Maester Jun Ixnar's page

Have there been any rules established for creating NPC stat blocks with class grafts and alternate class features, e.g. an experimental weapon prototype mechanic NPC?

So, I want to create a custom vehicle. The vehicle grafts usually have a price modifier that states to "increase or decrease price by x%" but the rules are unclear as to how those percentage modifications are added beyond "apply changes in the order you apply the templates".

Are the increases/decreases added together then applied to the base price? i.e. base price x (1 + mod1 + mod2 - mod3)

Or are the increases/decreases multiplied directly to the base price in the order they are applied? i.e. base price x (1 + mod1) x (1 + mod2) x (1 - mod3)

Here's an example to use in your answer: How much would a level 3 Large prototype cruiser/hybrid aircraft cost?

Now that Tech Revolution is out and we've had a chance to take a look at mechs, I have some questions regarding mechs and their interactions with spell casters and magic.

1. Can a spellcaster cast a spell while operating a mech? Can that spell affect an enemy mech or another target outside the mech's space? Can that spell affect the mech the spellcaster is operating?

2. We know that a mech is not considered an object. Is a mech considered a construct for the purposes of spells and effects? What about an unattended, inactive mech?

3. Can a mech be remotely controlled, or does the operator have to be physically present in the mech's space?

UPB's have to be made from raw materials and chemicals that are mined or manufactured. Those have to come from somewhere, even if you have access to something like magic or matter-energy conversion. That will keep asteroid mining, chemical refining, and even farming as relevant and legitimate industries in a science fantasy setting like Starfinder.

RAW, as per the original playtest document, I would allow it. You would need to be level 3 and get a throwing fusion and a returning fusion on your fulcrum to make it work.

Here's a question for all of you Starfinder nuts out there.

The Colony Ship Framework expands the number of people it can sustain ten times its maximum crew, which is based upon its base frame. Relevant text below:

Habitable: The primary purpose of a colony ship is to serve as a long-term habitat for its occupants. As a result, colony ships are optimized for communal living. A colony ship can house a total number of occupants equal to 10 × its base frame’s maximum crew size, though its maximum crew size doesn’t change. A colony ship multiplies its base frame’s total number of available expansion bays by three. These additional expansion bays can be used only for cargo holds, escape pods, guest quarters, life boats, recreation suites, or other expansion bays intended primarily for civilians, as determined by the GM.

Link to SRD

Here's my question: Where do the colonists sleep, eat, and perform their bodily functions?

Can a shield that can be used to make unarmed strike attacks take on weapon fusions?

In COM, there is a mystic epiphany called Secondary Connection available at level 3. In the rules text for that ability it says that "If you worship a deity, your second connection must be one associated with that deity." Most of the major campaign deities have a few associated connections, but the minor ones don't.

So, what would a mystic that worships one of these minor deities (like Calistria) consider to be an associated connection?

In part 5 of the Fire Starters adventure path, there is an NPC that is an ifrit nuar - that is, a nuar with the ifrit racial graft. OK, sure - magical creatures can mate with nearly any other creature. We saw it all the time in Starfinder's predecessors all the way back to 3rd edition D&D.

The main difference here is that those predecessors all had ways for player characters to acquire some half-blooded perks. Half-dragons, half-celestials, half-elementals... all of them were perfectly viable (and a little over-powered) character options.

The issue I have with this is that Starfinder does not have a codified way to splice together exotic PC races such as a half-dragon elf, an ifrit nuar, or a skittermander ghoul.

For the sake of this question, let's stick to the ifrit nuar. How would a player character be built using these elements? Start with the nuar race, add the ifrit template graft on top? Make the character as an ifrit that looks like a nuar? What about ability score adjustments/racial abilities?

I would also be interested in hearing a game developer's take on this.

Question regarding the subject above.

The Special Weapon Proficiency feat states that "If a set of special weapons are all different models of the same weapon, proficiency in one such weapon grants proficiency with all weapons in the set." That makes sense for the battlebows out of Dead Suns AP, but what about the shuriken detailed in the Core Rulebook and Armory? Are all of these weapons considered different models of the same weapon?

Cross posting here something I noted for the soldier:

The soldier's arcane assailant fighting style gives the Secret of the Magi ability at level 5. (Page 112, Core Rulebook.) Among the weapon fusions it says a soldier can add to his runed weapon is one called ethereal.

There is no ethereal weapon fusion listed in Chapter 7. There also isn't one with that name in any of the Paizo published source material to date. Did the authors perhaps mean the ghost killer weapon fusion (page 194, CRB) instead?

The soldier's arcane assailant fighting style gives the Secret of the Magi ability at level 5. (Page 112, Core Rulebook.) Among the weapon fusions it says a soldier can add to his runed weapon is one called ethereal.

There is no ethereal weapon fusion listed in Chapter 7. There also isn't one with that name in any of the Paizo published source material to date. Did the authors perhaps mean the ghost killer weapon fusion (page 194, CRB) instead?

You can't directly attack creatures with starship weapons.

You are correct that there is no to-hit roll against a character's KAC/EAC to directly attack a single character-scale target with a starship weapon. However, the rules do state that you can do it as an area-of-effect attack, and you multiply all damage by 10 to convert it to character-scale. (This is the gist of the sidebar on page 292 of the CRB.)

Of course, if you're firing a nuclear missile at a character, a to-hit roll is rather pointless.

The computer rules say you can buy a complex control module for a starship or a weapon turret. The price for a module is 10% of the device being controlled. However, starships and starship weapons do not have listed prices. So how much is a complex control module for a starship?

They do have a listed price. It just happens to be in a currency that is different than the currency used for character equipment and has no readily available conversion rules.

A similar question came up last week in a reddit post; here is the response I wrote for the very same subject:

... a computer with the ability to fully control a ship in a planetary standard orbit would need to be of a tier equal to the ship computer's tier, and it would need the Range 3 upgrade. You would probably also want to miniaturize it so you're not dedicating a Vesk soldier to carrying a remote control rig.

For this example, let's assume a Tier 10 ship (and a Tier 5 ship computer,) with 90% available BP spent. A Tier 5 personal computer costs 10,000 credits. The Range 3 upgrade is an additional 100 credits. The computer starts out at 25 Bulk, so you need 5 levels of miniaturization to get it down to light Bulk - that costs 50% of the base computer price, or 5,000 credits!

So your handheld starship remote control costs 15,100 credits AND 27 BP for a Tier 10 ship.

For a Tier 1 ship, the cost is a much more reasonable 155 credits and 5 BP. (50 for the Tier 1 computer, 100 for the Range 3 upgrade, and 5 for 1 level of miniaturization. 5 BP is 10% of a Tier 1 ship's max cost.)

So, yes, it is possible for a 1st level character to remotely control their starship while in orbit above his head, and it doesn't have to drain his starting budget. Of course, that character must be somewhere with an infosphere or be able to directly network that computer into a planetwide communication system. No net access = no remote control boom-boom.

I made the assumption about the personal computer tier to avoid a mid-level party being able to call in an orbital strike from the Starfinder equivalent of an iPhone.

In addition, this method also circumvents a high-level class ability - namely, the level 19 mechanic ability that gives him the ability to exactly this for free as long as he has access to his custom rig.

Honestly, this is the sort of - dare I say it? - munchkin-ism I would avoid as a GM. Destroying your enemies from orbit with a ship-mounted laser weapon is (in my opinion) bad form and against the spirit of the Starfinder game as a whole.

However, if all of you other GM's see a need for this sort of hardware and gameplay option for your PC's, I wholeheartedly recommend that there be consequences for this sort of action. The Stewards could arrest the party for mass murder, their ship could be impounded, and they could lose membership in whatever benevolent organizations they have joined. An alignment shift could be enforced. If the party's crimes turn out to be especially heinous, they could be turned into xenos non grata and forced to flee the Pact Worlds for good.

I echo the call for an FAQ on the subject, if for no other reason than to define Paizo's view on the subject as developers of the game and campaign setting.

Claxon and Avoron answered the question; thank you much!

Question: Can a character gain precision-based damage with a breath weapon (a supernatural ability,) spell, or spell-like ability, assuming that all other requirements for sneak attacks are met?

1. Does this draw an attack of opportunity if adjacent to a threat?

2. Supposing the environment is described as "clean" (devoid of loose objects, this power is unusable?

3. What is the range?

4. Who determines the damage type?

5. To overcome DR would hurling a magic item or one made of a particular material still count for those purposes?

For the answers to your questions, look at the blast ability a kineticist gains at 1st level. Here is how I interpret the answers (everyone else, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)

1. The kineticist blast ability is a spell-like ability, and spell-like abilities provoke unless the individual text says otherwise.

2. I would say that a character could carry something that could be used for this ability. However, take note of the third sentence of the ability text: "... the target and the thrown object each suffer ... damage equal to 1d6+1+your Constitution modifier." Throwing that ancient Thassilonian vase around isn't good for it. Copper pieces, on the other hand...

3. All kineticist blasts start at a 30 foot range. Unless a kineticist has the wild talents extended range or extreme range (extended range is a prerequisite for extreme range, BTW,) that's as far as the blast can reach.

4. You do.

5. No. The specific object used to assault your target does not matter when it comes to damage or critical hits. Blasts already overcome magic DR, and most of the energy-type blasts deal with energy resistance instead. Terrakineticists get the ability to overcome material-based DR (mithral/adamantine/cold iron) with one of their blasts; aetherkineticists do not.

Apparently there's been over 200 posts since last I looked in, and for some reason when I use the search function it's not showing me posts I know are (were?) there before, so apologies if any of these have been answered in the interim:

Do we know if:

1 - Can Metamagic feats affect blasts/talents? (Force Blast + Toppling Spell would be a nice combo)

2 - Can Telekinetic Haul be used on a willing creature (other than self) as well as an object? If not, can it be used on an object that a creature is standing on top of?

3 - Would racial alternative traits that affect elemental/ish bloodline powers/spells also apply to Wild Talents and Blasts? For example:

Advanced Race Guide wrote:

Some dwarves’ affinity for the earth grants them greater powers. Dwarves with this racial trait are treated as one level higher when casting spells with the earth descriptor or using granted powers of the Earth domain, the bloodline powers of the earth elemental bloodline, and revelations of the oracle’s stone mystery. This ability does not give them early access to level-based powers; it only affects the powers they could use without this ability. This racial trait replaces stonecunning.

(emphasis mine)

Thanks!

1) Only some of them. The kineticist's blasts (and most of the wild talents) are spell-like abilities, and metamagic feats affect only spells. And kineticists already get the ability to accept burn to empower, maximize, quicken, and double-cast their blasts as they go up in level.

2. The Telekinetic Haul talent never says anything about moving creatures. I would say no.

3. The blasts and infusions don't have the required descriptor. I would house-rule it to apply, but RAW says no.

Mark Seifter wrote:

Uhh...well, you guys saw the thing about not provoking with blade/whip, right? Also, whoever said that kinetic whip just gives you the reach property and not any of the minutiae of the weapon (such as the weapon whip which has longer reach and provokes AoOs) is correct.

I have a question about the kinetic blade/whip. Whip just extends the weapon but otherwise it's blade so mainly about blade.

Does it give you a specific weapon you choose when you make it as it seems to imply with the text about one handed or light weapon or is it it's own weapon?

It is its own weapon. It may look like a rapier/kukri/handaxe but it does the damage of your chosen blast and has a crit range of 20/x2.

Reason to ask though is can I make a weapon with the trip, disarm, sunder, monk, etc kinda traits and gain the benefits. Can I take weapon specific traits like river rat, or multiclass with something that has a weapon specific class feature and benefit from it.

Not at present. In fact, most weapon-based feats don't even work with a kinetic blade or whip.

I thought everything would be DC based off of the Blast. since they modify blasts and blasts specificall ystates their spell level.

but i'll honest some of the "levels" of the infusions confuse me.. they have chacter level so i'm not sure what the level refers to persay.

The "Level" entry in the talent/infusion stat block refers to the equivalent spell level.

And the DC's for infused blasts are based on the blasts themselves. On top of that, the blast DC's scale with class level at a rate of 1 per 2 class levels. The description of the blast ability has more info.

So, another question about Foe Throw:

Can you pick up an enemy and throw him into a wall or window with the express intent to break through it? All Foe Throw does is turn an enemy into a projectile instead of using a random object. The thrown enemy still takes damage, as does the target. I'm thinking it isn't possible after re-reading the first sentence of the telekinetic blast ability...

You throw whatever unattended object

happens to be nearby at a single foe as a ranged attack.

What does everyone else think? Can I get an official ruling on the question as well?

OK, here's my 2 copper.

1) The melee options for kineticists are somewhat lacking in two departments: Two-handed weapons and two weapon fighting. Kinetic Blade specifically describes the created weapon as a one-handed or light weapon, and it does not explicitly give the caster the option for two-weapon fighting.

I understand that Kinetic Blade does give you increased damage over a two-handed weapon at the same level, so the bonuses a melee-focused character of the same level would gain from feat selection - Power Attack, Cleave, Vital Strike, etc. - do not even apply to a melee-focused kineticist. While this frees up feat slots and makes dipping a level or two into fighter/ranger/whatever somewhat useless, it also makes melee-focused pyros or terras very bland and uninteresting.

On top of all of that, the focus on ranged combat along with taking the Strength modifier out of the equation for melee attacks make the kineticist rely 100% on a high Dexterity to help improve their DPR, especially with non-touch attack blasts. Selecting Weapon Finesse early in said character's career becomes essential; without it, a kineticist is severely restricted on which elements and wild talents they can select to remain effective in combat.

The final item I noticed was the lack of sustained melee weapon usage. In order to utilize attacks of opportunity, a kineticist must be level 6, have the Kinetic Whip wild talent, and commit to using it and accepting at least 1 burn a round (or build up energy and restrict yourself to 1 normal attack a round.) Once the kineticist hits 8th level, it does become possible to do this every round at no cost and get iterative attacks, but such a build requires a very specific set of class feature choices.

To correct these issues, I suggest the following:
a) Give kineticists Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat early in the level progression. This would work well as a feature for a melee-focused kineticist archetype.
b) Add the ability to create a pair of weapons with Kinetic Blade or a new wild talent that performs the same function. Perhaps the weapons should do reduced damage to balance the additional attacks...
c) Allow a kineticist to take a feat or feat chain that improves the melee wild talents - start with 1 optional burn = ability ends at the beginning of your next turn, ramp up to ending at the beginning of your next turn without any burn expenditure.
d) Add a feat for Kinetic Blade users that allows the character's Kinetic Blade to take on the crit range/multiplier of a single chosen weapon. The kineticist must be proficient in this weapon, of course.

2) The damage types for the basic blasts are not consistent, and that bothers me. Put simply, an aerokineticist with air blast is going to have a bad time every combat against a monster with DR /slashing or piercing. A telekineticist at the same level has no problem with half of the DR types out there; an appropriately built terrakinetic has even more versatility in that respect.

In addition, I noticed that kineticists have no way to bypass alignment-based DR (yet?) or use positive/negative energy.

The solutions here involve a little more work:
a) Modify all of the basic blasts so they can deal bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage like telekinetic blast at the user's choosing. Or make it an optional "accept 1 burn" modification. (Not the energy-based blasts; they're fine in this regard.)
b) Alignment substance infusions! Holy water, hellfire, chaotic lightning, fiery law... oh, the possibilities!
c) Positive and negative energy kinetic energy types. Negative energy/entropy blasts deal normal damage to living opponents and objects but only half damage to undead. Positive energy blasts deal full damage to undead and only half to living creatures.

Thoughts?

All,

One of my players threw a curve ball at me today. He is playing a magic item crafter, and he wants to create an item that gives its user a creature template - like half-dragon, vampire, etc. - for a limited amount of time, something like 10 rounds per day.

I have yet to see a spell that really duplicates what the player wants to do. Do such spells exist, or should I just make the spell requirement a wish or miracle spell? On top of that, what would such an item cost to make?

Evil Midnight Lurker wrote:

I'm pretty sure Golarion is supposed to be ridiculously far away from Earth -- like, not even in the same galactic supercluster, never mind in the same galaxy -- but can't recall what the official word is on that.

There is no official word. Other than "Using magic to go there is the easiest and fastest way."

Well, you know what they say about magic... "Any sufficiently advanced technology" etc., etc.

Needless to say I am definitely looking forward to the official word on the Silver Mount.

The other five ability scores also call out their effects when at 0. Constitution says dead. Strength, Wisdom and Charisma call out being unconscious, while Intelligence says "comatose" (although the difference in-game is unclear). Dexterity calls itself out as an exception.

Re: Intelligence - There really isn't a "comatose" condition, so I would file that under unconscious.

I noticed some contradictory language about ability scores and what happens when they get reduced to zero... specifically with regards to Dexterity.

In Chapter 1, on page 16, the description for the Dexterity ability score states: "A character with a Dexterity score of 0 is incapable of moving and is effectively immobile (but not unconscious.)"

Later in the Core Rulebook, in Appendix 1, on page 555, I came across this: "If the amount of ability damage you have taken equals or exceeds your ability score, you immediately fall unconscious until the damage is less than your ability score. The only exception to this is your Constitution score. If the damage to your Constitution is equal to or greater than your Constitution score, you die."

So, the question now is "What happens when a character's Dexterity score is effectively reduced to zero through ability damage and/or drain? What condition does the character gain?"

Yet another round of kingdom questions! This time, I'm wondering about trade edicts. (Page 232-33 of Ultimate Campaign)

1) Once the trade route is established successfully, the rules are pretty clear about what the kingdom that started the trade route receives. What does the kingdom on the other end of the trade route receive?

2) The rules for trade edicts state that a kingdom can have one of each type of trade route (food, raw materials, goods, and luxuries.) Does this mean that a kingdom can only trade goods to only one other kingdom?

My group of players and I were talking about magic weapon special abilities and bonus stacking, and a question came up about using two different bane abilities on a single opponent. The example the player gave was a +1 bane (humanoid-human) & bane (humanoid-elf) weapon used in combat against a half-elf.

Between the four of us, we determined the weapon's enhancement bonus would not increase to +5 but instead remain at +3. However, we were unable to really determine if the extra 2d6 damage from both bane abilities would apply or if only one of them would.

It was my opinion that the 2d6 bonus damage from both banes would apply and stack because they are untyped bonuses. I'd like to get a second opinion on that decision.

Would two different bane weapon ability damage bonuses stack if both of them applied to a single target?

No input from anyone on this?

I've got some experience with this in a campaign I'm playing in at the moment, so I will try to elaborate.

The Army rules make a few assumptions.
1) They assume, first off, that you are using the Kingdom Building rules in Ultimate Campaign. So, speed is measured in kingdom hexes, or 12 miles a day, assuming 30 feet traveled per round. See the Core Rulebook for overland travel; that's where the movement speeds are derived.
2) Each Army consists of many individual characters; for the sake of brevity, it is assumed they are all the same race & class, have the same equipment, etc.
3) When two armies fight, it can be surmised that they meet on a field of battle somewhere inside a kingdom hex or on the border between two hexes. Where they actually fight is relevant because there are some situational modifiers that can be applied.

Ranged armies can attack during once during a ranged phase, which occurs before the repeated grind-the-other-guy-to-death melee phases. I'll make this more clear in the example you asked for below.

So, here's an example of how ranged phases work.

The 1st Infantry and 1st Long-guns Armies are fighting against a much larger skeleton Army. 1st Infantry is a Medium Army of level 1 human fighters, and they have no ranged capability to speak of. (OM +0, DV 10, Morale +2, HP 2.) 1st Long-guns is a Medium Army made up of level 2 elven gunslingers with rifles. (OM +1, DV 13, Morale +4, HP 5, ranged.) The skeletons are a Huge Army of typical human skeletons. (OM +3, DV 13, HP 13, mindless.)

The first phase is tactics. The skeletons are mindless, so all they can use is standard tactics. Their OM and DV remains the same. 1st Long-guns decides to start with the Sniper Support tactic, which gives an extra 2 points of damage during a successful Melee phase. The 1st Infantry realizes they are heavily outclassed and opt for Full Defense tactics. Their stats are now OM -4, DV 14, HP 2.

Now comes the ranged phase. The skeletons and 1st Infantry have no ranged capability, so they can't do anything right now. The 1st Long-guns, however, have rifles and the skills to use them. The 1st Long-guns roll 1d20 + their OM and get a 17. 17 - the skeleton army's DV (17 - 13) is 4. The skeleton Army takes 4 points of damage.

Everyone gets to attack on the melee phase, and all of the armies elect a standard strategy, so there are no additional modifiers. The 1st Long-guns opts to stay in melee range, while the skeletons - being mindless - decide to attack the ones who hurt them the most, the 1st Long-guns.

The 1st Infantry decides to switch to the Expert Flankers tactic before attacking. This requires a DC15 Morale check, which the player easily makes. The 1st Infantry now has the following stats: OM +2, DV 8, Morale +4, HP 2.

Now everyone attacks at the same time. 1st Infantry rolls a 12 on his attack, not enough to damage the skeleton Army. The 1st Long-guns rolls well again and gets a 20 on the attack roll. The Skeleton Army takes 7 damage, plus 2 for the sniper support tactic, for a total of 9 damage.

The Skeleton Army now has zero HP. However, since all attacks during a phase happen simultaneously, the Skeleton Army gets a parting shot at the pesky elves. The Skeleton Army rolls a 14 on their attack; the 1st Long-guns take 1 point of damage.

If the 1st Long-guns had opted to withdraw and made the opposed Morale check to do so, it could take a ranged attack, and the skeletons would not be able to retaliate in kind. If the opposed Morale check had failed, the skeletons would get a free attack against the 1st Long-guns. To make it worse. the 1st Long-guns have a -2 penalty to OM and DV for this phase.

If the 1st Long-guns had flight capability in the previous example, the skeletons would still be able to attack during the first melee phase when the 1st Long-guns attacked them. However, if the 1st Long-guns decided to not attack during the second melee phase, the skeletons would not be able to attack the 1st Long-guns in a melee phase unless they could fly as well. Even ranged weapons would not help.

Does that help?

I have a few questions regarding the kingdom rules and settlements.

Ultimate Campaign quickly establishes the size of a hex as "about 95 square miles." A settlement is divided into districts of "about 1 square mile" in size.

What is the maximum size of a settlement in districts? It is fairly safe to assume that most settlements won't be larger than 1 square mile, but some major cities certainly can grow to be rather large.

What about multiple-hex settlements? In a high-magic setting, it isn't unheard of to see cities that have populations in the millions or more.

An official ruling would be awesome, but not necessary. I am mainly asking for curiosity's sake.

I read the blog and am very happy with the changes to the system. Stopping the grind, or being forced to turn off the auto gain was just stupid, but having 2 "alignments" I think will work well.

I do have a question. If you can "change your Core Alignment" how does that effect your currently active/trained abilities/feats? I don't want to assume anything, which is why I am asking. I would assume you won't "Loss" anything you have trained, you just can't train it further or use it unless your active alignment meets the requirements.

This brings me to another question. If abilities being used go off of active alignment, what happens if you preform an action that changes the alignment in the mists of combat or other use of a feat/skill. For example, if a pally goes nutz and starts killing everyone, he starts with smite evil (as he starts LG) but once he shifts neutral mid-fight, does the power just turn off? self removed from the bar? replaced with another ability? Does nothing happen until "out of combat" or something like that? I know this is a bit extreme but I am curious as to how it will be handled.

I am not with Paizo or even a game developer, but I can surmise what may be done. I am a bit curious about how this will be handled as well.

The rules in Pathfinder pen-and-paper are very clear about alignment changes within certain classes. Paladins can only be lawful good, for example; if a paladin character permanently shifts away from that alignment, he/she becomes an ex-paladin and loses access to most paladin abilities. Same goes for barbarians, monks, and clerics - the specifics are slightly different, but the effect is the same.

I would guess that if your active alignment drops below the correct threshold for your class you would no longer be able to use those alignment-based abilities. Using the paladin as an example, if you go on a murder spree and reduce your Good-Evil alignment below 2500, you would no longer be able to Smite Evil until you spend some time not murdering innocents... or maybe until an atonement spell is cast. (Devs, please feel free to ninja-copy these ideas if you haven't gone this far!) It would be just like being out of mana while playing any other MMO... you'll get an error message (that ability has been disabled, your alignment does not match, etc.) and the ability does not work.

That leads me to my question regarding alignment restricted classes: If a character starts off in one class but ends up changing his "core alignment" so that he no longer can advance as said class - a paladin becoming lawful neutral, evil, or worse, for example - does he immediately become "a lousy fighter" until he can pick up new abilities?