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The storyteller bard in the NPC Gallery under Entertainers cannot use their countersong bardic performance ability because they do not have ranks in Perform (keyboard, percussion, wind, string, or sing)?

Correct?

I'm excited to see what is done with Exploration Mode. This is a much-neglected design space that is actually a very important part of the game. It will be nice to see it codified and made into an aspect of the game that is more playable.

For instance, searching a room. This comes up a lot. How long does this activity take? What can you find? What are you looking for? It is awkward and boring to search every 10 ft. section of a wall, or to stand at the threshold for 60 seconds while taking-20 (as the Dungeon Master tries to estimate the distance to each hidden thing in the room).

How about marching order? Is everybody always adjacent to each other at all times? If so do they all fall into the trap together? What about scouting ahead?

Perhaps with marching order there could be several choices, like the “Scooby-Doo”, where everybody crouches behind each other in adjacent formation as they creep down the hallway. Of course, if a trap is sprung everybody takes a hit. Or the more “natural” formation with 5-10 ft. between each person, but now your rear person can be attacked before the rest of the party can react. Or the “spread-out” formation with 20-30 ft. between each person--now party members can be abducted without others knowing (perfect for a doppelganger encounter).

There could also be the “two-abreast” formation, or the “sweep” formation with everyone lined perpendicular to the direction of travel. It makes things more complicated, but I think it could be fun.

I’m glad Pathfinder identified Exploration Mode, the ideas generated are bound to make the entire hobby better. What other things do you think can be explored with Exploration Mode?

A projected image from a project image spell is a shadow based, quasi-real illusion.

How real is it?

Could it pass through the bars of a forcecage spell?

Does it set off traps?

The various wall spells frustrate me. Each one seems to have a different description of what constitutes a wall shape, and some are ambiguous. Most are not shapeable but some are so ill-defined that they might as well be.

Wall of ice and wall of iron seem to be well defined and just so happen to match what I would consider a wall shape: an upright vertical plane. Later published wall spells seem to be specifically described as vertical rectangles.

The other night a player of mine cast a wall of fire spell and snaked it across the battlefield for 220 ft. catching every enemy in its fiery embrace. I just shook my head and rather than stall the flow of the game, I just accepted it and moved on. I don't think he was trying to abuse anything, he was just scribbling out 220 ft. of flaming death. Which is no small chore.

Wall of fire describes the effect as a 'sheet', a 'curtain', and a 'wall'. What are these things? Are they flat planes? Can they be curved, zig-zag?

Is a square keep composed of four walls or one square wall?

Other spells that are simply described as 'walls' yet aren't shapeable are wall of sound and blade barrier.

Can you fold a wall of stone spell upon itself, thus multiplying its thickness?

For instance, could an 9th level wizard plug a 5'x5' shaft with 2" thick wall of stone folded upon itself for a total of 18" of stone?

What about other wall spells like iron, ice, and fire?

Does the spell pyrotechnics work on the ever present continual flame spell?

At the very end of Ultimate Equipment we find this list of art objects. Some of them are self-explanatory, some of them less so, and some are bizarre. What is an inverted soul gem anyway?

Do you know? If not, make something up. I think technically these are non-magical items, but what is a frozen vampire soul if it's not magical?

Grade 6 Art Objects

• Frozen vampire soul (7,000 gp)
  
• Mithral-inlaid unicorn horn (7,000 gp)
  
• Crystallized god breath (10,000 gp)
  
• Essence of truth (10,000 gp)
  
• Globe of pristine air (10,000 gp)
  
• Heart of the mountain (10,000 gp)
  
• Inverted soul gem (10,000 gp)
  
• Orb of living water (10,000 gp)
  
• Shard of pure fire (10,000 gp)
  
• Unmelting ice (10,000 gp)
  
• Time jewel (11,000 gp)
  
• Adamantine poiuyt (12,000 gp)
  
• Holy text written in saint's blood (12,000 gp)
  
• Mithral tribar (12,000 gp)
  
• Ethereal tapestry (13,000 gp)

Who is the heretic Zanzinaria mentioned in Ileosa's contract with Sermignatto?

You only get six results for it in a Google search. Weird.

If I add 9 additional hit dice to an erinyes without increasing her charisma score will her spell-like ability save DCs increase?

I ask because in a Paizo published D&D 3.5 adventure there is an 18 hit dice erinyes and all of her spell-like ability save DCs are increased by 5.

She has no feats or equipment that impact these DCs. If I advance a monster by adding hit dice will it affect their spell-like ability save DCs?

Is there a way for an outsider to protect itself from being called by a planar binding spell?

Is there a way to bolster its resistance to being called?

Given that undead are immune to morale effects, could you intimidate...

...an allip?

...a wraith?

...a vampire?

Is intimidate a morale effect? I understand there are morale bonuses from various sources, but is it simply intended that the undead are immune to receiving morale bonuses?

It is said that no monarch to sit the Crimson Throne has ever died of natural causes. Does anyone know how Queen Domina died?

If I make a mammoth riding character, how should melee combat work? Would my character need a reach weapon to attack things adjacent to the mammoth he's riding? Would those who are adjacent to the mammoth need reach weapons to reach the rider?

I'm not interested in the rules so much as I'm interested in advice.

Thanks to the guy with the face for asking this question.

Echean's Excellent Enclosure

How do you use this spell?

It's a touch spell but the description indicates the effect is called into being around you the spell's caster. If it is called into being around you then wouldn't it cripple you as well as anyone else trapped inside with you? Would I want to do that to myself? Is it risky?

I may just attribute this to a bit of bad wording in the description and just consider the spell a touch spell with the target being one creature. However, if it's a touch spell then wouldn't you, the spell's caster, get trapped inside the area of effect with whoever you touched?

Is this spell meant to be something of a cage battle between two lightweights? Is that a funny thought? Are you meant to bring an ally with you into the area of effect? Wouldn't they be crippled too? Wouldn't your allies be cut-off from your services while you're trapped inside?

I might be missing the point.

How do you use this spell?

Does your gaming group pay attention to costly material and focus spell components, or do you ignore them?

I am asking this question because on more than one occasion, with different gaming groups, it appeared to come as a shock to us that spells like stoneskin and true seeing cost money each time they are cast.

Perhaps for obvious reasons we are familiar with the costly components of spells like raise dead and restoration, but when it comes to things like arcane lock, create pit, scrying, and the aforementioned spells the cost is overlooked. It's not until around 10th level that we notice these spells cost money and we realize that we've been ignoring it.

Maybe it's because costly components in the order of 5, 10, 50 gold pieces are something we just don't care to track. Or, maybe we just don't pay much attention to spell components at all. Or, perhaps we don't expect a class feature to require payment.

Whatever the reason, please vote in the poll below by clicking the "Add this post as a favorite" button (+) next to the statement that best reflects your gaming group's situation. And, let me know how your gaming group handles things.

For the purposes of teleportation, what level of familiarity would you consider your campsite in the wilderness to be? Very familiar, studied carefully, seen casually, or viewed once?

What if you just made camp, teleported back to town, then tried to teleport back to camp? What if you spent the night then tried to teleport to town and back in the morning?

Does placing an object into a handy haversack hide it from the spell locate object?

You..."receive intensive training with a specific weapon or suit of armor. You receive a masterwork version of the weapon or armor, and you gain proficiency in that specific weapon or armor (but not others of its type)...Choose the weapon or armor from the following list: breastplate, glaive, heavy shield, or longsword."

If you were to choose and receive a breastplate, do you gain proficiency in all breastplates or just that one breastplate?

If your mount casts invivibility, should you become invisible too?

Would you allow a Rogue magically transformed into a tiny animal to get his sneak attack damage on a medium sized Character?

Would a bat rogue be able to sneak attack an ogre?

Can outsiders be entrapped with castings of magic circle when they are currently being engaged on the battlefield?

The Strike Back feat states you can attack someone who is attacking you with superior reach. I think this is generally true when they are attacking you with a natural attack or with a melee weapon; however, if they are using a reach weapon you would be limited to sundering the weapon rather than actually attacking them (barring the use of a five-foot step, see below).

I agree that you should be allowed to do this universally without the feat; but, at the same time, such a maneuver would simply defeat the purpose of opponents with reach.

I also understand that one could five-foot step (shift) as a part of a normal readied action and actually attack the attacker, but this would only work against a medium foe. (And of course, all of this depends on the assumption that you are a medium creature attacking without reach.)

How wrong am I in my understanding of this feat?

If it helps for discussion I present the following scenario:

A Strike Back fighter with a longsword moves 15 ft. across the battlefield into the threatened area of a longspear wielding warrior, then uses a standard action to ready Strike Back against his foe. Because he moved 15 feet the Strike Back fighter cannot take a five-foot step when his Strike Back attack is triggered by the longspear warrior's inevitable attack, therefore he can only elect to target the weapon with a sunder attack, or maybe even a disarm attack.

I disagree with the following scenario even though I understand how it can be derived from the language of the Strike Back feat, but maybe I'm wrong:

A Strike Back fighter with a longsword moves 15 ft. across the battlefield into the threatened area of a longspear wielding hill giant, then readies Strike Back against his foe. When the hill giant attacks, the fighter can a) attack and do damage to the giant itself without regard to the 15 ft. of distance between them, or b) move in 15 ft. as part of his readied Strike Back attack.

If I am mistaken please point me in the right direction.

I have an idea for an encounter with an otyugh that just ate a bunch of potions. Do you have any ideas of what potions would be funto put in him.

I'm thinking all of the bear's endurance, bull's strength, etc... series (essentially advancing the otyugh as per the template). Also invisibility, blink, and water walking. Perhaps even an elixir of fire breathing.

What else?

Consider the azer as a monstrous cohort via the Leadership feat. The Bestiary says that an azer's effective "level" is 5 in relation to the Player Character's Leadership score.

Eventually this azer is going to gain a level of rogue, which is a key class for it.

My question is: How many feats should this azer with one level of rogue have?

• Option 1: This azer rogue would have 3 Hit Dice, so it would have 2 feats.

• Option 2: This azer rogue gains one feat from its first Player Character level, so it has 2 feats.

• Option 3: This azer rogue is equivalent to a level 6 character so it should have 3 feats (and 1 ability score increase).

• Option 4: ???

If I were to advance a non-cohort azer by giving it one level of rogue the answer would be simple--it would have 2 feats. Right?

Other questions:

Does an azer cohort begin with 10,001 experience points? Does this have bearing with relation to option 3?

Does an azer cohort begin with approximately 3,450 gp worth of gear?

When would an azer cohort gain its first ability score increase?

Do you know of any published material that has a Non Player Character with a monster as a cohort via the Leadership feat?

When advancing a monster cohort because it gains a level from experience, do you add the adjustments (+4,+4,+2,+2,+0,-2) found in the section on advancing monsters with class levels?

I tend to think you shouldn't. For one, it seems odd that a Character's cohort should jump so much in power simply because they gained a level of Fighter.

However it also seems odd that a cohort such as a worg/fighter is not treated the same as another worg/fighter.

I was thinking of granting one of my Player's Character an imp as a cohort. It will most likely advance as a rogue.

I am concerned and hesitant about bringing a Sneak Attacking Rogue with the ability to use invisibility at-will into the game, but I am known to be conservative about such things and I may be concerned for nothing.

Do you think a rogue that can use invisibility at-will and thus always get a Sneak Attack when it attacks is something to be concerned about?

My second question is what level of cohort should an imp equate to?

I think it should be equivalent to a 6th level cohort and thus should not be available till at least 8th level for a Player Character. In this case the imp would not gain a rogue level till the Player Character is 9th level, so it would always be 8 levels behind the Leader. Is that enough to keep it from being overpowered? I tend to think so, but is it too much?

The imp would only be able to Sneak Attack invisibly once every other round so that makes me feel less concerned as well.

I recently played in a tier 3-4 game with a 6th level character. I know how annoying it can be when an out-of-tier character dominates the game so I tied to stay out of the way and let other characters shine. However, I didn't want to be seen as not pulling my weight so my character got involved and dominated the challenges in the game. It was a tough balance to maintain.

Do you have any advice on how top conduct one's character when in this situation?

Can you use the shatter spell versus an opponent's armor? The spell says you can target a single solid nonmagical object, regardless of composition.

Does Baphomet rhyme with vomit?

As opposed to the Player, when does a Character who has been bitten by a Lycanthrope know that they have of have not contracted Lycanthrope?

Given that they show no symptoms until the night of the next full moon, I have kept the Fortitude save a secret from the Player.

Can you build a holy avenger one step at a time?

Could you start with a +1 enchantment on a cold iron longsword for 2,315 gp? Then, over time and step-by-step, add four more +1 enchantments and the holy property until you have a +5 holy cold iron longsword?

Finally, could you then transform the sword into an actual holy avenger by paying the difference in cost between the two?

If so, would you have to take the +5 modifier to the Craft DC for not having the spell requirement (holy aura)?

I ask because if you were to create a holy avenger all at once you would need access to the spell for 120 days versus 22 days by doing it incrementally.

WEAPONIZED BLOOD VEIL; contact or injury; save Fortitude DC 16; frequency 1/round; effect 1d3 Constitution damage and 1d3 Charisma damage; cure 2 consecutive saves.

I am afraid this is too powerful, and if I have to ask then it may be a bad idea; however, it does seem that Rolth weaponized "the viral root of Blood Veil" for Jolistina's assault on the Carowyn manor. On page 34 of Seven Days to the Grave the text indicates that he gave her, "several smoke bombs tainted with Vorel's Phage," and on page 38 Ausio Carowyn relates that, after being shot by Jolistina, his guests, "sickened and collapsed with shocking rapidity--whatever venom she coated those bolts with can only be blood veil!"

In my opinion, this is a great plot device; it is characteristic of Rolth and adds a level of urgency at that point in the scenario. I think my players will certainly pick up on the implied weaponization regardless, yet it is a shame this fast-acting form of the disease is absent from the scenario (probably another indication that it is too powerful).

I weaponized Blood Veil above simply by removing the onset time and increasing the frequency to rounds rather than days. This makes the disease act more like a poison, but it still has the persistence of a disease because it has no cap on the number rounds wherein it is active. To reduce the power, I could adjust the frequency to minutes, or reduce the Constitution damage to 1, or even fiddle with the Save DC.

What do you think?

Is the initial Fortitude save to negate the effects of the contagion spell based on the level of the spell and the caster's casting stat, or is it based on the disease itself?

How would an oil of plant growth work in regards to application.

The spell can effect a wide area, but the oil would be limited by the time it takes for application. I would think it would take at least a full-round action to apply an oil to 10 square feet, and I don't think one oil could be applied to much more than that.

What do you think?

I noticed in the PRD that "riding dog" is not on the list for summon monster I, although it appears on the list in my Core Rulebook (1st printing). I checked a 5th printing and found "riding dog" had been eliminated there.

I figured there was an errata that changed this, but I did not find one in the official errata document. I did however find an entry for eliminating "riding dog" from the 1st level list of summon nature's ally.

I don't know when this was changed, but I see a lot of riding dogs being summoned at Pathfinder Society games. They are indeed one of my favorite monsters to summon as well.

If you take a dose of allnight (scroll up to Adventurer's Armory) you do not suffer the effects of fatigue for 8 hours. I presume you can still gain the fatigued condition during that 8-hour period but you will not suffer the effects of fatigue. Subsequntly, if you do something that would make you fatigued while you have the fatigued condition, you instead gain the exhausted condition. Allnight does not negate the effects of the exhausted condition, so you may become exhausted in spite of being under the effects of allnight. (However, after an hour of rest you are back on your feet again and ready to party.)

Is this correct? Is this a limit on the usefulness of allnight, and a sobering truth for barbarians and Academae graduates (curse of the Crimson Throne Player's Guide) trying to utilize allnight to solve their problems? Or, is the intent of allnight to circumvent the effects of fatigue and exhaustion altogether?

If the above reasoning is not correct, then do you not become exhausted when you do something that would make you fatigued while you have the fatigued condition but are not actually suffering the effects of fatigue?

How do I use the Underhanded rogue talent? Is there a feat, weapon property, or some other ability that allows me to draw a concealed weapon and attack with it in a surprise round?

What are some conceivable situations where a character would not have the option to take-10 on there Craft check?

If a player with the Leadership feat makes a crafting cohort who does nothing but craft items for their character, does the cohort advance in level over time?

If not, can a player dismiss the old cohort in order to attract a new one of a higher level?

Or, does the cohort still gain an equivalent fraction of the player character's experience even though they are not adventuring with them?

If not, does the player character's ever increasing leadership score automatically advance the cohort's level?

If a character begins crafting a suit of prismatic plate mail armor at 5th level and finishes the crafting process at level 15, what craft skill bonus do they use, their total bonus from 5th level or their total bonus from 15th level (assuming they added skill ranks at one per level over time)?

Would +5 need to be added to the final crafting DC for not meeting the minimum caster level requirement throughout the entire process, or does it just not matter?

Also, what is the minimum caster level requirement for prismatic plate mail armor; 9th, 15th or 13th (3 times the the armor bonus, the highest caster level spell required for its' construction, or the caster level of the armor)?

When preparing to run a scenario, is it Pathfinder Society legal to roll the monsters' hit points rather than just taking the average?

I’m converting the “Curse of the Crimson Throne” adventure path to Pathfinder, and I would like some input about the article detailing the cleric’s of Abadar found in the second installment of the adventure path (AP #8). I tried searching for Allies of Abadar here on the boards and found absolutely nothing. The discussion to follow is not really a spoiler but I will treat it as such anyway.

Thanks for any input.

I’m converting the “Curse of the Crimson Throne” adventure path, originally written for D&D 3.5, to Pathfinder, and I would like some input about the article detailing the clerics of Abadar found in the second installment of the adventure path (AP #8). I am posting this question here because this is technically a house rule I will be adding to the game. The discussion to follow is not really a spoiler but I will treat it as such anyway.

Thanks for any input.

Captivating Song (Su) A harpy's song has the power to infect the minds of those that hear it, calling them to the harpy's side. When a harpy sings, all creatures aside from other harpies within a 300-foot spread must succeed on a DC 16 Will saving throw or become captivated. A creature that successfully saves is not subject to the same harpy's song for 24 hours. A victim under the effects of the captivating song moves toward the harpy using the most direct means available. If the path leads them into a dangerous area such as through fire or off a cliff, that creature receives a second saving throw to end the effect before moving into peril. Captivated creatures can take no actions other than to defend themselves. A victim within 5 feet of the harpy simply stands and offers no resistance to the harpy's attacks. This effect continues for as long as the harpy sings and for 1 round thereafter. This is a sonic mind-affecting charm effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Usually something like this is a standard action, but then why does a victim stand and offer no resistance to the harpy's attacks if she isn't maintaining the song? Does the harpy just have one round after she stops singing to deal these un-resisted attacks?