I did a case study a while back to figure out how long it would take to build the Great Pyramid of Giza using a Lyre (or lyres) of Building. I share it in case anyone is interested. The estimate involves a number of estimates and assumptions, some of which are fairly arbitrary.
1. Work requirements of the real pyramid, in Ancient Egyptian man-days:
14,500 men x ten years, to go with one scholarly estimate. We'll round up some for conservatism and round numbers.
Rounded 15,000 labor force x 4,000 days = 60 million ancient Egyptian man-days to assemble the pyramid.
2. Conversion to Pathfinder man-days
The ancient Egyptian man-day is very low-tech and thus relatively less productive.
The lyre produces man-days of labor measured according to the output of a generic Pathfinder work crew, which is working with late Renaissance technology, which in construction includes cranes, windlasses, etc. Not to mention more ancient (but post-Egyptian) innovations such as iron and steel tools.
We’ll estimate, somewhat arbitrarily, that due to technological deficiencies the ancient Egyptian man-day was only half as productive as a Pathfinder man-day. Great Pyramid = 30 million Pathfinder man-days.
3. Lyre of Building base productivity
The Lyre of Building does the work of 100 Pathfinder men working for three days in a half-hour of playing. It requires a DC 18 skill check to keep playing for any length of time, but we’ll assume that if you are the type of person who can contemplate building a gigantic stone pyramid for yourself you can afford someone who can't fail the check. The lyre therefore performs 600 Pathfinder man-days worth of labor per hour that it is played, which is 4800 man-days of labor per 8-hr playing day.
4. Other considerations applied or not applied, and calculation of required time.
Since our lyrist has the rest of the week off, we’ll assume that given enough motivation he can play for 16 hrs on his one work day before fatigue intervenes. 9600 man-days per lyre session.
We’re going to neglect the effects of recurring time slippage (i.e., having to start playing 16 hrs later each week because that’s when you stopped using the item before). That makes the math irritating. We’ll assume our lyrist plays once a week with no time slippage.
The lyre work force requires no logistical support – no butchers, bakers, or candlestick makers. Part of the labor cost of the Great Pyramid, on the other hand, is to see to the needs of the workers. We’ll apply a factor of 1/2 to our 30 million man-days target to represent the fact that the lyre’s output is pure labor whereas part of the 30 million man-days represents logistical support. The adjusted target is 15 million man-days at a rate of 9600 man-days a week. We’re looking at 1562.5 weeks of playing, or roughly thirty years. Our estimated ancient workforce of about 15,000 Egyptian workers (=7,500 PF workers) is ultimately about three times faster than our bard.
5. Maximum lyrism
If we pull out all the stops we can go faster. Let’s assume that instead of a mortal lyrist our player is a lyre-obsessed bard lich who plays 24/7 and can’t fail the skill check. In fact, so obsessed is he that he never has to wait to use the lyre again, because he never stops voluntarily and is never forced to. This pushes his output up from 9600 man-days a week to 100,800 man-days a week. 139 weeks or about two years eight months.
6. Rejected factors and unconfirmed assumptions
I included no factor to account for production bottlenecks, when some workers are left idle because they are waiting on others to finish. One could argue that the lyre would be less constrained by such bottlenecks than mortal workers. I have assumed (and would rule) that the lyre’s production matches that of 100 mortal workers including those workers’ bottlenecks, and that no additional factor is necessary.
Besides the fact that the factors I applied are arbitrary estimates - I don't know whether a Pathfinder is really exactly twice as productive as an Egyptian work day, and in fact I pulled the specific factors out of a warm and dark place - another source of a potentially large error right now is that I am not certain that the scholarly estimate for the workforce really did include logistical support people. I have assumed that it did because it seems most likely, but I got the estimate from Wikipedia, and the link to the original had gone bad, so I did not verify. It is possible that they meant for their number to only include those directly engaged in construction, in which case our man-day requirement would double and so would our time to completion.
7. Cost of lyring compared to manual labor
Pathfinder unskilled labor is 1 sp a day. We’ll also estimate that skilled labor is 5 sp a day, average, and estimate that these average costs are similar for direct labor and for overhead. With our required 7500-person workforce of more productive Pathfinder workers needed to complete the pyramid on schedule, we’ll make a final fairly arbitrary estimate that this involves 6,000 unskilled and 1,500 skilled workers and thus that labor costs come to 600+750=1,350 gp/day over the course of 4,000 days, for a project total of 5.4 million gp in labor costs.
The lyre costs 13,000 gp up front, and let’s assume for the sake of argument that retaining a bard skilled enough to fulfil our requirements costs 100 gp/week, which I think is quite conservative (A bard with a +17 Perform modifier working for himself could make about 25 gp/week if he worked seven days; or if he's above minimum skill, with +20, he could make about 75 gp working seven days a week for himself). At our calculated 1562.5 (1563) weeks, this will cost 156,300 gp. Total costs for the mortal bard are therefore 169,300 gp. If we needed to match the Giza construction schedule, we might invest in three bards, resulting in 195,300 gp of labor-related costs to complete the project on the same schedule [1] [2] [3].
Potentially one could recoup half of the cost of the lyres after finishing construction, or alternatively one could build up a stock of a number of lyres and use them on many different projects while only paying the price once, but for the sake of conservatism I assume that the sticker price of each lyre is a fully sunk cost. Similarly, theoretically one could make use of various forms of compulsory or unpaid labor to avoid some labor costs of manual labor (since such huge work-forces are likely out of the reach of anyone but the government), but I assume that the labor cost is met fully.
8. Generalizing to generic structures
300 man-days per half-hour of labor, at the mortal bard’s rate of work (16 hrs) per week, means that the mortal bard constructs any given structure at about the same weekly rate as a team of 2,000 (1,920) dedicated Pathfinder construction workers working five-day weeks.
Our lich bard, or any other lyrist who can play without breaking, constructs any given structure at about the rate of 20,000 (20,160) dedicated construction workers, which, considering premodern logistics, might involve a total workforce substantially larger than 20,000.
Notes:
[1] It is worth noting that in our model labor costs do not rise from adding more bards, because two bards complete the work in half the time as one bard and thus each gets paid half. Costs rise linearly at a rate of 13,000 (one lyre) per bard, while the 156,300 is fixed (C = 156,300 + (13,000B) where B=number of lyre-equipped bards and C=cost).
[2] On the other hand, we can calculate how quickly we could build the Pyramid for the same 5.4 million gp in labor costs. As noted by Kain over on Dicefreaks, you can get 403 lyre-equipped bards for the same gp cost as it would take to hire a Pathfinder conventional labor force, resulting in a total assembly time of 1,563 bard-weeks / 403 bards = 3.87 weeks, or four weeks rounded up. Of course you may start to run into musician shortages at some point.
[3] Note that the costs of the construction workforce =/= total costs. You're likely on the hook for some architectural/engineering services at the very least. Your lyre may be able to assemble simple building materials that are locally available without further costs, but it's not clear on the subject, and even if so you'd have to cover material costs for fancier buildings, like an opulent palace of opulence.
Say I want to create a cloak of resistance at caster level 10 instead of 5. I know that this is largely irrelevant unless someone tries to use a targeted dispel magic or unless the item itself ends up rolling saving throws, but sometimes it is desirable.
Is this addressed in the rules anywhere?
(I feel like I knew the answer to this once, but I've forgotten more about Pathfinder rules than I ever knew... however that works...)
FBI Director James Comey had been leading an investigation into Donald Trump's campaign for President, and suspected collusion between elements of the campaign and foreign powers (i.e., Russia), up until President Trump fired him a few days ago. The Trump administration until today claimed that Comey was fired at the recommendation of the Department of Justice and specifically due to his investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails - nothing to do with Comey's investigation of the Trump campaign.
Today has brought a lot of different news from the President himself.
President Trump today said that he had committed to firing Comey no matter what the DOJ thought about it and that Comey's investigation of the Trump campaign formed part of the consideration for firing him.
President Trump on the DOJ recommendation wrote:
Regardless of the recommendation I was going to fire Comey.
Later,
President Trump on deciding to fire Comey wrote:
In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story...'
Most recently of all, it has emerged that Trump had called Comey to a private meeting back in January to discuss whether Comey would pledge personal loyalty to him. Comey explained that the FBI Director is supposed to be independent and said that he could only pledge honesty, not loyalty, an answer that reportedly left the President dissatisfied.
First, a quick note: I started writing this a while ago, but getting distracted with other things I never got around to entirely finishing it. I haven't really gone through Mythic Magic and later chapters for this post. However with the forum perhaps closing soon I figured I had better post what I'd got.
So... I have heard that one of the design goals of the Mythic book is to present a system which can actually reduce the need to track complex rules and such. While there are certainly rules in the playtest document that remove unneeded complexity, the purpose of this post is to point out rules in the playtest document that add unneeded complexity rather than subtract it. I have tried to focus on what seem to me to be exceptional cases, but this may still be a question of opinion, so keep that in mind. Also keep in mind that while there may be some overlap between this and a hypothetical "mythic rules that function poorly" list, this is not that list. There may or may not be charmingly simple rules in the mythic document that function poorly, but one thing at a time.
Anyway, here we go:
Aerial Assault
Quote:
Aerial Assault (Su): When making a charge attack you may expend one use of mythic power. If you do, include a single Acrobatics check made to jump with a circumstance bonus equal to your champion tier × 10. You take no falling damage for height gained as part of this leap. In addition, you may substitute your melee attack for a single grapple check as part of this aerial charge. Any creature you successfully grapple is brought to the ground with you at the end of your jump. This creature takes falling damage for half the height gained in your jump. Alternatively, you may use this leap to empower your charge. Calculate the falling damage appropriate for your descent and add this to the damage caused by your charge attack, if successful.
This one isn't that bad, but things like "this creature takes falling damage for half the height gained in your jump" are kind of unnecessary. One could easily imagine rolling that into the other damage option and just setting damage for both (1d6 per tier, or something) rather than rolling an Acrobatics check to calculate different amounts of bonus damage every time.
Wall Smasher
Quote:
Wall Smasher (Ex): You can make a bull rush, ki throw, or reposition combat maneuver to smash a foe into a wall (or similar solid object). If the combat maneuver is successful, deal your normal unarmed strike damage to the wall. If the wall is breached, the creature smashes through, taking damage equal to the damage dealt to the wall and landing prone. Otherwise, the creature lands in the nearest empty space. You can expend one use of mythic power to ignore the hardness of the object struck.
This ability seems poorly thought out. Not least because it doesn't seem to have been designed with the actual hit points of walls in mind compared to unarmed strike damage (even wooden walls have sixty hit points, putting them generally out of reach of a single blow from PCs lacking triple digit Strength) but because it will require the GM to determine the composition and construction of the walls and then look up the hardness, hit points, etc in the table every single time a PC uses this at-will ability.
Resolving this ability goes:
-roll combat maneuver vs CMD
-roll unarmed strike damage
-determine composition and construction method of wall
-look up wall hit points at hardness in the table
-roll unarmed strike damage, apply to wall
-if wall destroyed, reposition and apply damage and prone to original maneuver target
-if wall not destroyed, reposition original target differently
Too many dang steps for a fairly basic effect (deal unarmed damage and reposition/trip a foe)! It would be nice if you could use this ability without all the mucking about with wall hardness and hit points. I'm not quite sure how to really simplify it, but off the top of my head, success if your original CMB roll exceeded the wall's break DC seems a bit easier - fewer numbers involved, at least.
Power Current
Quote:
Power Current (Su): You learn to tap the current of divine power. Whenever you cast a cure or inflict spell or use a class feature that uses positive or negative energy (such as channel energy), treat any natural 1s on the dice you rolled as 2s. This applies only to dice rolled to heal or deal damage. You must be at least 3rd tier before selecting this ability. This ability can be selected up to four times. Each additional time it is selected, the range of natural results increased to the next highest result goes up by one (for example, selecting this twice treats any natural 1s or 2s as if they were 3s).
This one would definitely be YMMV. Perhaps it is easier if you roll dice by hand. Our group plays over IRC and uses a dice roller. It's very easy to tell it to roll 10d6 and total the result. It's a pain to tell it to roll 10d6 and then sort through the results by hand looking for dice that need to be changed. It is more of a pain the more often you have taken this ability, for instance if you are sorting through your 10d6 adding 3 points to the total for every 1 you rolled, adding 2 for every 2, 1 for every 3...
(before anyone suggests it, no, 10d5+10 is not the same as 10d6 treat a 1 as a 2).
If the goal is to boost the channel, perhaps it could be accomplished by adding a static bonus (+1 per tier, or something), a percentage bonus (empower spell for channel), or something else that is more straightforward to apply in practice?
Assured Drinker
Quote:
Assured Drinker (Ex): You gain a dodge bonus to AC equal to twice your trickster tier versus attacks of opportunity provoked from drinking an elixir, extract, or potion. Additionally, you can expend one use of mythic power to drink an elixir, extract, or potion as a swift action, which does not provoke an attack of opportunity.
This is not terribly complicated I suppose, but certainly more complicated than it needs to be. Tracking fiddly bonuses to AC in different fringe circumstances is one more detail to remember, and it doesn't seem particularly necessary as the ability would probably work just fine if you never took AoOs for potion-drinking at all.
Fickle Attack
Quote:
Fickle Attack (Ex): Whenever you roll damage for a melee or ranged attack with a weapon or alchemical item, you can reroll any damage die with a result of 1. You must be at least 3rd tier before selecting this ability. This ability can be selected up to three times. Each additional time you do so, the range of the natural results that allow a reroll increases by 1 (for example, selecting this twice allows a reroll on a natural 1 or 2). You must take the result of the reroll, even if it is lower.
This threatens to be onerous in play for the same reason that Power Current is.
Mythic Power Attack
Quote:
Power Attack (Mythic) Your attacks are truly devastating. Prerequisite: Power Attack, 1st mythic tier. Benefit: When you use Power Attack, you gain a +3 bonus on melee damage rolls (instead of +2). When your base attack bonus reaches +4 and every 4 points thereafter, the amount of bonus damage increases by +3 (instead of +2). In addition, the bonus damage from this feat is doubled on a critical hit.
There doesn't seem to be any need to impose a burden of tracking the bonus damage just from this feat separately from regular damage and imposing a different critical multiplier. Plus, it's unclear exactly how this works. Is it doubled instead of using the normal critical multiplier (unlike normal non-extra-dice bonus damage)? Do you multiply it by the normal critical modifier, and then add an additional doubling? (like normal non-extra-dice bonus damage)? Is this only true of the bonus above normal Power Attack (so is +1 per -1 doubled) or of the whole thing (so +3 per -1 is doubled)...
In either case, adding bonus damage that uses its own special extra rule to multiply on crits is adding one more layer of math to things.
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I hope this post is helpful! Simplifying high level play a bit is a great goal.
Trying to give a print/PDF bundle to another person. I keep getting a message that they must have a Paizo account for a download when I try to pick their shipping address from the list. They do have such an account and I added it to my options. But it doesn't show up and I have to put in the address instead, presumably because the order includes the print product. But then when I add the address to the list and try to select it it informs me that a Paizo account is needed...
I was able to separate out different products and successfully buy them a plain PDF (which went through as order 2390216), but I can't seem to buy them a print/PDF bundle. Is there a way to do this? Am I missing something?
I am already well aware that Improved Natural Attack can be applied to incorporeal touch attacks (as per 3.5 history and various published Paizo monsters). However, when applied to an incorporeal touch for which the base damage is Str damage, does it increase that damage?
If you would like specifics, there is a little homebrew at play. We have this custom Improved Familiar:
Adoan:
TN Tiny Outsider Init +8
SensesDarkvision; Perception +29
Languages
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AC 37, touch 33, flat-footed 30, CMD: 31
(+4 Armor, +12 Deflection, +8 Dex, +2 Size, +1 Dodge)
HP 110 (147*.75)
Fort +9, Ref +14, Will +13
Defensive AbilitiesIncorporeal, Improved Evasion, SR 17, Nondetection
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Speed 40 ft Fly
Melee incorporeal touch +15/+10 (1 Str Damage)
Space 2.5 ft, Reach 0ft
Base Attack +7/+2; CMB 10
Special Attacks Deliver Touch Spells
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Abilites Str: -, Dex: 26, Con: 12, Int: 12, Wis: 14, Cha: 19
SQ: Empathy/Speak with Master, Speak with Shadows, Share Spells
Feats: Alertness, Dodge, Great Fortitude, Mobility, Skill Focus (Perception), Spring Attack
Skills: Bluff +20, Perception +29, Sense Motive +12, Stealth +25, Knowledge (Planes) +17, Fly +14 Racial Skill Modifiers: +4 Stealth in Dim Light (-4 in Bright Light), +2 Stealth (w/in 1 mile of Rath)
_____________________________________________________________
Possessions Alcinder's Incorporeal Gown
And the question is whether spending a feat on Improved Natural Attack could send the damage from 1 -> 1d2 Str damage, and likewise whether Vital Strike could be of use.
Act Out of Turn: You can spend a hero point to take your turn immediately. Treat this as a readied action, moving your initiative to just before the currently acting creature. You may only take a move or a standard action on this turn.
Seems fairly clear what the use of the hero point would be in tabletop play. It would go something like this, I think.
DM: Okay, the BBEG casts a spell.
Player 1: *rolls Spellcraft* Crap, Energy Drain! We can't let him get that off, if it hits we'll be screwed
Player 2: You're right. DM, I'm going to spend a hero point to act out of turn and stop him!
The player spends a hero point, gets to use a readied action to attempt to interrupt the spellcasting, he either succeeds or fails, and either way his init is moved to before the BBEG's next turn.
However, our campaign is played over mIRC, and while it only takes a few moments for the DM to tell the players what's going on in tabletop, let them roll their Spellcraft checks in the middle of the bad guy's turn, and such, doing so over IRC would add minutes to every turn. Which would add up to a lot of time wasted in every session to cover for hero points that are not used in 90% of fights. So instead enemies' turns are usually resolved by the DM off-screen, and then the completed result is posted.
As such, when would you rule that a player has to declare their use of a hero point to interrupt a turn? Both would seem to have problems: if he must declare before the turn is posted, he will never know something bad is about to happen that he has to heroically interrupt, because we don't find out what our enemies are doing until they have finished doing it.
OTOH the DM rightly pointed out that a hero point is meant to interrupt an action in progress, not roll back one that has already been resolved.
So, in this circumstance, must a player declare their intention to use a hero point interrupt before the BBEG's turn, or can they do it afterward?
If anyone is curious about the scenario that brought this question up, read on
(At peril of minor SPOILERS for STAP chapter 6 (The Lightless Depths)
Spoiler:
[21:36] <@Kain> Rakis-Ka points his finger at Katrina, and a black beam stabs out. (6 negative levels) He then gestures fiercely and everyone in the area is washed with ebon energy. (33 negative energy) Some of the Orvian vampires that were slain stir.
[21:40] <Einar> "No!" Einar lunges to stop their foe's attacks. (<- Player uses a hero point to interrupt the casting of the ray (And rolls a crit :D)
[21:49] <@Kain> His blade bites into the ancient's arm, sending the deadly beam discharging into the ground, where the city floor withers beneath the blast. He turns to Einar, his face a mask of rage. "You will regret this for all eternity."
Beowulf arriving at Heorot
LG Medium Humanoid (Human) Barbarian 13
Init +1; SensesPerception +12
Languages Old Norse
_____________________________________________________________
DEFENSE
_____________________________________________________________
AC 26, touch 11, flat-footed 25 (-2 while raging); CMD 34 (38 vs grapple; 37 (43 vs grapple) while raging);
(+1 Dex, +11 armor, +4 shield)
hp 194 (13d12+104) (+39 while raging)
DR 3/-
Defensive Abilities: Improved uncanny dodge
Fort +16 (+19 raging), Ref +5, Will +6 (+9 raging)
_____________________________________________________________
OFFENSE
_____________________________________________________________
Speed 40 ft. (8 squares)
Melee Unarmed strike +23/18/13 (1d3+10/x2), or
Melee (raging) Unarmed strike +26/21/16 (1d3+13/x2), or
Melee+2 longsword +25/20/15 (1d8+12/19-20x2), or
Melee (raging)+2 longsword +28/23/18 (1d8+15/19-20x2)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Base Atk +13; CMB +23 (+27 to grapple; +26 (+32 to grapple) while raging)
Attack Options: Power Attack (-4/+8), rage powers
Special Actions: Rage
Combat Gear:+2 longsword, +5 chainmail, +2 large wooden shield
_____________________________________________________________
STATISTICS
_____________________________________________________________
SQ: special qualities
Abilities: Str 31 (37 raging), Dex 13, Con 26 (32 raging), Int 13, Wis 15, Cha 18
Feats: Bleeding Critical, Critical Focus, Endurance, Heroic Endurance, Improved Grapple, Improved Unarmed Strike, Greater Grapple, Power Attack
Skills: Climb +16 (+19 raging), Diplomacy +17, Intimidate +20, Knowledge (nobility+royalty) +10, Perception +12, Profession (sailor) +15, Sense Motive +12, Swim +26 (+29 raging)
Favored Classes: Barbarian (+1 skill point/level)
Possessions: Combat gear
_____________________________________________________________
SPECIAL ABILITIES
_____________________________________________________________
Greater Rage: Beowulf may enter a rage as a free action, and may rage for a total of 36 rounds per day. While raging, he has a +6 morale bonus to Strength and Constitution, a +3 morale bonus to Will saves, and a -2 penalty to AC (all noted above). While in rage, Beowulf cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except Acrobatics, Fly, Intimidate, and Ride) or any ability that requires patience or concentration.
Beowulf can end his rage as a free action, after which he is fatigued for a number of rounds equal to 2 times the number of rounds spent in rage.
Beowulf has the following rage powers: Moment of Clarity, Roused Anger, Mighty Grip (see below), Powerful Blow (+4 damage), Mighty Swing, Strength Surge (+13).
Improved Uncanny Dodge: Beowulf cannot be caught flat-footed, even if the attacker is invisible. He cannot be flanked. This denies a rogue the ability to sneak attack him by flanking him, unless the rogue is at least 17th level.
Mighty: Beowulf is the strongest man alive. He has a +8 racial bonus to Strength and Constitution (included above).
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This came up in a discussion the other day. Is the banishment effect of Holy Champion intended to be involuntary?
That is, does a paladin *have* to attempt a banishment if he hits an evil outsider with his smite, or could he choose to continue smiting?
Side questions to the above:
How does the ability resolve against a native outsider? How does it resolve if the paladin is off his or her home plane, or worse, on said evil outsiders' home plane? Would he be effectively prevented from smiting in such circumstances?
Presuming that the paladin could choose whether to attempt a banishment would seem to resolve these questions, but by RAW I'm not at all certain that that's intended.
This came up in a discussion the other day. Is the banishment effect of Holy Champion intended to be involuntary?
That is, does a paladin *have* to attempt a banishment if he hits an evil outsider with his smite, or could he choose to continue smiting if he would prefer?
Side questions to the above:
How does the ability resolve against a native outsider? How does it resolve if the paladin is off his home plane, or worse, on said evil outsiders' home plane? Would he be effectively prevented from smiting in such circumstances?
Presuming that the paladin could choose whether to attempt a banishment would seem to resolve these questions, but by RAW I'm not at all certain that that's intended.
