Dispelling Myths: The Caster-Martial Disparity


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

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Scarab Sages

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hiiamtom wrote:

Floating Disk must be in contact with the caster to move.

Quote:
The disk floats approximately 3 feet above the ground at all times and remains level. It floats along horizontally within spell range and will accompany you at a rate of no more than your normal speed each round.
As a druid player, I would eat a AoO happily to land a full attack with grab attack. Suddenly the fighter's weapon is useless. If I couldn't afford the hit I would cast a spell like Ash Storm or Stone Call.

Um... no. Where does it say that? It says you can move it about within the range of the spell (25+5/level). If it HAS to move with the caster, why wouldn't the range be 5'? Still, using this spell to give the fighter pounce is a neat idea, albeit doesn't really do much about the whole C/MD thing, as Lemmy mentioned.


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Quote:

-Reach weapons

-Spell storing weapons
-Switch hitting ranged attacks (look at all the possible thrown weapons including alchemical and minor magic)
-Armour benefits with Fighter
-Viability at every level of play
-Ability to conveniently use potions
-To talk to other players on the table without needing either a feat or burning a use/day of Wildshape
-Utilise activated magic items without needing a Mythic Feat
-Just having enough freaking feats
-Special material metals for armour

Yes, yes I love playing Clerics over druids.


Insain Dragoon wrote:
You do realize hitting with an AoO doesnt stop someones movement right?

Not regular movement, but a Pounce is a Charge.

GM's are quite happy to rule that a spear in the face rather counts as something that "hinders" movement.


TarkXT wrote:
Yes, yes I love playing Clerics over druids.

And the goalposts move yet again.

Unless Cleric can as easily get a full-attack in with a charge my point of contrast still applies.


Alex Trebek's Stunt Double wrote:
Insain Dragoon wrote:
You do realize hitting with an AoO doesnt stop someones movement right?

Not regular movement, but a Pounce is a Charge.

GM's are quite happy to rule that a spear in the face rather counts as something that "hinders" movement.

"The GM can change the rules, so this ability is useless."

I really should make a bingo card about the most commonly used non-arguments in C/MD threads...


BTW, Large animals don't have to worry about spears, since they have just as much reach.


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Alex Trebek's Stunt Double wrote:
Insain Dragoon wrote:
You do realize hitting with an AoO doesnt stop someones movement right?

Not regular movement, but a Pounce is a Charge.

GM's are quite happy to rule that a spear in the face rather counts as something that "hinders" movement.

If they are blatantly ignoring the rules, yes, yes they can do that.

The PRD, Combat Section wrote:
You must have a clear path toward the opponent, and nothing can hinder your movement (such as difficult terrain or obstacles). You must move to the closest space from which you can attack the opponent. If this space is occupied or otherwise blocked, you can't charge. If any line from your starting space to the ending space passes through a square that blocks movement, slows movement, or contains a creature (even an ally), you can't charge. Helpless creatures don't stop a charge.

An attack is not capable of hindering movement, as an attack of opportunity does not interrupt a move action. Ergo, it does not count as something that hinders or slows movement and will not stop a charge.


Davor wrote:
hiiamtom wrote:

Floating Disk must be in contact with the caster to move.

Quote:
The disk floats approximately 3 feet above the ground at all times and remains level. It floats along horizontally within spell range and will accompany you at a rate of no more than your normal speed each round.
As a druid player, I would eat a AoO happily to land a full attack with grab attack. Suddenly the fighter's weapon is useless. If I couldn't afford the hit I would cast a spell like Ash Storm or Stone Call.
Um... no. Where does it say that? It says you can move it about within the range of the spell (25+5/level). If it HAS to move with the caster, why wouldn't the range be 5'? Still, using this spell to give the fighter pounce is a neat idea, albeit doesn't really do much about the whole C/MD thing, as Lemmy mentioned.

I quoted the spell text. The range is because you can command it to stay put while you move independently. That's where the range comes in.

There is literally nothing unambiguous in this one.


Lemmy wrote:
BTW, Large animals don't have to worry about spears, since they have just as much reach.

Certain large animals like horses and tigers don't have reach.


TarkXT wrote:
Lemmy wrote:
BTW, Large animals don't have to worry about spears, since they have just as much reach.
Certain large animals like horses and tigers don't have reach.

Indeed... I stand corrected.


Alex Trebek's Stunt Double wrote:
-Reach weapons

Many wildshape forms have reach so how is this a problem?

Alex Trebek's Stunt Double wrote:
-Spell storing weapon

Wouldn't an Amulet of Mighty Fists allow Spellstoring for a Wild Shaped Druid?

Alex Trebek's Stunt Double wrote:
-Switch hitting ranged attacks (look at all the possible thrown weapons including alchemical and minor magic)

Druids have lots of spells that allow ranged attacks and spells that lock down enemies so ranged attacks aren't even needed

Alex Trebek's Stunt Double wrote:
-Armour benefits with Fighter

Armour with the Wild special ability means they get something better!

Alex Trebek's Stunt Double wrote:
-Viability at every level of play

The druid can be viable at pretty much any level. The fighter suffers from this drastically more at higher level play when compared to casters.

Alex Trebek's Stunt Double wrote:
-Ability to conveniently use potions

This isn't much of an issue since druids have their own spells. Fighters are far more reliant on consumables like these.

Alex Trebek's Stunt Double wrote:
-To talk to other players on the table without needing either a feat or burning a use/day of Wildshape

Druids aren't as reliant on feats to keep up since they can always fall back to casting spells. Hell, they can even use spells to reduce reliance on feats.

Alex Trebek's Stunt Double wrote:
-Utilise activated magic items without needing a Mythic Feat

Who cares? If the druid is going for a primarily melee role there's likely another caster to handle this. If it bothers you that much place the items on the ground before wild shaping and choose a form with hands.

Alex Trebek's Stunt Double wrote:
-Just having enough freaking feats

Already Addressed this

Alex Trebek's Stunt Double wrote:
-Special material metals for armour

For special materials, which ones are you talking about? If it's mainly mithril then darkleaf and darkwood have similar effects.


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Alex Trebek's Stunt Double wrote:
TarkXT wrote:
Yes, yes I love playing Clerics over druids.
And the goalposts move yet again.

Hardly.

I just cheekily pointed out that everything you said was not an inherent advantage to playing a fighter over a druid, it was merely an inherent advantage over not being wildshaped.

If I don't like those disadvantages I play something else or adapt.

You say you don't see a disaparity while simultaneously remaining ignorant of the actual subject matter. Your best defense against a charging druid is reach.

That's awful. You didn't even bother to start with more potent offensive tactics like archery or simply not being in the charge lane. Those would be my first thoughts long before I tried to defend myself from a rampaging tiger with a pointy stick that would snap the moment it got caught on bone. God, that sounds suicidal even thinking about it.

And in the end, your arguments are old, dry, and incomplete.

Because in the end it doesn't matter if the druid outfights the fighter in raw numbers. What matters is that the same druid wildshaped into a mouse later as he roamed the castle and overheard the concubines talking about how the vizier is a raksasha manipulating the king, or how the same druid warped the halberds of the ignorant guards so they could be safely taken out without killing them, or how the same druid escaped out of the dungeon by distracting the guard with a horde of summoned angelic badgers.


TarkXT wrote:
Lemmy wrote:
BTW, Large animals don't have to worry about spears, since they have just as much reach.
Certain large animals like horses and tigers don't have reach.

Technically, there is no reason by RAW you are limited to the bestiary's statted animals, it's just common sense RAI (heavy, heavy lean on technically; I would not allow it). Pathfinder's polymorph spells are great because they don't reference CR rated stated creatures making them more interesting in homebrew worlds.


The best defense against a charge is a prepared action to cast a spell that makes difficult terrain or a pit, and that's only if the charger is not flying.

A reach weapon with brace can work if the entire party does it and can lure the enemy into a corridor of death, but that's not always something you can do.


HyperMissingno wrote:
The best defense against a charge is a...

Net!!!!

Plain and simple.....

Flying or not...

Ghost touch net is bit more complex and useful!


Druid magic with spider climb, using totem transformation to boost to 40' move speed didn't help me catch the monk bad-guy last night. (edit- bad girl)

That scoundrel leapt up a wall, (the GM kind of forgot I still had spider climb on from the start of the battle I think), I walked up it at a 20' move rate closing the gap.

She risked falling, to climb full speed and succeeded to get to the top just ahead. Rooftop chase ensued with both of us at a 40' move rate, she runs towards the 30' gap between buildings as I'm yelling at her to stop, she's yelling I'm stupid if I follow. She makes the leap, I look down at my +2 Acrobatics in hide armor, stare down the DM and don't even consider stopping...and toss a Nat-20. Then reality sets in that it still only gets me (+4' for the extra 10' base land speed above 30) 26' across the 30' gap, but I convince the GM that the leaps parabolic curve would have me hit the wall about 10' from the top...and hold on with spider climb. Effectively puts me only about 30' behind her in the chase next turn.

Next round same situation, she makes another successful leap (my only hope of catching her was for her to roll about a 5 or less and fall miserably), I confidently toss caution to the wind again and rolled a 13...this time I lawn-dart into the dust well short of the other building, take my 3d6 falling damage, and decide to wait for my wolf-companion and party members to catch up. "we'll just let Iska Wootis track her if we can cut her trail." .....which we never did. I'm going to get that wolf's nose examined.


TarkXT wrote:
I just cheekily pointed out that everything you said was not an inherent advantage to playing a fighter over a druid, it was merely an inherent advantage over not being wildshaped.

No you didn't. You pointed out a completely different class. Cleric rather than druid.

If your meaning is that Druid can just as well be a Cleric without wildshape that is too much of a stretch.

"If I don't like those disadvantages I play something else or adapt."

Like play fighter for example.

"Your best defense against a charging druid is reach."

People are saying a Brace should stop a charge but nothing in Brace actually says it especially stops a charge, yet logically it has to. It's almost as if hitting someone in a charge is naturally taken to stop the charge anyway.

Anyway, that's a pointless aside of trying to judge relative worth in a rather unrepresentative PC vs PC rather than what is actually the case in pathfinder which is PC+PC+PC+PC vs GM controlled mobs.

"Those would be my first thoughts long before I tried to defend myself from a rampaging tiger with a pointy stick that would snap the moment it got caught on bone. God, that sounds suicidal even thinking about it."

Well that is how Humans drove the majority of large animals on this planet to extinction. And I don't mean recent threatened extinctions I mean all the Pleistocene megafauna, you can be as derisive as you like of the "pointy stick" it's the humble spear that put humans on the top of all the foodchains.

"What matters is that the same druid wildshaped into a mouse later as he roamed the castle and overheard the concubines talking about how the vizier is a raksasha manipulating the king, or how the same druid warped the halberds of the ignorant guards so they could be safely taken out without killing them, or how the same druid escaped out of the dungeon by distracting the guard with a horde of summoned angelic badgers."

Because you'd have to be a mouse, the fighter couldn't simply get a job as a guard (as they could by demonstrating fighting ability) to learn the same?!?!?!? You really think that that a trick by Druid actually excludes non casters from any sort of story? Good on the GM for giving the player some involvement specific to their abilities but that doesn't lead to such an actual disparity between casters and non-casters.

Sap is a weapon the fighter or rogue can use if non-lethal is mandatory.

There are entire guides on dungeon escape means for non-casters.


Dont quadrupeds get an additional bonus to acrobatics while jumping?

Also spending a stabdard action to become a fast flying creature may have been a better choice.

At this point Alex is not worth talking to. He refused to even accept the level 8 build challenge and consistently moves goal posts.


In my party with a Hunter, Cleric, Wizard, Bard, and Antipaladin guess who contributed the least?

Well the Bard, but that was because he spent all his feats attempting to make Crossbows work.....

If the Bard didn't suck then it would have been the Antipaladin. Just like the fighter he was durable and killed things, but he may as well have been an NPC due to what he fontributed out of combat.

In combat my Hunter overshadowed him anyway since my spells let me adapt to combat while the Wizard was free to mould the battlefield instead of babysit me.


Insain Dragoon wrote:

Dont quadrupeds get an additional bonus to acrobatics while jumping?

Also spending a stabdard action to become a fast flying creature may have been a better choice.

At this point Alex is not worth talking to. He refused to even accept the level 8 build challenge and consistently moves goal posts.

Totem shaman, at 3rd its more like "aspect" you're still basically human, I describe it as just hairier and my legs get a little more wolfy looking, so I was biped. Still...30' gap I was in trouble with only a +2 base skill, was fun to try it...and any time you chuck a nat-20 in the face of almost certain failure its awesome.

we'd captured 2 of her goons, so I think the GM was -really- trying to have her get away w/o just totally fiat it. I'm ok with that, we had our chances. The paladin grappled, and then pinned her (amazing rolls against a good CMD)...but then failed to maintain grapple literally the round before backup arrived to help tie this monk up. She then ate an AoO from me to get out of the building, then I fell behind in the chase using the SA to get the +20' move speed. I had 2 other grapple chances and my wolf had 1 to trip her before she made it to the wall...just didn't roll good enough.

Chase scenes are hard, this was my son's first time running one, I thought he did a good job of keeping the "pace" of play high but still giving us a fair shot to capture her, which I got the distinct impression he thought we would not have any possibility of doing based on his confidence at the start of the encounter :-).


Brace not only doesn't stop movement, it's suicide except against an enemy that can do nothing except charge.

Now, maybe you can keep the druid with no spells left at bay if you houserule brace to stop movement. If the druid's not alone your spear line is dead. They're throwing away their standard actions for nothing while the cleric or alchemist pulls out his light crossbow, the wizard or sorcerer or magus or arcanist kills you by inches with cantrips, the bard pulls a shortbow, the other druid gets out his sling, or really anything because the moment you do anything with your standard action you get wrecked.

You can't win a fight using brace any more than you can win a fight using the full defense action.


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My big things with the C/MD thing is really at the end of the day, what matters is luck. Sure, casters have the better tool box, but in the end it all comes down to luck. Thats what this game is, the luck of the dice. Who got the drop on whom from skill checks? The dice really decide that. If it was an even fight, full prep time, intiative can really make the difference. What if the caster keeps rolling low for SR? What if the caster gets grappled before he can act? What if the caster gets invisibility and fly off from quicken in one turn from going first? In the end, luck trumps all. I've seen powerful caster players wreck in one encounter, and then in the next they find themselves in 3-land (the d20 rolls only 3's for like, 5 rolls) and suddenly the useless fighter from the last fight is being begged to rescue him. One pen and paper, and even in practice, the gap in power is there, but the d20 is the ultimate equalizer, no matter how much prep time is given.


Citation needed on fighters being tougher than wizards. Can you prove this claim? Level 5 10 15 20?

I think instead if trying to refute the entire post, its better to refute one thing at a time. For example, Alex claimed golems were a hard fight for a wizard, when actually they are the easiest enemy to fight. We can show how each claim is wrong more efficiently IMO.


Are coup de grace limited to fighters only? Makes you think.


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baja1000 wrote:
My big things with the C/MD thing is really at the end of the day, what matters is luck. Sure, casters have the better tool box, but in the end it all comes down to luck. Thats what this game is, the luck of the dice. Who got the drop on whom from skill checks? The dice really decide that. If it was an even fight, full prep time, intiative can really make the difference. What if the caster keeps rolling low for SR? What if the caster gets grappled before he can act? What if the caster gets invisibility and fly off from quicken in one turn from going first? In the end, luck trumps all. I've seen powerful caster players wreck in one encounter, and then in the next they find themselves in 3-land (the d20 rolls only 3's for like, 5 rolls) and suddenly the useless fighter from the last fight is being begged to rescue him. One pen and paper, and even in practice, the gap in power is there, but the d20 is the ultimate equalizer, no matter how much prep time is given.

I'd make the argument that the d20 hurts the martial more.

Everything they do requires hitting a target number. Skill checks, attack rolls, combat maneuvers, etc.

Spellcasters have the means to alter or even bypass that luck.


baja1000 wrote:
My big things with the C/MD thing is really at the end of the day, what matters is luck. Sure, casters have the better tool box, but in the end it all comes down to luck. Thats what this game is, the luck of the dice. Who got the drop on whom from skill checks? The dice really decide that. If it was an even fight, full prep time, intiative can really make the difference. What if the caster keeps rolling low for SR? What if the caster gets grappled before he can act? What if the caster gets invisibility and fly off from quicken in one turn from going first? In the end, luck trumps all. I've seen powerful caster players wreck in one encounter, and then in the next they find themselves in 3-land (the d20 rolls only 3's for like, 5 rolls) and suddenly the useless fighter from the last fight is being begged to rescue him. One pen and paper, and even in practice, the gap in power is there, but the d20 is the ultimate equalizer, no matter how much prep time is given.

Casters don't rely on dice nearly as much as martials though. A lot of the best spells don't allow a save or still have a pretty debilitating effect even if you do save, and a wizard is going to win initiative even if he rolls a 1 and the fighter rolls a 20.

And then you have stuff like the dual-cursed oracle where if they decide they don't like a roll they can change it.


baja1000 wrote:
My big things with the C/MD thing is really at the end of the day, what matters is luck. Sure, casters have the better tool box, but in the end it all comes down to luck. Thats what this game is, the luck of the dice. Who got the drop on whom from skill checks? The dice really decide that. If it was an even fight, full prep time, intiative can really make the difference. What if the caster keeps rolling low for SR? What if the caster gets grappled before he can act? What if the caster gets invisibility and fly off from quicken in one turn from going first? In the end, luck trumps all. I've seen powerful caster players wreck in one encounter, and then in the next they find themselves in 3-land (the d20 rolls only 3's for like, 5 rolls) and suddenly the useless fighter from the last fight is being begged to rescue him. One pen and paper, and even in practice, the gap in power is there, but the d20 is the ultimate equalizer, no matter how much prep time is given.

THIS! THIS! DEAR GODS THIS! Every character can get f!@@ed sideways by the dice (unless you load them or something) which is why I always ask the wizard/sorcerer duo in my party "and what if the dice f@$% you over" during the planning part because you can't predict what the dice are going to come up as. Sure you might know the average but just because that's the average doesn't mean the dice are gonna behave and land on that.

...That said martials are more dice dependent and more likely to fall prey to the dice.


Alex Trebek's Stunt Double wrote:


The argument for wizards using buffs is that the buffs go furthest with melee classes.

And melee classes include things other than martials.

Like, the magus, bard, investigator, alchemist, cleric, shaman, oracle, spiritualist, occultist, skalds, warpriests, and mesmerists. All are excellent melee fighters on their own. All can cast at least 6th level spells. Some, like the warpriest and magus, have incredible action economy when spellcasting.

Spellstoring your parties weapons is a great tactic but not one that relies on martials to be effective.

That's the point you're missing.


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@hyper and archno: You guys really need a different avatar. DX


TarkXT wrote:
baja1000 wrote:
My big things with the C/MD thing is really at the end of the day, what matters is luck. Sure, casters have the better tool box, but in the end it all comes down to luck. Thats what this game is, the luck of the dice. Who got the drop on whom from skill checks? The dice really decide that. If it was an even fight, full prep time, intiative can really make the difference. What if the caster keeps rolling low for SR? What if the caster gets grappled before he can act? What if the caster gets invisibility and fly off from quicken in one turn from going first? In the end, luck trumps all. I've seen powerful caster players wreck in one encounter, and then in the next they find themselves in 3-land (the d20 rolls only 3's for like, 5 rolls) and suddenly the useless fighter from the last fight is being begged to rescue him. One pen and paper, and even in practice, the gap in power is there, but the d20 is the ultimate equalizer, no matter how much prep time is given.

I'd make the argument that the d20 hurts the martial more.

Everything they do requires hitting a target number. Skill checks, attack rolls, combat maneuvers, etc.

Spellcasters have the means to alter or even bypass that luck.

Does it though? Sure the wizard can do great damage with fireball...if the target fails its save. Lets not even count evasion. And the wizard needs to get passed SR before the save even counts. And even after all that, fire resist may or may not play a factor.

The wizard has to make concentration checks. Sure casting defensively is pretty match laughable as you climb higher in level, but a fighter or brawler that grapples the wizard and suddenly the d20 is a major hurdle.

Sadly, you know what my problem with this post is: The orignal post only talked about mages being better and everyone here seems to really have the hard on to make it clear that they are. If this being a player on player contest of measuring "you know what" is just a myth, these current posts certainly don't reflect that. I'm saying they are even in terms of luck and STILL rather than agree, you'd rather say: "no, wizards still get it better"


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I still don't even get why one HAS to be better than the other. How does it have to be a "myth" to say this is a team game? It is. Its about the story. This whole thread in and of itself is kind of a way to stir the pot. Wizards can do great and powerful s!~* when their stuff works. Fighters can do some amazing s~&& when their combo's go off. Does it really have to matter which one can do it better?


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TarkXT wrote:
@hyper and archno: You guys really need a different avatar. DX

Shoanti women are my aesthetic though. Buff ladies with big hammers warms my poor gay heart.


Arachnofiend wrote:
baja1000 wrote:
My big things with the C/MD thing is really at the end of the day, what matters is luck. Sure, casters have the better tool box, but in the end it all comes down to luck. Thats what this game is, the luck of the dice. Who got the drop on whom from skill checks? The dice really decide that. If it was an even fight, full prep time, intiative can really make the difference. What if the caster keeps rolling low for SR? What if the caster gets grappled before he can act? What if the caster gets invisibility and fly off from quicken in one turn from going first? In the end, luck trumps all. I've seen powerful caster players wreck in one encounter, and then in the next they find themselves in 3-land (the d20 rolls only 3's for like, 5 rolls) and suddenly the useless fighter from the last fight is being begged to rescue him. One pen and paper, and even in practice, the gap in power is there, but the d20 is the ultimate equalizer, no matter how much prep time is given.

Casters don't rely on dice nearly as much as martials though. A lot of the best spells don't allow a save or still have a pretty debilitating effect even if you do save, and a wizard is going to win initiative even if he rolls a 1 and the fighter rolls a 20.

And then you have stuff like the dual-cursed oracle where if they decide they don't like a roll they can change it.

This I need to know. How does a wizard get a +24 initiative that the fighter can't acquire?

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