Edit: Well, I'm not sure why my avatar suddenly became a grumpy smurf, but it seems appropriate.
You should be careful what you quote. :)
Edit: smurf'd (in the ninja'd way; i was expecting to get smurf'd the other way)
I think my job here is done :)
What the smurf is going on here?
Anyway, As others have stated, I really like that the orders provide a different vibe for druids starting right at level 1. My immediate thought after reading each one is that I want to play each one. I was worried that I'd get bored of PF2 for a while after its initial release because of it naturally being limited to the core book for character options in the beginning. I don't think that will be the case, however.
One, I don't think I like the imagery of a wizard going through a variety of different actions to do the same thing 3 times. Imagine a wizard speaking a word of power, a magic missile appears in front of him and takes off to the target, the wizard waves his hand and points his finger, another magic missile appears and shoots off, and finally the wizard reaches into a spell component pouch and pulls out an arrow head coated in wax or something which dissolves and becomes the third missile. It should be more consistent than that, shouldn't it?
The wizard is only casting one spell, so it's more like the more effort he puts in, the greater the end result. He says the magic word, one missile flies out. He says the magic word and forms the magic sigil with his hands, two missiles. He says the magic word, forms the magic sigil, and e.g. breaks a dart in half as part of the casting, three missiles appear. It's like the difference between pulling a rope with one hand or pulling a rope with two hands and putting your weight into it; more effort towards a single task equals a greater result.
The thing I don't really like is that using multiple actions to cast multiple Magic Missiles in one round takes different types of spell casting actions. Is there a reason that it doesn't simply state that you use Verbal Casting multiple times other than it doesn't fit the format?
Verbal components don't provoke, somatic components don't require an outside source of assistance. They want varied components so there's an extra cost/tradeoff beyond the action when you cast multiple action spells.
Losing the extra actions should be enough of a tradeoff, but perhaps the designers don't agree.
Late to the party here. First, I like almost everything presented in this blog. It seems so far that the PF2 wizard will still be as fun to play as the PF1 wizard.
The thing I don't really like is that using multiple actions to cast multiple Magic Missiles in one round takes different types of spell casting actions. Is there a reason that it doesn't simply state that you use Verbal Casting multiple times other than it doesn't fit the format?
One, I don't think I like the imagery of a wizard going through a variety of different actions to do the same thing 3 times. Imagine a wizard speaking a word of power, a magic missile appears in front of him and takes off to the target, the wizard waves his hand and points his finger, another magic missile appears and shoots off, and finally the wizard reaches into a spell component pouch and pulls out an arrow head coated in wax or something which dissolves and becomes the third missile. It should be more consistent than that, shouldn't it?
Also, there are now situations where you can't use all three actions to get the most out of your spell slot. What if the wizard's hands are tied? Forget using that action to cast an additional missile.
Speaking of that, I do think the primary action should be a Somatic Action for this spell. I mean, Magic Missile has always been about the missile erupting from your fingertip, hasn't it?
Anyway, this is just some nitpicking. I really like the versatility of being able to cast just one missile with just one action if the situation calls for it, even if you're loosing out on damage potential.
I do have a question regarding the spinning pillar's stealth. I understand the +10 is there for rolling it's initiative, and to see the control panel the DC is 24. But what is the DC to notice the trap itself when you first enter the room? Is it 10?
I'll try to answer you: it's a complex trap, so it has a Stealth of +10 it rolls for initiative. The same value is used as the number you have to beat to notice it, b/c see, it's Stealth. It works like a monster trying to hide. Clearer now? (Also correct me fellow gamers if I'm being stupid).
Ah, totally makes sense now. Thank you!
Roswynn wrote:
Oh, I understood the *attack range* of the spinning blade, sorry, I didn't explain myself well - what I don't understand is how far it can move. I mean it moves along a grid of grooves in the floor, right? I'd need a brief description like "on a 20x20ft grid", something like that. Btw, when it moves, as of RAW, it doesn't inflict damage if it moves next to you, which I don't think is RAI. That's another thing I think should be clarified (but I'd give a ruling anyways).
My guess is that they wrote it specifically like this so no one gets attacked twice in one round. In the "grid" below, if the the trap starts at the center of ABCD and moves 10' to the center of EFGH, anyone standing in the squares CDEF would get attacked twice if the blades are spinning continuously.
AB
CD
EF
GH
This makes me think of another question. Would this or similar traps provoke attacks of opportunity? I would rule yes, but I'd only be guessing.
I do have a question regarding the spinning pillar's stealth. I understand the +10 is there for rolling it's initiative, and to see the control panel the DC is 24. But what is the DC to notice the trap itself when you first enter the room? Is it 10?
Adding a size or bulk specification to the Pit Trap's Trigger would be helpful. Will the wizard's cat familiar trigger it? Probably not. What about a halfling that only weighs 45 lbs with gear? Probably.
Mmm, personal opinion, we (GMs) can decide for ourselves. Unless no ulterior details are given, the trap is probably meant for small and medium humanoids and other creatures of similar size/bulk/mass/weight.
What I see as more problematic is that we don't know how big an area the spinning blades can cover. But I think that too would be specified in the adventure.
Then there's the Orb. We really know very little about it. It could be any size, anywhere... maybe it's dangling from a chain around the villain's neck, maybe it's on a pedestal, maybe it's a tiny drop of blood hanging in the air at eye level, maybe it's a room-sized angry red gem floating 30ft in the air... I also am not a fan that even a legendary rogue can do what essentially should be a ritual (investing lockpicks with aspects of Asmodeus and Sarenrae, even temporarily) and then use, again, *lockpicks*, to disable what's essentially an utterly magical artefact.
I dunno man.
I do agree that the GM can figure the trap trigger weight thing out easily, but it would be an easy addition especially if the designer has something specific in mind. For example, perhaps some lizardfolk built the trap to catch swarms of rats for food, not as a defensive measure. Anyway, just a minor thought.
And I totally agree with your thoughts on the Orb. It sounds awesome, epic, etc. But I have more questions after reading it than I should.
The spinning trap range is described in it's actions, where it says it attacks adjacent creatures. So, 5' reach. I do wonder if attacks while it moves though, or if it spins, moves without spinning, then spins again. To me it makes sense for it to just be constantly spinning.
Adding a size or bulk specification to the Pit Trap's Trigger would be helpful. Will the wizard's cat familiar trigger it? Probably not. What about a halfling that only weighs 45 lbs with gear? Probably. Specifically, something like "Trigger: a small or larger creature steps on the trap."
Just to add my stance: I like the occasional goblin pc and have played them twice in games. Once as a true neutral sea singer bard who wanted to see the world (and wasn't scared of books), and once in an evil campaign. Not digging them as a core race, though. In the end, I don't run or play in Society games so this won't affect me too much.
I am very excited about the river drake! At CR3, I have used it a number of times to give low level players their first taste of some type of dragon. As for everything else, all great as well. Good work, folks!
Haven't read through all of it yet, but from what I've seen so far the book is great! The first thing I'm using is the patron system. My PCs are currently on the elemental plane of air, and the patron system seems like it would work great in a floating djinni city.
Will there be ships with cloaking ability? If so will there be various levels of cloak and cloak detection for ships?
For example, ship A is a low level transport just trying to get from one world to the next. Ship B is full of space pirates and has a low level cloak that is able to fool ship A's low-tech space radar. They can stay hidden as long as they're out of visual range. Hunting these criminals is megacorp ship C, and their sensors are not fooled by ship B's low-tech cloak. They're right on top of the pirates thanks to their magically enhanced invisibility cloak, and are about to activate the tractor beam. Amused by all of this as she passes by is space monk Fofo, a tiny being from a race of sentient creatures that live in the vacuum of space. She's too small to be spotted by any of ship C's sensors, but she sees them just fine thanks to her super space eyes of true seeing.
The players in my campaign have traveled to the elemental plane of air, and should be there for a bit. In the past, one of them has often used summon monster to conjure an air elemental. The players have given the elemental a voice and personality. Whether this is possible in the rules or not, I totally allow it because it is fun and hilarious.
Now that we're actually on the creature's native plane, what would happen if they try to summon it? Would the spell fail? Would the creature actually be teleported from it's current location? Or would it work as normal, and only a manifestation of the creature would appear, not the real thing?
From the CRB:
...bring manifestations of objects, creatures, or forms of energy to you (summoning);...
Summoning: A summoning spell instantly brings a creature or object to a place you designate. When the spell ends or is dispelled, a summoned creature is instantly sent back to where it came from, but a summoned object is not sent back unless the spell description specifically indicates this. A summoned creature also goes away if it is killed or if its hit points drop to 0 or lower, but it is not really dead. It takes 24 hours for the creature to reform, during which time it can't be summoned again.
When the spell that summoned a creature ends and the creature disappears, all the spells it has cast expire. A summoned creature cannot use any innate summoning abilities it may have.
I'm thinking a good adventure hook might be conjured if I rule that the spell actually teleports the creature to their current location. The elemental, who has a life of it's own, becomes frantic when it learns that the spell doesn't actually send him back when it expires. The players then need to get the elemental back to it's home.
The only negative to this I can imagine is that they might decide to summon more and more elementals to create an army. To combat that I might say that the other way the spell doesn't work is that the creatures summoned on their own plane aren't tied to the summoner, and don't automatically "attacks your opponents to the best of its ability."
Running a game that is about to take a visit to the elemental plane of air here. The book mentions a few times how gravity is subjective, and a character can control the direction that they fall with a wisdom check. I can't find the actual DC for these checks anywhere in the book, however. Any help? Did I miss it?
So, one group of creatures I'd like to see are the elemental blooded humanoids. I have an affinity towards using them as my characters. But, off the top of my head I can't think of seeing a suli, oread, ifrit, undine or sylph in the Pathfinders Battles line. Maybe I'm forgetting one. Am I wrong? How great would a flying sylph air wizard look with those swirling blue tattoos tampo stamped on it's skin!?
I've built a warpriest of Desna that throws starknives as her specialty, using the Starry Grace feat from Ultimate Intrigue and the Startoss Style feats as she levels up. The GM in our weekly home game agrees that she should be able to add dex to damage when she throws her starknife, and I would allow it in my games. However, I was considering bringing a 1st level version of her with me as my character in my 1st Pathfinder Society game this weekend. I am not sure whether the Society GM would allow this or not due to the wording, "when wielding a starknife..."
Here's the rule text:
Starry Grace:
Your quick and free starknife motions allow you to make deadly dexterous attacks.
Benefit(s): When wielding a starknife, you can add your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier to that weapon's damage. The starknife must be one appropriate for your size. You do not gain this benefit while fighting with two weapons or using flurry of blows, or any time another hand is otherwise occupied.
In addition, if you have the panache class feature, as long as you have at least 1 panache point, you gain a +5 bonus to your movement speed on your move action after taking an attack action with a starknife or on your Spring Attack or charge with a starknife.
Viperwall is a spot that I'd like to delve into. Are those serpentfolk trying to make a comeback? What is causing the poisonous fumes that the keep emits?
In one of the PaizoCon seminars that I listened to via KnowDirection, someone mentions that there will be a witch archetype with sand and elemental powers in this book. I for one will be happy to learn more about Pathfinder's official rules for sandwitches.
There is the ashiftah, or battle witch archetype.
Sandwitch jokes aside, "battle witch" just sounds awesome!
Really looking forward to this book. We just left Qadira in the Wednesday night game I play in after getting through Feast of Dust. My current character is a native sylph wizard, and before him I played an ifrit swashbuckler also from the region. Naturally, I'm curious how much there will be on the elemental races in Qadira.
In one of the PaizoCon seminars that I listened to via KnowDirection, someone mentions that there will be a witch archetype with sand and elemental powers in this book. I for one will be happy to learn more about Pathfinder's official rules for sandwitches.
I have an adult white dragon lairing in an abandoned ancient temple inside a mountain top. What kind of creatures might he have as his underlings, if any? Perhaps some kobolds revere him and willingly do his bidding. But I prefer the idea that he has some more feral beasts trained to guard his home. Any ideas?
Potions are like spells cast upon the imbiber. The character taking the potion doesn't get to make any decisions about the effect—the caster who brewed the potion has already done so. The drinker of a potion is both the effective target and the caster of the effect (though the potion indicates the caster level, the drinker still controls the effect).
Yes, but that refers to potions specifically. The line following that quote in the CRB is:
CoreRuleBook pg 477 wrote:
The person applying an oil is the effective caster, but the object is the target.
I'm thinking that the person applying the oil can choose the alignment due to this.
I'm placing an Oil of Align Weapon in my campaign for the PCs to find, but I'm a bit unsure of whether I need to designate the alignment of the oil myself before I give it to the players, or if the character who applies the oil chooses when they use it. The reason I ask is that in the Potions section of the CRB it states "The person applying an oil is the effective caster, but the object is the target."
This would actually be good for me if the character chooses. The oil is intended to help the PCs with a tough boss fight. They would find it in an evil temple, and it would be strange for the evil clerics to have an Oil of Align Weapon (Good) lying around.
So, you have a wizard with the Versatile Summon Monster feat from the Pathfinder Player Companion: Monster Summoner’s Handbook, and you chose aerial as one of the simple creature templates you can apply to a summoned monster. The Aerial Template states you can't apply it to an outsider or any creature with one of the following subtypes: air, cold, earth, fire, or water. Notice that aquatic is not on that list. A creature with this template applied to it "gains the air subtype"
So, you could apply the Aerial Creature Template to say, a giant octopus, yes? I think so, but I'm not sure the creature would be able to breathe air, by RAW anyway. Aquatic states creatures can't breathe air without the amphibious quaility, and air doesn't specifically state that the creature gains the ability to breathe air.
Would you allow it in your game? In my game, I probably would. Will my GM allow it? We shall see tonight.
Here are the rules:
Versatile Summon Monster:
You've learned to summon a more diverse array of monsters.
Benefit(s): Pick any two simple monster templates from the following list: aerial, aqueous, chthonic, dark, fiery, or primordial.
When you summon one or more creatures that would normally be available with the celestial, entropic, fiendish, or resolute template using a summon monster spell (or an effect that mimics such a spell), you can instead apply one of the chosen templates to each creature. You can apply a different template to each creature you summon.
Special: You can select this feat more than once. Each time you do, you can choose an additional two templates.
Simple Template: Aerial Creature (CR +0 or +1):
Aerial creatures are native denizens of the Elemental Planes of Air, and they possess unique adaptations to help them survive there.
This template can be applied only to a non-outsider with none of the subtypes that follow: air, cold, earth, fire, or water. An aerial creature's CR increases by 1 only if the base creature has 5 or more HD.
Rebuild Rules: Type gains the air subtype; Senses gains darkvision 60 ft.; Defensive Abilities gains DR and resistance to electricity as noted on the table below; Speed gains a fly speed equal to its highest speed with perfect maneuverability (maximum fly speed of 10 feet per HD); Attacks gains bonus electricity damage as noted on the table below on attacks with natural weapons and metal weapons.
Hit Dice DR Resist Electricity Electricity Damage
1–4 — 10 1 point
5–10 3/— 15 1d6
11+ 5/— 20 2d6
Air Subtype:
This subtype is usually used for outsiders with a connection to the Elemental Planes of Air. Air creatures always have fly speeds and usually have perfect maneuverability. Air creatures treat Fly as a class skill.
Aquatic Subtype:
These creatures always have swim speeds and can move in water without making Swim checks. An aquatic creature can breathe water. It cannot breathe air unless it has the amphibious special quality. Aquatic creatures always treat Swim as a class skill.
This is frustrating. The GM of my weekly game had been planning on working this into our campaign. We are currently in Qadira and 10th level, so it would be perfect. But we've now been holding back for a few months, and we aren't waiting any longer. I believe he's canceling his pre-order.
To celebrate episode 50, I've added a link on our page to a full resolution jpg of the forest ruin map I made. It's the same map we use in episodes 49 and 50, but without the giant tree trunk and shadow. You don't even have to listen to use it, but it'd be cool if you did!
One year later and I'm happy to say our 50th episode will drop this Friday! We've had a new episode up almost every week, and we aren't slowing down anytime soon!
I'm having the greatest time running this game and creating the campaign as we go. Starting with episode 51, I plan on adding a real re-cap at the beginning of each episode, so it will be easier for newbies to jump on board. I hope to spend a bit more time creating token art and maps for use on roll20, and to give that stuff away on our blog for others to use. For now, please enjoy, and tell us what you think!
Perhaps there will be something in the Summoners Handbook that will be out in a couple days. Otherwise, melee or flank buddy summoner seems like an excellent idea for a new archetype.
I had a suli summoner that wasn't too bad at melee. +2 to STR helped. I had him using a magic morningstar, and he could buff himself if he new he'd be heading into battle. I'd recommend taking full advantage of Use Magic Device, which should be maxed out, and get wands for the buffs you want that aren't on the summoner's spell list.
Wow, what a great issue! Flipping through quickly to see my own (first ever) article, I had to stop half a dozen times to read the awesome stuff that caught me eye. I'm incredibly proud to have been able to contribute something amongst such illustrious colleagues.
(And my article got ART! SQUEE!)
Ahem. Yes. Well done, Wayfinder folks!
Hey GM Lamplighter, I'm John Bunger, the artist that did the illustration for your Tarn Thrice-Cursed article. Thanks for writing such a cool piece! I really enjoyed working with it.
I'll probably give the Dungeon Deep summoner and eidolon to my nephew or a friend and keep the iconic versions for myself. Or, vice versa. Either way, I'm still very excited for both DD and Iconic Heroes 3.
Bestiary 3 has some monsters and art I'd love to see as minis in an upcoming set:
River Drake - A medium flying creature that can terrorize lower level characters. I've used river drakes in two different scenarios with low level PCs and received good feedback both times. They're excellent in random wilderness encounters. I think the mini would look great too, as the art shows the creature with bold, distinct features that would stand out in miniature form. I think there has been 4 drakes so far, all large. A medium would be welcome.
Suli - The fire erupting from the man's forearms in translucent plastic would look spectacular. It would be a useful mini as well, pulling double duty as a player character or as a baddie.
And I know it's an incredible long shot:
Tzitzimitl - Seriously. A flying, 50 foot tall, stone covered skeleton with translucent purple plastic gas and lightning effects would be the most amazing promo yet. I think it would stand a bit taller than the white dragon gargantuan.
Honestly, if you fine people at Paizo put out a line of huge, gargantuan and colossal monster miniatures I'd be all over it. Imagine, linnorms, imperial, primal and outer dragons, bandersnatch, xacarba....
Yes, flying kick sounds awesome. The monk players will feel a lot more like they are contributing if these rules are used at the table! And Rogue's Edge sounds like a great way to separate the rogue from other classes that use their old abilities. Plus, getting DEX to damage will make them a lot more useful in combat. If these alternate rules play smoothly, the rogue is going to be a really fun class again. Can't wait to try these rules out.
