Discussion and Suggestion Thread

[Nanshork]

I'm contemplating making a Paraelemental Adept (Smoke)/ Darkened One possibly Master Reshaper.  That would be interesting....

[DonQuixote]

I'm contemplating making a Paraelemental Adept (Smoke)/ Darkened One possibly Master Reshaper.  That would be interesting....

In the grimdark darkness of the grim, there is only darkness.


New PDFs!

[Nanshork]

   I decided that was too complicated so I'm not doing it.

What's the action for the Elemental Breath feat in the Elemental Adept Web Enhancement section?

[DonQuixote]

Breath weapons are always standard actions, aren't they?

Edit: Well, either way, it was meant to be a standard action.

[Nanshork]

Using a breath weapon is typically a standard action.

Usually, but not always.

[radmelon]

I will say, as I look at what I've come up with thus far, that the most hilarious epic build for a spellshaper would be Impulse Mage 10/Unnamed Prismatic Prestige 10/Chaos Shaper 10.  What are you even doing at that point?  Randomly occurring formulae, cumulative percentage chance of STUFF happening, and a 1d8 roll every time you hit someone to find out what you hit them with.  Bonus points if you take those random teleportation impulse mage feats.

Because knowing what you're character will actually do is overrated. 

[Amechra]

Hah! If you don't have a plan, no-one can know your plan!

And then they can't plan to counter your plan, because the plan that they are planning to plan a counter for has not, in and of itself, been planned.

Yes, you will achieve the subtle dichotomy between plan and not-plan, a sort of mu-plan or null-plan, if you think about it.

Has plan ceased to be a word for you? Because if it has, the plan I planned for to eradicate plan from your vocabulary was planned out perfectly.

[The-Mage-King]

On the subject of builds...


Please. I've got a rough build for a Pixie Impulse Mage lain out. She's the storngest. 

Now all I need is a feat for nonlethal spellshaping, and... 

[Amechra]

Just reshape things to the Illsuion circle, and you're set.

[The-Mage-King]

But they won't be ice attacks then... 

[Amechra]

Eh, just make them think that they are ice attacks.

You are an illusionist, after all.

[DonQuixote]

Feat for nonlethal spellshaping is on my list of "Things that should be," which I had forgotten about entirely--it was rather eclipsed by the "New Material To-Do" list, which shouldn't actually be a separate list.  Tomorrow, said feat shall exist--even if the rest of the list doesn't.

In other news, I've written up all the rules stuff for the opalescent initiate.  It shall be posted as soon as the fluff is complete!  I should warn the audience, however, that playing an opalescent initiate will require more bookkeeping than most spellshapers do.  This has a lot to do with how prismatic formuale work.  It is unfortunate, but probably not crippling.  You basically just have to write down what formulae make up each individual prismatic formula.

That's probably vague and confusing.  Here, have two sneak peeks that will make matters more clear:

(click to show/hide)

   Prismatic Blast (Sp): At 1st level, you learn to use the prismatic blast spellshape attack.  A prismatic blast is a concentrated blast of multicolored light with a range of 60 feet.  It is a ranged touch attack that affects a single target, dealing 1d6 points of damage.  For every four shaper levels beyond 1st, you deal an additional 1d6 points of damage to the subject, to a maximum of 5d6 at 17th level.
   Unlike most spellshape attacks, a prismatic blast can deal multiple different types of damage.  Any creature hit by the attack is randomly struck by one or more colors.

1d8	Color	Type of Damage
1	Red	Fire
2	Orange	Acid
3	Yellow	Electricity
4	Green	Untyped (Prevented by immunity to poison)
5	Blue	Cold
6	Indigo	Sonic
7	Violet	Force
8	Multihued	Struck by two colors; roll twice more, ignoring any "8" results

   A prismatic blast can only be used to shape prismatic formulae (see below).  If multiple creatures would be affected by a single prismatic blast attack, roll separately to determine which colors strike each creature.


   Prismatic Formulae: As an opalescent initiate, you have the ability to create and learn prismatic formulae.  A prismatic formula is composed of seven normal formulae, one assigned to each color.  Only major formulae that modify spellshape attacks can be combined into a prismatic formula.  At first, you can only learn new prismatic formulae from opalescent initiate levels (but see Prismatic Mastery, below).

   When you learn a prismatic formula, you choose one Searing Flame formula, one Deteriorating Corrosion formula, one Shocking Current formula, one Devouring Shadow formula, one Perfect Freeze formula, one Glimmering Moon formula, and one Astral Essence formula.  These seven formulae are combined into a single prismatic formula.  You need not meet the prerequisites of these formulae, and you can choose a formula that you already know.

   To shape a prismatic formula, you make a single attack with your prismatic blast attack.  If it hits, your target is affected by the formula tied to the color that struck it.  The red component of a prismatic blast carries the prismatic formula's Searing Flame effect, the orange component carries the Deteriorating Corrosion effect, the yellow component carries the Shocking Current effect, the green component carries the Devouring Shadow effect, the blue component carries the Perfect Freeze effect, the indigo component carries the Glimmering Moon effect, and the violet component carries the Astral Essence effect.  A creature struck by two colors is subject to the effects associated with both colors that struck it.

   A prismatic formula has a formula level equal to that of the highest-level formula used to create it.  If any of the formulae composing the prismatic formula are of a lower level, they are heightened (as by the Heighten Formula metashaping feat) to the appropriate level.  Prismatic formulae are subject to all the normal restrictions on the highest-level formulae you can learn or shape.

   Prismatic formulae do not count as belonging to the Searing Flame, Deteriorating Corrosion, Shocking Current, Devouring Shadow, Perfect Freeze, Glimmering Moon, or Astral Essence circles for the purpose of meeting prerequisites or qualifications.  However, they can benefit from the Circle Focus and Greater Circle Focus feats as though they belonged to any of these circles.  Multiple instances of these feats do not stack for prismatic formulae, even if the feats are applied to different circles.  Prismatic formulae cannot be reshaped (as by the Reshape Formula feat) to be treated as belonging to one of the circles of spellshaping, nor can normal formulae be reshaped into prismatic formulae.

   Because a prismatic formula is made up of multiple formulae, you can have more than one instance of the same prismatic formula active at once.  However, you still can have only one instance of each formula that makes up the prismatic formula active at one time.  For example, if you strike a creature with the red effect of a prismatic formula that includes the Blistering Flames formula, the Blistering Flames effect will be applied normally.  If you shape the same prismatic formula a second time and strike your target with the green effect of the formula, the existing Blistering Flames effect is not immediately ended.  If, however, you strike your target with the red effect of the prismatic formula, that creature is affected by the Blistering Flames effect, causing your existing instance of that effect to end.  Similarly, shaping the Blistering Flames formula itself would immediately end an existing instance of the effect caused by a prismatic formula.

So, yeah.  This will be a thing soon.

[The-Mage-King]

Ooh! Shiny!


If you want, I can share the reason I suggested the convert-to-nonlethal feat... 

[Amechra]

Because Cirno is useless?

[DonQuixote]

Two new feats, one for nonlethal spellshaping and one for shaping formulae in armor.  Haven't come up with an analogue to Bauglir's "Blended Teachings" idea, mainly because I can't figure out an elegant way to make it work.

Now, to find other ways to avoid writing the opalescent initiate's fluff...

[The-Mage-King]

Because Cirno is useless?

No. Because this subsystem is now about Touhou.
I was waiting so long to do that... ;_;

With regards to the feat...


Remember that a nonlethal Fireblast is still Fire Damage. You apply all effects for Fire damage first, then the nonlethal part.

So if you hit something that's got weakness to fire, you still double it. Since it only specifies the reducing... That might need to be added.

[DonQuixote]

I can't tell if that's a correction of my current clause, or you telling me how nonlethal damage actually works.  I was looking at the Nonlethal Substitution feat, which treats nonlethal damage and energy damage as mutually exclusive things.

[phaedrusxy]

I can't tell if that's a correction of my current clause, or you telling me how nonlethal damage actually works.  I was looking at the Nonlethal Substitution feat, which treats nonlethal damage and energy damage as mutually exclusive things.

That doesn't really make sense... Nonlethal damage isn't really its own damage type, is it? Like Fire/Piercing/etc? It's just a less lethal form of some other kind of damage... or so I thought.

[DonQuixote]

Hrm.  To avoid confusion, I changed the relevant clause to this:

The damage dealt by a spellshape attack or formula modified by this feat is still treated as if it were damage of the type normally dealt by the spellshape attack or formula, and is subject to any abilities or effects normally.

[Amechra]

Nonlethal actually is a completely different type of damage...

Just like Vile damage is; they aren't modifiers to a given type of damage, they are their own thing.

Now, that clause is totally fine, and awesome.

But remember, nonlethal Substitution on a Fireball let's you deal the full nonlethal to a Fire Elemental; does it make sense?

No. But dems da rulez, mann.