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I have new player who wants a caster that can use stealth to dispatch foes as as cast. Is there an archetype out there that adds sneak attack to a caster or casting to a SA based class?


So my PCs have just reached 4th level and have decided to to go on a deep exploration of the local megadungeon that is is campaign setting.

I plan to run this as a hex crawl. The area they are exploring is a little less then a square mile. I plan to break that up into 19 hex for them to explore.

Since I have 6 PCs in the party I am fine tuning around that. Also we are using E6.

The dungeon had doors that lead to small demiplanes (as big as 200 sq miles) that reset and change under certain circumstance that allow then to be repeatedly plundered. That is the basis for the economy of the metropolis above.

I need to put at least 1 major and few minor things in each hex.

This is to brainstorm ideas on things to put there.


Eventually spells like Mage's mansion, create demi plane, simulacrim, fabricate, and planer binding allow a caster to live however he wants. At this point the caster does not need the resources a population can harvest for him.

With no need for resources would casters really care all that much about the world any more. If a the BBEG can have whatever he wants already then he needs some motivation other then greed or power for world domination.

At what level does a caster really no longer need commoners?


I have not had a chance to prepare for Wednesday's game and I need to fill a session or to with out to much work. I have 6 2nd level PC's that are OP. The game is mostly combat centered with a health does of crazy plan to gain the upper hand. I have frame that let's me run anything but I want to avoid urban adventures and those that focus on monstrous humanoids since we have done a bunch of that already.

Thanks in advance.


Group mate kinda wants his PC to be based on the above. What build can do that in an E6 world.


My 2nd level PCs have made a serious enemy in the form of a kingpin (minus the brains) mob boss. It looks they they are going to actually try and fight him (and his minions) so I am going to need his build.

I have established that he is a 5th level half orc, very strong, fights with his hands, and wears light or no armor. He does need to frightening but not super op.

He also has 2 3rd level orc orc or half orc body guards and wizard who can cast invisibility at CL 5. I would prefer the wizard to be 3rd or 4th level.

He also has about 70 1-3 level warriors and ten to 15 1st or 2nd level PC classed minions. I am thinking his penchant for uber violence means he will not have any other casters but maybe a cleric or inquisitor could be fun.

I 6 PCs and they are quite OP so they can eat APL +3 encounters easily and APL+5 is hard but not lethal. I never use anything CR=APL+4 or more because that is ether a TPK or cakewalk.


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I have seen it said that somehow a sorc can use a spellbook. What is that referring to?


I saw the song bird of doom thread and thought that could be neat with reduce person. Then I saw that MoMS will not get me later style feats early. Is there any way to do that now?


So I have PCs who want be able to more quickly get a bunch of buffs.

They would like a gem then can cast multiple buffs into then activate later as standard action.

The spell slot is occupied until the spell is released from the gem and fades after 24 hours. (The do not want more spells, just to turn them on faster)

No personal spells

Spells effect only the holder of the gem even if the original spell could effect an area or more then one target.

An example would be a gem that could hold 6 levels of spells of up to 3rd level.

The casters in the group fill it with Haste, enlarge person, and bull's strength and then give it to the fighter.

Several hours later the party encounters a dragon that breaths on the PCs and downs the casters. The fighter spends a round and now gains the benefit of all 3 spells as if they were just cast.


Gnolls have great flavor but rules wise they are boring and seam a bit weak for their CR.

They are mean to be kind of scary for my level 1 PCs but if I compare them to my PCs they worse in almost every way except HP.

I was thinking that gnarled Kuru warrior 1 armed with a long spear.

I was thinking of going with a simple weapon focus for the feat.


I just ran an adventure with hobgoblins and we are moving on to gnolls. Hobgoblins are tougher in every way then gnolls, this made compare the above categories.

To me most CR 1/2 humanoids are about the same as 2 HD humanoids.

Is this a case of the money difference between NPC and PC gear at 1st level not being enough to matter? A 1st level fighter with its 390 GP and one with one with 260 are both CR 1 or CR 1/2.

My instincts tell me that CR 1/2 accurate and that would mean that most of the CR 1 humanoids and monstrous humanoids are under CRed but I wanted to double check before a boost my gnolls.

The right fix fell like it should be better stats for humanoids and better natural weapons and armor for monstrous humanoids.


Title says it all.


I need a riddle whose answer is eighty. It can be an equation or riddle but I would like two simpler forms for successful int checks.

Do not worry, the PC can by pass the riddle with a sledge hammer or DD check. They just get a bonus for solving the riddle.

There are some pretty hard core math guys in the group so calculus is not beyond them but they would be quite rusty.


My players are tired of plot and stories and just want to focus on combat and comedic role play. We have also chosen to use E6. Big 6 bonus are baked into leveling. As such I plan to make it hard for them to accumulate large amounts of wealth. They will have to pay for their lifestyle and pay the interest back on the loans they needed to take out to get an adventures license. The will eventually get a chance a big score that can get them ahead and from their get rich like their idols (the 6th level delvers)

dungeon setup:
I am using a hex grid for the overall map of the dungeon. The far farther from center the more dangerous the hex. The hexs are not in the real world. Only the the center hex is the real world and it is the only way into the dungeon (except when it is not). A hex is filled with all kinds of monsters and even if you kill them they eventually respawn. The city over the dungeon pays adventures to help suppress the monster population. The dungeon walls often contain gems and valuable metals so teams are sent in to mine those. Also with in a given hex are doors that lead to demiplanes. Each demiplane is a nice convenient self convenient adventure site of any type imaginable. Site must be cleared quickly because mook level bad guys respawn fairly quickly (hours to days). If the high end monsters a dealt with the whole area resets. The theme stays the same but the maps and monsters may change around. This exploited because the loot also resets. Hexs can also reset witch shifts the map and may take away some sites and make others available. It is also dangerous since every monster in the zone re spawns all at once. basically the hex needs to be explored and tames all over again.

Given the above I am looking to create a job board the the PCs to pick from. I have 14 potential jobs for them to pick from but each one just few words at this point. I could use more job ideas (for 1st level PCs) and to flesh each one out into paragraph of to.

This first six involve traveling to door in the dungeon and entering a site to hunt a creature and harvest something form it. I think any of the following would be neat. Ankhek, Dire ape, Cockatrice, Giant scorpion, minotaur, or yeti.

The next to involve escorting a wagon to a door. They will get gaurds for so we can focus on the site but an attack or two on the way back might spice things up if they site was to easy. The first is a winery complete with already aged wine and the other involves harvesting water melons (they grow no where else). The both benefit form being heavy and fragile.

The next task is being the wagon guards for a more experience team while the go and clear a zone and bring the loot out.

Mining draws monsters in like nothing else so for this one you are part of team and assigned a zone so that you can intercept the baddies before they get all the noise.

Speaking of zones I was thinking they could take job manning a strong point so that those who get in over their heads (most adventures are warrior 1 or 2) can train their monsters into the PCs. They could also be given a zone to patrol and be asked to run towards the sound of screams.

Lastly they could escort a mapping or reading team around a hex. Reading involves lots of bulky fragile eq used to determine the true nature of the dungeon.

I know I am bad a presentation. Sorry about wall of text.


I a PF gm with a load experience but i have never played in PFS. We have regular game but we do not like play if any one is absent. We have chosen to play PFS scenarios when there is an absent player. I would like make is official so that characters can be taken to cons.

Can someone point me to where I need to go and what I need to do to accomplish this?


If I animate a wagon and order it to allow itself to be driven does that work?

Basically is there a method of transferring control that can be passed on even with out the makers presence or knowledge.

I want be able to animate a wagon then sell it to someone else. I also want that guy to be able to pass it on to others and so on down the line.

I was thinking of building in a piloting mechanism and commanding the construct to follow the piloting rig.


I realize that things need to change when PCs get to higher levels. At low levels things like walls and door can channel a party through a dungeon crawl. At higher levels they have so many different ways to find out what is going on and just skipping over to it.

For this discussion lets assume that the table has reasonable rules that prevent snow con wish machines, nested fast time planes, abusive trap rules, and huge armies of bound outsiders.

What makes a good story at 13th level and above? How do you present a new BBEGs arrival on the scene? If he is not new why has he not moved against the PCs already?

Part of making a boss fight interesting is softening the PCs up by having them wade through your minions. How do you do that at higher levels?

If you play in a standard setting what do you do when the PCs want to use their new powers to completely change how the economy works? How do you explain that this has not been done before? At these levels they can introduce teleport trade routes, build and airforce, set a near instant communication between villages, provide water for millions, feed a nation with ease, and make an invading army of low level warriors pointless. I am say that those abilities are bad, just how do you deal with them in game.

One of the main reasons I ask this is I have not seen a published adventure that truely addresses what high level PCs and BBEGs can do. Is there one out there?


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So my players would like to play a goblin game. They want a sandbox to play in. I could use some help in building the sandbox.

We would keep to low level so it will not likely go past level 6. We add in P6 rules.

My ideas so far.

The main setting is ruined city at a river intersection that divides the city into 3 parts.

Tropical setting so that monkey goblins can also be around.

River is dangerous due to hippos, gators, and other predators that enjoy a good goblin snack.

The goblins found out about soccer really like the idea of Hooligans. The different tribes use colors and shirts to identify themselves.

Every ten days every goblin gathers at the stadium to watch their tribes soccer teams compete for cup. Riots are common and expected. The underking does provides refs instead of players and prevents the riots from turning into all out war. Wooden buildings are erected in the surrounding area between cups. The buildings that burn best achieve great honor for those who built it and for those who burned it.

A wizard and his apprentices have tower on small island in the middle of the river. The goblins do not mess with him due to his might balls of fire that have on occasion destroyed entire tribes.

A temple that devours most offers to change those who can plunge its depths. Many kings and chiefs have undergone the change.

Several cults are operate in the ruins and mostly left alone by goblins.

Barb 6 monkey goblin claims the title of overking. He leads a band of elite goblins and grants the right to host him and his men to his lessor kings. He defends that kingdom until he gets bored, runs out of food, or burns the building down. This is an honor most kings would like to refuse.

Wererat Druid 6 is rabid conservationist of rats. Only those he deems worthy may hunt rats. While he does encourage the sacred hunting of rats they may not be over hunted. Every tribe and kingdom aspires to have as many ratters as possible since rat hunting is both glorious and provides much needed food for the tribe. Those who do not follow his edicts face the wrath of those have given up tribe to receive the blessing of the rat (Lycanthropy).

Shaman 6 is religious leader of the city and controls the sewers. Leads the largest tribe and claims the color black. While others may venture into sewers at his sufferance only those of his tribe may sleep underground. He demands tribute from all surface dwellers. Claims the title of underking.

Each section of the city has king that leads the larges tribe in that section of the city and claims to rule over the chieftains of other tribes in the area. This title changes hands every few months since a dead king's tribe will often follow those who kill the king. This often combines two tribes together but the old kings cronies will frequently break off to form their own tribes.

The northern tribes breed pigs and goblin dogs and often hunt in the jungle to the north.

The SW tribes are the most warlike and raid humans farther down the river. As such the often host a party that comes looking for vengeance.

The SE tribes are more peaceful and control a mine. These tribes are more likely to build things and the stadium is in their territory.

While all tribes are fractious fight with each other with in their own section they will band together to if tribes from outside their section attempt to invade them. This difficult anyway since river crossings are dangerous and bridges fortified on both ends.

I would love to use system that grants followers to an goblin with a PC class. They gain the followers as long they can provide food, water, and a roof.


1. Called creatures can not call other creatures.

2. Wishes granted by outsiders are narrative in nature always. (Does not mean they have to be twisted but can be)

3. Simulacrums may not copy outsiders, undead, or constructs. Dragons halve their age. CL for spell like abilities is halved. The new CLx 1.5 must be high enough to cast the spell or the SLA is lost. Must target a piece of the creature at least 1 cubic inch in size.

4. Teleport may follow any path to its destination but needs a path. Change range to 10 miles per level and greater to 100. A creature may not take more then 3 times its weight with regardless of carrying capacity. Dim door does not need a path.

5. Traps need a fuel source for their spells such as a wand, scroll, staff or charges per day item.

6. Any spell that makes something from nothing is permanent instead of instant. It the object is changed physically it can still be dispelled but a chemical change makes it permanent.

7. Time stop is an instant spell.

High level casters are still personally powerful and nigh unkillable but this should limit their ability to have unlimited minions and while they can still build it is shaky since it can be dispelled.


Let's say that you a board wizard that thinks he can do better then the Gods. You decide to build your own world and shape it as you see fit. How would you go about this?

Requirements for this exercise
1. Built in the prime.
2. Built in deep space.
3. Must have a land area equal to mercury.
4. Must sustain at least 500 million humanoids.
5. Must have gravity.
6. Must have ecosystem.
7. Rules exploits work.
8. Wish can not go into dangerous territory.
9. You are a 20th level arcane caster with no mythic ability.
10. Wall spells can be cast in any orientation if they at absolute rest.
11. Spell can anchor to an orbit.
12. An object that generates 1/100th of a G can anchor a spell like a world.

Mercury=74,800,000 Km squared surface area.
I know there are those who like physics and can do the math on stuff.


It has been suggested by some folks that a way to unlimited would be to butcher an animal then restore its corpse and repeat.

Does the butchering process leave enough of the animal to even be called a corpse?

If this works a single cow can provide meat for 3 to 5 hundred people forever with a singe casting and some purification cantrips.

If skin can be harvested each time that is free leather.


Would the game break if we left casters with higher level slots but they had to fill them with meta versions lower level spells?

I know that thinks like spells known and bloodlines would need to be redone. Also monster SLA at upper levels would need to be changed (or not) but I think that can be done.

I think sorcs could learn a meta version of spell to avoid the longer casting time. Also caster get heighten spell for free.

Fixing traps so they can not spam spells all day and making prereqs for magic items hard and think that we get a much better fantasy society.

Maybe some 4th and 5th level spells available as feats or rituals.

Any big problems a 14th level party would run into with only 3rd level spells?


I am bbeg and I want my lair to be difficult to penetrate.

I start with a teleport trap over the whole thing. To protect the horizontal edges I can lair walls or force and fire or even a go all out with a prismatic wall. There are many other fun walls as well if once can find a way to make them permanent.

This unfortunately leaves the top and bottom of my lair vulnerable. Mundane defense are not going to stop those pesky adventures. Earth glide lets them come up form under of down from above with ease and then the simply need to bash through a hard wall.

Would gravity sphere allow me to make horizontal walls? Short of dispelling can you get through a blazing rainbow?


So we have been playing Skull and Shackles and are now about to engage in book 6. Having looked in book 6 and discussed it with my players we have come to the conclusion that we do not want to play it. That leaves me needing to write the end of the game.

All of my PCs really really hate Cheliax and would love to see the country burn. I modified the end of book 5 to include a an artifact of significant power. The PCs had the idea to auction it off for a shot at House Thrune.

So my outline for the conclusion is
Auction of a major artifact to the high power folks of the world in exchange for 1 day of vulnerability to the most important NPCs of house Thrune. Following that will a 24 hour period where the PCs must travel to the lair 5 NPCs and slay them and their guards.

My PCs are a level 13 party of 5 that is well optimized to work as a team.
I was thing of having the scion be a level 15 devil cleric in demiplane of hell. Each of the other 4 will have a way to get to that plane and back him up and a way to bring him back to life should he fall. This will ensure the PCs take his heirs and advisers first and end with the ruler of Cheliax itself.

I need help designing the auction and the encounters that will be the end of my game. My target for the ruler is a CR 17 (for 5 PCs) and for the other four to be between 14 and 15 each.

My PCs are evil to the point where the forces of good would need to be highly motivated to work with them. The fall of Cheliax may be enough be they would not want my PCs to replace house Thrun.


I need an npc sheet that will be a nice challenge for my PCs. This is climatic battle for my PCs and needs to feel very epic. It also needs to be a 1 vs 5 battle.

To help with action economy the BBEG is tied to an artifact that grants the following abilities.

The Wormwood Clock:

Aura: strong conjuration (summoning) CL 20th
Slot: None Weight: 10 lbs.

DESCRIPTION

This macabre brass-and-copper clock depicts worms writhing through whale corpses. The clock makes a heavy reverberating tick each second, and chimes with haunting bells at dawn and dusk. The Wormwood Clock also has another purpose. Within is trapped the soul of Barnabas Harrigan, and as long as it ticks Barnabas Harrigan will never be free of the bargain he made to save his life from his Chelish captors, or even this mortal coil. This clock is an anchor that weighs Harrigan to this world. Unfortunately stopping its infernal ticking is as difficult as freeing the trapped soul within. Each week the clock torments Harrigan's soul, causing the pirate intense physical and spiritual agony, but the Clock can be appeased. As each punishment performed before the clock eases the torment on Harrigan's soul.
As long as the clock ticks Harrigan has the following qualities:

Unstoppable: If Harrigan starts his turn suffering from any or all of the following conditions, he recovers from them at the end of its turn: blind, confused, dazed, deafened, dazzled, exhausted, fatigued, nauseated, sickened, slowed, staggered, and stunned. Each condition lifted does 15 damage.

DR 15/Lawful Evil: Nigh unkillable by most weapons Harrigan's diabolic masters left him with a weakness to the weapons they favor best.

Immunity: ability damage, aging, bleed, disease, energy drain, mind-affecting effects, negative levels, paralysis, permanent wounds, petrification, poison, and polymorph. Instead any effect that would cause any of the above does 5xCL HP.

SR 11+HD: Harrigan is resistant to magic except spells with [lawful] or [evil] descriptors.

If Harrigan is reduced to 0 HP he takes 1 con drain and heals 50 HP. If this ability is triggered he may use it a again as free action to heal additional damage. This effect is similar to breath of life.

I need a pure martial with full WBL that do 100-150 DPR (with self buffs) against an AC 40. I would like him to make good use of shaken condition but frightened kills the fun for a PC. 20 point buy. Feats like iron will include the improved version for free. Reasonable custom items allowed. I am thinking of sword saint samurai order of the cockatrice, maybe with an improved familiar.


Basically the title. I find that many casters use the money that would go into a weapon on rods. If this does not exist then I will endeavor to try and make it.


This is from a DMs perspective but I also have to remember that what is good for the gander is good for the goose.

My PCs are a 11th level and will be facing a NPC party that includes an 11th level conjurer.

What is a reasonable number of called creature for a conjurer to control?
My first thoughts say 2xCL and creatures of the same alignment count as 2/3rds HD.

Is follow my orders a reasonable task?
I lean towards yes.

Should called creatures be able to call more creatures?
I think not. Not sure if gate should be an exception.

How should inherent bonuses be handled?
I single bound genie can upgrade every single ally that conjurer has and then be dismissed. What if they fade after the genie is longer bound? What if a genie can remove the bonus if they can find some one to unwish it. Should the genie need to remain alive to power the bonus? The main reason I bring this up is because my PCs rule a small island. If they can they will upgrade everyone on it.

Any other thoughts?


If I am playing a 10th mutagenic mauler and I select feral mutagen can i take weapon focus (claws). If I do so and then go on to take feral combat training what is my damage die type? Do I add my str to damage (like an US) or 1/2 str (like secondary natural weapon)? Would this allow me to add the claws to brawlers flurry or simply replace attacks?

Is there a way that using natural attacks is better then just using brawlers flurry?


My PCs are about to take on the slanderers in hell harbor. I love the personalities but the sheets are so unoptimized that it is not funny.

My PCs:
All 11th level
tiefling blackblade Kensai magus, standard SG crit build for offense with an AC of 40
Dwarf Martial artist monk with dragon style, AC 30 gets buffed alot and grapples very well
Gnome prankster bard, not very optimized but but buffs the rest of the PCs decently
Teifling cleric, casts mostly also buffs the PCs a fair bit.
Were croc witch, lots and lots of will save or die hear. Some fort thrown in for good measure.

For my NPCs, I want a powerful martial character that uses unarmed strikes and is mostly not monk, a diva buffer bard that uses the fear song alot, and conjurer wizard.

Also what escape and back up planes would you have in place.

I house rule that the save feats get the improved version built into them and that planer binding has a HD limit of 2x your character level. creatures that match you alignment only count as 2/3s their HD for purposes of control.


I am running SnS and fast approaching the fleet combat sections. I am posting here because this topic has not got much play in the AP threads.

Has any one used these rules before? If so do they work? Are they fun?

How do you explain fleets clashing in engagements that might last as long as any hour when there are mid to high level PCs on board?

My PCs would be far better served simply destroying the ships personally instead of with a fleet.

My monk can easily hole the bottom of boat, climb aboard and kill the crew. No 3rd level warrior is going to stand in his way.

The witch has several spells will simply kill the whole crew.

The cleric can bring in outsiders who go through crew like a hot knife through butter.

Control weather is a thing and i would guess that hurricane would make short work of the fleet as well.

Is there way to make the fleet battle itself mean something more then a backdrop for high level PCs to fight over?


I have seen many threads out there with advice on high level games that mention that at this level it is not about what you can kill but how you can change the world.

I know from experience that a dungeon does not work at high levels. The PCs have to many ways to simply jump to the BBEG. Is there a way to fix this? Is an example published anywhere?

The rules of the game are primarily about combat. What kind of combats are actually fun at high levels? What expectations does the GM need to bring to the table? What expectations do the PCs?

What kind of story is worth telling when 9th level spells are the norm?
BBEG threatens the entire world: PCs use divination find him and kill him. This is boring. What kind of campaign actually requires the PCs to go through it instead of simply around it. At this level if the the encounter or arc is not mandatory then the PCs will find bypass it. This means the attritional nature of low level games does not really work.
Is there a published adventure that deals well with this. I am mainly asking because I have run several APs now and for some reason I still find big dungeons in books 5 and 6. Whole swaths of them are wasted, the PCs have goal and exploring every room actually makes that harder.

This assumes some rationally house rules that prevent infinite wealth and limit beings under your control to the point where the PCs are still the most important things on the board and can not simply point and army Solars at it.

I ask all of this because my players would like to play with the high level tool box but it is to easy for them to simply stomp the plot and go home. If instead the build then can easily build the best X anywhere in the setting.


Ability Score Modification: Using this modification, a crafter can permanently increase one of the construct’s ability scores by +2 per modification. He cannot increase any abilities with a score of 0. The cost for permanently increasing an ability score is 5,000 gp.

Is this really a liner stat increase that can be repeated numerous times?

Can a humanoid construct use any magic item?


This is a place to post a moment when you as GM through the rules out of the window or as player your GM let you do something totally outside the rules.

Please describe the scene and then give us the ad hoc rules that determined success or failure.

I am DM a group 2nd level characters and tonight had an epic ending to a boss fight. The group ends up fighting a Doru. The group is on the second story of a house that has balcony around courtyard. The doru is flying over the drop while consistently failing to charm or suggest any one. The DR means the archer can not hurt it easily but she did crit for a few damage. The big bad melee canon has no good ranged and the casters are tapped.

The bruiser then gets an idea; swing the 40 pound rock on rope around and then hurl it at the darn thing. While doing this he cast true strike. He got real upset when the duro went invisible and hid. Unfortunately for the div, the hunter told his cat to grapple the thing. It found it with scent and ended standing on thing with the thing under its paws. The bruiser then hurled the rock under the cat and pulped it with good hit.

I declared he need at least a 20 str to try this but buffs had him at 22 for the moment.
He needed to spend a full round action to get the rock up to speed.
He was on the edge of the balcony so I made him roll acrobatics not fall off. The heavy armor wearer was not really happy about that one.
He took a -6 to hit with ranged attack with put him at -4.
He then had to make second acro check and concentration check to cast true strike. Rolled like a boss.
He rolled only 4 on die to hit but it was enough to hit just barely.
I ruled 3d10+1.5str for damage and 31 damage makes short work of a 16 HP foe.
He got very lucky the cat was able to find and grapple it. If not he would have lost the true strike.

Quite an epic win for them against a foe that would otherwise be quite hard to beat.


It looks to me like a wand or staff with fireball in it would hold of an army far better then siege weapons.

Catapults are cheaper and their ammo is generally inexpensive but they are non-mobile, require crews, cover a much smaller area (often just 1 square), and can miss. They do have longer range.

On the other hand a guy with can wipe out 100 and it is rechargeable while a wand user might take out as many as 1000 soldiers.

A wand or staff user can be buffed massively for defense and then just fly out over the opposing army.

If catapult ammo in the form shrapnel was available and covered large are that make them better but the alchemist fire ammo costs almost as much as charge from a wand and does not do enough damage in the secondary area to remove 2nd level warriors.


Cloak of the manta ray only works in salt water but makes salt water a tolerable living condition, can life bubble provide the salt water?

Normally that would end up with PC flopping around on the ground but skyswim allows him to fly. If life bubble works then the skyswim should work.

The wear of the cloak is large and a Magus would love to ride him in order to be able to move an full attack. That is standard with a mount but can a manta ray be used and are there rules for intelligent mounts?

I think that the attack with mount rules would apply but instead for your own attacks.

I put this in advice because I want advice on how to run as well as what the rules say.


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I have talked about this before I was wondering just how much of an impact magic would actually have on the world.

A few houserules to tame a few break the world spells

rules:
1. Traps imitate a spell have charges. They can be recharged but that cost more time and money.

2. Fabricate is not a material component but instead the component is a target.

3. Spells that make something from nothing with an instant duration are instead permanent.

4. Bound creatures can not bind creatures.

5. No more then 2x CL in bound creatures at any given time.

6. Simulacrums require piece of the target creature as a target. No undead, constructs or outsiders. Spell-like abilities CL is halved, duplicated spells are lost if the CL is not high enough to cast them. Spell casting ability is halved. Creations only know what the caster knows about the target and what its own knowledge skills would imply. A Sim can not gain levels or templates. The can not directly control or bind any other being. They can use summon spells. They can make and use magic items. If they cast spells they can rest to change or recharge that ability as normal caster could. They may not use the retraining rules. A caster may only control his CL in creations at time. If control is lost the creation becomes free willed. Free willed sims can grow and change, gain levels, and retrain. Free willed sims have strong tendency towards insanity.

7. Magic item CL can not be skipped with a +5 to the difficulty.

Demographics of full casters
Spell level/frequency/Locus
9th/1 in 30B/Major historic figure
8th/1 in a 3 Billion/1 in the world
7th/1 in 300M/1 per continent
6th/1 in 30M/1 per major country
5th/1 in 3 Million/1 to city state or small country
4th/1 in 300K/1 to a province or metropolis
3rd/1 in 30K/1 to city or county
2nd/1 in 3000/1 per town or region
1st/1 in 300/Every village

With this kind of demographic their are less then 1000 caster who can teleport. I would guess about 300. Yet it if they wanted to they could replace every cargo ship out there. If a 1 them builds is crafter they make 7 pairs of boots a year. These can last forever.

Major countries have access to raise dead so high officials will never die due to an accident and assassins must make a body disappear.

Major counties will have several outsiders bound to their service. How much impact would this have?

Every town has enough magic to make cranes. What would this do to architecture?

Magic water might not be plentiful enough for agriculture but 1 decanter is enough for thousands to drink from. This would allow towns and cities in out of the way places.

Control weather is available on continental basis. If even 1 guy can do that how much of an impact can that have?

Depending on what set of rules you you use either 5th or 11th level caster is required to make animated objects. Large flying ones allow for an air force. Major countries should have one.

While not every caster will work for the government most will since good caster will want to make better society and mercenary ones need government contracts since little else can afford them. Any of them may simple become the government. Divine casters will work for or lead religions but that often leads to the same result.

If you play with many worlds instead just 1 it is probable that you have some one who can cast 9th level spells. With create grater demi plane or teleport circle can connect many worlds together.


If a colossal construct is wearing an intelligent helm of teleportation and it is activated by the item does the the helm teleport, the construct teleport, or both.

The helm does not have the CL to teleport something colossal.
Since intelligent items count as creatures are they brought along automatically with gear of do they count towards teleport limits?

Is they effect any different with boots?


If a PC want to bind something wit 15+ HD or gate in something like a plantar or pit fiend would they not almost immediately be missed?

Is it cannot that theses guys are actually infinite in number?

What reasonable defenses against being bound be common enough to be considered standard? Not just spells but plans of action and so on.


So my PC are running through skull and shackles and by they end they want to to take down the hurricane king. The AP does provide stats but I have changed things.

In my world he is known to cast 9th level arcane spells and is thought to be a wizard. He drinks all the time and does whatever seams fun in moment. He does not rule in any real sense so much as no one has been able to knock him off the hill.

My party has witch and cleric has full casters but that is not as flexible as the sorc/wiz list. How far should I have the wizard push it before decides that he is no longer amuses and will simply find some thing else to do.

At his level he can have numerous bound or simed minions, clones, demi planes or simply the ability to hide really well.

How should I build him and to what level should I take him to lead to an exciting conclusion. What actual threats does a 14th level party pose to a 17th level wizard. They will not have all that long to prepare. A few days at most.


I am pretty good at optimizing but I do not actually play PFS. I am building a blaster caster for friend to use in a dungeon delve.

Personally I would build pure wizard since I like the flexibility to change to any element on the fly and the versatility that comes with being a wizard. I am not sure this will be the best way to for a PFS dungeon delve.

I generally would avoid a dip into sorc just for more damage since you lose early spell access and CL but it may be worth it in PFS.

Fireball is the best blast in the game but it usually not worth to focus on it until you can cast several times. I usually find the flaming hands is good for levels 1-4, scorching ray for 5-8, and fireball can be used at 9+. That way I do not run out of my best spell to early. Does this same logic apply to PFS?

Normally I would go human or elf. If a more focus build would work then a pyro gnome sorc might be the way to go.

Lastly I do not know how available metamagic rods are.


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I am trying to think of things that would have much larger impact on the world/story/combat then just two 2 spells at random. I want to limit it to 2nd level and lower spells. It is is not a problem if they come from different classes.

My ideas so far
Levitate+ant haul=crane
Add enlarge person for greater effect.
This is not that useful in combat can make construction much easier.

Levitate+glide=limited flight at 3rd level.
This will make crossing a valley rather simple. Also allows a bombing runs over a village.

air bubble+slip stream=much easier underwater adventures.
Sure this one has been thought of before but is worth mentioning.


The Shackles lives by siphoning off some of the trade between the inner sea and Garund.

I think most ships that go through this area would be come out of Sargava.

It is clear that trade runs from Sargava to Cheliax.

I am not sure what other countries would have a treaty with Sargava.

I want to try and use the the the UC rules to figure how much potential plunder travels through the region. Based on these rules it would be a 10 percent of the combined economy total of those two countries.

Now we just need to figure out what the economy stat would be for each country.

The first step would be to figure out the size of each country.


So I am running skull and shackles and my PCs went off the rails. They are 8th level and just claimed bag island for their own.

Bag island itself looks big enough to cover 5 hexes and another 10 unclaimed hexes for the loop of surrounding islands.

The 3 settlements in the exist in the kingdom the smallest has 3 buildings while the largest has 6. I base this on population.

What would you put in each one and would you have any hex improvements?

Also how would you account for all the trade coming through?

I do not want build each pirate lords little kingdom but the all the crossing trade agreements should be econ boost. Also they would not have trade routes but instead pray on them.

I guess I just need a little guidance on how to run things from here.


So an up coming fight is a boss fight.

The boss can provide lots of damage and has pretty good saves so SoDs will be hard to stick.

This bodyguard is quite a bit lower in level but I figure a halfling with the helpful and friend of fools trait can do a lot for AC.

Feats I have so far
Body guard
In harms way
combat reflexes
extra trait.

I need a bonus feat from somewhere to pull that off.

How would you build these guys?
Fighter 5 with reach weapons and standstill?
Fighter 1/cleric 4 for some healing and buffs?

Even before classes are taken these guys can add 5 to the bosses AC each. That is enough I need to make them effective in some other way.


My PC's are in his domain and decided to take a ship in the port of Beachcomber. Joilis Raffles showed up with a crew to extort the PCs for pirating without his permission on his island.

I have house rule that allows players to use sense motive to determine the CR of foe. Since I wanted this to be a RP encounter I came back with 12 for Jolis. Well it turned into combat at the end to the last session. I have a week to come up with a fun hard combat.

I have 5 PCs of 7th level. I want them to have to deal with an APL +5 encounter on their own. The PC's low level allies can deal with JR's.

I would like to avoid a TPK but my player's know what they did and chose to do it anyway. They are okay with TPK if it happens. If JR wins and not all the PCs are dead the others can carry on and recruit new PCs or raise their friends. JR will not kill them all unless forced. He would rather they work for him.

For JR I am think of doing two weapon fighting with thrown weapons using full WBL. As support I am thinking of using 7th level wizard with NPC wealth, and two 5th body guard style halflings.

The bodyguards (combat reflexes, body guard, in harms way, extra traits (helpful, friend of fools) should make hurting JR quite difficult. I am thinking reach weapons and built to take a hit. If I go pure fighter I would have 2 more feats to use. I need at least 1 level of fighter to have enough feats.

The wizard will have already used a bunch of spells to buff JR. I want him as an emergency dim door. I am not sure I if should make him be debuff, or blasty in combat. I am leaning towards debuff.

If anyone wants to help with few builds that would be awesome.


Do you need LoE to return to your own body?
Do you need LoE to return to the jar if the body your are in is killed?
Is is a full round action to return to your own body while in the jar?


Can I wish myself next to someone undetectable?
What happens if I summon creature into his square?
What happens if I try and enter his square.
When do I notice his actions? When attacks me? Hits me? Damages me?
Can I backplot an arrow or even see it coming?

Just wondering if there is any rules consensus on this stuff.


If I have a spellbane up against greater dispel magic and some wishes up a greater dispel magic does my spellbane block it?

What about effects that duplicate but do not cast a spell that is baned?
SLAs?