Pathfinder

Well, since you're so up to date, I suppose you've noticed that the ACG errata was released 3 days ago. Comments?

edited 24th Jul '15 4:32:40 PM by Pyrite

@Rikalous & pyrite: Sarcasm! It burns!

Seriously, thats hurtful people. I get the impression that you guys prefer to do your own homebrew setting stuff, so you guys don't have a reason to follow up on campaign setting books and modules... So I'm sorry if I'm mistaken..

And on ACG errata? Eh, not really much to say about it besides that I'm annoyed they didn't announce it in blog so I learned about it only yesterday I do have ACG, but I don't know it well enough to really see how the changes affect it, besides that people on paizo are annoyed that their cheese builds don't work anymore.

edited 24th Jul '15 9:53:53 PM by SpookyMask

I was actually not being sarcastic that time. "Person who actually pays attention to announcements and updates and such" is a valuable role in threads like this.

But burning isn't evil. I thought we've been over this already.

Seriously, though, that was mean-spirited of me, and I'm sorry. I can't discuss that much about the setting because I'm a cheap-ass and a theorycrafter: no time or group to justify any investment in materials, so I stick to what I can find online, which is mainly the PRD and the reference sites.

edited 25th Jul '15 12:14:14 AM by Pyrite

Well, I love a good poke at errata. Especially how often I rake Paizo over the coals regarding how bad they are at it.

Arcanist got a common-sense buff (they can copy spells from the books of other arcanists as well as wizards), and a nerf to their Consume Spells ability that, honestly, folks should have seen coming (that ability was way too powerful before if you knew what you were doing - a sensible GM would have thrown that nerf in before official errata). Minor tweak to Counter Drain, but I imagine that wouldn't affect most people.

Bloodrangers get a minor nerf (losing slow on the spell list - I can see some builds complaining, but it's not the hardest nerf I've seen), and they remove a redundant sentence from one ability - not much to say.

Brawlers get shields now! Hooray! And they still get their AC bonus with them! Hooray for minor buffs!

Hunters get a typo removed (that thing about knockouts was due to something from brawler getting misplaced) and a nerf to their animal companion's skirmishing ability. I don't quite see why; it's not like the class was overpowered with them.

Investigators get hit with a nerf bat with Quick Study now reducing to a move action instead of a swift. I think that's a little too harsh; I know it can be a bit broken at early levels, but it evens out at later levels. I'd have it turn into a swift action at around 7th or 9th level. That said, for skill monkeys, Unconventional Inspiration is a huge buff (goes from "can use Inspiration on a skill otherwise not eligible for it" to " get the Inspiration bonus on one skill for free, no restrictions"). Of course, it's only available as of 17th level, so I imagine only a handful get help from this.

Shamans mostly get common-sense changes. Chant becoming supernatural doesn't affect much, considering it buffed all supernatural abilities anyway (and thus, disrupting those abilities would have made Chant pointless anyhow). Evil Eye technically gets nerfed, but only inasmuch as it pulls even with the witch power of the same name. They just clarified the wording on several hexes regarding when someone can be targeted by them again, which I think we all knew they meant anyhow. Oh, they do get two buffs thanks to spell list. On a minor note, they now get remove disease - useful, even if not prepped every day. Oh, they also get all the summon nature's ally spells now, at the same level as a druid. That is rather nice. Shamans in general like this errata.

For skalds, woo, they can play the flute now (and take it with Versatile Performance). Yippee. I know, it means you could be really thematic with pan pipes, but I honestly would just make a table call that lets a skald have any perform skill. But yeah, other than getting a flute, skald is untouched.

Slayers get a slight buff to their studied target ability (you also get the studied target bonus to skill checks against them), but nothing game-breaking (at least, not compared to what they already get). Other than that, they just clarify some wording and get rid of Word Cruft.

Swashbucklers get a big apology for Paizo making them lame. Wait, no, that's just what I wish happened. They do the sensible thing and make this stack with gunslinger levels for purposes of qualifying for the Signature Deed feat, which is nice. While I can see why they made Opportune Parry and Riposte always count at least 1 panache, it nerfs a class that really didn't need it.

Warpriest gets the Fervor ability slightly nerfed - I'm not sure off the top of my head which spells can no longer be cast as a swift action (it has to be something that can target the warpriest, so summon spells were always off the table), I'm sure something neat was nerfed. The bigger nerf was that Aspect of War (the capstone) is now a 1/day move - I bet this got complaints, but seriously, who's going to let you get DR 10/- and unlimited blessings as a swift action? This just goes from BEST CAPSTONE EVER to pretty decent capstone. Also, there's some wording clarification, and the Luck blessing gets a minor nerf. I could see the really hardcore warpriest fans being upset, but I think it's a good rebalancing.

Not going to get into the other errata at this point; that's too granular in one post for even my tastes.

Yay, Occult Adventures is released

Lots of awesome flavorfull stuff in it if you ask me

Like what? Come on, dish.

edited 29th Jul '15 12:48:55 PM by rikalous

Well, umm... Well, Kineticists have lots of abilites that allow you to replicate different characters from other fiction. Like one of wild talents(iirc) is called "Suffocate" and it can be picked with aether, air and water elements. First is basically force choke, second is "making air around their head unbreathable" and third is drowning them with water bubble.

Oh, and one of kineticist's archetypes is basically bloodblenders from avatar. And another archetype of their's has level 20 ability named "Omnicide", that does rather insane amount of damage at big costs.

Mesmerists have feat that allows their painful stare to cause bleeding. Its described as causing foes to bleed from their eyes

There is cavalier archetype named Ghost Rider that is about riding a phantom steed.

Other fun archetypes... Well, cult leader(mesmerist), reanimated medium(medium duh. You can switch to that archetype if you die :D) tome eater(occultist) that indeed eats books, amnesiac psychic(which turns into normal psychic if you gain your memories back, but I like flavor archetypes), ectoplasmic spiritualist archetype that from what I heard is kinda like soulknife or something? Basically instead of having a spirit, you have melee abilities related to ectoplasm stuff, homunculus creating alchemist archetype(promethean something, forgot name), psychic detective investigator- Actually I'm gonna stop listing archetypes, I find too many of them awesome to give them all justice <_<;

Spell named placebo effect :D

Of course there are other awesome stuff like details on chakra, possession, psychic duels, auras, occult rituals, etc and other tips on how to do occult themed campaign.

There are lot of magic items and artifacts based on famous stuff. Like, what is basically a voodoo doll, cursed item Monkey's Paw(works exactly as you imagine how it works :D), artifact Soul Portrait clearly based on The Picture Of Dorian Gray as it works identical to portrait in that,.

Oh and straightjacket :D Never forget straigthjacket. And tin cap. Yes, tin cap. It feeds on paranoia and gives +4 insight saving bonus on mind affecting effects & divinations along with -2 on int, wis and cha

Was that enough incoherent information as I'm not good with reporting? :'D

Mindblade Magus is the one like the soulknife. Fits several niches: manifested blade, TWF-er (eventually), and a spontaneous caster!

What's a TWF-er?

Thanks! Does the cavalier archetype have a stare that makes the target guilty, by any chance?

Two-Weapon Fighting, a.k.a. dual-wielding.

There's also the Esoteric, an unarmed archetype that has their arcane pool count as Ki. Sadly the two cannot be combined, so no easy access to Chakras (one needs a ki pool and either a certain feat or the ability to cast psychic spells to uses chakras)

@Ninja: That makes more sense I guess. I heard from paizo's forum some dev describing ectoplawhatever as kinda like soul knife(or I suppose some other class if I remember wrong). Funny thing is that it was apparently originally a base class until it was split into another base class and the archetype.

@Rika: Huh. Not sure about guilty, but they have Frightful Gaze ability.

Anyhoo, other fun stuff: Karmic Monk(which can be true neutral), sensate fighter, rogue archetype that is about pretending to be a medium..

Oh, and artifact that is the tin cap up to eleven. It makes you immune to divination and mind affecting effects and gives same penalties as regular cap, but you need will save to remove it(and wearer is only one who can remove it) and will save increases every day(it starts already high) and after it was increased enough, the character is so paranoid that they don't consider anyone their ally anymore and all spells used on them count as unwilling. The way to destroy the artifact is to put it on head on creature that is incapable of mistrust, but great sacrifice is that that creature retains artifact's effects permanently.

edited 29th Jul '15 10:34:14 PM by SpookyMask

Yeah, Ghost Rider is definitely an intentional reference.

Finding this creature incapable of mistrust is going to be challenge enough. Dogs can be suspicious, celestials don't trust fiends...maybe some kind of construct? Or there might be some outsiders with appropriately weird mindsets.

Programmed constructs don't trust anyone their program tells them not to. I'd say an ooze, but oozes don't have heads.

Uncontrolled Zombie it is, then!

Also, yeah, Ghost Rider archetype is officially awesome, and can be more awesome if you're capable of building your own phantom steed.

"What is that?"

"My mighty phantasmal steed!"

"It...has wheels..."

'*"phantom steed" revs nervously*

"He's just jealous, Harley."

Isn't it supposed to be hard to fulfil an artefact's "destroy" condition anyway?

One question, then, since I haven't seen the new classes: So is the Mindblade Magus supposed to be a decent version of the Spellblade and Eldritch Scion archetypes?

edited 30th Jul '15 8:27:59 AM by Pyrite

Ghost rider mount must be of appropriate size and creature that you could take normally as mount, besides that you can't take creature with fly speed IIRC

^Yeah, all artifacts are hard to destroy. But I find Stannium Crown's "You just turned someone without mistrust into permanently paranoid wreck" thing kinda harsh :D

edited 30th Jul '15 8:29:46 AM by SpookyMask

Wait, so you mean you can't have Ghost Riders in the Sky?

edited 30th Jul '15 8:34:41 AM by Pyrite

I may get the .pdf version of Occult Adventures - nothing screams "must own hardback version" immediately, but it sounds interesting.

For the tin cap (and the stannum crown - nice theme going there)... the fact that you get an effective -1 on Will saves (from the -2 to wisdom) takes a bunch of the fun of the bonus out of it (even before you get to the other effects). I have the suspicion that those aren't made for benevolent purposes. It's pretty easy to manipulate the paranoid, after all: you just convince them that certain actions will protect the person from, you know, them.

For the harshness of destruction of the stannum crown... seriously, look over what happens when you destroy other artifacts. There's always a price to be paid in destroying an artifact. Whether it be someone taking a ton of damage, someone's life being ruined, or something else, nobody gets off scott free when destroying an artifact.

Oh, I finally had my first session of the Giantslayer campaign last night. I'm quickly discovering that nobody wants to conduct investigations in a fantasy role-playing game (the module kicks off in earnest with a murder investigation to be done by the players).

...Dammit. *rethinks plans for 5E investigation-based campaign*

That's sad, cause I effin' love investigation quests. Doesn't even matter the setting.

The Stannum Crown, as an artifact, should necessarily come with some heavy destruction qualifications. The cost isn't so great when you consider that, unlike solar eclipses which cover Mount Babadook in night which usurps the sun, "inherently gullible person" is actually kind of difficult to come by.

@Pyrite: Ghost Rider's mount learns to fly eventually, so thats probably reason why it can't be creature that could fly naturally

And hey, investigation liking players do exist :P I'd like to play in investigation based campaign. Heck, lot of Occult Adventures material lends well to investigation stuff

Also whats point of investigator if nobody likes investigating?

edited 30th Jul '15 9:08:23 AM by SpookyMask

I'm just kind of astounded that the players get an idee fixe and quickly forget that there might be more than one clue in an area. They forget to actually interrogate persons of interest, including asking if they have any tells (it's a Sense Motive check! Everyone can make those!). They even forget to pick up important pieces of evidence (to be fair, at least the evidence they left behind is still going to be there if they go back).

They're even bad at mingling; there's several pages of things in the book that they could get by asking around, and nobody even bothers to do that. Things from NPCs that are friendly and want to help them! I had to have a couple volunteer some of the information (generally, if my players drop hints in front of the NPC that said info would be useful, they volunteer it) just to make sure the players could be nudged into advancing the story.

Based on the info they're currently headed towards gathering, I suspect a good chunk of next session will involve backtracking to areas they've been to get more out of the people they've talked to.

Other stuff you might've missed in recent news - a whole bunch of stealth "errata" to older sourcebooks like the ARG, released without fanfare and to the displeasure of many. Apparently they're not just simple corrections to errors in the text, they're flat-out nerfs.

32, if you'd like to rip on Paizo for their terrible errata, there is probably no better time than this.

Eh, dunno if nerfs are really that bad thing since people keep complaining about power creep anyway :P At least it allows more options for PFS and fixed things like bizarre aasimar/tiefling aging.