>>Ask *Mark Seifter* All Your Questions Here!<<

[Mark Seifter]

Alanya wrote:

Are you ready for PaizoCon?

Skipping here: Not yet! But I'm close in part by running last year's games again. And the delve is nearly set. And aaargh it's less than a week!?!

:erhem: In related news, no FAQ this week or next week, but many FAQs became print with the recent errata.

[Gisher]

Mark Seifter wrote:

Alanya wrote:

Are you ready for PaizoCon?

Skipping here: Not yet! But I'm close in part by running last year's games again. And the delve is nearly set. And aaargh it's less than a week!?!

:erhem: In related news, no FAQ this week or next week, but many FAQs became print with the recent errata.

It's nice to know I won't have to keep track of all those Ultimate Equipment FAQ's anymore.

[Alanya]

Mark Seifter wrote:

And the delve is nearly set.

Hmm. Maybe we'll kill the other table again this year :)

[swoosh]

Metamorph. Intended that it loses access to all form changing discoveries when it uses Shapechanger? The RAW here is pretty clear, but from a flavor standpoint given the archetype's theming it seems strange that transmutational alchemist discoveries are mostly useless for it.

Also probably been asked this but what's the deal with that Brew Potion feat that it can't use at all?

Also also after reading the archetype... Do you have any idea why the Alchemist base class is so messily written? Mutagen, Bombs and its 'spellcasting' are separate, unique class features. Except they're not because they're a subset of the alchemy class feature. Except they're not because they have their own separate, independent entries and aren't really tied to the Alchemy class feature at all. Bombs do +int mod damage. Except they might not, because the throw anything class feature says it's the reason that bombs do +int mod damage. Except it doesn't because bombs say they do +int mod damage on their own and don't reference throw anything at all.

It makes things very weird and makes archetypes messy and no matter what position you take on it, it's a waste of word count and is needlessly ambiguous in a way no other class is.

Gisher wrote:

It's nice to know I won't have to keep track of all those Ultimate Equipment FAQ's anymore.

You won't have to keep track of most of the items in Ultimate Equipment anymore either! Very handy.

[CBDunkerson]

Gisher wrote:

Mark Seifter wrote:

Alanya wrote:

Are you ready for PaizoCon?

Skipping here: Not yet! But I'm close in part by running last year's games again. And the delve is nearly set. And aaargh it's less than a week!?!

:erhem: In related news, no FAQ this week or next week, but many FAQs became print with the recent errata.

It's nice to know I won't have to keep track of all those Ultimate Equipment FAQ's anymore.

Will the old FAQs be cleared out?

While the list for Ultimate Equipment isn't anywhere near as long as some of the other books, it would be nice to keep it just to the 'open items' which haven't been updated in the errata / PRD yet.

On the other hand, a lot of FAQs fall in to the 'should have always been obvious' category and thus might need to remain even after the update. The errata didn't have any change to 'Impact' because it always should have been clear that it didn't stack with 'lead blades'. Yet we have a FAQ for that... so potentially the same logic would apply to something like 'Sleeves of Many Garments' even after the errata update.

[GhostwheelX]

Hey Mark, quick question for you; does the Dune Drifter's "Challenge" ability work with the ranged attacks made by the Drifter's gun?

(Was it intentional that it not work with firearms, or an oversight that should be house ruled?)

[Kalindlara]

GhostwheelX wrote:

Hey Mark, quick question for you; does the Dune Drifter's "Challenge" ability work with the ranged attacks made by the Drifter's gun?

(Was it intentional that it not work with firearms, or an oversight that should be house ruled?)

The Spellscar drifter's challenge is absolutely definitely meant to work with firearms. However, since it's in a paperback, it'll never be reprinted... and thus, never errataed.

Even PFS has specifically fixed the archetype in their Campaign Clarifications document. In this case, that's the closest to an official confirmation we're ever likely to get. ^_^

[swoosh]

Kalindlara wrote:

The Spellscar drifter's challenge is absolutely definitely meant to work with firearms. However, since it's in a paperback, it'll never be reprinted... and thus, never errataed.

I will never understand why this policy exists. I was looking through the Dragon Empires Primer the other day and it was just stuffed full of silly editing errors and mistakes and it hurt so bad knowing that I will never, ever find out what spells a void wizard is actually supposed to gain( and what the hell tapestry's embrace is) or what class feature a sword saint's brutal slash is intended to replace.

It happened with a more recent PPC too. An item looked bad for its cost and one of the writers showed some math and someone else pointed out the math was wrong and it skewed things incorrectly and... that was just the end of it, because PPC. No FAQ. No errata. Just hope a GM is kind enough to house rule things better.

[Gisher]

And then when you think that policy will actually work in your favor -

"Slashing Grace got changed, but Fencing Grace is safe."

- they use another book to errata it anyway.

[Kalindlara]

If it helps, I believe tapestry's embrace was the original name of call the void. ^_^

Other than that... yeah. That policy has a lot of problematic aspects.

[Colette Brunel]

How do the Orator feat, the Cunning Liar/Clever Wordplay/Bruising Intellect series of traits, and the Student of Philosophy trait interact with the verbal dueling rules in Ultimate Intrigue?

The verbal dueling rules cover only the Ironclad Logic feat for substituting Intelligence for Charisma during verbal duels.

[Nekomimi^w^]

Will there be any archetype, to any class, that would let players easily create Magical Girl kind of character? I mean, Magical Child Vigillante missed the point quite nicely, so...

[Rysky]

Nekomimi^w^ wrote:

Will there be any archetype, to any class, that would let players easily create Magical Girl kind of character? I mean, Magical Child Vigillante missed the point quite nicely, so...

Uh, Magical Child gave you a transform sequence, which is what Magical Girl's are known for.

Abilities beyond that would vary from each medium depicting them so it's kinda hard to say they "missed" [trademark ability from popular Magical Girl Anime A] when it's completely different in [popular Magical Girl Anime B].

[Dragon78]

If anything, I think several classes could use a magical girl archetype such as kineticist, bard, magus, swashbuckler, etc.

So mark are you excited about Paizocon?

Seen any movies lately?

[Secret Wizard]

Mark, I've noticed that beyond Advanced Class Origins, no new Brawler archetypes have been released, even if the other ACG classes have proliferated in varying but definitely much higher levels in comparison.

Any particular reason for this? Is a great part of the Brawler design space being taken up by other classes?

[swoosh]

One more pathfinder question question.

Do you think, as written, the Occultist's Conjuration Resonant Power is broken? And if so do you have any suggested ways to improve it?

[Gisher]

swoosh wrote:

One more pathfinder question question.

Do you think, as written, the Occultist's Conjuration Resonant Power is broken? And if so do you have any suggested ways to improve it?

It is weird that the only Occultist spell that it works with is Glitterdust.

But the Sha'ir archetype does get Summon Monster (elementals only) spells so they can get some use out of it. And Mark did write the Sha'ir.

[swoosh]

Secret Wizard wrote:

Mark, I've noticed that beyond Advanced Class Origins, no new Brawler archetypes have been released, even if the other ACG classes have proliferated in varying but definitely much higher levels in comparison.

Any particular reason for this? Is a great part of the Brawler design space being taken up by other classes?

I was really surprised to not see anything for the brawler in Intrigue, given that the Brawler sort of has an 'urban monk' flavor to them.

If I had to speculate, it's that the brawler was created as a sort of patch to Monks and Fighters. It was able to do a lot of things they couldn't do and did it more cleanly.

But then we have Unchained and the various handbooks that gave monks and fighters a lot of new toys. Toys that the Brawler can't always take advantage of and suddenly instead of being an update for old, underdesigned classes the Brawler becomes the one lagging behind.

Add on top of that that the Brawler lacks in its own identity. It's got one primary class feature, then a bunch of stuff it borrows from its parent classes and at high level it gets a monster feat about ten levels too late. I don't mean to digress much but seriously, the Brute gets Awesome Blow at 8 and its version is strictly superior and while Improved Awesome Blow is great, it's not that great as a capstone. Even that primary class feature doesn't have a ton of thematic oomph to it or room to expand around it.

So when you mix those two together, it becomes hard to figure out what to do with the Brawler. Or, at least, what to do with the Brawler that you couldn't do better with the Fighter or Monk.

[Luthorne]

Luthorne wrote:

If using consolidated skills, what would be the class skills for a kineticist? Stealth is the only obvious one; Acrobatics is part of Acrobatics and Athletics, but none of the other skills in those are by default a class skill for kineticists normally. Craft and Profession are now background skills, Heal is half of Survival, Intimidate is one-third of Influence, Perception is half of Perception, and Use Magic Device is one-third of Spellcraft...on the other hand, when I compared Barbarian, the class skills seemed to be chosen more based on theme; for example, they get Nature despite only having one of the four skills that make it up as a class skill, and don't get Perception despite having half of it. So yeah, since you made the kineticist, figured you'd be the best to ask about what's on theme there.

For elemental additions to class skills, so far I've been leaning towards ruling that if they give one skill that's part of a consolidated skill as a class skill, they give the consolidated skill as a class skill, so Aether gets Knowledge (engineering)* and Finesse, Air gets Acrobatics and Nature, Earth gets Athletics and Nature, Fire gets Acrobatics and Nature, and Water gets Athletics and Nature...would you handle it in a different way? Similarly already ruled that if you get a trait that gives you a skill as a class skill, you get the consolidated skill as a class skill, but any trait bonuses to skill checks only apply to that use of the consolidated skill. But if you'd tackle it from a different perspective (or swap some around), I'd be interested in hearing your viewpoint...maybe only one consolidated skill should be a class skill, rather than both?

*as a background skill

After some more thought (and research), I ultimately decided on the following for now:

Quote:

The Kineticist’s class skills are Nature, Perception, and Stealth. Telekineticists add Finesse to their list of class skills. Aerokineticists, chaokineticists, and pyrokineticists add Acrobatics to their list of class skills. Hydrokineticists and terrakineticsts add Athletics to her list of class skills. Phytokineticists add Survival to her list of class skills.

Mostly because only telekinesis doesn't get a Knowledge falling under Nature, so figured I might as well give it out as a blanket skill, especially since Knowledge (engineering) is, under consolidated skills, lackluster compared to getting Nature. And if everyone gets Nature, wood gets nothing, so they got Survival since it still seemed thematic. Overall, lose Acrobatics, Heal, Intimidate, and Use Magic Device on average, but gain Handle Animal, Knowledge (dungeoneering), Knowledge (geography), Knowledge (nature), and Sense Motive, as well as a number of others depending on element. That said, still interested in hearing your thoughts on the matter when you have some time, just needed to make a decision for now...

[Purple Dragon Knight]

I'm not sure what my reaction would be if one of my fellow 'complete with belly' 40+ year old gamer would show up at our table with a 'magical girl' character concept... middle age crisis is usually best handled by buying a new car or dating a younger girlfriend...

[Rysky]

Purple Dragon Knight wrote:

I'm not sure what my reaction would be if one of my fellow 'complete with belly' 40+ year old gamer would show up at our table with a 'magical girl' character concept... middle age crisis is usually best handled by buying a new car or dating a younger girlfriend...

Ultimate Intrigue only costs 50 bucks, those other two are a LOT more expensive.

[Purple Dragon Knight]

still, there's zero chance that I'll see one of these guys play a magical girl... they'll buy the book sure, but promptly ignore that section methinks... :P

[CBDunkerson]

Purple Dragon Knight wrote:

still, there's zero chance that I'll see one of these guys play a magical girl... they'll buy the book sure, but promptly ignore that section methinks... :P

I think you are looking at it wrong. Technically, characters like 'Spawn' and 'Thor' fall into the 'Magical Child' category. It isn't all cutesy girls in sailor outfits.

[Tacticslion]

Purple Dragon Knight wrote:

I'm not sure what my reaction would be if one of my fellow 'complete with belly' 40+ year old gamer would show up at our table with a 'magical girl' character concept... middle age crisis is usually best handled by buying a new car or dating a younger girlfriend...

Rysky wrote:

Ultimate Intrigue only costs 50 bucks, those other two are a LOT more expensive.

... and quite potentially in more than just finances...

Purple Dragon Knight wrote:

still, there's zero chance that I'll see one of these guys play a magical girl... they'll buy the book sure, but promptly ignore that section methinks... :P

CBDunkerson wrote:

I think you are looking at it wrong. Technically, characters like 'Spawn' and 'Thor' fall into the 'Magical Child' category. It isn't all cutesy girls in sailor outfits.

Now I'm imagining hamburger Spawn in a magical girl outfit complete with tiny frilly dress and tiara. Thanks, Dunkerson. >:I

The idea that Thor and Spawn are "magical children" is absolutely stinkin' amazing, by the way... so awesome!

[Joana]

Quote:

Helpless: A helpless character is paralyzed, held, bound, sleeping, unconscious, or otherwise completely at an opponent's mercy. A helpless target is treated as having a Dexterity of 0 (–5 modifier). Melee attacks against a helpless target get a +4 bonus (equivalent to attacking a prone target). Ranged attacks get no special bonus against helpless targets. Rogues can sneak attack helpless targets.

As a full-round action, an enemy can use a melee weapon to deliver a coup de grace to a helpless foe. An enemy can also use a bow or crossbow, provided he is adjacent to the target. The attacker automatically hits and scores a critical hit. (A rogue also gets his sneak attack damage bonus against a helpless foe when delivering a coup de grace.) If the defender survives, he must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + damage dealt) or die. Delivering a coup de grace provokes attacks of opportunity.

Creatures that are immune to critical hits do not take critical damage, nor do they need to make Fortitude saves to avoid being killed by a coup de grace.

Quote:

Pinned: A pinned creature is tightly bound and can take few actions. A pinned creature cannot move and is denied its Dexterity bonus. A pinned character also takes an additional –4 penalty to his Armor Class. A pinned creature is limited in the actions that it can take. A pinned creature can always attempt to free itself, usually through a combat maneuver check or Escape Artist check. A pinned creature can take verbal and mental actions, but cannot cast any spells that require a somatic or material component. A pinned character who attempts to cast a spell or use a spell-like ability must make a concentration check (DC 10 + grappler's CMB + spell level) or lose the spell. Pinned is a more severe version of grappled, and their effects do not stack.

What's the difference between a bound character who is Helpless and a bound character who is Pinned? Is a character whose hands are tied less bound (Pinned) than one who is tied to an altar or stake (Helpless)? Are there degrees of being bound which culminate in the Helpless condition where a character can no longer make an Escape Artist check?

[Purple Dragon Knight]

Tacticslion wrote:

The idea that Thor and Spawn are "magical children" is absolutely stinkin' amazing, by the way... so awesome!

I think it has been established that 'vigilante hulk' doesn't live up to its name... if you're now telling me that 'vigilante thor' is the way to stat up the Odinson... [mumbles under his breath and walks away, kicking a rock...]

[Rysky]

Purple Dragon Knight wrote:

Tacticslion wrote:

The idea that Thor and Spawn are "magical children" is absolutely stinkin' amazing, by the way... so awesome!

I think it has been established that 'vigilante hulk' doesn't live up to its name... if you're now telling me that 'vigilante thor' is the way to stat up the Odinson... [mumbles under his breath and walks away, kicking a rock...]

Well "Hulk" isn't the name of the archetype so it's kinda a moot point.

[Tacticslion]

Tacticslion wrote:

The idea that Thor and Spawn are "magical children" is absolutely stinkin' amazing, by the way... so awesome!

Purple Dragon Knight wrote:

I think it has been established that 'vigilante hulk' doesn't live up to its name... if you're now telling me that 'vigilante thor' is the way to stat up the Odinson... [mumbles under his breath and walks away, kicking a rock...]

I'm not telling anyone the "best way" for statting up anyone.

I'm just mentioning the fact that someone's idea is amazing and awesome to think about. That's all.

[Slithery D]

Rysky wrote:

Purple Dragon Knight wrote:

Tacticslion wrote:

The idea that Thor and Spawn are "magical children" is absolutely stinkin' amazing, by the way... so awesome!

I think it has been established that 'vigilante hulk' doesn't live up to its name... if you're now telling me that 'vigilante thor' is the way to stat up the Odinson... [mumbles under his breath and walks away, kicking a rock...]

Well "Hulk" isn't the name of the archetype so it's kinda a moot point.

"Batman" isn't the name of the Avenger archetype, and "Captain America" isn't the name of the Shield Champion archetype. Are any comparisons of how those fill the role also moot?

[Rysky]

Slithery D wrote:

Rysky wrote:

Purple Dragon Knight wrote:

Tacticslion wrote:

The idea that Thor and Spawn are "magical children" is absolutely stinkin' amazing, by the way... so awesome!

I think it has been established that 'vigilante hulk' doesn't live up to its name... if you're now telling me that 'vigilante thor' is the way to stat up the Odinson... [mumbles under his breath and walks away, kicking a rock...]

Well "Hulk" isn't the name of the archetype so it's kinda a moot point.

"Batman" isn't the name of the Avenger archetype, and "Captain America" isn't the name of the Shield Champion archetype. Are any comparisons of how those fill the role also moot?

Dood literally said "doesn't live up to its name".

[Hayato Ken]

Pathfinder Unchained was really awesome.
When will we see more along those lines?

[Slithery D]

Rysky wrote:

Dood literally said "doesn't live up to its name".

And he figuratively said "vigilante hulk."

Mark, what percentage of questions do you try to answer?

[KingOfAnything]

Do all unchained eidolons start with 2 Natural Armor, or just the serpentine elemental?

[Gisher]

Gisher wrote:

swoosh wrote:

One more pathfinder question question.

Do you think, as written, the Occultist's Conjuration Resonant Power is broken? And if so do you have any suggested ways to improve it?

It is weird that the only Occultist spell that it works with is Glitterdust.

But the Sha'ir archetype does get Summon Monster (elementals only) spells so they can get some use out of it. And Mark did write the Sha'ir.

Thinking about how Augment Summoning works on SLA's that are based on Summon Monster, I'm now wondering if the Conjuration Resonant Power would work with the Servitor Base Focus Power. That would make Casting Focus a lot more useful.

[aristalis]

Hi Mark, been a fan of the Kineticist ever since I started watching Avatar, and recently started up mine in PFS. Was wondering if feats like Kinetic Focus: Fire are in the works because of the ruling on spell feats effecting SLAs, or if spell focus evocation would work. One of my PFS GMs also eagerly thinks about this. Have a great week!

[thegreenteagamer]

Mark, this may be the dumbest rule question I've ever asked, but I was wondering if you could weigh in with something unofficial for this.

I have NO desires to try that, it's just a thought experiment that makes me laugh a lot to think about.

[Mark Seifter]

I'm going to put up some things I heard (or said) about Horror Adventures in Paizocon panels on my fan page if you're interested in checking it out. Right now I have up some info about the corruptions.

[The NPC]

Mark Seifter wrote:

I'm going to put up some things I heard (or said) about Horror Adventures in Paizocon panels on my fan page if you're interested in checking it out. Right now I have up some info about the corruptions.

Saw it. Very nice. This could definitely work for my purposes. I know there were some pictures of the corruptions, but do you have any of the others?

[Ashram]

Sooo... Any chance of an FAQ this week?

[_Ozy_]

Hey Mark,

Does the Fortuitous weapon enchantment give you an extra AoO to use during your turn, or do you need Combat Reflexes for it to be at all useful?

[swoosh]

Was the Cipher Investigator's (UI) Tenuous Threat ability changed in development?

The ability lets you use studied strike 1/day/enemy without studied combat, which doesn't really seem to line up with the 'forgetting the cipher's a threat' fluff of the name and the opening sentence.

[Alanya]

Did you and/or Linda (hopefully) manage to escape PaizoCon without contracting concrud?

[thegreenteagamer]

If you wanted to design a character based on the Lancer class from Final Fantasy fame (example characters include Kain from FFIV [American 2], Cid from FFVII, and Freya from FFIX, or the generic class from FF Tactics), to be able to emphasize that awesome leap attack that puts Mario's vertical jump to shame, what would you use?

[Lorewalker]

Kalindlara wrote:

If it helps, I believe tapestry's embrace was the original name of call the void. ^_^

Other than that... yeah. That policy has a lot of problematic aspects.

And at least PFS has a ruling specifically for it to correct that.

[Kalindlara]

Lorewalker wrote:

Kalindlara wrote:

If it helps, I believe tapestry's embrace was the original name of call the void. ^_^

Other than that... yeah. That policy has a lot of problematic aspects.

And at least PFS has a ruling specifically for it to correct that.

Indeed! I'm quite glad they finally started doing Campaign Clarifications. ^_^