aceDiamond's page

I'm not 100% sure why dexterity Is necessary on slayer as much as it is on rogue. Rogues get Evasion and Trapfinding. Dexterity boosts these features, making them more reliable for the rogue's job, which is why Dex-to-damage is a good way to consolidate a rogue's stats.

Slayers can pick these up as talents, but looking at the slayer's class features, there's nothing inherently dependent upon Dexterity. That's why a Strength-based slayer is viable, you don't need to split your attribute resources between Strength and Dexterity to do your job because your job is to greviously wound, not look for traps. You're already tankier than your rogue predecessor, so you don't necessarily need evasion as badly. Slayers are hatchet-men while rogues are surgeons. Finesse Training helps cement that idea.

Though, that all being said, it is weird that Finesse Training only gets you so few weapon options over the length of your career. Choose wisely, I guess.

You know this is a bum deal. You know this is sketchy. But you also low the Doc said this guy was secretive. You affix your bag and get into the limo. Hopefully, your faith pays off.

I'd think we'd need a level of maturity we don't quite possess for allowing centaurs to openly ride centaurs.

Or you pick up Unexpected Strike and rage cycling.

You might also want to check out this item. Very nice with the Swift Aid feat.

Easier still is play a Dhampir, who react to energy as if they were undead.

That second one could be tied into running the Serpent's Skull AP, making the Harbingers into rivals who want to see Yserdius risen. (After all, if Aroden returns, surely he can whup Yserdius again.)

I'm not sure if Paizo's going to ever bring back Aroden. But I'd think a far more likely candidate of someone who'd return to whup Yserdius would be Old-Mage Jatembe.

If bring up Howl's Moving Castle, but the Witch's Hut is woefully underpowered by comparison. Even Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut wasn't that beastly.

I think we must have been 15th level or so. Our GM had pit us against a depowered Norgorber who had been cut off from his followers. I think he was supposed to be the equivalent of like a CR 20 encounter. In the first turn he disappears entirely.

I was a Stormborn sorcerer. I casted Glitterdust. The GM's face upon realizing the stealth penalty couldn't be saved against was priceless.

I do have one thing I think at least throws a wrench in the projected strategy. By rules, Cthulhu is a Great Old One. As far as we've seen, Great Old Ones have cults. Ergo, it could be assumed that great and terrible Cthulhu has high level clerics who wish to do his bidding and defend him from non-believers.

At least the addition of this resource makes things possibly interesting.

Yeah, sometimes you just get an idea in your head. "I could do this... I can do this... I WILL." Who's going to stop you? You're a 9-level caster.

Ain't no party like a 9-level caster party, cus a 9-level caster party is on a permenant stopped time greater demiplane and therefore don't stop.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present the Drakainia. If you don't take real life SAN damage after reading "Invert Birth", I don't know what will phase you. Plus, the artwork in the Bestiary 4 is horrifying.

Sometimes I wonder why people think of these things.

Level 20 Commoner

You beat me to it!

You just need your vampire to do the booty bump. Instant slam attack.

However, the claws are only available with free hands, so a greatsword is out of the question here.

Since the Shaman class is still not out yet, this is probably a moot question until August. But can a Shaman gain the Extra Hex feat? Furthermore, could a Shaman use the Extra Hex feat to gain another use of Wandering Hex each day?

In the depths of the night, your party hears an odd and eerie chanting coming from your sleeping bag. Normally, in the inns, there are mumblings, but nothing that was ever this loud. The chanting, despite whether it's voluntary or if you're even aware of it, grows louder and louder until it can finally be understood to the rest of the party.

"Ground control to Major Tom
Ground control to Major Tom..."

If you ask me, there are two good staves. The Staff of the Master and the Staff of the Magi. If your GM uses Mythic, then you can also count Arazni's Staff of the Magi.

Here's a fun idea. Give your player's witch a +2 bonus to CHA. Remember, only bad witches are ugly.

My GM ruled that I shouldn't be able to craft the Crown of the Kobold King, due to the adventure this item is from sharing it's name. Right now, we'll be playing some Witchwar Legacy and about 40k to spend. I've still got to grab spell components, but does anyone recommend an item to replace the Crown?

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Sorcerers have their power handed to them. They don't need to train, they don't need to study, they don't need to spend 12 hours a day working at something.

Just like every other class, they have to practice control and getting more out of their magic. The ones that did not work to master their powers, were consumed by them as children.

They get 2 skill points for level as the balance point for a being a full 9 level arcane spellcasting class.

So how's that balance out anything? Especially with our INT casting friends. Wizards get skills, Clerics get Will, and Sorcerers get diplomancy?

On this line of CHA-casters, why does an oracle get bonus spells from a mystery every even level, but sorcerers get bloodline spells every odd level? I just don't see why you'd pick a bloodline for bonus spells ever since I realized you're effectively stunted into getting them later than even other sorcerers of your level.

Imagine this dialogue with a Stormborn sorcerer.
"Look at me now, I'm master of lightning!"
"Actually, you get that spell NEXT level. Right now, you get Fireball."
"But I want to actually use the shtick of my bloodline!"
"Should've thought of that before you were born."

This makes me think of the system they use for Bravely Default. Basically, you chose your classes on the fly outside of combat in that game, as per the job system of the old Final Fantasy games. However, it seems like what you're proposing here may be a bit less mutable.

Why do I feel like this would be a really great idea for incredibly powerful mages to start "pushing" starships around? It's an incredibly inefficient use of power, but space farers may want some ways around the void.

For example, if we bring up Simulacrum, a wizard can sell copies of themselves to serve as engines and open up a new age of exploration.

According to the boards, you might as well ask for the moon. You're either minmaxing and loopholing so hard, you break the table, or you might as well be playing a Monk with Vow of Poverty whose best stat is Charisma.

Really, all I can say is don't try to optimize or break the game and you should be able to make a decent character. Maybe you can sneak in a trick that's a bit nuts, but don't try to make something that will ruin other peoples' fun.

Also, remember synergy is the key. You don't want to show up the guy who's been taking Skill Focus and investments with a cheap gimmick. At the same time, if you've got a guy going full stealthy, toss him Invisibility for his moments to shine.

Well, I'm not terribly bothered about fixing things immediately or not. Paizo publishes errata with reprintings and that's fine by me. Their system is their own, despite how inefficient some people may think it. Seems reasonable for making sure your books are all up to date.

I'm just saying that there are some things they will not get to, as there isn't enough data on it for them. The whole catch-22 of "this probably won't get fixed because no one plays high level, high level isn't fixed so no one plays it" just frustrates me is all. So be it for this reason or for waiting for a reprint, you may need to wait a while for an errata.

Squirrel_Dude wrote:

Marthkus wrote:

Squirrel_Dude wrote:

Marthkus wrote:

OK, so what is up with Gate?

It say I can control creatures, but not how long. In 3.5 it was 1 round per CL. What is it now?

In 3.5 it was up to 20 rounds per caster level, only if it was an immediate service, such as combat. You could also offer to trade them something in order for them to accept a contract of services, with as long of a duration as they were willing to accept.

OK, but what about in pathfinder? The immediate service duration was omitted, but is still alluded too.

Sounds like a question for the Rules Questions forum.

Yep!

** spoiler omitted **

Obviously the RAI in this case is that you form a buddy cop duo with the called creature.

I got confused and combined this thread with an Epic level discussion. I made a post here that covers some advice for higher level play.

I see nothing against scrying a location to determine teleportation there. If you're investing the spells and slots, you should be able to do that sort of thing.

HOWEVER, spells like Teleport Trap, Dimensional Anchor, and Forbiddence make me second guess using it as an actual tactic. Anyone who realizes they may be the victim of a "scry & fry" should shore up defenses to this sort of thing. If not, I feel no worse for them than I do for the dominated fighter or barbarian who didn't invest enough in Will saves.

The Mythic book was alright but it does not do what epic players really want. People don't get the idea of what the actual level cap actually is. Most games don't go past level 15. You see that nice level 20 ability that you really want? Yeah your never going to get that.

And that is a huge shame. Some of those abilities would be hilariously fun and there are times you even see similar abilities on monsters well under CR 20. Seems more than a bit of a tease.

There's another thread around here that gives good tips for GMs who want to run level 12+. I'm sure that if some people were able to get a grasp of that sort of thing, more people may realize that Epic additions would be fun, too.

We've seen that the cloud options and grease bomb discoveries are very useful with this ability, why are we still arguing that it's not good? Do you just want more range? More damage? Should it have been named "Spread Bomb" instead?

Also, yes, some builds are going to be suboptimal. Many, really. That doesn't make it ineffective.

Maybe it's that I like high level play and playing casters, but I for one would love some support for higher level stuff. It's just a shame that the general view around here is that anything above level 10 is poison. If some mechanics on saves were done differently, I'm sure that wouldn't necessarily be the case, but I still have fun for what it's worth. Maybe there's a minority of players that agree with me on that.

Jadeite wrote:

Quote:

1. angry fury; violent anger.

2. a fit of violent anger.
3. fury or violence of wind, waves, fire, disease, etc.
4. violence of feeling, desire, or appetite: the rage of thirst.
5. a violent desire or passion.

Anger is only one possibility.

Well, two actually.

So violent appetite then? Aegrisomnia explicitly stated you could change the flavor. Trying to suggest Rage doesn't imply anger is asinine.

So thats's why so many barbarians in book cover art have romantic interests wrapped around their legs...

My money's on Lorem Ipsum.

Thing is though, Pathfinder (and D&D, etc) doesn't really make sense as an exclusive setting. I mean, somebody decided that half the classes in the game would have access to magic, and that magic could do literally anything. It wouldn't be odd or even unlikely that some 17th Level Wizard with some fun ideas or spells to burn could invent things like the internet. Golarion is realistically a few dozen highly specific Wishes away from 21st Century technology.

At risk of going off on a tangent, I would give my eye teeth to play an adventure around this concept.

Feats
In order to balance the overpowered use of running, we have given he Run feat new prerequisites. The new feats are now Left Leg Proficiency and Right Leg Proficiency. Any character without these feats has a speed of 5 feet per round to become more realistic. Monks get these feats free at first level. Incubi get Middle Leg Proficiency as a bonus feat.

Traps
After visiting the local prank shop, we decided to rebalance traps on basis of realism. Traps now do 50% more damage when Sean K. Reynolds steals lunches from the lounge room refrigerator.

Point buy
It turns out that most players will dump CHA unless it is used for class abilities. In order to incentivize Charisma and add to the role playing experience, we suggest the GM visually scar any player with a negative CHA modifier at their earliest convenience.

I don't mind playing a campaign that includes firearms, but I'm slowly starting to get sick of the touch AC mechanic. Feels to me that any shmuck with a gun can kill large creatures no sweat. I'd at least recommend one of two things for Pathfinder guns.

1) Cheapen the Amulet of Bullet Deflection (or whatever it's called), as to keep the ACs tough enough for your swordsman AND gunslinger.

2) Consider switching the Touch AC target with flat footed AC. Hard to dodge bullets.

However, thematically, I see no problem with guns.

According to Mythic Adventures, you invest a spell and a use of mythic power in order to beef up a spell. Now with two of the Form of the Dragon spells, you get a bonus to your breath weapon. Form of the Dragon I and II have breath weapons of 6d8 and 8d8 respectively. Form of the Dragon III, on the other hand, has a breath weapon of 12d8. This is not bad until you see the mythic version of the spell which states, and I quote.

The spell’s bonuses to ability scores increase by 2, the natural armor bonus increases by 1, and the breath weapon damage increases to 10d6. All of the dragon form’s natural attacks increase by one step (see Improved Natural Attack on page 315 of the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary).

Ergo, I ask, why is it that I can memorize or learn Form of the Dragon III, ascend to mythic tiers, pick up Mythic Spell Lore or Mythic Spellcasting, learn the mythic version of the spell, use a mythic power to beef up the spell's abilities, and after all that, my breath weapon would be two dice less powerful than if I had just stopped at step one?

Simulacra are people too!

People made from ice and snow. I always wondered why creatures made from Simulacrum didn't have vulnerability to fire.

I'd like to posit a theory that's been on my mind a bit regarding the casting time of Walk Through Space. Many here said that it should be a standard action, but I may have found the inspiration of the spell that throws such a ruling into question. Dimension Jumper from 3.5 is eerily similar to Walk Through Space in practice, save some slight differences.

1) Walk Through Space allows you to stand up from prone without provoking an attack of opportunity.
2) Dimension Jumper has only verbal components, while Walk Through Space has verbal, somatic, and (inexpensive) material components.
3) As you may have noticed, Dimension Jumper is a whole two levels lower than Walk Through Space.

Other than these, the differences in the spells are negligible. I am currently under the impression that Walk Through Space is a nerfed version of Dimension Jumper, though why it needed to be powered down is beyond me. Dimension Jumper states a casting time of a swift action. I propose that this should be considered when judging the casting time of Walk Through Space.

Thoughts? Arguments? If you were a GM, would you allow this at your table?

I love how this argument goes on. It makes me feel alive.

The GM can be wrong in the way a referee can be wrong. The rules may say one thing, but if a call is made, it's made. There is nothing saying that call is right and a player may dispute it, but at the end of the day, the GM still can only make interpretations and calls. These calls determine the reality of the game, but at the table, it's more akin to arguing with an umpire.

What I love, however, is the vehemence that some arguments are made in regards to GMs being right no matter what. Especially in this case, where we have sources, examples, and citations stating the rules in question. Now, don't get me wrong. I love a good houserule. But this is the forum where we discuss the interpretation of Paizo's rules regarding Pathfinder. If you need to invoke rule 0, we bring that into custom territory, which is beyond the nature of this board.

The ruling, yes, does seem a bit unfair. Yes, it does not mesh with Paizo's printed rules on the matter. But what can you do besides leave the game? I just think it's silly this discussion is here is all.

I can't believe I haven't closed this window in months. But yeah, I still feel strongly that it's a buzzkill to make a sorcerer wait an extra level for spells, and then an extra level on top of that to get a spell the player chose a bloodline for.

aceDiamond wrote:

The only thing I can defend myself with was that I was watching a lot of Pawn Stars at the time and expected them to haggle with me. Surprisingly enough, only one person ever did. Closer to the end of the campaign, I brought my prices down to roughly 75%, but that still is high and away more than what most people seem to ask for.

Except in your game you were the ONLY Pawnbroker in the universe, and your monopoly was protected by RAW. Not entirely fair is it?

Goodness me, no. Not in the slightest. But I was the only one who rolled up a caster and dropped as many feats as he could into item creation. We even had a discussion where we pretty much unanimously agreed that with the feats I took and the days I spent to actually make the item justified that I was looking for a profit. In retrospect, I should've taken less, but it still worked out alright.

The GM had a literal magic mart at our base of operations, but even when people haggled with him, I was still the better price in town.

There's a reason characters belong to "classes."

I'm starting to feel a surge of communism in the distance due to this post...

Ravingdork wrote:

Why does the math in Pathfinder "break down" at higher levels?

It doesn't.

Yeah it does, or at the very least it can unless you take steps to avoid it.

Hey, that was easy.

Sounds like one of the questions monks meditate over to regain Ki.

"Is it broken unless steps are taken to avoid it, or is it not broken until steps are taken to break it?"

I'm throwing my lot in with the latter

Spell-like Abilities don't require material, verbal, or somatic components, if I recall correctly. But still, can we refrain from discussing killing outsiders and the repercussions thereof? We went off on that for pages already.

Anyway, I find it hard to think that inherent bonuses are overpowered simply due to the sheer amount of resources that go into getting them.

How does a Player Character make their own game?

And what does this have to do with high level rules interactions?

Nothing, we've gone off the rails like mad.

Anzyr wrote:

But then he isn't the DM anymore and his rights have expired.

The PC can do nothing without a GM to moderate the game.

Unless they want to leave and make their own game.

EDIT: Ninja'd left and right today.

RJGrady wrote:

It's one thing to talk about keeping your saves up being a treadmill, but if the system automatically normalizes everything, then leveling up is... ONLY a treadmill. I get that not everyone likes to have to choose between their vegetables and candy, but that's the nature of the beast when it comes to allowing customization.

This.

The system allows you to build a 20th level melee character who the BBEG can only miss on a roll of 1 and a 20th level melee character who the BBEG can only hit on a roll of 20. It also allows you to build a very large number of things in-between, with all the variation that implies in abilities, tactics, strategies, and narrative options for the DM and players alike. After all, if the system allowed for virtually no customization, not only would you get RJs treadmill over the life of the class (the numbers get bigger, but nothing ever changes about how the class plays), but all characters of the same class would always follow the same tactics because they would all be running on the same treadmill.

Does that mean you get both parties of "balanced" characters who will take four rounds to kill the BBEG in a straight-up fight but who will have a decent chance of surviving even if ambushed and parties of "glass cannons" that can take out the BBEG in one round in a straight-up fight but have a very high probability of being TPK'd if ambushed? Sure. And that's just fine. The different groups have chosen different strategies for dealing with risks and rewards, and neither of those choices is badwrongfun. (On a side note, you can have parties of "RP heavy" characters who accept the risks of being either not well-balanced or well-optimized for combat, and who might struggle with killing the BBEG in eight rounds and be lucky to survive an ambush at all, and as long as that's their choice, it isn't badwrongfun either.)

In other words, the wide variety of choices allow for a wide variety of playstyles, and there's inherently no...

If I could get a GM like you. Some people are so against high level play, it hurts. I can't say how much I'd want just someone a bit open to the viability and possibility of options in play.

I do agree, the Improved save feats could be better. I could've sworn they gave a bonus on top of the save feats. Though, I could have been thinking of the Mythic versions.

Besides, the game doesn't need everyone to have the same saves. Making them more similar can be done, though. It takes a bit of investment, but it is an option. And therein, it fixes the problem of poor defense.