Two Questions: Scizore Proficiency, Mule Stats


Rules Questions

Shadow Lodge

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Question 1: I just thought of something based on a PBP I'm starting up. One of my players has a character using a Scizore with a class not normally proficient with martial weapons. He has a class feature granting him proficiency (Swashbuckler), but it got me to thinking about what happens to the shield effect of a Scizore if you aren't proficient. The text reads as follows:

Adventurer's Armory wrote:
Scizore: Also known as a Taldan scissor, the scizore is a hardened tube that fits your forearm, ending with a semicircular blade at the end. The scizore gives a +1 shield bonus to AC, but if you attack with the blade, you lose the AC bonus that round and take a –1 penalty on attack rolls with the scizore. While wearing a scizore, you cannot use that hand for anything else. Donning the scizore is a full-round action.

My first instinct is that if one isn't proficient, there's no penalty to the shielding function of a Scizore if you aren't proficient with it. My second instinct is that one could make the case for a non-proficient user suffering ACP issues as with a Buckler or Light Shield. I'm 90% sure that my first instinct is correct, but I figured there was no harm in getting another opinion to answer the other 10%.

Question 2: So I had a character purchase a mule for a PBP, and I went to look for stats for it. The official response (although not Errata), seemed a bit odd. Official Response

Based on that response, I put together the stats. A Mule uses the Advanced Template (+4 all ability scores; +2 nat armor) on a pony. Going off of that, a Mule has 6 Int. RAW, it appears correct, but it seems odd to me. Theoretically, based on that, wouldn't Mules be linguistically capable? Or is there a step I missed somewhere along the line where its Intelligence score would have stayed at 2? Heavy horses would run into the same question.


1. I agree with your first instinct.

2. That's one of the problems that consolidating stats into "base" + "template" can cause. I think I'd rather have applied the elite array than the advanced template to a pony to make a mule. Alternatively, if you use the quick rules for the advanced template instead of the rebuild rules, then the Int (kind of) stays the same :)


What is the advantage of the scizore over a buckler?


Ah, a one-handed d10 without EWP. That makes more sense.

Shadow Lodge

Mostly, the advantage seems to be no ACP, with the trade-off being that that the hand in question is useless for other things. A buckler allows you to wield a weapon or do other things, while a scizore is a weapon but obstructs any potential usage of that hand.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Are wrote:

1. I agree with your first instinct.

2. That's one of the problems that consolidating stats into "base" + "template" can cause. I think I'd rather have applied the elite array than the advanced template to a pony to make a mule. Alternatively, if you use the quick rules for the advanced template instead of the rebuild rules, then the Int (kind of) stays the same :)

The part I bolded above is the way simple templates generally are supposed to work. The rebuild rules do have some weirdness with them at times... such as animals with higher than needed Intelligence scores. You can adjust that easy enough by just not applying the +4 bonus to Int scores when you put the Advanced template on an animal—that's what I do in my games.

Or just use the stats for a pony, to be honest... mules aren't THAT different from any other Small sized horse thingy.

Shadow Lodge

James Jacobs wrote:

The part I bolded above is the way simple templates generally are supposed to work. The rebuild rules do have some weirdness with them at times... such as animals with higher than needed Intelligence scores. You can adjust that easy enough by just not applying the +4 bonus to Int scores when you put the Advanced template on an animal—that's what I do in my games.

Or just use the stats for a pony, to be honest... mules aren't THAT different from any other Small sized horse thingy.

Awesome. Thanks for that. Just wanted to check since it seemed odd for a mule to have a 6 Intelligence.


So a Mule is better than a Pony and a third of the cost? What is the drawback? can you not ride it?


I would imagine that it would be tough to combat train. Read: impossible.

There aren't too many mule cavalries in fantasy literature...


Surly that had to be a typo, and that what's intended is that a warpony is the advanced statblock of the mule?

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