Mark Seifter Super Fan's page

If there isn't a feat for making my daywalker bard positively sparkle, then I just don't know what I might do.

XD

The problem we found is that the default attack/AC values for building your simple run of the mill combatant (high attack and high AC as they are called right now) are fairly high. The high AC isn't anything to write home about compared to what the best PCs can pull off but is still quite good, and the attack bonus is around a fighter's and very good. So if you call them "moderate" that seems off to players even more so because they are in fact pretty high. So the best thing was to call them high and then make it very clear that high was the default in those statistics.

Ooh, you're so smart Marky-poo! We're so blessed to have someone with such foresight, and who knows how to treat us right!

XOXO

We love you Mark! But I love you the MOST!!!

Again, Mark's not infallible...

TAKE. THAT. BACK!

Here's another in the Aladdin-song-based playtest songs to go with the pair a few pages back.

** spoiler omitted **

*Wakes up, sees Mark singing, and swoons again*

** spoiler omitted **

*swoons*

MuddyVolcano wrote:

Dear Paizo,

Thanks so much for the shifter update. I have faith in you!

What would it take to get a Corgi Aspect added to the list, even as just a blog post?

Thanks!

Faerie Mount / Corgi

The aspect of the faerie mount invokes a magical corgi from the First World (see Adventure Path #119: Prisoner of the Blight for more details), renowned for their loyalty and bravery. Those who take this aspect have the power of Calamity at their fingertips.

Minor Form: You gain a +4 competence bonus on saves against fear. At 8th level, this bonus increases to +6, and at 15th level, it increases to +8.

Major Form: Your shape changes to that of a fey mount (Prisoner of the Blight). While in this form, you gain low-light vision, scent, a 40-foot base land speed, and a bite attack (1d6 damage), and you gain a +4 racial bonus to CMD against bull rush and trip. At 8th level, you gain Nimble Moves as a bonus feat as long as you are carrying no more than a light load, and you gain a +4 racial bonus on Survival checks when tracking with scent. At 15th level, you gain Improved Natural Attack (bite) and your critical multiplier with your bite attack increases by 1, to a maximum of x4.

You continue to make all our dreams come true, sweetums!

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

It's worth noting that playtesters tend to be a lot more toxic when they don't think they'll be heard. Just ask poor Mark Seifter, upon whom I once unloaded all my ill feelings about an Unchaining—only for him to pop in and graciously make me feel like the garbage I was! No excuse, of course. And don't forget, having Paizo staffers get active in Paizo threads costs money and time Paizo doesn't necessarily have.

Oh crap, I'm sorry for making you feel bad KC! When was this?

@Playtests and toxicity vs when people think they're being heard (or responded to), I think this is definitely true. For example, during the occult playtest, Jason got a reputation for not listening to his playtesters in the threads (you can see it if you look back through archived posts) because he didn't really have enough time to post more than rarely. But during redesign he read through every comment, multiple times, and cross-referenced everything he'd read to find common themes, leading to his being very responsive to playtest feedback, probably second only to me with the kineticist playtest in that regard (obviously since we had to scrap my original medium for space, I couldn't be as incorporating of feedback on the playtest version though I did use feedback from the people who had wanted a drastic redesign to help with that part). But it was not evident during the playtest because he didn't have time to both really crunch the feedback and be visible, so he chose the former, whereas I had time to do both due to spending way too much time out of work on the boards (like now posting at 11PM I guess X_X).

I realize this is another entire thread topic, but I got started with hardcore Pathfinder design as a playtester on these boards and am now a professional designer, so I'm deeply interested in the idea of playtesting, but it's also very tricky to do that and have people understand that getting no response doesn't mean being ignored. I have a few ideas I've been brewing over time in that...

Mark! Mark! He's our man! If he can't design it, nobody can!

Unless you go up against a Succubus, which is immune to both. Then you're screwed (in probably more ways than one).

Ooh YES! That feels...niiiice. Now, just a little lower, please?

I'm of the same mind as GTW. It's the aether that's doing the damage. Whether or not those strands of aether are effected by water is something the developers will have to decide upon.

Didn't you even read what Mark said? If the strands are anchored to a piercing object, you to ignore the penalties, otherwise, you don't.

Oh Mark dear, is a sorcerer barred from taking the Child of Two Worlds story feat due to their bloodline class ability?

It says "you can’t have other feats, traits, or abilities that specify your bloodline such as Racial Heritage." A sorcerer bloodline doesn't fall under "abilities" does it? I really, really, really want to take it with my land-bound mermaid aquatic seaborn sorcerer, Meredith; to really reinforce her purpose for adventuring on land. To think that her human father adventured into the depths, facing untold peril, so that he could be with his true love, her mermaid mother! And now she travels the land hoping for a similar fate. *swoons* Oh how romantic Marky!

Who do I have to thank for this blessed feat? It was you, wasn't it? It will always be you, Mark...in my heart.

But why does this feat bar other bloodline options when no other bloodline options do so? Isn't it conceivable that a person could have an aquatic heritage, but but also come from a powerful arcane family (arcane bloodline) or been subject to bizarre magical experiments (resulting in the abberrant bloodline)?

It's all Amber's fault isn't it? She put you up to it, didn't she? Never did like her! The way she looks at you. Always up to no good that one! Hmph!

The other players scoffed at my character concept before, but now, if I can take this feat, I will finally be able to show them a character background that makes sense to them! "It's good enough for Mark, why isn't it good enough for you?" is what I will say to them! You will say yes, I can take it, won't you, Mark? For me?

I don't personally have any problems with this change in particular (and it is a change), but rather with Paizo's annoying practice of claiming that the changes they are making to the rules are not in fact, changes.

I saw it a lot in WotC too. I just don't understand why game developers today seem so afraid to be upfront and honest with their consumers.

Mark Seifter is the best thing to happen to Paizo in a long time. He straight up tells it like it is to the best of his knowledge.

So...probably best to keep any GM rulings to a case by case basis then?

citricking wrote:

I'm not certain they get the 6 vine attacks. They are primary natural attacks, but because they're granted by the Vines (Ex) ability I don't think you get them with plant shape.

Kind of like how you only get the spikes of a Manticore (which are natural attacks) because "spikes" is in the list of abilities granted by beast shape.

That's an interesting point; I know that when a monster has a non-standard natural attack, we wind up including those abilities to explain important info about it like whether it's bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing, so if it indeed works this way, it would mean you essentially never get those unusual natural attacks. Very interesting.

But the loss of natural attacks wasn't an intended consequence of the explanatory text, I take it?

I currently have a 7th-level lore ward fighter with the following feats:

Combat Expertise (B), Combat Reflexes (B), Dodge (B), Greater Disarm, Greater Trip (B), Mobility (B), Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, Spring Attack (B), Whirlwind Attack

Now, I've been hearing about all sorts of "substitution feats" in newer source books as of late that replace some of the prerequisites for these feats, as well as cool armor training/weapon training replacement abilities, and I was wondering if there was now a more efficient way to make this trick fighter work.

(And by trick fighter, I mean being rather proficient with combat maneuvers in general, and possessing the ability to trip AND disarm everyone within reach in a single round specifically.)

My first impression? VERY VERY POSITIVE.

Thanks Mark!

Oh yes, PLEASE Mr. Seifter! That would be absolutely wonderful of you!

An answer in the very first response? Sweet! Thanks Mark!
You're easily the best designer around! Much love!

You actually need +4 or +8, respectively. The spell level can't be more than (1/2 your caster level) -2 or -4, and the spell level for a blast will always be 1/2 your caster level (except at 20th).

Incidentally, blasts have metakinesis instead of those meta-SLA. A prohibition of those meta-SLA feats for blast was left out due to the fact that we considered it impossible to get a permanent +4 or +8 CL and qualify (well, more like a combination of that and monster feats aren't usually legal to players, and every word counted for copyfitting the kineticist). Let me know if this is wrong, though.

You're so kind and smart, Marky! Always helping the illiterate in their understaning of the game's rules! ;D

Thanks Chess Pwn. So you still can't provoke with kinetic blade then?

Catharsis wrote:

What do you mean, Chess Pwn? Extra Wild Talent only gives you wild talents 2 levels below the highest you can pick, so it's the same problem.

Quote:

Kinetic Blade [...] Avoid this infusion on Paper Masters who are required to be holding an object to turn into a kinetic blade, meaning they can’t have their hands free to do Gather Power.

I believe Mark has officially said that holding an object for the purpose of Telekinetic Blade does not interfere with Gather Power.

For the blade itself, correct. It's directly stated in the kinetic blade form infusion :)

Thanks for the clarification, Marky!

Also, if you think you can make a lot of AoOs, it can be worth it to gather+single attack whip with a nasty substance, rather than full attack. For instance, if all of your AoOs dispel one of the enemy's spells, it might make them very unhappy. Obviously don't do this unless you think you can make some AoOs (or heavily control the enemies actions in the pains they take to avoid your AoOs, which may be equally good in just the right circumstances).

Since when can you make attacks of opportunities with instantaneous spell-like abilities? I thought that was something only certain kinetcist archetypes could do.

Dekalinder wrote:

bugleyman wrote:

Cao Phen wrote:

Well, that is for SLA that are spells. The possible confusion would be SLAs that has no spell equivalent.

A spell-like ability that isn't like any spell seems like an oxymoron. Is that a thing?

Yes it is. Some domains have SLA that resemble no spells.

Quote:

Some metamagic works.

I hate to be a bummer but. This FAQ is pretty explicative and omicomprehensive and totally overrides that quote.

Even if not for the policy of forum posts not being official, that FAQ isn't an override of anything since the other quote is from years before Owen worked at Paizo. Incidentally, this sort of confusion was why I requested for the community team to help me out so that my old Rogue Eidolon posts did not get auto-converted to Mark Seifter.

On the subject of the question, of course, as I just said above, our posts aren't official, and honestly the whole "spell-like ability" thing is just a messy and difficult subject, so there's some middle ground that seems too murky to me to state with any certainty. I can try to draw the boundaries around that middle ground as best I see, though:

Officially on the side of working: Augment Summoning works with summon monster SLAs by FAQ, and Dimensional Agility feats work with dimension door SLA by FAQ, both officially. There isn't a general rule FAQ here, but it seems that abilities that call out a spell (or group of spells) by the spell's name are pretty likely to work with a SLA of those exact spell names.

Strongly on the side of working: Spell Penetration's rules text doesn't mention spells at all, just caster level checks to defeat SR, so it should work on SLAs with some confidence.

Strongly on the side of not working: Abilities like sorcerer arcana (and some wizard school powers like admixture) work when you "cast a spell," so those should not work on SLAs with some confidence....

Thank you SO much for your thoughts on the matter, Mark!