For role-playing reasons my wizard ended up taking the discovery of Staff-like wand, and now I am wondering what wands to use it with.
The problem is that by this point (level 12), there are already a decent number of 'free' low level slots for general buffs, and higher level wands ramp up in cost pretty quickly. There is also the action economy to consider in using wands for lower level spells.
So far all I can think of are scorching ray, resist energy (possibly communal), and maybe false life.
Does anyone out there have experience or suggestions for other wands?
So our GM was getting cranky that at, level 12, my wizard was rocking 12 skill points/level between class, intelligence and the human bonus skill. His (correct) point is that at that level of skill a wizard makes a better skill monkey than a rogue does and that that level is enough to max out most of the critical skills (arguably about half of all of the 'useful' skills).
After thinking up various ways to nerf skill points, I was wondering about the viability of limiting the bonus skill points one gets to just intelligence based skills. While this won't have much impact on a 'book-work' type wizard, it does prevent a wizard who can afford to get magic skills (and knowledge) to decent levels while also getting huge face and sneaking skills.
Is this too much of a nerf or are there unseen consequences I am not seeing?
I am building an NPC support character for our party. The current party is level 12 and consists of a god wizard, a blast sorcerer, and a reach barbarian; optimization levels range from average to poor.
These are the requirements:
* Must be a Dwarf
* Must be tough (able to block and act on the front line)
* Must be durable (able to take a beating)
* Must have moderate healing/divine support
* Must NOT be a pure cleric (not to overshadow other characters)
* Total character level 10-11
* NPC stats (15 point build and WBL)
* Should hit hard enough to be a decent threat in combat when buffed
* Should be simple in play (minimize conditional modifiers or maneuvers)
Some complexity in the build is ok, but if I get too clever it might get nixed by the GM. I'm running a warpriest by him (may be too finicky).
This is a good place to put in one of those cool PrCs that never get played because they nuke primary casting.
Ok, so my GM likes to throw shadow demons at us http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/demon/demon-sha dow
My first thought is how is this, given its defenses (yay incorporeal), touch based attacks, and bevy of spell-like abilities a CR 7 creature? My second is how do I fight such a beast?
Party is 3 characters, a semi-optimized God wizard (me), an optimized but non-ideally played ranger, and a badly built and played sorcerer? Right now we are level 11, but that just means that we get 2-4 of these added to a couple of bruisers.
Right now we just kinda bull through them eventually, but I was hoping for a more elegant solution.
P.S. we always fight these guys inside where at will deeper darkness is pretty much a guarantee.
for those who don't want to follow a link:
Shadow Demon CR 7
XP 3,200
CE Medium outsider; (chaotic, demon, evil, extraplanar, incorporeal)
Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +20
DEFENSE
AC 18, touch 18, flat-footed 14 (+4 deflection, +4 Dex)
hp 59 (7d10+21)
Fort +5, Ref +11, Will +7
Defensive Abilities incorporeal; DR 10/cold iron or good; Immune cold, electricity, poison; Resist acid 10, fire 10; SR 17
Weaknesses sunlight powerlessness
OFFENSE
Speed fly 40 ft. (perfect)
Melee 2 claws +11 touch (1d6 plus 1d6 cold), bite +11 touch (1d8 plus 1d6 cold)
Special Attacks pounce, sprint, shadow blend
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 10th)
At will—deeper darkness, fear (DC 18), greater teleport (self only) telekinesis (DC 19)
3/day—shadow conjuration (DC 18), shadow evocation (DC 19)
1/day—magic jar (DC 19), summon (level 3, 1 shadow demon 50%)
STATISTICS
Str —, Dex 18, Con 17, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 19
Base Atk +7; CMB +11; CMD 25
Feats Blind-Fight, Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes
Skills Acrobatics +14, Bluff +14, Fly +22, Knowledge (local) +12, Knowledge (planes) +12, Perception +20, Sense Motive +12, Stealth +14; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception
Languages Abyssal, Common; telepathy 100 ft.
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Sprint (Ex)
Once per minute, a shadow demon increase its fly speed to 240 feet for 1 round.
Shadow Blend (Su)
During any conditions other than bright light, a shadow demon can disappear into the shadows as a move-equivalent action, effectively becoming invisible. Artificial illumination or light spells of 2nd level or lower do not negate this ability.
Sunlight Powerlessness (Ex)
A shadow demon is utterly powerless in bright light or natural sunlight and flees from it. A shadow demon caught in such light cannot attack and can take only a single move or standard action. A shadow demon that is possessing a creature using magic jar is not harmed by sunlight, but if it is struck by a sunbeam or sunburst spell while possessing a creature, the shadow demon is driven out of its host automatically.
I want to create a magical staff for a conjurer wizard with the following two effects:
1) Continuous Unseen Servant spell (2k gold)
2) The ability to cast any 3 conjuration spells known into the staff and then cast said spell by expending an equal level slot. E.g. similar to a ring of spell storing, but only for conjuration spells, and they must be cast into the staff by the wielder. (???)
I have no idea how much the second effect would be worth, any ideas?
Ok, this will be a long post (or several posts). The basic idea is similar to several other threads, especially the Solution to the Christmas tree effect. However this solution tackles the problem in slightly different way, allowing players to use their current knowledge without having to learn a significantly new system.
Problem: Here are the initial issues I have with the magic item system currently in place.
Problem:
IMO, the magic item system in Pathfinder has a number of problems, here are some:
1) Encounters are designed for characters to have reasonably developed “big 6” magic items, namely: weapon enchants, armor enchants, a resistance bonus, stat-enhancements, a deflection bonus, and a natural armor bonus. This means that a GM that does not provide these has to significantly tailor encounters for balance.
2) Magic items are significantly higher priced than other items in the game. This means that mid and higher level characters are often carrying around a king’s ransom in magic items.
3) Magic items are not very liquid. Unless you can find a level 5 fighter, there just is not much demand for a +1 sword, and certainly not for its book value.
4) Magic items drop off sharply in utility as you get more, or the wrong type. A single +3 weapon is very valuable, but six +3 weapons are not six times as useful. Likewise, a +3 great sword is hugely useful to 2h fighter, but a nearly equally valuable +3 club is nearly useless to her. This is especially significant when taken into consideration with the above point about liquidity.
5) Depending on your campaign, the characters can end up swapping gear very often. This is both creepy and illogical. When was the last time you murdered a man to steal his pants (that just happen to fit), or plundered a series of long lost tombs to find that a series of incrementally improved versions of the same exotic weapon favored by the barbarian?
Of course these points can be fixed by creating a “magic item mart”. However, not only does this not make sense unless magic is high and adventurers are common (who else would shop there), it kills some of the fun and wonder of magic items and it also brings its own problems namely:
Magic Item Mart:
6) Not all magic items are equal, price for price. For example, a 20k Staff of Size Alteration is not nearly as useful as 10k worth of “better” magic items (e.g. boots of haste). Because of this, the optimal path is nearly always to sell the exotic, expensive items of limited utility in exchange for “big six” or other items that give significant utility. This significantly reduces variety and the ability of the GM to include most of the magic item list.
7) The “big six” are boring. Much like socks and daily use underwear, you have to have them, but most people do not particularly consider getting them to be a big treat. However, developing them is nearly always the best path. This means that you either have to sacrifice flavor for utility/survival, or deliberately play sub-optimally. Both leave a bad taste.
8) If you have a decently enchanted item, why is the adventurer not selling it and living like a king for the rest of their life? Likewise, any crafter should be able to play the market into unlimited money. There are terms for such characters and it is not “adventurer”, but one cannot argue that it is the most logical path for many characters, and certainly kills the seeking fortune motive that can be so strong for some character concepts (imagine if Haley Starshine could have vendored her +4 shortbow to pay off her father’s debt).
Solution: Create two types of wealth, “meta-wealth” and “treasure”. Meta-wealth is the inherent bonus that the character gets for being awesome. It frees the GM from having to select gear to fill the big six, and because it does not physically exist, cannot be sold for a fortune. Meta-wealth exists to allow the player to tailor their character as desired and bring their power level up to the gear level Pathfinder expects. Treasure is everything else. It has physical existence and can be bought, sold, and traded. It is the space for the GM to throw in the cool items that provide flavor instead of numerical bonuses.
Advantage:
Magic feels special, and your characters act more like heroes from popular legend where it is more about the action and deed instead of swapping out gear like a computer RPG. It also makes your gear both more and less special. More so because each piece is unique and valuable, but less in that you are less affected if you lose it. Lastly (I think) it will slightly encourage more use of consumable items.
Disadvantage::
It requires a bit more bookkeeping since you either have to track two different types of wealth if you tracked wealth before, or you have to keep track of at least two. If you did not pay attention to wealth in the past, now you have to (at least once a level).
How it works::
From 2nd level on, each character gets 60% of their nominal WBL in meta-wealth, reset every level. For example, a 10th level character nominally gets ~60k WBL, so they would have 36k meta-wealth (60% of 60k gold). The character can spend this wealth to provide inherent numerical bonuses to the characters. For example, if the character was a fighter, she might want a +3 weapon (18k), +3 armor (9k), +2 to str and con (8k), and +1 deflection (1k). These bonuses are given to any gear worn by the character. For example the above fighter is using her trusty great sword and it gets sundered, she can grab her backup weapon and treat it as a +3 weapon. No longer will she be out the GDP of a small kingdom to get it repaired. When she levels to 11, her meta-wealth resets and she now has 49.2k meta-wealth (.6*82k for 11th level character) that she can reallocate anyway she wants.
The implications of this are staggering. Because these are inherent bonuses, the GM no longer has to worry about carefully controlling the flow of wealth. Attacking the party with a bunch of NPCs is no longer a joke or loot piñata (look, another bag of +2 weapons). No longer will the band of ogres have to happen to have a suit of +3 plate mail lying around. The characters will get their initial gear and keep it, carefully trading out items over a long haul, instead of swapping out loot like some MMO twink. It simultaneously makes equipment more and less valuable. More valuable because you will tend to keep the stuff you have, but less valuable because it is a lot easier to replace, though depending on the circumstances, not necessarily easy.
In addition, money because valuable again. Because you don’t have magic items blowing up the economy, the PCs are returned to realm of the mundane. An inherent +3 bonus is nice, but you cannot eat it, so suddenly that 200gp bounty is looking a lot nicer.
These bonuses are to allow the numerical bonuses that Pathfinder assumes most characters have. In our game, they can also be used to provide non-numerical magic items and consumables with GM approval. For example, consider a level 10 thief with craft alchemy. He chooses to spend his 36k as follows: 2x +2 weapons (16k), +2 armor (4k), +1 natural armor and deflection (2k), +2 dex (4k), +1 int (1k) and +4 to perception and stealth (3.2k). However, he also wants an inherent Pathfinder Pouch (1k) and 4.8k worth of poisons to put in it. The GM rules that because he is thiefy enough, and has craft, alchemy that it is ok. Now he has plenty of poison to play with, and because his meta-wealth resets with every level, there is less tendency to hoard consumables, since he will get them back when he levels up. There will be more on this in the crafting section.
What about the magic swords and fancy bling that everyone loves? Well, it is still there, but now it is classified as treasure. It fact, it is more valuable than ever.
This is important.:
Bonuses from treasure STACK with inherent bonuses. This is the reason the characters only have 60% of WBL. When a 5th level character (with a +1 inherent weapon bonus) picks up a flaming sword, it is treated as a +1 flaming sword. When that same character is level 16 (with a +5 inherent bonus) that same sword is treated as a +5 flaming sword. A non-magical masterwork weapon is now a big deal, not only because it must be bought with treasure (now in much shorter supply), but also because it provides its +1 to hit throughout the life of a character.
As a general rule, treasures are the money a character needs to live, and provide the interesting non-numerical and overtly magical effect. E.g. the aforementioned flaming effect is probably a good treasure on a sword, but making it a generic +1 should probably not occur unless you want the character to have a really good item.
This also means that GMs can feel free to break gear without worrying that they are crippling a character. When the aforementioned level 11 barbarian gets her +3 (meta-wealthed) keen, flaming great sword sundered (the ultimate treasure from a previous campaign), she is certainly upset, but she can still pick up a dropped sword from a fallen foe and use it as a +3 weapon (from meta-wealth) and function much closer to expected value.
This also allows the GM to toss in random cool things into mundane gear and know that they will actually be used. For example, in normal pathfinder the GM gives the fighter masterwork full-plate that is so well crafted that it provides DR 2/- as a reward for saving the kingdom. While awesome, without a magic item mart and concurrent easy transference of gold into magic items and back, this fantastic piece of storytelling gear, will get pawned off at the next village as soon as the next upgrade arrives.
Spells:
Note some spells provide bonuses, e.g. magic vestment or weapon. Because these spells provide an inherent enchantment bonus they overlap with, and do not stack with inherent meta-wealth bonuses. I am not sure what to do with spells that have expensive material components.
Crafting skills::
In addition to their normal function, these skills can allow a character to treat items that would normally be classified as treasure (and thus tightly controlled by the GM) as meta-wealth. For example a bowyer might want to make his composite longbow adaptive and treat the variety of specialty arrows as meta-wealth. Or an alchemist can treat her non-magical chemicals and poisons as meta-wealth. Because meta-wealth is reset at each level, this encourages the creation and use of consumable items.
Magical item creation feats::
Magic items creation feats have always been a way to sell feats for gold, and this system makes it explicit. Each level a character gets 10% +10% per crafting feat of listed WBL added to their meta-wealth. In addition, they can use their skills to make the more fantastical magical items beyond simple numerical bonuses without prior GM review. These items are assumed to be finicky, carefully tailored items, which only work for the creator or those they know well (e.g. party members). These types of crafted items come out of the meta-wealth of the creator or the person they crafted the item for. At the party discretion, they can ‘pool’ meta-wealth for common items (e.g. wand of cure light wounds or a bag of holding).
Item crafters can also make permanent magical items, but these items cost treasure, in the form of gold and/or rare components, and are permitted solely at the discretion of the GM. Once a crafted item becomes treasure, it is no longer calculated in a character’s meta-wealth total.
Note: It is also assumed that players can get many/most consumable items outside of crafting and creation. In this case they are treated as treasure and are governed by treasure rules instead of meta-wealth.
This slightly tarnished silver ring is shaped of two elongated rabbits facing nose-to-tail. Once per turn, the wearer can perform an additional swift action. The ring can be used a maximum of 10 times per day.
Does ability damage from a weapon take effect if damage reduction completely negates the physical damage?
Example 1: An attack does 1d6 damage plus 1d3 strength damage. The attack hits a celestial creature with DR 10/evil (the attack is not evil). The physical damage is nothing, does it still do strength damage?
Example 2: Same attacker, but now the DR is from Defending Bone. This spell gives you DR/5 in the form of a bone that deflects incoming attacks. If the spell effect, external to the body, completely stops an attack, does the attack still do strength damage?
