Creatively, I have an easier time with others since I'm big into getting into other cultures.
Dungeons and Dragons Megathread
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Creatively, I have an easier time with others since I'm big into getting into other cultures.
Morphic Tide
Crazy Brainstormer, Munchkin and Wannabe Min-Maxer
- Location
- MI, USA
I can see a very good niche for Humans in a "Humans Are Generic" setup, where they outshine nobody in specific roles. Namely, the MADhouse. Paladins, for example. Stuff that uses more stats than any other race has. The other races'll work, but a Human will let them shine in more scenarios. For example, a Paladin might scale off three stats quite strongly, but function perfectly well off two. If they axe Charisma, then they lose much of their non-combat and support functions, while dropping Strength leaves them with only utility functions at reliable full force. A Human paladin might not be as good at any one thing, but they're the only ones able to be genuinely competent in all fields of Paladin. And those fields might well overlap amazingly when you have all of them, leaving Humans ahead in aggregate, possibly at the cost of different combat properties, such as swapping from endurance fighter to burst damage.
I like my MAD to be a matter of prioritization, rather than function. It gives nice options, in terms of character building. Which is why my ideal generic Fighting-Man is any attribute dependent, with every score doing something, but many pairs being functional.
In 5e, it's a difference of a 5% to the success rate on some rolls for a lot of cases, though you'll sometimes get one extra use of some things and often enough something like +3 DPR. 5e's really bad at representing the escalation D&D is largely known for. The tiny bonus from ability scores is why VHuman is almost always the best race, because a feat is almost always worth far more than +2 to a stat. Hell, many of them come with +1 to a stat anyways. Really, there's next to no reason for anyone not on the front line or a super-scaler (which is... Mostly the front-liners anyways) to ever use an ability score increase on anything other than a feat, the number shifts are just too small for the difference.
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At the start a bit, but in 5e stats are capped at 20 unless magic is involved (and magic items usually set your stat as a fixed score), so in the end you're going to reach the cap anyway.
Problem being that a +1 to a stat is awfully close to a +2 if you start with a odd score, and the standard array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) has 2 of them. So humans, with a +1 to 2 stats and a feat are in the end advantaged in respect to other races that get a +2 and a +1, since both will reach the cap but the humans won't need to wait 4th level to get their first feat.
azoicennead
Overly-Affectionate Zombie Squad
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- He/They
No. A race that synergizes with your class will be stronger than otherwise, but the bonus has pretty much always been small enough that it's only important if your stats are already terrible and you need something to get you to "functional".
It's just that the standard racial bonus for humans in D&D is "gets a feat", which translates into "gets an extra capability" and with how frequently builds involve an important feat or feats (less often in 5e, but they were a big part of things in 3e, 3.5e, and 4e) it's just really useful to play as a human from a purely mechanical perspective.
Well Paladins were a Human-exclusive Class in 2E.
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Depends. Some people really want to squeeze out every last +1 they can get, some people don't sweat it so much. How much of a difference it makes is going to depend on what level you are, too. The difference between +4 and +5 at first level is a bigger deal than the difference between +24 and +25 at fifteenth. And if you're rolling for your stats, sometimes it can shore up a weak one. But there are also the racial stat penalties, which can cost you good stats to compensate for or make your bad stats worse. If it's something you don't care about (like a dwarf's charisma penalty for most classes) then you can shrug it off, but if it's to your main stat for your class then it can hit you pretty hard.
Starting out I mostly played humans because they were straightforward: no stat mods (or a floating one in Pathfinder) and an extra feat that was a great benefit to a fighter. These days, I tend to have my fun by player fantasy races against type, so those stat penalties are often a nuisance for me, but I can still usually make something pretty effective.
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...aaaand paizo.com is down again.
I have two games there and they're hurting from all this downtime.
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So question to all you delightful people out there (PF related).
I like references. I love references. I love finding ways to organically work them into games I run, as I have no interest in running my own self contained campaign setting any time soon.
As such, given the Qadira campaign I'm working on has an ancient Not!Babylon baked into it, one that survived the Starstone falling and didn't get destroyed till several hundred years later, and is known to have massive artifact filled treasure vaults, I figured a Nasuverse Gilgamesh reference would be extremely fitting. I am also a fan of letting players temporarily have artifacts for plot reasons, before said artifacts have to be gotten rid of (or taken).
Key of Tabsigal
Major Artifact
Aura: Strong Conjuration CL: 20
Slot: Hand; Price: -; Weight: 5 pounds
Description:
The Key of Tabsigal appears to be a metal gauntlet, fitting perfectly onto any humanoid right hand and wrist that wears it. The gauntlet is golden in color, with a red chainmail base to the gauntlet. The item takes up both hand slots, despite only being worn on the right hand.
When activated, a glowing red skeleton key form appears around the gauntlet, and one of two effects can happen.
As a full round action, the user twists and turns the key, as if into a lock. This allows them to summon up to 1 item from the deepest Vaults of Tabsigal per HD of the user. These items are all affected as if by the spell Telekinesis, appearing floating in the air within 10 feet of the user after emerging through miniature Gates. This effect of the artifact can be triggered as often as the user desires, and as often as their are treasures in the vaults left to extract, although each separate summoning counts as a separate instance of Telekinesis for controlling the items. Individual weapons or items can be released from the Telekinesis effect, and can be controlled enough precision to allow them to be released into the awaiting hands of the user of the Key as a swift action or a reaction. Individual items, or groups of items can be launched as per the Violent Thrust application of Telekinesis, although this does not end the Telekinesis effect for any items still remaining in the triggered instance of Telekinesis.
An individual must know a specific item to withdraw. For example, vague generalities such as "a sword that can stop a troll's regeneration" would not summon anything, but "a +2 corrosive greatsword" could summon such an item if it exists in the vault.
Second, as a standard action, the user gestures at a target, sweeping the key shape through the air, and up to 15 items, chosen at random by the GM, are released from the Vaults of Tabsigal and fly at an opponent within 100 ft as per the Violent Thrust application of Telekinesis.
Finally, items can be put back into the vault using the Key. Touching an unheld (can't remember the term PF or DnD uses, means it's not being wielded by anyone) item as a standard action with the Key sends the item into the vault.
The gauntlet otherwise functions as a +2 Spellstoring Gauntlet
The basic idea for this would be an extended arc looking for a certain item, and they learn about the ancient Ninshaburrian empire and the fact that befell them, while trying to find a way to get something in the Vault-Tombs of Tabsigal. This glove will be part of a quest to find access to the vaults, to either get in in person or figure out how it works. The vaults won't be that full, so it won't allow them to spam Telekinesis non-stop without a lot of prep, which they won't necessarily have.I may need to balance the secondary ability better, or possibly just remove it, since the first one is already so powerful.
I like references. I love references. I love finding ways to organically work them into games I run, as I have no interest in running my own self contained campaign setting any time soon.
As such, given the Qadira campaign I'm working on has an ancient Not!Babylon baked into it, one that survived the Starstone falling and didn't get destroyed till several hundred years later, and is known to have massive artifact filled treasure vaults, I figured a Nasuverse Gilgamesh reference would be extremely fitting. I am also a fan of letting players temporarily have artifacts for plot reasons, before said artifacts have to be gotten rid of (or taken).
Key of Tabsigal
Major Artifact
Aura: Strong Conjuration CL: 20
Slot: Hand; Price: -; Weight: 5 pounds
Description:
The Key of Tabsigal appears to be a metal gauntlet, fitting perfectly onto any humanoid right hand and wrist that wears it. The gauntlet is golden in color, with a red chainmail base to the gauntlet. The item takes up both hand slots, despite only being worn on the right hand.
When activated, a glowing red skeleton key form appears around the gauntlet, and one of two effects can happen.
As a full round action, the user twists and turns the key, as if into a lock. This allows them to summon up to 1 item from the deepest Vaults of Tabsigal per HD of the user. These items are all affected as if by the spell Telekinesis, appearing floating in the air within 10 feet of the user after emerging through miniature Gates. This effect of the artifact can be triggered as often as the user desires, and as often as their are treasures in the vaults left to extract, although each separate summoning counts as a separate instance of Telekinesis for controlling the items. Individual weapons or items can be released from the Telekinesis effect, and can be controlled enough precision to allow them to be released into the awaiting hands of the user of the Key as a swift action or a reaction. Individual items, or groups of items can be launched as per the Violent Thrust application of Telekinesis, although this does not end the Telekinesis effect for any items still remaining in the triggered instance of Telekinesis.
An individual must know a specific item to withdraw. For example, vague generalities such as "a sword that can stop a troll's regeneration" would not summon anything, but "a +2 corrosive greatsword" could summon such an item if it exists in the vault.
Second, as a standard action, the user gestures at a target, sweeping the key shape through the air, and up to 15 items, chosen at random by the GM, are released from the Vaults of Tabsigal and fly at an opponent within 100 ft as per the Violent Thrust application of Telekinesis.
Finally, items can be put back into the vault using the Key. Touching an unheld (can't remember the term PF or DnD uses, means it's not being wielded by anyone) item as a standard action with the Key sends the item into the vault.
The gauntlet otherwise functions as a +2 Spellstoring Gauntlet
The basic idea for this would be an extended arc looking for a certain item, and they learn about the ancient Ninshaburrian empire and the fact that befell them, while trying to find a way to get something in the Vault-Tombs of Tabsigal. This glove will be part of a quest to find access to the vaults, to either get in in person or figure out how it works. The vaults won't be that full, so it won't allow them to spam Telekinesis non-stop without a lot of prep, which they won't necessarily have.I may need to balance the secondary ability better, or possibly just remove it, since the first one is already so powerful.
I'll get the character sheet to you by Tuesday.
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FaeGlade Plural
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- Location
- Land of Bureaucracy
- Pronouns
- Plural/They
Gods it's depressing how easily I can think of improvements to PF 2E. Just take ancestry feats, and weapon familiarities (assuming changes that make proficiency worth a damn):
Give everyone four ancestry feats at first level. Dwarf, Elves, Gnomes, Halflings etc. all get a 1st-level ancestry feat that gives them training in all their ancestral weapons, as they currently have.
But then at 5th level, they can take a feat that gives them expert proficiency with those weapons - and you roll all those "critical specialization" effects into expert proficiency.
Then maybe a 13th-level feat for Master-proficiency with those weapons.
And instantly, you have differentiated the various ancestries a lot. All Dwarves can now be good with axes and hammers regardless of class, all Halflings can be super-dangerous with Slings. It also harkens back to older D&D-editions.
Of course, now you need to do nice things for Humans, and for the characters of other ancestries that are less interested in martial options. But that shouldn't be too hard either.
Turn Humans into adept multi-classers. Give them access to a ancestry feat that they can take at 1st level which gives them a 2nd-level Archetype feat. If that is too overpowered, make that a 5th-level feat, or remove the options to take 1st-level class feats. Either way, you just provided something nice and unique to humans that also harkens back to older D&D editions and highlights your new multiclass-system.
As for other options for the other ancestries?
How about a 5th-level feat for Elves that just ramps up their Cantrip to full caster level and increases their proficiency? Or other high-level ancestry feats that add more cantrips, possibly from the divine- occult- or primal-list?
Gnomes could easily get the same thing, but you could also give them a 5th-level feat that gives them an Illusion-spell as a Power.
Dwarves could get ancestry feats that help them with using magic items - just giving out a lot more resonance, or basing their resonance off their Constitution, would be a powerful 5th-level effect for a Warrior-type Dwarf.
Really there's tons of interesting things they could have done. But instead, it's mostly previously-existing traits, now as feats, and maybe a handful of new things that are mostly strictly sub-par and very subdued besides.
Give everyone four ancestry feats at first level. Dwarf, Elves, Gnomes, Halflings etc. all get a 1st-level ancestry feat that gives them training in all their ancestral weapons, as they currently have.
But then at 5th level, they can take a feat that gives them expert proficiency with those weapons - and you roll all those "critical specialization" effects into expert proficiency.
Then maybe a 13th-level feat for Master-proficiency with those weapons.
And instantly, you have differentiated the various ancestries a lot. All Dwarves can now be good with axes and hammers regardless of class, all Halflings can be super-dangerous with Slings. It also harkens back to older D&D-editions.
Of course, now you need to do nice things for Humans, and for the characters of other ancestries that are less interested in martial options. But that shouldn't be too hard either.
Turn Humans into adept multi-classers. Give them access to a ancestry feat that they can take at 1st level which gives them a 2nd-level Archetype feat. If that is too overpowered, make that a 5th-level feat, or remove the options to take 1st-level class feats. Either way, you just provided something nice and unique to humans that also harkens back to older D&D editions and highlights your new multiclass-system.
As for other options for the other ancestries?
How about a 5th-level feat for Elves that just ramps up their Cantrip to full caster level and increases their proficiency? Or other high-level ancestry feats that add more cantrips, possibly from the divine- occult- or primal-list?
Gnomes could easily get the same thing, but you could also give them a 5th-level feat that gives them an Illusion-spell as a Power.
Dwarves could get ancestry feats that help them with using magic items - just giving out a lot more resonance, or basing their resonance off their Constitution, would be a powerful 5th-level effect for a Warrior-type Dwarf.
Really there's tons of interesting things they could have done. But instead, it's mostly previously-existing traits, now as feats, and maybe a handful of new things that are mostly strictly sub-par and very subdued besides.
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Tell that to Paizo, it can't hurt.
The Narrator
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Yeah, it's really a mess. Hard to believe that the same people that made PF1E made something this sloppy.
The cantrips from the ancestry feats already do use full character level to determine progression, it's just worded in a really confusing way.
The distinct shortage of higher-level Ancestry Feats is kind of irritating. The only 5th level one for each race is the one that unlocks critical effects with their racial weapons, and there's nothing for 9th, 13th, or 17th.
FaeGlade Plural
Semper Legens
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- Land of Bureaucracy
- Pronouns
- Plural/They
Right, thanks for the catch on the full-caster level for the cantrips anyway. But in that case, just a feat that adds more cantrips, and increases your spellcasting proficiency, would be pretty neat! Or give out an arcane school power to Elves, and as mentioned Illusion-spells to Gnomes, possibly as powers, as mentioned.
As for existing Ancestry-feats: Other than the Critical Specialization feat, there's only a handful (literary) above 1st-level, all 5th-level ones:
- Boulder Roll for Dwarves. It takes two actions to take a Step (so, a 5-foot step without AoOs in old terminology), which you can also use to push a same-size-or-smaller creature one square and possibly do some (level + strenght modifier) damage. It's basically a really bad Bull Rush, as far as I can tell - if it were an upgrade to the Step-action it'd be something, but otherwise why would you ever use this?
- Animal Whisper for Gnomes. Speak to all animals instead of just burrowing ones. Also get +1 to Diplomacy vs. animals.
- Inspire Imitation for Half-Elves. When you critically suceed at a skill check, you get a free Aid (another) when an ally attempts the same skill check. This is actually decent for group skill challenges, such as sneaking, swimming, climbing etc. if the challenge is below your skill level, but still challenging for your allies (of course, with how the game scales everyones skills with level, this won't happen too often).
- Supernatural Charm for Half-Elves. Cast Charm as a 1st-level spell once per day. Honestly, something like this should really be "You can cast "Charm" as a power. Increase your Spell Pool by 1", but with how the designers screwed up and made Spells and Powers so distinct that a spell can't easily be turned into a power...
- Orc Sight for Half-Orcs. Gain Low-Light vision, or if you already have it, Darkvision.
One of those is a terrible use of your action-economy. Two are patchwork-feats that give you something your ancestry should already allow you to do. One is a once-per-day effect that really should have been integrated better into the new rules paradigm. And the last is actually decent, but potentially limited in use by the level scaling of everything.
As for existing Ancestry-feats: Other than the Critical Specialization feat, there's only a handful (literary) above 1st-level, all 5th-level ones:
- Boulder Roll for Dwarves. It takes two actions to take a Step (so, a 5-foot step without AoOs in old terminology), which you can also use to push a same-size-or-smaller creature one square and possibly do some (level + strenght modifier) damage. It's basically a really bad Bull Rush, as far as I can tell - if it were an upgrade to the Step-action it'd be something, but otherwise why would you ever use this?
- Animal Whisper for Gnomes. Speak to all animals instead of just burrowing ones. Also get +1 to Diplomacy vs. animals.
- Inspire Imitation for Half-Elves. When you critically suceed at a skill check, you get a free Aid (another) when an ally attempts the same skill check. This is actually decent for group skill challenges, such as sneaking, swimming, climbing etc. if the challenge is below your skill level, but still challenging for your allies (of course, with how the game scales everyones skills with level, this won't happen too often).
- Supernatural Charm for Half-Elves. Cast Charm as a 1st-level spell once per day. Honestly, something like this should really be "You can cast "Charm" as a power. Increase your Spell Pool by 1", but with how the designers screwed up and made Spells and Powers so distinct that a spell can't easily be turned into a power...
- Orc Sight for Half-Orcs. Gain Low-Light vision, or if you already have it, Darkvision.
One of those is a terrible use of your action-economy. Two are patchwork-feats that give you something your ancestry should already allow you to do. One is a once-per-day effect that really should have been integrated better into the new rules paradigm. And the last is actually decent, but potentially limited in use by the level scaling of everything.
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You can still get a pretty wide separation in skill bonuses if it's a skill you've specialized in based on one of your primary stats vs. one they've totally ignored, but with how high the skill DCs are tending to be, I wouldn't expect to score critical successes often enough for this to be worth it.
One of the big problems with the math in the game is that they seem to have set most DCs and monster bonuses so that an absolutely maxed out character has a 50% chance instead of an average character, which means that crit successes will be a lot rarer than critical failures.
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I know DM's are supposed to tailor the encounter difficulty to the party's strengths and weaknesses, but to what extent is it appropriate?
I ask because I think my DM is all to happy to up the difficulty and brutalize my character. I'm playing a Wolf Totem Warrior Barbarian in a 5e game, rolled pretty well for stats, and took Tough and Resilient in Dexterity. I now have 200+ HP and pretty good AC and defensive saves, and while I rage, I get more resistances and give allies advantage against enemies around me. Nearly every encounter has seen me tanking damage that would have taken out 2-4 other party members, and while I am on the front lines, few to no enemies ever just avoid me to hit the back lines. I noticed this when the squishier character with the magic macguffin capable of doing at-will 20d6 AoE fire damage was ignored in favor of ganging up on me.
In all other respects this DM is very good. I'm wondering, though, if I should call him out on this, or stay quiet to protect the squishies.
I ask because I think my DM is all to happy to up the difficulty and brutalize my character. I'm playing a Wolf Totem Warrior Barbarian in a 5e game, rolled pretty well for stats, and took Tough and Resilient in Dexterity. I now have 200+ HP and pretty good AC and defensive saves, and while I rage, I get more resistances and give allies advantage against enemies around me. Nearly every encounter has seen me tanking damage that would have taken out 2-4 other party members, and while I am on the front lines, few to no enemies ever just avoid me to hit the back lines. I noticed this when the squishier character with the magic macguffin capable of doing at-will 20d6 AoE fire damage was ignored in favor of ganging up on me.
In all other respects this DM is very good. I'm wondering, though, if I should call him out on this, or stay quiet to protect the squishies.
shepsquared
Erratic Aussie
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I believe they can replace the damage dice on them like they can with monk weapons, but I'm not 100% on that because natural weapons keep getting worded differently.
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I think there was a 3E rule that monstrous monks had to choose whether they were using their monk unarmed strikes or their natural weapons, but not both. I have no idea if there's a similar rule in 5E.
(Paizo.com was up for a little bit this morning, and now it's back down again. What the fuck is going on over there?)
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Angry feedback overwhelming the servers?
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There's plenty of chatter on the forums, but that's been the case since 2E was announced. It didn't break the server before, so I don't see why it would now.
shepsquared
Erratic Aussie
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- Melbourne, Australia
Not a clue but you can find the latest errata here.
Edit: Who the hell at paizo came up with clumsy? An extra point of ac or tac from splint or a breastplate is not worth -4 or -3 to reflex saves.
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The Narrator
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Clumsy just caps your Dex bonus to Reflex saves, it doesn't apply the ACP to it. So if your Dex isn't any higher than that the armor's max anyway, then Clumsy is meaningless.
It's still fucking obnoxious that the penalties for wearing heavy armor are even more brutal than in previous editions. Especially because the fighter only gets higher proficiency in heavy armor, but his Dex will probably outgrow it by 10th level. So if you don't want to suffer penalties, you miss out on the benefits of a class feature. And higher proficiency doesn't reduce the penalties at all.
Heavy armor sucked too much to be worth wearing in 3.X, and it continues to suck in PF2. Gygax didn't know what the fuck he was talking about when it came to medieval arms and armor, and people need to quit mindlessly regurgitating his mistakes.