Wolf_Shay's page

Do you have any advice for a novice practitioner of witchcraft?

I'm missing the point here. I must be. All magic users, Psychics included, manipulate the nebulous and frankly difficult-to-define forces of the universe. Psychic magic might be more mysterious because they're harder to identify. But at the same time, they manipulate magic in another way from others. This should, AT MOST, make for a few awkward in-game conversations. But if you'll excuse me, I have to go back to playing my Witch who disguises himself as a wizard by using a Book of Shadows (or as I discussed with my DM, a family history book that has a good many scrolls bound in with the pages) to pass for a spellbook. Just saying that fluff and crunch are two different animals, and if you can't role play your roll play, then this isn't an issue with the system.

Without ANY amount of gear, most prepared casters are immediately gimped...Witches being the exception. Oracles need a divine focus for their spells as well.

Check the keywords of the spells...I'd assume that only if you used the listed spells to use water effects would it cost you the additional slot

Really hope there will be some illusion and necromancy and enchantment exploits...

It's only unfair if the DM forces a situation, simply because "they say so." Being reminded of a campaign that I was part of, in that the DM outright killed my character while trying to play off that I had an opportunity to survive via saves, afterwards telling me that my character had no chance of survival. All this, simply because my character was being thoroughly screwed with by the DM and was being an absolute skeptic and didn't like being toyed with. THAT's unfair.

Giving them a reasonably placed encounter with a fair chance of survival while still being slightly challenged, pshh, dude you are not in the wrong.

They MAY want to steer clear of that casting mechanic for the shaman, if only because the Spirit Shaman of 3.5's Complete Divine operated with the same premise. Maybe...

I think they mean using the Consume Magic Items exploit to replenish the Arcane Reservoir...

I dunno, play out the Arcanist and you get a character that can easily say, "You call THAT magic?"

It was already stated that the Hunter was going to get a nice overhaul, so let's just back off on it. The Arcanist would have been a great candidate for the name "Warlock" however.

Can't we just call it a Craft (Alchemy) check to convert dust to a whole diamond?

I wonder if the Arcanist would be better served by getting their Charisma modifier + 1/2 level in points per day, and then at 8th level it becomes Cha+level? I dunno, my two coppers.

I would have preferred the druid spell list to the cleric, but I love the class regardless.

Huh...Investigator as an alchemist/rogue...pardon me while I go back to reading my copies of The Dresden Files. Not quite as sorceric as Harry himself, but it WILL DO.

Ah well...couldn't have hurt...

But keep an eye out for the dolls...they'll kinda make life hard for ya if you get on the bad side of a witch...

Merisiel, have you seen any of my hex dolls? My poppet S'Yesha and I were about to perform a dark ritual/tea party (don't judge me, any of you! *holds a pin to the poppet*) and I can't find them...

Also...umm...does Seltiyel ever go for guys? I mean, well... I've got a pink mohawk, and generally wear a drake skull for a cap so I guess I'm easy to spot... And we're both half-elves andIdon'tmeantoberacistbutIdunnoI justdon'tmeetguysthatwellwhenthewitchthingcomesoutandIcanbeshyandandI'mstil ltalkingwhenIshouldshutuprightOHGODICAN'TSTOPmeep.

PS...if Feiya has any belladonna, can you ask if I might borrow some?

The last time my DM banned a class, it was simply the Monk. And he banned it under the advice of another player that was the consistent DM before. Basically he stated that Monks were impossible to play because in order to constantly be capable of the feats of strength, willpower, and agility, the character would have no time for any interaction besides training. Because realistically speaking, the monk would need to work out constantly. I told him flat out that if he wants to inject realism into his game that harshly, he needs to check the rest of the party. The fighter can't keep the mead and mutton down for two seconds, nor is he sharpening his weapons. The wizard can't be bothered to study, experiment, or practice. The ranger doesn't teach his pets any tricks, and the magus is a jerk whose player he refused to smack down despite the absolute douchebaggery that was bringing the game down.

Let me put it this way. I don't particularly have an issue with DM fiat. I actually make good use of it. But the DM should be able to hold their decision up to scrutiny and do so on solid ground. If a player has an option to use a class as a template for their concept, the DM should at least hear it out before anything, and stop using class names as absolutes. Druids as wizards, wizards as witches, witches as priests, etc.

Oddly enough, this reminds me of the pair of characters that my friend and I rolled up. She had devised an Elven Oracle of the Life Mystery...and I was a Drow Necromancer. And surprisingly, we were the best of friends that balanced each others' personalities out. She was a somber, melancholy healer that despised people because they always needed to be saved. She did her job, she did it well, and cried her blind eyes out every day because the gods had cursed her to watch people suffer. Serious downer she was. Whereas my Drow was the happiest humanoid on two legs. Despite being the son of an escaped slave, and a practitioner of what is often considered a vile and odious magic, he's really someone you'd have a drink with if you could look past the appearance. His main goal in life was to be a friggin archaeologist, and his view was that if you asked nicely, the moldy corpses would tell you everything. His biggest concerns to date? He hasn't gotten laid in 20 years...the Oracle has too many feminine bits for his taste.

Stop feeding the troll

shallowsoul wrote:

The above I have in bold is not correct. There are items, skills, spells, feats, and other things that increase this and you can't ignore those and expect your argument to be accurate.

Not in the 3 core D&D rulebooks, other than the phylactery of undead turning (which I mentioned) and the Improved Channel feat (which we've already talked about).

shallowsoul wrote:

Is Turn Undead absolutely perfect? No it's not but it's no where near this useless thing that people are trying to portray it as.

Don't be mad that we took away a powerful class feature of the best class in the game and replaced it with something more versatile but less powerful. The wizards would like to talk to the clerics about their weaker HD, one good save, fewer spells known at each level, lack of armor proficiency, lack of weapon proficiency, lack of access to healing spells, a primary ability score that doesn't add to saving throws, and having to rely on a spellbook...

Can I marry you? That rant was the most glorious thing I've heard since Varsuuvius of the Order of the Stick started the various quips regarding magic and how it makes physics its B*#@h

The Bonded Witch archetype is missing :( I really wanted to see your opinion on it

Ability Focus becomes an amazing feat in conjunction with the various hexes...downside, you have to take it once for each hex

So...inherent ability is defined by the randomized score, and training is represented by the extra 5 points. Assuming your character is an adult who, for all intents and purposes, has been doing what he loves all his life, his natural inclination is to work on the talents he already has, sometimes to the point where other abilities suffer. Inherent abilities are inclinations towards specific actions, sure, but if Joe the Wizard is naturally inclined to box, he probably either has a halfway decent strength score, or a decent DEX with the weapon finesse feat for his touch spells. Your natural abilities are already determined by the bonuses and penalties of the race, so there's really very little need to randomize it. And don't throw around the word munchkin like it means something, because all you're trying to do is incite negative feedback by calling anyone that uses the point buy system a munchkin. I make my players use point buy simply because I know several of them have dice that LOOOOOOOOVE to roll multiples of 6 and having characters with three 18's in stats is no fun for the rest of the party

Enchantment/Divination specialist wizard

I personally go Half-elf lifespan at best...neither Tieflings or Aasimars are particularly strong in the planetouched traits to warrant anything better. I mean, their existence is roughly described as being the freak chance that a dormant strain of fiendish or celestial heritage manifests itself far down the bloodline. Just enough to set them apart, not enough to make them too dissimilar

This is the stuff I love...the fluffy bits that make a character more than (insert class name) #5. From a Gravewalker built on the bones of Dr. Facilier, to a Gypsy witch who conjures fiendish ponies (yes...I actually helped with that one, and it was glorious) and plays all manner of pranks. The simple things that take the class from being a spell caster to being a Witch. What is your Witch's Craft?

I know, just repeating myself here, but I love hearing peoples' stories :)

P.S. With a halfway decent bluff check and nobody rolling sense motive over it, a witch with a book of scrolls that they can cast from easily passes as a wizard...who knew?

Glad I could help :) that'll be 500 dollars or your first born male child please

Why not the Primalist archetype from Inner Sea Magic? You're functionally playing a character that flirts with the maddening power of wild magic so having it either be a product of their personality or the cause is easily workable

Qinggong monk with earth style abilities and the shaitan style feats?

Anyone else having a flashback of Belkar Bitterleaf and the infamous sheet of lead?

Wolf_Shay wrote:

Gravewalker warranted a black listing? Check the spell poppet's version of deliver touch spells :P Turn that Inflict Critical wounds into a ranged touch at the cost of a pin, it practically sells itself.

The spell poppet ability requires a full round action to use. This means you cast the spell and it's not delivered until the end of your next rounds action. It is a horribly inefficient ability and murders all your action economy. Not to mention giving up your familiar so no assists, no scouting, etc.

This is NOT a good ability.

Not exactly...the spell comes into effect just before your next round's action... Also, you cast a touch spell and you can hold the charge as long as you need and THEN stab the doll. This is also ANY touch spell. Healing, enchantment, transmutation, sky's the limit. The lack of a familiar can be crippling to some, but for others not so much. Less chance of your "walking spell book" getting dead. This is the the give and take of using an archetype...lose something, get something in its place

I'd say go with the Spellslinger completely personally. Saves time, energy, and gives you a bonus to spell attacks and save DC's. That and you lose out on the all the Deeds by just taking the one level of Gunslinger. You can easily decide which schools you don't need based on the theme you plan to work towards. Keep Illusion and Transmutation if you need stealth to be more assassin-like. Evocation and, to a lesser extent, Conjuration if you wanna blast.
The ability to sack your spells for the sake of better attacks is a boon when you don't have a spell you need prepared and a currently useless one in its place. My two coppers here :P

Gravewalker warranted a black listing? Check the spell poppet's version of deliver touch spells :P Turn that Inflict Critical wounds into a ranged touch at the cost of a pin, it practically sells itself.

It never really occurred to me to do as you did- sort of some power or other coming down and literally granting him powers.

It happens :P But that's the point to the witch...there are so many options. Just because it states that you make a pact with the unknown doesn't necessarily mean you're uninformed. My friend built a Hedge Witch who learned her craft from family, being an initiated witch into a coven and earning the gifts associated. This, as we described it, was kinda just "adding her name to the contract." And whenever she uses the healing hex, she uses a spicy smelling salve on the wound, but any sort of cuts will always scar. Me personally, I built the foil for this character using the Gravewalker. He never made a pact in the way I described earlier...he did however conjure a wicked spirit and bound it into a doll (spell poppet) to force it to teach him magic. It's gonna bite him in the low fortitude save later.

One thing that always bugs me about players is the lack of creativity, the short backgrounds, and the general nonpluss fluff.

"Oh, I made a pact with a Patron of the moon." DONE. Really? Give me specifics, give me names, give me something

"Under the moonlight, I beseeched the night for help. Long since had I been enslaved and now, this being my only night of freedom, I fear that such is my life... Under the moon I cried, wept, prayed for salvation from various gods, entities, and whatever else might listen...and I was answered. Under the falling shafts of moonlight descended a being of what I can only describe as Beauty and Light incarnate. Her(?) hand reached out to rest upon mine shoulder and her words, sonorous and wonderful, touched my very soul.
"I've heard your pleas, and was touched by your sorrow. Answer to me, and I shall give you the freedom you seek, and the power to keep it. In return, you must learn my ways, student of the Moon."
In my haste, I accepted her promise eagerly, anything to be freed of my captors.
"Then you are my student. Give to me your hand"
I reached out my palm and she sliced it with a silver blade, so sharp I barely felt more than a cool wind.
"Blood is the pact, blood is your freedom. The magic suffused in your soul now given release. My gifts be showered on you, and my tenets you'll keep. With your own life, now accept your ally, teacher, guardian, and friend."
She brought the blade up, and shook a drop of blood from its edge. From where it landed, a scuttling thing rose from the grass. It crawled to me, a large spider, its eyes jewel bright. Silver bands adorned its body, and a crescent moon was intertwined in them. The bond I felt immediately. It crawled to my hand and wrapped the wound in gossamer, then took to my shoulder where it nuzzled(? can spiders nuzzle?) my cheek and rested.

I looked up, and my patron had gone. But in my heart, I knew she had done me no wrong, and at my fingertips there danced a charge. And in my mind, a thought that was not mine rang out.

"With the morning sun, you will begin your tutelage. Rest well...my witch"

Seriously...is it that hard? And that's not even the tip of the iceberg!!!

So tell me forum, how did you form your pact? Were you in the right place at the right time? We're you initiated into a coven? Were you apprenticed, was your family cursed?

And a cookie if you can give me some interesting hex fluff too

Pact Magic?! Sign me up! Me likey binding/entreating/subjugating various extra dimensional spirits :)

Granted, any spell that required an attack roll could be affected by weapon focus in 3.5. But if you need a difference between random ranged touch spell A and random ray spell B, all rays act the same in terms of manifestation, but not all ranged touch spells act the same. Some chuck balls of something, some throw arrows of something. They're usually too dissimilar to allow for a standardized method of benefitting all of them at once, whereas a ray of any stripe is a ray that acts and moves like a ray. I dunno...I just dropped in to offer my two coppers. Continue bickering as necessary

Ray is just pathfinder's way to weaponize spells and simplify them as ranged weapon attacks. They should have done a better job and classified all the ranged touch attack spells as rays. Since there's no rules difference between pointing and firing an Acid Arrow, and pointing and firing a Ray of Exhaustion, provided the spell does not specify a Target.

Rays have been around since 3.5. Player's Handbook P.102 for the reference in the Weapon Focus Feat and P.311 for the Glossary entry

Dunno how this is so hard. Wizards and sorcerers use magic, an obscure, difficult to define energy source. The only difference between the two is that wizards can be described as having less magical energy overall, whereas sorcerers are brimming with it. However, a wizard learns to harness what magical resources he or she might possess through study and practice, alotting a precise fraction of their power, aura, mojo, whatever you call it, to each spell. Sorcerers use magic as a force of will, bypassing the diagrams and theorems altogether, but limiting their breadth of skill. But at the end of the day, when your resources are burned out, it's game over for either caster. Now...if you want to cast more spells as a wizard, try playing a primalist, a shadowcaster, or carry around the appropriate items (scrolls, wands, staves).

Witches rule btw. And my witch has a book of spells...currently down to 10 worthwile pages aka scrolls.