Athenriel's page

Since I'm getting tired of arguing this point, I figured I'd post it and see if I can get a consensus and/or official ruling.

Aspect of the Falcon (or the bracers with the same effect) gives crossbows and bows a crit range of 19-20 and a crit multiplier of x3, and specifically states that the effects of the spell will not stack with effects that increase your crit range, like Improved Critical.

However, a friend keeps arguing that if you have a crossbow, you can still use Improved Critical, because it's not STACKING, it's OVERLAPPING.

His argument is that the crossbow will have two crit ranges, 17-20 x2 and 19-20 x3, both active at the same time. So that if you crit on a 19-20 it'll give you x3, and if you crit on a 17-18 it'll give you a x2.

My argument is that a) the spell specifically states that it doesn't stack, and b) there's no provision in the Pathfinder rules anywhere for a single attack roll to have more than one crit range.

Opinions?

A topic came up in passing when one of my characters was buying new armour, and I'm not sure what the official ruling would be, so I figured I'll see if anyone knows:

If you get a suit of armour that includes gauntlets, and it's made from a special material like Adamantine or Mithral, it would make sense for the gauntlets to be made of the same material. But does that really mean that the (free) gauntlets get all the benefits of being made of the new material, such as being inherently masterwork (in case of both adamantine and mithral), counting as material for overcoming damage reduction, and in the case of adamantine also overcoming hardness.

Just using narrative logic, that seems to be the case. But the numbercruncher in me feels like it might be a bit too much of a mechanical benefit, so I wanted to see what people think.

I have a character who is considering going into a Hellknight order.

Looking at Hellknight Plate, it's essentially the same as slightly more expensive Masterwork Full Plate until you gain the hellknight armour training, but I was wondering just when you are allowed to buy and start using Hellknight Plate, by the rules (treating it as full plate until you get the armour training).

First of all, since the armour has a different name but isn't a (named) magic item, I'll assume that you can't upgrade a suit of full plate to hellknight plate. You'd have to sell your old armour and buy a new suit.

I assume only Hellknights should wear it, but would you qualify for that when?

* You get your first level in Hellknight?

* If you pick up the Armiger or Hellknight Prestige awards as a member of the Cheliax faction - as Armiger you are officially a member of an order, if only honorary, and as such do you qualify for wearing the armour?

* Something else?

I've seen a fair bit of discussion on this, and even talk back and forth with both sides claiming RAI, so I'm hoping to get some clarification.

The current PFS guide (4.1 at the time of writing), on page 20, states the following:

"Any spell cast by a PC during the course of a scenario
that is still active at the end of a scenario ends when
the scenario does."

I'm assuming that the main reason for this is because otherwise a player wizard with such spells could cast them on other pathfinders for just the material cost (or on his own gear), and thereby saving a (possibly unfair) amount of gold.

I actually didn't give this any real thought until I was working on a new player character - as a flavour item, this character wants an item with a continual flame spell cast on it. Would the "by a PC" in the above rule mean that I could pay for the normal NPC spellcasting services once to get this item done (since it's not torch-shaped and as such cannot legally be an ever-burning torch, nor is it in orbit, so it can't be an ioun stone), or would I essentially be forced to pay the 110gp to have the spell cast at the start of each and every scenario that I play?

If it's the latter, I think the guide needs to update its wording since the rule specifically calls out spells cast by player characters (something that I only noticed today when double checking it for my new character).

I was curious, is it possible to make, for example, a darkwood spear with a cold iron or mithral spearhead?

Main reason I'm asking is that spears definitely qualifies for being made from darkwood (it's a weapon made mostly from wood), but I haven't found any rules talking about having more than one material, whether allowing or disallowing.

As I figure it, a darkwood spear with a cold iron spearhead would be priced as per both rules (double the base cost of the spear to 4gp, add 300gp for being masterwork and 60gp for being made of darkwood (as a normal spear weighs 6 lbs). It would then be a masterwork spear weighing 3 lbs, counting as cold iron for overcoming DR, and costing an extra 2000 GP to enchant due to being cold iron.

Is this correct? It's hardly optimal by any stretch, but it fits a character concept so I wanted to make sure it was legal since I already purchased it for my PFS character (and otherwise I'll have to refund the 2gp for Cold Iron).

I'm wondering about a specific ruling of Dazzling Display, due to the wording of the feat.

Feats where you need to select a specific weapon or skill to work with it generally say so in the feat itself, such as Weapon Focus having the following text:
"Choose one type of weapon. You can also choose unarmed strike or grapple (or ray, if you are a spellcaster) as your weapon for the purposes of this feat."

Weapon Focus can also be chosen more than once, if you want to focus on multiple weapons.

Dazzling Display on the other hand doesn't, but it does have the same "proficiency with the selected weapon" prerequisite that Weapon Focus does. Apart from that, it merely states "While wielding the weapon in which you have Weapon Focus(...)"

So, if someone happens to have more than one Weapon Focus, do you still ony take Dazzling Display once, and able to use the feat with any weapon that you have weapon focus in?

If yes, would that also mean that a Cockatrice Cavalier (who gets DD as a bonus feat from their Braggart ability) who has Weapon Focus could also choose to use it with a weapon if they so choose (as a full-round action, rather than the Braggart standard action)?

I've been considering making a character that would use one or two sawtooth sabres, and I've been a little confused on the contradictory rules for it. I posted this question over on the PFS section, but they suggested I post over here.

Basically, there seems to be (at least) two different rules for how the Sawtooth Sabre works:

Adventurer's Armory: The Sawtooth Sabre is a longsword, unless you have EWP: Sawtooth Sabre. If you do, then it is treated as a light weapon.

Inner Sea World Guide: The Sawtooth Sabre, if you are proficient, counts as a light weapon purely for the purposes of two-weapon fighting penalties. In all other respects, it is treated as a regular one-handed weapon and has stats like that of a longsword.

Usually, I'd assume that the latest printed rule applies - where this gets confusing is that the AA rules were written before the World Guide, but then reprinted (updated AA) after it, unless I have my chronology mixed up.

Going by what is simplest, I'd favour the ISWG ruling, because it opens less weird logic holes - such as, with the AA version you can get a higher damage bonus for wielding the sabre two-handed if you aren't trained in using one, but once you get the training, the weapon is light and no longer qualifies, meaning that for two-handed single-weapon fighting, getting training in how to use the weapon actually makes it less effective. Also, the AA version opens up odd cases like conditional Weapon Finesse (which the World Guide never allows it to be finessed, I believe) and the like.

In a home game, the group (and GM) can naturally decide which rules they prefer, but the reason I originally posted it in the PFS section was that it'd be nice to get an official ruling for PFS and other pickup games.

So... opinions?