Tim4488's page

I have a PC considering a sort of Fist of God character. As he just put it, "His punches are good because of God, not necessarily because he is a skilled puncher." That's making us lean towards a straight Paladin rather than a Monk or Monk/Paladin.

My question is: does anyone see any HUGE issues with allowing Divine Bond to apply to his fists? My game is usually not the most focused on balance, by virtue of our friend group everyone has a good time regardless of whether or not they're well-optimized, so as long as there aren't GLARING problems with it, it'll fly in my game. Thanks for any input.

Pretty much all there in the thread title. I like the Archaeologist Bard a lot, but am interested in a more mundane variant on the same theme. Would there be any obvious problems with just removing the entire spellcasting progression and making it a d10/Full BAB class?

Perhaps a better way to go about this is to merge the Archaeologist and Ranger... hrm...

In Ultimate Combat, the Divine Strategist archetype for the cleric has an ability called Tactical Expertise which adds their Int to attack rolls when flanking, and lets them add Int to any d20 roll made as part of a readied action a set number of times a day. It's common on these boards to see people looking for Int-based or just more finesse-styled Fighters, and I was wondering if this might not be a good place to start. Personally I'd be inclined to make it an archetype, something like...

Canny Fighter (Archetype)

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A canny fighter is not proficient with heavy armor or tower shields.
Skills: Acrobatics (Dex), Bluff (Cha) and Sleight of Hand (Dex) are class skills for a canny fighter. In addition, a canny fighter gains 4+Intelligence modifier skill points per level, rather than the usual 2.
Finesse Strike: The canny fighter gains Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat at first level. This replaces the fighter's normal bonus feat.
Agile: At 2nd level, the canny fighter gains a +1 bonus to all Acrobatics checks, as well as to his combat maneuver bonus and combat maneuver defense for purposes of the feint maneuver. These bonuses increase by +1 for every four levels )up to a maximum of +5 at 18th level). This ability replaces Bravery.
Adroit Strike: At 3rd level, the canny fighter adds his Intelligence modifier to attack rolls whenever flanking an opponent. This ability replaces Armor Training I.
Better Lucky than Good: At 7th level, a canny fighter may add his Intelligence modifier to any one d20 roll once a day. He can use this ability one additional time per day for every three levels after 7th. This ability replaces Armor Training II.

I can actually see arguments, based on the fighting style, for Adroit Strike to go the opposite way and grants its bonuses only when the opponent is neither threatened by nor threatening anyone else. Also, I've never had a game run above 10th level, so I'm having trouble thinking of things to replace Armor Training III and IV and Armor Mastery, but obviously they should get replacements too. Open for suggestions on anything, of course, also not sure if Agile's any good or not.

Just wondering if anyone's looked at it for PF, really. I have a player who's excited about the idea of a Witch/Druid. Other than a couple of clarifications on the the prereqs and the language of the Wild Shape ability, my hunch is that it works as is with no additional work (well, skill-folding, obviously). Any input?

So I was thinking earlier today and realized we've got Paladin/Inquisitor/Cleric, and while there's no Paladin equivalent for the Wizard by Paizo yet, there are Tejon's Iron Mage and Super Genius Games's Archon. You could say Iron Mage or Archon/Magus or Vanguard (also SGG)/Wizard or Sorcerer, but there's no equivalent in the Druid/Ranger(/Scout to some degree) theme. Now, I'm not saying there's a thematic need for such a class or any flavor gap to fill here, but I was thinking it could be fun to create such a class just as a mechanical exercise. See what people come up with. Here's what I've got so far, feel free to expand on it or shoot my ideas down completely and think of something better.

Tentative Name: Steward. Feels naturey. If anyone has anything better, go for it. I thought of Warden but don't want to confuse it with the 4e class.
6 levels of spellcasting a la the Bard, probably prepared Wisdom-based, drawing heavily from the Druid and Ranger lists.
3/4 BAB, d8 HD, 4+ or 6+int skill points/level, depending on how other things work out.

Now of course it needs a major feature, something like a Favored Enemy or Judgments or Hexes. I was thinking originally of some sort of battlefield control, adding effects to their melee attacks like entangling, but then realized there was no good reason to limit this class to melee. I do still like the idea of the class playing around with debilitating effects and movement, though. So I came up with... eh, let's call them Aspects for now. Pick one at first level, I'm imagining it structured somewhat like a Sorcerer's Bloodline, though maybe not precisely so. Some kind of attack power at first level, as well as defensive and utility benefits as one goes along. The attack power would also improve more than a Sorcerer's to make up for the lower casting. They may even grant bonus spells like Bloodlines do, it all depends really.

Aspect of Vines: Melee strike that entangles opponent with vines. Later on the vines last longer, constrict for damage, or completely immobilize. Also gain AC bonuses and the ability to survive with less/no food or water due to photosynthetic bark-like skin.

Aspect of Stone: Start out with the ability to lob stones at range, dealing lethal bludgeoning damage. Eventually can create difficult terrain, pass such terrain himself, maybe gain DR/- or AC bonuses.

Aspect of the Sea: Start out with something like Hydraulic Push, nonlethal damage plus a bull rush, but not just a spell-like ability. Gain swimming bonuses, maybe even a swim speed, the ability to breathe water (limited or unlimited depending on level).

I'm trying to go for a more primal sort of nature feel as opposed to something like air/earth/fire/water, I hope that's apparent. I'd also like an Aspect of Winds, but couldn't think of a good first level ability that wouldn't also involve bull rushing. Besides that probably some kind of Rogue Talent/Magus Arcana like system, some typical Druid/Ranger features like Trackless Step, and whatever else people think of. Anyone interested in helping out with this?

I ran a Dawnforge game back before Pathfinder came out, and now a new group of players is interested in it. It's a great setting, there's a lot of things I like about it, but I'd like to try running it in PF and I'm seeing a few sticking points.

1. Races. Probably the easiest to solve. I'm just going to use the Dawnforge races and ignore the Pathfinder core races entirely. The racial set-up of Dawnforge is very integral to the setting, and it seems easier to just let it stay.

2. Altered and New Classes: Less sure what to do here. Honestly, I might just ignore their Shaman and use the PF Druid, but on the issue of the Disciple vs. the Cleric it's tougher to do. The lack of gods is really important to the setting, and that's why they made the Disciple class, but I'm not quite sure how to Pathfinderize it. To be entirely frank, I didn't quite "get" the class last time I ran it, but no one wanted to play one so we got away with it. The Spirit Adept and the Shaman I feel won't be too hard to convert, just need to fill a lot of dead levels on the Spirit Adept.

3. Wizard Schools. Dawnforge did a huge number on how Wizards work, reorganizing the schools into 4 "Aspects," each containing a number of the schools with some overlap between different aspects. With Pathfinder's extra abilities based on specialist schools, this is tricky. I guess I could allow a Wizard to take the specialist abilities of one of their schools, so for example a Wizard bonded to Entropy (Evocation, Necromancy, Transmutation) could take the School Powers of either an Evoker, a Necromancer, or a Transmuter, but not mix and match them. Not entirely sure I like that though. Two other options would be to make a set list for each Aspect by mixing and matching school powers myself, or to create entirely new powers.

Anyway, I'm hoping some other people have read/used this really cool setting, and that maybe someone else has looked at adapting it for Pathfinder. Thanks.

Rolling Thunder
School Evocation (sonic) Level Sorcerer/Wizard 2
Casting Time One Standard Action
Components V, S
Range Medium (100 ft + 10 ft/level)
Target One Creature
Duration Instantaneous
Saving Throw Fortitude Partial
Spell Resistance Yes

This spell creates a powerful burst that causes minor damage and pushes the target away from the caster.

Rolling Thunder deals d6 Sonic damage to the target, and this damage can be negated with a Fortitude save. However, its main use is to create a Bull Rush effect. This attempt does not provoke attacks of opportunity, uses caster level in place of CMB, and adds your Intelligence or Charisma modifier (as appropriate) in place of Strength or Dexterity. No save affects the bull rush portion of the spell.

I have a player playing an Air Elemental Bloodline Sorcerer whose theme is essentially that of Storm. We worked together to create this spell, I'm balancing it at 2nd level based more or less on Telekinesis. This spell creates only one portion of that spell's many effects and is instantaneous rather than over a duration, so 2nd level seemed appropriate. The damage is honestly incidental, I'd probably be just as happy without it there at all. I didn't want to allow a save against the bull rush, as it's already going to have to beat the defender's CMD. I could see it at 3rd level, but that seems a bit much. We're also discussing a higher-level version that would work in a burst centered on the caster, something like a 10 or 20 ft radius and a 4th or 5th level spell. Haven't decided for sure yet.

Does it look balanced? How's the clarity? Does it look useful, fun? Feedback appreciated.

EDIT: I sort of guessed at the range. Short also seems appropriate. Not sure yet. Suggestions?

I'm well aware that I'm not the first person to speak of this topic, but looking around the boards I felt like it was worth posting my own conversions. Or meager attempts at such, anyway.

I'm going to be running a Planescape campaign using Pathfinder rules in the fall, so this is less "for fun" and more "something I actually need for my game." Eventually I'd like to try converting over Gith, some other Planetouched like Zenythri and Chaonds, Nathri, and so on, but so far all I've done are the Genasi.

Feedback greatly appreciated.

I'd like a more evocative name, but nothing's grabbing me yet.

Throwing Technique (Combat)
You know many ways to follow up an attack with devastating throws.
Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike
Benefit: You may combine a normal unarmed attack and a trip attempt as a full-round action. If you hit on the attack, roll damage as normal and make a CMB check. If this roll succeeds, you may move into your opponent's square and choose for them to land prone in any adjacent square. Your opponent takes d6 falling damage as well. Neither the CMB check nor the movement provoke any attacks of opportunity.
Special: If you BAB is +6 or higher, your opponent instead takes 2d6 points of falling damage. If your BAB is +11 or higher, your opponent takes 3d6 points of falling damage. If your BAB is +16 or higher, your opponent takes 4d6 points of falling damage. In addition, Monks may take this feat as one of their bonus feats.

Is it clear? I realize there's a lot going on, but I tried to word it as well as I could.

It doesn't seem overpowered to me at the moment, though I would like to add another prerequisite, maybe two. Improved Trip just doesn't seem appropriate in terms of the fluff as to how you're getting them on the ground (not to mention that would make it cost 3 feats to get this one), and Improved Grapple somewhat applies, but eh...

And for anyone with interest in real-world martial arts, I imagine this technique encompasses many different throws. A hip throw, shoulder throw or head throw would land them in your previous square, a reaping attack (Osoto Gari) would press them back a square, face throws could be used to put them to the sides or behind you... so on, so forth.