Tell about PCs/builds killed by the SLA FAQ.
No matter if it is your PC or just one you play with/GM for.
- Bob* the investigator: Being an investigator doesn't qualify for arcane strike but because he is a half-drow his drow magic did until now. Having access to it he used it and bought some gloves of arcane striking. Over the time he specialized in aid another via bodyguard and effortless aid. He took combat reflexes just for the bodyguard feat.
Now, he can't use aid another, can't use his gloves of arcane striking and by that has seen his abilities to aid greatly reduced. He could use bodyguard 3 times per round, effortless aid as move and swift action and standard aid another as standard actions. That's 6 aid another actions that now do not gain the additional +2 anymore.
Ken* the slayer: His gnome heritage allowed him to speak with animals and that qualified him for grasping strike. As he wanted to be mobile he went the vital strike/grasping strike route. Now he can't use grasping strike anymore and he can't spare a feat for nature magic. Without grasping strike the vital strike path is just not worth it and Ken will not be played anymore. At least not in that form.
*Names changed.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
In times past, some bowed in the direction of Redmond.
I was not among them. For while I welcomed their wisdoms and their arts, I was not blind to their foolishness.
The heroes of the past were capable of deeds, that seem to us, impossible. Impossible, because the rules have changed.
Would Heracles allow that his club be ruled a light weapon, and then never place his off hand on it?
Thank them, for the common framework and language, to describe our heroes and their enemies. But don't... obey them. They're trying to fence in, to herd, lost sheep.
If you weren't lost, don't be herded.
The GM decides whether FAQs are followed. The player can only choose to reroll or leave the game.
- Bob* the investigator: Being an investigator doesn't qualify for arcane strike but because he is a half-drow his drow magic did until now. Having access to it he used it and bought some gloves of arcane striking. Over the time he specialized in aid another via bodyguard and effortless aid. He took combat reflexes just for the bodyguard feat.
Now, he can't use aid another, can't use his gloves of arcane striking and by that has seen his abilities to aid greatly reduced. He could use bodyguard 3 times per round, effortless aid as move and swift action and standard aid another as standard actions. That's 6 aid another actions that now do not gain the additional +2 anymore.*Names changed.
May I call your attention to the benevolent weapon and armor enchants?
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Poor N Jolly, he had just barely finished the MT guide :7
The GM decides whether FAQs are followed. The player can only choose to reroll or leave the game.*COUGH*PFS*COUGH*
With PFS all of the FAQ garbage is used. That'll only make things worse.
May I call your attention to the benevolent weapon and armor enchants?- Bob* the investigator: Being an investigator doesn't qualify for arcane strike but because he is a half-drow his drow magic did until now. Having access to it he used it and bought some gloves of arcane striking. Over the time he specialized in aid another via bodyguard and effortless aid. He took combat reflexes just for the bodyguard feat.
Now, he can't use aid another, can't use his gloves of arcane striking and by that has seen his abilities to aid greatly reduced. He could use bodyguard 3 times per round, effortless aid as move and swift action and standard aid another as standard actions. That's 6 aid another actions that now do not gain the additional +2 anymore.*Names changed.
He used the benevolent armor enchant. But still loosing +2 from all of your aids is a lot. And at some point it might have reached +3.
|
Poor N Jolly, he had just barely finished the MT guide :7
Thank god I never embarked on that, but I know there is one, and this ruling just scrapped that entire guide.
The only casualties of this from my end are Arcane Strike and some traits, but I'll add this next to the Crane Wing errata in the "things that are now garbo" pile.
Rebuild him as Bard, JAG.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Poor N Jolly, he had just barely finished the MT guide :7Thank god I never embarked on that, but I know there is one, and this ruling just scrapped that entire guide.
The only casualties of this from my end are Arcane Strike and some traits, but I'll add this next to the Crane Wing errata in the "things that are now garbo" pile.
Yeah, that was my mystic theurge guide that just imploded. This is quite painful, to say the least. At least it can still be used for some home games, right?
Oh I thought Blurring the Line was yours, N.
Oh well.
The kineticist is pretty much unusable as a primary hammer without arcane strike, so I'll have to wait for the book to come out before I can play mine again.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I don't have any PCs past or present who are killed by the FAQ, but my retired Diabolist's imp would now need to take Master Craftsman to qualify for Craft Wondrous Items. Having an invisible devil who can make magic items people really want for 50% off list prices can really help with getting folks to sign contracts including hidden language consigning their souls to Hell.
I made a rogue build and a monk build that depended on that FAQ. No actual PCs.
I made up a homebrew class that depended on that FAQ to access things like magic item crafting. I just adjusted the class a little to make it work anyways. We're having a playtest saturday of some of my homebrew classes with me as the GM.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Finally that FAQ was taken back, it was about time.
With PFS all of the FAQ garbage is used. That'll only make things worse.The GM decides whether FAQs are followed. The player can only choose to reroll or leave the game.*COUGH*PFS*COUGH*
That's why I don't do PFS, I don't have time to go through FAQs to see what's new and changed.
Finally that FAQ was taken back, it was about time.
That is a weird name and build, man. Is troll the base race, or just a polymorph form?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Finally that FAQ was taken back, it was about time.That is a weird name and build, man. Is troll the base race, or just a polymorph form?
I wasn't gonna touch it though I find it a very distasteful build. You're a more daring man than I Tactic Slion.
I've got a few martial broskies who no longer have access to Arcane Strike along with a Rogue who made ample use of Magic Creation feats.
"Daring" and "Stupid" start with the same letter after all... wait...
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
"Daring" and "Stupid" start with the same letter after all... wait...
As a Goblin, I am inclined to agree with you.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Deadly Dealer is back to a caster only feat... :(
I prefer to call this the "Un-FAQ" myself.
I'm just glad I never got around to making that Arcane Trickster I wanted to try out.
Eh, some minor changes to the investigator guide is required but that's about it in my case.
Can I get a link to this change in the FAQ or can someone re-post it?
Thanks, Chess Pwn.
I guess it originally said something different. I remember the FAQ that allowed non-caster to pick up arcane strike, and I guess this was originally the same and the text has been changed.
But without the original text its hard for me to see the change. Maybe because I'm just imagining the original text in my head.
I will admit I didn't like the ruling in the first place.
Thanks, Chess Pwn.
I guess it originally said something different. I remember the FAQ that allowed non-caster to pick up arcane strike, and I guess this was originally the same and the text has been changed.
But without the original text its hard for me to see the change. Maybe because I'm just imagining the original text in my head.
I will admit I didn't like the ruling in the first place.
Here is the old FAQ
Spell-Like Abilities, Casting, and Prerequisites: Does a creature with a spell-like ability count as being able to cast that spell for the purpose of prerequisites or requirements?
Yes.
For example, the Dimensional Agility feat (Ultimate Combat) has "ability to use the abundant step class feature or cast dimension door" as a prerequisite; a barghest has dimension door as a spell-like ability, so the barghest meets the "able to cast dimension door prerequisite for that feat.
Edit 7/12/13: The design team is aware that the above answer means that certain races can gain access to some spellcaster prestige classes earlier than the default minimum (character level 6). Given that prestige classes are usually a sub-optimal character choice (especially for spellcasters), the design team is allowing this FAQ ruling for prestige classes. If there is in-play evidence that this ruling is creating characters that are too powerful, the design team may revisit whether or not to allow spell-like abilities to count for prestige class requirements.
posted June 2013
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The GM decides whether FAQs are followed. The player can only choose to reroll or leave the game.*COUGH*PFS*COUGH*
Plus, that logic could have gotten the whole SLA thing shot down from the get go. You had to go against your GM with a 'nuh-uh, this says I can do it'. The presence of a FAQ in fact made the use of SLAs legitimate, instead of another munchkin-esque scheme.
Can you imagine going to your GM with this? "I would like to take a trait that give me ability, and I would like that ability to get me to count as a full caster for the purposes of feats, based off of a FAQ that has since been retracted". I know there is rule of cool and all...still, it makes you sound as sketchy as hell.
Anyway, I am going to mourn my aborted builds that use riving strike and cornugon smash (along with whatever other debuffs I could get) to make a fighter that made anything into SoS wizard bait with a single hit. Being a huge save debuffer makes you extremely useful. I had a rather indepth fighter field that did all that, made a perfect reach build, and still had room to patch up saves and get basic fighter-y feats.
Unfortunately, a lot of actual casters have better things to do with their swift actions than use arcane strike (quickened spells, some arcana stuff, etc.)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It is a minor point, but I think that something being clearly RAW legal might actually make it more of a "munchkin-esque scheme". I mean as opposed to doing something in a grey area or normally outside the rules after convincing the DM that "it sure would be cool if..." (permission/agreement from the DM instead of confrontation with the DM wielding a RAW-Hammer)
Correct - it just helps if it's also supported by RAW.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Certainly killed the Gunslinger 1 / Wizard 1 / EK X build I had been tossing around.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I haven't yet been able to get into a PbP, but I am sort of on the way into a community/group-mind PbP, and one of the characters I proposed for it was a a Reach Eldritch Knight -- search for "Third Character" in the post, because the first part of the post is about other characters (and yes, that build did need some debugging, as I noted in posts below that), but that would have been hosed by the FAQ even if it hadn't lost out to a modified version of the single-classed Wizard that I had proposed originally for the first character in the party, which ended up being the third character instead). Check out the rest of the thread, too -- for its group-mind play purpose, it could use some more people.