Miraklu's page

The web supplement was finalized after the book went to the printer. I would personally assume most discrepancies would act like an "errata".

That I would like to believe. Because I am not having an issue with a casual Sailor praying for Besmara to "Please don't get us killed on this voyage" is normal and fine

I had an issue seeing a dedicated cleric who is Holy aligned, saying "You always plunder and loot, no matter what the situation is, take what you want. You don't earn anything, you just take it."

And if there the choice is, that you are either in the middle or completly in the unholy side, would make more sense to me.

While Good vs Evil is one thing, it can be useful to remember the whole Law vs Chaos part, and maybe avoid conflating Good with Law and Evil with Chaos.

Also, Robin Hood as a "good thief"

That one I want clarify, Robin Hood was a Thief out of Necessity. If everything went well, he would have happily just remained a noble and kept running his estate well.

But he couldn't, it was desperate Times

And circumstances can be explained, even excused

But if your base approach is "PLunder and Raid" in every situation, no matter if poor or Rich, that is diffrent for me. Piracy for Piracy sake, is a vile act for me.

The "take what you want" but "be loyal to your crew" part I think is what keeps Besmaran adherents from going full murder hobo.

Also, if you look at history, pirates usually didn't want to kill their targets. Because if you became notorious for killing your prey, they would fight harder and to the death (if they thought their only way out alive was to kill you). Ideally pirates just want their prey to surrender and give over their stuff.

And stealing is bad, but like, not as bad as murder.

You hit the nail on the head

My question is not, can there be non-evil pirates, that I aggree with
I am talking specifically Holy (good aligned) Clerics of a Goddess of PIracy. Someone who has good intentions but will only raid and plunder as their lifes work. How would THAT work

Jack is a fun guy, but I wouldn't call him a really morally upstanding person.

I don’t really have much commentary to give on this, but I checked the Divine Mysteries Web Supplement and her sanctification says “can choose unholy” so it’s either no sanctification or unholy sanctification; there’s no option for holy sanctification with her.

She does allow heal, but I assume that’s just part of being able to maintain crew health. Nor do I think that indicates holiness when Lamashtu apparently also allows harm or heal as a divine font. Dunno if that answers your question though.

It actually does not. I looked it up the Web supplement and you are correct.

But I also have Divine Mysteries the Book, which states "Can choose holy or unholy"

So now I am more confused what happend there

But Besmara was already seen as a viable option for Chaotic Good characters back in pfe1 and Premaster, so even if the Web supplement is correct and the book not, my question still stands

Besmara is a Deity of Pirates. Raiders on the Sea. Her Edicts are to take what you want, no matter from whome or what reason. The only redeeming quality in her edicts seem to stay loyal to your crew. Your fellow crew of murderers and thieves, so you can successfully raid ships.

She herself became a deity for two reasons:
1. because she terrified sailors that she would send monsters after them (and probably did).
2. she killed multiple Spirits to ascend to Deity Status.

The one mention of non-pirates worshipping her, straight up ignore the pirate part of her worship. Which seems more like appeasing her then actually worshipping her. Or at the very least, Apocryphal?

Like she demandes almost the same things as Norgorber, the God of Murders and Thieves. Yes there is a loyalty demanded towards your fellow Pirates, your Partners in Crime. And there is no need to hide your identity. But like the point that makes Norgorber evil, is still shared. To do what you want, at the cost of others.

So.....how is there any form of being Holy? Any hint that there is a Well intended Follower of this Entity?

Lets take Calistria for a counter example. She is selfish. and wants Vengeance, but she doesn't demand that you just don't care for anyone else. Just that you get what you want and respect Vengeance. It is never specified that you have to take from others, ruin their properties and lifes. That is for me someone in the middle, you can lay out her teachings to be a killer who just takes what you want, but it is not specificly asked to be vile or merciless to follow her.

While Besmara you have to take what you want. its literally her Edict.

So what am I missing?

I am sure we will find ways to argue over alignments even if the alignments got removed.

On a more serious note, Arazni definitly fits the CN section of the Alignment. But to not even go deep into what that means, it is a strong contrast to her past. Lawful good or Lawful neutral, she has been essentially completly broken. Whatever she was before, is gone. She has been killed, remade, repurposed and is now free.

That I do get behind, my complaint was more on how excessive it seemed and how I lacked details explaining why certain things happend. I do have now a bit more clues to explain certain parts so the critic on my front has lessend, now it is more of an observation.

But Arazni definitly has taken a journey from Mortal, to Herald, to Dead, to Undead, to Deity.

To the Point of Redemption of Arazni, I can't say I have heard anything about that until now, nor did I get that impression that there is any suppose to be.

She was the Undead Puppet of a Necromancer, and now is free to do what she wants. She is definitly not as kind anymore as she was back when she was the Herald of Aroden, but I see no theme of Redemption.

I don't know of any Crimes she commited? Sinful acts since she got free? To my knowladge all she is doing now, is trying to get back at Geb, Tar-Bahpoon and Urgatoah and not much else. And neither sound Sinful. She might be ready to do cruel and cutthroat tactics to do those, but until she does any of that, it is speculative.

The Themes I see is Spite those who are against you, and Struggle despite the Odds. Be scarred but be alive.

Mean and selfish?

She was leading the fight against Tar Baphon, told her people a direct assault couldn't work, and they decided they knew better, and bound her. Forcing her to fight to the death in a pointless attack with NO HELP from her god, Aroden.[...]

Thank you for a bit of clarity on what happend in that original Binding situation.

Not every deity in the core 20 needs to be "interesting" to every person. [...] but as a pantheon that's attempting to model game play choices for a tabletop RPG for more than one person. This means we want to have a number of deities represented on that list that gives PC clerics and other PCs who want to worship a deity a healthy range of options to choose from. [...]

I created many of the deities on that list for my homebrew, and among those are ones like Abadar, who I don't find particularly interesting except as an enemy religion in a campaign. [...]

I also created Arazni and included her during development of the 2nd Adventure Path volume, "The Skinsaw Murders," at first to start seeding into the world some "named liches" but also because I wanted to explore the storyline of a woman who had been oppressed and would in time find revenge against her oppressors. That storyline for various reasons took a LOT longer to pay off than I hoped it would, but the women who ended up writing her story later did a much better job than I could have so it was well worth the wait. Her ascending to the core 20 to fill the vacancy left by Gorum handily keeps the "chaotic neutral" vacancy occupied, thematically, even though alignments aren't part of the game anymore, but also because she's a particular favorite of many folks on staff and also may readers and gamers out there. She also brings something new to...

Thank you for that answer. Of course I can afford to not like her, because you guys give us plenty of Deities to choose from. There is no argument there

Also thank you for the insight on how Arazni's backstory happend from the Writers Side, it does explain how her Story seems like going around a couple corners to now show up.(and now that you mention it, I know exactly what spot we would have found that info in The Skinsaw Murders when I played in the AP.)

To the Point of her being a Unique Deity for the Spot, that thanks to this discussions I have come to aggree on. She provides a diffrent angle from the other Deities and is not a straight up replacement of Gorum.

I can now approach her from a diffrent angle, I might even challange myself to make a Dhampir Avenger Rogue dedicated to her. If I already see her as an Edgelord Deity, why not use that as a start?

Arazni is about offering power to the wounded and powerless. She's there for spite, for survival, for drawing a hard line between the victim you used to be and the respect you now demand. If you ever need a goddess who believes in hitting a bully so hard he never hits you again, killing your abuser, or doing what it takes to stay alive when everyone thinks you should've given up and died, Arazni is your girl. That's one of her 'points.'

The Inner Sea's had a huge surge in undead with the death of Lastwall, the rise of Tar-Baphon, and all sorts of other necromantic shenanigans. Pharasma, the oldest deity in the setting and one of the most respected, says that all of those undead must be destroyed - even those who never chose this fate, but are now unwilling to be killed yet again. When most are content to let Pharasmins handle the undead their usual way, Arazni offers another path, along with some of the only empathy for that situation to be found. That's another 'point.'

Lastly, she's Aroden's old buddy - a witness to and participant in some of the major events that define the Lost Omens setting as a whole, along with suffering from his worst decisions. That's a really useful perspective for telling stories about a core pillar of the world, to say nothing of how she acts as a narrative bridge to finally telling Arcadian stories, something the team's wanted to do for years. Add in how she comes with interesting relationships with other core deities like Iomedae and Urgathoa, and you've got a god that opens up an awful lot of potential plotlines by taking center stage. That's 'point' three.

All of those at once adds up to an Arazni who's intimately tangled in several major chunks of worldbuilding, enables a variety of PC concepts (survivors of all sorts, revenge-seekers, unwilling undead), and feels pretty unique to Pathfinder. I quite like her!

That sounds very Solid. Your Summary, together with PossibleCabbage and Scarablob, did give me atleast an angle to make her a valid choice as a Deity. And as much as I still dislike her Backstory as a overdrawn tragic mess, your last point is quite interesting. She would have a unique Perspective, and insights to an Era from a less favorable angle on the Shining Crusade. And she has connections to Arcadia? That I was not aware off.

Regarding how all the mechanics of calling versus summoning versus binding versus whatever happened to Arazni, I feel this quote from a little while ago applies here too:

James Jacobs wrote:

Morhek wrote:

The Raven Black wrote:

If dead deities leave a body behind, where do you think Aroden's corpse ended up ?

A certain Whispering Tyrant would love to know (TBT, TB doing a JSA Golden Age trick with Aroden has been in my head for years).

And if the death of Gorum is causing his blood to rain down across the world creating new demigods, why did the death of Aroden not do the same when it wrecked the Inner Sea? Is it because there wasn't enough of Aroden left to do so, or because something took that power before it could fall?

It's because gods don't have set rules. When anything associated with a god happens, it does so differently as the storyteller wants. Godsrain was unique to the situation surrounding Gorum's death.

Further, magic itself is whatever the storyteller needs to do. We have rules on player (including the DM) magic because when we're telling a story together, we need set rules to establish a baseline. People writing the setting have more room to maneuver.

TLDR: don't give yourself a headache trying to work out why what happened to her can't be explained by how our rulebook spells work. Writers don't necessarily follow the rules and deities don't even HAVE rules.

Thank you for that, that actually answered a seperate question I had unrelated.

And creative freedom is understandable. It doesn't explain the narrative issue I have: that the Knights of Ozem, one of the most noble order of Knights, supposidly forced their herald, their Saint, to serve them in a way that caused Mistrust. Which is important now given that is a part of the reason she mistrusts her former allies. So it sounds bizzare, and the only narrative purpose I can see, is to make her backstory even more tragic.

Greetings.

I find myself Disliking Arazni, from her concept to her planned inclusion as a Core Deity. But I know I am not an expert on the setting and only know the basics. So I want to lay out what I know and would like to hear counterpoints or parts of her lore that I miss. I want to know what there is to Like about Arazni.

My Issue in general is, she seems like an Edgelord with a tragic backstory, who is spiting the odds and will topple the mighty, but still frowns upon those who are good and right.

To get into the specific. She was a friend to Aroden who decided to make her an Herald after she died. She helped fight Tar-Baphon, but there something I don't understand what happend. She was seemingly called, which to my knowladge just brings an outsider over, it doesn't grant control over the called creature. But it was specified that the Knights of Ozem, those which called her, Bound her like a usual summon. Either she was summoned or they offered her a contract of service which is usaully done to control a called Creature like a Demon or devil. Which ever of the two happend, this planted a seed of doubt and Mistrust to her loyal followers.

Then she died to Tar-Baphon, which implies she got called. Dying to the Whispering Tyrant is easy, no issue there. But if she was called, why did she aggree to a Binding she did not like? Or this implies that she Knights of Ozem overpowered their Herald into a Contract against her will, which seems even more bizzare.

That was not her end though, because Geb somehow managed to revive the corpse of an Outsider, and made her a Lich Queen against her Will. Given Geb is arguable one of the top 3 most powerful Necromancers on the world, you can have an explanation. It still just seems utterly bizzare on why you want to make her an intelligent undead given she would hate Geb (which she does) nor make her powerful which she would try to use against Geb. I get Geb is one of the most spitful Mortals that exist, but that seems quite reckless. Why not make her a Mindless Zombie, more insult to the Knights of Ozem and less risk of something going wrong.

Which happend when for some reason she ascended back into freedom and is not surprisingly against Geb. And now she is an Opponent against those which Spite her, Geb, Urgatoah and the Whispering Tyrant. But she still is a rebel against Iomedae because how dare she be Aroden's Inherintor, while Arazni herself at the time was the Lich Queen of Geb to my understanding, so she wasn't exactly in a position to do that herself.

And now there are plans of making her a Main Deity. Which I feel is redundant.
To my understanding her Goals are: Survive the Odds, help misused Undead, and spite those which wronged you.

All those you can do with other deities. Vengeance can be both found in Urgatoah and Calistria. Spiting those which wronged you is specifically Calistria's main point. even to a Point surviving.
Being against the common use of Undead, Pharasma is the Deity for that. And she even would fill a better role as a main opponent of the Pallid Princess. Ustalav being a nation which hates the Whispering Tyrant as a Cultural Touchstone and Pharasma as their Patron Deity would make that even stronger of a Point.
If you want to Fight for the Rights of Undead we have Urgatoah.
as a Deity of Rebels, we have Milani, who with what happend in Hells Rebels, I could see being on a Rise to Power. Not even to mention of Cayden Cailean, already a Core deity who is great for Rebels.

So her backstory is in my eyes a mess to make her as tragic of a character has possible. And is now the Lone Wolf who is alone against the world. But on a Divine Scale.

So what am I missing, that makes her worth of being a Core Deity? Am I missing some cruicial detail that explains the oddities I see? Or is my dislike simply a personal bias?

Question, does that mean there will be rules for Airships in the book?

The Zoetrope is constantly mentioned, but nothing about stats.

This book does promise to spice up exploration, so fingers are crossed here that they include something like that

What I should also state and to make the argument more reasonable to make Named bullet a bit harder to prepare is, the character I plan on getting it, does INSANE amount of damage when he crits
He is an eldritch archer Magus with a musket. in a nutshell, he can temporarily enchant his weapon with enchantments like shocking burst. And he can ranged spellstrike with spells, which thanks to the Spellslinger wizard archetype, his spell crit modifier is a x3, and if with spellstrike the weapon attack crits, the spell with it also crits
So with a crit he could do 4d12+30d6+1d6+3d10 points of damage theoraticly. And Named Bullet would make this happen much more easy.
So if a GM wants to limit Named bullet for this kind of build I do understand.

Also true. And afterall either knowing the name, the creature or the creature subtype for humanoids and outsiders before making the bullet is already a limitation. Atleast if you don't prepare it midcombat, and even then you might not get that information during the encounter.

The quoted test specifically says "or this spell has no effect". Not "the part of the spell that affects the attacked creature is negated". So, on what basis you say that only part of the effect is negated?

Note that the spell doesn't affect the attacked creature in any way, it affects the ammunition. So that SR effect is something very peculiar and breaks the normal conventions. As it does so, its specific rule is what should be applied.

if you disallow that spell, because of bad wording, I don't argue about, it is a weird spell

That seems to be the best answer I can get.
And well the Gm and I so far have aggreed that it will be not target specific, unless for like special bosses which have certain protection
But yeah, I killed a bunch of giants so I will always have material for getting named bullets for giants. We killed a dragon so I have parts of a dragon for it. He collected the ashes of a Devil (longer story on how that happend), so I can get named bullets for devils.
Thanks for discussing that with me, I know it is a not certain subject but it does help if you get some confirmation from others.

Making it a piece of THE TARGET would certainly make it more interesting, wouldn't it?

A lock of THEIR hair is required to name your bullet.

There you go. Now it's not just any lock of Troll armpit hair, it has to be THAT specific Troll's hair... probably not in your pouch, you might have to sneak/ask nicely/get creative... good luck.

That leads directly to my original question

You would need...a spell component pouch.

That's it. That's all. Within that little pouch is a piece of every creature type and subtype. Either a bit of bodily substance or an object owned, made or handled by the creature.

From pure mechanic, you are correct, but it still seems sort of wrong? I want it to work, but it also seems weird to make it something like that, something so specific, that it just being meaningless if you have component pouch seems odd.

Quote:

When the target hits the selected creature, you must overcome that creature’s spell resistance, or this spell has no effect.

If you hit a creature touch AC but not the full AC and fail to overcome its SR you miss as the spell effect is canceled?

If you would have misfired you misfire?
RAW its works that way, AFAIK.

If you fail against the Spell Resistence check, the spell on the ammunitiona has no effect on the creature.

And to clarification, so far the GM and I aggree that for most creatures I should be good, if it would be reasonable that I have such items aka I already encountered them and most likely killed those creatures or reasonable found them otherwise.
BUt I was warned that for certain special enemies (I assume bosses of some kind) I need to be sometimes more specific with how I got mys hands on items from them.
That's why I ask now, would anything worn, belonging or created by those creatures work for that spell, or would I need to get their blood?

Yes, the material component is for the arcane casters, the focus for divine, that is not the question
the creature type is actually more defined in the spell itslef
"ou imbue the target with deadly accuracy against a selected creature type (and subtype for humanoids or outsiders) or a specific creature you know and can name"
But yeah, here is the thing, if we for example say I have a magic item of an evil caster, would parts form that count as "item from the selected creature"? Or just things which literally are from the creature aka blood, skin etc.

This question was thrown out sometimes years ago, but it wasn't really answered in any of those very brief discussion so I will try that again
So named bullet, requires as a material compentent/divine focus it REquires
(an item from the selected creature or creature type)
So here is the question
1. is the neglible? Because I doubt it is, and the Gm aggrees, but to be honest that is also not my main question here. What I really want to know is:
2. Want counts as an "item from the creature"?
Here is the thing, if you ahve bodyparts of a giant it will work for named bullet for a giant no question
but would other objects work? Like for example if you find an item crafted by someone and take a piece of it, would that count as an "item from the creature"?

This question was thrown out sometimes years ago, but it wasn't really answered in any of those very brief discussion so I will try that again
So named bullet, requires as a material compentent/divine focus it REquires
(an item from the selected creature or creature type)
So here is the question
1. is the neglible? Because I doubt it is, and the Gm aggrees, but to be honest that is also not my main question here
2. Want counts as an "item from the creature"?
Here is the thing, if you ahve bodyparts of a giant it will work as a named bullet for a giant no question
but would other objects work? Like for example if you find an item crafted by someone and take a piece of it, would that count as an "item from the creature"?

Miraklu wrote:

That is a point, it is again mentioned as something seperate

but it is also mentioned under Armor rules, so honestly that point goes both ways
To be honest, the longer I look into it, it seems to be one of the situations which does not have a clear rule
unless I am missing something

What your missing is armor is armor, shields are shields.

An armor isn't a shield, a shield isn't armor.
If something says can't be used with shields, but doesn't say anything about armor then wearing armor doesn't effect it. Don't worry about it, it isn't applicable. Switch nouns as needed.

That is a good point, haven't thought about it like that

That is a point, it is again mentioned as something seperate
but it is also mentioned under Armor rules, so honestly that point goes both ways
To be honest, the longer I look into it, it seems to be one of the situations which does not have a clear rule
unless I am missing something

So the question is, do Shields count as Armor?
In the rules you find Shields in the Armor section, but it is always called Armor and Shield, as in 2 seperate things.
The example I want to solve with that question is a Gunslinger with a buckler
for firearm rules it clearly states you can wield firearms and a buckler without penalty that is no issue
But Gunslinger has a class feature called Nimble
"Nimble (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a gunslinger gains a +1 dodge bonus to AC while wearing light or no armor. Anything that causes the gunslinger to lose her Dexterity bonus to AC also causes the gunslinger to lose this dodge bonus. This bonus increases by +1 for every four levels beyond 2nd level (to a maximum of +5 at 20th level)."
now the question is, does Buckler count as armor for this feature, meaning the character does not get the dodge bonus, or can the character have a buckler and still get the Nimble dodge bonus?
the fact that gunslingers don'T have shield proficiency is not Helping.
So can anyone help clarify the rule in this instant?

Thank you for the answer, and I am not surprised that it wouldn't work. It would be very broken to restrict the usage of sneak attack to finesse or agile weapons and with ruffian to simple weapons, just then to have a quite easy accessible feat to just get around it entirely. It would be kind of.....not saying broken but very unbalanced
but the orc weapon familiarity feat is weird, I haven't noticed it, but it indeed works diffrent. And all those weapon familiarity feats came in with the Core rulebooks so I am very surprised that this was mistake, but it also wouldn't make much sense to make that feat work diffrent then the other similiar feats

I got a suggestion from someone, so that the Ruffian Rogue, who can sneak attack with only simple weapon which has a damage die of d8 or lesser, could potentially do that with martial weapon.
the Weapon Familiarity feats, be it gnome, dwarven or elven give oyu proficiency in a select amount of weapons and:
"For the purpose of determining your proficiency, martial (...) weapons are simple weapons."
now I am unsure if that counts, for one if you count martial weapons as simple, then it technically would work for the ruffians sneak attack (as long as the damage die is a d8 or less), but the "for the purpose of (...) proficiency" lets me pause on that, because that sounds exclusivly for proficiency and not for "the purpose of class features and abilities"
So can anyone help me clarify if weapon familiarty feats would give a ruffian rogue the ability to sneak attack with a select amount of martial weapons or not and it just doesn't effect each other?

I am not caring for Giant Instinct right now. That was just the reason I ask this question, so I want the answer to:
Are there large weapons in pf2, which deal more damage because they are large, or did they remove that rule and a weapon of any size does the same damage?

So any Greatsword does the same damage, and the whole thing about large weapons is just flavor text?

I am not able to find any rules for using large weapons
So yeah how does for example a long sword with 1d8 damage scales?
or a greatsword with 1d12 damage?
and if someone can reference where to find it in the book and on Archives of Nethys I would be very thankful
(I am looking this up for the Giant Instinct Barbarian if that matters)

"You Cast a Spell that takes 1 or 2 actions to cast and requires a spell attack roll. The effects of the spell do not occur immediately but are imbued into the bow you're wielding. Make a Strike with that bow. Your spell flies with the ammunition, using your attack roll result to determine the effects of both the Strike and the spell. This counts as two attacks for your multiple attack penalty, but you don't apply the penalty until after you've completed both attacks."
This is really conufsing me
so you cast a spell which takes either 1 or 2 actions, I get that.
then you imbue it in an arrow which you shoot, that still makes sense
after that I am not understanding the spell
first it says, the attack roll determins the effect of both the spell and the strike, but immidietly afterwards it says it counts both of those as 2 diffrent attacks, so they get diffrent penalties? and which attack gets which penalty
and the last part "you don'T apply the penalty until after you completed both attack", so I only apply the penalty after I already hit or miss?
I think I am completly missing an obvious point and need some help to understand that
So like for example what is the math behind using Eldritch shot with an Ray of Frost?

"You Cast a Spell that takes 1 or 2 actions to cast and requires a spell attack roll. The effects of the spell do not occur immediately but are imbued into the bow you're wielding. Make a Strike with that bow. Your spell flies with the ammunition, using your attack roll result to determine the effects of both the Strike and the spell. This counts as two attacks for your multiple attack penalty, but you don't apply the penalty until after you've completed both attacks."
This is really conufsing me
so you cast a spell which takes either 1 or 2 actions, I get that.
then you imbue it in an arrow which you shoot, that still makes sense
after that I am not understanding the spell
first it says, the attack roll determins the effect of both the spell and the strike, but immidietly afterwards it says it counts both of those as 2 diffrent attacks, so they get diffrent penalties? and which attack gets which penalty
and the last part "you don'T apply the penalty until after you completed both attack", so I only apply the penalty after I already hit or miss?
I think I am completly missing an obvious point and need some help to understand that
So like for example what is the math behind using Eldritch shot with an Ray of Frost?

I think I know how the cantrip works, but since I had a discussion with our group last session about it, I want confirmation from other people
so with the shield cantrip you
1. Need to cast it on your own turn to work, either as just a AC bonus or to use Shield BLock
2. no matter if the damage exceeded the Shields Hardness or not, if you use the cantrip Shield for the Reaction Shield Block, it is gone, it doesn't stay around, you can't recast it, that's it for the next 10 minutes
am I correct with this, or am I missing anything important?
Because the Gm argued since, the damage didn'T "shatter the shield" it would stay around, and the enemy could still use it next turn. (without even spending an action for casting it, but that is another conversation)

Wow, I feel kind of stupid that I didn't find that.
Thank you for pointing that out, and for the quick answer

I might have missed something, but the ruling of the Champion Class feat "Mercy" is confusing to me.
What it is suppose to do is:
"If the next action you use is to cast lay on hands, you can attempt to counteract a fear effect or an effect imposing the paralyzed condition on the target,"
Which is very vague for me. What does "Counteract" mean? Does it allow the target to reroll? Does it allow my champion to roll for the save instead? This feat seems more like a concept then telling me anything about the actual mechanic of the feat
So if someone could explain to me, how this is suppose to work, and if I just overlooked something, I would be thankful

Has it been 2 years?

Sheesh, the time flies.

And actually I did some updates for the guide, including the Race guide, since the one linked in this guide. The most recent guide is here:

The Complete Professor Q's Wizard Guide Single Document

I actually posted it in a different thread (Called it the guide "2.0") but that's apparently lost to the archive now.

Even with the updates though it's still been about 2 years hasn't it? As a matter of fact though I haven't really played Pathfinder for at least a year and a half, so I'm not sure what's new for the Wizard, if anything.

And actually the main reason I'm coming back here is that someone has been spamming my guide with comments to make edits - I was thinking if I had time in the next month, I'd actually try to make them.

For my free time, I've been pretty busy reviewing PC games for another site, but if I do get around to making updates, it'll probably be mostly grammatical errors and commenting on some of the discrepancies that people have kindly pointed out to me on an almost weekly basis through the comments.

If there is any new content you'd like me to look at though I'd be happy to give it a review as well.

I find your lack of bards disturbing

What are your favorite rules misconceptions that you've encountered playing this game?

Here are a couple of mine:

I had a DM who was like, "Oh the Brace feature on a weapon means as a free action you can switch between a 5' reach and a 10' reach with a polearm."

And that same guy was a player in my campaign and was like "HEY! He can't do that! He's fatigued! That means that he can either move or attack, but not both!"

Here are a couple of parties I'd like to try out someday. Each one is based around 4 members with a supplementary 5th added :

1. The Mosh Pit
The concept here is to take advantage of Tactical Acumen and to-hit bonuses wherever you can get them. Everyone in the group needs the Outflank feat, and of course everyone will want power attack.

Fighter - Dual Wielding. I originally had the Barbarian here (You know, because this is a Mosh Pit), but with all the potential to-hit bonuses going on with this party, dual wielding is just too good. At higher levels you can also pick up crit feats to really mess things up.

Bard - Backbone of the party. Give him Arcane Duelist or Diva and put him on the front lines so he can give flanks to his other buddies. First three rounds: Haste, Good Hope, and Tactical Acumen. +8 to hit when you're flanking at level 8 (with Inspire Courage of course.) 13th level gets you Bard's Escape to get everyone into those flanking positions.

Cleric - Provides Divine to-hit bonuses to supplement the bard's buffs. Obligatory healing support too (Since you're all in Melee, you'll need it.) Besides that he's a heavily armored Melee support who will provide a flank to the second star of the team.

Rogue (Or Ninja) - The Fighter is the loudmouth, and the Rogue is the one elbowing you in the kidneys. When you're basing a party around Tactical Acumen and Flanking Bonuses, you NEED a rogue.

Obviously the Mosh Pit is missing some of the utility that a full Arcane Caster can provide (like Fly and stuff) but with the right domains the Cleric can kind of fill that role.

And for the 5th:
Alchemist - Vivisectionist obviously. The vivisectionist would be drooling to be part of this party and would provide a little more arcane caster support. You could also replace the Rogue with the Vivisectionist but the Rogue gets all the talents that improve sneak attacks.

2. Save or Die. Or just die.
Concept here is to lower the enemy's saving throws as much as possible to apply save-or-die tactics on the enemy. There are three casters in this group and all of them should be memorizing save or lose spells so all of them can take advantage of the lowered saves. The three casters should get the Allied Spellcaster feat at some point in addition to the Spell Penetration feats - both - because I can't think of a save-or-die spell that doesn't allow for spell resistance.

Barbarian - You really need a meat shield, and this particular meat shield should definitely be maxing Intimidate (Shaken condition gives -2 to saving throw rolls). Grab Intimidating Prowess for best results.

Wizard - For Void Specialist. Reveal weakness one of the best ways to lower an enemy's saving throws. You can't resist it and it has an extremely high number (-5 to saving throws at level 10. ) The standard action and 1 round duration makes it so the Wizard needs a rod or a feat to enjoy it himself, but this party is all about teamwork.

Cleric - The Curse Domain gives a penalty, but only the Cleric can enjoy it. It's not bad, but the real fun one is the Madness Domain's Vision of Madness. Give them a bonus to skill checks and a penalty to attack rolls and saving throws. The penalty is as good as the Reveal Weakness power the Void Specialist gets, but it has the restriction of being a Melee Touch Attack. Good thing the Cleric can wear plate armor. I'd take both Luck (Curse) and Madness.

Witch - Because of Evil Eye. With Cackle this basically allows for no saving throw either. It's not as potent as Vision of Madness or Reveal Weakness past level 6, but it also has no major restrictions either. Besides Evil Eye, the Witch gets the Slumber Hex - a very usable save or lose spell with no limit on castings per day - and of course the Witch gets a good number of Save-or-Lose spells on her spell list as well.

And the 5th:

Sorcerer - I don't know all the bloodlines, but I do know the Arcane Bloodline gives you a +2 to your saving throw DCs and I know a lot of other bloodlines do similar things. I would build the Sorcerer to be the clean up after the Cleric, Witch, and Wizard all lower the saving throw DCs. His list would include numerous save or die options with all the appropriate spell specializations. Technically you could be replacing the Barbarian with this guy, and it might work out a little better especially if you're all winning initiative, but like I said - it's really good to have some kind of Meat Shield.

What are some other ideas for groups that synergize well with each other?

So I started table top role playing with 1st edition.

It's been a long time since I'd looked at the books. Recently I go a hold of them again and besides making me kind of want to play a 1st ed game, a lot of fun differences stick out to me.

Here are just a few:

1. Leadership wasn't a feat or an option, it's just how it was! (A level 14 druid apparently has nine 11th level druids following him around all the time.)

2. Paladins had MANY more restrictions, including things like "Can't keep loot." and "Pay 10% of your gold to your church."

3. A round was a minute long.

4. For many classes, the best part of leveling up was hitpoints in your cup.

5. Perhaps my favorite item of all: The original Unearthed Arcana includes a 7th stat: Comeliness.

What are your top 10 spells?

I'm not asking for the top 10 optimized spells. I'm not asking for the top 10 BEST spells. I'm asking for your favorites. They could be total crap as far as the mechanics are concerned, but if you have a good memory of it, put it on there, I'm interested.

Just one rule: The spells have to come from official pathfinder sources. No 3rd party and no 3.5 edition stuff.

Here's mine:

10. Bard's Escape: I really think this spell is horribly named, because I use it to enter combat - or rather I use it to place my Paladin on the opposite side of the enemy from my Rogue. (And yes, the party members are mine.) This powerful option is my biggest temptation to play a Samsaran when I play a Wizard.

9. Force Punch: This spell is full of awesome. It just oozes wizardly flavor, and it's especially hilarious if you have your familiar deliver the touch attack

8. Gallant Inspiration: What a great way to use up your second level slots at higher levels. Got a buddy who just missed an attack? Nope! Try again! Depending on which buddy you give this you'll be hard pressed to find a better way to deal damage to a single target with a second level slot (Note that I didn't say second level spell, I said slot.) This is especially true if you're a Bard and not a Samsaran Wizard. (Best part is that you don't even need to waste your standard action doing it.)

7. Prediction of Failure: It's a pain to raise your saving throw DCs, so this spell is lovely against creatures that are susceptible to both Sickened and Shaken (And mind-affecting spells). A quick and dirty -4 to their saving throws will have you smiling. Best part is if it affects them, they can't even resist it.

6. Shrink Item: Because I like fitting things into my pockets that I otherwise would not be able to.

5. Fire Sneeze: Probably not as good as Burning Gaze, but a definitely an entertaining way to make your familiar a team player.

4. Aqueous Orb: I love spells that let me move enemies around, and this tremendously funny Katamari ball is probably one of the most entertaining ways of doing it.

3. Mad Monkeys: This is a pretty good all around spell, but the flavor is just plain hilarious. I once used it as a simple distraction and after I lamented that they didn't do much besides distracting the enemy my DM commented that they certainly had enough time to make a poopy mess of the place.

2. Euphoric Tranquility: This is an amazing spell because there's basically nothing you can do about it if you're not immune to mind-affecting spells. But what makes it awesome is that its effect makes the target into a lovable drunk for its duration. Step aside irresistible dance, I've got a new favorite way of degrading my enemy.

1. Speak with Dead: Probably one of my favorite things about the Oracle I played was being able to shoot first and ask questions later. Very useful especially if you have a loose cannon in your party who disagrees with your "Take hostages plan" (Oh wait, that's usually me.)

So I'm starting a new campaign, and I kind of want to do something a little different from what I've done in the past, so I'm looking for inspiration.

What's you favorite monster race to have as villains? (Aka Orcs, Undead, Lizardfolk, etc.)

If you're specifically trying to address the reason I'm making this thread, then the Spoiler below contains some info about two campaigns I've run fairly recently.

I really like this alternate race feature, it has a lot of possibilities. If you max out your casting stat, you get 6 spells from other spell lists to choose from.

Specifically for the Wizard, what are some good spells to grab from other Arcane Caster's spell lists?

Here's what I have so far:
- Cure spells (Witch or Bard)
- Early Access to Euphoric Tranquility, Irresistible Dance, Dominate Person, Greater Dispel Magic, or Hold Person (Bard)
- Early Access to Haste and Maze (Summoner)
- Good Hope, Sound Burst, Arcane Concordance, and Freedom of Movement (Bard)
- Vomit Swarm, Speak with Dead, Heal, and Raise Dead (Witch)

Now the Cure Spells aren't exactly an optimal pick when you only get six spells, but I wanted to mention them anyway because I expect someone else to if I don't.

If you don't know what Alternate Race feature I'm talking about, here it is in this spoiler:

PDF Version

Google Docs Version

The PDF version is for general viewing. It has bookmarks for easy navigation and it will load faster than the Google Docs version. Please download the PDF and use Adobe PDF Reader or a similar program to enjoy all of the features of the guide.

Google Docs version will take a long time to load, so beware. Both versions will be open for comments but the Google Docs version might be the easiest to comment on since you can select the specific text.

Included in this version:
- Minor edits from the previous guide
- Completely rewritten race section for the new Advanced Race Guide
- Spell Evaluations for race specific spells (Use CTRL-F "ARG:" to find quickly)
- New Archetypes added
- 3 Build Examples included at end of guide
- PDF included in the original post of the discussion thread for easy location.

Personally my favorite thing about roleplaying is the social experience - getting together with your friends and imagining fun and interesting situations together.

That said, I could easily be playing something else. I play Pathfinder because it's familiar, and most people in my group know the rules because it's based on one of the oldest and most popular RPGs.

What keeps you coming back to Pathfinder instead of one of the MANY table top RPG experiences available?

Your Megamagic Gems are really Metamagic Gems.

Which is a pity, really.

It really is a Pity.

Who's idea was it to put the G next to the T on the keyboard anyway?

PDF Version

Have fun with that. I'll be adding updates to this version from now on. I've linked the PDF version to the top of the Google Docs version since I can't edit the original post of this thread.

I came into this topic thinking it would be about the lack of magical undergarments in any of the books.

I was disappointed.

The Guide

I went over the core aspects of the Wizard and compiled everything into the same guide here. I made it a point NOT to look at Treantmonk's Guide as I did this so that you could have my undefiled opinion to set against his.

Things I have not done but will do when I get around to it:

1. Edit the guide. I have read my guide a couple of times on mediums that would not let me edit it, and I am aware that there are some very bad grammatical errors existing throughout. Feel free to point them out to me, as it will make it easier for me to find them.

2. Builds. I know people like this, and I may a post a few later. For now there is an open document for people to post their own builds if they so desire. Please be respectful of other people's postings and edits. I will close the document to open editing if it is abused.

And of course, I will have missed things or misinterpreted things, and I always appreciate feedback that will help improve the guide for everyone.

Hey Kaptain, I'm liking your guide quite a bit. A couple of comments though:

-If you are going to list alternative summons, it be nice if you gave some more basic information on what they are. IE they are religion specific summons that only work for priests of the appropriate deity. Whether your GM rules that only divine casters can be "priests" or any follower can be considered one is something only he knows. Also, if you could list which deity is required with each alternate summon, this list would go from being something nice to something I would print out and bring with me.

-Lantern Archons are pretty awesome in the right situation, especially when you can multiple out at once. Stacking aura of menaces together and spamming attacks that ignore pretty much all defenses, while being able to fly and provide another mediocre buff at will is pretty damn nice. They are especially useful if you can summon before a fight starts.

-You should at least note the Lemures ability to see in supernatural darkness. That's a nice option to have at 3rd or 4th level- especially in PFS which seems to have a lo of deeper darkness effects going on.

More to come later probably.

Yeah, my lack of explanation of the alternate summons was something I was going to do before I posted, but for some reason forgot.

Gave lantern archon a half-green to make it stand out and mentioned the multiple summoning benefit. I think you've got a point there.

Made a mention on the Lemure.

Thanks for the feedback!

Link Here

Rating the summon monster spells was a roller coaster ride. Through the mid-levels the new monsters were surprising and effective, peaking out at level 7 with the amazing Tyrannosaurus, and then nose-diving through SMVIII and SMIX.

While I still agree with Treantmonk on his points about why summoning works, SMVIII and SMIX seem to be best spent summoning multiple creatures from SMVII's list.

Maybe I'm being a little harsh to SMIX, but comparing it to the Bestiary Statistics provided by Shoelessinsight, the monsters just don't seem that great, especially when some SMVII options sport similar statistics with the ability to smite evil.

But that's just me venting. Here's an introduction!

My latest sleep depriver was a Summon Monster guide for my Complete Wizard guide. It was a good experience for me in putting things into perspective, but I present it to you early because it turns out :GASP: Wizards aren't the only class that can cast this spell. So presenting it as a separate guide could be useful to a lot of people.

As far as work on the complete guide goes, all I have left is the spells and then it's just adjusting the guide according to comments I receive from you guys.

Also, feel free to make arguments for anything you disagree with in this guide, I need to hear them, because I would like to be wrong in some of my assessments.

This is part of a larger guide that I will post when it is finished. I still need to finish the Summon Monster analyses and the Core Spells.

Link Here

It is the preliminary equipment section containing what I've come up with so far in my mulling through the items available.

I present it to you for further recommendations.

The guide itself has its comments section open, so if you are a forum lurker, you can comment there as well instead of needing a Paizo account.

So I am working on a more complete wizard guide right now, and I would like some recommendations on any and all gear that a wizard would want aside from the usual pearls of power, INT gear, and so forth.

I have my own ideas, but I want to hear from you guys because I am bound to miss something.

I will be including a section on pimping out your familiar, and best use for your item Bond.

Oh yeah, cause Hitler was a real tank... :P

It sure wasn't diplomacy that stopped him.

Pfft... You can't be broken without being a spell caster. TOTALLY common knowledge around here.

I'm specifically looking for ways to add Charisma to your to-hit and even your damage besides using Smite Evil.

But I'm interested in other ways to make Charisma more than just a social stat that gives you little else.

What options are there and what classes are they available to?

What are some ways that you can get these items if you are not the classes listed (Besides multiclassing of course)?

Here's what I know about so far:

Noble Scion: (Any class) Adds your Charisma to your Initiative.

Smite Evil: (Paladin, Half-Celestial, Chevalier Prestige Class) Adds your Charisma to your To-Hit against targeted creature. Adds Charisma to AC as a deflection bonus against target.

Divine Grace: (Paladin) Adds Charisma to all of your saving throws.

Sidestep Secret: (Lore Revelation Oracle) Adds Charisma to your AC and Reflex.

Lorekeeper: (Lore Revelation Oracle) Add your Charisma to all Knowledge Checks.

"You look down at your right hand, and though you've never noticed it before, you have 6 fingers."

Wizards have a few big advantages with blasting against Sorcerers. The most notable of which being that they apply metamagic without increasing casting time, and this includes preferred spells.

Anyway, admixture is way better than fire. Both replace a metamagic (elemental spell or selective spell) but admixture allows you to memorize a variety of blast spells with little worry of energy resistance while selective spell can be achieved by selective aiming in many cases.

However teleport school is good when you are dropping blast spells that can be repositioned with your move action - it basically let's you move on your turn if you want anyway.

I would also consider divination: foresight. The reroll power will help you with touch attacks (rays) and spell penetration. The initiative bonus is super awesome. You can also sacrifice your specialization slot for your preferred spell so it doesnt really matter that the divination school is slightly weaker on some levels.

I'd say if your only goal is to do damage though, admixture is probably the best pick. If you go Elf (you should for spell penetration anyway) you could increase your number of admixture uses for the day.

Fire resistance is extremely common btw.

I'm sure there's an order of Monks somewhere that speak Treant.

Aether Bunny
Level 5 Conjuration

Summons a fluffy bunny from the shadow realm. On a successful attack the aether bunny can deposit an egg-like tumor in the target's body which functions as 2 negative levels.

The aether egg can be extracted with a knife, but it's difficult to find, requiring a DC 20 perception check to locate. If found, the aether egg is actually edible, and will restore 1d6 hp to the consumer.

the majestic moose wrote:

The thing about Fast Study is that it frees you from ever having to prepare noncombat spells before you're sure you'll need them. (And forget about making scrolls of circumstantial spells. Use your time and money crafting wondrous items instead...everything in your spellbook is one minute away.)

I think pausing for 15 minutes in the middle of the day to prepare spells would start to bug people if it happened five or ten times a day, whereas 1 minute is no big deal. Since taking Fast Study I tend to leave around half my spell slots open in the morning. If you don't do much utility casting, or your days are pretty predictable, your mileage may vary.

(I could see people arguing that leaving a bunch of slots open is a good idea anyway, and it may be, but in practice I didn't use to do it before being disinhibited by Fast Study.)

^This! It might depend on your playgroup, but I know mine would get very tired of sitting around for 15 minutes while I prepare a utility spell. Taking the feat justifies what many might consider an abuse of the spell preparation system. Just shell out some gold to learn a ton of spells, and you become the most versatile character in the game.

IMO, the feat should be considered between orange and blue, depending on your playgroup.

I've made it green, which I think fits.

I'm tired of waiting for Treantmonk to complete his guide, so I went ahead and took on the challenge.

This is an expansion of Treantmonk's Guide including the new material from the APG, UM, and UC. I am not doing any adventure path or blog stuff at this time. If I ever do that, it'll be in a separate additional guide.

As I mention in the guide, I am NOT a replacement for Treantmonk, nor do I claim to be an expert on all things Pathfinder. I respect and appreciate any comments and suggestions you have on how to improve this guide.

A Link to the Guide

At the time of this posting, this is a work in progress. If I haven't evaluated the last level 9 spell, then be patient and wait to let me know if I've missed something. I've got like 200 more spells to go.

Also, I'm not at the point of adding pictures to the guide yet, though there are some leftovers from Treantmonk's Guide. That'll come eventually.

I'm bored and I didn't find anyone who's done this already, so I'm going to do it and then you guys get to tell me how I'm wrong. It'll be a learning experience for us all.

A lot of people call the Skirmisher the "Warrior of the Holy Light" of the Ranger class. I'm not sure where that comes from other than they're both alternatives to casting. I'm sure a lot of people are attracted to this Archetype because none of its abilities rely on your Wisdom Modifier for saving throws, not to mention you don't suffer a -3 caster level penalty for any of these. They're all straight up bonuses and some of them pretty good. It sort of takes a little of the edge off of the Ranger's stat allotment. You could easily take a lower than normal Wisdom by going with this Archetype. This also means that you'll have fewer daily tricks, however. With that in mind I'm going to be rating some of these based on whether they're even worth using the likely 3-4 Hunter's Tricks the Ranger has in a day.

I don't think you can do colors on this forum so I'm just going to rate these out of 4 stars.

Aiding Attack : (**) This is a solid bonus that can give the same attack bonus flank gives to an ally without having to flank the target. I'm not sure if this is worth a use of your precious daily allotment though. If you have a rogue buddy you like to flank with, or a TWF friend of another class, make this 4 stars and take it. You could exponentially increase your party damage in that circumstance.

Bolster Companion : (**)This would be fantastic if it weren't just your Animal companion. That said, it's still super solid. Your Animal Companion isn't likely to have a ton of HP at any given time, and any hit to your companion is an action that could have been spent hitting someone more important. This gives you the opportunity to use your flanking buddy as a tank, if your GM ever attacks the animal that is.

Catfall : (*) This is okay. It's only because it's so circumstantial that I give it such a low rating. If you see yourself jumping off a lot of 20' cliffs, then by all means pick this up.

Chameleon Step : (***) I like this one a lot. Moving twice your speed as a move action is something that when you need it, you NEED it. This will help you get into position a lot better, and it makes a great companion to Spring Attack or Shot on the Run.

Cunning Pantomime : (*) Eh... this really depends on your GM. Most of my GMs don't make language a big deal, but mechanically I could see some GMs totally being a stickler for it. There are times when it's important to be able to communicate with another party. That said you're probably not the party face, and this doesn't help you in that role at all. Leave this to another party member.

Defensive Bow Stance : (*) For a round, don't provoke attacks of opportunity while shooting. I can't think of too many situations where this going to make a huge difference. Most times you can just 5-foot step. For situations like when the enemy has Step-up, you should probably take one of the many feats that aids in this situation. There's another trick below called Surprising Shift that completely outclasses this trick too. In many cases just taking the attack of opportunity is still not going to kill you either.

Deft Stand : (*) Ranger's Ki Stand. My GM doesn't usually bother knocking people prone (Or at least, it's very rare when he does), so I'd never take this, but it's not completely useless.

Distracting Attack : (**) This is kind of like Aiding Attack, but doesn't have a controllable circumstance that could make it better. Against enemies that have a lot of attacks though it'd be worth using.

Hateful Attack : (**) Lunge without the penalties. The only reason this isn't 3 stars is because the target has to be a Favored enemy to trigger it.

Heel : (*) Get your animal companion out of a bad situation. I'd almost rather take Bolster Companion and leave him in the bad situation and walk in for a flank.

Hobbling Attack : (****) While it only lasts a fraction of the time, this is like Crippling Critical without a saving throw and without the need to crit. The best part? You use it AFTER you hit - no wasting daily uses for it. Halving an enemy's speed isn't the BEST form of control, but it could save your Wizard's bacon if he did something to tick off your target.

Quick Climb : (*) This ability's usefulness is more circumstantial than the climb skill itself.

Quick Healing : (*) I've read some guides that give abilities like this 4 stars all over the place, as if they're always finding themselves in near-death situations. I don't think the need to heal super fast comes up (and it SHOULDN'T come up) so often to make this a primary pick. However, I'm willing to bet you'll be glad you have this ability if the circumstance ever does come up.

Quick Swim : (*) Um... maybe if you're playing in an aquatic campaign, then I'm sure this is worth 3 stars. As it stands this is worse than quick climb for being circumstantial.

Ranger’s Counsel : (*) This is Aid Another at a range. Do you ever need to use Aid Another at a range? I don't really see when this would be helpful. I suppose this would stack with Aid Another, and it affects all nearby allies. Besides Perception though I'm not sure how the AOE effect would really help, and I can't think of too many situations where an extra +2 for a single round would make a huge difference.

Rattling Strike : (***) Not as good as Hobbling Strike since it must be declared before the attack, but it still doesn't allow a saving throw, and I happen to like Shaken as a condition. (I also normally play casters who LOVE the penalty to saving throws.) Since you probably dumped Charisma you can pretend you're intimidating people with this ability.

Second Chance Strike : (*) Eh... So if you miss an attack you can try again with a -5 penalty? I'm not even sure if this is worth the immediate action much less the daily use of trick. If you're playing a Ranger who attacks with standard actions I could see this not totally sucking, especially if you're using Vital Strike. In a lot of cases though you're probably not going to get much success from this.

Sic 'Em : (*) Trade a swift action (and a daily trick) for an extra attack from your Animal Companion. This would be awesome if the Ranger's Animal Companion actually did any substantial damage. But you might get super lucky and pull off a trip attack with your wolf, so not a total waste. Give this a star or two if you're really into optimizing your animal companion, and if you're in the habit of getting buffs and enhancements for him. Since you gave up casting for this archetype though, someone else needs to cast Magic Fang for you. You COULD give your Animal Companion the Teamwork Feat Precise Strike and take it yourself. You COULD also optimize for Critical Strike and take Outflank with your Flanking Buddy and not spend Hunter's Tricks for the same effect too.

Skill Sage : (**) The only reason I'm not rating this a little higher is because you have to decide before you use the skill. I think someone said that a "take the higher roll" reroll is like a +3.5 to your skill. Unless you're doing something that HAS to succeed, like diffusing a bomb, I doubt you'll even remember to use this very often.

Stag’s Leap : (*) Make a running jump without the run. I can't see myself using this ever.

Surprise Shift : (****) A 5-foot step as a swift action, which you can combine with a 5-foot step. Make that step up guy eat it. Or get a full round of attacks against that guy who was just out of reach. Combine with the Lunge feat for even more awesome results.

Tangling Attack : (***) The wording suggests that you have to declare this before the attack, so it's still not as versatile as Hobbling Attack, but the effect is certainly more potent. I don't like how it only lasts a round though.

Trick Shot : (*) As a standard action, and a use of a daily trick, you can do what the Improved Precise Strike feat gives you. If you took Archery as your combat style, you can get Improved Precise Strike a level after you have access to this. Not a good trick.

Uncanny Senses : (**) Gain a +10 to perception as an immediate action for only 1 round. This is one of those odd abilities that begs the question, "if you know it's there, then why do you need to use this to help you know it's there?". However the GM always asks the players to roll their perception, and there's nothing stopping the Ranger from using this trick in that circumstance - hence the 2 stars. If your GM is a jerk and makes you roll your perception for nothing all the time, then give this 1 star. This would be 3 or 4 stars except even if the GM isn't a jerk, not every perception roll is for an ambush.

Upending Strike : (***) What I like about this is that it's a Trip Attack that deals damage. I'm also pretty sure that this wouldn't provoke attacks of opportunity since it's trying to be like your animal companion's trip, so you don't need to get improved trip. What I don't like about this is that without improved trip and any associated feats you can get a hold of, your odds of tripping the opponent are pretty slim in most cases and this will end up being a wasted trick a lot of the time.

Vengeance Strike : (**) I read this as "Enemy provokes attacks of opportunity if they hit one of your allies, except it doesn't use up your attack of opportunity." It instead uses up a trick. This is probably a circumstantial thing, but you can control the circumstance pretty easily, so I really think it's a great pick. I'd give it more stars if they didn't actually have to brain your friend for it to be usable.

For making that reach opportunist is the Polearm master fighter the best way to go? (especially if you're using trip?)

What weapon is best?

Besides combat expertise and improved trip what other feats are synergetic?

What's your favorite cleric spell for every spell level?

Here's mine:

1 - Murderous Command - While not always effective, it is always hilarious when it does work.

2 - Sound Burst - nothing like a level 2 spell that can AOE stun.

3 - Chain of Perdition - Just the thought of this thing makes me laugh.

4 - Blessing of Fervor - who needs haste when you have super haste that actually helps casters?

5 - Wall of Stone - what can I say, nothing like arcane utility as a divine caster.

6 - Cold Ice Strike - mostly it's the part where the casting is a swift action, so you can blow all your 6th level slots super fast.

7 - Waves of Ecstasy - Awesome when it works, still kind of awesome when it fails.

8 - Stormbolts - It's like withering in the sense that you don't have to shape it or anything to exclude your allies, AND it stuns. Amazing spell.

9 - Miracle - it's everything in one spell, it doesn't get better than this.

Though I'd like to put Mass Heal here as an honorable mention - being the party 1-UP is priceless when the time calls for it.

A while back there was a Sorcerer vs. Wizard thread that invited some interesting discussion.

I think it's time we talk about the Oracle vs. Cleric.

In my personal opinion, optimization-wise anyway, the Cleric is more like a Hybrid caster Melee character, while the Oracle has more tools to be a straight up caster.

While the Cleric does get his spells one level earlier, the Oracle's mystery more than makes up for that.

Currently I'm playing a Dark Tapestry Oracle who doesn't wear armor, and doesn't carry a weapon. He gets 8 gifts of madness a day, and has 14 spells a day total to cast with a decent variety of options. It's kind of nice to not have to depend on items practically at all.

KaptainKrunch wrote:

LilithsThrall wrote:

KaptainKrunch wrote:

My thoughts exactly.

Bard > Sorcerer, because they can turn Charisma into something useful with Versatile Performance (Sense motive with CHA baby!) AND they can tote around the 100 scrolls that Treantmonk was talking about.

Bards can't do binding. Bards are a good class, but not > Sorcerer.

With scrolls you can do ANYTHING!

No you can't, and buying scrolls does not make you equal. You will never have enough scrolls to be a good pseudo-sorcerer. On top of that pulling them out eats into your action economy. The bard is not a sorcerer nor can he scroll himself into being one anymore than he can scroll himself into being a wizard.

*takes off top-hat and bows*

I apologize if my contextual sarcasm was bleeding through my text onto your keyboard.

I could have one of my cohorts clean that up for you, but I just found out that when they do things that cost money, it turns out it costs money. That and I hear that my good Game Master might be banning them soon...

What a shame.

KaptainKrunch wrote:

With scrolls you can do ANYTHING!

Do you think it's cost effective (from a WBL pov) for a character to keep a pile of high level scrolls on hand to cast every couple of days?

At the very top levels, he could have a Wizard cohort help him out with this.

He could! It's awesome that it doesn't cost money for the Wizard Cohort to do it either!

Treantmonk wrote:

Oh god....must...feed...trollllll......

Or you could take a commoner with a high Cha and have him take the leadership feat and have him take a sorcerer...

Speaking of which, when is Treantmonk's Guide to Commoners coming out?

That WAS the guide.

Here is my list of spells that I am considering taking as I level up with my Human Oracle.

I've removed all the spells that I gain automatically (Cure spells) and the ones I gain from Haunted and my Dark Tapestry Mystery. I did this to remove the clutter from the list so that hopefully this thread might be useful for anyone who is looking for suggestions for what spells they should pick with their Oracle, regardless of what mystery they pick.

Each spell level contains extra spells gained through the Human's favored class bonus. Each spell level below 9 would have two fewer spells for any other race.

Level 1
Bless
Obscuring Mists
Burning Disarm
Cause Fear
Remove Sickness
Sun Metal

Level 2
Bull's Strength
Hold Person
Silence
Sound Burst
Remove Paralyses
Staggering Fall
Darkness

Level 3
Summon Monster III
Chain of Perdition
Remove Curse
Prayer
Dispel Magic
Remove Disease

Level 4
Freedom of Movement
Blessing of Fervor Dismissal
Dimensional Anchor
Restoration
Neutralize Poison

Level 5
Summon Monster V
Wall of Stone
Spell Resistance
Break Enchantment
Raise Dead
Fickle Winds

Level 6
Heal
Blade Barrier
Dispel Magic: Greater Banishment
Heroes Feast

Level 7
Waves of Esctacy
Destruction
Resurrection
Restoration, Greater
Regeneration

Level 8
Divine Vessel
Earthquake
Spell Immunity, Greater
Stormbolts
Summon Monster VIII
Create Demiplane

Level 9
Miracle
Heal, Mass
True Resurrection

What do you think of my picks? What would you pick instead?

I'm sure I've missed something amazing looking through the list of spells available. What are your favorites? What are your suggestions?

Post good spells to cast together!

Please post what class or classes that are required for the spell combo.

I'm looking for some more ideas.

Here's an example of what I'm thinking of when I say "Combo"

Wizard/Sorcerer
Create Pit + Web/Stone Wall + Cloudkill - We all know about the Web + Cloudkill combo, but I was thinking about how much fun it would be to cap a pit off with a Web spell so that even if they can make the 25 DC climb check to get out, they'll have to get past the web to actually escape.

As far as I can tell there isn't anything that says you can't put a web over the top of the pit, but just in case, I threw Stone Wall in there as another option - you can pop a dome over the pit.

Drop a cloudkill inside the pit and then walk away.