Radiun's page

What's all this about metamorphosis anywho?
It's confusing me.
Did you take the aberrant line of spells to mean I was suggesting a series of transformational powers?
I just had problems thinking about aberrant flavour, I think the arcane line should be more indicative.

Just for Fun

Arcane Bloodline

Once again completely arbitrary.

Bloodlines are interesting, flavourful, and fun, but don't seem to interact too much with the sorceror's casting schtick.

so I propose a pseudo spell-list to accompany them. Providing more ways to use new spell slots without adding spells. They could have variable "spell slot" costs for greater effects.

For example (and this list made me think I shouldn't have just gone alphabetically >.> )

Aberrant Bloodline

Mind you these are
1) Completely Arbitrary
2) Probably wildly unbalanced
3) Just Examples
So I'm simply putting forth the idea

I'd turn this round slightly.

Prohibited should mean prohibited - not spells you can get access to if you're having one of those days when only conjuration etc will do

I play generalist wizards all the time and whilst this rule change gives specialists some really great powers I think the notion that you can access banned schools is plain wrong.

Would you consent to allowing banned schools later on?

Are sorceror's defined by their lineage or their innate magic?
When you first read their fluff, what drew you to them?
Was it the chance to play someone with a 'unique' family tree or that magic flowed through this worldly, charismatic casters like blood through our veins?

I for one enjoyed the innate magic aspect more than the heritage. I think that's why a first read-through Alpha2's sorceror rubbed me the wrong way. I love the idea of lineage options, but wanted their connection to magic explored.

It could be in a wide array of methods, such-as using spellslots for a variety of effects. Their connection to magic allowing them to grab hold of ambient magical energy and flinging it at an enemy, pulling around themselves to form a protective-magic bubble, consuming it to rejuvenate themselves slightly, or enhance their next spell cast.

Mind you this is all my opinion, but I'd like to see what you all think.

Why do you want to bone illusions?

Concerning some area spells (like fireball)

Why not write up lesser versions with smaller areas?
Instead of a 20 ft radius fireball from first level mages, simply a 5 foot spread (so affecting 4 squares if centered on an intersection).

After all, how many first level wizards would survive against a first level fighter?

Depends how many wizards win initiative/are out of charge range and have Sleep prepared ;-P

The d20 is too random-- it doesn't give the due respect to such a huge difference in ability scores.

Start rolling 2d10, adding the results.

*Randomly adds his support for this thread*

So how about a feat?

Evoker's Perogative
Prerequisites: Evocation Specialist or Caster Level 6th
Benefit: Increase the damage die rolled for damage dealing Evocation Spells by one step (max d12)
Special: This feat may be taken multiple times, it's effects stack, though the maximum of d12 remains. <so yes a Magic Missile of 5d12+5 damage could happen :P)

Mind you all this is arbitrarily made, I leave it up to you people to balance it.

Plus it's late so I'm allowed to be incoherent >.>

The problem then becomes, where do you put all of the spells in all of those splatbooks that you mention.

Giving basic guidelines and letting people eyeball it should be enough, no?

Air: Spells that control wind, lightning, mist, and weather.
Animal: Spells that enhance, control, communicate with, or allow morphing into animals.
Artifice: Spells that manipulate, create, and animate objects.
Chaos: ...They have the descriptor no?
Charm: Generally spells that involve will saves and are mind-affecting.
Community: Mass versions of buff spells ?
Darkness: Spells that manipulate shadows and sight.
Death: Spells centered around fear, undeath, and those brief moments between life and death(negative hit-points, save-or-die spells).
Destruction: Spells that break stuff in generally messy ways.
Earth: Spells that control Earth, Stone, and Acid.
Evil: ...They have the descriptor no?
Fire: Really now...
Glory: I can't be bothered looking into it right now and I'm lazy >.>
Good: See Fire...
Healing: ... Spells that make you feel all tingly and good inside.
Knowledge: Spells that let you know stuff. Generally divinations.
Law: See Good...
Liberations: Spells that remove naughty effects from you.
Luck: Spells that mess with or introduce probabilities of various effects.
Madness: Spar...I mean I got nothing.
Magic: Spells from the Arcane list or that appear on both lists. Tough too.
Nobility: Spells that make people your subject. Charm with pomp.
Plant: Spells that manipulate/mimic(Barkskin) plants.
Protection: Spells that prevent others from harming you.
Repose: Don't feel like defining it... yea that's it >.>
Rune: Spells that manipulate or involve texts, or otherwise involve glyphs and Symbols.
Strength: Hulk.
Sun: Shiny fire
Travel: Movement and Teleportation.
Trickery: Wouldn't YOUUU like to know.
War: Spells which enhance, duplicate, or manipulate weapons... and flame strike.
Water: Spells that create and manipulate ice and water and make such environments more bearable (water breathing, resist energy(cold) ).
Weather: Mists, Winds, Lightning.

Currently, they do too little damage. 10d6, Reflex save for half? Meh. Compared to save-or-dies, battlefield control, and the like, damage spells take a back seat for usefulness. I'd prefer something more like 10d8+10 damage. That sounds a bit better to me.

Thoughts?

You do realize higher level spells max out later right?

Cone of Cold for example can go up to 15d6.

Or do you believe 3rd level spells (as I'm presuming you're thinking of lightning bolt and fireball) should max out later?

Sorry for having no constructive comment yet, I would just like you to clarify your position a tad.

Move the multi-classer up on the XP Chart
So a single class character with 71k XP would be level 10 while the multiclasser would be lvl 7/7 (strongest features of both class, no cumulative BAB or saves) with a gap of 6k XP till being 8/8.

Just a thought

Edit: Cleaned up grammar a tad

I think an interesting twist for white necromancy could be accelerated aging for immediate benifits. The aging could be figured in a proportional manner to avoid elves and dragons casting them wily nilly (in fact they would give up more for in the grand scheme of things)

By it's very nature this type of Necromancy would have a limited shelf life, but you could give 'overpowered' effects for the spell level. It could be interested to start adventuring with a spry youth and within a year of hard adventuring, have a long-bearded grognard telling you how things were better in his day... 12 months ago...

Example:

Time Heals All Wounds
Level: Wiz 2
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: 1 min./level
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: Yes

Creature touched gains Fast Healing 10.
Component: 1/10th of your life.

Mind you I think that one is too strong, but it's only a thought.

Radiun wrote:

Now which holds a grudge longer?
A Dragon or a Lich?

I think that a certain insane conservatism is inhierent in deciding to become a lich. This is as far as you'll go, and you're going to be happy staking this claim right here until the moon be no more.

Liches want things to stay the same. A vampire may be wistful about the past, but she'll still embrace the modern conveniences of the world, like those new-fangled horse collars, the political reality of the Moon Elves moving into the Trackless Woods, or Abier fusing with Toril. Liches want none of that.

Dragons hold grudges because they don't forget things, and long-simmering offenses and slights incur compounding interest. But dragons are amenable to restitution and reconciliation.

Liches hold grudges because they want to hold grudges. They are by their nature implacable. Forgiveness is for the living.

Hm, let's say a king ticked off a Red Dragon and a Lich.

I think the Dragon would raze the country then stop thinking about it.
I think a Lich would engineer the downfall of the kingdom and make sure that the next 10 generations of the King's lineage would live in abject misery before finally slaying them.

But that's just me.

Dragons are best known for their pride and ambition, possessing a sense of entitlement that has followed them through history. They tend to sneer upon savagery and respect strong authority. Quick to be offended and slow to forgive, Dragons hold grudges longer than humans.

To be fair, they also live longer

The fighter is trained for "honest" hand-to-hand combat. He concentrates on enemies that know he's there. He looks for every small opening and goes for it. Cuts and slashes add up until the guy's getting tired, and the heavy wounds start coming by themselves. He beats down an enemie's defenses. He won't wait for vital spots.

The rogue, on the other hand, is a sneaky bastard. If he has to go one-on-one against some guy, he's not confortable. That's not this thing. He doesn't have the stamina and discipline to ignore all those small cuts a fighter can shrug away. But he knows how to exploit inattention. If someone's not in his face, trying to shorten his life expectancy, he'll take his time, aim carefully, and go for the sweet spot. He's not a great fighter, and can't do it properly unless the guy pays no attention to him.

Seems like a Lawful / Chaotic thing more than a Fighter / Rogue thing

While weapon speeds are a realistic mechanic that I would enjoy, methinks they just add complexity to the game.

Depends how it's handled I guess

Big heavy weapons have .5X the iterative attacks, light weapons (daggers) like weapons have 1.5X, middle of the road have 1X

Buuuuut, what do I know, probably gimps fighter and favors rogues, so I should be ignored ^_^;

After much debate i see that the hand of the apprentice ability has (rightfully so) gotten removed. However this ability has yet to truely leave us as the magic domain has much the same ability only in the hands for the cleric i am hoping this was mearly an oversight on the part of the developers but i supose we will have to wait and see.

I believe the bonus metamagic feat and 1/2 time item creation were removed from the Universalist, not their 1rst level at-will 'spell'

Magic Items.
Some love them, some hate them, some are impartial, and some have already left this thread... probably.

What I would like to know is the feasibility of having a side-bar with optional rules concerning the change a low Magic Item world could bring, namely changes to CR or possibly reinforcing of characters.

Perhaps even containing notes on letting characters of any class develop a signature item to even things up a tad, though I realize this may step on the toes of the Kensai too much.

I like buying my house when I make my first 10k instead of buying a... newer piece of bling-bling, so I would appreciate options that, while allowing for wizards and clerics with full spell power, step away from characters who wear what amounts to a small city's treasury on their person.

I'm looking to play in my first Starfinders game, and am delighted by the variety of races available. My inclination is to play a Raxilite Biohacker. I'm very familiar with Pathfinder but just starting to learn about Starfinder.

Raxilites are Tiny, but their LFAN counts as a single Medium sized arm (in addition to my two Tiny arms). I see that Tiny doesn't change To Hit, Damage Dice, AC, Stealth. What it does do is:
* Help with getting into small spaces, and perhaps give better cover options (sounds somewhat helpful),
* Eliminate my reach (not a biggie for a ranged character) and
* Require me to buy Tiny weapons--which cost 2x as much as Small/Medium/Large/Huge weapons, as per:

Weapons are built to be easily held and used by both Small and Medium creatures. Weapons can be built for use by smaller creatures but generally cost twice as much (since they require special miniaturization technology).

In practice, I assume that means over time I'll choose between:

1) Using a (Medium-sized) Small Arm, or
2) Paying 2x for a (Tiny) rifle

It's fine if my character idea isn't totally optimized...but I'm a bit nervous that I don't know just how big a disadvantage this will be over time. (How do Small Arms compare over time with sniper and longarms? How big a hit to Wealth By Level to pay 2x for any longarm or sniper rifle? Are there significant advantages I'm missing to being Tiny in Starfinder, that might make up for the penalties?)

Thanks!

I have a question about the Hunter's Forester archetype. The archetype replaces the Hunter's companion with Favored Terrain. On the one hand, the wording's fairly clear: it says "She gains her first favored terrain at 5th level." but I wonder if that's a typo, given a few oddities:

1) It's listed above the second level ability (where 1st level abilities would tend to be listed)
2) It replaces a (major) 1st level ability but, as written, doesn't provide any benefit until 5th level (which seems unusual for archetypes).
3) It has a second part (damage bonus) that it calls out as starting at 5th level, even though the ability as a whole also starts at 5th level.

Those together make me wonder if it got messed up along the way, and was supposed to read more like:

A forester gains the ranger’s favored terrain ability. She gains her first favored terrain at 5th 1st level and a new favored terrain every 4 levels thereafter. In addition, at each such interval, the bonuses on initiative checks and skill checks in one favored terrain (including the one just selected, if so desired) increase by 2. Starting at 5th level, a forester adds half her favored terrain bonus on damage rolls while in her favored terrain and fighting a creature native to that terrain.

This replaces animal companion.

Thanks!

I've been reading and loving Margerie Liu's Monstress and it's got me thinking about a character with a hungry monster inside her.

Some options I've considered:
- Warder (Fiendbound Marauder) is 3rd party (Dreamscarred Press) but seems like a great way to capture someone who partially transforms into a dangerous monster.
- Spiritualist (Exciter) or Bloodrager seem like reasonable Paizo options for modeling someone with a beast within her as well.
- Inquisitor (Sin Eater) seems like a reasonable way to mechanically benefit from devouring one's foes.
- Vigilante gives the ability to have dual alignments.

What I'm looking for: is there anything (class feature? drawback? something else?) that simulates a need or desire to kill? I like the idea of a tension between a monster inside that just wants to eat vs character who's morally opposed to that monstrous urge. It's possible to just RP it without any mechanics...but are there other mechanics you think might fit it?

At this point, I'm playing with an idea rather than making a character for a specific game (so don't have any specific build/level/Paizo-only requirement).

Given all that, what options would you consider? (Let me know if this needs clarification as well.)

Thanks!

Hey there. I'm building a 2nd level Warder with a 15pt buy. I see the recc in Elric's guide to put CON and INT first, followed by STR. I am willing to dump CHA below 10 but really reluctant to do so with WIS or DEX. We'll do max HP at 1st, 1/2+1 after that, so at 2nd he'd have 12+7+CON+fcb. With a +2 from CON he'd have 31 HP (or 33, with fcb).

I'm leaning toward either
STR: 14(16) DEX: 9 CON: 14 INT: 16 WIS: 10 CHA: 7 (putting +2 into STR)

OR
STR: 15 DEX: 12 CON: 14 INT: 14(16) WIS: 10 CHA: 7 (putting +2 into INT)

I see your recommend to max CON in order to max tankiness...and I haven't played the class or seen it played so I'm sure there's a bunch I'm missing...but would you really bump CON higher for this build? More broadly, what overall 15pt buy might you consider? It's so hard for me to imagine a martial character with a 14 STR, which is I think the max I can get if I bump up CON...but maybe I'm thinking too much about Fighters and not understanding how different a Warder (or PoW in general) plays?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Chaldira Zuzaristan is a close friend to Desna and revered as a god in halfling society. She is known to charge into battles without much planning and as a result often needs Desna's assistance. Halflings see this as a sign of their innate racial luck and as their ability to survive in even the most dire of circumstances.

I find her a fun deity...and she's NG so she certainly could have Paladins...which leads me to wonder:

What do you think Chaldira Zuzaristan's Paladin Code would be?

(Actual sources are great if they exist...but I doubt that they do, so idle conjecture works here too.)

Thanks!

There's a PbP recruitment starting soon for adapting Marvel Heroes to a Golarion setting. The whole thread is here but the short summary of the build rules are level 5, 25 point buy, with gestalt and the ability to convert starting gold to race points from the race builder (at a conversion cost of ~1000 GP per RP)...and of course the ability to play with Path of War and Psionic classes in addition to the Paizo ones.

I have two heroes I'm thinking of:

- Black Cat, who I think works nicely as a Harbinger (focused on Cursed Razor for "unluck" effects) with the other half perhaps a Rogue, Ninja, or even Swashbuckler.

- Ms Marvel (the new Kamala Harris version)...who I'm more stuck on, but I suspect there are some great Disciplines/Maneuvers to go for. Some of what I'd look for:
* Things that increase Reach, or
* Allow striking at Close (25+5*1/2 level) range

Bonus points for ways to actual grow or shrink or increase movement. (The investigator formulae list covers some of those morphing abilities well with Long Arm, Enlarge, Reduce, Expeditious Retreat...but a spontaneous flavor (ideally without components) fits better than the prepared extract thing. Is there perhaps a psionic class to cover this aspect of her?

I'd love to hear thoughts/ideas/suggestions from any source but am asking here because I'm relatively new to Psionics and Path of War, and suspect both have a lot I should be looking at here.

Thanks!

Lines like this imply one might be in a stance all day long:

"A stance remains in effect indefinitely and is never expended. The benefit of your chosen stance continues until you change to another stance you know as a swift action."

Though this implies there could be some limit, or at least that they're intended for combat more than out of combat:

"A stance is a type of fighting method that you maintain from round to round. So long as you stay in a stance, you gain some benefit from it. A martial disciple who performs a kata and assumes a specific posture as he prepares to fight is using a stance."

Lets take as an example this stance from the Shattered Mirror discipline (which was just released in the Harbinger PDF):

"Silvered Mirror Stance (Su): When you assume this stance, choose a single non-personal range power, psi-like ability, spell, or spell-like ability affecting you. While you maintain this stance, allies within 30 feet of you also gain the benefits of the chosen effect for as long as it is affecting you."

This would be an amazing way to share buffs out of combat, e.g. casting Overland Flight or Stoneskin on the Harbinger and getting it for free on any ally within 30'. What are the limits to this?

Hey all, I'm reading about the Path of War maneuvers and want to make sure I'm understanding it right.

Maneuvers have a level listed (from 1 to 9). And I see:
"Some maneuvers effects depend on the initiator level, which is usually the character's level in the class that provides access to martial maneuvers. The word "level" in the maneuver lists always refers to initiator level."

I *think* this is saying that one can know maneuvers of a level up to your class level, e.g. 5th level warder can know 5th level maneuvers, and once one is 9th level one can learn any maneuver in your style(s). Is that right?

(I think my confusion is just that when I see level 1 to 9 abilities I think in terms of full casters who don't get their 9th level abilities until, say 17th level.)

Thanks!

At 7th level, the sacred fist gains a ki pool. This functions as the monk class feature, using the sacred fist's level – 3 as his monk level when determining the number of points in his pool and bonuses granted to his unarmed strike.

and

At 10th level, his unarmed attacks are also treated as lawful weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Seems like RAW a Sacred Fist gets Lawful ki strikes (even if she's Chaotic). True?

At 15th level, while wielding a light or one-handed piercing melee weapon in one hand, the swashbuckler can spend 1 panache point to take the fighting defensively action as a swift action instead of a standard action. When fighting defensively in this manner, the dodge bonus to AC gained from that action increases to +4, and the penalty to attack rolls is reduced to –2.

and

You can choose to fight defensively when attacking. If you do so, you take a –4 penalty on all attacks in a round to gain a +2 to AC until the start of your next turn.

Based on this, here's my understanding:

• As a standard action, one can attack once, at -4 to hit and +2 to AC
  
• Since this is a standard action, one can't use this as part of a Full Attack action (so you only get one swing)

Dizzying defense + fighting defensively

• As a swift action (plus 1 panache), one can attack once, at -2 to hit and +4 to AC
  
• Since this is a swift action, one still gets to use a Standard or Full Attack action.

Some examples:

• A 15th level swashbuckler making a full attack (not fighting defensively or using dizzying defense) gets 3 attacks
  
• A 15th level swashbuckler fighting defensively as a standard action gets 1 attack
  
• A 15th level swashbuckler fighting defensively as a swift action via dizzying defense can also make a full attack, getting a total of 4 attacks (all at -2 to hit, +4 to AC)

Am I reading this correctly?