Yosharian's page

I don't get why you made the Drake Warden's requirements steeper. That's a real turn-off, especially because there are some good archetypes that replace Favored Terrain (Infiltrator specifically) but you can't use that archetype with Drake Warden under your rules.

As another example, some players might choose to replace spellcasting with Skirmisher (Ranger is pretty MAD), but you've changed one of the Drake Warden's bonuses to a spellcasting one.

Other than these points, I think your work here is fantastic. So, I'm using the original Drake Warden requirements, but your Drake Companion improvements. I don't think this is OP at all considering what a full progression casters can do.

Thanks for the clarifications, guys, really appreciate it

I see. So the consensus is, the penalty is designed to simulate avoiding hitting your ally, not necessarily shooting into melee.

Calls into question why the entire rule is called 'Shooting Into Melee' when it's actually about nothing of the sort.

Really confusing.

Hi, I have a question about this mechanic:

"Shooting or Throwing into a Melee

If you shoot or throw a ranged weapon at a target engaged in melee with a friendly character, you take a –4 penalty on your attack roll. Two characters are engaged in melee if they are enemies of each other and either threatens the other. (An unconscious or otherwise immobilized character is not considered engaged unless he is actually being attacked.)

Precise Shot: If you have the Precise Shot feat, you don’t take this penalty."

Note the wording: "FRIENDLY character".

This implies that if a player were to shoot at two enemies engaged in melee combat, there would be no penalty.

However, Precise Shot makes no distinction between two enemies engaged in melee combat, and a friendly + enemy engaged in melee combat - it simply states "an opponent engaged in melee".

"Precise Shot

You are adept at firing ranged attacks into melee.

Prerequisite: Point-Blank Shot.

Benefit: You can shoot or throw ranged weapons at an opponent engaged in melee without taking the standard –4 penalty on your attack roll.

Note: Two characters are engaged in melee if they are enemies of each other and either threatens the other."

So my question is:

1) Is the Shooting Into Melee rule designed to simulate only the danger of hitting a friendly target, in which case it does not apply to enemy targets engaged in melee with other enemies, or:

2) Is it also designed to simulate the difficulty of hitting an enemy that is engaged in melee combat and thus is parrying, dodging back and forth, maneuvering in an unpredictable manner, etc, in which case it does apply to enemy targets engaged in melee with other enemies?

The reason I'm asking this is partially in case this scenario ever occurs, and also because a player is asking me if he can forsake the -4 penalty and simply risk hitting the relevant friendly target instead.

Yosharian wrote:

I'd be really grateful if someone could illuminate me on how this works.

Hypothetical:

- Shield Master ("Add your shield’s enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls made with the shield as if it were a weapon enhancement bonus.")

- +3 Heavy Spiked Shield of Bashing ("An enhancement bonus on a shield does not improve the effectiveness of a shield bash made with it, but the shield can be made into a magic weapon in its own right.")

- Add a +1 Flaming enchantment to the shield as a 'weapon' enchantment. The shield now has +3 enhancement on the 'armor' part of the shield, and +1 Flaming on the 'weapon' part of the shield.

- I now perform a Shield Bash, using Shield Master.

- The shield's base damage is 1d8, because Bashing increases the die by two steps, and Spiked increases it by one step, and the largest increase takes effect... is that right? Or do I get 2d6 base damage?

- Shield Master allows me to use the +3 enhancement to hit and to damage. (Add your shield’s enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls made with the shield as if it were a weapon enhancement bonus.)

- My shield also has the Flaming enchantment, so I get +3 to hit/damage, and +1d6 fire damage.

Please point out any errors in my reasoning!

PS: I would REALLY like to know how to calculate the cost of this item. For example, how much does it cost to add the spikes?

first im assuming the +1 flaming for weapon on shield mean +1 and flaming (+1 so that you can add flaming since it has to be at least +1 beofre adding flaming).

the shield would get the +3 since shiled master make the shield ac enhacnment count for it's attack and damage enhacnment. the damage will only be up to 1d8 since the bashing and spiked do not stack (see here for example. but it is also refered to at the faq about increasing damage which state that actul size increase and 'as if'-size...

Thanks!

I'd be really grateful if someone could illuminate me on how this works.

Hypothetical:

- Shield Master ("Add your shield’s enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls made with the shield as if it were a weapon enhancement bonus.")

- +3 Heavy Spiked Shield of Bashing ("An enhancement bonus on a shield does not improve the effectiveness of a shield bash made with it, but the shield can be made into a magic weapon in its own right.")

- Add a +1 Flaming enchantment to the shield as a 'weapon' enchantment. The shield now has +3 enhancement on the 'armor' part of the shield, and +1 Flaming on the 'weapon' part of the shield.

- I now perform a Shield Bash, using Shield Master.

- The shield's base damage is 1d8, because Bashing increases the die by two steps, and Spiked increases it by one step, and the largest increase takes effect... is that right? Or do I get 2d6 base damage?

- Shield Master allows me to use the +3 enhancement to hit and to damage. (Add your shield’s enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls made with the shield as if it were a weapon enhancement bonus.)

- My shield also has the Flaming enchantment, so I get +3 to hit/damage, and +1d6 fire damage.

Please point out any errors in my reasoning!

PS: I would REALLY like to know how to calculate the cost of this item. For example, how much does it cost to add the spikes?

Thanks for the response, Dajur.

The action economy on the first example is a bit suspect, but it sounds like it was pretty fun, so whatever.

In the second example (maybe first as well), your guy did WAY too much damage. For example, a keg of black powder is equivalent to 100 doses of black powder and only does 5d6 points of damage to everyone within 20 feet of the explosion with a DC 15 reflex save for half. In order to do damage in the triple digits, you would have to have 6 kegs of black powder to do an average of 105 points of damage. Also, it is very stupid carrying around kegs of black powder as well, because of this line in the description:

Quote:

Exposure to fire, electricity, or a misfire explosion causes black powder to explode—a single keg that explodes in this manner deals 5d6 points of fire damage to anyone within a 20-foot burst (DC 15 Reflex half ). Storing black powder in a powder horn protects the powder from explosion.

Basically, any misfires or exposure to fire or electricity makes them explode. Also, the powder horn protects against misfires, fire and electricity, so it wouldn't explode. Carrying kegs of black powder is extremely dumb for low level gunslingers who may not be able to protect against misfires. Plus, a good tactic for any enemy would be to target the PC with the powder kegs on his person with fire or electricity to make them explode and injure him and his team.

But, sounds like you guys had fun. So unless the other players were annoyed that the gunslinger basically one shotted the BBEG, it sounds like you played it well. If they were annoyed, I doubt the gunslinger will be coming back.

> The action economy on the first example is a bit suspect, but it sounds like it was pretty fun, so whatever.

Yes, when it happened it did cross my mind that it would probably take a couple of actions to a) dunk the ammo belt into the worm's mouth, then b) ignite the belt. But, I decided to allow it, because, as you say, it was cool, and the enemy was not an important one.

However, in retrospect, I think I would play it differently, as doing it this way sets a precedent, like: 'you can do this again in the future, just as easily'.

> For example, a keg of black powder is equivalent to 100 doses of black powder and only does 5d6 points of damage to everyone within 20 feet of the explosion with a DC 15 reflex save for half

I believe the calculations were done using one dragon's breath cartridge shot causing 2d6 damage, and multiplying the damage based on the number of cartridges. I take it this was an incorrect way of calculating the damage? Do you have an official source for the damage calculation for a keg of black powder?

> Storing black powder in a powder horn protects the powder from explosion.

I see. So that means the powder horns should not have exploded, is that correct? I think they were taken into account when calculating the damage.

> Plus, a good tactic for any enemy would be to target the PC with the powder kegs on his person with fire or electricity to make them explode and injure him and his team.

This actually happened (enemy alchemist landed a bomb), but in retrospect I was perhaps too lenient with the way I handled it. Never mind.

Ok so let's get this straight:

1) The powder horns would not explode in any case as they are protected from explosions, but can the Gunslinger ignite them manually using Burning Hands or a similar spell? Otherwise, he would have to manually open each one, which would take up a full action for each horn, I suppose.

2) The actual cartridges: can these be ignited with Burning Hands or a similar spell 'en masse', causing a chain reaction?

3) When calculating the damage of such a chain reaction, the damage should not be calculated by looking at the damage per cartridge then multiplying, but rather using a keg of black powder as a base for calculations?

Thanks again.

Hi, so I had a player in my game do this a couple of times, and I was just wondering how you guys feel about it, whether you think it's balanced, how to deal with it as the GM when it happens, etc.

So basically the Gunslinger character is carrying many cartridges, some of them are dragon's breath cartridges too.

The first time this happened was against a Tunnel Worm, the player was caught near the mouth of the worm and was in a bad position, so he decided to shove his bag of cartridges into the worm's mouth and ignite them. I decided this was a pretty cool move so I told the player that it was an automatic critical, which killed the worm outright.

So that was fine, because the worm was only intended to be a temporary threat anyway, I intended it to go away once it had taken a bit of damage from the party. They were too low level to take it on properly.

Anyway so later on the party is up against the BBEG and the same player decides to have his character commit suicide, by blowing up all his cartridges and powder horns, that are strapped to his body, while standing right next to the BBEG.

He manages it (eventually) and the damage ends up well into triple digits, killing the slightly-wounded BBEG (and blowing up a party member in the process, but let's not go there). The BBEG actually made his saving throw but due to the high damage involved, it still killed him.

Obviously, this kind of damage output would be well outside the realms of a low level character (below level 10). What do you think of this?