important positions in the local government and church, you can just claim you won. Why bother going adventuring when you are in charge?
I agree with you, but most people here on the boards seem allergic to RP that actually involves moral restrictions. They aren't saying it out loud, but most of them want co-op first person shooters, not actual RPGs.
Get along? That's a tough call. I'd say they would be very involved in each other's lives, but it may be a case of "hate to love / love to hate".
That's going to be a classic case of redemption versus emotional abuse.
Arguably, shaman has a worse spell list than witch among the full casters. It's pretty depressing, even if they have the Lore spirit (wandering or otherwise) to work around it a little.
rather than a TPK do you have any other suggestions for how I can get a resolutionI get that this is childish and such but me and another chaotic evil player have had plans to wipe the party if it meat pleasing our gods and my cleric gave everything to the demon lord of wrath.They were for killing other party members until the risk was they're characters and I think they may expect it. Quit the game. You are clearly not looking for the same kind of fun as most players, and unless you want to create a reputation as the kind of player people should avoid at all cost, it's best to just quit and go do something else. Maybe an online shooter?
I'm playing in a Rolemaster campaign/world, as the "new player" (having joined a mere half year ago). Campaign's been going on for 26 years, I believe. It's refreshingly old-school - a lot of the vibe I had been missing since 1st edition AD&D. And yes, magic is rare, because it's futile to try and solve mundane problems with it - too slow, too awkward, and darn weak at lower levels compared to just using skills. Exactly how we like it. Mind, this isn't stopping anyone from actually playing magic-users, since we play the classes we want to RP, not the tricks we want to optimize. It's telling how the gaming landscape has changed - we've had a few people show interest in joining us, but only one person under the age of 35 has done more than nibble, and that person had never roleplayed before.
Have you guys and girls considered Roll20? https://app.roll20.net/home It's a virtual table top plus a meeting spot for people looking for games. Mind you, the competition for GMs is amazing - there's probably 20 or more players looking for a game for each GM considering running anything. But it's another option, you know?
I would say context matters when it comes to evil-aligned spells. Summoning a demon might be bad, but if you bind it and use it to rescue a dozen orphans, you've more than balanced the scales back towards good. How can you know? For all most PCs would know, summoning a demon and allowing it to operate in the mortal world empowers some kind of Prince in Hell. The metaphysics are very unclear and usually unknown to characters. There is no way to tell what the "value" is of rescuing puppies or orphans, or the "cost" of summoning creatures, demonic or otherwise.
Rerednaw, If "good-aligned team-oriented" was your prerequisite, why did you let in the people clearly not adhering to that? A rule is only so strong as the person defending it.
Anyone with the Redemption inquisition (domain) gains a +2 SM (among other bonuses). There's at least one Aasimar bloodline that has a +2 bonus on SM as well.
I'm getting vaguely interested in an oracle of life with the "wasted" curse that heals others and "takes on their disease"... kindof a saint/martyr motif. I've got a "leper messiah" double-cursed life oracle planned for just the right campaign some day. Wasting/Legalistic. [It works with wasted/lame as well, but I find the legalistic restrictions more interesting.] The whole leprosy-as-a-curse concept has some pretty good semi-historical background (including a sainted Crusader King of Jerusalem), so there's tons of material to work with.
Consider the Slayer from the ACG playtest. They can choose ranger fighting style feats, with all the usual no-prerequisite benefits, as slayer tricks, as well as many rogue talents. And they are a full-BAB d10 class, with good skill points and 2 good saves. Admittedly, you give up the ranger spells if you go that route. A few months ago there was a playtest for the upcoming Advanced Class Guide (ACG), and the material for it was available as a free download. Early December, if I recall correctly, there was an updated version of the playtest document as well. It's still legal for Pathfinder Society, so I assume it's available as a download somewhere, although I cannot currently find it on the Paizo download site.
I think I made my Linguistics check here to decipher the meaning. What was the language, though? My wisdom checks can be iffy.
are we really arguing that any cursed item with an effect that SOMEONE might like even if most people wouldn't is offensive? so a cursed item that causes your clothing to burst into flames spontaneously is offensive because some people are masochistic pyromaniacal exhibitionists? this is ludicrous... especially considering the mechanical reasons it's "cursed".We're arguing because there are gamers that are so sensitive to thier personal gender identity that if their characters are switched, say male to female without their consent, they will feel that it is an attack on their manliness... in other words... classic Homophobia. If your players are homophobes, and many are... simply don't put this cursed item on your GM plate. Problem solved. Not the problem of homophobia, but that something best addressed in a different venue. Goodness, what a ridiculous assertion. I'm gay myself, and I would certainly consider the application of this item on my characters a curse, and a bad thing - because it was *inflicted* upon them. Had I had a choice in it, I most likely would have declined, because my characters don't need a body of a different kind than they carry around, but that's essentially besides the point. The item is cursed because it forces you into a situation, not because the effect is detrimental (although it may well be, if not to everyone). A hat that permanently turns you into a strawberry blonde would be just as cursed.
Its cursed because it changes you against your will. Well I guess you could identify it and use it willingly but no need to digress. I agree with Zhayne about the item being phenomally stupid.In one campaign we sold one to a Temple of Calistria. They were very happy to have a second one for certain members of their Church. Revenge is a dish served best with a garter?
[The journal is written in a forceful hand, scribing runes with agility but likely little practice.] It's hard to tell how long the days are in these catacombs. Strange, to think that for the length and width of recorded history, my kin has lived like this - in tunnels, mansions of underground stone and living rock. Still, our penance is coming to an end, and we will raise a next generation in the domains of our forefathers. Sevenfold. Anyway, the fight in the laboratory with the hag and giant didn't keep us for long and we backtracked, looking for other ways into the abode of the "crone" keeper. We figured that the hallways with the flower-decked table was worth a try, and it proved so. Thankfully, we recalled the murals at the entrance to this whole complex, and the figurines were quickly organised accordingly.
After the table, we continued our progress down a long staircase that landed us in time in front of a double door. The magical chime did it's job once more and we stepped into a room that was another one of those landscape illusions. Nice, starry night, a field outdoors of some kind. Actually, skip that "nice". The field had rotten away, with the stalks all withered and a whole flock of dead ravens spread around. Had it been crows I'd call it murder.
Of course, by that time the field and all disappears and we get to deal with more hands-on work. No complaints from me. Kind of an animated fog with a thirst for life, plus all those ravens that came back to haunt us. Well, tried to. Ignacio and myself had that fog well covered and Shinigami torched the place and the ravens in the process. Nice little tussle, proper dwarf work even if there were no giants this time. One of the regular doors out of that "dead field" room lead us into a fairly large torture chamber of sorts. Some annoying dudes were walking on the ceiling and that was a royal pain in the tuckus. I may need to find some better way to deal with that, since tossing spare axes at them wasn't very effective. Glad we have a solid complement of juju along in cases like that. Oh, and the other door that wasn't golden was a good one again: evil wizard dude with some kind of malformed cats at his beck and call. Figure him for some kind of alchemist or necromancer or such. The critters weren't worth more than a swing of the ball and chain, but they kept us occupied long enough for the big guy to actually lay down some hurt. Never felt quite that much of a pansy before. I think that, had I been some kind of human or such, I'd been nigh unable to move. Thankfully, our strength returned once we smacked him down to size. All in all, a solid day's work by my counting. Next up, getting that hourglass fixed. The warden may be a huge bother, but it's probably as close to an ally as we'll find in this place.
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