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I tried to start up a PFS in Lexington back during season 0, but it never seemed to get off the ground. Sadly, I don't have time to run a PFS group now, since I'm doing my last year of undergrad and I really need to buckle down before graduation. I might have time come spring, depending on how fall goes... but I can't make any promises right now.
I've got the first volume of RotR open right in front of me, and her hair is green. It's greener in SD, but it's still green in her original pic. She's also got dark eyes in both of her other pictures, and blue eyes in the new one. I could see the argument that they're trying to bring Golarion elves back into a single standard or something, but her pupils are as wrong in this one as they were in RotR (which was corrected in SD). I know it's a weird thing to be disappointed about, but it just bugs me.
There's a magus archetype called Soulforger that gives you an arcane bonded weapon. The kusarigama and kyoketsu shoge are both reach weapons (and both are real-world inspirations for the spiked chain), but they're both just normal reach weapons as far as I can see in the text.
My understanding is that this is actually an English-translation mistake. The class is originally a "Dragon Knight" (ryukishi), and the American localization shortened it to "Dragoon" because some American Squaresoft employee had heard the word at some point and thought it was cool. This isn't a "Japanese people get words wrong sometimes" issue (though that does happen). It's an "Americans don't know archaic words in their own language very well" issue. XD
If it is not too much to ask, could someone provide a little more information on the Unarmed Fighter archetype (e.g., what abilities he gets and what abilities he loses) and on the monk martial arts styles (names and what they focus on)? Unarmed Fighter gives up his 1st level bonus feat for an unarmed style. Basically, he gets Improved Unarmed Strike *and* a martial arts style feat, so he gives up one feat he could use for anything for two feats that are already mostly picked out. He gives up bravery for an ability called harsh training, which gives him a scaling saving throw bonus against fatigue, exhaustion, staggered, and temporary ability score penalties. They replace armor training 1 with DR/- equal to half their fighter level that only applies to nonlethal damage or damage they take while grappling. Their weapon training only applies on monk weapons and natural weapons. Armor training 2 goes away for some grappling abilities, and armor training 3 gets replaced by an ability that lets you trip someone if you succeed on a drag. They have an ability that lets them trip someone then do a dirty trick against them, but I think it's miswritten, since it replaces an ability that a previous ability already replaces (weapon training 2). At mid-to-high levels, unarmed fighters can do things like "if you confirm a crit, do a dirty trick to blind that opponent as a swift action" and "if you punch a pinned or flat-footed creature, you can do a dirty trick or trip as a swift action." Their big deal really seems to be "add a combat maneuver to another one, or add a combat maneuver to a punch or grapple." Their top ability is immunity to nonlethal damage, and to fatigue, exhaustion, and the staggered condition; this replaces weapon master. The martial styles are mostly named for animals or elemental outsiders. Each styke is a three feat chain, and you can only use one style at a time, switching between them as a swift action:
It's a combination of the two. The picture is very clearly the latter, and the class is pretty strongly weighted toward "heavily armored spear user", but they're also almost a cavalier hybrid because they get a banner ability and mounted combat stuff. It's basically like a middle ground between the real-world dragoon and the one more gamers are familiar with, the Final Fantasy one.
Well, they replace out the same stuff, so you can't take both of them. The wizard hunter gives you bonuses against a specific wizard school, and eventually you learn to defend yourself against more schools. The witch hunter gives you bonuses against hexes. They both have abilities that generically work against arcane magic, so they're good against any arcane caster. They're just not particularly exciting.
Which is a terrible way to write an archetype. I'm not asking that they be stronger than a base class (which would be bad in a different way), just that they be equally good in order to make them mechanically viable. Anyway, the inquisitor archetypes are sadly lackluster. There's one that thinks magic items are evil, one that thinks wizards are evil, and one that hunts witches. They're all pretty clearly intended to be used primarily by NPCs, just because a given PC probably won't see enough of any one thing their archetype gives them to matter over the course of a campaign, except in very specific circumstances.
That is why I asked if he gets anything worth it down the road. Apparently not. You give up all of your mercies for some weak energy resistances, eventual immunity to petrification, permanent tongues at 15th level, and an 18th level ability to generate a magic circle against evil for a round per level that can be broken up. You give up lay on hands and channel energy for the ability to summon a celestial monster a number of times a day equal to your Charisma modifier, but can only have one at a time; the level of the summon monster ability goes up over time. Your mount gets the celestial template at 8th level instead of 11th. And at 20th level, instead of holy champion, you become an outsider with wings. I would say the replacement abilities are mostly weaker, with your mount getting its upgrade 3 levels sooner being a very slight bump back in the right direction. But then giving up divine grace for something that's worth 1 skill point... It's not just a tilt in the wrong direction, it's a horrible landslide. It's not as bad as the geisha was, but it still takes a concept that I was personally very interested in and makes it into an archetype that I'll actively warn my players away from. =/
Archetype abilities aren't always directly balanced by the ability they replace. That's why you have to take the whole archetype instead of a cherry picking abilities.It's 1 skill point. Empyreal Knights give up divine grace for the ability to speak and read Celestial.Someone needs to tell the Paizo staff that "+3 to +5 to all saving throws" does not equal "1 skill point." Seriously, what the crap, Empyreal Knight? >_<Is that one skill point or one per level? Yes, I get that. The rest of the archetype is more or less balanced on what it trades off and gets in return. Where it fails is that it asks the paladin to give up a class ability that is fairly crucial to their low-level survival in exchange for something they could have taken anyway by spending 1 skill point. It's nonsensical, and it makes the whole archetype much less appealing.
Someone needs to tell the Paizo staff that "+3 to +5 to all saving throws" does not equal "1 skill point." Seriously, what the crap, Empyreal Knight? >_<Does he trade any other abilities for something weaker? From my glance-over, everything else is more or less balanced as far as tradeoffs go. They just give up divine grace for the ability to speak a single language. It's ridiculous. =/
I don't think we mention it enough: Best CEO ever. +1. Even if I don't care for the next AP that much, Paizo's staff are always made of awesome. ^_^ Also... Yaaaaaarrr! ;)
This... actually kind of disappoints me. I'm not a huge pirate fan, so a pirate-themed AP leaves me a little flat. Not saying it will be bad or anything; given Paizo's overall AP quality, it'll probably wind up being quite good. But much like Legacy of Fire wasn't my thing, this isn't really my thing either. Kudos to all the pirate fans, though. =)
I know that not a lot of people have the book yet, but I thought I should put this out here so that people can be thinking about it. The sin eater archetype for inquisitor allows you to eat the sins of an enemy you've slain to heal yourself. This is fine (though the wording is a little weird, since you use the ability as a free action, but it takes a minute to finish...), but the 8th level ability lets you eat the sins of a corpse that would rise as an undead to prevent that from happening. My question is this: What situation would this actually be useful in? How many times are you going to kill an enemy that would have risen as an undead after death such that you need to spend a minute "making sure"? Admittedly, it can happen, especially in a horror-oriented game, but the wording of the ability makes it seem like the point of this ability is to save someone's soul after they've been killed by a spawning-type undead (it even references shadows and vampires). But the ability can only be used on someone the inquisitor killed, not someone killed by a monster. So is this a mistake of some kind? Should the ability be usable on anyone who dies in the inquisitor's presence? Or is the entire 8th level ability basically useless?
Speaking of inquisitions... can anyone give an example what those do? Are they worth giving up the domain powers? (Frankly, I'd like to know if either Caydan or Serenrae have inquisition that are better than Caydan's travel domain) They give you domain-like granted powers, and are basically like inquisitor-only domains. They don't have spells attached, since they're for inquisitors, so they're not meant for other domain-using classes.
Minor spellblights include: *Caster blank: You have trouble targeting the same creature more than once with magic.*Caster croak: You can only talk at all if you use a swift action to force your throat open, and your verbal spells have a failure chance. *Confounded casting: You get your spells mixed up. When you cast, make a concentration check; if you fail, pick a different spell. *Disassociation: You can't target yourself with spells. *Ebon eyes: Your ability to see light and dark is reversed; lit areas seem dark, and dark areas seem lit. *Eldritch ague: You're sickened until the blight is gone. Also, you shake uncontrollably when you cast. *Hemoculysis: You bleed from the eyes when you cast. *Lassitude: You take nonlethal damage when you cast a spell. *Ritualistic Obsession: You need both hands free to cast and your spells take longer to cast. *Spell addiction: You get bonuses for the round after you cast spells, but you're sickened if you don't cast. Major ones:
I kind of guessed that mindchemists would augment mental abilities. Also, what does the preservationist lose/gain? Preservationists are pokemon masters. They get summon nature's ally as a formula, and when they prepare an extract of SNA, they actually bottle up a teeny-tiny version of the creature. When they pop the bottle, the creature grows to normal size. "Bulette, I choose you!" They give up poison use, poison resistance, poison immunity, persistent mutagen, and their 18th-level discovery. In return, they get summon nature's ally I, II, IV, V, VII, and IX as formulae.
*shrug* For my game, I would just rule that if you used pool spell to do it, you didn't prepare it the right way and couldn't do this. Thanks for the info, though; I didn't remember this at all.
Can you give a quick rundown of the new Summoner Archetypes and new Eidolon base-forms/evolutions plz. I am super excited, can't wait to get my hands on this book. The only new base form is Aquatic, which gives you a fishy-type eidolon, but they have a new thing called "models," which are packages your GM can use to simplify eidolon creation (or can restrict you to if he doesn't feel like juggling math). There are new evolutions for hooves, low-light vision, keen scent, a scary aura, an extra head, being like an undead, learning magic, seeing in total darkness (like a devil), sensing life, not breathing, and teleporting around. Broodmasters summon multiple smaller eidolons instead of one big one. Evolutionists can shift around their eidolon's evolutions as a class ability, and can even change their base form. Master summoner gets a weaker eidolon in exchange for making his summoned monsters buffer. Synthesist summons his eidolon as a living power armor suit, basically engulfing him and wearing it; this one is my favorite. =3
Well, Sage is a modification of the Arcane bloodline through the Wildblooded archetype. So to get an Int-based sorcerer, you have to be a Wildblooded Sage. I'm honestly not sure it appeals to as wide a group as you seem to think.
Skeleton Summoner: You add human skeletons to your list for summon monster I and human skeletal champion for summon monster III. Once a day, when you cast a summon monster spell, you can apply the skeleton template to the creature as you summon it. Undead Master: When you command undead or animate dead, you're considered 4 levels higher for how many Hit Dice you can control. Your duration for the command undead spell is doubled.
Alchemists can create alchemical clones (lesser simulacra) and alchemical zombies. However, it would seem an Alchemical Zombie, while counting as an undead for purposes of how many an Alchemist can create per the spell, is not an actual undead, as it's a creature, not a supernatural effect. Thus it would appear it does not become Evil, use necromantic energy, and would likely not be detected as Undead. Am I reading that wrong? You're reading too much into it. Undead themselves are creatures, not supernatural effects. The wording there is so that they're not suppressed or dispelled by things that suppress or dispel supernatural effects; it's just saying "once it's here, it's a creature and not a continuing use of this ability."
As far as I know, this is incorrect. You can scribe a spell from a scroll, or from a captured/borrowed spellbook, or by researching it, but I don't know of anything that lets you do it from a prepared spell. The wizard preparation stuff even makes a deal about you having to scribe from a captured spellbook into your own to avoid making a skill check every time you prepare from the captured one.
Sorcerer questions answered: Accursed: Your family is cursed by a hag, and you have learned how to externalize your curse onto other people. You count as a hag for joining a coven, and you get some spellcasting benefits from being near a hag or another accursed sorcerer. Powers are mostly about emulating a hag's ugliness temporarily, the evil eye, supernatural toughness, or haunting dreams. Maestro: Your bloodline is supernaturally connected to music, like from having a trumpet archon as an ancestor, or having your grandfather driven mad by a shoggoth's piping. You cast verbal-only spells as though you were a caster level higher, and powers are bard-emulation stuff. Wildblooded Archetype: It takes an existing bloodline and replaces some of the powers with more "nature"-y stuff. Like, your powers can be more about wind and rain than lightning and thunder for stormborn, or you have linnorm blood instead of "true dragon" ancestry, and so on. The big one is Sage, which lets you switch out all Charisma-based stuff in the sorcerer class for Intelligence; you can finally make an Int-based spontaneous caster.
So how are oracle archtypes? and what do they do/get/replace? Dual-cursed lets you take two curses, one of which advances and the other of which doesn't. They also get a pair of set revelations, one that makes people luckier and one that makes them unluckier (kind of like the witch hexes). It's sort of neat, but the lack of new curses is kind of sad. Enlightened philosopher is a lawful-only archetype that lets you discipline yourself to get some lore stuff, knowledge skills, and eventually become immune to a bunch of status conditions. Planar oracle gives planar adaptation and plane-traveling stuff. Possessed oracle gives you a second brain to avoid mental control. Seer lets you see the future better. And stargazer lets you splice in a couple of heavens mysteries to another oracle type.
I stopped being interested in words of power the minute Jason said it was still going to be slot-based magic. I wanted to see at least one official option for non-slot casters, since I deeply dislike Vancian casting. Ah, well. Most of the book is still useful to me, and I've bought books with less interesting stuff in them than this one. |
