Vaarsuvius

Zigniber's page

45 posts. No reviews. No lists. No wishlists.


RSS


Awesome work so far; those charts are pretty handy to have as a reference.

If I could make a request... could you add stats for Animal Form, Dragon Form, Righteous Might, and other such stat-replacing polymorph effects? I know that's quite a bit of extra work, but it'd be interesting to see how such options compare to more typical martials, or even how they compare to the same class using weapons or cantrips. It might also turn up other issues, like whether or not there's "dead levels" for Wild Order Druids between forms where they're better off swinging a weapon rather than using an outdated polymorph form.


Drakli wrote:

The problem I have with the Superstition Totem is not just that it hurts you, but that it hurts your party.

I'll admit that I'm not a big fan of Anathema/Code-of-Coduct type rule mechanics for my own personal reasons, (I feel like it takes away player agency, and Individual GMs and Players ofttimes disagree on what things like alignment and violations of conduct mean, and, well, other reasons.)

That aside, this anathema leans on what the other party members can do and play; It's very difficult to play a cleric or a druid in a party where you know one player's character can't accept your healing spells. Grant you, there are channels for clerics and potions/elixirs in general, but it's still weighing down your party and their options.

Worse than the cleric or druid, the Superstition Totem makes it feel almost impossible to have a bard in the party. All the bard songs are spells now, and the most common, Inspire Courage, is a large AoE effect. Unfortunately, the Superstitious barbarian wants nothing to do that or any other of the bard's tricks. There's probably ways to play around it, but it'd seem like a pretty miserable experience to me.


Anatomy Doll. Forcing them to make Will saves against small amounts of damage and sickened at random times should be good to really mess with their heads and get them paranoid. Bonus points for inflicting that random sickened condition mid-combat, without the source of the effect being anywhere nearby. If you can manage to get a vial's worth of blood and keep it fresh (Gentle Repose, perhaps?), that should give you plenty to re-apply to the doll whenever they succeed on the save. And the cost for a set of Anatomy Dolls should be pocket change for any high-level BBEG.


Critical fumble rules (which this seems to be a rather creative offshoot of) tend to be unpopular in Pathfinder, and not without reason: while not immediately obvious, they unfairly punish characters who make a lot of attack rolls (who also happen to tend to be on the low end of the class tier rankings). As an example, the party's hasted dual-wielding fighter might be making six attacks (and thus subject to six chances to roll a 1) on his turn, while the party wizard probably just casts a spell that forces enemies to make a saving throw... no attack roll required, and if anyone rolls a 1, it's the enemy. Plus, characters gain more attacks as they level, meaning that a more skilled fighter (with more attacks per round) has a higher chance to fumble than a beginner (with only one to two attacks per round).

Futhermore, in your example above, imagine what'd happen if Vexina and the Goblin Commando both had really high AC, to the point where they both need a natural 20 to hit each other. They're probably going to be exploring their feelings for each other for the rest of the session (all during a six-second-ish combat round, mind you). Even in less extreme examples, you're forcing a player into a RP situation that they might not have any interest in and doing it in a way that prevents other players from contributing during the interaction. This can lead to unintentional "spotlight-hogging", as well as substantially lengthening a person's turn in combat, when combat already tends to take large amounts of table time to resolve.

While adding more narrative effects to rolls in combat is certainly a nice goal, and something that is expressly included in the dice mechanics of some systems, this probably isn't the way you want to try to implement it. If anything, you may want to make it something more like a special die that each combatant rolls at the start of their turn (or perhaps during their standard action, however they're spending it). Most of the time, not much happens, but if they roll certain numbers, perhaps they're a little more or less effective than normal, or something a little good or bad happens as a side effect of their actions. Even then, the bad things should usually take the form of something specific to the current battleground.. attracting unwanted attention from others nearby or knocking over a nearby brazier full of lit coals, rather than something as critical to the function of a character as dropping a weapon, falling prone, or other stereotypical "fumble" results. If you're having trouble coming up with something applicable, your players might have a fun idea, especially if they rolled a "small beneficial side-effect".


1 person marked this as a favorite.
d20pfsrd.com/magic wrote:

A spell's power often depends on its caster level, which for most spellcasting characters is equal to her class level in the class she's using to cast the spell.

You can cast a spell at a lower caster level than normal, but the caster level you choose must be high enough for you to cast the spell in question, and all level-dependent features must be based on the same caster level.

Granted, I haven't been able to find anything that specifically states what the minimum caster level for a spell being cast normally, but I have a hard time imagining it's not the same as it is for scroll, potions, and the like.

Getting back on topic, though, yeah, I'd say just admit to the mistake and give them the missing exp. You're human. People make mistakes; it happens. Just fix it and move on.


Anguish wrote:
dragonhunterq wrote:
negative levels wrote:
Spellcasters do not lose any prepared spells or slots as a result of negative levels
While the druid has a caster level of 4, they can still cast 3rd level spells. If they level to 7th, they can cast 4th level spells, but at caster level 5.

Just to expand on this for Jufo...

The word "level" is used a lot of different ways. When someone's "caster level" is reduced, it doesn't mean "their level as a caster".

So, for instance a "6th-level wizard" can cast fireball because they got access to "3rd-level spells" when they hit 5th-level. When they first learned fireball, they'd cast it and do 5d6 damage. When they leveled up to 6th, their fireball spells started doing 6d6 damage, because that spell says 1d6 per "caster level".

If our 6th-level wizard takes two negative levels, their "caster level" is reduced to 4. So their fireballs do 4d6 damage.

Negative levels were designed to be simple to run; you just take -1 to a bunch of stuff (including your caster level) for each one. You don't actually count as having fewer real levels. A fighter doesn't lose their feats, a barbarian doesn't lose his rage powers, and casters don't lose spell-levels they gained access too. Everyone's just a little weaker at whatever it is they're capable of.

Actually, I believe that this is something that Jufo and his/her group was running correctly. In your example, while the 6th level wizard doesn't lose their prepared Fireball due to the two gained negative levels, spells have a minimum caster level to cast equal to the class level that you first got that spell level at... so a Fireball would have a minimum caster level of 5 for a Wizard, meaning the Wizard couldn't actually cast Fireball (or any other third-level spell) even though the spell is still prepared. Likewise, the Druid in Jufo's group wouldn't be able to cast third level spells while level 6 with two negative levels, but could if she hits level 7, as she'd then have a (modified) caster level of 5 to cast third level spells with.


Ah, sorry. I was half-skimming the guide and missed the fact that it's PFS-only. Maybe someone not playing PFS rules will notice it in the thread and get value out of it, but honestly, Damnation Feats are something I'd be very hesitant to pick up even if I was playing an evil character. Soulless Gaze is just about the only one that might be worth it, but you never know.


The Elixir of Thundering Voice would work best on for an Inquisitor or Alchemist (or anyone with one in their party willing to spare an infusion), since they can use Alchemical Allocation to gain the elixir's benefit at the cost of a second level spell, rather than having to buy or make new elixirs all the time.

Another feat that should at least get a mention, if perhaps not necessarily a recommendation, is Soulless Gaze. Grab it any any other Damnation Feat for an untyped +2 bonus to Intimidate, and the ability to stack Intimidate effects to higher states of fear. Grabbing the other Damnation Feats will provide further bonuses. The drawbacks, though, are that they're feats intended for evil characters (and will force your alignment in that direction), and you become much harder to bring back from death via magic.


You may need to tweak the following names to make them less outright blatant, to match the names you're already using.

  • Rudolph - A Drunken Master monk gnome, whose constant inebriety turns his large, bulbous nose a shiny red color.
  • Jack Frost - A Rime-Blooded Sorcerer, fond of turning his foes into living ice sculptures.
  • Sugarplum - A bard known for her dancing skills and her fluency in Sylvan. (Consider giving her Eldritch Heritage (Arcane) and Improved Familiar for any of the fey familiars.)
  • Unnamed - A witch who uses the Slumber hex to lull her enemies to sleep with dreams of treasure presents, so that she can eventually bake them into gingerbread men with her Cook People hex.
  • Ebeneezer - A greedy summoner haunted by a ghostly eidolon that pins enemies down with long tentacles chains.
  • Nog - A cleric who uses Versatile Channeler and variant channeling (Ale/Wine) to "spread cheer". Fond of creamy, rum-spiked beverages. (Presumably good friends with Rudolph due to shared interests.)
  • Drosselmeyer - A wizard (or Construct-subdomain cleric) who's obsessed with toys and never travels anywhere without the contingent of Terra-Cotta Nutcracker Soldiers he's crafted for himself.


You seem to have left out The Fast-Talker path. These tend to be bards, skalds, or swashbucklers, who bypass a door by knocking on it, and using a combination of Bluff and Diplomacy to talk their way past whoever comes to answer. True masters of the art have been known to pose as door-to-door salesmen, presenting a spare bottle of lantern oil as a fast-acting beauty cream or other such nonsense, even going so far as to allow the door guard to try on a very generously-portioned "free sample" (typically much to the amusement of the party's pyromaniac blaster).


There's been a lot of good spells mentioned so far, but I'm surprised no one's mentioned Heroism. It tends to be more subtle than flashy due to it's flat +2 effect, but it's a solid bonus on important things, and lasts long enough to have a single casting buff someone for an entire dungeon run.

That said, it seems like a lot of these suggestions tend to be level 3 spells (as that's where things really start getting interesting). Be careful not to overload on level 3s, though, as you're not going to have the spell slots to cast all of them.


An easier option (possibly with an skill check like Appraise or Spellcraft) would be to state that there is raw, unprocessed magic in the parts, which can be used as X gp worth of materials for crafting magic items. Or, if there's no crafters in the party, maybe the blood in the heart can be used as X gp worth of ink for scribing new spells into someone's spellbook... You just gotta get a little creative with ideas and your party's composition. Got an alchemist? Maybe it's useful for crafting alchemical items or poisons. You get the idea.

If that's all too open-ended, you can always say that it's only usable for a specific item, or an item from a list of thematic choices. Flame drakes might be usable for Alchemist's Fire and other explosives on Craft(Alchemy), Flaming and Flaming Burst weapon enchants or other fire/dragon themed wondrous items if enchanting stuff with it, etc.


Well, isn't having things twisted on you half the fun of divinations (or wishes, for that matter)? You just have to be careful about how you word things. I've been trying to think of a way to ask about the risk of catching a disease, without having the DM go "Well, you were at risk of catching a cold." A risk of negative levels might be another good one to ask about, but I'm not even sure how you'd approach that from an IC-terminology perspective. "Life drain" could be interpreted as effects that steal HP, or damaging Con while giving the monster a benefit, or any other number of things... Hmm...


There aren't really any questions that people ask regularly, though, or for more specific threats? Using Commune as an example, consider the following:

"Am I likely to find myself fighting one or more swarms tomorrow?"
"Yes."
"Guess I'd better prepare a couple Fireballs or something, then."

I could see other potential things you might change "swarms" to, some of which might be more useful than others. As examples:

Helpful: Undead, Evil Outsiders, Constructs
Not-so-helpful: Goblinoids, Aberrations
Paranoid: Oozes, Rust Monsters

It might be interesting to make up a list of such questions, particularly ones that don't just follow the same format as above, swapping out one monster type for another. As another example, a blaster-type might ask something to the effect of "What energy type will be the most effective against my enemies tomorrow?" to know what type of blast spells to prepare (ignoring the fact that most of the really good blasters are spec'd heavily into one damage type). Of course, if a wizard asked that and got "Positive Energy" as an answer, it'd prolly be a good idea to inform the party's cleric.

Are there any other good, general-purpose questions that I'm not thinking of? Of course, keeping the questions IC-viable can be a bit tricky on occasion, like you can't ask if you're going to be fighting a bunch of low-hitdice monsters or the like, but a question about "strong-willed enemies" might work.


One thing I've seen occasional reference to is prepared casters using various Divination spells to help them figure out what challenges they might face on the following day, thus allowing them to prepare spells as appropriate. However, details of how they go about doing this are almost always non-existent. So, my questions are:

1.) What spells do you use to do this, and which generally aren't that useful, and why?
2.) What questions do you ask when using said spells?

Of course, I'd imagine that it all depends heavily on context, so allow me to throw out some basic context to attempt to shape the advice to what'll be the most widely useful:

  • Your character knows that he or she will be going on some sort of adventure tomorrow, but for whatever reason, has no details of what that adventure might be or what it might involve.
  • Your character will be travelling as part a well-rounded and generally competent party. Thus, traps and locks can likely be left to the party's rogue-analogue, etc.
Ideally, answers should cover things from the standpoint of both an arcane caster and divine caster, as to be useful to everyone.


Whatever you do, you have to make sure you grapple a succubus at some point. You might want to bring Protection from Evil.

More seriously, another potential explanation could be that you were born as a humanoid race, but died and got brought back via a Reincarnate spell, and hit the "Other" option on the roll table when it happened.


13. Build a portable (if cramped) crafting area inside for your choice of skills for crafting on the go.

14. Carefully drain a dungeon's acid pit into it to possibly bypass a trap and have your own portable acid pit for some fun antics.

15. Place in bottom of wagon, fill with items to be smuggled into location, and cover with a board. There's no need to check under the board if there's no (apparent) space to smuggle anything, right?

16. Fill with cheap explosives (ideally powders or something similarly smoothable and packable, at least for the top layer), cover with whatever will conceal it in the locale you deploy it in, wait for your enemy to step on it, and launch your choice of fire AoEs at it/them (preferably from as far away as possible). Consider adding a sprig of brown mold for extra fun, at the cost of more difficult cleanup.


I once used the Animated Object rules (particularly the ranged attack option) to create a bookshelf that shot the books it held at the party. This also has the benefit of being readily scalable to whatever CR you need.


4 people marked this as a favorite.

Extending that a bit:

(1+1+1)*(1+1+1)*(1+1+1)*(1+1+1)+1+1 = 83

(1+1+1)*(1+1+1)*(1+1+1)*(1+1+1+1)-1 = 107

So, that's 8th and 9th level spells using 14 ranks. So, unless someone can pull out something more efficient, it looks like you probably need a minimum of 14 ranks to be able to nail any spell level every time.

As for Calculating Mind bumping the dice to d8s... it's really quite something when a two-feat chain creates new contenders for both the "best feat" and "worst feat" titles.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Master_Crafter wrote:
[...] and use a move action to execute the swift action required to use slow time again for 3 Ki.

The only action-trading described in the Pathfinder rules is being able to take a move action in place of a standard action. Typically you're only allowed a single swift action per round, even if you have a move or standard action you're not intending to otherwise use.


You'll probably want to keep Large, as it's required for Quadruped, which still causes them to use gear sized for medium creatures, and gives a 10 foot speed boost (on top of Fast). My suggestion would be to lose the advanced stat bonuses (-12), Fast (-1), and Natural Armor (-2), bringing it down to a 13 RP character, which is a lot more workable.

If you still feel the need to tweak things after that, you can lose two more RP by giving them a -2 stat penalty somewhere (Charisma, perhaps, due to them being isolationist, gruff, and anti-social). Spending 1 RP to give them Weapon Familiarity for bows and one other weapon (perhaps nets, sibats, or totem spears) would be flavorful as well... though also potentially unnecessary, depending on what class they intend to play as.


Zhayne wrote:

The feat, Open Minded, gives you 5 skill points. So f=5s

ryric wrote:
Why not also take the favored class 1 hp = 1 skill point and allow conversions there too?

The Toughness feat effectively gives +1 hp/level, so if I take it as my 11th level feat, I now have enough HP to take two more feats, and still have 1 extra HP left over (or take four "free" feats by level 20!)

By allowing conversions like these, you'll likely run into many problems like the above, potentially including infinite loops. This was merely the first example that popped to mind. In any case, it's a good reason why such numbers can't be exchanged by default.

Or, to further up the ridiculousness: The Armor of the Pit feat gives a tiefling a +2 natural armor bonus. Does that mean that a tiefling could cast Form of the Dragon III (+8 natural armor bonus) and use it to gain four feats?


Let's see...

Cure Light Wounds wrote:
When laying your hand upon a living creature, you channel positive energy that cures 1d8 points of damage +1 point per caster level (maximum +5).

Aha, so that's where you got that idea from, presumably. The "channel" in the above spell description is mostly just that, description rather than mechanics, as mechanically it's Conjuration. That said, even if you were going to take such a literal reading of the text, nothing actually prevents an evil cleric of an evil deity from channeling positive energy; they just aren't able to do so using their default Channel Energy class feature. If they found some other item or character option that enabled them to channel positive energy like a good cleric, nothing in the default cleric rules would keep it from functioning.


First of all, let me state that as healing spells don't have the good descriptor, nothing prevents an evil cleric of an evil from casting them. They merely can't spontaneously convert existing spells into cure spells, and thus must prepare all their healing in advance.

As for the recovery items, I think all it would take it a little reskinning. Instead of healing potions, they could find enchanted needles and thread to suture wounds close. Anyone can use one, even on themselves, but the process is rather painful. Likewise, perhaps cure wands they find work by being a simple metal wand that heats red-hot upon use of the command word, allowing for the cauterization of wounds.

Then again, these may be dangerous tools in the hands of an evil party. Torture someone within an inch of their life, and they still won't talk? Well, better use these torturous healing methods on them! And if that doesn't do it, more torture via mundane methods... followed by more torturous healing! And so on....


Fleshcrafting, perhaps?


2 people marked this as a favorite.

I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned that cashmere comes from goats. If you're going to have a goat familiar helping you with crafting and delivering touch spells, it might as well be a luxurious goat familiar, while you're at it.


I came up with something that seems reasonable by repurposing existing rules, but due to the low GP values it's coming out as, it may not be very practical from a game-world time perspective, and might not scale well at later levels. But it should be a good starting point to get some ideas flowing:

Treat gathering materials from the wild as "day job earnings" check, as described in the Craft skill ("You can practice your trade and make a decent living, earning half your check result in gold pieces per week of dedicated work."). Assuming a first-level wizard with 20 int taking 10 on his check, that gives him 9 gold of alchemical materials per week to work with (11 gold 5 silver if using Crafter's Fortune). Then, you only need 1/3 of an alchemical item's value in materials to make something, so he can effectively make 27 (or 34.5 with the spell) gp worth of items per week using this method.

You may want to consider making the process easier by allowing him to divide the results by 7 to make checks by the day, for any day in which he spends a significant amount of time searching for materials. Or let him forage for materials while moving half overland speed, just like when foraging for food with Survival. Heck, you might even allow him to use high rolls on Survival to allow him to forage both alchemical materials and food at the same time, at the cost of lessening the number of people he can feed that way. (Really high rolls may still be enough to feed the whole party and get some materials.)

Lastly, unless you're focusing on core-only, I'd suggest using the d20pfsrd listings for alchemical items (here and here, and maybe some poisons for any rogues or alchs in the party) to give him greater options in what he can craft. There's a lot of interesting utility in there, and it's likely he'll need all the low-cost options he can get. And while it's not actually covered by Craft(Alchemy) (or any craft skill that comes to mind, for that matter), depending on how dire the situation on the island is, I'd also consider allowing him to make Healer's Kits from the local plant life, perhaps even in a per-use format, so he doesn't have to save up until he can make the standard 10-use one.

And again, all of the above might not get him enough stuff to use in any reasonable amount of time, so consider tweaking the above to make life easier, and/or allowing him to find sizable deposits of useful materials spaced as you would any other style of loot. Playing the whole thing by ear may be the order of the day.


Wow, Dirty Trick Master looks nasty. Being able to end the condition with a standard action ceases to be an escape option once you land dazed or nauseated on them, so that they can't even take a standard action. Plus, the duration is additive, so they're out of commission for 2d4 rounds (plus any extra from high CMB rolls). All it takes is two Dirty Tricks, and you've likely disabled an opponent for the rest of the fight, or nearly so. Have fun, indeed.


More Con always helps for imbibing large quantities of alcohol, though you're already doing rather well at 14. Still, it'd make a good excuse for further boosting via all the usual methods (belts, usually).

As for more specific items... A Tankard of the Drunken Hero is going to be your best friend, along with a Tengu Drinking Jug to fill it with. This helps you get some proper potency out of your Create Water orison, though you'll probably want to upgrade to a Drinking Horn of Bottomless Valor for unlimited booze, once you can afford it.

Alchemist's Kindness will help you get through the morning after your drunken escapades for 1 gp/dose, though a wand of Polypurpose Panacea is faster acting, and can help you get buzzed even when there aren't any good drinks around. In a truly dire situation, it can even make you sober... but if the situation's bad enough for your character to consider that, it's probably bad enough that you'd want to be drunk just to cope and/or not remember it. You'd have to UMD the wand, but with your 16 charisma and some ranks, it shouldn't be too big of an issue.


One of my favorite (if highly conditional) little tricks: For 1,000 gp, you can get an Anatomy Doll, which once dosed with a few drops of a living creatures blood, can be used to inflict one negative energy damage per round on said creature, as well as sickening them for that round. The real magic happens when you're dealing with living creatures who happen to be healed by negative energy (Dhampirs, anyone?). 1,000 gp to effectively gain unlimited Fast Healing 1 (or more, if you hand the doll to the party Rogue) anytime you're not in combat or making skill checks is quite a bargain, and easily makes up for the aversion such characters have for the ubiquitous Wand of Cure Light Wounds.

You also missed the Polymorphic Pouch, which tends to be essential for any casters who're into turning into something nasty to rip things to shreds. Especially valuable to retain your ability to access your spell components, wands, potions, rods, and the like, while in a more exotic form.

As for prior categories, another niche item for consideration is the Gloves of the Commanding Conjurer. They're pricy at 30,000 gp, but they allow your Summoner (especially Master Summoners) to get the most out of his minute-per-level summons. Need to give an order a bit more complex that "Rip his face off!" to your pet Dire Tigers? No problem. Throw in a Helm of Comprehend Languages and Read Magic, and you can not only instruct your air elemental to scout up the cliff face, or your earth elemental to glide through the wall and scout the next room, but you can also have them report back their findings without having to pick up a bunch of random languages for every single creature you could possibly summon. Sure, this probably isn't enough to get the Helm on the list, but it still comes in very handy.


Resist Energy and Protection from Energy do not gain the Fire descriptor when used to protect against fire, and thus should not count as fire spells for the purposes of triggering effects like the summoning of fire elementals you described, at least by RAW. Assuming your DM is going to make life difficult, though, and prevent you from casting them without the elemental summoning, then...

Fire Ward Gel is another idea that's yet to be mentioned that could be used to supplement most of the previously discussed methods, due to counting as Protection from Energy rather than Resist Energy for purposes of stacking. However, it only blocks 5 damage a time to a maximum of 20 damage before needing to be reapplied, and gets consumed before you get to benefit from any resistances you grab from other sources, so may find yourself burning through it fast. Constant re-application probably isn't feasible in combat, and all those doses could get costly in short order, especially if no one in the party is able to craft it themselves. Still, it gets you that much extra protection at the start of each battle, if you're willing to deal with these shortcomings.


According to the trade good listings, Adamantine is 300 gp/pound, Cold Iron is 50 gp/pound, and Silver is a mere 5 gp/pound.


First of all, let me state that I don't require my players to seek out training when it's time to level, simply out of convenience, but if I did, here's what it would be like:

At the lowest levels, finding a trainer works fine. Proceed as normal. But as Zhayne mentioned, pretty soon the party members are going to find that they're already more capable than any trainer they could typically find, as the real powerhouses of the world have better things to do. At this point, the PCs don't require trainers, they require training.

Instead of learning from someone, the PCs are now developing their own techniques. They've gotten some good ideas of how to improve themselves from their time spent in battle, but need to hammer out the exact details in a controlled, safe environment, and put some basic amounts of practice in:

The fighter goes to the barracks and grabs a low-level grunt to swing his weapon at the fighter as instructed as the fighter develops his own fighting style. Sure, mechanically, the feats work the same as anyone else who took them, but he's developing his own way of swinging his sword, his own stance, and so on.

The rogue goes to the Thieves' Guild, where he can find training walls to climb on with mats underneath, so he can practice daring stunts without risk of serious injury, or putting the party in a bad spot if he hasn't quite had a chance to work out all the details. Likewise, there's padded traps for him to dodge and disarm, and other such mechanisms. Perhaps he's even been giving advice on how to further develop these tools for better fit his advanced needs.

The arcane caster goes to the local magic guild, and tests his own theories about how magic works, as well as experiments with new levels of power in an environment where there's minimal risk (and other casters to help provide clean-up) if he accidentally calls upon more power than he's able to control.

And so on and so forth. I'm sure you get the point after the above. But you should always be willing to hand-wave the training requirement if it doesn't make sense to the plot, like if the BBEG is about to bear down on them, or if they're halfway down some massive dungeon. Sometimes, you do wind up having to test these new techniques in a live-fire situation, and the PCs are just skilled enough, lucky enough, and/or desperate enough to get these new methodologies to work right the first time.


I guess that makes Throw Anything that much more useful as a feat. Though again, you don't have to hit anything directly with the Bead of Force, and most other things that are thrown like this (with the odd exception of the Goblin Skull Bomb, apparently) target touch AC, which already has a reputation for being very easy to hit, so the -4 penalty still probably isn't a huge deal for most people, once they have a few levels in them. Of course, once you start stacking penalties like soft cover and firing into melee, you may start to have problems again.


Come to think of it, I can't think of anything that negates their nonproficiency penalties, so they probably are one of those things that most people run wrong. Though the thunderstone does specifically note "Since you don't need to hit a specific target, you can simply aim at a particular 5-foot square. Treat the target square as AC 5.", so a -4 penalty on it probably isn't a big deal. And while thunderstones and bottled lightning don't, many alchemical items/weapons specifically state they may be thrown "as a splash weapon", including some ones that aren't as obvious as acid or alchemist's fire.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Cao Phen wrote:

For example, a splash weapon like alchemists fire. Usually people belive that it can be thrown without it being an improvised weapon, but do anyone know where it specifically states that everyone is proficient in throwing that splash weapon?

Right here.

"To attack with a splash weapon, make a ranged touch attack against the target. Thrown splash weapons require no weapon proficiency, so you don't take the –4 nonproficiency penalty."


2 people marked this as a favorite.


  • Helm of Opposite Alignment - Instant de-enemy-ification.
  • Helm of Brilliance - After they put it on, run like hell and hit them with a maximized Fireball.
  • Deck of Many Things - Enough said. Iffy by RAW, though.
  • Oil of Taggit/Restfulness - May need to be applied to a food or drink, but simply wait a minute and a failed fort save means you'll get past that guard, no problem. He was sleeping on the job!
  • Alchemist Infusion of Fire Sneeze - Say goodbye to doing anything meaningful this combat. Be sure to give the party fire resistance first, if you're worried about the 2d6 damage.
  • Alchemist Infusion of Skinsend - Squick. Be sure to have a party nearby to coup de grace the body.
  • Alchemist Infusion of Detonate - Fire in the hole! Again, a hasty retreat is advised.
  • Opium - The first hit is always free, though no longer voluntary. Be sure to charge them plenty for future doses once they're addicted.
  • Horn of the Golden Draught - Has your barbarian been dominated? Is the wizard affected by some weird curse? Hand them this, and they'll be back in fighting shape. Then, as a bonus, they can use it again the turn after for a quick Stoneskin.
  • A glass of (holy) water. - Gee, that Barbazu looks awfully thirsty, doesn't he?
  • A blindfold - Simple, but effective. Make sure the rogue's in position to take advantage of it.
  • An animated piece of clothing or helmet - Be sure to give it Grab and Constrict. Better yet, combine it with the above to make it an animated blindfold.
  • A high-ego intelligent item that's friendly with the party - A good way to force an enemy to switch sides mid-battle.


There's the Iron Flask. It beats the mirror on portability, though it isn't much cheaper, and it's restricted to use on extraplanar creatures only.


I think you're thinking of golden maple leaves, as described on this page. (The mid-page link is broken, but Ctrl+F "Maple" will get you there in a hurry.)


Troubleshooter makes some very good points about building an affordable prison, but if you want to go in a more fantastical, "money is no object" route, consider making the entire prison a massive, intelligent construct. For further pain and automation, it can be "staffed" by non-intelligent constructs (as described by lemeres) under the prison's command. The prison has no actual doors, but merely slides around walls to create rooms, openings, and pathways. Being a construct, it can move these walls, as well as various traps, and even shackles attached to the walls/ceiling/floor as easily as other entities can move a limb.

Any situations that can't be handled with reconfiguring walls, traps, shackles, and golem-jailers are dealt with using an array of spells. That tricky rogue's escape becomes much more difficult when targeted by a Hold Person spell timed when he's trying to evade one of the traps placed in his way. Other threats can be neutralized by boxing them in with walls, and dropping a Wall of Fire or Cloudkill spell in with them. Anyone who actually manages to breach the outer wall and make a run for it is immediately targeted by Ice Crystal Teleport to return the target to a maximum-security cell. Likewise, you don't need to block people from teleporting in or out, but merely establish a permanent Teleport Trap spell that once again sends the victims to a maximum-security cell.

Of course, all of the above (minus permanent effects like the Teleport Trap) are only employed when there is already a problem. During normal operation, the prison tends to encourage prisoners to be cooperative. Prisoners with a track record of good behavior tend to be rewarded with perks like a better quality of food, or a cell with a Wall of Force window. The prison may even occasionally, but carefully, use a system of corridors between moved walls to allow such prisoners a bit of a fresh breeze. It also seeks to minimize problems through how it divides its prisoners. People who get along well may be put together, while those who tend to get in fights with each other are always kept separated. Likewise, potentially "dangerous" or otherwise potentially troublesome prisoners (such as spellcasters, and adventurers in general) are kept separate from each other, to prevent them from combining their skills towards a breakout attempt.


It's not the most elegant of work-arounds, but since he, by RAW, won't get the familiar, you can always give him the Spell Blending Arcana set to Summon Cacodaemon, allowing him to summon a single cacodaemon for rounds/level. Obviously, this is still rather restrictive, so such a character may be likely to try to take opponents alive so that he may kill them and harvest their souls at a later date, when he's able to devote more slots to cacodaemons, rather than combat spells. This can actually be more effective than a simple cacodaemon familiar, as a single cacodaemon can only "process" a single soul per day, but multiple castings of the spell allows for summoning multiple cacodemons per day, allowing him to collect multiple souls per day.


Profession: Thug isn't something you see, well... ever. But I could see it being used for a bouncer as a seedy tavern, or for anyone who wants to know how to effectively run a protection racket. It might even come in handy for torturing information out of someone, in a crude fashion. After all, what kind of thug doesn't know how to break someone's kneecaps?


There's a often-missed rule in Pathfinder that a weapon with a high raw enhancement bonus (A +5 weapon, but not a +1 keen holy weapon) gains the ability to bypass various DRs, based on just how high the +X is. For this reason, you can just invest in a strong +X Amulet of Mighty Fists, which you'd likely want on a natural weapon/unarmed attack character in the first place, and eventually gain the ability to bypass most of the common DRs you'll be facing. However, as, unlike normal magic weapons, the AoMF caps out at a +5 total bonus, you won't be able to take special properties on it (keen, etc) without sacrificing some of your DR coverage.


A favorite trick of mine is to use an Agathion-blooded Aasimar's Summon Nature's Ally II SLA to qualify for the Sunlight, Moonlight, and/or Starlight Summons feats on a Master Summoner. Now all your spammed summons can bypass a whole bunch of DRs and gain immunity to a bunch of statuses, among other boons. The Agathion-blooded Aasimar even gets you a nifty +2 Con, +2 Cha as your racial stats, which is just perfect for a Summoner.


Inspired Initiative is a third-party spell, and thus potentially subject to veto by many GMs. However, Anticipate Peril from Ultimate Magic does the job better anyway, by granting up to +5 initiative by fifth level. And if your GM is the permissive type, by RAW, the two spells should stack. It's also notable for being one of the few ways Alchemists can boost their initiative, beyond the effects of Cat's Grace and a Dex mutagen.