William Griffiths's page

You have good points. That being said, I choose to play games by their rules set. Otherwise, we'd all be playing Amber, the diceless role playing game. Rules lawyers and attention hogs are always going to be a problem, but that being said, if the game simply does not support high level play, that is an issue.

Furthermore, from the design perspective, we just did not want to play in a world with Magus, from a power perspective, nor gunslingers, from a role-play perspective. (Not sure if Gunslingers are overpowered or not. Wouldn't surprise me, but can't bring myself to read the class.)

I can only ignore problem players to the point that I can still get on tables at game days. Limiting the really obnoxious rules items served me well in the past; in LG, at least many of the problems were mitigated by banning the worst rules items. We played 4ed, where everything was allowed, and quit it for PFS (after Mounted Combat/Lizard fiasco, coupled with Healer's Sash), where again just about everything was allowed. I really miss reading an obviously foolish feat, thinking 'no way this will be allowed' and having a good chance of being right.

Bottom line: Couldn't stand to play a game with Power Shot, Magus, Create Pit, etc. Don't like to see PCs ruining combats with them, and don't like to have to use them on PCs as a DM.

I'd like to add my voice to this discussion. If anything, I'd say you've not been harsh enough. Now, I don't expect anyone here to try to serve me, as I have stopped playing because of these issues. I am sure the following opinion will not be welcomed, but here goes:

To be frank, there are so many things in the campaign that are too powerful, it's not worth it to begin listing. I played about 40 PFS mods before my whole gaming group couldn't take it anymore, and quit en masse. But I still lurk because I like organized play, and want to play something current. We police ourselves around the house, but my forays into the Atlanta area have all been less than satisfactory. (Create Pit. Really?)

Anyway, in the interest of the game, we need a good and long banned list. The core book was largely ok, but many of the supplements have classes and feats that one doesn't even need to combo with to break horribly. The power level of PFS has always been way too high, and it just seems to get worse and worse with each supplementary book. I suspect this is the reason we retire at level 12, since the 10th level characters I have seen all have numbers off the charts.

Oh well. Guess I might have to wait for new editions of PFS or D&D and hope for the best.

What is being discussed here, I think, are two serious problems with PFS. In any kind of heroic campaign, where evil creatures are plentiful, paladins past a certain level are too good. Obnoxiously good.

Separately, archers are also too good. Deadly Aim (which is Power Shot for archers, as I recall) is an absolutely terrible idea. If I made a banned list for my home game, this would be number 2 on the list. (Falcata is always number 1.) Giving fighters and paladins this kind of extra options for damage on a weapon that easily gets extra arrows and attacks (Rapid Shot and Manyshot do indeed work together, no penalty) is a serious problem.

Paladins should not subsume dragons, undead, and evil outsiders like they're nothing. I grant the responders, a home game GM can even this out by giving the dragon various spells and magic items, to prepare himself. However, a dragon should not need buff rounds to survive one round against an archer 2 levels lower than the CR. Period.

Original poster: Most people are going to defend the paladin. Various reasons exist, but in my experience, most people are going to emptily defend a powerful mechanic until it is used against them. The Magus is another extremely obnoxious class in the mid levels, always defended by my players until they had to face one. It's only silly when one of them has put you on the floor before you get to act.

All of this discussion is made much worse, by the way, when you leave your home game and move to PFS. In a home game, the DM can tailor the encounter to actually challenge the players. In PFS, you pretty much have to run as is, and there is a real problem finding the right difficulty level over there.

Now, to change my tune a little: There are so many problems with Pathfinder power mix right now, that without a good banned list, there will be problems like this starting around level 5. However, of all the crimes that are possible, Paladin is nowhere near the top of the list. Smite evil is good, too good, but archery is the real criminal here.

We played a scenario last week at my house, and randomly, the Fighter and Paladins missed the game. All of a sudden, the wizard got to cast more than one spell per fight. Afterwards, and no offense to our fellow players, we realized that we had more fun in that one game than we had on any other PFS scenario in the last two months. Several times, a fighter or paladin has ended a combat before half of the PCs get to act, and this is only tier 5-6.

Do what you will with this opinion, but I don't check these boards much, so I may not be quick to respond...