Character Creation Q&A

[hiace50]

39 minutes ago, Arklytte said:

From now on, here's the rule, and there will be no more changes or exceptions: If you gain a permanent size change, from any source, then you may adjust your stats accordingly.  That is the ONLY exception to the stat rules.  All other class/feature based stat boosts grant you a bonus feat, as listed in the rules.

Hate to be this person, but I'd like a bit of clarification on this. I don't want to make the wrong assumption and cause an issue later.
You said that we "may" adjust our stats in this post, does that mean that we do not need to adjust them if we don't want to?
The edit to the character creation section was a pretty cut and dry "You apply them".
Not sure which of these were intended.

I am planning to play a dex-based huge creature, and pretty much only need the answer for the character sheet when I get to it. It doesn't matter much either way, I'll lower the dex by 4, and put the extra STR points I don't need into WIS or something. Not a huge change.

[Niblooey]

Are Sphere's Rituals allowed? You mentioned how the only vancian content available are the resurrection scrolls, and rituals are sorta similar to that in that they're supposed to enable the more limited sort of magic spheres has trouble replicating, so wondering if having them goes against the spirit of what you want.

[Valdimarian]

*looks at my purchases* why does this feel like I'm lacking something... oh, GP at this level is 240k, we only have 50k, that's a lot of flashy bling left on the cutting room floor. 

[Steel Warrior]

29 minutes ago, Valdimarian said:

*looks at my purchases* why does this feel like I'm lacking something... oh, GP at this level is 240k, we only have 50k, that's a lot of flashy bling left on the cutting room floor. 

The fact we have 20 oath points at start to compensate.

[Valdimarian]

2 hours ago, Steel Warrior said:

The fact we have 20 oath points at start to compensate.

Which I love, it's great for getting lots of Numbers Go Up, but it makes it harder to get cool things when a Cloak of Minor Displacement is half your starting gold. 

[Arklytte]

7 hours ago, TheFred said:

This makes it sound like you think people asking questions (such as myself) are trying to game the system. Attempting to game the system would be just assuming something works and going with it and then kicking up a fuss later if you tried to quash it because you weren't specific, not asking honest questions in an attempt to make sure that the system can't be "gamed". This is a pretty nonstandard system, and it appeared to be leading to a weird inconsistency, so I just wanted to check whether that wasn't some weird edge case you hadn't thought of - nothing more, nothing less.

Fred, I set very specific & explicit conditions in the rules. I made a point of stating that there would be no exceptions. It was then pointed out to me that, because I was allowing permanent size changes, that would affect stats. Ergo, I decided to walk back slightly and give folks a bit of wiggle room.  But then you, and several others, kept coming at me with 'well, what about this exception, or that for instance, or the other scenario', despite my already generous rules.  And all asking for this bonus or that bonus, or another way to break the rules that I'd already set out.

 

Asking for clarification is one thing.  Constantly asking for exceptions to clearly stated rules, especially when it seems that the only goal is to squeeze the math that much harder, is another.

 

As it stands, I've made a final decision, and it wont be changing.  If you need additional clarification, I will be happy to provide it. I will NOT be making any more exceptions, however.

[Arklytte]

7 hours ago, hiace50 said:

Hate to be this person, but I'd like a bit of clarification on this. I don't want to make the wrong assumption and cause an issue later.
You said that we "may" adjust our stats in this post, does that mean that we do not need to adjust them if we don't want to?
The edit to the character creation section was a pretty cut and dry "You apply them".
Not sure which of these were intended.

I am planning to play a dex-based huge creature, and pretty much only need the answer for the character sheet when I get to it. It doesn't matter much either way, I'll lower the dex by 4, and put the extra STR points I don't need into WIS or something. Not a huge change.

No worries HiAce. I dont want there to be any actual confusion. I'm just not going to allow any more exceptions to my rules.  I'm more than happy to clarify any confusing points.  🙂

 

Replace 'may' with 'will', and the confusion should disappear.  If you take a permanent size change, the stat changes are not optional.  🙂

7 hours ago, Niblooey said:

Are Sphere's Rituals allowed? You mentioned how the only vancian content available are the resurrection scrolls, and rituals are sorta similar to that in that they're supposed to enable the more limited sort of magic spheres has trouble replicating, so wondering if having them goes against the spirit of what you want.

While I like the concept of Rituals, I haven't actually played around with them enough to feel comfortable with allowing them.  Therefore, I'm going to have to say no.

 

One of these days, I'm going to make a game where they're a feature, along with Techniques, and several of the Variant Rules.  It'll probably be even more batcrap crazy than my usual games, but it should definitely be interesting.  😄

3 hours ago, Valdimarian said:

*looks at my purchases* why does this feel like I'm lacking something... oh, GP at this level is 240k, we only have 50k, that's a lot of flashy bling left on the cutting room floor. 

The idea was to use the larger than normal number of Oath Points to give you all the Christmas Tree stuff, and then give you a decent chunk of cash to buy 'the other stuff'.  I figured 20%-ish of the normal amount would do that.  🙂

34 minutes ago, Valdimarian said:

Which I love, it's great for getting lots of Numbers Go Up, but it makes it harder to get cool things when a Cloak of Minor Displacement is half your starting gold. 

If you're looking for specific, one off/odd abilities, you could always try to build them in using Imbued Spell.  🙂

 

An Imbued Blur Glamer would give you the permanent miss chance that the cloak does (actually, it'd be better, because it's 20%+5%/Caster Level (Max 50%)).  Technically it would work as an apparatus, and you'd have to activate it (a Standard Action by default), but if the caster level is 15, and the duration is increased to 1 hour/level, then it will effectively last 'all day', you just have to activate it every morning when you wake up.  Or you could incorporate the Extend metamagic, and bang, 30 hour coverage.  Still has to be activated once per day and a quarter, but it works even when you sleep.  🙂

 

At level 15, you'd be able to have it be Complexity 9, so all the above is definitely doable.  And it frees up 24K cash as well.  🙂

[eriktd]

Hi Arklytte! I hope this doesn't seem like I'm asking for an exception to your well-outlined rules, but I wanted to ask about this:

 

Quote

• Animal Companions may be increased to Large size (regardless of the animals original size), with all commensurate bonuses and penalties, at the cost of 1 Potent Talent (either the characters or the companions). If the player takes the Improved Familiar feat, they may increase the Companion's size to Huge, instead by spending 1 additional Potent Talent.

 

Can Animal Companions similarly be decreased to Diminutive or Fine size?

[Arklytte]

2 hours ago, eriktd said:

Hi Arklytte! I hope this doesn't seem like I'm asking for an exception to your well-outlined rules, but I wanted to ask about this:

 

 

Can Animal Companions similarly be decreased to Diminutive or Fine size?

🤨It literally never occurred to me that people might want to make their companions smaller. 🤦‍♂️

 

Yes, by all means, you can decrease their size. 

 

However, since most Animal Companions are either Small or Medium by default, then changing them to Tiny/Diminutive for 1 potent talent, or 2 potent talents and the Improved Familiar talent seems more in keeping with the size increase rules I worked up.

 

The last couple days have been busy, but I will make an effort to get all these little bits and bobs officially added to the rules over the next couple days.

Edited June 30, 2022 by Arklytte (see edit history)

[hiace50]

4 hours ago, Arklytte said:

Replace 'may' with 'will', and the confusion should disappear.  If you take a permanent size change, the stat changes are not optional.  🙂

Thank you!

 

I have one more question about clarifying Pathfinder rules this time. For Two Weapon Fighting: are we allowed to use unarmed strikes?

 

The online discord either says 'yes: unarmed strikes are able to work' or 'no: unarmed strikes are not weapons, and can't work'

 

And then I look at the brawler class which has brawler's flurry, which says:

"a brawler has the Two-Weapon Fighting feat when attacking with any combination of unarmed strikes, weapons from..."

 

Im not sure if that's trying to give an exception to allow unarmed, or if that's saying this is what's usually allowed.

 

Also apologies for any mispelling, for some reason mobile doesn't do spell-checking with baldr

Edited June 30, 2022 by hiace50 (see edit history)

[Llyarden]

If only one attack is an unarmed strike (for instance, using a longsword and unarmed strike) two-weapon fighting works fine as far as I know; the TWF feat even explicitly notes unarmed strike as being a light weapon for TWF purposes and there are a couple of abilities that specifically assume that it's possible (which admittedly given Paizo isn't necessarily proof, but it's something).  The awkwardness comes around whether or not you're allowed to TWF with two unarmed strikes given that unarmed strike is a rather nebulous weapon at the best of times - the Brawler gets a specific exemption allowing it to use the same weapon multiple times.

 

Paizo have very helpfully said "we don't need to clarify this" and left no-one any the wiser as to what the answer is.

 

In most cases, though, you can usually get away with some mixture of using weapons like gauntlets or handwraps and feats (and talents in Spheres), unless you're doing something particularly niche.

Edited June 30, 2022 by Llyarden (see edit history)

[Valdimarian]

29 minutes ago, hiace50 said:

I have one more question about clarifying Pathfinder rules this time. For Two Weapon Fighting: are we allowed to use unarmed strikes?

The online discord either says 'yes: unarmed strikes are able to work' or 'no: unarmed strikes are not weapons, and can't work'

And then I look at the brawler class which has brawler's flurry, which says:

"a brawler has the Two-Weapon Fighting feat when attacking with any combination of unarmed strikes, weapons from..."

Brawler says that because Brawler's Flurry is a unique case where it limits what weapons it works for, hence why it has to spell out Unarmed Strikes and Weapons from the Close category. 

 

It also adds that you can make the whole flurry with one weapon, disregarding offhand penalties like 1/2 strength, which is decidedly NOT the norm. 

[Duqueen]

So techniques are off the table? Back to the drawing board.

[Valdimarian]

9 hours ago, Arklytte said:

The idea was to use the larger than normal number of Oath Points to give you all the Christmas Tree stuff, and then give you a decent chunk of cash to buy 'the other stuff'.  I figured 20%-ish of the normal amount would do that.  🙂

If you're looking for specific, one off/odd abilities, you could always try to build them in using Imbued Spell.  🙂

 

An Imbued Blur Glamer would give you the permanent miss chance that the cloak does (actually, it'd be better, because it's 20%+5%/Caster Level (Max 50%)).  Technically it would work as an apparatus, and you'd have to activate it (a Standard Action by default), but if the caster level is 15, and the duration is increased to 1 hour/level, then it will effectively last 'all day', you just have to activate it every morning when you wake up.  Or you could incorporate the Extend metamagic, and bang, 30 hour coverage.  Still has to be activated once per day and a quarter, but it works even when you sleep.  🙂

 

At level 15, you'd be able to have it be Complexity 9, so all the above is definitely doable.  And it frees up 24K cash as well.  🙂

So I went and double checked again, whoever wrote the Oath for Imbued Spell messed up assuming competency on the part of the author of the Magic Item rules. 

 

By making them continuous use Apparatuses you HAVE to spend Complexity upping the duration to Hours / CL. That means a +4 to +6 Complexity depending on if the base sphere effect is minutes per CL or rounds per CL. 
 

I’ve ranted on this topic before on the DDS Discord, by requiring that much complexity increase before the 2k multiplier for a constant effect the pricing gets absurdly expensive. (See the Blurring Bandana: 72,000 GP for 30% Blur as opposed to just 24k for a Minor Cloak of Concealment) 

 

Here is the link to the start of my rant on the discord.

 

edit: and the rules for stacking additional effects only refer to GP, so you’re stuck with 4 Oath Points for one effect unless it’s a talent with stacking in add-ons like Telekinesis or Time where you can stack multiple abilities into the base sphere effect. 

Edited June 30, 2022 by Valdimarian (see edit history)

[Yamazaki]

16 hours ago, Arklytte said:

@Yamazaki, does @RedDingo's explanation help, or would you like me to do a sample build as well?  I'm happy to do so, if you need it.

 

It works enough for now.  I may have questions later, but I think I'm wrapping my peabrain around it.

 

I think.  LOL