Well I think they totally missed some good ability to do some errata to other things.
Like the Blind Man's Fold should give you blindfighting against foes you can see within 5 feet of you.
Boots of Springing and Striding should only function after wearing them for 24 hours, be usable once per day, and last a minute. Same thing with Boots of The Winterland.
/Sarcasims.
Heh. Like we needed another 24-"attument", overpriced 1/day item to not take ever. For 400 gold it'd be something of a consideration with the 24-hour limitation.
The jingasa is now either a use once and replace item or not even worth your time. May as well have been banned.
I don't think we will ever see this in game play again, to be honest.
As one-shot items go, they'll now be compared to talismans and aegis of recovery. And they don't look all that good in that contest. That deflection bonus is weighing down the price.
One of the biggest issues with Paizo's consumable items (or 1/day items) is that they are overpriced for their effects (especially with the 24-hour lockout. One of the main reasons I'm willing to overpay is the scroll-like versatility of having a bag of 1/day items in my pocket).
Overall it seems like the route forward is "nerf everything good" without much consideration about general game balance. I would much rather have a slew of strong, competitive (or overpowered as some people prefer to spout) options that inspire builds/use/actions.
One of the changes that really bother me this cycle is the Snap Leaf change. Why rewrite the item to include an undefined term ("falling") instead of simply changing the activation action to "swift". The wording change attempts to remove all versatility from the item and introduces a lot of potential for variance (for example: "While running away I'll have my character hop. While falling from the hop I'll use my snap leaf." or "While running both my feet are off the ground which means I'm falling, I activate my snap leaf."). A swift allows the item to be bought/used as a swift potion of invisibility (appropriate for 2.5xPrice) and is justifiable as "you have to search for your snap leaf briefly to snap it" and does a lot to prevent all the shenanigans.
My favorite is a low level combo that takes a little more effort but results in a rewarding level 0 alternative to lugging about a light crossbow all based on Ray of Frost.
Rime-Blooded Socerer
Liquid Ice: Ray of Frost (F): The spell deals +1 point of damage
End result is a 0 level spell that forces the target to take 1d3+1 damage and make a DC10+Cha Mod or be Slowed.
IMO save vs slow is better then the couple of points of damage you get from using a crossbow (also easier to land).
This was back in the days of 3.5 where size growth stacking was a thing. Character was mid-levels.
Had a GM I didn't care for. Built a silly character expecting him to state "nope, go home".
He did not.
Sat down at the table.
GM had a face full of grins and began telling a tale about how he made this dungeon to dominate, torment and destroy all the "god mode builds from the internet."
Monologue stops, game starts.
He finishes setting up the scene, we arrive at the dungeon of terror.
I grow comically huge, take my trusty unbreakable adamantine shovel and start digging.
To this day, he hasn't answered the question "how much damage does a shovelful of terror dungeon do to the boss when dropped on his head from 200ft?"
I'd recommend Bard. Turns him into a buff ball that also does all the knowledges, other thoughts would be skill monkey (mastermind investigator), or do a verbal only spellcaster. If you want to get truly silly, bring it as a master summoner for the express purpose of using the SLA to summon enough other archons to turn into Voltron.
My other serious suggestion (bard was the first) would be witch. Theses don't require hands.
The lack of hands is problematic but for somatic gestures, since they are just a series of gestures or motions It stands to reason that the archon would weave/shake/shimmy in mid air while casting for those components.
Eh, this topic has cropped up before with the following tl;dr:
Summoner is a strong class that can simply optimized in a way that steals/dominates the spotlight. The class has its flaws, but people don't like having to laterally think to handle problems (which is why this thread keeps popping up). Eidolons are comically glass cannon and if they aren't the summonersummoner goes squish. The offending characters people mention are the result of two poorly balanced archetypes (which in my opinion need a sit and rework) or class misunderstanding (summoners and eidolons suffer from a wide array of misunderstandings, such as the grab evolution working differently from the grab monster rule). All-in-all, wizards still win out (even in games of rocket tag with eidolons). Most of the time I'd rather see and play a conjuration spec'd wizard in a party than a summoned but it's not because of the summons.
Juju zombies are just another sort of undead that retain class levels/features which can be a useful thing to be aware of. Personally I prefer to scoop up sorcerer bodies (preferably small ones at that) and raise them as skeletal champions later on.
And to be clear, I was not advocating "weak pansy necromancer devoid of power attack and HYOOAAAHH" but rather that you could be leveraging the fact that you can create ideal tools to support your concept. I mean an animated coffin that eats people and the monk zombie that lives inside it? All that's missing is a buddy cop show name and a camera crew :3
Chain Saw. 3d6 Medium Sized
Be Trox (large player race), large chainsaw 4d6.
Get Lead Blades (ranger dip + wand; hunter dip; etc) 6d6 chainsaw.
Bloodrager, Abyssal Enlarge 12d6 chainsaw.
Vital Strike for 24d6.
I don't see an issue with this item, 2d4+2 damage isn't going to break the game. In fact, I like this item at its current cost. It's a cool item that does something and is a decent option for most casters. I'd like to see more items like this, reasonably costed items that do something at levels when it's useful. It's reall nice to have an item that enables a caster type to contribute a little damage without having to completely struggle with fitting in crossbow feats (for example, 2d4+2 in comparable to a light crossbow). It sad that items like this get such a negative reaction so we only get one once in a blue moon...
You better believe that I play Kobolds. I'm waiting with baited breath for the day when I get to run a PFS Kobold. I was lined up to run a Dragon Herald/Arcane Archer in Wraith of the Righteous, working with the GM to eventually get the Half-Dragon template applied (justification for the Mythic Spark).
The most recent Kobold I've statted out was a dex-based Magus with a nasty shock and a 15ft reach :D
The idea, aside from leveraging the small size and massive stealth score, was for Kazzap to shrink extra-super small and then use its 10ft reach to continue to murder all the things. Fluff-wise, Kazzap woke up one day to find that his tail and gotten longer and...blacker. He then got the urge to leave his nice safe warren for a life of adventure!
1. Poison. Like others, thematically it seems incongruous with the Sherlock Holmes image. Mechanically, I'm guessing it's there to compensate for lack of damage. I can imagine the authors are thinking of someone using ability damage darts as more as a debuffing of bad guys as opposed to an administering of lethal injections.
Hey, to be fair Sherlock Holmes had to have Poison Use. He was a rampant cocaine addict. So it does fit the image, perfectly...
It's a fair tactic from either side. From the creature's point of view:
"This Hobgoblin is named Mike. Mike worked for two whole years in the gang before he got his first chance to kill some adventures. Mike whips out his family's heirloom greataxe and charges fearlessly into the foolish adventures, only to have the first guy in line whip his weird looking spear across his greataxe's head, his father's father's axe that once cleaved straight through a giant's leg, shattering it into a handful of metal shards. Standing dumbfounded, Mike didn't even notice that very same spear whip across his throat and release that pesky pressure from his blood."
So Mike is dead. But you better believe Mike's older brother Phil has it out for this spear wielding man.
Point being, having a weapon sundered and destroyed sucks. Just because it's a player character shouldn't make them immune. Variety makes the game interesting, if every fight was the same then we'd all play the same classes with the same gear and this wouldn't be a good system. But it isn't and yes, sunder is an option. That enemies can take. It's as much a part of the system as grappling is.
I'm going to make the best possible character that I can, it's part of the enjoyment I draw from the Pathfinder system. I honestly feel like I've failed the party before we even start if I haven't been able to get a given character settings cranked to 11 for that given character. This does mean that my Heavens Oracle is running about with a silly number of color sprays, yes. This also means my non-lethaling Paladin is cranking out massive amounts of non-lethal damage. When I was drug into PFS by a close friend, I told him "I'm going big or going home." and that still holds true. My point is however, this is all on my side of the fence. I like building silly, over the top characters but I expect the other party members to bring whatever they care to enjoy to play. That same Heavens Oracle can act as the party face, emergency healer or buff bot if the party needs me too. That same Oracle also has a wonderful story and in-game quirk that requires a wand of Ant Haul and Muleback Cords as he packs his enemies into boxes that he carries around with him (insofar he's gotten 12 fighter mooks, 1 summoner (minus Eidolon), 1 caster of one variety or another, a wolf and a large collection of badges he thrusts at extra-planar creatures asking if "this is enough badges to train them?"
He's also an attorney to boot. Just in case.
Is this character optimized?
You better believe it! To get my characters to work I have to spend a large amount of time optimizing to get them to work effectively and my reward is having a character that performs beautifully well.
What this boils down to is this:
I build effective characters that satisfy all three of the player psyche's within, Johnny, Timmy and Spike. Yup, they're optimized. Nope, I don't mind what you bring to the table. Your characters are called YOURs for a reason. ;)
To clarify, casting Deathknell kills a helpless NPC, that is what he said was an evil act. I don't see the point of the spell's existence, however, as you can't use it without becoming performing an evil act!
Grappled or pinned while casting: 10 + grappler's CMB + spell level
My grapple character would be forcing checks of mid 40's on level 1 spells...
One thing I have noted while browsing through things I've run and DM'd is that the early tier baddies are extremely vulnerable to grappling (It's Super-effective!). A reasonably competent duo can run around at level 2 forcing enemies to effectively take DC30 save or dies (tying focused archetype combined with a grapple build), and the main issue with the "anti-fun" aspect is the relatively early power spike. However like most early power builds, it drops off as levels and creatures advance. One scenario I'm looking at running in the next couple of weeks features an end boss that is nearly impossible to grapple (CMD well over 40) and even if you do, it has 5 natural attacks to kill you with (base damage is something over 50). I personally love having a grappler in the party because it has saved the party from at least one TPK that I've played in (and the grappler was hard pressed to hold on to the caster). Condemning a grappler because it is effective against casters is akin to telling the bard not to buff the party because it makes them too strong or the barbarian not to power attack...
That is much better than my run of the same mission, which involved a gnome riding a giant vulture, tracking with scent, with a summoned dolphin tied into place (on the flying vulture) to assist by using blindsight. We lost our quarry because the gnome and summoned dolphin didn't share a language.
Oh that wasn't the proud moment by far. The attempt to save the magus on the boating section, now that, THAT is worthy of this thread.
Spoiler:
So on this run of the Glass River Rescue, our party consisted of a Dwarven Gunslinger, a Magus of some variety or another, an Aasimar Summoner, a Gnome Samurai, a Paladin and a Tengu Alchemist (myself). We were playing up and most of the party was asleep (everyone except myself and giant vulture were slumbering). The dwarf (having a massive fear of water) had gotten himself stone drunk and inside his self described "sleepy-time chest".
Cue the two large River Drakes and a surprise round. The first drake on-board the boat bit the sleeping magus and confirmed the crit. The second drake took the opportunity to spit its acid web g!@+ at the cluster of players near the magus, it scatted onto the magus, taking him into negatives.
Players start taking turns. The Alchemist starts CAWCAWCAW-ing to alert the sleeping people on the boat (the dwarf doesn't wake up until roughly round 5). Magus receives an emergency heal to to bring him out of negatives, and the Alchemist charges the drake standing over the Magus. Unfortunately the drakes get to go before the Magus and it grapples him and sucks the AoO from the alchemist.
Busy with the other drake, the party fails to adequately prevent the grappled magus from getting pulled over the side. The second drake then withdraws, also near death. Now is when things really start get exciting.
Immediately upon the withdrawal of the second drake, the Summoner casts Lesser Evolution Surge to grant his Eidolon a swim speed. The Eidolon drops into the water to track the drakes. The GM states that darkvision would not cut it for tracking the grappled member underwater. The Gunslinger gets on deck and is briefed on the situation. The magus starts struggling against the drake and gets pinned for his troubles. The summoner surges again, granting his pet scent and the Eidolon takes off into the inky blackness in pursuit of one of the drakes. The Gunslinger cries out that he has an Elemental Gem and declares that he's throwing into the water to activate it (I believe that the GM feigned missing that particular statement). The Gunslinger had forgotten to actually state the type of elemental gem that he had bought, so the GM made him roll a 1d4 to see what type would pop out, luckily it was a water elemental. Unluckily, the Gunslinger did not speak Aquean. Luckily, the Tengu did! The Gunslinger hastily then orders the elemental (a'la Tengu) to chase the dragon creature and kill it. The water elemental promptly vanishes, supposedly in hot pursuit.
The Magus is still struggling against the drake, under water, holding his breath and pinned, getting further and further from the party every round. His struggles this time around earn him a bite attack, rendering him unconscious. Sadly both the Eidolon and the Water Elemental track down and murder the same drake (rolled by the DM) which was the wrong drake. And thus the rescue attempt (which was a good two hours of severe left hand turns) came to an underwhelming conclusion.
In the final boss fight we attempted to track down the fleeing, flying boss with giant vultures and summoned dolphins and she barely got away (by the skin of one dice roll).
Some of the more annoying scenarios have just the "Fights to the death." under morale. Particularly I found that the boss in Part to Perfection, part 1 was quite nasty in the 1-2 tier.
Spoiler:
Yeti Barbarian. Has two claw attacks that end up averaging something close to 25 damage per round. While he is a glass cannon (under 40 while raging), this guy has the potential to TPK off of two full-attacks. His morale has a little on him randomly throwing things if the encounter starts in certain areas, but just has the "if below X hp, withdraws", leaving me with a very angry, raging, death machine on my hands...
