You know how these threads work by now! The goal for this specific thread is to brainstorm ideas for one-shots. (Could be 1 to 3 sessions) These ideas can fall into 2 categories: the campaign narrative or the quirky parameters of the one-shot. Both are fine! I’ll be designating mine with an (N) for Narrative and (P) for Parameter, but do as you please.
1. (P) The GM changes over the course of the game! One person would write up the one-shot, but at key points one of the players is handed guidelines on how to GM part of the session and at the end of the instructions, it specifies who the next GM is. (Or how the next GM is chosen.) Have you played Betray at House on the Hill? Sort of like that.
2. (N) The players wake up in cages and have been experimented on by a wizard! You need to break free and find a way out. (Plagiarism isn’t bad, right? Ah, memories.)
3. (P) The entire party is the same class! (Different Archetypes encouraged!) I recommend letting your players chose and building around their choice. (Although let them face situations they may not be well suited for.) Whether Oracle, Barbarian or Bard, same class parties can make for some fun stories.
Ever run out of powerful spells by the time you reach the big bad evil guy? All casters run into this balancing act. Arcanists even more so, with fewer spells than Wizards or Sorcerers and class features that encourage you to sacrifice even more spells. Occultist have it perhaps toughest of all, with an amazingly strong ability that, if used recklessly, can be depleted after only a few combats.
This mini-guide to the Occultist Arcanist is about how to conserve resources while still contributing to every fight.
Occultist Build:
My level 1 stats:
Str 6
Dex 16
Con 14
Int 21
Wis 8
Cha 18
This character has crazy generous stats, but it's not necessary to make the class function. If anything, this guide is more pertinent to someone with a regular point buy since you can’t consume as many spells each day.
Exploits
1 Conjurer’s Focus
3 Familiar
5 School Understanding (Void)
7 Planar Contact
9 Quick Study
11 Dimensional Slide
Occultist's Progression Of Abilities:
Other than level 2, every level for an Occultist adds exciting new options, which I think speaks well to the design of the class.
Levels 1 and 2
Actually, these levels are pretty sweet for you. Between Grease, Sleep and SM1, you have powerful options and effectively more spells per day than most.
Subsequent Odd Levels
These levels are both awesome and awkward. You get access new feats, exploits and a new level of Summon Monster. However your conjurer’s focus ability is tougher to use at these levels. Even sacrificing your highest level spell won’t fully give you the arcane points needed to cast your highest SM spell.
Subsequent Even Levels
These levels will feel like you’re coming into your own with your abilities. You get a new level of spells and sacrificing these will allow you to cast the highest SM spell you can. You also get another point in your arcane reservoir.
Evolved Summon Monster: An Occultist’s Best Friend
Some of you may wonder why I didn’t pick up Superior Summoning at level 3. That’s because of the centerpiece of this guide; Evolved Summon Monster. This feat does a fantastic job of allowing an Occultist conserve resources. How? The option to still cast a lower level Summon Monster spell for fewer points. Unlike the Summoner who always uses the highest level SM spell available to him, you have many reasons to consider looking down the list, and Evolved Summon Monster can beef up a lower level summon. Superior Summoning just isn’t something an Occultist can use nearly as often. I contemplated skipping Superior Summoning altogether, but I know how powerful it can be, and someday I will be summoning 1d4+2 lantern archons to bail us out of an impossible fight.
So what makes Evolved Summon Monster so incredibly strong? The ability to add additional natural attacks. There was a great thread on this a while back. Theorycrafting to maximally exploit Evolved Summon Monster Adding natural attacks to monsters with high strength/hit die but a terrible attack routine is how you get the most out of this feat.
Ponyfinder:
For an Occultist, at level 3 and beyond, you really don’t want to be using your Conjurer’s Focus to cast the highest level SM spell you have access to in EVERY combat. But how can you still contribute to combat while conserving resources? Enter Ponyfinder.
The pony is the strongest monster on SM1. Didn’t seem that way last time you looked? That’s because it starts with secondary attacks. But with 2 Hit Die and (post augment summoning) 17 Str and 18 Con, it has stats you’d expect to see on SM2. Let’s see how it looks with some evolutions.
At Level 3:
With claws and smite evil, a Pony’s attack routine looks like this:
+4/+4/-1/-1
d4+5/d4+5/d4+3/d4+3
At Level 5:
There’s actually 2 different evolutions worth looking at. Both have merits.
Add Bite:
+4/+4/+4/-1/-1
d6+5/d4+5/d4+5/d4+3/d4+3
Or Add Mount:
+4/+4/+4/+4
d4+5/d4+5/d4+5/d4+5
Now is the pony actually stronger than the SM2 options? No, a Giant Worker Ant or a Hyena with evolutions would be stronger. But the power difference is so minor it generally makes no sense to spend double the arcane points to achieve such a minor boost.
Don’t forget this important line of text, which reinforces the pony as the best option for abuse at low levels. ” Evolutions that grant additional attacks or enhance existing attacks can be applied only to Medium or larger summoned creatures.” So eagles and earth elementals don’t have access to the most powerful part of this feat; extra attacks. (You could still give them +2 natural armor or something.)
After Ponyfinder:
The pony is a low level trick to conserve resources, and I’d say the sweet spot is levels 3 through 6, although I wouldn’t forget about it entirely. Sometimes a flank buddy with 5+ natural attacks that only hit on a nat 20 is good enough for easier fights.
However the same concept can be applied well beyond these levels. Try summoning a Bison (SM4) instead of a Dire Tiger. (SM6) And the beauty of it all is that this trick doesn’t take any investment at all. You want Evolved Summon Monster anyway! Who doesn’t want to summon a T-Rex with 6 natural attacks?
Other Ways To Conserve Resources:
School Understanding: Void
I love Reveal Weakness. 3+Cha times per day, you give a penalty on AC and saving throws equal to half your caster level. No saving throw, just massive penalties. It’s often a great follow up to summoning a creature, allowing a flurry of attacks (and spells) to get through much easier. And it’s contributing to combat without casting a spell or spending arcane points.
Consumables
I’m not going to dwell on this much, as many guides have this well covered. Get some scrolls. Maybe a wand. Craft alchemical items and give some to your familiar too. There are some very cost-efficient options to turn GP into relevant combat options, so make use of them.
Are you ready to inflict death by ponies? Suggestions, questions, and critiques are much appreciated!
Action economy is discussed on the boards all the time; you should be summoning monsters, quickening spells, and have a familiar using a wand to overwhelm your foes with the sheer quantity of standard actions you can take each turn. But when is it too much?
From a pure optimization standpoint, the answer is never. Always take more actions when possible. I'm playing an Occultist Arcanist (currently level 2) and have every opportunity to shatter the action economy. ...but I'm thinking I'd rather not. I'll take a regular familiar, for the nice initiative boost and other minor utility, but would rather keep it away from the battlefield. I'd like to summon an Auroch with Claws and a Bite attack from Evolved Summon Monster, but would rather stay away from Superior Summoning. I guess I have preference in potent actions over a lot of them, even though more actions is stronger.
I'm playing through the Crimson Throne with an unchained Ninja, Oracle and a Cleric. We have a GENEROUS point buy and optimized builds, so I feel I have plenty of margin to skip out on action economy; our party is strong enough for the challenge. But not everyone has such a generous hedge of power. How do you go about it in your games?
Let's say you're a 2nd level Summoner with Augment Summoning. You're about to hit level 3 and you're looking to take one of two feats: Superior Summoning or Evolved Summon Monster. Which do you take?
If I had to guess, Superior Summoning is more powerful. d3+1 14 Str Eagles vs a 20 Str Horse with either a bite attack or the mount evolution to make his hooves primary attacks. But more than raw power, I imagine sticking with 1 summon is less of a headache for the rest of the table. On the other hand, I do have a rogue in the party who appreciates all the flanking he can get.
So which would you choose, and why?
Rules Question:
Has Paizo made an official ruling on which evolutions you can take with Evolved Summon Monster? I've seen people mention you can't take mount because the monster isn't a quadruped eidolon or you can't take claws since it doesn't have the limbs evolution. Honestly, I find that that dubious. I think my GM would readily allow me to apply claws to a wolf or whatever seems anatomically reasonable.
Of all archetypes, I think the Occultist was hardest hit by the consume spells nerf. So I was thinking of asking my GM for a replacement ability for the 7th level ability. I have no delusions that my proposed ability is a "fair trade," I mean for it to make the class function more easily.
Conjurer's Versatility:
At 7th level, an occultist can spend 1 point from her arcane reservoir to apply Moonlight/Starlight/Sunlight Summons to his Conjurer's Focus ability.
Your Conjurer's Focus ability costs 1 less point from her arcane reservoir. (Minimum 1 point)
I added the first half of the ability as more of a flavor thing, since I have fey heritage as the source of my sorcerer side and the feats are underwhelming normally. Although the flexibility to add any of the 3 may be stronger than I suspect. I also went through various iterations, like the Moonlight/Starlight/Sunlight being 1/day, but figured spending arcane points was more in line with what the arcanist usually does. I also thought of increasing the point reduction to 2 at level 15, but that's just asking for more gravy late game rather than helping the class function. The ability becomes free at level 20 anyway.
So what do you think? Interesting ability? More help than the class actually needs?
I decided I wanted to play an Occultist before knowing about the Consume Spells nerf, but here I am, still playing it anyway. I think it'll still be strong. But does it affect my Exploit picks? Do I still prioritize Potent Magic, Dimensional Slide, and Quick Study?
My current thoughts:
Stats at level 1:
Str 6
Dex 16
Con 14
Int 21
Wis 8
Cha 18
Exploits:
1 (Replaced)
3 Familiar
5 School Understanding (Void)
7 (Replaced)
Unsure where to go from there.
This isn't PFS, so I have some flexibility. Heck, if I were super whiny, I bet I could play pre-nerf Arcanist. ...but I don't mind a challenge. How would you build it?
Sidenote: Opportunities for Homebrew:
My character is a student of the Acadamae, as in, the school in question for the Acadamae Graduate feat. Although that feat isn't useful to an occultist. Perhaps it could be rewritten to a relevant benefit? But what kind of benefit would I actually care to get? Maybe my GM would allow me to replace an Exploit with this homebrew ability. I also have an open trait slot.
Hey all, I'm starting a new campaign on Saturday and have a very generous stat generation system and can't decide on what would be best for my Occultist. (I'd consider dropping the archetype, but I've written a backstory that quite heavily leans on my taking this archetype) Here are the two extremes I'm looking at:
Str 6
Dex 16
Con 16
Int 21
Wis 16
Cha 8
or...
Str 6
Dex 16
Con 12
Int 21
Wis 10
Cha 18
Or I could split the difference with a Charisma of 14 or so. What would your preference be? My concern is that without Consume Spells being usable many times a day, eventually my Summon Monster ability will be usable twice a day, tops. Are there other notable perks to having 18 charisma? Exploits worth looking at? Consume spells alone seems like a shaky reason to go from 8 to 18.
Originality is overrated, I say. Stand atop the shoulders of greats and take the ideas of others even farther!
My favorite idea that I've stolen is from a post in another thread I started where someone explained a great way to run sandbox campaigns. Establish the existence of time and have 3 or 4 plotlines occurring simultaneously. Have each plot advance whether the PCs interact with it or not. An individual plotline could reach a critical point where the PCs have even more compelling reasons to resolve it. Or it could be resolved by other heroes who got there before you. Or whatever. Just seemed like a great way to maintain that openness of a sandbox, where players can go and do what they'd like, but add some urgency and verisimilitude that this is an actual world that moves without you.
What's your favorite idea that you've taken, perhaps reworked a little and added to your game? As a player or game master.
One GM tactic that can rub players the wrong way is railroading, where the GM is overly controlling of the story. No matter what the players do, the story continues down the path the GM has laid out. All GMs in our group, myself included, are guilty of using this tactic at least once, if not constantly.
So in my next campaign I'd like to intentionally NOT railroad the group. My campaign is sandbox style, but that does not by definition prevent railroading. I think the true agony of being railroaded is that the players' decisions are meaningless and don't affect the outcome of the story. So I'm trying to brainstorm ways to make the players' decisions matter.
1. Recurring NPCs:
Take notes for each NPC you introduce. Did PCs do a favor for this NPC? Did PCs mistreat this NPC? Have karma bless or bite the PCs. Excessively, if appropriate. Make it over the top awesome or horrible.
2. Players Express Interest:
PCs are especially interested in some throwaway line about an ancient ruin? Let them investigate! If you have trouble completely ad libbing this unplanned dungeon from start to finish, make it a 2 parter and flesh out the details by the next session.
3. Reward Roleplay and Creativity:
Player does some great roleplaying or lays out some really clever plan? Reward behavior you like seeing in your players by letting their roleplay or plan achieve its intended results, even if it stretches what they could normally accomplish within the rules. Or give the player a literal poker chip or some other token they can turn in for free rerolls or something.
How else could a GM implement the opposite of railroading?
So I've been running the runelords campaign for a few years now, and I'd like to conclude it in chapter 4.
Reasons:
1. My players are losing their excitement for this campaign. Probably because I'm losing excitement as GM
2. Problem characters, mechanically. I've got a Fey Kitsune Sorcerer who's hyper specialized in save or die combat ending enchantments. This leads to a no-win situation. Either the sorcerer completely ends the fight and the party is bored, or the sorcerer is completely useless and not having fun, while the rest of the party is having a good time. Also, I have an Oracle of Life that makes the game feel too safe. No one's ever in danger since the Oracle is constantly topping off HP as free actions, swift actions, move actions, and standard actions. Occasionally casting scorching ray instead.
3. Well, more a consequence than a reason, but I have already declared my intentions for a new campaign. People have rolled up characters and are stoked to try my first stab at a homebrew story; a sandbox kingmaker-esque campaign.
Possible options:
1. Leave the game untouched, PCs defeat Mokmurian and are left with a foreboding cliffhanger of Karzoug's return.
2. Instead of Karzoug only mentally appearing before the PCs, he literally appears before the PCs. The PCs defeat him, the world is saved, the entire storyline is essentially resolved and the campaign is complete.
3. End the campaign with a TPK. Karzoug appears and kills them all. Or imprisons them. In a prism? Imprismed. Perhaps defeating Karzoug will be an optional story arc to be tackled at the high levels of my new sandbox campaign.
Option 1 seems unsatisfying, while 2 and 3 seem tempting, although I'm nervous about implementing option 3. It could be completely awesome or could go very sour if handled poorly.
I've been considering implementing Mythic rules into my upcoming kingdom building sandbox campaign, but I'm also somewhat concerned about my players steamrolling the non-mythic aspects of my campaign.
So I'm considering Mythic only being active when I say it is. They might be mythic for 1 combat, 1 day, or 1 month, depending upon the nature of the challenge they face. What say you? Would this be a good house-rule? Or would this be a headache if you were one of my players?
I'm helping a friend make her first Wizard. She normally plays Rangers and Fighters, but wanted to challenge herself more than usual. I was thinking of recommending a Conjurer and go with traditional good stuff like Grease, Create Pit, and later on, summons, walls and so forth? Or maybe go Evoker Admixture if she wants to blast...
Is there anything new going on with the Wizard? I haven't created a Wizard since Ultimate Combat came out and was wondering if any new archetypes or spells have challenged the traditional wizard model.
I'm starting a homebrew sandbox campaign and a number of my players have some cool concepts for characters that sound like they'd be weak mechanically.
The Druid:
The druid wants to be very intelligent, reads a lot of books, and is fascinated with ruins. Or runes? Maybe both. She has no interest in being a frontliner/using wildshape, etc and would like to cast from the back row.
The Bard:
Is something of a pacifist hippy performing artist. She's an Aasimar (with wings) that goes on tour from city to city and draws large crowds. She'd rather not dirty her hands with something as crude as a weapon and mostly perform and buff.
The Swashbuckler & The Witch:
These two I'm less worried about, their classes will be optimized as you'd normally expect. Still, maybe I'll treat them to something else; I think the Swashbuckler wants to be stealthy and Witch wants to be a magic item crafter
The Oracle 1/Paladin 2/Synthesist X - Charisma for everything:
I'm, uh, least worried about how his mechanics will pan out. Still, he's a good friend and been very helpful in designing my homebrew campaign, so I wouldn't mind giving him some goodies.
Primarily, I'd like to design archetypes for the Druid and the Bard to more easily enable their concepts. The party is big enough that it's okay for them to be weaker, but as a GM wanting to see everyone filling their role as they imagined, I'd like to help. They don't have an optimizing bone in their bodies, but they do enjoy the benefits of a good build. (They've asked me to help optimize their characters in the past)
Beyond that, I'm totally feeling generous with my players and wouldn't mind tossing out freebies; hopefully freebies that won't dramatically individually warp their combat abilities, but I'm not too afraid of that either. Things like extra skill points, stealthy abilities, improved crafting and more.
Whenever my mom talks about leading groups of people in present or past bible studies, I can’t help but think “That sounds like a situation that’s come up in my Pathfinder groups.” After experiencing this enough times, I decided to briefly interview my mom with the goal of finding useful parallels between successfully leading a bible study and being a successful GM.
Question: What are your primary goals as a women’s discussion leader in Bible Study Fellowship?
Answer:
A discussion leader is a facilitator of the group and the number one goal is Balanced Sharing; getting everyone to participate. Some women are shy. I call on them for easy questions to hopefully get them comfortable with sharing with the group. Some women are overly talkative and feel the need to answer every question. Instead of scolding these women, I try to encourage them and redirect them. “You’ve done several bible studies and your experience shows; however, for some of these women, it’s their first year, so I’d like to give them a chance to share too. I want you to be a resource I can call on when no one else has the answer.” Essentially, get that women on your team and help them see the goal of the group. (Balanced Sharing) Encourage and love them, no matter how obnoxious they can get.
Here’s a few things I keep in mind:
1. Be well prepared for the discussion – Read your material
2. Most situations can be resolved with charm, kindness and encouragement.
3. While rare, when all options are exhausted, sometimes you have to tell a woman she’s not a good fit for the group (One instance in the last 23 years)
Question: What responsibilities do you have as a discussion leader outside of discussion time?
Answer:
I call the women every week to check what’s going on in their lives, if God taught them anything that week and so forth. This is the toughest part of my job, but it’s important to communicate with the women.
Also, every week we have a leaders meeting, probably about 20 minutes each week where we go over what’s going on in our groups each week, like what’s been working, what hasn’t been working. You’re leading a group of human beings; there’s bound to be differences in opinion. So during our leaders meetings we run through hypothetical situations and discuss possible methods to resolve them.
Finally, once a year we have a workshop. We go on a weekend retreat, fellowship and learn how to better lead our groups.
Oh, and most importantly of all, we pray on our knees.*
*I finally let on I was interviewing her for the sake of Pathfinder and thought this was important for you to know.
Unsurprisingly, at least to me, there are tons of parallels on being a good discussion leader and being a good GM. Managing people, no matter the reason, deals with the same issue: You're dealing with people. Some are easy to work with, others not as much.
Here's some lessons I've taken away:
1. Balanced Sharing - This seems an eternal struggle in one of my groups, where we have dominating players and shy or simply less talkative players. The GM should single out the shy ones to get them more involved; have an NPC interact with them specifically, delegate some task to them like tracking initiative.
2. Communicate with players - In BSF, this takes the form of a weekly phone call. In Pathfinder, it's sometime easy to skip this step, but I think it's an important one for the long term health of a gaming group. It doesn't have to be weekly even, but you really want to keep a pulse on how players are individually feeling about the campaigns. Is it fun? What makes it not fun? What would you like to do in the future?
3. Training - In our group, everyone has been/will be a GM at some point, so I think it could really be fun to put together a workshop once a year, every 6 months or whatever and try out new strategies/ways to play to shake things up. One idea I want to try out is a scenario where we take turns GMing a single session; shifting control of the bad guys and NPCs. But the bad guy has a stated objective "I'm going to destroy this city with my hoard of undead" and each GM works within that framework.
What do you think? Does the bible study model have something to offer to GMs learning the ropes?
That... sounds a little more awkward than first intended.
Anyway, I'm wanting to build an Eldritch Guardian fighter which comes with a familiar, and I'd like my familiar to take the Mauler Archetype. This means:
My familiar can switch between Tiny (Most Likely) and Medium sized whenever he wishes.
AND
My familiar has every combat feat I have.
So I thought I'd play a Small character, hopefully with the possibility of him riding me and me riding him. However, I still don't have a firm grasp on mounted combat rules and what might matter to making this work properly. Other ideas:
Mounted Combat feats:
I can gain mounted combat feats to ride my familiar into battle! Also, my familiar happens to gain every mounted combat feat I take.
Feral Combat Training:
I thought it would be neat if I took Feral Combat Training and I gained a natural attack that matches my familiar (Bite or Claw?) then my familiar and I can both get Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, Improved Critical... Oh and of course we could both use the same Combat Style Feats, using our natural attack in place of the unarmed strike.
Teamwork Feats:
Whether I fight side by side, or if I mount my familiar, there are some interesting combat teamwork feats we could share.
So, my questions:
1. Would something like Evolved Familiar (Mount) be worth getting? I never quite understood what that evolution does for you.
2. What allies would you beg to have on your side to enable this I mount/he mounts strategy? A wizard? An alchemist with infusions? I imagine there's some interesting polymorphing options out there.
3. If this were a gestalt campaign, what classes would complement this strategy?
4. Other thoughts on how to make this idea better?
Hey all; I'm putting together a kingdom building sandbox campaign, and I'd like to incorporate something I've yet to try: Some horrifying truth. Something to add tension and make the campaign feel legendary. (GMs like to dream)
Since the campaign hasn't even begun yet, I thought now would be a good time to build a few secrets into the world that I can hint at that the PCs will eventually discover.
Some agreed reality in the current campaign:
The organization invaded and seized control of Almas 15 years ago.
One of the PC's parents, nobles of Almas, was killed 15 years ago in the takeover.
One of the PCs is the child of one of the leaders of the organization, but ends up siding with the party. She's currently 18 years old, or 3 at the time of the takeover.
So the way the story plays out is the PCs will encounter the organization, suffer loss, rescue some citizens of Almas before retreating, and begin a new kingdom. (The end of the railroad arc, before the story switches to full sandbox) The organization will continue to threaten your new kingdom until defeated. Then other enemies will be waiting for you in the world.
So what to do? I'd like to incorporate some horrible secret, but not sure what would be interesting. Something relating to the organization would be nice.
Potential Secrets:
A PC's parents died 15 years ago by some invading outside force? Perhaps not all were outsiders. How about his father was actually a member of "the organization"; killed his wife, but for some reason, not his son and joined forces to take over the city. Why? Well, some horrifying secret.
Maybe some mind control drama.
Maybe the organization isn't pure evil; maybe in some way, they're attempting to save the world.
Or there could be some other secret, less directly related to the organization, although the organization might hint at the existence of this secret.
...and that's where I'm at with ideas.
So has anyone had success with a good secret in their campaign? Any thoughts on what I could do in mine?
Since I'm wrapping up Rise of the Runelords, I decided to start planning my next campaign. Our group always has three separate campaigns running and I am one of the 3 GMs currently in the rotation. One feature common to all of our campaigns is that the plot is always railroaded upon the PCs.
So I think it's time for a sandbox campaign. I've tried this once before, albeit with minimal preparation and no GMing experience, (4-5 years ago) and failed utterly to create a compelling story. Someone else's sandbox campaign was career-ending. The group lost interest and forced him to retire it and he hasn't GM'd since. (Still plays, though)
So, if possible, I want to do it right. Here are steps I've taken to prevent disaster.
Step 1: Put players to work:
This has been amazingly effective. As a condition of joining this campaign, you must provide a backstory, an NPC for the world, and a location. If you provide additional NPCs and locations, I am more willing to indulge certain things for your character that I'd ordinarily disallow. (Exotic races, OP feats/archetypes, 3rd party/homebrew things, etc.)
Step 2: Have players work on their backstory together:
This worked out better than I anticipated:
The group is largely LG or CG.
The Witch and Druid are brother and sister.
The Synthesist is an acquaintance of the Bard.
The Synthesist was a noble of the starting city, Almas, before his parents were killed 15 years ago.
The parents of the Witch and Druid used to live in Almas 15 years ago.
The Swashbuckler is the child of one of the leaders of the evil organization that took control of Almas 15 years ago.
I can't tell you how much easier it makes my life that all of this happened.
Step 3: Railroad Anyway:
To get the adventurers up and running I decided to begin with a 6-ish session railroad story arc. This will set them up with the power and influence to strike out on their own and build a nation. Or do whatever else they want in the sandbox.
I just hope I can convince the party to care enough about this foundling nation who's existence is constantly threatened by an evil organization. Between their sense of justice I think they'll stick around to defeat the organization and continue to stick around simply because they're invested. (Running a town has benefits) Otherwise, this sandbox will be more difficult to control, but I'll find a way with open communication with the players.
Speaking of which...
Step 4: Open Communications:
Just stating a simple, but important point: Beyond the construction of the world and the PCs story, I want to talk to players between sessions to keep a pulse on the ambitions of the characters. And I can prepare additional material based on these ambitions, instead of preparing a dozen things and hoping they run into it some of it. (I'll likely have to do some of that anyway, but hopefully less so with communication)
Step 5: Go Big Or Go Home:
My two biggest pieces of homework is this: I have to read Mythic Adventures and Ultimate Campaign. Ultimate Campaign is the more intimidating of the two, and yet the most crucial. My sandbox is designed to encourage kingdom building.
Step 6: Recurring Villians:
My campaign has a large cast of villians and the first they'll run into during the railroad arc is the Black Organization (loosely stolen from Detective Conan) currently dominating Almas. The PCs will initially have some successful skirmishes with this organization, but ultimately, they are far to weak to defeat the upper echelon of this organization (Several level 10+) After witnessing the PCs win a battle against the organization, some NPCs will find the courage to pack up and escape the tyranny of Almas, and attempt to start a life away from this city. Which is where Ultimate Campaign and kingdom building will come in.
But the villains aren't done with them yet; Almas will consistently interfere and undermine this budding new kingdom. Beyond that, in my world there are fouler things than orc- er, the Black Organization in the deep places of the earth. Or many other places in the earth, really.
Step 7: Prepare To Improvise:
Sounds counterintuitive, but I need to prepare to improvise. This boils down to having a long list of potential neutral NPCs, evil NPCs, monsters, traps and so forth to toss into the world wherever/whenever appropriate. (Hopefully, with a liberal application of Step 1, a good chunk of preparation has been done for me.) You don't want to peruse the bestiary or anything else in the middle of a session.
So my question to the Pathfinder community:
What cautions/advice would you give to someone starting a sandbox campaign?
So my local game store has a Pathfinder group that's running some low level adventures (currently level 2) and I thought I'd bring an interesting character to the table; most people suggest a high Int, moderate to low Cha build but I thought it'd be fun to invert this. Here's what I have in mind:
Eldritch Font/ Unlettered Arcanist Halfling
15 point buy:
Str 5 (7 - 2)
Dex 14 (12 + 2)
Con 12
Int 12
Wis 7
Cha 20 (18 + 2)
Eldritch Font and Unlettered are normally weak archetypes, but when you've opted out of a high intelligence build and focusing on your Arcanist exploits, it's sort of nice. Basically a free familiar and more spell slots to convert into arcane points.
Halfling is nice because it boosts Charisma and Dex, the stats I need to make the most of Acid Jet / Ice Missile. Also, I'm small so that's another bonus to attack rolls (and AC)
So what do you think of the build? Should be okay for a low level campaign?
I'm absolutely in love with the new Arcanist class. However, I've GM'd a game with one of my players playing an Arcanist and here's what's stood out to me:
1. Their spellcasting is okay. They can prepare the same amount of spells as spells known by a Sorcerer or Oracle, except they don't have any bonus bloodline/mystery/cure spells to broaden their on the fly versatility. Sure, there's Quick Study, but how often do you want to burn points and full round actions on that? I wouldn't even recommend Quick Study until probably 5th level or later, since you’re limited on resources at low levels.
2. They have less spells per day. They have the fewest spells per day of any full caster and you feel it. No bonus School Slots and so on. However, they can somewhat make up for that, but more on that later...
3. Being a level behind wizards is a really big deal. Just like with Sorc vs Wizard debates, a level 3 Arcanist vs a level 3 Wizard is no contest in terms of spellcasting, and the same holds at all odd levels. Although the Arcanist does have some nice abilities.
4. Abilities like Acid Jet are actually quite good, if you didn't dump Charisma. For a level 3 character, it's akin to more than doubling your spell slots for the day. Prepare some good first level spells like Grease and Color Spray and backing that up is quite the nasty little blast spell. A ranged touch attack dealing 2d6+Cha damage (2d6+3, in this case) and if they fail their save, sickening the target for d4 rounds is really quite a nice alternative to using spell slots, which you are lacking. It never becomes irrelevant, as the damage keeps scaling up, and the DC also scales with your level.
Obviously, campaigns aren't always stuck at level 3 and maybe some of the Arcanist's weaknesses will dissipate after a while, but those are my initial impressions of how they work in practice vs theorycraft “HOMG Arcanist is completely busted.” All that said, I've played my fair share of wizards (Which are still the strongest casting class) and can't wait to roll up an Arcanist. Lots of fun new stuff to try out!
So thanks to a generous GM, I have most everything I need to make an fantastic Mystic Theurge:
1.) Per the recent FAQ, I can enter Mystic Theurge at level 4 by using SLAs to meet the casting requirements.
2.) I have the latitude to create my own 20 RP race (With some oversight) But I should be able to meet the Mystic Theurge entry requirements easily with a couple racial SLAs.
3.) I have access to magic schools and guilds such that I can obtain Eclectic and eventually Esoteric Traing.
Eclectic/Esoteric Training:
Eclectic Training (5 Fame): Guilds often require members to master and train in different subjects. When your Fame score in a guild reaches 5, choose one spellcasting class you have at least 1 level in—you increase your effective caster level in that class (including the number of spells you know and can cast per day) by +1, to a maximum caster level equal to your total Hit Dice. Single-classed spellcasters should still pick a class to which this bonus applies, since this bonus is retroactive.
Esoteric Training (35 Fame): The bonus to caster level you gain from Eclectic Training increases to +3 (but is still limited by your total Hit Dice). You may select a second spellcasting class to gain a +1 bonus to effective caster level.
The plan is to go Wizard 2/Cleric 1/Mystic Theurge 10/Magaambyan Arcanist 4/Loremaster 3 (Something like that?)
Now, what do I do with this? Part of me wants to just go full blaster; go Admixture wizard, Preferred Spell (Fireball), Magical Lineage (Fireball), Rime Spell, Dazing Spell, and just go to town. I have spell slots to burn, and I can spontaneously turn any of my spells into a cure spell or a fireball.
However, I was hoping for a different style of play since I've gone blaster before. ...any suggestions?
a) What kind of feats/traits would you take?
b) What would your daily preparation look like? How about using slots you leave empty?
c) How would you use scribe scroll?
d) If not fireball, what spell would you consider for Preferred Spell/Greater Spell Specialization? Spontaneous casting seems especially solid with the sheer quantity of spell slots.
e) How do you think it will play differently from a traditional single caster? (Roles inside AND outside of combat)
My friend is about to start a Zelda-themed campaign. I was thinking of being an ocarina-playing bard and keeper of awesome songs. ...but then I made a throwaway line about being a Deku Zen Archer Monk, except with seeds instead of arrows. My GM was amused by the idea and said I should totally do it. So with GM's blessing I can work on an archetype of the archetype.
My goal is to be Race: Deku Scrub, Class: Deku Scrub. Sort of how playing a Stonelord Paladin Dwarf feels like playing Dwarf as your class.
This following is a rough draft for the Deku race; as I am the only player considering playing a Deku, my GM is fairly flexible with redesigning it to accommodate this concept. (Most notably the current Seed Shot ability; I need more than 1 seed/day!)
Deku Stats:
Deku
Fey (includes low-light vision)
Slow Speed
Small size
Ability Scores: Standard (+2 Con, +2 Wis, -2 Str)
Standard Languages
Defensive Traits: Natural Armor +1
Skill Traits: Camouflage (forest)
Water Skipping: Deku can run on the surface of liquids at a speed of 10 ft per round with a successful Acrobatics check each round. The DC starts at 10 and increases by 1 for each previous consecutive check (the DC resets to 10 if solid ground or a floating item of sufficient size to hold up the Deku is reached).
Slow Fall: Deku can, as a swift action, flare their head-leaves outward to catch air and slow down when falling. This functions as an at-will feather fall, but can target only the Deku and has indefinite duration. The effect ends, however, if the Deku takes damage while falling.
Seed Shot: As a standard action, a Deku can spit one of its seeds at an enemy within 30 ft. This seed is treated as a ranged attack roll with a base damage of d4 and does not add Strength to its damage, but adds all other ranged damage modifiers (such as from Deadly Aim). A Deku starts the day with one seed per character level, and its store of seeds refreshes each dawn.
Here are some musings on abilities I think would be great if my deku had.
Deku Class Abilities:
Stunning Fist: Normally this ability is swapped out for Perfect Strike, but I’m thinking I want this ability back. Why? It’d make the perfect Deku Nut!
Special Seeds: Beyond Stunning fist, I’m thinking other seeds could be cool. Abilities you might modify an Alchemist’s bombs with, like a tanglefoot bomb.
Minor Wildshape ability: I’m thinking some ki-fueled wildshaping would be really cool. It would be limited only to Deku forms, like a long-range Deku with a greater range increment than 30ft, Medium sized Dekus with bigger damage die for seeds than d4s, a mobile Deku with greater than 20ft movement speed, a gliding Deku to not just feather fall, but to fly while falling 5ft each round.
Seed Regeneration: While my GM is completely sympathetic with expanding my seed pool, for verisimilitude, he doesn't want it to be unlimited. I'm thinking something like 2+(2*level)+Con per day, but then you regenerate them between battles, or at the expense of ki, or whenever you wildshape. ...or something like that.
What do you think would be some great abilities for a Deku to have?
We have generous stats in our campaign, to say the least. Anyway, I'm currently a Zen Archer Monk 3/Inquisitor 1 with the conversion inquisition. I mostly wanted to take a level of inquisitor so I could be more sociable. (My dwarf is the nephew of a dwarven king and something of a diplomat, so I needed some crunch to support the role!)
But now I don't know where to go from here. Do I continue taking Monk levels? Or Inquisitor levels? Both?
Inquisitor:
Level 2: Wisdom to Initiative
Level 3+: Teamwork feats, like Enfilading Fire are actually quite good for an Inquisitor.
Level 5: Bane is a terrific class feature for archers
Level 11: Stalwart; evasion for the other saves! With a ring of evasion, being a dwarf with steel soul and glory of old, shrug off most everything!
Generally, Judgments get stronger, get some spellcasting to go with fantastic Wis score.
Monk:
Level 4: Ki Pool
Level 6: Improved Precise Shot and Weapon Specialization as bonus feats
Level 8: Another attack on flurry of blows
Level 9: AoOs with bow
Level 10: Improved Critical as a bonus feat and Perfect Strike becomes roll 3 dice, take best result.
Generally, more Ki, Perfect Strike uses, scaling AC
Any thoughts? Preferences? Both fit my character concept well enough, so now I'm just mulling over the crunch.
My friend is hosting a one-shot campaign and we're starting at level 3. While I could just go for a level 3 Wizard or something, I thought I may as well take advantage of the situation and play an interesting level 3 character that doesn't age well.
Like a Wizard/Witch/Magus
Or an Inquisitor/Monk/Empyreal Sorc
Or a Bard/Oracle/Sorc
What crazy multi-class would you consider for a level 3 one-shot?
So they've finally defeated Lucrecia and the Kreeg Ogres. Now what?
My players have been playing the game sporadically and the siege on Fort Rannick has taken a few months, actually. (We alternate between campaigns played, and I've been too busy with work and school to GM, but now I have time again!) Rise of the Runelords is the first campaign I've ever run, so I'm still somewhat new to GMing, but I know some of what I want to do next, and I'm hoping you all can help me do it:
1. Reassert the setting - I'm sure most of the players have forgotten much of what led up the siege on Fort Rannick. For example, the never-ending torrential rain. I really want to build up to this, even if it's only in a descriptive monologue, although penalties on perception and other things might be good as well. I'd rather not have it go like "Oh, by the way, it's raining hard and flooding now"
2. Give players options - The story can diverge into 3 different arcs; part 3, 4, and 5, and you can do them in any order. I'm hoping to give my players some latitude in what they want to do, since the adventure spells out that you can do this and our group's GMs have a habit of railroading and players expect to be railroaded in turn. Not the worst thing, but might as well mix it up when you can.
3. Work in subtle plot hooks - Goes with the last point; they have options, but which road do they take? I have NPCs at my disposal; the Black Arrows, Shalelu, a pixie, villagers... What would be a good way to lay out options available to them without forcing them to go one way or another?
4. Really focus on the story - Just explaining what I feel is a weakness in my GMing. Our games tend to devolve into combat-focused with story as an excuse as to why we're murdering something or other. "Point us at what needs to be stabbed or blown up and away we go!" Something to that effect. I love a great combat, but I think the game could be much more memorable if I could only capture the mood and gravity of each situation they are to face.
5. Downtime & using the fort? - Sort of a bonus point that I don't intend to focus on next session, but did you have your PCs take over operations of the fort or do something else interesting with it? It could make for a good session in the future if I had a solid idea on what to do.
Anyway, just looking for tips on how everyone ran the second half of the Hook Mountain Massacre. Please share your experiences!
I’m playing in a campaign where my GM is giving me tremendous latitude in swapping out class features and allowing me to research metamagic feats for 5k (normal or homebrew). I was even allowed to take Arcane Thesis from 3.5. (And combine it with Pathfinder's Magical Lineage and Preferred Spell!)
Now, the character is already fairly powerful, but I still have quite a bit of flexibility to make my character more awesome. I’m not looking for “Ignore elemental resistance and immunity” or “Opponents automatically fail their save” or something stupid like that, I’m looking at ways to make my spells seem more awesome.
Example:
Any number of targets within the radius of your fireball are affected by prestidigitation or other minor effect.
Mechanical benefits are fine, so long as it isn't some pure damage increase.
Example:
A creature affected by Rime Spell and Focused Spell (admixture to Cold damage, then two +1 metamagics; remember, Arcane Thesis) is trapped within ice for a number of rounds equal to twice the level of this spell. A successful save negates this effect. This is as Icy Prison except the hit points of the ice is 2 HP per inch, the DC of the strength check is 10 + the spell level + caster level, and the creature takes no further damage while trapped within.
It could remake you assumptions about the spell.
Examples:
Choose one spell; you can use your arcane bond as a focus for your spell instead of the normal material component, and you gain X mechanical benefit.
OR
A micro spell is treated as a 1st level spell for all purposes, has a reduced range of close, a reduced radius of 5ft, and all variable damage becomes the minimum amount. (Ex. 6d6 becomes 6 damage) A micro spell uses up a spell slot two levels lower than the spell’s actual level.
So... how would you stylize your spells if you had your GM's blessings?
So I wanted to play a character with a dragon, but how can you reasonably justify getting one? They're completely above the curve for similarly sized companions, and if you want a dragon to be of helpful size in a reasonable amount of time, you have to cram size increases in a 20 level progression.
So I set out to make a reasonable proposal to my GM and here's what I came up with: An Aasimar Oracle of Nature with the bonded mount revelation, taking a homebrew feat called Dragon Companion.
So first of all, as an Aasimar, you get an awesome favored class bonus that adds half your level to a revelation of choice, so that allowed me to spread out the dragon's progression over 30 levels, instead of 20.
The Dragon Companion feat is as advertised; it gives you the option to take a Dragon in place of your normal animal companion. For the purposes of this character, a Gold Dragon. How is this balanced? Well, our GM allows leadership. A clause of this feat is that if you take it, you can't take leadership. It's a sort of "one amazing feat per character" rule. So given that this replaces your cohort and so on, it begins to look more reasonable.
So here's the link to the Google Doc: (There are 3 tabs)
Hey all; my friend's wife is joining us for Pathfinder tomorrow and I have been charged with making her character! For flavor reasons, she is an elf, so not the most optimal choice, but it'll have to do. She wants to be able to heal, but Clerics can already do that well without further optimization, so I'm thinking focusing everything into being a melee combatant will be a good way for her to always have something to do (There's plenty of times when clerics simply shouldn't be wasting spells to advance the combat)
We'll be at level 5. Her stats should be:
Str 18 (16+2 from belt)
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 12
Wis 20
Cha 10
I have little experience with Clerics, so any tips on how to build them (and play them!) will be appreciated.
Basically, this character is going to be built exactly like a wizard, except one level behind in casting, but with a lot more toys, ending up with the spellcasting of an 11th level cleric with 6th level spells. (Hello Heal and other goodies!) I decided to top it off with the Magaambyan Arcanist, since you've already foregone the perks of being a full wizard by multi-classing. Not to mention it's a flavorful continuation of the concept; being a wizard, but also with access to divine magic. Halcyon Magic will let you pick up some fun druid spells, like Control Winds, Antilife Shell, Spellstaff, Changestaff, and so on. Maybe even some lower level spells like Greater Magic Fang and Soften Earth and Stone.
Sample Level 1 stats:
20 point buy:
Str 7, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 19 (17+2), Wis 16, Cha 9 (7+2)
25 point buy:
Str 7, Dex 12, Con 12 Int 20 (18+2), Wis 16 Cha 10 (8+2)
Homebrew “point buy?!” that I’d likely be using:
Str 6, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 21, Wis 16, Cha 10
Stats Explained:
Int > Wis > Dex > Con > Str = Cha
Basically, you're playing a wizard, so Int always comes first. You may actually want to consider dropping wisdom by a bit to ensure 18 Int if you have a lower point buy, but that leads into my next point.
Why Wis 16? Well, my thinking is that you’ll cap at 6th level cleric spells, so getting a +6 in wisdom is nice to get that bonus 6th level spell. 16 + 6 (headband) gives you that +6 modifier.
Meeting the Requirements via SLA:
This is tricky, but I think this works; as a Peri-Blooded Aasimar, you gain access to a 2nd level arcane SLA, pyrotechnics. As a cleric, you can take an inquisition to pick up the 2nd level divine SLA, Augury. (Unfortunate, you have to sacrifice a domain, but for the sake of the multiclass, you do what you have to.)
Feats:
Traits
Reactionary
Magical Knack (Cleric Side)
1 - Improved Initiative
Wizard - Scribe Scroll (Nice! Goes well with your cleric side as well)
3 - Spell Focus (Conjuration)
5 - Augment Summoning
7 - Superior Summoning
9 - Toughness
11 - Scholar (Prestige Prereq)
13 - Spell Mastery (Prestige Prereq)
15 - Sacred Summons
17 - Moonlight Summons
19 - Starlight Summons
This is by no means the only way you could do this; you could go for a less summoning-centered build.
...or here's a version with a distinctly different approach. (And no prestige class)
I'd have to double-check the ruling on this, but this should work. Basically, you can cast Fireball with both sides of your casting, spontaneously, thanks to Preferred Spell. You should get tremendous value once Spell Perfection rolls around.
Although I'm trying to proclaim this the best build, there's certainly plenty of room to customize the build with school specializations, domains, and feats as you choose.
Think I've got the right idea? Or do you have the build to beat this one? I'd love to hear everyone else's take on this newly beefed up prestige class.
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Given you can enter Mystic Theurge as early as level 4 instead of level 7 (or 9 for Sorc/Oracles…) I’m trying to come up with some solid Mystic Theurge builds!
How is this possible?:
Early access to prestige classes explained? This isn’t 100% settled, (haven’t heard from on high if this is RAI) but the thread makes a strong case that, indeed, SLA’s can be used to meet prestige class prerequisites.
The seemingly best way to meet this prereq is through the Aasimar Daylight abilitiy, which is a 3rd level arcane spell SLA. At level 3 you could take the Aasimar feat Heavenly Radiance to gain access to a 2nd level divine spell SLA, although this isn’t *really* required; you could just wait until you gain access to 2nd level spells naturally. The most important thing is no longer needing to get both halves of your casting up to 2nd level spells.
Here are some samples on ways you could build a Mystic Theurge:
Oracle 2/Sorcerer 1 – A Charisma based Mystic Theurge that doesn’t fall depressingly behind! You get your first 3rd level spells at level 7, instead of level 10. You could also switch to Sorcerer 2/Oracle 1. This build requires you to take Heavenly Radiance at level 3.
Cleric 3/Empyreal Sorcerer 1 – A wisdom based Mystic Theurge. You could take Heavenly Radiance at level 3 to go Cleric 2/Sorc 1/Mystic Theurge X; guess it depends on how important the feat is to you.
Wizard 2/Cleric 1 – Or you could try a witch/druid, etc. but I think Wizard/Cleric are better candidates since they aren’t as reliant on class abilities. Quite possibly still the best form of Mystic Theurge, with 3rd level spells by level 6. Still, you will be more MAD, needing lots of Int and Wis.
…
So is this new early entry Mystic Theurge absolutely busted? I don’t thinks so; I mean, which is better? Wizard 5 or Sorcerer 2/Oracle 1/Mystic Theurge 2? But no longer does the Mystic Theurge fall woefully behind, and can actually be a respectable substitute if the party is sorely lacking in full casters.
So how would you build your Mystic Theurge?
What sorts of archetypes, schools, domains, mysteries, revelations, bloodlines, etc would you consider for your Mystic Theurge? Feats? Spells?
Well, for min-max reasons, I'm playing a Barbarian with the following stats:
Str 20
Dex 16
Con 16
Int 8
Wis 16
Cha 8
I've been playing nothing but wizards for the past several years, so I thought this might be a nice change of pace. Now, I suppose I should just accept that I have gimped myself for all out of combat purposes, but even so, does anyone have suggestions for how to effectively roleplay such a character? Right now, I'm more or less acting like Thog from Order of the Stick.
Does this seem about right? Is an 8 Int and Cha that huge a leap from 10 Int and Cha that I have a speech impediment and can't figure out the simplest problems?
Now let's say I HAVE to roleplay him as an idiot; anyone have suggestions on how I can use my dumb as a rock barbarian as a medium to share clever ideas that I, the player, have thought of?
I decided to pick up Ultimate Campaign a few days ago, as it seemed appropriate; my GM was asking for us to give a backstory for our character and details on what they are like as a person.
So I read through Ultimate Campaign, started a word document and started writing up details about Circumstance of Birth, Family, Region, Social Rank and Education... Before I knew it, I had written a few pages and I had hardly even gotten into who my character was as a person, just stuff that had happened around him or to him.
What do you think are some solid policies for your character's background and personality? I don't want to be the guy that shoves a 10 page unreadable novel to my GM and expect her to absorb all of that.
Also, do you have two separate documents for your background; the one you hand to your GM and the document containing every single detail about your character? That's something I had considered; then I can reference the complete document if my GM has a particular detail she's interested in.
*random sidenote* Generally, I'm a dirty min/max-er who first comes up with a powerful concept and then builds the character around that. But there's only so much of that to do, so I figure I may as well branch out and actually come up with a reasonably compelling story and character to accompany my min/max'd shenanigans!
So I'm playing with my absolute favorite wizard character in a campaign with a number of homebrew rules, and my GM is alright with making some of my own metamagic!
A few things to preface these feats:
- I'm using Preferred Spell (fireball) which allows me to sacrifice a prepared spell OR unprepared slot to spontaneously cast a fireball.
- I have access to Arcane Thesis (fireball), so metamagics cost one less level to apply. (We just finished the session where we made a big to do about acquiring this feat; it was some sweet loot!)
- I'm an Admixture Evoker wizard, so I can freely change the element of my fireball
- I can learn any metamagic by spending 5k to research it. Theoretically limitless metamagic at my fingertips!
The first feat is to offer massive flexibility; my fireball may deal less damage, but by lowering the level I can conserve higher level spells/more easily apply bigger metamagic!
Spoiler:
Micro/Mini Spell [Metamagic] Benefit: You may apply either form of this metamagic only to a fireball spell:
A micro spell is treated as a 1st level spell for all purposes, has a reduced range of close, a reduced radius of 5ft, and all variable damage becomes the minimum amount. (Ex. 6d6 becomes 6 damage) A micro spell uses up a spell slot two levels than the spell’s actual level.
A mini spell is treated as a 2nd level spell for all purposes, has a reduced range of medium, a reduced radius of 10ft, and all variable damage becomes 2. (Ex. 7d6 becomes 14 damage) A mini spell uses up a spell slot one level lower than the spell’s actual level.
Special: Micro/mini spell is not treated as a metamagic for the purpose of abilties that would reduce a spell’s slot when metamagic is applied, such as Magical Lineage.
This next feat is just a neat trick that may overly blur the lines between divine and arcane, but eh, I still like it.
Spoiler:
Phoenix Spell [Metamagic]
The reviving power of the phoenix dwells within the flames of your spell.
Prerequisite: Selective Spell
Benefit: One creature selected to be safe from the effects of your fireball is cured of hit points of damage equal to 10 times the level of this spell; this healing functions as breath of life.
A phoenix spell uses a spell slot four levels higher than the spells actual level.
I particularly like these last 3; they're sort of a riff off of Rime Spell, as potent +1 metamagics that can only be applied to certain elements. They all play a different role: Rime is just a quick and dirty debuff, Charge is a party buff, Sap is a very positioning minded battlefield control/debuff hybrid, and Torch simply makes Fireball hit a little harder.
Elemental Metamagics:
Charge Spell [Metamagic]
The power of your electricity spell damages enemies and charges allies.
Prerequisite: Selective Spell
Benefit: A charge spell causes creatures selected to be safe from the effects of your spell to gain +10 movement speed, +1 to hit, and +1 dodge bonus to AC for a number of rounds equal to the original level of this spell.
This feat only affects spells with the electricity descriptor. A charge spell uses a spell slot one level higher than the spells actual level.
Sap Spell [Metamagic]
The corrosion of your acid spell drains the vitality of creatures caught within.
Prerequisite: Lingering Spell
Benefit: A sap spell causes creatures that took acid damage from this spell and ends their turn within the radius of this spell to become fatigued for a number of rounds equal to the original level of the spell. If a fatigued creature ends their turn within the radius of this spell, it becomes exhausted for a number of rounds equal to the original level of the spell. This effect remains as long as a lingering spell persists.
This feat only affects spells with the acid descriptor. A sap spell uses a spell slot one level higher than the spells actual level.
Special: When you have this feat, increase the duration of Lingering Spell by 1 round.
Torch Spell [Metamagic]
The original form of fireball taken to new heights.
Benefit: A torch spell increases the Difficulty Class of your spell by 1 and doubles your effective wizard level for Intense Spells.
This feat only affects spells with the fire descriptor. A torch spell uses a spell slot one level higher than the spells actual level.
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Special: Double the effect of Intensified if it is also applied.
So... Interesting? Balanced? Just thought I'd share some of the stuff I've been developing for my favorite campaign!
I've seen some topics on people using awaken on their animal companions, and now here I am as a GM with a player who wants to awaken their companion.
I've heard that since the awakened creature is no longer your animal companion, it loses the abilities it gained as a companion and reverts to it's pre-companion abilities. Or something like that.
...but my player has a T-rex animal companion which is normally a Gargantuan creature of a much higher HD than it currently is as a companion. So how would I figure this out?
So my player is playing a Bard 5/Dragon Disciple X and she is curious if this would work:
Improved Eldritch Heritage: You gain Breath Weapon equal to character level -2.
Dragon Disciple: Bloodline abilities increase equal to dragon disciple level.
So at level 11, a Bard 5/Dragon Disciple 6 with IEH, would her breath weapon deal 15d6 damage? (6 from DD, 11 minus 2 from character level)
I have half a mind to allow it, since I like my players having a nice nova option, especially for a character who would normally be contented just slashing her opponents to death, but occasionally wants to smote her enemies to nothingness.
So for a casual game I have been ludicrously richly endowed by my GM:
- I can research existing metamagic or make my own metamagic for 5k
- I have Arcane Thesis (-1 level adjustment for each metamagic applied; ex. Dazing (+2), Lingering (+0) Fireball takes a 5th level slot to cast)
- I have Magical Lineage
- I have Preferred Spell (Cast fireball spontaneously by sacrificing a prepared or unprepared slot)
You may have seen this Arcane Thesis fireball wielding wizard in another thread. At first, I was scared of out-damaging the entire party; however thanks to that thread, I'm stoked about the possibilities of turning fireball into less of a damage spell, and more of a control spell.
Metamagic I intend to use a lot:
Dazing
Rime (Thanks to admixture evoker and Preferred Spell)
Lingering
Extend (House-ruled to extend lingering to 2 rounds)
Beyond those metamagic, I have the flexibility to research my own and already have one approved by my GM. (Actually, it's 2 metamagic for the price 1!) These two feats give me low damage, highly versatile fireballs across the battlefield. Imagine combining Break/Lingering/Rime/Extend together! Imagine littering the battlefield with 8 2x2 squares that last for 2 rounds, can do minor damage and entangle creatures for 3 rounds, and do the same to those who enter those squares later.
Break Spell:
Benefit: You may apply this metamagic only to a fireball spell:
You can break a spell, as if casting a weaker version multiple times.
A creature does not take any additional damage or suffer any effects beyond the first effect if an area is hit by more than one part of the Break Spell.
This feat has two modes:
Break - Break Spell splits into 2 mini spells or 4 micro spells of this spell. A Break Spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than it's actual level.
Big Break - Big Break Spell splits into 4 mini spells or 8 micro spells of this spell. A Big Break Spell uses up a spell slot two levels higher than it's actual level.
These mini and micro spells are as described in Micro/Mini Spell, except are treated as a 3rd level spells and have a range of long.
Micro/Mini Spell:
Benefit: You may apply either form of this metamagic only to a fireball spell:
A micro spell is treated as a 1st level spell for all purposes, has a reduced range of close, a reduced radius of 5ft, and all variable damage becomes the minimum amount. (Ex. 6d6 becomes 6 damage) A micro spell uses up a spell slot two levels than the spell’s actual level.
A mini spell is treated as a 2nd level spell for all purposes, has a reduced range of medium, a reduced radius of 10ft, and all variable damage becomes 2. (Ex. 7d6 becomes 14 damage) A mini spell uses up a spell slot one level lower than the spell’s actual level.
Special: Micro/mini spell is not treated as a metamagic for the purpose of abilties that would reduce a spell’s slot when metamagic is applied, such as Magical Lineage.
Anyway, my goal right now is to create some spell-like metamagic. What does that mean? Researching metamagic (many that would branch off of lingering spell) that would make fireball immitate different kinds of spells, such as:
Wind Wall
Glitterdust
Antimagic field (Well, maybe not)
Ray of Exhaustion
Icy Prison
Grease
Stone Call
The idea is to turn fireball into battlefield control and debuffing. So, suggestions on developing some fun and balanced homebrew spell-like metamagic that I could apply to fireball? (Or frost/shocking/corrosive ball if that better suits the flavor of the metamagic?)
Barbarians are rather feat starved and have a lot of interesting feats they can take, especially with Extra Rage Power. However, an interesting opportunity opened up with some homebrew rules; first, there are a select few feats that can be trained instead of taken, for a price, such as:
Well, one of our players turned GM is allowing me to use Arcane Thesis from 3.5, as a sort of thanks for GMing for her for all these years.
More On Arcane Thesis:
For those of you who haven't seen the feat, here it is:
Arcane Thesis
Benefit: Choose one arcane spell that you can cast to be your
thesis spell. When casting that spell, you do so at +2 caster level.
When you apply a metamagic feat other than Heighten Spell
to that spell, the enhanced spell uses up a spell slot one level
lower than normal. For example, an empowered thesis spell
uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell’s actual slot
(rather than the normal two levels higher).
I'll get Arcane Thesis at level 5, and I'm currently at level 3.
If you thought it was broken in 3.5, well now you can reduce metamagic costs further with Magical Lineage, cast the chosen spell spontaneously with Greater Spell Specialization or Preferred Spell, apply fun new metamagic like dazing or rime, and someday Arcane Thesis will horrendously stack with Spell Perfection. (As I read it, Arcane Thesis even reduces the level of the free metamagic you apply with Spell Perfection)
I'll be a fireball-wielding admixture evoker, so I can adapt the damage type to the most effective element. Between spell specialization and arcane thesis, fireball will already do 10d6 damage at level 6. It also has +4 caster level to overcome SR right there, and I'll be taking SP, GSP, and Spell Perfection will double those bonuses someday.
As a homebrew rule, I'll be able to research metamagic feats for 5k, and our GM is very generous with loot. We already have ~9k after just hitting level 3. This means intensify, rime, selective, focused, piercing, persistent, dazing, widen (homebrew'd to only a +2 adjustment), quicken, and eventually much more.
There are a few more quirks, but that's more or less the gist of the build.
Now, being courteous and not wanting to cause grief to my new GM and fellow players, I was thinking of imposing certain limits on myself as to when I actually cast this spell. The nice thing is that I never have to prepare the spell since I can cast it spontaneously, so I can prepare spells like normal and only use it as a backup. Realistically, I invested all of these resources into making this neat trick, so I will use it sometimes.
So has anyone had success with imposing limits on yourself for the sake of letting the rest of the party shine/giving your GM a break? Or a limit to fit your character's personality? Help coming up with a good guideline for when to use it would be much appreciated!
Flavor stuff that might be relevant:
Perhaps ironically, my character is not a bloodthirsty pyromaniac, but something of a pacifist, or at least not wanting to kill people and wants to avoid collateral damage. I actually was given a homebrew trait that lets me change a chosen spell into a merciful spell.
Basically we have a group of 6 people or so, 4 of whom are currently GMing, and we alternate between campaigns. We more or less all follow these rules, although much of it is merely implicitly accepted.
1. Our group plays with probably something like a 42 point buy.
2. Our group can sell loot at market price.
3. Our group can craft items at half price without making any craft checks nor does it take any amount of in game time, all so long as you have the feat.
(And no, rule 2 and rule 3 combined don't mean infinite wealth. It's sort of implied that crafted items can't be sold.)
4. We allow re-rolls fairly often. We actually typed up rules for re-rolling for HP. (Re-roll 1's and 2's, if you have a d6 HD, etc.)
5. We don't really track living expenses.
6. We have a 10 gp, 10 lb item called "Adventurer's Kit" and assume you have most whatever you want when it comes to mundane stuff.
7. Our characters don't die. Ever. Unless you wanted to switch characters; then we occasionally kill off characters. (Like Spud the cleric who was torn apart by a kraken, may he rest in peace.)
8. Half the players don't role play. (In character 10% of the time, on a good day)
9. We allow leaderhip.
10. Our group often has 2 or 3 encounters each day and then we get to rest back to health and new spells.
11. There's no weather but sun. There's no terrain except for the one you can charge across unfettered.
...and probably more...
Having read a lot about how other people play, I was curious what people thought; is there a wrong way to play? As a GM, should I try to break free of some of these generally accepted, yet rarely discussed rules in our group? Is there something to be gained by abandoning them?
Similar to spell research, I had the idea that wizards should be able to research metamagic. It just seems so quintessentially wizard; coming up with your unique way of casting spells.
My biggest problem is coming up with a pricing system. Should all of them have a flat price? Should the price increase as you research more? Should the price be based upon power level? (I mean, what if the metamagic only adds some minor thing, like changes the color or something silly?)
Beyond metamagic, this lead me to thinking that other feats should be obtainable through training, research, the church, etc.
These will probably also be 10k. You'll notice that none of these feats give you more channel energy, increase the DC, etc. It just gives you a new option to spend your current uses of channel energy.
Martial Weapon Proficiency
Medium Armor Proficiency
3k each
Exotic Weapon Proficiency
Heavy Armor Proficiency
Tower Shield Proficiency
5k each
This may be the most controversial, as it could lend to some abuse. However, I was discussing this with my fellow GM and we both agreed that this was an area where we didn't mind allowing players to choose how they equip themselves. Bard wants a Bastard Sword? Go for it.
The idea for these feats is to not add power creep so much as add some versatility. There would also be some limitations like you can only learn 1 per week/month or something like that, and perhaps even a hard cap on how many feats you could buy.
So... Do you think its balanced? What do you see going wrong in such a system?
The APG staves are priced incorrectly (half of what they should be according to the staff pricing rules in the Core Rulebook).
I believe in UE we fixed the prices of the APG staves to what they should be.
This news was very disheartening since staves in the core rulebook have never been worth the price. To the extent that players and GMs in our group have been completely uninterested in them.
So... As a house rule, we were thinking of ruling the other way; that the APG and other sources got it right, and that the core rulebook got it wrong; so cut the market price and craft price of all staves in the core rulebook in half.
We like the idea of staves and want to promote their use, so we want to try this out. Can someone see how this rule could be unbalanced?
One way we measured its balance was by imagining a staff of magic missile. Instead of a market price of 6400 and a craft price of 3200, we have a market price of 3200 and a craft price of 1600. This seemed fine to us.
Benefit: You can spontaneously cast any spell you know of the divination school by sacrificing a prepared spell of equal or greater level. For example, if you suddenly have need of the 2nd-level spell locate object, you can sacrifice a prepared 2nd-level spell (such as mirror image) or any prepared spell of a higher level to cast it on the spot.
This is the errata’d 3.5 version, not the Advanced Race Guide version. I can’t use it in the broken way of casting spells from other class lists, nor can it be a spell I don’t know. Unlike the ARG version, the casting time isn’t bumped up to a full-round action.
So now that I have Spontaneous Divination, I’m hoping to make good use of it. Everyone knows that the problem with divination spells is that they can be very situational, but can be amazing when the situation comes up. So Spontaneous Divination allows you to have that spell whenever it comes up. There are 3 different things I hope to accomplish, and I'll have examples of each underneath.
1) Find Pathfinder Spells for Spontaneous Divination.
Detect Undead:
I wouldn’t be caught dead (…or undead? *groan*) with having this spell prepared daily. However, currently part of our campaign has to do with intelligent skeletons who have disguised themselves as humans. I can imagine spontaneously casting this normally worthless spell to out one of these skeletons.
Named Bullet:
An underrated spell, in my opinion. Then again, I have two very specific things in my campaign that are going for this spell: First, I have an awesome archer in the party that LOVES the crit threat feature. Second, our campaign is something of a bounty-hunting campaign, so many times we know in advance what we are after. That said, knowing how many of these are needed in a day would be a pain. Spontaneously casting this will be nice.
2) Find 3.5 Spells for Spontaneous Divination. I’m allowed to do spell research to bring some of these spells into Pathfinder.
Unluck:
Quote:
Divination
Level: Bard 3, sorcerer/wizard 3
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One creature
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: Yes
When you cast this spell, you negatively influence the randomness of fortune for the target. Whenever the affected creature undertakes an action involving random chance (specifically, whenever any die roll is made for the creature, including attack rolls, damage rolls, and saving throws), two separate rolls are made and the worse result applied.
They only save or suck spell of divination. (The 8th level Prediction of Failure is another, I suppose, but it’s kind of a suck or suck spell) Might as well make use of that Spell Focus (Divination) and have divinations that can contribute in combat. I’m cackling madly at the thought of giving my improved familiar a wand of ill omen and then casting this right afterward.
Assay Spell Resistance:
Quote:
Divination
Level: Cleric 4, sorcerer/wizard 4
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 swift action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round/level
This spell gives you a +10 bonus on caster level checks to overcome the spell resistance of a specific creature. Assay resistance is effective against only one specific creature per casting, and you must be able to see the creature when you cast the spell.
Obviously useful, obviously situational.
3) The broadest of all, make my own spells for Spontaneous Divination. Again, I can do spell research.
Spymaster’s Coin, Greater:
This is a divination spell my GM created in another game a while back, so this should give you a flavor of what kind of spells he’s open to. For those of you unfamiliar with the original version of this 3.5 spell, here it is:
Spymaster’s Coin wrote:
Divination (Scrying)
Level: Bard 2, sorcerer/wizard 2
Components: V, S, F
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Effect: Magical sensor
Duration: 1 hour/level or until triggered, then 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
You imbue a Fine object (such as a coin, stone, or other innocuous item) with a dormant magical scrying sensor. Anyone attempting to detect its magical aura must succeed on a caster level check (DC 15 + your caster level). At any one time during the spell’s duration, as a standard action you can concentrate upon the object, enabling you to hear or see (your choice) as if you were in the object’s location. This effect otherwise functions as if you had cast clairaudience/clairvoyance in the object’s area. You have no control over the object’s movement and gain no special senses. Spymaster’s coin functions only on the plane of existence you are currently occupying. You must continue to concentrate to see or hear through the spymaster’s coin. If you stop concentrating, the spell’s effect ends. Once activated, the scrying effect of the spell lasts for a maximum number of rounds equal to your caster level.
Focus: One object of Fine size.
Now imagine a spell with all of that except the duration is 1 day/level. He loved this spell a lot, and stockpiled something like 60 of these and had them distribute through a city in order to figure out something or other.
...
With that, any suggestions for helping me reach these 3 goals and make Spontaneous Divination a powerful (but not cheesy and stupid) ability?
I have about 2000 gp available to spend within a couple hours. (Hooray for Friday Night Pathfinder!)
...so I thought I'd spend it on the debut of my first Improved Familiar, a Lyrakien, who has absolutely nothing at the moment.
Our party is at level 7 and I'm curious what would be some good things to buy. What are your favorite wands, potions and scrolls for your familiar? Alchemical items? Anything else?
So I’m taking improved familiar for the first time. This also happens to be the first time I’ve ever really cared to use my familiar for much of anything. So I have a few questions:
1. What does your familiar do in combat?
2. What does your familiar do out of combat?
3. What are your favorite single-use items/wands for your familiar?
4. What do you equip your familiar with?
For questions 1, 2, and 3; I’ve read a lot of opinions on these, but I’d like to hear anecdotes of how your familiar has done something awesome in your game.
For question 4, I’ve heard next to nothing about actually equipping your familiar with armor and magical items. Is it just not worth it? It seems like there are some fairly inexpensive options to make your familiar better, so I’d like hear what others have experienced.
So my improved familiar is the Lyrakien. My first inclination was to look at some armor. As a tiny creature, the AC (ouch) and cost (nice!) of equipment is halved. Also, armor is 1/10th its normal weight. This matters namely for carrying capacity, hers normally being 8lbs for a light load, but also for gp spent on mithral.
Armor and Shield for the tiny:
Mithral Chain Shirt should cost 550 gp or 183 gp to craft myself. (Making light armor out of mithral costs 1000, half for tiny characters)
Mithral Breastplate should cost 850 gp or 283 gp to craft myself. (1.5 lbs for tiny characters; mithral is 500 gp/lb.)
Mithral Full Plate should cost 2000 gp or 667 gp to craft myself. (2.5 lbs , 500 gp/lb)
Mithral Heavy Shield should cost 395 or 132 gp to craft myself. (.75 lbs, 500 gp/lb)
Cost/benefit of armor:
Chain shirt and heavy shield
Base AC: 3
Check Penalty: 0
Spell failure: 15%
Weight: 2lbs
Breastplate and heavy shield
Base AC: 4
Check Penalty: -1
Spell Failure: 20%
Weight: 2.25lbs
Full plate and heavy shield
Base AC: 5 (5.5?)
Check Penalty: -3
Spell Failure: 30%
Weight: 3.25lbs
So… put armor on your familiar or go without? If armor, which is best?
Spell failure could matter if you wanted her to use scrolls. (Although wands don’t care about spell failure)
The check penalty will matter for things like touch attacks, but not too much else, particularly for a tiny flying creature with constant freedom of movement. (Speaking of which; does freedom of movement do anything to circumvent check penalties or heaviness of armor whatsoever?)
…
After we get past non-magical armor, we approach the never-ending gp sink of magical items. Which provide the most bang for your buck? Would you recommend Stat boosting headbands or belts? Cloak of resistance? An item to boost UMD checks by +5? This is the biggest and most perplexing part to me. How much do you invest in your familiar? How much invested is “optimal”? Given such a spurious concept can be applied here.
…
So answering questions 1,2, or 3 would be much appreciated and extra kudos for those daring to approach question 4.
So my first inclination was to wipe out my friend's kobold sorcerer as collateral damage and have him roll up a new character. (damn kobolds) But I'm sad to say that he may actually be our most useful combatant at this point; with Scorching Ray and Fireball, his damage output is okay.
...compared to the rest of us. Tragically, I think I have the highest to hit of our entire party. (+9 with a longbow) With Gravity Bow and prescience rolls from being a Diviner wizard, my attacks are okay. But really, I'm no archer, nor a blaster. I should be support.
I'll be talking with my GM about the predicament, (which I'm sure he is getting keenly aware of since our last combat) but I was curious if you forum folk had experience with caster/dead weight-heavy parties and what strategies you've used to cope? Any particular spells?
Play this character as a Treantmonk “God” Wizard. Major difference? You can spontaneously turn any of your prepared spells into a fireball. …but not just any fireball; the “God” fireball. Rime Spell is a great metamagic to start down the path of the “God” fireball user. You can add it to fireball without level adjustment, thanks to Magical Lineage. (Spontaneously cast fireball, admixture to cold descriptor, spontaneously add Rime) All targets become entangled, so long as they take damage. So they’re entangled even if they make the save! (Unless they have evasion)
Once you reach level 9, you gain quintessential metamagic of the “God” fireball user: Dazing Spell. If your dazing spell successfully hits its target, they’re as good as dead.
At level 15, your fireball goes up another notch in power. Spell Focus, Greater Spell Focus, and Spell Penetration are all doubled in power for fireball. Eventually bonuses from Greater Spell Penetration and Focused Spell will be doubled. …and don’t forget the main ability! Tack on Dazing Spell or Quicken Spell for free! You could sacrifice a 5th level spell for a quickened dazing fireball! Nice. Or a 3rd level spell for a quickened rime fireball. Or a 6th level spell for an intensified focused selective rime dazing fireball. Great options.
Notes:
Flexibility: You can spontaneously cast fireball, so prepare spells that ignore spell resistance, like summon spells, buffs, battlefield control and so forth. Prepare spells that target will and fortitude saves. Finally, prepare situational, but potentially amazing spells. If the situation doesn’t arise, it can always be a fireball.
Softening: Who says a blast spell can’t soften up opponents? With Rime Spell, entangled foes take a penalty to reflex saves. (Remember, they’re entangled regardless of making the save!) So a rime fireball can be a nice setup for a dazing fireball.
Knowledge: Knowledge checks will be important; make sure you know a monster's strengths and weaknesses and admixture accordingly.
Spell Resistance: Use other spells if you can help it. But if you need to, you actually should have a decent success rate with your "God" fireball. As an elf, you have a built in +2 to caster level checks to overcome SR. Thanks to feats, you have +4 at level 7, +6 at level 15, and +10 at level 17. Also consider carrying a piercing spell rod.
Stages of the game:
Early, early game (Levels 1 through 4)
Rough for all wizards. You should be halfway decent with a longbow at this point.
Early game (Levels 5 through 8)
And here’s fireball! Ideally, you’ll admixture many of your fireballs to cold to apply rime.
Mid Game (Levels 9 through 14)
And dazing spell makes its appearance. A well placed dazing fireball ends fights.
Late Game (Levels 15 and up)
Spell Perfection kicks in, allowing you to dominate without wasting your high level spells.
Rules Questions:
Is a Heightened Dazing Fireball in a 7th level slot a 4th level or 7th level spell for the purpose of saving throws? I've never heard this debate resolved. The way heighten is written, I'm tempted to think 7th level. Also: how does heighten interact with Magical Lineage? Would casting a Heightened Fireball from a level 3 spell slot result in a 4th level saving throw?
I'm hoping to run this build in my next campaign, so...
Thoughts? Advice? Criticism? Do you believe in 'The "God" Fireball'?
I’ve always had a great love for metamagic. I’d love to see an archetype that uses them masterfully! Unfortunately, it seems to fall on one of two extremes: metamagic is mostly useless (often how it is in Pathfinder) or it is completely broken. (See Incantatrix, Arcane Thesis, and other fun stuff from 3.5)
I’d like to develop an archetype that truly utilizes every metamagic feat it gets, by inspiring you to prepare spells with metamagic and allowing you to spontaneously add metamagic if needed.
Incantatrix (Archetype)
(Not too creative, so for now, why not? Hopefully it's not as broken as its namesake)
School of Metamagic
An Incantatrix has 4 oppositions schools and does not gain a bonus spell slot at each level.
This replaces arcane school.
Arcane Pool
At 1st level, an Incantatrix has an amount of a number of points in her arcane pool equal to her Incantatrix level + her Int modifier.
When an incantatrix prepares her spells, she may spend points to more easily add metamagic to her spells.
You also must pay an additional point to get an adjustment from level 1 to level 0.
Examples:
Quicken – Level adjustment vs cost
4 – 0 points
3 – 1 point
2 – 3 points
1 – 5 points
0 – (7 + 1) or 8 points
So to prepare a quickened magic missle cast as a 4th level spell would cost 1 point, as a 3rd level spell would cost 3 points, etc.
Empower – Level adjustment vs cost
2 – 0 points
1 – 1 point
0 – (3 + 1) or 4 points
Empowered Fireball as a 4th level spell would be 1 point, etc.
Extend - Level adjustment vs cost
1 – 0 points
0 – (1 + 1) or 2 points
Extended Rope Trick as a 2nd level spell would be 2 points.
Spontaneous Metamagic With Arcane Pool
You may spontaneously add metamagic at a 50% increase in points. (You must spend enough points so you can cast the spell from the slot that it is in.) If you wanted to spontaneously add maximize to a fireball you were casting, it would cost 9 points. Extending rope trick spontaneously would cost 3 points. Quickening a spell would cost 12 points.
You may also sacrifice spells to add temporary points to your arcane pool equal to the slot the spell occupied. In addition, if points were spent on that spell, you gain those points back. (These are normal points) You may use this ability as a free action. Temporary points last for 1 minute. Temporary points may only be spent to spontaneously add metamagic to your spells. The amount of temporary points you can generate in a day is capped at your arcane pool’s normal capacity, regardless of how many spells you sacrifice.
This ability replaces Arcane Bond.
Metamagic Bonus feats:
At 2nd level and every 2 levels thereafter, an Incantatrix may choose a metamagic feat as a bonus feat. (You must still meet the prerequisites)
Metamagic Mastery
At 5th level, an Incantatrix can choose any metamagic he knows: permanently reduce its level adjustment by 1. You can only apply this to a metamagic once, and you cannot reduce the level adjustment below 1. You can choose new metamagic feats to apply this ability to at 10th, 15th and 20th level. (You cannot choose Heighten Spell or Reach Spell with this ability, nor any 0 or 1 level adjustment metamagics)
This replaces wizard bonus feats.
Metamagic Supremacy
At 20th level, an Incantatrix is able to spend he points much more efficiently.
