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My group finished Book 2 last night with the defeat of Jang and Ibzairiak, so will be doing wrap-up of book 2 / beginning of book 3 stuff next session. I have pretty much all of book 3 prepped, except for the last battle, because I don't know what they will negate before hand, and also because it confuses the heck out of me.

The one combat round per turn thing seems really brutal, beause they could potentially get bogged down in a combat slog due to some poor rolls and then have a bunch of the events go down without them interfering. Did everyone basically run this exactly as written?

Unrelated, but here's my current campaign map: Basically running everything as a hexcrawl (though I removed the grid for this upload). Forest started as a blank canvas, and then I add stuff as it gets discovered:

Currently it is updated as of getting information from the War Room at Fort Trevalay - so it has a not-quite-up-to-date indication of Ironfang-controlled territories.

Link to Ironfang Campaign Map - End of Book 2

Thanks for the discussion all!

Here's the fixed version of the Ridgeline Camp map - 62x62@150dpi

I found two other posts on the subject - but no official ruling, nor was there much discussion so no strong agreement either way.

Here's the ability in question, from the Freebooter Archetype for the Ranger (1E) from Pirates of the Inner Sea:

Freebooter’s Bond (Ex)

At 4th level, a freebooter forms a bond with her crewmates. This bond allows her to spend a move action to grant her allies extra combat prowess when they work as a team. All allies within 30 feet who can see or hear the freebooter gain an additional +2 bonus on attack rolls when flanking with the freebooter or with another ally affected by this ability.

This ability replaces hunter’s bond.

---

This ability doesn't have a duration listed.

Hunter's Bond, the ability it replaces, is either an Animal Companion at a -4 level, or the following:

The first is a bond to his companions. This bond allows him to spend a move action to grant half his favored enemy bonus against a single target of the appropriate type to all allies within 30 feet who can see or hear him. This bonus lasts for a number of rounds equal to the ranger’s Wisdom modifier (minimum 1). This bonus does not stack with any favored enemy bonuses possessed by his allies; they use whichever bonus is higher.

So, do you think it appropriate for have Freebooter's Bond:

1. Have an equal duration to Hunter's Bond (Wisdom Modifier)

2. Last until the end of an encounter

3. Last indefinitely (Counterpoint: why would it then require a move action to activate, other than adding extra allies, like summoned creatures, to the buff?)

Oops - fixed permissions on the map (but will fix the details when I'm able) - and will probably need to make the map even larger to provide multiple options for reaching the camp itself.

Page 18 descirbes Area J3. Prisoner Cages as being "along an abrupt cliff which drops 80 feet below".

The map alone is very confusing, but I used this bit of description to help layout the area by placing the cages up high on a cliff meaning the area leading to it is an incline with the rest of the camp being in the valley below it.

If anyone else is having difficulties, here's a version I did that might make it slightly clearer, though perhaps not entirely accurate - I essentially had the entire map sloping from left to right, with the left part of the map being too steep / inaccessible, and the right side sloping down to ground level:

Ridgeline Camp 52 x 62

However, it's probably supposed to be sloping down on both sides - which I might fix before running it.

My game is currently 2/3 of the way through Fangs of War; most has gone according to the book - though during the assault on Fort Ristin, one of the PCs was killed during the fight with Halk. They'd left the refugees behind in Misthome, so not only were they not able to raise the PC, but finding a new level-appropriate random non-hobgoblin in the area was a bit of a stretch. That PC was a druid from Crystalhurst originally - who hadn't told the others about Crystalhurst, but we handwaved it a bit that they found mention of Crystalhurst in his diary, so they made a beeline for the town, and got him Reincarnated (as a half-orc, instead of a dwarf) - which was the only option in town with a 7th level Druid and no appropriate Clerics. It also gave them an opportunity to do a bit of shopping (though they'd left the majority of their collected loot behind in Misthome).

Since they hadn't dealt with most of the Redcaps before they left Ristin, I had them take over the Fort since the korred faction was wiped out, but to make it slightly more interesting, they leveled up, and I gave the main Redcap whose name I'm totally blanking on at the moment the Blighted Fey template - and relayed the info through encountering the Werebear clan on the way home that the Redcaps had taken over, led by one that had some weird corruption since returning from the north.

Thankfully, no scythe crits and that fight went very well for the PCs - I of course didn't give the redcap the extra rejuvenation since they were far from the Darkblight, but it gave the PCs a bit more of a hook into things that should happen later on - also, said Druid that was ressurected made battling the Darkblight a strong part of their backstory.

Fort Nunder went swimmingly for them, and now they are at Fort Trevalay, having picked off most of the bridge guards through guerilla tactics and disgusing one of them as an injured hobgoblin patrol member to lure the guards away from their posts and ambush them. But now the missing guards are being noticed, as well as the overdue patrol that the PCs waylayed in the forest, so the hobgoblins in the courtyard are a bit more wary.

I've also enjoyed remaking the maps - I'm hoping to organize them all so others can use them shortly -
Here's the initial map of Fort Nunder
Since the hilltop is described as a whole 10' higher than the rest of the fort, I decided to draw it in - but make it so thick with brush and trees that I hoped it would convey the idea that it was basically impassable (and our druid doesn't have Woodland Stride)

It's unrealistic to expect that an adventurer's backpack has a specific pouch for every individual item, but I will grant that there is probably a "potions pouch".
The fact that retrieving a stored item provokes an attack of opportunity means that you, at the very least, have to pay attention to what you're doing enough that you might get stabbed.
On the other hand, a magic backpack automatically gives you what you want, and thus no concentration is needed, and thus it doesn't provoke an attack.

So if you can't see, reaching into the right pounch only helps you somewhat. It's very possible to pull out the wrong potion.

Think, too, that it takes two successive full-round-actions to coup-de-gras someone in the dark.

"You can deliver a coup de grace against a creature with total concealment, but doing this requires two consecutive full-round actions (one to “find” the creature once you've determined what square it's in, and one to deliver the coup de grace)."

So perhaps it is a full-round-action to find something in your mundane backpack. Or as a move action you can roll randomly for which potion/oil.

Blinded: "All checks and activities that rely on vision (such as reading and Perception checks based on sight) automatically fail."

Ran a scenario last night.

Babau cast Darkness.
Pregen 7th-level Kyra wanted to retrieve her Oil of Daylight from her backpack. Just a regular backpack, not a Handy Haversack. But she doesn't have Darkvision, so I ruled that she wouldn't be able to find that specific oil in her pack without being able to see, especially not as a move action.

How would you guys rule this? Allow it as a move, but roll randomly to determine which oil/potion is drawn from the bag?

Taken to the extreme, how would a caster find the specific spell components they need in order to cast a spell while blind?

In that specific situation I would remind the Wizard that he can cast Wall of Force outside of initiative, before opening the door, should he suspect something bad to happen. And make sure the dragon rolls Perception checks to hear them on the other side of the door, with appropriate modifiers, so the dragon knows they are there (if there is, in fact, a dragon).

Recently an alchemist PC found some Slippers of Spider Climbing in a scenario. During the final encounter, he climbed and was hanging from the ceiling. He took some damage and fell unconcious. We ruled that he fell off the ceiling, which killed him (he was only one or two HP away from death).

However, in retrospect he may not have fallen to his death, given how Spider Climb works.

Would he have hung upside down, unconscious?

I have a pair of dice with the Glyph of the Open Road carved into one face (replacing the six). I bought some sealing wax at Michael's, melt some wax onto the paper, let it cool slightly, and press the dice into the wax, which leaves the raised glyph behind.

Accents / voices / personalities are definitely a great idea. I usually find by the second time I run a scenario I'll usually do a lot better job of individualizing the NPCs, based on how the first group interacted with them.

I like to make actual letters, and seal them with wax using a custom D6 our venture captain made for us GMs that features the Glyph of the Open Road. It doesn't really take much time, and I think adds a bit of fun.

Link to Images

Anything else you do to put just a bit of extra effort into prepping?

Our one Aasimar that's likely to play tonight traded that away.
There's a 50-50 chance they'll have a Cleric with them though, so...

Question about the Haunt:

"When this haunt is triggered... all
humanoid creatures in the hallway are
targeted by a deep slumber spell with no
HD limit (save DC 14).

Normally Deep Slumber works on all creatures, not just Humanoids. However, the scenario states that the rats aren't subject to its affects. So by RAW then are Native Outsiders (Aasimars and Tieflings) immune to this haunt's effects, since they are not, in fact, humanoids?

That's correct, Handle Animal is not on the list of "exceptions" to Int/Cha/Dex skills you can use while raging.

However if he takes the Urban Barbarian archetype, he can make a Controlled Rage and still use Charisma based skills.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/barbarian/archetypes/paizo---b arbarian-archetypes/urban-barbarian

You still require a Handle Animal check to make a mount attack, as well as the Ride check to be able to also attack yourself (failing this means you need to hang onto the mount while it attacks, so you lose your action).

It's actually a feat in the Advanced Player's Guide. The details can be read here:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/well-prepared

Are you fighting with a lance?

15 Strength, with a lance, assuming two handed, you'll do 1d6+3, charging with Spirited Charge (Triple damage) you'll get 3d6+9. If it's a +1 lance, then 1d6+4 / 3d6+12. On a crit, with spirited charge, you'll get 5d6+20

If you add Power Attack with that +1 lance, then you'll be doing 1d6+10 / 3d6+30 damage, so that's a pretty significant jump for a -2 bonus to hit, and a crit would do 5d6+50.

If you challenge the opponent first, with power attack, two handing a +1 lance, you'll do 1d6+15 / 3d6+45 damage. If you crit, you'll do 5d6+75 damage.

Many would argue that a Musket Master's "Rapid Reload: Muskets" (I argue this too) applies only to plain muskets, not axe-muskets, not double-barrelled muskets. So you shouldn't be able to reload your Double-Barrelled musket as two free actions; it should be two move actions.

To clarify, that's one per day per target. A feat will extend this to two attempts per target per day.

Edit: Nevermind, I stand corrected.

As for the Tiefling Dervish Dancing Kensai Magus build, just build them like the other four hundred thousand Dervish Dancing Kensai Magusus in PFS: Dex, Int, Con.

Just don't even go there. This falls firmly into the category of "Exploitative BS that will piss off everyone you play with."

Yes, it's that powerful.

If you are building your own story, the arguement goes that you should just put in a lot of creatures that are immune to sleep, or give your important NPCs Iron Will.

I hate that argument, myself.

The best thing to do would be to reach an agreement with your players and express your concerns. If this is PFS and you have to take everything as written, oh well. You should know that enemies can take a standard action to wake their friends up, so depending on the sitch that is definitely something they should consider doing.

Sometimes the witch ending a fight early can be a big triumph for the players, sometimes it can be a bummer because it sucks the fun out. I have a witch in PFS, I pretty much try to save it for emergencies, but ultimately there are a lot of things out there that are overpowered. Sure, your witch may knock a powerful NPC to sleep in one failed will save, but a heavily optimized Barbarian with multiple attacks will just kill that same powerful NPC in one full attack...

The first feat I listed in my above build, Cornugon Stun (From Cheliax, Empire of Devils) lets you use Stunning Fist with any Monk special weapon.

Crusader's Flurry makes your Cleric's Favoured weapon a Special Monk Weapon. Thus, it's valid to flurry and use it for Stunning Fist.

Thanks for the insight!

However, Stunning Fist can only be attempted once per round, so stunning during an AoO wouldn't cause stun lock. In fact, stun lock can occur during normal use:

My turn: I trip them
Their turn: They stand up, I stun them. They lost the rest of this turn.
My turn: I hit them.
Their turn: Stun ends, they act normally. (No stun lock)
My turn: I stun them
Their turn: They lose this turn, are stunned.
My turn: Their stun ends, I stun them again.
Their turn: They lose this turn, are stunned (Now we have stun lock).

Good concept have a slight change to offer for consideration,...

Take weapon adept monk instead of crusader cleric. At level two monk you would gain weapon focus. This grants u a second domain of shelyn (luck is my choice), weapon specialization at level 6, perfect strike feat at monk 1, and u don't lose any of ur core material that I can c. U will automatically lose evasion but is a fair trade for a second domain and more combat feats I think.

Will keep looking

The Weapon Adept's perfect strike doesn't work with the Glaive, unfortunately, which is kind of a waste. It also replaces Stunning Fist, which is doubly unfortunate.

Sohei monk archetype from Ultimate Combat (the sohei's Weapon Training is better than Crusader's Flurry, in that it works with an entire weapon group and allows ki strike as well as flurry of blows):

I really like the Devoted Guardian aspect of the Sohei monk, but it sadly replaces Stunning Fist.

One thing I considered is taking Crusder's Flurry anyway, and Sohei, and then instead of taking Weapon Training: Polearms at level 6, take Weapon Training: Bows. That way, later in the game when we're confronted with more flying creatures, I can flurry at them with my bow, and flurry at things on the ground with my Glaive.

Sohei will prevent the need for a cleric dip, and lets you flurry in armor. The downside is that you become much less of a monk. Also, have you seen the guided hand feat? Wisdom to hit with deity favored weapon, needs channel smite as prerequisite. It helps with cleric/monks.

I actually like the Cleric dip, since it opens up Divine Favour and Shield (as a divine spell) as spells. With the Fate's Favoured trait, Divine Favour basically becomes the equivalent of Bull's Strength when flurrying, a second level spell, but is only a first level spell. It's also a luck bonus, so it stacks with the enhancement bonus provided by things like a Belt of Giant's Strength.

Getting a wand of Divine Favour and Shield would be extremely useful. I could also take Luck as my variant channeling, to give myself and everyone around me a Luck bonus (which for me would be a +2 bonus) at the start of a combat. Sure, I'm dumping Charisma, so it's only once per day, but still, not bad at all.

Cleric/sohei with Guided Hand? Who needs a paladin?

That seems a bit feat intensive, and would definitely nerf my damage pretty bad.

As far as a second domain goes, I could go with a Separatist Cleric, for the Defense and Travel Domains. I'd then need to burn a feat on Martial Weapon Proficiency: Glaive, unless I went with Sohei. Hm, maybe I will give up on the Stunning Fist idea to go with Sohei. But Sohei does give up a ton of other Monk things....

For those of you that have played monks, how useful is Stunning Fist?

Clerics are 3/4 BAB. Tower Shield emparts a -2 penalty on your attacks. Power attack also imposes a penalty on your attacks.

Strongly urge you away from using a tower shield.

Half-Orc Cleric of Shelyn (Defense Domain) 1 / Monk 2

I'll be building this character for PFS. Concept is a former Cleric that has now taken Monk Vows, striving to overcome his orc heritage, while also kicking Demon ass in Season 5.

I'm building on the Crusader's Flurry feat, and the earliest you can get this to work is by taking two levels of Monk, then a level of Cleric (Crusader), and the rest monk. As such, I'll build him with GM Credits 'til Level 3 so he'll have the two monk levels and the cleric level, and flavour wise I can say that he was a cleric before he was a monk.

Str 17 (15+2)
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 12
Wis 14
Cha 7

Or:

Str 18 (16+2)
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 15
Cha 7

Defense: AC 14 or 15, Touch 14 or 15, Flat Footed 12

Saves:
Fortitude: 10
(Base 3 Monk, 2 Cleric, Ability 2, Resistance 1 (from Domain), Luck 2)
Reflex: 8
(Base 3 Monk, 0 Cleric, Ability 2, Resistance 1 (from Domain), Luck 2)
Will: 10
(Base 3 Monk, 2 Cleric, Ability 2, Resistance 1 (from Domain), Luck 2)

Feats:
1. Cornugon Stun (Use any Monk weapon to deliver a Stunning Fist)
1. (Monk): Combat Reflexes
2. (Monk): Dodge
3. (Cleric Bonus): Weapon Focus: Glaive
3. Crusader's Flurry

Traits:
Fate's Favoured (Whenever you're under the effect of a Luck Bonus, increase that bonus by 1)
Magical Knack: Cleric (Increase CL of Cleric 2 levels, not to exceed Hit Dice).

Alternate Racial:
Sacred Tattoo (+1 Luck Bonus to Saves), replaces Orc Ferocity.

Domain Spell: Shield (+4 Shield Bonus to AC).
Awesome cleric spell: Divine Favour (+1 Luck Bonus to Attack and Damage, becomes +2 because of Fate's Favoured).

I'd put several of my Favoured Class Bonuses into increasing the number of Stunning Fist attemps by 0.5.

So I'm looking at archetypes and wondering what to go with. I am attracted to the Monk of the Sacred Mountain, which replaces Evasion with Toughness and a +1 Natural Armour bonus. It also means you can't be knocked prone under most circumstances, which means that using my Glaive to trip foes will usually keep me out of their reach (since I won't have Improved Trip yet). I can then use Stunning Fist when they try to get up.

But, Evasion is pretty awesome so I'm not sure giving it up is such a great idea.

So, example encounter:

Round one: run up to enemy, pull out Glaive, and trip them.
Enemy tries to stand up, and I smack them with my Glaive w/ stunning fist, dealing 1d10+6 damage and forcing a DC 15 Fort Save, stunning them (effectively disarming them) and keeping them prone.

Round two: flurry with the Glaive against the prone target, dealing 1d10+4/1d10+4

Enemy grabs their weapon and / or stands up, provoking one or two more AoOs from me.

Thoughts?

Thanks for the replies! Makes sense

For many medium creatures, the difference between tripping with a weapon and attacking with that weapon are going to be pretty negligible (as far as the bonus to the roll goes). A big difference occurs for Small creatures, though, which normally get a +1 size bonus to hit with weapons, but get a -1 size penalty for combat maneuvers.

So a Halfling Rogue 1: 10 Str, 18 Dex, 0 BAB with a Masterwork Rapier and Weapon Finesse:

To Hit: 0 BAB + 4 Dex +1 Size +1 Masterwork = +6
To Trip w/ Rapier: 0 BB + 4 Dex -1 Size +1 Masterwork = +4
To Overrun (Doesn't use a weapon): = BAB + 0 Str -1 Size = -1

Let's say my monk is on Init 10 and the enemy on Init 11.

On my turn, I run in and trip the enemy.

On his turn, he stands up, provoking an Attack of Opportunity, and hit him with Stunning Fist (this happens on Initiative Count of 11, the enemy's turn).

The trouble is, Stunning Fist is worded
"in addition to dealing damage normally. A defender who fails this saving throw is stunned for 1 round (until just before your next turn)"

So, in this case, "until just before your next turn" is immediately.

Is this actually how it works in RAW, or logically should it continue for one round, until the next Init count 12 comes up?

I would think, for balance purposes, that no matter how many arms you have, you get the same number of attacks while using a Flurry of Blows.

Let's take a human, for instance. A human monk has two arms and two legs. He can make a flurry of blows at first level using any combination of his anatomy, pretty much, and make two attacks. He could punch twice, kick once and elbow once, smack someone with a kama once and headbutt them, etc. Bottom line, you get two attacks.

So even if you had four arms and two legs, you'd still get your two attacks.

Ilsurian (the town the carnival is visiting) got detailed further in Towns of the Inner Sea and I was thinking of fleshing the module out further by including a bit more of the town based on the info in TotIS. I know it can be run as an Express Train but I was hoping to avoid that, and one solution I thought of was running it in campaign mode and fleshing it out somewhat, but still allowing the players to get PFS Credit for it.

Is there any way the design team would consider letting us run Murder's Mark as a regular homegame-style module (Granting XP and leveling up to level 2), and then assigning the module credit to a new first-level PFS PC, similar to the way the credit from Dragon's Demand can be applied?

For those that aren't familiar, you can play through all of Dragon's Demand as a regular homegame (and not need to follow PFS rules), and then once completed, you get a series of Chronicle Sheets that you may apply to a PFS character. I'm wondering if the Design Team would consider letting us do that with Murder's Mark, so that the PCs can level up to 2 during the module in order to better deal with the later threats, and also so that it would give our regular PFS players that aren't fortunate enough to play in a home game to try different concepts, like playing a ratfolk or anything else that would normally not be allowed in PFS, but to still get PFS credit for the experience.

I would suggest the witch and, should it be PFS legal the scarred witchdoctor archetype.

The Scarred Witch Doctor is not PFS Legal.

However, Umbranus is right. Witch is a good choice as they make other people roll dice a lot more often than they ever need to. It's also easy to get a massive bonus to Initiative, so even if you roll a 1, you can still go on Initiative Count 16, which ain't at all bad.

I use this one http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/rifle/latest/50184 and it is totally perfect for my Musket Master, who is a pith-helmet wearing Explorer's Club-type braggart.

Helpful for Halflings is almost never a bad idea (Halflings of Golarion)
one of my other Halflings also has 'Self Sacrifice' from the same source. Worshippers of Shelyn can use a move-equivalent action to give cover to an adjacent ally (effectively +4 AC)

It goes against the spirit of PFS to turn people away from a table because you only want four PCs.

You can run a legal table with 3-7 PCs (3+1 NPC, and 7 PCs maximum). Yes, some scenarios will get totally trounced with 7 PCs, and GMing and trying to keep 7 people engaged is very difficult, but if that's the way it works, that's the way it works.

Unless you're running a game at home, using PFS rules, then fine, tell your friends they can't play, whatever. But if you're running a public event at a game store or other such venue, then no. You let the people that show up play. If they don't have a valid character, they can play a pregen, even if this is a Level 7 pregen at a Tier 5-6 table.

If you get 7 PCs, you can ask one of them if they'd like to split off and run a second table, but unless they happend to have shown up with their GM supplies this is unlikely to be a done. Running scenarios blind can often make for a bad time for everyone.

Alternatively, if you know you're going to have 7 PCs, then perhaps choose a scenario that's known to be challenging or that scales well to that number of players. Murder on the Silken Caravan was one I played not too long ago as one of 7 PCs at Tier 1-2 and it handles 7 pretty well.

GMed this tonight with four PCs, a mix of fives and sixes (Summoner, Witch, Natural Attack Barbarian, and Earth Breaker Non Lethal Rogue).

I found out last night that I needed to prep this for today, so I didn't have near enough time as I'd like to flesh the characters out, but I thought the roleplay went well, there were numerous botched rolls but the scenario gives plenty of chances so they managed to convince all but the Osirion.

When it came time to search the manor for suspicious activities they.... split the party.

... and then after they found the servants bloody clothes, they got back together to discuss, then told the guard captain and newly blew the party.

Aaaaaand then they decided to split the party. Again. So the Barbarian and Rogue went downstairs and got ambushed by the Advanced Wraith and took a bunch of Con drain before beating it into submission.

Optional encounter was over pretty quick as the Gnome got grappled right away by the Eidolon, leading the Alu-Demon to take the abuse.

Final fight was ridiculous. The Rakshasa got grapped right away, Faelyn got his head smashed for a bunch of non lethal damage, and the Succubus barely managed to get out of melee by Dominating the barbarian and telling him to go attack the Eidolon. He broke the Domination on the following round (due to to the 'attack' command), but she managed to get away and fly above the carnage.

The witch cast Fly at the Barbarian, so he dropped his Cold Iron Earthbreaker and flew up to start four-attack full-attacking the succubus.

First full attak did 57 damage! Oh wait... that's 17 damage because of DR.

So then she vampiric touched him. And critted. Suddenly she had 84 hitpoints.

Shenanigans ensued... long...long drawn out shenanigans. She Suggested the Barbarian go away... so he went away, and the PCs gave up and she fled.

Damn, succubi are mean.

Yeah, it doesn't.

You can always ruin their day with a spell. Walk up and puke a bunch of spiders on them before their turn. Encase them in webs. Glitterdust will definitely wreck their day.

Well, as I say, if that's the way your game is set up and it's all agreed upon by the GMs and players, then fair enough. You qualify for anything the GM lets you take.

But my warning stands in general, I see so many people obsessing over optimization that it makes me a sad panda.

Don't forget, it's just a game, and the main point is to have fun. Not just for yourself, but to try to make sure everyone has fun.

So, let's say you're all fighting some powerful fighter. The martials in your party have him surrounded and he's taken a beating. Your turn comes up. You could Slumber him, and totally shut down the fight, which would be a very good thing to do if you're all close to death. If not, you could Command him to approach you, which would make him walk towards you on his turn and prove AoOs from everyone surrounding him, making it more of a team effort.

If they all whiff their AoOs, you can all laugh at the situation as the big fighter takes a swing at your head the following round. But that's unlikely since everyone can run up again and wail on him.

So Command might not be the most optimized spell out there, but it can be a fun one to use.

Where do Hexes fall under the Category of Special Attacks for PCs?

Ability focus risks breaking your witch. Consider a witch at level four with 22 int (17 +2 racial +1 lvl four +2 headband). Slumber hex DC would be 18. With ability focus this makes it a DC 20 will save. You can do this all day long. If you evil eye them first it is effectively a Dc 22 will save.

You risk trivializing encounters and boring everyone to death. Some may argue that the GM will just have to adapt and put more undead into the campaign, but if s/he is running a module or AP things aren't very flexible. Regardless this just means adding even more prep time for the GM.

Unless your game is specifically tailored to broken characters, please avoid doing that.

You don't qualify for Ability Focus, since it's a Monster Feat that requires Special Attacks as a prereq, which you don't have.

Command is also a fun level 1 spell to use.

Improved Initiative is nice, to hammer people with dubuffs asap, get a spell off, etc.

There is also a "Country Inn" Flip-Mat that is quite nice.

http://paizo.com/products/btpy8oui?GameMastery-FlipMat-Country-Inn

Though IMO it would have been nice to have two different maps, rather than the reverse side being the same map but with the roofs obscuring the inside.

Yes.

Any melee weapon can be used with a trip attempt. The "trip" special quality just lets you drop it as a free action to avoid being tripped if you botch your roll.

With a weapon, you use your modifiers (Weapon focus, enhancement bonuses, etc) in the trip attempt.

For instance:

Let's say my Halfling is using a quarterstaff to attack

BAB +3, Str +3, Weapon Focus: Quarterstaff: +1, Masterwork, +1, Size Bonus +1 = +9 to hit.

If he wanted to make a trip attempt, he would be at

BAB +3, Str +3, Weapon Focus: Quarterstaff: +1, Masterwork, +1, Size Penalty -1 = +7 to trip.

If he were human, there would be no size bonus/penalty and the two rolls would be the same.

Yes, you can trip during a flurry, but you still take the -2 penalty on attack rolls (including the trip attempt) during the Flurry.

I don't really think a whip build is the way to go. I'm building a similar character, but using a Glaive (Cleric / Monk of Shelyn). That way I can use the same weapon to trip as one attempt, and then damage them with a 1d10 weapon with my second attempt, and I don't need to spend a bunch of feats on the whip.

No, it doesn't, unless it ends it movement. BTW, if you're both attacking, get the wolf to attack first, that way it might trip the opponent before you smash it's skull in.

Mounted Combat - Ride By Attack - Spirited Charge.

Triple damage with a lance on a charge, or double with any other weapon. So you charge, ride up, fix them with a masterful gaze as a move action, smash their face in, and then ride past.

To answer your question, yes, you can take a standard and a move-equivalent action while mounted, provided you can make the ride checks for controlling your mount and fighting.