I was scouring the FAQ to see what changes have been made over the past year when I was surprised to see the change to the Pulse caster. Now don't get me wrong, it was a cheap way for PC's to get High-Cap batteries, but the change is a little confusing for a number of reasons.
The first is that the Pulse caster is stated as having full capacity of 40 charges, and the Weapons section clearly states that a weapon comes preloaded with its standard ammunition (arrows, charges, bullets, etc). So according the RAW it should come with the full 40, but the FAQ states that it comes only with 20. Also to note, the Pulse caster's use is stated as Use 2, but the FAQ also clarifies this as Cap 20 use 1, which leaves me with a couple of important questions.
Is this FAQ a permanent change to the Pulse caster's capacity, or will players later be able to upgrade the pulse caster to HiCap later (if for some reason they're still using it)?
Is this a complete change to weapon starting ammunition, in which case just how much ammo does a weapon come with?
If I purchased a Pulse Caster Rifle at level 1 (Cap 20 use 1), and upgrade to a High Cap at level 5, will my charge use go back to being use 2?
Does this affect other weapons and their ammo capacity/use, if so how?
If you were in charge of Pathfinder, based on what you've read in any official source and what you've seen at your game table, what FIVE archetypes would you make sure to include in the first year of Pathfinder Second Edition?
Please list the name of the archetype and the base class it modifies. Feel free to tell me why.
It's ok if you don't like the way that concept is currently implemented. Just your top 5 in concept if not always in execution. Or maybe there's a mechanical element you like--that's cool too.
Assume for now that we're talking about archetypes that modify the base 11 classes in Pathfinder First Edition, plus the alchemist.
Thanks much for your time and consideration! I'm thinking about this stuff today, and I thought it might be fun for you to think about it at the same time!
I only really have 3 archetypes that I can think of, but they are my favorite archetypes, and truly hope they make it into 2nd edition right out the gate.
Titan Mauler, Barbarian only archetype: I absolutely love the idea of a barbarian whose entire lore revolves around slaying larger foes and wielding their weapons against his/her enemies. It really adds a destructive flavor to an already fun class. I don't think I would bring it to the fighter class though, and the reason being is because it just felt out of place.
Dragoon, Fighter/Cavalier (When added)/Paladin archetype: I've always loved the lore behind dragoons, the specialty shock troops, and masters of spears and polearms. Spears and polearms don't get enough love in a lot of systems, and I would like to see 2nd edition fix that by giving us a specialist right out of the gate.
Tactician, General archetype: One of the things I was hesitant about in 1st edition, but then ended up having a lot of fun with were the teamwork feats thanks to the various tactician type archetypes. First there are a couple of reasons I want to make this a general archetype, the first being that in 1st edition almost every class had a type of Tactician archetype (Bard Arbiter, Fighter Tactician, Paladin Holy Tactician, etc).
The second, and foremost reason is the idea that anyone can be a leader. Now teamwork feats are a little much to bring out the gate into 2nd edition (among all of the other rules I'm sure need to be fit in), but the idea of the tactician is a support type character who can share his own expertise to his allies, giving them key tactical information about where to strike, how to attack, and most importantly when to retreat and regroup.
The Tactician can be tacked a number of different ways, but I would like to see a way to make each class have a unique take on it. Perhaps a bard can get an increase to his inspire, a fighter can share his combat feats, a ranger his favored enemy, and maybe a wizard shares certain spell effects? I leave that up to you.
I see the DC to set a charge as the DC of the "Arm Explosives" part of the Engineering skill, but others may disagree.
To clarify, I wasn't speaking about the DC to set the charge, but rather the Reflex DC for creatures in the charges blast range. It didn't seem to make sense that Dex would be added to a stationary charge, but I thought I'd ask for clarification anyway.
Over 9000 wrote:
The GM may have to rule on the next few questions, but I can provide my interpretations:
Unfortunately, these questions came up in Starfinder society. I was hoping to get clear ruling, or at least grab the Dev attention so that they can clarify. While I agree with most of your solutions, I cannot simply point this out to GM's, and would prefer to have something official rather than having to bog down the game every time I want to blow something up with my sapper.
There have been a lot of questions regarding grenades, and explosives in general in my group, and since a lot of the questions for grenades also fall under explosives, I would like to keep this discussion about explosives, and set charges using the Engineering skill.
What is currently known: Explosives count as the same price, effect, and weight of grenades. A detonator can be used to prime and detonate explosives using the engineering skill to set a charge. An explosive charge that has been successfully set on a stationary object ignores half of the objects hardness.
So here are the questions:
What is the DC of a set charge? A grenade is stated as DC 10+half i.level+dex, so do Explosives have the same DC?
If I wanted to set a breaching charge on a door to blow it down, then what is the typical health/DR of a door that I would need to bypass?
Going off the last question, can I set multiple charges to a singular detonator, and detonate all simultaneously?
As with the last question, could I set explosives to detonate the door, and a single flash grenade to blind those behind the door once detonated?
What happens when a creature swallows an explosive charge, and the charge is detonated? Does it still get a reflex save? Do the creatures around said creature still take grenade splash damage? Does the grenade do increased damage for being localized entirely within the stomach of said creature?
An explosive goes off (lets say a shock explosive) near multiple enemies who also have explosives on their person. Does the shock detonate those explosives, damage/destroy them, or have no effect? Is there an explosive that could potentially have an effect?
What's to stop a player from spending credits on multiple level 1 fragmentation explosives, daisy chaining them to 1 detonator, and then creating a satchel charge that is cheaper, and just as effective as higher level grenades? ie. Player A spends 2000 credits on 50 Frag I grenades, he then spends 50 minutes setting each explosive to a single detonator, and puts the entirety of the explosives into a single backpack (essentially creating said satchel charge)
and then uses said backpack to turn a group of enemies into pink mist.
So according to the feat Deadly Aim, I can take a -2 to my attack bonus during an attack or full attack to deal additional damage equal to half my BAB bonus. The feat specifically includes the Solarian solar manifestation, and excludes spells or other special abilities, but doesn't note to exclude Grenades.
Now on 183, Grenades specifies that penalties to your attack roll also decrease the DC of your Grenades.
If I understand this right, that means a level 4 soldier (16 dex), with a "Frag Grenade I" could use deadly aim to throw his grenade at a -2 into a square, which would then deal 1d6+2 damage to all targets in a 15ft range with a Reflex DC 12 (10+1 (half Item level) +3 (dex)-2 (Deadly Aim)) for half damage.
This also means that if I full attack (same character situation) with deadly aim, and throw 2 grenades at 1d6+2 damage each, and the enemies would have to save twice: reflex dc 8 (10+1 (half item level)+3 (dex)-2 Deadly Aim - 4 Full Attack) or take full damage per failed throw.
Am I understanding this correctly, or is there anything I missed?
Ok, so the general consensus is that it's a chaotic act, and not necessarily evil. Also, sorry for the spoilers, I didn't think about it when I posted the question, and now I have no idea how to edit the post or title.
So a couple nights ago I was running 4-16 The Fabric of Reality, and the PC's got to the part where they
Spoiler:
finally meet the Aspis agents, and got into a small argument about evil acts. Now the long part of it is:
The Aspis Agents are tired, they've been in this plane for weeks, and they just exhausted their last bit of rations. Now in the module it states that the leader only wants one person alive, but I decide to go against that since I feel like he wouldn't want to risk killing the only person with the way out, so instead he goes for non-combat option first.
Because they're Aspis immediately things are pretty tense, but not yet hostile. As they're talking, the party Cleric casts Protection from Evil, both the sorcerer and the evil cleric make their spellcraft check and realize that he's only being defensive so they also cast defensive spells (Mage Armor, and fly), but are still open to discussion (surprisingly no one has even attempted diplomacy). Suddenly our Magus draws his sword and we go immediately into initiative because of the aggressive action.
A fireball, a Spiked Pit, and a couple Immolations later, the Cleric is dead, and the sorcerer is now backed against the wall with no where to go, so he (bluffing) surrenders, throwing down his dagger. The PC's start talking to him again, and ask me how long they have to wait for the Pit to end, I then ask if they're going to go out of combat to wait for the pit to end and they say yes, and I allow time to escalate until that point. Things carry on, questions are asked, but as I'm roleplaying the Aspis agent apparently I say something that urks the Magus enough to want to kill him, he rolls for an attack (crit threat). Now at this point, no one had made any attempt at a sense motive, and no one had still made any attempt for diplomacy. Meaning that their characters still believe his surrender to be completely legit.
The short version is, if an enemy combatant surrenders, and the PC's accept the surrender long enough to go out of combat, but one of the PC's attempts to reinitiate combat against someone they know surrendered, with intent to kill, would that be an evil act? Before you mention the Helpless/Defenceless part, yes I know about that being a major qualifier, but I wasn't sure about this unique scenario.
After talking to other DM's, some seem to agree, others not so much that this would be considered evil. The ones who agree have stated that the moment combat ended, and we spent a single round out of combat (we spent 3 to end the Spiked Pit), that him reinitiating combat against a (to his knowledge) surrendering foe would in fact be evil. At the very least it would be evil, but not enough for an alignment change.
Dipping Ranger is not really necessary - Gunslingers already have Survival as a class skill, and being Wis-based they make excellent trackers out-of-the-box.
I have played a big-game hunter Gunslinger before, so here are some ideas, take 'em or leave 'em:
Tengu is a fantastic race, not only for the +2 Dex +2 Wis, but also because they get +2 Perception +2 Stealth (very useful for a hunter), Carrion Sense (which lets you track down any beast you don't kill right away, as well as having other uses,) and low-light vision. My GM also allowed me to use the Exotic Weapon Training trait to get proficiency in nets, lassos, and bolas, although they aren't Eastern weapons so that doesn't work RAW. Extra bonus, bite attack means you always provide a flank.
Musket Master archetype is almost a must-have, since obviously you want to be using the a nice big gun to take down the kind of game you're going for. This is one of the best archetypes, I highly recommend it.
The trait Nature's Mimic will give you Knowledge (nature) as a class skill and an extra +1 on it, to help you identify your quarry.
The trait Highlander will give you Stealth as a class skill and an extra +1 on it, to help you sneak up on your quarry. Combined with your high Dex (and the tengu's Sneaky trait if you go that route) you will be a great scout.
For feats, I just went pretty standard - Point-Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Deadly Aim, Precise Shot.
I was originally expecting to go Human, but Tengu is an interesting choice for sure. My only concern with Tengu is losing the extra feat, and grit. Also there's that little thing about me playing a anthropomorphic crow who wields a gun and kills big things for sport...
I was already set on musket master (I just can't see a respectable big game hunter with a pistol, at least not in the early days).
I wasn't expecting he'd need to (or be willing to) capture creatures alive, so I'm not worried about net's or Bolas.
That's a pretty neat archetype and all, but it goes against the Trophy Hunter concept, as a Trophy Hunter often goes after challenging game, and not just tainted game. Oddly enough, PFS rulebook states that archetypes that give the Amatueur Gunslinger feat are not available for organized play, but the online checker says that the Spellscar Drifter is available despite this.
So I'm building a "Big Game Trophy Hunter" for PFS, unfortunately the Trophy Hunter Archetype isn't available for play, but it doesn't mean I can't still fluff it as a Gunslinger. I've never played a gunslinger before, but I did read the Gunslinger guide.
Basically what I'm trying to accomplish is to become something like the character Roland Tempo from the Lost World of Jurassic Park. To have the gun skill of a gunslinger, but the hunting and tracking skill of the Ranger.
My thoughts is I'd use the Ranger to get to Favored Enemy and Favored Terrain, and then take the rest as Gunslinger. Now, I'm not trying to go for a min/max build, but I'm also not trying to gimp myself.
Alright then, I can't remember the other reason I wanted a dip in Wizard, but if I just stick as Arcanist then that solves the trouble of trying to multiclass.
I realize there is the school of understanding, the problem is that for the Arcanist it operates under Charisma instead of under Intelligence like the Wizards does. What I'm going for is an Admixture Caster who specializes in Lightning based damage. Since I'm using this concept in PFS, and can only go to level 11 anyway, I'm not losing much by just dipping into Wizard for a level to gain a full use of the Admixture ability (3+5 rather than 3+1).
At first I was confused as it was referencing Sorcerer Bloodlines, but then I read further and saw the added note. Did I read correctly that the Familiar stops advancing the moment I stop progressing as a Wizard?
I'm building an elemental focused Arcanist, everyone seems to do fire so I'm doing electricity (this is a flavor build, not a min/max build), but I've never multi-classed two arcane casters together and am not really sure how it works completely.
So far I know they operate on their own spell lists (i.e. If I had 4th level wizard spells, then took a level in Arcanist I'd only have access to 1st level Arcanist spells), but I'm not entirely sure if Arcanist abilities such as Potent Magic work on spells cast from the Wizard Spellbook, or if an Evocation focused Wizard can change the elemental properties of the spells cast from the Arcanist spellbook.
I don't want to create anything illegal, so I figured I'd come here and ask.
I was just curious about the legality of a multi-archetype character. I've seen players do it, but I'm not sure if the DM's are allowing it, or if it's legitimately legal. What I was thinking of making was a Bladebound Kensai (Magus), I felt like the two went hand in hand with each other perfectly.
I don't play Casters often, but when building a particular archetype I randomly got curious, and a little confused on how Arcane casting works when you dabble in multiple arcane classes.
For example: Lets say I'm a level 5 wizard with access up to 3rd level spells, but then I decide to take 5 levels in Sorcerer. How would that work? Would the spells continue to advance giving me roughly 7th level, or would you only be advancing your spell level in Sorcerer spell slots (and as such have to start all over again from scratch) allowing you to prepare a certain number of wizard slots, but then allowing yourself the ability to spontaneously cast a different array of spells at will?
I'd remove the evil restriction and have games tailored to a faction who's working against the Society. You wouldn't battle actual players, but you could come across the occasional named venture captain.
I appreciate the response, the first question is rather tricky, I think I'll just ask the GM how he prefers it, but since I'm playing PFS with this character, I just wanted to know if there was an official "Yes/No" before asking.
Also for clarification there are 2 separate builds I'm working on. The first is, as I stated, a purple worm build. The second was an idea I had when I heard about obscure eidolon builds. The second build is a fighter jet and would start out as a small serpent, later on it would gain fly, magic missile, ranged attacks (if the DM allowed it). Of course the range wouldn't be amazing, but later on you could give it mount and fly your fighter jet. Tell me that's not cool.
I love the Summoner class, the amount of fun that can be had with the pair can turn anyone into anything from a pokemon trainer, to a dragon rider. That being said, after looking over some of the fun combinations I could make, I came up with a few questions about the rules.
1) After giving the Eidolon the ability to burrow, can he breathe while burrowed, or does he need to come up above the ground every now and then for air, and if so how long can he remain under ground before needing breath?
2) Can a burrowed Eidolon with the Bite, Grab, and Pull evolutions pull a creature (of appropriate size smaller) under the ground with an appropriate combat maneuver check?
3) Is there a way to add ranged attacks to my eidolon (aside from spells, weapon proficiencies, breath weapons), if not would it be an issue if my eidolon were to evolve to gain a single 30 ft ranged attack?
4) If my Eidolon has flight, can he hover, or can he only hover if I invest in the extra flight?
5) Is there a way to give my eidolon multiple attacks outside of additional appendages? To clarify: Say I had a bipedal Eidolon whom I'm trying to turn into a follower/squire like character. However he only gets 1 attack/round with his chosen weapon, is there a way to change this, or would this be a house rule by DM discretion?
>"Burrowing grappling serpentine eidolon with poison and swallow whole." - DBlue
Strangely I'm working on the same thing, except I'm planning on making mine resemble a purple worm (They always haunted me as a player in 3.5, now I get to have one as a pet). There are a few questions I was having while building:
1. Does the Eidolon need to constantly resurface to be able to breath, or is he perfectly fine remaining burrowed indefinitely.
2. If given the "Pull" evolution, will he be capable of pulling an enemy underground (with the right Combat Maneuver of course)?
3. I invested in tremorsense for when he's underground, but should I also invest in blindsense or would that just be a waste?
