cithis's page

Midnightoker wrote:

Lelomenia wrote:

But even pretending that rangers start every round adjacent to their enemies with Hunt Prey active doesn’t make it okay to assume Magi start every round without an active Striking Spell.

Let me put it to you this way, if we assume that neither are next to their target at the start of the round, and the target always moves on their turn, can you guess whose DPR is affected more?

The Magus. By a lot.

Even shooting star requires they be within 30 feet, which if we assume the enemy can return fire at a further distance (or attack someone else) still puts them in the same spot.

Also I think "Sustaining Steel always has Haste after level 5" is a pretty ridiculous assumption for a variety of reasons.

If you want to make that classification for Magus, you might as well make the same stand for Ranger. You can't give one Class a permanent buff and not the other just to prove your point.

for that first question, Slide Caster is affected less than Ranger, Shooting Star is affected less until things turn into a 1-on-1 Kiting scenario, and unhasted Sustaining Steel is hurt more.

In general, all the syntheses have strengths and weaknesses:
Slide Caster: effective when you assume movement is required every turn or two; suboptimal in extended toe-to-toe
Sustaining Steel: effective in extended toe-to-toe, struggles when you assume movement required every round or two unless they use built-in Haste access
Shooting Star: effective outside of 1 on 1 kiting scenarios

I’m not sure how it is ‘unfair’ to allow the Magus to cast one of his spells each combat, but I’ll let that go too.

Depending on the number of combats you run into during any given day (I've heard 4 is not an outlier) then you would be assuming that every spell slot is dedicated to haste, and therefore they have no more slots to use for damage spells. In that case, their numbers are going to drop like a rock because cantrips are strictly less effective than multiple attacks as it stands.

As an innate spell it uses your CHA modifier for spell attack rolls and you are trained in it's use. You will not get any better than trained without a caster dedication.

As a cantrip it is auto heightened at the appropriate levels (half character level rounded up).

A stance is maintained automatically as long as you choose to maintain it. It costs no actions to keep active, however it cannot be used outside of an encounter.

Honestly I'd rather not introduce another casting mechanic to the game. Yeah Vancian casting has it's problems, but having to try and balance it with another completely disparate structure is far more than what I think is needed.

When it comes to Sorcerers, I really want the bloodlines to play by and far the largest role in how a sorcerer works. They are granted their magic by their ties to a specific magical creature or substance or whatever, and all of their abilities should demonstrate that connection in some significant fashion. In that regard I think Paizo has done okay but would need some fine tuning.

Comparing to a wizard, I feel like there should be a difference in how their spells work but on different scales. Wizards study and understand how and why their spells do what they do, but they have to prepare the ones they want. I feel like having a lot of choice to manipulate the individual spells they cast as they do so should be a big thing because of that very understanding. Sorcerers on the other hand, only know a few spells and understand them more on instinct then by actual knowledge of how they function. Metamagics should be available but fairly limited for a sorcerer, though in exchange I feel it would be far more appropriate for them to be able to adjust the power behind any spell far more flexibly. Spontaneous heightening for all spells basically.

TL;DR: Wizards understand their magic and can quickly make fine-tuned adjustments (metamagic) while sorcerers are more intimately familiar with their own power and how that can affect their spells (spontaneous heightening).

Matthew Downie wrote:

I think there's a tabletop gaming cultural divide between the dice-first approach and the ability-first approach.

"If there's no significant chance of failure it's not an exciting challenge, it's just a foregone conclusion."
versus
"I should succeed at this skill because I made a character who is good at this skill."

It's hard to satisfy both groups.

I feel the best way to express my desire for this dichotomy is that overall situations should be tough to resolve with a chance of failure, but many individual checks/actions you're specialized in should not have a significiant chance of failure. And if you manage to design a good approach to the situation which uses all the stuff you're specialized in, in a smart way, maybe the overall situation loses its significant chance of failure, and that's okay if you were smart enough and had characters perfect for the situation.

That's my biggest gripe with the tightness of the math in all of this. If you have a character built to handle a specific situation to the absolute best possible chance, then you still have upwards of a %40 chance of failure for most of the game.

C is my biggest complaint all in all. Blasters were never really that great an idea for casters, and even when it was a good idea it was only for very specific circumstances. A wizard who knows exactly what's coming should be nigh unstoppable. If he's unprepared he pays the price by losing a lot of use. That's inherent in the vancian casting system. I don't have a problem with that.

Losing so much to our spell durations though is, let's say spiritually taxing. There's a lot going on that is a reasonable shift to help bring martial classes a little more in line with what they honestly should be, but not being able to use magic to properly supplement out of combat is the biggest issue.

"Let's transform our scout into a creature native to the region and have him use his incredible skill aided by my magic to practically guarantee that he isn't discovered... for the first minute of his trip... you know, until he gets to where he needs to be and is immediately seen because it's kind of hard to ignore a person suddenly popping into existence."