jaramin's page

Since you're dead when you hit negative hit points equal to your Constitution score, if you don't have a Constitution score, you can't have negative hit points. That's why undead and constructs are destroyed as soon as they're reduced to 0 hit points.

A creature without a Con score can still have fast healing or other rapid healing effects, but regeneration just doesn't make sense or really work at all.

But isn't it a common trope for undead to come back together after being downed though? Like a broken skeleton to reassemble itself, or some ghost coalescing back into being. That can't be construed as fast healing. From a conceptual point of view, seems a loss that undead and construct aren't allowed to regenerate. Not that it can't be sidestepped with a special ability that makes an exception, but it seems like an unecessary detour.

You know, I've always had a love/hate relationship with handbooks or CO. For one, I tend to think like most here that it awakens the potential munchkin in otherwise fine players. But also, I think it's great for newcomers who risk being disappointed by making up a character that doesn't end up being able to do what they had envisioned it doing. Nothing like the feeling of being useless to the party and not living up to one's mental image of the character to give a bad first experience.

I think this guide is great. Because of the lack of 20+ terribly unevenly balanced splat books, I feel like this handbook talks about what a Bard is, instead of unbalanced overpowered characters who's first couple of levels happen to be Bard levels. And the little strategic advice at the end is great. If you could provide fluff/RP suggestions that expands on what is in the core description of the class, it would make it even better.

Here's to hoping for a new breed of handbooks!

If I remember, there's a way to bookmark pages from within Acrobat (even with the Reader only version) that doesn't affect the document per se, it stores the information in Acrobat, so it's totally legal.

Get the javascript plugin (yes, Acrobat uses javascript plugins) here :

http://www.pdfhacks.com/bookmark_page/

Installation instructions are here (don't bother with the download link on that page, it's for a simpler plugin):

http://www.aldenta.com/2006/09/15/plugin-bookmark-a-page-in-your-pdf/

Hope it works out!

Could it be possible to increase the font size and maybe even change it to a sans font instead of serif (or use a serif one that's designed for online reading, like georgia) ? It's quite small and hard to read as it is, compared to the d20 SRD. Especially for people with so-so monitors and bad eyesight :) It's just minor CSS niggle ;)

Wow. I have no idea how to deal with the power level of this class. I've been running RotRL with Beta made characters, boosting monsters by adding HP as recommended, and keeping the characters 2 levels (nearly 3 now) *behind* the normal levels for the AP. And so far, it's so easy it gets boring at times (for the players and DM as well).

My thoughts are that the bestiary will be significantly beefed up, and the new APs too. But I hope Paizo offers some better guidelines to what mods should be applied to past APs (and 3.5 material in general) to retain some form of play value.

jaramin wrote:

Quandary wrote:

I like.

Now I'm curious for any more hints on changes to Medium/Heavy Armor...

Me too. Jason, any chance we can get more info on that? Armor proficiencies for the cleric? Or can you at least confirm the chainmail with 6 AC isn't a typo?

The AC is not a typo...

The rest.. I have no comment at this time...

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Thanks! Well, as I see no reason for giving a suboptimal armor to dexterity challenged Kyra (unless to preserve some mobility?), it seems clerics are down to medium armor.

As for chainmail truly giving 6 AC now, only the upcoming paladin preview can hope to give us some more info on heavier armors! Can't wait :)

I like.

Now I'm curious for any more hints on changes to Medium/Heavy Armor...

Me too. Jason, any chance we can get more info on that? Armor proficiencies for the cleric? Or can you at least confirm the chainmail with 6 AC isn't a typo?

also seem chain mail slows down non fighter movment

That's normal, medium armor does that. What I wonder is wether the cleric has been downgraded to medium armor proficiency (I hope so!).

I can't make any sense of chainmail having been bumped to 6 AC, what does that entail for the breastplate (and heavy armors for that matter)?

Well, I have to say I'm a bit disappointed. I was hoping for a little less powers/abilities, and spell level parity with wizards. The metamagic rods are still there (very broken in my opinion). Fly skill is still there, *sigh*. Arcane bloodline & bloodline arcana...doesn't that sound an awful lot similar for two different concepts? Can't possibly understand why they nerfed dispel magic. Not too sure the powers will be balanced after reading "the destined bloodline grants the sorcerer a luck bonus on saving throws for 1 round whenever she casts a spell with a range of personal", ugh. Arcane apotheosis seems too strong, but I'm not a good judge one that one, these aren't the levels I like to play.

Changes to ice storm is nice, hope to see more like it. Staff recharge sounds great, I'm just wondering if it'll make staffs a must. Metamagic adept and the fix to quicken spell are very welcome.

I put the unofficial tag in there so no one will think it's a question from a Paizo-person. Hubris? Maybe.

Anyway, what sections do you want to see leaked?

For me it's the skills. I'm likely going to make my own skills/skill bundling and I want to see what was finally decided on for defensive casting, since Jason hates concentration.

1. Sorcerers. Do they still cast 1 lvl under, and if so, have they been tweaked a little?

2. Clerics. Still in heavy armor or not? Small nerf to domain powers?

3. Have the archery feats been downtoned a bit?

Now that it's done, you're going to start releasing tiny previews of the changes that made it in the final product, right? Like, once every week? Two weeks?? Month??? Please!

I mean, having a beer and a muffin (?) is all fine and dandy, but we want a snack too :)

Lowest number of skill points per level for a class = 4. Scale other classes as you wish.

I think this discussion has shown that we are actually talking about two different things that people want:

1) Psionics (and the different/alien flavor it includes)
2) A point-based spell system (and the different flavor and mechanics it involves).

...

You could then ALSO present a point-based alternative or template or option or whatever, that could be applied to ANY spell-using class. The issues that pertain to such a system would still need to be worked out, obviously, but there have been several good ideas mentioned already.

Hear hear!

Before getting into D&D, I was an avid Dragonlance reader. I remember the description of Raistlin casting his spells, and how much effort he'd put into them, and how drained it left him (similar for other casters). What a shock when I learned how Vancian spellcasting worked! By giving both systems, you'll satisfy everyone. How to flavor those is up to the DM or campaign setting.

What form would you like these books to take? Would you be interested in subscribing to such a line, provided the books cost somewhere around $35 a pop?

I'd like 4 books per year, wouldn't mind one of them being softcover and/or black & white even! As for subscribing, don't think so since I might not be interested in some books.

What titles/ideas would you like to see us explore?

1. One bestiary per year.

We're all worried about rules bloat. What is your opinion of new classes and races?

No new races. All the races we need should be covered in Bestiary. As for new base classes, I'd rather have lots of alternate class features instead. I'm dying to get an option so I can finally trade the cleric's armor for something worth it!

Are you as tired of prestige classes as I am?

I don't like them, and we already have a truck load of them from 3.5. Alternate class features are the way to go. Prestige classes aught to be exactly that : classes that have some prestige, hence are tied to an organization, hence setting specific (Pathfinder Chronicles or AP, not core).

What are you looking for conceptually?

Level 20+ has to happen on other planes. The Material Plane simply can't handle a bunch of level 20s duking it out, and no amount of fluff can handle that. No point in life when a lvl 20 is breathing down your neck.

What are you looking for mechanically?

Any mechanic that makes it so that whatever a character could do before becoming lvl 20+, he can still do.

If you're skeptical, what can we do that might get you to give this one a try?

An open beta, of course!

Any deal breakers?

Hmm...no beta? ;)

[

What does Psionics mean to you?

To me, psionics mean above all a power that...

If you take into account 1) and 2) and 3), it seems you could take a sorcerer with a wizard spell progression limited to some enchantment and transmutation spells, with the feats silent spell, still spell and eschew materials, and call it a day. Except that casting lvl 0 transmutation and enchantment spells at character level 3 would suck big time. Could the severe spell list limitation allow for some slack on this? Maybe.

But even then it wouldn't have the right feel, because the source would still be magical. Psionics have a very biological feel to them. Be it a warrior channelling his ki, professor X struggling to see into someone's mind, it seems a lot more as if the individual is tapping into his body instead of some other source (magic). This of course forces a decision that isn't setting agnostic. But if you don't go that way, you just end up with psionics being a subclass of magic (not very sexy) or just another kind of magic (akin to the Force in Star Wars) which is bound to lead to some complications.

How can I get you to buy a psionics book and use it in your campaign?

A balanced mechanic and distinct flavor that makes it so that I can use it to run Eberron campaigns (integration of psionics into their setting is unmatched in my opinion).

What is an absolute deal-breaker?

Initialy tailored with a point system, new mechanics is a deal breaker. I have no beef with alternative mechanics, but they should be just that : alternatives, not defaults. Make a point version of it in an Unearthed Arcana kind of book if you want, I just don't want to learn a new system when it's time to incorporate psionics in my campaign.

In any case, open test it like PFRPG.