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Am I the only one irritated by the fact that if I want the pdf of the campaign setting I either have to order both or sign up for a subscription? I mean don't get me wrong, I plan on ordering this book in the very near future, I just hate the idea of paying twice for one product.
Scout is my favorite class of all time. It feels like a hybrid ranger-rogue since you get a form of precision damage but you can focus on bow attacks. Some of the feats from Complete Scoundrel also let you combine levels for purposes of determining the scout's sneak attack damage and the ranger's favored enemies, so sometimes I'll build up a multiclassed scout-ranger without losing favored enemy bonuses or skirmish damage. I was kind of hoping that pathfinder's ranger would be more scout-esque, but I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens in future supplements. Oh and if you ever want some good prestige archer classes there are tons in the various FR books and online.
If people are worried about including ranks in knowledge or more rolls to justify being able to sneak attack certain things, they could change the way sneak attack works to function in some ways like a death attack, ie, spend "x" rounds studying a subject while they aren't aware of you.
As someone who has played an insane number of rogue type characters, including scouts (with the skirmish ability), I fully understand the problems and benefits associated with sneak attack and other forms of precision damage. I do like the idea of it being used against forms of creatures that are immune to critical damage, such as undead, and the way they explained that it represented hitting weak points in a creature's form, not necessarily an artery or an organ. I do think, however, that during playtesting they'll need to tweak the amount of damage depending on creature types. Perhaps humanoids and other common enemies would take normal sneak attack damage, whereas certain abberations or undead would only take partial sneak attack damage, unless a knowledge check in the appropriate field was made? Someone earlier had suggested that a knowledge check be required to do sneak attack damage to an undead. While this might make some sense, it then basically says that a rogue has enough religious knowledge to apply it to other checks and the like. How many rogues do you play with that can sit down and have a theological discussion with a cleric? If people wish to add any rolls to confirm sneak attack damage I would suggest either rolls depending on creature type, like I mentioned above, or perhaps a perception check against the monster's CR.
I for one like the changes made to clerics. Previously, clerics had tons of empty levels, and you were at a disadvantage if you didn't plan ahead and prestige class out as soon as possible. With the domain abilities granted at future levels, you also see clerics getting more flavor and different skills, instead of just having your usual cookie cutter good and evil clerics. That being said, I would like to see powers that are actually unique, instead of just throwing in spells that used to be domain spells and saying 2/per day. Maybe I've just been spoiled by class abilities from Morninglord of Lathandar, Sunmaster of Amaunator, or the Radiant Servant of Pelor. I only hope that if/when they introduce prestige classes, the cleric ones let levels stack for determining domain powers. Lastly, I think I would recommend that if they are going to have more abilities to take care of some of the empty levels, they should augment them with bonus divine feats at certain levels instead of just more and more abilities that are repeats of domain spells. |
