johnnythexxxiv's page

Edition War: What Bloodrealm is trying to start. When a poster talks derogatorily about a certain iteration of D&D, expecting people to come defend it (I had no qualms with 5E, wasn't my favorite system, but it's nice for when you want a rules-lite game) so that they can continue to attack it. Also can be used when comparing different RPGs to each other (such as Call of Chuthulu vs Pathfinder as favorite system) when done in a negative and baiting manner.

Mine would probably be mage hand or prestidigitation. I like cantrips, being able to do little things all day every day appeals to me way more than doing a big flashy thing only a couple times per day.

I read the title as "Your mom's favorite spell?"

So I asked her. Her response: "Whatever kills them the fastest." O_o

I blame Cosmo that my phone alarm didn't go off this morning so I was 20 minutes late for work. NOT cool Cosmo, not cool.

Dr. Lobotomy continues to be my favorite name for any blade I've seen.

Do... do people still ask for favorites on this thread? Because if so, I'm a little hurt that Tacticslion hasn't favorited my post on the Blame Cosmo thread yet. If that's not a thing I'll just go then... abandons thread

andreww wrote:

He was moderately effective at protecting people in the first encounter and generally couldn't be hit except on a 20 but was dealing single digit damage. This left the rest of the group, several of them far more squishy, taking a lot of damage as multiple enemies swarmed them.

That person built their character incorrectly.

I was going to keep on lurking, but I couldn't ignore this. YOU CAN'T BUILD A CHARACTER INCORRECTLY only sub-optimally. There is no "wrong" way to build a character unless you actually miswrite your numbers/abilities on your character sheet. Can you take X, Y or Z to make yourself more effective at whatever task you wanted to do? Sure. Are you wrong for deciding not to do it? No. Are you wrong for not knowing that you had the option to take X, Y or Z? Absolutely not. The amount of "one-true-wayism" in PFS is absolutely cancerous to the game.

I blame Cosmo that I JUST realized that I should be pronouncing Tacticslion as Tactics-lion and not Tack-tee-cis-lee-on. I have no idea how I managed to misread that for 2 YEARS without figuring that out.

An Act of Passion

When dealing with a succubus
It isn't just a kiss
That is an act of passion
There's more to it than this.

Of her lips delicious
You certainly must beware
But other acts that she performs
Can drain your spirit bare

She might caress your stomach
Or nibble on your ear
Her tail might snake around you
And tease you from the rear

Her wings (which feel like leather)
Could satisfy your kink
And then you will be drained once more
As fast as you can blink

And while you're dealing with her
Take care you do not linger
You might not like (although you may)
The place she puts her finger

The act of passion is many things
She really isn't fussy
The succubus is probably
The epitome of "hussy"

So watch yourself, adventurer
If she is in arm's reach
Your life hangs in the balance
Your soul she just might leech

Don't allow her close to you
Resign to being a loner
Her act of passion is anything
That might give you a... thrill.

Holy f*@$ that was amazing XD

I blame Cosmo that it's taken 4 months of dedicated job hunting to land even a part time job that I'm grossly overqualified for. And that that job still took 3 weeks of negotiation with the store manager to come to fruition when 2 supervisors, the night manager and the assistant manager were all giving me glowing recommendations.

Why in the world did this get moved to conversions? It's about the awkwardness of strength beats dex when it comes to stealing things, not actually building the hulk...

To throw in my 2cp, if more classes had access to something like the Elbow Strikes ability of 4 Wind Fantasy's Daredevil Prestige Class (not sure if Paizo's printed an equivalent anywhere) then strength winning out makes all kinds of sense since you smack someone while you're stealing from them, but otherwise in and out should be easier than manhandling them into submission.

Lindley Court wrote:

Playground Adventures' Royal Base Class.

A class designed with younger players in mind? I actually really dig that. Added.

I really do too, it's a shame that ease of play ended up cutting into the power ceiling so much though. The class is far from unplayable, but it's definitely the least combat friendly half caster I've seen in a while. It has high skill points, a solid skill list and interesting skill buffs (some of which can be passed to allies) so it does well in social encounters and almost all of the archetypes/alternate destinies provide solid additional out of combat versatility (particularly Gifted since it makes for a strong artificer), but as far as combat goes, it's basically a spontaneous casting warpriest without fervor or divine weapon so leaves something to be desired (house ruling blessed/cursed to standard action to activate, free to maintain and/or lasts rounds per level would alleviate much of this issue). For combat light campaigns though, it's a perfectly fine choice (which I imagine most introductory campaigns for young/inexperienced players would be anyway).

I blame Cosmo for somehow misplacing the mirco SD card in my 3DS when I opened it up to fix a sticky R button. It already took an hour to reassemble because of an incredibly uncooperative spring. Wasn't that enough? Did you really need to make me lose my data for half a dozen games as well?

I blame Cosmo for not learning until last week that if you type Smurf in your post your avatar changes to a Smurf. WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU BEEN HIDING FROM ME COSMO?!?!

Well, kineticists can nova rather hard as well. So that point is moot.

Also not sure how ridiculous I'd call sneak attack with no weapon, but that's not worth getting into.

Point being that they can't nova as hard. And bombs that target touch AC, are ranged, require no special conditions or positioning to go off, get Int to damage and deal splash damage are generally much better than sneak attacks, and that's before getting into how it's easier to apply status conditions with a bomb than with a knife.

You mean to tell me I could have been getting Smurf pics this entire time?!?!?

A couple other abbreviations/forum in-jokes/well known characters that I see pop up pretty often:
CotCT or CoCT - Curse of the Crimson Throne, another excellent adventure path
JJ - James Jacobs, Creative Director of Paizo. He's very active on the forums and people often take his word as law for things that don't have a FAQ yet despite him continually reminding people that he doesn't have any greater rules authority than any of the more prolific forumites such as RavingDork or TriOmegaZero.
YMMV - Your Mileage May Vary, indicates that something that works in one campaign might not in another
AM BARBARIAN - A barbarian that uses a lance and rides around on a dire bat, doing ridiculous damage and often screaming in an ALL CAPS RAGE. Used as a counter example when people inevitably ask why martials can't have nice things
Schrodinger's Wizard - A condescending take on the Batman Wizard, used to illustrate that wizards aren't as powerful as everyone claims they are since they have to actually prepare their spell slots at some point, thus ruining their versatility for a day. Disproven by Anzyr's wizard Arkalion of the Infinite Cycle
CaGM - Come and Get Me, a rage power for mid to high level Barbarians. It's reeeeeaaaallly good, to the point of hot contention on the forums.
Cheese - using a questionable reading of the game rules for additional mechanical benefit
Cosmo - An elder god subdued by the staff at Paizo, he now works in customer service and sales, sowing chaos wherever he can. You can blame him for ALL of your problems.

Eh, that's long enough for one post, will add more later. At any rate, a late welcome to the forums MageHunter! I promise we don't bite much

Insane KillMaster wrote:

Dragon78 wrote:

It would nice for a class to get an actual breath weapon like how it is supposed to function, none of this 1-3/day but every 1d4 rounds. Though the damage should be more like the kineticist/rouge damage dice progression. This would be good for the bloodsavant, primalist, blu mage, and/or unchained sorcerer.

The X per day is there for balancing issues.

^ D12, full BaB, 3 good saves, 6+int mod skill points, Breath per day based on the Barbarian's "rounds of Rage per day", Breath damage based on Kineticist's/Rogue's damage dice progression, etc...

If a Kineticist can shoot a Blast every round without any cooldown, I don't see why you cannot have a breath weapon with a cooldown to compensate.

Seriously, the Kinetic Blast makes the Alchemist's Bomb look like a total joke...

The difference being that your can nova with alchemist's bombs if need be. TFWing with bombs can lead to ridiculous damage in a pinch

johnnythexxxiv wrote:

*gasp* *wheeze* I FINALLY read though the whole thread (when I started reading there were only 59087 posts) and have a couple questions of my own to add to this fantastic monstrosity:

1) When making the transitition from 3.5 to Pathfinder, were there any naming conventions that you preferred with one of the systems over the other (eg. Monster Manual vs. Bestiary)?
2) What are your 5 favorite non-d20 TTRPGs?
3) Why do classical smileys have a nose while modern ones don't [ :-) vs :) ]? Also, what's up with Asia and their insane number of emoticons?
4) Do you think this thread will ever reach 100,000 posts?
5) Obviously you're aware of Archives of Nethys and d20pfsrd. Do you have a preference at all between the two? Do you like the fact that they try to be as up to date as possible or would you prefer if the PRD had a monopoly on the information for longer before the other sites got it?
6) With the internet community becoming increasingly vocal over anything that they deem offensive, have you ever felt the need to significantly adjust, or actually have significantly adjusted, an AP in order to receive less backlash?
7) You championed wanting to have a swashbuckler class for years before the one in the ACG came out. Did you have a significant hand in its development or was it mostly someone else's pet project?
8) How often on Golarion do people travel significant distances? Say from Varisia to the River Kingdoms for example.
9) Most importantly, what do I do with my life now that I've caught up with this thread?

0.0

You, sir, have my admiration, awe, and concern.

It honestly wasn't that bad, I just did 10 pages a day for like 4 months. Tacked it onto my daily reading ritual and powered through it bit by bit.

James, do you try to keep a semi-regular intake of other people's creative work or do you usually end up cramming a lot in over a short period of time followed by a substantial break?

*gasp* *wheeze* I FINALLY read though the whole thread (when I started reading there were only 59087 posts) and have a couple questions of my own to add to this fantastic monstrosity:
1) When making the transitition from 3.5 to Pathfinder, were there any naming conventions that you preferred with one of the systems over the other (eg. Monster Manual vs. Bestiary)?
2) What are your 5 favorite non-d20 TTRPGs?
3) Why do classical smileys have a nose while modern ones don't [ :-) vs :) ]? Also, what's up with Asia and their insane number of emoticons?
4) Do you think this thread will ever reach 100,000 posts?
5) Obviously you're aware of Archives of Nethys and d20pfsrd. Do you have a preference at all between the two? Do you like the fact that they try to be as up to date as possible or would you prefer if the PRD had a monopoly on the information for longer before the other sites got it?
6) With the internet community becoming increasingly vocal over anything that they deem offensive, have you ever felt the need to significantly adjust, or actually have significantly adjusted, an AP in order to receive less backlash?
7) You championed wanting to have a swashbuckler class for years before the one in the ACG came out. Did you have a significant hand in its development or was it mostly someone else's pet project?
8) How often on Golarion do people travel significant distances? Say from Varisia to the River Kingdoms for example.
9) Most importantly, what do I do with my life now that I've caught up with this thread?

I've always had a hard time nailing down my con score but other than that I've had a very good idea of my stats for a couple of years.

Str 13: I exercise regularly (10-12 hours a week in the gym) but haven't received any formal combat training so I feel really reluctant to bump my strength score higher for a larger bonus to hit. Instead I have the Muscle of the Society trait to get up to the 15 Strength my carrying capacity claims I have.
Dex 9: I'm a little clumsy and not as flexible as I used to be.
Con I HAVE NO IDEA: I process alcohol incredibly quickly (I won't get buzzed AT ALL unless I'm doing double shots and I CAN'T get drunk unless I'm doing quad), function fine on an average of 2 hours of sleep a night and can spend 2+ hours straight on cardio heavy activities, but catch EVERYTHING that goes around and am frequently sick for greater than a week at a time. Maybe a Con of 5 with Uber Endurance and Uber Iron Liver?
Int 17: It's actually a 21 but I get 2 hours of sleep a night so I'm not on my A game pretty much every day. 3 days of proper rest and my 183 IQ actually has a chance to show itself.
Wis 9: I decided to make a schedule for myself where I get an average of 2 hours of sleep a night. Outside of that though, all other qualities of Wisdom would sit me at a 14.
Cha 11: I'm quite attractive, can pick up on social cues of people I know very easily and don't have any difficulty conversing in topics of interest but am anxious around people I don't know.

Everyone poops, it's just a matter of where. Generally intelligent creatures will have some sort of restroom or designated s$#~ting street but animal level intelligence creatures generally don't bother with putting in the effort unless trained. Having said that, while touring Peru, over the course of a couple weeks I got to witness a herd of wild llama consciously designate a specific spot within a temple as their washroom whenever they grazed nearby.

As did this:

Kahel Stormbender wrote:

GreyWolfLord wrote:

Don't discount technology. In Pathfinder a rifle bullet does 1d8 more or less damage.

In real life...that bullet kills you dead no matter WHAT "level" you are. I suppose you could compare it to a death spell, but even more deadly in the hands of an expert shooter.

To be fair, a normal person would have 1d6+con in hit points. And people do regularly survive being shot. But that 1d8 damage CAN kill a normal person. Adventurers wouldn't be considered normal.

But how long would that level 13 wizard last under the fire from a chaingun or m16 assault rifle? Or dozens of assault rifles? Or hundreds of assault rifles? Would a sniper bullet to the head be considered a ranged cdg that doesn't require the target to be helpless?

It doesn't matter HOW MANY HP you have, 1 bullet will kill you.

an elephant in PF has 11d8...one bullet can kill an elephant.

A Whale has 15d8, a bullet (or even one harpoon [which is actually better in whaling...bullets have to some special modifications in the whale's case) properly done can kill them.

Apparantly, we have harpoonest and sharpshooters that can hit at least an AC of 28 or better...

Sometimes FAR more consistently than someone with a 20 BAB even, (meaning they won't miss on a natural 1, they miss less than 1% of the time).

That would put their BAB somewhere in the range of 30 or 40, maybe even 50...(even if we say they do miss 5% of the time somehow)...meaning these snipers and others could be over 30th or 40th level!

And we have many of them.

Our weapons aren't the wimpy PF weapons...the Gun and all the types of ammunition are like Death Spells.

Anyone can have the ability to buy the appropriate death spell, and with enough training, actually use it effectively.

We haven't even gotten into the REALLY decent military weapons yet, and heck, not even close to the heavy weapons a tank might carry (and the armor to prevent it from being destroyed by the same), or the super weapons...

The way I see it, the damage is pretty much spot on actually. You have to remember, when you're aiming for vitals you're essentially getting a crit in and applying precision damage and other bonuses at the same time. Typically modeling the real world with Pathfinder rules sets real world level caps around level 5, so let's look at a level 5 Gunslinger critting with a sniper rifle of sorts.

I'll assume that since this is a weapon specifically designed to be as accurate as physically possible, that it has a far reaching sight attached to it. The sniper rifle would then cost around 2,250 gp to craft for a guns everywhere world like Earth. That's well within the realms of a 5th level character's WBL, especially when the gun is likely just gifted by the military anyway. Side note, a sniper rifle should not cost anywhere near 2,250 gp to craft as that's >$800,000 by modern gold prices.

The Gunslinger is specifically aiming for vital areas (taking 20) so their attack is automatically a critical hit (if they weren't then they wouldn't be sniping and the target would have a reasonable chance of living, which makes sense since people survive getting shot all the time). Assuming a Dex of 18 and Weapon Specialization (Sniper Rifle), they're dealing 4d10+20 damage, or 42 damage on average, on the crit. That sounds about right since that'll kill pretty much any 5th level or lower character without similar investment in Constitution. Bump Dex up to 20 and make that a +1 Sniper Rifle with Master Craftsman and you're looking at 50 damage on average, enough to invoke a massive damage save vs death on an elephant or any 5th level character, regardless of their stats (assuming appropriate WBL).

Haven't finished catching up but this caught my eye:

The real problem that the wizard would run into is that costs aren't measured in gold anymore so he would have a heck of a time figuring out how to craft things and what size diamond he needs for his Wish spells ;)

I actually worked that out one time for the heck of it. Assuming that the relative value of gold to diamond is the same on Golarion as it is on modern earth, a 25,000 gp diamond would be about 400 carats in size. There's been a grand total of 15 recorded diamonds breaking that, although a couple like Lesedi La Rona, Cullinan and Sergio are massively larger than 400, each breaking 1,000 carats (with Cullinan and Sergio breaking 3,000).

It's been a while since I've uploaded a class to the boards so I figured I'd pop in and present my latest creation: The Hemotheurge

It's a spontaneous divine full caster that uses its literal lifeblood to cast spells. In addition it can willingly bleed profusely to power up its spellcasting and unlocks a bunch of neat little tricks in the form of blood talents, many of which also get a boost from self mutilation. The class is a bit on the simplistic side and I'd like to add in a couple more blood talents so I'm looking for feedback on how to spice things up a bit and/or expand the options available slightly.

All in all though, it's complete enough for a first draft that I'm at a point where I'm comfortable with sharing with the world at large, so have a looksie and then feel free to tear me a new one ;)

The map of Kalsgard in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings book is waaaayy too large a scale for the 75k people living there.

The city is almost 6 miles wide and 4 miles north-south. That's probably a better scale for 900k+ people. So, use that as a base for your city?

Actually, that's a perfectly fine size for a city that size, especially since apartment complexes and high rises aren't really a thing yet. There's about 85,000 people where I live and the city's basically a 6 mile diameter circle, so 6 by 4 is definitely not a stretch for 75,000 at all.

As for everyone who's commented on things like driving the concept of time home, random encounters, making it near impossible to find specific NPCs and other things that make metropoli notably different from normal cities you've been awesome. Keep up the good work!

For everyone who's been giving examples of large cities and their likelihood of being broken down into districts, not quite what I was looking for but I do appreciate the effort! There's still plenty that helps out indirectly from these comments.

95. Dungeon puzzles as a way of slowing the onset of your wizard's dementia. Exercising the brain with mind games and puzzles is a great way to keep your brain healthy and young and helps slow the onset of a LOT of mental diseases. So take Gran-Gran down into Rappan Athuk. If she survives the horrors there, she'll never have to worry about forgetting what she saw. Ever.

Kobold Cleaver, don't feel bad, I've gotten ones twice now :P

On a related note, does that mean that I'll get two entries into Jason's hardcover give away since the dice gods hate me that much?

Taig - and everyone else - again, thank you SO MUCH for being so awesome. If I ever reverse engineer your IP address to find out where you live, you'll be sure to get a nice hot cup of coffee waiting for you when you open the door.

*exits from lurking* Another house rule that I generally try to include: guns target flat footed AC, not touch. Makes so much more sense. *resumes lurking*

Taig the real MVP over here. This is an awesome way to give back to the community, thank you for being so generous!

About 8 months before I watched the Parasyte anime, I wrote up a homebrew class that could replicate any of the main characters pretty seamlessly. Needless to say, I was pretty surprised with how that turned out. Obviously I added the pic of the MC after watching the show, things would have been really weird if I'd drawn that instead.

I don't watch/read a lot of (high) fantasy media (sticking to more slice of life or drama), so a lot of characters I enjoy would make terrible PCs since they'd all be level 1 Commoners. Having said that, it's fairly easy to make the cast of Avatar using various Kineticists and the Shield Champion Brawler just screams Captain America.

Weirdo wrote:

johnnythexxxiv has the gist of it. The mechanic of spell preparation indicates that there is a mental/energetic component to spellcasting in addition to the simple words/gestures/materials. The mental component explains limits on spells per day as well as how metamagic can remove physical components (you're compensating by adjusting your mental component).

For a real-world example of mental states influencing physical results, see the placebo effect. For an example of deteriorating mental state over time (as might happen when expending spells), see decision fatigue.

thejeff wrote:

Weirdo wrote:

So because the game rules aren't a great simulation of actual physics, it is pointless for PF characters to even attempt scientific analysis of their world?

It's not pointless, it's just that the closer they look, the weirder the results are going to be. I don't actually want to play in a game where the characters are figuring out they live in a rather poor simulation of a world. (I mean, it could be fun in a weird deconstructionist sort of way, but it wouldn't be much of a high fantasy game.)

As much fun as it is to joke about characters moving in discrete 5ft increments or patiently waiting their turn in combat, I don't think many people believe that's actually how the characters experience it. So why get hung up about similar oddities in how magic is represented like spell levels existing in discrete intervals?

Because it's so much more blatant in the magic case. It's hard to even say anything about magic in the world without running into those obvious cases.

Eh, electrons have discrete energy levels in real life, so why not let spells have discrete energy levels as well? Makes enough sense for me. Works for spell slots as well, electrons can't be in the same phase as nearby electrons, spells can't utilize the exact same "piece" of "magical essence" for multiple effects, hence slots.

thejeff wrote:

As for the larger topic, one difference is that you can't do cookbook magic in PF. You can't just follow the instructions, mouth the words, wiggle your fingers appropriately and have the spell happen. Or assembly line magic items. Casting a spell requires something more - whether it's innate power or special training.
I've seen fantasy novels where that isn't true - where the protagonist, without being a mage or understanding what he's doing can cast some spell simply by following precise written...

^ This is exactly what I mean. What are the characteristics of science?

Science is 1) Measurable 2) Repeatable 3) Explainable 4) Exchangeable

• Measurable: Imagine trying to measure a fireball spell. The effects are variable not only from casting to casting using the same person and the same ingredients, but only certain people who have "practiced" magic in general can even attempt it. If it was really scientific, there would be a measurable relationship to the amount of bat guano and sulfur. There is not. Verdict: Fail
  
• Repeatable: You can only cast that fireball x number of times per day and it varies from person to person. It doesn't matter if you combine bat guano and sulfur after your spells per day are up, nothing happens. Verdict: Fail
  
• Explainable: Why does bat guano and sulfur produce a fireball effect at some times for some people and not others? Maybe your campaign has an explanation, but I bet it relies on vibrations in the shadow weave or the phase of the moon or something. Explanation stops there. In the real world, we pour two chemicals together and we can explain what is happening down at the atomic level (and we're working on explaining past that.) Verdict: Fail
  
• Exchangeable: Have the wizard show the fighter how to do everything he does and combine bat guano and sulfur in the same way. Yes, maybe the wizard is smarter and is able to figure it out but after he figures it out, he should be able to write it down or

...

Measurable: Anyone with sufficient training can pull enough "magical essence" from the surrounding environment to make guano explode when it reacts with sulfur (it's similar to how you sometimes need to add heat/water/some third chemical in order to get two regents to react meaningfully). You can measure how much "magical essence" a person can manipulate by the intensity of the fireball. Verdict: Pass

Repeatable: "Magical essence" is the limiting factor for spells, not reactants. You can't measure how intense the glow of a light bulb is if the batteries powering it have drained. However, if you get new batteries or recharge old ones you can continue the experiment. Higher level spell slots and resting cover the analogy. Verdict: Pass

Explainable: There is no "one true way" to explain magic because it's something that isn't directly relatable to our world. How do you teach a colorblind person the difference between red and green? You can't, because it's not part of their universe. Verdict: Irrelevant. It will be explained in universe however it is explained.

Exchangeable: This is going to happen if the Wizard writes it down on a scroll so that the Fighter can follow instructions needed to complete the spell (a simple UMD check). Verdict: Pass

------

Seems pretty scientific to me.

Rogar Valertis wrote:

Eldritch guardian has a better skillset, something useful instead of bravery (or what bravery should have been from the beginning) and access to a familiar but I don't find the archetype to be particularly compelling, even if it's probably stright up better than normal fighter as you keep weapon training and armor training (you lose 2 feats and bravery for something better).

It's pretty good in a number of ways. First, you can share your combat teamwork feats with your familiar allowing you to reliably pull off combos that normally require multiple players. Chief amongst these is Coordinated Charge, which you can use as a pseudo pounce, by having your familiar charge, which triggers your charge, leaving you at the enemy with a full attack action to go. Second, there are tricky builds, such as a Dirty Tricks build, where you and your familiar stack the tricks on an enemy faster than most characters can do so. Third, there is the simple versatility of having a familiar for purposes of scouting and fetching.

Edit: And I may have missed it in all of the text, but you can actually take Eldritch Guardian and Mutation Warrior at the same time.

You can also stack Martial Master onto the archetype pyramid to bump the versatility up even more. Of course, at this point you literally aren't playing a fighter anymore since every single class ability has been swapped out, but its a great "fighter" nonetheless.

33. Using an enemy as a baseball bat. Or an ally, I won't judge. Also, I love the fact that there's no weight restriction on the enemy, only a size restriction, so you could potentially swing iron golems around with impunity.

34. Bows are incredibly versatile. Besides shooting things dead, you can also twist a stick through the string to make friction fires start much faster, unstring one end to create a fishing pole or help make a classic basket trap, unstring it completely for an impromptu garrote, or even use it instead of your enemy as a baseball bat.

31. Using a shield as a sled in snowy areas.

32. Metal shields also make pretty good woks.

15. Trail rations can be used to insult banquet hosts and potentially save you from getting poisoned by said banquet host.

16. Animal companions as a food source. People seem to forget that by definition animal companions are not normal animals, but magically enhanced slaves and therefore there should be far fewer social taboos on having one for lunch (especially if you're a ranger or hunter and not a druid). You get a new one for praying for 24 hours and rangers and hunters don't have the nature reverence stipulation to their casting that druids do and hunters actually gain a bonus from killing off their companion.

As far as I can tell we haven't had one of these threads in a while and they're always fun. So I'll get started.

1. Soap as glowing signage. Cast light on a bar of soap and then draw designs on dungeon walls, doorways and anywhere else you can think of that would benefit from a little extra light or an obvious marker that you've already been down a certain path. Also works great for finding invisible foes that can't fly if you apply it liberally to the floors. I actually find this so helpful in so many different ways that I almost always specifically build my characters so that they have access to the light cantrip/orison from level 1, regardless of what class they are. There's half a dozen traits that give players the option of casting light as a spell like ability so it's pretty easy to squeak in.

2. Tents as makeshift parachutes/para-gliders. Stuck at the top of a cliff and the wizard didn't prepare feather fall? Worry not, your tent that you've totally been using while on the trail can actually come in handy. If it has rigid supports you can make a makeshift para-glider to help slow and aim your landing and if it doesn't, the extra drag from the tent's cloth should be enough to convince your GM to knock a couple d6s from your fall damage.

3. Sewing needle as compass needle. If you heat up a strip of iron until it's red hot it will polarize itself while cooling. If you align an iron needle north/south while doing this, you effectively create a compass needle, allowing you to continue to travel after losing your wayfinder.

What other neat tricks do people have?

MMCJawa wrote:

something like a Tarzan/Wild Boy nature class would be nice...Druid and Hunter come close, but something that excels in unarmed combat and doesn't have spell list, but instead channels the abilities of animals. (running like a cheetah, swinging through trees like a monkey, etc). Possibly a Druid/Barbarian hybrid?

Wild Child Brawler?

Alternatively, skip the middleman and just go with Shapeshifter Skirmisher Ranger instead of Brawler. Does the "channels the abilities of animals" thing quite well without relying on magic.

-A non-caster shapeshifter class that gains special benefits while transformed.

A Shapeshifter Skirmisher Ranger fits that bill pretty well.

-A spontaneous cha based caster with druid spell list.

Sort of exists in the form of Nature Oracles and First Worlder or Wild Caller Summoners. Crossblooded Fey and Verdant Sorcerers also kind of work. Nothing fits the bill 100% yet though.

-A gadget based class with bombs and guns.

Nearly fulfilled with the Experimental Gunsmith Gunslinger. It can modify its gun to shoot alchemical weapons.

-A d10, full BA, 6+Int, unarmored(cha based AC) warrior class that was raised in the wild and is focused on one terrain(like Tarzan or Jungle Girl)

Deep Walker, Woodland Skirmisher and Wave Warden Rangers do this fairly well, minus the Cha to AC bit.

-A d6, 1/2 BA wis based divine caster.

The best I can do for that is a Sage Razmiran Priest Sorcerer.

-A d8, 2/3 BA, 4+int skills, 6th level cha caster class that focuses on sorcerer bloodline powers.

So a Skald with the Eldritch Heritage feat line.

-A non-caster healer class who's powers come from the positive energy plane, gets lay on hands and channel energy.

Also known as a Warrior of the Holy Light Paladin.

-A "dragonrider/dragonmaster" class with 4th level arcane spells that it gains only while near it's dragon.

Yeah, I got nothing for this one. Best I could come up with is a Draconic Bloodrager riding a flying mount.

-A d10, full BA, non-caster "beastmaster" class with magical beast companion.

A Beastmaster Skirmisher Ranger works just fine here. Can also stack with the Shapeshifter archetype to fill in your first request at the same time.

-A monster class that gains many monster traits and abilities.

Fair enough. You can't exactly expect player classes to fill the monster classes niche.

-A d10, full BA psychic based class.

Occult Adventures might have a psychic archetype for one of the martials, don't have the book yet so I can't say for sure on that one.

-A non-caster telepath based class.

See above.

-A non-caster class that is completely focused on bardic music and has a long list of abilities it can choose.

Carnivalist and Deadly Courtesan Rogues as well as Sensei Monks get a reasonable list of bardic performances. None of them are completely focused around them though (although, neither are most Bards)

-A martial class that creates it's weapon from it's soul, mind, life force, blood, latent magic, etc.

Monks of the Empty Hand infuse everyday objects with ki to turn them into weapons which is pretty close. Also see any Barbarian or Bloodrager with a rage power or bloodline power that grants a natural attack.

-A martial class that uses hexes.

Yeah, closest thing we got is the Hexcrafter Magus. Although I suppose Halflings with a jinx focus can fake Evil Eye fairly well regardless of class.

Basically my point is that most of your ideas (and that of many of the other posters on this thread) already have an analogue within existing class archetypes and that a lot of the ideas being proposed don't need a full class to implement them, a new archetype to an existing class is enough.

And after nearly a year of sitting on the idea and tweeking it slightly over time the regenerator has finally received the green light for a playtest come September. Before that though, I'd love to hear some more feedback and especially some critiques from people so I can finish polishing the class up. Mechanical issues and clarity issues are first and foremost my largest concern, so focusing on those would be more constructive at the moment than trying to find ways to mute the fluff further, although that is still appreciated.

Linky: Yes, the document is long and no I haven't figured out how to bookmark Google Docs yet, so for now accept its current wretched color coded schematic.

DR 1/- is fairly unimpressive, but frequently anything that can get DR 1/- can get more DR than that with time. Your barbarian example would have at least DR 5/- by 20th level, more if he spent rage powers and feats boosting it, and even without, DR 5/- is enough to spare a charge from the heal stick every hit so is very nice. Plus if you build to maximize damage reduction you can basically ignore wearing armor altogether as I showcased in this thread where my barbarian's maximum effective DR was DR 230/-

Serisan wrote:

There is actually a PFS scenario in which an NPC bard does what the OP's players are trying to do.

** spoiler omitted **

Author: Mark Moreland. Take that for what you will.

Oh, and there's also the Spellsong feat:

Spellsong

You can blend the power of your performance and spellcasting.

Prerequisites: Cha 13, bardic performance class ability, able to cast 1st-level spells.

Benefit: You can combine your bardic performance and your spellcasting in two ways.

First, you can conceal the activity of casting a bard spell by masking it in a performance. As a swift action, you may combine your casting time of a spell with a Perform check. Observers must make a Perception or Sense Motive check opposed by your Perform check to realize you are also casting a spell. This uses 1 round of your bardic performance ability, regardless of the spell's casting time.

Second, as a move action, you can use 1 round of bardic performance to maintain a bard spell with a duration of concentration. You can cast another spell in the same round you are using bardic magic to maintain concentration; if you do this, your concentration on the maintained spell ends when you end the bardic performance the spell is part of.

If that works with Lingering Performance that feat is crazy good.

Right, so when I started reading this yesterday the post count was under 750, now it's over 1100. This thread is growing faster than the Kineticist discussion thread did...

Anzyr, for 20 pages you touted about how awesome your wizard was. I don't care if you do post it to this thread or not, that's irrelevant, but you cannot use a different build with an entirely different class (and multiclassing) and wildly different tactics for the competition and claim that that counts as your wizard example. That's completely disingenuous and only proves that your wizard was not capable of rising to the challenge presented.

The idea behind this build is simple, never ever get into the thick of things alongside your allies, instead, you support them from the comfort of your home. By utilizing massive range buffs, scrying, distance healing and tactical maneuvering, you can safely have a significant effect on the battlefield or social encounters from a literal mile away.

Lazybones McGee
Human Geisha Bard 1/Oracle (Life) 1/Hedge Scarred Witch Doctor (Deception) 10/Oracle +3/Verminous Hunter (Worm) 1/Witch +4

20 Point Buy
Str 7
Dex 7
Con 20
Int 8
Wis 7
Cha 18

Progression:
1 Extra Performance, Extra Performance, Tea Ceremony
2 Life Link
3 Racial Heritage (Orc)
4 Healing Hex
5 Extra Hex (Scar Hex)
6 Spontaneous Healing
7 Toughness
8 Fortune Hex
9 Extra Hex (Ward Hex)
10 Empathic Healing
11 Endurance
12 Waxen Image
13 Spell Hex (Hex Vulnerability)
14 Healing Hands
15 Diehard
16 Fast Healing 1
17 Fast Healer
18 Major Healing Hex
19 Healer's Touch
20 Witch's Charge Hex

So, what does Lazybones McGee get up to? Well, he uses some heavy rules exploits and questionable readings to allow him to inspire greatness in his allies at level 1 from literally anywhere in the multiverse by hosting a tea party that no one else actually attends since Tea Ceremony doesn't actually say that the allies have to drink the tea or witness the setup to receive its benefits. 2 d10 hit dice should be enough of a boost to carry his allies through to second level where he can begin to heal them while staying at medium range, which keeps him well out of most combats. 5th level lets him heal allies from up to a mile away and 11th level lets him teleport over to his allies while invisible so that he can steal their poisons and diseases to have them effect him instead without most enemies realizing what happened. 12th level lets him move his allies around the field on his turn to set them up into better tactical positioning, 13th level lets him spam healing hex while 17th level makes sure he doesn't die from his life link with the other party members.
Basically Lazybones stays as far away from his allies as he can and uses scrying effects to keep tabs on them to see how they're doing. If their about to go exploring he'll throw them a tea party and then keep them healthy with hexes. If things start to go sour, he'll go invisible, teleport nearby and then give them buffs and emergency healing and might tag along for a while to heal them up with life links before teleporting back to safety. If done correctly, the party may never know what Lazybones actually is, since he should be invisible always from 6th level onwards and there is technically no reason for Lazybones to ever reveal the fact that he even exists.

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So, thoughts, opinions, advice? How would you spruce up this kind of a character? Do you have an idea of how to make a more effective buff-bot that likewise doesn't even attempt to stay close to their comrades? Etc, etc.

Half-Elf Orc Sorcerer with Racial Heritage(Dwarf) counts as Human, Elf, Half-Elf, Orc, arguably Half-Orc, and Dwarf. With a little creative thinking, a Half-Elf born Aasimar with Scion of Humanity gets to count as both outsider(native) and humanoid(human, elf), then add in all the other stuff as well.

5 of the Core 7, not bad! Although I have to ask, why no love for the little folk?

Let's look at a 5th level witch with a CL 2 wand of wand of hex vulnerability vs a regular ol' CL 1 wand of cure light wounds. Obviously the witch has the Healing hex.

CL 1 Wand of Cure Light Wounds
Cost: 750 gp
Amount Healed Per Round: 1d8+1 damage, average 5.5
Total Average Health Healed: 275
Price in Gold Pieces Per Hit-Point Healed: 2.72gp

CL 2 Wand of Hex Vulnerability
Cost: 1500 gp
Amount Healed Per Round: 2d8+5 damage, average 14
Total Average Health Healed: 700
Price in Gold Pieces Per Hit-Point Healed: 2.14gp

It only gets better as the Witch levels up, especially if she takes Major Healing Hex as well. At 20th level:

CL 2 Wand of Hex Vulnerability
Cost: 1500 gp
Amount Healed Per Round: 4d8+20 damage, average 38
Total Average Health Healed: 1900
Price in Gold Pieces Per Hit Point Healed: 0.79gp

Yup, it actually drops to under a gp per hit point healed. Expressed differently, you heal 1.27 hit points per gp. Talk about cost effective! But wait, it gets even better! Hex vulnerability is one of the few wands that actually gets more cost effective as its caster level increases. This is because it allows you more rounds of healing per charge; the numbers are as follows:

CL 20 Wand of Hex Vulnerability
Cost: 15000 gp
Amount Healed Per Round: 4d8+20 damage, average 38
Number of Rounds of Healing Per Charge: 19
Total Average Health Healed: 36,100
Price in Gold Pieces Per Hit Point Healed: 0.42gp

Assuming you can get in all 19 rounds of healing per charge, you heal 2.41 hit points per gp spent on the wand. Now obviously that's an idealized situation but it does show that as you raise caster level the cost per hit point decreases, so a CL 3 wand will be better than a CL 2 wand and should still see enough use to warrant the extra 750 gp. The additional cost does make it more prohibitive in the lower levels though.

So I was rummaging through some of the Pathfinder reddits and came across this gem:

amstrdm wrote:

True, I just find it hilarious you can (possibly) have a human with 15ft reach.

Racial Heritage is probably my favorite feat for sheer ridiculousness you can get away with with "RAW".

Super ridiculous. Especially when you look at half-orcs' Orc Blood racial: "Orc Blood: Half-orcs count as both humans and orcs for any effect related to race."

Since we're talking word rulings, you can potentially count as a human to take Racial Heritage. If you want to get even MORE ridiculous, take kitsune as the heritage, and grab Swift Kitsune Shapechanger and Vulpine Pounce. Play a wanderer monk.
At level 13, you can pounce with full flurry of blows, have eternal freedom of movement, and your half-orc can turn into a fox-man. Because why not.

What other zany things can we come up with?

If a spell-like ability can be drawn from the sorcerer/wizard list it must be. FAQ. Any other questions? My search-fu is strong today :)

#33 You can use a grapple check to leap onto a larger creature Shadow of Colossus style.

You have no idea how much I wish we had concrete rules or even just guidelines on how to make that a reality.

Protip: Rogues are objectively worse than bards in combat. And everything else for that matter.