Swatkat's page

Thanks All for the help on this question.

Appreciate it :)

Hi Everyone,

I'm playing a magus for the first time in Pathfinder and ran into a strange circumstance during play. I read the article on touch spells.
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2nler?A-Guide-to-Touch-Spells-Spellstrike-and-S pell
However it wasn't as clear as either my GM or myself would have liked.

The Scenario is:
turn 1. I use spell combat to cast shocking grasp and miss my attacks.
spell is now just a charge.
Turn 2. i attempt to use spell combat again. trying to use my previously cast spell during the attacks and then cast my new touch spell this round.

Can i get those 2 spell effects off in one turn under this condition?

Thanks so much everyone.

Kirth Gersen wrote:

Koujow wrote:

Who cares about the feat tax or whatever.

As a guess: everyone who can't afford it, or doesn't have access to it?

Whaaaaaaat? What do you mean can't afford it? If you want your super shiny new bird horse mount, you have to factor that in to your build then. So what if your charge damage drops from 100 per charge to 90 because you have to delay a feat or miss out on something. YOU HAVE A HIPPOGRIFF! How cool is that? Be happy! (Or a Warg. Or a Griffon. But not a Hippocampus. Because seriously, who would take that? :D )

I might be totally stark raving mad, but I think this is all super cool.

its not that the new mounts are not cool. infact i think they are. I just think that 2 feats for it is excessive and infact limiting in compared to the beast rider feat for half orcs and orcs and the improved familiar feat for casters. it doesn't have the same bang for buck ratio.

if the monstrous mount feat had it so the mastery never existed that would be fine.

or have the mastery be something that the mount has to take instead.

that would be a different story than
paladin anderson has to burn two feats for his divine mount to be a griffon and even then cannot get his divine mount to fly at normal speed with him riding it. but if he let the thing carry him it can still fly at normal speed.

Whenever I see a post or OP that seats off with "Paizo hates..." I know it can't have any meaningful discussion.

I was a bit perturbed at the latest changes because it strongly effects characters I have and for several games, Paizo's word is law. thats how my gms run this and effectively make my mounted characters just want to take their mounts and run into a volcano because that is all they're good for.

Maybe hate was indeed a strong word. maybe i should have said strongly dislike mounts. I don't know, but what I do know is that because of the recent changes I have a paperweight of a character and ultimately deciding whether or not to leave this system because I am no longer having fun being the knight on a white horse in the sunset and actually do stuff when a caster or archer can do the same thing so much better.

the way these new feats appear to me is, ok you can have something similar to the wizards now with an upgraded pet. oh look its still inferior to the wizards due to an extra feat that is needed and the mount is denied what it should be able to do.

That is what I'm seeing and that is why I state they hate mounts. when you put into comparison the toys other classes can get.

Swatkat wrote:

its the problem that the mastery doesn't give it the same power as if it was a normal creature of its type such as a griffon being able to fly its fly speed with a rider if it would be considered a light load.

This is news? Do you think a druid's T-rex companion should have the stats of a Bestiary T-rex at level 1?

Swatkat wrote:

the second problem and why I make that claim is because of the recent patch in the faq that depending on reading makes mounted combat without it being a class feature useless. Clarification would be nice in that regard.

Ah, I see. This thread is Ssalarn's mounted combat thread barrage continued. I'd like to see more material clarifying mounted combat, but I don't feel that it is broken at present due to a fundamental difference in the way I read Handle Animal and Ride. Since the way I read it--fully within RAW--allows combat to work, and the way Ssalarn reads it--also fully within RAW--does not, I'll stick to my reading and play the game instead of rallying torches and pitchforks over it.

Blahpers, did I ever EVER say a bestiary t-rex is ok at level 1? No. What I was arguing is that, ok fine burn the second feat. The creature is still a limited version of what it would be able to do otherwise is where I am saying its not right. hell even burning the second feat when spell casters can take improved familiar and a mephit which is not nerfed at all and gain all their bonuses to it as well.

That is where I draw the line in the sand. I don't mind 2 feats to do it. so long as its equal whether caster OR martial. Not to mention this set of rules screws fighters hard core.

Swatkat wrote:

So in the recent advent of the paizo nerfing mounted combat to the point of being useless.

I'm gonna need a reason to keep reading after this, as it's working just fine for me.

you don't have to keep reading. not gonna force you

The intention of Monstrous Mount is to give characters with a companion animal or mount class feature the ability to select a non-animal as the creature that advances with them as they level up. It is important, however, to ensure that characters don't gain access to abilities that most other character can't receive for several levels (such as the ability to fly before 5th level). The mounts granted by this feat end up being more powerful than the base creatures, as they continue to level up along with the cavalier who selects them, but before their full abilities are unlocked, they are "nerfed" to maintain balance.

The existence of this feat does not preclude a character from gaining a standard magical beast and training it as a mount. You can still raise a hippogriff as a mount and use it with all the normal rules. It just won't advance with you as you level up. You could take a griffon as a cohort, however, so that it would advance with you, but you can't take Leadership until 7th level.

Monstrous Mount was never intended to replace the existing methods of using a magical beast in mounted combat, flying or not. It is simply another set of options for a cavalier who wants to have the same mount from 4th level, even if he can't fly on the beast until such abilities are appropriate for a character of his level.

Needless to say, I fail to see how hyperbolic claims that Paizo "hates" mounted combat are supported with evidence of us providing more options for mounted combatants.

The problem my group and I have with this is not with the feats itself giving access to more. its the problem that the mastery doesn't give it the same power as if it was a normal creature of its type such as a griffon being able to fly its fly speed with a rider if it would be considered a light load. a griffon can carry 400 lbs and be considered light. a knight even heavily armed would only be the rider's weight+ armor which would be at most ~+80lb?

the second problem and why I make that claim is because of the recent patch in the faq that depending on reading makes mounted combat without it being a class feature useless. Clarification would be nice in that regard.

My problem is that unlike the recent evolutions of meta damage due to things like vital strike to warriors on foot, the same kind of love hasn't been shared to mounted characters and there is a gap in the damage capabilities between the two. mounted combat the way the system speaks right now is only viable as an archer.

So... the cavalier who previously had horses, camels, boars, dogs, ponies, and wolves on his class mount list and couldn't actually have a griffin in that class feature anyway (at least not without the GM kitting something up) now, thanks to the presence of a couple of feats, have rules to do so so they not only have a flying mount but one that advances with their class feature? Those dirty bastards at Paizo - how the hate flows from their keyboards!

The problem is more that they nerfed the abilities of the mount such as fly speed on top of the encumbrance rules for the mount.

as explained by ssalarn, the latest faq update makes mounted combat this:
NPC's can't charge on a mount. Charging is a full round action for both mount and rider since the last FAQ, and using Handle Animal to command a mount to attack is a move action. THat's what the OP was getting at when he said NPCs couldn't use Spirited Charge and the other charge based abilities.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/monstrous-mount
ou have learned how to tame and ride exotic beasts.

Prerequisite(s): Handle Animal 4 ranks; Ride 4 ranks; divine bond (mount), hunter's bond (animal companion), or mount class feature with an effective druid level of 4.

Benefit(s): You can select an exotic beast from the list of monstrous mounts to serve as your animal companion or special mount. You acquire and advance this creature in the same way as the mount or animal companion detailed in the class feature used as a prerequisite for this feat. You can also dismiss the creature as dictated by your class feature.

You must meet additional prerequisites to choose a creature with an Intelligence score of 3 or higher, as described in each creature's entry.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/monstrous-mount-mastery
Your monstrous mount has developed an ability that only its wild kin would normally possess.

Prerequisite(s): Monstrous Mount, character level equal to or higher than that listed in your mount's Mastery entry.

Benefit(s): Your monstrous mount gains the abilities and bonuses listed under Mastery in its stat block. You must be of at least the indicated level for the mount to use these abilities, so if you dismiss a mount and gain a new mount of a different type, you retain the feat but might not yet be of sufficient level for the new mount to gain its Mastery benefits.

Normal: A monstrous mount is unable to use its Mastery abilities regardless of its advancement.

So in the recent advent of the paizo nerfing mounted combat to the point of being useless. I have come to discuss how these nerfs affect those poor knights and even the random npcs that fight on a mount.

Currently they have started to nerf flying mounts that were quite capable and without this new forced feat could do just fine.

what feat you ask?
Monstrous mount

Sure the feat sounds cool and you should be able to get something really cool having to burn a feat right? Not really, it allows you to pick up a griffon, hippogriff, worg or hippocampus. While this is fine on its own, but when you read more into the feat it denies their abilities that they had before this feat's creation.

Now to make this "balanced" they incorporated another feat called monstrous mount mastery. which grants these creatures their abilities that before these two feats had the ability to do.

IF that wasn't enough...
NPCS cannot do mounted charges, if you can't do mounted charges you cannot do spirited charges or ride-by attacks or anything. which leads to the question of why would a country want a cavalry?

No seriously, why would you want to spend the money to board a horse, train a soldier to ride it for a grand total of... +1 attack.

So if anyone reads this, preferably the people remaking the mounted combat rules. Please keep these points i've made in mind. There is a reason that cavalries changed warfare and made history the way it is now.

To everyone, what are your thoughts about this new development? hope to hear from everyone if they have insights, more concerns or even better explanations for these changes.