let's go back speaking of Ezren, pretty please ?
Ok.
Anyone know why he has +20 hit points when his Con is 12 and he doesn't have the toughness feat?
let's go back speaking of Ezren, pretty please ?Ok.
Anyone know why he has +20 hit points when his Con is 12 and he doesn't have the toughness feat?
10th level, +1xlevel (Con12), +1xlevel (Favored Class).
He chose to gain 1 extra hp instead of 1 extra skill point per level.
EDIT: double ninja'd...
Anyone know why he has +20 hit points when his Con is 12 and he doesn't have the toughness feat?Favored Class Bonus
EDIT: Ninja'd by a Ninjaiguana ...
D'oh! Obvious now you mention it. Brain not working today - I'll go back into hibernation mode.
Wow. It takes a guy with ninja in his name to ninja people that much. You must all commit seppuku now. With paper cuts! }>
Just kidding. A simple paper cut will restore your honour.
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2. As for the number of times per day issue with school powers, I think you will find that the number provided allows for liberal use of the abilities without making cantrips (which can still be cast at will) a weak class feature. This was a big balancing act for us, but in the end, it is still quite viable. I have been playing a sorcerer with a limited use ability for some time now and I do not think I have used up all of my daily uses of that ability even once.
I don't see how having an attacking option you can use without limit weakens cantrips, which are often not attacking in any case. It does make the offensive cantrips less useful, but they start from a pretty low base anyhow.
As for not using all of your daily use powers, I know that my players can because I like long adventuring days. If, of course, people never use theirs up, then it probably wouldn't make any difference if they were usable without limit (nor would it be any threat to cantrips, unless the reason you're not using up your daily use powers is to eke them out and you instead use cantrips as a replacement; I would find that unfun, because in my opinion nearly all the offensive cantrips are too weak to want to use them).
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Wow. It takes a guy with ninja in his name to ninja people that much. You must all commit seppuku now. With paper cuts! }>
Just kidding. A simple paper cut will restore your honour.
Whoops, I seem to have accidentally revealed my fearsome ninja skills! Hey, does this work like scrabble? Do I get a score multiplier for ninjaing three people? ;)
DOUBLE NINJA!
MEGA NINJA!
MULTI NINJA!
NINJAING SPREE!
Presumably favoured class bonus went to hp rather than to skills.
Indeed. This is mandatory for any PC wizard. They have more than enough skill points as is.
Presumably favoured class bonus went to hp rather than to skills.Indeed. This is mandatory for any PC wizard. They have more than enough skill points as is.
I don't know. For some reason I have never had a problem figuring out what to spend skill points on - no matter how many a character had. ;)
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Are you saying you can't empower a heal spell? It is both variable and numeric, so sound like a house rule.No, it sounds like the correct interpretation of the rule.
Not according to WotC. They said that it does work back in the 3.5 days. If PF changed it, well than that a is a whole different story.
Exactly. If by "fun" you mean "powerful". Because those casters were too "fun".
Fun is not = to power, though there is some overlap. Being less able to acomplish things with your limited resources is not, in my book a good direction to go. On top of that, the caster previews have all been about "look what magic can't do anymore" while the other classes are all about "look how cool we are now we don't even want casters in our party".
unless the reason you're not using up your daily use powers is to eke them out and you instead use cantrips as a replacement; I would find that unfun, because in my opinion nearly all the offensive cantrips are too weak to want to use them).
I think this needs to be looked at in terms of 1st-2nd level gameplay. After that, I agree with you.
At the very low levels, though, the wizard has now got enough hitpoints to live through the adventure, half a dozen per-day powers that can actually contribute to a ranged fight, and when those are gone he can just ray of frost until the fight is over. That's an improvement over how things were, certainly.
And let us not forget that some of those cantrips can put out halfway respectable ranged damage in the right situations. For example, ray of frost v. vulnerable to cold. Or acid v. troll.
If the cantrips were any more powerful, people would complain that the wizard was even more overpowered.
Beta: Objects that are the subject of an arcane bond must fall into one of the following categories: amulet, ring, staff, wand, or weapon.
Is Ezren's cane a staff or weapon? Is the only significance of the object for item enchantment purposes?
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Getting back to the wizard discussion at hand. I have noticed alot of people grumbling about Ray of Enfeeblement being allowed a save for half effects. Well look at from the bright side. What goes for the player goes for enemy casters as well. Imagine facing a sorcerer who knows this spell. A sorcerer could easily immobilize most of the party if a save is not allowed. Now with the save at least characters wont have to worry so much about being immombilized by being hit by one or two rays.
There are worse spells. Blindness/Deafness for example has a permanent duration (at least it did in 3.5). Fortitude negates, but characters with a bad fortitude save have a high risk of being rather useless and vulnerable till they are cured (which takes a level 3 spell).
Beta: Objects that are the subject of an arcane bond must fall into one of the following categories: amulet, ring, staff, wand, or weapon.
Is Ezren's cane a staff or weapon? Is the only significance of the object for item enchantment purposes?
They have treated it as such for the purposes of damage. It's a club.
I believe you are correct about the enhancements the item receives. If you choose a staff, you can enchant it as a staff, etc.
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unless the reason you're not using up your daily use powers is to eke them out and you instead use cantrips as a replacement; I would find that unfun, because in my opinion nearly all the offensive cantrips are too weak to want to use them).I think this needs to be looked at in terms of 1st-2nd level gameplay. After that, I agree with you.
At the very low levels, though, the wizard has now got enough hitpoints to live through the adventure, half a dozen per-day powers that can actually contribute to a ranged fight, and when those are gone he can just ray of frost until the fight is over. That's an improvement over how things were, certainly.
And let us not forget that some of those cantrips can put out halfway respectable ranged damage in the right situations. For example, ray of frost v. vulnerable to cold. Or acid v. troll.
If the cantrips were any more powerful, people would complain that the wizard was even more overpowered.
Oh, sure, I'm not calling for an increase in cantrip power, but rather keeping school/domain powers at-will as in the Beta. The cantrips, it seems to me, are to some extent utility spells where being forced to use them up is a pointless penalty (particularly Detect Magic, Read Magic, etc) so I'm favour of them being the way that they are; I just don't think that making the school and domain powers at-will makes them irrelevant.
It certainly is better than how it was before in 3.5, but I think that it's worse than the Beta, which is an unwelcome step backward.
Beta: Objects that are the subject of an arcane bond must fall into one of the following categories: amulet, ring, staff, wand, or weapon.
Is Ezren's cane a staff or weapon? Is the only significance of the object for item enchantment purposes?
They have treated it as such for the purposes of damage. It's a club.
I believe you are correct about the enhancements the item receives. If you choose a staff, you can enchant it as a staff, etc.
I'm waiting for Pegleg Wand! ...Pegleg Wand!
I'm waiting for Pegleg Wand! ...Pegleg Wand!
Ever seen the cover of the Shadowrun 3 book "Blood in the Boardroom"?
Man, my group got so much mileage out of that ninja with a pegleg.
Well said Jadeite blindness is a killer against arcane casters and rogues.
There are worse spells. Blindness/Deafness for example has a permanent duration (at least it did in 3.5). Fortitude negates, but characters with a bad fortitude save have a high risk of being rather useless and vulnerable till they are cured (which takes a level 3 spell).
...and yet the 2nd level globe of impenetrable darkness has been consistanty hammered on with the nerf bat for at least the last six years. Go figure. [/beating dead horse]
I smell a new house rule coming for my group. I really like to be able to recalculate things when someone goes, "Duh! I can't remember if I gave myself Hit Points/Skill Points when I leveled up." I think that I am going to force my players to choose one path or the other (HP or SP) for favored class and not allow a mix.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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I smell a new house rule coming for my group. I really like to be able to recalculate things when someone goes, "Duh! I can't remember if I gave myself Hit Points/Skill Points when I leveled up." I think that I am going to force my players to choose one path or the other (HP or SP) for favored class and not allow a mix.
You could just require that they track how many levels they put their favored class bonus into hp and how many into skill points, or even have a table that shows which levels went into which bonus. No need to penalize flexibility just for the sake of record keeping.
I'm still curious if shield and mage armour are sunderable now since Wall of Force can be hit (hardness 30 means damaged !=hit)
I'll confess to being enamoured at the idea of the fighter or barbarian pounding away on the shield, it flaring every time it gets hit, and small cracks starting to skitter across it.
Also wonder about the resiliant sphere...
Gah, two weeks!
First off, I like the post. Not much new with the wizard other than some MUCH needed reductions to the generalist. Wizard is my favorite class and even I felt bad about how good the new generalist wizard was.
To the above question. I do not believe mage armor or shield can be sundered as they are not exactly like a wall of force. Mage Armor and Shield do not prevent attacks the way a wall of force does. They are already able to have weapons pass through or around them with a high enough roll. Sundering mage armor would be like using deflect arrows to stop magic missiles.
Resiliant Sphere on the other hand could be sundered if the game logic with Wall of Force follows.
Again - thanks to Jason and the gang for making a great game that should prvovide my group with hours and years of "goofing off". :)
I smell a new house rule coming for my group. I really like to be able to recalculate things when someone goes, "Duh! I can't remember if I gave myself Hit Points/Skill Points when I leveled up." I think that I am going to force my players to choose one path or the other (HP or SP) for favored class and not allow a mix.You could just require that they track how many levels they put their favored class bonus into hp and how many into skill points, or even have a table that shows which levels went into which bonus. No need to penalize flexibility just for the sake of record keeping.
Well sure, unless, y'know... You strongly prefer to minimize record keeping. :-)
Frogboy's approach definitely minimizes record keeping/confusion and is 100% compatable (at least o.ne-way)I think the best way to keep track of this if 'flexibility' is important, is choose ONE of either HP or Skill Ranks to track how many Favored Class bonuses you've allocated. For the (hopefully few) times when you need verify the total Flavor Class bonus(es) are in line with Character Level, you can quickly figure out how much FC Bonus should be allocated to the option you WEREN'T specifically tracking (by subtracting the tracked HP/Skills from total levels in Favored Class(es)).
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To the above question. I do not believe mage armor or shield can be sundered as they are not exactly like a wall of force. Mage Armor and Shield do not prevent attacks the way a wall of force does. They are already able to have weapons pass through or around them with a high enough roll. Sundering mage armor would be like using deflect arrows to stop magic missiles.
Also to sunder the target item has to be "carried" or "held" (under 3.5 rules). So it can be argued that you do neither for either, especially Mage Armor because you can't sunder regular armor as above.
Pegleg Wand!
Ha!
Glass eye of scorching ray!
If Ezren's cane is a weapon, why doesn't he enchant it?
If it is a staff, is he just waiting to 12th level to enchant it?
If Ezren's cane is a weapon, why doesn't he enchant it?
If it is a staff, is he just waiting to 12th level to enchant it?
Because it costs money and he can use that money for other stuff.
Pegleg Wand!Ha!
Glass eye of scorching ray!
Vorpal hook.
If mage armor and shield have the statistics of a wall of force, I doubt that anyone in their right mind would ever bother trying to sunder one anyway.
You could just require that they track how many levels they put their favored class bonus into hp and how many into skill points, or even have a table that shows which levels went into which bonus. No need to penalize flexibility just for the sake of record keeping.
If you knew the people that I play DND with, you'd understand. It'll be a lot easier this way. They won't miss the extra flexability anyway. It would probably be rare for any of them to not put all of their bonus points exclusively into one or the other. I'm half tempted to make them designate one of their skills as maxed out (or 1/lvl in favored class) since everyone has at least one but probably won't go that far.
Director of Games
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If Ezren's cane is a weapon, why doesn't he enchant it?
If it is a staff, is he just waiting to 12th level to enchant it?
Ezren's cane is a weapon. He could enchant it if he wanted to, but has not bothered as of yet. He is a cranky old man.. and he will do things when HE feels like it. Now get off his lawn.
:-)
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
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but I do want to say thanks to Paizo for all their work, even if I don't agree with how it all (may or may not actually) turns out.
Seconded, I know I've had my rants about the paladin and am very dissapointed about the extra damage vs. certain creature types, but I appreciate all the hard work you guys have done and unlike 4.0 the more I've learned about PRPGs final the more excited I've gotten. With 4.0 I started super excited and then by the release as I learned more and more I had lost that enthusiasm. But with Paizo, the more I've learned the happier I've been with only a few minor exceptions.
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I had already mentioned I wasn't using the Int damage to bonus in an earlier post; my post was meant to be a continuation of that discussion. As for the last part, well, I'm going to stick with the old HotA, which was interesting. A weapon ray is pretty boring to me.
I followed Jason's suggestion from the playtest and removed the Int for damage bonus. Then you have merely Int for to-hit and you have to spend at least a round getting the thing there, and then you have to concentrate, and it can't make Attacks of Opportunity. I just can't see that that version was overpowered.
Okay, but we're not to know that you're not including the Int bonus if you don't tell us. I realize you are telling us now, but when making the point that you don't think it was overpowered the way it was, it's helpful to know that you were using a modified version.
The issue I didn't see resolved was whether people can move through the weapon's square or not. I've ruled that they can but can't end the round occupying the same square, but I'd relax that last, too, if context...Well.. now that it is catagorized as a ranged attack and not a melee attack, the weapon's presence as a 'melee combatant' has been done away with. The description and mental image that resembled a dancing self-fighting sword worked against the actual text that said it always returned the same round. Initially I had that problem with it, until I really reinforced, to myself even, that the weapon was always coming back to the owner the same round it attack (ergo it was not occupying a space at the end of the wizard's turn).
As a ranged attack, that is less confusing. Does a boomerang or starknife occupy the space of something else in it's return flight? Maybe, but not for very long.
Make it a feat to convert the New HoA into the Old Style HoA...you expend your other powers to allow you to focus on the ability of your HoA. It could be Hand of the Neophyte...You could even have a second feat in the line called Hand of the Master.
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Make it a feat to convert the New HoA into the Old Style HoA...you expend your other powers to allow you to focus on the ability of your HoA. It could be Hand of the Neophyte...You could even have a second feat in the line called Hand of the Master.
I wouldn't mind a feat to make the Beta HotA better, although it'd be a pain thinking up advances for all the school and domain powers, but as it stands, I think that the Beta HotA with the guidance Jason gave in playtest is about right and I think that it should be at-will and so should all the other school and domain powers...
I may be the only one that's going to stick with them at-will, I guess, but it's been a fun enhancer in my games and I think that taking down the number of daily uses (from unlimited to, I guess, 7-8 at low level) won't be a Good Thing.
If Ezren's cane is a weapon, why doesn't he enchant it?
If it is a staff, is he just waiting to 12th level to enchant it?
Actually staves are often weapons as well (see Staff of Fire and Staff of Power.. and Staff of Fiery Power at that). Kinda a neat boost for the classic wizard item to be used for both.
And Craft Staff is at 11th level now.
As for the uses per day stuff... I've had a character use their 'Acid Dart' so many times I thought it was both boring and abusive, and I still don't think they would have used up everything under the new rules.
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Also, what's the deal with wizard necromancers turning/rebuking undead? Are clerics going to be better at this than Wizards? I really don't like the implication here after what we found out about channeling from the cleric. I really don't want a game were the villiagers run to the villiage good necromancer when zombies come a calling.
I can understand a single skeleton hinchman as in Unearthed Arcana variant, but don't stomp down so hard on the cleric's toes here.
I kind of like the idea, but if it drops the cleric back behind the necromancer in this regard, it isn't worth it. Or even the paladin to be honest.
Also, what's the deal with wizard necromancers turning/rebuking undead? Are clerics going to be better at this than Wizards? I really don't like the implication here after what we found out about channeling from the cleric. I really don't want a game were the villiagers run to the villiage good necromancer when zombies come a calling.
I can understand a single skeleton hinchman as in Unearthed Arcana variant, but don't stomp down so hard on the cleric's toes here.
I kind of like the idea, but if it drops the cleric back behind the necromancer in this regard, it isn't worth it. Or even the paladin to be honest.
Just remember if it is HD based then the Necro has a choice: One big undead 'companion' or a legion of lesser drones.
Either has it's place in both mythology and modern fantasy, which is what we are looking for here, not "it's someone else's job".
Just a thought but there is no real "Niche security" past 1st edition in D&D. Just "Niche Preference".
a game were the villiagers run to the villiage good necromancer when zombies come a calling.
The villagers should either be running TO or AWAY FROM the necromancer. One of those two.
And what, a 10th-level wizard would have something better to spend his gold on than a +2 club!!??
Arcane bond allows you to enchant the item as if you had the feat. Could you make a ring of feather falling at 1st level?
Otherwise, from a power perspective, wand is the only way to go.
I gotta say there more and stronger examples of preist having undead minions than wizards. It's a niche because it works not 4th ed.
Of course it's not. But we have had wizards with undead minions (both a few big strong ones, and a lot of weak ones) in multiple sources (even in D&D) for about as long as we have had priest with undead minions.
Honestly Priest are generally more the undead smashers. The most common Iconic I think of in the situation is a priest (or cleric) leading the heroes against a necromancer (wizard) that has been creating an army of the undead to "take over the world!" (tm). I mean that's classic right there.
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Surely the Necromancer is going to be able to Turn Undead, not Channel Energy. As it's been confirmed that Turn Undead is now a feat, it will just have the effects of the feat, i.e. making undead run away.
The Cleric will still be able to blast them into little tiny pieces, whereas the Necromancer won't.