PF: Ultimate Magic?

[Lastgrasp]

With Ultimate Magic shipping this week, did anyone get a hold of the paizo pdf yet? Any opinions on the material? Looking forward to picking it up next week.

[jmelesky]

With Ultimate Magic shipping this week, did anyone get a hold of the paizo pdf yet? Any opinions on the material? Looking forward to picking it up next week.

According to Paizo's site, PDF's not available till the 18th. The old playtest PDFs are still around, though, if you want to use those to get a preview.

[Mystify]

This may interest you
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/playtests

[El Dorado]

Gunslinger looks interesting. Magus looks pretty streamlined compared to wizard/fighter/eldritch knight.

[BobVosh]

Are they keeping the alternative magic system they lined up a few months ago?

Also any word on fixing the magus spell list, since they had like 3 touch spells for a class channeling touch spells made this...less than ideal.

[cfalcon]

PDFs have gone out to some of the Pathfinder subscribers already. Threads on Paizo boards are all abuzz with people asking questions and getting answers.

Gunslinger is in Ultimate Combat, not due for months.

[TOZ]

You can find a number of threads with people describing different pieces. I have the PDF myself and can't say I'm very impressed with it.

[Mystify]

What stood out to me about magus was that it could be used to effectively blend a wizard and a martial class for gestalt. Normally they don't synergize, but a magus could take the broad study ability at 6, use the other 14 levels as the martial class(es) of your choice, and a pure caster on the other side, and be able to cast the spells while full rounding. Divine casters could work with it if you want armour, and wizard synergizes with the int based aspect. There are all sorts of things you could do with that.

[Lastgrasp]

Paizo sent me my book before the pdf. Just started reading it. Magus is okay class, nothing that fascinates me all that much. I do like the bladebound archetype for the magus though. Reminds me of Elric without the curse. The alchemist discoveries and archetypes are by far my favorite in the book. It's a fun class with some diversity on builds. Plus the summoner has some nice love with new evolutions.

[Mystify]

Eidolon evolutions are what I am most eager to see. The summoner really appeals to me.

[Chess435]

Eidolon evolutions are what I am most eager to see. The summoner really appeals to me.

Awesome! Will this stuff all go on the SRD, or do I have to buy a copy?

[Lastgrasp]

Awesome! Will this stuff all go on the SRD, or do I have to buy a copy?

It's part of the SRD. Not sure when or how long before it's posted online. The PDF which drops on 18th is $10 if you can't wait.

[cfalcon]

Non-SRD content is very 90s. I don't think we'll have to worry about anything from a real system not making it to a fully open and weblinked thing that you are able to discuss openly anywhere.

Also I got my PDF today, but haven't had time to really look it over yet.

[Axinian]

I really like the magus. Basically a duskblade, and that was my favorite class in 3.5. Maybe its just my undying love for gishes though :smallredface:

Words of creation are awesome. Looks complicated at first, but seems simple and versatile once you read through it. I really want to play with them. Probably on a magus :smallcool:

Also, there's a new spell called RAIN OF FROGS!!! Not particularly impressive as a spell but c'mon, RAIN OF FROGS!!!

Edit: Also, there's a Witch ability that lets you track babies by scent. Make of that what you will...

[Lastgrasp]

Only downside is no prestige classes. I like the archetype system, but would of preferred they added more prestige classes to the game or update some ogl ones.

Words of Power is a neat system. 100 plus new spells so can't complain there. I like the construct rules and building a construct exo-skeleton is neat. Overall a decent book.

[Reverent-One]

Eidolon evolutions are what I am most eager to see. The summoner really appeals to me.

In addition to an Aquatic base form, the evolutions include a series of Magic evolutions that give the Eidolon the ability to cast one out of a list of spells a few times per day, several sight enhancing evolutions, hooves, an extra head, a daily use of Dimension door, making your Eidolon undead-like, and one or two other random abilities.

[Mystify]

sweet. I'm not actually playing one, since I am DMing the campaign, but one of my players is.

[Axinian]

Very yes on the extra head one. Building your own (pseudo) hydra sounds fun!

[Mojo_Rat]

The Qigong High Fantasy monk looks awesome, they trade out a number of class features for some spells and even feats which are usable with KI. They also introduced a bunch of Vows monks can take to boost their KI.

[Axinian]

The Qigong High Fantasy monk looks awesome, they trade out a number of class features for some spells and even feats which are usable with KI. They also introduced a bunch of Vows monks can take to boost their KI.
The Qiqong thing is nice, since it lets you turn useless things into useful things! The vows are pretty uniformly terrible, however. If you think 3.5 Vow of Poverty is bad...

[TOZ]

Monk Vows. Let's review them.

You give up Still Mind forever to be allowed to take them. You can take as many as you like, and get bonus ki points for following them. Break one, you lose all your ki until you atone.

Vow of Celibacy: You must never touch or be touched by another person. This includes touch spells from allies. The only physical contact allowed is striking or being struck in melee. +1 per 5 levels.

Well, you're going to have to rely on your own healing, and you better have magic items that remove the need for buffing. But you're a monk, you needed both anyway.

Vow of Chains: Must wear shackles or carry a load that imposes a -1 to attacks and AC and -10ft movement. +1 per 3 levels.

Not so bad, you can counter the movement penalty easy enough, and the chains can be flavorful weapons.

Vow of Cleanliness: Must not willingly touch dirty, diseased, dead, or undead things. Using manufactured tools to fight such things is allowed. +1 per 5 levels.

Good for the OCD types, not hard to handle.

Vow of Fasting: Must consume nothing but minimal bland sustenance. Not allowed to drink potions or other alchemical items. +1 per 6 levels.

Now you're completely reliant on others to heal you, unless you feel like UMDing some wands.

Vow of Peace: Can never strike the first blow in combat. Must use the fight defensively action or the total defense action for the first 2 rounds of combat. Must ask enemies to surrender, and never kill an enemy that could be reformed. +1 per 5 levels.

Not so bad in a Good party. You can be 5ft of difficult terrain for the first two rounds, and then combat is over. Yay, you contributed!

Vow of Poverty: Can never own more than the clothes he wears and a blanket, and MAYBE one magic item as long as its a family or traditional heirloom. Can accept consumable items from allies as long as no value remains after use. +1 per 2 levels.

The only game this would be good in is a low magic low op game. They made it worse than BoED VoP, and less clear. The 'maybe' comes from the fact that the heirloom is allowed to be of 'some value' with no clarification, so the DM can say 'no magic items' or 'one super artifact item'.

Vow of Silence: Cannot speak and strives to be quiet. Can communicate with nonverbal actions such as signs and clapping or stomping as well as writing. +1 per 6 levels.

Not too bad, gives you mechanical benefits for being the silent type.

Vow of Truth: No deliberately lies, including bluffing, half-truths, exaggerating, telling white lies, in all forms of communication. May remain silent is answering could bring harm to another. +1 per 5 levels.

Yay, something to go with the paladin who must always tell the truth. Could be average to horrible depending on how hard your DM is.

If you can't tell, I'm not impressed.

[CTrees]

Do want.

I'm currently playing a Pathfinder Wizard. Want...

Wonder if my local game shop has it in stock, yet... If so? It might be mine during lunch >_>

[Gnaeus]

Edit: Also, there's a Witch ability that lets you track babies by scent. Make of that what you will...

Frack! 10 years as a wiccan and the only hex I can use could be labeled "detect diaper"? Whoever made my RL character sheet was clearly not into optimization!

[Wagadodo]

Yeah, they really dropped the ball with the Vows... The downsides do not meet up with the upsides at all. If I see any players ever take any as a monk they would have to be half crazy to do so.

The rest of the book though... Does have some good stuff in it. I have read through my PDF of it. Good golly miss molly there are some stuff I have to wonder if they even tried to play test to see how powerful it was.

And the Alchemist sure did get a serious Boost in some damage with the mental stats increase instead of the physical stats, and a Tumor that acts as a familair? Er... Kinda creepy stuff in there too. But good all around fun to be had.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Okay, I have to ask. Is the books out in dead tree format already? Because I prefer to have my books that way.

[Wagadodo]

Okay, I have to ask. Is the books out in dead tree format already? Because I prefer to have my books that way.

Only if you have the subscription to their rp books, it would be in the mail, if not it will be dropping next week I think, on the 18th to stores.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

So I will have to wait till next week. Ah, well. It'll gimme something to do with my buddies on Friday.

Did Inquisitors or Paladins get any goodies?

[subject42]

So if you take every single vow, how much Ki would you have by 20th level?

[TOZ]

I count 33 points from vows, 10 from levels, plus Wis mod. So 43 plus Wis and any feats or items that grant extra ki.

[CigarPete]

Only if you have the subscription to their rp books, it would be in the mail, if not it will be dropping next week I think, on the 18th to stores.

So, I pay an extra $15 to get it a week early? I'll wait and pay $25 from Amazon instead of $40 from them directly thanks. I'm happy to support the company, but that's a little absurd, IMO.

[Wagadodo]

I counted 35 points.

I get the I also get the PDF for free which is a ten dollar value... So eh, to each his own. I like the PDFs, and I don't want to pay the extra 10 bucks for them so it equals out in the end.

[Lastgrasp]

I got my hardcover yesterday. It came out to $34 roughly. I'm adventure path subscriber so it kill 15% off the cost plus I get the pdf for free. For paying an extra eight or nine dollars I'm not really complaining.

[archamus]

I just downloaded the pdf and I'm not seeing any way for a Summoner to heal their eidolon using words of power. Am I missing something?

[Myshlaevsky]

So I will have to wait till next week. Ah, well. It'll gimme something to do with my buddies on Friday.

Did Inquisitors or Paladins get any goodies?

The Paladin gets selectable vows, like the Monk. Many are mediocre-to-bad, but a couple stand out as potentially useful. The Inquisitor gets several new class archetypes to choose from (which again, are mostly disappointing) and some Inquisitions, which are essentially a type of Inquisitor-only domain. The Ultimate Magic stuff is actually online or mostly online already, so you can look at the Paladin (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/collaborators/work-area/paizo-products/pathfinder-rpg-line/ultimate-magic/chapter-1-spellcasters/paladin-options) and Inquisitor (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/collaborators/work-area/paizo-products/pathfinder-rpg-line/ultimate-magic/chapter-1-spellcasters/inquisitor-options) stuff if you like.

It seems as though the Alchemist was definitely one of the major winners from this book. I have found many of the options available to other classes lacking.

[subject42]

It seems as though the Alchemist was definitely one of the major winners from this book. I have found many of the options available to other classes lacking.

Have you looked at the Synthesist Summoner? It's like somebody took Iron Man and gave him levels in Totemist.

[CTrees]

Also, while the stuff in the paladin section varies, some of the feats are pretty fun. Ex., Ultimate Mercy - spend ten uses of Lay on Hands, and you can raise dead. If you're willing to take 24hrs of one negative level, you can do it without material components.

Synthesist is... O. M. G. I'm not sure PF-only has a gish I like better. Summoner has early access to a lot of spells, meaning it's basically a full caster, but with fewer slots, and, well, let's look at a very simple level eight build... put no points into any physical stat, start venerable, take a large Biped, cast while in light armor (you're wearing it under the eidolon), have 28+ strength, hit points which should, on average, be something like 130-ish on average, outstripping barbarians by a large margin, you can fly/be resistant/immune to whatever energy you want, weild large weapons (including the Reach evolution trick), your AC should be something like 30... and you're essentially a full caster. Holy crap, that's awesome.

My favorite tidbit, so far - the arcane discovery Staff-like Wand, which allows you to use your caster level and ability modifiers when using wands, just like with staves. That's just... yeah.