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Functionally, I'd imagine you have 4 opposition schools and 1 specialized school. You'd just pick 2 opposition school to be shared between arcanist and wizard. I'd think that you wouldn't be able to pick any opposition school as a specialized school, but this is all me putting in my two coppers


The feat Disheartening Display, while requiring a BAB of +6 (requiring you to be a fairly high level or running a gish PrC, such as Eldritch Knight, lets dazzling display raise the fear level on anyone who's already shaken, frightened or panicked. Panicked creatures get their fear elevated to cowering. The feat is from the ACG and is PFS legal, if that's of any concern.

If you have a good UMD check, you can also use wands as a fairly inexpensive way to get blistering invective, or a ring of spell knowledge level 3 (a good magic item for sorcerers to have in general; they really increase your versatility) can have BI taught to it from a scroll, though you'll be casing it as a 3rd level spell


The problem I see in this is that your concept requires quite a bit of skills (Bluff, Diplomacy, Stealth, Perception to be maxed, while Disable Device, Knowledge (local), Linguistics and the like should be considered) and while the normal magus gets their fair share, the scion does not. You can probably fulfill the concept by just using bard. Dervish Dancer or Arcane Duelist both can have the feel of a graceful magical warrior.

From personal experience, I found Sandman to be a really fun archetype for social maneuvering thanks to the boost they get to bluff, stealth, and sleight of hand. I was a pretty weak combatant, though it didn't matter much when my social skills netted me the support from higher level NPCs or my UMD score consistently letting me cast 7th to 9th level spells at around level 10. Pageant of the Peacock also let me use bluff for int based skills, so basically any time I needed false credentials, scan an enemy for weaknesses, figure out where the hidden servant's passages are in a mansion based on it's architecture or anything like that, I was rolling my absolute highest skill. It's like versatile performance with a huge boost.

Another possibility, if you must be a magus, is looking into the Orator feat, which lets you use linguistics to tell lies in place of bluff, and to sway people's favor and the like instead of diplomacy. Linguistics itself is a very helpful skill, and often overlooked by a lot of people I know. While it's big function is deciphering ancient text, it's also used to make forgeries of anything. I often use it to make fake credentials, a perfect aid when pretending to be someone you're not, add credibility to a lie, to act as a prop to give intimidation a little extra kick (anyone can threaten someone, but if you, say, happen to have the paperwork saying you're a government agent, that thug might just give you the information you need as long as you don't take him in for questioning)


I've only had experience with one female DM, who I played a couple of mixed pathfinder/3.5 games with. She was a very animated person, games were often pretty enjoyable, though she was sometimes stuck in very old mentalities (Like, for example, being surprised that my cleric walked up to enemies and smacked them with heavy things rather than sitting back and casting CLW on the fighters) and sometimes was not exactly fond when I threw curve balls, but as mentioned before the sessions were overall fun.

I don't really think the sex or gender of the DM matters, it's all in the attitude and the effort. I know I haven't played with many female DMs since my regular pathfinder group only has two females in it and neither seem interested in DMing. Our group does seem to be expanding a bit though, and our current campaign has been rotating DMs as a means of spinning up interest for people to try out both sides of the table, and it seems to be working, so we might just end up with a little more diversity.


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Yeah, looking over the vid, I'm actually holding a lot of hope for the summoner. I do like the prospect of eidolon subtypes, and it sounds like they are keeping with the idea of a customizable ally. Adding limitations onto the evolutions you can take seems fair, I just hope that all of the eidolon subtypes are equally powerful. It would be interesting, however, to see different outsider types be better at certain roles. Perhaps an azata eidolon would have more powers focused on supporting their team members or having magical abilities, to reflect the fighting styles of lillend and bralani azatas, where a demon eidolon would be better at channeling it's abyssal fury to shatter anything foolish enough to get in it's path. Most eidolons I've seen in play have been pouncing harbingers of death, but that's because almost all of the evolutions are focused on increasing combat capability. I'm actually really looking forward to seeing how they will change how an eidolon evolves, since I really like the idea of things like SLAs and special abilities onto my eidolon, but as it stands, the evolutions to do so either don't exist, cost WAY too much, or are far too weak to justify taking (seriously, 3 evolution points to pick up a 1/day 0 level and a 1/day 1st level spell off of an incredibly restricted list is far too high of a price for such a weak ability).

I think my position officially shifted from cautious to legitimately excited.


I've got mixed feelings about this book. While I love that it sounds like they will finally be giving more martial focused characters some love, I worry about the summoner. The summoner was one of my favorite classes in the game because of how versatile it was. It actively encouraged players to have fun and get creative with their character, and offered a lot of roleplay material. My greatest concern is that with this book, it will get nerfed into oblivion and have it's most fun feature gutted because of public outcry. I honestly don't get why people find the summoner so overpowered to begin with. It's certainly powerful and is hard to screw up, but I've never seen a game come even close to being broken by one, and this includes experience with running a summoner in a pvp game.

Hopefully, my concerns will be for naught, and it turns out the summoners inclusion in unchained means that it will simply be revised and streamlined rather than clocked over the head with the nerfbat and gutted because of concerns over pouncing eidolon beatsticks. For as much love as I have for the class it's spell list, while strong, is a tad bit bland. very few good choices for abilities often leads to pretty much every summoner having the same spell list. Fingers crossed!


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I played in a game for a whole semester with an arcanist in the party, and honestly, I really don't see what the big fuss is about. The player of the arcanist even uses numerous amounts pointers from optimization boards. While the arcanist was certainly strong, I haven't experienced anything that a wizard wouldn't also be able to do. I will certainly say that they are stronger than a sorcerer, but I don't see what the arcanist can do that the wizard wasn't already doing for a long time.


if you're looking specifically just to throw rays around... you may actually want to consider a wordcasting sorcerer with one level dip into spellslinger wizard. Wordcasting lets you turn almost all of your attacking spells into rays, plus you get to add your gun's enhancement bonus to you to hit rolls or spell DCs, if applicable. If you suddenly find yourself needing to hit a wider area, just flip those rays into cones or lines if you want the DC boost, or use bursts if you need a good ol' fireball AoE shape.

Another choice, if you're using those "adds +1 damage per die rolled" bloodlines is to take Magical knack, worship Desna, and be a 1 spellslinger/2 sorcerer/10 evangelist/7 sorcerer. Whenever you're under starlight, you get an extra 2d6 damage that is untyped (but because of the way the bloodlines are written, these still give you an extra 2 points of damage in addition) while not impacting your CL in the slightest.

Arcane trickster's fun from what I hear from a player I know who runs one, and there are two great guides on the guide to the class guides on several different takes for this class. AT also stacks well with any of the above methods, though your CL will be lower. By taking the pressure point ninja trick (which can be poached by rogues, too, if desired) adds a saveless debuff onto your sneak attacks by letting you damage their attributes, and vanishing trick is always fun to use with spell sniping.


No one in my group has a faint heart for blood and gore, but most of our dms hold back on it if only to preserve its impact. Gore loses it's value if it shows up all the time, and our DMs realize that, so the bloody spectacles are saved for when they want to show JUST how horrible the situation is, to set a tone, or for an important death.

As far as sex, our group doesn't care much either. The only time it bothers them is if a player feels the need to hog screen time from everyone else because the player wants their character getting some to be a big deal. I've even had pretty taboo intimacies come up with little judgement so long as the matter is handled tactfully. In one game, there's a pair of sisters who are in love with each other, and it's not really a big secret they are attracted to another, but because their physical intimacy is never shoved in anyone's faces, no one gets offended, even when the table already makes certain assumptions about what they do when they go off somewhere together.

Ultimately, it comes down to knowing your group. Most people in my group is courteous and won't do something if it's outside of their comfort zone. If incest is something one of our tablemates was uncomfortable with, that example relationship I posted never would have happened.


Well, if you're playing with them... then just have fun. You guys are already breaking down social barriers by playing a game with them. If they are your fellow players, treat them like any other part of the team.

Not sure why the character's sexuality was brought up though. If you're worried that her (the character's) preference in companionship will be an issue, just throw that concern right out the window. I also played a lesbian character with a group of 13-15 year old players before. The only people who got offended were people who were super conservative Christians who thought homosexuality was a sin. the others literally did not care at ALL. When the group saw my character having a date with her npc girlfriend during some off time, their only reaction was something on the lines of "Well I guess she's got plans, hey guys, lets hit up the tavern".


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I started gaming when I was about 11 or 12, so I've got some recollection from what it was like on the player side of the table at that age group.

For starters, please, for the love of god, do not assume they are of a lower level of intellect just because of their age. Instead, expect them to be inexperienced. From my experience, Mary Sues, characters lacking personality or depth, etc. is more likely to stem from being new to gaming more than it is tied to someone's age. Almost everybody I played with who was new tended to have characters who were a little lacking, be they a teenager or an adult, and I've had teens experienced with gaming make deeper characters than adults who are new at the game. Just give them time, and engage them in the story, and you'll see their characters grow.

Also remember that during one's teenage years is usually when they start seeking to develop their identity on their own. Have some fun with this, since it might lead into some interesting role playing. I'd expect a higher degree of chaotic characters simply for the fact that when most teens try to discover who they are, it often comes with renouncing the shackles of tradition. It doesn't mean they will be any less good, but it could mean that playing Robin Hood might be more appealing than Sir Lancelot.

Most importantly: they are people before they are teenagers, and just like any other adult, they run a wide range of personalities. Get past seeing them as teens and look at them as fellow gamers.


I understand why is could be seen as a money grabbing strategy, but it's really not, or, at the very least, there is practical reasoning as well as economic for the choice to require a Harrow deck for Harrow based classed and abilities.

With the dice rolling simulation method, while close enough for home games, does not have accurate probability. when, for example, you take a card from a 20 card deck, assuming there is only one copy of the card in the deck, you have a 1/20 chance to draw the card. If you draw from it again, you now have a 1/19 chance to draw one specific card, and so on. With dice, you can't replicate how the draw probability changes when cards get taken from the deck.

furthermore, there's more certainty for a GM when a pfs player brings an actual harrow deck over a deck made of proxies. while it's still fully possible to cheat using paizo bought products, it's easier to cheat using a proxy deck.

So, while it also serves to require people to purchase paizo products, it does have some rational reasoning beyond that


hover a dagger 30' above someone's head. release spell. You now have an attack cantrip!


Zardnaar wrote:


1. The natural spell feat.
2. Scaling buff spells and quantity/stacking of buff spells.
3. Wand of cure light wounds/knock etc in particular.
4. Cheap/easy magic item creation and/or purchasing power.
5. Number bloat/complexity.
6/ +16/+11/+6/+1, 4 attacks at +16 is fine by me.
7. Bonus strength damage via power attack/two handed weapons.
8. Large gaps in fort/ref/will saves.
9. Spell DCs over 20.
10. Unlimited ability score progression.
11. Fighters with only 2 skill points (house ruled to 4 IMC)

1) Honestly, I think druids shouldn't have the feat tax to begin with when it comes to wild shape. Wizards certainly don't when they turn into dragons or the like. Beside, some people might actually LIKE the idea of their druid becoming a magical, spell casting animal as their means of assuming the "protector of nature" role for flavor purposes.

2) As someone who mostly runs 3/4 caster or cleric support characters, buffs are essential to how I play. I find buffs as a good way of reducing the need to optimize a character. I can't tell you how many times I've seen sub optimal builds that players picked for flavor/role playing reasons that were made viable because of competent and effective buffing. Buffing also promotes teamwork, which, IMO, is a good thing when it's easy to get caught up in personal glory. Making support one of the more powerful options really encourages good teamwork, which seems like good game design rather than bad.

3) When I play a cleric, I want to kick arse for the lord, not to sit in the back and be a walking kit of band-aids. Those wands of CLW let me heal people AND wreck face with buffing and summoning. This lets me enjoy the game more because I get a more active role and my companions get to have more fun because I can shower them in gifts of the divine so they can kick more ass by boosting their capabilities.

4) Many people complain that magic items feel less personal when you can just buy them from any old store in town and want to recapture the feel of a dramatic quest to finds relics or ingredients. Guess what? Item creation feats let you do that! In fact, the item is even MORE personal and iconic to you because not only did you collect the materials (either with hard earned cash or the DM letting you do a cool quest), you put YOUR time and soul to forge that item to cause your enemy's undoing!

5) I can't say PF's math is really that hard. Number confusion in my groups arise more when people forget the that the bard is buffing them rather than math issues.

6) That's a two way street. if you're a player, how do you feel about a rage-pouncing barbarian slamming you with 4 devastating bows that are almost guaranteed to hit? No thank you.

7) Eh, it makes sense for two handed weapons to do more damage. I can attest to this from real life weapon training.

8) Different things are better at defending against different forms of attacks. I'd like to see the fighter be given a good will save, but I see no issue with the save system itself

9) Dude.... 20 is low for most parts of the game. by capping DCs at 20, all you're going is encouraging wizards even more to adopt the more problematic play styles (most spell dropped by the optimized god wizard are used specifically because they are good spells that don't allow saves) and discourage less optimized casting strategies that the monsters and APs were actually balanced around (blasting or save-or-die/save-or-suck). Not only are you not solving the problem, you're actually sucking the fun away from less powerful players in the process!

10) given that this isn't part of the game, it's definitely not essential!

11) Fighter DEFINITELY need, IMO, 4+ int skill points. Fighters are supposed to represent trained warriors who get their skills from practice and bravery. They are often used to represent "mundane" military characters, and having grown up in a military family, I can DEFINATELY say your average fighter knows a LOT more than just how to hit people with a stick and how to scare people with a stick. While we're at it, throw Perception on their skill list. Who wants a Fighter to be their guard when a Rogue is better at actually spotting intruders? If you don't have magic, you need wit and keen senses to survive, and one of the most basic things to this is situational awareness. I honestly don't get why more classes don't get this as a class skill given how essential it is for adventuring.


I rather like the imagery in this one. The storm for the primal forces of air flowing in him, as well as being a very real manifestation of some strange issue he has with his mind. "Numb to fear" was another good choice of words. I like that unlike the other iconics, who seem to at least have started on their path to honing their skills, Crowe seems like he's just getting to finding his own path in life.


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Relevant Wording

Spoiler:
Deific Obedience wrote:

Once you’ve performed the obedience, you gain the benefit of

a special ability or resistance as indicated in the “Obedience”
entry for the god to whom you performed the obedience.

The wording is very specific that you gain the benefits after you perform the obedience and the feat never makes mention of picking what SLA you get as soon as you pick up the feat. This makes it seem as though you select which SLA you want each time you perform the obedience rather than being locked into one for all time.


Does the sorcerer have any personal story goals he/she wishes to achieve? If it's a task that can reasonably be done alone, and can be started in the middle of a desert, you may want to consider doing an aside thing with the player over email or something describing the situation.

Example: Sorcerer seeks to advance his/her understanding off magic. Somehow, an opportunity presents itself for the sorc to achieve this goal (magical creature offers to show them, finds an artifact etc). Regardless of methods, the sorc is required to do a number of ambiguous trials for a time, and is required to be alone and out of contact with help for the duration. Talk with the events with the player, get some email or aside stuff going on and give the player an interesting little plot hook with it that suits the character. When the player is able to return, his character comes back with the party.

it's a little hard to offer specifics because I don't know the character or much of the context, but, it might be cool to see if you can play into the character's backstory a bit and take advantage of the absence instead of letting it be an obstacle to work around.


dude... Jason, those spoilers... you are the bomb! Glad you got better, and thanks for the good news on the warpriest! it was easily my most anticipated class of the book, and it looks like my dream of getting a warrior priest class that's not tethered to being LG will finally come true, Desna truly showers us with her blessing!


For distinguishing IC and OOC, my group uses what we call IC/OOC tags, which are nothing more than a small piece of an index card folded in half, with OOC written on one side, and IC on the other. When we talk IC, we put the card to IC, and when we talk OOC, we flip to OOC. Those in our group who have other cues for IC talking (I modify my voice, speech pattern, and mannerisms) tend not to use them as much, because we already signals for IC and OOC. They are also helpful for getting the group assembled after a break in the game for food and the like, with people turning their tags to IC when they are ready to start again.

I also have my fellow gamers refer to me by my character's name if they wish to address my character, and by my own name is they want to address me. It might seem like a small, nitpicky detail, but it serves as a nice, subtle way of signalling IC and OOC communication. I tend to rely more on nonverbal communication cues for signally the difference because I roleplay almost exclusively in first person, so saying something like "My character does X" is not much of an option.

As far as controlling chaos, we tend to take turns when it comes to our actions if it gets too hectic. If everyone wants to do their own thing in town, we go around the table one at a time. When it comes to combat, we give priority to the person who is acting. People are free to offer suggestions, talk, or strategize, but must do so at a respectful volume. We tend to put players who are talkative with each other close together because they can still chat while being able to keep the volume lower as well. Our GM also has a signal (usually something like raising a hand or the like) for when s/he wishes the table to be quiet, often invoked when describing the scene or when the volume starts making communication difficult.


I wouldn't say one is more smashy, they just smash in different ways. Warpriests can buff up, move, and smack something the first turn of combat, and continue to get better and better every single round as opposed to the inquisitor, which really can only buff up damage and accuracy once as a swift action (by dropping judgement). most other spells requires them to use a standard action or metamagic. The warpriest also has artificial bulk by being able to heal themselves in combat while still attacking, although this is something the inquisitor can do to a degree as well with fast healing. I hope with the BAB reduction, fervor goes up to equal lay on hands for healing, selfish healing was something the class was supposed to do, after all.


bbangerter wrote:
That argument isn't going to carry much weight because it's not entirely correct.

Oh, thanks for the info! I know this question came up a LOT in my group and no one really knew an answer for it. Unfortunately for OP, it look like lance charging isn't going to work.


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Honestly... I'm glad the damage dice scaling stayed. I have to say, I'm pretty satisfied with dropping the BAB thing though. Playing one as per the 2nd version of the advanced class guide, it works really well and is fun to play, but holy hell is my accuracy really high with full BAB and being able to buff up every turn and still unleash the hurt. I'm glad to see the blessings got another look, and hope that a lot of the blessings got the same treatment as the example listed. I'm still hoping for thrown weapon compatibility with sacred weapon, since that's more or less the clergy of Desna's whole image in respects to martial combat: chucking starknives at range and dancing with them up close.


PRD wrote:

Spell Combat:

To use this ability, the magus must have one hand free (even if the spell being cast does not have somatic components), while wielding a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand.

Lance:
While mounted, you can wield a lance with one hand.

If your DM is super duper focused on the semantics of the writing, you would not be able to use the lance because it says "You can wield a lance with one hand" rather than "You may treat it as a one-handed weapon". However, one could also argue that the lance is now a one handed weapon because you are holding it in one hand and are no longer getting the benefits of a str bonus multiplier.

That being said, I can't see there being anything unbalancing about it. Hell, as a DM I'd rather see this than a normal crit fisher magus because it's a lot more interesting and cool! I might also suggest considering that you save yourself the feat and use a familiar as a mount instead. Familiars get natural armor bonuses, scale with you, get evasion, give you a free feat (Alertness), grant you a once per day scrying ability, get spell resistance, and any other number of cool bonuses.

To use your familiar as a mount, you just need to hire a wizard in a large city to cast polymorph any object on your familiar to turn it into your preferred mount. Since your familiar is almost guaranteed to have a higher Int than the other animal (thanks to how the arcane bond class feature works!), and the fact that you are turning an animal into another animal, you are already getting a +7 for the duration of PaO, so all you need to do is pick a familiar that is close the mount you want (Raven or thrush for griffon or roc, Goat for pegasus, lizard for wyvern, etc). The cost of this service is only 1200 gp (CL 15 * 8th level 8 * 10 gp), and will give you a familiar that will have good defenses vs spells thanks to it's SR and evasion, have a decent amount of survivability, especially if you are using mounted combat feats, plus have a lot of skills (because the familiar shares your own skills) and neat abilities.

Mind you, leadership will probably get you a stronger mount, but a familiar will probably be good enough for your purposes, and will let you use your leadership feat to instead get a supporting cohort to boost you up or give you another feat to spend elsewhere.


Congrats, man! I've read your guide, and you're knowledge of the system's top notch. Good luck at the job!


shallowsoul wrote:


Durability!

Thanks for letting us know you are only interested in the mechanics and not the actual concept of the class.

It's a gamist attitude.

No, it's because I don't see mechanics as anything more than an aid to make my character concepts come to life. It's not really a "gamist attitude" if I happen to find that mechanics of the paladin class match up the best with my concept of "warrior who shrugs off pain and keeps going through sheer willpower". It's a common trope in fantasy, but not one well supported outside of being a paladin. Sure, Godless Healing exists, but it's so mechanically weak that it fails to execute the concept in practice. It's not really a great testament to how strong this person's will is if they can heal... maybe one third of the average standard attack he's taking. At this point, it's not just mechanically weak, but breaks the concept and flavor of the character. Paladin, on the other hand, works great. Gets cut by a sword? no prob, he spends a second or two collecting his willpower (a.k.a. spends a swift action to use lay on hands), and then rips his attacker a new one (a.k.a. a full attack). You need to stop shackling yourself so hard to what's written in the book, and embrace the spirit of what a ttrpg is all about. It's about creativity and fun. Know that the rules are not there to be a straitjacket, but rather there to serve as an aid to bring your character to life. That's even written in the first few pages of the CRB.


they would, but they could also make good paladins, if we divorce the notion that paladins have to be LG. I would be more willing to agree on he terms of warpriest over cleric though. Clerics are support casters that are very capable of combat if they use the right buffs, and warpriest are a nice middle ground between cleric and fighter. The problem is that both of these classes fail when compared to the paladin when it comes to durability. The warpriest has a smaller hit die, and fervor is not as good at healing as Lay on hands. As a matter in fact, fervor, without fey foundling, is terrible at healing, unless your DM is kind enough to let the phylactery of positive channeling boost up fervor's healing. Cleric, while a higher tier class than the paladin, does not have nearly as much support for durability right off the bat until you hit levels where you can cast quickened buffs or drop Heals.


to OP:

If people are looking for power, they wouldn't be looking at the paladin. Not saying it's a bad class, but all people want it more power, they would be looking at T1 classes. The reason people want the alignment restriction gone is because it puts severe handicaps on how you can role play that character. By putting such heavy restrictions of the paladin, you make it so inflexible that the only thing you can do with it is a standard knight in shining armor, champion of chivalry thing. Now, it's not a problem if you DO want to play like that, but even if the paladin had no alignment restriction, you wouldn't be prohibited from playing this, removing the alignment restrictions simply opens up new opportunities for role playing.

Playing LG is not, and should not be considered a restriction for balance purposes. In many cases, I think LG is one of the easiest alignments to play by simple virtue that we have a lot of good LG characters from stories to look at for inspiration. The problem is, not all of us (myself included) are very compelled by LG. My favorite alignment is CG, and would love to be able to play a CG paladin, but as the rules are now, any chance of that requires me to make an agreement with the DM. I also would not say that CG is any easier to play than LG. CG is not "good, but allowed to do questionable things", CG is "promote freedom and hope". People think that being more willing to break the law makes an alignment easier to play, but it really doesn't. Breaking the law has real consequences. CGs who kick up too many hornet's nests fighting for what they believe in might find themselves being hunted by all sorts of authorities on their mission to help the people, but in most areas, LG never runs into that problem. LG gets the hero's greeting. Playing CG means that you have to know Good is worth fighting for, regardless of what you have to go through in order to bring it. It's knowing that even if the law doesn't like what you do, and that they may not thank or reward you for your efforts, you will keep doing Good anyways, because everybody deserves freedom and the chance to make their own path in the world. It's doing the right thing in spite of what the law might say.

I can even offer two examples of how he paladin's mechanics can fit the theme of both something commonly asked for (a CG paladin) and a far more controversial one (a TN, non religious paladin)

Kyoko, CG paladin of Desna

Spoiler:
Kyoko is a cheerful school girl who loves life. She dedicates her life to bringing enjoyment and sparking spontaneity in the hearts of those who would otherwise be too afraid to take risks for excitement, or those so shackled to their daily routines that they let the delightful pleasures of life pass them by. Her friends sometimes find her trouble making antics exhausting, but they tend to find Kyoko's energy uplifting. Most days, dark, ominous evil isn't a threat, and during these times, Kyoko creates activities for her friends to participate in or draws lighthearted graphic novels with silly but entertaining plots, for no other reason outside of making someone smile. However, when evil DOES threaten the land, Kyoko stands stalwartly against it. Kyoko carries a bow and a stock of various arrows of different metals, as many of the horrific demons Desnans fight come equipped with wings or other means of flight as well as an array of bizarre defenses. She puts herself between the weak and the enemy, knowing that her faith and determination will carry her through the most grave of wounds as she lays down suppressing fire, her bow empowered by her divine bond to the spirits of Cynosure. She will not turn away help from the populous, as it means they too have been inspired to take a stand against nightmare and fear.

Donny, TN knight of the holy light

Spoiler:
Donny is spry farmer boy who happened to find himself in a situation far beyond what he expected. A great evil is on the verge of waking, and heralding the coming of this near cosmic power, the dead have started to rise as twisted aberrant husks of their former selves. Donny was happy to let the military deal with it... that is, until a group of them started destroying his crops. Donny fought them off with a scythe and realized that he was no longer safe just sitting by. He reforged his trusty scythe into a form more suited to war and rode off on his strong and dependable draft horse to join the army. He hopes to one day return back to the hard but honest life of a farmer, and this desire gives him the will to push onward. He overcomes his wounds with sheer willpower, and his simple and humble goal resonate with his fellow militia men. Donny's not a trained fighter, but when fighting the creatures that threatened his peace and safety, he finds himself filled with extra confidence and purpose, and his cuts become far more accurate and damaging. Eventually, he becomes a beacon of inspiration, and his work ethic rubs off on his allies. They put in the extra effort to ensure good work, and they can push through dire injuries, put extra power behind their attacks, and find themselves filled with resolve.


Yeah, it's been said before, but spiked armor. if someone provokes adjaect to you, give em a good ol' knee or shoulder tackle and on your turn, 5ft from them and bonk with your real weapon. No need for feats, just some extra cash for the spikes and however much you're willing to spend on enhancements for the spikes. Bardiche and and spikes also goves you 2 damage types (possibly even materials) for DR purposes, too.


I'd just take the template for the cat-folk in the ARG as a template, and start modding them using the race builder rules. Change the stat boosts, bonuses from Skilled, change claws to a bite, maybe give them scent instead of a climb speed or something... make sure the point costs are about the same though.


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Guild Wars 2 has a really good example of the magic = science sort with the Asura, which is basically a race of gnome-like creatures with a huge proclivity to science. Golems are not actually homogeneous constructions, but several separate pieces bonded together with magical energy fields to maintain their humanoid look and mobility, but require intricate rune carvings that serve as their circuitry and use gems as energy storage and conductors to regulate the magical power in the golems.

One of my DMs also let us buy weird Numerian arrows, one of which had a really complex head that armed itself when fired from a bow, and after it was armed, it would shove a portable hole into a bag of holding once it hit a solid surface, causing the classic black hole to the ethereal plane that we all know and love. Sadly, the magical rpg was a one time deal :(

Lastly, I had a summoner for a one shot who got her powers from magictech. She was a Gathlian magic item craftsman, and made her items by entering a meditative trance to envision the item she wanted to create, plucking a seed off of the plants embedded in her body, and planting them, where she performed a number of rituals so that when the plant flowered (which took as long as the item's craft time), the flower would open, containing the item she wanted to make. Her Eidolon was actually constructed like this, and to power it, she imbued it with a tenth of her soul, modeling it's design off of the visage of someone she had an unrequited love for. The magitech comes in with the fact that her wings and right arm were blown off in a mishap and replaced with magitech prosthetic versions. Her right arm contained a magical device that could open small rifts to summon creatures, as well as a device to convert her eidolon into data to store in a pocket dimension. The arm also served as a general amplifier and focus for her magic (no mechanical differences, it just changed how the somatic components looked). Her wings where a complex series of thin, conductive foil sheets that when she ran power through it, a magnetic field was created that let her fly. Both devices where powered by her body's natural energy, so she had a tendency to eat a lot of sugary foods because using these devices drained her body's energy reserves pretty quickly.


I take it you plan on chucking cards mainly, but keeping your staff hand ready? One thing to check though it whether or not Deadly Dealer lets you draw cards like ammunition or if you need fast draw to pull them out as a free action. I'm pretty sure you don't need the feat, since it talks about treating decks as a stack of 54 pieces of ammo, but I've seen some posters talk about it, so you'll want to clear that up before issues arise. Personally, I think I'd flip the point investment in CON and WIS, just because you already have a good will save and I like having as much HP as possible, but your mileage may vary on that.


yeah, staff magus has no overlap, and adds a bit to the gambit feel. It does throw me off a bit, since I'm not actually sure how much synergy there is, since... Harrowed Spellstrike, I believe is what it's called, only works with thrown projectiles, and changes the range of the spell to match your throw weapon's range increment (with I think is 20 ft, since deadly dealer turns cards into darts or harrow cards into +1 darts iirc). Personally, I'm really excited for this one since it lets me play a touhou character with ACTUAL SPELLCARDS! (or reference card captor sakura)


Card Caster has some interesting support for ranged attacks. They get deadly dealer 1st level and can use the feat without using arcane strike as long as the magus has at least 1 arcane point in his pool and get the ability to spellstrike touch attacks through his cards. Take note, though, that spell combat might not work with throwing harrow cards because of how spell combat is written and that card caster didn't change it.


Well, a lot of that depends on how you want to play the character. What are you looking to accomplish with the archetype combo, what's your projected play and fighting style? No resource I've found up right now really cover the unique abilities the card caster brings to the table, but the guide to the class guides has a few, really good articles of magi that might be helpful.


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I'm actually not sure literacy and grasp of numbers should inherently be tied to intelligence. If that's how you want to play your character, go right ahead, but the human species was not rendered permanently stupid until the written word was invented (actually, it's got to take some pretty sharp minds to manage to come up with something as complex as language). Our primitive ancestors were solving somewhat complex physics and engineering problems (like the best materials to make a bow, how to work metal, finding out that atlatls make spears do more damage and throw them farther, finding out the golden proportion of the length of the atlatl to the spear for optimum power, etc) all long before the first letter were scribed onto stone tablets.


Actually, Sandal from Dragon Age would be a prime example of a craftsman with a high intelligence... but is actually, in canon, mentally handicapped when it comes to most "typical" displays of intelligence. (It's also suggested that he's got some wicked good UMD scores or invented some kind of runic bomb on the fly since he somehow detonated an enemy with magic even though he's not a mage)


Dannorn wrote:

Ok so an honest question, if the character stats have no bearing on character actions outside of rolls, how can they have any bearing on character actions within rolls?

If the character concept need not have any relation to their stats, than how do their stats serve as a representation of that character through gameplay? If the Wizard is an idiot where does the +3/+4 come from on Knowledge or Craft checks? How do they master complex arcane mysteries?

I believe it was already mentioned, but there's a option of making them an idiot savant. All you need in order to be good at wizardry (at least in terms of preparing and casting spells) is a good memory. That idiot wizard? He probably doesn't actually have that many points in Knowledge skills, or if he does, it gets played like Fish-Legs from the How to Train Your Dragon movie. He sure had his facts memorized, but whenever he "rolled" a knowledge skill, he either recited raw facts from memory or he pulled out a manual of sorts and leafed through it to find the answer. Unless the answer to the problem was written in the book, Fish-Legs simply spouted out facts, and didn't actually explain HOW to utilize it; that was the domain of his more tactically minded teammates. The craft skill, once again, can be easily be explained by memorization. He might know the procedure he was taught for making items, and can follow them very well. However, chances are his work will feel uninspired and inartistic, and he'd be highly unlikely to try and invent something new.

Stats are only numbers, and a character is a lot more than that.


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Stats are simply numbers. There's no reason to punish them or force them to do anything. At that point, you're just making arbitrary and unnecessary restrictions on them that adds nothing to the game. Characters are a lot more than an array of number.


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These new iconics never cease to amaze, do they? It's quite rare and refreshing to see a half orc that was born from a consensual pairing. His backstory and motivations are really good, too! I like how in spite of being a warpriest, he actually questions on how he can use his skills at war for good without him forsaking the sword or his warrior mentality at all. It's a really good way of showing the more intricate facets of what it means to be an individual that worships Gorum. Gorum's always been a somewhat iffy deity for me; I thought he was pretty cool as far as warrior gods go, but I found it hard to get inspired by him for the purposes of making a PC. Oloch showed me the errors of that line of thinking.


oh, that's a standard action, I still have my move action!

Drats... that might be a legit issue... maybe a trick to be saves to the boss fight for a cinematic death...


Silent Image. Make those dungeon crawls come to life by animating the battles, changing the background to match the setting, and all sorts of fun stuff! Never run into the issue of not having the right mini! Make a board that automatically updates itself and keeps track of information, post up AoE buffs so people don't forget! The possibilities are endless!


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Have you looked at Brewer's guide to the Blockbuster wizard? The guide is more or less all about how to make fireball blow shit up with impunity. I believe there's also a metamagic guide out that could be helpful.

Your current feats are definitely solid. As for your future ones, burning spell isn't that good of a feat. The extra damage is just too little for what you're paying for it.

What you're really going to want is a way of changing the element of your fireball. You don't want to be stuck not being able to do anything when you run across a fire immune enemy. Another thing you'll want to keep in mind is metamagic rods. Some metamagic feats are only situationally helpful, or you may find they spell level increase too high for regular use. Think of them like feats you can buy.

Feats you may want to look into:

Persistent Spell (making your enemy have to save twice is really mean)

Elemental Spell (Seriously, you want to be able to bypass fire immunity and resistance. You'll know better than me what enemies you face tend to be immune to. Pick something that isn't commonly resisted. Acid tends to be pretty safe)

If you can spare the space, Dazing and quicken spell can be fun, but these can also be good candidates for rods, plus you've got cold ice strike for swift action casting fun without the metamagic.

Rods You'll want to look at:

Dazing Spell (You'll only get 3 uses per day, and this item is expensive, but a dazing persistent fireball with all of those DC boosts you put on it will really ruin your enemies' day. This one might even be worth making room for as a feat)

Quicken Spell (You know what's better than one explosion? Two explosions! Make your enemies quake at the the sight of your divine fury! This one's more optional, because of cold ice strike, but still helpful.)

Elemental Spell (Being good at elemental rock paper scissors is always good. The nice part about the rods is that you can pull out which one you need at a moment's notice to adapt. This is less needed if you took the feat, but still worth considering.)

Brewer covers metamagic stacking onto fireball pretty extensively in his guide. Because of how variable the game can be, it's hard to suggest exact combinations for mixing the metamagic, since it can vary quite a bit. If you'll be in a lot of enclosed areas, selective is invaluable. If not, don't bother preparing many of them and instead focus on damage. If you're fighting a lot of enemies resistant to fire, make sure you're preparing lightning/frost/caustic balls instead. A little scouting, either through an actual scout, divination, or good ol' fashioned information gathering about your mission really helps here. Eventually, you'll find a formula that works best for your game.


I think it should be noted that with elemental spell, Dragon's Breath is the same spell level as an Elemental Fireball, but allows you to choose the element when you cast the spell. Wizards focusing in evocation are probably using Admixture as their school, getting effectively all 4 elemental spell feats but better, and for free. Non blasters seem like they would find better mileage out of rod rather than taking it as a feat. Blaster sorcerers not using an elemental bloodline will probably be the biggest user of this feat if they opt for fireball to be their blast of choice. I'm not sure this is enough to justify reducing it's rating from blue, as fireball does have a better area of effect than dragon's breath for long range blasting, but it might be worth mentioning. All in all though, good guide, it's nice to see all the metamagic feats put into a concise guide, and the information is pretty well set up and organized. Always nice to see new guides come up!


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I actually tend to play characters who are quite physically dissimilar to me, so I mostly play females who are nonhuman. If I end up picking a race with highly mutable features, like a tiefling or aasimar, I usually play up my freedom as much as possible, and apply as many oddities in their physique as possible while still preserving aesthetic integrity (For example, a musetouched aasimar I made has grey skin, starry, semi real butterfly wings, long antennae, hair made out of silk, and jewel-like faceted eyes). The reason for this is because I find part of the fun of role playing is exploring a mind and setting that is distinctly not familiar to me.

Obviously because of my trend towards playing the opposite sex, I have no problem when other people do so. Even those people who are notorious for making fanservice characters to appeal to their personal tastes (this extends past straight men making highly promiscuous females, I've seen gamers of all sexes, orientations, and genders do this and similar things) don't tend to bother me unless they bog down the game. The only real issues I have is when people make characters as a means of preaching their real world morals, political opinions, and religion in-game. I actually received great holy hell from a player before because I made a cleric who followed a non judeo-christian god, and it got even worse when they found out she was a lesbian. Needless to say, that group didn't last long.


Technically, rogues already can hit touch AC. Just take Major Magic and pick chill touch or pick an eldritch heritage that gives you a touch attack (Aquatic and Shadow are two I can think of off the top of my head that grant melee touch bloodline powers, but there's probably more).

That being said, I think expanding the rogues options, rather than making them sneak attack better, is the way to go. The slayer class from the ACG will be designed with DPR focused play in mind. What really tends to define rogues in media is not their ability to kill things; it's having a large number of tricks. While many movies and books featuring skillful thieves often involve dispatching guards (either by killing them or knocking them out), the focus is almost always on how skilled and crafty they are rather than combat prowess. Boosting rogue talents I think would be both a much easier fix to implement as well as more true to the feel of the class.

Or... you could choose to play an arcane trickster or a rogue/gunslinger, and touch AC sneak attacks are your bread and butter!


YES now I will have the resources I need in order to convince a DM or to run a hybrid sci-fi/fantasy game with some interplanetary travel. Seasonally changing aliens and telepaths sound awesome! I can't wait to get my hands on it!


James Jacobs wrote:
Just a pet peeve of mine that folks accuse our iconics of always having "fantasy armor" when in fact we've tried hard to avoid that from the start—AKA from the first time we illustrated an iconic who actually has the ability to wear armor in the first place (Kyra... Seoni doesn't wear armor because she can't).

THANK YOU! For what it's worth, I rather appreciate how much effort you guys put into decided what kind of art to put in your books. Seeing a larger, but still attractive Shelyn in the Inner Sea Gods and Faiths of Purity books really made me happy, as well as seeing my favorite goddess (Desna) depicted nude in an artistic and tasteful way.

And, for something more topic relevant, I love the new iconic. she seems to be a really fun and interesting character, and has a good outlook. sinking a ship in her preteen years is pretty awesome. She's got a really cool design, too.


Why is patient optimist listed as a desna trait? That's erastil's iirc. It's a pretty minor thing, though.

I must say, I love the work you put into your site, and I'm glad I found out about it. A lot of people use the SRD in my group, which, while it works, sometimes doesn't have the actual wording of class features or class names (like calling the Rasmarian priest the false priest), an issue your site doesn't have. Keep up the good work!


number one is a bit tricky. I would be inclined to let it extend it's reach by 5 ft because it's a natural weapon, and enlarge person increases the reach for all attacks for bipeds. I've seen this question come up before, but I haven't seen an official answer yet. In either case though, enlarge person only extends a blind spot if you already had one. If you were using a longspear, you would get a 10 foot blind spot because the spear is already incapable of attacking enemies in your normal reach, but lets you stab further out. prehensile hair is capable of attacking adjacent enemies, so getting bigger would not prevent you from attacking adjacent enemies.

question two... sadly the answer is no from what I've seen. I haven't found a time though during my days of running a hexcrafter who's main weapon was her hair when I actually ran out of hair hex uses though. The white haired witch archetype gives you permanent hair, but I believe it removes your hexes. I don't know much about it, but I hear it's not that powerful unless you are using some odd strategies.


I can't really see much of an issue with Evangelists taking a PrC as their aligned class. PrCs do not have the same power level they once did. delaying the features you get from the PrC more than balances taking Evangelist to advance a PrC. In fact, many PrCs that considered weak are often partially because of getting their features too slowly. If Aligned Class starts getting the opportunities to level the PrC past it's max amount of levels (usually 10, but there are others, like sphere walker, that go to 5, etc), the solutions are pretty simple, just use the guidelines for past 20 leveling in the CRB or simply say there's no further benefit.

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