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As per the title, can you do a swift action and immediate action in the same round?

The rules says:

"In a normal round, you can perform a standard action and a move action, or you can perform a full-round action. You can also perform one swift action and one or more free actions."

Also:

"An immediate action is very similar to a swift action, but can be performed at any time—even if it's not your turn."

The context of my question is:

Can a bard, after he has used arcane strike (swift action), use saving finale (immediate action)?

As the title says, I am wondering if the +1 to atk and dmg rolls from PBS applies to scorching rays, for example.

Does Exquisite Accompaniment works with bard feats such as Lingering Performance or Saving Finale?

Exquisite Accompaniment:

"You create a phantom instrument, a glowing construct of magic in the form of a portable musical instrument of your choice. The instrument floats beside you, moving as you move (even if you teleport). It cannot be damaged, but can be dispelled. The instrument plays as you direct, and as long as it plays, you do not have to expend rounds of bardic performance from your daily allotment to maintain an effect. Activating a bardic performance or switching to a new effect still costs a round of your overall bardic performances per day."

Linger Performance:

"The bonuses and penalties from your bardic performance continue for 2 rounds after you cease performing. Any other requirement, such as range or specific conditions, must still be met for the effect to continue. If you begin a new bardic performance during this time, the effects of the previous performance immediately cease."

Saving Finale:

"You must have a bardic performance in effect to cast this spell. With a flourish, you can immediately end your bardic performance when a creature within range affected by your bardic performance fails a saving throw, allowing the subject to immediately reroll the failed saving throw."

On one hand, the feats implied that you should be performing, not your instrument. On the other, the instrument pretty much plays for you and you are spending your bardic performance rounds to start it. So does it work with these feats? Thanks for the responses in advance.

Can I combine Resilient Sphere and Cloudkill into a prison of poisonous gas?

Resilient Sphere says "the sphere functions as a wall of force."

Wall of Force has this paragraph:

"Breath weapons and spells cannot pass through a wall of force in either direction, although dimension door, teleport, and similar effects can bypass the barrier. It blocks ethereal creatures as well as material ones (though ethereal creatures can usually circumvent the wall by going around it, through material floors and ceilings). Gaze attacks can operate through a wall of force."

My GM says he think to cast Cloudkill inside the sphere, the spell has to pass through the sphere first. I believe since it's a conjuration spell, you can literally just make the gas appear inside the sphere. Thoughts and opinions?

Along the same thoughts, can you summon creatures/swarms inside the sphere as well?

Do Lingering Performance and Saving Finale work together? More specifically, does Saving Finale requires the ending of a performance or merely the ending of a performance's EFFECT?

The language of Saving Finale is ambiguous and can be interpreted both ways:

"You must have a bardic performance in effect to cast this spell. With a flourish, you can immediately end your bardic performance when a creature within range affected by your bardic performance fails a saving throw, allowing the subject to immediately reroll the failed saving throw."

Lingering Performance is a feat that prolongs the effect of bardic performance after the performance has been ended:

[abbreviated version) "The bonuses and penalties from your bardic performance continue for 2 rounds after you cease performing."

Do these feat work together? Thanks in advance for the responses.

Half elves and half orcs have been a staple of D&D for a while now. So have half celestials and half fiends. Now, we have the Dhampier, a race of half vampires. My inquiry is, where is the half dwarf (does the plumbing even work)? The half gnome (does it still get bleached)? The half halfling (just how short can you get)? Is the halfling already halved? If so, from what?

On a more serious note, while I appreciate the flavor of half races, I think, unless backed up with some intricate details in the "how", creating more half races just cause you can is a bit cheesy. If it's really as easy as coupling, then you would expect to see half trog, half mermaids, half <insert your fav monster>.

Thoughts? Opinions?

Great YouTube Video

My friend is playing the bard's archetype arcane duelist and has a question on its Bladethirst ability.

Bladethirst (Su): An arcane duelist of 6th level or higher may use performance to grant one weapon, one natural weapon, one end of a double weapon, or 50 items of ammunition of the same type within 30 feet a +1 enhancement bonus. This enhancement bonus increases by +1 for every three levels after 6th (maximum +5 at 18th level). These bonuses stack with existing bonuses and may be used to increase the item’s enhancement bonus up to +5 or to add any of the following weapon properties: defending, distance, ghost touch, keen, mighty cleaving, returning, shock, shocking burst, seeking, speed, or wounding. If the weapon is not magical, at least a +1 enhancement bonus must be added before adding special abilities.

He is wondering if he can add any weapon property, such as speed, onto his character's weapon as a lvl 7 bard since the bolded sentence simply says "or add any of the following". Looking at it now, it seems that phrase was in the context of the bard's enhancement bonuses and it is by using these bonuses that the bard picks the appropriate weapon properties (picking speed at lvl 12 with a +1 weapon, for example).

How is everyone else interpreting this ability? Clarification would be much appreciated.

Using Permanency involves two spell: the original spell and then Permanency. Here's my question, does the caster of Permanency also needs to be the caster of the original spell? At first glance of the spell description, that seems to be the case:

"This spell makes the duration of certain other spells permanent. You first cast the desired spell and then follow it with the permanency spell."

and

"You can make the following spells permanent in regard to yourself. You cannot cast these spells on other creatures."

However, my friend pointed out that Magic Fang is a druid/ranger/summoner spell while Permanency is a Sorc/Wizard spell.

Of course, there are certain ways of getting around this. You can multiclass. There is also the Bard's Expanded Repertoire. But these seems like niche methods and not something a standard sorc/wizard would/can do. The only easy way is to have a druid/ranger/summoner cast the Magic Fang, then a sorc/wizard follow up with Permanency.

Thought? Opinions? Thanks in advance!

When I was going through Crimson Throne, I played a fighter who hacked and slashed his way through the campaign. I found out later that the GM had fudged certain rolls throughout the story to “make it close.” In hindsight, although it breaks the suspense of disbelief for me (“so that 50 you rolled to grapple and almost kill me was made up?!”) it did not matter much because my character was a tough bastard.

Currently, I am going through Legacy of Fire of as a Wizard. While there is a different DM, I sometimes wonder if fudging is happening. The impact of fudging against a wizard, imho, is greater because some of her best weapons are save-or-die spells. Once her spells are used up, her contribution to combat are very small.

Fudging seems to be a very prevalent tool. To all the DMs out there, why do you fudge? Is it to “make it close?” I once GMed a game where the BBEG fell prey to the PC’s grease spells. He could not walk or pick up his weapon to save his life. The PCs killed the boss and the players were happy with the way things went. Although a bit disappointed about the outcome, I felt I have upheld RAW and did not fail to do my job.

My story is NOT meant to engage in a debate on whether DM fudging is RIGHT or WRONG. I do not wish to judge others on their reasons (some of which I am sure will be perfectly valid) behind fudging. I simply want to know why it’s being done instead of letting the dice decide the outcome. All feedback are welcome (including non-fudgers). Please keep it civil.

The Future (don't miss the spectacular ending)

I am planning to build a PFRPG wizard that acts as an aerial artillery. How does being in the air interact with certain spell areas?

I read the section under Magic, which described burst, emanation, etc but does not go into how far UP the spell would go if cast at a target on the ground.

For example, let's say my wizard is 30 ft above my party and an enemy cast Fireball on my party. Does the fire reach up and burn the wizard? If so how far up?

I realize there are certain spells that, from it wording, implies that it affects every target in its area (ie. Ice Storm). But there are a lot of other spells that simply does not deal with how far its effects go UP.

Last but not least, I understand that the enemy can simply shoot the fireball into the sky at my wizard. My curiosity is entirely on what happens when the spell goes off BELOW.

Thanks in advance for replies.

Hi, I am a new GM on the eve of running SD. I am allowing my players to use items from MIC but am wondering if that's a smart decision in the long run. My GM in my Crimson Throne campaign has disallowed MIC because he think a party equipped with MIC items will eventually overpower NPCs that are designed without them. So I am soliciting opinions from GMs, players, and Paizo folks on this issue.

Also, if I do allow MIC, what are some items that--for the sake of executing the campaign well--should be banned? Since I am restricting my players to make classic Pathfinder classes, psionic items are automatically disallowed.