TxSam88's page

it may be my play style - but I find Arcanists to be superior to Sorcerers, the Arcana abilities, combined with a larger number of spells known make it a better class in my opinion. but I've never had an issue with knowing what spells to learn - the list is generally pretty simple.

Taason the Black wrote:

While there are many Pathfinder rules that do not make a lot of sense to me, none is worse imho than the rule that all paladins have to be LG. With that said, it is impossible to be a paladin of Cayden Cailean since his alignment chart is CG, NG, CN.

The actually concept of paladin is holy warrior for a deity, not some overzealous policeman upholding the law. For that you have hellknights.

Is there a workaround for this or does PF throw its hands in the air and just say not all good aligned deities have paladins?

Given the way that Paizo changed Paladins in 2nd Edition, they agree with this idea.

Gray Paladin exists in PF1

In my experience, it is incredibly rare to have a paladin in your party and somewhat rare to have a magus. You’re more likely to have a ranger and a fighter or rogue.

My experience is exactly the opposite. We have 2 players that play Paladin and Magus over 50% of the time.

40 or 50 sounds good.

so, I really liked how Skulls & Shackles handled it. As a Pirate Lord, you and your party, along with your crew, fight against another pirate lord, his henchmen, and his crew.

The actual in game part is purely your party and maybe 4-5 crewmen, against the pirate lord and his small entourage. All the other crew are simply fighting in the background. whoever wins the small battle between the parties, wins the overall battle. while your crew takes some losses, enough of the other crew are willing to swear loyalty that the net effect is you still have a full crew (maybe a few extras).

As for other methods, breaking then 40-50 per side up into small 5-10 person encounters on the battle field, while the rest rages on in the background seems workable.

I also like how Reign of Winter handles large armies. Basically they cam up with a new type of Swarm, the "Troop unit". 20-40 men act as a single large swarm. So your party or 4 can go against 4 or 5 "troops" which in reality is 100 men.

what are you talking about when you say mass combat?

Whole armies with 1000's of troops, or small bands of like 40-50 on each side?

I had a discussion with our GM about the general ruling of the lvl4 cleric spell "blessing of fervor". One of the effects, you can choose from while under the effect of the spell is "Make one extra attack as part of a full attack action, using its highest base attack bonus."

Example. I have a cleric with two attacks, +7 and +2. How many attacks do I get and what are the attack boni?

Our ruling so far was that I get two attacks with +7, and that's it. Or should it rather be two times +7 and once +2?
Is there any official ruling for this spell?

No ruling needed - its very clear that you get an extra attack on top of all the attacks you already have. Same as Haste

They did this in the Rolemaster system. when you learned a spell, you actually learned a "list" of a spell, and based upon your level and how much mana you pumped into the spell, you gained higher level effects of the spell.

For instance, if you were 5th level, you would know the whole lightning bolt list, all 1-20, steps of it, but you could only cast the first 5 steps, and you topped out at spending 5 mana, so, if you wanted a small lighting effect, you could spend 2 mana,getting the 2nd level effect, or go for broke and spend 5. (you could only spend as much mana on a spell as your level)

Giant Hunter's Handbook said wrote:

If the weapon is wielded by a creature whose size matches that of the weapon’s intended wielder, the weapon is treated as a light melee weapon when determining whether it can be used with Weapon Finesse, as well as with any feat, spell, or special weapon ability that can be used in conjunction with light weapons.

I think RAI here points to feats that require a character to be wielding a light weapon, rather than feats that merely improve when a light weapon is used. At the same time, "Two-Weapon Fighting can be used in conjunction with light weapons" is an objectively true statement. Authors interested in a more restrictive use of Effortless Lace could simply have written "require the use of light weapons," instead.

Regardless, Effortless Lace strikes me as very cheap even if it's only intended to be a back door to Weapon Finesse, Piranha Strike, Cloak and Dagger Style, etc.

Considering that for the most part, effortless lace allows you have all that stuff and swap from a d4/d6 weapon to a d8, it really doesn't "do" all that much.

@schoolboy runaway Yes, you can — but with caveats. Rapiers are classified as one-handed piercing weapons, and they are not light weapons, which affects how Two-Weapon Fighting (TWF) works.

Give both Rapiers Effortless lace and suddenly they are light weapons....

"As an immediate action (but no more than once per combat round), the current user of the Sihedron can instantaneously transfer the artifact to another willing creature within 120 feet."

So the GM might have misread this ability of the Sihedron, thus why you were able to apply it to the whole party. As for the +4 to a Stat, that was most likely a house rule to make it somewhat more powerful, since as is, it's a but of a weak artifact.

3 levels of Musket Master Gunslinger - 17 levels of Eldritch Archer Magus.

"The weapon retains all of its enhancement bonuses and weapon special abilities."

All of the things the Null blade does is either an Enhancement Bonus, or a Special Ability. RAW, those stay if it's turned into another weapon.

RAW - yes

Goth Guru wrote:

Bell curve option. Replace D20 with 4D6-3.

Less fumbles and crits, if you want that.

I’m curious, why this? What’s your thinking that leads to this option over those in the opening post?

my guess is that it gives a bell curve option, but keeps the roll numbers of 1-21, which is essentially 1-20, so nothing else needs to be changed.

my pawns arrived today and in great shape - thanks again to Ben for his contribution to my PF1 addiction.

1. Where does your screen name come from?
2. If it is a character, have you ever played the character in any games (single, multiple, different systems)?
3. If it's something else, what?
4. (Only if it's not against the rules) Country of origin (just country), to help give a SMIDGE of cultural context to any ideas or references.

1. I'm from Texas, my name is Sam, my lucky number is 88.

IMO no, spending an action on doing something that doesn't deal damage to a bad guy is a waste of time.
a TWF/rogue build would give up a full round of attacking to do this, but in that same round, you could have potentially killed off a bad guy. Not to mention there are better feats to choose from.

play a Ninja, get Ghost step

Ghost Step (Su)
Prerequisites: Master tricks

Benefit: As a swift action, a ninja with this trick can pass through walls as if she were a ghost. Until the end of her turn, she can pass through a wall or other surface that is up to 5 feet thick per level as if she were incorporeal. She must exit the solid material by the end of her turn. Each use of this ability uses up 1 ki point.

I'm more than happy to only get 9 sets instead of 10, we've already played Crimson Throne, so let Techbuilder have it

PM headed out with address etc.

Ok, glad to see some decent interest in these. Let's do this. I'll cap the winners at 3.

Ozreth, thanks for offering to split them even though you were the 1st claimant. You'll get the boxed sets. Send me a private message w/ your name/address and I'll get these out to you in the coming days.

TxSam88 & Tim Emrick, let's see if we can figure out how to split the AP collections.

TxSam88, can you tell me which set you currently own? If it's not Giantslayer or Pathfinder Society, for example, you can definitely get those, as Tim already has those. I'll try to shoot for an even split once I know the 1 collection you already own.

the only one we have is Reign of Winter, and we won't need Pathfinder Society.

if something falls through and the AP ones come available - I would love to have them. we play in person with miniatures, and we do APs, but the miniatures don't always have the right mini, so we are starting to use Pawns (only 1 set so far), so any more would be welcome.

Of course, let the first response have claim.

Page 66 has a sidebar that states their breath weapon and immunities are dependent on their colouration.

thank you - man, it would have been nice if they put that near the Dragonkin entry they keep referring you too...

1. GM Fiat (just choose)
2. closest to previous target
3. random roll

I mean, AC42 is not that odd for a Level 15 PC, and since he is a BBEG he probably has a template.

10 base

+ 4 mage armor
+ 4 shield spell

+ 4 from crane style
+ 3 from combat exerptize
=25 without knowing any stats
+ wis mod if Monk dip
+ Dex Mod
+ Int mod
If all of these are between +5 to +8 (not unreasonable for a BBEG), you would already be at the 42ish.

Funnily enough this is prior to things such as deflection (be that form template acquired smite good or some other source) or natural armor (of which a templated half fiend, which seems to be what you are possibly describing, could have a fair bit)

I would recommend targetting him with dispells, as both the shield and the mage armor should be fairly easy to get rid off.
Getting rid of either already means that you quadruple to quintouple your chances of hitting.

It's already been mentioned that this was an Adventure Path, and a 42 AC in an Adventure Path is extremely out of the ordinary. (almost no NPCs have stats over 20, and even fewer have 2 over 20). In fact most Adventure Path NPCs are subpar builds, as they are meant to be only a slight challenge for 20 point builds, with a un-optimized party of 4.

the GM is obviously pumping this NPC ever the top to make it more survivable etc.

I will reiterate my point of having a discussion with your GM.

BTW: congratulations on playing with the same group for 10 years, IMO it makes the game much more enjoyable with good friends that have been around for a while. In my group the newest player has been around for about 5 years, one at 15, one at 30 and one at 38.

We are level 13, My Eidolon currently has +22 to hit with three of her attacksa and +21 with the other two (Weapon Focus on the ones that hit a bit better) and I managed to hit the boss on a nat 19 with the +22 attack only because I had flanking...

+21 at level 13 is pretty awesome, if the BBEG has a +40AC, then your GM is building encounters well above your APL or flat out cheating, or building things to counter you. (I've never encountered a bad guy with a +40AC).

I'd have a long talk with your GM about the game and what kind of game everyone should be expecting.

A well built fighter can be very versatile with advanced weapon training. But I’m not sure if you’d find that fun. I assume that you probably like a little spellcasting in your character?

It’s really too late, but it’s strange that your eidolon was that level of inaccurate. The scaling bonus to strength and dexterity should keep your attack bonus relevant, though you will likely have an experience very similar to the monk’s flurry of misses. But you could boost these bonuses higher with other evolutions, like the large evolution, and your buffing spells. Another way to keep them relevant is by focusing on grappling, as the grab evolutions gives you +4 to grapple and the size bonuses also apply

Agreed - in our experience, Eidolons are some of the highest damage dealing members of the party.

I just want to make sure I am playing this right, every instance of a Dragonkin references Efrixes stat block on page 16, a Red dragonkin that can breath fire and is immune to fire. On Page 35, it lists 4 dragonkin, 3 of which shows a breath weapon other than fire and a matching immunity.
I find no mention in the AP of changing the element based on anything.

Does this mean:

1. All dragonkin breath fire and are immune to fire, and these 3 have an additional breath weapon and an additional immunity.

2. All dragonkin breath fire and are immune to fire except for these 3, who are uniquely different.

3. All dragonkin breath an element and have an immunity based on their color? (I suspect this is the truth, but was hoping it's printed somewhere)

Am I missing where this is laid out somewhere?

Thanks.

I agree, hence me narrowing things down to three options I presented in the OP. My hope was for more feedback to help select which of those three to go with, but personally I like option 3. I’d definitely want to hear from anyone having tried any of these options.

I might run some short games trying them out to get more direct feedback but any games I run would be a bit slow moving at the moment.

So IMO the 3 methods you list either require too many modification, or are too complicated.

1) 3d6 give you 3-18, so while it's a good bell curve, it really changes the values for crits (16-18 for roughly 5%, 15-18 for roughly 10%) this seems clumsy and possibly difficult to remember.

2) 3d12, I've already mentioned 2d12 and you dismissed it due to how it affects commoners, I would expect this to be dismissed for the same reason.

3) d12 plus stat based dice - I HATE HATE HATE systems that do this, it really slows down the game to have to figure out which dice or how many dice I get to roll for different types of events. keeping things simple - a SINGLE (this can be multiple dice for percentile, or bell curve etc) dice roll, plus a bonus that's ALREADY calculated is fast and easy - is IMO the best methodology.

I've play a lot of different systems, and by far the best ones are all roll a dice, add a number, compare to target number.

the worst are add up how many dice you get, roll dice, count successes, compare to a success value, or compare to an opposed roll.

it’s about the feel and ease of understanding, about which option is going to be better enjoyed by players.

IMO, your comment here is critical to a good game. You need to keep everything to a single type of die roll (everything in d20 aside from damage, is a d20+bonus vs a target number) IMO, you need to keep a system similar to this. you can change the die roll itself, and you can change where the bonus comes from, but do it the same for everything in the game.

I've played systems where your bonus is a dice roll + bonuses from 2 stats, it works well, especially in descriptive games where you can choose which 2 stats you use as long as you can justify how they apply to the situation.

As for wanting a bell curve - the only way to do this at the table top is with multiple dice that you add together.

To be inclusive, Blazing Robe (and other similar robes) increase your caster level for spells with various element descriptors.

Switching from d20 to 2d12 would be pretty simple, give the desired bell curve and IMO come close enough to maintaining the crit percentages with almost no other changes made to the system.

It sounds like however that the mechanics are inconsequential to you, in that case I recommend the Ars Magica system.

If you want granularity and realism, Rolemaster is my go-to.

my first question is: Why? What is your goal? Are you simply wanting to use different dice? or are you wanting to shift from a linear set of changes to a bell curve? Are you wanting more granularity in the characters abilities?

I understand the desire to do so, but one of the great things about d20 is that it's complex enough to be fun, but simple enough to not become burdensome. Everything in d20 is a single dice roll, plus a calculated bonus, against a target number, moving too far away from that mechanic is IMO unadvisable.

halflings bards are set up to be great dex based combatants. go for a bow, or a light weapon and do TWF. Find ways to be mobile and be the flanking buddy for the other party members with Low BAB and you'll hit often enough. or just stay back and use that Bow, IIRC, there's a build that actually uses the bow as the instrument.

I would not allow days with a ring of sustenance to help with the check. the whole point is to go without and to risk the damage and being fatigued from the starvation rules.

IMO: unless you are taking that risk, then you don't get the benefit.

my first question, you have bonuses at stages 1-3, and then basically haste at stage 4, do they stack?

so 60' extra movement, +2 AC, +2 attack, and an extra attack? If so, then the total price for the item is too cheap. If not, and you wind up with basically haste with an added +1 to damage, then it's still too cheap.

Does Life Bubble spell protect against the sophorific spore attack of the Zygomind? Here's the monster listing:

zygomind

Thanks!

no, Life bubble does not prevent physical contact, which is the trigger for the Sophorific spores.

Am I just blind, or is there no actual description of the recipe/ritual to free Ratibor included in the AP?

Frost-Thunder Hammer p. 61

This has Requirements Craft Magic Weapons but there is no such feat

Probably should be Craft Magic arms and armor

Question: Is the Frost-Thunder Hammer kinda too strong?

I mean, the special ability does not need a save. You only need to hit, and after that the target is helpless. So the freezed target can then be coup de grace'd to death? Or does the ice protect them from that? Does the ability work on anything? I mean, if they just hit Yrax with that freeze ability (which is pretty easy since Touch AC 8) and then huge dragon is suddenly helpless?

I like the item, it's cool and our oracle is loving it. I'm just wondering; is there limitations to that ability except once per day?

one of my players felt it was too strong, basically if the bad guy successfully makes a hit, you are out of the whole combat, since there is very little that you can do to get out on your own.

but I disagreed, it really only take a couple of attack from anyone else in the party to break the ice and free the target, or a single dispel magic.

But, I do agree it seems bad when it happens.

TxSam88 wrote:

so the images can take 5' steps to eventually get into flanking position? giving both the caster and his allies flanking bonus?

The intent was to give the caster flanking bonus, not his allies. This needs to be clarified. Thank you!

here's the Crux of the issue - if the images threaten, then they threaten - this can give anyone they are partnered with a flanking bonus. I know you can have the spell say that only the caster can gain the flanking bonus, but it won't make any sense game wise. i know.... "but it's magic"

So aside from the double casting and having a butt load of copies of the caster running around, he can also provide flanking for every member of the party, which is normally just a +2, not too bad. But, if any of them are Inquisitors, then suddenly some are getting +4. I can't think of very many spells that give the whole party +2 to hit, much less +4.

all in all, it's a neat concept, just needs to refinement and it needs to fit the game logic. I still place it at a 4th level spell.

so the images can take 5' steps to eventually get into flanking position? giving both the caster and his allies flanking bonus?

If an image has moved away from the caster does it still provide the mirror image protection? (I think your wording seems to imply it doesn't)

So are the images that have moved away considered one of the ones that go away, or only the images still in your square?

for example, let's say you create 7 image, you keep 3 with you and 4 move away. If someone attacks you, but not a lone image, is the chance of hitting you 1 in 4, or 1 in 8?

if they attack a lone image, is it just gone? or do you check to see if it might hit you, etc.

considering how powerful flanking can be, I'd make this a 4th level spell, but I believe it needs some clarification.

TxSam88 wrote:

Melkiador wrote:

TxSam88 wrote:

AP's have enough in them already - no need to use Random encounters.

Really depends on the specific AP chapter. Some of the authors bake them in and some just add them as an afterthought.

well, we're on our 12th AP, and have yet to use a Random encounter. We use Milestone levelling so no need for extra XP, and they already take 12-18 months to finish an AP, so no need for extra stuff to do.. so yeah, we've yet to see a need for Random encounters.

Normally the way I use "random" encounters is to mine them for inspiration. But this AP is Kingmaker where you need some rndom encounters to populate the wilderness.

I am using milestone leveling but some random encounters count toward the milestone milestone count.

Yeah I forgot about Kingmaker - that one is basically nothing but random encounters - god I hated that AP.

Most of the APs simply list what level the party should be by certain points in the Adventure - we just go by that regardless of what you have encountered. (most APs are pretty linear - so you generally don't miss many encounters)

as for Wealth, most of the APs seem to do pretty decent in giving wealth enough to be close to WBL - so we haven't seen much need for extra treasure drops.

TxSam88 wrote:

AP's have enough in them already - no need to use Random encounters.

Really depends on the specific AP chapter. Some of the authors bake them in and some just add them as an afterthought.

well, we're on our 12th AP, and have yet to use a Random encounter. We use Milestone levelling so no need for extra XP, and they already take 12-18 months to finish an AP, so no need for extra stuff to do.. so yeah, we've yet to see a need for Random encounters.

AP's have enough in them already - no need to use Random encounters.

Arkat wrote:

If you're going to play Pathfinder without alignments, just play PF2 and go post in the PF2 threads.

Hard disagree. There's plenty of room to enjoy the mechanics of PF1, without wanting alignment. PF2 is a radically different game (mechanically) from PF1.

Hard disagree too - IMO Alignment is a fundamental part of the game and it's a shame that it has been removed.

Lord Fyre wrote:

Claxon wrote:

Well alignment has died in PF2, ...

This is a PF 1E thread. So, alignment still matters.

That is honestly very debatable. It only matters because some people still think it matters. PF1 was very workable without alignment. If you didn't have a cleric or Paladin in the party, alignment didn't come up a whole lot in my experience. Of course, everyone's table is different.

Considering casting certain spells either was not possible depending on your alignment - or could actually cause your alignment to shift - alignment most certainly mattered. (not to mention certain items and spells only work/affect certain alignments)...

you certainly achieved your goal. (my shocking grasp magus build will take 2 of the Type 1 please)
A ring of Magical Might 1 will Always be better than a Ring of Wizardry 1 and at less than 1/3 the cost. As you go up to a Type 4, however, the benefit is still always better, but the cost difference is negligible (4000gp). So as a magic item it doesn't seem too over powered. and cost is really an odd thing in PF, some GM's hand out lots of coin/value, others not so much, so in a low GP campaign it might be over powered since you can get them much easier, but in a high GP campaign, I see them as easy to get as a ring of Wizardy.

I don't see much issue overall, however, I'd place the costs of the lower rings higher, just for better game balance.

The party on its own could definitely clean up faster, but we are talking hordes of unintelligent undead, so a scout or just someone with a potion of fly could strafe to the center of their cluster, activate, move to another position nearby, wait for them to get to close again, and rinse and repeat.

Again, a wand of fireballs could be used in the same manner, and up to a certain point would be way more cost effective.

so each undead encountered makes a save of takes 31 damage once per day??

I suppose it' ok, but a wand of fireballs would deal way more damage, and cost way less

"The ranged attack is made as if you had thrown the item unless it’s ammunition for a weapon, in which case the attack is made as if fired from a heavy crossbow (if a bolt), a halfling sling staff (if a sling bullet), a blowgun (if a blowgun dart), a composite longbow with a +2 Strength rating (if an arrow), an atlatl (if an atlatl dart), or a pistol (if a firearm bullet). "

RAW: since the spell makes no mention of small or large weapons, then it can only use standard weapons, which would be medium ones.

any size creature casting this spell, would use the stats for a medium weapon.