Pathfinder Player Companion: Melee Tactics Toolbox (PFRPG)

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Pathfinder Player Companion: Melee Tactics Toolbox (PFRPG)
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Look Your Enemies in the Eye!

Get up close and personal with Melee Tactics Toolbox! The new tips, tricks, and tactics in this volume enable your Pathfinder Roleplaying Game character to perform a huge variety of daring deeds in hand-to-hand combat, whether you’re dashing around a foe to flank it by yourself or inspiring allies to hold the line on a castle wall.

Melee Tactics Toolbox is a player-focused manual that makes the most of in-your-face abilities, spells, and weapons, in addition to providing a plethora of new rules options to make you even more formidable in combat. Each Pathfinder Player Companion includes new options and tools for every Pathfinder RPG player. Inside this book, you’ll find:

  • Tips on how best to fight in melee, including suggestions for rules options that can give you an edge, as well as general tactics available to all characters.
  • Dozens of new kinds of magic armor and melee weapons, weapon special abilities, and wondrous items to hinder your foes or protect you from close-combat attackers.
  • Thirty new feats to bolster your staying power in close combat, including combat, style, and teamwork feats.
  • An illustrated guide comparing more than 20 different styles of swords, including the falchion, katana, and urumi.
  • Tons of new spells, equipment, weapons, class archetypes, and character options, including a new bardic masterpiece.
This Pathfinder Player Companion is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder campaign setting, but can easily be incorporated into any fantasy world.

Written by Paris Crenshaw, Ron Lundeen, and David Schwartz.
Cover Art by Milivoj Ceran.

Each monthly 32-page Pathfinder Player Companion contains several player-focused articles exploring the volume’s theme as well as short articles with innovative new rules for all types of characters, as well as traits to better anchor the player to the campaign.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-732-1

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

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This product is non-mint. Refunds are not available for non-mint products. The standard version of this product can be found here.

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A Real Grab-Bag of Stuff

3/5

You don't have to guess what sort of stuff is in the Melee Tactics Toolbox. If you like mixing it up face-to-face, there's a reasonable chance the assortment of feats, equipment, spells, and more will have something that piques your interest. The book also contains some general tips on tactics, useful for newer players to the game. Like most books in the Pathfinder Player Companion line, this is a 32-page, full-colour offering, divided into two-page sections. The interior artwork is really impressive, and I have to particularly call out the great shot of the Iconic Brawler punching out a troll on page 3. You can judge the front cover art yourself. The inside front-cover has capsule descriptions of four fighting schools and war colleges in the Inner Sea region of Golarion: the Aldori Academy, the Crusader War College, the Grand Coliseum, and the Tempering Hall. I thought it was a useful shortcut for coming up with a background for a character. Maybe someday I'll do a "graduate students" campaign where every PC has to be a student at a fighting school, wizard's academy, or bardic college! The inside back cover is a "Combat Options Overview" that has a chart of what type of action various things (like combat maneuvers and combat feats) require, along with basic definitions. I really should print it out for new players. Anyway, now onto the content.

The first five pages are the table of contents, a "For Your Character" page that summarizes what sort of stuff you'll find in the book, a "Rules Index," and a two-page Introduction. I guess this would be useful if I were deciding whether or not to buy the book, but the book is short enough that I would rather have more content than multiple pages describing that content. The Introduction does contain some reasonably good advice for different types of melee encounters, and a useful sidebar that I haven't seen elsewhere summarising the *seventeen* different types of feats in Pathfinder! Okay, maybe those PF2 fans have a point about bloat . . .

"Up Close and Personal" contains some good advice on offensive melee tactics along with suggestions of which feats to take to support various builds. It introduces seven new feats for close-combat, some of which have become pretty common with certain builds, like Artful Dodge and Circling Mongoose. On the whole, the new feats look pretty well-written and fairly powerful.

"On the Defensive" is the flip-side: advice for protecting yourself in melee combat (such as the benefits of different types of armor, whether or not to use a shield, etc.). There are three new feats, with one ("Just out of Reach") something that would come in very useful in certain APs like Rise of the Runelords. There's also a new Cavalier archetype called the Castellan; there aren't a lot of Cavalier archetypes, but this one is really only useful in a very niche sort of campaign centered around fortifying and protecting a castle.

"Mass Melee" contains some advice (again, with specific suggestions for feats and class options) for when the battlefield is crawling with multiple combatants on each side. When I ran homebrew campaigns, I used to love tossing twenty or thirty low-CR mooks on the battlefield, but a few years of playing exclusively APs and PFS have gotten me used to the PCs outnumbering the enemies. This section contains five new feats; I used Harrying Partners (making Aid Another last for an entire round) to good effect for one PC, and I know Phalanx Formation (eliminating soft cover for reach weapons) is really useful for a lot of builds. There's a new bardic masterpiece ("Battle Song of the People's Revolt") that looks pretty great, and a bland Fighter archetype called the "Drill Sergeant" (basically, it gives them the Cavarlier's tactician class feature).

"Unarmed and Dangerous" is really designed for monks and brawlers. It contains six new Style feats (3 for "Cudgeler Style" and 3 for "Kraken Style") and a very brief Bloodrager archetype ("Bloody-Knuckled Rowdy"). I've never gotten into Style feats so I don't really have an opinion, and the Bloodrager archetype pays a heavy price (one fewer spell known per spell level) to get better at unarmed combat.

"Melee in a Pinch" was a clever idea: what to do when you weren't expecting a fight (or, at least, when a fight slides into a situation you're not ready for--like underwater, while grappled, etc.). I know I've taken the "Aquatic Combatant" feat (no penalties on melee attacks underwater, and your weapons do full damage), for example. There are eight more feats in this vein. There's also a "Makeshift Scrapper" archetype for Rogues that are about improvised weapons, and it looks okay but not amazing.

"Anatomy of Melee Weapons" is something very different: poor drawings of several different types of swords and very basic diagrams of the different parts of an axe, mace, and sword. For most of this stuff, Wikipedia and Google Image search would be better.

"Melee Weapons" introduces sixteen new weapons. At this stage in the development of Pathfinder, I'm not really sure they're necessary. The only new one here I've ever seen someone use was the Elven Branched Spear just because it was an elven weapon that had reach and a x3 Crit modifier.

"Tools and Equipment", on the other hand, contained loads of good stuff. An armor truss is almost a must-have for solo adventurers who want to wear heavy armor, while "exemplar weapon salve" allows you to turn that story-based background weapon into a masterwork weapon suitable for enchantment. I would like to scare a player so much that they start regularly using Sunderblock, but it hasn't happened yet.

"Magic Armor" contains a good assortment. Advocate's Armor is really clever (getting hit by a crit has a chance to put a lesser geas on the attacker), an Alchemist's Suit could be great fun (get hit by a crit and automatically apply the effects of one of eight vials stored within it), and my caveman shaman really needs to get the Mammoth Hide armor.

"Magic Weapons" didn't do as much for me. I liked the Diplomat's Traveling Stick and could imagine characters it would be perfect for. One of the weapons, the Pirate's Arm, is just bizarre.

"Armor and Weapon Special Abilities" presents some pretty niche material, but it's an interesting array.

"Wondrous Items" has a mostly unremarkable selection. I do really like the Anchoring Bracers, and would love to see the surprise on a gamer's face when they try to have their character teleport away from a tough battle.

"Melee Spells" finishes the book, containing ten new spells. Most spells are assigned to four or five different classes, but I'd guess magus and bloodrager would get the most out of the selection. Some of the spells are cast by swift actions, which is particularly useful.

Overall, Player Companions like the Melee Tactics Toolbox are just a big grab-bag of stuff. Some of it's great, some of it's dumb, and most is mediocre. Having this book is excellent for something like PFS, as sooner or later you'll almost surely want an option that appears somewhere within these pages. I also think the advice given on melee combat is reasonably useful, even if it's rather concise.


Interesting Read with Un-interesting Options

3/5

Basics: This book is all about the aspects of melee combat and on that premise it delivers.

Mechanics: There are some fantastic options mixed in with a lot of poor options that will not fare well. Feats are important choices and most of these feel like they are better suited for an NPC.

Theme: This is where it shines giving you ways to bring melee combat alive if you don't mind toning down the power level or taking niche options. The new weapons inside are my favorite part especially the Orc Skull Ram.

Execution: It was unbalanced but shined in some examples with weapons and combat styles.

Summary: If you know there is content in this book you want your character to use pick it up. Choices can be sub-optimal or niche so diving in to explore may result in a less than stellar experience with this thematic piece.


Decent book, but little that stands out

3/5

Read my full review on Of Dice and Pen.

Like Ranged Tactics Toolbox, Melee Tactics Toolbox is primarily a book of character options, this time focusing on mêlée combat. Like its companion, it doesn't actually spend a great deal of time on the tactics of its title, but does have scores of new feats, weapons, magic items, and more. Also like its companion, it seems to be desperately trying to create new things for something that doesn't really need any new things added to it. By itself or in conjunction with Ranged Tactics Toolbox, Melee Tactics Toolbox will likely be a useful resource for players, but in conjunction with the scores of other books out there, it will likely be mostly forgettable. It's not a bad book; it just doesn't really stand out.


Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Pathfinder Player Companion: Melee Tactics Toolb

3/5

Originally posted at Throat Punch Games, a new idea everyday!

Product-Pathfinder Player Companion: Melee Tactics Toolbox
System- Pathfinder
Producer- Paizo
Price- $12
TL; DR- a one-feat-book 77%

Basics-Why do it from afar when you can hurt them up close! Melee Tactics Toolbox provides every up close and personal character with several new options ranging from spells, items, feats, class options, and even new archetypes much live every other player companion product.

Mechanics or Crunch-This is a major crunch book for players, but I wasn’t amazed. There are several new options, but nothing here immediately made me want to build a character based around that theme. Some of the new options seem like new expectations just for expansion sake as the archetypes underwhelmed me like the rogue archetype that strips out all the rogue powers that make a rogue a rogue. Nothing here is objectively bad, but it’s not as amazing as I expected. 4/5

Theme or Fluff-This book has a bit of theme, but not as much as I wanted. You get a few bits and pieces but not near as much as the world books the Paizo puts out. It feels light. 3.5/5

Execution- This book has a ton it it, but it feels a bit overstuffed. There are many things in the book, but it feels a bit like things were thrown in because of the melee thing and that was the sole reason that they made the cut. So, things didn’t flow as well as other books. Also, much of the execution was a bit off as there were a few too many walls of text to really draw me into and through the book. But, as a counterpoint, the book does have a nice font, decent layout aside from a few too many text walls, and some nice art. However, as a counterpoint to that, the book still has the standard Paizo price for its splatbooks which is a little high anyway. 4/5

Summary-This is my least favorite Paizo Pathfinder book to date. Overall, it’s not a horrible book, but compared to Paizo’s other products, I wouldn’t suggest you start with this one. Honestly, this is a one-feat-book meaning that you will find exactly one thing from this book that might, sometimes, help you PFS character. And, you will buy it so you can show your PFS GM the feat/spell/item, so you can legally use it in your game. But, truth be told, you can pass this book by and be ok even if you are a greatsword only fighter. Too many options that are not worth the price, little world and character story, and a less than stellar execution make this a book that won’t find its way into many Pathfinder collections. 77%


MMMMM crunchy

5/5

Amazing, useful, thematic and clever feats and abilities for those who like it mix it up hand to tentacle with golarions nasties.


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Silver Crusade

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Well... looks like I'm one step closer to making a Doc Ock build thanks to those Arms of the Marilith.

Silver Crusade

Why is there no PDF version when it says there is suppose to be one?


Because it's the 24th not the 25th.

Silver Crusade

Dang it. Oh well I'll get it on the 25th then.


Will this be available after midnight on the 24th? If so, then midnight for what time zone?

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

PDFs are usually released around close of business the day of release. So somewhere around 4-5PM Pacific tomorrow night.


TriOmegaZero wrote:
PDFs are usually released around close of business the day of release. So somewhere around 4-5PM Pacific tomorrow night.

Thanks. For some reason I thought I some of my previous purchases had midnight releases.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

PDFs are released at 12:00 AM the day of the release on Pacific Coast Time.

they always have they always will.

so if will be available in about one and a half hours.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

Huh, never noticed that. I've only been paying attention to PFS scenario releases.


Yep. It became available at midnight.


The Vestments of War wondrous item reads:

"If worn by a creature capable of casting divination spells who worships a specific deity..."

I think that's supposed to be "divine spells" not "divination".

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I just picked this up and I am disappointed in it. There is not one feat for fighters, barbarians or bloodragers that are 2-handed weapon fighters.

Its chock full of feats that require a 13+ intelligence. Intelligence and charisma are dump stats for most martials who are not dual class casters.

Would it have been very hard to add combat feats for 2-handed fighters?

You add two pages of feats for monks who are not really martials but their own unique class and should have been covered in their own book of monk goodness for those who like monks.

The Bloodrager arch type is already covered by the brawler or monk.

Why should you have to have combat expertise to pull your opponents shield aside so you comrade can get a strike vs. his unshielded AC.
it is a great feat with the exception of the gross feat tax of combat expertise.

How about a feat like
Torn Asunder: requires BAB +5; Improved Sunder; Strength 16+
You target you opponents shield with a mighty sundering attack. You make a standard attack vs. your opponents AC if you hit you deal double
damage vs. your opponents shield.

All excess damage is passed on to the opponent.


Why doesn't the alchemical items in the book have Craft DCs?

Scarab Sages Modules Overlord

Because we missed it. Treat them all as Craft DC 25.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I would say that Phalanx Fighter is in a way a THF feat simply due to most reach weapons being two handed. Also what more does a THF need really, they are like sharks they were born perfect and have never had to evolve.


The feats are terrible, they are so corner-case that hurts.


I really like Amiri's warfare on page 14.

Scarab Sages Modules Overlord

Metal Sonic wrote:
The feats are terrible, they are so corner-case that hurts.

Really? Artful Dodge certainly can happen a lot if you use tactics designed to cause it to do so, and it stacks with Dodge, and (as importantly) it becomes a gateway for low-Int fighters to get Mobility and Spring Attack.

Circling Mongoose is pricey for people who will care, but they'll use it all the time.

Heroic Leader IS corner case... but it fixes a major problem for people in that corner.

Those are just the first three feats in the book. And many of the feats work together for specific builds (Steadfast Slayer is going to come up a LOT for 2-handed weapon users who have Artful Dodge).

Obviously corner case is subjective, but it's worth noting that if you don't want a feat you can just not take it, but if you want a specific build often corner case feats are the only things that can make it work.

And, of course, we've DONE Power Attack and most other generic all-situation feats.

Contributor

Owen K. C. Stephens wrote:
Metal Sonic wrote:
The feats are terrible, they are so corner-case that hurts.

And, of course, we've DONE Power Attack and most other generic all-situation feats.

I would also point out that if you're a reach weapon user, Phalanx Formation is hardly situational. The "I have to attack from behind my ally" scenario happens ALL the time in small, enclosed areas. Furthermore, if you combine that feat with Gang Up it actually creates a NEW tactic rather than limits an existing one. I know that my sacred slayer is going to be picking Phalanx Formation up for sure.


So far I really like the book especially the new weapons and feat. I just wish there was an easier way to exotic weapon proficiency than burning a feat, but that has nothing to do with this book.

I did have a question about the Kraken style feet chain. Is there any reason to take Kraken throttle? Its not a prerequisite for Wrack and if you later take Wrack all it gives you is the suffocate option, which is pretty cool thematically, but isn't all that useful on its own.

Scarab Sages

Any idea how soon this product will be available for Pathfinder Society Organized gameplay?

Liberty's Edge

Owen K. C. Stephens wrote:

(Steadfast Slayer is going to come up a LOT for 2-handed weapon users who have Artful Dodge)

Steadfast Slayer, along with Risky Striker and Power Attack, is going to make my halfling paladin concept for Giantslayer really, really scary. I can't wait. (Small earthbreaker FTW!) :D


5 people marked this as a favorite.

So I just picked up the melee toolbox and here are my thoughts on it.

There are some more versatile options, good art woork, some new weapons and armor, a few new spells, and a pretty sweet diagram of weapons.

So I read through the book and all though I love getting more options big or small I just felt the book was hugely on the small side for me. There was nothing whiz bang about it imho.

And it made me feel some of the text in the book alluded, that martial classes are just there to let wizards kill things.
"Dedicated spellcasters and archers can appreciate the excitement of engaging an enemy and understand the virtues of a well-planned assault, but they often need someone else to force the foe into close combat to prevent such threats from reaching them." That's great if we playing a themed class of sit there and take damage class why everybody else kills it concept.

Also a lot of things in the book are based around the "teamwork" feats which imho is broken already and we usually disallow all together in our groups games. (More of a personal problem I know)

I was hoping for this book to be "the book" to bring martial classes maybe not on par with spell casters, but a bit more balanced. Cause past lvl 10 Skills and Combat Maneuvers don't mean a whole lot.

Sure there are certain builds to min/max damage or some crazy combo that's amazing for martial classes, but I don't want to go that route every time I play just to keep up. I just feel that martial classes need a boon of some kind.

The Unchained book is coming out next month and that may bring some stuff, but just seems like some other classes are getting the nerf bat and some more options that may or may not be impressive. Have to wait and see on that I could be totally off base.

What I am basically trying to say is can Martial Classes get a Companion or Handbook that makes them on par or close to with the Spell Casters?

I understand the mentality that casters should just get everything cause oooo magic. Just seems like a holdover from D&D 3rd edition.

Thank you for reading Ladies and Gentlemen.


Does the growth weapon quality stack with enlarge person? When you make your weapon grow one size bigger?


Yes it does, according to the FAQ that just came out:

Size Changes


1 person marked this as a favorite.

That sum's up my opinion of the book nicely Pexx.

Shadow Lodge

I'm gonna have to agree, so far the book is kind of on the "meh" side. It kind of seemed to aim for the circumstantial over generally useful, and it really looks like a lot of the gear is far overpriced.

Not useless, but pretty far below what I'd expected. It seems focused most on lightly armored guys, Monks, and Arcane Spellcasters, and seems to have forgotten about, well martial and melee characters.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
DM Beckett wrote:

I'm gonna have to agree, so far the book is kind of on the "meh" side. It kind of seemed to aim for the circumstantial over generally useful, and it really looks like a lot of the gear is far overpriced.

Not useless, but pretty far below what I'd expected. It seems focused most on lightly armored guys, Monks, and Arcane Spellcasters, and seems to have forgotten about, well martial and melee characters.

You forgot your signature "Once again, nothing noteworthy for Clerics" line!

Shadow Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

It has something for Clerics. I was actually more disappointed in the lack of things like weapon fighting styles, feats for sword and board warriors, options for heavy armored warriors, and just more broadly applying options all around.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Obviously we need a melee tactics of the inners sea toolbox to fill that gap.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber

I would love to see more defensive options focused around the wearing of heavy armor.


Ok, here is a question. Is the Mammoth Hide in this book supposed to replace the old version from Inner Sea Combat? Seems kind of silly to have 2 armors named exactly the same thing with almost the exact functionality. I think somebody missed that when editing.

Shadow Lodge

Owen K. C. Stephens wrote:

"Understand its uses" and "Know how to use it at a professional" level aren't the same thing.

Indeed, since a character making a grapple check without both hands free takes a -4 penalty to their CMB check, and non proficiency penalty with a weapon is is -4, and a crook is a reach weapon, there are lots of circumstances where you are better off using a crook (from out of your target's reach) to make a grapple EVEN if you are not proficient, since your odds are just as good as if you tried it with a sword in one hand.

But like pata, whips, nets, falcatas, khopesh, sword breaker daggers, bo staffs and harpoons, it's awkward to fight with unless you have special training, and it doesn't work close enough to other weapons for expertise with them to offset that awkwardness.

Before I go too much farther I will have to say thank you for responding quickly. It's always nice to see designers engage the audience over content and answer questions and regardless how this rant might sound I am really happy to be actually hearing back from a designer in a timely manner about stuff. That's dope please keep it up. Now onto the rest.

Even with all that said the work seems to wholly disagree. The crook by the fluff distinctly calls it out as a shepherds tool and is designed to do EXACTLY what it is presented to do at start. As it stands by sticking it in that proficiency category it makes this setup where your shepherds are just wandering around idiotically trying to defend their flock until they are lucky enough to get a 2nd feat which feels backwards if they are actively aiming to defend their sheep. I mean why would shepherds design a tool specifically to help them in their primary profession that is somehow too complicated for even their most novice members to use?

But okay lets say that isn't going to be the thing to convince you what about cost and build set? The item as it stands is basically a simple weapon on all it's build with it's low cost, low dmg, low crit, and moderate abilities. It doesn't really have much umph even compared to a moderate simple weapon like a morningstar or longspear. And even with it's unique abilities they aren't mechanically that exotic even compared to other simple weapons. I mean take for example the battle aspergillium, the boar spear, the kumade, or even the morningstar (if you include it's dual damage type) all simple weapons with specific exotic abilities about on par with the special abilities of the Crook and not seen anywhere else in the weapon tables.

Now as for other exotic weapons what feels even more odd is that it doesn't treat as having some sort of partial proficiency like a bastard sword or harpoon where it could be treated as a simple weapon but proficiency gets you the trip or reach grapple abilities.

So I'm kind of sitting here at a loss for why this doesn't fit into the simple weapon category. It's touted as a commoner weapon, it's got stats and price like a commoner weapon, it's abilities are nice but nothing outside the range of what we've seen in the simple weapons category since core (trip, reach, and weird special abilities are all in the simple weapon roster), it's even a good candidate for something like a harpoons/bastard swords partial proficiency and yet here it sits on exotic where its relegated to being this item that will likely rarely see play with the very characters that feel the most interested in it like commoners, experts, adepts, druids, witches (shepherd witch sounds amazing), rangers, hunters, shamans, oracles, and clerics unless they double down and really take the feat for it. So am I missing something, is their like some insane thing in the power curve that just makes throwing it on the simple list just too risky?

Shadow Lodge

I mean hell how is a Crook a more complicated item to understand as a weapon than the ankus, a training tool specifically designed to handle elephants and in a setting like pathfinder something like T-Rexs, Basilisks, rhinos, and huge animal?


2 people marked this as a favorite.

BLADE TUTOR’S SPIRIT:

School conjuration (creation); Level antipaladin 2, magus 1,
paladin 2, sorcerer/wizard 2, summoner 2
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range personal
Target you
Duration 1 minute/level
You summon an insubstantial spirit of force that resembles a cloudy vapor hovering around your fists or any melee weapons you wield. The spirit compensates for your defensive or reckless melee attacks, nudging your weapons in the proper direction. When you voluntarily use one or more actions or feats that apply penalties to attack rolls with your melee weapons (such as a charge, fighting defensively, or using the Power Attack feat), the spirit reduces the total penalty on affected attacks by 1 (to a minimum penalty of 0). The penalty is reduced by an additional 1 for every 5 caster levels you possess (to a minimum penalty of 0). Only penalties incurred by voluntary use of feats or maneuvers are reduced by this spell. The spirit can’t be attacked or harmed by physical attacks, but disintegrate, dispel magic, a rod of cancellation, or a sphere of annihilation can affect it. A protective spirit’s AC against touch attacks is equal to 10 + your Dexterity modifier

It makes me sad that this spell is not on the Bloodrager spell list.


Valantrix1 wrote:
Ok, here is a question. Is the Mammoth Hide in this book supposed to replace the old version from Inner Sea Combat? Seems kind of silly to have 2 armors named exactly the same thing with almost the exact functionality. I think somebody missed that when editing.

Well since the ISC version is banned from PFS and this new version isn't, maybe its a bone to us chargers out there in TV land?


doc the grey wrote:
I mean why would shepherds design a tool specifically to help them in their primary profession that is somehow too complicated for even their most novice members to use?

I think there is a world of difference between using a crook to herd relatively docile sheep and trying to use it in combat against an armed opponent.


Deadkitten wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

It makes me sad that this spell is not on the Bloodrager spell list.

Hence why I despise unique spell lists instead of just letting magic school access be simpler. Like what exactly constitutes whether a spell belongs or doesn't belong on the Bloodrager list? (or any other list for that matter)


Vertexx69 wrote:
Valantrix1 wrote:
Ok, here is a question. Is the Mammoth Hide in this book supposed to replace the old version from Inner Sea Combat? Seems kind of silly to have 2 armors named exactly the same thing with almost the exact functionality. I think somebody missed that when editing.
Well since the ISC version is banned from PFS and this new version isn't, maybe its a bone to us chargers out there in TV land?

Hmm... could be. I actually like this version a bit better anyways.


Ahoi!!

I would like to know:
-Which of the 10 new melee spells can be cast by Bards?
-What are the new Bard Masterpieces?
-Are there any new Rage Powers for Barbarians?

PLZ and ThankYou! :D

Shadow Lodge

Deadkitten wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

It makes me sad that this spell is not on the Bloodrager spell list.

If I recall, Paizo's stance on the Bloodrager was that they would not be adding new spells to it's list much.


DM Beckett wrote:
Deadkitten wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

It makes me sad that this spell is not on the Bloodrager spell list.

If I recall, Paizo's stance on the Bloodrager was that they would not be adding new spells to it's list much.

I can understand that stance. It just makes me a little disappointed cause this spell is perfect for them.

Scarab Sages Modules Overlord

I actually left that off the bloodrager list intentionally, after careful consideration. While it would be an excellent game mechanical boost for bloodragers, a spell of additional caution doesn't feel like something that develops from reservoirs of buried rage or power that seethes in veins during with power, as the bloodrage class is described.
The one advantage of custom spell lists is maintaining strong class flavor, which was my guiding principle here.


Owen K. C. Stephens wrote:

I actually left that off the bloodrager list intentionally, after careful consideration. While it would be an excellent game mechanical boost for bloodragers, a spell of additional caution doesn't feel like something that develops from reservoirs of buried rage or power that seethes in veins during with power, as the bloodrage class is described.

The one advantage of custom spell lists is maintaining strong class flavor, which was my guiding principle here.

I was dismayed at the decision to keep that spell from bloodragers, but this explanation makes so much sense. Thanks for taking the time to share the thoughts behind this decision.


Question: Are the Writhing Armor's Whip and Defensive abilities at will/automatic-conditional, or is there missing text (or text I'm missing) limiting it to times per day?


Why is a spell that draws from the wisdom of spirits not on the Ranger list?

Scarab Sages Modules Overlord

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Since there's a process for official FAQs that goes with highest priority first, and as far as I can tell only a few folks have hit a FAQ request on this even, this is not an official FAQ. It is a declaration of intent of one of book's the two developers.

The feat Kraken Throttle should be read to cutting off air from the target, and thus activating the "Suffocation" rules on 445. Yes, as written one could claim that since it uses the word "suffocate" it actually refers the very last step of that process "In the third round, she suffocates." No, that's not what is intended. Since most people agree it doesn't mean "make two checks (in the same round if you have Greater Grapple) and you kill anyone," I'm hope it's not a surprise that it was never intended to mean "make two checks (in the same round if you have Greater Grapple) and you KO anyone, and kill them 1 round later."

The main utility of the feat is that it adds 2 hp to the damage dealt by Kraken Style. This is the same size boost as Weapon Specialization, and enough to make the feat useful in the builds it's designed for even without the ability to choke someone to death over a couple of minutes. The choking aspect is secondary (and Chokehold is a better choice if that's what you want to focus on.)

Scarab Sages Modules Overlord

deuxhero wrote:
Why is a spell that draws from the wisdom of spirits not on the Ranger list?

Because the spirits aren't particularly nature-based, so it's not a strong match for the ranger's magical theme.


I want to say here that I was delighted to see the planson aka goedendag finally make it into an official Paizo book, and was downright stunned to see the kumade. Been reading a lot of books on the samurai & Sengoku Jidai, and now I'm imagining a samurai or cavalier character with a squire cohort trained in using the kumade, pulling enemies down so their master can more easily lop their heads off.

And are there any feats that make it easier to grapple with a weapon like the kumade as compared to unarmed grappling?


Weapon Focus. :)

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