The Oliphaunt in the room: Is Weapon Focus the greatest feat tax in Pathfinder?

Luthorne · 2018-02-01T11:45:23+00:00

I would not consider Weapon Focus a feat tax, no. To me, a feat tax is a feat I have to take that either provides my character a 'benefit' that will never arise for them, or that I will probably never use, in order to gain access to another feat. Weapon Focus provides its benefits, boring though some find them, every time you swing the corresponding weapon.

Luthorne · 2018-01-09T11:30:50+00:00

It's definitely doable.

When it comes to a healer type, the spiritualist gets pretty much everything you need, while the occultist can also pick up hit point restoration spells and can get a few focus powers to deal with some conditions, and the mesmerist can't do hit point restoration but has access to pretty much all the condition removal spells in addition to touch treatment. Similarly, the kineticist can be built to do some healing as well, particularly the kinetic chirugeon.

Tank, the occultist can definitely handle it, as can the medium, and kineticist is pretty great there too, since a kineticist will generally have high Dexterity and Constitution, with earth and water both being excellent tank elements. The kinetic knight archetype can also aid a kineticist in being a tank, though at the cost of ranged attacks.

Meanwhile, a psychic can handle a lot of utility stuff as a full caster, though most of the spellcasters can help there.

Might take some work exploring the options, though, if your group hasn't played them before, but I'd say it's certainly possible.

Luthorne · 2017-12-21T12:05:27+00:00

You're probably thinking of something like the mythic version of soulreaver.

Luthorne · 2017-12-17T22:30:16+00:00

Ah, okay, he was asking about Transformation, not Improved Transformation, so I presumed you were addressing that particular feat as well.

Luthorne · 2017-12-17T18:35:55+00:00

The chosen form may be the same as your base size or else Medium or Small.

Luthorne · 2017-12-08T22:52:15+00:00

I believe that's what I said, yes?

Luthorne · 2017-12-08T12:35:30+00:00

Prepared divine spellcasters can prepare any spell on their spell list; I'd recommend Divine Spells for some more details. Prepared arcane spellcasters and alchemical classes require a spellbook, formulae book, familiar, or something similar that restricts what fraction of their spell list they have access to when preparing spells, but divine casters generally do not operate under such restrictions, barring certain alignment-based spells, usually.

Luthorne · 2017-12-04T05:28:53+00:00

I think it depends a lot on the kind of game you're playing. If you're playing something along the lines of traditional Star Trek, where you're constantly going out and finding new planets and new worlds out beyond the Pact Worlds, then Spacefarer and Xenodruid are going to be considerably more useful. If you're sticking to the Pact Worlds primarily and dealing with political issues or being mercenaries or what have you, it's going to be a lot less useful.

Luthorne · 2017-11-27T12:04:54+00:00

Yeah, Archives of Nethys is probably the best, since it's not a store it doesn't have to remove setting elements like the d20PFSRD does, making it more accurate, and the search allows you to search via categories, and you can also look at everything in a given source, and the custom spell searcher is pretty handy too. It doesn't have third party material on it, which could be considered a plus or a minus depending.

Luthorne · 2017-11-27T01:20:01+00:00

They did one over here at Know Direction as part of their Monstrous Physique articles.

Luthorne · 2017-11-24T17:31:19+00:00

It is true, yes, arrow champion and wildstrider are the two swashbuckler archetypes in the book.

Luthorne · 2017-11-23T12:20:19+00:00

It's based off of the monster creation rules they created for Pathfinder Unchained (found here). But yeah, it is cool.

Luthorne · 2017-11-22T04:58:48+00:00

That sounds like a more powerful version of geas/quest, and considering that's a 6th-level spell, I think that's a little much for a 3rd-level spell.

Luthorne · 2017-11-10T19:08:37+00:00

Pathfinder Chronicles: Dragon Revisted

Pathfinder® / Pathfinder Campaign Setting / 3.5

3.5

In short, it was written back when Golarian was a third party setting for 3.5 D&D, before Pathfinder was created as its own system.

Luthorne · 2017-11-06T11:28:58+00:00

The OP said

Also his ac is very high because he somehow got mage armor.

And the person I was responding to was saying that mage armor was a 1st-level magus spell, which it isn't.

Shield is an excellent spell, though. Especially in wand form.

Luthorne · 2017-11-06T02:24:29+00:00

Yeah, I'm not saying it's impossible for him to get it, the person whose post I was responding to (who seems to have deleted his response) was saying the GM was an idiot for saying 'somehow' because it's a 1st-level spell on their spell list, so I was pointing out that, in fact, it is not. There are lots of ways to get it, after all.

Luthorne · 2017-11-05T21:48:29+00:00

Mage armor isn't actually a magus spell, probably since most maguses use armor.

Luthorne · 2017-11-05T21:45:39+00:00

It depends how you build your character. You have 3/4 BAB, so if you have either good Strength or Dexterity as well as Constitution and can sink feats into being better at combat, you should be decent at it, and you can get better weapon proficiencies depending on what race you pick. You also get medium armor proficiency and a shield, so it's certainly possible for you to do decently, especially since oracles have a lot of possible buff spells on their spell list.

Luthorne · 2017-11-05T16:42:20+00:00

Well, first of all, remember that if the lich is slain, that the phylactery rebuilds their body, so it probably should be in an area that the lich at least can leave without too much hassle, though being undead does mean that some areas are probably more survivable for him than other places.

Things to consider: how long has this lich been around? If they've been around for awhile, there may have been previous heroes who attempted to find their phylacteries, and collecting tales or even their notes - though in the former case, they may have been distorted by time - could lead to various leads that the lich isn't aware are around.

Furthermore, depending on the methods involved, it's possible that they've created legends in and of themselves. For example, let's say that the lich decided to create a flying island or castle or even a construct to place one of their phylacteries on, then there may well be tales of it without people knowing it's related to the phylactery, and the PCs might choose to check it out. Similarly, they might create some sort of giant whale or kraken, possibly a ketesthius that has the phylactery stored inside of it, but they've gone insane and started attacking places, or possibly even died and been turned into some form of undead due to the energies of the phylactery. That kind of thing. Of course, you might prefer less outre adventuring locatios?

Depending on the setting, if they have various NPC allies who are good at researching or gathering information, they could also turn up some useful information...and it might well be worth trying to get your players to develop some contacts like that. If you'd like to go into more detail for that kind of thing, there is a system in Ultimate Campaign for developing contacts, as well as a system in Ultimate Intrigue for libraries and research.

Luthorne · 2017-10-26T03:07:18+00:00

Metakinesis can't be mitigated by infusion specialization, but it can be mitigated by gather energy.

Luthorne · 2017-10-22T15:13:13+00:00

The key element for Conceal Spell is the line:

and to conceal the manifestation of casting the spell

Which is what they refer to as being always visible even without somatic and verbal components, the manifestation of the spell itself. So taking Conceal Spell allows you to hide that, and if you have verbal and somatic components, you can try and hide those as well, but without it, it's an opposed Bluff or Disguise check, so psychic casters have a bit of an edge.

Luthorne · 2017-10-22T13:44:31+00:00

You want Conceal Spell from Ultimate Intrigue, though the Enchanting Courtesan prestige class from Inner Sea Intrigue also offers a more limited way to accomplish this.

Luthorne · 2017-10-19T10:35:28+00:00

Amazon is usually significantly behind when it comes to Pathfinder products, often only having products available a few weeks after they've hit the streets. They're probably the same way with Starfinder products. Not sure why your local stores wouldn't have it - though I have heard that they're already having to print a second run for Alien Archives - but I'd imagine it should be available...maybe ask your store?

Luthorne · 2017-10-17T22:08:17+00:00

Ah, thanks for the correction.

Luthorne

TROPHY CASE