Torbyne's page

As the title, love the game and hope to come back to it again but its time to take a break for now...

So today I inflicted some diseases among the PCs and we noticed that once weakened there are some serious penalties to weapon damage... which makes sense for melee weapons or bows but is a really weird effect considering guns, lasers and rockets. I realize this may have been intentional but we were surprised enough to wonder if this was this a hold over from pathfinder where most weapons relied on the character's strength instead of an outside power source? Accuracy penalties, sure, but how is my grenade less explosive-y when I am sick?

I might be in a little much of a theory vaccuum but every ship I mock up ends up pretty similar. I have two bits of design philosophy that i keep going back to:

1) a turreted laser net is a better use of BP than counter measures. (I am at least a little shaky on this point since countermeasures can apply against sensors but attack bonuses seem to scale faster than defenses)

2) two twin linked turret weapons are a more effective use of BP and power core than almost any other spread of limited arc weapons. In that paired heavy hitters are almost always a better choice than spreading the power requirements and BP into three weak arcs and one moderate.

Is there a flaw I am missing here?

Did anything ever happen with the Starfinder Minis? I thought they were going to be available last September but they've never shown up at my local stores, can't find them online and the ninja division page is down. I have a good mix of PC types from other games and a few ships from shapeways, Star Wars, Firestorm etc. But I'd be interested in some of the official designs if they are available anywhere.

Species which suffer from bright lights
.. is the standard environmental protection on all armors enough to shield them from this? If not, would a 10 cred pair of sunglasses from a random station kiosk be enough?

I am considering a character that is soldier 1/solarian X and wondering if I am missing anything other than the 1 level delay to revelations and weapon specialization .

STR 16
DEX 16
Con 10
Int 10
Wis 10
Cha 10

(Or other wise racially modified for the two 16s)

Blitz gets the bonus to initiative, speed and resolve based on strength or dexterity.

From level 2 on it's solar armor and advanced melee weapons. Specialization comes online a level late but the strength bonus should make up for that.

By keeping dex up the build can also do things in ship combat.

By going unbalanced early the build gets stellar rush and plasma sheath going by level 5.

I would lose out of some zenith revelations and level to damage delayed by one level but that seems small compared to the gains elsewhere... or am I missing something?

Having just gone through the pact world's book on new ship bits, I find the comms net and launch tubes... It now seems possible to run scout carriers in a smallish party.

The biggest question left is determining build points for all of the ships. Per page 326 of the core book, I can have a party of three ships at the tier equal to the party's APL and treat the tier of the PCs as APL+2 for determining effective tier for combats?

After that comes... logistics? Or action economy hurdles I guess.

Giving the smaller ships mononode computers will let them snap shot with negligible penalties and focus on flying, or a turn spent with engineering checks and gliding.

The mother ship runs science officer and has it's own pilot who can snap shot as well.

So.. would this work?

This spell confuses me, by it's description it is awesome and full of flavor for converting an area into something new for the story... But by the mechanics of it, an hour to cast, 30,000 credits of super tech or magic junk and it only effects a 100' radius area for day/level. So the giant trees go back to grass and shrubs? The water that was pulled up recedes? What does it accomplish aside from a very expensive parlour trick? I would think that at the levels this comes online there would be a tech item that would permanently cause new plant growth or modify an area for about that same price. What do you get aside from two weeks of nice weather and shade? I feel like I am missing something obvious about this one.

The more I go over the ship builders the more I am enjoying it... but some of it confuses me.

Can twin linked point weapons only intercept one tracking weapon per turn or are they separate enough to allow both attempts?

If you twin link tracking weapons do they count as one or two missiles for point weapons to intercept?

When using tracking weapons, do you carry over all modifiers in subsequent tracking rolls? Is this an action for the gunners or a free check? (Ie, broadside or fire at will to launch a bunch of missiles at long range, in the following turn do the surviving missiles still have a penalty from the launch type? The rules make it sound as if only current modifiers would apply. Otherwise can an opponent stack improve countermeasure penalties to continuously degrade tracking weapons?)

If broad arc weapons can fire into an arc, can those be used as part of a broadside from that arc, albeit with a -6 to their shots? Turrets are in and these function as limited turrets enough to make me wonder.

So who thinks the PRD will include all of the extra items, spells and other options from the APs and Alien Archive and whatever else is released under the Starfinder banner? Has it been stated somewhere that i missed or forgot about already?

There seems to be a dedicated effort to get more content out under every product line to help flesh out the game. I know i prefer the energy weapons from Vol. 2 of the AP and plan on making some knock off Aeon armors powered by Aeon Stones. But for know while we only have hard copies to work with... its a bit of a pain to cross reference tables from so many sources to try to keep up with all of the options and levels at which they open up. i didnt realize how spoiled we were with the Pathfinder online data sets; of course in Pathfinder its pretty much just "choose one of these three option for weapon, one of these two for armor and remember the levels points for material X and the two enchantments you'll only ever use" Starfinder makes the items tables a constantly used resources.

I am hoping to run the AP for my group soon and was flipping through trying to get a feel for it all. Not the easiest since i havent seen all the new parts in play yet but the overall feeling i am getting is that the enemies will have the HP to survive an opening round of shooting, especially if they get initiative over some PCs, and there seem to be a lot of Melee focused encounters. Can anyone speak from table experience or armchair this better than me?

My first thought is to strongly suggest to the players to have a dedicated melee character and for everyone to expect to get into a brawl at some point. I suppose you could just guarded step out of melee and take a shot, so a sort of fighting retreat, but if they want to get into cover or use terrain much then they might end up backed into a corner.

Exocortex gives the mechanic a move action to make attacks against a specific target (or three) using your mechanic level as your base attack bonus.

Weapon Focus grants a +1 to hit unless your BAB is 3 less than your level in which case it grants a +2.

Deadly Aim gives a damage bonus based off your 1/2 your BAB.

At level 10 do these feats fluctuate based on if you are using combat tracking or not? ie, do you get an effective 10 BAB plus weapon focus as a +2 for your actual BAB being lower? Does Deadly Aim give you a +3 or +5 to damage rolls? do these values only change against tracked targets?

my initial thought is that it doesnt count as actual BAB so the character would get better accuracy but lower pay off from Deadly Aim. which is awesome because those hit bonuses are hard to come by.

Hi everyone!

I am continuing a line of thought from weapon technology levels and the variety of guns at any given tier to throw out some ideas and see about a conversation on weapon categories.

We have 6 known weapon groups so far, right?

Melee, Simple
Melee, Advanced

Small arms (any one handed ranged weapon)
Long Arms (Most two handed ranged weapons)
Heavy Weapons (two handed weapons that have a strength requirement)

Sniper Weapons (presumably two handed weapons with a scope? I am not sure if this is a proficiency like Simple and Martial or more of a monk special weapon property, ie "you are proficient with anything with the sniper weapon property")

We know that Melee, Simple and Small Arms gain half the user's level to damage with specialization and it was implied that with a feat you can reduce the penalties for making two attacks by dual wielding one handed weapons.

We know that Long Arms, Heavy Weapons and Melee, Advanced deal full character level to damage with specialization.

I think we are safe to assume that Small Arms and Melee, Simple will have lower damage than an equal tier long or advanced weapon though as far as i know this is still an assumption. But for this conversation i am looking at ranged weapons, melee stuff might warrant its own thread.

Soldiers get all of these weapon groups.
Mechanics can get Long Arms if they take an Exocortex.
Operatives can get some Long Arms (an assumption about what the sniper weapon group is.)

Is there going to be a time when the Soldier wants to use a pistol when they could be throwing out whatever crazy death a heavy weapon deals? Will Long Arms have some kind of option to be a competitive choice? I could see a general rule that Heavy Weapons take a full turn to fire or cant fire more than once per turn even if they are only a standard action. That might make it tempting to use a Long Arm to get more targeted shots out at least. But will the Soldiers ever main a pistol unless they are going for a specific dual wielding build?

If you are playing an exocortex Mechanic what is the incentive to use pistols over Long Arms? It sounds like the expectation is that you have Long Arms to make up for the damage a drone would otherwise do.

Operatives have their trick attacks and it feels like this is their default action every round so lower damage per weapon isnt as much of a concern since their class ability makes up for it.

Solarians probably get by with their class feature + Crystal being equal to or better than a comparative tiered advanced melee weapon and their gun skills are a fall back for them anyways.

Technomancers and Mystics have spells and probably arent expected to compete with damage anyways... i am not sure where that will leave Envoys, presumably they can buff and attack much like a bard can and their per shot lower damage is made up by their whole party contribution.

But i wonder where this leaves the weapon charts at.

Does the soldier care what pistols are available at their level?

Does the exocortex Mechanic only look at the next Long Arm on the list?

Are the other five classes just going step by step on the pistols as the Starfinder version of the next +1?

There are no more threat range or multiplier combos to play with so its down to what the rider effect and damage type are. Rider effects only occur in 1 in 20 shots, they dont seem so powerful as to decide your weapon by themselves either. That does mean at any given level point there could be 50+ weapon options but they are all just choosing "level 8 pistol, the fire one" or "level 10 rifle, the half fire and half piercing one" It would come down to what resistance do you think is least likely to pop up. I have seen First Contact and it looks like immunities are still a thing to worry about which makes me feel like energy weapons are risky to take as a main weapon. Though i am also coming from the Pathfinder mindset of a main weapon that is a huge portion of total character wealth... that might not be the case anymore and it could be that guns are just dirt cheap.(lets add a level to the ultimate combat gun chart to explain it: guns are new, guns are gaining prominence, guns are everywhere and "its friggin Borderlands out here people!")

There are a lot of unknowns about weapon interactions actually; as i guess at above, its possible that heavy weapons can only fire once so they are great for BBEGs but terrible for groups unless you happened to guess Missile Launcher at the gun-mart and now find yourself fighting hoards of space-goblins, but if you choose single target disintegration ray than you would probably be wishing for a Long Arm in that goblin fight. Its also possible that there are a lot more weapon special properties that would influence your choice more than just "what is the biggest dice pile or the least commonly resisted element" Its possible that not all rifles can throw out a cone shape to attack multiple targets or some might make a line effect to simulate that they over penetrate. I am still not sure what benefits pistols could get that would make them competitive choices when you could choose any other kind of gun but there might be something. (hopefully something more than just +2 to conceal them.)

I get at some level being able to use heavy weapons is a thing and there should be encouragement to use them for classes that can. If there were competitive pistols at all tiers than why bother with anything else. But i also dont want it all to come down to cookie cutter builds of weapon A at levels 1-3 then switch to Weapon B at level 4 until level 8 when everyone jumps over to Weapon C.

Thoughts, opinions, hopes, worries?

I have been wondering about this for a few days now, does anyone know if it has been addressed anywhere yet?

A common trope in sci-fi/fantasy is that there are forces out there with really strange, alien, and advanced super tech. things that are usually beyond the hope of the central characters from understanding or at least beyond their means of reproducing. But how well does that mesh with the idea that all gear has a level and the PCs are expecting to always be able to have access to APL+2 gear whenever they return to the station? Does this mean that from level 10 onwards they will completely abandon regularly produced equipment and just happen to have advanced prototype gear from secretive factions? From level 14 they are lugging around alien tech that works on principles that their own sciences cant explain and then they just chuck that in the bin when at level 18 they have a mystical gun from an ancient alien race that once wiped out the population of an entire planet?

That kind of stuff can be fun for the first campaign but it seems like you either make Pact World tech on par with the most advanced things out there or risk every campaign running high enough to see every PC decked out in Azlanti Star Empire power armor and experimental anti-swarm blasters.

I assume there will be minor artifact level gear that wont come up in every campaign but for the... i guess i'd call it the run of the mill higher level stuff, how does that fit into the setting? are there rules for higher tech things other than just making them higher level? Is some gear faction locked by more than level so the party's choice of allies early on will affect their options for gear later?

This is a topic that seems to come up a lot whenever Kineticists come up and often derails those threads so why not try to bring all that talk over here where it is on topic! :)

The general points for consideration as i know them:

- 3/4 BAB class

- Elemental Overflow grants both a scaling bonus to accuracy and size bonuses to attributes that can be used to further boost accuracy starting at level 3.

- Almost all elemental combinations have the option to target Touch AC if they so choose.

- The class tends towards "all or nothing" with its one big hit ability. There are a few ways to get multiple blasts per round but you must jump through some hoops to do so, usually with accuracy hits or at high levels.

- Small sized characters get a free +1 to hit and dont have any reduction in damage for their size.

From my personal experience, the accuracy issue hurts! I made the mistake of playing a physical blast character with only a 16 in DEX and didnt get Precise Shot until level 5 which means i spent 4 levels missing around 2/3s of my shots and then still accuracy just crept up to around 2/3 shots landing after paying feat taxes and boosting attributes. i have lots of lessons learned from that though and wouldnt play another physical blaster without an 18 in accuracy and some better feat investments.

What are your thoughts about Kineticist accuracy, how do you plan for it, who has some table stories to share about it? :)

Kinetic Knight is becoming one of my most infatuated with options lately and i've been thinking up a lot of potential builds with it. i am not certain yet though and would like some advice on how to fill out a build.

I want someone who can be a solid workhorse at multiple things, i think the archetype lends itself very well to combat options and have a neat way into getting some skills and utility.

My biggest uncertainty is if to go Aether or Earth and then if to mono-element or pick up the missing one at level 7. Since both elements are physical blasts i am going with STR high to keep accuracy up. I am leaning towards Aether for better all around options but earth's defense talent is by far the most tempting. Here is what i have so far.

Human (possibly with the Dimdweller ART, i like darvision.)
STR 18 (includes racial +2)
DEX 12
CON 16
INT 10
WIS 10
CHA 8

Skills:
Max out Perception, Sense Motive, Diplomacy and... Slight of Hand? I plan on grabbing Elemental Whispers for a Sagely Compsognathus, one wild talent for a +4 initiative, all knowledge skills and a scouting buddy? Yes please.

Feats:
1: Possessed Hand
1 Bonus: Toughness
3: Weapon Focus
5: Improved Initiative
7: (open)
9: (open)
11: (open)

Infusions (Aether):
1 - Pushing (are there any other options here?)
2 - Elemental Whispers (Comsognathus, Sage Archetype)
3 - lost due to archetype
4 - Telekinetic Haul
5 - Bowling
6 - Self Telekinesis
7 - (What to do here? Expand into Earth perhaps?)
8 - Telekinetic Finesse
9 - (What to do here?)
10 - Greater Self Telekinesis
11 - (What to do here?)
12 - Suffocate (Or Kinetic Form?)

So, some thoughts about the build. Accuracy sucks but hopefully the high strength and free +2 from feats early on will help keep the hits landing. Its a heavy armor build so movement speed is really low too but eventually Blade Rush and Whip can help get around that problem.

I am really at a loss for a lot of infusions though i wish i had more wild talents to spend, i understand this is normal for Aether however.

I am a little unsure how exactly a Sage Familiar works on a Kineticist... the familiar has an INT penalty until level 5 and only receives 2 skill points per level no matter what it's INT mod is, so it really isnt that great at knowledge checks for a while but eventually (at level 10) can be trained in every knowledge with a +6 modifier? It might be best to just pick two skills though and get those up to +15. But it at least gets more effective skills per level which is always great.

I am really not sure how to interpret this part though, "As long as you concentrate, the familiar can take actions as a normal animal of its type, and it can move any distance away from you, though if it takes any damage or you cease concentrating, it returns to your mind" so... is it a free action to cease concentrating? As in i could send my Aetheric companion on ahead to scout and once it sees anything of interest i could free action dismiss it and have it return to the character's mind with all of its scouting reports?

If i expand into another element at 7 i could at least spend my levels 9 and 11 infusions on catching up the extra element. And level 8 would likely go towards Expanded Defense in that case.

I feel like the archetype will provide enough AC and offense just by its nature but am not sure how much utility i can bolt on through other choices. I am also wondering about possibly getting Stealth back through a feat or trait and forgoing self telekinesis for Telekinetic Invisibility, the +10 from the talent would easily make up for the ACP and maybe even the lower DEX on a KKnight.

I am trying to figure out the cost to benefit of a water based Kinetic Knight's defensive talent.

The original talent, Shroud Of Water:

You surround yourself with a shroud of water, ice, or both that protects you from harm. The shroud can either cover your body, functioning as armor, or float around you and block attacks, functioning as a shield. It grants either a +4 armor bonus to AC or a +2 shield bonus to AC, and you can change the type of bonus as a standard action. This bonus increases by 1 for every 4 kineticist levels you possess beyond 2nd. By accepting 1 point of burn, You can increase the bonus by 1 until the next time your burn is removed. You can increase the bonus multiple times in this way, but it can’t be increased by more than 50% of its starting value.

When you change the shroud to grant a shield bonus, any bonus in excess of this limit doesn’t apply, but it remains if you change the shroud’s bonus type again. Whenever you accept burn while using a water wild talent, the water coalescing around you allows your shroud to grant both the armor bonus and the shield bonus for 1 round. You can dismiss or restore this effect as an immediate action.

Kinetic Knight Modifies this talent:

A kinetic knight gains the elemental defense ability at 4th level, rather than 2nd, and its benefits apply only while she is wearing heavy armor and wielding an attuned shield. If the kinetic knight selects the expanded defense talent, its benefits also apply only under these conditions. If she has the shroud of water defense wild talent, whenever its bonus would be increased by accepting burn, she instead increases the enhancement bonus of her armor or attuned shield by an equal amount (to a maximum of +5).

So to start with, the Shroud of Water is somewhat redundant with the Kinetic Knight requiring the use of heavy armor and a shield to even gain the talent's benefit. So it takes a point of Burn to activate an ability that does nothing on its own. But you can take additional Burn to power up the talent and gain an enhancement bonus to your shield or armor. the amount you can boost the bonus by is linked back to your level and favors armor over shield since the armor has a higher cap.

So:

The armor starts at 4 (meaning enhancement caps at +2) and the shield starts at 2 (meaning the cap is +1)

The armor can go up to +3 at level 10 and the shield can get to +2

Finally at level 18 you can enhance armor up to +4 and a shield to +3

These are subject to the normal restrictions of a hard cap of +5 to either item, right?

What i am seeing is a diminished return where a character, barring weird prisoner or social encounter situations, doesn't need their defensive talent by the time they can get a decent bonus out of it. There is a small window of levels where you get a few extra points out of it but otherwise would probably be better off with the extra HP and general buffer of unspent Burn.

Am i missing something or does the water knight loose out on the archetype compared to other elements that get about the same AC plus Temp HP, DR or some other bonus?

I was going over an idea for a eldritch guardian/mutation warrior and was considering how to make it dex based... so bare with me because i am unsure about a few of these connections.

To start with, an assumption i am making: Wielding a buckler, as in wearing it for an AC bonus, does not "occupy your off-hand" as in the hand is empty which is a requirements for things like Slashing Grace. There was some talk about this when the Swashbuckler first came out and this is how i remember the ruling coming out on it at least.

Now, if you take Bladed Brush you can use a Glaive as if it was one handed and your off hand was not occupied. then Slashing grace allows dex to damamge so long as your off hand is not occupied.

It seems to me that Bladed Brush is supposed to work with Slashing Grace and Slashing Grace is supposed to be compatible with using a Buckler... but does treating a two handed weapon as one handed and as if not using your off hand actually free you up to gain the AC bonus with it?

I was previously looking at using Shield Brace and a Nodachi with the character and going STR based but i am interseted to see if this could work as well.

Failing this combination working as is, would it work with Bladed Brush, Slashign Grace, Shield Brace and a buckler?

So twice in the past week i have derailed threads with scenarios involving this ability and i figure its time to make a stand alone thread on it.

Here is the ability in question:

Mighty Strike (Ex): At 6th level, a heritor knight gains Vital Strike and Improved Vital Strike as bonus feats. Whenever the heritor knight makes a melee attack as a standard action, she can apply the effects of Improved Vital Strike to that attack. If she has Greater Vital Strike, she can apply that feat’s effects instead.

So since Vital Strikes are already a standard action the ability seems to be saying that you can combine any vital strike feat with other special attacks made as a standard action. The obvious choices for this are the other class abilities that Heritor Knight gains that work as standard actions. There is also Cleave which the class author has highlighted as a good choice.

There was some conversation about the Doublestrike ability of the Two-Weapon Warrior that came down to not compatible as that ability makes two attacks and Might Strike only works when making a single attack.

I brought up the idea of Mighty Strike and Kinetic Blade but that runs into two competing exceptions, Kinetic Blast cant be used with Vital Strike and Might Strike allows Vital Strike to mix with otherwise barred standard actions.

I first read the ability as overriding exceptions to the vital strike restrictions but the author has clarified that it doesn't. So the question comes down to what else is Might Strike compatible with? I am curious to see what kind of builds can be made to make Vital Strike an enticing option.

I thought occurred to me last night as i was leveling up an Inquisitor (Sactified Slayer) (Anger Inquisition) and that was, "This might have the most moving parts of any class i have played."

So i came up with a list of things to keep track of for the class:

Spells known/per day(cant use when raging)
Studied Target (probably cant start use when raging)
Bane (probably can use while raging)
Detect/Discern abilities (not likely to come up while raging)
Rounds of Rage (remember which abilities using this shuts down)
Sneak Attack bonus
Stern Gaze Bonus
Track Bonus
Teamwork Feat selection
Hateful Retort
Apply Wis mod +1/2 from FCB to certain knowledge checks

Are there any other contenders for complex classes? Maybe it just that i havent played many Inquisitors but this one seems more convoluted than even an 9th level caster working out their metamagic or a Kineticist figuring out burn. But thanks to all those different pools to track i was able to use two rounds of pre-buffing to come up with a combat bonus greater than my standard BAB+STR+weapon enchantment which was hilarious in play.

Man, that video had a lot to take in... does anyone know more about some of these questions or notes to add?

EAC, which is presumed to be Energy Armor Class, sort of takes the place of touch AC but we also still have energy types... any word on elemental resistances yet? A lot of those laser hits were kinda weak and Fire Resist 5 would have rendered most lasers useless. I get that lasers will scale with level but resistances usually do too.

Computers as a single skill for both using computers (ie sensors) and programing/hacking. Cool, love some skill consolidation.

Life Sciences covers all monster ID that was previously split between all knowledges?

Mysticism is a catch all for parts of Kn: Arcana, Kn: Religion and Spellcraft?

Did they get an auto crit on a natural 20? no confirmation roll? streamlined system perhaps?

It was neat to see a dwarf in play since there has been so much talk of them not being a core race. also, dwarf space fortresses sound awesome.

Was that all just table banter about cheek pouches or do we think Ysoki can actually store items for quick retrieval?

I dont remember hearing any use of swift or immediate actions. yes, they are all low level in the game but still, the extra missile from a full action vice standard action makes me think they may have done away with the broad categories of action types.

It was neat to see the Mechanic had to spend an action to give their droid a full set of actions, reigning in action economy for pet classes is probably a solid move.

What did the Solarion do to get two attacks at level two? Was that just a full attack action similar to the Technomancer's three Magic Missiles?

There was some tracking on ammo/charges but i only caught one reload after the droid used a full auto cone template. Neat, makes me wonder about ammo capacity and useage. I noticed 1=1 for regular shots, 3 charges netted an extra 1D4 on a 1D6 laser and didnt catch what the expenditure was on the auto fire aside from spending an action to reload after the attack.

The level two technomancer also cast 4 spells, right? three magic missiles and one over charge (which, wow, a level two character adding 4D6 to a ranged attack for the cost of a single action/level one spell slot seems very nice indeed!) sounds good for a 2/3 caster.

Any word on Stamina/Resolve refreshing resource pools for spells and the like?

Did anyone catch if the Solarion was using a resource pool for abilities? i heard something about rounds of attunement and since he was recharging attunement between fights i take it you cant max out attunement outside of combat and wade in full set? likewise there was some telekentic shenanigans that resulted in immune for the rest of the day when the baddie made their save so i hope there isnt an additional resource cost on top of that.

Sorry for being late to the party on this, work like balance and all kept me from seeing and commenting when it happened. Did i miss anything?

i figure this is something that would have been asked very early on the forums but i cant seem to find anything, have we heard whats going on with the small planet/large moon sized spaceship full of ancient sleepers and junk that is orbiting the system?

Erhm, sorry there, got a song stuck in my head.... Anyways, can i get some help of building a theme character? i want to play a Final Fantasy-esque Chocobo Knight. i see maybe two viable routes to it but i am sure there are other ways to do this.

Option 1) An Eldritch Guardian Fighter can take a chicken familiar with the Mauler archetype, at level 3 that chicken can become a medium size uber-chicken that a small sized character could ride. So yay, its online super early!

Pros:
Super easy to get
Has a tiny form to help sneak it in places

Cons:
Abysmal strength score, starts at 3, at level 3 when you can ride it that score is only 6... It will never land a hit in combat., Its speed doesnt change when going from tiny to medium so its still no faster. and the rider would probably put it at least at a heavy load.
Requires a small sized rider to work.
Hilariously bad AC

Thats a lot to overcome to make it anything more than a sort of gag that there is a Chocobo just hanging around when the party makes camp.

Option 2) A Beast Rider Cavalier using something like a T-rex and the sound scientific argument that they were covered in yellow feathers. Also this particular one has stubby wings instead of stubby arms. And a beak.

Pros:
A good choice for small or medium PCs
Very useful attacks on its own.
At level 7 it has a monstrous strength score, give it power attack and Vital strike for rounds when you cant charge.

Cons:
Doesnt really look like a Chocobo.
Lots of people dont like Dinosaurs at their table.
At level 7 it goes large which makes it difficult to bring with you everywhere you go.

A GM might allow an Axe beak but the rules dont explicitly allow it. The Axe Beak starts out with better stats and has specific call outs to its carrying capacity that work well with a medium rider, odds are the bird would be in the medium burden range so its speed would still be at 40. If you take the Charger archetype for it than its speed will get back up to 50 eventually, or its strength score increases will move its total burden to light.

Pros:
It actually is a chocobo.
Free trips on its charge, so charge, Axe Beak trip, rider gets a +4 on their already ridiculous charge attack.
High speed, low drag (50ft movement speed and the run feat baked in)

Cons:
Requires GM permission, i think its right out in PFS and its not a sure thing with home games, especially with how powerful it is right out the gate. (Although i think it scales slower and ends up falling behind other options at level 7)
Always large sized, can be a little difficult in a lot of dungeons
Lower AC for a companion creature. need to get that feller some Barding.

Are there any other options to pull this off?

My apologies if this is an easy answer but i couldnt find it with my google-fu. What happens to a rider when their mount is dropped? Last night the party was fighting four hobgoblins on dire boars and we kept killing the boars before the riders. the way i see it, there are a few possible options but i couldn't find any rules for the situation and the GM just went with a DC 10 acrobatics check to remain upright.

Possible scenarios:

1) Nothing, the mount is dead and the rider is standing unaffected in on of the spaces that the mount just occupied.

2) Acrobatics check to land following the death of the mount, otherwise fall prone

3) Ride check to land or fall prone

4) Automatically fall prone

5) Reflex save to avoid falling

Did i overlook something?

Can anyone help me tease out a build plan for a Flying Blade? i am open to all ideas though i have a lot of the basics picked out already. My big problem is that there are so many feats for ranged builds alone, adding the throwing feats into the mix gets silly.

Human for the extra feat and bump to Charisma.
Flying Blade for bonus damage and range
STR 10 DEX 13 CON 14 INT 10 WIS 12 CHA 18 (including human bonus)

Feats:
1. Noble Scion of War
Human Bonus Feat. Divine Fighting Technique for Desna
3. Point Blank Shot
4 Swashbuckler Bonus Feat. Precise Shot
5. Quick Draw
7. Ricochet Toss (assuming Flying Blade Training qualifies)
8 Swashbuckler Bonus Feat. Rapid Shot
9. Deadly Aim
11. Combat Reflexes
12 Swashbuckler Bonus Feat. Weapon Focus: Starknife
13. Weapon Specialization: Starknife
15. Startoss Style
16 Swashbuckler Bonus Feat. Startoss Comet
17. Startoss shower

i assume most games will end around level 13 but kept the idea going because there are so many more feats to look at. i would still like Improved Initiative, Clustered Shots, Greater Weapon Focus, Greater Weapon Specilization somewhere in there too.

Is it better to switch to Fighter after level 5 to pick up more feats and bump the Fort save?

I could save a feat by relying on a Blinkback Belt since so much is keyed off of Charisma in the build.

Where could i do better?

So you are Throwy McThrower, legendary Flying Blade, and some shmuck swings at you with a stick or something (the weapon used isnt really important to the question) The attack itself meets the conditions for both OP&R and DC, can you spend a point of panache, use an AoO to make a disruptive counter, hit them, impart a -4 to their rolls and then spend an additional point of panache to parry their debuffed attack and finally burn a second AoO to make a second attack against them? Technically the triggers for the attacks themselves are separate events, one is you being attacked and the other is from parrying an attack but i am not sure about multiple deeds both activating from the same source. Also, i am not sure but is the penalty from Disruptive Counter included in the attack roll that triggered it? Your DC AoO is sort of an interrupt that occurs before checking if the attack lands (such as a miss chance, compared against AC or being parried) but i am not sure if it technically occurs when the attack is declared but before the die is rolled or not.

I hadnt really looked at the class before but someone started comparing them to the Magus in another thread and it started my curiosity for the last few days so now here i am. I am trying to figure out how to build one and was hoping the ever insightful forums could help me out :)

So the archetype basically strips out everything about being a Spiritualist and leaves you with four class abilities, a 6th level casting progression, ectoplasmic lashes, ectoplasmic armor and a more or less copy-paste of spellcombat and spellstrike all in one.

My first thought was that it would play as a Magus would but gain the additional benefits of free reach weapons and armor... but that almost immediately went out the window.

The lashes themselves seem like awesome toys but i cant make any convincing math with them. you could get yourself a nice two hander and pump strength but without anything else feeding your accuracy you wont be landing those hits too often. and with the limited spell slots you will have to spend a round buffing before you pretend to be a sub par Fighter; or on round two you can cast a touch spell and try to land it through your two handed lash but if you miss you lose the charge which is even worse with your limited spell budget. So Spiritual combat is looking like a poor option. To invest so much into strength to land hits would leave your wisdom too low and cost you both your save DCs and the bonus spells you will need to stay online as long as the rest of the party and that doesnt even look at the cost you'll pay in your other stats. Going for light lashes makes them fineseable which can save you a bit on your point buy spread at the cost of damage.

The armor bonus doesnt come online until level 4 when most everyone who wants an armor bonus would have at least masterwork armor if not a +1 armor already. i am not sure what the purpose of this is aside from thematics or one of those somewhat rare games when wearing light armor is a faux pas. Certainly if you are playing from level one you would have at least the equal to ectoplasmic armor before the ability actually comes online and i cant see a scenario where you wouldnt have far better armor options between levels four and 12 when the ability gets its one and only bump. So it doesnt really save anything or provide much. Worst case scenario you would still be better served to get yourself a +1 mithral chainshirt than rely on this ability, especially since you can get that bumped up to a +2 or +3 before your class ability upgrades and basically never catches up to what you would otherwise have at the same level with regular armor. I suppose it does free up a lot of your WBL to buy wonderous items to try to patch up your spells known or spells per day though.

So that's zero for three out of class abilities so far :/ At least the spell list has a few nice options on it.

The wording on Ectoplasmic Lash makes it sound like you can either use them as weapons against regular AC or manipulate items at a distance (once you hit level four which, yikes! late for a bread and butter class ability to activate.) that combined with the limits provided in Spiritual Combat makes me think you cant use the lashes to deliver regular touch attacks, does anyone know anything to counter that? It looks like the one saving grace left to the class, build for a high WIS/DEX finesse lasher who can drop ranged touches of say, Chill touch, through TWF.

So my thoughts are the class doesnt really do anything stand out from levels 1-3, you have a few spells giving you a bit of support or utility but if you built for strength your accuracy and damage starts off low and falls further behind as you go. If you build for finesse your accuracy is better as you can afford a little more into your hitting stat but your damages start off REALLY low and likewise never catch up. it is more or less a performanceless bard? Once you hit level four you can start messing around with reach spell builds but you never get anything to reliable land hits and have a special caveat that you cant hold charges on a miss... and thats about it. The lashes scale a bit with level, the armor does too but its not really anything to plan around. You get to keep a few SLAs that probably wont come up outside of specific campaigns.

If you can make regular touch attacks with your lashes though all of a sudden the BAB and MAD issues doent seem so bad, you dont need much to land a touch and TWF with charge per level spells is a viable option. though there arent many of those to choose from. Still, i cant find a way to make a convincing weapon out of the lashes or a worthwhile defense with the armor.

Which is why i made the thread i suppose, i love the idea of the Ectoplasmatist but can find an "organic" build for it that does anything convincingly.

My group is going to pick an old campaign from before i joined in a month or so and so we discussed a but about the party as is and what niche i could build for. The GM strongly suggested a face/rogue role... but i have a rather powerful dislike for Rogues. here is what i came up with for a level 10 facey-thiefy. I hope it will still be able to contribute in combat but otherwise feel solid on the out of combat skills role.

Humphrey Ramsbottom
NG Human (dual talented)
Inspired Blade 1/ Empiricist Investigator 9
Languages: Common +10 others (will decide later)
HP: 86 (max from level 1, group rules that D8 grant 6 Hp on even levels and 7 HP on odd, 9 points from FCB)
AC 22 (10+6 DEX+5 Mithril Chainshirt+1 Deflection) Mutagen adds +2 Natural, Admixture Vial adds +8 shield/Natural enhancement
Init: +8

Saves: 7 FORT 17 REF 9 WILL (+4 vs illusions)

Stats:
STR 10
DEX 22 (+4 belt)
CON 12
INT 24 (+2 level, +4 headband)
WIS 10
CHA 8

Attacks: +14/+9 1D6+7 (+2 to each value with Mutagen)

Studied Combat: +18/+13 1D6+11 (+2 to each value with Mutagen)

Skills:

Bluff 20 (10 ranks, 3 class, 7 int)
Craft: Alchemy 23 (4 ranks, 3 class, 7 int, 9 Alchemy class feature)
Diplomacy 20 (10 ranks, 3 Class, 7 int)
Disable Device 24 (10 ranks, 3 class, 7 int, 4 trapfinding)
Heal 4 (1 rank, 3 class, 0 wis)
KN: Engineering 20 (10 ranks, 3 class, 7 int)
KN: Local 20 (10 ranks, 3 class, 7 int)
KN: History 20 (10 ranks, 3 class, 7 int)
KN: Arcana 20 (10 ranks, 3 class, 7 int)
Linguistics 13 (3 ranks, 3 class, 7 int)
Perception 20 (10 ranks, 3 class, 7 int)
Sense Motive 20 (10 ranks, 3 class, 7 int)
Spell Craft 20 (10 ranks, 3 class, 7 int)
Use Magic Device 11 (1 Rank, 3 class, 7 int)

* Free 1D6 inspiration on: All trained knowledge, linguistics, Spell Craft, Diplomacy, Heal, Perception, Profession and sense motive

* an empiricist uses his Intelligence modifier instead of the skill's typical ability for all Disable Device, Perception, Sense Motive and Use Magic Device checks.

Traits: Student of Philosophy, Reactionary

Class Abilities:

Inspired Panache 8/day, recharge on crit.
Inspired Finesse
Opportune Parry and Riposte

Studied Combat: Swift action +4 to hit/damage
Studied Strike: 3D6
Alchemy +9
Inspiration 11 points/day
Trapfinding +4
Trap Sense +3
Keen Recollection
Mutagen (via investigator talent, +4 DEX, +2 Natural Armor, -2 WIS, 90 minutes.

Feats: Combat Reflexes, Fencing Grace, Extra Investigator Talent, Extra Investigator Talent, Combat Trick: Stylish Riposte

Investigator Talents: Combat Inspiration, Empathy, Expanded Inspiration, Quick Study, Alchemist Discovery (mutagen), Sickening Offense

Gear: +1 Inspired Rapier, +1 Mithral Chainshirt, Ring of Protection +1, Belt of vast intelligence +4, Belt of Incredible Dexterity +4, Cloak of Resistance +3, Admixture Vial (mixing Barkskin and Shield extracts)

Extracts per day
1- 5+2 Bonus
2- 4+2 Bonus
3- 3+2 Bonus

Formula Known:

1- 8 known
Comprehend Languages x1, Cure Light Wounds x1, expeditious retreat x1, Identify, Shield x3, Keen Senses x1, See Alignment, Endure Elements

2- 3 known
Barkskin (+4) x3, Darkvision x1, Vomit Swarm x2

3- 3 known
Elemental Aura(electricity for the DC20 stagger) x2, Displacement x2, Fly x1

Tactics:

Combat Inspiration with an Inspired Rapier is assumed on most primary attacks, adding 1D6 to hit and 2x that value to damage

I expect most combats to start with popping a defensive extract, moving to engage an enemy and studying them.

Lots of parrying going on as well.

I am planning on routinely using the admixture vial for barkskin and shield for that sweet +8 AC but it is tempting to go for Displacement and Elemental Aura as well. Might just need to save up for a second vial.

Sickening Offense looks... sick :) i hope it is as useful as it seems at first glance.

Studied Strike... exists i guess, i dont like it except as a close out attack at the end of studied combat which i expect i wont be able to predict when to drop it too often.

Overall i think it looks much more viable in a wider range of situations than a rogue but i have never played an investigator and am jumping in at a high level here.

Hello all,

This question first came up when discussing an ongoing Iron Gods campaign with the GM and then has been bouncing around my head for a bit as i contemplate Starfinder and how the tech weapons from Pathfinder seem lackluster at the moment... can someone set me straight on this matter?

How does one determine damage dealt when the target has Temp HP from something such as a force field effect, hardness, energy resistance to the type used and weakness to the same?

Damage as normal to the temp HP, then subtract hardness, then resistance then multiple the remainder by 1.5?

Subtract hardness than resistance then deal damage to Temp HP?

Subtract hardness and resistance than multiply by 1.5 than deal damage to Temp HP?

Multiple by 1.5 then damage force field then subtract hardness and resistance?

multiply, subtract, subtract, Temp?

I thought it was subtract, subtract, Temp HP, multiply, damage actual HP but the GM isnt sure and it made me doubt because i couldnt find where in the rules i was getting that from.

This lead to a side conversation about how i felt the plasmathrower in the tech guide is actually a horrible weapon to use against robots as it has to deal with Hardness twice. which the GM hadnt thought of, so...

If an attack has two damage types, either physical/physical or energy 1/energy 2, will each damage type have to independently overcome hardness before being subject to additional resistances?

I am playing a Aerokineticist in the campaign and eventually will be using a physical, magical bashing/eletrical attack, so apply hardness twice, divide by half, subtract any resistances to one of those pools, then multiply the remainder of that pool by 1.5 and add back to the remaining half for total damage dealt?

Lastly, we will be having about half the party relying on tech weapons it seems, is there a way to boost their damage beyond magical enchantments? I saw a post from James Jacobs that they meant to include an exception to allow Deadly Aim with them and the GM is onboard with that but that still doesnt give a way to get around energy resistance and i am not sure they will really be worth it. For what its worth, one of the players is a Savage Technologist so i know they can get DEX to damage but that doesnt help the other players who are considering lasers.

Thanks all!

We know that Starfinder is going to be (at least loosely) based on Pathfinder rules but that things will be changed, streamlined or added in. We also know a little bit about the setting and themes of the game. Lets take these barely knowns and make some wild speculation about the new system!

I'll start:

- Magic levels dont go up to nine anymore. Blame the rise of technology, perhaps a side effect of ganking Golarion or whatever else but the reach of magic is severly reduced from ancient history (widely believed to be exaggerated anyways)with PCs able to get to 6th level casting at the best. some spells are adjusted in their spell level. Fewer arcane traditions exist. Divine spells are likewise limited as a result of the gods shifting huge portions of the multiverse around and needing "god scale" time to recover.

- Multiple damage scales. There is an infantry scale, a vehicle scale which is close to enough to overlap with exceptionally powerful infantry (PCs) and stellar scale to represent starships.

- The AI god is Neutral and at least has the obedience of all major factions as no one wants to be kicked out of the FTL club. The AI god can deny, hold or otherwise mess with entities in hyperspace allowing plothooks and mcguffining of players.

- AC will be minimal with Cover, Hardness/DR and dodging being the main forms of defense. energy shields with regenerating pools of "fake HP" will take over from breastplates and chainmail.

- There will be a plethora of disposable tech items that allow a lot of previous low level spell effects to be used by anyone who is tech savy. This is healing, curing, temporary skill and stat buffs, invisibility, extra sensory perceptions tec.

What've you got?

Since Improved Familiar was first published there have been many, many ways for characters to gain access to Familiars without actually being an arcane spellcaster. Most of those abilities state something to the effect of you treat your levels in Class X as wizard levels (or wizard level -Y) for purposes of this ability.

Does counting as an Arcance Spellcaster for purposes of a Familiar granting ability extend to allowing you to count as an Arcane Spellcaster for purposes of Familiar focused feats, ie Improved Familiar?

This is an idea i had after seeing some of the chatter about the upcoming Shield Brace feat. Basically it is an attempt a a character with exceptional AC and offensive capabilities, perhaps a character that would have been a paladin had things gone differently.

My idea is to use the Eldritch Guardian and Mutation Warrior archetypes and then at level 7 picking up improved familiar for a Cassisian Angel. Looking through the Familiar archetypes, Sage is compatible with improved familiars as it doesnt touch the speak with others of its kind ability like most other archetypes do. Cassisians have a natural form of a winged helm and a lesser protective aura ability they can extend to an ally within 5' of them and constant true speech.

How good of an idea is it to use the Cassisian as basically a magical helmet? It can translate every one around you, guide you through darkness, whisper advice thanks to its perfect memory, every knowledge skill and scaling bonus to knowledge. In combat its every action would be to aid another for a +2 AC against whatever enemy seems most likely to want to melee the fighter and the protective aura for an extra +2 against evil.

AC would be outstanding, eventually with a Mithral medium armor, mithral shield, Defender of the society, shield focus, the +2-+4 from the familiar and all the regular Christmas tree of AC boosters.

Offensive would be great with weapon training, mutagen, power attack and two handing a nodachi.

Skills would be... Good? At level 7 when a Cassisian becomes an option it would have an INT score of 12 for a +1, a +3 from archetype's half level to checks and +3 from any knowledge invested in due to them being class skills. 21 skill points to divide out too so that should be a capable mod to basically every knowledge at that point.

This is opposed to say, an earth elemental familiar with the Mauler archetype to boost offense even higher at the cost of a little AC and most any skill aptitude.

The Cassisisian having alternate forms of a child (for opposable thumb situations) and a dove (for small flying scout situations) is another big draw.

All this at the low cost of three feats from a fighter and armor training.

Oh, and i could name the fighter Sam and call the Angel Cass and basically play Supernatural in Pathfinder.

Am i overlooking anything here, is it worth it?

The new Vigilante and Stalker specialization in particular heavily depend on opponents being unaware of their presence to pull off many of their combat abilities. This may be covered in the book somewhere so please forgive me if so as i have only read the class entry on d20pfsrd so far but how exactly to you determine if a creature is unaware of presence?

[b]I suppose the big question here is there a difference between an opponent not knowing your exact location and an opponent not knowing your presence in the area?[b/]

Stealth states that if they fail a perception vs. stealth check then they are unaware of you, so assume if you manage to use stealth to hide then they are unaware of your presence.

I would assume invisibility falls into the same general unawareness as stealth as above.

What about a blinded opponent? They may not know an exact location but after the first hit they probably have a good idea, could you continue to activate abilities and boosts that trigger with "unaware of presence"

Possibly a Vigilante could build off Dirty Trick to try blinding an opponent and pull off a full value hidden strike? Eventually Dirty Trick could leave a lingering blindness and allow multiple full value hidden strike attacks?

Edit: Re-read Up Close and Personal, with Hide in Plain Sight a stalker could start their turn with UC&P to roll acrobatics and get a full value hidden strike, then with HiPS and continued movement they could roll for stealth and if they win that roll the opponent is unaware of them again allowing the standard action to be used to make another full value hidden strike attack?

Something i had never considered before because i had just assumed there was no interaction. Looking over it all now though, Air's Reach "applies after altering the range due to effects such as the extended range infusion." If you alter the blast's range with blade, to 5' normally, would Air's Reach then double it to 10'? Likewise Kinetic Whip normally has 10' reach, would this bump it to 20'?

If so this makes flying melee Airbenders a much more tempting option. at their best, a hugely sized Kinetic Form Kineticist would have a 15' reach, doubled by Kinetic Whip to 30' and then further doubled to 60' by Air's Reach.

I can see an argument that Kinetic Blade doesnt have any range and doubling 0 is still zero but that wouldnt apply to Kinetic Whip. There is a grayer area about how weaponlike the blast becomes when used with these infusions as well. I am not certain if the intent was they would not interact at all or if it is simply a combination that wasnt thought of before. Thoughts?

Hello all,

I have just started playing my first Kineticist and wanted to discuss my build plan and thoughts on the class/character. I am always open to advice so while i am fairly set on the character's growth i still welcome your ideas on what may function better. I am playing in Iron Gods to explain some of the skill, trait and feat choices but please, no spoilers for the campaign.

My starting point for all of this is Human, NG, No alternate racial traits. I was allowed three background traits, one had to be campaign specific, and one drawback.

Here is my overall plan:

Traits: Reactionary, Builder's Apprentice (+3 Kn: Engineering), Local Ties (+1 Disable Device and its a class skill and i count as a technologist for it)
Drawback: Family Ties

I plan to use FCB on HP at level 1 and then on the human bonus for the next 18 levels.

Stat line of: STR 10 DEX 16 CON 18 INT 10 WIS 10 CHA 10

Level 1: Talent - Extended Range, Feat - Tribal Scars (Raptor Following) Bonus Feat - Point Blank Shot
Level 2: Talent - Air Shroud
Level 3: Talent - Gusting infusion, Feat - Precise Shot
Level 4: Talent - Air Cusion
Level 5: Talent - Pushing infusion, Feat - Technologist (or Weapon Focus, depending on how the campaign goes)
Level 6: Talent - Wings of Air
Level 7 Expanded Element - Aether, Feat - EWT (Kinetic Healer or Telekinetic Haul), Bonus Feat - EWT (Kinetic Finesse)
Level 8: Talent - Expanded Defense
Level 9: Talent - Extreme Range/Torrent/Bowling (depending on how the campaign progresses), Feat - Either the one skipped at 5 or Toughness
Level 10: Talent - Probably Foe Throw, maybe Greater Air Shroud

I managed to snag Disable Device as a class skill and while i Kn: Engineering isnt class i still have a decent bonus to it thanks to a trait. They havent helped out yet but i expect to get a lot of mileage out of them over the course of the game.
Overall i plan on keeping up with Acrobatics (until level 6 and fly opens up) Disable Device, Kn: Engineering, Perception and Stealth.

I am thinking some about protective gear but my main focus is stat boosters and eventually a Diadem. Hopefully the air defense talent will provide my main defense to be enforces by perma-flight at level 6 and a regenerative force field at level 8.

So far i have noticed abysmal accuracy problems with the character. We have an alchemist and a cleric in the group but there havent been any buffs used yet. I may be able to rely on extracts of Reduce Person in future games and the extra +2 to hit would be a very nice addition. Have i fallen into any classic pitfalls or blunders here? I know i will be trailing in damage output with only Aethercally boosted Air Blasts but is there anything else i should be on the look out for?

I feel like these weapons are both able to be used as either reach or melee weapons and allow you to threaten in both 5' and 10' increments, like the old spiked chain in 3.x D&D but the descriptions dont entirely support that and add some minor confusion.

First off both weapons say the non-reach portions are wielded in the "off hand" does that impart any specific penalties to those ends of the weapons?

Both have the reach quality which means you can't use it against an adjacent foe though the Kyoketsu Shoge states it can be used that way. The Kusarigama lacks this in its description which kind of means the sickle cant be used in melee, can you hold the weight and swing the sickle at reach?

The Kyoketsu Shoge can also be thrown as a dagger. the 20' range increment would seem to be self explainitory but can you hold the ring and swing the dagger end as a reach weapon?

The Kusarigama says the sickle is used for tripping in its description, does that mean the ball aspect lacks this quality?

Its not spelled out but i assume the weighted ball of the Kusarigama is 1D3 and the sickle is 1D6.

It seems the simplest solution to these weapons is that they deal their damage at 0-10" and all attacks share the same qualities. The only problem to that is the Kusarigama and if it has to be 1D3 B damage at reach which is what made me wonder about the rest.

Is deep forest green to overused for silken ceremonial armors or could i pull it off?

Wait, no, this thread is asking advice for style feats.

I am toying around with an Unchained Monk build and am wondering about some styles. First off, i am mainly considering a STR, WIS, DEX, CON, INT, CHA stat focus which plays into how useful some styles are. I like all four of Pummeling, Jabbing, Snake and Dragon styles. I am not sure about focusing on just one or switching around for a "movement phase" and "attack phase" style.

Dragon makes charging much easier and adds a nice oomph to each hit, it looks like it would be a good always on style.

Pummeling is a great choice for moving around and can be paired with feather step slippers for better charging options. The pounce effect is the obvious big draw but overcoming DR is tempting too. Does it outweigh Dragon style?

once in melee is it worth switching styles up? Snake is nice for the super dodge, new damage types can be useful (especially if swallowed as rare as that is) one you get snake fang it gets to be lots of fun. But i wont have the highest DEX to make full use of Snake.

Jabbing... after the errata Jabbing looks really fun, especially as an unchained monk can get a lot of attacks in thanks to flurry, ki, elbow smash, etc. 5-6 attacks at level 6 is easily doable. so that extra 4-5 D6 is very tempting. Jabbing Master is more of an investment but means you can reasonably get an extra 12D6-ish in on each full attack.

I havent done the math but i think Jabbing style wins out over the strength damage boost of Dragon style once you get Jabbing Master. Snake requires enemies to keep swinging at something they cant hit to get the best benefit which can be beyond your control. Pummeling is always sexy thanks to pounce.

And then there are all those other feats you could possibly want too.

What does everyone else think? are there feats enough to split into two styles, a charging style and a stand and swing style?

Is the unchained monk accurate enough to get good use of Jabbing style?

How often does a Snake master get to make use of all of those AoOs?

I thought i saw a trait once upon a time that allowed you to act as if a specific weapon had the monk weapon property. i dont think it even gave proficiency with the weapon but it made it a flurry option if you got proficiency from somewhere else. Was this real? Do i just need to get more sleep?

With my initial excitement about the new Magus archetype over, i've started to wonder how an Eldritch Archer would actually play out at the table. I will lay out how i think the class plays and hope everyone here can help refine my views and point out spells of use since options for spellstriking are altered so drastically.

Bonded Object. In practice it seems like a very nice bonus, no extra spell per day but you begin with a masterwork ranged weapon of your choice. Presumably you can begin with a masterwork composite longbow to match your strength bonus. At level five you can enchant it at half cost and no feat investment. The downside being you have to make a hefty concentration check to ever cast a spell without your weapon in hand.

I have no experience with playing a bonded object character but i dont see many times you would be without it and as you are not trying to get into melee sunder doesnt seem like much of a risk. overall it looks like it is a win for the character.

Armor proficiency. Is it a fluke that the archetype retains scaling armor proficiency up to heavy armor? Is there something i am missing here, i can see, maybe, going up to a mithril breastplate but in what build would you be looking at going after a heavy armor with a dedicated ranged character? The bonded object requirement would kill any switch hitting potential so... i dont know, flavor choices i guess?

Ranged Spell Combat. Nice and straight forward, you dont have to worry about having a two handed weapon and lose the ability to sacrifice accuracy to boost concentration rolls but that shouldnt come up anyways as you dont want to ever stand in a baddie's melee range.

Ranged Spellstrike. Ok. This one confused me at first but here are the main points as i understand them.

- No spell striking touch range spells anymore.

- It must be a ranged spell that requires an attack roll (no magic missiles or lightning bolts. Fireball is an odd one as it only uses attack rolls in corner cases, i believe it is outside the limits of this ability however.) I foresee a great deal of controversy over this aspect and conjuration spells.

- The spell effect is still limited to its normal range, not the weapon you are striking with. At level 12 you can finally get around this with an arcana.

- Multiple attack spells, such as scorching ray, are split into charges that apply to your attacks. Unused charges of normally instantaneous spells are lost at the end of your turn.

- I am assuming when the ability says the spell must use a Ranged Attack it is including Ranged Touch Attack as a qualifying subset of ranged attacks.

Focusing Spellstrike. You can now use cones and lines as single target spells for Ranged Spellstrike, lightning bolt and cone of cold, etc. It comes online very late and i cant think of any options this really opens up.

Strangely enough the archetype retains Greater Spell Combat which only applies to an ability the archetype trades out.

For such a short archetype it drastically changes how the class plays. A baseline stat array could look like this:

STR 12
DEX 16
CON 10
INT 16
WIS 10
CHA 8

Racial modifiers can boost DEX or INT to taste. Maybe something to boost strength higher?

A Magus will commonly focus on critical hit fishing to boost spell damage, ranged weapons are very poor at this. Is there any benefit in using a crossbow build to try for those crits? I cant see it myself, the composite longbow is too good to pass up and crossbows are feat intensive.

Reach Spellstrike and Distant Spellstrike look like they should basically have been class features of the archetype, maybe to replace Improved and Greater Spell Combat but fine, they lock in Arcana choices at levels 9 and 12 instead.

The class is still limited to the Magus Spell List instead of the Wizard's and it requires a complete rethinking of spell choice. Here are the stand outs to me. Again, please point out what i am missing for spell options. I am making some assumptions about conjuration spells which might be debatable.

Cantrips:
Acid Splash
Ray of Frost

1st level:
Mudball (I really like this option)
Ray of Enfeeblement
Snowball (your new shocking grasp, minus the accuracy boost and crit potential:( )
- Thunderstomp (highly debatable, i am inclined to think the combat maneuver check does not qualify the spell for Ranged Spellstrike)

2nd level:
Acid Arrow
Force Anchor
Molten Orb
Scorching Ray

3rd level:
Bloody Arrows
Flame Arrow
Gloomblind Bolts
Ray of Exhaustion

4th level:
No Ranged Spellstrike options.

5th level:
No Ranged Spellstrike options.

6th level:
Contagious Flame
Disintegrate

With the Reach Spellstrike arcana some more options open up with Force Punch/Strike, Vampiric Touch etc. at a few levels but i was really shocked to see the lack of options at 4th level and above.

Acid Splash seems like the level 0 winner.
Mudball and Ray of Enfeeblement both seem like solid choices at level 1.
Scorching Ray wins at level 2.
Gloomblind Bolts or Ray of exhaustion at level 3.
Past this point its going to rely on what you pick up with arcana or what you do without Ranged Spellstriking.

What else can you/would you do with this archetype?

I dont normally play Rangers so i was a little thrown off when i came across this line in the combat style introduction paragrpah, "He can choose feats from his selected combat style, even if he does not have the normal prerequisites." I assumed at first it meant you do not need to meet the requirements for the feats granted by iterations of Combat Style Feat but then the thought occured to me that per the wording it looks like you could there after spend a regular feat towards a combat style feat that has been unlocked without needing to meet the prereqs.

I was looking through this all as a player of a Sanctified Slayer. That archetype gets talents at levels 8, 16, 17 and 20 that can be used for Ranger Combat Styles (an Inquisitor passing as a Slayer, passing as a Ranger) If that second thought is correct than even though i dont pick up any combat style feats between levels 8 and 16 i can still spend feats to grab the styles withtout meeting prereqs for them.

Does that make sense?

I know about Underwater Crossbows and Repeating Crossbows, even Minotaur Double Crossbows... but is there anything else i am missing? Other types of crossbows or scopes or such to add to them? I want to make something like a sniper using Bolt Ace and some nice tacticool kit would be a fun add on. You'd think with the tech guide there would be some sighting systems of some kind to play with... Was there anything i missed in the ranged tactics toolbox?

Also interested if there are any alchemical or drugs in the game to help "settle the nerves" otherwise its going to be a good ol' pipe to worry at.

I am too in love with the concept to not at least theory something up. Here is where i am, please help me refine and improve.

I have two points i'd like to maintain with the character but if you think these arent viable please point out suggestions.

1) maximizing use of the TWF to deliver lots of charge per level spells.

2) Find a nova option for when the party needed it dead in the last round.

Using a 20 point buy and human i have these

Option 1:

STR:13 DEX: 15 CON:10 INT: 16 (+2 racial) WIS: 10 CHA: 10

It leaves HP a little lower than i'd strictly like so lets put FCB to HP to help out a tiny bit.

Traits: Focused Mind and Excitable. (The archetype really needs every concentration bonus it can get.)

Weapon Finesse and Toughness at level one, work towards EWP: Wakazashi (3), WF: Wakazahi (5) and Combat Casting (5 Bonus feat).

Level bonuses to DEX to prepare for ITWF requirements.

Option 2:

STR: 12 DEX: 14 (+2 Racial) CON: 13 INT: 16 (+2 Racial) WIS: 10 CHA: 10

Level 4 stat boost to CON and level 8 boost to DEX for ITWF

Traits: Focused Mind and River Rat

Weapon Finesse (1), WF: Dagger (3) Toughness and Combat Casting at 5.

In either case i'd gear for DEX and INT, possibly look at Piranha Strike as an option and Extra Arcane Pool whenever i could.

i am looking at frostbite and chill touch for level 1 offense. Elemental Touch at level 2 looks solid for the stagger rider.

Shield, Windy Escape and Mirror Image are my standard Magus defenses and i see no reason to rock the boat here. At the very first few levels shield and windry escape are about the only spells i'd use. A D4+3 or 4 isnt too much but should drop a goblin at least and you can get AC of 17-21 very easily.

I have only seen one rules shaky nova option with hammer the gap and magic missile. The concentration check to pull it off is 27 which is rough (assuming 5 int mod +2 Trait + 4 Feat +9 level gives a +20 to the roll) and without a FAQ on how to interpret the combination it is a table variation thing. If it works though at level 9 you are looking at 5D4+5 + 5D4+20 + 45 in a full attack with haste. For 2 psychic points the melee attacks are against touch AC and you could afford to trade some attack bonus for higher concentration too.

I took a brief look over the psychic spells you can choose from and didn't see too many great options. Inflict Pain looks like a nice de-buff and Hypercognition can be somewhat useful, definitely flavorful.
Are there any others i am not seeing?

If a character has a fly speed from an effect such as the spell fly, can they utilize that movement type underwater?

Some things i've noticed in building an Air Kineticist, Air Shroud prevents altitude sickness better than Aerial Adaptation... it allows you to breath in space and under water. the resistance from adaptation seems pretty small in comparison. Wings of air grants you a lovely fly speed, with wings and air shroud you could conceivable fly to space :P But is there a limit to where you can fly? can you fly underwater? Thanks to your air shroud you can breath there. if you can use your fly speed than its even better than the water dancer talents for water-mancers.

The feat allows you to gain an extra Wild Talent, yay! but it must be two levels lower than your highest ability known. so... something you would have had access to four levels ago... ok. not too terrible once your are above level 10 and can look through the level three powers. I'm not sure its worth it much before that point. It seems almost never worth it for an expanded element talent as you are effectively looking at talents that are eight levels old (-4 levels for a secondary element, -4 levels for two levels below your highest talent). Does anyone see this feat as a more solid choice?

I think i know this one but to be sure, if i burn three points to boost Shroud of water's AC and later use a water element talent for a new point of burn, do i gain regular shield AC for that round of a similarly boosted shield AC that round?

Hi!

Entangling Infusion sates that on a hit elemental matter with HP equal to twice your level accumulates on your target. subsequent hits root the target to the spot specifically "the increased amount of elemental matter fuses to the ground" does this change the total HP of the matter for a break out? i wish it effected the DC or ability to break out of the matter but that would have been more clearly stated had it been the case. i am a little unsure but assuming the HP of the matter doesn't increase. which really brings down the utility of the infusion to me. a level 10 hit making the enemy give up an action to deal 20 damage to matter isnt that hard. a level ten landing three hits of an entangling infusion putting 60 HP of anchor on a target seems pretty nice though.

Hi!

Waterdancer puts you under a continuous Slipstream effect, which includes the description of "You create a low-cresting wave of water that carries the target along the surface of water or the ground." Is that just flavor instead of rules? basically i had thought you could freely move across the surface of the water at your regular movement speed, move across solid ground at your normal speed +10 or swim in/under water at 20'... but four levels later you can choose Greater waterdancer to gain the effects of Water Walk for moving over water only... which i thought you could already do. Greater has a few other nice benefits but this opening line confuses me as you need to be able to move across the surface of water to qualify for this other ability to do the same thing.