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There's a difference between flat-footed at the start of combat or while balancing, and losing your Dexterity bonus such as being stunned, blinded or struck by an invisible attacker. Flat-footed is a subset of the "denied Dexterity bonus" category, and when you're flat-footed, you also can't make AoOs until you're no longer flat-footed. It's a really confusing 3eism.
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Dec 1, 2012 06:17
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Axiem posted:It doesn't look like it's flat-footed (which also removes Dex from CMD), but that it shares the no-Dex-to-AC thing with flat-footed. Which, for most purposes, is essentially the same thing. Fortunately, the CMB and CMD rules mention that they share buffs and penalties with Attack Bonus and AC, so it's still the same thing anyway. I guess the only difference is the "can't make AoOs" thing, which isn't really going to come into play when talking about a single attack from an invisible character. Axiem posted:Oh, and another dumb question time. Is Use Magic Device actually useful? Looking at the DCs to actually use it, it just seems like a lost cause, because you'd need to pump so many skill points into it to make it worthwhile. Or is there some convenient way to abuse it? lesbian baphomet fucked around with this message at 06:56 on Dec 1, 2012 |
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Dec 1, 2012 06:35
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Axiem posted:Oh, and another dumb question time. Is Use Magic Device actually useful? Looking at the DCs to actually use it, it just seems like a lost cause, because you'd need to pump so many skill points into it to make it worthwhile. Or is there some convenient way to abuse it? It's good if you have a familiar with opposable thumbs, particularly the Imp or the Lyrakien- I prefer the Imp with it's at-will invisibility. Basically, it allows you to break the action economy wide open- you effectively get a second spell per turn to wreck dudes with. But that's probably the best bet for UMD, but bards can also make use of it quite well as well.
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Dec 1, 2012 06:45
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Axiem posted:Oh, and another dumb question time. Is Use Magic Device actually useful? Looking at the DCs to actually use it, it just seems like a lost cause, because you'd need to pump so many skill points into it to make it worthwhile. Or is there some convenient way to abuse it? If you have the skill points, aren't dumping CHA, and especially if you're willing to spend a skill focus (And Magical Aptitude, too, ideally) UMD becomes an amazing skill at level 10, and it's pretty decent before then. You can be casting any wand without fail by about level 6 without too heavy an investment, and by level 10 you will never fail to cast a scroll of a 6th level spell. It's a really nice bit of diversity to add on to a nonmagical character like a Rogue (especially with read or detect magic as Minor Magic Rogue Tricks, and Dispelling Sneak as a Major Trick), and it adds tremendous flexibility to a Charisma caster like a Sorcerer or a Bard, which are probably the best candidates to make beastly UMD builds. Paladins and Oracles also do very well with UMD for the same reason. If you're playing one of these classes it's absolutely worth taking the trait that gives you a +1 trait bonus to UMD and makes it a class skill. A trait that gives +4 to UMD skill checks is excellent. Got no healer in the group? That's okay, for the cost of a single wand the Sorcerer totally has you covered. By level 3 a Half Elf Sorcerer with 18 CHA is putting out +4 (CHA) + 3(Skill Focus) + 3(Rank) + 3(class skill) + 3(Circlet of Persuasion) +1(Guidance) = 17. For healing up between combats a 90% success rate on that wand of Cure Light Wounds should be plenty fine. And you can get that up to 100% if you want with a trait and a slightly better ability score, or probably in other ways too. By level 10 he's got something more like +8 (CHA) + 6(Skill Focus) + 4(Magical Aptitude) + 10(Ranks) + 3(class skill) + 3(circlet) = A bonus of Edit: Addition is hard! Thanks! grah fucked around with this message at 07:56 on Dec 1, 2012 |
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Dec 1, 2012 07:09
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Not that I disagree with your point, because thanks for laying that all out there, but that last equation actually brings you to a total skill rank of 34. Of course, that's still good enough to emulate a score of 20 and (almost) always cast 9th level scrolls, as far as I can tell.
lesbian baphomet fucked around with this message at 07:19 on Dec 1, 2012 |
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Dec 1, 2012 07:16
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grah posted:A bonus of 34 is sufficient to cast any scroll with a caster level of 15 or lower and will never emulate an ability score worse than 20. In other words, this level 10 sorcerer can never fail to read a 8th level spell off a scroll. He can use aligned items with no penalty and without fail--he will never miss the DC 30 check to do this. He can also emulate any race he wants for this purpose, or even pretend to have a class feature if an item requires he have it. Yeah, but where are you going to get an 8th-level scroll, especially enough of them for it to be worth it? According to the wealth by level chart, an 8th level scroll (3,000g) will cost 5% of your total wealth. That's an awful lot on one consumable item. And if you want to have a couple, that can end up burning through your money really quickly. The rest seems reasonable, though I can't recall ever getting ahold of many items that were for a different alignment/race/class feature. (It also occurs to me that I haven't played a character above level 12 since 3rd edition first came out (my first campaign started at level 15). That's kind of depressing, and is probably partly why I have such a skewed view of balance)
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Dec 1, 2012 15:49
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Scrolls, even ones for spells at a higher level than the party is, are a fairly common loot reward in adventure paths. And if a GM knows that one of their players is heavily investing in UMD (especially if that player is a rogue) then it'd be pretty reasonable for them to provide more scroll rewards in the same way that they might drop a good weapon for one of their martial characters.
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Dec 1, 2012 16:25
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Axiem posted:I admit, even in 3rd edition, I never really understood the whole spell-materials thing. Having somatic components already means you have to have a hand free, and unless the material costs money, you just ignore it anyway. (Not counting the materials that actually cost gold; that makes sense). Much of spell materials goes back to old school D&D where gold gained was also experience, so every class had built in wealth dumps to help get rid of the excess. Fighters got a keep and followers, rouges got a guild, wizards had spell components, scrolls (required to add spells into their spellbooks) and multiple spellbooks (each spell takes 1 page per level and each book only has 100 pages, so usually about halfway through spell level 3 you'd hit book 2, and it just got worse from there) as well as back up books. Basically it's a crappy legacy mechanic from back when gold was both what you bought crap with and how you gained experience, so without gold dumps adventurers would just chill on their giant mounds of ill-gotten wealth like miniature dragons. axiem posted:
UMD really shines for non full progression casters or limited spells known casters (sorcerers, assassins and bards probably being the best) because it opens up their access to wands, scrolls and, more importantly, staves that would otherwise only be useable by other classes. It also allows a rogue to be a backup utility caster with proper skill investment, many of the great utility spells are around level 3-4, and if you're playing with 3.5 stuff then the spells that let him sneak attack things normally not hittable by sneak attack are all level 2 or 3 assassin spells iirc.
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Dec 2, 2012 06:29
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TheAnomaly posted:UMD really shines for non full progression casters or limited spells known casters (sorcerers, assassins and bards probably being the best) because it opens up their access to wands, scrolls and, more importantly, staves that would otherwise only be useable by other classes. It also allows a rogue to be a backup utility caster with proper skill investment, many of the great utility spells are around level 3-4, and if you're playing with 3.5 stuff then the spells that let him sneak attack things normally not hittable by sneak attack are all level 2 or 3 assassin spells iirc. Sorcerers don't really belong on that list. It's not that using wands and staves to expand their access isn't a great idea, or that UMD is necessarily a bad skill for them, it's just that they don't need the one to do the other - they have legit access to the most versatile spell list anyway, so they get this strategy by the front-door route as it were.
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Dec 2, 2012 07:30
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Did any of the new sourcebooks ever add a Pearl of Power equivalent item for spontaneous casters? I know I've housruled them into games and I'm pretty sure they existed in 3.5 somewhere but I was wondering if Paizo ever officially added them back into Pathfinder.
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Dec 2, 2012 07:57
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I don't know how equivalent it is to the 3.5 Pearl of Power, but here you go: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/m-p/pearl-of-power e: v Haha oops. I am dumb. lesbian baphomet fucked around with this message at 08:14 on Dec 2, 2012 |
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Dec 2, 2012 08:05
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MoonwalkInvincible posted:I don't know how equivalent it is to the 3.5 Pearl of Power, but here you go: You misread, they're asking if there was ever a pearl of power for spontaneous casters.
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Dec 2, 2012 08:11
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grah posted:Did any of the new sourcebooks ever add a Pearl of Power equivalent item for spontaneous casters? I know I've housruled them into games and I'm pretty sure they existed in 3.5 somewhere but I was wondering if Paizo ever officially added them back into Pathfinder. Runestone of Power Basically does the same thing as a pearl of power. Also, Spontaneous spellcasters can use Page of Spell Knowledge which is basically gives the spontaneous caster the spell as long as it's in their hand.
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Dec 2, 2012 17:51
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Benly posted:Sorcerers don't really belong on that list. It's not that using wands and staves to expand their access isn't a great idea, or that UMD is necessarily a bad skill for them, it's just that they don't need the one to do the other - they have legit access to the most versatile spell list anyway, so they get this strategy by the front-door route as it were. the spontaneous casters were included because of the included versatility of UMD, but you're right about them not getting as much out of it as the partial progression casters or rogues.
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Dec 2, 2012 17:58
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berenzen posted:Runestone of Power As I recall, Races of the Dragon (yes, Kobold-wanking and all!) had an item that did that, and yeah, it basically worked identically to that Runestone of Power, down to cost and all. quote:Also, Spontaneous spellcasters can use Page of Spell Knowledge which is basically gives the spontaneous caster the spell as long as it's in their hand. This, I didn't know about, and is kinda cool.
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Dec 2, 2012 21:31
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Benly posted:Sorcerers don't really belong on that list. It's not that using wands and staves to expand their access isn't a great idea, or that UMD is necessarily a bad skill for them, it's just that they don't need the one to do the other - they have legit access to the most versatile spell list anyway, so they get this strategy by the front-door route as it were. Plus you can just roll a Human Sorc (or Sage so you don't even have to worry about dumping Int), don't dump Con, and pick up add a new spell one level lower than your max every level as your alternate racial preferred class bonus. You'll have an excellent utility library by the time you can cast fifth-level spells, and that's in addition to your normal "X number of spells known." 'Course, this won't work for everyone because it requires Humans. Humans are boring, haha.
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Dec 2, 2012 22:12
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I was thinking more about getting Runestones of Power for a half-elf to cast Paragon Surge all day every day and get any spell on the Wizard list he wants.
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Dec 2, 2012 22:51
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What do you guys think of the Katapesh region.
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Dec 2, 2012 23:43
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Is there a book specifically about Magnimar? I'm thinking of maybe running the Shattered Star path and it focuses heavily on the city.
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Dec 3, 2012 01:24
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Perhaps one of the books from the Rise of the Runelord adventure path?
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Dec 3, 2012 03:07
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The second book of RotR does have a lot of info, but the book you're looking for is Magnimar, City of Monuments EDIT: Link fixed. smashthedean fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Dec 3, 2012 |
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Dec 3, 2012 04:40
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The White Dragon posted:Plus you can just roll a Human Sorc (or Sage so you don't even have to worry about dumping Int), don't dump Con, and pick up add a new spell one level lower than your max every level as your alternate racial preferred class bonus. You'll have an excellent utility library by the time you can cast fifth-level spells, and that's in addition to your normal "X number of spells known." Even then it's reasonable to want wands, scrolls and so on for spells that still aren't worth a slot - two extra spells per spell level is really good for a sorc, but it still doesn't get you all the situational stuff that you might end up wanting. It's just that you don't need UMD for that.
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Dec 3, 2012 05:07
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CB_Tube_Knight posted:What do you guys think of the Katapesh region. Katapesh seems pretty cool. I'm gearing up to run the Legacy of Fire AP so I'm just starting to read up on it a bit, but Arabian Nights style stuff is good times and the actual city of Katapesh seems pretty cool with lots going on.
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Dec 3, 2012 17:27
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In regards to Monks being lovely:quote:Jason Bulmahn Lead Designer From: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2p7fi&page=6?Paizo-needs-to-get-their-house-in-order#279 This was a post made Nov 30th I believe. Can someone help me understand this change? How did this rule hurt the Monk before this change? How much does it help now that its changed?
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Dec 4, 2012 19:07
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obeyasia posted:Can someone help me understand this change? How did this rule hurt the Monk before this change? How much does it help now that its changed?
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Dec 4, 2012 19:22
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obeyasia posted:In regards to Monks being lovely: Imagine a level 1 character with two Kamas or something, one silvered, one cold iron. With Two-Weapon Fighting, you have to make a main-hand and an off-hand attack, meaning you make one with the silvered, and one with the cold iron. The off-hand one also uses half your Strength. A Monk with Flurry of Blows approximates the TWF feat, but better. You get your full STR, for one, and the rules explicitly state that "there is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a Monk using Flurry of Blows." So that Monk has Flurry of Blows and those same two Kamas, and can make 2 attacks a round with a -2 (assuming a +0 STR for simplicity). Then he runs into a wererat. Obviously, he wants to make both of his attacks with his Silvered Kama, since it will bypass the DR of the lycanthrope. For some reason, the brilliant designers at Paizo came out and said that Monks cannot do that, because Flurry of Blows is supposed to approximate TWF. A Monk shouldn't be able to Flurry with the same weapon both times in the two attacks he gets at level 1. Which is ludicrous and arbitrary, and just to kick Monks in the dick. Any sane DM Would have let you hit twice with your silvered tonfa regardless of what James Jacobs said, but hey, Pathfinder Society. Inverse Icarus fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Dec 4, 2012 |
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Dec 4, 2012 19:40
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MadScientistWorking posted:Basically it rendered a large amount of their material utterly useless for the monk because it relied on the rules working for using Flurry with one weapon. This is the best part, though, because despite the face that Jacobs was shouting about Flurry working like TWF, and how you have to have two different weapons, there are SCORES of monks in Paizo-published materials that use Flurry with one weapon how any sane loving person would rule.
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Dec 4, 2012 19:41
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Inverse Icarus posted:This is the best part, though, because despite the face that Jacobs was shouting about Flurry working like TWF, and how you have to have two different weapons, there are SCORES of monks in Paizo-published materials that use Flurry with one weapon how any sane loving person would rule.
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Dec 4, 2012 19:44
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Unrelated shameless plug: I'm working on a project involving Pathfinder and I'm looking to buy art for icons for skills, abilities, etc. Ignore the thread title, I changed it in a later post to be $300 for ~30 icons after I got feedback that my offer was WAY too low (original was ~$2/icon). I'm keeping the "contest" open until Sunday at midnight, asking people to submit a few sample icons from the set, and picking the best artist at that point. Not sure if many of you are artistic, but feel free to check it out ans submit some samples if you're interested. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3520448 Inverse Icarus fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Dec 4, 2012 |
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Dec 4, 2012 19:47
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That was a weird ruling that I wasn't aware of, glad to see it's being reversed. I'm interested in seeing what these new Monk changes will be. I think Ultimate Combat was a good book for Monks with Style feats and some other good ones in there so I'm interested to see what paths they take to further improve the class. #1 on my wish list would be either bringing back the ability of brass knuckles to use Monk unarmed damage or giving monks a better/cheaper way to enchant their unarmed strikes than Amulets of Mighty Fists.
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Dec 4, 2012 19:52
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smashthedean posted:That was a weird ruling that I wasn't aware of, glad to see it's being reversed. I'm interested in seeing what these new Monk changes will be. I think Ultimate Combat was a good book for Monks with Style feats and some other good ones in there so I'm interested to see what paths they take to further improve the class. #1 on my wish list would be either bringing back the ability of brass knuckles to use Monk unarmed damage or giving monks a better/cheaper way to enchant their unarmed strikes than Amulets of Mighty Fists.
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Dec 4, 2012 19:54
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MadScientistWorking posted:If I'm not mistaken wasn't the brass knuckle ruling part of the same inane ruling that nerfed Flurry of Blows? It's possible. My understanding was that someone said that they thought that was how it should work and people freaked out and some people treated it as an official ruling, but it wasn't really official until it showed up in Ultimate Equipment that way.
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Dec 4, 2012 20:13
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smashthedean posted:It's possible. My understanding was that someone said that they thought that was how it should work and people freaked out and some people treated it as an official ruling, but it wasn't really official until it showed up in Ultimate Equipment that way.
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Dec 4, 2012 20:22
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MadScientistWorking posted:It was Sean K Reynolds in both cases. Sorry, I said Jacobs out of habit. Everybody hates Monks.
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Dec 4, 2012 20:29
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They also changed the silver/cold iron DR problem along with halving the cost of an amulet of mighty fists. Still no good way to punch an outsider.
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Dec 4, 2012 20:30
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LightWarden posted:They also changed the silver/cold iron DR problem along with halving the cost of an amulet of mighty fists. Still no good way to punch an outsider. gently caress. poo poo. I'm about to punch Karzoug in the face and my Amulet of Mighty Fists should have cost significantly less. And then I'll likely never play a Monk again due to the glacier-like pace of our story-focused games. CURSE YOU PAIZO!
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Dec 4, 2012 20:35
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I cannot explain to you how angry poo poo with DR 10 made my Halfling Monk. My DM also (incorrectly) ruled that if you didn't break the enemy's DR, none of your effects went off. For things like Poison, that makes sense, but he applied it to Flaming, Frost, etc. He's since taken that back after seeing a forums post by the devs. My Weapon Finesse Halfling Monk with a +1 STR wasn't punching through DR 10. There were fights where I literally just used Improved Disarm on the baddies because I could not damage them. Monks.
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Dec 4, 2012 20:42
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Whats this about Brass Knuckles? Is it just a damage increaser since its weapon? I looked it up on Paizo's site, but there's no stats to accompany the description.
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Dec 4, 2012 20:43
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obeyasia posted:Whats this about Brass Knuckles? Is it just a damage increaser since its weapon? I looked it up on Paizo's site, but there's no stats to accompany the description. Don't look up the history of Brass Knuckles. It's a wate of time. Long story short: Someone made brass knuckles that dealt your unarmed damage. It came out in some book, I think an AP or something. This was like immediately after the Paizo Devs had ruled that Monks could not Flurry with gauntlets. So basically a Monk could have two gauntlets, say a +1 Holy and a +1 Merciful, and then an Amulet of Mighty Fists, say Shocking. When he hit with the first weapon, Holy/Shocking would go off, and the second would be Merciful/Shocking. And ti would deal the monk's unarmed damage. It would also be much, much cheaper than adding shocking to two gauntlets that are already had mods of +2 or +3. This was never intended, and there was a god damned war about it, and to fix it Paizo released a new set of Brass Knuckles (in UC? or APG?) that do not use your unarmed attack damage, and instead have a static damage die.
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Dec 4, 2012 20:49
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Inverse Icarus posted:Don't look up the history of Brass Knuckles. It's a wate of time. I feel terribly dumb asking, but do you mean that brass knuckles don't get your unarmed damage bonus? So brass knuckles, in a perfect world, meant that you got to use a better damage die and get your full damage (BAB/Strength) bonus?
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Dec 4, 2012 20:54
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