Bunch of Grapes's page

So my group of PC's has finally finished the Iron Gods campaign and decided to help Casandalee achieve divinity. They chose to download her to the mainframe with the Aggression, Compassion, Ego, and Ingenuity facets. This results in Casandalee becoming a deity with a very eclectic portfolio:

Alignment NG
Favored Weapon Chainsaw

Domain Subdomain
War Blood
Good Friendship
Strength Resolve
Artifice Construct

This should make for some very interesting roleplay in our next campaign. Just curious, what alternate versions of Casandalee have others created?

I was really hoping to see a some uber baddie wielding Garvok, the Sword of Wrath in Book 6. Unfortunately, the closest we get is some wrathspawn with a scimitar. So I am going to have to invent one for my PC's. So I'm looking for ideas for a Champion of Wrath. I could adapt the Champion of Greed from the Rise of the Runelords or Champion of Envy from Book 5, but I'd prefer something original. Looking for an idea.
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I'm running Iron Gods for a party that is heavily into ranged attacks -- arrows, bullets, lasers, and ranged spells. Kind of annoying since I prefer to fight with melee based monsters, but that's way the my players are: challenging. Rather than use spells like wind wall or feats like deflect arrows, I'm interested in trying a new approach -- cut from the air. Just a few questions though.

1. Cut from the air from the air can be used against any ranged attack, other than massive ranged weapons and spell effects. So any other source of ranged attacks -- thrown weapons, ranged weapons, firearms, and tech weapons-- can be deflected by cut from the air, correct??

2. Cut from the Air plus Combat Reflexes allows a PC or NPC to make multiple attempts to deflect attacks in a turn. Does that apply against multiple ranged attacks from the same source?? Example: The laser slinger with his laser pistol makes a full attack and shoots 3 times in a round at the PC with Cut from the Air and Combat Reflexes. So the PC gets an Attack of Opportunity at each shot at the PC's highest bonus?

3. Smash from the Air improves upon Cut to include massive ranged weapons and spell effects that don't need an attack roll. This means a powerful enough PC (or NPC) could deflect each ray from scorching ray or each meteor from meteor swarm if I understand it. Yes or No??

Thanks for any input, need to get this figured out before any of the PC's gets access to a railgun.

I'm super excited for the upcoming Return of the Runelords AP. Book 1 is listed, but that's only one so far. I thought the titles of the rest were posted when the AP was announced, but I can't find them anywhere. Can anyone clue me in??

Somewhere on the d20pfsrd website I found an ability that allows a spell caster to use Form of the Dragon III to get a gargantuan dragon form. The stats looked pretty good, and I meant to include this ability with a new high level villian I am working on for my campaign. But I forgot the name of the ability or where it is from (might be 3rd party). Does this sound familiar to anyone??

I had a situation occur in a recent game I DM'd and need some clarification to make sure I'm handling it right. One of my players has a half-orc PC optimized to use intimidate. So the first time he runs into a destrachan, the PC doesn't recognize it (no ranks in knowledge dungeoneering) or have any clue of its abilities. So he tries to use intimidate to demoralize the destrachn, of course.

And I said he wouldn't be able to do so. Intimidate used to demoralize an opponent states " You can only threaten an opponent this way if it is within 30 feet and can clearly see and hear you" via the PRD. Since the destrachan is blind, it can't "clearly see" the PC as required. The destrachan has blindsight, but that is something different from sight since blindsight uses nonvisual cues. So that's what I used as a basis to explain why the destrachan could not be demoralized with intimidate. Did I handle this right??

Now this raises a couple of other points. Since intimidate used to demoralize opponents requires visual and auditory elements, anything that is deaf or blind is effectively immune to intimidate. Also any creature affected by a silence spell would be unaffected by intimidate and unable to intimidate as well. Are these points correct?

I tried find if any previous faqs or posts addressed this problem, but I haven't found any so far. Let me know if anyone else has encountered a similar situation or has a view on this.

I'm thinking of running a mini campaign for my group based on the Year 4 Pathfinder Society scenarios for Year of the Waken Rune. I just need to know which of the scenarios deal directly with the cult of Lissala and the attempt to revive Krune. So far I have purchased several year 4 scenarios, but not all of them have anything to do with this main plot. So far, the Krune and Lissala relate scenarios I have are:

4-02 In Wrath's Shadow
4-08 The Cultists Kiss
4-10 The Feast of Sigils
4-12 The Refuge of Time
4-20 Words of the Ancients
4-26 The Waking Rune
4-x Race for the Rune Carved Key

I know there are a least a couple other ones, just not sure which ones yet and I can't afford to buy the whole year's worth to find out. Thanks for any help on this.

I'm creating an antipaladin graveknight NPC to throw at my PCs, who include 2 paladins. I know once they see him, smite evil will be declared and they will race to see who can destroy the undead abomination first for the glory of their deity. My question is just how will the smite damage turn out?? As a graveknight, the NPC falls under the smite evil provision of "If the target of smite evil is an outsider with the evil subtype, an evil-aligned dragon, or an undead creature, the bonus to damage on the first successful attack increases to 2 points of damage per level." However antipaladins have a weakness versus smite evil; under the aura of evil ability "A paladin who uses smite evil on an antipaladin deals 2 points of damage per paladin level on his first successful attack." So what would damage be from a successful attack with smite evil on a graveknight. Both quotes describe damage as 2 points per each level of the paladin. One is an increase, the other just says it deals 2 points per level of paladin. Says nothing about doubling damage. Say the example paladin is 10 level smiting evil. So is his damage +20 because the abilities don't stack, 30 points because the abilities double each other, or 40 because the abilities are separate from each other and stack together??

I'm interested in building a grappler, but I'm not very familiar with grappling in Pathfinder. I know that grappling is usually a technique used by those with size and strength, but is it possible to build an effective Dex-based grappler?? What class(es) are best?? What feats(skills)are necessary?? What feats are required?? What equipment, magical or mundane, is needed?? This is for a homebrew campaign -- no point buy (just roll the dice and and see what you get), no 3rd party material, but all Pathinder stuff is allowed. If the character works well, it could go to 15th or 16th level, so I have a lot of room to grow. Thanks in advance for any suggestions with a build.

I need some help finding a particular Pathfinder product. Several months ago, I leafed through Pathfinder books at my FLAG and saw some material, specifically a couple of mini-adventures with maps, that looked interesting. I didn't have the money at the time to buy it, but now that I do I can't remember the name of the book. I can remember a bit about the adventure hooks

-- a cult or thieves guild has a hidden temple or hideout in the sewers under a major city

-- a prisoner and his gang have taken over the lowest levels of a prison and made it too dangerous for the local militia to retake

-- a murderer is hiding out in an upscale bordello and has secretly taken it over

I think these were all from the same source, but I'm not exactly sure. Does anyone have an idea where these are from??

I'm looking at creating a character in a upcoming campaign with lots of high SR monsters (outsiders, demons, dragons, and such) and also magic immune critters (mithril golems and others). I know that spell penetration, greater spell penetration, and piercing spell can help with high SR creatures, while know arcana checks should let me figure out what specific spells with work on golems, for example. But I would like to know if there are more spells like acid arrow and create pit that are effective with worrying about spell resistance. Is anybody working on a list that shows whats spells by class or level don't allow spell resistance?? The spells database wasn't very useful when I tried it.

I'm running a high level campaign and one of my players wants to research a spell. Inspired by the recent cold snap here in the States he came up with this:

Polar Vortex

School evocation [cold]; Level cleric 9, druid 9, sorcerer/wizard 9
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Components: V, S, F (bone fragment from a creature that froze to death)
Range medium: (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Area: 80-ft.-radius spread (S)
Duration: 1 round per level
Saving Throw: Fortitude half; Spell Resistance: yes

When a polar vortex spell is cast, the whole area is blasted with horrific cold and swirling snow dealing 1d6 points of cold damage per caster level (maximum 25d6) and 1d4 points of Dexterity drain to every creature within the area. A successful save halves both the damage and the ability drain. Unattended objects also take this damage; any body of water or a liquid that is principally water (not including water-based creatures) is instantly frozen upon being affected by this spell.

This damage only occurs once, when the spell is cast. For the remaining duration of the spell, heavy snow is blown through the area. Creatures inside this area take a –4 penalty on Perception skill checks and 5d6 points of cold damage, and the entire area is treated as difficult terrain. At the end of the duration, the snow and ice disappear, leaving no aftereffects (other than the damage dealt).

A combination of Polar Ray, Firestorm, Freezing Sphere, Ice Storm, and Earthquake. I'm thinking of allowing it, although with modifications. I think the 80' spread is too big, maybe 40' though. Just wondered what some others think of it.

I am a DM and have a question about something I read earlier and could use some clarification. Precise Shot says

"Prerequisite: Point-Blank Shot.

Benefit: You can shoot or throw ranged weapons at an opponent engaged in melee without taking the standard –4 penalty on your attack roll.

Note: Two characters are engaged in melee if they are enemies of each other and either threatens the other.has the prerequisite of Point Blank Shot."

So the Precise Shot feat has the prerequisite of the Point Blank Shot (PBS) feat.

Point Blank Shot says

"You are especially accurate when making ranged attacks against close targets.

Benefit: You get a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at ranges of up to 30 feet."

And under prerequisites it says

"Some feats have prerequisites. Your character must have the indicated ability score, class feature, feat, skill, base attack bonus, or other quality designated in order to select or use that feat. A character can gain a feat at the same level at which he gains the prerequisite.

A character can't use a feat if he loses a prerequisite, but he does not lose the feat itself. If, at a later time, he regains the lost prerequisite, he immediately regains full use of the feat that prerequisite enables."

So if the conditions of the prerequisite are not met, the secondary feat can't be used. In the case of Precise Shot, the condition to be met is the original quality of the prerequisite feat (PBS) in getting a bonus at ranges up to 30 feet. If a ranged attack is from greater than 30 feet away, the PBS can't be used. So a ranged attack 35 feet away doesn't gain a bonus. Since the "indicated other quality" of PBS is not met, PBS can't be used on a ranged attack from 35 feet away. Then Precise Shot can't be used on a 35 foot ranged attack since the prerequisite for Precise Shot, PBS, can't be used. By this reasoning, Precise Shot can only be used within the confines of the indicated quality of PBS, i.e. gaining a bonus with a ranged weapon at 30 feet or less. So Precise Shot only applies at ranges of 30 feet or less.

Makes sense to me. A PC would be more accurate up close then at a long distance away. And it rewards the PC (giving a bonus or removing a penalty) for taking a risk (getting closer to the enemy.) So I believe it's logical to say Precise Shot only works within 30 feet. And this would apply to other feats down the chain that have PBS as a prerequisite. For example, Rapid Shot and Clustered Shot could only be sued within 30 feet as well. But this reasoning also has downsides. The Far Shot feat would make less sense since it would only be useful to weapons with short range increments (thrown weapons and some guns) as opposed to weapons with long range increments (bows and crossbows). Ranged characters would have to stay close to be most effective, and those are just the ones of the top of my head. I'd like some further input before I apply this to my players.

For example, a PC with a ranged weapon wants to attack an enemy engaged in melee with an ally. Of course, the PC doesn't want to take a penalty on attack. So how close does the PC have to get??