TxSam88's page

The choke point created by the teleport mechanic left my witch player pretty unhappy - she couldn't really do anything for two rounds, and also missed the fight with Radosek as a direct result.

My players had the same complaint. with only one medium creature able to use the teleporters, and my party having 4 PCs, one with a medium animal companion, plus Nadya along for the adventure, it takes 6 rounds to get everyone teleported. fine when there's not a fight, but if there is one, those last characters might not get to participate.

I recommend that a GM allows 2 creatures to use the teleporters at a time, instead of just one.

Willow
Hawk the Slayers
LOTR
Conan the Barbarian
the list is long

Diego Rossi wrote:

Flame Blade wrote:

A 3-foot-long, blazing beam of red-hot fire springs forth from your hand. You wield this blade-like beam as if it were a scimitar. Attacks with the flame blade are melee touch attacks. The blade deals 1d8 points of fire damage + 1 point per two caster levels (maximum +10). Since the blade is immaterial, your Strength modifier does not apply to the damage. A flame blade can ignite combustible materials such as parchment, straw, dry sticks, and cloth.

It is wielded as if it were a scimitar. Is your hand free while wielding a scimitar? No. So it's not free while wielding the flame blade.

That means no somatic components with this hand, no wielding of other weapons and no benefit of anything requiring this hand to be free.

And you can't drop or sheathe the flame blade to temporarily free up the hand, like you could with a normal blade, but you get to attack touch AC with it.

I image it like you cast the spell and the flame blade springs from your hand. Then you have "to wield it like a scimitar" to keep the blade manifested.

However since the spell is not (D) dismissable and has a fixed duration RAW it would stay regardless of what you do with the hand. That would support Diego's point.

If I were the DM I would propably rule that as long as the Spell persists, that hand is occupied.

As it specifically mentions wielded as if it were a scimitar one could argue if things like weapon focus (scimitar) would apply, but that would be a different topic.

Carrying on the "Wielded as a scimitar". I would rule that just like a scimitar it can be put down, but would end as it is no longer in your possession. As it's duration can be quite long, I am sure many players would want to be rid of it after combat, and this seems like a fair method.

I want to also point out that King Maker is a really rough Adventure Path for a new GM and new players.

There are a lot of rules in PF1, and King Maker adds the complexity of the Kingdom Building rules, and it's also open sandbox.

Most of the other APs I have played/GMed have been more "linear" or "on the rails", and that helps keep the encounters more balanced with the party.

Also it is not like the entire party is specifically crushing the combat encounters. No it is SPECIFICALLY the monk. The Chained Sohei Monk typically outputs around 3/5 to 3/4 of the parties' overall damage each encounter. That is not an exaggeration either. Then again previously I had made the encounter at the springs that is typically with 4 Giant Frogs (CR1) into 4 Goliath Frogs (CR3) and THAT encounter nearly caused a TPK.

Action economy is the key player here. A single dragon get only 1 round of actions vs a full party, but 8 frogs get 8 rounds of actions vs the party. if even half of those frogs were equivalent to any single party member, then the frogs have a distinct advantage.

Your monk is probably doing all that damage with his flurry of blows with any weapon ability, which is pretty nasty, and does put him on the higher end of combat damage.

although, I am curious as to what the Druids animal companion is doing.

I'm running a game with a monk and druid, and it's the animal companion that's wreaking havoc on my bad guys.

so a number of things here..

as a DM you can give as little or as much treasure as you want.

If you want to use the Game mastering tables, a CR 7 encounter would give 1750gp, 2600gp or 3900 gp, depending on the XP track they are on (Slow med, fast)

Also, note, that in the black dragons listing, he gives triple - so triple those numbers.

Now, you are stating that your party is rolling over encounters, there must be a reason behind this.

things to consider.

4 level 2 20 point build characters is normally considered APL 2.

If you have more than 4 players, or you use more than a 20 point build, they they would have a higher APL.

If they are already exceeding WBL (which this encounter might cause), they would again have a higher equivalent APL. This encounter might also boost them above the level they currently should be in the adventure path.

In my experience, good players, well built characters, and just good thoughtful play can cause the party to be able to handle significant CR over their APL.

when all this is added up, it's not uncommon for my a group to be able to handle a CR 5 or 6 over APL.

Ways to mitigate this that are easy:
Use milestone leveling.
Max bad guy Hit points.
Add extra Mooks/minions until the encounter is a challenge, but don't give them any worthwhile trerasure.

Thank you!

@TxSam88, I'm sorry if I read too much into your posts. I was feeling a bit attacked, and so, went on defense. I do generally enjoy your contributions on these threads, even if we aren't on the same page here.

No offense intended, no offense taken.

If my character is meant to be a trained monster hunter and slayer, who's studied exotic prey for most of his life, why wouldn't I apply that knowledge to carrying the right tools for the job?

these are the kinds of excuses power gamers use to justify their ROLL play choices.

As for the wizard prepping every element possible, yeah, that borders on it too.

Stonewarden paladin seems solid. Maybe a warpriest?

IMO, these are the best answers that fit the question

I would not consider myself to be a power gamer, any more than a fighter or ranger carrying an assortment of weapons to be.

I consider that borderline power gaming as well.

It's one thing to have a melee weapon and a ranged weapon, its another thing to have one of every damage type and every material....

As a GM, I would rule that all the tines are a single attack, and if you had all the different materials, and if you had the right one for that particular attack, would ignore 1 or 2 points of that DR, but not all the DR.

it sounds like you are trying to make it balanced, which I applaud you for, but IMO it falls into ROLL play and not ROLE play.

I may have to pay a bit more for multiple tines, especially since I'm looking to use various special materials, but with a 50 gp base, I've got room to maneuver.

I feel inclined to comment here. I first thought this was probably a power gamer move, but then I thought nah, it has some cool flavor and might make for a neat custom character. But then you went and mentioned various special materials. That immediately made me think you want to use a different material on each tip, so that you always have the right special material to counter any DR you come across in the game, and bam, I went right back to this being a power gamer move.

If I were your GM, I'd have some extreme scrutiny on where you went with this build.

Wizard - hands down

At it's root, the question underneath my original question is, if swift action dependent classes take only one swift per turn, are they generally equal to or weaker than other classes in combat? If they can take two swifts per turn (at the expense of a standard), are they now equal, or stronger compared to other classes?

Considering the Swift action items I opted not to choose for the character, I'd put a triple swifting magus build above most other classes.

I'd have to dig into my archive of characters, but I remember one build that added a boost via swift actions each round for 5 rounds, and once that 5th one hit he was a terror to behold. Far out damaging the martials in the party.

That does sound really cool, but is it inherently "better" than the equally well built fighter/ranger/barbarian who got to charge and full attack, or two rounds of archery full attack, or whatever? What you describe sounds awesome, but not game breaking. However, I'm not a great theoretical numbers cruncher.

Better? Maybe, Maybe not, but does the extra Swift actions make the Magus better? most definitely.

TxSam88 wrote:

I play a lot of Magus/mage type characters, and the ability to replace a Move action with a swift would be HUGE for my character. It typically take about 3-4 rounds of spending swift actions to get my character up to full speed, and being able to do it in half that time would be incredible.

I can certainly see that. That's part of why I'm asking. I'm building an Inquisitor. What I'm wondering though, is once those buffs are all online, obviously you're better/good/awesome at what your character does, but are you 2-4 rounds of lost standard actions more awesome than a class that doesn't rely on swift actions?

Most definitely. I was playing a Ninja/Magus once:

Round 1:
Free: Black blade strike (up to +5 damage)
swift: Hasted Assault (one extra attack)
swift: Invisible Blade (as per greater invisibility, attacks as flat footed and +2)
Move or Standard: move to flanking or teleport to opponent

Round 2:
Swift: Accurate Strike or Arcane Strike or ki attack speed (all attacks as touch or +5 or 1 extra attack)
Full attack with spell combat and spell strike (10d6 shocking grasp with metamagic)

I play a lot of Magus/mage type characters, and the ability to replace a Move action with a swift would be HUGE for my character. It typically take about 3-4 rounds of spending swift actions to get my character up to full speed, and being able to do it in half that time would be incredible.

The monk’s quivering palm is similar to the slayers assassinate ability. While the monk will probably have a higher WIS than the slayer does INT, the slayers studied target will more than likely make up the difference. The slayer can get assassinate 5 levels earlier and has a better chance of killing the target if they make the save.

At 14th level the slayer gets Quarry. Quarry automatically confirms critical hits on the quarry. If the slayer is using a high threat weapon this is a huge advantage. At 19th level selecting the quarry is a free action instead of standard.

If you want to play an assassin the slayer is going to be your best choice.

just throwing out another option of something that can kill in one hit.

15th level monk with Quivering Palm - 1 hit, then will the opponent dead.

RAW - yes, the bonus from these will stack.
However, remember rule #0, The GM is always right.

TxSam88 wrote:

"Unless otherwise noted, activating a magic item is a standard action."

It could be argued that Smoked Goggles need to be activated - since it makes no mention of always being on.

Smoked Googles are not magic items, they are mundane equipment.

my bad, I saw that they protected from a gaze attack and assumed the must of been a magic item.

"Unless otherwise noted, activating a magic item is a standard action."

It could be argued that Smoked Goggles need to be activated - since it makes no mention of always being on.

Just play a straight Eldritch archer, and perhaps go for the musket instead of a pistol. Mage Bullets would be almost worthless for this build as you already are targeting touch AC most of the time and cast boost your attack via arcana or arcane strike. As soon as you can put Distance on your musket (80' range for touch AC), and use your Magus Arcana for whatever boosts you need (flaming, etc). Buy some deliquescent Gloves and all your attacks already have Acid. Pick up Ranged Spell combat and Reach Spellstrike. use your spells mostly for things like dimension door, phase step, haste, or shield. but have a few shocking grasps, lightning bolts, umbral strike, and cosmic ray type spells.

Be sure you have Rapid Reload and Alchemical cartridges (Paper).

TxSam88 wrote:

Halfway through book 1 and only at level 2 seems a little low. be sure to check the passage at the front of the book that tells you when the party should be levelling.

They ignored every roadblock in their way while simultaneous nailing every required disable device and/or strength check, thus allowing them to skip all of the C sections of the book. There's an NPC coming up that I can use to encourage them to turn back, but they seem to get tunnel vision as a party. I'll do my best to dissuade them, but I want them to have agency, and I've let them know I won't fudge rolls and I won't stop a TPK if that's the way things go. So if they insist on plowing through, then that's where we'll end up, and I guess we'll find another AP.

If you are using actual XP, you should still be throwing enough random encounters so that they still level at the appropriate points in the book pr the listing in the front of the book. The other option is to use milestone leveling.

either way, the party still needs to stay on track level wise per the AP.

So APs are written for 4 20 point build non-optimized characters, with a non-optimized party, played by less experienced players. Anything outside of this would necessitate a bump in the CR of the encounters.

If your players are experienced, build optimized characters, or optimized parties, then you might need to up the CR to make things a bit of a challenge.

The original Summoner was overly powerful, the unchained one is more in line, but the summoner/eidolon still has a huge action economy benefit. We tend to think of the eidolon as adding a character to the party when calculating APL.

Halfway through book 1 and only at level 2 seems a little low. be sure to check the passage at the front of the book that tells you when the party should be levelling.

does this gaze attack effect multiple creatures or just one ???

The euryale’s gaze attack has a range of 30 feet and turns the target to stone permanently (Fortitude DC 32 negates). The save DC is Constitution-based.

So during a typical round, as the characters are fighting, each character will need to make a save against the gaze. During the Euryale's turn it can also target an individual with it's gaze attack, forcing that one character to make an extra save against the gaze attack.

TxSam88 wrote:

I quite often run dex based melee types with little or no armor. Once you get the dex high enough, you actually start not wanting the negatives associated with armor. Rogues, Magus, Ninja, etc.

I do wanna try a unchained rogue sometime... I just worry a lot about finding myself unable to get a flank and thus not doing anything in the combat due to lack of sneak attack... And I dont know if the two weapon fighting to Two Weapon Feint feat line will be good with their lower BAB....

there are lots of ways to get sneak without using flanking. You need to definitely try to get a way to use Greater invisibility. with that alone, you attack against flat footed, and get a +2, if you flank, its +4.

look at all of the rogue tricks. there's a couple that you just get sneak attack damage for a round. some that let you use a wall, or an enemy as a flanking partner, and be sure to look at the ninja tricks (invisible blade).

I quite often run dex based melee types with little or no armor. Once you get the dex high enough, you actually start not wanting the negatives associated with armor. Rogues, Magus, Ninja, etc.

In contrast, my melee-monster PC went the Vital Strike route, and frequently one-shot enemies with his impact earthbreaker. But those other two easily had him beat on DPS for most of the campaign, simply from their greater number of attacks per round.

Archers benefit in 3 major areas when you consider DPS.

I'm with TxSam... Straight-up archer fighter is disgusting and the player that made the PC loved playing it.

yeah - so disgusting that we had to ban it in our games.

human fighter - no archetype - just get a Composite Bow and do a traditional archer build. Get a haste item and at 11th level you should be firing around 6 arrows per round dealing about 15-20 points each, on a non crit.

it's not a reality simulation, many things are that way due to game balance, and/or game simplicity

Shocking robe
Blazing robe
Varisian Tattoo

These are my favorite ways of boosting Caster level, combine one of the robes with the Admixture School, and pretty much ANY damaging spell gets the boost.

I haven't played that one before, but with a name like Carrion Crown, we expect a lot of undead stuff. Your necromancer may be meant to handle part of that, but I think you would still benefit from a positive energy channeler, and selective channel will be maybe more useful than usual.

it does have undead - but not as much as you would think. It actually covers a bunch of horror tropes. That's all I'm going to say on it, as you asked for no spoilers.

I would personally add a dex based rogue type. maybe a Swashbuckler, or ninja. Your Archer Ranger is a good idea. Someone that's good at either being sneaky, or good at ranged combat.

It looks to me like you have someone who can heal, someone who can cast divine spells, someone who can cast arcane spell, someone who can be a frontline fighter, what's missing to me is the sneak/lockpick, and/or the ranged fighter.

we're about to finish up that AP, someone in the party needs to max out persuasion and diplomacy. Preferably someone with a high Charisma.

You'll want to invest in ways to do combat underwater, cloak of the manta works, there are a couple of feats that allow you to fight underwater, aquadynamic weapon enhancement, waterproof spell, etc. there are LOTS of underwater stuff.

Not being able to add some ability to the weapon by crafting is a limit, but a magus has a large pool of variable abilities if he is willing to spend a few arcana. What he lacks most are the fixed price abilities (several of them are nice for the cost).

this is where I think the Blackblade is superior to a regular magic weapon, it's literally a swiss army knife.

Need flaming, making it flaming, need ghost touch, make it ghost touch, need shock, make it shocking, etc.

the fact that once you have a few arcana chosen, you can build almost anything you need on the fly is extremely powerful.

TxSam88 wrote:

Melkiador wrote:

Still, don’t be shocked if you end up with a main weapon that outclasses your black blade at certain levels.

Since the Black blade is intelligent, a magus would typically not want to upset it by doing that, and unless the other weapon is of the same type, the feats used to get better with the Black Blade will still allow it to outclass the "other blade"

The personality of the Black Blade is up to the player and GM. While it could be jealous, it may just be happy that its guiding purpose is being accomplished at all. I could even imagine one who gets upset at being used for day to day activities, considering it's purpose to be the only completely correct time to use it, and begrudingly letting you use its power more regularly just to keep you alive.

Sure, that was a side point, the main point being that since you probably have Feats like Weapon focus etc with your black blade, unless the other weapon is of the same type, losing the bonus from those feats is usually not worth whatever cool thing the alternate weapon has.

So, if he was able to play a dwarf - Stone Lord Paladin is the way to go.

Still, don’t be shocked if you end up with a main weapon that outclasses your black blade at certain levels.

Since the Black blade is intelligent, a magus would typically not want to upset it by doing that, and unless the other weapon is of the same type, the feats used to get better with the Black Blade will still allow it to outclass the "other blade"

Wouldn't this be a case of specific rule overriding a general rule, So even though the FAQ says to increase the damage by two steps, the template would be a more specific rule, and it says to increase by one step.

TxSam88 wrote:

especially once a weapons magic bonus gets high enough to penetrate most DR's on it's own.

Regardless of the +X of the bow, the arrow counts only as magic for bypassing DR.

An aligned bow will share its alignment.

FAQ wrote:

Magic Ranged Weapons and Ammunition: When a ranged weapon shares its enhancement bonus with its ammunition, does this count as “true” enhancement bonus or more like a temporary bonus like greater magic weapon? In other words, does the shared enhancement bonus allow the arrow to bypass damage reduction as if it was cold iron, silver, adamantine, and aligned?

No, other than the ways indicated in the Core Rulebook (if the ranged weapon is at least +1, they count as magic, and if the ranged weapon is aligned they count as that alignment as well) the enhancement bonus granted to ammunition from the ranged weapon doesn’t help them overcome the other types of damage reduction. Archers and other such characters can buy various sorts of ammunition or ammunition with a high enhancement bonus to overcome the various types of damage reduction.
posted May 2017 | back to top

Many of the FAQ's are BS at many tables. This is an example of a rules complication that was not needed.

But ok, so the ammunition doesn't go through DR, It's not difficult to deal enough damage and get enough attacks for DR to be a non issue even for ranged. Our table usually forgets that high enhancement bonus weapons go through DR anyway, and we don't have an issue taking down bad guys with substantial DR.

If you want to branch away from Paizo products, there's a book out there entitled "World's Largest Dungeon", a huge tome that is one giant dungeon, and IIRC rules neutral.

We long ago got tired of the ledger keeping of tracking gear (especially ammunition) to this level. We assume that a ranged character can make new ammunition during the evening camp/downtime, and will have enough made for a days worth of adventuring, thus negating the need for durable arrows. We have also discovered that DR is not usually enough of an issue to warrant the use of special materials, especially once a weapons magic bonus gets high enough to penetrate most DR's on it's own. Of course your game may differ, but we have found that getting rid of this level of bookkeeping freed game time up so that we can concentrate on the other aspects of game.

Here's a silly thing I did one time that both made me feel good about my contributions AND got the other players to realize how important support characters are.

We were at 11th level and I was playing an evangelist cleric. I think on average I made about one attack roll every four sessions. Sometimes another player would count up numbers they had written down and say something like "wow, I did over 150 points of damage that fight!" One fight I said "I'm going to track my damage too!" So when the barbarian said "I did 70 points that round!" I said "Nope. You used my blessing of fervor to make an extra attack, so all the damage from that attack is mine. You missed with a 28, but the 30 hit, so that damage is all mine too (inspire courage). You did hit with your first attack on your own, so you get to count all but 3 of that damage (inspire courage, again)."

Note, that this was all said in fun and we were enjoying it. It wasn't really a competition.

Yep, I've quite often said that Haste is one of the most damage dealing spell a wizard can cast.

Are you asking how far away the party without a light source can see the light from the lantern, or are you asking how far away the party without the light source can see the party with the lantern? Those are two separate issues. They will be able to see the lantern from quite a distance away assuming that nothing blocks the light. In order to identify the character in the party with the lantern they will need to be a lot closer.

What spurred the discussion was an archer hiding in the darkness in the woods wanted to know if he could see a party riding down the road at night with a few lanterns well enough to shoot one of them. We've always just allowed it, but someone asked if there should be a penalty of some sort.

from what we could tell by the "rules" that since he was in a dark area, he couldn't see them at all, but that didn't make any sense to us, hence the question.

as they are monsters, the GM can have them heal however much he wants.

Class level.

Is there any feat or other ability that allows you to use your STR modifier as the "to hit" stat instead of DEX when using a thrown weapon?

don't worry about doing a STR build for shuriken, go DEX and embrace it, build it as you would an archer build. use Deadly Aim, and One of the gloves that gives your weapon flaming of acid, at 10th level you should have around 4 or 5 Shuriken throws all at around 1d2 + 4 + 1d6 fire + 5d6 sneak attack. 30d6 potential damage in one round is pretty nice.

Typically, some method of getting your thrown magic weapon to return to your hand after each throw is mandatory after a few levels,

Shuriken are considered ammunition, any that hit are "destroyed or rendered useless" and those that miss have a 50% chance of the same. so making them returning is generally worthless.

That being said, you can indeed Sneak attack with every shuriken you throw if you qualify for sneak attack with those attacks.

At 10th level, a Ninja can become invisible as Greater Invisibility using the Invisible Blade Ninja Trick, this works perfectly to provide sneak attack damage for all the shuriken in a shuriken flurry. I typically don't even bother with the weapon damage, and just roll the sneak attack damage.

The rules on lighting define what you can see in an area that is illuminated by a light source, not what light sources you can see. There are no rules for the latter, and you'll need to use your discretion. In total darkness, a bright light source can be seen from a considerable distance.

that's what I was thinking. Thanks everyone.