u/IDGCaptainRussia

Spellbane is one of those few spells that 3.5 doesn't have a counterpart for (but wishes it did) that Paizo made, and I have a tendency to use it in both systems alot for a simple purpose: To give the BBEG immunity to a party's ability to entirely break a boss fight encounter.

You know the ones: Anti-Magic Field, Mage's Disjunction, Source Severance, and any other form of a PC's spellcasting toolkit that reads "I don't care how powerful you are, you are powerless now after I cast this, no Save, no SR, no nothing".

In hindsight, this does come across as vindictive design, but I want to atleast think a level 20+ villain who can gain access to this spell is going to wise it counter his largest weaknesses. I tend to run more... Video Gamy-style fights, with phases and what not, and I don't like stuff that clearly feels like a cheat code.

I'm bringing this up, because in a previous post i mentioned a Dragon PC in a rotating DM game who is going to have a "true dragon"'s level of saving throws on a paralyzing breath, so far in the game under the current DM he along with a cleric (different cleric, not the weird homebrew life shield barrier one) has been using Anti-Magic Field while mounted on said Dragon PC to effective allow the dragon to pin-cushion all these high ranking drow matriarch into nothing. Hence, scenarios like this, is where I want to use Spellbane to give them a fighting chance.

Again, the intention is not to "NOPE" players here, it's the reverse to give them a bit more of a fighting chance.

Like last time with the Rifti, I'm looking at more Proteans, this time the Durgastr https://www.aonsrd.com/AlienDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Durgastr&Family=Protean, and I noticed it has 3 different melee attacks with the same values (except with the tail having grab as an extra)

Does it still only get 2 Attacks on a Full-Attack? Why does it have 3 if it cannot use all of them in a round? Also I assume the the Wavewarp triggers on any combo of 2 melee hits like how Rend did when landing 2 claw hits in a round like in back Pathfinder 1e?

Trying to find the range on the Random Energy Ray attack, but I can't find it on the statblock anywhere. It's not a weapon, so I'm at a loss here.

Also, does it still get Range Increments with this attack?

So a player is building around time magic and is asking for some 3rd party stuff, and now they want to grab this spell: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/3rd-party-spells/orphaned-bookworm-productions/anticipate-teleportation/

I'm reading this, and it seems like, it an objectively better Dimensional Lock with no downsides or limiting factors at all. Also I'm not really sure how to handle a foe in the middle of combat not perceiving a difference with a delay during combat while being attacked when they try to teleport in the area. What do the rest of you think?

In the last post, I regarded a dragon PC in the game, and while I found a solution to that (stuff I don't want being paralyzed is immune, enemies aren't all present on the 1st turn of combat, especially not the head honchos), there is another question.

There's another PC who's whole gimmick is time manipulation and trying to travel back in time to change the past, and that opens up alot of possibilities. Such as Bythos getting involved, as the Aeons do actually play an active role in my games.

The thing is, how would the Aging Strike of a Bythos interact with a True Dragon? The only written part that suggests it wouldn't age the dragon as per dragon age category is the part where it points out the aging rules in the Core Rulebook. This is also one of those few cases of "Magical Aging" that exist in the system too.

I donno, I feel like a "Middle Aged Young Dragon" would sound really odd.

I want to preface by saying this is by no means optimized, but I'm at an impasse here and would like some opinions.

Ok so, there's this character I have tried to play several times now: A Kobold Alchemist who was raised by a Dwarven Clan that is known for making booze and strong liquors, and he himself thinks he is a dwarf because of that. Happy go-lucky Chaotic Good worshipper of the Accidental God. (Hence the Brewkeeper part)

The character concept is fine, the problems begin with the mechanics however, and I feel the crux is outside my control. Kobold is rough, I know, but Pf1e has ways to offset that. Because I am trying to play a character and not a, as another person at the table in which I played this guy simply called a "spreadsheet", I always take the Dwarven Brewmaster feat, and Master Alchemist as soon as I can get that one. I use the Mixologist archetype for flavor reasons, and once I get high enough level I start going into Brewkeeper: the intention is basically being a "I hand everyone boozy drinks to buff up on when they need it" guy.

As you can already tell, this is a pretty weak character that can't hold its own very well. The idea was he is made viable by making everyone else shine more, but the problem I keep running into is nobody ever takes my potions/extracts/draughts when I ask people "what do you want me to prepare?", and when I "forcefully hand them to people" each day like a caster would do, they just don't use them in the end.

In combat I basically can't do much: only throw weak bombs and take total defense actions once I'm out. Last session I tried to ask the DM if Vaporous Potion could be applied to Draughts so I can atleast try to buff or heal or do some kind of meaningful support during fights without having to rely on poor action economy with Potion Master to make the few potions I am able to craft better, but the DM felt it was too Power Gamey or abusable... (Yet the party is mostly casters, I can understand Extracts, but not Draughts in this regard as they have the full potion limitations)

I'm convinced at this point my guy is an NPC character; he cannot properly function in a group that doesn't coordinate well enough, and I'm feeling like I'm being punished for trying to play a class that doesn't just selfishly buff up itself to heaven and back and requires party engagement.

TL:DR: I feel like I'm being punished for trying to play a supporting alchemist buff-bot character and relying on the party to coordinate instead of a proper caster or a more selfish aggressive version of alchemist that went all in on Bombs or Vivisectionist. The build direction was Mixologist Alchemist, going into Brewkeeper asap.

Thanks for all the feedback on the

Out of curiosity, is there a spell of item that grants a PC this monster feature? Without Polymorph shenanigans or anything.

Ok to start with, this is a rotating DM game, the original DM approved this (as well as some homebrew and dragon options I'll mention later), it's currently not an issue, but I'm going to be the DM when this hits its peak and becomes a major problem. (And just to be clear, this is a different game from any of my previous posts, but some of the same players)

Basically a player wanted to play out a fantasy as a Dragon, they choose the Silver, and they have a Paralyzing Breath. He's playing it as the Dragon itself with no class levels, so once he gets enough hitdie he advances to the next age category. To help further his ability to function the 3.5 Metabreath various 3.5 Breath feats were allowed, and he took Heighten Breath which lets him add up to this Con Mod to the DCs while increasing the cooldown by that same ammount and Strafing Breath, so he can cover a very massive area with it by flying over by and breathing downwards, affecting everyone along the way.

There's also a Cleric using a 3.5 homebrew varient of cleric that can grant allies shields to protect them, these shields (starting at level 10) grant their wisdom mod as an untyped bonus to the Con scores of protected creatures, which boosts the Dragon's Breath DC even more so.

I've done the math, by the time I'll be DMing (level 15), he'll have a DC in the upper 30s while the rest of the party might be mid-20s on theirs at best. Basically any level appropriate encounter is going to be getting paralyzed at the start of combat by the dragon.

I have no idea what to do about this, I can't just take away the main thing that player has going for them (nerfing the breath/the party only fights things that are completely immune), but at the same time I don't want to DM a game where every single encounter is either getting nuked by mass paralysis, or the enemy's saves are so high that they can only fail against the rest of the party on a nat1, or I start outfitting every creature with a bunch of anti-dragon spells, feats, and class features.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm really dreading taking up the DM seat at this table.

EDIT: The Cleric homebrew in question is the 3.5 Aegis of Life from D&DWiki, he choose to not have any of the Pathfinder Cleric features (So he lacks Channel Energy in addition to no Domains, he also casts like a Sorcerer instead of a Cleric but with more spells known)

EDIT #2: This post has been a great help and I thank everyone who responded with detailed and even simple suggestions and posts: I can safely say that nobody at the table is going to come out of this without bad feelings, but it's ultimately needed to minimize the game being ruined by poor balancing.

This is just some grievances I've had the last few years with the games I've been playing in. So wall of text Rant warning incoming:

It feels like everytime I want to play something more thematic or less optimized, there's either always a powergamer or the general group vibe is towards more optimized builds. In every group I play in: can't think of a single time a person has taken a non-combat related feat and come to feel bad because they aren't as powerful as everyone else.

Like if I make a guy who can scale rooftops or mountainsides, how am I suppose to feel when the party's caster just gives everyone flight? It feels like my character is wasted investment.

In every group I play in, people usually only focus on maxing stuff like Spellcraft, Knowledge (Arcana), and Use Magic Device. Which leads up to alot standing around and the DM having to throw us a bone because nobody has any other skills to solve the problems to progress the game. I feel like that isn't what is suppose to be happening.

Also this: we also have this guy who isn't a problem or a munchkin. But he has very extensive game knowledge and will constantly call out the mechanical things of everything we are fighting and metagames as well. (Examples: Monster can deflect a projectile must has Deflect Arrows, will avoid targeting creatures who are immune to abilities without having the ingame knowledge skills to know that). During the DM's dialog promping people to interact, he's actively trying to pick out a 3rd level spell he got last session from leveling up and talking about it.

He also doesn't really roleplay with a voice either, just speaking as he is while calling out all the mechanical stuff out of game when everyone is roleplaying. And often solves ingame problems with extensive IRL knowledge about things that, again, his ingame character would not know.

I know this sounds like a "find another group", but it's just something that keeps happening to me, and I'm wondering if trying to play a "character" and not a statblock is wrong. The original reason I got into Pathfinder over something like D&D5e is because of all the customization options to truly make a character yours, but now it just seems like most of those are traps for feeling inferior and bad at the game.