You still have to meet prereqs, I believe; you're just super-limited on what you can take given the normal circumstances (exceptionally so in PFS). Like, you can't get Crane Style on a T-Rex or the like.
He (Burglar) probably got that from me. I lost track of how many ACs and mounts I have taken out in APs...
Hey, I just play legititmately! Tasty, tasty food! But, yeah, one of these days, I'm going to play a Druid and avenge all the animals to be slaughtered in Joeworld.
Also: Flyby Attack isn't listed? So I'd have to take his Int up to 3 before I could take that? Lame.
Even worse than that; I think without it being as a listed source, I don't think you can take it.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary
Animal Companions: ankylosaurus, aurochs, brachiosaurus, dire bat, dire rat, dolphin, elasmosaurus, electric eel, elephant/mastodon, frog, goblin dog, hyena, monitor lizard, moray eel, octopus, orca, pteranodon, rhinoceros, roc, squid, stegosaurus, triceratops, and tyrannosaurus; Familiars: all familiars listed on pages 131–133; Feats: none of the feats are legal for play for PCs, animal companions, or familiars unless specifically granted by another legal source. Other: all creatures in this book are legal for polymorph effects (including a druid's wild shape ability) within the boundaries of each spell or ability's parameters.
Flyby Attack isn't any good anyways; It doesn't prevent the AoO against it (like Spring Attack does.) Our Strix was quite unhappy about that fact until he got a polearm. Then he was playing the bad guy from Ghosts and Goblins.
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Ah, yep, you're right. I was about to check the Additional Resources next.
I'm not sure if retraining AC feats falls under the retraining rules in Ultimate Campaign (I don't have it with me right now) but I imagine it does. When this is over I'll pay the requisite gold and PP (if I have enough) to trade out Ilivan's Power Attack for Dodge. It will be a while for Mobility (8th) and Spring Attack (10th) though because I want to pick up Light Armor Proficiency next level. I really don't like him getting hit with so few HP.
Also, I had to correct the way Ilivan's been doing his full-attacks. The Roc entry in the bestiary has bite and talon with the same bonus (as if they're both primary) so I assumed ACs would be the same way but I'm pretty sure that assumption is wrong now and that his talons should be at a -5 (until he gets Multiattack). We had a long discussion a while ago about iteratives with ACs. Basically it boils down to: do they have multiple attack? Then they don't get iteratives but Multiattack lowers the penalty. Do they have a single attack? Then Multiattack gives them a normal iterative at +6 BAB.
Ilivan is my first AC so I'm learning all this as I go. My fiancee's druid/wolf is actually level 13 so she's more well-versed in ACs than I am.
Also, I had to correct the way Ilivan's been doing his full-attacks. The Roc entry in the bestiary has bite and talon with the same bonus (as if they're both primary) so I assumed ACs would be the same way but I'm pretty sure that assumption is wrong now and that his talons should be at a -5 (until he gets Multiattack). We had a long discussion a while ago about iteratives with ACs. Basically it boils down to: do they have multiple attack? Then they don't get iteratives but Multiattack lowers the penalty. Do they have a single attack? Then Multiattack gives them a normal iterative at +6 BAB.
You can do all your natural attacks on a full attack (plus manufactured weapons, if possible), but higher BAB does not add more attacks.
Attacks made with natural weapons, such as claws and bites, are melee attacks that can be made against any creature within your reach (usually 5 feet). These attacks are made using your full attack bonus and deal an amount of damage that depends on their type (plus your Strength modifier, as normal). You do not receive additional natural attacks for a high base attack bonus. Instead, you receive additional attack rolls for multiple limb and body parts capable of making the attack (as noted by the race or ability that grants the attacks). If you possess only one natural attack (such as a bite—two claw attacks do not qualify), you add 1–1/2 times your Strength bonus on damage rolls made with that attack.
Some natural attacks are denoted as secondary natural attacks, such as tails and wings. Attacks wi...
Since the Talons are secondary attacks, they would be at the -5 and .5 str to damage because of their secondary status (regardless of anything you combine them with.) Multiattack takes the penalty down to a -2 instead of -5, but the half-strength thing is still in effect, so you're Power Attack is still doing half it's bonus on those attacks.
Some natural attacks are denoted as secondary natural attacks, such as tails and wings. Attacks with secondary natural attacks are made using your base attack bonus minus 5. These attacks deal an amount of damage depending on their type, but you only add half your Strength modifier on damage rolls.
But, yeah, the other part of the post is a "No, Animal Companions can't retrain, I think."
Death Roll! Death Roll! Death Roll!
I think that mine survived that encounter, only to get eaten on the second trip after I gave it to the Inquisitor of Iomedae (or possibly immedately after I said "You can just use mine. You bought it anyways.")
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Yeah, I was reading through the whole thread. There was never really a ruling or consensus. There's the people arguing "it has to be a new companion!" and the other side arguing "well, but why can't you just RP it as the same animal with a different feat and then reteach it tricks (since new animals only have bonus tricks)?"
Of course, I don't want to give up Ilivan so I'd like it to be the second answer but I don't think there was ever really a decision made there.
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So, when druids need a new animal companion, they can just pray for 24 hours - is that how it works for Rangers as well?
If you want a new one, yes. If you want to keep Sahrek specifically (and all the tricks he knows), you need raise animal companion. New companions only know bonus tricks but a raised companion just goes back to normal.
So, when druids need a new animal companion, they can just pray for 24 hours - is that how it works for Rangers as well?
Indeed it would. Just at 3 levels lower (which means literally nothing in this case.) Ninja'd of course.
No decisions
Alas, like so many other things. I personally agree with the "new companion" idea, but both sides have some value. Seems like the safe options is to not let him go, though.
I'll do the raise animal companion. I'm not particularly attached to Sahrek as a player, but I think Desmond is.
And since it's a Spellcasting Service, you can pool resources if you want. The only issue with Raise Companion may be the body, and that's only if he gets digested entirely too much (and that's just a really bad-case scenario, though she does look like she's gonna gulp him next round, given the fact she bothered to grapple and not move forward to engage.)
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It wouldn't make much difference now (trade out Power Attack for Dodge) but I would eventually like to get him the Spring Attack chain and Power Attack is just getting in the way and pushing that back a few levels.
Yeah, I'll wait and see, maybe try to get an official ruling. I was hoping Ultimate Campaign just had actual retraining rules but I guess that was an oversight when they wrote it. For RP reasons I am not letting Ilivan go (especially after I just raised him) and will just stick with it. If he dies though I may consider just leaving him to rest and getting a new one with the feats switched around.
In the meantime, maybe I'll put up a new post and try to get an official ruling. I can be persistent when it's something that affects my characters. It took me about 4 months but I eventually got Spell Mastery opened up for non-wizards so I could make a witch>Magaambyan Arcanist.
He does not provide any cover or other effects an object would provide, now that he's an object. (Ignoring the fact that objects can give cover.)
-Posted with Wayfinder
The only thing I would say is that he is in the creatures mouth (like a held object) and thus does not threaten with his bite.
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My shameless plea to allow Animal Companions to retrain
For those of you interested and/or who want to flag it as "FAQ" worthy.
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It always get me upset to see that a certain someone is almost always one of the first responders to that post and runs the slowest pbp I've ever been in. My witch mentioned above has been stuck in his RoW part I Gameday event since October and we're still only about half-way done. Days go by before updates occur, even with my constant prompting to go faster. Part of it is that players have started to slow down after he slowed down but it's been slow on his part from the get-go.
I implore you, please say something if I start going that slow. I know weekends I slow down on weekends and Thursday nights, but I think I've been pretty up front about those outliers.
-Posted with Wayfinder
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No, you're fine. His is frustratingly slow. Even more frustrating when, like now, it's been GM up for over a day and I know he's online because he was the first to respond to my post above. But we'll be lucky to get an update by the end of the day.
Should have dropped at the beginning but now we're halfway through and I'm stuck. I felt like sending him a PM this morning but I've already made so many comments in-game that I feel like a pest player.
Just simple paranoia on going too slow of focusing on fluffy bits (because I like them and assume other people do, too.)
On an irrelevant side note, how did I miss this post? Local semi-restrictions allowed in PFS? That feels... weird.
No, I get that; I just find it odd he's allowing people to say "No Summoners/Gunslingers because I say so" in an environment that's supposed to be "almost the same everywhere." If everything is supposed to be standardized, why is limiting more (a variable) allowed? I can understand rule interpretations being different by table variation, but classes? Items? If you show up with a summoner/fighter, do your summoner levels just disappear?
Too much wiggle room, and how is that not just a home game, then? How does this ruling not stop people playing at gamedays from excluding people just because they want to? I understand it's good to know you can ban for the good of the group, but to allow rule restrictions just seems to be opening up a huge passive-aggressive Pandora's Box.
EDIT: I suppose he does say "Home/Apartment," but still. Seems like a mis-call.
Burglarblog post Another side thing: Mammoths was released on time, but Lion's Library was not! Noooooooooo! Taldor needs to represent in that... like... 5-day period!
"Oh, she's the GREATEST Beastmaster Tymon's ever met! I mean, have you ever heard the story about the time she brought a RHINO to the fight and RODE IT AROUND?!? She basically danced around as she cut everyone else down in the 20-Man-Melee of 4707! It was the best!"
"The time"; singular. I found it pretty amusing you guys latched onto that pretty hardcore (though if she did it again, it would be really awesome, given her weird build.)
You guys (Asuna aside) don't know how weird I mean when I say "Weird Build." Like, "if I built this encounter, I'd need DM permission and even then, I'd say 'whoa, this is trippy, I'm surprised it works,'" weird. And I theorycraft A LOT.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Whoa, news to me!
I knew I was getting close but honestly stopped paying attention. I started GMing last fall (around October, maybe?). So a little over a year.
Yeah. I GM a lot.
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Well, I never got an official response (at least not yet) about retraining Ilivan after this is over but no one seems to have a problem with it so far. I still don't like to do things unless they are clearly allowed so I'll leave it up to the GM whether I can release/capture Ilivan when this session is over and 'retrain' his Power Attack into Dodge (and re-teach him the tricks he will lose).
Indeed. 21 is the magic number for dogs and raging Gladiators That Aren't Large-Sized.
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Alright, quick check of my math here: Spellcasting services are caster level x spell level x 10 gp, plus whatever the cost of material components is - correct?
So, for raise animal companion: Druid CL 9, Level 5 spell x10 gp = 450 gp. Plus 1000 gp worth of diamond dust.
So that's 1450 to raise Sahrek, correct?
Then the restorations cost, I believe, 1280 each (1000 for diamond dust, CL 7, Spell level 4)
So 4010 gold to bring Sahrek back to whole, if my calculations are all correct.
I've got enough to cover that alright.
I'm at lunch (so admittedly focusing on this sandwich) but eyeballing that theory looked right. There's no casters in-party that can cast those spells (I'm pretty sure) so it looks good. People can chip in if desired, since its spell casting services, too.
-Posted with Wayfinder
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Yeah, I think that's what I paid last time. I'm willing to chip in a couple hundred. I'm pretty broke at the moment though, I had to use all my gold earned from Wardstone Patrol to bring Ilivan back.
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Illusionist: turn invisible or turn into a shadow (shadow subschool) so you can cast without giving them a chance to make spellcraft checks (unless they're all fighter-types or monsters and then don't worry about it). If there's more than one enemy, put one of them in a persistent silent image of an adamantine box. One fewer enemies to deal with. If the remaining enemies are still hitting hard, throw out a (possibly persistent) major image of a dragon behind them. The bonus rounds after concentration from being an illusionist should be enough to keep that first guy in his box for a while while the second guy wastes a few hits against the fake dragon. If you have nothing else to do, use ghost sound on the adamantine box to up the DC by 1 because why not?
Oh, yeah; Illusionists. Gnomes do it best. Went through Race for the Runecarved Key pt 1 at Dragon*Con with a sorcerer built around illusions. Pointed out some awesome stuff for illusions (and was a general blast at a table with Weiman.) I added some more stuff to my Illusionist theorycraft, as well, since IDing Illusion spells kind of counts as "total proof it's an illusion."
Your natural knack for illusion allows you to maintain at least one illusion spell with little effort.
Prerequisite: Gnome.Benefit: You can maintain concentration on one spell of the illusion school as a swift action. This has no effect on spells of other schools or on illusion spells with durations that don’t depend on your active concentration.
While you may only maintain one spell as a swift action, you may take your move and standard actions to maintain other spells normally, if you wish.
Normal: Concentrating to maintain a spell is a standard
action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
You’ve mastered the art of making illusions that force foes to divide their attention in combat.
Prerequisites: Spell Focus (illusion), gnome.
Benefit: You can use this metamagic feat only on illusion (figment) spells.A threatening illusion spell causes one target to believe your illusion is a threat. Choose one 5-foot square within the area of your illusion; that square threatens the target as long as it is adjacent. Thus, if you or an ally is on the opposite side of the target, it is considered flanking.
Normally the area must contain an illusory creature of Small or Medium size. However, you can select one square of a larger illusory creature to threaten the target. For example, an illusory Large ogre takes up four 5-foot squares; you select one square to be the source of the threat, and its other three squares do not threaten anyone. If the target has reason to believe there is an invisible creature in the vicinity, even an auditory illusion with no visual elements (such as ghost sound) is sufficient to convince the target that the selected square contains an actual threat.As long as you maintain the illusion, you can change the location of the threatening square as a swift action. When you threaten a target with this spell, the foe may make a Will save to disbelieve (DC 10 + threatening spell’s level + your spellcasting ability score modifier). If the target makes this save, the threatening effect of this feat no longer applies to it.
A threatening illusion takes up a spell slot one level higher than normal.
Normal: Illusion spells do not threaten squares.
You can tap into the Plane of Shadow to momentarily lend reality to one of your illusion (figment) spells.
Prerequisites: Spell Focus (illusion), caster level 5th.
Benefit: As a standard action, you can draw upon energies from the Plane of Shadow to cause an ongoing figment spell you cast to damage a foe as if the illusion were real. The illusion must be one you retain ongoing control of, such as minor image, and the target must be both visible to you and within or adjacent to the area of your illusion. Using this feat immediately ends the figment’s duration.You must either make a melee touch attack or give the target a saving throw (Fortitude or Reflex) to resist the damage (see below). If you choose a melee touch attack, you use your own melee touch attack bonus, and if you miss, the spell deals no damage. If you choose to allow the target a saving throw, a successful save means it takes half damage. The shadowy attack deals 1d6 points of damage per spell level. If the target disbelieves or sees through the illusion, reduce the damage by half.
The shadowy attack can deal acid, bludgeoning, cold, electricity, fire, piercing, or slashing damage, but the damage must be appropriate to the illusion. For example, an illusory wall that collapses deals bludgeoning damage with a Fortitude save for half, an illusory swordsman strikes with a melee touch attack deals slashing damage, and an illusory wall of fire deals fire damage with a Reflex save for half.
You are particularly adept at communicating with others via innuendo, gestures, and secret hand signs.
Prerequisite: Int 13.
Benefit: You gain a +4 bonus on Bluff checks made to pass secret messages. In addition, you are adept at hiding the somatic components of spellcasting. If you cast a spell that has only somatic components, an observer must make a Perception check opposed by your Sleight of Hand check to notice your spellcasting. Spellcraft checks made to identify any spell you cast that has somatic components take a –2 penalty.
Using the first three, he began play concentrating on his "Chaos Familiar," a Major Image that he simply concentrated on every round as a swift. In combat, he'd keep "summoning" his "familiar" and making it explode for elemental damage or become heavy objects to crush to force whatever save he felt like making the target use. Was a good time. Ran into Magic Traps while I couldn't disable them. Luckily, we had a Merserial Pregen. I found traps and made us invisible, she disabled them.
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Yeah, my illusionist is a wayang so he doesn't get all the fancy gnome stuff. But the illusionist wizard school has some nice abilities (like illusions persisting +1/2 lev number of rounds after you stop concentrating on them-which makes Effortless Trickery kinda moot). I thought about taking Shadow Gambit but it's not really all that much damage so I figured Persistent Spell would be better so that's it's harder to recognize the illusion. And he has Riddywhipple (faerie dragon) as a familiar so the familiar can warn allies through telepathy where the illusions are.
Also, IDing an Illusion spell (or someone telling you it's an illusion) doesn't totally end the effect. They still have to make the Will save to be able to see through it (although they get a +4). So putting a box/wall around the spellcaster or archer still blocks their line of sight because it still looks solid to them until they make the Will save to see through it, at which point it looks transparent.
It's definitely a fun build. I haven't played mine in a while. I actually haven't played him since he got the faerie dragon familiar. My plan is to save up enough for a rod of wonder and let the faerie dragon entertain himself with that every round.
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So, I got a nice Amazon gift card for Christmas and decided to spend it frivolously (in my wife's opinion). Finally getting 'Inner Sea World Guide'. Also, I ordered the 'Animal Archive' player companion.
Oh, and I started reading 'Game of Thrones.' I'm kicking myself for not reading it sooner - I'm hooked. I am interested to watch the show - think I'll wait until I finish at least the first book.
Oh, speaking of one of the best supplementary books for Pathfinder, Helkit's inital stat block (since there's only one thing left to do with her.) No peekies for Des until he's done with his "buisness."
Female middle-aged human barbarian (mad dog) 5/cavalier (huntmaster) 4 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player’s Guide 32, Pathfinder Player Companion: Animal Archive 6, 7)
NE Medium humanoid (human)
Init +1; Senses Perception +12
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So, I got a nice Amazon gift card for Christmas and decided to spend it frivolously (in my wife's opinion). Finally getting 'Inner Sea World Guide'. Also, I ordered the 'Animal Archive' player companion.
Oh, and I started reading 'Game of Thrones.' I'm kicking myself for not reading it sooner - I'm hooked. I am interested to watch the show - think I'll wait until I finish at least the first book.
Yeah, I got really hooked on those a few years ago because I wanted to read them before the show came out. Definitely read the books first. The first season is basically a shot-for-shot remake of the book, very few changes and some scenes are verbatim (which is awesome, but will ruin your enjoyment of the book if you watch it first).
The first two are great, the third one is excellent and the fourth and fifth are ok. The problem with 4 and 5 is that it was originally intended to be one book and then he wrote too much so they split it into two books. . . and you can tell. My sister is reading the fourth one right now and her comment to me this morning (that I absolutely agree with) was: "He's a great writer and it's still really interesting. . . but nothing has happened. The plot hasn't advanced at all!" (She's 3/4 of the way through it.)
That was basically my frustration with books 4 and 5 as well. They were still entertaining and well-written but very little advancement was made plot-wise compared to the first three books. I have this theory that once authors' names get 'too big', their editors become afraid to edit them and then their work suffers because probably only one author/century can write a masterpiece without significant editing by an outside party. It happened with J. K. Rowling and several authors I'm sure others can name, and it definitely happened with Martin. For book 4 he said "I wrote 2000 pages!" and his editors should have said, "No, you need to cut that down. A lot. There is only 800 pages worth of material here." and instead they said, "Great! We'll just split it into two mediocre books rather than do our job by cutting it down into one great book!"
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Also: Inner Sea World Guide was a great purchase. One of my favorites to really get a grasp on Golarion lore and make the gameworld have a lot more depth. Also great for coming up with more elaborate backstories. Nothing wrong with, "My guy grew up in a small town." but it's more satisfying to name the region they came from, why they worship the god they do (whether it's popular or not where they're from, etc), why they speak the languages they do, etc. Definitely a good buy.