What kind of things would you consider good practice to carry for any character (at mid-levels).
Off the top of my head my list for a prepared adventurer would look something like this:
Pathfinder's kit (covers food & water)
2x 50 feet of rope
3x sunrod (if no darkvision)
potion of see invisibility
potion of water breathing
potion of fly
scroll of protection from energy
2x potion of cure serious wounds
wand of cure light wounds
granted, not everyone will be able to activate the scroll or wand, but we're assuming that you are traveling with companions that can do that for you (they're both common spells).
Does anyone know of a checklist like that out there?
Having recently run across a ghost using malevolence for the first time, I am left befuddled by the encounter. It takes one of the most poorly defined and easily abused spells in PF (magic jar) and removes its most obvious weak point (the lifeless body of the caster), and then combines it with the inherent mind-affecting immunity of undead.
The encounter went something like this (party is fighter, ranger, bard, cleric):
round 1: ghost wins initiative, moves adjacent to the fighter and easily possesses him. rest of party stand around looking at each other and wondering what will happen next (nobody managed to identify the ghost properly)
round 2: fighter begins wailing on his own party, who now realizes that something is wrong and tries to disable the fighter. fascinate and hold person fail utterly as the undead controlling the body is immune to their effects. Unfortunately, the cleric doesn't have protection vs evil prepared.
round 3: luckily the party has recently found a wand of levitate so the bard start UMDing it on party members to get out of reach
rounds 4-6: everyone gets safely in the air after running away from the fighter. The cleric channels a couple of times to try and harm the ghost, but it's hard to tell if it has any effect. The ghost is frustrated and begins attacking itself. The party watches helplessly.
rounds 7-10: fighter kills himself... ghost exists the dead body and lunges for the ranger, instantly possessing him. The bard dismisses the ranger's levitate
later rounds: the bard and cleric watch the ranger kill himself just like the fighter did. The bard drinks his potion of invisibility, and the cleric gets lucky on his will save, so the two of them run as fast as they can for as long as they can, thankfully losing the ghost somewhere along the way.
so with half the party dead and no plan for next time, we're at a loss. What can we do against a malevolent ghost? We can't dispel the creature's ability because it's supernatural, and there doesn't seem to be much we can do to expel it from the host once it's established. I understand protection vs evil will prevent possession, but there doesn't seem to be an easy easy way to get a constant protection vs evil effect. I'm not sure if we're misinterpreting something or if malevolent ghosts are intended to be essentially save-or-die type of encounters. Does anyone have any suggestions or clarifications for us?
The corrupting touch says it's a touch attack but used as a standard action, so I don't think it's viable for that. The draining touch says it's a touch attach but doesn't say its a standard action to use, so it makes me think that it is doable?
A pixie's invisbility (not natural invisibility) reads: A pixie remains invisible even when it attacks. This ability is constant, but the pixie can suppress or resume it as a free action.
Can it also remain invisible when it uses its spell-like abilities? Or is attacking a special exception in this case? To me it doesn't make a lot of sense to retain invisibility when attacking but not when using SLAs, but RAW appear to imply that scenario.
I've looked through a few other threads about these kinds of things, but most of them seem to be focused on grappling as PCs. I've actually found that the biggest problem I have is for grappling with things that are supposed to be good with grappling! EG mr giant octopus who gets to make a single attack with grab, grapple his prey, and then be relegated to making a single grapple check per round instead of his normal 9 attacks!
The initial version can also be found in the spoiler below, though the formatting on the forums makes them a bit hard to read!
Alternate Grapple Rules:
You can maintain grapple either as a standard action or in place of an attack. Regardless of the method of maintaining the grapple, you may only make 1 grapple attempt per opponent. Additionally, you may only attempt to start a grapple with 1 opponent per round. This allows you to grapple or attack multiple opponents (within reason), but never more than you have attacks. Each grapple beyond the first inflicts a cumulative -5 to all attack rolls, CMB, and CMD. This overrides the penalty for iterative attacks (if any), but stacks with the -4 penalty if you do not have two hands (or an appendage with the grab ability) free to grapple.
If you choose to maintain in place of an attack, roll your grapple check without bonuses. Success indicates that you maintain the grapple and are able to inflict damage or pin the opponent as described below.
If you choose to maintain as a standard action, you get a +5 on your grapple check and can inflict damage to your opponent, move the grapple (taking up your move action), or pin the opponent.
Failure in either case indicates that you are unable to maintain the grapple and both you and your opponent lose the grappled condition immediately. All grapple dependent abilities (eg constrict, rake, etc) can only trigger once per round and only trigger on checks to maintain to grapple, not checks to start it unless otherwise stated.
Greater Grapple gives you an additional +2 as before, but allows you to start a grapple in place of an attack and allows you to make attacks of opportunity while grappling instead of its normal effect.
Sample combat rounds
Creature with multiple natural attacks w/grab (eg giant octopus)
Round 1
Takes full attack
Makes first attack
Gets free grapple check from grab ability at +4
Successfully grabs an opponent
Immediately gains grappled condition (-4 dex, -2 atk, no AoO)
Makes subsequent attacks at a -2 for grappled
Deals damage, but cannot grapple again
Start grapple with 1 opponent per round max
Round 2
Chooses to maintain in place of an attack and takes full attack
Makes grapple check in place of first attack
Grapple check at a +2 (+4 grab, -2 grappled, no bonus) to maintain
Succeeds and deals normal damage + constrict
Makes second attack at a -2 for grappled
Gets free grapple check from grab ability at +2 (+4 grab, -2 grappled)
Successfully grabs second opponent
Immediately gains -5 to atk, CMB, CMD
Makes subsequent attacks (at -7 for grappled + multiple grapples)
Round 3
Continues to maintain grapples (forced to do so in place of attack) and lash out with other attacks
Makes grapple check in place of first attack
Grapple check at a -3 (+4 grab, -2 grappled, -5 mult. grapples) to maintain
Succeeds and deals normal damage + constrict
Makes grapple check in place of second attack
Grapple check at a -3 (+4 grab, -2 grappled, -5 mult. grapples) to maintain
Succeeds and deals normal damage + constrict
Makes subsequent attacks (at -7 for grappled + multiple grapples)
etc... remember that the octopus’ CMD is at -7 at this point (-4 dex grappled, -5 mult. grapples), so his grasp is easier to escape than it would be otherwise.
I am looking for feedback, suggestions, and concerns about these rules, since I would love to be able to use them against my players without breaking the game too horribly!
I thought this was discussed to death for some reason, but I can't seem to find any of the threads...
Can the vision of madness domain power be used on enemies?
Vision of Madness:
(Sp): You can give a creature a vision of madness as a melee touch attack. Choose one of the following: attack rolls, saving throws, or skill checks. The target receives a bonus to the chosen rolls equal to 1/2 your cleric level (minimum +1) and a penalty to the other two types of rolls equal to 1/2 your cleric level (minimum –1). This effect fades after 3 rounds. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.
It seems a little crazy to allow a lvl 10 cleric to be giving enemies -5 to atk and saves in exchange for a +5 to skill checks... with no save! It seems like it's easily fixed by only allowing willing targets or allowing the target rather than the caster to choose which of the three to augment. Alternatively, it could be allowed a will save if cast on an enemy.
The magus can expend 1 point from his arcane pool as an immediate action after hitting a target with a weapon attack, granting him a premonition of his enemy’s intentions. The magus gains a bonus to his AC and on Reflex saves equal to his Intelligence modifier (minimum 0) against attacks by that opponent until the beginning of his next turn.
There doesn't seem to be a lot of guidance here. It appears to be an unnamed bonus to AC. Does this bonus apply to touch AC? What about flat-footed? Does it add to CMD?
Based on the description, it makes the most sense to me to treat it as a dodge bonus (added to touch and CMD, not flatfooted, denied if dexterity is denied). Any other interpretations out there? I tend to interpret things more liberally than my DM, so I would love to see how others have played this!
So I tried reading through all the threads about negative levels and I'm left with two questions!
1. Does reducing caster level mean that a caster loses access to higher level spells?
2. How do negative levels affect HD dependent effect? EG if I'm 7th level and get hit with an enervation for 4 negative levels, am I suddenly effectively a 3 HD creature and subject to automatic death from cloudkill?
So I thought that 3.5 had a rule that if you had DR/XX, you automatically overcame DR/XX on other creatures. Is that no longer the case in PF? It seems to explicitly call out certain ones that overcome - eg magic overcomes magic, evil subtype overcomes DR/evil. So if two flesh golems with DR/adamantine are fighting each other, do they bypass each other's DR?
I'm looking for feedback on alternate grapple rules. I've been reading through old grapple threads and having some good discussions in a new one and I think I have a rule set ironed out, but would like some community feedback as to whether these are too easily abused and/or would break grappling creatures.
The main ideas of the rules are to provide more flexibility in grappling, eliminate the controller/defender imbalance, and remove the incentive for some creatures to grab-constrict-release as an optimal tactic.
These rules only apply to the rules pertaining maintaining the grapple. Whether similar changes could be applied to initiating the grapple is a different story, though feel free to comment on that as well!
Alternate Grapple Rules:
You can maintain grapple as an attack action or a standard action.
If you choose to maintain as an attack action, roll your grapple check normally. Success indicates that you maintain the grapple and are able to inflict damage or pin the opponent as described below.
If you choose to maintain as a standard action, you get a +5 on your grapple check and can inflict damage to your opponent, move the grapple (taking up your move action), or pin the opponent.
Failure in either case indicates that you are unable to maintain the grapple and both you and your opponent lose the grappled condition immediately.
Note that all grapple dependent abilities (eg constrict, rake, etc) can only trigger once per round.
You can grapple multiple opponents within reason, and never more than you have attacks; resolve all grapples individually (you must use the attack action option above for this), and you take a cumulative -5 to all grapple checks for each grappled opponent beyond the first. This stacks with the -4 penalty if you do not have two hands (or an appendage with the grab ability) free to grapple.
Okay, I am sorry for bringing this up yet again, but it just seems like there's some horrific disconnect between what I have in my head and what happens in the game.
Let's take a grapple-based creature: a chuul (has grab on both primary natural attacks, has constrict).
So in combat, if it hits with it's first attack, it gets to deal damage, make a grapple check, and if it succeeds, it additionally deals constrict damage. (Based on info here and here)
At this point, it has to make a choice. Either it is done for the round, since it's used it's standard action to attack and it's now the controller of a grapple, where it can't take additional attacks by the RAW. Or it can let the grapple go as a free action and take its second attack of the round, potentially doing the same thing as above. It would then remain grappled for the rest of the round. So that's 8d6+28 damage assuming it can hit the target's AC at a +14 reliably (not usually a huge issue at level 7) and succeed on CMB checks at a +19 (same deal).
Assuming it's target didn't break out, on round 2, it could either use a standard action to maintain the grapple, and deal it's claw damage with the constrict for a 4d6+14 damage or it could let go as a free action and repeat what it did above for twice the damage (good trade, assuming it can hit on 10 or less - again not usually an issue at this level)
Well what about it's paralytic tentacles? It's apparently a move action to transfer the victim up to it's mouth and hold him there, but if the chuul does that, he will have to continue grappling and forgo his normal claw attacks.
This seems WRONG! Why would taking advantage of an ability the creature has (paralytic tentacles) put it at a huge disadvantage vs just releasing and attacking repeatedly? How come the most effective way of grappling is by letting go and grabbing repeatedly? This is true for almost every creature that grapples as a primary means of attack - releasing and grabbing is better than continuing the grapple since you lose iterative attacks...
What's more, the grapple controller loses ALL attacks and still has to make the grapple check to hold the target (dealing damage once, if at all) while the target can continue to take its full attacks freely as long as it's with a single handed weapon. Doesn't it seem like being the controller of a grapple should put you at an advantage, not a HUGE disadvantage?
How can all this be remedied? I would suggest making the grapple check to maintain grapple an "attack" equivalent instead of a standard action, and limit grapple-dependent effects (constrict, rake, etc) to triggering once per round on a successful grapple check. I would also say that the +5 to maintain grapple only applies IF you choose to only grapple that round. I think that would be much more balanced as that both solves the "constrict 5 times a round on each attack" problem and the "omg I'm grappling, but it's horrifically crippling!" problem.
Am I seeing something wrong? Am I doing something wrong? Do you think my solution is balanced?
Here are the paragraphs from the CRB to which I am referring:
Wizard Casting:
When preparing spells for the day, a wizard can leave some of these spell slots open. Later during that day, he can repeat the preparation process as often as he likes, time and circumstances permitting. During these extra sessions of preparation, the wizard can fill these unused spell slots. He cannot, however, abandon a previously prepared spell to replace it with another one or fill a slot that is empty because he has cast a spell in the meantime. That sort of preparation requires a mind fresh from rest. Like the first session of the day, this preparation takes at least 15 minutes, and it takes longer if the wizard prepares more than one-quarter of his spells.
Cleric Casting:
When preparing spells for the day, a cleric can leave some of her spell slots open. Later during that day, she can repeat the preparation process as often as she likes. During these extra sessions of preparation, she can fill these unused spell slots. She cannot, however, abandon a previously prepared spell to replace it with another one or fill a slot that is empty because she has cast a spell in the meantime. Like the first session of the day, this preparation takes at least 15 minutes, and it takes longer if she prepares more than one-quarter of his spells.
These paragraphs specifically call out the wizard and cleric, but are those valid for other prepared casters? Can a magus leave open spell slots and prepare later? Similarly, can a druid? I'm not sure if this has been addressed officially at some point.
A 10th level fey-blooded sorcerer NPC casts dominate person (DC 24) on a lvl 8 Barbarian PC (Will +3). He obviously fails the save it and the sorcerer tells him to flee to the west as fast as he can. He gladly obliges and takes off at a full run to find his horse. The rest of the party then brutally murders the sorcerer in a couple of rounds.
What happens to the barbarian then? As far as I understand magical effects continue after the death of the caster (please let me know if I'm wrong!). So the poor barbarian is stuck at a gallop to the west exchanging new horses in every town to move faster (he was told to move as fast as he can after all). He does receive a new save every day since the caster isn't concentrating on him at least once a day, but that's obviously not much help to him! What should the party do? They can try and track him through the wilderness, but they're going to have a heck of a time trying to catch up to him.
Second scenario:
Your 9th level wizard wanders out into the wilderness and using his level-appropriate divination spells finds himself a Cloud Giant. He then throws out his dominate person, and assuming the giant doesn't roll exceptionally well, the wizard now has a CR 11 pet for the next 9 days.
I'm sorry if this has been asked, I haven't been able to find it.
Does anyone have advice on how to handle flying and its effect on stealth?
It's obviously situational, but I had a situation where a Wizard PC was trying to use Fly to sneak into a guarded castle at night. He didn't have any stealth skill, so it's a difficult task. It seems like Fly should give a bonus to stealth, since it seems silly to say that you make just as much noise whisking through the sky as you do running around on the ground... Does this warrant a situational +5 to Stealth or something like that to account for him making less noise than he would otherwise?
Does anyone know if it has ever been clarified whether poisons requiring multiple saves always require consecutive saves? The diseases sections states that diseases are cured by consecutive saves, but the poisons section of the CRB does not make that clear.
Most poisons I can find explicitly call for 3 consecutive saves, but some do not (such as the black scorpion from Bestiary 2, whose poison entry simply reads "cure 3 saves.") I would like to find out if all poisons are intended to be cured by consecutive saves, or if some (like te one referenced above) only need 3 saves total.
I have seen a couple of threads asking this question, but not a lot of answer. I would love it if we could try to have a discussion and come to a consensus and maybe even get some official feedback on this!
When you change a creature's size, what happens to its speed? By extension, when you create a new base creature, what are the speed guidelines?
The only bit about this in the bestiary that I could find appears on page 292.
Bestiary wrote:
When determining a creature’s speed, first decide if it has any alternative modes of movement, such as burrow, climb, fly, or swim. Most Medium creatures have a base speed of 30 feet. Quadrupeds and Large creatures increase this by 10 feet each. Smaller creatures decrease this base speed by 10 feet. If a creature is particularly fast or slow, modify the base speed by 10 feet. Burrow and climb speeds are usually half a creature’s base speed, while flying speeds are roughly double. Remember to give a creature the appropriate skills for any unusual movement methods.
Okay, so the guideline for a medium creature is 30 ft. Large would increase this to 40, small would decrease it to 20.
Quadrupeds tend to get an extra 10 feet on top of this guideline.
What about other sizes? I've seen tiny movements around 15 ft, which seems reasonable. Should huge be 50 ft? At that size, you're taking some massive steps... By that logic though, colossal would be 70 ft or more!
On a side note, how does this scale for dragons? All the sample dragons given in the book have the same movement speeds... so is this all a fallacy and movement speeds don't change with size? Or are dragons special? Or are those entries just erroneous?
I assume it's been pointed out before that Dominate Person and Dominate Monster have a duration of 1 day/level while Dominate Animal has a duration of 1 round/level. Has there ever been an answer given about why druids get screwed on that one?
I've been itching to try out pbp for several weeks but by the time I find a thread looking for pbp players, there are generally 8-10 people who have already claimed spots. It seems like its impossible to find a PbP game unless I'm willing to DM. I'm actually fine with DMing, I'm just not sure that jumping in on that end of things would do justice to the players in the campaign.
What are people's thoughts on trying to jump in as DM without any previous knowledge of PbP? Or any advice on trying to FIND a pbp campaign to play in?
I'm moving a duel discussion here from another thread.
Andreas0815 wrote:
Well, if it is a duel and not "Who benefits a party vs monsters more" then i would definitive go wizard.
Either a diviner (who doesn´t like to always have a ini of 30+dex+feats+traits) or a conjurer with his pet (either a Astral Deva or a Nalfeshnee). If i go with the conjurer my pet would hunt the summoner while i finish the Eidolon.
As a diviner i assume i go first. As conjurer it´s a matter of "who rolls higher wins" (as is level 20 most of the time).
Lets start the fight with a timestop, followed by a Prismatic Sphere, and then i gate in either an Pit Fiend or an Star Archon helper (which one depends on my alignment). After that i ready an action to cast Mage's Disjunction if the eidolon comes into range and follow it up with an dominate monster spell. As his Eidolon is not killed the summoner can not summon a new one and the hunt may begin...
Andreas0815 wrote:
On second thought, strike the dominate monster and make it an quickened Magic Jar instead. Time to kill the summoner with his own Eidolon...
Ok so to recap, you go first. Your first cast is a timestop 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4 rounds.
1st round of time stop: Cast Prismatic Sphere
2nd round of time stop: I assume you move out of the prismatic sphere to cast your Gate, otherwise the creature will be stuck in the sphere with you. You cough up 10k gold and on we go. Assume you are neutral, so you summon a star archon for example.
3rd round of time stop: Do you cast magic jar or do you ready to cast mage's disjunction? You can't do both (if you ready, you can't cast other things without losing your readied action, if you cast magic jar, you're disembodied so you can't cast spells)
I'll let you clarify before I propose a response...
I'm sure this has been asked before, but I haven't been able to find it.
The "improved" maneuver feats state that "You also receive a +2 bonus to your Combat Maneuver Defense" when people try the maneuver against you. The greater feats do not have a line like that. I assume that means that the greater feats don't improve your CMD any?
It seems sort of silly to have it be that way, has antyhing been said about whether that's intentional or an oversight?
I'm sure a million threads have been posted about this, but I can't seem to find most of them... So here's another!
Here is the description so we can reference it: Gate
Essentially, I want to know how to use this spell in a way that makes sense and doesn't break campaigns (and doesn't get my squished!)
First of all, I could summon Bob the Solar for 1 battle and pay out 10,000gp. He then poofs and we call it a day. Alternatively, I could summon Bob the Solar and ask him to assist me with [insert campaign goal here] and offer to pay him 23,000gp at the end. (Or is that not a good enough "task" so this doesn't work for the spell) From that, I would get roughly 3 weeks worth of assistance from Bob. Obviously Bob could refuse to help in certain tasks if he did not approve, or he could snub me altogether and say that my 20th level quest is not worthy of his attention. But assuming for the sake of argument that my task aligns well with his interests as do my methods (perhaps I am a paladin of Bob's god).
Likely, over the 3 weeks of service, Bob would help us with more than 3 battles, making the extra investment worthwhile. But here's the question... is this game-breaking? Did I misread the spell somehow and this is not a proper useage of the spell?
Does it become worse if everyone in the 4-person party chips in and over the course of a couple of days I enlist the help of Bob the Solar, John the Elysian Titan, Tom the Star Archon, and Dick the Draconal? Total cost would be 33,000 per party member (which is obviously significant, but not overburdening at 17th level). At that point, the 4 PCs could stay home and sip tequila sunrises while staring into a giant crystal ball mounted on the wall and cheering on team Gate. Is that game breaking?
I think there needs to be a line at some point, there just doesn't seem to be! How have other used this spell without having it break the game?
After much discussion in another thread, here is something that I hope will be useful to both the community and the developers.
Here is a spreadsheet that I have compiled of all the errata I could find. *NOTE* This list does not include formatting errata, as I was interested in errata for the site when I was compiling it and we do our own formatting.
This includes ones that our editing staff over at d20pfsrd has found and ones posted on these boards (A big thank you to everyone for posting!). I have attempted to confirm each one of them and filtered out ones that I could not reproduce or could find explanations for.
I implore everyone who has an interest in this to please look through these and post new ones that are not present here. I will be checking back frequently to attempt to integrate as many as I can into this spreadsheet.
Shameless Self-Promotion:
These errata are incorporated into our creature pages! We're still working on updating the indexes and site map, but if you would like a sneak peek at all of the new creatures, you can find them here.
CASTING
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, DF
EFFECT
Range touch
Targets creature touched
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
DESCRIPTION
Infusing the target with a surge of furious divine energy, you enhance a creature's ability to hit an opponent based on the number of times it has already hit that opponent with a successful attack. Each time the subject successfully strikes an opponent with a successful melee attack, the subject gains a cumulative +1 morale bonus on attack rolls (maximum +4 bonus) and gains 1d8 temporary hit points (to a maximum of 20 temporary hit points). If an attack misses, the attack bonus resets to +0 but any accumulated temporary hit points remain. The temporary hit points disappear at the end of the spell's duration.
So the spell states that you gain 1d8 temporary hit points every time you hit someone to a maximum of 20. Does that mean that you can only gain 20 total hit points with this spell? Or if someone is damaging you at the same time, you can use this spell to continue to replenish your 20-point reservoir as you continue attacking?
Here's the situation. In a recent session, a bounty hunter caught up to our party at a dockside inn because we had prices on our heads. He was hoping to capture us all alive, but we managed to hold him off. Instead, he managed to knock our monk unconscious, picked him up off the ground, used disguise self to make himself look like a dock laborer with a load of lumber over his shoulder and blended into the crowd at the docks.
Disguise self reads: "You make yourself - including clothing, armor, weapons, and equipment - look different."
Now, does our unconscious monk slung over the guy's shoulder count as equipment? That's the only way I could see that use of the spell being legitimate.
Does the deflection bonus granted by Holy Aura (etc) type spells apply to CMD or not? The spell states that "each warded creature gains a +4 deflection bonus to AC" and the definition of CMD in the book states "A creature can also add any circumstance, deflection, dodge, insight, luck, morale, profane, and sacred bonuses to AC to its CMD."
It seems that any bonus applies to AC can also be applied to CMD. Or does the spell's wording of applying to AC directly override that?
I seem to remember reading somewhere that a druid has to make a Will? save to keep his form if dispel magic is cast on them in wild shape? Or maybe it was in an anti-magic field?
I'm not sure where I read this and I can't seem to find it now. Is this from an earlier version of the rules or am I just confused? Can anyone help me?
I've seen a few threads around about NPCs being a higher or lower CR based on equipment. I understand how to adjust the CR based on the equipment tables there. But what about monsters?
For example, if I have a cloud giant who is suddenly wearing +2 full plate and a ring of protection and a cloak of resistance. His AC and saves are through the roof compared to a normal one. How do I balance his CR to account for it?
As an example take a cloud giant vs a warden of wind. As presented in the AP, they are the same CR. But they certainly seem like they're a different difficulty!
Hello, I apologize if this has been asked, but I was not able to find it. In the description of the shadow demon, taken from the PRD it states:
Quote:
A shadow demon that is possessing a creature using magic jar is not harmed by sunlight, but if it is struck by a sunbeam or sunray spell while possessing a creature, the shadow demon is driven out of its host automatically.
What is the sunray spell? I can't seem to find it... Has this been mentioned in the errata?
I see that they are identical to wights except a couple of inherited vampire characteristics...
One of these characteristics is the Dominate ability. So am I to accept that a CR 4 monster is supposed to have an ability that emulates a lvl 4 spell cast at 12th caster level... at will? That seems completely out of line with anything else at that CR!
On a related note... the reference vampire given is listed at CR 9 where the base is a lvl 8 sorcerer. The template right below lists the template CR adjustment as +2. Would that not make the CR of the sample vampire 10? Help!
Okay, so I've read through the rules and I've tried browsing through some of the threads around here but I'm not sure on how to rule on invisibility in my game. Here is the situation: An 8th level sorcerer with greater invisibility walks up to a group of 4 lvl 12 guards sitting in fron tof a 20 ft wide gate and lobs a fireball in the middle of them. He then takes a move action at half speed to move over to the side and attempts to stealth while moving. His stealth modifier is 4 (3 ranks, 1 dex). He rolls a 10, so the DC for the guards to even notice him is 10 + 4 + 20 = 34 and the DC to pinpoint the square he is in, they would need a 34 + 20 = 54. A couple of the guards, who are well trained for guard duty have a 17 perception check (12 max ranks + 3 class + 2 wisdom) - the others are less trained and have a 13. So the two guards with the best perception check would need to roll above a 17 to even NOTICE the presence of a creature in the area and have no chance of pinpointing the sorcerer, and the other 2 guards are completely useless. What is to prevent the sorcerer from doing this for the next 4 turns lobbing more fireballs into the area with impunity?
I would like to rule that the sorcerer is ruled as "in combat" so he takes a -20 penalty, bringing his DCs to 14 and 34 to notice and pinpoint... but the player argues that the sorcerer is no longer casting or doing anything obvious at the end of the round, so the biggest penalty he would take is the -5 for moving half speed, leaving his DCs at 29 and 49...
Help! I'm not sure how I can prevent a single 8th level sorcerer from wiping the floor with an encounter worthy of a group of lvl 14 adventurers.
Additionally, I'm a big fan of turning around player tactics and doing the same thing back to them, but I have a feeling everyone is going to cry foul as soon as they realize they're getting wrecked by a single sorcerer several levels below them.
Okay, so I've read through the rules and I've tried browsing through some of the threads around here but I'm not sure on how to rule on invisibility in my game. Here is the situation: An 8th level sorcerer with greater invisibility walks up to a group of 4 lvl 12 guards sitting in fron tof a 20 ft wide gate and lobs a fireball in the middle of them. He then takes a move action at half speed to move over to the side and attempts to stealth while moving. His stealth modifier is 4 (3 ranks, 1 dex). He rolls a 10, so the DC for the guards to even notice him is 10 + 4 + 20 = 34 and the DC to pinpoint the square he is in, they would need a 34 + 20 = 54. A couple of the guards, who are well trained for guard duty have a 17 perception check (12 max ranks + 3 class + 2 wisdom) - the others are less trained and have a 13. So the two guards with the best perception check would need to roll above a 17 to even NOTICE the presence of a creature in the area and have no chance of pinpointing the sorcerer, and the other 2 guards are completely useless. What is to prevent the sorcerer from doing this for the next 4 turns lobbing more fireballs into the area with impunity?
I would like to rule that the sorcerer is ruled as "in combat" so he takes a -20 penalty, bringing his DCs to 14 and 34 to notice and pinpoint... but the player argues that the sorcerer is no longer casting or doing anything obvious at the end of the round, so the biggest penalty he would take is the -5 for moving half speed, leaving his DCs at 29 and 49...
Help! I'm not sure how I can prevent a single 8th level sorcerer from wiping the floor with an encounter worthy of a group of lvl 14 adventurers.
Additionally, I'm a big fan of turning around player tactics and doing the same thing back to them, but I have a feeling everyone is going to cry foul as soon as they realize they're getting wrecked by a single sorcerer several levels below them.
I've been trying to come up with a reasonable estimation for how much damage one would take for jumping off a moving object. For example, if you find yourself in a cart careening down the side of a grassy hill at 60 mph (528 ft/round in game terms), what kind of damage would you expect to take if you were to jump out and hit the ground before the cart goes over the cliff at the bottom... what kind of check would be involved? Similar situation if you are on a galloping horse (250 ft/round) horse and get knocked off sideways (getting hit by a forceful hand for example)...
First time posting here, but I've been stalking the boards for a little while.
My group just switched over to Pathfinder mid-campaign (from 3.5), so we are all still settling into our slightly shinier and ever so subtly different characters.
I'm playing a druid and have been trying to figure out how things will work under the new rules.
Firstly, I am a it confused about the details of the "a thousand faces" ability. Is it essentially Alter Self as the spell at will (as a supernatural ability so it can't be dispelled)? Or does the druid alter her appearance permanently each time she uses the ability (meaning there is no duration restriction)? Additionally, the ability doesn't in fact allow you to impersonate specific people, does it (there is nothing in the spell description that contradicts the general polymorph rules)?
Second, and this is a generic spellcasting rule, do spell effects that give you "X squares per level" have to be continuous if it is not explicitly stated in the spell description? Take for example Spike Stones which affects "one 20-ft. square/level". Does that mean I can take 10 different squares within the range of the spell and affect them? or do they all have to form one area (like a wall?)
