deuxhero's page

If we do something with a dragon race, we have our own draconic race to use since you can't really just do dragonborn

Dragonblood Human was included in the d20 Modern OGL material. Would need an extensive rework to be playable (it was so totally not worth the LA). No fluff included (or real clear idea of what they actually are) though.

I'd ultimately prefer something of a planetouched equivalent with some customization to buff kobolds with breath weapons. Pick if you want wings, claws, breath weapon and/or senses and all of them scale with level and spend feats to get more picks. That or just full blown actual (four legs, wings) dragon (hey, it worked for Fantasycraft!).

On NPC classes, one change I'd like to see is instead of Commoner getting one simple weapon EVER, they get a choice of an extra simple weapon, light shields or (if they already have light shields) light armor every HD. It would make it possible for a militia to bombard with slings and shields, then switch to clubs when threatened in melee without them having levels in another class.

Maybe some kind of penalty for using non-piercing reach weapons (and perhaps 2 handers in general) in enclosed spaces? They're pretty top tier weapons as is and could stand to be knocked down a peg.

deuxhero wrote:

If the new system is supposed to be setting neutral, I'd like to see a Ravenloft-esque technology level.

You know that Ravenloft level tech can range from basically stone age to post Renaissance, right?

Exactly. This would mean that for relatively little effort the system would support such a broad range of settings by just saying "X setting is TL ____" instead of re-writing the equipment section entirely per setting. It also means different cultures within a setting can have different levels (A place like Milan or Lantan could be a greater TL than its neighbors) like Ravenloft has. Also big for planet hopping sci-fi games as it can quickly set the abilities of the local natives.

Best way I can think of to handle TL disparity is to give a bonus/penalty to hit armored based on difference between weapon and armor material (a steel spear isn't particularly more lethal than a bronze one, but it will penetrate armor better). Something like stone/bone>bronze>iron>steel>hardened steel with each step giving +2/-2 each step of difference. Certain things would sit outside this (slings, being based on propelling lead to a high velocity, didn't really change much with material advances).

If the new system is supposed to be setting neutral, I'd like to see a Ravenloft-esque technology level. Cut down on technologies that obsoleted the other existing side-by-side, and helps provide flavor for various cultures in a way that fits in the stats block. The basic concept is already released to OGL via d20 Future.

Bring arms and armor weights closer to reality. Add a line to the weapons section making it explicit that the cost and weight of weapons includes standard accessories like scabbards and maintenance gear. Kill off the non-sense "studded leather" and just say under brigandine's description "[...] sometimes mis-identified as "studded leather" [...]". It exist purely as a relic of poor research from really old D&D and there's no reason to keep it.

Make guns simple weapons with a long reload time and reduce the loading time if one has martial weapon proficiency (which stacks with other sources of reload time reduction like rapid reload ect.). Being super mysterious, ultra expensive, weapons only specialists can use that randomly explode is ridiculous. Data says prices were about 2-3 times a basic sword. The US Hall Rifle trials set average muzzle loading matchlock rate of fire from trained soldiers at 2.223 shots a minute. That makes it a weapon for large scale engagements, opening volley, and burst damage, which is a solid mechanical niche that sets it apart from other weapons.

Starting equipment is always one of the most time consuming things for creating a new character. Don't cut down on options, but provide bundles that allow quickly grabbing related gear without micro-managing costs.

I liked how Saga Edition let you finesse any one handed weapon you had weapon focus in. While Weapon Focus itself ought to be killed off, it being relatively simple (but not totally without cost) to finesse one handed weapons was the right idea.

I've heard PFS allows aid another (which has no negative effect on failure) on diplomacy, likely to deal with exactly your problem.

Android. There's a small bit about it in Iron Gods book 1.

Mythic is unbalanced in both directions. It renders classes that are heavily dependent on class level for features extremely weak since they don't advance these abilities while enemies do get stronger. At the same time however, mythic absolutely breaks spellcasters with zero effort since an Archmage can pull any spell out of their ass just for being an Archmage. Gestalt at least takes some effort to break (you need to find a class with action economy manipulation and/or strong passives) and few classes get useless in it. Gestalt also has no inherit action economy manipulation abilities.

Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao

Kineticist needed more support, but it was the clearest vision of any of them. Mesmerist was a distant second.

The only reason you'd have to choose the Shifter is because the druid feels complicated. Kind of like playing a Warpriest with negative wisdom because you feel spells are annoying to remember.

That remind's me of Shifter's biggest flaw: A Druid with negative wisdom is better at it in everything except BAB (meh). A class focused on shapeshifting ought to at least be the best shapeshifter or a serious contender, but loads of existing shapeshifter options were better in every way.

Hand of the Mage gives them a hand. If they can manipulate things with it is questionable though.

People wear tight clothing in summer? No adventurer past level 4 lacks a cloak of resistance.

No sorcerer, wizard or magus got archetypes or even feats that grant access to the arcanist's exploits.

???

Then what's the point of pickpocket's outfit if they don't stack?

Outfitted with concealed pockets, this clothing gives you a +2 bonus when hiding small objects on your person.

An extraordinarily small object, such as a coin, shuriken, or ring, grants you a +4 bonus on your Sleight of Hand check to conceal it, and heavy or baggy clothing (such as a cloak) grants you a +2 bonus on the check.

Does this stack and make the bonus an effective +4?

In PFS there's no such thing as a divine or arcane scroll, which is a circumstance, but it also has no player to player economy.

Wings of Flying gives an always on fly speed of 60 for 54,000. Griffon Mane is a backdoor retconing of this price down to 48,600GP. Aside from the cost, the biggest downside is taking the cloak of resistance slot, which is painful unless you've got the Protection domain or one of the high end body slot items that boosts saves as part of a long buff list.

Make a ship into a colossal Animated Object per Ultimate Magic. That's only 30,000 if you craft it yourself. Even with the ship's cost it's only 40,000GP (33,333.333~ GP if you Fabricate a ship into being).

Skulls and Shackles's Players Guide states Animated Object can target a ship if it's sufficient size. A ship is even 2e's example of a colossal animated object!

In 3.5 parts removed form a creature returned to their natural form, and I'd guess it's the same for PF (I can't find anything one way or another). Since you need some of those parts for polymorph you'd get one of their natural form. Simulacrum with eschew material components/false focus is a whole nother can of worms.

Some old RPGA guidelines provide a bit of insight

All of the Knowledge related skills require that you be trained in that skill; otherwise all you know is what is "common" knowledge. Therefore a hero that is a U.S. citizen who does not have the American History skill will certainly know that the U.S. fought the British to gain their freedom, but they will not know which generals/troops fought at a specific battle or even dates of specific battles. Borderline topics require a judgement call if a skill check is needed."

(This was from 3.0 if you're wondering why there's a separate skill for American History)

Because there was a post I wanted to respond to? I’m allowed to post on these forums same as anyone else thank you very much.

As in why are you, the character, helping her get the throne. The AP is unsure of why your characters need to be helping.

Uh, WftC’s conflict get established from the get go. Trying to get Eutropia on to the throne.

Why are you doing this?

Is Taldor a land where
a: Women can't inherit but are otherwise equal
b: Women are treated worse then men, including unable to inherit
c: Only the position of Emperor can't be inherited by women.

Depending on which source you ask, you get a different answer. Lots seem to work on a or b, but have plenty of female nobles that seem to have inherited their title.

The player's guide was clearly written after the fact, but contradicts the AP at many points. Aside from the fluff, you've got crunch like how one of the noble families gives a bonus to influencing crowds, which simply doesn't come up in the AP for several books (if it did at all)

I don't see WftC being that good. In-fact, it's one of the worst instances of lack of a clear overall vision. It never clearly established the exact nature of its primary conflict so each author's depiction on the details is all over the place. Likewise, as far the actual plot goes, only two factions for control exist, but there's supposedly a bunch of others you only get the name of. Gameplay is all over the place too, often picking UI stuff at random.

Was about to post the psychic archetype myself. It's very weird, but quite powerful if you know what situational spells are on the psychic list.

Aether is strong thematically (all its abilities are logical extensions of telekinesis) and top of the pack in utility power.

Any new Infinite Worlds options? Paradigm Shifts?

Spells that send extraplanar creatures home would if the target is actually of extraplanar origin (as opposed to something like a ghost or caster that cast Possession), since OA confirms you can target a creature possessing someone if you know the creature exists. I suppose it's possible to knock someone out and drag them to another plane to use it on anything (except maybe ghosts, who require their target be on the Material Plane and it's unclear if existing possession continues upon extra planar travel)

Wyrwood-Android relations would be interesting. Kitsune's shapeshifting would be nice. Also the Child Android subtype.

You're a high intelligence character. Triple your wealth by crafting untrained. This is especially so if you can drop one of your 1st level spells into Crafter's Fortune. Now you can afford both.

Otherwise, talk to the rest of the party. Splitting the cost of a medium tent in half would also allow you to get both and have 5 silver left over.

Preferred Spell lets you get an unlimited number of castings of one domain spell of your choice.

Petitioners don't have any gear, and only special outsiders (have some unique circumstance in story like exposure to a demigod's artifact designed to do that, or establishing a massive civilization) and some Cassisians retain anything of the petitioners that formed them.

Dragon78 wrote:

Sorry, meant to say "...it is a shame that bloodrager and sorcerer didn't have all the same bloodlines."

So I noticed when Bloodrager first came out -- what's up with that, anyway?

Best guess is that during the playtest, which had the same default bloodlines, you couldn't multiclass between hybrid classes and their parent classes. This meant "If the bloodrager takes levels in another class that grants a bloodline, the bloodlines must be the same type" wasn't very likely to come up (if it was even in the playtest version) so there was no incentive to ensure multiclassing between Bloodrager and Sorcerer was easy.

Past the initial Bloodrager bloodlines, it seems largely a case of Sorcerer being more popular and thus better supported than its parent. Only Black Blood and Sphinx (and technically Hag, but Accursed is the same thing just with a different name) are Bloodrager only.

There are no first party references to Craft (Drawing) that I'm aware of, but a handful to Craft (Painting) with stuff like Instant Portrait, Marvelous Pigments, Trompe L'oeil and Cyberart. Cyberart is made with "a small metallic stylus that injects low-grade nanites into a body part" while only referencing painting or tattoo craft skills.

More importantly, Craft is such a underwhelming skill (except, from what I've heard, intelligence based classes in PFS who use it as an easily boosted dayjob and cheap alchemy items), especially when DCs are so low that a Wizard can trivially Fabricate almost anything untrained with just his intelligence bonus+Crafter's Fortune (and Guidance if a divine caster friend feels fancy) alone. Allowing one skill to cover charcoal, pencil, ink, paint and on wax with a stylus (which was used for etching patterns onto metal) is perfectly fine.

While looking for stuff you can't dispel, I found this spell. While it's not a good spell (it hurts the victim), it does make it clear dispel does work to stop possession.

as a general rule, you can dispel any spell with an on-going duration (there may be some specific cases but off-hand I don't recall)

The big ones are Prismatic Wall, Wall of Force and Anti-Magic Field. Permanency of spells effecting you can be dispeled, but work a bit differently.

I didn't notice the race restriction. Goes to show you should check theoretical optimization builds you find posted.

Still, Psychic does have a route to immortality. As for Cleric, avoiding death forever kinda seems opposite their entire thing. How does one get powers from a god then work to avoid ever meeting that god?

Psychic gets Major Mind Swap. Just steal a new body every half century or so, or steal the body of something functionally immortal. Psychic 18/Mesmerist 2 is a notorious build that can become the Tarrasque.

There's one AP where a PC could potentially be the child of a god. It has a horrible execution and is completely and utterly pointless.

Starting with a fire arrow is a great opener, but letting your familiar create fire makes the spell more versatile, allowing it to be used in combat when you've got a big ball of enemies you want to blind.

Really, the main issue I see with your build is the low con and you're missing a feat somehow (should have two at 1st, another at third, and yet another at fifth).

You're a bard with a familiar. I hope you've got UMD as a skill. Get your familiar some wands to get your action economy up. Enlarge Person is the obvious one, since you've got multiple melee allies. Some spell that causes fire (higher CL Snap Dragon Fireworks?) would help make Pyrotechnics great. What's your alignment? Improved Familiar has some great options and your level 11 feat is free.

Pyrotechnics is a very good battlefield control spell if you can ensure fires being present. That's going to be less common in a naval campaign compared to torch filled dungeons, but you should keep it because it has a fantastic secondary use that can't be underestimated for a naval campaign: "The spell uses one fire source, which is immediately extinguished". That makes it great for stopping your own ship from being lit on fire.

Infact, Robes of Arcane Heritage make Imperious bloodline the earliest method of explicit immortality besides that Druid archetype.

It would reduce the value of two handed charge smash builds... which isn't necessarily a bad thing since they're considered the best martial builds and easiest to pull off by far anyways. If this would be a buff to shield users and ranged attackers or a nerf to martials is unclear. Would certainly hurt PCs more than NPCs though, since NPCs outnumber PCs most of the time and can afford to be passive.

I too never heard of it being controversial. Only controversy I ever saw was that it's not on the Bloodrager list.

You can ignore terrain or even direction with it. It does allow you to do things like cross over a pit or hit a (low) flying enemy. It doesn't allow you to go through a wall. Obstacles along the ground are a little more ambiguous, but I'd say you're propelled in a straight line without touching the ground

3E hates spontaneous casters.

Something silver, something cold iron, something blunt, a light slashing weapon, something non-lethal and something ranged. Silver and cold iron can be covered by weapon blanch/alternate arrow types, and silver can be covered by raw pluses and a weapon that's either Holy or treated with an Oil of Bless Weapon (there's nothing with regeneration that's stopped by silver that isn't also stopped by good, but there is things that need cold iron to kill).

I think an archer can get away with merciful bow+various arrows+whatever light slashing weapon. Merciful is generally decent on a bow since it stacks with the normal damage for overcoming damage reduction, and very few creatures that are immune are obvious.

I wouldn't count the need for a tuning fork as a serious obstacle to getting to a private demiplane. It's a focus with no value, even with the Planar Adventures chart that gives tuning forks value (unique tuning forks, for which a private demiplane is an explicit example, are "priceless"). so can be bypassed with relative ease. Chief among them Eschew Material Components and Robe of Components.

A personal demiplane with Forbiddance targeting all but a small "receiving" area and store your phylactery (plus spare spellbook and whatever else you need) in an area that can only be accessed by teleportation. This makes it so only creatures of your alignment can reach your soul.

Hard part is getting both Forbiddance and Permanency on your spell list.

Dragon78 wrote:

House Rules I don't like. -Not allowing classes.

.

I disallow Gunslinger completely.

And I disallow Occult Adventures mostly because I haven't learned the system. Eventually I'll be in the mood to really read it in depth, build a few PCs, and introduce an NPC or two in my campaign. Then, once I know the rules a bit for OA, I can allow it.

The little that I've seen in play -- two character builds I saw in different games when visiting other groups -- were quite unbalanced.

But the little OA perusing I've done shows good balance. .... So I assume it's mostly balanced but, as with several gaming books across the decades, there's a few things here and there that are 'too good to be kept.'

OA doesn't really require that much learning if you're just taking player options from it. The only real difference for psychic casting is the component changes. A lot of things look complicated, but are very close to existing material (Psychic is in almost every way a Sorcerer with different bloodlines and a worse spell list. Mesmerist is pretty easy to understand too.) Most of the book is GM material.

As for balance... I'm bad at remembering off hand what book things come from that aren't classes, but the classes are all over the place. Psychic is still as broken as a Sorcerer that only has the hardcover books and becomes nuts with Rebirth discipline and or amnesiac archetype (Repeatedly spontaneously casting your entire list with just a small failure chance in your way? What could possibly be broken about that?!). Spiritualist is a mostly worse unchained summoner, unless you abuse the slightly different deliver touch spells ability (you can do it at a distance) and Phantom Fighter feat (Your not Eidolon is now incorporeal with a ghost touch attack, which most monsters are totally incapable of doing anything about). Kinietict has a vast gap between power ceiling (Telekinetist is a solid all around class) and floor (You can be useless from a bad element pick, or the bad guys learn about you and grabbing resist energy). There's also a combo that requires being level 20 and lets you instantly become the Tarrasque (or whatever high level monster you face) with decent reliability. It only requires using a spell from OA and ability from OA exactly as they were intended to be used (the only complication is the two are in different classes, but it's an easy dip). Medium is just an utter mess of design that slipped by playtesting entirely thanks to a fundamental change (originally we were told there would be more than the 6 spirits we got in the future) that, to my memory, wasn't tested.

Going to give my vote for Druid. It has the kind of utility the party otherwise lacks sufficient quantity of while the other two are just brutes who risk killing things in ways that outshine the others. Animal Companion is the biggest danger, but there are choices like wolf that compliment melee fighters instead of replacing them.

Some examples of alien animals for Druids, Rangers, etc. on the Distant Worlds, with some abilities (balanced!) that aren't typically available to Golarion critters and high-light the out-there nature of alien animal life. Ditto, at least one alien animal 'mount' option for Distant Worlds paladins, cavaliers, etc.

There's a PFS boon that tries to do this

Apparently whoever wrote this didn't realize animal companions changed in the 3.5 to PF transition. Also none of them are big enough to be useful as animal companions anyways

How about Mesmerist? Your stare with the Sluggish option for Bold Stare and intimidate on a Charisma based class will help at least the Sorcerer and Magus by killing the enemy saves (Bard and Warpriest might also get benefit depending on their spell options). The class also has plenty of other debilitation magic which (depending on the Bard's spell selection) you might be lacking. With a party of damage dealers you're never going to totally miss triggering Painful Stare (though missing the bonus you get for triggering it yourself hurts), Mesmerist Tricks are another party bonus and Touch Treatment can help with condition removal the Warpriest might not have the spells prepared to deal with.