Samuel Leming's page

I've reviewed the Goblin Works blog and some of the threads here and only need one more piece of information to make my decision.

If one of the devs would be so kind as to go to The Merits of "Sand Box" versus "Theme Park" MMO's, find and read the comment made by 'Cah111' & then answer my final question before deciding to back PFO or not I'd much appreciate it.

Would a player with behaviors and attitudes such as Cah111 be welcome in Pathfinder Online or would he be removed when those behaviors and attitudes are identified?

Thank you,
Sam

I regret to inform you that all my subscriptions should be canceled.

I apologize for waiting for so long to do this.

I still support what Paizo is trying to do and liked your product. It's just that it's been over two years since I've been able to play any tabletop at all. I've moved over completely to MMOs.

I'm terribly sorry.

Sam

This order is set to ship USPS Priority. I've just changed my shipping back to standard postal. Can you make sure this order gets switched over to the regular shipping option?

Also, it looks like Seekers of Secrets and Princes of Darkness are still set to ship this month. Can you hold this order to ship with them?

Thanks.

[Edit]I see that other orders are having the same 'hold for monthly' problems. Looks like you have a software bug to entertain you during your morning coffee. ;)

Victory!

It looks like From Shore to Sea has been approved by Paizo.

Woot!!!

Order #1213713 still shows as pending and I've received neither a shipping confirmation or an email that something has gone wrong.

It would seem that the window has been missed for having the order here on the 13th.

So going Priority may not get you your books any sooner. However, given that Priority Mail offers a smaller delivery window, it does improve the odds of getting to you on or before the release date *slightly*.

This turned out not to be the case. It appears that selecting USPS Priority Mail has reduced the odds of getting my order on the release date to zero.

My first assumption is that the number of orders has exceeded the capacity of your shipping department.

So, anyway, would you be able to tell me when order #1213713 is likely to ship?

I usually hold all my subscriptions for monthly shipment, but I don't think I can risk having the PFRPG core book held up if the LoF Map Folio comes in late or something. I've changed my shipping option to "never hold anything" in hopes that I'll be able to start studying the core book as soon as possible.

We currently plan to start charging, printing labels, and shipping on August 3rd. We will start with the orders that have to ship the farthest away and will work our way West over the US.

That's Monday, so I'd guess the book should ship about midweek.

My understanding is that you've already received the core book, but not the other items on the August schedule. Once the core book ships I'll put my subsriptions back on "hold for monthly". It'll probably take me weeks to study the core book, so I don't mind waiting on the other items.

I suppose if all my other subscribed items land in your warehouse early next week I could lose big on shipping charges. How likely is that to happen?

I couldn't find any mention of the demodands in The Great Beyond. Does anyone know what those selfish sadistic fiends are up to in the Pathfinder setting?

Using Improved Vital Strike(IVS) you can trade in two of your attacks during a full-attack action to get double your base weapon dice added as precision damage. At first this sounds like a good deal, but as it turns out, it's a TRAP!

Ignoring the base feat, Vital Strike(VS), for a minute and considering the typical bonuses and buffs a high level combatant will most likely have, IVS will pull slightly ahead of a standard full-attack in expected damage output only against the highest ACs this level of character is likely to see. Only against outright epic level ACs will this feat increase expected damage as much as an additional +1 to hit would. So, yeah, taking a feat that's about only slightly more effective then Weapon Focus isn't going to help much when it's only useful when fighting something like an Atropol when you're 16th or 17th lvl.

When considering Vital Strike, the case for IVS becomes worse since I really couldn't find any non-contrived character where IVS would actually be an improvement over just VS. Using VS there's a cutoff AC above which your expected damage will be better then with a standard full-attack. Typically this occurs about in the middle of the ACs these kind of characters are likely to see. At no point in this range will IVS give you more expected damage. You usually have to go way up into the epic to see IVS actually improve on VS, and as already said, it's not going to be much help there.

Ok. Why?
First, unless you're using epic Perfect TWF, you're giving up an attack that's only -10 to hit instead of -15 to hit. Against the kind of foes this level is likely to face and given the bonuses and buffs commonly used this attack still has a reasonable chance of contributing.
Second, this attack you're giving up for IVS has already been bolstered by the extra dice from VS.
VS is flat out better then IVS.

As and illustration let's look at an actual character. Turin the Mad's Lenny the Barbarian. You can see a graph of expect damage vs AC for Lenny's various modes of full attack here. This character is pretty much typical of what I've seen with when examining IVS.

My first suggestion for fixing this would be to instead of tripling the damage dice to stick with just doubling them as with VS but to also double your bonus damage on the first attack to hit in that full-attack action. In essence, giving up two chances to hit for almost certain double damage. Now THAT would be something you can call 'improved'.

Sam

Can you use Deadly Strike and Devastating Blow at the same time when you attack?

Since both feats are listed as requiring Standard Actions to perform I'm interpreting these feats as the combat maneuvers themselves rather than just modifiers to a Standard Attack. So my gut reaction is no, you can't use them both at the same time.

Other people are interpreting this differently, so I'm wondering what the original designer intent was for this.

Anyway, can't say I'm too comfortable with the idea of a double damage auto-critical power attack with a scythe. ;)

Sam

It appears that pending order #1049538 has disappeared and Pathfinder #14 is back in my sidecart along with LB2 waiting for... not really sure.

I know I opted for once per month shipment, but since nothing shipped last month please go ahead and ship what you already have in. I'd prefer not to wait until the end of the month for the rest of October's run to come in. Since I didn't pay shipping last month I'm not going to worry about a second shipping charge this month.

Thanks,
Sam

Since the selfish race of fiends known as the demodands are OGL, I was wondering if Paizo had any plans for them. If you do, will you keep them chaotic evil or make them neutral evil as in the 3e Fiend Folio? I really didn’t see why WotC decided to change them so much. I’d usually see the demodands played with a capricious selfishness that made their chaotic evil distinct from the wild destructiveness that’s the hallmark of the demon.

Sam

Are there any flumph avatars I can use? I couldn't find any on the list.

Sam

Now that we know that normal elves can spontaneously turn into drow if their souls become corrupt enough I was wondering if the same thing could happen to an evil forlorn elf? I didn't read anything in Pathfinder #13 that implied that this couldn't happen, but many of the important elven connections that the drow transformation severs are already cut in the case of forlorn elves possibly leaving the concept socially, mystically & possibly thematically moot for them.

I realize that as a DM I can rule either way as I need, but I'm wondering about the original intent of the designers.

Thanks.

Sam

In honor of the Gazetteer finally being released, I've decided to give the Paizo folks a bit of good natured mocking over on EN World.

;)

Sam

Order #921257 has arrived on time, correct & in good condition.

Many thanks. This was my first purchase from Paizo and I'll be ordering more product soon.

Sam