Shain Edge's page

That's a 'but reality' argument.

Yes, there are a lot of swords already printed for Starfinder.

So why - regarding the game mechanics - should the baseline assumption be that an Archaic sword from Pathfinder is available? And the runes to upgrade it with.

Your sword wielding character can use a modern Starfinder sword. Unless you have a particular game mechanics reason for wanting that specific sword from Pathfinder. Which sounds like you are trying to go hunting for a game mechanics advantage.

Because there is litterally a heritage that assumes you have access to Golarion ancient weapons and training.

Golarion Survivor Human

Heritage
Your ancestors lived on lost Golarion, and though the circumstances of your family’s survival are lost to the Gap, your family taught you ancient traditions from a young age. You become trained with archaic weapons and Golarion Lore, and you learn a bonus language that was spoken in your lineage’s region of origin (see Pathfinder Player Core 34). You gain the Diehard feat.

Quote:

Are +0 magical weapons possible?

Without a potency rune, a weapon isn't a magic weapon.

CRB, p. 580 wrote:

A potency rune is what makes a weapon a magic weapon (page 599) or armor magic armor (page 556).

Reading the book, Second Printing, there is no rule I can see that requires you to have Potency, to have Striking. Both properties are individual Fundamental Runes.

It's interesting that all the examples show Potency Runes leading the Striking Runes, but nothing in the rules prohibit Striking without Potency. Either added would make the Weapon a Magic Weapon.

My guess is there are Tattoos in the Absalom book and it being delayed by so much time threw off this archetype. That's all I've got, the only other explanation is Paizo let a giant mistake into their otherwise great book.

Welp, there are NO tattoos in the Absalom book.

It is official. They got us excited on something that was very interesting, made rules for it, then they provided NO substance of usefulness for the Tattoo magic.

And reducing their decisions down to "bad planning" doesn't take into account any of the complications they would have had to face while copyfitting, editing, and laying out the book. If their best compromise for these issues was to introduce the rules and lore of the tattoos in this book, and then wait until The Grand Bazaar to have a fuller inventory follow-up of tattoos for most levels, I'd rather go with that than wait a year or longer for another potential opportunity to put magic tattoos into the game.

The Grand Bazaar Book has a total of 4 tattoos in it, and nothing of how to expand the tattoo rules for options. Still willing to defend their activity?

It is a matter of messed-up timetables. Not a deliberate choice

Just opened up my PDF of The Grand Bazaar... To the Tattoos.. One Tattoo of 3rd level.. 4 FOUR new tattoos TOTAL. No new rules implimenting tattoos..

I'm UNIMPRESSED.

wizard is the epitome of the character that went for arcane studies and wants to learn the secrets of magic in the 'classical' way

I think it is pretty good as it is - for only exchanging the class skill and the spell list the wizard would actually loose out in most matters

I'm considering on how many times you see in movies and books where the magic being learned is "occult" brand of magic. Yes, the Occult magic is "learned" through study and books, and not an innate magic. Ghoulies from 1984, Cthulhu mythos and etc. An occult wizard makes a lot of sense in that scenario, both as protagonists and antagonists.

Seriously, there needs to be both a Wizard and/or Cleric versions that use Occult, so you get the full Ancient God Magic.

Maybe this is a better idea: A paperback or PDF of each class, including, a character or two already completed, and probably a character sheet devoted to the needs of that class?

This way it is small. It could be bundeled up later. It is an expandable supplement when new splat books come out. A set of them can be distributed among the table when chargen is being done.

Another marketing ploy would be to add a (short) solo adventure dedicated to that class, if pages permit.

Just about ready to cut my Pathfinder AP subscription. They can't possibly have any new interesting APs coming out..

Crap.. they just got another 6 months worth of money..

Shain Edge wrote:

Ah. You work your narrative backwards from the way I do.

“I cast disintegrate” he avoids most of the effects then most mear mortals have ever been known to do

“I kick him” His fatigue catches up with him. He is slow in pulling his leg back, and you hear a pop from his ankle and a cry out.

This is probably one of the only problems I do have with stamina. The disintegrate spell is such a good example too. You watched the guy get hit by it. You've seen this spell destroy solid stone. But the guy isn't even scathed after getting directly hit? And everyone can do this if they just have enough HP? It's a bit ridiculous.

Yes, but the hp system by itself is worse. The disintegrate doesn’t do any noticeable damage, but the cleric heals him of... no damage.. just because.

Shain Edge wrote:

Stamina fixes about 80% of the HP problems though. Rather then having a cleric top off everyone who got nicked up in the last combat, and rolling several sets of dice to do it, PCs can do most of that by taking a breather. Potions or spells would only be needed if a character was getting whacked hard.

So would you be more favorable to HP + Treat Wounds if it was a flat amount restored?

And I'm not seeing much of a difference between having 30 HP and taking 20 points of damage and healing it as opposed to having 15 HP1 and 15 HP2 and taking 20 points of damage and healing both pools, other than needless complexity.

I actually really prefer the stamina rules, and can not see any real complexity in adding them to pathfinder. I like that it shows the line between negligible wear and tear during combat, and where you are being worn down to no longer avoiding more serious injuries that need medical attention.

Dracomicron wrote:

It's fine if a GM wants to house rule that healing works on Stamina, but, frankly, we're better off just getting out of the psychological mindset that every little boo-boo needs to get healed over.

Stamina doesn't alleviate that though.

Stamina fixes about 80% of the HP problems though. Rather then having a cleric top off everyone who got nicked up in the last combat, and rolling several sets of dice to do it, PCs can do most of that by taking a breather. Potions or spells would only be needed if a character was getting whacked hard.

If NPCs have increased Health pools to match PCs' Health+Stamina pools and they can heal their HP by both Health and Stamina recovering abilities why have them be separate pools requiring separate healing abilities for PCs?

Because, on average, you don't _require_ a dedicated healer in a party with the Stamina rules. Between combats, and a short rest, you can heal about half your health points without the need for magic. You can have a party of a Fighter, Thief, Bard and Wizard, when no one at the table wants to play a heal-bot.

It's far more cinematic. How often in movies do you see a cleric healing the adventurers between engagements? Maybe once in _all_ the live D&D movies? The D&D cartoons didn't even have a cleric in the party. Other Fantasy don't use healing-magic between combats, unless it is an actual death-level set of wounds. Nicks and scratches, bah.. Next!

So Liquid leap-
"Liquid Leap (concentrate, conjuration, teleportation) The slime
demon transports itself from its current space to any clear
space within range that it can see, as long as both spaces are
within a liquid."

What it doesn't give is, "What is the Range?"

How many people like the Earth Dawn system of spell casting?

The caster has a number of Matrix that he can put ready spells in, that are not quite easy to change out. Out of combat it is simple, trying to change it in combat is a bit more difficult.

Spells in a Matrix cost a pool of points based on the spell. In Earth Dawn, it was fatigue, a universal pool that included non-critical damage (Starfinder Stamina), talent costs and things like sprinting.

Resonance, being something of a cap at the number of permanent magic items, used for their magical purposes each day is a good thing. I'd include Magic armor and swords in this. A magic sword without resonance, just a legendary craftsmanship (+3 to hit). With Resonance? You get that glowing flavor and wacking stuff with +5 dice of damage. Though is it just me, or is the current Magic armor sort of meh, now that armor class is tied to Level? We need to give Magic Armor more benefit, like Physical DR based on it's Bonus.

I'm seeing Focus should be a flat number, like 3 as a base. Use feats to increase that number, whether they be class or general. I'm seeing a better use for focus though, as something related to a maximize effect. You Hit with a weapon or spell? Either do maximum damage for your strike, or turn a hit into a critical, using a focus.

Another Focus effect would be using an action to Resonate with a just picked up item. That tends to be a heroic thing to do.

Heck, we could combine Hero points effects into Focus, for one less pool. Yes, you put all your might into criting the big bad guy, but no longer have any Focus to recover from that arrow now in your back that dropped you into Death 1. Another level of heroism, Sacrifice.

I do not know Dresden, but this reminded me A LOT of John Constantine. Maybe he took Inept at Diplomacy :-D

Houserule : Inept is something like Untrained but worse because no full level to the roll ;-)

You need to read the Dresden Files, not watch the TV series. Harry Dresden is a wizard in Chigago, the only one listed in the yellow pages, who is a Private Investigator. He is charismatic enough that people will go on the line for him, but he makes lots of bad decisions which gives drama.

BTW, Dresden Files is a RPG, based on the Fate System, which does reward bad choices, because it's what your character would do, or get involved with.

I'm on the Mirrored Moon adventure, and between games, but I'm foreseeing an action between the dragon and the party.

The party is on it's way to the red dragon lair, and the Dragon is going to fly over them on the way to do the cyclopses damage, again. Seeing as the party looks to be a light snack, the dragon is likely going to take damage before wing over and returning home.

The characters will take a few days to get there, I'm just wondering what sort of healing rate a dragon, or any monster, would have between bouts? While we can assume the dragon has access to magical healing, in the form of items or what, I would like to find out what they might do otherwise to heal. Are we just talking healing checks via skill?

I'm leaning towards allowing a player to use their reaction to change grips.

The DC issue aside...

From my point of view, except for the critical failure and not being able to use it in combat, there is very little difference between Treat Wounds and spamming CLW wands.

The flimsy economic limiter is gone, and a competent GM can interrupt the 1e group using the CLW wands just as easily.

I've already even heard at least one GM mention that their group just sat there for an hour and topped off everyone's HP between each battle.

This is exactly what I'm seeing. They wanted to fix the healing issue, by /limiting/ it per day, via resonance. They turned the problem on it's head by being too extreme, and then re-flipping it to exacerbate the original problem.

I prefer a Stamina system related to Starfinder. That is more heroic, less die rolling, and gets the party up and on their feet in less potentially then a minute (playtime). Half your character class HP+ConB being stamina, the rest being HP.

There's that word...NEVER. Nope. So no healing spells, items, or rituals used by any of the party members in Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of the Kencyrath, Wheel of Time, Sword of Truth, Discworld, Eragon, etc, etc.

Folks would do better at making a point if instead of absolutely denying the "opposition" they focused on the positives of their own position. There's a strong narrative argument for healing being rare or uncommon, but instead of talking about that...let's claim that there's NEVER a supernatural healer in an adventuring party in non-D&D inspired literature.

Ah! but those are not the same things as D&D/Pathfinder HP. You don't see the party healing up nicks and bruises with supernatural means, do you? Instead the healing is based on "near death" or "critical injuries", which are nearly a part of "near death", or things like ineffective limbs, where the healing did something remarkable.

I'm still under the impression that the Stamina system is more thematic, and better for the game, then adding different ways of healing HP.

I'm at a loss at how people think a stamina system is somehow 'non-thematic' for Fantasy. When you look at Fantasy fiction, unless it is specific to D&D/Pathfinder game to novel, you never.. NEVER.. see clerics healing up the adventuring party. It is more true to say that using mechanical, heal skills or spells and wands is actually the non-thematic chain of events to get the party going between one action set to the next.

In the spell attack description, it states that the touch attack uses the Spell Proficiency. So, I'm thinking, that it ALSO, because it uses the spell proficiency, and there is no other use for it, it also uses the prime attribute for the magic type. It isn't specific though.

Cantrips, Cantrips, Cantrips, Cantrips.

Not only can the caster use a strike action or concentrate on a spell (say a summon), but they can cast a cantrip as well in one round. These cantrips auto heighten and often have a critical effect as well (even marital characters have a hard time blocking weapon critical effects... wizards get this at lvl 1).

I agree it's sad to see spells get nerfed, but if we are trying to level the playing field and lessen the gap between the old tiers of PF 1 then I feel the changes are pretty balanced considering the action economy. Also, seeing as even on a saved spell there is usually an immediate effect and that means your cast is rarely ever completely wasted.

Auto Heightening all spells is interesting, but I would say probably swings us way out of balance. Effectively eliminating all lower level spell slots and converting them to free higher level slots.

Yes, cantrips are better now then they were, but they are not on par with fighter weapons + Feats. Also you generally only get one attack cantrip per round, vs a Fighter's two to three (maybe even 4 with their (near) exclusive attack of opportunity) attacks per round.

Spells of lower level are almost always inferior heightened compared to spells that you get at the heightened level. Example: Burning hands vs Fireball.

Unless they vastly reduced the power of spells even more, this would be quite literally the definition of quadratic-wizard, linear-fighter, given that spell slots are roughly linear with level and spell power is roughly linear with level, you get level^2, when you combine the two.

Maybe I could see a broadening of the design around stuff like the wizard's arcane focus, where they can assume 4 spells per level per day, but 1 more at your highest level spell, so that this is more assumed into the system, but that's mostly as far as I'd go.

Also, by definition, every class that has spell points has spells. Just not every class that has spell points has spell slots. I'm fine with the name.

Fighters get to use their attack all day, and often more the one attack per round. Wizards at first level get only a couple of uses, then gain about a spell use per level. Wizards SHOULD be powerhouses based on limited use per day, and generally since they only one spell per round.

It is one of the few things that I'm seeing as a problem in the 2nd Edition. The creators reduced the number castings per day, AND they reduced the power at the same time. (Except they front loaded a tiny bit)

I'm pushing for having spells -auto- heighten based on the maximum caster level, while using their base level slots. Either that, or give the ability to use spell points, or magic implements, to pump the spell level up to that maximum level.

While we are at it, can we not call spell points by that name? I'm looking towards a more generic Power Point name. Not every class that has 'spell points' has spells. (Such as the paladin)

Redelia wrote:

If you do implement stamina, _please_ allow clerics to also have a way to restore stamina in combat. I really hate feeling so useless with my healer mystic when everyone is down lots of SP but no HP in the middle of a fight. And no, I'm not going to multiclass, the casting progression is already painfully slow.

Yeah that was really bizarre seeing the Mystic actually unable to heal people because the "right" pool wasn't damaged.

Why would you want to search for people to heal? So long as they haven't taken wound damage, you are good to do something else entirely! You can, if you are at a loss, use an assist action for another character. You can use those spells that you are normally hording for healing slots and use them to buff, making your party more effective in another way.

I consider D&D in it's incarnations and Pathfinder more like Tactical Simulations with RP tacked on as an after thought. If you are using a table map, you are basically playing a miniatures game, with cut scenes for some RP.

Fate is a better Role Playing system, which you can better represent fiction in both book and movie media. It is less numbers crunch, less loot gathering, and an in system reason for players would like to play out character complications. Equipment is an afterthought rather then a focus.

No one at my gaming table likes Resonance as it is RAW.

That being said, I'd like to fix some of the problems-

1.) Only use Resonance to spiritually link with magic items, and have nothing to do with charges nor throw away items (potions/trinkets), except maybe in their creation. Keep the points relatively low. I'm thinking the EarthDawn Thread mechanic.

Example-
A character would need a Resonance point to link to a Wand. If you use all the wands uses, you could link to another Wand using another resonance point.

2.) I approve of the Stamina / Wounds in Starfinder. This would go a long way to reducing the need of small curing spam, and the need for dedicated healers.

3.) I like the idea that Wands specifically are useful at giving characters access to spell casting of a spell they are not typically having access to, and acting as a beneficial focus if the character does have the spell. That is typically the sort of wand we see in standard fare Fantasy Fiction.

4.) Do away with plus bonuses. They are not all that 'interesting'. instead, magic items are best when they have specific functions: A Sword of Undead Bane, Armor that doesn't encumber you, or a Helm of Invisibility. Do away with the required economy of always having to upgrade or be obsolete.

Just my 2 copper.

Joe Mucchiello wrote:

And where is the general feat that allows you to take another heretage feat at first level.

Page 163:

ANCESTRAL PARAGON FEAT 1
Whether instinctively, through study, or through a mystic sense, you feel a deeper connection to your ancestry than most of those who share that ancestry. You gain a level-1 ancestry feat.

Except that you can not take a /Heritage/ feat after the first level, and general feats happen at the 3rd level. So, by RAW, the Ancestral Paragon won't grant you the second heritage feat.

I definitely prefer the flavor of how PF2 is doing it to the flavor of how SF did it. When I think of scifi stories, I think of characters who are mostly keeping the gear they had near the start of their adventure, just getting better with it, occasionally tweaking and upgrading it without replacing it. When they do replace it, like Luke making a new lightsaber, it's a more personal item rather than a more powerful one. Han didn't go through a succession of better and better blasters, Worf doesn't have a better phaser than the rest of the security team.

A great fantasy example is Conan, where he finds the ancient sword near beginning level, and keeps it even when he is a king.

thejeff wrote:

Because obviously the only alternatives are lobotomies or people walking around in power armor with rocket launchers not even drawing strange looks.

Given that any given 7th level Technomancer is a walking rocket launcher...kinda yeah.

Or at least, neither being illegal. Getting strange looks is not something this thread has actually talked about.

Then there are the soldiers who can make a grenade from garbage in ten minutes flat.

The big advantage of the quick pick method (aside from being easier for new players, or ones that don't want to bother) is it doesn't have the race/class conflicts, where vesk and kasatha are just inherently bad mechanics or technomancers, androids and shirren can actually make solarions and envoys with a single resolve point until level 3, lashunta are terrible mystics and so on.

I actually like that as a game mechanic. The racial attribute modifiers have been pushed into the back as flavor. Your average such and such race isn't all that great as a technomancer, but the player characters are not average, and may ignore that aspect of their chosen race.

Are you a new GM or do you have new players?

Well, unless you were part of the beta testing, the answer would be both on both of them. If you are familiar with Pathfinder, you may screw up by the numbers, because of assumptions. It's actually a bit harder for old players of pathfinder to get things correct then brand new players.

On the other hand, old players will be able to play on the fly, and infiltrate the new rules as they are found to have been changed.

Just like my change to Solarian (solar weapon and armor operating off Cha instead of Str/Dex), I'll simply be adding improved unarmed combat as an operative-adjective weapon. No reason to make it more complicated than that, and it should have been done from the beginning (in my opinion).

There are way too many action movies of spies being able to kill with a single blow that unarmed operative combat should have been an option from the beginning. Without extra training (feat), it will fall along the wayside, except as a last resort, but it's not a rule breaking option.

I was wondering why all the encounters in the first stage were getting +1 to their ranged weapon attacks. I was burning my brain trying to figure out if it was some sort of Ability, Feat, or equipment mod.

I'm looking at the Armor add-ons and Force Shields seem to be rather underwhelming.

Brown Shield (3rd Level)
Capacity:10 TempHP:1 FastHealing:1

So, what it looks like to me is by the time most PCs have 22hp and 18Stamina, for a total of 40damage soaking, one time per round, for up to 10 different rounds, you get to soak 1hp.

(I'm assuming this is what Capacity is used for. I can't quite tell if I'm right, since I'm assuming the Capacity effect. Or does capacity work like Melee weapons in that 1 Cap is generally for 1 minute of operation?)

Is this how everyone else reads it?

Sorta, kinda, maybe? Thinking on it it doesn't really fit at all. It's just kind of a ritual magic.

Probably the best d20 book that could deal with High Magic in the Obsidian trilogy is 'Elements of Magic'. Elements of magic uses Noun-Verb combinations to make magic happen, the cost being power points/mana. High Magic is taught words and how to use them together to use magic.

The one place it doesn't quite work is how to take mana from other people to use in your own pool, which is what High Mages do from the citizens of the Golden City.

Each citizen is required to wear a talisman. Every week or month, they must replace the talisman with a new one, the old one being taken by the temple and somehow stripped of the mana it collected and transferred to the High Mages.

Both of these acts were explained in the first book. Kellen being at school, nearly falling asleep writing sigils in the air. His own father explaining how the common folk don't need their innate magic, because they don't do anything with it anyways, so it isn't stealing their power, since they don't know it is missing.

Honestly I see this as a cool opportunity to have the players fight the succubus in their heads, defeating it with roleplay to break the domination. Ex. All of their minds connected to the succubus dominating them and if they figure out how to overwhem her or beat her or even escape her mind. Then they could get the jump on her

That would be taking a page out of Dragon's Age, where the party falls subject to a 'succubus' and the main character has to reunite them and tear down the blocks to get to the heart.

Again, I think you are missing the point of a customs area, which isn't to identify every item from every person passing through, but as a threat of possible discovery of contraband items, where that potential discovery can break a person and imprison them. Strangers are going to be looked at. People with writs of passage get a free pass.

It isn't 100‰, heck its closer to 10% discovery. However, there is a chance of discovery that, since the party are strangers and equipped in a threatening attire, will be scrutinized off to the side, while local traffic is unimpeded. The more often the party uses that tactic, the better chance it will eventually occur to Murphy to take note.

Idk, skills are always big in my games, heck people jump at playing the rogue lol. Even at high levels, epic skill checks are still in play; leaping to other buildings, climbing a rockslide, activating an artifact/McGuffin, IMHO skill checks are important encounters to highlight why they should take max ranks in something. I remember one of my players joking about a PC who took max ranks in climb in a city campaign... until he climbed a literal rockslide to get after the cleric who caused it, up a mountain no less.

Two iconic users of epic level skills. Legolas in the Hobbit (the movie) using Acrobatics to bounce on bobbing dwarf heads, while shooting his bow over river rapids. Drizzt literally ran over a rock slide, using the tumbling rocks as his foot holds in Sojourn. (though he was using a weakened levitate to help. But, a high level skill wouldn't need the levitate at all!)

Shain Edge wrote:

Seriously, everyone who says skills are useless are concentrating on a campaign that makes such skills useless

Knock that off. Its as insulting as it is patently untrue.

I think it is even more intellectually insulting to say that magic counters skill use, when magic has easy counters that doesn't affect skill use.

I like the example that Riddik is Chaotic Neutral. He respects people who respect him, but has no compunction of killing anyone who wants to kill or cage him. He doesn't go out of his way to harm anyone. In fact, he makes it sort of a game to challenge others to see if they are trustworthy.

I would like a mirror feat of skill focus. Skill focus gives a +3 benefit to 1 skill which places that skill, effectively 3 levels above the character level.

Where as a Skill Training feat would give the character 3 additional skill points that were spent like normal points, with all the benefits and restrictions there to.

Just be a Bard :( sadly a Bard does everything better than a rogue.

Not traps though. Rogues are still 'masters' of traps, with the bonus to trap finding and disabling, as well as defeating magical traps as well. Rogues also out DPS bards by quite a bit.

Rogues also have a bit of a lead when it comes to avoiding damage, (Evasion). While Bards even out with the ability to use a shield with proficiency.

I suppose that would be a good question for Paizo to answer.

It would be good to have a decent idea what the chances of getting raised from the dead on an 'opse'! (At least by official channels)

Thanks for the sources and opinions on them!

Is there any source Material on how one goes about to determine a census on how common levels are (Both PC and NPC classes) in the Golarion campaign setting?

I'm just placing a feeler out to see if there would be any interest in a book on being student wizards? In other words, a set of rules and adventures in the light of the Potter in Pathfinder.

Also, maybe someone could indicate if there is a Pathfinder sourcebook already covering that topic, if one is known.

I was just pointing out that the character probably does not have evil inclinations, but that they may start turning evil for the purposes of alignment magic and their soul aligning to the plains.

I have a feeling that this is the point of contention between us. That you are saying, I 'think', that [evil] aligned magic does not turn you into an evil person. That much I agree on. But that the spell might be used and can taint your soul is the point we don't agree on.

I don't believe, game setting-wise, that conscious actions are the only ones representing the weight of your evil. That the weight of evil can be caused by being in an undeniably evil area and having it basically seep into your pores. Chaos has a strikingly more visible effect for that case.

A sacrifice on a prepared alter over a prepared victim can send that soul to hell, even if that soul was originally destined to heaven. It's not fair. It isn't based on an act of the sacrificed, it is a force of evil that is sending that soul to a different deity then it wanted, and even deserved, to go. But now Asmodeus has a good soul to play with as he desires anyways.

Infernal Healing as a trick of Hell is a theme that can be worked with. It is an evil spell that good people find desirable. What more can a Devil ask for, when a person willingly takes evil into themselves or sends that evil to willing others?

Just wondering how that works, Say I'd like to charge Ghoul's touch, would I have to discharge it first or could I next turn charge a shocking grasp as well.

In general, no. But it would make a fantastic Feat, sort of like Duel Wand Wielding.