Pink Dragon's page

I switched to D&D 5E when 2nd Ed. Pathfinder came out, but I still pop into this forum once in a while to see what is going on.

But I must admit that I really hate when people misspell rogue that way. I don't think it was done on purpose, but my Rule Lawyer soul gets agitated every time I see that error.

I've seem it spelled that way so often I am thinking that it is not a typo but a lame attempt at humor every time I see it. But I may be too cynical.

In university, I studied Chemistry then went into teaching. I now have an M.Sc. and a B.Ed., but work as a patent agent.

In retrospect, I would have done math, then philosophy and then physics, and then studied the nature of God.

I second all that the others said here. You are right and he is wrong.

I like monk/paladin combos with dips into cleric and/or ranger.

Martial artist monk is solid, but I like taking a one or two level dip into full BAB classes (ranger, bloodrager or fighter) to make it even better. This may not be possible in your campaign.

You will want to keep STR up and perhaps wield a two-handed weapon or a one-handed weapon in two hands for damage (weapons with the monk special ability). Power attack and furious focus are two feats to seriously consider with martial artist monk.

The other thing with martial artist monk is to keep WIS up there to take as much advantage of Exploit Weakness as possible. Exploit Weakness is the signature ability of the Martial Artist monk but does not scale well with CR.

Zen archer is not bad as a switch hitter if you do not neglect strength.

you mean stuff like hold person and petrification?

Yes

I dislike 'save or don't play' saving throws.

I don't mind debuffs, but effects that prevent all character action, especially over a longish period of game time, are highly annoying since the goal is actually to play the game.

They stack.
FAQ

Are you the GM or another player? If GM, just inform the players that if they come up with a plan, you will accommodate the AP to account for the plan. If you are a player, ask the GM to do the above and have the GM tell the other players that (s)he will accommodate the AP to account for the plan.

A Wish spell is a useful device for the GM to give the characters something cool, that is not in the rules and that does not break the game. Use it that way and be rewarded (unless the GM is a tool).

A quinggong monk is an archetype of the chained monk. The unchained monk cannot take the quinggong archetype, although many of the abilities of the unchained monk mirror the quinggong abilities.

The Sacred Fist is an archetype of the warpriest.

I think the Sacred Fist warpriest is more useful to the party because of the ability to cast divine spells. The sacred Fist warpriest may not be quite as an effective combatant as the unchained monk, especially without the time to buff, but the support capabilities are more valuable to the party, especially if the party is heavy on other martial.

As always, party composition dictates the usefulness of another character.

PFSRD wrote:

"Monks are proficient with the club, crossbow (light or heavy), dagger, handaxe, javelin, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, short sword, shortspear, shuriken, siangham, sling, spear, and any weapon with the monk special weapon quality."

Since a "monk weapon" that has received a Weapon Modification is still a weapon with the monk special weapon quality, Unchained Monks are still proficient with them.

I suspect that the reason for "you cannot use a style feat before combat begins" is to prevent characters from walking around "in style" 24/7, which would be a bit ludicrous. However, the feat itself provides a loophole "the style you are in persists until you spend a swift action to switch to a different combat style", which could mean that once you have entered combat and used the style for the first time, the style persists forever, or until you switch styles.

The above is all word games. I would think it reasonable to rule that a character can enter the style to do something dangerous, but leaves the style automatically when the danger is passed so cannot keep it up 24/7.

I will not be switching to 2E, although I will continue to play 1E. I have already started playing D&D 5e and Hero Games.

12 rounds, at least 2 hours. It was terrible.

Does the character have the Rapid Reload feat and use alchemical paper cartridges? These will speed up reloading time to free action.

Yes Turgan. Improved unarmed strike is still unarmed strike.

Wizards have feats to spare for getting heavy armor proficiency without dipping.

There is no deity so there is no deity's favored weapon.

You could take the Separatist archetype to at least get one domain that you like.

A necklace of adaptation is worth 9000 gp, which is essentially the same as the no breathing property on your ring. I would make the total cost of the ring 12,500 gp.

I played AD&D from 1980 to 1986. I have been playing Pathfinder edition 1 from 2013 to present. I have been playing D&D 5e from 2017 to present. My experience has been that I enjoyed playing AD&D and enjoy playing D&D 5ed more than I enjoy playing Pathfinder, but I enjoy building characters in Pathfinder more than building characters in either AD&D or D&D 5e. I don't know whether others have experienced this, but that is my experience.

Here is an outline of a build to 10th level.

Human, female

STR: 14
DEX: 15 (17)
CON: 14
INT: 10
WIS: 10
CHA: 8

Forget normal arrows and buy cold iron arrows routinely (5gp for 50)
Buy silver-tipped arrows
Buy a few durable and adamantine tipped arrows
Get a 14 STR-rated masterwork composite longbow asap (600 gp)

Traits:
Deadeye bowman (must be a worshipper of Erastil)

1st level ranger
weapon focus longbow (free feat for being human female)
point-blank shot (1st level human feat)
precise shot (1st level character feat)

2nd level ranger
archery style - 2nd level ranger combat style
rapid shot - 2nd level ranger style feat

3rd level ranger
deadly aim - 3rd level character feat

4th level ranger
+1 to DEX

5th level ranger
(choose something for character flavor) - 5th level character feat

6th level ranger
point blank master - 6th level ranger style feat

7th level ranger
manyshot - 7th level character feat

8th level ranger
+1 to DEX

9th level ranger
clustered shots - 9th level character feat

10th level ranger
improved precise shot - 10th level ranger style feat

That seems to be a reasonable approach.

I think this is basically a good approach, but how would one define "interact" in this case? Would talking to the person qualify, particularly if the caster is using it for boosting diplomacy?

I would think that any creature perceiving you would get a will save at the outset. For creatures that fail the save, for the duration of the spell the caster gains the benefit of the spell against those creatures. For creatures that made the save, those creatures would both be unaffected by the spell and know that a spell from the caster tried to influence them, even if they do not know what the spell was.

Falcata and wand wielder is how I built the magus I have. Spam true strike and almost never miss.

I agree with all the other posters too.

You could borrow the Soliloquy rule from the Hero system. Monologues are done in zero time.

Rings of inner fortitude, preferably greater, if you can afford it.

The rules for diplomacy are on pages 93-94 of the Core Rule Book. There is even two charts on page 94 providing DCs for various things for which diplomacy can be successful.

And I can see them using footholds for the last few feat to propel them upward. That is what climbing is all about.

Prone is being flat out on the ground and requires an entire move action to stand. At the top of the cliff, the person is not prone and doesn't need to crawl over the top belly down. I assume the climbing skill permits a person to top a cliff without rendering himself prone.

30' of movement should get you to the top of the cliff. With climbing rules you move either quarter speed or half speed depending on the success of the roll. You should have to spend that extra 5' to move into the square at the top - be it part of a full movement or a five foot step.

I can see why someone would come to this conclusion, but it would imply that the 30th foot (6th square) of movement is standing in empty space next to the cliff top before moving the 35th foot (7th square) to stand on the cliff. I think of the movement between the 25th foot (5th square) and the 30th foot (6th square) as being up on the diagonal as the person climbs the last 5 feet (1 square) over the top of the cliff.

Nothing in the CRB explains the situation clearly but I have always ruled that the if a cliff is 30 feet high and the character has a 30 foot movement rate it takes 4 move actions to get to and stand at the top of the cliff (or 2 move actions if fast climbing).

I rationalize this by saying it takes 25 feet of climbing to get the character's hands on the top of the cliff and then another 5 feet to climb over the edge to stand on the top of the cliff.

Your local event coordinator is correct. Armor and shield bonuses do not add to touch attack. But force effects are effective against incorporeal things trying to touch you.

Golarion has spaceships, guns, androids, robots and an assortment of other tech that are essentially the same as magical effects.

In essence, the game rules are what they are and under the game rules the grease that is produced with the Grease spell is not flammable. If a GM wants a 'realistic' explanation for that, fluorinated grease is as good as any.

There are plenty of fluorinated greases sold over the countertop, especially for automotive applications. It is no more of a stretch than twiddling your fingers while holding a bit of something and uttering some noises produces a bucket full of the stuff.

Not all greases are flammable, for example fluorinated greases. As said by others above, The Grease spell does not state that the grease is flammable so it isn't. I imagine that the grease produced is something based on polytetrafluoroethylene.

In my experience, if the inter-character conflict is at the level of greed or preventing another character from reaching a personal goal, it almost always leads to PvP or at least bad feelings between players.

However, if the characters are disagreeing over deep philosophies, religions or other in-game metaphysical questions that do not impact directly on the practical goals of the characters, even when things get heated there is less likelihood of degenerating into PvP. Finding something that the characters can disagree over without impacting each character's immediate practical goals can be difficult sometimes.

I was mostly hoping people could use my opinions as examples. I'm not planning on going into depth to explain what amounts to personal preference. I genuinely just want to hear what people care about with regard to flavor.

Are there any bits of game flavor that you see as fundamental?

For me, the most important game flavor is the struggle. I like low magic games, where every magic item has meaning, uniqueness AND relevance to the PCs build, which help with the struggle.

The second most important game flavor is the awe. To achieve awe, magic cannot be commonplace. Magic users should be awesome when they cast, doing something that cannot be done otherwise, BUT on a limited basis and without dominating the game.

The third most important game flavor is the ability of apparently inconsequential characters to make a difference. I like the idea of everyone having a special, unique ability that sets them apart and is crucial for success in some circumstances.

Conan. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Trope, but true in RPGs.

I think the weapon list should look like this:

Melee weapons:
Small weapon - used in one hand and throwable, 1d4 damage
Medium weapon - used in one hand and not throwable, 1d10 damage
Big weapon: - used in two hands and not throwable, 2d6 damage
Reach weapon - used in two hands and not throwable, 1d10 damage

Range weapons:
All - used in two hands, 1d8 damage

Flavor as desired.

Freedom of movement is overpowered for reasons beyond the ability to ignore the grappled condition. FOM ignores grapple, paralyze, underwater, entangle and just about anything that limits the ability to act normally.

Look, I'm not asking anyone to support unlimited replay, I personally don't support unlimited replay as the only path forward, what I am asking that we make actual arguments that aren't completely contravened by contemporary evidence of another campaign that has it and shows no sign of dying any time soon.

For me, the biggest reason for a no-replay rule is this. If I am new to the scenario and the majority of the players at the table are not, all the fun us killed. Either the re-players kill the fun because they know what is coming up and act appropriately to overcome the problem, or they kill the fun by not metagaming and placing the entire burden on solving the next encounter on my character.

I would allow bracers of armor under plate mail to function against incorporeal attacks, even though the wording of bracers of armor is silly.

I think that requiring make-work things to be mandatory is a good way for PFS to lose GM and player base. PFS is primarily a marketing tool for Paizo. Anything in PFS that alienates the GM and player base is not a good thing from Paizo's point of view.

The following is my view.

Chronicle Sheets and the process for filling out Chronicle Sheets should not be tailored for Lodges having problems with players who are cheaters or who are incapable of doing math. Chronicle Sheets should simply list the rewards a character receives for a scenario.

A GM should be able to fill out the Chronicle Sheet once and simply hand it to the player without having to revisit the Sheet. Further, the next GM should not have to bother with Chronicle Sheets from the player's previous scenarios, unless the GM wants to do an audit.

The Chronicle Sheet should, imo, have the following information which the GM can fill out and then give to the player at the end of the scenario.

Player Name
Character Name
PFS Number of Character
Faction
Classes and level of the character
Fame reward
Gold reward
Day job reward
Event
Event Code
Date
GM name
GM PFS number
A list of boons and item unlocks.
A list of in game expenditures (bribes, etc.) more to remind the players of what happened.

Official tracking of item buying should be done away with entirely, either on Chronicles or ITS's. Players should be allowed to do that offline without needing GM sign off. If a GM wants to audit a character then the GM can request Chronicle Sheets and the Character Sheet to determine if the Chronicle Sheets and the Character Sheets align.

When I GM, I have zero interest in policing cheaters or math incompetents. If a character seems way out of line to the point of sucking the fun away from other players, I will do an audit. One reason I do not GM a lot in PFS is the Chronicle Sheet requirement.

Chronicle Sheet process should be simple for both the GM and player, providing flexibility for the player to think about character development between games without having to take GM time to sign off on stuff.

I agree with Fadrieldur. Organized play is based on trust. Trying to catch cheaters or math incompetents with make-work rules only angers the trustworthy.

Was there a change to make the double hackbut PFS-legal?

Ah heck. I hadn't noticed that. Thanks for pointing it out.