Oncehawk's page

It just is. The mix of adventuring goals and community concerns has lead to several bizzare events during our campaign.

The kidnapped boy Tig Tiggerson was not rescued for six months due to failed tracking roles. When returned, he displayed sociopath tendancies and a disturbing interest in the practice of torture. With a mix of guilt and opportunitism, the council trained and installed Tig as the new Royal Assassin. (Apparently creepy trumps unrest!)

Upon the investigation of a local conspiracy, the marshal discovered one of his deputies had turned traitor. The deputy claimed she'd turned because of the hostile work enviroment among the deputy marshals. Enraged, the marshal put the entire conspiracy out on a brutal road gang, but salved his conscience by paying them top craftsmans wages.

After having to capture so many suspects alive, the marshal took the proactive step of buying a masterwork sap. When challenged to explain the 300 gp expense for the item, he explained that the sap was "a perfectly balanced sap filled with gold dust and wrapped in rich Corinthian leather."

The DMs tendancy to target mounts led to the proposal that flag be changed to "a dead horse, supine before a mound of dead horses, on a field of dead horses motif." This proposal died in council, but funds were set aside to build a royal stable in all cities in the barony.

As more and more attempts at recruiting and diplomacy ended in brutal homicides, the council began to fear they were drifting from their intention to build a "lawful" state. The problem was solved by adding an amendment to the charter stating that "The refusal to answer questions or communicate with members of the council is punishable by death." All nice and legal!

Looking through the hundred or so feats in UC, I didn't spot any notifications or lists for feats that could be taken as ranger style feats. Are they just not there, or did I miss them?

Given that this is a contentious topic, I should be upfront about my reasons for posting the thread:

I think crossbows look badass, and dwarves with crossbows look even cooler. There's a good reason Mr. Reynolds threw that spanner into the iconic works, and a generation of miniature modelers have not hesitated to back his play.

So here's my solution. Hang on tight, this gets complicated.

Make the repeating crossbow a martial weapon.

... okay, that seemed longer in my head. Take a long lunch.

Seriously, I think this squares the circle. The repeating crossbow was made an exotic weapon in order (I assume) to keep them less desirable than the longbow and thus more rare (there's only so much steampunk a fantasy setting can take). But there are already two very good reasons to choose a longbow over a repeater that don't screw up character generation like that feat does:

1) Weight. A repeating crossbow weighs 4 lbs. more than an equivalent crossbow, which is impressive, considering longbows weigh less than 4 lbs. altogether. Characters attempting to sidestep STR penalties will learn the error of their ways without paying a feat penalty.

2) Cost. Good gracious. A heavy repeating crossbow is four times the cost of a composite longbow. Which means, if you think about it, that you could buy a +3 STR bow for the same money and wipe out the damage difference with a stroke.

And now, three reasons I want repeaters as martial weapons:

1) The Rapid Reload feat is stupid. Seriously, it's just ridiculous. "Historically, the crossbow was a slow weapon, but take this feat and you can fire it five times a round!" So it's a feat that applies only to two weapons on the entire list and exists only to keep PCs interested in those weapons after level 10? Give me some of that!

2) A repeating crossbow is not an exotic weapon. "Exotic" in Pathfinderspeak means "More likely to kill the wielder than the enemy". There's no way a repeater takes the same level of training a double weapon or spiked chain requires. Hard to maintain? That I buy, but that still should be within the powers of a well trained (martially trained, hint, hint) soldier.

3) These things should exist. They should be seen holstered on the saddles of rich nobles, waved significantly by the Captain of the city guard, and gripped in the shaking hands of grizzled tunnelfighters inching their way towards ambush. Or, yes, in the hands of PCs. As it is, by the time a crossbow enthusiast finally manages to save the money for a repeater they find they can't bear to pay the feat cost as well. (Yes, I'm probably projecting there.)

That's my arguement. I take full responsibility for any flamewars that break out, but I swear I did it only for the dream.

A dream of a dwarf running, laughing, over a shining green field...

...firing constantly at the panicked goblins before him...

...empting that repeater. Bringing that Dakka.

*SOB*

I like the new fighter, but one of it's new abilities does bother me: the feat swapping ability.

At 4th level and every 4 after, the fighter can swap out one of his bonus feats for a new bonus feat, if it is not a prerequisite for another feat, etc.

Which is good! Much needed flexibility!

Also bad! Because you can only swap out one feat, and you have to have chosen it as a bonus feat.

The best swap is obviously the one at 4th level, which gives one last chance to change your mind about your main weapon before Weapon Training locks you down. (Oh, you chose an exotic weapon? Well, you're hosed then, ain't ya?) At the higher levels, this ability starts to require a level of planning equal to a sorceror's spells known or Versatile Performance.

I think this ability needs a power-up to make thing easier on us poor muddle-headed fighter players. Possible changes in order of increasing severity:

* Fighter may switch out any one combat feat.
Small change, but it keeps the player from having to track which feats are the bonus feats.

* Fighter may instead change the (parenthesis) in a weapon feat chain over to another weapon.
So your fighter player has finally wised up to the limitations of the whip? This change can help. Also great for low-magic campaigns, where the PCs may not get their choice of magic weapon.

*Fighter may swap out a feat chain.
This is probably overdoing it, though it would be great for backpedaling out of an Improved-Greater manuver chain that isn't working out.

Which do you like, or is there a better way? And hey, those who like it as is, how do you take advantage of it?

As a player, I am not especially taken with the new base classes in their current form - they'll need a lot more tweaking before they'll fit in with the Big 11.

But as written, these are KICKASS evil NPC classes! The cavalier is the perfect foil for your party's snotty paladin, and a great way to design Hellknights for Pathfinder campaigns.

The inquisitor would make a great recurring baddie. Imagine him as the evil cult fanatic leading an unsavory posse, relentlessly chasing the PCs across the countryside! Those tactical feats would make him great at leveraging minions.

Everytime I try to picture an alchemist PC, I get a horrible vision of a schumuck covered in sloshing glass. But stick him and the PCs in a flaming lab, and you've got a boss fight for the ages!

The summoner's the best of the lot - it's one of the few classes I've seen that could pull off a solo spellcaster encounter with the PCs under the PFRPG's tougher spellcasting rules.

The oracle? Spice up your temple fight! Witch? The perfect evil mastermind!

Anyway, I'm just writing to ask that the designers include lots of options for evil characters in the finished product. I'm sure that once the shakedown is done, these classes will even better options for the DM!

Each new version of D&D comes with its own quirks of gameplay. What changes do you see coming with the PFRPG? Post your guesses, and we'll see how right you are!

Mine:

Barbarians emerge as the new Kings of the Flank! The class's superior hit die, speed, and armor class makes it perfect for attempting the new higher-risk tumble check, especially as newly cautious rogues begin to adopt a slower "novocaine" approach that takes advantage of their mastery of the 5' step.

What do you think, sirs?

I think everybody had one ridiculously hopeless thing they hoped would be fixed in the PFRPG. Mine? Small fighters. I LOVE playing halflings, but ever since The Shrinking of The Weapons in 3.5, I could only play casters and thieves; I couldn't propose playing a halfing barbarian to my group for fear that they'd knock me prone and begin threatening opportunity attacks.

When I heard about PFRPG, my heart leapt -- but I knew it was hopeless. But somewhere in Paizo HQ, someone felt my pain. And they responded -- by making halflings suck at range too.

Oh, losing the thrown/sling attack bonus wasn't so bad, I guess - I mean, all the races had to make sacrifices, right? (Pity those poor elves weeping over their spell penetration bonuses...) Besides, halflings got their own racial martial weapon, the halfling sling staff! True, the only way halfings can use it is by taking a level IN A MELEE CLASS, but never mind!

No, what's bugging me is the new Rapid Reload feat. It bugs me because it has been transformed, for no apparent reason, into the Rapid Crossbow Reload feat. In 3.5 the feat allowed slings to be reloaded at speed, but in the PFRPG anyone using the spanking new sling staff has no way to up their firing rate, forcing them to toss it aside at the mid-levels. Seriously, why create a racial weapon only to nerf it three chapters on?

Oh, don't worry, I WILL houserule this, but the question stands: Why would someone mess with this at all? Did kenders screw up your campaign world? Ewoks blow up your generators? What gives??