How to Upgrade Your Gear in PFS.


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The Exchange

Question...
I'm new to PFS but have a character I've spent several days building getting ready for paizocon 2015. He is a blade bound magus who uses a long sword. The idea I had for him getting his black blade at level 3 is for him to inherit his fathers recently broken long sword and use his magical abilities and his craft weapon skill to reforge it. Obviously to make thing work within the rules gold would be subtracted from what he has to cover components etc... But would this be a valid sword for use in this way? Does the black blade start as a masterwork weapon or does it simply function as one? And since he will basically be trading his own long sword for the newly reforged one would it be simpler to "pay for the masterwork upgrade" for the purposes of the rules in function, and just keep the backstory? I know that there is no real crafting in PFS play but my character has a rank in craft weapon to fit his backstory. (And because I haven't seen " profession : blacksmith " anywhere.) it could be considered a waste of a point really but it fits the character too well to give it up without a fight lol.

If necessary I can post the character background somewhere before it's finalized to give a better description of exactly what I'm talking about

5/5

The black blade gained by the magus is a class feature, and as such there is no acquisition cost. You simply gain the blade at 3rd level as a +1 intelligent weapon, per the class rules. You can make this story however you like, and yours does sound like a very well thought out premise for how you obtain your chosen blade.

So, in this case, write the story how you like, and it won't cost you a dime.

(Note: Black blades can not be of special materials, nor enhanced beyond what the class feature grants.)

The Exchange

Awesome, very helpful, thanks!

Grand Lodge 1/5

I have a boon that gives me a 10% discount (permanent, not one time) on magic items that have a required spell with the good descriptor. I have a +1 Holy weapon. I know I can upgrade it to +1 Holy Transformative, but does it cost me 10k, or 9k? Do I continue to get the discount when I add upgrades because the item as a whole meets the requirement to qualify for the discount?

3/5 5/5

I recently played a scenario that makes a number of custom magic items available. The scenario in question is

Spoiler:
Bonekeep Part 3

and the items in question combine the effects of two different common wondrous items, one of which grants a numerical bonus that appears in the name of the item. In other words, it's something along the lines of a Foobar headband +1, which duplicates the effect of a Headband of Foo +1 and a Bar band. Specifically:

Spoiler:
One item combines a cloak of elvenkind and a cloak of resistance +1 into an 'elven burial shroud +1' and another combines a ring of protection +1 and a ring of minor spell storing into a 'guarded spell ring +1'.

Do these count as "wondrous items whose names include a +X value"? They certainly appear to, and thus could be upgraded.

Grand Lodge 3/5

@ Paladin of Baha-who?

Sounds very similar to some items on the Serpents Rise chronicle sheet. On that sheet it states that the numerical bonus on the item can be upgraded and how to do so.

This leads to two potential ways of looking at the chronicle you are talking about.

1) Same idea, and same upgrading options should apply

2) If the item could be upgraded, it would say so like on the Serpents Rise chronicle.

I have no idea what the intention was with the chronicle you are asking about and could see this going either way. Without further indication from the campaign leadership I would urge you to err on the side of caution and assume that it is not upgradeable unless we are told otherwise.


Probably this has already been answered, but it's also a specific question and my character manager program effectively is saying that I can't do it by virtue of not doing the upgrade, or at least not applying the effect properly...

The question: is the Brawling armor property stackable with itself with regards to upgrading from +1 to +2 and beyond? The question is specifically about legality and functionality, not about cost (those tables exist elsewhere).

I.e., I have a +1 Brawling Haramaki for my ninja... is it legal to upgrade it to +2 and get a +4/+4 bonus for having two instances of the Brawling keyword, so to speak, on the armor?

A second specific question: do I need to complete a scenario that grants access to the Amulet of Mighty Fists and/or a Headband of Mental Prowess to be able to buy either one? My suspicion is yes, but can't hurt to get a straight answer from those with experience.

And a third with regards to the Amulet of Mighty Fists: scuttle is that one can make a +0 Agile Amulet of Mighty Fists (or a +1 overall with a +0 Agile property) and get both the Agile effect as well as the +1 fists effect. Is this specifically PFS legal, and what would that cost be? Just the cost of a regular +1 Amulet, or plus 2000 or 4000 (whichever it is) to load the additional +0 Agile property? My personal suspicion is that a PFS-legal Amulet of Mighty Fists cannot have additional properties on it, but again, better to ask than try it and suddenly have an illegal character.

1/5

You can't put the same property on armor or weapons more than once. Also the same sort of bonuses don't stack except in very rare instances so it wouldn't help even if you could.

You can buy and amulet or a headband once you have enough prestige.

I'm pretty sure amulet's of might fists work like magic weapons. You have to enchant it to at least +1 before adding any special properties.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Brawling, as most armor enhancements (most enhancements in general, actually) is not stackable. One time, and you are done.

+1 Brawling armor can be made +2 Brawling armor, or +1 Brawling, Ghost Touch armor, but not +1 Brawling, Brawling armor.

It won't provide more than the +2 effect from Brawling, no matter how many other enhancements are added.

On purchasing items:
Items on the Always Available list can always be purchased.
Items on your PC's chronicles, subject to quantity limitations, can always be purchased.
Items within your Fame purchase limit, assuming PFS legality, can always be purchased.

There is a table (5-3, I think?) that shows the Fame purchase limits.

Amulet of Mighty Fists: Is the price on this item correct?
The design team has decided to reduce the price of this item. The new prices are as follows: 4,000 gp (+1), 16,000 gp (+2), 36,000 gp (+3), 64,000 gp (+4), 100,000 gp (+5). Accordingly, this reduces the costs to create these amulets, as follows: 2,000 gp (+1), 8,000 gp (+2), 18,000 gp (+3), 32,000 gp (+4), 50,000 gp (+5).
This makes this item priced a bit more competitively for monks and creatures that rely on natural attacks.
This answer originally appeared in the 12/4/12 Paizo blog. The next printing of the Core Rulebook, NPC Codex, and Ultimate Equipment will be updated with this information.

posted March 2013

Amulet of Mighty Fists
This amulet grants an enhancement bonus of +1 to +5 on attack and damage rolls with unarmed attacks and natural weapons.

Alternatively, this amulet can grant melee weapon special abilities, so long as they can be applied to unarmed attacks. See Table: Melee Weapon Special Abilities for a list of abilities. Special abilities count as additional bonuses for determining the market value of the item, but do not modify attack or damage bonuses. An amulet of mighty fists cannot have a modified bonus (enhancement bonus plus special ability bonus equivalents) higher than +5. An amulet of mighty fists does not need to have a +1 enhancement bonus to grant a melee weapon special ability.

So, you can have a +1 amulet, for 4K, an agile amulet of mighty fists for 4K, or a +1 agile amulet of mighty fists for 16K

Liberty's Edge 3/5 5/5 **** Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Omaha

So running the risk of looking like a noob, where is "agile" defined in the Melee Weapon Special Abilities?

Thanks

Silver Crusade 2/5

Gary Bush wrote:

So running the risk of looking like a noob, where is "agile" defined in the Melee Weapon Special Abilities?

Thanks

Agile is defined in the Pathfinder Society Field Guide

Archive of Nethys link

Grand Lodge 4/5

Gary Bush wrote:

So running the risk of looking like a noob, where is "agile" defined in the Melee Weapon Special Abilities?

Thanks

Agile comes from the Pathfinder Society Field Guide book.

Liberty's Edge 3/5 5/5 **** Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Omaha

Thank you for the responses. I don't have that book nor is it listed in the PRD so I had no way finding it.

Silver Crusade 2/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Archive of Nethys is a fan site that is really good for finding things like spells, feats, traits, classes and archetypes, and magic items. It also is very good at identifying what is available for PFS use, and documenting the sources for such things.


Ah, then it is definitely legal to - with 20+ Fame - buy an Agile AoMF with no bonus otherwise and then modify it from there via general upgrading rules, I assume? From +0 Agile to +1, +2, +3, etc. until it's maxed out at +4 (because of the existing +0 (+1 level effect) for Agile)?

Good good if true, since Agile is actually a far better bonus for me than stacking Brawling over and over again. =)

It also sounds as if I can outright buy a Headband of Mental Prowess once I have the cash for it. Someone correct me if I'm wrong before I start saving for something I can't buy. As pertains to that, also, if I want to upgrade the Headband at a later time to a higher bonus, is that also legal? I bet there's a thread on it somewhere but I don't have the time to search myself (between two jobs and two to four hours of sleep a night...).

An additional question while I'm thinking of it: my character builder claims that you can have armor with enchantment bonuses to stats. Is this legal or even possible? I haven't yet found a resource that actually lists a method or means for giving yourself stat bonuses via Armor. For instance, a +1 Armor that gives a +1 Dex bonus. I've been working under the assumption that it's not possible or otherwise rare, though the builder is supposed to be operating under "PFS Legal" mode.

I also don't have the time to scour the web until I find a definitive answer, so I'll, again, ask folks who have more experience than I.

Silver Crusade 2/5

No, there are no ability bonuses given in armor. In PFS you are limited to headbands, ioun stones and belts (and tomes and manuals when you become exceedingly rich).

You can upgrade magic items if there is a clear path to do so. Upgrading a headband from +2 to +4 requires 12000 gold pieces and sufficient fame to allow for the purchase of a 16000 gold piece item.

You can eventually get a +4 agile amulet of mighty fists, with enough money and fame, yes.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Yes, you can upgrade an Amulet of Mighty Fists to a total of +5 in enhancement bonuses. I don't think you can put the flat fee weapon enchantments on one, though.

Yes, magical items, especially from the CRB, are available for purchase with enough Fame. Items with a +X bonus can be upgraded through the cycle, +2 to +4 to +6. If the item gives such a bonus to multiple stats, though, it has to be upgraded on all the bonuses at once, rather than one stat at a time, as there are no +2 to X, +4 to Y items listed.

I suspect that you are confused by terminology. Armor does not, usually, have an enhancement bonus to any stat, but most armor, past the very lightest armor, has a cap to the amount of your existing Dex bonus you can apply to your AC while wearing that armor.

Chain shirt, for instance, limits you to using no more than +4 from your Dex as a bonus to your AC while wearing it. Full plate, on the other hand, limits you to a maximum of +1 from your Dex to AC.

Fighters, for instance, have a class ability, called Armor Training, that allows them to increase the max Dex allowed by armor by +1 at third level, with another +1 granted every 4 levels thereafter.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 **** Venture-Captain, Minnesota

I have a question about Magical Armor upgrades for animal companions. Can you legally upgrade medium mithril barding to large mithril barding in Pathfinder society when your animal buddy suddenly has a growth spurt? I'm trying to figure out how to get more protection for my tiger, Pumpkin, and am wondering if I really have to wait until level 7 before I can invest in better armor.

3/5 5/5

No, a suit of armor is the size it is when purchased.

Silver Crusade 2/5

Hmm wrote:
I have a question about Magical Armor upgrades for animal companions. Can you legally upgrade medium mithril barding to large mithril barding in Pathfinder society when your animal buddy suddenly has a growth spurt? I'm trying to figure out how to get more protection for my tiger, Pumpkin, and am wondering if I really have to wait until level 7 before I can invest in better armor.

In my Rise of the Runelords Game, my Druid bought medium sized armor for her Lion, Regal Leopald Bonecrusher the Very First. It was Darkleaf Cloth Leather Lamellar, for about 1000 gold pieces.

True to the Adventure Path, we had gotten very little money, so at 7th and into 8th level, I used reduce animal and then put him in the armor. Finally, though, we got a windfall, and I bought him a large-sized set of the stuff.

So, you could invest in a large-sized set of barding, and cast enlarge person on Pumpkin, and then put the cat in it. With the duration of enlarge person you would find the armor falling off in not too long.

1/5

Cats aren't people.

Sovereign Court 5/5 *

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Jessex wrote:
Cats aren't people.

Druids have share spells

Sovereign Court 4/5

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Jessex wrote:
Cats aren't people.

Try telling that to a cat.

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

1 person marked this as a favorite.

People aren't cats.

Grand Lodge 3/5

Nefreet wrote:
People aren't cats.

Lies!

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

Well, to be fair, many of your characters aren't people, either ;-)

3/5

Nefreet wrote:
Well, to be fair, many of your characters aren't people, either ;-)

I- I'm not sure how to respond to that... : o

*

BigNorseWolf wrote:
Nope. You can upgrade +1 hide TO rhino armor (which is hide +2 and some other stuff) but you can't upgrade rhino hide to "Rhino hide +3" because that item doesn't exist. Specific armors come "as is" or not at all.

This is the only hit I got on a search for Rhino Hide armor, and the only time I saw armor spikes was in reference to the called weapon ability, so I apologize if this is clarified already.

Are armor spikes considered an upgrade to armor? Or does having 'spikes added to your armor' get treated as buying a weapon? The enhancement bonuses to armor do not affect the spikes or vice versa meaning they are separate, but as rhino hide is an 'as is' specific armor I am not sure if the addition is allowed.

Can +1 hide armor with armor spikes, be upgraded into rhino hide armor per the example above?

My triceratops shaman thanks you for your help. :)

5/5 5/55/55/5

You can have spikes added to your armor, which allow you to deal extra piercing damage on a successful grapple attack (see "spiked armor" in the Martial Weapons Table). The spikes count as a martial weapon. If you are not proficient with them, you take a –4 penalty on grapple checks when you try to use them. bla bla bla lots of stuff...

Added to your armor makes it sound like you put it in the blacksmiths/leatherworkers shop and they weld/rivet some spikes on it, which should would be doable with pre existing and special armors.

Silver Crusade 1/5

Can i upgrade lesser items into normal and then greater?

Silver Crusade 2/5

Mr Oger wrote:
Can i upgrade lesser items into normal and then greater?

Are you talking about something like a metamagic rod? If so, then the answer is no. Each one is a separate, distinct item, and not part of an upgrade path.

Silver Crusade 1/5

I meant something like shadow armor, sniper googlenl and like that

3/5 5/5

Unless it ends with a +X where X is an integer, and the other +Y you want to upgrade it to is listed in a legal source, you can't. So, bracers of armor +2 can be upgraded to bracers of armor +3. But Lesser Bracers of Archery cannot be upgraded to Greater bracers of archery.

3/5

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Paladin of Baha-who? wrote:
Unless it ends with a +X where X is an integer, and the other +Y you want to upgrade it to is listed in a legal source, you can't. So, bracers of armor +2 can be upgraded to bracers of armor +3. But Lesser Bracers of Archery cannot be upgraded to Greater bracers of archery.

Which is irksome specifically in the case of Shadow/Slick armor since those are clearly direct scaling enchants, but it is what it is I guess.


Ryzoken wrote:


Which is irksome specifically in the case of Shadow/Slick armor since those are clearly direct scaling enchants, but it is what it is I guess.

So those cannot be upgraded as they are 'named' armors? What would be the difference if you bought armor, paid the +3,750 to give it the Shadow ability, compared to if you bought the named Shadow armor? If there is no difference, why can't you upgrade the named Shadow armor as mechanically they are one in the same?

Sovereign Court 5/5 *

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Hobbun wrote:
Ryzoken wrote:


Which is irksome specifically in the case of Shadow/Slick armor since those are clearly direct scaling enchants, but it is what it is I guess.
So those cannot be upgraded as they are 'named' armors? What would be the difference if you bought armor, paid the +3,750 to give it the Shadow ability, compared to if you bought the named Shadow armor? If there is no difference, why can't you upgrade the named Shadow armor as mechanically they are one in the same?

You can upgrade things with Shadow or Slick on them, but you can't upgrade from Shadow to Greater Shadow on the armor.

Silver Crusade 3/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Kigvan wrote:
Hobbun wrote:
Ryzoken wrote:


Which is irksome specifically in the case of Shadow/Slick armor since those are clearly direct scaling enchants, but it is what it is I guess.
So those cannot be upgraded as they are 'named' armors? What would be the difference if you bought armor, paid the +3,750 to give it the Shadow ability, compared to if you bought the named Shadow armor? If there is no difference, why can't you upgrade the named Shadow armor as mechanically they are one in the same?
You can upgrade things with Shadow or Slick on them, but you can't upgrade from Shadow to Greater Shadow on the armor.

And that should be changed.

I don't know any GMs who would not allow this. I asked James Jacobs about this a while back because it came up in my home game, and he agreed that it was a good idea to allow such upgrades.

I hope this rule is revisited some time soon.

Shadow Lodge

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The Fox wrote:
Kigvan wrote:
Hobbun wrote:
Ryzoken wrote:
...
...
You can upgrade things with Shadow or Slick on them, but you can't upgrade from Shadow to Greater Shadow on the armor.

And that should be changed.

I don't know any GMs who would not allow this. I asked James Jacobs about this a while back because it came up in my home game, and he agreed that it was a good idea to allow such upgrades.

I hope this rule is revisited some time soon.

You'll notice that PFS tries to have a few 'custom' rules as possible, yet still ends up with a giant stack of them. If they wanted to change this particular rule, they'd either have to
  • Create a 'general' rule that will cause serious issues as soon as players start disagreeing on whether a specific enchant falls under that rule (or as soon as an extremely abusive case is found), or
  • Create a specific rule for each enchantment it applies to, adding a couple of pages to the overall campaign documentation
Furthermore, either option becomes a nightmare if Pazio decides to actually errata the game rules themselves: In this case, there would be three different rules floating around the campaign...

The general PFS philosophy seems to be

  • If it is a Class issue, create a custom rule (Replacing 'Scribe Scroll' for Wizards).
  • Anything smaller (including archetypes, feats, spells, and magic items) will probably either be 'play as written' or just be banned: Making individual changes will probably do more harm than good to the overall campaign.
A man's gotta know his limitations, and it seems like the PFS is fully aware of theirs...

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I sympathize with you, The Fox.

Grand Lodge 1/5

can I hire a wizard to cast permanency on an item

Masterwork bow cast bowstaff on it make permanent able to change from bow to staff 1/day 2500 gp based upon a 1st level spell being cast for comprehend language

5/5 5/55/55/5

Nope. Permanancy, banhammered WAY too exploitable.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/5 Venture-Captain, Massachusetts—North Shore

DesolateHarmony wrote:
Y. Duskwalker wrote:

Looking thorough this whole thread, I saw mention that elven chain CAN be enchanted/upgraded, as it is a non-magical (mundane) item, though named. This is still true I presume?

Also, due to it's specially crafted property allowing it to be treated as light armor, wouldn't it make a better baseline for consideration of attempting to upgrade it to celestial armor, which shares that ability?
Mike Brock responded to me directly on this question. Yes, you can enchant non-magical specific armors, including elven chain. Celestial Armor, however is magical, and so can not be further enhanced.

Hey DesolateHarmony,

Was that in a message or on a post somewhere. If on a post can we get a link to the ruling?

Sczarni 5/5 5/55/5 ***

It was actually in this thread.

There is no upgrade path to achieve Celestial Armor.

Liberty's Edge

BigNorseWolf wrote:
Nope. Permanancy, banhammered WAY too exploitable.

What's exploitable about permanency on an Enlarged Half Orc Barbarian?


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I have a Perfume/cologne (5gp). Can I upgrade it to Day Job?

1/5

Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber

The official upgrade path for perfume is:

* Perfume
→ "MW Skill Item" (diplomacy)
defoliant polish
admixture vial
drinking horn of bottomless valor
iron flask
philosopher's stone

Only after that final upgrade (which transforms the temporary bonus into a permanent one) can you use it on your day job check.

.
.
.
(Do I have to point out that this in tongue-in-cheek?)

Silver Crusade 2/5

Jason Daugherty wrote:
DesolateHarmony wrote:
Y. Duskwalker wrote:

Looking thorough this whole thread, I saw mention that elven chain CAN be enchanted/upgraded, as it is a non-magical (mundane) item, though named. This is still true I presume?

Also, due to it's specially crafted property allowing it to be treated as light armor, wouldn't it make a better baseline for consideration of attempting to upgrade it to celestial armor, which shares that ability?
Mike Brock responded to me directly on this question. Yes, you can enchant non-magical specific armors, including elven chain. Celestial Armor, however is magical, and so can not be further enhanced.

Hey DesolateHarmony,

Was that in a message or on a post somewhere. If on a post can we get a link to the ruling?

Sorry for the late reply. The post and reply that I am referencing.

The Exchange 5/5

TomG wrote:

The official upgrade path for perfume is:

* Perfume
→ "MW Skill Item" (diplomacy)
defoliant polish
admixture vial
drinking horn of bottomless valor
iron flask
philosopher's stone

Only after that final upgrade (which transforms the temporary bonus into a permanent one) can you use it on your day job check.

.
.
.
(Do I have to point out that this in tongue-in-cheek?)

O.O

yeah...

clearly I have a WIS of 7, and no ranks in Sense Motive.

1/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber
nosig wrote:
clearly I have a WIS of 7, and no ranks in Sense Motive.

Then you'll fit in here on the forums ... ;-)

Liberty's Edge 1/5

Okay I am going to sound like a dope but I want to do this correctly and for the lowest cost.
I want to purchase a MW cold iron weapon. How do I do the math?
Do I add the MW cost then multiple for t he Cold Iron or the reverse?

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