Ehh, it seems too situational to have all the time, but with Evolution Surge you can still use it selectively as long as you don't mind using the spell slots.
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To my knowledge, the only two requirements for flanking are: - You are using a melee attack (which the knife is doing)
While flanking usually goes both ways, I do not believe it is actually a requirement for the attacker itself to threaten an enemy. You could still get a flanking bonus from an ally without providing one yourself if you are capable of making a melee attack but do not threaten, which seems to be the case with the knife. I do not think this is an exception so much as a scenario that doesn't often come into play.
He's right, guys. What kind of elitist uses things like "numerical data" to refute a claim? This internet slap-fight is based on conjecture and anecdotal evidence alone, okay? But seriously, this is a debate, it's bad form to react to being proven wrong by taking potshots at strawmen and making ad-homimen remarks. (also I totally consider vanilla or Master Summoner to be superior to Synth though maybe that's just me.)
I just want an Eidolon that can take Combat Expertise at level 1 (as opposed to having to wait until level 11 by the current rules), but apparently that's too much to ask for because 3 more skill points means it will suddenly replace the group Rogue somehow (which speaks more of how easily-replaceable the Rogue is than how OP the Summoner is if you ask me).
Eh, with dervish and agile weapon available, I don't see much reason to go Str over Dex. Just the 13 in str for power attack, and you get to use Dex for to-hit and damage. That way you get better reflex saves (your bad one), AC, and initiative. I'm sure it works well, but with Strength you save two feats and can use your weapon two-handed for extra damage when not actively using your hand to cast. Also the Katana is statistically better than the Scimitar if only slightly. Of course the DEX advantages are certainly there, but I can see plenty of reason why one would personally choose STR over DEX, even if their AC suffers for it.
My main issue with the low INT is that it pretty much precludes any chance of an Eidolon taking Combat Expertise (a feat that many other useful feats hide behind as a prereq) until at least level 11 (that's if you put as many resources as possible into raising its INT score).
The PRD's Magic section says this in regards to Polymorph spells: If your new form does not cause your equipment to meld into your form, the equipment resizes to match your new size. Since that's under the Magic section, I'm not sure how it applies to lycanthropy. I'd personally rule it the same unless proven wrong in any case.
1) With the way Crafting works, how well you roll doesn't just determine whether you make the item but also how long it takes you to make it. If you only get the bare minimum to succeed on an item, the higher-end stuff will take you ages. Also note you can raise the DC on an item by 10 to finish it faster. 2) If you want something more challenging, you could look into poisons, which are listed under the glossary of the core rulebook for some reason. I wouldn't go down that path without the Master Alchemist feat from the APG (or a bit of houseruling) though, as it would be very time consuming to make even a single dose.
Proficiency is clearly listed there as being the ONLY exception. Since the Magus' ability to cast in armor is not related to proficiency, it therefore does not fall under the exception. If they had intended to not have it apply to classes that could cast in armor, they would have clarified it long ago in regards to the Bard or Summoner. As has already been brought up, there's plenty of cost involved in this (you need the appropriate proficiency feat and a ton of money), so it's not like it unbalances the game, especially since the Magus gets the ability to cast in full plate for far cheaper later on.
I'd allow it. Mithral Full Plate is pretty expensive though. It's what, 10500 gold for a suit, even without enhancements?
Anthropomorphic Animal and Awaken actually don't stack, or rather the two are mutually exclusive to begin with. Cast Awaken first, the animal's type becomes Magical Beast and Anthropomorphic Animal no longer affects it. Cast Anthropomorphic Animal first, its INT becomes 3 and Awaken won't work on it. There's also the issue mentioned before where an Awakened animal can no longer serve as an AC.
I've done a search on this (Ultimate Combat) feat and I haven't seen much discussion about it, so I'm going to post a couple feat descriptions. First off, its parent feat, Adder Strike. Adder Strike (Combat) You can quickly apply poison to gloved hands, protected feet, or other protected body parts, delivering the poison with your unarmed strikes. Prerequisites: Poison use class feature, Craft (alchemy) 1 rank, Improved Unarmed Strike. Benefit: As a swift action, you can apply one dose of contact or injury poison to two body parts that you use for unarmed strikes. You must still protect yourself against exposure to contact poisons you apply in this way. Normal: Applying poison to a weapon or single piece of ammunition is a standard action. Not so interesting on its own, I guess, but the next feat references it so I figured you should know what it does. Now here's the Pinpoint Poisoner feat: Pinpoint Poisoner (Combat) You deftly use specially prepared needles to apply poison for maximum effect. Prerequisites: Poison use class feature, Craft (alchemy) 6 ranks, Adder Strike, Improved Unarmed Strike, Two-Weapon Fighting or flurry of blows class feature. Benefit: When you use Adder Strike, you can instead poison up to two blowgun darts that you can then use to strike your opponent in melee. (Drawing such darts is a free action.) While holding these darts, you can spend a standard action to attack with one or a full-attack action to attack with both. Such attacks are considered melee touch attacks that deal 1d2 damage plus any bonuses you gain on your normal unarmed strike damage, and they deliver the poison. You can instead throw such darts as if they were shuriken, making your ranged attack rolls against the target's AC. Normal: Applying poison to a weapon or single piece of ammunition is a standard action. Now if my reading of this feat is correct, the "plus any bonuses to damage" part means, say, a Vivisectionist with a one-level dip in Monk could take these two feats rather easily and make two Sneak Attacks vs. touch AC provided the conditions for a Sneak Attack are met. It offers an interesting way to play the class (even if the actual effectiveness is brought into question), and I'm not sure if this is intentionally allowed or an oversight on the part of the developers, but the likelihood of them getting rid of this compatibility for no real reason isn't what I'm asking. I'm wondering if the feat does (or should) let you attack with the darts as a touch attack even without the poison. Of course, having the poison will certainly make it more effective, but you aren't always guaranteed to have poison on you, especially since making your own takes a while even as an Alchemist. It seems like you just need to be wielding the darts, but it's hard to tell if the intent is that they have to have the poison applied to them, due to its link to the feat about poisoning stuff. I'm not necessarily expecting a solid yes-or-no, but even a discussion on how this would work would be appreciated as food for thought should I decide to try this idea out. Bonus question: Ammunition is still destroyed if you use it as a melee weapon, right?
Well, since I've already made this perfectly good thread about the Toxic ability, I'm going to throw some more questions in there: does ammunition count as a weapon you're wielding? I think in most cases when you can add an effect to ammunition, it's explicitly mentioned as doing such, but it'd be kinda strange if it only worked on melee weapons. Also should the toxin be able to be stored for short periods of time (maybe like 8-24 hours) for the handful of classes/archetypes who can mix and modify poisons? I don't think it would seriously unbalance the ability (as you would still have daily limits to worry about, and there likely wouldn't be much of a market for such a short-lived poison), and it would give a nice nod to classes that actively use poison.
The Giant subtype is only required for Humanoids taking the trait; Monstrous Humanoids aren't affected by that limitation.
I don't think the power level of the race you're making actively prohibits you from a low-RP race. The Lizardfolk under Sample Races has several Advanced-tier abilities yet still comes out at 10 RP. I think in terms of 10-RP races the Standard/Advanced/Monstrous ability designation serves as more of a guideline than a hard rule, and only really matters if your campaign explicitly only allows for standard/advanced-type races.
Regarding Flexible Modifiers, looking at the sample races I don't think it actually offers floating stat bonuses like Human Heritage. I think the way it works is you get +2 to two stats (they can be both physical, both mental, one from each, etc.) with no penalty, but it's set in stone for that particular race as opposed to being the player's choice. For example, every Lizardfolk would get +2 STR and +2 CON. I think it makes more sense that way, though the initial description isn't all the clear.
I was looking at the Toxic ability, and it mentions using toxic saliva to coat your weapon in poison. Now I'm wondering, if a race has the ability to produce toxins in its mouth and the ability to bite people, would/should it be able to poison people with its bite, even if it's a limited number of times per day as mentioned in the description? I'm not sure if you can apply poison to natural attacks, but it's be kinda weird if the two abilities didn't mix in some way.
I always wanted to stat out a bow-using Eidolon just because of how much STR they can get. By the time you get the Huge evolution you can turn it into a walking ballista. Granted you might need to divert some Evolutions to DEX to compensate for the massive hit to attack rolls but still.
Well, can a Synthesist do that? Come to think of it, they probably could, but that would add a bunch of new variables to the equation (multiclassing, Greater Eldritch Heritage without sacrificing a bunch of evolutions for CHA, etc.) that I don't particularly feel like working out right now. Maybe someone else can give it a shot.
Eidolon with 19 pairs of legs (requires Half-Elf Summoner with the alternate favored class bonus, taking the Extra Evolution feat multiple times, and a Quadruped base form), Fleet x8, and Boots of Striding/Springing should get you in the neighborhood of 260 ft. per round. Don't know if you count Eidolons as characters though. If not, the Summoner can ride the Eidolon if you sacrifice 2 pairs of legs (reducing it to 240) to make it Large. I think that leaves the Summoner with 1 EP to add Mount if we're talking a 20th-level Half-Elf.
Except Fighters DO get +4 to hit/damage (from Weapon Training). And full BAB. And Greater Weapon Focus, as well as the Weapon Specialization line. Your hit chance may be above that of a Rogue's thanks to Mutagens, but I have to agree that 3 full-BAB attacks for zero feats (or even one feat if you spring for Extra Discovery) probably beats dropping lots of feats (and pumping lots of points into DEX) for a bunch of (significantly) less-accurate attacks.
Assassins have an ability called Death Attack, but I assume the term also refers to things like the Rogue's Master Strike and the Monk's Quivering Palm. But really it's such a vaguely-defined term that it's hard to say for sure. Maybe they wanted to keep the definition loose so GMs can add their own or determine what constitutes a death attack on a case-by-case basis?
Yeah, the Synthesist as written seems to leave too much up to interpretation, and given the Summoner wasn't exactly the most straightforward class to start with, this means you need way too much DM fiat/outright houseruling to make it a feasible class to play. Even a blog post going in-depth on its mechanics would be a great help.
Can you provide a link? I haven't heard that interpretation from any of the devs before, and a brief search doesn't seem to turn up anything. Maybe I'm just bad at searching. At any rate it would be appreciated.
"Note: When you multiply damage more than once, each multiplier works off the original, unmultiplied damage. So if you are asked to double the damage twice, the end result is three times the normal damage." I don't have a page number since I'm getting this off the PRD, but it's under Combat -> Combat Statistics -> Damage -> Multiplying Damage.
1) Yes. It would be kind of silly for Paizo to give the Eidolon class skills if it didn't get class bonuses for those skills. 2) No. Those free evolutions are part of its base form, and the base form is permanent upon selection (unless you use the Evolutionist archetype but even then, it wouldn't work they way you're thinking). It's worth noting you can replace certain free evolutions when explicitly noted (like the Biped's claws with slam), but this costs points to do.
Well if strength is the only difference, then 2 points isn't that much of a difference. However you do start with claws, so that could be an issue. It's not the only difference. Large and Huge Bipedal Eidolons have a longer reach than Quads or Serpents. I'd say that can be a fairly big deal. Not sure if it completely justifies all the advantages that Quads get, but it's there.
I think it's not so much that they're missing that as they are not so sure it works that way. For one, even though the spell says you heal your Eidolon, you cannot specifically target the Eidolon. Since the Eidolon and Synthesist are essentially the same creature, I'd wager that using the spell heals the Synthesist since one of the main points of temporary hit points is that they cannot be healed. You can get more through various spells, but you can never "heal" it in the way that a cure spell does. Unless they errata the temp HP to be recoverable through certain spells, my bet is that you can't.
Step 1: Stab yourself until you reach 0 temp HP
It probably won't give you all your temp HP back if only because of the difference between your d10 Eidolon and your d8 Synthesist, and getting your own HP too low makes sleep/banishment a potential death sentence if the CON disparity between Synthesist and Eidolon is large enough and you can't get healed fast enough, but hey, it works. Kinda.
He said extract, not potion. With the Infusion discovery, you can give any extract to anyone you want (and sometimes people you don't want).
Can a summoner change the base form of their eidiloin when they level up and use the evolution points? In Ultimate Magic, there is an Evolutionist archetype that can do this after a certain level. As for the basic Summoner, no, your choice of Base Form is permanent.
I always counted evolutions as racial abilities, i.e. they are lost/supressed when the Eidolon is under the effects of a Polymorph spell, but any bonus that doesn't come from an evolution is left intact. Dunno if that helps, but I figured I'd give my two cents
Leaving it up to the GM couldn't make me happier. The game needs more of that philosophy. Fair enough. I always joked with my friends that the Summoner's effectiveness was proportional to how much your GM liked you. Having an idea of a class's intent is always nice though. As for getting back temporary HP, I guess one could always just stab himself until he could trigger Fused Link, then heal himself back to full. I'm sure there'd be plenty of things out there willing to help with the stabbing anyway.
Nothing about the synthesist says "you take the shape of your eidolon" either. Essentailly, if you fuse an eidolon into your body, YOU become the base form. Since your eidolon doesn't really have a body of its own, the choice of base form doesn't impact that non-existant body—it serves only as a starting place for you to hang your evolution points. This KIND of makes sense, but at the same time kind of doesn't. I think the "taking the shape of your Eidolon" interpretation came from the fact that you gain its physical ability scores, speak through its voice, etc., I can kind of see where your answer is coming from, but it only seems to make things more complicated instead of less. Obviously the Eidolon's base form matters when it comes to physical ability scores, but do you benefit from the free evolutions or only what you spend points on? Do you use your own form or the Eidolon's to determine which evolutions you access and how you benefit from them? Another thing I want to know is how does the Synthesist go about healing his Eidolon? Since the only HP it has is the temporary HP it gives you (and I don't believe temp HP can be healed), and the Eidolon never heals on its own, is there any way to restore its HP aside from "killing" it and summoning it back at half HP the next day? Sorry if this is too many questions for you, but trying to wrap my head around the Synthesist has been rather difficult even though I like the concept.
Umm...what? Tumbling doesn't let you dodge any AoO thrown at you; it lets you not provoke the AoO to begin with. Smart or not, the enemy doesn't choose whether or not to attack because the attack never has a chance to happen.
Unfortunately, no, since you can't Awaken an animal with more than 2 INT. So there's really no way to stack them, sadly.
Race != type. That's like saying an Elf reincarnated into a Halfling is no longer Humanoid. Here's a more relevant quote: "For a humanoid creature, the new incarnation is determined using the table below. For nonhumanoid creatures, a similar table of creatures of the same type should be created." It seems the intent is largely that an Animal should be reincarnated as an Animal, though the specifics seem to be left to the GM.
Having Heal as a Patron spell wouldn't be much more than a convenience since it's already on their base spell list for them to take as soon as they hit 13. Personally I kinda like the idea of an arcane healer with access to a familiar and various other powers.
If you're going to delve into item creation rules, you could do what I did and negotiate a restriction-based cost modifier with your GM. That 24000gp (how did you get 72k? That math doesn't add up right even if you did multiply it by 4) can go down a considerable amount if, say, you only want it to work on Eidolons.
Will have Mathias Orsza's profile up today. I know it might be overkill, but I kind of like the idea of two little person cavaliers. I think a nice dynamic could be worked out between them, especially if they have the same team work feats. I will be more than willing to work Mathias into another order if the story between them would be better as an odd couple sort of thing or they could both be the first into battle trying to show each other up. Thoughts? I think it's like you said; an interesting idea, but probably overkill to have that many Cavaliers in the party. Of course, that's up to Zeb. Also, I looked at Grukk's profile and he doesn't seem to specify his performance type. The avatar and parentheses after Summon Instrument seem to suggest Wind Instruments, but it couldn't hurt to jot it down for the record. Speaking of, Grukk's assortment of weapons reminds me that I should probably look into additional weapons for Bolkin. The Flail is handy given how many Free Hand Fighter abilities rely on Disarm, but having a wide range of utility weapons would be nice, especially since FHFs don't seem to focus on a specific weapon class quite as much as most Fighters (though they are limited to one-handers).
After much consideration, I have decided on the character that I wish to apply with. Whimsical Bolkin the Pragmatic Scrapper (Fighter):
Background:
Bolkin Reid, known as Whimsical Bolkin by the people close to him, has always been fairly troublesome growing up in Kessan. His namesake disposition prevented him from sitting still for very long, and he'd often be found around town causing mischief on a regular basis. Lacking finesse, he always preferred more physical activities such as roughhousing with the other children as well as the village animals, although he wasn't above the occasional carousing once he got older. It didn't take long for his physical prowess and desire for adventure to lead him down the path of the Fighter. Much to the chagrin of his superiors, however, harsh training regiments did little to dampen his wild spirit. Indeed, many a complaint came from his training buddies about his tendency toward dirty tricks over honorable combat, and he was quick to get into fights even outside of practice. The resulting punishments only served to make him even tougher, and to this day he fancies himself a competent fighter. He looks forward to the rapidly-approaching day when he will finally be able to experience the thrill of adventure firsthand. Appearance:
I'll do stats later, but to give an idea, Bolkin is a Human Fighter who focuses on combat maneuvers over straight beatings, although being a Fighter, there may also be a few of those as well. Best of luck with this adventure.
And Ogre knows his stuff, just another example of how easy it is to give a new class treats that they're not entitled to.Enlarge Person is for humanoids: does a biped eidolon count as a humanoid? Wrong. Share Spells (Ex): The summoner may cast a spell with a target of “you” on his eidolon (as a spell with a range of touch) instead of on himself. A summoner may cast spells on his eidolon even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the eidolon’s type (outsider). Spells cast in this way must come from the summoner spell list. This ability does not allow the eidolon to share abilities that are not spells, even if they function like spells. This would apply to any "humanoid-only" spell such as Enlarge Person. Edit: I wish this board told you if someone posted while you were writing a message.
an eidolon has only so many evolution points, and due to 1/24 hours self ressurecting aspect of them and the lack of proper evolution swapping methods. a summoner who makes suboptimal choices with thier eidolon is stuck with them for life. I'm not 100% sure what this post means, but the only choice regarding the Eidolon you're stuck with for life is their base form. Any Evolution Points you spend can be reassigned every time the Summoner levels up, so you can have a radically different Eidolon from level to level if you want. Also, if waiting to level up isn't an option, Summoners can learn a spell at 4th-level called Transmogrify that does the same thing if you're willing to spend an hour casting it. I apologize if you already knew this, but your post makes it sound like there's a way to permanently gimp your Eidolon, which isn't necessarily true.
From the description of the Polymorph subschool in the Magic section of the core rules: "You can only be affected by one polymorph spell at a time. If a new polymorph spell is cast on you (or you activate a polymorph effect, such as wild shape), you can decide whether or not to allow it to affect you, taking the place of the old spell. In addition, other spells that change your size have no effect on you while you are under the effects of a polymorph spell." However, one could argue that Wildshape is a Supernatural ability and not a Spell. Regardless, I assume they intended for it to apply to similar effects.
I think the problem is that people are assuming the arrow is just pricking you as opposed of slamming into your body at a good few dozen miles per hour. In general, anyone who gets shot, unless they're a giant or something that weighs literal tons, is going to feel a violent jerk when they get hit in any part of their body by a speeding projectile due to a magical property of physics called inertia. There is definitely going to be a lot more tactile feedback to go on than "I feel a sharp pain in the back of my arm," and odds are it's not going to take a lot of mental gymnastics to remember which direction said arm was just violently pushed in and therefore able to determine that the arrow came from the opposite direction. Do the rules say this? No. Can the GM rule this however he wants? Yes. Should said GM ignore one of the most basic principles of physics in favor of "BUT THE RULES DIDN'T SPECIFICALLY SAY etc. etc."? I guess that's up to you, but I personally fail to see how the alternative makes any more sense.
Looking through the APG, I've noticed that levels in Alchemist stack with Master Chymist to determine what Advanced Mutagens the Chymist is eligible for, but the levels in Chymist don't seem to stack for the purposes of the Alchemist's Discoveries. Since by level 20 this would leave you with an effective level of 20 for Advanced Mutagens, but only 10 for the equivalent Discoveries. This means you can only take Greater/Grand Mutagen as Advanced Mutagens and not as Discoveries. Does this mean one should wait until level 10 to start taking levels in Master Chymist in order to maximize the benefit of learning Advanced Mutagens?
I believe reach is assumed to be just as much an intrinsic part of size as space is. By the logic in this thread, there's nothing specifically stated in the evolution that says Large/Huge Eidolons take up more than 5 ft of space either. Space and reach are both mentioned in the same part of the combat section. By default, one should assume the rule, not the exception. |