Simple Q&A #17 -- the "your mama's so ___ ... " edition

[CyMage]

That sounds like some kind of word of recall variant.

EDIT: node door is a relatively long range teleport as a 3rd level spell.  Some restrictions apply.

Why are you trying to get this, cymage?

Party is level 6, soon to be level 7.  My character has an Artificer cohort.  Due to the campaign details, most of the arcane casters are frowned upon (read: usualy killed) and our party therefore has none.  Unfortunately our current job has us doing quite a bit of traveling and a bit of teleportation would really speed some of it up.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

I'd suggest building an airship out of soarwood, then propelling it with a couple of decanters of endless water.

[X-Codes]

Phantom Steed will dramatically speed up overland travel.  If you can manage a CL of 8 with it, they'll go overland at 16 miles per hour (likely 5x faster than you would go on foot) and last 8 hours (a day's travel).  That should get you wherever you need to go fast.

[KellKheraptis]

Q 275: Is there a divine analogue to Magical Training?

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Q 275: Is there a divine analogue to Magical Training?

Yes, but it's in dragon and the capstone of a three feat chain.


Specifically, Minor Divine Spellcaster, Dragon 305.  Requires Divine Channeler (gives you turning as a cleric of half your level, 1/day) and God Touched (+1 luck bonus 1/day)

[betrayor]

Dragonmark heir can get teleport as a spell-like ability at 8 level which is 1 level earlier than most......

[Waazraath]

q286: following the question on quickened spell as free/swift action: is there a list somewhere that states which feats that were free actions became swift actions? Something like Divine Might for example, would that stay 'free action' or did it became 'swift action' (that also didn't exist when CW came out, iirc).

[McPoyo]

This is what's always cited to me as well, but it seems like Fighters and Paladins went in the right direction, Druids got nerfed, Clerics got nerfed a little (mostly spells), Wizards went nowhere and Sorcerers got buffed.  lolwut?

Fighters and Paladins still hit people with sticks, and the other classes still cast spells.  I've been told that Oracles do a mean combat as well, embarassing fighters.

I'm in a Core PF game with a Fighter and some other people and I'm playing a Sorc and it seems just as dumb as it ever did (though I guess I can do a smaller number of foolish things).

They also nerfed combat manuevers (Improved Trip is now two feats now) and made terrible feats like Elephant Stomp. (While I'm sure 3.5 has a ton of bad feats and I can name several, it's more glaring when there are less feats since each one is effectively one option that isn't even actually an option)

I dunno, don't want to hijack the thread but just wanted to update with "That's what I've heard" and "I don't buy it."  I'd be willing to hear other ideas.

Wizards and sorcerers got buffed as classes (leaving aside certain wizard ACFs) compared to 3.5. The thing is, wizards and sorcerers were never about the class features - what got nerfed on them was some (not all or even enough in my opinion, but some) of the key broken spells and mechanics. The class chassis was improved, so instead of a class you PrC out of and still get all the brokenness, you get a class with interesting class features and fewer things that break the game in half. This is why it is, to me, counterproductive to include Spell Compendium and such in Pathfinder games.

Combat maneuvers were not exactly globally buffed or nerfed; as far as I can tell they are stronger in some circumstances and weaker in others. I haven't gotten a chance to play with them much yet to be honest, so I can't give full feedback, but again a significant amount of the change is in the underlying mechanics rather than right out and obvious in the feats - from the little I've seen of it (empirical evidence to be taken with a grain of salt) grappling seems to be a bit more useful, for example.

Battle Oracles are pretty hardcore, but they don't "outfight fighters" the way clerics used to do on top of being full-casters. Full-casters in general don't outfight fighters anymore, which is at least a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, as I said, they didn't fix enough: full-casters don't outfight fighters but that was never really the underlying problem. While the scale of the problem has been changed, the essential problem remains: fighters get awesome at fighting, wizards get good at breaking the rules, and breaking the rules is still a better thing to be able to do. It is, however, an improvement in that in 3.5 fighters didn't even get awesome at fighting and wizards were even better at breaking the rules.

So if they didn't fix the problem, why do I like it? Because even though they didn't fix the underlying problem, they're at least a little closer than 3.5 was. A wizard can still break the game open at relatively low levels if he tries to, but in 3.5 a wizard would almost inevitably end up breaking apart party balance by level 10 or so, without even trying, possibly by level 7 but almost certainly by level 13. In Pathfinder, if nobody's trying shenanigans, the game can stay functional to 15 or so. It's not fixed, but it's less badly broken.

I don't have any strong investment in "Pathfinder Is The Bestest" and I'm a little disappointed that it didn't fix as much as I would have wanted it to, but it comes closer than 3.5 does in my opinion, and that's something.

Nope. Battle Oracles still outfight a fighter. I just ran one and did it quite easily.

[KellKheraptis]

Q 275: Is there a divine analogue to Magical Training?

Yes, but it's in dragon and the capstone of a three feat chain.


Specifically, Minor Divine Spellcaster, Dragon 305.  Requires Divine Channeler (gives you turning as a cleric of half your level, 1/day) and God Touched (+1 luck bonus 1/day)

Gawd, that hurts.  Almost makes it worthwhile for the Cleric dip to get into DK, and enjoy the bonuses from domains.

[Rebel7284]

Gawd, that hurts.  Almost makes it worthwhile for the Cleric dip to get into DK, and enjoy the bonuses from domains.

Usually the dip is totally worth it, IMO

[InnaBinder]

BUMP

Q264: Does a Totem Rager who entered the PrC with only 2 levels of Totemist gain the ability to bind to the Least Chakra location as well as the Totem Chakra location at 4th level, or does he need to choose between the two locations?

[McPoyo]

BUMP

Q264: Does a Totem Rager who entered the PrC with only 2 levels of Totemist gain the ability to bind to the Least Chakra location as well as the Totem Chakra location at 4th level, or does he need to choose between the two locations?

a Totem bind counts as a bind for binding limits, so in order to bind both to the Totem and another chakra location, he would need a bind limit of at least 2.

[Benly]

Nope. Battle Oracles still outfight a fighter. I just ran one and did it quite easily.

I'll take your word for it. The impression I got is that they don't straight-up outfight a fighter in terms of matching their pure melee capacity, but they come close enough on top of being full-casters so nobody actually minds the gap between them and fighters in straight-up hit-someone-with-a-stick-ness.

[Archmage Joda]

Q287 Would enhanced shadow reality (let's say 230%) enhance the number of HD a simulacrum has?

[PhaedrusXY]

Q287 Would enhanced shadow reality (let's say 230%) enhance the number of HD a simulacrum has?

I really don't think so, for at least two reasons.

1) Simulacrum is already an illusion (shadow) spell. So you can't emulate it with the Shadow Illusion class feature of Shadowcraft Mage. The Powerful Shadow Magic feature is also very explicit on what it actually affects. It does not enhance all spells with the Shadow subschool.

Powerful Shadow Magic (Su): When a shadowcraft mage reaches 5th level, the strength of the effects created by her shadow conjuration, shadow evocation, greater shadow conjuration, greater shadow evocation, and shades spells increases by 20%. That is, these spells are an additional 20% likely to affect disbelieving creatures and deal 20% more damage. This bonus also applies to figment spells transformed into shadow spells via the shadow illusion power (see above).

The bolded spells are all it affects.

[McPoyo]

Nope. Battle Oracles still outfight a fighter. I just ran one and did it quite easily.

I'll take your word for it. The impression I got is that they don't straight-up outfight a fighter in terms of matching their pure melee capacity, but they come close enough on top of being full-casters so nobody actually minds the gap between them and fighters in straight-up hit-someone-with-a-stick-ness.

if you were using 3.5 power attack instead of pf power attack, i'd say it's a lot closer, but because bab doesn't matter quite as much between 3/4 and full prog it's not really even a contest. He nearly broke even at level 6 when cleaving with both attacks vs my 1, but the bonuses from spell boosts and the lower attack bonus on the iterative didn't help a lot.

[Archmage Joda]

Q287 Would enhanced shadow reality (let's say 230%) enhance the number of HD a simulacrum has?

I really don't think so, for at least two reasons.

1) Simulacrum is already an illusion (shadow) spell. So you can't emulate it with the Shadow Illusion class feature of Shadowcraft Mage. The Powerful Shadow Magic feature is also very explicit on what it actually affects. It does not enhance all spells with the Shadow subschool.

Powerful Shadow Magic (Su): When a shadowcraft mage reaches 5th level, the strength of the effects created by her shadow conjuration, shadow evocation, greater shadow conjuration, greater shadow evocation, and shades spells increases by 20%. That is, these spells are an additional 20% likely to affect disbelieving creatures and deal 20% more damage. This bonus also applies to figment spells transformed into shadow spells via the shadow illusion power (see above).

The bolded spells are all it affects.

And if the Simulacrum is created via enhanced reality shadow miracle?

[McPoyo]

Q287 Would enhanced shadow reality (let's say 230%) enhance the number of HD a simulacrum has?

I really don't think so, for at least two reasons.

1) Simulacrum is already an illusion (shadow) spell. So you can't emulate it with the Shadow Illusion class feature of Shadowcraft Mage. The Powerful Shadow Magic feature is also very explicit on what it actually affects. It does not enhance all spells with the Shadow subschool.

Powerful Shadow Magic (Su): When a shadowcraft mage reaches 5th level, the strength of the effects created by her shadow conjuration, shadow evocation, greater shadow conjuration, greater shadow evocation, and shades spells increases by 20%. That is, these spells are an additional 20% likely to affect disbelieving creatures and deal 20% more damage. This bonus also applies to figment spells transformed into shadow spells via the shadow illusion power (see above).

The bolded spells are all it affects.

And if the Simulacrum is created via enhanced reality shadow miracle?

only if they didn't believe he was real

[PhaedrusXY]

Q287 Would enhanced shadow reality (let's say 230%) enhance the number of HD a simulacrum has?

I really don't think so, for at least two reasons.

1) Simulacrum is already an illusion (shadow) spell. So you can't emulate it with the Shadow Illusion class feature of Shadowcraft Mage. The Powerful Shadow Magic feature is also very explicit on what it actually affects. It does not enhance all spells with the Shadow subschool.

Powerful Shadow Magic (Su): When a shadowcraft mage reaches 5th level, the strength of the effects created by her shadow conjuration, shadow evocation, greater shadow conjuration, greater shadow evocation, and shades spells increases by 20%. That is, these spells are an additional 20% likely to affect disbelieving creatures and deal 20% more damage. This bonus also applies to figment spells transformed into shadow spells via the shadow illusion power (see above).

The bolded spells are all it affects.

And if the Simulacrum is created via enhanced reality shadow miracle?

only if they didn't believe he was real

[CyMage]

Q288  On the topic of Simulacrum, if one creates a copy of an efreet, would the "" clause stop it from using the Wish ability?

I'm assuming it doesn't since the ability isn't based on HD.