Reviler's page

The Pathfinder Wiki should be what you are looking for.

Also, next month this product, to be released next month, will be much cheaper than the outdated campaign guide:
Pathfinder Player Companion: Inner Sea Primer

Thanks very much! When I saw 'Inner Sea Primer' I had no idea what that really meant. Thought it was going to be narrow info on just one area.

I myself am getting into the PF world after doing homebrew with the ruleset for quite some time. Unfortunately, getting the physical campaign guide is out of my financial reach for awhile (and once I get it I would have to share with players as broke as I am).

Has anyone compiled a Primer on History/Races/Religion/Nationalities? Nothing in depth but more "Oh! Okay, I get it!" kinda information I can share with a gaming group?

Thanks in advance!

PS - My search-fu is strong but impatient, I looked for threads but found none within first few pages.

64. Sachet of Lilacs and Roses - A small sewn handkerchief filled with expensive oils and flower petals. When held to the nose with one hand stops all ill effects from gas/cloud/vapor based attacks. Works for 30 rounds, non consecutive.

65. Clockwerk Hobgoblin - 12" tall mechanical hobgoblin attached to a stand. When button is pressed, goblin does a rigid mechanical dance for 3 rounds.

Eating a level of Fighter early on is not a bad idea for this build. I have built up a very good sword and board melee Inquisitor and from what I have seen of levels 13+ if you want to stay Melee you are going to have to go Fighter anyway.

Another option is to say that the Double Axe is the favored weapon of your deity. Done.

What about a Glove of Storing? Free action to store the item in that hand. That limits you to 3 Returning Items but more than usable until you get to higher multiple attacks.

Inquisitor - The Selfish Bard. Not as much in skill as a Rogue or Bard but still has a ton. Can buff himself significantly in nearly any direction to fill most roles as a back up. Excellent spotter, tracker, intimidator, lie detector and will usually be at the top of the initiative order. Offensively they can go range, melee or even spells with sick spell penetration. Defensively can get pretty gross and are another possible source of Cure spells.

Biggest weakness is HP and attrition. With so many reasons to invest in Dex and Wis, Con actually ties with Cha for 3rd stat. In long term battles without rest in between, uses of Judgment and rounds of Bane really start to matter and the best highest levels spells start to deplete fast if he is being a supporting buffer.

It is hard to pin him down in a single role but you can be sure an Inquisitor will be supporting several characters who are better in the main roles.

I love these alignment discussions.

Scenario with the Pixie as I read it:
Pixie-"I surrender"
Sorceror-"Surrender denied"
Oracle/Druid-"Wait he might have information or could be a plot hook."
Sorceror-"Or he could be a liability, he dies."
Oracle/Druid-"G#~@~%nit what does it matter? If he does it will be our problem you don't have to worry about it."
Sorceror-"I want to do what I want and that is to kill him."
End result: Cruel, selfish, immediate gratification. Chaotic Evil.

Scenario with the Barbarians:
Barbarian PC-"Crap, I am rolling like hell and not sure what to say keep this civil."
Sorceror - "I'm bored. This is stupid. Maximized Acid Ball."
Barbarian NPCs - "Ah! We are melting along with a cohesive story in which the PCs actually have a goal instead of just reacting to what the Sorceror does!"
End Result - Reckless, selfish, psychopathic. Chaotic Evil.

Honestly sounds like the only way you are gonna reign this guy in is to get him invested. Do a bit of DM trickery and hit him with a double edged curse. Every time you do something Chaotic Stupid you get a little more powerful (metamagics, increased caster levels, DCs, lot of little stuff spread out) but end up with permanent CON drain (NOTHING brings it back). He hits zero CON or is killed under curse, BAM evil NPC for the party to deal with and he rolls a new character.

If he has a problem with it. Fine let him. Give him the opportunity to get rid of the curse by doing Lawful Evil things or switch his alignment to Chaotic Stupid. When he finally starts to get how he should be acting, have a storyline that runs around with him confronting the curse giver and getting it broken/removed.

I love PF and I love IK but, IK in a D20 setting is a dismal failure. Spellcasting is an entirely different animal. Hell, MAGIC is an entirely different animal in IK.

After looking through a half dozen other systems, I think the only viable option for IK is a game based off their already existing rules for Hordes/Warmachine, made more in depth and deliciously complex.

Just like a job you aren't fond of, quitting is a bad idea. I would stick with it until you can find a better game to play in. That way you give it more time to improve and if it doesn't it isn't like saying "I would rather be doing nothing than this."

If you are in combat it is almost guaranteed you will have something buffing your saves (Good Hope, Prayer, Bard-Awesomeness). This is the reason to have Iron Will. Taking your sorry will save with a 50% or less success rate (with buffs) and adding 10% chance for success and eventually a re-roll (when you take Improved Iron Will) if you fail will be enormously helpful.

*Steeples hands and begins contemplating with a mischievous grin*

If you want to draw things out a little more and give the PCs a chance to figure out what is going and to work up the player in question. I would have them encounter someone who works for the King but all they see is someone committing a crime and low and behold he has a winged serpent tattoo. Not the guy who killed his parents but definitely someone associated. Then draw out the threads even more.

This really sounds like "The ends, justifies the means."

I think we can agree, using a contracted Glabrezu is in, and of itself an evil act.

Now, if you use him sparingly only when you absolutely need to (save yourself, save someone else). That is Justified and no alignment shift.

If you are using him all the time to make every encounter easier you are doing exactly what a Glabrezu would want you to do. That is not Justified and an Alignment shift to Chaotic.

If you are using the Glabrezu to do humiliating things like get kittens out of trees or work at a soup kitchen or help an old lady across the street. That is Justified and Hilarious.

I was looking into the Weapon focus feat chain, namely Dazzling Display. With that feat you make an intimidate check for foes within 30'. If they fail, they are shaken. Something nice for a fighter to do in his first round before running up to engage. There are some other feats which build off this chain.

As a side note, Dazzling Display + Barbarian's Terrifiying Howl is a Hoot. Especially when one character is doing the Display and then the Barbarian Howls after him. No upper limit on HD and range is Sight/Hearing. Good Times.

How about a Throwy Fighter?

Quick Draw, Point Blank, Deadly Aim, Weapon Focus with favorite type and then pick up Throw Anything for the Hell of it (Nothing like hitting someone with a Tankard with a ton of damage stacked on it).

I admit it would be just as tempting to do this as a ranger but as a Fighter he can have much higher AC and be able to get stuck in when he gets penned down (with a two handed weapon when he clears who ever is fighting him he can go right back to throwing without dropping/sheathing).

I played a Throwy Barbarian and thoroughly enjoyed it.

With IUS you are considered armed, and you aren't using a weapon, so you qualify for both aspects of disarm.

You are getting hung up on a phantom "unarmed" that doesn't exist in the disarm rules.

There is a rather idiotic listing of Unarmed Strike as a Simple Weapon. If you accept that, you would have to assume that all unarmed attempts to disarm with were with weapons. So unless you cut off your hands you couldn't take what they were holding and if you did (Cut off your hands) you couldn't hold the weapon anyways.

I would house rule this that if you are using Natural, Unarmed (including Spiked Gauntlets), or any appendage that could conceivably hold a weapon you successfully take the weapon from them if you roll 4 higher than CMD (with no possibility to get 2 items if you roll a 14). With that 4 or higher it still allows you succeed on disarm with a possibility of NOT getting the item you disarmed and instead having it drop at their feet.

Purity: The inquisitor is protected from the vile taint of her foes, gaining a +1 sacred bonus on all saving throws. This bonus increases by +1 for every five inquisitor levels she possesses. At 10th level, the bonus is doubled against curses, diseases, and poisons.

I do like this change as I think the mechanic was a pain for gaming and for my DM (Yeah you hit... Wait is this round 2 or 3? Yeah you missed).

But now I am REALLY wondering what is going to be in store for levels 13+ when the Inquisitor starts to slump in effectiveness (Exploit Weakness and Slayer were simply subpar and now Slayer is moot). I do love the class but switching to a class with a High BaB Progression after level 12 is just too tempting (and unless there are some serious carrots besides spell progression after 12 it will be even worse with these changes).

Powergamers concerned with min/maxing so they can get the feat. That's who.

It all depends. A human can mimic nearly any build. I will use an Inquisitor as an Example. This Inquisitor's focus will be on High Saving Throws and High Perception, while keeping skills in general high and HP steady.

Elf - +2 vs Enchantment, +1 Ref, -1 Fort, +2 Keen senses, +1 Skill pts for Int bonus, +1 HPs per level for Favored to cancel Con hit.

Human - Extra Feat (Alertness, Skill Focus Perception or Saving Throw Boost), +1 Skill Points Regardless, +1 HP for Favored, +2 to Dex to shore up AC and Ref save.

If you look at this, they are about equal. The Elf gets some nice natural abilities that the Human would have to use his feat to equal (and eventually exceed) but the Elf has to juggle his stats around to get what the human has naturally.

Also, as you slowly level you find the human slowly gaining advantage as gear starts to fill in the deficiencies but the other races never truly lose their edge.

NOTE: I actually play an Elf Inquisitor and now looking, It would have been far more 'power-gamery' of me to take an Half Elf since I am about to multi-class at 13.

I personally took mine into the Melee area of things but the things that jump out at me are your spell lists.

Sanctuary - Way too easy to get around.
True Strike - Not Horrible but I have always found myself dreading the "Yeah I move and cast the spell and get to wait to next turn to do something"
Instead:
Protection From Evil - Just too awesome. +2 Deflection against most opponents, nearly complete protection vs. summoned creatures and enchantment based spells.
Expeditious Retreat - The main staple of my Inquisitor, I would have to think that it would be even better on a Ranged PC.

I also second Galnorag. Improved Init on a high Dex Inquisitor is just awesome (currently +11 Init :-P )

Gelatinous Cube Rogue... Well this guy was really more a threat if my current Inquisitor was killed.

I agree with these points-- tremorsense remains one of the least defined abilities in the game, and it's why I find it humorous that the deaf oracle and the...

Hrmm, since the interpretation can be skewed to any purpose let us come up with some scenarios of how I would interpret it.

You are blindfolded and enter a room. An invisible Rogue with an incredible stealth skill is lying perfectly still on a stone slab. His heart beats, the stone table carries this to the ground. You detect him.

You are walking down a hallway lined with statues and you are blindfolded. You are aware of the size of the hallway, columnar objects occupying 10x10 squares and little else. One of the statues is animated but has remained perfectly still the entire time. It lifts a finger. You are within TS range you detect it. You knew an object was there but coudl not determine whether it was animate or not until it moved (no heartbeat, no clockworks, no nothing).

You are blindfolded. A thief steals your purse on a busy street and ducks into a crowd still within your TS range. You must make a Perception check (DM decides DC) to pick out his footsteps from the myriad of other footsteps around you.

You are walking down a narrow cavern. You enter within TS range of an empty chamber on the other side of the cavern wall and become aware of the void in the stone. While there is nothing in the rules that says this is possible it is in reality the only way a creature such as an Earth Elemental or Xorn could navigate through solid rock.

For some inexplicable reason a gnome is limboing on stilts on the other side of a locked door. A perception would need to be made to discern what in the hell is going on. With absolute minimun being 'something bipedal moving about' to 'a gnome on stilts doing the limbo'.

On the other side of a locked door you sense shelves in contact with the ground. You know their basic shape and are aware that they are very well laden and no animate critters are on them.

On the other side of a locked door in a tower and a spider climbing vampire waits in ambush on the ceiling. You sense nothing. You are another character with Blindsight on the story above the Vampire. You detect him but not the party. Silly but how I would play it.

You walk by a secret door concealed with a wall. As soon as it enters your TS you can make a perception check immediately against how well the crafter of the door made it similar to the wall. Once again something not in the rules but imagine 2 massive rooms with an adjoining wall, that is the only time this would ever matter since a narrow passage on the other side of a secret door would be very easy to limit the searchable area too.

This whole thing should be another thread. Didn't mean to hijack the "Deaf Oracles are way gimped" thread for "Tremorsense is ill defined and silly" discussion.

Okay I am reading

Tremorsense: A creature with tremorsense is sensitive to vibrations in the ground and can automatically pinpoint the location of anything that is in contact with the ground. Aquatic creatures with tremorsense can also sense the location of creatures moving through water. The ability's range is specified in the creature's descriptive text.

I find your interpretation of this ability EXTREMELY liberal. The very first thing that comes up "inanimate objects do not vibrate" this makes the whole ability contradictory. You detect vibrations but you pinpoint the location of anything in contact with the ground. Which is it? Do you pinpoint the location of anything in touch with the ground or anything in touch with the ground that gives off vibrations?

Now assuming you can sense the atomic vibration of inanimate objects. You can say, "Hey there are shelves behind this brick wall." It does not say you know what is on them or even how much they weigh. Only their location and tacitly their size. So no saying there 1986234 coins in burlap sacks on the granite shelves. "Fine the sacks are on the floor." Same thing. X amount of sacks that could be filled with gold, flour, ants or empty. "Fine then, the coins are on the ground!" Then better hope they have been used to tile the floor and not stacked on each other. It can get even more retarded from there and someone moving across the coins would not be detectable because he is not in contact with the ground.

I am not mocking. I am trying to point out how someone can take the definition of Tremorsense and give it a Draconian/Opposite end of the spectrum definition. Also, if there is some kind of official ruling on this in rule section I would love to see it because I did do my research before writing this.

So tonight in our campaign a party member took nearly 80% of damage of his total from a Clay Golem.

The party was mostly 9th level (8 people) and when we were done and went to heal we looked at the full explanation of the ability and were stunned.

No naturally healing. Magical healing needed a DC 26 Caster Level check to succeed.

After much rule mongering we came to this realization. Supernatural healing would automatically fail (cannot make a spellcaster level check on it) and Spell and Spell like would fail 85% of the time due to the constraints on it.

Supernatural - Since a SU affect cannot be dispelled but was technically still magic as per the rules of Anti-Magic, we decide that SU healing could not overcome this ability. (The Golem ability reads "No Magical Healing without Caster Level Check" Anti-Magic states "Supernatural Abilities do not work" therefore Supernatural is Magical)

Extraordinary - This would fall under the realm of Natural Healing and therefore be irrelevant. (Clay Golems are Trolls worst nightmare)

Spell and Spell Like - For a level 9 caster, a flat 85% failure rate. Nothing in the rules to boost it.

Now the question of the night... Why the hell is this ability on a CR 10 mob?

This ability is disgusting and does not seem to fit any of the normal rules. If it is a curse, why isn't it disspellable? If the CL to create a golem was 11 why is it at 26 instead of 21 (I find DC 15+CL difficult creation rules irrelevant to what the DCs against its abilities are).

Did we work around it? Yes. Was the work around sound? ZNo, the DM had to make an on the spot ruling to make sure the game continued (We had our Wizard with Break Enchantment roll to remove the 'curse' and he only did so with the help of Luck domain Cleric giving a re-roll).

Why am I posting this if we worked around it? Because -

A - If somebody is seeing something we didn't I would love to hear it.
B - If not, this thing needs errata badly. (i.e. DC 21 Caster Level, Saving Throw or allowing Remove Curse, Break Enchantment to work on it.)

We were fortunate that we were playing a city campaign with a larger time/resource pool (and a DM who saw the predicament this ability but him in) but if this had happened in a dungeon it would be a game killer as it would leave a party no recourse but to retreat and spend several days expending heals hoping to roll extremely well so they can get back to adventuring.

I love this class. To give you some background, my inquisitor is level 6 now and is a straight laced, hard boiled 'Detective' with a Law and Order themed church. As an elf his HPs are a little low but his AC is the best in the party (Medium Armor and Shield) and fully buffed it gets ridiculous. His attack and damage are all second rate, he is there to take shots for the easier to hit DPS characters but when it comes to unloading he can buff up to dish out some serious hurt.

Skill Set is great, with a Bard in the party I am the Bad Cop to his Good Cop and with the Ranger I am always there to shore him up in case he rolls poorly on a track. This character does not step on anybody's toes despite his broad spectrum of abilities.

Cunning Initiative is the best, I have a High Dex character with Improved Initiative to boot. I almost always go first which lets me start my Judgments right away.

Tactical Feats and Solo Tactics. Awesome. I like the new feats and after a few games of watching me get the bonuses solo the Rogue and Fighter are thinking about picking them up too. The ability to swap the latest one is a little confusing but I like having that ability there.

Judgments. I like them, I even like the scaling. Makes for more tracking but I would rather have +3 eventually instead of +2 right away. The only thing I would ask for is more per day.

Bane. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Spells, took me a bit to wrap my head around. 3rd level is a little weak in the list but 1 and 2 have some great spells. I do think that Inquisitor should get the domain spell as a free spell known but leave spells per day untouched. 4-5-6 all look good but I am not there yet.

For the abilities that are yet to come. Evasion seems strange to have so high up there. Exploit weakness is just strange and having it tied to crits just exacerbates that. Slayer I think should happen earlier, like 12th. The first two rounds of combat tend to go quick. A more powerful ability to have at 17th would be the ability to switch 1 judgment that is at max to another and have it stay at max.

The only ability he doesn't have that I think he should have is Trap Sense, same progression as the Barbarian.

So far I am thoroughly enjoying this character that has so many faces. Detective, Monster Hunter, Zealot, Bounty Hunter, Terrorist, Freedom Fighter and I am sure many others.

Well now that Atari and Hasbro are fighting over the decaying corpse that is the D&D Video Game licensr there may be a real shot here at seeing a Pathfinder video game. Bioware has finally given WotC/Hasbro both fingers with Dragon Age being based on its own system so they are out but there has to be some developer that can pull it off.

Does anyone have any word on RPGXplorer? I just checked and their site is down.

Have they gone the way of abandonware?

My proposition:

Starting Statistics: Size Small; Speed 10 ft., Fly 30
ft.; AC +2 natural armor; Saves Fort (bad), Ref (good), Will (good); Attack bite (1d4), Claw (1d3); Ability Scores Str
8, Dex 18, Con 11, Int 7, Wis 13, Cha 11; Free Evolutions
bite, wings, limbs (legs), claws.

Because as it is, the Eidolon doesn't represent all the archtypical life forms, it's got Biped, Quadruped, and Serpentine, but not Bird-like. So, unlike the others, it's starts out small, and can get bigger, but only as big as large.

I know this isn't perfect, but I think the wings benefit is outweighed by the small size.

I agree but all Eidolons seem to have 4 points of free Evolution.

Flight Form Avian = Legs, Wings would be 4 points and a fair start for a winged critter.

What I would like is The ability to have a floating ball with perfect magical flight taking all 4 of my base points. Add a bite, a big ole eyeball, some spell like abilities, a few tentacles later on some Spell Resistance...

The whole gear question is crazy.

What if you make an Eidolon without a mouth? Do you suppository his potions?

If you have crab claw hands it doesn't say you can't wear rings.

I know, I know these are things that can be settled at the table but without some kind of guidelines I don't look forward to that argument.

Might I suggest an "Incorporation" Mechanic. Using a good formula you can can make magic items a part of your Eidolon without making him a god (Well more of one). Humanoids get the best incorporation rate with (and say lose their starting NA bonus), Quadrupeds second, Serpentine last with some boost to compensate. On the Evolutions that add limbs/features they can allow for new slots.

Essentially you can cover your Eidolon with Gear but only some of it works (your choosing) and if he gets poofed he only takes what is incorporated and everything else falls to the ground. If you want to change his gear it is as simple taking a minute to refit him (so no hot swapping in combat).

I love the Eidolons but they are already overpowered without being able to turn them into magic item Christmas Trees.

The Scout

Edit: Crud, got all that done and realized I forgot to redo scent since it becomes superfluous after you get Blindsense unless you want to track.

If a which dies it's familiar is still around...usally. But, under the 'Adding Spells to a Witches Familiar' it says that a familiar of a dead Witch '...only retains it's spell knowledge for 24 hours.' If a Witch dies and isn't brought back within 24 hours does s/he then have to pay to get their familiar back, or is the familiar restored upon the Witches return?

I have no idea on this but was thinking that a nice little ability would be that if the Witch is killed she becomes her familiar until she is rezzed. No spellcasting but keeps Hexes and allows the player to at least have something to do while the party finds a cleric willing to resurrect a Witch.

Doubt that would be something to make it into the final cut but something I would likely do as a Table Rule.

For folks saying that witch needs Diplomacy/Intimidate. She doesn't. Use the Charm Ability. It is Supernatural, does not appear to be a Spell and can be used on anyone. You can change it to Cow (as in Cower) for her threatening.

For her Disguise skill. Uh, Disguise Hex.

For Bluff. Nobody trusts a witch. Even when they are transformed there is something unseemly about them. Hell, they are lucky they got Sense Motive. Most witches are easy as pie to fool ("Why would I try to run from you beautiful Babyaga? You should check the fire before you put us in there crazy old pedophage woman.)

Screw that broom noise I am going old school and flying around my Cauldron. Get me some cover and carry snacks with me.

Me being the evil guy I am, I cannot help but wince at this thought.

Level 1 Eidolon
Scent and +8 Perception (Ouch but just as bad as some animal companions I guess)

Level 2 Summoner
Bond Senses, so you can locate hidden/invis with your Eidolon once it detects them. Great.

Level 7
Tremorsense... All the time? Okay, guess I can have flying invisible stuff if I want things to be a surprise.

Level 9
Blindsense. Gah! Really? Okay, no more melee, everyone gets attacked at range so we can even have surprise rounds.

Level 11
Blindsense Traded for Blindsight. Sigh, with Share Senses and Glitterdust nothing will ever sneak up on the party ever again.

Every fight trying to use stealth/invisibility will need to be setup in a football field with anything melee holding their actions until the party is within 35' and then charge in. Not to mention casting Invisibility on the aforementioned Eidolon (with the unlimited radius evo and maybe stealth skill evo) gives you the best scout conceivable.

Sure this Eidolon is weak in combat skills and will die easily but with a good build on Defense he can be hard as hell to kill and just spends every game as a 30' radius radar. Not mention he doesn't need sleep, or food. He can be a fantastic guard dog, just have him set up holding a rope in his mouth attached a pulley with pots and pans attached (with mental alarm cast on them for good measure). Between the actual mechanical trap if he gets Dismissed you have the Alarm on the pots. Ya know, in case you have 2 casters one casting Dismissal immediately after the first casts Silence. Would need a third with Dispel Magic or one of them high enough for a quickened Silence...

I think about these things too much but you haven't met the people I game with.

It's right there in the Perception skill:

Pathfinder Core Rules, Perception skill, page 102 wrote:

Creature making the check is asleep +10 (to the DC)

*Sigh* It is late, evidently I missed word searching the Perception section of the SRD.

I think it is. In my 2 decades of playing this damn game (this is still D&D in my opinion) I can count on one hand the number of characters I have taken to the level cap. 1. So one finger I guess. That is one case where multi-classing can really cause regrets.

The new mid level abilities make it a harder decision to sacrifice those levels and there are some classes that it makes no sense to multi-class (Monk and Bard). But the Mystic Theurge gives Cleric/Wizards something to shoot for. 2 levels of Paladin in a Sorceror always makes for some fun. Barbarian mixes well with nearly every class that loves to melee (Loves me a Druid/Barbarian). For the feat happy Fighter is always there.

In the end it really depends on the player and the campaign. If it is combat heavy, no matter the Multi-Class you will be lagging behind the curve. If it is skill and roleplaying heavy Multi-Classing is practically a must.

Can someone indicate the page number/section regarding sleeping or being asleep? From what I have seen sleeping just means your helpless I have found nothing in the SRD (literally word searched each section of the SRD) about its own condition or being a condition that affects any skill. As far as I see the dog is asleep, cannot observe the rogue with scent any more than it can with sight or hearing and if he passes his check it keeps sleeping. Nothing says that would wake it up f he moved within scent range. If the dog is awake and blind it can observe you with scent but it can no more observing when asleep then it can when it is awake.

Also, as to taking 10, you may take 10 if you are in no immediate danger. If the Thief wanted to prevent the farmer with his crossbow from taking 10 all he would need is a stout stick or a hefty rock and the condition 'I'm gonna brain that farmer if he spots me'.

This was a fun little thread. The bright daylight and open space gave me some pause. The hedges not giving cover was just silly, to make it fair you could have said picket fence but that would have made it even harder to argue. I could have sworn they changed Scent at some point to just be a bonus to perception but it looks like it is back to old annoying self. The sleep situation is a little weird. I would have thought it would be it's own condition under Helpless, like Paralyzed is (i.e. You are Paralyzed and also Helpless).

Once again if anyone has the section/link/page numbers detailing the affects of the sleep condition or being asleep please post them here.

I would stick with the highest stat in Dex and next highest into Wis. With this build you will not likely be casting a lot of spells that require an enemy to make a save. Definitely the 10 in Str and then a toss up between Con and Cha for your 3rd highest score. Cha can help out the cleric abilities and give you a little more push on the social skills.

I would stick with Half-Elf, going down to a 8 STR would just hurts and the Half-Elf is built for multi-classing. 30 spd and no hit to carrying capacity is nice too.

Feats at level 5. Weapon Finesse, Improved Initiative and then maybe Dodge or Selective Channeling.

With the +2 Race Bonus it up to you. 17 Dex is fine and taking it to 18 at level 4 would be the route I would take.

Now here is the tricky thing. Weapon finesse is affected by the check penalties on shields. So get a masterwork small shield or buckler early on that has no penalty then move on if you can (Any Magic Heavy shield will on be -1 penalty and that can be acceptable). If you ever end up with a darkwood or mithral large shield pay to have that sucker enchanted and never let go of it.

So starting off with a Short Sword, Buckler and a Chain Shirt you should have enough defense and offense to make a difference when you are out of spells without dying right off the bat.

We have a goblin Cleric/Rogue in our campaign right now. It was a slow start but he is fitting into both roles nicely. His God doesn't allow him to backstab from hiding so he can only do it when they are flanked or denied their Dex. Makes for a good time.

Actually from what was explained in a thread earlier the Velociraptor would be

Claw, Claw, Bite +10
Bite +5

The Claws and Bites are considered its primary attacks and do not need Multi-Attack. The extra attack gained from BaB 6+ would only be 1 attack and I would personally use whichever one had the most damage.

JJ's Response to similar question

There's no real easy option. The game simply isn't built that way.

Excellent! I love a challenge. Honestly I just didn't want to think I was missing anything.

We will likely keep the HD = CL to keep things fair and find a way to mitigate some of the other power discrepancies. Lucky enough to have an experienced group of lifetime gamers who are used to

using a wrench to tenderize meat, or a knife to dig out a piece of spinach stuck between your teeth, or a car to open a gate.

i.e. The Wrench works fine if you clean it. How big/sharp is the knife in question and is the spinach in the back teeth? And are we being chased by the cops, chasing a squirrel that stole our severed thumb or escaping from a sanitarium (all 3 cases cars are great for opening gates).

Fast response and from up on high. I cringe at the thought if you are still at work.

This is good to know, the Lizardman had us confused and seeing as how we have a Lizardman, Bugbear and Drow (a goblin too but he is not complex in the slightest) in our Tuesday Night, Thieve's World style game we have been itching for the Bestiary.

This answers one of our longest running dilemmas and our player will be glad to know he can drop Multi-Attack since he has been using tooth and claw exclusively for awhile now.

Another thing I need cleared up, using the Lizardman again.

Lizardman, CR 1, 2d8 HD, nice bonuses.

If a PC plays one in a campaign starting at level 2. He takes the 2 HD, adds a character level, all the bonuses and the rest of the party who play standard races get 2 levels.

So the Lizardman starts out with 8 (I assume it is 4 per monster HD) skill points + Class Skill points + Int Bonus x3, 2d8 + Class HD + Con Bonus x3, +1 BaB + Class BaB.

So a Lizardman Fighter vs. a Dwarf fighter with Identical stats would be on average rolls with +2 Con, 27 HP vs. 21 HP. Skill Points with no Int Bonus, 10 vs 4 and Identical BaB with the only difference being that he will be 1 level behind until they reach level 4 and then he gets a free level to catch up?

Something just smacks wrong about that. I was hoping that a better solution to the difficulties of ECLs but this is just seems inherently flawed.

Okay... Using the Lizardman as an Example.

So if you have 3 or more natural attacks you would:
Claw, Claw at Full BaB and Bite at -5?

If you have MA feat:
Claw, Claw at Full BaB and Bite at -2?

If you are using a weapon in one hand:
Weapon at Full BaB and Claw,Bite at -5 or -2 depending on if you have MA feat?

If this is so, why does the Ghoul, Grizzly Bear and Deinonychus (just looking for critters with 3 attacks) all have their first 3 attacks at full bonus? Deino if the only one with a 4th attack that seems to follow the -5 rule.

What is the point of Multi-Attack feat? Or more importantly what is different about the Lizardfolk that he needs it? Seems to me that if he ditched the weapon and the feat he should be able to make 3 attacks at his full BaB.

Help me out here, what am I missing?