ninjaijk's page

I played with scent a lot:

first, remeber it does not pinpoint a creature,unless yuo are toe to toe with it.It just points the general direction. You need to roam in the general direction until you come in a square adjacent to the enemy. This can be of use to you,or it can not. It is mostly useful when messing with an invisible/hiding enemy.

Second, remeber the rules of the wind. If you are upwind,the range of the ability is halved.

Third, there are a number of ways to cover your scent. The most significant are the negate aroma spell,and the deodorizing agent,a cheap achemical items that renders you scentless for up to 3 hours. It is logical to assume that every stealth-oriented npc would use it, whether he knows about the pc or not.

Finally,the most important thing: a lot of monsters has scent as well. If the pc is scouting alone and comes within 30 ft from the critters, he can be percieved, too. Scent, tremorsense, blind sight, are not that uncommon, even among low-middle level monsters. The dog of the bad guy will allert everyone from lvl 1.

I see the portal spell as a stargate, you know? Between the two planes there is a sort of "magical vacuum". Its not like a door connect them directly.
So no to all your proposal,except the pit-like use (ref save) and opening it where a creature is running. This last one only if the creature is actually running. If he is simply walking,and sees the gate,he can just stop. This is how i'd rule it.

Ok, thanks.

ok,i assume i can conjure some othur and then burn it

i think you can melee and then restealth.you start your round in melee range (supposedly benefiting from some sort of concealment),attack (standard),move action to get total cover/concealment (e.g turn a corner,enter a fog cloud) and then stealth,with a -5 if you moved more than half your speed.
if you snipe,the enemy does not know where the arrow came from.if you use the tactic exposed above,he will see you turn the corner,will follow you,your cover will blow and he will find you.
also,assume there is mid light and you turn the corner,he follows,you no longer have total cover but you have concelament,which is enough to maintain stealth (not to start it,unless you provide distraction).
this last situation does not bring to you perma hidden,since he can just ready an action to strike you.thing he cannot do if you are sniping.

can i conjure poison with a minor creation spell?

thanks!

are you sure this is gnome only? this is actualy another thing i wanted to ask.unlike other racial spells,it explicitly says:"if a gnome cast it,use spell craft.if a non-gnome cast it,use regular craft". this implies that non-gnome can cast it as well.

anyone?

i cast minor phantom object to create 7 cu.ft of black lotus poison.i then coat all my arrows with it.if i fire one such arrow,and the enemy succesfully disbelief the illusion,will the poison cease to exist on all arrows?

i like the grippli alchemist who focus on his own poison.

I've got to wonder how many "nerf this" posts for upper level spells we'd have if the same percentages of people were seeing them.

interesting,can you provide some examples? but remember,every spell you will cite is just one of the reason why the surge needs a nerf...

First, it's not really for combat

i disagree.when you get a quiken way to cast it,it becomes THE spell for combat.as i said before,imagine the ammount of battelfield control you can get.you can target the lower save,alter the battelfield in the better way,debuffing the enemy exactly where it hurts more.and if you get bored you can simply get the best blast against that particular enemy,and cook him well.or you can use it for utility.treatmonk's god wizard is a little pussycat compared to the paragon surge oracle.

It's crazy good, but only because of Expanded Arcana and Improved Eldritch Heritage: Arcane. No other usage of it is problematic at all--in fact, just about every other use would be distinctly underpowered.

i have to disagree with this either.for sure,it is ridicously broken only when it comes to ea and ieh:a.but it has many other intersting usages.

some example:extra revelation (well,the oracle is unstopable);extra discovery for the alchemist is pretty good too;extra everything really;the familiar thing is also interesting (if it works);preferred spell to a wizard is too good to pass;why a wizard should take opposite research? he take quick study instead,and a cheap minor rod of extended spells,and he have opposite research for any of the two school,or any metamagic he needs;even a ninja with decent umd should invest in a scroll of this,for the extra trick;a stealth character has a lots of other interesting uses too:some example are dampen presence if the critter has blind sight,conceal scent if he has scent;eldritch heritage (other than arcana) if you feel like;extra traits is always usefull:arcane lineage before prepairing spells,and and you have a free discount on metamagic for every spell you want (you dont even need extended spells),and other traits are good,too.and those are the ones that comes in my mind right now,im sure there are other goodies somwere among the hundreds feats pubblished so far.
TL;DR i would not call it underpowered

now,the point here is not that those usages are -overpowered-.the point is that any class who could access this,actually should.
you can find this in the game design dictionary,under the entry "broken".

I still don't see why some people get all bent out of shape over this.

maybe i wasnt clear enough,i will try again:

if you play a human sorcerer,you want racial heritage,and ps perfected by lvl 15.realy,this option is so good,there is no reason to skip on it.i mean,no reason.there is no build wich can put one or two feat slot at a better use.and there is no spell wich you rather want perfect other than this one.i mean,you want a quickened maximized intensificated empowered fireball? paragon surge is still better.if your enemy has fire resistance (say,a daemon),you epic fireball is totally useless.with ps,and some rank in knowledge,you will always have the exact spell your enemy is most vulnerable to.without casting time increase,and your 9th level slots all open.
and when it comes to oracles,it become ridicously overpowered.

if you build characters with optimization in mind,there is no reason to play a sorcerer or oracle (or bard) not human or half elf or half human otherwise.then,the human favored class bonus becomes obsolete,therefore you can easy go full hp.
as i see it,every other sorcerer build will be greatly underdog.
again,im not speaking about the oracle,compred to wich every other build of every other class of the game will be greatly underdog.
does any one think about the ability to cast the exact battelfield control you need at any given time? + every blast you need of every energy type you need + every buff + every debuff.
realy.its like god x god x god x god.god^4 is too much for me.

and for the wizard and the cleric,although they will benefit a lot less,the same holds true.having full spontaneus access to your spellbook by lvl 15 (or less with a MINOR rod),is just too good to pass.

speaking of non casting feats,i still think this is very useful.not nearly as much as casting,but still useful.it what this spell was designed for,so no overpowered,but a good 3rd lvl spell.and the more supplement will be pubblished,the more feats will come.

it is not a feat, it is something that a wizard can take instead of their bonus feat.

the text says:

so,my interpretation is: the feat granted by the spell is not "regular",and therefore a wizard cannot chose an arcane discovery.

However, only half-elves can use the spell. The OP is saying that this spell is so useful for all casters that anyone who qualifies for racial heritage(half-elf) would take it only to have access to this spell, and that fails the sniff check.

yes.imo a caster not taking this,is a caster not knowing about this.

1) as a sorcerer,you take expanded arcana.as an oracle you take the almight grater heldritch heritage,arcana bloodline.
edit:and as a wizard you take preferred spell

2) i meant if you can take opposition research as the feat granted from ps,and prepare spells

o and the 2nd lvl spell become useless after 4-5 lvl,since they dont stack with items

1)isnt this spell a bit too powerful?i know this has ben discussed before,but is there a single reason why a human sorcerer or oracle,or wizard or cleric fwiw, shouldn't take the racial heritage feat? every spell you want at best, one feat to rule them all at worst.

2)..and since i have to exploit this..can i ,as a wizard,take the discovery wich lets you prepare spells in 15min, cast an extended ps, and have any metamagic i want?can i prepare spell as above using opposition research as the bonus feat?

He is "unobserved" due to stealth and the subject might be (only if you accept Jason Bulmahn's unofficial clarification) denied a DEX bonus.

we do accept that clarification.if a thief cant sneak attack while sneaking,than anything makes any sense at all.

ok,thanks guys for the assistance.very helpful!

ok,thanks for the clarification.

one last thing,just to be clear:if there are no verbal components,then there are no aoo,and the sorcerer becomes visible after the attack,thus the target is denied is dex, am i right?

edit:and a spell without verbal wich is not an attack spell,does not break stealth,is it correct?

1)how are the rules for casting from stealth?can you whisper a verbal component?do you need to yell out loud?
2)the stealth skill says nothing about spells,do they counts as attacks in regard to breaking stealth (not magical invisibility)
3)what if the spell is quikened?
4)the most recente stealth errata states that stealth brakes AFTER the attack is rolled.how about spells? i.e. i ready an action,can i interrupt the sorcerer casting from stealth (assuming stealth si broken)?also,if the sorcerer casts a touch spell,will it be flat-footed touch?
thanks to all

i agree with everything,except the special senses wich he has covered,anyway it does not change the sense of what you are saying.

my next question now is,how can i build a dc 66 cr 13ish legal trap?sounds like a good challenge..i will work on it.

he does not death attack at range.the combat usually go like this:
party stays back,he scouts,finds the enemy boss,waits 3 rounds,death attacks him melee,move action+hips,then party arrives to finish the job.at this point he is sniping.
it is important to note that a cr 14 red dragon,has a fort of +16,that means one time in two he is dead before the fight starts.

he does not need bluff,since hide in plain sight makes it obsolete.

there is no surprise round because he goes around stealthed all the time.he is the one who is getting surprise rounds.maybe i can throw an assassin like will prat suggested,then yes,it should works.(its a one timer though,then the party strats using flour aswell)

his perception is not awesome,true,but neither that low.maxed rank+alertness (familiar)+extract and he is at +18,that is not that bad.

other saves are pretty low (despite iron will),the problem is that i can not target him.this is why i think aoe vs fort is a good tactics.this wont kill him though,but can control him a bit.

and of course,he does have tourette,but he is a goblin,so it is normal,he is not supposed to be the peoples person.

anyways,i think the barbarian will get the job done.

the flour is a good idea.does it automatically pinpoint?it can be countered with fly though,but for an encounter or 2 it should work

the stinky cloud is another great idea.there are so few fort aoe spells that i totally forgot about it.

and the barbarian will definitely be his nemesis.
and btw,in 3.5 u could sneak attack if you were 4 lvl higher.does it apply here?

hi all,
this is the last character one of my player come up with,i feel he is quite powerfull,and quite the unkillable.i post here with a question:how do you GM deal with him?just in case i have missed something or i have forgotten a rule.

ok,here it is:
he is named Pook
lvl 13
goblin rog2/vivisectionist-mindchemist3/assassin8
stat(without items) 12 24 10 16 7 5

darkvision,trap finding (no allarm gliph),evasion+high ref (immune to aoe),high escape artist (against grapple),various poison skills,sneak attack ,truestrike(for damage)

death attack:10 +8lvl +3int +1 ability focus(death attack) +2 cognatogen +2 item band of intellect(+4) +1 item assassin dagger= 27 dc do or die at will.

and then there is stealth: HIPS (fairly op),dampen presence (feat,no blind sight),negate aroma (L1 extract,no scent),boots of soft step (super cheap magic item,negate tremorsense)
and the score:+7 dex +3 class +13 ranks +2 color thief (racial trait) +3 tumor familiar (cat) +4 racial +4 small size +4 stealthy feat +6 skill focus +8 chameleon discovery +5 reduce person (L1 extract) +2 item belt of dexterity +5 item cloak of elvenkind=+66.

so...if you ready action,he snipe (-20?lol!) glitterdust? -40...

you cant kill.
he for sure does not excell in dps,but with the maxed death attack he eats enemy controllers like candies...

i can forbid the goblin as a race,but then he can easily go halfling or gnome or whatever and just lose a couple points.and i say goblin were ok.plus i am amused by such a character,and i dont like to forbid stuff if a player come up with a clever and legal build.