filgaiasguardian's page

I think the riding drake is supposed to be more like D&D style drakes which are wingless protodragons vaguely resembling their true dragon cousins. Here's a blue drake example from 5th. I like it! I just hope with it being uncommon that I can have one in PFS. I'd like a Champion/Cavalier of Apsu to ride one!

Are there any stand out feats in the book?

There's a lot and everyone has different ideas on what makes a feat good, but the coolest one I saw is one that works as a substitute for Skill Focus for the prereq of Eldritch Heritage and if you use it for that purpose, you can take a Wildblooded version of the bloodline.

What are the new weapon groups and what weapons are in them?

Only weapon group is Tribal which contains club, dagger, greatclub, handaxe, heavy shield, light shield, shortspear, spear, throwing axe, and unarmed strike.

What is the elemental based shifter archetype like?

You can add elemental damage to your attacks instead of grow claws and you wild shape into elementals of your chosen aspects instead of animals.

Morbid Eels wrote:

Sad to hear that the Shifter is a disappointment.

I would suggest still seeing it for yourself because of the "internet".

I second this opinion. Even though it's not what I'd hoped, it's still not terrible. It's just different than what I was expecting so I'm working with it and trying different builds to see how I'd like to play it. I still intend to take one to PFS once it gets cleared.

What are new fey based polymorph spells like?

I got my PDF today and this was one of the things I was looking forward to the most. There's 4 tiers of Fey Form and they allow you to use a wide variety of special abilities. You don't get spell-like abilities, but there is something nice related to the spell-likes of the form you assume. Overall I really like the series! I was super disappointed there weren't any archetypes using them, though. Really wanted a druid archetype that had fey wildshape. Maybe in the future?

Has anyone actually gotten their PDFs yet?

My order is still pending and hasn't shipped as of 5 minutes ago. Oh! Maybe now! ...Nope, still no. ._.

I think its hard to balance making something a better shifter than the druid without making them a better fighter than the fighter.

I don't think that should be much of a concern. While the Shifter and Fighter are both melee combatants, Fighter's "thing" is using weapons. Either lots of different kinds or being really good at a specialized few. Shifters, presumably, only use natural weapons. Even if Shifter does more DPR than a Fighter (which isn't the only thing that matters, of course), people will still play/favor Fighter because they want to use cool weapons/dislike nature-themed classes/prefer being a humanoid/etc. Besides, looking strictly at tiers, Fighter is pretty bottom of the barrel so I would hope the Shifter ranks higher than that. No offense, Fighters.

My long shot hope for this book is a reprint of the avian base form for eidolons compatible with Unchained Summoner and PFS legal. Been dying to make a phoenix-themed Summoner and I was so disappointed when the avian and centaur forms weren't allowed. They were released right before PFU and didn't work with the new eidolon subtypes. T-T

filgaiasguardian wrote:

What if Paizo offered some sort of book registration for PFS? You take your books to a LGS. The game stores have sheets of labels with registration numbers that are placed in a standard position on the book, like top of the inside left cover. Then the store fills out a registration online tying the Name of the book and the registration number to your PFS number. Then, from our account page, we can have a list of all hard copy titles we've registered like we currently have for PDFs. Then we can print that page out to prove ownership. You could also use photocopies of the material you use for your character as long as it comes from a registered book. I dunno, it's just a rough idea, but I could see something like that working. The LGS could even charge like a dollar per registration. I don't think people would mind paying for the convenience of not having to lug tons of books around.

Again, this places the burden on someone OTHER than the owner of the book. In this case, the LGS would bear the burden of doing the work of registering the book, keep a sheet of labels, etc. For that reason alone I would oppose it - anything that transfers the responsibility from the player to some other entity is unlikely to get my support (and many others, I would imagine.)

But, I will say this - your idea is beyond just saying, "let us bring photocopies." It really tries to solve this issue in a way that kills 2 birds with one stone, and I very much appreciate that.

Thank you! I tried to come up with a solution that benefits everyone. I don't actually see this as placing a burdon on the stores. On the contrary, it's giving them something else to make money on! Assuming the registration site was well designed and easy to use, we're talking about a process that would take less than a minute to complete and the store pockets an extra buck or two. Heck, they could charge whatever they wanted as long as it was still cheaper than just buying a PDF version of the book. It's an add on they could suggest with every book sold and a way to make money off products that have already been sold. I don't see this as anything but a win for the stores.

Would someone kindly explain the harmonies?

Bard teamwork feats, correct? Sounds like another use for Battle Hymn of the People's Revolt!

Basic Harmony (teamwork) - You can use aid another to help the performance check of another with this feat. The bonus to the other's perform check increases the higher your aid roll is.

Charming Performance - You can use perform as diplomacy to improve the attitude of an NPC toward you or another person.

Compelling Harmonies (teamwork) - You can spend a round of bardic performance to increase the DC of another with the feat's performance.

Counterpoint to Inspiration (teamwork) - Increase an ally with this feat's moral bonus from their performance by performing the same song yourself.

Rouse Emotions - You can use Charming Performance on a group of people and opt to have it influence their attitude toward a well-known group or organization.

So I believe that the Instructor wizard is the only archetype which has yet to be detailed. Could we please have any spoilers for that as well?

The instructor starts out with an apprentice cohort who starts as a commoner, but eventually becomes a real wizard. It still uses a Leadership score to determine how strong your cohort can be, but it's based on Int rather than Cha. When the wizard gains a bonus feat, they can choose a Teamwork feat that they share with the apprentice as long as it's nearby.

Well that's weird...what's the difference between that and taking Leadership? Other than not having followers?

The Monstrous Companion is weaker than a cohort gained through Leadership and they can gain the AC's link and share spells, evasion and devotion abilities, but only if the character level of the cohort is low enough to have 1, 3 and 6 class levels respectively.

For example, a blink dog (ECL 4) with 6 class levels would have all the animal companion abilities and only require you to have 17 druid levels. Yup. Imagine a druid sending a 9HD blink dog after a CR17 monster with an all of +10 bite and 14 AC... At least it can dimension door at will to gtfo, right?

To put it even more in perspective, a normal dog animal companion at druid level 17 has 14HD, +16 Bite and 24 AC.

That dimension door, though!

What can you tell me about tauric eidolons? What free evolutions do they have? The basics would seem to cast at least six evolution points.

Tauric eidolons start as small unless you pay 2 evolution points to make them medium. Free evolutions are claws, limbs (arms) and limbs (legs)x2.

Also, are there any mechanices for gaining a cohort without followers?

The Divine Guardian (paladin), Esquire (cavalier), and Instructor (wizard) archetypes all provide unique cohorts as class features that do not come with followers. The Recruits feat lets you gain a number of cohorts equal to half your character level, all of which must be 4 character levels below you. No "followers", but the cohorts are more like followers than cohorts so I guess it doesn't count. Finally, if you have an animal companion, you can swap it out for a magical beast cohort via Monstrous Companion feat. I think that covers all the means of gaining cohorts in the book.

3)What is the Proselyter and what does it get?

Loses heavy armor and martial weapon proficiency but gains proficiency with deity's favored weapon. They gain a list of spells that basically control emotions. Can deal nonlethal damage using sacred weapon damage. They get "conversion bonuses" for every NPC they convert to their religion. Last, they get the ability to use a major blessing to communicate with any creature that has a language.

4)What is the Dread Investigator and what does it get?

Dread Investigator gains inspiration, studied combat and studied strike at delayed levels. They gain a list of necromancy spells as extracts to effect dead bodies as the infusion discovery. Gain a bonus against death effects, negative levels and negative energy. When taking the alchemical discovery talent, they can choose from alchemical zombie, mummification, or preserve organs. They gain the undead anatomy series of extracts and can use them to mess with dying people. This is so gross. xD

5)What is the Esquire and what does it get?

They gain a cohort that has a few limitation on class selection. Whenever the cohort is adjacent to the cavalier, they gain any teamwork feats the cavalier has. The cavalier can share his challenge bonuses with the cohort. The cohort can carry your banner for you providing the same effect to everyone and double the effect for the cohort. The cohort can avenge the cavalier if he is killed or otherwise out of commission and gains the ranger's quarry ability. The capstone staggers enemies the cavalier and cohort crit on the same round.