Lore Oracle (problem?) with Bloodmage initiate


Rules Questions

Scarab Sages

Bloodmage Initiate
Your introduction to the ways of the bloodmage allows you to use elaborate rituals and gruesome rites to expand your reserves of magical energy.

Prerequisite: Spell Focus (any school).

Benefit: You learn the basics of the ancient art of hemotheurgy.

Pick one school of magic in which you possess the Spell Focus feat—you cast spells from this school of magic at +1 caster level. This bonus stacks with the bonus from Spell Focus.

Unfortunately, the side effects cause you to be constantly under the effects of a medium load—your maximum bonus to AC from Dexterity is +3, you gain an armor check penalty of –3, and your speed decreases as appropriate (generally from 30 feet to 20 feet for a Medium creature).

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Ok so I have a FEW problems here.... I have the LAME curse and SIDESTEP SECRET revalation. Since by RAW I would not suffer the effects of the speed penalty or the Dex bonus to AC. BECAUSE- my speed cannot be reduced due to encumbrance AND I dont have a dex bonus to AC, I have a penalty. Since it explicitly states in the feat above- "maximum bonus to AC from DEXTERITY". And I will paste the relevant bit from sidestep secret here-> "Your ARMOR’s maximum Dexterity bonus applies to your Charisma instead of your Dexterity."

The penalty for being encumbered has NOTHING to do with wearing armor so the 2 things are unrelated. As the charisma bonus thing ONLY applies to armor and not encumbrance and the dex penalty to encumbrance has nothing to do with my ARMOR's max dex bonus.
ERGO! By RAW the only penalty I would get is an additional -3 to skill checks. So unless someone can find and link some errata- I'm gonna assume that I am correct.

I understand that Paizo cant plan for every possible contingency where minmaxing is concerned but I dont imagine this was intended. Or maybe they do intend that when there are serious penalties involved that they leave a way to mitigate some of them with a little work? (like the wanderlust trait mitigating the lame curse) <shrug> either way- its what i love about this game. there is always a way out (or is there?)


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber

You're wrong about the effect of the lame curse (or were unclear): it only protects your speed.

By overly literally reading Side Step Secret, you're correct. However, Armor and Encumberance ecumberance effects are covered in the same section. They affect the same "stat." That "stat" is Maximum Dexterity Bonus. There is no distinction between "Armor Max Dex Bonus" and "Encumberance Max Dex Bonus." Therefore, it should apply (and likely was intended but the Side Step Secret writer and editors overlooked the oft-ignored encumberance effect).

Scarab Sages

Blake's Tiger wrote:

You're wrong about the effect of the lame curse (or were unclear): it only protects your speed.

By overly literally reading Side Step Secret, you're correct. However, Armor and Encumberance ecumberance effects are covered in the same section. They affect the same "stat." That "stat" is Maximum Dexterity Bonus. There is no distinction between "Armor Max Dex Bonus" and "Encumberance Max Dex Bonus." Therefore, it should apply (and likely was intended but the Side Step Secret writer and editors overlooked the oft-ignored encumberance effect).

I'm sorry if you were confused by what I said, maybe I worded it poorly. I was referring to 2 different things. Indeed, lame protects my speed, which is what I said. So, what (do you think) was I wrong about?

My REVELATION sidestep secret, protects the other thing. (I probably should have said "respectively")

So, what was the problem? Max dex bonus affected by armor and max dex bonus affected by encumbrance are in fact 2 different things. BUT they both apply to the same thing. They both affect the bonus cap that you apply to AC. But since the limitation to ac from encumbrance ONLY affects dexterity- and since sidestep secret has not (yet) been errata'd to take this into account- Again, by RAW (even tho you think it should apply) it currently does not apply. :P And YES there WAS a distinction just not in the CRB, the distiction was made in the description of sidestep secret when they said- "Your ARMOR’s maximum Dexterity bonus applies to your Charisma instead of your Dexterity." So in EVERY OTHER CASE where a max dex bonus would apply that does NOT involve ARMOR, you would in fact use my dexterity and sidestep secret would not apply. Therefore, I get to keep my +4 charisma max bonus because that only applies to armor and encumbrance would ignore my charisma and only apply to dexterity.
Yes, I recognize that it is a loophole but unless they patch it- a loophole it remains. Its not your fault nor my fault that Paizo writers dont doublecheck their work. Thats what happens when you publish too much content.

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