RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
|
Missing a table of common conditional bonuses and penalties in combat such as target prone, attacker on higher ground, target has cover, attacker is invisible, etc.
proficiency for armor and shields - instead of applying the lower one, once you’re trained in shields, shield proficiency should automatically be the same as your best armor proficiency. You shouldn’t get worse at your defense because you pick up a shield you’re trained in.
bonuses and penalties - while PF1 clearly had too many bonus/penalty types and therefore too many could stack, going down to 3 is swinging the pendulum too far. The PF1 beta clearly showed players strongly disliked the idea of limited the number of buffs to 3 at a time, and having 3 bonuses only is effectively doing the same thing by a different methodology. At the very least, there should be a “magic” bonus which stacks with circumstance (like flanking, cover, etc) and conditional (like sickened, moral from bardic inspiration, etc.). The magic bonus should be essentially the enhancement bonus from PF1, rolled together with deflection, sacred/profane, etc. I’d prefer a fourth bonus which is rare and expensive for luck/inspiration bonuses as well.
DC instead of opposed rolls - I like this change, much less swingy. Could use a bit more complex example though, off a few rounds of sneaking and the guard seeking, to show how it’s always the active character making the roll against the DC of the passive character.
touch armor class - at the very least, this needs better explanation on why armor affects this. If a blast of fire or disintegrate spell touches the target, but misses only because of their bonus to TAC from armor, wouldn’t the armor either take damage or they would, since a blast of fire on your armor is still going to burn you pretty bad.
success and critical success - having any success which is a natural 20 always be a crit is problematic. This means for enemies which you need a 20 to hit, every single hit is a crit. If you need a 19-20, then you crit for half of your hits, etc. A better rule would be if you get a nat 20, and that is a hit by 5 higher than the DC, it’s a crit, instead of 10 higher than the DC like normal. Otherwise, it’s only a regular hit.
nat 20s and lower than DC - don’t say “if you lack the proficiency or it’s impossible, you might still fail on a nat 20”. Instead say if you’re untrained in the task or it’s impossible, you DO fail. Don’t be wishy-washy with that the rule is.
critical failure - wouldn’t it make sense that if you’re legendary at something a 1 isn’t automatically a failure if you succeed in the DC?
damage types - each type should be given more detail. For instance, what is chaotic, good, evil, or lawful damage exactly, and what does is damage? Is there a set rule that it only damages creatures of the opposite alignment type? Poison damage and bleed damage should be listed here as well.
Hit points and healing - don’t have separate dying rules for PCs. If PCs can get dying, then all monsters and NPCs should be able to also (except constructs and undead). This makes taking prisoners far more realistic, and also there’s no need to have separate rules for how death works. There’s no need to make this a GM’s discretion thing, just have rules for it, and apply them. The GM can always make exceptions, just like in anything in the game. PCs having hero points is enough of a bonus for them being PCs.
recovery saving throws - don’t force looking up multiple places for the rule. Say that monsters use their level +X instead of look up on a page 40 pages later in the book to find the DC on some other table. That’s also a better proxy to what a PC’s value would be for their class DC. Also, how many actions does this take? Can you make 3 a turn since you have 3 actions? I’m guessing it’s supposed to be 1/turn, and you have no actions, but a) nothing says you have no actions when you’re dying (it says it under unconscious, but that’s not intuitive when you have the dying condition), and b) the recovery saving throw rules don’t say you can only make one such save per turn.
if you’re at 1 hp - make the 1 action you lose allow you stand up at least, otherwise you basically lose 2 actions that turn.
reducing the dying condition - once you’re up you shouldn’t be dying at all anymore. You really shouldn’t be once you get to 1 hp, since there’s no risk of dying at that point.
actions and activities - why is this distinction necessary? Better yet, have actions only be costs - and activities are things which take 1-3 actions.
dependent abilities - this entire section is super hard to comprehend. I get what it is saying, but the actual sentences are opaque.
auras - don’t make the example of an aura in a lead box. That suggests that somehow it being made of lead matters. Just drop the word lead and say an aura in a box.
cones - don’t make orthogonal cones have weird shapes. They should still follow the pattern of 1 square, then 2 squares, then 3, etc.
duplicate effects - while the effect of the duplicate wouldn’t change, why couldn’t you have multiple castings of a spell on so if one is dispelled, the second is still there?
hero points - remove from the rules that you can earn hero points for things like mapping or bringing snacks. That leads to weird expectations, and there’s no need to have player to player bribery to impact the game. This shouldn’t be a factor for the maximum # of hero points awarded per session either. For that matter, tying hero points to sessions is a poor mechanic since so many groups have different session lengths, or sessions which could be all role playing and don’t advance the plot necessarily. Finally, wording of you start each game session with 1 hero point means you can actually lose hero points between sessions. It would be much cleaner if you gain a hero point each time you level, but can have no more than 3.
spending hero points - 3 hero points suggests but doesn’t actually state that you can spend them to gain a reaction. Wording is “to increase your number of actions for the turn by 1.” In addition, does this extra action stack with the quick condition or not? Would be good to have other uses for hero points, such as treating a proficiency as 1 higher level for a round, using a feat you qualify for but don’t have for a round, etc.
describing heroic deeds - 2nd paragraph is very unclear. I don’t know what this is trying to convey, or what it has to do with describing your actions heroically. Does it mean “well, I learned that leaving the wizard unprotected leads to him being almost killed, so now I heroically don’t wade into combat, to act as the wizard’s bodyguard” or “I learned the lesson that it’s bad to do drugs, so I heroically smite the drug lord head of the thieves guild with my greataxe”?
dim light - other than a candle what actually provides dim light? Also, there should be dim light after the range of a bright light source. PF1 doubled that, but that seems high. Having at least dim light in the 5 feet beyond a source of bright light makes a lot more sense, so you don’t walk from the bright light of a torch to the darkness in 5 feet, and so characters can sneak at the periphery of a light source without actually being in bright light (and they use the dim light concealment to hide in.)
tremorsense - should also be called out that it can work in water if both creatures are submerged.
initiative - need a real tie break rule - since there can be cases where PCs oppose each other. It also isn’t fair for NPCs to always win ties. Much easier and more fair to say roll a die and higher roll breaks the tie, or highest bonus to initiative wins, and only if those are tied then roll.
multiple attack penalty - does this apply to spells also? Or only weapon attacks?
aid and assist - why does Aid have flat DCs, but assist has DC set by the target’s AC? Shouldn’t they both be flat DCs, or both be the DC of the check? Also, for assist, why does the PC need to hit the AC of the target? They’re disrupting the enemy, which shouldn’t need to fully penetrate their armor. Hitting their touch AC makes a lot more sense, and also removes the issue of “if I had to hit their AC, why not just attack them myself?”
drop - why bother with the trigger for this? Since you get one at the beginning of your turn, and at the start of your action, you can effectively drop an item in each hand before you act. At that point you can also drop items you pick up or weild with later actions in your turn, with each action, or end of round. Is there a problem with simply having drop be a free action, usable at will? Or is there a secret flaw in the game which would make unlimited dropping unbalanced?
Leap - why does this exist as a separate action? The rules fully cover this under jumping in the skills chapter.
seek - why is there a range limit on this? If you can see and hear further, why can’t you seek, with a range penalty? Oh yeah, there are no range penalties for perception anymore, you should add those back in. Is there any limits on number of retries? Could you Seek all 3 actions of you turn if desired?
Step - nothing in this says you need to use your land speed. But it also doesn’t say you can can use a fly, swim, or burrow speed. It also doesn’t restrict you from stepping while crawling, even though that action indirectly suggests that since you need a speed of 10 feet. Or are you able to step while prone also?
arrest a fall - does this work against feats like Felling Strike which causes a flying target to fall? Looks like, it, but seems an awkward way to have this work, rather than having it be a saving throw against the special attack.
why does fly and burrow have their own action, while climb and swim don’t here? Wouldn’t it be a lot easier if there was an action Move which lets you move your speed using one movement type you have?
fly - so any flying creature can now hover? If you’re flying magically, why do you need to spend an action to hover? That should be only if you’re using wings.
where is the action for changing your grip on a weapon or item? P. 179 under hands strongly implies this is an action, but the action doesn’t appear in the list of actions on this page.
other movement types - why can’t you take the step action with other forms of movement? I’d think it’s just as easy to avoid AOOs while swimming or climbing for example if that’s your normal mode of travel.
fly - does wind strength matter at all anymore? I’d think a hurricane force wind would have a lot more impact than a moderate breeze.
falling - You should add in how long it takes to fall long distances. Specifically, how long do you fall before you get an action, and how long before you get 2 actions. If you fall enough, you should be able to cast fly, for example.
falling on a creature - Reflex DC should increase with the size of the creature falling on you, and the size of the target creature. A smaller creature would have a harder time avoidng a larger creature falling on them, since they have to scramble out of the way further.
inclines - should indicate that inclines less than x degrees count as difficult terrain but don’t require a Climb check.
Size - there isn’t Colossal anymore? I guess since Size doesn’t matter much in this version of the rules, but why not have rules for extra large creatures?
mounted attacks - they count for multiple attack penalty also? Completely reduces any benefit of fighting while mounted. Not at all how mounted combat works either. Especially on a charge. At a minimum this needs feats for real mounted combat.
mounted defenses - should be able to make a leap action from your mount in addition to dismount, as well as fly action.
aerial combat - should mention you can’t trip a flying creature
aquatic combat - add in you can’t be tripped while swimming
exploration tactics - why can’t you do multiple ones at once, like searching and sneaking? For fatiguing ones, shouldn’t you be able to move at a slower speed to not be fatigued?
defending - if doing this isn’t fatiguing then why would be using a cantrip like shield be for essentially the same effect?
detecting magic - why is this not fatiguing if casting a spell is? Detect magic IS a spell. If the spell is less fatiguing than all other cantrips, shouldn’t it take less actions?
social tactics - what do any of these actually do? They should explicitly state what skill you use for initiative, or what other game impacting effects they have. If you are stealing, does that let you make a pickpocket attempt before combat starts, or a social encounter starts? If you’re not carousing, can you not gather information or something? These are infuriatingly vague as to what impact they actually have.
rest - why is it typically 8 hours if you only get fatigued for less than 6 hours. What happens if you rest only 6 or 7 hours? Can you not prepare your abilities? What happens if you’re woken at night while camping? Do you need more time? For that matter, what are the rules for being attacked while camping? If you take a guard shift, how does that impact your hours of rest - and do the rest hours need to be uninterrupted? How do you wake up from sleep if there’s a disturbance?
Downtime - give examples and rules for other downtime activities, like the ones you mention, buying goods (how long does it take, what kind of availability), studying an artifact, researching new spells, etc.
Retraining - give rules for how this works, don’t say, GM decides - be precise on how long it takes, how much it costs, etc.
counteracting - don’t make higher level automatically succeed - if lower level counters can work with a penalty, higher level ones should have to roll but with a bonus. The way it currently is highly favors enemies who are generally the same level or higher than PCs. Why do counteractions work like this based on level so much, when non-magical cures don’t, such as the medicine skill?
bolstered - why does this even exist as written? I get not being affected by the same effect from the same source more than 1/24 hours, but why would anything bolster you against any sources of it? Spells should pretty much never bolster you, only special abilities which are at will or auras, etc. What’s the rationale for casting a limited use spell of ability multiple times not working on the same target?
speed reduction - why can’t you have speed reduced to 0? Seems pretty likely if something literally chains you to an object, wraps your legs up in multiple ropes, etc. Shouldn’t a speed reduction to 0 work, and just give you the immobile condition at that point?
drained - if you rest a full day of downtime, does this reduce 2 instead of 1? This should have clear rules for life force drain being different from blood drain, even if it’s only that life force drain doesn’t heal naturally, or heals 1 per week, or whatever. This actually seems covered by enervated, in which case, what does drained actually refer to when it says “some other life force”?
petrified - is this the only place the rules indicate a character’s bulk? 8 for medium and 4 for small characters? Also, how many dents can a petrified character take before they’re destroyed and die?
prone - how can a flying creature be knocked prone and fall? Should be dependent on the type of effect - an actual trip shouldn’t work, but going prone because you fall asleep should. Should the penalty to attack not apply to crossbows?
slowed - should there be a maximum you can be slowed? Such as no more than your number of actions? So a standard creature can’t ever be slowed more than 3, and a minion can’t be more than 2, or a quick character could be 4.
stages - if you critically fail your save while at the maximum stage, do you suffer that stage’s effects twice? The example in the sidebar clears this up, but the rules text themselves don’t.
multiple exposures - so if you’re on the last round of a poison, and get poisoned by the same type again, it doesn’t affect the maximum duration, and you still only take 1 round more? It doesn’t re-set the maximum duration for the 2nd dose?
should there be actual afflictions in this section? Or at least list where they will be.
Cracking post and you have expressed a lot of the issues that both I and a lot of others on the forum are dealing with.
It would be nice sometimes for perhaps, someone from Paizo to comment on a post (might even prove that they read this feedback).