Average Joe 23's page

A PC wants to cast Hidden Presence spell on a target, and then Charm Person.
I use the text of the Invisibility spell to interpret Charm Person is considered an attack, which ends Hidden Presence spell.

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/h/hidden-presence/

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/i/invisibility/

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/charm-person/

"For purposes of this spell, an attack includes any spell targeting a foe or whose area or effect includes a foe."

My question is, does the Hidden Presence spell end while Charm Person is being cast, allowing the target to witness the spell casting (verbal, somatic and manifestations)? Or does Hidden Presence end immediately after Charm Person was cast, and thus the target has no memory of witnessing the verbal, somatic, and manifestations?

This is a combination of confession, mini-rant, and search for empathy/validation that I'm not a complete idiot / terrible DM. :D TL/DR, why are important rules about the same thing often spread across multiple sections of the rules?!

Lately the Frightened and Panicked conditions have been kicking my players' asses, although they've persevered through the fights to win the day. Today I was doing more research on them (far from the first time I've read about them online from official rules to other GM opinions / interpretations/ homerules).

And I came across a post that directed to the Legacy PRD as hosted by Archives of Nethys. I like Archives of Nethys, but typically use d20pfsrd for quick online rule references. Anyways, it referred to Fear rules text I'd never seen before (despite looking up the Frightened/Panicked conditions dozens of times over the years) about being able to stop fleeing once out of sight and hearing from the source of fear. I went on to find these pages:

https://www.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?Name=Fear&Category=Special%20Abilitie s

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/Gamemastering/special-abilities/

And then opened up my core rulebook PDF to discover Appendix 1: Special Abilities, which is the info from above links and which has a lot of important supplemental text that adds to what is included in Appendix 2: Conditions. All these years I'd only been seeing the information from Appendix 2 and thus applying an incomplete ruling. [face palm]

The differences as described for the Frightened and Panicked conditions between these two appendices (above links vs this and this) would've greatly impacted the sessions. It just makes me shake my head that important information like this can often be spread out in different rules sections.

Does anyone else out there often feel like this?

Ride Rules: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/skills/ride/

Panicked Condition: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/conditions#TOC-Panicked

If a mount gains the Panicked condition from an enemy spell/ability, can the rider of the panicked mount use ride checks to have even a slight degree of control over the animal?

Specific example: The rider knows there is a trapped pressure plate on the ground ahead. The panicked animal with a 1-2 intelligence has no concept of this trap. It is moving toward the trap while fleeing from the source of its fear. Can the rider make a Ride check to have the animal Leap over the trap per the Ride skill rules? Or is the animal just fleeing out of its mind, and ignoring any commands from its rider?

Hello,

Regarding the Climb skill and taking damage while climbing:

Does the section "A Climb check that fails by 4 or less means that you make no progress, and one that fails by 5 or more means that you fall from whatever height you have already attained..." not apply to "Anytime you take damage while climbing, make a Climb check against the DC of the slope or wall. Failure means you fall from your current height and sustain the appropriate falling damage." ?

By RAW, it seems if you take damage while climbing and fail the resulting check by 1 or more, you fall. Does anyone disagree?

Even if by RAW, is that too harsh?

The climb skill reads:

Check

You need both hands free to climb, but you may cling to a wall with one hand while you cast a spell or take some other action that requires only one hand. While climbing, you can’t move to avoid a blow, so you lose your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any). You also can’t use a shield while climbing. Anytime you take damage while climbing, make a Climb check against the DC of the slope or wall. Failure means you fall from your current height and sustain the appropriate falling damage.

Need neat ideas - DMing 1st book of ROTRL, 1 pc is a Druid and continues to visit madame mvashti, requesting that she convene a circle of local Druids to perform a ritual to protect Sandpoint and discover more about the nature of the goblin attacks. She agreed, but said it would take a while to convene the Druids.

Any advice on how to spruce this up and have it play out? I have GM writer’s block. I want to reward the player by making it a fun experience, but don’t want anything too powerful to come as a result.

Does the Throat Slicer feat work against someone who is Paralyzed?

I assume no, because the feat specifically says it only works against the following examples of helpless condition: unconscious, bound, and pinned (even though 'pinned' is not helpless).

If the answer is no, any one know why it doesn't work against paralyzed, other than the rules say so? Only thing I can think is that a bound/unconscious/pinned character's limbs can still be moved, making it easier to pull back the head and get the knife to the throat. Whereas paralyzed are frozen in place. Seems silly it works on some helpless examples but not others.

Last question, is Throat Slicer too powerful? I'm thinking about banning it outright.

Question for DMs and rule-lawyers: Should web work underwater? What if it is cast just above the surface of the water, say, under a bridge clearing the water at most 2 feet? Would just above the water contain webbing, or would it extend below the water as well?

Thanks for reading. I'm a DM that likes to work with my players to help them create characters they are passionate to play. I'm willing to bend the rules, but also like to keep balance. This player is creating a sorcerer, and has lots of 3.5 experience, but no Pathfinder experience.

In the 3.5 PHB II regarding sorcerers, there is an option allowing them to lose familiar and gain Rapid Casting (no extra casting time for metamagics). The closest Pathfinder equivalent I can find is the arcane bloodline, which at 1st level provides arcane bond, and at 3rd level Metamagic Adept (similar to rapid casting, but only usable a certain number of times per day).

I'm willing to compromise, and allow them to take the arcane bloodline, forego the arcane bond and instead use Metamagic Adept more times than they would otherwise be allowed. The question is:

How much more? I'm tempted to allow them to do so unlimitedly, but wonder if this might prove very unbalancing. Perhaps a better compromise would be to double or triple the allowed per-day usage.

Thoughts or comments? Thanks for your input.

Alright, so I've got a couple of new players with uber-pathfinder/gaming experience, and they're putting my newb GM status to the test by coming up with challenging character concepts.

One wants to play a Drow Noble template using the information from the bestiary. I'm letting him create a 4th level character, but I need input on what level a drow noble character should be (perhaps EL -2) to compensate for the powerful racial modifiers, spell resistance, and spell like abilities. In other words, would a 2nd level Drow Noble PC (prolly fighter) be equal to a 4th level core race PC? Keep in mind that I include wealth with PC level, and thus in this scenario would only allow him starting wealth for a 2nd level character also.

Drow Noble Characters

Drow nobles are defined by their class levels—they do not
possess racial Hit Dice. A drow noble’s challenge rating
is equal to her class level. Drow nobles possess all
of the racial traits listed above for drow characters,
plus the following.

+4 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence,
+2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma, –2
Constitution. Noble drow
are very agile, observant,
and regal. These ability
score modif iers replace the
standard drow ability score
modifiers.

Spell Resistance:
Drow nobles have spell
resistance equal to 11 +
their character level.

Spell-Like Abilities:
Drow nobles can cast
dancing lights, deeper
darkness, faerie
fire, feather fall,
and levitate
each at will,
and have detect
magic as a constant
spell-like ability. A
drow noble can also
cast divine favor, dispel
magic, and suggestion
once per day each. In
some cases, a drow noble’s
spell-like abilities might vary,
although the level of a particular spelllike
ability does not. A drow noble’s caster level for her spell-like abilities is equal to her
character level.

Medium: Drow are Medium creatures, and have no
bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Normal Speed: Drow have a base speed of 30 feet.

Darkvision: Drow can see in the dark up to 120 feet.

Drow Immunities: Drow are immune to magic
sleep effects and get a +2 racial bonus to saves against
enchantment spells.

Keen Senses: Drow receive a +2 racial bonus on
Perception checks.

Light Blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light blinds
drow for 1 round; on subsequent rounds, they are dazzled
as long as they remain in the affected area.

Poison Use: See Special Abilities, above.

Weapon Familiarity: Drow are proficient with the hand
crossbow, rapier, and short sword.

Languages: Drow begin play speaking Elven and
Undercommon. Drow with high Intelligence can choose
bonus languages from the following: Abyssal, Aklo, Aquan,
Common, Draconic, Drow Sign Language, Gnome, or Goblin.