At this point, why play Pathfinder at all!
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If they are paralyzed you can coup de grace as a full round action which is an automatic crit plus sneak attack damage and will make them pass a Fort save DC 10+ damage dealt or die. Essentially, you got PNWED!!!!
I've haven't run into a DM that is a stickler for encumbrance. I would say that if a DM was going to be strict, it would not last long do to the fact that you can buy a handy haversack for 1,500gp or so whcih allows you to carry 80 pounds and it still only weighs 5 pounds. Plus you throw in unseen servants, floating disk spell, a barbarian that has like a 20 str, and an efficient quiver and now carrying capacity or encumbrance basically becomes a moot point.
One thing that I have learned playing a rogue is to always have a bobby pin in my mouth and to insert a sliver of metal under the skin on my hand!!
Sorcerers are one trick ponies... they do one thing really well and everything else not so good. If you want versatility, then go with a wizard. I play wizards alot for this reason.
How about a goblin alchemist!!! Make things go BOOOOMMMM!!!
I feel that PF has inflated the lower levels and allowed the core classes to be playable through level 20. With this being said; and through my experience of switching from an epic level campaign (levels 22+) to a "ramped down" 12th level campaign, did not change the dynamic of the game play. As our group of 8 played, we came to the conclusion that the only difference between the high and low levels was PC wealth and DPR!! The PC's overall lethality still remained the same across the board. Granted, some classes receivied great abilities or ridiculous spells at certain levels, but all that did was add to the lethality of that character at that level. To answer your question, I think that you can can go either way with it, high or low level! The reason why people feel PF is so ramped up is because they give you abilities, which translates into options, and its the options that each character has that truly kills. By that, it doesn't matter if your 20th or 12th, the options are there!!
As far as his unseen animal companion, you could either give him an item that allows for control of a creature (desert related; giant scorpion, med sized sidewinder snake, or a camel for mounted combat), or he has buddies that work for him. That way you can stage raiding combats against the party (including the BBEG) so he can earn trust and rapport with party members. As far as the TWF is concerned, I would get rid of it and make him an archer ranger. I say this because you want him to be stealthy, well, thats nice but unless he's coup de gracing someone but he's going to be out-matched by the two fighters that your PC's have. TWF rangers do not have the feats and damage per round that fighter's do. I would adapt the BBEG into a more skirmishing/guerrilla type ranger. Add movement items or potions, poisoned arrows, if the BBEG has a good rapport maybe you could consider cursed items given to the party or poisoned food, leading them down a increasing trapped/dangerous route to help thin out the parties healing or cures. I hope this helps!
The best thing about PF is that they made the core classes playable all the way to 20th. Beyond that, they did not get trigger happy with all the prestige classes, instead they allowed you to further customize your character with the APG!! Way to go!! Keep up the good work!!
If anyone wants free AC, which pretty much everyone does; here's the trick.
Then make them masterwork or just pay to have them magically enhanced. THE HIGHER THE BETTER, depending on how much money you have!! Max enhancement you can have on them is +5, then you can add DEFENDING to them because they are considered martial weapons. DEFENDING states: "A defending weapon allows the wielder to transfer some or all of the weapon's enhancement bonus to his AC as a bonus that STACKS WITH ALL OTHERS. As a FREE ACTION, the wielder chooses how to allocate the weapon's enhancement bonus at the start of his turn before using the weapon, and the bonus to AC lasts until his next turn". YAY!! FREE AC
They would be two seperate rolls.
I'm not sure what class you are playing. If you are going fighter with the halfling, that's going to hurt. Blowing feats on TWF with minimum damage being delivered. If you are going rogue, would drop the TWF feats and go weapon finesse on daggers or whatever light weapon you want to use. That's also good for you because you can use throwing daggers at a range of 30' and still get SA.
I think that fighters in PF have gotten a major boost on the power curve. I also believe that have the most room to wiggle as far as what they want to do (eg. polearm, TWF, sword and shield fighting). What I do not like is that people feel the need to add supernatural abilites or once an encounter abilities to make their fighter be better at combat. Do all the feats help? Absolutely. We should not focus on abilities to make the fighter greater, rather focus on tactical play to bring out the essence of the fighter. There is no ability that covers up stupity in combat.
I wouldn't waste my time with the morning star as a back up weapon. Worst case scenerio, your falchion gets disarmed or sundered and you can use your spiked gaunlets. That cannot be disarmed which helps. As a barbarian your armor class is going to be low, so I would suggest that you spned the money to get CON items or books. AC is irrelevent to barbarians, your AC is your hit points, the more the better. I think you on the right track with a composite longbow, I would keep that. If you have a good supporting cast of rangers or casters, you shouldn't really need a ranged weapon. Then, again it's always handy. As far your primary weapon is concerned, I like the falchion. It is very devastating in the hands of an orc. Especially when you tack on keen and other types of goodies. If I were to recommend a 2h weapon it would be the greatsword. It's 2d6 19-20 x2 crit. With keen that will drop it to a 17-20x2 crit. That's decent.
Sometimes TPS's happen. Iv'e run games where it wasnt my intention to TPK the party, the mob was going to be tough for the group and they maybe might lose a couple members in the fight. Some unfortunate dice rolls on their part and some good dice rolling on my part really broke the fight. Like everything, real or not, Murphy's Law still applies. What I've done to counter this random TPK encounter as a DM is to make a couple of contingency plans while I create the storyline or world. Here's a couple that I have used: 1. If they happen to be doing the whole good vs. evil campaign or quest, I might have a god's avatar extract them once they go down and give them the "your not high enough speech" or the "you have alot of potential and the gods want you to take care of something else for us". 2. Sometimes I'll have the players create new characters has a back up character. This way you already have characters made, although, you might have to level adjust before starting. A quest you can do with this is either start completely over or you can have this new party be the rescue party. Go in, get their bodies and bring them back to the church to get raised.
I'll do one better! If you play an ArchMage you can use mastery of shaping ability when you cast the spell and put a hole where you stand so everyone else around you gets shut off while your fine!!! TA DAH!!!
It should be a skill! As a feat, it's pretty useless. I would have to agree with you, it would have to be under an acrobatics roll with similar DC's as have been indicated above. This is quite a novel approach, keep up the good work!
It would be interesting to hear from Paizo in regards to this question. However, my personal opinion on the matter is that exotic weapons are exactly that. They are unlike alot of martial or simple weapons. So it would be logical to have an exotic weapon feat be only for one specific weapon.
THE ARCHMAGE!!!! The campaign that I am in, I am currently play testing a 16 lvl wizard/5 archmage. All seems to be running well, seems a little cheezed out at first but since I am the only caster in the group, I kind of need to be a little cheezed! Took the archmage straight out of the 3.5 DMG and converted it. The only thing that really changed was the hit points.
If you have played any 3.5, they came out with with a quill in the magic item compendium. It writes one spell either on a scroll or into a spellbook. In 3.5 it costs you xp to do it but just convert it to pathfinder and badda bing!!! no more xp used! It's a free spell added to your spellbook everyday. That should solve your problem.
yea, I believe 3.5 got it wrong when you had to burn feats to crit undead or constructs. IF YOU CAN CRIT IT, YOU CAN SNEAK ATTACK IT!!
I think the only reason why they boosted the fighter in PH and other classes is to make the core class something worth playing through. 3.5 angled players towards prestige classes and a number of classes were dead past a certain level. Overall, it's a novel idea with what they have come up with.
I've read the PH for 4e before I played it and was not a fan of it. They completely revamped the D&D game and now it rings MMORPG (specifically WOW)!!! Once I played the game, it only confirmed the fact that they took a little bit of 3.5 and combined it with WOW. They kept some of the movement of 3.5, called them different names like shift, minor action, etc. and added WOW at will abilities and cool down abilities (once per encounter, once per day abilities). Furthermore, they neutered a lot of weapons in the game to cap damage, which is an absolute sin (honestly, how do you neuter the greatsword, went from 2d6 to 1d10!!). Bastard swords got killed too, they made them versatile weapons!! REALLy, I get to add an extra damage point for using the weapon 2-handed!! 1 DAMAGE!! They got rid of hand and a half damage. HORRIBLE!! From what I've gathered so far, is that I could play 4e and write down on these at will abilities or encounter abilities,essentially, paper mashing. OR, I could play WOW and button mash at home and let the computer tell me what abilities I have left. If I would have to choose right now on what I would play: 4e or WOW =WOW, 4e or 3.5 = PF !!!
If you were to add to the time it takes to loose a tower shield, like making it a move action or a full round action, it would completely neuter the shield. Although the tower shield gives you a shield bonus it also gives you bonus AC against ranged attacks or even offers concealment when set. As just stated, the shield has to be set for some of these abilities to work, which takes time. To further add more time to loose a shield would make the shield useless in combat due to the time it takes to loose it and to set it. Furthermore, the shield already has checks and balances built into it: 1. Most PC's have to take a feat in it's use because it is considered an exotic weapon. 2. Requires a standard action I believe to set the shield so you can get concealment or a bonus to AC versus ranged attacks. 3. Big and bulky, weighs 15 pounds, which adds to encumbrance. Shouldn't be a problem for fighters with high strength, however, proves to be a logistics problem for classes other than fighters. So, to add time to the loosing of the shield would absolutely kill the shield. It would just be easier to carry a medium shield.
I would have to agree with you guys that AoO's are pretty useless in combat. Wow!! An extra attack, whoopdy doo!!! No real significance there. However, if PF wanted to go a different route than 3.5, it would not only allow AoO's but to have it where you can use special abilities or feats. I think this would add to the value of having AoO's in the game, but if they keep it the same as 3.5 where you would just get an attack, then I would rather not have it in the game at all.
How about this!!! If you get hit in combat, make it a coin toss!! Make it 50/50 regardless of damage that has been dealt. What do u think of that?
I believe you have answered your own question. "spellcraft is right now an intelligence skill used to understand magic andits fundation ...". You got it!! Regardless of class, it is still an intelligent skill that shows how you are able to understand magic and its foundation or fundamentals.
I think it is a novel idea, however, I can solve this situation with one fell swoop. If you propose to add higher DC's to the Craft check, as a person who plays alot of wizards and has currently converted his over to PF, I would just say screw it and buy the item and proceed from there. I would do this for a number of reasons: 1. Don't have to blow skill points on creating items to masterwork then proceed into making them magical. 2. Takes less in game time. 3. Spend about the same amount of money to buy the item as to create it. 4. Plus, have to spend gp on the tools to create the item to masterwork. Especially, if you get adamantine or another metal from certain planes, normal iron or steel tools are not going to be able to work the metal. I actually ran into this problem while converting my enchanter from 3.5 to PF!!! (lost alot in the transfer but also gained alot). So I actually got rid of all my skill points in Craft and put them elsewhere.
I don't believe that this is correct. My interpretation of this is if the item states that it is an enhancement bonus, it is just that, an enhancement. The item only applies its respective bonus as temporary adjustment because the item can be removed to lower the score. Furthemore, you cannot stack items or spells that have the same description as a bonus. For instance, two items or spells that give an enhancement of +5, one will be overrided. However, if you have casted 2 spells or have 2 items with the same indicator to what the spell gives you, the higher one overrides the lower. Indicators are as follows; morale, enhancement, luck, insight, armor, temporary, etc. Tome of Gainful Exercise is one example of an item that permanently boosts your Con.
I've never been a fan of familiars. They can easily be replaced by a couple of feats in 3.5 . However, it seems they have kept the familiars for PF and nothing has changed regarding them. I feel that familiars are decent at when playing characters between lvls. 1-5, but other than that they are pretty much useless.
I play casters alot, and I think that there still needs to be a skill check for Concentration. Lets face it, the ability to cast while someone is trying to kill you definitely takes some skill. However, I would have to agree with some of you that the ability modifier in the skill check has to change. I think the ability modifier should be what the class uses as their respective modifier (wizards/int, clerics/wis, paladins/wis, etc).
Greatest thing they have done! It makes it worth playing a wizard now. |