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So, I'm running this AP (in the middle of the first book) and I am deeply confused about the trajectory of what is going on. Why doesn't Maxillar just use the army to legitimize his claim and take the throne? There seems to be absolutely no reason why the High Strategos should be delaying here... a majority of the senate is dead, he has full control of the army, and has as legitimate of a claim to the throne as Eutropia. How is this not concluded withing a few weeks of the Gala?

I understand that "it's a game" is a factor; I'm try to figure out the in-lore reason behind it. Did I miss something?

So, I am GMing this AP and I instituted a house rule that seems to be working out really well so far: players get 2 additional skill points per level that can only be spent on diplomacy, intimidate, bluff and sense motive. Given how much social activity is involved in this AP, it only made sense to force my players to take some social skills. It has really helped out the Fighter and Cavalier in the party because it basically allows my low skill point players to socialize without being totally hamstrung with no social skills.

Quick questions,

Can we expect at some point that the outcome of the Hell's Rebels AP (detailed spoilered below) will become canon? Most of the time, the outcomes of APs have pretty limited effect on the overall game world but this one is a bit of a doozy and could have some pretty major political ramifications in the Inner Sea region.

Hello All,

First off, if this is in a wrong forum then I apologize! It’s PFS specific but it might be better served in the rules forum; I'm not sure.

Anyways, I had a few questions about a rather obtuse spell and one of it’s siblings: magic jar and possession. This is for a PFS character and not a home game so I was hoping that I could get pointed to any sort of ruling or FAQs to minimize table variation; however, in my searching I couldn’t really find anything so I suspect they don’t actually exist.

Here are the links to the two spells in question:
magic jar
possession

So, as background my character is a witch who has an Imp familiar. The familiar has both the vessel for a magic jar and a bag of holding that can be used to hold my main character’s body. I wish to use these spells as a way to borrow a foe’s body and use it as a proxy when needed, so my questions are asked from that lens.

Question #1: If I possess another creature, can I still perform hexes while inside their body? (This seems like a no-brainer but I figure I would start with a softball pitch)

Question #2: Do I retain the effects of my Headband of Vast Intelligence when I enter the jar / foe? (Both spell specifically says that I keep my Intelligence but it is coming from an item so I could see this cutting either way)

Question #2A: Assuming these benefits are lost once I enter the jar / foe does the Will save DC on the magic jar spell retroactively lower? (I would say no, as the spell is already cast and in effect but that’s me)

Question 3: For the purposes of both of these spells, if my body was kept in a bag of holding held by my imp, and my imp was in range of the spell, and the spell was ended by either a dispel or similar effect that immediately forced my soul back into my body, would it be considered “in range” and/or “on the same plane”? (Wow, that was a mouthful)

Thanks!

So here is the scenario: one of my characters is a witch, and I have an imp improved familiar (with the pilferer archetype) and a hexing doll. During combat, I want to send my familiar out with the doll and have him plant it on an enemy combatant, giving them a -4 to savings throws against hexes. Is there a RAW way of doing this? The Steal combat maneuver would make the most sense but I didn't know if there was something else available that specifically addresses this.

I absolutely love the concept of the vigilante class... but I really don't care for the execution. Like many others, the majority of my disappointment is with the Dual Identity. My problem is that it feels vestigial, like it just isn't fleshed out enough. I don't really have a problem with the fact that the social identity doesn't have access to the vigilante abilities or that it takes 5 minutes to change identity; as a matter of fact I think those are GOOD design choices. My problem is that the social identity doesn't have comparable abilities that make it worth playing in its own right. The social identity should be equal but opposite to the vigilante identity, not a cheap latex mask put on for brief role-play sessions. My belief is that what will set the vigilante apart from the multitude of other base classes is not that it is an inferior fighter/rogue/wizard/cleric with a disguise but two functional classes in the same body that must share screen time. I want the decision of "social identity or vigilante identity" to be an actual hard one.

To that end, I though of a straightforward fix: give the vigilante a social specialization as well at level 1. Here are some examples:

• Noble - This identity is pampered by status and prestige, and uses their wiles to get what they want.
• Merchant - A master of connections and finance, this identity is able to leverage favors to affect change.
• Official - A civil servant who can use their knowledge of the system to fulfill their goals.
• Peasant - This every-man can use social invisibility to go wherever they wish.

Then, when the Vigilante gets a vigilante talent they also get a social talent. This is when the long disguise time and mutually exclusivity of the talents really pay off, so the class doesn't become overpowered. Long story short, the social identity needs some serious buffing to make this a class worth playing.

So I really dig the idea behind the changes to profession, which makes it a useful skill and makes running a business easier then the Downtime system, but the execution seems to be kinda wonky. For example, there was one thing that made zero sense to me: the maximum employees column. I understand that for each employee you have above the minimum means that you can spend 25% less of your time actually running the business, so why would you every have more then 4? Medium businesses can have 5 extra employees and Large businesses can have 10 but I can't figure out why you would want that?

So I've been gearing up for a new campaign in a few months and, as part of it, I've been doing my due diligence in figuring out what I want to make a part if it and what I do not. One of my players has been dying to try the mythic rules and I wasn't opposed to it initially. However, I've read some anecdotal reviews of the system that seem to cast it as "completely broken". For example, one poster talked about how he routinely vital strikes for quadrupedal digit damage. Another described it as "D&D meets DBZ". Are these accurate, or hyperbole? I figure the system has been out for over a year now so some of the launch "grar" has passed, so I'm hoping for rational appraisals from people have used it for a while.

As a note, I was hoping to use the system so the PCs were more like the immortals from Highlander or the demigods from Greek myth; basically humans with a little extra. I really wasn't looking for Dragon Ball Z.

So, I am in the process of doing the prep work for an upcoming campaign that uses the Thunderscape steampunk supplement as it's base but I'm giving it more of a cyberpunk feel (urban setting, massive disparity of wealth and power, players as fixers for more powerful people, body implants, etc.) One of the things that two players independently mentioned is that they would like to see some sort of "decking"; something that I hadn't really considered but if half of my group is interested in it then I should try to figure something out. My first thought is some sort of "hacking via telegraph line" or something like that. Does anybody on here know of any Pathfinder supplements that deal with hacking or know of any house rules? I know this is a bit of a shot in the dark but you never know.

A discussion earlier on the nature of portable holes sparked a tangential question for me. Would it be legal to build one or more rooms from Ultimate Campaign in a portable hole assuming there was enough space? If you were the GM, would you allow it?

I'm putting together a playlist of background music for an upcoming campaign and I'm going for a Steampunk/Victorian theme. I'm looking for stuff that is instrumental and not super distracting. Right now I have the two Guy Richie Sherlock movie soundtracks, the Arcanum PC game soundtrack, and the Dishonored PC game soundtrack. Any other recommendations would be super appreciated!

One of the arcs I wanted to add to my game was to have the PCs chase down a serial killer who uses illusion magic to essentially horrify his victims into killing themselves. While the idea seems to have a lot of merit, from a mechanical perspective it doesn't seem like there is much to support it. Specifically, I don't see any illusion spells that are one person delusions. I could hand wave that away, but that seems like cheating. Does any have any advice on this sort of thing, or any ideas they think would be cool?

So I was driving on my way home from work today, and I was thinking about a campaign I want to run and I began to wonder why arcane magic wasn't completely ubiquitous in Golarion yet. What I mean by that is that arcane magic has been studied in the world for something like 10,000 years, so why isn't a magic a bigger force in everybody’s life? I can understand why divine casters are rare, after all you have to appease a god, but arcane magic merely requires training and a desire to learn. Furthermore, it seems like even low-level arcane magic would solve a lot of civic problems and high level magic would solve the rest.

Ray of Frost provides means for both food preservation (refrigeration) and climate control (air conditioning). Continual flame provides a cheap means of keeping an area lit at all times. Access to a magical item that casts fabricate at will (costs around 90,000 gp) and a competent craftsman will make a factory that would make modern production lines weep with envy. A little work with create demiplain and permanent gates will create transport hubs will make goods and people a breeze to transport. Disintegrate makes garbage and sewage concerns non-existent. Unseen servant could handle a majority of labor jobs that don't require a large amount of strength (such as harvesting and plowing fields); golems and elementals can solve the rest.

Long story short, arcane magic’s ability to flip physics the bird and solve so many problems means that, by all rights, Golarion should make the modern world look like a bunch of ants scratching in the dirt. Is there an in-game reason why it seems to be permanently stuck in the Renaissance? I mean, I understand that it’s a fantasy game and that’s what we want to play; but I was wondering if there was something in the lore that explains it.