Witch Doctor's page

Witch Doctor wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

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Is another example of the knee-jerk reacion to cheese.

Except that it's yet another example of an eidolon built wrong.

Evolutions Heading under Eidolon wrote:

Unless otherwise noted, each evolution can only be selected once.

Reach does not mention that it is allowed to be grabbed multiple times.

Thank you. I misread the evolution.

Well most classes have some form of cheese factor.

1st level Human Witch for instance with both feats dedicated to Extra Hex (Evil Eye, Cackle) and they have as their standard 1st level hex (Slumber). Just top that off with say a Wand of Hex Vulnerability which can be obtained after one adventure for just 2PP.

It isn't really a fault of the player if they gravitate to what works on an optimized level. They are simply using the tools they are given to the best effect. People have different levels of tolerance for cheese builds. What one abhors, another accepts. Humans always have this knee-jerk reaction to supposed cheese.

Same with cleric.
Same with druid.
Same with barbarian.
Same with cavalier.
Same with summoner.
Same with etc.

On one hand, the Wildcaller (Plant version) archetype is legal for APG summoners... so yay! On the other hand its also means we are losing out on the APG version for a more tame version; ironic how the Unchained Summoner is more "Chained" then his old counterpart which is more "Unchained".

^
True so it can't be hex of lignification. 2 Rounds at best normally. You would need a wand of Hex Vulnerability to keep the lignification going or dedicated all your 1st level spells to Hex Vulnerability.

I got the book on hand. I couldn't tell you why the Wood Shaman is not legal.

Hmm that is a bummer as I was actually looking forward to Wood being a playable Spirit for my Shaman.

Evil Eye (Su): The shaman causes doubt to creep into the mind of a foe within 30 feet that she can see. The target takes a –2 penalty on one of the following (shaman's choice): ability checks, AC, attack rolls, saving throws, or skill checks. This hex lasts a number of rounds equal to 3 + the shaman's Wisdom modifier. A successful Will saving throw reduces this to just 1 round.

At 8th level, the penalty increases to –4.

Evil Eye (Su): The target takes a –2 penalty on one of the following (witch’s choice): AC, ability checks, attack rolls, saving throws, or skill checks. This hex lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the witch’s Intelligence modifier. A Will save reduces this to just 1 round.

This is a mind-affecting effect. At 8th level the penalty increases to –4.

I also mined the forums. So its not like this exact same question hasn't been asked before and marked as a FAQ candidate.

EDIT: Similar questions about the Shaman's Evil Eye being mind-affecting or not haven't been answered by the FAQ.

Rogue Eidolon wrote:

GM Hills wrote:

Witch Doctor, there have actually been several posts referring to and the blog itself has been updated concerning the date. It was adjusted to Wednesday, the 29th. If you were playing last night or tonight with a Summoner then, you could play APG Summoner. IF that still did not get you to 2.1 and having played post 2, then that isn't the concern here. There was only about an hour window when such a character could not be played and that was due to the fact that John put the wrong date in the blog.

The 29th thing is true for the free retrain, but the blog says "effective immediately" for the restriction of the summoner.

And then it is specified in the comments by John Compton and Mike Brock that: You can play the summoner until the 29th but not START a summoner. So if you had XP on a summoner, you could, in fact, play it. That said, the case of someone showing up and wanting to play one for the first time, a corner case for sure, was a situation where yes, they had to be told they could not play that particular character, but there are plenty of options they could have played or done. Or, if you really wanted to, the GM could have let them play it, knowing that afterwards they would have to rebuild it to play it again.

You may notice that we did not say the unchained summoner would be available alongside its Advanced Player's Guide counterpart. Effective Immediately, the Advanced Player's Guide summoner is no longer available in the organized play campaign, and the unchained summoner is its legal replacement.

Which means "oldschool" Summoner is effectively illegal unless grandfathered in.

However, we recognize that someone who already has a summoner (and the book to play it) should not be punished for this change. Therefore, if you have a character with levels in the summoner class, and you have played the character at least once at level 2 or higher, you get to keep your summoner as is; you may also continue to gain levels in the summoner class.

Meaning you are only exempt from the normal mandatory change if you have a Summoner with effectively 4 or more XP before the announcement went live.

Any character gaining a level in summoner for the first time must use the unchained summoner, and anyone character still within the 1st-level window of free rebuilding must also use the unchained summoner.

If you have three chronicles worth of experience but haven't played the Summoner to obtain a fourth chronicle sheet, you must as mandated remake your Summoner. As you are still technically within the "window of free rebuilding" as a 1st level would be.

Also just to point this out

Or, if you really wanted to, the GM could have let them play it, knowing that afterwards they would have to rebuild it to play it again.

Which is some slippery slope logic there. As if that case could be made, then all 3rd party material for instance would follow suit.

BigDTBone wrote:

First time PFS =! first time pathfinder.

I find it somewhat suspicious that a person who's claimed never to have played Pathfinder before, would ask for the Summoner for his first character.

Not really that suspicious. I've done it, other players I know have done it. I'm not even referring to just Pathfinder here.

Its not that uncommon for a new player to actually try to learn the game by themselves and make a new character in advance.

No books? No problem. There are plenty of websites out there that have the information you require to build your character.

Its entirely possible the person just spun the metaphorical "roulette" and decided "Hey summoner looks cool, I will try that." and then get told to convert their Summoner and Eidolon to the Unchained version.

This is just second-hand knowledge but it sounds like they nerfed the Eidolon and the Summoner. Which can be an annoying prospect for a new player to swap to a nerfed-version.

Witch Doctor wrote:

Which is also part of their effort to stamp-out any and all "grandfathering" in which within a months time a person would normally have gotten 3-4 Summoners to level 2.1 as you must have had a 2.1 Summoner before the announcement went live.

Saying that the leadership is attempting to 'stamp out' all grandfathering sounds odd to my ears, considering 2nd+ level Summoners are being grandfathered.

If they were intending to stamp them all out, everyone would be required to update to the Unchained Summoner.

I was referring to non 2.1 leveled Summoners before the announcement went live. I apologize my post was not as clean and comprehensible.

9mm wrote:

TOZ wrote:

9mm wrote:

Honestly only subscribers who got a full view of just how hard a nerf the unchained was.

Plenty of us expected a lack of grandfathering window after the results of the last one, and that the summoner would be very different from the APG.

Tell that to the first time pfser who walked away from my table last night when I explained what a blog post posted an hour before the start meant for his character.

That's unfortunate. Did you try to soften the blow by telling this player about the differences between the new summoner and the APG summoner? The new summoner offers some cool new features and the newer eidolons are more closely tied to traditional outsider types thematically. It might have been interesting enough for the player that they'll check it out when the content becomes available on the PRD.

I'm gonna say no. In that no one had the Unchained book on hand as none may have been subscribers.

Really awkward 3 days (27-29th). As its like expecting another person to bring People of the Sands just so one person could play a Living Monolith.

As to me it honestly feels like the metaphorical "rug" had gotten "pulled from underneath us".

Nobody in your playgroup decided to spring for a subscription for an RPG book this month at your local playgroup? Yet you are also being demanded by Paizo themselves to also make any changes on any non 2.1+ Summoner. Yet there is not even a PDF to remedy the situation as people do play on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Which is also part of their effort to stamp-out any and all "grandfathering" in which within a months time a person would normally have gotten 3-4 Summoners to level 2.1 as you must have had a 2.1 Summoner before the announcement went live.

Which can be just as paradoxical as the religious person who is ordered to obey the dogma within the book but the religious person does not have the book so they are in a way, disobeying, for they don't know what the dogma is to begin with and only a select few religious people got the book.

9mm wrote:

Honestly only subscribers who got a full view of just how hard a nerf the unchained was.

Plenty of us expected a lack of grandfathering window after the results of the last one, and that the summoner would be very different from the APG.

9mm wrote:

If only those reasons followed a logic pattern that makes sense.

They most certainly do. You just don't know what the starting assumptions are.

I been silent on that subject for over six hours. First Worlder is just a "innocent in the crossfire" that got mashed into the others like Wild Caller (both Half-Elf and Plant varients) in addition to several others that altered the eidolon's baseform or type.

All we have left now is:

Evolutionist
Naturalist
Story Summoner...and Shaitan Binder.

Yet you need a chronicle sheet to play an Oread for a Binder.

Which means we can either play an Unchained Summoner now, or we can wait till around an expected early June in case there is a feat/archetype/trait/etc that might be worth the wait.

Dear Jburz,
Do you plan on adding the Wood Spirit to the list of available of spirits?

If any of you are that worried you can always play an adventure path + scenario to secure yourself an "Oldschool" Summoner for PFS in the way of Grandfathering.

Blog wrote:

The unchained summoner qualifies for all existing summoner archetypes, save those that modify the eidolon's type or base form.

First Worlder Archetype modifies base form IIRC.

and as a double whamy, it alters the eidolon's type, from outsider to fey.

The weird magical cats with a miss-chance. Old Summoner could get away with making such a magical cat as long as you had access to the Fetchling chronicle sheet as it opened up the evolutions that allowed for your eidolon to gain a miss-chance based on dim or darker lighting conditions

However, I personally haven't seen the new summoner, and say I would doubt that eidolons have an evolution that grants them a miss-chance.

Since the change from Normal to Unchained is mandatory for Summoners who are not grandfathered in, only Bisplacer-Deast-esque Eidolons for a grandfathered Fetchling Summoner would be allowed.

I also don't understand how people hate the eidolon so much while I next to never see complaints about druid/hunter companions.

Eidolons > Animal Companions. No contest.

Pirate Myth Debunking

Yes pirates did have codes or articles. If all you ever did was watch pirate movies, you’d think that being a pirate was easy: no rules other than to attack rich Spanish galleons, drink rum and swing around in the rigging. In reality, most pirate crews had a code which all members were required to acknowledge or sign. These rules included punishments for lying, stealing or fighting on board (fighting on shore was OK). Pirates took these articles very seriously and punishments could be severe.

^
That is just the tip of the iceberg.

Pirates were very lawful.

I love this book. Its freaking awesome. Its a homerun of flavor and mechanics. All these new things from the book just make me daydream of the possibilities as they dance in my head.

I give my sincere thanks to the people who worked on this book.

Bluenose wrote:

I would say that even with that imbalance, the weaker classes and stronger classes were closer together in usefulness to a party than is the case with other versions of D&D.

That's much I'll concede. I can't think of anything in 4e that was as bad as the gap between 3.5's CoDzilla and the weak martial classes like the Complete Warrior Samurai.

What? No love for the 3.5 Monk? He could infinitely heal people with his punches when he took the prestige class Shadow Sun Ninja. It was so strong that it made the cleric who dedicated himself to healing look unoptimized in comparison.

Also Cleric and Druid were the most unbalanced classes in D&D 3.5 as they were referred to as "easy mode class".

Oh yes paizo is certainly on a decline, just look at the lack of the books for this month alone.[/sarcasm]