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The White Dragon posted:I don't see how your anecdote supports your thesis. (I also can't tell if you're agreeing with "there are two discrete types of player" or "roleplay and optimization are inconsistent.") Dragon Disciple Sorcerer may not be power-optimal compared with other casters, but if you made him the best Dragon Disciple Sorcerer he could be for your concept, playstyle, and group, then you optimized. Optimization is about using the mechanics to achieve your goals. You decide what those goals are. Fake edit: Super Waffle, could you tell us a little more about what kinds of things you want the character to accomplish? Information about the group/party and whether the game might focus on combat (whacking folks in the head with the Maltese Falcon) or skill-based endeavors would also be useful if you have any.
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Dec 14, 2011 04:01
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Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Mar 31, 2017 |
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Dec 14, 2011 06:43
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50 Foot Ant posted:OK, you guys are the go to guys when it comes to finding out eventual problems. Your party is already dead. No divine or arcane full caster means you are incredibly behind in ability to deal with challenges, multiple encounters, as well as any combat other than "stand there and hit them." Are you the DM? If so, you'll need to limit the encounters per day to one or two at most. Think about handing out some Healing Belts from the 3.5 MIC, or at least dropping healing potions like rain. Use enemy spellcasters very sparingly, or limit them to mostly blasting types.
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Dec 14, 2011 06:49
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That is actually a pretty sweet party. Witch is a powerful class and gunslinger is weak and'll hurt the Witch spell progression. Does that witch/gunslinger have access to relatively cheap gear? If they are pulling ahead (unlikely) or dropping behind (more likely!) you can balance on the fly by modifying their gear prices in interesting ways and you'll probably be fine. You'll run into healing problems like you know, the melee guys will be beaten up and will have to rest for weeks at a time and you have no real way to deal with stuff besides HP damage against AC but that isn't a surprise and as the DM you can build encounters around it (weak, infrequent and without tricks). The actual classes there are quite comparable and I think that'll work well, you've basically done the main thing of not having straight casters and it'll come down to which guys optimise the most.
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Dec 14, 2011 06:52
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Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Mar 31, 2017 |
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Dec 14, 2011 07:32
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For the limited amount of healing, I wonder, why not let the witch have the hex for healing, its not a whole lot but it does help when health recovery is so costly.
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Dec 14, 2011 11:05
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Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Mar 31, 2017 |
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Dec 14, 2011 12:49
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50 Foot Ant posted:Stuff. I really don't feel you need to make any changes to the base classes. The way I look at it, your party is fairly rounded though lacks true Arcane or Divine specializations. This could hurt a little bit down the road, but I think they'll be fine. The one thing that weirds me out the most is the crazy changing of item prices. If anything I'd consider giving them a cheaper way to access things like healing potions, but the biggest magic item that I would try to lean them towards is a Wand of Cure Light Wounds since the Witch has the spell in her list and can cast it with no issues. For a cheap 7500 sp, that should take care of all of your party's out-of-combat healing needs and give them a little help in-combat as well. Another option if your party isn't all good characters is a Wand of Infernal Healing which basically heals a fixed 10 hp over a 1 minute period, very nice for out of combat healing on par with 3.5's Lesser Vigor. The only downside is it's an evil spell that involves pouring devil's blood on your wounds and makes you emanate an evil aura while it's in effect, but whatever. I would probably also sprinkle Cure Moderate and better potions in dungeon loot fairly liberally as you advance in level and encourage the Witch to brew up those potions. Given the party makeup and the fact that the Witch is basically filling the role of Divine and Arcane caster with her unique spell list, I would encourage her to limit her Gunslinger levels to just a single level dip to give herself firearms proficiency and the like if she's sold on that concept. The classes don't really synergize together very well at all with eachother since Witches use Int and Gunslingers use Wis and Dex. One option you could consider talking her into is switching her Gunslinger level for a level in Wizard with the Spellslinger Archetype to give her the Arcane Gun ability to cast spells through her weapon. You might even be able to talk her into making the Witch her dip class and going all-out with the Wizard otherwise as she can always take Extra Hex feats to pick up more hexes along the way and will still be able to use healing wands to help the party out. Regarding alchemical bullets, she should definitely invest in craft (alchemy) and you should definitely allow this as the best bullets in the game are all alchemical. Even if she is just making paper cartridges all the time, those will give her the ability to reload as one action quicker than normal which is pretty indispensable for gun users. Super Waffle posted:Warforged Private Eye. Well, first there aren't really Warforged in Pathfinder, but assuming you're converting the race over, I'd consider looking into a Ranger with the Urban Ranger archetype for a good Private Eye type character. You basically give up most of the Ranger's outdoorsy powers to gain Disable Device, Trapfinding, and Favored Community which gives you a bunch of bonuses in a town of your choice. Pretty much screams Private Eye to me and nicely replaces a Trapfinding Rogue in the party lineup while still having the full BAB and weapon proficiencies to make a pretty good Fighter or Archer.
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Dec 14, 2011 18:23
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Found this gem on the Paizo forums:quote:Ok, so everyone I've talked to is of the opinion that the Broodmaster is woefully under powered. 
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Dec 16, 2011 03:09
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Bestiary 3 is out today, here's the store link. It hasn't been put on the SRD yet, but you can keep an eye on this link over the next week or so. e: I've been anticipating this release because, in my campaign, my lvl 6 character has a one-use casting of Monstrous Physique 3. I hope this book introduces a Monstrous Humanoid that can pounce. All You Can Eat fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Dec 21, 2011 |
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Dec 21, 2011 17:56
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It looks like it'll be a pretty solid book. Initially I was kind of annoyed they were putting out yet another Bestiary as I usually prefer books with more character options over monster-books, but now I just want to play a Ratfolk Rogue someday.
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Dec 21, 2011 18:06
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Porkness posted:Found this gem on the Paizo forums:  ...gently caress it, I'm reposting this in grognards.txt.
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Dec 22, 2011 06:01
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We still don't have money or a game engine, but you know what we will have? Hexes!
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Dec 22, 2011 09:23
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What company decides to limit the number of players for 7 months after launch? Are they just disguising an extended beta or something?
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Dec 22, 2011 16:59
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They think (rightly) that launching a sandbox MMO with as many players as their servers can service would be a complete mess. The seven months is to give the hardcore Paizo fans time to build their simulationist utopia and establish some baseline parameters for social interactions. They believe (wrongly) that this will work, because
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Dec 22, 2011 17:05
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gninjagnome posted:What company decides to limit the number of players for 7 months after launch? Are they just disguising an extended beta or something? I read your quote and then read the blog because I could not believe anyone would do this. The only reason I would think they would go this route is to make it seem exclusive instead of having a lackluster opening because there is no brand recognition with the general public. Meanwhile, grogs can say that the game is doing so well, it's at capacity and Paizo is doing this because they don't care about money and just want to give the best play experience possible.
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Dec 22, 2011 17:51
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I don't really know a ton about the inner workings of these things, but wouldn't it cost less to maintain servers for 4500 players on launch than a million or whatever? Seems like it's probably just planned as a way to limit their initial costs while they see if their small publishing company's first foray into online gaming will work out or not. I can't really say at this point whether it's a good strategy or a bad one, but Paizo seems to have a pretty decent business head on their shoulders so I'm hopeful.
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Dec 22, 2011 17:59
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smashthedean posted:I don't really know a ton about the inner workings of these things, but wouldn't it cost less to maintain servers for 4500 players on launch than a million or whatever? Seems like it's probably just planned as a way to limit their initial costs while they see if their small publishing company's first foray into online gaming will work out or not. I can't really say at this point whether it's a good strategy or a bad one, but Paizo seems to have a pretty decent business head on their shoulders so I'm hopeful. Limiting the number of players limits the number of people that can pay them. Every MMO needs to make more per person than it costs to run servers (otherwise they can never make any money), so this plan is just stupid in every fashion. Not to mention the stupidity of planning an MMO based almost entirely around player interaction, and then not allowing anyone to play it.
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Dec 22, 2011 18:22
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I can see being worried about server load, but I'm not convinced this is why they are doing it. It seems more like a misguided business decision, rather than a technical one. They haven't even started really coding anything, they are still picking their middleware. So they have no idea about server performance, nor do they have anything like pre-order numbers to predict what their potential load would be. Either they know their code will be crap from the start, or else they really think a 7 month exclusive period at launch will somehow help them in the long term. Of course this is assuming they would ever hit the cap they are planning on setting.
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Dec 22, 2011 19:43
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They're doing it because it's supposed to be an MMO where the players are literally building the world, and with millions of people either that would turn into a total mess or only the first few thousand would have any influence anyway. The stupid part is having an MMO where the players are literally building the world. It makes sense for the kind of game they want to have, it's just a really bad decision for what kind of game in the first place.
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Dec 22, 2011 23:56
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Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Mar 31, 2017 |
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Dec 23, 2011 00:15
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What's crazy is that Dancey worked on EVE but apparently learned literally nothing on how the game works and why it made the decisions it made. So hey, more reasons he was fired from CCP.
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Dec 23, 2011 00:16
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We're talking about getting a Pathfinder campaign going in Korea. Two questions: 1. I have a Kindle 3g. Can I put the (OFFICIAL, not :files:) .pdf on that? 2. The setting is a besieged city, and the second member of the two man party is a rogue. I'm thinking some sort of agent character, like the French resistance or a generic freedom fighter archetype. I'm thinking Ranger or Inquisitor. What sounds like a better fit? I have reservations about also running another rogue and Bards are off limits.
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Dec 25, 2011 18:26
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Toussaint Louverture posted:We're talking about getting a Pathfinder campaign going in Korea. Two questions: 1. I don't own a Kindle so I don't know its capabilities, but the Paizo site does sell official PDFs of the books, so you should be fine there. 2. If you're starting at level 2 or 3 (or higher) that should give you enough room to give the two rogues very different sets of abilities. Different ability scores, and skill and feat selection go a long way in differentiating one rogue from another. Rogue talents are another layer of customization that should help. Just make sure you coordinate with the other player so you don't both take the exact same abilities.
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Dec 25, 2011 19:17
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Toussaint Louverture posted:1. I have a Kindle 3g. Can I put the (OFFICIAL, not :files:) .pdf on that? I tried this once. It does not work well at all. The Pathfinder SRD works ok via the browser, though.
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Dec 25, 2011 23:06
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Haystack posted:I tried this once. It does not work well at all. That is incredibly disappointing. 
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Dec 25, 2011 23:12
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An E-Reader like the Kindle just isn't really designed for pdfs. The screen's too small to read it without a lot of work. Now something with a bigger screen, like an Android Tablet or iPad would probably work.
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Dec 25, 2011 23:19
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Actually, I have some good news! The pathfinder SRD offers a really nice set of downloads, including stripped down versions of core rulebook (as a pdf, another pdf, or a epub) and the bestiary (pdf). These should work just fine on a kindle (well, the epub you would have to convert to mobi format with a tool like Calibre). e: I should probably mention that the above files are all distributed under the open game license, so there are no worries about pirated content. Haystack fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Dec 26, 2011 |
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Dec 25, 2011 23:53
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Chaltab posted:An E-Reader like the Kindle just isn't really designed for pdfs. The screen's too small to read it without a lot of work. Now something with a bigger screen, like an Android Tablet or iPad would probably work. MadScientistWorking fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Dec 26, 2011 |
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Dec 26, 2011 02:21
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50ft Ant your game sounds Amazing, and I cannot state my envy for your players enough I really can't. As far as broken things to watch out for.. you'd be amazed what a character can get away with according to the stealth rules if they focus on it, especially if you allow in all the splat flavor books, other than that should be good to go. Just confirming that the witch spells would have the chance of arcane burn so that's whats preventing them from doing more active healing with their spell selection, or is it outright banned? Since a lot of the higher level heal/healing-ish spells are already not on the list unless they took the healing patron which I'm assuming is right out the window. Curious- is the full epic of the lich king covered in an old archive post? The entire history sounds just fantastic.
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Dec 29, 2011 03:25
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So I'll be playing in a Pathfinder game come this Saturday (well, really just character creation considering it's New Years, but playing the Saturday after that) and I'm leaning towards either an Oracle of Life (if we have no healer), or an Oracle of Wind (if we have have another healer), or a Gunslinger. I've read through a good majority of this thread, and other places, stating how at later levels casters just become God incarnate, whereas others (or maybe it's just Fighters?) so I'm leaning more towards an Oracle. I'm not sure what others are playing yet, so I guess my question is if I do pick one of these (Oracle/Gunslinger) am I going to be outclassed completely by someone else? (I.e. as an Oracle, would a Wizard make me just about useless, or as a Gunslinger would a Ranger make me useless. Useless in the sense that they can do everything I can do, only better.)
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Dec 29, 2011 20:48
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Thelonious Funk posted:So I'll be playing in a Pathfinder game come this Saturday (well, really just character creation considering it's New Years, but playing the Saturday after that) and I'm leaning towards either an Oracle of Life (if we have no healer), or an Oracle of Wind (if we have have another healer), or a Gunslinger. Gunslinger is pretty mediocre. It's got some interesting ideas but they didn't put it together well. If being significantly outclassed is going to be a problem for you, don't go Gunslinger. Oracles are pretty solid, though. They're technically not as ~*amazing*~ as wizards and clerics, but they are close enough that you won't feel like a jackass for playing one. Essentially, a sorcerer or oracle vs. a wizard or cleric loses out on versatility, but is more or less as strong on the whole. If you play an oracle and someone else plays a cleric, you might feel kind of left out on the odd-numbered levels since he'll have access to spells you don't yet at those levels (although you'd have more spells/day). On the other hand, a wizard won't make you feel useless at all as an Oracle, since you have access to entirely different spell lists.
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Dec 29, 2011 22:12
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Benly posted:Gunslinger is pretty mediocre. It's got some interesting ideas but they didn't put it together well. If being significantly outclassed is going to be a problem for you, don't go Gunslinger. I was kind of feeling that way about Gunslinger, but I didn't want to believe it. I'm definitely up in the air between Oracle and Alchemist, now though. (The DM said to have a few choices ready so that we can try and have a balanced party if at all possible.) But Alchemists seem complicated as all Hell. Maybe I'll just be a Barbarian and crush stuff with a hammer.
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Dec 29, 2011 22:30
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If you want to try a nice mix of 'no dear we don't need no fighter' for an oracle look at the metal domain in complete magic. Otherwise oracle of life makes a rocking healer, and alchemist is just a lot of set up work, not really overly complicated in play so long as the idea of splash damage is easy to grasp for yah.
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Dec 29, 2011 22:35
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Thelonious Funk posted:I was kind of feeling that way about Gunslinger, but I didn't want to believe it. I'm definitely up in the air between Oracle and Alchemist, now though. (The DM said to have a few choices ready so that we can try and have a balanced party if at all possible.) But Alchemists seem complicated as all Hell. The more I look into Alchemists and get past the complexity, the more I'm enjoying them and wanting to play one. The ridiculous levels of damage an Alchemist/Barbarian who combines Mutagens and Raging can put out is awesome (or bombs are cool too). Also, an update on my Carrion Crown campaign guy for that one guy that wanted to know how it's going and anyone else who cares (spoilered for those planning to play in the AP): The party rolled into Lepidstadt last night to deliver the books to the University and the Judge and things went pretty much as planned with them getting hooked into the Beast's case. They figured things were pretty fishy about the theft at the University pretty quickly and were eager to help when the Judge offered them a job as volunteer defenders. I had a lot of fun playing up the incompetent defense attorney and the Beast himself so that was an extra highlight too. One thing I hadn't quite anticipated is how amused my players would be by the name of the village of Morast (more-rear end hurr hurr), but I rolled with it and it was good times. The yokels in Morast were pretty fun to play as well with the creepy village elder guy serving the party some gross swamp stew and talking like a hillbilly. The party kept talking half-jokingly out-of-game about how they should just kill him off since he's the prosecution's star witness on the case, but thankfully they talked themselves out of that option. The fight with the Manticore was pretty epic with highlights including the Halfling Ninja jumping incredibly high with a really good Acrobatics check and deciding to add a couple of feet to her jump by vaulting off of the Ranger's Wolf Companion's back to swipe at the flying monster. The real hero though was the party Barbarian who spent the first round of combat tying a magic Rope of Climbing to her Javelin and then proceeding to throw it at the Manticore, hold on tight, and get dragged into the air. She rolled great on her climb check next round and was able to climb up and finish it off mid-flight with her Greataxe, taking some falling damage in the process, but generally being fine. After that the party did kind of terribly on their investigating, not making a few of the connections between the things they'd found and the case, but managed to still find the Surgicial Tools and about half of the other stuff. After heading back to town they rested for the night and then spent the next morning before the trial following the trail of the Tools and managing to slap the last bit of info out of the shop-owner guy just in time to make it back to the courtroom before things started up at 10:00. I really wanted to play up the big time constraints the party is under in this adventure so I printed up a calendar with 24 little boxes in each day that I could check off as the hours progressed and the trial drew closer. Another prop-thing I did was make little cards for all of the clues that the party had successfully deduced to use as evidence during the trial. I let the players play the cards as they made their case for the Beast during the trial and I think it added some extra fun to the mix. We ended after the first day of trial and everyone said they enjoyed it quite a bit, though one player did complain that there wasn't enough combat this session. I'm hoping they bust into the Chymic Works next time as that should sate their bloodlust a bit.
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Dec 29, 2011 23:54
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I may be wrong but last I checked, Battle Oracle was the strongest fighter in the game, more or less being "The fighter but better in literally every way" due to having some hilariously strong abilities to go along with the already hilariously strong spells.
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Dec 30, 2011 02:24
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ProfessorCirno posted:I may be wrong but last I checked, Battle Oracle was the strongest fighter in the game, more or less being "The fighter but better in literally every way" due to having some hilariously strong abilities to go along with the already hilariously strong spells. But but Fighters get EXTRA FEATS!!
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Dec 30, 2011 02:59
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Magic Rabbit Hat posted:But but Fighters get EXTRA FEATS!! ...and full BAB, more HP, Weapon Specialization feats, Weapon Training, full movement speed in armor... Fighters really aren't that bad.
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Dec 30, 2011 07:47
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smashthedean posted:...and full BAB, more HP, Weapon Specialization feats, Weapon Training, full movement speed in armor... Fighters really aren't that bad. Yes they are.
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Dec 30, 2011 07:58
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smashthedean posted:...and full BAB, more HP, Weapon Specialization feats, Weapon Training, full movement speed in armor... Fighters really aren't that bad. Man, did you even read what you said? Fighters get full BAB, the most easily added onto bonus in the game. They have more HP, by which I mean d10 instead of d8. They totally gain +4 to their damage rolls! And they can move ten feet faster in armor! Except, well. Battle Oracles get all that, too. In fact, they get weapon focus, improved critical, and greater weapon focus for a single feat. They can roll their initiative twice (or THREE times halfway through the game) and always act in a surprise round..as another single feat. They gain ALL the feats required to do a combat maneuver, and use their Oracle level as their BAB, and don't need to fulfill any of the requirements. As a single feat. Move as a swift action? Yep. Automatically reroll a saving throw against several of the nastier affliction? They get that too. Or they can not even bother spending the feat, as these are the mysteries they already have access to. I haven't even mentioned their spells! Battle Oracle in abilities alone, discounting the fact that they are a full level 9 spellcaster, blow fighters away. Once you add in the fact that they are a full level 9 spellcaster, there's no comparison in the slightest. But I'll give you this. Fighters sure can move ten feet faster every round in their armor.
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Dec 30, 2011 08:11
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