Who thought the pufferfish needed a nerf?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

Dark Archive

*rant start*

So I was planning a silly build using a pufferfish familiar and with ultimate wilderness came a lot of familiar things. Now the pufferfish can't even attack with its poison so to use it was taking some setup, but the poison used to be staggered 1 round then paralyzed for rounds. Somehow it got altered to staggered one round then minor strength damage. Given that poisons in Pathfinder have never been terribly powerful, who saw the pufferfish and thought, this is too powerful?!

I like challenges, but I like nice payoffs for those challenges, so it kinda annoys me when things like this get nerfed, while a lot of the generally broken mechanics stick around or get more broken. Cause, while I spend time buffing a pufferfish poison DC and trying to goad things with enchantment to attack it, would be fun if it means they get paralyzed potentially, other wizards are just dazing acid arrowing things for a 3rd level spell slot. Considering how many things are simply immune, how many saves this takes at not great DCS to start, and how much prep is needed for this to work even reasonably, I don't know why it was worth the time when it removes the flavor of the apparently dreaded fugu fish.

*rant over*


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Paralysis is pretty overpowered, and permits for coup de graces. I don't know why the Pufferfish in general was targeted with nerfs (maybe because it was stepping on the Ghouls' toes? Paralysis is its most notable schtick after all), but also consider that these creatures are usually in water: Even without coup de grace on the table, failing a Fortitude Save while underwater means you can't hold your breath due to paralysis and you drown in 3 turns with no way of getting an opportunity to breathe and counteract the effects, even if you make the save on consequent turns (due to how drowning rules work).

So, I think it's a smart decision for Paizo to nerf this stuff in this manner; Save or Suck/Die options in general aren't very fun or climactic at a table. They're either pointless (because they're not likely to work), or trivialize encounters (because one screw up is all it takes). And this is one of the most inadvertent Save or Die effects out there.

Now I know that, when I make an underwater campaign that I want to ragequit from as GM, I'll just say "Pufferfishes Swarm, Everyone Dies." Because that's basically what could happen if we went with the standard route.

Dark Archive

Except it was multiple saves after hitting them with a natural weapon or unarmed strike, while a centipede gets to bite and daze immediately. Even out of familiar poisons it wasn't the worst in base familiars :-p

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / General Discussion / Who thought the pufferfish needed a nerf? All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in General Discussion