Arizani Boomhandle's page

Scenario:

I have a 20th level Sorcerer with the Sylvan (Wildblood) Bloodline. At 1st level, I gain an animal companion. My effective druid level for this ability is equal to my sorcerer level – 3 (minimum 1st). At level 20 this gives me an effective druid level of 17. I take the Boon Companion feat and wear a Robe of Arcane Heritage. Relevant Text Below.

Boon Companion

The abilities of your animal companion or familiar are calculated as though your class were 4 levels higher, to a maximum effective druid level equal to your character level....
(Emphasis Mine)

Character Level
The total level of the character, which is the sum of all class levels held by that character.

Robe of Arcane Heritage
...The wearer treats her sorcerer level as 4 higher than normal for the purpose of determining what bloodline powers she can use and their effects.
(Emphasis Mine)

There's a lot going on here. I bolded the important phrases. My question is, what is the order of operations for this calculation and how does the Robe interact with Boon Companion? Here is my interpretation:

1 - Calculate sorcerer level (20+4=24 for Bloodline)

2 - Calculate effective druid level (24-3=21)
3 - Attempt to apply Boon Companion since it modifies effective druid level. You cannot apply it because your sorcerer level is 21, which is higher than your character level (20).

Is this a correct interpretation, or can I use the 4 Sorcerer levels gained from the robe to calculate my "character level" for purposes of applying Boon Companion to my Animal Companion ability?

This is a discussion thread connected to our Kingmaker campaign. Please post further discussion of this topic here.

Two experienced players looking for an experienced GM and two additional players of any experience level for the Kingmaker Adventure Path. Here are the details:

GM: We would like a GM with some experience. We are both experienced players and GM's. We feel a strong knowledge of at least the core rules is a must, but you don't need to have been GMing since AD&D to fit in to our group. As the GM, your word will of course be taken as law. You have license to run the game as you see fit (within reason of fairness, of course). Your rulings will be respected, and if you have any specific requirements for character generation they will be followed without question. We will provide a copy of the adventure path documents for use by the GM if you do not have them.

Players 1 and 2: Myself and a close friend will be two of the players. Check out the profile for this alias for details on the character I intend to run in this campaign. I will have my friend post from his Alias as a reply to this post and put up a link to his alias in the main post once he finishes making it. Please note that our stats, chosen feats/abilities and gear can change as necessary/appropriate per GM discretion. We both have some experience with this adventure path, but please be aware that we are well versed in the difference between player knowledge and character knowledge.

Additional players: We would like two or three additional players to join us for this group. You may be of any experience level as long as you have a basic understanding of the rules and how combat and roleplay work. You MUST be willing to abide by GM rulings. You MUST be punctual and willing to commit to finishing this Adventure, and you MUST be willing to roleplay and have fun. Fun is the name of the game!

Time/Place: We are willing to use any online tabletop gaming software the GM prefers. We have some experience with the Roll20 software, and we also have access to a Mumble server for reliable voice communication. The day/time can be flexible, but the best availability for us is Tuesday/Wednesday from 8:30PM-Midnight Pacific Time, Friday from 7:30PM Pacific until whenever, and Saturday from 6:00PM Pacific until whenever. We can run weekly or bi-weekly as necessary on any of these days/times.

Anyone interested please reply to this post. If you have an alias created for the character you would like to run please post from that alias so we can take a look at your character. If you do not have a character concept yet that is perfectly fine! We can work on party dynamic and character development once we have a group together. If you feel strongly about filling a particular party role, please include that in your post. I will reply with PM's to anyone that expresses an interest in joining this game.

I'm developing a homebrew Pathfinder campaign and I want to set it on Golarion so I don't have to spend a bunch of time and effort building my own campaign setting or just using a generic world. I like Golarion so I want to use it. The trouble I'm running into is where to have my campaign take place.

Here's an overview:

TL;DR - The PC's start in a large city in mountainous terrain inadvertently build over a set of catacombs under the mountain. They investigate monster attacks, find the catacombs, explore those catacombs and end up inadvertently waking an ancient dread lich who ravages the city and turns it into his personal necropolis. PC's then must liberate the city through the course of the campaign.

So my question is, where do I set such a campaign in the world of Golarion? I'd like it to be set in the north if possible, where frigid mountain peaks are common and the winter seasons are harsh. The environment will play a part in this campaign later. Brevoy looks like a reasonable location, and it's the best I've come up with so far. The Land of the Linnorm Kings doesn't make sense because the Linnorm Kings are likely equal in power to the ancient Lich. Irrisen isn't great either since it's already ruled over by the White Witches and I don't want to involve them.

Perhaps somewhere in northern Varisia? If anyone knows any cold-climate areas that would have large cities built near mountainous terrain where I could simply plop down a pre-made city it would be helpful.

I'm open to advice!

As the title says, can I cast Contingency and Teleport with a trigger of "My death" and specify a location for the Teleport in advance? I know I can select Teleport if I'm high enough level, but can I select a location in advance of the Teleport going off as a result of the Contingency?

For example, I'm a 15th level Wizard and I've set up a Clone back at the party base of operations. In the event of my death, my soul would be instantly transported to my new Clone body and I'd wake up back at our base.

The problem is the body with all of my specialized and expensive equipment is still at the scene of my untimely demise, ostensibly with someone who won't want to give it back. One option is to leave a secondary set of more generic equipment with the Clone, and a copy of my Spellbook, however this is expensive and leaves me at a reduced level of power. I'd be less likely to be able to recover my stuff.

If on the other hand I could cast Contingency and pick Teleport as the companion spell, then specify "my death" as the trigger and "my base of operations at X location" for the Teleport at the time of casting, then my corpse along with everything on it would be transported to a place I am very familiar with, leaving me with a 97% chance of my original body and my replacement being in the same place. I'd be conscious and able to grab my gear and mount a rescue on the rest of the party.

Thoughts?

As the title.

Here's Retributive Strike:

A staff of the magi can be broken for a retributive strike. Such an act must be purposeful and declared by the wielder. All charges in the staff are released in a 30-foot spread. All within 10 feet of the broken staff take hit points of damage equal to 8 times the number of charges in the staff, those between 11 feet and 20 feet away take points equal to 6 times the number of charges, and those 21 feet to 30 feet distant take 4 times the number of charges. A DC 23 Reflex save reduces damage by half.

The character breaking the staff has a 50% chance (01—50 on d%) of traveling to another plane of existence, but if she does not (51—100), the explosive release of spell energy destroys her (no saving throw).

My question is, does the wielder still take damage from the staff's Retributive Strike power even if he ends up sent to another plane?

My interpretation is that the wielder breaks the staff, then rolls a d%. 1-50 he goes to another plane. 51-100 he is destroyed with no save by the staff's blast. Everyone else takes the blast damage from the staff. That seems to be the way the wording reads, but I'm in a debate with friends who feel the wielder should take the damage from the staff regardless of the outcome because it's listed first in the description.

Thoughts?

I started a similar thread in the advice forums but I figured I'd ask here as well.

I'm looking for mechanics ideas for fleshing out an Android Spellcaster concept. Instead of spells the character would use tech upgrades in his own body to project Hardlight Constructs (Like Drones and Barriers in Mass Effect) or integrated weapon system to throw Evocation type spells. Think a Mass Effect Sentinel for concept.

The obvious build would be a Conjuration specialist Wizard, but I'm playing a Wizard in another campaign. It's a different build and I don't mind playing the same class twice but something different would be cool.

Any suggestions for class and build options using this theme would be great!

I have an idea for a character design for Iron Gods and I'm looking for some input on character build. I don't have backstory fleshed out yet, but the general idea is an Android Spellcaster of some kind (Arcane caster) whose spells are not actually magic. Instead they are Hardlight Projections or the result of tech upgrades in his own body. As he gains power he awakens more and more of these pieces of technology and learns to use them.

Summons and Conjuration spells would be Hardlight Constructs (a-la drones or barriers in Mass Effect). Evocation/blast type spells would be integrated weapon systems in the characters body. Etc...

I was thinking a Conjuration Specialist Wizard would be a good build but I am playing a Wizard in Kingmaker right now. The build is quite different but it's still a Wizard. I don't really mind playing the class twice in a row, but something different would be cool too.

Alchemists don't have enough conjuration type spells to bring the Hardlight Projections to the forefront like I would want, and Sorcerers won't do because of the Android's charisma penalty.

A Summoner might work since their summon spells last longer and having a lower Charisma score isn't as bad for them. I've never really played a summoner though so I'm not sure how best to build one.

The last thought I had was Arcanist, but I won't know enough about how to build one until the book comes out later this month.

Any suggestions are appreciated. Build, feats, class suggestion, etc...Thanks in advance!!

I'm trying to extract the images from my PDF's and import them for use in MapTools but I honestly have no idea how this software works. I've found an extraction program that seems to be fine with half of my PDF Map files, but errors out on the other half. On top of that MapTools doesn't seem to want to import the files once I do extract them.

I'm banging my head against a wall trying to figure this out and I really have no idea what I am doing.

Does anyone have the maps from this AP already in MapTools format for easy importing? If so and you don't mind sharing I would be VERY grateful.

I thought I would start a new thread for this:

What does it mean if you are "Treated as having a Dexterity of 0". For example, the Helpless Condition uses that exact wording. Is that any different than actually having enough Dexterity damage to reduce you to 0? Do you gain all of the negatives of having 0 Dexterity? Basically, is a helpless target also immobile, but conscious?

The text of Icy Prison says that "You trap the target in solid ice 1 inch thick per caster level. If the creature fails its save, it is helpless, but can still breathe..."

Helpless describes a number of conditions that make the target Helpless, but beyond that the only thing the condition really does is allow the target to be hit by a Coup De Grace attack, grants a +4 to melee attacks against the target and treats the target as if it has 0 dexterity.

Note that the target doesn't actually have 0 dexterity (thus they don't become paralyzed). It is just treated as if it has 0 dexterity. This means a helpless target, in the absence of other modifiers that prevent it from taking actions, can still do everything a non-helpless target can do. It can attack, cast spells, speak, move, and otherwise function as normal except as specifically noted in the helpless condition, and barring any circumstances of its environment (being tied up, or in this case, being trapped in ice).

My question is, does anything in Icy prison prevent the target from just attacking the ice surrounding it to break itself free? Does anything prevent the target from casting Dimension Door to basically ignore the spell? The target is "Trapped in solid ice 1 inch thick per caster level" but does that mean it is in a skin-tight "ice suit" or is it in a cocoon of ice that allows it to move relatively freely within those confines and do whatever it wants (perform Spell Triggers or make attacks, etc...)?

It seems the intent is for the target to have to make the strength check to break itself free, and for other creatures to be able to attack the ice, but I cannot find anything that prevents it from just making attacks itself or casting spells to get out. Is there any errata anywhere that defines this, or is it just one of those things left up to GM interpretation?

Honestly I don't really like it either way. If it's skin-tight it's nearly impossible for anyone but a very strong character to break out and a failed reflex save means in the absence of cold resistance they will take 1,000+ points of damage before the spell expires. On the other hand if it's a cocoon of ice it's basically negligible except against the weakest of enemies with no spellcasting abilities (Rogues).

I'm planning on running this AP once one of our current games ends in a few months. I'm just curious if there are any major sticking points I should watch out for to prevent this AP from folding like my Wrath of the Righteous game.

A little info about the party I'll be running with:

The group will have two very experienced players and two very new players that are looking to get into the game. Here is what I know so far.

Player 1 - Very experienced, and one of my regular players. He will be running something of an unusual character designed to fit a specific role in the campaign. His character concept is that of a "Mentor" for the newer players - an expert on Thassilonian Magic. Outwardly he will be playing a Teifling Wizard specializing in Illusion magic. The catch is that he's not a Teifling, but a Cambion practicing sin magic with the long term goal of potentially becoming a Runelord himself. His prohibited schools will be Transmutation and Conjuration, so the amount of broken stuff he can do should be pretty limited, plus I trust this player to keep it down to a minimum and make the character interesting. The rest of the party does not know about his true backstory. Inter-party strife is something our group tends to enjoy, so I'm allowing this concept under careful supervision.

Player 2 - Also very experienced. I do not know what he will play but he is EXTREMELY good ad designing cool and fun character concepts. I trust him to play anything and make it a memorable roleplay experience.

Player 3 - A complete newbie to Pathfinder. She plans to play a Kitsune Ninja, and I've helped design the character. She is a good roleplayer with plenty of free-form roleplay experience. The game will be less about the combat and more about the fun of interacting in a story for her.

Player 4 - Also a relatively newbie. I know he has some limited 3rd and 4th edition experience but not much more than that. I do not know what sort of character concept he plans to run, and I don't know what kind of player he is. We have not played together before so he is the one I am most concerned about.

Depending on the characters that Players 2 and 4 come up with I may make a healer to run as a DMPC. Nobody likes to play the healer so I'll probably just bite that bullet myself so the party is not gimped unless someone takes it on themselves to run a healer.

The character creation rules are also designed to be forgiving to newer players. It will be a 15 point buy, only one stat below 10, but I'm modifying it so that each character in addition to normal starting HP also adds their full Constitution score to their HP total at 1st level. This will avoid 1-shots at early levels but won't make a huge difference later on. I'm also going to give them a "care package" from the Pathfinder Society in the form of allowing them to pick up to 1,000GP worth of non-magic adventuring gear, up to 50% of which can be potions or scrolls, subject to my approval. They cannot keep any unused cash.

Basically I want the inexperienced people to have a leg up to get through the lower levels, but by the time they hit 4th or 5th level it won't really be something that impacts them much. Player 1 will not have access to any of this for obvious reasons.

As I said, I won't be running this AP for at least a few months, so I am going to have plenty of time to work out the bugs, get very familiar with the story line and comfortable with the NPC's and villains.

Any thoughts to add?

Just thought I would post an update here. I've been DMing Wrath of the Rigteous for some time now and we made it through book 3 and partway into book 4. The campaign started out great, with cool challenges, fun NPC's and a relatively well balanced set of encounters.

Once my players became Mythic though, everything went to hell. Power creep quickly outstripped the NPC's and basically everything came down to me asking the Wizard what he did (his initiative bonus started at +17 and only got higher) then scrapping the combat because his first action usually prevented the enemy from acting and the rest of the party did so much damage that they never got a change to retaliate.

I started using Sc8rpi8on's updated stat blocks in book 2 and this helped for a while, though my players began to feel that I was sniping them when I would knock one of them out of a fight with a well coordinated attack. By the time we got into book 3 though, the combat went back the other direction even with the updated stat blocks. Nothing lasted long enough to even act in combat, so there wasn't much point.

At that point I made the decision to completely scrap combat rules and just let players roleplay their way through everything. It was an interesting experiment but without a structured system it devolved into me describing combatants and my players telling me exactly how they demolished them before they could even act. The moment I tried to narrate a challenging fight they told me how they would completely stomp it without ever breaking a sweat.

I got tired of it, and last night I made the decision to fold the campaign and chock it up to a failed AP. I verbally told them how the AP concluded and next week we will begin Mummy's Mask with a different DM.

I'm extremely disappointed. The Mythic rules took a compelling story about Good VS Evil and turned it into an absurd game of rocket tag. The average party will walk through 80% of the stuff in this AP without batting an eye, and the enemies that do challenge the PC's will absolutely murder them. I may try and run this AP again in the future but I will certainly scrap the Mythic element from it. I like the story, but I just cannot stand the Mythic rules.

Bards and Fighters already have a Dawnflower Dervish style ACF (Bards have two) but Sarenrae's entry mentions Paladins among her Dervishes so I thought I might explore what that ACF would look like for a Paladin. I tried to use existing abilities as inspiration for the ACF, and I tried to balance the losses and gains to avoid cherry picking abilities from both Paladin and existing Dawnflower Dervish ACF's.

Here's what I came up with:

An example Dawnflower Dervish:

I may continue this and make examples for Dawnflower Dervishes at each of the levels where they gain ACF abilities using the above example as a template but I am a bit tired now so it will have to happen later.

Any thoughts so far?

I may be playing this ACF in an upcoming Mummys Mask came - I've cleared this with the DM already but I'd like to get as much feedback on this as I can before beginning play so I don't end up running into something unexpected in the mechanics. I started a similar thread about that specific character here.

Feedback on both threads is appreciated.

I'm going to be playing in a Mummy's Mask game once our Wrath of the Righteous AP finishes up, and I want to get a jump-start on my character design.

I plan on running a Keleshite Paladin of Sarenrae using a Dawnflower Dervish ACF I designed that takes inspiration from the existing ACF's available to other classes. This has already been cleared with the DM. Those interested can check out the details here:

Reikah's father was an Osiriani priest of Anubis while her mother was from Qadira. When the Ruby Prince opened the necropolis to exploration seven years ago Reikah's father was among the first to explore the ruins. Unfortunately for him, they proved far more dangerous than he thought and he was slain after he attempted to study the wrong corpse. Having been widowed with an adolescent child to care for, her mother picked up and moved them back to her family in her native Qadira. Upon reaching adulthood, and against the wishes of her mother, Reikah decided to travel back to Osirion in search of companions that would let her avenge her father and strike a blow against the undead that claimed his life.

The primary build starts with the Undead Crusader campaign trait from the player PDF, Dervish Dancer, Power Attack and Improved Initiative, and at 8th level gets Improved Critical (Scimitar), but beyond that my feat slots are pretty much open for anything. Those four feats are basically all that is required to run the character as intended so where to go from there is my main concern.

Feats/feat trees I've considered are:
-Channel Smite
-Unsanctioned Knowledge (if I find spells I like)
-Step Up/Following Step/Step Up and Strike
-Combat Reflexes/Stand Still
-Critical Focus/Tiring Critical/Exhausting Critical
-Dodge/Mobility

Some of these trees are more feat intensive than others, so I could end up with spare feats for things like Endurance, Save-boosting Feats, or feats that may be useful for other campaign-driven purposes. I like the idea of giving her some utility against non-undead, which is why I'm considering the Exhausting Critical tree, but I could easily go another way.

Any suggestions on how to flesh out the feat build (or other aspects of the character, including backstory) and make it useful for this campaign would be helpful. I'm not DMing so I am recusing myself from reading any material other than the player PDF, and avoiding spoiler tagged threads.

Please keep spoilers to a minimum if possible, and thanks in advance for any help!

Just curious as to why there was a price hike for Mummy's Mask subscription shipping. My Priority Mail shipping to San Diego California went from $8.01 to $11.48 this time around (and apparently for all future shipments) which is a 43% price hike. I can understand upping the cost $0.50 or so if USPS increases the cost of postage on your end, but 43% seems a bit excessive.

That said, I've been happy with your customer service in the past and with the product which is why I have not cancelled, but it seems a bit much, especially since I was not notified that the cost would be increasing before the product was billed to my card.

The one time I had you guys ship me a package by 1st class mail it never got here. I work for a company that ships a lot of products nationwide and I see a HUGE number of issues with that service, so I chose Priority Mail as my preferred method. Most packages the size of what I'm ordering cost us $5.50-$6.00 to ship, and we charge $7.50-$8.50 to send them, which includes the price for packing materials, so the $8.01 price was right in that range. This puts it closer to a UPS ground shipping cost which is unnecessary.

Is there any way to adjust these shipping costs back down to where they were? Shipping is costing me the better part of what the book itself costs.

Thanks for you time.

My players began downtime activities in Drezen last night and I must say that some of it was.....amusing.

Three of the four players began relatively standard activities, with one starting work on a temple, one starting work on a tavern and an organization to operate out of it, and the other beginning work on a casters tower while also starting research on various leads that cropped up at the end of the previous session.

The fourth player on the other hand decided he wanted to found an organization. But it was not just any organization. No, this would be a labor union. He proceeded to spend about a month hiring 40 teams of laborers, 5 teams of bureaucrats, 5 teams of elite guards and 5 teams of craftsmen. Basically a large labor force split into groups lead by foremen and protected by a small group of armed guards and overseen by teams of lawyers, accountants and other paper pushers to see to the bookkeeping. Once Drezen is rebuilt he will have enough laborers to on average produce 25 units of labor consistently each day (with the possibility of a little extra which he will donate for free to the city), which happens to be the exact amount of labor one can sell at 10 GP per unit, or 250GP income per day. In a month of downtime this labor force would generate 7500GP in labor alone, or 91,250GP per year.

Basically, this player founded the Drezen branch of the Teamsters and I cannot really fault him. In a town in the Worldwound everyone is going to need labor for building, maintaining or repairing various projects, and while the town is being rebuilt he is donating most of that labor along with a large supply of goods to the reconstruction effort. He is using it to build mass lodgings which will replace a number of the ruined housing units and lodge his force of near 300 workers, bureaucrats, soldiers and craftsmen. After Drezen is rebuilt they will maintain the city and provide the manual labor required to expand and keep the city running.

They just also happen to generate stupid amounts of free money and provide for a seriously comfortable retirement after the Demons are dealt with and the Worldwound is closed. Once the city has its economy restored I will have Irabeth impose a tax on the labor, but it's still basically a giant labor union capable of generating enormous income, and if the player is somewhat philanthropic about it I cannot find fault in him for doing it. I also can't find anything in the rules preventing it.

Anyone have any thoughts?

In a game the other day one of my NPC's used Mirror Image to protect himself. One of my players, being a smartass, moved adjacent to this enemy and then declared he was closing his eyes, then swinging into the enemy square.

Since his eyes were closed, the enemy had total concealment (50% miss chance as if he were blind) and he claimed Mirror Image would afford no protection at all since he could no longer see his target. Basically the 16.67% chance to strike an illusory double was taken down to a 50% chance, and because the character had Blind Fight, he could re-roll this chance.

Seems to me this is an effective means of bypassing Mirror Image, especially if you have the Blind Fight feat. Mirror Image doesn't really do anything to fool a blind opponent as long as they can target your square, so can you intentionally blind yourself by closing your eyes and use your Blind Fight feat to actually INCREASE your chances of hitting?

Putting this in spoiler tags because players read these forums. If you are one of my players, SHAME ON YOU FOR OPENING A SPOILER TAGGED THREAD! LEAVE NAO!

Does activating an item via Spell Trigger Activation count as casting a spell? For reference, here are the rules for counterspelling:

The qualifier is that the opponent must attempt to cast a spell. When activating a Staff or a Wand, you use Spell Trigger Activation, but a spell is cast nonetheless. Does this satisfy the requirement for the opponent having "tried to cast a spell" and allow for a counterspell attempt?

Here are the rules for Spell Trigger:

And because it references Spell Completion, here are the rules for that:

Both of these passages make multiple references to casting a spell, and none of them specifically state that activating a Spell Trigger does NOT qualify as casting a spell. In fact, in order to use the item you must be of a class capable of casting the spell in question. This seems to suggest that the caster must have knowledge of the spell in question in order to properly cast it using a Spell Trigger Activation method.

So does activating an item with Spell Trigger Activation count as casting a spell?

If yes, why? If no why?

Does having total concealment (such as from Invisibility) afford you any protection at all from AOE effects?

This seems obvious when you take into account effects like Fireball, which fill an area. Whether or not the caster can see you has little bearing on if the fire hits you or not. But with spells like Black Tentacles it is a little less obvious. The spell requires a CMB check against the targets CMD, but it only requires a single check and it applies it to every target in the area. Additionally it is not a creature, has no eyes, and is for all intents and purposes the same as Fireball from the caster's perspective.

So would an invisible creature get the benefits of concealment against Black Tentacles because it requires an attack roll, but not against Fireball because it doesn't? What if the caster has See Invisibility? How does that affect the spell in any way when there is basically no aiming required for it to take effect?

I can't find any hard evidence that being invisible does or does not afford you any protection from AOE abilities and I am inclined to say it does not.

If anyone knows a specific rule on this matter I would appreciate the help finding it! Thanks!

Mods - If this is not in the right place please feel free to move it!

The title says it. I subscribe to the adventure path, and I use the PDFs extensively. I load them into Google Drive so I can access them from anywhere, and I prefer the way Google Drive's PDF viewer functions compared to Acrobat (They scroll much faster, and don't lag like they do in Acrobat).

The problem is, recently there have been issues cropping up when loading these PDF's in Drive. First, the pictures became very dull and off-color. I wish I could describe it better. It's like the colors were muted and the contrast and quality were turned way down.

More importantly, within the last week, they have not been scrolling. The first page loads, but that's it. There doesn't seem to be any way to scroll through the rest of the pages.

This only happens with Paizo PDF's, not with any other PDF's that I use, or with any other file type. Is there something unique about Paizo PDF's that are causing an issue with a recent set of Google Drive updates?

Anyone else having this problem?

Any help would be appreciated.

In addition to being an off-slot cloak of resistance +4 and increasing caster level checks by +4, The Otherwordly Kimono allows the use of an ability once per day that acts exactly like the Maze spell, and is even spelled out with identical wording (except for descriptive text), but it does NOT actually cast the Maze spell. Having someone trapped within also grants a further +2 to saves and CL checks. By the RAW I do not believe the item would allow Spell Resistance, however this seems a little too good. The item would be good as an off-slot save enhancer and granting +4 against anything CL related, but it also mimics one of the best CC spells in the game without allowing any form of magical resistance.

Other items that cast specific spells would use the CL of the item in question (IE a wand, or a magic item that has an activated ability that casts a spell usually says "As XYZ spell"), but this says it is SIMILAR to Maze, not "as the spell Maze". This means it does not cast a spell, it simply activates an ability that, as far as I can tell, is just like activating the flaming property on a weapon. You would not roll SR for a flaming weapon to deal its damage.

Basically what I'm getting at is it has no save, bypasses magical resistance of any kind, and forces a high DC ability check that even intelligence based spellcasters have difficulty overcoming unless they can Planeshift. As far as I can tell, it would even be useable on Golems or other creatures with immunity to magic, because it does not actually affect the target with magic. The item itself is magical, but the ability granted is undefined. Players can use it to remove the highest level threat from one encounter per day, giving them time to heal, cast prep spells, or set up an ambush once they have dealt with the remaining enemies, which seems a little excessive for an item costing 67k.

So my question is SHOULD it allow SR (IE are the Rules As Intended that it should) or is the item functioning as intended? If you feel it is functioning as intended, do you feel it is too good for its cost?

The guy who is DMing the current campaign I am playing in informed me that he has a new idea for his next campaign. Here is what he has told me so far:

-Almost no magic in the world; Very small scope (IE one country with a few cities)
-ALL full and half progression casters are banned (Wizard/Sorcerer/Cleric/Magus/Summoner/Etc...)
-Quarter progression casters are allowed (Paladin/Ranger) but must take the ACF's that replace their spellcasting.
-15 point buy, can only buy down one stat.
-Mostly Masterwork items. Magic items will be very rare.
-Potions, and possibly wands will be available in limited supply; Craft Alchemy will be house ruled to allow for brewing certain potions and whatnot.
-Paladins MIGHT be required to take a mount as their divine bond, so as not to outshine others with their magic weapons.

Effectively, it's a challenging campaign that will be story driven rather than overloaded with combat, though I don't have any details on the plot or an overview. I get the idea that it's still very much in the planning stages.

Paladins, despite the limitations, will be EXTREMELY powerful in this campaign, but since I am playing a Paladin/Gunslinger right now, I want to avoid those classes. I also want to stay away from classes with too much multiple ability dependency.

Right now I am leaning toward a Dawnflower Dervish or other Dervish Dancing fighter type. I've built characters like that before as enemies and they seem interesting, so that's an option on the table, but I would like a few more ideas to roll with.

So, does anyone have any suggestions for fun and interesting characters to run in a low power campaign with very limited resources? If nothing else, it's a fun mental exercise!

The title says it all. I plan on playing an Air Elementalist in my next campaign (Sylph Wizard with Elemental Air school), and I'm thinking of taking the feats to get Spell Perfection. But if I go that route, I want to select a spell that fits the character.

Lightning Bolt is the obvious choice, but I wonder if there are any other good selections I'm missing. Battering Blast crossed my mind, but I don't want to go that route, partly because it's a little over the top, and partly because it's more feat intensive.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Within our group there seems to be one way Spell Perfection is interpreted, but I am not positive it is the CORRECT interpretation. Some cursory forum searches have turned up a number of threads that dance around the issue, but none that actually discuss the feat in detail with regard to the one particular problem.

Spell Perfection

Benefit: Pick one spell which you have the ability to cast. Whenever you cast that spell you may apply any one metamagic feat you have to that spell without affecting its level or casting time, as long as the [u]total modified level[/u] of the spell does not use a spell slot above 9th level. In addition, if you have other feats which allow you to apply a set numerical bonus to any aspect of this spell (such as Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, Weapon Focus [ray], and so on), double the bonus granted by that feat when applied to this spell.

Emphasis Mine

I have seen two interpretations regarding the emphasized portion of the feat.

Interpretation 1 - The "total modified level" refers to the level of the spell prior to applying Spell Perfection.
Example: for a 5th level spell, you could only add 4 levels of Metamagic, and the highest single increase would be removed once Spell Perfection is applied. (The final spell slot used would be variable depending on which Metamagic feats are applied, and which is removed by Spell Perfection)

Interpretation 2 - The "Total modified level" refers to the total modified spell slot a spell uses AFTER applying Spell Perfection.
Example: For a 5th level spell, you could apply one Metamagic feat for free with Spell Perfection, then apply up to 4 additional levels of Metamagic, using up a 9th level spell slot.

My group seemed to automatically reach for Interpretation 1, but I'm not certain that is correct, and I think the key is in the "Total" part of "Total modified level". What does "Total" mean? Is it Subtotal (IE Interpretation 1), or Grand Total (IE Interpretation 2)?

A "Grand Total" implies that you account for all modifiers, which in this case would seem to include the free metamagic from Spell Perfection. A "Subtotal" would imply adding everything together, then modifying it by the feat. In the absence of any other qualifier, I find it hard to believe that "Total" means anything other than "Grand Total", which is a pretty safe assumption considering how most people use the word. If I ask "What is the total?" on a purchase I am making, I mean with everything included, not just a subtotal before tax.

So my argument is that any spell modified by spell perfection must use a FINAL spell slot no greater than 9th level, meaning a Quickened, Empowered, intensified, Maximised Fireball is perfectly legal as it uses a 9th level slot.

3rd level
+4 Quickened
+3 Maximized
+2 Empowered
+1 Intensified
-4 Spell Perfection (Quickened)
"Total" = 9

Am I missing anything? Have the Dev's specifically said this does not work? Can anyone find a rule that says this is NOT a possible interpretation of the feat? Every thread I have perused that discusses this topic seems to assume one way or another, but none of them actually discuss WHY they make that assumption or back it up with rules or logic.

I did not find anything under search, so here's my question:

Arcane Sight allows the caster to discern the location and strength of magical auras, much like Detect Magic but with no concentration time needed.

Displacement makes the target appear to be two feet away from its actual location, granting the creature a 50% miss chance as if it had total concealment (but still allowing you to target the creature).

Since Arcane Sight allows a person to pinpoint the location of magical auras that that might come from the gear/spell effects of someone under the effect of Displacement, can it be used to negate the 50% miss chance?

My guess is no, because all that pinpointing the auras will do is tell you the square the displaced creature is in, but you know that information already (he's only two feet away and still appears in the same square). You still don't have a clear view of the target itself. Nonetheless, one of my players insists that it should work, so I'd like some opinions.

***Minor Spoiler Warning - If you are playing in a Skull and Shackles AP group, you might wish to avoid this thread unless you have completed Island of Empty Eyes***

Below are the complete stats for a monster appearing in the Skull and Shackles Adventure Path:

The part I am concerned with is the presented tactics:

"During Combat The Great Mother lies in wait until someone
ventures into reach, then she grabs and smothers and
constricts her victim while fending off any would-be
rescuers with her slam attack."

I attempted to do just that, except when I went to make another attack on her turn after maintaining the grapple she had on a party member, one of my players pointed out that unless the monster has Improved Grapple and Greater Grapple, it would be a standard action to maintain the grapple she has already initiated and she could not make another attack. We looked it up, and I can find nothing that would allow this creature to follow the tactics presented in her stat block.

Am I missing something here, or did the designers of the adventure path make a big mistake? Fortunately we are all pretty up on the rules, but even so I missed it because I was simply following the tactics presented. A group that was less familiar with the rules might not have caught this error, and considering the monster killed one party member with no trouble, if it could make attacks against other party members at the same time, it very well could cause a TPK for an equal level party.

My group just finished blowing through the Free Captain's Regatta with almost no difficulty, and last night we began the Island of Empty Eyes.

As mentioned in the title, there are spoilers in this thread. If you are playing in this campaign and have not completed this module, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER!

Below is a recounting of what occurred during the session last night. It's quite long, but it illustrates the point I want to make:

TL;DR Version - The encounters on the Island are proving to be an almost insurmountable challenge for a 9th level party, and they only get worse as the adventure progresses. I'm worried in-particular about the encounters with the Animate Dreams, and with the final encounter within the Ruins of Sumitha where they attempt to take back the Immortal Dreamstone. I would like some advice on dealing with the difficulty of these encounters and perhaps some means of preparing my PC's for them.

Some of the ideas I have are listed below, and any further ideas would be appreciated!

Thank you for reading!

I've been running the Skull and Shackles Adventure Path with my gaming group, and I have noticed that the module seems to enjoy placing the party up against very difficult caster enemies.

The last encounter we ran was against Vakarla and her Wreckers in the third module, and following the tactics laid out in the encounter, she killed one of my characters with Phantasmal Killer, and forced them to use a combine total of 4 hero points in order to force her out in the open. If we had not been using hero points, I shudder to think what would have happened.

In fact, I had to slightly modify the tactics a bit or she would have easily TPK'd the party. As an Illusionist, she has Greater Invisibility for 9 rounds, which is more than long enough to kill one character with Phantasmal Killer and use Scorching Ray, Fear and whatnot to wreck the surviving members.

Is anyone else finding that the Adventure Path encounters have some exceptionally difficult encounters using tactics that could very easily cause a party wipe unless you pull punches and modify the enemies? If so, how do you combat this, and what tricks do your players use to get around these encounters?

In the case of the above encounter, I used Fly and Invisibility Sphere on her Familiar, and used standard Invisibility to move her into position, but once she attacked it gave them a glimpse of her position while she retreated back to her Invisibility Sphere and let them attack her with readied actions. The Wizard in the party ended up tracking her back to where her Familiar was, and used his readied action followed by a Hero Point to cast two Fireballs and kill the Familiar, revealing her to the rest of the party. Next round he used Blindness to incapacitate her, and the Fighter (Corsair) trained one of their ships siege weapons on her and took her out in a critical hit, but not before she had killed the ships captain and forced him to use two Hero Points to stay alive. It was a brutal encounter, and had they not had Hero Points, and had I not modified the tactics slightly, they could have all died very easily.

I'm so used to looking at Paladins from a D&D standpoint, as champions of good in service of particular gods, but I have been unable to find anything in the core rulebook, or anywhere for that matter, that requires a Paladin to be in service to a Deity. They CAN worship Deities like anyone else, and from what I have read on the forums it must be a Lawful Good, Neutral Good or Lawful Neutral Deity, but is there anything that requires them to pick a god?

The less-than-reliable Golariopedia says they are more likely to follow a personal code or organizational doctrine than a particular religion or Deity.

It's not something I have ever really thought about, because in my mind Paladins have always been holy champions of righteous gods, and their powers have always been derived from those gods, but evidence would suggest that Paladin powers come from the Paladin's devotion to his code, and are not granted by a divine being.

Can anyone point me to any source material on this matter, because a search of this site and others has lead me to discussions on WHICH gods Paladins may worship, not to anything saying they MUST worship a god.

Thanks in advance!

For reference, I will post the relevant sections:

"As a full-round action, she can move up to twice her speed, ignoring difficult terrain. While moving in this way, any surface will support her, no matter how much she weighs."

One of my players is playing a Ninja in the Skull and Shackles Adventure Path we are running and brought this up last night during an underwater dungeon. He brought up two points:

1 - Does being in contact with water count as having a "surface" under his feet? IE, if fully submerged, can he move up to twice his speed through the water?

2 - If the above does not work, can he swim to the bottom and use that as a "surface" effectively allowing him to bypass the restrictions of underwater movement and move at twice his normal speed while avoiding having to swim?

My ruling was a resounding NO to both of the above. I ruled that the ability does not function at all underwater. I do sympathize with him though because under water, 90% of his tricks and abilities are completely useless (Invisibility doesn't function properly, and it's very difficult to flank when you have to make swim checks in combat to move 5 feet in a round, or take a full round action to move 15 feet past creatures that can make multiple AOO's in a round and have a 60 foot swim speed) and this was a particularly difficult dungeon that cost numerous Hero Points and resources just to survive. Still, there is a limit to the shenanigans I will allow people to pull.

Thoughts?

Edit - Please read the whole post before replying. Changed the title of the thread to more accurately represent the content.

For example, if a Cleric wishes to cast Cure Light Wounds on a willing creature under the effects of an Invisibility spell. Invisibility grants the ally total concealment, and even if the Cleric knows the square his ally is occupying would he not suffer a 50% miss chance when trying to touch his friend to deliver the spell? If an Obscuring Mist spell is active on the ally, for instance, the ally has partial concealment, so would the Cleric then suffer a 20% miss chance? Mirror Image means any attack targeting the caster might randomly hit a figment instead, but a beneficial touch spell is not an attack, so does the Cleric just automatically know which figment is the right one?

Consider it the other way around. What if the Cleric was blind? He would most certainly take penalties trying to locate his allies in order to heal them, so why would he not suffer the same penalties if those allies are obscured or invisible?

I'm interested to see how others house rule this, or if there is some official ruling on whether or not these "beneficial" spells can hinder targeted touch spells cast by ones own allies. For reference, this came up in a game last night where one of my players playing an Oracle attempted to cast Cure Serious Wounds on his Ninja ally, but the Ninja had just spent a Ki point to turn invisible after making an attack. I told the Oracle he had to roll for miss chance and I was solidly berated by my play group for even suggesting it because the spell "is not an attack." Personally I feel that if you have an ability that makes you hard to hit, it affects everything that needs to make physical contact with you, harmful or beneficial.

Thoughts?