Pathfinder Is Still Bad

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 2:29 pm

Well, if you could get away without somatic components, a sorcerer cursed with baleful polymorph could be Lord Meow; though I have no idea how that would work in PFS.

hogarth · Post by **hogarth** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 3:54 pm

virgil wrote:Well, if you could get away without somatic components, a sorcerer cursed with baleful polymorph could be Lord Meow; though I have no idea how that would work in PFS.

In PFS, you're required to get rid of permanent conditions (curses, diseases, etc.) by the end of the session, so you'd have to cast Baleful Polymorph on yourself at the start of every game (running the risk of failing your Will save, of course).

Prak Anima wrote:I'll look into these other things (leaning to Cleric Archer or Heavens Oracle), might play a tiefling something.

You should note that skills are important for PFS. Why? Because there are "faction missions" that almost always require some kind of skill check, and you need to pass your faction missions to gain "prestige points" in order to have access to expensive magical equipment. For instance, a level 8 PC who didn't pass any faction missions could have something like 21 prestige which would mean the most expensive magic item he could buy could cost 5,250 gp (not even enough for a +2 weapon) whereas a PC who succeeded in every faction mission would have 42 prestige points -- enough to be able to buy items costing 31,000 gp. See the difference?

TOZ · Post by **TOZ** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 11:38 pm

Faction missions have been cast to the wayside in favor of secondary success conditions. Some of these require successful skill checks, some are just gimmes. Some are ridiculously specific and rely on random chance more than anything.

Cyberzombie · Post by **Cyberzombie** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 11:38 pm

hogarth wrote: You should note that skills are important for PFS. Why? Because there are "faction missions" that almost always require some kind of skill check, and you need to pass your faction missions to gain "prestige points" in order to have access to expensive magical equipment. For instance, a level 8 PC who didn't pass any faction missions could have something like 21 prestige which would mean the most expensive magic item he could buy could cost 5,250 gp (not even enough for a +2 weapon) whereas a PC who succeeded in every faction mission would have 42 prestige points -- enough to be able to buy items costing 31,000 gp. See the difference?

Who actually buys magic items in pathfinder? It's almost always worth it to take crafting feats and basically double your character wealth. I never found I bought anything in pathfinder besides wands of CLW.

TOZ · Post by **TOZ** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 11:39 pm

Cyberzombie wrote:Who actually buys magic items in pathfinder?

Pathfinder Society characters, because crafting is banned.

Cyberzombie · Post by **Cyberzombie** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 11:42 pm

TOZ wrote:
Cyberzombie wrote:Who actually buys magic items in pathfinder?
Pathfinder Society characters, because crafting is banned.

Well that explains it.

hogarth · Post by **hogarth** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 1:55 am

TOZ wrote:Faction missions have been cast to the wayside in favor of secondary success conditions.

Is that retroactively applied for every season's scenarios, or does it just apply to the most recent season (or two)?

TOZ · Post by **TOZ** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 4:56 am

hogarth wrote:Is that retroactively applied for every season's scenarios, or does it just apply to the most recent season (or two)?

Seasons 0 through 4 have a document outlining each scenarios secondary success conditions. Season 5 scenarios have it written in each individual scenario.

darkmaster · Post by **darkmaster** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 7:32 am

That all sounds kind of terrible.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Wed Feb 19, 2014 4:56 am

And once again, the game designers make a game, and then say "But that's totaly not how we want you to play it. This, this and this features are banned".
*Sigh*

TOZ · Post by **TOZ** » Wed Feb 19, 2014 6:06 am

It's not the designers that decide how PFS is run. It's been handed off from one director to the next, leaving the campaign one hell of a mess.

...You Lost Me · Post by **...You Lost Me** » Wed Feb 19, 2014 7:35 pm

SKR is leaving Paizo.

malak · Post by **malak** » Wed Feb 19, 2014 8:43 pm

Oh noes. That's horrible. He was so much fun.

Hm - Anyone knows why?

malak · Post by **malak** » Wed Feb 19, 2014 11:58 pm

Speaking of train wrecks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... JUdZlu9cvc

Muaha..hahaha.

And if you think that looks horrible, just think: that's a demo using the Unity engine. Which means that content generation and graphics and stuff like that are mostly solved by the engine and toolset, but the hard part such as scalable networking code and the server in general have to be written from scratch.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Feb 20, 2014 1:35 am

TOZ wrote:It's not the designers that decide how PFS is run. It's been handed off from one director to the next, leaving the campaign one hell of a mess.

It's what Organized Play does. The organizing body says "wait, we have to keep parity and balance! What if someone pick every pocket in town, then uses the accumulated wealth to make a bunch of magic items and moves to a different game!? We must not allow anything but hitting things with swords and casting spells exactly as they were intended!"

A Man In Black · Post by **A Man In Black** » Thu Feb 20, 2014 1:48 am

malak wrote:Speaking of train wrecks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... JUdZlu9cvc

Muaha..hahaha.

And if you think that looks horrible, just think: that's a demo using the Unity engine. Which means that content generation and graphics and stuff like that are mostly solved by the engine and toolset, but the hard part such as scalable networking code and the server in general have to be written from scratch.

Pathfinder Online is going to be such a trainwreck. They want to make pre-Trammel Ultima Online, and are quite determined to learn absolutely none of the lessons of either UO or any of the many other dead games that tried to be pre-Trammel UO. In particular, they want complete open, unrestricted PVP, which doesn't turn into Lord of the Flies because a combination of social factors (HA HA HA HA HA) and in-game stacking penalties for PVPing (in a F2P game where anyone can reroll whenever).

It's going to be an awesome trainwreck.

malak · Post by **malak** » Thu Feb 20, 2014 2:35 am

A Man In Black wrote:
malak wrote:Speaking of train wrecks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... JUdZlu9cvc

Muaha..hahaha.

And if you think that looks horrible, just think: that's a demo using the Unity engine. Which means that content generation and graphics and stuff like that are mostly solved by the engine and toolset, but the hard part such as scalable networking code and the server in general have to be written from scratch.
Pathfinder Online is going to be such a trainwreck. They want to make pre-Trammel Ultima Online, and are quite determined to learn absolutely none of the lessons of either UO or any of the many other dead games that tried to be pre-Trammel UO. In particular, they want complete open, unrestricted PVP, which doesn't turn into Lord of the Flies because a combination of social factors (HA HA HA HA HA) and in-game stacking penalties for PVPing (in a F2P game where anyone can reroll whenever).

It's going to be an awesome trainwreck.

That's already an optimistic view. In assumes that they will get the game into a state where multiple people can play together in a reasonably stable way...to troll the shit out of each other.

I am not yet convinced that they will even manage that.

TOZ · Post by **TOZ** » Thu Feb 20, 2014 4:35 am

Prak_Anima wrote:It's what Organized Play does. The organizing body says "wait, we have to keep parity and balance! What if someone pick every pocket in town, then uses the accumulated wealth to make a bunch of magic items and moves to a different game!? We must not allow anything but hitting things with swords and casting spells exactly as they were intended!"

True enough. And then the druid wild shapes into a giant octopus and solos the adventure anyway.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Feb 20, 2014 4:52 am

I'm currently considering doing my level best to replicate Rocket Raccoon for Org.Play and just having fun being a tiny dude with a giant gun and House Plant/Body Guard:

codeGlaze · Post by **codeGlaze** » Thu Feb 20, 2014 5:05 am

Man, that looks way cooler than the comic.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Thu Feb 20, 2014 5:08 am

TOZ wrote:
Prak_Anima wrote:It's what Organized Play does. The organizing body says "wait, we have to keep parity and balance! What if someone pick every pocket in town, then uses the accumulated wealth to make a bunch of magic items and moves to a different game!? We must not allow anything but hitting things with swords and casting spells exactly as they were intended!"
True enough. And then the druid wild shapes into a giant octopus and solos the adventure anyway.

I asked on the Paizo board and it's confirmed that the majority of society encounters have no way of defeating a swarm of bees

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Feb 20, 2014 6:19 am

I'm currently looking at playing a Gnome Wizard with the Spellslinger Archetype.

I'm saddened by the loss of Cantrips, but at the same time, I get to burn spells to turn bullets into shocking bullets, which is pretty cool.

TOZ · Post by **TOZ** » Thu Feb 20, 2014 6:20 am

OgreBattle wrote:I asked on the Paizo board and it's confirmed that the majority of society encounters have no way of defeating a swarm of bees

Most society encounters have no way of defeating casters, so that's hardly surprising.

Seriously, slumber hex destroys everything.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Feb 20, 2014 6:37 am

So, to be a Spellslinger, I have to give up four schools of magic.

Which schools of magic can I give up and shoot myself in the foot the least? (understanding that I can still prep banned spells by using two slots instead of one)

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Thu Feb 20, 2014 6:44 am

Evocation and necromancy? Not a clue for the other two.