Avron de Marvern's page

This ability states that the Shaman "can select any hex possessed by her spirit or wandering spirit."

Does this include the generic Shaman hexes from the Hex class feature? Are those considered to be possessed by every spirit?

Many guides seem to assume that it does, but the Hex class feature does not mention anything about this interaction.

Below is my understanding of the various options/quirks of casting touch spells and spellstrike. Please let me know anything I'm getting wrong.

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Calvin the Cleric, Sam the Sacred Fist, and Oliver the Ascetic Oracle (who has Martial Disciple and Oracular Spellstrike), all of whom are 8th level with +6/+1 BAB, decide to have a contest in delivering touch spells, starting 30 feet from the opponent.

Round 1:

Calvin casts Inflict Light Wounds, advances 30 feet, and makes the touch attack. He misses.

Sam casts Inflict Light Wounds, advances 30 feet, and makes the touch attack. He misses.

Oliver casts Inflict Light Wounds, advances 30 feet, and, since he has Oracular Spellstrike, has the choice between making a touch attack or an unarmed strike against full AC. Either way, he misses.

All of them end the round holding their charge.

Round 2:

Calvin has the choice between making a standard action touch attack, or two unarmed strikes against full AC (drawing AoOs for each). The first attack that hits discharges the spell.

Sam has he choice between making a standard action touch attack, or two unarmed strikes against full AC (which won't draw AoOs as he has Improved Unarmed Strike). The first attack that hits discharges the spell.

Oliver has the same choices as Sam for the same reasons. Spellstrike is irrelevant.

All of them successfully discharge the spell.

Round 3:

Calvin can cast defensively and then make a free action touch attack to deliver another Inflict Light Wounds.

Sam has the same options as Calvin. Since he doesn't have Spellstrike and isn't already holding the charge, he can't make an unarmed strike against full AC.

Oliver, having cast defensively, again has the choice between the same move as Calvin and Sam or, since he has Spellstrike, making a single unarmed strike against full AC. He cannot full attack as part of this since he does not have Spell Combat.

Let's say they all do this and again miss.

Then the target gets tired of waiting and runs away, provoking an AoO. They all take the AoO against full AC with their charged spell hand (Calvin doesn't provoke an AoO himself since the hand counts as armed), hit, and the spell discharges. (None of them could have made an AoO as a touch attack since the touch attack requires a standard action).

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Am I missing any options for any of them, or did I give any of them options they shouldn't have? Particularly involving the AoO.

The Curious Companion feat from Wilderness Origins (published 2019) states

"Prerequisite: Animal companion class feature.

Benefits: You can select a plant companion or
vermin companion as your animal companion."

Per Ultimate Magic (published 2013), "In addition to the normal choices of animal companions listed in the Core Rulebook, a druid who is so inclined may select a vermin as her companion." No reference to any required feats.

It would seem to me, based on this, that:
1) Anyone who gets an animal companion as a druid (Druids, Wild Child brawlers, Hunters, Mad Dog barbarians, Sylvan sorcerers, maybe others) can take a vermin without needing the Curious Companion feat.
2) Anyone who gets an animal companion from a limited list (Rangers, Castellan Cavaliers, Lunar Oracles, Animal Ally feat, who else?) can take Curious Companion to get a vermin.
3) What about classes that get mounts? The Cavalier Mount "functions as a Druid's animal companion" but has a restricted list. Does that put it in category 2, or are they excluded entirely?

Am I understanding the uses/necessity of this feat correctly?

The underlying project is wanting a martial class with a wasp or butterfly companion for a champion of Calistria or Desna.

Torag's Patient Strikes reads "Whenever you wield a warhammer, add your Wisdom bonus to the total number of attacks of opportunity that you can make per round."

Do these extra AoOs have to be made with that warhammer?

For example, if I'm wielding a warhammer in my main hand and a dagger in my off hand (or have Improved Unarmed Strike), could I make the AoO with the dagger or unarmed strike?

Nothing in the plain text of the feat suggests I couldn't, but it seems to go against the spirit of what Torag would intend and the word "wield."

Thinking of a couple related builds (these are very not minmaxed, but still want to optimize them as much as possible within the constraints).

In each case, they’re a ¾ BAB, Charisma-based d8 caster class (Oracle/Summoner) that has taken eldritch Heritage and gotten claws. This will allow them to fight in melee with decently effective weapons for a certain number of rounds a day. However, what will they do the rest of the time? Some of the time, it will be spellcasting, but they are likely to have to fight hand to hand without their claws at least a bit.

For efficiency’s sake, they should probably take Improved Unarmed Strike (or get a permanent natural weapon in some way) so they can focus on having a really nice Amulet of Mighty Fists rather than that and a weapon. Beyond that, what if anything would be worth the expenditure of feats to pursue?

Flavor:

1) Unchained Summoner who has a non-combat skill monkey eidolon and the full suite of Abyssal bloodline. In combat, casts Summon Monster and then fights alongside his summons.
2) Reaper Oracle with the first-level Ghoul bloodline, professional wrestling-style unarmed striker/grappler

Has there been a statement from Paizo explaining why they included armor and weapon enhancements that cost a flat amount (Shadow, Dueling, etc) rather than a +x equivalent?

It seems odd, especially for higher level play where within a couple levels the cost could pretty quickly go from prohibitive to immaterial for some of these.

The game is, in general, so carefully constructed and balanced compared to 3.5, that this element strikes me as oddly capricious. I'm curious why it's there.

So I have a Draconic sorcerer with the Seeker archetype. Not going for Dragon Disciple, mainly focusing on Fireball, Fear, and a couple enchantments/illusions. The flashy sort of magic.

However, I'm thinking ahead to 15th level, when he will get the following power:

At 15th level, a seeker becomes skilled at modifying his bloodline spells with metamagic. When a seeker applies a metamagic feat to any bonus spells granted by his bloodline, he reduces the metamagic feat’s spell level adjustment by 1. Thus, applying a Metamagic feat like Still Spell to a spell does not change its effective spell level at all, while applying Quicken Spell only increases the spell’s effective spell level by 3 instead of by 4. This reduction to the spell level adjustment for Metamagic feats does not stack with similar reductions from other abilities.

This will be usable on: mage armor (3rd), resist energy (5th), fly (7th), fear (9th), spell resistance (11th), form of the dragon I (13th), form of the dragon II (15th), form of the dragon III (17th), wish (19th).

Most of these aren't great candidates for the same metamagic that helps out the spells I prefer to cast. What would be good choices for future metamagic feats to make optimal use of these, besides Extend Spell?

(I'm far more experienced in 3.5 than Pathfinder, so I'd particularly appreciate suggestions from among the many metamagic feats that exist in the latter but not the former).

I know there have been a zillion questions on Slashing Grace, but I haven't found this particular instance asked.

If a Golemfist Magus has the Sharpened Arm arcana:

(Sharpened Arm (Ex): A golemfist can rework his arm to more closely resemble a blade. He can choose to deal piercing or slashing damage with his golem arm. When he does so, the golem arm threatens a critical hit on 19–20. The artificer also adds keen and wounding to his list of arcane pool weapon abilities)

Can they use Slashing Grace with it?

Slashing Grace: Choose one kind of light or one-handed slashing weapon (such as the longsword). When wielding your chosen weapon one-handed, you can treat it as a one-handed piercing melee weapon for all feats and class abilities that require such a weapon (such as a swashbuckler’s or a duelist’s precise strike) and you can add your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier to that weapon’s damage. The weapon must be one appropriate for your size.

I know it won't work for spell combat, but for general attacks: An unarmed strike is light and a sharpened arm can do slashing damage, so there is a colorable argument that a sharpened golemfist arm is a light slashing weapon.