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If you're paralyzed, you can't act, sure, fine, that makes sense.
And you suffer at -2 to AC for being flat-footed.
That's it. You're not helpless. You still get your DEX to AC. You can't be coup-de-graced.
So, for instance, a naked, paralyzed 20th level wizard with no magic items is basically impossible for any normal soldier to even scratch with his, thanks to the +1/level, paralyzed AC of 28. An army strikes at this immobile, naked old man all day long and . . .
just . . .
keep . . .
missing . . .
Words cannot express how much I dislike this.
What in the heck does that +1/level even represent to AC? It certainly can't be anything the wizard is doing, since he can't take any actions. The only way it makes any sort of sense is if the gods really really like high-level people more than low-level people.
And why does your DEX still factor into AC?
This feels like it was just changed because somebody was inconsolable after his character was killed by a ghoul.
What else could paralyzed possibly mean besides, you know, paralyzed?
So, for instance, a naked, paralyzed 20th level wizard with no magic items is basically impossible for any normal soldier to even scratch with his, thanks to the +1/level, paralyzed AC of 28. An army strikes at this immobile, naked old man all day long and . . .just . . .
keep . . .
missing . . .Words cannot express how much I dislike this.
LOL. Yeah. No kidding.
Do try to remember that the game is designed for encounters to be within a very narrow window of encounter level of the player characters. So if there is an army of low level soldiers swinging at a 20th level wizard, then the GM is doing something rather silly. So getting a silly result is to be expected.
Yeah... this doesn't seem okay. I don't think coup de graces are necessary, but attacking a paralyzed/unconscious creature from an adjacent square should be an auto-hit with at least the first attack.
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Ye, we already bumped into this problem. Enemies got a PC paralyzed and could not hit him for 3 rounds, because of Dexterity and level bonuses. Looks completely broken.
This sounds like the problem is applying the combat rules to a situation that should not actually be viewed as combat - or, to phrase that differently, sticking strictly to the written rules even when you don't think they should apply (a.k.a. letting the rules run the GM, rather than the GM run the rules).
To me it sounds like game balance (a level 3 Paralysis spell should not be more deadly than a level 7 Finger of Death spell) taking priority over realism. House-ruling this sort of thing can break the game.
I would argue that because it says they are unable to move that they are hit automatically. It probably just says they are Flat-footed for things that do extra stuff when they are Flat-footed, such as sneak attack. I mean you could also say that maybe they have an AC of 5 with a -2 Flat-footed to make it an AC of 3. I do agree that it should be explained a little better though.
Unable to dodge = flat-footed. Unable to dodge doesn't mean you lose the AC bonus for your magic +5 Full Plate Mail, or the magical force field that your level bonus gives you.
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Paralyzed seems not to be PF1 paralyzed, but instead PF1's equivalent of Dazed with a minor enhancement. You stand there and sluggishly (flat footed) dodge attacks, but can't actively move or take actions. Think of it that way and it's not as outrageous.
Of course, in order to see it that way and make this condition not absolutely ridiculous they need to remove the line "your body is frozen in place."
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Paralyzed seems not to be PF1 paralyzed, but instead PF1's equivalent of Dazed with a minor enhancement. You stand there and sluggishly (flat footed) dodge attacks, but can't actively move or take actions. Think of it that way and it's not as outrageous.
Of course, in order to see it that way and make this condition not absolutely ridiculous they need to remove the line "your body is frozen in place."
I think there's something to this, because "Paralyzed" functions pretty differently from "Unconscious" where in PF1 both would leave you "helpless."
But it also seems worth noting that Unconscious is now a net -6. Which is more severe than Paralyzed, but doesn't really account for "+level to AC just makes you better at dodging," which is what I had mostly figured it was supposed to be.
The alternative explanation is that your body does actually harden as you level up, effectively giving you a sweet natural armor bonus in PF1 terms on top of being better at dodging. I don't really have a problem with that being the case, and perhaps it could be spelled out a little more explicitly. Then again, maybe going that far into the weeds is a bad call-- kinda like trying too hard to understand hit points in narrative.