Mystic Madness's page

Why get full rebuilds? I have a staff of the master on almost everyone of my casters, and I'm a-ok with the nerf, and won't be retraining my Metamagic feats. It's a 30 staff. You're most likely 8 or 9 before being able to afford it, so the fact that the feats you took previous to purchase can be retrained is silly.

Nerfs happen, rocks fall, blah blah.

What is offered is hardly a full rebuild. Some casters, such as my only Seeker level character (who has been waiting more than a year to do eyes of the ten and only bought the staff after his last 11th level adventure), have metamagic feats solely to use them through the staff. In my instance, I actually retained one of my feats to get an extra metamagic feat to use with the staff. If anything, I think I should get these retraining costs back in addition to a free retraining.

I have long felt that that errata changes should be reserved for game-breaking problems, not minor tweaks. Apparently, based upon most of these changes, Paizo disagrees with me. Notably, I personally have about five or six characters affected by these changes (jingasa and gloves of reconnaissance), and for no really good reason I am going to have to slog through each of the character sheets to make these nonsense changes. I truly have better things to do with my time.

Some of these changes have also broken some of my builds. For example, I have an arcane bloodlined bloodrager with the steelblooded archetype and fate's favored feat that will lose +2 AC in a build that was on the margin of it being worth it to optimize AC. If these changes had been known to me when I created the character, I would have either gone the destined bloodline (which gives a luck bonus to AC) or not tried to optimize AC at all by skipping steelblooded for much more mobility and other useful traditional Barbarian abilities. Yet is there any talk of allowing switches in bloodlines or changes of archetypes? No.

The simple fact of the matter is that Paizo needs to either grandfather this stuff in or allow broad rebuilding of affected characters. As I have brought up in prior threads, it is up to the player to know when a character has been broken (i.e., the goals of creating the character cannot be attained) by changes. While I can understand that Paizo has some legitimate concerns about continuity of the game, it is the ceaseless errata that is destroying the continuity of the game, not the prospect of rebuilds.

What my post was about is the ugly side of political correctness, where it is apparently alright to specifically criticize a racial and gender group, as long as it is the correct group. While I recognize that gaming is a largely Caucasian-dominated hobby, does that mean that those of other races who choose to participate are never guilty of boorish behavior? I doubt it. Moreover, I have certainly seen boorish behavior by females from time to time.

If you have a problem with specific types of behavior, then specify that behavior and be done with it.

Frankly, I am disappointed that, in asking such a simple question about convention policies, the OP decided to refer to an article with such an "inclusive" title as "Tabletop Gaming has a White Male Terrorism Problem." I even more disappointed that SKR, a former employee of Paizo if I am not mistaken, apparently affiliated himself with such an offensively-titled article. If someone behaves in a boorish fashion during a tabletop game or during a convention, what does it matter what their gender or skin color is?

As a side note, if just about any other group were substituted for "white males" in that article, the hue and cry would have been deafening. If you want to preach tolerance, then practice what you preach.

when i look at the creatures that can be summoned they would be barely able to hit a target in my campaign(rise of the rune lords)

What levels are we talking about here? Monster summoning peaks in power level vs. enemy power IMO at Summon Monster 6, which is ordinarily obtained at 11th or 12th level. What monsters are routinely evading the +20 to hit (+22 when charging) of an augmented dire tiger? I should add that it has five attacks when charging and a +14 to damage on each attack for smiting. on top of that, it has a ridiculous grapple. Keep in mind that is just one option in this Swiss army knife of spells.

On the other hand, Monster Summoning 1-3 are quite weak (with the possible exception of a trampling Aurochs and the definite exception of the powerful small earth elemental).

Summon monster 4 is middling with the Hound Archon being a decent choice and many summons getting at least some DR. Summon Monster 5 has great utility (Bralani for healing, Babau for dispelling) as well as some muscle (Ankylosaurus and Large Elementals).

Also, keep in Mind that Augment Summoning and Acadamae Graduate make a big difference. If you are inclined to summon multiples (which I usually am not), Superior Summoning is also powerful. Expanded monster summoning and the various ACG rings that allow summoning of new monsters also add to the power in the "sweet spot" levels (but do little for 1-3).

Mystic Madness, the author of the game is, in fact, a racist. There is a huge amount of objective evidence of this, including quotes from him personally both before and after his stint in jail. He's also an arsonist and a convicted murderer.

Saying that there's no intended racist message in the game when you're only allowed to play Nordic people and the main enemies are dark skinned, and it's written by a self acknowledged white supremacist is really strange, and frankly rather absurd. And comes off looking like you're highly racist and just trying to justify it or claim that you aren't.

Now, are you actively racist? I have no idea. It seems unlikely, actually. But please take a moment to think about who you're defending here and what that makes you come across as.

I mean, really, there are situations where it can be argued that political correctness or 'social justice warriors' or whatever go too far. I'm not at all sure I'd draw the line at the same place as you, but I freely admit and agree that it's happened. Y'know what doesn't fall into that category even a little by any reasonable person's definition? Actively racist fiction by actual racists.

And that's exactly what you're defending here.

Maybe the author has turned over a new leaf, I don't know. Did you look at the aforementioned video? It appears to be featured on the author's own website. You accuse me of defending him, but I know nothing about him. However, it seems to me that if the intended audience of the game is the die-hard racist, the author would never permit a statement that it does not matter if your character is black, white or some other race to appear on his website, as such a statement would deeply offend racist followers of the game. At the very least, the narrator of the video, who obviously plays the game, does not appear to be a racist, thus contradicting the theory that only a racist would play the game.

As far as suggesting that I am a racist, that is a common tactic to supress disagreement. Presumably, if I were such a racist, I would have likely heard of this game or its author. Prior to this thread, I had not. I will say that, as an American, I support free speech, even if the content is repulsive and not in accordance with my own views.

I hadn't heard of Myfarog before this.

My point exactly.

Mystic Madness wrote:

That being said, such a build is really beyond the scope of what I am trying to do here, which Is create a character that can buff sort of like a bard, serve well as a divine caster, and personally perform reasonably well in melee when required. The summoning is designed to help kind of like a buff, maybe to create a flanker for the fighter, not necessarily as a primary combatant.

If this is your stated aim then an Evangelist Cleric with the Heroism domain, Armor Expert trait to permit a Mithral Breastplate and built as a Reach Cleric using a Longspear is pretty much the best fit. It's already been suggested, and with good reason. You buff amazingly, summon well and fight/cast/heal competently. There are more powerful individual builds but in terms of team support few can touch this.

I agree that this is an awesome pure support build, worthy of its own thread. However, my first attempt at a PFS battle cleric using a reach weapon resulted in the realization that enemies need only a 5ft step to crush you. What you describe is not really a battle cleric that can hold his own in melee, particularly without heavy armor or shield proficiency or weapon proficiency in the deity's favored weapon.

As far as summons are concerned, I have found that you generally need to use your highest level summoning spell to get an impact. That means you have at max 2 summons at any odd level and need to crowd out more useful spells to summon them. If you are just doing melee in a pinch, this could really work out though. You could even use your touch of good to further buff your summon each round. Not a bad idea but not exactly what I am looking for.

I am looking for some feedback on optimizing a melee/support cleric build. Here is the build:

LG Versatile Human Cleric of Shizuru (+2 Str & Wis)
Traits: Reactionary and Fate's Favored
Domains: Heroism and Archon (Good)

Str: 17 (+1 at 4th)
Dex: 13
Con: 14
Int: 12
Wis: 17 (+1 at 8th)
Cha: 7

1st) Heavy Armor Prof.
3rd) Improved Init.
5th) Power Attack
7th) Sacred Summons
9th) Quicken Spell (for quickened divine favor)
11th) Divine Interference

At 1st through 4th level, this character can buff with bless, heal if needed, and serve in an off-hand tank capacity using a katana.

At 5th level, he will regularly use heroism (likely with a lesser metamagic extend rod) on himself or an ally when appropriate. He will also be able to supplement bless with prayer for longer battles.

At 7th level, he can summon a hound archon as melee assistance using a standard action. Unfortunately, there appears to be no room for augment summoning. He also gains the excellent blessing of fervor buff.

At 8th level, two powerful new abilities come online, which are the focus of the build. He can give a heroism effect to all allies within 30 feet as a swift action. As a standard action, he can activate his aura of menace ability to debuff enemies. With both abilities active, all allies within 30 feet attacking enemies within 30 feet will get an effective +4 to hit (due to the aura of menace debuff to AC).

At 9th level, he will be able to quicken divine favor for +4 to hit and damage (with fate's favored). Also, he should have boots of speed at this time.

At 11th level, divine interference will provide an additional defensive option. Also using a ring of summoning affinity, he will be able to summon a legion archon as a standard action.

I am also considering an alternate build that would allow for augment summoning.

Mystic Madness wrote:

I would agree that it is inappropriate to ask the new coordinator to reconsider every rule ever made. However, these rules are recent, as in days old, and were promulgated with a campaign coordinator with one foot out the door. It is not unreasonable to ask the coordinator who will actually have to live with these brand new rules to reconsider them.

Just a side note that I would take to heart if you wish to have any kind decent social interaction with people in the PFS boards. Don't insinuate that the PFS coordinator or any of the developers or staff are incompetent and negligent in their job and how much they care for the PFS community.

Alot of the people who are vocal on this board have nothing but utmost respect for the job Mike did and how far he took PFS during his tenure. Some of us have shared tables with him, drank beers with him, volunteered our time for him. He was a great coordinator. To insinuate that he was "one foot out the door" is insulting not only to him but to a lot of us who know better.

If it came off as an insult, that was not intended. It was merely a comment that he is not responsible for things that occur after his departure.

Frankly, a few individuals, most particularly FLite, have been trolling pretty hard in this thread. I apologize if my annoyance at him might have bled through the rest of my posts. I mean, FLite is telling me I have already lost when Mr. Compton has specifically stated he is considering grandfathering. The whole point of posting today was seeing if there was an update. Also, I must admit that I was a bit taken aback when I learned they hand out rebuilds as boons but heavily restrict them for characters that are significantly affected by a rule change.

it is odd that the ruling was a complete 180 from James Jacob's take on it. I know "he isn't the rules guy" but the confidence he had in his response and the attitude of 'obviously you get those benefits - otherwise it wouldn't be worth 16,000 gp' just stands in such stark contrast to the FAQ response (and followup response). It just further supports the idea that Paizo is sweeping through everything they can with the nerf stick.

I wonder if Paizo has undergone a massive personnel turnover or something. You are correct that it is 180 degrees from the prior interpretation offered by James Jacobs. Moreover, Paizo used to have more respect for the 3.5 origins of the game. Notably, 3.5 had a +2 option that had your animal form wearing the armor (thus suffering the penalty). The reason to take the +3 Wild option was that this was not an issue.

For the life of me, I can't understand why Paizo is running around messing with really old rules, such as it did with the ARG. If Wild armor were really a problem, you would have thought it would have been evident much sooner.

I am not sure what is going on now.

Forgive me, but am I being told I am doing something wrong with expressing my feelings, concerns, and seeking advice, along with the experiences of others?

I am getting a strong "Shut up! It doesn't exist!" vibe.

You are not being criticized for seeking advice. Rather, the advice you are being given is not to bring up the issue with other PFS players.

In my opinion, confronting another PFS participant at a PFS event is in itself a tactic that should generally be avoided as a matter of courtesy, if possible. This is doubly true when it involves vague accusations of unconscious bias.

I am having difficulty understanding what you are complaining about, perhaps because you have not been particularly specific as to the nature of these behavioral "changes." However, if these nonspecific changes are made in an unconscious effort so as not to offend diverse players, what do you expect to accomplish by even mentioning it? Moreover, why would you even consider offending those that you play with by effectively accusing them of racism or sexism?

Notably, I also find it hard to believe that you have infallible information on the sexual orientations of every local PFS player. In my experience, a player's sexual orientation is not an issue usually discussed during PFS play. Indeed, while white males are indeed prominent in PFS my area, a small number of these players I vaguely suspect might be gay even though they are certainly not flamboyantly so. This is, of course, absolutely none of my business, as it has nothing to do with PFS.

Why on earth should Oracles be able to channel better than clerics?!?!

Life Oracles have a massive number of disadvantages versus a Cleric:

1)They get 1 + their Charisma mod in channels instead of 3 + Charisma with clerics.

2)Oracles do not get fort as a high save. Also, a cleric's casting stat, WIS helps with will saves. My Oracle, which has dumped WIS, actually has a problematic will save.

3) Oracles are distinctly inferior spellcasters. Most of the Oracle's benefits of being a spontaneous caster are shared by clerics, who can spontaneously cast cure spells. Clerics get higher level spells one level earlier and also get domain spells, which are generally superior to and more diverse than Revelation spells. Clerics can also more easily change roles by memorizing different spells. They can also leave spell slots open to memorize a crucial spell (such as remove curse or blindness) when the need arises.

4) Domains tend to be much more powerful than revelations. The Travel, Heroism, and Feather Domains are absurdly powerful, just to name a few.

The Aasimar FCB gave Aasimar Life Oracles the limited benefit of being by a significant margin the best burst healers in the game, with the above significant trade-offs and the taxing need to absolutely maximize CHA to have any endurance with channeling and quick channeling. With that lost, they are lost and have no advantage over Clerics and a number of crippling disadantages.

How about a Blade Adept Magus w/ a longsword? With 25 points, you have enough stat points to make it work, such as the following starting stats (elf):

Str: 16
Dex: 16
Con: 12
Int: 18
Wis: 9
Cha: 7

This will give you a black blade, a nice boon. You can also select the very powerful Magus arcana, Arcane Accuracy, which gives you your Int bonus as an insight bonus (at least +4) to attack rolls. You can use spellstrike to do additional damage. Use mage armor continuously and wear a magical mithral buckler for some additional AC, as well as Mirror Image for a significant miss chance. Use Dimensional Slide for unprecedented mobility.

This is much better than the Blood Magus.

As a person with no personal interest in this ruling, i.e. no impacted PFS characters, I would like to offer my two cents. It is my opinion that Paizo has handled this issue very badly, as I will explain.

First of all, from a perspective of role-playing thematic continuity, the original ruling allowing SLA's to meet "able to cast arcane/divine spell level X" prestige class prerequisites made very little sense, at least to me. The idea that one race could enter a prestige class way earlier than others on the basis of the ability to use a single SLA once per day of the appropriate level flies in the face of the concept that SLA's are designed to be a progression of combined classes targeted for a particular entry point. Put in other words, the fact that a character would be able to bypass a bunch of necessary learning just because of an effortless SLA acquired at first level is simply not congruent with the general concepts of level-based progression.

Having made, for better or for worse, the questionable decision to allow the above-described early entry to prestige classes on the stated (and factually correct) rationale that "prestige classes are usually a sub-optimal character choice (especially for spellcasters)," Paizo then decided more than a year and a half later to countermand it. On the basis of what? As a threshold matter, I think I have played enough PFS to know that these early-entry prestige class characters are relatively rare in PFS play, and for good reason. Those that I have seen (made by competent players, BTW) hardly dominate the table and are, in fact, quite suboptimal from an optimization standpoint, as was correctly noted by Paizo in its earlier FAQ. Where is the "in-play evidence that this ruling is creating characters that are too powerful" mentioned in the earlier FAQ as the only possible reason for reexamination? I would love to see it. No matter how Paizo tries to package it, there is no good explanation for this ruling.

Not allowing retraining is the third error made by Paizo regarding this issue. Paizo needs to remember that each scenario represents at least four hours of precious player time, not including prep and/or travel time. As such, no one is happy when a rule change leaves a broken character that cannot accomplish a reasonable semblance its original goals. While I understand not wanting to allow a broad-based rebuild, the reality is that characters intended for these prestige classes tend to be pretty easy to spot, as they have stats and class combinations that typically would not make sense otherwise. The simple solution is to give Venture Officers the authority to award a rebuild upon a petition by an impacted player demonstrating the intended outcome of the character and the prejudice from this ruling. This is not a perfect solution, I admit, but it should be able to tamp down some of the ill-will that the sudden change has wrought. Moreover, given the limited number of these characters (which typically involve the now-banned Planetouched races) it should not overburden the venture officers.