BreakinStuff's page

No cookies, please. They're not healthy.

We have ways of bribing the GM that have been refined over many decades.

I must second this request. Please send more Mythic APs. The last one was delicious.

Part of how I roleplay my characters differently and have the other players remember I'm playing opposite my RL gender is habit; the more I game with the same people, the more they get used to that. Using visual aids like minis or a headshot or illustration of your character is handy as well. I guess the biggest thing is to get into touch with your feminine side, and to embrace it and let it take over. It really helps to listen to women friends and to spend time trying to understand and empathize with their viewpoints and concerns and all that. Dunno. I've been playing pretty much exclusively women characters for 15 years or so now, so practice is a big part of it I guess.

And now all of what I just typed feels awkward... so maybe I can't tell you how to play...

You're describing it just fine, it's just often harder to describe than it is to show. The only thing I would add is that it helps to be comfortable playing someone who is not you that is comfortable in their own skin. If you can keep it from becoming a big (uncomfortable) sex joke every time it comes up, then you're doing it right.

On to my questions!

What is your favorite kind of story to tell with human antagonists in a civilized setting?

I'm incredibly fond of games of intrigue, where players cannot simply draw weapons and wreck without consequences. I will admit, I often suck at it, which brings me to my second question.

How would you recommend doing things to impress that there's a level of gravity and consequence in civilized areas where there's more than just farmers and sharecroppers? It's hard to convey a sense of seriousness when players often see things by character level scale, and less by situation. Games of intrigue aren't that intriguing when people blithely do things that cause the Duke to mobilize a battalion to hunt them.

Is there a thematic reason why the synthesist is described as superimposed inside a ghostly eidolon?

Just a curiosity point on my part. I like the unchained summoners, by the way. whoever did those have my compliments.

Are there plans to introduce more statted spawn of Rovagug in the future?

I actually found Festering Ulunat's block incredibly useful for a game where Potential Futures unfolded for the players, and the ones subjected to it actually enjoyed the scenario.

Most gamers are familiar with the tarrasque, but some of your others that have more insidious/horrific features are the ones I enjoy pulling on players. Especially since they hadn't read that stat block and didn't know what to expect from it.

I have also learned that I should never try to type a long post on a tablet with a time limit. Hehehehe

Welp, caught up now finally.

Sorry to hear of Paizo folk feeling unwelcome in their own forums. It wouldn't be the first time I've heard of it, and I hope that some of the more toxic offenders figure out that having a differing opinion doesn't automatically make the other person wrong.

On the topic of the reign of winter and wrath of the righteous, I found both well after release (I only started pathfinder relatively recently) and I bluntly found both to be bloody amazing.

Reign of Winter: First, I love incorporating old world mythos, and normally when someone suggests a "crossover" of RPG characters to a representation of earth, modern or historical makes me sigh and roll my eyes.

The story arc I found pertaining to the Iron Hag I found absolutely engaging. The transition to dealing with Rasputin and World War era Russian troops proved my dubious expectatiins wrong. I've used quite a lot of things from said adventures so far and even when not using the AP as an adventure, is a useful resource.

Wrath of the Righteous: I read a couple of the negative reviews. What I found after actually reading the AP was the question: what drugs were the reviewers on, so I can make sure I never use them? I found it dubious that the reviewers had read the AP until I started following their words and realizing that the twisted lens they use has little to do with reality, fantasy gaming and seemed to be a vehicle for attacking developers they don't agree with.

Wrath of the righteous is bluntly my favorite AP. I'm running a custom plot game, and im using a combination of using the AP as inspiration for a longer setup and then moving into the actual AP directly. My plans for wrath incorporate almost everything included because it is the type of campaign I enjoy running.

I'm sorry that your experiences were poor wuth certain reviews, and I think that the toxic gamers you reference need to blu tly pull their heads from their collective arses and understand that not everything is optimized the way they think it should, yes, big bad evil guys should make mistakes and the idea that deskarii would, in fact spend a century terrorizing Nd torturing crusaders because it us fun is quite bluntly more indicative of the proclivities of demons.

Bad guys who do things with perfect optimized efficiency aren't interesting, might as well use an unending wave of terminatirs if that's the case.

But as Wrath is my favorite AP, I can say that the reviews that were excessively negative deliberately mislead readers about the intent of theAP, took things out of context and unfairly presented what I took to be the poi t of the AP entirely in order to point a finger and say "Hah! You're bad!"

Wrath was awesome, and I'm sorry the experience for you and your writers was crapped upon by a few loud (censored).

If I was looking to make a character like Mannfred von Carstein here who uses a sword in one hand and what's essentially a sickle-blade on the end of a staff or pole, would I be able to get away with it by just using a sickle and saying "it's just got a long handle that I don't use to hit things with." Or do I need to get more creative in finagling the rules to do it, like saying its a quarterstaff and using the Quarterstaff Master feat to use it in one hand and Weapon Versitality to make it slash? Or a transformative weapon of some sort?

Why not just use the war scythe? It's in the core book. That weapon he uses actually looks like a lot of resl world war scythe designs.

Hey James, I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but what ids your favorite style of fighter to play?

I like the two-handed weapons like war mauls and greatswords myself.

Speaking of shamira.

Will we ever hear more about the origins of this one, or was she left intentionally vague so GMs could figure out their own plans for her and her origins?

NDA sucks solely from the "I wish I could say something, because what I want to say might help a lot of people feel like their concerns, desires and opinions do matter."

I hate being under NDA when the only worthwhile thing to tell anyone is good news that can't be shared.

Everything else I agree with you on. Played this game before. I do understand how and, more importantly, why NDA exists.

But that doesn't stop it from sucking sometimes. Nor would I ever encourage someone to violate an NDA.

NDA sucks.

What are your favorite extraplanar bads (besides cthulhu mythos).

My favorite are the golarion daemons. I never found the blood war merc concept compelling.

What are your favorite deceiver monsters?

I like the Lamia Matriarchs personally for a variety of reasons.

What is your favorite region on golarion 5o play in? Run as GM? Favorite (or most looked forward to) region to write stories and paizo material in?

BreakinStuff wrote:

Is there a good writeup on the first world anywhere? So far as I'm concerned, fae make amazing antagonists.

My favorite is when a character looks at the seelie/unseelie/summer/winter/insert two opposing groups here and literally cannot figure out which is the lesser evil.

Big fan of old world tales of the Sidhe.

There will be this November. When we release a 64 page book about the First World. Until then, the article in book 6 of Kingmaker is the best place to look.

We very specifically did NOT embrace a seelie/unseelie element for fey in Golarion.

I only used it as an example of delineation between factions. The golarion setting seems to keep the fickle and dangerous, unpredictable aspects of the old world courts, but I got the impression that which of the fey lords a given fey followed would color their behavior more than a court.

I tend to run fey as though they were a force of nature in many ways. Inscrutable in motive, unpredictible in action, and often bored looking for entertainment.

Seelie/unseelie old world was always a slant of focus on life or death. But they all followed the same rules. Even without the involvement of the traditional courts, I'm betting the odds of being disappointed by the first world writeup will be pretty low. Looking forward to what you all cooked up.

Is there a good writeup on the first world anywhere? So far as I'm concerned, fae make amazing antagonists.

My favorite is when a character looks at the seelie/unseelie/summer/winter/insert two opposing groups here and literally cannot figure out which is the lesser evil.

Big fan of old world tales of the Sidhe.

The Minis Maniac wrote:

James I'm a GM and I discourage my PCs from picking certain monster races as PCs by telling them that society is likely to take issue with them. For example Sure you might be a nice drow but all the drow that have been heard of have been demon worshipping psychopaths. You enter that village and you're going to attract the attention of the guards. Who are constantly going to watch your every move at best and try and kill you at worst. I mean in a fantasy setting people generally don't care if your a good troll if every other troll they've heard of eats people. Is this fair?

It's ABSOLUTELY fair. The game works best when it's in a setting the GM is passionate about.

So much James'answer. So very much James' answer. Cannot agree enough.

That being said, James, have you ever played in or run a campaign where a player ran a monster race in memorable (the good kind of memorable) fashion?

What was the most fun?

Whoa whoa whoa... are you suggesting that there might be dinosaurs ON A SPACESHIP?

I know. This question keeps getting better and better.

BreakinStuff wrote:

j b 200 wrote:

Do you know if the Pathfinder Comic book is continuing? I don't see any new releases after Hollow Mountain #6.

Btw, Hollow Mountain was great!

What do you look for when determining a monster's "role"? Would you consider Anti-Paladin levels to be Key for a Minotaur? Reason I ask is that the Bestiary says Paladin is never Key for a monster.

Because I'm a git.

Key?

Where do I find this reference?

Very first bestiary, the Advancing a Monster appendix.

Thanks. I will atone with a proper question for the dinosaur lord later.

Edit: and as soon as I hit "post" I have one.

Are there any dinosaurs within 500 miles of numeria that you all included?

Visions of an armed, armored and domesticated or dominated T-rex numeria style are dancing in my head.

The natural, and wholesome counter to annihilator robots in my mind.

Do you know if the Pathfinder Comic book is continuing? I don't see any new releases after Hollow Mountain #6.

Btw, Hollow Mountain was great!

What do you look for when determining a monster's "role"? Would you consider Anti-Paladin levels to be Key for a Minotaur? Reason I ask is that the Bestiary says Paladin is never Key for a monster.

Because I'm a git.

Key?

Where do I find this reference?

You can decide that coming back immediately is not smart and hope your crew can resurrect you, rather than putting yourself in a pain/death cycle, or reviving during a clearly hopeless situation.

Incredibly handy for fulfilling oaths that last "unto death."

If you are playing a setting where centaur are more or less unknown, then your centaur would benefit greatly from having craft: armor. In a human city, finding a shop that stocks any variety of armor that would fit a centaur runs on odds approaching nil. And combining barding with humanoid armor is iffy at best because the armor values for both are different, and barding around a horse's neck wouldn't have cmpatibility with a centaur's hips. Different shapes and all.

Best option is to have the crafts to make your own clothing and armor. Otherwise you have to pay the x4 cost. Making it yourself means you only have to pay most of what a human suit is worth. Weapons are easy. And you can carry enough weight to make any human fighter look like a 90-pound weakling. With asthma.

Never mind centaur run fast and tend to hit like trucks.

Centaur armor should use both the large and odd body shape cost multipliers (add the multipliers, don't multiply them together) centaurs suck up somewhere around a x4-x6 multiplier for armor, clothing, etc. It's the price you pay for being an ungodly, speedball physical powerhouse out of the gate if you use the build in the back of advanced races.

How would you, as a GM, handle the results of a PC being stuck in the body of a monster via a poorly-worded wish, or malicious use of the parasitic soul spell?

More specifically mechanically?

I'm assuming the rules team wouldsay trade class levels out for CR or treat it as a permanent x-polymorph spell.

How would you as a GM handle it to make it more interesting assuming you have a group of mature individuals you can trust to play out the negative aspects of such a change?

How would you run a protracted series of sessions in mechitar for a group? I ran a bit there but I'm not sure if I did it justice. I'm highly drawn to the "gauntlet of horrors" aspect, and I believe you would have appreciated the looks on my players' faces when they encountered their first chattel pen and realized there was nothing they could do to save all those people. But I don't know necessarily how the day to day life of the people (living and not) plays out. What's a good source or inspiration for a campaign that isn't purely "smash 'n grab?"

The aforementioned players tripped over a bound astradaemon, then led it on a panicked chase through the city, surviving by pushing undead in its path until circumstances allowed them to destroy it. The confusion was enough for an egress from town, but I feel there might have been a few missed opportunities for roleplay there.

Is Achaekek's old CR 30 statblock from Curse of the Crimson Throne now his herald's stat block?

Or, likely more appropriately his avatar?

I'm not seeing how "risk and reward" and "best-executed antagonist" really have much to do with each other, but if you're asking for advice on how to build a long-term campaign villain, my advice would be to grab an adventure path like Hell's Rebels and read through it for an example. Or watch how they're handled in TV shows, comic books, or other long-term forms of serialized entertainment.

Similar theme, i was just using a turn of phrase i tend to use in other games. I figure the two are tied together. If the characters (read: the players) would cheerily forgo all treasure to put the bastard down, he's a good one for risk/reward by itself.

But I was thinking more on a purely mechanical level. When the big bad finally gets put into the reach of the angry, determined heroes, how do you recommend looking at that climactic fight so that it doesn't wind up being a real short, unsatisfying battle versus one that is memorable?

I have had luck so far, but I like getting other people's perspective and learning new tricks.

I suppose a better question would have been "How do you look at the final battle in a campaign or arc so that it is memorable and challenging without making the BBEG a bullet sponge when you are GMing at your table?"

As I said, I like learning new ideas to keep challenges appropriate.

Cole Deschain wrote:

Which primary AP antagonist ("BBEG" in the local lingua franca) do you consider the best-executed overall?(Not really asking about favorites here,more about "paid off as intended and delivered in both plot and threat level-competition for this spot is pretty stiff,in my experience)

I'm pretty proud of how Barzillai Thrune turned out. Each one I work on builds on what I've learned from the previous one, so I guess it's a good sign that the last one I worked on feels the most successful?

Any recommendations on how to balance that out for those of us still learning to juggle risk and reward?

Are there any other races like the lamia who are god-cursed?

Would there be a way a character might risk being affected by such a curse after it's initial impact?

I've been spitballing a lamia plot to abate the curse which is far more likely to spread it around to innocents nearby, creating a countdown for characters and NPCs to seek a way to abate Pharasma's wrath before their minds and fates are overtaken and they become more of the beasts themselves.

Would something like this be setting-appropriate for golarion?

Hey tyrannosaur man, thanks for taking the time to answer inquiries like this. Don't see this kind of thing too often.

BreakinStuff wrote:

Why would the aboleth not consider star spawn and their ilk to be a stepping stone/obstacle to their own ambitions for power/apotheosis?

Because aboleths are to a certain extent xenophobic. Because they don't understand faith. And because monsters that are immune to or resistant to mind control AND are much more powerful than the standard aboleth would have very little problem crushing an aboleth to paste. Therefore, aboleths do not consider the star spawn of Cthulhu a wise thing to ally with at all. AKA: Common sense kicks in for the aboleths.

I was actually thinking more "steal power from, or use pawns to destroy."

My thought would be aboleth reaction would be more akin to "drop starstone mk.II on it and see if we gain power by eating it."

Sorry for being unclear. For some reason I always assumed that the word "ally" was synonymous with "slave I don't want to eat yet" in the aboleth language. I never got the impression from the writing on aboleths in golarion that they were the cooperative types.

Why would the aboleth not consider star spawn and their ilk to be a stepping stone/obstacle to their own ambitions for power/apotheosis?

I found reference to something about undead who used their unnatural state to escape pharasma's judgement being deeply screwed when she finally has them in their clutches.

Is there any place where the final fate of the undead souls is alluded to when they are finally dragged shrieking into the boneyard?

This has been one of the pieces of the golarion puzzle I have not been able to find in the literature besides aroden kicking the bucket, and how that happened.

As a fellow GM, I recommend making a ruling, using other transformative spells as a guide. Beast shape (insert # here) allows burrow? Use the equivalent elemental body spell (assuming similar level) as a guide.

I'd let them use it, personally, just recommend you don't change your mind later.

Back to on-topic:

Does monster Spell Resistance scale up as you add class levels normally? I'm building a lamia matriarch villainess and I'm wondering if that would go up. I must be blind because I'm not finding anything for or against. Matriarchs are some of the best terrors.

Given I can figure out ways to hard-spike a build around the guided stylings (I agree with your assessment) do you think some kind of mechanical drawback might be appropriate to offset it on non-artifact items that is scaled to the relevant attribute?

Interesting thought exercise. I like the limiter on guided in the two-handed use, but yeah.

I'm actually using a guided effect in a game I'm playing in (as opposed to running) and am actually looking at ways to make it not automatically the obvious smart choice for someone not strength-based. As a player I'm not fond of the idea of stealing the fighter's thunder, so I'm looking to have compromise points ready if me and the GM decide that the feature is a bit much. I like the idea though.

Is the guided weapon trait, and any traits one might logically derive from it intended to be phased out of pathfinder save for artifacts? (Robe of the rifts)

Just looking for clarification on your post a ways back.

Do you feel such weapon traits add to the game at all? I found the concept interesting, but not fully sure if I like or dislike it.

Make sure you're comfortable with the rules, and keep an eye on those swift actions! But also, prepare yourself mentally for the way the game changes from a grittier form of fantasy to a much more high fantasy, superhero-feeling game. It's like switching from Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings up to The Avengers.

I've actually been running very stingy with magic items, and using the automatic bonus advancement rules from unchained. Seems to be working to give the players a challenge. We'll see how it starts playing out at higher levels and tiers.

My least favorite part is that we didn't playtest high level mythic content enough for me to make the last half of Wrath of the Righteous as awesome as it was in my head. That's tied with how Mythic seems to have made some fans more unpleasant to interact with than normal.

I'm a bit new to the forums here, and we're just starting integration of mythic adventures play in the campaign I am running. Is there anything in particular I should watch out for?

Most of what I see the higher tier/level stuff burping on is the action economy stuff.

A former pathfinder player told me that the game had become less fun (his words not mine) since Paizo has created too many classes and features? I don't agree with him but what do you think?

This is the first time I have ever heard of someone complaining about having more customization and character options!

I look at it like this: No one approaches even the same job in quite the same way.

Even in a marine rifle platoon in modern day, yeah if they were all considered gunslingers they're similar at base. But what about the ninja mofo who has a knack for acquiring stuff like a rogue, that flashy guy who likes knives and swords? How about that weird guy who's so goood in the water he could snipe you from 200m offshore, and would obviously qualify for an aquatic archetype?

The variation may be overwhelming for some, but it allows a GM or player to craft unique characters who aren't just cookie cutters that are all minor variations of a set theme. That's why I like pathfinder, honestly. Because diversity can create a more memorable story when the characters and villains who are similar aren't all the same.

But for the main part of the thread, what is your least favorite aspect of mythic adventures play? Would you recommend any third party supplements, in whole or in part to enhance the play paizo has provided?

Paladin is hands down, no contest, my least favorite class. It's too restrictive for my tastes from a roleplaying viewpoint.

Honestly I have a hard time arguing that point. Me and my gaming group have been tossing about house-ruling things so that the oaths are more important than the alignment. We actually really liked the oath stylings presented in Inner Sea Gods. And a lot of those oath stylings leave a lot of room to roleplay if you shelf some other things.

So I have to compliment you or whoever on the writing team decided to poke at that. But when combined with the conventions for paladins that have been a thing since Advanced D&D (first edition) I tend to agree with your take on the class. I just wish the class was a bit more ethically flexible to represent more than a very tight subset of behaviors, hence the houserule discussion to focus on the oaths in inner sea gods and cleaving tighter to the deity's ethos in emulation than "lawful good plus oaths."

1) No, because a lot of what the Templars end up doing is not good and possibly evil; they are very much a "shades of gray" group at best. If I were building them in Pathfiner, fighter or MAYBE inquisitor is a better fit. I absolutely do NOT see the templars of Dragon Age to be lawful good. Lawful netural with a skew toward lawful evil but allowing for the odd "fly in the ointment" who was lawful good, maybe.

Is there a game/movie/legend you would point to as a good representation? I'll fully admit I was thinking of specific templars when I was writing and definitely could have worded the question better in retrospect. Are there any standout characters or figures you would point at and say "stereotypical paladin?"

Specifying "paladin of iomedae" or shelyn or what have you helps if you have examples.

Specifically golarion style examples, as part of my problem with the class is everyone sees them through adifferent lens. Some folks love em, some hate the concept. To me it is a difficult one to pull off for most players. I can't play a paladin to save my own life, so it's hard to explain to players who show interest in the class without resorting to the extremist descriptions.

Part of why I'm trying to pin examples down is when I run a game NPC paladins tend to wind up being more background noise when they should be potential potent allies or at least an obstacle when my group that I'm GMing for slips from heroic to brutally pragmatic on occasion, and there needsto be a potential for consequences that have meaning when choosing that route.

2) If you're not fond of the one we've done, I can't really help you. I don't have an exhaustive mind catalog of all the minis that have been produced over the past several decades. You might want to ask around elsewhere on the boards. Or, I don't know, use ours but repaint it? If it's the actual sculpt or pose you don't like, try modding a lillend or a marilith?

It's not a "fond of" or liking issue. It's more i'm a huge fan of the mini representing the caracter of the NPC, whether PC or antagonist. Xanesha doesn't fit the mold I'm looking for, and the plastic one gives the wrong immersive idea.

I also think my post might have come off a little more antagonistic than intended, and for that I'm sorry.

I hadn't thought ot the lillend mini, I'll have a look at that, thanks for the suggestion.

On a side note, geb, cheliax and a few other locations are turning into my favorite setting areas to run. It's always a joy to see the reaction of the players the first time they hear the description of the chattel pens.

Two questions, because unfortunately i don't have enough time to catch up 1200 pages:

1: would you consider the templars in dragon age a good example of the breadth of personalities one might find on a paladin order? I found the vast gulf of difference between alistairs irreverance, Ser Gregors hardline and cullen going from zealot outrage to calmed suspicion to realist between the three games to be a good example to show my players how lawful good might not equate to lawful nice or lawful stupid.

2. Where the hell can I find a miniature that I could use as a lamia matriarch that is about the right size with good detail level worth painting? I'm actually not a fan of the Xanesha mini for the purposes of the campaigns i am running/in.

Forgive me, for I have played warhammer, and am horrendously picky about minis.

How would you simulate a medusa's serpent-hair via eidolon evolutions?

I have a player who is interested in playing a bard with a more martial focus on combat. Since she's wanting to give up the entire bard capacity for spells I am actually having a hard time figuring out what would be an appropriate thing to replace it with. she wants to have the performances and such.

So what's the bard's spellcasting worth? It's not as great as a sorcerer, sure, but I'm guessing it's worth slightly more than occasionally getting rogue talents in return.

I'll be running the game, and I like the concept. Adding to the mix would be the character would be an UNARMORED combatant, but I already figured out how to handle that unless someone here dazzles me with brilliance or manages to baffle me with bulls**t.

Good to go. That's what I thought. Just wanted to confirm.

Fairly simple question.

Do bonuses added directly to attribute based checks add to spelk DCs appropriate to the attribute?

I.E. random sorcerer has the celestial obedience to Arshea, which grants a +4 circumstance bonus to all charisma checks.

Does this add to spell DC?

My assumption is "no." However it's ambiguous enough (because I can't find rules for or against) that I'd rather ask before springing something similar at the game table on my players or on an unsuspecting GM.

Appreciate any advice on this. Thanks

Always cooperative games. Playing a character you built with random other players is never a guarantee that your playstyle will gel. I have a regular group who can actually reign in their cheesemongering when asked nicely.

It can be used with UMD, and would last 1 round unless you make it at a higher caster level. A wand or scrolls of nereid's grace isn't so problematic because its a consumable and well necessitates spending money. It requires UMD for most characters, and requires actions in combat. And, in order for for you to have a wand with a reasonable duration of 5 rounds (caster level 5) it will cost 3750 gp.

This is a reasonable cost.

From the OP's question, I was thinking he wanted a continuous effect item which is clearly too powerful for charisma based characters. It's simply not intended to allow sorcerers and the likes to walk around with a constant +5 to AC.

And while a witch or Druid could buff others with it, I doubt any ever really would considering the limited application it has for themselves unless they really wanted to buff one person's AC with their combat action instead of doing almost anything else which is likely a better use of their in combat actions, for ending the combat.

You're getting way too hung up on the charisma AC/Saves thing. It was an example, not the only thing I'm interested in.

Example: What about mimicking a Lamia's touch?

How about an aura like the ones agathions radiate?

What about a succubi's kiss?

THere's more than just Unearthly Grace that fit the original question I asked. This is more "How to" than balance concerns.

Unnatural grace would be a combo of two spells. I'm asking for creative solutions and examples because I'm looking to run a campaign that WILL go deep in mythic tiers and I'd like to be able to cobble a few things together for magic items that don't fit the usual cookie-cutter copypasta (and that way I can provide a few neat/nasty surprises for the characters).

I just want to get a feel for doing this kind of thing within the parameters of the system, rather than trying to homebrew some shoddy-ass, poorly thought-out new mechanic that does not really fit the golarion setting. I also want to get a feel for what to watch out for if a player gets creative with the crafting rules.

Oddly that effect is actually available via a spell:

You can combine that one with Bestow Grace for the full effect. I got bored and started looking. I wasn't expecting to find that.

Interesting. I guess feature mimicry would be more a matter of conjunctive spells and creativity then.

Oddly that effect is actually available via a spell:

You can combine that one with Bestow Grace for the full effect. I got bored and started looking. I wasn't expecting to find that.

Interesting. I guess feature mimickry would be more a matter of conjunctive spells and creativity then.

It is allowable if your GM says it is. But nothing in the rules gives a basis for doing so.

If I were GM, I just absolutely wouldn't allow a magical item that gave cha to AC. You can already gain that by taking a level in Oracle with the Lore Mystery. A level is much more costly than a magic item (in terms of character resources) so it just should never be an option in my opinion.

Not JUST unearthly grace, there's just too many ones to list. It's the first one to pop into my head.

Is it possible to mimic a monster special ability that does not have a direct spell equivalent? How much would it cost and how would you calculate that?

Example: Unearthly Grace.