Thomas Mack 727's page

I have a Pit Fiend Wizard NPC in a game right now and wondering if anything stops him from using Summon Monster to call up Angels?

If you can communicate with the creature, you can direct it not to attack, to attack particular enemies, or to perform other actions.

Does this mean I can order it to perform tasks against its nature? For example getting the angel to perform aggressively evil tasks? Or even getting it to attack other angels 'to the best of its ability'?

My caster just shot Enervate at the team mate with the buff. I got a total of 13, and his touch AC is 12. ... WIthout the +2 to AC from the buff.

So I am kind of torn... On the one side I am glad this means I didn't just drop the party healer by several levels. On the other hand I am annoyed that such a cool spell just whiffed. :D

Thanks for the rules clarification though. :)

Hey. Bit of a weird situation.

My character is an Oracle and cast Blessing of Fervor at the start of combat targetting himself and his four allies.

During that fight though my character was mind controlled and has been ordered to kill everyone else in the party.

Since Blessing of Fervor states that he blesses his 'allies' do they then lose that effect? If not from that, can he selectively remove the blessing from his target? Or will he need to actually end the whole spell?

Can he even end the buff without the other characters permission?

I really dont think there is any problem here. I consider the 50% return rate to be situational, a guideline.

If one of my players puts feats, time and money into creating magical items and goes out of his way to have ranks in appraise, and then buys a shop and sets up some people to run it and protects it from the enevitable attack by his enemies ect then I am happy to let him profit financially from his magical items sales.

He deserves it!

But the profit isn't anywhere near as high as it sounds! Remember that just because you spent the last ten years in the former lair of a Dragon turning his horde of gold into a much smaller mountain of +1 swords doesn't mean you are going to be able to sell all of them! Most people just don't have 2000gp lying around! Its a great deal of money! You might get lucky and get a commission from a lord for fifty or so, but you wont make much profit from that. And lets not forget that any player that spends that long crafting isn't really a PC anymore, are they?

And if any of my players did something that seriously affected the local economy (for example started a shop with 1000+ +1 swords) then I would let them. They would be in money heaven for the first few days maybe even a week but I think when prices inevitably drop to or below cost for the weapons and the other crafters and shop owners turn up for a 'conversation' things will balance out well.

And anyway, if you find a way to ruin the economy of a country you can expect the tax men and nobility in the area to object! Loudly and with weapons!

Weapon Focus/Specialization are probably still available and I think as far as I can see it balances out well enough in actual play. Remember that while you are getting a lot of damage from these feats Power Attack has been severely nerfed due to its limitation (STR bonus or BAB, whichever is lowest). Weapon Training and Weapon Specialization mean that if the loss of damage from that is too painful you can spend one of your million feats to buy some of it back. :)

I don't think they should go for maneuver type of fighter for two reasons: Tome of Battle and 4th edition, both already cover this.

Travel domain loses out ont he spells Teleport and Dimension doors. This makes them a great deal less able to travel. :)

If they made Selective Turning and Quicken Turning combat feats it would solve the problem. After all you can only use one combat feat per round, from what I know.

Not at the moment for me. There are some great changes so far, especially in balancing and modifying the classes, but at this instant I dont consider it enough of a change to spend money on it.

The game is headed in the right direction though and if it continues to advance at this point (and 4th ed is as mechanistic as it looks) then I will almost certainly buy it.

As someone said before though, if 4th ed turns out awesome then I will probably move on in that direction instead. After all people released good expansions for 2nd/3rd Ed as well and they have been largely forgotten.

Heres hoping this game does better.

If I were given free rain with the paladin I would:

Change the alignment restriction from LG to simply Any Good.

Remove to defined code of conduct: any PC that stops being good, or acts against the interest of their god, loses their abilities.

Remove spellcasting from the paladins armory and replace with:
Lay on hands = Level x CHA x 2 (x 4 at 14th level) (DC Cha based)
Lesser restoration 1per/5 levels.
The blade enhancement ability usable 1/level/day in 1 min increments.
Turn Undead/Channel as a Cleric

Combat Casting

You are skilled at casting spells when threatened or
distracted.
Benefit: You get a +4 bonus on Spellcraft checks made to
cast a spell or use a spell-like ability while casting on the
defensive or while grappled.

I assume it is just an oversight inside Spellcraft.

Then again, now that I think about it, it does lead to the reasonably cool situation of a 'Cleric off'. Your parties cleric Channels positive while the enemy counters with negative. Most turns wins.

Fun. :)

Another example, if you are an evil cleric with undead allies and Tomb Tainted Soul then you are healing yourself and your undead minons and hurting EVERYTHING else you come across.
Even without the Tomb tainted soul feat this is quite a strong ability, giving a 7th level cleric 4d6 damage 30ft AoE that, even with a Cha of 10, he can use 3x a day. Assuming he has two 7HD undead in front of him (the amount he can control WITHOUT casting any spells) and they manage to hold off the party for three rounds he can pour 12d6 damage into all PCs in 30ft (and its not a hard thing to get ALL pcs in this range) while healing the undead tanks the same amount. This is just one enemy, and this doesn't reduce his ability to cast spells appreciatively at all.

Nasty huh?

Ha! We wish it worked like that! (then again I wouldnt want to meet the 1000 year old elf under your rules... If the effect was permanent then by a thousand elves would SURELY have had a go at +8 to every stat at some point. Worse, think of the Dragons...)

Otherwise: One way to help fighters/Clerics/Sorcerers (the ones who run off multiple stats of similar type) would be to negate the +50% extra cost for the second attribute if they are 'similar'.
IE: If you have a belt of Str +4 and want to add Dex/Con +4 then you simply pay the cost of Dex/Con +4 extra.
If you wanted a belt of Str +4 of Enlarging 1/day then you would pay for the Str +4 belt first, then pay for the Enlarging 1/day x 1.5.
Make sense?

Of course the same would be true with Headbands and mental stats.

They will still have to spend a feat to gain the ability and then money they would normally use to BUY items have to go toward MAKING one. I think it works as it is.

One exceptional part of it is that you no longer have to 'do nothing' while crafting items. You can now craft a +4 sword while spending a month on the road to X by spending four hours after you stop traveling (and you aren't allowed to travel more than that without fatigue checks) working on it. You only get half the time (so 2 hours of work for 4 hours of effort, or 250gp in value) but its still infinitely more crafting than you would normally do while traveling. :D

No more holding up the party for a week so you can 'quickly' craft some replacement scrolls, or so that the cleric can make himself a Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds.

Also, would it be possible to grant sorcerers a bonus language based upon their bloodline?

Good idea. I second. A bloodlined character should at least be allowed to choose their bloodlines language during character creation.

I like the sorcerer as well. If they could bring in reserve feats such as Firey Burst from CM then both Wizard and Sorcerer would be completely set.

I like the favored class giving HP. It gives people a small bonus for sticking with a single class. Almost all splats that came out recently (most notibly the Races of Destiny) have been aimed toward Multi-classing, its good to see some benefits for the normal guys. :D

I am a wizard and therefor more intellegent enabling me to conceptualize spells in a more efficient way and store said information in my cavernous mind. This thereby increases the effectiveness of various theorems of arcane esotera, empowers me toward more substantial and potent arcana and allows the breaking of the very laws of the universe!

Wizards have less magical oomph than sorcerers, but they use it better.

[Int rules, Cha is for posers! Nya!]

Halflings arent hobbits. They lost that court case.

Halflings are spry, inquisitive creatures. Frail and weak but swift and smart. Dex/Int works well for me; I think halflings are too frail for a CON bonus (and enough other classes get it already...) and they tend to be far too annoying to anyone not a halfling to get Cha. :P

The reincarnated creature gains all abilities associated

with its new form, including forms of movement and
speeds, natural armor, natural attacks, extraordinary
abilities, and the like, but it doesn’t automatically speak
the language of the new form.

You're right. And as an added bonus the cleric (or the same druid) then casts Restoration on you to get rid of the level loss.

Yes that is possible in PF A2.

hold up...

Bracers AND Bracelets?
Gloves AND Gauntlets?

when did you get the ability to use these?

+50 percent for the second enchantment on an item, +50 percent for putting a stat enhancement in the wrong slot:

Designer Notes: Ability Boosters

One of the changes we made to the Pathfinder RPG included
moving all of the magic items that boost your ability scores to
just a pair of slots: belt for the physical abilities and headband for
the mental abilities. This change was made to open up the slots
these items used to inhabit. All too frequently, great magic items
that could have seen use instead get sold due to the fact that
every PC has some sort of ability boosting magic item in that
slot (medallions of thought come to mind). Now every character
can get two bonuses to their ability scores without sacrificing
the other cool treasures their character’s come across. We even
moved some of the more interesting items from those slots into
others so that they would not suffer the same fate. For
this move to work, make sure not to
give out any items that increase
your ability scores unless they
are in the belt or headband
slot. Try out this change and
let us know what you think.

If you follow this then you would never meet the body slot affinity rule which increases the price by 50%:

... Wondrous items that don’t match the affinity for a

particular body slot should cost 50% more than wondrous
items that match the affinity.

True, forgot about that. Thanks. :)

I'm not entirely sure I agree with this. You can effectively swap Bane effects (or similar things - Fiery Burst for the Frost Giants and then Icy Burst for the Red Dragon boss) depending on what you are facing, seriously upping the fire-power in a fairly arbitrary way. I'm not sure that would be very balanced, since actual combat per day is probably a few minutes at most.

Well, since you are spending one of your limited number of Turn Undead attempts, things you could be using to AoE heal the party its not so bad; Especially since the action to invoke the blade is a standard action.

Ability bonuses with a duration greater than one day

actually increase the relevant ability score after 24 hours.
Modify all skills and statistics related to that ability. This
might cause you to gain skill points, hit points, and other
bonuses. These bonuses should be noted separately in case
they are removed.

As far as I can see after 24 hours it counts as a permenant increase. If you gain a level from then on you would gain Skillpoints from this, but if you removed the hat, ever, those skillpoints would then go away.

What worries me is the fact that it also looks as if HP is an effect of only permanent ability bonuses, meaning bulls strength is practically useless.

I am surprised noone noticed the hidden downside yet though.

If I am right then if you want to have your Helmet of Underwater Breathing/Intellect +2 then you will have to pay 225% of the cost of Intelect +2.

The cost is (Int+2)* 50% * 50% = 2.25(Int+2) [or 2(int+2) depending on a few things. I know that was an overly complex way of showing it]

I can see that for some warriors their belts are going to be their most valued items beside their weapons.

I can also see a general trend against Wizards/Clerics/Bards/Druids owning hatracks. Would you leave something worth that much unattended..?

Seeker, you are just looking for a lower level spell sink. :D

I think the 'level of highest level spell' idea is the most fair.

Under the current system I would be seriously tempted to hire a 1st level Wizard to follow me arround to charge up my staves. :D

I agree on the overwrite Grrrl.

I dont think this power should be usuable only for your dieties favored weapon. My current favorate character at the moment is a Dwarven Paladin of CC, and CCs favorate weapon is the rapier.

Now I know it happens sometimes... but I rarely want to see a Dwarf with a Rapier. Just... no. I dont want to lose out on a very nice class ability because I choose a differant weapon! Make it a part of your personal code of ethics if you must (This ability only works with DFW) but dont restrict the paladin any more than it already is!

The sacred cow was a 9th dimentional warbeast that noone could comprehend that people would use to cause unbelievable exploits. Its not coming back.

And I doubt you will get a generalised polymorph below 9th level, cos then why have a Druid..?

My god... What Bagoo2 said. That is the simplest and most logical way to do it. Limit to a minute and make every use after the first require a turn.

K.I.S.S.

Well you dont have to have equipment to use it. Theres no reason why you cant put the spirit inside your fist. The fact that you can enchant your weapon is more like foresight on behalf of the gods (a rare thing) that paladins usually use weapons other than thier hands.

As to the lack of the mount I know what you mean, but far too often the mount is made useless by meandering indoor dungeons, underwater adventures and difficult terrain.

Personally I like the idea of the spirit bond rather than the mount since I can just buy a mount anyway, even a celestial one at the right markets even if its not as strong. Maybe an option would be that you can choose at the start of the day which of the two choices you want? Mount or Spirit Bond?

Heh, think about it. They are already granting power to a person who needs decent weapons and armor to be effective in a fight. Why does the god taking a direct hand in making the equipment they already need [bbetter[/b] any differant?

You seem to be missing the awesomeness of this power. If you have a +3 flaming sword at 8th level and activate this ability it can become a +3 holy flaming sword. The enhancement bonus doesnt stack but the abilities add.

I dont think it should be seperated into rounds. If you did that it would lead to paladins changing thier weapons round to round and that is simply going too far. I like the idea of your choice lasting a minute.

Ahh, fair enough. It wouldnt be too fair to have it all the time.

Maybe you could make it a flat minute and grant a use of it every five levels? It means that it wont always last through the fight but you should be able to, at 20, usually have it when you need it.

Pathos, the reason I suggest steering away from Enhancement bonuses is for that reason: You have magical items. Since lasting bonuses that dont require activation effect you while you are polymorphed any Enhancement bonus items are still in effect. If you have a belt of +4 strength and leather armor then there is really only downsides to Beast Shape I.

After all, its rare a fight lasts longer than a couple of minutes.

Would it be possible to get a feat granting more uses of this Spirit Blade power? Even if you only get 1 more use it would probably be worth it.

Or maybe make it 1/level but you don't have to use all those minutes in a row EG at fifth level you have 5mins/level. You can split it so that you have it for 1min now, then 3min later then 1min.)

Ahh my mistake, I misread. I thought that the bonus to skills was:
Trained: Ability + level
Class Trained: Ability + level + 3

rather than:
Trained: Ability + Rank
Class Trained: Ability + Rank + 3

Cancel my last comment, I like the system as it is now. It actually works a lot better this way.

Perhaps a short list of some of the best options with a note telling DMs to allow players to choose other creatures, but to keep within this range of strength?

You could set some guidelines like: All stat bonuses should be physical and no bonus to any stat, or to natural armor, should be higher than 2/4/6/8 (depending on version of spell) and no granted abilities should be stronger than those listed in the examples (which would improve with version of the spell).

This would allow players a bit more freedom of choice. I like my Huge sized beasts with a bit of dex, con and NA after all. It isnt all about strenth. :D

How about instead of flat NA and Str/dex boost and a list of abilities you might get giving a list of specific options along with their benefits..?

Beas t Shape I
School transmutation (polymorph); Level wizard/sorcerer 3
Casting
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (a piece of the creature whose form you
plan to assume)
Effect
Range personal
Target you
Duration 1 min/level (D)
Description
When you cast this spell you can assume the form of
any Small or Medium creature of the animal type. If the
form you assume has any of the following abilities you
gain the listed ability: climb 30 feet, f ly 30 feet (average
maneuverability), swim 30 feet, darkvision 60 feet, lowlight
vision, and scent.
Bear: You gain +2 racial bonus to strength and a +4 bonus to Natural armor. You also gain 10ft reach and scent
Owl: small size, Lowlight vision, darkvision 60ft and fly 30ft. +2 dex, +2 NA.

And so on.

An elven wizard spends a hundred years of his childhood reading every book about the planes, magic, history and religeon he can and gains 4 ranks in each of them.

On his first adventure another adventurer passes him a book called 'the dungeoneers guide for dummies' and within a few days he equals his topics of a hundred years of study.

Another example: A wizard is 19th level. He has spend his entire career studying Almost all fields of knowledge. He has studied in the forgotten librarys of Myth Dranor, in the libraries of Mystra herself! And then he decides to retire at 20th level, grabbing Profession (Barkeep) and is suddenly one of the worlds best barkeeps!

Explain that?

I like Craft as stated in Alpha 2. It works. Dont change it. :D

I look forward to being able to craft while travelling rather than holding up the party for days in order to 'quickly' craft a wand or scroll. And I am really happy that I can spend money rather than hard earned XP on magical items.

One thematic question though: Since magical items can now be crafted at a cost of only money and time wouldnt that make magical items far more common..? Why wouldn't a wizard work as a crafter for a few years between jobs when he can get a 100% profit for his scrolls/wands?

Love the staffs. They are fantastic. I agree with the idea of 'Highest Spell in staff' to recharge. Max level is pretty extreme.

Out of curiosity can a Wizards Impliment be turned into a Staff?

I dont think anything I have seen works well.

The thing I liked about the rank based system was that you could suck at things.

Think about it. A lot of DMs give their players a single rank in Profession or Knowledge (local) for background reasons. A 20th level Wizard who grew up on a farm (Profession (farmer) +1) is still going to suck at farming. According to the new system a 20th level farmer is almost as good at farming as they are with Spellcraft or Knowledge skills. It doesnt really make sense to me. :P

As I posted elsewhere if they change the bonus from Beast Shape 1-5 from Enhancement to Racial it will work. As an enhancement bonus it just leaves a lot to be desired.

Huh..? Its not that hard. You should never cheat to get the skills you need to PrC, if you have to cheat you dont qualify... And you can get to 8 in tumble; if you are taking a level in rogue (tumble 4) then four levels in fighter you can spend 2 a level buying tumble up to 8, the fact that a skill is class for you in rogue means you can buy it to max, you just have to pay CC costs for it if you get the skills from a class where its CC.

I agree with Trojan Dwarf. That is a much better option.

I would make Adimantium the same cost as cold iron/silver though.

You can cast Reincarnation with the dust left over from disintegrate (its specific in the example). So, if you are lucky, theres no reason not to use it. Especially since they have removed the animal options from the results.

One rather large whole though IS reincarnation... Whats to stop the party from killing the fighter/barbarian and reincarnating them repeatedly till they are bugbears and then using Restoration to deal with the loss..? It would only cost a few thousand one hundred gold for a huge advantage stat wise...

I think a better system, or at least a fix to this one, would be to make the negative level unable to be removed for a full week. It stops repeated deaths for fun and means there is a lasting, but not permanent, penalty to dying.

I am also a bit worried that the distinction between class/cross is going to go away though. Look at 20th level. Difference between 2 class and 2 cross: +23/+23/+20/+20. Not really enough of a difference to matter. :P

Another idea might be to give Sorcerers an ability that lets them perform a ritual to change spells. Make it take an hour to perform and cost 100gp per level of the spell. This vastly improves their versatility while still leaving the wizard a level above and the uncontested king of Metamagic.