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Okay, so a character can only have one Bardic Performance happening at once…

Bardic Performance

Starting a bardic performance is a standard action, but it can be maintained each round as a free action. Changing a bardic performance from one effect to another requires the bard to stop the previous performance and start a new one as a standard action. A bardic performance cannot be disrupted, but it ends immediately if the bard is killed, paralyzed, stunned, knocked unconscious, or otherwise prevented from taking a free action to maintain it each round. A bard cannot have more than one bardic performance in effect at one time.

… and a Sensei’s Advice ability is identical to Bardic Performance…

Advice

A sensei’s advice is identical to bardic performance (using oratory), allowing him to inspire courage at 1st level, inspire competence at 3rd level, and inspire greatness at 9th level, as a bard of the sensei’s level, usable a total number of rounds per day equal to his level + his Wisdom modifier (minimum 1).

My question is this: Can the same character have Advice and Bardic Performance active at the same time? They’re said to be identical, but are they the same thing? My thought is that “Advice” and “Bardic Knowledge”, while identical, could both be active at the same time, because they Sensei doesn’t gain “Bardic Knowledge”. They could only have a single Bardic Performance, and a single Advice active at the same time.

That having been said, I'm also the one wanting it, so I could be trying to convince myself, here.

Steadfast Pike (Ex)

At 3rd level, a polearm master gains a +1 bonus on attack rolls with readied attacks and attacks of opportunity made with a spear or polearm. The bonus increases by +1 for every four levels beyond 3rd.

This ability replaces Armor Training 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Does the italicized part mean that a fighter could just constantly declare that he's going to ready his attack in response to his opponent acting, or a party member acting?

Readying an Action

...Anytime before your next action, you may take the readied action in response to that condition. The action occurs just before the action that triggers it. If the triggered action is part of another character's activities, you interrupt the other character. Assuming he is still capable of doing so, he continues his actions once you complete your readied action. Your initiative result changes. For the rest of the encounter, your initiative result is the count on which you took the readied action, and you act immediately ahead of the character whose action triggered your readied action.

Given the quote on readying actions above, you could ready an attack for whenever your target acts, then get the +1 to attack... you would always remain before the person in initiative, so you could just keep readying an action.

Granted, that's a lot of cheezy gaming to squeeze an extra +1 out, but is it actually rules-wrong?

I'm starting the AoW campaign, but the group only consists of two players!!!! Both of them rolled well on their stats, and we're using Hero Points to give them further help. Both of the players bought "pets" out of their starting money, and I threw in an NPC... who is strictly a background character/knowledge repository. The party is currently:

• Half-Orc Monk, with a pet Snake
  
• Half-Elf Druid, with a pet dog and a Wolf familiar.
  
• Human Wizard NPC.
  

I understand that this party is exceptionally small, and am trying to recruit new players into the game... but I'm not expecting to find another player capable of making the time commitment.

Thus, my question is simply: How screwed are these characters? Are they going to stand a chance in this campaign? I'm considering letting them take Leadership early, or even as a freebie bonus feat, in order to help with survivability. Will that be enough, or will they need "real" characters?

Okay... I might just be dense, but I'm really having problems with item crafting costs. Here's to hoping I can get a couple of answers, in order to have the rest of it all make sense.

You can create magic rings. Crafting a ring takes 1 day for each 1,000 gp in its base price. To craft a ring, you must use up raw materials costing half of the base price.

So, if I were to make, from scratch, a Ring of Sustenance, it would cost:

2500/2 = 1250 GP

Okay - that makes sense to me so far.

Now, the part that seems to be the most confusing is adding abilities to another ring

Sometimes, lack of funds or time make it impossible for a magic item crafter to create the desired item from scratch. Fortunately, it is possible to enhance or build upon an existing magic item. Only time, gold, and the various prerequisites required of the new ability to be added to the magic item restrict the type of additional powers one can place.

The cost to add additional abilities to an item is the same as if the item was not magical, less the value of the original item. Thus, a +1 longsword can be made into a +2 vorpal longsword, with the cost to create it being equal to that of a +2 vorpal sword minus the cost of a +1 longsword.

If the item is one that occupies a specific place on a character's body, the cost of adding any additional ability to that item increases by 50%. For example, if a character adds the power to confer invisibility to her ring of protection +2, the cost of adding this ability is the same as for creating a ring of invisibility multiplied by 1.5.

So, to add the abilities of a Ring of Sustenance to an already-existing Ring of Protection +1 would cost:

2500*1.5=3750 GP

or

(2500*1.5)/2=1875 GP

I could make a case for either. The confusing part is that Forge Ring says you have to spend half the cost of the materials to make the ring. Is that trumped by the 1.5 multiplier for adding an ability to another ring, or do they stack?

Now, to make things even more confusing, what if a Wizard wanted to add an ability to his Arcane Bonded Ring?

A wizard can add additional magic abilities to his bonded object as if he has the required item creation feats and if he meets the level prerequisites of the feat. For example, a wizard with a bonded dagger must be at least 5th level to add magic abilities to the dagger (see the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat in Feats).

So, what would an Arcane Bonded Ring of Sustenance cost?

2500/2=1250GP

or

(2500*1.5)/2=1875 GP

or

2500*1.5=3750

Sigh... maybe I should've taken the familiar...