My project was to create an AI that can produce realistic looking short monster descriptions, like:
Eagle wrote:
This magnificent bird of prey has dark feathers save for those on its head, which are pure white.
I used the PF Bestiaries to train the system, and the above application is the results. It'll show you two descriptions; one of these will be from the PF bestiaries, and the other will be computer generated. Your task is to see if you can guess which one is computer generated.
Post your longest streak of correct guesses below!
(P.S: Due to some problems in the XML of the app, it's showing apostrophes as question marks. So if you see something like "This lithe woman?s garb is..." Ignore that. it's going to be that way for both the real and the fake descriptions. I'll try to fix it later.)
(P.P.S Shoutouts to community manager Sara Marie and the rest of Paizo staff for their help and feedback over the project.)
This is the kind of the stuff that can make traps interesting tbh. I like Blapher's description of how he notices the trap. Maybe the hairs on the back of the PC's neck stand up. Maybe there's the smell of ozone in the air. Maybe he notices that the air covered by the proximity trap looks a little colored.
As for how they're disabled, you can get creative with that. Sometimes getting close enough to a trap to disable it can be a fun little minigame on it's own. I've seen a simple Alarm spell confound high level parties before they realized that it's an emanation centered on a point that only reacts to living creatures. Wizard mage-hands a tin can to the center of the emanation and covers it. Covered emanations don't work and the party proceeds. For a rogue I'd say they've got a little mechanical spider that does the same thing, or a folding rod with a hand on the end that can extend into the alarm to do it.
Location Trigger: Pressure plates usually fall into this, as might glyphs. The rogue can jam the plate or erase the right part of the glyph.
Proximity Trigger: These are usually keyed off the Alarm spell, and as I said above, if you can encase the center of the emanation, the trap is disabled.
Sound Trigger: From the SRD: "A sound trigger functions like an ear and has a +15 bonus on Perception checks. A successful Stealth check, magical silence, and other effects that would negate hearing defeat it."
Visual Trigger: Blocking the 'Eye' can neuter this trap. Paint-Balloon or something else that prevents the eye from seeing you would work.
Touch Trigger: Plenty of solutions to this. This one is also based off Alarm spells according to the SRD.
Timed Trigger: Easy. The rogue reads the patterns and acts at the right time.
Spell Trigger: Varies and depends on the spell used.
Two things I've found that help greatly. The first is to use mooks and minions. They don't have to be individually challenging to the party, just annoyances. It makes for a good, fun encounter for a player when they get to contribute. If you have them all fight one dragon, only one player lands the killing blow. If you have 10-12 minions as well, the others also feel good about their characters.
Secondly, and this is more experimental. One of my GMs tried messing around with mythic rules, and it was surprisingly fun. Give your boss monster a second turn each round. This helps even up the action economy, and really sells the whole 'boss encounter' thing. It's a difficult fight, this creature is blindingly fast and seems to act twice for every movement the party makes.
What kind of outsider might be suitable to be bound with Planar Binding or Planar Ally to serve as a mount? Nightmares come to mind, but you'd have to be evil if you want them to let you ride them.
Thanks guys. I'm making a Pilferer Familiar, which gets Improved Steal as a bonus feat. The feat seems strangely useless since most familiars are tiny and get a -2 to CMB to use the Steal maneuver in the first place. Makes much more sense for it to add to the Sleight of Hand skill (which Pilferers get as a class skill).
Benefit: You do not provoke an attack of opportunity when performing a steal combat maneuver. In addition, you receive a +2 bonus on checks made to steal an item from a foe. You also receive a +2 bonus to your Combat Maneuver Defense when an opponent tries to steal an item from you.
It doesn't seem to specify that the +2 is limited to only whilst performing a Steal Combat Maneuver during a fight. As far as I can tell, it should apply to Sleight of Hand checks to pickpocket out of combat too. Am I right?
The barbarian considers himself a peaceful pacifist. It's the Halfling that's killing all those people. Grugthak always has a sit down with the rogue afterwards (the rogue lying in the medical tent in a full body cast) and chides him for his violent ways.
Lots of helpful responses! One thing that recently crossed my mind is that perhaps the crew of a siege engine is actually supposed to occupy the same space as the engine, which is why the cannon and ballista are considered to be 10x10.
Gloves of Improvised Might allow you to apply an enhancement bonus as well as Enchantments to any improvised weapon you're holding. Body Bludgeon allows you to use a creature one size smaller than you as a two-handed improvised weapon.
So can my Half-orc barbarian use the party rogue as a +2 Flaming Burst Halfling?
So, here's the entry on the 'Sailing Ship' on d20pfsrd. As you can see, the Ultimate Combat version says that it's 20ft by 75ft. Furthermore, it can carry up to 20 large siege engines in banks of 10. I didn't know ships were actually colossal-sized bags of holding, because this is what that looks like. There's no space for literally anything else.
The Skulls and Shackles description of 30ft by 90ft is a little better, until you remember that a Sailing ship can also fit two large sized siege engines on both the front and the back of the ship... and that each of those cannons requires a minimum of two crew members to operate. This is an incredibly cramped ship!
Things get a little better if you assume that cannons are 5x10 objects, and you sorta hang them off the side of the boat... and you increase the size. At least you can add some stairs and masts! For reference, the 2x2 squares are Ballista. I couldn't reason that those are anything less than 10x10.
Is there something I'm missing? Is the 20x60 size the 'free' deck? Is the ship weaponry assumed to be part of the ship itself and the whole of the 20x60 deckspace is for people?
And can it still perform both of it's slam attacks while holding one?
For Reference: http://archivesofnethys.com/ClassDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Phantom
The phantom cannot wear armor of any kind, as armor interferes with the Phantom's connection with it's master. It also cannot use weapons, for.. some nebulous reason. There is no mention about shields.
On top of that, unlike an Eidolon's slam which specifies that the Eidolon can only have as many slams as it has limbs (arms), there is no such restriction on the Phantom. Can the Phantom slam while it's arms are occupied? Like some kind of kick or body check? Even Oozes can slam, after all.
Hey RD. Found a feat for Ord Zheng, that skill monkey fighter of yours; http://archivesofnethys.com/FeatDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Cunning
"You are particularly devious, and can master more skills than others in the same amount of time.
Benefit: You gain 1 additional skill point per Hit Die. When you take this feat, you gain a number of skill points equal to your Hit Dice right away, and every time your Hit Dice increase in the future, you will gain an additional skill point as well."
Interesting, very helpful responses! We're not concerned about the villain causing trouble for us, it was more of a roleplaying thing. Our characters don't simply want to pass the buck off onto a later generation. This fellow was an enchanter that was kidnapping homeless people (the useless dregs of society, according to him) and turning them into mindless soldiers. He reasoned that they were in general more useful this way, he didn't consider himself evil.
If we kill him, none of us will likely ever see him again, but we like to debate such things as characters, the morality of simply killing him and rolling the dice on whether his beliefs carry over into his next life.
The thing about their memories being fragmentary is useful, so thankyou very much to the people who pointed that out. I suppose it's a bit like being a completely new person but having a moth eaten book in your head about all these past versions of yourself and what they did.
I hope this is the right place for this, but in a recent campaign, we captured a Samsaran villain, and the question of what to do with them came up.
Samsaran reincarnate after they die and have memories of their past life, so how does one go about dealing with a Samsaran villain? Is there something about their past lives ability I'm missing?
If we execute the villain, they'd just reincarnate and cause problems in the next generation. The best option seems to be to try and rehabilitate them, as far as I know.
what are your thoughts on the subject? I'm speaking not just mechanically, but also ethically/morally and philosophically. I know we could use trap the soul or something and put him in a crystal for all eternity, but an eternity of imprisonment in such a way seems quite abhorrent.
1) That the talent makes it so that if the opponent is unable to attack you, you don't have to roll antagonize again to extend it, and it's extended for CHA-mod rounds. I suppose it's usable in that you antagonize someone and then run away, and they have to keep chasing you for X number of rounds or until they manage to attack you to end the effect. Of course, this could be countered by something as simple as someone picking up a stone and throwing it. Even if it doesn't hit, it was still technically an 'attack'.
2) It straight up extends the whole effect for CHA-mod rounds. The opponent has to keep attacking you until the duration ends. The 'ends on attack' restriction is disregarded.
Benefit: When wielding a weapon with which you have Weapon Focus, you can shift your grip as a swift action so that your weapon deals bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage instead of the damage type normally dealt by that weapon. You may switch back to the weapon’s normal damage type or another damage type as a swift action. If your base attack bonus is +5 or higher, using this feat is a free action instead.
Hey Mark, hope you're having a good day. Was hoping you could settle a question for me and my friends.
If I have an Occultist with Legacy weapon or a Fighter with Warrior Spirit (both abilities that allow you to temporarily enchant your weapon), as well as the weapon versatility feat, can I do the following?
>Have a piercing weapon
>Use weapon versatility as a swift or free action to make it deal bludgeoning damage
>Use Legacy Weapon or Warrior Spirit to apply Quaking to the weapon.
A similar situation one could imagine for someone using a hammer and applying Keen when they use Weapon Versatility to make it deal piercing damage.
Relevant links:
Quaking:
Restriction This ability can be placed only on melee bludgeoning weapons.
The wielder of a quaking weapon can strike the ground as a standard action to perform a trip combat maneuver that applies to all foes within a 5-foot-radius spread, a 10- foot cone, or a 20-foot line along the ground. The wielder can trip creatures of any size this way. This trip maneuver attempt provokes attacks of opportunity unless the wielder has some feat or ability that prevents it, and the wielder can never be knocked prone as a result of failing this special trip combat maneuver check.
Legacy Weapon:
As a standard action, you can expend 1 point of mental focus and touch a weapon to grant it an enhancement bonus. The bonus is equal to 1 + 1 for every 6 occultist levels you possess (to a maximum of +4 at 18th level). Enhancement bonuses gained by this ability stack with those of the weapon, to a maximum of +5.
You can also imbue the weapon with any one weapon special ability with an equivalent enhancement bonus less than or equal to your maximum bonus by reducing the granted enhancement bonus by the appropriate amount. The item must have an enhancement bonus of at least +1 (from the item itself or from legacy weapon) to gain a weapon special ability. In either case, these bonuses last for 1 minute.
Weapon Type on D20PFSRD:
Type: Weapons are classified according to the type of damage they deal: B for bludgeoning, P for piercing, or S for slashing. Some monsters may be resistant or immune to attacks from certain types of weapons. Some weapons deal damage of multiple types. If a weapon causes two types of damage, the type it deals is not half one type and half another; all damage caused is of both types. Therefore, a creature would have to be immune to both types of damage to ignore any of the damage caused by such a weapon. In other cases, a weapon can deal either of two types of damage. In a situation where the damage type is significant, the wielder can choose which type of damage to deal with such a weapon.
Treated as: If a weapon’s description says it is “treated as” another weapon, a character lacking the appropriate exotic weapon proficiency, can still use it as if it were the other kind of weapon and feats such as Weapon Focus still apply, as do abilities requiring a certain weapon. For example, the butterfly knife allows a proficient user to open or close it as a free action and is otherwise treated as a dagger, meaning she can wield it as a dagger, gain the benefit of Weapon Focus (dagger) when wielding it, use it as the target of a spell that only affects daggers, and so on.
[...] Daggers have weapon rules, greatswords have weapon rules, pistols have weapon rules, chairs do not have weapon stats, and thus fall under the rules of improvised weapons [...]
Something I would like to point out is that Combat Scabbards are called out as being Improvised weapons, and yet are listed in the weapon lists and have weapon rules as you mentioned. They have stats and the like.
You said chairs don't have weapon stats, and thus fall under the rules of improvised weapons. What about the scabbard, which is specifically called out to be improvised, yet has weapon stats listed in the book?
Hey guys, sorry if this has been asked before, I might have missed it in the earlier replies. I wanted to ask if you thought there were any issues or design aspects of Pathfinder that you found 'unsatisfactory' that you might be trying to address in Starfinder.
For example, I hear (I'm not really a veteran of 3.5 or earlier DnD) that 3.5 had a bloat problem, and that it was usually to the best interest of the player to multiclass their mind out. This was kind of addressed in pathfinder as most builds are purely one class.
I guess I'm wondering if Starfinder is (on top of being a completely new setting and system) an attempt to 'fix' some of pathfinder's deeper issues, and what you designers consider those issues to be.
Question about the Artifice Domain ability and Conducive weapon. I'm trying to make a dwarven forgemaster and I was wondering if the Artificer's Touch Ability would synergize with a conducive adamantine weapon.
Artificer's Touch (Sp)::
You can cast mending at will, using your cleric level as the caster level to repair damaged objects. In addition, you can cause damage to objects and construct creatures by striking them with a melee touch attack. Objects and constructs take 1d6 points of damage +1 for every two cleric levels you possess. This attack bypasses an amount of damage reduction and hardness equal to your cleric level. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.
The idea is to perform a sunder maneuver with it. An adamantine weapon cannot ignore the Hardness of something with 20 or more Hardness, but Artificer's Touch reduces that for the sake of the attack. So:
>Adamantine Longsword has 20 Hardness
>Sunder with Adamantine Conducive weapon, using Artificer's touch
>Longsword is treated as having less hardness
>Properties of Adamantine take care of the rest
>All the Damage from the attack (including the damage of the Artificer's Touch ability) bypasses Hardness
Ah, so it doesn't work as a touch attack or a smashing action. Oh well, Aging Touch seems like a better alternative. 1d6 damage per oracle level that penetrates most of the object's Hardness. I'll look into the Touch of Ruin in Horror Adventures.
I'm thinking about stealing Drosil to play the villain of an encounter I'm designing, how does he treat an adamantine item as having 1 hardness? Wrecker says you reduce the hardness by your Oracle level. 20-9=11.
Also I don't think holding the item reduces it's hitpoints, it just gives it the broken condition.
I'm trying to make this work, I'd love to be able to touch my paladin's adamantine keen odachi and wreck it, but it needs to be legal.
I completely hadn't thought of that, thanks! On a similar note it'd probably ruin a wizard or Arcanist's day to find an arrow through their beloved spellbook too.
Hey RD, love your characters. I've recently started building a Mage Hunter Bow Barbarian. The whole thing revolves around having a 3 level dip in Archer Fighter so he can sunder at range. The Barb has the Urban archetype so he can get Dex Rage. Also picks up Ace Trip and Burrowing Shot. Everything else is standard Superstitious/Witch Hunter/Spell Sunder barb.
There's a 30 foot limit on the Spell Sundering, but the concept of a spell-killing arrow tickles me. Basic setup is as follows:
Hi, not sure if this will get any attention from the writers, but does Hellknight Armor Training count as Armor training for the Advanced Armor Training Feat? And do Hellknight levels stack with fighter levels to determine effects?
It's cool if they don't but the reason I though they might is because Hellknights are featured in AMH as one of the 'Armor Masters of the Inner Sea', and mechanically, if you go straight fighter into Hellknight you get Hellknight Armor Training at the same time as Armor Training 2 (Fighter 7 and Fighter 5/Hellknight 2)
EDIT: Apologies if this isn't the right place for this, I'm new on these forums.
So this is my first post here, so apologies in advance for any mistakes, but here goes.
I'm looking for some insight into how Overrun maneuvers work, especially with the title feats involved. Bulette Leap allows you to Overrun multiple foes, and greater overrun allows you to make an AoO when you knock an enemy prone using it.
Would I, if I had Combat Reflexes, be able to resolve this AoO and continue on my merry way to Overrun the next bloke (and AoO him) until I run out of movement or my charge ends? Would I provoke AoOs myself for the movement involved?
