Krinn's page

Is it possible to be expert in a skill at 1st level?
The rules for skills say that one can become expert in a skill at any level but I fail to find a documented case for level 1, is there one in the Core Rulebook?
Would it be unbalancing to grant an expert ranked skill at 1st level for a homebrew class, such as the Artificer? He would need Expert rank in Crafting and the Magical Crafting feat at 1st level in a way similar to the Alchemist.
Thanks.

I approached the uselessness of Mystics in the ship combat and crafted a new role that any mystical class trained in Mysticism can cover. Technomancers, Mystics and Solarians alike are ideally suited to this role, but Mystics especially so.

Stargazer (Solarian, Technomancer and Mystic only)

You use your mystical understanding of the Cosmos to guide your ship through the worst of space combat.
A ship can only have one Stargazer. A Stargazer operates first during the Engineering phase and is affected by the Life Support system status.

Actions

Quantum Entanglement
You attempt a Mysticism check with a DC of 5+1.5*tier of an enemy ship. If you succeed, your crewmates consider that ship's tier as if it were 1 lower for the round.

Uncertainty Principle
You attempt a Mysticism check with a DC of 10+1.5*tier of your ship. If you succeed, any enemy damage roll against your ship for the round that shows a maximum value is lowered by 1.

Exclusion Principle
You attempt a Mysticism check with a DC of 15+1.5*tier of your ship. If you succeed, you protect one of the systems of your ship from accruing further critical conditions. If a critical damage roll would hit that system, reroll the critical roll.

Quantum Tunneling (Push)
If you have 6 ranks in Mysticism, you can expend a Resolve Point and attempt a Mysticism check with a DC of 20+1.5*tier of your ship. If you succeed, your ship can ignore the result of one hit for the round.

Great Unification (Push)
If you have 12 ranks in Mysticism, you can expend a Resolve Point and choose a crew member. When that crew member makes a crew action for the round, you can roll a Mysticism check. The crew member can use either his roll or your Mysticism check, whichever is higher.

What is the Fey Trickster casting stat? Is it wisdom or charisma?
All the base class and even the archetypes abilities are charisma-based, yet it says

Nature's Lure

Rather than casting psychic spells from the mesmerist spell list, a fey trickster casts divine spells drawn from the druid and ranger spell lists, in just the same way as a hunter does. This means that she gains orisons instead of knacks. This doesn't change her number of spells per day or spells known. The fey trickster's mesmerist spells and spell-like abilities count as if they were fey spell-like abilities for the purpose of effects like resist nature's lure that apply against fey spell-like abilities.

This alters the mesmerist's spellcasting.

and the hunter class says

Spell Casting

A hunter casts divine spells drawn from the druid and ranger spell lists. Only druid spells of 6th level and lower and ranger spells are considered to be part of the hunter spell list. If a spell appears on both the druid and ranger spell lists, the hunter uses the lower of the two spell levels listed for the spell. For instance, reduce animal is a 2nd-level druid spell and a 3rd-level ranger spell, making it a 2nd-level hunter spell. Likewise, detect poison is a 0-level druid spell and a 2nd-level ranger spell, making it a 0-level hunter spell. The hunter can cast any spell she knows without preparing it ahead of time. To learn or cast a spell, a hunter must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell's level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a hunter's spell is 10 + the spell's level + the hunter's Wisdom modifier.

EDIT

In addition, there's the Feyspeaker druid archetype that makes the druid cast on charisma rather than wisdom, so it seems to me rather odd that a charisma based spellcasting would become wisdom based upon contact with the feywild, while a wisdom based spellcasting would instead become charisma based in the same circumstance.

Does the mesmerist ability Painful Stare augment the damage of an area of effect spell such as fireball or call lightning?
It's an attack (an invisible creature casting fireball at an enemy becomes visible) and it does deal damage to the enemy, so I would think yes, but it also doesn't have an attack roll to hit the enemy.

Thanks in advance!

Create Mindscape allows a save to disbelief if the mindscape is veiled and someone interacts with it.
Does a target also get a will save to avoid being drawn into a mindscape in the first place? I mean, someone could create a very long overt mindscape (a one-mile corridor) and one could easily exit from there after walking that mile in a straight direction, effectively trapping the creature for a while much like a maze spell with no save, barring a mindscape door.
All this while the original caster could appear at the other side of the long corridor and exit effortlessly with a step.

Do you have to make concentration checks to keep your thought-form creature in existence if you take damage during a psychic duel? If so, what's DC?

Hi everyone!
I think the various ways to add dexterity to straight damage (agile weapons, slashing grace, dervish scimitars) put the strength stat to shame, I mean, who would build a STR character when a DEX one has so much more synergy with mobility, AC, reflex, initiative and skills?

So I was thinking to houserule dex-to-damage in this way. Suggestions are appreciated.
If you would get dex to damage, you instead add dex to critical hit damage (not multiplied), and to attacks that would qualify as sneak attacks if you were a rogue. This extra damage is considered precision damage and is not multiplied on a critical hit, but if you get both a sneak attack and a critical hit, you add double your dexterity.

I think this modification lets characters who want to rely on their dexterity to hit vital spots to still do so, while doing less damage than a strong fighter would. The benefits of a high DEX are already wider than the benefits of a high STR, even without DEX to damage.

What do you think about this?

As the title says, is powered armor considered heavy, medium or light armor?

Hi everyone!
I've been running Wrath of the Righteous for quite some time and my party of 7 just started book 3 and are level 9 / MR 3, will levelup to 10 after they clean the (Asmodean) Fallen Fane.
Mythic being Mythic, and with 7 players with high rolled stats instead of 4 with 15 PB, I routinely maximize hp, double the enemies and add +2 to the CR of every single enemy. In addition, every mythical boss automatically gets +3 CR (in the form of templates or additional levels), dual initiative and double max hp.

One of the players really wanted to play someone who could dominate water and ice much like "the last airbender", and while initially she dabbled with water elemental sorcerer and artic druid, she is going to play an Hydrokineticist. The player is novice to d&d and pathfinder (about 1 month of experience), so the lack of spellcasting will surely help her run the character of her dreams.

Another player got to play my own version of the Psion until now, an int-based "sorcerer" with 3.5ed "disciplines" (much like bloodlines) and a pool of wis-based ki-points to "augment" her spells... looks familiar? Well, now that there's an official playtest class, that player is happy to switch to the Psychic with the Lore discipline. She is too novice to d&d and pathfinder, but after about 1 year of playing, she makes good educated choices.

There's not an Occultist Mythical Path right now, so I advised Guardian for the Hydrokineticist (to reduce incoming hp damage from other sources and the awesome relentless healing power) and Archmage for the Psychic, substituting every "arcane" word with "psychic" for the time being and renaming it "Metamind" (like my own take at Mythical Psion).

We'll meet again on 14th, meawhile they'll make their character sheets and I'll post the highlights here, including how they fare in the adventure!

Stay tuned!

Hi all!
First things first, I'm not interested in the power point system, so please leave dreamscarred press out of this one :)

With the new advanced class guide out there, and all the various archetypes out there, which are in your opinion those that have the most psychic/psionic flavour?

Eldritch Font (Arcanist) reminds me of the Wilder, for instance...
Psychic Searcher (Oracle) seems like the Seer Psion...

Any other combinations?
Thank you :)

Is there a way to turn a hide armor into a light armor?
I'm playing a barbarian with the true primitive archetype and I'd like to move at full speed while wearing hide.

Thanks!

Hi.
I am a GM and just ran into a discussion yesterday.
In 3.5, it took a full round action to search a 5ftx5ft square, so a 10x60 corridor would require 24 different checks. To avoid bogging down the game, the searcher would take 10 and take 2 minutes and 24 seconds.
In Pathfinder, I can't find the extension of the area you could search with a single perception check, but the time it takes for a check is now a move action instead of a full round action, so the party trapper would take 1 minute and 12 seconds to search the corridor for traps by taking 10.
He instead told me that he could make just one check and search the entire corridor with a single move action, with just the eventual penalty for distance. Or that he could take 20 in a minute to search the same corridor as a whole.
I stood by my interpretation of the rules, requiring a different check for each 5ftx5ftx5ft cube and assuming by default that they search the floor and not the ceilings or the walls beyond 5ft height unless they specify so and accordingly move slower still. Searching a single 5ft cube requires a minute while taking 20.

My reasoning was as such:
- Since Pathfinder failed to address the area for an active perception check, I refered to 3.5 rules per backwards compatibility. Searching time is 1 move instead of 1 full.
- Allowing a single perception check for a whole corridor means that no matter the actual extension of a room, there's no time difference between searching a 50 ft radius circular room standing at its center, and searching a 5 ft wide and 50 ft long corridor. This makes no sense to me since the room is 7850 square feet, while the corridor is just 250 square feet, and requiring the same time to search either just feels so wrong.
- Being very slow while searching for traps is imho an intended feature of the game, otherwise abilities like the trap spotter rogue talent or the dwarven stonecunning would be almost useless. They allow the party to walk at normal speed while still being able to make perception checks when they matter (and I allow to take 10 on those checks if the character is able to).
- The sift cantrip/orison allows for a search in a 10 ft cube as a standard action, essentially doubling (or quadrupling if you actually search the ceiling and it's 10 ft high) the search speed with a slight penalty on the check. Allowing for a single check to explore a full room would render this cantrip/orison useless. Still slower than a rogue with the trap spotter talent, but I think this is intended.

Would you rule any differently? If so, what's your reasoning behind that? How would you address the issues in my reasoning with a different ruling?
Thanks in advance!

Hi all!
A Mythic Monster has DR 5/Epic if it has 5 to 10 HD and DR 10/Epic if it has 11 or more HD.
What happens if, say, a Mythic Medusa (9 HD, DR 5/Epic) gains two or more levels in a PC class? Does her DR increase to 10/Epic then?

Thank you!

Does the Amulet of Mighty Fists confer its abilities to natural attacks that you gain via items, like the Helm of the Mammoth Lord and the Wyvern Cloak?

Hi all!
I'm going to play Rappan Athuk with a party of Alchemist, Diviner, Oracle of Life and Rogue, so they need a big frontline warrior.
I considered tripping builds, but I was not pleased with the damage output, defenses and the rapidly escalating trip DC, not mentioning monsters that are impossible to trip due to size or flying.
I then considered a pure damaging paladin, but I was not pleased with their weakness against non-evil foes and risks of losing their tools either by killing the mount, destroying the bonded weapon, or going against the code of conduct.
I lastly considered the barbarian... and after toying around a bit, he had everything I wanted. Here is my build until level 15, starting at 5th level with 25 point buy.

CN Human Barbarian (Invulnerable Rager, Urban Barbarian)

STR 17 (13 pt) +2 Racial bonus here
DEX 16 (10 pt)
CON 15 (7 pt)
INT 07 (-4 pt)
WIS 13 (3 pt)
CHA 07 (-4 pt)

Skills: Intimidate, Acrobatics, Perception. All maxed.
Traits: Breed for War, Armor Expert.
Favored class bonus: +1/3 Superstition at each level.
Feats and Rage Powers:
1) Intimidating Prowess, Power Attack
2) Superstition
3) Improved Sunder
4) Witch Hunter, +1 STR
5) Extra Rage Power: Strength Surge
6) Spell Sunder
7) Cornugon Smash
8) Lesser Beast Totem, +1 CON
9) Extra Rage Power: Beast Totem
10) Greater Beast Totem
11) Combat Reflexes
12) Come and Get Me, +1 WIS
13) Dazing Assault
14) Ghost Rager
15) Extra Rage Power: Eater of Magic

Equipment:
Adamantine Greatsword => +1 => Furious => Cruel => Courageous => +5
Mithral Breastplate => +1 => Light Fort => Moderate Fort => Heavy Fort => +5
Belt of STR +2 => CON +2 => DEX +2 => +4 => +6
Ring of Protection +5
Ring of Evasion
Amulet of Natural Armor +5
Cloak of Resistance +5
Elven Boots / Boots of Speed
Goggles of the Eagle / Goggles of Night
Mask of Intimidation (custom magic item based off the orcish battle mask, it adds +5 to intimidate checks... if unavailable, circlet of persuasion is a nice substitute)
Headband of Havoc
LOTS of potions of enlarge person
LOTS of potions of lesser restoration
Spring Loaded Wrist Sheath + potion of enlarge person
Spring Loaded Wrist Sheath + potion of lesser restoration

I currently start with an Adamantine Greatsword, a +1 Mithral Breastplate, a Cloak of Resistance +1, a nonmagical battle mask, two SLWS and a few potions.
Whenever combat starts, my starting tactic will likely be: swift get enlarge potion, standard drink potion, free action rage, move to reach the enemies while drawing my weapon. If an enemy is adjacent already, I instead rage, draw weapon and smash his face!

Highlights of the build:
- AC that works, since controlled rage doesn't lower it, reckless abandon won't be used, crowd control adds +1 when adjacent to multiple foes, and I can debuff with every hit by level 7.
- Free action debuffs at every hit, via cornugon smash (I get it as soon as possible at level 7) and cruel weapon, total -4 to hit/saves and -2 to damage as soon as I hit twice.
- Spell sunder at level 6, as soon as it is available!
- Greater beast totem (aka pounce!) at level 10, as soon as it is available!
- Come and get me at level 12, as soon as it is available, with enough AoOs thanks to combat reflexes at 11.
- Dazing Assault at level 13 (a pity that I can't get it at 11) and I expect it to work fine, especially against a debuffed enemy.
- Saves through the roof, touch AC very high by level 14, great rerolls by level 15. At level 5, my saves are even higher than those of a paladin, against everything that matters.

After level 15, I'm not sure what to take, I guess unexpected strike, improved critical and increased damage reduction x3, but the build itself is complete at 15th level.
I personally think rage cycling before level 17 is cheesy and not worth the expense of a rage power to get immunity to sickened/nauseated and a certain ioun stone. I'd rather spend a standard action and drink a potion of lesser restoration between rages instead.

Any thoughts?

Hi, I'm building a level 5 human fighter (phalanx soldier) for Rappan Athuk. Point buy 25.

I'm going to be the party tank, and in my opinion tanking is all about negating the enemies any chance to target the squishies. So I went with a tripping build.

Stats:
STR 15 +2 (racial) +1 (advancement) +2 (item) = 20
DEX 16
CON 14
INT 14
WIS 12
CHA 7

alternatively
STR 17 +2 (racial) +1 (advancement) +2 (item) = 22
DEX 16
CON 14
INT 13
WIS 8
CHA 7

Traits:
Seeker (+1 perception and class skill)
Bred for War (+1 CMB and intimidate)
Reactionary (+2 initiative)

Drawback:
Meticulous (-2 to untrained skills)

Feats:
1) Two-weapon fighting
1) Combat reflexes
1) Improved shield bash
2) Combat expertise
3) Improved trip
4) Greater trip
5) Fury's fall

Coming soon:
6) Shield slam
7) Power attack
8) Felling smash
9) Improved bull rush
10) Greater bull rush
11) Outflank
12) Pin down
13) Weapon focus (bardiche)
14) Greater weapon focus (bardiche)

Equipment:
Belt of giant strength +2
+1 Mithral full plate
+1 Darkwood heavy shield with masterwork spikes
mwk bardiche
mwk shortsword
3x mwk javelins
other cheap adventuring stuff

I crafted my weapons, shield and armor with my high craft (armorsmithing) and craft (weaponsmithing).
My basic tactic is to fight with a bardiche and a spiked heavy shield, so I threaten everything within 10 ft (20 ft when enlarged) and enjoy a lot of AoO with which to trip opponents and provide even more AoO for my allies.
By level 6, assuming I survive that long, I'll bull rush with my shield in order to then trip with my bardiche in the same round. At level 10, bull rushing also generates AoO.
The party goblin rogue with combat reflexes will take outflank at level 11 as well for even more AoOs and tactical awesomeness, and pin down completes the triplocker build.
Sporting +19/+20 trip, 49 hp and 26 AC at level 5, but rather poor will especially with the second array and no cloak of resistance.

Is there any way I could build my fighter better?
Which of the stat arrays would you choose?
Any tweak on equipment? I'm torn between the +1 on my shield or a cloak of resistance.

Thanks!

Hi all!
I'm toying around with a way to allow biclasses at first level, so that you could be, say, a full wizard/rogue at level 2 without stretching the story too far.

You have to be a class level 1 / class level 1 character at character level 2.

- Hit dice uses the highest of the two classes at first level, then the lower one at second level.
- Skill points are added up and halved at first level. If a skill is class skill for both classes, it's a class skill for the biclass, otherwise it'll become a class skill at level 2. For example, a wizard/rogue would get (2+8)/2 = 5 base skill points plus his INT modifier at both 1st and 2nd level, and his class skills at 1st level are Appraise, Craft, Knowledge (dungeoneering), Knowledge (local) and Linguistics.
- BAB at first level is +1 if both classes have a +1 BAB at first level, otherwise it's +0.
- Save bonuses from both classes are added up and halved at first level.
For all purposes, you count as a level 1 class in both your classes at first level, but your total character level is 1.
- Weapon and Armor proficiencies are those of both classes, so a fighter/wizard could wear full plate armor and use a greatsword, although the armor would impair his spellcasting.

Each class grants the following benefits during the first, combined level. At 2nd level, as a regular multiclass, you get the full benefits of being a 1st level class in both your classes. If you get 0 slots from a given level, you can only cast spells if your spellcasting stat is high enough to grant a bonus slot. If a feature like diminished spellcasting would lower your slots to -1 or less, you can't cast spells of that level.
- Barbarian: Rage 2+CON rounds per day
- Bard: Bardic Performance 2+CHA rounds per day, countersong, distraction, fascinate, inspire courage +1, 3 cantrips known, 1 first level spell known, 0 first level spell slots.
- Cleric: Domains, 2 orisons, 0 first level spell slots, 1 first level domain slot.
- Druid: Nature Bond, Wild Empathy (but only a +0 bonus from the druid level), 2 orisons, 0 first level spell slots.
- Fighter: Nothing, but you do get all the Fighter's proficiencies.
- Monk: Flurry of Blows (attack bonus -2/-2 unless the other class has a BAB of +1), Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist, 1d6 unarmed damage, AC bonus.
- Paladin: Detect Evil
- Ranger: Wild Empathy (but only a +0 bonus from the ranger level, unless the other class is Druid), 1st Favored Enemy.
- Rogue: Sneak Attack +1d6
- Sorcerer: Bloodline power, eschew material, 3 cantrips known, 1 first level spell known, 2 first level spell slots.
- Wizard: Arcane Bond, Arcane School, 2 cantrips, 0 first level spell slots, 1+INT first level spells recorded into the spellbook.

- Alchemist: Bomb 1d6 (INT times per day only), Alchemy, Mutagen, Throw Anything, 0 extracts per day, 1+INT first level formulae recorded into the formula book.
- Cavalier: Mount, Order
- Inquisitor: Domain, Monster Lore, 3 orisons, 1 first level spell known, 0 first level spell slots.
- Oracle: Mystery, Oracle's Curse, 3 orisons, 1 first level spell known (plus either cure light wounds or inflict light wounds), 2 first level spell slots.
- Summoner: Eidolon (one less point in its evolution pool), Life Link, 3 cantrips, 1 first level spell known, 0 first level spell slots.
- Witch: Witch's Familiar, 2 cantrips, 0 first level spell slots, 1+INT first level spells known by the familiar.

- Antipaladin: Detect Good
- Magus: Arcane pool (INT only), Spell Combat, 2 cantrips, 0 first level spell slots, 1+INT first level spells recorded into the spellbook
- Gunslinger: Gunsmith, Grit, Deeds (only 1 first level deed available, chosen by the character)
- Ninja: Sneak Attack +1d6
- Samurai: Mount, Order

If you use archetypes, replace the gained features with those replaced by the archetype. If an archetype grants a feature at 1st level that doesn't replace any existing feature, that feature should be granted at 2nd level instead.

Hi all.
One of my players wants to play an Android Bladebound Kensai Magus.

Since he's from Numeria and his magical abilities would thematically stem from technological effects (handled the same way as magic, but the character would call his scorching rays with the name of laser beams and all that stuff).
His black blade is an advanced technological numerian weapon (vibroblade?) scavenged from the "ship" the Android was born in, with "runes" (strange circuitry) that glow when its arcane pool isn't empty. Stats are the same of a wakizashi.

I like the character concept very much, but I only have one thing I'm not comfortable with: the spellbook.
It doesn't fit with the concept at all, so I devised this houserule.

To keep the "technological" flavor, he wouldn't have a spellbook. Instead, he would "write" his spells on his body... Those strange circuitry on an Android's flesh? Those are his known spells, they glow when "prepared" and are extinguished when cast (as nanites previously gathered in the circuits are expended). He'll open two new circuits (new spells) at each level following the normal rules, but he won't be able to copy spells from scrolls or other books (in fact, the character wouldn't even take the spellcraft skill). Instead, if he wishes for new spells known, he'd have to research them, using the rules to research a spell, with a few Knowledge (Arcana) checks, a week of time and 1000 gp per spell level in special materials.

Do you think this spellbook alternative is balanced?
He can't be deprived of his spellbook, but can't easily learn new spells either.

Hi again!
My characters rolled their stats, and they rolled really well using my GM dices (4d6, drop lowest method, a single reroll for the whole set was available if desired but one had to take the second set even if it was worse)...
Their total modifiers, before racial adjustments, went between +9 and +11, much more than the average +5 the AP is built on. In addition, they're 5 PCs rather than 4.

To keep things interesting and balanced, I thought about increasing the number of monsters by 50% or otherwise raise the CR of encounters by +1 if increasing monsters was not practical (such as many boss fights).

Story xp would stay the same, but combat xp would increase 50%.
Let's say a party of 4 would get 400 xp from the story and 400 xp from a fight, that's 100+100=200 xp for each character.
With this 5 PC party, they'd get 400 xp from the story and 600 xp from a fight, that's 80+120=200 xp for each character.
This is pretty much even assuming XP gained through story and fights are somewhat equal in the AP.

Treasure-wise, a similar math applies.

Would you do something different to keep the story and the fights interesting for this overpowered party?

Thanks!

Hi.
I'm going to play WotR with my friends, I'm the GM.
For the laugh, they all rolled their background using the Ultimate Campaign Generator.

One wishes to play an elven wizard with the Riftwarden Orphan trait and this brings the first question.
The crusades started less than 100 years ago, and the wardstones have been up for 70, yet the minimum age for an elven wizard is 120 years. Would this be a problem with the trait backstory, later in the game?

Funnily enough, he rolled for a random race for his family and it came up elf! Obviously, this also makes perfect sense, since a human would be dead for old age before the elf could grow up.
Next, he got a Mentor as Influential Associate.
I thought that since he is an elven wizard related to the Riftwardens, and Aravashnial is an actual elven wizard Riftwarden, that he could be that Mentor himself, perhaps even a family member of the character's foster parents who recognized both the potential and the birthmark in the young PC.
Would it be a problem if such a character was so heavily involved with Aravashnial?

What's the reach of a humanoid Eidolon with the reach (claw) evolution and armed with a longspear? And which squares would it threaten?
Thank you :)

Hi all!
In my tabletop campaign (I'm the GM), a player who's playing a witch with improved familiar and a lyrakien azata as familiar would like to further improve his familiar's power, and I allowed him to take the leadership feat and merge cohort and familiar... the witch is high enough level to get a bralani cohort as he takes the feat, and since the lyrakien and the bralani are both azatas, I thought about a ritual to "improve" the lyrakien into a greater being while still keeping the familiar link.
Rules-wise it's pretty easy: he'd get a bralani with all familiar goodies, merging familiar and cohort is house-rules territory anyway but this is not the point of the discussion :)

What I would like to know is... Are there any informations out there about how outsiders (preferably celestials) grow into greater beings? I'm looking to do a nice story about the celestial ritual, so the more informations about it you can provide the better :)
The only information I get from outsider growth is from the pit fiend's ability to shape lemures... not such a great fit for celestials though...

The setting is Eberron, so Azatas' home plane is Thelanis, the party already successfully dealt with the Faerie Court, so they might earn a favor more easily.

Thank you!

Hi all!
I've been willing to try this since the Mythic Playtest has been available.

The setting for this adventure will be Forgotten Realms, 1409 DR, the Year of the True Omens. I'm following an alternate timeline in which the Spellplague never happened, and I'm also using the "Big Wheel" Cosmology rather than the Tree one.
Quick facts about what happened since 1372 DR that everybody knows.
During the fall of 1374, some big portals spontaneously showed up randomly through Faerun, linking the Material Plane to the Lower Planes. Demons and Devils swarmed off those portals and started battling their Blood War in the Material Plane, conquering most civilized lands and herding humanoids to gather their souls for their armies.
As soon as the first such portal opened, all deities became silent. Clerics couldn't receive new spells to battle the fiendish invasion, and most spells that involve planar travel started to malfunction, even instantaneous effects like Teleport became far riskier. The Chosen lost their special powers as the divine link that powered them was broken.
As a result, people panicked and entire realms became easy prey to Devil Dukes and Demonic Princes. The greatest heroes of Faerun either died, have been imprisoned by a fiend or went missing one way or the other.
In short, Faerun is overrun by devils and demons who treat sentient beings as animals to herd at best, collateral losses for their Blood War at worst.
But then, after years of waiting, something changed and the deities became active once again.
During 1407, the year of the Solitary Cloister, the few clerics who remained faithful to their gods received their spells anew and could commune with them. The fiends aren't going to leave their prey easily, but divine magic could be brought to bear against them.

Something strange and brutal happened to the planes, sages wonder if the Material Plane went into collision with the Lower Planes somehow, all while being mixed up with the Negative Energy Plane and its Quasielemental Planes within the Astral Plane. Cosmic balance seems so upset that no certain explanation can be given. Even the deities appear incapable to directly intervene and put things straight. Or can they?

Here are the 16 big questions.
1. What game system are you running (D&D, Call of Cthulu, Palladium, GURPS, etc.), and if applicable what edition (Original, Classic, Revised, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 10th, etc.)? Pathfinder

2. What 'type' or variant of game will it be (i.e. "Shadow Chasers" or "Agents of Psi" for d20 Modern)? What is the setting for the game (eg. historic period, published or homebrewed campaign setting, alternate reality, modern world, etc.)? Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, usual timeline till 1372 then apocalyptic fiendish invasion, and you get to play the Chosen of your deity.

3. How many Players are you looking for? Will you be taking alternates, and if so, how many? 4-5 Players would be perfect. It will be clear from the start that you are meant to work together, to discover what caused this cosmic mess.

4. What's the gaming medium (Forum, chat, e-mail etc.)? This Forum

5. What is the characters' starting status (i.e. experience level)? Level 15 with additional 5 Mythic Tiers. Your Ascension will be in the very first post for your character, as your deity grants you the status of Chosen, hence the full 5 Mythic Tiers.

6. How much gold or other starting funds will the characters begin with? 240000 gp, no single item can be worth more than 60000 gp and no Mythic Items. In addition, you'll get one free custom Mythic Item based off your deity portfolio and your abilities that the deity will give you at the very first post for your character. You'll know which item this will be in advance (I'll send you a PM), it could be an advanced version of an item already in your possession which then wouldn't count toward your wealth. You can "craft" your own magic items (so you pay for their cost, not market price) if you succeed on a roll of 1, and you may not take into account any Mythic bonus, since technically you were at most level 15 with no Mythic Tier at the time of crafting.

7. Are there any particular character classes, professions, orders, etc. that you want... or do not want? What are your rules on 'prestige' and/or homebrewed classes? Any class or archetype that's available in the PRD here at paizo is good for me with the possible exception of guns: their functioning is a well kept secret that only gnomes devoted to Garl Glittergold can master, so if you make a non-gnome gunslinger you'll have to write a good reason for the character to exist.

8. What races, subraces, species, etc. are allowed for your game? Will you allow homebrewed races or species? 'Prestige' races or species? Any Forgotten Realms race, but you'll have to use the Pathfinder conversion. For Genasi, use Ifrits, Oreads, Undines and Sylphs. If there is no conversion, you can use the ARG rules to make the best fit (subject to approval), but anything with more than 17 Racial Points means you get a level penalty because you're playing a powerful race. Try not to overdo this, you can easily play your "wood elf" as a core elf with some forest related racial traits such as "woodcraft" or "silent hunter", but an Avariel would indeed need some tweaking.

9. By what method should Players generate their attributes/ability scores and Hit Points? 20 point buy using Pathfinder Rules. Hit points as in Pathfinder Society: first hit dice maximized, then d6=4 d8=5 d10=6 d12=7, plus CON modifier of course. Don't forget to add in your extra ability score bumps and your extra hit points from the Mythic Tiers.

10. Does your game use alignment? What are your restrictions, if so? Alignments are in use. Good Aligned characters are preferred. Neutral characters are ok but you must write down in your background that you're a team player. No Evil Alignment. In addition, your alignment must be within one step of your patron deity.

11. Do you allow multi-classing, or have any particular rules in regards to it? Standard Multiclass Rules. However, I advice against multiclassing, since Pathfinder isn't well suited for it.

12. Will you be doing all of the die rolling during the course of the game? Will die rolls be altered, or left to the honor system? If players can make die rolls, which ones do they make, how should they make the rolls, and how should they report them? You can use the site's built in die roller. I will make my rolls in private.

13. Are there any homebrewed or optional/variant rules that your Players should know about? If so, list and explain them, or provide relevant links to learn about these new rules. Mythic Playtest rules are used, with their update that can be found on this site here. http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2paun?Mythic-Adventures-Update-122112
On the Material Plane, the following changes occurr.
Teleportation, Summoning and Calling spells and abilities (anything that involves a brief travel through the Astral Plane, really) have a random chance of working properly or cause the targets of the spell to briefly travel through an inner plane connected to the negative energy plane with less than healthy results: I'll roll 1d6, 1 = normal travel, 2 = through the negative energy plane (fort DC 25 or get 1 negative level), 3 = through the quasielemental plane of Vacuum (fort DC 25 to avoid 3d6 damage as your lungs implode), 4 = through Dust (fort DC 25 to avoid 1d6 CON damage and 1d6 rounds of stunning due to sneezing and choking), 5 = through Ash (2d6 cold damage, no save), 6 = through Salt (2d6 damage from dehydration, no save). Astral Projection or similar spells have a similar chance to bring the targets to such an Inner Plane instead of the Astral Plane. As a result, most fiends avoid using their teleportation and summoning abilities while in the Material Plane, unless they're really in dire need.
Spells with the Evil descriptor function at +2 caster level.
Spells with the Good descriptor are impeded (you have to succeed at a DC 20+spell level concentration check or lose the spell).
Spells and spell-like abilities that use negative energy function at +2 caster level. Class abilities that use negative energy, such as channel negative energy, gain a +4 bonus to the save DC to resist the ability.
Spells and spell-like abilities that use positive energy (including cure spells) are impeded (you have to succeed at a DC 20+spell level concentration check or lose the spell). Characters on this plane take a –10 penalty on saving throws made to remove negative levels bestowed by an energy drain attack.
The Material Plane is now strongly Evil Aligned, so a –2 circumstance penalty applies on all Intelligence-, Wisdom-, and Charisma-based checks made by all non-evil creatures.
The spell Planar Adaptation can be used to avoid these environmental effects, even if you're native of the Prime, but it won't stop teleportation mishaps, unless you also use Planar Adaptation with regards to the Negative Energy Plane and the Quasielemental Planes.

14. Is a character background required? If so, how big? Are you looking for anything in particular (i.e. the backgrounds all ending up with the characters in the same city)? Pick a good or neutral deity. All submitted characters should pick a different deity, since any deity will have just one Chosen. That deity is your patron deity throughout your life despite her silence. You don't have to be paladin-like devoted to her (she has been silent for almost 40 years after all) but you should at very least uphold her tenets, morality and ethic. She has Chosen you among other believers, so you must be worthy. Whatever your backstory is, you will die at the end of it, only to end up in front of your deity for your Ascension. In your backstory, give me good reasons as to why your deity would Choose you.

15. Does your game involve a lot of hack & slash, puzzle solving, roleplaying, or a combination of the above? A combination of the above. The entire adventure as a whole is a big puzzle for you do decypher, and there will be epic battles for sure, especially if you wish to help the few remaining indipendent regions on Faerun against the fiends.

16. Are your Players restricted to particular rulebooks and supplements, or will you be allowing access to non-standard material? What sources can Players use for their characters? Core Rulebook, Advanced Player's Guide, Advanced Race Guide, Ultimate Combat, Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Equipment and Bestiaries are available for use. If you wish a Mythic feat, spell or ability that's not present in the playtest, feel free to ask.
Also, you get 2 traits from here ( http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advanced/advancedNewRules.html#traits ), or a single Regional Feat from the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting as a bonus feat. The Regional Feat could need some tweaking to make it fit within Pathfinder rules so let me know if you wish for one to be updated.

I think school aversion is the heaviest mythic flaw for a character.
Being immune to all benefits from an entire school while also getting a penalty on saves against harmful effects is too bad.

Abjuration: No more dispel magic to remove bad stuff, no more resist energy, no more protection from evil
Conjuration: No more heals, nothing more to add here
Enchantment: No more (greater) heroism, bless, rage, good hope...
Evocation: Admittedly this can be a viable choice. Funny enough, you get immunity to beneficial MIRACLES.
Illusion: No more invisibility, no more blur, no more displacement. Viable but ouch!
Necromancy: This is viable, unless you're undead.
Transmutation: No more haste, no more polymorph, most awesome buffs are here.

In short, of all schools, only Evocation, Illusion and Necromancy are viable choices because immunity to beneficial stuff is too bad.

I ditched the immunity and instead gave a -4 penalty on caster level for effects from those schools, if the penalty results in level 0 or lower, the spell has no effect. You still couldn't be healed by a lowly potion of cure light wounds, but the party cleric can still patch you up with a HEAL spell, albeit with -40 hp.

Hi all!
I'd like to build the psionic classes based on Sorcerer (for Psion), Bard (for Psychic Warrior) and Barbarian (for Soulknife). The Wilder is all about Wild Surge, and in Pathfinder even the Sorcerer doesn't get a similar ability, so I won't touch them, at least for now.
I share James Jacobs's views on the matter and I love psionics, so I'd rather build my own conversion while waiting for an official Paizo take on psychic magic.
What I will build here will be available for the community and hopefully will see the light of day, so any input and help is appreciated.
I'm aware of Dreamscarred Press material, and I think they did a good job converting the 3.5 classes, but "Nova" is still in the game, "Schism" is still in the game, and it's still a completely different ruleset.

- No more power points, vancian spontaneous casting instead.
- No more Psionic Focus, metamagic follows usual rules for spontaneous casters
- No augmentation, autoscaling with level makes up for the need of it.
- Psychic spells are much like spell-like abilities, they don't need material, verbal or somatic components. This is a net advantage over arcane and divine spells. Many psychic spells are the same of arcane/divine spells, but to offset this advantage I'd keep them self-only if they could be cast on allies (like mage armor), or single target if the spell would require multiple ones (like slow), or raise the spell level (like fireball). Modifications on spells will have to follow a case-by-case basis but I don't intend to rewrite how they work: it should be clear that whenever a Psion knows a targeted spell that buffs an ally, it's a personal spell instead, and whenever he knows a targeted spell that affects more than one enemy, it's a single target spell instead.
I'm reading this page to offset the effectively free still and silent metamagics: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateMagic/magic/designingSpells.html
There might be some new metamagic feats that allow psychic spells to function just like their arcane/divine counterparts, but as Sorcerers don't get to autostill and autosilence their spells, Psions won't get to affect allies with buff spells or more than one enemy at a time with targeted spells

There are 6 classic psionic disciplines: Metacreativity (repair and creation effects), Telepathy (charms, compulsions, raw mental attacks), Psychoportation (travel through time and space), Psychometabolism (body enhancements, healing), Clairsentience (scrying, divinations, fate manipulation), Psychokinesis (telekinesis and energy manipulation).
They behave much like magic schools and I'd love to see one type of Specialist Psions per discipline. "Bloodline spells" are a step into the right direction, but I'd like to see a clear focus over one discipline instead of, say, a Seer who only takes the bonus Clairsentience spells and chooses all his "normal" spells off Psychokinesis.

To offset this, I'd like to give bonuses for using spells of their, "Bloodline Arcana" and "Bloodline Powers" set a precedent.

To get things started, here is how I would like to see the Psion class:
Hit Dice: d6
BAB: Low
Good Save: Will
Spells per Day: As Sorcerer but INT based casting.
"Discipline Ability" as "Bloodline Arcana":
- Telepathy: Whenever you cast a Telepathy spell, increase the spell's DC by +1.
- Psychokinesis: Whenever you cast a Psychokinesis spell with the Electric, Fire, Cold or Force (choose one at character creation) descriptor, that spell deals +1 point of damage per die rolled.
- Clairsentience: Whenever you cast a Clairsentience spell, you gain an insight bonus equal to half the spell's level (minimum +1) for 1 round to your AC and saving throws.
- Psychometabolism: Whenever you cast a Psychometabolism spell, you gain temporary hit points equal to the spell's level for 1 round
- Psychoportation: Whenever you cast a Psychoportation spell, you gain a miss chance equal to the spell's level times 5% for 1 round that works like the Blur spell.
- Metacreativity: Your magic of creation and changing is hard to unravel. The DC to dispel Metacreativity spells that you cast is increased by +4.
"Discipline Power" as "Bloodline Power", will have to think about these but they'll be something in line with existing Bloodline Powers.
"Discipline Spell" as "Bloodline Spell", all spells will be of the chosen discipline of course.
"Discipline Feats" as "Bloodline Feats" with the same principle.

Here is also a rough draft of the Soulknife class, based off the Barbarian:
Hit Dice: d10
BAB: High
Good Save: Reflex and Will
Soulblade rounds per day: As Barbarian Rage, the blade starts as +1, then +2 at 5th, +3 at 9th, +4 at 13th and +5 at 17th.
Blade Powers: As Rage Powers
Psychic Strike: As Trapsense bonus times d6, move action to charge, works on anything with an INT score.
Blade Abilities (like flaming or ghost touch): As Damage Reduction
Level 11 is a dead level (no Greater Rage), but this is also a good level to grant a Knife to the Soul ability.

Any input or help for this work will be highly appreciated.

Hi guys.
I know that there already is this source for the psionic power:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/psionic-powers/p/psychic-reforma tion
But I really think that the pathfinderized version is even more broken than the 3.5 one, effectively nullifying the cost of feats, skills, spells and powers since one can change them with a 10 minutes wait, and maybe a day of rest.
Also, this is the only thing that would force a player to keep a character history to know when he took a specific feat.

I'd have my version to be able to change ONE of these things per manifestation:
- 1 feat (it can't be prerequisite for other feats, prestige classes, etc.)
- 1 psionic power known of the same level or lower
- 1 spell known (for spontaneous casters) of the same level
- up to 3 skill points
- 1 rage power, rogue talent, revelation, magus arcana, mercy or similar abilities that you get every few levels.
You take 1 PERMANENT NEGATIVE LEVEL as soon as you benefit from this power. If you are immune to negative levels, you cannot benefit from this power unless you willingly lower your immunity and welcome the negative level. This puts an effective monetary cost of 1000 gp and a time cost of 1 week per manifestation if you use restoration to get rid of the negative level(s).
Augment options:
- you can change one more skill point for every 2 more power points spent.
- you can change one more feat (or one more psionic power, spell known, rage power, etc) for every 6 more power points spent.

No need to keep track of WHEN you took those skill points or when you learned that feat, as long as it's not a prerequisite you can change it. Of course, you still have to know if you're changing a fighter bonus feat (you're still limited to combat feats that way) or a regular feat. Same goes for psionic powers: if you are exchanging a 1st level power you took in lieu of a 2nd level power, you would be able to learn a 2nd level power. So there is still some scheduling but it's fairly less than before. Basically, your character has just to be legal as if you acquired that feat/power/spell/revelation/etc. at the level of the replaced feature.

Maybe, one can push this power even further (or build a "Greater" version):
- if you spend 6 more power points, you can instead change a ranger's fighting style, a clerical domain choice, an oracle's mystery or curse, a sorcerer's bloodline, a wizard's specialization, or even apply a different alternate class feature for your class (or something else along these lines that's a single major choice within a class). This costs 2 permanent negative levels instead of one.
- if you spend 12 more power points, you can instead replace a single character level. This costs 3 permanent negative levels instead of one.

I'd personally just let the "basic" version of the power to prevent abuse. This could be a nice NPC power (Greater Psychic Reformation?) to help when a player would rather play a different character altogether but doesn't want to kill or send away his current one.

What do you think?

Hi all and sorry if these questions have been already answered many times, but I am a bit dumb with these rules sometimes :)

1st question. Auras.
What kind of action does activating powers like the enchanter's "Aura of Despair" or a liberation domain cleric's "Freedom Call" use? Is it a standard action (so the wizard can't actually benefit much from it), or a free action? In the case of a standard action, what about subsequent rounds after the first?

2nd question. Afflictions.
When there is not an onset (like most poisons), if a character fails the very first saving throw, does he starts taking damage altogether until he succeeds? As an example, if a character is bit by a giant spider, on the spider's turn he get the first saving throw, if he fails he takes 1d2 str damage on the spider's turn. When does he get to make additional saves? On following spider's turn or at the end of his turn?
But when there is an onset (like most diseases), if the character fails the first saving throw he merely contracted the affliction. Does he get to make ANOTHER saving throw to avoid taking the very first damage (effectively reducing the strength of the "onset afflictions") or not?

3rd question. Poisons.
This question is related to the 2nd. I didn't understand much the stacking rules for poisons.
Case A.
If a character is bit once from a giant spider, he must succeed on a DC 14 saving throw on the spider's turn. He fails and takes 1d2 str damage on the spider's turn.
On the following round, the spider bits again the character. Does the save for contracting the poison again rise to 16 or is it set to 14?

For all questions, could you please make comprehensive examples to make it cristalline clear? thanks :)

If Intelligence increases (due to advancement) to an even number, are skill points gained retroactively or not?

Example:
A 3rd level elf wizard with 19 int has 3*6=18 skill points.
At 4th level his int raises to 20.
Does his skill points total increase to 4*7=28 or to 18+7=25?

Thanks for answers.