arioreo's page

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If the DC is 28 and they have a +2 modifier, they can't open the door using strength.

It's that simple and no different form skill checks in that respect.

Note however that other party members can use aid an other (I think it applies to ability checks, if not, it should...) to grant an additional +2 and that there are often other ways to get around an ability check.

forinstance, picking the lock of that door (either to open it or reduce the strength required), breaking it down using damage etc.

I don't know if there needs to be a whole archetype for that, since a duelist can already have an offhand weapon and only use it to parry, since duelist abilities only turn off when you attack with an off-hand weapon. So a duelist could, for example, attack with their main hand and rserve all their offhand attacks for parry attempts while still precise striking and getting INT to AC. If you are talking about something besides just parrying with the off-hand tell me though since I am not that familiar with actual dueling styles.

I'm quite sure that's not how the rules are to be interpreted (although the debat has been made often and we are just waiting for a faq).

anyway, I think there is more to be done with a two weapon fighting duelist.

What benefith could a character gain from using the offhand weapon for attacks of opportunity?
What advantage could a character have when using both weapons for a disarm or sunder attempt? What disadvantages does this render?
Is there a greater parry class ability that allows the character to sacrifice an attack with both weapons to gain a bonus on the attack roll made to parry?
...

P.S. If you are not into two weapon duelling? How about an archetype for a gun based duelist?

An archetype for the duellist prestige class based around the ancient duelling style of using a dagger in the offhand.

While you are at it, perhaps you can add some more offhand daggers (only the swordbreaker dagger is now part of the game) such as the Trident daggers or similar.

Just a thought but I think the point is made that it's a bad idea.

However, it's not because it's a bad idea, you can't work with it. Lets not forget that (assuming he's playing the game fair) the monster should be doing this aswell. Meaning that the BBEG might have rolled a one aswell.

I say, see this as a challenge and create a character designed around these rules.
Think about what character is the least HP depending and how you can play your character with that in mind. A ranged character with good mobility has an easier time to avoid damage than a melee character. Think about getting an animal companion as see this as a meat shield.
Start the campaign with high constitution, toughness and put your favoured class bonus in hit points. Look at other ways to get higher hitpoints as soon as possible. Virtue should always he active if you have access to it.
Play the smart and use all rules. Fighting defensively, total defense withdraw, increased speed (fleet), stealth may be a smart tactic choice.

If the rule is to roll for your first hit die, play the game with that in mind. Step out of your comfort zone and play a different style.
Who knows, this limitation may turn out interesting if you manage to find creative ways to work with this limitation.

And if it's not interesting, you always run your own adventure....

1. How many players make up an "ideal" party? The box comes with 4 pre-gen characters but the standard for D&D is/was (I believe) 5?

There such a thing as an ideal party (or may the ideal party is that party you have the most fun with). So don't let the numbers or advice stop your.

That said, most adventures (including the one the beginner box) are written for 4 character combine of a number of classes that offer access to the 5 core mechanics (this a balanced party).
The 5 core mechanics are devine magic (and healing), arcane magic, melee combat, ranged combat and skills.

Note that some classes can be combine multiple mechanics or fill in some aspects partially. (mainly, all character should contribute to the skill mechanic - possibly through spells or other abilities - so you don't need a skill monkey that may lack in combat ability)

2. I noticed in a video preview that the "Hero's Handbook" has a walk-through solo adventure, used to teach the rules. Will I need to get all my players to run through that? If so, should I do that individually or take them all through at once (since I believe it's a linear adventure, as opposed to D&D's choose-your-own)?

The solo adventure is designed to run if you don't have a DM. Let them run through it if they desire though when are involved, aim for full fleshed adventures with all people present.

Social interaction is half the fun of an rpg and you lose that when you deliberately play solo campaigns when you have a full party to play with.

3. How long does character creation take? Is it recommended to play with the pre-gen characters first, due to them having the character sheets with explanations?

Character creation with the advice and the rule from the beginner box shouldn't take longer than 1 hour assuming the players want to make fast choice. If they insist on investigating each and every detail of each and every feat and spell, thing can take a very long time.

If you start with character creation, encourage them to take the hints in the runthough and restart a different adventure when you feel they wish to customise more.

While it's by the rules, it's also entirely based on movement speed. Faster group wins, every time. And if both groups move the same speed, it goes on for infinity. Not super fun.

If both groups have the same speed, you can opposed dexterity checks to see who catches who and who gets away.

If the chaser loses this dexterity check though wishes to continue the pursuit, they make opposed constitution checks to see who wins.

I see little reason to make it long and boring when 2 simple opposed ability checks can solve it all.

When the speeds of the two concerned characters are equal, there's a simple way to resolve a chase: If one creature is pursuing another, both are moving at the same speed, and the chase continues for at least a few rounds, have them make opposed Dexterity checks to see who is the faster over those rounds. If the creature being chased wins, it escapes. If the pursuer wins, it catches the fleeing creature.

Sometimes a chase occurs overland and could last all day, with the two sides only occasionally getting glimpses of each other at a distance. In the case of a long chase, an opposed Constitution check made by all parties determines which can keep pace the longest. If the creature being chased rolls the highest, it gets away. If not, the chaser runs down its prey, outlasting it with stamina.

from here.

My point is that I always saw flurry of blows as offering a number of attacks you can fill in as you see fit.

Assuming you have two weapons and an unarmed strike. At first level (2 attacks), this would give you 9 ways to fill your attacks (3^2 or (number of weapons)^(number of attacks) different ways to fill your attacks.)
At level 6, this increases to 27 different ways to fill your attacks offering an interesting tactical edge.

Sadly, this is not adapted though I think I'll just do as I want anyway.

Anyway, atleast it's now more interesting than two weapon fighting, something the monk could really use (as they can't use flurry of blows to qualify for the other two weapon fighting feats), so I guess it's a good thing.

Quote:

When I use the monk class feature, flurry of blows, can I make all of the attacks with just one weapon, or do I have to use two, as implied by the ability functioning similarly to Two-Weapon Fighting?

You can make all of your attacks with a single monk weapon. Alternatively, you can replace any number of these attacks with an unarmed strike. This FAQ specifically changes a previous ruling made in the blog concerning this issue.

...

So, this does not allow a monk to use 2 kama's with different enchantments and start using the one kama and revert to the other for the remaining attacks (i.e. one with more damage but lower to hit for high attacks with high attack bonus and one with lower damage but higher attack enchantment.)

6) DO NOT close to melee, ready a charge this is a variant on step up + ready action. basically I close to 15 feet and ready an action to charge if the caster tries to cast. its a means of countering both 5 foot step AND defensive casting as defensive casting only stops AoO not readied actions.

Can you ready a charge?

A charge is a full round action so I don't think you can.

Sure,

You travel through the woods. Out of nowhere, a goblin ambush attacks.
You fight against 3 standard goblins and one goblins dog.

The end.

[edit]
For some reason, I don't think this is what you are after.
Maybe you can specify what exactly you want.

Did you check out the beginner box bash demos?

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Why not based them around a starknive?

The hilt (or maybe you call it differently) is very similar to a starknive. Unlike the starknive, you can't thrown it though you gain a shield bonus when wielding two of them (when you cross your arms in front of you, you get a nice and strong surface to catch blades). The shield bonus increases when fighting defensively or taking the full defence action.

Other option might be to base them around short swords and allow the weapons to do 1d3 damage to either the weapon or the attacker on a sunder or disarm attempt.
Maybe you could grant this damage in addition to the normal effects of a critical hit. On a critical hit, you ram the sword so deep into the flesh of you opponent, the spikes at the hilt damage the opponent.

LazarX wrote:

A club however doesn't pass social muster.

If a cane doesn't pass social muster, then something that looks like a cane won't, either.

That a cane counts as a club in Pathfinder was established back in Ezren's writeup as an iconic, where the equipment list he has says, "Cane (as club)". Which was mentioned earlier in the thread.

All the writeup proves is that the cane Ezren uses can be used as a club (so unless you kill Ezren and steal his club, you still can't use a cane as a club) and that who ever created Ezren was more concerned with flavour than with the consequences of his design would have on the way some people like to play the game.

As you pointed out yourself, if you can use every cane as a club, there is no point for the sword cane.
So just accept that it's a NPC feature only there for that specific NPC.

Just like there is that NPC that uses spring attack and vital strike (or what was the combination that was used?)
As have been pointed out several times, this does not change the rules. Spring attack still is it's out full round action and can't be combined with a standard action (the vital strike chain of feats).

Both are either things you use or don't. They are not the core rules, so you are free to ignore if so desired.
If you want to use every cane as a club, do as you see fit. I just don't think you should force your choice on everyone else. And I don't think it has a place in this topic as it's a house rule that you try to represent as a core rule.

btw, does it anywhere in Ezren's description says what the perception check is to see that the cane is a weapon?
If not, I think by raw, one should consider Ezren's cane a weapon which is automatically viewed as such. Therefore, having a club-cane doesn't not work if you try to hire it as a weapon.

P.S.I just hope I haven't missed a faq or something.

I'm running Kingmaker and am currently trying to build a human NPC designed (hopefully) for one on one combat with a PC. What suggestions would you make regarding classes/feats/etc?

What level do you plan to make this NPC?

It's an NPC, if your build is under optimised, artificially lower the cr rating.
I like the idea of a magus/duellist personally.

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The character gets a +2 circumstance bonus to intimidate checks. That's the bonus you get from something like that.
To balances things, he probably gets -2 circumstance penalty on diplomacy checks and some social consequences or alignment issues as collecting trophies isn't exactly main stream behaviour.

I'm currently playing a ranger, and at the end of the last session I hit level 4 and got my animal companion. However, I already have a heavy horse that I've been riding around that I wanted to become my companion.

If I'm reading the animal companion rules right, they're saying that if I wanted my horse to be my animal companion it would actually become weaker than a normal animal of its type, and lose combat training. How the hell does this make any sort of sense? Aren't animal companions supposed to be better than standard animals? Why does my horse spontaneously become worse than a standard combat horse?

Because the rules are written from a balance perspective and not from a realistic perspective.

Just talk to your dm, I'm quite sure he won't mind letting you keep the stats for a heavy horse until lvl 6 (which is where I think the animal companion version takes over).
After all, it makes more sense, creates a more engaging story and you have just waste 100 gp as you could have sold the horse and just go you a companion for free.

Skills to use to bypass would be Survival (see tracks of monsters that bypass), Knowledge: Nature or Geography to see EXACTLY what's out of place, and finish up with an Acrobatics or Climb to go over/around the afflicted path.

Does your trap has these characteristics or not? Would you allow the same things if there was a rogue in the party?

Don't play into their cards. Let them be creative within their powers.
If the best they can come up with is throwing rocks, then let them throw rocks to trigger the trap. It'll cost them time though that's live. Not everything goes as smoothly as planned.

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This was a monster in a campaign that a GM ran that happened to have an ability that allows it to charge with a speed of 200 ft.

I don't see the problem.
A GM is free to use the monsters he sees fit for a given encounter.

ShadowcatX wrote:

More Loot 4 Less.

More of your archetypes series.

More archetypes are definitely happening, eventually.

Any chance you can make some of those archetypes focussed on prestige classes.

A gun based duellist? Or a gun based arcane archer?
Or a favourite enemy based assassin? I'm sure there are some ranger that hate their favourite enemy enough to go on a killing spree.

I'd like some more combat styles for rangers! What about an Unarmed Combat Style for those rangers who want to use martial arts? What about a ranger archetype using monk combat style feats?

you are not alone, Combat Styles can use some love.

The original combat styles haven't changes since the core rule book, and I'm sure there are feats that fit in the combat style that can be added. Maybe adding a single feat at 1st, 6nd and 10th level (or create a feat that allows this)?

I would like to see a combat style for throwing weapon. My halfling switch hitter ranger deserves a combat style specifically designed for it.
And maybe a style that focusses on daggers/small weapons? Something for ranger/rogue dual class? They'll have high dexterity though low strength, maybe there are interesting feats that require strength?

d20pfsrd seem to have done so for you. Just select V in the components column.

P.S. the site seem quite heavy, so give it some time to load.

I spoke to my GM and he's in support for the most part, with the only restriction being I should be able to sensically justify how I am counseling/lending aid... this is not a problem for most skills, but I am running a block on PERCEPTION... how can you aid somebody else in hearing something? Smelling something? Seeing something?

If you are having so much problem describing what you do, you should maybe just accept the fact that aiding an other for perception isn't possibly in most cases.

Anyway, I'm found one. When looking for traps, providing a light source that's not coming from the character who's looking for traps might help. The shadows are pointing to him rather than away from him which makes the easier to see.

You should be careful not to trigger traps though.

Hi all,

I like the idea of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary Box. It's a quite resource efficient way to get a visualization of the monsters you are/will be fighting.

However, if I start with this, I kinda wanna go all out on it. Not just doing something half. I want to have a pawn for each and every monster to face. For the adventure paths, this is not a problem with the release of pawn sets specifically for the campaigns (I assume this will continue).

However, there isn't an analogue for modules. 'GameMastery Module D0: Hollow's Last Hope (OGL)' is already hard to get a pawn for all opponents and this is probably one of the simplest first level modules. I can probably fetish a dwarf from the beginner box and be fine.
However, from what I know of it's natural sequel (Crown of the Kobold King), there is a unique monsters at the end. So the fun ends there.

So my question, is there a list somewhere with 'Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary Box' compatible modules?

'Crypt of the Everflame' seems interesting though it's sequel 'Masks of the Living God' requires a bunch of cultist which I don't think are included anywhere.

Because Ezren is the worst wizard you could build...honestly, if you use Ezren expect to die...horribly. Well the worst wizard that can actually cast spells...I mean if you want to create a Wizard with 10Int, you would then be THE WORST possibly. He's just a Bad Wizard...

With a 10 int, you can still cast cantrips.

1d3 damage is too good, better drop that int to 9.

Jiggy wrote:

Aid Another wrote:

In many cases, a character's help won't be beneficial...

.....
The GM might impose further restrictions to aiding another on a case-by-case basis as well.

If it doesn't make sense for helping someone to be possible in the first place, then you're fully within the rules to disallow Aid Another altogether. I currently can't think of a reason to allow Aid Another on knowledge checks, though I'm open to suggestions.

Ever watched 'House MD'? During their differentials Dr. House was making a Knowledge (medicine) check and his team was Aiding Another by throwing ideas at him, making the tests, finding new symptoms and giving him inspiration for brilliant deductions.

ihmo House and his team are doing profession (doctor) checks (or even just heal checks) and not knowledge (medicine checks). The untrained assistants gain a sliver pieces each day which seems enough as it's always House who saves the patient.

Furtheremore, even if you place the check on knowledge, it's closer to find the answer in a library (due to the long time it takes them to find the answer and the many wrong paths they follow) rather than a strait remembering knowledge check. Something for which I never argue you couldn't.

ihmo, House is a bad example to prove your point.

If the skill check is concerning finding information about in library, I agree aid an other helps.

If it's just knowing something or not knowing it, I don't think one should be able to use aid an other.
There's a reason the rules refer to the decision of the individual GM.

Anyway, don't let your players abuse aid another. It's a low dc, doesn't have a risk involved and can be made untrained. There are hardly any reason why someone wouldn't constantly use it.
I even think introducing a failure chance would be good. This encourages people to invest at least a limited number of points in the skills you want use aid an other for.
A character with 2 or 4 skills points per level can than make the decision to invest in different skills and focus on aid an other or invest a few skills and take the lead on those.

You can never use aid an other on knowledge checks, there is just noting beneficial you can do.

Furthermore, as you said, it's literally in the rules; he can only use aid an other untrained (for trained checks) if the DC is less than 10 for the check.

this seem very clear cut. not sure what else I can say.

Really, you all think this a good idea?

Maybe it's because I'm in Europe (and I assume you aren't) though if one of my 'leaders' would bring something like that to a campout, I'm not sure it would it out alive and I'm not sure it would catch on. There is just a to large difference between what we did on normal activities and sit down and play an rpg.

Something I could see that could work is organising a games evening (forinstance when people have exams and don't have time to spend a whole day) and brining the beginner box as one of the games you propose. This way, you know people expect this. Those who really don't want to do this, will probably not show up (atleast, that's my experience).
Your public will be much more suited for what you hope to achieve.

Ive always wanted to make one, but there aren't any archetypes or feats that offer benefit to double weapons.

Does anyone ever actually use Double weapons?

although not a fighter, I think a ranger could be interesting. They don't need dex to qualify for the feats;

Probably a dwarf using a dwarven Urgrosh.
Advantage is that you can use it as a 2 handed weapon when making attacks of opportunity or when you only have a standard action (without having to use fancy tricks like gloves of storing).

Every time I've either run it myself or seen it run by the book, there's never been a problem. If they forget to search, they blunder into the trap - as it should be. If they take the time to search, they find the traps - as it should be.

The problem - although problem may not be the correct answer - is that the player has to remember each time to search for traps. I think there are more interesting things to focus on when playing.

When strictly playing by the rules, one has to remember and explicitly say they are taking of their armour when going to sleep and explicitly put it back on in the mourning.
They have to explicitly take time to eat and drink or they starve.
I'm sure there are more examples to be found.

These are things a character would is actually living in the world wouldn't forget as they have a mourning ritual, they feel hungry or they feel the vibe of the dungeon they are exploring.
Even the best gm/roleplayer can only live the character to a certain extend.

Things like these are easily forgotten while they don't make sense to have been forgotten. Depending on the character, the party, the player and the situation, offering a free/passive check is just a representation of what would have happened if they player would not have been a player though would be a living in the world.

arioreo wrote:

Does this mean that a +2 int item (headband forinstance) has a language attached to it, similar as for skills?

After you wear the item for 24 hours, its benefit is treated as a permanent increase. So, yes, after 24 hours of wearing the headband you would gain the retroactive skills and language (if I understand correctly).

Yes, but the skill bonuses you get are decided at the item creation. Not when you wear the item for 24 hours. Else, you can just take it off and get a new set of skills after 24 hours.

I assume the same goes for languages and maybe other things. Wonder if someone complied a list. languages are not in the description of the "Headband of Vast Intelligence"

Does this mean that a +2 int item (headband forinstance) has a language attached to it, similar as for skills?

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Anyone ever tried to boil their dice for 20 minutes?
Do they meld or you can actually use the oldest method to remove bacteria?

btw, the hyper hygienic society we are living in is probably one of the reasons there is an increase in auto immune disease (like allergies). When the immune system doesn't get alien things to attack, it will eventually find else to attack.
So I'd say, do you immune system a pleasure and don't clean you dice (too often).

There already is a way to this (if you take the dragon bloodline anyway). The dragon disciple is designed for sorcerers of the dragon bloodline to further explore their heritage.

The advantage of a prestige class is that you can custom make something for each of the bloodlines rather than be limited to what evolutions can offer your. Furtheremore, evolutions are devout form any fluff are flavour. All you are doing is turning your sorcerer in a eidolons freak.

You don't even have to create a new prestige class, you can use the dragon disciple as a template and create archetypes for it.
The natural armour bonuses can stay in the archetype for a lot of bloodlines, the abilities increases just have to be refluffed to something appropriate to the bloodline (though it's probably best to stay away from charisma and intelligence increase to prevent their casting dc from rising to high).
The hard part is trying to find replacements for dragon bite and Breath Weapon. I never said it would be easy or fast.

I then came up with an idea: maybe they'd have fun fighting each other instead of a monster. I asked them who they wanted to fight.

"Each other!"

So you've started by letting you students do the main reason parties break and campaigns are ruined?

Let us know how it turns out.

btw, have you looked at the Box Bash Demos?
If you plan to play one hour sessions, those might be interesting as I think they are designed to be played in one hour sessions. They all involved involve a bit of role play and some hack-and-slash IIRC.
It might be more interesting to start of like that instead of cutting 4-5 hour adventure into pieces. Getting continuity might not be so easy, those adventures don't need continuity.

Btw, since this is likely to be the only source book with pictures of most of these races, I hope there are lots of pictures of each one and not just one picture of one gender on the one page for each race.

I hope they turn the art into pawns.

It's nice when you can represent your monsters with pawn, though when you have to represent you players by dice because you don't have pawns for Pc's, it takes a lot away from the game.

in the book Roland goes into the town of tull and end ups killing every one in the town, as they all attack him. Now it is never clearly stated but it seems to me that the evil pregnant priestess is controlling them or has tapped into some primal religious fever. in pathfinder the closest thing would be mind control or domination if you will. I don't think the towns folk were particularly "good" aligned in the first place and the domination command to kill Roland was not against theier value system.

Wait! What pregnant priestess are you talking about?

Is there a pregnant priestess in the dark tower series?

Now I'll have to read the books again.

Anyway, why are you playing Roland as a paladin. Isn't Roland *the archetype* of a gunslinger.
Furtheremore, I have the feeling that in the dark tower series, good and evil are not as clearly defined as they are in pathfinder. So bringing his actions over to a system where it is, just ain't gonna work.

imho, you should play him as a lawfull neutral gunslinger or come up with a different backstory or convince you gm to let it slip.

Hmm, perhaps you're not getting a grasp of how I'd manage the club. First, I will need to find a way to get approval from the principal, and little elements that can spark interest in traditional subjects, using the RPG as a source of enthusiasm, I think will be a part of this.

To convince the principal, I would just quote the article.

You can offer all that by simply playing the game and actively encourage the players to play our their character.

Whenever possible, you should always make people aware of the benefits of roleplaying, as these are many. Firstly, as a game of active communication between a group of individuals, it involves a great deal of social skill development, including speaking and listening skills. It aids the development of patience, respect, and teamwork, as those involved learn the necessity of waiting their turn, and working together to accomplish a common goal. Given the unusual and tricky situations characters in a game can find themselves in, roleplaying actively encourages creative thinking and problem-solving, not to mention visualisation and the ability to understand different outlooks, points of view, and consequences. Beyond these points, roleplaying has elements of basic mathematics, largely addition, subtraction, and basic probability, as well as providing an avenue by which boys especially can improve their literacy, especially descriptive writing. Depending on the setting of the roleplaying game itself, it may also teach aspects of history such as the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Roleplaying is also a great way to relax with friends, one that does not involve being transfixed by a television or games console, and is performed in a safe, social, indoor environment. As it is not a physically active pursuit, it is also ideally suited for children with physical challenges. Not bad for something that is also immense fun.

I buy books at my local game store, they deserve a piece of the cake too ihmo. And atleast my local game store doesn't sell pdf's.
Thus I don't buy pdf's.

An other problem is that I don't have a credit card and I don't have a tablet pc.

Are you really going to ruin the game by forcing them to study statistics or write novels?

They will learn more from the soft skills they develop while role playing then from the sneaked in lessons you plan. Things like respect, teamwork, listening skills,...
Trying to sneak lessons in their just ain't gonna work for most children. I they wander about the mechanics, they'll ask.

P.S. Apparently, someone wrote an article about this. The original from blackindustries.com has vanished. I found a version of the article on rpg.net though.

Would it be a bad idea to create a line of feats similar to arcane heritage though for domains?

You could take the first feat at 3th level and gain all 1st level abilities, the second one should be limited to the level where the cleric gets it +2.

Prerequisites would be something like:
Most worship a deity that can grant the domain.
wisdom 13+ (15+ for the other one)
Most have proficiency in the weapon of choice for that deity.

Having a spell on the class spell list means that a 1rst level wizard can cast a 4lvl spell (such as enervation for example), from a wand without making the check or "class spell list" refers to have the spell on the spellbook?

You don't need the spell in your spellbook. The only thing that matters is the list in the core rules book (or the extended lists from other books if those are allowed in your game).

In the end, the only thing that's stopping you from doing so at first level is the fact that you probably don't have the gold to buy a 4th level wand.

Similary, a paladin and ranger can use wands of cure light wounds from level 1 enough though they can't even cast spells.

Ive decided not to get the cloak of elvenkind...turns out a party member already has a similar cloak and has ranks in stealth, but just never bothered scouting before.

Stealing solo is dangerous. I would be glad to have someone with me that can heal, crowd control, talk himself out of sticky situations or run back to get help.

large group, lets see. Anything that can buff everyone (or most everyone) at once would be great with this many players. If the person who is undecided chooses bard go with maybe paladin or cavalier. If they choose the fighter go bard. Those buffs are good when you only have 3 allies, with 7 its going to be awesome.

They can or maybe should both be bards.

One takes one of the martial buffs bard types the other one that buffs magic through their performance (magician seems like the archetype for this).
Both can easily define a combat role compatible with the group as bard can almost do anything sufficiently enough.

my questions are, is this viable in a long term campaign that will also have combat situations.

The questions you are asking can only be answered in the specific light of the campaign you plan to play.

I'm sure there is at least one long term campaign with combat situations where such a character is viable. However, I don't think there are many campaign where it is viable.

Look at the last campaign you played and try to estimate the percentage of die rolls not related to combat. I think you will be disappointed.

Furthermore, if you surprise me and you come up with a high percentage, consider what the other character will do when you being the social skill monkey?

ihmo, it's be for each and very class to have a use in all aspect of the game. A fighter has enough feats to invest in Intimidating Prowess, a druid or cleric should find a way to invest in perception and/or sense motive.

That said, creating a character based around social skills and only socials skill isn't going to be interesting character. Not for you and not for the people you play with. Try and find an equilibrium between a combat role and a social role.

A bard forinstance is suited for this quite nice. He has enough skill points, Versatile Performance and a good charisma to make a good face without high int. And a bard can probably still max out use magic device.
Note that the few skills point you lack can easily be covered by the other classes.
A bard can pick his spells. Pick half his spells as social spells and half as combat spells. This means that when needed, you can be useful in combat though at the same time, when the situation asks for it, you can use your spell to augment your social aspect. The same can be said for scrolls btw.
His performances are based on this idea aswell. Inspire courage is combat oriented while fascinate clearly is not.

There is noting wrong with a character focused on social interaction. I just think it's not a good idea to have that as only focus. I think the bard is capable of having the social aspect as one focus without diminishing the combat aspect to much.

arioreo wrote:

"Black Sheep" and "Favored Son/Daughter" both from Rise of the Runelords‎ give a +1 to knowledge (local), make it a class skills and offer an ally in the city of sandpoint.

Where do those appear? I thought Rise of the Runelords had starting feats instead of using character traits.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits

Was just looking for traits and happened to found those as skill traits.
I'm sure there are other skills traits on the page.

"Black Sheep" and "Favored Son/Daughter" both from Rise of the Runelords‎ give a +1 to knowledge (local), make it a class skills and offer an ally in the city of sandpoint.

There are many examples to use as a base for skill traits.
They generally take a skill, add +1 and make it a class skills so you can do the same.

Just stay away from to skills that are popular. ihmo, there is no reason why you would want to give out perception as a class skill. Already enough people max it out because it's so good. No reason to make it even better/easier to max.

6 people marked this as FAQ candidate. 2 people marked this as a favorite.

Shouldn't we faq this?

It's compatible with RAW though I don't think it's RAI, I think flurry of blows should have been a full round action rather than full attack action.
On the other hand, it might play into the mobile aspect of a monk. He's good at attack and moving though not at attacking and drinking a potion. Seem fair enough.

Also with a Bastard-Sword you will not fight one OR two handed but both, this is why it's called a one-and-a-half hander. While fighting you will permanently change your grip, even from one-handed left, to right etc.

How could one model that in an RPG such as pathfinder?

Having a weapon that lends itself to both two handed use, one handed use (and a hand free for something else, like holding a torch) and sword and board could be interesting. The versatility (assuming it offers more interesting characteristics than the long sword) can be worth the feat.
Only gets more interesting when there is a mechanism to simulate the fighting style into more detail.

That's a niche that something like a bastard sword could fill extending it's use significantly. As it stands now, it only offers a small increase in damage as compared to the long sword.
Probably not worth it unless you have a magic weapon (or fluff reason) to justify it's use.

One step up from martial weapons is an okay goal, but is that worth a feat? In some cases (falcata) it arguably is, but is a die step worth spending a feat on? Math-wise, I'd say no, unless you have tons of feats available, but Pathfinder does a pretty good job of not leaving characters feeling like they have too many feats available.

You could always end up finding a very good magic bastard sword, much better than what you are currently using, better than what you have found in the stores and something that can probably carry you to the end of the campaign.

Is that weapon forth a feat?
The choice of a feat is all about a trade off. That's not a bad trade off to be encountered with ihmo.

Furtheremore, a fighter can take the feat as one of his bonus feats to take advantage of the bastard sword as a better weapon for the lower levels and retrain it later.

Is the bastard feat worth a feat?
Yes, in some specific cases it is. And that's not a problem. It is exotic after all and therefore, not for everybody.