Zahariel's page

I would buy you a beer (or soft drink of your choice, if alcohol isn't your thing) if I could.

Thank you, Sir. Those of us with sisters and/or daughters are grateful for people like you.

- Magic Jar uses a material component worth at least 100gp. Mending is a cantrip. Using a cantrip to "undo" the effect of a higher level magic isn't something I'd allow myself. I actually like his explanation.

- Very few spells don't allow a saving throw. If the rogue got one, you can ask for one if you're ever about to be entangled by an animated rope. If it works on NPCs, it works on PCs.

- It doesn't necessarily. An entangled creature moves at half speed, cannot run or charge, and takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls and a –4 penalty to Dexterity. Depending on what you mean by change weapon, it could work. If he dropped a weapon and used a natural weapon, or if he had one of those weapon chords, that'd be a free action, and he could move and attack.

- Now this one is tougher. It could go either way, I'd recommend you clear it with your DM exactly what NPCs are allowed to do and who is going to control them. Same goes for intelligent weapons. Rule of thumb: Clear things out before they come up, specially with hirelings. In our group, we joke that NPCs are balloons that follow us around. They take no actions and don't participate in combat. And if they do, they get a share of XP and become valid targets. Same applies to familiars, if they take part in the battle, then they are valid targets. If not, we mostly ignore them.

- If you have an imp familiar, you should be at least what, level 7? Mage Armor lasts 1 hour/caster level. Cast it when you start adventuring each day. Unless you're casting from a wand, in which case I start to see his point, you can't count on having a few rounds to buff before every fight.

- Crafting poison is a massive headache and really not effective. For starters, it takes at least one week of work. Imp poison is similar to giant wasp poison, each dose costs 210gp. At a DC 13, you'd need a combined total of 162 on the Craft checks (at one check per week) to finish it. Assuming +15 on Craft(Alchemy) and that you Take Ten, that's approximately 7 weeks worth of work for one dose. Unless the ninja has a specific ability that allows him to create poisons at a fraction of the time... it's not a job for PCs. It's really not worth it.

I get that you're frustrated, and playing should be fun, but again, talk to your DM about what your character can bring to the table. It's the best advice I can give you.

One of the ideas behind PFS is providing the same experience for all the players. That's one of the reasons why perhaps the most important rules for GMs is Run as Written.

Same applies to sanctioned APs, if you review the ones already available, they are based on the most "structured" parts of the individual books.

I just cleared it with my DM, the next character I play will be a smurf. I'll be Map Smurf!

I'd still prefer to build an orbital laser platform around Apostae, "open" a door with a few million d6's of laser damage, and make myself Emperor God-King of the denizens before raiding it for robots and plasma guns to take potshots at Aucturn with. I'd be lobbed into space-battles with the Dominion of the Black in no time.

When does the Pathfinder real-time tactical strategy space game come out?

I don't know, but you just gave me the seed for a high-level game. Where can I find rules for lasers and cyberarmor? Have they been published?

EDIT:

I love Distant Planets, but I need more! More details on Eox! More information on Aucturn! Stats for the ships of the Dominion of the Black! Rules for space combat!

No Macedonian passport for sale? The shame!

Hello, Paizo people!

I just got an earful for ordering Pathfinder Volume One: Dark Waters Rising Hardcover (paizo.com exclusive) when I "should have figured out [my girlfriend] was going to buy it for me as a birthday present".

Could you please remove it from the order? I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks!

Paranoia and Warhammer 40K: Deathwatch & Only War, along with PF Battles minis make up my "save for later" list.

I... don't want to add those up. Seriously.

This weapon, combined with Enlarge Person and Named Bullet, makes for one heck of an "argument finalizer".

I have a player who used one of these in my Jade Regent campaing. It's not his regular weapon, but damn can it be absolutely devastating against single oponents. The diviner casts Named Bullet, gun-wielding alchemist brings home the pain.

Mine hasn't shipped yet, but I'm not sweating it. I suppose the dragons and Cthulhu will delay it for a while. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with how Reaper is handling this, it looks like they're really organized.

Isn't raising undead an evil act, leading to an evil alignment, which is not allowed in PFS?

If anything, it's my understanding that PFS is tilted towards the side of good, with most of the factions (arguably) being on the -G end of the spectrum. I'd assume that any player skirting the line by playing a -N character who worships an evil deity or uses spells with the [evil] descriptor would have a backup plan for when he comes across, for instance, with a high-ranking paladin of Iomedae of the Shining Crusade.

In the case of Cleric of Pharasma v. Necromancer, in PFS, I would put the burden of adapting primarily on the necromancer. The cleric ought to also do his part, though, following the DBaJ rule.

Back in stock!!!

I couldn't believe my eyes when I read the news post. I grabbed one right away, I don't know how many there are left, but I doubt they'll last long.

Also keep in mind, Half-Fiend is a template, not a Player Class. You will need a .really. permissive DM, or one who is playing a game with templates.

I agree with The Crusader. There's nothing wrong per se with your character, and you might find a DM that will welcome you. I am not that strict myself, but I have to say I wouldn't.

Your concept would work, but being Asmodeus' son would make you a Half-Fiend, not a thiefling.

And it's not stereotyping, even with +2 Dex and Int you could dump Dex and end with someone who's barely average.

Think of a cat. They're naturally more agile and dexterous than dogs. You could have a really clumsy cat, but it'd still be a little less clumsy than the clumsiest dog.

(Example not at all inspired by the cat just trying to jump to the table, landing on a piece of paper, slipping across it and falling off said table.)

They could be [evil] bounty hunters after someone.

And I don't think you'll need to do that much tinkering with this one, as evil characters, just have them imagine the power they could get from Baba Yaga. Either as their emissaries or as the ones who destroy her.

Is there any that more boxes will be opened and this will come back in stock? I got every other Iconic and not many other stores ship to my country.

Reposition could work, 5 feet at a time. Bull Rush can also work. But again, 5 feet at a time (maybe 10, even 15, if the checks are really good).

Where are you getting they still fly if knocked out?

Fly and Overland Flight have a duration based on the caster level, and don't require concentration checks. That means becoming stunned, paralyzed, sickened or staggered doesn't cause you to fall, nor does becoming unconscious.

Reposition might work

As far as I'm aware, there are none.

Which is why magical flight is so handy, even unconscious you won't fall.

I've had it happen to two characters, one of them twice.

The first one found out his wife had been erased from reality months before, and had in fact never existed anymore. Only he and the rest of the party knew she'd ever been real. He had a Heroic BSoD followed by him crossing the Despair Event Horizon, breaking up in tears and going nova. It was the game finale, and in our homebrew superhero system there was a way of burning pretty much anything in your character sheet to get temporary one-use powers. Didn't work, and he ended up committing suicide to allow the universe to be reborn (or all existence would have ceased to be, permanently). And in the reborn universe, all his memories of her are gone, since he'd never met her, and now lives a lonely and friendless existence. Yay, we won.

Same-ish character, about a year later, new universe. Gets dragged into an end-of-the-world scenario. Turns out, the party has to protect the current universe's incarnation of the person-turned-insane-god who had caused the former universe to be destroyed from his heralds, who were still trying to destroy all of existence. Party, of course, has no idea who the "innocent" is.

Game ends, party recovers its memories of existence in the old reality, everyone celebrates... except the one guy for whom the new universe only meant knowing he was now living alone and lonely, a bitter shadow of his former self, but in another universe, he had actually been happy with a woman who was now happily married to someone else and had never heard of him.

Oh, and my PF wizard cried when he saw a city razed to the ground.

Human Bladebound Magus.

Count me in!

Hello!

I'm currently playing Reign of Winter, and it's been brought to my attention that my character, well... sucks. I'm actually very happy with the flavor of it, but must agree that her in-combat contribution is rather lacking. Right now she's Lvl 3 and I've got two levels that I can play with before I go for the Riftwarden PrC.

This is her right now:

LG Samsaran Thassilonian Abjurer 3

Str 10
Dex 10
Con 8 (base 10, -2 Racial)
Int 20 (base 16, +2 Racial, +2 Story Award)
Wis 15 (base 13, +2 Racial)
Cha 15

Saves
Fort +0 (+ 1 Cloak of Resistance)
Ref +2 (+ 1 Cloak of Resistance)
Will +8 (+2 Hedgehog familiar + 1 Cloak of Resistance)

Feats:
Spell Focus (Abjuration)
Spell Penetration

*******************

Right now I only need 2 more ranks in Knowledge (Planes) to be able to take my first level in Riftwarden at Lvl 6, so I have two levels I can use to increase my usefulness. It's not that the character is useless, but Abjuration magic lacks a little "Oomph" at lower levels. I had considered putting the Ability Score increse to Charisma at lvl 4 (for the Riftwarden features) and taking Spell Focus (Conjuration) at lvl 5, but I'm open to suggestions.

I'd considered Item Creation feats (duh!), but we tend to push forward at the fastest possible pace and taking time off for crafting is not really a party habit. And the last thing I want is to slow them down.

So, question is, what options do you recommend for levels 4 and 5?

I... really couldn't care less for optimization.

As long as there's something that my character can contribute to the party, I go with concept over gameplay.

For instance, right now I'm playing a Samsaran Thassilonian Abjurer in Reign of Winter. At level 3, she's pretty much useless in combat. And since I'm going for Riftwarden, I've dumped both Str and Con to have high Cha (the array as it is is 10 8 10 20 14 15 if memory serves me, considering racial mods and a boost at the end of book 1).

Is this character in any way optimized? Heck no. Her chances of survival are next to zero. But she manages to contribute thanks to Linguistics and having decent Diplomacy and Bluff scores.

So, in answer to the OP, not at all. As long as the character is fun to play and not a complete disadvantage to the party, I'll play it.

Some schools share a lot of keywords, while others might not share many at all. As a result, an evoker might not be the best at necromancy spells (which don't share a ton of similarities), but he'd still do well when casting damaging Conjuration and Abjuration spells, which have more keyword overlap with Evocation spells.

Sounds fair... but based on Thassilonian magic, Abjuration is opposed by Evocation and Necromancy.

Nitpicking, yes, but it'd be nice to see consistency when it comes to published canon.

I don't see anything wrong with that character. If the player is happy with it, why make him change it? And if he actually wants to gimp it, what's the matter with that? In the worst-case-scenario, he'll die and reroll. It's not like the actual player will die.

So he grabbed a sword and ran into the front line. He had fun taking swings at a monster.

Wouldn't you?

I'm playing a wizard in Reign of Winter. Level 1, LG Samsaran Thassilonian Abjurer, PB 20, no Hero Points. Stats after racial mods: 10/10/8/18/14/14

First day, Mage Armor, Protection from Evil and Endure Elements were it.

At one point during an encounter, she tried to parlay and was ignored, got angry and charged with a longsword. No proficiency, so negative to hit.

Believe me, it felt fantastic to whack that fey senseless.

Was that even remotely efficient? Hell no. But it. Was. Fun.

If your player has fun playing like that, why stop him?

I'd love a copy, I'll run my party through it and post it here.

Thank you!

I can rationalize it thus:

Assume we have a rat swarm. 300 of them. At 16hp, each individual rat would have less than 1hp.

So it's not about killing all 300 rats, but destroying their group cohesion.

So how do you destroy a group? Target the leaders. In this case, if the player has the keen eye to notice that one of the rats is bigger, fatter, uglier and meaner than the rest, and he attacks that one rat, he just landed a hit against a vital part of the swarm.

Think what Mazer Rackham did in the second war against the Buggers. Would you tell him you can't sneak attack a swarm?

I'm only concerned with the weight, for those of us that live overseas. Still, it looks so awesome... and I do have that space on my shelf where it could go...

Let me see, the icon to the left of my name is my Faction in PFS. You can get it by going to you "My Account" tab, creating/downloading a Pathfinder card, and selecting your faction.

Excuse me while I go change my pantaloons, as they appear to have become soiled.

***

Wow. That is just... sexy. The price is steep, but hopefully I can save up for it. Unless Paizo does something even better, in which case they get my money.

Congratulations to this year's Top 8! Great work, guys!

Feast of Ravenmoor can be quite deadly, actually. Several encounters with no chance to rest between them. It's not exactly what I'd use to give my players a confidence boost.

Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-09: The Quest for Perfection—Part I: The Edge of Heaven

I was playing my Cleric of Iomedae. We... were not at out best that day, and decided to dig in for the night before exploring the temple. I'd ran out of spells and channels.

We kind of forgot that we had a gunslinger in the party, and whacking those 2 residents that came out to greet us probably alerted the BB of the scenario. Like I said, we were not at our best.

So while everyone's sleeping, BB comes looking for us. The fighter (lvl 2) was keeping watch, low on HP, and gets taken out in a single hit. Some of us wake up from the scruffle, and we're all prone and not wearing armor. BB proceeds to plow right through us. We get nearly massacred. In the end, everyone is down for the count, the BB has taken some damage, and I'm the only one left standing.

He hits, I go to 2 HP (thank you 14 Con and Toughness!).

I (in-character) call out to Iomedae and (OOC) roll to hit. Natural 20 with my longsword. Blessed Iomedae, I confirm the hit and roll maximum damage. And the BB goes down.

Then I went on to stabilize the dying. Went from near TPK to exhilarating victory.

Jo Grant hmmm second only to Romana II

Agreed.

Lalla Ward <3

Also, in regards to the original comment:

No. Just no. It's a terrible idea. Absolutely awful. This is a show that's all about continuity for over 30 years' worth of episodes (not counting the down time). A reboot would enrage and alienate 99.9% of the fans. Maybe more.

I'm counting the hours to get the Player's Guide. :D

I have to take into account my real-world skills, knowledge and abilities.

I'd probably end up being a Wizard with the feat that lets me use guns. Oooh... to the character creation board!

Main will be LG Wizard, going for the full Archetype run, but I don't know about the "Twin". Maybe Sorcerer, I don't really know yet.

There's a difference between standing out and being ridiculous. The race you created is, quite honestly, terrible.

No one is going to take you more or less seriously based on how many hours you've gamed, but boasting about having played for so many hours doesn't help your case.

My advice, play a race from the Core Rulebook. The ARG is for GMs, not for players. And if no one in your group knows much about Pathfinder, send them here or better yet, find a FLGS (Friendly Local Gaming Store) or group that plays Pathfinder Society. Play by the rules and learn the system before you go off on tangent.

Just don't try to prove you have a point playing that character. It... it's so badly made it hurts.

I'm currently running Jade Regent, entering book 4. Of the initial party, two players left and two new players came in. Out of the other three, two of their characters are still in the game. The other player, however, has had his characters die horribly four times already.

Twice by instant-death-3-20's (following player mistakes, like deciding to bivouac alone outside the fort while the rest of the party slept in the abandoned goblin town, or deciding to eat an AoO from a dire wolf because what are the odds it can hit a character in magical full plate?), once due to maximum damage from a certain mace's blood geas (that was one ridiculous dice roll, every single die came up 6), and once because of his paladin failing four Fort saves in a row, which ended him with -3 Con and no cleric in sight.

Sometimes the dice indeed demand that a character die.

But to be fair, I've used his deaths. The wolf and the badger that killed his characters both survived, and I decided to Awaken them. They've met and formed their own adventuring party, with the badger becoming a Druid and the wolf becoming a Ranger.

Now the party has heard rumors of the wandering wolf and badger, who are followed by other uncommonly smart animals. They'll play some sort of important role I haven't decided on yet.

Gnome engineer proposal No. LTVS-001

So you want something that's lighter than a vacuum. That'd be something that not only has no weight, but has negative weight.

Well, the boys and I have been thinking about it, see? Basically you need something that's rejected by gravity.

Now, I've got a second uncle on my mother's side, used to work for the spellcasters by the seashore. He claims he can craft a Reverse Gravity field generator under a ship, but all his tests subjects got shot out of the planet before it could be properly tested by the XI Committee of... Nevermind the details. He claims it works.

So that's our take on it, fly around making the ground under you repel you. By the way, this design also works wonder for clearing debris after natural disasters, battlefield sanitation, pest control and children parties.

A wizard begins play with a spellbook containing all 0-level wizard spells (except those from his prohibited schools, if any; see Arcane Schools) plus three 1st-level spells of his choice. The wizard also selects a number of additional 1st-level spells equal to his Intelligence modifier to add to the spellbook. At each new wizard level, he gains two new spells of any spell level or levels that he can cast (based on his new wizard level) for his spellbook. At any time, a wizard can also add spells found in other wizards' spellbooks to his own.

So the spells that a wizard would know would be the ones he learned by leveling up, as well as those he's copied from other wizard's spellbooks into one of his own.

As a GM, I would not allow "I do know it, I've just never gotten around to copying into a spellbook" as a reason for allowing new spells to be written via Secret Page.

"It's in my other spellbook, which I left back in the tower", however, would be. Provided that he indeed leave that other spellbook in the tower.

My party took him out in one turn, he didn't even get to act. Gun-wielding Cryptbreaker Alchemist and Diviner combo using divination and Named Bullet. Sucker didn't even see it coming.

How often do these come out? Yesterday our group realized we've already played every single PF module released to date and we took a look at the release schedules.

The last one came out on October and this one is scheduled for March, then the next two are scheduled for April and another one for May. If those dates are for real, that'd be awesome.

Just be careful, as most uses of Channel Negative Energy are considered evil acts. As a neutral character you can still sort of balance them out, but as a good character you're likely to find yourself shifted to true neutral.

Sir PDiddy, I salute thee.

Neutral swarms will often devastate a paladin in combat.

Hahaha mad props for the reference!

I have to ask, is there a planned end to the series, or will it be ongoing? Is it a miniseries, maxiseries, or something like that?

Hello,

With the change in the processing method thingy I can no longer use my usual card for my orders (I checked with the bank, something about compatibility issues), so I'm trying to use an alternate card.

My problem is that the authorization is being denied for insufficient funds. It's trying to come through for the full amount, not taking into account the store credit I have ($250). I can make it so the funds are there next week, but will the store credit apply when I check out?

Thank you.

Unless everyone uses guns (cowboy campaign anyone?) they make a ton of monsters balanced versus spells,weapons,etc. Useless. So you get a bunch of gunslingers versus gunslingers.

Three gunslingers and a paladin at the table.

Gunslinger to paladin: "Seems to me, you brought a sword to a gunfight."

Kidding aside, our group allows guns and gunslingers. We don't have any blatant balance issues, and the combats are still fun for everyone.