Tom Baumbach's page

I might be playing one of these soon. Any tips?

Your GM's knowledge will be a big factor on getting the most enjoyment out of this class. Things he should be familiar with:

• The social skills (specifically what they can and can't accomplish). The rook in general and the demagogue archetype specifically are quite accomplished at these skills.
  
• Your specific archetype. Schades deal a lot with lighting and Stealth. Necrotists deal in temporary hit points. Glamerspex use illusions and the befuddled and beguiled conditions (also see below). Demagogues are orators and influencers, and use the social skills predominantly.
  
• Nondetection should be in the list of spells. Convince your GM of this.
  
• There's a typo on page 8 - at least in my copy - with the beguiled condition: it should say,"A beguiled creature..." instead of befuddled.
  

Aside from that: Rooks are a support combat/support caster role. They're as potentially versatile a class as any, meaning you can focus on one aspect (spellcasting, say, or combat, or skill monkey) of the class exclusively and be nearly indistinguishable from the classes who normally fill that role OR you can be a non-traditional jack-of-all-trades.

Hmm...the things I look for when starting organized play are in this order.

1) Do I have a public place to play, even if you consider your "home" public, unless it's a store or some such, it's not. A FLGS is where I'd start looking, if not available someplace that's open late, and offers food is nice. In Kalamazoo we play at a grocery store with a cafe that's open till 12am, because our FLGS decided it didn't need the "F" in it's acronym.

2) Do you have 3 solid people to give you the minimum for a table?

3) Talk to everyone, put up flyers, advertise where ever you can.

That's pretty much what I did. I know there are at least 2-3 players in that area of Michigan. If I can find their contact info, I'll forward them to your PM box.

You should also include a Coordinating or Getting Started page, where you post this and similar advice, perhaps with a googlemaps plug-in that shows active PFS games in the area.

Topic aside; objects are not generally immune to energy based attacks, they merely take half damage and apply their hardness to the damage dealt, so they often take very little.

Right. What did I say?

+2/+2/+1

As a magus can you sunder with spells and apply both feats as well when using spell combat?

Depends on the spell (and possibly the item). Frex, if you're trying to sunder with scorching ray, probably not (objects are generally immune to energy-based attacks), but maybe if you're sundering a napsack. Spells that modify attacks, however, are perfect (true strike, stone fist, etc.). In the end, the GM will decide if the spell creates an effect that can sunder.

Think about it!

For my part, I merely polished and filled out what James had created. If he thinks it's a good idea, I'm all for it.

"Purple Duck was feeling blue. But Raging Swan wasn't interested. He was always in a bad mood!"

If there's weapon attacks and natural attacks in the same round, apply the penalty.

Yep.

I'd rule that the ogre regenerates hit points into a "pool." The ogre mage remains at 0 while regenerating; once the pool has his full hit points, the skin dies, the spell ends, and he regains all his hit points.

If you don't want to have to stretch the rules: have your ogre mage construct a room from which to conduct his spell casting, a sauna that's hot enough to deal 5 hp of fire damage per round.

I feel like there is a rule somewhere when a body part is taken off your body, it reverts to original size and shape if you were under a polymorph spell.

No such rule, though it's useful as a plot device.

What happens when Ferocity/Diehard kicks in after your move action?

As soon as you gain the staggered condition, you're limited to a single move or standard action. Since you didn't previously have this condition during your turn, any actions you took don't matter.

The other question is, what if you start your turn with Ferocity/Diehard active, and use a standard to heal yourself above 0 HP. Do you then regain your move action you would not otherwise have had?

Yes.

You could use it to move them to a square, but they wouldn't be prone.

There's always shrink item, which would be perfectly reasonable to allow the caster to choose how much the item gets shrunk. But also, have you read this? Generally speaking, size and equipment isn't an issue as far as loot is concerned.

Medium characters can indeed ride Medium-sized creatures (appropriate as mounts). Issues of weight and carrying capacity are beside the point. (Real-world example.) If the creature couldn't carry a cavalier and his gear without becoming encumbered, he shouldn't choose that creature as a mount (or he should wait to choose that creature).

Yep.

Similar timframe as Kyle, and some of the same reasons.

Oh I'm an idiot, I didn't read properly. Yeah, Starglim has the right of it.

You have a point. I've only ever seen the collide rules used in special circumstances, never because the flier ran into something because he couldn't get out of the way.

Sounds legit.

EDIT: Actually, I think the prevailing theory is that you can drop a hand from holding a two-handed weapon as a free action. Thus, the magus can:

Let go with one hand (free action)
Cast the spell (standard action part 1)
5-foot step (free action)*
Regrip the weapon (free action)
Attack (standard action part 2)

Unless there's some errata I'm not aware of.

Is this check required only if your the total direction changes are greater than 45°, i.e. you could make many 45° changes without a check, or do you have to do it once you have exceeded 45° in one round?

I believe it's the former. That's how I've always played it and seen it played.

Also, when you fail the check and have wings you might fall, if you don't have wings do you continue on in a straight line?

You've spent the movement, even though you didn't make the turn. If you've movement left, proceed how you please.

Can you attempt the turn again once you've moved one square. The rules for trying again at the fly skill state that you can try again the following round so it sounds like once you fail in a round, that is it for turning.

It does read that way, but I don't believe that's the intent. The "following round" bit, I think, is meant to encompass things like hover. The "varies" bit is the key here, which essentially, at least to me, means, "If it makes sense to retry, you can retry."

1.) Does combat training for the mount give it attack for all creatures?

It's only got the basic combat training. You need to push it to attack non-humanoids, or train it to advanced combat training.

2.) Can Mounted combat let you use ride checks to get out of criticals?

Yep, you can negate any attack that requires a roll to succeed.

Relevant link.

A normal human changing into a big dog via beast shape II?

Yep.

This might be a no-brainer, but am I able to jump over the bad guys during combat?

Sure. Make sure the part of your move that is jumping takes you at least 10' high, otherwise you're provoking attacks of opportunity as you move through the spaces directly above your enemies.

What if I wasn't in a mook's threatened square, but still had to jump over them?

Over them, but still adjacent to them? You provoke AoOs unless you make Acrobatics checks to avoid them.

What if the magic user was off to the side, and not behind the mooks, but I was still in a threatened square?

If you move out of a threatened square, you provoke an AoO, unless something says you don't. There are tons of things that might prevent an AoO.

If the jump is part of another action (if I remember the description correctly), does that mean I can initiate a full round attack action against that magic user if I jump 50' and land next to him?

No, because jumping is a form of movement, and you can't move and make a full attack (under the normal rules). If the action you take includes moving, then you can (usually) incorporate jumping.

If the jump is part of another action (again, if I remember the description correctly), does that mean I can take a move action to get past the mooks, then declare a standard attack action against the magic user, starting with a jump and ending with the actual punch/kick/trip/etc.?

Most commonly, a jump check is part of an action where you're moving. If you can move, you can (usually) incorporate a jump into that move.

Does landing next to a guy from such a jump provoke AoOs?

Landing from a jump is no different (as far as AoOs are concerned) than simply moving into the square, so in and of itself it would not provoke an AoO. However, if you're landing directly next to an enemy, there's a good chance you're leaving a threatened square above the one you're landing in, which would indeed provoke an AoO.

Yes, if a sohei monk is wearing armor, she gains no benefit from her monk AC bonus. She can still grant that bonus to her mount.

Does the mount have to be unarmored as well? Hard to say. I'd say no, since the sohei's mount doesn't advance with monk level, it needs all the help it can get.

In my experience, roll vs role is (nearly) entirely decided by the amoint of time available to complete the scenario. Four hours? Everyone wants to hear dice hitting the table. Six? Eight? Indulge away.

Still, organized play does come with the expectation that more players (however marginal the majority) are interested in the dice/wargame/mechanics aspect than the storytelling/socializing aspect.

Is it intended? Who can say. Should you allow it? Up to you.

If you don't want to allow it, here's your reason: the manuals grant an inherent bonus to an ability score. Because bonuses of the same type don't stack, the player can only gain the highest available bonus.

In your case, he can gain the benefit of one +4, but not two.

Edit: Upon further reflection, I think it is not allowed, for the reason stated above.

You are correct. Other creatures with the ablity — djinn are the only ones I'm aware of — have a limit on how often they can use it. In any case, Hit Dice determines how long the creature remains in whirlwind form.

shadow conjuration wrote:

You should be quoting shadow evocation, since daylight is an evocation spell. Also, shadow evocation says the following:

Nondamaging effects have normal effects except against those who disbelieve them.

Lastly, light is not an attack, so ignore the 20%.

There's no damage involved in a daylight spell, so ignore the 20% part.

Unless there's some reason to want to be in darkness - light blindness or light sensitivity, perhaps - it makes sense that all targets "voluntarily" fail their saves.

The order shouldn't matter, just announce what roll is being made before it's rolled. Yes?

Edit: Ah I see your example does matter. In that case, I'd give the one rolling the choice of order. I don't believe it's codified.

It's B, unless there's some errata I'm not aware of, but A is entirely appropriate for a house rule (and quite reasonable, if you ask me).

There are three parts of the Fly skill you can use to adjudicate entangled while flying: moving at less than half speed, attacked while flying, and collision while flying. Between those and the penalties for being entangled, most fliers will learn to respect the net.

With bloodlines that matched his element, would he gain +2 damage per dice?

I'd say yes. The qualifier being that each arcana spells out "draconic bloodline" and "elemental bloodline", of which the character has both.

(The reverse - that the character doesn't have either bloodline, but instead has the "crossblooded" bloodline - means that these arcanas would grant no bonus at all.)

Which two bloodlines are being crossed?

So is there any explanation as to why sailing ship combat (arrrrr) is basically impossible? Or am I missing something big?

I haven't recently read the rules involved, but I would assume each crewman is also making an Aid Another check.

Cannon takes 3 full round actions to reload. (3 move actions if they have the Master Siege Engineer Feat):

is there anyway to increase the speed of doing this?

Assign 3 crewman to expend those actions.

Also you can do a double move to use up 2 of those move action reloads on one turn correct?

Yes.

Whats the difference between a +1 Cannon and a Masterwork Cannon?

The ability to bypass DR/magic and the ability to enchant with additional properties.

Rearming a trap is determined by the Reset portion of the trap's stat block. This can be one of the following values: Automatic, Manual, None, Repair.

..and we'd be happy to move to a different room in the store if the space is an issue.

Yes, I got a very helpful vibe from everyone at Griffon Books, but always with the caveat that I'd need a group before it would be worth anyone's bother (and for the record, I find that to be a perfectly acceptable expectation, just one I couldn't meet).

Tom hasn't played since Gen Con and didn't seem interested in trying to organize again. I also could not find a good store for the South Bend area, or it would have been included on my list.

Fantasy Games was quite accommodating, but (and I could be wrong) the perception is that this store is for TCGs and Wargames, not RPGs. Despite the fact they have a respectable RPG selection and were able to provide me with good accommodations, there was hard resistance (from the store) to posting anything announcing or explaining PFS at the store (other than on their website, which only store regulars visited).

Griffon Books was more than willing to give us some table time if we had a group demanding it, but it was my perception (and again, I could be wrong) that ANY table time there would require "competing" against established groups and/or open play tables.

That's all I know of for gaming venues in the South Bend area.

As for me organizing: yeah probably not. I tried my best in '10 and '11, and I'm not sure I have it in me to go again. I would definitely come play (schedule permitting) if something starts up.

You have it right; two rounds.

Done and Done!

So...paper mini's or tokens would be just what the doctor ordered.

Relevant link.

Are there already products out there that fill my need?

There are now! Icons™ Game Tokens.

Relevant link.

I would be interested on other thoughts and opinions.

They're not minis, but they're nice: Relevant link.

2) I don't have too many minis. Are you aware of any good cardboard "counters" or markers that can be used to represent creatures of various sizes?

Relevant link.

I'll just leave this here.

There's a free sample over at RPGDriveThru. It doesn't do much in the way of preview though.

No need for FAQ.

You can use Honor In All Things when you make a savingthrow. Doing so does not constitute an immediate action.

The normal rule says that the only action that is usable when it isn't your turn is speaking, but the ability grants an exception to the rule (like abilities do).

I like Stephen Radney-MacFarlane.