Venture-Lieutenant, Canada—Ontario—Kanata 109 posts (130 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 16 Organized Play characters. 1 alias.
So fun fact: I actually changed my own opinion within writing this post.
Bladelock, I am in the for camp, and I think shadow weapon does not get the bonus for the same reason Summon Monster doesn't get the bonus: The spell description has no Dice-based damage roll to which to add the bonus.
THAT SAID, that spell, like all the other spells that manufacture weapons, have their own internal limiters on damage, plus you have a spell cast making attack rolls each turn. +1-2 damage on a hit is not a huge issue. In fact, its also very flavorful for an Orc spellcaster to just summon up a weapon and charge into battle. So if I was GM'ing and my player asked, I would give the minor damage boost.
Rules though, the spell description does not have a damage roll in it, so it would not get the bonus damage. The line is unclear, but how I personally read it, that seems to be a place that makes sense.
I just read Monster's Hunter's Handbook last night, and there is now a feat for Favored Enemy of a specific type. Not as powerful as the original, but can give you the flavor without needing to go into Ranger.
Generally, a little more information would be helpful. Class, build, desired combat role. Anything helps, but in the black, here we go:
Shield-trained (Religion Trait, worship Gorum): Your heavy shield now counts as light, among other things. For 2weapon fighting.
Improved Shield Bash: Now you and whollop people and keep the AC bonus.
Two Weapon Fighting: Cause -10 to hit sucks. With this and shield trained, you are at -2/-2 with your Scimitar and Shield.
Shield Focus: +1 AC, and opens up Shield Mastery feats, like...
Stumbling Bash: -2 AC to enemies you bash. Fun fact, non-magical untyped penalties stack, unless they specifically say otherwise. GMs may disagree.
Improved Critical Scimitar: Keen as a feat. 15-20 crits are great. Specially when you have...
Bashing Finish: Free shield bash on crit.
Shield Master: You now have no penalties to fight with a shield. Plus your AC bonus counts as a weapon enchantment. EXCELLENT feat.
Artful Dodge: Congrats, you can now use Int to qualify for TWFing feats if you want.
I listed a few standard sword and board items. Slayers and Rangers are great for fighting like this because of their 6th level access to Shield Master.
For: The weapon is created as the spell effect, so benefits to spell effect should apply to the attacks made with that weapon.
Against: Since the arcana boosts the damage of spell effects, and the spell effect is to create a weapon. As that act deals no damage itself, the arcana benefit is thus wasted.
Personally, I believe it should be the former, but I like synergy.
A middle ground spell would be something like Chill Touch. You get multiple touch attacks (basically 1/round) that deal damage. If the touch attack you get each round with Chill Touch gains the benefit of the Orc Arcana, why doesn't the attack each round with the Flame Blade gain this same benefit?
Feather Step (1st level) lets you ignore difficult terrain. May come up if you like to use Entangle or Stone Call.
Longstrider (1st level) has hours/level and is +10 to base land speed.
Monkey Fish (1st level) can give you a slow but functional way to deal with a bunch of obstacles.
Barkskin (2nd level) is a solid boost to AC, though it doesn't stack with an Amulet of Natural Armor.
Resist Energy (2nd level) scales with level and works against each energy attack that comes your way for the duration.
Spider Climb (2nd level) is a nice way to deal with cliffs and walls.
Vine Strike (2nd level) adds 1d6 damage and a chance to Entangle with each natural attack.
Greater Magic Fang (3rd level) has an hours per level duration and can either boost one attack a lot or all your attacks slightly. Does not stack with Amulet of Mighty Fists for enhancement bonuses, but the AoMF can be used to gain special abilities.
Atavism (4th level) is functionally Rage for animals.
Life Bubble (4th level) protects against a large amount of situations.
I normally don't get to play much with 5th level spells or higher, so that is outside my knowledge.
If you have weapon training in heavy shield, the Advanced Weapon Training: Effortless Dual Wielding reduces the penalty for using a one-handed weapon in the off-hand to -2.
Pretty sure it doesn't work with those styles, but anyone can combine two styles with Weapon Style Mastery from the Weapon Master's Handbook. One of them has to be a weapon style, however.
Wow, did not expect this much back and forth. Thanks everyone. Also, there is a very good reason I decided not to use an alchemist is my base example.
I'm going to take away from this that we are working outside the basic scope of the game, and that its a discussion for my GM and I should I ever build this.
Also, the ONLY bit of the offhand attack rules is interesting since it clarifies how to calculate offhand damage.
I am just curious if this is possible, and if so, how is it handled. Also, this may fall under advice, since it is severely corner case and mostly a thought experiment. The only valid response may be: check with your GM, otherwise don't try it.
Simplest example, a kasatha duel wielding 2handed weapons. Lets assume 14 Str. Main hand, 2handed attack is 1.5x Str, so +3 damage. Off hand is 0.5x Str, so I assume +1 damage.
Alternatively, it could be like when you apply multiple modifiers (lance + spirited charge for example) and you get Str + (0.5x Str for 2handed) - (0.5x Str for offhand) = 1x Str, so +2 damage.
Whichever it is, it is safe to assume Power Attack follows suit.
You stand alone against creatures far larger than you.
Benefit: If you are the only character threatening an opponent and you successfully attack the opponent with a two-handed melee weapon, for each size category larger than you that opponent is, you gain a +2 bonus on your melee damage roll.
Can I get this benefit on an offhand attack, if my offhand is wielded in 2 hands? Presumably, I have 3 or more hands.
Indeed. The build plan is to make a Feyspeaker Druid for a Kingmaker run. I will be casting off Cha so I can also be the face. I was just curious for the feats I don't need if I can use them to improve my cat. I am aware that there are probably better options, but once I started thinking and reading, it looked as if it was able to create an octo-cat. That seemed fun. Given I plan to play a trickster druid (CN, fey inclined) it seemed like a fun experiment.
Hi, I am about to start a home game and am considering playing a druid. I understand since this is a home game, any rules questions should be asked directly to the GM, and I plan to do so, but I would like to have my stance be confident when I approach. So, that said, on to my question.
The feat Evolved Companion lists that the companion must conform to all the limitations of the chosen evolution. Since the Tentacle evolution has no limitations on it, I should be able to take it over and over and add a large number of natural attacks to my pounce kitty. However, the eidolon itself prevents you from taking evolutions that increase its natural attack count above its limit, given by summoner level.
Is the Eidolon limit on natural attacks considered to be an evolution limit for the purposes of taking Evolved Companion?
I don't know the effects of the Luck traits from 3.5, but Human has access to Defiant Luck, Inexplicable Luck, and Bestow Luck via the Advanced Race Guide. Link
I have never seen the feats in use, but they may fit the theme of your character.
I found it with a friend of mine. I missed it in the Replaying a Scenario for Legal Table Size section of the Guide.
That section states the placeholder sheet you get is the only exception to the rule that a character cannot have two copies of the same chronicle sheet.
It does make me wonder where the rule is written, though, for there to be such an exception.
Just considering where I am going to put the GM credit when I run the scenario. Thanks for the clarification.
Is it in the Roleplaying Guild Guide? I read over it before posting and couldn't see a clear answer preventing me from having the two on the same number.
If you need a clean ruling, you can follow the way Divine Hunter does it. You don't get odd druid levels, you just get a buff to the companion at 4th level. +2 attribute points to distribute how you want.
Minotaurs have a love of complicated things, and
the double crossbow is one of their favorites. This
heavy weapon fires a pair of iron-tipped bolts with
deadly accuracy. Due to its size and weight, however,
non-proficient wielders suffer a –8 penalty on their
attack rolls. Even proficient wielders take a –2 penalty on
their attack rolls. If the attack is successful, the target takes
the listed damage twice, although critical hits and precisionbased
damage are only applied to one of the bolts. Reloading
a double crossbow takes 2 standard actions (one for each bolt),
although the Rapid Reload feat reduces this to 2 move actions
(meaning that it can be accomplished in 1 round).
Exotic Weapon Cost Dmg (S) Dmg (M) Dmg (L) Critical Range Weight Type
Ranged Weapon
Double Crossbow 300 gp 1d6 1d8 2d6 19–20/2 100 ft. 18 lb. Piercing
I tried to copy the image of the whole block but it wouldn't paste.
Edit for more info: According to PFS Additional resources, this is one of only 2 things legal for player use in the whole book. The other is a bull rush feat.
The Repeating Crossbow has a clause that prevents Crossbow Mastery from allowing it to reload as a free action. The Minotaur Double Crossbow does not have that clause, so it falls under the ability to be freely reloaded by Crossbow Mastery.
As a design challenge, 2 friends of mine and I set out to build crossbow users for PFS and all bring them to the same table. We all came back with Minotaur Double Crossbow builds. I submit mine to you for evaluation. It does not, in fact, fire less arrows than a Longbowman.
Level 11: HP+ 8, BAB +1, Fort +0, Ref +1, Will +0, 7 skill points (Know Religion, Know Arcane, Know Local, Know Planes, Know Nature, Perception, Spellcraft), Spells (Heroism), Shake it Off, Open Feat
It fires 2 arrows at level 1, 4 arrows at level 3, 6 arrows at level 8, and 2 more arrows whenever I have Haste, which I get personally though Channel Vigor at level 9
Thanks for the feedback. This is why I posted this. I was once told that opinions are like Pokemon. If you don't send them out to battle, they will never grow and evolve.
-False Focus specifically references multiple material components in its own example, so there shouldn't be an issue replacing multiple. Furthermore, alchemical power components are material components based on their own description, so they should be replaceable.
-I am only using the Liquid Ice for its material component benefit, so I have no focus components to be replaced.
-I have 1 hand for somatic components and 1 hand to hold a flag. Everything else is replaced with the tattoo.
-Since this was designed for potentially a PFS character, the society is the Pathfinder Society. Losing the 1 force damage in a home campaign is acceptable losses.
-I am unsure exactly where the line is drawn with weapon damage rolls and weapon-like spells. So if Flagbearer doesn't work, use Point-blank Shot instead.
-Reactionary is listed because it is my current second trait. I just had it there in case there someone could find a way to replace it for more damage.
-The problem with the replacement effect of the icicle in the liquid ice effect is that it doesn't say it replaces it. It doesn't say it adds it. Since the component could augment or alter the spell, it could be either. But it doesn't say which. The rest of the alterations use replacement works like "instead" or "in place of". Since this is for PFS, ideally, what it appears like it should mean is irrelevant. I want to know which it is. I am aware that the PFS rule is "Prepare for the worse case" but it would be nice to have some input.
I am also not trying to cheese things into other things. I am trying to combine effects for synergy. One says they are material components. One replaces material components. Seems pretty basic.
Hi. My friend and I were in a theory-crafting discussion and trying to figure out how to make the best damage cantrip at level 1. We are assuming you cannot use a level 1 spell reduced 2 times, because of the PFS campaign clarification on Wayang Spellhunter not permitting a spell level to be decreased below minimum.
This is what we have so far:
Level 1 Ice Flinger
Human Cross-blooded Sorcerer 1
Bloodlines: White Dragon, Orc
Feats: False Focus, Flagbearer (Could be point blank shot, but this is more helpful to others)
Traits: Reactionary, Havoc of the Society
Attack: Ray of Frost +4 (3 dex, 1 morale) 2d3+7 (1d3+4 Cold, 1d3+2 piercing, 1 force)
Items: Divine Focus Tattoo (100g), Flag (10g), Harimaki (8g)
Ray of frost is modified by Black Powder (+1 Elemental Damage) and Liquid Ice (+1d3 piercing damage and +1 cold damage) as material components via False Focus, Havoc of the Society (+1 force damage), Orc Bloodline (+1 damage per die), Dragon Bloodline: White (+1 damage per die on Cold spells), and Flagbearer (+1 to hit and damage within 30 feet of the flag)
Did I miss anything? 2d3+7 at ranged touch seems fine for a level 1 cantrip.
EDIT: My math was wrong and I had an extra +1 on the Piercing damage.
Thanks for the quick feedback. I will take it up with the local venture officers and follow their lead. Its good to know that I didn't miss any clarification.
I went down the rabbit hole with unchained rogues and ninjas and all of the posts. I get I cannot unchain a ninja in PFS. Can I make a ninja with the Scout rogue archetype in PFS?
If this is obvious, and I missed it, I apologize. I am completely sleep deprived at the moment.
Klorox, it was less dealing acid damage and more adding 1d6 to bomb damage via an item that I wanted.
_Ozy_, thanks for the link. That is both clear, and saddening.
Finally, and related to my character but slightly off topic for the original post, if I fire a dye arrow (ranged touch, no damage) from a corrosive bow, the arrow gains the corrosive ability. Can an arrow that deals no damage gain bonus damage? I think no, but I am willing to be convinced otherwise.
Well, as to how the bombs get coated with acid, I would say magic. Since, you know, magic gloves. Not that magic is a good enough reason, but in this case, it would be the answer.
Good to know I wasn't the only one confused as to how this works.
By the writing, the attack gains the property, so it looks like the bomb attack or the Explosive missile would gain 1d6 acid damage, but I don't think I can stack the acid damage to get multiple damage dice.
With this much debate, however, I am pretty sure I don't want to run this at a PFS table, since I am unsure what the result would be.
I am building a grenadier alchemist for PFS, and wondering how deliquescent gloves work with my abilities.
I understand that it will allow me to add 1d6 acid damage via the corrosive ability to weapons I hold in my hands. For bombs, does this still work? They are treated as weapons so is there a reason they cannot gain the ability? If they can, does it affect the bomb's splash damage?
Can I add the corrosive ability to alchemical splash weapons I throw?
Finally, if I infuse a weapon with an alchemical splash weapon as per the Alchemical Weapon ability, can the weapon gain the corrosive bonus damage twice, once for the weapon itself and once for the alchemical splash weapon infused on it?
That is perfectly fair. I just play this character in PFS so I want to be able to show where the rule is if it comes up.
The reason for my confusion is this line in the PRD that is also in the CRB:
Pathfinder Reference Document wrote:
Penalty: Penalties are numerical values that are subtracted from a check or statistical score. Penalties do not have a type and most penalties stack with one another.
It is under the common terms here. Given that at the time I couldn't find any other source, I was inclined to believe my knowledge of how penalties worked was wrong.
Basically, I found in the Magic section of the core rulebook that penalties work like bonuses, and that only the most severe of a type applies. However, it does say most untyped penalties stack.
Also, in the very start of the CRB, it describes penalties as untyped numbers that you subtract from a roll or number, and that they usually stack.
Stumbling Bash is a shield mastery feat from the Armor Master's Handbook that applies a -2 penalty to AC on victims of your shield bashes until the end of your next turn.
If I shield bash someone twice, do the penalties stack, resulting in -4 to AC until the end of my next turn?
The reason why it matters is because with Shield Trained, my heavy shield is a light weapon. This reduces the TWF'ing penalties to -2/-2 when it is offhand (-2/0 now with Shield Master).
My rapier is one-handed so if it is my offhand I have 0/-4 as penalties.
I have also considered just buying a second shield and using 2 at 0 penalties. Then each hit applies a typeless -2 to enemy AC.
It still doesn't answer my question about if I can hit with my offhand attack first.
Okay, that makes sense. You attack down in steps based on the BAB. Now my remaining question is: Can I use my extra attack from my offhand BEFORE my main hand?
This is mostly for the benefit of Stumbling Bash. I know I could just light-hand a kukri, but that would negate the value of Shield Trained.
I am playing a character in PFS and my guy just got the feat Shield Master. Originally, I would hit sword shield sword at +6 +6 +1 before penalties and bonuses.
Now, when all is calculated, my shield swings at a higher attack bonus than my sword. The rules on a full attack say I have to attack from the highest bonus to the lowest, if I get multiple attacks due to high BAB.
Does this mean I have to hit with my shield first, because it has a higher bonus? Does hitting with my shield first stop it from being my off-hand attack?
I am playing a game tomorrow (Tuesday) and I cannot buy the PDF until Wednesday.
I have seen posts online for 2 feats I want to use for my build, Shield Brace and Shielded Mage, but I do not know what the prerequisites are.
Am I allow to ask for feat prerequisites here, before the PDF is available for general release? I know the subscribers already have it and there are hard copies available. If so, can I get the prerequisites for those 2 feats?
I ended up playing my hunter, not my all-in magic missile build. My friend had a lot of fun (the main goal of the weekend), but is thinking of rebuilding his character. He designed a really neat secondary attacker, buff and debuff shaman, then forgot to use half of his abilities. So now he plans to retrain into Barbarian and kill things.
Thanks for all the input, and also for the extensive lesson on swarms.
Indeed. You can Ray of Frost a swarm, though. Plus you can assume about 3 more people at the table can also help kill it.
I resolved to play either an alchemist or a hunter, though. Alchemist (Grenadier with Longbow) if the party is light on range, or Hunter (greataxe with tripping small cat) if the party is light on melee.
I want my friend who is going to be playing his first PFS scenario to have fun and feel useful. If I one-shot 90% of the enemies that is unlikely to happen.
Thanks for the correction on Spell Specialization. I will amend the character accordingly.
The point about being too deadly for others to have fun is a good one. Especially if I am trying to sucker my friend into playing more. I've had my eye on playing an alchemist for a while now anyway. I'll just roll one of those up and stick this sheet in reserve in case I need to fill a table.
The Orc Bloodline bumps it to 3d4+6, since you get +1 per die. The back up plan was to use Ray of Frost. 1d3+2 (1 from orc bloodline, 1 from liquid ice focus) at touch attack seemed to be on par with 1d8 against AC from a light crossbow. Sure, the range is considerably shorter, but in my experience, limited that it is, most rooms are not much larger than 30 feet anyway.
Also, this would be a 0 chronicle sheet character, so I don't have 2 PP to spend on a wand yet.
I am also not a new player. I am relatively new to PFS. My main character just hit 12 XP. I did just come off GM'ing a home game that went weekly for almost 2 and a half years.
I know full well this build is purely for level 1, and that I am intentionally using the the retraining rules. I just want to know if there is a table etiquette against this.
I convinced a a friend to play PFS with me this coming week, and I am starting a new character to play along side him. However I am unsure what exactly I want to play come level 2.
At the moment, I have a spec'ed out a level 1 sorceress that specializes in magic missiles (+4 CL for MM, +1 damage per die). Even if I played this character past 1st level, I wouldn't be playing it this focused, or with these stats.
I am relatively new to PFS, so is this design based on the free rebuilding is considered a breach of etiquette?
I am curious about something. Divine Fighting Technique doesn't require devotion to take it. Just equal alignment. I remember reading somewhere that religion traits require you to be within one step of your deity's alignment. However I cannot find that ruling.
If you can take a religion trait more than one step away from the deity's alignment, a CN fighter that worship's Serenae could take Gorum's Divine Fighting Technique, as a feat. Its a little wonky, but it looks like it tracks. Falls apart if you have to be within 1 step though, since CN is not one step away from NG.
Thanks for all the input. I will direct my GM to this thread, and let him decide. Not knowing what we are going to be in for should limit the change of a AP-targeted party. Also, reduction to 15 point buy seems like a fine option too. I will put it to him.
My GM recently ran us through the first 2 modules of Kingmaker, because that was the AP we request. I was excited to play Fantasy Sim City alongside Pathfinder. The rest of my party couldn't care less about our town.
So on top of our group mostly ignoring a primary aspect of the campaign, we also seemed vastly overpowered for the level of challenge the combat scenarios in the AP presented to us.
Having done a fair bit of Pathfinder GM'ing myself, I know how hard it can be to provide consistently challenging and exciting combat to a bunch of players that will build highly capable combatants. (My level 7 Flying Blade Swashbuckler killed a CR 9 tree monster from full in 1 round. And he was the weak character.)
I also read on these forums that Kingmaker is one of the easier APs, combat-wise.
