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Find yourself in a combat situation where you feel useless? In Pathfinder, there should NEVER be an instance where you feel useless or can't contribute something to the party. Instead of just holding your action or waiting it out, here's some suggestions:

Aid Another - Granted you have to be within melee range of the bad guy in order to give the bonus. So if you're squishy and afraid to go toe to toe with the enemy, always carry a longspear or similar reach weapon. Stand behind your stronger friend, make that attack roll vs AC 10, and your buddy gets an automatic +2 to his next attack. Oh, and those bonuses stack, so other party members can help out too.

Cantrips - Since they're unlimited use, all casters should prepare at least one that will be useful in combat. Ideally, two offensive: a ranged touch attack that deals damage and something that doesn't require an attack roll such as flare or daze. If you're a spellcasting class that has limited access to offensive cantrips such as cleric, spend your time buffing your party with Guidance to give them a +1 to their attack. Even at higher levels, doing a small amount of damage consistently with Acid Splash or Ray of Frost (due to only having to make a touch AC, which are often absurdly low) is better than consistently missing with your crossbow.

Domain Abilities, Bloodline Powers - While they're not unlimited like cantrips, they're usually still available in sufficient quantity to get you through an adventuring day (especially if you've been using some of the other above options). Don't forget that many of these powers are offensive and use them liberally.

Skills - Bards and Sorcerers, don't forget one of your primary stats is Charisma. There's plenty of opportunities to Feint and Demoralize the enemy during combat.

Splash Weapons - If you still find yourself with nothing to do after all that, carry around some Alchemist's Fire, Acid Flasks, and Holy Water. Just don't hit your friends with them.

Feel free to add your own suggestions here for unusual or often forgotten ways to help out in battle.

I had someone from work who had a background in D&D 2nd Edition ask how 3rd edition worked and what the major differences were. I provided the following to him, but it was entirely based on memory since I no longer have any 2e books so I figured I'd share it here to check my accuracy. Please let me know if I was wrong on any of these points or if changes should be made.

As for basic changes between 2nd edition and the d20/3.x paradigm, let me see if I can hash out the main points:

THAC0 - It's gone, but fortunately the mechanics actually work exactly the same as they did in 2e, only reversed. And I think it makes much more sense that way. Unmodified AC starts at 10 as before, but any bonuses apply positively instead of negative. So a suit of armor might give a bonus of +5, raising the total AC to 15. Then for an opponent to hit that AC, he simply rolls a d20, adds whatever attack modifiers apply, and if it's 15 or higher it hits. Almost all game mechanics try to use this basic function of setting a DC and rolling the d20+modifiers to beat it.

Races and Classes - Pretty much the same races and classes exist from 2e, but gone are racial restrictions on classes. Want to play a halfling Paladin? Go for it. Classes all level up at the same rate now and cap at 20 unless playing with epic rules. All races can also multi-class simply by choosing a new class at level up. Some classes have alignment restrictions however so not all class combinations are possible.

Attributes - Attribute bonues are simplified. A 10 is average with no bonus, and every 2 in either direction gives a +/- 1 to related checks. Ex. a STR 18 is a +4 bonus, INT 15 is a +2 bonus.

Saving Throws - all resistances have been rolled into 3 saves: Fortitude, Reflex, and Will. These are modified by CON, DEX, and WIS, respectively, and increase at different speeds depending on class.

Skills and Feats - Most game actions, in or out of combat, have been moved to either Feats or Skills. If it's something you either can do or you can't, it's likely a Feat, such as Brew Potion or Heavy Armor Proficiency. 3.x gave feats out every 3rd level, in Pathfinder you get one every other. If it's something you can get better at over time, it's likely a skill, for example moving stealthily, spotting hidden enemies, or having a vast knowledge about a certain subject. Skills are upgraded using points allocated at each level, and some classes get more skill points or are better at certain skills than others.

Game map - Many feats and combat abilites are tied heavily to specific locations on a square 1x1 grid, so playing with a map and miniatures is much more important. As a wargamer, this is probably a bonus for you.

Initiative - Weapons speeds are gone. While I miss the flavor that added, it makes keeping track of combat order much easier. At the start of combat everyone rolls initiative, and then every player gets a single turn in order until the end of the round. At the next round they go through the same order again.

I was thinking that the current evil/good and law/chaos system doesn't really work. Well, at least the evil/good part - most people don't fight over law and chaos as much but all it takes as a look at any one of the alignment "discussions" on the forums to realize the current model leaves too much room for interpretation.

One of the reasons this came to mind was from a discussion about playing evil characters, and the realization that just because they're Evil (aligned) doesn't mean that they're evil in every possible way. In a similar manner, people who are overall good often have a "fatal flaw" or at least some kind of weakness. Real people are very multi-faceted, and interesting characters should be, too. Unfortunately in the world of Pathfinder, we have spells and abilities that are designed to specifically target concepts such as Evil, Chaotic, Good, and Lawful. These are tangible properties of a person and central to the game mechanics. So any changes need to still work within that framework.

When creating your character, instead of simply choosing your alignment from the current array, you're presented with a list of 7 vices and virtues (inspired by Rise of the Runelords). For each pair, you select if this is a vice, a virtue, or not strongly aligned. While you could make a very boring character by having no vices or virtues, the more that are selected, the more interesting the character will be. A character with at least 5 virtues is considered Good aligned, a character with at least 5 vices is considered Evil, and anything in-between is Neutral. An 8th, separate trait takes care of the Lawful/Chaotic axis.

The Vices and Virtues are as follows:

Lust / Purity
Gluttony / Temperance
Greed / Generosity
Sloth / Diligence
Wrath / Kindness
Envy / Charity
Pride / Humility

Now every new character has personality seeds that aid in roleplaying. Instead of an ambiguous I'm a good person, you have specific traits that shape how that character will act in many situations.

These can also be used to track alignment shifts. Spending night after night drinking heavily at the inn might shift a character from Temperance to Gluttony, ultimately affecting the overall alignment. Almost all character actions can be tracked in this manner to adjust alignment, if needed. Thus, spells such as Atonement still have their place and purpose, but it's now easier to track when and if an alignment change needs to take place.

Thoughts? Comments? There may be other consequences of this change that I haven't considered. I'm happy to hear feedback.

One of my favorite changes to Pathfinder from 3.x was the at-will powers that spellcasters get. Between cantrips, bloodlines, and new domain powers, every caster always had something magical they could do in combat, without having to resort to carrying a crossbow around, which besides being usually ineffective, just felt wrong. Granted in the shift from Beta many of those at-will powers became #/day, but it was still usually enough to get through many more encounters and helped eliminate the 15 minute adventuring day.

Then we got the Oracle. It's an amazing class, and most of the players I know that used to enjoy playing a healing cleric have moved to an Oracle of Life. The problem is that Oracles don't get domains and have no offensive cantrips. There are very few Oracle Mysteries that have offensive revelations, and you don't have access to any revelations outside your chosen mystery (unlike Clerics who can pick multiple Domains). The lower level cleric/oracle spell lists are also completely devoid of offensive spells. What it means is that most Oracles I've seen still have to resort to traditional weapons - usually lugging around a crossbow.

Was this an oversight in class testing? Or am I missing something? How else can Oracles be effective in combat without investing huge amounts into Str or Dex and archery feats?

All of you have, by one means or another, heard of a call for settlers in the wild stolen lands to the south, and are on your way to that region.

Your travels have landed you in a small and unimportant hamlet called Mabeth, a ways east of New Stetven and not far north of Restov. Since you arrived there has been constant chatter about the poor harvest this year, which has been made worse by the constant bandit raids. The locals have made multiple requests to Restov to see the bandits cleared off, but no reply has yet arrived.

You notice a large commotion near the village square, and draw near to investigate. Several of the local men and woman are shouting at a plump figure standing behind a makeshift podium who has finally succumbed to desperation and looks completely helpless and miserable. Amidst the ruckus you hear fragments of "protect the granary," "Coming tonight," and "Never last the winter!"

Several woman are standing in a separate group nearby sobbing.

OOC discussion for our Kingmaker campaign here. Welcome all who made it in!

In the rake rules it specifies that in order to get the extra claw attacks, the creature must begin the round already grappling its opponent. Does it has to be the one controlling the grapple in order to use this ability?

For instance, if I grapple a lion, can it rake me on its turn without winning a grapple check?

I'm officially opening up recruitment for a halfling-only Kingmaker PbP. After all, halflings need a kingdom of their own!

I'll be looking at 4-6 party members. Use 20pt buy, 2 traits (one should be a campaign trait from the player's guide), max HP at first level. No gunslingers or summoners (I don't want a huge eidolin to throw off the small-ness). Ninjas and Samurai will be accepted as a case-by-case basis - you'd better have a really good reason for it.

While this should be a slightly more lighthearted game, I'd like to see serious character submissions with a fairly well fleshed-out backstory. I'll be looking for an average of one post per day, especially during combat. Unless you give prior warning and miss 24 hours, you'll miss your turn.

Feel free to ask any questions.

Golarion already has a well fleshed-out collection of factions mostly due to the PFS. So should in-game guilds be replaced by those factions for players to find like-minded people to group with, should the game use traditional guilds, or maybe a combination of both?

Thoughts?

I put in a rather large order (over $100) on the 15th of this month and still haven't received it. So I finally checked my account to see what the status of my order was and was dismayed to discover it hadn't even shipped yet! It seems a few of the minis I had ordered were on backorder and that was holding up the entire order.

So I called customer support and got it taken care of - they were nice enough to move the two backordered items into my sidecart and ship the rest of the order, but here I am several weeks late of having the rest of the order.

It would have been really nice if:

A) The backordered items would automatically move to your sidecart so you could get the rest of your order in a timely manner

or

B) We were sent an automated email message informing us that part of the order was on backorder, and inviting us to call or email to change the order if needed.

I have a problem with my spellcaster player characters - they don't use their spells! I have sorcerers, clerics, and oracles that run into battle and insist on using crossbows, even though many of them have dismal (if any) dexterity bonuses, and almost all of them have several at-will powers or cantrips that could be used to good effect in battle.

The most recent example that sparked this post was an attack on a bandit camp. The ranger scouted ahead but failed his stealth check, the bandits raised the alarm, and skewered him with 3 arrows in the surprise round. The Oracle won the initiative, ran right past the wounded ranger (who was down to 1hp) and fired a crossbow bolt at the bandits (of course completely missing).

Has anyone else seen this kind of problem? Any ideas as to how to encourage them to use their spells?

I have a group that I just started and the first thing they did when ambushing the bandits is to close the gate, locking the bandits in. Combat had already started, so I'm trying to figure out how much time it would take to close the gate (in rounds) and what strength checks (or anything else) it might take to close it. Ideas?

I don't know what made me think of this, but earlier in my life (High School) I was a Cross Country runner. So I thought - hey, since there's specific rules for running in D&D, I could figure out what my constitution stat would have been based on my running times.

My best time in the 5k was 18:06 at high altitude, which adjusts to 17:45 at sea level. That works out to about 10.5 mph. Now there's two rules for running in D&D: Hustle and Run. Hustle assumes 6 mph (way too slow for what I was doing) while run assumes about 12 (much closer). Since I obviously couldn't keep up quite that pace for the whole 5k, let's adjust it down to 2 miles and say I could run 12 mph for 12 minutes. Adjust that to rounds, and we get a continued run for 120 rounds!

Now, according to the rules, a character with a Constitution score of 9 or higher can run for a minute without a problem. Generally, a character can run for a minute or two before having to rest for a minute. You can run for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution score, but after that you must make a DC 10 Constitution check to continue running. You must check again each round in which you continue to run, and the DC of this check increases by 1 for each check you have made. When you fail this check, you must stop running.

So according to this, in order to keep running at that pace for 120 rounds, I'd need a con score of ~50-100, and even then make an awful lot of really good saving throws. Which of course is ridiculous.

What is more likely is that I had taken some sort of feat based on my training that allowed me to keep running long after my constitution normally would have allowed it. So....let's come up with a new distance running feat to fit the circumstance!

Feat: Distance run
Prerequisits: Run, Con 13
Description: You can run much longer than normal. You may run at 4x speed for a number of minutes equal to your Constitution score, but after that must make a DC 10 Constitution check to continue running. You must check again each minute in which you continue to run, and the DC of this check increases by 1 for each check you have made. When you fail this check, you must stop running.

I'm' currently DM for a PbP on RPOL and a local gaming group (Hollows Last Hope and RotRL, respectively), and have been itching to actually play the game again as a player - as I haven't had the chance for a few years now.

I'm pretty open to any campaign but I'm loving Golarian right now - if anyone is thinking of starting something or has room in their group please let me know and I'll write up a character concept for you.

Thanks!

I have a player in a PbP I'm running that took Craft (poison) and wants to be able to make her own poison darts. Unfortunately we're having a hard time figuring out just how the mechanic works. According to the entry in the Craft skills section, we need:

1. The items's price in silver pieces
2. The DC (it points to pg 55, which I believe is a typo - should be pg 59)
3. The price for the cost of raw materials

Unfortunately, while I found a good list of poisons in the Glossary section, it has no prices or DCs or raw materials associated with them. There's no mention of poisons on the table on pg 59 either. Am I missing something somewhere? Is this just a part of the rules that hasn't been fleshed out yet and will be added later? I'd really like give this a try, and would hate to have to tell my player to change her character because we can't do poison yet.

As we've been preparing for our own campaign, my wife's been busy painting minis. As the official Pathfinder Goblin Commando has been out of stock all summer, we made due with Reaper mini #14210: Goblin Beastrider,Reven Capt.

She just finished so I thought I'd share:

Front View
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