Abba's page

From the Core Rulebook:

Fighting Defensively as a Standard Action

You can choose to fight defensively when attacking. If you do so, you take a –4 penalty on all attacks in a round to gain a +2 to AC until the start of your next turn.

When fighting defensively is it possible to make ONLY ONE attack?
In this assumption the phrase: "you take a –4 penalty on all attacks in a round" would apply only to opportunity attacks.

Am I wrong?

G. Luca

Hi all,
I'm in doubt about the Spellstaff druidic spell.
The Core rulebook say:

You store one spell that you can normally cast in a wooden quarterstaff. Only one such spell can be stored in a staff at a given time, and you cannot have more than one spellstaff at any given time. You can cast a spell stored within a staff just as though it were among those you had prepared, but it does not count against your normal allotment for a given day. You use up any applicable material components required to cast the spell when you store it in the spellstaff.

Am I right saying that to store a spell in the staff is needed to cast in succession, BOTH Spellstaff and the spell to be stored?
Or is Spellstaff casting ALONE sufficent to store aspell inside the wood?

Moreover: the spell to be stored could be of every spell level the caster is allowed to use (so a 6th level spell could allow to duplicate a 9th level spell)?

G. Luca

Hi all.
I'm currently running STAP using PFRPG game sistem.
The party is playing "Enemies of my enemy" and is currently preparing the Arena confrontation with the crawling head and the death giants.
I was really surprised, reading the adventure,when I noted that Orcus will forge the alliance with the party ONLY if their champions win the confrontation... not really an easy task.
What would happen in the case the party champion is killed?

Again, in the case the party reach Arborea is stated that the moon dogs will attack a party comprising evil PCs when Sir Andros arrive.... but th adventyre say also that Sir will ask the evil character to leave.. attacking only if he refuse.
So... What would happen? Moon dogs attack on sight with Sir Andros o would they wait until Sir Andros ask the evil to leave?
What happen if the party defeat Sir Andros?

Suggestions are welcome.

Hi all,
according to the GameMastery Giude, characters adventuring on Outer planes (in example Abyss) experiment adverse effect.
In the cited case, the plane is Strongly Chaos and Evil-aligned, so

"a –2 comulative circumstance penalty applies on all Intelligence-,
Wisdom-, and Charisma-based checks made by all creatures" both on the base of evil and lawful alignment.

But what "checks" mean?
Only Skill checks?
Or may be every dice roll based on Wisdom, Charisma or Intelligence?
In this case also alla the save rolls of Paladins, Will saves of other characters would be involved.
Also, what about the DC of the characters spells? Are reduced by the cited effect?

What do you think about it?

Gian Luca

Hi all,
I'm wondering about the Reincarnate spell effect when cast on outer planes.
I'm mastering an adventure on the 87th layer of the Abyss and a pc died. A druid cast Reincarnate on him. In your opinion:

1. Should the spell work also when cast on outer planes?
By RAW interpretation of the spell, I think yes, BUT.....

2. If the spell work, should the druid use the same reicarnation table as written on Core Rulebook?
I mean, the nature influence is absent in the Abyss, and the possibility to receive a human body should be lesser than that to get (in example) a tiefling one. You are in the Abyss after all.... chaos and evil rule there.

In the case the CR table shouldn't work, does anybody has a table usable in the Abyss?

This thoughts make me to focus myself also to the possible alteration to different class abilities in the Abyss.
3.Wild shape druidic abilit: is it alloweb to a Druid to wild shape into something in the Abyss? After all, Nature power is absent there.
4. Paladin auras & divine bond: does them work in Abyss? By RAW it seem yes, but this sound senseless to me.
How can a bond with a good God be useful in plnae where evil rules and shape everything to the point to counter the casting od good spells? The same with the Aura abilities of the paladin: if the Abyss is a place where evil and choas are overwhelming, how is it possibile that a single paladin spread auras of good powers?

Your opinion are welcone.

Hi all,
does anyone translated SCAP into Pathfinder RPG?
In the case, would it be possible to share such translation?

Gian Luca

According to the rules:

Death Attack (Ex)
If an assassin studies his victim for 3 rounds and then makes a sneak attack with a melee weapon that successfully deals damage, the sneak attack has the additional effect of possibly either paralyzing or killing the target (assassin's choice). Studying the victim is a standard action. The death attack fails if the target detects the assassin or recognizes the assassin as an enemy (although the attack might still be a sneak attack if the target is denied his Dexterity bonus to his Armor Class or is flanked). If the victim of such a death attack fails a Fortitude save (DC 10 + the assassin's class level + the assassin's Int modifier) against the kill effect, she dies..... If the victim's saving throw succeeds, the attack is just a normal sneak attack.

Ok. It seem fine, so assassins which can study their enemies and then make a sneak could try to kill them at once, but:

Uncanny Dodge (Ex)
At 2nd level, an assassin (or a barbarian or a 4th level rogue) cannot be caught flat-footed , even if the attacker is invisible. He still loses his Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. An assassin with this ability can still lose his Dexterity bonus to AC if an opponent successfully uses the feint action against him.

Nice. So the assassin can still try a sneak to kill such enemies but only if he is flanking them (so at least two enemies are needed). But:

Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex)
A rogue of 8th level or higher (or a barbarian or assasssin of 5th level) can no longer be flanked .
This defense denies another rogue the ability to sneak attack the character by flanking her, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target does.
If a character already has uncanny dodge (see above) from another class, the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum rogue level required to flank the character.

If I'm right, as a consequence a 2nd level barian cannot be targeted by a death attack by, in example, a 10th level assassin unless the assassin is flanking him.
Or a 8th level rogue cannot be targeted by death attack of a 15th level assassin (if he could exist) in every case (flat footed or flanking), since the assassin has not at least 14 rogue levels.

I think there is something wrong here. Am I right?

Dear fellows,
could a paladin using a greatsword use the "lay-your-hands" ability on himself without any kind of penality during a full-attack action?

"Touching" himself is a swift action, so it doesn't interrupt the full-attack routine, but is this true also if the paladin is using a big two-handed weapon as a greatsword?
Someone could suggest that the paladin will simply lower the greatsword point to the ground holding it with one hand and raise it again to attack in the full-attack routine after healing himself, but from an other point of view, the action to lower the greatsword point to the ground could be seen as a free drop-item action (the greatsword is long and heavy), so raising it again would became a picking-up item move action, preventing the paladin to take the full-attack round and provoking attack of opportunity.

What do you think about it?

What kind of bonuses are those enlisted under the Paladin smite evil attack and Ranger favored enemy?
Morale, insight, enhancement, whatever else?

In other words, dose this bonuses stack each other enf or stack with other attack bonuses?

According to the rules:
At 11th level, a paladin can expend two uses of her smite evil ability to grant the ability to smite evil to all allies within 10 feet, using her bonuses....

This is clear, but, regarding smite evil:
If this target is evil, the paladin adds her Cha bonus (if any) to her attack rolls and adds her paladin level to all damage rolls made against the target of her smite...... Regardless of the target, smite evil attacks automatically bypass any DR the creature might possess.

In addition, while smite evil is in effect, the paladin gains a deflection bonus equal to her Charisma modifier (if any) to her AC against attacks made by the target of the smite...

I understand that:
1. The paladin Aura of justice grant the smite evil ability ONLY to the paladin allies, NOT also to the paladin himself. He need to use an additional smite evil to gain the bonuses;
2. The smite evil granted to the allies doesn't modify the allies AC, but only their attack bonuses;
3. The smite evil ability granted to the allies allow them to bypass all the DR the the enemy may have.

Am I wrong?

However, it seem to me that this ability is absolutely unbalanced....

According to the adventure text (page 83, Dungeon magazine April 2007:

Khala uses his wastrilith pact at this point to swap places with Xerkamat as soon as any attack that would otherwise slay him is
about to strike home once he is below 40 hit points.
If Xerkamat is dead, Khala instead teleports to a distant location. Once his fast healing has cured his damage, he teleports back here to attempt to finish the PCs.
He repeats these tactics until he or the party is dead.

So, every time Khala is below 40 hp, he teleports away.
In this way, if the party isn't able to kill him in one round when Khala is below the 40 hp limit, the encounter can go on infinitely (if the party stay in the temple, of course).

Do you agree with me?