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Do Sphere Powers with a melee-touch range function like Touch spells in regards to holding the charge? (These are mostly Destruction and Light talents, but others are possible with certain casting drawbacks.)
For example, could I use my standard action and spend SP to cast a Destructive Blast or a Glow effect as a melee touch attack, but wait several turns before making the touch as a separate standard action?

In most cases, if you don’t discharge a touch spell on the round you cast it, you can hold the charge (postpone the discharge of the spell) indefinitely. You can make touch attacks round after round until the spell is discharged.

As a standard action, you may deliver a burst of blunt magical force as a melee touch attack or a ranged touch attack within Close range. A ranged Destructive Blast counts as a Ray attack.

As a standard action, you may cause an object or creature in Medium range to glow for 1 minute per caster level. This requires a touch attack or ranged touch attack.

RAW, I don't think they would.
A reasonable DM would probably give your familiar a bite or tongue attack (with Grab if they like you) like giant frogs and giant toads have.

The Personal Conflict drawback lets me grab either Totemic Aura or Totemic Presence as a bonus talent. The Domain Spheres class feature gives me Totemic Aura AND Personal Conflict. Can I still select Totemic Presence as my bonus talent from Personal conflict, or is Domain Spheres intended to be making the decision for me?

Dwarves have that bonus as well. If your DM is fine with 3rd party content, John Brazer Enterprises has given it to orcs and duergar, too.

Dwarves have that bonus as well.If your DM is fine with 3rd party content, John Brazer Enterprises has given it to orcs and duergar, too.

I'm a bit late to the party but Ultimate Intrigue has a +1 weapon enhancement called "Training" that bestows the wielder a specific combat feat if they meet the prereqs. Exotic Weapon Proficiency just so happens to be a combat feat. It's a bit expensive, especially if you want to further upgrade the weapon, but it doesn't use up any character customization options. It definitely has its uses on situational backup weapons like polearms, whips and repeating crossbows.

I wonder why "small creature traits" is on the chart at all. Don't tieflings take the size of their parent race? I guess if you wanted to be small and human-born or something.

Can a tiefling with an variant heritage take a racial trait that replaces Skilled or the SLA? On one hand, the variants have still have the Skilled and SLA, just with different spells/skills involved. One could interpret, for example, a Pitborn's Shatter SLA as the default for the race. Only one alternate racial trait (Underworld Guide from Blood of Shadows) specifically mentions that it replaces the DARKNESS SLA. On the other hand, racial traits probably (I can't find the text atm) follow similar rules to class archetypes where you can't trade something out twice.
My motivation is that I want to play a certain tiefling bloodline because the stat adjustments and flavor are perfect, but some of the options on that d100 chart look really tasty.

The Fiendish Heritage feat (yes I know it's outdated and unnecessary) might be the only rules-legal way of getting the alternate ability modifiers AND a chance to roll on the d100 chart.

Sorry for the confusion, I did mean two skills.
The two metamagics in question are Coaxing and Threnodic (I'm obviously playing an enchanter), and would probably never be using them in a single encounter, so having both on a single rod isn't as economy-breaking as you would think.
It's mostly for my own sake, I was originally going to buy the two metamagic rods and a Rod of Beguiling separately. I want to craft a custom one so I don't have track what I'm holding all the time or fumble around to get the right rod for the situation. Plus I love the idea of a rod that lets me mind-control everything I see! (Shame there's not a "Reprogramming Spell" for constructs)

So it's somewhere in the ballpark of 100k-150k. The weapon component adds quite a bit, huh? How much would it cost with just the skill bonuses and metamagics? I can get my weapon separately. Are the prices given are the crafting cost or the street value?

I want to create a rod that contains two +2 metamagic feats (not to be used simultaneously), counts as a weapon (sword cane), and gives two stats a +5 competence bonus, but I'm having trouble estimating the cost.
The base price for a mid-strength +2 metamagic rod is 73000
The base price for competence bonuses are Bonus^2*100
I haven't seen guidelines for making a rod count as a weapon, although many of them double as maces, clubs, etc.
Being slotless doubles the price (does this even apply to weapons and rods?)
The biggest issue is the order of operations using the following formula from Magic Item Creation. Metamagic is similar to metamagic, and skill bonuses are similar to skill bonuses, so do I do some funky formula nesting to get the final cost, or just use the Multiple Different Abilities formula since they aren't all similar to one another?

Bumping for an answer

Combat Expertise: It’s strange, I’ve never once seen this suggested as optimisation for spellcasters, but since you’re never attacking (or at least you shouldn’t be) this feat translates into a raw AC bonus with no negatives. So unless I’m missing something, I think this is at least a decent choice.

What you're missing is that you need to make a melee attack to to get the AC boost from Combat Expertise. When is it ever a good idea for a squishy to be close enough to an enemy to do that?

Oh my bad. Not sure how I made that mistake. So it does say "every level" in the original text then? That probably does mean that it was meant to be a full casting progression class at some point in its development.

This appears to be caused by a possible change that was missed in editing.

The Spells text would imply that the AotG gets increased casting every level (It says "When a new Agent of the Grave level is gained," not "Every level after 1st" or "Every level starting at 2nd level"), but the chart shows no spellcasting increase at 1st level.

I almost chased that chain of thought in my original post, until I opened up Paths of Prestige for some examples. The spells/day thing was actually a mistake on the part of whomever copied the class to DD20PFSRD. In PoP, spells/day has its own entry at the start of the book rather than for each class. They used a phrase like "for each class, at the levels indicated on their chart...", so that's not valid evidence. It would be fantastic if AotG was full progression, though.

I am having some trouble reconciling this ability with the text of Animate Dead.

Does the Spirit Vessels revelation only affect the undead created with spells cast from Oracle spell slots? Or could, say, a Wiz 7/Ora 1 with the revelation be able to cast (arcane) Animate Dead to control (6HD/lv*7WizLv=) 42 HD of undead? There's an FAQ that makes me think it would work this way, but I want second opinions.

I'm also curious about this. Also, how does that interact with traits, class features, etc, that raise the Aid Another bonus? +2 is specifically called out, but that may just be because that's the normal value for it and Tactician wasn't written with those abilities in mind.

Well tongues are quite good at manipulating small objects, aren't they? This really does fall outside the scope of the rules though. As a GM I'd probably rule that it works, but with a chance of spell failure.

That's besides the point. Isn't the main thematic differences between fighter and barbarian is that fighters are more structured combatants while barbarians are one step away from Captain Caveman? Why do they get stances instead of fighters? Flavor-wise, that's messed up.

I'm sure that if Unchained Fighter came out before Unchained Barbarian, fighters would have stances.

One more thing, what's the deal with Swashbuckler's Grace and Superior Feint? They're not present on the list of deeds at level seven, but the Rapscallion and Picaroon archetypes still list them to be swapped out. Superior Feint was relocated to be a Vagabond's Personage Deed, but it seems silly and unintended that only vagabonds can be Picaroons.

This book is amazing! Definitely worth the purchase.
I did notice a few oddities though, and I have a several questions.
First of all, there were a few minor differences between the regular and Legendary swashbuckler that I'm not sure were intentional.
- Craft is no longer a class skill, which struck me as odd because EVERY class has Craft as a class skill.
- Bonus Feats did not receive a descriptive section. I assume the regular rules still apply (combat feats only, Swash levels count as Fighter levels, trade one out every 4 levels), but as written there's nothing to go off of.
- Opportune Parry and Riposte's incompatibility with Signature Deed has been removed, was that intentional? I certainly hope it was.
- The Daredevil Personage's Daredevil's Dart give the character the ability to use Spring Attack at level 7, but then at level 10 they gain the Spring Attack feat. What was the point of that?
- How does the Ronin's Favored Weapon Training interact with weapons like the Estoc, Bastard Sword, or Flambard that use either Martial or Exotic proficiency? "She gains proficiency with that weapon if she wouldn’t normally be proficient with it" Swashbucklers are proficient with them two-handed already, does this make them proficient with them one-handed?
- The Ronin's Resolve ability replaces Uncanny Dodge. What happens at 8th level when they gain Improved Uncanny Dodge?
- The Ronin's Order Abilities feature reads: "Beginning at 2nd level, Beginning at 4th level, the ronin may..." I assume the "2nd level" bit isn't supposed to be there since bonus feats only start at 4th level..
- The Vainglorious archetype (I love this one, it's like qinggong Swashbuckler!) lists Dodging Panache in the level 3 list. Shouldn't this be Daring Stride, its replacement?
- Inspired Blade's Inspired Focus seems really weird in practice. They only gain the benefits of swashbuckler weapon training with weapons they have Weapon Focus with. It looks like they still accrue weapon groups every four levels that they can't benefit from until they take Weapon Focus again, and furthermore, Finesse Training still applies to weapons in selected groups. (Strength to hit and Dex to damage, I've never seen that before!) Was Inspired Blade supposed to get another Weapon Focus feat for free when they select a new weapon group?
Thanks in advance for clarification.

It's unclear but I'd say probably not. Gift of Tongues seems really lackluster, it gives you nothing that a single rank in linguistics doesn't cover.

Thanks for clearing that up. I've never seen an archetype that skips the "This ability replaces..." line like that.

First: Do familiar archetypes follow the same stacking rules as class archetypes? I don't see any indications one way or the other.

Second: Does the Mauler archetype's Increased Strength ability count as "altering the familiar's intelligence score" for the purpose of archetype stacking? It notably does NOT contain the usual "this ability replaces/alters..." line.

At 3rd level and every 2 levels thereafter, a mauler's Strength score increases by 1. As a result of this ability, the familiar's Intelligence score remains 6; a mauler can never have an Intelligence score higher than 6.

Third: Let's assume for a second that familiar archetypes can stack, and that Mauler somehow doesn't alter the intelligence feature of the familiar. How would a Mauler/Sage's INT score be calculated?

A sage's Intelligence score is always equal to 5 + its level, but the sage gains the additional natural armor increases of a familiar only half its level.

This ability alters the familiar's Intelligence score and natural armor adjustment.

An unusual contradiction. Its INT can never be higher than 6, but must always equal 5 + its level.

This is a no-brainer as far as RAI goes. The central RAW question, however, is: if an archetype implies that it replaces/alters an ability, but doesn't explicitly call it out as such, is the ability replaced?

A player with a Ice-themed witch wants permission to take the Winter Oracle's Freezing Spells Revelation as a hex (or possibly a feat). I don't see a problem with this, since feats, Revelations and Hexes are about equivalent in power.
I'm thinking about giving it the standard "once per enemy" drawback of most offensive hexes for consistency, but am open to other kinds of limitation, such as a feat or level prerequisite, action usage, or only allowing it to affect one target per spell. (Elemental Focus or Chilling Amplification look like good candidates for a feat prereq, though I'm not really sure how the latter would stack)
What do people think? Should the player be allowed to take it as it is written for oracles or should I tweak it first?

There's a FAQ that revolved AoMF with weapon properties affecting natural attacks. It was ruled that a Speed AoMF only granted one extra attack to a creature with multiple natural attacks, rather than giving each weapon an extra attack. It was ruled this way NOT because it was against the wording of AoMF (that wasn't even mentioned), but because it would be way too powerful if it did work that way.

Alchemists get Brew Potion for free, and so many bonuses to Craft[alchemy], but so many of their extracts are 'personal' range, thus do not qualify to be made into potions. This seems kind of odd to me, since brewing is such a big part of the Alchemist's theme.
They can't make potions out of most of their formula list, and they can't make potions off of other lists (I think?). Is there some part of the potion crafting process I'm misunderstanding?

Just to play devil's advocate, unarmed strikes can be made with any part of the body. "The hand is occupied" arguments fall flat since the barbarian could slash/kick instead of slash/punch.

I'm reading "Special Charge" like this:
It counts as a normal charge, but with the movement changed out for a teleportation. The restrictions on moving during a charge, along with any Abilities/Feats/etc. that would modify the MOVEMENT of a charge (or example, Wheeling Charge or Charge Through) do not apply. Effects that apply to the ATTACK of the charge are still in effect (the +2 attack bonus, probably the AC drop, double lance damage, pounce...).

Also, what about objects in confined spaces? Could I stick a piece of wire in a keyhole and expand it until the lock/door busts or would it stop expanding once it filled the available area?

REALLY late to the party (thanks, google), but I'm seeing this on the Unchained Monk weapon proficiency entry:

Monks are proficient with the club, crossbow (light or heavy), dagger, handaxe, javelin, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, short sword, shortspear, shuriken, siangham, sling, spear, and any weapon with the monk special weapon quality.

It seems like Unchained cleared up this whole mess.

Oreads with this racial trait learn how to mimic the magic of their shaitan ancestors. Once per day, such an oread can cause a touched piece of non-magical iron or steel to grow into an object up to 10 pounds in weight, such as a sword, crowbar, or light steel shield. This object remains in this form for 10 minutes or until broken or destroyed, at which point it shrinks back to its original size and shape. This racial trait replaces the spell-like ability racial trait.

This ability is seriously lacking details on just what it can affect, and how.

You should toss mi-go, shoggoth, and elder things, and yithians to the summon list at appropriate levels

maybe make this into a weapon property?
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/unseat-combat---final

Take a look at Flaming Crab Game's Tavern Brawler. It seems like it would be a good base to work from.

A munchkin worth his salt could probably fashion the Life Raft Stone and a pair of those 70's fish tank shoes into Boots of Water Walking.

Doesn't divine favor say it can be used as a touch spell on a willing target?

Aligned Class (Ex)

Evangelists come from many different backgrounds, and they show an unusual range of diversity. At 2nd level, the evangelist must choose a class she belonged to before adding the prestige class to be her aligned class. She gains all the class features for this class, essentially adding every evangelist level beyond 1st to her aligned class to determine what class features she gains. She still retains the Hit Dice, base attack bonus, saving throw bonuses, and skill ranks of the prestige class, but gains all other class features of her aligned class as well as those of the evangelist prestige class.

Say my PC is Swashbuckler 5/Evangelist 10. He would have the class features of a 10th level Evangelist and a 14th level Swashbuckler (5 levels + 9 levels of Evangelist)