Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures Frequently Asked Questions
Last updated: July 22, 2016.
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Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures Frequently Asked Questions
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Battle Host: What exactly does it mean that the battle host’s implement is immune to the broken condition? Can it never be destroyed? Can you use it over and over again with abilities that break your weapon for a benefit?
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Emotion Components: Does the shaken condition from effects like Intimidate count as “an effect with the fear descriptor” for the purpose of blocking spells with emotion components?
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Emotional Conduit and Dedication: The third level spell is listed as cure light wounds. Should it be cure serious wounds?
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Emotive Block: Should emotive block have the emotion descriptor? The spell says it does, but then it’s a non-harmless emotion effect, so it blocks all spellcasting.
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Kineticist Favored Class Bonuses and Elemental Overflow: The elf favored class bonus mentions it applies when elemental overflow applies, but the dwarf and half-orc do not. Should they also apply only when elemental overflow applies?
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Kineticist Gather Power: I know that gather power can only be used on blast wild talents, but which of the things that add to blast wild talents can I reduce with gather power? Infusions are clear in their description, but the others are not.
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Kineticist Telekinetic Invisibility: A lot of things in the talent’s description seem to imply that I can only use this talent on myself, but then again, it also says it’s like invisibility, which isn’t personal only. Which is correct?
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Kineticist Torrent Infusion: This infusion seems to be missing lightning blast as an associated blast. Is that intentional?
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Medium Favored Locations: The medium class says that spirits can be channeled from any appropriate location, not just from the list of favored locations, but is that true, or can I only channel from one of the favored locations?
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Mental Block: Does the word “activated” in the spell’s description scope only over feats, or does it also apply to extraordinary, supernatural, and spell-like abilities too?
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Phantoms and Armor: In two different places in the spiritualist class, the rules are in conflict. In one place it says phantoms can wear armor, and in the other it says they can’t. Which is correct?
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Psychic Bloodline Sorcerer: Psychic bloodline’s bloodline arcana changes the psychic bloodline’s spells from arcane spells to psychic spells. Clearly this means that a psychic bloodline sorcerer qualifies for abilities that require the “ability to cast psychic spells” and not abilities that require “the ability to cast arcane spells”, but what about abilities that require an “arcane spellcasting class” like the half-elf’s arcane training, where you might be selecting the class before you even took levels in sorcerer and chose the psychic bloodline? Does this apply generally to abilities that change my spellcasting between arcane, divine, and psychic?
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Psychics and overwhelming presence: Rapport psychics receive overwhelming presence as a 9th level discipline spell, but it appears as a 4th level spell on the psychic spell list. Should it be a 9th level spell for psychics?
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Sensate Fighter: The Sensate Fighter doesn’t mention trading out Weapon Training 1, but it gains an extremely similar ability at 5th level, the same level as Weapon Training 1. Should it also trade out Weapon Training 1?
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Spiritualists and bestow curse: The spiritualist receives bestow curse as both 3rd and 4th level spells. Which is correct?
Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures Frequently Asked Questions
Battle Host: What exactly does it mean that the battle host’s implement is immune to the broken condition? Can it never be destroyed? Can you use it over and over again with abilities that break your weapon for a benefit?
In this particular instance, what it does is slightly different than the usual meaning of “immune.” It means that the implement suffers no penalties, even if it becomes broken. It can still gain the broken condition, and, it still counts as having the broken condition for the purpose of effects that escalate if you have the broken condition (such as effects that give the broken condition, or destroy the target if it already has the broken condition). As usual, you can’t use an effect that breaks a weapon if it already has the broken condition. An explanation will be included in the next errata.
Emotion Components: Does the shaken condition from effects like Intimidate count as “an effect with the fear descriptor” for the purpose of blocking spells with emotion components?
Yes, they do. It should say “fear effect,” and for most descriptors, these wordings are sometimes used interchangeably. For instance, an ability that protects you from effects with the charm descriptor would generally protect you from a harpy’s song (which is a charm effect).
Emotional Conduit and Dedication: The third level spell is listed as cure light wounds. Should it be cure serious wounds?
Yes, it should be cure serious wounds. This will be reflected in the next errata.
Emotive Block: Should emotive block have the emotion descriptor? The spell says it does, but then it’s a non-harmless emotion effect, so it blocks all spellcasting.
It should not have the emotion descriptor. This will be reflected in the next errata.
Kineticist Favored Class Bonuses and Elemental Overflow: The elf favored class bonus mentions it applies when elemental overflow applies, but the dwarf and half-orc do not. Should they also apply only when elemental overflow applies?
Yes, they should both apply only when elemental overflow applies, like the elf favored class bonus. This will be reflected in the next errata.
Kineticist Gather Power: I know that gather power can only be used on blast wild talents, but which of the things that add to blast wild talents can I reduce with gather power? Infusions are clear in their description, but the others are not.
You can reduce infusions, metakinesis, and even the 1 extra burn for using a blast you don’t possess with omnikinesis. All of these add to the blast’s cost. You still can’t reduce utility talents, including the extra burn cost for swapping out a utility talent with omnikinesis, unless you use internal buffer instead.
Kineticist Telekinetic Invisibility: A lot of things in the talent’s description seem to imply that I can only use this talent on myself, but then again, it also says it’s like invisibility, which isn’t personal only. Which is correct?
You can only use it on yourself.
Kineticist Torrent Infusion: This infusion seems to be missing lightning blast as an associated blast. Is that intentional?
Lightning blast should be included. This will be reflected in the next errata.
Medium Favored Locations: The medium class says that spirits can be channeled from any appropriate location, not just from the list of favored locations, but is that true, or can I only channel from one of the favored locations?
As the class says, you can channel from any appropriate location, and the favored locations are just a place to start. There might be times where you don’t have access to all six legends, but a medium, either PC or NPC, should generally be able to access a legend if they can come up with a good conceptual tie between the legend and a location he can find or even set up himself. For instance, a medium could go hunt a deer and then use that location to channel a champion spirit of a legendary hunter.
Mental Block: Does the word “activated” in the spell’s description scope only over feats, or does it also apply to extraordinary, supernatural, and spell-like abilities too?
It should apply to all of them. It only stops them from using active abilities, and it doesn’t stop passive abilities at all. This will be reflected in the next errata.
Phantoms and Armor: In two different places in the spiritualist class, the rules are in conflict. In one place it says phantoms can wear armor, and in the other it says they can’t. Which is correct?
Phantoms can’t wear armor; that sentence was meant to say they can wear other magic items. This will be reflected in the next errata.
Psychic Bloodline Sorcerer: Psychic bloodline’s bloodline arcana changes the psychic bloodline’s spells from arcane spells to psychic spells. Clearly this means that a psychic bloodline sorcerer qualifies for abilities that require the “ability to cast psychic spells” and not abilities that require “the ability to cast arcane spells”, but what about abilities that require an “arcane spellcasting class” like the half-elf’s arcane training, where you might be selecting the class before you even took levels in sorcerer and chose the psychic bloodline? Does this apply generally to abilities that change my spellcasting between arcane, divine, and psychic?
This particular combination leads to a complex interaction; at the time of the half elf ability, the term “arcane spellcasting class” was unambiguous because archetypes were new and we were still years away from any archetypes or bloodlines that changed which type of spells a character casts. Essentially, a half-elf with the arcane training ability that chooses sorcerer is choosing “the arcane spellcasting class sorcerer”. If she then takes levels in psychic bloodline sorcerer, she isn’t taking levels in her favored class. The ability would still have a small effect, though, in that since she had no levels in her favored class, she would still count as a 1st-level “arcane spellcasting sorcerer” and be able to activate arcane scrolls accordingly (whereas normally she would need Use Magic Device to use arcane or divine scrolls even if they were on her spell list).
This is the first time to our knowledge of this principle being necessary, but it would apply in other situations that switch your type of magic and even beyond that, such as if an alternate racial trait restricted your favored class bonus to “a single class that grants proficiency in heavy armor” and you picked fighter but then took levels in fighter with an archetype that traded out proficiency in heavy armor, your chosen archetype of fighter would not be your favored class.
Also, you could use this principle in reverse. If the half-elf ability requested you to choose a psychic spellcasting class instead of arcane, you could pick sorcerer expecting to take the psychic bloodline, but the racial trait in that case wouldn’t do anything until you had actually taken levels in sorcerer with the psychic bloodline, since sorcerer isn’t normally psychic without the psychic bloodline.
Psychics and overwhelming presence: Rapport psychics receive overwhelming presence as a 9th level discipline spell, but it appears as a 4th level spell on the psychic spell list. Should it be a 9th level spell for psychics?
Yes, it should be a 9th level spell. This will be reflected in the next errata.
Sensate Fighter: The Sensate Fighter doesn’t mention trading out Weapon Training 1, but it gains an extremely similar ability at 5th level, the same level as Weapon Training 1. Should it also trade out Weapon Training 1?
Yes. This will be reflected in the next errata.
Spiritualists and bestow curse: The spiritualist receives bestow curse as both 3rd and 4th level spells. Which is correct?
It should be a 3rd level spell. This will be reflected in the next errata.
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