acedavies02's page

For running games while the internet isn't available, is there a printable version of the Game Master Basics calculations for things like Challenge Points and when to add a pregen?
Edit: Now I see it's at the back of adventures on the page with treasure tables and such, perfect placement. :)

According to GM core (page 127) "almost all undead are unholy"

We'll have to wait until monster core to see what that looks like.

Well that fixes that, thanks. :)

Looking at Holy Water in GM Core, it has this line:
Holy water can damage only creatures with the unholy trait.

Most undead aren't unholy as far as we know. Am I missing something?
Does it even work to destroy vampires?

I'm coming up on the end of the AP and I can't find the actual rules for how to use the Fulcrum Lenses and/or Fulcrum Lattices against Belcorra. Can anyone give me a specific page number or place to look? I have found mentions that it's easier with the Lattice, but no rules on what you specifically do in combat, or what the exact effects are for just using 1 or 2 of the items. Help?
I have both the three and the unified versions, but I've just been checking the hardcover. Did this not make the transition?

With skeletons now being an option, and death knights being an archetype that some will want, having the level 19 class ability that is supposed to be really powerful do literally nothing to those with negative healing is a significant issue for some characters.
I'm confident that it'll be houseruled for most that would get that far, but having an official erratta would be a good thing, there's no downside I see for removing the positive trait for those with negative healing.

Everything that's an option for beast barbarians should also be an option for animal companions.

Wow -- looks almost like a cross between Blade Runner and a Star Wars bar. (Not Mos Eisley Cantina yet, though. That comes later.)

It seemed very Shadowrun to me. :)

Currently the Additional Resources page at paizo.com/pathfindersociety/
rpg/additional appears broken to me, it redirects to the Paizo main page. Am I the only one?

I've come across an issue with RS, making a build the optimizes it.
In order to get lots of opportunity you need to both stay near enemies and use a reach weapon. No shield means you are closer to your enemies, frequently closer than your allies are, and no shield means others who do use shields will likely have a better AC and therefore you soak up more attacks instead of them. Once you show you can hit someone who attacks your ally, and that you aren't really any harder to hit than anyone else, why would foes attack someone else?

I played this module as a druid with 10 strength in hide armor. Even trained in Athletics I had a grand total bonus of 2 (-2 from armor), so I succeeded on an 18+ and critically failed on a 6 or lower. It was twice as easy for me to critically fail as to succeed. If I had not been Trained that would have been a -2 total skill, needing a 20 to succeed and a 10 or less to critically fail. Most spellcasters would be in a similar boat.
These are totally reasonable characters, actually 1 level higher than the hazard.
Somehow we managed to put together enough assisters and good rolls that nobody drowned, but it could easily have gone the other way and it took most of the party and a bunch of time.

My player actually stopped to read this feat out loud. The whole table laughed, and the Barbarian promptly chose a lower level feat, because all of the level 4 barbarian feats and especially this one are worthless.

<snip>

The other two level 4 feats are both fantastic. More speed so you can get into and around combat easier? Yes please! Climb and swim speeds equal to land speed so again you are never stuck unable to get to the fight? Wow! They may not directly add to your damage in a theorycrafting sense but in practice I expect both to be invaluable. I skipped Swipe just because both other level 4 feats were too good to pass up!

I'm pretty sure you posted to the wrong subforum, this is about the Pathfinder 2nd edition playtest. Most of the things you reference don't exist here. :)

Under most circumstances the cantrip Light will beat the spell Darkness and make it fail to work in the overlapping field of effect.
Light is a cantrip, and under the rules cantrips are always cast at a spell level equal to the highest you can cast:
"A cantrip is always automatically heightened to the highest level of spell you can cast in the class. This makes a cantrip a 1st-level spell if you can cast 1st-level spells, a 2nd-level spell if you can cast 2nd-level spells, and so on."
Darkness is a level 2 spell, with a level 4 heighten.

Here's how light and darness interact:
"Light and Darkness
Light and darkness from magical and nonmagical sources interact in specific ways. Nonmagical light always shines in nonmagical darkness and always fails to shine in magical darkness. Magical light always shines in nonmagical darkness, but it shines in magical darkness only if the light spell has a higher level than the darkness effect. Spells with the darkness trait or the light trait can always dispel one another, but bringing light and darkness into contact doesn’t automatically cause one to dispel the other. You must cast a light spell on a darkness effect directly to dispel it (and vice versa), though certain spells automatically attempt to dispel opposing effects and describe how they do so."

So, most of the time Light (always cast at max level) will overpower Darkness (cast at level 2 or 4 only). Is this intended?
It does mean that most castings of Darkness will be easily ignored by a same-level PC having a Light cantrip going.
Note: How does the Shadow creature ability Cast Shadow interact with this? It doesn't give an effect level, nor does it appear to reference the spell. It's clearly a magical darkness effect but that relies on effect level to adjudicate.
It is clear that casting Light as a cantrip will always dispel any Darkness effect of any level, and vice versa, because all light effects and darkness effects can always dispel each other.

Thanks. :)

So you want to be a full spellcaster with one of the better spell lists in the game (Heal and Fireball both) and also a respectable frontline fighter at the same time? No, they make you have to switch back and forth, you can't have both at once.
That seems reasonable to me.

I assume that 'in your repertoire' means you have access to it. For spontaneous casters that's spells you know, for spellbook types that's spells in your book, for casters like Clerics or Druids that's all spells they have access to.
The Recognize Spell skill feat does make this even easier. If you want to be able to recognize spells then take the feat:

Trigger A creature casts a spell within line of sight of you that you don’t have prepared or in your spell repertoire, or a trap or similar inanimate object triggers and casts such a spell. You must be aware the creature is casting the spell or the trap is triggering.
If the spell is a common spell of level 2 or lower and you are trained in the appropriate skill for the spell’s tradition, you automatically identify it. The spell level you automatically identify increases to 4 if you’re an expert, 6 if you’re a master, or 10 if you’re legendary. Otherwise, the GM rolls a secret Arcana, Nature, Occultism, or Religion check, whichever corresponds to the tradition of the spell being cast. If you’re untrained in the skill, you can’t get a better result than failure. The DC of the check is 10 plus triple the level of the spell. The DC for an uncommon spell is usually 2 higher than for a common spell, and the DC for a rare spell is usually 5 higher.

They Fey spell list is fine, there's just no reason to ever use spell points in combat. For a mechanic that they have stated is meant to compensate for the many fewer spells you get compared to 1e it's not doing that at all for the Fey Sorcerer.
I can get some utility out of the second power 1 time total, or 2 times total from 10th level onward. The base power does literally almost nothing at all, the only time it does work is if you are in natural difficult terrain (no other kind) and you want to just spend all your actions moving, then it gets you half a move further. If you want it to actually do anything useful it takes 4 spell points, yet it only gives you 2 when you get it.

Yeah, that's the problem I explained. They're considered normal mounts, but they don't have the "Mount" special rule, so they can't be taken as mounts (rules as written) by a Cavalier.

Thus, either "Mount" should be added to Wolf (which, for balance reasons, would result in all Animal Companions also gaining the "Mount" keyword), or the "Mount" keyword needs to be removed from the game completely.
<snip>

They just updated Goblins in 1.3:

Draco18s wrote:

I saw Legendary repair. I think the result is hilarious.

"What do you mean my shield is broken? Just because it's split in half? 'Tis but a scratch!!! Let me polish it with my sleeve just a sec... Here! Good as new! "

I figure you just hit it and the dents pop right back out. :)

The Aberrant Sorcerer wishes his bloodline powers were that useful.

Aberrant: The ability to do touch spells 10 feet away. The ability to make spellcasting harder for foes only. The ability to take less damage from crits and gain darkvision and damage anyone who hits you. Those aren't great but they do actually have an effect in combat.

I guess if I come across foes with reactions and they carefully put themselves into a burst formation with none of my allies with reactions in it then I can try the first power. It might do something.

I've made a Fey Sorcerer and it all looks pretty cool until I get to the powers.
The initial power is Faerie Dust. It's an area effect, that looks good. On a save it does nothing. On a failure the target gets a -2 to perception and can't use reactions. On a critical failure the target falls asleep for one round. Under most circumstances this power will do... nothing at all. Unless someone crit-fails a roll perception checks and reactions just aren't a thing in combat for most foes from what I have seen. Am I missing something?
The second power is Fey Disappearance. For 2 power points and 2 actions you can ignore difficult natural terrain and stride or step once. That's two actions to move once unhindered. If you just took those two actions to move in difficult terrain you'd go the same distance. If there's no difficult (natural!) terrain you are straight-up giving away an action and 2 spell points for nothing. If there is you are spending 2 spell points to move once unhindered and then I guess can use your last action to move again, as it lasts the round. Best-case you are gaining half a normal move, if you spend your entire round moving through difficult natural terrain. Oh, but there's a rider. For an additional 2 points (that's 4 total of your 6) you also turn invisible for the round even if you attack. With your 1 remaining action. You can do this a grand total once per day until you reach 10th level, then you can do this twice. I'd prefer to just get Invisibility, as long as it cost less than 4 spell points. Or at least gave you enough extra points to pay for itself once. You get 2 points, to use it fully it costs 4.
The Greater power is Ridiculous Notion. This causes everyone within 30 feet to save or be slowed 1 and no reactions for 1 round (crit fail is prone and no actions). It's an aura so it'll effect your allies unless you run away from them into the middle of your foes to use it, maybe slowing them 1 if you are lucky! This seems like a bad plan.

Maybe the Fey Sorcerer is being punished for getting the Primal spell list which is pretty cool. I don't know.
These are not good powers as far as I can see. Can anyone explain how and when they might be useful?

The new Dying rules intro says you are no longer slowed after having the Dying condition, you get Wounded instead.
The Unconscious rules on the next page still have you slowed after being unconscious.
I'm presuming that this is in error and the Slowed part of the Unconscious rules should not apply? Currently recovering from Dying gives you Wounded and recovering from Unconscious gives you Slowed. Can you be Dying without being Unconscious?

WORK TOGETHER
Your animal companion assists you. You gain the benefits
listed in your companion’s Work Together Benefit entry. Your
companion can use its other action only to move in order to get
into position to take advantage of the Work Together benefits; if
your companion doesn’t have the mount special ability and you
are riding it, it can’t use any other actions this turn at all.

If it Works Together the other action has to be a move. This is easy to miss.

The wording on investing a Staff includes this line:
"When invested during preparation (but not if invested at other times), the staff gains a number of charges equal to your highest-level spell slot, though it can never exceed its maximum charges."

How many charges does this mean? When I make a 7th level Sorcerer (3 4th level spells per day) is that 3 (number of spells) or 4 (level of spells)? Is it something else? I know there's also a cap per staff, but I'm trying to figure out what the words here mean.

Thanks.

Penn

Currently I assume that if they left a basic piece of armor like this out they don't intend to include it later. I believe that only RPGs based on D&D 3 have tower shields as a separate thing at all, this is not one of those games.
If so I'll mourn its loss.

Under the Cleric class, Controlling Undead sidebar:
"A minion acts on your turn in combat when you spend an action to issue it verbal commands (this action has the concentrate trait)."
This seems to be meant to apply to all minions, and it also seems to say that your minion takes both actions when you command them, they can't split them up. If so this makes mounted charges annoying, no moving both before and afterwards.

One last question - if I wildshape into some animal/dino or whatever, can I cast spells while in a wildshape form?

I believe that all the wildshape spells (what you get from the feats) specify that you cannot cast spells. The Dinosaur one certainly does.

I made an Elven animal companion druid, using archery and really good foot speed to supplement my main source of damage (a wolf). It worked pretty well, I just ignored Strength for the most part. This isn't close to what you are trying of course. :)

If you take Versatile Performance then you can use that maxed Prformance skill to do a lot of what Diplomacy, Intimidation and Deception do. That's sort of like having additional higher-level skills, except you can't take the feats.
Okay, so it's not much like it at all.

Errata now says rounded up.

A useful trick that may work is leaping right over anyone who is in the way of your charge line. Your mount will need a good Acrobatics (or a really good foot speed, or preferably both) to pull it off, but as long as you can jump high enough as part of the charge you should be able to do it.
Unless they changed that for Pathfinder of course.

--Penn

You should be able to attack at any point in your mount's movement normally. Your mount having spring attack lets it attack too.
Ride-by attack lets you continue after charging, which is a completely different thing.

Except under a very limited list of circumstances the rider cannot make a full attack if the mount moves more than 5'.

Pretty sure it's #2: mount moves in, both attack, mount moves away, Cavalier provokes AoO.

--Penn

But as soon as you add any non-Perfected metamagics to a non-Quickened spell, it takes a full round to cast for a Sorcerer, making it way less useful. This is a significant limitation for Sorcerers, who will have more slots and more flexibility.
I tend to use free Quicken followed by free Maximize on my Fire Snake spells. Adding any other metamagics to the free Quicken could be done, but if I'm not Quickening, I can only add one metamagic (free) or it takes too long to cast.

Does any of this make sense? I'm not sure my thoughts are coming out properly onto the page.

--Penn

Fire Snake. Shapeable blast spell, 5th level. My Gold Draconic Sorcerer has Perfected Fire Snake, with Focus, Greater Focus, Elemental Focus, Penetration, Varisian Tattoo (it adds a flat bonus to the caster level of the spell), and Silent, Maximize and Quicken spells.
That's 15d6+15 damage quickened, or 105 damage maximized, DC 30, and +21 against SR at 15th level.
He just has to be on the ground, and his targets have to be as well, so it's far from an auto-cast all the time.

--Penn

In the Leadership subdomain, the Inspiring Command power doesn't say how often it can be used. Should I assume it is the same as the ability it replaces (Wis+3), or once per day?

--Penn

Another player chiming in to say that it went well, and was lots of fun.
I believe we'll be trying Pathfinder Society again.

I was at DDXP, I played a demo. I'm a convert. The system is a major step up in fun and ease of running, with basically no downside other than diversity of material available (which just takes time). That being said:
1) I expect that the campaigns that I'm involved with will play out in 3.5, and any new campaigns from this point forward will start in 4e.
2) Having a new adventure path from a trusted company would be great. Either I or someone in my circle of gamers (honestly, probably me) will most likely buy and run it once our current Pathfinder campaign wraps up.
3) The odds that I'd spend more money of 3.5 materials at this point are pretty slim.

--Penn