Azothath's page

→Moral Foundation Theory and there is a 48 Q test... I don't ascribe to it.

Summary to date
→Initial post
→Restatement
→Clarification

→Kasantha Party with feats but without details high powered non-standard races and options likely to need GM approval
→Standard simple class party of 4 without details
→"Mäktiga Trollfor" party of (6) Lvl 5 arcane casters with details
→Standard simple class party of (5) Lvl 1 with simple suggestions and a feat but without details

4 groups in 72 posts

I want to ask a question. ... a paladin, would be willing to sacrifice one person if it's to save {lives}. ... if a person of good alignment ... performs this act receives any kind of retribution. Additionally, if the person to be sacrificed is someone close to a member of the group, what are the consequences? Finally, If the person to be sacrificed is a player character, would you kill them?

this is a question of morality, ethics, and the local 'in game' law.

All in all it is very campaign(GM) and group specific as different cultures have different ideas about the details of morality.

For Game Play - if the character as run by the player thinks it is a worthy effort then he should do it and suffer the consequences. The GM should issue a warning of an alignment infraction before the PC does the act. In a game/story it is simply an act of drama with consequences.
Retribution? There are defined consequences for Evil Acts. Clearly a decent GM is going to work this dramatic turn of events into the story and future plot events.

I did hear of a GM who had a high level caster use a simulacrum of an magicbane bandersnatch(or jabberwock) in a moderate sized (30*40) enclosed room to defeat a high level party in a PF1 Scenario circa 2013. It lost half it's abilities but kept the anti-magic aura. The party did request he make it hard and challenge them. Uff da, he paid it in spades.

Strategies not changing as level increases is two fold; GM not adapting types and varying challenges to the level, and Players not adapting as they are 'successful' at what they are doing.
People want to win, to be successful. The game gives them the sense that they did that and were successful and powerful.

I could chat about what I think are the models and trends in published works, but ...

I think you are grousing about challenge design and such. You know they should vary from martial, to social, skill, trap/haunts, puzzle, environmental, and strategic solutions. The idea (from Game Theory) is to vary the best counter-strategies and methods.

PF1 by design is easier than DnD3.0/3.5. That's just a fact.

Mythic games are total drama soap opera. So it needs to be about strategy, plot drama, etc rather than monster fights. Seriously - copy the plot from a tele-novella and use that.

I think you need to know the magic system better to understand its weaknesses and then a judicial hand in some monster retooling. I certainly hope you are enforcing the knowledge skills for monster identification each and every time rather than letting PCs claim they remember.

Lastly - a GMs job is not to win - as you do ALL THE TIME. PCs die. Meteors fall from the sky and kill most of life. Suns explode. The universe goes on. One way to look at it is your job is to put on a play and be the adult in the room. The players are actors in that improvisational play. How good is that play?

Could an earth elemental or creature using earth glide pick up a buried object?
ooooh, that is going to be GM dependent.

My thoughts on the matter -
Actual earth elementals have no problem becoming solid underground and grabbing something they can sense or bump into then earth glide out. It is considered a non-hostile environment.

Earth gliding Air breathing creatures can do it too BUT have to grab/enclose said object, hold their breath, and end the earth glide or spell. Grab said object (may require strength check). Restart earth glide which likely means casting the spell.

If the object is not earth/stone (something you cannot earth glide through) then you could grab it or enclosing it but moving it is going to be very difficult (Str Chks every 5ft) and you risk damaging the object.

Again, I think it is more practical to (do what I said earlier) summon an actual earth elemental to guide you and grab then carry the object.
It also might be more practical to actually have a burrow speed (without the magical gliding) so you can dig and grab stuff underground. Leaving a tunnel would be a bonus.

Adding an ongoing spell effect to a new possession - depends on the spell description.

There are two cases, 1) as ongoing spell with a defined transformation period where things can be shifted about. 2) an ongoing spell that affects personal possessions.

1) see this CRB FAQ: Wild Armor and Transforming Armor etc, circa 2015. Polymorphs have a set time for when the caster transforms.
With magic items you can expend another use/charge to restart the spell once the object is in hand, otherwise cast the spell again. Adjustable polymorph has a built in reset.

2) Invisibility:I2 has text to cover this.

as a preview I'll be posting another group of lvl 5 PFS legal builds to the thread focusing on gritty low-magic builds. Right now I'm looking at;

1- Fighter-Two-Weapon Warrior 4, Gunslinger 1 with mith chain shirt, mith quickdraw shld, pistol, estoc, gladius, tonfa.
2- Bloodrager 5 with mith chain shirt, mith quickdraw shld, flambarge(bastard sword), gladius, tonfa.
3- Slayer 1 Gunslinger 4 with mith chain shirt, mith quickdraw shld, musket, estoc, gladius, sap.
4- Paladin-Divine Hunter 3, Gunslinger-MysStrngr 2 with mith chain shirt, mith quickdraw shld, musket, estoc, gladius, sap.
5- Bard 5 with mith chain shirt, mith quickdraw shld, rapier, whip, comp shortbow.
6- Ninja 4, Wizard-Diviner 1 with mith chain shirt, mith quickdraw shld, katana, wakizashi, morningstar, comp shtbow.

The multiclasses give them decent flexibility without going too hard into casting. I like duplicative gear in case someone's gets sundered. I always look at defensive fighting as they are 5th level.
Constructive ideas are welcomed. I'm sure they could be tweaked.

As a one shot →Aon search on "open space"

here are the rules for →Combat Maneuvers and →Drag

 << those are the best RAW defense against this kind of Home Game ruling.

If your group wants to play with those Home Game rules anyway - that's just part of their home game. You can run with it or walk away. You did your best and it's not game breaking IMO. Go and run my Mage-killer Wizard and pummel them with their rule.

Commentary

Azothath wrote:

The trick is that threatened squares expand out somewhat like a hollow sphere, or ring where it intersects with the floor. While the somewhat ring-shaped threatened square count goes up, so does the "safe" area in the center. {AND} With many feats tied to a specific weapon - dropping or changing the weapon in hand can have serious consequences. It makes a fine soft center of cheese for brawlers. So there's a minor drawback to how far this tactic is pushed.

Doesn't that only apply to reach weapons? I think natural reach lets them attack adjacent as well.

yes, but note the context in the paragraph. Let me know when you drop a hand or natural weapon as playing Mr. Potatohead is pretty rare.

Azothath wrote:

Just because something isn't exactingly defined doesn't mean you immediately go to crazy.

I love it.

it's just a humorous aside. I personally think TL-DR in text based chat is rude so it is just a bit of snark. A closing summary statement is normal.

I am not arguing that increased natural reach isn't helpful, as it plainly is.
The trick is that threatened squares expand out somewhat like a hollow sphere, or ring where it intersects with the floor. While the somewhat ring-shaped threatened square count goes up, so does the "safe" area in the center. With many feats tied to a specific weapon - dropping or changing the weapon in hand can have serious consequences. It makes a fine soft center of cheese for brawlers. So there's a minor drawback to how far this tactic is pushed.
As I said before, with RAW being med sized creature centric, this is just going to have GMs apply rulings in context to the existing RAW trying to follow what they think is sensible. There will be some Table variation which is okay and a natural part of the Game.
TL-DR summary: Just because something isn't exactingly defined doesn't mean you immediately go to crazy.

Additionally as it is a Game, one component that is often overlooked is GM agreement with whatever is going on. This happens with Ready an Action, Mounted Combat rules, CM actions, etc where RAW needs some reasonable guidance. So consult your GM with questionable moves BEFORE you do them in the Game so it is a much smoother and agreeable experience.
Sometimes people get too Realistic or Pedantic and as a Game it can get silly or frustrating. It's a balance of Taste and Style while trying to be Fair and Reasonable.

Reach is simply going to complicate the medium sized viewpoint of RAW. Still, GMs are going to insist that creatures not be dragged into damage inducing areas without some sort of extra roll or simply forbid it based on the RAW for that context. Failure at some point in the process is perfectly acceptable.

main issue with you argument
> it hinges on defining 'open space' into something other than the obvious meaning. That is a very hard sell as it is described in RAW.
> similarly, a hazardous or dangerous square is something rather obvious, see above.
> your idea of Bull Rush and Drag are incorrect. Intentionally putting someone in a target square (with success) is Reposition. Bull Rush (with success) moves a target in a direction, how far is a degree of that success. IF you are just moving the target 5ft then many CMs will seem similar but feats tend to be Maneuver specific. Bull Rush and Drag have attacker position requirements that link to the direction of target movement. Grapple is its own CM.
> in a classic argument you have to prove you are correct. Proving RAW is 'wrong' or undefined does nothing other than open it up to GM interpretation.
here are the rules for →Combat Maneuvers and →Drag

There's no such thing as RAI. That's just an excuse and an appeal to some kind of authority. The words are there in print. Writers and Editors worked to get them to be what they thought would be clear. *meh* it is what it is.

RAW is in descriptive american english for high school freshmen. Most RAW assumes a medium sized humanoid (PC). It is not uniformly consistent, formally logical, or have a moderate degree of technical writing (although there is a lot of jargon which got better organized after AdvPlyrsGd). It uses a word problem syntax (written by creative writers) rather than standard algebraic formulas (which would have been way shorter and clear). It is not a technical, science, or mathematics textbook. It is a work of art describing a game.
RAW requires some interpretation. You must also remember that DnD3.5 was assumed to be known when the PF1 CRB came out as it was a spin-off as a business opportunity & product to capture the 3.0 & 3.5 crowd that did not like DnD4.0.

→Unc Monk class
the two sections on Flurry of Blows(Ex) and Unarmed Strike(Ex) are pretty clear. Flurry limited to IUS and weapons with "monk". IUS is limited to + 1×Str damage. there could be feats or abilities that open those up
With no extra text UncMonk uses generic RAW as usual for the topic, see Damage.
For 1.5×Str to damage choose a weapon you can wield two-handed, see Weapons. Note: The character can also choose to use a double weapon two-handed, attacking with only one end of it. A creature wielding a double weapon in one hand can’t use it as a double weapon—only one end of the weapon can be used in any given round.

Weapons
Seven-branched sword extc 2hnd average wpn damage=(6.05)
Sansetsukon mrtl 2hnd (6.05)
Monk's Spade mrtl 2hnd dbl (5.14)
Quarterstaff(smpl), bo staff(extc), dbl-chained kama(extc) 2hnd dbl (5.14)

Joynt Jezebel

Commentary-

there are reasons;
1) it's a Game and RAW defines what you can and cannot do. Spellcasting involves 4 things(paraphrased into non-jargon); speaking words in a language, making 'dexterous' or 'fine' gestures with hand-like anatomy or appendage, having consumable materials or divine foci, lastly having spell casting/slots/etc and the ability score to use them. Some of those can be bypassed by feats, spells, and abilities.

Since burrowing creatures can "breathe"(in quotes as it is not obvious how) they can speak if they have a language.

"Forms" in game terms means type & subtype along with general (animal) shape. So maintaining a humanoid form means you got arms, legs, head, and hands for casting. RAW does not say you lose those and polymorphs do not change your type (a Game nerf to prevent other 'abuses').
→Earth elemental This hulking, roughly humanoid creature of dirt and stone explodes up from the earth, faceless save for two glowing gemstone eyes. and When an earth elemental lumbers into action, its actual appearance can vary, although its statistics remain identical to other elementals of its size. Most earth elementals look like terrestrial animals made out of rock, earth, or even crystal, with glowing gemstones for eyes. Larger earth elementals often have a stony humanoid appearance. Bits of vegetation frequently grow in the soil that makes up parts of an earth elemental’s body. thus humanoid form. Note that language terran also is in the general entry.
While the monster Elementals do not breathe, eat, or sleep. the spell is a bit different and you don't gain or lose that ability.

Magic Item Body Slots(MIBS) define your body slots and what melds and what >may< not. Pretty much all GMs will let you meld something wearable and it is a classic way to smuggle weight/full backpacks within your encumbrance.

Someone once told me polymorphs are fanciful magical disguises that only give you the abilities the spells say they do. There's truth to that.

2) Simulation(Reality). Again it is magic and it is going to defy physics. The Game is not as accurate or precise as Newtonian Physics (old skool hard/deterministic physics) which is highlighted in square sizes and falling damage. Holding your breath with casting boils down to Con rounds before you have to make a Con Check. RAW makes it a moot point unless specifically denied.

3) there are cases where casting isn't allowed.
 An animal form due to only being able to make animal sounds, aka no language. Thus Beastspeak. Note I suggest learning terran.
 An animal form without hands. Thus Natural Spell. You'll note elementals come in various forms and I stated "I use wild shape to change into a (sml, med, lrg) stone earth elemental of my shape and form." to clearly state you are humanoid form and minimize interpretive issues. If you go doggie elemental it is a rule waffle and likely to end up in 'no hands'.

I'm pretty careful in my advice to use RAW to stay clear of or use gray areas so you can do sensible (and sometimes silly) things with the spells. As you are on my 'do not respond' list I don't generally comment on your posts. There are multiple reasons why I do that but mainly it is to save my time for where it counts and avoid unnecessary arguments or rule-of-cool posters.

updates were slow to non-existent. It was a business decision.

It was a stab in the right direction but as there are a lot of different specifics they couldn't get everything. Besides, the point cost is rough and do you want to pay 1 RP for nothing?
All I can say is it spurned efforts to expand and retool the point buy RP method. Read and adapt one of those.

So my DM and Other player saying to me I am an idiot and don't use AI.

So confirming
1: Wild shape 10 level Druid changing into an Earth Elemental, does not have to cast a breath spell to earth glide.
2. He would be able to Earth Glide knowing his direction albeit with Know direction level 0 spell.
3. Could perform a grid search. Perception based search or the like.

Please need some real clarification here. Life bubble is being used ATM whenever he changes into elemental. And he cannot travel earth glide as he cannot see where he is going.

AI can be useful BUT you need to verify its results. It is just a trained neural network hopefully combined with an expert system. Using it is a management function and does not make you more educated or intelligent. For me "smart" is about making money from others, so yes it can be a helpful tool.

1) The elemental form can earth glide AND "breathe". Again, you can use verbal and somatic(humanoid form) spell components but should learn terran. You can keep a spell component pouch as Magic Item Body Slots sets your elemental's body slots, but stick to a humanoid form so nothing melds. Consult your GM so you have agreement as to how it works. The best way to say it is, "I use wild shape to change into a (sml, med, lrg) stone earth elemental of my shape and form."

2) he can earth glide like walking in a pitch black room.
While people say Knw Dirctn:D0 will work - it is not what they are misleading you to believe. Read the spell. You only know the direction to "north". Knowing where you are requires two vectors (magnitude, direction), some assumptions, and some math, LoL. Just ask the GM for an INT Check to know where you think you are.
As Detect Magic, etc can penetrate 1 ft of stone, it is reasonable to say you have blindsense to 1ft. That's a GM call. You can always use a low level divination spell and force the issue.

3) do not do complicated stuff while effectively blind. The spell only lasts so long. Look at your PC's Int and Wis scores along with skills you have ranks in and play the character to that. A lot of people metagame what they know about modern life and technology into their character and should stop.
Rather than fumble about - just summon a real small earth elemental as a guide.

ADVICE
You are working on developing System Mastery with the spell system. Read the Magic Arcane School descriptions, Conditions, and spell descriptions. RAW is procedural rather than logical. So just read it and do what it says is the conservative close-to-RAW interpretation. Not adding stuff is difficult. Struggling is part of learning so stop fretting about it. It is just a game so it is okay to be wrong. (Not paying your bills on time has a Real Impact!) Using a tool to tell you what's what is just lazy and you learn to trust the tool rather than RAW or gain any System Mastery. Then again, it is a Game and nobody's gonna pay you for that mastery.

The polymorphs are good for movement(escape), disguise, resistances and immunities, and sometimes combat with better natural weapons and abilities you don't have (like Pounce). Just realize you are using a 4th spell level spell for covert movement and that's costly. You could just use vanish:I1, invisibility:I2, obscuring mist:C1, spider climb:T2, or other low level spells. Doing more with less is called being effective.

→Druid class with Wildshape(Su).
At 4th: Sml to Med Animal This ability functions like the beast shape 1 spell, .... Only animal sounds but can communicate (as an animal) with animals "of the same general grouping".
At 6th: Tny to Lrg Animal, Sml Elemental, ... as beast shape 2 or elemental as elemental body 1 spells.
At 8th: Dmtv to Huge Animal, Sml to Med Elemental, Sml to Med Plant, as beast shape 3, elemental body 2, or plant shape 1 spells.
At 10th: Sml to Large elemental, Sml to Lrg plant, as elemental body 3, or plant shape 2 spells.

→FAQ on Mooncursed Barbarian, 2016 showing the animal size can vary and abilities are set by the spell it uses.
Unfortunately, I believe the bonuses are set by target size, so using Elem Body 3 into a med elemental - you only get the Elem Body 2 medium size bonuses but the superior immunities of Elem Body 3.

→Elem Body:T1-4 says what you get.
1: Earth elemental: Elemental abilities based on size, such as burn, vortex, and whirlwind, use the size of the elemental you transform into to determine their effect. Sml: +2 size Str, +4 ntrl AC, darkvision 60 ft, earth glide. (see Transmutation Spells below).
2: Earth elemental: As elemental body I except {Med} +4 size Str, +5 ntrl AC.
3: Earth elemental: Immune to bleed dmg, critical hits, sneak(precsn) attacks. As elemental body I except {Lrg} +6 size Str, –2 Dex, +2 size Con, +6 ntrl AC.

→Transmutation spells ... If the form grants a swim or burrow speed, you maintain the ability to breathe if you are swimming or burrowing. The DC for any of these abilities equals your DC for the polymorph spell used to change you into that form. ...
and yes, under monster earth glide ability it says When the creature burrows, ...

The holding your breath rules are very lax and it isn't usually an issue. see Swim skill - You can hold your breath for a number of rounds equal to twice your Constitution score, but only if you do nothing other than take move actions or free actions. If you take a standard action or a full-round action (such as making an attack), the remainder of the duration for which you can hold your breath is reduced by 1 round. (Effectively, a character in combat can hold his breath only half as long as normal.) After that period of time, you must make a DC 10 Constitution check every round to continue holding your breath. Each round, the DC for that check increases by 1. If you fail the Constitution check, you begin to drown.

→See Through Stone:D4

we are down one charming scamp!

AI has just complicated this with probabilistic based 'answers', general sycophancy, dementia/delusion(hallucinations), and people believing anything from the magic box. We are in a time of expertise denial and self delusion. A case of the Emperor's(or rather suitable name substitution) new clothes.
We also have to deal with the rise of common baiting and lying via dysfunctional social media for advertisement and sales revenue gain.

→Wikipedia is not bad. Really. Use it.
If you are writing a research style paper for school or work you can use the reference links to use source quotes as wikipedia is too casual. Other 'professional'/'reliable' sources are accessible via the internet. CRC has a host of scholarly reviewed compendiums for science, engineering, and technologies.
Wikipedia had it's ghost editor problem years ago but fixed that. It'll likely crop up again due to AI, computer speed and tenacity, and the problems with remote certification.

Part of the online social response problem is being polite takes time and training along with clear communication being a skill. Ego and the default mindset is going to produce the usual undercurrent of irritated/angry response. Many brain studies reveal the unpleasant egocentric tenor of the brain on autopilot.
People love to be experts and garner prestige. Some like to control the narrative and will use different strategies. People also believe these texts are social interactions or can substitute for them. As an RPG site that last one should be clear. Humans are eusocial and complex with a lot of random background experiences which affect them through operant conditioning. Maybe I'm just in denial over my lack of expertise in this area...

the way to hardcode indent is to use U+2002, U+2003, and whitespace characters. The interpreter/parser here has a character/string recognizer on the front for doing "s murf" and other sillyness. A new BBS-like system for messages will likely do away with that but hardcoded unicode characters & indents will remain.

• one.
•  two-an-a-half
•  three and a half

hmmm... I find that I am one of the few players that uses this level of detail. Part of it is technical proficiency (chemistry), it is an interesting topic along with cooking, and I've done several scents in RL. One chemist turned perfumer cautioned that they figured out what should be a winner but once made was not, umm tolerable (lol). It did provide inspiration for a few other tries with one success. Key tools are a gas chromatograph and infrared (IR) spectrometer.

If you are near Berkley CA - there's Aftel's Archive of Curious Scents
Grasse France (N of Cannes) - Musée International De La Parfumerie

Unfortunately there's a lot of persistent anecdotal chat and opinion that revolves around the subject. It forms the common experiential approach. One has to tease the actual science out of that. Opinion is going to lend value and drive sales so it's important for different reasons. 'Who, Me?' is not likely to make a comeback.

online Fragrance Guide by delacourte
online Fragrantica
online Wikipedia - Fragrance with chemistry terms.
online Fragrance Wheel by M.Edwards sensory descriptive.
a major US supplier is IFC Products in NJ.

With those tools you can make interesting choices.

between the two RAW sections it is pretty clear.

Dry Chat -
The conditions form a case/logic hierarchy with inheritance and some subsets; A, B, B1, B2, C, C1... so at B1, A still applies due to inheritance. It is best not to make up rules about a subset as they should be infrequent and specific to that condition, but you can create a logic chart if you want. Just remember that the authors & descriptions are procedural rather than logical.

Practical Game Chat - (aka Advice)
PCs casters should have a way to escape melee and this would include fear conditions. Wands do not provoke and that is tactically important. Two Spring-loaded Wrist Sheaths with Wand of Vanish and Obscuring Mist are needed. Spellguard Bracers come later at $5000. After evading/escaping PCs can regroup and get a new plan. That is the second important strategy - if your party loses your caster or main melee guy - REGROUP. Don't try to tough it out with just secondary fighters or support casters. If your main fighter gets feared and caster makes it, time for some battlefield control and likely regrouping. The problem with buffing just the fighter for a new save is the other party members in the initiative queue that are likely to fail. Effect duration is the other important factor. 1-2 rounds okay. 3+ rounds are killer.
One of the more amusing options (dependent upon the conditions at the time) is to Resilient Sphere yourself. Using Gaseous Form in the open is asking to be killed.

Honestly Cause Fear is not practical unless you have 2-3 and are scraping the bottom of the spell barrel. There are many anti-fear buffs out there. Break, Color Spray, and others are more effective.

seems theorhetical as it should have used spells to escape previously.

the key RAW is Weapons, scroll down to Inappropriately Sized Weapons and the paragraph after.

without all the jazz (just martial proficiency), a med humanoid should wield a large sized bastard sword 2handed as a martial weapon with -2 to attack for Inappropriately Sized Weapons but the paragraph afterwards makes it >unusable<. The number of arms is useless in this respect.

With Exotic weapon proficiency bastard sword should go 1 or 2hnd. So with Exotic it could be used 2hnd style with -2 attack.
This is reinforced by the Paizo Pregen character Amiri the Barbarian where this is done (circa 2009).

So Feats, Magic Items, and Spells are going to be needed/wanted. You'll have to review their text closely as disqualification is likely.

Besides some classes doing better damage, you should review Best Weapon in PF1, 2021. just ignore the usual grousing/sniping

with perception -1/10 ft, -10 for battle, a 10 DC yields 200ft+. For most that's at least 3.5 full actions.
There are a lot of situational modifiers based on what/where is going on.

the more practical way to search the PF1 FAQs is to use google site search. In your preferred search engine, type;
"site:https://paizo.com/paizo/faq "{word(s) or "exact phrase match"}
you'll get all the 'hits' with links.

Remember the PF1 FAQs are now static and it might be a good idea to download them into a searchable text format {.odt, .txt, .rtx} rather than html pages.

AoN community use project is the online PRD rules reference at aonprd.com or AoN Rules
It has all of the PF1 errata incorporated. It is just the rules and very rarely some details are left out. Check their source listing to see exactly what they pulled.
They also have the PFS/OrgPlay icon on titles so you know what is and is not 'legal' in the Paizo sponsored campaign.

LoS is not mentioned under the Shaken or Frightened condition. Ignore it unless directed(in spell description) or it is a situational factor to consider. Often the "source of fear" is mobile and the fleeing creature would assume it is(or soon will be) chased. Perception checks are free actions.
Creatures follow the direction of the Condition for the Duration.
I think the only variable (besides environmental/map) is when does stuff happen. Penalties(to hit, AC, etc) are immediate. Generally the affected creature can't act(drop stuff, flee) until its turn. Read spells carefully as sometimes they force a specific action.

I don't think it should be parsed to less than 1 tactical movement with a standard action following environmental(map) clues. That would be 2 moves in a full round if the condition persists that long. there's no hard(Y/N) answer. running has requirements.

In Fight or Flight - animals do dumb stuff as they don't have time to think or rationalize. Young children (Int or Wis less than 9) will seek the first hiding spot and hide - even if it is nonsensical for the situation as they are just acting on instinct. It is how many die from smoke inhalation.

again, people will want to game the system to their advantage. GMs should be fair and impartial but in a Game some people will range from Rule of Cool to an ethical judgement (or precedent) or one based on animal behavior.

Are GMs better at snap judgements? no... lol... they do have to try to be the adult in the room. How much fantasy, or story telling, or realism, or pedantic readings is a matter of taste and style along with what the GM knows.

→Conditions on AoN online PRD
and Conditions on d20pfsrd

1. What constitutes cornered? If there is a diagonal between two creatures is that considered cornered?
2. And isn’t bull rush or overrun viable options as long it isn’t the source of the fear? If so, does that apply to everyone regardless how good they are at a combat maneuver?
3. And if they move out of line of sight from their source of fear can they do any other actions?
as usual the GM will have to resolve specific instances in his game. The book can't cover every case.

Fear comes in a increasingly debilitating series; shaken ->frightened ->panicked (cowering).

Cornered generally means the creature is bounded/hindered on three sides for movement away from the source of fear. It doesn't need to be adjacent to the creature, simply obvious. It could also mean the bounds would incur an AoO as you can move through (with a check) creature's squares. I'm not sure a Move By is a hindrance in a panicked condition.

Bull Rush and Overrun are attacks. That's a "no" if attacks are forbidden.

Line of Sight(LoS) does not affect Duration of the Condition. Creatures will progress through a maze to escape. Whether they take random turns is up to the GM and that is based on the severity of the Condition and what the GM thinks is appropriate for the specific instance.

see Azothath's work-around

a search on My Threads in My Account yields "Search is unavailable at this time." Same for posts, and searches in forums. It has been that way for awhile and is an update to "Your search didn't match any items."
I assume Paizo is updating the Forums. As the forums don't produce income I assume it's gonna take quite some time.

an alternative is to use google site search.
Using your preferred search enter "site:https://paizo.com/community/forums/ "{search word(s) or "exact match of these search terms"}
you can narrow it down using further website pathnames.
This is the way to do FAQ searches. As PF1 RAW is static you can download the pages and shred them into one big text file that's small and searchable.
Sometimes the site search will give you pages of hits (with links). Note the thread title and date so you can find it as the link may just get you close in the thread history.

Really - this is chat about a keystone macguffin in a movie. I think the rest was good, more mature than the usual.

The sauna business meeting was cute. A couple of large older russian women in towels with recently snuffed cigars and large kevlar auto .950 JDJs & stainless glocks OR electric tonfas under towels were needed <lol>.

The chip was a quickie. It makes manifest Peter's rejection of his 'new' mutant powers with the help of his AI sidekick. It provides a (reason &) reaction to meeting Dr. Banner and his later second cameo. It provides a way for Peter to feel guilt over creating it (foreshadowed by Dr. Banner). Spidey needs guilts. It provides the Bad Guys a new ready made/'whole cloth' tool. It defies reasonable creation that Spidey on his own in a week could create what Dr. Banner(an expert) and others could do over (supposedly) years of research. {note Dr. Banner's Ben10 style controller}. It's a classic easy artifact dropped in to do some plot lifting. There will be hell to pay later as the peanut gallery tears it apart, lazy writers use it, and others lampoon it.

The writing problem is two-fold. Introducing an artifact that defies physics and empowers/defies your main raison d'être, then the logical & believable impacts to your story from that artifact.

If Spidey did the germ of the idea and a alpha build, okay. Then it breaks, great. It's fallible, limited, more realistic. The Bad Guys get one (how?) and then work on it and improve it (gamma build with defined limits and problems. Less believable BUT it's a Bad Guy problem now). Where's the battery? How does a chip running a program interfere with genetics? (makes no sense) You need a transducer/effector to move the Real world.
In the meantime Spidey has to reject the beta build to use his new bio powers. In a NY minute - why is Peter NOT in therapy? lol...

less martial classes? no problem!
→Mage-killer Build (Monk-Flow 2 Wiz-Dvnr X), 2022 if you want to kick some @ss
You have heard of a mithral quickdraw shield with ACP 0 right? Now a mithral quickdraw caster's shield would be nice... put on a toga or a reinfored tennis skirt and it's ALL SPARTACUS! 8^0

there's also the Cleric-Varisian Pilgrim archetype (Chaldira, Feronia, etc) which I usually multiclass.
→Teursham Halfling Clr-VrsnPlgrm(Chaldira) 1 Wiz-Dvnr 4, 2026
→Thalevoh human Clr-VrsnPlgrm(Chaldira) 1 Wiz-Dvnr 4 & 10 (gladius, cestus, hvy crossbow) and Deity-Weapon list, 2024
→Rouillé Hasarderth human Clr-VrsnPlgrm(Feronia) 1, Wizard-Dvnr 4, 2025
→Minette female human Paladin 2 Clr-VrsnPlgrm(Desna) 3 (cryptstone lucerne hammer, gladius, comp longbow), 2025

→various Bard builds, 2023

→Best PF1 weapon, 2021

→HomeBrew Tribunus class, 2024

Fighter archs (Dawnflower Dervish(not scimitar focused), Lore Warden, Martial Master, Tactician(thematic BUT you need teamwork feats in the party), Two-handed Fighter, Varisian Free Style, Weapon Master).

Honestly more a fantasy version than historical accuracy, but it IS a game.

For a martial type that is limited to lgt armor and lgt shield you could try several archetypes. You'd want weapons cestus(2.75 avgdmg), gladius(shortsword)(3.85), short spear(3.68), spear(4.95), longspear(4.95), etc and that shouldn't be a problem with most martial classes. DPR will be a problem but you could TWF to lessen the 1hnd sword & board issue. In a practical way I'd suggest bastard sword{extc wpn prfc for 2/1hnd}(6.05 avgdmg) or elven curveblade(6.33) & thornblade(4.03).

Part of the "new" Marvel story outlook with the old comic cannon somewhat ditched.
I thought it was good. Drama with angst, denial, love out of reach and then lost, ironic macguffin(foiled by oily skin, the Vaseline defense), 'canon' cameos. More that the usual "naive good boy" routine.
Villain choice... hmm... not really sold on this due to 'canon'/past X-Men drama but it runs parallel to a Magneto story arc. Jean as an at range dominator... hmm... The usual Spidey Villains are stoopid. Note that Bruce defeats the Hulk(out of Spidey's league).
I thought the macguffin wasn't needed/handled in the way it was for plot & irony.

hmmm... ep 1-5.
pretty good but a slow burn of a story somewhat independent of the original comics or various spinoffs. Dramatic, some inconsistencies, tragic in some places, views about (magical/unearned) power, overlords, service and duty.
I was never a fan of the green lantern comics and spinoffs - kinda dumb stuff really up there with superman etc.

→Aquatic Terrain & underwater combat
it applies to all mundane creatures with general weapons (as there are spells, abilities, swim speed that can affect where a creature and its attack(natural, melee(weapon), ranged, thrown, IUS, spell, etc) falls on the chart).
There are a few specialized weapons (underwater crossbow) and piercing weapons that sea creatures generally use for that reason. Same goes for armor.
see AoN search on underwater

wet blanket time -
Paragon Surge:T3 is a half-elf racial spell and higher spell level (4th) for others via the Self Realization subdomain. Scroll Paragon Surge:T4 at 7th $700 for 7 minutes of glory.

At 4th it is more of a fair trade for a feat. I'd rather cast something else. And no - it does not make half-elf race more attractive.

Ofcourse your GM may be using 3rd party products or a Home Game ruling.

The Sanos Abduction is next. Into The Woods without the singing so bye to a sound'time.

Well 4-05 was a 4 player success at 6-7 level. Valeros the Fighter 7, Balphus Inqstr 6 with Hubadu the gorilla, Aldric Invstg 4, and Lorell the Oracle(Life) 6. NPC Riddywipple (Faerie Dragon) says "an I helped too!".

IMO trap CR is inflated as their use is dubious past 5th level or so. Magic can get around most of them, be it summoned trap springing hobbittses, air walk, blink, create pit, or web and/or spiderclimb.

If you want to be Evil - I'd suggest Bestow Curse or parasites(infestation). It's tricky to figure out if they're subtle and then difficult to treat taking time or a couple of checks. Diseases have their time delay and are usually a one off to cure. Parasites like Bot fly, hook worms, body lice are trickier.

Example
Curse: lisp "s", where words with "s" are mispronounced and verbal components have a 20% chance of spell failure. Cha based verbal skills also suffer a -2 crcm penalty except for performance checks (where they become part of the act).

So, while planning some villain lairs for my group i was looking at traps, both mechanical and magical...

Like for example the "Screaming Lock" Traps from Dragon's Demand.

I suppose those aren't listed on AoN due to copyright/legality issues, but if someone knows a source I'd be most grateful. ...

(I am in no way a spokesman for AoN). AoN makes decisions about what to post. I think they are operating as somewhat of a generic PRD (rules rather than ideas or flavor text) rather than a "post everything" as they have said they only quote directly applicable text. AoN Source Dragon's Demand Module doesn't list the trap. They don't list modified or named(I.P. issue) creatures either.

Twisted Circle went well. Lots of background exploring, gardening(finding a shrubbery with a nice path down the middle), topiary idolatry, fighting minor creatures and musty oldies with a hard choice at the end. It's nira 'nough to doll up a green thumb.

The Sanos Abduction is next. Into The Woods without the singing so bye to a sound'time.

Azothath wrote:

OOoooh... I'll have those 4th graders doing Hamming distances and Reed–Solomon codes in a few weeks.

If pigeons can spot cancers after 3 weeks then 4th graders can make one-way unbreakable blues-clues codes  you know this is for humor, right?

One day, our math teacher caught us passing a message during class.

...
Instead, he found our encryption system.
He never figured out what the message said, and somehow we escaped the thunder.

you mean an encoded message. Not a very good math skills or puzzle solver if he couldn't break that, then again, it was probably just the usual kid chat... 4-5 captured messages, knowing the language, and then knowing the general topic(s) usually makes it a snap.

an now bak tha DungeonmasterCal's House of Respite EnCryptation

If you are interested in my other builds, see some builds by Azothath, 2025

If you are interested in my other builds, see some builds by Azothath, 2025

If you are interested in my other builds, see some builds by Azothath, 2025

If you are interested in my other builds, see some builds by Azothath, 2025

If you are interested in my other builds, see some builds by Azothath, 2025