Irthos's page

I once had a player argue that shooting a demon with cold iron bullets should negate its DR for the rest of the encounter, because the shot left fragments of cold iron in the wound.

And by "once," I mean "every time the party encounters a demon."

The only problem with your statement is that as a rule, material components with an expensive price are specifically listed in spell component line, see Wish as an example. If it does not have a price listed it has a negligible cost.

Again, that's open to interpretation. The rule you've highlighted never says that the price has to be given in the spell description. Black adder venom has a price listed in the core rulebook, and it's 120 gp. By the same token, the transformation spell doesn't list a price for the potion of bull's strength it requires, but I seriously doubt that's meant to be a negligible cost.

Material components without a specific cost listed are effectively free and require only having a spell component pouch (which effectively has an infinite amount of all spell components inside). This is total a rules things which breaks down any sense of realism, but it also to help the game not get bogged down by minutia. You also can't covert those vials of venom into an actual dose of black adder poison.

I did say "assuming" - the rules on spell components with market prices are a point of contention for some people, as evidenced by the numerous posts in this thread. As a GM, I'd rule that any material component with a market price has to be purchased separately unless it's a negligible amount or worth less than 1 gp for a single unit. However, I'm aware that there will be table variance on this.

@Cuttler, I'd suggest discussing the price with your GM beforehand in case this is an issue at your table.

It's also worth noting that this spell requires a vial of black adder venom as a material component. Assuming that's equivalent to 1 dose of poison, you're looking at 120 gold a pop - not incredibly expensive by 10th level, but not exactly chump change either. If your WBL is below average, you might have issues.

Internal Alchemist will give you uncanny dodge, but you'll need to invest at least 6 levels. Alternatively, the variant multiclass for barbarian (seen here) gives you uncanny dodge at 7th level.

If you want a crazy AC and survivability, the alchemist can provide. You've got access to cure extracts, fast healing through discoveries, and numerous self-buffs like barkskin and shield. Your BAB will be a few points lower than a dedicated martial, but extracts like haste and the aforementioned mutagen will more than make up for it.

If you really want to go true martial (because d12's are fun and science is for nerds), I'd pick either bloodrager OR barbarian, not both. The core class features don't stack with one another, and dividing your levels will severely hamper your bloodline/rage power progression.

Avoid ragechemist; it's a disaster waiting to happen. The extra Strength and Constitution may look good on paper, but in practice you'll be making multiple Will saves (i.e. your one bad save) every round, and they'll be getting progressively harder. Also, you can't end a mutagen like a rage, which means you'll have no way of avoiding that anger coma.

If you want a monstrously high Strength score, your best bet is probably a straight alchemist with a barbarian VMC. Pop a Strength-boosting mutagen, an enlarge person extract, and enter a rage for +10 Strength as early as 3rd level. Plus, the natural armor from your mutagen offsets the rage AC penalty!

Well, there's always the infinite throwing shield trick, but that's old hat. Besides, you'll have to spend ages picking up after every battle, not to mention the logistics of carrying that many shields on your person. We can do better.

First, start as a wizard with the Quick Draw feat and ranks in Craft (alchemy). You're going to put that skill to use crafting barrels upon barrels of alchemist's fire, acid, gunpowder... take your pick. Stockpile your alchemical doom in Large barrels until you hit 5th level, at which point you'll learn to cast shrink item to make them portable. Shrinking a Large barrel reduces it to Diminutive size, or about the same size as a flask, which you can then store on bandoliers about your person.

When combat starts, fly above the enemy (you remembered to take fly, right?) and draw one of your barrel-flasks as a free action using the Quick Draw feat. (Your GM may argue that barrel-flasks aren't weapons - point out to him that they're fragile and semi-aerodynamic items full of dangerous substances. They're improvised weapons at the very least.) Drop, drop the barrel-flask as another free action. (Your GM may call this an attack, but you're not actually aiming at anyone - just dropping something. Totally free!) Assuming you're up high enough, dropping a shrunken item should have the same kinetic effect as tossing it on the floor and return it to full size as well as breaking it open. I'd say 20-30 feet should be enough. (Your GM may argue that shrink item is triggered by the intention of tossing as opposed to the physical act - remind him that we're deliberately playing fast and loose with the rules here he's merely hypothetical strawman who exists to legitimize this outrageous argument. He'll understand!)

So, you've just dropped a barrel full of acid/napalm/explodey dust in the vicinity of your opponent(s), which should call for a Reflex save do avoid initial and/or ongoing damage. Well, let's drop another! That's two more free actions and another Reflex save for the poor saps below, not to mention a growing environmental hazard. Repeat the process until your pool of alchemical death is large enough for your tastes, and/or everything on the ground is dead, including the ground itself. If you're using gunpowder, you'll need to drop some sort of heat source to begin the fireworks - I recommend a lit torch in your offhand, or a shrunken bonfire, either of which can be dropped as yet another free action.

(Your GM, not taking the hint, may insist that all of this is taking too long and you need to quit monopolizing the session with your absurd rule-bending combat exploit. Point out that by RAW, you haven't actually taken more than six seconds of real time to complete your diabolical plan - talking is, after all, a free action.)

I thought the whole point of PoW was reinventing the wheel of melee combat?

PoW expanded on the existing combat rules. Certain maneuvers play around with the combat mechanics - say, Rising Zenith Strike - but they're discreet instances instead of whole disciplines, and integrated in such a way that it feels intuitive and your feats, weapon enhancement, etc. still affect the roll the way they should. PoW:E went a bit further with disciplines like Cursed Razor and Mithral current, but the terminology they used still meshed with what already existed. If you know what "cursed" and "sheathed" mean in a standard game, it's easy to figure out what they mean for maneuvers as well.

"Grasp," on the other hand, is another string added to the tangled mess that is restricted movement in Pathfinder. Vanilla PF already has multiple conditions that restrict movement - grappled, pinned, entangled, etc. - and each one works differently and interacts with the others in different ways. Afflicting a target with more than one of those conditions means the player (or worse, the GM) has to check the rules or be reminded constantly, "what does that one do again?" Now, imagine grasping is added to the mix. It's not out of the question to think that a martial disciple might start combat with a thrown net (entangle), then decide to wrestle his opponent to the ground (grapple/pin) while mixing in a bit of Fool's Errand (grasp) for good measure. The encounter now slows to a crawl as the GM tries to keep straight which condition is doing what.

In short, grappling and similar status effects are enough of a headache already. Adding another, simultaneous condition is NOT the answer.

Irthos wrote:

The issue isn't "martials have nice things." It's that the mechanic letting them do those things is stepping all over the toes of a similar mechanic, while abstracting itself in a manner that breaks verisimilitude.

I'm fine with issues like you discuss in your post. I just find it rather strange that people want grappling limited to "guy at the gym" when everything else is mythic in PoW.

Don't get me wrong; I love the idea of a warrior using a dragon as a shotput. I just want fluff that matches the mechanics, and preferably not having those mechanics reinvent the wheel. The idea behind Fool's Errand is fairly eclectic, but it clearly draws inspiration from real-world grappling styles like judo and fantasy stories like The Brave Little Tailor and Shadow of the Colossus. The running theme in all of the above is turning a larger opponent's own assets against them, which could easily be expressed by a series of maneuvers and stances that negate or even reverse Strength and size modifiers.

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I find this especially troubling with the thought that a kobold could hold down a tarrasque in place, and even be able to drag the beast around like he had the strength of Hercules.

Isn't this sorta stuff why people buy PoW in the first place? Over the top martial power that actually allows martials to do mythical level stuff rather than "level 20 brawler, cannot grapple anything because everything that actually does melee combat now is at least huge sized".

The issue isn't "martials have nice things." It's that the mechanic letting them do those things is stepping all over the toes of a similar mechanic, while abstracting itself in a manner that breaks verisimilitude.

For the sake of argument, let's run with Draykin's scenario above. Our brave little kobold (let's call him Yark) is staring down a monster hundreds of times his size, but he's not worried - he's been training his entire career for something like this. Anticipating it, even. "Lesson Six," he tells himself, assuming that very stance, and prepares to grasp his foe - and destiny!

[spoiler=Grasp "attempts"]Before we get into logistics here, I'd like to point out that the term "grasp attempt" as used in the document is misleading. As far as the dice are concerned, you're not actually attempting anything - the only rolls made during a grasp are by the target, and maintaining a the grasp requires absolutely no action on your part. Okay, that aside, let's move on.[/spoiler]

But... how?

The sidebar explaining grasp tells us that it can happen in a variety of ways. Yark could simply grab Big T by the big toe and sling him around, Bam-Bam style... but if that's the case, isn't he basically just grappling? It seems like effects that normally enhance a grapple, such as Improved Grapple or brawling armor, ought to affect the outcome... but they don't. Moreover, Big T isn't allowed to use his prodigious Strength and size to avoid the grasp - in fact, bigger creatures typically have a harder time avoiding a grasp, on account of how size adversely affects Dexterity. A creature with the giant template is always going to be easier to grasp than a vanilla version of the same creature.

Okay, let's explore some other options. Yark could also grasp his opponent by using his "reach and skill with a blade" to prod Big T in whatever direction he wants - but once again, that sounds a lot like a combat maneuver (drag, reposition, Stand Still). Yark's combat maneuver feats and weapon bonuses still don't apply, even though it seems like they should. It's also still easier to grasp big targets, but that makes a little more sense here - we've all seen a fantasy movie or ten where the little guy dances around a big monster with a sword. The real problem arises when Yark decides to move away from Big T and force it to follow him: unless he's got some amazing reach, he's no longer in a position to threaten his opponent with swordplay, meaning he must be taunting or otherwise provoking Big T. If that's the case, shouldn't this be covered by a skill check of some sort? The Antagonize feat, while much maligned, at least provided some guidance on how to make someone come after you. Is Yark's grasp save now Charisma based? Moreover, how does one make a Reflex save against a taunt?

But wait! There's one more option in the sidebar: Yark could be using his "killing intent" to force his opponent into stillness! The problem, however, is the same as what we ran into at the end of the last paragraph: namely, that this version of grasp sounds more like a skill check (Intimidate), or possibly a mind-affecting ability - and Big T's immune to both of those. But let's suppose Yark has a way to bypass that immunity - what then? Big T is still making a Reflex save to avoid a mental effect, the DC of which is still probably based on a physical ability score. Is the monster struggling not to lock eyes with its opponent? If so, do we need to bring gaze attack rules into this?

So, to summarize, we've got a mechanic that sounds like a combat maneuver but isn't, makes big things easier to push around than small ones, and sometimes works like a mental effect but targets Reflex. All of which is... just sort of taken for granted. I'm all for martials having nice things, and battlefield control is very nice indeed - I'd just rather see the combat maneuver rules patched to work, instead of having to jump through hoops to explain how you're using mean looks and reach to haul Godzilla around.

So, grasp is basically just "grapple, but different?" I see this causing a lot of confusion at the table, especially given the naming similarity. Even a slightly different term, like "clinch," would go a long way to alleviating this confusion.

Also, if the sidebar is to be believed, you can "grasp" someone and drag them through lava, over a waterfall, etc. without touching them or making a check of any kind. Moving someone around with angry thoughts ought to at least warrant a Will save instead of Reflex, and probably shouldn't be something you can do without a feat.

Speaking of saves, I feel I should point out that full initiator classes are among the most vulnerable to being "grasped." Of the six PoW classes, not a single one has Reflex as a good save. Alchemists and bards are harder to push around than warders and warlords, which strikes me as exceptionally silly.

I'm curious as to why a 5-foot tall creature with two Medium-sized parents is considered Small-sized. Or, for that matter, why a blind creature has low-light vision. Can they not-see twice as far as a blind human?

Also, I vote to name them Jerkborn, on the basis that nymphs can suppress their blinding ability at will. Which means that any nymph who blinded their child did it on purpose.

(The dad doesn't exactly sound like a class act either.)

ARG aside, most of Paizo's playable races are either some flavor of humanoid or outsider (native). Creatures that could have been other types tend to have subtypes and/or racial traits that give them some properties of the other type (e.g., the android's constructed subtype). Dhampirs, skinwalkers, and several Bestiary 5 races have established that it's okay for humanoids to have SLAs and similar weird abilities as long as they're basically human-shaped and don't have racial Hit Dice.

As Kazaan pointed out, Dreamscarred Press revised the elans to be humanoid (aberrant), and made a similar change to the dromites, which used to be monstrous humanoids. From what I've seen, it doesn't affect balance much and eliminates a lot of confusion when the party mage wants to cast enlarge person or similar.

Given all of that, you could probably make your vatborn race humanoid with some racial abilities to represent their in-betweenness. Something like the nagaji (another created race) save bonuses would be appropriate.

As for the CR, we both have it wrong. For 2-4 monsters, the CR goes up by 1 with each addition. For 5-8, it goes up by 1 per 2, and for 9-16 it goes up by 1 per 4. I had thought it went up by doubles each time, or 1-2-4-8-16 at each CR. Four CR 4 Sentinels would likely be unable to kill more than 1 or 2 level 7 PCs unless they got really lucky.

www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering

Take another look at Table: CR Equivalencies. Two monsters is CR +2; four is CR +4. The XP per monster follows the same progression; i.e., two CR 4s are worth as much XP as a single CR 6. The math breaks down a little at the halfway points (3, 6, and 12 monsters), but the general rule of doubling = +2 CR holds.

They also have fast healing 2 to get their HP up again after splitting.

You might want to edit the stat block, then. The original post doesn't mention fast healing anywhere.

Also, no kill = no XP by RAW... It's supposed to take cleverness to get of them.

The core rulebook and bestiary say you gain XP for "defeating monsters, overcoming challenges, and completing adventures." Killing is one option, but so is a successful capture or negotiation. (The rat has an Intelligence of 7, so it's already smarter than an ogre or troll, and on par with a severely impaired human.) I'd argue that depleting a monster's resources - in this case, making the rat use up all of its clones - ought to award XP as well, if only a diminished amount.

As for cleverness, what's the "trick" to beating these? The doppelrat only has one original body, so it's possible to for a keen-eyed character to locate and destroy the source. With a thessalrat, the only strategy is "kill them all before they run, and they're faster than you." It's basically that one monster from JRPGs that everyone hates, except there's no big reward. Now, if arcane mitosis had a cost or triggering condition, that would make for a much more interesting encounter.

Here's an idea: maybe the thessalrat's mitosis is actually a magically-induced budding? The extra "heads" are actually half-developed clones sprouting from the main body, which can complete their growth at any time by "spending" an appropriate number of heads (e.g., the thessalrat loses 3 heads to make a 3-headed copy). To make up for the loss in power, give the thessalrat spell resistance, and have it regain a head whenever it successfully resists a spell. The rat can still manipulate its action economy a bit, but the number of pieces to track is limited and damage remains fairly constant. (A boon to player and GM alike - an encounter with the first draft thessalrat could potentially potentially involve 81 attack rolls per round!)

Thessalrats are new monsters designed for PCs below level 5, not a monster + a template.

If it's intended for PCs below level 5, why not make it a CR 4? Alternatively, you could shore up the rat's defenses a bit, add some Hit Dice, and maybe another ability (all-round vision would be appropriate). Extra HD would do wonders for this critter's survivability, but in that case I'd return to having an "original" body like the doppelrat so that its running away is less of a guarantee.

First things first: If your homebrew monster is too powerful for its CR, then you've given it the wrong CR. Be prepared to make adjustments, possibly on the fly, and to let the players mulligan if your experimental monster kills a good chunk of the party.

Now, on to the monsters.

The ghastly sentinel is more swingy than anything else. If its paralysis works, great; you've basically got a dead PC - assuming it survives the next round, and whatever AoO it has to eat to pull off that coup de grace. Actually, a standard ghast is actually better at this than the sentinel, since it has the stench ability to lower saves and an extra hand free to claw (thus another chance to paralyze). The only real advantage the sentinel has is the ability to stay still, which it... apparently keeps doing if discovered? I don't see the point of that, given that paranoid (read: nearly all) PCs are going to keep stabbing the meat statue until it's in pieces, then probably burn it to be sure.

Also, keep in mind that CR goes up by 2 every time the monster count doubles. Four CR 4 monsters is a CR 8 encounter, which is supposed to be a challenge for a 7th-level party.

The thessalrat... I'm not sure where to begin with this one. Thessalmonsters are supposed to have at least 5 HD and be Large-sized, so you're already going outside the expected parameters and shouldn't be surprised that it's not performing as expected. On top of that, it has a suite of other non-standard abilities slapped on: increased bite damage (for one head), teleportation (why?), and more than doubled land speed. As far as being a threat, the clones only have 4 hp max - they're going to get maybe one attack before they die from someone looking at them funny, to say nothing of the many, many spells that will obliterate them en masse. After one standard encounter, the thessalrat is going to have two daily clones left, or one if it used its teleportation. (Again, why?)

The only thing this critter has going for it is the ability to run away. Best case scenario, you get to annoy the party for awhile with a monster they can't kill, until they win initiative and finish it with one good sword swing or fireball. Is that really a victory worth having?

Is there some reason why you need to wear your animal companion? You'd be more effective just having it flank your enemy, and you wouldn't have to jump through hoops for it.

It's still better than Con/Int. The only support for that particular combo is the Munavri, and they're not something most GMs would allow.

Build a tube with linked ring gates on either end, mounted in a gyroscopic array to keep them vertically oriented at all times. Make it long enough that something falling through can build up a fair bit of speed, and insert some sort of flywheel or other contraption to harvest the kinetic energy from infinite freefall.

If you're willing to consider psionics, an egoist can do some pretty good Hulking. A mid-level character can go from puny human to suplexing giants in one round with the right choices.

Eh, I'd allow it. The stat blocks for an owlbear and a grizzly aren't appreciably different, and they're both listed as 4th-level options for Summon Nature's Ally. Besides, the ability in question just says "bears" - there's nothing restricting it to the animal type.

Assuming the caster has no alchemist levels, then yeah, force-feeding mutagens would work. Just bear in mind that you'll need an alchemist of at least 6th level to keep him permanently nauseated, and that said alchemist won't be doing much else. (Brewing a mutagen takes 1 hour.)

If your alchemist has to do something else, then you'll have a to get a bit creative with your anti-magic. Here are a few suggestions:

- Keep him on his feet and moving. As long as he's moving more than his base speed each round, he won't have an action to cast spells.

- Whenever possible, force him to make high-DC concentration checks. Handle him roughly (violent movement requires a check), or have the party meathead give him a bear hug (grappled and pinned creatures have to make checks as well).

- Limit his use of spell components. Take away anything that looks like a material component. Bind and gag him so he can't use verbal or somatic components. If he's a psychic spellcaster, make Intimidate checks to prevent him from using emotion components. For thought components, just keep jostling him - the concentration check will be that much harder.

- Make him use up his spells. Every tactic above has a feat-based workaround, but he'll be using up higher-level spell slots for most of them. Once he's running on empty, keep him from getting a good night's rest so he can't replenish spell slots.

- If all else fails, slap some manacles of cooperation on him. They're cheap, and good, for making captive bad guys sit down and behave.

Are you allowing third party material? The psionic powers expansion and metamorphosis can potentially increase a character's size to Huge, and a sufficiently high level egoist can share their effects with other characters.

You mentioned he was interested in soulknife and bloodrager - both of those classes have archetypes that focus on unarmed combat.

Soulknife's deadly fist archetype is good if you don't have a lot of wealth spread around. Your enhancement bonus automatically increases as you gain levels, and with the right blade skills you can make pretty much every combat ability key off Wisdom. Add in gifted blade for some manifesting, and you can have an incredible AC with basically no equipment.

I haven't played with the bloody-knuckled rowdy archetype for bloodrager, so I can't say much about that one. You'll be giving up a number of good abilities for big damage dice, but bloodrager already has a lot going for it.

Both of these archetypes, and also the brawler, have the advantage of working just fine in armor, which means you can wear brawling armor for a nice unarmed bonus. It's super-inexpensive, so I'd recommend grabbing one as soon as wealth allows.

I've always liked the idea that sonic = air and electricity = earth (magnetism and metals being earth-y things), but that's just personal preference. Unfortunately, Paizo seems to have gone out of their way to avoid sonic energy. Certain blatantly sonic effects (I'm looking at you, thunderstorm blast!) deal bludgeoning damage, despite all logic and reason. I'm tinkering with the idea of an aerokinetic infusion for that turns bludgeoning damage into sonic, but I haven't nailed down the specifics yet...

Aspect of the Beast gives you a selection of upgrades to choose from. A ranger with the natural weapon style can ignore the prerequisites.

Beastmorph Alchemist archetype gives you all sorts of nifty things while under the effects of a mutagen. The alchemist class in general has all sorts of body horror goodness, from wings and tentacles to extracts that sprout vines out of your arms.

If your DM allows third party material, take a look at the Aberrant archetype for the Aegis in Ultimate Psionics. Great if you want to play a tentacle monster.

Irthos wrote:

If the description says you throw it as a ranged touch attack, then that's how it works. Your DM is free to rule otherwise, but RAW says you have to spend an action and provoke an AoO.

No it doesn't. I quoted the rule above. It gives the ranged touch as an option. The pellet goes off any time you break the clay sphere.

You can argue that it won't go off if just dropped because it's not enough to break it - but it's not valid to argue that it won't go off when broken.

Where am I arguing that it doesn't go off when broken? I'm arguing that you have to spend an action to break the pellet. By RAW, you do that by throwing it. Anything else, be it squeezing, chewing, or smacking it with a dead kobold, is strictly up to your DM. At best, it's probably going to use up either an attack or a swift action each round.

Again, why not just use a smokestick for this trick?

If the description says you throw it as a ranged touch attack, then that's how it works. Your DM is free to rule otherwise, but RAW says you have to spend an action and provoke an AoO. If the pellets went off just from being dropped, they'd also activate anytime you tripped, took a solid hit or set your pack down wrong. Nobody wants that.

The point of a smoke pellet isn't to spam them every round for concealment; it's for the classic "ninja vanish" maneuver where you toss one down and hide. If you want ongoing concealment, grab a smokestick - it's one action to activate and drop, it should last you the encounter, and you won't smell like egg farts afterward.

Unless the item description says otherwise, throwing a smoke bomb at your square still requires a ranged attack roll, which uses an action and provokes an AoO as normal. Think of it as having to prime the pellet and.or throw it hard enough to break.

Eh...I imagine adamantine sword vs stone wall like the Star Wars scenes of Jedi cutting through doors. Less swing as stab and slice.

And I like the idea of high level martials punching through walls (perhaps with adamantine gauntlet assistance).

The problem with that is that lightsabers don't have to worry about friction - their business end is made of energy, and they're not so much cutting things and burning/melting them. A physical blade is relying on depth of penetration to inflict damage, and it's going to encounter a LOT of friction the deeper it goes thanks to the flat of the blade. In comparison, a pickaxe has a wedge-shaped head that's designed to deliver a more focused impact without much penetration, and be easier to withdraw without getting stuck in the material.

You could break a rope with a Bowling Ball, Adamantine or otherwise.

I'm inclined to say that falls under the purview of Strength checks, and bypasses hit points and hardness entirely. Granted, I'm not sure how one calculates the Strength score of an inanimate object - maybe base it on the Strength required to lift it?

93: A miniature flying sleigh pulled by wolpertinger.

I call this one "The Draught."

A mixture of green slime or a similar substance is prepared and fed to the condemned, by force if necessary, while he kneels in a large trough of stone or metal. The slime will react to the body of the condemned almost immediately, dissolving him from the throat and stomach outward. The condemned will die from internal bleeding or suffocation once his lungs and windpipe have dissolved. The trough will keep his now contaminated remains from leaking, which might present a risk to spectators.

There are also several variaations on this execution method.

"The Chilled Draught"- Instead of green slime, the condemned is fed a mixture of brown mold spores. The germinating spores sap the heat from his insides, causing death by hypothermia. In some cases, the body of the condemned will freeze solid and can be shattered with a blow from the executioner - always a crowd-pleasing spectacle!

"The Alchemist's Draught"- An alchemist prepares a bottled ooze to be fed to the condemned. Depending on the variety of ooze, the victim may die from any number of causes; popular choices are hungry flesh for a death by disease and gelatinous cubes that rupture the abdomen as they grow to full size.

Flying elbow drop off a cliff, onto the main villain. For bonus points, have the wizard ready an action to cast flesh to stone as soon as you're airborne.

Classic Horrors Revisited had a gargoyle variant that looks like a statue of an angel, and only moves when you're not looking at it. I know a few Dr. Who fans who were tickled by that one.

Do doge bonuses stack, or do I use the best macro currently in effect?

So, if I'm reading this right... you're going to randomly decide which party members to help or abandon at any given time? With modifiers based on how much stuff they have?

I think the acronym is going to be the least of your concerns.

It's spelled deity.

Read the first sentence of favored weapon training very carefully. It doesn't make sense.

Idunno, I kind of like the image of a warrior in shining armor swinging a god at someone. You can't usually do that until high levels unless you're a barbarian.

Though it does raise a few interesting questions: How many hands does it take to wield a deity? Would a god of subtlety (e.g. Norgorber) be finesseable? Can a polytheist dual-wield his gods? I'd like to see Brokenbane address these issues before I bring this archetype to the table, since they're bound to come up sooner or later.

If you're willing to give up psychic strike, you can take the gifted blade archetype and use inertial armor on yourself to save allies the spell slots. Alternatively, you can pick chameleon on days when you feel like sniping. Either way, I recommend the psionic knack trait to boost ML.

I'd take Weapon Finesse as your first feat and stick with a dagger for the moment. The difference between d3 and d4 base damage isn't worth spending a feat, especially if you're planning to focus on natural attacks. As soon as you can afford it, pick up an amulet of mighty fists (agile) and focus on boosting Dexterity as high as possible.

You might also want to consider the beastmorph archetype - it's fully compatible with vivisectionist, and eventually grants you the pounce ability as well as whatever movement mode you feel like using at the moment.

I'll second jhpace here- psionic is a good fit for the Jojo 'verse. I recommend a psychic warrior with the meditant archetype (I think that's the right one - whichever one gives monk-like abilities). Some appropriate powers to take include:

burst (some early time manipulation)
offensive/defensive precognition (extreme precision and quick reactions)
vigor (Jojo characters can take a LOT of punishment)
distracting strikes (it's hard to concentrate when a Stand is pummeling you)
animal affinity (Jotaro seems to have high stats all around)
hustle (more time manipulation)
prowess (always room for more attacks!)
dimension slide (fluff it as moving ridiculously fast)
ectoplasmic grapnel (Jotaro frequently uses his Stand to grab ledges and such)
physical acceleration (AKA psionic haste - still more time manipulation)

Batman.

If every other area-damage 3rd level spell is significantly weaker than fireball, then obviously the problem is with fireball not being matched to the rest of the game anymore.

Not necessarily.

Fireball and lightning bolt are better area-damage spells because that's what they're supposed to be: area-damage spells. They don't debuff; they don't control; they don't sneak around spell resistance. All they do is make lots of things take damage, right now. The reason no other 3rd level spell does that is because they don't need to; that niche is already filled. Why reinvent the wheel?

One problem I foresee in removing the staple spells is the addition of extra paperwork to track secondary spell effects. If your evoker is using, say, snapdragon fireworks instead of magic missile as his basic damage spell, you're going to be making an extra die roll each round and keeping track of who's dazzled instead of writing down damage once and being down with it.

With a few adjustments, a standard babau makes a pretty good stand-in for a Xenomorph warrior. Change the subtypes, strip away the SLAs, and... voila! You have a strong, tough creature that's crazy good at hiding, bleeds acid, and can skewer an average human with its "tail" (i.e., reflavored longspear).

Recursive Leadership gnome summoner.

And while my DM is on the floor foaming at the mouth, I'm stealing those dice and putting them in a lead-lined container for my next Champions game. It's been awhile since I made a GM cry.

You think spending an hour to get 1 ki point back is reasonable? At that rate, you may as well just take TriOmegaZero's advice and just take a full rest if you've got the kind of time to kill for a Ki Mat to matter. The ONLY other alternative is to make a Drunken Master and pick up a Flask of Endless Sake for 4k, which is probably the best alternative.

There's also the option of playing a hungry ghost monk with a sack full of chickens. Granted, you'll be LN at best and smell like a barnyard, and your fellow party members will be making constant "choke the chicken" jokes, and you risk having your DM attack you with his dice bag as he suffers flashbacks to the RatCleave fighter...

Actually, I'm not sure why I thought this was a good idea.

Happened yesterday playing my Fighter/Ninja Hishi.

Walked into a stable a stranger in a skull mask asked our cleric (who was enlarged ATM) to help him fix his wagon as he attempted to fix the Stranger snapped his fingers and the party was flanked by 2 ghouls rouges. Surprise round the ghouls tear the enlarged cleric a new one dropping him down to -10 one save away from death. After that was over the necromancer try's to take the ghouls over and sadly fails he yells out get the guy controlling them. Next up is me so I spend a Ki point tuen invisible use my quick draw to pull a potion of cure critical wounds and pour it down the clerics pie hole. Then having a move left I run past the ghouls and up to what I believe to be a caster (boy was I wrong) hoping to distract him and soak some damage. Up next the masked stranger who happens to me a Rouge/Assasin the GM says "wow that's intresting" and rolls to attack it hits and I think let me get ready to do some subtracting. The GM says make a fort save me thinking nothing of it rolls I roll crap 5 (like all my saves) I tell him my save he says you failed, I reply grinning don't I always(failed every save before due to low die rolls). He replys not anymore your dead. New to Pathfinder high lvl table I was confused he sat down and game step by step what happens and seems to me I was certainly dead. I won't be running up into combat like that anymore.

So... what did happen, exactly? A death attack shouldn't have worked if you already knew he was an enemy.

EDIT: Ninja'd, dagnabbit! Assassin ninja'd even!

Flaming damage applies on a hit with the weapon, so whether or not you can flaming-trip depends on how your DM defines the term. I'd say that wrapping a burning piece of leather around someone's ankle is sufficient to burn them, but I don't know if that's RAI or not.

Discharging a touch spell is much clearer, since it specifies a melee attack. A combat maneuver is explicitly an attack, so tripping your opponent would indeed discharge whatever spell you had stored.

I second Zmar's grievance against hag covens, particularly sea hags. A lone evil eye is bad enough, but three is just plain rude. The worst part is that they were actually toned down from their 3.5 incarnation - dazed for three days, anyone?

Because two great archetypes taste great together?

In all seriousness, though, it's the synergy between class abilities that makes this combination appealing. Kensai gives you a suite of useful abilities as long as you wield your weapon of choice. Bladebound gives you your weapon of choice for free, along with a scaling bonus and insurance against loss or damage. Pick the same sword for both archetypes, and you have a free weapon that gets incredible bonuses, can't be broken or disarmed, and can be recovered or repaired with minimal expenditure of resources.

Imagine, for example, a class built around being able to deliver a potent melee strike or series of strikes (better than the Vital Strike line, perhaps), moving before and after the attack, but was unable to full attack normally. (I understand that this is a pretty weird design, but it's a thought experiment.) That class could function as a skirmisher from the beginning to the end, without even falling into the "gotta set up full attack every turn" thing that melee classes end up falling into as they level. There might be a better way to implement it, but it would tie combat style to character decisions, rather...

If you're willing to use 3.5 material, the Dervish PrC from Complete Warrior does something very similar to what you're proposing and should easily convert to Pathfinder. Incidentally, it's also one of my favorite martial classes.

I don't have any resolution on the general case of applying enhancement bonuses to an armor bonus from a non-traditional source, but in this specific case, I don't think it's really an issue. Magic Vestments specifically targets "armor or shield touched". Despite providing an armor bonus, a Robe of the Archmagi probably doesn't qualify as a valid target of the spell as it occupies the 'body' magic item slot and not the 'armor' slot, doesn't require armor proficiency to wear, etc.

I'm with bohdranist here. A Robe of the Archmagi isn't a suit armor any more than a Mage Armor spell, or Bracers of Armor. All of the above provide an armor bonus but they lack the other qualities that would make them count as actual armor for the purpose of Magic Vestment.

Adding to this, the Magic Vestment spell also states the following:

An outfit of regular clothing counts as armor that grants no AC bonus for the purpose of this spell.

What counts as "regular" clothing isn't specified, but I would imagine that being laden with 75K worth of magic would disqualify the robes. In the event that they do qualify, the Magic Vestment spell counts them as having a base armor bonus of +0. The enhancement bonus increased to +0 armor bonus to +5... which doesn't stack with the armor bonus the robe already has.