BigDTBone's page

I have a vague memory of an item from one of the earlier contests that was like, "Varisian Funeral Vardo," or something similar. But, now I can't find it. Does anyone else remember this item and/or have a link to the entry post?

Thanks!

Obligatory. My apologies.

South Park creators will back off mocking Donald Trump they say, because "satire has become reality."

I thought it may be good to have a place where the community can discuss reasons they would like to see political threads go away for good, come back, or be limited in scope. Please don't bring up any specific topics and definitely don't turn this into a political thread of its own! Thanks.

For me, I really appreciate having a place to discuss politics with people who are intelligent, politically aware, and are part of a community with me which is larger than the particular discussion at hand. The Paizo forums allow for me to participate in this kind of discourse and I would be truly saddened for them to go away. There are not many other places on the internet which fill all three of those features.

I understand that those threads get rowdy, loud, distasteful, and even down right abusive at times. I understand Paizo's concern about being seen as tacitly approving of that sort of thing by hosting it on their site. I understand that they put a bunch of extra stress on customer-service's and the web-team's work product. I understand it would be naive at best to expect that self-policing will yield acceptable results. I would understand a Paizo decision to ban such threads from their site.

But, it would make me sad. It would remove a big part of what this community is to me, and what opportunities it offers. I hope that Paizo can find a way to keep them around.

Had to dump out a portable hole full of gold so I could fill it with platinum. #level20problems

Can you split a turn by moving and then declaring a readied standard action? Or can you only ready an action if you have taken no other actions in that round?

AI that is better at dog-fighting than USAF combat pilot instructors.

Please stop inventing skynet.

Yep

Ok, so you need a clean car to do anonymous things in. You don't need security cameras and PI's tracking you by your car. You value your privacy. This is a proposed method to legally (mostly) obtain a totally clean and untraceable (to you) car. Please point out the holes in the plan so they may be corrected! Plan costs approximately $15,000 that we will assume you also got from a clean method. (For this, I'm in favor of breaking $100 bills from your bank at different gas stations around town by buying a pack of gum. Will take a while to accomplish, but if privacy is paramount then it is worth the time.)

Thanks!

First, go to a mall. Find a group of teenagers. Teenagers should match your outward gender appearance to decrease public suspicion. Ask the teenagers if they want to make $1000. They will presumably say, “yes.” Say, “OK, let’s go to Best Buy.”

Once you get to Best Buy give them instructions to go inside and buy a Chromebook. Give them $500. When they come back out trade them the Chromebook for $1000. Tell them to keep the change.

Take your new Chromebook and go to local community colleges until you find one with open access visitor Wifi that you can access from your car. Hit up craigslist and find a car from a private seller for about $5,000 in a city at least 100 miles away and preferably in another state.

Head down to the place in your chosen town where day-laborers hang out. Hire one who has a cell phone. Tell them to arrange to buy the car you found with a public meet up for later that day. You are going to give them the money and you are going to give them $7,500 when they bring the car back with the title. Drop the day-laborer a few blocks away from the arranged meet. Tell them to haggle but accept the $5000 if the seller won’t budge. Tell them to bring the car to a Walmart parking lot. Park your car in another large parking lot a few blocks away. Walk to the Walmart.

When they show up with the car, keys, and the title give them the $7,500. Tell them to keep the change. Take the laptop, wipe it down, and run it over with the car a few times. Put on cotton gloves, pull the hard drive out and throw the rest of the laptop into a lake. Preferably the middle of a lake, but spillways, or long docks will be OK. Take the hard drive, beat it with a sledge hammer until you split the casing. Squirt lighter fluid in and light it up. Take it to a wooded area in the middle of the night, dig a hole at least 4 feet deep somewhere without grass. Toss the hard drive in. Soak the cotton gloves in lighter fluid and burn them in the bottom of the hole. Fill the hole back in.

Drive the car back to a place near your town. Find a major strip shopping center. The kind with a Home Depot, Grocery Store, Hobby Lobby, you get the idea. Lots of heavy traffic stores. Preferably with one or two open 24 hours. Park the car toward the middle-back of the lot, between the two biggest stores areas. Don’t park it near a cart return.

Walk a few blocks away and try to find a pay phone. If you can’t then go into a non-corporate gas station and ask to use the phone and phone book. Call a taxi. Have the taxi take you back to the Walmart in the other town. Give the cabby $1000. Tell them to keep the change. Walk the few blocks back to your car. Drive your car home.

You now have clean car. If it will be a while before you need the clean car you should make sure to move it every couple of days. Always walking up to it from a few blocks off in a relatively busy time and then leaving it in a busy parking lot.

This is actually for a modern game I'm running, but the thought experiment is more interesting than the game so I posted it in the off-topic on purpose.

What, a guy can dream right?

(1) When a reply includes nested quotes that will drop text due to length, please drop the older text rather than the newer text.

(2) When you mouseover "x people have favorited this post" that instead of saying "see who has favorited this post" that it instead lists the people who have favorited the post. (maybe the 5 or 10 most recent favorites in the event that a post is highly favorited)

Thank you for your consideration!

Artist illustrations of monsters can teach us a lesson of empathy

They are really clogging up the OTD.

Does anyone have any experience with basic/simple 3d printing?

I'm needing some fairly basic custom pieces for a project I'm doing and I want to know how people are getting one-off pieces made.

What is good, simple, and cheap software for design?

Is it worth it to buy a printer yet?

My old uni has a design shop with a 3d printer where students and alumni can print and they charge by "hours." Is this standard? What is a fair price by the hour?

Are there any online solutions that are worthwhile?

Can I print in a clear (or nearly clear) media?

Thanks for any help!

A conversation in a different thread sparked this topic and I wanted to continue it here. This is the place to list your favorite books of the 20th century (or after). It would be great if you would give a sentence or two about each book to explain why you like it or think it should be considered among the best!

Have fun!

Bless Me, Ultima - Rudolfo Anaya.
Classic coming-of-age story explores growing up between two worlds. Main character learns to balance a number of discordant aspects of his multicultural heritage. Well written and well told, also very funny.

Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza - Gloria Anzaldúa.
Collection of essays about her life and journey. She describes many of the same challenges addressed in Bless Me, Ultima, but comes to very different conclusions. Imagery is absolutely amazing and intense. Coatlicue is the coolest god by far, and makes several appearances.

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
Story about the British colonization of Nigeria told from a native perspective. An amazing study about the nature of self and what informs that for each of us. Very strong and very dark imagery.

The Call of the Wild - Jack London
Story about becoming undomesticated and transcending into something different. Very Nietzschean, but also something very American.

Heart of Darkness - Joesph Conrad
Joesph Conrad's 3rd language was English. Wow! 100% of the meaning of this story has been debated for the last century.

Obligatory *AND BEYOND* choice!

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Story follows a boy from Afghanistan to Pakistan during the Soviet incursion. Difficult read because the subject material is fairly intense, but I liked it very much because I knew so little about the culture and history of the region.

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN!

Pay attention to me here!

I use herolab to stat out NPC's for my home games, design monsters, and work on my occasional PC. I don't use the combat manager or really have much of a reason to open the program more than about once every 3-5 weeks.

The problem is, it seems like EVERY TIME I OPEN IT, I have to download the "new" version which is about a 10MB file, then relaunch and download the new data package (Even if I didn't buy anything) which is about a 130MB file.

Herolab servers aren't exactly the fastest on the internet. The 130MB file takes 5-7 minutes. So after launching, downloading, relaunching, and downloading, I'm at at least 10 minutes. It's kind-of a beating for a piece of software I spent over $300+ on to be so freaking PITA to use.

So, fellow hero-lab users, do you have these concerns? Does everyone else use the combat manager and so they open the program all the time and the monthly updates only seem incidental?

Lonewolf Dev guys out there, why oh why cant you set up the data packages as incremental updates instead of data dumps? What can you do to make this process less annoying?

Just as a point of reference, I started typing this post when I was told I needed to download the new version, as I finish it, the data package is about 1/3 finished.

Our group played Skulls and Shakles last summer and before the end we had changed ships twice. The captain's name was Cicero, and so naturally the first ship was called The Senate, this set the theme and the other two ships were The Cameral, and The Grand Parliment.

So, we are getting ready to start another sea-bound adventure and I am looking to solicit ideas for another fleet whose names are based on a theme. Any ideas?

thanks!

New "pacman" Google maps filter lets you turn your neighborhood into a pacman game!

Independent Story

This FAQ was revised today without a corresponding post from the PDT account.

John has made a point to draw attention to it in the PFS forum, but for those who don't frequent that area, you might be interested.

SLA FAQ allowing spellcasting prereq has been reversed.

The archmage is intended for arcane casters but there isn't a prerequisite that requires it.

Then there is arcane surge. Spoilered in whole, though I will break it down in parts.

Arcane Surge (Su): As a swift action, you can expend one use of mythic power to cast any one arcane spell without expending a prepared spell or spell slot.

So that's straight forward. You can cast ANY arcane spell. You don't have to have an available spell slot or the spell prepared.

If you prepare spells, this spell must be one you prepared today (even if you have already cast it);

You don't prepare spells, so this restriction doesn't apply to you.

if you're a spontaneous caster, this spell must be one of your spells known.

You don't cast spells spontaneously so this restriction doesn't apply to you. This will require you to be careful though. The SLA FAQ could really hurt you here, because SLA's count as spontaneous spells. Make sure to avoid any option that grants an SLA.

If the spell requires a saving throw, any non-mythic creatures affected by the spell roll twice and take the lower result.

No problem here, cool

If you must attempt a caster level check for the spell to overcome a creature's spell resistance, you can roll your caster level check twice (adding your tier to each) and take the higher result.

This isn't any issue in itself but it brings a question to light, what is my caster level?

It is clear that you don't have a caster level from a class but does this mean you have a CL=0 or CL= -- ?

Is there an important difference? Perhaps. Having a CL makes it easier to adjudicate CL variables in spells than a --. Assuming the worst case, any spell that has a CL based variable (including range) would simply fail.

You can't add a metamagic feat to a spell you cast using this ability.

No problems here.

So, congrats you MT1 archmage! You now have access to all of the levels of all the arcane lists! Finally, an Exploitable "RAW" option that gives an incredibly overpowered ability to MARTIALS! A fighter with more versatility and raw power than a wizard!

This conversation was derailing this thread.

The premise is that Power Attack is a trap option because it looks good on the surface but actually reduces damage output. Throughout the conversation the argument against Power Attack became more nuanced, including that for two-handed fighting style it will always be effective, and against low AC enemies it will always be effective.

I issued a challenge to the thread to give me any Full-BAB class, any Fighting Style, and at any Level and I will make builds that demonstrate that Power Attacking is ALWAYS a good idea.

I must say that the challenge was serious.

Level 12
Paladin
Two-Weapon Fighting

The challenger ALSO included that the enemy was NOT evil, AND wanted the test run at CR=level and CR=level+4.

This is probably the worst of the worst possible circumstances against power attack. It is a class that doesn't get much in the way of increasing damage (outside of smite), a class that is supremely MAD (made worse by TWF), and a class that is feat starved (made worse by TWF).

Builds use 20pt buy and 108,000gp.

________ BREAKDOWN __________

To add to the challenge, because this challenge is about PA being a trap option, NOT just when to not use it - I replaced PA in the build with Critical Focus.

The build analysis shows that in the STR based build DPR is increased with power attack vs an opponent of CR=level. DR is slightly reduced against non-evil opponents of CR=level+4 and is greatly reduced with evil opponents of CR=level+4.

Build analysis shows that in the DEX based build the only time DPR is decreased with PA is against evil CR=level+4 opponents. In that case DPR is reduced by 1.6%.

SO, in the worst possible build scenario - PA is STILL a strong, definitely NON-TRAP option. For reals. This is a good feat.

Obama proposes free college for 2 years for students maintaining a 2.5 GPA.

Hopefully he will also propose the idea to forgive the first two years of student loan debt to everyone currently carrying a loan burden.

I've been wanting to put together a comprehensive DPR calculator for a while now. I finally sat down this week and banged one out in excel, so I thought I would share it with everyone!

DPR Calculator

The site is using excel web app.

It isn't much to look at but it is very comprehensive. I expanded the original DPR olympics formula to include many different sources of discrete damage. So now if you have the "killer" trait, or "hammer the gap" feat there are places to put that damage.

Spreadsheet has a dropdown to choose your CR and will auto-populate the target AC and HP for all CR's 1-30. It will also take your DPR and tell you how many rounds for you to kill that opponent!

You can also download the excel file from the page. Just a note if you download it: I left the cells unlocked and there are some touchy formulas in there, so just be careful.

Any questions feel free to PM me or reply.

Overall I think it is a very useful tool and I offer it to the community for free and with no advertising on my site!

Thanks!

~BigDTBone

I've got:

10:1 against crashing the site at 11:55 PDT as everyone logs in.
2:1 against crashing the site at 12:01 PDT as everyone clicks on "add to cart."
1.3:1 against crashing the site at 12:05 PDT as the credit processors go in to high gear.
.6:1 against crashing the site at 12:07 PDT as the personalizer starts getting put through the wringer.
.4:1 against crashing the site at 12:10 PDT as the file servers get to work.
.25:1 against crashing the site between 12:15 PDT and 9:00 PDT from all of the above.

3:1 against the site not crashing at all.

Who's in?

*oh, I only accept bets in quatloos or Reece's cups.

My folks are headed over the pond to spend a month slumming around Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and France. They are bringing some unlocked GSM phones. I am curious to know if anyone could recommend a cellular provider for them to pick up a SIM card and get a month of prepaid unlimited voice and data. (Continental calls only, for calls back to the states they will use VoIP or FaceTime.)

In the states there are a few services that could do this for $60-$80 a month. I think they would be willing to spend upto €100 per phone for this service.

Who should they talk to?

Thanks guys!

I am giving serious thought to changing crafting feats from scribe scroll/brew potion/forge ring/et all to craft spell trigger/craft spell completion/craft use activated/command word/continuous.

Any initial reactions? Suggestions?

I run a regular game once a week but I also play in a "pick-up" game at a local game store every other week. I say "pick-up" because it isn't PFS, but the group had never played together before. We met through a meet-up organized by the GM.

We are playing through reign of winter, and I chose to play an archer. I also decided (based on the AP name) that I wanted to have access to endure elements so I am playing an Oracle with the wood bond revelation and then multiclassed into fighter. The rest of the party is a paladin, a bard, an evoker wizard, and a rogue who has since multiclassed with ranger. All human but the paladin who is a dwarf.

Everything starts off great, but as the months have progressed it seems as though the rest of the group has stagnated in power. Part of it is strategy. The support class players (by which I mean the bard and wizard) are making strange choices but nothing I would consider way out there. The paladin and ranger/rogue however are really far behind. The paladin uses a hammer in one hand, carries nothing in the other hand, but doesn't ever swing with both hands for the bonus STR damage. He also never uses his smite ability or detect evil. He also never remembers to add bardic performance to his attack/damage rolls. He always fills all of his spell slots with CLW. The ranger/rogue is focused on TWF with sword and board (I know), but he is always trying to reposition into flank so he rarely ever gets to TWF.

I'm an oracle 1/fighter 4 and up until now having been leading the pack with 1d8+5 damage (rapid shot, usually miss one/hit one), but this level my deadly aim went up and I took weapon specialization so I am doing d8+9. And the Bard's inspire moved from +1 to +2 this level. I really don't find this build particularly optimized, but it is leaving the rest of the party in the dust. I saw the frustration on the GM's face when I blew through an encounter that was clearly meant to be a challenge. I spoke with the GM privately afterward and asked if he wanted me to tone my character back. I suggested that I might change some feats or maybe an entire class level to try and get my character back in line with the party.

The GM says that the party needs someone to kill stuff, so I should just leave the character as it sits. So, I'm really not sure where to go from here. It isn't particularly fun to constantly show up the rest of the group, but I don't want to "throw the match" as it were. Ie., not rapid shotting, not deadly aiming, moving to restrict myself to one attack, using spellcasting for support (this may not be a bad idea actually, only the ranger has a magic weapon so I could spend 2 rounds casting magic weapon on the paladin's hammer and my bow), etc.

So, any options on where to go from here?

What can I change in the short run?

What can I change in the long run? (I am thinking of going back to oracle, even taking a level of sorcerer and then going arcane archer.)

Is there any ability or feat or archetype which lets a fighter select "combat maneuvers" as a weapon group for his weapon training class feature?

If so, what product is it in? 3rd party is cool.

Friday nights from 6-10. Fort Worth TX.

PM me here, or email me donovanpoe@gmail.com

Looking for 2-3 players to fill out a long running game.

Punch and Pie.

An antipaladin who kicks puppies, takes candy from babies, and sews political discord in lawful good kingdoms. He slaps his own mother for making him a pie. Murderhobo's have nothing on this guy.

But occasionally he helps an old lady across the street or tosses his unfinished hunk if bread at a starving orphan instead of peeing on him while crumbling the bread up and making a paste with the crumbs and orphan tears to feed his hell hounds. (Which he totally also does, but not all the time cause, you know, he's busy and stuff.)

So what do y'all think? Certainly he would fall. Probably also alignment shift to neutral?

Heartbleed

Will you guys be addressing this bug?

Looking to build a blaster caster. Starting play at level 4. So far I have it planned out through 14th. Would like any and all advice. Particularly about item choices and at what levels. Also, feel free to pick apart my feat / class ability choices.

Last but not least, what class to take from 15-20 and what feats.

Dragon Disciple is being used to advance wizard casting.

Evoker Build (25 pt.)
@ Build STR 10 DEX 14 CON 12 INT 18 WIS 10 CHA 12
@ 15th STR 14 DEX 14 CON 14 INT 22 WIS 10 CHA 12

Race – Human
Ability Score Increase (INT +2)
Feat – Spell Focus (Evocation)

Level 1 – Sorcerer (Crossblooded [draconic {brass}/orc])
Bloodline Arcana (Draconic)
Bloodline Arcana (Orc)
Bloodline Power (Claws)
Eschew Materials
Character Feat – Spell Specialization (Burning Hands)
Character Trait – Outlander Loreseeker (Burning Hands, Fireball, ???)
Character Trait – Magical Knack (Wizard)

Level 2 - Wizard (Thassilonian Specialist [wrath/admixture])
Intense Spells
Versatile Evocation
Scribe Scroll

Level 3 – Wizard
Character Feat – Intensified Spell

Level 4 – Wizard (CHA +1)

Level 5 – Wizard
Character Feat – Additional Traits
*NOTE: GM exception. Traits gained via the Additional Traits feat do not count toward the 1 trait per type limit.
Magical Lineage
Wayang Spellhunter

Level 6 – Wizard
Bonus Feat – Empower Spell

Level 7 – Dragon Disciple
Blood of Dragons
Natural Armor Increase (+1)
Character Feat – Persistent Spell

Level 8 – Dragon Disciple (INT +1)
Ability Boost (STR +2)
Dragon Bite
Dragon Resistances
Bloodline Feat – Blind Fight

Level 9– Dragon Disciple
Breath Weapon
Character Feat – Dazing Spell

Level 10 – Dragon Disciple
Ability Boost (STR +2)
Natural Armor Increase (+1)

Level 11 – Dragon Disciple
Blindsense 30ft.
Bloodline Feat – Quicken Spell
Character Feat – Greater Spell Focus (Evocation)

Level 12 – Dragon Disciple (INT +1)
Ability Boost (CON +2)

Level 13 – Dragon Disciple
Dragon Form (1/day)
Natural Armor Increase (+1)
Character Feat – Greater Spell Specialization (Fireball)

Level 14 – Dragon Disciple
Ability Boost (INT +2)
Bloodline Feat – Widen Spell
Fearless

Level 15 – ?????
Character Feat - Spell Perfection (Fireball)

Level 16 – ?????

Level 17 – ?????
Character Feat - ?????

Level 18 – ?????

Level 19 – ?????
Character Feat - ?????

Level 20 – ?????

I seem to have it in my head that a creature with natural weapons can move and still use all of them. How did I come to this conclusion? I think I must have encountered it somewhere, maybe it was a house rule from an old GM.

Is this actually a rule or am I dumb?

Can the open/close cantrip be used to open a trap door or secret door that is usually operated by a switch or lever? The door is not locked.

I can see both sides of this and therefore would like some community input.

Thanks!

I seem to recall an alternate human racial trait that allowed a character to swap the floating +2 stat bonus for a 2nd feat. Now I can't find it. Am I crazy? Did I dream it? Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

Can someone point me toward what I'm looking for? Thanks :D

I've been around for a while. I was vaguely aware of this feature either when it got implemented or when it reicieved a big update at some point, but I have never really been aware of its actual function.

What does it do?
Should I use it?
Will it make me smarter, more awesome, or rich?
Is it hard?
Help me to know all about the wonder that is focus, I've seen people be very upset when it goes away. What am I missing out on?
How can I be a cool kid too?

Is force club compatible with toppling spell metamagic feat? If yes, would you get the trip attempt each time it does damage or just once per spell?

Is the force club a valid target for greater magic weapon?

Got the email at 1:07am, 1:25 my happy new copy of 1001 spells is on it's way to my house and I just downloaded the PDF. Great deal on the combo!

Why don't you guys have Coliseum Morpheuon available in print? I would have bought that too.

I think the sale is limited to "that other RPG site."

Hi guys.

I have been DMing for this group for a little less than two years and as real life make demands on folks from time to time it leaves us needing to fill spots.

Currently we are looking for 2-3 players to join us on Wednesday evening from 6-10. Currently we are playing a Skulls and Shackles variant while I prep for our next game which should run on and off for the forseeable future. We like to play one game for 8-9 months of the year and then have a 3-4 month "break" where we play something else (ie, different genre or high-level, Etc.)

After the S&S game we will be playing a city based game which will eventually grow into the game world for our group going forward. All the remaining players are excited to put their own stamp on this new world. Are you ready to join them?

We have plans to put some fairly significant houserules in place for this game to encourage player options and roleplay. We hope the game will wind up being about 75/25 roleplay to combat.

If interested or just have questions feel free to PM me here or email me at donovanpoe@gmail.com

Nearby familiars provide the alertness feat which gives a +2 bonus on perception/ sense motive skill checks. Can a familiar also aid another to provide an additional +2, or make their own seperate check?

I feel the by RAW they probably can, but not so sure about RAI. What say you?

I would like a feature that allows me to mark a post in a thread as "the last one I read." The idea being that many times popular threads may accumulate a bunch of new posts between times I visit the site. The (xx new) links on the message board main page help with this, but sometimes I can't read all the new posts before I must go away for a few hours. This creates a problem that the next time I come back to the messageboard page the (xx new) link tells me how many new since the last time I opened the thread and links me to the "next" post.

I would like the ability to flag a particular post as "the last one I read" for the purposes of the (xx new) link. So that the (xx new) link will direct me back to that post rather than the end of the thread. Then just like any other time I click on a thread it would default to the most recent post in the thread unless I choose to override it with a new "the last one I read" flag.

Question in title.

I am running the Curse of the Golden Spear adventure path for a group of 4 players in my weekly game. They have just completed the infiltration of the Daimyo's treasure room and escaped through the underwater tunnels. Of the few items they were able to grab in the room before they bolted was the Necklace of Strangulation.

The group rolled well on the identify check when they were examining their haul later that day. So they knew the item is cursed. The next day when they were on their way back to Kitsumura I rolled for random encounters on the chart in the module. I rolled "A lone jikininki posing as a merchant" which uses stats for a CR 1 ghoul from the bestiary.

The PC's altered their course to meet with the traveling merchant and started to try and pawn off the items they had just looted from the Daimyo's palace including the necklace! One failed bluff check later and the Jikininki knew something was up. He decided that the best way to determine the true nature of the Necklace was for one of the PC's to try it on. The Jikininki made an amazing feint check and rolled a 20 to hit the party face who was offering the Necklace. The party face rolled a 1 on his save against paralysis and the Jikininki simply took the necklace and put it around his neck.

Wow. Level 8 ranger laid to waste by a CR1 ghoul. I was stunned. The circumstances that came about for that to happen were astounding. The Jikininki was quickly obliterated by magic missiles from the party mage but the damage was done. Crazy.

What qualifies as a "special attack" for the prerequisite for Ability Focus?

Do NOT FAQ anything in this thread.

Some people still have some questions about the Bastard Sword ruling. I think all of the questions have been answered, but there may be some misunderstandings related to ancillary rules which are causing confusion.

Lets see if we, the community, can answer these questions for those who still have them.

I would ask everyone here to play nice. If you feel the need to post about how everything is "clear" or people are just being "munchkins", instead please just go somewhere else and feel self-gratified that you win the internet.

I'll start with a lead off question that still seems to be floating around. "Can I treat a bastard sword as a one-handed weapon even when wielding it in two-hands?"

Does anyone have thoughts about when you might WANT to do this and IF you should be able to do this?

Rite Publishing Guys!

Page 26 of this module directs me to Appendix 2 to find that stat block for the shadowy stalker. It isn't there :( Halp!

This thread is discussing the relation between the toppling spell feat and the improved trip feat. As part of that discussion other questions have come up about the interactions of other effects on the Toppling Spell feat.

For memory refreshment:

Your spells with the force descriptor knock the affected creatures prone.

Benefit: The impact of your force spell is strong enough to knock the target prone. If the target takes damage, fails its saving throw, or is moved by your force spell, make a trip check against the target, using your caster level plus your casting ability score bonus (Wisdom for clerics, Intelligence for wizards, and so on). This does not provoke an attack of opportunity. If the check fails, the target cannot attempt to trip you or the force effect in response.

A toppling spell only affects spells with the force descriptor. A toppling spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level.

So the feat calls for the spells caster to make a "trip check." Does (1) that check count as a regular Combat Maneuver (which would then make it an attack, and qualify for the bonuses provided by haste or bless) or is it (2) a special trip check which has its parameters defined by the feat or (3) something else?

Does anyone have any insight as to why flyby attack is so much more forgiving than spring attack?

Flyby attack says you can take any standard action in the middle of your move, while spring attack is one of those "special full-round actions" that basically says "don't try to combine me with anything or I will make you cry."

What gives?