Rognar's page

Currently reading The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (just finishing The Claw of the Conciliator). Oddly enough, even though it came out when I was in high school, I'd never even heard of it until last year.

Have you considered putting up an ad at the Sentry Box?

Geochemist/electron microscopy technician at a large Canadian university

I have a few questions regarding the use of weapons by an eidolon.

1.Under Max. Attacks, it says the maximum applies to natural attacks. Does this mean the limit does not apply to weapons?
2.Likewise, under BAB, it says eidolons do not receive bonus attacks for high BAB while using natural attacks. Again, does this mean using weapons would allow bonus attacks?
3.Finally, it says under evolutions that the summoner can spend 2 evo points for simple weapon proficiency and another 2 for martial weapon proficiency. If the eidolon already has simple weapon prof. as a feat, can it still get martial weapon prof. for only 2 evo points?

Thanks in advance for your response.

Like all great empires, the US is exceptional. The Roman Empire, the Islamic Empire, the British Empire, they all had exceptional characteristics that were necessary to achieve the levels of power they reached. They all had one thing in common, of course. They all collapsed eventually. If America avoids the fate that all great powers have faced in the past, then it can truly be called exceptional.

Our group recently completed Council of Thieves, in which I played a sorcerer (Abyssal)/fighter/eldritch knight. I concentrated on making a melee fighter, so I invested heavily in buff spells like heroism and bull's strength, as well as feats like arcane strike, arcane armor training and mastery, armor proficiency light and medium. Of course, I also sought out a magic mithral breastplate and buckler to dispose of that pesky arcane spell failure. The character turned out to be a fairly decent melee combatant, especially if he had time to prepare. However, the lower caster level and lack of spell-related feats made him a pretty ineffectual spellcaster, particularly when it came to offensive spells. Still. if you are not too concerned about combat optimization, it is a pretty fun character to play.

In the description of the Belt of Giant Strength, it says:

"The belt grants the wearer an enhancement bonus to Strength of +2, +4 or +6. This bonus is a temporary ability bonus until the belt has been worn for 24 hours."

My question is, what happens next? Does the ability bonus become permanent? Does this mean wearing the belt is no longer required? If so, can the belt then be given to someone else to give them a permanent ability boost? Surely, this is not what the designers intended. It allows an entire party to get a permanent ability boost from a fairly common and easy-to-make magic item.

The real reason wizard is the absolute most powerful character class in the game, they can do everything. Need a rogue? A wizard with a few knock, spider climb, dimension door and invisibility spells will do the trick. Need heavy firepower? You've got fireball, lightning bolt, disintegrate, cone of cold. On top of all that, they have high IN, so they typically have high ranks in a half-dozen or more useful knowledge skills. If it wasn't for the healing magics provided by clerics, wizards could pretty much dispense with all the other classes in the game.

This seems like neither. The spells that are able to be changed spontaneously are ones that are in the normal spell slots for the cleric. However, the domain abilities are not in the normal spell slots, instead having uses/day on their own, and are also spell-like abilities. Although the beta references bonus spells, there don't seem to be any.

This confused me too. In some places the domain spells are described as bonus spells, in other places as spell-like abilities. This needs to be clarified, because it affects the gameplay both in terms of spontaneous casting and also in the use of metamagic feats.

idon't have to spent 2 points per level to understand my enemies spells and be able to cast in melee?

considering the cleric has 2 skill points + int mod per level

it is indeed a bonus

That applies to all spellcasters, not just clerics. In fact, it benefits wizards more than anyone else since they only have to max out one ability. Sorcerers, clerics, bards and druids are all forced to spread their ability scores around.

Personally, as a cleric, I would consider spending skill points on Spellcraft a waste. I rarely find it useful to know I'm about to be hit by a fireball, since there's nothing I can do about it anyway.

Rognar

i hope they don't change it back

i prefer to have skills so i have to push up Int and ignore Con, hoping the good fort saving throw helps when in need

so i have a better Spellcraft than i will ever have Concentration

the skill consolidation of this 2, is one of the few benefit the cleric gets...

and yes... still my cleric is frontliner... just she uses to cast before and after battle, she hasn't need for the time being to cast in the middle of one... but i believe she will do properly (musthave something around +6 in her roll for 3rd level, just 1 rank, in the same circumstances concentration wouldbe around +4)

I find I rarely have time to cast much of anything before battle. In any case, what you describe is simply a means to avoid the problem by not casting in battle at all. That's a reasonable approach, but it doesn't appear to support your contention that combining Concentration and Spellcraft in any way benefits the cleric class.

I am currently playing a cleric in our Pathfinder Beta playtest and I have some issues with the changes to the rules that affect clerics. The biggest kick in the gut to clerics is making the old Concentration skill a part of the Spellcraft skill. Being able to cast in combat is more important to clerics than it is to pretty much any other spellcasting class since they are expected to be able to take a front line role in battle. Now, in order to have a decent chance of making a concentration check, they need to have a respectable INT score. Since a fighting cleric already needs high WIS (for spellcasting), high CHA (for channeling), and high CON and STR (for melee fighting), adding the necessity of a high INT as well really spreads a cleric pretty thin. Pathfinder designers, I beg of you, please consider restoring the Concentration skill.

I like the new assassin. I'm a bit old school (and a bit old), so I never cared for assassins casting spells. It's nice to see them looking more like AD&D assassins, only better.

My group is pretty enthusiastic about Pathfinder. We tried 4e, we were underwhelmed. I doubt any of us will buy the beta, but there will be three of us for sure, and probably five who will buy the final product.