Arcus's page

The Theoretical Acumen ancestry feat looks like a very nice trick for Gnome Thaumaturges to have in their back pocket.

If you had the Tome implement with the adept ability, does that count as a use of "recall knowledge" or is just "rolling to recall knowledge" not actually using it?

If this qualifies for Theoretical Acumen it could make it very good since you are getting a free recall knowledge every turn.

The next question would be if the skill modifier includes the +1 bonus from Tome implement or not.

I think you may have undervalued the preparation feat.

If you have opportune backstab and you're sure your opponent will be attacked at least twice by allies (and you can guarantee this with a companion), you can trade a second attack for an extra reaction attack at your full bonus.

Basically if your already locked in combat and flaking with your buddy, you can get three attacks in one round with no MAP and all are sneak attacks.

OK, PF2e came out, I loved Paladins so I wanted to make a Champion. After toying with several build ideas I just wasn't too excited by many of the class feats. With APG out I thought to myself that I could probably just find an interesting archetype to dump feats into.

Here we have the Snarecrafter Champion. I don't think this will be really optimized but I think it could be fun.

Ancestry/Heritage: Kobold/SpellScale (none of the other heritages really excited me that much, poison tail seems nice but I plan on using the flickmace so it won't really work. I was going to be taking the Dracomancer feats so this fit with the slight magic theme. With spellscale I would likely take something like detect magic, but maybe ray of frost for a ranged attack)

Dragon Exemplar: Silver (just fit with the theme of the Paladin so well, I picture a noble looking silver scaled kobold with a long neck)

Background: Squire

Class: Champion, Paladin

Str 18
Dex 10
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 12
Cha 12

(Took the extra flaws to boost Con)

Skills: Warfare Lore, Athletics, Religion, (some deity skill), Crafting, Diplomacy, Survival

Feats:

1-BF: Armour Assist
1-BF: Snarecrafting
1-AF: Snare Setter (this fulfills all the snarecrafter requirements)
1-CF: Ranged Reprisal
2-SF: Bon Mot
2-CF: Dedication: Snarecrafter
3: Shield Ally
3-GF: Weapon Proficiency (Gnome Flickmace) (then beg your GM to have access, or build one with crafting or something)
4-SF: Battle Planner (seems to fit with the snare stuff)
4-CF: Surprise Snare
5-AF: Snare Genius (more snares!)
5: Ability increases to Str, Con, Wis, Cha
6-SF: (whatever)
6-CF: Attack of Opportunity
7-GF: Toughness
8-SF: (whatever)
8-CF: Quick Block (more reactions)
9-AF: Dracomancer (truestrike and invisibility)
10-SF: (something)
10-CF: Giant Snares
11-GF: Incredible Investiture
12-SF: (Something)
12-CF: Powerful Snares
13-AF: Elite Dracomancer (Wall of wind, freedom of movement)
14-SF: (something)
14-CF: Divine Reflexes (MORE REACTIONS)
15-GF: (something)
16-SF: (whatever)
16-CF: Shield of Grace (or whatever)
17-AF: (whatever) (could grab kobold breath with ancestral paragon and then dragon breath at this level, which gives you 9d8 cold damage breath weapon in a 30 foot cone once per hour, not bad)
18-SF: (whatever)
18-CF: Celestial form (or something)
19-GF: (whatever)
20-SF: (whatever)
20-CF: Shield Paragon

So the idea is to max out on reactions, ranged reprisal with the flickmace, attack of opportunity, and shield block. Whenever you start your turn next to an enemy, which is hopefully often if you are fulfilling your role as party tank, use surprise snare to dump a snare right on them. If you aren't next to an enemy you are moving up, raising your shield, and attacking. I kind of wish there was a way to get the reactive shield feat early, so you could raise your shield in the same turn as you set a trap, but I don't see an easy way to do this.

The kobold spells are just for some flexibility, you have no stealth capability, but you can turn invisible once a day, truestrike for an important attack, wall of wind for ranged defence, and freedom of movement for those kind of emergencies.

Let me know if you can tweak this or if I got something wrong here.

Thanks.

I was once planning to play a Stonelord Paladin and this is how I was imagining it.

The Stonelord is clearly designed around being a tank, and you can get your AC to be pretty good with this class. With that in mind it will also be highly immobile so having as large a reach as possible will be helpful.

You will obviously want to have power attack and probably combat reflexes towards this. Maybe even lunge.

You may also want to have the shield brace feat. It requires shield focus but this will allow you to wield a two handed reach weapon and a shield.

I would recommend the Lucerne Hammer, as it has reach, brace, and it gets a bonus to sunder weapons and armor (something you will actually be good at with the archetype abilities). It would also be good to have a weapon you can use when an opponent makes it inside your reach, luckily the Advanced Race Guide puts it right next to the archetype - the boulder helmet. Now you can headbutt anyone who gets too close.

Having the ability to enlarge yourself would also be a great help for the strength bonus and the increase in your reach.

The issue I imagined I would run into was movement. It would be hard to get into position, and even harder to change position. Obviously you will be taking the ability to remove fatigue with your only mercy, at I think 6th level. This way you can drop defensive stance and get rid of the fatigue immediately. The movement will still be an issue though. With only 20 foot movement you will be wasting a lot of rounds getting in position.

ShroudedInLight wrote:

Necro, I guess.

Hey, dumb question guys but do Unnatural Evolutions stack with later itterations of the ability?

For instance, having Unnatural Evolution and Improved Unnatural Evolution. Does that give you your choice of 3 1 point evolutions or a 2 point evolution and a 1 point evolution?

They do in fact stack, so your interpretation is correct.

That's very interesting, so if you have greater unnatural evolution you would have a total of 6 evolution points?

Also, kinetic Lancer with bloody infusion and vital blade, because you are now rolling say 10 dice at level 9 with a simple blast, does that give you 10 bleed damage? And composite blast would give you 20 bleed?

Lastly, composite blast technique, on an entropist. Does this allow you to use the composite blast (such as glorious blast) of your shuffling focus element of the day? This would be especially handy for my esoteric entropist who has aether for his first favored focus, it is hard to come up with good composites.

Has anyone tried this archetype? The Entropist

At first the archetype seemed to make the Kineticist overpowered, but as I chose wild talents I realized the changing elements every day really hamper making any kind of build, because your infusions only apply to certain simple blasts and your simple blasts are changing every day. Also, several "always on" powers are dependant on having a certain elemental defence and that is also changing. So while you might have access to more powers, you really have to have multiple builds prepared for the different elements you shuffle into.

The upside of the archetype is having access to way more utility talents. The spontaneous talent feat seems like a must-have, I'll just leave a slot open on most of my levels for the more niche utility talents or infusions.

I will be playing a character coming into the campaign at 7th or 8th level and I went with the Esoteric Array and chose to have Aether as my favoured element at 7th. I know it will be lower damage than some other elements but the utility is so good. There is just so much battlefield control between all the telekinesis powers, along with some of the buffs and debuffs from time.

I also figure at 11th level I can take Composite blast technique. A problem with taking Aether is there are no composite blasts that work well with it, at least none of them seem to give you the full composite blast damage. With composite blast technique, whatever element I roll into that day I can treat it as if I had chosen it as my secondary element as well.

Other than that I would go for precise shot, stealth gathering, and burn resistance.

Has anyone else played this class and can offer some advice to how the actual gameplay goes?

Yeah I agree but I need diehard to get Fast Healer.

Just discovered the Boar's resilience trait that would allow the following:

Bloodrager, crossblooded(aberrant/abyssal), spelleater
"Ragebread" (wereboar-kin)

1 - Diehard
3 - Fast Healer (there is debate about whether this works with the fast healing of spelleater, I believe it should, and the DM seems ok with it)
5 - Tumor Familiar (protector)
6 - Bonus feat power attack (late I know)
7 - ??? (maybe lunge)
9 - Bonus feat combat reflexes
9 - ??? (maybe improved natural attack for claws)

Bloodline powers: claws at 1st, large size while raging at 4th, extra 5' reach at 8th.

Str 20, Con 17 (19 when raging), Dex 14, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 14
(Stats are weird in this game: 18 down, so this means you have an 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, and a 13)

At level 3 I would have fast healing 4 (1 from spell eater, and my con is 23 when raging so that is +3 to my fast healing each round).

At 1st level my weapon attacks when raging are claw, claw, gore. Each attack is at +8 and 1d6+8 damage. It would be nice to have power attack earlier but I think my damage is respectable.

The diehard feat should sort of deal with the issue of ending my rage when below 0 and dying.

Probably just get a chain shirt since my AC is s*+~ anyway and everything will hit me.

I'll get the Pelt of the beast ASAP for adding a bite and hoof attacks to the mix for 6 attacks (4 primary). Then I just need someone to cast strong jaw on me.

After longarm spell my reach will be like 25' I think so full attacking most of the time should be easy.

The improved natural attack feat would only be used on my claw attacks as they will also be increased by Bestial Aspect (Rageshaper) and large size from the Abyssal Bloodline. Plus I may come across other ways to increase my damage dice such as the Strong Jaw spell.

That will eventually add up to a significant increase to my damage dice for claw attacks.

I could definitely cut fast change if I find a better feat. Raging Vitality seems like a good replacement.

Great suggestions everyone thank you.

I have decided to go with Ragebred Skinwalker for the gore and hoof natural attacks, and then will be trying to make the Pelt of the Beast (this campaign will have some customized rules making it easier for anyone to make their own magic items).

Featwise I will be going for the Tumor Familiar (protector archetype), extra feature (for skinwalker), combat reflexes (even without a reach weapon my reach will be quite large by 8th level), power attack, improved natural attack, maybe fast change if the change into boar mode becomes annoying.

Redblade8, do you know the name of that new Bloodrager spell that gives a tail attack? Can't find it on the SRD.

I am a bit torn between Rageshaper and Spelleater.

Rageshaper gets me the better damage with my claws, and some other benefits with transmutation magic that I probably won't have much use for. All I give up for this is improved uncanny dodge and the useless sanctuary ability.

Spelleater gives up both uncanny dodges and damage reduction in exchange for fast healing, but only when raging. This feels like a trap as it won't save me if I fall unconscious from damage, and doesn't really help in healing between battles. Basically it mitigates too little damage, and only ends up healing double my daily rage rounds per day (unless I burn spell slots)

I feel like I need some survivability. Steelblood, and anything else trying to pump my AC feels like a futile effort with this build. In addition to the normal -2 AC while raging, large size will be another -1, and Abyssal Bloodrage is another -2. My AC is going to suck and I would rather try to pump something else for defence.

Thanks again.

Hello,

I am toying with the idea of a Bloodrager who was a failed science experiment. Basically looks like a normal guy but turns into a disgusting hulk when raging.

I am torn between a natural attack build or a reach build.

For natural attacks I was going to go for abyssal bloodline as a half-orc (with the toothy bite attack), and eventually trying to get the Dragon Ferocity style feat. This is a heavy feat investment with feral combat and that stupid weapon focus requirement. The end result would be massive bonuses to strength and x2 or x1.5 strength to damage, three natural attacks at full base attack bonus. Also, spell conduit, and maybe would have to have a 1 level dip into monk to get the unarmed combat and stunning fist feats.

Alternately the reach build would involve a crossblooded aberrant/abyssal build for the large size and aberrant reach, wielding a reach weapon. I would still have the two claw attacks in case things get close. I could even go for combat patrol later. This would likely be a human.

Also tumor familiar would be fun and fit the theme, maybe with protector archetype.

Do you think either of these are viable or how could I improve the concept?

Thanks!

Do abilities that allow you to ignore a certain amount of hardness reduce the hardness by that amount? Or do they only ignore the hardness if the amount you ignore is greater than the object you are damaging?

For example, the Stonelord's stone strike ability ignores 2 hardness per level. If I am level one and strike a wooden door (hardness 5) can I use the ability to reduce the hardness by 2? Or does the ability do nothing to a wooden door until I am level 3 and can ignore 6 hardness?

So I'm planning on starting a new Pathfinder game that will focus on the new downtime and exploration rules in Ultimate Campaign. The idea is to use the hex system in the exploration rules to have the players set out in a new frontier. They will embark on simple one-off adventures. They will be able to choose the pace of the game, what adventures to go on and when. When they have enough resources from adventuring they will be able to use downtime actions to create buildings and organizations.

I just have a few questions for anyone who has used these rules or knows more about them then I do.

1. The prices to purchase buildings seem pretty low. Small buildings like taverns can be created for under 1000gp. This means using the recommended treasure value per encounter (page 399 CRB) a party can pay to buy a tavern outright from one encounter at level 5 (slow progression). The most expensive building - a palace, is just under 20,000gp. A 10th level party gets 3650gp per encounter. So after like 6 encounters (about 1 or 2 sessions for my group) the party could build a palace.
This seems a bit cheap to me. Has anyone else seen these prices work as is? or was it a problem? do you just have to more tightly control how much money the players get?

2. Does anyone know a good source for pre-made adventures designed to be completed in one or two sessions? All of the ones from Paizo seem to be part of big epic adventure paths which is exactly what I want to avoid.
I would love a product that just includes a whole bunch of small adventures, like a book with an adventure every two pages or something. Back in the days of second edition there was this package by TSR of 16 adventures, each one was just a couple ideas for hooks, a few encounters, and a little map. That one product kept me going for a whole campaign.

3. Anyone with experience in this kind of game have any advise or ideas?

Ape...increase INT to 3, teach it a martial weapon and armor proficiency, and give it power attack.

I think there is a conflict of interest with Shadowlord's post, and it should be stricken from the record.

Any statements from the lord of shadows promoting the powers of darkness should be taken with a grain of salt.

Late to the party but:

floating eyeball sphere
corpse creeper
dislocator monster
Limbo-folk
Astral-folk
Murloc
Cthulhu-folk
Planar toads
Umbral bulk
Snake-folk

I had an idea to make a Drow fighter with the Drow Nobility feat chain, maybe with Noble Spell Resistance, but probably not the Umbral Scion chain. I know it won't be doing the damage of a fighter that only takes combat feats, but I thought it would be fun and more versatile then a normal fighter build.

I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions for a template or other feats to take?

Something that frustrated me was that Drow don't have a way to look through their own deeper darkness. Other races like Fetchlings and Tieflings can eventually get the see in darkness ability, Drow seem to have to rely on Blindfight if they want to fight in their darkness. This could lead to the Moonlight Stalker feat, but it seems like a lot of feats just to get +2 attack and damage.

I had also thought about a monk instead of fighter, but I think they would end up even more feat starved. They could get Nightmare Fist though.

To follow up on this if anyone is interested:

I started this campaign using some of your ideas, this is the plan so far.

The demiplane was created by one of the most powerful wizards in history. This wizard came from a society of summoners (this society was actually created by one of my players as a backstory for his character so I'm pretty happy it worked out this way).

This wizard found a way to make a demiplane, and summon the material from other planes to create the land, sea, and air. Originally he would summon this material from the elemental planes, as they are an infinite source. His goal was to make a more perfect world, where he and his summoners society could rule. The society found his ideas ridiculous, and cast him out.

Enraged, the wizard decided to summon material from the prime material plane where the summoner society lives. This would eventually destroy the entire planet, to create a new planet in the demiplane.

To free himself from constantly summoning pieces of his world, the wizard made a bargain with a Brine Dragon, a Magma Dragon, and a Cloud Dragon. The wizard granted the dragons each the power to summon chunks of water, earth, and air respectively, to the demiplane. In exchange the dragons would have free reign over this new land.

For insurance, the wizard keeps one dragon orb for each dragon hidden somewhere on the demiplane.

The dragons began summoning chunks from the prime material plane and formed an island with a good amount of sea around it.

The wizard populated this island with races of his own creation - ratfolk, catfolk, lizardfolk, frogfolk (grippli), monkeyfolk (vanara), birdfolk (tengu), and foxfolk (kitsune). The wizard experimented with giving the foxfolk magical powers. The foxfolk used these powers to find out the truth of the island.

The island is also populated by dire animals of all types, and plant creatures.

Hidden on the island is is an underground base that the wizard works from. Also there are several lookout towers hidden by illusions.

Somehow the wizard got killed (haven't decided yet how) but his creation is still chugging along stealing pieces of a prime material plane.

Meanwhile the god of order and creation has noticed that this demiplane is on the way to destroying one of his planets. The god directs the inevitables to take over the demiplane and stop it from destroying the prime material planet.

Some inevitables enter the plane, bringing with them some axiomites who begin construction of a clockwork army to take over the island.

The players entered the game when the brine dragon summoned a huge chunk of water. The players were in a boat that happened to be in the sea when the chunk was summoned.

The campaign has gone well so far. The players have met several tribes of natives, and have discovered one of the lookout towers. The clockwork creatures have just destroyed the monkeyfolk town, and the players are approaching the lizardfolk tribe for help in fending off the clockworks.

The players will get to meet a foxfolk who can reveal some of the secrets of the island.

In the end the players will be able to decide whether they want to let the inevitables destroy the plane, or they could fight off the inevitables. The players could also find the dragon orbs and force the dragons to start getting material from the elemental planes instead of the prime material. Then they would have to convince the inevitables that the problem has been solved.

I have seen a few threads dealing with combining two or more archetypes. I find these very inspiring for character ideas. My favorite right now is the Bladebound Kensai (Magus), but I was also looking at a Monk of the Four Winds Tetori (Tetori of the Four Winds?).

Anyone have any other archetype combos with good synergy?

Dominigo, you have awesome ideas, I can only imagine you are a great DM. I like the idea of using inevitables. I just wish they had some creatures between the Arbiters (CR 2) and Zelekhuts (CR 9), as my players are starting at level 1 it will be a while before they can take on any serious inveitables.

I am starting a new game with a mix of experienced players and new players. I would like the game to take place on some kind of demiplane. I am going for kind of a "lost" (from the TV show) experience.

The demiplane will be an island that the players wake up on, stranded. They might think it is just a normal island at first. They are ship wrecked, but the ship actually went into a maelstrom which was the portal to this demiplane.

I am a bit torn for the denizens of the island. I want some humanoids that can be allies, maybe a few different tribes. I was thinking about either anthropomorphic creatures (catfolk, ratfolk, that kind of thing) or various fey (satyrs etc.). A big thing would be that there are no humans (or other core races) native to the island.

I also would like a group of invaders to the island. The race for this group I'm not sure about though. I think they should be extraplanar (not demons though, overrused them in pretty much all my last games). I was thinking about maybe githzeri/githyanki, even though they are not supported by pathfinder.

Lastly I might want to have there be a creator of the demiplane. Maybe a wizard or powerful extraplaner being. There would be forbidden ruins or wizard towers on the island left by the creators.

The players would begin by surviving and exploring the island, discovering its inhabitants, and the threat of the invaders. The end goal might be to return to their homeland (back to my established homebrew campaign I have used before). The players may work to defeat the invaders, maybe allying with the natives, or even summoning help from the players homeland.

If anyone has any suggestions it would be much appreciated. Or if you want to steal these ideas for your own game go ahead.

Why oh why are wolf companions large after 7th level. I would say medium would be a stretch for a wolf. Large is ridiculous.

Likewise, why the hell do bear companions only get to be medium??

I am currently playing a goblin ranger archer riding on a small cat. Goblins are awesome for this with their massive dex. Also the bonus to ride and stealth are nice. High movement of the cat helps you stay away from monsters while doing full attacks each round. Bonus points if you can convince your DM to let your cat trade sprint for a climb speed (more like a leopard instead of a cheetah). Then you can climb tall things so bad guys can't attack you while you kill them with arrows.

Hi there,

Two weapon fighting vs. two handed fighting.

The consensus seems to be that two handed fighting is easier to pull off and has less restrictions then two weapon fighting.

It seems to be that the two styles can do about even damage on full attacks. Both get similar strength bonuses to damage - two handed gets 1 1/2x stregnth bonus, and the first weapon of two weapon fighter gets 1x, and the second hand gets 1/2x.

The two weapon fighter gets penalties to hit, but also more chances to hit, and more chances to crit.

The glaring inequalities the double wielder suffers seem to be the heavy feat investment, loss of power on single attack actions, and requirement of both high dex and str.

The idea behind two weapon fighting seems to be that an attack with a weapon in each hand should be equal in power to a single attack with a two-handed weapon.

This is why it makes no sense that a single attack action as a two weapon fighter only lets you get one attack with one hand. The simple and obvious solution to this is let two weapon fighters attack with both weapons once as a standard action. You could go so far as to allow an attack with each weapon during an attack of opprotunity.

To date wizards of the coast seems adamant about preventing this. In 3.5 I don't think their were any feats that allowed this kind of attack (at least in official wizards books). The two-weapon fighter archetype grants this ability at 9th level.

I don't think this ability is at all overpowered. And I think it fits well with the image of a two weapon fighter. They tend to be more nimble then their two handed counterparts (high required dexterity scores of two weapon fighting feats) so why do they have to stand in the same place all the time to be at all effective?

The only case this could be unbalancing is builds that give extra damage that can be duplicated in the extra attacks granted by two weapon fighting, such as sneak attack, high crit chances, or weapon specialization. But these advantages can still be justified by the high feat investment of two weapon fighting.

This is a simple solution that does not require much work to be house-ruled. You just have to replace the 9th level two weapon fighter ability with something else.

Snorter wrote:

Skirmish (Combat)
Benefit: You deal an additional +1d6 damage on all attacks you make during any round in which you move at least 10 feet. Skirmish bonus damage is precision-based; it is not multiplied on a crit, and creatures immune to critical hits or sneak attacks are also immune to skirmish bonus damage. The extra damage applies only to attacks taken during your turn. You must be able to see the target(s) well enough to pick out vital spots.
This extra damage applies to ranged attacks, but only if the target is within point blank range (normally 30 feet, although this can be expanded with the Point-Blank Shot feat).
If you have a base land speed of at least 40 ft., you also gain a +1 competence bonus to AC during any round in which you move at least 10 feet.
Source: This feat supercedes the Scout class feature and the Highland Stalker prestige class feature of the same name, from Complete Adventurer.

Skirmish, Greater (Combat)
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +6, Skirmish, Improved Skirmish
Benefit: Your skirmish bonus damage increases to +3d6. Your skirmish AC bonus (if applicable) improves to +3.
Source: This feat supercedes the Scout class feature, from Complete Adventurer.

Skirmish, Improved (Combat)
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +5, Skirmish
Benefit: Your skirmish bonus damage increases to +2d6. Your skirmish AC bonus (if applicable) improves to +2.
Source: This feat supercedes the Scout class feature, from Complete Adventurer.

Skirmish, Superior (Combat)
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +9, Skirmish, Improved Skirmish, Greater Skirmish
Benefit: Your skirmish bonus damage increases to +4d6. Your skirmish AC bonus (if applicable) improves to +4.
Source: This feat supercedes the Scout class feature, from Complete Adventurer.

Skirmisher, Master (Combat)
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +12, Skirmish, Improved Skirmish, Greater Skirmish, Superior Skirmish
Benefit: Your skirmish bonus damage increases to +5d6. Your skirmish AC bonus (if applicable) improves to +5.
Source: This feat supercedes the Scout class feature, from Complete Adventurer.

Are these feats in Pathfinder? Where are they from? Barbarian using these feats with two-handed weapon, power attack, vital strike, etc seems amazing.

Hi all,

A character in my game is an archer ranger with the craft: bows skill. After the first adventure he is level 3 and naturally wants to craft his mighty +3 masterwork composite longbow. Seems simple enough to me, He probably has just enough money to buy it outright but he is a self sufficient ranger-type who wants to make it himself.

So, here we go.

Composite Longbow...110gp
Mighty+3...300gp
=410gp x 10 = 4100sp

Taking 10 on his craft skill he will be getting exactly 21, which is also the DC to make a mighty+3 comp. longbow.

21 x 21 = 441

4100/441 = 9.3 weeks to craft.

The masterwork portion takes another 7.1 weeks to craft for a total time of about 16 and a half weeks. I don't think the rest of the party wants to sit around for this amount of time.

This all seems fairly ridiculous to make one bow that isn't even magical.

I can kind of understand why this needs to take a long time as he is basically making a profit of 600 or so gold, so they can't have him able to do it in a week or he could just give up adventuring and make super bows all his life.

Does anyone else have a way of dealing with this situation?

One solution I thought of is that he could expend more resources to finish the job faster. He doesn't really care about the economics of it, he just wants to make a bow. So I figured if he spends twice the amount in raw materials on the bow he can finish it in half the time, and so on for different amounts. He could probably finish it in 5% of the time if he was prepared to spend 95% of the full cost of the bow.

Has anyone else had this situation come up and have some solutions?

Thanks.

Misdirection spell, page 314 core rule book, or non detection, page 317. A second and third level spell that both last one hour per level and both have a good chance of negating detect magic, or most other divination spells, allowing for invisibility to work. I don't think these spells would work with illusion (figment) spells, such as major image, because these spells target objects or creatures.

See the trouble? It takes a second or third level spell to only have a CHANCE of defeating a 0-level cast-at-will spell. I think Pathfinder has basically made casting these spells a requirement now for casting any illusions if you plan on using them against any spell casters. Why isn't the effect just built in and require slightly more investment in the detecting wizard to defeat the illusion.

Firstly, a little old 1st level spell foils Detect Magic. If you have any permanent Illusions that don't have Magic Aura on them, you deserve what you get. So this only really effects tactical Illusions. If you're using an Illusion to set up an ambush, 3 rounds is plenty of time to spring it. Furthermore, a Wizard who is using Detect Magic in combat is not using any of his other, much better, spells.

Also, It a lot harder than you think for Wizards to Detect Magic all day. Concentrating on a spell is a Standard Action. If you take a Standard and Move Action in the same round, that's a hustle. If you hustle for more than 1 hour per day, then you're Fatigued.

Magic Aura says it can only target one touched object weighing up to 5 pounds per level. It seems like it cannot be targeted on a another magic effect that isn't attached to an object.

The wizard wouldn't have to have detect magic active all day. But they could pretty easily cast the spell in every room in a dungeon for example.

I truly apologize for drudging this up again. This is probably 10% rules question, 80% b**%!ing, and 10% suggestion for a house-rule.

The question is can detect magic pierce invisibility, and/or other illusions.

I am really disappointed that this is not clearly defined or even addressed in the Pathfinder book (at least no where I found it).

The problem for me has become worse with Pathfinder now that Detect Magic is cast at-will. I really have an issue with a 0-level spell that pretty much every magic user can cast at-will rendering an entire school of magic virtually useless.

What is the point of an illusionary wall in a dungeon when just about any good wizard is going to be detecting magic in every room. It takes no effort, they don't even need to spend more then a round for most rooms because they can clear them by just checking the presence or absence of magic.

I am aware of the limitations of the spell particularly around invisibility. It takes 3 rounds to pinpoint invisible targets. However even if the invisible person walks out of the spell area by the time the auras are pinpointed, there is a good chance the wizard can pick up the lingering trail of the faint aura that lasts 1d6 rounds. Then they can pretty much keep following the aura, and the invisible person can't run without being heard by the wizard.

The consensus of most of my Google search results seems to be that detect magic does detect illusions, because illusions are magic and there isn't anywhere that says illusions fool detect magic. I just think this should be stated somewhere, considering the debate the issue causes.

I know I would be very frustrated as an Illusionist, a specialist in trickery, if my magic was defeated by all of the 1st level wizards running around.

My feeling is that in a world where detect magic can be used so easily, illusion spells would have built in "Magic Auras" around them(in particular - no aura at all), fooling detection spells that are not designed to pierce illusions.

Maybe detect magic should just give you a bonus to your will save to disbelieve the illusion.

There could even be a 1st level spell Detect Illusion that would operate the same as detect magic but would only detect illusions.

Magic from performance, the way you say Kerney, seems possible, though I still like the idea of an "arcane dilettante" (nice way of putting it Set).

I think what I should do is make an arcane dilettante archetype for bard. And just use that as the most common bards in my game.

They had better!

The more the merrier.

Am I the only one who is tired of arcane spellcasting classes getting all their power "from within" or some such rubbish. I have always thought spells should have a definite source. Their are two classes in particular where I was disappointed that they don't use spellbooks.

These classes are the Bard and Summoner. Both classes cast arcane spells but offer no good explanation of how they acquire them. Bards offer no explanation at all, and all that it says for summoner is "their power comes from within" and that it is like a wizards, only limited because they summon Eidolons. Well, its not really like a wizards at all is it? For one thing they no longer need a spellbook, and now they don't even need to memorize spells.

I have no such issues with the other classes. No problems with divine casters, their source of magic is obvious (though I never liked that rangers cast spells, seems unnecessary).

Sorcerers are fine by me as well, their class is entirely centered on their source of magic being their bloodline.

Alchemists have their own interesting source of magic - alchemical mixtures.

Witches are very similar to wizards, but I really like that they have a mysterious patron and that they get spells from their familiar. I find the idea to be very thematic and seems to match well with the historical image of a witch getting her power from her familiar.

Arcane spells are pretty amazing and powerful. If you can get access to arcane spells without a spellbook and memorization then you'd better have a good reason.

There is no excuse for summoners to get arcane spells without a spellbook. They basically say in the class description that they are wizards who focus so much on summoning that they give up access to other kinds of spells and in turn get to summon an eidolon.

And for bards I feel that their access to magic is basically that they are so well traveled and such jacks of all trades that they can pick up some arcane spells. They dabble in magic just as a wizard would, they just don't dedicate themselves to the same extent.

Anyway this all really bugs me. I also think it is better to have more classes using spellbooks because it give wizards more chances to share spells, or kill each other to steal more spells. It makes arcane magic through spellbooks a definite mechanic that various classes have more or less access to.

I really want to house rule that Summoners and Bards must use spellbooks, prepare spells ahead of time, and be cast based on INT, just like a wizard.

I guess bards will suffer a little from MAD, having to cast based off INT. But they are supposed to be Jacks of all trades, master of none. Their spells known and spells per day would be changed to be similar to a wizard, though proportionally less I suppose. They would have access to the full wizard spell list. I guess their are some bard-only spells right? They could get those too, it takes a master or performance to pull them off, wizards just don't get it.

Summoners could be the same basically. Change the key ability to INT, no problems there. Spells known and per day same as bard pretty much. Same thing if their are summoner-only spells, their mastery of summoning gives them access to spells that wizards don't

The main balance issue might be that the bard and summoner are getting access to a much broader list of spells, but I don't think this is too powerful, they still only get so many spells per day, which would be much less then a wizard, and their advancement is much slower then a wizard.

This might take more work but it might be cool also to allow arcane spellcasting classes to stack their spellcasting ability when multiclassing.

tl;dr - I hate bard and summoner spellcasting, make them cast like wizards with spellbooks using int.

Is it possible to wield two shields at once and gain the AC bonus from both?

I guess even if you can't it would be pretty awesome to be a fighter with two spiked shields. Get all of the feats in the shield mastery tree, and weapon focus/specialization in spiked shield. Two-weapon fighting, improved/greater bull rush.

You would be bull rushing everyone all the time.

Gestalt would make that Paladin/Sorceror/Dragon Disciple combo excellent. Just start out with Paladin/Sorceror and then change your sorceror to DD when you can (level 6 I think?) You end up with Full BAB, almost max sorceror spells (go back to sorc after DD and you even get your Draconic bloodline 20th level power) and full on Paladin abilites including their divine spells. 10 levels of d12 hp, stat bonuses. Also not too much MAD, top up your Cha and Str, followed by Con. Get the bonded weapon option as Paladin since you will be your own mount with the wings.

Not getting the mounted feats, at least till later, sounds great. Lets me focus on archery more.

I looked at the Cavalier class. While it would be nice to get a mount right off the bat, I don't like the other class abilities. It doesn't make much sense to be shouting challenges when I am trying to snipe from a tree. Also Stealth would be cross-class, though I guess if I had to I could dip ranger or rogue or something.

As for other feats, precise shot and improved precise shot seem like the logical next steps. I don't know if there are any other feats that would benefit this character very much...

Ok, I had this idea for a character build. Let me know if you think it works/could be improved.

The idea is to have a character firing from the back of a mount that can climb and move fast. Since most things players fight don't climb or fly you will be pretty safe most of the time (at low-mid levels anyway).

I chose to go with a small character as it is easier to find a medium mount to ride then a large one, especially if it should also climb.

Goblins are great for this build because they are small, have +4 dex, +4 ride, and +4 stealth (in addition to +4 stealth from size). The problem, and it isn't a small one, is the -2 strength.

I think Ranger is the best class for this build.

The build below assumes a somewhat flexible DM. I will have to ask if they can allow a variant of the small cat animal companion, where instead of getting the sprint ability it gets a climb speed of 20 at 4th level. This seems reasonable as it basically assumes the small cat is similar to the leopard in the bestiery instead of the cheetah.

The progression of abilities until 7th is below. * for bonus class feats.

Goblin with 22 dex.
Ranger 1 - Mounted Combat
Ranger 2 - *Rapid Shot
Ranger 3 - Mounted Archery
Ranger 4 - **Get a leopard**
Ranger 5 - Boon Companion
Ranger 6 - *Manyshot
Ranger 7 - Deadly Aim

This is the core of the build, the rest is whatever. It hurts having to wait till 7th to get deadly aim. You could get it at first but then you push back all of your mount feats.

One nice thing is +18 stealth check at first level (+6 dex, +1 rank, +3 trained, +4 size, +4 racial). So you can pretty much hide from anything all the time, you can even snipe at only -2 to your roll(normal sniping penalty is -20). If you shoot from 100 feet away they have a -10 to their perception check meaning they will generally never find you, and it only gets better with level.

Also if you hide somewhere you could send your cat out to trip opponents for you or your friends.

So what else could I add to this?