Akritas's page

I'm still pretty much a newbie and am starting my first wizard over the weekend. I've need even seen one played much so I'm looking for ideas on what to do when I'm not unloading a spell. I only have the 4 slots and at least one will probably be for mage armor and such. That leaves me with a lot of rounds of combat, and I'd rather not be totally useless 4/5 rounds of a fight, even if a well placed spell at the start can change the battle.

So far I'm thinking about loading up on marbles. They are dirt cheap and not totally useless. They weight 2 pounds a bad though so while it gets a few more rounds a 7 strength wizard can't have many.

For cantrips Daze looks alright for what it does. Granted I am using my turn to get a chance at making him loose his, but in PFS the party usually seems to outnumber the foe anyway, so it isn't as bad an idea as it sounds. Acid splash for 1d3+1 with an acid focus is pretty bad but at least it is easy to hit.

Then there is the crossbow, but it seems like a lot of money and encumbrance for plinking on the off turns. I'd probably rather invest in a new spell of the spellbook...

Have I pretty much covered the options, or am I missing something obvious?

Are they reusable, or would are they considered 'used up' after you throw them?

Not really sure if this is an advice or rules question so feel free to move it.

I'm considering getting a war pony or two to act as a baggage animal for a weak character. They are medium so I should be able to get them where I want them and a lot more affordable for a level 2 character than a magic item. The war part makes them come with tricks, so getting them to stick around should prove easier.

What I don't know (having played all of 4 games) is how pack animals would respond in combat. Assuming they aren't directly attacked should I expect them to attack, run away or stay put? Attack isn't really ideal and I'd sooner not have to chase down my stuff after every fight if I can avoid it.

What exactly are the errata RAW/RAI rules for PFS? Basically, I have an archivist bard whose second level power Lore Master* was miscopied** and I don't see a correction in the official errata. What are the rules here and how should I apply this power?

*http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/bard/archetypes/paizo---bard- archetypes/archivist

**http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/pathfinde rRPG/rules/aPGArchivistBardQuestion

Well, I leveled up a character for the first time not that long ago and with a sizable pile of gold I'm looking over all the shiny new toys I can get. Unfortunately, I'm discovering I can't carry them. I only have a strength of 10 (archer bard) and when you count the 20 pound armor, bow and some arrows I have about 5 pounds of non-weapon equipment I can carry without going into medium encumbrance. Since I have a Dex of 19 I'd loose rather a lot doing so.

Now, eventually that Handy Haversack will deal with it, but I won't have the gold or PP (PFS) for one of those for quite a while. Muleback cords are another magic possibility and I have been making sure I save enough gold to have the 1,000 the instant I hit 9 PP. That still leaves a few adventures though.

The solution I hit upon was the 8 gp donkey. While it isn't always easy to get to, it is affordable and can easily haul around camping gear and things I won't need in combat, like food. In my 3 games at least, I don't need such things indoors or underground much. However, playing through the first scenario where he really matters, PFS Intro 3, I realized that just dropping the rope and letting him wander in the middle of battle could cause problems. Namely, he could run away in the middle of the fight with all my stuff.

Here it wasn't a problem due to an NPC, but it got me thinking and I have spent a while trying to find a solution. I'm still undecided so I figured I would ask the veterans here what they do.

My solutions:

Have a piton/spike and rope to tie him. Unfortunately that means giving up a combat turn so I don't like it.

Hope he doesn't run away and track him down if he does. I could add bells and maybe some sort of hook to slow him down. Still, with a Survival of -2 (Bard) that's risky and could slow the party down in bad ways.

Tie him to me. Unfortunately, he is stronger, so if he runs, guess who is in trouble. Maybe a pack dog...

I looked through the spell list but nothing seems very useful, and I doubt I would use a spell slot for this if there were something.

Ride him. I'd have to upgrade the donkey to a combat horse, but that's not too unaffordable. I'm a little concerned about how this would level up though. At lvl 2 15 HP is respectable but pretty soon it won't be. Mounted combat sounds like fun but I have a Human in PFS so I hate to use feats on something I probably can't use half the time.

Anyway, I ask your collective wisdom here. I'm not sure how practical a pack animal is unless you have a designated holder, which is probably not worth it. I'm also not sure how well mounts hold up since I have yet to play a game about the 1st level. I'm also getting annoyed at not being able to have a buckler or cold iron arrows because I can't afford 8 pounds more encumbrance, so any help is appreciated.

I'm trying to level up a Pathfinder character for the first time and I have hit a few snags. Question 1, are favored class alternatives allowed in PFS play? If my human bard could snap an extra cantrip instead of an HP it would be worth considering. Question 2, if a player takes the slow XP progression, does he also get less gold? I see the PP progression is reduced to keep him on the same level, but I don't anywhere where it says if treasure is also halved.

I guess while I am at it, if anyone wants to chime in about 1st level spells I'm still scratching my head about it. I have Grease and Silent Image and am divided between Hideous Laughter, Charm Person, Haze of Dreams and Touch of Gracelessness.

Hey all. I'm new to the RPG world, but I have been following the Order of the Stick webcomic for a while and eventually decided to look at the game it was based on. It didn't take long to figure out that there are actually several sets of D&D style rules and I was drawn to Pathfinder mostly because it has an interesting world and maps I could explore. I'm always a sucker for maps and histories real or fictional.

Anyway, I've come up with an idea for a character, but I'm not sure how best to practically show it. Typing up the whole thing is a little much data entry at the moment, but basically I am going for a bookworm/loremaster type focusing on buffing and/or healing devoted to the idea of Law. A wizard looked like the obvious choice for that except they don't really seem to be able to be devoted to an ideal like Paladins or clerics and I wanted that to be a little more central to the character than a mostly-ignored line on the character sheet. A cleric could work but they seem to make weak loremasters and are fairly focused on melee. And Oracle might work but I am a little lost in all the options there, haha.

So to finally get to the question, what is the best way to make this idea of a law-oriented healer/buffing type work? I've never played the game before I am not sure how useful a cleric with little melee would be, and Oracles have so many options that without experience I have a hard time knowing what makes sense.