Remaster Magic Item Request: Player Core 1

[Themetricsystem]

Caster Wand
Item 4
[Magical] [Wand] [Invested]
Source Player Core 1 pg. XXX
Price 35 gp
Usage held in 1 hand; Bulk L
This special Wand is about a foot long and unlike other Wands that contain a single Spell, it is instead used to help channel and cast directed offensive Spells with magically enhanced accuracy.

Activate [Free Action] Cast a Spell that requires a Spell Attack Roll that targets Armor Class;
Effect Add a +1 Item Bonus to your Spell Attack Roll.

Craft Requirements; You are an Expert in Crafting and have access to the Cast a Spell Activity.

[Special] During the creation of a Caster Wand you may also integrate the effects and functions of any other Wand that enables the casting of a Single Spell or a Staff by paying the additional cost of the integrated Wand or Staff.
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Also, create higher-level versions of these that correspond 1-to-1 with the +1 Potency Runes that benefit Weapons and Handwraps. Price them all accordingly. Yes, it does mean that to use them you would need to "give up" a hand but that is the tradeoff.

Just give in and allow Spell Attacks to benefit from the Item Bonus, it's not going to be game-breaking, if anything it will simply quiet the masses and the casters will have to pay for it just like any Martial has to as well which helps suture up a bit of economic unfairness in that Casters save a TON of money as they rarely, if ever, currently invest much of their funds into Runes which nets them far more consumables, magic items, and other cool stuff that the Martials simply cannot afford as they essentially HAVE to pay the Rune tax to stay effective.

[The Raven Black]

Themetricsystem wrote:

Caster Wand

Item 4
[Magical] [Wand] [Invested]
Source Player Core 1 pg. XXX
Price 35 gp
Usage held in 1 hand; Bulk L
This special Wand is about a foot long and unlike other Wands that contain a single Spell, it is instead used to help channel and cast directed offensive Spells with magically enhanced accuracy.

Activate [Free Action] Cast a Spell that requires a Spell Attack Roll that targets Armor Class;
Effect Add a +1 Item Bonus to your Spell Attack Roll.

Craft Requirements; You are an Expert in Crafting and have access to the Cast a Spell Activity.

[Special] During the creation of a Caster Wand you may also integrate the effects and functions of any other Wand that enables the casting of a Single Spell or a Staff by paying the additional cost of the integrated Wand or Staff.
------
Also, create higher-level versions of these that correspond 1-to-1 with the +1 Potency Runes that benefit Weapons and Handwraps. Price them all accordingly. Yes, it does mean that to use them you would need to "give up" a hand but that is the tradeoff.

Just give in and allow Spell Attacks to benefit from the Item Bonus, it's not going to be game-breaking, if anything it will simply quiet the masses and the casters will have to pay for it just like any Martial has to as well which helps suture up a bit of economic unfairness in that Casters save a TON of money as they rarely, if ever, currently invest much of their funds into Runes which nets them far more consumables, magic items, and other cool stuff that the Martials simply cannot afford as they essentially HAVE to pay the Rune tax to stay effective.

And then True Strike just before for stacking another even greater boost to accuracy.

Also use Shadow signet in addition to all this just in case your target's AC is too high.

Magus will never use Spellstrike anymore. Or it will need rewording so that the target of the spell also suffers the damage from the weapon rather than the other way around.

Also, why is this in the Rules forum ?

[The Gleeful Grognard]

The Raven Black wrote:

Also, why is this in the Rules forum ?

And why does anyone think paizo will be changing anything in player core 1 this close to release... between book printing and logistics the book is either done or in the very very final stages and about to be sent off.

[Perpdepog]

Also, why is the item level 4 but priced like it's level 2?

[Themetricsystem]

A couple replies:

RE True Strike: Not much to say about that except... and...? True Strike for Spell Attacks is already a well-established, and if anything, a more dominant thing now than it would be after this change as you'd have a better chance to hit and could instead save that additional Action to do something else instead of feeling like you HAVE to use the whole round essentially casting 1 Spell Attack so you hope to have a decent chance to hit, plus it cuts down on the idea that True Strike is utterly and completely mandatory as a math-fixer.
RE Spellstrike: I'm not sure why it would eliminate Spellstriking... do folks really only ever Spellstrike because they get the Item Bonus to hit and I was missing out on some hidden meta?
RE Shadow Signet: The line indicating it is functional for a Spell Attack that specifically targets AC so hot-swapping to target a lower Save DC is out of the picture straight away.
RE Why the Rules Forum: Is there a better place to discuss proposed new mechanics that would significantly impact game balance ala Rules? Surely this isn't a Lost Omens topic or Advice thread... perhaps General would be okay but that's a bit more "general" than I had aimed to shoot for as I was hoping to generate some discussion on how this kind of implementation could impact the game with the Remaster and what type of player behavior might come about because of it.
RE Changes to Player Core 1: This isn't a change, it's simply a new Magic Item that does what folks have been absolutely PINING for years now. Maybe it is arrogant or me to to say this but with minor edits and wording tweaks it could simply be drag/dropped into the list of things to put in PC1. GG, are you really under the impression that the "ink is dry" on precisely everything that will go into the Remaster already and they're basically ready to ship the PDFs to the printer?
RE Pricing: Huh? This has the exact same price as the +1 Potency Weapon Rune and should scale at the same price for greater versions as it effectively replicates the same thing but for Spell Attacks.

[Perpdepog]

Themetricsystem wrote:

RE Changes to Player Core 1: This isn't a change, it's simply a new Magic Item that does what folks have been absolutely PINING for years now. Maybe it is arrogant or me to to say this but with minor edits and wording tweaks it could simply be drag/dropped into the list of things to put in PC1. GG, are you really under the impression that the "ink is dry" on precisely everything that will go into the Remaster already and they're basically ready to ship the PDFs to the printer?

Just because it's a thing some folks want, that doesn't mean it wouldn't be a change. You're adding an item; that is a change by definition. And yeah. It would be a fair amount of work. Whenever stuff gets added in it requires copyfitting and adjusting to the surrounding material, and it is entirely possible that the book is done for all intents and purposes and Paizo are looking at test copies now. Printing takes a long time; the fact that this book is coming out as soon as it is kind of astounds me.

Themetricsystem wrote:

RE Pricing: Huh? This has the exact same price as the +1 Potency Weapon Rune and should scale at the same price for greater versions as it effectively replicates the same thing but for Spell Attacks.

Then make it a level 2 item. Level 4 is where Striking Runes come into play, which cost 65 rather than 35 GP.

[The Gleeful Grognard]

Themetricsystem wrote:

RE Changes to Player Core 1: This isn't a change, it's simply a new Magic Item that does what folks have been absolutely PINING for years now. Maybe it is arrogant or me to to say this but with minor edits and wording tweaks it could simply be drag/dropped into the list of things to put in PC1. GG, are you really under the impression that the "ink is dry" on precisely everything that will go into the Remaster already and they're basically ready to ship the PDFs to the printer?

First part, yeah dude layout, page counts, references and index placement mean putting in an item that takes up that much space is a big deal at this point. Both from a work standpoint and from moving people back onto the project.

Changing the layout on one page will generally mean changing the layout on a whole bunch of pages. Including possibly removing or changing content/art.

Oh and remember that page counts are set at specific counts, you aren't just adding one extra page here or there.

And yes, the book is likely already sent to the printers or just about to be.
In the past books have taken 4-6 months from completion to release, heck a rush order for more CRB books earlier this year took 4 months, didn't have release dates to worry about and was already ready to go.

When Paizo sets a release date, they need to account for logistics not just to their warehouse, but to other warehouses and distributors for release. On top of the printing itself.
This is also why subscribers will often times get their books shipped 2-3 weeks early.

They may not be WotC levels big, but last minute layout changes that haven't gone through a balance pass or weren't planned... aren't happening.

So 4 months is really 3 months, and 3 months is shorter than you would think when you have to account for things going wrong in the process.

[The Raven Black]

Themetricsystem wrote:

A couple replies:

RE True Strike: Not much to say about that except... and...? True Strike for Spell Attacks is already a well-established, and if anything, a more dominant thing now than it would be after this change as you'd have a better chance to hit and could instead save that additional Action to do something else instead of feeling like you HAVE to use the whole round essentially casting 1 Spell Attack so you hope to have a decent chance to hit, plus it cuts down on the idea that True Strike is utterly and completely mandatory as a math-fixer.
RE Spellstrike: I'm not sure why it would eliminate Spellstriking... do folks really only ever Spellstrike because they get the Item Bonus to hit and I was missing out on some hidden meta?
RE Shadow Signet: The line indicating it is functional for a Spell Attack that specifically targets AC so hot-swapping to target a lower Save DC is out of the picture straight away.
RE Why the Rules Forum: Is there a better place to discuss proposed new mechanics that would significantly impact game balance ala Rules? Surely this isn't a Lost Omens topic or Advice thread... perhaps General would be okay but that's a bit more "general" than I had aimed to shoot for as I was hoping to generate some discussion on how this kind of implementation could impact the game with the Remaster and what type of player behavior might come about because of it.
RE Changes to Player Core 1: This isn't a change, it's simply a new Magic Item that does what folks have been absolutely PINING for years now. Maybe it is arrogant or me to to say this but with minor edits and wording tweaks it could simply be drag/dropped into the list of things to put in PC1. GG, are you really under the impression that the "ink is dry" on precisely everything that will go into the Remaster already and they're basically ready to ship the PDFs to the printer?
RE Pricing: Huh? This has the exact same price as the +1 Potency Weapon Rune and should scale at the...

The proper forum is Homebrew, I think.

[Squiggit]

I'd say General. It's not proposing homebrew so much as discussing something the OP wishes was in the core game.

[The Raven Black]

Squiggit wrote:

I'd say General. It's not proposing homebrew so much as discussing something the OP wishes was in the core game.

Much of Homebrew is about things people would like to see in PF2 and their take on it.