Solusek's page

Important feats for tripping:
Combat Expertise (Prerequisite)
Improved Trip
Greater Trip
Combat Reflexes (Not strictly necessary, but useful since your trips will provoke)
Fury's Fall (add Dex to trip CMB)

Also, any feats to give you plus to hit are nice since that translates directly to higher CMB. Like Weapon Focus and Outflank.

Tripping Strike is decent, but I don't think it's as important as pumping your +hit bonus. I considered taking it on my fighter, but decided that anything which was trippable I would just be going straight for the trip CMB from the beginning anyways, so why bother?

I have been extremely dubious of 5th edition. Pathfinder is great and I feel like I would be happy playing it as my RPG of choice for many more years.

Back in '07 I got on the 4E hype train early on but was hugely let down when the books came out. What I saw of the first 5E playtest packet didn't really excite me, and I was already prepared for another crap D&D product so didn't pay the playtest much attention after that.

However, after seeing the basic rules and checking out the sneak peeks/spoilers that are going around the web, I think my mind has been changed. 5E is looking great. The game mechanics seem to have a more familiar D&D feel to them that 4E lacked. I love what they are doing with advantage/disadvantage, concentration buff spells, and keeping hit/save bonuses reigned in with the rather modest proficiency stat. I am officially on the 5E hype train now!

Solusek wrote:

Paladins need uphold a strict code of conduct at all times. I would not let blatant evil actions like this slide.

By your definition every iconic Paizo has produced (including the paladin) is evil in alignment based on actions taken they have published.

(i.e. killing something that just tried to kill you isn't evil - by RAW or RAI in any definition).

There is a huge difference between killing something that is actively in combat and killing someone who is running away or standing there with their hands up and talking. Even if they previously did take a hostile action.

Would I change a good aligned PC to neutral or evil for what he did here? No, not for only rare transgressions at least. But the Paladin code is much stricter than just "remain good aligned". Messing up even once when you are a paladin means it's atonement time. Even when you mess up on accident. This, however, wasn't an accident. It was just straight up blood thirst.

inability to pump blood, or that the victim of paralysis is (if lucky) left behind by Golarion's orbital motion or (if unlucky) forced through the surface of the ground at 107,200 kilometers per hour (assuming Golarion's rotation around its sun is equivalent to Earth's around ours).

Oh, and the electrons in your brain stopped because y'know, they're a part of you and you can't move 'em.

I am going to be incorporating this interpretation of paralysis into all my upcoming games. Bring on the ghouls! Muahaha.

Here's a novel concept, give the players the choice. 4d6 drop the lowest, put them in any order you want, or 20 pt point buy. Choose one, and stick with it.

What I did in the last game I ran was have everyone roll stats. If they were unhappy with their roll they could do a 20-point buy instead.

This makes it so if someone has a character concept they are set on playing, but the dice don't fall their way they can just shrug and point buy instead. Or if the dice fall very badly and their stats are awful they can point buy instead. Point buy was like a safety net.

It turns out in that game my dice rolling scheme was generous enough that no one needed to use the point buy. I like the idea of using it as a backup to mitigate bad rolling luck though.

edit: I guess I should state the reason I like to use some kind of rolling method as default. I want characters that maybe have strengths and weaknesses in areas you don't expect, and no one would bother doing with the point buy limitations.

With point buy every Wizard has a 18 INT and probably an 8 or maybe 10 str (or even lower). With rolling you might get a Wizard with a 15 strength, or a 17 Dexterity, or a 16 Wisdom. Just randomly. It doesn't make the character all that much more powerful but I just think it is cool to have characters with stats that look more organic than the point-buy default of:
STR: 8
Dex: 12
Con: 14
Int: 18
Wis: 10
Cha: 8

I'm more curious about the bag of salt...

... the arcane spell failure chance matters... in an anti-magic field?

*shakes head at the endless attempts to circumvent any restrictions on armor*

This matters.

There is also still the "+2 natural bonus" problem.

That isn't a problem at all. It just means a new type of bonus was created for this spell. The Natural bonus.

I have already started creating custom magic items with +Natural to AC and +Natural to saves and +Natural to ability scores. It really amps up the power level of my character!

Do you know two things dragons have plenty of?

1) Time
2) Money

Every dragon past young adult should be taking full advantage of this system.

That is all; carry on.

Oh man, imagine how mad your players would be if every dragon (or other epic encounter) they fought had already spent most of its hoard to retrain hit points. Not only is the fight way more difficult, but there would be almost no treasure reward at the end. The dragon already spent it!

It seems to me that it must be an exceedingly odd campaign world where all magic items are in the hands of evil villains. Somebody had to create the magic items in the first place, why would this ability/technology suddenly disappear?

Power corrupts. Those people with the most magic items have the most power, and are therefore the most evil. This makes perfect sense!

TimrehIX wrote:

If you are unconscious and you fall under water do you automatically hold your breath?

No. How could you? That doesn't even make sense.

From Wikipedia under drowning: "Upon water entering the airways, both conscious and unconscious victims experience laryngospasm, that is the larynx or the vocal cords in the throat constrict and seal the air tube. This prevents water from entering the lungs."

Saying it makes no sense it going overboard. I think there can be a discussion about this. Perhaps you can hold your breath in this way while unconscious.

Yes, so well they banned it from PFS...it's kind of a problematic item, especially when people start carrying around stacks of them...

I wonder... Is it problematic because it helps let fighters/rogues/monks catch up just a little bit closer to the pouncing barbarians or (god forbid) the spell casters in effectiveness?

I think you are an awesome DM, man! Show your players no mercy. It sounds to me like they are just screwed around with you anyways.

One thing to also keep in mind, in the tabletop Pathfinder RPG spell casters can often utilize the 3D world to better place their AoE spells in places that will hit the most enemies and the least friends. Things like centering fireballs 20 feet up so their blast extends down to ground level only in a specific area, or angling your cone of cold up into the sky so you only blast the heads of the giants while missing all your medium sized companions.

If the online game is only going to have ground targeting systems (like all other MMO's that I've played do) for your AoE effects it is effectively nerfing the ability of spell casters to use clever targeting to avoid friendly fire like they can do in the tabletop.

Debate me and make playing a wizard, witch, cleric, or even druid sound like a good idea!

Don't do it! Sorcerers and Oracles are the best man! Spontaneous 4 life.