Quandary's page

To be clear, what is the NORMAL functioning of Rage without this Archetype?
1 Rage Round = 2 rounds of Fatigue.
That means Round 1: you Rage, act, drop your Rage before your turn ends... and are not Fatigued on your turn of Round 3.
(this is how X round duration effects work)
In other words, you can re-Rage, using 1/Rage Rage Powers EVERY OTHER ROUND although you are Fatigued in-between.
How does one get from that, the BASE LINE function of Rage, to viewing Rage (and 1/Rage Powers) as 1/encounter abilities?

It seems a pretty obvious repurcussion of the ability to me.
To be clear, what is the NORMAL functioning of Rage without this Archetype?
1 Rage Round = 2 rounds of Fatigue.
That means Round 1: you Rage, act, drop your Rage before your turn ends... and are not fatigued on your Turn of Round 3.
(this is how X round duration effects work)
In other words, the BASE LINE of Rage is that you can use 1/Rage Rage Powers EVERY OTHER ROUND although you are Fatigued in-between
and can`t access any benefits of Rage (a very good reason for not doing this regularly: you`re wasting most of your class abilities).
The Archetype is just halving the time-cycle for this, which is it`s explicit goal, so I don`t see the controversy there.
Actual `Rage Cycle` strategies are just accelerating this, and via Immunities/negation, removing the Fatigue completely.

MY only question, which may or may not be FAQ worthy (sometimes I`m just dumb) is as follows:
Fatigue isn`t really affecting most of your combat stats besides movement/charging (the DIRECT down-side of dropping Rage after your Turn is just non-access to defensive Rage Powers / Save bonuses, etc which apply `off your turn`), so the main danger I see from it is that any Fatigue effect that hits you during this time would now make you Exhausted, which is a more severe condition.

My question is: if you are Fatigued, and then that Fatigue is escalated to Exhaustion, what happens when the duration of the orginal Fatigue wears off? Does the Exhaustion drop to Fatigued? Or does it not care, and just follows it`s own duration? (and would drop to zero when it wears off... unless the original Fatigue duration was still in effect) This applies to alot more stuff than Rage honestly, as well as to other escalating effects, like Fear/Intimidation, besides Fatigue.

Why? Obvious. If you have some abilities that are intended to be used once per encounter...

But there´s no evidence that is the intent, even if you ´short-handed´ that it works that way in your head. TOTALLY IGNORING ´RAGE CYCLING´, the CORE Rage rules in fact envision entering Rage multiple times during one encounter: Rage 1 Round, drop Rage, you are fatigued for 2 rounds* but you still can move & attack, etc, re-Enter new Rage once you aren´t Fatigued (which can be as early as Round 3). Given the limeted number of Rage Rounds, it seems pretty implausible to claim the developers ONLY intend that you be Raging every round of every encounter, or that Barbs would never re-enter Rage the same encounter after dropping it (including when they are forced to drop it, e.g. Calm Emotions).

So I don´t see any intent that you can only Rage once per encounter, and thus that 1/Rage Rage Powers are intended to be 1/encounter. Not to mention the many other ways to remove Fatigue in the game: Lesser Restoration spell (Cleric 2/Paladin 1), Community Domain & Restoration Sub-Domain´s Touch Ability, Merciful Healer Cleric´s Channel Energy, 3rd level Paladin Mercy.

* or only 1 round of Fatigue for 1 round of Rage if you take the Scarred Rager Archetype from UC.
That allows entering Rage at beginning of Turn, doing your stuff, dropping Rage at end of Turn, being Fatigued and Out-of-Rage off your Turn (during enemy/ally actions), and then NOT BEING FATIGUED at the beginning of your next turn since 1 round duration effects expire just before your next turn: allowing to re-enter a new Rage. That´s available from level 2 of Barbarian. Incidentally, I love the Scarred Rager Archetype on so many levels, even if one never wanted to use this ´weak Rage Cycling´. :-)

Yeah, this is really confusing to me.
Besides that there are multiple version of the whip, in resources that are all PFS legal themselves...
The reach aspect is just incoherent to me. Whips have 15´ Pseudo-Reach. Scorpion Whips don´t have any Reach.
So if you can use a scorpion whip as a whip, does that mean you can use it with 15´ Pseudo-Reach?
i.e. you can choose how you use it/what Reach it has?
Does that mean you can also inflict non-lethal damage without penalty if you wish?

I hit the FAQ button on this. I don´t know why this is so complicated. It´s freaking EQUIPMENT.

...and you can´t use a quarter-staff as a weapon without using 2-hands, that´s the whole point.
you MIGHT venture that you could use it as an improvised weapon (which is FAQ-able itself),
but that probably wouldn´t count as wielding the QUARTERSTAFF WEAPON itself, which is what´s needed.
as mentioned, you can have the quarterstaff bonded as a MAGICAL STAFF,
you just don´t get to enchant it as a weapon without having the feats.

...and we already know: this will be Errata´d, so one more reason to buy the next printing of the Core Rules :-)

-- BTW, what does Profession (soldier) do for you? Anything?

It earns you money... Especially in PFS Organized Play. Otherwise, it doesn´t really map to any in-game situation, but many GM´s are prone to allow using Profession skills in areas that may be appropriate (e.g. Navigating a ship in lieu of a Know:Nature or Survival check). It helps low-skill characters cover areas that they would have a hard time doing if many skills were needed to cover all the areas of what a profession does. For Prof:Soldier it seems appropriate to allow using it in place of Diplomacy and Knowledge checks specifically dealing with military organizations (I almost included Sense Motive and Bluff, which make sense in a way, but may be a bit too much).

Why would the players KNOW the NPC´s class?
Are you planning from deviating from ´GM controls NPCs´ in this case and have the players run this NPC? When I use NPCs with classes, it is NEVER to demonstrate a cool new class, it is to exemplify the character. The classes are just a vehicle to get there... so if it fits, I use it.
I didn´t understand the comments in that vein re: Inquisitor, as well as Samurai, for that reason.

...Anyhow, if you want to go for Fighter/Bard,
I would suggest taking a look at the Unbreakable Archetype... It has a nice Will Saves bonus, and with Diehard will ´stay in the fight longer´ like a Paladin (who has self-healing). Of course there´s other Archetypes that are great if you want him to shine in a specific fighting style or tactic, but if you don´t have that focus, the Unbreakable benefits are nice (and he still gets Armor Training 1 & 2).

Looking at the Dervish Dancer Bard Archetype might also work...
I would also consider using 1 level of Cleric in lieu of Bard: the Crusader Archetype nets you a bonus Feat, but if you were considering using Bard, the Evangelist Archetype seems ESPECIALLY appropriate: you get inspire courage bardic performance, 1 domain, and spontaneous casting of Command... while being ´divinely powered´ unlike a bard. You only need 11 WIS to cast 1st level spells, which can allow a higher CHA to match his role as well as grant extra Channel Energies (which you can also use with Channel Smite Feat). They can also use Cleric Wands, Scrolls for things like Remove Disease, et al., if the ¨Mercy¨ aspect of Paladins was one you wanted to emulate. I´m pretty sure that one of the ¨Good Outsider¨ Sub-Domains grants a bonus to allies, and another has a penalty on enemies, which seem very Paladin-y.

First, Intelligent Items are not ´standard fare´ that anybody should expect to order from the mail-order Magic Mart. The player trying to bully you into getting it just because there are pricing guidelines for it is out of line. This attitude, more than having or not having the Intillegent item in play is what says PROBLEM to me.

Per se, I don´t see why Intelligent Items can´t be in the PCs hands at low levels, lower than you are... The issue here is mostly the usage of relatively high levels spells (for where they are) as extra actions.

I think you can use Intelligent Items, but they should be integrated into the plot line.... They are basically an NPC after all... They should be treated as one. Is any and every NPC they meet perfectly suited to being their loyal servant? Same for Intelligent Items. The CHA check is there for a reason, the item having it´s own agenda and differing alignment is a STANDARD PART of the Intelligent Item rules after all :-) But that can be upfront, i.e. there are clues to the alignment the item would have, and the player can be given ´choices´ between ones that are different from his... i.e. the CE one or the LG one (let´s say player is NG fore example), just to stick to alignments and not get into specific persoality traits/goals...

Does anybody in the game want to spy on the PCs? Hearing that they want an Intelligent Item is PERFECT INTRO for putting an item that would spy on the PCs into their hands. I don´t think you should be a jerk about it, but the item should make the game more interesting for everybody, not just be ´free actions lalalala´.

If you want to allow it, I think it´s reasonable to allow/disallow spell abilities as you see fit, i.e. to only 1st level spells or something. Make getting it an adventure... Maybe he gives his money to somebody to acquire the custom item, they try to steal it, or somebody gets wind and tries to steal it. Maybe the money will be ´in the air´ for some time (a level?) while the item is being made, while other PCs with ´standard´ gear get immediate use of the stuff, since they are more ´rich dude´s commodities´.

Also, it stacks with itself since it's an unnamed penalty.

Bonus typing is an ADDITIONAL rule re: stacking.

In general, IDENTICAL effects don´t stack unless specified.

Reading ´hostile creatures´ to mean ´hostile towards you/your allies´ is pretty standard usage of English in this context. Using ´enemies´ WOULD remove all ambiguity AND be in-line with how the rules are worded else-where in the game, though...

The ability says:
"If you do, your rage immediately ends, and you are fatigued (even if you would not normally be)"

Nothing in the ability specifically counters Immunity. But earlier in the very same sentence it is talking about rage ending, which is AT THE LEAST a plausible context for ´even if you would not normally be´ (i.e. ending Rage NORMALLY causes Fatigue until 17th level). Maybe that could be cleared up more via FAQ, but it´s definitely a plausible reading.

Unless an ability specifically says so, I see OTHER CREATURE¨S ABILITIES still functioning as normal.
Again, same for Crits... An ability saying you automatically Crit doesn´t over-ride a target´s Immunity to Crits.

Over-all, you don´t need to worry about qualifying for LOTS of Revelations (re: Level).
Because you have to buy all the ones you don´t get free from Oracle levels, on top of buying Rage Powers and normal Feats, you realistically aren´t going to get anywhere near all the Revelations.
The ones that scale up with level are remarkably good to take AT HIGH LEVELS, when the RP levels will scale them up to at least their 2nd tier of effects (same goes for Rage Powers). Also note that usage/day Revelations (like Surprising Charge) can be enhanced with a Feat that gives you one more usage/day.
Either way, if you decide to go heavy-Oracle or heavy-Barbarian, you will easily be able to take a few more levels (during RP progression and after) to quickly qualify for the ´nice´ mid-level Powers/Revelations.

Another note-worthy thing about the PrC is the Rage Prophet Mystery spells.
THESE DON´T REPLACE YOUR NORMAL MYSTERY SPELLS, which you continue to gain as Casting progresses.
Besides sometimes being spells that aren´t normally Divine spells, these are a great addition...
A few of them are ´combat useful´ (See Invis), but mostly they give great out-of-combat utility,
that re-enforce your role as ´Oracular Warrior´, with alot of Divinitation type spells,
that can in many cases be seriosly useful even if you normally might not have spent a limited spell-known on those.
ESPECIALLY if your party doesn´t have a Cleric with full spell list access each time they prepare spells,
getting these free via the PrC is a nice thing.

Another note: if you are going Oracle-heavy, and are a Human, the Favored Class Bonus of extra spell known is important when deciding when to dip back into Oracle, i.e. taking into account the spell level you have access to at that point. Also for Oracle-heavy builds, the last 2 and even 3 levels of RP seem largely optional as the last 2 don´t really help Casting in any way. The ´personal´ spell casting without leaving Rage/using Moment of Clarity (at 8th level) is NICE, but ultimately not necessary especialy considering you have class abilities which only kick in when USING Moment of Clarity... So for an oracle-heavy build, I can see only taking RP until 7th level (when you get CON to DC).

Quandary wrote:

Clear Mind (Ex) Barb 8 Reroll a failed Will save
Unexpected Strike Barb 8 AoO on threat entry, 5` steps

If you go heavy barb rage prophet build, you're 1 oracle, 5 barbarian levels when you hit rage prophet for level 7...how many levels of rage prophet do you think one should take before they dip back into barbarian for the 3 levels they need to even qualify for a level 8 rage power?

I left off the 12th level Rage Powers because if you go into RP for any depth at all (not finishing it per se) that will be very late in the game when you can take those. For gaining the 3 more levels (beyond your first 5) you need to take the 8th-level-Pre-Req Powers, I think you can really take them at any time... Honestly, if you are going Barbarian-heavy you can dip out of RP at any time and be very effective. The other RP bonuses are MOST noticeable if you are heavy into Oracle - if you aren´t, then CON to DC is nice, but you probably aren´t casting those types of spells in the first place (i.e. heavy-Barb RP´s mostly use buffs and utility spells, not attack spells with Saves).

The main RP level I see you really appreciating is the 5th level upgrade to Spirit Guardian, that gives you bonuses vs. certain enemy types and Ghost Touch. I would say that without delaying RP too much, you can have 1 additional Barbarian level before you get to 5th level in RP - that also gives you an extra/free Rage Power from Barbarian 5... After 5th level RP you take 2 more Barbarian levels, which also nets a free Rage Power (at Barb level 8, i.e. a good one!).

Unexpected Strike is worth it to me, ESPECIALLY for this build, because it gives the ever-useful AoO. RPs will be lagging full Barbs in Barb Level, so Come and Get Me is only possible very late in the game... But Unexpected Strike means any enemy moving to attack you (and anybody 5´ stepping, whether or not they attack you - f!@& you casters!) will provoke - letting you Strength Surge/Knockback them, and prevent any attacks on you in the first place (or Disarm their weapon, or just hit them hard, etc). Unexpected Strike is the poor man´s Come and Get Me - and fortunately for you doesn´t require Combat Reflexes to get the most out of - WITHOUT Combat Reflexes, there isn´t really much difference between the two, and given you are splitting stats more (to cast spells) AND buying almost all your Rage Powers via Feat, not spending a Feat on CR is a good thing.

Personally, I rate those Powers I listed as DEFINITELY worth the Feat (although you will get at least 1 free as I mentioned above). RP gives you pretty damn nice Base Saves, so a Will Save Re-Roll will almost certainly be worth the while (e.g. a base Fighter getting a Will Save Re-Roll may not be worth it vs. high Tier threats).

I don´t think it´s been mentioned yet: Chevalier PrC sounds GREAT for your needs.
It´s a 3 level PrC from 2nd Darkness, that gives Immunities, Smite, Aura of Courage, Save Re-Rolls.

That can really work with any base you want, Fighter definitely be a good option.
I would also look at Samurai. Ignore the ´Japanese´ flavor (and remove cheesy Exotic Proficiencies - why don´t ´Western´ Fighters get Bastard Sword Proficiency?). Consider using a Cavalier Order instead of Samurai Orders (they are really the same thing, Cavs can take Samurai Orders if they want to). It also works mixing Fighter and Samurai - the levels stack for things like Weapon Spec. They don´t use Teamwork Feats at all, and most characters WILL have a Mount - yours having better HPs/Saves, customized Feats and Skills, and possibly other benefits depending on your Feat choices is just a bonus... You don´t even have to max-out the Ride skill if you don´t want to. ESPECIALLY combined with Chevalier, you will have awesome Saves/ability to remove Conditions/pseudo-Die Hard... i.e. VERY SIMILAR TO PALADINS, whether or not you use Chevalier PrC. If you get to 5th level in the Class, you can use Banner, which you could possibly re-flavor to be a helmet or something if you GM is OK, which fills in the ´ally inspiring´ role. Otherwise, you have lots of skills to potentially use Intimidate with.

I guess you say it´s technically against the Core Code for a Paladin to be Polymorpohed into a Giant Scorpion which has Poision in it´s attack, even though this is emulating the combat style of a creature that is purely Neutral. Or an Awakened Giant Scorpion will be congenitally prone to Falling if they want to be a Paladin. What do you do for a Paladin from a society which condones ritual suicide via poison as ´honorable´? Bunch of hogwash I say.

I suggest to don't let barbs do "rage cycle".

Why not? Why wouldn´t that be the obvious implication of the Tireless Rage Ability?

If they were intended to just be 1/encounter Powers, that would have been ridiculously easy to write, but that wasn´t done: they were made 1/Rage and each Rage was subject to ´limits´ based on Fatigue, while CORE methods of dealing with Fatigue are present in the very Class itself. (likewise, a Familiar using a Wand that removes Fatigue also does the job)

I personally think it´s reasonable to limit Entering Rage to 1/round and Leaving Rage to 1/round, from the perspective of not allowing repeating a given Free action infinitely per round, which basically means it isn´t an option to spend 2x the Rage Rounds to continually´ be in a new Rage ON and OFF your turn, which high-lights the DOWNSIDE of Rage Cycling (if you don´t spend 2x Rage Rounds): you are missing out on roughly half your class ability benefits, either ´defensive´ (appying to/reacting to actions of enemies off your turn) or ´offensive´ (applying to your own actions on your own turn). This is not to mention the loss of Rage HPs when you leave Rage.

Many people react to the concept as if it were heresy, yet the fact is most Barbarians who have an easy way of Rage Cycling aren´t going to be using it every round of every fight - maintaining a single Rage has it´s own benefits, is efficient, and with several 1/Rage powers you will still be putting out ´stronger´ actions each round of Rage.

Yeah, this seems like a joke thread.
UC made it so Barbarians just won the game in terms of Warriors.
APG+UC means having Rage Powers and Barb Levels to qualify for them is more powerful than Feats.
(you get those normally, and Full BAB to qualify, but if Extra Rage Power Feats seem heavily worth it, you know what´s up)
Whether or not you choose the Animal Totem, Superstitious, there´s PLENTY of great Barb options now.
If you are Human, an APG Alt Racial Ability grants 1/day Fatigue/Exhaustion Immunity from LEVEL 1 (for Rage Cycling).
Fighters can hold their own in a niche, and multi-classing with them a bit can be a good idea, but they just can´t match the breadth of the Barbarian´s offensive and defensive abilities.

Yikes.

Paladins can´t be game rangers either. They have to use Tranq Darts some times. DISHONORABLE KNAVES!!!

The history of Poison=Evil in D&D, which persists in the Paladin Code,
is based on normal usage of poison... when you say ´he was Poisoned by her´ that probably implies that she slipped the poison into his drink, or MAYBE injected it via an un-noticeable blow-gun dart, etc... i.e, not in the thick of combat, where the target could fight back or run away. Coating your Great-Axe with some Poison that Slows the target (f.e.) just in case one of your physical attacks isn´t enough to down them is a quite different thing... for one, it´s just changing the battle-field conditions, since if one blow isn´t enough you would continue to whack at them whatever the case. Many spells and other abilities in fact have functionally identical effects to ´Poisons´... Not to mention that the effect of many Poisons is not instant death or incapacitation, but a minor penalty on par to cancelling out Flanking.

I guess Paladin/Sorceror multi-classes can´t use spells like Stinking Cloud though.
But if it was ´Hacking Dust Cloud´ with the same effects but no mention of Poison, A-OK Paladin Dude!!!

Note: saying ´I would not rule it evil for any other person´ is missing the point.
An act isn´t determined to be evil or not evil depending on the person who does it.
Paladins have in their code that they can´t willfully commit evil acts... AND OTHER RESTICTIONS (such as Poison).
That doesn´t mean that Poison usage is EVIL for them, because that would be redundant with the ban on Evil acts.
They have restrictions against stuff which ISN´T inherently evil, it just happens to be barred by the Code.
Alternate Codes exist...
One could stipulate never pronouncing the sound ´SH´. That doesn´t mean ´SH´ is Evil, just that is barred.

Also note where the Poison ban is mentioned: act with honor (not lying, not cheating, not using poison, and so forth)
Those aren´t examples of Evilness, but of lack of honor... i.e. the Good guys´s take on Lawfulness.
(this is apart from my distinction between ways to use poison: secret assassinations vs. enhancing a melee attack, just as you can enhance a melee attack with magics which achieve functionally similar effects to many Poisons... not to mention using Poisons like a Game Warden does to achieve non-Evil ends by preventing a fight.)

Yup, you got it. And that Archetype gets a 2nd Domain later, which gives you more choices.

WELL... That maybe depends on your group cohesion, and possibly your own personal sanity...

Any hostile creature within a 20-foot radius of an archon must succeed on a Will save to resist its effects. [/B];-)

I go by the rule: if you qualify to take Ranks in the Fly skill (acrobatic Flying),
you qualify to take a Feat like Fly-By Attack. Anything else is dumb :-)

the main thing is that the breath weapon doesn´t have range increments like ranged attacks do,
nor does it suffer from cover/etc like ranged attacks do.
so on that basis, i wouldn´t let breath weapon work with shot on the run.
as mentioned, options like fly-by attack exist to allow similar things.

you should have labelled this Errata and posted in the Products forum (for NPC Guide)
I flagged it for wrong forum and FAQ/Errata...

I happened across a list of options that I thought was good for Rage Prophet.
They are probalby somewhat skewed by what I consider flavor-appropriate to my concept:
(the Barb 6 Rage Powers are easily attainable... Barb 8 is also do-able by 12th char level or so, Barb 12 Rage Powers only if you leave Rage Prophet early)

Moment of Clarity Ignore restrictions and benefits of Rage
Knockback free Bullrush in place of melee attack
Surprise Accuracy 1/rage attack bonus as Swift Action -- re-add Power that bypasses/concealment/cover? or scent/concealment one
Animal Fury bite attack, grapple bonus
Reckless Abandon scaling attack bonus and AC penalty
Strength Surge 1/rage scaling bonus to CMB or CMD

World Serpent Totem scaling AC bonus vs. Aberratoins and Outsiders
-WOrld Serpent Spirit Barb 6 overcome alignment DR, bonus vs. spells and effects frm outsider/aberration and with alignment
--WOrld Serpent Unity 2x fast movement bonus, can`t be tripped, 2x world serpent AC bonus vs. Crit Confirmation

Clear Mind (Ex) Barb 8 Reroll a failed Will save
Unexpected Strike Barb 8 AoO on threat entry, 5` steps

Come and Get Me Barb 12 AoO when attacked

--------------------------------------
LIFE ORACLE

Energy Body
Channel (allows to take Channel Smite Feat)

BATTLE ORACLE
Surprising Charge (immediate move)
Battlefield Clarity (re-roll conditions with +4 bonus)
Warsight (reroll initiative, always act in surprise rounds)
Maneuver Mastery
Weapon Mastery

--------------------------------------
FEATS

Abundant Revelation
Blindfight
Deepsight (increase range)
Demonhunter
Divine Interference
Lunge
Power Attack
Cleave
Furious Focus
Shield of Swings
Dazing Assault (BAB11)

re: 3, this is somewhat true...
except that if you look at the actual Revelations, most of them don´t have level pre-reqs. I don´t think the Oracle Revelations are overly impacted by that.

from the Barbarian side, there definitely ARE big level-pre-reqs, which is why I recommend qualifying for RP with 1 Oracle level and the rest Barbarian. That gets you to some decent mid-level powers on it´s own, and it´s more than reaonable to dip back into Barbarian as you level up in Rage Prophet... OR when you finish RP and you continue advancing.
If you are interested in the stronger Rage Powers, you should have a plan on what powers you CAN get and WHEN. 8th level Barb Level for Rage Power Pre-Reqs in more than attainable by mid-levels, and that gets you some good stuff. But not having the same Rage Powers at the same Character Level is what you give up for doing the multiclass/Rage Prophet thihg. Again, most of the Revelations don´t really have Level Pre-Reqs and the Rage Prophet DOES SCALE THEM UP (which is not just bigger numbers, but new abilities in many cases). Also, the scaling Rage Powers like Strength Surge are your friend at high level.

Also note the scaling bonus from your Companion Spirits´ Guidance... That helps counter the BAB difference (and more!).
As mentioned, Lame´s eventual Immunity to Fatigue lets you leverage all those 1/Rage Powers ALOT more.

Personally, my main issue with the PRC is that they make Moment of Clarity REQUIRED to enter it. Sure, it´s useful, but if you are OK dealing with the conflict of Rage/Casting, I think that option should be allowed as well, saving you a Feat/Rage Power. You lose out on some of the benefits if you don´t have Moment of Prescience, but that just makes it even more balanced to allow it. Maybe it would be nice with some free Revelations/Powers, but it is definitely play-able as-is IMHO.

Rage Prophet can work just fine...
In fact, I don´t see any evidence from your post showing how it doesn´t work,
just theoretical comparisons to single-class builds, no inability to deal with Paizo APs, for example.

EDIT: At first i heavily disliked the spell conversion to rage rounds thing, but when I looked at it, you actually come out ahead without even using all the spells. So now i just minorly dislike it on rules-aesthetic grounds :-)

I mean the Powers themselves, whch you need 1 Oracle Level to qualify to get.

This is just boring to me, aside from game-balance issues.
Just because Sorceror Bloodlines are avaiable in limited form via Feat, doesn´t mean every Class Feature should be.
Sorceror Bloodlines are thematically based on your heritage, which can be stronger or weaker so Feats make sense.
Oracles are not, they are cases of the divine unknown focusing on this one individual.
Why must that type of event automatically be commonly available in micro-dosages? WITHOUT THE CURSE OF ALL THINGS?
Game-wise, anybody can already dip 1 level in Oracle, and get more Mysteries via Feats, and the Curse progresses with non-Oracle levels. That´s incredibly great.. I don´t see the need for more.

...Kick this one down the munchkin pit, I say.... 8-D

Immunity means that when you are subject to the effect, it has no effect on you.
so it´s lovely that Furious Finish applies the Fatigued Effect to you ´no matter what´, you are still Immune to it.
Just like if somebody is Immune to a given disease, it doesn´t matter if they are infected with it or not.
Or if an Elemental is Immune to Critical Hits, and you have an auto-Crit ability, they don´t care because they are Immune to it.

Tireless Rage is just changing how Rage works, by not making it cause Fatigue normally, but it doesn´t change your RESPONSE to Fatigue or vulnerability to it.

OK, here is the link to the FAQ that I mentioned: link
If you have BAB +1 you normally only have 1 attack, 2WF gives you 2 (at -1/-1)
If you have BAB +10 you normally have 2 attacks (+10/+5),
2WF gives you extra attacks on top of that (how many depending on how many 2WF Feat you have)

So the FAQ is saying if you are holding a rapier and a blade-boot and have BAB +10, you can use your NORMAL attacks for 1 rapier attack (at +10) and 1 boot-blade attack (at +5), WITHOUT suffering 2WF penalties, since you aren´t actually making an off-hand attack... There isn´t much mechanical difference there since you aren´t making any attacks that you couldn´t make normally.

If you used 2WF, you would get more attacks: more like +8 rapier / +8 boot / +3 rapier / +3 boot (if you have the 2nd 2WF Feat).
basically, off-hand attack = bonus attack from 2WF, so it doesn´t exist outside of when you are 2WFíng.
the game doesn´t really care about ´handedness´ in any way.

normally to use 2wf you will need to full-attack.
i believe a fighter archetype lets you do so as a standard attack, but that´s not available to everybody.

There´s tons of off-hand weapons that don´t occupy your hand.
Armor Spikes for one. Unarmed Strike not using hands. And EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT: A Blade Boot
Note if you aren´t getting extra attacks from using your ´off-hand´ weapon IN ADDITION to your main-hand attacks,
you don´t need to use the 2WF rules, and penalties which stem from that... but if you are getting extra attacks, 2WF rules apply.
Check the FAQ for this, it was recently updated.

The master spell index has both "Deeper Darkness" and "DeeperDarkness" but they both link to the correct place.

This is still the case.

BTW, congrats on getting the unified spell list thing together! WOW!

Druid lvl 5, barbarian 1lvl, oracle with lame curse lvl 1 and them pick up rage prophet. You will be using the PrC to bump your druid spellcaster lvls. You can burn the oracle's spells to fuel your rage if there is nothing you want from 1st lvl cleric spells.

Just to clarify, there is no limitation to Oracle spells. You can read the intent as applying to the spell slots that the Rage Prophet PrC is advancing, but in the case you give, that would be Druid spells. Or you can read it as any spell slots, including Bard spells if you have a level of Bard.

I disagree with some of the OP´s premises.

There´s plenty of places in the US that are ´very white´ yet very liberal in general terms.
Portland, Oregon for one. Saying that just because you don´t run into people of X ethnicity on a regular basis means you are willing to write them off as lesser humanity just doesn´t hold up. Scandinavian countries have not been signifigantly diverse for a long period of time, yet have supported equal rights across the globe for a very long time, certainly post-WWII. On the opposite side of things, being exposed to different ethnic groups (in a positive light) doesn´t prevent ethnic conflict. See Yugoslavia post Etho-nationalism. See Israeli Palestine, where ´Jewish´ - non-Jewish interaction existed(s) on some basis yet doesn´t prevent the occupiers from disgarding their perspective of exclusive power to recognize universal right of return to refugees (or if you consider the original colonists pre-Israeli state-hood, who certainly had interactions with the locals, some of which would have been neutral or good).

There are also very liberal rural areas where people are just as familiar with guns. Plenty of very conservative areas are urban or suburban and not any more ´in touch with the land´ hunting wild animals than more liberal areas... if they are ´pro-gun´ that is pretty much in the context of killing a person, not an animal. Countries whose gun laws are extremely more controlling than the US almost always allow hunting licences, even if their populations are overwhelmingly urban (e.g. Japan).

The 2nd amendment is pretty schizophrenic. On one hand it talks abouts rights in the same way there is a right to free speech. On the other hand it is talking about well organized militias of states, which doesn´t have anything to do with rights of random citizens to have guns for their own purposes (self defense, hunting, etc).

I don´t see a problem here personally...
If anything it´s just another set-up for intra-Drow conflict,
just with a different rationale than intra-Evil conflicts...
Basically, one that good PCs could potentially sympathize with one side.
But if players don´t like Orcs with ranges of motivations and cultural development,
or presented as on-par with Humans of similar civilizational organization, they probably won´t like this either... That said, it sounds like that you´ve moved on from that group of players.

To throw out something totally random: what if the ´light:good, dark:bad´ paradigm was reversed, and the surface world was largely taken over by evil forces, and good humanoids only had some refuge in the Underdark. Maybe good Drow would be an ally there?

OK... maybe from now, I will use spoilers and say ´warning: logic below´ :-)

I think that´s still OK, because after casting the wizard can just switch grips to again wield the weapon.
If you READIED A CHARGE vs. him WHILE HE WAS CASTING, he wouldn´t threaten with the 2-handed weapon.

Besides what jonnythm mentioned, I would change:

Required Ranks in Know(Religion) changes from 9 to 6: Paizo dropped Dragon Disciples rank requirement by that much (the amount corresponds to the Class Skill bonus PRPG now uses).

THe Turn Undead ability corresponds to Channel Energy (Positive).
It would also stack with Oracles who can Channel Positive Energy.

I would also have the PrC stack for determining Domain Powers that you gain as well as Oracle Powers.
You wouldn´t gain new powers (unless via Feat), but existing powers would scale up in effect.

I would give them d10 HD like Outsiders. Gaining Darkvision seems appropriate half-way thru the PrC.
I might consider giving them an Archon-like Aura of Menace as well.

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For your concept, an Oracle seems like a good base.
MAYBE Aroden somehow sponsored you in some way, but who knows...

Quandary wrote:

I don´t understand your build... Are you multi-classing Oracle and Sorceror?

Saying ´with Arcane Bloodline´ and no mention of Sorceror would normally imply Eldritch Heritage to me, but that doesn´t get you any Arcane spells...???

Eldritch Bloodline feats.

improved you gain th 9yh level bloodline ability
New Arcana (Ex): At 9th level, you can add any one spell from the sorcerer/wizard spell list to your list of spells known. This spell must be of a level that you are capable of casting. You can also add one additional spell at 13th level and 17th level

get them 2 levels later, so 5th 7th and 9th level spells

Right...

I was going to clarify my post, that you can ´Know´ them, but the ability still doesn´t give you a way to CAST them. The New Arcana spells are Sorceror/Wizard Spells Known, nothing says that they are changed to a different type of spell for you... Oracle Casting doesn´t let you do anything with Arcane Spells Known any more than Fighter Bonus Feats do, or to put it differently, if you have Spells Known from Sorceror levels, you can´t cast them with Oracle Spell Slots unless an ability specificaly lets you do that (e.g. Mystic Theurge).

Maybe you want to FAQ that for clarification, but that is how I read the straight RAW.

I don´t understand your build... Are you multi-classing Oracle and Sorceror?
Saying ´with Arcane Bloodline´ and no mention of Sorceror would normally imply Eldritch Heritage to me, but that doesn´t get you any Arcane spells...???

In light of the latest FAQ on 2WF, the Shielded Fighter Archetype should really be Errata´d:

Shield Fighter (Ex): At 5th level, a shielded fighter gains a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls when making a shield bash. These bonuses increase by +1 every four levels beyond 5th. With a full attack action, a shielded fighter may alternate between using his weapon or his shield for each attack. This action does not grant additional attacks or incur penalties as two-weapon fighting does. This ability replaces weapon training 1.

The bolded section is totally superfluous since this is how it apparently works for everybody.

I beleive that you´ve already stated that you plan a similar Errata to the Pole-Arm Fighter Archetype whose Sweeping Fend Ability is partially superfluous in light of how Trip works for everybody (the Bullrush aspect is still a useful addition).

There´s lots of ways to change the action of Intimidate, the number of targets, or strength of effect.

You don´t really need to worry too much about boosting the Intimidate skill itself,
maybe ONE Feat or something to use a higher Stat (e.g. STR) is all you need,
because Intimidate DCs are pitifully easy, which is really an oversight in game design IMHO.

I know one Barbarian Power that is the culmination of the Core line of Intimidation Powers, ends up not even using the actual Intimidation skill, which is a wierd turn of things that when you reach the end of that chain, your investment in the skill becomes useless (for that power, you can still use Intimidation normally and via other Powers).

If you took 4 levels of Paladin or Ranger and one of Sorceror, would you be able to use the DD's spell progression to further your Paladin/Ranger spells?

No. If you have levels of both Bard and Draconic Sorceror, you can choose when you enter DD which to advance because both qualify. Non-spontaneous Arcane Casting classes don´t qualify.

Only restriction to this that I see to working this build is that you would have to take the Crossblooded archetype (also from UM), as the Empyreal Bloodline is associated with (and modifies) the Celestial Bloodline, which would otherwise make it incompatible with the prerequisite Draconic Bloodline for DD. The main drawbacks would be a -2 on Will saves (which is a Good save progression all the way though anyway) and -1 spells known at each lvl (which could be offset by the favored class bonus for Humans).

Only thing: Said Favored Class bonus only applies on Sorceror levels, and DD isn´t a valid Favored Class choice even if you have 2 Favored Classes (e.g. Half-Elf). Even when you gain the bonus, it applies to at maximum 1 spell level BELOW your max spell level, so it can´t POSSIBLY completely offset the Crossblooded penalty re: spells-known. That said, if you are going a Sorceror-lite build anyways, a further Spells Known penalty isn´t the worst thing in the world. If you don´t plan on relying on Casting, but rather using it for pre-combat buffs in general, you don´t really need tons of spells known to cover your basic buffs.

EP already says "Multiple magical effects that increase size do not stack." RM says "Magical effects that increase size do not stack."

Cool, we overlooked that, those lines were one of the options I imagined...

The issue only came up when we had to decide whether a monk who could Dispel Polymorph Effects and Illusions via one of his IUS attacks, could do so vs. EP and RM. It worked in our game, but perhaps not per RAW since they aren´t Polymorph technically. Sorry to interrupt the real Errata :-)

I think most of the above applies to gods who live on other planes.
Because besides them, there are other Gods who ALREADY live on the Material Plane.
As mentioned above, Rovagug. And Desna lives in the Dark Tapestry, which is part of the Material Plane.
Probably others I´m overlooking do so as well.

Alternately, they could NOT be listed as Polymorph spells, but just have wording specifying that their effects don´t stack with Polymorph spells... But since they FEEL like Polymorph effects, and I would hope would be treated as such for anything interacting with Polymorph effects, calling them such (and dealing with messy ends like negating the un-necessary Stat Adjustment for non-Small/Medium creatures) seems the ´cleaner´ course.

Seriously, if you want to play a dragon disciple, you want to play a dragon disciple, not a bard 10. That takes what.. 6 months of weekly gaming to get to?

I don´t believe they ever mentioned the order those classes are taken in.

No reason you can´t enter DD as soon as possible, and take the rest of those levels to reach Bard 10 after finishing DD, or possibly dipping back in Bard while continuing to progress DD (cherry picking class abilities as you advance). DD only has 10 levels, so if you enter it as soon as possible you will HAVE to take other classes, going back into Bard is a pretty reasonable choice if that was your base. Most opinion on DD I¨ve seen here doesn´t seem find the last 2 levels compelling to take anyways.

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Summoner is interesting... but problematic.
Your Eidolon just isn´t going to be up to snuff, since DD doesn´t advance it at all.
Likewise, your Summon SLAs won´t be great either (though trash summons are better than nothing)
But basically you will just have the spells at a level semi-appropriate to signifigant opponent. Which isn´t bad... But I´d say this only looks really good if you can´t use a Battle Sorceror Variant (who also casts in Light Armor, d8 HD/BAB etc). Still, if that is true (such as in PFS play), Summoner could be a decent option. I would say if you want more Casting, go Battle Sorceror since they get more spell options. If you are going with only 1 level of a Casting Class, Summoner could work at least as well as the Battle Sorceror... and it´s lower level spells (but with early entry) end up being easier to use with Metamagic Rods.

I think one thing ´against´ hex-grids is not just lining up mostly rectilinear terrain/buildings with it, but REFERENCING it. square grids are easily referenceable with letter/number combos. hex grids effectively alternate each column/row by a half-measure, which IS possible to deal with, but it´s just one degree less intuitive.
it also changes wierd thigns about the game: a 5´ radius effect on the grid affects 4 squares. a 5´ radius effect on a hex-grid affects 3 hexes.
honestly, i think it would be interesting if Paizo, or anybody, put out an adventure with hex maps... probably with a few rules necessary for ´adjustment´, e.g. area spell templates. see what happens when a bunch of people used to square grids play with hex.

Righteous Might and Enlarge Person are just listed as School: Transmutation, WITHOUT being of the Polymorph sub-school... Which leaves it unclear whether or not the size increase stacks with Polymorph effects. The Size Bonus stuff doesn´t stack (same type), but the doubling of size certainly appears like it could (neither of them specify ´your natural size´, so if Polymorph effect is cast first, they could plausibly affect the Polymorph Size Category).

Both are different from most Polymorph spells in that they double your existing size, whatever it is, rather than shift you to a given size... If they were stated to be Polymorph spells that would clarify the stacking issue, but they would both need ´waivers´ from the Polymorph rules for being cast on non-Small/Medium creatures, since the ´stat adjustment before applying Spell Effect´ wouldn´t make sense in their case.

remember that pathfinder clerics dont have to use a diety

except he explictly said they are playing in a Paizo AP,

and GOLARION clerics definitely do need to worhip a deity to gain their powers.

The fact is, there was a guy who was locked up -- and he flailed his arms about and you stopped being able to see him.

So, yes, your character can't say for sure whether it was a lowly level 1 Vanish spell, a level 2 Invisibility...

I would disagree here.

Different GMs may or may not allow this - it´s plausible to allow an additional Knowledge:Arcana check to recognize ´Spell Effects in place´ and rule that Invisibility effects ´look similar´ when they go into effect, and that Dimension Door, etc, look different (the rules don´t actually say that though... since Invisibility resuls in things looking like you are not there, there very well could be no difference to Dimension Door being cast... which makes you actually not be there). But allowing that WITH NO CHECK AT ALL? Not that plausible to me... That would be allowing the effect (recognizing spell effect) of a passed Knowledge:Arcana check with no check required.

I would say that many characters could assume that something like Invisibility was cast, although they wouldn´t be SURE of that, and if they tried to ´test´ for his presence but couldn´t find him, you may well give up and decide he´s NOT there and Invisible. One factor here is that he chose to Cast (whatever) WHEN YOU ENTERED THE ROOM. If he had Teleport or Dimension Door available, why not cast it before? Still, you don´t really know... Maybe that cock-roach near where he was standing is really him, Shape-Changed.

I think the important part is to have an in-character rationale based on what your character actually knows... If you GM wants to have Knowledge:Arcana checks for your ´general knowledge of magic´ (and thus how wizard casting works, what kind of spells exist, etc) that can help specify things.