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Designer

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Johnny_Devo wrote:
I'm unsure if it's been answered already, but I have a question about the kinetecist infusion "thundering infusion". On the ability, it simply reads "the target is deafened" and does not give a duration. Is this intended to mean that the deafened condition is permanent?

I think answered already, but permanent. I figure if we didn't want characters running around and permanently deafening people, blindness/deafness shouldn't let casters do it as a 2nd-level spell.

Designer

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Tels wrote:

Mark, what does the size change of Kinetic Form exactly do for the Kineticist?

A) Does it grant size bonus to CMD/CMB?

B) Penalty to AC?

C) Increased damage with unarmed strike/other weapons?

D) Can one benefit from enlarge person and then spend one point of burn to become huge or two points to become gargantuan? What about if they have already spent the points, and then have enlarge person cast on them? (I'm assuming the answer is, "No" here)

F) Increase in carrying capacity?

G) Faster movement speed?

H) Penalty to skills? (fly, stealth, etc)

Besides increasing your reach, I'm unclear as to what else it does for you. I know it doesn't affect your ability scores in any way (so no boost to strength/constitution or penalty to dexterity), but size increases involve more than just boosts/penalties to ability scores.

Separate question, how long does Kinetic Cover stick around for? Could a telekinetic, theoretically, build an entire maze out of translucent kinetic covers?

A) Yes.

B) Yes.

C) Unarmed would be yes, but the power doesn't resize your manufactured weapons, so those wouldn't do more.

D) No, enlarge person specifically indicates that it doesn't work with any other effect that changes size.

E) There is no E.

F) Yup.

G) I've never seen increased size directly grant a movement speed increase, so unless it does and I've just missed it all this time, then I'm not sure why it possibly would.

H) Yes.

Bonus Question: It sticks around until someone breaks it, but there's a limit to how many can exist (see the last sentence).

Designer

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Lukas Stariha wrote:

Hey Mark, I have a couple of clarifications for the designer of the Kineticist and the Medium, if you can find him!

1) Is Rare Metal Infusion supposed to bypass hardness, considering it counts as adamantine for DR?

2) I'm a little confused about Surprise Strike's wording, does it just mean your first attack of the day against any enemy is at flat-footed? Or is it only against targets you have hit with your sneak attack? Does your Sneak Attack damage apply to this attack?

1) Just DR. A +4 weapon also counts as adamantine for DR and not hardness.

2) First attack of the day they are flat-footed. This gives you your sneak attack.


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Mark Seifter wrote:


1) Is Rare Metal Infusion supposed to bypass hardness, considering it counts as adamantine for DR?

This makes me sad. =(

Designer

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Vrischika111 wrote:

sorry for the repost, I thought it might be worth to ask here:

Herolab team is asking for evidence (one way or another on the following topic :

***** Fact *****
Adopted lets you pick another race trait (a trait, belonging to the 'Race' Category / NOT a Racial trait belonging to the race description )

***** Question *****
Does that apply as well to the variant sub-races for skinwalkers, dhampirs, aasimars and tieflings ?

***** Example *****
everyone agrees that:
1/ a PC can take Adrift (Book of Angels, P30) an aasimar trait

but what about :
2/enlightened warrior (Books of Angels P21 a race trait that allows to be a NN or NG Monk), but reserved to Idyllkin (Agathion blooded Aasimar)

Herolab says 1st is OK, but not 2nd.

By strict technicality, Adopted lets you pick a race trait from the adopted race, but it doesn't say it lets you ignore other prerequisites the trait might have, and those traits have an additional heritage prerequisite. This runs into two things about adopted, though, that might be worth adjusting in a home game. First, adopted strongly implies that you have picked up cultural things from your adopted race, so it really shouldn't work if the race trait involves something physical (like the Shoanti trait Bred for War). Second, since adopted was written before heritages and couldn't really predict them, there's not much reason it couldn't work for social things you picked up from a particular heritage, assuming you were raised by that heritage.

In short, Herolab is strictly correct, but in part that's because adopted was printed before heritages, so it couldn't possibly have any language about them.

Designer

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Luthorne wrote:
Out of curiosity, are there plans for ever bringing out composite blasts for the missing combinations? I noticed cold in particular has almost no combinations, only making a composite blast with water (ice) and telekinetic (aetheric boost). Earth and electricity - as well as fire and electricity - don't have one either...

The lack of earth and fire composites with non-fire energy is intentional, but they have much different levels of intent/design preference. If you add the earth ones (permafrost and maybe piezoelectric) to your game, it doesn't affect things too much, but the others do more so, since they would be energy composites.

Designer

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Barker wrote:

Do psychic potions exist? I noticed there's no mention of them in the book.

Oh and wands too.

They do. The reason scrolls get mentioned and they don't is because scrolls needed clarification on how they work, given spell completion and the components of a psychic spell, whereas spell trigger and use-activated just work normally.

Designer

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Chess Pwn wrote:
Mark, are the forums so bad that you get sad from them even before coming to them? haha.

Just because I don't respond doesn't mean I wasn't there ;)

When I get backed up on these answers by extra work (in this case on Intrigue), I sometimes feel guilty if I can't respond to several in a row, which then makes me more likely to get even more backed up. You're right that forum grar also contributes in that regard.

Designer

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Milo v3 wrote:
Would you be more excited or apprehensive if eventually you guys ended up writing a Futuristic Adventures style book for the RPG line? Mainly wondering considering your dissatisfaction with the existent advanced technology rules in PF.

I would definitely be more apprehensive.

Designer

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CrookedPony wrote:

Hi Mark I have Kineticist question I was wondering about the Thundering Infusion. The way the Infusion is written its seems you have to hit the target and bypass SR for the target to be deafened. Does this mean the Thundering Infusion can only be used against enemies with SR, or do you count creatures without a listed SR as having SR0 so it is automatically bypassed.

One more question why does a class that relies on hit points not have more than D8. I mean why not have another D12 class I hardly get much use out of the die nowadays.

If it doesn't have SR, the step of bypassing SR is always successful.

The Con focus gives it its hit points, though to be honest, if you wanted to give it d10, that's fine too. d12 is a special barbarian-only thing though.

Designer

Gnorm wrote:
Alright so does the air's leap utility power allow a kineticist to break the rule in the acrobatics jump description stateing that you can never jump further than you can move? If it doesn't than it seems like an ability you could never use. Breaking down the math at 2nd level (the earliest you could get the talent) you have 2 ranks in acrobatics get an additional 2 from air's leap and another 3 from it being a class skill puts you at 7 for a kineticist that has no dex bonus (seems unlikely but we'll go with it). Assuming a roll of natural 1 that puts you at an 8 and you count as having a running start so that puts you at 8 horozontal feet. Then the ability doubles that to 16 take a point of burn and it doubles again to 32, 2 feet beyond any standard races move speed. So rolling anything above a 1 at second level just doesn't matter? Seems a bit odd, even more so if you take the kinetic leap feat at 3rd level for the extra +10.

Remember that high jumps are a lot harder for the same distance; you'd normally need a DC 120 high jump to jump 30 feet straight up. Also, you can double move 60 feet, so I suppose that would be a normal DC of 240 (or DC 60 after the quadrupled distance).

Designer

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Catharsis wrote:

Mark, a question came up in N. Jolly's Kineticist Guide thread:

When you Gather Energy, does the visible effect extend through walls? We were looking forward to using Silence to make Gather Energy work as a pre-combat buff without instantly spoiling the surprise. The visible component could presumably be hidden by staying behind a wall, but in tight quarters, that might cause spillage into adjacent rooms.

In your playtests, have you guys ever used full-round Gather? Did you figure out other tricks to make it work in everyday adventuring?

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2su6f&page=7?Mastering-the-Elements-N-Jolly s-guide-to-the#335

It probably shouldn't spill through walls unless the walls are weird. One of the best tricks with full round gather involves earth glide and is thus only relevant for geos. What you do is, round 1 you 5-foot step into the ground and full round gather. Round 2 you 5-foot back up, move gather, and blast.

Full round gather also tends to be particularly good with metakinesis (twice), since the full round part pays for all but 1 of the cost of that metakinesis, and that metakinesis generally doubles your round's output, so given that burstier damage all at once is harder to deal with for the enemy, it's pretty nice.

Another nifty use for full round gather, though pretty risky, is as a sort of "taunt" mechanic, and I've seen it used that way. Basically, the gist of it is that since kineticists often have tip-top defenses while standing in the back, hard for the enemies to reach, you can sometimes get them to redirect their fire to you if you bait them with a full round gather, kind of like how enemies often try to interrupt the full round spellcaster, since the action economy of smacking someone and messing up their action is so good, plus the burn. Of course the flipside is that if they succeed, then you took burn, so as I said, it's a risky tactic.

Designer

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Rynjin wrote:
With the Elemental Annihilator's "Ever Present Threat" ability, is he considered to be Wielding his Devastating Infusion for he purpose of things like Snap Shot?

He's threatening those squares anyway, but technically he isn't wielding his blasts, based on the line about not being wielding them. This comes about due to some other really messed up stuff involving wielded weapons, though (oh wielding, such a problem child piece of terminology), not specifically because of Snap Shot, so I for one would definitely allow an annihilator to grab Snap Shot and Improved Snap Shot in my home game.

Designer

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DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:

Hi Mark,

Would you care to chime in with your thoughts on how the Kineticist might interact with the Wounds and Vigor system? I made a thread about it Here, in the advice, suggestion and houserules forum.

It's certainly a tricky variant, but one approach might be to examine the scaling math on burn; in the normal system, burn is a give-and-take with Constitution, and it generally counteracts the hp gain from +2 Con. On the other hand, it doesn't kill you; it just makes you easier to KO. So one place to start might be to have burn reduce your wound threshold by a static 2 (the same as the amount you'd gain for +2 Con) regardless of level. This makes you easier and easier to knock out, and it directly balances an increased Con.

Now, having not used that subsystem, I can't tell you if that would be satisfying from a gameplay sense, just the math sense, so if you happen to playtest it, let me know!


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As far as I am aware, the only traits in the Paizo RPG line have been in the Advanced Player's Guide and Ultimate Campaign. Equipment and Mount traits both seem particularly amenable to being put in the RPG line, but neither of them have been so far. Are there any plans to put traits in future RPG line products? On the flip side, is the design team actively opposed to the idea of putting more traits in the RPG line?

Designer

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Kudaku wrote:

Mark, ran into a (potentially) interesting question. How would you handle classes with animal companions when using the Automatic Bonus Progression system?

My player suggested letting his animal companion have the same bonus progression as the druid, which I'm not exactly thrilled about. On the other hand, if his cat has no real way of gaining resistance/weapon/AC/stat bonuses, it will become increasingly ineffective or possibly even a liability.

By default, the companion doesn't get automatic progression. I certainly wouldn't be averse to a druid offering up some of her own benefits to the companion, though, instead of herself. For instance, maybe she could give the companion's barding the armor attunement instead of her own armor. Another alternative is to give the druid and animal companion each the benefits of being two levels lower on the chart because wealth kinda sorta doubles every 2 levels for a little while anyway. At very high levels, you'll probably need to give benefits of three levels lower (for instance, while wealth doubles between levels 7 and 9, at high levels, it doubles between 17 and 20).

Designer

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Tels wrote:

Is... is the telekineticist unable to levitate people!? I can't seem to find any ability that lets them just straight up levitate someone around. The closest I can find is Foe Throw, but that wouldn't be very good to use on an ally if you're trying to help them climb a cliff or something. The only other choice seems to be using Telekinetic Haul to levitate an object that a person stands on, instead of just levitating the person.

Is this an oversight? Or am I missing something?

Just flat-out taking someone and putting them unharmed somewhere else isn't explicitly in their toolbox due to it being generally a can-of-worms topic (implicitly, someone might be able to ride on whatever you're hauling, which is still a can-of-worms, but then that leaves it in the realm of a bunch of other abilities that have that possibility). When you can do your shtick at will, then you'll want to use it all the time, and it's thus best to avoid cans-of-worms even more so than for something you'll only use sometimes.

Designer

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Gisher wrote:
Mark, now that a little time had gone by, what was the most important idea, motivation, connection, etc. that you gained by going to GenCon?

Oh man, this is my favorite question so far today.

Thinking about it a bit, there's a lot of things I learned this GenCon, more so than last year's, due to people actually knowing who I am. The #1 thing I gained was more of an emotional/happy thing than a piece of knowledge or anything; basically I learned (in some ways reminded myself, in some ways, really saw for the first time) just how unrepresentative the messageboards are overall for indicating the overall emotional state of the fans. I talked to tons of PFS players, tons of non-PFS players, and even a bunch of non-Pathfinder players. Overall, I discovered that there were a lot of plugged-in people who actually would want to post on the messageboards but feel that the negativity pushes them away, and since I can relate to that feeling, it's a little sad that there isn't any way to foster a community that welcomes those people. But the positive/happy thing is tied to that sadness, and it is thus: people are more likely to post on the boards about what makes them upset because being upset is a much stronger psychological impetus towards going through the steps of posting something (which has a greater net effort than just talking aloud), but when you get people talking, the barrier is lower, and they are actually as a whole really happy! And that's a very happy thing for me too. This whole thing is all about making people happy, when it comes down to it.

Designer

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Wrigsolar wrote:

Mark, lets say I'm statting out the big bad guy for my home campaign. Let's say its a monster with class levels, in fact, let's say multi-class that are pretty disparate. Should I be more concerned with the guidelines set out by the Monsters by Type or the general table that lists the guidelines for HD, Damage, spell DC, etc for each CR?

edit: by disparate, I mean they fall in separate categories

In my opinion, those monster roles barely help you at all and are really likely to lead to really unbalanced enemies. For instance, paladin (and thus antipaladin) is not associated with any role. This would, using that system, allow for a succubus antipaladin6 with 31 Charisma before applying items as a CR 10 because it's "not associated." That is not a CR 10 enemy. I would look more at the synergy of an individual monster and the class levels, or even check table 1-1 as you suggest.

Designer

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Cryypter wrote:

I couldn't find any info on this, so if this has been covered already, I would be appreciative if you could point out where.

Regarding the Kineticist, why do Air and Aether have no 9th level wild talents, while Earth, Fire, and Water do? Was this an oversight, or was it intentional?

Basically, what happened is that instead of gaining new "levels" of talents at level 1, 6, 10, and 16, I wanted to make things more granular, opening up more options and making the progress less of a hop. On the other hand, though, some of the abilities are just really nice, regardless of what number they have on the label. You could make an extremely powerful kineticist all the way up to 20 who didn't take any wild talents with a level higher than 6, to be honest. But anyways, back to the main point: If an element didn't have a 9th but instead had an 8th, that's really a perk, not a drawback. The other alternative, when filling out the levels, would have been to make an 8th level talent be 9th level. With aether, which has 3 of them, it would have been really easy to just say "telekinetic deflection is 9th level" (or either of the other two), and they're all good enough that they could have been, but I decided to instead give increased versatility in the order you take those talents. I doubt that any telekineticist will find any of those three to be an unsatisfying pick at 18th. Does that make sense?

Designer

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Haladir wrote:

Hi, Mark. Question about haunts and the Turn Undead feat. As far as I can tell, the rules are pretty much silent on what happens to a manifested haunt in the area of effect of a Turn Undead attempt. One way to rule would be that Turn Undead has no effect on a haunt. But I think that it should do something.

In my home game, I'd rule that the haunt gets a Will save to ignore the effect. I'd give the haunt a bonus to the save of its CR (plus any channel resistance it may have). If it saves, nothing happens. If it fails, the haunt is neutralized for the time being.

If you were a player in my game, would you think that was fair? If you were the GM of a home game, would you make a similar ruling?

In general, I think the houserule is a bit overly generous, though as a player, I wouldn't complain about that. As a GM, I would probably not use a similar houserule, but if I did, I would use the good saving throw bonus for the haunt's CR on Table 1-1, rather than the CR. This tends to be about 3+CR for most of the lower CRs.

Designer

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captain yesterday wrote:

I'm sure this has been asked and answered at least ten times, but I don't feel like looking for it :-)

Why was the Medium only four spell levels?

Just a curiosity I had, I love the Medium, it has grown on me probably more then any class and can't wait to see it in action :-)

Looks like Rynjin's gotcha covered!

Designer

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captain yesterday wrote:

I agree on needing more spirits :-)

Love the class, just curious why it was only up to 4th level spells, which was more a question of design rather than annoyance:-)

Also would like to know who designed the Mesmerist, which is also growing on me by leaps and bounds :-)

Seriously, awesome job on Occult Adventures by everyone :-)

Lukas is right; that was Logan. He sometimes slides under the radar (maybe due to people forgetting him after he stares at them), but he is pretty awesome, and so is the mesmerist.

Thanks for the kind words. I'm really proud about Occult Adventures. Given that in some ways it's more of a niche topic, I can't believe how well it did at GenCon compared to all previous books all the way back to time after the APG. Woot!

Designer

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Seannoss wrote:

Hi Mark,

When a druid wildshapes (or any other polymorph spell I guess) what are the DCs for poisons or other abilities?

There is this line from the polymorph section "The DC for any of these abilities equals your DC for the polymorph spell used to change you into that form." but nothing in that paragraph mentions abilities.

The paragraph mentions that it also gives other abilities, including senses and movement. It would seem that it was the spell DC. I hadn't even remembered that sentence and might thought it was 10 + 1/2 HD + Con mod if you hadn't pointed it out, but it does seem to be the spell DC, I guess.

Designer

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Catharsis wrote:

Mark, given that the omission of Torrent from the Electric Blast was errata'd, is there hope that it might work with Cold Blast, too? ;o) Or was Cold intentionally going to be the one energy blast without AoEs?

Does Air's Range extend Torrent for Electric Blast? It could certainly use it! That would make up for Electric's lack of a good low-level substance infusion.

Cold doesn't have torrent. Air's reach does apply to electric stuff, including electric torrent. Woohoo!

Designer

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ohako wrote:

Hey Mark, whenever you get the chance.

I understand that there's been a lot of water under the bridge re: covert spellcasting, the idea that a caster could cast a spell and not have others notice, even if the spell had otherwise no obvious effect (charm person and detect thoughts being two contenders here).

a) what's your take?
b) I can't ask the next obvious question (about Ultimate Intrigue), so let me try this one: does the availability of covert spellcasting affect the 'general understanding' of law-and-order in a typical Golarion city?

That is, I'm pretty sure there isn't a law against casting spells in public in, say, Absalom, but presumably casting any spell in front of a shopkeeper would be grounds for calling the guard (in case the spell was charm person). Is my understanding wrong?

This came up in both Occult and Intrigue, and basically, Jason has a post from 2010 or so that indicates that spells and spell-likes always have a noticeable manifestation by default (it's why you can Spellcraft them, take AoOs, and more even though SLAs have no verbal or somatic components). That's best practice in my opinion; there's honestly no reason to make spellcasters even more powerful in non-combat stuff than they already are, right?

Since it showed up in the playtest, I can answer your unasked question and say that options for using skill checks to hide your spellcasting, including any noticeable manifestations, will be available in Intrigue. There's actually a spare few ways to do is already, like the bard Spellsong feat. The good thing about this approach is that it still allows martial characters to win the opposed check and notice the spell, whereas a ruling that allowed SLAs, silent stilled spells, and psychic spells to be undetectable hoses martials unfairly.

As to law in a fantasy world, I would definitely say that casting a spell in front of someone with no Spellcraft is going to freak them out as much as reaching into your pocket and pulling out a gun-shaped object would at a convenience store. Of course, if the spell was actually charm person and they failed, now they're you're buddy, so they'll be willing to accept your explanation that it was a harmless cantrip.

Designer

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claudekennilol wrote:
Is it intended for monsters (or PCs) to grab -> constrict -> release -> grab -> constrict (repeat for as many attacks that have grab) in one full-round attack?

Grappling is a tangled mess for a few reasons, and that's one of them. I have asked the PDT on this (I actually asked quite a while ago out of my own curiosity) and received some answers, but it's probably best if they all came together as a FAQ Blog to stay in context with each other.

Designer

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Rynjin wrote:

What was the reasoning behind the Earth Kineticist's Tremorsense being such short duration? I'm about to play one in Slumbering Tsar, and it's just way disappointing compared to ones that are always on (like Fire Sight) or give amazing benefits from their expanded version (like Touchsite and Greater Touchsite).

While we're on that...why is it called Touchsite and not TouchSIGHT?

I actually think it's called touchsight and not touchsite?

I actually consider the burnless versions of tremorsense and toughsight to be pretty comparable, particularly since geokineticist tremorsense is superior to normal tremorsense (no miss chance on earth blasts) and greater tremorsense to be pretty awesome for getting info about a dungeon. Opinions can and do vary though!

Designer

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Shadow_Charlatan wrote:

would the Void and Wood Elements be an archtype or would they be like any of the normal elements (aether, air, fire)?

Do you know of any good examples that would show what a Aether/Void kineticist be like?

You'll have to wait and see how it's done. Aether/Void could have some interesting conceptual synergies, considering what each of them are; check it out to see what I mean!

Designer

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Tels wrote:
So, what had you away for so long? Was it buried treasure?

It wasn't pirates, but instead, plenty of courtly intrigue!


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Mark Seifter wrote:
Shadow_Charlatan wrote:

would the Void and Wood Elements be an archtype or would they be like any of the normal elements (aether, air, fire)?

Do you know of any good examples that would show what a Aether/Void kineticist be like?

You'll have to wait and see how it's done. Aether/Void could have some interesting conceptual synergies, considering what each of them are; check out Occult Origins to see what I mean!

Looking forward to it, had it preordered about a month ago.

Designer

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Shadow_Charlatan wrote:

If a non-spell casting character gains Crafting Mastery (mythic) which allows you to craft any magic items as if you had the necessary item creation feats, would the Spellcraft skill be used or would it have to be taken with Master Craftsman to work ?

Same issue if Spontaneous Generation (gives Craft Wondrous Item as bonus feat) is gained from Impossible Sorcerer Bloodline though Eldritch Heritage.

A character would have to be a little unusual to want to be an archmage without casting, but in that event, the path ability doesn't say it changes the default skill, so should still be Spellcraft. Impossible bloodline doesn't say one way or the other whether it ignores prereqs on the feat, and it may not do so because Sorcerer 3rd qualifies you on its own.


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Mark Seifter wrote:
Rynjin wrote:

What was the reasoning behind the Earth Kineticist's Tremorsense being such short duration? I'm about to play one in Slumbering Tsar, and it's just way disappointing compared to ones that are always on (like Fire Sight) or give amazing benefits from their expanded version (like Touchsite and Greater Touchsite).

While we're on that...why is it called Touchsite and not TouchSIGHT?

I actually think it's called touchsight and not touchsite?

I actually consider the burnless versions of tremorsense and toughsight to be pretty comparable, particularly since geokineticist tremorsense is superior to normal tremorsense (no miss chance on earth blasts) and greater tremorsense to be pretty awesome for getting info about a dungeon. Opinions can and do vary though!

Hm, you're right. When the SRD version came out I stopped using my PDF and they spelled it that way for some reason. I just assumed it was in the PDF too since I didn't really look at Aether before.

Anywho, I'm a big fan of special senses that are always on, or last for long periods. Most characters I make try to get Scent, or Blindsense, or some other kind of special sense because they're probably my favorite abilities, which is why Tremorsense is kind of disappointing to me. Greater Tremorsense has a neat effect, but Reactive Touchsight being an always on Uncanny Dodge/Blind-Fight+ ability appeals to me more. If it was round/level with no Burn, and something like minute/level for 1 Burn it'd be perfect IMO. My GM agreed to up it to 1/2 level with no Burn, so we'll see how that goes.

Plus (and minor, extreme corner case I'm aware), but it makes Watersense a WAY better ability in any aquatic campaign.

Enjoying my Geokineticist so far (the previously posted Brock Rudson), though the lack of options is disappointing. Very much looking forward to new Infusions and Talents posted in future books because as-is there's only one real option at any given level (at least up to 7th), sometimes two or three.


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Mark Seifter wrote:
Shadow_Charlatan wrote:

would the Void and Wood Elements be an archtype or would they be like any of the normal elements (aether, air, fire)?

Do you know of any good examples that would show what a Aether/Void kineticist be like?

You'll have to wait and see how it's done. Aether/Void could have some interesting conceptual synergies, considering what each of them are; check it out to see what I mean!

Hmm.. how bout a Pureblooded Azlanti Half-Janni Aether/Void Kineticist, how would the concept on that go ? :-)

Designer

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DarthPinkHippo wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
DarthPinkHippo wrote:
I am the one who asked about Gravity Falls the first time. From what you have said here, the show seems right up your alley. Also, it takes place in the Pacific Northwest, is the basis for the Occult Adventures section of my setting. There are mysteries aplenty, gorgeous background art (as it is animated), and compelling characters. I wholeheartedly recommend it. Googling "world of gravity falls" will lead you straight to the website that hosts all of the episodes.
Dragon78 wrote:
Gravity Falls is an animated show about 12 year old twin brother and sister named "Dipper"(nick name) and Mabel who are sent to stay with there "Gruncle"(great uncle) Stan for the summer in a small town called "Gravity Falls"(Oregon).
I'll have to remember to check it out. It's not on Netflix or Hulu, is it?
It isn't. But a website titled World of Gravity Falls is hosting the entire show for streaming purposes.

I looked at the website but it kind of looks non-legal. Strictly for myself personally, as someone who generates creative work, I try to act according to the categorical imperative/golden rule when it comes to other people's creative work.

Designer

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Rynjin wrote:
Mark Seifter wrote:
Rynjin wrote:

What was the reasoning behind the Earth Kineticist's Tremorsense being such short duration? I'm about to play one in Slumbering Tsar, and it's just way disappointing compared to ones that are always on (like Fire Sight) or give amazing benefits from their expanded version (like Touchsite and Greater Touchsite).

While we're on that...why is it called Touchsite and not TouchSIGHT?

I actually think it's called touchsight and not touchsite?

I actually consider the burnless versions of tremorsense and toughsight to be pretty comparable, particularly since geokineticist tremorsense is superior to normal tremorsense (no miss chance on earth blasts) and greater tremorsense to be pretty awesome for getting info about a dungeon. Opinions can and do vary though!

Hm, you're right. When the SRD version came out I stopped using my PDF and they spelled it that way for some reason. I just assumed it was in the PDF too since I didn't really look at Aether before.

Anywho, I'm a big fan of special senses that are always on, or last for long periods. Most characters I make try to get Scent, or Blindsense, or some other kind of special sense because they're probably my favorite abilities, which is why Tremorsense is kind of disappointing to me. Greater Tremorsense has a neat effect, but Reactive Touchsight being an always on Uncanny Dodge/Blind-Fight+ ability appeals to me more. If it was round/level with no Burn, and something like minute/level for 1 Burn it'd be perfect IMO. My GM agreed to up it to 1/2 level with no Burn, so we'll see how that goes.

Plus (and minor, extreme corner case I'm aware), but it makes Watersense a WAY better ability in any aquatic campaign.

Enjoying my Geokineticist so far (the previously posted Brock Rudson), though the lack of options is disappointing. Very much looking forward to new Infusions and Talents posted in future books because as-is there's only one real option at any given level (at least up to 7th), sometimes...

Oh reactive touchsight is pretty rad, agreed. I was comparing the original touchsight to tremorsense.

As to options vs. slots, it was a necessary result of my successful plan to double the number of wild talents you get as a way to give characters more options without paying for it (as opposed to the alternative of not doubling the number you get but having Extra Wild Talent give you wild talents up to your top level available, which I did not prefer because it's a feat tax). I was never going to get double the space to have twice as many options, but there's at least usually several options if you count universal, especially if you have multiple elements.

Designer

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Gordrenn Higgler wrote:
Can a non-legendary intelligent magic item that becomes Legendary gain the Intelligent ability? Would it simply act as if the ability was already taken once?

You sort of have to figure things out with the legendary item rules in mythic, as they have some rough edges. It's likely best to find a way to hybrid it out as you have suggested here.

Contributor

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Mark Seifter wrote:
You'll have to wait and see how it's done. Aether/Void could have some interesting conceptual synergies, considering what each of them are; check it out to see what I mean!

Yeah, after passing my Sense Motive check to get the clues about the upcoming Void Elemental, I decided to wait until Occult Origins came out to do a full 1-20 build for my kineticist. Knowing what I know about the taoist concept of "void" makes me almost certain that I'm going to want that as my first expanded element.

Geekery to Mark About my Kineticist:

As a complete aside, I FINALLY decided what I wanted to do with my kineticist, for certain. He's going to essentially be Punk Ness, from Nintendo's Earthbound. In addition to his fun telekinetic throwing powers, he has telekinetic blade and Weapon Finesse, and he uses telekinetic blade to imbue his fingerless spiked gauntlets and his shoes with telekinetic power, allowing him to essentially make psychic-charged punches and kicks.

I ended up going with that instead of kinetic fist because I didn't like kinetic blade's damage progression, and I wanted to have the bulk of my telekinetic attack's damage to come from his powers, and not his martial abilities. (Kinetic fist relies more on the kineticist's own unarmed strike damage, so its better for someone who enhances their first with telekinesis, rather than someone who directs their telekinetic powers with their hands / feet.


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Unfortunately (well, for this purpose anyway), I'm Geo/Geo. Earth is in an odd space where all of its options are VERY good...but you're pretty much going to get all of them.

Better than the alternative (tons of options where only a few are worth taking) though. Had a much better time building my Geokineticist than the Aerokineticist (Lightning) one since all the Infusions I got were useful (Extended Range, Entangling Infusion, Rare-Metal Infusion, and Magentic Infusion).

Lack of level 4 Infusions especially was a disappointment there.


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Oh, on the subject of Geokineticists, Earth Glide has a bit of a wording issue.

"You can glide through earth, as an earth elemental’s earth glide
ability, with a burrow speed equal to your base land speed."

Is it Earth Glide, or is it a Burrow speed? Or do you get both?

Contributor

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Rynjin wrote:

Oh, on the subject of Geokineticists, Earth Glide has a bit of a wording issue.

"You can glide through earth, as an earth elemental’s earth glide
ability, with a burrow speed equal to your base land speed."

Is it Earth Glide, or is it a Burrow speed? Or do you get both?

Both. Earth glide does nothing without a burrow speed.


Mark Seifter wrote:
Secret Wizard wrote:

Mark:

Are racial FCBs a good idea?

Frankly, from the perspective I've mentioned earlier in this thread about being heartbroken when someone feels like they can't play their race/class combo concept because some other race has a ridiculous FCB, I think they are probably one of the worst new types of component we have ever added to the game since Pathfinder began. The main problem is that they aren't even remotely balanced with 1 hp, and even worse, some of them like the human spontaneous caster spells known FCB are ridiculously overpowered compared to all the others, which mostly are still way more powerful than 1 hp (the ones that give you like 1/6th of a feat are a real hoot, since after level 6, you can take your feat from them, grab toughness with a normal feat, and be strictly ahead of choosing hp from then on).

Mark, thanks for the answer!

I'll show this to my players - my own houserule is that ANY class/race can take an FCB that reads: "you get 1/6 of a feat". It's working along great.

Another question; could there be some blog posts about post-mortems of releases? Specific things you wish you had changed of books you've released after they were sent to the presses, but are not within the realm of things you can FAQ or errata?


So, was the Vigilante salvageable?

Silver Crusade

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Tels wrote:
So, was the Vigilante salvageable?

From what Jason said at Dragoncon I believe it was (they combined the melee/rogue versions into the main thing from which to take talents from and made the Warlock and Zealot archetypes).


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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Mark Seifter wrote:
Seannoss wrote:

Hi Mark,

When a druid wildshapes (or any other polymorph spell I guess) what are the DCs for poisons or other abilities?

There is this line from the polymorph section "The DC for any of these abilities equals your DC for the polymorph spell used to change you into that form." but nothing in that paragraph mentions abilities.

The paragraph mentions that it also gives other abilities, including senses and movement. It would seem that it was the spell DC. I hadn't even remembered that sentence and might thought it was 10 + 1/2 HD + Con mod if you hadn't pointed it out, but it does seem to be the spell DC, I guess.

I can easily see it either way, maybe I'll give my player the choice as its still early in the campaign. Do you think this would be a good FAQ type question?


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FAQ today, delayed or expected?

Designer

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Chess Pwn wrote:
FAQ today, delayed or expected?

Not at work yet, but don't expect it. The queue is still down, and getting approval for a blog is tricky because it's so long. It's a toss-up whether we see the blog first or the queue back up, though I'm guessing the blog because it only involves PDT agreement on a long chunk of text, rather than a tech fix.

Designer

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Shadow_Charlatan wrote:

Hey, since on the topic of Legendary Items, there's been a few threads about what exactly the Upgradable ability gives,any chance for a possible clarification ?

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

...

Upgradable is just pretty confusing overall. When I run Wrath of the Righteous (which is probably my next AP after Jade Regent), I'm going to be making a lot of alterations to mythic, and legendary items will be one of my stops. For now, I would allow adding weapon special abilities in my games, but I have no idea if it's meant to be allowed strictly by those rules.

On the topic of scaling items, I agree with you that a scaling item is typically created at the highest level anyway. A GM could use a scaling item as a legendary item, though, perhaps, by which I mean just have a PC pick, say, a dress she owns to become a mantle of the faerie queen at no cost, instead of doing the other legendary item stuff. I'm not sure if that would be balanced.

Designer

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blackbloodtroll wrote:

Can I buy an Adamantine Shield?

How much do they cost?

Oddly, there is no "other" category, so by default perhaps not. If it is possible, it would have to be as per weapon, I guess, since theoretically you can bash, but it sure doesn't use the weapon pricing for mithral.

Designer

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MichaelCullen wrote:

I originally posted this in the rules forum but did not get much traction. After reading the section on psychic magic in Occult Adventures, I noticed some important information was missing.

Other classes have restrictions on regaining their spells per day. Were these restrictions purposely omitted (designed to not apply to psychic casters) or where they accidentally overlooked (because they apply to other types of magic they are assumed to apply, if so do they act like arcane or divine casters)?

First
How do psychics regain their spells?

Arcane casters need 8 hours of rest and then some preparation time:

** spoiler omitted **...

They definitely have the recent casting limit. As to the other, accidental omission; should almost certainly be as arcane.

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