Chosen of Desna's page

Hi all,
I have a question regarding the fluff text of the Fey Foundling feat (from ISWG). The fluff text says "you were found in the wilds as a child, bearing a mark of the First World". What could a mark of the First World be? Could it be a kind of birthmark, a tattoo, some unusual hair colour, just about anything? Is there an official statement in Paizo literature on this? Any cool ideas what it could be?
Thanks for your help.

Thank you all for your answers. To be on the safe side, I will count only the cleric levels when determining the resistance bonus on saving throws. In any case, it will be only a minor difference (between + 1 and + 2) due to the fact that the NPC with this ability is only low to mid-level (joining the PC party at level 3 and leveling up with the party until level 7, at which point the mini-campaign will end).

The text as written leaves room for interpretation IMHO, especially since most domain granted powers explicitly depend on cleric levels. From the fact that the word "cleric" was omitted, one might tend to think that in this particular case the power could be based on character level, not class level.
So I guess there is neither an official ruling on this nor has it been mentioned somewhere in the errata section?

Hi all,

I have got a question regarding the granted power of the protection domain which states that "you receive a +1 resistance bonus on saving throws. This bonus increases by 1 for every 5 levels you possess."
Most of the other domains' granted powers and also the protection domain's own Aura of Protection power are explicitly based on cleric levels, so RAW this one seems to be an exception.
Is the resistance bonus on savings throws really based on character level, not cleric level?
Thanx in advance.

I have played an oracle of life and a witch as PCs before. An oracle of life would be an excellent healer and buffer.
A witch would work too, but I wouldn't give her the sleep hex. My PC witch took Sleep as her first hex at level 1 and although I never regretted it, I felt sometimes pity for the GM. Now that I am GMing I think it is a bit too powerful. Our sorcerer uses Color Spray a lot, so that is quite enough I think.

Another idea I just got reconsidering KBrewer's post would be an inquisitor as NPC. He/she could provide some clerical spells for healing and buffing but also some melee power. If I made him, let's say a dwarven inquisitor of the aegis type, he would have some tanking abilities as well. I just got that inspiration from Bodhizen's guide.
A dwarven inquisitor of Torag would also fit in thematically, as the PCs are exploring an ancient dwarven monastery right now (formerly dedicated to Torag, but then switching allegiance to Droskar).

The 5th original PC is a paladin actually. He is not completely out of the game, though. Whenever the player can attend, his character joins the group. This has not been a problem so far as the campaign consists of distinctive missions / quests that take place in the same location (sort of) or within a radius that they can be reached within one or two days. The paladin wants to multiclass into cleric and then later take some levels in the Holy Vindicator PrC. As the other PCs lean heavily towards the chaotic and/or neutral side, they were not very excited when a paladin came along...so having another pally around all the time would be a bit too much for most of them ;-)

The concept of bard / cleric is very interesting though. I could easily adjust an existing NPC the group met at the end of our last session. My only concern is that this NPC will probably lag too far behind when it comes to spellcasting. Correct me if I'm wrong here.
How about an oracle? She could easily be a healer (oracle of life) or a buffer or a secondary front-line figher (oracle of battle).

Hi all,

I am currenly GMing the Darkmoon Vale adventure series. We finished Hollow's Last Hope and Into the Haunted Forest. Last session we started Crown of the Kobold King.
Originally the gaming group consisted of 5 PCs. However, one player missed most of our sessions so far. I seriously doubt that this will change in the near future, so I plan to replace this PC with a permanent NPC.
Now I am not quite sure what class this NPC should be. I envision him/her as a purely support character who should not take the spotlight away from the PCs. More something of the buffer / healer type who remains in the background most of the time.

The group consists of
- gnome sorcerer 3 with the draconic bloodline (copper)
- oread druid 3(with earth domain, no animal companion)
- elf rogue 3(TWF)
- half-elf magus 2

What would make a good addition for this group? The NPC should be purely for support (buffing, healing, etc.) though. I am looking forward to your ideas.

Thank you all for your advice.
The problem I see regarding the summoner is that he can only cast spells up to 6th level. The summon monster spells are on his class spell list, but only Summon Monster I-VI. The summoner gets Summon Monster I-IX as special abilities with increasing level, which is about the same progression as a wizard or cleric would get these spells. But these can only be used when your eidolon is not summoned, which means you could only counter a spell when your eidolon is not summoned. In the end, you refrain from summoning your eidolon just to be ready to counterspell. That's not the synergy I have in mind.
Right now I don't see any good domains or sub-domains that would fit the concept (please let me know when I am wrong here), so a wizard (abjuration specialist) would be the best choice so far. Both the Banishment and Counterspell schools could work well with the Riftwarden PrC. However, the powers of both schools overlap somewhat with the PrC's abilities, so it's difficult to decide which one would be the most effective.

Hi all,
recently I stumbled upon the Riftwarden PrC (from Paths of Prestige) and instantly liked the concept of this PrC. I think I might want to try it out in an upcoming campaign.
Now I am not sure which class to start with from the beginning (level 1). Obviously, any class with both the Summon Monster X and Teleport spells on its class spell list would get the most synergy out of the Riftwarden special abilities.
I was thinking of wizard (specializing in either abjuration or conjuration), or maybe cleric with the travel domain. Maybe an oracle could also work. The outer rifts mystery from Inner Sea Magic doesn't really fit except for one revelation (rift magic), but maybe the spellscar mystery could work (also from Inner Sea Magic) as well. How about a witch or a summoner?

How would you build an optimzed Riftwarden (feats,traits), which race and class would you start with? I would gladly appreciate it if you would help me with your expertise.

BTW, is there any race or class that has Magic Circle against Evil as a spell-like ability?

Spherewalker, for obvious reasons ;-)

The description of the bonded witch says that "Bonded witches forsake familiars as vessels of power in favor of a specific object that grants them powers ABOVE AND BEYOND THOSE OF THEIR PATRON ALONE, as they tap into the powerful magic of the item itself."

This means that she gets the spells from her bonded item in addition to the spells from her patron. There is a restriction however, in that the spells granted by her bonded item can only be cast once per day each. I don't think these become spells known, otherwise she could memorize these spells in her spells per day slots and there would be no casting limit of 1/day. The statement that these spells cannot be further modified by metamagic feats strongly suggests that they do not become spells known.
Just my opinion, though.

Thanks for your explanations.
Our mini-campaign will stop around level 6 (after Revenge of the Kobold King or Hungry are the Dead), so for now I don't have to worry about different types of DR. I think that he will get more out of DR/good as they are very unlikely to fight against the good guys.
I just thought it was kind of strange that those creatures would then possess both DR/good and DR/evil. Maybe I just disregard the alignment that they would get via the Summon Monster spells and houserule that these creatures are true neutral instead. I'm not yet sure about that.

One of the players in my new Pathfinder group (with me as DM) intends to play a gnome sorcerer with the abyssal bloodline. As the bloodline flavor text states that "you might sometimes have urges to chaos or evil, but your destiny (and your alignment) is up to you" he chose chaotic good as his alignment.

The trouble started when he told me that would specialize in summon monster spells....benefitting from the bloodline arcana of the abyssal bloodline ("whenever you cast a spell of the summoning subschool, the creatures summoned gain DR/good equal to 1/2 your sorcerer level... This does not stack with any DR the creature might have."

As his alignment is CG, all of the previously non-aligned creatures that he summons automatically receive the celestial template and become CG. The thought of CG celestial creatures with DR/good seems contradictory to me, as normally only the "bad guys" have DR/good whereas the "good guys" have DR/evil.

At higher levels another questions arises as eventually the summoned creatures with the celestial template get DR/evil starting at 5 HD. I find the idea odd at least that a good creature would possess DR/evil AND DR/good. It says that the DR doesn't stack, but does that mean that only DR/good and another DR/good does not stack or does it mean that DR/good and DR/evil don't stack? After all, DR is DR, no matter by what kind of alignment or weapon type it can be overcome, right?

Your opinions on this topic or any rules clarifications would be gladly appreciated.

The druid in my group chose a tiger companion and is very happy with his choice. There was no real meta-game or mechanical reason, it just fitted his concept of a misanthropic character who prefers animals over humanoids.

I like the idea of a grippli riding on a tiger. lol

Hi,

I am working on a backup character for the Serpent's Skull AP. Starting level would be 1 or 2. We just started the first module and I already think that my current character (sorcerer) will have a hard time surviving all the natural hazards and encounters on the island. (Judging from the SS Obituaries thread, this small island seems to quite deadly.)

My idea for a backup character would be druid with the jungle druid archetype. Race would be either human or grippli. I think grippli fits especially well, as is has a climb speed and is native to the jungle.

But then I am not sure about nature's bond: should I choose a domain or an animal companion?
Jungle and swamp domains would fit best, I guess. The frog domain would be appropriate for a grippli character, but I don't like the idea of havong a familiar.
As for the animal companion I would go for some kind of dinosaur, probably T-Rex.
My character would be more like a caster / wild mystic type. I don't see myself using wild shape and going into melee most of the time.

Thoughts?
Would you choose a domain (which one) or an animal companion (which one) and why?
Your help is gladly appreciated!

Is the language of Tien Xia tonal? if so what would be the tones for Tien Xia?

Just curious

I don't know what the designers had in mind for the fictional language(s) of Tian Xia.

I can only tell you what the tones for Tian Xia in real Chinese (Standard Mandarin) would be, if it's that what you mean.

Tian 天 has the first (even) tone, while xia 下 has the fourth (falling) tone.

Assuming that the name is at least inspired by the Chinese 天下, I would expect it to be pronounced something like Tee-en Shya.

Tianxia is as far as I know actually a word in Chinese, it is an ancient word for the world, which is why I assume that Paizo chose it as the name of the setting.

Tian Xia 天下 literally means "under heaven", so it could well stand for the world (of man) as opposed to the heavens.

Tian 天 in modern Mandarin Chinese is monosyllabic, so it is not really pronounced like "tee-ahn" (2 syllables) but more like "tyen".

Ti'an (if such a word exists - I don't know, but my knowledge of Chinese is only rudimentary) would be pronounced something like "tee-ahn" in fact.

Also note that there is a big difference in pronounciation between Xi'an (the city - composed of 2 characters) and xian (composed of one character).

Xia 下 is pronounced something like shyah or shah

Oracle of Life would be an excellent choice for a cohort, even if your primary character is a cleric. I run a cleric of Sarenrae going for Radiant Servant PrC in a CotCT campaign and chose an oracle of life as cohort and have to say that this combo is working very well so far.

This constellation offers a lot of options: you can get those nice buffs started much faster as you can cast them simultaneously. My main character (cleric)specializes more on summoning and channel positive energy to destroy/harm undead and evil outsiders, whereas my oracle cohort puts more emphasis on buffing and channeling positive energy to heal the party, effectively acting as combat medic. It is a kind of "division of labor". You could imagine other possibilities as well.

Rathendar wrote:

Druid!

Im running SS, and if I had to play, I'd definitively go with Druid. Ranger is another good choice, if you don't like casters.

I'd go with druid, too.

We started the SS AP last week and I had two character concepts in mind: one was a jungle druid, the other was a sorcerer. I decided in favor of the sorcerer, but I ended up doing almost nothing during our first session. With the jungle druid you are much more versatile, I believe.
If my current character ever gets killed (chances for that to happen are quite high), my second character will be a jungle druid for sure.

Talking personal tastes here not good/bad right/wrong.

I took the Silvanshee because it fit my character. The Witch familiars were sorely lacking but the flying, talking, and incredibly stealthy Silv has actually been pretty useful. I also like that it can't use wands. I didn't do UMD on this character (his previous familiar was a viper) and I really don't want to divert skills into it.

So why it? It can fly, it can hide, it can dim door and gaseous form, it can heal itself and others, it can speak every language, and.. well.. yeah..
it looks like a regular ole cat. It can go anywhere I go without any funny looks and can even scout reasonably well knowing that even if it gets seen.. well.. it looks like a house cat. And with the insane stealth mods it gets (i diverted some points into it just to make it higher) its not likely to be seen anyway. And even if so it's a dim door or gaseous form away from not being in trouble afterall.

(and a note: we're going by the "familiar stuff never levels up" idea rather than "he gets lots of d6's when I level up" idea)

Its not good/bad/right/wrong just.. whatever works for you and your group.

-S

I will also take the Silvanshee agathion for a variety of reasons: as mentioned before it has a bunch of useful abilities, good survivability and can blend in as a normal cat. Another reason is that I came up with an idea that lets me keep my old familiar (sort of) after I take the Improved Familiar feat. In this way the "new" familiar can keep all the previously stored spells.

I came up with the following idea: First of all, I decided which Improved familiar would be most appropriate for my character/alignment: I chose the Silvanshee agathion from Bestiary 2. Next I chose the starting familiar, which had to be in some ways similar to the improved familiar. The obvious choice for me here was a cat. (OK, from an optimization point of view, this is certainly not the best familiar, but it suits my purpose just fine, as you will see...) Now when I take the Improved familiar feat, my cat familiar will be transformed into a silvanshee agathion. I consider it a boon / favor from my patron. She retains her own "personality" and all the stored spells, but gets some new powers/HP/skills etc as well. At first my character won't believe that she is the same being (the color of her eyes changed to purple, she can fly now, speak, cast spells, etc), but she insists that she is still good old "Masha".... which I believe makes for some fun roleplaying potential.

My GM likes my idea as well and will allow it to work like this in his Kingmaker campaign.

Thank you all for your advice. Our Kingmaker campaign will start on Saturday. Just wanted to tell you that I finally chose Ancestors as patron for my witch. I think it is definitely one of the stronger patrons (probably among the TOP 5) and offers many of my favorite cleric spells which will hopefully fit my concept of buffing quite nice.

Trying to get real world analogies for the human races in Golarion. Some of them are pretty easy to pick up. Others I am curious see what people think.

* Tian - Asia

The Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting states on p. 32 that "the people collectively known as Tian encompass a number of different distinct ethnicities."

Tian-Dan - Vietnamese
Tian-La - Mongol
Tian-Min - Japanese
Tian-Sing - Indonesian
Tian-Shu - Chinese.

have you considered elements as a patron, i know their will be overlap with sorcerer but weather spells are always fun (stormborn is actually my favorite bloodline,followed by shadow)

spiders as a familiar for witches have really grown on me recently also, or toads.

I think elements could be a strong patron, but as Mathwei pointed out it would be very feat-intensive to make it really effective. I just don't have enough feats left to take Spell Focus, Greater Spell Focus, Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration in order to make blasting worthwhile.

Hi

I'm trying to build a witch that can act as main healer for a group, buffs and support as well as the occational debuff (but thats lower priority than on a normal witch).

Obviously patron will be Healing so I get the restoration stuff eventually.
Familiar doesn't seem to matter too much as theres not really one that helps with that role.

You could grab the Improved Familiar feat at level 7 and select a Silvanshee agathion as your familiar. It can lay on hands like a paladin 2 times per day (and maybe more at higher levels?)

I also considered playing a Hedge Witch in our Kingmaker campaign. The ability to cast cure spells spontaneously without even having these spells on your list of spells known is very nice.
The 2nd power however is not very impressive.
I decided against the Hedge witch because I would lose 2 hexes and there are just too many interesting hexes that I want for my witch (I took the Extra Hex feat 2 or 3 times and still feel that I could have more hexes).

Have you checked out c873788's Guide to Witches yet?

Actually this is where I get most ideas for my witch from. I based my selection of feats, skills and spells on the recommendations given there.

Thanks c873788 and Mathwei ap Niall, both of you did a really good job!

I tried to optimize my witch build, selecting only from among the blue and green options. Somehow I' afraid that the other character builds won't be that optimized (or not optimized at all). The only thing that still bothers me now is the right choice of patron, as this choice is made at first level and cannot be changed later on.
Among the blue options I already skipped the healing patron, because I want to try something new (I play a cleric and an oracle of life in another AP) and I don't want to restrict myself to the role of heal-bot.

I will start playing a witch in the Kingmaker AP soon. As the survival of a witch's familiar is essential for her, I decided to take the Improved Familiar feat at Level 7.
The problem here is that the Improved Familiar feat was clearly written with the wizard's familiar in mind. A wizard can replace his old familiar with almost no consequences. For the witch this is a totally different case, as her familiar acts as her spellbook and replacing her old familiar means losing a lot of stored spells. A new familiar begins knowing all of the 0-level spells plus two spells of every level the witch is able to cast (plus any bonus spells form the witch's patron).

My problem is as follows: I want to get a new (improved) familiar without paying the 500 GP per witch level and (even more important) without losing the spells stored so far in my old familiar.

How would you solve this problem?

I came up with the following idea: First of all, I decided which Improved familiar would be most appropriate for my character/alignment: I chose the Silvanshee agathion from Bestiary 2. Next I chose the starting familiar, which had to be in some ways similar to the improved familiar. The obvious choice for me here was a cat. (OK, from an optimization point of view, this is certainly not the best familiar, but it suits my purpose just fine, as you will see...) Now when I take the Improved familiar feat, my cat familiar will be transformed into a silvanshee agathion. I consider it a boon / favor from my patron. She retains her own "personality" and all the stored spells, but gets some new powers/HP/skills etc as well. At first my character won't believe that she is the same being (the color of her eyes changed to purple, she can fly now, speak, cast spells, etc), but she insists that she is still good old "Masha".... which I believe makes for some fun roleplaying potential.

What do you think of my solution? Would you allow it as a DM?

I don't think that your patron will be too big of a deal, no matter which one you choose. They will help decide your flavor, so that should be a big consideration. I recomend coming up with an idea for the character, and then chosing the patron that best fits. Personality and backstory help me decide where to go with class abilities.

I recommend not taking healing. Try something new. Lack of undead also means fewer things immune to mind effecting (though there will always be some, there is a nice variety). Your sorc sounds blasty, so there could be a nice gap there for you to fill in.

The wilderness nature makes things like the Animal patron more useful than normal.

Ancestors will not be as powerful, since you will have a wizard's BAB and HD and are less powerful to buff yourself. It also fills the role of buff-bot, very similar to cleric. My recomendation is always to try something new.

Non-combat takes up a decent portion of my group's time. Some of the spells in Portents have been my bane as a GM (Druid and Oracle of Lore in my group). Bringing the divinations to the table is a strong power, and often overlooked.

You have lots of choices. I recommend coming up with an idea and character you want to play, and then choosing what makes the most sense. Don't feel constrained by the rest of the party. Sometimes, double dipping on a role adds more power than making sure you have all your bases covered.

Thank you for bringing the Animal patron to my attention. Actually I think it fits my concept quite well. (my character is an orphan raised by a "medicine woman"/herbalist a.k.a. witch) in a small village located in southern Brevoy's Rostlands region.)

Name of PC: Cedric of Sarenrae
Race: human
Class/Level: Cleric 8 / Radiant Servant of Sarenrae 1
Where: on the way between Harse and Kaer Maga
Adventure: A History of Ashes
Catalyst: Hill giant ambush

Name of PC: Gil'raon (not a PC but Cedric's cohort)
Race: human
Class/Level: Ranger 7
Where: on the way between Harse and Kaer Maga
Adventure: A History of Ashes
Catalyst: Hill giant ambush

Story: Some thrown rocks, then too many critical hits with their greatclubs, and my main PC and his cohort were dead.
The only one of my "characters" who survived this encounter was Snowflake, the ranger cohort's snow leopard animal companion!

Your advice would be gladly appreciated :-)

@ Lathiira: wow that's great. As an oracle of life I get to cast those pretty good spells earlier than a cleric or other oracles. Awesome!

The Pathfinder SRD entry is wrong; I've got the book in front of me, which gave me the information I posted previously.

I am sorry to inform you that in this case it's the book that's wrong. All the other oracle mysteries get their bonus spells at even levels, so the printing under the Oracle of Life section was obviously a mistake. In the official APG errata / update 1.0 (downloadable PDF) this has been corrected. If you doubt it, you can also have a look here:

I am playing an Oracle of Life and I'm a bit confused about some of my bonus spells and when exactly I'm able to cast them: Neutralize Poison and Mass Heal.
An Oracle of Life gets Neutralize Poison as a bonus spell from its mystery at Level 6. However, Neutralize Poison is a 4th level spell for Clerics (and thus for Oracles, who use the same spell list). Does this mean that although I get Neutralize Poison as a spell known at Level 6, I won't be able to cast it until I reach Level 8?
Same thing goes for Mass Heal. As a bonus spell it is added to my spells known at Level 16, but as it is a 9th level spell, I would have to wait until I reach the next higher level (17) to be able to cast it.

The rules regarding the Cure spells are straightforward: they are added to the list of spells known as soon as the oracle is able to cast them.

For the bonus spells this seems to be different as some are added to your list of spells known 1 or 2 levels before you are able to cast them?

What is your opinion on this? Thanks in advance for your replies.

Our group of 4 players will soon start with the Kingmaker AP. So far we have a half-elf ranger with the sword & shield combat style from APG, a half-elf sorcerer with the stormborn bloodline and a cavalier who will multiclass into bard to take the battle herald prestige class. The ranger is supposed to multiclass into druid in order to take levels in the nature warden prestige class (DM's recommendation).
I decided to play a witch. Normally I would have played a cleric of either Desna or Iomedae as I almost always end up playing the cleric (in our CotCT I play a cleric of Sarenrae), but I was intrigued about playing a witch and as I heard that Kingmaker would not be too undead-heavy I decided to give it a try.

Stats, feats and skills are all set, however I still could not decide which patron to choose. I think healing is a very good choice, especially combined with the hedge witch archetype, but I am reluctant to emulate a cleric here as I want to be more the arcane caster (we have a sorcerer already, though). Ancestors and Time are the other options (Ancestors giving access to my favorite buffs such as bless, prayer, blessing of fervor etc.)

Which patrons (and their spells) would be most useful in Kingmaker? Which familiar would be appropriate?