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Sesserak is the throwaway ranger kobold the PCs encounter at the end of the first dungeon, the collapsed witch tower. Though given a fair amount of information, it seems like there's a blatant opportunity here for the PCs to accept her surrender and parlay- gathering information about the kobold hideout (but not spoiling too much of the plot because she's arbitrarily tight-lipped about Aeteperax.)

One of my players seems keenly interested in negotiating and trying to work with the kobolds.

My question is, what is Sesserak's overall outlook on cooperation, both with her tribe and with Big A? Is she a fervent supporter of him like the Chief, still loyal to their old demon lord, or a mix/neither? If my players try to get her to broker a peace/understanding between the kobolds and the humans, how hard will she work on that? Will she refuse to return outright, believing it's an insta-death? Would she at least play along? Or would she genuniely be open to figuring something out peacefully?

I don't see them avoiding fighting the kobolds entirely, I already expect some of those loyal to Big A and the Chief to be irredeemably so. Should I change that? If my players really want to try and seek to negotiate, and go the extra mile, is there any scenario where the Chief steps down peacefully with Sesserak's help/influence?

The best way I can think of is them helping the Chief realize he's getting played, but I'm not sure how to introduce that so soon. My players know there's a dragon in the game (spoilers, right?) so it's not like revealing that much to them will ruin the story.

General thoughts? Experiences? Opinions?

How was Karzoug built? I'm trying to break him down for study, and can't get his ability scores to add up.
His stats as presented are:

Str 24, Dex 24, Con 28, Int 36, Wis 15, Cha 22

Take away his Immortal (Ex) +3 to Int/Wis/Cha to make it

Str 24, Dex 24, Con 28, Int 33, Wis 12, Cha 19

Take away his Wish(es) of +5 Int and +4 to Everything Else:

Str 20, Dex 20, Con 24, Int 28, Wis 8, Cha 15

Take away his Crimson Sphere (+6 Int) and Onxy Rhomboid (+6 Con) Ioun Stones, and his Belt of Physical Might +6 (Str, Dex):

Str 14, Dex 14, Con 18, Int 22, Wis 8, Cha 15

All this (should) leave is the 5 points assigned as he reached Level 20, and the +2 assigned from being Human. However, no matter how I spin it, I can not get the Point Buy to level out to 25 and still get Karzoug the stats he has. The best I can do is start with Str 14, Dex 14, Con 17, Int 16, Wis 8, Cha 14 and apply Human +2 to Int, as well as 4 from Leveling, then +1 from Leveling to Con to get the aforementioned Str 14, Dex 14, Con 18, Int 22, Wis 8, Cha 15. This still leaves one with a 38 Point Buy, and the oddity of a Wizard starting with a 17 in Con and 16 in Int.

If I take away 5 from Con, this makes it level out. I decided to try this after noticing on his statblock that there is a SQ called "physical enhancement +5 Con". I presume this refers to the Trasmuter Wizard ability, "Physical Enhancement." This would indeed grant him a +5 Enhancement Bonus to Con, but that would be redundant with his three Onxy Rhomboid stones... which already grant a +6 enhancement bonus to Con. (Geez that paragraph felt redundant.)

Is this an oversight in Karzoug's statblock, or am I missing something else?

In the Errata thread, people came close, but made a big mistake: Karzoug isn't pureblood Azlanti, so he doesn't get the +2 to all ability scores. That kinda shoots their proposed build out of the sky; it also means that the statblock doesn't factor in Karzoug actively wielding his Talons of Leng (as they theorize)- that would require his Base Wisdom to be a 6, lower than it can possibly go!

When a spellcaster identifies an enemy's spell as it is being cast (whether out of interest or with the motive to counterspell) can he tell if there are any metamagic effects attached to it? Does Empowered Intensified Widened Fireball look/sound the same as regular Fireball while being cast?

This has been touched on here and there in the General thread, but I wanted to make a dedicated thread because I believe it's a topic worth specific attention.

Many of the warpriest's class abilities are specifically focused on his deity's favored weapon. There are two main issues I see here.

A. What if your deity's favored weapon isn't very good? As much as I love the dagger in some cases, Warpriest is just not a class that will build off it very well. You could go TWF, or dagger/shield if you really wanted to, but it's simply odd to see a character referred to as a WARPRIEST who's just running around with his little dagger, and has no other choice without giving up a couple of his key abilities. Magus limits you to a weapon that fits in one hand, and having nothing in the other, but that's primarily so you can dual-wield spells. This class gets all those limitations and none of the benefits.

B. Throwing Weapons. What if you're focused on throwing weapons? This is a minor point compared to A, but it should be noted that it still nullifies EVEN MORE weapon variety and usefulness when an important class ability is lost the moment you use the weapon as a projectile.

So let me get something straight: a character, once warded by the Protection From Evil spell, is completely immune to any spell/effect with the compulsion/mind affecting subtype?

So a 20th-level/Archmage 10 Enchanter couldn't touch a commoner on the street, if a first-level wizard slaps Protection From Evil on him beforehand? At all?

Just wanting to make sure I got this right.

Is there any reason (beyond the very recent events) behind the relative power of each wing? Would the PCs be able to discern this?
I know that the party is supposed to wander around and just hit the wings in a random order, but I am curious as to whether the PCs could actually deduce each wing's relative state after the mini-war and decide which they should hit first.
Some wings are (from a GM's standpoint) obviously doing ok (Wrath) whereas others are utterly decimated (Envy). Envy is a natural first choice because of its proximity, but other than that the PCs are wandering blind into each wing.

I am looking to somewhat let the PCs in on the recent war that is responsible for gutting Runeforge. Which of the existing NPCs would be most likely to fill them in? It seems Jordimandus is supposed to be captain back-story if the PCs let him surrender, but he hasn't had a clue what's been going on outside his wing for centuries.
It feels, from the lore, like each country was keenly aware of how powerful the other was at any given time, and that this mindset translated over to Runeforge post-collapse.

Would it make sense to find an unconscious/weakened Warrior of Wrath trapped in the Abjurant Halls? If so, how much should they know? I'm looking for something along the lines of, just enough to get an idea of which wings are stronger/weaker as of current knowledge. My group still hasn't reached 14th, so despite my sadism with challenging encounters, I don't want to see them waltz straight into the Halls of Wrath and get slaughtered. Now if they knew that something was extremely dangerous and went ahead anyway, that's one thing; it's another to utterly decimate them just because they hit things in the "wrong" order.

Hello! Looking for a little advice/input. I have a group of 6 PCs who I absolutely must present multiple targets for. They slaughter any single opponent, hands down, no discussion. So I find myself needing to present them with multiple enemies ( at LEAST 2) per encounter.

They've already completed Part One, and are taking some downtime before setting off for Runeforge.

I'm looking to make a running list of creatures/npcs I can add to existing encounters in the name of action economics.

Freezemaw I plan to throw in some younger white dragons, no big issue there.

Some of the named NPCs in Runeforge however, I need input for:

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Ordikin (mithral mage in Vault of Greed) - ??

Zuvuveg (Nalfeshnee demon in same area) - ??

Jordinmandus (Conjurer in Festering Maze) - ??
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Not looking for someone to build followers from the ground up, just wanting input on how to improve these encounters without just slapping HP and templates everywhere.

I note that in Ultimate Campaign, there are rules for re-training ability score increases, but not the scores themselves.
Is this meant to send a message about the design of PF? Would re-training ability scores be seen as bad juju?

I have a player in my campaign's Barbarian who would like to shift some of his Dexterity into his Strength (first time building, gave him a little too much Dex and not enough Str). I was surprised to find that there was no option for this in UC.

Thoughts from the peanut gallery?

Hi! Rez'ing a few old threads that I found floating about the forums.

I have a (simple?) question: can one, through any combination of feats or items, get reloading an advanced firearm down to a free action for good?

My research thus far has brought me to this:

1. Rapid Reload, RAW, does not benefit advanced firearms. Advanced firearms are all a Move Action to reload; RR implies it drops it a step, but is carefully worded to make it more a matter of categories than a universal reduction.

The time required for you to reload your chosen type of weapon is reduced to a free action (for a hand or light crossbow), a move action (for heavy crossbow or one-handed firearm), or a standard action (two-handed firearm). Reloading a crossbow or firearm still provokes attacks of opportunity.

Metal Cartridges: These sturdier versions of alchemical cartridges serve as the ammunition for advanced firearms. They can hold either bullets or pellets.

3. The Gunslinger's Lightning Reload ability only works for one barrel /rnd. A full-BAB character w/ 4 attacks will still need to reload every other round.

Now, many advanced firearms are seemingly capable of mitigating this; revolvers have six chambers, but a high-level full-BAB character will still end up reloading roughly every other round. The rest of the 2-handed weapons are even worse off; a full-BAB character, RAW, will never get to make all his attacks with the weapon in a single round.
The Heavy Crossbow runs into the same problem, but has the Crossbow Mastery feat to fix. Feat-pricey, but it's there at least.

Taking a step back, it becomes even crazier when this is compared back to early firearms. A character with Rapid Reload using a Pistol that has alchemical cartridges can reload as a free action (Standard-->Move[RR]-->Free[AlcCart]), surpassing the Revolver! The Musket Master can pull the same trick by 3rd level, unless I'm misinterpreting the 3rd-level Deed. But that's another tangent.

Does the system simply assume that one will never be able to load any advanced firearm faster than a skilled character can reload a heavy crossbow or more archaic pistol?

I'm at a bit of a impasse. No matter what I try, I can't seem to come up with a good reason for someone to do use the default Gunslinger over one of the (IMO) better archetypes. And I mean that in every way- both power and flavor wise, each the archetypes actually feel like they're locking in something interesting and unique about being a gunslinger; the default one...well, I know that's part of the point (being more generalized, both technique and flavor wise), but it still leaves me feeling...lacking.

I see no reason why someone would bother being a standard Gunslinger; Pistolero and Musket Master specifically seem to just do it better, period. Neither would gain any benefit whatsoever of using their opposite number, while the generic Gunslinger seems to fail to have any advantage. He's stuck taking feats the others don't bother with or get for free, and gets very little benefit to being more "Flexible."

At the end of the day, the Generalist of any class should be just as capable in their own way as the counterparts. The Fighter does this fairly well, I believe; I wouldn't bat an eye at playing a standard Fighter over using an archetype if that's what the person wants to do. I can't say I feel the same about Gunslinger.

These are just my initial feelings and attitude. I'd love some input from the community on whether this is a consistent trend, or I'm missing something.

Hi! I've tried to search around for the answer to this one, but haven't seen anyone give a very definitive ruling beyond speculation and silent approval.

The Pistolero Gunslinger gets the Pistol Training ability:

"Starting at 5th level, a pistolero increases her skill with one-handed firearms. She gains a bonus on damage rolls equal to her Dexterity modifier, and when she misfires with a one-handed firearm, the misfire value increases by 2 instead of 4. Every four levels thereafter (9th, 13th, and 17th), the bonus on damage rolls increases by +1. At 13th level, a pistolero never misfires with a one-handed firearm."

This does NOT say anything, Errata or otherwise, about replacing Gun Training...

"Starting at 5th level, a gunslinger can select one specific type of firearm (such as an axe musket, blunderbuss, musket, or pistol). She gains a bonus equal to her Dexterity modifier on damage rolls when firing that type of firearm. Furthermore, when she misfires with that type of firearm, the misfire value of that firearm increases by 2 instead of 4. Every four levels thereafter (9th, 13th, and 17th), the gunslinger picks up another type of firearm, gaining these bonuses for those types as well."

Do these indeed stack? Does my Pistolero get to add his Dex modifier twice on each hit?
(on Hero Lab they aren't stacking...which could simply be an oversight, but it's the one thing that makes me want to double-check it before I indeed write it off as just a fault in the program).

Hi. I am looking over the final baddies for Retaking Rannick. I usually try to rebuild them in Hero Lab just to get a better feel (sometimes not really changing anything) and pick up on little things I may have missed.

Well, Jaagrath has me confused. It lists him as a CR 10 (makes sense, CR 3 ogre+ 7 Barb), but Hero Labe claims that only makes him a CR 9.

Also, he is listed as having DR 2/-, but Barbarians only get DR 1/- at that level. So that's odd.

Can anyone explain these? The former could be HL being dumb with creatures/class levels, but the DR 2 has me baffled.

Hi. Been having a lot of discussion and forum-hopping today, figuring out spellbooks. Specifically, how to handle them when you're building at higher levels.

We came to the understanding that when building the spellbook, you count the cost of each spell as just the writing cost, then add the spellbook(s)' cost(s), and boom.

Anyways, I am conflicted about the Blessed Book and its use when building a character.

Could a player simply say "oh, I grab one of these and use it to negate the material cost of all the spells I get"? Thus making the spellbook basically non-existent as a Wealth factor?

Hi. Just wondering what people think: can you use a Locked Gauntlet, attached to an Arcane Bond weapon, and cast spells?

Locked Gauntlets' rule on spellcasting: "While the gauntlet is locked, you can't use the hand wearing it for casting spells or employing skills. (You can still cast spells with somatic components, provided that your other hand is free.)"

Arcane Bond notes that the weapon... "must be wielded. If a wizard attempts to cast a spell without his bonded object worn or in hand, he must make a concentration check or lose the spell."

I mean, flavor and logic would say you are casting the spell with the Bonded object itself. So would the Gauntlet therefore render the Bond useless? Would you be forced to use the other hand to cast spells? The weapon is still equipped, so RAR you could still cast even if that hand was limp and stapled to the weapon, so long as you have the free hand.

Thoughts, corrections, concerns?

Hi all. Short and simple, I'm curious if there are any online tools or useful tricks when trying to "build" a character's spellbook.

Very quickly, adding spells to a Wizard's spellbook can become a chore. I love part of it, but at the same time it can be incredibly tedious and time-consuming. It can also be a small project just making sure you're keeping up with the cost.

I normally use Hero Lab, but I've found it especially lacking in that department- there's just the add-spell option, no way to track money spent. My fastest way to to make a big list on an Excel sheet, keep track of level/price, then add it all up and take it off in a Journal Entry.

I'm not primarily here to whine/ask for help on HL though, that was just to give some context.

So, if nothing else, I'm curious: how do YOU keep up with it? Just the good-old fashioned way of adding/summing the cost from scratch every time? Or do you have a potentially better system?

Title is lenghty but says it all. I am trying to bump him up for a group of four lvl 3 adventureres, and am having trouble figuring out how he was actually made.
I plug him into Hero Lab and instantly have no idea where a couple of things came from. He doesn't have Great Fortitude like a normal Trog, ok, I can handle that (HL can't, but that's not my main issue). I'm most interested in where his Ability Scores came from. They don't match up to The normal or Heroic NPC arrays and clearly aren't a normal Trog's ability scores. Where did these numbers come from?
If it's completely custom I can respect that, but if his stats were derived from the Pathfinder standards for creature building I'm lost.

Here he is for convenience:

So, I've run into an issue multiple times GMing. Here's the setup, as pictured in my head:

The PCs race up the tower, being pelted by attacks from screaming ghosts and a young dragon. At the top of the tower is a group of dangerous casters and archers raining pain down on the group. The Party desperately scrambles up the tower, only taking maybe the occasional standard action to fire off a spell or pot shot at their attackers; desperate to get off the narrow sloping stairs, they move as a group so as to not leave anyone open or behind.

What happens in-game:

The round of combat starts out looking good, until the first PC to go springs forward. She's running, right? That's exactly what's happening? Well, on the game board, she just lept out in front of everyone by ~30 feet, and now the entire team of archers at the top can take pot shots at the exposed hero. Then eventually the group, ONE BY ONE, catch up with the blasted hero, and begin to cycle the process all over again.

This severly breaks the suspension of disbelief for me and many of my players, as the turn-based system completely betrays a scenario where staying together is key.
Taking a readied action to immediately run with someone else would be an utter waste of everyone's standard actions (as well as waste the Move action for everyone but one person.)

Has anyone developed a system for a sort of "Group Move Action"? A way for all the PCs to run alongside/behind each other at once instead of awkwardly exposing random party members who are at the beginning/end of initiative?

I propose that if the group can agree on a certain action/timing, they can do it at once without having to bend the Initiative/Hold Action/Turn.
I'm just curious if anyoen has come up with any more creative solutions to this problem.

So, ol' Hal went and go himself Vampired-up.

Book accounts for if the PCs want to get him Atoned, and I have no doubt he'd be up for that once he's broken of the Witch's thrall.
However, one tiny problem remains: he's still a vampire.
It says that if not monitored and simply let free, he eventually descends and stays at Lawful Evil for good.
If Atoned, he begins "seeking out a righteous death of his own choosing in
the light of the sun."
Well I hope that he finds a good death within 2 rounds, otherwise he goes POOF.

Is Atonement supposed to cure the Vampirism? Is there a cure somewhere that I don't know of, or is supposed to be discovered?

I can see him getting in control of his Vampire urges and going full Pali again, but he'll have to do it at night unless something exceptional happens.

So I see that in Part 5, the party descends below the Tern Rocks to a depth of 400 feet.
They then have 100 feet to cross to get to the Tunnels, taking 4d6 points of damage a minute from the pressure.
This is drawn from a system of 1d6/100ft.

Concerning water pressure. I have very little knowledge of how pressure scales underwater, but it does concern me a little how mundane the damage seems. 4d6 means ~14 damage per minute, something even a squishy lvl 10 wizard could handle for much longer than they can hold their breath.
Is this supposed to be chalked up to "the PCs are Heroes and therefore awesome", or am I overestimating the pressure of water at 400 feet?

So here's the set up.
Wake of the Watcher, Undiomede House.

So with that said, I would love the input from experienced players/devs. Did I make the wrong call letting this happen at all?
Should I ret-con it? I'm concerned that this is something that will be a permanent mark on our gaming group for the worse.

Basically I'm torn between whether I should stand by my decision and let the players deal with it, or whether my decisions and actions were bad enough to warrant a ret-con.

Any advice would be great, thanks.

So, since Into the Darklands, we haven't really heard much from the mysterious world under the world. It's got a place in the Inner Sea World Guide, but that's the last I've really seen of it.

Are there are other modules/paths/companion books that have touched on it more? It's a place I fell in love with back when I first was introduced into Pathfinder (Into the Darklands was the first PF book I had purchased), but have been disappointed by how little it's been touched.
Paizo has taken us to some fantastic places in Golarion, don't get me wrong. I recently bought Distant Worlds and couldn't put it down until I'd read it cover to cover.

So this is more or less an open discussion/request: will we see more about the Darklands in the near future?

Ok, simple question (I think), but my search-fu is weak this morning.

If a creature is slain by a necromancy[death] spell, is that always a death effect and therefore negates Raise Dead?

Not exactly sure where this fits, but if it needs to be moved that's fine.

I was curious if anyone had any good ideas for what an Iomedae cleric's prayer would look like. I've always enjoyed things of the sort (Mass Effect 2/ Mass Effect 3's Thane was my favorite character, partially for how they handled his religious side.)

In our campaign, my cleric's brother (the party ranger) just died valiantly fighting a Whispering Way cultist (Auron Vrood to be specific), so I'm looking for something particularly cool to have Otheos (me) say over his fallen brother.

Bonus points if it works in something about the fight not being over, as he plans to travel to the capital city and try to find a means of resurrection for him. He'd rather leave his brother's spirit in peace, but he also knows they will desperately need him in the fights to come (He's a Ranger who was specifically trained to hunt cultists.)

In the meantime he'll still want to say some sort of prayer over him.

Any ideas for what that would sound like?

Got in a silly mood and decided to play around with Monster Creation.
I'm currently looking into doing a lvl 20+ campaign, somewhat focused around the beings who created (or ARE) the Tarrasque(s).
Thought about making some Spawn to serve as lower-level encounters while the gang is warming up.
My main suspection is that this is too powerful for CR 15 with the abilities, but I bring it to you as-is for your scrutiny and criticism.

So without further ado...I give you the Tarrasque Spawn.

I suspect the wordy-ness of the Special Abilities will be one of the first to feel the axe, but the Tarrasque's has a decent block of text too.

Where does it explicitly state that one much make each end of a double weapon Masterwork/Magical?
I know the "rule" (You have to improve and enhance each end of the weapon separately), but I can't actually find it in the Core or SRD.

Can someone point me in that direction?

I know there have been threads about this before, but I haven't really found what I'm looking for.
I see a lot of talk about trying to fit CHill somewhere it's more level appropriate, but I was planning on just putting it where Wake Of the Watcher suggests (right before WotW.)
I know this'll take some adjustments on CR, and that's fine with me.

What I'm looking for is two things:
1. Placement: Is Carrion Hill close enough that they could make a detour, or is it going to have to re-located?
2. Atmosphere: Will doing Carrion Hill ruin the cool-factor for the rest of WotW? I'm fairly good at keeping things interesting and not letting things just turn into "oh, another X, guess I'll bash it now, blah blah."
However, I don't want to put myself through an unnecessary amount of work to do that, either.
Has anyone had experience with this? Would Mr. Pett or Mr. Vaughan have any input on this (I haven't found them anywhere talking about it yet...)

We're just getting into Broken Moon, but that won't take our group too long; so if it's doable, I need to start the conversions and think-tanking now.

Thanks!

Trying to work out TWF WereLeopard Rogue's attacks in Hybrid Form.

Ok. So assuming Mrs. WereLeopard has, let's say, 6 levels of Rogue (BAB 4), making her base modifiers for attacking 2/2. Adjusted for STR/DEX/whatever later on.

Now, due to her unique state of being, she also has a Bite attack as well as two Claw attacks in Hybrid form (Animal form too, but that's not important right now)
If I understand correctly, she would only be able to make a full action including her two daggers (consuming the Claw attacks) and her Bite.
-Now, what happens to that Bite attack's modifier? Is it -5?
Does it get affected by the TWF penalty as well, making it -7?
What form of Str modifier does the Bite attack get to use? half? full?

Build: 20pt buy, assuming total Level/CR is 7 (per Bestiary suggestion)
STR +1, Dex +2, Con +2, Int +4, Wis +1, Cha -1 (Human form)
Str +4, Dex +4, Con +3, Int +4, Wis +1, Cha -1 (Hybrid/Animal Form)
TWF taken.

So, whilst in Hybrid Form, Her full attack action might look like this:
+6/+6 1d4+4 (daggers) + +3 1d6+2 (Bite)
-This is assuming Bite gets the -5 from full BAB, and STR damage is halved.

Also:
Will this change at all as she begins racking up the BAB and TWF attacks?
Can Sneak Attack be added to the Bite as well? If she chose to Pounce and Rake (putting away/dropping her daggers), and flanked her opponent when doing so, would she get the Sneak Attack damage on all three natural attacks?

Thanks.

So, painfully noobish question, but is my profile on the site supposed to be my current/favorite Society character, or just whatever I want it to be?

In a monster's listed ability scores, does it automatically take in to account the size modifiers?

I'm building different lycanthropes on a custom spreadsheet, and am trying to account for everything that's going into my ability scores. The sheet dynamically changes depending upon the character's form (cell filled in with "hybrid", "tiger, etc.)

I went to put the standard +2 to Str in for Size while building a Weretiger, then suddenly realized it was probably already worked in to the Tiger's "base" ability scores, which were already being factored in to the character's total strength.

Should I just list the Tiger's scores as-is and just leave the Size bonus slot blank? Or in the name of accuracy decrease the tiger's Str (23) down to 21?