Parduss's page

Without knowing what you're trying to achieve, it appears to only fit somebodies sense of realism, by making the rules more needlessly complex.

Also to make things like daggers viable on a rogue. Most swashbucklers are using things like rapiers anyway and given their athletic shenanigans it really does not make sense for swashbucklers to be a str dump class anyway.

I think if you (thematically) put backstabber on daggers, you pretty much open up daggers as more usable weapons.

It's explorer's clothing with runes, this post is going to make to compare the levels of both options...

Acrobatics with all characters as main skill.

I assume tumble is the reason for this? is it really that good?

Tradition > local law > personal preferences

I really like this explanation

I think the Tradition/Local Law thing can be swapped around, depending on the character.

And I think we can use that as a basis for the other two alignments

Neutral moves the personal preference in between the two, so a NE thief might value personal preference over Local Law, but might put certain Traditions above his personal preferences, like not welshing on a deal.

Or a NE Merchant might follow the letter of the Law, but not give a toss about Traditions.

Where a Chaotic character would put personal preference above both.

Unicore, your argument feels very similar to the "balance doesn't matter, because it's PvE and the GM can just change the enemies to balance things anyway" that you hear a lot.

Which is basically just an "all attempts to homebrew solutions to wholes in the system are dumb" kind of argument.

I might be wrong, but that's the vibe I am getting.

As I see it, there is plenty of scope for "weakening" it which doesn't directly weaken it's baseline usage: Attack trait, does nothing directly but reduces combo power. (Attack trait should also make Save DC suffer MAP) 2nd attack could then suffer penalty to DC, which doesn't impact 1st attack power at all, only reducing 'peak' damage VS 2 targets.

I can see where you are going here, but K.I.S.S, because creating a unique mechanic for it is kind of an ugly solution.

Simple rule change.

Shield Boss, D4, Shove.

This will also add a possible gold sink for players who want to give their shove a +3

How about something simple like "due to you constantly imbibing your own creations, there is always some residual mutagen floating around in your system, you can for one action and no reagent cost, activate the properties of a mutagen you already know"

Whilst it might step on the toes of "Perpetual Infusions", I think a player could tailor those choice towards their party members.

Maybe no reagent cost is a little broken, well, just an idea off the top of my head really.

Well I don't know what others will think of this concept, but I am houseruling that the Spellguard Shield is a rune that can be applied to any shield, mostly because I like the idea of formations still being a thing in a world where fireball is a thing.

Honestly, I like they have moved away from it, because it's seriously unrealistic, generally you use a shield or something like a sword breaker in the off hand.

I have some ideas I am adding to my Kobolds, In my setting they are unbelievably awesome diggers and tend to pretty much live in warrens that should remind you of the Viet Cong.

They're the reason my light picks are finesse weapons, and they have a racial shield which is kind of like a heater shield combined with a shovel head (that's more narrative than mechanical really).

They have an action that allow them to basically throw dirt in the eyes of a target, dazzling/blinding them until actions are spent, which can be performed with a free hand or their shield.

Since they are such good diggers, they can make new tunnels rather quickly and quietly, making them masters of underground combat, and also a rather good targets for loot, if the party can get their hands on them.

Anyway, ideas for you to steal if ya like.

I do think level as the cap is a bit restrictive but if the check was more laxed that wouldn't matter as much. It depends on how often you want overload to trigger.

Here's a tweak, non cantrip spells stopping the regen for that round, but the regen being based on casting stat (minimum 1).

So you end up with 4-6 NP per round, so if you didn't want to take any negatives (you'd end up with:

Spell, Spell, Cantrip, Spell, Cantrip, Spell, Cantrip.

Because two highest level spells before 0/-1, and honestly a -1 on a cantrip, you're not going to be too concerned about.

Which (probably arbitrarily) feels better than:

Spell, Spell, Spell, Spell, Cantrip, Cantrip, Cantrip.

Just looking at the "Nova Problem"/"Magical Overload", and considering a mechanic to encourage the weaving of spells and cantrips/martial.

Nova Points (working titles are good things)

You have max NP's equal to your level.

Every spell cast subtracts NP's based on the spell level. (Optionally excluding certain class features as others have mentioned)

Negative NP's subtract from your Spell Hit/Spell DC's.

You regain 1 NP per round. (Optionally non cantrip spells do not allow you to regen for that round)

Now whilst this is a nerf to spellcasters, it does open up the idea of allowing casters a method of regaining slots during a day, like maybe 1 lvl/hour of non strenuous activity.

The class I like the best from PF1 is Inquisitor for the Teamwork feats stuff.

Doubt they'd be able to work that kind of thing in easily.

Here's what I have considered doing, change the crit specialization for picks to dent armour instead of do extra dmg.

You know how you handle "need secondary casters"? Homebrew a minor ritual that requires a (possibly a handful of) living sentient sacrifice(s) to make an item that will stand in for a secondary caster.

So now you have a plot hook, people are disappearing.

Simple Solution, Robes.

You can apply runes to them, and if an item quality becomes a requirement, use the monk's unarmoured defense.

Question is, do you allow armour potency runes to be applied.

I was going to say Monk's Robes, but allowing Sorcerors and Wizards to use them, whilst gating the +AC behind unarmoured defense keeps them relying on the Bracers of Armour.

I don't have much to add, but I felt the need to pointlessly disagree with your lesser spell list picks.

Imperial as Arcane/divine, Dragon as Arcane/Primal, Demonic as Divine/Primal, Abberant as Occult/Primal, Angelic Divine/Arcane, and Fey as Primal/Arcane.

Abberant/Dragon/Demonic/Fey/Imperial: Agreed

Produce Flame is an odd one in that it is the only melee touch attack cantrip. Optional ranged touch too.

Umm Chill Touch, it is melee touch only, but I have no clue where you are going with this.

The real issue with Produce Flame is that you crit with it, you bring your dmg slightly above the normal dmg of Ray of Frost, which means you'd have been better off just getting that crit on Ray of Frost.

Now if you want to take up 2 cantrips slots you can Produce Flame, crit and then start using Ray of Frost, but honestly combat should not take long enough for that to be a worthwhile strategy.

Basically Arcane and Primal Casters should never use any other dmg cantrips but Ray of Frost and/or Electric Arc until your GM starts throwing immunities at you.

Premise

Whilst looking to make the character sheets for some NPC's, I looked at the damaging cantrips and discovered clear winners and losers.

So as not to get into the "Cantrips vs Martials" debate, I am going to restate this is about relative power of cantrips to each other.

I 'll address Disrupt Undead first, as it's niche and does the highest dmg dice, which seems about right.

Telekenetic Projectile also does the highest, but attack AC and requires ammo, so I see no issue here (except that weirdness of D8 at 3rd LVL)

Both Ray of Frost and Electric Arc are by far the best cantrips, in single target and multitarget respectively.

Acid Splash is tragic.

Chill Touch (which I am not going to bother addressing the undead side) is not worth the risk compared to Ray of Frost having the same damage from 60ft, and Produce flame just doesn't compete.

I have 2.5 solutions, Buffs, Nerfs, Nerfs with Minor Buffs.

Option 1: Buffs

Make TP D10 at all LVLs, because honestly I suspect that's a typo

Increase Chill Touch D8 -> D10 making it worth considering.

Produce Flame, Increase the LVL 1 base dmg from D4 -> D6, Increase the persistent dmg on crit from LVL3 and above from D4 -> D6.

Acid Splash, Double the persistent dmg on crit from 1/2/3/4/5 to 2/4/6/8/10, and make the splash damage scale like the old persistent damage, 1/2/3/4/5. Now if this is allowed to operate like an Alchemical Bomb, unless you crit fail to hit your target, you are doing damage. This would balance out the low dmg with almost certain dmg.

Option 2: Nerfs

Short and Sweet, drop both Ray of Frost and Electric Arc a dmg die.

Option 3: Nerfs with Minor Buffs

The Nerfs with the TP Buff, and the Acid Splash buff without the doubling of the persistent dmg.

Summary

I much prefer options 1 and 3, depending on issue of balance within the larger ruleset, but the simplicity of option 2 is undeniably attractive as solution.

I may post some kind of number graph or something later, depending on interest, but I've spend long enough on this project as is :P

Just a clarification: Flurry of Blows, how are multiple attack penalties applied?